Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Jordan's King Abdullah ridicules Israel boycott, but....

In a recent interview by the Petra news agency in Jordan, King Abdullah answered an interesting question:

Q: Another very hot topic around town is the Jordan Festival and the fact that a company called PUBLICIS is organizing the event. Some are saying that PUBLICIS has close ties with Israel. The minister of tourism and antiquities has denied that. Many are still calling for a boycott. It is important that we hear directly from you what the truth is.

A: I recently discussed this issue with the prime minister; PUBLICIS is not the company that is organizing the Jordan Festival. It is another company called Visiteurs Du Soir.

Today, Arab artists are contemplating canceling their performances and Arab tourists who were planning on visiting Jordan are canceling their trips. The government is now wasting its valuable time and resources trying to do damage control. All this because some so-called journalists are too careless and incompetent to do their basic work; it is shameful. This is a case study on how to shoot yourself in the foot, on how to be irresponsible, on how to do a massive disservice to your country and your people and on how to stop our development. Indeed, our worst enemies lie within. Should Jordan's future be held hostage to rumors and gossip? And should false information be the reference for our Jordanian press? Should we remain silent until the truth becomes the victim of irresponsible journalism?

Let us assume for a moment that it is in fact PUBLICIS that is helping to organize the event. In fact, I cannot think of a major company that does not do business with Israel. If all these companies are off-limits then we are in deep trouble. For example, Intel whose chips power 80 per cent of computers around the world has billions of dollars of investments in Israel; its closest competitor AMD also has large investments in Israel. Does that mean we should throw our computers away? This is nonsense. If we follow this line of thought, then we will be doing the best service to Israel. All it has to do is use the best technology and best talent in the world and automatically it would be off-limits to us.

This was a good answer, but it reveals a bit more than Abdullah intended.

It is good in the sense that it is refreshing for an Arab leader to acknowledge that the weapon of the Arab boycott against Israel has been, and will remain, counterproductive for all Arabs.

But notice how Abdullah frames it: "If we follow this line of thought, then we will be doing the best service to Israel. All it has to do is use the best technology and best talent in the world and automatically it would be off-limits to us." The assumption made here is that Israel considers Jordan to be a mortal enemy and only wishes for it to fail economically, which would be "the best service to Israel."

Even the most pragmatic Arab leader, and the one who most desires peace with Israel, still regards the Arab/Israeli conflict to be a zero-sum game where if one side gains, the other side loses and vice-versa.

Why on earth would Israel want Jordan to fail? Jordan, and specifically the Hashemite dynasty that rules Jordan, has been Israel's most reliable Arab neighbor for most of its history. Israel wants Jordan to thrive, and it wants all its neighbors to act more like Jordan does. If Jordan would have maintained its claim on the West Bank, 99% of WB Palestinian Arabs would now be living productive lives as full Jordanian citizens and there would be far less terror coming from the West Bank.

The only reason that Abdullah could possibly think that Israel wants Jordan to fail is if he, for all his positive attributes, is still projecting the deep Arab hatred of Israel onto Israel itself. He may be practical about Israel but he will never, ever truly accept its existence as a state with the same rights as his own. He still wants Israel to disappear, so he assumes that the feeling is mutual.

And if Israel's best friend in the Arab world thinks this way, the chances for a lasting peace are, unfortunately, infinitesimal.

Today's capitulations

Yesterday, 3 mortars were fired from Gaza to Israel in what I believe was the seventh violation of the "calm" from Gaza (at least six mortar/rocket attacks and one shooting.)

Unlike previous times during the "cease fire," however, Israel didn't close the crossings from Gaza today in response.

On the contrary - today Israel allowed nearly 200 Gaza businessmen to enter Israel and the West Bank, according to Palestine Press Agency.

Israel also allowed the Sufa crossing to open and is now allowing material for school uniforms to enter Gaza.

Now for a trip down memory lane.

June 21:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told Israel National News Saturday night, "The understandings with the Egyptians specifically state that there will be no hostile fire from any group into Israel, and there will be an end to the arms smuggling and the arms buildup.

"Anyone who says otherwise is either unfamiliar with the understandings or deliberately trying to undermine them," he said.

June 24:

"This is a blatant violation of the calm, and we will weigh options," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after the rockets struck.

July 1:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday warned that his country will make forceful response if Palestinian militants continue to violate the Gaza Strip ceasefire.
Israel has shown some patience with the ceasefire violations, while this should not be perceived as weakness, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted him as saying at a conference.
"Should the lull not be maintained, we will respond with full force," he was quoted as saying. "Nobody will shy away from the need to retaliate harshly."

July 8:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said recently that a truce "cannot be enforced in full immediately, and therefore Israel has and will show patience; but that patience should not be misconstrued as weakness. If the ceasefire is violated, we will know how to react."

Notice a trend?

World gave half a billion dollars to Hamas this year

Yesterday it was announced that the international community has paid $920 million to the PA in the past six months.

The PA has already admitted that 58% of its budget is spent in Gaza, despite the international sanctions against the terror group Hamas that controls it.

So the world has supplied Hamas with over a half billion dollars so far this year. Even if Hamas doesn't get it directly, it benefits mightily, allowing it to gain revenue from "taxes" as well as direct theft, not to mention making sure that none of the money that Hamas gets from other sources needs to be used for helping the people it has control over.

Hamas may gain more monetarily from international largesse than from Iran.

"Islam will defeat terrorism" - a translation

From the Jordan Times:

"Islam will defeat terrorism" was the title of an international conference that organised in Moscow last week by the “Fund for Support of Islamic Culture, Science and Education”.

Whew, that's a relief. Let's look at the details:

The final statement of the conference, issued at the end of two days of intensive, but cordial, deliberations by participants representing Islamic cultural and interfaith institutions and organisations from all over the world, affirmed the need to emphasise the sanctity of all people’s dignity, their life and their property, warning that any violation of these rights constitutes a grave religious sin, as well as a heinous human crime.

Translated into terms the Western audience might understand:
"Dignity" - if a Muslim is insulted, he is justified in killing you.
"Property" - if a Muslim ever owned property it belongs to Muslims forever, and anyone else who says he owns it may be killed. Think Spain (Andalusia).

Paradoxically, this statement is much more easily used to justify terrorism than to combat it. Of course, since they didn't bother to define exactly what "terrorism" means, saying that Islam is against terrorism is fairly meaningless.

The statement confirmed other significant principles, such as: 1) “peace and justice are basic standards for governing relations between individuals and societies, and war according to Islam is a state dictated only by the occurrence of aggression or injustice, and should cease with the disappearance of such causes”;

This means that the definition of "justice" and "injustice" is purely Islamic, and Islam will refuse to accept anyone else's definitions. Again, the result can easily be the support of what any sane person would call terrorism. The word "justice" is the most-used keyword against everything Israel does, because all actions are viewed through a lens that cannot accept - on an ideological level - the existence of a Jewish state on what is perceived as Islamic lands. Israel's very existence, in Islamic terms, is pure "injustice." It is not only a short journey from there to terror against Israeli civilians - it is a logical next step.

2) “Islam is a religion of life, peace, healthy environment, development and coexistence amongst all people”;

As we have seen in the past, Islamic conceptions of "coexistence" is usually "Islam will dominate, dhimmi religions will be tolerated as second class, infidels will be erased from the planet."

3) Islam does, in clear and absolute terms, reject and condemn terrorism, those who finance and support it and those who tend to exploit its horrifying consequences for their purposes and interests.

And as the article goes on to say:

In fact, many participants’ statements rightly included condemnation of terror, as well as virtuous calls for eliminating such evil from our world. They described terror as the pestilence of the time or as a barbaric human epidemic. But most were referring to terror as an abstract phenomenon, with the ambiguity allowing unrestricted opportunity for anyone to apply the condemnation to his own “terrorist enemies”.
But defining terrorism has never been an easy matter, and therefore it would be unrealistic to expect the Moscow meeting to accomplish what others for decades have failed to achieve. And despite the vagueness, the underlying objective was to distance a modern version of Islam not only from terror, but also from providing advocates of violence and terror with religious justification for their evil actions.

Unfortunately, the conference attendees' final statements could be used exactly for such justification.

Until Muslims realize the inherent contradictions between their stated stand against terror and the details that can be used to justify it, they will continue to be rightly blamed for not doing enough to fight true terror from a purely Islamic ideological/religious perspective.

OBL's justifications for his fatwa against the United States that led to 9/11 fit exactly into the statements that came out of this conference that supposedly preaches moderation. He felt that since US troops were on sacred Saudi territory and that the US was not treating Muslims with proper dignity.

It is not too heartening to see an Islamic "anti-terror" conference whose statements can be used to support the most heinous acts of terror.

Mossad secretly buying Iraq!

Another "news"story that illuminates far more about the mental state of the writers than about any real facts, courtesy of AlterInfo.net (it was on uruknet as well):

In a dispatch posted at 6:55pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that 55 "Israeli" companies were now working in Iraq under assumed names.

Yaqen reported that the Zionist firms operate in a variety of fields, including infrastructure and marketing. The Zionist Mossad secret police agency had established the Kurdish Lending Bank with its headquarters in as-Sulaymaniyah in the US-founded Kurdish separatist enclave in northern Iraq.

The report indicated that the Kurdish Lending Bank had a secret mission of purchasing vast tracts of agricultural land, oil fields, and residential areas in the vicinity of the cities of al-Mawsil and Kirkuk, both oil-rich cities in northern Iraq. The massive land purchases facilitate the effort by the US-backed Kurdish separatist Peshmergah militia to expel Arab and Turkoman residents of northern Iraq so that the oil-rich area can be annexed to the Kurdish separatist state under US and Zionist hegemony.

So the Mossad is in the banking industry and those wily Jews are buying sacred Arab land, which means (in Arabspeak) that they are stealing it.

Now you know!

Saudis upset over "9/11 surcharge" by airline

From the Arab News:

A news website in Saudi Arabia reported this week that “angry reactions hit the Saudi streets at the new extra charge under the name the Sept. 11 Security Charge” being imposed by British Midland International (BMI) on Saudi tourists traveling to London.

“This is downright humiliation as the increase in the price of air tickets is only imposed on Saudi citizens,” the website quoted a number of Saudis as saying. It added that the move “has serious implications and that it destroys all the roads being built to maintain links with these people after 9/11.”

The website, sabq.com, said that some observers in the Kingdom believed that the charge might have been imposed for reasons other than those announced, namely to counter the steady increase in oil prices. “If this is the reason, it is also meant to punish Saudis since Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporting country.”

Robert Lickley, commercial development manager for BMI in Saudi Arabia, explained to Arab News yesterday the exact cause of the problem. It too involved a website — this time BMI’s own booking page. “It is a requirement by law that notification of a 9/11 surcharge is put on the ticket of every Internet booking made for flights originating from the United States,” he said, adding that in updating their website, the information concerning the 9/11 surcharge had been carried across to the BMI site that included information and booking forms for the rest of the airline’s network.

“It was a simple clerical error, and when we discovered it, we corrected it immediately,” Lickley said. “However, the error was online for sufficient time that a number of observant Saudis saw it.”

What they were unaware of was that the 9/11 surcharge information is on every Internet ticket for every airline flight originating in the US, he said.

“There are absolutely no special surcharges for flights to or from Saudi Arabia,” Lickley said.

Security surcharges have been a fact of life on all airlines and therefore on ticket prices for several years. They are not specific to any group or nation and help meet the cost of tightened security for airlines since 9/11.

Isn't it interesting that all of British Midland's customers worldwide saw the surcharge, but only the Saudis assumed that it was directed at them alone?

Do you think that perhaps they are a tad sensitive that their wonderful kingdom spawned most of the 9/11 hijackers?

Finally, notice the irony as the Saudis claim to be the victims of bias at the exact same time they refer to all Westerners as "these people."

If the Saudis had any sense of true responsibility, they would have offered to pay the entire cost of the 9/11 surcharge and save millions of travelers the money that they have to spend now because of the culture of hate that Saudi Wahhabi ideology has wrought.

Kosher cooking school opens in Brooklyn

From JTA:

On the first day of class at a new kosher cooking school in Brooklyn, 22-year-old Erica Zimmerman carefully slices raw potatoes into a stainless steel bowl.

Zimmerman, a student at New York University, says she’s always been interested in cooking, but as an observant Jew only wanted a kosher school. Why learn to cook food she'd never be able to eat?

That limited her options.

“The only kosher cooking school is in Israel, and I can’t take off a year to go,” she says. “Then I heard about this new school on Facebook, and I jumped at the opportunity.”

On Monday, the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts opened in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Flatbush.

The six-week, $4,500 intensive course, run in cooperation with the continuing education department of Kingsborough Community College, is the only professional kosher cooking school in North America.

According to director Jesse Blondel and founder Elka Pinson, it is the only one in the world besides the Jerusalem Culinary Institute, a 5-year-old school in Israel.

Pinson, whose husband runs a housewares store on Coney Island Avenue, the main shopping street in the neighborhood, has been dreaming of establishing such a school for years. Last year she took over the top floor of the shop and advertised for a chef/teacher on craigslist.

Blondel, a 26-year-old Brooklyn native, responded. The kitchen manager at the Culinary Center of New York, he was seeking a new position. Organizing and directing a new cooking school seemed just the ticket.

“I realized there isn’t any other kosher cooking school, I’m Jewish, and I grew up not far from here,” he says.

Pinson and Blondel opened negotiations with Kingsborough, and ironed out the details in May. That left little more than a month to set up the room, build the curriculum and advertise for students.

Thirteen people showed up this week for class. On the first day, they sit around a large steel table intently watching chef Mark D’Alessandro, the school’s main teacher, demonstrate the finer techniques of chopping vegetables.

Holding up half an onion, D'Alessandro shows how to place it on the cutting board and dice it finely by making several horizontal slices before chopping vertically with his chef’s knife.

“There’s no machine that can do that for you?” one student asks anxiously.

D’Alessandro looks at her balefully.

“That’s the second time my heart has been broken,” he says to muffled laughter.

All of the students keep kosher to one degree or another. The class is about evenly split by gender, and range from a 16-year-old boy to a grandmother in her 60s.

Well, whaddaya know?

Firas actually allowed my comment.

So far, the only response is "Here they are heroes you sons of conquest, not those who hand in their weapons to the Zionists"

A Syrian sheikh just issued a fatwa against T-shirts that show pictures of the stars of the phenomenally popular TV show "Noor."

The sheikh said that it is forbidden by the Prophet, that angels do not appear in rooms that show pictures like these and that her hair is uncovered so it is not allowed to look at her.

In addition, since angels cannot appear where these pictures are displayed, then if these youths wear such T-shirts to mosques for prayer they are stopping the angels from showing up, presumably making the prayers unacceptable to Allah.

Mainstream PalArab media praising terrorist

Since the announcement that the body of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi would be involved in the "prisoner swap" with Hezbollah, Israel's Fatah peace partners have been celebrating and articles have been written to remind all Palestinian Arabs about their heroine.

The problem is that she was involved in a massacre of civilians, including 13 children as well as a female American photographer. How can Palestinian Arabs publicly celebrate a terrorist without feeling like hypocrites? After all, fatwa after fatwa claims that it is against sharia to target women and children, which is precisely what Mughrabi did. So how can Palestinian Arabs keep lionizing someone so despicable?

Simple. They lie.

Firas Press' biography of Mughrabi, and others I have seen, say that the bus that was hijacked and ultimately firebombed was filled with "Zionist soldiers" and not the families of bus drivers going to a picnic. They also claim that they killed or injured "hundreds" of Israeli soldiers during the attack, another piece of fiction.

This is a recurring motif - redefining every terror victim in Israel as being a "soldier," meaning that they are all legitimate targets. This way their celebrations and handing out candy doesn't cause any unnecessary angst among those who still might maintain shreds of morality.

Here is yet another example of the veracity of Palestinian Arab "news" and "history" sources.

UPDATE: I commented on the article:

She was not a martyr, she was a murderer. The bus she hijacked did not have soldiers, it had families going on a picnic. 13 children were murdered by her and her group. To praise her is disgusting.

You are lying to your readers.

I autotranslated it to Arabic (and then back to English to make sure that the message stayed roughly the same.) We'll see if they post it.

Work accident, plus other peaceful PalArab news

YNet:

Two people were killed and two were injured in an explosion at a Hamas training camp near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, Palestinian sources reported Tuesday morning.

The circumstances of the blast were unclear, but a source in the Strip said it caused a building in the training facility to collapse.

The Israel Defense Forces has yet to comment on the incident, which is believed to be the result of a "work accident" during the production of weapons.

Ma'an adds:

The blast took place at the evacuated Israeli settlement of Gani Tal, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

You see, it is the Zionists' fault! If only they hadn't left Gaza these mujahadeen would still be alive!

In other peaceful Palestinian Arab news, the PA Attorney General was injured in a car bomb/assassination attempt in Ramallah. He had previously been kidnapped by Hamas when he visited Gaza last year.

Gazans attempted to break down the Rafah crossing, and one unsuccessfully rammed a car at the gate.

Hamas stormed the house of a former PA culture minister near Gaza City, confiscating his computer and other material. This sort of thing is a daily event in Gaza.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 105.

Hundreds more Arabs killed in Yemen. Arab world yawns.

As a follow up to my post in May about the fighting between Yemen national forces and the Houthis, in the past few days hundreds more have been killed:

For the fourth day in a row, the Yemeni army has been attacking with heavy weaponry and fighter jets several villages in Mirran district and other areas in Amran governorate’s Harf Sifyan district, believed to be another stronghold of Houthi loyalists, tribal sources said Sunday, noting that hundreds on both sides were killed or injured.

“During direct clashes between the army and Houthi supporters, army fighter jets dropped bombs on Saturday, but they missed their targets, instead hitting military positions in the area of Mirran, resulting in an increased death toll involving troops,” the sources continued, pointing out that the same mistake was repeated Sunday morning.

According to the sources, bloody confrontations between army personnel and Houthis have continued for many days in the Mirran mountains as the Yemeni army attempts to score a ground victory and seize control of strategic positions in the area. However, despite backing from fighter jets, the army is facing fierce resistance by Houthis.

Recent events include a 14-year old suicide bomber killing between 4 and 7 people outside a government building, and another suicide bomber that killed a dozen in a mosque.

One would be hard-pressed to find these stories mentioned in most Arab newspapers, let alone the Western press. Because, once again, Arabs murdering Arabs isn't news - it is how everyone, including their darlings on the Left, expect them to act.

It is only newsworthy when there are non-Arabs around who can be blamed for the violence.

Interesting censorship at Saudi Gazette

The Saudi Gazette wrote a fairly stupid article called "Science refutes doctrine of trinity." The article says that because humans have DNA they cannot possibly be gods or sons of God.

Anyway, I wrote to the newspaper about one part of what they wrote, saying that, "Over and above the dogma of godhood of Jesus, the Jews also claimed Ezra being the Son of God and the pagans said, the angels are the daughters of God." I answered,

I don't know where that strange piece of information comes from, but the idea of God limiting Himself in a human body is just as alien to Judaism as it is to Muslims.

No Jewish source claims that Ezra was anything beyond human. If the only source for this idea is the Koran, this casts more doubt on the Koran itself than anything else.

Needless to say, they didn't reprint the second paragraph.

"Calm" before the storm

From McClatchy Newspapers, in the last paragraphs of an article:

In a nondescript Gaza Strip mosque, a group of Islamic Jihad fighters wearing black facemasks and combat vests proudly showed off Chinese-made machine guns and Russian rocket-propelled-grenades.
"It's like rain coming down," said one 25-year-old militant who identified himself as Abu Thabet. "You can get all kinds of weapons."
Though they aren't regularly firing rockets, Islamic Jihad members said they're still making new ones.
"This cease-fire is a matter of rest," said a 20-year-old fighter who gave his nom du guerre as Abu Mohammed. "It's a fighters' break, to prepare for the next stage."

The Jerusalem Post elaborates on Hamas' own activities during the "calm"

Hamas is feverishly training as well as acquiring relevant weapons systems - of a type far superior in quality to those previously associated with the organization.

The weapons systems on which Hamas is thought to be currently training in the Gaza Strip include a wire-guided anti-tank missile, probably the AT-3 Sagger, and additional anti-tank guided missiles: the AT-4 Spigot, the tripod-fired AT-5 Spandrel and the shoulder-fired AT-14 Spriggan - all useful against armor. All these systems have ranges of several kilometers.
In addition, Hamas is thought to have brought into Gaza large numbers of RPG-29 Vampir handheld anti-tank grenade launchers with a range of 500 meters, which are capable of penetrating reactive armor and are considered far superior to the RPG 7 systems used by the movement in the past.
Hamas is also developing improvised explosive devices, i.e. bombs. The organization possesses an Iranian-developed, locally-produced system known as the Shawaz explosively-formed penetrator that it says can penetrate 20 cm. of steel. Hamas also claims to possess air defense missiles, though no information could be obtained on their nature or the veracity of the claim. Imports from Iran and Syria and local production are all playing a role in the movement's development of its arsenal.
In addition to arming Gaza to the teeth, Hamas is recruiting fresh fighters. Once again, the model is Hizbullah, and the intention appears to be to develop a force part-way between a regular army and a guerrilla force, of the type developed under Iranian tutelage by the Shi'ite Lebanese group. Extensive recruitment has been taking place in the past month. New fighters have been accepted to both the Izzadin Kassam Brigades - Hamas's long-standing military wing, and to the Executive Force - the newer group created since Hamas's election victory in January 2006.

Dozens massacred in Syrian prison

AFP reports:

Syrian authorities on Sunday blamed inmates for provoking riots in a prison for political detainees during which human rights groups said at least 25 people were killed.

The official SANA news agency said security forces took action to put down a violent protest which broke out on Saturday by prisoners in Saydnaya jail -- one of Syria's largest -- without making clear if order had been restored.

But the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a brother of one detainee said rioting continued on Sunday.

According to the Observatory, which is close to the opposition, at least 25 people were killed after military police fired live bullets at Islamist inmates when rioting erupted after a raid by prison guards.

The Syrian Human Rights Commission adds:

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) has learnt from numerous sources in the Syrian capital, that detainees in Sednaya Military Prison, west Damascus, are being subjected to a massacre in which dozens have been killed and injured. Although the prison and intelligence authorities have taken measures to keep this matter discreet, the sources have confirmed that smoke was seen to be emerging from the prison buildings. It is not clear whether this fire was a result of shooting or a product of the release of smoke grenades on prison cells.

It is also important to note that the majority of political detainees in Sednaya prison are of an Islamic background, and they are exposed to the most brutal treatment and horrific torture, as well as the greatest violation of their rights as humans.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Rolling in her grave

Martha Gellhorn was an amazing journalist who did some groundbreaking reporting over sixty years, traveling to most major conflicts.

I've mentioned her views on Palestinian Arabs in the past, when she filed reports from 1961 and 1967. Even though she was a committed leftist, she had no patience for how the Palestinian Arabs had turned into pawns in the conflict nor for their wildly inflated claims as to what happened in 1948. She was passionately pro-Israel.

So she would be aghast at the fact that the award named in her honor has been going to people who she would have eaten for lunch in real life, such as Robert Fisk. The award committee includes such rabid anti-Israel advocates as John Pilger.

The latest co-awardee is Mohammed Omer, whose credentials as a journalist are non-existent, as he only writes for his own website and he gets articles printed in rags such as the "Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. " His account of his interrogation by the Shin Bet as he returned home from receiving the award is so over-the-top ridiculous that it is amazing that anyone believes it:

The security men also demanded he show all the money he had on him, and particular attention was paid to the British pounds he was carrying. His Gellhorn prize money had been awarded in British pounds but he was not carrying the entire sum on him bodily, something the investigators refused to believe.

After being unable to produce the prize money, he was ordered to strip naked.

"At first I refused but then I had an M16 (gun) pointed in my face and my clothes were forcibly removed, even my underwear," Omer said.

At this point Omer broke down and pleaded for an end to such treatment. He said he was told, "you haven't seen anything yet." Every cavity of his body was searched as one of the investigators pinned him down on the floor, placing his boot on Omer's neck. Omer began vomiting, and fainted.

When he came round his eyelids were being forcibly opened and his eardrums probed by an Israeli military doctor, who was also armed. He was then dragged along the floor by his feet by the Shin Bet officials, with his head repeatedly banging on the floor, to a Palestinian ambulance which had been called.

Israeli officials deny any mistreatment but who are they next to an "award-winning journalist" whose media sponsor couldn't even arrange press credentials for him to go across the border?

If Gellhorn would still be alive, she would have figured out that Omer is a fraud in a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, her name is now associated with people who she wouldn't deign to spit on.

Saudi newspaper fawns over bulldozer terrorist

The Arab News goes even beyond calling terrorism "natural" for Arabs:

Israelis killed a Palestinian youth for driving a bulldozer onto the midst of a crowd in the heart of East Jerusalem and killing three Israelis last week. But the reaction of the Western political leaders to the action of the Palestinian worker, one of over a million and half living in humiliation of the Israeli occupation, amounted to killing him and other Palestinians a thousand times.

Yes, this brilliant writer from our "moderate" friends in Saudi Arabia considers a condemnation of the purposeful killing of Jews to be equivalent to killing a thousand innocent Palestinian Arabs. This is the sort of sick mentality that is mainstream in the Arab world.

While the Western leaders did not feel any compunction in condemning the poor building worker in the harshest words they could find in the dictionary, they did not have the guts to describe the incident as the natural and likely reaction of a human being put to indignities beyond his endurance powers.

Indeed, a fully employed Palestinian Arab, who gets paid by evil Jews hellbent on destroying his dignity, is quite justified in killing them en masse because of his abject humiliation. In other words, Arabs are naturally (really, genetically) prone to murder because their honor is far more important than mere Jewish lives, and the West doesn't have the guts to realize this simple fact and start praising the murderer instead of condemning him.

Over the past six months 365 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, most of them civilians, with children accounting for 50 percent.

I don't know about the 365, but the 50% number is wholly fictional, but it must be OK for an Arab to make up statistics making Israel look bad because, after all, he is being humiliated by the very existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. If killing is justifiable, certainly lying is.

It is high time that we made a clear distinction between the acts of terror, particularly from a state that calls itself a democracy, and the acts springing from frustration, injustice and humiliation.

In one sentence the author has just justified every single Arab and Muslim terror act over the past century, because each one must have sprung on some level by someone's "frustration" or perceived "humiliation." This, of course, also includes terror attacks against Saudi Arabia itself, not to mention 9/11.

This Palestinian youth was a human being with normal feelings of pride and honor. He could not be blamed for losing his equanimity for a moment when he thought about the plight of his brothers and sisters who are being treated like dirt in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and put under a blockade denying them the most basic requirements of life.

Our good editorialist has now descended from pure fantasy into mind-reading as he not only justifies a terror attack, he places it in a context where such an attack is positively praiseworthy. The author, Abdul Aziz Al-Suwaigh, is a diplomat who has been an employee of Saudi Arabia's Ministry for Foreign Affairs. And this is all done in English in a newspaper that cannot publish anything without the approval of the Saudi royal family.

A blog post by Richard Landes about this post here

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Ma'an reports:

A Palestinian man, 23-year-old Tariq 'Udwan, died on Saturday of wounds he sustained several days ago in a mysterious explosion in the Suokat As-Sufi area south of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian man was stabbed to death when a clan dispute turned violent in the northern West Bank village of Kafr 'Abbush, south of the city of Tulkarem.

Four Palestinians were injured when a tunnel between Egypt and Gaza collapsed on Friday.

Dr Muawiya Hassanein, director general of ambulences and emergencies for the Ministry of Heath told Ma'an that “ Mohamad al Bashteeni- 23- arrived at the local hospital of Abu Yousef An- Najjar breathing with immense difficulty.

He had attempted to rescue four Gaza residents trapped in a tunnel between Egypt and Gaza. Al Bashteeni was almost suffocated by the collapsing tunnel, said Dr. Hassanein, and the fate of the four Gazans is unknown.

Also, a man was seriously injured by a gunshot in Rafah. Our 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 103.

UPDATE: Egypt found 400 kg of explosives in the Sinai meant to be smuggled into Gaza.

Those cotton-pickin' Zionists

The latest Zionist crime comes courtesy of Egypt, which is accusing Israel of stealing its cotton strains.

According to Palestine Today:

While the cultivation of world-famous Egyptian cotton has deteriorated because of the reluctance of farmers from planting a result of lack of revenue, and the increase of cheaper imports, an Egyptian study revealed that Tel Aviv has been seeking for decades to steal Egyptian cotton strains, and it was about to announce new types of colored cotton (taken from Egyptian strains.)

The Egyptian cotton industry has been battered for decades, so it is always convenient to blame the Jews.

Meanwhile, Israel's cotton industry is doing quite well, as this fact sheet from the Israel Cotton Board shows. Israel exports cotton worldwide and is innovating in creating strains that require little water yet are high-quality.

Even if Egypt's claims are true, I have no idea if it is illegal to take a cotton seed between countries. Certainly other agricultural products are always being moved and hybridized worldwide; I'm not sure why cotton would be any different. (And were there any cotton fields in the Sinai in 1967?)

Based on what I am reading, though, Israel doesn't need any help in its cotton research and innovations.

"Palestine Today" edits Temple out of Reuters story

Reuters wrote another of their stupid "factboxes" about Jerusalem that minimizes the Jewish attachment to the city, not even mentioning how many Temples there were or the daily Jewish longing to return to Jerusalem over millennia.

The Arabic "Palestine Today" republished the article - but completely deleted any mentions of the Temple altogether.

Reuters:

On a rocky promontory, watered by springs 760 metres (2,500 feet) up in the hills between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, Jerusalem has been settled for 5,000 years. It became the centre of Jewish religion and nationhood. Roman rule saw the Temple destroyed in the year 70 and Jews later forced into exile.

Palestine Today deleted the last sentence.

Reuters:

For Muslims, the walled Old City features the golden Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, Jews pray at the Western Wall, a relic of the Temple, and there are many Christian churches.

Palestine Today:

There in the old city wall surrounding the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque and Buraq Wall and many Christian churches.

The Buraq Wall is a name given in the 1920s by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who while trying to eradicate all Jews from Jerusalem made up a story that Mohammed tethered his flying horse to the Western Wall, thus claiming that area as a Muslim holy place.

This is the level of intellectual honesty that one finds in the Palestinian Arab press - they will even edit wire service stories when the facts, already watered down so much as to make them meaningless, are not to their liking.

Another Palestinian Arab for Obama

Another jumps on the bandwagon:

A senior Palestinian minister said Thursday that he was pinning his hopes on US presidential candidate Barack Obama, believing he would seal an elusive deal on creating a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority's planning minister Samir Abdullah told reporters on a visit to Tokyo he expected Obama to win the election in November and "look at the Palestinian question and try to do something about it."

"He promised that he will not wait until the end of his term to launch negotiations and he will make it happen from day one. I hope that he will fulfil his promise," he said.

My other Obama posts can be seen here, including one from 2005 that recalls then state senator Obama giving a written testimonial for a book honoring rabidly anti-Israel academic Rashid Khalidi - anyone have a copy?

Followup on Egyptian "expert" on Jews

Two weeks ago I mentioned that an Egyptian writer won a prestigious literary award for his encyclopedia on Jews and Zionism. I excerpted a synopsis of his work in English and showed that it was seriously flawed and borderline racist.

He also wrote a recent article in Al Jazeera predicting that Israel cannot survive for too much longer.

In fact, it was he himself who was destined not to last much longer, because he just died.

It's only natural

One of the usual responses by Palestinian Arabs to terror attacks - besides celebration and joy - is to tell the West that these attacks are a "natural reaction" to "Zionist crimes."

Hamas used those words yesterday as they praised the attack, and a Firas Press op-ed said the same thing this morning.

No one seems to notice that only the Arabs are allowed to "naturally" murder. Israel doesn't have that luxury - its acts must withstand the tightest scrutiny before even being decided upon. Those evil Zionists cannot naturally believe in revenge or murder because those are, well, evil. But the poor oppressed Palestinian Arabs are naturally allowed to act aggressively.

In other words, those who defend terror attacks in this way are telling the world that all Palestinian Arabs simply do not have the same capacity for free will that the Zionists have.

The defenders and justifiers of terror are the racists, openly saying that Palestinian Arabs cannot act like adults - they are children or animals or mentally disabled people who cannot be blamed for acting in bad ways because they do not have the mental capabilities to think soberly and logically. Only the hated Jews have that ability, you see.

So only the Jews can be blamed for any civilian deaths, because they are the adults and know better. The Palestinian Arabs aren't.

The world buys into this farce to some extent, always assuming that the Israelis have more ability to act in a logical manner than Arabs can, and therefore asking more concessions from the adults than from the slightly defective children.

Only Israel seems to expect Arabs to act as adults, as people who understand the concept of responsibility and who realize that actions have consequences. For everyone else, including the Arabs themselves, the Arab world can act as it pleases because it simply does not have the maturity that the Jews do.

Arabs acting like animals is "natural," according to their defenders. Isn't that as racist as can be?

Sheer joy at terror attack

Everyone who tries to apologetically claim that most Palestinian Arabs are against terror attacks should read the comments autotranslated from Arabic in the Palestine Press Agency story about today's attack in Jerusalem.

Every single comment shows great joy at this attack.

Keep in mind that the audience that reads this news source is generally pro-Fatah and anti-Hamas. Here are some of the joyful comments:

Allahu Akbar
Victory in Gaza and the resistance in West Bank
Fathia tribute to the heroes of every Qassam Brigades
In all of Palestine

Lion of God
God have mercy on you, hero

Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

Allahu Akbar, praise to God

And victory for us

You delivered your hands Aqsa Martyrs Brigades

Allahu Akbar

Brigades heart falcon declare absolute responsibility for this heroic operation and that this process will be the first in a series of operations following

And because we to believe this nomenclature fired on a truce or calming and secure negotiations with the enemy, but we believe in revolution until victory because we eliminated at the stage of national liberation from the Zionist replacement

It is a revolution until victory to victory turn into victory

Allah is God
Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, praise to God
Thank God Almighty for the wonderful news Panah
It is a victory for us and our inherent

Revenge
May God martyr in him and the occupation must leave the eye Bil'in Pilsen, age, blood and blood apparent darkest We in the Al Aqsa Brigades congratulate this process quality and make sure that the occupier will reply next Aedm fever bastions O tyrants from Khan in Chdaa Aqsa Brigades - Palestine if she did, and if fulfilled Maauadt Struck with pain and to calm the angry Mojtzeh with the enemy

God God is the greatest
Oh God, dearest of Islam and Muslims in Palestine
Oh God, Tamim Secretary
Informing the pig does not impede anything, you pigs,
A greeting to you, martyr fresheners
You are indeed a martyr martyr martyr
Oh God, he introduced rest in peace
Oh God, Secretary of Secretary
Heal us of you, you pigs

Oh God, hit a throw Mujahedeen
We want operations in the depth of the usurper entity and the establishment of this entity God to end more quality strikes

Here is the promise of victory started waving
First, my congratulations and blessings to the family of martyr struggling Hossam [lastname] to the Gardens of Eternity O martyr of Palestine Albar Here is Qaradawi victory looming on the horizon, this heroic operation comes at a time when we need a heroic example of this process at a time when weakness of the cowardly Zionists and given a free truce profaned the blood of our people Bank cherished wish Loya coup learn from the heroic martyr instead they guarded built Zion and finally say to the Gardens of Eternity O martyr, God willing

Blatant anti-semitism on Iranian TV

From MEMRI: (TV clip here)

Following are excerpts from "The Secret of Armageddon," an Iranian television series. In it, Iranian scholars, historians, researchers, academicians, and scholars criticize Christian Zionists, affirm the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, promote various conspiracy theories, discuss the Jews' "genocidal plan for the genocide of humanity," claim that Iranian Jewish and Baha'i communities are plotting to take over Iran, and more.
The series aired on the Iranian news channel IRINN in May and June 2008:
"The Zionist Jews believe that the divine promise was given to them, and that their rule will not be restricted to the land between the Nile and the Euphrates. They believe that God gave them the entire world. They base this belief on the false stories that they themselves invented and keep telling."
[...]
Narrator: "The economic and political power of the Jewish oligarchy and nobility has played an important role in the history of Iran and the world, wreaking havoc – to the point that the ancient Jewish editors of the Book of Jeremiah wrote in it that Jehovah, the god of the Israelites, is the god of all of humanity."
Iranian university lecturer Ali-Reza Karimi: "What is known worldwide today as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion contains the plans and policies of the elders of this sect to conquer the world and establish a global Jewish government, which were discussed at the 1897 [Zionist] Congress in Basel, Switzerland."
Narrator: "These plans, which exposed the views and designs of the Zionists, were edited and collected into 24 protocols. They deal with political, educational, social, economic, and legal strategies, which they planned to use after the destruction of the culture, civilization, and religions of other nations. These strategies will be carried out using dishonorable means and conspiracies, leading to the establishment of a global Jewish kingdom."
[...]
Iranian researcher Shams Al-Din Rahmani: "The goal of the Zionists is the total destruction of Islam. They know that this destruction will not be achieved easily, and therefore, they are trying to Americanize the religion of Islam."
[...]
Iranian researcher Sayyid Hashem Mir-Louhi: "Over a century ago, the Russians attacked a [Jewish] gathering, and got hold of this book. Later, the book was published in various languages, and recently in Farsi as well. Some of those Jew-boys deny it, and say it is not theirs. But when you look into the modus operandi of those Jew-boys, when you examine it carefully, you realize that they are trying to operate in the same way that was outlined in their protocols.
[...]
"The Zionist Jew-boys talk about a 'Greater Israel' – from the Euphrates to the Nile – but their actual goal is world domination.
[...]
"In their third protocol, they say: 'This term' – they are referring to the term 'liberty' – 'turns the masses into bloodthirsty creatures. When the bellies of these bloodthirsty creatures are satiated with blood, they will go into a deep slumber and will become unconscious of anything. In this condition, it will be easy to shackle them.'"

Iranian university lecturer Ali-Reza Karimi: "The Rothschilds were members of a certain society, which spread its network throughout the world for hundreds of years, and acted as a secret political organization.
[...]
"By hoarding the wealth plundered by the Europeans in their colonialist attacks, this international network became an unrivaled economic force, and situated itself in the center of the global nobility.
[...]
"According to historical documents, it was the Rothschilds who instilled the idea of Palestine as the Promised Land in the minds of the wealthy and enlightened Jews, and insisted on making it happen. At the time, most of the Jews did not have a specific country in mind, and some even considered America or South Africa to be the Promised Land. It was due to the economic and political power of the Rothschilds that this plot was realized.
[...]
"The British government, which was controlled by the Zionist empire, [and] led by the Rothschild family, committed itself to the realization of the Zionist aspiration." [...]
Iranian researcher Shams Al-Din Rahmani: "Oliver Cromwell, the dictatorial prime minister of England, placed England entirely at the service of the Jews in the 17th century. This [policy] became so deeply engrained that by the early 18th century, the Jews had a colonialist empire, which reached as far an India. They launched the slave trade, which is a Jewish trade par excellence. Most of the slaves back then were black Muslims from Africa. This was part of their evil plan to eradicate Islam in Africa. This plan was guided entirely by the Jews."[...]
Iranian historian Mohammad-Taqi Taqipour: "Iran, which is a country with a rich history, and a special cultural status and geographical location, like Turkey, has become a target for the plans of those Jewish
Iranian university lecturer Ali-Reza Karimi: "The Persian nobility and the wealthy Jews were involved.."
Narrator: "[Former Iranian PM] Sayyid Ziya Al-Din Tabtabai maintained secret ties with global Zionist imperialism. When he left office, in 1921, he went to Palestine, in order to carry out yet another mission of global Zionism. His mission was to purchase lands from Muslim Arabs in Palestine at a low price, and to give them to Jewish immigrants, in order to establish the State of Israel. Since the Muslim Palestinians were not prepared to sell their lands to Jewish immigrants, Sayyid Ziya Al-Din Tabtabai, in the guise of a Muslim, would buy these lands and pass them on to the Jewish immigrants."[...]
Iranian historian Mohammad-Taqi Taqipour: "As soon as news about the Balfour Declaration reached the leaders of the Iranian Jews, they held conferences and established the Iranian Zionist Organization, also known as the Central Committee of the Zionist Organizations in Iran.
[...]
"The Zionists and their organizations in Iran devised a plan, which was signed in 1931 by Rabbi Azizullah Naim, chairman of the Iranian Zionist Organization. This plan included eight clauses. In brief, according to this plan, Reza Shah's regime must permit Jews from all over the world to enter Iran and settle wherever they wish, in accordance with the plan that they themselves devised. In addition, these Jewish immigrants would be granted liberties by law, and no one could deny them these liberties. There would be equality between Jews and non-Jews in Iran – most of whom are Muslims. Fertile lands throughout Iran would be allocated to these Jewish immigrants free of charge. After two years, they would be granted citizenship, and a visa from the government also free of charge."
Iranian university lecturer Ali-Reza Karimi: "They planned to take over large parts of Iran, and to establish concealed camps, which would be populated by Jews from around the world, particularly Europe. This way, they wanted to gradually take over Iran, like they did in Palestine." [...]
Narrator: "Is it possible that according to the schemes of the global Zionist empire, Iran was meant to become another Israel, like in the case of Palestine?" [...]
Iranian researcher Shams Al-Din Rahmani: "The sole reason Reza Shah and the Pahlavi dynasty were brought to power was to enable the Jews and the Freemasons to take control of Iran. Reza Shah was brought to power during World War I, and was deposed during World War II. Movies, TV series, and so on about that period demonstrate how deeply Israel, the Jews, and the Freemasons had managed to infiltrate Iran." [...]
Narrator: "In the early days of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's regime, the Zionist organizations grew so much that the Jews began to immigrate to Palestine via Iran. Many of these Jewish immigrants, supposedly on their way to Palestine, stayed in Iran in order to consolidate the plan to turn Iran into a second Israel. This is why many Jewish children who immigrated from Europe to Iran came to be known as 'the Tehran Children.'
"Following these events, the Jewish Agency started its activity in Iran. Under the guise of transferring Jewish immigrants to Palestine, it began its operations in Iran. The rise of Jewish and Zionist organizations and associations enabled the Jewish leaders and tycoons to penetrate the realms of politics, society, intelligence, and most importantly, the economy, and to maintain a significant presence and influenced there.
[...]
"Reports by the SAVAK intelligence agency about the financial and economic situation of the Jews in the days of the Pahlavi dynasty stated: 'Most of Iran's tycoons are Jews. If the Jewish tycoons were to withdraw their money from the Bank of Commerce and the other [Iranian] banks, the Iranian government would find itself in a serious crisis.'"
[...]

Former Iranian TV correspondent Mahdi Sabonchian: "Back then, I used to go to the airport to get information and take pictures. There was continuous contact [between Iranian Jews and Israelis]. Even then, [Iranian Jews] would immigrate to Israel. I would see El Al and Air France airplanes landing. I used to stand near the planes, take pictures, and prepare my reports.
"The Jews traveling to Israel would carry hens with them. I saw them carrying cages with two hens each. Some Jews from Rasht were about to travel to Israel, and I asked them why they were taking hens with them. They said: 'We were told to bring hens with us.'
[...]
"By taking all these hens, they have become so advanced that they export eggs to the entire world, both for consumption and for incubation." [...]
Narrator: "For many years, Hollywood constituted another aspect of the cultural war. The film industry in the early 20th century was shaped by Jewish immigrants, most of whom belonged to Zionist organizations."
[...]
Iranian researcher Sayyid Hashem Mir-Louhi: "Moral corruption will spread wherever these Jew-boys tread. In other words, every Jew-boy believes it is his personal duty to destroy the moral values of other nations, in order to control people's minds and souls. This menacing problem has penetrated American theater and cinema, and is clearly evident."
[...]
Once again, their first protocol reads: 'Addiction to alcohol and excess drinking of intoxicating beverages became the problem of non-Jews when liberties are granted.'"
[...]
Narrator: "Thus, a new front against the Islamic revolution is opened. Global imperialism invests billion of dollars and uses a broad distribution network to flood Iran with videos, CDs, and DVDs of the latest vulgar, destructive Western films with Farsi subtitles. These films are sold cheaply to the youth in dark alleys, as well as in broad daylight, in public places. The films spread vulgarity, and feed the youth with the falsified Zionist way of thinking, so that in future attacks they will remain defenseless." [...]
Iranian researcher Sayyid Hashem Mir-Louhi: "There is a genocidal Zionist Jewish plan for the genocide of humanity at the hand of the Zionist Jew-boys. Even though the Jew-boys sometimes talk about a 'Greater Israel,' their real goal is world domination."
[...]
Narrator: "Today, there are many indications that the 'hidden hands' of world Zionism were involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack. According to a large group of Western intellectuals, the Zionists are the real rulers of the United States. According to irrefutable documents published by independent American media outlets, the Zionists used intelligence agents and spies, with the full cooperation of agencies with the country, to carry out this terrorist operation in full view of the world, in order to prepare the ground for taking over Afghanistan and Iraq, and to realize the dream of a greater Israel."

There's lots more, watch the whole thing.

Morning headlines

A Palestinian Arab terrorist commandeered a bulldozer and went on a rampage in Jerusalem, killing 3 or 4 and injuring dozens before he was killed.

The group Freedom for Galilee Brigades claimed responsibility, but they have a penchant for lying.
----------------
One Palestinian Arab newspaper describes the episode of female mega-terrorist Dalal Mughrabi as a "stain on the conscience of Palestinian leaders" - but it isn't because of her terror attacks. It is because they hadn't demanded her body years ago.
----------------
The Iraqi president apologized for shaking hands with Ehud Barak earlier this week. Apparently, it is OK for Palestinian Arabs to shake hands with Zionists, but not for any other Arabs.
----------------
A Fatah-linked organization, translated as "The Storm Hawks," claimed responsibility earlier this week for the rocket attack on Sderot on Monday. The Al Aqsa Brigades now denies that this group is part of Fatah.
-----------------
There are reports that people are storming the Rafah crossing from Gaza.
-----------------
I had missed this story about the smuggling of rare Jewish manuscripts from Iraq to Israel. Although these priceless works were confiscated by Saddam Hussein, the current Iraqi government is very upset that these manuscripts - many of which were damaged during the Gulf War - are leaving Iraq.
-----------------

Palestinian Arab heroine Dalal Mughrabi

Firas Press is reporting that part of Israel's deal with Hezbollah will involve handing over the body of one of the most notorious female terrorists ever, Dalal Mughrabi.

On March 11, 1978, Mughrabi led a band of eleven terrorists who took boats from Lebanon and landed north of Tel Aviv. Upon landing, they met an American photographer, Gail Rubin. Their intended target was Tel Aviv so they asked her where they were. Once she told them, they murdered her.

They then hijacked a bus filled with families going on an outing, seemingly with the intent to take it to Tel Aviv.

An IDF unit chased the bus and finally forced it to stop, and then the shootout began. Mughrabi and her gang started shooting passengers point-blank and then they firebombed the bus itself, trapping the passengers. At least 35 were killed, including 13 children, in what became known as the Coastal Road Massacre.

The Palestinian Authority named a girls' school in Hebron after Mughrabi. PA summer camps and other special events are named in her honor as well. By any measure, she is regarded by Palestinian Arabs as a role model.

The Fatah-leaning Firas Press article about her as well as all the commenters even today consider this bloodthirsty terrorist as a "martyr."

Once again, we see the caliber of Palestinian Arab "heroes" - the people who have murdered the most innocent people.

PalArabs: Keep away from our keffiyehs!

A hilarious article in Palestine Today laments Israelis supposedly co-opting Palestinian Arab culture, including Jews wearing the keffiyeh. The autotranslation is a little hard, but here is part of it:

It is not enough that Israel occupies Palestinian land and displaced thousands of Palestinian citizens from their homes and stripped most important elements of normal life, but now it comes round to steal the Palestinian heritage, including the Palestinian keffiyeh and Palestinian clothes ...

Even dishes and Thyme oil and olives!

The keffiyeh is a symbol of significant importance to the Palestinians, and it was awarded by the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat "Abu Ammar" a special elegance until the last day of his life.

He specially formed it on his head so that it resembles a map of Palestine, and stayed put on his head a sign of the Palestinian Al Shoumoukh, wherever they kufic found the pulsating heart of Palestine and everywhere in the fragrance of the smell of olives and oranges, a symbol of lasting rejection of occupation and resistance, and for the whole world symbol of the struggle And the right, the symbol of the Palestinians.

(The article goes on to say that the keffiyeh became an important symbol during the 1936 riots when terrorists would wear it to cover their faces making it hard for the British to find them. It served the same purpose in the 1987 intifada.

Now the Israelis are attempting to steal Palestinian heritage, especially the keffiyeh. Two Israeli designers, Gabi Ben-Haim and Amoco Harel designed a keffiyeh with the colors of the Israeli flag and Stars of David in an attempt to seize Palestinian folklore. They said the lines will be designed as blue on a white background, pointing out that this design is part of integrating Israel into the Middle East, and that Israel had a right to be in possession of the keffiyeh as being a part of the Middle East.

(The next paragraph says that El Al stewardesses in the 70's also wore keffiyehs.)

...These thefts were not limited to the keffiyeh and Palestinian clothing heritage, but the Israelis also wanted to seize «falafel» and present it as a popular Israeli food, and promoted via posters of the crowded shops selling souvenirs at Israeli cities and Israeli restaurants in European and American.

Notice that according to Palestinian Arabs themselves, the keffiyeh is a symbol of "resistance."

The falafel kerfuffle has been around for years. Seriously, would any Jew be insulted if for some strange reason Palestinian Arabs started loving sweet gefilte fish, Tam-Tams or Bisslis?

Debka reports Hamas committed to stopping rockets

Normally I don't quote Debka, whose accuracy is sometimes questionable, but this fits in with what I've been reading in the Palestinian Arab press:

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Palestinian Hamas’ armed wing, determined to keep fellow terrorist groups from violating the ceasefire with Israel, has in the last two days deployed a string of 1,000 sentries and monitors at the missile sites of the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Oddly enough, Hamas has assumed the role of protector of Sderot against Palestinian missiles and mortars. Even harder to believe, Hamas’ hard-line “chief of staff” Ahmed Jabari has taken personal responsibility for maintaining the ceasefire.
Hamas security officers have been assigned with sticking close to every Jihad Islami and Popular Resistance Committees operative thought likely to start shooting missiles or mortars, and making sure it does not happen. Military sources report that Hamas operatives beat the daylights out of the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades operatives who launched a Qassam missile against Israel as a provocation five days after the truce Egypt brokered between Israel and Hamas went into effect on June 19.
As DEBKAfile has reported, Hamas hopes to make good use of the respite in hostilities to recuperate, rearm and regroup for the next round. To win popular standing as rulers of the Gaza Strip, the Islamist group must demonstrate how it forced Israel to lift the blockade and reopen the border crossings, which Israel shut for two days when the missiles and mortars started flying last week.

This was quoted in the pro-Islamic Jihad "Palestine Today". My guess is that the main reason Israel hasn't responded to any cease-fire violations is because it sees how seriously Hamas is taking it.

Inevitably, this is causing mounting pressure on Hamas from the other terror groups in Gaza, like PIJ and Al Aqsa. Unlike 2006, Hamas is not tacitly encouraging other groups to continue firing.

June 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.

June 2008

Previous calendars:

May 2008
April 2008

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

German sports knucklehead

From JTA:

A German sports expert has raised hackles for saying that Israeli Olympic athletes wanted to die to gain sympathy for Israel.

Arnd Krueger, director of the Sport Sciences institute at the University of Goettingen, said at a recent conference that this was the only way he could explain why the athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists in the 1972 Munich Olympic Village did not leave the village, even though they had felt insecure there. He later told Ha'aretz that he had been at the Munich games as a young reporter, and that one of the Israeli athletes had told him the village did not seem safe.

At the conference, Krueger also suggested that Israelis had a "different concept of the body" from that in other western countries, which he also linked to their supposed "self-sacrifice." According to his thesis, Israel tries "with all possible means" to avoid disabilities, and he added that Israel has a higher abortion rate than other western countries.

According to Der Spiegel, Krueger repeated his theories in a written statement to the university, with the disclaimer that he is not an anti-Semite.

Nah, of course not. He's just projecting his own Aryan theories on Israel.

By the way, Israel's abortion rate is listed at #65 out of 95 countries listed on this website, well behind the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France and, of course, Germany. (It is still way too high, though. If you are interested in lowering that number, give generously here.)

See also SnoopytheGoon's take.

Palestinian Arab women killed in 2007

PCHR came out with a report last month on human rights violations in the PA. They significantly undercount the number of Palestinian Arabs killed by each other, but even according to their own numbers here is an interesting statistic:

Total number of Palestinian Arab women killed by their own people in 2007:	47
Number of Palestinian Arab women killed only by "honor killings" in 2007:	14
Total number of Palestinian Arab women killed by Israel in 2007:	4

(My own count was that 41 women were killed, so I will adjust my 2007 count upwards by 6.)

Those dastardly Western X-Rays

From AFP (h/t Global Freezing):

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of an "X-ray radiation plot" during his trip to Rome for the UN food summit earlier this month, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
The news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Italy, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, as saying that the plot was to use extreme radiation in the place where Ahmadinejad was due to stay.
The diplomat spoke out after Ahmadinejad himself charged that he had been the target of an assassination plot during his landmark trip to Iraq in March and his aides spoke of a similar attempt in Rome.
"One day before Ahmadinejad's trip, I checked and found out that the (security) X-ray machine set up in the place where he was staying gave off excessive radiation," Zohrehvand said.
He said that the regular radiation level of such equipment in Italy was "300" but on this machine it had reached "800".
He gave no indication of the units he was using but radiation is normally measured in millirems with the average American experiencing a total annual exposure of an average of 360, according to medical websites.
"First we suspected the machine was broken and after replacing it with another one it turned out that the radiation was controlled from another source," the ambassador said.
"When the president entered this place, the radiation increased and exceeded '1,000' so that the intensity of the radiation was completely felt inside the building," he added.
The diplomat did not say if the place where Ahmadinejad was staying was a hotel or official residence.
Ahmadinejad said in mid-June that enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their travel plans.
Some reformist newspapers openly ridiculed his suggestion, with one daily saying that if the Americans had wanted to kidnap him they would have done it during Ahmadinejad's annual visit to the UN General Assembly in New York.

To quote the Kinks, "Paranoia, the destroyer."

Fatah accuses Hamas of "collaboration"

In the wake of yesterday's arrest by Hamas of the Fatah Gaza spokesman Abu Qusay (since released,) Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades accused Hamas of arresting him on the orders of "their Zionist masters."

Once again proving that anyone considering Fatah to be "moderate" is nuts.

Palestinian Police Phunnies XXXI

From Ma'an:

Israeli border police pursued and arrested a Palestinian man driving a stolen Israeli jeep on Sunday, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.

According to Maariv, the man was a high-ranking Palestinian police officer from the Barghouthi family, who had been wanted by Israel.

Amit Louzin, the director of a company named "Autoran," which helped the police track the car electronically, said, "A new Mitsubishi Bajero jeep was stolen from Qisariya [in Israel] two weeks ago, just a few days after the owners received it from the company. It seems that robbers used a copy of the key, and that they knew the secret start-up code. Autoran knew that the jeep was taken to Ramallah, but the Israeli military did not allow the company to enter the West Bank and try to get the car back."

Autoran continued to monitor the car and until last Thursday it was seen traveling from Ramallah towards a village near Israeli settlement of Ofra. The company alerted the border police who tracked down the jeep and arrested the driver.

It is always heartening to know that not only are the police of Israel's "peace partners" the biggest criminals, but also that their crimes are far more innovative and organized than their policing.

UPDATE: It gets better:

The jeep had PA police license plates, a communications system, a siren and blue police lights.

h/t Yerushalimey

Now, we can say that Hezbollah won the war

It has always been problematic to say that Hezbollah won the 2006 Lebanon war, notwithstanding their bragging about it. After all, Hezbollah and Lebanon suffered far more during the war than Israel did, and the UN resolution that ended it did place severe restrictions on Hezbollah, even if they knew they were going to ignore it.

Unfortunately, in one sense, Israel just handed Hezbollah its victory.

In February, 2006, months before Regev and Goldwasser were abducted, Hezbollah chief thug said at a large public rally in Lebanon, "We are working on making this year the year to free our brothers in Israeli detention. Samir Kantar and his friends, which will in turn pave way to free our Syrian and Jordanian brothers detained in Israeli prisons."

In other words, Hezbollah planned to kidnap Israeli soldiers specifically to bargain them for the disgusting child-killer Samir Kuntar months before it happened. While he later stated that he did not anticipate that Israel would go to war over the issue, this was his explicit motivation.

Now, two years later, Israel is ensuring that Nasrallah's plan worked as well as he had hoped. And from all indications, he didn't even have to keep the two brave soldiers alive in order to effect this swap.

I cannot imagine the pain that the Regev and Goldwasser families have been going through, but giving Hezbollah their stated prize - in which they give up nothing that is of any value to themselves - is doing nothing less than giving them total retroactive victory in the Lebanon war, by their own stated goals. We know by now that the UN forces in Lebanon are not enforcing their own mandate and that Hezbollah has more than recouped their losses from 2006, and now Israel is doing nothing less than conceding defeat.

The sickening piece of filth called Samir Kuntar was the only thing that stopped Hezbollah from being able to declare total victory. Now, victory is theirs.

And now we need to examine the second half of Nasrallah's remarks from 2006, that Israel's release of Kuntar will "pave the way" for more such releases. Just as the Shebaa Farms is not the end of Hezbollah's territorial claims, neither is Kuntar the end of Hezbollah's goals in gaining prisoners. Nasrallah has already shown that he can get Israel to do whatever he wants, even if not as directly as he would wish. Kadima is Nasrallah's puppet, albeit a reluctant one.

Israel's current government has just made the lives 121 soldiers and 44 civilians who were killed during the Second Lebanon War to be worthless. They died, literally, for nothing. Not only that, but Israel has just created circumstances where it is a certainty that there will be more attempted abductions and murders.

This exchange is the height of immorality, ensuring the suffering of countless future Regev and Goldwasser families. Their pain, as heartbreaking as it is, does not justify this capitulation of Israel to the demands of Nasrallah and the pigs he commands.

The most reliable PalArabs are the most bloodthirsty

Despite the mounting number of violations of the "cease fire," all indications are that Hamas is really trying to adhere to its terms. This is evidenced not only in Hamas statements made in Arabic but also in their actions.

Hamas has gone on a spree of arresting members of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, which perhaps is nothing new, but their latest arrest is noteworthy: they abducted Abu Qusay, the Fatah spokesman who on Thursday and Friday criticized Hamas for the truce.

While Hamas has acted in duplicitous ways in the past, they have always been comparatively far more honest than their Fatah counterparts. Even in the "truce" of late 2006, Hamas could argue that they had never formally accepted a truce nor had they agreed to enforce one among other groups.

Obviously Hamas continues to smuggle explosives and weapons into Gaza in opposition to the Israeli understanding of the "calming" (Hamas never publicly accepted that position, as far as I can tell.) And it is entirely possible that Hamas considers this truce minimally binding because they made these promises to fellow Muslims in Egypt and not to the Jews directly. It does, however, bring up an interesting question:

What should a state that cares about democracy and human rights do when its most credible negotiating partner has zero concern for democracy or human rights? What is the moral course to take when the conditions of the agreement involve the partner acting immorally?

For better or for worse, both ancient and modern Israel is situated in a really bad neighborhood, and it has enough of a hard time existing in relative security without adding concerns about how the neighbors act towards themselves. On the other hand, any ultimate peace - if it is remotely possible - will be based on all the actors in the region accepting basic human rights for everyone else, and any short-term solutions might endanger the longer-term ones.

I don't have a good answer.