Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Oh well - Iran really isn't friends with Israel

A couple of days ago, an Iranian vice president of tourism and cultural affairs was widely quoted as saying, "Today Iran is friendly with the peoples of America and Israel. No people in the world is our enemy and this is a source of pride."

This created a bit of a stir and incredulity, given Iran's longstanding hatred of all things Zionist.

Well, it turns out that this gentleman really didn't mean what he said:

The following day, 20 July, Rahim-Masha'i denied the reports of his speech. "This is not what I meant and these are all lies. During my speech I also said that Israel was dead and only its funeral ceremony has been postponed, but they [the press] did not publish these statements," Iranian state radio quoted him as saying.
Fars news agency, which appears to have been the sole source for the vice-president's original, contested, remarks, cited him as declaring: "By `Israel' I meant the Palestinian and Jewish people living in Palestine, not the immigrant Jews or Zionists, because we do not recognize the Zionists at all."
The original Fars report on Rahim-Masha'i's remarks was carried by a number of Iranian newspapers on 20 July, including the reformist E'temad-e Melli and Aftab-e Yazd.
The hardline daily, Keyhan, on 21 July criticized the vice- president over his remarks.

The Iran Press Service adds:

“Sorry, when I said Iranians are friendly with the Israeli people, actually I wanted to say Palestinian people”, Mr. Esfandiar Rahim Mosha’i, the Iranian vice-President in charge of Tourism and Cultural Heritage Organisation corrected on 21 July 2008 his earlier statement...

What surprised more political analysts is that not only the statement by Mr. Rahim Mosha’i is in total contrast with the usual anti-Israeli outbursts by the President and his denial of the Holocaust, postures that have outraged international public opinion, but also he used the words “Israel” and “Israelis” even though that these references are officially prohibited by the Islamic Republic, referring to Israel as the “Zionist Entity” and to the Israelis as “Zionist Occupiers” or “Usurpators”.

In an official, but mild denial, published by the same Fars News on Monday 21 July, Mr. Rahim Mosha’i says “it is obvious that Iran can not be friendly with Zionist usurpators. Everyone should have understood that I made a mistake by saying we are friendly with the Israeli people while I had the Palestinians in mind”, he said, adding “however, as stated by our dear President several time, Iranians have no enmity with the American or the Jewish people, which we distinguish from the Zionists who occupied Palestinian’s homeland”.

How predictable was this?

Initial PalArab joy at new bulldozer attack

Here are the first three autotranslated reader reactions in Firas Press to today's copycat terror attack in Jerusalem that injured at least 16 people. Keep in mind that Firas is pro-Fatah.

Khosetm my brothers and apes and pigs and you should defend its borders shame you Zionism and the establishment of our Lord God accepts the hero martyr Ghassan Aboutir and enter it in eternal peace and shame to customers sons Qassam

Moreover, God bless
No benefit with the Jews, however, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and apparent darkest .. Oh God, mercy and Shahid Khaldeh Jinan Radwan and inspired his family patience and solace

God have mercy, and it has to be appointed who will tell Iasirlhm

Across the board, Palestinian Arab newspapers are referring to the terrorist as a "martyr."

Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, made his usual equivocal "condemnation":

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, saying it 'hurts peace efforts'.

Abbas told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah: "We always condemn any terrorist act, and we condemn any attack on civilians regardless of what '.

He added: 'I understand today that there was intentional attack, we certainly condemn it does not accept it, because it marred the reputation and marred the peace in general'.

I have never yet heard any Palestinian Arab leader condemn a terror attack against Israel on moral grounds. It is always because the attacks make them look bad or appear counterproductive to their cause, never because human beings were killed or injured.

How a Saudi paper prints pictures of women

In the "Books" section of the Okaz newspaper there are articles written by both men and women. But while those written by men are accompanied with their photographs, for the women's articles the pictures are all the same:

Why don't they just use a generic picture like this?

It's more accurate - and more modest. You never know what evil thoughts might go through men's head from looking at the illustration - with hair visible, no less.

Work accident! Plus other peaceful PalArab news

A 24-year old Hamas man was killed when the bomb he was working with exploded a bit earlier than he expected. Of course, he was home at the time and he also injured a baby and a 17-year old with the same last name as his.

Hamas said that he was on a "special Jihad mission," which means that Hamas is actively planning terror attacks during the "truce."

A wedding in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City turned into a fight, and 15 were injured in the melee as happy guests grabbed any sharp objects they could to try to kill members of the other family. Palestinian Arabs often treat funerals as weddings and weddings as battlefields.

Hamas abducted a woman in Beit Lahia.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 115.

Gillermania!

Dan Gillerman, outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UN, is always good for a sound-bite. Here are a couple of highlights from an interview in yesterday's NYT:

You recently called Jimmy Carter a “bigot” after he met with Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas. Is it true you were reprimanded by the U.S. State Department? There was no complaint or reprimand. The only reaction I received was very positive.

The Bush administration, it seems, has not done much to advance the Mideast peace process. Would you agree? I think the key is in the Arab world. The Palestinians’ real tragedy is that they have not been able to produce a Nelson Mandela. Every single day, Muslims are killed by Muslims. You do not see a single Muslim leader get up and say, “Enough is enough.” It’s nearly as if we live in a world where if Christians kill Muslims, it’s a crusade. If Jews kill Muslims, it’s a massacre. And when Muslims kill Muslims, it’s the Weather Channel. Nobody cares.

You are about to be replaced at the U.N. by Gabriela Shalev, a law professor at Ono Academic College with no experience as a diplomat. Can any regular person be a diplomat? I’m sure Gaby will do great. Diplomacy is not something you can learn at school or in the foreign service. A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell and actually make you look forward to the journey.

I'll miss this guy.

Jordanians to king: "Pardon mass murderer of Israeli schoolgirls"

In the wake of Israel's release of despicable murderers of Jewish children, prominent Jordanians are asking King Abdullah to do the same:

King Abdullah II was urged on Sunday to pardon a Jordanian soldier who is serving a life sentence for killing seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.

"After around 12 years in prison, Ahmad Dakamseh deserves your majesty's special pardon," a group of 70 Islamists, unionists, lawyers, human rights activists and former officials said in a signed letter to the king.

In March 1997, Dakamseh fired an automatic weapon at a group of Israeli schoolgirls as they visited Baqura, a scenic peninsula on the Jordan River near the Israeli border, killing seven and wounded five others as well as a teacher.

The attack came almost three years after Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty, only the second between an Arab country and the Jewish state.

"Following the recent release of Arab prisoners, we hope to see Dakamseh free again," they said, referring to Israel's prisoner swap with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group last week.

The signatories Islamic Action Front secretary general Zaki Bani Rsheid, former prime minister and intelligence department director Ahmad Obeidat, Jordan Bar Association head Saleh Armouti, and Hani Dahleh, president of the Arab Human Rights Organisation.

"The current political stage requires a policy that would make people happy and ease their socio-economic and political pressures. Pardoning Dakamseh will have a great effect on people," the letter said.

It remains to be explained exactly what kind of people would become happy that a mass murderer is freed in their country.

Notice that the president of the Arab Human Rights Organization is one of the people urging the release of this murderer. Apparently, the "human rights" of Arab murderers to walk around free is more important than the rights of Jewish schoolgirls to live.

Let's hope that King Abdullah will remain as aghast at this crime as his father was and let the killer rot. At the time, King Hussein went to Israel to pay his condolences to the families and truly condemned this act, not like the fake "condemnations" that we are used to hearing from Palestinian Arab leaders.

On the other hand, Daqamesh's mother defended him on Al Jazeera TV:

"I am proud of my son, and I hold my head high. My son did a heroic deed and has pleased Allah and his own conscience. My son lifts my head and the head of the entire Arab and Islamic nation. I am proud of any Muslim who does what Ahmad did. I hope that I am not saying something wrong. When my son went to prison, they asked him: 'Ahmad, do you regret it?' He answered: 'I have no regrets.' He treated everyone to coffee, honored all the other prisoners, and said: The only thing that I am angry about is the gun, which did not work properly. Otherwise I would have killed all of the passengers on the bus."

Although at his trial, his mother was quite willing to say something different in order to get him a lighter sentence: "I know my son is mentally ill because he used to have fits of rage and faint."

At least one terror group has named itself after Daqamesh, showing yet again that even the most heinous murderers of Jews are heroes in some Arab quarters.

Morning links....

Yourish: UN Troops salute dead terrorists

SoccerDad: Horribly wrong part II

Augean Stables: CNN’s Wedeman: I Black Heart Palestinian Children

Dhimmi Watch: Iranian woman, 31, to be hanged after 18 years in jail

My Right Word: First International Jewish Bloggers Convention
Anyone who wants to send me tickets to Israel to participate, feel free! I'll even lead a session!

I saw this poster at a Palestinian Arab site.

The site freely admits that this was a poster designed by Zionists, but for some bizarre reason they claim that the existence of this poster is "embarrassing" to Zionists:

This poster was originally designed by Franz Kraus in 1936 and published by the Tourist Association of Palestine, a Zionist development agency. The poster shows the city of Jerusalem, with its neat parks, homes, and the Dome of the Rock.

Embarrassingly for the Zionists, this one poster effectively debunks three of their core myths; that Palestine was a land without people, that Palestine was a barren desert, and that there never was any such thing as Palestine. Well, here is a populated and green Palestine, called by name in a Zionist-published poster!

The incredible naivete in the last paragraph is breathtaking. Of course there was an area known as Palestine, but what the poster is showing is that Zionists had pride in the nation they were building. In 1936, only Jews were proudly identified as Palestinians, and the Western world also identified Palestine as the Jewish homeland. Jews were proud Palestinians before 1948, creating the popular Palestine Pavillion at the 1939 World's Fair, for example.

If anyone should be embarrassed by this poster, it is the Arabs of Palestinian lineage, because they didn't create any posters like this! This poster proves that Zionism is what made Palestine relevant, Zionist muscle and brainpower turned a backwards land into a modern marvel, and Zionists were the people who took the greatest pride and interest in Palestine in that time period.

More similar posters that for some reason are not being sold by Palestinian Arab online stores, probably because they have that evil word "Jewish" in them:

UPDATE: Here are a couple of other "embarrassing" posters I just found on the Web:

Religion of peace

This photo accompanied a story in the Al Quds newspaper of London. It is apparently a picture of Shehada Jawhar, one of the leaders of Jund al-Sham Islamic group in Lebanon, who was killed this morning in continuing clashes in Lebanese "refugee" camps.

Do people who call Islam the "religion of peace" cringe when they see Islamist leaders explicitly equating weapons with the Koran, or do they perhaps have a different definition of "peace" than the rest of the world?

Today's marriage news from Saudi Arabia

In an update to last week's story about a 64 year old Saudi man who was to marry a 10-year old girl, we can all breathe a sigh of relief:

In the latest twist to a high-profile marriage in this central Saudi city, a 64-year-old man has announced that he would wait five years to consummate his marriage with his 10-year-old bride.
According to local newspapers yesterday, the man — who has already paid a SR100,000 dowry to the father of the girl and signed the marriage contract — now says he would wait until the girl is 15 to complete the marriage.
Explaining the circumstances that led to the marriage, the man’s son said his father never had a second wife. He said the girl’s father taunted his father saying he was willing to marry his daughter to him if he paid SR100,000 in dowry. “My father accepted the challenge, paid the money and became the husband of the young woman,” the son was quoted as saying.

Apparently, if you only have one wife in Saudi Arabia, there must be something wrong with you.

It is most heartening to know that this man claims he won't be raping the girl nightly. She'll just be his slave.

In other news about the wonders of polygamy in Saudi Arabia:

When a man discovered that his wife was secretly urging their son not to get married, he took revenge on her by marrying a second, younger woman.
According to yesterday’s Okaz daily, the couple, living in the southern Saudi city of Al-Madaya, has a son studying in the US. The father had been urging the young man to get married the next time he was visiting home. After discovering that his wife was tugging the young man in the other direction, the father used polygamy to get back at his wife. When the wife discovered her husband had married a 21-year-old woman, she insisted that no second wife was going to live under the same roof with her. So the man moved in with his new, younger bride.

In other Saudi marriage news, a man shot and killed his wife over a "family dispute" and a woman with her 16-year old son burned her husband to death.

PA lawmakers praise murderers, advocate Israel's destruction

Israel's "peace partners" have come together to praise Samir Kuntar and Dalal al-Mughrabi in this women's program on PA TV with female Fatah members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (from MEMRI):

Lowlights:

Jihad Abu Zneid: Today has stirred the emotions of all Palestinians and the whole world [towards] a Palestinian woman who was, and still is, a commander and a fighter for the sake of Palestine. Allah willing, we hope that the day is near when the remains of this fighter and martyr, who has been dubbed "the Princess of Female Martyrs" – sister Dalal Al-Maghrabi, will return, Allah willing, to Jaffa, and will be welcomed by Jaffa and by the entire homeland, and we will celebrate our liberation.

[...]

We extend our deepest salutations to that Palestinian mother, to the mother and sisters of Dalal, and to all the female martyrs [who died] for the sake of Dalal and Palestine. I say to them: You have won [this honor]. Becoming the mother or sister of a martyr is an unparalleled opportunity. I wish I could be the mother or sister of a martyr, or even be martyred for the sake of Palestine myself. This would be a great honor. We all wish to die, Allah willing, for the sake of Palestine, and to become brides for the sake of Palestine – all the women and girls of Palestine wish for that. Dalal was a role model, and we were raised on her memory, and on this outstanding Palestinian image of that great Palestinian commander, Dalal, who led the best Palestinian operation for the sake of Palestine and its liberation.
Najat Abu Bakr: To Dalal, confined in her coffin, I say that ...today, you made all the Israeli and Zionist warlords pay the price. Your price is higher than anything they expected. You are present, because while death means absence, martyrdom means presence. Oh leaders of the Zionist enemy, we are here to stay, and you will be gone.

So Israel's "peace partners" advocate on their own TV shows that all Zionists die, that all of Israel gets destroyed, and that murderers of Jewish children be considered heroes.

As LGF writes, this TV show is like a death-cult version of The View.

Guess who offered to help Palestinian Iraqi refugees?

We've previously discussed the plight of some 3000 Arabs who lived in Iraq for generations and are now in dire straits because they have Palestinian ancestry.

None of the oil-rich Arab countries in the Gulf have offered any help. Syria, which has accepted tens of thousands of other Iraqi refugees, refuses to allow them into the country. Jordan and Egypt have likewise been silent, despite efforts by the UNHCR for years to find countries that can accept them.

But one Arab country has stepped forward.

Sudan.

In what is clearly a public relations move, Sudan has offered to accept all the refugees to change people's focus away from its genocide in Darfur.

The UNHCR, while clearly not happy about this, is considering this idea as Sudan is marginally better than the camp they are in now. The PLO seems to agree to the plan as well.

Refugees International, rather than blaming other Arab countries for refusing to settle these refugees, is asking the US to pick up the slack:

"Relocating Palestinian refugees to Sudan does not offer this population a real choice for a permanent, stable home, and simply moves them from one marginalized situation to another," said Kristele Younes, Senior Advocate with Refugees International.

"We must not allow this vulnerable population to be used as pawns in a greater political game," said Younes. "The U.S. government should acknowledge the vulnerability of this stateless population and resettle them here. It is appalling that Sudan, a country infamous for its violations of international humanitarian law, has stepped in to protect these people when the U.S. would not."

To resettle this vulnerable population expeditiously, Refugees International urged the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to create a special category to process refugee applications. Any process should be held without prejudice to the Palestinians’ right to return to their homeland.

Ironically, this organization which says it tries so hard to solve refugee problems and to allow them to become normal citizens in their host countries still feels obligated to say that even if the US would accept them as citizens they should not forfeit their "right to return" to a place they have not lived in for three generations. Indeed, RI has bought into the very using the Palestinian Arabs as pawns that they rail against, and rather than looking for a permanent solution to the rampant discrimination that Arabs of Palestinian ancestry suffer in the Arab world they continue to advocate a solution that would destroy Israel. RI apparently agrees with the UN that Palestinian Arabs should be labeled "refugees" for generations, uniquely among all the world's refugee populations, and that the West is responsible to solve all Arab suffering, allowing petrodollar-stuffed Gulf states to abdicate all responsibility for the PalArabs.

What a bold move!

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Hamas is accused of killing a 23-year old Fatah member of the Gaza "naval police".

Hamas continues to raid houses of prominent Fatah members in Gaza, today stealing the Jeep of a former deputy minister.

Egypt found another cache of explosives meant to go to Gaza, the second in two days.

Hamas conducted military exercises in Gaza with live ammunition and missiles - in the densely-populated residential al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. This panicked the residents and damaged many houses, but it was late Friday night, so no big deal.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 114.

Internal Hamas friction leads to violence

According to Palestine Press Agency, a bomb exploded east of Gaza City, injuring 7 Hamas members, two seriously.

The anti-Hamas paper claims that this was the result of internal Hamas disagreements.

UN "peacekeepers" salute terrorists

From AP (h/t LGF):

U.N. soldiers salute as a tractor-trailer loaded with coffins of nearly 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters and bearing the picture of slain Hezbollah top leader Imad Mughniyeh, right, arrives in the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon, Thursday, July 17, 2008.

These look like the kinds of people who will zealously hold Hezbollah to every provision of UN Resolution 1701, don't they?

The Guardian's "correction"

I pointed out yesterday that the Guardian wrote an execrable biography of Dalal Mughrabi that took the Palestinian Arab narrative of her terror attacks at face value.

Today, they issued a slight correction, changing the words "Israeli soldiers" in the sentence "On the coastal highway, Mughrabi's team hijacked two buses full of Israeli soldiers" with the words "civilians." But that was hardly the only problem with the article:

* Referring to the 18-year old as a "girl," making her sound like an underaged hero, especially by referring to hijacking a bus of unarmed civilians as "daring."

* Not mentioning the earlier murder of American photographer Gail Rubin by her gang.

* One bus was hijacked, not two.

* The story of her raising a Palestinian flag is almost certainly apocryphal.

* The terror group's intent was not Israel's Ministry of Defense but rather a Tel Aviv hotel filled with civilians.

* To even report with a straight face the idea that Israeli helicopters would fire from the air into a bus filled with Israeli civilians wavers between truly stupid and purposefully malicious.

* To give any credence to the Palestinian Arab boasting that they killed 70 people, when the names and ages of the victims are public record, betrays an equal amount of stupidity to which no real reporter would ever admit.

* I have not found any of the supposed pictures of Barak shooting Mughrabi's dead body and it strains credulity that he would have done that. If the Guardian knows that "the media" captured such images, it should at least say who took them.

In other words, these two short paragraphs were not factual at all. The Guardian's credibility should be severely damaged by this sloppy, poor excuse of a biography. If there are this many mistakes in this case, how can anyone trust anything the Guardian ever says?

Arab press: Israel exploding nukes, causing earthquakes

Firas Press published an article claiming that the recent series of earthquakes felt in northern Israel were really underground Israeli nuclear tests.

The author, Mahmoud Daoud, marshals an impressive array of facts: since the earthquakes are in the north of the country, far away from the Dimona nuclear plant, they must have really been nuclear weapons, because Israel would never test them in the south and risk an accident at Dimona. The logic is impeccable.

Once this irrefutable fact is established, it is up to crusaders - oops, activists - like Daoud to explain what Israel's plans are.

One possibility is that, after finishing its archaeological digs undermining the Temple Mount, Israel plans to destroy the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque with a small nuclear weapon.

Another likely scenario is that Israel is developing small nukes that would only destroy Arab villages or "refugee" camps, as a possible response to conventional weapons.

Indeed, the author goes on to say, the Zionist entity is already known to have used uranium bullets and bombs in Lebanon. And as part of the West, Israel already has previous experience in using nuclear weapons against civilians in Japan in World War II.

Daoud goes on to say that all of Israel's recent concessions, including the prisoner swap, the calm in Gaza, the negotiations with Syria and the talk about Shebaa Farms is part of the conspiracy, as a kind of misdirection to keep the world from seeing Israel's obvious nuclear testing.

As if further proof is needed, a large meteor seen over Israel earlier this month was really an Israeli rocket test.

In hindsight, it is all so obvious!

Nefarious Zionist rats terrorize J'lem PalArabs

We've seen Zionist pigs, trained by settlers to attack innocent Palestinian Arab gardens during prayer times.

We've seen Zionist wolves, raised by the same settlers who know only to attack PalArabs.

We've even seen Zionist lions, kept by settlers as pets, instilling terror in the hearts of the oppressed West Bank Arabs.

Now, thanks to Zionist technology and the implacable hatred that Jews naturally have towards everyone else, we can witness the latest scourge: Zionist rats.

From Palestine Today (autotranslated):

Rats have become a weapon used by new Israeli colonizers against citizens in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, in order to displace and expel them from their homes.

Districts in the old part of town are suffering and facing recently this new type of Israeli actions that aim to harass Jerusalemites in order to force them to leave.

For two months, dozens of settlers have been going to the alleys and streets of the old town, carrying with them dozens of iron cages full of rats, and to release them in the town into open drainage channels.

The citizens of the old town say that the rats grow very large, adding that different types of poisons did not contribute to eradicating them, and pointed to the large municipal slowness in dealing with this issue which is causing a humanitarian catastrophe and environmental losses.

According to Hassan Khater, Secretary General of the Islamic-Christian Front for Defending Jerusalem and its Holy Sites, these rats pose a major threat to Jerusalemites who inhabit these neighborhoods, and that the situation is serious and very poor, emphasizing the failure of the occupation in the municipality of Jerusalem to address the issue.

He reported during a press conference held in the government media center in Ramallah yesterday that the purpose of this measure is to increase the suffering of Jerusalemites in the old town, transforming their lives through the tragedy of fact, with the aim of pushing them to leave their homes and leave the city.

Khater added that the Front had received many complaints and comments from citizens Jerusalemites living in the revival of the old town, according to sabotage these rats property large number of houses and shops, calling to shed further light on this disaster.

There is a link between the colonists active in the deployment of rats in alleys of the Old City meant for the deportation and displacement of populations, and between the occupation and the deployment of hundreds of pigs in the mountains and valleys of the West Bank aimed at sabotaging the property and crops.

Yes, right now, in secret underground Zionist labs, brainy Jewish scientists (funded by the Zionist lobby) are breeding these super rats who are impervious to poisons, and trained through a combination of Pavlovian methods and embedded microchips to only attack Arab sections of Jerusalem and to leave the Jewish Jerusalemites alone. But thanks to the efforts of people like Dr. Hassan Khater (who has advocated genocide against Jews on PA TV) these schemes can be exposed for all the world to see.

Saudi Vice, episode 17: Tat's all, folks

A Filipino worker in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was very happy with his life. He was so happy that he even got a tattoo during one of his visits home that said "Lady Hunter ... KSA."

He came back to the Kingdom and went about his business. But a Saudi Electricity Company worker noticed his tattoo and was aghast.

He followed the man home to find out his address, and then conscientiously called our heroes, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, telling them that clearly this man was aiming to have an illegal illicit affair with innocent Muslim Saudi women.

Our heroes at the Muttawa didn't waste any time investigating these allegations. They searched the man's home, and found even more reasons to punish the Filipino - he had pictures of Filipino women workers in his home!

Will the horrors never cease?

The Muttawa had seen enough. The man was deported away from the Kingdom and its holy places, and Saudi Arabia is a little bit safer from such deviants who dare have tattoos and pictures of women.

Now we know that Hezbollah murders POWs

Almost absent from all the discussion about the prisoner swap is the fact that Hezbollah murdered two captured soldiers, probably way after they were captured.

As David Bedein writes:

Exactly two years ago, a few days after Goldwasser and Regev were captured, the Israel government cabinet secretary Attorney Yisrael Maimon, convened a press briefing following the Israel government cabinet meeting, which this reporter attended, in which Maimon reported to the media that the Goldwasser and Regev were captured alive.

Maimon held at least 12 more briefings over the next few months in which he declared that Goldwasser and Regev were captured alive.

Maimon told the media that he relied on Israeli intelligence data which confirmed that the two Israeli POW's were captured alive.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, acting as an independent envoy, along with the Red Cross and the UN, all confirmed that Israeli POW's Regev and Goldwasser were alive.

Now that it is clear that Goldwasser and Regev died at the hands of Hizbullah while they were held in captivity, the responsibility for the murder of Goldwasser and Regev rests with the Hizbullah organization and with their sponsors in Syria and Iran.

The government of Israel now has a responsibility to the people of Israel and to the soldiers of Israel to hold Hizbullah, Syria and Iran accountable for murder of the two POWs.

Where are the human rights organizations? Where is the outcry of anger at Hezbollah's flouting of the Geneva Conventions and other international laws? Who in the West is standing up and calling Hezbollah murderers?

UPDATE: As my commenters have noted, Israeli sources are now saying that Regev and Goldwasser were killed during the initial attack.

So, were Jesse Jackson and the others lying?

The Guardian's disgusting biography of a terrorist

The Guardian (UK)'s Hugh Macleod wrote a brief bio of Palestinian Arab terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, and disregards the truth for PalArab propaganda:

As an 18-year-old Palestinian girl from Lebanon, she led a daring and bloody attack against Israel that still haunts the public imagination on both sides of the border 30 years later.

In 1978, Mughrabi led a team of 13 Palestinian and Lebanese fighters who landed at Jaffa beach intent on attacking the ministry of defence in Tel Aviv. On the coastal highway, Mughrabi's team hijacked two buses full of Israeli soldiers. An intense 15-hour gun battle ensued with forces led by future Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak. Mughrabi raised her national flag and declared the Palestinian state.One of the buses exploded, killing many inside. Israel says Mughrabi threw grenades into it; Palestinians maintain the bus was fired on from the air by Israeli helicopters. At least 37 Israelis (Palestinians claim 70) were killed, as well as 11 guerrillas. Mughrabi's body was dragged off the tarmac and shot several times by Barak in images captured by the media. (HM)

Mughrabi hijacked one bus of civilians, 13 children were murdered by her gang that day. Macleod's pretending that the Palestinian Arab lies about the attack having the same credibility as Israel's is simply obscene. It is not as if the facts are hard to come by; the Guardian just disregards them.

For the truth, read here.

UPDATE: Israeli media reports that her body was not returned to Hezbollah and that it was lost. Hezbollah claims that her body was returned. Either Hezbollah has a DNA lab or it is lying.

But it doesn't matter, because in the honor/shame society, appearances are all that matters, not facts.

Today's PalArab press roundup

A few articles of note, although I won't have time to elaborate too much on any of them.

An Iraqi Shiite leader has issued a fatwa allowing women to undergo surgery to repair their hymens. The article assumes that all such women are "adulterous" and although it does mention that this procedure may save their lives, the primary reason for allowing the surgery was to maintain family "honor."

The spread of AIDS has slowed down dramatically in Gaza, and medical sources say that the Israeli "blockade" is a major reason why.

Hamas denies yesterday's report that their headquarters is moving to Beirut, saying that nothing could affect the good relationship between Hamas and Syria.

All of Lebanon celebrates a multiple murderer

It isn't only Hezbollah celebrating the imminent return of the most sickening terrorist in recent memory, Samir Kuntar.

The entire government of Lebanon is joining in.

According to the Palestine Press news,

The Lebanese Prime Minister instructed the closure of all public administrations and public institutions and private institutions, municipalities, public and private educational Lebanon on Wednesday, 16/7/2008, in observance of the liberation of prisoners from the prisons of the Israeli enemy and the restoration of bodies of the martyrs to the soil of the homeland.

It is expected that permeated the celebrations all regions of Lebanon on this occasion.

Similarly, the Lebanon Daily Star said:

Lebanon is planning a welcome ceremony in Naqoura, and President Michel Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will later greet the prisoners at Beirut's airport.

It can perhaps be expected that traditional murderer-worshippers like Hezbollah or Hamas would celebrate the release of such a murderer. But this is the entire government of Lebanon, which despite Hezbollah's influence is still considered to be pro-Western by the West, celebrating; every major political leader falling over themselves for a photo-op with this damned pitiful excuse for a human being.

It isn't just the terror organizations that embrace Samir Kuntar. It is the entire Arab world. Because anyone who kills Jews in Israel is, by definition, a hero to the Arabs across all political leanings.

If anyone can find a single Arab editorial that considers Samir Kuntar to be anything less than a hero, in any language, please let me know. Because I have not yet found it.

UPDATE: Not all of Lebanon is celebrating.

Syria moving Islamic Jihad and Hamas offices to Beirut?

Firas Press quotes an "Israeli intelligence site" as saying that Syria is planning to move the headquarters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Beirut, where they will be hosted by Hezbollah:

The sources added that the men of Hezbollah are working with a construction company of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that began renovating two buildings in the heart of Beirut's southern suburb and is building the new security headquarters of these movements as well as housing for the leaders of the movement of Palestinians and their families.

If this is true, it may mean that Tehran is really unhappy with the indirect talks between Israel and Syria, signaling a desire to ensure greater control over PalArab terror groups via Hezbollah.

To have Iran's Revolutionary Guard supervise the construction of the buildings means that they want to ensure that Israeli intelligence doesn't drop any devices in the buildings while they are being built.

Another tunnel death

This one is a little different - he got electrocuted while in the smuggling tunnel:

Medical sources announced that Abu Yousef Najjar Hospital, the city of Rafah, noon today, Tuesday, on the death of an electric shock impact inside the tunnel under the city of Rafah.

The sources added that "the citizen Majid Sobh Spring" 28 years "died as a result of electric shock inside the city of Rafah tunnel."

Out 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 113.

More proof the PA is a terror organization

Ma'an reports:

A Palestinian military court in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday sentenced two Palestinians to death by firing squad, after they were found guilty of collaborating with Israel.

Twenty-seven-year-old Wa’el Sa’id Sa’ed Sa’ed, from the village of Yatta in the Hebron governorate was present in court when the sentence was handed down. His co-defendent Mohammad Sa’ed Mahmoud Sa’ed from Hebron was sentenced in absentia.

Both men were found guilty of passing information about Palestinian resistance fighters in the West Bank to the Israeli authorities, as a result of which the Israeli army carried out a number of targeted assassinations and detentions.

The issued sentences are inalienable and are ratified by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

It's been about three years since a death penalty has been carried out in the PA, and most of them have been for "collaboration with the enemy" (the list is here.)

In other words, the internationally recognized government of the PA, who is supposedly Israel's peace partner, actively supports and defends known terrorists ("resistance fighters") , and rather than punishing the actual terrorists, it punishes those who try to stop them.

To put it bluntly, the PA is the enemy and there is no distinction between the Palestinian Authority and the terrorists whom it actively supports and defends.

PalArab terrorists say "Next Year in Jerusalem!"

The Palestine Press Agency quotes an Israeli news source (that I could not find) saying that, at a farewell party being thrown for uber-terrorist Samir Kuntar by his fellow terrorists, they all shouted "Next year in Jerusalem!," mockingly using the same expression Jews have used for centuries.

Is there any clearer indication that releasing prisoners encourages terrorism?

GoozNews!

It's been a long time since I last did a roundup of Iranian news (definition of GoozNews is here,) but today we were treated to a surplus of wonderfully stupid articles from the Iranian media.

First we have the story, published in YNet, that Iran's IRNA "news" agency is reporting that thousands of Israelis are fleeing Israel in fear of the Iranian missile exercises last week. This story went wholly unnoticed in Israel, so it must be Jewish jinn or other similar invisible people.

Meanwhile, Nefesh b'Nefesh reports that four planeloads of people have arrived in Israel in the past month from the UK and US to live.

Next up is that the FARS "news" agency reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused four nations of conspiring to kidnap him the last time he was in Iraq.

The nations? America, Afghanistan, Iraq - and Palestine! It seems that Iran's love of Palestinian Arabs only extends to Hamas.

Finally, we have FARS again "refuting" the doctored images from the Iranian missile launch, saying that Iran never published the doctored images. The "expert" who made this analysis is funny enough, spinning a wild conspiracy theory about how the West first tried to ignore the test and then made up the story about the Photoshopped image.

Jordanian justice

Yesterday I mentioned how a Jordanian man was sentenced to only six months in jail for "honor killing" his teenage daughter.

Today, a Jordanian court upheld the death penalty for a woman who murdered her husband for his own infidelities. She is slated to be hung.

Apparently, in Jordan, women have no honor.

Gazans will hold a mock trial to convict Gilad Shalit

Palestine Today reports that a Gazan "human rights" organization will today hold a mock trial charging Gilad Shalit with crimes.

The purpose is to compare him to the Palestinian Arab prisoners in Israeli jails.

The event will include a parade with a man pretending to be Shalit being transported to the "trial" where he is expected to be convicted and sentenced. The parade will start at the Red Crescent headquarters in Gaza City.

The "peace dividend" spawns a new Fatah terror group

Israel's "peace partners" of Fatah have added yet another terrorist group to its repertoire.

The group came out with a press release this morning claiming that they shot a "barrage of bullets" at Israelis at the Jamala checkpoint near Jenin before withdrawing safely.

And who did this group name itself after?

Dalal Mughrabi, the female terrorist hero of all Palestinian Arabs who was involved in the murder of 36 Israeli civilians in 1978, and whose body is slated to be returned to Palestinian Arabs as part of the "swap" deal with Hezbollah. We can see the peaceful reverberations of this deal already, even though such incidents are so common that they aren't even mentioned in the Israeli press unless someone gets injured.

Is there any doubt that the members of this group also draw salaries as member of the PA "police"?

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia..

A 60-year old man is set to marry a 10-year old girl in the Hail province shortly.

Her parents, who are younger than the groom, must be so proud!

Jordanian man gets six months for "honor killing" daughter

Firas Press reports that a Jordanian man was sentenced to only six months of jail after electrocuting his 16-year old daughter in 2006. She had admitted having an affair.

The sentence was light because it was assumed that the father simply lost control with his anger, plus the fact that his daughter really did have the affair.

This recent article from the UAE says that fully one quarter of all Jordanian murders are "honor killings:"

Last week, a 16-year-old boy stabbed his 23-year-old sister to death after she disappeared for a month with her boyfriend, the seventh such killing this year.Honour killings are not a new phenomenon in Jordan, a conservative kingdom whose laws are lenient to men convicted of such crimes, handing down sentences of as little as six months if they are found to have committed an act “in a fit of fury”.

Parliament has twice refused to reform the penal code despite pressure from human rights groups.

Last year, 17 women were killed in the name of honour in Jordan. The issue of honour is so central that some men have been known to drag their new brides to a forensic centre on their wedding night, believing they cannot be a virgin if they do not bleed the first time they have sex.

A study by the United Nations’ Development Fund for Women found that 25 per cent of the victims of honour crimes had lost their lives merely because they were suspected of involvement in an illicit relationship, while only 15 per cent were killed after adultery was proved.

The Jordanian National Forum for Women – a non-governmental organisation set up in 1995 – asked parliament two months ago to tighten penalties for men found guilty of honour killings and to abolish article 340 of the penal code law, which reduces the penalty for a man who kills a female member of his family found to have committed adultery. The parliament has so far refused to change the laws.

Mahmoud Kharabsheh, a member of parliament, said the media was misreporting the cases and that there were no honour killings or crimes against women.

“The crimes that are taking place are related to adultery … which has a negative impact on society. This campaign against women is exaggerated,” he said.

Jordanian justice!

UNRWA official shows his bias

UNRWA Director of Operations John Ging was interviewed by Palestinian Arab Ramattan TV where he revealed yet again the absurd amount of bias that the UN has against Israel.

Autotranslated:

The director general of UNRWA operations in Gaza, John Ging, stated that despite the commitment of the Palestinian side to calm and to stop firing rockets at Israeli targets, Israel still did not open the crossings needed by the population , and the situation is getting worse.

Jing said in a televised interview with private news agency Ramatan Today / Saturday / "The situation in Gaza is still frustrating to people. We have a calming-This is good, and there is a cease firing rockets - This is also good, but Israel has not yet opened the crossings to the extent that we need, so residents still Gaza Strip are suffering here. "

The director of UNRWA operations hoped to open Gaza crossings quickly to introduce all the necessary things, not only food and medicine, but also other things needed by the people to be able to live in Gaza.

He said, "Last October when they were firing rockets there was more fuel being transferred than is entering today", and expressed the hope that the Palestinians in Gaza have the ability not to launch rockets at targets in Israel.

He called on residents of the Gaza Strip to raise their voices high to lift their blockade, and take their human rights, stressing that the Palestinian people basically did not take their humanitarian, stressing that UNRWA would continue its support for the Palestinians despite the difficulties they face and will stand alongside them in every adversity.

He said: "I am quite sure that there are beautiful days to come for the Palestinians, and the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital coming, God willing," saying that despite what he described as "a mountain of difficulties" faced by the Palestinian people, however, it must continue to climb this mountain.

First of all, he is a liar. Israel's shipments to Gaza since the "cease-fire" has increased 44%, and fuel increased by 30%.

Secondly, he is also a liar when he claims that Gazans are holding by the cease-fire, as there have been numerous instances of rockets and mortars including six events in the past six days.

Thirdly, as far as I am aware the official UN position on Jerusalem is still what it wanted in 1948, namely to make it an international city. It appears that Ging is going against UN policy in his zeal to support everything the Palestinian Arabs support. It is quite hypocritical to say that Jerusalem cannot be Israel's capital because of UN resolutions and then to say that Jerusalem will be Palestine's capital.

Par for the course.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

An apparent honor killing in Hebron.

A man tortured to death in a Hamas prison. Fatah claims that Hamas injected gasoline into his blood.

Hamas continues to abduct Fatah members in Gaza.

Egypt shot and killed an African trying to get to Israel and his Bedouin guide in the Egyptian side of Rafah.

Three church bells were stolen from the Greek Orthodox Church in Tulkarem in the West Bank.

Egyptian police arrested a man trying to smuggle a kangaroo and other animals into Gaza.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 110.

UPDATE: An Arab taxi driver was murdered by another PalArab in Salfit. 111.

UPDATE 2: A Jericho man was found stabbed to death. 112.

Egyptians afraid of Jew-cooties

Of course part of the entire 1979 Camp David agreements between Israel and Egypt was to begin establishing normal relations, but Egypt still collects billions a year from the US as its "peace dividend" while acting like any normal relationship with Israel is a horrendous crime.

YNet mentions:

Despite struggles, boycotts and threats, the acclaimed Israeli feature film “The Band's Visit” will finally be making it to Egypt this week.

The film was rejected by the Cairo International Film Festival, and later on the Egyptian Actors’ Guild threatened to boycott the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for accepting the film. This eventually resulted in the latter dropping the film in the last minute. Despite all that, a special screening of the film will be held in Cairo this coming Thursday.

After tallying the supporters versus the objectors, the Egyptian premiere of "The Band’s Visit" will be held Thursday at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel’s auditorium, owned by no other than the billionaire Saudi Prince, Al-Walid bin Talal.

The film, depicting the Alexandria police band's visit to Israel’s remote southern town, was screened a few times in private homes in Egypt and won praise. Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosni has even told Yedioth Ahronoth, “I saw the film and it’s excellent.”

However, despite his compliments, Hosni firmly objected to having "The Band’s Visit" or any other Israeli movie screened in Egypt, claiming that “it’s unadvisable to have the anti-peace opposers burn down our movie theaters because of an Israeli event.”

The Israeli Embassy sent out more than 200 invitations to businessmen, scholars and Egyptian intellectuals, but it remains to be seen who of the local invitees will muster up the courage to attend the screening and risk entering his name into the media’s “black lists.”

Sure enough, the Arabs are freaking, and an article in Palestine Today not only complains about the film being shown but also about some T-shirts that were found in a far northwest province that said the horrible words "Tel Aviv" in English, prompting 5 groups to condemn them.

Yes, all of Egypt may collapse if some people mention the name of an Israeli city without being threatened.

Friday funnies

From the ever-brilliant Iowahawk:

Hello, valued Al Qaeda associate! Welcome to the inaugural issue of Vistas, the new electronic newsletter designed to keep you informed on all the fast-paced comings and goings within our Total Quality Jihad family.
In a dynamic marketplace characterized by rapid change and unexpected missiles, even the most disciplined adaptive organizations can find it challenging to keep the lines of communication open. Without understanding the strategic "big picture," associates will sometimes be confused by misleading rumors they read on unreliable infidel blogs and websites like "F*cked Insurgency" and "Jihad Deadpool." With Vistas, you will learn the real story -- of how we are attacking the competitive casualty gap with a paradigm-changing tactical adaptive strategy focused on paradise value optimization. Yes, there will be some changes, but our core leadership mission remains the same one established by Chairman Emeritus Osama Bin Laden when he founded Al Qaeda in his family goat shed nearly 15 years ago: to create a robust, cave-centric, best-of-breed strategic organization for global caliphate management solution services. If we all pull together as accountable subteams, we are on-track to rebuild momentum after the Q4 Infidel elections!

INTRODUCING QAEDANT

As a commitment to our spirit of goal-oriented adaptive martyrdom innovation, I am proud to announce the launch of Qaedant, our new corporate branding identity.

Read the whole thing.

Israel keeps sending truckloads to Gaza

Even though the "truce" was broken at least five times this week, Israel has not suspended sending supplies to Gaza. Firas Press reports that 146 trucks went through the Sufa and Karni crossings yesterday, including food, paper products, and building materials.

Also, today Al Aqsa Brigades said they shot a rocket to Israel, but they said that this wasn't a cease-fire violation, just a reaction to Israeli activities in the West Bank. Not quite sure what the difference is.

"Cease fire" calendar

Here is a list of Palestinian Arab violations of the "cease fire" that I am aware of since June 19, with links.

(I have no idea why there is so much white space below this; I simply couldn't debug it.)

R = Rockets

M = Mortars

S = Shooting

June				19	20	21
				CeaseFire
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
		3R, 1M		2R	2M	2M
29	30	July 1	2	3	4	5
	2R			1R
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	1M, 1S	1M		2R	1M	1R
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
2M
20	21	22	23	24	25	26

Work accident, plus other peaceful Gaza news

A Hamas member was killed in an "internal explosion" this morning.

Egypt found another large cache of ammunition and explosives in the Sinai already packaged up to be smuggled to Gaza.

Hamas abducted two Fatah members in southern Gaza and three others in Beit Hanoun.

Fatah denied that the Al Aqsa Brigades shot two Qassams at Israel yesterday, as opposed to the Al Aqsa Brigades who actually took responsibility. This is how Fatah maintains deniability - every statement attributed to Al Aqsa is just some people who are pretending to be Al Aqsa, you see.

Hamas and Fatah are meanwhile increasing their rhetoric about each other; each accusing the other of collaborating with Israel and saying how the others' actions help the Zionist enemy. Mahmoud Abbas called Khaled Meshaal a "liar."

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 108.

Mohammed Omer redux

The official Israeli report on "journalist" Mohammed Omer's allegations of brutality is here (h/t Soccer Dad.)

Mr. Mohammed Omer al-Mughaier (hereinafter "the Complainant") arrived at the Allenby Crossing on Thursday, 26 July 2008. Due to suspicion that he had been in contact with hostile elements and had been asked by them to deliver items to Judea and Samaria, both he and his baggage were searched. In contradiction to his claims, at no time was the Complainant subjected to either physical or mental violence.

The investigation revealed that the search of his baggage was conducted in the presence of four people and not eight, as he noted. The search was conducted, according to regulations, in a public place and in the view and presence of the Complainant.

The body search, which took several minutes, took place in the presence of two security personnel (a policeman and an ISA official) and was conducted according to the relevant regulations. The Complainant's claims to the effect that he was threatened at gunpoint are baseless.

Regarding the Complainant's collapse, as it were, it should be noted that the paramedic who attended to him found no evidence of a physical cause of collapse. The Complainant's behaviour raises doubts as to the sincerity of the situation. In any event, the Complainant was sent to an infirmary and an ambulance was ordered for him.

As to the Complainant's allegation that he was compelled to stand on his feet for twelve hours, we point out that according to our records, the Complainant arrived at the Allenby Crossing at approximately 11:00, and the entire incident ended at approximately 14:00. Thus, this claim is also baseless.

We should point out that there are numerous additional contradictions in the Complainant's allegations. For example, in the media he reported that he was humiliated, stripped and that a gun was held to his head. And yet, in his complaint filed with the IDF Spokesperson, the Complainant claimed that two uniformed personnel sprayed his face [and nothing about a gun - EoZ]

In conclusion, the Complainant's grievances were investigated and found to be without foundation. At no time was the Complainant subjected to either physical or mental violence; he was treated fairly. We can only regret that his allegations received publicity and a platform without being properly investigated.

Omer didn't claim to have stood up for 12 hours in Pilger's report; but he did say:

I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror."

This is not a description of facts; this is a fantasy of a fanatic Israel-basher tailored to an audience of those who will believe anything evil about Israel.

Honest Reporting (UK) notes:

As in many previous cases (see HonestReporting's "The Big Lies" interactive presentation for some of the most infamous), a Palestinian claim has been taken at face value by a media keen to fit the story to a preconceived narrative that portrays Israel as a serial human rights abuser.

Soccer Dad notes that calling Omer a "journalist" is stretching it; he is a propagandist who will vilify Israel on the flimsiest testimony.

More reasons not to trust the Arab press

This example is small, but telling.

Saudi Arabia's Arab News states:

Israeli soldiers kill unarmed Palestinian lad
A 17-year-old boy who crossed into Israel in search of work was killed by Israeli troops yesterday.

Ma'an says:

The Israeli army killed a Palestinian on Thursday near the Kissufim crossing southeast of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Medical sources from Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza named the dead man as 18 year-old Salim Jum'a Hamidi from the village of Az-Zawaydeh in the central Gaza Strip.

Local sources in the Gaza Strip believe he was attempting to cross the border into Israel to look for work, and maintain that he was a civilian.

Al Jazeera is the most accurate of the Arab news sources:

Israeli troops have shot dead an unarmed Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip, marking the first fatality there since a truce between Israel and Palestinian armed groups took effect three weeks ago.

"At around 3 o'clock an army force identified a suspicious person crossing the fence from Gaza into Israel near Kissufim," an Israeli army spokesman said on Thursday.

"The force called on him to stop and fired warning shots but he did not stop and the soldiers fired at him and killed him. When they approached his body they saw he was unarmed," the spokesman said.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is linked to the Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said the man was one of its members.

Muawiya Hassanin, head of Gaza's emergency services, said the man was Salim Jumaa al-Hamedi, aged 18.

So now we know an 18-year old member of a recognized terror group attempted to infiltrate Israel, and Israel stopped him after warning him. The only truce violation here is from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who seem to have cynically used the young man as live bait to force an Israeli reaction. It is not a breach of the truce for Israel to kill someone who is attempting to break into Israel, apparently for violent purposes, at 3 AM.

The Arab News, whose publication time is midnight Saudi time, had 15 hours to get the story right, and completely fabricated the age of the man as well as calling him a civilian after the Al Aqsa Brigades already claimed him as a fellow terrorist. This disregard for facts has been a consistent pattern with Arab News.

Ma'an English has a more subtle way to show its bias. It will report the initial, unreliable Arab accounts of any event fairly early (this story had a timestamp of 9:33 AM) and it will never correct it, even after other Arab sources admit that the initial facts are wrong. Moreover, it will even leave that story as its main headline all day, even after it adds other stories much later (as of now, it has articles written as late as 22:04 on its front page, but the main headline is still the inaccurate and uncorrected 9:33 story.)

Such is the state of the English-language Arab press - a combination of lies and purposeful omissions. In this case, Al Jazeera has shown that for all its problems it is usually more reliable and careful about reporting facts.

Links

I won't be able to blog during the day, but check out these posts by David Bogner and Richard Landes. And while you are at The Augean Stables site, see Richard's nice commentary on a recent posting of mine.

Tunnel collapse! Plus other Gaza news

AP:

A Palestinian health official said two Palestinians have been killed Thursday in the collapse of a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border.

Health Ministry official Moawiya Hassanain said that five people were pulled out of the tunnel alive.

Local residents say the tunnel was used for smuggling drugs and fuel into Gaza.

Isn't it strange that while Hamas brags that it is still smuggling weapons and explosives into Gaza, every specific tunnel mentioned in the Western press is supposedly only for food or fuel?

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 107. Some reports say that there are still missing people.

In other peaceful PalArab news, a charity building in Rafah was blown up by those ever-present "mysterious gunmen."

There are also reports that Egypt has presented Hamas with video evidence that it was Hamas gunmen, not desperate sick people, who stormed the Rafah border a few days ago.