Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Time magazine shills for terror-supporters

Time magazine's coverage of the "Free Gaza" PR stunt betrays its biases:

The Palestinians in Gaza don't get many visitors. That's because the Israelis have imposed an air, land and sea blockade since 2007 when Islamic militants seized control of the coastal strip on the Mediterranean, making it impossible for friends to just drop by. So when two vessels loaded with 46 peace activists arrived on Saturday, thousands of Palestinians lined the harbor in a party mood. Fishing scows honked their foghorns and swarms of kids swam out to the arriving boats just as the sun was turning the water to molten reds and gold.

Time takes pains to talk about Gaza's "friends" dropping by. How many of the "friends" that want to go in and out of Gaza are terrorists? One only needs to go back to February and December and October to find out.

Notice also how Time waxes poetic about the scene surrounding these purported "peace activists" who support Hamas terror against innocent Jews.

It was a remarkable odyssey for the two battered ships of the "Free Gaza" movement, a U.S.-based pro-Palestinian group, which set out from Cyprus on Friday morning with few hopes of reaching Gaza. The activists, who hail from 14 countries, said that before they even set sail, they faced anonymous death threats, the mysterious drowning of one potential sponsor, and constant badgering by Israeli spies badly disguised as guitar-strumming hippies. "They kept popping up, everywhere," said Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, an organizer. "They were really annoying."

Fact check, anyone? Time just lets slide the implication that Israel is assassinating pro-peace patrons.

Once at sea, the activists — who include an 81-year old nun, a Greek leftist parliamentarian and the sister-in law of ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair — braved a squall and a bizarre communications blackout, which they say was caused by lsraeli electronic jamming, and which thwarted a rendezvous in heaving seas between peace activists and a ship of journalists.

The biggest danger they faced was possible arrest by the Israelis. Earlier, Israel had declared Gaza's waters to be a "designated maritime zone" and warned the peace activists to steer clear or face arrest. At one point, says Palestinian-American law professor Huwaida Arraf who joined the activists, the radar picked up three vessels which were shadowing them from just over the horizon. The "Free Gaza" crew presumes the ships were Israeli.

But Israel chose to play nice, letting the peaceniks into Gaza on a once-only pass instead of acting the part of a high seas ogre. "They wanted a provocation at sea, but they won't get it," explained Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron. Now, Israel has to contend with a barrage of international media coverage of the two peace vessels sailing into Gaza harbor — and the publicity boon this will give to the Hamas militants who have ruled Gaza since June 2007 when they split with Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who governs from the Palestinian inland enclave in the West Bank. Hamas' leader in Gaza, Ismael Haniyeh, personally welcomed the activists. Israel and Hamas are sworn enemies (the Islamic militants say they want to destroy the Jewish state) but nonetheless they agreed to a cease-fire in June that has largely held firm.

Without irony, Time calls them "peace activists" (and even Yiddishizes them as "peaceniks") even as it mentions that Hamas' terror leader "personally welcomed" the terror supporters. And as the picture shows, these "peace activists" have no compunction whatsoever about hugging a master terrorist who works tirelessly on ways to kill as many Jewish civilians as possible.

For Time to repeatedly refer to these wretched moonbats who consistently oppose any and everything that Israel does to defend its women and children from being blown up by Palestinian Arab terrorists as "peace activists" is the height of absurdity, and it shows how low the media has sunk in recent years in its inability to tell right from wrong.

Let's hope that Israel allows these "friends" of Gazans to stay and visit for a long, long time.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Hamas stormed Al Azhar University in Gaza and the ensuing riots saw many injuries, including professors and a vice president of the university.

A teachers' union in Gaza decided to go on strike to protest these sorts of attacks against teachers by Hamas. Hamas responded by abducting a Rafah school principal, one of the leaders of the union.

Palestinian Arab welfare recipients in the West Bank again closed the UNRWA offices there in protest of not getting enough free stuff from the world. It is unclear how closing the offices will help them. As always whenever Palestinian Arabs act violently against UNRWA, the UNRWA is completely silent about it, with no mentions of these problems in its press releases.

Hamas called on Arab states to stop giving money to the PA.

The PalArab media is reporting on an article in Debka that claims that an 11-point joint Saudi-Egyptian plan for Palestinian Arab unity includes the introduction of Egyptian forces in Gaza. The plan, according to Debka, includes:

1. The rival Palestinian Hamas and Fatah must end their vendetta.
2. They will both release prisoners.
3. Fatah fugitives from the Gaza Strip will be allowed to return home.
4. The tit-for-tat bans on Fatah and Hamas institutions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank must be lifted.
5. Hamas must hand Gaza’s ruling institutions back seized two years ago to the Palestinian Authority.
6. Hamas must suspend the operations of its militia and police forces.
7. Inter-Arab monitors, headed by Egyptian officers, will supervise the Gaza police force.
8. Another panel headed by Egyptian officers will compile a reform program for the Palestinian security bodies in Gaza, effectively removing them from Hamas’ hands.
9. In the interim, until the reform program is implemented, an inter-Arab force of 3,000, commanded by Egyptian security officers, will be in charge of security matters.
10. A provisional Palestinian government will be installed in Ramallah in place of the Salam Fayad administration. It will consist of nonpartisan technocrats acceptable to Fatah and Hamas alike.
11. The PLO’s governing institutions will be overhauled to make room for Hamas representation for the first time.

Egypt bans cross-religious organ donation

From Egypt's Daily News, August 18:

Head of the Doctors’ Syndicate Hamdy El Sayed refuted claims made by human rights activists that the proposed organ transplant law discriminates between Muslims and Christians.
The draft law that would regulate organ donations and transplants limits the practice to family members and bans it between people of different religions or different nationalities. This would restrict trade in human organs, the syndicate had said in previous statements.
Without any regulation, Egypt has struggled with the problem of organ trafficking for years. Poverty and desperation have led many to be manipulated into selling their organs with little knowledge of the consequences.
“It’s a racist law that calls for discrimination and it discriminates between the Coptic Christians and the Muslim donors and made it less likely for sick patients to get their organ transplants,” Naguib Gabriel, head of the Egyptian Human Rights Union, told Daily News Egypt.
Gabriel added that they filed a suit against the Doctor’s syndicate.
On his part El Sayed denied any sectarianism in the law saying that “if some Copts are angered by the law then why is it that Muslims aren’t.”
El Sayed added that under the draft law, it’s not possible for a Copt to donate organs to a Muslim and vice versa simply because donations have been restricted to family members up to the fourth degree.
“For starters, it is degrading for both religions if lets say, a poor Christian has to sell his kidney to a rich Muslim, or a poor Muslim has to sell his kidney to a rich Christian. It is not right for either religions and that is why we made this law so we can stop organ trafficking.”

And if the minority Copts now can no longer use 90% of the organs on the market, well, it is to protect them from being "degraded."

It is amazing that a head of a doctor's union can think that these arguments "refute" the fact that he is supporting a purely bigoted law.

Arab hate for the West - not just for Islamists

It is seductive to believe that the Arab hatred for America (and Israel) is a purely religious phenomenon; that while the Islamic fanatics hate the United States there are a large number of modern, moderate, practical Arabs who wear Western clothing and who understand concepts like economics and the media who are more flexible and pragmatic in their thinking.

It is not true.

For a tiny example of the hatred that "progressive" Arabs have for the West, check out this MEMRI TV clip of an Egyptian actor being interviewed on a Lebanese talk show:

First Woman: What if you fell in love with an American woman?
Khaled Saleh: Impossible. Impossible. That would never happen. [Applause.]

Second Woman: What about a French woman? Is that any better?

Saleh: No.

First Woman: What about a Lebanese woman?

Saleh: She must be Arab, of course.

First Woman: Why is it impossible for you to fall in love with an American?

Saleh: Let me tell you something. I traveled there once and lived among this people. The great problem that happened in America – September 11 – was not a good thing, but the panic I saw in the eyes of the Americans that day... I hoped it would make these people a little more focused – just a little – so that they would feel that there is such a thing as fear in the world, things like terror, oppression, and so on. I am against anything that is American nowadays, because I feel they are phony. When I talk to an Arab, I feel I am talking to someone who knows what is going on in the world. With an American, I feel I'm talking to a Nazi, who sees nothing but himself.

First Woman: But you are making a generalization with regard to them.

Saleh: By God, they generalize themselves. All of them.

The irony is that here is a talk show with hostesses wearing low-cut dresses, with modern graphics and production values - consciously imitating Western TV as much as possible. It is a sluttier Arab version of "The View." There is nothing remotely Islamic about this show. Yet the hatred shown there is palpable, as the audience wildly cheers a popular actor saying how he considers all Westerners to be beneath contempt and how he sees a silver lining in 9/11.

Saudi women against colored abayas

From Arab News:

It is eight o’clock in the evening at Sahara Mall in Riyadh and Um Abdul Aziz is distributing booklets to shoppers titled “To where are you going?” She is completely covered except for one small hole in her veil over her right eye.
“Fear God,” she whispers to women whom she attempts to give her pamphlets. “May He guide you!”
Some show interest, others just ignore her as they walk past. The booklet was written by Muhammed Alarify, an Islamic scholar, who decries the “odd phenomenon” of women wearing the hair covering of their abayas down on their shoulders, and finds it strange that women choose not to wear long black gloves that cover their hands and arms and stockings to ensure their ankles are not exposed inadvertently from the hemline of their robes.
Um Abdul Aziz, who is an Arabic language arts instructor at a girls’ secondary school in Riyadh, agrees and considers her shopping mall proselytizing important. She laments the way Saudi women dress these days.
“I seek God’s satisfaction,” she said. “Have a look around! Colored and tight abayas... today’s veil needs to be covered by another veil.”
Majeedah Al-Rashid, a mother of four girls, supports women preachers in public places and she even started to do it herself, targeting girls wearing abayas in ways she considers improper.
“The way some women look troubles me because my 16-year-old daughter is now insisting on not covering her face because this is what she sees everywhere,” she said.
She also said that some women’s appearance annoyed other women, who, as she put it, “can’t close their husband’s eyes in public.”
In recent years, abayas that reveal the shape of the body has become popular among Saudi women, especially the young. They are made of thin material with colored designs. This has raised the ire of many Islamic scholars, who say that they are not the kind of abayas prescribed in the Shariah as they understand it. They believe that the Shariah dictates that an abaya should be black, wide and cover the entire body from head to toe.
Thahab Alotaibi, a translation student at King Saud University, disagrees with the way some preachers approach girls. The 21-year-old recounted an incident when a woman threw a hand-written leaflet into her trolley in a supermarket that said her face would be burned in hell because she did not cover it.
She added: “I do wear black abayas and cover my hair so I am not violating Islamic teachings. But whether my abaya has blue or white stripe is a very personal choice.”

I'm sorry for mentioning the unthinkable of Saudi women wearing abayas with a blue stripe; it is a family blog, after all....

Egypt: Where courts sentence and sheikhs punish

Even "moderate" Egypt doesn't distinguish between secular and Islamic jurisprudence. From MEMRI Blog:

Attorney Nabih Al-Wahsh has filed a lawsuit against Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi demanding that he be removed from his position, banned, and fined 20 million Egyptian pounds for refusing to implement a sentence of 80 lashes handed down by an Egyptian court to film director Inas Al-Daghidi.
Al-Daghidi, director of "Diary of a Teenager," was accused of slandering Egyptian girls, harming their good name, and spreading licentiousness via his film.

Source: Al-Masryoon, Egypt, August 21, 2008

The main point of the story is, of course, that Egypt uses lashes to suppress freedom of expression.

But notice the sequence of events: An Egyptian court (secular?) sentenced a film director to lashes (Islamic) for "slandering Egyptian girls and harming their good name" (Islamic.)

The sentence was to be carried out by a cleric (Islamic) but he refused. Therefore the lawyer sues in a (secular) court to punish the sheikh, using secular methods (fine and demotion) for not carrying out a religious punishment imposed by the secular court.

No one that I'm aware of refers to modern Egypt as a theocracy. Although its constitution explicitly says that "Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia)."

Desecration

There are articles literally daily in the Arab press about Israeli "schemes" to do various evil things to the Temple Mount, like dig tunnels under it or to build a synagogue on top. The very presence of Jews in the area is regarded as a serious crime and every tiny gesture that Jews make asserting the holiness and centrality of the site to Jews is regarded as an illegal encroachment on the entire religion of Islam.

The religious dimension of the Temple Mount has thus been almost entirely hijacked by Muslims. The world generally regards the Western Wall as Judaism's holiest site, not realizing that it is not even close in holiness to the Temple Mount itself, and indeed gets its own holiness only because of its proximity to the Mount.

What is sorely lacking, from a public relations perspective, is the Jewish counterpart to the Muslim claims. I'm not talking about the merit of the idea that Mohammed magically transported himself to a city that is not mentioned in the Koran; I am talking about the fact that from a Jewish perspective, the very presence of multiple mosques on the holiest site on Earth is a daily and hourly desecration of that site.

Why do we hardly ever see this Jewish point of view publicized? Why are there not daily articles in the Jewish press that state clearly: Muslims are desecrating the Temple Mount by deliberately placing their own religious sites on top of hallowed ground. Every visitor to the area where the Kodesh K'dashim once stood is insulting Judaism. Every Muslim prayer said there is spitting in the face of Jews worldwide. Their presence and actions are hugely offensive to Judaism and violates Jewish law. It would be infinitely better to have the entire Mount stand empty than to allow this profanity to continue for one more day.

The Muslims are not embarrassed to make these sorts of statements regarding non-Muslims; why are so many Jews willing to cede the rhetorical battle of the Temple Mount?

PalArab kids try to get arrested - for the money

An article in Firas Press today mentions that Israel released a 15-year old who was caught with what appeared to be explosives at the Hawara checkpoint.

The story says that 15-year old Ra'fat Obeid from the Askar refugee camp south of Nablus had been carrying a number of small pipes filled with white flour. A friend convinced him to take this fake bomb and surrender himself at the checkpoint, allowing himself to get arrested and to go to prison.

The reason is that the moderate Palestinian Authority gives a monthly financial stipend to all detainees, no matter what crimes they might have done, and the boy was from a poor family and wanted to get a piece of the action.

Which means that the world is funding the PA which takes a significant amount of its budget to effectively pay salaries to anyone who gets arrested, from terrorists to kids who want a free education in Israeli prison. (A WashPo article from 2006 says that the amount is $220 a month per prisoner, so families with lots of sons in prison can stand to make a pretty penny.)

And apparently this is acceptable to the European and American auditors of the PA budget.

"Mosques are political"

A major reason that criticizing Islam is considered to be such a taboo in the West is because most people consider Islam to be a religion, and criticizing religions and some other belief systems is thought to be tantamount to outright bigotry. There is a good reason for this: religions are deeply personal and emotional and as a result it is insulting and rude for adherents of religion to be subject to such attacks.

The problem is that Islam is not a religion in the sense that other religions today are. On a personal level, certainly Islam is a religion, but on a global level it is a political movement (or, more precisely, a group of political movements.) Islam does not distinguish between the political and the personal; it has global ambitions and a global worldview, and more than any other religion nowadays its members are willing to take action based on its politics.

And those actions affect us all.

One may be squeamish to criticize Islam as a purely personal belief system ("micro-Islam") but to criticize it as a political movement ("macro-Islam") is not only acceptable but mandatory, as it was for Communism or fascism.

The best evidence for the use of Islam for political purposes comes from none other than Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who gave one of his usual anti-Israel speeches yesterday that included a section that should be required reading for those who think that criticizing macro-Islam is criticizing a religion only:

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad here on Wednesday advised the leaders of European countries and the U.S. not to yield to the Zionists' demands and never count on their support because ""We will witness dismantling of the corrupt regime in a very near future.""

President Ahmadinejad made the remarks in the sixth conference held on the occasion of "World Mosque Week" in Tehran.

Mosques and Friday prayers sermons are all aimed at organizing political and social developments in Islam, he said.

Mosques play pivotal role in connecting man with his Creator and no organization in the world can play such a significant role, he said.

The 9th government pays due attention to the significant role of mosques in the society, said President Ahmadinejad.

Referring to the Zionist regime, President Ahmadinejad described it as the main cause of all corruption and wickedness in the contemporary era...

This is not news to anyone who ever watched or listened to the many Friday sermons given weekly in the Muslim world and translated by MEMRI, that speak about political topics. The difference here is that a purely political figure is encouraging this, which implies that at least in Iran the institutionalized Islamic system is tightly tied to the Iranian government itself.

And for those who think that mad 'Nejad is only concerned with the destruction of Israel, think again:

I've long been fond of the Blue Mosque because it is where, many years ago, I attended my first Friday prayers. Last Friday, though, I felt uncomfortable in the prayer hall, where I found myself in front of God but next to Ahmadinejad, who turned the ritual into a political show.

Departing from established practice of having visiting Muslim heads of state pray in a smaller mosque in Istanbul, the government allowed Ahmadinejad to pray in the Blue Mosque, Turkey's symbol of tolerant Ottoman Islam. With permission from Turkish authorities, he also allowed Iranian television to videotape him during the entire prayer, in violation of Islamic tradition, which requires quiet and intimate communion between God and the faithful. There was so much commotion around Ahmadinejad that the imam had to chide the congregants. Then, as he left the mosque, Ahmadinejad got out of his car to encourage a crowd of about 300 to chant, "Death to Israel! Death to America!"

Interesting stat

By my count, comparing my numbers with those of the PCHR, more Palestinian Arabs have been killed by each other than by Israel for 9 weeks in a row.

The other side of "the Shmegege Vote"

The Huffington Post just posted a piece by Susan Isaacs, punctuated with lots of Yiddish for authenticity, fearful that the majority of Jews will refuse to vote for Obama because of their deep-seated prejudice against blacks:

shmegege [shmeh∙geh'∙geh], noun: Yiddish word meaning buffoon, idiot, ignoramus
A whispering campaign might be better because that would connote shame, or at least discomfort. Instead, anti-Obama e-mails -- by Jews, for Jews -- continue to make the rounds:

Don't believe the Christian business because he really is a Muslim;

No, he actually is a Christian, but no matter what he says, don't believe he's with Israel because at heart he's a radical and, trust me, he has a pro-Palestinian agenda.

Oprah left that church but Obama stayed because he truly buys into what that antisemite minister is selling, so don't get taken in by all that denunciation business.

This would have a bit more bite if she could actually quote these purported e-mails in context and not just interpret them so the dumb gentiles can understand the true Jewish bigotry that underlines them.

Notice Isaacs' smug assumption: of course Obama is not pro-Palestinian, of course he didn't identify with Wright; because all of the evidence to the contrary is by definition suspect and everything he says on a particular day is the Truth.

Offline, too, there are those "just between us" declarations. My eighty five-year-old cousin tried to deck a guy at his senior citizen center who announced "I'm never going to vote for a shvartzer," though unfortunately he was slowed by his emphysema and held back by his wife. Yesterday, at lunch, a friend confided how shaken she'd been at a recent wedding when she discovered everyone at her table -- all Jews who had voted for Clinton, Gore and Kerry -- felt compelled to explain they were going for McCain because he when push comes to shove, you just cannot trust a black to do right by us. Saddest of all, another pal -- successful, lively, chic, overtly Jewish three days a year -- announced, "I wish I could bring myself to vote for him, but I can't." Her brow would have furrowed in distress but for the Botox.

Someone explain to me why a Jew who makes gross stereotypes about Jews - that they are all racist, that they routinely refer to blacks as "shvartzes" [indeed true for the 80+ age group] - is any less offensive than the people she is upset about for stereotyping.

Yes, there is racism among Jews as well as among the general population. But Isaacs assumption that Jews are somehow more bigoted than the general US population is so way off base as to be itself borderline libelous. Did 90% of the Jews vote Hillary?

My 2008 concern has nothing to do with the thousands of American Jews who will vote for McCain because they sincerely believe in him and the Republican agenda. It has to do with the nature of the case against Barack Obama. Too many Jews are buying into the same sort of blood libel and belligerent ignorance that has tormented our people throughout our history.

Sorry, Susan, but a sizable number of Jews are uncomfortable with Obama because of Obama's actual positions, his actual statements, and his actual actions, not because of his race. To say otherwise shows that there is a bit of projection in your arguments: the only one showing provable bigotry here is you against most of your co-religionists, the ones you lovingly refer to as filled with Botox.

Isaacs ends with a hilarious attempt to establish her own Jewish bona-fides - to use Yiddish words in ways practically never used in Jewish conversation:

When that curtain is drawn in the voting booth, are some Jews going to abandon their remembrance of cruelties large and small and pull a lever because of the heady power rush of having permission to believe lies because they are Jewish lies ? Are we going to let our neshumas, our souls, shrivel in fear of the new ? Will we accept any dreck we read in an e-mail, any falsehood we hear, just because it comes from a fellow Jew?
November fourth is an important test for us. We will get to see if we are mensches or if have turned into the people we most despise.

I haven't read any other pieces of Isaac's "dreck", but from this article one can get the impression that she will vote for Obama because he is black and that is the progressive thing to do - a position at least as vacuous as the one she is ascribing to her co-religionists.

"Sublime" shoes

A weird article in Firas Press is nothing but a bunch of pictures of men's shoes, with the autotranslated title "Photo shoes male sublime."

Some of them were spectacularly ugly.

I'm certainly no expert on shoes, and I buy based on comfort more than style. But, come on!

This one clearly shows JRR Tolkien's influence on Palestinian Arab culture.

This is for those times you want to run as fast as possible from the office.

Ah, I remember the 70s fondly.

Great for blinding your enemies with the reflection from the hot MidEast sun against your shoes.

An Israeli production company is creating a reality TV series where eight single English-speaking people will compete to win a pimped-out Tel Aviv apartment by going through a series of challenges unique to immigrants (olim.)

As JPost reports (in an article I missed from June):

The cameras will follow a group of eight immigrants in their twenties, four men and four women. During the course of the season, the group will face different challenges that Highlight Films has yet to finalize.
The participants will travel through Israel, but their base will likely be Tel Aviv or another urban setting. At the end of the season, one of the eight will be crowned the Ultimate Oleh and get a "Golden Ticket" into Israeli society: an apartment facing Tel Aviv's waterfront, a new car, lucrative job, and more.
Highlight Productions has not chosen the olim yet, and will soon be holding auditions around the world. Applicants must be Jewish, 20-29 years old and speak English.

Sounds intriguing!

I would like to remind my readers to stick to the topic when they comment, and if they want to talk about something else to please use these open threads, so beautifully illustrated here.

Thanks!

Today's PalArab press roundup

Condi Rice is coming back to the Middle East next week. Saeb Erekat is preparing a bunch of papers for her that boil down to a complete rejection of any compromise with Israel on every issue and the scorning of any "partial" agreement that doesn't address every core issue. He is telling her "all or nothing." What a negotiator!

That same moderate negotiator accused Hamas of seeking a "long term truce" with Israel and of abandoning the Palestinian Arab people's rights of armed resistance, Jerusalem and the "right of return." Hamas denied this, and said that the PLO has been negotiating since 1974 and has yet to gain a centimeter of land as a result. Notice how the "moderates" and "extremists" both vie with each other in Arabic as to who is more dedicated to terrorism as a strategy.

Meanwhile, Abbas is prepared to tell Condi Rice of his own tough decision: to whine that the US doesn't sufficiently pressure Israel to cave on every issue.

There are reports that Olmert told Abbas that it might be a good idea if Palestinian Arabs who have lived in Lebanon for decades under horrendous conditions would become normal citizens of the country most of them were born in. Abbas, of course, rejected the very notion, because the happiness of his people is the least of his concerns.

In a similar story, another report was released about the dire conditions of Iraqi refugees of Palestinian Arab descent who are stuck in miserable camps onthe Syrian border, saying that the 2000 that are there are suffering a "slow death." No Arab nation has shown the slightest interest in taking these people in, although they have taken in hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis.

Other reports claim that Egypt is losing patience with Hamas' negotiating stance, and that it threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders itself if they don't get with the program.

Another Hamas spokesman again accuses the PA of the worst crime he can think of - of collaborating with Israel.

Australia is seeking to stop broadcasts of Hezbollah's Al Manar satellite TV on Indonesian satellite channels.

Egypt seized another half-ton of TNT near Rafah.

An Egyptian man divorced his wife after she actually made contact with TV star and heartthrob "Muhannad."

Gazans denied that intermittent rocket fire from Gaza was being done by black-market smugglers who are attempting to keep the prices of goods artificially high in Gaza, as the increase of goods crossing into Gaza from Israel is hurting their business.

And today is the anniversary of an Australian Christian's attempt to set fire the the Al Aqsa mosque in 1969, causing the usual gnashing of teeth.

UPDATE: A civilian was killed in Gaza as Hamas was performing live-fire exercises near a residential area.

There are claims that a little girl was similarly killed a week ago but I didn't see it in the newspapers.

The PalArab self-death count is at 153 for 2008.

A new twist on an old libel

The Chamber of Commerce in Riyadh is warning against using items smuggled in from Yemen. These items include pesticides, fertilizer, children's games, cans, perfumes, cigarettes and some sweets and juice cans.

What is the problem?

According to Palestine Today, they are smuggled from Israel. Naturally, since they come from a Jewish source, they must cause cancer.

This is a new twist on the "Jews poisoning the wells" meme that's been so popular since, um, the Bubonic Plague.

Who said Arabs don't change with the times?

Autotranslation of the day

"For the first time in Palestine .. Women judges swimsuits ..."

This is the headline in a Firas Press article. But rather than talking about a beauty contest, it in fact seems to be saying that for the first time, women applied for jobs as judges in the PA.

I have no idea how the "swimsuits" line go in there. Any of my readers who know Arabic, please kindly translate:

المراة قاضياً شرعياً...

Bibi's points about JBlogging

I caught the last half hour or so of Binyomin Netanyahu's Q&A with Jewish bloggers at the first JBlogger's Conference happening now.

Some of what he said resonated strongly with me, because it is a lot of what I am trying to do with this blog.

The first point was that the way to fight the lies is with the truth. Yes, there is no shortage of websites, blogs, social networking sites that are filled with lies about Israel, but the major weapon against them is the simple truth - not embellished, not exaggerated, but the simple facts, that need to be repeated over and over, and the lies exposed.

The second point is that the narrative has been too long centered on Palestinian Arab "rights" versus Israeli "security." The fact is that there are Jewish rights on the land as well, that history is also on the side of the Jewish narrative. Bibi quickly outlined the fact that Jews remained the majority in Palestine for many centuries after the Roman conquest, and that the first time they were physically dispossessed from the land itself was by the Arab conquest in the eighth century. And it is not inaccurate to describe pre-Zionism Palestine as a backwater of the Arab world, certainly not as the important center of Islamic and Arab culture that it is represented as nowadays. These facts need to be understood better, not only by the world at large but even by supporters of Israel.

To expand a bit on Bibi, there is no reason to be put on the defensive no matter how the argument is framed. "Occupation," "settlements," "ethnic cleansing", the USS Liberty, Rachel Corrie - all of the common attacks that are used against Israel can be used not to react defensively but also pro-actively, with context and pure truth. And it should not be embarrassing to link today's Zionism with the historic and deep religious connection of Jews to the land, something that is in the collective Jewish DNA. The emotional and religious component of the Jewish attachment to Israel is something that is inherently understood by many Christians and observant Jews as well as Israel's founders, but it seems to be treated as vaguely irrelevant by too many of today's Zionists. Without the religious and historic components, there is no reason for Israel to exist on historic Jewish land - the Uganda option is equally valid.

This is the reason that Muslims not only emphasize their own tenuous connection to "Palestine" but also the reason they try so hard to disconnect modern Israel from Judaism and Jewish history. The liberal West might relate better to a secular Israel but they cannot argue against an religio-emotional argument that is inherently a-logical. The Jewish argument for historic Palestine is so much more compelling and obvious than the Muslim connection that it is strange that it is so often backpedaled. And this is a shame.

PalArab press roundup

A Hamas spokesman says that the PLO is no longer authorized to speak on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs. I believe that he is stating this now in reaction to reports that the draft Fatah-Hamas reconciliation plan written by Egypt tries to re-affirm the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the PalArabs.

Yet another PalArab 'expert" is claiming that Israel is digging another "secret tunnel" under the Al Aqsa mosque. These claims surface all the time. Of course, the only digging taking place there is from Muslims who are trying to destroy any evidence of a Jewish Temple ever being there.

The Shura Council in Egypt, part of the Egyptian parliament, had a large fire, pictures here.

A bomb exploded in front of the house of a Hamas leader in Gaza.

A PA leader is freaking out over Israeli cameras pointing towards entrances to the Temple Mount, claiming that this is a form of "terror" and that they help "Judaize" Jerusalem.

Similarly, another PA official is warning against an Israeli census of Jerusalem, calling it a form of "ethnic cleansing." I'm surprised that it isn't a "Holocaust" as well.

Al-Manar is reporting that more and more countries are establishing unofficial contacts with Hamas in light of the lack of unity among PalArabs and the apparent failure in leadership by the PA.

Flash cat

I was walking outside this evening and saw a cat in a neighbor's yard. I happened to have a camera and snapped a photo.

The flash reflected back from the cat's eyes in a pretty sinister way...

Hamas threatens to kill Shalit

Firas Press reports that the spokesman for Hamas' "Al Qassam Brigades," Abu Obeida, said that if Israel doesn't meet Hamas' demands for releasing thousands of prisoners soon, Gilad Shalit's fate will end up the same as Ron Arad's, the IAF officer who apparently died in Lebanon while being held hostage by Hezbollah.

It should be emphasized that since the "calm" began - a deal which Israeli leaders insisted Shalit was part of - Israel has released hundreds of prisoners, both Hamas and Fatah members, including some with blood on their hands. Israel also released high-profile Hamas politicians who were arrested right after Shalit's abduction. In addition, Israel eased up on the Gaza siege commensurate with the reduction of rocket and mortar fire, and is now allowing shipments of fuel, clothing, cement, lumber and other items. A crossing that Israel had closed after a fatal terror attack has been re-opened.

Although Hamas claims many violations of the "calm" by Israel almost none of those reports (of shooting at fishing boats, of occasional excursions into Gaza by armored vehicles) have been confirmed by any legitimate source.

While this threat is probably just a tactic, it should be responded to by a suspension of some of Israel's "goodwill gestures" - perhaps the re-arrest of Hamas "lawmakers." A gesture is meaningless if the other side treats it as worthless, so maybe it is time for Israel to indicate that the flip-side of goodwill gestures is a return to how things were.

Finally, a photo of Muslim cross dressers

From the Saudi Gazette:

Two illegal Yemeni immigrants, disguised as women, were arrested at a checkpoint near Asir. Lt. Col. Abdullah Bin Ayidh Al-Qarni, spokesperson for the Asir Region Police said the vehicle was stopped at an Al-Majaridah checkpoint with the two ‘women’ as well their driver. The third unidentified man said the two women in his car were his wife and sister. Police discovered that the ‘women’ were in fact men and arrested the three.

Do you think their mustaches gave them away?

Muslims don't like anniversaries, except when they do

According to the MEMRI blog:

Saudi Mufti Abd Al-'Aziz bin 'Abdallah Aal Al-Sheikh has called marking anniversaries and birthdays a false Christian custom.
He said that a Muslim must thank Allah if his son is alive, healthy, and well, or if he has had a stable married life over the years.

It is one thing to say that it is an unIslamic custom; that implies that it is better for Muslims not to do it. But by calling celebrating anniversaries and birthdays "Christian" the Mufti is now saying explicitly that celebrating these occasions is an act of apostacy, and the implication is that it would be justified to kill Muslims who do this.

More amusing is the fact that the Palestinian Arab calendar is filled with anniversaries. Just this month:

8/5 Shefa-'Amr massacre anniversary
8/15 Anniversary of Hezbollah "victory"
8/21 Anniversary burning of Al Aqsa mosque
8/27 Anniversary of assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP)

These anniversaries use the dhimmi Christian calendar to calculate the days, not the holy Muslim calendar.

Perhaps it is halal to celebrate only certain kinds of anniversaries....

Question for my readers

Since we are all about customer service...

One of the problems with this blog is that it takes a long time to load. If I cut out some of the more problematic sidebar functions, things will speed up at the possible expense of convenience. Could you please let me know which sidebar features you like to use and which you never look at?

Here's how I would answer:

Recent Comments - all the time
Wikio Rank - never
Browse Zioblogs - I don't use it
Jblogosphere Search - Occasionally
Favorite Links - Sometimes

Self Death Count - Always
Twitter - I like it for now
Recent Visitors - Not really
Giyus Widget - Never
Blogroll - Not really
TTLB Rank - Almost never

Thanks!

More proof that Palestinian Arabs don't want a state

Since the Israeli press "leaked" a description of what the Olmert government offered them for a state, there has been a steady diet of criticism by Palestinian Arab leaders about the plan saying it is wholly unacceptable. From Erekat to Fayyad to Abbas, all agree that nothing less than 100% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is acceptable, period, not to mention the phony "right of return."

It is useful to compare the continued stonewalling and utter refusal to compromise with another plan that was once offered, the 1947 UN Partition Plan.

In 1947, the UN drew up a plan to divide up Palestine between Arabs and Jews. The Jewish section included three disconnected sections. While the Jewish section was to include some 5500 square miles, most of it was desert. It included no major Jewish historic or biblical sites. Over 40% of its residents would be potentially hostile Arabs. It was utterly indefensible.

Why didn't the Jews at the time reject this plan? Why didn't they demand to include Jerusalem and Hebron and Bethlehem, to make the sections all contiguous, to allow as many Jews as possible to immigrate freely (as a "right of return") to the Arab state?

The answer is obvious. The Jews truly wanted a state. Even a deeply flawed, indefensible, checkerboard solution was better than none at all. The Jews knew that they were in no position to "demand" anything because this was the best they could hope for in a negotiated settlement. The point of Zionism was to have a Jewish state, a safe haven where persecuted Jews worldwide could live in freedom and dignity, and even if it wasn't to include all of their dreams it was still a worthy goal.

The contrast with Palestinian Arab nationalism could not be starker. They don't want a state for their people, they don't want an end to the "refugee" problem, they don't want to build a nation. If they did, they would have been working on it tirelessly in the 15 years since Oslo when they have been enjoying far more autonomy than Jews did in Mandate Palestine. If they wanted a state, they would be building permanent housing to replace "refugee" camps in their territories.

If they did want a state, they would be making counteroffers to Israel rather than reject everything offered outright. They would do everything they could to build even an imperfect state to help their people.

But they don't. They only understand their supposed "rights", but none of the commensurate responsibilities (nor the rights of anyone else.) They care about slogans and honor, but not about their own people. They want the money and the recognition and the headlines but they don't want to work.

Chaim Weizmann once said that the Jews should accept a state even if it was the size of a tablecloth. That is how people who truly yearn for independence act.

And what the Palestinian Arabs want, from the "extremists" to the "moderates," is not the creation of a state for Palestinian Arabs but the destruction of a state for the Jews. That desire might be dressed up as a temporary compromise for Western consumption but it is as clear as the maps they publish to this day.

Peaceful PalArab news

There are reports that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal will be traveling to Jordan for talks; official Fatah reaction was positive but privately they are ticked off.

More explosives meant for Gaza found in the Sinai by Egypt.

Al-Jazeera is demanding that Ha'aretz apologize for saying that Al Jazeera apologized for their fawning coverage of Samir Kuntar. Al Jazeera said they violated their own code of ethics but denies apologizing for it.

So far this year, 260,000 Palestinian Arabs crossed from the territories into Jordan. 197,000 came back. The number of those coming back are expected to rise as school starts, however.

Israel opened up Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel allowed lumber to enter Gaza for the first time in a year. A Gaza cement factory re-started operations. And Islamic Jihad and other terror groups are claiming that the "calm" is only benefiting Israel and are threatening to increase their attacks. (Sorry, the last few were from yesterday and I don't have the links handy.)

UPDATE: A man was found murdered in his house in Qalqiya. The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 152.

Where welfare mentality and violent pathology mix

Palestinian Arabs in general, and Gazans in particular, have a strange mentality.

They firmly believe that the world owes them everything, that it should be handed to them on a silver platter, that they should not have to expend the slightest amount of effort to get anything. They "deserve" free food, medical attention, a salary independent of actual working, (plus, of course, a state or perhaps two.)

At the same time, they are taught from birth that the solution to their problems is in violence. The charter of the PLO says so explicitly, and their heroes are the people who have killed the most. They don't plaster pictures of soccer players on their walls and websites; rather they have pictures of terrorists.

Put the two pathological mentalities together and you see stories like this:

The popular committees in the refugee camps of the northern West Bank have decided to shut down the offices of UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, saying that UNRWA failed to fulfill a commitment to the committees regarding the distribution of aid.

“The agreement signed between the UNRWA and the refugee camps states resuming distribution of aid portions for refugees three times a year as follows: [Families with] (1-3) members get one portion, (4-6) members get two portions and (7) members above get two portions plus 200 shekels," the committees said in a statement.

The committees said that they would shut down the offices of UNRWA directors, UNRWA Social Affairs offices, but would exclude medical facilities from the protest.

The committees warned that they would escalate beyond this initial protest if their demands are not met.

If they aren't getting all the free food and money they demand, why, they'll shut down the offices of the people who are trying to give them free food and money!

This is not the first time that PalArabs have attacked UNRWA - the one agency who is dedicated to not only helping them forever but also to perpetuate their fake "refugee" status. They were attacked and threatened last April as well, but hushed it up.

To anyone in the civilized world, the idea that people who are dependent on an organization would attack that organization and hurt themselves in the process would be considered insane. To Palestinian Arabs who have been raised with the twin pathologies of violence and entitlement, it makes perfect sense.

The world is funding Hamas

One of the major reasons that Hamas remains in power despite the international "boycott" is because the boycott is a joke.

The infrastructure of Gaza is paid for by the PA, which gets its money from the same governments that pretend to not fund Hamas. Hamas is then free to do whatever it wants without worrying about people getting too upset.

A new study by the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (not yet available in English) shows some stunning numbers:

The PA employs 150,870 staff, of whom 78,000 employees are in the Gaza Strip, including 31,350 military personnel and 45,650 civilian staff. So more than half of the paid employees of the PA "work" in Gaza, which has roughly one third the population. Not only that, but the Gazans get paid more: right now 68.5% of the PA wages get paid to Gaza employees.

335 million shekels flow from the PA to Gaza every month, and Hamas gains tens of millions more from its own taxes - none of which go back to the PA. Outside donations give Hamas another 77 million shekels a month.

PECDAR goes on to estimate that the PA pays some $368 million dollars annually to employees in Gaza who do, literally, nothing.

When Israel still occupied Gaza, Gaza was responsible for 30% of the PA's GDP - because of the jobs that the evil Zionists provided to the Gazans. Now the number is virtually zero. Yet the percentage that the PA spends in Gaza has increased, from less than 50% in 2005 to the 68.5% now.

The reason Hamas prospers is because the world, via the PA, is funding it. Hamas is free to concentrate on weapons and smuggling because it doesn't have to worry about schools and water and all the normal civic responsibilities that every government has.

Is there any wonder that Arab nations are now balking at funding the PA?

Egypt: Hijab women get more harassment

The Sacramento Bee has a fluff piece about an Islamic booth at the California State Fair:

"Just out of curiosity – and I don't mean any disrespect," asked Cassidy, who lives in Cool, "but why do you (Muslim women) cover your heads?"
Salihah Bustamam, 25, smiled and answered that it is wrong to think that their religion subjugates women.
"It holds women in high regard," said Bustamam.
According to the WhyIslam Web site, for Muslim women who veil themselves or practice hijab, it represents an act of obedience to God. It also represents a step toward freedom from being judged by their looks rather than their intellect.

Well, this might not be quite true. From the Washington Post:

Surprisingly, some Egyptian women say that their veils don't protect against harassment..., but fuel it. A survey released this summer supports the view.

"These guys are animals. If they saw a female dog, they would harass it," Hind Sayed, a 20-year-old sidewalk vendor in Cairo's Mohandisseen district, said, staring coldly at a knot of male vendors who stood grinning a few feet from her.
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In accord with her interpretation of Islamic law, which says women should dress modestly, Sayed wore a flowing black robe and black veil. Together, they covered all but her hands and her pale face with its drawn-on, expressive eyebrows. Despite her attire, Sayed said, she daily endures suggestive comments from male customers and fellow vendors.

"I think a woman who wears hijab can be more provocative to them," Sayed said. "The more covered up you are, the more interesting you are to them."

Zuhair Mohammed, a 60-year-old shopper on the same street, said she long ago stopped wearing the traditional Islamic covering, in part for that reason.

"I feel like with the hijab, it makes them wonder, 'What are you hiding underneath?' " Mohammed said.

Mona Eltahawy, a 41-year-old Egyptian social commentator who now lives, unveiled, in the United States, said that as a Muslim woman who wore hijab for nine years and was harassed "countless times" in Egypt, she has concluded that the increase in veiling has somehow contributed to the increase in harassment.

"The more women veil the less men learn to behave as decent and civilized members of society," Eltahawy wrote in an interview via Facebook. "And the more women are harassed, the more they veil thinking it will 'protect' them."

Female travelers consider Egypt one of the worst countries in the world for harassment on the streets -- second only to Afghanistan, where the Taliban forced all women behind the veil and into seclusion in their homes.

And it's not just women's perceptions. The United States and Britain both warn female visitors in travel advisories that they may face unwanted attention, or sexual attacks, in Egypt.

When Egyptian lawmakers objected to Britain's advisory this summer, calling it a slur, Britain responded that more female British tourists were harassed and assaulted, even raped, while in Egypt than in any other country.

A new survey by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights makes harassment on the streets appear not a risk, but a virtual certainty. According to the center, 98 percent of the foreign women and 83 percent of the Egyptian women surveyed said they had been sexually harassed in the country.

About half of the women, Egyptian and non-Egyptian, said they were harassed every day as they went about the streets. The survey polled 2,020 Egyptian men and women and 109 non-Egyptian women.

Foreign women identified Egyptian policemen and other security officials as the most frequent harassers.

Two-thirds of the Egyptian men surveyed admitted to harassing women, in actions ranging from staring openly at their bodies, shouting explicit comments, touching the women or exposing themselves.

"It makes a woman happy when I call to her. It makes her know she's attractive," 20-year-old Alla Aldin Salem said on the sidewalk in Mohandisseen, after going out of earshot of the glaring fellow vendor in hijab.

"The woman herself is the one who makes men harass her," said Fawzi Tahbet, a 50-year-old man selling kitchenware on another stretch of the sidewalk, under the shade of a tree. "If she's walking, swinging as she goes, of course it will happen."

In fact, the survey's results challenged a stereotype, according to Nehad Komsan, chairwoman of the women's rights center.

While both men and women surveyed said that short skirts and tight clothes triggered harassment, the survey found that women in hijab were the most frequent targets of unwanted comments and touching on the street.

Among Egyptian women, 72 percent of those who described incidents of harassment said they were veiled at the time.

"It surprised me," said Komsan, who wears hijab. "It doesn't matter what you wear."

Egypt's most notorious case of harassment occurred last year when two fully veiled Gulf Arab women were surrounded by dozens of men on a street and molested.

Morning links

Al-Watan (Kuwait): Lebanon should spurn Syria and embrace Israel (h/t Israellycool)

Boker Tov Boulder on one-way "gestures"

YNet on the Italian government agreeing to allow the PLO and PFLP to roam free in Italy in exchange for agreeing not to target Italians. (Essentially, the world does that anyway even today, pushing Israel to make concessions thinking that this will reduce Arab terrorism against the West.)

Arutz-7: There will finally be a ceremony during the Olympics to mark the Munich massacre. It shall be recalled that the Munich attacks were organized and funded by people today considered Israel's "moderate" peace partners.

The Egyptian Mustache Club

I don't know how I missed this MEMRI clip earlier this month. Others have already blogged about it, but it is worth mentioning for those who hadn't seen it.

One great screen shot:

And the punchline, shown with much laughter on Egyptian TV:

Brief programming note

This blog, along with many other Israel-oriented blogs and news sources, is now listed in Alltop under the Israel page.

Alltop is an attempt to put lots of relevant links about particular topics in a single page. Check it out!

Open thread for Sunday

This is the easiest regular feature I ever tried!

In training : Palestinian militants from the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees take part in a training exercise in Beit Hanun in the Northern Gaza Strip. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)

We've seen Mahmoud Hams' propaganda before, specifically only taking photos that make terrorists look heroic and never taking pictures that make them look like terrorists. He has stated in the past that his purpose in working for AFP is to act as an unapologetic advocate of Palestinian Arabs, and AFP is happy to employ someone like that.

Do you think that AFP would ever frame a picture of US or Israeli soldiers in such a flattering light?

Abu Rish Brigades leader begs to get out of Gaza

Firas Press (autotranslated, cleaned up:)

Younis Oweidat, leader of the Ahmed Abu Rish Martyr Brigades, asked President Abbas to intervene to allow their people to enter the Palestinian territories of the West Bank after Hamas carried out various operations and attempted executions on more than one occasion, even knowing that they are wanted by the forces of Zionist occupation. [Apparently, a group of them are still in limbo between Gaza and Israel at the Erez crossing.]
He stated: "Yes, better to be behind bars in occupation jails than to return to the grip of Hamas, who sentenced me and seven of my militant brothers to death, they attacked my house...The culture of blood and murder that Hamas planted in the hearts of their sons made the blood of all the Palestinian people, especially militants, cheap. "
He ended by appealing to President Abbas as saying the immediate and rapid intervention to solve their problem, as they board the Erez crossing for more than ten days left homeless.

Isn't it great that some Palestinian Arabs prefer to be in those horrid Israeli prisons rather than being under Hamas rule?

Another update on Masab Yousef

The family of Masab Yousef, the son of a Hamas leader who converted to Christianity, has reacted to the proof that he indeed had converted (after their initial denials.)

In an interview, relative Suhayb al-Zaman says that the family is shocked, especially the father who is still in prison. He states that neighbors in Ramallah are ostracizing them and the extended family is also pressuring them.

Despite this, Suhayb says, the family has decided not to abandon Masab, and they bring in Islamic scholars of Christianity to debate with him for hours at a time over an Internet connection, saying they are redoubling their efforts to bring him back to Islam.

The family also denies that he converted while living in Ramallah.

They emphasize that they will continue to try to bring him back to Islam, so that he can be saved from going to hell.

Peaceful PalArab weekend

Hamas police violently broke up a protest by wives and children of detained Fatah members in Gaza. Reports state that Hamas threatened any media outlets from filming or reporting on the protest and Hamas' reaction.

A woman's body was found in Jericho; she was from Jerusalem and had been missing for two weeks.

Rhetoric between Egypt and Hamas is heating up, as Hamas accuses Egypt of working with Israel to keep Rafah closed.

Israel seized some weapons and ammunition from an Arab in Hebron.

Hamas fired on a 21-year old in Jabalya, injuring him.

One of the Church of the Nativity terrorists who was exiled to Gaza was abducted and apparently tortured by "unknown elements."

Al Aqsa Brigades members threatened the Fayyad government of the PA in Bethlehem.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 151.

Saudis pay $500 for Indonesian "wives"

From the Saudi Gazette:

Jakarta – ‘Tourist marriages’ have increased in Indonesia during the summer months when Saudis travel abroad.

Officials are saying during the summer months when there is an increase in Saudi tourists to a region, some men marry local women in ‘tourist marriages’ and then leave the country, abandoning them.

Faraj Al-Dawseri who heads a section at the Saudi Embassy caring for citizens said one case involved four young Saudis who married four Indonesian girls in Bandon, 220km from Jakarta.
The Saudi men alleged the marriages were unofficial because they did not acquire a permit from the Ministry of the Interior in Saudi Arabia and instead the marriages were officiated by a mosque’s Imam in the presence of the girls’ father. They alleged they did not deceive their father-in-law because they declared the marriages were only being conducted to “protect them from temptation.”

They also said they were being cautious not to father children with the women because the marriages were strictly “tourist marriages.”

Al-Dawseri said there were thousands of children in Indonesia abandoned by their Saudi fathers, Al-Watan reported. He said many of the cases go unreported because many of the victims do not approach the embassy. The embassy attempts to facilitate contact between the Saudis and the allegedly abandoned wives and children.

Al-Dawseri said many times Indonesian families have settled for payments of SR2,000 or 4 million Indonesian rupees. The increase in these marriages is associated with match makers offering their services to vacationers coming from Gulf countries in return for money.

These match makers often carry albums of the women they are promoting as wives and customers can select a ‘wife’ for SR2000, Al-Watan quoted a source as saying.

That's $534 for a "wife" who they abandon when they leave the country.

But it's OK, because they had to 'marry' them to protect themselves from temptation - from doing something worse.

Previous posts on the Saudis and their habits of "marrying" women for sex here and here. But in this case, the women don't seem to be in on the scam.

Clan clash!

A 17-year old Palestinian Arab (who would be called a "child" if killed by Israelis) was killed in a clan clash in Gaza.

Israellycool points out that he was killed by one of those harmless stones that Palestinian Arab youths love to throw at Jews during their "peaceful" demonstrations.

As in the photo on the right, described as "A Palestinian demonstrator holds stones, during clashes with Israeli border police, not seen, during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah, Friday, Aug. 15, 2008."

That same weekly protest is described invariably in the Palestinian Arab press as "non-violent."

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 150.

Arab American News: "In Defense of Prejudice"

In an unbelievable move, the Arab American News - a leading newspaper that rails against perceived American prejudice against Arabs - has printed an article by the vile anti-semite "Israel Shamir" called "In Defense of Prejudice."

"Shamir" has been denounced as a fraud by even far left anti-Zionists and goes by many other names including Jöran Jermas and Adam Ermash and probably was never Jewish (he now happily says he is Christian and he advocates all Jews converting to Christianity.)

The article is typical "Shamir", where he says things like:

Stereotypes and prejudice are a legitimate part of our life. They are here to make our life easier. If you walk the dark streets of an urban ghetto and notice a gang of male teenagers without a single woman among them, your prejudice tells you to make a prudent detour. If a tramp in rags proposes to sell you a gold watch, your prejudice advises you to avoid the deal. If a charming stranger is eager to get bedded, your prejudice calls you to use a condom - or run away. ADL correctly states that there is a stereotype of a "malicious cabal of Jews" who are "pushing for war," as well as that of "Jewish media-lords" that "clinch the party line." A stereotype, or prejudice, usually is a result of many unpleasant experiences by persons who did not heed them....

A person unhappy with a stereotype or with prejudice may fight it. There is a good, hard way to fight a stereotype you dislike: act contrary to the stereotype....The Jews fought against prejudice a few times and won every time....They can do it now again. They may engage in work conducive to the general benefit, shy away from stock markets and banks, give Christmas presents, demand "troops out of Iraq, no aid to apartheid Israel." be friendly to their non-Jewish neighbors. Do not demonize nor threaten with legal action everybody who does not agree with you. Do not turn the media into your private reserve. Try this, and an old stereotype will wither and vanish.

The stereotyping of Jews is quite justifiable, and only their behavior change will change it.

"Shamir" of course can write whatever bigoted tripe he wants, but it is telling that the Arab-American News would choose to publish this pure hate - because that newspaper seems more interested in maintaining anti-Jewish stereotypes than in fighting against anti-Arab stereotypes.

All of "Shamir"'s arguments can be used against Arabs to stereotype them as terror supporters or as anti-semitic. This obvious point is lost to the editors of this periodical, whose apparent hatred of Jews overcomes their own sense of self-preservation.

There is as of yet not a single comment on the article decrying its premise nor the flip-side that it implies against Arabs.

Sick twist in Saudi pedophilia "marriage"

I blogged a few days ago about a Saudi man who sold his 8-year old daughter "in marriage" to another Saudi man in his 50s.

MEMRI Blog adds an even sicker detail:

A Saudi man in his 50s has announced that he refuses to annul his year-and-a half-long marriage to an eight-year-old girl, because he claims never to have done anything forbidden by Islamic law.
He said that Islamic law does not set a specific age for marriage, and that the Prophet Muhammad married 'Aisha when she was nine.

Source: Al-Hayat, London, August 13, 2008

So the father didn't just "marry off" his eight year old daughter - he sold his six and a half-year old daughter!

And even after a year and a half, the Saudi legal authorities have been unable to do anything about this while this little girls gets raped, probably nightly, by a pedophilic pervert.

Friday links

Jewish Standard on the Bnei Menashe from India

Soccer Dad on the Reuters reporter accidentally killed by the IDF and the hypocrisy of those who dismiss Israel's conclusions (also a nice example of how the blogosphere can work together)

The Egyptian ambassador who spied on Israel

Surprise! Fatah man who "pledged" not to be a terrorist anymore lied!

Al Jazeera denies apologizing to Israel for celebrating Kuntar

Israeli innovations in nanotechnology

Israeli "seaweed gel" could save thousands of lives of heart patients