Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Olmert's defeatism

In 1979, then-president Jimmy Carter delivered an astoundingly pessimistic speech. He started off talking about how he spoke with ordinary Americans and what they had to say:

I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you. It has been an extraordinary 10 days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.
This from a southern Governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this Nation -- you're just managing the Government."

"You don't see the people enough any more."

"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."

"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."

"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."

"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."

And yet, although Carter heard the words that Americans were saying - that he was a really poor leader - he misinterpreted them as if it was America's problem, not his:

I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

Carter was one of the worst presidents in history, and this is one reason why: instead of leading, he whined; instead of showing pride for America, he despaired; instead of the strength that people need from a leader he chose to be a very bad therapist.

I'm reminded of this when I see how lame-duck Olmert is acting lately.

Today, there was a gleeful but accurate headline in Iran's Press TV:

Olmert pronounces Greater Israel dead

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the idea of "Greater Israel"-- the main motto of the Zionist founders of the Israeli regime-- is dead.

"'Greater Israel' is finished. There is no such thing as that anymore. Whoever talks in those terms is only deluding himself," the prime minister admitted at a cabinet meeting.

"It doesn't help Israel. The international community has changed its perspective ahead of the possibility of Israel becoming a bi-national state," he said.

" I believed that the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean was all ours since in every place there that is excavated, there is evidence of Jewish History. But finally, after a lot of suffering and misgivings, I came to the conclusion that we need to share the land with whom we are residing if we don't want to become a bi-national state," Olmert said.

The premier also warned that the clock is "not ticking in Israel's favor."

The malaise that Israel is suffering from is not from the people, but from the utterly incompetent leadership that has been represented by Ehud Olmert. He unilaterally declared defeat in Gaza and now Judea and Samaria, ceding the historic Jewish ties to land that is far more important religiously and historically than Tel Aviv because he lacks the imagination and the will to come up with ways that Israel can keep the land and the Arabs can still have real choices for self-determination and to raise their families in dignity. He has kept erasing red lines without drawing new ones, acting more like someone hellbent on surrender than a leader of a great nation. He learned nothing from the Gaza debacle, wanting to repeat it again and again. He treats his most patriotic citizens as his enemies and his enemies as if they are his allies. He has consistently lied to his people and he continues to do so as he squirms to avoid mounting criminal charges.

And even now, as his term ends, his one note of consistency and strength is in his steadfast willingness to surrender to Israel's sworn enemies. To allow parts of historic, Biblical Israel to be permanently Judenrein, from which rockets can reach every major population area and Israel's major airport. To hand the most valuable asset Israel has to people who, sometimes explicitly but always implicitly, consider this to be only a stage in Israel's ultimate destruction. To trust a new neighboring nation populated with those who have consistently and overwhelmingly expressed their support for terror against Jewish civilians in the Middle East.

No wonder Iran is gleeful. Olmert is now confirming everything Ahmadinejad has been saying - that in his opinion, the Zionists will lose.

Olmert and his party of ashamed Zionism needs to go, now.

Saudi cleric: Mickey Mouse must die!

MEMRI has a new clip. Transcript:

Following is an excerpt from a religious program featuring Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid, which aired on Al-Majd TV on August 27, 2008:

Muhammad Al-Munajid: What is the position of Islamic law with regard to mice? The Shari'a refers to the mouse as "little corrupter," and says it is permissible to kill it in all cases. It says that mice set fire to the house, and are steered by Satan. The mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him. If a mouse falls into a pot of food – if the food is solid, you should chuck out the mouse and the food touching it, and if it is liquid – you should chuck out the whole thing. Because the mouse is i-m-p-u-r-e!

According to Islamic law, the mouse is a repulsive, corrupting creature. How do you think children view mice today – after Tom and Jerry? Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic, and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.

I wonder what he thinks of Islamic mice? Or Hamas cartoon rats?

Anti-semites HATE Palin

Mark Glenn, who is a proud Jew-hater whose quotes have polluted the Internet for a long time, has determined that Sarah Palin is "Israel's bitch."

And the author of "Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence" not surprisingly finds Palin to also be utterly unacceptable to the rabid anti-semitic crowd, saying that she would be like Queen Esther:

And, in the Book of Esther, one finds that Queen Esther—Palin’s role model—engaged in intrigues that resulted in the mass murder of 75,000 Persians who were considered a threat to the Jewish people, just as today’s Iran is likewise perceived as Israel’s greatest danger.

While this same crowd has been critical of Biden as well with his self-description as a Zionist, they go off the rails when talking about Palin. One can almost feel the spittle being dripped on the keyboard as these unapologetic haters type their unintentionally funny bile for their adoring fans.

In a similar political note, prominent Arab-American Ray Hanania writes a column that an neat flip side of my argument that Obama might be better for Israel because of his antipathy towards it (and Israel's likely reaction,) arguing that Arabs should vote for McCain because they will be disappointed that Obama, presumed to be their friend, will turn on them:

Arab Americans were hopeful with Obama because Obama comes from an oppressed South Side Chicago African American community, although he is an elitist who has always been above the suffering of African Americans. Nevertheless, Obama was close to Arab activists — most extremists — who he needed when he was running before to help raise funds and generate votes.

...
But there is one hope for Arab Americans. It is a theory based on the contrarian view that the best way to help a cause is not to constantly seek the best candidate and always be disappointed. It is the view that the best way to bring change is to keep the environment hostile. That is, don’t support Obama — just because he has a middle name that is Muslim (Hussein is not an Arab name, it is a Muslim name. I don’t know one Aran Christian named Hussein, unlike Abdullah, which is an Arab named shared by Christians and Muslims). The theory goes that instead of supporting Obama, who can’t do the right thing because his hands are tied by the reality of American politics, support John McCain who everyone presumes is more pro-Israel than Obama. The truth is, McCain, with his support of Israel, could do more to force Israel’s government to be more objective and do the right thing.

McCain, by virtue of the fact that he is viewed as being more supportive of Israel, could have the strength to do the right thing.
Obama will let the Arab American community down not because he wants to but because that is the inherent nature of an American political system where the Arab activism is at an extremist and dysfunctional minimal. If Obama lets us down, as he is certain to do, that would be far more traumatic for Arab Americans. Because the worst kind of disappointment come from friends, not enemies.

Notice how while Obama apologists will downplay his connections to radical Arabs in Chicago, Hanania - who was born in Chicago - readily admits them.

(I need to stress again that my contrarian argument is based on the fact that Israel's current government cannot stand up for its own Zionist ideals when asked by "friends" in the White House to give more and more concessions, and the real solution is for Israel to get leadership that can articulate its own needs and stand up to pressure from friend and enemy alike, while Americans elect who would be best for America.)

Sunday linkfest

Lots of great stuff out there today:

Muslim preacher Omar Bakri threatened Paul McCartney's life for agreeing to play in a concert in Israel.

Did the Iranian Paralympic basketball team pull out of competition over a possible match with Israel?

One of the major themes of blogs this week was Charlie Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin. For those who like to get caught up in the minutiae of American politics, this article by Charles Krauthammer is a must-read.

Did The Jerusalem Post cave to legal pressure from a Guardian columnist? It does seem strange that they would remove a non-offensive "counterpoint" column because of an unmoderated comment that got through...

Batya muses on the recent uptick of attacks on Jews from Arabs in the West Bank, wondering if they are responses to Israel's recent attempts at "peace".

Plus she also hosts this week's Haveil Havalim roundup of the best of the Jewish blogosphere.

Israelis invent a suit that allows some disabled people to walk, and another that might allow regular people to fly.

Two more tunnel deaths

Firas reports a man killed when he fell down the entrance of a smuggling tunnel in Gaza, saying that this was the second such death in 24 hours. This means that the 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 164.

Fatwa of the day: OK to kill immoral media moguls

From AP, of all places:(h/t LGF):

Saudi Arabia’s top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content.

The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the “deviance of thousands of people.” ...

Al-Lihedan was answering listeners’ questions during the daily “Light in the Path” radio program in which he and others make rulings on what is permissible under Islamic law. One caller asked about Islam’s view of the owners of satellite TV channels that show “bad programs” during Ramadan.

“I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence ... and I warn them of the consequences,” he said.

“What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity?” he said.

“Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it’s permissible to kill them,” he said. “Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don’t, it is permissible to kill them.”

I guess this means that Time Warner, Viacom and Disney executives might have to start being a little more suspicious of the packages they get in the mail...

Manhattan

On Wednesday night, Soccer Dad asked me if I still had a picture I had made years ago and posted on this blog of a panorama of Manhattan taken from Jersey City. Unfortunately, the image hosting service that I stored it on went out of business and I no longer have the original.

As a result, I offered to create a new one.

Yesterday morning, I took a series of photos from a similar vantage point and sent them to him. Unfortunately, photographing Manhattan from New Jersey is problematic in mornings, as the sun is rising behind the skyline, so I wasn't altogether happy with the results:

(click to enlarge)

The good news is that I got the shot I posted yesterday of the Jersey City Fire Department shooting plumes of red, white and blue-colored water with the Statue of Liberty visible in the background.

In the afternoon, I tried once again to capture a panorama of Manhattan, with better results:

(click to enlarge)

The rightmost image of the series was slightly out of focus but altogether I am happy with the results, and Soccer Dad used it to illustrate his 9/11 round-up.

I used my latest camera, a Nikon Coolpix S210, and I used Autostitch software to piece the ten images together (11 images in the morning shot.) Autostitch is the easiest software I've seen yet for doing this, and it works in two dimensions as well.

Friday PalArab press roundup

A 48-year old woman was killed by someone shooting indiscriminately in the air near Nablus.

Hamas continues to arrest doctors in Gaza, abducting a pediatric surgeon and a woman doctor (whose husband they had arrested a few days before.)

A terror group called Al Tawhid took credit for a bomb at the Kissufim junction today.

Another day, another bizarre study: An Arab group talks about an increasing number of Jerusalem-area Arabs addicted to drugs - and says that Israel is pushing these drugs to help "Judaize" Jerusalem. Here's the logic: Since drug abusers need lots of money for their habits, they are more likely to sell their houses to Jews.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 162.

For a particularly hilarious example of how rumors start in the Muslim world, check out this blog post:

Israel is once again humiliating the Muslims by making fun of the Islamic symbols.

The Israeli mass Media recently published a photo of toilet bowls produced by a certain company, shaped in “Women In Jilbab".

This type of toilet bowl to facilitate urination, according to the Israeli mass Media are selling very well in the Israeli market.

A number of sources as cited by Albawaba, reported that the shape of the toilet bowl was purposely aimed at humiliating the Islamic symbols and the Muslims.

The first productions originated from the US and then imported by Israel. Now, toilet bowls of this shape can be commonly found in Israel.

Sorry to say, but how lowly is the attitude of the people of these two nations (Christian U.S. - Zionist Israel), they have no respect for other people’s religions. They can never stop poking fun at others. Little do they realize that their actions only reveal their immorality further. You can never find the Muslims doing likewise, the Muslims don’t insult other faiths or the lack of it thereof. We dont behave like immature or retarded people.

Of course, this urinal is poking fun at nuns, not Muslim women, and has nothing to do with Israel. And I have no idea if this really came from Albawaba or if the blogger made it up (no link was given.)

(I haven't yet seen any deadly Catholic riots over this, either.)

But truth has little to do with how bizarre rumors spread in the Islamic world, so we might be catching one in its early stages here.

In fact, this blogger may be a source for a number of rumors in the Muslim world.

He has no shortage of completely made-up posts. In at least one case, a post he wrote or pasted ended up being reproduced at Pakistan Daily two days later, about a supposed First Zionist-Christian Congress in Switzerland earlier this month. No real news source mentions this conference.

Saudi Arabia arrests five bloggers

From Saudi Gazette:

JEDDAH – Security authorities have arrested three Saudis and two expatriates for spreading false propaganda through the Internet, the Ministry of Interior announced on Wednesday.

The five were misleading young people, manipulating their religious sentiments and instigating them to create trouble, an official source at the ministry said.

Using pseudonyms to suggest they have supporters, the five accused would thus lure people to communicate with them as a first step towards recruitment for “vicious and wicked goals,” the source said.

“Despite the difficulty of laying such traps, our security men are highly capable and qualified to track down and arrest such deviants who spread wrong ideas wherever they are,” Interior Ministry spokesman Major Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told Saudi Gazette.

“These deviant mentalities use modern technology like the Internet to spread to mislead surfers and spread their deviant methodology,” he said without revealing where the five accused were arrested. “It doesn’t matter which cities they are from. What matters is their deviant thinking,” he said.

The Ministry cautioned the public about advocates of “deviant thoughts, their tricky methods and malicious intentions to mislead the sons of the soil and turn them into tools in the hands of their enemies who are conspiring against their country on which Almighty Allah has bestowed the honor of serving the Two Holy Harams.” The statement warned against falling victim “to these deviants who use deceptive and misrepresentative methods in promoting their evil thoughts.”

From this article it is a little hard to figure out what exactly these people were saying. The over-use of the word "deviant" implies homosexuality, but some of their names imply terrorism ("The Encyclopedia of Jihad.") Were they advocating an overthrow of the monarchy? Were they writing fictional stories about Mohammed?

A better hint may be seen in a recent law that passed in neighboring Kuwait. The law is set to "criminalize the promotion of immoral conduct, encouraging anti-government sentiments, divulging state secrets, or insulting Islam online." Chances are that these were the sorts of things that the "deviant" bloggers were doing.

The hole in the sky (Repost from 2006)

(This post will remain on the top today, scroll down for other posts.)

This is a view of lower Manhattan at around 9:59 AM on September 11, 2006.

It is difficult for people who are unfamiliar with the skyline to understand how huge the twin towers were. I attempted to show in this picture, in a very limited way, the enormity of what was lost.

ISM loves the Muslim Brotherhood

As if we needed any more proof, here is yet another tie between the "peace activists" of the International Solidarity Movement (and their affiliates in the Free Gaza movement) and the extremist inspiration for al Qaeda and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood.

From the ISM site:

Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege: At 8am this morning (10th September), a first group from the Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege, mainly Labor Party’s members, left Cairo in 4 micro-buses with food and medicine to go and try to break the criminal siege of Gaza.
When they arrived at Ismailia, located at 100 km from Cairo and 30 km from the Suez Canal, the Sinai entrance, the Egyptian police stopped the convoy and took away the driving licences of the drivers, preventing them to go forward
More than 150 people got outside the buses with Palestinian and Egyptian flags and chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians.
Several national forces are participating in this action, including the Committee Against the Gaza Siege, Engineers against Detention, al-Karamah party, Labour Party, Nasserist party, Kifâya, independent lawyers, March 9 Movement, April 6 Movement and Muslim Brotherhood’s members.

Notice how the ISM tries to downplay the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement in this protest, which is clearly a Western-style protest architected by ISM members to begin with (the photos on the site show "activists" doing sit-ins and the like.)

But if you look at the wire-service reports of the protest, the Muslim Brotherhood is mentioned a bit more prominently. From AFP:

The group of judges, independent MPs, members of the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and activists from other parties wants to protest the continued closure of the Rafah crossing by Israel and Egypt.

From Reuters:

Along with many opposition groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition force in the country, favours ending the blockade and opening the border for goods and people.

Not that these other parties are so peaceful either. The Socialist Labor Party is currently illegal in Egypt, and supports the imposition fo Sharia law throughout that nation. In fact, it tried to form a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990 elections.

The Al-Karama party praises Maomar Khaddafi, Libya's loopy dictator not known for his human-rights record.

Yet the ISM happily partners with groups that openly advocate and condone violence, all the while maintaining that it is a "peace" group.

Apparently, the only credentials one needs to be considered a "peace activist" is to advocate the destruction of the US and Israel.

Click on image to make it larger.

This was the scene opposite the site of the World Trade Center this morning at 8:46, the moment the first plane crashed into the North Tower seven years ago. The Jersey City Fire Department shot red, white and blue water from a fireboat.

The Statue of Liberty can be seen in the background, next to Ellis Island.

You know how much Hezbollah loves "fireworks"

From Monsters and Critics:

Four Syrians and a Lebanese were killed when a truck loaded with smuggled fireworks from Syria exploded Thursday near the Lebanese-Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, police said.
The alleged fireworks smuggling operation came a few days after a UN team assessing the monitoring of the border said progress in fortifying it had been minimal and remained 'penetrable'.

'Lebanon has not yet succeeded in enhancing the overall security of its borders in any significant manner,' the report said.

Oh yeah. Fireworks.

12 weeks in a row

For the twelfth consecutive week, Palestinian Arabs have managed to kill each other more than the evil IDF has managed to kill them.

The score this week (Thursday-Wednesday) is 3-1. (A Nablus man was reportedly killed by the IDF as they were arresting a known Fatah terrorist, for the first Palestinian death from the IDF in nearly six weeks.)

Thursday PalArab press roundup

Another man was killed as the tunnel he was helping to dig collapsed under the Gaza/Egypt border.

Following yesterday's explosions aimed at Hamas sites in Gaza, two Fatah men were arrested in a car full of explosives.

Islamic Jihad held its annual Iftar breakfast banquet for "journalists and intellectuals" south of Gaza City. The terrorist speakers stressed to the journalists what an important job they had in telling the world about their side of the story. (Pictures of the banquet here.)

The DFLP threatened to break the "calm" in face of alleged Israeli aggression. Islamic Jihad characterized the "calm" as "scandalous."

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 161.

Lauren Booth, idiot extraordinaire

From YNet:

In a telephone interview with Ynet on Wednesday, Booth slammed Israel's policies and called Gaza "the largest concentration camp in the world today. I was startled the Israelis agreed to this.”

Despite her current predicament, Booth said she has no regrets. "My children are the ones who are suffering, because I'm being prevented from leaving and they can't see me. I don't regret it, because I wanted to come here and help these children who are suffering on a daily basis," she said.

Apparently, her children miss her but she doesn't miss them too much.

When asked about Israel's right to respond to incessant attacks emanating from Gaza, Booth evoked Holocaust-related rhetoric. "There is no right to punish people this way. There is no justification for this kind of collective punishment. You were in the concentration camps, and I can’t believe that you are allowing the creation of such a camp yourselves.”

“The Palestinians’ suffering is physical, mental and emotional," she went on, "there is not a family here in which someone is not in desperate need of work, shelter or food. This is a humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur. "

Indeed, I have photographic evidence of the terrible conditions these concentration-camp inmates have to suffer through.

On the very same day that Lauren Booth gave this interview, Islamic Jihad held their annual Iftar breakfast for journalists south of Gaza City in a restaurant. Palestine Today covered the event.

Note the distended stomachs, the threadbare clothing, the suffering faces, and the awful humanitarian conditions that these brave Gazans are forced to survive in, day in and day out:

I don't know about you, but when I first saw these pictures the very first word that came to my mind was "Darfur!"

I was so surprised to find out that the deplorable conditions seen in these pictures did not take place in sub-Saharan Africa or in a Nazi concentration camp.

Poor Lauren, forced to witness such wide-scale suffering and starvation.

Meet the Shondes: an essay on Tikkun Olam

I like a good parody, but sometimes one finds a real-life story that is so way beyond parody that even if someone would have invented such an over-the-top character, no one would have found it believable enough to be humorous:

The Shondes, a four-piece political post-punk band from New York City, are the outsiders' outsiders, but they wear that badge with pride.

This queer political band, heavily influenced by riot grrrl and queercore as well as traditional Jewish music, gets its name from the Yiddish word for “shame” or “disgrace.” Three-quarters of the band are Jewish and three-quarters are trans.

The band's in-your-face, dramatic debut album, The Red Sea, has created comparisons to the now defunct all-girl rock trio Sleater-Kinney as well as political punk Patti Smith.

Windy City Times spoke with drummer Temim Fruchter right after they kicked off their long, fall tour.

WCT: I noticed that several of you are involved in Jews Against the Occupation ( an anti-Zionist organization ) . How much would you say Judaism influences your music, your sound? Obviously, it influences your life.

TF: I would say just as much as any aspect of our lives influences our music. For the three of us, Judaism is pretty central to who we are. So, we sort of bring that to the table as much as our activism, as much as the other stuff and components we bring to the music.

WCT: And all of your either identify as queer or trans, as well, so I'm sure it's just as important as that aspect of your life.

TF: Exactly.

WCT: Since many of your are involved in both Jewish activism, as well as the queer community, I was wondering if you ever receive any negative feedback from the Jewish community, or for the most part, are most people really progressive and welcoming?

TF: We definitely encountered people in various communities who have been challenged by some of views, particularly about Israel-Palestine, and those are some of the conversations with more mainstream Jewish outlets, so that isn't part of the subject. But we've mostly just had productive and interesting conversations. Definitely, overall, we constantly have supportive audiences—people who are really interested in the music, but people who are also interested in the content and are either challenged by it and talk about it, or support it and are excited that there is music that is affirming that content.

It always fascinated me that "Jewish activists" have completely disregarded Judaism for activism, and instead use Judaism as an excuse to justify their causes. They usually use the words "Tikkun Olam," or "perfecting the world."

That term has been mostly popularized by Tikkun Magazine, the far-left, pro-Arab magazine founded by fake rabbi and Friend of Hillary Michael Lerner.

The tikkunolam.com site says:

Tikkun Olam, healing and repairing the world, is a primary mission of the Jewish people.

Other recent citations of the phrase can be seen at the Rabbis for Obama site:

Some of us know Senator Obama personally, and we recognize that he has been inspired by Jewish values such as Tikkun Olam and the pursuit of justice, and he is deeply committed as well to a civil discourse between opposing arguments.

One could be excused if one thinks that Tikkun Olam as activism for social issues is a great mitzvah, one of the commandments given by G-d to Jews (or perhaps mankind).

The source for the phrase Tikkun Olam is not the Torah, though, but the Talmud. Many examples of Tikkun Olam are given in Tractate Gittin, but they generally are meant to stop people from doing various sins. None of the Talmudic examples have anything remotely close to what the current users of the phrase have in mind.

Another prominent example is found in the thrice-daily Aleinu prayer, where Jews ask G-d "to perfect the world under God's sovereignty" -- a purely spiritual quest. Later, Kabbalists expanded the concept somewhat but it is still oriented towards Jews doing their own mitzvot, to perfect themselves and thereby helping to repair the world, in a more mystical sense.

Either way, the concept is clearly not biblical and not nearly as expansive as many people assume. The idea has been changed into an amorphous concept that molds to whatever preconceived notions one has about the environment, or justice, or politics, or really any subject one wants. Today, we have a strange situation where the phrase is used to apply to people like the Shondes, who are the antithesis of the concept (and whose name, while meant to be ironic, ends up being anything but.)

This is not to say that the idea of Tikkun Olam is irrelevant. However, if a Jew wants to apply Tikkun Olam to today, he or she needs to increase spirituality, not decrease it; to inspire by adhering to the religion, not by replacing it with some sort of wishy-washy universalist message that has nothing to do with Judaism. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks summed it up nicely:

Our task is to become a particular living example of a set of universal truths, and therefore the conflict between the universal and the particular in Judaism is not a conflict at all because it is only by being Orthodox Jews that we are able to mitaken ha’olam - it is only by being true to ourselves that we can be true to other people. Only if we preserve the sanctity of Jewish family can we talk with authority about the sanctity of the family to the world. Only by studying Torah can we speak compellingly about the value of education and human dignity. Only by having the courage to be different can we be role models to the dignity of difference. That is why Tikkun Olam in my view is the special responsibility of we who are the guardians of Torah.

This is a univeralist goal that can only come about from a particularist application of real Jewish laws and ideas, and this is the real meaning behind Tikkun Olam.

UPDATE: Hillel Halkin at Commentary apparently made a similar point last month (full article not online.) h/t EBOZ

EBoZ emailed me the article; it makes many of the points I made but in the context of "40 short essays by a group of American Jewish intellectuals and social activists, all on the Left, appearing in a new book called Righteous Indignation." Many of those essays invoked Tikkun Olam, and, as Halkin writes, almost all of them get it wrong:

And so it goes. Health care, labor unions, public-school education, feminism, abortion rights, gay marriage, globalization, U.S. foreign policy, Darfur: on everything Judaism has a position—and, wondrously, this position just happens to coincide with that of the American liberal Left.

If it is easy to caricature most of the essays in Righteous Indignation, this is because so many of them caricature themselves. They represent the ultimate in that self-indulgent approach, so common in non-Orthodox Jewish circles in the United States today, that treats Jewish tradition not as a body of teachings to be learned from but as one needing to be taught what it is about by those who know better than it does what it should be about. Judaism has value to such Jews to the extent that it is useful, and it is useful to the extent that it can be made to conform to whatever beliefs and opinions they would have even if Judaism had never existed.

...The Jewish public interest is not a concept that plays a role in any of the 40 essays in Righteous Indignation. Just as the authors of these essays take almost no interest in the state of Israel, apart from chiding it for its various alleged faults of racism, religious intolerance, militarism, and so forth, so they take almost no interest in the American Jewish community except insofar as it is prepared to act outside of itself. They want world repair—and they want it now. An end to environmental exploitation! An end to economic injustice! An end to sexual inequality! An end to war! And since the end will not come of itself, let Jews go out into the world and force it.

What is entirely missing from the book and its righteously indignant authors is the slightest sense of the world’s complexity or of the fact that repairing almost anything can involve breaking something else. Yes, it is possible to reduce global warming significantly—but only at the cost of reducing standards of living around the world, including those of the poor. It is possible to let homosexuals marry and raise children like heterosexuals—but only by making heterosexuals wonder what is the point of marrying and raising children. It is possible not to go to war—but only by condemning the people of Iraq to life under a barbaric and aggressive dictatorship, and by continuing to condemn the people of Darfur to an indescribable misery that only military force can put an end to. There are few cost-free solutions to anything.

This is something that those who bandy the phrase tikkun olam might be expected to be aware of.

It is a very nice essay, but only available for subscribers to Commentary.

Kid killed in Gaza, plus more

An 11-year old boy was shot and killed in central Gaza; circumstances still unclear.

The IDF and Shin Bet found a 15-kg bomb in Jenin.

Two Hamas sites were bombed in Gaza City, no injuries reported.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 160.

Earthquake in Iran, three dead

A couple of years ago I would regularly point out the huge number of small earthquakes that hit Iran every day. The IRNA "news" agency would publish the details of each event.

IRNA has not done that lately. Which is a shame, because Iran's shaky seismology should be a major concern to everyone who might be affected by a nuclear facility that gets compromised by an earthquake.

But today IRNA was forced to admit an earthquake, because this one was fatal:

A powerful quake measuring six on the Richter scale in Qeshm, Hormuzgan province, claimed three lives and injured 26 people.
Iran's Red Crescent Society has dispatched rescue teams equipped with most sophisticated equipment to the region.
Iran is often shaken by quakes of varying magnitudes as it sits on some of the world's most active seismic fault lines.

While Hormuzgan is not that close to Bushehr or other known nuclear facilities, all of Iran is at danger for earthquakes.

I wonder why the far left, always at the forefront against nuclear power, has been largely silent about Iran's building a nuke plant in a known earthquake zone?

Today's PalArab press roundup

How the PA handles demonstrators: Last night a PalArab man was shot by PA security forces as he was demonstrating against a water shortage in a camp north of Bethlehem. Ten more were beaten. (Yesterday it was reported that the man was killed; this morning it is reported that he was injured.)

Caustic terror: A PalArab woman threw acid on the faces of two IDF soldiers at the Huwwara checkpoint. She escaped into Nablus.

Hamas still trying to break strike: Hamas continues to raid the houses of doctors participating in the health-care strike in Gaza. Hamas also closed dozens of free clinics that the striking doctors set up in Gaza City. I have yet to see a "human rights" organization blame Hamas for these kinds of activities; instead making "even-handed" statements about how both sides are wrong.

Trouble in Paradise: There are increasing reports of friction between Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, although they are trying to hold talks in Damascus.

Shocking: A Gazan was killed - apparently electrocuted - while working in a smuggling tunnel on the Egyptian border.

Party of God wants to party: Hezbollah leader Nasrallah hinted that he would attack Israel if Israel does anything "aggressive," even in Gaza.

Another humanitarian crisis in Gaza: A number of articles have complained bitterly about the plastic bag shortage in Gaza, forcing some stores to make bags out of newspapers to sell their goods. Prices for plastic bags have gone way up as some suppliers hoard their inventories. Lauren Booth will have to carry her souvenirs by hand.

"Stupid woman": A Gazan man, probably a municipal worker or teacher, divorced his "stupid" wife because she didn't want him to continue his Fatah-encouraged strike in Gaza.

The Hamas Charter at a glance

I just ran the Hamas Charter through Wordle. It tells you pretty much what you need to know:

Obama says Hezbollah has "legitimate claims"

Brian of London at Israellycool notices a May interview with Barack Obama:

Right off the bat he reaffirmed that Hezbollah is “not a legitimate political party.” Instead, “It’s a destabilizing organization by any common-sense standard. This wouldn’t happen without the support of Iran and Syria.”
I asked him what he meant with all this emphasis on electoral and patronage reform. He said the U.S. should help the Lebanese government deliver better services to the Shiites “to peel support away from Hezbollah” and encourage the local populace to “view them as an oppressive force.” The U.S. should “find a mechanism whereby the disaffected have an effective outlet for their grievances, which assures them they are getting social services.”

When has US aid ever convinced a hostile population to change their allegiances? Has Egypt become pro-US with the billions it gets every year? This is dangerously naive.

But it gets worse:

The U.S. needs a foreign policy that “looks at the root causes of problems and dangers.” Obama compared Hezbollah to Hamas. Both need to be compelled to understand that “they’re going down a blind alley with violence that weakens their legitimate claims.” He knows these movements aren’t going away anytime soon (“Those missiles aren’t going to dissolve”), but “if they decide to shift, we’re going to recognize that. That’s an evolution that should be recognized.”

What, exactly, are Hezbollah's "legitimate claims"? Hezbollah is not a Palestinian Arab movement; it is a Shiite movement with the single-minded goal of destroying Israel. Is Obama saying that there is a small amount of legitimacy in that goal?

And what about Hamas? Their "claims" are for 100% of Israel to become an Arab Islamic nation, and eventually part of a new Islamic 'ummah. They aren't asking for an independent Palestinian Arab state - somethign they effectively have already. They want Israel destroyed as well. Where, exactly, is the "legitimacy" there?

Obama doesn’t broadcast moral disgust when talking about terror groups, but he said that in some ways he’d be tougher than the Bush administration. He said he would do more to arm the Lebanese military...

Back in May it was already clear that the Lebanese military had zero interest in restraining Hezbollah, or even regarded it as an enemy. It certainly hasn't done anything to stop the smuggling of weapons into Southern Lebanon and it has not asked the UN to help in stopping Hezbollah activities - something that it has the right to do under UN 1701.

This is the sort of touchy-feely, "root cause" based foreign policy that we can expect from Barack Obama. Give people who already don't like you money and weapons, and they'll suddenly become loyal friends - and they will also turn against those who they are ideologically tied to.

Today's PalArab press roundup

A terrorist that Israel released last month will marry another terrorist that Israel released the month before. Will the first son be named "Jihad"?

Mahmoud Abbas will extend his presidency by an additional year without elections, after consulting with legal experts who agreed that it is all fine and dandy. He also threatened to pursue legal actions against Hamas for terrorism, bringing Hamas to the Hague if necessary.

Hamas, meanwhile, declared all of Abbas' decrees to be null and void retroactive to July 3rd saying that the Palestinian Legislative Council has not approved any of them. Hamas is attempting to create its own alternative or successor to the PLC.

Members of the Al-Qaeda inspired Jaysh al Ummah group is calling on Hamas to release their leader, Abu Hafss, arrested last week. Reuters thinks that Hamas arrested him after they got some "exclusive" photos of their training in Gaza (this picture is from a second round of photos.) However, Hamas clearly gives Jaysh al-Ummah as much room in "crowded" Gaza as they need for training.

Israel is planning to build a joint Israel-Arab industrial zone in the northern West Bank to employ some 10,000 Palestinian Arabs and 2,000 Israelis. It will be funded by the US and EU to the tune of some $200 million and will ultimately end up exactly like Erez did in Gaza.

Egypt killed two more Sudanese trying to get into Israel.

UPDATE: A PalArab man was shot and killed as he was demonstrating against a water shortage in a camp north of Bethlehem. The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 159.

Mel Brooks, call your lawyer

Reuters has a series of photos published this morning that depict a Ramadan play being performed in Iran:

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard perform in a play at their military base in northeastern Tehran, September 8, 2008. The play tells the story of the history of human creation till the time of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) and Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN)

As of this writing, there is no accompanying news story, so we cannot see too many details about this clearly important cultural event that has Reuters sending out no fewer than nine separate photos of the play over their wires.

Guess what? This play seems to have a special obsession with Jews. Reuters, using the identical caption as above, shows us another scene:

But perish the thought that Reuters should use the word "anti-semitic" in their description of the play. No, it's just a factual play that shows an accurate depiction of world history, crammed into a couple of hours. And if the Star of David happens to be equated with the swastika, well, isn't that history in Reutersville?

I wonder if the Spanish Inquisition is a song-and-dance number?

Latest anti-semitic meme: There is no Jewish nation!

A few of months ago there was a small kerfuffle when an absurd book, written by an Israeli professor of cinema and French history named Shlomo Zand, postulated that there is no Jewish people and no Jewish nation. No one took it the least bit seriously except for, unsurprisingly, Ha'aretz, which published a number of articles about it. The author has no expertise as an historian and the ideas in the book have been well-debunked elsewhere.

It was only a matter of time before the anti-Israel crowd would seize on this shoddy piece of pseudo-scholarship and use it to show the complete illegitimacy of Judaism, Zionism, Jewish history and any non-Arab in the Middle East.

For example, Gilad Atzmon just wrote a worshipful article about this book, and added his own layers of stupidity on top.

He quotes Zand in Ha'aretz and adds his own "proof":

In case you follow Zand’s line of thinking and happen to ask yourself, “when was the Jewish people invented?” Zand’s answer is rather simple. “At a certain stage in the 19th century, intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people ‘retrospectively,’ out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people.”

...It is an established fact that not a single Jewish history text had been written between the 1st century and early 19th century.

That last sentence seemed a bit too declarative to me, so I just looked a bit at Google Books for histories of Jews that predate the 19th century. A single counterexample should be enough to prove that the entire thesis is ridiculous, and, sure enough, I found it:

The History of the Jews: From Jesus Christ to the Present Time: Containing Their Antiquities, Their Religion, Their Rites, the Dispersion of the Ten Tribes in the East and the Persecutions this Nation Has Suffer'd in the West. Being a Supplement and Continuation of the History of Josephus
By Jacques Basnage, sieur de Beauval Jacques Basnage, Thomas Taylor, Pre-1801 Imprint Collection (Library of Congress)
Translated by Thomas Taylor, of Magdalen College Oxford Thomas Taylor
Published by Printed by T. Bever and B. Lintot [etc.], 1708
759 pages

Plus, a well-known and disputed work that still serves as a counter-example:

The Wonderful, and Most Deplorable History of the Later Times of the Jews: With the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem, which History Begins where the Holy Scriptures Do End
By ha-Levi Abraham ben David, Abraham ben David, Sebastian Münster, Peter Morwen, James Howell, J. S.
Published by Printed for W. Thackeray, and are to be sold by James Gilbertson at the Sun and Bible on London-Bridge, 1689
340 pages

This last example seems to be at least a partial translation of a book written in the tenth century.

And, finally:

The History of the Present Jews Throughout the World: Being an Ample Tho Succinct Account of Their Customs, Ceremonies, and Manner of Living, ... Translated from the Italian, Written by Leo Modena, ... To which are Subjoin'd Two Supplements, One Concerning the Samaritans, the Other of the Sect ...
By Leone Modena
Published by printed and sold by Edm. Powell, 1707
286 pages

Atzmon isn't the only anti-semite to seize on Zand as the latest savior of racist philosophy. Rense.com, for example, wasted no time quoting Tom Segev's review in Ha'aretz.

Of course, there are a myriad of other reasons to prove that both Zand and Atzmon have no idea what they are talking about, but this one just struck my fancy.

Palestinian Arabs fighting to keep their brethren miserable

One of the larger ironies in this conflict is that the people who are most against any permanent resettlement of PalArab "refugees" are usually the ones who live in the most comfort themselves. Europeans of Palestinian Arab descent are among the loudest in railing against even the hint of a "resettlement" of genuinely desperate Palestinian Arabs, while the ones who are in the worst shape will consistently say that they are more than willing to be resettled anywhere.

The hypocrisy of those who claim that the "right of return" is sacrosanct is most obvious when we talk about the 2000-3000 Iraqi refugees of Palestinian origin who are stuck in real camps between the Iraq and Syrian borders. The UNHCR is responsible for these refugees, not the ineffective and counterproductive UNRWA, and the UNHCR has been trying hard to find countries worldwide that could accept even a very small number of them to be resettled.

The biggest obstacles that the UNHCR faces are so-called "Palestinian leaders" themselves. They are so invested in keeping Palestinian Arabs stateless and poor that they fight tooth and nail against their own people - of their own volition - relocating to countries where they might become happy, and no longer pawns.

Reading between the lines of this article in Ma'an News, one can see where the real problem lies:

Iceland decided to accept 29 stranded Palestinian refugees after appeals by UNHCR seeking to find permanent solutions for the group of mostly widows and their children.

The group, made mostly of women and children, has been stranded on the Iraq-Syria border for two years, according to UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond who spoke at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.

UNHCR says there are approximately 2,300 Palestinians living in refugee camps made mostly of tents.

For these Palestinians, under the protection of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), the organization feels that "resettlement is their only option."

According to Redmond, the commission has "repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians, but with few results." Though there have been 300 refugees settled in Brazil and Chile recently. Redmond noted that "some urgent medical cases were taken by a few European countries, but this is a very small proportion of the 2,300 Palestinians stranded in the desert."

The two camps that most Palestinian refugees from Iraq are living in have minimal services. Tents provide shelter for hot summer sun and freezing winter temperatures, and the nearest medical facilities are 400 kilometers away.

UNHCR has announced that a second group of refugees, made up of 155 women and families, are scheduled to resettle in Sweden.

Many Palestinians worry that if they are resettled in a new country they will be giving up their right to return to Palestine if and when that option becomes available. In his statements to the press, Redmond stressed that relocation to escape the dire circumstances of camp life would "in no way jeopardize their right to return at any stage, if and when such a possibility arises."

Who are these "many Palestinians" that are so worried? Certainly it is not the ones who live in Gaza under Hamas rule, who are more than willing to relocate to other countries if they could. Certainly it is not the ones in these Iraqi/Syrian camps. Certainly it is not the ones who live in Lebanon, stateless, who would grab any opportunity to become full citizens of the country they were born and raised in if they were given the chance.

No, the "many Palestinians" who are against any sort of resettlement are the ones who already live in Europe and write angry op-ed pieces about this sacred "right of return." They are the Palestinian Arab leaders who will decry any hint of a permanent solution for their people that does not include destroying Israel. They are the leaders of other Arab countries who would never want Palestinian Arabs to become citizens in their own countries - but pretend that this bigotry is for the good of Palestinian Arabs themselves!

Wreaths for a terrorist

Al Hayat al Jadida reports that a Belgian parliamentary delegation visited Ramallah yesterday and laid a wreath at the grave of the syphilitic godfather of modern terrorism, Yasir Arafat.

They now join other illustrious people who have genuflected to the symbol of the murder of civilians worldwide, including Jimmy Carter, Mahmoud Abbas, Kofi Annan, Jack Straw, Vladimir Putin, Ban Ki-Moon, Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein head) and leaders of North Korea.

Those who refused to engage in this sick tribute to Arafat include Tony Blair (although he did visit he refused to lay a wreath), George Bush and Condi Rice.

The latest Zionist crime: stealing water - from the Nile. The crafty Jews have managed to dig wells from the Negev, through the entire Sinai and past the Suez Canal in order to steal precious Nile water, according to unnamed "human rights" activists. Some six conduits of water are alleged to have been built under the Suez Canal. Their estimate is that Zionists are prepared to steal some 3 billion cubic meters of water to irrigate the Negev.

Islamic Jihad claims to have uncovered a "network of collaborators" in Gaza. People accused of "collaboration" with Israel have historically been killed but there have been no reports of any deaths for that reason over the past few months despite regular reports of such discoveries. It is entirely possible that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have found ways to murder people without anyone finding out.

Palestine Today reports that Doctors Without Borders has finally commented on the doctors' strike in Gaza. (I couldn't find anything about it on the actual MSF website.) According to this report, the organization blames both Fatah and Hamas for the reduction in medical services in Gaza and Hamas' systematic abductions and beatings of doctors is only mentioned in passing as not helping to alleviate the situation.

Meanwhile, more doctors are being abducted by Hamas and others forced to work at gunpoint. Also being targeted are female health care workers.

The latest seizure of bad food in the West Bank was a shipment of expired dates that was infested with bugs. Of course, it came from "settlements."

Hamas cuts power to journalists. None of them report it.

A small story in Firas Press says that Hamas cut off electricity to a building in Gaza City that houses a number of media outlets, including Reuters and Al Hayat al Jadida, for the fifth day in a row. (The story was originally written by the pro-Fatah Palestine Press Agency.)

Nothing about this at Reuters or any other news outlet.

How the PalArab press reports a anti-semitic attack

From the Jerusalem Post:

Three Jewish counselors from the Bnei Akiva youth movement were attacked not far from the organization's central branch in Paris on Saturday afternoon. The boys, aged between 17 and 18, had just finished the Sabbath minha prayer when they were attacked by a group of Muslims.

According to a press statement released by World Bnei Akiva spokesman Tzvika Klein, the youths were initially approached by a group of three Muslims and African immigrants who began to hurl chestnuts in their direction. When one of the counselors complained, the assailants began yelling out anti-Semitic remarks. Between 10 to a dozen other attackers wearing knuckle dusters joined the original three and began beating up the Jewish group until police arrived at the scene.

...The victims' families filed a complaint with local police that had responded by opening an investigation into the incident, which has already been recognized as an anti-Semitic attack by local authorities.

Now, let's see how Palestine Press Agency reported it:

A group of young Moroccans attacked three young Israelis serving as guides for a Jewish youth movement in Paris Sunday evening, causing minor to moderate injuries.

You see, since Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing against Jews, it is of course impossible for Muslim youths to have attacked Jews. So the victims must have been Israeli, thereby turning it from a hate crime into a simple political disagreement which is perfectly OK.

Because everyone knows that "Zionists" are fair game to be the recipients of "resistance," worldwide.

Discuss something.

I dare ya.

Free Gaza supports terrorism in petition

The FGM has announced the utterly absurd aim to gain one million signatures - all from Gazans - on a petition to give to the UN. Since nearly 50% of Gazans are under 15 years old, and there are 1.4 million Gazans (according to probably inflated estimates), this should be an interesting exercise in wishful thinking and/or outright forgery.

And what will the petition say? Well, among other things, it "affirms that the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have the right to resist occupation" - which is the code-word used by Palestinian Arabs for "terrorism." Every terror group calls themselves "resistance groups." The petition pointedly doesn't say "peaceful resistance," so the meaning is clear to everyone.

Yet the Freaks of Gaza still style themselves as "peace activists."

In other FGM news, 6 of the members stuck in Gaza because of their own stupidity announced that they are fasting during Ramadan, thus telling the world that they consider Islam to be superior to their own belief systems. They say that their fasting is in solidarity with the "Palestinian people," which means that they don't consider Christians to be Palestinian.

Somehow, I missed their petition against Palestinian Muslim abuse of Christians.

The FGM website has a short film that describes the situation of Gazans with lovingly narrated lies. The video says that all of Gaza's land borders are controlled by Israel (tell that to the FGM members who tried to leave through Rafah), that basic food and water supplies are being restricted by Israel, and that Gazans are starving to death. (I have been looking for a single victim of starvation wince that meme started years ago and still have come up empty.)

Peaceful PalArab weekend

There are ten days fo the year that Muslims can have exclusive access to the second-holiest Jewish site in the world, the Cave of the Patriarchs. They used one of those days last Friday to urinate in the area of where the Torah scrolls usually are and to place Hamas flags throughout the synagogue. (Nothing about this in even the mainstream Israeli papers, only Arutz-7.)

Israel informed the UK that five British "charity" organizations are fronts for Hamas and will be banned in Israel.

Hamas keeps arresting doctors in Gaza.

Three more smuggling tunnels found and destroyed by Egypt.

Hamas claims that Israel killed 2 PalArabs in August. They are lying. The PCHR, which leaves no stone unturned looking for supposed Israeli abuses, reported zero killings. Hamas didn't provide any names nor circumstances.

The Al Aqsa Brigades of Fatah claimed to have exploded a bomb near the town of Itamar on Saturday.

Some questions are being raised about a Hamas member who died in late August, supposedly of a heart attack during training. Some people think that he may have been killed. He was responsible for an assassination attaempt against Mahmoud Abbas.

There is a controversy in Egypt over whether actors and actresses are permitted to kiss on-screen during Ramadan.

Hamas complains that Jews aren't saving terrorist lives

The Al Qassam website of Hamas is always a fun place to see the twisted logic of a sick, perverted people, and today is no exception.

A Hamas member died of cancer today. Hamas' announcement of this event is filled with fascinating tidbits:

Military Communiqué

Al Qassam Brigades mourns Mohammed Hassuna, martyred by cancer

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy ... Today, Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahed:

Mohammed Rawhi Mahmoud Hassouna 25-year-old

Sheikh Redwan Neighborhood - Gaza Strip

The Mujahed was martyred from cancer; the martyr didn’t manage to travel for medical treatment, because of the Zionist siege on Gaza strip. Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

First we have the interesting use of the word "martyr." A martyr is someone who sacrifices his or her life for a cause; dying of cancer is hardly "martyrdom." Hamas is purposefully cheapening the term to include pretty much anyone they feel like (on their web page they also have a "martyr" who died in a car accident.)

If someone is designated a "martyr" their families get more honor and in many cases extra money, so Hamas is apparently trying to inflate their own importance by designating every dead member as a shaheed.

Hamas loves using the term "playground of death" and it is perhaps more apt than they realize; after all, they seem to do a lot of their terror training in playgrounds.

But by far the most ironic part of this death notice is where they blame Israel's partial blockade for his death.

Forget the fact that thousands of Gazans have traveled to Israel to get medical treatment during the "siege." We have a case here of Hamas bitterly railing against the Zionist entity for the "occupation" and promising to murder every Zionist Jew in the Middle East, and then complaining that these same Zionists who they want dead aren't saving their members' lives. (Notice again that they do not blame Egypt for refusing to treat their terrorists; only Israel is blamed. I guess because evil Zionist medicine is better to treat Hamas martyrdom-seekers.)

The bizarre case of Hala Kaware

Last week, a woman was discovered to have been killed by her father and four brothers in an "honor killing":

At approximately 09:00 on Saturday, 30 August 2008, Hussein Mustafa Kaware’, 67, from Jourat al-Lout area in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, went to a police station in the town and confessed murdering his 24-year-old daughter, Hala, and burying her in land belonging to the family. Immediately, the police moved to the area and took the body out. The girl’s hands and feet were tied and her mouth was muzzled. The body was evacuated to Nasser Hospital in the town and from their to the forensic medicine department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to police sources, the father confessed murdering his daughter “to maintain the honor of his family.” The police also arrested 4 of his sons.

This is not a very atypical story in the Palestinian Arab territories - 28 PalArab women were killed in "honor killings" last year - but a strange detail just emerged.

According to the UN, Halas had been caught with a suicide bomb belt two weeks earlier.

Hamas caught her and jailed her until August 30th, and when they released her she was murdered immediately by her family.

Why would a young woman in today's Gaza want to become a suicide bomber? There are no Jews around to blow up, and if her target was Hamas then you can be sure that they would not have let her go after only two weeks.

It would appear that Hala must have done something to disgrace her family earlier, and the family must have decided that the best way to deal with it would be to force her to blow herself up - perhaps at a checkpoint - as a pretense of martyrdom and to regain some family honor. Possibly Fatah or Islamic Jihad provided the belt.

Hala reluctantly agreed, knowing she was going to die no matter what happens, but she got caught by Hamas, which is trying to maintain the "calm" with Israel and knows that an attack at a checkpoint - even a halfhearted one - would cause Israel to close the Gaza crossings for a few days and increase pressure on Hamas.

Once Hamas was convinced that they were not her intended target, they had no reason to keep holding onto her.

The UN report says she was released on August 30th. The PCHR says that her father turned himself in at 9:00 AM on the same day - indicating (if the UN report is correct) that Hala was murdered immediately after her release.

We have seen before where disgraced girls were encouraged to become "martyrs" and this seems to fit the pattern. Just the double disgrace of not only being a "tainted" woman plus failing at becoming a shahada is way too much to even consider leaving her alive an hour more than necessary.

Links from our commenters 2: 1925 Waqf pamphlet

Lynne T as well as Brian mentioned a pamphlet, created by the Waqf in Jerusalem in 1925, as a guidebook to the Temple Mount.

The reason the pamphlet is interesting can be seen in this Arutz-7 article:

In 1997, the chief Moslem cleric of the Palestinian Authority, Mufti Ikrama Sabri, stated, "The claim of the Jews to the right over [Jerusalem] is false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic supervision..."

Thus began a campaign to convince the world that the millennia-old natural association between Jerusalem and Jews was untrue. As Islamic Movement chief Raed Salah stated in 2006, "We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque [on the Temple Mount], including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it."

However, it is now known that this "absolute" Moslem claim is actually not as absolute as claimed. In fact, back in 1925, the Supreme Moslem Council - also known as the Waqf, which has overseen Temple Mount activities on behalf of the Moslem religion for hundreds of years - boasted proudly that the site was none other than that of Solomon's Temple.

The Jerusalem-based Temple Institute (http://www.templeinstitute.org) reports that it has acquired a copy of the official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Moslem name for the Temple Mount). On page 4, the Waqf states, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the L-rd...', citing the source in 2 Samuel XXIV,25.

The Temple Institute's Rabbi Chaim Richman writes that the pamphlet provides proof that the Waqf's current position is a departure from traditional Muslim belief. "In recent years," he writes, "the Moslem Waqf has come to deny the historic existence of the Holy Temple, claiming that the Temple Mount belongs solely to the Moslem nation, and that there exists no connection between the Jewish nation and the Temple Mount. It is clear from this pamphlet that the revised Waqf position strays from traditional Moslem acknowledgment of the Mount's Jewish antecedents."

"The current denial of historical reality is merely one tool in the war being waged by Moslems against the G-d of Israel and the entire 'infidel' world," Richman declares.

The pamphlet itself includes pictures of the Temple Mount - this time without weeds, although still in a state of disrepair (the reproduction is poor, though.)

Links from our commenters 1: New book by Sharansky

Lynne T. links to a fascinating review of a new book by Natan Sharansky called "Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy" in which he makes what seems like the counterintuitive claim that democracy without nationalism is a weaker democracy. I'd probably need to read it to understand it fully but some of the tidbits mentioned are most interesting. I especially like this paragraph:

By clouding the differences between democracy and tyranny, the cultural relativism of post-identity doctrines have had the poisonous effect of making human rights standards more difficult to apply universally. Sharansky exposes the double standards and hypocrisy of those who argue that while nationalism must be eliminated in the West, it is perfectly justified in weaker societies. He is particularly critical of international human rights groups that fail to distinguish between rights violations in open and closed societies, as if the abuses characteristic of authoritarian regimes are indistinguishable from deviations from democratic practices in democracies that are brought to light precisely because of their transparency. And he is scathing in his condemnation of post-Zionists who argue that Israel must be transformed into a secular state while at the same time preaching a self-determination for the Palestinians that would preserve their Arab identity 'as part of the surrounding Arab and Islamic world.'

I imagine that Sharansky is distinguishing as well between nationalism in democratic and repressive societies, because clearly nationalism can be used in a most negative way (which would explain Europe's skittishness about nationalism today.) It is possible that the United States is unique in its trans-ethnic nationalism (the "melting pot") based on principles of equality and democracy, rather than US-style nationalism being the reason for the relative success of US democracy. Still, Sharansky always brings up very good points, and it is probably a good read.

It is a shame that the White House seems to have fundamentally misunderstood his book "The Case for Democracy," something that might have helped Hamas gain Gaza.