Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The nutty ramblings of a madman

From reading the news reports on Ahmadinejad's UN speech one gets the impression that it was just another political speech at the UN, with some pointed attacks towards America and Israel but not much else.

Only when you read the actual transcript can you appreciate the sheer messianic and twisted craziness that this man is filled with.

Here are some parts of the speech that the mainstream media doesn't feel is very important.

First, the entire first half of his speech was a messianic religious rant, with nothing to do with politics:

In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful, all praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe, and peace and blessing be upon our master and prophet, Mohammed, and his pure household and his noble companions. Oh, God, hasten the arrival of Imam al-Mahdi, and grant him good health and victory, and make us his followers and those who attest to his rightfulness. [The UPI transcript had a comma between "make us" and "his followers" but the Mathaba.net version does not, and the comma doesn't make sense. Ahmadinejad is calling on everyone to become a Shiite. - EoZ]

...
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, today I would like to talk to you about the main reasons behind the conditions ruling the world and the means to tackle them.

Of course, you're already aware of what I am talking about, but I think it is necessary to remind ourselves.

It seems that the roots of problems align the way one views and perceives the world and humankind, as well as in the important issues of freedom, obeisance to God, and justice.

The world, humankind, freedom, and obeisance to God, and justice have been the utmost importance to humans throughout history.

One, the world. God Almighty purposely created the world. This world is the bedrock for the evolution and growth of a creature called man. And the laws governing the world and all other creatures are at the service of man's quest for loftiness.

The world should provide the needed opportunities for the fulfillment of the purpose behind man's creation. No phenomenon, creature, or, indeed, anything has been created in vain.

Together, they all pave the ground for the flourishing of mankind in a complex and purposeful system. And they are each one of the signs of God Almighty. All are his creations, and he is the sole creator and ruler of the world. All existence, including power, knowledge, and wealth come from him.

Two, humankind. God created the world for humans and humans for himself. He created humans from mud and in the soil, but he did not want them to remain in the soil and with animal instincts.

He kindled the light of guidance in their souls and asked them to rise from the soil to the heavens and to him, with the help of wisdom, prophets, and perfect men.

The world will ultimately disappear, but God has created man for eternity and has made them a manifestation of himself.

Creativity, mercifulness, kindness, knowledge, wisdom, zeal, concealment of sins, splendor, justice, bounteousness, generosity, greatness, love, glory, dignity, forgiveness, insight, kingship, and all other goodness and beauty are attributes of God.

God has not created humans for aggression, bloodshed, ranker, selfishness, and destruction.

He made humans his ... servants on Earth and has asked them to, on the one hand, make Earth prosper by using their God-given potentials, and to prepare the ground for the growth of divine attributes in all humans, and to provide all with a life of beauty, amity, freedom, justice, and goodness, and, on the other hand, in pursuance of this path, to prepare for a prosperous everlasting life endowed by God's mercy.

God has obligated humans to live divinely and socially, for it is only through social life and interactions with others that divine attributes may emerge.

Three, obeisance to God. God Almighty has tied their perfection and true freedom of humans to their devotion and obedience to himself. True freedom and obedience to God are in balance and, in fact, are two sides of the same coin. Obeisance to God means confessing to monotheism and obeying his commands and to be free from ungodly worship. Obeisance to God means the acceptance of the absolute truth, the absolute light, and the absolute beauty.

Obeisance to God means abandoning selfishness and animal instincts, power-seeking and aggression, surrendering to righteousness, justice, love, and perfection.

And in this way, humans can achieve their true freedom and flourish. They can grow and manifest divine attributes, have affection for others, stand up for justice, and fear no power or threat, and defend the oppressed.

In such an environment, one's freedom -- one's freedom will not impinge on any other's. Contention and conflict are characteristic of materialistic freedom and animal instinct. The essence of all divine religions and obeisance to God and true freedom is disassociating from oppressors and instead obeying and worshiping God.

Four, God is omniscient and knows all that is revealed or kept secret, and he is kind and merciful. All creatures are humbled before him and resign to his will.

God is alive and is the creator of the universe and all life. God loves his creatures and desires nothing but goodness, blessings, and perfection for them, and is against bullying, injustice, selfishness, and domination.

Four, justice. Justice is the foundation of the creation of humankind and the whole universe. Justice is tantamount to placing every phenomenon in its own place and providing humans with opportunities to actualize all their divine capabilities.

Without it, the order of the universe will collapse and the opportunity for perfection will fade away.

Without justice, it would be impossible for human society to taste real peace, beauty, joy, and happiness.

Justice is the main pillar of social life, and without it social life cannot continue or grow.

Humans need to know God in order to realize a prosperous society in this world, as well as to strive for a beautiful eternal life. And to this end, they first have to know themselves and strive for loftiness in themselves and their societies.

However, as long as the world is construed as closed, limited, and aimless, as long as eternal life is considered imaginary and illusory, and afterlife and the Judgment Day, as well as reward and punishment, are thought of as fictional and unreal, as long as morals and commitment to them are called backwardness and immorality, lies, deceit, and selfishness are considered desirable, and humans are limited to a materialistic life in this world, as long as attempts are made to replace obedience to God, and following his prophets, and true freedom with servitude to materialistic tendencies, and animal instincts, and servitude to oppressing human beings and contention reaches its pinnacle, as long as the aggressors, because of their financial, political, and propaganda powers, not only escape punishment, but even claim righteousness; and as long as wars are started and nations are enslaved in order to win votes in elections, not only will the problems of the global community remain unsolved, but they will be increasingly exacerbated.

And his obsession with Zionism and Jews takes up a significant portion of the speech, not only the brief snippets quoted in the papers:

In Palestine, 60 years of carnage and invasion is still ongoing at the hands of some criminal and occupying Zionists. They have forged a regime through collecting people from various parts of the world and bringing them to other people's land by displacing, detaining, and killing the true owners of that land.

With advanced notice, they invade, assassinate, and maintain food and medicine blockades, while some hegemonic and bullying powers support them.

The Security Council cannot do anything, and sometimes, under pressure from a few bullying powers, even paves the way for supporting these Zionist murderers.

It is natural that some U.N. resolutions that have addressed the plight of the Palestinian people have been relegated to the archives unnoticed. ...

The dignity, integrity, and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a minuscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers, as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the U.S. in a deceitful, complex, and furtive manner.

It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premier nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and a commitment to their interests, in order to attain financial or media support.

This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people.

These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes, and occupations, and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.

Friends and colleagues, all these are due to the manner in which the immoral and the powerful view the world, humankind, freedom, obeisance to God, and justice, the thoughts and deeds of those who think they are superior to others and consider others as second-class and inferior, who intend to remain out of the divine circle, to be the absent slaves of their materialistic and selfish desires, who intend to expand their aggressive and domineering natures, constitute the roots of today's problems in human societies.

They are hindrances to the actualization of material and spiritual prosperity and security, peace, and brotherhood among nations. I explicitly state that the Iranian people and the overwhelming majority of the peoples and governments are against those deeds and perspectives of the world-domineering powers.

Establishment of justice requires people who achieve moderation and justice inside themselves and have restrained their domineering attitudes and actualized their attributes of self-sacrifice and are at the service of humanity.

The complete and full-scale manifestation of such characteristics can happen only under the rule of the righteous and the perfect human being, who is obedient to God and who was promised by the divine prophets.

Finally comes his implicit threats against America and his return to his messianic theme:

American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road. And its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders. Today, the thought of hegemony quickly becomes a demerit.

And now a few words with the expansionist governments' ruling global relations. Be aware that living with obedience to God and carrying out his orders, compassion for people, and striving for the fulfillment of justice is to your advantage, too.

I invite you to return to the path of God, the prophets, and to the path of the people of the world, and to the truth and justice. The only route to salvation is a divine, straight path.

Otherwise, God's hands of power will emerge from the sleeve of the oppressed nations and will make your life difficult and will put an end to your hegemony.

Let's love the people of the world and respect their rights, rectify past behavior. This will benefit you and the human community.

The Iranian people are prepared, along with other nations, to help you be rescued from your current situation and to establish peace and prosperity.

My friends, fortuitously, opportunities are accessible. With the grace of God Almighty, the existing pillars of the oppressive system are crumbling. Great developments in favor of humankind, as well as its true and real rights, are on the way.

A golden and brilliant future is awaiting mankind. A global community filled with justice, friendship, brotherhood, and welfare is at hand and, as I have elaborated, a community which will tread the path of beauty and love under the rule of the righteous and the perfect human being, the one promised by all divine prophets, and the one who is the true lover of humanity.

A community that will be devoid of any fear, despair, and privation, such a community will soon be ours, the community promised by the great divine prophets Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed, peace be upon him, is about to materialize. Let us, hand in hand, expand the thought of resistance against evil and the minority of those who are ill-wishers.

Let's support goodness and the majority of people who are good and the embodiment of absolute good that Imam of Time, The Promised One who will come accompanied by Jesus Christ, and accordingly design and implement the just and humanistic mechanisms for regulating the constructive relationships between nations and governments.

Oh, Great Almighty, deliver the savior of nations and put an end to the sufferings of mankind and bring forth justice, beauty, and love.

Friends, let's have a proper share in the establishment of that illuminated and promised divine age.

I thank you all very much.

To describe this speech, as the media has, as anything other than a crazed, messianic, anti-semitic screed is tantamount to lying about it. This is not a political speech; it is pure hate clothed in religious garb. To even imagine that the author of this rant will soon have weapons of mass destruction available to hasten the coming of his Mahdi is incredibly frightening, and the MSM missing the point of this speech is mind-blowing.

Quickies

5 were killed in a tunnel explosion in Gaza. Since it appears that Egypt set the explosion, these will not be counted in my self-death counts.

In a move that symbolized the Gaza/West Bank split better than any other, both governments chose wildly different days to celebrate Eid at the end of Ramadan. The PA says it starts on September 30th, Hamas says the 25th.

Finally, a purely anti-semitic anti-Palin screed in the Pakistan Daily site.

Ahmadinejad's anti-semitism and the MSM

Yesterday's speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN was the most anti-semitic speech given there since the infamous 1975 UN resolution that equated Zionism (with a small z) to racism.

While most of the mainstream media reported (as in this AP example)

Ahmadinejad accused “a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists ... (of) dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the U.S.”

very, very few took the small step to mention that this is a classic anti-semitic belief. The three that I found, outside of Jewish and Israeli media, were:

The New York Daily News:

From there, Ahmadinejad called up classic anti-Semitic canards and - without ever mentioning Israel or Jews by name - he attacked "acquisitive and invasive people" who dominate "financial and monetary centers."

The New York Sun:

On Israel he used Europe's oldest anti-Semitic language to blame "a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists" for "dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers."

And, most surprisingly, the Times of London:

In a rambling speech punctuated by anti-Semitic bluster, an emboldened Mr Ahmadinejad vowed not to bow to “illegal demands” to halt Iran’s nuclear activities which he defended as the peaceful pursuit of civilian energy.

...A rambling religious treatise gave way to a series of startling attacks on Israel and Jews in general, blaming them for all the world’s ills. “The dignity, integrity and rights of American and European people are played with by a deceitful group of people called Zionists,” he said.
The global financial crisis was the fault of “a small number of acquisitive and evasive people” who had taken control of the whole world order, he said, but predicted that this would soon change.

A few more media did quote various others denouncing the speech as anti-semitic (including Barack Obama,) but a huge majority is so cowed by the idea that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with anti-semitism - even when they are presented in historically identical ways - that they will dispassionately report the fact that the leader of a large nation, on the verge of nuclear capability, is single-mindedly obsessed with ending the rights of Jews to national self-determination.

Kudos to the few exceptions, and shame to the MSM for not drawing the very short line between Ahmadinejad's speech and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Autotranslation of the day

From Saudi Arabia's Okaz news agency, an article about a car accident:

Path General Hospital announced a state of emergency and alert yesterday morning following a traffic accident on the road [[in] Mrbp near Brownish Discharge led to the death of one person and wounding of 17, according to the available details.

Not my idea of a place to have a nice family outing, but to each his own....

"Free Gaza" freaks continue to show utter disregard for Gazans

The latest "Free Gaza" ship, called the "SS Hope," is scheduled to set sail from Cyprus on Thursday.

Now, they are sending some doctors, which sounds like the Freaks might for once actually be interested in helping the people of Gaza. But, alas, it is not true. According to the FG site, "Doctors and lawyers are going to Gaza at the request of the people of Gaza to assess the medical tragedy there and to talk to the people."

So the doctors will not do anything that existing NGOs in Gaza (Doctors Without Borders, the many UNRWA doctors) are not doing already. The lawyers will do, pretty much, nothing except feel important. The Arab Knesset member will give interviews as will other other "human rights" activists to the two Al Jazeera reporters on board.

But perhaps the most valuable person on the entire ship will be "Joe Fallisi (Italy) Opera Singer, Composer." Gaza is suffering from a severe shortage of opera singers and the poor Palestinian Arabs stuck there have expressed their clear desire for an operatic tenor to entertain them and move them to tears. Fallisi has already entered the Free Gaza song contest, and Fallisi - who, we are helpfully told, is a vegan - sings lyrics such as "Zionists, oppressors, tyrants will fall."

One can only imagine how much he will lift the hearts of supposedly starving Gazans with his songs.

Because his ship sure isn't bringing any food.

Moderate Palestinian Arab negotiator threatens violence

From YNet:

The Palestinian chief negotiator with Israel cautioned on Tuesday that violence could erupt if peace talks collapse.

"The Palestinians will continue to negotiate. But, if the talks reached a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right," said Ahmed Qureia in a message to newly-elected Kadima chairwoman, Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni.

So sweet that this moderate leader greeted the apparent next leader of Israel with such touching words, threatening that if she doesn't give in to all his demands, his people will resort to murdering innocent civilians, which he asserts is quite legitimate. In other contexts this would be considered blackmail, but in the Middle East this is business as usual.

One may be pedantic and recall the words of Yasir Arafat at the onset of Oslo:

The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.

The PLO commits itself to the Middle East peace process, and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations.

The PLO considers that the signing of the Declaration of Principles constitutes a historic event, inaugurating a new epoch of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts which endanger peace and stability. Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators.

It's almost as if the PLO and its PA subsidiary are filled with - violent liars whose promises are not worth the paper they are written on!

But, they are considered "moderate," so that makes it OK. Because, after all, Hamas and Islamic Jihad might act the exact same way but they are a bit more extreme in their initial demands, so of course the PLO and the PA are so very moderate and peace-loving in comparison.

The keffiyeh has become standard garb for anti-war activists across the globe and a chic accessory for urban hipsters -- a vaguely subversive, vaguely exotic all-weather neck warmer.

Do you think that Mahmoud's decision to join the hipsters will enhance or discourage the keffiyeh's use?

Tuesday PalArab press roundup

Another man was killed by falling into a smuggling tunnel. I believe that this makes 37 tunnel deaths this year.

One more was found dead of gunshot wounds in Deir al-Balah in Gaza.

An anti-Hamas news site is reporting more evidence that last July's beach bombing that killed 5 Hamas members and a girl was from internal fighting.

A previously unknown Gaza group is threatening to shoot rockets at the Rafah crossing and to kidnap Egyptian soldiers unless Palestinian Arab prisoners in Egyptian prisons are released.

All the Palestinian Arabic media is reporting that a website "funded by the Mossad" is offering a cash reward for the assassination of Samir Kuntar.

Once again, the priorities of people getting Eid gifts will not be poor people but children of terrorists, alive and dead.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 189.

Isn't it romantic?

The Israeli media is reporting on the apparent motivation of the driver in yesterday's terror attack: A broken heart!

The terrorist who rammed his BMW into a group of soldiers at a central Jerusalem thoroughfare late Monday night has been identified as Kasem Mugrabi, 19, from Jebl Mukaber in east Jerusalem.

Mugrabi, a resident of the same village as the Mercaz Harav terrorist who killed eight in March, wounded fifteen people before being shot dead by an off-duty IDF officer.

The assailant had no previous security record, police said Tuesday.

According to an initial police investigation, the 19-year-old wanted to marry his cousin, and when she refused his offer, he decided to carry out a terror attack, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

Unrequited love has led to many a suicide in the West, and it is tragic that the ideas of Romeo and Juliet are such a part of our culture that lovestruck victims will sometimes kill themselves.

The Palestinian Arab culture, however, doesn't romanticize suicide - it romanticizes self-destructive mass murder. It is unthinkable to just kill oneself, because that adds shame and dishonor to your family.

Our young, pained Kasem Mugrabi seems to have been jilted and he responded with the Palestinian Arab concept of ultimate self-sacrifice - to kill oneself while trying to murder as many of the enemy as possible. A shameful act is thus elevated to an act of martyrdom, and the loss of a love on Earth is replaced by the concept of unlimited sex in Paradise.

Rather than hoping that the object of his desires would cry for him and regret her rejection, the terrorist can hope that she will be jealous that she didn't fall for such an honorable man - the same type of man who Palestinian Arab culture considers heroes.

This is the idea of romance in Palestinian Arab culture - a society where mass murder is celebrated so routinely that it becomes an attractive alternative for shamed people to become heroes.

Buzzworthy Open Thread

I just tried to add Yahoo Buzz! to my template, but it is not working as nicely as I would like.

But since you guys asked, here is another open thread.....

PalArabs thrilled with terror attack

Here are some of the autotranslated comments at the Fatah-linked Palestine Press news agency to the article about the terror attack in Jerusalem today:

I hope more heroic operations

Yahya God all the freedom fighters in the city of Jerusalem, especially the bomber

We congratulate the process [operation] and wish [that the source was] the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and it is not with the [Hamas] resistance, the Iranian Hamas pigs who deliver [only] a paper resistance and we say [to Hamas] Go to hell

Thank God with us, which we thought that the beloved Palestine and the Palestinian issue still has insisted in Palestinian hearts and that despite all attempts to disperse the Palestinian thinking, but we can work to break the cover of occupation

Thank God for this work which God chose us Homnfz driver and the process is a martyr hero God bless his soul to God, what a bargain Jewish Lord violin and violin operations Aktar more, you know, I do not kill each other so you O Palestine, Fatah and Hamas miles Msolon us what is Sahhhhhhhhhhhhhawwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Ome fine fine Halina Unit Nationally supported in some yen Thank you, you Iarepettstjibwa Arabs

The name of God Rahamin Rahim Web and thrown and thrown, but God contact us thank God that we have made Islam and Muslims hail you a martyr and God Spoof you, hero of God you are happy and the Palestinian people in the holy month of Ramadan, God willing, and more heroic operations

But there was one commenter against the attack. Well, of course he praised the attack, but he thought that the timing was not the greatest, because it might delay the Israelis giving up more land to the Palestinian Arabs for free.

Another Ramadan terror attack

Ah, Ramadan. All about fasting, prayer, spiritual reflection, reading from the Koran - and attacking the dhimmis.

A terrorist driving a black BMW ran his car into a crowd of pedestrians at a busy intersection in central Jerusalem near the Old City on Monday evening.

At least 17 people were confirmed wounded at Zahal Square, all in light-to-moderate condition. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated those wounded to the Hadassah Ein Karem and Shaare Zedek hospitals for treatment.

The JPost adds:

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said that the attacker was shot dead "within seconds" by an off-duty IDF officer who was touring the city with his unit.

He added that there was no intelligence information ahead of the attack, but noted that Jerusalem was under heavy security alert due to Ramadan.

But why, oh why would anyone associate Ramadan, the holiest Muslim month, with terror attacks?

Could it be because a couple of days ago there was a Ramadan terror attack against a hotel in Pakistan, killing dozens?

If Islam is a religion of peace, wouldn't it be logical that their holiest month would be the most peaceful month?

Perhaps, unlike what we've been told by apologists for Islam, Ramadan is really the "month for Jihad," as this Christian Science Monitor article from 2003 discovered.

But Israelis know this very well. After all, the Yom Kippur War in 193 is known in the Arab world as "The Ramadan War."

So there is nothing unusual for terror attacks to occur during Ramadan. On the contrary, it is expected.

British Muslims celebrating 9/11 anniversary

From MEMRI:

Reporter: Islamic activists in the British capital have chosen to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11 in their own way. Once again, they called the attacks, which caused thousands of casualties, the "New York Raid." They warned that new attacks would occur in the future, unless the U.S. reexamines its policy and attitude toward Islam and the Muslims.

Anjam Chaudhary, Secretary-General Al-Ghuraba Movement: Since the raid of Manhattan seven years ago, and the collapse of the twin towers in New York, many developments have taken place around the world. Many events similar to September 11, July 7, and November 3 [sic] have taken place in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, Iraq, and Afghanistan since then.

Reporter: The event took place after the fast-breaking meal at a religious center in east London, and was attended by dozens of participants. The speakers focused on the lessons to be drawn from the attacks, and they derided the war on terror waged by Washington, and by Western and Islamic countries, saying that it had managed to strengthen Al-Qaeda, rather than weaken it.

Muhammad Seif Al-Islam, The Salafi Youth Movement: This is the consequence of your own actions an of every step you take. Wake up, wake up. So many times we have heard the warning of Sheik Osama Bin Laden, as well as the warnings of Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda, calling upon the Western peoples to awaken from their slumber, and to be on their guard so that their governments will not lead them to war, causing violence and aggression. [These peoples] should prevent their governments from inciting them to become the enemies of Islam and the Muslims.

Reporter: Sheik Omar Bakri, whose return to British soil has been denied, addressed the participants by phone from Lebanon.

Omar Bakri: "Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah: Some of them have died, and others await their turn, but they have not changed [their religion]."

Reporter: From the support for Bakri's words, it was clear that Bakri, founder of Hizb Al-Tahrir and the Muhajireen Movement, still enjoys the support and trust of his followers, who said their struggle against the British government's policy would continue, regardless of the measures taken against them.

Free Gaza freaks stymied in their latest attempt to sail

From Ma'an:

The second siege breaking voyage organized by the Free Gaza movement has been delayed for “logistical reasons.” The ships were scheduled to dock in the Gaza port on Monday, and have not set a new date of arrival.

Chairman of the People's committee against the blockade and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Jamal Al-Khudari, said that the doctors, journalists, parliamentarians and activists set as the ship’s crew have begun to arrive in Cyprus.

Do you think this is perhaps because our leftist terrorist-supporters are having a hard time raising money from the masses of people who pretend to want to help ordinary Palestinian Arabs?

We're broke and we need money NOW! We are at a critical stage of our project and your help is needed. All of the money raised so far has been spent on the boats and project logistics, and we have taken an emergency loan for $70,000. That is why our illustrations below show more money spent than raised. We have already spent more than a half million dollars, at least half of which is in loans. We currently have less than $20K in our accounts. And we have to pay around $70K in fuel alone before this is over. It looks like we also might need a substantial amount ($15K though not certain) to make the satellite link work, and we really should bail out some of our Greek friends who have put themselves at serious financial risk to lend massive amount of funds to us. In all, we need $50K right away and $100K soon after, and then an additional $200K to pay back the remainder of the loans.

If they couldn't get enough money to pay for even half of their first PR stunt, who is going to pay for the second one - which will inevitably have much less publicity?

The reason they can't raise money is clear. Their mission is not to help Palestinian Arabs but rather to embarrass Israeli Jews. People are naturally charitable but even leftists know that this money is only being used for hate, not to help anyone in any real sense. So only the die-hard anti-semites and anti-Zionists are willing to put any cash into this money pit.

Which goes to prove once again that Israel does more to help ordinary Palestinian Arabs than any number of political groups who pretend to care so much about them.

Even their money to buy their fashionable keffiyehs is not going to their cause!

The speech that Sarah Palin would have given

The New York Sun publishes the speech that Sarah Palin would have given in New York today to protest Ahmadinejad. Unfortunately, the rally organizers disinvited her when they came under pressure from Democrats. (I would love to see the speech that Hillary Clinton would have given before she found out that Palin was supposed to be there, which started the entire debacle.)

I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country — leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice of outrage.
Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York — to the heart of what he calls the Great Satan — and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he has called for.

Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.

He must be stopped.

The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.

The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material to produce a bomb within a year.

The world has condemned these activities. The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Iran suspend its illegal nuclear enrichment activities. It has levied three rounds of sanctions. How has Ahmadinejad responded? With the declaration that the "Iranian nation would not retreat one iota" from its nuclear program.

So, what should we do about this growing threat? First, we must succeed in Iraq. If we fail there, it will jeopardize the democracy the Iraqis have worked so hard to build, and empower the extremists in neighboring Iran. Iran has armed and trained terrorists who have killed our soldiers in Iraq, and it is Iran that would benefit from an American defeat in Iraq.

If we retreat without leaving a stable Iraq, Iran's nuclear ambitions will be bolstered. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons — they could share them tomorrow with the terrorists they finance, arm, and train today. Iranian nuclear weapons would set off a dangerous regional nuclear arms race that would make all of us less safe.

But Iran is not only a regional threat; it threatens the entire world. It is the no. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. It sponsors the world's most vicious terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. Together, Iran and its terrorists are responsible for the deaths of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, and in Iraq today. They have murdered Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, and other Muslims who have resisted Iran's desire to dominate the region. They have persecuted countless people simply because they are Jewish.

Iran is responsible for attacks not only on Israelis, but on Jews living as far away as Argentina. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are part of Iran's official ideology and murder is part of its official policy. Not even Iranian citizens are safe from their government's threat to those who want to live, work, and worship in peace. Politically-motivated abductions, torture, death by stoning, flogging, and amputations are just some of its state-sanctioned punishments.

It is said that the measure of a country is the treatment of its most vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the Iranian government is both oppressive and barbaric. Under Ahmadinejad's rule, Iranian women are some of the most vulnerable citizens.

If an Iranian woman shows too much hair in public, she risks being beaten or killed.

If she walks down a public street in clothing that violates the state dress code, she could be arrested.

But in the face of this harsh regime, the Iranian women have shown courage. Despite threats to their lives and their families, Iranian women have sought better treatment through the "One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws." The authorities have reacted with predictable barbarism. Last year, women's rights activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 20 lashes and 10 months in prison for committing the crime of "propaganda against the system." After international protests, the judiciary reduced her sentence to "only" 10 lashes and 36 months in prison and then temporarily suspended her sentence. She still faces the threat of imprisonment.

Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that" effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. John McCain and I could not agree more.

Senator Clinton understands the nature of this threat and what we must do to confront it. This is an issue that should unite all Americans. Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Period. And in a single voice, we must be loud enough for the whole world to hear: Stop Iran!

Only by working together, across national, religious, and political differences, can we alter this regime's dangerous behavior. Iran has many vulnerabilities, including a regime weakened by sanctions and a population eager to embrace opportunities with the West. We must increase economic pressure to change Iran's behavior.

Tomorrow, Ahmadinejad will come to New York. On our soil, he will exercise the right of freedom of speech — a right he denies his own people. He will share his hateful agenda with the world. Our task is to focus the world on what can be done to stop him.

We must rally the world to press for truly tough sanctions at the U.N. or with our allies if Iran's allies continue to block action in the U.N. We must start with restrictions on Iran's refined petroleum imports.

We must reduce our dependency on foreign oil to weaken Iran's economic influence.

We must target the regime's assets abroad; bank accounts, investments, and trading partners.

President Ahmadinejad should be held accountable for inciting genocide, a crime under international law.

We must sanction Iran's Central Bank and the Revolutionary Guard Corps — which no one should doubt is a terrorist organization.

Together, we can stop Iran's nuclear program.

Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a plea to Israel's enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain's promise and it is my promise.

Thank you.

The speech does stray into politics a little, but that could have been easily corrected.It is a shame that partisanship torpedoed what should have been a great demonstration against the madman of Iran.
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While on the topic, which VP candidate would you think knows better how to hold a weapon, Palin or Biden?

For some reason when I think "commander in chief," all else being equal, I feel a little better knowing that the person knows a thing or two about this topic.

UPDATE: A commenter asserts that Biden owns guns and goes skeet shooting, a story that just came out.

The "Paul Isn't Dead" thread

Yerushalimey in the comments requested a Beatles thread, and why not?

At the left-wing Alternative Information Center we see an "open letter" to Sir Paul from a Jewish Israel-basher who insults McCartney in his feeble attempt to influence him to drop his Israel show this week. Evidently he doesn't quite get how "open letters" are supposed to work. It is funny, though:

If we are honest Paul, where John Lennon led you followed. When John Lennon gave back the MBE you were forced to do likewise. When he was dead and buried you were happy to accept a gong, a Knighthood, from Her Majesty. When John wrote in support of the struggle for Irish freedom, with songs such as Bloody Sunday and Luck of the Irish, you penned Give Ireland Back to the Irish. When John paid the fines of demonstrators against the Springbok Tour, the South African Rugby squad, you kept quiet, your hands in your pockets.

In other words, Paul, you have no mind of your own. So you should listen to me!

The only conclusion that can be drawn from your decision to play in Israel, especially given that your tour was cancelled only a few weeks ago, is that the most important question in your mind was the money you would receive for playing rather than any notions of peace. As recent publicity made clear, you have far more money at your disposal than any human being could spend in one lifetime. Do you really need the money that this concert will provide you? Has it not occurred to you that not only could you have afforded to make a small sacrifice, as have many other artists have done who are far poorer than you, but that you would have made a positive contribution towards bringing about a peaceful solution?

When you write songs about love, I thought you were a socialist - and now I'm disappointed to find out that you are a money-grubbing capitalist pig!

Perhaps the best comment that could be made about your decision to play in Israel is the title of a song which was addressed to you on John Lennon's Imagine.

**How do you sleep at night?**

Great move - mention a song which was as insulting as possible to Paul, telling him that he has no talent, as incentive to get him to abandon his concert.
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Yerushalimey mentions that Aleinu can be sung to Obladi Oblada. That is a bit of a stretch, but Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days" fits perfectly with L'cha Dodi - and was produced by Paul. He evidently played guitar on it as well, which was Apple's second single after "Hey Jude."
----------
Speaking of, despite Jewish grade-school rumors at the time, there is no evidence that "Hey Jude" had anything to do with Jews.
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It is very funny that the AIC idiot assumes that John Lennon would never have played in "apartheid" Israel. Yoko Ono had two exhibitions there in 2000, one in Jerusalem and one in an Arab city in northern Israel, Umm al-Fahm, thus showing that everyone knows that Jerusalem is a Jewish city!

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And how many Arab magazines would feature John and Yoko on the cover?

Breaking: Tourists kidnapped in Egypt, possibly 2 Israelis(UPDATED)

From Sky News:

Between 10 and 15 foreign tourists have reportedly been kidnapped in Aswan, southern Egypt.

The victims possibly include two Israelis, Egyptian security sources said.

The Italian Foreign Ministry added that five Italians were among those kidnapped.

It said it was in contact with other countries involved, but gave no further details.

The Egyptian security sources said it was possible the group of kidnapped tourists had been transported to Sudan.

An Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman said he had no information and was checking the report.

Attacks targeting tourists in Egypt's Nile Valley have been rare in recent years.

But a series of bombings targeted tourists in resorts in the Sinai Peninsula between 2004 and 2006.

Egypt blamed the Sinai attacks on a group of Bedouin with militant Islamist views.

Israeli authorities have been warning about such attacks for a while.

UPDATE: It appears that no Israelis were kidnapped.

Do B'Tselem's cameras cause terror?

In recent weeks there has been an increase in reported attacks in Judea and Samaria, both from Jews who live there as well as from Arabs. A perfect case in point is last week's attack by an Arab in Yitzhar, where a nine-year old boy was injured and the Jews responded with violence against the village that sheltered the attacker.

Why are these attacks increasing now?

There are certainly a number of possible reasons: the tearing down of some checkpoints and the defeatist statements made by the Israeli government as it tries to come up with more and more concessions to please President Bush and Condoleeza Rice by the end of the year can surely be considered contributing factors.

But something else might also be a more direct reason.

In 2007, Palestinian Arab rights group B'Tselem started distributing cameras to PalArabs in the territories in order to enable them to take pictures and videos of any Israeli abuses they could find. This year some of the footage got a degree of publicity and the program has expanded.

Last week, Yochanan Visser of Efrat wrote a letter where he decried the attack on IDF soldiers by some settlers. But in that same letter came some details about the Jewish/Arab attacksthat were not publicized anywhere else:

This Shabbat a Palestinian stabbed a 9-year old boy in Yitzhar in his home, after which Jewish inhabitants of Yitzhar went on a rampage in the neighboring Arab village in which 8 Palestinians were wounded.

It is obvious that the situation in some areas in the West Bank is deteriorating. On the website of Israel -Facts Dutch monitor group we have been monitoring events in the West Bank for some time now. From the data we are collecting there evolves a picture of some very problematic areas, one of them Yitzhar. From these data we also learn that most of the reported incidents do not make it to mainstream media. In fact only the incidents like the one this Shabbat are reported. From our data we also learn that there are more Palestinian incidents against Jews than the other way around.

The same one-sided reporting accounts for the so-called "camera" incidents. From our own investigations we learn that these incidents are filmed at the moment of response to the original provocation. Like the incident on Shabbat also, some six weeks ago in Har Hebron the media reported that "settlers" set on fire a Palestinian field and also abused an arrested Palestinian in the presence of IDF soldiers. From further investigation we learned that it was the Palestinians who set the Jewish orchard on fire (not surprisingly for us because all the Jews living there are observant and would never make a fire on Shabbat) after which the Jews living there took revenge - this part was filmed.

We also learned that activists from leftist organizations like B'Tselem and Peace Now are fanning the flames in the West Bank. Their goal seems to be to provoke as many possible incidents in very sensitive areas like Hebron and Ni'ilin. They also publish mostly biased reports about events in the West Bank, apparently with the goal of further de-legitimating Jewish settlements there. The focus seems to have shifted from demonstrations to violent acts against IDF forces and Jews living in the West Bank.

I cannot say with certainty that the leftists are provoking these Arab attacks in order to video the responses, but it certainly seems that the Arabs themselves have started to do so.

Not that random rampages through Arab villages are justified, but there are great political gains to be made by provoking Jewish settlers into violence where cameras are waiting to catch them in the act. And while sometimes the Israelis have photographic evidence to show that attacks originated by Arabs (as in this weekend, when a 15-year old Palestinian Arab was caught on video lighting a Molotov cocktail outside Yitzhar) the grainy thermal security-camera video is not as dramatic as color video of enraged settlers attacking. (And even the clear evidence that the boy was lighting an incendiary device doesn't stop the Arab media from saying that the IDF murdered him "in cold blood.")

So we have a situation where the world media is seeing an apparent increase of Jewish violence towards Arabs, fanned by the existence of video, while in fact it is the other way around - and the number of unreported incidents of Arab violence are increasing dramatically.

(Even the Israeli media ignores much of the Arab violence. Early last year when I visited Israel I was doubly shocked by the desecration of a synagogue at a major Jewish shrine and theft of at least one Torah - and the fact that this incident was almost ignored even in the right-wing Israeli newspapers. One of my commenters mentioned that this is simply a "dog bites man" story and incidents like that happen with alarming frequency. So part of the fault has to lie with the Israeli media for ignoring stories that might bore some Israeli readers but open the eyes of the world.)

Today's peaceful PalArab news

A "mysterious explosion" Deir al-Balah in Gaza injured 3. Those words are the usual euphemism for "premature terror bomb explosion."

Hamas' leader promised that Gaza will never go back to the way it was before Hamas' coup, bragging about how much better it is now. The few dozen Christians left in Gaza and the doctors who are still on strike had no comment.

The PA, meanwhile, continues to indirectly bankroll Hamas in Gaza, today offering $500 to the families of every Gaza prisoner.

Ma'an (English) reports that Israel confiscated "vast areas of Palestinian lands" in the Jordan Valley. What exactly is a "vast amount of land"? 140 dunams, which is about 0.05 square miles.

In protest of Israel's restrictions of concrete to Gaza (which Hamas uses to build Hezbollah-style military bunkers and weapons tunnels) a Palestinian Arab in Rafah decided to build a sturdy house out of mud, straw, wood and garbage, to symbolize to the world Palestinian Arab suffering. A picture of the house shows that he included at least one other essential item to prove how bad things are in Gaza - a satellite dish.

UPDATE: 2 dead in a new tunnel collapse. The 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 187.

Hamas humiliating doctors

Here is a section of a video shown on Israel's Channel 2 news, showing how Hamas treats doctors who went on strike in Gaza.

Dozens were blindfolded, brought into a mosque (!) and forced to chant and clap their hands to humiliating songs.

As of today, the Doctors Without Borders website still has no condemnations of the arrests, torture and humiliation that Gaza doctors, nurses, pharmacists and lab techs have been forced to undergo for the past month.

Saudi cartoon: Wall Street is the Devil

From The Arab news, a Saudi newspaper:

It is interesting to see Saudis make fun of anyone as being greedy devils.

For example, in an article in that same newspaper this week:

THE presence of a housemaid in a Saudi house has become inevitable. If this inevitability is not because of her services, then it is because of the need to imitate others. This is a fact that everybody knows. The need for housemaids is connected to the ways Saudis live — women go to work, responsibilities for the social and educational welfare of children, men failing to help with house duties, few day-care facilities for children, large and spacious homes, extended families and increasing numbers of children. The net result is that the majority of families need to have housemaids. The truth of the matter is that some of us need more than one housemaid.

Saudi families are not only expected to have at least one maid, but also a driver, as this article on the disparity between rich and poor Saudis shows.

Of course, super-rich Saudis will spend exorbitant amounts of money on whatever they fancy. Greed is hardly an American trait, and Saudi Arabia along with the other Gulf countries are Exhibit A.

One only needs to recall the sheikh who shipped his car from the Gulf to Great Britain last summer - for an oil change.

Iran's Supreme Leader: All Israelis are targets

It is easy to ignore the hateful rhetoric that regularly comes from Iran, but it seems to me that Iran's religious/Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has just upped the ante:

Iran can not become reconciled with the Israeli people, Ali Khamenei, supreme religious leader of Iran said. During Friday prayers, Khamenei sharply criticized statement by the assistant to the Iranian President Isfandiyar Rahim Meshai on friendship between Iranian and Israeli people. “The statement about Iranian and Israeli peoples being friends is nonsense”.
Supreme Leader of Iran said Israeli people are invaders who occupied trade facilities, sown areas in Palestine and its territory. “They are army of Zionist regime. Muslims can not show friendly relations toward those who fulfill order of enemies of Islam”.

“We do not have any problems with Jewish, Christians and other religious confessions, but we can not become reconciled with those who occupied Palestine’s lands,” he said.

The use of the word "army," I believe, is significant. Officially, Islam says that it is against killing innocent women and children, but if Khamenei is classifying every single Israeli as being effectively military, he has just given the Islamic justification for, let's say, exploding a nuclear device in Israel.

This is similar to the justifications for terror given in the past by various terror groups against Israel, but they would say that all citizens are legitimate targets by the virtue of the military service they are presumed to be doing, have done or will do. That "logic" was always a stretch. Now, in Iranian eyes, the very existence of Zionist Jews living on land in the Middle East is considered an aggressive act, no matter who they are - and by implication, it would be mandated to get rid of them.

This might sound silly, but in the end all terrorists strain to find religious justifications for their actions. Last April we saw al-Qaeda chide Hamas - using sharia - for indiscriminate rocket attacks, and Hamas defend itself by saying that children aren't the targets.

Khamenei might have just given the sharia-compliant green light for Iran's politicians and generals.

UPDATE: Although he is not a cleric, Ahmadinejad just said something else that would justify genocide against all Jews in Israel:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that the Zionists are not Jews but infidel.

Islam treats Jews and Christians better than infidels, like Hindus, who should all be killed rather than just subjugated.

These two statements happening on the same day - both escalations of already extreme rhetoric - may not be coincidental.

More peaceful PalArab news

Another Palestinian Arab died in a smuggling tunnel, this one apparently electrocuted.

An Islamic Jihad member who was shot a few days ago died from his wounds. Hamas says it was an internal Islamic Jihad dispute, PIJ says that Hamas militia entered a fight and was responsible for his death. (It is once again notable that Ma'an accepts the Hamas version of the story without question.)

The moderate Al Aqsa Brigades in Gaza says that if things don't improve soon, they will end the "calm" at the end of this month. Part of their demands is the stopping of Israel's "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

Perhaps they will next demand the ending of the wetness of water.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 185.

Today's PalArab press roundup

Keep them in cages: Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman denied earlier reports that Abbas was amenable to permanently settling any Palestinian Arabs in Jordan. Because what good are they when they are happy?

Olmert's parting shot at surrender? The PalArab media has reported that Ehud Olmert offered to apologize to Palestinian Arabs for the "naqba" in 1948. I couldn't find this in the English media. The PLO welcomed the move and, in reciprocation, said it was not enough and demanded everything else they always demand as well.

Legacy of fewer checkpoints?: A PalArab woman was detained in Netanya with a "large bag". Reports said that she had told her family that she would be "the headline of a big story." No details in the Israeli press yet about this.

Freedom of the press, Hamas-style: A journalist for the Fatah-based Wafa agency was arrested by Hamas in Gaza.

Egyptians trying to open Rafah: An Egyptian group is going to try to "break the siege" of Gaza on the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. This is probably the same ISM- and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group that tried last week.

Meanwhile, Egypt is planning to open Rafah this weekend for patients and students as well as Ramadan pilgrims, plus probably a few terrorists just to mix things up.

That Brazilian Jewish lobby: An article in Firas about how the Jews in Brazil control the media and don't allow any pro-Arab opinions to be publicized.

Stop killing Arabs and go back to killing Jews: Islamic Jihad remains saddened at the internal fighting that happened this week and urges Hamas to get back to doing what it does best, terror.

US Consul: "Ugly rumors of US bias towards Israel"

Ma'an has an interview with US Consul for Public and Media Affairs Micaela Bluhm.

Fluent in Arabic, Bluhm consistently surprises Palestinians who speak to her in English.

Bluhm concluded the interview by summarizing the US attitude on a number of issues.

As the cultural representative to Palestine, Bluhm said she tries “each year, especially during Ramadan, to increase cultural activities and correct ugly rumors about the US bias toward Israel.”

When questioned on upcoming American presidential elections, Bluhm said that whoever wins will not change America’s commitment to Palestine.

“We are all still concerned, and whoever wins will be just as committed to creating a state called Palestine,” she said.

She said that in the next three months America could still lead negotiators to a peace agreement.

Despite numerous complaints about US policy toward Palestine, Bluhm said that America hopes to “encourage the Palestinian people.”

Why would a US bias towards Israel - which is undeniable - be considered an "ugly rumor"? Why is a US official apologizing for US policy?

She has said some eyebrow-raising statements before:

In her speech, Schweitzer-Bluhm applauded the Palestinian journalists for their "dedication to service", "commitment to getting at the truth" and "solidarity and bravery in the face of intimidation."

She particularly expressed her appreciation of the obstacles Palestinian media personnel must overcome to carry out their jobs, mentioning roadblocks, checkpoints, accusations of bias, threats, violence and gunfire. "Despite these obstacles, you do get the news out every day," she congratulated.

She applauded Palestinian journalists for challenging their own government, governments of neighbouring countries and the government of the United States. "Your inquiries and reports are a required part of a democratic Palestinian society," she said. "You are providing your fellow citizens with the information, the tools, to make decisions and be active members of their society. I urge you to continue to question and investigate and report."

As I wrote then, for her to praise the Palestinian Arab media - which is responsible for consistent incitement against Israel, as well as out-and-out lies - is ridiculous. And it has only gotten worse since I wrote that posting, as Ma'an has turned from a somewhat reasonable media outlet into one that is too scared to say anything negative about Hamas.

This US consul is sacrificing truth for appeasing her audience.

The lies of Lauren Booth

Lisa Goldman, a left-wing Israeli reporter, exposes Lauren Booth's absurd lies:

In an interview with PJM, Ms. Booth says she has tried three times to leave Gaza — once via Erez Checkpoint, which leads into Israel, and twice via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. She was turned away by both the Israelis and the Egyptians, but told me she holds Israel solely responsible for her predicament. I pointed out that both a senior IDF spokesman and several well-informed Palestinian journalists confirmed that Israel has “zero control” over who crosses the Rafah border. In other words, perhaps Egypt was at least as responsible as Israel for forcing her to remain in Gaza. This elicited an angrily dismissive response from Ms. Booth, who claimed that “high up sources told her” that Israel is pressuring Egypt into keeping her trapped in Gaza. She would not reveal the source of her information, nor did she explain how it would serve Israel to have her stay indefinitely in Gaza.

...Referring to the interview she gave to Noa Raz, I asked if she had compared Gaza to the Nazi concentration camps. “Yes I did,” answered Ms. Booth. And do you really think the situation in Gaza is comparable to that in Darfur, where 400,000 people have been killed over the past five years? “Well,” she said, “Do we want to wait until 400,000 Gazans are dead?” She added that she had visited a camp in Gaza where 16,000 families had malnourished children, and the rate of unemployment hovered around 90 percent. If accurate, these are shocking figures that should concern all Israelis. But does Ms. Booth really expect to arouse our sympathy by making the grossly inappropriate suggestion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza?
“Do you think that Gaza receives less media attention than Darfur?” I asked. “Absolutely!” the British activist answered vehemently. So I did a search on Google news for “Darfur,” where 400,000 people have been killed over the past five years, and received 13,912 results. A search for “Gaza,” where, according to B’tselem, 810 Palestinians were killed in 2006-2007, brought up 17,605 results.

Asked how long she thought she would be stuck in Gaza, Ms. Booth answered tartly, “As long as the Israelis decide I should be here.” Then she added in a passionate tone, “I must see my children! They are 5 and 7 and they are waiting for me in France!” She did not explain why, if she was so concerned about her children, she elected to stay illegally in Gaza when she had the option of leaving on the same boat that brought her there.

But what irritated me the most about Ms. Booth’s long tirade was her description of what happened at Erez Checkpoint, which leads into Israel. I crossed Erez several times before it was closed to Israelis, and remember it vividly.

According to Ms. Booth, she arrived at the checkpoint without a permit to cross, which means that the Palestinians, who coordinate via phone with the Israeli border police on the other side of Erez, would have prevented her from continuing. Ms. Booth: “I tried to coordinate with the Israelis two days in advance, via the British Council, but that didn’t work. So I went with an old lady who did have a permit to cross, although she had been turned back several times.”

Ms. Booth said she was prevented by Israeli soldiers, who threatened to shoot her. “There were Israeli soldiers on the Gazan side of Erez?” I asked. Hearing the incredulity in my tone, she answered with irritated impatience, “Oh, I don’t know what they were. They were uniformed men with guns, alright?”

“Okay, I said.” “They were Palestinian men guarding the checkpoint. So, did they stop you?”

“Oh no!” she answered. “The Palestinians advised me not to cross, but I walked right into the tunnel and started walking. I was nearly at the Israeli side when a Palestinian man came running up behind me, holding a mobile phone and shouting that the Israelis had told him they would shoot me if I took another step.”

Perhaps the Palestinian border guard really did call his Israeli counterpart to tell him that Ms. Booth was trying to cross into Israel against their orders, and to ask him what the Israelis would do to her if she continued. And perhaps the Israeli border guard really did tell his Palestinian counterpart that he would shoot Ms. Booth if she continued another step. But I really doubt the incident occurred as Ms. Booth recounts it. Here’s why:

The entrance to Israel via Erez is practically impenetrable. It is a maze of turnstiles that lock automatically, bulletproof glass, closed circuit cameras and disembodied voices that issue instructions via the public address system. One does not see an Israeli soldier until one has passed through security, which is remotely controlled. During the June 2007 civil war, dozens of Fatah members took shelter from Hamas fighters in the Erez “sleeve.” But none tried to make a dash for Israel, because it is simply not possible — physically — to just push through.

By the way, since I am still upset over the JPost stealing my idea and pretending that they don't steal from bloggers, I was the first blogger to report that members of Free Gaza were stuck in Gaza after being denied permission to cross both the Israeli and Egyptian borders, and the excellent Media Backspin looked at my sources and noticed that Lauren Booth was one of them, before any of her many interviews seeking sympathy.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

From Ma'an:

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said Thursday that the recent Kadima election is Israel’s first step in “the next state” of “aggressions against the Palestinian people.”

Commenting specifically on Wednesday’s election in Israel, Barhoum said that candidates all supported “establishing an extremist Jewish state.

Barhoom added that the vote, which Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni appears to have won, “was nothing but a competition between extremists in the Israeli policy institution.”

When Hamas calls you an "extremist"......

13 weeks in a row

For the thirteenth consecutive week, Palestinian Arabs have managed to kill each other in far greater numbers than the evil IDF has managed to kill them.

The score this week (Thursday-Wednesday) is 20-1, based on my tracking PalArab self-death and the PCHR tracking of those killed by the IDF.

So is Hamas guilty of "genocide"?

One of the joys of being a blogger is when others recognize your hard work in breaking stories.

One of the disappointments is when so-called "journalists" just steal from you and take credit for your hard work.

Last week, I noted that Lauren Booth compared Gaza to concentration camps and Darfur - on the same day that I saw multiple pictures of a huge Iftar feast being thrown by Islamic Jihad for journalists. These pictures were published on the pro-Islamic Jihad Palestine Press Agency website (to which I gave credit and linked.)

Yesterday, the Jerusalem Post noticed the exact same thing (as well as some details that other bloggers had mentioned, like her shopping in a well-stocked grocery store in Gaza, something you would be a bit hard-pressed to find in Buchenwald.) They even published one of the pictures I found.

Strangely, they didn't give credit to where they found it.

I commented about this fascinating coincidence in their comments section. We'll see if they own up, or if they have fewer journalistic ethics than the Christian Zionist site Israel Today (which did something similar and then apologized and corrected it.)

(Thanks to Israellycool for noticing this!)

UPDATE: The JPost did not print my comment (and this article is currently the most-commented article on the site), so I emailed their editors this letter:

It appears that one of your reporters took some material from my website. See http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2008/09/jerusalem-post-rips-off-elder.html for details.

I mentioned this in the comments of the offending article but my comment wasn't published.

Please acknowledge and comment. I may not be a paid journalist but I work hard discovering and writing original material and I would appreciate having common courtesy extended.

Feel free to peruse my blog and I would be thrilled if my many scoops would be published in JPost, but just give me credit.

Thanks

If I get a reply, I'll print it.

Bragging about killing civilians

Hamas' Al Qassam website, in English, has an article where they detail the adventures of a terror cell based in Nablus that managed to survive for four years before Israel discovered and arrested them.

The heroes of Hamas whine that other terror groups, specifically Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades, took credit for their attacks.

Then, in an aside, they blow up the Western liberal myth of how poverty creates terror, by saying that

The unit consisted of five members from the city of Nablus, they met together and pledged to inflicting the Zionist enemy, they choose the path of resistance despite their families were in a good situation, money.

They then go into details of their attacks, where they claim they managed to kill 3 "Zionists."

For example:

The two mujahedeen who dressed the Zionist military uniforms directed to the place of implementation and put a "Stop" on the side street, a vehicle belonged to the Zionist settlers came towards the fake barrier. The Zionist car eased its speed. One of the Mujahedeen approached from the car and rained it with bullets.

For those who see a moral equivalence between Israel and terrorists, notice how they brag that they dress in the uniforms of the enemy (a violation of Geneva Conventions) and that they shoot at civilians (another violation.) Their goal is, of course, to maximize civilians deaths while the IDF goal is obviously to minimize said deaths. Yet this context and motivation is often lost among those who pretend that both sides are equally culpable.

More "martyrs"

As I mentioned last night, there was a fatal tunnel collapse yesterday in Gaza. Now we know that two were killed. It is interesting that Ma'an refers to them as "civilians."

Palestine Press Agency says that there are six missing in a second tunnel collapse.

In addition, a Hamas member was killed while performing a "military maneuver" in Khan Younis.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count has now risen to 183.

Peaceful PalArab evening

Two car bombs were discovered in Gaza, and Hamas is warning that more might be coming. One had 150 kg of explosives, which would have caused many casualties. The Doghmush clan is suspected.

A 31-year old who worked in "military intelligence" in Gaza was kidnapped, tortured and killed.

Another tunnel collapse, this one seems to have had several victims but the details aren't yet known.

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades called on its members in the West Bank to resist arrest by the PA security forces "by all means," which means we might be seeing more deaths on the other side of Palestan.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 181.

Dirty political campaigns? You ain't seen nothin'.

Every time I see someone whine about how underhanded and dirty one side or the other is playing in this election, I have to laugh. Here is a short history of dirty tricks and insults that previous presidential elections have enjoyed, from a New York Times interview with an author on this topic last year:

Q: You describe the intense mudslinging that went on during the 19th century, with accusations being thrown around of infidelity, substance abuse, cross dressing, and treason, among others. Has campaigning gotten any more civilized over time? How have mudslinging and other forms of negative campaigning evolved throughout U.S. history?

A: I think the mudslinging definitely is still a big part of our election process, but it’s less broad and vulgar. For instance, there is less aimed at other people’s physical attributes. The 19th century was very big on that. In the election of 1800, one of the dirtiest in American history, the venomous hack writer James Callendar (secretly hired by Thomas Jefferson) assailed then-President John Adams as a “repulsive pedant” and “a hideous hermaphroditical character,” whatever that means. Later in the 19th century, Martin Van Buren was accused of wearing women’s corsets (by Davy Crockett, no less) and James Buchanan (who had a congenital condition that caused his head to tilt to the left) was accused of have unsuccessfully tried to hang himself. Oh, and Abraham Lincoln reportedly had stinky feet.

The 20th century began this way; at the 1912 Republican National Convention, Teddy Roosevelt, wearing a sombrero and smoking a cigar, cheerfully referred to William Howard Taft, the sitting President and Roosevelt’s former vice president, as “a rat in a corner.” (The rodent motif is popular — FDR liked to call Alf Landon, his 1936 opponent, “the White Mouse who wants to live in the White House.”) You won’t find this kind of thing out in the open too much today, although you still see it in some of the nastier primary campaigns, such as the hatchet job done on John McCain in 2000 by his fellow Republicans.

Q: What role did the media play in early elections? What was the relationship between journalists and presidential candidates? How did it change over time?

A: The first attack I found against a newspaper came in 1800, when a Federalist poet decided that his party’s defeat at the hands of the Republicans could be blamed entirely on the media. He penned this bit of doggerel.

And lo! In meretricious dress
Forth comes a strumpet called “THE PRESS.”
Whose haggard, unrequested charms
Rush into every blaggard’s arms.

In early American elections, newspapers — then the only form of media around — played a huge role. Papers were unabashed party cheerleaders, rooting openly for their candidates and leading the way in smearing the candidate of the opposing party. Being trashed by a 19th century newspaper was no joke. They really sank their teeth into you. Even no less an authority than the New York Times was guilty of this. In the epic William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan contest of 1896, the Times, which supported McKinley, published a series of articles in which prominent alienists discussed quite seriously whether Bryan was crazy. One expert wrote: “I don’t think Bryan is ordinarily crazy … but I should like to examine him as a degenerate.”

By the latter part of the 20th century, this type of blatant electioneering for candidates had pretty much died out, although newspapers obviously still have their preferences. But certain television networks and talk radio shows, on both sides, have taken up the slack with a vengeance, and I think they are just as influential among voters as the old party newspapers were.

Q: What was the ugliest campaign in history?

A: So many dirty elections, so little time… There have been stolen elections (the Rutherford Hayes - Samuel Tilden contest in 1876 was certainly stolen by Republicans in the South, a foreshadowing of 2000, and the Democrats may have altered the vote enough in Cook County in 1960 to let John Kennedy beat Richard Nixon). But “ugly” has a different connotation. I would have to say that 1964 was the ugliest presidential contest I have researched. President Lyndon Johnson, seeking his first elective term after taking over for the assassinated JFK, set out not just to defeat Goldwater, but to destroy him and create a huge mandate for himself.

Not that destroying Goldwater, who believed that field commanders should be given tactical nuclear weapons, was all that difficult. But Johnson’s dirty tricks were at least as bad as those of Nixon’s Watergate bagmen eight years later. He created a top secret after-hours group known as the “anti-campaign” and “the five o’clock club.” These sixteen political operatives, in close contact with the White House, set out to influence the perception of Goldwater in America’s popular culture. They put out a Goldwater joke book entitled You Can Die Laughing. They even created a children’s coloring book, in which your little one could happily color pictures of Goldwater dressed in the robes of the Ku Klux Klan.

This committee also wrote letters to columnist Ann Landers purporting to be from ordinary citizens terrified of the prospect of a Goldwater presidency. And they sent CIA agent E. Howard Hunt to infiltrate Goldwater campaign headquarters, posing as a volunteer, where he gained access to advance copies of Goldwater speeches and fed them to the White House, causing Goldwater to complain that whenever he put forth an initiative, the White House immediately trumped it.

But perhaps the ugliest thing about the 1964 election was Johnson’s treatment of the press. He remarked to an aide that “reporters are puppets,” and had his people feed them misleading information about the Goldwater campaign. One White House aide wrote a secret memo saying, “It might be healthy to get some respected columnist to give wider circulation to adverse Goldwater impact on the stock market.” A well-known financial columnist was then influenced into writing two columns on that very topic.

The author goes on to say that "This was perhaps the last election in which the media could be so easily manipulated," but I think it is possible that the media can still be manipulated this way - as long as the manipulation corresponds to the already-existing prejudices of the reporter.

Oh, by the way: IAEA finds Iran worked on nuclear missiles

No reason to make a big deal out of this or anything, though:

The U.N. nuclear monitoring agency shared new photos and documents purporting to show that Iran tried to refit its main long-distance missile to carry a nuclear payload, said diplomats who attended the meeting Tuesday.
Responding to the presentation to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a senior U.S. envoy said the information was compelling evidence against the Islamic Republic. His Iranian counterpart said the material shown was fabricated.
The presentation "showed board members for the first time photographs and documents of work undertaken in Iran on the redesigning of the Shahab-3 missile to carry what would appear to be a nuclear weapon," said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA. He said the senior IAEA official doing the briefing "told us that information they have is very credible."

I'm sure that Iran can be set straight if we only talk to them.