PalArab news

A Hamas member was accidentally killed by a friend of his during a dispute in Gaza.

Hamas denied reports (that we had skeptically posted) that Condi Rice had praised them for their cooperation.

AqsaTube, the Hamas-themed YouTube ripoff, has been taken off the Internet following publicity.

Israel's "peace partners" commuted the death sentence of three alleged "collaborators" with Israel to seven years hard labor. Meanwhile, Israel praised the PA for....collaborating with them in discovering a Hamas tunnel in Hebron. I think the PA must commit collective suicide for breaking their own capital crime. (h/t Yerushalimey)

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 199.

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Chag sameach!

Another week, another holiday.

I will not be posting again until (at least) Wednesday night.

Have a great holiday!

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How'd they know what I look like?

Via The MEMRI Blog
From Al-Watan, Saudi Arabia, October 11, 2008

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Another radical PalArab academic

Palestine Today reports about a professor of political science in Al-Najah University in Nablus. Dr. Abdul Sattar Kassem criticized the PA for confiscating Hamas weapons and explosives laboratories last week, saying that all Palestinian Arabs have the right to build whatever weapons they feel like as long as they are aimed at Israeli Jews.

It is not at all unusual for Palestinian Arab academics to be far more radical than their politicians. The next generation of Palestinian Arabs, rather than being influenced by their more pragmatic parents and grandparents, are increasingly being radicalized and incited by their teachers.

Kassem has been a strong critic not only of Mahmoud Abbas but also of Yasir Arafat, thinking that they are not nearly violent enough. He was a professor in Jordan University in Amman and was fired for his criticisms of the university, and he has criticized his own university as well, delaying his career advancement. In other words he is just a hugely angry guy who transfers his hate for all things that don't conform to his worldview to his eager students.

But his biggest vitriol is dedicated to Israel - and Jews. In fact, his hatred of other Arabs is purely derivative of their perceived friendship with, or acceptance of, Israel. His website has some blatant anti-semitism:

The Jews have organized themselves in the US so as to influence the American public opinion and formulated the Jewish lobbies (interest groups) to influence the white house (the American president) and the congress (both house the senate and the house of representatives). Because of the money they have, the Jews started to finance some candidates for the presidency or the congress so as to have them elected, and started to publish items through the mass media or books and educational curricula so as to bring sympathy for the Jews and hatred for the Arabs.

The Jews have capitalized on the ignorance of the American public and gave them so much faulty information. For instance, people thought at one time that the Arabs have tails and drink petroleum. The image of the Arabs has been distorted to a great extent, while the Jews have been enjoying an excellent image.

One of the ironies about Kassem is that he wrote a book harshly critical of the PA (which resulted in an assassination attempt against him) and he couldn't find any Palestinian Arab publisher willing to print it.

So he got it published - in Israel.

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Hamas' Terrorist YouTube

Hamas has just launched their own version of YouTube, called AqsaTube.

As can be imagined, it is full of videos inciting hate and glorifying terror.

According to the Intelligence and Terror Information Center, it is hosted by a French ISP and it uses Google AdSense for revenue, thus many companies are unwittingly bankrolling terrorists.
There is at least one video showing how to detonate explosives.

The rip-off of YouTube is so glaring, even the title bar translates to "YouTube maximum AqsaTube".

This video channel of Hamas' also encourages Palestinian Arab terrorist unity, as it generously provides sections of the site to Fatah, the PRC, the Democratic Front, Islamic Jihad and "miscellaneous" terror groups, which include some videos of terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.

There is also a children's section, filled with things like a cartoon showing cigarette-smoking and scowling Israeli soldiers targeting Mohammed al-Dura. Another video meant for children is filled with images of dead children and babies.

It is truly heartwarming to see that Israel's "peace partner" Fatah is now negotiating to unify with Hamas, the purveyors of pure hate.

(h/t jhrhv)

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Sunni leader: "Replace capitalism with sharia"

From the Lebanon Daily Star:

Muslims should take advantage of the global financial crisis to build an economic system compatible with Islamic principles, influential Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said on Sunday. "The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper and not on goods traded on the market is proof that it is in crisis and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up," said the Egyptian-born, Qatar-based cleric.

"The Western system has collapsed and we have a complete economic philosophy as well as spiritual strength," he said at Sunday's opening of a conference on Jerusalem.

"All riches are ours ... the Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil and we have an economic philosophy that no one else has," Qaradawi said.

He urged Muslims to "profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the [Islamic] nation, which holds the spiritual and material resources for victory."

The sixth conference on Jerusalem is being attended by around 300 people representing political parties as well as Muslim and Christian NGOs, from various countries.

It is staged by Al-Quds [Jerusalem] International Institution, which is dedicated to the conservation of the holy city and its sacred places.

Participants in the three-day conference include Khaled Meshaal, exiled head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, and Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The article doesn't mention the other significant part of the conference, which is alluded to by that last sentence: Sheikh Qaradawi, who has been very critical of Shi'ites, seemed to kiss and make up with Iran.

This happened at the same time that the al-Arabiya website was redirected by "hackers" to an anti-Sunni webpage over the weekend, as they took control of the alariya.net domain name and forced the site to move to alarabiya.tv instead. There has been a few such hacks between Sunnis and Shi'ites lately, which cause, naturally, some people to blame the "Zionists."

Needless to say, the conference itself is dedicated to eradicating any Jewish presence in Jerusalem, which, as Khaled Mashaal stated explicitly, will only happen through "resistance."

I cannot find any webpage for the conference itself that will identify the "Muslim and Christian NGOs" that are in attendance. Last year's conference in Istanbul is on-line, and in its photos of Jerusalem section I found two more great old pictures of the Al Aqsa Mosque showing how many weeds were evident in this "third holiest place of Islam" when Muslims had control over it.

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Rice praising Hamas?

Firas Press quotes another news source, which I believe has not been very reliable in the past, as saying that Condoleeza Rice sent a message to Hamas through Syria thanking them for maintaining the "calm" in Gaza:

According to sources, who requested anonymity told the "Gazette" that Rice "praised" Hamas' stance on the truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip and of the rocket launchers in the direction of Israeli cities and towns, pointing out that they stressed that "the current U.S. administration is seeking to reassure Hamas [that they are no longer seeking to] send Arab forces to the Gaza Strip" and that "the United States became convinced of the futility of this step in light of the continued commitment of Hamas to control the security situation in the sector and ensure the continuation of the truce with Israel and the prosecution of the rocket launchers".

The sources refused to disclose the form of the message sent by Rice, whether oral or in writing, saying that "Hamas leaders are praising dearly this message and they consider it as a pivotal turning point in the history of the relationship between the United States and Hamas."

I don't know if this is true (I think the newspaper is a Kuwaiti newspaper which has written some unverifiable things in the past and no other media is picking up this story) but if it is, you read it here first!

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Not just another tunnel collapse

A small item in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press website (Arabic):

Witnesses said that a Hamas tunnel collapsed today in the Atatra area north of Beit Lahiya. Witnesses said the Hamas gunmen sealed off the area in order to help rescue and evacuation.

There have been no shortage of tunnel collapses, and dozens have been killed this year while smuggling in or building tunnels. So what makes this story so special?

This tunnel is not in Rafah. It is in Beit Lahiya.

Beit Lahiya is also a border town, but it does not border Egypt. It borders Israel.

Somehow, I don't think that Hamas is building tunnels to smuggle in supplies from Israel. It sounds more like they want another few Gilad Shalits.

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The Talmud, the financial crisis, and Time magazine bias

Time magazine has an interesting article on how traditional Judaism would respond to the current financial crisis.

A new article at the Journal of Law and Religion by Yeshiva University professor Aaron Levine (not yet online) discusses Jewish legal and ethical issues around the current problems. I would love to read the article, as Levine is a prolific author of books and articles on Jewish business ethics.

Rather than synopsize the article, however, Time chose to interview a different person. Rabbi Eliezer Diamond is Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative Jewish institution.

So rather than a dispassionate review, we are treated to questionable halachic analysis such as comparing purchasing items in a marketplace with knowing about a woman's blemishes before marriage. It appears that Diamond introduced this novel idea, not Levine.

Worse, Time uses this as a springboard for this paragraph:

Diamond belongs to a group called Rabbis for Obama, and says that in light of the financial crisis, its members have begun to discuss how the old wisdom could mediate the new mess. The question these days, he says, is not whether Jews can be induced to be more ethical than the market, but whether the market can be made more ethical. "I think classic rabbinic tradition is certainly pro-regulatory," he says.

Meanwhile, Yeshiva's Levine calls in his journal article for what he describes as "an incentive structure in the workplace that would dissuade people from wrongdoing." He gets quite specific, imagining a "carrot and stick" arrangement. One stick would be an expansion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which mandated greater accountability for CEOs of publicly-owned companies, among other things.

Time has twisted the real business halacha expert's article to make it appear as if Obama's plans are more Talmudic than McCain's. Sarbanes-Oxley indeed demands transparency and accountability but it is not the kind of intrusive regulatory legislation that Obama seems to be advocating. It is possible that Levine does push for Democrat-style regulation; without seeing the actual article I cannot be sure, but the wording here seems deceptive as Time tries to make it look like Talmudic law is unquestioningly pro-regulation.

To see an example of Rabbi Levine's articles on Jewish business ethics that has not gone through the bias of the mainstream media, see here. A more scholarly and dry article on inflation can be found here.

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A synagogue is restored, Muslims seethe and lie

Palestine Press Agency reports that the "Al Aqsa Foundation" is complaining about a new synagogue that is opening today "only meters from the Al-Aqsa Mosque." Ma'an adds that this move is a "provocation to hundreds of millions of Muslims" worldwide. It also says that this synagogue was being built "at the expense of" an historic Muslim steam bath.

As usual, taking facts out of context is very convenient to the bigots who want to rid Jerusalem of Jews.

In fact, a synagogue is being re-dedicated today in the Old City. The Ohel Yitzchak synagogue was built in 1917 on land purchased by Hungarian Jews in 1867.

Those multi-cultural Arabs who are so concerned about the sanctity of world religions drove the Jew of Jerusalem to abandon the structure in the 1936 riots, and they destroyed the synagogue altogether in 1948. The restoration has taken 15 years.

And the ancient steam bath? Well, the Israel Antiquities Authority found that Mameluke steam bath during the synagogue restoration, and preserved it, so this rebuilding of the synagogue didn't destroy this historic bath - it discovered it!

This is another object lesson in half-truths peddled by the Palestinian Arab media, the outright lies of the Al Aqsa Foundation and the complete hypocrisy of Muslims who want Jerusalem to be Judenrein today.

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Honor/shame, Iran and Obama

Iran's media is reporting that their leaders are willing to meet with the US, with preconditions:

An Iranian presidential aide has proposed two conditions Washington would be required to fulfill before holding direct talks with Tehran.

"It is the United States that needs to have relations with Iran," said Mehdi Kalhor, the media consultant to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Saturday.

On Saturday, Kalhor said Tehran would accept 'repentance' on behalf of the US government toward the Iranian people.

"Negotiations would be rational if the US moves out of the Middle East and the US government gives up its widespread support for the Zionist regime," he said.

This is in contrast to the Democratic nominee for President:

The frontrunner for President of the United States looks as if he is begging to negotiate with Iran, and Iran appears to be considering granting that wish if only the lowly US works a little harder at its begging.

The Muslim world in general, and the Arab world in particular, is based on an honor/shame culture. People who are so convinced that a more conciliatory attitude from the US will make the Muslim world more pro-Western need to understand this dynamic.

Iran's leaders see the US presidential candidates arguing over whether and how they would engage with Iran. From an honor/shame perspective, this gives Iran immense power over the US.

Iran's leaders have already openly mocked the efforts by the West of using partial sanctions and endless negotiations over Iran's nuclear weapons program. Now they are placing themselves in a greater position of power - to other Muslim nations as well as other nations that subscribe to the honor/shame mindset. The world sees the the US bumbling over how to talk to Iran, and Iran answers from a position of strength - "if you want something from us you need to conform to our political program. We have no need to do anything you want, but you must do what we want because you need us more than we need you."

To even conceptualize that the potential next leader of the free world is already taking on this role as a subservient beggar to a terror state is beyond comprehension. Any tough words he mouths are drowned in the simple facts as they are viewed by the Muslim world.

The honor/shame culture does not reward those who act nice. It honors the winners, because there is nothing more honorable than winning and nothing more shameful than losing.

This doesn't mean that the West must play by those rules. But it does mean that the West must understand the rules and not assume that everyone thinks the way we do. And every time the West backs off in the face of real or perceived Iranian threats, it empowers and energizes Iran to up the ante the next day.

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US textbooks treat Islam as the true religion

A couple of weeks ago, a book came out that detailed many cases of bias in US textbooks, which included such problematic passages as "“Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus?” (The World, Scott Foresman/Pearson). " A number of other troubling claims are made, although the brief description of the book doesn't give specific examples.

I just noticed that the report included a mind-blowing table that compares how Judaism, Christianity and Islam are described. In the examples below, the origins of Judaism and Christianity are consistently described as "claims" and "stories" but the claims of Islam are described factually:

Comparison of Language Used for Beliefs of the Three Major Religions in Selected Textbooks
Textbook	Judaism	Christianity	Islam
The World (Pearson/Scott Foresman)	Caption to a picture of a seder plate: "Foods on the seder plate are symbolic of an ancient Hebrew story."		"The pilgrimage, or hajj (haj), to Mecca is an essential part of Islam, the religion revealed to Muhammad . . . .
World History: Continuity and Change (Holt)	Glossary entry: “Ten Commandments: Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai.”		Glossary entry: “Qur’an Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God.”
World Civilizations: The Global Experience (Pearson)		Glossary entry: “Jesus of Nazareth” reads in part, “prophet and teacher among the Jews; believed by Christians to be the Messiah . . . .”	Glossary entry: "Muhammad Prophet of Islam . . .; received revelations from Allah in 610 C.E. and thereafter . . . .”
Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction.(McDougal Littell)		“According to the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth was born around 6 to 4 B.C.” “According to Jesus’ followers, he rose from the dead. . . .”	“Muhammad’s teachings, which are the revealed word of God . . . , are found in the holy book called the Qur’an.”
World Cultures and Geography - Eastern Hemisphere (McDougal Littell)	“Judaism is a story of exile.”	“Christians believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah.”	"The Qur'an is the collection of God's revelations to Muhammad"

This isn't scholarship, this is indoctrination.

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PalArabs lie about Jews cutting down olive trees

From Palestinian Arab propaganda outlet Ma'an:

Settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank attacked a Palestinian family collecting olives on Saturday morning, a government official told Ma’an. Mayor Burin Ali Eid of the village of Burin, near Nablus, said a fight broke out when settlers “chopped down five olive trees” owned by the family. Local Palestinian sources said that settlers cut down 15 olive trees in other Nablus-area attacks on farmers.

Yitzhar is a religious Jewish village and the residents would not desecrate the Sabbath by chopping down any trees, so it is clear that these claims are lies. Sure enough, Arutz-7 reports something completely different:

Members of the security team in Yitzhar, in Samaria, spotted a group of Arab men entering an Arab olive grove near the Lehava neighborhood of the community Saturday morning. IDF soldiers were notified and arrived at the scene to question the men and ensure that they did not pose a danger to residents of Yitzhar. The soldiers were surprised to see that the group was busy cutting down olive trees. The men were cutting the trees in a "violent manner," soldiers said, explaining that they tried to show that there was damage to the trees instead of simply pruning them. They were apparently planning to accuse Jewish residents of Yitzhar of cutting down the Arab-owned trees, repeating accusations that have been made in recent years. The owner of the trees was not present and had not notified the army that he was planning to prune his grove, which Palestinian Authority farmers near Jewish towns are required to do.

The IDF did not quite confirm the Yitzhar residents' story:

Following Palestinian reports about clashes between settlers and Palestinian farmers near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, the IDF stated that the farmers arrived at the olive groves without the required permit. The statement said that after the farmers arrived in the area to pick olives, settlers began to crowd around them. IDF soldiers arrived on the scene, fired in the air and separated between the rival groups, restoring calm.

While it is hard to know exactly what happened, it is clear that the Palestinian Arab version is simply a lie, and if any olive trees were cut down on Saturday they were vandalized by Palestinian Arabs themselves.

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The Guardian rips off the Elder

Wow, I'm getting ripped off by the big guys now!

An October 7th article in The Guardian is eerily similar to my October 5th posting about Lebanon wanting to sue Israel over hummus and other foods.

In general, I wouldn't think so - Israeli media picked up on the story on Monday - but the reporter, Jenny Percival, not only copies my research on the history of those dishes, but she even links to the same Firas Press article - autotranslated - that I did! I have never seen an MSM outlet link to a Google autotranslated article, something I do often.

So nice to know that my blog allows paid reporters to be lazy and, shall we say, acquisitive.

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The good news

Ma'an News (Arabic) is reporting that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that the current financial crisis is proof that God is punishing America for its support of Israel.

He might have his own economic problems sooner than he thinks, though.

According to an article in the Gulf Times last month, Iran needs the price of crude oil to be above $90 a barrel to avoid running the country at a deficit:

“Iran’s break-even price is $ 90 a barrel, and that is a big issue in Iran right now,” Khan said.

“If prices dip below $ 90 a barrel, and we have seen it touch $ 89 earlier this week, then they would have to tighten their public expenditure policy, and probably cut subsidies, which would be an issue for the government there – the public would not be content,” he said.

Iraq has the highest break-even price in the region, according to the IMF figures. The war-torn country needs prices above $ 110 a barrel to balance its books.

The price of crude traded at below $80 in London today.

Which means that Hamas' main source of income is in danger of drying up.

The BBC mentions:

"The direct impact of this financial crisis in the United States for the Iranian people, could actually be more than for the American people, because of the oil price, and our dependency on oil income," explained Saeed Leylaz, one of Iran's most outspoken and independent-minded economists

"If the oil price for Iranian oil will be $75 to $80 a barrel, we will lose $50bn US dollars (a year) and that means we are losing between $700 and $800 per head."

Not to mention that Iran's economy has been shaky to begin with. As a result of dropping oil revenues, Ahmadinejad tried to impose a 3% sales tax - and merchants responded by going on strike yesterday, causing him to back down. Inflation in Iran is at nearly a 30% rate officially, the unemployment rate of working-age Iranians is believed to be 20%, and Iran's economy has not grown per capita since the revolution in 1979.

So Haniyeh might want to think twice before gloating over the West's financial problems. He might have worse ones very soon.

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Today's Jew-hatred in TPV

It's been a while since I mentioned The People's Voice, a ridiculous website that I wouldn't bother with except for the fact that Google still indexes it as a "news" site at news.google.com.

Today's anti-semitism at TPV is a slam dunk, because the author freely admits his feelings:

the Zionists had as much to do with making whatever actually did happen in the camps as any other force including the Hitler government. They declared war on Germany long before anything took place. Once there were Jews in the camps they used powerful strong arm tactics to keep them there and to deny aid organizations the opportunity to provide aid. They would not let them emigrate and afterwards Ben Gurion and others had much to say about what a great investment that turned out to be....

I’m going to have to say that Israel is an abomination and an evil empire. Since all of the things stated in the State Department’s lists of what defines an anti-Semite happen to be true, it’s no surprise that Israel and her supporters have the muscle to enforce their fascist will world wide. Israel is a nation of parasites that is bent on world domination. It has to be said because it is true and it can’t be refuted because the evidence is right in front of you. It’s in the control exerted over world leaders in what they are compelled to say and do. It’s found underneath many of the many troubles that are blamed on others. The players engaged in the political and financial manipulations are right there to be seen.

Jews are two percent of the American population and a much, much smaller percentage of the world’s population yet… some unfortunate number of them causes- or enable more problems than any other group of people on Earth. They do control the media and exert enormous influence over the financial world and governments around the globe. Lest it be thought that I am opposed to Jews period, I would state that I am a friend of the Neturei Karta, all True Torah Jews and the distressingly small number of Jews who protest the Ashke-Nazi actions of their psychopathic fellows.

It seems that the Zionists intended for and assisted in their holocaust for the purpose of blackmailing the world. They’ve realized more profit from this event than the victims of every other holocaust on Earth since presently recorded history began. There now seem to be more holocaust survivors than there were when the war ended. This holocaust is the greatest publicity stunt in the history of the world. They’re gotten their money’s worth and now it’s time for the truth to be told and for these murderous scoundrels to be exposed and rendered powerless by whatever means are necessary. My personal expectation is that something is going to happen in this regard but I’m not going to get into predicting what that is.

Doesn't look "anti-Zionist" to me!

You can inform Google about this article here. The URL is www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/10/10/the_holocaust_blackmail_game_boy_1 and the title of the article is "The Holocaust Blackmail Game-Boy".

They might remove the article itself from their index, but, as usual, they'll leave The People's Voice as a seemingly legitimate "news" source, because that's what they have done for years even though this is hardly the first rabid, foaming at the mouth Jew-hating article published there.

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A couple more PalArab deaths, plus other news

At least two dead in a new tunnel explosion.

And a victim of another "clan clash" near Qalqilya.

In other news, Hamas is not only building tunnels in Gaza. The PA discovered tunnels where Hamas was storing explosives and they found an explosives factory, apparently anticipating expanding their war to the West Bank.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count climbs to 198.

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Latest Zionist crime: forcing prisoners to wear orange uniforms

Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades is up in arms over the latest Zionist crime. From their English website:

Palestinian captives in the Zionist Hadarim prison asserted that they won't wear the orange uniform, which the Zionist prison authority tries to impose on them, urging Palestinian masses to support them in this regard.

Lawyer Buthaina Dakmak of the Mandela foundation that caters from Palestinian captives in Zionist jails met Palestinian MP Ahmad Sa'adat, the secretary-general of the PFLP, and Tawfeek Abu Na'im, one of Hamas's political leaders in the Hadarem jail, adding that both Palestinian leaders highlighted the importance of the Palestinian popular support in this regard.

She also quoted the two leaders as asserting that four of the Palestinian detainees were sent by the IPA to the isolation cells for rejecting to wear the orange uniform. She said that the four prisoners were denied their simplest human rights and that they were completely isolated.

The two Palestinian leaders, according to Dakmak, accused the IPA of attempting to deceive the captives by bringing new captives to the said jail, and then convincing them to wear the orange uniform in a bid to persuade other captives to accept it.

Palestinian captives were determined not to bow to the IPA pressures to wear the orange uniform, underlining that the orange uniform was fit for criminals, underscoring that they aren’t criminals but rather they are, as the entire world know, political prisoners and freedom fighters.

The captives also confirmed that the orange uniform bears reflectors that could turn them into a target for the Zionist soldiers, even in the darkness.

Somehow, I think if Israeli soldiers wanted to shoot them in prison, they could manage quite nicely without the help of reflective orange clothing.

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Friday morning links

Sultan Knish finds a 13th century Selicha which describes Arab and Muslim subjugation of the Jews at that time, plus an interesting apparent halachic implication.

My Right Word dissects the events at Akko (Acre) on Yom Kippur.

The Augean Stables notes some Good News About Israel's Arabs - more are joining the IDF.

Israellycool takes on Practical Jihad for Dummies.

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16 weeks in a row

For sixteen consecutive weeks, Palestinian Arabs have managed to kill more of each other than the evil IDF.

The PCHR combined their report for the last two weeks, and they still claim that settlers killed a shepherd in late September, something that clearly didn't happen. So for the week starting September 25 the score was 1-0, and for the week of October 2 the score was 3-0.

From the beginning of September, the score is about 39-3.

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And in other peaceful PalArab news....

Israel's "peace partners" in Ramallah celebrated the perception that Israel lost the Yom Kippur war on this 35th anniversary of that war - by the Hebrew calendar.

A PalArab was shot and killed in Rafah it what appears to be a clan clash.

Another Gaza rocket.

Hamas arrested four members of Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Egypt arrested 30 tunnel smugglers in the largest operation of its kind.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 195.

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Today's lies from the PalArab press

It seems that some Jews decided to visit the holiest place on the planet on the holiest day of the year. There is no evidence that they brought weapons, or threatened anyone, or did anything provocative. Except, of course, wanting to be on sacred Jewish land that Muslims also claim.

Ma'an is screaming an "extremist gang attacks Al-Aqsa Mosque":

An Islamic charity is outraged that a "massive" group of Israeli settlers, rabbis and politicians attempted to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem early Thursday morning.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Islamic Waqf and Heritage claimed that Israeli extremists "carried out several failed attempts to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound" on Thursday.

Extremists shouted anti-Muslim slogans while others performed religious rituals in the mosque's outside yard, Israeli police looking on and reportedly refusing to act.

Witnesses told members of the Palestinian press that rioters numbered "at least 100" and that among them was a member of the Israeli Knesset.

PNN's coverage is even less credible:

The Waqf has closed several sections of Al Aqsa Mosque since Wednesday in an attempt to shield the holy site from an onslaught of Jewish groups, including rabbis and Israeli politicians.

The Al Aqsa Foundation for the Preservation of Islamic Heritage issued a warning after receiving information that fundamentalists intended to descend on the Muslim holy site as is the yearly case during Yom Kippur.

Mass marches of Jews incurred into the grounds of Al-Haram Ash-Sharif under heavy guard in what some referred to as a “pilgrimage” while others said it was a “mission to stop the Al Aqsa Foundation.”

If religious Jews wanted to go to the Temple Mount on Yom Kippur, chances are they wouldn't say the reason was to "stop the Al Aqsa Foundation," This sounds like a completely made-up story by that group.

Not to mention that, unlike Muslims, religious Jews do not spend their holiest day trying to attack or incite others - they have more important things to worry about.

Note also that this story says that the Arabs began making moves on Wednesday, not Yom Kippur, which means that they were looking for something - anything - to happen that they could spin into an attack before it even happened.

And the lies become even more transparent:

Reports of incursions began coming in yesterday morning and the Waqf and Al Aqsa Foundation called for an increased presence inside the Mosque during Yom Kippur in order to protect the holy site from fundamentalists. This is historically the most difficult of Jewish holidays for Palestinians as racist attacks normally hit a yearly high.

A crew from the Al Aqsa Foundation took a place inside the Mosque beginning yesterday morning and has been monitoring the situation since. Beginning at 7:00 am Wednesday the first group of Jewish fundamentalists stormed Al Aqsa Mosque shouting they had come to “stop the Al Aqsa Foundation” while several began to perform Jewish religious rites. A group of 100 came with Rabbi and Israeli politician Uri Ariel. They attempted to storm the Mosque from Bab Al Maghrarbeh (Moroccans Gate) and engaged in a stand-off while shouting against the Foundation, reports from inside indicate.

In an interview with the Director of the Waqf in Jerusalem the Sheikh said, “We categorically reject the Israeli practices and those of the extremists who take it as their right to raid the holy mosque of Al Aqsa. We have submitted a strong protest to what has happened.”

Now they are saying that these "attacks" began on Wednesday morning!

Needless to say, there are no photographs of this "storming" even though it supposedly started on Wednesday, nothing from the MSM which would have swarmed all over to take pictures of these Jewish extremists, not a peep from Ha'aretz.

In other words, the only people who claim that this event happened in anything but the most peaceful manner are the people who consistently agitate and lie about Jewish plots to demolish the mosque and and build the Thurd Temple - in other words, persistent liars that reliably get quoted in the Arab press.

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G'mar chatima tovah 5769 - גמר חתימה טובה

Since many of my readers are a number of hours ahead of me, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a G'mar Chatima Tovah - may you be sealed in the Book of Life.

For those who are reaching this page by Googling it and looking for the translation, here it is:

Literally: A good final sealing
Idiomatically: May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for Good

I wish all of my Jewish readers an easy fast and a meaningful Yom Kippur. I unconditionally forgive anyone who may have wronged me during this year, and I ask forgiveness for anyone I may have wronged as well.

May this be a year of peace, prosperity, unity and wisdom.

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Fatah moving towards Iran?

David Bedein points to a Middle East Newsline article that claims that Fatah leaders have been engaged in talks with Iran:

At a time when the United States and other western nations are demanding that all nations initiate sanctions against Iran, the Middle East Newsline has confirmed that the American-sponsored Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ruling Fatah movement has been quietly moving toward closer relations with Iran.

Senior Fatah members have been conducting a dialogue with Iran and its Hezbollah militia. The sources said the Fatah leaders have sought Iranian financing and diplomatic support.

"We have seen how Iranian support has helped Hamas everywhere in the Arab and Islamic world," a Palestinian source said. "Fatah wants the same thing."

Palestinian security commanders have endorsed a PA approach to Iran. The sources said several commanders called for Iranian cooperation in a proposal submitted to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in mid-2008.

"Iran has been paying more than 150 Fatah fighters..." the source said. "Iran can afford to be choosy."

I would like to see a bit more evidence. The hatred that Fatah sympathizers have exhibited on Arabic websites towards "Shi'ites" and Hamas for exactly this sort of thing has been pretty strong.

Still, this is something to keep an eye on.

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Netanyahu's peace plan

The Financial Times publishes an extremely skeptical interview of Binyamin Netanyahu where he outlines his peace plan with Palestinian Arabs. I have italicized the bias and bolded the actual plan:

Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu grabs a green marker and jumps from his seat to sketch a map of the West Bank on a whiteboard. With vigorous strokes, the former Israeli prime minister and current leader of the rightwing Likud party outlines his plan for tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

What emerges is not what the Palestinians and almost the entire international community have in mind, which is a contiguous Palestinian state that follows broadly the borders in place before the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation. Instead, Mr Netanyahu wants to see the West Bank divided into a collection of disconnected economic zones with dedicated business projects.

The ancient town of Jericho, for instance, should capitalise on its proximity to the Jordan River to attract Baptist tourists from the US – a location which the hawkish leader of the Israeli opposition says is “easily worth tens of thousands of jobs”.

The Palestinians, Mr Netanyahu adds, would be allowed to hold on to their population centres. Other parts of the West Bank, such as the Judean desert and the Jordan Valley, should not leave Israeli control: “These areas are very significant for us because they are our strategic security belt,” he says.

Mr Netanyahu says he does not want to stop the current peace talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. But he would shift the emphasis away from a comprehensive settlement aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state towards practical steps designed to bolster living standards in the West Bank. “It is not so much that peace brings prosperity – it is that prosperity brings peace,” he says.

Such hawkish views, which run counter to current Israeli policy, infuriate Palestinian leaders, who reject Mr Netanyahu’s plan as an attempt to confine them into Bantustans – partially self-governing areas.

They may also exasperate many of Israel’s allies abroad, which overwhelmingly support the idea of an independent – and contiguous – Palestinian state.

Mr Netanyahu does not have the opportunity to put his plans into practice quite yet. For the moment, he has to contend with the indignities of life as an ordinary legislator in a tiny office.

It is from this modest perch that Mr Netanyahu has watched Israel’s current political crisis unfold, beginning with the publication of new corruption allegations against Ehud Olmert and his resignation as Israeli prime minister, right up to the current struggle of Tzipi Livni, his designated successor, to form a new government.

He makes clear that a second Netanyahu-led government would be guided by much the same worldviews that turned him into such a polarising figure in the first place: a Reaganesque belief in low taxes, small government and free markets, coupled with a Bushian commitment to defeat “radical Islam” as the shared enemy of Israel, the US and Europe.

Resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians – the focus of both Mr Olmert’s and Ms Livni’s attention – is a second-order issue for the Likud leader: “The issue for me is not the Palestinian problem. I think that conflict has been replaced by the battle between radical Islam and the western world,” he says.

Handing back control of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal, argues Mr Netanyahu, would simply strengthen the hand of Israel’s Iranian foe. “Any area we withdraw from will be taken over by Iran and its proxies,” he claims, pointing to the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group, last year. “Both Lebanon and Gaza have become Iranian bases, and they would get a third one if we retreat from the West Bank.”

With the bias against Netanyahu dripping from the FT's pages, a reader would be tempted to dismiss Netanyahu's plans as just the ravings of an extremist lunatic.

Why, exactly, is emphasizing the ability for Palestinian Arabs to build their own economy - independent of Israel, to which it is now completely dependent - considered "hawkish?" What exactly is "rightwing" about emphasizing improving the lives of ordinary PalArabs to be much better than they are now after 15 years of a failed "peace plan" and roadmap to an inevitable - and inevitable failure - of a state? Why is it considered beyond the pale for an Israeli leader to prioritize the safety of Israelis?

(The "bantustan" argument is also absurd. The different economic areas would be no more disconnected than Manhattan is from Brooklyn, where oppressed New Yorkers are forced not only to go through manned checkpoints - but they have to pay for the privilege!)

Human rights for Palestinian Arabs, who have been screwed by the entire world for decades, are important. Those who are stuck in so-called "refugee camps" in Lebanon and Syria and Jordan should be integrated as full citizens into the countries they have lived in for two generations. The ones in the territories should have the ability to live in dignity - with their own jobs and their own independent economy. They should have control over their day-to-day affairs.

However, an independent "Palestine" which is likely to be co-opted by radical Islamists is not a human right. And the human rights of Israelis who would be the victims of another Iranian-backed Hamastan in the West Bank are no less important than the human rights of West Bank Arabs. (Neither, for that matter, are the human rights of the Jews who have also raised families in the West Bank to live in peace and security in their homes.)

There is nothing hawkish about emphasizing real human rights for Palestinian Arabs, in pushing for them to become prosperous and no longer dependent on billions of dollars from the international community. And given the track record of Oslo and its progeny, a prestigious economic newspaper should not be so dismissive of a plan that focuses on building an independent economy where none exists today.

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Prisoners get expensive operations for free, PalArabs upset

Usually, a newspaper story will say something and then back it up with some background information.

Instead, Ma'an says something that demolishes its background information:

Bethlehem – Ma’an – A Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment in an Israeli jail underwent his third major operation since his sentencing 16 years ago.

Relatives of prisoner Rizaq Salah, who is from the town of Al-Khadr near Bethlehem, said doctors performed a cholecystectomy on the man as treatment for severe stomach pain.

Doctors performed an appendectomy on the prisoner in 1995, which was shortly after they extracted liquids from his knee.

Sounds pretty humane, doesn't it? But wait:

Bethlehem-based Prisoners’ Society demanded in a statement received by Ma’an that Israel release Palestinians suffering from serious illness. The society estimated that around 1,000 Palestinians need urgent operations or are disabled as the result of being shot by Israeli soldiers during apprehension.

If the Prisoners' Society wants to see prisoners get needed surgery, they should want them to stay in Israeli jails!

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The latest make-out spot: Al Aqsa Mosque!

Sheikh Raed Salah, publicity-hungry radical head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, regularly comes out with statements accusing Israel of secret plans to build huge synagogues on the Temple Mount or of digging a huge network of tunnels underneath it. Since these stories get old, though, he is forced to constinuously embellish them further in order to keep grabbing headlines.

So it is amusing to see his latest accusations.

According to Ramattan (Arabic), Salah is accusing Israeli Jewish police of drinking - and committing adultery - in the Al Aqsa Mosque!

Not too many salacious details are available but it will be sure to attract many more tourists to Al Aqsa; any new pick-up joint in Jerusalem will become instantly popular.

In addition, Saleh accuses Israel of building museums and synagogues underneath the Temple Mount. I'd love to know where they are, and how they manage to find tourists and worshippers if they are such a big secret.

Thanks to Salah, many more Jews will flock to Jerusalem to partake of the new cultural, religious and social opportunities that he has nicely informed us about!

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Today's PalArab press roundup

It took a couple days longer than expected, but Hamas finally blamed the world economic crisis on those Jewish bankers and the Jewish lobby.

Hamas also took over a mosque in Beit Hanoun and replaced its imam with a Hamas sympathizer. I think they're getting this politics thing down pat.

As if to stress the point, Hamas militia entered the Beit Hanoun camp and tore down pictures of Yasir Arafat, replacing them with posters of Hamas "martyrs."

An Egyptian convoy that was the Muslim Brotherhood's version of "Free Gaza" made it relatively close to Egyptian Rafah and was to be greeted with a nice reception. However, that reception ended up being Egyptian police who arrested them.

Palestinian Arab newspapers noticed the "secular Neturei Karta" group I wrote about yesterday. No doubt these assimilated anti-Zionist Jews would be aghast to see the picture that Palestine Today used to illustrate its story.

But you can't blame them. After all, don't all Jews look the same?

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Saudi Vice, episode 21: Marriage is no defense

Our heroes at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice know well how devious sinners can be. Some unmarried couples who may want to spend time together alone - which is the grievous sin of khulwa - will pretend to be married in order to keep the virtuous vice police off their backs.

So it is simple Muttawa logic that any man and woman who are alone must be unmarried!

This is why the Commission dispatched one of their ubiquitous white SUVs to Al-Jurf, west of Medina, to chase a couple in a car who were acting suspiciously - by being alone with each other at 1 AM.

As the Arab News reports:

“As we were driving home, my husband and I realized we were being followed by three men in a car,” said the woman, who did not want her name published. “They were coming from both sides of the car and (at one point in the chase) were also in front of our car. I was afraid of having an accident. The whole scene looked just like something in a movie.”

She also said that because no police officer was accompanying the three members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, her husband was afraid to stop. Eventually, the commission vehicle got in front of the car they were pursuing and forced the couple to stop, according to the woman.

Abdullah Al-Zahrani, the head of the Madinah branch of the commission, confirmed to Arab News yesterday that the commission was tailing the couple, but he maintains that the three commission members did not abuse the suspects. He also claims that the two are not married.

“The woman is neither his wife nor his cousin,” said Al-Zahrani.

According to the woman, she and her husband had been visiting her husband’s family and decided to return home late at night.

After the two were pulled over, said the woman, “one of them pulled my arm and was shouting at me, telling me to get into their car. I was shocked. How could a man from the commission touch a woman when he is not her mahram (a woman’s legal male escort or guardian)? He ordered me to get into the commission car and said they would keep everything secret in order to protect my reputation.”

The commission considers unrelated men and women in cars to be committing the moral crime of khulwa.

The woman said that her husband objected to her treatment, and asked the men to take him in custody instead. At that point, the woman said an older man who happened to be passing by intervened and protested against the commission members touching a woman, “but the commission member told him that I had forced him to do so.”

The woman says that two of the commission members got into her husband’s car with her and accused her of being an immoral woman for being out late at night with an unrelated man. The members of the commission also said that the woman had committed a crime and that she therefore deserved to be punished.

“This is the first time I have seen anything like this,” she said. “The members refused to come to the police during the investigation and said that I had insulted them. I did no such thing; I simply told them over and over: ‘I swear to God that I am this man’s wife.’”

The woman said that after hearing what had happened, her brothers went to the commission branch in Al-Jurf, furious and telling the commission members to stay away from their sister.

She said a commission member then hit one of her brothers and broke his nose.

“My brother became unconscious and an ambulance came and took him to the hospital,” she said.

Stupid unmarried woman! Doesn't she realize that the Commission is allowed to break Islamic law in order to uphold Islamic law?

It would be outrageous to think that Muttawa members go into that profession because they are a bunch of perverts who want to project their own desires and actions on others. Injuring, lying, khulwa, touching women - all are perfectly allowed for Commission members in their zeal to stop others from khulwa and touching women.

Our heroes have prevented another moral crime, and Saudi Arabia is a better place today because of their love of Sharia.

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Open thread

It's been a while....post links to any interesting stories you've seen.

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Yemen blames Mossad for US Embassy attack

Last month there was a deadly attack against the US Embassy in Yemen, killing 18.

Now, Yemen authorities are claiming that they found the bombers, and guess what - they were Israeli spies!

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced on Monday the dismantling of a "terrorist cell" which he said was linked to Israeli intelligence services.

Saleh gave no details but sources close to the investigation said he was apparently referring to a six-member cell arrested on suspicion of involvement in a deadly attack against the US embassy in the Yemeni capital last month.

"A terrorist cell was arrested five days ago and will be referred to the judicial authorities for its links with the Israeli intelligence services," Saleh was quoted as saying by the official Saba news agency.

He said the group operated under the "slogan of Islam."

The Yemeni president made the statement during a meeting with politicians, tribal leaders, security and military officials at Al-Mukalla University in the southeastern province of Hadramawt.

Saleh did not say how many people were arrested or detail his allegation that the cell was linked to Israeli intelligence.

The Yemen Observer adds:

The network was comprised of 40 people from different Arab nationalities spying for Mossad, the Israeli international intelligence said sources from National and Political Security Units. The members of the espionage network entered Yemen on the premise of conducting business, tourism and even for preaching in mosques. Saleh said that the suspected spies form a terrorism cell that uses also Islam to reach their targets.Members were arrested individually and found to be in possession of detailed maps for sensitive security sites, intelligence telecommunication units and advanced tracking devices.

This is pretty funny, considering that last month Yemen was blaming al-Qaeda:

Yemeni authorities have arrested six people believed to have issued statements claiming responsibility for the last week's car bombing against the US embassy in Sanaa, the defence ministry has said.

In a statement posted on its web site on Sunday, the ministry said that among the detained suspects was a man identified as Abu al-Ghaith al-Yamani, who signed two statements claiming responsibility for the bombing, which killed 18 people, and threatening more attacks.

The ministry said that al-Yamani and five other people were arrested for disseminating statements "in the name of the Jihad Organisation, threatening to target Arab and Western embassies in Sanaa".

A group calling itself the Jihad Organisation in Yemen said on Thursday that it was behind the bombing outside the US embassy and threatened to attack the British and Saudi embassies.

The police have said the statements could not be authenticated.

Sixteen people including six suspected al-Qaeda attackers were killed at the scene of the attack on the embassy compound, in which two car bombs and automatic weapons were used. The attackers were unable to penetrate the embassy wall.

Apparently, the six people arrested last month, who were apparently from al-Qaeda, "admitted" being Mossad agents!

Which just goes to prove how you can't trust the Mossad - they'll become Islamic preachers, turn people into Islamic fanatics and attack US interests, just to make Yemenis look bad.

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Another remarkable archaeological find

From Arutz-7:

Archaeologists excavating north of Jerusalem have found a piece of a sarcofagus - a stone coffin - belonging to a son of a High Priest. The visible inscription reads, "the son of the High Priest" - but the words before it are broken off. It thus cannot be ascertained which High Priest is referred to, nor the name or age of the deceased.

Many other findings in the excavation are from the late Second Temple period, and archaeologists assume that the High Priest in question lived between 30 and 70 C.E.

The sarcophagus cover fragment - 60 centimeters (2 feet) long by 48 centimeters (19 inches) wide - is made of hard limestone, is meticulously fashioned, and bears a carved inscription in Hebrew letters that are both similar to today's script and typical of the Second Temple period.

AFP adds:

The discovery was made along the West Bank separation barrier north of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement.

"It seems that the fragment was plundered from its original location approximately one thousand years ago and was used in the construction of a later Muslim building that was erected atop the ruins of the houses from the Second Temple period," the statement said.

The use of the "k'tav ashuri" proves that it is from the Second Temple period.

But Muslims plundering ancient Jewish cemeteries to build their own buildings on top of Jewish cities? Nah.....

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10,000 Israeli medical permits for Gazans this year

The JCPA has an enlightening table:

Table 1 Referrals and Permits to Enter Israel for Medical Care, Gaza, 2006-2008
Month	No. of patients applied for permits	No. of patients given permits	Proportion of patients given permits
2006
January	741	719	97.0%
February	769	716	93.1%
March	562	485	86.3%
April	274	209	76.3%
May	453	404	89.2%
June	474	400	84.4%
July	185	171	92.4%
August	293	267	91.1%
September	438	402	91.8%
October	380	345	90.8%
November	509	455	89.4%
December	392	359	91.6%
Total 2006	5470	4932	90.2%
2007
January	506	452	89.3%
February	595	540	90.8%
March	681	607	89.1%
April	515	460	89.3%
May	737	665	90.2%
June	412	368	89.3%
July	859	765	89.1%
August	985	787	79.9%
September	715	591	82.7%
October	1103	850	77.1%
November	654	422	64.5%
December	1041	669	64.3%
Total 2007	8803	7176	81.5%
2008
January	2590	1618	62%
February	2324	1670	72%
March	2569	1747	68%
April	1959	1263	64%
May	1908	1346	70%
June	1851	1152	62%
Total (6M) 2008	13201	8796	66%
Sources: COGAT and WHO, Jerusalem Office 2008. Data from Jan. 2008 ff not yet confirmed by WHO.

Which means that during this horrible "siege," Israel has been doubling and re-doubling the number of patients allowed from Gaza to Israel or the PA for treatment.

While the percentage of permit approvals has dropped, the number of permits has increased dramatically, despite these salient facts:

During this period there were some 30 foiled attempts at terrorist infiltration, including at least 20 incidents where Palestinians used medical missions to attempt terror attacks. In June 2006, a female suicide terrorist was arrested at the Erez crossing while on her way to carry out an attack on an Israeli hospital. In May 2007, two female bombers received permits but were caught after slipping through security checks.⁷ On May 22, 2008, a truck loaded with 4.5 tons of explosives exploded just before reaching the crossing.

The ISA published reports on 11 individuals, including those just cited, who used permits for medical care or for family visits to patients already in Israel for the purpose of carrying out terror-related activities. At Erez, three patients admitted under questioning that they had purchased referral notes with bogus medical information from doctors in Gaza. According to the ISA, terror organizations were making a special effort to recruit women, including those who are pregnant, who are less likely to be closely examined and whose heavy clothing more readily conceals suspicious objects.⁸ PHR-I forwarded these patients for approval, unaware of their true status.

Another point is that the number of patients traveling to Israel via Gaza dwarfs the number who go to Egypt.

Here we have another example where Israel's humanitarianism towards a hostile Gaza population, which is is under no obligation to provide, is used as a weapon against it.

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