Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 24, 2008

Today's Sharia News

Iranian authorities have confirmed that they will continue to apply the death penalty to minors.

Deputy prosecutor general Hossein Zebhi told a newspaper that under Sharia law only a murder victim's family could commute a death sentence.
He had suggested last week that judges were being told to stop imposing the death penalty on young offenders.
Iran has been widely condemned for being one of the few remaining nations to execute offenders aged under 18.
Amnesty International says at least six youths have been executed in Iran this year alone.
Mr Zebhi was quoted by the daily Etemad-e Melli newspaper as saying: "The principle of retribution... is not up to the government, rather it is up to the private plaintiff."
"Only if the next of kin give their consent can there be a reduction in the punishment," he added.
Critics say Iran's practice of handing down the death penalty to juvenile offenders - those aged under 18 at the time of the crime - is explicitly banned by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Tehran is a signatory.
Many convicted juvenile offenders have been on death row for years, as negotiations continue over whether victims' families will accept blood money - cash to avoid execution.

In Saudi Arabia, foreigners who work there are playing Russian roulette as to whether they will be found guilty of a crime that has the death penalty.

On Oct. 14, Amnesty International issued its latest warning on Saudi Arabia where "poor foreign workers are literally paying with their lives when accused of capital crimes".
"The death penalty is not only applied unfairly and in a secretive manner, it is discriminatory and used against those who are least able to access their rights. It is little more than a macabre lottery whose consequences, for many, are lethal," Amnesty said.
Three days earlier, three Sri Lankans were sentenced by a Saudi court to public execution for allegedly killing a Yemeni national. Eight others, including two Sri Lankan women allegedly working for the Yemeni as prostitutes, were also sentenced to jail terms and floggings for being linked to the same crime.
All have the right of appeal -- if they can raise the tens of thousands of dollars needed to hire a local law firm to take on their cases.
The average rate of executions in Saudi Arabia is currently two a week. Last year, Saudi Arabia executed more than 143 people, a highly disproportionate number of whom were foreigners.
Pardons for foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are rare, one for every 30 executions. Saudi citizens are eight times more likely to get one, according to Amnesty.

Malaysia's religious authorities just banned women from wearing men's clothing as well as lesbianism:

According to the chairman of the National Fatwa Council, Abdul Shukor Husin, many young women admire the way men dress and behave, which is a denial of their femininity and a violation of human nature.
"It is unacceptable to see women who love the male lifestyle including dressing in the clothes men wear," he complained, adding, "(Masculine behaviour) becomes clearer when they start to have sex with someone of the same gender, that is woman and woman."

"In view of this," Dr Abdul explained, "the National Fatwa Council which met today have decided and taken the stand that such acts are forbidden and banned."

Don't worry, though - these cases represent only a tiny minority of Muslims. I'm sure the vast majority will be putting political and religious pressure on their co-religionists real soon now

The Phillies, Obama and Israel

I became a Phillies fan when the Philadelphia Phillies were pretty much the worst team in baseball.

In 1972, the Phillies ended up in last place in their division. Their lineup consisted of forgettable players who I was enamored with, like Roger Freed and Denny Doyle in the starting lineup.

The Phillies' ugly 59-97 record is most remarkable because a full 27 of those wins were due to a single pitcher, Steve Carlton, who racked up an amazing 27-10 record that season with an inept team. If it wasn't for Carlton, this team may have indeed been the worst ever. (And I remember being incensed after the 1971 season when the Phillies traded my favorite pitcher, Rick Wise, to St. Louis for Carlton, now recognized as one of the most lopsided trades in history.)

It is easy to be a Phillies fan today, as they are leading the World Series. It was much harder to be a fan in the early 1970s.

It is likewise easy in today's political environment to be considered "pro-Israel." Forgetting the infamous "Israel lobby," any US politician can easily claim to be pro-Israel. This is because positions that would have been considered anti-Israel only a few years ago have morphed into Israeli policy under the Kadima banner.

The idea that a Palestinian Arab state would somehow automatically bring peace, the idea that Israel is the only party that needs to make permanent concessions, the idea that the Saudi "peace plan" is seriously worth considering, the idea that Israel must give up the strategic Golan Heights on the one border that has been the most peaceful since 1973, the idea that abandoning the Shebaa Farms will magically make Hezbollah love Israel, the idea of talking with Syria, the idea of dividing Jerusalem, the idea of willingly giving up almost all major Jewish shrines - all considered patently ridiculous by mainstream Israeli politicians of all persuasions in relatively recent times - are now considered sacrosanct. The ideas of Israel's loony left have been co-opted as mainstream by a government that has no mandate, no support, and utter disregard for the wishes of ordinary Israelis.

If the Government of Israel holds these positions, how can they be considered anti-Israeli?

Israel's government has adopted the worldview of the European Left that "occupation" is the primary evil in the region and that surrendering land will inevitably bring peace. Giving Gaza to Hamas brought unprecedented (albeit temporary) levels of support from Europe - and unprecedented numbers of rockets to Sderot. Israel's reclaiming of victim status boosted its popularity among those who feel that strength is inherently immoral.

In such an environment, it is easy to claim to be pro-Israel while advocating positions that would seriously erode Israel's security and virtually eliminate Jewish sovereignty over her own holiest sites.

But as in baseball, the true test of friendship is how one acts when the other party is not so popular.

Every poll for the past couple of years shows that Likud, not Kadima, would win a general election. And Likud is not considered a "winner" in the eyes of the world. On the contrary, the word "Likud" conjures up adjectives that the media has hammered into the world's consciousness - adjectives like "hard-line," "intransigent," and "hawkish." To be pro-Likud, according to conventional wisdom, is to be against peace.

The question isn't which candidate for president supports the Israeli policies that are designed to appeal to world public opinion. It is which candidate would support the Israeli policies that a democratic Israel would support.

The answer to this question is certainly not Barack Obama.

Obama started his political career as highly supportive of an "even-handed" policy between a democratic, peace-thirsty state and people who to this day overwhelmingly support terror attacks. His friendships with radical Palestinian Arab intellectuals are well documented. Only when Obama considered running for national office did his public positions tilt towards Israel. As the co-founder of Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah says:

Over the years since I first saw Obama speak I met him about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab-American community events in Chicago including a May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said was the keynote speaker. In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.

As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front." He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy, "Keep up the good work!"

In an unguarded moment, Obama stated what he felt about the Likud in February:

This is where I get to be honest and I hope I’m not out of school here. I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel. If we cannot have a honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress. And frankly some of the commentary that I’ve seen which suggests guilt by association or the notion that unless we are never ever going to ask any difficult questions about how we move peace forward or secure Israel that is non military or non belligerent or doesn’t talk about just crushing the opposition that that somehow is being soft or anti-Israel, I think we’re going to have problems moving forward.

In this quote, Obama betrays his opinion that the Likud - the party that orchestrated the peace treaty with Egypt - is purely militaristic and warmongering.

How would he act towards a Likud government, a very real possibility? His statement indicates that his "pro-Israel" posture is one that conveniently follows the liberal ideas that the only obstacle to peace is Israeli reticence to give back more and more land.

Yes, it is easy to say that you are pro-Israel when the Israeli government has been acting out of the same fear of terrorism as the EU, but how will he act when an Israeli government returns to power that is willing to fight terrorism, despite the criticism of the media and liberals? When Obama reportedly said that "the Israelis must be crazy not to accept" the Saudi "peace plan" that would turn Israel back into a nine-mile wide strip of land, where Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv would be in Qassam rocket range, perhaps it may be considered "pro-Israel" in context of the reprehensible policies of Kadima, but is it pro-Israel according to the majority of Israel's citizens?

I have no problem with people rooting for the Phillies today who have hated them in the past, but I would not call those people "friends of the Phillies." They would just be considered opportunists, not friends. And that is how Barack Obama appears when it comes to Israel.

The US gave $700M to PA this year - so far

From IHT:

The U.S. has transferred $150 million to the Palestinians, exceeding its original pledge of aid to the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank.
U.S. consul General Jake Walles says Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad asked for the additional assistance last month to help with the Palestinian budget.

A statement from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem says American aid to the Palestinians in 2008 now totals over $700 million and exceeds the amount the U.S. pledged at a donors conference in December 2007.

We have already seen that 60% of the PA budget goes to Gaza, where Hamas benefits from the world's largess towards Palestinian Arabs.

So this year the US has effectively given Hamas $420 million this year.

Condoleeza must be so proud!

Do you think that any of the people who pretend to care about US aid to Israel are going to complain when huge amounts are given to Israel's enemies?

Murder of an 86-year old: "Heroic operation"

Palestine Today, a newspaper associated with Islamic Jihad, shows unanimous praise for this morning's terrorist murder of an 86-year old man in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem.

A number of Palestinian factions agreed unanimously that the Gilo attack in the occupied city of Jerusalem carried out by a Palestinian from the city of Bethlehem that it comes within the framework of the natural response to Israeli crimes which have increased in recent times against our people in the city of Acre, and the right of the occupied city of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The factions blessed this heroic operation to "Palestine Today," which comes to confirm that all security measures taken by the occupation authorities in the occupied West Bank and the city of Jerusalem will not discourage resistance to reach its objectives, nor will it discourage our people from the lifting of oppression and injustice themselves.

Daoud Shihab, leader of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, said the Jerusalem attack was a natural reaction to crimes of the occupation in the city of Jerusalem and other towns and villages in the occupied West Bank.

For its part, Hamas considered the incident to be a natural response to occupation practices in the city of Jerusalem itself.

The movement spokesman Ayman Taha said attempts by the occupation government and troops to deter resistance and the displacement of the population of Jerusalem and annex land to build settlements are doomed to fail, to the insistence of the Palestinians to continue resistance and jihad.

He added: "The occupation authorities take repressive measures every day against the population of the city of Jerusalem before and after a heroic operation, while noting that such measures will not discourage our people to continue in the path of resistance and liberation."

The Popular Resistance Committees said the heroic Gilo attackcame after increased Judaization of Jerusalem, and building Jewish synagogues in the Al-Aqsa mosque.

PRC spokesman Abu Mujahid said that any Palestinian and Muslim can not afford to see Msarri Allah bless him and the Jews, and defiles, adding that the process of "Gilo" came to make sure that a popular uprising against the occupation and the policy of arrogance is still on the table and will address all repressive measures in Jerusalem and the occupied city of Acre.

Abu Mujahid said that the occupation does not stop their continuing psychological war after each operation in occupied Jerusalem and threatening the demolition of houses and the withdrawal of citizenship and the displacement of the population, stressing that this war will not stop and heroic martyrdom operations may hit everywhere and at any time.

I commented in July about how the world doesn't consider it strange that Arabs consider murder to be "natural."

Terror attack in Jerusalem; Ma'an gets facts backwards

There was a terror attack this morning in Jerusalem where an Arab stabbed a policeman and a 86-year old man. The terrorist was shot by the injured policeman, and he then stabbed the older man to death before being arrested.

The Palestinian Arab news outlet Ma'an, naturally, gets the basic facts wrong. For the past hour both its Arabic and English sites are still saying that the attacker was shot to death by Israeli police, and its adds some more fanciful fiction as well:

Israeli police then shot the attacker, killing him. One eyewitness reported that the man was detained before he was shot.

Even the version updated at 12:50 PM does not include the fact that the victim died, which was reported an hour beforehand, nor that the attacker is still alive in serious condition but conscious.

Providing yet another example of how even the most Westernized of Palestinian Arab media is filled with baldfaced lies.

Jordanian poet arrested for apostasy

That moderate Arab friend of ours, Jordan, has just arrested a poet for "apostasy" two weeks after Jordan's Grand Mufti declared the artist as an "enemy of Islam."

The poet, 27-year old Islam Samhan, published a collection of his poems eight months ago. Only recently has this been noticed by the Grand Mufti, and Jordan now says that this publication was "illegal" as every published work must be registered with Jordan's Press and Publication Department. Samhan claims that it was registered.

All this comes as something of a surprise to Samhan, whose book, In a Slim Shadow, published eight months ago, is a collection of his best work over the past decade. The ministry of culture even bought 50 copies.

The offensive poems include:

One that compares the poet's loneliness to that of the biblical Joseph, called Yusuf in the Quran. (This one is the one that caught the Mufti's attention.)

In a second, Samhan has a character address God, which his critics say personifies God.

In another the woman is talking to God while lying beneath a see-through sheet. Samhan said he was referring to the gods of Greek mythology.

Again, this is not Saudi Arabia or Iran. This is the Jordan that is often described in the Western media as "cosmopolitan" with a thriving nightlife - and a plethora of massage parlors.

It is instructive that the Mufti made his accusations weeks ago, on literature published months ago, after the author has publicly read from his works to acclaim. Jordan's authorities clearly felt pressure from the religious establishment to cave to 7th century theocratic mores.

PalArab news roundup

An Islamic Jihad terrorist was accidentally killed during "training exercises" in Gaza.

A mortar was shot from Gaza to Israel on Tuesday night.

Hamas claims to have stopped an assassination attempt again one of their leaders in Gaza. "Unknown persons" tried to set a remote-controlled bomb near the leader's house.

A union leader says that Hamas has so far closed some 450 medical clinics in Gaza since the doctor strike started a couple of months ago. Still no word from Doctors Without Borders.

A breakaway Fatah movement has started in Syria called Fatah Uprising. Not surprisingly, this wing of the Fatah movement rejects all attempts at a peaceful resolution.

There is a tomato shortage in the West Bank. The reason? Jews were buying West Bank tomatoes at higher prices for the Sukkot holiday, tripling the prices. Even when Palestinian Arab farmers get rich from Jews, the story at Ma'an gets twisted as if Jews are forcing Palestinian Arab families to starve.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now 202.

It looks like Rice really did praise Hamas

In a story that I've been following for nearly two weeks, it appears that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice may have really sent a message to Hamas that praised them for their actions. From Al Jazeera:

The US state department has denied that Condoleezza Rice, the country's secretary of state, sent a message to Hamas' senior political adviser praising the Palestinian movement for its halt in firing rockets into Israel.

The so-called "verbal communication" between the US and Khaled Meshaal is said to have been received this month through mediators visiting the Gaza Strip.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the message also stated US support for the inter-Palestinian dialogue mediated by Egypt.

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said Hamas is not denying that communications with the US have taken place.

However, the organisation has said that they have not received anything official from the US, she said.

"I would like to inform you that your maintenance of the ceasefire is an absolute Palestinian interest and will be for the benefit of the people of Gaza and of course Hamas, which seized control of the strip," Rice was quoted by Ma'an, a Palestinian news agency, as saying.

"I would also like to commend the measures you have taken to protect the borders with Israel and prevent extremist terrorists from launching rockets at the south of the Jewish state," the message continued.

"I feel it is important for Hamas to be ready to renounce terrorism and to seriously consider living peacefully in two states, side by side in peace and security, allowing both the Israeli and Palestinian sides to live in peace and prosperity.

"I hope this can be the beginning of greater communication with Hamas, after your assimilation into the negotiation process and acceptance of the Quartet committee's demands."

Abu Marzouk said that Hamas considers the message a "recognition" of its existence, although the US still labels Hamas as a "terrorist" organisation.

Ahmed Youssef, a senior political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed Palestinian prime minister and a key Hamas member, told the Al Ahram newspaper that the message does not herald a massive change in the current relationship between Hamas and the US.

"It certainly reflects the US administration's sense that the justifications upon which it has long grounded its antagonism towards Hamas and the Palestinian resistance are crumbling," he said.
According to Al Ahram, a source in the Haniyeh government said that communications have been taking place for more than a year between his government and the office of Tony Blair, the Quartet's Midde East envoy.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, the former Palestinian foreign minister from Hamas, confirmed that Hamas had received a message from Rice.

But "this cannot be regarded as a turning point in relations between the US administration and Hamas", he said.

Odeh said these messages are not new.

"Previous US administrations have constantly tried to nudge isolated political parties into mainstream politics," she said.

"It also indicates that the US government cannot deny the influence of Hamas in the region."

The US denials do not ring true - calling it "unofficial" gives plausible deniability - and the contents sound like State Department-speak to make this sound legit.

One more holiday

Home stretch on the holidays - here in the Diaspora we have two more days, for Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.

Play nicely and have a good Yom Tov! I hope to be back Wednesday night.

Iran fears "spy pigeons"

From AFP (h/t Global Freezing):

Security forces in Natanz have arrested two suspected "spy pigeons" near Iran's controversial uranium enrichment facility, the reformist Etemad Melli newspaper reported on Monday.
One of the pigeons was caught near a rose water production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, the report cited an unnamed informed source as saying, adding that some metal rings and invisible strings were attached to the bird.
"Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings," the source was quoted as saying of the second pigeon.
The source gave no further description of the pigeons, neither their current status nor what their fate will be.

Good job, Zionist psy-ops! While you send the obvious pigeons to be caught, the real nano-technology spy gnats are gathering up petabytes of information!

Open thread

Here is how the New York Times described the current Jewish holidays in 1897. (Click to enlarge.)

Somewhat better than the 1902 description in this Colorado newspaper!

Odds and ends (updated)

Self-death number 200: An 18-year old Palestinian Arab was electrocuted in a tunnel Saturday night.

Flying pig moment: Ha'aretz quotes residents of Judea and Samaria in saying that Palestinian Arabs destroy their own olive groves and blame it on settlers:

"They benefit twice," he said. "Cutting the trees down benefits the groves, and they also benefit financially because the damage supposedly was caused by settlers."

Lieberman also recalled how leftists "torpedoed" an agreement between residents of the Itamar settlement and their Arab neighbors.

"Village representatives would have gone to the community and, along with Itamar residents, evaluated the crops' yield, and determined the sum Palestinians would receive for the harvest. The extreme left prevented this," he said.

Lieberman admits, however, that the so-called "hilltop youth" of the surrounding outposts often clash with the farmers.

"If we don't protect the individual rights of the Palestinians, our neighbors we will break our hold and our roots in Judea and Samaria. We have an interest in maintaining what belongs to them, and what belongs to us. They are human beings, and we must deal with them as with human beings," he said.

Orit Struk, the head of Judea and Samaria Human Rights Group, said the media's treatment of confrontations between settlers and Palestinians is hypocritical.

"More than a year ago we released a document describing hundreds of instances of Palestinians harming Jewish farmers and their property. The media wasn't interested at all, and the police weren't exactly excited either," she said.

Proving once again that Israeli "extremists" are people who want to live in peace with their neighbors, and Palestinian Arab "extremists" are people who want to blow up their Jewish neighbors.

Two PalArab women tried to commit suicide.

First there were reports that Condi Rice sent a message to Hamas praising them for the "calm," then Hamas denied it. Now Hamas says she did send a message through Arab foreign ministers, but not to praise them, apparently.

UPDATE:

Al-Azhar University is closing for the third time in a week because Hamas is attacking people there with bombs and guns. Ho hum.

A man in his twenties was found dead in Gaza of multiple gunshot wounds. Must be the Zionists' fault! (The 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 201.)

And here's the latest news from "Jewish extremists," according to Firas Press:

They tried to go to the Temple Mount armed with - shudder - prayerbooks!

How extreme can you get?

Hello, world. Yahooers have noticed me.

Although I can't find any links, apparently Yahoo decided to link my critique of a Reuters article yesterday to many news articles today, bringing a couple of thousand of new readers. You can see some of them commented on the piece, some making more sense than others.

One of them caught my eye, because he copied my entire posting onto his blog as well. (He also commented.) In his blog, he doesn't bother to answer any of my points, apparently assuming that his audience will understand that I am a complete idiot just from my own words. He only comments with this unassailable logic:

Israel has to be the biggest nation of self-indulgent whiners, narcissists and gun wielding paranoid thugs on the planet.
And delusional to boot.

Sure enough, his audience rises to the occasion, with his first commenter posting this brilliant analysis:

Ok folks, i don't like to boast about myself a lot, because i like to be as humble as i can, i am not smart, nor a scientist nor a psychologist. However i think that am a very instinct-oriented person, and my instincts and senses tell me that Israelites want to control a great part of the world, if not the whole world.

He also has a graphic on his site to boycott Israeli goods and claiming that you can tell what products are made in Israel by UPC code, which even Muslim boycotters have found out is simply not true. But since he defines himself as being part of a "fact based reality" I suppose that this is irrelevant.

Anyway, this person also threw in this gem in his comment:

Funny, but I can't help but to remember that before Israel came into existence, the US had NO enemies in the ME.

Which is really funny, because the US had enemies in the Middle East since the 18th century!

Reuters again trivializes Israel's security concerns

More anti-Israel bias from Reuters, from a couple of days ago:

Filet mignon menu brightens fearsome West Bank wall

It might be a while before some future U.S. president prevails on Israel to "tear down this wall," so Palestinian restaurateur Joseph Hazboon printed his menu on it instead...in waterproof colors.
When Israel ran a towering concrete "security barrier" past the window of the Hazboon family's Bethlehem property a few years ago, it seemed liked the kiss of death commercially.

But Hazboon, 35, hit on the idea of transforming what was now a highly undesirable location into a lucrative attraction.

He renamed the place "The Wall Lounge" and, judging by the results, the setting is surprisingly popular with tourists.
...The barrier is made of razor wire-tipped fences, walls of the sort that block the sound from motorways, and mightier sections of concrete panels similar to those that East Germany once used to seal off the West, complete with watchtowers.
...Like the Berlin Wall, which Ronald Reagan famously demanded be torn down, the Israeli barrier has attracted artists, poets, spraypaint taggers and jokers, whose colorful works take some of the menace out of its hard gray concrete slabs.

Reuters again downplays Israeli reasons for building the fence, putting "security barrier" in scare quotes as if that could hardly be the reason Israel built the wall.

And taking its cue from the worst Israel bashers, Reuters explicitly compares the barrier to the Berlin Wall, when it is the exact opposite. The Berlin Wall was built by communist East Germany to stop East Germans from defecting to the West; the people it was meant to stop were the people seeking freedom. The people that Israel's barrier is meant to stop are terrorists. The barrier, over 90% of which is a fence, is meant to keep bad people out, not good people in. The sections that are concrete also help stop Palestinian Arab snipers from targeting Israeli citizens.

The comparison to the Berlin Wall is odious and obscene, and the positive results of the barrier are undeniable. In the three years before and while Israel started building the fence (2001-2003) about 450 Israelis were murdered in suicide bombing attacks alone; in the three years from 2005-2007 the number went down to 41. In 2002 alone the number of suicide bomb victims was 220; if it wasn't for the barrier and other Israeli countermeasures that are also roundly criticized there is no reason to think that we wouldn't be seeing hundreds such deaths every year.

As usual, the wire service trivializes Israeli security concerns - and real-life examples of the hundreds of lives that have been saved - and emphasizes the undeniable but comparatively minimal inconvenience to Palestinian Arabs that the barrier brings. (It also happens to be inconvenient to many Israelis, as are the checkpoints that Israelis have to endure in their daily lives when going to malls and other popular bombing targets, but that will never be reported.)

It would have been possible for Reuters to report on Joseph Hazboon's restaurant and his use of the wall in an accurate, fair and entertaining manner without its clear bias against legitimate Israeli security concerns. But why would Reuters want to do that?

Reuters blames Israel, again

Here's today's textbook example of Reuters' bias:

Harvesting olives is a laborious process, not made easier if teargas is drifting over the groves as it does most Fridays here in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli-Palestinian clashes are almost ritual.

Since this is the first paragraph of the article, it sets the tone for the piece: Israelis fire tear gas and Palestinian Arab farmers therefore cannot harvest their crops.

One has to read the entire article, and parse out the bias, to see the truth.

"This happens two or three times a week maybe. But with an emphasis on Fridays," says Ram Kaho, an Israeli border police officer whose squad of 40 patrols one of the many fault-lines on the tense interface between the two communities.

Kaho's sector is where the Jewish settlement of Hashmonaim rubs up close to the Arab village of Nilin -- soon to be cut off by the barrier Israel is building in the valley between.

So Reuters is saying that the problem is both Jews having the audacity of living near Arabs, which is of course considered provocative, and Jews wanting to separate from Arabs with a fence, which is considered a violation of international law. Either way, the Arabs can't be blamed for anything.

"This is an especially difficult place," he says. "In relation to other places we have lots of injuries. So it's a very problematic area."

Injuries? From what? Reuters has not yet told us. The only people at fault mentioned so far are Jews, so perhaps they are injuring themselves?

Israeli settlements on occupied land in the West Bank are perhaps the most contentious issue in the way of a peace settlement with the Palestinians ending decades of conflict.

This has been repeated so often that most people cannot notice the obvious absurdity: settlements don't stop peace; terrorism is what stops peace. Before the current Intifada, Israelis and Palestinian Arabs visited each other, shopped in each others' villages, and worked together, and the settlements weren't a factor in real-life interactions.

The Nilin clashes have been going on for about a year.

Again, we have yet to be told what exactly happens in these "clashes."

In 2004, the World Court in The Hague ruled that Israel's proposed 720-km (430-mile) barrier on occupied Palestinian land -- begun in 2002 -- was illegal.

Israel says the barrier, a mix of wire fence and concrete walls, keeps suicide bombers out of its cities.

But why believe them? Just because the number of successful suicide bombings has decreased dramatically since the barrier was started? Nah, it is just an unverified claim. And why should Israel's claim that lives are being saved be more important than a non-binding court ruling?

When Kaho's police hear the Friday Muslim call to prayer from the hill opposite, they brace for action. They are sure that as soon as prayers are over, some Palestinians backed by international activist supporters, will begin throwing rocks.

Rocks? Who said anything about rock throwing? No, in Reuters' universe, the (potentially lethal) rocks that are thrown at Israelis is in paragraph 9, but the (non-lethal) tear gas that Israel shoots in return is in paragraph 1. Causality is a bit less than obvious.

...Half-way up the hill, a couple of young Palestinian men and their father perch on ladders, stripping blue-black olives from a tree onto canvasses spread on the ground below.

They seem oblivious of the flying whiz and exploding pop of tear-gas canisters just up the slope. But the breeze soon blows acrid fumes over the small stony terrace of ochre soil where they are working.

Would anyone even dare to suggest that if the protesters would stop throwing rocks that perhaps there wouldn't be any tear gas? Or is the IDF more active against the olive harvesters?

"There would be more of us here harvesting, normally, but the soldiers make us go away. And we send our young kids home," said one of the men, who declined to give his name.

Ah, we have someone here saying that Israel stops the olive pickers. Sometimes. Although not when any reporter is around.

The protesters are no match for the Israelis, who have automatic weapons and armoured jeeps. Three Palestinians have been shot dead in the West Bank over the past four days, for aiming firebombs at troops, the army says.

The first sentence implies that only Israel uses deadly force and sets up the "David and Goliath" myth. The second sentence follows through, saying that Israel kills protesters, only incidentally mentioning that the "protesters" had deadly weapons themselves. The entire paragraph is structured to make Israel look as aggressive as possible and to give it no reason to defend itself against firebombs - perhaps because the IDF has jeeps?

"Here we really, really try to avoid any use of lethal force," says Kaho. He relies on an arsenal of gas and stun grenades, or "shock weapons" as he calls them, to keep the stone-throwing attackers at bay.

Here we start to get a little balance - when most readers have already moved to the comics page. The major part of the article demonizing Israel is finished, now Reuters can pretend to be fair. Allow that Israel tries to avoid using lethal force after accusing Israel of killing protesters for little reason.

The olive harvesters are allowed to get on with their work but when the protesters mingle among them "we start to worry".

You mean that the protesters - many from nowhere near the area - are perhaps the problem? You mean that the Palestinian Arab farmers would be allowed to harvest their olives without any problem if it wasn't for these outside troublemakers who encourage stone throwing and firebombs? Would real journalists perhaps try to expand upon this just a little bit?

Nah - that would place blame on someone other than Israel, and that just is not an acceptable position for this article. Move along, nothing to see here.

Many facts are here in this article, but Reuters skillfully highlights some and backpedals others to give an impression that is opposite the truth. Not that this is a great piece of writing anyway; it meanders between the tear gas, the olive pickers and the barrier, and it ignores the protesters almost completely. Since this is a "feature" article one would expect it to be a bit more expansive and organized, but that would defeat the theme of Israel's culpability.

Gaza tunnels exposed!

Every journalist and their brothers have been filing stories from the Gaza tunnel industry, so the Islamic Jihad-leaning Palestine Today joined the party.

After a number of photographs of two masked men transporting their booty from Egypt to Gaza, we finally get a chance to see what life-saving goods they brought for the starving Gazans stuck in their concentration-camp conditions. Medicines? Wheat? Rice?

Let's look a little closer....

So this is what they are starving for! The great taste of Gotcha!, a big hit of wafer layers, delicious caramel and crispy cereals in real milk chocolate!

Gotcha! - the official candy bar of Gaza tunnel rats!

Sony submits to Islam

From VentureBeat:

Sony has been touting LittleBigPlanet as one of its biggest holiday release titles. But the company announced it would delay the worldwide launch, which had been scheduled for Oct. 24, because one of the background music tracks in the game might be offensive to Muslims.
The company’s European games division put out a statement that said that the music, licensed from a record label, has “two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an.” It also apologizes for any offense. I’ve actually got a finished copy of the game and so it’s clear that Sony had already been moving ahead with manufacturing of disks for the launch. Now it will have to create new disks without the music.

That’s a big setback for Sony. game promises to be a mass market hit because of its appeal to both hardcore gamers. It isn’t clear when the new disks will be ready for launch. The game has a very high rank on GameRankings.com, which aggregates review scores, of 94.5 percent. It is the highest ranked recent game on the list.

The song in question can be downloaded from iTunes, as it is freely available and was sung by a devout Muslim. Although it has been out for a while, it had never been criticized before.

The original letter complaining to Sony about these lyrics can be found here:

To: Sony Computer Entertainment & Media Molecule

While playing your latest game, "LittleBigPlanet" in the first level of the third world in the game (titled "Swinging Safari"), I have noticed something strange in the lyrics of the music track of the level. When I listened carefully, I was surprised to hear some very familiar Arabic words from the Quran. You can listen to part of the track here:

http://mt14.quickshareit.com/share/preview/soundclip22503c0.wav

The words are:

1- In the 18th second: "كل نفس ذائقة الموت" ("kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: 'Every soul shall have the taste of death').

2- Almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "كل من عليها فان" ("kollo man alaiha fan", literally: 'All that is on earth will perish').

I asked many of my friends online and offline and they heard the exact same thing that I heard easily when I played that part of the track. Certain Arabic hardcore gaming forums are already discussing this, so we decided to take action by emailing you before this spreads to mainstream attention.

We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending. We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately via an online update, and make sure that all future shipments of the game disk do not contain it.

We would also like to mention that this isn't the first time something like this happened in videogames. Nintendo's 1998 hit "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" contained a musical track with islamic phrases, but it was removed in later shipments of the game after Nintendo was contacted by Muslim organizations. Last year, Capcom's "Zack & Wiki" and Activision's "Call of Duty 4" also contained objectionable material offensive to Muslims that was spotted before the release of the final games, and both companies thankfully removed the content.

It is remarkable that the gaming industry, which has no concerns about offending anyone else with ultra-violent and sexual scenes in its games, is suddenly so sensitive to one segment of the population.

Would lyrics that are offensive to Jews or Christians or Hindus (or blondes, disabled people, the French or any other group you can name) have caused Sony to pull a highly-anticipated and fully ready game from release? I doubt it highly.

So why is Sony so uniquely sensitive to Muslim sensibilities? The unstated reason is obvious: because none of the other groups have a history of threatening the lives of those who offend them.

Islam has managed to force the world to submit to its dictates because a significant number of its adherents firmly believe that those who hurt their feelings must be killed.

Some UN bias for you

One UN agency is called the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territories.

OCHA is not nearly as overtly anti-Israel as other UN agencies. Even so, and even as it tries mightily to project an unbiased front, its hatred for Israel is clear in its very mission (which, by definition, is not concerned with any Palestinian Arab violation of Israeli human rights) as well as its reports.

A new slick OCHA report on the situation in the "OPT" in September provides a number of examples of the overarching bias, bordering on hatred, that the UN has against Israel.

Three times the report states:

Israel’s closure of Gaza crossing points continues, with only a slight increase in the number of truckloads allowed entry... The number of truckloads of imported goods allowed into Gaza increased slightly compared to August 2008....imports for the month were slightly up from the August figures.

And what does "slightly" mean? It means that the number of truckloads of goods increased from 3565 to 4049, an increase of 13%.

Somehow, I don't think that a 13% monthly increase in, say, inflation or the stock market would be characterized by anyone as "a slight increase." But in its zeal to make Israel look bad, the UN will trivialize Israel's efforts to increase aid while maintaining its own security.

And then the UN chooses specific types of goods that decreased:

There was a noticeable decline in the number of truckloads carrying hygiene and cleaning supplies (82% less than in August), industrial/electrical appliances (33% less) and the non-edible consumables (39% less).

If that is true, it must mean that some other goods increased more than the 13%, but the UN doesn't bother to break those down. It is apparent that Israel increased the amount of food, cement, gravel and fuel sent to Gaza significantly, but the UN doesn't mention this fact in its attempts to make Israel look as bad as possible.

Another section of the report praises smuggling tunnels:

In light of the inability of many Gazan businessmen to conduct trade through Gaza official crossings (Karni, Sufa and Kerem Shalom), Rafah tunnels have become a vital lifeline to obtain needed goods over the last year. Media reports estimate the number of tunnels to be in the hundreds, employing up to 6,000 Palestinians. On 25 September, the Hamas authority police introduced new regulations to control trade through the tunnels. A list of conditions were announced, among which was that all tunnel operators must meet certain standards in order for their tunnels to be licensed and allowed to operate. Numerous tents covering tunnel entrances are visible in the Rafah area and the industry is increasingly becoming open and controlled. The extent of the tunnel network is a direct result of the continued restrictions on access.

Notice how the UN carefully refuses to mention the possibility of Egypt allowing trade to occur legally through Rafah.

Also note that not a word is mentioned about another major tunnel industry - weapons and explosives. Egyptian forces regularly find caches of dynamite and weapons in the Sinai around Rafah, meant for transport in these same tunnels that the UN considers a "lifeline."

Well, that is true if you don't consider the lives of Israelis who are the ultimate targets of these weapons to be worth anything.

Another indicator of bias, as the UN couches what should be considered good news into expectations of Israeli evil:

While the number of settler-related incidents decreased in September, there are concerns that settler violence will increase during the October olive harvest as has been the case during past harvests.

Invariably, if something good happens the UN spins it to make Israel look bad.

Incidentally, the UN's definition of "settler-related incidents" includes unverified reports that the UN encourages Palestinian Arabs and NGOs to submit using a handy form.

Another example:

On 15 and 16 September, Erez crossing was closed, except for emergency medical and humanitarian cases, in response to the firing of a homemade rocket from Gaza towards Sderot.

The adjective "homemade" is purely meant to trivialize the threat of the rockets towards Israel, and the implication is that Israel must not bother to defend itself.

I wonder, if Palestinian Arabs would firebomb UN workers in Gaza, if the UN report would refer to the means of attack as "homemade Molotov cocktails."

And yet another:

Access for more than 60% of the Palestinian population to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was denied during the holy month of Ramadan (1-29 September). Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were denied entry, while the access of West Bank ID holders was regulated by a special permit regime, valid only on the four Fridays during the month.

The absurdity of counting Gaza residents as part of the "60%" who were denied entry to Al Aqsa is self-evident, but it serves to make Israel once again look evil - for not allowing a large, unrepentantly hostile mass of people to cross though Israeli territory.

But this is the UN, and when UN staffers are tasked to only support one side of a conflict as they are in this case, one can expect that they will be singularly biased.

Ya gotta love the Left

This morning I posted about an article in a San Francisco Indymedia site about far-left rabid Israel haters proudly damaging consumer goods.

One commenter here mentioned that his comment at Indymedia was deleted, so I checked out what else was going on at that page.

Indymedia has a published policy of what sort of articles and comments it deletes (or "hides.") The policy is:

SF Bay Area IMC is founded on the principle of open publishing. Reality dictates that the editorial collective will at times decide to hide posts and comments. This is not a decision that is taken lightly, however, and the editorial collective does its best refrain from hiding. Our vision for the function of the newswire, and the general framework in which all decisions to hide will be made, are as follows:
The newswire is intended to be a community media resource, a space free from spam and abuse in general; and
That space will not contribute to the oppression of traditionally oppressed and marginalized groups.
Members of the Editorial Collective are permitted to hide posts or comments as long as that person's decision is based on at least one of the following three points:
The post or comment constitutes abuse of the newswire (see note below);
The post or comment undermines the Principles of Unity of the SF Bay Area IMC; e.g., right-wing propaganda or hate speech; or
The post or comment constitutes a spam attack (see below) on the newswire.
The editorial collective may remove copyrighted material on request of the copyright owner. At any time another Editorial Collective member may dispute the hiding of a post or comment, based on our Principles of Unity or this policy.

Comments, questions, and feedback regarding this policy are highly encouraged. Please write us at sfbay-web@lists.indymedia.org.

Here are two comments that were made that Indymedia, that bastion of free speech, felt went over the line:

Why I am posting a comment

by Yerushalimey
Thursday Oct 16th, 2008 11:10 AM

I discovered your site when I visited Elderofziyon, where it was pointed out that whoever is putting these stickers on products is breaking Federal Law. I wanted to see for myself the kind of people who flout the laws of the country they live in and feel morally, ethically obliged to improve the behavior of people in other countries.
I discover that the people who call for support a boycott of hummus lack the integrity to boycott Israeli products like cell phone and computer technology or pharmaceuticals - presumably because it would inconvenience them.
And, when I returned to this site, I discovered that comments offering opposing opinions are soon deleted.
So I am writing to suggest you are a bunch of criminal hypocrites who cannot tolerate criticism, naively hoping that I will touch your conscience and you will let this comment stand.

Boycott the racist, apartheid states of the Arab world!

by Yehudi Hazak
Thursday Oct 16th, 2008 11:11 AM

For the mother of all racism, xenophobia, sexism, and homophobia in the Middle East look at the "Arab" states many of which have large non-Arab minorities suffering under systematic discrimination and racist policies that keep them suppresed, such as the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, the Berbers in Morocco (where they actually outnumber Arabs) and Algeria, or the Assyrians in Iraq, or the black African and Christian southern Sudanese who suffered genocide at he hands of the the Arab Musims of northern Sudan over a horrific 20 year war that killed 2 million people. And where is indybay' conern about the genocide of non-arabs in Darfur? Oh, I forgot, taking the side of Arab nationalists in that one, too. And indybay's concern for the plight of LGBT in Arab and Muslim lands? Non-existent. Indybay's concern for gender equality, freedom of choice for women in the Arab and Muslim worlds? once again, non-existent.

You are all a bunch of moral hypocrites, obsessed about Israel, & willfully blind to the horrendous human rights disasters in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and as such your silence aids and abets the oppressors of the Middle East's non-Arab and non-Muslim minorities, women and LGBT.

BTW, you don't have to worry about the Jewish minorities in the Arab world: the Arab already ethnically cleansed 99% of the "their Jews" since 1948. Any concern by indybayers for this massive human rights crime? Likely not.

Both these comments were silently deleted.

So, which Indymedia rule did they break?

Does mentioning Arab bigotry against their minorities contribute to the oppression of a billion Arabs, whom Indymedia apparently feels is a "traditionally oppressed or marginalized group?"

Or is mentioning that gays are oppressed in Arab countries considered "right wing propaganda" or "hate speech"?

Meanwhile, other articles at that site darkly hint at a conspiracy of a small number of manipulative evil Jews controlling America. But that's fine, because Indymedia doesn't consider the Jewish 0.2% of the world's population to be an oppressed minority - obviously Jews can walk freely in most places in the world without a problem, while a billion Muslims are huddled in fear, relying on their communist heroes to make the world a safer place for them.

As usual, those who scream the loudest about free speech are the ones who are in the forefront of quashing it.

UPDATE: One more comment posted and gone:

Putting your own labels on commercial packaged food is a crime...

by Zionist
Thursday Oct 16th, 2008 12:07 PM

Punishable by up to 3 yrs in prison. Enjoy!

But seriously, you bring up the 'don't let the evil Zionists distract you with their talk of other problems in the world!', but the truth is, the international 'left' is sick with a virus that has Jew-hatred at its core. Your obsessive focus on perceived injustice in Israel does definitely come at the expense of all the people who are suffering in other conflicts around the world. And on top of that, your understanding of the history of the conflict in the Middle East is hopelessly ignorant and filled with the evil lies that have been propagated by others before you.

But that's just my opinion, so carry on.

The Zionist attack zoo adds a new member

Longtime readers of my blog have seen a menagerie of animals that have one thing in common: Palestinian Arabs have blamed these Zionist animals for harassing them.

A trip down memory lane:

Zionist pigs, trained by settlers to attack innocent Palestinian Arab gardens during prayer times. Even though the pigs are wild they have been tamed by the twisted settlers for the sole purpose of attacking Palestinian Arab crops only, on numerous occasions.

We've seen Zionist wolves, raised by the same settlers who know only to attack PalArabs because of their evil Joo DNA.

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

We've even seen trained Zionist rats, genetically engineered to be impervious to poison, designed to drive Arabs out of Jerusalem.

Now we can add another member to this prestigious group of God's wonderful creatures: Evil Zionist Sheep!

According to Ma'an:

Settlers attempting to impede Palestinian olive harvests initiated a bizarre new tactic on Thursday, apparently leaving flocks of sheep at olive groves to feed on the small trees.

Residents told Ma’an that Israeli settlers “dumped dozens of sheep” on Palestinian farmland neighboring the illegal settlement of Itamar, where the animals damaged and devoured dozens of olive and fig trees.

It may appear at first glance that using a resource like sheep to eat foods that are not part of any sheep's diet - and to train them to stay away from the grass and eat young trees, hurting their digestive systems and therefore ruining them as a cash crop - would be a highly inefficient method of harassing Palestinian Arab farmers.

But of course appearances are deceiving. We already know how far evil Joooz will go to make life miserable for their Palestinian Arab neighbors from countless other examples, such as those mentioned above. Ma'an even brought proof: a 57-year old witness saw a Jewish shepherd a few days ago! Case closed!

Clearly, their hatred knows no bounds and common decency is foreign to the subhuman settlers. One can only wish that responsible media outlets like Ma'an will continue to report, without the slightest verification, the most ridiculous claims made by the most marginal of Arabs as documented fact, because the self-evident truth of everything being the fault of the Zionists is the only thing that will solve the problem of Palestine.

17 weeks in a row

For the seventeenth consecutive week, Palestinian Arabs managed to die violently by their own actions in higher numbers than those that were killed by Israel.

The score this week was 5-2, as we included two tunnel deaths, two clan clashes and an "accidental" killing. (The two who were killed by the IDF were in the process of throwing Molotov cocktails, so they were hardly innocent bystanders.)

San Francisco-based terrorist supporters have started a campaign to stick labels on foods on market shelves that they perceive as being Israeli.

As Dusty points out in the comments, this breaks a Federal law:

Product Packaging Protection Act of 2002 - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit intentionally tampering with a consumer product that is sold in interstate or foreign commerce by knowingly placing or inserting any writing in the product or in its container before its sale to any consumer without the consent of the product manufacturer, retailer, or distributor. Defines "writing" as any form of representation or communication, including graphic or pictorial representations.
Subjects violators to a fine and imprisonment of up to one year, or up to three years for a second or subsequent violation.

Luckily, on Indybay they documented themselves breaking this law at a Safeway supermarket (and pretending that they were "random Jewish customers" with names like "Moshe Cohen.")

The commenters helpfully point out that small Arab markets in Berkeley also sell Israeli goods.

(h/t Dusty)

Palestine on the eve of modern Zionism

I just found a remarkably detailed yet concise article describing the state of southern Syria (which included Palestine) in 1883, written by Captain C. R. Conder in the Fortnightly Review, a major British magazine. Conder was a prominent British explorer and surveyor of the area for a number of decades.

As with other similar descriptions from that era, the article is filled with bigotry, but it solidifies the facts that we know about that era in Palestine:

* The only people that regarded Palestine as an entity, in any sense, were Westerners.

* The Arabs of Palestine identified themselves by their clans, not by their geographic area. They would never have referred to themselves as "Palestinian" but rather as "Husseinis" or "Keis".

* These Arab clans fought each other as fiercely as they fought non-Arabs. The idea of Arab unity was a fiction that they told each other but that never really existed.

* Palestine itself was in seriously bad economic shape before mass Jewish immigration. At that time, the only optimism there was about the Palestinian economy improving was with Jewish return to the land. This author was skeptical about it but he notes the growth of the Jewish population and investment.

Right before modern Zionism, things were getting worse for the local Arabs. The author saw a marked loss in their standards of living between 1872 and 1882.

Other interesting parts of the article are its prescient views on the colonialist designs on the area from France, England and Russia, and its findings on the lack of faith among the Muslims at the time.

Here is a very large excerpt from the article:

THE able administrator who for the last twenty-two years has impartially executed the laws framed immediately after the massacres of 1860 for the protected province of the Lebanon, has, only quite recently, been dismissed from an office which he had every right to regard as intended to be held during life ; and Rustem Pasha leaves (for no very evident reason) the government of a country which has grown rich and prosperous under his care. The condition of the rest of Palestine and Syria is, on the other hand, miserable ; and those who have known the country for the last ten years are able to judge how much it has declined from even the very modest degree of prosperity which it formerly enjoyed. It is true that at Beyrout and round Jerusalem many new houses have been built, while the American mission has spread not only through Lebanon but into the districts immediately adjoining. It is true that the Jewish population of Jerusalem has increased enormously, and that the Jews of Hebron and Safed have also augmented their numbers and attained to greater influence ; but these signs of progress, together with the spread of German colonists from Jaffa and Haifa to other towns, are not as encouraging as would at first be supposed.

The peasantry, who are the backbone of the population, have diminished most sadly in numbers and in wealth. Ten years ago the village Sheikh generally rode a fair horse, and was not ill-dressed ; now the tourist may travel for a whole day without meeting one of the native horsemen he used once to encounter ; and those who hate had to buy horses know how few remain in the country, and how the strong half-bred Arabs are now mostly in the hands of the contractors, who provide for the annual tourist army conducted by Mr. Cook, or some other enterprising organizer of travel. The Syrian dragoman, gorgeous in purple robes, as handsome a rascal as one could wish to meet, a capitalist working on his own account, is a thing of the past. He has disappeared before Western competitive prices, and is superseded by the humbler and less picturesque though more honest retainer of the British firm of Cook.

In village life the same process may be observed. The people are fewer, the villages even are less numerous. Many which I found prosperous in 1872 are now either deserted or half ruinous, and we never heard of a new settlement of Moslem or even Christian natives.

The cruel war with Russia half ruined Palestine. The flower of the male population was carried off to the Balkans, and the young Sheikh of Gibeon (a place of perhaps five hundred souls) told me in 1881 that out of twenty men taken from that one village he was the only one who had returned alive. Riding through the land I was more than once offered a village with its lands for sale, the peasants being no longer able to pay the taxes or meet the demands of usurers, Jewish, Greek, or Armenian, into whose clutches they were falling, after paying 60 to 70 per cent, for many years for money borrowed to pay the Government.

The consequences of this misery are, either that the population of a hamlet gradually dies out, the men being unable to marry, while illicit connections before marriage are very rare among the Moslems, or else the elders of the village, with the consent of the rest of the men, sell themselves and their lands into the hands of some capitalist, or of the usurer who has lent most money to the community. The evil does not, however, stop here. A capitalist willing to spend money on the rich soil of the Sharon plains might no doubt reap a good interest by employing the native labour, and he might considerably better the physical and moral condition of his serfs by judicious liberality in bad seasons. The peasantry are neither lazy nor stupid, and when contented and happy they will do a good day's work and serve their master cheerfully. But they find it hard to forget the means whereby generally their new master has obtained possession of the land, and they certainly cherish the dim hope of one day regaining the ancient fee-simple which they have generally held since the Moslem conquest in the twelfth century, or possibly for many centuries before. The plains of Jaffa have now been bought up by capitalists, some of whom are Jews, some Greek Christians, some Maronites from Lebanon ; but there is nothing more difficult in the lands ruled by the Porte than to establish a title to landed property. Theoretically any one who conforms to Turkish law has now the right to acquire property by purchase ; practically a flaw is soon found by one official after the other, and each official either increases his own income at the purchaser's expense or else involves the more scrupulous landowner, who refuses to pay an unending and ruinous baksheesh, in legal expenses which are almost equally ruinous, and which in turn entail other demands on the part of those who have the sale of the precious commodity ot justice.

Yet, although the peasant and the capitalist are thus in equally grievous plight, it must not be supposed that the Turkish Government is any the better off. Taxes are paid, it is true, two or three times over by peasant and landlord ; but the tax-collector refuses to disburse. There are cases in which an official defaulter has been tried and condemned, yet again reinstated in his office without paying what he owed the Government, partly on account of a judicious distribution of bribes, and partly because his superiors knew that a new man might be more rapacious, because poorer, than the old offender.

Another circumstance which has aggravated the misery of the country is the not unnatural suspicion which has arisen in the Sultan's mind regarding the designs of France, England, and Russia on his Syrian province. There can be no doubt that intrigue is rife throughout the country. The military attache of the French Embassy at Constantinople who visited the Hauran in 1881, but who was so successfully escorted by the Turks as to be unable to enter into any relation with the Druzes or Moslems, was probably but one out of many officials actively employed in intrigues directed against the Sultan. The recent rebellion of the Druzes was thought to be fomented by foreigners. The Maronites have been more than once encouraged by the promise of French assistance to gather and to protest against Turkish regulations. It is said that many thousands sterling have been spent by the French republican Government to assist the schools in Lebanon, and even in Moab, which have been inaugurated by missionaries of that very Church which has been so persecuted at home in France, yet which is found w useful a political engine abroad ; and in all cases where schools have been so assisted it is said to have been stipulated that French alone among foreign languages was to be taught, and that the learning of English should be discouraged.

Nor has Russia been less active in the Holy Land. Without counting certain surveys which are said to have been secretly executed in Northern Syria, there is abundant evidence of the pious interest which the Czar and his orthodox subjects are taking in the Holy Places of Jerusalem and Galilee. Almost the only new buildings in Nazareth are Russian chapels, and churches have sprung up —at Fuleh and Nain, at the newly-discovered site of the meeting of Christ with Mary near Bethany, at the home of John the Baptist at Ain Karem, and elsewhere — for which money has been found by the Russian head of the orthodox Church, or by the Roman Catholic cabinet at Paris. When, in 1881, the Grand Dukes came piously to pray for the soul of the late Czarina at the Holy Sepulchre, it was thought necessary to parade five hundred Russian sailors marching in column through the Jerusalem streets ; and in 1882 we saw a procession of a thousand French pilgrims in white cloaks, with banners and crosses, slowly pacing, with melodious hymns, down the narrow lane of David Street to the Crusading gateway of the Sepulchre Cathedral. Every year the number of Russian pilgrims, assisted by the Russian Government, increases. They have been seen in armies of a thousand or more, mounted on donkeys, and escorted by the Russian consular staff through the country. It is well known that at Bethlehem a Roman Catholic congregation has lately been induced, by a subsidy, to become converted to the Greek Church, and that the property of this congregation will be confiscated if they relapse to their former faith. The Jesuit missionaries in Madeba of Moab have, on the other hand, converted and taken away half the Greek population of Kerak ; and this has led to a visit from the Greek Patriarch to this long-forgotten Christian colony. To say nothing of visits of many royal personages of all nations, or of the attaches and consuls who have of late found Syria so interesting a country for private tours, the activity of the Greek and Latin Churches, and the money openly spent in Syria by French and Russian agents, are sufficient indications of political activity.

And what, it may be asked, is the attitude of Islam in face of this activity? To answer the question we must first consider what is meant by a Moslem. The peasantry, who form the majority of the supposed Sunnee Moslems, are in reality little better than Pagans. As in Egypt the fellahah women still secretly visit the temple of Athor for the performance of ancient rites, and still worship the old gods of Egypt, scarcely veiled under the modern names of Derwish saints, such as Seiyid cl Bedawi ; so in Palestine (as I have elsewhere endeavoured to show in detail) it is the local worship of the old Canaanite divinities which survives in the veneration of Mukams, named after Moslem heroes. There are but few of the country towns in which the minaret of a mosque is to be seen ; there are few of the fellahin who can even recite the Fat-hah, or first chapter of the Koran. Religion in Syria, as in some other countries, is a matter of class, and the peasant knows nothing of the questions which occupy the Moslem doctor. I have heard the Sultan — the head of the faith — openly cursed by Moslem peasants without a dissentient voice, and the fanatical spirit, which Arabi Pasha vainly strove to arouse in the breast of the Egyptian fellahin, is equally unnatural to the Syrian ploughmen. The Christian and the Moslem live peacefully together in the East, until the paid foreign agent comes to stir up their passions and to excite their cupidity. The Damascus massacre of 1860 would be found, were its history studied, to be no less of political origin than the Bulgarian atrocities. The traveller who loses his way at nightfall in Syria will (as has been proved more than once) probably meet with courteous hospitality from the inhabitants of a Moslem village. It has been so since the days of Omar or of Saladin, and so it will be while a Moslem peasantry remain ; but who shall say how soon the fellahin will become an extinct race if the present misery continues ?

When we turn to the larger cities, where many mosques remain with families in charge who trace back to the days of Saladin, and who claim to have been established by Omar, we encounter, it is true, another class, among whom fanaticism has a real existence. That the Sultan's Pan-Islamite propaganda had been assiduously fomented among them just before the Egyptian war can hardly be doubted. Those whe had known this class well for many years were then of opinion, from the greater reserve of their manners, that they had something on their minds. The excitement and tall talk at Gaza and elsewhere, at the time when a wide rumour prevailed, according to which Arabi Pasha had taken the heads of the English commanders to Cairo and had driven the British army into the sea, showed the interest felt by the class of the Ulemma, the Sokhtas, and the Moslem gentry in the expected triumph of Islam and in the coming of the Mohdy. This excitement has fortunately been repressed, and it does not appear to have affected the peasantry. The upper class in Egypt held the same views, and looked forward to the same future, but they failed to excite any true relgious fervour among the peasants who filled the trembling ranks at Tell-el-Kebir. They might look with disfavour on Frank interference, but they have no real power to resist it. Pan-Islamism is but a dream, the futility of which was evidenced in Egypt, when Indian Moslem soldiers, Egyptian peasants, and the Sheikhs of El Azhar were alike without religious sympathy. To expect the Sunnee to combine with the Shiah, or even the Turkish Hanifeh, the African Maleki, the Indian Shan, the Arab Vahhebi, to combine heartily in the cause of the faith, is as fruitless as to suppose that the Latin Frenchman and the Russian Greek will combine, for a common Christian cause, with the Armenian and the Maronite, or with the Protestant sects of Great Britain. The cry of the people is the same throughout Syria, whatever be their sect or stock. " Give us British rule, French rule, nay even a Russian, or a Greek, or a Jew to govern us, but save us from the Sultan and the Turk ! " And yet they little know the troubles which such a revolution must bring upon them, and little estimate the danger of Syria becoming a battle-field of European nations when, wheever gains the day, the peasantry are equally certain to be the immediate sufferers.

That the Sultan will give up Syria to any nationality without a severe struggle is not to be supposed. One of his chief claims to the office of Khalif lies in the practical guardianship of the Holy Places. Of these, the "distant Mosque" (El Aksa), to which the Prophet came flying on his cherub, " the lightning," and where he prayed before ascending to heaven, is second only to tho sacred Kaaba itself. The very pith of the question is to be recognised in the fact, that the glorious dome of 'Abd-el-Melek, at Jerusalem, enshrines the sacred rock, which is the foundation stone of the world. Turkish power in Syria has certainly not decreased in the last fifteen years. The officials of the Porte (mostly of the fierce Kurdish race to which Saladin belonged) have shown a vigilance and activity greater than that of the older times of inert obstruction. A barrack has been built in the middle of the turbulent district of the Hauran, and another under Hermon, to check the Druzes. The Governor at Es Salt has firmly established himself in Gilead, in a town which, fifteen years ago, was practically independent. By intrigue and force he has broken the power of the Adwan and Sakhur, and levies taxes on the Bedawin as far south as Kerak.

On the west side of the river, the traveller who sees the shepherd or the pedlar leave his flock or his donkey and fly to the hill, you the approach of the irregular policemen or Bashi Bazouk, knows well what species of tyranny must be exercised by these unpaid emissaries of the Government.

The policy of the Turk has been directed to the breaking up of all the native power of Syria. The ancient families have been ruined or degraded ; the rich mosques have been robbed ; the various factions have been pitted against one another ; and quietness and peace reign in the land because a sturdy race who, within the present century were practically their own masters, have been cowed and ruined so that there is no longer any spirit left in them. The country is certainly more secure, and the tourist is safer than of old, but diminished population and decreasing cultivation are not indications of a good administration. The whole population of Syria (including some fifteen thousand square miles) is estimated to be considerably less than that of London, and so far as the Arab race is concerned, it appears to be decreasing rather than otherwise. But, it may be asked, why do not these oppressed subjects of a foreign power help themselves to liberty? There are, it is true, perhaps only a dozen real Turks in the country, for the Pashas even are Kurds, Armenians, or Europeans. Yet to expect a national rebellion is to argue a great want of acquaintance with Oriental character. The power of combination for a common object is unknown in Eastern communities. Arabi's army might — so some of his officers said — have deserted en masse if any one of them had been able to trust another with his real wishes. To the peasant, the village faction appears more important than any national league, and the Turk knows well how to rule by dividing. Southern Palestine, within the memory of living men, was divided into two fierce factions — the Keis, who seem to have been mainly the original peasantry on the west, and the Yemini, allied with the Eastern Arabs, who were pushing northwards from Yemen. The battles fought between these factions are yet related by the village elders, and much courage and daring was then exhibited by the peasantry.

In Jerusalem itself, three of these factions still divide the Moslem population. The Hoseini, in the middle of the town, are the most powerful ; the Khaldi occupy the east quarter ; the despised Jauni abide among the Jews on the south. A Hoseini mother would rather see her daughter die unwedded than suffer her to take a Jauni husband. The same survival of faction I have traced in many other towns of Palestine, and the division of these Moslem parties, even in the petty villages, is almost as great as that which separates the Moslem from the Arab Christian, Latin, Greek, or Maronite. It is by fostering such ancient enmities, and by playing the Druze against the Maronite, the Arab against his elder brother, the Greek against the Latin, that the Turk retains his power over the numerous sects which are found in Syria. It was the same spirit of disunion which in older days gave birth to fifty Gnostic sects in the Holy Land, and which created the twelve Christian creeds which are now to be found side by side in Jerusalem.

The same spirit of disunion exists also among the Bedawin, and, indeed, manifested itself among the early conquerors of Islam as soon as their prophet was dead. Recent events in Egypt and Sinai have not shown us the "noble Arab," in whom we have been told we are to place our trust, in a very favourable light ; and the student of history, whether in Omar's time or in the days of Napoleon, will find that the Bedawin have never fulfilled the expectations of their admirers, and have rarely evinced any great nobility of character. As allies no nation could be more unsatisfactory. They skulked over the Kassassin battle-field to rob and mutilate the dead ; they took money to murder Englishmen who trusted to their reputation for good faith ; and they stole a few cows from the British camp. They never took a side heartily for or against Arabi, and they deserted him at his need. Truly, the noble Arab is not found either in Moab, in Sinai, or in Egypt; and we may well question if he exists in Arabia, for those who know the Syrian Arabs well say that the Nejed and Yemen tribes differ only in being fiercer and more warlike ; while as regards the Sakhur and the Anezeh and other large clans who are more remote from European influence than the Belka Bedawin, it has been my experience that they only differ in being greater savages, more ignorant, crafty, and unreliable than those who know better the power of the West. Truly, one is tempted to regard the noble Arab (as the Red Indian has already been described) as " an extinct race which never existed."

The increasing number of the Jews in Syria is another element of some mportance in the question. It is more than doubtful whether their presence adds to the prosperity of the country. At Jerusalem they now number fifteen thousand out of a population of perhaps thirty thousand. Before the Crimean war there were only a few Hebrew families in the city, but now their cottages extend for more than a mile along the Jaffa road, while their building clubs have erected a quadrangle of houses (called "The Hundred Gates ") on the northwest,
and another group of cottages on the north, near Jeremiah's Grotto. The Jews are almost all abjectly poor, and the majority are of the Polish and Russian Ashkenazim ; the nobler Sephardim having a distinct quarter on the south-east side of Jerusalem, not far from the Haram. The Ashkenazim are a degraded people, of very poor physical type, and of most repulsively unclean habits. They are, perhaps, the most superstitious race in the country, and are led entirely by the Rabbinical autocracy.

The Jews have established pickets round Jerusalem, and buy up a large proportion of the market produce from the peasantry before they come in sight of the town ; for the poor Fellahah woman, who has to trudge back so many miles to her home, with her baby slung on her back, is only too glad to part with her vegetables, eggs, skinny fowls, or firewood of olive-roots — the last vestiges of the once fair olive-yard of the hamlet, for even a very low price. The cost of living, on the other hand, within the walls has risen most considerably ; and a Jewish paper currency has been established which the issuers refuse to redeem except at a very large discount, and which, though periodically suppressed by the Turks, is found so lucrative a method of trading without capital that it appears again and again in the market, and is even forced on the tourist.

Such are the benefits which the Ashkenazim are conferring on Judea, and it need hardly be said that the better class of Jews in Palestine look with disfavour and alarm at the sudden increase of the pauper element of the population, especially as consisting of the more degraded of their own countrymen.

Colonies, we hear, are established at Gaza and Jaffa, and in Northern Syria, but we may well doubt whether a people who have never thriven as agriculturists can add to the prosperity of a ruined land where they can find no trade to develop.