Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, November 06, 2008

The American Moslem Brotherhood, 1893

In 1893, on the third floor of 30 E. 23rd Street in New York City, was the headquarters of the American Moslem Brotherhood.

The organization was the brainchild of what most consider to be the first American to convert to Islam, named (Mohammed) Alexander Russell Webb.

Webb converted to Islam while he worked in the US Consulate in the Philippines. He then went to India on a fundraising mission to spread the faith to America: (Washington Post, December 21, 1892)

He arrived in New York City in February of 1893, enthusiastic and full of major plans, and quite willing to use the New York Times (Feb. 25, 1893) as his means of spreading Islam in America:

Webb did manage to start an Islamic publishing company as well as a Muslim school and a mosque. But unlike his initial comments, he started backtracking upon the goal of converting Americans to Islam, now saying that he only wanted to educate them about Mohammedeanism. (NYT 10/8/1893)

And a milestone was achieved in December of 1893, as the Muslim call to prayer was first sounded in New York City: (12/11/1893 NYT)

But all was not Paradise for Mr. Webb. He got into a dispute with one of his workers at the publishing company and she barricaded herself in the office demanding to be paid money he owed her. (This is the first article that refers to his organization as the American Moslem Brotherhood.) The worker, Nefeesa Keep, also alleged various monetary indiscretions from Webb, saying that he solicited and took large amounts of money from rich Muslims abroad and used them for his personal needs (7/16/1894):

The first American Muslim convert retaliated by accusing Keep of stealing from the office; Nefeesa turned around and filed a complaint against Webb and his wife on conspiracy charges.

She then added an additional charge of mail fraud:

The following year, an Indian prince came to America to see how his money meant for converting Americans to Islam was being spent, and he left sorely disappointed. The New York Times did a very large piece on this, interviewing both the prince and Webb. Webb strongly denied receiving most of the money from the Nawab and was found to be living in poverty.

Webb again in this interview denied wanting to convert most Americans to Islam.

Webb vigorously defended himself, giving an exact tally to the Times of every amount he received from India.

Things quickly went downhill for Webb and his mission. There was lots of name-calling and blaming, and Webb became disillusioned at the idea of having any success in America. He blamed the lack of funds on his failure as well as some of his partners who split off from him.

Strikingly, even at a time that the media was explicitly racist in many guises, Alexander Russell Webb's faith was treated with respect - there was no "Islamophobia" in America in the late 19th century.

Obama asks son of Israeli to be Chief of Staff

Barack Obama's first choice for White House Chief of Staff is Rahm Emanuel, and it appears likely that he will take the job. The best news about Emanuel can be seen in, of all places, the pro-terror Electronic Intifada website. Its editor, Ali Abunimah, has expressed bitter disappointment that Obama has not been publicly espousing the pro-Palestinian Arab stance of his earlier career, and his description of Emanuel is filled with loathing:

During the United States election campaign, racists and pro-Israel hardliners tried to make an issue out of President-elect Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein. Such people might take comfort in another middle name, that of Obama's pick for White House Chief of Staff: Rahm Israel Emanuel. Emanuel is Obama's first high-level appointment and it's one likely to disappointment [sic] those who hoped the president-elect would break with the George W. Bush Administration's pro-Israel policies. White House Chief of Staff is often considered the most powerful office in the executive branch, next to the president. Obama has offered Emanuel the position according to Democratic party sources cited by media including Reuters and The New York Times. Rahm Emanuel was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1959, the son of Benjamin Emanuel, a pediatrician who helped smuggle weapons to the Irgun, the Zionist militia of former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, in the 1940s. Emanuel continued his father's tradition of active support for Israel; during the 1991 Gulf War he volunteered to help maintain Israeli army vehicles near the Lebanon border when southern Lebanon was still occupied by Israeli forces. As White House political director in the first Clinton administration, Emanuel orchestrated the famous 1993 signing ceremony of the "Declaration of Principles" between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. One of the most influential politicians and fundraisers in his party, Emanuel accompanied Obama to a meeting of AIPAC's executive board just after the Illinois senator had addressed the pro-Israel lobby's conference last June. In Congress, Emanuel has been a consistent and vocal pro-Israel hardliner, sometimes more so than President Bush. In June 2003, for example, he signed a letter criticizing Bush for being insufficiently supportive of Israel. "We were deeply dismayed to hear your criticism of Israel for fighting acts of terror," Emanuel, along with 33 other Democrats wrote to Bush. The letter said that Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian political leaders "was clearly justified as an application of Israel's right to self-defense" ("Pelosi supports Israel's attacks on Hamas group," San Francisco Chronicle, 14 June 2003). In July 2006, Emanuel was one of several members who called for the cancellation of a speech to Congress by visiting Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki because al-Maliki had criticized Israel's bombing of Lebanon. Emanuel called the Lebanese and Palestinian governments "totalitarian entities with militias and terrorists acting as democracies" in a 19 July 2006 speech supporting a House resolution backing Israel's bombing of both countries that caused thousands of civilian victims. Emanuel has sometimes posed as a defender of Palestinian lives, though never from the constant Israeli violence that is responsible for the vast majority of deaths and injuries. On 14 June 2007 he wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "on behalf of students in the Gaza Strip whose future is threatened by the ongoing fighting there" which he blamed on "the violence and militancy of their elders." In fact, the fighting between members of Hamas and Fatah, which claimed dozens of lives, was the result of a failed scheme by US-backed militias to violently overthrow the elected Hamas-led national unity government. Emanuel's letter urged Rice "to work with allies in the region, such as Egypt and Jordan, to either find a secure location in Gaza for these students, or to transport them to a neighboring country where they can study and take their exams in peace." Palestinians often view such proposals as a pretext to permanently "transfer" them from their country, as many Israeli leaders have threatened. Emanuel has never said anything in support of millions of Palestinian children whose education has been disrupted by Israeli occupation, closures and blockades. Emanuel has also used his position to explicitly push Israel's interests in normalizing relations with Arab states and isolating Hamas. In 2006 he initiated a letter to President Bush opposing United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Dubai Ports World's attempt to buy the management business of six US seaports. The letter, signed by dozens of other lawmakers, stated that "The UAE has pledged to provide financial support to the Hamas-led government of the Palestinian Authority and openly participates in the Arab League boycott against Israel." It argued that allowing the deal to go through "not only could place the safety and security of US ports at risk, but enhance the ability of the UAE to bolster the Hamas regime and its efforts to promote terrorism and violence against Israel" ("Dems Tie Israel, Ports," Forward, 10 March 2006). Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, told Fox News that picking Emanuel is "just another indication that despite the attempts to imply that Obama would somehow appoint the wrong person or listen to the wrong people when it comes to the US-Israel relationship ... that was never true." Over the course of the campaign, Obama publicly distanced himself from friends and advisers suspected or accused of having "pro-Palestinian" sympathies. There are no early indications of a more balanced course.

When Ali Abuminah is angry, this is usually a good sign.

Heroes!

From AP (h/t Weasel Zippers):

With painting of Jesus Christ, top left, and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, top right, late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, bottom left, and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, bottom right, Palestinian painter Waleed Ayyoub adds the last touches on a painting he drew of Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, in the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.

"Moderate" Fatah claims Israel inventing history in Jerusalem

As I reported last night, it is not only the "Al Aqsa Foundation" who spoke out against the rebuilding of the ancient and historic Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.

The PA's chief negotiator and former prime minister Ahmed Qurei has slammed the building of the synagogue, calling it a "danger" and furthermore accusing Israel of fabricating a Jewish history in Jerusalem.

In addition, as I wrote, one of the things that really upsets the Arabs is the height of the Hurva. As Palestine News Network writes:

The skyline around Abdullah bin Omar, or Omari Mosque, will be dwarfed by the new synagogue creating the illusion that the Old City of Jerusalem is Jewish.

Yet Jerusalem in 1900 included not one but two tall domed synagogues that dominated the skyline, the Hurva and the Tiferes Yisrael synagogues, as can be seen in the lower right of this picture (click to enlarge):

This picture of Tiferes Yisrael shows how it dominated its immediate surroundings, circa 1940:

An interesting implication about this new kerfuffle is that it proves beyond any doubt that Israel's "moderate" peace partners are anti-Jewish, not only anti-Zionist. The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem has been around since at least Second Temple times but the apparent official policy of the PA is to render it Judenrein, exactly the way Jordan did in 1948 when it demolished 35 synagogues there.

The fact that the PA does not countenance the presence of any Jews or the restoration of destroyed synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem shows that their policy is one of ethnic cleansing, not peace.

Followup on Damascus, 1816

Kashmiri Nomad takes me to task for misreading James Silk Cunningham's description of ">an encounter between the richest Jew in Damascus and a dervish in tattered clothes. He correctly points out that the dervish is not a servant:

The comparison that Buckingham made was not between the richest Jew in all of Damascus and a servant but rather was a comparison between the richest Jew in all of Damascus and a Sufi dervish. For any one in any doubt Muslim societies that venerate the sufic mystical interpretation of Islam that naked tatters wearing dervish would have been in a higher social status than even the prime minister himself . Therefore for elder of ziyon to characterise him as a servant is misleading to say the least.

I wish he would have commented here so I could have corrected it earlier.

While Kashmiri Nomad (who links here often) says this is a case of the "pot calling the kettle black" in terms of today's discrimination that Arabs suffer in Israel, my point still stands: the richest Jew in Damascus still had to spend an entire meal "seated ...with the greatest possible humility on the floor beneath us, at the feet of his superiors who occupied the sofa, first kneeling, and then sitting back while kneeling, on the heels and soles of his feet, with these and his hands completely covered, in an attitude and with an air of the most abject and unqualified humiliation." The visiting Christians and the Muslims in the room enjoyed fine foods and were attended to by servants, while the Jew was given nothing and apparently ignored by the servants, and was denied a place at the table.

So while I certainly was mistaken as to the social standing of dervishes, the point is that in 1816 Damascus, even the most powerful Jews were treated like dirt.

It is undeniable that there is discrimination in Israel against Arabs, but the difference is that it is roundly considered by most to be a bad thing, while in the Muslim world the social discrimination against non-Muslims is an essential feature of the religion.

Here we go again: 35 rockets, mortars from Gaza

Yesterday, the IDF went into Gaza in force for the first time since the "calm" in order to destroy the opening of a tunnel that was meant for abducting Israeli soldiers. As a result, six Hamas members were killed, and chances are that the streak of 19 weeks in a row of more internal PalArab deaths than IDF-caused deaths is going to be over this week.

While the IDF took pains to say that this was a one-time only operation to defuse a "ticking tunnel," and clearly building tunnels to kidnap soldiers is also a violation of the truce, Hamas has responded with 35 Qassams and mortar shells. And Hamas took credit as well, claiming 33 mortars and 4 rockets.

UPDATE: By sheer coincidence, Hamas' Qassam Brigades' leader said on Monday "we vow to strike the Zionist enemy anywhere inside the occupied Palestinian territories, therefore we will, Inshallah (God's Willing), carry out quality operations inside [Israel]."

Sharia! 13-year old rape victim stoned to death in Somalia

From the NYT:

The United Nations said Tuesday that a Somali stoned to death by Islamist militants after she had been accused of adultery was a 13-year-old girl who had been raped while visiting her grandmother.

In the first such public killing by the militants in about two years, she was placed in a hole and stoned to death on Oct. 28 in a rebel-held port city, Kismayu, in front of a crowd, after local leaders said she was guilty under Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Koran.

“Reports indicate that she had been raped by three men while traveling on foot to visit her grandmother in the war-torn capital, Mogadishu,” Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, said in a statement.

“Following the assault, she sought protection from the authorities, who then accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death,” Unicef added. “A child was victimized twice — first by the perpetrators of the rape and then by those responsible for administering justice.”

The human rights group Amnesty International has identified the girl as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow and said she was killed by 50 men who stoned her in a stadium in Kismayu in front of about 1,000 spectators.

When the family tried to report the rape to the Shabab militia that controls Kismayu, the girl was accused of adultery and was detained. None of the men she accused of rape have been arrested.

A Somali news agency adds more disturbing details:

Thousands of people witnessed the grotesque execution of Aisha at a football stadium in the port town of Kismayo on Monday.

The 13-year old was led in and forced into a hole in the ground. The hole was then filled so that only her head was showing. About 50 men then started to throw stones at her, according to Amnesty’s information.

After a while, nurses were called to check whether Aisha was still alive. The thin body was then brought out of the hold and examined. When it was established that she was still alive, she was again placed in the hole so that the stone-throwers could continue.

When some of the spectators tried to storm the stadium to save Aisha, the militia opened fire on the crowd, and a young boy was killed.

A spokesman for the Shabab-militia expressed regret for the boy’s death and assured that the soldiers who had opened fire would be punished.

However, it would seem that the men whom13-year old Aisha tried to report for rape have little to fear. None of them have been arrested.

The story has been out for over a day now, and we have yet to hear any condemnation by Muslim leaders.

Muslims take aim at Hurva Synagogue

The last time we saw the "Al Aqsa Foundation," they were seething and whining over the opening of the rebuilt Ohel Yitzchak synagogue at the base of the Temple Mount.

Now, they have suddenly noticed that the Hurva synagogue, one of the most famous and largest in the Old City before it was destroyed in 1948, is close to completion. Although this rebuilding of the structure that was deliberately blown up by the Jordanian army in 1948 has been no secret, something seems to have gotten the Al Aqsa Foundation's attention now:

Its iconic dome is now well on its way to completion.

This is what Hurva looked like before 1948:

And this is what it looks like now in the closing stages of its rebuilding:

The Muslim whiners seem to have two problems with Hurva's rebuilding. The first is a completely asinine claim that there was a mosque at that site.

The second problem is that the Hurva's dome has changed the skyline of Old Jerusalem, since it is one of the tallest structures in the Old City. Islam requires that the highest religious structure in any city always to be a mosque, and the existence of a tall synagogue is a huge insult to a people who are perpetually looking for reasons to seethe.

UPDATE: The PA has joined in condemning this attempt to "Judaize" the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.

Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'

Time for a couple of Seattle tourist shots taken this week...

Here's the Space Needle (two pictures autostitched, click to see larger):

And here is the Experience Music Project museum, which also houses a science fiction museum (5 pictures auto-stitched):

Finally, here is a wall I stumbled upon near the Pike Street Market that is filled with people's used gum, simultaneously disgusting and beautiful:

You have to click on it to see the detail.

Four killed, three missing in a tunnel collapse

From Palestine Today (English):

Four people were killed and three went missing in the collapse of an underground tunnel Sunday north of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, security sources said.

Sources from Hamas informed Egyptian authorities of the incident.

Egypt is still searching for the missing people inside the tunnel, the source said.

The identities of the dead and missing were not immediately known, the source said.

Four Palestinians were injured and hospitalized earlier Sunday after the collapse of another tunnel, according to Palestinian medical sources.

Chances are that these tunnels collapsed due to the recent rains in Gaza.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 211.

The Palestinian Authority's endorsement (guess who?)

Palestine Today reports (autotranslated and cleaned up):

The Palestinian Authority does not officially announce its position on the U.S. elections, as that is "an internal matter," but off the record at their headquarters in Ramallah this is not the case.

According to informed sources in Ramallah, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are both hoping for an Obama victory despite his pro-Israel statements. Those statements, according to media sources, are meant to earn the approval of the Israelis and the Jewish lobby in the United States.

The sources said that during their last meeting, Barack Obama emphasized to Abbas and Fayyad the right of the Palestinians to East Jerusalem, and their right to a stable, sovereign state.

Hamas stated that the comparison between Obama and McCain are a "choice between bad and worse" in terms of foreign policy issues with the upcoming Arab and Islamic world, particularly the Palestinian issue.

Meanwhile, Lebanese-Americans in Hezbollah country seem to like Obama as well.

Like other Lebanese-Americans in the Hizbullah bastion of Bint Jbeil, Hussein al-Sayyed speaks fondly of the American way of life and says he plans to cast his vote for Barack Obama.

The United States and its regional ally Israel consider Hizbullah to be a terrorist organization responsible for many attacks on Westerners and Israelis.

"I'll vote for Obama, that's for sure," Sayyed, a Shiite 48-year-old restaurant owner and fan of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, told Agence France Presse ahead of Tuesday's U.S. presidential election.

Freedom of expression, Hamas-style

While Hamas and Fatah are trying to hammer out a reconciliation agreement in Cairo, Hamas has just warned printers in Gaza not to print any pictures of Yassir Arafat.

Firas Press reports that Hamas threatened to shut down any printer who dares create an Arafat or Fatah poster as the fourth anniversary of Arafat's death is next week.

Hamas sent thugs to a number of printers in Gaza to warn them personally, and to threaten them with arrest and the loss of their equipment if they don't listen.

Today's lie masquerading as news

Ma'an once again shows its propensity towards falsehood (even though it remains better than most Palestinian Arab media) with this absurd article:

Disturbing long range plans from the Israeli Antiquities Authority outline strategies for the construction of a Jewish Temple on the site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque now stands, a Jerusalem researcher says.

The plans were obtained by Palestinian archaeologist and researcher Dr Ibrahim Al-Fanni, who revealed the drafts and drawings to Ma’an’s Jerusalem correspondent.

The papers showed sketches outlining the demolition of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Marwani mosque (Solomon’s stables) beneath the building.

The series of designs is titled the “Comprehensive Strategic Plan,” and is divided into two possible routes.

“Plan A” outlines the architectural and archaeological plans in the eventuality that Israel fails to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The plan involves opening up the Fatimi Halls, which are located under the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The halls would be turned into a Jewish Temple, and construction would gradually move to the upper part of the compound, taking over space in Al-Aqsa.

“Plan B” would see the demolition of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the construction of a Jewish “Royal Palace” on the same site, which Muslims believe was the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad started his journey into the heavens.

Asked why Israel would choose to target the Dome of the Rock, which is not a holy site in Judaism, Dr Al-Fanni explained that “under the spot where the golden dome stands, according to Judaism, there is an exposed piece of bedrock of what they call Mount Moriah- metaphysically known as Even Ishtiah which is a Hebrew term meaning “drinking stone.” [sic] Judaism says that the world is spiritually nourished from this spot…the stone is the center of the Universe.”

I'm sure that there are some Jews who draw up plans on destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replacing it with the third Temple. Heck, I would love to see those continuous Muslim desecrations of Judaism relocated to Ramallah or Jordan (it would be a shame to destroy what is certainly some impressive architecture.)

But it is ridiculous to think that the Israel Antiquities Authority would draw up such plans. It will be recalled that the IAA refused to stop the Waqf from destroying priceless Jewish artifacts as the Muslims attempt to get rid of any evidence Jewish temples at that spot. Far from being complicit in any plot to destroy the mosques, the IAA is complicit in the continuing destruction of the Temple.

Ma'an claims that this archaeologist showed them these documents, yet there are no pictures or drawings shown. The article is illustrated with a file photo of ancient Jerusalem. Surely if Ma'an really was shown these purported documents, they would have taken copious photocopies and plastered them all over the article.

The most ancient and second-holiest place in Judaism, the Cave of Machpela, was placed off-limits to Jews and Christians by the Muslims until 1967. This is attested to in many diaries of Jews and Christians who visited there, and exceptions were very rare (the Prince of Wales famously visited in 1862 after getting a waiver from the Ottoman Sultan.) Now it is at least partially accessible to Jews. The Temple Mount should be treated similarly - at the very least. But the IAA is certainly not going to be the ones who do it.

From Ma'an:

A Palestinian shopkeeper displays mugs with pictures of Barack Obama in his shop in Gaza.

The other two people pictured on mugs are also quite popular in Gaza.

Flag burning score tightens

The main headline at YNet as of this writing is "Settlers Burn Palestinian Flag."

Which means that the ratio of Israeli flags burned to Palestinian Arab flags burned now stands at roughly 200,000 to one.

You know what that will be called?

"Disproportionate response."

Proof that early Zionists didn't want to displace Arabs

The Keren HaYesod is a part of the worldwide fundraising apparatus for the World Zionist Organization. Founded in 1920, its purpose at that time was to raise money for Jews to move to Palestine.

A book that was effectively the blueprint for the Keren HaYesod was published upon its founding. It reflects with complete accuracy the feelings of the mainstream worldwide Zionist movement as of 1920, in the wake of the Balfour declaration and before there was any Palestinian Arab nationalism to speak of.

Here is a portion of the group's manifesto from that book, which describes the urgency of the project to save countless lives as well as, peripherally, the desire not to displace the Arab population in Palestine. (It is easy to forget how bad things were for Jews in Eastern Europe before the rise of the Nazis, but this manifesto describes it in stark terms that seem prophetic in retrospect.)

The Keren ha-Yesod begins its work at a great and tragic hour. The historic connection of the Jewish people with Palestine has been recognised by the Powers. The Mandate has been accepted by Great Britain. The Government of Palestine has been entrusted to a statesman whose presence at the head of the Administration is a sure pledge of British goodwill. Far different is the situation in Eastern Europe. Almost a third of the Jewish race is at this moment living under conditions of unendurable anguish. Harried, pillaged, uprooted from their homes, butchered without mercy, exposed to such an outburst of unrestrained savagery as Europe has not witnessed for four hundred years, entire communities are being relentlessly exterminated.

On the eve of its renaissance, in the presence of the lofty tasks that are summoning it to action, Jewry stands wounded and mutilated. It has butone hand free for constructive labour, with the other it is desperately struggling to ward off the implacable onslaught that threatens it with annihilation. A supreme effort is called for. To the message of confidence and goodwill from San Remo, to the storm of hatred unchained in Eastern Europe, let Jews of all countries and of all classes unite to give the same reply : build the Jewish Commonwealth.

The purpose of the Keren ha-Yesod is to bring about the settlement of Palestine by Jews on a well-ordered plan and in steadily increasing numbers, to enable immigration to begin without delay, and to provide for the economic development of the country to the advantage of its Jewish and its non-Jewish inhabitants alike.

That purpose is attainable. Room can be found in Palestine for a vastly increased population. Thousands are already waiting on the threshold. Let but productive employment be provided for them, and they can enter.

There is land to be bought and prepared, there are roads and railways, harbours and bridges to be built, there are hills to be afforested, there are marshes to be drained, there is fertile soil to be irrigated, there is latent waterpower to be turned to account, there are towns to be laid out, there are crafts and industries to be developed. Side by side with these undertakings, adequate provision is needed for the social welfare of the population, for public health, and above all, for education.

While the Manifesto implies that the Arabs would not be displaced, later in this book it is said explicitly:

In considering the future of agricultural colonisation, we shall begin with the question of the acquisition of the land.

When we speak of acquiring land in Palestine we must first consider whether there is land which can be acquired without turning out the original native population, the Arab Fellaheen. This question must be carefully considered, for it must be a fixed principle that we are to make a place for ourselves in Palestine, not by expelling others from their place, but by creating new opportunities. But is there really any possibility of finding room for ourselves without expelling others? A few figures will most effectually serve to dispel this doubt.

A lengthy calculation of the available land in Palestine follows, along with strategies of legally acquiring land. Not only is the forcible taking of land from (or expelling) Arabs never even considered, but it is explicitly denounced.

The Zionist movement always looked upon the settlement of the Land as a win-win for both Jews and Arabs. Perhaps it was a little over-optimistic, but the idea's shortcomings had at least as much to do with the hate fomented by the so-called Arab leadership that came after this plan was created as from simple naivete.

This Keren Ha-Yesod book is also striking in how well the Palestinian Jews followed this blueprint on building a nation where none existed, covering industries, energy, housing, city planning, hospitals, schools and universities. There might not have been a vacuum in Palestine before these initiatives, but there was close to a vacuum in building a national infrastructure that the Jews filled nearly independently.

UNRWA shows it colors again

Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner general of UNRWA who has a vested interest in maintaining Palestinian Arab suffering forever, has just said that there has been "no improvement" in the lives of Gazans since the "calm."

But in a new Ma'an story, it seems that Gazans feel so comfortable with the amount of goods they are getting through Rafah smuggling tunnels, thatthey are now importing entire zoos.

Lions, lionesses, swans, deer, otters, parrots and other creatures have been smuggled into Gaza, not only for zoos but also for some private individuals who want to impress others.

Is this how a starving people act?

Remember, the UNRWA continues to exist and get funding as long as they can keep Palestinian Arabs in "refugee" camps and away from even a hint of resettlement into other countries, as opposed to the UNHCR which works hard to eliminate refugee populations, not to grow them.

Open thread

I'm on a business trip and my schedule is very weird this week, so here's an open thread for anyone interested.

Rafah tunnel news

Recent heavy rains have collapsed more than a dozen tunnels under Rafah, although no injuries are reported. The tunnel operators are now buying up all the lumber and cement they can find to shore up the remaining tunnels. As a result, the

prices for those materials have skyrocketed.

Gazans in Rafah are fearful of more collapses and the resultant sinkholes that could swallow up cars and houses (not to mention cemeteries.)

The smuggling has been almost too successful. There is now a glut of smuggled Egyptian fuel, and the prices for oil and gasoline have gone down. Egyptian smuggled fuel prices are now lower than that of fuel imported from Israel. Gasoline prices are now the lowest in ten years.

Of course, NGOs are going to continue to tell the world sob stories about how Palestinian Arabs in Gaza have no fuel. The weekly PCHR report, which gets picked up by other information outlets like ReliefWeb, will have statements like this from last week:

Health services continue to be severely affected by the siege, with healthcare facilities also registering a 25% drop in clients due to continuing chronic fuel shortages.

Water facilities, including access to clean drinking water, and the treatment of raw sewage continue to be severely disrupted by fuel shortages. 50-60 million liters of untreated and partially treated sewage are being dumped into the Gaza Strip Mediterranean Sea daily, posing a public health risk.

It is not a fuel shortage - it is that Hamas is not prioritizing the delivery of fuel to critical infrastructure. Hamas couldn't care less about clean water because if Gazans get sick, Hamas just blames Israel and the world's NGOs happily follow suit.

Egypt claims to have destroyed three tunnels over the weekend.

Egyptian sex news

(There's a headline that will get me visitors for years to come....)

Two interesting stories out of Egypt this week, and both of them have tenuous connections to Jews and Israel.

In the first, a wife-swapping club was found in Egypt:

Egyptians have reacted with shock at the country's first known case of wife-swap involving married couples.

Earlier this week, police arrested the couple, using the pseudonyms Magdy and Samira, who had allegedly set up a wife-swapping club via the internet. A total of 44 married couples were alleged to be members of the club, according to security sources.

The two main suspects, confessed in questioning to having organised orgies in their apartment in Giza, south of Cairo, the sources added.

Magdy, 48, told investigators he had suffered sexual impotence after he retired from work six years ago and had to see pornographic films and websites, the semi-official Al Jumhuria newspaper reported yesterday.

"I stumbled on a website on wife swap run by a Jewish Kurd in northern Iraq, who explained the idea to me and encouraged me to promote it in Egypt through my own website. I suggested the idea to my wife, who liked it," he added. They have two children.

The husband told prosecutors he had convinced his wife, a 37-year-old Arabic teacher, of the idea of "a swinger lifestyle as a form of physical recreating between consenting married couples".

The couple said they had insisted that partners involved in the alleged orgies be legally married and show their officially registered marriage contracts, the security sources said.

The second story involved that ever-popular topic, impotence drugs:

A television advertisement for erectile dysfunction medication has been pulled from the air in Egypt after viewers protested about its use of popular song Keep the Weapon Awake, media reported.

The song was penned in 1973 by Egyptian poet Ahmed Shafiq Kamel, to rouse Egyptians during the Arab-Israeli 1973 war when the Israeli army reached the Suez Canal, Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yom reported.

One Egyptian satellite television owner, who said his station had stopped airing the advertisement, described it as "annoying and not right", the newspaper reported.

You gotta give credit to that advertising agency!

The richest Jew in Damascus, 1816

James Silk Buckingham wrote a diary of his travels in the early part of the nineteenth century, called "Travels Among the Arab Tribes Inhabiting the Countries East of Syria and Palestine."

He mentions the richest Jew in Damascus, Mallim Yusef, who was a very important member of the Damascus branch of the Ottoman government, "directing all the financial operations" there.

Buckingham then describes a visit to the "kihyah bey," or local prime minister, temporarily taking the duties of the late Governor of Damascus after the latter's untimely death returning from the Haj in Mecca:

[We] found the venerable Turk seated in a small but richly furnished apartment, guarded and attended by at least fifty handsome officers, all armed with sabres and dirks, and all superbly dressed. We were desired to seat ourselves on the sofa beside these chiefs, before whom stood in groups an equal number of armed attendants, and were treated with great respect and attention.

The rich Jew, Mallim Yusef, who conducted us to the presence of the kihyah bey, seated himself with the greatest possible humility on the floor beneath us, at the feet of his superiors who occupied the sofa, first kneeling, and then sitting back while kneeling, on the heels and soles of his feet, with these and his hands completely covered, in an attitude and with an air of the most abject and unqualified humiliation. Mr. Bankes was dressed as a Turkish effendi, or private and unmilitary person : I still continued to wear the less showy garments of the Christian merchant, with which I had replaced my Bedouin garb. The rich Jew was dressed in the most costly garments, including Cashmere shawls, Russian furs, Indian silks, and English broad-cloth : all, however, being of dark colours, since none but the orthodox Mohammedans are allowed to wear either green, red, yellow, azure, or white, in any of their garments, which are therefore, however costly in material, almost restricted to dark browns, blacks, and blues. Among the party was also a Moslem dervish, with a patchwork and party-coloured bonnet of a sugar loaf shape, and his body scarcely half covered with rags and tattered garments ; his naked limbs obtruding themselves most offensively, and his general appearance being indecent and disgusting.

It was impossible not to be struck forcibly with the different modes of reception and treatment adopted towards us, more particularly as contrasted with our real and apparent conditions. The Jew, who was by far the wealthiest and the most powerful of all present, who lived in the most splendid house in Damascus, and fed from his table more than a hundred poor families every day, who literally managed the great machine of government, and had influence enough, both here and at Constantinople, to procure the removal of the present bey from his post if he desired it, was obliged to kneel in the presence of those who could not have carried on the affairs of government without his aid, while the dervish, contemptible alike for his ignorance and arrogant assumption of superiority, was admitted to the seat of honour, and, with ourselves, who were of a faith as far removed from their own as the Jew's, was served with coffee, sherbet, and perfumes, and treated by the attendants with all the marks of submission and respect.

Here we have the very definition of dhimmitude: a Jew could reach great political heights and wield enormous power in the Muslim world, yet must always act with deference and abject humiliation to any Muslim. We see that in 1816 Damascus, every Muslim was considered higher in the social milieu than the richest Jew in the city.

UPDATE: I made a mistake in my last paragraph that Kashmiri Nomad takes me to task for; see here. Corrected here.

19 weeks in a row

For the nineteenth consecutive week, more Palestinian Arabs were violently killed by their own actions than by the evil IDF.

The score this week was 4-1. That one from this week, described by the PCHR only as an "elderly Palestinian man," happened to be firing at the IDF at the time with his rifle.

Since the beginning of August the score is 80-7.

We are now closing in on the 2006-7 streak of 23 weeks in a row of Palestinian Arabs managing to outkill each other versus the genocidal IDF.

How not to dismantle a bomb

From Ma'an:

A Hamas police officer was killed and several other Palestinians were wounded on Thursday when an explosive device detonated in a police station in Gaza City.

A spokesperson for the movement, Islam Shahwan, said the device had been discovered earlier in the day within the Hamas controlled territory and taken to a police station to be dismantled.

While experts took apart the bomb, it exploded, causing several secondary blasts, as well, Shahwan said.

I'm no expert, but if one was going to try to transport a bomb somewhere to be dismantled, wouldn't an open field be better than a place filled with weapons?

YNet adds:

Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Elghseen later said that the man, a police officer and an engineer, died "as a martyr".

Which makes this good news all around.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 207.

Egypt finds 8 missiles in the Sinai meant for Gaza

From Ma'an Arabic:

Egyptian police said Tuesday they discovered a cache of weapons in the northern Sinai Desert.

An Egyptian security official said police found the 8 surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles in an underground bunker in the northern Sinai Desert.

The police sources said that the missiles were on their way to the Gaza Strip.

JPost confirms this story.

There have been many recent stories about the smuggling tunnels run by Hamas in Gaza, yet none of these articles ever mention weapons smuggling any more. They only speak about fuel, toys, and livestock that are being brought through Rafah. It seems as if Hamas' stamp of approval on the "consumer goods" tunnels has made it easier to hide the more discreet weapons-smuggling operations that are still going full-blast.

This discovery of missiles being smuggled indicates that, if anything, Hamas' weapons-smuggling activities are accelerating.

Arab world screwing their own people

Nothing demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Arab world more than the fate of some 2300 miserable refugees from Iraq who are stuck on the Syria/Iraq border. From the UNHCR:

AL TANF, Iraq-Syria Border, October 30 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has rushed assistance to hundreds of ... refugees stuck in camps on the Iraq-Syria border after heavy rain and flooding caused chaos and misery.

Rainstorms on Tuesday night left tents inundated with water and sewage, possessions soaked and electricity supplies cut at Al Tanf, a settlement housing almost 800 people in the narrow no man's land between Iraq and Syria. The small mosque was damaged by fire, but there were no human casualties

"This is the closest to hell I can imagine," said Mutassem Hayatla, a UNHCR field officer who stayed in the camp during the downpour. "With no electricity, the camp was full of the sound of crying, terrified children. We did our best, but it was a blessing when the night was over."

Nine-year-old Aya said she was terrified. "The lights were all off, there was water everywhere. My mother was crying. She is pregnant and the baby will come soon. Please get us out before my brother is born. I am scared he will die if we have to live here after she delivers."

The situation was even worse in Al Waleed, a nearby camp hosting more than 1,400 refugees just inside Iraq, where more than 100 families were left homeless after their tents were destroyed in the storm. UNHCR was rushing supplies on Wednesday to both sites, but it was taking longer to get to Al Waleed due to security considerations.
Some of the refugees have lived at Al Tanf for three years, barred from entering any of the countries neighbouring Iraq. "We cannot go forwards, nor back. We have a road on one side that threatens our children's lives daily, a high wall on the other; in front and behind we have two impenetrable borders," explained Abu Ziyad, a member of the Al Tanf refugee committee.

"Our only hope is resettlement. For the sake of our children, our wives, our elderly, we beg you, please get us out of here," he pleaded.

The Arab world has 325 million people and 5 million square miles. Why can't they find room for these poor people?

Because, even though they had been in Iraq for decades, they are considered "Palestinians."

And Arab countries will do anything possible to avoid resettling Palestinian Arabs in their countries. The reason they say is because it would fracture Palestinian unity, but the real reason is because they would rather use them as cannon fodder in the fight against Israel's existence than to treat them as if they have any human rights.

Some countries have taken in some of these Iraqis of Palestinian descent: Iceland, Brazil, Chile, Canada. But save for a PR-based offer from the Sudan, no Arab country has offered to let them in, even as refugees.

Syria has (very reluctantly) taken in 1.2 million Iraqi refugees, but they refuse to allow these 2300 to come in.

Because their great-grandparents lived in Palestine.

The brotherhood of the Arab peoples is something to behold.

Random thoughts and open thread

I just saw a pretty nifty Israeli invention for sale - called Vazu. It is, believe it or not, a foldable vase.

Check out Martin Kramer vs. Martin Peretz on Obama and Khalidi.

You can forget about trying to change my mind for the election - I already voted (I'm going on a business trip next week and wouldn't have been able to vote on Election Day.)

Trivia question: How many World Series has Philadelphia won? Answer: 7! (The Philadelphia Athletics won 5 times.)

Talk amongst yourselves about politics, sports and household furnishings.

Check out Ami Isseroff's review of Benny Morris' "1948"

Possibly the best reference site for the history of Israel and Zionism on the web is Ami Isseroff's zionism-israel.com , and its sister site MidEast Web. Without a doubt, Isseroff is the most knowledgeable blogger on Israel's history, and his websites are truly encyclopedic (although not as well organized as they should be.)

For a stellar example, see Isseroff's review of the new Benny Morris book, 1948: A History of the First Arab Israeli War. And check out his links.

PA admits it supports terror against Israel

Daniel Pipes notices how the PA argued to dismiss a lawsuit in US courts against the organization for terror acts that killed over 30 people:

The lawsuit, Sokolow v The Palestine Liberation Organization, brought by the intrepid David Strachman, alleges that the PLO carried out two machine-gun and five bombing attacks in the Jerusalem area between January 2001 and February 2004. The plaintiffs allege, in the words of U.S. District Judge George Daniels, that the PLO did so "intending to terrorize, intimidate, and coerce the civilian population of Israel into acquiescing to defendants' political goals and demands, and to influence the policy of the United States and Israeli governments in favor of accepting defendants' political goals and demands." The attacks killed 33 and wounded many more, some of them U.S. citizens; the victims and their families are seeking up to US$3 billion in damages from the PLO.
To this, the PLO, represented in part by none other than the appalling Ramsey Clark (who in a distant age, 1967-69, was attorney general of the United States), replied that the attacks were acts of war rather than terrorism. As Daniels summarizes the PLO argument: "defendants argue that subject matter jurisdiction is lacking because this action is premised on acts of war, which is barred under the ATA [Antiterrorism Act of 1991], and further is based on conduct which does not meet the statutory definition of ‘international terrorism'."

This response is noteworthy for two reasons: (1) Fifteen years after Oslo supposedly ended the state of war, four years after Mahmoud Abbas took over and supposedly improved on Arafat's abysmal record, the PLO publicly maintains it remains at war with Israel. (2) The PLO argues, even in the context of an American law court, that blatant, cruel, inhumane, and atrocious acts of murder constitute legitimate acts of warfare.

The court record seems to go a little even beyond this.

Firstly, the lawsuit is against both the PLO and the PA, so the defendants represent both entities. One cannot argue even facetiously that the PA is somehow not claiming to be at war with Israel, but only the PLO is.

Secondly, since the ATA does not apply to sovereign states, the PLO claimed that Palestine is a state for the purposes of this lawsuit:

An ATA action may not be maintained against a foreign state or the agencies, officers and employees thereof, acting within their official capacity or under color of legal authority....While the PLO and PA argue their sovereignty, they do not claim individual statehood status.Their assertion of immunity derives from the claimed sovereignty of the State of Palestine. Defendants claim that they are essential agencies of Palestine, performing core governmental functions and, as such, are entitled to immunity.

The Palestinian Authority is claiming in legal documents that bombing cafeterias, bus stops, buses and busy downtown streets in Jerusalem are "core governmental functions" as part of their war with Israel.

"Blind shiekh" depressed, whining in prison hospital

A truly saddening story from Palestine Today, quoting the website of the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah: (autotranslated and cleaned up a little)

Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Emir of Jemaah Islamiyah, jailed in a prison in America 16 years ago, told his wife in a telephone conversation, "I am in great distress, my health has deteriorated too, and I need the prayers of all the righteous brothers, I do not feel access to prayers , and I feel they do not du'aa (call out to God) remind me so."

According to the official website of the group, the Rahman said to his wife: "The U.S. authorities that the supervisor of the prison did not respond to any request of mine, no matter how simple..."

According to the official website of the group that is based out of Egypt,Dr. Abdul Rahman is in poor health, and that this is the first time he used the term "I'm in great distress" in 16 years in U.S. prisons. During this time he contracted a number of diseases including cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Dr Omar Abdul Rahman confirmed that he has been mistreated in U.S. prisons, where he is in isolation from other prisoners and in solitary confinement.

Rahman was of course the ideological center of the plot to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 and he was convicted of planning terror attacks.

Just for some background, Rahman is in a medical center that is a part of a prison, not in the prison itself, which would explain his "isolation." As far as mistreatment in prison, he is on the record as complaining that he didn't like the tea he was being served, threatening that if he doesn't get Tetley or Lipton tea he will stop taking insulin - or eat M&Ms.

Yes, he certainly sounds oppressed!

More of our tax money going to Gaza

Once again, Hamas maintains control over Gaza with no financial responsibility, which is happily taken care of by our tax dollars via the PA. From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) will pay compensation to civilians affected by the recent flooding there, according to a statement received by Ma’an on Thursday.

The governor of the central Gaza Strip said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had followed up with him on damage caused by the storms.

Governor Abdallah Abu Samahdanah noted that “the government will take all required measures to ease the suffering of civilians harmed by this disaster.”

In case it isn't clear, here's how it works:

Our tax money goes to the government, whether it is US, European or Japanese.

These governments now pay billions to the Palestinian Authority.

60% of the PA budget goes to Gaza, a territory that they lost in the violent Hamas coup and that now gets twice the money that the West Bank gets on a per-capita basis.

Hamas gets to control the police, the courts, the schools and the hospitals in Gaza, without having to worry about paying salaries or maintaining infrastructure or bailing out victims of flooding - normal functions of a government. Our tax dollars take care of all that stuff. So Hamas can spend its money (from taxing smuggled goods and from Iran) on weapons, on tunnels and on building a Hezbollah-like bunker network for terrorists and rockets.

Vapor stories

Even though the Palestinian Arab press will wildly exaggerate and completely mislead with their stories, usually there is some real event that happened that caused them to light up their imaginations.

Sometimes, though, I cannot find that real event.

Two recent cases, in which the first one sounds somewhat realistic and the second one a bit less so:

Yesterday, Firas Press wrote an article - which they said came from Yediot Aharonot - saying that Hamas was found to have been using Facebook as an intelligence tool, as IDF soldiers would inadvertantly be placing classified information and photos on their Facebook pages.

YNet did have two recent Facebook stories: one that the Defense Ministry warned against exactly this type of occurrence last April, and one where the IDF would use Facebook to find girls who claimed religious exemptions from the army doing decidedly non-religious activities.

It is possible that Hamas read the April article and decided to create a Facebook intelligence function, but I can't find any article saying that.

The second example is from today's PalArab newspapers where they claim that "Jewish extremists" went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, tried to attack monks and smashed wooden crosses in adjacent shops. (Palestine Press Agency helpfully illustrated the story with a picture of a bearded Jew praying, captioned "Jewish extremist.")

I can't find this story anywhere.

I did find that a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a synagogue in Lod and another one in Acre within the past few days.

Maybe they just mixed those stories up.

Free Gaza isn't free for their passengers!

The Free Gaza freaks are so far in debt, they apparently charged their idiot passengers about $1000 each for this latest trip!

Look at this graphic on their site (they apparently had a typo which I correct):

The FGMers have so far spent $740,000 and have raised $325,000 - but $300,000 came from "donations" and $25,000 from "passenger fees".

There was no mention of "passenger fees" on their website when I previously looked at their bizarre thermometer graphic.

Since their latest trip to Gaza, where they were greeted by their Hamas terrorist pals and a tiny crowd, included 27 people, it appears that they are so broke that they are charging their "humanitarian" passengers about $1000 to get their publicity.

Comparing their numbers, they've spent $190,000 since September - and only raised $75,000, even including their passenger fees. And this was after the massive amount of publicity they received from their first trip.

What will they try next? Clearly their leftist pals aren't willing to pony up the bucks for them to continue these public relations stunts, and nobody is buying the boats they are trying to sell (for quite inflated prices.)

It's been a long 28 years!

The "scholarship" of Al Quds University

Al Quds University has on its website, in English, a "history" of Jerusalem aimed at erasing Jews. Quotes (after a section that claims that Biblical history is filled with lies):

The key to clarifying the history of Jerusalem and Palestine lies in distinguishing between literary tradition and recorded history, between imagined memory and material evidence. It is equally important that an effort be made to establish a history based on people and their continuity rather than a history based on which political power or religious ideology was present in the land and then left it.

Palestine was conquered in times past by ancient Egyptians, Hittites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Muslim Arabs, Mamlukes, Ottomans, the British, the Zionists. [Note who is missing - EoZ].These are recorded conquests (not literary legends), whose facts and remains are documented. Meanwhile, another development was the evolution of monotheistic faiths that followed the "pagan" religions. It is crucial to keep these two developments as distinct as possible, for the sake of not confusing issues and identities. The people of Palestine may have become more mixed with each consecutive conquest, or may have changed religions, but essentially (especially in villages) the population remained constant-and is now still Palestinian, though many villagers were tragically dislocated in the 1948 Nakba.

The "temple" issue dominates the politics about Jerusalem today. An assumption is made that the present Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa compound is the same location of the "Temple Mount" or "Mount Moriah." But as Ernest L. Martin has demonstrated (working strictly within biblical scholarship), the Al-Aqsa compound cannot possibly be in the same place as the first or second temple. [Martin was a meteorologist and member of a religious cult that got some traction on this theory a couple of decades ago. - EoZ.]Further, what is called the "first temple," associated with the legendary Solomon, was in fact a pre-monotheistic place where many gods were worshipped. As scholars like Herbert Niehr document, the "first temple" was dominated by Syro-Phoenician traits and appealed to pagan worshippers living in the area. Various "pagan" sites existed until after Constantine converted to Christianity in the early 4th century. At that time, Constantine's mother Helena determined many biblical sites, most coinciding with pagan temple locations.

The Wailing or "Western" Wall is a focus of Jewish veneration. It is a site associated with a past memory, as Moshe Dayan once noted. The Wailing Wall is assumed to be what remains of Herod's Temple. But that Herod was a Jew is debated by some and rejected by others (he came from tribes east of the Jordan and had a Hellenistic cultural background). Judaism was different from how some see it today; like Christianity and Islam, it should not be confused with "ethnicity."

Further, the Wailing or "Western" Wall is a most likely candidate for being the wall of a fortress built for Roman legions (as Ernest Martin reports, citing other scholarship). Even if we assume that Herod built a "second temple," the building was reportedly destroyed in the 1st century AD. The Romans, then the Byzantine Christians, had prevented people of the Jewish faith from living in the city for hundreds of years. At other times, the two then-contending religious groups had exchanged expulsions and massacres, particularly before and during the Persian invasion of 614 AD. The hundreds of skulls at the Monastery of Mar Saba are said to be evidence of those massacres. One wonders then, under such circumstances, how the traces of any temple in Jerusalem could possibly have been preserved.

The Dome of the Rock is a focus of veneration for hundreds of millions of Muslim worshippers. It is also a visible and impressive work of architecture, around which much lore has developed. It was built in times of recorded history, on previously unoccupied ground, though the spot probably had ancient associations impossible to trace today.

This is only another small example of how Palestinian Arabs like to erase the eternal Jewish connection to the Land of Israel from history, often relying on outright lies as well as discredited "scholarship."

Of course, Al-Quds University is not only interested in erasing Jews from history; it is also supportive of terror attacks against them today. For example, it designated a week in honor of the Hamas innovator of suicide terrorism, Yahya Ayyash, "the engineer." Hamas and Fatah regularly schedule commemorations for terrorists there.

And an official university calendar included this graphic on every page, symbolizing the destruction of Israel by the Islamic sword.

Nevertheless, the US government seems to consider Al Quds University as a distinguished place. The US Consulate in Jerusalem often has programs in conjunction with Al-Quds, and is instrumental in fostering ties between US colleges and Al Quds. USAID has given Al-Quds millions of dollars.

But as far as I can find, only one US senator ever visited Al-Quds University:

Date: 15 / 01 / 2006 Time: 11:20

Ma'an Ramallah – US Democratic Senator Barak Obama, accompanied by US Consul Jacob Walles, visited the American Studies Center at Al Quds University in Abu Dis on Saturday.

The two officials were received by the head of the Center, Professor Mohammad Ad Dajiani, along with other University faculty and students.

Obama expressed his happiness at the visit and admired the academic services provided by the Center. He stressed the importance of such programs in order to create mutual understanding between the American and Palestinian people.

Professor Dajiani welcomed Obama and thanked him for accepting the University's invitation. He spoke about the importance of visits by US officials in order to develop the Masters program offered by the center.

Obama delivered a lecture on US policy and politics. Following the presentation, there was a brief debate and discussion.

Rafah cemetery collapses into smuggling tunnels

From Firas Press and Palestine Today (Arabic):

Heavy rain washed away the Azaaarbp cemetery on the Egyptian-Palestinian border town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip today, because of the existence of tunnels beneath the cemetery.
Witnesses said a large number of modern and ancient tombs were destroyed by torrential rains and plunged into a the tunnels beneath the cemetery.
A large number of houses were submerged in rainwater in all southern provinces.

Interestingly, a columnist at Palestine Press Agency quoted a poll saying that 65% of Gazans were against the smuggling tunnels, saying that the tunnels onlt served a small part of Gaza society.

Free Gaza freaks are seasick!

I signed up to be on Free Gaza's mailing list so I get the latest news quickly. And their dispatches sometimes contain real gems.

From Greta Berlin, of the FGM Media Team:

It's 2:30 am, and Osama has just gone to get some sleep for a couple of hours. He and I wait in Cyprus for news from the Dignity and watch the small blip of the SPOT checker as it moves slowly toward Gaza and a possible forceful intervention from the well-armed Israeli navy somewhere are oung 6:00 am. The rumblings out of Jerusalem are fierce. They will not let us come into Gaza, because we didn't behave the last time. What that means only the minds of neurotic military men can sort through, and I am reminded of the movie, Dr. Strangelove, only this confrontation will be real, pitting nonviolent human rights watchers against the 4th largest military in the world.

The people on board are now Osama's and my friends, most of them having been to Cyprus twice in an attempt to get on board. We talked to David S about a half hour ago, and 80% of them are sea-sick, some seriously. Even with the new boat, one that rides better and is more stable, the people are still sick. Twenty-seven of them are crowded onto that boat, because they care enough about the human rights of an occupied people being slowly strangled to death by Israeli military might to take the risk.

If the doctors on the boat can't handle seasickness in a couple of dozen people, exactly how much help can they give to 1.5 million during their attempted photo-op?

And why am I not surprised that one of their leaders is named Osama?

Clearly Greta is tired, because she let slip something she surely didn't mean to:

Israel is panicked that the Palestinians will do the same thing that they did in the late 40s and that is get on boats and come home.

It took me a second, but then I realized what she was saying: she was comparing Palestinian Arabs to the Jews who had to "illegally" immigrate to Palestine to save their lives from the Nazis!

Which means that she must consider the Palestinian Arabs' host countries to be as oppressive as Nazi Germany, I guess.

But notice her word choice: even this rabid anti-Zionist admits that the Jewish refugees of the 1940s were not European colonialists, but they were members of a nation coming home!

I doubt that this dispatch will make it onto their website before they realize that they just justified Zionism as a national restoration movement.

An early Jewish settlement in Palestine (1882)

Famed, eccentric British explorer and writer Laurence Oliphant journeyed to Palestine in the early 1880s. In this excerpt from his book "Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine," this is a somewhat humorous and illuminating account of the founding of a new unnamed Jewish agricultural settlement in 1882, probably Zichron Yaakov. (h/t anonymous commenter)

About sixteen miles to the south of the projecting point of Carmel, upon which the celebrated monastery is perched above the sea, there lies a tract of land which has suddenly acquired an interest owing to the fact of its having been purchased by the Central Jewish Colonization Society of Roumania, with a view of placing upon it emigrants of the Hebrew persuasion who have been compelled to quit the country of their adoption in consequence of the legal disabilities to which they are subjected in it, and who have determined upon making a bona fide attempt to change the habits of their lives and engage in agricultural pursuits. I was invited by the local agent in charge of this enterprise to accompany him on a visit to the new property, whither he was bound with a view of making arrangements for housing and placing upon it the first settlers. Traversing the northern portion of the fertile plain of Sharon, which extends from Jaffa to Carmel, we enter by a gorge into the lower spurs of the Carmel range, which is distant at this point about three miles from the seacoast, and, winding up a steep path, find ourselves upon a fertile plateau about four hundred feet above the level of the sea. Here over a thousand acres of pasture and arable land have been purchased, on which a small hamlet of half a dozen native houses and a storehouse belonging to the late proprietor compose the existing accommodation. This hamlet is at present occupied by the fellahin wlio worked the land for its former owner, and it is proposed to retain their services as laborers and co-partners in the cultivation of the soil until the new-comers shall have become sufficiently indoctrinated in the art of agriculture to be able to do for themselves.

The experiment of associating Jews and Moslem fellahin in field labor will be an interesting one to watch, and the preliminary discussions on the subject were more picturesque than satisfactory. The meeting took place in the storehouse, where Jews and Arabs squatted promiscuously amid the heaps of grain, and chaffered over the terms of their mutual co-partnership. It would be difficult to imagine anything more utterly incongruous than the spectacle thus presented —the stalwart fellahin, with their wild, shaggy, black beards, the brass hilts of their pistols projecting from their waistbands, their tasselled kufeihahs drawn tightly over their heads and girdled with coarse black cords, their loose, flowing abbas, and sturdy bare legs and feet; and the ringleted, effeminate-looking Jews, in caftans reaching almost to their ankles, as oily as their red or sandy locks, or the expression of their countenances — the former inured to hard labor on the burning hillsides of Palestine, the latter fresh from the Ghetto of some Roumanian town, unaccustomed to any other description of exercise than that of their wits, but already quite convinced that they knew more about agriculture than the people of the country, full of suspicion of all advice tendered to them, and animated by a pleasing self-confidence which I fear the first practical experience will rudely belie. In strange contrast with these Roumanian Jews was the Arab Jew who acted as interpreter—a stout, handsome man, in Oriental garb, as unlike his European coreligionists as the fellahin themselves. My friend and myself, in the ordinary costume of the British or American tourist, completed the party.

The discussion was protracted beyond midnight—the native peasants screaming in Arabic, the Roumanian Israelites endeavoring to outtalk them in German jargon, the interpreter vainly trying to make himself heard, everybody at cross-purposes because no one was patient enough to listen till another had finished, or modest enough to wish to hear anybody speak but himself. Tired out, I curled myself on an Arab coverlet, which seemed principally stuffed with fleas, but sought repose in vain. At last a final rupture was arrived at, and the fellahin left us, quivering with indignation at the terms proposed by the new-comers. Sleep brought better counsel to both sides, and an arrangement was finally arrived at next morning which I am afraid has only to be put into operation to fail signally. There is nothing more simple than farming in co-operation with the fellahin of Palestine if you go the right way to work about it, and nothing more hopeless if attempted upon a system to which they are unaccustomed. Probably, after a considerable loss of time, money, and especially of temper, a more practical modus operandi will be arrived at. I am bound to say that I did not discover any aversion on the part of the Moslem fellahin to the proprietorship by Israelites of their land, on religious grounds. The only difficulty lay in the division of labor and of profit, where the owners of the land were entirely ignorant of agriculture, and therefore dependent on the co-operation of the peasants, on terms to be decided between them.