Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Iran freaks over Arab "Peace Plan" ads

As we have mentioned, the PLO has been placing advertisements promoting the so-called Arab Peace Initiative in various newspapers in Arab countries, Israel and the West.

The advertisement features the flags of all the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

And Iran happens to be a member of the OIC.

The very idea of Iran's beautiful flag being on the same page as an ugly, racist, ZionistIsraeli flag seems to have blown the mullahs' collective gasket, and they are strongly condemning the advertisement and the newspapers that have published it; singling out the Guardian (UK).

As Iran's Press TV writes:

Iran has condemned the publication of advertisements associating Tehran with an initiative that would lead to the recognition of Israel.

Arabic-language news outlets along with the Guardian have taken advantage of the backing of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) for the Arab Peace Initiative, publishing a picture of the Iranian flag among the flags of certain Muslim countries as a sign of Tehran's support for the initiative.

The Iranian Embassy in London on Thursday responded to the distortions in separate letters of protest to the newspapers and demanded that they publish articles in their next editions to remove any doubt that may have been caused on the issue, IRNA reported.

Iran condemns "any move taken by some Arab countries to push the recognition of the occupying Zionist regime in any manner, including in Islamic conferences," Guardian quoted the Embassy as saying in its letter.

According to the Iranian Embassy, the publication of the Iranian flag in articles that associate the country to the initiative is "illegal".

It appears as if Iran is claiming copyright infringement, due to misuse of their flag.

Which is pretty funny coming from a country that regularly encourages its citizens to burn the American and Israeli flags.

So, for your viewing pleasure, is my animation of the Iranian flag on fire. If having their flag published in an ad drives them nuts, maybe this will give the mullahs a stroke:

Arab League leader: Mumbai part of "cycle of violence"

The Secretary General of the League of Arab States gave his statement condemning the terror attack in Mumbai, but he did it in a curious way:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned the attacks and said his country "stands by the side of New Delhi in countering terrorism," state news agency MENA reported.
Amr Mussa, who heads the 22-member Arab League, said such "criminal and terrorist acts aggravate the vicious circle of violence and counter-violence," the agency reported.

By stating it in those terms, Mussa is diluting the blame towards Islamist radicals and making it partially the fault of the victims of Islamic terror.

After all, the Indian army killed some terrorists today in Mumbai. Clearly, they were engaging in escalating the "cycle of violence," and practically begging for the next round of terror.

Northern Sinai situation alarming Egypt

From Daily News Egypt:

The current situation in North Sinai constitutes a threat to national security along the border with Israel, warned the defense and national security committee of the People's Assembly.
At the end of a three-day visit to the area, the committee said that tunnel smuggling across the border and widespread possession of weapons in North Sinai amounted to an explosive situation.
Sinai has recently been the site of trouble between Bedouins and security forces, as clashes two weeks ago resulted in the death of four Bedouins.
A spat ensued between [Head of the North Sinai branch of the Tagammu party Ashraf] El-Hefny and North Sinai Governor Mohammed Abdel-Fadel Shoosha at the committee's conference after he demanded an apology from the senior official for recent claims that the Bedouin were in cahoots with Israel.
"How can the government accuse us of disloyalty when they are exporting gas to Israel despite an administrative court order to cease? They are even appealing the verdict, it is the government that is unpatriotic," El-Hefny said.

This enmity between Egypt and the Bedouin resulted in a death fatwa a few days ago:

Bedouin tribes in Sinai have issued a death fatwa on famed television presenter Amr Adib for comments he made about them after recent clashes in Sinai between them and security forces.
The decision was reached at a meeting of the popular campaign for citizen rights in North Sinai last Wednesday, where a council of various tribes issued a fatwa on Adib after the comments he made on his show, North Sinai Tagammu party member Hussein El Qayem told Daily News Egypt.
It was decreed that the blood of anyone who accuses the residents of North Sinai of disloyalty was forfeit.
Adib, who hosts the popular Al-Qahira Al-Youm talk show on Orbit satellite network, is alleged to have insinuated that the Bedouins of Sinai were more partial to an “enemy” country, meaning Israel, than Egypt.
He is also meant to have accused the Bedouins of wanting to secede from Egypt, and warned them that if they didn’t like their circumstances, they could go live in that “enemy” country.

At least there is something they can agree on - that there is no greater insult than saying that someone is friendly towards Israel.

Arab sites almost silent on Mumbai

The top news story in the world is essentially invisible to the Arab press.

The Palestinian Arabic newspapers Firas Press and Palestine Press Agency don't mention the terror attacks in Mumbai. Ya Libnan has nothing, and neither does the Lebanon Daily Star or the Jordan Times. The Daily News Egypt is similarly silent.

The Saudi Arab News did have a story in today's edition, though.

And the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today has a brief article, talking only about their taking Israelis hostage in the Chabad House in Mumbai and nothing about the hundred people killed so far. (The autotranslation said "According to Indian media reported four gunmen holding hostage in 6 Israelis built the Bad Religion of the Jews" and it repeated the word "Bad" three times, which sounded unusually anti-semitic for that newspaper until I realized that this was how "Chabad" was being translated from Arabic to English.)

Is it that Muslims killing a hundred people is simply not too interesting to them? Or does their latent sympathy for terrorism - and hatred of Indian infidels - make them embarrassed to mention it, so they'd rather ignore the story rather than figure out how to report it?

"Hamas version of Google"

Firas Press reports on a "Hamas Google" page hosted in Turkey, that is just like Google but decorated with Hamas pictures (the link is http://www.googlehamas.tk/, try it at your own risk):

You will notice that it keeps the name "Google," changing the O's into Hamas logos.

The article goes on to praise the website, saying how fast the search engine is, how hundreds of people have already used it and how secure it is against Zionist hackers.

Unfortunately, the site no longer works. And the reason is obvious from the error message:

Google
Error

Forbidden
Your client does not have permission to get URL /custom?sa=%26%231576%3B%26%231581%3B%26%231579%3B&q=test&...... from this server.

This is a real Google error message, and this "Hamas Google" site is simply a shell around the real Google site.

Google caught wind of this illegal use of their name and logo and pulled the plug on all requests from this Turkish server.

Not quite as impressive a technical achievement as the Arabic press thought it was!

November 24, 1948: Egypt threatens to quit UN

The Palestine Post of November 24, 1948 has an illuminating article about Egypt's opposition to Israel's becoming a member of the United Nations:

Adly Andaros Bey, of Egypt, hinted today that the Arab countries would walk out of the UN if Israel were admitted to membership.

The Egyptian said Israel did not fulfil any of the requirements of the Charter for membership. Israel was not peace-loving, but expansionist, and she was not even a State because she had "no territorial basis and no known frontiers."

Do these arguments apply to "Palestine"?

But his next talking point is most interesting - an argument for natural, self-evident anti-semitism:

"In certain American clubs, houses, hotels and other places, Jews are not admitted." Nevertheless, the U.S. would, in a few days introduce a resolution supporting the admission of Israel to the U.N.

"When this happens in a club, Sirs, the only thing to do for those who do not like the new member is to walk out. That is the only way that remains for us."

"One thing is certain," he said. "We would never sit at the same table with the Jews."

This was not bombast; this was the actual way of thinking.

And there is little evidence that things have changed in the past sixty years.

Taking advantage of ignorance of Hebrew

Last week, wire services reported on Jewish graffiti on a mosque in Hebron, saying that the "settlers" scrawled "bad words" with spray paint.The story claimed that the Jews wrote “Mohammed is a pig” and “Death to the Arabs”.

As Israellycool pointed out, while desecrating a mosque is certainly not to be condoned, the words that were written, at least in the wire service photo, were not racist or inflammatory - they were Biblical verses. It is possible that there were other things written, but we have no pictures showing that.

It appears that the Palestinian Arabs have picked up on the inability of most people to read Hebrew, because Ma'an now makes a similar claim:

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian ambulances in the West Bank village of Dier Esteyah on Wednesday, according to witnesses.

Red Crescent ambulances were parked in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday when settlers wrote provocative slogans, such as "Death to Arabs" and others, according to the Red Crescent.

The graffitum on the picture merely says "Hebron."

This is of course not proof that no settlers wrote more inflammatory things elsewhere, but it is curious that twice in a row the only pictures that we can see do not support the stories.

Ma'an reporters clearly know how to read Hebrew, so they must be considered complicit in trying to demonize "settlers" as racists or at the very least misleading readers into thinking that the graffiti here is racist.

UPDATE: Aussie Dave points out that there is a Ha'aretz video report that briefly shows the words "Mohammed pig" in Hebrew.

Hypocritical journalists

Media Backspin quotes Soccer Dad about reporters who are upset that Israel has not allowed them into Gaza for the last two weeks:

This week, after filing a letter of protest, the Foreign Press Association (of which McClatchy Newspapers is a part) took the matter to Israel's Supreme Court and asked the judges to overturn the ban.

"This blackout of the Gaza Strip is hurting Israel's image in the eyes of the world and undermines its standing as the only democracy in the Middle East," the FPA argues in the petition.

Soccer Dad's reaction hits the nail on the head:

I understand that there are reasons for Israel to open Gaza to reporters, but this false concern for Israel's image from a press association strikes me as utter hypocrisy.

This isn't the only hypocrisy that reporters are showing.

Here are a series of stories reported in the Palestinian Arab press about press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza since August:

Hamas to sue media outlets for "biased coverage"

Union of Public Service workers demand a ban on Al Jazeera in Gaza

PA arrests journalist, held in military prison

Call for PA to release four journalists from jail for Eid

Hamas detains three journalists, confiscates their materials

Group calls on PA and Hamas to release 10 journalists

Journalist arrested in West Bank

Gaza journalist threatened, detained and beaten by Hamas

The Foreign Press Association and Reporters Without Frontiers have been utterly silent concerning all of these issues.

Only when Israel - rightly or wrongly - stops them from entering Gaza (from Israel - they have gone into Gaza by boat) do they suddenly pipe up about "press freedom." (And they do not say a word about whether they are allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt.)

Even though these stories have been essentially ignored not only by these journalist associations but by journalists themselves, it is a bit ironic when they claim in their letter to Olmert:

“In fact, a foreign media presence is all the more indispensible as its reporters represent an independent source of information. The mounting threats to Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power in June 2007 force them to censor themselves. But that is not the case with foreign journalists, who can talk about the Hamas government without fear.”

Ever hear of Alan Johnston? They censor themselves more than the Gaza reporters who live there! After all, who reported on the stories I listed above? Certainly not the foreign media!

Today's PalArab news

In addition to the Jordanian newspaper yesterday, a UAE newspaper has also rejected a PLO ad which includes the flag of Israel, while another one published it.

Even though there was a Qassam and (reportedly) four mortars yesterday shot indiscriminately at Jews, Israel has agreed to send more fuel and food to Gaza today.

Fresh Hamas/Fatah clashes yesterday at Al Aqsa University in Gaza injured 100 students and caused the school to shut down.

There are reports of "secret prisons" in Gaza created by Hamas specifically for Fatah members.

Egypt arrested a blogger yesterday who criticized the government and supported Hamas. His blog can be seen here.

Gaza is again suffering from a shortage of shekels. Where do they all go?

American girl, Arab man get jail and 100 lashes

From the Saudi Gazette:

The Summary Court in Jeddah has sentenced a 23-year-old Arab national and an 18-year-old American girl to one year in prison and 100 lashes each after they were convicted of adultery.

The father of the girl reported the relationship to the authorities after his daughter became pregnant.

The father accused the Arab man of intentionally doing so in order to force her parents into letting them get married.

The parents of the girl had previously refused to let their daughter marry the man.

The Commission for Investigation and General Prosecution (CIP) summoned the Arab man as part of its investigations.

The Summary Court issued its verdict after hearing evidence from the girl and examining a medical report.

The verdict has become final since no party raised an objection and no appeal would be made.

One hundred lashes is the punishment for unmarried adulterers.

This is proof positive that Islam respects women. They honor them so much that they will beat them half to death if they do anything that they shouldn't!

And someone should really tell the Saudis that they have no idea what "adultery" means.

Jordanian newspaper rejects PLO ad - with Israeli flag

From AFP:

An independent Jordanian newspaper said on Tuesday it has refused to publish a Palestinian advertisement promoting an Arab peace initiative with Israel because it contains the Jewish state's flag.
"We refused to publish the paid advertisement because the source, the Palestine Libration Organisation's negotiations department, refused to remove the Israeli flag," a senior editor at the Arabic-language Al-Arab Al-Yawm told AFP.

Ah, yes, Jordan. Israel's neighbor that signed a peace treaty in 1994. That well-known "moderate" kingdom, where 98% of its citizens admit that they really don't like Jews too much.

And apparently the PLO likes Israel more than Jordanians do.

Libya reported to send a boat to Gaza

A very interesting development. Will Israel check it for weapons?

From Africa On-Line:

A Libyan ship loaded with more than 3,000 tons of food aid and medicines leave the Libyan port of Zouara, 120 km west of Tripoli, on Tuesday for the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

The donation being made by the Libyan Fund for Aid and Development in Africa is made up of 500 tons of oil; 750 tons of milk; 1,207 tons of rice; 500 tons of wheat flour and 100 tonnes of various drugs.

In a statement to PANA, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fund Lakhdouri Abdelhamid said the shipment would arrive in the Gaza Strip in one week.

He said the aid was only the beginning and marked the solidarity of the Libyan people with the Palestinians, "who are victims of an unjust embargo imposed upon them by Israel".

In addition, dozens of scouts from the city of Zouara would travel aboard the boat with flags and banners bearing inscriptions expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the embargo imposed on the population.

Obama letter to Peres on unified Jerusalem?

The Arabic media is reporting on a Kuwaiti newspaper claim that Barack Obama sent Shimon Peres a letter that assures him that Jerusalem will not be under negotiations during the Obama administration and that it will remain the undivided capital of Israel. Also that Obama promised to visit Israel and the settlements.

What the Arab press is not mentioning is that this Kuwaiti newspaper has a history of making up stories. On at least two other recent occassions, the newspaper reported bizarre claims that would then be proven false or extremely exaggerated. It almost seems that the newspaper is trying to form the news in forcing denials from officials, thereby inflating its own importance.

Morning links

Eye on the UN: Unprecedented attack on Israel by UN GA president

Shiny Happy Dhimmi carnival by Soccer Dad

IAEA wants to help Syria get nuclear technology

A disarmed Palestinian Arab state? (JPost)

The Jerusalem Post takes a page from my book, looks at inaccuracies in Wikipedia Arabic.

The value of Saudi girls

From the Saudi Gazette, an article that highlights the huge differences between how boys' schools and girls' schools are run in Saudi Arabia:

Fires in girls’ schools are unfortunately a regular occurrence, and have been making headlines ever since the tragic accident in a girls school in Makkah, in March 2002, that resulted in the loss of many innocent lives. [This was when the Muttawa forced the girls to burn to death rather than go out in public without proper covering - EoZ.]

What are the steps being taken to end this phenomenon? Why do fires break out regularly in girls’ schools and rarely in boys’ schools?

REEM Al-Youssef, a student in a government secondary school has vivid memories of the fire that broke out at her school last year.

“We heard the fire alarm while we were in class and most of us felt afraid and helpless -- we didn’t know what to do. We had received informal training by teachers earlier, that taught us how to escape in case of any fire in the building, but I feel these training courses are meaningless unless the building has proper equipment to fight and control the fire,” she says.

According to Al-Youssef, the training courses taught them to start running quickly whenever they hear the fire alarm bell. “The problem is, that if all the students start running to use the same stairs -- which are the only means of escaping -- there will be big crowd there and students may get trampled in the rush, since the stairway is quite narrow.”

Al-Youssef remembers that when the fire broke out at her school, not all the students were able to arrive at the gate, the stairs were very crowded and many students fell and injured themselves while trying to get out.

According to Thuriyah Aabed, a Saudi teacher in an intermediate school, the back gate and front entrance to girls’ schools are usually locked, ostensibly for the girls’ safety, once school starts. Moreover, there is usually a high fence around girls’ schools, which acts as a virtual gridlock and cages the girls in, preventing them from escaping in case of an accident.

“Most of the girls and staff would not be able to escape if a fire breaks out in the building, because the front gate is closed by the guard. I shudder to think what would happen if the guard leaves his post (which, happens very often) and a fire breaks out suddenly,” she said.

Recently, there have been reports in many newspapers that the Ministry of Education has asked school authorities not to call the Civil Defense if any fire breaks out, but they should call the Ministry of Education first.

The main problem that girls’ schools are suffering from, is not having an ideal school building with open spaces. “Most of the girls’ schools are rented buildings, and the electricity in them is designed to take the load of apartments, not multiple ACs, like we have in most school classes,” she added. “If a residential building is used as a school, the electricity used becomes double, which is the main reason why there are more fires in girls schools than boys’ schools -- there are proper school buildings designed for boys,” Al-Jehani said.

According to Al-Jehani, the stairs that the girls use to go to their classes are too narrow , it is difficult to breathe on the cramped stairway during normal days, how can they use this stairway to escape quickly from a fire?

“The space around the stairs is around 84 centimeter [33 inches] and around 600 students are expected to escape through these stairs -- it is impossible to empty the building without having any wounded,” she said.

So boys schools in the Magic Kingdom are built like schools. Girls' schools are converted apartments. Boys' schools are open, girls' schools are cramped.

And boys' schools don't have freaking high fences and locked gates around them to "protect" them.

What is a child?

In the New York Times article on Hezbollah last week, this was mentioned:

Hezbollah officials often casually mention the link between the Scouts and the guerrilla force.“After age 16 the boys mostly go to resistance or military activities,” said Bilal Naim, who served as Hezbollah’s director for the Mahdi Scouts until last year.

I have seen similar, offhand claims mentioned in the context of Palestinian Arab terrorist groups - they will recruit and accept teenage boys (or girls) as full members.

According to the IDF:

Since the beginning of violence in the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, 29 suicide attacks have been carried out by youth under the age of 18.
Since May 2001, 22 shootings attacks and attacks using explosive devices were carried out by youth under the age of 18.
Since the beginning of 2001, more than 40 youths under the age of 18 were involved in attempted suicide bombings that were thwarted (of them, three during 2004).

This is of course not something that started in the year 2000. This Life magazine cover from 1970 shows that clearly:

Yet the statistics that are given to the Western media will, without exception, refer to any Palestinian Arab victim in the violence who is under 18 as being a "child."

If one subtracts the numbers of child victims who are "young adults" from the total number of Palestinian Arab child victims, the total goes way down. Clearly a disproportionate number of Palestinian Arab children killed are 16 or 17 - 34 of the 80 listed in the PCHR annual report this year, with an additional 9 who were 15. This is hardly a pattern of indiscriminate violence against children when the majority of the victims are over 15.

Which brings up the question: if Arab society recognizes teenagers as being full adults in war, why should human rights organizations consider them children?

The Martyr Game

Palestine Press Agency quotes a new report with some statistics on people killed in the Intifada. While autotranslation is not an exact science, the wording used is more suitable for a sporting event rather than a tragic list of victims. There is a sense of glee to which group was most successful at getting members killed by Israel, as the article uses sports terms to list who has more "martyrs":

The study comes after two months of the year's ninth {year] uprising the following results:

- Fatah won first place with 1437 martyrs in its various military wings, including 30 women and 128 children.
- Hamas won second place with 1410 martyrs, 34 women and 96 children.
- Islamic Jihad had ranked third with 766 martyrs, including 24 women and 53 children.
- The Popular Resistance Committees, known as the first destroyers of a Merkava tank, came in fourth place with 151 martyrs, including 3 women and 3 children.
- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine won fifth place with 95 martyrs, including two women, and 5 children.
- Won the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, ranked sixth with 72 martyrs, including one woman and 4 children.

- إUnion delegation secular: mourned (7) martyrs.
- Popular Struggle Front: mourned (8) martyrs, including (3) children.
- The People's Party: mourned (3) martyrs, including a woman.
- Fatah - Intifada: a faction outside the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and is based in Damascus, has led Colonel Abu Musa, which lamented the death of 3 martyrs.
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command: led by Ahmed Jibril, who is based in Damascus has, the two people in the Intifada, while joining the rest of the military wings of various "quality" operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
- Palestine Liberation Front: under the leadership of Dr. Yusuf made a martyr out of only one.
- Army of Islam: "ideas which would like al Qaeda, led by a Doghmash" : 14 martyrs.
- Free Galilee Brigades: faction emerged years ago is not known identity on the Palestinian arena, defined in the implementation of operations to run over cars and bulldozers to the Israeli soldiers and settlers, particularly in East Jerusalem and the West, where the group said on martyrdom 4 guerrillas.

As for the perpetrators of suicide attacks inflicting casualties both among the Israelis or did not sign, bringing the number (173), including (159) and men (14), where women are still the majority of bodies buried in the cemetery figures for Israel, has emerged from the study results are:

-Won first place in the implementation of Hamas with commando operations (69) and men (3) women, including Jeddah, Palestine, and 70-year old "Fatima Najjar,"
- Islamic Jihad had ranked second with (44) and men (4) women.
- A Fatah in third place with (35) and men (7) women.
- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in fourth place with (10) men, has not carried out any operation was carried out by any woman.
- أIn the bottom came the organization of the Popular Resistance Committees, with only one man.

Interestingly, the report lists the numbers of members of these groups out of a total number of "martyrs" that is larger by a couple of thousand. Presumably the difference is made up of civilians. But if that is true, why are so many of the "martyrs" listed here women and children?

The answer must be that the "women and children" listed here include the teenagers who engaged in terror acts and were killed in action. In other words, some 270 or so of the "child victims" and nearly 100 women were active members of terror organizations when they were killed by Israel, if you accept these figures.

News and links

Yesterday the PalArab media was reporting that bakeries in Gaza were being forced to use animal grain to make bread. Today the bakeries are denying that.

Syria is holding massive rallies today to demand the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, with special guest, child murderer Samir Kuntar.

Two parents tortured and killed their daughter in Gaza. I do not understand all the autotranslation but it sounded particularly gruesome.

Hamas has officially declared Fatah to be illegal in Gaza.

Fresno Zionism looks at early indications of what Obama's Mideast policy could be, and is not encouraged. Ami Isseroff thinks that Hamas might like it, though....

Why peace is impossible now

So, it really was a reactor

Free Gaza moonbats working with Hamas try again

Two prominent pro-terror "peace" advocates, Lauren Booth and Ken O'Keefe, are trying to buy a much larger ship to ferry passengers to Gaza. They call their project Aloha Palestine:

Aloha Palestine is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to provide a dedicated passenger ship service to the Palestinian people who have been suffering from the blockade imposed on Gaza.

It is telling that the moonbats are not interested so much in transporting food or medicine to Gaza, but rather in paying passengers. This is mostly because they know they can't afford the $1.1 million they need for this latest exercise in self-promotion at the expense of Gazan interests. (While the Free Gaza freaks happily met with Hamas leaders, none of them have mentioned asking them to stop rocket fire or to release Gilad Shalit.)

Their website happily quotes Jimmy Carter ("It’s an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It’s a crime... I think it is an abomination that this
continues to go on.") and Condoleeza Rice.

Of course, since Free Gaza itself has a major cash crunch, it would seem highly unlikely that Aloha Palestine will raise anything close to what they say they need. Except that in this case, they are not only raising funds from leftist hypocrites who are big on words but short on cash, but they are also working with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to raise the funds.

According to Palestine Press Agency, extreme Muslim groups have already raised some $600,000 for the purchase of their first ship, ironically to be named the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." This ship is meant to be a means for Hamas to not rely so heavily on smuggling tunnels to gain its independence.

While one interesting paragraph at the site says "It is a founding principal of Aloha Palestine that we will never allow weapons, of any kind, to be transported on our vessel(s),"and the article states that Israel and Cyprus have an agreement to restrict what kinds of goods can be shipped to Gaza. But Hamas apparently is aiming to use this ship to gain more legitimacy in the eyes of Europeans, as a first step in a much larger plan.

Notice that yet again, radical Islamists will happily use clueless leftists to achieve their own goals to create a planet where clueless leftists will have no place.

Mississippi's Muslim town

Q: Where in the world can one find a map that looks like this?

A: Sumrall, Mississippi.

Apparently, this section of Mississippi plans to become its own strictly Islamic municipality, called New Medinah, as this article shows.

Today's blood libel. Literally.

From the English-language "International Middle East Media Center," which is a Palestinian Arab propaganda outlet that is considered a "news" source by Google:

This cartoonist is, of course, one of the "moderates." His website describes him as:

A well-known Palestinian cartoonist, provides daily cartoons to various news and media outlets. He was presented with many achievement awards by Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organizations.

His resume continues:

Date of Birth: 27/3/1985
Education: Civil Engineering
: Experiences
. Holds first place in the competition among actors Cartoons –
. Loyalty to the prisoners organized by the Council of Islamic university students –
Recipient of the First Cultural Award Contest (creativity 2007) private –
. Islamic University students
Holds second place in the painting competition within the battle of Jerusalem –
. Substantive organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports
Participated in numerous courses in the fields of art and sports and community –
: Participated in numerous art galleries, including –
A - an exhibition organized by the Kenan Institute for Educational developmental a plastic art exhibition
In honor of the tenth anniversary of the uprising glorious title psychological impact on
. Children and Youth
. B - an exhibition organized by the Progressive Student Union bloc
Recipient of several certificates of appreciation from several institutions including the Ministry –
.

Youth and Sports, Kenan Institute of Educational Development, Youth Union and other Palestinian
. Musharraf in Section Cartoons and photos of the editorial board of the newspaper Youth Morocco –
. Supervisor in the Department of caricature in the cultural magazine tracks –
Tnscherrsumaati cartoon in many newspapers and magazines, local and international –

So these cartoons, depicting all Israelis as evil religious Jews using Nazi-style caricatures and classic anti-semitic themes, are clearly considered perfectly valid in today's Palestinian Arab society. They are not from Islamic Jihad or Hamas - this cartoonist has received awards from the Palestinian Authority institutions for similar cartoons.

These cartoons are not considered extreme or anti-semitic within the PA world of today - they are considered mainstream, to the point that even their English-language outlets are not embarrassed to publish them.

This is why real peace is impossible. The Palestinian Arab media is saturated with images like these - not just anti-Israel images but pure Jew-hatred, fed to the people from birth, inciting loathing for all Jews and Israelis. While the Israeli center continues to come up with projects to bridge the gap between the two peoples, and the Israeli Left continues to show how enlightened and progressive they are, to prove to the world that they are not like those religious or nationalistic or Zionist fanatics and they really love the Arabs, - and even the Israeli Right tries hard to come up with solutions that would help Palestinian Arabs live their lives in peace and prosperity - there are no corresponding peaceful voices on the Arab side.

A large percentage of Palestinian Arabs look at all Jews as the pictures above depict them.

Syrian prostitution booming

From Al-Arabiya:

Defying the worldwide economic downturn, prostitutes in Syria are experiencing boom times as more robust economic activity in Syria has created a booming market for their profession due to an inflow of investments in the private sector that have increased the disposable incomes that fund entertainment and indulgence.

Prostitutes in Syria hoping to cash into the economic boom are accordingly raising their prices and improving their highly sought services for better customer satisfaction as the demand for prostitution peaks.

"This is the oldest profession in human history, and it will continue unabated and will evolve in form and style as long as the methods of service keep pace with modernization," remarked a prostitute working at a night club in Damascus.

A prostitute from on of the Arab Maghreb countries who went by the pseudonym Rasha to avoid social stigma, has been in the business for less than a year after quitting her low paying job at a Syrian company.

She said that her fortunes changed for the better and her living standards drastically improved after she gave up her secretarial position for prostitution,.

"Not too long ago I was looking for a small apartment at the outskirts of Damascus. Now, I have a small fortune and can leave," she said.

Abir, another prostitute, said that the emergence of new professional sectors in the labor market such as telecommunications and insurance have compelled prostitutes to improve the quality of their services, especially since prices are peaking.

Rasha's customers initially paid from $100 to $200 for a few hours. However, in the wake of increased capital she decided to fully devote her time to prostitution and charge more since her customers could afford it.

According to the young Syrian Samer, prostitution is like any other profession in which the price depends on supply and demand. "Prostitution is gradually becoming a legitimate profession, considered mainly as part of tourism," he explained.

The impression of prostitutes working in the area was that the most prominent prostitutes working at night clubs were from Iraq and the Arab Maghreb countries.

Well, that's one way to keep the Syrian economy from collapsing.

No word yet on how Iran feels about this....

The trials of a pro-Israel student group at Berkeley

From J, the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California (h/t Tia):

Long a hotbed of anti-Israel activity, U.C. Berkeley has barely had a strong pro-Israel presence on campus. Until now, with Tikvah: Students for Israel, the Zionist student group at U.C. Berkeley.
We are the group that stepped up to protest when academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt visited Cal in October 2007 to hawk their book, a nefarious smear job titled “The Jewish Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.”
We were also there last month when the virulently anti-Israel academic Norman Finkelstein came to speak.
Before the lecture, we respectfully distributed our literature outside. Once inside, Finkelstein’s level of anti-Semitic vitriol prompted a walkout of Tikvah students and others not associated with our group. We shouted out our opinions while exiting, as the crowd hurled expletives at us. Finkelstein and his colleague then continued delivering their insulting lies.
As a result, the dean of students is now seeking to discipline Tikvah and individual students for an “offense” which in the past barely warranted mention when undertaken by student groups involved in anti-Israel activities.
For example, when Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes tried to speak on campus several years ago, he was shouted down by members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association. At the time the chancellor said, “Uncivil behavior, lamentable as it is, is not a crime, nor is it a violation of the Code of Student Conduct.” No disciplinary action was taken against SJP or its members for that incident, nor when Nonie Darwish was likewise shouted down a year ago.
Only last week, SJP disrupted an innovative Zionist hip-hop concert on campus. Even though no Jewish students were involved in the physical altercation that ensued (contrary to what was reported in the school paper and what SJP claims), we wait to see how the university will deal with the assailants from SJP.
Other violations by SJP of the U.C. code of conduct — such as blocking of pedestrian traffic with demonstrations, the brandishing of fake firearms, physical harassment and intimidation of Jewish students — were presented to the dean of students but have been ignored.
What we see here is a double standard, one for the rest of campus and another for the Jews and those who actively support Israel.
Our tax dollars support the U.C. system, and Jewish donors are very prominent in supporting the U.C. campuses. It’s time for the Jewish community to become aware of what is happening at our university.
Meanwhile, Tikvah has a consistent record of positive, pro-Israel programming on campus. Until our inception a year ago, there was no substantive pro-Israel voice on campus. We changed that, attracting students of various religious and cultural backgrounds to our cause. We have collaborated with many off-campus groups, including the Israeli Consulate, Israel Peace Initiative, S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, U.C. Berkeley Chabad, CAMERA, StandWithUs, JIMENA and more. Once again Jews walk with pride across Sproul Plaza.
We have also sponsored many successful events. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we took out ads in the student newspaper highlighting the civil rights leader’s strong support of the Jewish state. We have hosted lectures by Dennis Prager, Stanley Urman, Israeli Vice Consul Ishmael Khaldi (who spoke about being the highest-ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service) and others.
Last year we held two weeklong programs brimming with pro-Israel activities: Israel Peace and Diversity Week and Israel@60 Week (which included a widely attended on-campus Holocaust memorial on Yom HaShoah). We just finished our latest effort, Israel Liberation Week, and we have also been a positive influence on student government, with John Moghtader, a current senator in the Associated Students of the University of California, leading our group.
We are a grassroots student group. Our goal is to make sure Jewish students do not have to be subjected to a hostile anti-Israel, anti-Semitic environment on campus. That’s our bottom line.

Bravo to Tikvah!

LA Times cannot read a map

From AFP:

Egypt's northern Sinai is running low on fuel supplies because of the amount of smuggling across the border to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, Egyptian officials said on Saturday.
"Smuggling to Gaza through tunnels has led to a drastic reduction in fuel supplies at petrol stations" in the northern Sinai, said Mohammed Hussein, a senior official of the Sinai governorate.
Other local officials said work with agricultural equipment was having to cease because of the shortage of fuel.
Other parts of the Sinai are also being affected as trucks from the north loaded with jerry cans ferry fuel supplies to the north, according to workers at petrol stations.
The authorities in northern Sinai have over the past month imposed a ban on the sale of fuel in jerry cans except for agricultural purposes, and ordered all petrol stations to close overnight.
Almost 170,000 litres (about 40,000 gallons) of fuel being readied for shipment to Gaza on the black market was seized last week, officials said.

But why aren't human rights organizations and left-wing newspapers blaming Egypt for confiscating fuel that is meant for those poor, poor Gazans? No, only Israel has the responsibility for feeding and clothing and fueling Gaza, according to such august authorities as the Los Angeles Times:

In the 2 1/2 weeks since its cease-fire with Hamas broke down, Israel has all but sealed crossings along its border with the Gaza Strip and rejected U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's appeal to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclosed territory that houses more than 1.5 million Palestinians. This response to violence directed against it amounts to collective punishment of civilians, which is illegal under international law, unfair and counterproductive. Hunger and scarcity nurture extremism.

The last comment is a cliche that's been proven false numerous times.

Beyond that, the LAT is conflating two issues. Israel is under no legal obligation to help its enemies. If the UN would try to follow the Free Gaza model and bring goods in from overseas, the worst that Israel would do is stop the ships and check them for weapons or other materials that could be used to hurt Israeli civilians. If the UNRWA would try to bring goods in from Egypt, Israel wouldn't say a word. So when Israel stops goods from crossing through its own territory, it is not engaging in collective punishment - it is exercising its own autonomy, something that the LAT doesn't seem to recognize.

... As the military power surrounding Gaza, Israel has a duty to ensure that civilians receive sufficient food, fuel and medicine.

The LA Times needs to look at a map again and see if Gaza is surrounded by Israel.

Syrian economist: Jews killed JFK!

MEMRI keeps finding these gems....

Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian economist Muhammad Sharif Mazloum, which aired on Al-Kawthar TV on October 10, 2008.
Muhammad Sharif Mazloum: The economic crisis began on August 15, 1971, when President Nixon canceled the Bretton Woods agreement, which linked the old gold dollar to the Jewish gold. Thus, the dollar was severed from gold, and became subjected to the whims and schemes of the Zionist lobby, whose goal was, and still is, to take control of the world's gold, which is deposited in Swiss banks or in the central banks of countries as gold reserves for their banknotes, as well as to enslave the peoples and then to impoverish them. With the American political and economic pressure on governments around the world to sever their currencies from the gold standard, the crisis – or the Zionist economic war against the peoples of the world – began.

That is when the purchasing power of the banknotes collapsed vis-à-vis gold, and with it collapsed the purchasing power of the salaries and earning of all classes, including the unemployed in America, as well as the salaries of the workers and the profits of the industrialists and farmers. The collapse reached its lowest point in 1986, when the dollar lost 90% of its gold value prior to 1971, before the gold dollar was severed from the Jewish gold. In 1971, the gold value of $1,000,000 was 1,000 kg – i.e., one ton of gold. In 1986, the gold value of $1,000,000 was reduced to only 100 kg. In other words, 900 kg were lost from every 1,000 kg of gold.

This may be called the period of the first death of the dollar. The world governments and their economic advisors at the time should have stopped using the American dollar, which lost, as I said, 90% of its gold value. If only the governments of the world at that time had awakened, and had saved their peoples from the rule of the dollar, and from the consequences of the Zionist economic war, which ripped apart the peoples of the world, and continues to do so.

The economic research that we conducted in 1989 revealed the economic war planned by the Zionists even before 1944, when they promised the US government to back the US dollar with their gold. Since the America government does not have its own federal banks, it agreed to sign the Bretton Woods agreement, which gave an ounce of gold for every $35 that reached the Federal Reserve Bank, and its branches throughout America, which are owned by the Ashkenazi Jews.

[...]

In the 1960s, President John Kennedy decided to establish governmental banks to protect the dollar, in which the gold that was pouring into America would be deposited. What became of Kennedy? He was killed by the Zionist lobby. This is a fact that nobody is aware of – but a fact it is. That was the reason Kennedy was killed.

[...]

Global Jewry is trying to prepare the ground for a strong currency. What would that strong currency be? People have no confidence in the euro, and they don't keep gold. This strong currency is what [Israel] is preparing now, and even issued in Gaza – the gold Jewish shekel.

Kudos to my counterparts in the Financial Section of the Jewish Lobby; great job, guys!

The celebrity murderer visits Syria

From Ma'an Arabic:

The dean of Israeli prisoners Samir Kuntar arrived this evening to the Syrian capital Damascus, in a week-long visit that will include a series of activities in several provinces of Syria.

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal welcomed him, saying: "You are now between your family and your people, and we're proud of you and all the resistance heroes."

Kuntar said, "I carry to the Syrian people and the rule of President Bashar al-Assad a salute to the mujahedeen in the glorious Islamic Resistance, and salute the Lebanese people to Syria, which harbors all feelings of loyalty, and love the supervisory positions, especially in the war in July 2006. "

He is due to meet Syrian President Bashar al Assad. He will also participate in the opening ceremony of the Arab International Forum on the right of return on 23-24/11/2008 in Damascus.

It is utterly beyond belief that Israel wants to negotiate with people who pay homage to the most disgusting, notorious terrorist/murderer in Israeli history.

And I am not only referring to Syria.

Double-dipping AP photographer?

Yesterday, AP published this photo:

A Palestinian man cooks chicken using a wood-fuelled stove due to a shortage in cooking gas, in an outdoor kitchen in Gaza City, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. He said he is cooking for poor families and hospital patients in Gaza. Israel's tightening Gaza blockade, a response to Palestinian militant rocket fire, has led to frequent blackouts throughout Gaza and resulted in shortages of food, supplies and even cash. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

I had seen that same photo, along with many others, in the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today newspaper. Palestine Today did not attribute the photographers.

Does this mean that Adel Hana gets paid twice for the same photos? Does it mean that AP employs Islamic Jihad sympathizers? Does AP know that these photographs are being published in another newspaper without attribution?

Friday Links

Israeli envoy: The UN filled with "hostility and hypocrisy" (YNet)

Hezbollah seeks to marshal the piety of the young (NYT) (h/t EBoZ)

The new anti-Semitism? (Christopher Hitchens at Times Online)

Denmark to ban circumcision? (YNet)

"Starvation"

Open thread

It's been a busy week. Let's talk about something else.

Speaking of weeks, on August 1, 1971, Richard Nixon declared that week to be National Clown Week.

Palestinian Arabs fleeing West Bank

Firas Press reports on a huge number of young Palestinian Arab men who have been emigrating from the West Bank.

According to a new report by the Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute in cooperation with the Central Bureau of Statistics,

There are surprising statistics about emigration in the Palestinian territories, which have been exacerbated in recent years, causing a "brain drain" to other countries.

The studies agreed that emigration, both domestic and abroad, has had negative effects on Palestinian society, in social, economic and political arenas.

The study revealed that the Palestinian territories is third in the Middle East in terms of migration rates and ranks sixth among middle-income countries, in addition to being a major part of the most vital migration corridors in the world.

The study said that the number of Palestinians who fled to Jordan since the beginning of this year exceeded 260,000, but during the same period, only 197,000 returned.

This has been a consistent pattern throughout the short history of Palestinian Arabs. The young, smart and ambitious have always sought to leave. These are the hundreds of thousands who emigrated en masse to Kuwait and Iraq in the latter half of the 20th century, the ones who refused to be stuck in "refugee" camps and fed by UNRWA for their entire lives. These Palestinian Arabs - including a large number in Europe and the Americas - represent the best and the brightest of their people, because they were they refuse to live on handouts and in a dead-end situation. While they are proud of their heritage, they really have little desire to live in a Palestinian state themselves. An additional 63,000 emigrants this year is not to be considered unusual.

Half of younger PalArabs want to emigrate. Apparently they don't care about living in "their" land all that much, and the enforced nationalism has not penetrated their psyches a great deal. They just want to live somewhere without worrying about war or the terrible PalArab economy, where they can get real jobs and support their families in honor. Building up a Palestinian Arab state is not a romantic notion to them - it is a bitter joke, as they have seen better than anyone how corrupt the legacy of Arafat has been, how their leaders are more interested in self-preservation than in real progress and how divided their people really are.

If the Arab world was smart, they would welcome these educated and motivated young men as citizens, rather than risk them going to the West. But unfortunately the Arab world is more fixated on keeping these people stateless - in the name of "Palestinian unity" - because of hatred of Israel as well as fear of the changes that an influx of hardworking, smart men could effect in their dictatorships.

So instead we see them leave whenever and to wherever they can. And the ones they leave behind are the lazy ones, or the ones who are attracted to terror, or the ones who just gave up.

The principles of a Nobel Peace Prize winner

JPost reports:

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire says the United Nations should suspend or revoke Israel's membership.

Maguire says Israel should be punished for ignoring a series of United Nations resolutions over the years. Maguire won the 1976 peace prize for her work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Maguire told a news conference Thursday that it's time for the international community to take action against Israel.

Such noble words from the laureate! Such high-minded principles she has! Such a wonderful use for her prestige!

It almost seems a shame to point out that she thinks that terrorists are just wonderful people:

The keffiyeh, which Palestinian Arabs consider to be a symbol of "violent resistance" (=terror attacks against Jewish civilians), is an appropriate fashion statement for this clown.

Notice also that the flag on the commemorative plate that Maguire is smilingly accepting from an unrepentant mass murderer shows that Israel doesn't exist.

You can have your own Fatah blog!

Yes, you too can have a blog with a terrorist domain!

Check out this new one, Am Yisrael Chai at http://amyisraelchai.fateh.net/

To add your own Wordpress blog, just go to http://fateh.net/wp-signup.php and have fun!

(Just be careful about your own Internet protection...your IP address will be visible to the hosts.)

Today's PalArab news

A Hamas member was killed in a "work accident", which pro-Hamas Arabs blame on "shrapnel" from an Israeli tank missile but which more objective Arabs note was one of those "mysterious explosions." Hamas noted that the terrorist was in the midst of a jihad task.

Hamas officials in Gaza are now claiming that hundreds of thousands of chicks were euthanized because there was no fuel to keep them warm, and two million more are in danger of being killed. Which makes one wonder how farms managed to work before the 20th century, as well as why aren't the chicks being fed to "starving" Gazans?

Hamas is trying to force a family from Gaza to leave their home. It seems that they live near Hamas leader Haniyeh; maybe it is one of those "land grabs" that Arabs always complain about.

Hamas attacked a wedding on Tuesday night, because the members were singing Fatah tunes. They broke chairs and sound equipment and abducted a number of celebrants.

The Saudi Committee for the Relief of the Palestinian People somehow sent a convoy of trucks filled with rice to Gaza. Last week they brought flour, next week they plan to bring dried milk. In the past they have worked with UNESCO and UNICEF, so apparently this convoy came through Israeli territory, but I cannot find any other story about this.

An Islamic Jihad leader predicts that Hamas will declare a new Palestinian Arab president in January, further pushing the division between Gaza and Ramallah.

Tunnel builders in Rafah are increasing the amount of fuel smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, building new pipelines. They expect to have completed a real pipeline, as opposed to the hoses they use now, in the next week or so, and they hope to be able to transport natural gas as well.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 214.

"Rationality" and Reuters' obscene bias

Reuters looks at the Jewish residents of the West Bank, and doesn't like what it sees:

When God ordered Abraham to slaughter a son, the angel of the Lord stepped in at the last minute to stay his hand. Was it a test of faith, or had Abraham's imagination simply run away with him?
Scholars may differ, but to many Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, the story is as real as the airy heights and rocky slopes where Hebrew and Philistine armies clashed in biblical times, and where they live today.

This makes it hard to discuss rationally a resolution of the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel over its occupation of West Bank land since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

I the Reuters universe, there is only one "rational" resolution: to forcibly remove Jews from homes they lived in for decades, and that their ancestors lived in for millenia. It is so obvious to these smug, condescending journalists to look down upon people who live there today, who have a real and undying love of their land that has lasted for thousands of years, and airily declare that their desires and beliefs and lifestyle is "irrational".

Never will you hear Reuters declare Islamic beliefs as being so weird as to make it impossible to speak rationally with a Muslim. For Reuters, peaceful religious Muslims are worthy of praise and will not be questioned; but peaceful religious Jews are inherently irrational and suspect.

Settlers deny their towns are an illegal obstacle to peace. On a tour they organized this week to redress a negative image in foreign media, they cited scripture going back 3,500 years to explain why a land-for-peace swap was out of the question.

Yehudit Tayar talked about what "we" did in ancient times, as if recalling recent family history. "When we were crossing the desert," she says. "When we first came back to Shilo" to worship the Holy Tabernacle "which our families did three times a year" back in the Iron Age.

It's as if the intervening 3,000 years never happened.

No, it is as if they feel a connection to their ancestors.

Would Reuters ever tell Palestinian Arabs, the vast majority who never lived in Palestine, that it is irrational for them to want to live there, or that it would be an obstacle to peace? Or would it trot out another story with somoene pointing to a key that supposedly opens a door to a house that a Jew lives in? Why are Palestinian Arab aspirations to return to land they believe is theirs - and whose return would lead to conflict - any more rational than Jews' desire to do the same?

Visitors to divided Jerusalem, only a half hour drive away, see checkpoints, watchtowers, teenagers with combat rifles and other daily manifestations of the occupation that might be removed almost overnight, if there was a peace deal.

But looking at the reality of the settlements, their tended gardens and schools, and listening to the passions that gave rise to them, makes it plain that persuading -- or even forcing -- Jews to give these up will be a far bigger challenge.

Not "would be" but "will be." Reuters knows how peace will be achieved, and it is by uprooting hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes - where they have been living peacefully, where the vast majority are in communities on land that was completely empty and never inhabited, and where many of them even have good relations with their Arab neighbors until the "peace activists" pour in to incite hate.

The idea of Jews living in land that they feel a deep spiritual connection to is not irrational. On the contrary, the idea that such a land should be Judenrein is what should be setting off alarms in the heads of the Reuters writers.

If they were rational.

(h/t Snapped Shot for the original quote)

YouTube's anti-semitism in Arabic

While YouTube tries to remove offensive videos in languages they understand, it remains a haven for anti-semitic videos in Arabic.

Here are some titles, autotranslated, with links:

Jews cowards

Jewish history and the dream of a false Asif (1-10) - A documentary film about Jews were God's curse

Even camels hate Jews (which is actually pretty funny)

The stormy history of the Jewish dream of a false (4-10) A documentary film about Jews were God's curse

Incest Jewish

Children who humiliated the Jews - Apparently, the Jews wouldn't be humiliated if they fired tanks at young rock throwers

Jewish history and crimes

The film documentary about Jews and their plans

(The Jews God's hands tied) - This is the Brotherhood of apes and pigs Bastards say God's hands tied by a stingy their hands tied, and cursed including

Jews saw terrorism - A sequence of scenes of Jews praying juxtaposed with dead Arabs

Martyrdom operations in Palestine against the Jews - apparently praising killing Jews - not Zionists.

Nah, they're not anti-semitic

We know that Muslims respect Judaism as a religion and only hate Zionism, as we've been told countless times.

From The MEMRi Blog, quoting Akhbar Al-Arab, November 18, 2008:

But I'm sure that waves of outraged Muslims who respect Judaism will be writing letters to the editor complaining about this bigotry, and pundits and politicians will appear on TV to condemn it, and the editor of the newspaper will issue a formal apology and fire the cartoonist.

After all, this is what would happen in the West, and they are just like us, right?

Firas Press has a feature in its Arabic website of pictures of Palestinian Arab children.

Normally they are just cutesy pictures, but sometimes you will see something like this one.

Name: Ahmed Hossam Attia Muslim
Age: 7 years
Address: Rafah, Gaza Strip _ _ Tel Sultan

Look how adorable his smile is!

One of the commenters writes:

Ikhalih protected by God and to his family and is commander of Abu Ammar and uniforms free-Aqsa and liberate all of Palestine

Clearly, when readers of Firas see this picture they see someone who will be using such a weapon against Jews when he is a bit older.

And when they say "all of Palestine" I somehow don't think they mean the Green Line.

Jerusalem in Jewish and Islamic Culture [Video]

Enjoy:

O.T.

Does it mean overtime, off-topic or open thread? You decide!

A headline you'll never see

First, the ones you have seen:

Haim Ramon: "Israel is ready to make painful concessions for peace."

Ariel Sharon: Israel is "ready to make painful concessions" for the
sake of "genuine, durable, real peace."

Ehud Olmert: "We want peace. We are prepared to make a painful compromise, rife with risks, in order to realize these aspirations."

Ehud Barak: "Both sides must make painful concessions for peace."

Shimon Peres: "Israel is ready to make painful concessions for peace."

And the one you will never see:

Mahmoud Abbas: "We are prepared to make painful concessions for peace."

Why exactly does only one side keep telling the world that they are willing to make concessions while the other side only makes demands?

It is almost as if only one side is serious about wanting peace....

The ironic part, of course, is that the person who makes demand after demand is considered the "moderate peace partner" and the side that keeps making goodwill gestures and giving up real, strategic assets is considered an intransigent warmonger.

Bahrain freaks over Gulf Air website mentioning Israel

The Arab world's irrational hate often rises to absurd levels.

MPs are threatening to take action unless Israel's name is removed from Gulf Air's website among a list of countries under its frequent flyers services.

The parliamentary Palestinian Support Committee plans to send a letter to the airline on Sunday demanding answers.

Under the scheme, passengers from any nationality can apply for frequent flyers membership stating their country of origin.

Committee chairman Nasser Al Fadhala said that the airline had been alerted previously on the issue, but they never responded.

"We don't normalise ties in any possible way with Israel and the inclusion of Israel as one of the countries, in which its citizens are allowed to benefit from the scheme, implies the opposite," he said.

"Bahrain is a country that refuses to accept any normalisation with Israel, especially with the Palestinians being evicted from their homes, tortured and killed."

"Gulf Air and officials behind it will pay the price heavily if they insist on not having Israel's name removed," he said.

"We plan to start using our monitoring tools, which will certainly enable us to reach the bottom of this issue.

"The minister is not responding, but maybe if we take a tougher approach, he will take action, or else we will force him to do so."

A Gulf Air spokesman said the reference to Israel on the website was merely in a dropdown menu so passengers registering for the frequent flyers offer could enter where they live.

"In fact, we have a number Israel-based Arabs in our programme already and it would be a pity to deny future passengers the opportunity to join our programme," he said.

In the end, the people who they are hurting are the Arabs who have the audacity of living in Israel. You know.... the very "Palestinians" whom they claim they are doing this for.

Here is the outrageous webpage that is causing members of Bahrain's parliament to spend hours of their time seething, with a visual aid so you can find the problem yourself. Israel is listed in the drop-down menu along with some 200 other countries:

Just in case anyone is still wondering how much the Arab world really cares about "Palestinian" rights, as opposed to destroying Israel, here's a little clue:

"Palestine" is not mentioned in Gulf Air's list of countries for "nationality." But the MPs are not complaining about the absence of "Palestine" on the website, but the existence of "Israel."

Palestine Press Agency: Hamas manufacturing electricity crisis

The Palestine Press Agency mentions that when Hamas is telling the world that 70% of Gaza is dark because of a shortage of fuel, it is lying.

The source pointed out, as is well known to all that the Gaza Strip .... gets 70% of its electricity supply from the Israeli and Egyptian lines.

The source of electricity that comes from the Israeli company and the electricity that comes from Egypt has not been affected and never stopped.

...Where [Hamas] cuts electricity off for long periods of time for most of the areas of the Gaza Strip, especially Gaza City, knowing that the Hamas leadership' homes and neighborhoods where they live do not suffer from the disruption of electricity like the rest of the regions.

UPDATE: The Gazans claim that the extra 40% electricity shortfall came because of overloading the power from Israel, causing transformers to be burned out.