Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Freedom of the press, PA-style

The Palestinian Authority has decided to ban a number of journalists from entering the presidential Mukata compound in Ramallah.

The decision is aimed at punishing the journalists because of their criticism of the PA leadership or for reporting about the activities of Hamas leaders.

Al-Jazeera reporters and TV crews are among those who now appear on the PA's blacklist. They have been denied access to the Mukata for the past two weeks.

Other journalists working for Arab and Western media outlets have also been told that they are no longer welcome to visit the compound.

The decision to ban Al-Jazeera came after the popular TV station failed to carry a live broadcast of a speech given by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in front of the PLO Central Council in Ramallah.

Instead, the station broadcast live from Damascus, where Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was addressing a conference of radical groups.

Al-Jazeera has thus far refrained from reporting about the PA's decision to boycott the station. A source in the station said that the decision not to report about the ban was taken after the PA warned Al-Jazeera that publicizing the issue would only cause more damage to its reporters.

PA officials accused Al-Jazeera of being biased in favor of Hamas, noting that this was not the first time that the station had served as a platform for Hamas and other radical Islamic groups.

Some PA officials even went as far as demanding the closure of the Al-Jazeera offices in the West Bank. The homes and vehicles of some Al-Jazeera reporters have been either torched or stoned by Fatah activists in the West Bank in the past two years.

Earlier this week, the largest Palestinian news agency, Ramattan, decided to suspend its work in the West Bank after the PA leadership also banned its reporters from entering the Mukata.

The agency also accused the PA security forces of raiding its Ramallah offices, arresting its workers and confiscating a mobile broadcast truck.

Another journalist who has been denied access to the Mukata is Nael Nakhleh, a resident of Al-Bireh who writes from newspapers in the Gulf. Nakhleh was arrested by the PA's General Intelligence for allegedly publishing reports that reflect negatively on the PA leaders.

The PA has, over the past few years, become less tolerant toward "unfriendly" journalists, especially Palestinian newsmen who report about financial corruption and abuse of human rights in PA-controlled areas.

Seven Palestinian reporters have been arrested by Abbas's security forces in the past few months for allegedly expressing sympathy with Hamas. Most were released after being warned against publishing material that reflects negatively on Abbas and the PA leadership.

This is exactly how things were under Arafat.

As far as I can tell, Al Jazeerah has still not reported on its being blacklisted, thus buckling under to the PA's demands.

By the way, here is a picture of an al-Jazeera reporter - reporting from Jaffa in a typically anti-Israel article. He doesn't seem to have been kicked out.

Lull?

From AP:

Israel has reopened its crossings with Gaza to shipments of humanitarian aid and fuel. International journalists are also being allowed in.

The Israeli military says 45 trucks of food and medical supplies are to pass through on Tuesday, along with shipments of cooking gas and fuel for Gaza's power plant.

The military says cargo and passenger crossings were reopened because of a lull Monday in attacks by Gaza militants on Israel.

The reopening of the crossings also means international journalists can again enter Gaza. This is just the second time reporters have been allowed in since fighting erupted on Nov. 5. The violence has left a 6-month-old truce in doubt.

Actually, yesterday Gazan terrorists did shoot a rocket towards Israel, but it landed short.

I suppose that deserves an award.

All Hamas has to do is shoot dozens of rockets at Israel whenever they want, as they did this past weekend, and then slow down for a day to get their "humanitarian aid."

Husband defects to the West? Blame Zionists!

From Infolive.tv:

The wife of Iran's former deputy defense minister Ali Reza Asghari protested in front of the Turkish embassy in Tehran on Monday, claiming her husband was kidnapped by Israelis while in Turkey two years ago, Iranian news agency Faras reported. Asghari denied rumors that her husband had defected to the west and claimed that he "was in the Zionist prison." She vowed to protest again next year.

Of course, Asghari did defect, and may have even provided intelligence to Israel about the secret Syrian nuclear reactor that Israel bombed.

Doesn't look like he misses his wife too much, either.

Respect for women!

Morocco’s Rajaa Houlla, 29, reacts after discovering that she had been divorced by her Saudi husband. She only learnt of the divorce when police came to her house to deport her in Jeddah on Friday.

I guess the husband doesn't have to worry about lengthy court proceedings - he just got his local police to get rid of his wife, literally.

Don't move the embassy - yet

JTA has an op-ed by the orthodox Union's Steven Savitsky imploring the incoming US administration to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

I cannot argue with his goal:

At this crucial time for Jews throughout the world, the Orthodox Union proclaims loud and clear that Jerusalem must be off the table. Any peace negotiations must be predicated upon the fact that Jerusalem will remain Israel’s undivided capital. We pray for it, yearn for it, fast because of its destruction, and remember it at our most joyous times under the chupah.

And the article makes it clear that the entire purpose of moving the embassy is to be a part of a declaration by the US that Jerusalem is Israel's undivided capital.

Last night, I heard Israel's former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau speak. He mentioned that in 1987 he spoke with a high-ranking US official, who told him that the reason that the United States didn't bother bringing up the question of Jerusalem because everyone knew that the Knesset was against dividing Jerusalem by roughly 116-4 seats. Against such a consensus, the US wouldn't bother wasting its time to pressure Israel to make concessions.

However, if there is a cleavage in Israeli society, the US will be happy to use leverage to exact concessions from the state.

Rabbi Lau went on to say that in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, all Israelis - religious or not - stood together as one. The unity is there in the face of terror, but not so much at any other time lately. And it is this lack of unity that gives the world a toehold into trying to shrink Israel.

The US is not going to be more Zionist than Israel itself is. The most left-wing Israeli governments will continue to move their "red lines" back while negotiating away Israel's strategic interests, and as soon as something new is on the table, it is difficult to remove it.

In this environment, if American Zionists insist on making the embassy a slogan, it is entirely conceivable that a US administration will say that they will be happy to move the embassy to western Jerusalem but insist that Jerusalem be divided as part of the deal. Emphasizing the embassy - a purely symbolic gesture - could end up facilitating the loss of much of Jerusalem on the ground.

The embassy is not the issue. Jerusalem as a unified capital of the Jewish state is the real issue. This is far more important than the symbolism - and likely resultant pressure - that would accompany any US move of its embassy.

Israel's iniquitous Koranic plots

Firas Press breathlessly reports on the latest nefarious Israeli plot to debase and twist the Holy Koran:

A report of the Monitoring Committee of the Islamic Research Academy in Egypt warned that Israel is expanding in the perversion of the Koran and issued editions distributed to many African countries including Kenya and Niger.

The recent report says that 'The Israelis were distorting the Koran and deleted verses that talk about Jews and signs calling for Jihad'.

Brilliant! All the miscreant Jews need to do to solve the problems of Islamic terror is to change the Koran itself!

That's not the only thing that Israelis are doing with the Koran. They are now making money from it:

For Muslims who just can't fit the five-times-a-day Salah prayer routine into their busy schedules, an Israeli mobile phone provider has a new solution: Mobile Koran.

Pelephone has begun offering a Koran text service that enables users to tap into verses of choice from the Muslim Holy Book at will.

For the modest sum of $1.50 per month, subscribers can download what appears onscreen as an actual book of Koran, and scroll through chapter and verse.

"We are providing something to subscribers who want to be connected to these texts any time and any place," said Pelephone Product Content Director Moti Cohen. "So naturally we are targeting a population that would use this type of service. Our Arab sector customers are very enthusiastic."

And we mustn't forget the other Israeli Koran project, Quranet, which has just gone on-line although all of its features are not available yet.

A new Web site launched by an Israeli university professor and his Bedouin students aims to address life's everyday quandaries from the perspective of an ancient sacred text: the Quran.

Organizers of the site, Quranet.net, say they hope it will serve as a "bridge between Islam and the West" by applying the wisdom of Islam's holiest book to modern-day problems.

"We try to transform the Quran into a modern and useful tool, so that every person can find a Quranic answer to modern psychological and educational queries," said Ofer Grosbard, professor at the Academic Arab College for Education, affiliated with Haifa University.

Quranet divides chapters of the Quran into topics such as "Loss, Illness and Tragedy," and provides answers to such questions as, "Is loss an excuse for aggression?" and "What can we say to someone who refuses to accept a gesture of peace?"

The questions are answered with a relevant Quranic verse, followed by an educational-psychological explanation of the issue.

Quranet seeks to illustrate "the beauty of the Quran," said Grosbard, who believes the book's positive messages have been overshadowed by Islamic fundamentalists who've manipulated the text as a justification for terrorism.

We spoke about Quranet a few months ago, with many Muslims freaking out that Israelis could dare publicly claim that he Koran teaches love and respect.

Obviously, Israel is trying to destroy the Holy Quran/Koran with a multi-pronged attack.

What chutzpah!

Qatar should call Israel's bluff

From Dion Nissenbaum of McClatchy Newspapers:

Israel is taking unusual new steps to discourage Arab and Muslim nations from challenging its prolonged economic siege of the Hamas-led Gaza Strip by sending aid ships to ease the desperate circumstances of the 1.5 million Gaza Palestinians.
In recent days, Israel prodded Qatar, a friendly Persian Gulf nation, into calling off a delegation preparing to transport aid from Cyprus to Gaza, according to officials briefed on what they said were high-level talks.
Hours before a Qatar aid group was scheduled to board a boat Thursday with $2 million in cancer medication, they abruptly canceled the trip.
The Qatar charity would have been the first such Arab aid group to challenge Israel's ban on international boats traveling to Gaza.
Instead, Israel urged Qatar officials to send any Gaza-bound aid via Israel, Israeli government officials said.
"The message was delivered, not only to them, but to anybody else that wanted to transfer aid to Gaza, that there is a mechanism on how to do it," said Andy David, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry. "We will not change our policy, which gives us the option on how to do it, while not allowing unauthorized boats to reach Gaza."

If everyone really cared about helping Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, here's what would happen:

Qatar would avail themselves of Israel's offer. They would transfer their aid, perhaps through Jordan, with the following conditions:

* Israel has the right to inspect the aid and stop anything that could be dangerous to Israeli citizens

* A small Qatari delegation would travel with the aid convoy to ensure that it gets distributed directly to qualified aid agencies and not to terrorists

Here, everyone wins: Israel can maintain its security; Qatar can become a bigger player in helping Palestinian Arabs, Israeli relations improves with the Arab world, and Gazans get the aid they need. (Tzipi Livni visited Qatar earlier this year, there is no reason that Qataris cannot go through Israel to reach Gaza.)

Of course, this only works if we assume that the Arab world really cares about helping Gazans.

Odds and ends

Christians detained and beaten in Muslim Indian Ocean nations

This year's gruesome Eid al Adha photos from Gaza. Let's play in the blood!

Desertification conference - Israel saving the world again:

This is a crisis that has actually been defined by the United Nations and World Bank "Millennium Assessment" as the environmental problem which affects more people than any other worldwide.

Israel's climate is of course largely a desiccated one. Indeed 93 percent of its lands are defined as drylands. In 1948, the country's soils showed dramatic deterioration, and conditions were growing worse quickly. The causes involved overgrazing, deforestation and agriculture that was not sustainable. The notion of a 'desolate,' 'neglected' homeland - was not just Zionist propaganda. It was born out by aerial photographs and reports by international soil scientists.

Since that time, however, a combination of grazing regulations, agricultural innovations, ambitious water management projects, aggressive afforestation efforts and a national commitment to making the Negev a productive region produced impressive results. Entire regions have been transformed and for the better.

Swing your partner ‘round and ‘round,

And turn your corner upside down.

And turn your corner like swingin’ on a gate,

And meet your partner for a grand chain eight,

And hurry up boys and don’t be late.

Chew your tobacco and rub your snuff,

And meet your honey and strut your stuff.

Right foot up and a left foot down,

And make that big foot jar the ground,

And promenade your partner around.

Perhaps this was one of the contestants in the latest Saudi beauty pageant?

Egypt afraid that Gaza will expand into the Sinai

From Palestine Today:

MPs from the Egyptian Shura Council warned of the seriousness of Israel to harm the Egyptian national security, pointing out that Israel still has ambitions in Sinai with the displacement of Palestinians to Sinai from Gaza.

Isn't it interesting that Palestinian Arabs are considered a national security threat to their fellow Arabs, but the world expects Israel not to treat them as such?

A tiny admission: Amira Hass mentions weapons smuggling

Amira Hass, Ha'aretz' Arab affairs reporter, went into Gaza with the last "Free Gaza" moonbat boat and stayed for three weeks. Today, she spoke to her friends in Ramallah about her experience in Gaza.

Although she predictably slams Israel at every possible opportunity, a couple of salient facts manage to sneak out during her tirade:

On entering Gaza Hass said she was accompanied by Hamas-appointed security personnel at all hours, and was prevented from entering any of the Strip’s refugee camps. She said she had been warned by the security men that there was a chance that she would be abducted by extremists during her time in Gaza. After three weeks, she said, the security officials told her they got wind of a plan by one of the factions to kidnap her, which she called a pretext, and forced her to leave the area.

So this independent journalist happily filed reports that were effectively censored by Hamas, which only allowed her to enter certain parts of Gaza. Hass eagerly accepted the role of propagandist.

During her time in Gaza Hass visited the southern town of Rafah where the hundreds of tunnels to Egypt snake below the earth, and described the full markets and influx of people that the new industry had spurred in the area. Hass described seeing many goods, even weapons, available in the Rafah souq, and remarked at the change in what she called a ‘once very poor town.’

From a quick Google search, I could not find a single Hass report for Ha'aretz where she mentioned seeing weapons in Rafah. In fact, out of the many reports that talk about the goods that get smuggled into Rafah through tunnels, the most obvious - weapons - is not mentioned anywhere. TVs, motorcycles, cattle, zoo animals, candy, shoes - we see them all from Western reports, but never a mention of weapons.

The only way to know that weapons are still being smuggled is because Egypt regularly intercepts weapons and explosives caches on their way to Rafah. Gaza reporters, however, cannot bring themselves to mention that fact.

Hass mentions it here - but to a Palestinian Arab audience, and not as a reporter but as an advocate.

Isn't the presence of weapons for sale in Rafah an important fact? Apparently, not to the Western reporters who love filing tunnel stories, and apparently not to Amira Hass herself.

The MSM meme of starving Gazans is too important. If reporters would mention that weapons are getting smuggled into Gaza and sold (as well as given to terror groups), some stupid readers might start thinking that perhaps food is not the most important thing to Gazans - and we can't have that, can we?

Open Thread!

I went to a wedding this morning and I'm at a dinner to raise money for a Jewish community that most of the world would like to see destroyed this evening, so this is a good time to create an open thread on my Blackberry.

While I overeat.

The Jew Cooties issue is getting more play in the mainstream media, a week after I became perhaps the first English-language blogger to publish the picture of Al Azhar Sheikh Tantawi shaking hands with Shimon Peres.

Ha'aretz says a major Egyptian paper is demanding that Tantawi "ritually purify his hands" after this awful event. I am not clear what that means; Muslims ritually wash their hands numerous times a day, so perhaps it really does mean that the hand should be cut off.

YNet mentions that Tantawi, after initially denying knowing who Peres was, now admits that he shook his hand on purpose and spoke to him for a few minutes, although saying that they didn't speak about anything important. Perhaps sealing Tantawi's fate, YNet adds:

Contrary to Tantawi's claims, Ynet has learned that during the New York conference it was actually the sheikh who approached Peres, and knowing who he was, shook his hand and talked with him for several minutes.

Tantawi reportedly told Peres, "Preachers play a very important role in calming the situation and creating an atmosphere of peace."

Which is of course the very problem - while Egypt has been at "peace" with Israel for thirty years, it never tried to stop the incitement in its media against the Jewish state. The "peace" is paper-thin, and it was represented to Egyptian citizens as merely a ruse to regain the Sinai and erase the shame of losing in 1967.

The Tantawi kerfuffle shows how much loathing Egyptians continue to have for Israel, including Israel's most dovish leaders. From Egypt's perspective, Camp David was not a peace agreement, but merely a long-term cease fire that is a single bullet away from being destroyed.

And the fact that Tantawi caused a similar stir ten years ago by meeting with Israel's chief rabbi shows that old fashioned anti-semitism is also a major factor here.

26 days in a row of rocket fire

Today's Qassams marks 26 consecutive days of rocket or mortar fire from Gaza towards Israel.

There has been fire from Gaza 34 out of the 35 days since November 4.

The previous longest streak, according to my records, is 36 days in a row spanning last April, May and June.

Yet, the media still refers to Israel and Hamas as having a "shaky ceasefire."

Christians not doing too well in Egypt

There are rumors that Barack Obama will make a major foreign policy speech in a Muslim capital during his first hundred days in office, and many think it will be in Cairo.

It would be interesting to see if he goes there as a way to pander to Muslims, or as a proud Christian who is also the US President. Because things have not been too great for Christians in Egypt lately.

I did not see this reported in any English-language press, but according to an article in Al Masry al-Youm:

In the "District of Rain" in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, an ugly scene of Muslim militants burned a church, after prayers Friday (29/11), chanting "God is great ...! God is great!", as if they had infiltrated by Bar-Lev line or regained Jerusalem!

An AP article mentions some other incidents:

Early in the morning two Sundays ago, hundreds of Christian Egyptians quietly slipped into a former underwear factory where they had discreetly set up a church and held their first service. Bells rang and hymns were sung.
A crowd of angry Muslims quickly gathered, threw stones at the building and burned banners that said, “No to the church.” They tried to storm the gates, clashed with police and chanted, “The church has fallen, the priest is dead,” according to witnesses.
In fact, no one died, but 13 people were reported injured. For Egyptians in general, the incident in the blue-collar district of Ain Shams served as a warning that Muslim-Christian clashes, largely confined to the south of the country in recent years, have seeped into the capital.
Two incidents this summer underscore the problem. In one southern city, a Muslim man was killed in clashes over the expansion of a Coptic Orthodox monastery, and Muslims torched Christian villagers’ homes because a priest was seen holding Mass inside a house, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a rights group.
Christians, an estimated 10 percent of Egypt’s 79 million people, long have complained of government restrictions on building new churches.
To build a church or even renovate an existing one, clearance is needed from several security agencies and government bodies, and often is refused.
A church can’t be built near a mosque, but “near” is not defined. And nothing prevents Muslims from building a mosque near a church, even without a permit. As a result, most of Cairo’s churches are surrounded by mosques, often bigger and taller.
Egyptian Christians don’t have enough churches to accommodate their numbers, so they hold informal services in community centers, bookstores or homes.
“There is this psychological terrorism from Islamists that prevents local authorities from demolishing illegally built mosques and complicates permit procedures for Copts,” said Youssef Sidhom, the editor of Watani, a newspaper run by members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt’s main Christian denomination.
In Ain Shams, where about 4,000 Christian families are vastly outnumbered by Muslims, congregants bought the factory three years ago and quietly began setting up their church.
Muslims bought a parking lot across the street and started building a mosque — one of about five within a few blocks. It was from these mosques that the angry crowd rallied when word spread that the Copts were at prayer.
But at their first service, the Christians announced their presence with bells and hymns — even distributing chocolates outside the building — apparently hoping the church would be accepted as a fait accompli. Instead, the riot erupted.
Anthony ended up being led out of the church protected by police while the mob hurled insults and stones.
The factory building’s doors are chained shut, and the Coptic Church has said that to avoid further trouble it will not seek to hold services there. But Father Anthony still is shocked at the Muslim reaction.
“Would they tear the factory down if it was turned into a theater or a nightclub?” he said.

Tunnel electrocution!

From Ma'an:

20-year-old Nidal As’ad Abu Jami was electrocuted on Saturday morning inside a tunnel under the border between Egypt and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, local medical sources said.

Apparently, Gaza has enough electricity for smuggling tunnels!

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 217.

So why is the West Bank economy booming?

The media has been spending a great deal of time in anguish over the situation of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. There are a few million other PalArabs, however, in the West Bank. And while life in Gaza gets worse, things in the West Bank are getting markedly better:

Unprecedented military coordination and a sincere effort by the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Hamas has led to a unique economic surge in the West Bank in the past year, according to an internal Defense Ministry report obtained on Monday by The Jerusalem Post. Prepared by the IDF's Civil Administration, the report cites a three percent drop to 16% in Palestinian unemployment since the beginning of the year. In addition, the report cites a 24% increase in Palestinian average daily wages, up from NIS 70 in 2007 to NIS 86.9. The stats were collected in recent months from a variety of sources, including the PA and the United Nations International Labor Organization. Since the beginning of the year, the IDF has also removed 113 roadblocks and dirt mounds throughout the West Bank, enabling easier travel between Palestinian cities. Officers in the Civil Administration said the economic surge was the result of a number of parallel factors but was mainly due to improved coordination between Israel and the PA, as well as a decision by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to make a concerted effort to stop Hamas' build-up in the West Bank. There was also a 10% increase in the number of workers employed in settlements - up from 23,000 in 2007 to 26,000 in 2008, as well as a 10% increase in the permits issued for Palestinians working in Israel - 23,000 compared to 21,000 in 2007. [The percent increase for workers in the settlements is actually 13% - EoZ]

Does this mean that Palestinian Arabs who fight against terror benefit, and those who support terror lose out? Another report:

In Ramallah, site of the Palestinian National Authority, business booms and street life is vibrant. Housing construction, which enjoyed a big boom in the 90s when peace seemed imminent, only to collapse with the advent of the 2000 intifada, appears back in business. Cafe life, especially in the more Christian districts, has regained some of the European-style the city was famous for prior to the 1987 intifada. Several boutique hotels do a fine trade and a mighty Movenpick hotel (after several false starts) is due to open in the new year. ...Many shops in Ramallah are superior to anything found in Arab east Jerusalem, so a large number of Jerusalemites are actually going to Ramallah to shop. In another Palestinian city, Hebron, living conditions also are surprisingly healthy, at least for the 80 per cent of Palestinians fortunate enough to live in area H1. Shops flourish, people are working, and the roads are remarkably efficient. There even are traffic lights, carefully obeyed, in neighbourhoods where chaos reigned supreme just a few years ago. Hebron also was famous for the grilled chicken restaurants that line the main street, and some of the best have now moved to luxurious new premises.

More statistics:

35% Increase in trade between Israel and the PA 87% Increase in tourism to Bethlehem 953% increase of importing vehicles to the PA A sharp increase in export of agricultural produce from the West Bank to the Israeli market. 92,000 tons, compared to 30,000 in 2007. (much of it due to Shmitah) Signing of the allocation agreement between Israel and the PA for a second cellular company ("Watania").

For those who are not congenitally anti-Israel, it is obvious that Israel doesn't want to make Palestinian Arab lives miserable. Israelis want to find a win-win solution where everyone benefits. The PA, for all its faults, has been acting more responsibly lately - more in its own self-interest than in Israel's - and the results are clear. Hamas acts much worse, and it gets treated worse - not only by Israel but by Egypt as well. The West Bank gains are proof that all of the Israel-bashers who keep trotting out their calumnies about Zionist ethnic cleansing are simply liars. Israel has no obligation to help a territory/statelet that is sworn to its destruction, but it has every interest in helping Palestinian Arabs succeed economically and securely. The Palestinian Arabs themselves see this much more clearly than those sophisticated Western analysts. The biased audio report I linked to this morning from NPR, where a former Hamas supporter in Gaza rues her vote, is a voice that the MSM does not want us to hear because the "Israeli siege" meme is the accepted narrative. Ordinary Palestinian Arabs are the major beneficiaries of peace - real peace, real cooperation, on the ground. Israel, even in the midst of rocket barrages from the south, is working hard to improve the lives of those in the east. The economy was booming before the Intifada as well. Those who blame Israel for defending herself from terror are not being "pro-Palestinian" - they are Jew-haters who are, at best, indifferent to the plight of the Palestinian Arabs they pretend to love so much. It is not Israel that stops Palestinian Arabs from thriving and succeeding - it is a direct result of how their leadership chooses to act. Why is this so hard for the mainstream media to understand?

Open thread, Watcher edition

My post Islamist strategy vs. Western tactics has won the weekly Watcher of Weasels award for best non-Council post. Thanks to Soccer Dad for nominating it.

In other link news, my joke Am Yisrael Chai page on Fateh.net got some attention from Global Voices. The page has already received hundreds of hits, including from the Palestinian Arab territories and Egypt.

In commemoration, I hereby dedicate this Open Thread!

German trade with Iran increases to over $5.5bn this year

From Iran's IRNA:

Total German-Iranian trade volume rose 7.8 percent between January and September of this year compared to same the corresponding period in 2007, the Federal Statistical Office based in the south German city of Wiesbaden reported Tuesday.
The overall bilateral trade volume until the end of September stood at 3.233865 billion euros, compared to 2.980734 billion euros last year.
German exports to Iran increased 8.9 percent and comprised 84.7 percent of the total German-Iranian trade volume.
The expanding bilateral economic ties come amid fierce political pressure by the German Zionist lobby to force Berlin to cut its business relations with Tehran over the impasse in the Iranian nuclear dispute.
German companies have stepped up their criticism of the German government for backing UN financial sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying their business interests have been severely affected by the controversial political move.
The Managing Director of the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA) Jens Nagel has repeatedly lambasted "unilateral sanctions on Iran as totally incomprehensible."
Several renowned German companies are involved in major Iranian infrastructure projects, especially in the petrochemical sector, like Linde, BASF, Lurgi, Krupp, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, Mercedes, Volkswagen and MAN.
Around 50 German firms have their own branch offices in Iran and more than 12,000 firms have their own trade representatives in the country.

Extrapolating the numbers through September to the end of the year shows that the trade between Iran and Germany is now at $5.5 billion annually.

Practically all of the companies mentioned are part of the Forced/Slave Labor Compensation Fund, set up by the German government to help pay Holocaust survivors and others for the labor they were forced to do during World War II. It also includes a foundation for human rights - and immunity from lawsuits from during the Nazi era.

While some of these companies didn't exist during the Holocaust, it is more than a little unsettling that the German industries that enthusiastically participated in atrocities are now just as enthusiastically bankrolling another genocidal regime, and justifying it in a similar manner.

Those objective international Gaza reporters

Last week, Israel's Foreign Press Association protested Israel's blocking reporters from entering Gaza. One of the reasons it gave was that "This blackout of the Gaza Strip is hurting Israel's image in the eyes of the world."

And Reporters Sans Frontieres wrote a letter to Olmert claiming that “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.”

I pointed out then that the Palestinian Arab reporters from Gaza were truly the only source of unbiased information. As bad as they are, they are brave enough to criticize Hamas, something that those objective foreign reporters shy away from while they have no hesitation bashing Israel.

A case in point is NPR's Lisa Gradstein, who wasted no time going into Gaza to file this audio report. She interviews a woman, a long-time supporter of Hamas, who tried to persuade other women to vote for Hamas as well. But now, Gradstein continues incredulously, she blames Hamas for the current situation, and says she wishes she never voted for them.

So does Gradstein go on to find out why Gazans blame Hamas? Of course not - she goes on to say how "other people" say that life is better under Hamas - better security, and less traffic congestion! Then she says "many people" blame Israel's siege for their predicament, and goes on to find those people - people like the UNRWA's John Ging. The next two minutes is all about Israel's culpability, and not a word critical of Hamas.

In other words, Gradstein already had the narrative she wanted to tell - that Gazans blame Israel exclusively - and she didn't let facts get in her way.

(h/t EBoZ)

Today's insult to Islam: Busta Rhymes' "Arab Money"

From Inside Desi:

The remix of Busta Rhymes’ song Arab Money has caused a bit of a commotion among British and U.S. Muslims. The song, which features some of the biggest names in Hip Hop - including P Diddy, Lil Wayne and Akon, and produced by hip hop powerhouse Swiss Beats - features vocals which consist of lines off Surah Fateha, from the Holy Quran. To cause further anguish, the song is a very typical hip hop club anthem, with the rappers openly boasting about their girls, gambling, drinking and money. Blogs, forums, and social networks have been fervouring with the spread of the track, with many Muslims calling the song racist, disrespectful and offensive.
Further to using the line “Bismillahi r-rahmani r-rahim. Al hamdu lillahi rabbi l-’ālamin” (translated to: “in the name of Allah, most gracious most merciful. All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds”) as the chorus, the song contains lyrics such as “…dropping bombs like the Taleban“, “sitting in casinos while I’m gambling with Arafat…“, “…while I make you bow down and make Salaat like a Muslim“, “all the girls love me, yeah pop some bubbly“.

It seems that many Muslims are angry because the verses in the Quran are very sacred, and saying such things within the same breath comes across as nothing short of inflammatory.

The casualties so far have been award winning DJ, DJ Steve Sutherland, who was temporarily suspended after Galaxy FM received a string of complaints from it’s listeners after he played the song live on his radio programme on Saturday night. The radio station has since released a formal apology, both live on air and on its website, acknowledging that the song is offensive to Muslims, and that a “full internal investigation” is taking place.

No other major UK radio station has played the song, and from the reaction received to Galaxy FM, it would be very surprising if they did. Busta Rhymes nor his record label, Universal Motown, have yet made any official comments.

Here is the video:

And the lyrics are:

Ron Browz, yes!
Oh, we back in the most amazin' way
Well, lemme introduce you to the new talk
Let's get straight to it
C'mon!

[Chorus: Ron Browz]
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!

[Verse 1: Busta Rhymes]
Now, there ain't no way that you could kill the beast dead
I got Middle East women and Middle East bread
I got oil well money in the desert playing golf
Dolce shorts, dashiki with a Louie Scarf
Chest cold, diamonds make a nigga wanna cough
In Dubai, 20 million on the villa loft
And then I step up in the club and then these other niggas mad as shit
The way I make the people wanna sing the hook in Arabic!

[Chorus: Ron Browz]
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!

[Verse 2: Busta Rhymes]
Seven star hotels, Maybach, movie sick
Big bitches, knock-kneed camel-toed groupie shit
Women walk around while security on camelback
Club on fire now, niggas don't know how to act
Sittin' in casinos while I'm gamblin' with Arafat
Money long, watch me purchase pieces of the Almanac
Y'all already know, I got the streets buzzin'
While I make you bow down and make Salaat like a Muslim

[Chorus: Ron Browz]
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!

[Verse 3: Busta Rhymes]
See, now I take trips to Baghdad dummy
While I use stacked chips and count Arab money now
I don't need to get fresh, about to grow a beard duke
So much cake even the money look weird too
Domestic bread, and I'm broad, I'm tryna eat right
Prince Alwali, Bin Talal, Al Saul
They respect the value of my worth in Maui, Malaysia
Iran and Iraq, Saudi Arabia!

[Chorus: Ron Browz]
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim,
Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen
We gettin' Arab money!
We gettin' Arab money!

I never imagined anti-semitic sunflower seed packages

From Vos iz Neias (via LGF):

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson today denounced the Shnayder family, owners of the value import store, Net Cost Market, for stocking and selling dozens of packages of roasted sunflower seeds featuring a caricature of a greedy-and-sinister-looking Jew, complete with skullcap, on the label. The Cyrillic letters on the left of the label read, “Shalom, from Israel,” while the right side employs a slang phrase meaning “spit them out everywhere,” alluding to “dirty Jews.” The seeds are available in both 5.5 and 10.5 ounce bags. A survey conducted by Hikind’s office revealed that the seed bags are being sold in all four of Net Cost Market’s Brooklyn locations for a mere $0.99 to $1.99 per bag depending on size.

“I was absolutely appalled when I saw this label,” said an outraged Hikind. “Net Cost Market has become a complicit partner in the dissemination of hatred against Jews. With each bag sold, the Shnayders are literally sowing seeds of hate.” At three of the four locations, consumers who spent $50 or more were given the package of seeds as a promotional gift right at the checkout counter.

Net Cost Market bills itself as the “Costco of the ethnic Eastern European market,” and offers a wide assortment of imports from all over Eastern Europe. The roasted sunflower seeds are produced in the Former Soviet Union by Kremlin Kitchen. “I was not surprised to learn that this anti-Semitic product is being made in Russia,” said Hikind. “

(Update)
Hikind just received word from Edward Shnayder of Net Cost Market that all packages of the roasted sunflower seeds featuring a caricature of a greedy-and-sinister-looking Jew, complete with skullcap, on the label are being pulled from the shelves in all four stores effectively immediately.

This was noticed in Canada last month.

Ha'aretz' incitement

Whatever your opinions about the house in Hebron that Jews claim to have legally purchased and that the IDF violently evacuated today, one cannot argue that Ha'aretz has been a major factor in inciting the Israeli public against it.

According to Google, Ha'aretz has called this building - named "The Peace House" by the Jews who lived there - the "house of contention" over 900 times since it hit the news last year. More recently it didn't even bother to put scare quotes around that name - it reported as if that is its real name.

This use of the inflammatory name was in editorials as well as straight news articles. Commenters complained and Ha'aretz didn't deign to respond.

Even though Ha'aretz was the only major Israeli news outlet to use that term, it used it so often that wire services started saying that "the Israeli media dubbed" the house with that name.

This is not how a respected newspaper should do things. On the contrary, this is how one would expect a trashy tabloid to act - one that tries to create the news more than it strives to report it.

This is nothing less than explicit media incitement against a significant segment of Israeli society.

Of course, Ha'aretz explicitly admits that it does not try to be objective. The question is why the world still considers it to be a respected newspaper.

Today's PalArab news

Israel plans to send 40 truckfuls of humanitarian aid to Gaza today, "depending on developments on the ground."

Israel also pumped 50,000 liters of industrial diesel for Gaza's power plant today.

In addition, Israel is expected to allow foreign journalists into Gaza today for the first time in a month.

All of this is despite the facts that at least one mortar was shot at Israel so far today, with 4 Qassams and 15 mortars yesterday.

Israel also loosened restrictions on travel for Israeli Arabs to the northern West Bank. Starting today, many cars and trucks will be allowed into Nablus without a permit, and some checkpoints will be eliminated.

Now, did you know any of this from the mainstream or even Israeli media?

Hamas denied published reports that it would allow Gaza pilgrims to travel today through Rafah to the Hajj in Mecca. Today would be the last day where pilgrims would have a practical chance of making it to Saudi Arabia in time.

The Rafah tunnel industry is now shipping at the rate of some $700 million of goods annually, far more than they ever got from Egypt in the past.

The truth comes out on the "interfaith conference"

Last month, there was a much-heralded "interfaith conference" at the UN. Initiated by Saudi King Abdullah, the West looked upon it as "promoting the culture of peace."

Historically, when Muslims say they want "interfaith dialogue," they really mean "Muslim indoctrination." And this conference was no exception.

Over the past three days, the Muslim World League held another conference in Jeddah. From the Saudi Gazette:

The Kingdom is exerting all efforts to unite Muslims of the world to jointly face various challenges and attempts to defame Islam, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, said here on Sunday.

Presiding over the 9th Makkah Conference on behalf of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Prince Khaled said it was essential to introduce the correct teachings of Islam to non-Muslims and Muslims living in non-Muslim countries.

The theme of the conference under the aegis of the Muslim World League is ‘Introducing Islam to non-Muslim countries in reality and expectation.”

It has become essential to introduce Islam to non-Muslim countries and present them the true picture of Islam, he said. The recent interfaith dialogue meeting at United Nations at the initiative of King Abdullah is a proof of the Kingdom’s keenness to serve Islam, the Emir said.

You mean, the "interfaith dialogue" was not meant for Muslims to learn about other faiths? Shocking!

And, of course, at the end of the conference, in the final statement:

It said Muslim countries must introduce Islam to non-Muslim countries as part of efforts to improve foreign relations.
“They should also make use of their good relations with Western countries to enact laws preventing the denigration of Islam and Muslim personalities,” said a final communiqué issued after the conference.

Even nuttier: "Chabad is a worldwide spy organization"

I just happened across a blog by Joachim Martillo called "Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel."

In it, he makes the incredibly bizarre assertion that Chabad is a worldwide network of spies, and that the Holtzbergs were Mossad agents:

There is an even more sinister aspect to the Lubavitcher organization.

Because Lubavitcher outreach offices are located in some of the most important political, corporate and university centers throughout the world, the Lubavitchers have put together a network that is incomparable for corporate and international espionage as well as for the secret exchange of information. Because Chabad Houses could potentially act as safe houses, where there would be no record of a person's stay, the Lubavitcher outreach network is far superior to that of Aish HaTorah for covert operations.

Most people do not take the Lubavitchers seriously, but I have visited Chabad houses and encountered senior Israeli government or military officials (and probably intelligence agents). One can easily imagine that Neocon intelligentsia trying to develop a relationship with Hindutva (हिन्दुत्व) intelligentsia or politicians might have used the Chabad Nariman House as a meeting place.

Because the Lubavitchers provide an unconditional welcome to all Jews in the hope of bringing them closer to the Lubavitcher way of life, not only have the Lubavitchers been open to potential subversion by Israeli intelligence organizations, but in general Mossad and Shin Bet have found it quite easy to penetrate the haredi community as the two organizations managed to do both in Israel and also in the USA...

To Zionize haredi groups that practice outreach, the Israeli government need only give encouragement to Zionistically indoctrinated Hebrew-speaking young people to participate in outreach programs, and in a few years the targeted haredi community is thoroughly enmeshed in Zionist thinking while Israeli intelligence organizations have a new crop of saya`nim in place ready to serve in Zionist covert operations.

The Lubavitcher shluchim (outreach emissaries) Gavriel Noach and Rivkah Holtzberg fit the saya`an profile to a "T" -- especially Rivkah.

If the Israeli government wanted to put someone into a place with more direct influence over the leadership over the Lubavitchers or another Charedi group, it is just a matter of training agents with the proper intellectual skills to pose as hozrim bitshuvah (returnees). Within a few decades, Israeli intelligence would be running a large easily mobilized Charedi community while the ordinary haredi members would not have a clue.

Who is Joachim Martillo?

I used to read Usenet in the late 1980s, and Martillo was an active poster in various groups. In the beginning, he represented himself as a Sephardic Jew with an overwhelming hatred for Arabs and Ashkenazi Jews. For example, in this message from 1990:

In practically every way, Palestinians are a thoroughly dispicable
community whose bigotry and fanaticism prevents them from joining
the modern world and who deserve much worse punishment than they
are receiving (apparently mostly at their own hands -- poetic
justice or the cunning of history, if I have ever seen it).

And this from 1985: (when he sometimes spelled his name Yakim:)

>(2) Ashkenazik customs are inferior to Sephardic customs
> with regard to expressing Jewish sentiments or beliefs.

At least in tefillah and probably in other regards this is halakah.
You may check the responsa of Jacob of Emden (an Ashkenazi), ii, 15.
Luzzato holds similar opinions. I believe the Vilna Gaon also
expressed this opinion but I am not certain. Nathan Adler in Germany
considered Ashkenazi pronunciation erroneus.

At some point in the mid-90s, though, Martillo (then calling himself by many variants, including Juan Carlo Santos Martillo Ajami) claimed to have never been Jewish. He became rabidly anti-Zionist, which he remains today, having posted long, unintelligible articles in major anti-semitic and anti-Zionist websites.

He apparently is quite a TCP/IP network guru.

He married a Muslim woman in 2002, who would say things like "don't trust any kaffirs" while at the same time pretending to be an activist for social justice.

He quotes both Pirkei Avot and the Quran on his blog.

The guy is proof positive that a high IQ and a great deal of knowledge - which he clearly has - does not mean that one has any sense.

(Why he identifies himself now as an ethnic Ashkenazi is anyone's guess.)

Egyptian paper: Hamas worse than the Zionists

From Al-Ahram, whose content is controlled by an Egyptian ministry:

Although Egypt opened the Rafah crossing for three days, the Palestinians pilgrims did not reach it since the Hamas militia stopped them from crossing, allegedly for visa reasons.

These Palestinian pilgrims therefore cannot the visas from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and cannot go to the Ka'ba in Mecca, to Mount Mercy in Arafat.

But Hamas men used force and militia, beat the elderly, shed blood on the ritual clothing and fired tear gas and bullets on a bus carrying pilgrims in the Gaza Strip, to prevent access to the crossing, which led to injury 13 of them.

With that, senseless and irresponsible, the Islamic movement Hamas has revealed its true face, which usurped power is the name of religion, and disrupted one of the most important pillars of Islam, and prevented thousands of Palestinians from performing the Hajj, and assaulted the guests Rahman, and prevented them from completing elements of their religion.

Israel has never committed such an act since it occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967, and no one could have imagined that Hamas would do such an act, which it claims is an Islamic movement governed according to the laws of God!!

The mask has fallen, which Hamas has worn for years.

Egypt did not fail .. it did not hesitate to give all it could, and there is no liability on Egypt in this context, can not make more than made .. No one can be required to try harder than that.

As EBoZ points out in the comments, Hamas' reaction was predictable, as written in the Israeli Walla website:

Hamas demanded that the Government of Egypt "put an end to abuse and serve as a mouthpiece of the Zionists". According to Hamas, Al Ahram writers take advantage of the Egyptian democracy to attack "honorable Arab officials," in their words.

H/T Walla Israel, via EBoZ

More proof of that Hindu Zionist conspiracy

Some insane Jew-hating Muslim linked to my site for proof of a Hindu-Zionist conspiracy against Islam.

One of his proofs was this picture that was on an MSN "Hindu Zionist" group, which apparently has approximately one member.

Further research shows that this group got that picture from exoticindiaart.com which shows that the six pointed star is a recurring motif in Indian art:

And so are swastikas, as in this jarring image:

Which means I just uncovered the Hindu-Zionist-Nazi connection!

PalArab mortar damages power cable in Gaza

From Ha'aretz:

Palestinian militants fired three Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Wednesday, further unraveling an Israel-Hamas truce in the Gaza Strip.

The rockets struck open areas near a Kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.

Gaza militants earlier in the day fired a volley of mortar shells into Israel, one of which damaged a power cable transferring electricity to the energy-strapped Gaza Strip, according to Army Radio.

Exactly how much of the "power crisis" in Gaza is Israel's fault again?

(Fatah-linked Firas Press reports on electricity failing in Gaza but doesn't mention any mortars.)

Lots of links (updated)

Too busy to blog, too many things to mention....

Daled Amos on Atlanta's new Israel Consul General - who is Druze.

Boker Tov Boulder on the latest flagrant violation of UN Security Council Res. 1701 in Lebanon.

Judeopundit on Muslim justifications for Mumbai

National Post: Anti-semitism at University of Ottawa

Ha'aretz on the Mossad in Iran

Zionism-Israel blog on Iraqi Jews, 1917-1941

Soccer Dad on some psychological warfare by Israel.

Remembering the Holtzbergs, new details on their horrific murders and the lessons of Mumbai:
Seraphic Secret
Israel Matzav
Times - UK
Dennis Prager
New York Post

The slight epiphany of an Israeli leftist

Every once in a while, Ha'aretz' Bradley Burston wakes up from his leftist slumber and starts to comprehend the real problem. This is the part after he quotes exactly how the Mumbai murderers tortured their Jewish victims, a quote I cannot bring myself to post on this blog:

For the whole of my adult life, it irked me when my fellow Jews would routinely and without compunction, accuse anti-Zionists of being anti-Semitic, and conflate anti-Israeli sentiment with the Nazis.

I felt that the latter eroded the memory and the magnitude of the Holocaust, and that the former was a slightly more elegant way of telling people with whom one took issue, to shut the hell up.

Only this week did I realize my error.

It turns out, that when Jews suspected that the Jihadi hated the Jew the way the Nazi hated the Jew, they were right.

After all this time, I am embarrassed to admit that only when the monsters entered Chabad House in Mumbai, did I understand.

Monsters, not solely for what they did there, but, if the reports are to be believed, for the fact that they were able to do what they did after having actually gotten to know the young couple who founded the center, after asking them for shelter in Chabad House, after telling them that they were Malaysian students eager to learn about Judaism.

Monsters, for having befriended these sweet people in order to better learn how to execute them. Monsters, for having targeted a young couple who had devoted their lives to helping others better live theirs, despite having had a baby who died of a genetic disease and a second child ill and under treatment far away in Israel.

The monsters in Chabad House were not Nazis because they were Muslims. It was specifically because they so faithfully emulated the Nazis, that they, in fact, betrayed Islam.

The hatred of the Jihadi for the Jew is such that - as in the case of the Nazis - the killing of Jews - anywhere they may be found - is an obligation on par with whatever other enemy, target, cause, mission, goal or creed they may be pursuing at the moment.

Their hatred of the Jew is such that - as in the case of the Nazis - all tragedy that befalls the Jews was brought on by the Jews themselves.

Their hatred of the Jew is such that even if a Jew rejects the concept of a state of Israel and is wholeheartedly opposed to Zionism, if he wears the clothing of a believing Jew - as in the case of victim Aryeh Leibish Teitelboim - he will be bound and tortured and put to death.

Burston goes on to quote a rabidly anti-semitic sermon from PA TV from 2005. Why he only wakes up to the obvious after Mumbai and he ignored the evidence out there for years is a question only he can answer.

And, of course, he then goes on to distinguish between the bad Jihadis and the good Muslims (who also want to see the Jewish State utterly destroyed and who also reject the concept of Jewish self-determination, but whom Burston still feels an affinity to:)

Muslims the world over have recognized that the jihadi is a terrible threat to Islam. The world has seen that the jihadi, in hating the Jew, the Christian, the Hindu, the Muslim of another denomination, has become - like the Nazi - the enemy of all peoples everywhere.

The jihadi shows his love of death in brutality, sadistic executions, the self-righteous calm of the premeditated mass murderer, the blaming of the victim for the crime.

One lesson of the Holocaust is that one can't afford to miss the signs and the intentions.

I'm only seeing it now.

He clearly isn't, because he still ignores the celebrations from his moderate Muslim friends every time Jews are butchered in Israel.

And, judging from his track record, this realization will fade again as he gets caught up in his next column bashing right-wing Zionists and ignoring the links - some explicit and mostly symbiotic - between the jihadis and Israel's "peace partners."

But at least he noticed it for long enough to write it down.

BBC anti-Zionism on display

From the BBC website, by their diplomatic and defense editor, Mark Urban:

The global honeymoon that accompanied Barack Obama's election was never going to last forever, but there are some people for whom it already appears to be over - even though the president elect will not take power until 21st January. The Illinois senator's desire to name his administration, in order to 'hit the ground running' has already been the cause of some political sniping, and so have his meagre foreign policy pronouncements to date.

The appointment of Rahm Emanuel in October as White House Chief of Staff nettled many. There were his former Republican opponents in the House of Representatives, who consider him abrasively partisan, but I am not talking about them. Put his name and 'Zionist' into Google and you will see what I mean. The brickbats are already flying on certain Islamic, 'progressive', and far right websites.

With the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the plot thickens for those who wish to imply that a good man - President-elect Obama - is surrounding himself with 'zionists' who will prevent any fresh thinking about Middle East peace. Ms Clinton is not of course Jewish, unlike Mr Emanuel, but she has been a two-term senator for New York state.

"She's had a certain position which has not been very friendly toward the Palestinians", said Karen AbuZayd, Commissioner General of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency on the Today programme this morning, adding, "we hope that there'll be a broader view once she comes into office". Ms AbuZayd's job involves daily dealing with the dismal humanitarian consequences of Israel's blockade of Gaza, so I'm not surprised she longs for a different US foreign policy in the region. But the implication from an international civil servant - who must get on with all the relevant players - that an incoming US Secretary of State is bringing too much political baggage to the job is unusual, to put it mildly.

Up until this point, Urban appears to dissociate himself from those "progressive" websites he mentions. But from here on in, he makes it clear that he agrees with their anti-Zionist philosophy:

Is it not obvious that Secretary Clinton, representing the US national interest, will serve quite different political imperatives to Senator Clinton, representing one of the largest Jewish democratic constituencies in the world?

In other words, "chill out, progressives, Obama and his team may very well still turn out to be as anti-Israel as you and I want him to be."

The response to the appointment of the new foreign policy team shows something else. In the first place, the president-elect's campaign promise of change was always going to look less exciting once he put in place the people with the necessary political experience to run their departments. If you think Ms Clinton comes with political baggage - what about Robert Gates, who will switch from being President Bush's defence secretary for the past to [sic] years to the new president's administration?

Secondly, there are certain laws of political gravity that cannot be defied, whatever the brand of a new administration. The anti-American imperative is so central to certain ideologies - in this case militant Islam - that any Jewish appointees or appeals to Jewish voters will be used to argue the administration is pro-Zionist. It might turn out to be, but shouldn't everyone wait until the new president has been sworn in and set out some Middle East policies before jumping to that conclusion?

Urban pointedly does not say that the anti-Zionism of the "certain Islamic, 'progressive', and far right websites" is wrong. No, their crime is not being against the existence of the state of Israel - that is a valid and laudatory goal. Their only mistake is that they are jumping to conclusions that Obama is not sufficiently anti-Israel enough.

Just wait, our BBC editor is saying: All of us anti-Zionists may still be pleasantly surprised by Obama's "fresh thinking" on how to dismantle Israel.

Chaim Weizmann on Jerusalem, December 1, 1948

Here is part of a speech given by Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann, in Jerusalem on December 1, 1948:

It is with a sense of humility and sorrow that I rise to speak here among you who have suffered so much and wrought so much during this great and tragic year. Jerusalem holds a unique place in the heart of every Jew. Jerusalem is to us the quintessence of the Palestine idea. Its restoration symbolises the redemption of Israel. Rome was to the Italians the emblem of their military conquests and political organisation. Athens embodies for the Greeks the noblest their genius had wrought in art and thought. To us Jerusalem has both a spiritual and a temporal significance. It is the City of God, the seat of our ancient sanctuary. But it is also the capital of David and Solomon, the City of the Great King, the metropolis of our ancient commonwealth.

To the followers of the two other great monotheistic religions, Jerusalem is a site of sacred associations and holy memories. To us it is that and more than that. It is the centre of our ancient national glory. It was our lodestar in all our wanderings. It embodies all that is noblest in our hopes for the future. Jerusalem is the eternal mother of the Jewish people, precious and beloved even in its desolation. When David made Jerusalem the capital of Judea, on that day there began the Jewish Commonwealth. When Titus destroyed it on the 9th of Ab, on that day there ended the Jewish Commonwealth. But even though our Commonwealth was destroyed, we never gave up Jerusalem.

An almost unbroken chain of Jewish settlement connects the Jerusalem of our day with the Holy City of antiquity. To countless generations of Jews in every land of their dispersion the ascent to Jerusalem was the highest that life could offer. In every generation new groups of Jews from one part or another of our far-flung Diaspora came to settle here. For over a hundred years we have formed the majority of its population. And now that, by the will of God, a Jewish Commonwealth has been re-established, is it to be conceived that Jerusalem - Jerusalem of all places - should be out of it?

Ten years ago the question first came up in connection with the Report of the Royal Commission. And in the great debate which took place on that subject in the British House of Lords the then Archbishop of Canterbury said these memorable words:

It seems to me extremely difficult to justify fulfilling the ideals of Zionism by excluding them from any place in Zion. How is it possible for us not to sympathise in this matter with the Jews? We all remember their age long resolve, lament and longing.

"If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

They cannot forget Jerusalem ...

The Archbishop spoke the truth. We cannot forget Jerusalem. And if that was true then, it is all the more true today, for in this last year we have sealed afresh our covenant with our ancient mother-city with the blood of our sons and daughters. In addition to our historical unbroken chain of Jewish settlement in this city, the fact of our numerical preponderance among its inhabitants, a new link has been forged - your heroic defence of Jerusalem in this past year. It gives us the right to claim that Jerusalem is and should remain ours.

Where were all those who indulged in such fine phrases about the spiritual associations of Jerusalem for the whole civilised world? Did they lift a finger to protect Jerusalem, its men and women and children, its homes and houses of prayer, against the Arab shrapnel which rained death day and night on your homes for months on end? Did they make the slightest move when the Jewish Quarters of the Old City with their ancient synagogues were reduced to rubble by Arab gunfire, and were desecrated and defiled after the surrender? Did they utter one word of protest against the Jews being denied, for now over a year, access to the Wailing Wall, which is our holiest shrine? Do not worry, my friends. The ancient synagogues will be rebuilt, the road to the Wailing Wall will be opened.

You have renewed the ancient covenant with your blood and your sacrifices. Jerusalem is ours by virtue of the blood that was shed by your sons in its defence. You suffered hunger and thirst in the broiling heat of the summer and defended Jerusalem against surrender and destruction. Not only the soldiers. The ordinary men and women, yea, and the little children, who went about your work while the bullets flew around you and many of you fell victims to the deadly missiles. All of you have had a share in this defence.

When I say that Jerusalem is ours, I am fully conscious of the sacred associations which Jerusalem has for others than ourselves. We respect these associations. When you defended Jerusalem against havoc and destruction, you fought not only for your own people but for civilisation.

...
Men and women of Jerusalem, fear not for the future of your city - of our city! The words of our national hymn Hatikvah will yet come true:

To be a free people in our own land -
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

They don't make Israeli leaders like they used to.

(The Palestine Post report of this speech can be found here.)

The most bizarre writer for Indymedia?

Usually, raving paranoid anti-semitic losers at least pretend to make a modicum of sense when they write their thoughts down.

Not so Bobby Meade.

Bobby is a blogger who writes bizarre, essentially unreadable fantasies that betray serious mental illness. Which is fine, really.

What is more bizarre is that his retarded ramblings are also published by various far-left Indymedia sites, which then get indexed by Google News.

Here is the last paragraph of his latest lunatic screed:

Update 12/2: Bush Nazi report (blog addition): After kicking about 250 miles since September, I confirmed what the benefit was of trying to heal the scorpion sting sores that way. I learned that the lymph fluid in the lymph vessels is moved by muscle contractions; thus such exercise promotes the elimination of the toxic material from the body. A few weeks ago they filled my bedroom with bedbugs as they did in Ithaca eight years ago. I discovered that all prior bites become inflamed when you get new bites, producing a condition that Nazi doctors would probably call a rash. I bet all instances of bedbug infestations are promoted by Bush Nazis; i.e. sh*theads, queer boys, Jews, or someone of that ilk. It is extremely difficult to get rid of them. If you call an exterminator, they will probably spray then dust the places with eggs so they have to return every 30 days. Standard business procedure? They have also been making it so there is only one available computer at the library where I am surrounded by riff-raff throwing such insects. I have even witnessed fleas that were dumped from an upstairs window being blown in my open window. To top things off there is a WARNING sign on the front door, informing people that my building is under the protection of the Sheriff. That's odd because I was certain that the jurisdiction of the Sheriff was restricted to the town, the county, and the state roads within the city. Then again, if Broome County is anything like Tompkins County, every single police officer would be at the beck and call of the sh*t-eating Bush Nazi that rule the Sheriff Association. Ask Emery Guest, former Chief of Zion's Secret Police in Tompkins County. Do you wonder why the Star of David is on Sheriff vehicles? As for the massacre in India, that looked like Special Forces. You know the group that was apparently involved in the murders of @ 700 soldiers in the bogus portion of the 21 Day Persian Gulf War 2/6/91-2/24/91. Nevertheless Dumb Boy could play cowboy and go start a war in India, couldn't he? I bet that they picked India because so few people have guns over there. Can you imagine the number of murders if they didn't have such strict gun control?

Yes, this is real.

Syrian generosity to their PalArab brethren

From the Syrian Arab News Agency:

The 22nd convoy carrying humanitarian aid from Syrian citizens to their brothers in the occupied territories left Damascus on Tuesday. The convoy includes 4 trucks loaded with foodstuff, clothes and medicines. Chairman of the Syrian Popular Committee for Supporting the Intifada and Resisting Zionist Ahmad Abdul-Karim said: " This convoy is a gift from the Syrian people on the advent of the blessed Eid Al-Adha to their brothers in the Gaza Strip who suffer hunger because of the Israeli unjust blockade and depriving them of all means of life. Abdul Karim reiterated Syria's stand by the Palestinian people's struggle to achieve their legitimate goals including the right to return, self-determination and to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

It is unclear how often they send this "aid" and how the trucks travel from Damascus to the PA, but it appears to be once or twice a year, if this is the 22nd shipment.

So how effective is four trucks of humanitarian goods?

According to UNRWA, it needs 15 trucks a day to support Gaza only. Which means that four trucks would be enough to support the PalArab population in the West Bank and Gaza for about two hours.

Now, do you think that Syria spends more money on these largely symbolic truckloads of goods to pretend to help Palestinian Arabs - or on arming Hezbollah? A Katyusha rocket costs roughly $1000.

Was Mumbai from Hindus or Zionists? Pak TV says both!

From the Times of India:

Mumbai's 26/11 was actually a plan hatched by "Hindu Zionists" and "Western Zionists", including the Mossad, said a self-styled Pakistan security expert on a Pakistan news television show, uploaded on www.hotklix.com.

"They look like Hindus. No Pakistani speaks the language they chatted in," said Zaid Hamid while referring to the terrorists on the show Mujhe Ikhtilaf Hai (I differ) on Pakistan's News One channel. The sensationalist channel was launched in November last year.

Hamid said that it was a "badly planned" operation that had gone horribly wrong. "The Americans executed the 9/11 attack perfectly. They managed the media very well. The Indians tried to repeat the formula but goofed up. The idiots made a complete mess of it."

He said that the attackers wore saffron Hindu Zionist bands, which no Muslim would tie. Hamid also said that within the first 5 minutes of the attack, the three ATS policemen investigating the network of terror within India's security agencies and radical right were killed.

The video is available here, but no subtitles.

Freedom of the press, PA-style

From Ma'an:

Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces disguised as civilians detained two Ma'an journalists in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Tuesday.

Ma'an's Tulkarem correspondent, Sami As-Sa'i, and cameraman, Muayyad Al-Ashqar, were assaulted on Tuesday by PA security forces wearing civilian clothes before they were taken to a police station. Forces confiscated Al-Ashqar's camera, as well.

Reporters Sans Frontieres remains silent.

Open Thread

Knock yourselves out.

Must read

Moshe Ya'alon's article in Azure.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German priest executed by the Nazis, once wrote, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.” Fifteen years ago, the signing of the Oslo accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) raised hopes that Israel had boarded the “peace train.” Over the years, however, it became clear that the train was not headed for the promised destination. Nevertheless, Israel’s leadership has been pointlessly running along the corridor ever since.

...
If we truly seek to understand why the Oslo peace process failed, we must reevaluate the fundamental principles of the strategy employed by the architects of the agreement, one of which—arguably the most important—was the assumption that bold diplomacy is the driving force behind historical compromise between two nations. Accordingly, the logic that dominated the Oslo process was based on the idea that negotiations and agreements are a necessary prologue to the achievement of tangible change in security, economic, and social conditions. Put simply, Israeli statesmen hoped that diplomatic breakthroughs reached at the negotiating table would pave the way to ending the larger conflict. They believed that treaties, goodwill gestures, and territorial concessions would ease tensions and violence in the region, and, as a result, security and stability would return to Israel’s narrow strip of land.4
This doctrine had already begun to falter before the outbreak of the Palestinian war against Israel in September 2000, but the extent to which it was in truth a monumental mistake has since become abundantly clear. Over the past eight years, the gap between the aspirations of the peace process and the dismal reality on the ground has expanded ad absurdum. Ostentatious international summits and the celebrated declarations they produced—including the pretentious Annapolis summit in November 2007—have yielded nothing but broken promises. In the face of the Palestinian Authority’s descent into corruption and violent chaos, the “peace process” has turned out to be an empty delusion.

In light of this, Israel and the West have no choice but to revise their entire policy toward the Palestinians. This requires not merely cosmetic alterations, or still more intensive efforts to advance the old Oslo process, but an alternative strategy that will redefine our objectives and the means necessary for their realization.

In outlining such a strategy, we must learn from our bitter experience, and realize, once and for all, that even the most impressive treaties carry no weight if one of the signatories is unable—or unwilling—to fulfill its commitments. Therefore, we need to turn the Oslo approach on its head: Instead of trying to achieve historical change “from the top down,” exaggerating the importance of declarations handed down to the masses as if from the peak of a diplomatic Mount Olympus, we should adopt a new, more pragmatic policy that promotes change “from the bottom up.” Such a strategy should seek to establish stability and security first, to be followed only later—and perhaps after a great lapse of time—by peace.

Read the whole thing.