Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 19, 2009

A British philo-semite speaks

One of my commenters, Chas Newkey-Burden, has recently written an article for the British newspaper Totally Jewish:

As a vocal, non-Jewish supporter of Israel I've heard some strange remarks in my time.

One of the most memorable came from a former work colleague - also a gentile - who, during a heated water-cooler debate we were having about the Jewish state, gave me a knowing stare and told me: "You should know better, Chas." I asked him to elaborate and he explained that he meant that as a gentile, I shouldn't be "in any way" pro-Israel.

I found this most peculiar, but he isn't alone in thinking this way. I've become only too accustomed to that look: the one that other gentiles give me when they discover I support Israel. It's a probing study of my face that says: 'But he doesn't look Jewish.' To my eternal disappointment I don't - but so what? If non-Jews should not support Israel does that mean all Jews should? If so, you want to have a word with your internal communications department because I think the ghastly Alexei Sayle might have missed out on a memo.

It's not just gentiles that are surprised by my love of Israel. I will always remember a hilarious woman I met in Jerusalem who, on discovering I was not Jewish asked me why on earth I was so in love with the Jewish state. "You don't hate us?!" she asked, exasperated. "What happened, did your Mum drop you on your head as a child or something?" She didn't, but if that's what it takes then maybe more mothers should start doing it, particularly in the light of the current situation and the challenges to come.

I'm proud to love Israel but ashamed by the hatred that spews out across this country whenever its name is mentioned. As the inevitable Operation Cast Lead proceeds, the atmosphere in Britain really does turn uglier by the day. As this newspaper has reported, anti-semitism is once again on the rise as people line up to slam not just Israel, but - increasingly - Jews in general. I hang my head in despair when I hear these bigots, but what depresses me just as much is that us British gentiles who support you have not done more to drown out the ugly voices of the anti-Israel bandwagon.

There are more British 'goys for Israel' than you might think. True, in my case I am a card-carrying philosemite, so loving the Jewish state is kind of part of my job description. But I also know numerous non-Jews who don't know their Masada from their matzoh yet will cheer Israel every step of way as it defends itself against Hamas terror. I recently started a group on Facebook called 'I'm British and I love Israel'. I am amazed by how many messages I receive via the group from gentiles saying how grateful they are to find a way to show the world that they back the Jewish state.

And why would they not back it? There countless humanitarian reasons to support the Jewish state but there is also a walloping great selfish one. It doesn't take a genius to work out that Israel is in the defensive frontline against a tyranny that wants to envelop us all. If Israel were to fall, the rest of us would not be far behind. Last week's Israel rallies in London were truly inspiring events. May our cities host many more shows of support. I just hope in the future that more and more non-Jews will attend these events and show the world that you don't need to be Jewish to support the state of Israel.

Yasher koach, Chas!

The British police are protecting some Jews

Explicit anti-semitism has ballooned throughout Britain, with 150 known attacks on identifiable Jews, Jewish organizations, and synagogues. So it is nice to know that at least certain Jews can count on protection from the police:

The Jews that hate Israel.

British Jews have been attacked for expressing support for Palestinians suffering under Israeli military strikes in Gaza. Police confirmed yesterday that they have provided protection to a number of people believed to be victims of UK-based Zionist extremists angered by expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.
Rabbi Elchenon Beck, 39, was among six rabbis expressing support for Gaza's Palestinians who were set upon by a gang of what they allege were Zionists while walking back from opposing rallies outside the Israeli Embassy on 6 January. "They were shouting and pushed someone to the floor, so we called the police," Rabbi Beck said. "All the time they are trying to intimidate us, but we get used to it."
Rabbi Aharon Cohen, a Palestinian sympathiser and member of the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, had his letter box destroyed by a powerful firework after attending the peace march in Manchester this month.

It is interesting that the British police can find manpower to protect this tiny subgroup who probably exaggerated a couple of incidences of people yelling at them, yet ignore Jews who are listed on a "hit list" on Muslim websites.

The torrent of lies from Gaza

The Arab fabrications and spinning is now in overdrive, as the terrorist-associated media has article after article each with more ridiculous claims than the one before.

Paltoday describes scenes of dead women and children, of course killed with "phosphorus bombs," being eaten by dogs in the streets of Gaza camps. Many terror-supporting doctors are throwing in their expertise in these claims, such as one who said that "white phosphorus kills brain cells" which explains why otherwise lightly injured children are dying.

Another "eyewitness" describes how the IDF poured gasoline on his body and threatened to light him up. Of course, he miraculously escaped. And then we have the story of hundreds of houses in a single town destroyed by phosphorus bombs!

But the lies are not only about how Gazans are hurting but also about how much damage Hamas supposedly inflicted on Israel. Hamas claims that they killed 80 Israeli soldiers ("49 that they confirmed first-hand,") which is twice the number of "martyrs" they admit to have lost. In addition, they are repeating an embellishing their accusation about abducting Israeli soldiers, now saying that they held a soldier for two days in a house before Israel bombed it and killed the soldier, whose name they still cannot seem to have discovered.

Fatah, which was almost silent recently, is also now claiming to have shot 85 projectiles during the three weeks, as well as sniper and other attacks against the IDF, apparently to establish that they are just as macho as Hamas is.

Expect these lies to start finding their way into anti-semitic websites within a couple of days.

I must be much dumber than Olmert

When Ehud Olmert says that Israel was going to have a unilateral cease fire because "all of its objectives have been met," I must admit that I am mystified.

If I was Israel's leader, I would have thought that the major objective was to stop rocket fire so residents of Sderot could live without fear. It would not have occurred to me that the increase of the rocket radius to cover nearly a million Israelis would be one of the objectives of the operation.

If I was Israel's leader, I would have thought that getting Gilad Shalit back would be one of the objectives of such an operation. It would not have crossed my mind that he would be ignored - "unilaterally."

If I was Israel's leader, I would have thought that one of the lessons of Lebanon's war was to ignore world opinion and press on when you have the advantage, not to stop at a time that the enemy could call it a victory for themselves. I never would have thought that a good end-game would be one where Hamas is poised to regain all it has lost in a short period of time; where it still has the capacity to violently suppress Fatah (as PalPress is reporting) and where it has solidified itself as the de facto leader of Gaza that the world now gives more legitimacy to.

If I was Israel's leader, I would have thought that one major point of the operation was to restore Israel's psychological deterrence, and that Hamas firing of rockets in the immediate hours after the "cease fire" was proof positive that this did not happen as of yet.

If I was Israel's leader, I would have thought that one goal of the operation was to show the world that Israel will not rely on third-parties for its security and will step in when necessary. I would never have thought that a piece of paper could stop tunnel digging and weapons smuggling, when we know from bitter experience that even Israel had a hard time keeping the tunnels from being dug when it still controlled the Philadelphi corridor.

In my ignorance, I am not aware of a single objective that has been met.

I guess that's why it is lucky that Israel still has a prime minister who is so wise that he can understand things that are way beyond my limited mental abilities.

Open thread, flight delay edition

I will be traveling today and there will inevitably be some flight delays, so while I am out of touch, feel free to add interesting links and discussions...

Meanwhile, for the link starved, this should hold you over for a few hours:

Soccer Dad's Shiny Happy Dhimmi #9
Haveil Havalim #201 has many good links on Gaza
Jack's twice-daily roundup

Why diplomats don't get it

The Israeli government, for the usual inscrutable reasons, declared a "unilateral" cease fire at 2 AM Israel time today.

This move was met with praise from the people who have been upset at Israel for the Gaza operation. The UN's Ban Ki-Moon said he was "relieved," the EU welcomed the announcement as did Condoleeza Rice.

It was not hard to predict what would happen next: Hamas and its associated terror groups ignored this confidence-building beginning of a "cycle of peace," and so far today 10 rockets have been fired from Gaza along with mortars.

So far, Israel has held its fire, with a couple of minor exceptions.

Will these "relieved" people now start to condemn Hamas for firing rockets? Or will they start pressuring Israel to withdraw from Gaza and go back to the good ol' days of being a sitting duck for Qassams?

The fact is that even those who "understand" Israel's right to defend itself cannot wrap their heads around the simple fact that civilian casualties cannot be avoided, especially when Hamas has made civilian casualties a centerpiece of its fighting strategy. They believe, whether they say it explicitly or not, that it is better for Israel to passively take Qassam rockets forever than for it to respond in an effective way.

And the last thing that they can possibly accept is that if Israel hadn't waited so long to respond there would have been fewer casualties. Likewise, the longer Israel waits to completely dismantle Hamas - which is inevitable - the worse it will be for Gazan civilians next time.

An entire generation of diplomats have grown up with the thought that military solutions can be postponed forever, or at least until they are out of office and it is someone else's problem. They have not grasped a fundamental truth - that delayed solutions are always much more expensive than timely ones.

Hamas cannot and will not moderate. No amount of wishful thinking and doublespeak can change that fact. Since its stated goal is the destruction of Israel, that means that there can only be two possible solutions: Hamas' destruction or Israel's.

Every time that an official from Kadima, the EU, US State Department or the UN says they want to avoid or cut short this war, they are really saying that they do not understand this basic truth. The longer it is avoided, the worse it will be - for everybody. Hamas will import bigger rockets with longer range; Iran will learn lessons from this operation and improve Hamas' fighting capabilities next time, and perhaps their own army will have effectively annexed Gaza if the world convinces Israel to "open its borders."

None of the people who are upset over the hundreds of civilian deaths have any plan, outside military, to avoid the inevitable "next time." And next time, there won't be only a thousand dead Gazans.

The only way to peace is to allow the IDF to destroy Hamas and its allies completely and thoroughly. Hamstringing Israel is the surest way to ensure many more deaths in the coming years. The very existence of these groups is the real threat to peace, and no amount of diplomacy can erase their implacable hate and obstinacy.

Even smart people have blind spots, and unless these diplomats are enlightened, they are partly responsible for the bloodbath that will inevitably follow their diplomatic "success."

Iran not exactly welcoming Obama

The Iranian FARS news agency publishes some photos of Iranians throwing shoes at pictures of Barack Obama (here reproduced from an Iranian message board):

Change!

(h/t Marc El)

British anti-semitism roundup

The JC lists them, as of last Thursday:

A young Orthodox man was viciously beaten after last Wednesday’s pro-Israel rally in what is perhaps the most serious incident.
Daniel Lowe, from Hendon, a bearded Orthodox Jew who wears a kippah, was a founding member of MuJewz, the Muslim-Jewish dialogue group at Oxford University. He had attended last Wednesday night’s pro-Israel rally in Kensington and was on his way to visit friends nearby afterwards when he was attacked.

He said: “As I was about to knock on their door, someone behind me said hello.” He turned to find two men of Asian appearance, one wearing a Palestinian flag on his jacket, the other wearing a keffiyeh. “They asked me where I had been. When I told them it was none of their business, they punched me in the head, pushed me to the ground and kicked me.”

Mr Lowe said the attack made him even more determined to attend Sunday’s Trafalgar Square event: “Jews shouldn’t be attacked for expressing their views in public.”

On Tuesday, a gang of Palestinian supporters forced their way into the offices in central London of the Israel lobbying organisation Bicom after a man called saying he was delivering a parcel.

Eight men and women — one armed with a loudhailer — shouted at and intimidated staff, ripped out computer cables, cut telephone lines and threw leaflets out of the windows.

One staff member said: “They were very aggressive, and asked whether we were Jewish and why we were supporting Israel. It was very frightening.”

It is understood that detectives at Westminster are investigating the criminal damage and viewing CCTV footage of the incident.

Bicom chief executive Lorna Fitzsimons said: “The vandalism and thuggery at our offices and against my staff this morning was utterly reprehensible. Bicom is a pro-peace organisation that promotes understanding and dialogue, often promoting moderate Palestinian voices for the sake of a speedy and peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East.”

Both Marks & Spencer and John Lewis contacted suppliers this week to ask whether goods they stocked originated from Israel.

But both companies insisted that they were regular routine calls and that the timing was coincidental.

On Saturday, three protestors were arrested after occupying an Israeli-owned cosmetics store in central London.

The protestors chained themselves to the door of the Ahava store in Covent Garden, forcing it to close for around five hours. They also hung a banner in the window accusing the company of “funding Israeli war crimes in Gaza”.

A protest in Belfast on Saturday by pro-Palestinian campaigners against a stall selling Israeli products is being investigated by police as a racially motivated incident. Video footage posted on the internet showed the Sea Spa stall, which sells Dead Sea cosmetics, being deluged with leaflets from a balcony above as demonstrators shouted “Boycott Israeli goods”.

In Bristol, one man was arrested after about 30 pro-Palestinian protestors entered a city centre branch of Marks & Spencer, filled their trollies with Israeli produce and then refused to pay.

And the absurd targeting of Starbucks and other supposedly "Zionist" stores continues in England, as Harry's Place enumerates:

The week of smashed up shops with alleged Jewish ownership and supposed links to Israel continues.

Tonight I walked Rubert Street towards Shaftsburry Avenue in Central London and encountered quite a commotion on the corner. The police were cordoning off a section of the street and there were several police vehicles and about a dozen officers. I managed to capture the cause of the all this activity on my mobile phone.

Yes, thugs have attacked another Starbucks.

The antisemitic conspiracy loons and inciters who make irresponsible calls to “close down” shops, egged on by forums hosted on sites like Indymedia and elsewhere have done their job. The libel spreads.

Unlike the attack on a Starbucks in Whitechapel a few days ago which the thugs thought was empty, (but which wasn’t, and a manager could have burned to death had he not made it to the fire escape), this Starbucks would have been open for business. I saw the staff huddled behind the counter looking startled.

As you can see from the photos, crockery and furniture have been smashed to bits. A large litter bin has been thrown through the plate glass windows.

And still, after a spate of these attacks, the national media is silent, though there is a small mention of this evening’s attack in on the AP wires. Let’s see if the news desks of the national broadcasters think there’s anything worth reporting here.

UPDATE: They’re already crowing about the attack as some sort of victory at Indymedia.

UPDATE 2: There’s a short item, including a small photo, on the ITN News website. Another Starbucks - in Picadilly Circus - was also attacked, smashed and looted this evening.

Gaza has turned into the excuse that hundreds of Jew-haters were looking for to express their hate.

As one of the commenters at Harry's Place wrote:

Old school antisemitism = Jews are a fundamentally Middle-eastern people who don’t belong in Europe. If they won’t understand this, we’ll just have to teach them the hard way.

New antisemitism = Jews are a fundamentally European people who don’t belong in the Middle-East. If they won’t understand this, them over there will just have to teach them the hard way. And oh what the hell, let’s have a go at them here too.

You can’t stop progress.

PalArab press roundup 1/17/09

Even though Firas Press is associated with Fatah, it published a long and angry article upset at Israel for daring to kill Hamas spiritual leader Said Siad. A commenter said that even though Siad was responsible for the deaths of many Fatah members, still is is not proper for Israel to have killed him. Which is an illustration of Elder's Second Rule - that no matter how much Arabs hate each other, they will always hate Israel and the West more.

It appears that Hamas members who have been captured by Israel gave some of the crucial information needed to target Siad successfully. It seems he rented a house at the very beginning of the operation for secret Hamas meetings and once Israel caught wind of this they have been watching that house closely.

Turkey's Foreign Minister said that breaking off relations with Israel would be a mistake.

Six members of Hamas' Presidential Guard were killed by Israel today, and their names are listed.

There are reports that Qatar privately requested, and Israel agreed, not to assassinate the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees while they were in Doha for the Arab meeting there.

Another report claims that Hamas turned part of Al Aqsa University into a torture chamber for Fatah members or others it is not happy with.

And today's Lie of the Day: Gaza doctors are now claiming that Israel coats it bullets with some sort of biological agent that poisons the blood and reduces its clotting ability, causing certain death within a few hours.

In close second place for Lie of the Day is that Israel bombed the Egyptian side of Rafah - and killed two Israeli soldiers there. Apparently, the IDF is now operating out of Egypt!

Reports: Hamas leader escaped Gaza in an ambulance

Palestine Press Agency is reporting that Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar escaped from Gaza into Egypt using an ambulance.

Witnesses said that Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader and former Minister for Foreign Affairs, fled in an ambulance after Bassem Naim, Minister of Health in Gaza, forged a medical report and put medical gauze on his head to disguise him.

Zahar took advantage of the three-hour humanitarian period of calm declared by the Israeli army in Gaza and this allowed the first move in coordination with the Red Cross to move between the terminal and hospitals.

The Arab commenters at that site are happily calling Zahar a coward.

Another cool way to help IDF soldiers

Thank Israeli Soldiers is a program where soldiers get care packages, along with encouraging letters. The packages are specially packed with items that are useful for soldiers on duty.

This is in addition to the other ways I listed to help here.

And don't forget this great free way to help.

Open thread and random thoughts

The video I found of the "literal human shield" has received thousands of hits. It spread through message boards, first military and weapon-oriented boards and then spreading to other testosterone-driven sites like those for car enthusiasts. It is very cool to get so much attention, and at least a few of the visitors stuck around to read other posts, but it just reminds me that this comfortable little corner of the Web is still very, very small, and if I want to make an impact I need to find new ways to enlarge it. Videos are one way, but they do take time as well as good ideas (the one I worked on yesterday just didn't gel; I don't know if I can salvage it to make it funny enough.)

Anyway, here's a spot for people to put their own random thoughts....

Why "moderate" PalArabs are unhappy with Hamas

Al-Arabiya (Arabic only) talks about how West Bank Palestinian Arabs are criticizing Hamas:

After the atmosphere of national unity that prevailed during the first days of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, the voices of officials of the Palestinian Authority are now publicly criticizing Hamas policy, especially in terms of abuse with the political initiatives to stop the war. A minister of prisoner affairs, Ashraf El Ajrami, says that Hamas and Israel aim to keep the catastrophic situation in Gaza as it is, to abort the idea of an independent Palestinian state.

In turn, the President of the Fatah parliamentary bloc, Azzam al-Ahmad said he had contacted the Vice-President of the political bureau of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk, two days ago and asked him to agree to begin dialogue according to the Egyptian initiative, "but they refused."

Al-Ahmed said: "I think that Hamas is now aiming from behind to take the hard-line position to recognize it as a fait accompli leadership in the Gaza Strip, regardless of the number of victims who fall."

Palestinian writer and political analyst Samih Shabib mentions a "high level of media criticism in the Palestinian movement over Hamas' handling of the war in Gaza." The analyst, who is close to the Fatah movement, added, "I think that when the war began, Hamas presented itself as capable of causing surprises, and promised to create these surprises, but since then Hamas did not achieve the promised surprises, and Hamas' credibility was damaged."

He continued, "Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh two days ago talked about an outright victory, while we notice the ground is a large Israeli incursion in Gaza, on the outskirts of cities to the extent that the citizen is aware of the inequality between the resistance and the Israeli army."

He added, "that in my every day that passes, Hamas loses more credibility, loss of lives of more than 5 thousand between the martyrs and wounded, in addition to the billions of dollars lost a result of the demolition of buildings."

The editor of newspaper al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Hafez al-Barghouti, said, mocking the statements from Hamas officials that "from some of the requirements of the Hamas movement for a the cease-fire it would seem that our forces are moving in the Tel Aviv district and not in their own home."

For his part, Pharaohs Hamada wrote in al-Ayyam that "Hamas has succeeded in absorbing a first strike and attacks, despite the exposure of the destruction and loss of the extensive stockpiles of arms and the death of some leaders of field", he said, "but Hamas this time, unfortunately (.. .) failed, and failed to strike painful blows quality or about the Israeli enemy, despite all the threats and warnings by the leaders of Hamas martyrs and the surprises waiting for the occupation forces in the invasion. "

These opinions, by "moderate" Palestinian Arab opinion makers and leaders, are striking. Not because they are unhappy with Hamas, which we have known for a while, but because of their source of unhappiness.

These leaders are not only saying that Hamas is (partially) responsible for the suffering of Gazans, but they seem more upset that Hamas promised to strike hard at Israel - and has failed.

Hezbollah promised to hurt Israel and managed to kill dozens of people with Katyushas, forcing the entire north of the country to flee. This was Hezbollah's "victory," not merely survival. They managed to take at least a partial offensive and hurt Israel.

Palestinian Arab anger is apparently at least as much as Hamas' failure to launch a "quality" attack on Israel as it is on Hamas bringing death and destruction on Gazans.

This is critically important to understand. Just as a huge majority of Palestinian Arabs rejoiced over the Mercaz Harav massacre of schoolchildren, their ambivalence towards Hamas will turn to love if Hamas manages to hit a school or apartment building in Israel that causes dozens or more casualties.

Once we see this we can understand Hamas' single-minded war strategy - try not to be killed by Israel but put all of your resources into anything that would cause Israelis pain, whether it would be another soldier kidnapping or a successful Grad attack at a populated area, killing many. A single deadly attack will make the so-called moderate Palestinian Arabs into unqualified supporters of the terrorists.

Right now, Hamas is perceived as losing because it hasn't managed to pull off that attack, not because of a thousand dead Gazans. To Palestinian Arabs - to Israel's "peace partners" - a few dead Jews would be worth the price of hundreds of civilians.

This also partially explains Hamas' reluctance for a cease fire and the concomitant increase of rockets today. Hamas is banking on getting "lucky" enough to rocket a school bus or an old-age home. And such an attack will enable Hamas to crown itself as the undisputed leader of Palestinian Arabs.

Because, deep down, even the PalArab "doves" want to see such attacks succeed as well.

Ma'an reports on the funeral of Hamas "interior minister" Said Siam:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them Hamas supporters, attended a mass funeral procession in Gaza on Friday for de facto Interior Minister Said Siyam, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday.

If Gaza is as ravaged as the news reports and "human rights" activists want us to believe, and if Gazans all believe that Israel is targeting civilians; if Israel's goal (as that moderate Mahmoud Abbas has said) is to "eliminate the Palestinian people from Gaza".... then why would so many people put their lives in their own hands and gather in such a large crowd, with the knowledge that surely Israel will drop megaton bombs on them? Imagine how many of these people could have been killed by a single bomb of the type that killed their hero (crater pictured on left).

Could it be that they really know that Israel is more moral than they are, and are willing to bet their own lives on it?

(By the way, his Ma'an obituary includes the fact that Siam used to get his paycheck from the UN:

Siyam worked as a math and science teacher at local United Nations-run schools. He joined Hamas in the 1980s, one of its earliest members. Siyam quickly assumed leadership of the local teacher's union.

(Meaning that he was a UNRWA teacher and a terrorist simultaneously.)

Morning links (updated)

This piece by prominent Israeli writer and leftist A. B. Yehoshua slamming Ha'aretz' Gideon Levy is a must-read.

Sultan Knish has the excellent "Why We Choose Us."

An entire unit of Hamas trained by Iran has been destroyed.

A picture of "starving Palestinians."

No one is crying over Said Siam.

UPDATE: Natan Sharansky explains things as well as anyone has.

Muslims pray to destroy Jews, Christians

Islam Online decided to open up a message board where its readers can compose their own prayers to Allah to support the people of Gaza. While some prayers ask for no more suffering and similar requests, others are a bit more...violent. In English, too!

Victory or Martydom
By Noureddine - New Zealand on 2009-01-16 04:14 (GMT)

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful. Oh Allah bestow your blessings on our brothers and sisters in gaza and bless them with patience and help then against their aggressors. Oh Allah you don't like transgression and injustice destroy the transgressors children of pigs and monkeys. Oh Allah save your sincere slaves and destroy the arab leaders our shame and burden. Oh Allah bless me with shahada in your sake. Ameen Ameen ya rab elaalameen.

READ AL MUNTAQIIM EXCESSIVELY INSHALLAH ALLAH WILL TAKE REVENGE SOON
By SADIQA on 2009-01-16 01:45 (GMT)

ya ALLAH DESTROY YOUR ENEMEIS AND ENEMIES OF PEACE AND ISLAM AN CHRISTAINS AND REST OF THE WORLD. DESTROY THESE ISRAELIS PLEASE ONCE AND FOR ALL AND THEIR SUPPORTERS IN WESTERN COUNTRIES AS WELL. AND MAKE THEM BURN IN HELL FOR GOOD. EVERY MSULIM SHOULD TAKE UP ARMS AGSINT THEM NO MATTER HOW SMAL IT IS . AND READ AYAH KURSI 313 TIMES WITH STRONG CONVICTION INSHALLAH ALLH WILL GIVE US VICTORY ARAB RULERS SHOULD RISE UP , AND HAVE FAITH IN GOD AND SUPPORT THE OPPRESSED BECAUSE IT COULD BE THIER TURN NEXT . THEY SHOULD SUPPORT GAZA NO MATTER HOW SMALL THEIR ARMIES REMEMBER THAT ALWAYS THE WEAK HAVE GAINED VCITORY OVER THE STRONG IN HISTORY AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. WE HAVE THE QURAN AND SUNNAH AND LOT OF DUAS WHICH COULD HELP SAVE OUR LIVES AND THOSE OF OUR LOVED ONES TOO. LIKE BISMAILLAHILLAZZI LAYAZZURUU MAISMIHI SHAYYUN FIL ARZI WALA FISSAMAI WAHAUWAS SAMIUL ALEEM , 3 TIMES DAILY ON OURSLEVES AND OUR FAMILIES. THE JEWS DNT HAVE FAITH ON THEIR SIDE. THEY ARE DECEIVED BY THERI ORTHODOX RABBIS WHO TEACH TALMUDC HATRED AND KABBALA . BUT WE HAVE THE QURAN SO USE IT AT THIS TIME. ALSO READ SURAH FEEL EXCEESSIVELY DURING WAR AND VICTORY WILL BE OURS INSHALLAH . MAKE TAWEEZ OF MANZIL, OR WIRD AL LATIF DUAS AND DO WHAT WE HAVE TO DO. IF WE STOP NOW ALL OF US WILL BE MASSACRED OR MADE SLAVES OF THESE PEOPLE .

Dua
By Seema on 2009-01-16 01:16 (GMT)

Ya Allah let the whole community of Christian and Jews, punish them the way that all whole world will see it and learn lesson not to torture our brothers and sisters.

Yemen's Jews supposedly condemn Israel

News Yemen quotes the official Saba news agency:

Yemeni Jews condemn the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip and agree that such crimes being committed by the Zionist entity put Jews in risk. They fear reactions from their Muslim neighbors because of brutal genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza.

Whenever Israel commits genocide in Palestine, the Jewish community is exposed to harassment by Muslims. Israeli aggression against Gaza people and killing of the Yemeni Jewish Moshe Yaish Nahari are two incidents evoked shedding lights on Jewish minority in Yemen.

I should mention that Nahari was murdered by a Muslim in Yemen two weeks before Operation Cast Lead.

"Harassments against us are increasing whenever Israel commits massacres against Palestinians. Killing of the Jewish Moshe Nahari is a personal criminal act and we hope we will get justice," said one of Yemeni Jews.

"Israeli killings of Palestinian people force us to stay at our houses fearing of harassments by persons do not understand that Yemeni Jews have nothing to do with what is happing in Palestine," said Rabi of Raida Jews, Yahya Yaish.

"What is happening in Palestine does not satisfy Allah and His Messengers. What is happening is a crime against Palestine and against all religions," added Yaish.

Does this sound like something a Jew would say of his own free will?

While Suleiman Yacoob, Yemen Jewish, says what Israel is doing does not satisfy any person and that Allah prohibits killing human being. "The Yemeni Jews are against genocides in Palestine and the harassments we face are just personal," he affirmed.

Saeed bin Israel, another Jewish citizen, says "Jews face several harassments from some Muslims, namely young people. These harassments happen in markets, streets and while in their work.

But Suleiman Yaqoob affirms that Jewish sect has strong and humanitarian relations with Muslims "we share all occasions, wedding parities and Qat sessions."

Over returning Jewish citizen to justice because of harassments he faces, Yaqoob says "we prefer being patients and avoiding any harm as much as we can." He notes that political leadership gives Jewish citizen more care and concern.

Does they sound like a proud, equal members of the Yemen community or more like ....dhimmis?

And notice the Arab mentality - it is only natural for Arabs to "harass" Jews because of what Israel does. One cannot expect them to act as if they had morals. So the harassment that they inevitably will do is Israel's fault!

Hamas said to have killed informant

Palestine Press reports that Hamas immediately found someone to blame for Israel's successful killing of Hamas leader Said Siam and executed him on the spot.

According to the report, Siam drove to his house and kept the engine running while he ran inside. That was when the IAF got him.

Hamas claims that they extracted a confession from the informant, said to be an insider, and then shot him immediately.

The PalArab self-death count therefore goes up...

The list of Hamas war crimes

The Jerusalem Post has an interview with an international law scholar, who said "The fighting tactics and ideology of Hamas are a 'case study par excellence' of a systematic violation of international humanitarian law."

He lists six war crimes that Hamas is doing regularly and systematically:

"First, the deliberate targeting of civilians is in and of itself a war crime," he noted, referring to the Hamas rockets fired at southern towns for eight years.

"A second war crime is when Hamas attacks [from within] civilian areas and civilian structures, whether it be an apartment building, a mosque or a hospital, in order to be immune from a response from Israel," he went on. "Civilians are protected persons, and civilian areas are protected areas. Any use of a civilian infrastructure to launch bombs is itself a war crime."

That Hamas bears legal responsibility for the harm to civilians in areas from which it fires is enshrined throughout international law, he said: "In the general principles of customs binding on nations, in the specific international law of armed conflict [also called] international humanitarian law, in the Fourth Geneva Convention, in decisions of the International Court of Justice and the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda - it's all set out there."

Third, he explained, "the misuse and abuse of humanitarian symbols for purposes of launching attacks is called the perfidy principle. For example, using an ambulance to transport fighters or weapons or disguising oneself as a doctor in a hospital, or using a UN logo or flag, are war crimes."

The fourth violation, "of which little has been made, is the prohibition in the Fourth Geneva Convention and international jurisprudence against the direct and public incitement to genocide. The Hamas covenant itself is a standing incitement to genocide. [Similarly,] just before this fighting started, I saw Hamas leaders on television referring to Israel and Jews as the sons of apes and pigs."

The fifth crime relates to the scope of the attack on civilians, which upgrades the violation to a crime against humanity. According to Cotler, "when you deliberately hit civilians not infrequently but in a systematic, widespread attack, that's defined in the treaty of the International Criminal Court and international humanitarian law as a crime against humanity."

The final war crime for which Hamas is responsible is the recruitment of children into armed conflict.

Beyond these six, I think we can add:

* Combatants must wear uniforms and carry their weapons openly during military operations and during preparation for them.

* Wearing the uniforms of the enemy while engaged in combat is also a clear violation of the rules of war.

* Phosphorus payloads in rockets. (It can be used for smoke and illumination, but it cannot be aimed at civilians.)

* Violating rules for treatment of prisoners of war (not allowing Red Cross to visit, for example.)

* Immediate execution of supposed "collaborators" and others without a trial.

These are just during this operation, one additional one is that Hamas regularly tortured prisoners, sometimes to death.

Any others?

Fact: Palestinian Arabs lie.

Avid Editor in the comments alerts me to a ridiculously biased BBC report quoting those ever-present "eyewitnesses" to the IDF supposedly clinically executing civilians. The most patently absurd claim in the article was perhaps this one:

On Monday morning, he said the family heard an announcement over a loudspeaker.
"The Israeli army was saying: 'This is the Israeli Defence Forces, we are asking all the people to leave their homes and go to the school. Ladies first, then men.'
"We decided to send the women first, two by two," he said.
First to step outside was the wife of his cousin, Rawhiya al-Najar, 48.
"The army was about 15 metres (50 feet) away from the house or less. They shot her in the head," he said.
The woman's daughter was shot in the thigh but crawled back inside the house, he said.

So the IDF, able to destroy the entire building in five seconds, in the middle of battling Hamas terrorists, decided instead to kill the women and children first, in single file?

Apparently, the Palestinian Arabs have discovered that any claims they make can get headlines if they call B'Tselem. B'Tselem, of course, decides that it should act as morally as possible, by maliciously spreading unverifiable and absurdly over-the-top lies:

B'tselem said it had been unable to corroborate the testimony it had received, but felt it should be made public.

So, let's look at the trustworthiness of Palestinian Arab civilians when making such claims in just the past year:

September, 2008: "Eyewitnesses" reported seeing a settler shoot a boy at point blank range 20 times. It turns out he had been killed by a grenade, and no Israelis were involved.

July, 2008: A Hamas work accident levels a house and kills 7. "Eyewitnesses" said it was an Israeli airstrike.

June, 2008: "Eyewitnesses" say that Zionist settlers release wild pigs to destroy their crops.

February, 2008: "Eyewitnesses" reported that an explosion in the Bureij camp that killed 8 was caused by Israeli airstrikes, but it was an work accident.

Honest Reporting has many more examples of "eyewitnesses" who are found to have made up the entire story.

In all of these cases (besides the wild pigs) the false claims were loudly parroted by the media, and any corrections - if they occurred at all - would be days later.

And just last week we saw a Gazan family start screaming how they "have no food" as soon as they saw a reporter, who saw plenty of food right there with them.

One would think that after years of lie after lie after lie from "eyewitnesses," verified to be false often by Palestinian Arab sources themselves, that they would start to catch on to the fact that PalArabs know the game and play reporters as patsies.

Journalists, of course, have a vested interest in a "good story," especially with a human component. The idea that people would lie to their faces is distasteful and it implies that they cannot tell the difference between truth and lies, so they are reluctant to correct mistakes.

NGOs have a much greater vested interest in furthering their agendas, regardless of facts, as we see from B'tselem here (at least they admit that the stories aren't verified - many other "human rights" organizations have no problem making up the lies themselves.)

What could it take for the media to wake up and start looking at Palestinian Arab claims with the same skepticism that they would give Western politicians?

Morning news roundup

Terrorist lie of the day - The Palestinian Resistance Committees claim to have tunneled into Israel and blown up a tank, killing soldiers. Uh-huh.

What's in a name? - Anti-semitic graffiti was scrawled on a church in England, including profanity. The reason? The church is called the Zion Baptist Church! So, naturally, out of all the explicit anti-semitism that has been seen in the UK since the Gaza op started, this is the first one the Muslim community condemned.

UNRWA terrorists? Shocking! - Fox News has a report on the many terrorist connections that UNRWA has had over the years, as well as their utterly inadequate methods to stop terrorists from being employed there. (Pretty much, they ask their employees nicely not to do anything naughty. And they check them against a list of Al Qaeda members.)

Arab unity - An emergency summit of the Arab League in Qatar over Gaza does not look likely, as they could not get a quorum of countries to attend.

Photo-photo-photo-photo-photo...op - Apparently, an IDF soldier accidentally left a used, single-use rocket launcher behind in Gaza. This huge victory for terrorists is commemorated with no fewer than twenty pictures taken by saraya.ps and shown on the Islamic Jihad news site PalToday.

"Free Gaza" turns around, starts lying campaign

Last time the Free Gaza freaks tried to reach Gaza in their worldwide publicity tour, they claimed that they were surrounded by a half-dozen Zionist warships who opened fire at them and then deliberately rammed their boat three times. None of those claims were ever verified by any of the journalists on board and no video was ever produced that corroborated the stories. Their public statements started backing off from the claims of being shot at with machine guns but they never admitted lying.

This time, they took repeated Israeli warnings that they will be stopped by "any means possible" as a threat to kill them. From their website:

The Israeli navy today threatened to kill unarmed civilians aboard a mercy ship on its way to deliver medical supplies and doctors to besieged Gaza.

As before, we can be sure that there will be no audio of these supposed threats ever released by the 17 journalists on board the boat, and that this lie will be quickly spread through the moonbat media outlets.

One more lie: in a recent newsletter, they said:

Once we set sail, we do not plan on turning back. We will stay at sea, insisting on access to Gaza, until we succeed or Israel gravely attacks or arrests us.

Fun Gaza fact

In the 2006 elections that swept Hamas into office, a higher percentage of women voted for Hamas than men, 44% to 42%.

Housewives preferred Hamas 47% to 42%.

Hamas: the party of Palestinian Arab soccer moms.

ICRC president inflates Gaza's population density

We've long ago dismissed the old canard that "Gaza is the most crowded place on Earth."

Well, the ICRC president evidently just went really overboard. From Ma'an:

Kellenberger also said that the ICRC has “no evidence” of the use of white phosphorus, a chemical weapon that causes severe burning used in populated areas. On Tuesday a Red Cross official in Geneva told the Associated Press that it is “pretty clear” that Israel had used the weapon in Gaza, but said there was no evidence that this use violated international law.

Answering a question about the alleged use of white phosphorus, Kellenberger highlighted that Gaza is approximately three times more densely populated than Manhattan, making it more difficult to use certain weapons without harming civilians.

Whoa! Three times the density of Manhattan???

Let's do the math - again.

Population

Area (km2)

Density

Pop/km2

Gaza

1,500,202

360

4,167

Manhattan

1,537,195

58.8

26,143

If Gaza had three times Manhattan's population density - 78,428 people per square kilometer - it would contain over 28 million people!

Let's say that Kellenberger only meant Gaza City, not the larger Gaza Strip. Guess what? Even Gaza City only has a population density of 6,834 per square kilometer, about a quarter of Manhattan's.

Free Gaza Movement allows dozens to die!

The FG moonbats have fixed their generator and started sailing again towards Gaza, where the Israeli navy will probably stop them sometime tomorrow.

According to their press release, they are bringing in "essential parts for ventilators, which will allow the only burn center in the Gaza Strip, at Shifa Hospital, to double its capacity."

Let's assume that the Free Gaza hypocrites really did uniquely identify a pressing need for Shifa Hospital, that the Red Cross and WHO and UNRWA are somehow not aware of or are ignoring.

Let's further assume that the doubling of Shifa's capacity will save tens of lives, especially since we must also assume that certain Norwegian and Arab doctors are accurate in stating categorically that Israel is burning Gazans with white phosphorus munitions, something that the Red Cross says is not happening.

If all these things are true, then the Free Gaza terror-supporters are purposefully putting Gazans in danger, because instead of coordinating with any number of NGOs, or Jordan, or Tunisia, or Brazil or Greece or Qatar or Egypt to bring these much-needed parts into Gaza as quickly as possible, they have consciously decided to deprive Gazans of these ventilators in order to have a showdown at sea with the Israeli navy instead.

How many Gazans will be permanently disfigured or will die because of this decision by the Free Gaza to delay the delivery of these "essential" parts?

Of course, all this is true only if you assume that the Free Gaza movement is telling the truth.

Defeating Hamas

Jeffrey Goldberg writes a very interesting op-ed in the New York Times today, proving the utter inability of Hamas to ever moderate: (h/t Daily Alert and EBoZ)

In the summer of 2006, Nizar Rayyan, a member of the Hamas ruling elite and an unblushing executioner, who was killed two weeks ago, told this journalist, "First we must deal with the Muslims who speak of a peace process and then we will deal with you." As the Gaza war moves to a cease-fire, a crucial question will inevitably arise: Should Israel (and by extension, the U.S.) try to engage Hamas? But the question is unmoored from certain political and theological realities.

Advocates of negotiation suggest that the hostility toward Jews expressed by Hamas is somehow mutable. But in years of listening, I haven't heard much to suggest that its anti-Semitism is insincere. Like Hizbullah, Hamas believes that God is opposed to a Jewish state in Palestine. I asked Rayyan: Could you agree to anything more than a tactical cease-fire with Israel? I felt slightly ridiculous asking: A man who believes that God every now and again transforms Jews into pigs and apes might not be the most obvious candidate for peace talks at Camp David. Rayyan answered that a long-term cease-fire would be unnecessary, because it will not take long for the forces of Islam to eradicate Israel.

The article is quite good until the conclusion:

There is a fixed idea among some Israeli leaders that Hamas can be bombed into moderation. This is a false and dangerous notion. It is true that Hamas can be deterred militarily for a time, but tanks cannot defeat deeply felt belief.

The reverse is also true: Hamas cannot be cajoled into moderation. Neither position credits Hamas with sincerity, or seriousness.

Goldberg, who is quite knowledgeable on facts, allows his biases to cloud his analysis.

He is engaging in a straw-man argument when he says that some Israelis think that militarily defeating Hamas will somehow moderate the group. No one thinks that Hamas members will suddenly accept Israel; their very existence is founded on the idea of destroying Israel. Goldberg simply doesn't see the true argument for bombing Hamas:

Defeating militarily Hamas would make them irrelevant in the Arab world.

People in general naturally gravitate towards the perceived "winner" in any confrontation. And Arabs tend to associate military might with winning (as opposed to, for example, human rights records or economic power.)

In 2001, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the Arab world as a whole embraced Al Qaeda. Al Jazeera put his heroic silhouette on its backdrop of news stories, Arabs throughout the world cheered the attacks, and Arab pride was at the highest it had been since Saladin. Arabs and Muslims voluntarily went to Afghanistan to fight the weak, shamed Westerners.

Today, al-Qaeda is more of an embarrassment. Sure, there are still many Arabs who are ideologically aligned with Al Qaeda's goals, but they have been muted in the mainstream Arab world, and publicly looked down upon. No one volunteers to fight with the mujahadeen nowadays. The reason is because a much more powerful force came in and turned the impression of Al Qaeda from a seemingly invincible and brilliant force into a small group of people who spend more time hiding in caves than attacking the hated West.

As much as the Arab world continues to hate the United States and its allies, they respect and fear them much more now than they did in 2001. Al Qaeda no longer represents the ideal for average Arabs that it did then.

In the Arab world, raw power is the path to respect.

Goldgerg's argument would imply that Al Qaeda is winning because its leaders have not moderated.

Hamas is the same as Al Qaeda. The ideology, methods and goals are identical. And the path to victory is the same as well - a combination of raw power and the resultant "peer pressure" that makes the Arab world turn against them.

Hamas will never be pragmatic, but ordinary Arabs are. They know that aligning with the winning side is smarter than the alternative. Pragmatism as an Arab philosophy is not as attractive as the idea of an ascendant Islamic ummah taking on and defeating the world, but it is a good bit better than being looked upon as a defeated, shamed people. The very name "Hamas" needs to evoke embarrassment when heard by Arabs.

That is how to win.

IDF stops Iranian ship (for real this time)

From JPost:

The Navy intercepted an Iranian ship loaded with medicine, food and clothing destined for Gaza, the IDF said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the boat docked in Port Said, Egypt, but the Egyptians refused to allow it to unload its cargo. Nevertheless, at midnight Tuesday, the boat left Port Said and tried to go to Gaza.

A Navy Sa'ar 4.5 class ship intercepted the Iranian boat and transmitted a clear message on Channel 16 - the international communication line for ships - that it would not allow it to enter the waters around Gaza.

On Wednesday morning, when it was 30 miles off the Gaza coast, the Iranian boat again tried to move towards the Strip, and the Navy again intercepted it, the army said. It then returned to el-Arish, in Egypt, and two Egyptian boats prevented it from docking there.

Since that time, the boat has been sitting 30 miles off the coast of Gaza and has been closely tracked by the Israeli navy.

Israel has been coordinating all activity regarding the Iranian boat with the Egyptians.

The simplest way to sanction Iran - call its bluff

Last week, Iran claimed it was banning "companies in which the Zionists have any shares."

So I humbly suggest to my Israeli readers to buy exactly one share of companies that Iran heavily depends on, and publicize that fact.

Some examples include Linde, BASF, Lurgi, Krupp, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, Mercedes, Volkswagen and MAN.

If the world isn't taking the sanctions against Iran seriously, maybe Iran can be forced to do it itself!

PalArab press roundup Jan 14 2009

Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today quotes those famous "informed sources" that 46 IDF soldiers were killed so far, and helpfully adds that Israel only admits to 24 of them. Does anyone think that the count of Gazan civilians dead might be just as accurate?

There is outrage that Israel bombed a cemetery. Of course, Hamas would never consider shooting rockets from a cemetery, right?

The moderate, Holocaust denying president of the PA stated that Israel intends to "eliminate the Palestinian people from Gaza." Are accusations of genocide more acceptable when a "moderate peace partner" says them?

Arab attacks synagogue guard in Germany

From eNews 2.0:

A Palestinian man with an iron bar attacked a guard outside a Berlin synagogue on Tuesday, knocking him to the ground before the assailant could be restrained, German police said.

The other guards outside the synagogue caught the attacker. The assailant and another guard suffered minor injuries in the scuffle, while the guard hit with the bar was taken to hospital for treatment.

The old synagogue in Oranienburger Strasse, a central Berlin street, is a tourist attraction and has guards permanently standing outside and searching visitors because of the danger of attack by neo-Nazis.

Meanwhile, German police apologized for entering a private home and ripping down an Israeli flag from the window in order to appease a mob of some 10,000 Arab protesters. (Video of the incident can be seen here.)

The secret life of terrorists

The New York Times writes another decent story about Hamas members in Gaza. Some highlights (h/t EBoZ):

In a different part of town, another young fighter and his wife were getting ready to go see her brother, 20, who had been wounded in southwest Gaza City two nights ago while bringing food to fighters. The fighter, 27, in dark jeans and Timberland-style boots, swaggered with words about Islam and duty to his people. Hamas is doctrinally opposed to Israel’s right to exist.
“It’s either victory while alive, or martyrdom,” he said. “Both ways are victory.”
His wife, in a white head scarf, agreed.
“Two days ago, he was very tired and he didn’t want to leave the house,” she said. “I told him you have to leave, you have a responsibility.”
But the sight of her brother unconscious in the hospital bed seemed to jolt the couple into an alternate reality, one where they were vulnerable and afraid. The man’s eyes glistened with tears as he asked the doctor question after question.
Back outside, the woman regained her composure.
“I prefer you as a martyr,” she said to her husband.
“What if I am injured?” he asked.
She repeated her preference for death.

We do need to respect different cultures. You see, in some places, when a woman says she wants her husband to die, that would be considered alarming, but in Gaza it is praiseworthy! Who are we to say that one way is better than another?

He took up the accusation that Hamas fighters hid behind civilians. Fighters, in a way, are both, he argued, and are accepted by many residents as defenders. People bring them food, he said. Sometimes they oppose rockets being launched nearby, but often they do not.
“I’m a civilian, and I’m a fighter,” he said.
The fighter who wore glasses argued that the Israeli forces had pressed them into such a small territory that civilians were just about everywhere, so it was hard not to operate near them.
“Where do we go?” he asked. “There are no other places.”

The fact that they had huge caches of weapons in their own homes and in mosques and schools has nothing to do with it, of course. It's all Israel's fault for pushing them into the cities - that they were already in.

Senior fighters are mostly in hiding, the fighters said. Many have not moved for days, staying in basements or bunkers. With limited access to phone networks, in part because of fear that signals will draw missile fire, some have been cut off altogether during the military operation, and sit alone.

Leaving the bravery to the wives of their fighters.

Today's named deaths in Gaza, plus a "child"

Ma'an actually names some of the people who were killed today in Gaza. Out of the 27 people named, 22 were known "militants" and two are ambiguous. All were men.

If we exclude the two who are unclear, this means that 88% of those named were confirmed terrorists.

One in particular is of interest: Muhammad Nader Abu Sha’ban, aged 17. He was fighting at the time he was killed, but there is no doubt that Gazan doctors will count him as a child civilian, not as a "militant."

Over the years, a significant number of the "children" that Israel has killed in various operations have been 16 or 17, far out of proportion to what one would expect in a normal distribution - and a great number of them were engaged in violent actions at the time they were killed.

Over half of the "child" victims in Gaza over the past year have been 15 or older. There is no reason to think that this number is any different now.

Keep that in mind every time someone quotes a statistic on how many children the IDF killed. Many if not most of them are very likely to have hardly been innocent.

Our long nightmare is over. The Weblog Awards are done.

After a week that seemed like it would never end, with some blogs punctuating every posting with "vote for me!" spam, the voting for the 2008 Weblog Awards are finally over.

My category of Best Middle East/Africa Blog got contaminated with thousands of people who voted against "neocon" or "moonbat" blogs rather than for any blogs, which meant that my category had more votes cast than almost every other - some 39,000 votes cast. Not that my ignominious placement of 6th place would have improved any without the outside help!

Anyway, I do thank those who voted for me; my blog received triple the votes it did in 2006.

The war against Starbucks

The Gaza operation is hitting one company more than any other: Starbucks.

A campaign has quickly spread throughout the Arab and Muslim world via email and Facebook to boycott certain American companies that are rumored to send profits to Israel:

The rumors circulated via email, on social networking sites like Facebook and conspiracy websites: top American companies are donating profits to Israel in support of the war in Gaza and consumers should boycott them.

The online campaigns call for a boycott of several major U.S.-based companies like McDonalds, the coffee chain Starbucks, Pizza Hut and cigarette maker Phillip Morris, though most of the companies have explicitly denied the rumors on their websites and in interviews.

“Let's stop using American and British products for just one month. The U.S. will lose 8.6 billion daily if we stop using its products for only one month,” read one email being circulated in Arabic. “As a true Muslim do that. Tell your family, friends, and neighbors and stop for one month.”

According to the Saudi Gazette, the campaign is working:

Saudi Gazette visited American restaurants such as Burger King, McDonalds, Hardies, KFC and Starbucks and found them almost deserted. These food outlets were invariably crowded prior to the recent boycott call.

A huge drop in customers at such places is perceptible. “In the last three weeks, the number of customers has dropped by about 25 percent,” said a Starbucks employee requesting anonymity.
“The customers think that buying one cup of coffee will help in killing a Palestinian child,” he said.

This being the Muslim world, of course, such campaigns cannot remain peaceful for long. From This is London:

TRADERS told today how pro-Palestinian demonstrators caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage when they ransacked businesses near the Israeli Embassy.

The policing bill for Saturday's protest has topped more than £1million. Three officers and 20 demonstrators were injured.

An angry mob targeted shops and cafés in Kensington High Street, looting and smashing windows as violence flared during the rally.

Starbucks bore the brunt of the vandalism as masked protesters ripped out fittings and equipment after clashes with riot police.

And it was not an isolated incident. In Lebanon:

About a hundred demonstrators have converged on west Beirut's branch of the Starbucks coffee shop and closed it down in protest over the IDF operation in Gaza.

Protesters are justifying their actions by claiming that the Starbucks corporation' owner donates money to the Israeli military. Protesters raised a Palestinian flag over the shop and wrote on its window "Jewish favorite coffee."

Starbucks was forced to put a statement on their website:

Rumors that Starbucks Coffee Company and its management support Israel are unequivocally false.

Starbucks is a publicly traded company with stores in 49 countries. Though our thousands of partners (employees) and business associates around the globe have diverse views and share many beliefs about a wide range of topics, our primary focus remains to deliver the best customer experience possible. Starbucks is a non-political organization and does not support political causes. Further, the political preferences of a Starbucks partner at any level have absolutely no bearing on Starbucks company policies.

I don't drink coffee, but I hear that Starbucks' iced tea is kosher. Might be a good time to check it out.

Another terrorist "civilian"

Commenter PTWatch points to a video shown on German TV that shows two terrorists in Gaza hiding their weapons. Here are screen shots of one of them:

Terror propaganda update

Reading the Islamic Jihad-backed Palestine Today in autotranslated Arabic is always a surreal experience, but now more so than ever. A fantasy war is occurring that has nothing to do with reality, and it is being reported without any fear of contradiction.

From reading Paltoday, one would think that Hamas killed 12 IDF soldiers just today, with six injuries. The number of Hamas and PIJ "martyrs" are pretty much zero - only civilans (which is, of course, routinely described as a "Holocaust." Operation Cast Lead is "melting" into Hamas' Operation Oil Stain. Islamc Jihad is not backing down "one iota" some spokesman said from his underground bunker. A Qassam rocket supposedly killed a woman in Ashkelon yesterday "according to Hebrew sources."

The only problem is that none of it is true.

It is also interesting that they will bend over backwards to find the most obscure critics of Israel, preferably Jewish. Today it was some "honorary professor" at the University of Nice named Andre Nochi who supposedly wrote a letter to the Israel Embassy in Paris describing Israeli actions as being akin to Hitler. This letter took a circuitous route, being translated by a Tunisian professor before being forwarded to "Quds Press" where it was presumably published.

As we saw earlier today, this newspaper harshly criticized the West Bank-based, Fatah-leaning newspapers who dared to publish Israeli news stories.

The terrorist media has decided that their best policy right now is complete and absolute falsehood, apparently because the truth scares the hell out of them.

Persian version of Free Gaza stopped

I mentioned in this morning's roundup that an Iranian "aid" boat was trying to get to Gaza.

This morning, Reuters quotes Iranian sources that the boat was stopped:

"An Iranian ship that was carrying foodstuff and medicine was stopped by the Zionist regime's navy 20 miles off the coast of Gaza," the Iranian radio station reported, adding that the ship had left the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas 13 days earlier.

I wonder whether this ship existed at all, or was just an Iranian PR stunt. I could find no mention of the ship on the PressTV site this morning, although Ma'an quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman about the ship. One would think that at the very least the Iranians would try to publicize this more in order to embarrass Israel.

The supposed Iranian boat and Free Gaza have lots in common, though. They both pretend to be helping Gazans when they in fact do nothing of the sort, they both support Hamas and they both want to see Israel destroyed.

UPDATE: The IDF denied that they stopped any Iranian boat.

Neturei Karta basking in their fame among murderers

When the anti-Israel and anti-semitic protests start up, you know that the idiots from Neturei Karta will be there. They showed up in New York, they showed up in London, and they are now regular fixtures in the Iranian media. They even ignore questions from Arabs asking about whether they condemn Hamas or Hezbollah atacks against civilians.

What I am writing here is known to everyone who reads this blog; only reason I am posting this is because I get a fair number of hits from Google, and if someone out there is researching Neturei Karta I want them to know:

Every single Jewish organization condemns Neturei Karta, including every Chassidic (Hasidic) group. Even the Satmar Chasidim, who are anti-Zionist themselves, finds Neturei Karta to be a despicable group that represents nobody, and certainly does not represent Judaism.

Here is a press release from 2002:

Umbrella Group of Orthodox Condemn Hareidi PLO-Sympathizers
Condemnation of Hareidi PLO Sympathizers
by Arutz-7 news
April 28, 2002
SATMAR AND OTHERS CONDEMN HAREIDI PLO-SYMPATHIZERS

"It is with shame, sadness and outrage that we publicly condemn the irresponsible and dangerous actions of a small group of individuals [known generally as Neturei Karta] who have taken upon themselves to endanger the interests of the Jewish Nation, and especially our brethren in Zion, by their reprehensible actions in joining the enemies of our people at the rally held last Saturday in Washington." So begins a statement issued last week by an umbrella organization of mostly-hareidi groups in condemnation of several hareidi-appearing individuals who recently demonstrated together with Arabs against Israel.

The umbrella group, comprised of Satmar, Bobov, Belz, Vizhnitz, Munkacz, Kiryas Joel, Monroe, and other communities - many of them openly and sharply critical of Zionism - termed the PLO sympathizers "evil associates of our enemies."

The statement continued:

"...their depiction in the local and international media in religious garb and prayer shawls marching arm-in-arm with Palestinian Jew-haters has besmirched the reputations of hundreds of thousands of decent Orthodox, hareidi and Hassidic Jews worldwide. Unfortunately this despicable minuscule group, who were ejected decades ago from our synagogues and communities for similar activities, do not accept or listen to the rulings of the leaders of our communities... They should under no circumstances,Heaven forbid, be associated with any recognized hareidi or Hassidi community... We hope and pray that these individuals will speedily realize the enormous damage they have caused to our communities and to the Jewish people at large with their evil undertakings, creating a major desecration of G-d's name on such a massive and unprecedented scale and repent for this terrible sin. Until that time they will continue to be unwelcome amongst Torah-observant Jews - who faithfully follow the teachings of their Rabbis - in all aspects of the private and communal lives."

This is as clear cut and united a condemnation that one will ever see from the Chassidic community.