Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Iowahawk: "I Guess You Had To Be There"

Iowahawk brings us the celebrity roast to end all celebrity roasts.

This brilliant piece is the most biting, trenchant and witty criticism of the current administration imaginable.

PLO: Two state solution will lead to Israel's collapse

MEMRI does it again:

Following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on ANB TV on May 7, 2009:
Abbas Zaki: What is needed is a settlement, not a hudna [truce]. After 45 years of struggle, we have the right to reach a conclusion to this conflict, rather than extending the hudna, enabling Israel to expand on a daily basis.

My advice is: we should not give Israel a hudna, because whenever Israel is given a hudna, it consolidates its position and becomes more deeply rooted. What hudna? If they do not withdraw from the 1967 lands – what hudna? Israel will become a fact on the ground, and we will end up as small enclaves, and should be driven out with time.

Therefore, it is high time that we found a final, comprehensive solution. The Arabs talk about a comprehensive solution and present initiatives, and the world talks about a solution, yet we say: Let's stick to the hudna. No, my friend. I personally joined Fatah somewhat belatedly, in 1962. Work out how many years that is. Should I keep on extending the hudnas? Impossible. We want a solution now.

They talk about a two state solution, and when that is achieved...even Ahmadinejad, the leader of the rejectionists throughout the region, said he supports a two-state solution. Nobody fools anybody.

With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? what will become of all the sacrifices they made--just to be told to leave?

They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward.

And he is exactly right.

This is the real reason that Arabs insist on Jerusalem - not because of their love of the city that they ignored for a thousand years, but because they know that the Jewish connection to the city is so strong and so powerful.

As a result, the Arabs aren't scared of secular Israelis, socialist kibbutzim, Israeli robotic jeeps, drones or even the IDF altogether. They believe that all of those can be defeated by appealing to liberal sensibilities of the West and slowly chipping away at the resolve of the Zionists who desperately want peace more than anything else.

What they are scared of are Jews who are unapologetically proud of their Judaism and of their deep, emotional ties to the Land of Israel.

While they consider everyone else a pushover - they are patient, and will wait decades to wear them down - the Jews who have a pure, emotional, and especially religious connection to the Land are the ones that they know they cannot defeat. Because deep down they know that their own connection to the land is derivative, a mere shadow of the Jews' deep love of Israel.

They know that the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque were close to being ruins before the Jews started returning to the Land of Israel in large numbers. They know that they showed almost no interest in Palestine before the 20th century.

They know that if the Jews had not started moving back to Palestine, their own mythology would never have started.

This is why their goal is Jerusalem. This is why they raise a stink at every new building built or purchased by Jews, at every synagogue, at the slightest hint of Jewish permanence in the city that Jews have been praying towards and crying over for millenia.

And this is why Jews - even the ones who, for whatever tragic reason, don't feel the same connection that their ancestors did - cannot compromise on Jerusalem.

(h/t Vicious Babushka)

"Hamas is the foreign-policy wing of Iran"

An interesting section of an op-ed by Cal Thomas:

Last week in London I spoke with Liam Fox, a conservative Member of Parliament and "shadow defense secretary." Fox told me, "There is a belief in some quarters that if only you can resolve the problems between Israel and Palestine, all the other problems in the Middle East, in a domino-like fashion, will fall into place. That is absolute nonsense."

Indeed, it is.

Fox said on a recent visit to Iran that Iranian politicians told him they realize they lack an air force to fight back if they are attacked by Israel, so they would use Hezbollah and Hamas. "They are part of our defense policy against Israel," Fox quoted them as saying, "Hamas is not part of the Palestinian problem. Hamas is the foreign-policy wing of Iran in Israel."

This simple fact is what Westerners fail to grasp: Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies for Iran - and they intend to surround Israel.

And if Iran is allowed by the West to develop a nuclear bomb, which it appears is already being treated as a fait accompli, it will not need to work that hard on its missile delivery system - because there are tens of thousands of human beings who would be more than willing to bring it themselves to Israel's borders.

Here are the reasons that the free world is letting this happen:

1. Israel is the obvious target, not Europe, Westerners don't feel personally invested or threatened.

2. Even though they work overtime to limit Israel's ability to defend itself, they figure that Israel will ignore them and defend itself anyway, so they don't feel they have to get involved.

3. The unwillingless to face the horrible - yet obvious - truth causes otherwise smart people to close their eyes and grab onto whatever justifications they can find, like the discredited NIE report.

4. Doing something means making hard decisions, something that democratic leaders are loathe to do when they have an eye on getting re-elected.

5. Everyone hates war and no one wants to start one without the other side doing something overtly aggressive. The only justification would be the existence of a huge crater where Tel Aviv was.

Turkmenistan!

From Eurasianet:

Israel has announced it will open an embassy in Turkmenistan’s capital of Ashgabat, located just 32 kilometers from the Iranian border.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman held a series of "secret talks" with officials in Ashgabat and a team of Israeli diplomats and security personnel will visit the Turkmen capital later in May to select a "suitable building" to house the Israeli diplomatic mission, Israel National News reported May 13.
Turkmenistan and Israel established formal diplomatic relations 17 years ago, but to date no Israeli ambassador has resided in the Central Asian state.
Ashgabat is situated in the foothills of the Kopet-Dag mountain range and is just a short drive from the Bajgiran border point. Turkmenistan and Iran share a 994-kilometer long border.

Even if Israel/Turkmenistan cooperation never reaches the point where this is strategically important, just knowing how much it ticks off Iran - that a neighboring Muslim state would open an embassy of the hated Zionists - makes it all worth it.

Benny Morris on a "secular, democratic Palestine"

The leading "new historian" tells it like it is :

The Palestinian national movement started life with a vision and goal of a Palestinian Muslim Arab-majority state in all of Palestine — a one-state “solution” — and continues to espouse and aim to establish such a state down to the present day. Moreover, and as a corollary, al-Husseini, the Palestinian national leader during the 1930s and 1940s; the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which led the national movement from the 1960s to Yasser Arafat’s death in November, 2004; and Hamas today — all sought and seek to vastly reduce the number of Jewish inhabitants in the country, in other words, to ethnically cleanse Palestine. Al-Husseini and the PLO explicitly declared the aim of limiting Palestinian citizenship to those Jews who had lived in Palestine permanently before 1917 (or, in another version, to limit it to those 50,000-odd Jews and their descendants). This goal was spelled out clearly in the Palestinian National Charter and in other documents. Hamas has been publicly more reserved on this issue, but its intentions are clear.
The Palestinian vision was never — as described by various Palestinian spokesmen in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to Western journalists — of a “secular, democratic Palestine” (though it certainly sounded more palatable than, say, the “destruction of Israel,” which was the goal it was meant to paper over or camouﬂage). Indeed, “a secular democratic Palestine” had never been the goal of Fatah or the so-called moderate groups that dominated the PLO between the 1960s and the 2006 elections that brought Hamas to power.
Middle East historian Rashid Khalidi has written that “in 1969 [the PLO] amended [its previous goal and henceforward advocated] the establishment of a secular democratic state in Palestine for Muslims, Christians and Jews, replacing Israel.” And Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah has written, in his recent book, One Country: “The PLO did ultimately adopt [in the late 1960s or 1970s] the goal of a secular, democratic state in all Palestine as its official stance.”
This is hogwash. The Palestine National Council (PNC) never amended the Palestine National Charter to the effect that the goal of the PLO was “a secular democratic state in Palestine.” The words and notion never figured in the charter or in any PNC or PLO Central Committee or Fatah Executive Committee resolutions, at any time. It is a spin invented for gullible Westerners and was never part of Palestinian mainstream ideology. The Palestinian leadership has never, at any time, endorsed a “secular, democratic Palestine.”
The PNC did amend the charter, in 1968 (not 1969). But the thrust of the emendation was to limit non-Arab citizenship in a future Arab-liberated Palestine to “Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion” — that is, 1917.
True, the amended charter also guaranteed, in the future State of Palestine, “freedom of worship and of visit” to holy sites to all, “without discrimination of race, colour, language or religion.” And, no doubt, this was music to liberal Western ears. But it had no connection to the reality or history of contemporary Muslim Arab societies. What Muslim Arab society in the modern age has treated Christians, Jews, pagans, Buddhists and Hindus with tolerance and as equals? Why should anyone believe that Palestinian Muslim Arabs would behave any differently?
Western liberals like, or pretend, to view Palestinian Arabs, indeed all Arabs, as Scandinavians, and refuse to recognize that peoples, for good historical, cultural and social reasons, are different and behave differently in similar or identical sets of circumstances.

That last sentence could be the slogan of this blog.

Read the whole article.

Selectively hearing the Pope's words

One of the interesting things that occur when the Pope speaks is not only that his words are examined exhanstively, but that the people who interpret his words show their own biases.

This occurs on all sides - there are plenty of Israelis as well as Arabs who are quick to criticize the Pope's choice of words. To give one example, some Israelis were not happy with the Pope talking about Jews "killed" instead of "murdered" in reference to the Holocaust, although as Batya points out, Yad Vashem uses the even more indirect word "perished."

The news media, however, pretend to have no biases. So when they start interpreting the words of the pontiff, we can see exactly where they are coming from.

From the Times of London:

Pope criticises 'tragic' West Bank barrier
Pope Benedict XVI today lamented the "tragic" building by Israel of the West Bank separation barrier in a speech to Palestinians at a refugee camp in Bethlehem in the shadow of the 25ft structure.

In sentiments that are sure to anger Jerusalem – who had blocked the building of a stage for the Pope next to the concrete and steel wall – the pontiff said the barrier was a symbol of the stalemate in relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Towering over us... is a stark reminder of the stalemate that relations between Israelis and Palestinians seem to have reached – the wall," he told a crowd at the Aida refugee camp.

“In a world where more and more borders are being opened up – to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges – it is tragic to see walls still being erected,” he said.
“How earnestly we pray for an end to the hostilities that have caused this wall to be built."

It doesn't sound to me like the Pope is criticizing the security barrier - it sounds more like he is lamenting the terrorism that forced Israel to build the security barrier.

Somehow, the Times of London chose to interpret Benedict's words differently.

Perhaps because they are more bothered by the wall than by the terrorism that spawned it?

What could be worse than the "Nakba"?

For Palestinian Arabs, the "nakba" has little to do with the creation of hundreds of thousand of refugees and everything to do with the establishment of a Jewish state. Hence their Nakba celebrations are timed to coincide with Israel Independence Day (and the anniverary of the UN Partition of Palestine) and not with, for example, the events at Deir Yassin.

The leader of the Islamic Jihad just confirmed this:

Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Abdullah Ramadan Shallah said Palestinian recognition of Israel would be "more dangerous than the Nakba of 1948", the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Wednesday.
In a speech delivered by telephone for an event in Gaza on Tuesday, Shallah said: "What is more dangerous than the Palestinian people's Nakba is that the ones with the rights recognize their enemies and deny their own rights. Everything that is happening in Jerusalem is the result of the deals, agreements and negotiations with the Zionist enemy."

To the West, they will whine about Israeli massacres and atrocities and the "refugee" problem and use them as reasons to vilify Israel. In the minds of Arabs, however, the existence of a Jewish state in an all-but-ignored backwater of what they had lazily considered to be Arab land is the real crime, and everything else is a smokescreen to try to eliminate that aberration. Sometimes the methods sound peaceful, and sometimes aggressive, but the end goal has been consistent. The pain that the Arabs feel from Israel is not physical but rather its very existence is an affront to their manhood and their pride.

No amount of concessions will ever mollify that.

How not to clean a gun

From Ma'an:

A young Palestinian woman from the southern West Bank town of Beit Ummar was shot and died Wednesday when her fiancé misfired his gun while cleaning the weapon.

The 20-year-old woman and her 22-year-old fiancé have not been identified.

Neighbors say the man is a security officer in one of the Palestinian Authority’s security services. Several shots were heard as the man was reportedly cleaning his handgun. One of the shots hit his fiancé, who was killed instantly

.The Zionists make the Palestinian Arabs sound like they are dirty, but this one is so concerned with cleanliness that he kept cleaning his gun even while it was firing bullets at his fiancee!

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 75.

Iran TV: "Swine flu an American/Zionist plot"

Insanity from the Land of the Mullahs: (via MEMRI)

Reporter: Every so often, diseases develop in different corners of the world, and disappear after wreaking damage to the tune of billions of dollars. After avian flu, the time has come for pigs. It is a disease that afflicts pigs, but because of the physiological similarity between humans and pigs, this disease afflicts humans as well. Now, the main actors in this great movie must go into action. The director has fulfilled his role very well, and gathered the boldest and most famous actors for this blockbuster.

The international news networks air the trailers of this movie for free. With the outbreak of this disease, the American president went into action, and said in a sensational speech: "My government has consulted health officials, and they have not advised the closing of the U.S. borders."

In his speech, Barak Obama mentioned a medicine called Tamiflu – but what exactly is Tamiflu? Who are the compassionate manufacturers of this medicine? This great pharmacist is none other than Rumsfeld, the former American secretary of defense. He is one of the shareholders, and an active and influential member on the board of directors of Gilead Science, which is the main provider of medicine for this disease.

It should be noted that the Gilead Sciences is a Jewish company. Its name, in Hebrew means "holy place," and all its shareholders are Zionists.

Dr. Ali-Reza Mehrabi, Shaid Beheshti University: The United States is one of the few countries with an arsenal of viruses. It is one of the countries with the largest arsenals of smallpox.

[...]

It is interesting that last year, [Rumsfeld] bought, if I'm not mistaken, 18 billion dollars worth of new Gilead stocks.

[...]

If we accept the assumption that work was conducted in a laboratory in Mexico – whether in a pig farm or some other place – the mere fact that this substance found its way out, even if by mistake, shows that the U.S. is conducting experiments in a peripheral country, rather than on its own soil. In this case, the U.S. might have lost control.

(h/t Suzanne)

Men's fashions under attack in Saudi Arabia

From Arab News:

An official at the Saudi Arabian Airlines once prevented a young man dressed in Bermuda [shorts] to board his Riyadh-bound plane on the grounds he was not properly dressed.
Some youths dressed in Bermudas were prevented from entering hospitals even during times of emergency.
As a reaction to this fast spreading fashion among young men, calls have been made to draft a new law specifying the least minimum specifications for male clothes which could be socially acceptable. The calls were meant to restore the sense of decorum to the outfits men wear in public places.
Sheikh Saleh Al-Shamrani, a teacher at the Scholarly Institute for Islamic Studies in Jeddah, described the tight trousers and sleeveless open shirts as “contrary to men’s ethics”.
“It seems that every age has its fashion. Very often we are confused between men and women because of the dress they wear,” he said. Al-Shamrani stressed that the thobe (Arab garment) and Shumag (head dress) are for men while the Abaya and the skirt and blouse are for women. “If men give up this dress to dress like women they will be damned,” he said recalling the Prophet’s (pbuh) Hadith warning against men acting like women and vise versa.
He called for punishing such kind of men because they drifted away from the natural instinct and recalled another Hadith which says “kick them out of your homes”.
Asked how to treat men dressed like women in public places, Al-Shamrani said they should be taken away from these places to be taught the right behavior and the proper dressing sense.
“The alternative punishment like asking them to memorize the Qur’an or attend congregational prayers for a month will be a suitable punishment for them,” Al-Shamrani added.

So according to Saudis, studying the Quran is a punishment?

Conspiracy theory of the day: The artificial earthquake

A (presumably Arab) "expert in Israeli affairs" warned that Israel planned to create an artificial earthquake to demolish the Al Aqsa Mosque.

The evil Zionists are apparently using a rock-melting chemical to destabilize the Temple Mount and to ultimately cause its collapse.

It seems that the Jews have tested their localized artificial earthquake technology in the Western Negev and near Eilat.

I don't know about this one. It seems to me that if Israel could cause earthquakes at will, they would be wiser to direct it towards Natanz. Not that I would be terribly upset if the Muslim desecrations on the Temple Mount would happen to collapse due to an act of God.

Casualties of Truth

(This is the article that I wrote as an op-ed, that was inexplicably not published as planned. Much of it was beautifully rewritten by a prominent writer and author.)

For three weeks in December 2008-January 2009, Israel and Hamas fought a war in the Gaza Strip after Hamas announced it was abandoning the ceasefire and began escalated rocket and mortar attacks on Israel.

There is one fact about that war which people around the world think they know: there were about 1400 Palestinians killed in the war and most or almost all of them were civilians, mainly women an children.

This claim, however, is false and demonstrably so on the basis of careful research using publicly available and reliable materials. Indeed, a group of bloggers, including the author, have shown already that more than 30 percent of the claimed "civilian" casualties were in fact, to use the polite word, armed militants or members of Hamas-led security forces. And the number of such combatants we are discovering is rising every day.

While Hamas and other Palestinian political groups were using alleged civilian casualties to bolster their case with international public opinion, they demonstrably knew otherwise. In fact, they publicly bragged about the military activities of those they labeled innocent civilian bystanders.

The basis for many claims about the distribution of casualties was in a March report <http://pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/list.pdf> by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). Widely covered‹and credulously accepted‹in the Western media, the report was a seemingly comprehensive, detailed list of every death. The bottom line: : the name, gender, age, location, and job of each person is detailed. Most importantly, the PCHR claimed 1180 of the alleged 1414 victims were civilians.

Our team cross-checked the names listed by PCHR with lists of "resisters" compiled by the Al- Mezan Center for Human Rights <http://www.mezan.org/en/index.php> , lists of "martyrs" published by Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and other militant groups in Gaza, as well as from the Ma'an News Agency, and other Palestinian sources.

The IDF released its own report on casualties from Operation Cast Lead, saying that there were 1166 killed in Gaza, of whom 709 were known Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants. The IDF did not release their list of casualties, so we could not check specifics against the PCHR claims.

Our results so far show that at least, if all armed police are counted, 391 of the 1180 people who PCHR classifies as "civilians," were, in fact, militants.

PCHR's criteria to determine exactly who is a "militant" are unclear. Sometimes they speak of "active combatants" but at other times they state, accurately, that any members of armed groups, such as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, would be considered legitimate targets under international law.

The team has identified members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, the PFLP and the DFLP considered "civilians" by the PCHR. Examples include Adib Harb (brigade commander for the PRC), 'Eid 'Oda al-Shandi (field commander in the al-Qassam Brigades) and even senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan.

The IDF has categorized most or all of the Hamas police force as "Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives" and therefore as legal targets. The PCHR takes strong exception <http://pchrgaza.ps/files/PressR/English/2008/44-2009.html> to this categorization, saying that Hamas policemen are civilians.

Even by the PCHR's own criteria, our research <http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-of-those-civilians-killed-in-gaza.html> has detailed proof identifying over 64% of the police killed in Operation Cast Lead some 180 of them out of 283, were also members of militant groups, predominantly the al-Qassam Brigades acting as combatants against Israel.

Certainly, the PCHR is aware of the affiliations of many of not all of the victims in Gaza . For example, the PRC al-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades‹the most extremist group in Gaza which has been reportedly linked to al-Qaida--published a list <http://www.moqawmh.com/ara/index.php?act=News&id=2583> of its 18 of its "martyrs" on January 22. Yet nine of them, including two commanders, were classified as "civilian" by the PCHR months later. Similarly, an al-Qassam Brigades' leader famous for developing the Qassam rocket, Amir Yousef Al-Mansy, was also called a "civilian." It strains credulity to think that the PCHR was unaware that they were militants engaged in fighting Israel.

Why, then, did they classify so many known militants as civilians? One can only conclude that the reason is to deceive the media.

Such a high number of Al Qassam members among the police killed indicates that Hamas itself does not distinguish between its so-called civilian and military wings. Effectively, Hamas considers its police to be the same as its military force. If Hamas does not make such a distinction, why shouldn't everyone else conclude that its entire police force is a legitimate target?

In addition to the police, we have identified 117 other militants that the PCHR classified as "civilian." None of our findings are inconsistent with the IDF report on Gaza casualties.

While the PCHR misrepresents the facts about Palestinian casualties it makes other statements which reveal the highly politicized nature of the group that show it is not a human rights organization. For example, it consistently uses the phrase "IOF" ("Israel Occupation Forces") instead of Israel Defense Forces, the proper name of Israel's military, in trying to make Israel look as bad as possible.

The PCHR's influence cannot be overstated. UN groups routinely quote PCHR figures and reports. News media around the world rely on organizations like the PCHR to give them accurate information about what happens in Gaza. The PCHR presents itself as an unbiased party and is taken as such in media reports. The truth, however, is quite different.

Israel's war in Gaza was not aimed at causing civilian losses, nor was it a war of "occupation," as the PCHR would have it, but of defense. The fact that the casualty figures are being misrepresented is a demonstration of the fact that charges made against Israel are false. We are confident that as our research continues we will find many more soldiers of Hamas and other groups waging war against Israel disguised as civilians.

(updated numbers 6/12/09)

Mystified and frustrated

As my readers know, I have been leading a group effort to expose the lies that the PCHR has continually been telling the media about the number of civilians killed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. The research has been painstaking, time consuming and completely transparent. In a large part, it has also been already successful, and we have found hundreds of so-called "civilians" who were members of terror organizations.

Unfortunately, we have been far less successful at publicizing our findings.

Every effort I have made to reach out to people doing similar research, in order to consolidate findings, has been met with silence. Every effort to publicize it through the media has been ignored.

I thought that would change as I was corresponding with an op-ed editor at a major Israeli newspaper about publishing an article about these results. The last I heard was that they were planning to run it, and they wanted a picture to go with my (pen) name. I politely declined and they have not returned my emails since then. (The article, which was graciously edited to the point of a beautiful rewrite by a well-known author and blogger, will follow this post.)

I just don't get it.

Is it not newsworthy? Is it automatically suspect because it originated at a blog? Are people turned off by the blog name? Do the other researchers feel threatened by "competition"?

There are at least two major findings we have, and many smaller but significant findings. We have so far identified some 287 members of various militant groups that the PCHR classified as "civilian" - far more than the number of militants that the PCHR identified initially. And perhaps more improtantly, we have identified that nearly two thirds of the "policemen" killed by Israel were members of the al-Qassam Brigades or other terror groups, making Israel's legal case for attacking "policemen" much stronger. We have also identified child terrorists, we've started some work towards identifying human shields, we've found indirect evidence that some people who died of natural causes during Cast Lead were counted as being killed by Israel, and we've found other mistakes in the PCHR totals.

One would think that the openness of this project and the fact that it is the only one of its kind where each finding is sourced - well over 300 links by now - would overcome any reticence about trusting the research. We also have no ulterior motive - I am not doing this to get more hits to the blog, I make no money off this blog, and I don't care if my blog title is associated with the research (although I would want to give full credit to the others who contributed should they desire it.)

We simply want the truth to be known.

I'll keep trying. There are a couple of other ideas that we have not yet explored. But I have to admit that I am mystified, and a bit frustrated.

Arab League boycott members meet in Damascus

From Al-Quds:

On Tuesday in a hotel in Damascus, Syria, the eighty-second conference of liaison officers to the regional offices of the Arab boycott of Israel opened with the participation of 14 Arab countries.

Eight countries were absent from the meeting, namely Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania, Oman, Bahrain, Comoros, Somalia and Djibouti.

The three-day conference will discuss a number of topics relating to the amendment of some items of the general principles of the boycott and the addition of companies in breach of these principles through their support for the Israeli economy and put it on the blacklist. The conference will discuss "the lifting of the ban on companies that have committed themselves to the terms of the boycott that were named on the black list," according to organizers.

The conference meets twice a year to draw up a "black list" of names of Israeli companies, or companies that do work in Israel, to be boycotted. Since the normalization of relations between a number of Arab countries and Israel over the past twenty years, the effectiveness of the Office of the boycott has been reduced.

The article doesn't list the names of the countries that attended, so it is unclear if, for example, Saudi Arabia or the UAE was there. Both countries had agreed to drop the boycott under US pressure for their entry into the World Trade Organization, and both apparently reneged.

It looks like the PA also attended. They had attended recent conferences.

The PalArab nutcase echo chamber

Sheikh Taissir Tamimi, the head of the PA's religious court, is completely insane.

For example, a couple of years ago he said "Israel is trying to hurt the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people also by means of exporting AIDS, drug trafficking, promiscuous norms, and making prostitution legal."

But he has no independent way of knowing that his consistent and absurd vilification of Israel is a bit crazy. His rants attract a great audience, his weekly screeds against Israel will get written up in the Arabic press approvingly, and he has fans who adore his crazy rhetoric. No one in the PA will ever stand up and say, "You know, this guy has a few screws loose."

The reason being that no one wants his crazy supporters to be angry at them.

So Tamimi, along with his similarly nutty Muslim and Greek Orthodox clerics, regularly gets only positive feedback as his rhetoric keeps getting ratcheted up. He knows that the crazier he speaks, the more popular he will become among Palestinian Arabs.

Every once in a while, the insanity that we get so used to in the Palestinian Authority - the craziness that is happily tolerated by the West as a minor issue that can be ignored - runs up against reality, and it forces people to notice, if only fleetingly, that these guys really are nuts.

Sheikh Tamimi, meet the Pope:

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Notre Dame Hotel in east Jerusalem Monday night for a meeting with the heads of all religious represented in Israel was cut short by an unpleasant incident, after a Palestinian sheik interrupted his speech.
The meeting was attended by heads of the Rabbinate, Vatican State Secretary Cardinal Tarkisio Bertoni, heads of the various churches in Israel, Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal and Sheikh Taiseer al-Tamimi, head of the Palestinian Authority's Sharia Courts.
Patriarch Twal began the ceremony and then invited the pope to speak. Both clergymen spoke of the importance of unity, brotherhood and peace.
The pope's speech was suddenly interrupted by Sheikh Tamimi, who began crying out at his holiness, asking him to "see to a just peace. A just peace means a Palestinian state in which Israel will stop killing women and children and destroying mosques, like it did in Gaza."
Those present in the hall attempted to silence him, but he continued, slamming Israel for "destroying Palestinian cities and erecting settlements on Palestinian land. Jerusalem will remain the Palestinian people's capital," he said in Arabic, and called on the heads of the other religions present to "defend the Palestinians and their lands."
The pope left the room immediately after Tamimi was done, passing on the traditional exchange of gifts.

The Vatican responded:

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said: "The speech by Sheikh Taysir Tamimi was not scheduled by the organisers of the meeting. In a meeting dedicated to dialogue, this intervention was a direct negation of what a dialogue should be. We hope that such an incident will not damage the mission of the pope aiming at promoting peace and also interreligious dialogue."

It is not easy to tick off the Pope.

Is this how a cleric speaks to the head of the Roman Catholic Church? Tamimi is so completely clueless because of the echo chamber of approval that surrounds him - even among the so-called "moderates" of the PA - that he honestly thinks that he can do whatever he wants and will only get adoration.

And the funny thing is, within the Palestinian Arab community, his prestige will probably only increase after this.

Our tax dollars helping Hezbollah

Ha'aretz reports:

Lebanon arrested five people over the weekend suspected of belonging to an intelligence cell transmitting information about Hezbollah to Israel, the most recent arrests in a two-month crackdown apparently aided by American training and equipment.

...The United States has provided $1 billion in aid since 2006, including $410 million in security assistance to the Lebanese military and police. But U.S. officials have said they would review aid to Lebanon depending on the results of the June 7 election, which could oust the U.S.-backed government.

Israel has expressed reservations about American aid to the Lebanese army and security services, saying those organizations will ultimately be unable to contend with Hezbollah and that any aid is liable to serve Hezbollah's interests.

Let's see if we understand this: The US gives hundreds of millions to the Lebanese for security. The US presumably wants that money to be used against Hezbollah, not to help it. But in the end it is used to strengthen Hezbollah.

How exactly did this episode advance US strategic interests?

How often do we see the US or EU give money to questionable Arab regimes in order to "strengthen" them against the "radicals" only to find out that these regimes had more in common with the radicals than the Westerners had imagined?

The idea that giving money actually buys influence from people who hate you to begin with is perhaps one of the more naive aspects of Western foreign policy. And yet, the same mistakes keep repeating.

Pope politely did not call for PalArab state

Even though news headlines are saying otherwise, Pope Benedict did not call for a Palestinian Arab state in his address upon his arrival in Israel.

Ma'an writes:

Speaking at a red carpet welcoming ceremony, the pontiff called for renewed efforts for a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

"I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstanding difficulties, so that both peoples may live in peace in a homeland of their own, within secure and internationally recognized borders," said Benedict.

The pope did not make reference to a Palestinian state in his first foray into the Palestinian-Israeli arena.

However, the Vatican is on the record as supporting a Palestinian Arab state. The New York Times notices his word choice and dismisses its significance:

While he did not use the word “state,” he made clear in a brief speech that he was underscoring the Vatican’s previous support for the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit with a stronger resonance imparted by the setting and timing of his remarks within minutes of arriving in Israel.

If Livni was still prime minister, chances are that the Pope would have had no qualms about using the word "state."

Which should be a lesson in diplomacy for Israeli leaders.

May 2009 rocket calendar

Q=Qassam (may include Katyusha-style rockets)
QS=Qassam landing short in Gaza
M=Mortar
F=Fatality (F=Gazan, F=Israeli)
(G)=Grad (included in Qassam count, not consistent yet)

MS=Mortar landing short
P - unnamed "projectiles"
(Paren) indicates unconfirmed Palestinian claims

* - Fatal non-rocket attack

K=Katyushas from Lebanon

May 2009

United Palestinian Emirates?

From Ma'an:

An Israeli researcher specializing in Arab-Israeli affairs at Bar-Ilan University, Dr Mottie Kedar, asserted on Monday that he would submit to the Israeli Knesset this week a proposal suggesting the establishment of a “Palestinian emirate state.”

Kedar told local Palestinian radio station “Ar-Raya FM,” which is based in Ramallah, that several Knesset members and party leaders welcomed his idea that he has worked on for some ten years studying the nature of Palestinian-Israeli relations.

“Today I promise both peoples that their complicated question will be solved through this proposal. My proposal suggests the appointment of a king or emir or caliph in each Palestinian city or village, which will have its own systems and its own army. These emirates could become richer than the Gulf states if the Palestinians wake up and invest in the gas reserve near the Gaza beaches."

However, Kedar rejected a withdrawal from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He said Israel would not allow these hilltops to become bases for Hizbullah.

As for Jerusalem, he said it would never be negotiable, and that if any Israeli prime minister were to seriously negotiate over Jerusalem, he would be assassinated immediately because Jerusalem is a red line "burning anyone who comes close to it."

This is a bit beyond simple autonomy but it is in intriguing idea that could instantly give Palestinian Arabs statehood, the promise of an economy and a much more direct way of taking responsibility for their own lives.

Which means it doesn't stand a chance.

They are still looking for how Arafat was "poisoned"

Last month I mentioned a new "commission," headed by Yasir Arafat's nephew, to determine that Arafat was poisoned by the nefarious and evil Jooos.

Apparently, they are not alone.

Farouk Kaddoumi, PLO political leader in Tunisia, is also forming a similar commission:

Head of the Political Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Farouk Kaddoumi, in a press statement released on Monday said that the search is still underway to determine the tools used in the "poison" the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

And on the formation of a commission charged with investigating the circumstances of the mysterious death of Arafat, Kaddoumi said "I have no knowledge of the formation of this Committee, but in the coming days, I will announce the formation of a commission of inquiry.

"As is well known, (former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is the one who poisoned Arafat."

So they know who did it and how it was done. All they need is.... the tiniest shred of proof.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank....

Yesterday:

Quantities of homemade explosives were found in homes and mosques in Qalqiliya, a city in the northern West Bank, on Saturday, according to Palestinian Authority security services spokesperson Adnan Dmeiri.

He also insisted that the Palestinian Authority will not allow manufacturing and storing of explosives in residential neighborhoods, whatever the justification, because it endangers residents’ lives.

Dmeiri did not name any particular faction thought to be responsible for storing the explosives, however, he highlighted that statements were found near the explosives bearing the signature of Hamas’ militant wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. He claimed that the statements included defamation against the Palestinian Authority.

Today:

A military court sentenced a Hamas militants in Nablus sentenced to one and a half years for possession of weapons and planning 'of a coup against the Palestinian Authority' in the West Bank.

So when you read things about how Hamas is willing to (temporarily) accept a peace plan engineered by the PA, keep in mind that they are planning to do to the West Bank what they did to Gaza, and that the PA is likely to be nearly as ineffective next time as it was last time.

(It is worthwhile to note that the PA did not feel threatened by the explosives found in the first story quoted - they assume that those are earmarked against Israel, and their concern was more for safety issues than for worries about a Hamas coup.)

In the Palestinian Arab universe, very few are passionate about Fatah - but many are passionate about Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups. Decades of indoctrination against Israel and Jews have resulted in a profound ambivalence about any peace process, and even PA television glorifies "resistance" and not peace. Gaza became a terror statelet because popular passion was on Hamas' side, and even though a large number of Gazans were ambivalent and nervous about Hamas, they weren't keen on the Fatah government either - the only pro-Fatah passion being for the the Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades terrorists.

The billions that the West is pouring into the PA (most of which indirectly helps Hamas anyway) is money that is backing an ephemeral pseudo-government that will ultimately fall to Islamic extremists.

Hamas "civilian" of the day

The EoZ PCHR research team, tentatively titled the "haqq" team (Arabic for "truth',) continues to unearth more and more so-called "civilians" from the PCHR list that are anything but.

Today's civilian is #267 of the PCHR list of dead Gazans, Abdullah Talal Ibrahim Aal-Sane'. Intrepid researcher Suzanne found a picture of Mr. Aal-Sane':

Known as "Abu Hamza," Aal-Sane' was a sniper for the Al Qassam Brigades.

Doesn't he look like an innocent civilian to you?

(Kudos to Suzanne, who is methodically Googling the Arabic names of every victim and discovering facts like these.)

We are now up to 282 fake "civilians" from the PCHR list, and we are up to 62.5% (177/283, including ten that the PCHR listed) of all the "policemen" listed there being known members of the Al Qassam Brigades or the PRC.

The Jewish "objective"

An art critic in Kentucky named Andrew Adler writes about the challenges of being Jewish and being an objective observer:

How do I begin talking about an issue that is so close to me not just as a critic, but as a Jew? Consider the following:

In the Belgian city of Antwerp, the Flanders Opera is mounting a production of Saint-Saëns' "Samson et Delilah" in which the Philistines are portrayed as Westerners, with Samson and his fellow Hebrew fighters dressed as Arabs.

In London, Caryl Churchill's eight-minute "Seven Jewish Children — A Play for Gaza" has generated intense controversy over its alleged anti-Semitism and Churchill's unabashed sympathies for the Palestinian cause.
Meanwhile, in Israel, there continues to be an official ban on performances of music by Richard Wagner. On the rare occasions when orchestra conductors like Daniel Barenboim defy that ban, audience reaction ranges from grumbling acceptance to overt, audible outrage. It's been this way for decades.
The tension between religion and art has always been present, and Jews by no means have a monopoly on perceived prejudice rendered through culture. Yet there are times when being Jewish — and all the hypersensitivity accompanying that identity — seems to run counter to the cultural independence we hold so precious. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if we Jews have become so accustomed to the role of history's victim that we resist a better kind of aesthetic progress.

After some exposition, the critic finds that he, at least, can be objective:

I can hear a magnificent work like "Die Meistersinger von N√ºrnburg," capped by Wagner's plea to keep pure his "holy German art" in the midst of scurrilous outsiders, without having to cringe at the anti-Semitic back story. I can read and evaluate the worth of "Seven Jewish Children" without being derailed by Churchill's brand of Mideast politics. And I would hope that I could see that Antwerp production of "Samson et Delilah" without feeling as though I were being victimized yet again.

That, I hope, is art's truest imperative: to be brave, and encourage a bit of bravery in all of us.

Is this bravery?

It is perhaps unfair to pick on this writer, because I know nothing about his identification with Judaism, but too often one will find people who are Jewish and who will happily jettison the emotional aspects of their Jewish identity in the name of objectivity, or modernity, or even-handedness. Rarely does one get the idea that they are struggling on an emotional level with a deep attachment to Judaism. They are Jews, they freely admit this, but inevitably they decide that their Jewish identity is not as important as - or, often, is redefined as - secularism.

The result is that Jews who actually feel strongly about their religion and about defending it, whether culturally or politically, are put on the defensive and feel they have to play by the rules set by the secular Jewish majority.

Take a look at this article in the New York Times about Israel's restoration of Jerusalem as the Jewish capital of the world:

Israel is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multi-year development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here, part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital.

As part of the plan, former garbage dumps and once derelict wastelands are being cleared and turned into lush gardens and parks, now already accessible to visitors who can take in the majestic views, along with new signs and displays that point out significant points of Jewish history.

The parts of the city being developed were captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, but their annexation by Israel was never recognized abroad. As part of the effort, archaeologists are finding indisputable evidence of ancient Jewish life here. Yet Palestinian officials and institutions tend to dismiss the finds as part of an effort to build a Zionist history.

But notice who the article quotes that are against the plan:

Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, a leftist Israeli group that supports a two-state solution, contended that the plan aimed to create "an ideological tourist park that will determine Jewish dominance."

Daniel Seidemann, the founder of Ir Amim (City of Nations), an Israeli association dedicated to sharing Jerusalem, points to the Palestinian village of Silwan, built on the ruins of what is widely believed to be the ancient capital of the biblical King David. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in the region, and is, according to Ir David -- which sponsors digs there -- "the place where it all began."

Jews are in the forefront of trying to stop Israel from beautifying, reclaiming and re-establishing Jerusalem as the center of Jewish history and longing. For these people, Jerusalem is not a Jewish city in an meaningful sense, and their version of Judaism is so watered-down that the idea of severing it from the Jewish state is not only tolerable but desirable.

One will never find Muslims who are so "even-handed" or "generous" with their claims. One will not find Christians who are so anxious to give up their holy sites for abstract concepts of an illusory peace that will never occur. But one cannot open up a newspaper without finding such Jews who consider themselves so "brave" as to embrace the viewpoint of Israel's enemies and to jettison any vestige of emotional connection they might have once had with Judaism.

The reasons that Jews should control Jerusalem are, ultimately, emotional. Emotional arguments are considered acceptable and even admirable when made by Muslims, but the underlying theme of articles like this one is that enlightened Jews should be beyond such superstitious and backwards nonsense as truly caring about their religion and history.

This is perhaps the biggest problem in the Jewish world today - a complete dismissal by many Jews of the emotional aspects of the religion and peoplehood, and instead the use of their nominal (often accidental) "Judaism" as a weapon against the hopes and dreams of their co-religionists who actually care.

Saudi judge faults women for domestic violence

From Arab News:

A Jeddah court judge’s approval of husbands slapping their wives on the face if they spend money lavishly on unnecessary things triggered a hue and cry during a seminar on domestic violence here recently.
“If a person gives SR1,200 to his wife and she spends SR900 to purchase an abaya (the black gown) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” said Judge Hamad Al-Razine.
The judge made this comment in the presence of Princess Adila bint Abdullah, deputy chairperson of the National Family Safety Program, who attended the seminar on the role of judicial and security institutions in preventing domestic violence.
Al-Razine was explaining the causes of an increase in domestic violence in the country, adding that women were also equally responsible. “But nobody puts even a fraction of blame on them,” he said before making the controversial comment.
Al-Razine also pointed out that women’s indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country.

This is the same logic that Arab men use to justify terrorism, riots and any sort of violence: they are always provoked into doing it and the victims deserve it.

It should come as no surprise that the same justifications used for Arab terrorism can be used for abusing women as well.

Today's insult to Islam

From The Malaysian Insider:

PENANG, May 8 — A lecturer with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) today lodged a police report over a video clip which allegedly insulted and belittled Islam.
The lecturer in the USM Communications Department, Prof Madya Muhammad Hatta Muhammad Tabut said the video clip lasting 1 minute 23 seconds was posted in the website YouTube by someone under the name ‘Streeticeshark’ about two months ago.

“The video clip shows a shirtless man wearing jeans praying toward a verse taken from the Al-Quran and saying, ‘sabda Rasulullah (saw.), marilah kita semua orang Melayu makan babi’ (the Rasulullah (Prophet) said, let us all the Malays eat pork).

“The video clip also showed him mimicking the ‘azan’ or Muslim call for prayer which had been watched by 9,032 visitors to the international video-archiving website,” he told reporters after making the police report at the Jalan Patani Police Station, here.

Muhammad Hatta said he had made an investigation and the Internet Protocol (IP) of the address showed that it was registered in Kota Baharu, Kelantan. — Bernama

So, of course, I have to bring it to you:

Not that I understand a word of it...

"More Zionist than the Zionists"

From Firas Press:

Mahdi Akef, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, defended Hezbollah, saying that Egypt had a duty to thank the party instead of to investigate members of the [alleged terror] cell, which was recently captured by Egyptian authorities. Akef also launched a scathing attack on all Arab regimes, saying they «have become more Zionist than the Zionists».

Akef said in a conference held by the parliamentary bloc of the Muslim Brotherhood under the title «Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque and the risks of the City», the «the duty to Egypt is to thank the Party of God, rather than investigating the cell. It was not the intention of Mr. Hassan Nasrallah to send vandalism or assault, but to support Palestinian resistance, which Egypt can not do, we have failed to do ».

Akef, however, expressed confidence in the innocence of the members of Hezbollah cell saying: «What is happening in spite of all the media noise about Hezbollah cell in Egypt, I am confident in the integrity of the Egyptian judiciary, and I'm sure charges against them will be dropped as happened in several cases beforehand ».

Akef launched a scathing attack on all Arab regimes, saying: «all the Arab regimes have become more Zionist than the Zionists, and have no agenda, the agenda of non-surrender. The Arab [peace] initiative does not achieve anything, and Jerusalem is destroyed and its people are leaving, and Egypt, its position is weak and shameful».

These guys are a heartbeat away from taking over Egypt.

PalArab news roundup 5-8-09

A Chinese newspaper reported that Hamas was ready to sign a ceasefire with Israel today, but this was strongly denied by Hamas.

An 18-month old girl in Khan Younis was shot in the head during a "family dispute," seriously injuring her.

The consensus among Palestinian Arab observers is that the Hamas member who was "martyred during a special Jihad mission" yesterday was really murdered in Hamas infighting.

The PA quasi government is gearing up to celebrate Nakba Day on May 14, the anniversary of something or other. It is interesting that they never commemorate the anniversary of Jordan's annexation of the West Bank.

Entertainment news!

The Cleveland Leader reports:

It was just last week that singer Chris Brown was rumored to have been bouncing between TWO new girlfriends, but this Tuesday it was a completely different story. According to X17, a source reveals that Chris and Rihanna reunited in the studio to work on their joint project.

The reunion, however, was short-lived - Chris packed up and headed home to Virginia on Wednesday. On this same day, Rihanna is said to have visited a psychic, "Madame Ziyon".

My mom's psychic abilities are pretty incredible, but I didn't know she was into celebrity readings.

Doublespeak from the UN

A press release from the United Nations in Syria:

Palestine refugees in Syria support peace through football

Thousands of Palestine refugee football fans gathered across the region last night to witness a moment of historic proportions as the Palestine national team competed valiantly against Belgium team FC Molenbeek Brussels.

Closer to home, in Yarmouk, over two hundred Palestine refugees gathered at Jarmaq school alongside representatives of the local community to watch the live broadcast. This event was one of many planned for 2009-2010 to pay tribute to six decades of UNRWA achievement.

“Tonight’s game demonstrated the power of sport in bringing together diverse groups of people who have a common interest in enhancing the welfare of Palestine refugees in Syria”, said Ms. Lisa Gilliam, Acting Director of UNRWA Affairs in Syria.

Dubbed ‘Goal for Peace’, the event saw emotions running high amongst spectators, most of whom were relishing in their first opportunity to see their national team play live. Although the Palestine national team fought determinedly, victory narrowly eluded them in the second half of the match, scoring only three goals to the Belgians four.

Supported by member states of the European community, the event was incorporated into the broader ‘EU–UNRWA Partnership for Peace and Humanity’ initiative.

In addition to the excitement generated by this match in Yarmouk, 7,000 people gathered in Brussels to promote sport as a tool for development and peace. Proceeds generated from a performance by Sabreen, a popular Palestinian musical group, will go directly to support the UNRWA Scholarship Endowment Fund.

The word "peace" is freely used, but what exactly does it mean in this context? Certainly not peace with Israel. Is it peace with the EU? Peace between Palestinian Arab factions? Hard to say.

Also, think about the phrase "six decades of UNRWA achievement." If the UNRWA is meant to solve the refugee problem from 1948, the fact that it still exists sixty years later is hardly an achievement - it is a colossal failure.

Unless you consider the establishment of a huge bureaucratic welfare system dedicated to perpetuating the stateless status of a single group of people and their descendants, unique among all the refugee groups in the history of the world, to be a great achievement.

PA reduces salaries to Nativity terrorists

The Palestinian Authority, whose budget comes largely from Western countries, has been paying salaries to the Church of the Nativity terrorists for years.

For the past two months, however, they reduced the money they rewarded the terrorists with.

And the terrorists are whining about it.

From Palestine Today:

The government of Ramallah, for the second consecutive month, has cut the salaries of a number of Church of the Nativity fighters who had been deported to the Gaza Strip.

Ra'id Abayat (35 years old) is one who is affected by this: "This arbitrary decision was sudden and without warning, and it is a severe blow to the deportees, especially with the approach of the seventh anniversary of the deportation. "

Abayat criticized strongly the Government of Ramallah in a Palestinian daily newspaper, describing it as "a tool for executing the occupation's wishes..."

He added: "There was no justification for the salary cut. I am particularly dire need of money, I am the head of a family of 7 children, mostly in schools, and one of them mentally disabled. It is difficult for me to treat him which costs $100 per month. I am also suffering from back problems."

Another fighter from the Church of the Nativity, AH Hammoud (34 years old), is the breadwinner of the family of seven, described what happened as "unjust resolution", especially as it comes in the backdrop of the national dialogue to be held in Cairo.

Hammoud said: "We were expecting a reward from the government, marking the eighth anniversary if the operation in Bethlehem, and we were surprised by this sudden decision to cut our pay two months ago. I can assure you that there is no ambiguity in the subject, and that this was done deliberately."

For seven years, these people who desecrated one of Christianity's holiest shrines - including some Hamas members - have been rewarded by the Palestinian Authority. They were lauded as heroes at the time and they have been paid handsomely for their terror.

How many other terrorists are being paid by the moderate PA government out of our taxes?

Work accident!

Ma'an mentions:

One fighter from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades died Thursday during what leaders called a “special mission” in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

A statement from the group identified the man as 23-year-old Tala’at Ismail Al-Afefi, who reportedly died while carrying out a resistance attack from Gaza’s “playground of death.”

Since the report doesn't say he was killed by the Zionist entity, that means that poor Tala'at either blew himself up or was killed by one of his brave jihadist pals.

Also, a Palestinian Arab was stabbed to death near Ramallah on Tuesday.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 74.

Someone else crunching the PCHR numbers

It looks like there are other people besides our team who are debunking the PCHR death count. From The New Republic:

If the IDF's alternate numbers are accurate, they paint a very different picture in terms of the toll on civilian life. How is there such a big disparity between the two sets of numbers? Though the IDF has refused to elaborate in any detail on how it obtained its figures, insight into its methods can be gained in the cluttered basement home office in Toronto of retired Israeli intelligence officer Jonathan Dahoah Halevi. "PCHR's list is inaccurate," he asserts. "I get the impression they intentionally tried to inflate the civilian numbers."
He begins to rattle off indictments. "Why is Said Siyam"—the de facto defense minister of Hamas—"listed as a civilian?" he asks. "Muhammad Dasouki Dasliye. Do you know who he is?" Halevi says that Dasliye was a Palestinian Resistance Committee operative and suspect in the terrorist attack against three American security guards in Gaza in October 2003. "Nizar Rayan," Halevi chuckles. "He's a civilian?" In fact, news reports describe Rayan as a militant cleric who mentored suicide bombers and sent his own son on a suicide mission in 2001, killing two Israelis.
Halevi, a pugnacious father of two, is an insider, a former IDF analyst who works days as a counterterrorism consultant but counts Gaza fatalities in his free time. "It's an intellectual challenge," says the dark-haired, 44-year old, whose parents immigrated to Israel from Yemen. It will take him six months to research all 1,400 of PCHR's names, comparing them to a database of thousands of terrorist operatives he has compiled, as well as whatever he finds on the Internet.
As of last month, Halevi has a list of 171 people the PCHR defines as civilians that he claims he can prove are actually combatants affiliated with Hamas or other terrorist groups. His contention is based on a simple principle: When fighters die, they don't just leave behind a body, a family, and eyewitnesses—they leave a paper trail. Martyrdom posters, photographs of funerals, articles celebrating heroes' exploits, lists of payments to families—these sources help Halevi disprove that a particular fatality was a civilian as opposed to a fighter. Intelligence analysts around the world are following this paper trail, and they don't just work for the Shin Bet or CIA. In fact, in the era of the Internet, vast amounts of intelligence are available to anyone with fluent Arabic, a little training, and a lot of time and patience.
Halevi's macabre hobby began during Israel's 2002 Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli incursion into six West Bank cities that targeted Hamas and other terrorist cells responsible for a number of recent suicide bombings. Halevi was perplexed. "It made no sense that on the one hand, Palestinians claimed their fighters were performing valiantly, but at the same time they said they were being massacred." So the dogged and methodical Halevi compiled his own list of fatalities in the Jenin refugee camp. "I read everything I could get my hands on—militant web sites, articles, books of fighters' memories. I found that 65 percent of [Palestinians] killed in the Jenin refugee camp were terror operatives, including some children," he says gravely. The Palestinians later independently reduced their fatality number from an estimated 500 to 56.
It was addictive. Soon Halevi found himself spending all his free time cross-checking Palestinian fatality lists. In his opinion, the best and most trusted lists belonged to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and PCHR. "These data banks have an enormous influence," he says. "I found PCHR statistics in UN reports...The UN relies on them." So Halevi published dozens of articles on a popular Hebrew news sites, reporting his findings, always precise, never overstating his claim, but scathing nevertheless. Soon he found himself in a war of words with a B'stelem's spokeswoman, who wrote on Israel's News1 web site, "Halevi is exploiting a Palestinian family's tragedy for political gain" and "he dances on Palestinian blood." For his part, Halevi says both organizations are frequently inaccurate, and attributes their contortions to their political motives: "The former chairperson of the board of B'Tselem said in an interview that the organization's goal is a one-state solution. PCHR has the same goal. They reject Israel's existence as a Jewish state."
Halevi is already knee-deep in PCHR's latest list from Cast Lead. He has produced a spreadsheet with the names of 230 police fatalities cited by both the Gaza police department and PCHR. For 171 of these, he provides the name of the faction they fought for as well as brief biographies, such as "a munitions expert" or "arrested by Israel in 1993 for weapons acquisitions for suicide missions." Most of the 171 moonlighting policemen are listed as operatives in the Qassam Brigades, with others belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Resistance Committee.
"This information wasn't hard to find," Halevi says. Type one of the names into a Google search and up pops a web site with photos showing the Gaza cop sporting a martyr's headband and M-16. Halevi grants that many of these policemen did actually perform police duties like patrolling streets or directing traffic. "But then they get a call from their friend who says, 'Come on, it's time for a mission,'" Halevi says. "One of the police casualties was even affiliated with al-Qaeda."
Shaheen [of the PCHR] stands by his numbers. "The police force is totally civilian," he insists. While ten of the fighters on PCHR's list are described as policemen, more than 250 of those described as policemen are labeled civilians. Many Gazans enter the police force because they are poor and need the money, he explains. "I can assure you that all these people were working in police traffic or as guards."
Many of the disparities between the PCHR and IDF numbers seem to be definitional. The IDF has repeatedly stated that any member of Hamas security forces—armed or unarmed—is fair game. Shaheen has a much narrower definition of an uninvolved civilian: "According to international humanitarian law, all armed people are classified as militants and all the people who are unarmed [are civilians]," he says. So if the person was armed at the time of death—which he or his fieldworkers determine by investigating the bodies as they arrive at the hospital—he'll count them as a militant. If the person is not armed, his team will check with family members, neighbors, political parties and Palestinian armed factions to determine the deceased's status as a militant or a civilian. He also checks press releases issues by armed factions. "[The IDF] can say whatever they want," he says. "I mean, [these are] facts on the ground."
But even facts can be subjective. For example, Halevi accuses Shaheen's organization of mislabeling Hamas cleric Nizar Rayan as a civilian. Shaheen explains that Rayan was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home. There are jihadist posters of Rayan all over Gaza, and yet, "I cannot count him as a militant or fighter," Shaheen says. Rayan was unarmed with his wives and children when he was killed, Shaheen explains. "I cannot count this case as a fighter because he didn't participate as a fighter in the offensive. He was a civilian the whole time—going to the mosque, praying, coming back to his house."
Both agree, however, that the war does not end when the fighting stops. "In every war there are two components," says Halevi. "The first is the battle itself, defeating the other side, and the second is presenting the facts of what happened." If a country is not vigilant, he warns, "The other side will rewrite your history."

If anything, the PCHR's researcher is proving himself a liar. If he says that he is only counting militants who were carrying guns at the time, then why does he check websites and interview family members to see if they were militants? And if he did, why wouldn't he count them?

I pointed out as early as January 7 that the PCHR would count people on video who are launching mortars at Israel, in civilian clothing, as "civilians" if the IDF kills them while they are running away, unarmed. The Hamas strategy was specifically to make their people look like civilians, and the PCHR played along dutifully.

Now, how can I get a hold of Halevi?

10-year old Saudi girls over the hill

From the MEMRI Blog:

A Saudi sheikh has performed a wedding ceremony between a 10-year-old girl and a 26-year-old man.
The girl's father said that he married off his daughter because he feared that she would remain a spinster.

The original story says that the girl's mother, presumably to entice her into the marriage, told her that her groom will buy her anything she wants from the grocery store.

PA sentences "collaborator" for spying on Hamas

From the media, one might think that the PA and Hamas are mortal enemies and that each is happy to find ways to weaken the other side.

However, they are buddies compared to how much they both hate Israel.

From Ma'an:

The North Governorates Military court in the West Bank found a Surif man guilty of collaboration with Israel and sentenced him to ten years of prison and hard labor as his case was closed Wednesday.

“MF” was accused of collaborating following a period in the Etzion detention center where it is believed Israeli officials offered to reduce an alleged four year prison sentence in Israel down to two years if MF agreed to collaborate.

The defendant, who was affiliated with Hamas when he began collaborating, started passing information to Israeli authorities from inside the facility. MF was transferred to work in the mail room where he was able to keep track of Hamas political action particularly in Surif.

So the PA, which makes a big show of trying to keep Hamas power in check, considers it a major crime to have Israel try to keep Hamas in check - something which directly benefits the PA.

The only explanation is that, given the choice of Hamas or Israel, the "moderate" PA will always favor Hamas unless it is under tremendous pressure to behave otherwise.

Dead Qassam rocket engineer has a kid

From Ma'an:

Four months after his death, the wife of Gaza’s famed Qassam projectile engineer gave birth to his son, named for his grandfather Yousef Al-Mancy.

His father, Amir Yousef Al-Mansy, was killed on 10 January 2008 [sic.] when an Israeli warplane targeted him while walking in one of Gaza City’s streets during the latest war on the coastal area

Amir was wanted by Israel as a leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades and the developer of the Al-Qassam projectile. He is also said to have been the first to launch a Grad projectile into Israel. He lived in the At-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights called this "famed" leader of the al-Qassam Brigades a "civilian" in its list of Gaza victims (#959.) They said his job was as an "Engineer/member of the Civil Defense."

If he was a "civilian," who did they call a militant?

Iraqi "Palestinians" find refuge outside the Arab world

The plight of the thousands of people marooned for years on the Iraqi/Syrian border continues.

As we've mentioned many times previously, the Arab world is utterly indifferent to this group of fellow Arabs, refusing to resettle them.

The reason?

Because they are of Palestinian Arab descent!

Iraqis hate them because Saddam Hussein gave them preferential treatment so they were driven out of the country that they were born in and often lived there for generations. Of course, because they are considered "Palestinian," they are ineligible for becoming citizens in any Arab country by law, a bit of discrimination that is justified on the grounds of keeping them "unified" in their misery. UNRWA cannot take care of them because they are not considered "Palestinian refugees" by their standards.

So the UNHCR has been begging nations worldwide to accept as many as they can. Every once in a while, a Western nation will accept a few dozen. So far, some have been settled in Iceland, Brazil, Chile, and Canada.

Today, 56 of them will get on a plane to move to Sweden, according to Palestine Today.

The UNHCR keeps trying to get Arab nations to accept them, and they are consistently rebuffed. (Syria, Jordan and other Arab nations have taken in well over a million Iraqi refugees, but refuse to take these people. Only the Sudan has expressed interest, mostly to help their own PR.)

What do Palestinian Arab leaders think about this? Are they happy that their brethren are, very slowly, starting new lives in Western countries?

Of course not! In 2006, both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority denounced the possible resettlement of these real refugees to Canada!

I once again refer to a Falasteen editorial I found in 2006 that gave the reasons why Palestinian Arabs prefer that these people stay in tents in the desert forever:

We have warned and others in more than one location and an article about the dangers to be dissipating refugee diaspora Palestinians, since this will negatively impact on the fabric of their unity and their syndicated in the areas of asylum...these will lead to migration to other European countries and therefore as a result of this disruption to the bloc refugees in Lebanon and the resulting in the end of the negative impact on their right to return to their homes and property.

Mythical Palestinian Arab"unity" is more important than the lives and happiness of their own people.

A large part of the reason that Palestinian Arabs are as miserable as they are today is because their leaders and their neighboring Arab leaders would rather see them stateless and pressuring Israel than happy as citizens of any country on Earth.

Self-deaths from PICCR

Palestine Today refers to a report by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights saying that 9 people were killed in April in the Palestinian Arab territories due to "security chaos":

Four deaths occurred against the backdrop of family quarrels or disputes, including one in the West Bank and three in the Gaza Strip, and 3 cases of death due to negligence and failure to take safety precautions and in the West Bank, and the death of one against the background of the so-called honor of the family in Gaza, the situation of one death occurred in the Gaza Strip as a result of tampering with arms, also made of the 3 cases of deaths due to accidents and tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

Unfortunately, I don't have details, but I think I have captured all of these in my counts.

The PICCR website bizarrely includes links to various small business websites in the US, and it doesn't look like it has changed for years.

Correction on Gaza policemen/militants

Commenter Zedy double-checked my classification of policemen from the PCHR list, and as I suspected, I wasn't consistent in putting that label in (especially when we were just starting.)

Anyway, at this time we have identified 159 Gaza policemen killed in Cast Lead who were also members of militant groups, out of 282 listed by PCHR, which is 56.4%.

It also means that if we use the IDF methods of calculating militants (assuming that 100% of the police were legitimate targets) we have identified 662 out of the IDF's 709.

I updated the preliminary report to reflect these numbers.

Thanks, Zedy!