Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 09, 2009

The golden opportunity of resettling 1350 Pal/Iraqi refugees

The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.
It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US – and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shiites, the mostly-Sunni Palestinians have spent recent years in one of the region's roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq's border with Syria.
[S]ome critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.
"This is politically a real hot potato," says Mark Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, adding, "[A]merica has become a dumping ground for the State Department's problems – they're tossing their problems over their head into Harrisburg, Pa., or Omaha, Neb."
While the US generally doesn't accept Palestinians, Todd Pierce, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, says that the Iraqi population of Palestinians falls under a different category from those in Gaza and the West Bank. Each applicant will be carefully scrutinized for terrorist ties, he adds.

The US reluctance to accept Palestinians is because it "doesn't want the refugee program to become an issue in its relationship with Israel," says a diplomat in the region, who requested anonymity because he is not cleared to talk to the press. But these Palestinians, he says, will be processed as refugees from Iraq.

People are misunderstanding this issue.

Unlike the vast majority of "Palestinian refugees," these people really are refugees - but from Iraq, not from Palestine. These are the people who have been treated like garbage throughout the Arab world, which has refused to take in their relatively small numbers. These people live in real refugee camps, with tents, not the permanent towns that Palestinian Arabs live in.

The Arab world has consistently refused to help them out, despite pleas from UNHCR. The rich Gulf countries don't spend a dime on helping them out.

On the contrary - they work hard to keep them in misery!

The Arabs have decried all previous attempts to resettle these refugees in Western countries.The reason they give is the most cynical one imaginable - that by keeping them stateless and miserable, they keep alive "Palestinian unity." So it is for their own good!

The US has a golden opportunity to publicize these facts and shame the Arab world into taking responsibility for Palestinian Arabs. It should not take in these people under the radar - it should trumpet this humanitarian action and announce that we have no choice but to take them in because their Arab brethren have refused to help out this population for years and have actively worked to keep them in their camps on the Iraqi border. We need to expose the naked hypocrisy of the Arab world's pretenses that they care about Palestinian Arabs when they are actually the ones responsible for their misery.

This is not nearly as bad as some think it is, and if the US was smart, this could become the most important turning point in forcing Arabs to take real responsibility for their own problems.

Read my previous articles about these refugees and how Arabs treat them:

The second-most hated people in the Middle East
Iraqi "Palestinians" find refuge outside the Arab world
The Arab world isn't embarrassed at all....
The Arab world's nightmare Arab world screwing their own people
Palestinian Arabs fighting to keep their brethren miserable
Guess who offered to help Palestinian Iraqi refugees?

Motive for murder: Victim was Jewish

From YNet:

Gregory Rabinowitz, 56, a taxi driver whose body was found in May near the community of Gan Yavne, east of Ashdod, was killed in a terror attack.

Mahmad Maraneh and Muhammad Khaledi, two residents of Arranah, a Palestinian village near the West Bank city of Jenin, were arrested and later confessed to the act.

Rabinowitz's body was found bound on the city's outskirts, with evidence suggesting he was subjected to severe violence. The state of his remains suggested a nationalistically-motivated act.

Maraneh and Khaledi confessed to the act during their interrogation, telling security forces that they entered Israel as illegal aliens, "picked" Rabinowitz as a random target, had him drive to a secluded location and murdered him.

Their motive, they said, was the fact that he was Jewish and that they wanted to avenge the death of a relative – an Islamic Jihad operative who was killed by IDF forces in February 2007.

Those who pressure Israel to reduce the number of checkpoints don't care too much about the lives of people like Gregory Rabinowitz.

Saudi family sues genie

From the Arab News:

MADINAH: A Shariah court in the town of Mahd Al-Dahab is taking up an important question: Can genies be summoned . . . to appear before a judge?

According to Wednesday’s Al-Watan newspaper, a family has filed a lawsuit against an unnamed genie for stealing mobile phones, sending threatening voice messages through mobile phones imploring the family to move away and pelting family members with stones when they go out at night. The family has been living in the same house for 15 years, but claims that it only recently began to feel the presence of the genie over the past two years.

“We have to look into this case and verify its truthfulness despite the difficulty of its consideration,” said Sheikh Amr Al-Salmi, the head of the local court.

I want to be the genie's lawyer!

A rabbi, imam and priest went on a game show...

From CNN:

A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the "biggest prize ever" -- the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world's major religions.

The show, called "Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor," or "Penitents Compete," features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk.

If they succeed, the contestants are rewarded with a pilgrimage to one of their chosen faith's most sacred sites -- Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for converts to Judaism, a trip to Tibet for Buddhists and the chance to visit Ephesus and the Vatican for Christians.

Ahmet Ozdemir, deputy director of Turkish channel Kanal T, which will air the show from September, said the program aimed to "turn disbelievers on to God."

"People are free to believe anything they want. Our program does not have a say," he said, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

Contestants will be judged by a panel of eight theologians and religious experts prior to going on the show to make sure their lack of faith is genuine.

But the show has been condemned by Turkish religious leaders. The head of the country's supreme council of religious affairs, Hamza Aktan, told CNN Turk that it was "disrespectful" to place different faiths in competition with each other and accused Kanal T of using religion to boost ratings.

I actually love the idea; it is an modern variant of medieval disputations, without the nastiness that happened to the Jews afterwards, win or lose.

I'd watch it, even though Judaism's lack of proselytizing would put the rabbi at a disadvantage - maybe instead he would try to turn the person into a Noachide.

The ultra-left is not anti-Israel enough for Arabs

One of the most pervasive myths when dealing with the Middle East is that compromise on the Israeli side will inevitably bring flexibility on the Arab side. The main purveyors of this myth are the members of the radical, Israel-bashing left, people such as Norman Finkelstein and Uri Avnery.

But Finkelstein is not nearly radical enough for the Palestinian Arabs or the Free Gaza folks. Here is what one Free Gaza Arab blogger has to say about Finkelstein, who visited Gaza last month with Code Pink:

Norman Finkelstein did not show any support for the inalienable right of return for the six million refugees, the core of the... "conflict."

Norman Finkelstein did not admit to the fact that the two-prison solution is a... racist solution, a 19th century idea which does NOT support the INALIENABLE right of return.

Norman Finkelstein: Israel is an occupation; it is the longest occupation the 20th century has witnessed, of the WB and GS, it is a colonization, and is an Apartheid; against the 1948 indigenous population, not to mention its Bantustanization of the GS and WB.

Uri Avnery, Peace Now, patronizingly will reply back saying he accepts the return of only... 20,000 refugees. He is anti-BDS and anti-ROR [right of return]. He is... a "leftist" Zionist... from when does the "left" accept a ... religious state? [or state to begin with]. He is like the "master" who decides. "I" mean... am "I" stupid? How can a democratic state exist when it has a... religious identity?! I must be really stupid here Uri, I mean... for me not to understand your "democracy."

Hilariously, the blogger then calls the 1936-9 Arab riots that killed hundreds of people "civil resistance."

Norman... you completely neglect the Palestinian civil resistance that existed since... 1936. Yes, I assure you. We, Arabs did have that going on. But, will the White man ever challenge his standards of "us"?

Of course, this blogger who advocates a single, democratic, secular state in Palestine seems to have no problem with the fact that Hamas is religious, that the PA constitution explicitly says that its laws are based on Shari'a, and that every Arab state is explicitly Muslim (with the possible exception of Lebanon, for now.)

What do the Finkelsteins and Avnerys of the world think when confronted by people who have no desire for any sort of compromise, who will not be happy unless Israel and Jewish self-determination is utterly destroyed? My guess is that rather then learn that their methods only embolden the Arab obstructionists, they look at their criticism from the Arab side as somehow "proof" that they are really reasonable people, and being hated by both sides is evidence of their correct path. (Lots of newspaper editors use that exact illogic to pretend that they are evenhanded.)

Who owns the keys to the Gaza "prison"?

Two interesting stories today, first from the Free Gaza mailing list, where they describe how two of their members who came on a boat last year have been continually denied in their attempts to go to Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

The two British women informed the Embassy that they would remain in the crossing until an explanation was given as to why they had been denied entry based on unjustifiable and potentially false grounds. The Egyptian officials at the border asked how they entered Gaza, and on explaining that they arrived on the Free Gaza Movement Boats they were told, “So, you don’t need us to answer. You already know why you’re not being allowed out.”

Of course, such a story does not make it onto the Free Gaza webpage, which is dedicated to only vilifying Israel.

The other story is from Ma'an:

The de facto government security forces confiscated the passports of a Fatah member in the Ministry of Finance and his wife and prevented to two from exiting the Strip via the Erez crossing, a Fatah statement said.

The incident was allegedly based on factional affiliation. Fatah officials have reported several cases where members were prevented from exiting the Strip.

So we see Egyptians not allowing people to leave Gaza, Hamas not allowing people to leave Gaza - and Israel blamed for running a "prison."

My letter to the Gaza fact-finding mission

I just wrote this letter to the UN Gaza fact-finding mission. We will see if they respond.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about this method of submitting information to them until today, and their deadline was June 30th.

Dear Dr. Goldstone:

I read yesterday in Ma'an that the UN Gaza fact-finding mission listened to lengthy testimony from the PCHR while in Jordan, and was asked specific questions about the legal status of the policemen killed during Operation Cast Lead as well as the PCHR's methodologies.

I am a blogger who has been looking at the PCHR's claims since it released its list of people killed in Gaza. I have been maintaining a list of people whom the PCHR called "civilian" but who have actually been members of various militant organizations.

So far I and my team has identified some 306 people who were labeled civilians by the PCHR who were, in fact, members of militant groups.

The raw research, including links to prove the militant status for each person, can be found here.

What is particularly interesting is that so far we have identified that fully two-thirds of the policemen killed in Gaza - 189 of them - were also members of the Al Qassam Brigades. Most of these are confirmed from the al-Qassam website itself, and Hamas' "military wing" has continued to add names to its list of "martyrs" weekly.

The inescapable conclusion is that Hamas makes no distinction between the members of its police force and members of its terror cells. As Hamas makes no distinction, the IDF is not obligated to make any such distinction itself, and the entire uniformed police of Gaza can legally be considered a legitimate military target.

PCHR's methodology was inconsistent with its own definitions of "civilian" and it double-counted a few victims. Also interestingly, the PCHR's list of "militants" did not correspond to Al Mezan's list of "resistors" killed during Cast Lead.

By my count, using the PCHR list as a base, some 647 of the dead were legitimate targets, not counting victims who died as a result of secondary explosions (which I do not have the resources to confirm) nor those who were effectively used as human shields, such as the family of Nizar Rayyan who he effectively forced to stay and die with him.

All of my information is online and verifiable. I believe that it shows a much different story about civilian casualties than that given by the PCHR.

I hope that this information is of value to your fact finding mission.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

"Elder of Ziyon"
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Gaza fake civilian update

Tonight I identified two more Hamas policemen, identified by the PCHR as "civilian," as being members of the Al Qassam Brigades (Hamas' "military wing." )

This brings the total number of Gaza policemen killed in Cast Lead who were also terrorists to 189.

The PCHR identified a total of 282 policemen in their English list of the dead, so this means that we have now proven that over two thirds of the Gaza policemen killed by Israel were terrorists.

The PCHR considers these people to be "civilian," and argued that very point to the UN fact-finding mission recently. But the fact that an overwhelming majority of them are admitted by Hamas to be members of the Al Qassam Brigades proves that, in Gaza, there is zero distinction between the police and the "militants."

The only conclusion you can come up with is that the entire Gaza police force is simply a front for the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades. As such, they are a legitimate military target.

Counting all the police, the other "civilians" killed who were members of terror groups and the "militants" that the PCHR counted, we have now identified, by name, that 647 of the people killed in Cast Lead were legitimate targets.

A double honor killing in Saudi Arabia

From the Arab News:

A man may face the death penalty if found guilty of gunning down his two sisters as they were being discharged by Social Affairs officials into the custody of their father.
The two women had been caught in suspicious circumstances with two unrelated men on Thursday.
Police believe the brother murdered his two sisters to save the family honor. The names and ages of the young women and their brother were not made public.
According to Riyadh police, the man followed his father to the social protection home and then waited until the women came out. He reportedly shot one sister in the head and discharged three bullets into the other. He then tossed the gun near the bodies. Guards at the Social Affairs shelter quickly apprehended the man.
The man will face the death penalty unless his family forgives him. If he is spared capital punishment he will still face jail time served in the name of the public right.
Women are usually turned over to Social Affairs shelters if they are caught with unrelated men until their guardians can get them out of custody.

This is another consequence of the honor/shame culture.

The brother didn't kill his sisters because he knew that they were acting suspiciously with unrelated men; he murdered them because they were accused of acting in such a manner. Being accused is just as shameful as being guilty. Facts aren't important, only perception.

But hey...he has a fair shot at being forgiven by his parents.

Using the honor/shame culture to everyone's benefit

Last month I reported that an Egyptian court made marrying Israelis illegal. The ruling mainly affected Egyptians who married Arab Israelis.

Now, the Egyptian government is appealing that ruling:

The Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs appealed the verdict with the Supreme Administrative Court and demanded an annulment of the ruling, according to the official daily al-Ahram.

They appealed arguing that the issue did not fall within the jurisdiction of the administrative court, the Egyptian daily independent al-Shorouk al-Gadid reported Sunday.

On the other hand, the appeal added, implementing the verdict will negatively impact Egypt's image on the international level as it will appear as a country that does not respect human rights and personal freedoms.

Notice that the argument is not that the ruling restricts personal freedoms - it is that it makes Egypt look like it restricts personal freedoms.

A corollary to the Arab honor/shame culture is that appearances are more important than facts. The perception of morality is more important than morality itself. That is how honor killings can occur to begin with. When one's honor is the most important factor in determining how one acts, it allows him to act immorally in order to maintain honor.

Of course Egypt doesn't care about human rights or personal freedoms. That's almost axiomatic. But the world does, and Egypt is not well served in appearing to be immoral. As a result, actions aren't done for the sake of morality, but for the sake of the appearance of morality.

This will not change.

What we can learn from this, though, is that as Western ideals of morality pervade the world, honor/shame cultures can be shamed into at least forcing the appearance of acting moral. When it can be hidden - when there is no shame - there will be no morality in the Western sense, but Arabs can be prodded into acting in moral ways in public by being shamed into it.

This is why it is terrifically important to place the issue of how the Arab world treats Palestinian Arabs as high as possible in the public sphere. There is no excuse for the Arab world perpetuating a fake "refugee" crisis for decades, and the hypocrisy of saying that they do it for the Palestinian Arabs' own good must be exposed. They will not start treating millions of Palestinian Arabs better; they will not give them full equal rights and citizenship rights, unless they are shamed into it.

If the West would start making this into an issue, it would have a dramatic impact. It needs to be framed as a human rights issue, plain and simple.The Arab world chooses to discriminate against Palestinians and will not allow third and fourth generation Palestinian Arabs born in their countries to become citizens, although they do allow other Arabs to become naturalized citizens. The issue needs to be raised as much as human rights are a part of the conversations around China, North Korea and elsewhere.

Once the naked hatred and bigotry against those of Palestinian origin in the Arab world is publicized, the Arab world will at first try to deflect the issue towards Israel, but they would fail. Perhaps Israel can be blamed for the condition of some Palestinian Arabs in 1949 but what has happened to them since is simply the Arab world' s responsibility.

They will never take this responsibility willingly. But, as we have seen, they can be shamed into it.

Women's rights, Saudi style

From the Arab News:

Police are searching for a 28-year-old woman who ran away from a Social Affairs-run women’s shelter in Jeddah on Friday.
Col. Misfar Al-Juaid, spokesman for Jeddah police, said the woman ran away while the police were preparing to take her to jail in line with a court order. He further urged the young woman to surrender and warned the public against giving her shelter.

She must have done something heinous to have an all-point bulletin issued by an entire Kingdom. What was her crime?

The court had ordered the police to take the woman to jail while it examined a case filed against her by her father. The woman fled her parents’ home after accusing them of abusing her and sought refuge at the shelter.

The woman had earlier complained against her father at a summary court. The father had then filed a counter-case against her, accusing her of disobeying her parents, a culpable offense under Saudi law. The court refused to entertain the woman’s petition and instead began examining the father’s complaint.
Before issuing a final verdict, the court ordered police to take the woman to jail. When police arrived to take her, the woman said she needed to use the toilet and on entering the ladies’ toilet she fled.

The woman accused her father of abusing her. The father responded to the court that she had done something much worse - she had disobeyed him. So the Saudi justice system, naturally, decided to drop the charges for the abuse crime and start a nationwide hunt for the 28 year old woman who disobeyed her father.

The Saudis aren't monsters, though. They have a solution:

Urging the young woman to return to her senses and surrender to the authorities, Dr. Ali Al-Hanaki, director of the Ministry of Social Affairs Ministry in Jeddah, said, “The solution now lies in her own hands. Each additional day she refuses to obey the authorities will only worsen her problem.”
He added that the ministry had pledged to resolve her problem without sending her to jail. “We have informed the court of our plans, which include arranging for her to marry and reconciling her with her family,” said Al-Hanaki.

See? They'll find her a husband! No doubt he will be a prize catch for her, arranged by the government itself.

Almost as much of a prize as her father evidently is:

He also requested her father to stop sending threatening messages to the authorities.

Its official. The world doesn't care about "Free Gaza."

The Free Gaza website and mailing list asked people to protest at Israeli embassies in Europe on Saturday.

Nobody showed up.

They asked people to go to a press conference in London today for the six members who arrived there after being deported from Israel.

Nobody showed up.

Their last "tweet" about the press conference was nine hours ago, and there are no news stories nor even followups on their own website about it.

Which could mean one of two things. Either the Jewish domination of the press is so all-encompassing that it can even shut up the Free Gaza website itself, or the world simply doesn't care about a group of self-centered hypocrites who deliberately try to get into confrontations with Israel and then whine when Israel treats them like irritating gnats.

They prefer the former explanation. When their website went down for a couple of hours last week they darkly implied they were "hacked." Until their system administrator said it was only a traffic spike that they couldn't handle.

Last year, the boats to Gaza were novel and interesting. Now, the world sees that Hamas has no interest in peace with Israel, peace with the PA nor in taking care of their own people and sympathy for Gazans have gone way down. The world sees that the moonbats are not saying a simgle bad word about rockets or Hamas abductions and torture. The world sees that hundreds of millions of dollars go to Gaza and no progress is made. The world sees that aid to Gaza gets taken over by Hamas.

Even the Israel-haters of the FGM are starting to realize that their Gaza message is getting stale. Now they are pushing a video about prisoners in Israeli prisons, an entirely different focus and one that dilutes their message about Gaza (but stays consistent with theie anti-Israel theme.)

Now they are begging for money, for volunteers, and for people to show up at their publicity stunts.

They're losing the battle that they themselves created the rules for.

And it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

UPDATE: Dov has pictures of the tiny turnout.

"Mazel Tov" and "L'Chaim!" in Black Eyed Peas song

A coworker just informed me that a song by the Black Eyed Peas includes the lyrics "Mazel Tov" and "L'Chaim."

Sure enough, they are there, horribly misspelled in various lyrics sites.

Fill up my cup (Drink)
Mozolotov (Lahyme)
Look at her dancing (Move it Move it)
Just take it off

Not exactly bubbe-friendly lyrics!

This song has been noticed by the Jewish Journal blog.

The song is pretty catchy, although the lyrics themselves are a bit more raunchy than the music I normally listen to. The video is borderline NSFW, at least in my prudish opinion.

But I acknowledge that I am ancient. I am the Elder, after all.

UPDATE: For a more bizarre use of Yiddish by pop stars, check out the Jackson brothers' (sans Michael) take on Bei Mir Bis Du Schoen (introduction starts around 2:22, song at 3:00)

More on Hamas' latest "martyr"

From Ma'an:

The militant wing of the Hamas movement on Monday announced the death of one of its fighters, Saleem Yaser Abo-Shenar, 18.

In a statement, the Al-Qassam Brigades said the young man from the As-Sabra quarter of Gaza City "was killed in the line of duty and jihadi preparation and training."

The group also said that he died following a long career of resistance in the brigades.

An 18-year old with a "long career" in terrorism?

I wonder at what age he began his illustrious career before ignominiously offing himself.

Also, I seem to have missed another Hebron clan-clash murder from last week, so the 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 114.

A peek behind the Free Gaza hypocrisy

Today, yet again, Hamas was accused by the PA of torturing many of the Fatah prisoners, beating them and depriving them of sleep.

No one seriously doubts that Hamas, and the PA, torture prisoners. The evidence - and body count - is testimony enough to that.

However, the Free Gaza group is utterly silent about that. To them, only Israel tortures anyone. This despite the fact that the Red Cross routinely visits Arab prisoners in Israel, as opposed to any Hamas or Fatah prisoners in the territories.

A Free Gaza email that was sent today by leader Greta Berlin again ignores Arab torture, instead accusing Israel of torturing 11,000 Palestinian Arabs and saying "Israel outdoes the U.S. in torture, imprisonment and brutality. Where do you think the U.S. learned how to torture?"

Another member accidentally responded to the entire list saying "I recommend to drop the last sentence."

After all, FGM is trying to put world pressure on Israel, not to reveal their anti-American feelings to the world. Saying bad things about the Obama-led US might impact their fundraising efforts.

And, of course, they have no interest in protecting the Palestinian Arabs they pretend to care about from the real torture that they receive from their own people.

So Free Gaza goes on its merry way, pretending to be a humanitarian organization while shielding real terrorists from scrutiny.

Today's PalArab news roundup (7-6-09)

There are reports that Israel approved the PA receiving 1000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

An 18-year old Hamas man was killed "while doing an act of jihad" in Gaza City. Work accident!

A 22-year old man was stabbed to death in Khan Younis. A suspect in another murder was caught trying to escape through a smuggling tunnel.

Hamas continues to arrest Fatah supporters in Gaza (just as Fatah is doing to Hamas members in the West Bank.)

On Saturday, PA "Prime Minister" Fayyad disingenuously said that the PA is willing to give rights to Jews who choose to live in "Palestine." Another leading PA figure who is negotiating with Hamas in Cairo, Dr. Abu Samhadana, responded that the Fatah position is not to allow a single Israeli to live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Neturei Karta wrote a letter to Hamas giving them advice on how to destroy Israel.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 113.

Egyptian sheikh in trouble again

Remember last December, when there was an uproar in Egypt over published pictures of Al-Azhar Sheikh Tantawi shaking hands with Shimon Peres?

Reactions were furious that such an awful thing could have happened. Even the Western media soon took notice as Tantawi was advised to decontaminate his hands.

Well, Tantawi is in hot water again, this time for sitting near the same Shimon Peres at an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan.

Here is the incriminating picture. Tantawi is separated from Peres merely by the human mechitza, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Of course this is unacceptable, for as we all know Muslim clerics must be separated from unclean Jews by 30 kilometers.

The reaction in Egypt mirrors that from late last year.

Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri described what happened as "a scandal in every sense of the word." He said that Tantawi should have withdrawn from the conference as soon as he knew that Peres was going to attend.

A deputy minister, Hazem Farouk, said that Tantawi "sat next to the blood-stained butcher of Arabs and Muslims."

Can't you feel the love?

Fayyad talks of Jews' rights in "Palestine"

From the Aspen Daily News:

Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday that Jews would enjoy freedom and civil rights in a future Palestinian state.

Fayyad addressed the subject in response to a question from former CIA director James Woolsey at the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Ideas Festival, which included a day of panels on different aspects of the current state of the Middle East.

Woolsey said there are a million Arabs in Israel, accounting for one-sixth of the Israeli population, and that “generally they enjoy the guarantees that Americans look for in the Bill of Rights.”

“Now, if there is to be the rule of law in a Palestinian state, and if Jews want to live in someplace like Hebron, or anyplace else in a Palestinian state, for whatever reasons or historical attachments, why should they not be treated the same way Israeli Arabs are?” Woolsey asked. “That would be, there could be a sixth of the population consisting of them. They could vote for real representatives in a real Palestinian legislature, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and most importantly, be able to go to the sleep at night without worrying someone is going to kick down the door and kill them.”

Fayyad responded by saying, “I’m not going to disagree with you. And I’m not someone who will say that they would or should be treated differently than Israeli Arabs are treated in Israel.

“In fact the kind of state that we want to have, that we aspire to have, is one that would definitely espouse high values of tolerance, co-existence, mutual respect and deference to all cultures, religions. No discrimination whatsoever, on any basis whatsoever.

“Jews to the extent they choose to stay and live in the state of Palestine will enjoy those rights and certainly will not enjoy any less rights than Israeli Arabs enjoy now in the state of Israel,” Fayyad said.

The crowd at the Greenwald Pavilion applauded enthusiastically.

Anyone with eyes will see that the "equal rights' given to Jews would be the same "equal rights" that dhimmis have had in Muslim countries for centuries - meaning, they would be clearly second-class citizens with nothing close to equal rights.

But let's look at the Constitution of "Palestine" and see exactly what kinds of equal rights we are discussing here:

ARTICLE 1

Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve.

Meaning that non-Arabs are clearly excluded from being member of the "Palestinian People."

ARTICLE 2

The Palestinian People are the source of all power, which shall be exercised through the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities, based on the principle of separation of powers, and in the manner set forth in this Basic Law.

And if you are not a "Palestinian" by their definition - meaning, you are not an Arab - then you do not share in being the "source of all power."

ARTICLE 4

Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.
The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.
Arabic shall be the official language.

Well, that's pretty clear.

ARTICLE 9

All Palestinians are equal under the law and judiciary without discrimination because of race, sex, color, religion, political views, or disability.

Not "citizens of Palestine" but "Palestinians." Meaning, again, if you are not a "Palestinian" by their definition you do not enjoy these equal rights. Since we've already defined "Palestinian people" as being Arabs in Article 1, it is clear that Jews would not fit under this definition.

ARTICLE 18

Freedom of belief and the performance of religious rituals are guaranteed, provided that they do not violate public order or public morals.

And the definition of these public morals was given in Article 4 - Shari'a. Meaning that public shows of any religion besides Islam can be shut down according to this pretend-pluralistic constitution.

ARTICLE 24
4. Private school and educational institutions shall comply with the curriculum approved by the Palestinian National Authority, and shall be subject to its supervision.

So the chances that the Palestinian Authority would allow Jewish schools to teach Talmud, for example, are pretty much zero.

ARTICLE 27

Establishment of newspapers and all media means is a right for all, guaranteed by this Basic Law. However, their financing resources shall be subject to law.
Freedom to audio, visual, and written media, as well as freedom to print, publish, distribute, transit, together with the freedom of individuals working in this field, is guaranteed by this Basic Law, other related laws.
Censorship on media shall be prohibited. No warning, suspension, confiscation, cancellation, or restrictions, shall be imposed on media except by law, and in accordance with a judicial order.

We've seen dozens of examples of how this applies in practice, most recently with an Al Jazeera reporter whose videotape was erased by the PA because they didn't like what he was reporting.

ARTICLE 35

Before assuming the office, the President shall take the following oath before the Legislative Council, and in the presence of the Speaker of the Palestinian National Council, the Chief of Supreme Court “ I swear to Allah Almighty to be faithful to the Homeland and to its sacred places, and to the people and its national heritage, and to respect the Constitutional system and the law, and to safeguard the interests of the Palestinian people completely, as Allah is my witness “.

Sounds like a non-Muslim cannot become president of Palestine.

ARTICLE 49

Before taking on any responsibility, every Member [of the Palestinian Legislative Council] shall swear the following oath before the Council: "I swear by Allah Almighty to be faithful to the Homeland, and to preserve the rights and interests of the people and nation, and to respect law and perform my duties in the best manner, as Allah is my witness".

Sounds like a non-Muslim cannot become a member of the Legislature.

ARTICLE 97

The Judiciary branch shall be independent, and shall be assumed by the different types and level of courts. The structure, jurisdiction, and rulings of the courts shall be in accordance with law. The rulings shall be announced and executed in the name of the Palestinian Arab People.

Sounds like a non-Arab cannot become part of the Judiciary.

So even if Fayyad is only saying that Jews in "Palestine" would have rights similar to those of Arabs in Israel, the Palestinian Constitution shows him to be a liar. After all, Israel has had Arab members of Knesset, Arab Supreme Court justices and even, for a short time, an Arab President.

And the constitution is an idealized vision of the most liberal an Arab Palestine ever could be. In reality, such a state would not come close to anything resembling the Western concepts of freedom that it attempts to approximate, and history shows that any Jews who try to gain any political power in an Arab Palestine would be more likely to be massacred than accepted.

Today's PalArab news roundup 7-5-09

Hamas Vice: A female Arab journalist was arrested in Gaza for laughing in public and dressing immodestly. Hamas has a vice squad patterned after the religious police in Saudi Arabia.

Violence in Hebron, not a Jew in sight: Two unrelated murders in Hebron bring the self-death count up to 111. (There was also a clan clash in the Jerusalem, with one dead, but I don't count Arab murders in areas under Israeli control.)

Tit-for tat PalArab accusations: Hamas accused the PA of arresting 14 of its members, the PA accused Hamas of smuggling arms, cash and explosives to the West Bank.

UNRWA summer camps accused of being too tolerant: A Hamas official slammed UNRWA-run camps in Gaza, saying that they were attempting to corrupt an entire generation of Gaza children into accepting Israel as well as teaching boys and girls together.

Gaza cafe torched: Returning to the days before Cast Lead, Islamists in Gaza destroyed a cafe which presumably did not meet their standards for morality.

"Pro-Palestinian Paris bookstore attacked" - Al Arabiya reports a French Arab bookstore was "trashed" by Jewish extremists, possibly from the French Jewish Defense League. The photo of the store shows no damage at all.

Iranian woman flips off Ahmadinejad? UPDATE: No.

I just saw this photo in a Palestinian Arab newspaper:

I didn't see this anywhere else, the source is not given and it might very well be Photoshopped, but it is worth investigating.

UPDATE: Miriam from the Shearim blog knows the scoop - it is Photoshopped, and here is the original picture from FARS next to the altered one:

Free Gaza protests fizzle

Both the Free Gaza movement and the pro-terror ISM from whence it came called for protests outside the Israeli embassies in various European capitals on July 3.

I cannot find a single mention of any protest happening at any Israeli embassy worldwide on that day. Even their own websites don't have stories about any protests.

Which goes to show yet again that they are great at getting publicity, lousy at finding real supporters.

Yup - Bahrain did make a state visit to Israel

Looks like I had a scoop this morning. From Ma'an:

In the Gulf nation's apparent first state visit to Israel, Bahraini officials arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday to accompany five nationals awaiting deportation.

"[T]he Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior sent a mission to Ben Gurion Airport to receive the Bahrainis detained," according to the Bahrain News Agency.

All 21 crew members of an aid ship bound for Gaza, including the five Bahraini citizens, a Nobel laureate and former US congresswoman and the ship itself, were seized and towed to the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Tuesday afternoon.

Friday's official visit was arranged by Bahrain's Foreign Affairs Ministry, according to the news agency, which "contacted several organisations and international bodies along with friendly countries to secure the release of people detained in Israel."

"The efforts resulted in the approval of the Israeli authorities to hand over detainees to the representatives of the Kingdom of Bahrain," the agency reported, adding that its recently returned citizens "were received by the mission from the Israeli authorities and are safe and in good health."

Israel and Bahrain share no formal relations, although the predominately Shiite Muslim Gulf state does have a small but thriving Jewish population, of which one woman is the country's current ambassador to the United States.

So the Free Gaza people actually accomplished something in advancing the relationship between Israel and an Arab nation.

Of course, this is the last thing they wanted to do!

UPDATE: More from the Gulf News:

The extraordinary development marked the first time that Bahraini activists, three women and two men, were held by the Israeli navy and also the first time that a Bahraini official delegation sets foot in an Israeli airport.

Pseudo-vacation open thread

I need a break. You guys take over.

Jordan's identity crisis

An important article was published in Al Quds this week, reprinted from Al Jazeera, that uncovers the problems that Jordan has with its Palestinian Arab population that rarely gets any Western coverage. Here is my translation:

There has been a dramatic debate in recent years in Jordan on the issue of national identity, but recently some important politicians have, for the first time, recognized the existence of an identity crisis in the kingdom which is inhabited by six million people of whom 42 percent are of Palestinian origin. [Usually, this figure is reported as over 60%. Perhaps they no longer include West Bank Palestinians? - EoZ]

At a symposium held last week, the former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Raouf Rawabdeh spoke of the division of the national identity between the Jordanians and the Palestinians, in an explicit recognition by a leading politician of the State's failure to find the identity that covers the main groups in the country.

Writer and political analyst Mohammad Abu Rumman says that today more than ever, Jordan is beset by an identity crisis. He said that it is no longer possible to cover up the crisis between the two main groups of Jordanians and Palestinians, saying that without a dialogue now there may be a new political conflict between them in the future.

According to Abu Rumman, Jordan is still dealing with the problem of identity in response to the legacy of the events of 1970, the events known as "Black September" which the army of Jordan faced after the Palestinian militant groups were accused of trying to undermine the state.

He says the State is responsible for the identity crisis, and said that "the State evades the questions and answering the common concerns of Jordanians and Palestinians."

However, writer and political analyst Oraib Rantaoi did not see that there is an identity crisis in Jordan since it now universally accepted in the nation that Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine.

Rantaoi said: "Now there is the emerging Palestinian identity, Jordanians clearly can not talk about a crisis between the identities."

Strikingly, Rantaoi said that talk about identity crisis is "a modern and noisy debate between the elites, not the ordinary citizens, whether Jordanian or Palestinian descent."

During the recent years has become known in the media as "the Likud of Palestinians in Jordan", in a clear reference to politicians and writers who described the perceptions of "racism" in the dialogue between the Palestinians and the Jordanians.

The opinion of the minister and former MP Abdul Rahim Malhas is that the identity crisis in Jordan "will be resolved only by solving the Palestinian issue."

Malhas said Jordan's quest to solve the two countries' aim is to transform the Palestinian citizens in the state to enjoy the rights of residence in the Kingdom. [after a Palestinian state? -EoZ]

However, Malhas is pessimistic of any solution to the Palestinians to go to their homeland, saying, "The image of a Palestinian state is one of a repressive police state that does not respect freedom and, consequently, would be a repellent for the rest of the day, and this is what constitutes a threat to the Jordanian and Palestinian identity."

He recognizes that what Palestinians and Jordanians are talking behind closed doors is different from what they say in public about "national unity."

It almost sounds like some Jordanians are pinning their hopes on a Palestinian Arab state that would allow them to ask their Palestinian citizens to move there. This would be consistent with the increasing restrictions that Jordan has been imposing on Palestinian Arab citizenship.

But notice what this long article is missing: any interviews with Palestinian Jordanians! No one is asking what they want, whether they want to become full Jordanian citizens and not looked upon as second-class. No one is asking them if they have any interest in moving to "Palestine" - or even if they want to have more political rights in Jordan. The entire article, thoughtful as it is, betrays the deep bigotry against Palestinian Arabs inJordan today by not even deigning to ask them what they think, and assuming that the Jordanian elite knows what is best for them.

Notice also the phrase "emerging Palestinian identity." If the Palestinian Arabs have had national aspirations for decades, why is it considered "emerging?" This is just more proof that Palestinian Arab identity has been imposed from without, not grown from within. If the Arab nations hadn't treated PalestinianArabs like second-class citizens or worse, they would have disappeared as a "people" the way that the many Arab tribes of the 19th century have assimilated into their larger nations.

Direct flight from Israel to Bahrain?

The latest Free Gaza email starts off with:

This morning, the five kidnapped passengers from Bahrain left Israel via a private jet sent by their king. The two Al Jazeera journalists will be freed sometime today, their equipment given back to them but not the footage of the Israeli terrorist frogmen boarding the boat and roughing up some of the passengers.

Once you get past the vitriol and lies (I bet there is no such footage,) does this mean that there was a jet that flew directly from Bahrain to Israel and back? Or did it stop over in Jordan or somewhere else so as not to acknowledge Israel's legitimacy?

I see nothing about this in any news source.

Free Gaza irony

The ultra-left, Israel-hating program "Democracy Now!" had a special treat yesterday - Mairead Maguire, Irish Nobel peace laureate and Free Gaza freak, called in from the jail in Israel to tell grateful listeners just how evil Israel is for stopping the latest publicity boat from landing.

Maguire spouts the usual lies and absurdities: that Israel threatened to shoot them, that Israel is breaking "every international law in the book," that she thinks that Israel used depleted uranium weapons, that Israel doesn't allow any human rights workers into Gaza, that the moonbats were "in grave danger of actually being killed" and "I really thought that we were all going to drown," and so forth. Somehow she doesn't mention that the Free Gaza people lied to the Cyprus authorities as to their declared destination, or otherwise they wouldn't have been allowed to sail altogether.

Besides the irony of a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose group routinely supports Hamas terrorism and happily poses with and hugs mass murderers, there is a further irony:

This evil Israel, the object of her hate and loathing which she claims it treating the freaks of Gaza so badly, is letting her call up an anti-Israel radio show with an audience of millions from her jail. How many democracies, let alone police states, would allow that?

(h/t Veet)

Why Jews cannot (easily) become citizens of Jordan

I received an email today from someone asking me about any restrictions I was aware of against Jews having Jordanian citizenship or owning Jordanian land. I responded

My understanding is that Jordan specifically excluded Jews from its citizenship even if they adhered to all the other requirements when they allowed Palestinian Arabs to become citizens in 1950. See page 73 of this.

As far as land ownership is concerned, I don't know of any specific law banning sales to Jews, but it appears that the rules for transferring land in Jordan are sufficiently restrictive against non-Jordanians that effectively no Jew could possibly buy land legally.

He responded back with a source that shed more detail on the land question in Jordan:

Under the direct instructions of King Husayn23, the government of Jordan in 1973 passed the "Law for Preventing the Sale of Immovable Property to the Enemy."24The "enemy" is defined in Article 2 as "any man or judicial body [corporation] of Israeli citizenship living in Israel or acting on its behalf." Under Article 4 of this law any Jordanian citizen who sold land in Jordan or the West Bank to the "enemy" faced the death penalty and forfeiture of all his property to the state:

The sale of Immovable property against the provisions of this law constitutes a crime against state security and well being, punishable by death, and the confiscation of all the culprit's Immovable and moveable possessions.

In addition, Article 3 deemed the sale of land to any alien (i.e., a non-Arab) without permission from the Council of Ministers a security offense punishable by death.

According to PA Attorney General Khalid al-Qidra, Jordan had sentenced 172 people to death under this law.25 Amnesty International reported that as of 1988 many of the convictions were in absentia and that there had been no executions.26 However, PA Justice Minister Meddein claimed that Jordan had executed 10 violators.27

Whatever its application, the Jordanian Parliament repealed the 1973 law in 1995, following the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. Milder statutes adopted in its place still effectively bar Israelis from purchasing or leasing land in Jordan. The Law on Economic Boycott and Banning Dealing with the Enemy (Article 6) states that "it is impermissible for foreign persons or corporate entities that do not hold an Arab nationality to purchase, lease, or own directly or indirectly any immovable property in the kingdom."28 The only exceptions require high level political authorization.

So while I do not believe that Jordan has or had specific laws banning Jewish ownership of land the laws in place effectively make it impossible for Jews to become landowners in Jordan.

Further research shows that the Jordanian citizenship law does indeed still specifically exclude Jews.

In 1933, a number of prominent Arabs in Transjordan asked Great Britain to allow Jews to settle there, to help its ailing economy, and Zionists were enthusiastic about the idea. But since the British saw the riots that were happening in Palestine at the time they didn't want to worry about more problems of that type, so they created a law banning Jews from living there.

This policy was ratified — after the emirate became a kingdom — by Jordan's law no. 6, sect. 3, on April 3, 1954, and reactivated in law no. 7, sect. 2, on April 1, 1963. It states that any person may become a citizen of Jordan unless he is a Jew. King Hussein made peace with Israel in 1994, but the Judenrein legislation remains valid today.

So, yes, Jordan really has a law banning Jews - not Zionists, but Jews - from becoming citizens. And the original source of this law was none other than Great Britain.

UPDATE: Here's the law: (h/t british18)

The following shall be deemed to be Jordanian nationals:
(1)Any person who has acquired Jordanian nationality or a Jordanian passport under the Jordanian Nationality Law, 1928, as amended, Law No. 6 of 1954 or this Law;

(2)Any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954;

(3)Any person whose father holds Jordanian nationality;

(4)Any person born in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of a mother holding Jordanian nationality and of a father of unknown nationality or of a Stateless father or whose filiation is not established;

(5)Any person born in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of unknown parents, as a foundling in the Kingdom shall be considered born in the Kingdom pending evidence to the contrary;

(6)All members of the Bedouin tribes of the North mentioned in paragraph (j) of article 25 of the Provisional Election Law, No. 24 of 1960, who were effectively living in the territories annexed to the Kingdom in 1930.

But what if a Jew wants to become a naturalized citizen? Well...

Any Arab who has resided continuously in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for not less than 15 years may acquire Jordanian nationality, by decision of the Council of Ministers taken on a proposal by the Minister of Internal Affairs, if he renounces his nationality of origin and the law of his country permits him to do so...

UPDATE 2: Hasbara Buster pointed out a later article I had overlooked, that seems to show that anyone can become a Jordanian citizen if they pass muster from the Council of Ministers:

Article 12
Any person other than a Jordanian who is not incapable by law may apply to the Council of Ministers for grant of a certificate of Jordanian naturalization if:
(1)He has been regularly resident in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for a period of four years preceding the date of his application;
(2)He intends to reside in the Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan.

Maybe a Jew-turned-Muslim like Uri Davis could become a citizen under those circumstances, so I cannot say that Jordanian law completely excludes the possibility of Jews becoming citizens. In reality, it would appear to be very unlikely.

Any way you look at it, non-Arabs are discriminated against by Jordanian naturalization law.

Quick PalArab news

There are reports that Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar secretly visited Switzerland and met with Swiss officials.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan charges that some Israeli produce sold in Jordan is grown in West Bank farms, and calls for a boycott.

For those wondering, the Red Cross regularly visits Arab prisoners in Israeli jails. It announced its July visit schedule.

Egyptian forces yet again killed Somalis trying to get into Israel.

Why are there still "refugee camps" in the PA?

The culture of entitlement that pervades the Palestinian Arabs continues unabated.

Yesterday, leaders of a Nablus "refugee" camp declared a series of escalating actions protesting the reduction of some services by UNRWA, including forcing UNRWA not to be able to work at all.

Today, UNRWA in Nablus responded - by shutting down almost completely, except for three health clinics. UNRWA stated (in Arabic only, these events never make it to the Western press) that they none of their workers would "put their lives at risk," meaning that the threats were much more serious than they were portrayed.

The question that no one asks is - why are there still any "refugee camps" in areas administered by the PA? They have been effectively under PA authority for well over ten years now. In that time period, real villages and towns could have been built. Businesses could have started. Plans could have been made to move camp residents out into the many West Bank cities and villages and eliminate these bizarre, decades-old anachronisms.

The truth is that the population in the West Bank camps has increased by over 33% since 1997.

If the Palestinian Authority wants to truly govern their people, why do they allow these semi-autonomous camps to exist? Why aren't they working overtime to give their people the dignity of living on their own?

The reason is that the PA has no intention of building a nation. Its leaders have no sense of responsibility. They don't care about their people. And, even more importantly, the camps are a symbol of Palestinian Arab suffering that they do not want to lose.

Once there are no camps, how can Palestinian Arabs claim that their lives are so terrible? The camps are emblems of suffering and they must remain forever as long as Israel exists. The PA makes a false impression that Israel is responsible for any Palestinian Arabs who are in dire straits today and the camps are their Exhibit A.

There is another side of the equation. Entire generations of Palestinian Arabs have been brought up in these camps with the mentality that the world owes them, and this week's strikes in Nablus prove it again. When people think that way they are not likely to want to actually work to make their lives better. There is nothing stopping UNRWA camp residents from moving out on their own - many have over the decades. The people that remain in the camps are the ones who are the laziest and most likely to be radicalized.

These camps have been there for sixty years. Where is the plan, drafted by UNRWA and the PA, to get rid of them? There is none, and won't be one, as long as the camps fulfill the dysfunctional yet real wishes of the PA and of their residents.

Egyptians refuse Jewish references in music festival

From the Forward:

Wendy Sternberg was thrilled when the organization she founded, Genesis at the Crossroads, was invited to perform at the eighth annual International Music Festival at Egypt’s Alexandria Library.
She looked forward to achieving the goals of her group, which seeks to bridge cultures in conflict through the arts and prides itself on stellar musicianship and cross-cultural dialogue.
Yet, despite her dream of the festival as a perfect fit with Genesis’s aims, Sternberg pulled out on June 4, after her group was barred from performing in Hebrew and from describing the religious backgrounds of its members in festival literature.
Sternberg said Genesis was informed a year ago that performing songs in Hebrew would be viewed by the Egyptian public as an extension of a Zionist agenda.

“You can love music and not be a Zionist,” Sternberg said. “The arts are safe. To really embrace the diversity is our greatest asset.”

Even at that, the situation was acceptable but not desirable, Sternberg said. Though the group’s Jewish members were upset, GATC decided to replace Hebrew songs with others in Ladino and Arabic.

The real trouble arose when Sternberg received an e-mail May 24, informing her that GATC would be required to eliminate biographical references to members’ religions. This meant that Alberto Mizrahi, cantor of Chicago’s historic Anshe Emet Synagogue, could not refer to himself as a hazan, and GATC could describe itself as comprising only “different musical trends,” not different religious backgrounds.

That demand, Sternberg says, struck at the core of her group’s purpose and identity.

When Sternberg asked American University Islamic studies professor Akbar Ahmed for advice, she said he told her, “Walk away.”

Ahmed told the Forward he reminded Sternberg that moderate Muslims must speak out for dialogue among the three Abrahamic faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“But if one party or another is not involved, the notion of an Abrahamic dialogue is not realized,” he said.

Sternberg outlined her position in a May 25 e-mail to five staff members of the Alexandria festival: GATC had accepted the restrictions on Hebrew songs out of respect for the current political climate, but would not agree to omit all religious references.

“We welcome a conversation with you to either further pursue this summer’s opportunity with you without diluting Genesis at the Crossroads’ mission and message, or to close this chapter without our involvement in your 2009 festival,” Sternberg wrote in the message.

Eldin’s reply came a few days later, Sternberg said, in just three words: “Thank you. Goodbye.”

The Egyptians didn't reject the group because of perceived Zionism, but because they wanted people to know they were Jewish.

Thank you open thread

With the year half over, I have well over 300,000 page views - more than I had in all of 2008.

So thanks for visiting!

Here's an open thread for the sheer hell of it.

(Sometimes, Yahoo News links to this blog, but the stories they choose are not always the ones I think should be publicized. Open threads have been known to pop up there as well. Very weird.

(On the other hand, CNN is now linking a Shmuley Boteach/Michael Jackson story to one I wrote yesterday.)

UPDATE: Sure enough, this is the posting of mine that Yahoo chose in it Mideast Roundup blog listings. Sigh.

HRW report on IDF - one sided and deceptive

I just looked a little at the Human Rights Watch report on Israeli drones killing civilians in Gaza.

The report was mainly written by Marc Garlasco, who had famously blamed Israel for the very ambiguous Gaza beach blast in 2006 and whose credentials as an expert are equally ambiguous.

I didn't have time to look at the report too carefully, but it follows the normal HRW playbook of doing everything possible to blame Israel for not being perfect.

The main example was the famous case of Israel bombing what appeared to be a group of men loading a truck with missiles.

To support its statement, the IDF released video footage of the attack, made available online, probably taken by the drone that launched the missile. It showed a group of at least one dozen men casually loading cylindrical objects crossways onto an open truck immediately before the missile struck. At least five more men are seen standing around the vehicle.
The IDF video does not show any secondary explosions, which would have indicated the presence of weapons-grade explosives or propellants at the site. Nor was the destruction at the site consistent with the presence of rockets. Had the truck been carrying Grad rockets with warheads, the truck and adjacent buildings would have been destroyed. Even without warheads, the propellant in the rockets would have destroyed the truck.

Credible doubts about the attack arose on December 31, when the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem released an interview with the owner of the truck, Ahmad Samur, who said that he was transporting oxygen canisters used for welding, and not Grad rockets. According to Samur, his family was trying to move the canisters from the metal workshop he owns to protect them from looters. He denied any connection to Hamas or any other Palestinian armed group. Eight civilians died in the attack, Samur said, including three children and Samur's son 'Imad, age 32. Two others were severely wounded.

As HRW mentions, the video was widely available and can be seen here:

While HRW is probably right in that the cylindrical objects were probably not Grad missiles as they appeared, its only advice to the IDF was to notice that the objects were smaller than Grad missiles are and try to identify them better before firing. (As it was, the video shows that the IDF watched the activity for over two minutes before firing.)

However, the objects were being taken from the vicinity of a metal workshop - the places that Qassam rockets are typically built. It is a very reasonable assumption that these were weapons of some sort. HRW doesn't even consider that the IDF might have a case in targeting these men. Would an average soldier looking at this video be able to make such an assumption that these are oxygen tanks, knowing that at that very moment there were dozens of rockets being fired at Israeli communities daily? I cannot blame the IDF for their decision - but HRW, of course, does.

One other interesting fact. HRW lists the names of those killed during the attack, and says that eight civilians were killed and none had any connection with any terror group. However, one of them, Ashraf Sayed Khamis al-Dabbagh, was identified as a "militant" by the PCHR. (#366.)

One other person I noticed from the report, Adham Hamdi al-'Adani, killed when the IDF hit near a Gaza school, is this person depicted in an Al Qassam Brigades martyr poster, #33 in the PCHR list:

He is identified here as a member of the Al Qassam Brigades Deir al-Balah Battalion.

This is not to say that these bombings weren't mistakes. Most of the victims do not appear to have been terrorists, and the IDF should - and does - do everything necessary to avoid killing civilians. There are articles and video that show the IDF aborting bombings when they see civilians in the area, evidence that the HRW seems to ignore in its reckless quest to damn Israel as being indiscriminately violent.

However, HRW either ignored evidence that some of the "civilian" victims they are talking about were actually terrorists or it didn't do any reasonable research (typing the names into Google should have been enough.) This is either sloppy work or it is purposeful deception on HRW's part.

Sinai poor people "looting" expired Gaza aid

An enlightening article in Al Quds reveals two interesting phenomena.

There are tons of aid, sent by Arab countries and meant for Gaza, that Egypt let rot for months in a stadium in El Arish. Rice, oil, blankets, flour and clothing have been sitting there.

Until it starts going bad.

Then, the Egyptians burn it.

When the poor people of El Arish got wind that this was happening, they started taking the doomed goods for themselves, overwhelming the guards.

People in the Sinai have always been resentful that they are poorer than Gazans are and yet the Gazans get free food and clothing while the Egyptians just get poorer. This is one way they feel they can get a little bit.

Hamas announced the death of field leader Ali Mohammed Tayeh, who was killed during a "special Jihad mission" in Gaza. In other words, a "work accident."(They only used the words "jihad mission" in Arabic.)

Some Palestinian Arabs are touting one benefit of being imprisoned in Israel: learning Hebrew. Their knowledge of the language helps them to understand the enemy and write letters to Hebrew newspapers that are more likely to be published. One former prisoner mentioned that he managed to take correspondence courses from Hebrew University while in prison.

Palestine Today quoted Karen Abu Zayd, commissioner general of UNRWA, as saying that Israel has set Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Keep in mind that this was being quoted in a website for a newspaper in Gaza which also publishes photos like this one, from a conference on youth in media. Look how primitive these people's lives are!

An Islamic Jihad site has a headline that a group of 30-40 radical Zionist Jewish extremists stormed the Al Aqsa compound (Temple Mount.) This "storming" consisted pretty much of...walking. Here's their picture:

Looks really violent!

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 109.

June 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

June 2009

All earlier rocket calendars here.

7/1 2M
7/16 1Q
8/9 1Q, 2MS

"Obama changed his tune due to Zionist pressure"

Iran's Press TV is just so much fun to read:

A senior advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says US President Barack Obama's recent remarks about Iran's election show that he is under pressure from the Zionists.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Tuesday night, Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi said that Obama originally took a soft stance on the results of Iran's presidential election but then was forced by the Zionists and the US neoconservatives to make tough comments about Iran.

And next we are going to force him to support building new Jewish towns in the West Bank!

Ramadan in Israel, 1949

I just came across this from the Palestine Post of June 30, 1949, describing how hard the new state of Israel tried to accommodate its Muslim citizens - and even its Muslim enemy POWs.

In 1949's Ramadan, Israel went out of its way to give extra rations to Muslims for their break-fast meals, mosques were repaired, special Muslim programs were broadcast on Kol Yisrael, and Muslim POWs were given access to extra food and religious articles.

Notice also that one of the reasons that there was a shortage of sheikhs and imams - because they fled their communities during the war, leaving their followers behind. The story of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who voluntarily fled in 1948 has still not been adequately written, and this would be an interesting chapter of that book.

Rabbi Boteach trying to turn Michael Jackson's kids Jewish?

Apparently, if you believe Al Arabiya in Arabic.

Al-Arabiya seems to have taken some relatively obscure news stories: one about Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's friendship with Michael Jackson, and one about MJ's ex-wife Debbie Rowe considering herself Jewish and seeking custody of her two kids.

Putting the two together, and you get Arab journalism at its finest.

Al-Arabiya is saying that Debbie Rowe seeking custody to raise the kids Jewish at Rabbi Boteach's urging. It also says that Botech hired lawyer Gloria Allred, who filed a complaint against Jackson in 2003 after he dangled his baby from a hotel window, to help Rowe gain custody.

They have a video that supposedly shows this, but it is only a video of Rabbi Boteach being interviewed on Fox News about Jackson the day after his death.

Usually, mainstream Arabic news tries to be somewhat accurate if slanted. Apparently as soon as the word "Jew" shows up, their few journalistic standards go out the window.

Of course, neither this story nor yesterday's story about how Arabs shouldn't sell Jewish souvenirs in Jerusalem were never translated into their English language site.

UPDATE: Boteach seems quite happy leaving MJ's kids with their grandmother.

Another Free Gaza lie

The Free Gaza publicity boat that was intercepted by Israeli authorities on the way to Gaza had declared upon its leaving Cyprus that the intended destination was - Egypt:

The Cypriot Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement following the incident, saying "The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Israel would like to inform that the "Spirit of Humanity" boat, sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement, that attempted in the early hours today to reach Gaza was given permission by the competent Authorities of the Republic of Cyprus to sail off the port of Larnaca in Cyprus on the basis of its declaration that its intended destination was the port of Port Said in Egypt."

So while they are whining that they are doing nothing wrong, they are in fact deceiving their Cyprus hosts and gained permission to leave Cyprus by doing what they do best - by lying.