Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Islamic Jihad, as radical as ever

There is an interview with the Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza in Palestine Today. Here are some excerpts:

We in the Al-Quds Brigades reject [any thought about a Palestinian Arab state in the 1967 borders next to Israel], and confirm that Palestine has well known names and borders, from the sea to the river by God's orders.

As far as Jerusalem and all the occupied Palestinian cities: what was taken by force will be restored only by force.

We also need to rearrange our ranks and take advantage of our mistakes to be ready to face any new Zionist crap.

What is happening today to stop the martyrdom operations, but there is a particular tactic is being studied by Al-Quds Brigades, and perhaps that the barriers and the apartheid wall and security coordination between the power of Oslo West Territories and the Zionist intelligence services, all of which had prevented the implementation of dozens of suicide bombings, particularly in the last war.

What is happening today to where we have stopped the martyrdom operations, but this is a particular tactic is being studied by Al-Quds Brigades. Perhaps the barriers and the apartheid wall and security coordination between the power of Oslo West Territories [PA] and the Zionist intelligence services, all of which had prevented the implementation of dozens of suicide bombings, particularly in the last war.

We emphasize that the Al-Quds Brigades suicide bombers can enter into the heart of the Zionist entity. It is difficult but not impossible to send suicide bombers and car bombs everywhere in our territory. There are soldiers at the disposal of the House the political and military leadership, and it depends on what is happening on the ground of the violations, as required by the Palestinian interest.

With God's grace our technical and manufacturing division is developing missile capabilities. If [we desire,] the lives of members of Zionist settlements - all of them - will be hell, God willing.

Besides the fact that PIJ will never moderate and can veto any agreements made by any other Palestinian Arab party, I once again marvel at Palestinian Arabs' grasp of geography.

Before 1920 or so, Palestine was considered to be on both sides of the Jordan. The "river to the sea" mantra has nothing to do with restoring any fantasy of an ancient land called Palestine and everything to do with destroying Israel.

At least Islamic Jihad is honest about it.

From the German Combat Awards forum. The members are introducing themselves, and HRW's Marc Garlasco posts this picture of himself. The discussion afterwards:

Skip: Love the sweatshirt Mark. Not one I could wear here in germany though (well I could but it would be a lot of hassle)

Flak88: Everyone thinks it is a biker shirt!

Skip: Yeh, were you come from but imagine walking around in Berlin with "das Eisene Kreuz" written across your cheat. Either you get beaten to pulp by a group of rampaging Turks or the police arrest you on suspicion of being a Nazi

Yeah, this is what a serious military historian looks like on his day off.

Open thread

It seems the right thing to do....

B'Tselem releases Gaza report (UPDATED)

From YNet:

A new report published Wednesday by rights group B'Tselem reveals that the IDF killed 1,387 Palestinians, 773 of whom were non-combatants. On the other hand, a report published by the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center shows that at least 1,000 of the Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip were Hamas combatants or were suspected of being combatants, and were therefore marked as targets by the IDF. [Here is an earlier ICT report - EoZ.]

According to the B'Tselem data, 773 of those killed did not take part in the hostilities, 320 of whom were minors under the age of 18 and 109 were women (above the age of 18). The rest of those killed were 330 armed combatants, 245 Palestinian policemen – most of whom were killed in aerial bombings of the police station – and 38 others whose participation in the hostilities could not be determined.

The report itself is not yet on B'Tselem's website so I cannot see all the details, but it is supposed to list the names of all the victims so it will be interesting to compare it to the PCHR, PMoH and Al Mezan lists.

Just from this summary we can see that B'Tselem seems to not consider whether those killed were members of terror groups; they are only looking at evidence that they were armed at the time they were killed. While this is understandable - one has to define "civilian" somehow, and this definition seems in line with international human rights standards - it necessarily means that terrorists who were hiding as civilians would be undercounted. For example, I have previously posted a video showing terrorists dressed as civilians shooting a rocket from the middle of a tree-lined street in Jabalya and running away after the fuse is lit. If they were killed a minute later by the IDF, without any weapons on them and two blocks away, B'Tselem's methodology would presumably call them "civilians."

For better or for worse, it is more reasonable and probably more accurate to assume that all members of terror organizations were de facto militants at the time they were killed rather than make a presumption that they were civilians.

Hopefully the report will be on-line soon and we can look into the details and see how it jives with the research that Suzanne, t34zakat, PTWatch and I have been doing. But since we have so far found 656 legitimate targets, compared to B'Tselem's number of between 575 and 613, we can determine that B'Tselem is being liberal in its definition of "civilian."

It also shows that they are more intellectually honest than the PCHR, which defined Hamas policemen - most of whom were al-Qassam Brigades members - as civilian by default.

UPDATE: It turns out that the ICRC wrote its own interpretation of how to define combatants when dealing with non-state actors who don't wear uniforms. They are to be commended for at least tackling the issue.

They write:

As has been shown above, in IHL governing non-international armed conflict, the concept of organized armed group refers to non-State armed forces in a strictly functional sense. For the practical purposes of the principle of distinction, therefore, membership in such groups cannot depend on abstract affiliation, family ties, or other criteria prone to error,
arbitrariness or abuse. Instead, membership must depend on whether the continuous function assumed by an individual corresponds to that collectively exercised by the group as a whole, namely the conduct of hostilities on behalf of a non-State party to the conflict. Consequently, under IHL, the decisive criterion for individual membership in an organized armed group is whether a person assumes a continuous function for the group involving his or her direct participation in hostilities (hereafter: "continuous combat function").

Continuous combat function does not imply de jure entitlement to combatant privilege.52 Rather, it distinguishes members of the organized fighting forces of a non-State party from civilians who directly participate in hostilities on a merely spontaneous, sporadic, or unorganized basis, or who assume exclusively political, administrative or other non-combat
functions.53

Continuous combat function requires lasting integration into an organized armed group acting as the armed forces of a non-State party to an armed conflict. Thus, individuals whose continuous function involves the preparation, execution, or command of acts or operations amounting to direct participation in hostilities are assuming a continuous combat function. An individual recruited, trained and equipped by such a group to continuously and directly participate
in hostilities on its behalf can be considered to assume a continuous combat function even before he or she first carries out a hostile act. This case must be distinguished from persons comparable to reservists who, after a period of basic training or active membership, leave the armed group and reintegrate into civilian life. Such "reservists" are civilians until and for such time as they are called back to active duty.54

Individuals who continuously accompany or support an organized armed group, but whose function does not involve direct participation in hostilities, are not members of that group within the meaning of IHL. Instead, they remain civilians assuming support functions, similar to private
contractors and civilian employees accompanying State armed forces.55 Thus, recruiters, trainers, financiers and propagandists may continuously contribute to the general war effort of a non-State party, but they are not members of an organized armed group belonging to that party unless their function additionally includes activities amounting to direct participation in hostilities.56 The same applies to individuals whose function is limited to the purchasing, smuggling, manufacturing and maintaining of weapons and other equipment outside specific military operations or to the collection of intelligence other than of a tactical nature.57

Although such persons may accompany organized armed groups and provide substantial support to a party to the conflict, they do not assume continuous combat function and, for the purposes of the principle of distinction, cannot be regarded as members of an organized armed group. 58 As civilians, they benefit from protection against direct attack unless and for such time as they directly participate in hostilities, even though their activities or location may increase their exposure to incidental death or injury.

I need to read the whole thing, but I believe that the vast majority of terrorists that our group identified would fit under these criteria. The Hamas and PIJ obituaries list exactly what heroic deeds they were doing at the time they were killed, for example. Most of the others were identified as members of specific brigades, which means that they would be (IMO) considered equivalent to uniformed army.

A couple of al-Qassam Brigades people, like a cook and a group of singers, might be considered civilian by the ICRC definition.

Notably, many experts were upset that the ICRC refused to define voluntary human shields for military targets as combatants.

HRW: The can of worms (Ma'ariv)

Israel Matzav translates Ma'ariv's article about the problems at Human Rights Watch, which include the new information about Marc Garlasco's Nazi-paraphernalia hobby:

If it were one case, one could argue it was a coincidence. Even two are not proof. But the more about that is disclosed about Human Rights Watch (HRW), the most important international body to protect human rights, the more that it seems that something really stinks there. No, that's not a delicate word, and certainly not diplomatic one. But it is doubtful that there is a better word to describe the can of worms that is gradually being dug up there. ...Now Marc Garlasco, who is HRW's senior military analyst, and who was the linchpin of past poisonous reports against Israel, joins the party. For example, Garlasco is the man who determined that an Israeli shell caused the deaths of an entire Palestinian family in Beit Lahiya, on the Gaza beach, in June 2006, and who made various other charges related to the Second Lebanon War and to Operation Cast Lead. Garlasco has made so many mistakes that they cannot be counted. But he is against Israel. And that is permitted. It is not clear yet whether Garlasco himself is a Nazi. Those claims deserve close scrutiny, but it seems possible to make do with what we already know. We're talking about a Nazi memorabilia collector. This is not an innocent collection. In many cases, the collectors are expounders of a clear ideology; there are no sane people there. ...What is clearer is that HRW is being disclosed as a dangerous group, which needs a serious shakeup. Human rights in the world deserve much better protectors than a terrorist-lover like Stork or collectors of Nazi memorabilia, like Garlasco.

Read the whole thing.

How's the Arafat "murder" investigation going?

At the sixth Fatah conference, a committee was set up to investigate Yasir Arafat's "murder."

Yesterday, Fatah leaderAbu Othman mentioned that there is only one thing that is slowing down the investigation: evidence.

Apparently, the poison that they are so convinced killed Arafat is undetectable, so they cannot determine for sure if it killed him via skin contact, or food, or (just guessing here) high-powered Joo-Rays. * This of course makes it difficult to know exactly what killed Arafat, but one thing is certain: Israel killed him to destroy the Palestinian Arab political movement. Which, as you may recall, was riding so high while Arafat was holed up in his compound with an assortment of terrorists he was protecting.

Othman goes on to say that the murderers didn't count on the wonderful leadership abilities of Abu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas. You know, the guy whose "leadership" consists of "lets sit here and wait until we are given a state on a silver platter."

So the investigation continues, and as long as the lack of evidence is not an impediment, we can be sure to find out the truth of the murder very soon now.

[*I wrote that phrase above remembering accusations of Arabs being killed by nefarious Joo-rays, and I was trying to be as outlandish as possible here, but a search showed that indeed, a PA representative once accused Israel of murdering Arafat in that very manner. Once again, it is difficult to parody Palestinian Arabs when they say things that are more outlandish than any parodist could imagine.]

HRW responds, and so do I

Human Rights Watch is providing an offense (in every sense of the word) to defend their researcher Marc Garlasco. Earlier this evening I, and other bloggers who commented on the story of Garlasco's obsession with Nazi artifacts, received a canned response from HRW:

Several blogs and others critical of Human Rights Watch have suggested that Marc Garlasco, Human Rights Watch’s longtime senior military advisor, is a Nazi sympathizer because he collects German (as well as American) military memorabilia. This accusation is demonstrably false and fits into a campaign to deflect attention from Human Rights Watch’s rigorous and detailed reporting on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli government. Garlasco has co-authored several of our reports on violations of the laws of war, including in Afghanistan, Georgia, and Iraq, as well as by Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Garlasco has never held or expressed Nazi or anti-Semitic views.

Garlasco’s grandfather was conscripted into the German armed forces during the Second World War, like virtually all young German men at the time, and served as a radar operator on an anti-aircraft battery. He never joined the Nazi Party, and later became a dedicated pacifist. Meanwhile, Garlasco’s great-uncle was an American B-17 crewman, who survived many attacks by German anti-aircraft gunners.

Garlasco own family’s experience on both sides of the Second World War has led him to collect military items related to both sides, including American 8th Air Force memorabilia and German Air Force medals and other objects (not from the Nazi Party or the SS, as falsely alleged). Many military historians, and others with an academic interest in the Second World War, including former and active-duty US service members, collect memorabilia from that era.

Garlasco is the author of a monograph on the history of German Air Force and Army anti-aircraft medals and a contributor to websites that promote serious historical research into the Second World War (and which forbid hate speech). In the foreword he writes of telling his daughters that “the war was horrible and cruel, that Germany lost and for that we should be thankful.”

To imply that Garlasco’s collection is evidence of Nazi sympathies is not only absurd but an attempt to deflect attention from his deeply felt efforts to uphold the laws of war and minimize civilian suffering in wartime. These falsehoods are an affront to Garlasco and thousands of other serious military historians.

It is hard to tell how much of this is HRW being obtuse and how much is them pretending to be obtuse.

Most of their argument is strawman and irrelevant.

I never accused Garlasco of being a Nazi or even a Nazi sympathizer, and as far as I can tell most bloggers who took up this story didn't either. HRW's tarring us with that brush is, frankly, offensive, and it serves to detract from the real issue that they studiously ignore:

HRW's poster boy for human rights research nurses a serious obsession with, and fascination for, the worst human rights abusers in history.

Saying that this is him doing "research" is an insult to everyone's intelligence. He is a collector of Nazi-era German objects like daggers, Iron Crosses, swastikas. He has written hundreds, maybe thousands, of posts on forums dedicated to the topic. He has written a 400 page book on the topic. Writing a monograph on German medals does not make one a "historian" in any real sense; it makes him a rabid collector. I am fairly sure that his purchase of many of these items would be illegal in many European countries. To deflect those disturbing facts by saying that he also owns a few American air force memorabilia is to dodge the real issue.

It is extraordinarily bad taste and truly offensive that the same person who habitually castigates the Jewish state to a worldwide audience has a creepy obsession with the symbols of those who tried to destroy all Jews.

No amount of doubletalk and misdirection can take that away.

Reason for cynicism about Egypt's new love of synagogues

Last month I mentioned that Egypt was restoring an ancient Egyptian synagogue. Even though it sounds like a great idea, I was somewhat cynical as to Egypt's motives.

It looks like my cynicism was correct, even as my guess as to motive was somewhat misplaced:

Egyptians generally do not make any distinction between Jewish people and Israelis. Israelis are seen as the enemy, so Jews are, too.
Khalid Badr, 40, is pretty typical in that regard, living in a neighborhood of winding, rutted roads in Old Cairo, selling snacks from a kiosk while listening to the Koran on the radio. Asked his feelings about Jews, he replied matter-of-factly. “We hate them for everything they have done to us,” Mr. Badr said, as casually as if he had been asked the time.
But Mr. Badr’s ideas have recently been challenged. He has had to confront the reality that his neighborhood was once filled with Jews — Egyptian Jews — and that his nation’s history is interwoven with Jewish history. Not far from his shop, down another narrow, winding alley once called the Alley of the Jews, the government is busy renovating an abandoned, dilapidated synagogue.
In fact, the government is not just renovating the crumbling, flooded old building. It is publicly embracing its Jewish past — not the kind of thing you ordinarily hear from Egyptian officials.

“If you don’t restore the Jewish synagogues, you lose a part of your history,” said Zahi Hawass, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who in the past has written negatively about Jews because of the clash between Israel and the Palestinians. “It is part of our heritage.”
So why the sudden public display of affection for Egypt’s Jewish past?
Politics. Not street politics, but global politics.
Egypt’s minister of culture, Farouk Hosny, wants to be the next director general of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In the context of this conservative Islamic society, Mr. Hosny, 71, is quite liberal, running afoul of Islamists when he criticized the popularity of women wearing head scarves, for example.
But to appease — or please — his local constituency, he said in 2008 he would burn any Israeli book found in the nation’s premier library in Alexandria. He has apologized, but that has done little to end the attacks on his candidacy to lead an organization dedicated to promoting cultural diversity.
So his subordinates sped up the restoration process. After a year of study, the work began in June. They pitched a blue tent, and held a news conference — two, in fact — right inside the old synagogue around the corner from Mr. Badr’s shop.
For Egyptians like Mr. Hawass, speaking about Egypt’s Jewish past with pride has required a degree of finesse. Mr. Hawass has in the past refused a suggestion by the American Jewish Committee to consider building a small museum to house Egypt’s historic Jewish artifacts, as the government has done to preserve many of Egypt’s Christian artifacts.
“If you make a museum like that while Israel is killing Palestinian children, people will kill me,” he said.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood gets more radical

There was a major meeting of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood over the past month, and one of the most contentious topics was whether it should maintain an official relationship with Hamas.

Some members, considered "doves" in the context of extremist Islam, wanted to distance themselves from Hamas and the clear damage it has done to the Palestinian Arab cause. It also looks like there was some disagreement as to the extent of the Ikhwan's cooperation with the Jordanian government, which the hawks blame for having a peace treaty with Israel.

It appears that the "hawks" won the day, and amid much contention four of the "dove" leaders have resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood's executive council.

This might bring Jordan's Brotherhood more in line with Egypt's branch, which was the source for every radical Sunni Muslim group in existence today.

HRW researcher's disturbing hobby

Marc Garlasco, the HRW senior military analyst who has written a number of reports harshly critical of Israel and whose own expertise has been called into question, has a side hobby:

Collecting Nazi memorabilia.

I noticed his obsession yesterday, to the point that he has even written a book on the topic. He has written a number of posts on various forums about Nazi memorabilia, such as daggers, Iron Crosses and the like.

While this may not be illegal or immoral, it does raise some disturbing questions about his Israel obsession.

I mentioned my findings to Omri at Mere Rhetoric, and he now has many more details to show the connection between the HRW researcher and the Nazi war buff. Read the whole thing.

UPDATES: See also Solomonia and Yaacov ben Moshe.

And the CAMERA blog.

This is getting some traction.

The people who are on Marc's forums are upset, saying that they do serious research and this does not prove he is a Nazi. However, no one is accusing Garlasco of being a Nazi; the question is whether there is a connection between his twin obsessions of Nazi paraphernalia and Israel's right to defend itself - and whether HRW sees this as a problem for their vaunted "objectivity."

UPDATE 2: Noah Pollak from Commentary talks about this as well:

A Nazi-memorabilia hobby sure is a strange one for a professional human-rights activist to have. Are there any senior staffers at PETA who moonlight as collectors of fur coats and leg-hold traps?

UNRWA appeals for Zakat funds

Even though UNRWA is exclusively concerned with helping Palestinian Arabs, the bulk of its funding has always come from Western countries. Arab nations, even oil-rich ones, pledge far less than many European countries, and they often ignore their pledges. Even special UNRWA appeals to Arab nations are ignored.

After the Gaza conflict, UNRWA appealed again to rich Arab nations to help, asking for over $180 million, and only one stepped up:

UNRWA spokeswoman, Elena Mancusi Materi, says most of that money came from traditional Western donors, except for one generous contribution from an Arab country.

"We received $34 million from Kuwait. Then we received $400,000 from Qatar," Materi said. "We received, I think, $100,000 from Saudi Arabia … But, it is nothing major apart from the very big and generous Kuwaiti donations for Gaza."

Meanwhile, the US pledged $81 million.

This year, UNRWA is trying something new - appealing straight to Muslim Arabs to donate to UNRWA.

Palestine Today reports that UNRWA started a special Ramadan appeal for the $181 million it says it needs for Gaza by advertising in major Arab newspapers saying donated funds would fulfill their Zakat obligations during Ramadan.

The ads include a background image of a mosque destroyed during the fighting. I wonder if it was this one:

It will be interesting to see if ordinary Arabs, who are weaned with pro-Palestinian Arab propaganda from birth, will respond as stingily as their host countries do.

Pro-Gaza activists being harassed - by Egypt

From the Daily News Egypt:

A Palestinian mother of two detained at Cairo Airport has expressed anger and confusion at her treatment.
Manal Timraz, 39, and her two teenage sons were stopped by a member of airport security bodies immediately after they passed through passport control at 1 am on Monday.
Timraz is involved in humanitarian relief work for Gaza, and in May joined a European-organized relief convoy which passed the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza. She also initiated the One Million Candles for Gaza campaign after she lost 15 relatives — including 11 children — in a single Israeli bombardment of the Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza in December 2008.
An article about the campaign was published in national state-run daily Al-Ahram in February 2008.
Timraz’s experience is the third in a series of similar incidents involving individuals stopped at Cairo Airport who have participated in pro-Gaza activity.
In April Laila El-Haddad — who blogs under the name Gazamom — and her two sons were prevented from entering Egypt en route to Gaza and held at the airport for two days.
US citizen Travis Randall, who lives and works in Egypt, was prevented from entering the country earlier this month. Randall was involved in a pro-Gaza march in Egypt in February of this year.

We'll see what kinds of international criticism Egypt receives for harassing Gaza activists.

PalArab media roundup 9/7/09

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman reportedly told Hamas leader Khaled Meshal that Hamas must release Gilad Shalit if it expects the Gaza siege to be lifted.

The Palestinian Bureau of Central Statistics released data showing tht the levels of illiteracy among Palestinian Arabs is far lower than for the Arab world at large, 5.9% vs. 28.9%. Within the territories, Jericho has the highest illiteracy rate (8.3%) and Gaza has the lowest (4.4%).

There has been a recent mini-uproar over allegations that the UAE has been expelling hundreds of Palestinian Arab workers. The UAE and the PA representative there deny any such policy but Farouk Kaddoumi is trying to gain political points by complaining about it.

Palestine Today has an adoring interview with Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank who are in hiding to avoid arrest by Israel and the PA, and mentions their steadfastness in being away from their families during Ramadan.

Now that Gaza children are safe from the evils of Holocaust education, a "human rights" activist is trying to ensure that they learn about PalArab prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Jordanian agriculture minister, admitting that he doesn't have the legal authority to stop Israeli imports of fruits and vegetables, is mandating that all such products be labeled "Made in Israel" so that consumers would have a choice of whether to boycott them or not. The ministry would heavily penalize any importer who tries to hide that goods came from Israel.

Palestine News Network reports that Islamic Jihad is not happy with Hamas' Islamization of Gaza, believing that it is premature to start imposing such rules on the citizens. But it doesn['t want to criticize Hamas publicly for fear that the perception of infighting will look bad.

During Ramadan, there has been a huge demand for watercress in the PalArab territories. Apparently, there have been rumors that watercress improves sexual performance in both men and women and everyone has been buying them up for their evening iftar meals, leading to shortages.

HRW's pattern of bias in its "Precisely Wrong" report

No one denies that civilians were tragically killed in Gaza. The major question that human rights organizations like HRW and Amnesty International have to deal with is whether the civilian casualties could have been reasonably avoided, or if they appear to have been deliberate.

Clearly, they have no insight into the thinking of the IDF commanders, so it is literally impossible to prove that the IDF killed civilians deliberately. Instead, these groups will attempt to find evidence - physical, or via interviews - that seem to prove that the attacks were deliberate. While this can never be considered conclusive, it is a reasonable approach to take all the existing data and look to see if the evidence fits better into a narrative of deliberation or a narrative of accidental or collateral killings.

Looking into the details of HRW's reports that condemn Israel, one can see a disturbing but consistent pattern that HRW seems to have shown a definite bias towards evidence that condemns the IDF while downplaying or ignoring evidence that could exonerate the Israeli army. From all indications, HRW is stacking the deck to make the IDF look as guilty as possible.

Here are some examples from the HRW report on alleged drone attacks on civilians in Gaza, entitled Precisely Wrong.

Gaza Technical College, Gaza City

HRW writes:

Around 1:30 p.m. on December 27, 2008, the first day of the IDF offensive, an IDF drone launched a missile at a group of young men and women standing across the street from the UNRWA-sponsored Gaza Technical College in downtown Gaza City [GPS 31.51162/034.44336] killing 12. Nine of the dead were college students, two of them young women; all were waiting for a UN bus to take them to their homes in Rafah and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip. The three other civilians killed were bystanders. The missile struck 25 meters from UNRWA's Gaza headquarters, in the Rimal neighborhood of central Gaza City, which is frequented by UN staff and international aid workers.

According to nine witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, including three international UN staff, no Palestinian fighters were active on the street or in the immediate area just prior to or at the time of the attack. Fighters from Hamas and the other Palestinian factions were rarely seen in the Rimal neighborhood where the attack took place, witnesses as well as Palestinian journalists and human rights activists based in Gaza said. This was one of the first airstrikes of Operation Cast Lead, and the street was crowded at the time of the attack as civilians went about their normal business.
Human Rights Watch altogether interviewed nine witnesses to the attack, three of them in a group and the rest individually. All gave corroborative details of the attack, which lent credibility to their claims. No fighters from Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups were in the area of the Gaza Technical College at the time of the attack, they all said. An UNRWA security guard who witnessed the attack told Human Rights Watch, "There wasn't anybody else around-no police, army, or Hamas."

What HRW is not mentioning is that one of the victims, Adham Hamdi al-'Adani, was identified in Hamas forums as a member of the al-Qassam Martyrs Central Region Deir el-Balah Martyrs Battalion.

HRW is purposefully misleading in another detail. While it is true that this was "one of the first airstrikes of Operation Cast Lead," it occurred a good 1.5 hours after the first Gaza City airstrike, according to PCHR. It seems unlikely that civilians were going about their "normal business" when the city was already under attack.

PCHR describes the targets in Gaza City this way:

At approximately 11:25 on Saturday, IOF warplanes bombarded Arafat police compound in the center of Gaza City, where the ceremony of graduation of trained officers was being conducted; the headquarters of the past Preventive Security Service and offices of Wa'ed Society for Prisoners in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City; al-Mashtal site [detention center - EoZ] in the Beach camp in the west of the city; al-'Abbas police station; a bust garage belonging to Hamas near Gaza Harbor; and the headquarters of the Security and Protection Service and the presidential compound in the west of the city. They also bombarded a police station in al-Daraj neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, a site of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas in al-Shoja'iya neighborhood and another one in al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the east of the city; a house belonging to the Humaid family in al-Tuffah neighborhood in the east of the city.

It is possible that the PCHR's list is not exhaustive, but it appears that every target mentioned besides the Humaid house was a legitimate target. Which of these listed corresponds to Al-Sena'a street in the neighborhood where the attack detailed above occurs? Could it be that HRW missed one of the al-Qassam sites that was obliterated, and that the eyewitnesses were covering it up? (If it was the Humaid house, it seems strange that HRW wouldn't mention the IDF bombing of a house in this case.)

Is it possible that 'Adani (PCHR: 'Udeini) was doing something other than just innocently going to class, a full hour and a half after the initial IDF assault on Gaza City? We have no way of knowing. But one can definitively say this: if HRW had the information about 'Adani's affiliation, it didn't see fit to mention it in its report; if it didn't have that information, it can hardly be considered to have done a complete analysis. Either way, HRW is not showing that it was objective in its research and reporting.

Samur family metal shop, Jabalya

This was one of the more infamous accidents that the IDF made during the war: misidentifying dozens of cylinders being loaded into a truck as being rockets, and not as the oxygen tanks that they were. The IDF video of that airstrike was widely watched.

HRW blames the IDF for not knowing the difference:

The family showed Human Rights Watch some of the oxygen canisters that it said it had moved that day before the Israeli strike. The canisters measured 1.62 meters long-shorter than the average adult man-and 20 cm in diameter. Grad rockets are 2.87 meters long, nearly twice the length.

Jabalya is in the northern Gaza Strip, which has been the origin of many of the Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel. Whatever suspicions that raised, however, the drone's advanced imaging equipment should have enabled the drone operator to determine the nature of the objects under surveillance. The video posted online by the IDF indicates that this was the case: two of the cylindrical objects the men were loading onto the truck are visible, and both are clearly shorter than Grad rockets, which, at nearly three meters are taller than any grown man and longer than the width of the Mercedes-Benz 410 flatbed truck onto which the cylinders were being loaded crossways. The Russian-designed Grad rocket is a known weapon in the Hamas arsenal, and consequently recognizable to IDF personnel. As such, given the visual evidence, the drone operator should have considered the likelihood that these were not Grad rockets. In addition, according to the IDF video of the attack, the truck was under surveillance for more than two minutes, and possibly longer because the truck was not moving, so the operator should have had time to consult with superior officers on whether the truck could be considered a legitimate target.

HRW is discounting a number of possibilities: that the person watching the truck might have thought that the rockets weren't Grads but rather Qassam-2 rockets, which are almost identical in size to the oxygen cylinders (180 cm vs. 162 cm) or perhaps another type, that the proximity to the metal workshop where Qassams are often built indicated a likelihood of them being rockets, whether two minutes is really enough time to check when being wrong would result in dozens of rockets being launched towards Israel.

In addition, HRW breezily mentions the dimensions of the Grad rocket as if everyone could recognize their size immediately. Yet Mark Garlasco, HRW's senior military analyst, at the time said:

"This case highlights the complexity of targeting in urban areas. Even when the commander is certain of his target based on active observation, this shows they can be mistaken. . . . It is difficult to know what your target is."

Garlasco, no fan of Israel and someone who has shown his bias before, hardly finds this an open-and-shut case of Israeli blame. And isn't it interesting that HRW's "senior military analyst" didn't immediately notice that the cylinders in the video were not as large as Grad rockets? HRW clearly gives the IDF more responsibility for accurately identifying a rocket in two minutes than it gives its own resident expert in a week of watching the video.

HRW also doesn't address another salient point that the IDF mentions about the incident:

The objects were being loaded into the truck next to a recognised Hamas rocket manufacturing site, and close to Hamas‘ central base. The loading point was also near an area frequently used by Hamas to launch rockets towards Israel.

All of these facts would tend to justify Israel's decision to strike, and HRW doesn't mention them - even though the IDF report was already released at the time the HRW report was published.

Al-Habbash family house, al-Sha'f, Gaza City

Another tragic case:

On January 4, at around 3 p.m., an IDF drone launched a missile at six children playing on the roof of the al-Habbash family home in the al-Sha'f area of Gaza City [GPS 31.50928/034.47826]. The missile killed two girl cousins, ages 10 and 12, and injured three other children, two of whom lost their legs.

The father and two lightly wounded sons, interviewed separately, told Human Rights Watch that there was no fighting in the area at the time of the attack. "There were no Israelis in the area; it was the second day of ground fighting," Muhammad al-Habbash said.

Admittedly, it is difficult to understand why the IDF would not have been able to identify the children on the roof, assuming that HRW is correct in saying that they were killed by a drone. However, the claim that there was no fighting going on in the area needs to be verified independently. On that same day in that same neighborhood that the PCHR identifies as Al-Tufah, al-Qassam Brigades member Mohammed Bashir Mohammed Khader was killed (PCHR, Hamas says January 6.) Is that not relevant?

'Allaw family house, Al-Sha'f, Gaza City

Another seemingly tragic case:

On January 5, around noon, an IDF drone launched a missile at members of the 'Allaw family who were on the roof of their home [GPS 31.50828/034.47721], three blocks from the al-Habbash house, which was struck the day before. The missile killed a young boy and injured his brother and sister.

Human Rights Watch investigated the site of the blast and fragments from the missile. The site had the same fragmentation patterns as the other sites and the missile fragments were consistent with the other Spike attacks.

HRW may be correct, but the PCHR reported the case a bit differently at the time:

At approximately 14:15 on Monday, IOF artillery shelled a house belonging to the 'Allaw family in al-Tuffah neighborhood. As a result, 2 children from the family were wounded:

1.Mo'men Mahmoud Talal 'Allaw, 11; and
2.Mohammed Mhamoud Talal 'Allaw, 12.

Their sister, 8-year-old Iman Mahmoud Talal 'Allaw, was also wounded.

PCHR's casualty list released in March lists Mohammed as being killed on January 5th, so it is curious that the PCHR didn't count him as being killed on that weekly report. The differences in the times of the attack and that the PCHR considered it an artillery, not a drone missile, attack indicates that perhaps HRW's methods for identifying drone missiles is not as accurate as they think, or that PCHR's reporting was incorrect at the time. Either way, one or both of these human rights organizations were very mistaken about the event. And HRW should at least tangentially acknowledge that others disagreed about the circumstances, for if PCHR is correct, that calls into question nearly every case mentioned in this report as being missile strikes based on the patterns of the holes.

UNRWA Asma Elementary School, Gaza City

On the afternoon of January 5, 2009, the Sultan family from Beit Lahiya along with about 400 other people fled their homes due to fighting in the area and sought protection at the UNRWA Asma Elementary Co-educational "A" School in the center of Gaza City, which the UN had opened earlier that day as a shelter. The displaced families stayed in classrooms and used two bathrooms inside the main building. UNRWA officials registered 406 people in the school.

After dinner, around 10 p.m., three young men from the al-Sultan family wanted to use the bathroom but the facilities in the school's main building were occupied, so they left the building to use the bathrooms in the courtyard. While there, a single Israeli missile directly struck the bathroom, killing all three. The hole in the bathroom wall and surrounding fragment marks, as shown by CNN and the BBC, are fully consistent with impact from a drone-launched Spike missile.

But from the IDF's perspective, three young men appeared late at night outside a building,

a place where no civilians were known or presumed to be at night, especially since the school had been closed for nine days when the incident occurred. Earlier that day, the UNRWA apparently had opened the school as an emergency shelter, although it did not so notify the IDF prior to the strike. The IDF concluded that there was no reasonable explanation for the presence of the unit in the elementary school, other than their preparation for the terrorist activity. The IDF targeted the terrorist unit only after it cross-checked this information.

So why does HRW not blame the UN for not informing Israel of the use of this school as a shelter, thereby endangering people there? The IDF, closely coordinating with the UN, cannot help but assume that three young men going to the small building at night are terrorists.

Instead, HRW blames Israel. HRW notes, but airily dismisses, the IDF's information:

The IDF was reportedly not informed of its use as a shelter until January 6, but civilians lining up outside the school and inside the school compound would have been clearly visible by aerial surveillance.

The assumption is that the IDF is omnisciently seeing what every resident of Gaza is doing at all times, and cannot rely on the UN to relay correct information but must double, triple and quadruple check every possible explanation of why people might be acting like terrorists act when terrorists brag about hiding among civilians.

HRW, without knowing anything about the coverage and priorities of Israel's drones, facilely makes an absurd assumption that, somehow, Israel should have known that a UN facility was being used when the UN never told Israel about it. Yet anyone who has spent any time looking at footage from drones knows that they can only focus on a tiny percentage of Gaza at a time at a resolution that can identify people, and HRW betrays its own naivete when it makes a statement like that.

Yet it is consistent with the bias shown throughout the report: for every incident, HRW bends over backwards to find fault with IDF decisions and spends no effort trying to see if they have any justification - on the contrary, it uses borderline sarcasm to belittle IDF explanations.

This is not what the function of a fact-finding mission should be. This reflects the function of a partisan group, that already knows ahead of time what it is going to decide, and only admits evidence that supports its pre-existing verdict.

"There is no compusion in Islam"

From the Saudi Gazette:

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) arrested Wednesday seven persons for “breaking their fast” during daylight hours in Ramadan. Hai’a spokesman in the Northern Border province Abdullah Al-Musheiti said that the arrests came during Hai’a campaigns in streets and districts, and that the seven had “been handed over to the authorities concerned”.

Someone ought to tell the Muttawa that Islam doesn't approve of their actions.

Or do they know Islamic law better than I do?

(Actually, how Muslims interpret the Quranic verse "There is no compulsion in religion," 2:256, is fascinating, at least in this article I found. In short, it appears that this particular command has either been abrogated or must be radically re-interpreted in light of later actions by Mohammed.)

Old anti-Zionist lies never die

In the middle of a predictably anti-Israel article in the Gulf News, written by Stuart Reigeluth, "a Middle East specialist based in Madrid," comes this little factoid:

One cannot help but wonder if Israel is permitting these colonies to continue to flourish to support the dream of a 'Greater Israel'. A map of this Zionist dream can be found on the 10 agorot national coin - which is used most often, ironically, as change on the Palestinian mini-buses that bounce along the windy roads of the West Bank.

This idea that the obverse of the 10 agorot coin portrays a map of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates was first floated by Yasir Arafat in a press conference in 1988, and was immediately proven to be a lie - the design was based on one issued by the last Hasmonean king around 40 BCE.

It is curious that this "Middle East specialist" accepted it as absolute truth. (Then again, his article has equally nonsensical things to say about demography.)

Sometimes, these little asides are more pernicious than the actual stories themselves. People reading the article might have an idea that it is biased, but they have no reason to believe that the throwaway "facts" are complete fabrications; they enter one's subconscious and they contribute to a web of deceit that surrounds people's perceptions of the Middle East.

More Starving Gazans

Palestine Today gives us another photo essay of Gaza. Notice again how close to starvation everyone appears, just like they did two weeks ago.

Those hanging objects sure look like meat to me....

Hamas tonight announced the death of Sameh Al-Bitar, who they said was martyred while doing a "special jihad mission" in Gaza City.

This always means that either the guy blew himself up or was accidentally (or purposefully) killed by one of his comrades.

Either way, it is time to hand out the candy!

In other peaceful PalArab news, two brothers were shot and killed in a camp near Ramallah, and two others injured.

Since Ramadan began two weeks ago, there have been no less than 80 family fights that required police to intervene in the PalArab territories.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 182.

UPDATE: A Gazan man stabbed his cousin to death. 183.

Now, we have Zionist Attack Snakes to add to the zoo

We've already seen Arabs blaming Israel for attacks done by dogs, pigs, wolves, lions, rats and sheep. We've seen the terror of Zionist cows.

Today, we can add another member to the Zionist Attack Zoo: Snakes.

yewitnesses said a snake at least one meter long bit a woman on farmland near Salfit. The woman was transferred to the National Hospital in Nablus for anti-venom treatment.

Locals, who have often accused Ariel settlers of releasing wild boars into villages and farmland, said the snake was likely released from the nearby settlement, noting it escaped after the attack toward the confiscated land.

As in previous cases, the venomous Zionists managed to train snakes to distinguish between Jew and Arab, a very useful skill.

And you thought that snake charming was only done in India!

Solana hated Mohammed cartoons, no problem with antisemitism

A comment from Brad prompted me to look up, after Javier Solana's passionate defense of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in context of bald-faced slanderous lies by Aftonbladet, what he thought after the Mohammed cartoon kerfuffle.

As could be expected, freedom of expression was the furthest thing from his mind then, much to the consternation of the Dutch:

The Netherlands has sharply criticised EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana for the allegedly apologetic tone he has used when facing Muslim countries in the row over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.

Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot has put in a protest to Mr Solana objecting to remarks he made last week during his tour around Muslim countries, a Dutch spokesman confirmed.

Among other things, the EU's top foreign policy official said after meeting the leader of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIS), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu "I expressed our sincere regret that religious feelings have been hurt", vowing "to reach out...to make sure that people’s hearts and minds are not hurt again."

Dutch daily De Telegraaf quotes the Dutch state secretary for European Affairs Atzo Nicolai as characterising the tone used by Mr Solana as "shocking."

Speaking at a political debate on Monday (20 February) Mr Nicolai said "He has toured around in order to offer apologies. On behalf of whom, I ask. You and me? We haven't drawn those cartoons."

The Netherlands is also deeply unhappy with a joint statement issued on 7 February by Mr Solana on behalf of the EU together with the OIS leader and UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

One passage of the statement says that "The anguish in the Muslim world at the publication of these offensive caricatures is shared by all individuals and communities who recognise the sensitivity of deeply held religious belief."

I'm trying to find some consistency in Solana's positions.

Does he believe that satire is more hurtful than a straight-out fabrication that recalls the worst anti-semitism of the past five centuries?

Or does his care about people's feelings only extend to their religious feelings, as somehow being more fragile than other types of feelings?

Perhaps he considers crudely drawn cartoons inherently more offensive than a two-page photo spread screaming that Jews like to kill people to profit from their organs?

Or, possibly he knows that no Jews threaten anyone's lives when they are slandered, while Muslims will murder people for the slightest provocation, thus proving that Muslims must be pandered to at all costs - even at the cost of the freedom of expression that Solana pretends to care so much about?

Hmmm...tough choice.

Hezbollah loses money from a "Lebanese Madoff"

From YNet:

Three senior Hezbollah operatives are among those who invested and lost funds with Lebanese businessman Salah Ezzadine, who has been nicknamed the 'Lebanese Madoff' after being accused of losing over a billion dollars of his clients' money.

During the prisoner swap Wafik Safa became known in Israel for refusing to reveal the status of the two captured soldiers until the very last minute, just before their bodies were brought out in coffins.

Al-Arabiya reported that the other two men were the leader of Hezbollah's parliament bloc, Mohammad Raad, and a member of the bloc, Amin Sherri. The report did not say whether they had lost their own private funds or those of the organization.

Earlier this week the Lebanese a-Safir reported that Ezzadine, a prominent Lebanese businessman, is accused of leading a giant Ponzi scheme and that he was arrested by Hezbollah in Beirut while attempting to flee the country.

Naharnet adds that Ezzedine was close with Hezbollah and his bankruptcy is making thousands of Lebanese, presumably also Hezbollah supporters or members, jobless.

Al Quds is reporting that Hezbollah fears that when Ezzedine talks, he might reveal the illegal sources of income that Hezbollah uses, like drug trafficking.

Awwwww.

Javier Solana rapes little boys every night

In an interview in Al Arabiya today, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana refused to condemn the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet's blood libel against Israel, saying that what the paper did falls under freedom of expression and one is free to agree or disagree with it.

He seemed to denounce Israel's attacks on the newspaper, asking Al Arabiya's readers to defend freedom of the press even when one disagrees with what is written.

I am glad to hear Solana say that, because there are unsourced reports that Solana rapes little boys every night to help him go to sleep. Of course, Solana must butcher them in the morning to ensure that they don't talk about it. I believe that this news needs to be publicized as widely as possible so that a proper investigation can occur after everyone reads about it. And if he is upset about such accusations, he does not have the right to attack any newspaper (or blog) that publishes this story, because of the sanctity of freedom of expression.

From the Asia Times:

For the first time on Arabic television, a dramatic production airing this Ramadan, the holy Muslim month, depicts the life of Egyptian Jews during the 1920s and 1930s, showing them in favorable light as ordinary citizens, no different from Egyptian Muslims and Christians.

The series is as controversial as the life of its heroine, Egyptian diva Layla Murad - a Jewish singer and actress who rocketed to fame in the inter-war years before her life was marred with controversy after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Currently showing on 14 Arabic channels, Ana Albi Dalili (My Heart is my Guide), is among the most widely watched works among 60 productions made by Egyptian and Syrian artists in 2009. Apart from covering the life of Layla, the work goes to great lengths to promote tolerance and co-existence, shattering long-held stereotypes against Arab Jews, showing how integrated and proactive they were within Egyptian society.

Layla Murad, with a powerful legacy of 27 black and white classics in Egyptian cinema and 1,200 songs, was one of the most popular, talented and beautiful Arab artists of the 20th century. She compared in fame only to the Egyptian Um Kalthoum and the Syrian diva Asmahan - together, they were the three women who competed for supremacy on Arab charts in the 1930s.

Born to a Moroccan Jewish father named Ibrahim Zaki Murad in February 1918, Layla's mother was a Polish Jew named Gamila. ....

Matters took an unpleasant turn in 1948, when Israel was created, prompting many of her audience to become suspicious of her Jewish origins. Vicious rumors spread throughout Egypt and the Arab world - probably started by her competitors - saying that Murad had visited Tel Aviv and donated 50,000 Egyptian pounds to the newly created Israeli Defense Forces.

The Damascus bureau of the popular Egyptian daily al-Ahram originally reported that rumor. Murad categorically challenged the rumors, but with little luck. The damage had already been done. Syrian Radio, previously one of the most powerful promoters of her works, boycotted her songs and she was banned from entering Syria in the early 1950s.

Murad converted to Islam after marrying Egyptian director Anwar Wajdi, and often told reporters, "I am now an Egyptian Muslim!" President Gamal Abdul Nasser intervened on her behalf when Syria and Egypt merged into the United Arab Republic in 1958, lifting the ban on Syrian Radio. An official communique was released by Egyptian authorities clearing her name from all charges, including that which accused her of having visited Israel in 1948.

Rumors, however, rocked her life in the 10 years after 1948. Some said she died in a car accident in Paris. Others said she was married in secret to King Farouk I. Nothing, however, compared with the stories of her connections to Zionism, resulting in Murad's retirement from music and descent into complete obscurity until her death at the age of 77 in 1995.

The Zionist connection badly affected her health, both physically and psychologically, sending her into spells of severe depression. At one point, she was humiliatingly requested to show all her financial records to the authorities to prove that she had never made any illegal donations to Israel.

The one-time "Lady of Egyptian Cinema" - out of business and fame for more than 40 years - faced a severe financial crisis towards the end of her life before dying in complete bankruptcy.

The new series, which carries the name of one of her most memorable songs Ana Albi Dalili, has raised more than a stir in Arab media since it began airing in late August. One scene shows Layla's father Zaki Murad (played by the Egyptian star Izzat Abu al-Ouf) at a cafe with friends who clearly, from their names, are all Muslims.

Collectively they decide, both Muslims and Jew, to take part in an anti-British demonstration, in 1919. Majdi Saber, the scriptwriter, clearly tries to demonstrate that Egyptian Jews suffered no discrimination in the Arab world prior to the creation of Israel in 1948. Another scene shows a Jew raising funds for Jewish immigrants fleeing from Europe during World War II and lobbying with Egyptian Jews to emigrate to Palestine to increase its Jewish population.

Layla's father Zaki naturally refuses, patriotically holding on to his Arab origins. The Jew then tries convincing him to "purchase" a different nationality, in case tension arises between Egyptian Jews and Muslims. Once again, Zaki refuses. Zaki's home in the film is free from any Jewish symbols or Hebrew script.

Layla's 1945 conversion to Islam is set to appear in the 17th episode of the series. The series shows that she converted out of conviction, after marrying Anwar Wejdi, and not out of political intimidation due to rising tension between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. We are yet to see how her life is portrayed once it is scarred by rumors after 1948.

Works like these are important in the Arab world because they shed light on the life of leading figures who, for political reasons, were grossly maltreated during the second half of the 20th century and have been forgotten by a young generation of Arab audiences. Those young people are, however, avid TV watchers during the annual feast of special programs every Ramadan.

The "controversial" part seems to be the fact that Layla's father actually was friends with Muslims.

While this appears to be a step in the right direction, notice how Arab TV takes pains to eliminate any vestiges of Judaism from this "good" example of a Jew (who of course converted, they say, for love of Islam.) Layla's father was in fact a chazzan/cantor, and the idea that there were no Jewish symbols in his house is laughable.

Apparently, to Arabs watching this groundbreaking series today, the only good Jew is a Jew stripped of all Judaism (not to mention attachment to Israel.)

The inhabitants of Palestine, 1851

I just found this survey of Palestine's inhabitants by Geroge Henry Taylor in a geography textbook published in 1851. It has the usual bigotry of Christian-written books of the period, but it is still interesting, especially in terms of how Jews were treated under Muslim rule (contrary to the propaganda spouted nowadays of how well Muslims and Jews lived together before Zionism):

I wish now to give you some notion of the modern inhabitants of Palestine. If you look at the table attentively you will soon perceive that Palestine has been conquered and possessed by many different nations, and, consequently, you may expect to find the results of these conquests in a strange mixture of various nations in the inhabitants. The following list will comprise all the more important classes and races of men who now inhabit Palestine :

1. Turks. 4. Maronites.

2. Greek Christians. 5. Arabs.

3. Druses. 6. Jews.

1. Turks. First, of the Turks. These are the last conquerors of the country and are, consequently, the most numerous. All the towns of greatest importance are occupied by them. The Turks are all followers of Mahommed, and the Koran is their Bible. Under their rule Palestine must ever remain a poor and miserable country. Extortion prevails everywhere. The poor Arab is ground to the dust. All agriculture languishes. Hundreds of acres at this moment lie barren and uncultivated. None like to risk their labour and their money in such pursuits; for when the crops are ripe the tax-gatherer comes and seizes just as much as the pasha requires, taking sometimes nearly the whole of the produce. In consequence of this extortion many of the inhabitants of Palestine prefer to drag out a miserable existence in the towns. Hence poverty, idleness, dirt, want, and disease are common all over the country.

2. Greek Christians. The Greek Christians are numerous, and are to be found in all the large towns, where they possess one or more convents. At present they enjoy an ample share of toleration, and by their activity in trade have increased in numbers and wealth.

3. Druses. Of the Druses I have spoken to you before. They reside chiefly in the mountainous district of Lebanon, and are a very peculiar sect, seeming to regard all kinds of religious worship with equal indifference. They are, however, a brave and hardy people, remarkable for their love of independence and unbounded generosity. Their number is estimated at 120,000, and though the greater portion resides at Libanus individuals are found scattered all over the country.

4. Maronites. Of the Maronites I have also spoken before. They are in connexion with the Romish Church, though they have some peculiar rites and ceremonies of their own. Their patriarch dwells at Carobin, in Syria. According to all accounts they are a frugal, economical, and industrious people. They inhabit the mountains of Syria, though numbers of them are found in Palestine.

5. Arabs. Now we come to the Arabs. The Bedouin Arabs wander in considerable numbers over the plains of Palestine. They have no fixed place of abode, and live, as of old, by pillage and violence. Throughout the deserts the Arabs reign supreme, and life and property are maintained only by the sword. The dress of the Arabs is very simple, consisting of a long, blue, cotton shirt, which reaches down to the knees. Their legs and feet are sometimes naked, and sometimes covered either with buskins or sandals. " A small turban, or rather a dirty rag, is bound across their temples, one corner of which, sometimes fringed with strings in knots, is allowed to hang down." The Arab women seem to delight in making themselves look ugly. " Their faces, heads, and arms are tattooed and covered with hideous scars ; their eye-lashes and eyes are always painted with some dingy black or blue powder; their lips of a deep and dusky blue; their teeth jet black; their nails and fingers brick red ; and their wrists as well as their ankles laden with large metal cinctures studded with sharp knobs and bits of glass. A small button studded with pearl, or a piece of glass, or any other glittering substance, is fastened by a plug and thrust through the cartilage of the nose." According to our notions of beauty this must make the Arabian women very ugly indeed, but I have no doubt that they think such ornaments very great improvements. The mountains and deserts of Syria, Arabia, and northern Africa, are the haunts of the wandering Arabs. Here, uncorrupted by foreign influences, they retain their primitive manners. A true Arab disdains to cultivate the soil. His must be a life of unrestrained freedom. To be an expert robber is an object of ambition. Mounted on their beautiful horses with the speed of the wind they fly through the desert pillaging caravans, and sometimes taking prisoners, for whose release they require a large ransom. The presence of this peculiar people contributes no little to the insecurity of life and property in Palestine. The cultivator of the soil may see in a moment all his fair prospects blighted by an incursion of mounted Arabs, who will strip a field in the twinkling of an eye, and scamper off with the same expedition to their homes in the desert.

6. Jews. We now come to the Jews. Latterly they have increased in numbers in the ancient city of Jerusalem ; but everywhere throughout the Turkish dominions they are a despised, degraded, and a persecuted race. Denied all civil privileges, tyrannized over and trampled upon, their character is just what such treatment is calculated to make it. Of all the inhabitants of Palestine none are so poor and so wretched-looking as the Jews. Those who possess wealth are obliged to keep it secret lest the persecuting Turks should render their exactions more oppressive. It is not uncommon for the traveller to find the outside of a Jew's house dirty and miserable-looking, and the inside well- furnished with all that contributes to comfort and happiness. Jerusalem is still the Holy City of the Jews ; and when wandering far away in the various countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and struggling against a common persecution and oppression they feel the bitterness of their servitude, thitherward they cast their eyes, and a transient gleam of hope that a brighter day will yet dawn upon Israel, affords a momentary but delusive gladness.

PCHR's Other Lies

We've already demonstrated conclusively that literally hundreds of people that the PCHR called "civilian" casualties of Operation Cast Lead were, in fact, terrorists. (And the incredible team of t34zakat, PTWatch and Suzanne are still finding more.)

The problem is not only that PCHR was unaware of these people's affiliations. PCHR's weekly reports during Cast Lead detail a number of specific incidents that show that the organization knew quite well that the dead were terrorists - and chose to categorize them as "civilian" anyway.

For example:

#1294 in PCHR's casualty list, Naser Yusif Abdul Hadi al-Siefi, was listed in the weekly PCHR report as follows:

At approximately 17:00, the IOF artillery fired at a number of Palestinians, including a resistance activist, in the east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood. As a result, a civilian and a resistance activist were killed:

1. Hashem Rabah al-Hatu, 45, a civilian; and

2. Nasser al-Saifi, 38, a resistance activist.

Not only does this show that it is likely that al-Saifi was engaged in hostilities at the time, it also indicates that the civilian killed was probably unavoidable.

In the same report, PCHR writes:

In the evening, medical crews found the bodies of two activists of the Palestinian resistance in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. They were killed during the IOF incursion into the area. The two were identified as:

1. Mohammed Nawaf Na'im, 24; and

2. 'Abdullah Nawaf Na'im, 19.

Two known terrorists' bodies were found, no civilians with them.

Keep in mind that the actual number of members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups were about 20,000, in a population of some 1.5 million. That means that one in every 75 Gazans were terrorists. If Israel was shooting at random groups of people, we would expect that only about 1/75 of the dead would be terrorists, or only about 19 of them (rather than the 654 terrorists and police we've identified.)

The odds are extraordinarily low (about one in 5625) that Israel bombed Gaza randomly and killed two people who happened to be terrorists with no other casualties. Yet PCHR, who spent lots of time "researching" the circumstances of the deaths of everyone in their list, referred to both of these people as "civilians" (#1216 and #1317)

Another example:

During IOF ground incursion into Tal al-Hawa neighborhood that continued until 07:00 on Friday, 16 January 2009, ten members of the Palestinian resistance were killed. The dead are: Hamdi Ibrahim al-Banna, 23; Medhat 'Abed Ali Bannar, 24; Na'im Khader Hamada, 20; Mahmoud Khader Abu Salem, 19; 'Ammar Maher Farawana, 18; Farid Hejazi al-Hilu, 23; Mu'taz Abdul Muttaleb Dahman, 21; Hussam Hassan al-'AmaSsi, 35; Rebhi Shuhaibar, 25; and Tamer Faza'a, 20.

For some reason, PCHR called Bannar a "civilian" in their casualty list (#1213) while the rest of them were "militants." Yet Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Ministry of Health also categorized Bannar as a "militant."

Even more curious is this case:

At approximately 17:10, an IOF drone fired a missile at a motorcycle in Bani Suhaila village. Ra'fat Khalil Hamdan Abu al-'Ola, 47, who was riding the motorcycle, was killed. The al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad stated that Abu al-'Ola is one of their members.

And Abu al-'Ola is also listed as a "civilian" on the PCHR casualty list (#1290.)

We are going through all the PCHR reports now and will list all of the people that the PCHR had already previously identified as "resistance activists" who they later called civilian. But these examples are enough to prove that the PCHR not only was being disingenuous by claiming that they had no evidence that these people were militants, but that they were outright lying.

(h/t PTWatch who did most of this research)

Question of the day

If a Moslem dies of swine flu, is he still allowed to enter Paradise?

(h/t Yeruslalimey iin the comments)

Today's Palestinian Arab news (9/3/09)

Now that UNRWA has proven itself to be a useful puppet of Hamas, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry is accusing UNRWA of seizing medicines and participating in the blockade against Gaza. Hey, UNRWA clearly will accede to any Hamas demands, so why not just turn UNRWA into another Hamas agency? The UN won't protest.

The moderate PA is creating a tripartate commission, with their ministers of health, interior and foreign affairs, to investigate whether Israel stole organs from Palestinian Arabs, as alleged by a Swedish newspaper. This commission will, no doubt, be as fair and honest as the commission to determine exactly how Israel murdered Arafat. (Major pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Alawsat already takes the accusations as simple fact.)

A US Army delegation paid a surprise visit to the hospital in El Arish, Egypt. Many speculated that this might mean that the US is planning to deploy troops at the Rafah border as part of a peace deal between Israel and the PA.

Hamas took credit for shooting four 80mm mortars at IDF forces, possibly in Gaza itself. As far as I can tell, this is the first time since Cast Lead that Hamas has admitted any involvement in shooting at Israeli troops.

Russia admitted selling MIG-31E aircraft to Syria.

Hamas told a surgeon in the shifa Hospital to leave the premises. When he refused, they literally threw him out on the street. (Palestinian Ministry of Health webpage mentions thi sas well, but it cannot be linked to.)

Egypt has confiscated nearly three tons of explosives on their way to Gaza in two separate seizures in the past couple of days.

Firas Press, in their regular feature of pictures of cute Palestinian Arab kids, brings us this lovely photo of a child wrapped in a Fatah-logo blanket, complete with chic "resistance" keffiyeh. He can remain warm at night snuggling with the rifle, submachine gun, and hand grenade helping his sweet dreams of destroying Israel (represented on the flag as well.)