Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Report: PalArab kids "forced" to visit Holocaust monument in the Netherlands (updated)

Palestine Today, which is an Islamic Jihad newspaper based in Gaza, quotes a Hamas news site:

A dangerous precedent was set today when UNRWA forced Palestinian children to visit a monument in Amsterdam for the so-called Holocaust, Zionism, during a trip organized by the Agency to the Netherlands for outstanding students.

The sources said that the children refused this request, prompting officials on the trip to threaten the teachers accompanying the students with dismissal from their jobs unless they could persuade students to visit the site.

The sources added that this was a special request of an employee named "Hannah"; to implement a program of psychological support to put pressure on children and supervisors for the implementation of the visit to this site. Failing to do so, the organizers of the program instead gave a lecture on the so-called "Holocaust."

Whether the story is true or not, it shows exactly how terrible Palestinian Arabs think teaching their kids about the Holocaust would be.

Thinking of Jews as victims, or as human beings who could be felt sorry for? Absurd!

UPDATE: UNRWA is strongly denying the story.

New UNHRC session will talk about "right to nationality"

One of the documents supporting the 13th session of the Human Rights Council that started yesterday is A/HRC/13/34, Report of the Secretary-General on the right to nationality.

It includes this interesting paragraph:

Birth on the territory of a State and birth to a national are the most important criteria used to establish the legal bond of nationality. Particularly in the context of migration, a child may therefore have a link to more than one State. In cases where States have adopted diverging rules on the acquisition of nationality, a conflict of laws between these States could leave the child stateless. In such cases, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness contributes to resolve this type of conflict of norms by providing, in article 1, that contracting States must grant nationality to a person born on their territory who would otherwise be stateless. Article 4 also provides that contracting States must grant nationality if a person is born to one of their nationals outside of a contracting State and would otherwise be stateless. According to article 7 of the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam, State parties should make every effort to resolve the issue of statelessness for any child born on their territories or to any of their citizens outside their territory. Obligations to grant nationality to children born in the territory of a State and that would otherwise be stateless are also contained in article 20 (2) of the American Convention on Human Rights, article 6 (4) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and article 6 (2) of the European Convention on Nationality.

The UN has not been too successful in trying to push its agenda against statelessness but, given that Palestine is not and never has been a state, one can't help but notice the hypocrisy where the UN has never asked Arab nations to allow children of Palestinian descent born on their territory to become citizens.

The entire "Palestinian refugee" problem could be eliminated if the UN would just follow up on its own noble principles.

Iranian director set to make Mohammed film

From Screen Daily:

Highly regarded Iranian auteur Majid Majidi is lining up the historical epic Mohammad, which at $30m is by far the most expensive and ambitious project ever to be assembled out of Iran.
Pre-production is under way and Majidi and producer Mehdi Heidarian are aiming for worldwide distribution by mid-2011.
Majidi, whose Children Of Heaven earned Iran’s first Oscar nomination in 1999 and who most recently directed the comedy The Song Of Sparrows, co-wrote the screenplay with Kabuzia Partouvi, the writer of Border Café and The Circle.
It is understood the focus will be on what sources describe as a “visually rich and sensitive” account of the childhood years of Mohammad up to the age of 12, well before he became the Prophet of Islam.
Majidi and Partouvi spent three years writing the first draft and pored over historical detail. Sources claim the project has the support of an extensive team of highly qualified international historians and researchers, although any visual depiction of Mohammed by an actor is likely to spark controversy.
The film-makers are targeting a wide multi-faith global audience.

PA media continues its support for terror

A prominent UK Muslim cleric is set to issue a comprehensive fatwa against suicide bombing and Islamist terrorism.

His followers are mostly in southern Asia and the UK, and is a very welcome move. It will be interesting to see if there is any scholarly reaction from other, more extremist Muslim scholars.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority continues to glorify suicide bombers. Palestinian Media Watch recently found a fairly disgusting representative sample:

Palestinian Authority TV news recently chose to feature a Palestinian mother promoting her son's death as a positive goal.

Upon learning of her son's death in an Israeli air strike, the mother explained that she had always hoped for her son's Shahada - death as a Martyr -- and recommended that other mothers likewise "sacrifice their child for Palestine."

The words of another woman, chosen by PA TV news for the pre-recorded news report, described how Palestinian society sees Martyrs as grooms. This is based on the Islamic tradition, promoted actively by the PA and Hamas, that Martyrs will marry 72 virgins in Paradise.

PA TV news report:

Mother upon news of son's death in an Israeli air strike: "We had always hoped for his [my son's] Martyrdom (Shahada), knowing he wanted to die as a Martyr (Shahid). Every time he went out, we would say to him, 'May Allah be with you.' We knew that he wanted to die as a Martyr. Praise to Allah, he sought Martyrdom, and he achieved it. My message to every mother is to sacrifice her child for Palestine."
Second woman: "By Allah, we welcome every Martyr as if he were a groom among us."

[PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 11, 2010]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that these two ideas -- that death is a higher value than life and that Martyrdom death leads to a wedding between the Martyr and the virgins of Paradise -- have been promoted actively by both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for years.

Palestinian schoolbooks teach children that aspiring to death is better than life:

"O heroes, Allah has promised you victory ... Do not talk yourselves into flight...
Your enemies seek life while you seek death."
They seek spoils to fill their empty stomachs while you seek a Garden [Paradise] as wide as are the heavens and the earth...
Death is not bitter in the mouth of the believers. These drops of blood that gush from your bodies will be transformed tomorrow into blazing red meteors that will fall down upon the heads of your enemies."
[Reading and Texts Part II, Grade 8, p. 16. Schoolbook currently in use in PA schools.]

I wrote to the organization that monitors PA (as well as Israeli) textbooks to ask them if indeed this textbook is in current use and says these things, as I couldn't find it in any of their reports. They just replied and confirmed that the schoolbook is still being used, and pointed me to the report that mentioned it. Here is the larger context of what the moderate PA is teaching its schoolchildren today:

Read and Enjoy: [Excerpts] from the “Heroes Oration” by Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti:

O heroes. God has promised you victory and you have promised him patience. Keep your promise and He will keep His promise. Do not talk yourselves into flight…

Your enemies seek life and you seek death. They seek spoils to feed their empty stomachs and you seek a garden the width of which is both Heaven and earth [i.e., Paradise]. Do not be sad to encounter them, for [the taste of] death is not bitter in the believers’ mouth.

These drops of blood that flow from your bodies will be transformed into red fiery shooting stars that will come down upon the heads of your enemies.
(Reading and Texts, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) p. 16)

“You probably know what a great reward God has prepared for the Muslims who fight the infidels.”
(Language exercise, Reading and Texts, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) p. 15)

The Jihad Fighter’s Intention
The Jihad fighter should intend to support God’s religion and work for exalting His word, not [for obtaining] booty or fame. Jihad has not been enacted in Islam for the purpose of taking possession of other nations’ wealth, or for the purpose of forcing people to embrace Islam. The Muslims do not fight out of desire for fighting, or out of love of bloodshed, nor for the sake of national or tribal solidarity. Rather, Jihad has been enacted in Islam for the sake of exalted purposes such as:

1. Saving the oppressed and the weak and opposing tyrants and oppressors who make the people taste [all] forms of suffering and seize control over them.

2. Creating the proper climate for the worship of God. [That is to be done] by opposing the oppressive forces that entice the people away from their religion.

3. [Making] the Muslim nation strong and dreaded, [so that it will] not be harmed by the greedy and the malicious.

Activity
I will write a paragraph comparing the goals of Jihad in Islam and the objects of war among other nations.
(Islamic Education, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) pp. 32-33)

There are dozens of other examples of texts that glorify terror, jihad and martyrdom.

The only counterexample that Impact-SE found that seemed to be against Jihad and martyrdom was this single case:

It is nice for a man to die for his homeland but it is nicer for him to live for his homeland.
(Linguistic Sciences, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) p. 89)

This is the reality - the official PA policy, in its media and its schoolbooks, is to raise generations of children to love war and terror - nearly two decades after the PLO supposedly rejected terrorism at Oslo.

Is Google predictive search bigoted?

Asharq Al-Awsat mentions:

According to a study conducted by the London-based Arab Media Watch organization, the predictive searches suggested by the Google search engine with regards to the word "Arab" for the most part are a negative depiction of Arabs.
The results of this study which were also reported by the BBC suggested that the Google predictive searches when questions like "Why are Arabs…" and others are asked result in negative or stereotypical options for questions about Arabs. For example, in the case of the question "why are Arabs…" the predictive results include answers like rich, violent, and stupid, and even more insulting variations.

I just tried it, and indeed Google shows things like "rich," "violent," "ugly," "stupid" and "rude."

Perhaps this is because Google Predictive Search was invented in Israel?

Well, not quite. Because for "Why are the Jews" Google shows "so rich," "so powerful," and "so hated." For "Why do Jews..." we get "have big noses," "have glassy eyes" and "run Hollywood."

For better or for worse, Google is showing what people are searching on. To me, keeping it as it is would be far more valuable as it can track bigoted attitudes worldwide. In fact, I'd love to see a breakdown by country for predictive results like these.

Latest Mabhouh rumor - Assassins jammed hallway cameras

Firas Press quotes Arabic Asharq Al Awsat (couldn't find the original) as saying that the Mabhouh assassins had an electronic device that jammed the hallway cameras at the Rotana hotel.

They quoted an unofficial Israeli source as saying that some 19 minutes of camera footage is missing, between 8:24 and 8:43 PM, when the actual assassination took place.

The source said that there is no way that the assassins left enough evidence to prove who did it.

Gaza infighting update

From Ma'an:

A bomb was detonated in the car of the Gaza police operations chief on Monday morning, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said.

“At approximately 06:00 on Monday, 01 March 2010, unknown persons detonated a bomb in a car belonging to Talal Banat, 44, chief of police operations in Gaza, when it was parked near his house in al-Nasser Street in the north of Gaza City,” PCHR said in a statement.

There has been a big increase in bombings of cars belonging to Hamas leaders this year, especially police.

English-language media still silent on Dubai anti-semitism

Earlier today I reported that the Arabic-language Al Khaleej (The Gulf) newspaper quoted the head of the Dubai police as ranting about how "Israelis" have been hated since the time of Pharaoh, how "Israelis" have had mental problems for thousands of years and how UAE authorities will now start looking for Jewish facial features and names to stop them from entering the UAE.

Every single English-language news outlet has been reporting his comments as saying that he was slamming "Israelis," not Jews, and some saying that he would be looking for "Israeli" facial features, not Jewish ones.

The Arabic American paper Al Watan tells it like it is in its headline:

Dubai announces prevent the entry of Israelis and Jews, holders of foreign passports after the assassination of Mabhouh

The Western media is simply not willing to accept that Arab anti-semitism is a regular fact of life, and they work overtime to portray it is simply anti-Zionism. A man that they have been quoting for weeks as their main source for the investigation into the Mabhouh assassination has been revealed to be a conspiracy-theorist nutjob and the English-language media are censoring his comments.

Is it because they do not want the world to believe that Arabs hate Jews, or is it because it would retroactively make their reporting of police work in Dubai look too credulous?

Hamas leader disowns his son

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, in a letter written from prison in Israel, has disowned his son Mosab.

Mosab is the person who famously converted to Christianity and just wrote a book saying that he helped Israeli security services foil many terror attacks.

Dubai police chief: UAE to stop Jews from entering country

Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said today that the UAE will "deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship."

But his Arabic remarks went way beyond any English-language news agency that quoted him into naked Jew-hatred. From an Arabic interview in the Khaleej Times:

Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, said Israel is a rogue state, and that goes beyond international legitimacy and laws. Its leaders have sick mentalities, and they need psychologists, saying that its use of passports shows great arrogance and contempt for the world.

(Tamim said hat) the leaders of "Israel" have blood on their hands the blood of others throughout history, pointing out that the "Israeli" people are human beings like any other people who want to be loved and open to others but that the successive governments, the Governments of bloodshed and assassinations, and wars and the Governments of the occupation and aggression, are not interested in peace in the world at all.

He added that the vanity which haunts the "Israeli" mentality stems from the time of Pharaoh, and their hate comes up to this day and age.

He said that the entire world should study the mentality of the "Israeli" leaders throughout history. Their sick psyches needs to be analyzed by psychology professors, who need to examine why they launch crises, and why they brought on themselves hate from others, since the time of Moses, peace be upon him.

He said we will train our personnel in the passport of the forms and features of the Jewish people and their names, noting that no one can hide their features of Jewishness. He asked the appropriate departments to prepare nationality and residency sessions to familiarize the staff with [Jewish] forms and names, especially since most Jews hold dual passports [with Israel.]

He pointed out that the number of Jews, compared with the Europeans, is nothing, and even within Palestine itself.

This is the clown that is being quoted soberly by Western news agencies. One can only wonder why they didn't mention these other parts of his rant.

Fox Business pushing investment in Syria

Fox Business Network is spending a week in Syria, trying to convince businesses that Syria is the next big place to invest.

See here and here.

Later this week they plan to visit the PA as well.

Bizarre Mabhouh sideshow

Muhammed Nasser, one of the Hamas members who some reported (apparently mistakenly) as having been arrested in Syria as a potential collaborator in his assassination, has just muddied the waters a little more.

Nasser is saying that Mabhouh was being tracked by Arab national intelligence agencies who fear the growth of Islamist movements. He says that Mabhouh would complain to him about how they are following him, "haunting him day and night."

The commenters at Firas Press are astonished that a Hamas leader would say anything to deflect the blame towards Israel.

In general, the rumors about Mabhouh are now far outstripping the facts that are being reported in the Arab press.

Hamas claims yesterday's bomb was no big deal

The large blast that I mentioned yesterday in the Shati camp in Gaza was just a big misunderstanding, according to Hamas.

It wasn't aimed at any Hamas leader or anything like that. Just that a youth, unaffiliated with any of the many militant groups in Gaza, decided to put together his own bomb and it exploded prematurely...but caused no damage or injuries.

Because any kid in Gaza can pick up some TNT and explode a bomb large enough to force entire blocks to be cordoned off, and yet not get hurt or cause any damage.

The original story mentioned that the Hamas police kept everyone - including reporters -away from the site.

A perfectly rational explanation!

How PalArab press translates an AFP article

AFP reports on Purim in Hebron, and Palestine Press Agency translates it to Arabic. Some of the interesting differences, with the Arabic in italics:

"The Tomb of the Patriarchs is all we have," declared rabbi Baruch Marzel, who heads the 600 Jewish settlers installed in an enclave in the heart of the Palestinian city. "If we do not have rights to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, (then) we do not have the right to be a nation."
Said Rabbi Baruch Marzel, leader of the 600 Jewish settlers living in Hebron, told AFP that "Tomb of the Patriarchs is all we have... If we do not have the right in the Ibrahimi Mosque, we would have no right to be a nation."
Amazingly, there were no disturbances aside from occasional volleys of stones thrown by small groups of Palestinian youths.
There was no incident yesterday with the exception throwing some stones at Palestinians.

PalPress also quoted this part of the AFP article:

But Abdelaziz, a 49-year-old grocer watching the procession go by, was hard-pressed to conceal his disgust.

"They make fun of us each year. They are even happier than the previous years because of the announcement by Netanyahu," he seethed.

"It is a provocation," said Adnan al-Jaabar, an 18-year-old Palestinian. "The sanctuary is ours, not the Israelis'."

Gaza tunnels on sale!

Palestine Today reports that Gaza is suffering a glut of smuggled items, so much so that Rafah tunnels are closing down as the demand is now outstripped by supply.

You can now buy a smuggling tunnel itself for $20,000, down from the $150,000 it cost during the heyday of smuggling.

The industry, which used to employ 10,000 workers, is down to a mere thousand, according to the article. And the wages for a successful shipment has gone down from 100 shekels to 40.

The tunnel owners are also wanting to sell because Egypt has stepped up its destruction of the tunnels, and they fear that the new Egyptian wall will close all of them fairly shortly anyway.

From Ma'an:

A 19-year-old rabbit raiser in Jenin said he was "shocked and terrified" when his newest animal gave birth to what he described as a tiny baby elephant on Sunday.

Muhammad Alawna raises rabbits as a hobby on his small farm north of Jenin, and works construction in Israel during the week.

“I was concerned when I saw a black baby elephant next to nine white baby rabbits," Alawna told Ma'an, adding that the creature died only five hours after it was born. He said he was baffled as to how the elephant was produced.

The mother rabbit, Alawna explained, is a Dutch breed which he bought six months ago from a farmer in the northern West Bank village of Jaba in Jenin district.

I haven't yet figured out the Mossad connection, but you just know that they are behind this somehow.

Open Purim thread

No time to post.

A freilichen Purim!

Report of large explosion near Hamas leader's home

More evidence of Hamas infighting....

Palestine Press Agency is reporting that a large explosion occurred Saturday night in the Shati refugee camp.

Witnesses said it targeted Abu Anas Hammoudeh, one of the top leaders of the Qassam Brigades in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza.

Sources in Gaza said that the secrity forces of Hamas on Thursday arrested two members of the armed wing of Hamas against the backdrop of bombings that rocked a few days ago near the house of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh story beach camp west of Gaza.

Arab News insanity

Arab News published a ridiculous article,that stated in part:

Check this out. Here's a story of two countries from the Middle East. One is an ancient civilization with a rich history that goes back five thousand years. It's a functioning democracy with free elections held at regular intervals.

It's a huge country of 70 million people. It has remained within its borders and hasn't attacked any country in the last 100 years. It is pursuing a nuclear power program, which it insists is for peaceful purposes.
The second country also claims to be a democracy. In this democracy though you get citizenship and voting rights not on the basis of your origins even if you were born in this land but on your ancestry. This country was founded on the land stolen and forcibly taken from its original inhabitants. It has fought at least three wars and is locked in permanent conflict with its neighbors on all sides. It has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and other state-of-the-art killing machines. It pursues assassination as a state policy and regularly sends death squads around the world to take out people it doesn't like.
Which country do you think is a real threat to world peace? The first country that has no history of aggression or the second state that has killed tens of thousands of innocent people in wars of aggression against neighbors and in cold-blooded executions?
And no prizes, dear readers, for guessing that the two countries in question are Iran and Israel.
If anyone had any doubts about the evil and criminal nature of the State of Israel, they should have been cleared after what happened in Dubai.

I wrote as a comment:

Let's see..."Peaceful" Iran is a state sponsor of Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups; it has used its Syrian proxy to try to turn Lebanon into a Shiite state, it develops "peaceful" missiles that can reach most of Europe, and it is working overtime to build nuclear weapons-something that even the IAEA is belatedly admitting, it was involved in a war only a couple of decades ago that killed more Arab civilians than Israel could dream of, and its "free elections" were proven to be a sham only a few months ago.

Oh, and it is headed by a group of messianic nutcases who are itching to do whatever it takes to bring the Mahdi back.

I guess the author forgot to mention those things. Instead he believes that the killing of a known terrorist leader is much worse than anything Iran has done.

The previous times I wrote comments on Arab News they didn't get published, but I can always hope...

Arab papers jumping on the passport bandwagon

Kuwait's Al Rai newspaper is reporting that the assassins of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, killed in Syria in 2008, used fake passports as well.

According to the paper, quoted by Palestine Today, Mughniyeh's killers had passports from Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium.

In my experience, Kuwaiti news scoops of this nature are rarely confirmed and are often fictional. The "analysis" that follows pretty much proves it.

Using peerless logic, the paper then asserts that this is proof that European governments work together with the Mossad and provide the Israelis with necessary paperwork.

The logic gets more bizarre as the claim is then made that the reason that Israel doesn't use US passports is because it doesn't want to embarrass its American ally when it gets caught, and it shows how much contempt Israel has for Europeans.

What's in a name?

The New York Times' Ethan Bronner reports, in an article about a dispute between Jerusalem's mayor and Jerusalem Arabs:

[N]o utterance escapes politics. All labels and names here are contested. The mayor calls the neighborhood not by its Arabic name of Al Bustan but by a Hebrew one — Gan Hamelech, or the King’s Garden, a reference to the spot some believe King David wrote psalms.

The implication is that the Arabic term for the neighborhood is the ancient, correct one, and that the Hebrew name has been retrofitted to erase Arab history.

But as the My Right Word blog notes, the truth is the exact opposite. Bustan is the Arabic word for garden or grove. The place name is Biblical. It was the Arabs who stole the name and Arabicized it, not the other way around.

10,000 tons of apples from Israel to Syria

Palestine Press Agency reports that the ICRC will be transferring 10,000 tons of apples from Israel's Golan Heights to Syria next week.

This has been an annual occurrence, as Israel has been selling their surplus apple crops to Syria since 2005, where the apples are often resold to Gulf states at a profit.

Druze communities in the Golan, which Syria considers occupied, grow most of these apples. And Syria supplies water to at least one of the Druze border towns for free.

MK Ayoub Kara, the deputy minister for the development of the Negev and Galilee, has suggested that these arrangements be increased. He suggests that if Syria would supply water to more Druze villages, more apples could be grown and the annual export could be increased tenfold.

"The two countries' economic interests will return the sides to the negotiating table, and from economic peace we will also reach true peace," said Kara.

Deputy Minister Kara is a member of that extremist, hawkish, racist political party known as the Likud.

He is also Druze.

New resources for college students

The annual hatefest known as "Israel Apartheid Week" is almost upon us. CAMERA has set up a very useful site that demolishes the claims of the Israel-haters and shows them to be anything but peaceful.

Also, check out this video about the "anti-Zionist" Jew-hatred on college campuses.

(h/t Jack)

Israel selling Iran booby-trapped material for nukes?

Palestine Today quotes French media as saying that Israel has set up dummy companies in Europe to sell components that could be used in the manufacture of nuclear bombs.

The purpose of these front companies is to take orders from Iran, ship them fake components, and when the Iranians open up the shipments ....boom.

According to this unconfirmed report, some Iranian experts were already killed in this manner.

I could not find the original source.

Islam's three tombs of Abraham

The New York Times, on November 9, 1902, had an interesting article, about two tombs of Abraham - and neither one was in Hebron:

Edward James Banks wrote a book in 1912 about his adventures in Babylon and he includes his attempts to excavate under the Tomb of Abraham in the village of Tel Ibrahim, and why he was stymied:

Tell Ibrahim, the Biblical Cutha, for which I had sought permission to excavate, is one of the ruins suggesting the crescent and star ; the temple is the star, but the crescent is very irregular. A canal bed, some three hundred feet wide, separates them. We rode up the steep slope of the temple mound and dismounted on the summit by the little tomb of Abraham. It was because of the sanctity of this tomb that permission to excavate here was denied me. Visible from the tomb are the date palms bordering the shores of the Euphrates, and over beyond them is Ibrahim Khalil, and there stands another sacred tomb of Abraham. The tomb is by no means impressive. The building, measuring about thirty by fifteen feet, is constructed of the square, Babylonian bricks from the ruins beneath it, and surmounted by a conical dome. The doorway, leading to the antechamber, has been partly walled up. The dust on the floor had long been undisturbed, for pilgrims seldom visit the place. The inner chamber, lighted by a small opening in the dome, contains only a plaster mound to mark the grave ; on it were lying a fragment of a marble slab, a broken earthen pot, and a faded green rag torn from the turban of some pious pilgrim. Rassam claims that while excavating at Tell Ibrahim, he rebuilt the tomb ; had he been less zealous, this one of the many sacred graves of Abraham would probably have been forgotten by now.

Ibrahim Kallil, the other site of a tomb of Abraham in present-day Iraq, was also mentioned in a much earlier travelogue by Claudius James Rich who visited there in 1811.

We arrived at the Birs about half-past eleven. There are vestiges of mounds all round it to a considerable extent, and the country is also traversed by canals in every direction. The soil round the Birs was sandy. To the north of it runs a canal called Hindia, dug for the use of Mesjid Ali, by order, and at the expense of, Shujah ud Doulah. Close to the Birs, or at about a hundred yards from it, and parallel to its southern front, is a high mound, almost equal in size to that of the Kasr. On the top of it are two koubbehs, or places of prayer. The one is called Ibrahim Khalil, where they show his burialplace, which is under ground, exactly in the style of Am ran Ibn Ali. The natives tell you that it was here that Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod. This tomb has been lately repaired.

So it appears that the Arabs and Muslims have had a number of places they venerated as the burial places of Abraham, not only the one in Hebron.

It appears likely that the main reason they only talk about the Hebron tomb nowadays is because it also happens to be a place that Jews worship.

Mabhouh's use of passports and disguises

Firas Press reports:

A close friend of Hamas leader Mahmoud Mabhouh said Thursday that Mabhouh, who was assassinated in Dubai, resorted to the same method used by the killers as he used several false passports and means of deception during secret missions undertaken by him to bring arms to Hamas.

Mabhouh would take his personal security very seriously. "He used to wear contact lenses and dyed his hair while traveling to European countries," the source said, adding that he lived with Mabhouh for two years in exile.

The friend added: "He provided Hamas and other allied factions with money and weapons."

He said, "He had a lot of passports of different nationalities, all Arab", adding that Mabhouh had recent surgery to change the shape of his nose.

Dubai Police have not commented officially on the which passport Mabhouh used to enter the emirate.

The friend said, "He did not ever live a normal life. He never told anyone, even his wife, about his travel plans," adding that Mabhouh used Arab passports to enter the European countries because they are less suspicious.

Somehow, I don't think that any Arab countries are too worked up about the fact that Mabhouh used forged passports to get money and arms for a terrorist group.

Today's hypocrisy by Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook, the Nazareth-based writer who finds every excuse he can to lie about and bash the nation that allows him to write freely, has another perfect example of hypocrisy in his latest piece published by Ma'an.

You see, New York Times reporter Ethan Bronner recently revealed that his son was in the IDF.
Cook uses this as a springboard to accuse all Western journalists in Israel (outside of himself, of course) of having pro-Israel biases. He also manages to whine that they have better sources than he does.

There is another journalist who has written dozens of arrticles for Ma'an, as well as for many other Arab and far-left sites. His name is Ramzy Baroud, and his hatred of Israel is palpable. He doesn't even pretend to be objective any more.

He just wrote a book called "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter." Although he says this is a history book, his father was actually a member of the Palestine Liberation Army in the 1960s.

Will Jonathan Cook, or any other Ma'an writer, decry Ramzy Baroud for his obvious conflict of interest?

Given that Bronner clearly tries to be fair in his writing, and Baroud clearly does not, wouldn't it make more sense to go after Baroud?

Fat chance.

"Death of those who support mingling men and women"

From Al-Arabiya:

A prominent Saudi cleric has issued an edict calling for opponents of the kingdom's strict segregation of men and women to be put to death if they refuse to abandon their ideas.

Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak said in a fatwa the mixing of genders at the workplace or in education "as advocated by modernisers" is prohibited because it allows "sight of what is forbidden, and forbidden talk between men and women."

"All of this leads to whatever ensues," he said in the text of the fatwa published on his website (albarrak.islamlight.net).

"Whoever allows this mixing ... allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam ... Either he retracts or he must be killed ... because he disavows and does not observe the Shariah," Barrak said.

"Anyone who accepts that his daughter, sister or wife works with men or attend mixed-gender schooling cares little about his honor and this is a type of pimping," Barrak said.

Part of this seems to have been prompted by the new Saudi KAUST university that allows men and women to attend classes together, and even allows women to go without the hijab.

Egyptian scholars denounced this fatwa.

Happy (almost) Purim!

Mabhouh circus update

The latest bizarre details in the Mabhouh assassination:

A third Palestinian Arab is being questioned by Dubai authorities for his involvement in the murder.

Two (or three) of the suspects left Dubai after a reconnaisance mission (or the hit) and went to Iran.

Iran is the only player in the region outside the Mossad that would have the means to do such an operation, and the ability to make it look like Israel did it.

However, I think it is more likely that we are seeing Dubai police incompetence, accusing anyone who was on Mabhouh's floor in the Rotana hotel, than a bizarre Iranian conspiracy to kill a business partner.

There is also this interesting tidbit from CBS:

The members of the hit team – at least a dozen men and two women – can be assumed to have been wearing disguises at every moment they were caught on camera. Antonio Mendez, former chief of disguises at the CIA, years ago revealed to CBS News that ultralight latex-type masks that fit completely over the face – and make you look like a completely different person – are real and not figments of the "Mission: Impossible" screenwriters' imaginations.

This would mean that the agents are not "burned" after being seen on camera in an operation like this.

PalArabs are protesting Jewish ties to ancient sites, not Israeli

If you think that the latest Palestinian Arabs are rioting over Netanyahu's including the Cave of Machpelah and Rachel's Tomb as Israeli heritage sites, read the Arab press.

They are upset that the sites are being called "Jewish heritage sites."

From Palestine Press Agency:

The city of Hebron in the West Bank called a strike this morning in response to the call by Fatah to protest the Israeli decision to annex the Ibrahimi Mosque and another mosque of the heritage sites of Judaism.

The strike affected all walks of life in the city of Hebron, including schools and universities, as the are protesting the decision of the Israeli Prime Minister to include the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Mosque of Bilal to the list of heritage sites of Judaism.

Palestine Today:

Clashes are continuing clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli occupation forces in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the West Bank, to condemned the Israeli government's decision to annex the Ibrahimi Mosque as a Jewish religious site.

Also Palestine Today:

Sheikh Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the northern wing of the Islamic Movement of Palestine occupied in 1948, warned that the declaration of Israel on Sunday night to include the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to the list of so-called Jewish heritage sites is only a "rehearsal" to see the reaction from Muslims as they plan to Judaize the Al Aqsa Mosque in the middle of next month.

The secular Al Quds:

The Israeli government had decided at the weekend, the restoration of its landmark of 150 historic Jewish sites, as "sites of special heritage status," and carry out development of the expanded and transformed into tourist sites. Among these sites the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb (near Bilal Ben Rabah mosque) in Bethlehem, outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

(It is interesting that Al Quds says that Rachel's Tomb is "near" the Bilal mosque, not in the same place, as Palestinian Arabs have been claiming for the past decade or so.)

These riots have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with Jews asserting their rights to their holiest sites.

Even while the "hawkish," "extremist," "right-wing" government of Binyomin Netanyahu takes pains to emphasize that in no way is he interested in diminishing Muslim rights to their holy places, the Palestinian Arabs - even the supposedly secular ones - are trying mightily to keep all Jews out of every one of their alleged holy places, which, not coincidentally, are all belatedly considered Muslim holy places as well.

Every conciliatory move that Israel has done towards accommodation is taken as proof that Jews aren't as attached to their holy places as Muslims are, and it emboldens the Arabs more and more.

The harsh reality is that if Israel would have annexed these sites in 1967 - including the Temple Mount - the Arabs would have grumbled but they would have understood and respected it. They project their own attitudes towards the Jews and expect them to act the way they would have. Only when the government of the Jewish state wavers as to how important these sites are do the problems arise.

And keep in mind that the Muslims claim the Western Wall as well, so if Israel caves on this, it won't help "peace" - it will just move the battle towards Jerusalem.

How do you insult Al Jazeera?

By publishing its logo on top of an Israeli flag!

This accompanied a bizarre conspiracy theory article in Firas Press which seemed to link Al Jazeera with the assassinations and arrests of major Arab figures.

As far as I can tell, the article does not really claim that Al Jazeera ("The Island" in case you want to puzzle out the autotranslation yourself) is in cahoots with Israel, but it notes that both Mabhouh and Hamas leader Rantisi were assassinated very soon after they were interviewed by Al Jazeera, indicating a possible Mossad mole in the network.

I have a feeling that many Arabs are checking for Mossad agents under their beds before they go to sleep.

Are Muslims obligated to hate all Jews and Christians?

Last week, an op-ed was written by a Dr. Hamad Al-Majid in Asharq al-Awsat, calling on Muslims to interpret the Quran in liberal ways that would allow respect for non-Muslims:

I think that with a careful Shariaa reading of a number of texts on this subject, and by confining this [hatred] to specific cases, many problems and dilemmas would be solved, and this could even have help in consolidating social peace, especially in the Muslim countries where acts of violence are being carried out against their Christian minorities such as Egypt and Nigeria. This is something would also need to be taught as part of the academic syllabus, and this may be the key to solving this problem.

When I was working for the Islamic Center in London in the 1990s, I saw for myself the state of confusion in the British people who had recently converted to Islam when they were taught the principles of hatred, rather than [peaceful] disagreement. This had a negative impact in the way in which they treated other people; their parents, their brothers and sisters, their family and friends, and so Islam lost a number of potential converts who might have been attracted to the religion had they been treated with more respect and compassion.

It appears that many Muslims were very unhappy with Dr. al-Majid's liberal interpretation. So much so that he felt compelled to write a follow-up, possibly out of fear, saying that the Muslims that passionately hate Christians and Jews have solid textual evidence for their feelings:

Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal [founder of the Hanbali school of Fiqh] would turn his face away if any Christian looked at him, when asked why, he answered "I cannot look at anyone who lies about and slanders God." On the other hand Imam Malik ibn Anas [founder of the Maliki school of Fiqh] said that it was permissible for a Muslim to share a meal with a Christian. This is a clear example of the huge gap in the different understandings and diverse opinions that Muslim Imams have on this subject.

The principle of not loving those who resist and make war on Allah and his Messenger [pbuh] is a "firmly established" Islamic principle. However scholars disagree over whether this applies to peaceful Jews, Christians, and others, or whether believers should hate all non-believers regardless of how peaceful they are, whether this is a wife, a neighbor or a colleague. This issue is considered to be a "contentious" issue and clerics have adopted different opinions with regards to this recently as well as throughout the past. It is therefore unworthy for any scholar or seeker of knowledge to describe anybody who adopts either of these two opinions as being confused or capricious or influenced by the West or having a loose doctrine or responding to pressure; they should not consider them to be sinners or wrongdoers in need of correction. Similarly, those who follow the permissive option [of Imam Malik] should not label those who adhere to their own contrasting doctrine as hardliners or extremists.

In the end, nobody can be certain who is right and who is wrong; only God can know.

Dr. Al-Majid's credentials are "Journalist and former member of the official Saudi National Organization for Human Rights. Al-Majid is a graduate of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh and holds an M.A. from California and a Doctorate from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. "

If a Muslim with such a comparatively liberal background feels compelled to excuse Muslim hate as just another valid opinion, it does not bode well for the chances that liberals in Islam will ever manage to gain ascendancy in their community. (And even with his seemingly conciliatory feelings, he mentions that he is a fan of hate preacher Yusuf Qaradawi.)

Ahmadinejad blames US for delaying return of the Mahdi

From Al-Arabiya:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed once again to "cut the hands" of Iran's enemies if the Islamic republic came under attack, AFP reported Tuesday.

In the speech, broadcast live on state television and circulated in several media outlets, Ahmadinejad reiterated his accusations that the United States was hindering the return of the redeemer of Islam, the Mahdi, local media reported.

“If the Mahdi does not come, this will mean that the battle of Karbala could be repeated. The Mahdi will face what the prophets faced and his life will be in danger,” he told the rally.

While pointing out that the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ousted the Shah and installed the current religious regime, is a prelude to the appearance of the Mahdi, Ahmadinejad argued that the arrogance of the United States is one the main obstacles to the Mahdi’s coming.

Ahmadinejad accused the United States of planning and carrying out the September 11 attacks in order to gain the sympathy of the world.

“These attacks fed its propaganda and became an excuse for attacking Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism.”

In an earlier speech he gave in Esfahan in December, Ahmadinejad claimed he had documented evidence that the United States invaded Iraq in order to prevent the coming of the Mahdi and stressed that the Iranian people would prepare the ground for his coming forming the Mahdi Army.

In a meeting he held with cleric Ayatollah Jawadi Amuli, Ahmadinejad claimed a halo of light surrounded him while he gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, attributing this to the Mahdi’s support.

In Shiite faith, the Mahdi, an Arabic term for guided, is believed to be the redeemer of Islam who will come to earth before the Day of Judgment and, together with Jesus, rid the world of all tyranny and injustice.

So, according to Ahmadinejad, Obama is more powerful than his messiah. So was Bush. Cool!

If mere US presidents can stop the Mahdi from arriving, how can the Mahdi expect to rid the world of tyranny and injustice?

Dubai police now have 26 suspects

From Gulf News:

Police revealed 15 more suspects in the Al Mabhouh murder case on Wednesday.
The extensive investigation has led to a total of 26 suspects so far involved in the murder of the Hamas official Mahmoud Al Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel.

In addition to the previously released list of 11 suspects, Dubai Police has now identified another six suspects, who include a woman who used British passports, a man and three women travelling on Irish passports, two men who used French passports, and three people with Australian passports. The Australians included a woman.

The new list of suspects include 15 names, bringing the total identified suspects to 26.

Soon every European who ever visited Dubai will be a suspect.

By the way, this is not the first high-profile murder to happen in Dubai. Two years ago, famous Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim was murdered by a hitman hired by her ex-lover, a powerful and rich Egyptian businessman and politician.

Hillel Cohen responds to my review of "Good Arabs"

The author of "Good Arabs," Hillel Cohen, responded to my review where I questioned whether the word Nakba was used in the 1950s:

Thanks for your review. Just one factual comment - the term Nakba was in use in Arabic in the 1950s. As you might know, the book of Constantin Zureik 'Ma'na al-Nakba' (the meaning of the Nakba) was published in Beirut in summer 1948 (!). It is true that Jewish Israelis (and the elders of Zion?) became familiar with it only in the 1990s, but one should bear in mind that there are discourses beyond the Hebrew one.

I asked back:

Thanks for writing, Hillel. My only question is whether the term was used in the 1950s with the "capital N" usage that it is used today, even in Arabic. In other words, would the average Palestinian Arab have used it in that context in that decade to the extent of saying that "May 14th is Nakba Day."

And, if you would be so kind as to answer whether you believe that the word "collaboration" is the correct, consistent translation of the term in Israeli documents you cite, or whether "cooperation" was closer to the authors' intent in some or most cases.

Cohen answered:

As far as i understand, the term Nakba was rather widespread in the internal discourse among the Arabs in Israel in the 1950s-1960s, and was the common word to refer to the war of 1948 and refugehood.

As about 'collaboration' - Arabs who were involved with the Israeli security agencies were usually considered collaborators by all involved parties (, i.e. the general Arab community, themselves and the security agencies). Political cooperation with Mapai was termed 'collaboration' by those who opposed it, and 'cooperation' by those who advocated it (and I tried to present their arguments according to my understanding). Anyhow, it was frequently the same people who were involved in politics and security matters. Police and Shabak officers in many cases looked down at the people who assisted 'the system': sometimes view them as traitors, but not always.

There were changes in this respect througout the years, and what was considered treason in one period was not necessarily considered so in other, what complicates the definitions even more.

Personally, I'd add, I have no political goals in writing my books, and I don't try to prove anything - but to present and analyse historical sources that I read. This is not to say, of course, that I am not influenced by my (ever-changing) political views that support Jewish-Arab cooperation.

I appreciate that he came here and explained himself, and from reading his books it is clear that Cohen is intellectually honest he does intend to portray things as accurately as possible.

UNRWA chief again takes away "refugee" choice

The new UNRWA Commissioner General, Fillipo Grandi, is in Syria to discuss the situation in UNRWA camps there and to praise the Syrian president for all he does for Palestinian Arab "refugees."

According to Firas Press, he explicitly told the Syrians that UNRWA is not interested in resettling any Palestinian Arabs in other countries besides "Palestine." While he stressed that UNRWA wants to improve their living conditions in the camps, he said that on the topic of the UNRWA position on resettlement in Arab countries, he "discussed this matter with the Syrian government and representatives of the refugees and the refugees themselves" and that they were not interested in resettling.

This is, of course, a lie. A significant number of stateless Arabs of Palestinian origin would jump at the opportunity to become full citizens of Arab countries, and in the rare occasions that they had such an opportunity, they grabbed it.

It is the Arab leaders - and the Palestinian Arab leaders - who work mightily to stop such a thing from happening. And now UNRWA, which actually did try to resettle refugees in the 1950s, is in the forefront of prolonging the statelessness and misery of Palestinian Arabs, doing everything it can to increase the number of "refugees" forever.

The world sits by silently at this abuse of millions of people by the UNRWA and Arab leaders who all pretend to be doing what is best for the stateless Arabs of Palestinian origin - without once surveying them and asking them what they really want.

The most basic human right - the right to make one's own decisions - is being explicitly revoked by the UNRWA.

This is why the UNRWA needs a major overhaul, or to be eliminated altogether. It does not solve any problem, and it is a major reason that the problem is getting worse.

Hamas leader's son was a "collaborator" who saved many lives

Remember Mosab Yousef, the son of one of Hamas' founders who converted to Christianity and caused his family much grief?

Their grief is about to be redoubled. From Ha'aretz:

The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.

Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas" (written with Ron Brackin) will be released next week in the United States. Yousef, 32, became a devout Christian 10 years ago and now lives in California after fleeing the West Bank in 2007 and going public with his conversion.

Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname "the Green Prince" - using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and "prince" because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders.

During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid (a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti (founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia) and Abdullah Barghouti (a Hamas bomb-maker with no close relation to the Fatah figure). Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel's plan to assassinate his father.

His former handler, who no longer serves with the security service, says Yousef collaborated with Israel because he wanted to save lives.

"So many people owe him their life and don't even know it," said the handler, named in Yousef's book as Captain Loai. "People who did a lot less were awarded the Israel Security Prize. He certainly deserves it."

Loai makes no secret of his admiration for his former source. "The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," he says. "He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours - the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."

Loai recalled one time when the Shin Bet received information that a suicide bomber was going to be picked up at Manara Square in Ramallah and be given an explosives belt.

"We didn't know his name or what he looked like - only that he was in his 20s and would be wearing a red shirt," he said. "We sent the Green Prince to the square and with his acute sense, he located the target within minutes. He saw who picked him up, followed the car and made it possible for us to arrest the suicide bomber and the man who was supposed to give him the belt. So another attack was thwarted, though no one knows about it. No one opens Champagne bottles or bursts into song and dance. This was an almost daily thing for the Prince. He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger. We knew he was one of those who in any situation - rain, snow, summer - give their all."

With his memoir, Yousef hopes to send a message of peace to Israelis. Still, he admits he is pessimistic over the prospect of Israel signing a peace agreement with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, let alone Hamas.

"Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis," he said. "Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does."

Hamas, for its part, describes the Israeli media as being filled with lies and as just another instrument of war, and will not dignify this article with a response, according to Palestine Today .

In other words, they are seething.

Mamilla update and the text of the judgments

The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles has an op-ed by Rabbi Marvin Hier where he discusses the article I found in the Palestine Post about how the Supreme Muslim Council approved building on the Mamilla Cemetery in 1945 - including its own offices - showing how the Muslim community no longer considered it sacred ground.

It also has an article about the 1945 plan, which mentions me:

The blog, titled Elder of Ziyon, is written anonymously and serves as a watchdog against anti-Zionism.

I'm anonymously famous!

While we are on the topic, I have uploaded the text of the Israeli Supreme Court judgment on the original case (it was corrupted so I had to recover the text only, not the formatting.) I also have the text of the judgment concerning the appeal.

For people who care to read it, one can see that all of the arguments against the building were heard, discussed and dismissed by Israel's Supreme Court. The people who are now making a stink over the museum are being dishonest by repeating only their side of the story and not mentioning how their arguments were demolished, twice. For example, in the appeals judgment:

Furthermore, from the various data produced to us, it appears that the “purple area” has been deeply excavated and that the work of moving the tombs and interring the human remains has been completed. Such being the case, it can no longer be said that the Court’s intervention is necessary for the purpose of implementing the recommendations of Mr Sulimani in the report that he filed so that the whole site will be excavated. In view of this state of affairs, it is not clear what relief the Petitioners are seeking from the Court. Are they seeking to stop the construction of the Museum at the site even though the tombs and human remains that were there have been moved? Or is it sought to move the tombs back to the site and thereby prohibit construction? One way or the other, it is clear that those applications cannot be met and there is no cause to do so either, in view of the express findings of the judgment in the first petition.

...We have gained the impression that whilst the first petition was filed with the intention of raising factual and legal pleas against the venture and obtaining the Court’s decision, the filing of the petition herein was essentially intended to bring about a delay in the Museum’s construction, in such a way as amounts to an abuse of court proceedings.

The first judgment is much lengthier and describes each sides' arguments in great detail. One of the more laughable claims made by the anti-museum side was this one:

It submitted the opinion of Dr Hassan Sanalla of 12 December 2006, which reviewed the extensive protection given to Jewish burial sites in Islamic countries, and the general protection extended to sites of a religious character in international law

The most important cemetery in the Jewish world is on the Mount of Olives, which is not only ancient but also still being used today. And that cemetery was mercilessly defiled by the Jordanians between 1948 and 1967:

On the Mount of Olives, the Jordanian Arabs removed 38,000 tombstones from the ancient cemetery and used them as paving stones for roads and as construction material in Jordanian Army camps, including use as latrines. When the area was recaptured by Israel in 1967, graves were found open with the bones scattered. Parts of the cemetery were converted into parking lots, a filling station, and an asphalt road was built to cut through it. The Intercontinental Hotel was built at the top of the cemetery. Sadar Khalil, appointed by the Jordanian government as the official caretaker of the cemetery, built his home on the grounds using the stones robbed from graves. In 1967, the press published extensive photos documenting that Jewish gravestones were found in Jordanian Army camps, such as El Azariya, as well as in Palestinian walkways, steps, bathrooms, and pavement.

Here are some pictures of the desecration. (h/t Boker Tov Boulder)

Here are Jewish tombstones used as pavers for a road:

For building a wall:

For building a bench:

The hypocrisy is stunning.

Mossad T-shirt sales explode

From Irish Times:

SALES OF Mossad-themed T-shirts, available by mail order, have risen tenfold since the Israeli spy agency was linked to last month’s assassination in Dubai.
Despite the fact that Israeli leaders are refusing to confirm or deny Mossad involvement, orders for the garments have flooded in over the past few weeks – from Israelis and particularly from diaspora Jews.
Eran Davidov, marketing manager of a top mail order company selling Israeli-made products, told The Irish Times they have been overwhelmed by demand since they launched a special “Show off your Mossad and Israeli pride” campaign earlier this week.
“Don’t Mess With the Mossad” next to a picture of a pistol is top of the T-shirt range. Another popular T-shirt has the word Mossad with the letter “o” replaced by a circular target used on a rifle range, with the organisation’s title underneath: “The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.” The word Mossad in Hebrew next to a pistol is also on offer.
Mr Davidov said that since the launch of the marketing campaign the company has received dozens of e-mails and blog messages expressing pride in the ability of Mossad to strike with impunity throughout the Arab world.
Mossad-theme souvenirs are now definitely in.
Israeli army or T-shirts with pro-Israel slogans have been popular for years among Jewish tourists visiting Israel, particularly with Jewish American teenagers.
Ironically, they are often purchased from Palestinian merchants in the winding alleyways of Jerusalem’s old city.

The myth of the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque continues

I mentioned a few months ago that Palestinian Arabs gave Rachel's Tomb the supposedly "ancient" name of the "Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque" in the mid-1990s. The Arabs are desperately trying to claim this indisputably Jewish shrine as their own, just as they claim every other Jewish shrine in the Middle East without exception.

Now that Binyomin Netanyahu decided to place Judaism's second and third-holiest sites in a list of Israeli heritage sites, the lies about the very name of Rachel's Tomb are increasing, both in Arabic and in English (including here and here.)

Another proof of how new these claims are comes from IMPACT-SE, a group that translates Palestinian Arab textbooks. They note:

Even the Jewish holy places in the country are not recognized and are presented as Muslim holy places taken over by the Jews:
… The attempt to Judaize some of the Muslim religious places like the Mosque of Abraham [the Machpelah Sanctuary— Cave of the Patriarchs] and the Mosque of Bilal bin Rabbah [Rachel’s Tomb]

National Education, Grade 7 (2001), p. 55
In the case of Rachel’s Tomb, in fact, we see a myth in the making.

In an experimental book issued by the PA in 1996, this place is still called the “Dome of Rachel, mother of our Lord Joseph and wife of Jacob.”3 In a book published in 2001, it is given the name “Mosque of Bilal bin Rabbah.”4

This is an amazing example where Palestinian Arab history is faked in front of our eyes, yet you will not find a single Arab willing to say publicly that there was never any such mosque.

(There happen to be many mosques in the Arab world with that exact name, including in Tulkarem, in Gaza and elsewhere.)

Syrian human rights activist to be tried for "insulting" Assad

Al Quds al Arabi reports that a prominent Syrian human-rights advocate is going to stand trial later this month on the charges of "insulting Syrian President Assad and his father."

Haitham al-Maleh, 78, has been held by Syrian authorities since last October. His arrest came two days after he gave an interview criticizing Syrian authorities for their repression of free speech.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration rewarded Syria by appointing a new US envoy to the dictatorship, the first in five years. This was right around when the IAEA indicated that the complex bombed by Israel in 2007 was indeed a secret nuclear plant.

Political intrigue in Libya between Fatah and Hamas

An Arab League summit is planned in Tripoli next month, and the big question is whether Hamas would be allowed to attend as a representative of Palestinian Arabs.

At first it appeared that Hamas would not be permitted to attend as a representative unless there is a reconciliation deal between the two groups.

But Al Quds al-Arabi is reporting that when Mahmoud Abbas went to Libya to make arrangements for the meeting, Libya's leader Maommar Ghaddafi refused to meet with him, and is hinting that he might want to meet with Hamas leaders instead.

Abbas seems to have more prestige in the West than in the Arab world.

Now, here is a target for the Mossad

According to the Saudi Okaz news agency, quoted by Palestinian Press Agency, this coming weekend it is likely that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet in Damascus both with Hamas "politburo" leader Khaled Meshal and with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Actually, why bother with the Mossad? A couple of cruise missiles or smart bombs could do more for long-term peace in the region than any number of UN conferences.

A new "Persian Gulf" diplomatic crisis

From the WaPo:

Airlines not referring to the waterway between Iran and the Arabian peninsula as the Persian Gulf will be banned from Iranian airspace, the transport minister told local media Monday.
The warning was directed specifically toward the airlines of neighboring Gulf Arab countries who have a history of referring to the body of water as the "Arabian Gulf."

"The airlines of the southern Persian gulf countries flying to Iran must use 'Persian Gulf' on their flight monitors," Hamid Behbahani told the IRAN daily.

Airlines ignoring the warning would be banned from Iranian airspace, while repeat offenders would have their planes grounded in Iran and "the companies' flight permits to Iran canceled."

The report said Iran expelled a Greek flight attendant from the private Iranian airline, Kish Air, for using "Arabian Gulf" on a monitor over the weekend.

What most interested me in the Kish incident is that some Iranian airlines lease airplanes from other countries, including their flight crews.

This would be a nice way to leverage sanctions, if the West ever gets its act together.

Friend of Jimmy Carter visits Hamas in Gaza

From Ma'an:

De facto government Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh hosted former national security adviser for Latin America Bob Pastor in Gaza City on Monday, officials reported.

Pastor, who worked under the Carter Administration, teaches at the American University in Washington DC in the International Service School, he is also co-director of the Center for North American Studies and the Center for Democracy and Election Management at the university.

Government spokesperson Tahir An-Nunu said Haniyeh and Pastor discussed political developments in the region and Palestinian reconciliation efforts. Haniyeh also addressed the affect [sic] of the Israeli-imposed siege on the region.

Pastor is most well-known for his advocacy of a North American confederation, which he calls a "community" and would be akin to the European Union. He also was instrumental behind the Panama Canal treaties.

As far as I can tell, the only real tie he has with the Middle East is through Carter.