Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 22, 2010

Hillary: Worse than clueless?

I spent three posts talking about the cluelessness of Lady Ashton and other well-meaning but ignorant Westerners who have been led to believe Arab lies over the years.

In some ways, Hillary Clinton made a statement today which is even worse.

Israel Matzav points out that Hillary Clinton said this at the AIPAC conference:

When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones in this conflict.

In a very, very narrow sense, she is right. El Bireh, the suburb of Ramallah that named a public square after Dalal Mughrabi, has a Hamas-majority city council. (So does Nablus and many other West Bank towns.)

But the naming of the square was purely a Fatah initiative and a Fatah celebration. Mughrabi was a Fatah terrorist. The entire episode was a damning indictment of Fatah - the party whose leader happens to be so-called "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas has nothing to do with it.

Which means that the US government is knowingly misinterpreting and downplaying the glorification of terrorism by Fatah.

The reason is presumably because the US government has already put itself on the line for a farce of a "peace" process that is utterly dependent on Fatah acting like mature, responsible human beings. For Hillary to admit the truth in front of a pro-Israel organization would open up the Obama administration to charges of hypocrisy and double-standards.

It is impossible to build real negotiations on a facade, and the idea that Fatah is any better or less terrorist that Hamas is exactly that. The US is so heavily invested in Fatah as a "peace partner" that it is willfully ignoring Fatah's own excesses and support for terror, instead pretending that Hamas is the only "bad guy."

This is not cluelessness. This is deception. And it is really, really ugly.

A silent correction to paper over the bigger problem

The clueless op-ed written by Catherine Ashton for the New York Times has received a silent correction.

It used to say,

This is where the industrial center of Gaza used to be, before the shelling just over a year ago.

Now it just says

This is where the industrial center of Gaza used to be.

Obviously, this was corrected by the New York Times/International Herald Tribune. But just as obviously, Catherine Ashton really thought that the Erez industrial zone was destroyed by Israeli, and not Hamas, actions.

The problem is not primarily with the Times' fact-checker - it is with the vast majority of EU and other officials who believe the lies they have been fed by the Arabs and their supporters over the years. They believe that the settlements are the main obstacle to peace. They believe that the Palestinians' demand to make Jerusalem Judenrein is an expression of nationalism, not bigotry. They believe that another Arab state will solve the problems and that terror will cease as long as Israel gives up everything being demanded from them. They believe that most of the victims in Gaza were women and ch

ildren and that Israel is more reckless with civilian lives than other democracies have been in other wars. They believe that people are dying in Iraq because of Palestine. They believe that the Old City of Jerusalem is an historic Arab capital and that it wasn't all but ignored by the Muslim between the Crusades and Zionism. They believe that "historic Palestine" adhered to the borders of the British Mandate. They believe that there has been a unique "Palestinian" people and culture that are much more than a mere hundred years old.

Israel has failed, miserably, for allowing such lies to become accepted truths among these intelligentsia. Ashton is just a symptom of a much greater illness.

Here's the original version of the first paragraph of the op-ed as reproduced on the Real Clear World page.

(h/t Lily)

Followup: New Al Azhar sheikh appointed

The predictions of who will succeed the late Sheikh Tantawi as the head of Egypt's Al Azhar University were wrong.

It is not the expected Ali Gomaa and it is not Newsweek's rather laughable prediction of Yusuf Qaradawi.

The new head is Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb.

I cannot find too much about him except, like Tantawi, he is considered a "moderate" in many social issues. I did not find any statements by him for or against suicide bombings in Israel.

Abbas meets Mitchell - and says he supports violence

From Albawaba (also reported in Palestine Press Agency):

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said that "popular resistance" is the legitimate right of the Palestinian people under international conventions and international law. Speaking after his meeting with George Mitchell, the American envoy to the Middle East, he said: "The Israelis must pay attention not to drag us to what we don't love and accept, and what they do not like and pleased with."

Just to be clear, Abbas' idea of "popular resistance" includes Palestinian Arabs hurling boulders through the windows of innocent civilians in cars.

Would Abbas' call for violence immediately after meeting Mitchell be considered a slap in the face of the United States, or will it be ignored by the same people who were so keen to find Israelis announcing long-term civic plans a direct insult to the US?

Lady Ashton's cluelessness, part 2

If the first paragraph of Lady Catherine Ashton's NYT op-ed was the only problem, it would be bad enough. Unfortunately, it is only the beginning of a series of false facts that are considered received wisdom by many well-meaning Westerners.

For example:

What I found in Gaza confirmed my strong view that we must act now — not just to end the violence, but because peace will bring prosperity in Gaza and in the region. It will open up opportunities for growth and regional integration, the best antidote against the radical groups. That is the real prize.

While "occupation" has turned into a dirty word that is considered to be one of the worst injustices that man can be guilty of, Ashton is speaking specifically of "growth" and "prosperity" as being an inevitable outcome of an independent Palestinian Arab state that includes Gaza.

There is only one period of time over the past millenium when Gaza's economy improved significantly, and that was during the 38 years that Israel controlled the territory. It was during that time that Gaza's mortality rate plummeted and its life expectancy soared. It was while under Israeli control that an infrastructure was built - for water, electricity and fuel.

Similarly, in the West Bank, Israel's policies during "occupation" has resulted in huge growth in the economy of the Palestinian Authority. The only pauses in the West Bank's economic success since 1967 have been when Palestinian Arab leaders supported terrorism.

Once one wipes away the pejorative word "occupation" as inherently evil and looks at the actual quality of life of individual Palestinian Arabs - which should be, after all, the real goal - the golden age of Palestinian Arabs were while they were under Israeli responsibility. To be sure, mistakes were made and Israel could have done better, but the only metric that matters is how well individual Palestinian Arabs fared. When terror reigns, whether it was 1936 or 2002, their lives took a turn for the worse; when their leaders act in ways approaching maturity and responsibility, their people benefited - and the Zionists were more than happy to contribute to the better economic good of all.

A clear look at history shows that the Zionist leaders invariably look to find win-win solutions, while the Arab leaders look at it as a zero-sum game where any Zionist success is by definition at the expense of the Arabs. This zero-sum mentality might be difficult to erase from the Arab psyche but there is no excuse for supposedly knowledgeable Westerners to accept it as fact.

If prosperity is the "real prize," then the real solution is to treat Arab terror and intransigence as the most fundamental threat to that goal.

Extremism grows in rubble and refugee camps. These provide fertile territory not just for local warlords but for all those in the region with their own agendas, who profit from instability and assist it with shipments of arms.

"Local warlords"? What local warlords? Hamas has been controlling Gaza with an iron fist since its violent coup, and the other terror groups like Islamic Jihad and PFLP are cooperating with Hamas. There has been some infighting but Gaza, and a little trouble from so-called Salafist groups who disagree with Hamas from a religious perspective, but no part of Gaza is controlled by anyone besides Hamas. Gaza is not Somalia and Ashton does not seem to be able to even understand the basics about Hamas - a quasi government that she doesn't even deign to mention once in the entire op-ed about Gaza.

Throughout the region, from Egypt to Syria, from Lebanon to Jordan, I heard the same message from presidents, prime ministers and a king, and from ordinary people, too — they want their economies to grow, their people to prosper, their children to be educated. To achieve that, we need peace in the Middle East.

Ashton now accepts, without any critical thought, the idea that somehow peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon depends on Palestinian Arabs being happy. The number of intra-Arab conflicts since 1948 shows this to be utterly false, but it is another example of how Arab leaders, by repeating the same lies over and over, eventually get credulous Westerners to believe them.

One factor that Ashton does not dare to even consider is how Arab leaders have treated their Palestinian Arab "brothers." The institutional discrimination against Palestinians, especially in terms of naturalization and citizenship, is only the most egregious example of this. Ashton, who is claiming that economic prosperity is the goal, should consider how many Palestinian Arabs would freely choose to move to Gulf states and get out of the limbo of statelessness. Not to mention the benefits that these new, hardworking and educated citizens would bring to their adopted countries. Yet that idea is never on the table - because the same Arab leaders who insist that all roads lead through Palestine are the ones who work hardest to ensure that they will keep their Palestinian brethren stateless and miserable for generations to come, just to pressure Israel.

We know the elements that are needed. The European Union set out its position in a statement of principles last December. A two-state solution with Israel and Palestine side by side in peace and security.

No, these aren't the elements that are needed - these are the elements that have been rejected by the Palestinian Arab side, again and again. Chaim Weizmann once famously said that the Jews would accept a state that was the size of a tablecloth. The fact that a supposedly disadvantaged Palestinian Arab people vetoes every offer given them without even a counteroffer indicates that, just perhaps, a state is not their end goal.

Their maximal demands have not changed one iota since before Oslo, in the same time period that Israel has given up Gaza and large areas of the West Bank. This simple fact shows that it is not Israel that is the intransigent party and it is not Israel that is seeking to perpetuate the conflict.

It is way past time for the West to wake up and start to pressure the Palestinian Arabs, and the Arab nations as a whole, to do their part to end the conflict. Op-eds like these, rather than contributing to a solution, are a large part of the problem.

Fatah celebrates Mothers Day by praising moms of "martyrs"

Yesterday was the Arab world's Mothers Day.

Fatah, that supposedly moderate movement that never seems to get any criticism from the enlightened Western world, put out a statement in praise of Palestinian Arab mothers.

The Palestinian mother has kept generations of Palestinians, generation after generation; they have strengthened the spirit of loyalty, dedication and sacrifice for the sacred homeland Palestine....

Go pay tribute and admiration for the mothers of martyrs and prisoners who walk on hot coals and their children who are enlightened through the blood and sacrifices of freedom for their people through an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Ashton in Gaza: When the "experts" are clueless

One of the more frustrating parts of watching the Middle East is when one sees that people who should have some basic knowledge, who present themselves as experts, and who urge actions based on their experience and expertise, are completely clueless.

Meet Catherine Ashton.

Lady Ashton is the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and vice president of the European Commission. She visited Gaza last week, and, armed with the latest on-the-ground intelligence, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times describing exactly what needs to be done to make the Middle East a happy place again.

Here is her first paragraph:

It is the process of entering the Gaza Strip that strikes you most. At the Erez checkpoint you go into what looks like a modern airport terminal. Leaving it you move through a winding maze of gates and walls and emerge, like a time-traveler transported backwards, on a dirt track. This is where the industrial center of Gaza used to be, before the shelling just over a year ago. Now, people with donkeys and carts carry stones from the rubble.

Ashton is stating as fact that the heartless Israelis, for no discernible reason, reduced the Erez area to rubble during Operation Cast Lead and bombed the formerly prosperous industrial area to the stone age.

The Erez Industrial Zone was a joint Israeli/Arab project that started in 1970, a scant three years after Israel took over Gaza in the Six Day War. It predated any negotiations. It started when the PLO was universally recognized as a purely terror organization. In other words, it was a triumph of Israeli optimism that was an early success in working together with the Palestinian Arab population under Israeli control. It provided thousands of jobs for Gazans - jobs that did not exist when they were under Egyptian control. It was an economic win-win.

By 2001, there were 187 businesses at Erez - carpentry shops, textile factories, metal works and garages, employing some 5000 Arabs who were able to provide for their families in dignity.

Then came the Intifada.

Between 2001 and 2004, at least 11 Israelis were killed at Erez by terror attacks. Hamas and Islamic Jihad specifically targeted this successful symbol of cooperation and peace. The companies that were there found it more and more difficult to keep their businesses open while providing a safe environment for their employees. Millions of dollars were lost because of the terror attacks.

Finally, in 2004, the Israeli government announced that it could no longer keep the industrial area open, and all Israeli companies withdrew. Hamas terror was successful, and in the years since, the Erez industrial zone has fallen into disuse. Some 500 mortars and rockets were shot from and to the area. A truck bomb caused millions of dollars worth of damage.

Of course, Gaza could still have grown economically even after the Israelis withdrew their citizens from the area. Read this optimistic editorial from Ma'an in 2005:

Nothing can stop in front of the strong will speaking through a number of voices; the occupation of Gaza is almost over, it will be as free as an unbound Arabian horse two weeks from now.

Theoretically, Gaza will be supported by $3 billion in assistance from donor countries. If this amount of money, "$3 billion," is used for national investment, in an honest and decent way, through professional hands, it will be enough to transform the economic situation in Gaza in a remarkable way.

Gaza is capable of producing agricultural products sufficient enough to supply both itself and the entire West Bank. Bearing witness to this is the fact that while Israel exports 1,500 tons of strawberries, Gaza exports 7,500 tons of them. According to the numbers, greenhouses in Gaza have nearly the same productive capability as all those in Israel, Syria and Jordan combined.

Also theoretically speaking, Gaza will have the industrial areas of Erez and Karni, which will allow for the creation of thousands of jobs, in addition to those jobs that will be created by the Gaza sea and airports.

Theoretically, Palestine will be supported by other Arab nations in the Gulf and throughout the Middle East in addition to a number of European countries. It is believed that many people will the wish to assist in the rebuilding of Gaza.

Officials will be receiving a marvelous area for investment and the Palestinian people are diligent workers, with their small population equivalent to that of Kuwaitis.

Practically, we will see, and we will witness that history will condemn those who place obstacles in the way of the area's development, and will write in golden letters about those who built the future of Gaza.

Unfortunately, the Erez Industrial Zone had not turned into an example of a self-sustaining Gaza business model. In fact, within a short time after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, it had ceased to be a serious source for employment.

The same forces that destroyed Erez now control Gaza.

Yet the EU foreign policy chief does not know these basic facts, and blames Israel for the economic problems of Gazans.

The rest of the op-ed betrays the same kind of ignorance and naivete that we see in the first paragraph. Arrogant diplomats prescribe the solution that "everyone knows" is the only possible one, without having a clue of the history of the area and who was responsible for previous failures. It is a stunning combination of hubris and willful blindness that is all too common from diplomats whose desire for "peace" trumps their ability to see simple facts.

Part 2 here.

Details on the "sorceror" sentenced to death

I recently reported about a Lebanese man who was sentenced to death by a Saudi court for "sorcery."

Amnesty International has details about the case.

It turns out that the man is not Saudi, but Lebanese - and he was arrested while doing a religious pilgrimage to Medina!

That's right - Saudi religious police might arrest you if you are in the country for a pilgrimage and you are suspected of "black magic," but other types of criminals can come and go to the anti-Magic Kingdom all they want.

Just some "stone throwing youths"

AFP shows us some of those pesky "stone-throwing youths" who, everybody knows, are not really a danger to anyone.

Check out the brave freedom-fighting youth who hurls a boulder through the window of a minivan filled with evil Zionist kids at 0:23, and the cheering that erupts for this act of bravery. (AFP doesn't allow me to show the video here, so click on the video box and it will take you to AFP's YouTube page, h/t Annie)

Not to mention the evil Zionist police who allow themselves to be pelted by stones at will - because throwing cement blocks is the Palestinian Arabs' natural right, while stopping violent riots must be done exactly according to the ever restrictive and exacting requirements and expectations of hundreds of NGOs, reporters and international law experts who will only criticize one side.
(h/t Israellycool)

"Siege" news: Israel allows construction material into Gaza

From Al Arabiya:

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees hopes that a housing project in the Gaza Strip approved by Israel can unlock reconstruction efforts in the Hamas-run territory.

The new apartments will house 150 families and could prove to Israeli authorities that the United Nations can undertake such projects without construction materials falling into the hands of Hamas and other armed groups.

"We have estimated very accurately all the quantities because we do not want to be accused by the Israelis of exaggerating," said Munir Manneh, head of construction in Gaza for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

"We will give an excellent example and prove that we will control the process 100 percent," he said, adding that all materials would be clearly documented from the moment they enter the territory.

Israel has said that if a mechanism could be found to bypass Hamas then more materials could be allowed in.

"If there could be a greater level of confidence that Hamas would not be siphoning off materials for its own military machine that would make things obviously much easier," government spokesman Mark Regev said.

YNet adds that the UNRWA project also includes a mill, an UNRWA school and sewage infrastructure.

But haven't we been told for years that Israel is only interested in collective punishment of Gazans and that the fears about Hamas using building materials were a Zionist sham?

The stories that contradict the "Gaza siege" and "collective punishment" memes get very little coverage in the mainstream media.

For example, did you know that flower exports from Gaza have now been going on regularly for three months?

Fatah chides Hamas for not being pro-terror enough

Yesterday, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said that the recent fatal rocket fire from Gaza was meant to undermine Hamas' authority and played into the hands of Israel. He stopped just short of saying that those behind the attacks were collaborators with Israel.

Today, he is being criticized for his public statements against rocket fire by the usual collection of terror groups -by Islamic Jihad, by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - and by Fatah, that purportedly moderate peace partner of Israel's.

A Fatah spokesman, Fayez Abu Eita, accused Hamas of abandoning terror ("resistance") in order to maintain its hold on power. He said that the people elected haams to be their leaders because they were shooting rockets into Israel, but unfortunately the treasonous Hamas has done a 180 degree turn and now is campaigning against the rockets.

This is hardly the first time that Fatah has criticized Hamas for not being violent enough. Yet the Western media never mentions these little facts, because they have their meme that "Hamas=terrorist, Fatah=peace partners" and they cannot afford to let people know that their wisdom has been somewhat lacking.

The latest kosher product

If this doesn't prove that the Elders are running the world, I don't know what does:

Photo taken at a local Wal-Mart.

I resisted the temptation to buy, and enjoy, the Kosher Candy Cross.

Libya upset over imports of Israeli goods

Firas Press reports that a Libyan governmental website revealed many Israeli goods being imported into Libya.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Abu Setta said that the Libya market has become filled with various Israeli goods.

He claimed that some 80% of the mobile phone accessories in the Libya market have origins in Israel.

A criminal investigation has not yet been opened.

Video of Abbas and his "adopted" kid

Last week I mentioned that Mahmoud Abbas had, perhaps cynically, adopted the surviving child of a horrific auto accident.

Here is a video of the press conference where Abbas, who turns 75 this week, hugs and kisses the poor kid as cameras click. The child looks like he is being tortured. See if you can find any hint that this was motivated by anything approaching human kindness.

The child's grandfather is thrilled, though.

Followup - did Dubai expel any spies?

On March 10,

Dubai Police have warned spies operating in the Gulf to leave the region within one week or face consequences.
"Those spies that are currently present in the Gulf must leave the region within one week — if not, then we will cross that bridge when we come to it," Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Gulf News.

The statement comes following the January 19 assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, which Dahi has blamed on Israel.

The ultimatum indicates that Dubai Police are aware of the identities of spies operating in the UAE and the Gulf region and appears to be a warning of exposure if they do not comply.

Well, the week deadline has passed. The chief received some praise from Asharq Al Awsat for his gutsy move of threatening unknown spies.

But, for some reason, we have not heard about any spies exposed or expelled from the UAE.

I guess his threat must have forced all the spies to leave, afraid that they'd be exposed.

Yeah, that must be it.

Hamas denies sending message to Egypt via fake congressman

Hamas has released a statement denying that they sent a message to Egypt via "Congressman" Jack Shepard.

The fake congressman, who visited Gaza last week, had told Egypt's Al Masry al-Youm newspaper that he was delivering a message from Hamas' Mahmoud al Zahar to Egypt's government.

Hamas, still unaware that Shepard is a convicted felon, a fraud and a nutcase, simply said that they do not need intermediaries to send messages to the Egyptians, especially not American messengers.

Obama to the left of Carter?

Last June, Jimmy Carter visited the small town of Neve Daniel, in the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements.

Speaking at the end of a meeting with Shaul Goldstein, the head of the Gush Etzion regional council, Carter said that the settlement bloc would remain under Israeli control.

"This particular settlement area is not one that I can envision ever being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory. This is part of settlements close to the 1967 (border) line that I think will be here for ever," he said in the garden of Goldstein's house.

Apparently the current US administration has gone beyond even the most implacably anti-Israel, anti-settlement ex-president, as they call into question not just the large settlement blocs near the Green Line with hundreds of thousands of residents but also organic parts of Jerusalem itself.

Maybe if Obama would deign to visit Israel he could see reality.

Perhaps he doesn't want to. After all, it is easier to make pronouncements and apply pressure from thousands of miles away when you don't know the facts.

Weekend open thread

Time to relax for 25 hours before the final Pesach cleaning push.

Discuss.

The secrets of Dubai

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Dubai police chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has been sharply critical of Israel in general and Mossad in particular, releasing many minutes of security camera footage to support his case. Australia and other western nations, including Ireland and Britain, followed suit.
But General Dahi has chosen to leave hidden at least as much as he has revealed. The autopsy report has not been made public, and neither has the crucial footage from the corridor that shows how the killers entered Mr Mabhouh's room.

Nor has any indication been given of what the Hamas leader charged with organising the flow of weapons from Iran to the Gaza Strip was doing in Dubai - also on a fake passport and with no security - and where he went between 4pm on January 19, after checking in to his hotel, and 8.24pm, when he returned.
Who had he come to meet? Why would he meet Iranians here and not in Iran, or in Syria where he lived?

This is a very good point - if Dubai cameras are all over the place, and if the assassins were following him everywhere, why are we not seeing any footage of Mabhouh from those four hours?

...Trouble is not the only thing that finds its way to Dubai. Airport regulations allow any quantity of cash in any currency to be carried into the country. It is now coming in planeloads from Afghanistan, where, according to airport declarations sighted by The Washington Post, up to $US1 billion a year, more than the government's annual tax revenue, is being flown in.
Several figures closely connected to the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, own villas in Dubai, and the Post has tied the son of Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, to a $US44 million real estate spree on Dubai's waterfront - a feat made more impressive by the fact he was only 11 years old. Dr Karasik said: ''There's a lot of suitcases of money running around from a lot of different sources, so it's kind of hard to say which is bad money and which is good money.''

The Dubai authorities are hiding at least as much as they are revealing.

More from Jack Shepard the scammer (updated)

I just found Jack Shepard's YouTube channel. (Shepard is the guy I've been mentioning who went to Gaza this week and convinced Gazans and Egyptians that he is a member of Congress.) Here's his commercial as he ran his campaign for president in 2008 - from Italy:

The crosses at 1:08 seem to contradict his claims of being Jewish. So does this page of his where he chooses Jesus as his role model.

Not surprisingly, he blames the Mossad for 9/11.

You can also view his Twitter page and the home page of the organization he visited in Gaza that he is honorary president of.

I am anxiously awaiting Cairo's response to the letter he supposedly delivered from Hamas.

UPDATES: He met with the PFLP terror group while in Gaza.
Al Jazeera fell for his scam, as did many other Arabic media.

This week's scoops and exclusives at EoZ

Every once in a while I get the unbecoming urge to brag a little.

Here is a partial list of the journalistic scoops, interesting stories and original analysis that are simply not available in the Western media - just from this blog, just from this week:

Israeli flag raising in Qatar - Israelis at a sports meet in Qatar cause Arab angst
Egyptians cancel soccer match with Palestinian Arab team - because it might imply "normalization" with Israel
Algeria reveals the extent of its participation in 1967, 73 wars - it wasn't only Egypt, Jordan and Syria
Another internal attack on police in Gaza - lots of these in recent months
Two Malaysian pre-teens married to middle-aged men
"Violence erupts" - all by itself! - media bias
Abbas adopts a boy. Love or politics?
Gunbattles, kidnappings, rocket fire in Gaza. The usual. - Gaza remains a mess even with Hamas' hard line
Tamimi doesn't even pause in his lies and incitement - the man behind the riots
Major Muslim religious group calls for jihad against Israel - Nothing new but isn't it still news?
Libya worried about turnout to Arab Summit - Arab unity, again
Saudi cleric calls for destruction of Grand Mosque in Mecca - because of men and women mixing
Nuclear disarmament conference to be held - in Iran - cynical manipulation of Western useful idiots
Convicted felon in Gaza - pretending to be a US congressman and Fake congressman now scamming Egypt - The Egyptian government, major newspapers in Gaza and Egypt, and possibly Hamas have been taken in by this nutcase

Is there any professional, full-time journalist in the world who would not be proud to get this many scoops in a month, let alone a week?

Too funny: Fake congressman now scamming Egypt

I reported earlier this week on Jack Shepard, a convicted felon and failed candidate for Minnesota Senate, governor and President, who visited Gaza this week pretending to be a US Congressman.

Apparently, the fake representative is now working on a Hamas/Fatah reconciliation!

In an exclusive interview with the Egyptian Al Masry al-Youm newspaper,he claimed that he received a letter from Hamas' Mahmoud Zahar approving Cairo's reconciliation agreement and that he was presenting it to Egyptian officials.

Shepard says that he sensed a new attitude from Hamas, and that the terror group is now willing to reconcile with Fatah in order to alleviate the suffering of Gazans.

Shepard, whom the newspaper termed a Democratic Congressman (he ran as a Republican for office,) told the newspaper that he received much assistance from the Egyptian Ambassador to Washington who helped him travel from the US to Egypt and cross into Gaza from Rafah.

This is a bit strange since Shepard lives in Italy and has not entered the US in the 25 years since his felony conviction.

In a 2008 interview when he was running for president he claimed, among other things, to be Jewish:

"Anybody who votes for me now is only voting for me for one reason, and that is not to be president, but a vote in protest against our Middle East foreign policies," Shepard says, acknowledging, "It is going to take a true miracle for me to win."
He calls himself a Middle East specialist and says he often travels to countries like Syria and Israel.

"I believe it is my destiny to bring peace to the Middle East," he says.

Shepard's name will likely appear on ballots in three or four states, including New Hampshire and Arizona, he says. He has spent about $30,000 of his own money on his campaign.

Shepard says his two main concerns within Middle East policy are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and terrorism.

"As a Jew," he says, "Israel's violent actions are embarrassing."

Given the U.S. policy of supporting Israel's violent retaliations, America is in store for more terrorist attacks -- specifically a biological attack, he says.

One of the reasons he is running for president is to get the U.S. to stop "encouraging Israel's violence," he says. He has cousins who are in the Israeli military and believes, as president, he could encourage Israel to use more peaceful diplomacy, he says.

Shepard criticizes both Republican and Democratic candidates, saying none has the military experience necessary to lead the country in the age of terrorism.

Shepard served as an air force dentist in South Carolina. His campaign Web site has a copy of his military identification card from the 1970s.

Shepard's dentistry license was revoked in 1983. The Minnesota Board of Dentistry cited a string of violent incidents and Shepard's refusal to take lithium medication for manic-depression as reason for its decision.

Paul Zerby is a former assistant attorney general who represented the Minnesota Board of Dentistry in the hearings. Zerby describes Shepard as an odd and very angry man. At one point, Zerby says, Shepard brought a bobble-head doll to the hearing.

"If you read the transcript it's really kind of funny. The testimony is going on and then all of a sudden there's the judge saying, 'get that doll off the table.' If you hadn't been there you would have wondered what in the hell was going on," Zerby said. "One time he came in sort of dressed as a soccer player," he said.

When asked about the revocation of his license to practice dentistry in Minnesota, Shepard said, "After I left, (the country) I heard that it was revoked." He continues to practice dentistry in Italy, he says.

In addition to pleading guilty to felony sexual assault, Shepard was also convicted of narcotics possession -- a conviction he disputes, saying the drugs were legal for a dentist to own.

"I believe in divine destiny," Shepard says. "All the things I went through were to teach me things. So even being in prison I learned so much."

In May 2006, the Minnesota Board of Pardons denied Shepard's request for a pardon because he was still a fugitive. He says he is innocent of the alleged first-degree arson charge he is accused of running from.

"Someone kicked in my bedroom door and threw some fire in there and ran downstairs and ran away," he says.

Altogether, this nutcase has managed to convince Egyptians and Gazans that he is a sympathetic member of Congress.

PalArab news roundup 3-19-10

It looks like the PA canceled a 2003 decree by Yasir Arafat that established the Supreme Council for Islamic Courts. The leader of this council is none other than Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, the person who daily incites against Israel and who is most responsible for the recent riots in Jerusalem. This story needs to be followed.

The Palestinian Arab patent office recorded 55 patents in 2009, of which only 13 were for inventions actually created by Palestinian Arabs. (In 2008, Israel received 1166 patents.)

A Hamas site brags about a Molotov cocktail thrown at Jews in the West Bank on Wednesday night. the site refers to the driver and passengers as "rapists." In 2009, there were nearly 300 firebomb attacks and over 22,000 stoning attacks on Israeli roads by Arabs, according to Arutz-7.

Hamas claims that Jordan has been cooling relations with the terror group, and actively discouraging Hamas supporters in Jordan.

The making of a new Arab lie

The UK-based Hamas newspaper Palestine Info claims that the Bashiti family owns the land that the Hurva synagogue is on.

Subhi Shoaib Bashiti claims that his grandfather, Hasan al-Bashiti, bought the land - in 1880.

Of course, the Hurva had been rebuilt already well before then, with its first rededication occurring in 1864. The land had been unquestionably owned by the Jewish community since 1819. It is absurd to believe that the Jews would have sold the land the synagogue was on in 1880.

Like terrorism, lying about subjects like these is a form of asymmetric warfare. It is easy to make up the lies; it is often much harder to defend against them all. The liars just have to succeed once to make the lying worthwhile.

Obama the actor

When a mid-level government official in Israel insults the White House without the knowledge of the Israeli prime minister, it is a major international incident that is escalated by the administration even after a series of apologies.

When the Palestinian Authority insults the US Vice President directly, it gets papered over.

From David Bedein at The Bulletin:

The Bulletin has learned that Vice President Biden, now on an official visit to the Middle East, made a direct request that the P.A. cancel the ceremony that honors a terrorist.

And as soon as Biden was back on the plane, the ceremony was held anyway, with officials from the ruling Fatah party in attendance. (To distinguish between the PA and Fatah is an exercise in splitting hairs. Mahmoud Abbas is the leader of Fatah as well as the PA.)

People are wondering why Israel and other US allies are being publicly treated worse than Iran, Russia and Arab thugocracies by the Obama administration.

It is not because the US is aligned more with Arab interests, although the president is making worrying moves in that direction.

The reason is simply because President Obama fears confrontation with those whom he does not understand.

He (thinks he) knows that Great Britain and Israel are not going to make a stink, because they value their relationship with the US. Above all, he knows that they are not going to do anything rash.

But to Obama, the Second and Third Worlds are still a mystery. It is filled with scary characters who are not guaranteed to behave rationally. Deep down he knows that they don't think nor act like us. Yet to admit that fact aloud sounds too close to bigotry in a mindset where everyone must be fundamentally the same. It is a taboo subject.

I once described this dichotomy as "Your Crazy Uncle Ned:" Geopolitics is partially based on the idea that Arabs and Muslims are completely irrational. Instead of treating them like normal adults who need to take responsibility for their actions, we treat them like your crazy Uncle Ned who makes a scene every Thanksgiving. We smile nervously, say whatever we need to say to calm him down for now, lock up the liquor cabinet and hope he doesn't drive into a crowd. And when he acts sort-of rationally, we fall all over ourselves complimenting him on not setting the table on fire.

This is Obama's thought process towards Arabs and Muslims in a nutshell - but it is only half the story in understanding Obama.

When Obama was running for president, the impression he gave was that he was surprised as anyone that he became the frontrunner. I believe that he ran for office as a setup for a more serious 2012 run, or at best to be picked as a vice president by Hillary. He was, simply, not ready to lead. He had less experience in governing than practically all presidents in history. Even with all his rhetorical skills, it never felt like he was a man who wanted to dedicate his life to serving and leading his nation; it always seemed like someone who wanted to act like a leader rather than be a leader. He had some vague, New Age-y ideas of how the world could be a better place through mutual respect, and enough yes-men who could convince him that he was the man of the hour, but it never seemed like he truly believed it himself. He is, far more than any president in recent memory, an actor trying to learn a role.

Obama believes that a president, the leader of the free world, must act strong. But the problem is he cannot act that way when he cannot predict how the other parties will react to his show of strength. As in the movie Galaxy Quest, he may be acting but the other side is dead serious, and in such circumstances he is over his head. Upsetting a billion people or another nuclear power is something to be avoided at all costs.

So he acts like a parody of a strong leader - against his friends. He knows they won't start a war or a terror spree against American interests. He calculates that by acting tough with his friends, there is little downside while he builds up his street cred as a resolute but fair leader. He hopes that Iran and Syria (and Russia and China) will interpret his actions as a message for them, avoiding actually making decisions that could set a course from which the US cannot go back.

But what he cannot do is actually make any real foreign policy decisions. If he did, he would be burning a bridge and opening himself up to the chance that he is making a mistake. Worse yet, he would be revealing to the world that he doesn't have a clue.

For an actor playing the role of President, changing the status quo is scary. Taking a real stand is frightening. Instead,the emphasis is to make it through your term without blowing up the world. You buy time and hope and pray for the best. You rely on your advisors to guide you and you hope they are not acting the way you are.

And you continue to act how you think a President would act, hoping that your charade is not exposed.

Nuclear disarmament conference to be held - in Iran

In another transparent attempt to deceive the West (which already has plenty of people who are anxious to be deceived,) Iran will be hosting a conference next month:

The Islamic Republic of Iran is scheduled to hold an international conference on nuclear disarmament in mid April.

The conference, dubbed as "Nuclear Energy For All, Nuclear Weapon For None", will be held in Iran on April 17-18.

Foreign ministers, representatives and nuclear experts from 60 countries are due to participate in the event to discuss challenges on nuclear disarmament, countries' commitments to the issue and the aftermaths of not destroying weapons of mass-destruction.

In February, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani announced in Japan that Iran is scheduled to hold an international gathering on global disarmament in Tehran in the next two months to be attended by internationally renowned elites and experts, adding that participants are slated to assess the causes and reasons underlying the lack of heed and attention to the implementation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regulations, Article 6 in particular.

A lot of well-meaning but ultimately idiotic Westerners strongly feel that as long as Iran is negotiating, it is not going to do anything dangerous. In truth, Iran has shown over the years that it will pretend to negotiate while completely undermining its public statements in private.

Here is an especially telling example where Iran is cynically pretending to put on a public face against nuclear weaponry deliberately to take international pressure off of its aggressive nuclear program.

There are enough credulous wishful thinkers in the West who will desperately grab at this straw, because the alternative is too scary for them to contemplate. For each Westerner who opines or argues that Iran is not a threat, it makes it that much harder for the clear-thinking Westerners, who see through Iran's act, to do anything effective.

While it is true that Iran's leaders do not have the same mindset as the West, they understand the West much better than the West understands them, and this conference is proof.

(h/t dd via email)

You know how Muslims say they respect religions?

From Jordan's Al Gahd:

(h/t MEMRI Blog)

Gold boom in Gaza (updated)

From Al Arabiya:

Gaza's borders are closed and its economy in shambles, but the glittering alleys of the territory's centuries-old gold bazaar are packed with young brides to be.

The market has experienced an unlikely renaissance in recent years as Gaza's Hamas rulers have championed weddings and Israeli closures have crippled the local economy, making gold an attractive investment.

"Not only have we not been hurt by the Israeli blockade, but our business has actually gotten better," gold merchant Iyad Basal says as people cram into his crowded family-run shop.

"We have not stopped working since the blockade because the gold comes to us through smuggling and Hamas encourages marriage," he adds.

Israel and Egypt have largely sealed Gaza's borders since Hamas seized power in June 2007, but some merchants have survived and even thrived by importing products through smuggling tunnels beneath the Egyptian border.

Others have jewelry brought in through the Erez pedestrian crossing with Israel, which is usually open to foreign journalists, aid workers and Palestinians with special permits.

Hamas has encouraged marriage by holding mass weddings, running a matchmaker service for war widows and other poor girls and giving financial support to thousands of young men hoping to settle down.

Hassan al-Juju, a judge in the Islamic family courts run by the group, says the rate of marriage in 2009 was higher than any year in the last decade.

Zvi points out:
Starving populations do not import and purchase large quantities of gold. All around the world and throughout history, starving populations have sold what jewelry they owned to food traders in exchange for food to feed their kids. People who are seriously worried about starving in the future import and hoard large quantities of canned goods and staple foods. They don't import gold, which cannot be eaten.

For an example of a normal response, consider the Warsaw Ghetto. The Nazis issued the Jews ration books that allowed them only 200 Cal/day, which is a starvation diet. Jews who had a silver bracelet or a gold ring used it as currency to obtain extra food from outside the ghetto, or (if they could scrape together enough) to pay smugglers to hide their kids on the Christian side of the wall, where they were safer. Jewelry was rapidly flowing OUT, from the moment when the ghetto was reestablished until the Nazis liquidated the population.

Gaza is importing gold through its smuggling tunnels. Gold is an expensive luxury, purchased with disposable income.

The spokespeople of the Destroy Israel Movement frequently claim that Gaza is "worse than the Warsaw Ghetto." They claim that Israel is starving Gaza. They claim that this is why Gazan terrorists murder civilians across the border in Israel. Three things are clearly true:

1. The spokespeople of the Destroy Israel Movement don't understand the situation in Gaza at all.
2. They don't understand the Warsaw Ghetto at all, and don't want to.
3. They are happy to spout absolute ignorant nonsense as long as it's anti-Semitic ignorant nonsense.

Junk science used to claim Israel using WMD in Gaza

The "New Weapons Committee" has just released what appears, at first glance, to be a scientific study of Gaza children's exposure to dangerous contaminants during Operation Cast Lead.

The press release says:

Many Palestinian children still living in precarious situations at ground level in Gaza after Israeli bombing during "Cast lead" have unusually high concentrations of metals in the hair, indicating environmental contamination, which can cause health and growth damages due to chronic exposure. This is the result of a pilot study conducted by the New Weapons Research Group (Nwrg), an independent committee of scientists and experts based in Italy, who is studying the use of unconventional weapons and their mid-term effects on the population of after-war areas.
This research follows the previous one, published by Nwrg on December 17 last year, in which the group reported the presence of toxic metals in the areas surrounding the craters left by the bombing. Those tests had found abnormal concentrations of toxic metals in the craters, suggesting the possible contamination of the soil which, combined with precarious living conditions, particularly in refugee camps, might cause exposure, dermal, via inhalation and through food.

With the new study, the group set itself the objective of verifying whether people were actually contaminated. The result is alarming: even if the quantity of metals in excess, in fact, are only 2-3 times higher than those found in hair of controls, these levels may still be pathogenic in situations of chronic exposure.

The study, which lasted several months, analyzed the hair for 33 metals by ICP/MS (a type of highly sensitive mass spectrometry). The hair is a good indicator of contamination and investigation of environmental contamination based on its analysis are recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Nwrg examined hair samples from 95 people resident in heavily bombed areas (as reported by UNEP on the basis of satellite maps), for the vast majority children. Among them also seven pregnant women and 4 wounded people. The results have established that the distribution of metal contaminants in the three locations where the tests were performed, Beit Hanun, Gaza-Zeitun and Laly Beith, is higher than the average, and more than double in about 60 of these individuals.

The research team is based out of Italy. One of the researchers is Paola Manduca.

Manduca had already determined the results of the research while Cast Lead was still happening, as this press release from January 9, 2009 shows:

Mounting evidence is emerging that Israel is experimenting new non-conventional weapons on civilian population in Gaza. "It is happening again what we saw in Lebanon two years ago", says Paola Manduca, genetics teacher and researcher at the University of Genoa and member of New Weapons Research Committee (NWRC), "where Israel used white phosphorus, Dense inert metal explosive (DIME), thermobaric bombs, cluster bombs and uranium ammunitions. Still today there are unexploded bombs and radioactivity on the ground".

So we already have an indication that some of these scientists had an agenda.

Now let's look at the methodology of the study itself. If one wanted to determine that some Gaza children were exposed to toxic metals from Israeli bombs, what would be a good control group?

I can think of a few:

* Compare the levels in children who live in heavily-bombed areas with those who do not.
* Compare the levels of Gaza children with those in Egypt.
* Compare the levels with those in Israel.
* Compare with the West Bank.
* Compare with hair samples from before Operation Cast lead.
* Compare with people who left Gaza recently, for example, those who are in medical treatment in Israel or Egypt.

The study, however, did no such thing. They compared the levels of Gazans with those of a single reference hair sample from China and a single control sample from Italy.

A careful look at the data also shows that, while in general the levels in Gaza were higher than those of the single sample in Italy, they were not usually that much different (most are less than 2x the Italian sample.) The Italian sample was higher in many metals than for some of the Gazans. The variation within Gaza was high, and it would be instructive to see the natural variation between control samples. Even more interesting was the fact that the differences between the Chinese hair and the Italian hair were much larger than between Italy and Gaza, which would indicate that the Gaza data might not be that significant to begin with.

Despite the control being a single sample, the press release represents the Italian sample as the "average," yet there is no indication that that sample is average in any way.

Let's come up with alternative scenarios that could account for allegedly high concentrations of metals in Gazan hair:

- Hamas weapons production probably does not have very good environmental controls.
- Gaza metal shops and factories do not have adequate safeguards against toxic waste.
- The water in Gaza might be contaminated for some other reason - and the aquifier is shared with Israel.

Despite the big words that the study uses, there is no evidence that there was any scientific peer review or even that it was submitted to any scientific journal. The methodology seems to show that it would be laughed out of any serious scientific journal.

On the contrary, the press release was released to the rabidly anti-Israel Uruknet.

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons had already determined last July that there was no evidence that Israel used depleted uranium weapons or DIME weapons in Gaza (but they did find evidence of tungsten cubes as sleeves on Spike missiles.)

The "New Weapons Committee" has already shown its bias from its previous press releases that convicted Israel without any evidence, their statements of Israel using DU in Lebanon with no evidence, and the very nature of the study itself. This is not research and this is not science: it is an attempt to smear Israel by hiding behind the fig-leaf of pseudo-science that the vast majority of readers will never bother to check.

Saudi cleric calls for destruction of Grand Mosque in Mecca

A hardline Saudi cleric, Youssef al-Ahmed, has called for the Grand Mosque in Mecca (which houses the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam) to be destroyed!

The problem is that when Muslims go to Mecca to touch and circle the holy rock, men and women are there together. Even though this has been the status quo for decades or centuries, apparently that is not good enough. So to avoid the chance that something terrible would happen, al-Ahmed is proposing to destroy the mosque and replace it with a series of smaller structures that can allow the separation of the sexes.

al-Ahmed apparently put his opinion on YouTube. He claims that other clerics have called for the same action in years past.

He is no stranger to controversy and is not necessarily taken too seriously by the Saudis at large, but he does have a following.

Arab unity - ain't it grand?

Libya is upset that some major Arab leaders may not attend an upcoming Arab Summit scheduled for the end of March.

Six leaders might not attend. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has a good excuse, as he is recovering from surgery in Germany, but the others who are not expected to attend include leaders from Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Morocco, mostly for political reasons.

In addition, there is the fear that Libya leader Maommar Qaddafi will invite Hamas to attend as an Arab state, which may prompt Mahmoud Abbas to boycott the event as well.

Yet some Western "intellectuals" keep thinking that if only Israel would give up some land, the rest of the Middle East will turn into a peaceful oasis.

Major Muslim religious group calls for jihad against Israel

The International Association of Muslim Scholars, an organization founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi as a "moderate" alternate to Muslim extremism, has called on the entire Muslim world to start a jihad "in all its forms" to "defend" the Al Aqsa mosque from presumed desecration by the Zionists.

The "in all its forms" phrasing is meant to leave no doubt that he is calling for war. The photo illustrating the story in Palestine Today, showing coffins draped with Israeli flags, shows that the message is crystal-clear.

The statement specifically calls on Jordan and Egypt to sever relations with Israel and for the Muslim world to pressure their leaders to "do something before it is too late," i.e., start a war with Israel.

Qaradawi was considered by Newsweek to be a front-runner to take over as head of Al Azhar University after the death of Sheikh Tantawi.

The Land of Milk and Homer

From JPost (h/t Bubbe):

After 20 years of poking fun at American culture, the Simpsons are scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport to target Israel.

The episode set in the Holy Land, titled “The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed,” airs on March 28 in the US, coinciding with both Pessah Eve and Palm Sunday.

The plot involves Homer developing Jerusalem Syndrome and Marge interacting with an aggressive Israeli tour guide, voiced by Sasha Baron Cohen of Borat and Bruno fame.

“He’s trying to get Marge to give him good grades on the comment card, and she goes, ‘You people are pushy,’ and he goes, ‘What do you mean, you people? You try having Syria for a neighbor! What do you have – Canada?’” Simpsons producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly: “It’ll be a show that all faiths can come together and be offended by.”

Tamimi doesn't even pause in his lies and incitement

Sheikh Tamimi, the main architect of the lie that Israel was planning to lay the cornerstone of a new synagogue at on the Temple Mount last Tuesday and the man most responsible for the riots in Jerusalem, now has "revealed" the next fictional plan to take over the mosque.

Without a hint of apology for being so consistently wrong, Tamimi now is talking about a comprehensive Israeli plan of archaeology and tourism called "Jerusalem First" that is, of course, centered around the Al Aqsa mosque. He mentions 15 projects in this initiative, of which no less than 9 are aimed at Al Aqsa. He also mentions a new synagogue being planned to be built near or on the mosque.

As usual, I can't find any real mention of this purported plan. Jerusalem sees many plans for development, some of which work out and some which do not, like any vibrant city.

Tamimi seems to spend his day scouring the Internet to find any hint of such initiatives so he can grandly announce them to incite the Arabs to riot. He's been doing this for years. And not for a moment do the Palestinian Arabs seem to notice that 99% 0f these threats never materialize and that Tamimi is a clown. On the contrary, his statements consistently get major coverage in the Arabic press.

So, he keeps on inciting violence with his lies. When lies are an integral to the very fabric of one's culture, lying is not a shortcoming - it is an asset.

(In that same vein, the Al Qassam website has a memorial of a terrorist killed seven years ago, and in that context quotes Mohammed as saying "War is deceit." This is not in the Quran but in a hadith.)

Man murdered by Qassam

From YNet:

A 30-year-old Thai foreign worker was killed Thursday after a Qassam rocket hit the hothouse area in Netiv Ha'asara in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, north of the Gaza Strip. Magen David Adom emergency units tried to resuscitate the man, however were eventually forced to pronounce him dead.

The attack marks the third time rockets have been fired into Israeli territory in the last 24 hours. On Wednesday night a rocket exploded in an open area in Sderot. Several hours earlier another rocket landed in the region causing two people to suffer from anxiety.

The al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al-Suna Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack from the Gaza Strip.

The Al Qassam website is filled with articles that talk about how the opening of the Hurva synagogue is a great reason to kill Israeli Jews. The fact that there has been such an escalation of attacks from Gaza recently is no coincidence. Hamas maintains its hardly-plausible deniability by saying that it came from a splinter group but in fact all of the terror groups have a history of working together; not to mention that explosives cannot enter Gaza without Hamas knowing about it and approving it.

The Palestine Today website calls the victim a "settler."

(h/t Yehudit for headline)

Bizarro world: Herzl a terrorist, Arafat a statesman

From Arab News:

Brazil's president placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded.
Making the first visit by any sitting Brazilian president to Israel and the Palestinian territories, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has termed the trip a mission of peace.
Lula laid a yellow and green wreath on Arafat's mausoleum on Wednesday, following protocol for visiting leaders. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Lula because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.

JPost adds:

Foreign Ministry officials were fuming on Wednesday that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who refused to lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem, contrary to new Israeli protocol measures recently instituted, donned a keffiyeh around his shoulders and laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

“This is an insult,” one senior Foreign Ministry official said. “It is offensive that he laid a wreath at the grave of a terrorist, but not at the tomb of Zionism’s visionary."

That pretty much sums it up.

Hamas puppet show shows its love

From MEMRI (h/t The Vicious Babushka):

The following are excerpts from a Hamas TV puppet show, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 11, 2010.
'Alloush: Uncle Hassan! Uncle Hassan!
Uncle Hassan: My God, why are you so happy, 'Alloush?
'Alloush: I am like the grown-ups, watching the news.
Uncle Hassan: Good, I hope it will be a good day to watch the news.
'Alloush: I've heard a very good report. Very good.
Uncle Hassan: That good?! This report will make us happy?
'Alloush: Yes! Do you know the Ibrahimi Mosque [in Hebron]?
Uncle Hassan: Who doesn't know it? We all do.
'Alloush: Well, they have turned it into a museum.
Uncle Hassan: What?!
'Alloush: So the people – all the Jews and the Christians – can visit it.
Uncle Hassan: Are you sure that's what you heard? Are you sure?
'Alloush: Yes.
Uncle Hassan: And you are still happy?!
'Alloush: Yes, this way they will protect it and stop destroying it. People will be able to see it, but not to touch it.
Uncle Hassan: Are you out of your mind, 'Alloush?
'Alloush: Why? What's wrong?
Uncle Hassan: Do you know that this mosque, at the Cave of the Patriarchs...
'Alloush: What about it?
Uncle Hassan: It dates back to the days of Ibrahim. This is our legacy, and part of the Islamic waqf. How can you possibly be happy when a mosque – where we would worship Allah and pray to Him night and day – is turned into a synagogue and an archeological site, and the Jews come to defile it?
'Alloush: I didn't know this. What, they're making fun of us in the news?!
Uncle Hassan: No, they are telling the truth in the news, but as you can see, the whole world is in turmoil over this. This is sad news, a real catastrophe for the Arab and Islamic world, 'Alloush.
'Alloush: Those Jews want to steal the Ibrahimi Mosque?
Uncle Hassan: Yes, they want to steal it, and then make it like their false temple. They want to add it to their legacy for their future generations, 'Alloush.
'Alloush: Okay, so what should we do about this sad thing?
Uncle Hassan: Unfortunately, 'Alloush and dear children, the Arab and Islamic nation is in a slumber. A deep slumber. We must stand up. We must awaken. 'Alloush and dear children – each one of you must tell his father, his grandfather, and the rest of his family that they should all arise as one. They must rise up against the criminal Zionists, who are planning to destroy Jerusalem, and to turn the Islamic waqf into something bad. We must rise against the Zionist criminals, the enemies of Allah, and liberate Jerusalem and all the holy places. We should liberate them. Do you hear, 'Alloush?
'Alloush: Ah, now I get it. I thought the Jews wanted to enable people to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque, but it turns out that they want to steal it.
Uncle Hassan: That's right, 'Alloush. It's a good thing that you got it. Did you tell this to anyone else, or just me?
'Alloush: Just you.
Uncle Hassan: Very good. You didn't make us look bad. Do you know what people would accuse you of, if you said this in the street?
'Alloush: Of what, Uncle Hassan?
Uncle Hassan: They would accuse you of being a collaborator. They would think that you are a Zionist collaborator. I would like to tell you two things, in conclusion: We must think before we speak. Get it? We should be familiar with all our Arab and Islamic holy places, okay?
'Alloush: Okay.

Besides the obvious anti-semitism, notice the subtext - Hamas is telling kids to be careful about what they say out loud, because if they say the wrong things, they could be branded "collaborators" - and therefore killed.

Other people want their kids to ask questions, to learn, to have their own opinions. Hamas, on the other hand, warns their children not to stray from the party line at the risk of their very lives.

This is the Islamic implementation of Orwellian newspeak. Limit what people can say and you therefore can control their thoughts.

What a great message for children's TV!