Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 12, 2010

Mads Gilbert and his love of terrorists

From the Norway, Israel and the Jews blog (h/t Zvi):

NRK journalist Øyvor Bakke hosts the program ”Middagselskapet” (The Dinner Party), where the guest is invited to present three people he or she would have liked to invite to a dinner party. On April 9^th the guest of the evening was Mads Gilbert, a maoist physician who became famous when he covered the 2009/2010 war between Hamas and Israel from the safe spot of Shifa hospital, where Gilbert served as a NORWAC doctor and which Hamas fighters used as a base. See the clip on NRK.

Mr.Gilbert’s imaginary guests turned out to be Charlie Chaplin, Author of “The elegance of the Hedgehog” Muriel Barbery and Abu Jihad, who masterminded the worst terrorist act in Israel’s history in which 37 civilians were murdered in a bus hijacking led by Dalal Mughrabi in 1978. Program host Øyvor Bakke does not bat an eyelid at Gilbert’s dream-cast of guests, but introduces Abu Jihad to her audience with the words: “Next man out is what must say is… a powerful man…”

The following then ensues:
Øyvor Bakke: Abu Jihad as he is also known is a powerful political figure…

Mads Gilbert: Yes, and I would love to invite him… and it might as well have been a woman from the Palestinian liberation movement or from one of the other liberation struggles in the third world, against occupation, against colonization. Abu Jihad was a special person in the Palestinian struggle, he was a great teacher, a philosopher, he was an analyst, he was very knowledgeable about language, culture, and so forth, knew the Palestinian history inside out, and many Palestinians still say today that if Abu Jihad had been alive we would have had a different situation. He was liquidated by the Israelis in 1988 in Tripoli. The Israelis call him a terrorist, and that brings us into the interesting discussion, the liberator of one is the terrorist on another. The Palestinians say that the Israelis are the terrorists, while the Israelis say that it is the Palestinians who are the terrorists…

Øyvor Bakke: Is it true that you have met with him?

Mads Gilbert: I met Abu Jihad in Lebanon in 1981, while we were there with the first surgical team from the Palestine Committee… it was a significant meeting.

Øyvor Bakke: What was he like?
Mads Gilbert: The silent type, wise, very dignified, very.. in many ways a representative for the Arab culture but also for Palestinian pride… a listener, and at the same time an inexhaustible source of knowledge, so I learned a lot from that, it was not a long meeting, a couple of hours, but it was… it stuck.

Abu Jihad was, of course, the person behind the Savoy Hotel murder of 8 Israeli civilians and the Coastal Road Massacre where 35 civilians were killed.

Gilbert has been on the record for supporting terrorism for a long time, however. After 9/11, he told a Norwegian newspaper that he would have supported the attacks as a legitimate reaction to US actions in the Middle East.

Zvi adds:

And yet he gets face time in he media to fabricate blood libels about Israel, with nobody mentioning his long-time worship of - and collaboration with - people who live to slaughter civilians. He was responsible for making the claim that among Gazan casualties, women and children comprised 25% of the dead and 45% of the wounded. [He also said that over 90% were civilians. - EoZ]
A doctor who is a radical extremist who knowingly encourages terrorist attacks against innocent civilians must NOT be granted automatic credibility in the press. When someone like Gilbert is used as a supposedly professional "witness for the prosecution," the press has an absolute responsibility to identify their prior sociopathic statements, their prior demands that doctors practice politics during conflicts (rather than focusing on life-saving and truth), and their claims that medicine is mostly politics. Politicians are judged in an entirely different light than doctors. The press has a responsibility to identify someone who begs to be judged as a politician.

Radovan Karadzic was a psychiatrist before he becae a mass murderer and war criminal. Josef Mengele was a doctor. Just because someone is a doctor does not mean that they are professionals who are above lying, or that they have any moral authority whatsoever.
When Gilbert was subsequently criticized as a propagandist and politician by journalists, Norwegian FM Store has come to Gilbert's defense. This says a lot about Store and the Norwegian government as a whole.

17,000 still missing in Lebanon

Today there was a rally in central Beirut to demand answers about the estimated 17,000 people who have been missing since the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.

Almost all of them were abducted by rival Muslim and Christian militias during the war, and some 600 were taken by Syria, which now denies having any of them in custody. Many of the warlords who kidnapped these victims later entered the government and hushed up any information about them.

Correction: Ma'ariv story on nuclear scientists wrong

From Pajamas Media:

On April 8, 2010, I wrote an article in this space implying that the Obama administration had instituted a new policy restricting entry to the United States for Israeli nuclear scientists who worked at the Dimona reactor. I based my article on a report from the Israeli website/newspaper Maariv, which quoted the nuclear engineering professor Zeev Alfassi as its primary source.
This morning (Pacific time) I was able to reach Dr. Alfassi in his office at Ben Gurion University in the Negev. Apparently, my report — and the newspaper’s — was inaccurate. The professor informed me that while it was extremely difficult for scientists who worked at Dimona to obtain U.S. visas, this was not a new policy of the Obama administration. This problem has been going on since 9/11.

Alfassi explained that formerly he and other scientists were able to go through travel agents to obtain visas to the U.S. Now they have to go personally to the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. He knows of at least one case of a scientist who was not able to attend a conference in this country because of this system. European scientists, he said, did not have this problem.

Shin Bet pretending to be pollsters?

Palestine Today reports that Gazans have been receiving mysterious phone calls, whose origin appears to be from centers of international studies or from Arab groups abroad.

According to the article, the callers pretend to be asking questions for surveys, but they are really an attempt by Israeli security to gather intelligence.

The questions have included asking whether the people being polled witnessed rocket attacks, or how they would react if fighters asked to use their house.

Even though this seems a little heavy-handed, it is plausible. Corporate espionage often uses such techniques to elicit information from competitors, and even if most of the people refuse to answer such questions, you only need a few to get valuable information.

Freedom of assembly, Gaza-style

From the Palestinian Center for Human Rights:

PCHR commemorates the Palestinian Prisoners Day on 17 April each year...

As part of PCHR’s preparations to organize these activities, PCHR’s Public Relations Officer in Khan Yunis, Mr. Abdul Halim Abu Samra, wanted to book the hall of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and make other necessary preparations. However, PCHR was surprised by the PRCS's refusal to book the hall for PCHR without an official permission from security services to organize the planned seminar. ... Abu Samra phoned the PRCS managing director who said that they received verbal orders from the Internal Security Service not to book any of the PRCS's halls to organize any activities without presenting permits issued the chief of police and that they would be held responsible in case of violating these orders.

In other words, no meeting can occur in Gaza for any reason without Hamas' explicit permission. Also, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society happily complies with Hamas' demands not to allow its facilities to be used without police permission.

And this is for a meeting meant to bash Israel!

Will we be hearing condemnations of Hamas from its left-wing, trendy friends for violating the basic principles of freedom and for pressuring the Red Crescent to comply with illegal orders?

The Magic 8-Ball says "highly unlikely."

Egyptian directors create alternate film festival to exclude Israel

I reported last week about how Egyptians were boycotting a French film festival in Cairo that included a non-political film by an Israeli director.

Since then, the number of boycotting Egyptian filmmakers has increased, so they are launching their own alternative film festival just for the purpose of not allowing any Israeli films.

From Gulf News:

Capping a week of protest against screening an Israeli film at a French festival in Cairo, a group of Egyptian filmmakers have said they will organise a concurrent protest festival starting on Sunday.
Last week, 11 Egyptian filmmakers withdrew from Recontres de L'Image a week-long festival organised by the French Cultural Centre in Cairo in protest against showing a film by an Israeli director.

In their protest festival called The First Festival for Free Image, which runs until April 15, the Egyptian filmmakers will show 40 feature, short and documentary films, say organisers.

The festival was approved by Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni.

"The Egyptian artists have the right to show their films without pressure from anybody or imposing any conditions on them," added Hosni, who last October lost in a race for the top post of the UN's cultural agency the Unesco.

On Thursday, scores of Egyptian artists and intellectuals protested outside the French Cultural Centre in Cairo against what they called the insistence on showing Almost Normal, a film by Israeli director Karen Ben-Rafael.

How Orwellian is it that artists, usually the first people to protest against censorship, use the word "free" to describe an event specifically designed to exclude others?

News from the "world's largest prison"

Israel's critics love to call Gaza the "world's largest prison." (Some prefer "world's largest concentration camp" or the "world's largest prison camp.")

Here are some 2009 statistics from this "prison" from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a report on the Palestinian Arab economy:

- In 2009, 738,576 tons (30,576 trucks) of humanitarian commodities were transferred to the Gaza Strip. In January and February 2010, 92,138.1 tons (4,056 trucks) were transferred.

- In 2009, 22,849 Palestinians exited the Strip, among them 10,544 patients and their companions, exiting for medical treatment in Israel.

- In 2009, 21,200 international organization staff members entered the Gaza Strip.

- In 2009, 4,883 tons of medical equipment and medicine entered the Strip, in 572 trucks.

- In the first two months of 2010, 659.1 tons of medical equipment and medications entered the Gaza Strip, in 92 truckloads.

- In 2009, Israel continued to supply electricity to the Gaza Strip. In addition, 41 truckloads of equipment for the maintenance of the electricity networks were transferred.

- Between April and October 2009, maintenance work was conducted on the power station by Siemens. In 2009, over 105,701,740 liters of diesel were delivered to the station.

- In 2009, 45 truckloads of equipment for communication systems entered the Strip, based on PA requests. In January and February 2010, 25 trucks entered the Strip, carrying inter alia 200,000 SIM cards for the Jawwal Cellular Network.

- 77% of the truckloads entering the Gaza Strip in 2009 were coordinated by the private sector.

- In 2009, 257 Palestinian businessmen (holders of BMC cards) exited the Gaza Strip for Israel, the West Bank and destinations abroad. In January and February 2010, this figure amounted to 148.

- In 2009, over 1.1 billion NIS were transferred to the Gaza Strip to cover the salaries and activities of international organizations, in addition to the PA civil service payroll in Gaza.

- 9,782,076 flowers and 54 tons of strawberries have been exported from Gaza (as of the end of February 2010).

- 374 Christians exited the Strip to celebrate Christmas in Israel and Bethlehem. In addition, 100 Christians exited to participate in the papal visit in May 2009.

- 3,607 tons of glass (103 truckloads) were transferred to the Strip. This project is expected to continue in 2010, and approval has been given for the transfer of wood and aluminum to repair windows and doors.

- In 2009, 10,871 cattle entered the Gaza Strip, mainly for Ramadan and Eid al- Edha celebrations.

The MFA laconically adds, "Meanwhile, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit remains in captivity for almost four years."

Hamas denies any internal divisions

The Hamas leadership in Damascus denied any internal Hamas divisions, as was revealed in the reported internal memo that was sent from a Gaza committee to Khaled Meshal.

The Damascus leadership emphasized that their vision was solid and unified, and that the letter was just planted by enemies of Hamas.

Ironically, one of the recommendations from the letter was for the Hamas leadership to ensure their unity of messages in public.

Meanwhile, a Hamas MP has confirmed that Hamas is facing serious cash-flow problems in Gaza, as Gaza banks refuse to transfer cash from abroad to Hamas because of US pressure.

Islamic Jihad complains that Hamas foiled a terror attack

Islamic Jihad is blaming Hamas for stopping a "quality jihad mission" against Israel.

According to Islamic Jihad, Hamas had arrested the mujahadeen right before they were going to attack, and held them in custody for four hours. They also claim that Hamas asked them to sign a pledge promising no attacks against the Zionist enemy.

Hamas has been under pressure not only from the smaller terror groups in Gaza but also from elements in Fatah not to abandon the resistance, and Hamas has been forced to defend itself against these charges.

Egyptian FM thrilled with Obama

Palestine Press Agency reports on an interview given by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit to a Kuwaiti newspaper.

Abul-Gheit says that the crisis between Israel and Washington is real, and must be given time to "bear fruit." He says that Washington's policies on "East Jerusalem" is more in sync with Arab demands and therefore it is wise to wait for the pressure to build.

Google results for Holocaust in Arabic

A search for the word المحرقة

1. Arabic Wikipedia entry on the Holocaust
2. Article called "The Myth of the Holocaust"
3. Hamas/UK article called "Questions on the Holocaust"
4. Link to joke "Beidipedia" page making fun of the Holocaust
5. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs page about the Holocaust
6 and 7 mostly irrelevant search results (a passing reference to the Gaza "holocaust")
8. Complaint about UNESCO commemorating the Holocaust
9. Video about a controversy in Morocco about teaching the Holocaust
10. United States Holocaust Museum Arabic page about US indifference to the Holocaust

Adventures in Google News

Sometimes I stumble onto a brilliant gem of absurdity in locations that are indexed by Google News as legitimate news sites. Here's today's fun fact about the famous scientist Nikola Tesla:

Nikola Tesla faced a terrible persecution in the land he had thought as the correct place for leading scientists, unbiased thinkers, and astute intellectuals – all free of involvement in dark centers and hidden organizations whereby the total slavery of the Mankind has been / is being prepared.

Unfortunately, America was not the country Tesla had thought it was. What becomes now clear to many, Americans and others, about America´s gravely anti-democratic character and hierarchical, pyramidal (and therefore inhuman) nature, was felt by Tesla in the 1910s, and 20s. He felt the pyramid of the criminals advancing against him to irreversibly smash him forever.

The hidden controllers of the academic, social, economic and political life of America did not want an uncontrolled mind to create, through his inventions, postulations and suggestions, dynamics that would contravene their evil plans against America and the entire Mankind.

Tesla was assassinated by the Freemasonic and Zionist mafia lords who impose their dictates onto the US administration (and most of the world´s governments) which is full of their pupils (lower grades´ Freemasons who are lauded enough to be hired or "voted" in power).

Even worse, his papers and inventions have been confiscated by the US secret services, under the pretext of "national security concern"! The true reason is that the Freemasonic – Zionist establishment did not want others to have access to Tesla´s pioneering inventions and great postulations that can help any group of scholars and any government to come up with applications that eclipse the use nuclear weapons of theirs (that the Freemasonic – Zionist establishment and their puppets of scientists were trying to develop at that time).

Such a development would certainly end the global Freemasonic – Zionist tyranny that spreads death and pestilence, starvation and diseases, poverty and misery worldwide.

Needless to say, the person who wrote this styles himself as a scholar and author of many books.

Gaza Salafist group threatens Jews

Al Hayat al Jadida (plagiarized by Firas Press) interviewed a spokesperson of one of the Salafist terror groups in Gaza.

The official, Abu Abdallah al-Ghazzi, is a member of the "Jaysh Al-Ummah" (Army of the Nation) group, one of the organizations that is pressuring Hamas from the religious standpoint. While some of the Salafist groups have apparent ties with Al Qaeda, al-Ghazzi denies that his group takes any money from them - although the group cherishes Bin Laden's activities.

al-Ghazzi said that there will be a war "against the Jews" from Southern Lebanon "at any time," but apparently not from his group. For now, Jaysh al-Ummah will be restricting its activities against Jews from Gaza.

His limiting terror attacks to Jews near Gaza is not ideological, but practical, as the group is too small (about 200 members) to attack Jewish interests worldwide right now. But in the future, he definitely wants to be able to attack Jewish and "Crusader" interests worldwide.

He also said that if there is proof that Mahmoud Abbas helps the "Jews" at all, he should be beheaded.

PalArabs complaining that Jews building too many synagogues

The leader of the "Islamic-Christian Front for Defending Jerusalem and its Holy Places," Hassan Khater, has issued a press release saying that there are now 218 synagogues in Jerusalem, and 70 of them in the Old City alone.

Khater also said that the synagogues are not being built because the Jews need them for religious purposes. He said that this is a clear plan by Israel "to change the image of the holy city, and change the inherent religious nature which distinguished it throughout its long history - the nature of the Arab, Islamic, Christian tradition."

Even assuming his numbers are correct (is he counting tiny "shtiebelach"? Is he counting different minyanim in different rooms in the same synagogue as one or many synagogues?), Khater also doesn't mention that his Arab brethren destroyed between 50 and 60 synagogues in the Old City between 1948 and 1967, so having 70 built in the past 43 years hardly seems excessive.

As usual, Khater and his compatriots are denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem that predates Islam by more years than Islam has been in existence. This is, simply put, Jew-hatred.

On "moderation" and the Al Asharq al Awsat columnists (Zvi)

From Zvi, in commenting on my last post:

There's an important point to note here. A person can be a moderate or reformer when considering only Saudi local issues or some other topics, and still be an extremist regarding the Israel agenda. But Shobokshi is not a reformer in either sense.

I read Shobokshi's columns, but I don't expect him to penetrate the smoke-screen of anti-Israel incitement or abandon a long-term destroy-Israel agenda. In some cases, Shobokshi starts down a road that leads to some clear-headed analysis, but he always returns to the same old hostile mindset.

Of course, it's possible that Shobokshi really is smarter and wiser than this, but is forced by the constraints of Arab media and society to phrase things in a way that prevents others from labeling him a traitor. Your recent posts about Mira Awad and Ema remind us that Arab media figures who openly take unconventional stances on Israel or Jews are taking a risk.

But I don't see any evidence that Shobokshi thinks in this manner. Rather, he's deeply entrenched in the hatred of Israel and accepts without reservation the flagrant nonsense that is broadcast about it in the Arab media (examples).

I can laud Shobokshi's call to stop letting pursuit of "the Palestinian Cause" become the fig leaf that allows the leaders of the Arab world to run everything else into the ground. But he's no moderate.

At the end of the piece, Shobokshi shows that what affects him most deeply Shobokshi is Arab victory, not a better life for his people.

I do recommend reading several of the columnists on the English site. This is not because they agree with me on very much (I doubt that they do), but rather because I find that they have interesting opinions. I don't expect them to be friends of Israel or to support its point of view.

* Mshari al-Zaydi: I often find his columns to be very interesting, even when I don't agree with them (except that his most recent one embraces an easily-debunked myth - oh, well).
* Abdul Rahman al-Rashed is the general manager of Al Arabiya. Mr. al-Rashed sometimes gets muddled, and sometimes he does things for the wrong reasons, but regardless of my own opinion on a topic, his comments are often worth reading.
* Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor in Chief of Asharq al Awsat. Along with other sources, his comments can help to paint a picture about the regional hopes and concerns of modernist members of the Saudi elite. You do have to take what he says on some topics with a grain of salt, especially where the Saudi monarchy is involved.

As I said, don't expect these guys to be pro-Israel. I don't even expect them to be neutral; you'll just be disappointed. What I expect from them is that even when Israel is involved, they tend to have interesting analyses rather than engaging in knee-jerk ranting, bizarre flights of fancy or simplistic naivete. That's not true of some of the other columnists.

The most openly liberal commentator on the Asharq English site used to be Mona Eltahawy. But Ms. Eltahawy says that she was banned by the paper after she penned columns openly slamming the Egyptian government.

At least, with the Saudis and the Syrian/Iranian axis embroiled in a regional cold war, the paper seems to have stopped accepting regular contributions from the Syrian Minister of Expatriates and Paranoid Drivel, Bouthaina Shaaban.

Another Arab "moderate" who really isn't

An op-ed by Hussein Shobokshi at Asharq al-Awsat starts off this way:

In the Arab world, can we discuss any topic without mentioning Palestine? Though it is an odd question it is a perfectly legitimate one. It seems that raising important and complex issues such as education, health, public services, the judicial system, infrastructure and fighting corruption always comes to a dead end because of “the Palestinian cause excuse,” and because the battle must always comes “first,” as well other slogans that have been raised for a long time that aim to suspend any practical or positive action towards ultra-sensitive issues.

Under the Palestine umbrella, and with the calls for liberation and struggle, anything goes. Corruption has spread dramatically in all circles and in most fields. Educational backwardness has become a [distinguishing] attribute and a widespread phenomenon, not an exception. The deteriorating and deplorable infrastructure has become the butt of the joke and the source of mockery. Domination, despotism and the erosion of freedoms have become a way of life. The lack of an effective judicial system to guarantee people’s rights has turned into a painful reality in which people live without any real hope of changing it. Without exception, everything is being “postponed” because there is a more important battle that has now turned into a battle of tilting at windmills and because of this, despotism and tyranny have been further consolidated.

Forget about changing priorities! For that you would be labelled a traitor or regarded as one who seeks to divide the nation; a nation with a deteriorating education system, a broken judiciary and one with no agricultural or industrial potential and no sewage or electricity networks, etc.

Sounds like he has a clear vision of what Arab priorities should be, right?

But the irony is that he spends the rest of the article trying to convince his readers that the very reason they should be spending time on education, health, the judicial system and fighting corruption is...because they are prerequisites to "liberating Palestine:"

A nation with such “achievements” under its belt cannot by any means liberate Palestine. Most importantly, the correlation between deterioration and liberating Palestine is one that cannot be denied.

Yes, improving the education system, the judiciary and infrastructure will lead to “spontaneously” liberating Palestine. Yes, it’s that simple. If you liberate yourself, you will liberate your land. ... Crying and wailing in the name of Palestine has turned into a permanent state of mourning instead of aiming towards the “final” target with a continuous series of numerous, small victories and achievements within the country and within one’s self. Though it is such a long journey, it is one of utmost importance.

Which means that even the most moderate Arabs consider "Palestine" to be the most important issue; just that they differ on how to get to the point of "liberating Palestine" (which means, of course, destroying Israel.)

Death threats silence Israeli-Arab singer

From TheJC:

The woman who sang for Israel at the last Eurovision Song Contest, has pulled out of the ZF Israel Independence Day Concert in London following death threats.
Mira Awad, is an Arab-Israeli and one half of a duo with Achinoam Nini, otherwise known as NOA, with whom she performs to sell-out internationally audiences, promoting a message of peace and co-existence.

The ZF who have organised annual Israel Independence Day events in Britain for years invited them to headline the show on April 19.

Ms Awad now has round-the-clock security at her home in Tel Aviv. Her family, who live in Kfar Rameh, a small Arab Village in the north of Israel, is also under close watch.

Her Manager, Ofer Pesenzon, said: “Mira and NOA’s message is about finding a peaceful way forward. It is tragic that when both sides try to come together by any means possible to build a better future for Israel and its citizens, there are those prepared to use violence and intimidation to destroy it.”

Yes, extremists on both sides always mess up prospects for peace.

Oh, wait....

Meanwhile, in Lebanon...

From Ya Libnan:

The local media has reported fierce clashes between members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in the Beqaa region near the Syrian border
The Syrian- backed leader of PFLP-GC , Ahmed Jibril has reportedly dismissed one party official and this led to the inter Palestinian clashes. Al-Arabiya television reported about the dismissal of the official but did not name him.

PFLP-GC has a military base at the Qousaya camp camp near the Syrian border. This is the area which witnessed most of the fighting

Future News branded the incident as a “rebellion” among PFLP-GC members in the military base of Qousaya.

LBC satellite channel said at midday that the PFLP-GC military outpost in Ain Baida was coming under shell fire from Qousaya.

“Fierce clashes are taking place among Palestinian factions at Qousaya camp,” OTV reported.

The Voice of Lebanon radio station said in a news flash at 2:20pm that PFLP-GC rebels in Kfarzabad turned themselves in to the Lebanese army.

Firas Press mentions that at least one person was killed.

In 2006, Lebanon vowed to disarm all Palestinian Arab armed groups outside the camps and to regulate weapons within the camps. This obviously never happened.

Canadian TV blames Israel for women stranded in S. Arabia

From Jonathan Kay in the National Post:

I don’t get much of a chance to bash the CBC for anti-Israeli agitprop anymore: The network has done a good job cleaning up its more tiresome Zionophobes over the last few years. But every now and then, they pop up -- often on The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti.

On today’s show, the subject was the very sad case of Nazia Quazi, a dual Indian and Canadian citizen who made the mistake of visiting her father in Saudi Arabia two years ago. Under the country’s Medieval rules, he has been able to assume “guardianship” over the 24-year-old woman, which means he is able to block her exit from the country on his whim. (Following the usual tribal/Islamist obsession with women and “honour,” the underlying issue is, of course, Nazia’s selection of the “wrong” mate back home.)

All in all, it was a good piece of CBC journalism -- until they brought in the usual, disgruntled Liberal-era suspect to blame the whole thing on Harper and his lack of “balance” on Middle East policy. To quote from Canadian Foreign Service veteran Gar Pardy, whom Tremonti interviewed:

“The other issue [aside from oil] that I think has diminished what little bit of influence we have in Saudi Arabia is our current policy toward Israel. Saudi Arabia plays a very important role on Middle Eastern issues, and they have been very active over the last five years in terms of trying to negotiate some sort of agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Syria for that matter. And the fact that we have taken ourselves out as a balanced observer on those issues, I’m sure is not looked at with any degree of friendliness in Saudi Arabia.”

Tremonti, naturally, seized on this:

“Let me just clairfy then: Are you suggesting that Canada’s Israel policy could leave young Canadian women in limbo?”

Pardy: “Yes.”

So there you have it, folks. We’re not a “balanced observer” -- which I guess is the same as an “honest broker.” Which means that when a repressive Arab Muslim theocracy seizes a Canadian citizen under cover of blatantly misogynistic Wahabi Islamic rules governing women, the real villain can be traced back to … Israel.

Now you know.

The camera angle that the Dubai police withheld

Al Arabiya is showing an investigative report on the Mabhouh assassination tonight, and parts of it can be seen on their website.

It does not appear that anything new is being revealed, although there are new claims that DNA of the supposed killers have been found and hair of the alleged assassins were recovered from the room across the hallway.

One of the fascinating parts of the report is that Al Arabiya managed to get the hotel to cooperate and use their closed-circuit TV cameras to tape part of this show, as the reporter goes through the hotel tracing Mabhouh's footsteps, interspersing her footage with the same camera angles we had seen from the Dubai police.

There is one closed-circuit camera angle that is new, however - the one that looks directly at Mabhouh's room!

Here is the reporter seen from her normal video camera outside Mabhouh's room 230 (around seven minutes into the report):

And here she is from the closed-circuit view:

As you can see, the hotel cameras had a clear, direct shot of the hallway where, supposedly, some 27 (or more) spies were hanging around.

And yet we have not yet seen any of that critical footage. All we have seen has been heavily edited scenes from dozens of other cameras, with captions that may or may not be accurate, constructed to tell a narrative.

Why has the Dubai police not released any video from this camera angle? Did the assassins disable that camera? Or was there something else going on that the Dubai authorities do not want the world to know about Mabhouh and his assassination?

Syria asks Britian to apologize for Balfour Declaration

Palestine Today reports that Syrian politician and former adviser to Hafez al-Assad, George Jabbour, is asking the UK to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration that promised a Jewish national home in Palestine.

Jabbour is asking British political parties, ahead of the upcoming elections, to put this apology in their platforms.

He says that Britain, through the Balfour Declaration, was "responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians and of depriving the people of their Palestinian identity."

This is amusing because at the time of the declaration, there was no political entity called "Palestine" and practically no Arabs who identified themselves as "Palestinian." Palestine was simply part of Southern Syria and, until France took over Syria, the Arab nationalists in the area worked towards a pan-Arab nation, not an independent Arab "Palestine."

In other words, Great Britain didn't destroy the Palestinian Arabs' identity as such - they helped create it from scratch.

Egyptians sue to change name of "Tel Aviv Street"

Palestine Today reports that a lawyer from Ras Gharib, a town on the western shore of the Red Sea, is suing the local government to change the name of a "Tel Aviv Street."

He says that the street, termed a main street in the city, reminds residents of Israeli war crimes in the 1956 and 1967 wars. Even if the street signs are changed, he wants to make sure that residents are not subject to seeing the words "Tel Aviv" on their mail and bills.

I could not find this street, major or otherwise, in the town listed on Google Maps, although there are a lot of areas that have very small, winding streets that Google does not name.

View Larger Map

Ma'ariv: US not giving visas to Israeli nuclear techs (updated)

Ma'ariv is reporting that every nuclear technician at Israel's Dimona reactor who had submitted visa requests to visit the United States for ongoing science education has had their visa applications rejected, specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor.

Up until recently, it was routine for Israeli nuclear scientists and technicians to receive such visas and to study at US universities.

Israeli security officials have confirmed that these technicians are being denied visas solely because of their employment at the Dimona reactor.

More details here.

UPDATE: Pajamas Media seems to have mistranslated Ma'ariv; the original article does not say that every nuclear tech was denied nor does it blame the administration.

Al Mezan Center upset at Qassams - that injure Gazans

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has condemned Qassam rockets - but not those against Israel:

Al Mezan Condemns the Injury of Four Palestinians by a locally Made Rockets in Beit Hanoun

On Tuesday 6 April 2010, four Palestinians, including a father and two children, were injured when a locally made rocket fell on Beit Hanoun town.

Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights asserts the government is legally obliged to provide protection to civilians and civilian objects under the international humanitarian law (IHL). Therefore, Al Mezan calls on the Gaza government and law enforcement persons to take necessary procedures to protect civilians and their properties.

Since the Al Mezan Center has no similar press releases when Israelis are injured or killed by Qassam rockets, it is apparent that they are only asking the Hamas government to make sure that the rockets hit their intended targets, not to stop firing them altogether.

Al Mezan does make noises in English about how rockets are not legal under international law, but at least one of their reports includes a large BUT:

There is no legal or moral justification for firing rockets at civilian targets, and such behavior violates both IHL and international human rights norms associated with the rights to life, health and adequate housing, among others, as well as constituting a war crime. At the same time, the nature of the offence should be evaluated within the context of its occurrence.

Hamas troubles detailed in secret internal memo

The anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency quotes an Algerian News Agency report on a letter sent to Khaled Meshal, Hamas' political leader in Damascus, from a Gaza Hamas committee, that reveals serious flaws and problems within the terrorist organization/pseudo government.

The memo warned of "tremors of violent internal organizational stability" within Hamas. It complains of a lack of "unity of intellectual and organizational discourse" between parts of Hamas as different Hamas leaders say different things to the media.It mentions a widening gap between Hamas' stated goals of resistance and its more recent policies to try to rein in rocket fire and other terrorist acts.

The document further calls Hamas' attempts at establishing relationships with Arab countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen and the UAE a failure, as was its attempts to leverage its relationship with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah into leverage with Russia and Turkey. These failures are causing some in Hamas to question the wisdom of continued "resistance" even though no progress has been made on reconciliation or Gilad Shalit.

The Gaza public is also apparently losing confidence in Hamas, as the report warns that its early success of maintaining law and order has been disintegrating lately. In addition, Hamas' taxes and extortion has not improved the lot of average Gazans, causing increased displeasure with the Hamas government.

In addition, it warns of increased influence of the Salafist Islamist groups who are against Hamas from an ideological, religious viewpoint, causing the Islamist Hamas some discomfort as they have to defend their actions against those who are even more extreme.

Finally, the report mentions that the previous "blind obedience" that Hamas fighters had exhibited is disappearing. The report mentions some semi-autonomous Hamas gangs who are taking the law into their own hands.

The document gives a number of recommendations. A couple of them:

Concentrating the media discourse is much more important than the concessions we offer so as not to provoke the body [Israel] to attack us, particularly since the end of the resistance is for tactical reasons, to serve the big strategic goal to make Gaza a base for breakthroughs to restore the glories of the Caliphate. We must try to persuade the [other Islamic] factions of this tactic, so we cannot be accused of protecting the borders [on behalf of Israel.]

Beat with an iron hand all aspects of security chaos ...

We must eradicate the Salafi Jihad from Gaza, because the process of containment and reconciliation has failed. They are dangerous; a broad campaign to finish them, no matter how much blood, because silence means disaster the more time passes.

If this is legit, it means that the much maligned policy of containment is paying dividends - right at the time that the West is getting more uncomfortable with it.

New Arab myth: "1936 strike was non-violent"

Alex Kane, a MondoWeiss blogger, writes in the Indypendent:

[I]n fact Palestinians have been nonviolently resisting Zionist colonization even before the State of Israel was founded, and well after. The 1936-1939 revolt against British colonial rule and Zionist colonization began with a “six-month general strike” that involved “work-stoppages and boycotts of the British-and Zionist-controlled parts of the economy” and was the “largest anticolonial strike of its kind until that point in history, and perhaps the longest ever,” as Rashid Khalidi writes on page 106 in The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. The revolt did have an armed component, though, that followed the general strike.

According to Kane, for six months the Arabs of Palestine engaged in a non-violent strike, and only afterwards it became violent.

Khalidi, in the book being quoted, implies that he "armed revolt" only started in September 1937. I exposed some of Khalidi's dishonesty in that same book here and here.

When was the exact beginning of the Arab strike? According to some Arab sources, it started on April 3rd, but the Palestine Post didn't notice any announcement until April 20, the day after a massacre of Jews in Jaffa.

Here is what the Palestine Post looked like on Tuesday, April 22, the day after the strike was announced publicly:

By Friday, some 6000 Jaffa Jews had evacuated their homes for Tel Aviv because of the "nonviolent" demonstrations:

The next few days saw no fatalities but much violence - arson, beatings, gunshots and threats against both Arabs and Jews by the strikers and demonstrators.

The following week was also largely quiet, although Arabs who were forced to strike were becoming increasingly upset at their loss of income. Many Jaffa dockworkers clandestinely started working in Haifa.

The week of May 10th saw increasing acts of arson and bombs being thrown at businesses that stayed open, as well as fires set at Jewish farms. The British police enforced curfews.

By Wednesday, there were three people murdered - two Jews and an Arab strike-breaker.

And that weekend, a bomb was thrown at the Edison Cinema in Jerusalem, killing three more.

This was just the first month of the "nonviolent" 1936 protest that Palestinian Arab admirers are now mooning over.

The facts are clear - the "strike" was the background of the violence, but the violence was prevalent throughout Palestine during what was euphemistically described in the English-language press at the time as the "disturbances."

Palestinian Arab supporters, however, are fond of rewriting history in whatever fashion they find convenient. While the Arabs congratulate themselves over the violence of the 1936-39 riots (which resulted in the death of thousands, mostly Arabs,) their Western allies are trying to reclassify them as a Gandhi-style set of peaceful demonstrations - to appeal to a different constituency.

Rep. Rothman details Israel's value to the US

From Bloomberg via Business Week, by US Rep. Steve Rothman:

The argument that American military aid to Israel is damaging to the U.S. is not only erroneous, it hurts the national security interests of this country and threatens the survival of Israel.

U.S. support for Israel is essential, not only for Israel's national security, but for America's. Every bit of that support -- and more -- withstands all reasonable scrutiny.

Under the 2010 U.S. budget, about $75 billion, $65 billion and $3.25 billion will be spent on military operations and aid in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan during this fiscal year, respectively. Israel will receive $3 billion, in military aid only. There is no economic aid to Israel, other than loan guarantees that continue to be repaid in full and on time.

There isn't enough space here to discuss the relative merits of the expenditures in these other countries, but we already know the critically important return the U.S. gets for helping its oldest, most trusted ally in the strategically important Middle East -- the most powerful military force in that region, the pro-U.S., pro-West and democratic Jewish state of Israel.

Here's how.

First, it's important to remember that about 70 percent of the $3 billion aid must be used by Israel to purchase American military equipment. This provides real support for U.S. high- tech defense jobs and contributes to maintaining our industrial base. This helps the U.S. stay at the very top in the manufacturing of our own cutting-edge military munitions, aircraft, vehicles, missiles and virtually every defensive and offensive weapon in the U.S. arsenal -- with the added contribution of Israel's renowned technical know-how.

Second, the U.S. and Israel are jointly developing state- of-the-art missile defense capabilities in the David's Sling and Arrow 3 systems. These two technologies build on the already successful Arrow 2, jointly developed by our two countries, which is already providing missile defense security to Israel and U.S. civilians and ground troops throughout the region. The knowledge the U.S. gains from these efforts also has a positive multiplier effect on applications to other U.S. military and non-military uses and U.S. jobs.

Third, given Israel's strategic location on the Mediterranean, with access to the Red Sea and other vital international shipping and military lanes of commerce and traffic, it is critically important to the U.S. that Israel continues to serve as a port of call for our troops, ships, aircraft and intelligence operations.

Israel also has permitted the U.S. to stockpile arms, fuel, munitions and other supplies on its soil to be accessed whenever America needs them in the region.

Fourth, America's special relationship with Israel provides the U.S. with real-time, minute-to-minute access to one of the best intelligence services in the world: Israel's. With Israeli agents gathering intelligence and taking action throughout the Middle East and, literally, around the world, regarding al- Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran and Hamas, among others, the U.S. receives invaluable information about anti-U.S. and terrorist organizations and regimes.

Fifth, imagine the additional terrible cost in U.S. blood, and the hundreds of billions more of American taxpayer dollars, if Saddam Hussein had developed nuclear weapons, or if Syria possessed them.

Then remember that it was Israel that destroyed the almost- completed nuclear reactor at Osirak, Iraq, in 1981 and Syria's nuclear facility under construction at Deir-ez-Zor in 2007.

And think about the many operations that Israel's Defense Forces and intelligence agents have undertaken to foil, slow and disrupt Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability. A nuclear-armed Iran would threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the region, all of Iran's Arab neighbors, the world's largest oil supplies and those who rely on that oil. It also would provide anti-U.S. terrorists with access to the most lethal Iranian technology and probably set off a nuclear arms race in the region.

For about 2 percent of what the U.S. spends in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan this year, Americans can take pride in the return on our investment in aid to Israel.

And with Israel's truly invaluable assistance to America's vital national security, we can take comfort that -- in actions seen in Tehran and Damascus and noticed by al-Qaeda and other anti-U.S. terrorists everywhere -- the U.S. is safer and made more secure because of the mutually dependent and beneficial relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

Al Qaeda threatens World Cup

From CBS:

The North African terror group al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has threatened to attack this summer's World Cup games in South Africa.

"How amazing could the match United States vs. Britain be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium packed with spectators when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands, the whole stadium is turned upside down and the number of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds, Allah willing," reads a statement the group published in a recent issue of the Jihadi online magazine Mushtaqun Lel Jannah (Longing to Paradise).

"Al Qaeda, who managed to deliver 50 grams of explosives to the Detroit plane, after infiltrating dozens of U.S. security barriers, al Qaeda, who enabled brother martyr Abul Kheir (Abdullah Asiri) to get into the palace of Mohammed bin Nayef, al Qaeda, who humiliated the world's greatest intelligence apparatus through the operation of Mujahid Abu Dujana al-Khorassani (Humam al-Balawi), who shattered the pride of the CIA and the Jordanian intelligence combined," the statement says. "Al Qaeda will have a presence in the games, Allah willing."

In addition to the U.S. and U.K. teams, the teams representing France, Germany and Italy are also on the group's list of targets.

"All those countries are part of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against Islam," the statement says.

I'm sure that Al Qaeda will change their tune when they find out that President Obama no longer specifies Islamic terrorism as a threat to the US.

Saudi preacher chickens out under fire

The Saudi TV preacher who promised to visit Jerusalem has chickened out under pressure from many Muslim leaders and Saudi officials.

Palestine Today reports that Sheikh Mohammed Al-Areefi was pressured by "Muslim scholars" who say that no Muslim leader should visit Jerusalem while it is under Israeli control.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad also told him not to go, claiming that it would be a type of normalization with the Zionist enemy. A Hamas cleric said that he shouldn't go while Israel was in its "orgy of Judaizing the city." Islamic Jihad cited the precedent of the current head of Al Azhar University who has vowed never to visit Jerusalem while it is under Israeli control.

The Director of Passports in Saudi Arabia also said that Areefi might be subject to arrest upon his return.

Arab News reports that his next show will be broadcast from Jeddah, with "some reports" filed from Jerusalem and other places.

If Muslims are not allowed to visit Jerusalem under Islamic law, then why should Palestinian Muslims be allowed to visit? I think it is time we got a definitive fatwa as to why the PA is not equally considered guilty of "normalizing" relations with the Zionists.

The dishonesty of Dalia Mogahed

Dalia Mogahed is an adviser to President Obama who was one of the two people behind a poll on worldwide Muslim attitudes in 2008 that spawned a very flawed book, "Who Speaks for Islam?"

She responds to a Lee Smith piece in Tablet that portrays her as very influential in the White House and also criticizes the poll. While I am not qualified to comment on her influence with Obama, the other part of her response is interesting to me.

She cuts and pastes from a Gallup FAQ about her book:

In the book Who Speaks for Islam?, we define the "politically radicalized" as respondents who A) answered a "5" when asked to rate the extent that 9/11 could be morally justified on a 5-point scale, where "1" is "cannot be justified at all" and "5" is "completely justifiable," and B) said they view the United States unfavorably. A population-weighted average of 7% fit these criteria. We labeled those who said 9/11 could not be completely justified as "moderates." We further broke this group down into those who were pro-United States and those who were anti-United States.
The decision as to where to break out the "politically radicalized" from the rest was data-driven. It was based on several analyses of where the data clustered for a natural breaking point. The analyses showed that the people who responded with a "5" (completely justifiable) to the question on the justifiability of 9/11 as a group were distinctly different from the groups who responded with a "1", "2", "3" or "4." The idea here is not that we are judging who or what a "moderate" or "radical" is, but rather assigning labels to statistical groups that we clearly define.
The term "moderate" is more of a placeholder label than a value judgment. It is similar to calling one clustering in the data "group A" and another "group B." We simply used labels that a broad audience can easily understand and remember.

This is how Gallup justified calling people who thought that the 9/11 attacks were "mostly" or "partially" justified as "moderate."
It is the bolded sentence that is dishonest. Mogahed and Gallup are claiming that the word "moderate"is not a value judgment, and that they could have just as easily called the groups "group A" and "group B."
In fact the way that the poll was publicized in press releases shows that it was used exactly as a value judgment. Look at how Gallup synopsizes the research in its web page:

What Makes a Radical?

March 13, 2008

The authors of the book Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think examine what separates the “politically radicalized” from the moderate majority.

Muslim Radicals: It's Politics, Not Piety

March 13, 2008

Experts react to Gallup findings revealing that views on politics, rather than personal piety, separate radical and moderate Muslims.

Clearly, Gallup is positioning the book as a referendum on who is a "radical" and who is a "moderate" with all the implications of those terms.

In addition, even though the authors and Gallup are claiming otherwise, it is impossible to separate the meanings of words with the purported neutral meanings that the authors claim for them. Using their standards, they could have called the two groups "extremely radical" and "somewhat less radical," or even "people who like daisies" versus "people who like roses." It is a self-serving and ultimately dishonest argument that the choice of appellations is somehow neutral when they have real meanings in the English language.

Perhaps Mogahed would not mind me terming all Muslim women who cover their hair and advise presidents of the United States as being "inveterate liars," as long as I clearly defined my terms ahead of time and say that calling her a liar is in no way a value judgment.

h/t zach

When the Muslims bargained away Jerusalem

An interesting passage in a book I just saw called The Jerusalem Question, 1917-1968, by H. Eugene Bovis.

Bovis was a Foreign Service Officer in the region for many years, and the book was published by the Hoover Institution in 1971.

From pages 114-5:

I guess the "Palestinians" of the 13th century didn't protest when the city that is supposedly their eternal capital was bargained away, just as they didn't protest when Jerusalem was under Ottoman, British and Jordanian control.

Perhaps their "love" of the city is of a more recent vintage.

Ray Hanania lies

Ray Hanania is one of the more moderate Arabs of Palestinian origin - an American-born commentator and sometimes comedian.

Yet he has no less of an urge to make up lies about Israel than his other PalArab comrades.

From the SW News Herald, copied from Palestine Note:

Jerusalem is a closed city. It has been for years. Every conqueror and occupier has restricted access to the city to certain people considered enemies.

The Ottomans did it. The Jordanians did it. And now Israel is doing it. Except that Israel is lying about it.

Israelis insist that Jerusalem is "finally" an open city. Yes, open to Jews from anywhere around the world and to most non-Arabs. But not to Arabs and especially not to Palestinians of the Christian and Muslim faiths.

Jerusalem under Israeli occupation is a closed city and the worst part about it is that most Israelis have closed their eyes and they don't care.

Israel's high powered propaganda machine - something the Arabs may not understand because they have no real professional communications at all - insists the "big lie" that Jews were banned from entering East Jerusalem after the cessation of fighting in the 1948 war and until Israel conquered it in their invasion in 1967.

That is an outright lie, of course. Jordan had the same policy that Israel has today. Exactly. Precisely. There is not a difference. During this Arab-Israeli conflict, ALL Arab countries banned Jews who had Israeli passports or who had visited Israel from entering their countries. They also banned pro-Israel activists. And that included East Jerusalem.

The Israelis focus on that fact without the accuracy, of course.

NOT BANNED, however, were Jews who did not travel to Israel and were from other countries who wished to visit East Jerusalem's Wailing Wall for religious, not political, reasons.

Jews prayed at the Wailing Wall all the time during the Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem.

The difference is that Jordan didn't spend any time with clever public relations spin or professional communications explaining what they were doing.

Really? Jews prayed all the time at the Wailing Wall between 1948 and 1967??

Since there were approximately zero Jews in Jordan during that time period - they were all kicked out in 1948, including families who lived in Jerusalem for hundreds of years, without asking them if they were there for political or religious reasons - this is an astonishing assertion. Even more so since the newspapers of the 1950s and 1960s mention many, many times that Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - were banned from the Old City under Jordanian rule.

I found a single exception. During Christmas week in 1957, the Jewish and Arab mayors of Jerusalem opened up the Mandelbaum Gate and allowed a handful of religious Jews to the Old City. The Canadian Jewish Review mentions the incident, saying that the Jews cried far more for the ruins of the destroyed and desecrated synagogues than for the Temple, and some Arabs took advantage of the commotion to try to free some Arab prisoners from jail, causing the experiment in equal access to be aborted quickly.

Outside of that, the contemporaneous media uniformly mentions that Jews were not allowed to the Old City. Typical was this NYT snippet from January 13, 1957:

And there is the Wailing Wall, where the Jews may come no longer, barred now, as Christians or Moslems were from other shrines in ages past...

The Sydney Morning Herald, December 22, 1951, says

There is only silence to-day at the Wailing Wall, which is the western end of the great platform on which stood the Jewish Temple.

Is there "only silence" at the Al Aqsa Mosque today, Ray?

As far as the ability of Jews to travel to the Old City through Jordan, Dore Gold writes that "Jordan further barred non-Israeli Jews from the Western Wall, demanding that tourists present a certificate of baptism before a visa would be granted."

Hanania is claiming that Israeli policy today exactly mirrors that of Jordan during those infamous 19 years, in not allowing Arabs or Palestinian Christians to visit their holy sites. As I showed previously, not only did Israel hand out over 10,000 permits for Palestinian Christians to visit, but Israel also hosted hundreds of Jordanian and Egyptian Christians during Easter week this year.

To say that this is "exactly, precisely" the same policy that Jordan had when the Old City was Judenrein is nothing short of an absolute lie. If such a policy had existed, there would have been more Jews visiting holy places during Passover than there were Christians during Easter under Jordanian rule.

And, as I also mentioned, the number of religious visitors in Israel's undivided capital Jerusalem during the Passover/Easter season increased from 10,000 in under Jordanian rule in 1967 to over 100,000 this year.

Muslim world freaks over Saudi preacher planned visit to J'lem

From Al Arabiya:

A prominent Saudi cleric announced on his television show that he will visit the occupied Jerusalem next week to support Muslim claims to the city, according to media reports on Monday.

"I will shoot the next episode of 'Put your Fingerprint’ show in Jerusalem," Sheik Mohammed al-Areefi said, adding that Muslims have an obligation to Jerusalem.
Sheikh Areefi promised through the Saudi-based Iqraa TV channel that the next episode of his show would introduce "surprises," including a visit to Jerusalem and reports that would "astonish" the viewers.

AP adds:

A Saudi official says a cleric who announced that he will visit Jerusalem for a TV episode on claims to the city will be punished if he travels there.

The state-owned Al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday quoted the passports office spokesman Lt. Col. Badr Malik as saying visiting Israel is prohibited and any violator is punishable under the law.

Sheik Mohammed al-Areefi told his viewers Sunday on his television show that he will visit Jerusalem next week to support Muslim claims to the city.

Associates of the cleric have since said he was misquoted and does not plan to take the trip.

An Asharq al-Awsat columnist is upset:

It’s not the controversy surrounding the announcement made by the Saudi preacher Dr. Mohammed al Arifi to visit Jerusalem to film an episode of his weekly program there that bothers me. Rather, what worries me is the following question to al Arifi, his supporters and others; what about the Arab journalists who want to cover the Sheikh’s visit and the moment he enters Israel? Will they be held accountable for normalizing [ties] with the enemy or not? Will the [news] agencies and the press of slogans launch attacks against the journalists? Will the satellite channels that broadcast religious preaching programs send their correspondents to Israel to cover the visit?

You see, he is placing other Arab journalists in an uncomfortable position because of their twisted policy not to cover news in Israel, so by definition he is being a childish publicity hound.

Finally, Asharq al Awsat reports:

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that they did not object to the Saudi cleric's visit, and that he could apply for an entry visa from the Israeli consulate in Amman.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman reportedly said "throughout the years many people from countries like Libya, Indonesia and other countries that don't have relations with Israel have visited Jerusalem." He added that "all these visits were naturally coordinated with Israeli authorities."

Sources also informed Asharq Al-Awsat that Saudi cleric Muhammad al-Arifi is currently in the Jordanian capital, where he is delivering religious lectures at the Al-Isra University.

Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that at the time of publication, Sheikh al-Arifi had yet to complete the procedures to obtain an entry visa to visit Jerusalem.

There is extreme secrecy surrounding the details of this visit, and the Iqra TV officials are refusing to clarify any information on this, saying that all details will be revealed on Friday by Sheikh al-Arifi himself during his next episode of "Da'Basmatak."

The source who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity also said that al-Arifi is not visiting Jerusalem as a propagandist or a media figure; however he refused to clarify the purpose of al-Arifi's visit. The source also denied any coordination with the Hamas movement with regards to this visit.

Al-Arifi's announcement received a lot of criticism, with many considering any visit that includes coordination with Israel to be part of normalizing relations. Sheikh Hamed al-Betawi, head of the Palestinian Scholars League and a preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque has called for Sheikh al-Arifi not to visit Jerusalem. In a statement published by the Muslim Brotherhood website Ikhwan Online, Sheikh al-Betawi, who is also Hamas's Spiritual Guide, said that "with all appreciation and respect towards Sheikh al-Arifi for the role that he has played in the service of Islam and for his support for the legitimate resistance; we object to this visit, because it comes at a time when the Al-Aqsa Mosque remains in the grip of occupation, and rather we hope that such a visit will take place following the liberation of Jerusalem."

Tunisian cleric issues fatwa on soccer prayer

A Tunisian sheikh has issued a fatwa against soccer players prostrating themselves in prayer after they score goals. According to the cleric, they are not appropriately dressed for prayer and it is not an appropriate venue for something that holy. Also, the players are not always appropriately facing Mecca when they do their game-time prostrations.

The practice of a thanksgiving prayer after scoring a goal is widespread in the Arab world, to the extent that the Egyptian team has been nicknamed "the worshippers."

Other clerics disputed this fatwa. An Egyptian cleric from Al Azhar University said that such prayers are appropriate, saying that such prayers are good publicity for Islam in front of the television cameras.

Behind the scenes at the Arab Summit

The Al Arab al-Youm newspaper published a fascinating exchange between Arab leaders behind closed doors at the Arab Summit in Libya late last month. It was reproduced by the Palestine Press Agency.

According to the reports, Mahmoud Abbas listed his demands for Arab support for his positions: use the UN to pressure Israel, support PalArab claims to Jerusalem ("there is no meaning to a Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital"), keep pressuring the US not to allow any Israeli building in Jerusalem, 1967 borders "with slight exchange of land," rejecting any "cosmetic" Israeli moves like moving the separation fence or releasing prisoners, lift the "siege" of Gaza, force Hamas to reconcile with Fatah, and others.

Moammar Gaddafi responded with a demand that the Arab world declare the peace process dead and that they support Palestinian Arab armed resistance - without overt military support of Arab regimes. He also called for Syria to take the Golan back by force.

The Emir of Kuwait said that this was not a wise idea, in light of the diplomatic crisis between Israel and the US, saying that at the very time that the differences between Israel and America are at their widest, to go back to a military option would play into Netanyahu's hands.

The Syrian delegation initially said that they support the option of armed resistance as well, and saif that they have always supported Palestinian Arab military resistance.

Abbas responded that the "popular resistance" (with Palestinian Arabs throwing boulders) will continue as they occur in Nilin and Bilin every week, as he believes that such "resistance" is legal under international law, but the Palestinian Arab people are not yet at a stage that would allow them to use armed resistance, as the second intifada destroyed their ability to fight with weapons.

Abbas also called for a resumption of the official Arab boycott of Israel. He also challenged Gaddafi to say that if he supports a resolution that calls for Palestinian Arab armed resistance, he must also call for one that insists on Arab support for military action to recapture the Golan as well as Lebanese territory allegedly held by Israel. Gaddafi replied that he would send his tanks and planes to Syria to help "liberate" the Golan.

This then forced Syria's Bashir Assad to make a statement that surprised the audience saying that "peace is our choice, war is not our choice."

Follow up on Kuwaiti singer (updated)

I mentioned a few days ago about Emma Shah, a Kuwaiti singer who found herself severely criticized for singing a Hebrew song (Hava Nagila) in a Kuwaiti club.

It turns out that she has a YouTube channel where you can hear her French and Hebrew versions of Hava Nagila. Check out her nearly 20-second single high note that starts at around 2:55:

You can also see the Al Arabiya interview with her about this incident. It is in Arabic, but you can see a couple of seconds of her performing the song live before the interview:

UPDATE: Zvi found an English language report on the incident and comments:

Ema also appears to be free of insane hatreds. And she's willing to demonstrate this in public. In a society whose media is frequently critical of public displays of non-hatred of Jews or public acknowledgement that Jews exist and are human, that makes her a fairly impressive person to my mind.

Ema also responds that the poly-lingual Egyptian-Italian diva Dalida sang "Hava Nagila" (and also "Hine Ma Tov"). Ema dedicated her version of "Hava Nagila" to Dalida.

Here are 2 partial translations of Ema's interview responses, together with context. The Islamic scholar who led the attack on her in the press has attacked her before (see below). Maybe he's just obsessed with her. And since he says that she displays "alien attitudes that clash with the spirit, culture and values of the Kuwaiti society," the conflict is not limited to "Hava Nagila," and his accusations of pro-Zionism and the like are just the latest in an ongoing attack. What the guy really hates is her "attitude."

"Unfortunately, our media focuses on wars and problems, and not on meaningful work. I have written in Russian and performed in Arabic, English, Spanish, Japanese and French. Does that make me a spy for France or Britain?" she said acidly according to local media reports. -Gulf News, quoting Ema

I love her "attitude". I'm sure that Sheikh Awadhi really hates it when she uses logic.
"He had criticized me in the past for a song about Jesus, and I see no motive for his attacks on me," she said. "I am well versed in all religions, sects and creeds and I do not have a problem with anyone. I love all people and there are Christians and people with various religious beliefs in my audience," she concluded. -Gulf News, quoting Ema

Ema's detractors see her self-defense against their libel as "abuse" of freedom of the press (see the Toumi link above). They evidently believe that they have the right to lie about her (claiming that she sang insults against Arabs, which is a pathetic and laughable claim) but that she has no right to defend herself. That says an AWFUL lot about her detractors, doesn't it?

She's human. She's not perfect. I hope that the Kuwaiti media does not brow-beat her into making some public show of anti-Jewish feeling. That would be sad.

I wish her the best of luck.

Also, an anonymous correspondent send me a translation of the Al Arabiya interview. Excerpts:

We witnessed much anger in the Kuwaiti street due to the choice of Kuwaiti actress Emma to sing in Hebrew, in one of the concerts in the capital. The young actress has confirmed that the song she sang at a ceremony on the stage of Club Kuwaiti had already been sung by actress Dalida in French and Hebrew, and at the time Emma did not know the exact meaning of the text of the song, but after the uproar Emma defended the song, saying it does not indicate any kind of abuse of the Arabs.

And with us from Kuwait is Emma. Why did you sing in Hebrew?

Emma: Yes, dear, the show, my dear, was not limited to Hebrew, I sang eighty percent of the songs in classical Arabic and five songs in English and two songs in French and a song in Spanish and part of a song in the Japanese language and part also in Hebrew, which simulated a humanitarian tour around the world from France Enrico Macias and Guevara in Argentina, Germany, Hitler and Mahmoud Darwish in the wall and Britain, Sir Arthur, Gibran Khalil Gibran and Iraqi Maarov Rusafi as well as the Rasputin of Russia and the various personalities, and also the Christ of the Christian and Jewish heritage of all.

Presenter: But some see what is the significance of the song Artist Emma in Kuwait, the Arab public does not know Hebrew, speak Hebrew, they do not know what message that you were trying to deliver to them.

Emma: Honey, is not important to take the significance of the Arab world, because this show [was meant for an audience that was]a group of intellectuals. I was not necessarily obliged to explain this kind of art to the general audience. The idea of this show was a type of anthropology, human science , we are talking about man in the human race, I want to communicate between all members of the human race, I want to remove these barriers, this ideological borders the troubled psychologically such as religious Islamic fanatics who are against women and against freedom and against liberalism and democracy that are the foundation of this problem. The problem is not the streets of Kuwait, the Kuwaiti street has no problem in this maelstrom.

Presenter: If you please, let's not get into the clergy, especially as there are none of them here to respond...

Emma: No, no, Dear, no no no no. In all articles that had attacked me, the Islamists are the ones who attacked me.

Presenter: I understand you, but allow me this question, perhaps what you sang came out of what is happening in Palestine and not out of the clergy (Islamists)

Emma: No dear, I am not involved in the question of Palestine..., I'm an artist, and my case is not Palestine, I have issues that belong to me, I am interested in my issues.

Presenter: Last question, are you satisfied with the singing in Hebrew?

Emma: Of course, what is the problem? This is freedom, personal freedom. I call upon the city which actually placed in the Kuwaiti Constitution Article 35 and 36 the ideas of freedom of conscience and freedom of expression and opinion and freedom to express one's opinion and to publicize it verbally, in writing or any other way that is desired.

Peaceful PalArab Passover

Here are some of the events that happened in Gaza while I was not able to post:

Three young men, aged 16 and 17, were injured when a rocket intended to land in Israel fell short in Beit Hanoun, Gaza. One was seriously hurt as shrapnel entered his head and he lost a hand (or a leg.) (UPDATE: 5 injured, English report here.)

Two smuggling tunnels collapsed, killing one and injuring six.

PCHR reported that two Gazans were abducted and tortured by Hamas over the weekend.