Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

An example of how the NYT reports the news

This is a minor but telling example of the laziness of reporters.

An article by Robert Worth in the New York Times:

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered a fiery address on Monday accusing the United States government of orchestrating desecrations of the Koran by right-wing American Christian groups last weekend, Iranian state news agencies reported.

The speech appeared to be part of an effort by Iran’s hard-line leaders to amplify Muslim outrage over scattered gestures to burn or tear pages of the Koran, in the wake of the threat — later withdrawn — by Terry Jones, a Florida pastor, to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In Tehran, about 1,000 protesters chanting “Death to America” and “U.S. pastor must be killed” clashed with the police and threw stones at the Swiss Embassy, Reuters reported. The Swiss have handled American interests in Iran ever since the United States severed diplomatic relations with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

After Iran’s state-owned Press TV ran reports about Koran desecrations in the United States, India blocked local cable operators from broadcasting the station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where angry anti-American protests have taken place in recent days.

In his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei said “the leaders of the global arrogance” — a code for the United States among Iranian conservatives — had engineered the plot to desecrate the Koran, Press TV and other agencies reported. He added that “Zionist think tanks which hold the most influence in the United States government and its security and military organizations” were also involved.

In the fifth paragraph, Worth says that Khamanei "added" that Zionists were also, parenthetically, behind the Koran burning incident.

Where did he get this from? The esteemed reporter relied completely on the translation and context provided by Iran's PressTV, which said:

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US.

"Without a doubt, the leaders of the global arrogance engineered [this plot] and [were in charge of] the command room of these atrocities," the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei added that "Zionist think-tanks which hold the most influence on the US government and its security and military organizations" were among the accomplices in the scenario.

Iran's ISNA reported on the speech as well. Here was their description:

The Islamic Revolution Leader said in a message to the Iranian nation and the entire Islamic Ummah that the Zionist circles within the US administration are the main conspirators of the sacrilege.

"The abhorrent and disgusting desecration of the Holy Quran took place in the US under protection of the American police. It is bitter and great event which cannot be regarded as a practice done by several idiots and lackeys. But, is a calculated action by the circles which have launched propaganda to promote Islamophobia and anti-Islamic campaign and have resorted to several hundred methods and thousands propaganda means to fight Islam and Quran," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

"It is another ring from the disgraceful chain which began by apostate Salman Rushdie's treason and followed by the dastardly Danish caricaturist and tens of anti-Islam movies produced in Hollywood."

"It has reached the current abhorrent play. What or who are behind the shameful moves? Study of the villain process of criminal events taking place in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Pakistan leaves no doubt that designing such schemes and the think-tanks are in the hands of the leaders of hegemonic system and Zionists who have the most influence on the US government and its security and military organs and on the British and several other European governments as well," Islamic Revolution Leader said.

In this case, the "Zionist" influence is at least on par with (and probably indistinguishable from) the US leaders accused of being behind the Terry Jones incident.

The Gulf Times provides a little more context:

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday called the plan to burn the Qur’an “an insane and hateful” act and blamed “the Zionists working within the American government” for masterminding it.

“With deceiving and half-empty words, the leaders of the American regime cannot acquit themselves of ... accompanying this ugly act,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by state television.

“To prove its claim of not being involved ... the American government should appropriately punish the main figures behind this great crime,” he added.

Top Iranian officials have issued harsh criticism over the issue, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even saying the US pastor’s bid to burn the holy book was a “Zionist plot” that would lead to the speedy “annihilation” of Israel.

“Zionists and their supporters are on their way to collapse and dissolution and such last-ditch actions will not save them, but multiply the pace of their fall and annihilation,” state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Friday.

The Friday statement by Ahmadinejad primarily blaming "Zionists" was never reported by the New York Times.

Robert Worth read a single source - Iran's English-language PressTV - and used that as the basis of his report. He apparently did not spend any time to double-check whether the PressTV account was accurate, what the original speech said in Farsi, what the larger political context was (the Gulf Times article properly spoke about how two top Iranian clerics called on anyone desecrating the Koran to be killed, for example. Another quote that would have provided context is here.) While the words he quoted were abhorrent already, Worth could have spent thirty minutes more to have written a more accurate article showing the insane hate that spews out of Iranian political and religious leaders on a daily basis.

Instead, he grabbed a single source, wrote a poor piece that downplayed what Khamenei said and ignored what everyone else said on the matter.

In this section of the article, Worth did no original research, nor did he even make an effort to even verify his single source. (He added an unrelated three paragraphs about a new Iranian crackdown on dissidents which surely should have been its own article, but blame for that lies with the NYT editors, not with Worth.)

This is not reporting. This is the mindless copying of material that has already been edited by someone else and made to fit in an already-existing narrative.

And the New York Times represents the best in American journalism today.

Unless Israel criminalizes pistachio ice cream, there will be no peace

The Palestinian Arab negotiators have successfully created a linkage in the collective minds of the world that simply doesn't exist.

Here's the latest example:

The chief Palestinian negotiator said Monday there are no "half solutions" in the dispute over construction of Israeli settlements.

"Either there is a halt to settlement building or there is not," Saeb Erekat told reporters in Sharm el-Sheikh. "We hope that if the Israeli government is given the choice of either peace or settlements, it will choose peace. If it chooses any kind of settlement building, this means that it has destroyed the whole peace process and it would be fully responsible for that."

For years, the only building permits that Israel has allowed in Judea and Samaria were within the existing boundaries of the towns there. In other words, no additional disputed land is being affected by any new buildings or extensions.

There is no relationship between any building that is done within existing settlements and peace. It is a complete fiction. The linkage only exists due to its incessant repetition, but it has no basis in reality. It has an aura of believability, because building in these communities is being represented as a physical expansion, but that is quite simply a lie.

The settlements are a red herring, a propaganda ploy on the part of the Arabs and their anti-Israel allies. The goal is the same as it was in 1921 and 1929 and 1948 and 1967, just the words and tactics have changed.

So the next time that you read about how any building in settlements endangers peace, just mentally substitute "building in settlements" with "allowing pistachio ice cream to be sold." They both make exactly the same amount of sense.

The latest Latma seems appropriate:

Follow-up on "Mossad hack" of Saudi TV (UPDATE: Solved!)

Last week I mentioned a rumor going around the Arab world that Israelis hacked the popular Saudi MBC network to broadcast messages of peace, using an Israeli-looking woman.

Firas Press got a screenshot:

The subtitle says "Our presence on Earth means happiness for you."

One of the commenters thinks that is was actually an ad for a show on a sister MBC network, called MBC Action. It looks like MBC Action mostly plays American shows.

But if she is either Israeli, Jewish or a celebrity, I'm sure that some reader of this blog will recognize her....

(h/t Ali for translation)

UPDATE: The woman is from the TV series "V" about extra-terrestrials who come to Earth. Note the tagline: "We are of peace. Always."

(h/t to the many who recognized her.)

Jerusalem 1918

Just watch and enjoy: old footage of Jerusalem in 1918. How much has changed and how much has remained the same:

Arab vengeance p0rn

From YNet:

A new Hamas video clip has the Arab internet all a frenzy: It depicts the "battle to free Palestine" and includes fire on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and changes to Channel 2's news anchors.

The video, which is particularly popular in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, was created by two Hamas operatives from Gaza and the West Bank.

It shows a graphic simulation of the burning down of the High Court of Justice and the Bank of Israel buildings in Jerusalem, and cars with Palestinian flags driving across Ayalon Highway.

The beginning of the video shows a Palestinian refugee saying "Inshallah, the Jihad will take back the homeland."

The next image is of Palestinian students telling their teacher they want to become part of the resistance; followed by an image of an armed Palestinian outlining the liberation operation.

After Israel is successfully attacked and "liberated," Palestinians are shown walking along the Tel Aviv promenade and on its streets.

At the pinnacle moment of the video, the opening credits to Channel 2's nightly news edition appear, but anchorwoman Yonit Levy's place is taken by a Palestinian anchorman, depicted getting ready for the news broadcast declaring the "liberation of Tel Aviv and Palestine."

As the Balfour St. blog says,

While this is not a surprising vision from Hamas, it should throw cold water on anyone who believes that a one-state solution is possible. Many leftist anti-Israel activists somehow believe that simply ending Jewish sovereignty will make everything "all better" and that Hamas and other Palestinian radicals will let go of their thirst for vengeance.
...

But when I see this video, I can't help but believe that this is what the Palestinian activists have in mind when they envision a one-state solution. They made not be as blunt about it as Hamas, but their rhetoric is in many ways no less hateful or full of rage.

UPDATE: Ali in the comments mentions that the video also includes the obligatory showing of children wanting to become martyrs.

Are right-wing Jews changing their mind on the Temple Mount?

British-based Hamas mouthpiece Palestine Info writes:

130 Jewish extremists stormed into the Aqsa Mosque Monday morning from the Maghareba Gate, accompanied by reinforced Israeli police, local sources said.

Five groups entered through the gate, each group led by a head rabbi, one security guard reported.

The Mosque’s guards monitored the Jews from afar for fear of being arrested as they toured the Mosque’s courtyards and halls.

Jews have been going in groups to peacefully visit the Temple Mount for a long time, of course. Each time the Arab press has similar articles about them "storming" and "breaking in."

But in general it is the religious Zionist crowd that visits, not the haredi and Chassidic Jews, who have generally stayed away out of concern of accidentally entering the area of the Holy of Holies. (Religious Zionists are fairly certain they know where that is and they keep a distance away from it.)

This picture, if accurate, indicates that perhaps some Chassidic groups are starting to assert their human rights to visit the holiest spot in of their religion without fear. If so, that is a very good sign.

Webpage of "Mecca" disco in Spain defaced

I mentioned earlier this month that a nightclub in Spain named "Mecca" was causing Muslims to be upset.

Yesterday, a group of Moroccan hackers defaced the website for the club, replacing it with this:

Another page said "Do you want to find your church one day turned into a place for breeding animals, or trash?"

It's back now.

Israeli tourists drown out Ahava boycotters in London with song

From Richard Millett's blog:

There are not many times that you can say that anti-Israel activists are outsung and outnumbered, but yesterday they were.

The usual mob of nothing-better-to-dos turned up outside Ahava in London’s Covent Garden to vent their hatred for the Jewish state.

Only one person brought along an Israeli flag. She said she came as she was worried that as it was Jewish New Year there would be no one around to stick up for Israel. Apart from her and a few others the pro-Israel pen was looking pretty sparse.

Then as the small pro-Israeli contingent were deciding where to break for lunch twelve Israeli tourists who had seen the protests outside Ahava came into the shop and then marched out again, filled the pen and sang Am Israel Chai, David Melech Yisrael, Hatikva and Hava Nagila (see first two clips below).

The anti-Israel mob became less interested in handing out their leaflets and more interesting in demonising the Israeli tourists, with some directing shouts of “racist scum” towards them.

Here's one video, more on that webpage.

h/t Zvi

"Human Rights group" details some of Israel's "crimes" against Jerusalem

An NGO has released a report detailing supposed Israeli crimes in Jerusalem during Ramadan.

The "Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem" in collaboration with the "Jerusalem Center for Democracy and Human Rights" and the "Land Research Center." listed out the horrendous crimes and violations of human rights. They include allowing Jews to visit the Temple Mount, restricting the ability of known inciters to travel in Jerusalem, and - allowing the 14th World Jewish Congress to meet in Jerusalem, even though the meeting was on the Western side of the Green Line.

Sounds like they want Jerusalem to be free of Jews, doesn't it?

The webpage of the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem looks like the part-time activity of one person; the English site has not been updated in months and the Arabic site is even more out of date.

Gaza blogger bicycles the length of Gaza to defy Hamas

From Palestine News Network:

As girls becomes women in Gaza they slowly get dragged into the world of restrictions. These rules have become an art those who govern Gaza have perfected. They are meant to segregate women from men.

Now in Gaza there are rules that do not allow women to Smoke Arigla or Shisha in public places. Another law does not allow women to ride bicycles, the new laws went further more by making it illegal for shop owners to exhibit women’s lingerie. The given explanation is to maintain public decency.

These rules have made women fall in an endless cycle of what is forbidden and what is allowed. Women in Gaza have chosen to adhere to these laws, thinking it’s for the best not to draw attention; actively minimizing their rights risking the few freedoms they have now which may be restricted in the near future.

That was the case in Gaza until a local journalist, Asma Al Ghoul, came along; she decided to draw the line and say enough. In a hot summer day she took her bicycle along with three internationals who work in human rights organizations and cycled for 60 kilometers along the Rafah Egypt borders in southern Gaza.

The human rights defender’s main goal was to send a clear message that any person has the right to enjoy sport as granted by international law. Asma had something else in mind. She had a political and social objective; she wanted to say that the laws against women are unfair especially the latest rules Hamas government had made which looks at women in an eye of shame.

Her journey was difficult in the beginning, since Asma did not ride a bike since she was a child; during her journey she was verbally assaulted by people calling her vulgar names, and some went even further and spit on her; things that did not stop the young daredevil from continuing her trip. The first journey was soon finished, but Asma says it will not be the last. Asma dreams of recruiting more women to cycle with her to counter and cancel the unjust laws against women of Gaza.

An Arabic article goes into more detail of her adventures. While she said that most people were nice but that gangs of youths on motorcycles twice abused her and her foreign friends by claiming to be Hamas policemen.

Asma was one of the women arrested by Hamas on the beach last year for being with a group of friends - men and women - and for swimming in jeans and a T-shirt. In the Arabic article she says that she was arrested then for being in public without an Islamically-approved escort and for laughing.

Galloway begs Mubarak to let his latest Gaza convoy through

George Galloway has been preparing a new convoy to Gaza, but he has one major problem: the fact that Egypt has banned him for the trouble he caused last time.

Galloway was deported from Egypt last January after his "Viva Palestina" convoy members started a protest that ended up killing an Egyptian policeman.

Later, Egypt banned all of these publicity-seeking convoys from entering Egypt while allowing real aid through.

According to Arabic media, Galloway is begging Hosni Mubarak to allow him to return with the convoy he is organizing in Algeria, saying that he is not associated with Hamas but does respect the Palestinian Arabs' choice of Hamas as their leaders.

So far, Egyptian officials have not acknowledged his asking for permission to cross the country with a stream of reporters.

Galloway said that "we have no problems with Egypt, because the actual enemy is Israel."

Egypt arrests Hamas member for smuggling gold through tunnels

Palestine Press Agency quotes an Egyptian newspaper as saying that Egyptian authorities arrested a man several months ago on suspicion of smuggling gold to Hamas.

The man, Mohammed Bassam Naim, is the son of Bassam Naim, Ismail Haniyeh's bodyguard. He is in an Egyptian university to gain a political science degree.

Police arrested him in April and found large quantities of gold, and recently they have arrested a number of Egyptians suspected of being involved in the smuggling.

Erratic schedule open thread

Going to a conference tomorrow for a couple of days; blogging will likely be light.

This whole month will be erratic, come to think of it.

Oh well. Carry on.

Mural of Israeli NBA player defaced with swastika

From CBS Sacramento:

Sacramento police are investigating the vandalism to a mural of Sacramento Kings' player Omri Casspi as a hate crime, and the mural's artist says it has been vandalized before.

Passersby said they were caught off guard when they noticed a swastika had been scratched between the Jewish athlete's eyes on the mural on 16th Street and R Street. It also appeared as though someone had tried to scratch the symbol away.

"It's weird to think there are people like that still out there," said Ravina Bhan.

With no surveillance cameras aimed at the mural, police don't know when the vandalism took place. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, even though the swastika was drawn incorrectly.

Huge dropoff in Gulf aid for PA this year

From Reuters:

The United Arab Emirates has donated $42 million (27 million pounds) to the Palestinian Authority, boosting support for President Mahmoud Abbas' cash-strapped government as it embarks on direct peace talks with Israel, Arab officials said on Friday.

An Arab source in Washington said the donation, which was confirmed by a Palestinian government spokesman, was made after repeated calls by senior U.S. officials for more Arab support to help build Palestinian government capacity.
...

The Palestinian Authority's main Arab donors, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have contributed considerably less this year than they have annually since 2007.

So far, the Saudis have donated $30.6 million until August, compared to $241.1 million in the same period in 2009. The new donation by the UAE, the world's third-largest oil exporter, is its first this year -- it gave $173.9 million in 2009.

That means that Saudi Arabia slashed its support for the PA by 87% this year, and the UAE by 75%.

Earlier this year, UNRWA mentioned that Arab nations have paid less that 20% of their pledges to that organization, a miniscule 1.5% of the UNRWA budget.

So apparently it is not just the PA that Arab nations don't care about, but Palestinian Arabs altogether.

Shouldn't people in the US and Europe be wondering why Arabs care less about their fellow Arabs than the West does?

Palestinian Arabs in Europe against peace talks

Over twenty Palestinian Arab organizations in Europe have signed a letter criticizing Mahmoud Abbas' negotiating with Israel, saying that he will sell out on Jerusalem and the "right of return" without representing them.

They claim that Abbas is covering up the Zionist killing of Palestinian Arabs, the Judaizing of Jerusalem, and the creation of ghettos for Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, as well as collaborating with the Israelis.

The letter concluded that the "Palestinian people" will certainly not tolerate any such moves.

Groups that signed the letter included The General Secretariat of the Conference of Palestinians in Europe, Palestinian Return Centre, London, Palestinian Doctors in Europe, the Association of Palestinian Engineers in Europe, the Association of Palestinian Women in Europe, The Denmark Palestinian Forum, Britain Palestinian Forum, the Palestinian Center for Justice, the Palestinian Assembly of Italy, the Austrian Association of Palestine, the Palestinian Forum of the Netherlands, , the Palestinian Forum of France, the Association of Germany of the Right of Return, the Palestinian Assembly of the Netherlands, Sweden Palestinian Engineers Association, Union of Palestinian Artists in Sweden, Union of Palestinian Teachers in Sweden, and the Palestinian Assembly - Ireland.

Palestinian Arabs who live in Europe have traditionally been far more ideologically hawkish than the ones who live in the West Bank.

The war between Hamas and Fatah gets religious

In recent weeks, PA's Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Habash has become Fatah's point man on fighting Hamas from a religious Islamic perspective.

Last week he railed against Hamas' compliments of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, saying that Knomeini had said things that were against Islam.

Yesterday Habash called on Hamas to repent for its coup in Gaza on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr and again slammed Iran for meddling in Palestinian affairs via Hamas.

Hamas recently criticized Habash for politicizing the mosques in the West Bank and for allegedly closing pro-Hamas mosques on the first day of the Eid festival.

Jewish plot to corrupt the Koran revealed!

From YNet:

Algeria ordered thousands of Koran books whose covers bear a Jewish symbol to be removed from shelves.

Algerians who had already purchased the books decorated with a Star of David were urged to return them to stores in exchange for another Koran or their money back.

According to the Algerian government, the symbol on the cover "is not in keeping with the general ethics of the state".

The United Arab Emirates-based Al-Bayan quoted an official from the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs as saying that a private businessman had imported the books from Egypt, and that censoring authorities were accusing him of "disrupting public order".

Members of parliament also expressed outrage, placing blame on the religious affairs minister and threatening to outlaw individual importation of the holy book.

Some commenters at Islam Today are convinced that this was a Zionist - or Jewish - plot.

I need to remind the Quran Division back at the International Zionist Web HQ not to be so damn obvious.

(By the way, Islamic art has historically used the six-pointed star. Here is a tile pattern from Persia in the 13th-14th centuries.

And here is a detail from a decoration of a mosque in Lahore, Pakistan.)

Shana tova u'metuka!

As usual this time of year, my most popular post is not recent, but this one from 2008, because when people are Googling for "Shana Tova U'Metuka" or "שנה טובה ומתוקה" my post from that year still comes out near the top. (And I did design that apple and honey-dripper from scratch, unlike this year...) For those who reach this page to find out what it means, the translation is simply "A good and sweet year." Some 12% of the blog hits today are for that post, and that number is increasing.

I wish all of my readers a happy and sweet New Year. May we all be written in the Book of Life, and enjoy a year of health, a year of prosperity, a year of joy, and a year of peace.

I will not be blogging until Sunday or so.

Sarah Palin holds like Rabbi Eliezer

There is a disagreement in the Talmud whether the world was created in the Hebrew month of Tishrei or Nisan.* Rabbi Yehoshua says Tishrei and Rabbi Eliezer says Nisan. (Tr. Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a)

Sarah Palin, in her Rosh Hashanah message, holds like R' Eliezer:

As Jewish families gather to celebrate the New Year and a new beginning marking the Day of Creation, I want to join them in praying for a good and sweet year ahead. This day marks the beginning of a period of reflection and repentance. It is a time to remember our responsibilities to our families, our communities, our country, and our world.

Glad she cleared that up!

It's a nice message, by the way. Here's the rest:

This is also a time to remember who we are as Americans and our responsibilities to help our friends and allies as they seek peace and security. The people of Israel have overcome so many challenges, taken so many risks, and made so many sacrifices in the pursuit of peace and a better life for their children. This New Year begins with a new hope for peace, but the threats to Israel – and to us – have not gone away.

These are challenging times as Iran continues to work on building a nuclear weapon, Hamas attacks innocents on the eve of peace talks, enemies refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and even in Europe and the United States we hear voices from those trying to delegitimize Israel.

To our Jewish friends and neighbors on this Rosh Hashanah, may you be inscribed in the Book of Life. And for our friends in Israel, know that the American people will continue to stand with you in this New Year as you strive for peace and security.

Shanah tovah u'metukah.
- Sarah Palin

(*To be precise, the world would have been created in either Elul or Adar; Man would have been created on the first of Tishrei or Nisan.)

High tech Rosh Hashana greetings

Just saw this cute graphic at an Israeli apps site (detail):

Israel cultivating ties with Berbers?

A few Moroccan newspapers, including Maraya Press, are reporting that Israel is cultivating contacts with the native Berbers of North Africa.

Quoting a study at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, the articles claim that Israeli influence is causing the Berbers to call for normalization with Israel and some of them want to coordinate with Israel "against the Arabs."

According to the quoted study, Israel believes that the biggest obstacles to making diplomatic progress in North Africa are the Islamic movements there and the Berbers can act as a political counterweight to them, especially in Morocco and Algeria.

If I understand them correctly, the articles claim that Israel will ask the US to economically reward Morocco for its economic relations with Israel and use that as leverage to push other African states to want to cooperate more with the Jewish state.

There is a long history of Berber Jews in North Africa, although most left in the 1950s and 60s.

Leading Arab-American demolishes pro-Hamas Left

An article by Hussein Ibish in Now Lebanon:

With the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, numerous voices in the United States have been urging the inclusion of Hamas in international diplomacy, a focus on Palestinian unity, or some formal American outreach to the Palestinian Islamist group.

There are many different ways of arriving at such a position. One is to allege, as MJ Rosenberg of Media Matters has, that without Hamas there is no chance of any Palestinian leadership being able to deliver on a peace agreement. This ignores the extent to which Hamas’ appeal relies on cynicism and despair about peace, and the likely surge of legitimation for any leadership that can secure independence for the Palestinians.

Another assumes that Hamas is somehow more “authentic” than the Palestine Liberation Organization because it is a violent revolutionary group. Some have transferred sympathy for left-wing revolutionaries of the past to this ultra right-wing fundamentalist organization precisely because it is violent and revolutionary. The preposterous assertion of Judith Butler, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, that both Hamas and Hezbollah are part of the “global left” is only true if the left is reduced to those militantly opposed to the status quo, in which case almost all religious fanatics and almost everyone on the extreme right would be perfectly valid candidates for inclusion.

A third begins by emphasizing democracy, and confusing democracy with elections only (though elections are a sine qua non of democracy), without due attention to the need for transparent, accountable institutions. George Washington University professor Nathan Brown has recently argued that because there have been no Palestinian elections in years so that terms in office have expired, there are two equally illegitimate and authoritarian Palestinian Authorities, one in Ramallah and the other in Gaza.

Arguments assuming that elections alone are what matter and that ignore why there can be no elections (Hamas is blocking them because it rightly fears the results), and that also ignore differences in legitimacy and repression between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas rule in Gaza, invariably end up becoming a brief for Hamas’ aspirations within Palestinian society. They also make Hamas at least co-equal with the PLO as a legitimate international representative of the Palestinian people.

Harvard professor Stephen Walt recently suggested that if peace negotiations fail, “Hamas will be in a strong position” to lead “a Palestinian campaign for political rights within [a] single state, based on well-established norms of justice and democracy.” Walt doesn’t seem to understand what Hamas is, what it believes in, what it opposes, or the implications of its regional affiliations. The idea that Hamas might become a civil-rights movement for international standards of justice and democracy is simply laughable.

It was particularly ridiculous given that Walt and others were expressing similarly naïve or disingenuous opinions either right before, or in Walt’s case right after, Hamas showed its true colors once again by attempting to sabotage the current peace negotiations – which the organization fears might succeed in ending the conflict before it can unseat the PLO. This Hamas did by murdering four Israeli settlers in a drive-by shooting; it claimed “full responsibility” for the killings, called them “heroic,” vowed to repeat the crime (and tried to the very next day), and declared all Israeli settlers to be “legitimate military targets.”

If this didn’t cut through the fog of the “constructive ambiguity” employed by Hamas leaders through a relentless pattern of contradictory statements designed to appeal simultaneously to hard-core Islamists and Western sympathizers, I can’t imagine what will. Actions are the surest test of any ideology, not a mountain of contradictory rhetoric.

Ibish is hardly pro-Israel, but it is increasingly difficult to find people on the left who are willing to denounce Hamas for who they are and what they represent.

Erekat apologizes for seeming to apologize to Jews

Predictably, Saeb Erekat is in hot water with Palestinian Arabs over making his deceptive video for the Geneva Initiative where he pretends to be more peaceful than he is while addressing the Israeli people.

As we've seen before, Erekat (along with other PA officials) is a master at saying the exact opposite things in English and Arabic.

In the video, he starts off by saying, "“Shalom to you in Israel, I know we have disappointed you, I know we have been unable to deliver peace for the last 19 years."

Palestinian Arabs thought that this sounded way too close to being an apology, and they criticized him heavily.

So how does Erekat justify his words? He says that, even though this message was broadcast to the Israeli people and he used the word "we," he was only talking on behalf of both Israeli and Palestinian Arab negotiators, not on behalf of anyone else:

Unfortunately, my words are being interpreted as being said on behalf of the Palestinians to the Israeli people, which completely contradicts what I meant and what I believe. This interpretation is flawed and inconsistent with the operative part of my speech. I was talking to a negotiator and meant that we as negotiators, the Palestinians and Israelis alike, have disappointed [our people] as we have not been able to reach an agreement to end the conflict, despite the long years of negotiations.

I never thought for one moment to apologize to the Israelis on behalf of the Palestinian people, a people who suffer daily from the various policies of occupation and displacement and humiliation and [who themselves are] deserving of an apology.

I'm sure that the Geneva Initiative will issue a clarifying press release.

Israelis hack Saudi TV during Ramadan?

Palestine Today has a report that the "Mossad" had hacked into Saudi satellite channel MBC1 during a popular Ramadan TV show.

According to the article, in the middle of the show a woman with Israeli features came on the air and said in English, "We love peace, we are a people of peace..." a number of times during the 9th and 10th of Ramadan.

Well, how else can they send Rosh Hashanah greetings to Saudi Arabia?

The 9/11 conspiracy evidence that the "Truthers" ignore

This story comes from Jonathan Alter, writing in a Newsweek "web exclusive," on October 12, 2001.

This week, I went to Brooklyn in search of an “urban myth” about the World Trade Center assault. Was word of the attack on the street before Sept. 11? What I found out was chilling—this story is no myth.

...The story I was looking for had circulated less widely and in more general form. It recounted the story of a kid who bragged around school before the attacks that the World Trade Center was going to be destroyed. On Oct. 11, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, an aggressive young reporter for The New York Journal News of Westchester County, N.Y., published an article that tracked the story to New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. Shapiro identified a teacher who witnessed a freshman in her class saying the week prior to the World Trade Center attacks: “Do you see those two buildings? They won’t be standing there next week.”

“This is the only case we know of where someone said the World Trade Center was coming down prior to it happening,” a police source told me.

...Since Sept. 11, hundreds of calls have poured into the local police precinct, but real incidents have been few. ...

It’s that context that makes the story of the Pakistani freshman so strange. I can’t tell you who filled in the details for me; the heat is on, and the FBI is particularly jumpy. Both teacher and student have, with the help of the school, successfully ducked all efforts to contact them. But here’s what I’ve pieced together:

On Sept. 6—five days before the attack—Antoinette DiLorenzo, who teaches English as a second language to a class of Pakistani immigrants, led a class discussion about world events. She asked a freshman (his name has been withheld): “What are you looking at?” The youth was peering out the third-floor window toward lower Manhattan. After he made the remark about the World Trade Center not being there next week, the teacher didn’t immediately think much of it, though it stuck in her mind.

On Sept. 11, school was canceled after the attack and again the following day. On Thursday, Sept. 13, a clearly agitated DiLorenzo, saying she had been afraid to come forward, reported the incident to the principal’s office. “It scared the hell out of everyone,” according to a source at the school.

The police and FBI were alerted and 12 NYPD officers entered the school and secured DiLorenzo’s classroom for three hours, locking the doors with the students inside. While the students were brought lunch and a movie and told to be calm, the youth in question and his older brother, a sophomore, were taken to be interrogated by the FBI, stationed at the police precinct nearby.

DiLorenzo, the key to the believability of this story, was also questioned. She was described by school officials as having a superb and unblemished record in the New York school system. A police source described her as “100 percent credible.”

Moreover, according to police, the youth confirmed having made the Sept. 6 statement about the towers. At the moment he did so, his older brother elbowed him, said he had been “kidding,” and the youth in question agreed. The younger brother seemed upset and said he was “having a bad day.” When asked why, he said that his father was supposed to come back from Pakistan that day. Further details of the interrogation are unclear, in part because the FBI is not discussing it.

...So what to make of all of this? There is no doubt in my mind that the story is true. But what does it mean?

There are only three possibilities. One, the youth was clairvoyant. Two, the youth, knowing about the 1993 bombing, was just venting anger in a particularly timely way. Three, word of the attack on the World Trade Center was rumored in his neighborhood and he heard about it.
Investigators don’t know what to believe. “It’s creepy,” one told me before I got on the subway to go back to the office. “But what the hell are we going to do about it now?”

There have been thousands of articles, webpages, even movies about how 9/11 was a conspiracy by the US, or Zionists, or whoever. The evidence is laughable and the methods these "truthers" use of "just asking questions" would cast doubt on any historic event, including World War II.

Here, however, we have an incontrovertible fact: a high school kid from a Muslim community said to his classroom that the World Trade Center would not be there a week later.

Jonathen Alter is not the only reporter to cover this story. The person he mentioned, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, wrote more about it a year later. He says that the boy was not Pakistani - but Palestinian (the original article had mistakenly said Pakistani, according to Shapiro):

Many people believed this story was nothing more than an urban legend when they first heard it. Everyone has heard similar stories in the wake of such a disaster. Despite the almost unbelievable circumstances of the story, I was able to confirm it last October while working as a crime reporter for the Journal News, a New York-based Gannett newspaper. Catie Marshall, a spokeswoman for the New York City Board of Education, confirmed that school officials reported the incident to police and that the matter since had been taken over by the FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force [FBI-JTTF].

...After federal agents questioned DiLorenzo, police detectives questioned her fourth-period class to see if anyone else had heard the boy's comments. Once the detectives were finished, the boy and his brother were taken to 62nd Precinct headquarters, where two investigators with the FBI-JTTF questioned them for several hours. Their father, who was visiting Palestinian relatives in Israel at the time of the attacks, was scheduled to fly home Sept. 11 on a commercial airliner, but he was delayed when all flights to the United States were grounded.

Shapiro then goes into some second-hand information. While not quite as credible, it is enough to raise eyebrows:

During my continued investigation I learned that the FBI-JTTF was investigating two other students in the New York metropolitan area for the same reason.

On Sept. 10, 2001, a sixth-grade student of Middle Eastern descent in Jersey City, N.J., said something that alarmed his teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. "Essentially, he warned her to stay away from lower Manhattan because something bad was going to happen," said Sgt. Edgar Martinez, deputy director of police services for the Jersey City Police Department. Initially, the Jersey City rumor was met with some controversy. The New York Times called it an unsubstantiated rumor, and both the Daily News and the Jersey City Journal quoted a board-of-education official who denied that the boy had made any reference to the Sept. 11 attacks at all. Despite their reports, Martinez said the FBI-JTTF took over the matter for further investigation.

On Sept. 11, NYPD school-safety officers interrogated a Middle Eastern boy at Health Opportunities High School in the Bronx who had made similar comments that alarmed his teacher. Catie Marshall said the boy told his peers something as the school was being evacuated on Sept. 11.

"He warned them not to ride any city buses because he had been told at his mosque the week before to stay off all public transportation for a while," said one NYPD officer from the investigating 40th Precinct. "He said it wouldn't be safe." The FBI-JTTF since has taken over the matter.

One New Utrecht official told me that of the 509 Arab-American students who attend the school, many have come forward with their own stories about having prior knowledge. "Kids are telling us that the attacks didn't surprise them," she told me. "This was a nicely protected little secret that circulated in the community around here. I guess they were talking about it among themselves, but they didn't share it with us - at least not before the attacks."

According to students, many of their Arab-American peers were seen taking photographs of the crumbling twin towers from New Utrecht on Sept. 11. "Don't you think it's strange so many of them happened to take their cameras to school that particular day?" one student asked me.

Shapiro is a freelancer, and he could not find any media outlet that would be willing to pay him to mount a proper investigation. It could be because the media outlets he contacted didn't think it was credible - although the story of the New Utrecht boy was confirmed. The more likely reason is that no one wanted to touch this story because of what it might reveal.

Shapiro goes on:

I don't have the resources to continue an ongoing investigation into who had prior knowledge of the attacks - but I am sure someone out there does. Many things have happened since I broke my first story. On Nov. 9, 2001, my sources informed me that the same boy who predicted the attacks told school officials there would be a plane crash on Nov. 12. I decided to inform an FBI agent I knew who told me that, without specific information, there was little they could do.

Once again, the boy's prophecy came true. Three minutes after American Airlines Flight 587 took off from JFK International Airport to the Dominican Republic, its tail snapped off and both engines fell from its wings, dooming the plane to crash in Belle Harbor, located in the Rockaway section of Queens. None of the 260 people aboard survived. To date, authorities suspect the crash was an accident. I'm not so sure.

Recently I learned the investigation into the New Utrecht incident had been closed because authorities were "unable to obtain any further viable information that would explain what really happened." School sources tell me DiLorenzo has "stood firm" on her account of the boy's comments.

There's a story out there - and it needs to be covered.

The official investigation into Flight 587 said that it was human error that caused the crash, but there is some controversy about that.

Perhaps there is an innocent explanation for the incident, and the others are just unsubstantiated rumors. It is interesting that in Al Qaeda's list of 18 successful terror attacks, 17 are generally known to have been their handiwork and the 18th is Flight 587, supposedly taken down with a shoe bomb identical to Richard Reid's terror attempt one month later.

If the evidence pans out, this means that there was at least one set of Arabs or Muslims in America who had foreknowledge of 9/11 and who did not lift a finger to save the lives of thousands. If Arab teenagers knew about the attack, it means that this group was sizable.

There are problems with assuming this was a larger conspiracy of silence. It was by no means certain that the towers would actually fall down - even Bin Laden was surprised by that - yet the teen predicted that the towers would no longer be there. We would also have to assume that the police and FBI simply gave up when they couldn't get any answers from the Muslim community in Brooklyn.

In the end, this is a story not only of what appears to be a case of foreknowledge, but more importantly it looks like it is a story that was known - and purposefully dropped by the media. Nine years later, the leads have grown cold, but the media at the time seem to have actively refused to research the incident further, perhaps fearful of the backlash against Arabs and Muslims that could result from such a sensationalist story being confirmed. Remember, President Bush bent over backwards to limit any backlash against Muslims; in such an environment, it is easy to see how the media would stay away from this story.

Palestinian Arab "apartheid" against - Palestinian Arabs

I had missed this story in Pajamas Media:

Depending upon whose estimate you read, there are some twenty or thirty thousand “refugees” in the Balata refugee camp outside of Nablus. Balata is simultaneously the most populous and smallest of the Palestinian refugee camps — its growing population is confined to one square kilometer, making it one of the most densely populated and miserable places on the planet.

Any regime with an ounce of compassion would have shut Balata down and integrated its people into the surrounding community. Balata is a place without hope, a quagmire of despair, where the day-to-day misery of its inhabitants is partially ameliorated by Western charities and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), while inadvertently building a culture of dependence.

Balata’s creation could ostensibly be laid at Israel’s doorstep, but its perpetuation cannot. The current residents of Balata are only refugees by a crude reworking of the meaning of the term. They themselves have fled from nothing, and sought refuge from nothing. They are the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the people who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war.

If you want to use the term “apartheid” to characterize some aspect of Middle East politics, then Balata is a good place to apply it. It is the Palestinian Authority’s answer to Soweto.

The PA does not permit the children of Balata to go to local schools. It does not permit the people of Balata to build outside the one square kilometer. The people of Balata are prevented from voting in local elections, and the PA provides none of the funds for the necessary infrastructure of the camp — including sewers and roads.

Balata and the other refugee camps are showcases of contrived misery. They are Potemkin villages in reverse. Naïve peace activists and unsophisticated Western clergy are led through such camps to witness the refugee drama, with Israel conveniently and prominently cast in the role of villain.

I had no idea that Balata "refugees," fully within the PA's jurisdiction, had few of the rights of PA citizens.

Some 16 years after Oslo, the PA is finally in the process of building its first town from scratch. (Compare that with the amount of building that happened in Israel between 1948-1964!) But even that town is being built by a developer to attract Palestinian Arab yuppies, not at all to help out the "refugees" who are in their own land and yet treated as second-class citizens. The people of Balata will continue to rot because they are more useful that way.

(h/t It's Complicated, a new blog by an EoZ reader.)

The Faisal Riding Club of Gaza

From The Guardian (h/t Daled Amos):

On a Friday evening on the edge of Gaza City, the tables at Faisal are beginning to fill up.

A group of young women wearing brightly-patterned headscarves and high heels beneath their jilbabs order ice cream and fruit cocktails; elsewhere men are puffing on water pipes.

But the main attraction is not the company, the menu, nor the refreshing evening breeze that blows off the nearby Mediterranean coast. People come to watch the horses.

Faisal is Gaza's only riding club, open for the past five years and, despite the Israeli blockade and its grim economic consequences, doing rather well. It started with a nucleus of Arabian horses bred in Gaza, but this has been recently supplemented with horses from Egypt and Syria imported through the tunnels dug beneath the border at the southern end of the Strip.

"We choose the horses over the internet, looking at video clips," said chief trainer Ahmed Abd Ali. "We also take advice from our trading partners in Egypt."

The horses are led through the bigger tunnels, but even then it is sometimes a tight fit, according to Abd Ali. Some reach the Gaza end with minor scratches, and some appear a little frightened by the journey. "But we have no choice, there is no other way to get them," he said. The animals are already trained but the trainers allow them a few weeks to recover from the tunnel ordeal before putting them to work.

The club has built up its membership to around 120, with more riders coming for ad hoc lessons. Its monthly fees of around 300 shekels (£52) are a considerable commitment, even for Gaza's elite families. But, says Abd Ali, "we are in a good position" with numbers increasing.

The riding club is part of a circuit frequented by affluent Gazans. Next door is Crazy Water Park, a swimming centre with chutes and slides. There is a burgeoning number of seafront cafes, and a new shopping mall opened in July.

The article goes on to point out "access to these facilities is limited to a tiny stratum of the population."

Algeria refuses to allow Abbas to visit

Mahmoud Abbas, on his way back from Washington, stopped off in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.

According to Palestine Today, however, Algeria refused to allow him to visit that country.

The reasons for Algeria's move were not clear, but the article says that a number of years ago Algeria gave a large sum of money to the PA - and then discovered that millions of dollars from their donation ended up in secret personal accounts owned by PA officials in Morocco.

Algeria is also reportedly not happy with the fact that Abbas only contacts them to demand money.

A hopeful story (for a change)

From Ma'an:

On 27 August, a Palestinian 4-year-old, Abdul-Hayy Salhout, fell from a balcony at his family's home in the Jabal Al-Mukabbir village in occupied East Jerusalem.

Doctors at the Hadassah Medical Center spent eight hours trying to revive the toddler in the ICU, where he died six days later. Abdul-Hayy's parents decided at the time to donate his organs.

According to the Israeli news site Ynet, the boy's liver has since been successfully transplanted to a critically ill 7-year-old Israeli boy. A kidney was given to an 8-year-old girl, also Israeli, whose body has accepted it. The other kidney went to a 55-year-old Israeli man, and he is in good condition too despite concerns of rejection due to the age difference.

"My son arrived at the hospital in very serious condition, and it was impossible to save his life. But we're so happy to see him alive inside other people," Abdul-Hayy's father told Ynet. "It makes no difference to us whether the recipients speak Arabic or Hebrew, because saving a human life is the same."

When the British jailed shofar-blowers (video)

Five years ago I wrote about the time period between 1930 and 1947 when the British forbade any Jew from blowing the shofar at the kotel, and how every year some Jews would get arrested for blowing the shofar at the end of Yom Kippur.

This episode been turned into a moving video by Toldot Yisrael and the History Channel.

"Echoes of a Shofar" is the premiere episode in the "Eyewitness 1948" short film series produced by Toldot Yisrael and the History Channel. It is the centerpiece of an educational pilot program being developed with The iCenter and made possible through the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Under a British law in Palestine passed in 1930, Jews were forbidden to blow the shofar at the Kotel, pray loudly there, or bring Torah scrolls, so as not to offend the Arab population.

Despite this restriction, for the next seventeen years, the shofar was sounded at the Kotel every Yom Kippur. Shofars were smuggled in to the Kotel where brave teenagers defiantly blew them at the conclusion of the fast. Some managed to get away - others were captured and sent to jail for up to six months.

Six of these men are still alive.

Two weeks ago, these six men returned to the scene of their "crime". Armed with shofars, they recounted their individual stories and blew shofar again at the Kotel.

This is their powerful and inspiring story.

(h/t Cher)

Soros pledges $100M to HRW

From the NYT:

George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, plans to announce on Tuesday that he is giving $100 million to Human Rights Watch to expand the organization’s work globally.

Now they can double the number of reports slamming Israel!

Hamas resentment at Iranian pressure?

This comes from the anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency, so take it with a grain of salt, but the newspaper reports that Hamas is growing increasingly upset at the strings that are being attached to Iranian cash.

According to the article, Iran is pushing Hamas to execute "collaborators," something that Hamas is not keen on doing right now because it wants to cultivate a less violent reputation.

This week, Hamas plans to publish some of the alleged confessions from "collaborators" who turned themselves in.

Egypt finds more weapons caches

From Ma'an:

Egyptian police took control of nine weapons caches across the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, nearly a week after discovering three stores in the same area.

All of the stores, officials said, were ready to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

Several types of weaponry were discovered in the hideouts, located in northern and central Sinai neighborhoods as well as the southern border city of Rafah and the port city of Al-Arish, police told Ma'an.

Egyptian forces said they found machine guns, ammunition, over 170 anti-aircraft shells, 90 artillery shells, 200 bullets of varying sizes and anti-tank landmines. Additionally, 100 kilograms of TNT explosives were seized by Egyptian security from a hideout inside a cemetery in Rafah.

The real question is - how many of these caches are making it through?

The supposedly pacifist "Free Gaza" movement obviously has no problem with weapons smuggling. Their entire goal is to allow Hamastan to be considered a sovereign entity with full rights to bring in all the weapons they want. As they write:

[T]hey are not terrorist as promulgated by the colonial rhetoric; they are freedom fighters who want their legitimate rights...

And the unfortunate fact is that there is very little daylight between the mainstream media position and that of Free Gaza. Which is why you will never, ever see any wire service or major newspaper refer to Hamas' weapons smuggling as an "obstacle to peace."

PalArab in Florida tries to buy Uzis - think BDSers are upset?

From WSVN (Miami):

A Palestinian national has been arrested in South Florida after he was accused to attempting to purchase hundreds of stolen weapons.

Abdalaziz Aziz Hamayel, a Palestinian national with deep ties to the West Bank, was arrested and accused of trying to buy a large amount of weapons. According to a criminal complaint against Hamayel, the suspect attempted to purchase 300 weapons, which he knew were stolen, and the weapons were headed to "his people."

The criminal complaint said, "Hamayel contacted the confidential source to discuss the weapons and explosives he was requesting for purchase...Hamayel specifically requested a quantity of 300 M-16 rifles, 9mm handguns, UZI submachine guns, silencers and grenades."

Hamayel was also interested in buying remote detonation devices, like a cell phone detonator.

I just can't help wondering whether BDSers would come out publicly against or for the idea of a Palestinian Arab purchasing Israeli-made Uzis to kill Israelis.

Today's example of Abbas' moderation

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority would "not leave Gaza or the West Bank to Hamas or others,” President Mahmoud Abbas told the Kuwait-based daily newspaper Ar-Ray on Tuesday.

The interview followed one in the Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam newspaper on Monday, where Abbas said that if he was forced to concede on key issues such as refugees or borders during the next round of direct negotiations with Israel, he would "pack my bags and leave."

MEMRI translates the Al Ayyam piece (h/t Joel):

PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas stated in Tunisia that he would not relinquish any of the Palestinian's basic principles, and that he would resign before abandoning the right of return.

Is the insistence on the "right of return" Elephant #17?

Reactions to Time's slander

It seems that the full article is even worse than the excerpts.

See:

Honest Reporting

The reference to the "blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land" is particularly telling. Vick appears to subtly reject Israel's historic claims to the land and to imply that Israelis are at fault in the conflict, since the land really belongs to the Arabs.

Bret Stephens at WSJ:

Journalism aside, there's also a moral dimension here, especially for a magazine that recently devoted its cover to the question of whether Americans are "Islamophobic." That dimension is known as the delegitimization of Israel—the idea that the country ought not to exist. Insisting that Israel be wiped off the map, as Iran's leaders do with such numbing frequency, is one method of delegitimization. Suggesting that Israelis don't care about peace—not all of them, of course; there's always a remnant of politically anguished Israelis to be found, quoted and celebrated for the purposes of native standing and moral cover—is another.

Which of these methods does more lasting harm, the malignly blunt or the well-meaningly insidious? Probably the latter: It shapes a climate of supposedly respectable opinion that doesn't hesitate to tar one nation the way it never would any other. Or did I somehow miss the Time covers devoted to why Russians don't care about democracy, or Kenyans about corruption?

Victor David Hanson at NRO:

In fact, Vick argues, the Jews are so obsessed with making money that they don’t much care what happens in the future: “The truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money; they’re enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on.”

You see, Vick has discovered that the rather worldly Israelis, after stealing their land from Arabs, don’t much care for the hard negotiations that the Obama administration is now engaged in (“big elemental thoughts”), not when it is a matter of — yes, making money: “With souls a trifle weary of having to handle big elemental thoughts, the Israeli public prefers to explore such satisfactions as might be available from the private sphere, in a land first imagined as a utopia.”

Soccer Dad has a larger roundup.

"Rape by deception" case was really "deception by media" case

In July, this story became pretty big - here's the AP version, but it was all over the media:

Lying for sex. It happens all the time.

Yet a married Palestinian man has been ordered jailed for 18 months for having sex with an Israeli woman after giving her the impression he too was Jewish, as well as single and interested in a relationship.

His conviction of "rape by deception" has drawn charges of racism and questions about whether courts should be delving into this fraught topic.

Saber Qashor, a 30-year-old father of two, says he was approached by the woman in September 2008 on a downtown Jerusalem street where he had parked his motorcycle, and introduced himself as "Dudu," a common Israeli Jewish nickname.

Within half an hour they were having sex in a Jerusalem office building stairwell.

After nearly two months, he was arrested and told the woman had accused him of forcible rape. Last week, he was sentenced to prison and fined 10,000 shekels ($2,500) for "rape by deception," an offense that may be unique to the Israeli legal code.

"This is a case where it is obviously not rape but fraud, and it smells of racism," said historian and commentator Tom Segev. "It's a real ugly example of how basic values in this country are deteriorating."

All of these articles were written based solely on the Arab man's interview. The victim did not speak to the press. The conclusion was often simple: that Israelis are inherently racist and would never convict an alleged Jewish rapist under such circumstances. For example, Andrew Sullivan (via The Volokh Conspiracy)

But it’s the visceral emotional core of this that is so offensive. It’s about racism, religion and the risk of miscegenation. It’s about the deep disgust of some Israeli Jews toward Arabs, upheld by the courts. It’s a variant of the racial sexual panics of the Jim Crow South.

Other examples here.

Now, Ha'aretz (in Hebrew only) found the victim, and her story is completely different.

Elizabeth at MidEast Youth translates and summarizes the belated Ha'aretz investigation; here is her summary:

Last week, Haaretz daily published a long expose on the matter (my full translation below), revealing what was behind the plea agreement. The report shows, that the victim, B., was raped by her father since she was six-years-old, and was later forced into prostitution by him. At the time of the rape, B. was staying in a women’s shelter after another sexual assault by her father. According to B.’s testimony, first revealed in the Haaretz report, after Kashur claimed that he was a Jewish bachelor, he enticed her to come into a stairwell in a Jerusalem building, where he brutally raped her. B. was left bleeding, beaten up and half naked by Kashur.

Following the rape, B. was hospitalized in a mental institution, where she was investigated by the police. The Prosecutor’s office decided to charge Kashur with rape and sexual assault based on B.’s testimony and other evidence. When B. later appeared in Court to give her testimony, which was confused and contradictory at times, she was confronted by the Defense attorney with her past occupation as a prostitute and her father’s abuse and rape from an early age. The court appearance left B. severely traumatized. When the Defense learned that B. previously filed 14 complaints against her father and other men for sexual assault, it asked to cross-examine B. once again about the past complaints, while focusing on a number of them that didn’t result in an indictment and convictions due to contradictions in her story. The Defense planned to use B.’s past complaints to shatter her credibility. Wanting to avoid another traumatizing event, the Prosecution formulated a plea bargain with the Defense that reduced the charges to “rape by deception”. Essentially, using the threat of once again subjecting a vulnerable rape victim to a traumatizing interrogation, the Defense was able to reach a plea agreement with greatly reduced charges, which didn’t correspond with the facts of the incident.

The Israeli media has failed to thoroughly investigate this matter, resulting in widespread victimization of a rapist and mockery of the “gullible” woman. B. was victimized and abused by her surrounding from an early age, and unfortunately, the Israeli and foreign media, pundits and the blogosphere, victimized her once again.

Not only was the victim's pain minimized, but the entire case was looked upon in opinion pieces and blog posts as yet another example of Israeli racism against Arabs, when in fact it was nothing of the sort.

Will we see retractions? Not very likely. Even Ha'aretz hasn't put this report out in English (they alluded to it here), so the lazy employees in Israel from AP and Reuters aren't aware of this update to begin with, since they use English Ha'aretz as their main source for their "reporting."

90.7% of PalArabs want to destroy Israel

As Time magazine castigates Israel and Israelis for not truly wanting "peace," a recent poll by AWRAD (Arab World for Research & Development) shows how Palestinian Arabs think.

This poll gives a long list of possible answers and asks which ones are "Essential," "Desirable," "Acceptable," "Tolerable" or "Unacceptable."

Some of the results are at odds with the conventional wisdom, to say the least.

IMRA highlights a few of the results. To put it mildly, they show an unwillingness to compromise that are orders of magnitude worse than the most intransigent, hawkish, right-wing Israeli leaders have ever been:

With regards to the final status of Palestine and Israel please indicate which of the following you consider to be Essential, Desirable, Acceptable, Tolerable or Unacceptable as part of a peace agreement.

Historic Palestine – from the Jordan River to the sea as a national homeland for Palestinians
Essential 78.2% Desirable 12.5% Acceptable 4.3 Tolerable 3.1 Unacceptable 2.0

Two state solution – two states for two peoples: Israel and Palestine according to UN resolutions
Essential 17.7 Desirable 15.7 Acceptable 13.6 Tolerable 15.2 Unacceptable 37.7

The number of refugees returning to Israel should be limited to family members and numbers agreed between Israel and Palestine

Essential 3.7 Desirable 7.8 Acceptable 11.9 Tolerable 16.9 Unacceptable 59.6

Palestine should be demilitarized, including the disbanding of militias and
the standing down of the military.

Essential 7.8 Desirable 5.5 Acceptable 4.0 Tolerable 7.6 Unacceptable 75.0

All of Jerusalem (East and West) should remain in Palestine

Essential 84.1 Desirable 10.3 Acceptable 2.2 Tolerable 1.6 Unacceptable 1.7

Other results include:

A majority saying that Israel should be de-militarized (41% Essential, 26% Desirable)

All the settlers should leave the Occupied Territories and settlements closed
Essential 90.8 Desirable 6.3 Acceptable 1.4 Tolerable 0.8 Unacceptable 0.7

Dismantle most of the settlements, move settlers to large blocks and exchange land
Essential 9.6 Desirable 9.0 Acceptable 10.0 Tolerable 17.9 Unacceptable 53.6

Resist occupation through violence to achieve a state
Essential 36.7 Desirable 18.7 Acceptable 16.8 Tolerable 14.0 Unacceptable 13.7

This is not some Israeli right-wing commissioned poll, but from a Palestinian Arab institution.

All of the conventional wisdom that says that Palestinian Arabs want a two-state solution and to live in peace with Israel is wrong. Other polls are constructed in such a way so that it appears that this is what they want, but that is a means to an end, not the desired end itself.

Which is why this poll will not get any publicity in the mainstream media. This is why there will be no Time articles about how Palestinian Arabs do not want peace and how compromise is not in their vocabulary. The mdeia simply cannot deal with these simple truths, so it will ignore the facts.

And, instead, blame Israel.

(h/t sshender)

Another reason the "peace process" is a farce (Samson)

Samson, in the comments, writes:

There are many reasons why these "peace talks" are doomed to failure, most of them well known to the readers of this blog and nearly everyone else. Yet another reason, not often acknowledged, is that the Arabs (and Palestinians in particular) hate the "peace process" and everything about it, including any possible outcome. Americans (well, at least their Presidents) have come to love the whole thing, right up to the handshakes on the White House lawn. For the Arabs, this is yet another humiliation, just the kind of thing they hate more than anything in the world - a bunch of Christian Americans and Europeans supervising their "negotiations" with the hated Jews! For the Palestinians, not particularly well respected among their Arab brethren to begin with, this is the ultimate sign of their inferiority. No wonder they resist direct negotiations.

More important, however, is the discordance between a negotiated settlement and victory, which is what they crave. The idea of 62 years of futile "struggle" followed by a negotiated peace that gives them anything less than 100% of Israel simply doesn't fit into their "narrative." Their national myth requires them to "recapture" "Palestine" with an armed struggle against the evil Jewish Zionists, not settle for the West Bank and Gaza (or less than that) without Jerusalem thanks to US or other third-party intervention. Not that obtaining a state was ever that serious a goal for them compared with destroying Israel in the first place, but even a deliberately deceptive negotiation in which the "agreement" is viewed as the first step in complete and ultimate victory is not enough. Let's face it, the Palestinians have a pretty shallow hold on nationhood to begin with, with little history of accomplishment other than terrorism and suicide bombers, and it just wouldn't do to have their moment of national birth come without martyrdom, armed struggle and victory.

It's not hard to see why they are jealous of the State of Israel, which really does have a long and remarkable pre-history, and whose moment of rebirth occurred as a genuine struggle for survival and nationhood against absurdly long odds. Not that further sacrifice or heroics was what the Jews wanted, needed or asked for, but just as the English can thank the Nazis for their "finest hour", so, ironically, can Israel thank the Arabs. Of course, when Olmert said in 2005 that "....We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies...." he had a point, but sadly, the war is not over, only transformed yet again into a different type of conflict. It cannot be resolved militarily at this point, but any attempt to end it by a "peace process" is doomed for the above cited and many other reasons.

Hazak ve'ematz my friends, the fight for Israel must continue.

About that Time cover story....

A number of people are upset over Time magazine's cover story for the September 13th issue:

I would like to read the entire article (still not online) to give an honest opinion, but from what we can see so far it seems fairly certain that Time magazine sees no distinction between "peace" and "the peace process."

For example, while the cover talks about "peace," the blurb describing the article says:

The Good Life And Its Dangers (Cover)
Israelis feel prosperous, secure--and disengaged from the peace process. Is that wise?

The cherry-picked example given in the online article teaser says:

In the week that three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They're otherwise engaged; they're making money; they're enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on.

From what we can see, Time is making a major mistake that many on the world are making.

To say that Israel, or Israelis, don't care about "peace" is so off-base that it borders on calumny. But to say that Israelis don't care about an inherently flawed "peace process" that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people over the years is perfectly reasonable.

The title on the cover, and the cover itself, are very clearly implying that Israelis do not care about peace itself. The Time editors do not seem to understand basic English. Right now, there is peace, by and large.

On the other hand, Israelis know that the almost automatic result of giving more concessions is terror, not peace.

Hezbollah was not dismantled when its supposed raison d'etre disappeared when Israel withdrew behind UN-drawn borders - on the contrary, it was strengthened. Hamas didn't get weakened by Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza - it moved into the vacuum left by an impotent PA, that just happens to be Israel's "peace partner." What person it their right mind would support moving into act 3 of this drama?

Meanwhile, Abbas himself said "[i]n the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life." Hate to break it to Time, but that is the definition of peace - Israelis and Palestinian Arabs are living together, cooperating on security, and the economies of both groups are improving.

Making more parts of the West Bank Judenrein is not going to improve things; evidence indicates that the opposite is true.

There are many other reasons to be skeptical of the peace process. Last time I listed them, I had 16 of them, and they are not going away.

This does not mean that Israel doesn't care about peace. Israel's actions since the Intifada have reduced the number of victims of terror - and number of victims of IDF actions in the West Bank - by a huge amount. Israelis can travel on buses and go to restaurants without fear. West Bank Arabs are also prospering.

Isn't that what peace is all about?

Labor Day weekend open thread (updated)

On another micro vacation and not near a computer. So here's an open thread to tide us all over.

UPDATE: Now even opener! And threadier!

Still a few hours away from a normal computer.

Egyptian state media publishes pictures to shame ElBaradei

Mohammed ElBaradei, who is considered a strong contender to become the next president of Egypt, has charged the Egyptian state media and the ruling National Democratic Party with publishing pictures of his daughters in bathing suits and near alcoholic beverages at a wedding (his daughter married a Christian) in order to discredit and embarrass him.

The photos were apparently taken from ElBaradei's daughter's Facebook page.

Here is one of the shocking alcohol photos:

And if you think that is scandalous, just check out this pornographic image of ElBaradei himself with a girl in a bathing suit:

This appears to be the picture of ElBaradei's daughter that is really getting people upset:

Yes, these are the photos that is causing the uproar.

Egyptian op-ed questions Khaled Meshaal's masculinity

An op-ed in Egypt's Rosalyousef newspaper questions the masculinity of Hamas "political leader" Khaled Meshaal.

Abdullah Kamal, editor in chief of the paper, says that Meshaal cannot do anything from Damascus except pt out irrelevant statements every now and then. He is not in Gaza itself defending the people there; all he does is denounce and criticize.

While he claims that the talks in Washington have no legitimacy because the PA has no mandate, Kamal asks, who gave Meshaal himself any legitimacy? No one elected him.

The article goes on to ask what gives Meshaal any "manhood?" Is it the ability to criticize from afar? Is it the fact that he would not dare say a word without first checking with his Iranian sponsors and Syrian hosts? Is it throwing a wedding for his daughter that could have come out of Arabian Nights while Gaza starves?

Is it macho to keep thousands of prisoners in jail rather than deal them for Gilad Shalit?

The article concludes that Meshaal has no virility nor ethics, that he is not a real fighter, and simply takes advantage of his position for personal gain with no risk.

Ouch!

An interesting set of hadiths

I just stumbled across this series of hadiths, from Kitab Al-Salat, book 4 chapter 47:

Book 004, Number 1079:
'A'isha reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said during his illness from which he never recovered: Allah cursed the Jews and the Christians that they took the graves of their prophets as mosques. She ('A'isha) reported: Had it not been so, his (Prophet's) grave would have been in an open place, but it could not be due to the fear that it may not be taken as a mosque.

Book 004, Number 1080:
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Let Allah destroy the Jews for they have taken the graves of their apostles as places of worship.

Book 004, Number 1081:
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Let there be curse of Allah upon the Jews and the Christians for they have taken the graves of their apostles as places of worship.

Book 004, Number 1082:
'A'isha and Abdullah reported: As the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) was about to breathe his last, he drew his sheet upon his face and when he felt uneasy, he uncovered his face and said in that very state: Let there be curse upon the Jews and the Christians that they have taken the graves of their apostles as places of worship. He in fact warned (his men) against what they (the Jews and the Christians) did.

At least one modern Islamic scholar says that such a mosque, if built after the grave was already in place, must be destroyed. It appears to be the mainstream thinking in Wahhabism.

So how come no Muslims are publicly calling to destroy the mosques that are at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Rachel's Tomb, the Tomb of Joseph and Samuel's' Tomb, among others?

Could it be because the Jews have built places of worship there, and it is more important to erase Jewish connections to the land than it is to observe a series of explicit hadiths?

Erekat vs. Erekat - which one do you believe?

From JPost:

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed on the “core issues” that will be discussed during their direct talks, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said over the weekend.

Erekat claimed that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed at their meeting in Washington on Thursday that the peace talks would be resumed from the point where they were stopped two years ago under then-prime minister Ehud Olmert.

From YNet:

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat said Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to apply stall tactics to negotiations, and that all of his suggestions thus far have been rejected by the PA.

Erekat told Jordan's al-Dustour Newspaper that the Israeli prime minister suggested forming 12 committees dedicated to the various issues of the peace process, but his suggestion was rejected.

The chief Palestinian negotiator said that Netanyahu's "procrastination" has effectively made the peace talks grind to a halt: "There are decisions to be made, so that first and foremost we create a vision," he told the newspaper, adding that such action is the only thing that would allow negotiations to start at the point at which they were left off during the Olmert Administration.

So which Erekat do we believe?

The answer is simple: neither.

Why should we believe any word that comes out of an established liar's mouth?