Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 19, 2011

German far right party implies it wants to gas Jews in campaign posters

A German far-right party is stirring controversy in Berlin with posters, put up ahead of next month's regional election, which some see as a provocative reminder of the Holocaust.

The poster depicts the leading candidate for the extremist NPD-DVU, Udo Voigt, on his motorbike, wearing a black leather jacket, with the motto "Gas geben" (Step on It) or literally "give gas" in what some see as a reference to gas chambers where millions of Jews perished in Nazi extermination camps.

The signs have been put up around the city including just across from the capital's Jewish Museum and reportedly opposite the lakeside villa where the Nazis signed off on the "final solution" for Europe's Jews in 1942.

The mayor of the district where the Jewish Museum is located, Franz Schulz of the Green party, called the campaign a "provocation". Museum officials declined to comment.

The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which recently merged with the small far-right German People's Union (DVU), was set up in 1964 by former Nazis. In 2009 it had between 6,000 and 7,000 members.

It has never won seats in the country's federal parliament, but has gained representation in several regional parliaments, most recently in the eastern states of Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Voigt, who is also a district councillor in Berlin, was found guilty in 2004 of promoting Nazism after he called Hitler "a great man".

There have been repeated calls to ban the NPD on the grounds of racism and anti-Semitism.

A Der Spiegel article describes other provocative ads that the party has made, which make it clear that this was deliberate.

(h/t Silke)

Five of the terror victims

From YNet:

Just 50 meters separated between Danny Gez and his brother, Moshe, when the latter was killed by terrorists together with his wife and another couple. Helpless, he was forced to watch his brother being shot dead.

Sisters Flora Gez and Shula Karlinsky and their husbands, Moshe Gez and Dov Karlinsky, were on their way to Eilat for the weekend when they were killed by the cell which terrorized the area on Thursday.

The friends chose to travel to the southern resort city on Highway 12, instead of the on the more popular HaArva Highway.

Several dozens of kilometers north of Eilat, where Highway 12 runs the closest to the Egyptian border, they were ambushed by terrorists. The ensuing hail of bullets left no survivors in the Karlinsky and Gez car.

"I saw the terrorists come up to the driver's side, Dovik's side (i.e: Dov Karlinsky), and shoot him, and afterwards shoot the rest," Danny recounted in an interview with Ynet.

"The murder took place before my eyes and I couldn't do anything. They shot them from zero range and even confirmed their deaths."

Gez also narrowly escaped being shot. He recounted seeing two people dressed in camouflage standing on the road, and ordered the driver of his vehicle to stop, and reverse.

Seeing their victims flee, the terrorists fired at the car, hitting its front as well as its tires. "I called out to the other passengers, 'We're being shot at, lie down'," Gez said. He and the other passengers were saved.

Devastated family and friends told Ynet that the two sisters were close friends and that both were educators held in high esteem by their colleagues, parents and young students.

"They were devoted educators. This is a horrific loss," one of Flora's colleagues told Ynet.

Both couples lived in Kfar Saba, where they will be laid to rest on Sunday.

The four's car was the second to be ambushed on Thursday.

Shortly beforehand, the terrorists ambushed another car: Esther and Joseph Levy were on their way back from Eilat to Holon on Thursday, heading north on the Mitzpe Ramon Highway, when they were caught in the fray.

They were ambushed by a terrorist who rained bullets on their vehicle, causing it to skid to a halt and flip over.

Joseph was killed and Esther suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. Lucky, she was able to stay conscious.

"It's a miracle she survived," her cousin, Raffi Mauda, told Ynet. "She told us that she saw the terrorist and prayed he wouldn’t confirm the kill. She essentially played dead for 90 minutes. She was then able to call us and tell us what happened."

From her hospital bed, Esther relived the horrific moments which followed the attack: "The radio was still on after the car flipped over… I heard the one o'clock news, about the other incidents. I just kept praying that he stops shooting at us. The radio was playing and I could hear the fire exchange between the terrorists and IDF soldiers.

"I didn’t move. I was so scared that he would shoot at us again. There was blood everywhere and I heard my husband wheezing. I could see his shirt, it was blood-soaked."

Joseph Levy was a veteran employee of Elbit Systems. "He was such a good man. The salt of the earth. This is a tremendous loss," Mauda said.

Levy is survived by his wife and three children. His funeral will be held in Holon on Friday afternoon.

(h/t Dan)

Peaceful Abbas supports war against Israel - if all Arabs joined in (updated)

From Ma'an:

Abbas said the Arab League had discussed allowing armed resistance to Israel's occupation if the bid for full membership of the UN failed, and that some countries supported the idea.

But the president said Palestinians did not want armed resistance "unless you all take a decision to launch war."

He added: "I cannot fire one single bullet at Israel because all I have is a policeman with a Kalashnikov and minimum ammunition."

It isn't like Abbas has an ethical problem against killing Israeli civilians - it's just that he is afraid of losing!

After all, what did he do to stop the second intifada? Since Arafat's death, when he took over as leader of Fatah in late 2004, there have been multiple deadly terrorist attacks that Fatah claimed credit for.

This is in line with what Abbas said in 2008 to a Jordanian newspaper:

At this present juncture, I am opposed to the armed struggle because we can't succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different.

He also said something similar last year:

"I have said more than once that if the Arabs want war - we are with them....We do not wish to turn to armed struggle, because our [lack of] capabilities and the international atmosphere do not allow for it.
...
"I turned to the Arab States and I said: 'If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor. But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability to do it.' "

(h/t Mike)

I cannot find any indication that Abbas condemned yesterday's attack near Eilat. He used to mouth meaningless "condemnations" after his people massacred Israelis, but even then his words always betrayed that he didn't have any moral qualms about those attacks. He would say that the attacks "worked against Palestinian interests" or were ill-timed but he would never show any indication that he was truly offended by them.

People like Abbas who mouth words of "peace" as a tactic are far from peaceful.

PRC song: "Destroy the Jews"

The Popular Resistance Committees, the organization Israel says is behind yesterday's terror attacks, has a multimedia page on its website.

One of the song titles is "Dimroo al-Yehud" - which translates to "Destroy the Jews."

Tough to misinterpret that.

Here it is. It was apparently recorded by someone named Abu Ali; it has been linked to in various Muslim and Arab forums.

The PRC has not taken responsibility for the attack, but their statement about the assassination of their leaders says:

We bless the heroic operation that returned the fight to Palestine in splendor, the operation carried out by the Mujahideen heroes near the city of Eilat, where they inflicted on the criminal enemy dozens of dead and wounded in the quality operation {Allah threw horror in their hearts}.

Grad rockets hit Ashdod - yeshiva and synagogue hit

From YNet:

A rocket fired at Ashdod on Friday exploded in the courtyard of a haredi yeshiva and left 10 people injured. Magen David Adom emergency services said two men were seriously injured.

Eight others were lightly injured in the attack. The victims were rushed to the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot. Minor damage was caused to the building.

The rocket was fired at around 8:10 am and a Color Red siren was sounded in Ashdod and Gedera.

Emergency services detected an additional Grad rocket which hit a synagogue situated several blocks from the yeshiva. The rocket did not explode and security forces are working to demolish the building in order to clear it.

Eyewitnesses said that the victims left the synagogue after hearing the siren. They ran for cover in an adjacent building. When they heard the first blast they came outside and were then hit by the second rocket.

A total of 12 rockets were fired at southern communities overnight.

The "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" took responsibility for the Grad attacks, but no Grad rockets get into Gaza without Hamas' knowledge and approval. Terror groups might manufacture Qassams without Hamas knowing, but they cannot smuggle in rockets and weapons without Hamas' full consent.

YNet also has a profile of four of the victims of yesterday's terrorism.

"We Love Syria and Its Leader"

Syria's official SANA "news" agency continues in the best tradition of Soviet-style propaganda:

A Russian popular delegation on Wednesday arrived in Damascus to take part in "We Love Syria and its Leader" campaign.

The delegation includes Russian political, academic, cultural and artistic personalities in addition to 6 Syrian residents in Russia.

In a statement to SANA, members of the delegation said the visit aims at seeing the reality of events in Syria on ground, adding that Syria is a country of great history and people and led by a wise leadership.

They also expressed that the Russian people rejects foreign interference in Syria's internal affairs, stressing that the Russian people supports Syria.

They don't just like Syria and its leader - they love them!

Saudi woman claims to have hacked into anti-Muslim websites

From Arab News:

An Alkhobar woman studying in the United States is taking credit for destroying 23 Danish websites that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Thursday.

Nouf Rashid told the Arabic newspaper she was hacking into Danish websites having references to cartoons of the Prophet along with other sites that had questionable content in her view.

She said she had also destroyed a number of pornographic sites and hacked into the computer systems of young men who had tried to blackmail girls by threatening to publish their private photos. She gained expertise in the field out of a desire to learn new things in the IT field.

Nouf said she had hacked into some of the Danish websites that denigrated the Prophet and shut them down. “I also sent messages and articles about Islam and the Prophet to those who managed those sites,” she pointed out.

A woman with that name from that same town in Saudi Arabia has a Facebook profile where she says she likes Grey's Anatomy and Friends - TV shows that feature premarital sex.

But she obviously can determine and enforce what is holy and what is profane.

IDF responds, kills 2 PRC leaders and 3 more terrorists

From Ma'an:

An Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians Thursday evening in southern Gaza, medics said, hours after a series of attacks left seven Israelis dead near Eilat.

Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said the airstrikes targeted a house in Rafah.

A Ma'an correspondent said the home belonged to Popular Resistance Committees official Khaled Shaath, who was killed instantly. His two-year-old son Malek later died of injuries sustained in the strike.

The attacks killed four others in Rafah. Among them were PRC military wing chief Abu Awad Nayrab and PRC operatives Imad Hamad, Abu Jamil Shaath and Khaled Masri, medical officials said.

The PRC confirmed the deaths in a statement posted to its website.

Earlier, government spokesperson Mark Regev said the Israeli intelligence was certain that the attacks originated in Gaza. "This is not speculation, not conjecture, not joining the dots. They are sure these terrorists left Gaza."

The PRC responded by saying "A martyr is born with his blood flowing, and the march of thousands of martyrs, body parts and blood would not stop until we achieve victory and God's promise of empowerment."

Terrorism is proof that the "peace process" has nothing to do with peace

Let's imagine that Israel and the PLO had agreed to the boundaries of a Palestinian Arab state back in 2008.

Would today's terror attack have still happened?

The answer can be seen by looking at where the attack occurred - in the "internationally recognized borders" of Israel.

Not in Gaza. Not in the area that the PLO officially claims they want for a state.

In fact, the attack was not even in a place that would have been called "Palestine" before the British Mandate.

People are so used to hearing the phrase "peace process" that they are conditioned to believe the biggest lie of all: that if only Israel would give up more territory, then there would be peace. An agreement, it is widely assumed, would mean no more claims against Israel and a chance for both nations to live side by side in harmony.

Today's attack - which included an RPG attack on a family in a car, killing two children - has nothing to do with "Palestine." The entire point of the attack is to kill Jews who enjoy their own national self-determination in the Middle East. As long as Jews live in freedom in the area, they will be attacked. It will simply never end.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the PRC are not going to disappear after a peace agreement is signed. They would continue to attack Israelis, they way that the fedayeen attacked before there was an "occupation." They will continue to find new claims as Hezbollah does with the Lebanese border after Israel withdrew behidn UN-drawn lines.

Pseudo-intellectuals will likewise keep finding ways to justify the terror by blaming Israel for the reprehensible deeds of the terrorists. They cannot accept the fact that not only would Israel's capitulation not stop terror, but it would probably increase it. Terrorists fired rockets from Gaza to Israel literally hours after Israel's last troops withdrew from Gaza - and they never stopped, even before the "siege."

Israeli actions are not what is preventing peace. Palestinian Arab actions are what makes peace impossible - their terrorism as well as their widespread support for terrorism, in the media and on the streets.

Islamic Jihad issues rare condemnation of Hamas for arrest

Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades has condemned Hamas for "kidnapping" one of their mujahadin.

According to their statement, Hamas raided an Islamic Jihad building on Monday morning and "arrested [the PIJ member] without regard for the sanctity of Ramadan and without respect for the [normal] coordination mechanisms used between Saraya [Islamic Jihad] and Gaza security forces."

PIJ added that Hamas "turned its back on all the efforts made for the release of the Mujahid, which led us to announce the incident, which we did not hope to reach this point."

The statement concluded that "this incident is strange and deplorable but will not affect the fraternal relations between the Quds Brigades of all the Palestinian factions and our brothers in the Gaza government. We express hope that the crisis ends soon ..and we return to the method of dialogue and understanding to resolve any problem that may happen in the future."

Although it is no surprise, this statement shows that the Hamas government normally coordinates activities with Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups, which makes the idea of a peaceful "unity government" with Fatah even more of a joke.

Palestinian Arabs respond to terror attack with glee (updated)

The talkbacks on Palestinian Arab news sites are filled with happiness and glee at the murder of Israelis today near Eilat.

And not only the Hamas or Islamic Jihad oriented sites, but the Fatah-leaning sites as well.

Palestine Press Agency, which is a Fatah-leaning site, has commenters saying

"God praise the [Hamas] Al-Qassam Brigades" (they have not taken responsibility)

"Our Lord is with the heroes"

"[I] call for resistance in the Gaza with rocket fire and suicide bombings and the Glory of God and His Messenger"

"Tribute to the Heroes of each attack and no matter what their affiliation"

"God is great and victory is coming"

By far the most popular comment in the Hamas-oriented PalTimes is "God is great."

Firas Press has a numbr of "God is Great" comments as well as one referring to the victims as "monkeys."

The popular Paldf.net forum site has hundreds of messages of praise as well as digging up every possible scrap of rumor they can find.

I have yet to find a single expression of sadness or condemnation for the attack. One person thought that it was "suspicious" and implied it was a Zionist false flag attack to be a pretext for invading Egypt or Gaza; that's the closest I could find to a reservation about the attack. Everyone else is pouring out happiness and congratulations to the heroic terrorists.

UPDATE: A couple of people think it is unfair to generalize based on talkbackers, who are usually the most extreme idiots. However, there are usually extremists on both sides of the story. I cannot find a single Palestinian Arab who is an "extremist" in supporting peace or condemning terror. And that is a significant issue that is worthwhile to mention.

Links, snippets, video

Possible next leader of Labor Party does not see establishing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as a crime:

In its time, it was a completely consensual move. And it was the Labor Party that founded the settlement enterprise in the territories. That is a fact. A historical fact....I am familiar with the worldview that maintains that if we cut the defense budget in half there will be money for education. It's a worldview with no connection to reality....I reject it; it is simply not factually correct, even though it is now perceived as axiomatic. A school that is located in a settlement and has X number of students would be located inside the Green Line and have the same number of children at the same cost. I don't say that the settlements themselves did not cost more money. But even if the defense budget were cut in half, and even if the settlement costs were cut in half, the economic ideology that led us to them would not seek to divert the newly available funds to the service of the state.

The always excellent Richard Landes talks about the West's problem with criticizing Islam in a new blog in The Telegraph:

In an honour culture, it is legitimate, expected, even required to shed blood for the sake of honour, to save face, to redeem the dishonoured face. Public criticism is an assault on the very “face” of the person criticised. Thus, people in such cultures are careful to be “polite”; and a genuinely free press is impossible, no matter what the laws proclaim.

Modernity, however, is based on a free public discussion, on civility rather than politeness, but the benefits of this public self-criticism – sharp learning curves, advances in science and technology, economic development, democracy – make that pain worthwhile.

But such a system represents a crucible of humiliation for alpha males, especially those who believe that the social order depends on the honour of ruling elite, like the anti-Dreyfusards around 1900, ready to sacrifice a single man for the honour of Army and Church.

This is particularly true for Islamic religious culture. In Dar al Islam, a Muslim’s contradiction/criticism of Islam was punishable by death, a fortiori did this hold true for infidels. Modernity has been a Nakba (psychological catastrophe) for Islam, and Islam in all its variegated currents has yet to successfully negotiate these demands of modernity.

On the contrary, the loudest voices in contemporary Islam reject vehemently the kind of self-criticism modernity requires. Criticism constitutes an unbearable assault on the manhood of Muslims.

Khaled Abu Toameh on the Arab uprisings:

Elliot Abrams: Will Ariel block peace?

If there is a single issue that explains the failure of Obama policy toward Israel, it is settlements. And this week the administration once again indulged itself in a knee-jerk reaction that displayed incomprehension in a way that harms U.S.-Israeli relations without doing the slightest bit of good for the Palestinians.

This week Israel announced a plan to construct 277 more housing units in Ariel, a settlement that is a town of 18,000. The new units are to be constructed in the center of the town, it was also announced. This is a significant fact, for construction of new units at the edges of the town would mean that the security perimeter would need to be extended to protect the new housing and the people in it. But this will not happen, and Ariel will expand in population but not in land area. It is not, in the usual Palestinian Authority parlance, “taking more Palestinian land.”

When I worked on these issues in the Bush Administration, we discussed settlement expansion thoroughly with the government of Israel and (as I have explained elsewhere) reached agreement on some principles. These were that Israel would create no new settlements and that existing settlements would expand in population but not in land area. New construction, that is, would be in already-built-up areas, and the phrase we used was “build up and in, not out.” The usual complaints about new construction in the settlements were that “it is making a final peace agreement impossible” or at least more and more difficult by “taking more Palestinian land” that would have to be bargained over in the end and whose taking would right now interfere with Palestinian life and livelihoods. We understood that there would never be a long construction freeze even if there might be some brief ones, for the settlements–especially the “major blocks” that Israel will keep–are living communities with growing families. So we reached that understanding with the Israelis: build up and in, not out. That way whatever the chances of a peace deal were, construction in the settlements would not reduce them.

This agreement the Obama Administration ignored or denounced, suggesting at various times that it never existed or that, anyway, it had been a bad idea and all construction must be frozen–even in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. (To be more accurate, construction by Israeli Jews was to be frozen; construction by Palestinians could continue). No Israeli government could long accept such terms and though the Netanyahu government did agree to a short and partial freeze, when that failed to bring the PLO back to the negotiating table the freeze was ended. This Obama fixation with a construction freeze proved disastrous because the president and his secretary of state took the view that it was a precondition for negotiations without which the Palestinians could not be expected to come to the table. Of course once that American position was announced the Palestinian leadership had to adopt it, lest they appear weaker in asserting Palestinian “rights” than Washington.

(h/t O, CHA, jzaik)

Egypt imprisons two for "insulting the military." Ah, spring!

From AFP:

Egypt's military, which faces growing condemnation for cracking down on critics, on Wednesday sentenced two men to six months in prison each for chanting anti-military slogans, a prosecution official said.

The military, in power since a popular revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February, has promised to hand over government to civilians after a yet unscheduled presidential election.

The military this week decided to try an activist and blogger who posted a widely popular appeal to Egyptians to rise up against Mubarak days before the January 25 revolt.

Asmaa Mahfouz, who has become a vocal critic of the military, is charged with insulting the military on the Internet, in a step the New York-based Human Rights Watch described as an "escalation" against military opponents.

Egypt: A liberated nation run by a military dictatorship that hasn't scheduled elections yet. Isn't it wonderful?

From YNet/Reuters:

An Israeli bus traveling to the southern city of Eilat has come under fire on noon Thursday.

Police forces, as well as Magen David Adom emergency services teams have been dispatched to the scene.

Security forces have closed off all of the entrances to Eilat and are currently canvassing the area in search of three suspects.

Initial details said that five people have suffered moderate to mild injuries in the attack, which took place about 30km (18 miles) north of Eilat, near the Ein Netafim junction.

Defense establishment sources said that the fire originated from the Egyptian side of the border. Egyptian security forces have been alerted and are reportedly conducting a simultaneous manhunt.

Passengers on the 392 number bus headed from Eilat to Mitzpe Ramon reported seeing three figures wearing smocks open fire towards them. Security officials said the shooters, who managed to escape after the firing, were most likely carrying Kalashnikov guns.

The Muqata is liveblogging.

Apparently there were two separate bus attacks, and a car attack. One bus attacked by an RPG or anti-tank missile, other by Kalashnikovs. Reports of mortars and roadside bombs in the Negev as well. The car had children; five injured in that attack. Reportedly the first attack was carried out by men in Egyptian army uniforms.

Two children, ages 4 and 6, were killed in the car which was attacked by an RPG.

There are reports of seven Israelis killed, and three terrorists killed so far.

Hamas caught between rock and a hard place on Syria

Palestine Press Agency has published an analysis saying that Hamas has been cornered by the Syrian uprising.

On the one hand, Hamas has had a patron in Damascus, having moved its headquarters there from Jordan in 1999. It has tried to be low-key about the uprising, sitting on the fence and not saying much.

However, Hamas cannot publicly support a nation that is killing Palestinian Arabs.

Fatah has seized on the Latakia attacks, publicly calling it a "crime against humanity." Hamas, however, remained silent.

In fact, as I mentioned earlier, a rally in Gaza against the Syrian regime resulted in a number of arrests by Hamas plainclothes policemen - and they arrested a journalist covering the rally as well.

There have been rumors that Hamas is looking to relocate its headquarters again, to Qatar or Turkey.

The New York Times briefly mentioned this conundrum today:

Syria has long given residence to Palestinian factions opposed to Mr. Abbas, including Hamas and some splinter Palestinian groups, and many Palestinians recall Syria’s decision to intervene decisively against them in 1976 during the Lebanese civil war. So far, Hamas has sought to avoid alienating the government in Damascus while stopping short of statements of support, like those from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement and, even more pronounced, the allied Amal movement in Lebanon. In a pro-Hamas newspaper in Gaza, a columnist criticized the ferocity of the Syrian crackdown.

Now that Palestinian Arabs have become victims of Syria's assault, Hamas' fence-sitting position is looking less tenable. Palestinian Arabs are very upset over Syria and Hamas cannot remain supportive of the regime - no matter how lukewarm that support is.

(h/t David G, CHA)

Syria's embassy personnel intimidating protesters

Last month I quoted a chilling Al Arabiya article about how the Syrian embassy in the US was threatening Syrian anti-regime protesters by photographing and identifying them and then threatening their families back home.

The Wall Street Journal (via Fox News) reports on this as well:

Syria is taking its war against President Bashar al-Assad's political opponents global, using diplomats in Washington, London and elsewhere to track and intimidate expatriates who speak out against the Damascus regime, according to Syrian dissidents and U.S. officials.

Syrian embassy staffers are tracking and photographing antiregime protesters and sending reports back home, Syrian activists and U.S. officials say. Syrian diplomats, including the ambassador to the U.S., have fanned out to Arab diaspora communities to brand dissidents "traitors" and warn them against conspiring with "Zionists."

A half-dozen Syrian-Americans interviewed by The Wall Street Journal in recent weeks say that as a result of their activities in the U.S., family members have been interrogated, threatened or arrested in Syria. The Obama administration says it has "credible" evidence that the Assad regime is targeting relatives of Syrian-Americans who have participated in peaceful U.S. protests.

In an interview Tuesday, Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador, dismissed the allegations by Syrian dissidents and U.S. officials as "slander and sheer lies."

One Syrian-American scientist in Philadelphia, Hazem Hallak, said his physician brother, Sakher, was tortured and killed in May by Syria's intelligence agencies, the mukhabarat, after he returned from a medical conference in the U.S. Syrian agents in Aleppo were obsessed with obtaining a list of Syrian activists and U.S. officials the brother had allegedly met during his stay, Hazem Hallak said.

"They want to intimidate us wherever we are," said Mr. Hallak, who said he believes Syrian agents or regime sympathizers tracked his brother inside the U.S. Mr. Hallak said his brother wasn't involved in anti-Assad activities.

The State Department recently publicly rebuked the Syrian ambassador, Mr. Moustapha, for allegedly intimidating activists and confined him to a 25-mile radius around Washington.
"We received reports that Syrian mission personnel under Ambassador Moustapha's authority have been conducting video and photographic surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States," the State Department said. "The United States Government takes very seriously reports of any foreign government actions attempting to intimidate individuals in the United States who are exercising their lawful right to freedom of speech as protected by the U.S. Constitution."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, meanwhile, is investigating allegations that Mr. Moustapha and his staff have threatened or harmed Syrian-Americans, according to three individuals interviewed by the FBI in recent weeks. An FBI spokesman said the bureau won't comment on any possible investigation into the Syrian embassy's activities.

Jennifer Rubin discusses this in more detail.

Meanwhile, Tunisia has recalled its ambassador to Syria.

Syrian troops are breaking into private homes in Latakia.

Some UN employees fled the country.

The next clampdown may be the Yarmouk PalArab camp in Damascus where electricity has been cut off. Another Arab leader is turning against his Palestinian "guests.

UNESCO tersely admits calling Maimonides a Muslim

I reported last month that a UNESCO document has put Maimonides in a recent list of Muslim scholars published in December 2010.

The Algemeiner contacted UNESCO about this:

When contacted directly by the Algemeiner for comment a UNESCO spokesperson replied, “UNESCO acknowledges that there was indeed an important and regrettable error in the chapter devoted to Arab States in the UNESCO Science Report published in 2006, which refers to Maimonides as a Muslim scholar,” they said. “Despite the vigile [sic] of our editors, errors unfortunately do occasionally occur.”

The representative declined to comment further.

That's not quite an apology.

While the acknowledgement is welcome, in the context of UNESCO declaring Rachel's Tomb to be a "historic mosque" - a provable lie - and other anti-Israel biased statements it has made recently, one wonders if a mistake like this is more than just a mistake.

UNESCO must have known how offensive this Maimonides gaffe was, so to shrug it off as "just one of those things" hardly seems an adequate response.

Hamas prevents scholarship students from traveling to the US

Hamas holds the keys to the Gaza prison:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) denounces the decision taken by the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Gaza to prevent 8 students who have been granted scholarships to study in the United States of America via AMIDEAST, from travelling for "social and cultural reasons."

Eight students from secondary schools in Gaza won scholarships from the YES program run by the AMIDEAST. They were selected for the scholarship based on academic criteria and the selection process took a full year. ...

On 25 July, the parents of the successful students submitted a request to Dr. Usama al-Muzeini, Minister of Education and Higher Education in Gaza, to approve granting facilitations necessary for their children's travel via Erez crossing on 17 August 2011. However, the Minister rejected the request on 31 July 2011 for "social and cultural reasons." It should be noted that in their requests, the parents explained that they are know the details of the scholarship and about measures necessary for the protection of their children.

The parents intended to send the kids to the US via Israel - but Israel didn't reject them. Their own "leaders" did.

Work accident?

A Hamas terrorist member of the Al Qassam Martyrs' Brigades has succumbed to wounds he received several days ago in an "accident." Not a car accident; just an "accident."

Mohammed Jaber Al-Safadi was 26 years old commander for the Brigades. The Qassam website hailed him as a martyr, saying "He was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice" and that he fell in the "playground of death."

From other similar incidents it seems that either he did kill himself while playing with explosives in his playground of death, or that he was killed in an intra-Hamas feud, which get hushed up by Hamas.

Either way, it's time to distribute the candies!

Iran blames Somali humanitarian crisis on...well, you can guess

From Iran's FARS ~~comedy channel~~ "news agency:"

Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) forces Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi expressed concern about the conditions of the Somali people who are hit by severe famine and drought, and took the US and the Zionist regime responsible for growing catastrophe in the African country.

"The present poverty, hunger and insecurity in Somalia are the result of the numerous plots of the US and the Zionist regime," Naqdi said here in Tehran on Wednesday.

He reiterated that Somalia is experiencing aggravating humanitarian crisis because the US and the Zionist regime prevented establishment of a stable and efficient government in Somalia by provoking insecurity and unrests in the North African country.

A list of everything that the Muslim and Arab world has blamed on Jews and Zionists would tax the largest databases.

Hamas arrests Gazans protesting Syrian regime

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas broke up a demonstration in Gaza supporting the Syrian people and Palestinian Arabs in Latakia who have been attacked by the murderous regime.

Hamas security forces arrested ten demonstrators, who were reportedly beaten.

PA TV: Western Wall Plaza will become an Arab neighborhood

From PMW:

PA TV doc: Arab homes will be built at Western Wall, Jews' praying there is "sin and filth""They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth (Jews' praying at Western Wall) in an area that used to have [Arab] people and homes. We are drawing our new maps. When they [Israelis] disappear from the picture, like a forgotten chapter in the pages of our city's history, we will build it anew (residential area). The Mughrabi Quarter will be built here (on the Western Wall Plaza)."

Keep in mind that the same people who will censor comedy TV shows for offending the sensitive feelings of their politicians are quite happy with direct insults at Jews and Jewish history on their TV station.

Abbas again tells Lebanese Palestinians to go to hell

Palestine Press Agency reports that Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Lebanon, reiterated that he insists Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon should remain stateless forever, or at least until Israel is destroyed:

The presence of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is temporary and subject to Lebanese law, and access to civil rights to live with dignity in Lebanon does not at all mean resettlement. We categorically reject the principle of resettlement.

Here, Abbas is repeating what he said in 2008:

We would not accept any settlements that would lead to a demographic change in Lebanon. This is totally unacceptable ... We won't accept a settlement that obliges Lebanon to naturalize even one Palestinian.

And again:

We assure our Lebanese brothers that the resettlement of refugees in their country is rejected. We will not accept it.

In 2009, he vehemently came out against the idea of Lebanon issuing passports to their Palestinian Arab "guests."

In 2005, however, Abbas had no problem with offering citizenship for Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon - and he was castigated for that by the self-appointed terrorist leaders in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Palestinians have consistently chosen to become citizens when they had a chance.

As I have previously written on this topic:

Generations have grown up in Lebanon, raised families, and died, but their supposed "leader" is more interested in them keeping their stateless status rather than giving them the simple choice of allowing them to be more integrated into the land of their birth.

Mahmoud Abbas, that supposedly moderate leader of the PA, the PLO and Fatah, who claims to represent millions of people of Palestinian Arab descent, has once again told his people to go screw themselves rather than give them the option of happiness as full citizens of other Arab lands. He arrogantly claims to know what is best for his people, and is dead-set against giving them the option of making their own decisions.

Because he knows that the majority them would not choose to put their families through the hell that they have gone through thanks to the decisions of Arab leaders over the past six decades.

Palestinian Arabs who choose to become citizens of Arab countries will, by and large, never choose to move to an eventual "Palestine." They will identify only peripherally as "Palestinian." They will lose their value as pawns to corrupt, arrogant "leaders" who pretend to know what is best for them, and whose power derives from their very misery.

Moreover, if Arab countries would give PalArabs full citizenship, a significant number of Palestinian Arabs in the territories - hundreds of thousands, if not over a million - would happily move to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or Dubai. (Ironically, they would also have a positive influence on most of their host Arab countries, as they tend to be better educated and harder working, and Gulf countries import many workers from Indonesia and Africa, causing many problems that could be avoided if Palestinian Arab workers replaced them.)

The operative word here is "choice." Palestinian Arabs are not given the power to choose where to live, and Arab nations specifically deny them the ability to become citizens that they give all other Arabs.

Yet there are no "pro-Palestinian" organizations tha lobby on behalf of real Palestinian Arabs. They all repeat the lie that they can best help them by fighting Israel, militarily or politically. It is a myth, and one that is easily disproven - it has not helped them one bit in 63 years. "Human rights" organizations may mention some of these problems in isolation but they do not push for the simplest, fairest and cheapest solution to the problem of millions of stateless people.

Abbas, the one person who pretends to represent his people the best, tells his suffering would-be constituents that their six-decade old problem is "temporary."

This is a travesty of human rights.

The way to tell if someone is truly pro-Palestinian Arab or is simply using the Palestinian Arabs as pawns to help destroy Israel is to ask him one simple question:

Do you support giving all Palestinian Arabs the choice to become full citizens of any Arab country that they desire, according to the existing naturalization rules that they have for other Arabs?

This is the question that needs to be asked of every Arab leader, every Palestinian Arab leader, every NGO, every human rights organization. It should be hammered in during every interview. They must be forced to answer the question clearly and forcefully.

Unless they can answer that question in the affirmative, the inescapable conclusion is that most people who pretend to be "pro-Palestinian" are nothing more than liars and hypocrites who support discrimination against the very people they claim they want to help.

Egyptians charge man with selling Zionist Infertility Shampoo

Al Ahram reports that Egyptian security has arrested a Jordanian who was allegedly spying for the Mossad.

His specific crime?

Bashar Abu Zeid was the sole importer of an Israeli hair product that contained "creatine." This product, according to the charge, causes infertility in both women and men, for the purpose of eliminating all childbirth in Egypt permanently.He worked with an additional alleged Mossad spy, Ofir Harrari.

Don't the Egyptians realize that this is the antidote to the infamous Zionist Sex Gum?

Leave it to the Mossad to take a potentially multi-billion dollar product and use it only to cause Egyptian infertility! Even the money grubbing Jews prefer to sabotage Egyptian birthrates rather than market a simple and painless birth control method.

Needless to say, this story is rocketing around Arabic media.

Oh, and here's how Al Ahram illustrated this amazing scoop:

Freedom of Speech, PA-style: Satire sketch TV show yanked

From Ma'an:

A Ramadan TV series that became notorious for its criticism of Palestinian Authority officials has been discontinued on the PA-run Palestine TV, Attorney General Ahmad Al-Mughni said Tuesday evening.

Al-Mughni told Ma'an they decided to stop broadcasts of Watan Ala Watar [Country on a String] after Tuesday's episode because "it is full of mistakes, is meaningless and is a waste of time for people to watch."

The serial, broadcast during the holy month of Ramadan when broadcasters compete for captive audiences with soap operas and special series, was an emblem of PA's ability to tolerate self-criticism.

Al-Mughni said Tuesday that the series is "harmful to Palestinian society."

"It mocks leaders terribly, and has a poor scenario," he said, adding that episodes had crossed "red lines."

"There are people and personalities that can't be imitated in any way," the Attorney General said.

The series had targeted the beleaguered Palestinian Authority health ministry, public sector workers union head Bassam Zakarneh and teachers union in recent weeks, and officials are reported to have complained to the Attorney General about the send-up.

Palestine TV is operated by the Palestine Broadcast Cooperation, and supervised by the Ramallah-based Ministry of Information.

Watan Ala Watar gained a huge following for its uncompromising look at themes of politics, corruption, nepotism, religion and morality.

Notice that even though PA TV is effectively run by the Ministry of Information, it was yanked by the Attorney General.

JPost reported about subjects of the comedy threatening to sue a week ago.

Al Jazeera reported on the show in 2009:

Jerusalem moves up in the Islamic Holy Place rankings, now #2

Iran's IRNA quotes a Pakistani MK and religious leader, talking about the importance of Jerusalem as Iran's Al Quds Day is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Maulana Mohammad Saleh Shah Qurashi said that "liberating Al Quds" is a pan-Islamic responsibility, which probably means that all Muslims should invade Israel as soon as they possibly can.

He also said that Al-Aqsa is the second most holy place for the Muslims around the world.

This news stunned fans of Medina, which had held onto the #2 position for centuries.

This sudden move by Jerusalem up the rankings is sure to cause Muslim holy sport fans to complain to radio shows and resurrect the call for a playoff system where the holiest spot can be determined once and for all, for Shi'a and Sunni alike.

Supporters of the Mecca Masjids are getting nervous as this s the first challenge to their position in a very long time. The Al Quds Crusaders are taunting them with chants of "First Qiblah! First Qiblah!"

Q&A on the September UN stunt (Avi Bell)

JTA has a backgrounder that they call "A Primer for Palestinian Statehood."

Distinguished international law scholar Avi (Abraham) Bell says that JTA's version is misleading and/or wrong, so he answered the same questions, correctly. I received this via email.

What do the Palestinians want the United Nations to recognize?

The Palestinians want to become a "member state" of the United Nations. This requires winning votes in the Security Council and the General Assembly. Since the Palestinians can't win in the Security Council if the US vetoes, they are apparently going to aim for one or both of two secondary options: either a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly "recognizing" a state of Palestine and its territorial sovereignty over Gaza and the West Bank and east Jerusalem or, alternatively, an upgrade of the observer status of the “Palestine” delegation from being the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the representative of the "non-member state of Palestine." Each of these secondary options requires votes only in the General Assembly, which the Palestinians can win handily.

What’s the legal process for becoming a state?

Under customary international law, there is no fixed procedure for becoming a state. International law recognizes a state when it has the required ingredients of territory, a permanent population, a government with effective control and the capacity to carry on international relations. UN recognition is not part of a legal process for becoming a state. Although the Palestinians appear not to have the requisite ingredients, more than one hundred states in the world already recognize the “state of Palestine.”

The UN has a legal procedure for becoming a member, assuming one is a state. Membership requires a recommendation by the Security Council (which is subject to veto by the permanent members), and then a two-thirds vote by the General Assembly

Is there a way for the Palestinians to overcome a U.S. veto?

There is no way to get around a US veto in the Security Council. The Palestinians’ two options for UN votes that don't require Security Council approval — a non-binding "recognition" and upgrade of observer status — are immune from a US veto, but mainly symbolic in effect. Incidentally, the Palestinians have already won "recognition" of the state of Palestine in the General Assembly in the past.

Is there any benefit short of full statehood recognition that the Palestinians can obtain at the United Nations?

Yes, but none connected with the "statehood" initiative.

The Palestinians already have all the non-member rights that are possible, and will not gain any additional rights in the UN even if the observer status is now attached to a "non-member state" rather than an organization. The Palestinians already enjoy generous financial and political support from the United Nations, including dozens of non-binding anti-Israel resolutions every year, and the services of organs of the UN such as the UN Division of Palestine Rights that put out anti-Israel propaganda. The UN already reflexively adopts Palestinian political positions, and it treats the Palestinians as having sovereign territorial rights to the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians can use their automatic super-majority in the General Assembly to add new anti-Israel resolutions to the annual list, such as ones calling for legal, economic and other sanctions against the Jewish state. Irrespective of the procedure used for proposing and adopting the resolutions, the resolutions would be non-binding.

Additionally, the Palestinians can use their effective control over UN bodies to create new anti-Israel “fact-finding” and other investigative missions, like the Goldstone Mission. And the Palestinians can use their majority in the General Assembly to request new anti-Israel advisory decisions from the International Court of Justice.

The Palestinian aim appears to be a symbolic victory that can be used in its ongoing diplomatic, legal and political warfare against Israel.

Why are the Palestinians seeking statehood recognition from the United Nations rather than negotiating directly with Israel?

The Palestinians have explained that they do not see the UN move and negotiations as either-or propositions.

The Palestinians pulled out of negotiations with Israel after Abbas received Prime Minister Olmert’s peace offer in 2008, in anticipation of elections in Israel and the United States. In light of Abbas’s rejection of Olmert’s offer, Palestinian President Abbas explained to a Washington Post interviewer shortly after President Obama’s inauguration in May 2009 that the Palestinians have little to gain from direct negotiations with Israel considering that Obama is likely to pressure Israel for unilateral concessions, and life is otherwise fairly good for the Palestinians. Other than a brief surrender to American pressure in September 2010, when Abbas agreed to negotiations for a few weeks on the eve of the expiration of Israel’s unilateral 10-month settlement freeze, Abbas has been true to his word; as he promised the Washington Post, he has refused even to “begin negotiations” or help “confidence-building measures” unless Israel meets several new preconditions.

The UN-Palestinian statehood initiative was born during those few weeks in which Abbas agreed to negotiate. In September, 2010, President Obama announced in the General Assembly that “when we come back here next year [in September, 2011], we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations – an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel.” The Palestinians subsequently adopted the idea of seeking membership in the UN as a state by September, 2011. President Abbas explained in an op-ed in the New York Times that the goal of the UN statehood initiative is “the internationalization of the [Palestinian] conflict [with Israel] as a legal matter, not only a political one.”

What tools does Israel have to respond to the Palestinian bid?

The Palestinians have long enjoyed an automatic majority in the General Assembly, so Israel has no way to block any anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian initiative in that body. By contrast, US vetoes of anti-Israel resolutions in the Security Council are not guaranteed, so Israel has to continue lobbying the Obama Administration for the requested vetoes. In addition, Israel is lobbying other states in order to reduce the symbolic victory for the Palestinians in the General Assembly by increasing the minority of votes in favor of Israel’s position.

Israel and allies of Israel have also considered steps outside the General Assembly for responding to the Palestinian initiative. Israel has considered sanctioning the Palestinian Authority in some manner, though the Israeli government has not pointed yet to any specific steps. The U.S. Congress has threatened to ban financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it pursues recognition of statehood at the United Nations in violation of its commitment to resolve outstanding disputes with Israel in direct negotiations.

What’s the plan for the day after the U.N. vote?

If Israel or the Palestinians have a concrete plan, they have not revealed it.

Among steps that the Palestinians have publicly considered are diplomatic and political steps to encourage European states to impose economic and political sanctions on Israel, legal measures against Israelis in courtrooms in Europe, and large-scale civil unrest. Israelis have worried that the civil unrest might quickly devolve into violence and terrorism, like previous Palestinian campaigns. However, recent reports suggest that the Palestinian Fatah leadership itself fears civil unrest lest it turn into a popular uprising against the corruption of the ruling Fatah authorities.

Israel is reported to have prepared for potential Palestinian violence, and the potential for sympathetic disturbances along the Syrian and Lebanese borders. There is little indication that Israel is prepared for the internationalized legal and political warfare promised by Abbas.

US Marines training at IDF Urban Warfare Training Center

From the IDF:

The narrow streets and tall cement buildings of the world-renowned IDF Urban Warfare Training Center echoed with shouts in flawless English as US Marines delve into another close-quarters-battle drill.

As part of the ongoing cooperation between the Israeli Defense Forces and the US Armed Forces stationed in Europe, a company of US Marines came to Israel for a month of intensive training at IDF facilities and alongside IDF soldiers. Dividing their time between the Adam Base in central Israel and the Tze'elim Base in the south, the soldiers trained in urban and cautious warfare, reconnaissance, and at various shooting ranges.

As they embark on a training exercise at the UWTC, Platoon Sgt. Robert Hattenbach explains, "We've never been to a mock town like that of the IDF." He mentions the facility's size and unique structure and continues "it's important for our soldiers to train in different sites, preparing them for anything."The soldiers were thrilled to train at the city as well, raving about its realistic feel.

A smoke grenade hits the floor, rapidly secreting thick smoke of a vibrant color used for camouflage against the lurking enemy. Yelling out commands, M4s ready, they sneak from building to building, clearing out every room and securing their objective.

The success of the operation is determined by the Captain, and the "enemy" is a squad of the Marines platoon, hiding inside each multiple story building waiting for the other squads to find them.

"By training here," Hospital Corpsman HM1 Raymond Price elaborates, "we can better combat terrorism at any area and field." He continues, "coming to Israel has been an inspirational trip, it's beautiful to see how Israel has managed to preserve so many years of history, culture and tradition."

"This trip was a serious wake up call," says Sgt. Hattenbach. "The instructors at the Adam Base took the time to explain to us what's been going on in Israel and we realized that Israeli people are just like us. We now better understand what Israel really is and when we go back to the US we can tell people that."

During earlier exercises that involved IDF forces, the US Marines were impressed by their work "the tactics used by the snipers and Special Forces are much more efficient," explains Cpl. Lombard, "they also focus more on the safety of each individual soldier rather than the mission."

The company is one of the only young Marines units; all at around 19 years old, they are close in age to the Israeli soldiers and were able to from close bonds. However unlike IDF soldiers, the Marines volunteer to draft. "We have a responsibility for our country," they agree, "you can't just sit at home hearing of everything going on in the world and remain idle."

This particular company, the Marine Corps Fast Team Security Forces, enlisted for five years, three of which they spend deployed to Europe or Africa and after further infantry training are sent to the battle fronts at either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Concluding their training in Israel, the company went for a well-deserved rest at the Dead Sea.

Ibish, redux

Hussein Ibish followed up on calling me a "fool" and "moronic" after my response to his earlier article with a full article in Now Lebanon explaining how Israeli nationalism is just the same as Palestinian Arab nationalism, and Judaism has nothing to do with it.

He writes:

In the decades immediately preceding 1948, the word “Israeli” was totally unknown and meant nothing, and the word "Palestinian” meant many things, but certainly not what it means today. Both of these national identities—the Jewish Israeli and the Arab Palestinian—are contemporary constructs born of recent history. They are largely grounded in their encounter with each other. They also embody deep cultural memories, traditions, myths, legends and tendentious narratives that at least to some extent retrofit the past to privilege their own national projects.

If one defines Israeli nationalism and culture in terms of kibbutzim, falafel and Hava Nagila, then Ibish might have a point - Israeli nationalism would be almost as shallow and recent as Palestinian Arab nationalism is. But the modern constructs of Israeli nationalism are built on the foundation of the Jewish nation, and are meaningless without that.

To give one small example, the word "Israeli" may be a recent Western construct in English, but in Hebrew the same word - יִּשְׂרְאֵלִי - can be found in, well, the Bible (Lev. 24:10). I also noted last week that the idea of Zionism - that is, of returning to the Land of Israel and rebuilding it - is pretty much continuous throughout Jewish history, even if the name is relatively new.

Moderan nationalism is a relatively new construct altogether, so it is easy to throw all modern nations in that bucket, but by any sane definition the Jewish people have identified as a nation - by themselves and by others - for millennia.

Again, don't take my word for it. Listen to the words of Haman in Esther 3:8:

There is a certain people (Hebrew: Am, עַם nation) scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people.

Ibish goes on:

But all of this is entirely beside the point. Neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli national identity is more or less "authentic" or “legitimate” than the other because both are self-defined nationalisms adhered to by millions of people. The extent to which they are based on imaginary constructs—as all modern national ideologies ultimately prove largely to be—is meaningless in practice. Objecting to these mythologies is the political equivalent of complaining about the rain.

Systematized discrimination or exclusion is, of course, unacceptable for any decent society. But modernity dictates a healthy respect for both the human rights of individuals inherent to their status as human beings and the rights of self-defining national collectivities to self-determination. Contemporary political and national identities, including the Israeli and Palestinian, are invariably based on a confused mélange of myth, legend and history. But that is politically irrelevant. They are what they are, say what we will.

Here, without realizing it, Ibish touches upon the reason that Palestinian Arab nationalism is different from other nationalisms.

Palestinian Arab nationalism is the only one whose very definition is based upon the negation of another people.

What do self-defined Palestinian Arabs have in common? If Ibish is honest, the only thing that holds them together is their antipathy to Jewish nationalism. It isn't a common culture or language or history. Arabs who lived in Palestine for two years prior to 1948 are just as "Palestinian" as those who lived there for hundreds of years, thanks to UNRWA having created the main operational definition of "Palestinian."

If there was never any Jewish nationalism, there would never have been Palestinian Arab nationalism. If Israel had been destroyed in 1948, there would be no one today who identifies as "Palestinian," since the land would have been carved up by Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Ibish knows this, and this is why he felt that that a book that created a construct of "Palestinian culture" based on costumes was important. He is pushing the myth, ex post facto, of an ancient history behind what is really a modern construct that owes its entire existence to...Jews.

The very first person who could be called a Palestinian Arab leader was the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. Yet even he wanted Palestine to be part of Syria until the San Remo conference made that impossible. And the "nationalist" motivation of this leader, whether it was pan-Arabism or Palestinian Arab nationalism, was always pure anti-semitism. Specifically, his goals were always to negate Jewish nationalism, both by denying Jews access to their holy places and by denying Jews the right to move to their ancestral homeland.

If Palestinian Arabs want to call themselves a people, that is fine. Based on how their fellow Arabs have treated them over the decades they do now have a claim to a cohesive identity. But to put Palestinian Arab nationalism on a par with Jewish nationalism is simply ahistorical and meant to trivialize the Jewish longing to return to Zion.

Zionism is merely a particularly effective instance of ancient Jewish nationalism; it is not a modern construct as Ibish likes to pretend. Ibish, by comparing the two nationalisms, is trivializing a long standing and deeply rooted sense of peoplehood with a shallow and modern attempt at countering it.

The analytical challenge is to recognize that while not all nationalist claims are necessarily equally valid (they may speak on behalf of very few people, for example, and not really have the constituency they claim), in some important senses they are, however, all equally invalid. Championing one's own nationalism as self-evidently “authentic” at the expense of a well-established, deeply-rooted and much-cherished rival identity is a particularly lowly form of self-delusion, chauvinism and fetishism.

Not when one is based on historic truth and the other is based on negation.

Another proof that Palestinian Arab nationalism is simply the denial of Jewish nationalism can be seen in archaeology. Every new archaeological finding that shows ancient Jewish roots in Palestine are derided by Palestinian Arab leaders.They routinely refer to the "alleged Temple."

Jews, secure in their history in the Land, are not threatened by finding pre-Israelite or Philistine or Byzantine or Crusader-era treasures. But Palestinian Arabs are very threatened by Jewish history.

And this is why these attempts to create a Palestinian Arab culture are, inherently, offensive. In reality there is no common history and no common culture for Palestinian Arabs. Attempts to create one are often another instantiation of the attempt to deny Jewish history. (Not that Ibish is doing that here, certainly not consciously.)

If a historian or archaeologist finds an ancient inscription talking about the "Palestinians" of the 2nd or 12th century, I will be more than happy to admit I am wrong.

But until then, claiming that there is an ancient Palestinian Arab history when there is none is indeed offensive because there is a history of fake Palestinian Arab nationalism, and it was aimed at destroying another people.

(h/t AB for "יִּשְׂרְאֵלִי " idea.)

Dubai police clown says Israel behind Egyptian revolution

Remember Lt. General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the Dubai police chief who enjoyed a few weeks of attention when a Hamas terrorist was assassinated on his turf and he never found the culprits?

I wrote last year that he will be the last to know that he has turned into a worldwide punch-line.

He still doesn't.

From Gulf News:

Lt. General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, speaking at the a special Ramadan gathering organised by the Dubai Press Club at Al Wasl Lounge, Trade Centre.... called on Arabs not to think deeply in the events taking place in Arab countries and judge them accordingly.

“From my knowledge and experience, I can say that any time there is a public movement or upheaval, and when you can’t find a leader for this movement, this means that there are invisible hands behind it,” he said.

He pointed to Israeli hands in the Arab upheaval. “Israel is a superpower, and has dangerous influence. If Israel wants someone to escape the rule of justice, they can do it,” he said.

Gen Dahi said his personal opinion was that the trial of toppled Egyptian President Husni Mubarak was an Israeli plot for revenge, since Mubarak was the commander of the air force that bombarded the Bar-Lev Line in October 1973 war.

“I believe that Mubarak’s trial in Ramadan is not coincidental, and if the verdict is issued on October 6 (anniversary of October War), the mothers of the Israeli soldiers who were killed in Bar-Lev would be very happy,” he said.

There you have it - the Arab Spring is an Israeli plot!

Are Israeli textbooks racist?

From The Guardian, August 7:

Nurit Peled-Elhanan, an Israeli academic, mother and political radical, summons up an image of rows of Jewish schoolchildren, bent over their books, learning about their neighbours, the Palestinians. But, she says, they are never referred to as Palestinians unless the context is terrorism.

They are called Arabs. "The Arab with a camel, in an Ali Baba dress. They describe them as vile and deviant and criminal, people who don't pay taxes, people who live off the state, people who don't want to develop," she says. "The only representation is as refugees, primitive farmers and terrorists. You never see a Palestinian child or doctor or teacher or engineer or modern farmer."

Peled-Elhanan, a professor of language and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has studied the content of Israeli school books for the past five years, and her account, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education, is to be published in the UK this month. She describes what she found as racism– but, more than that, a racism that prepares young Israelis for their compulsory military service.

In "hundreds and hundreds" of books, she claims she did not find one photograph that depicted an Arab as a "normal person". The most important finding in the books she studied – all authorised by the ministry of education – concerned the historical narrative of events in 1948, the year in which Israel fought a war to establish itself as an independent state, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the ensuing conflict.

The killing of Palestinians is depicted as something that was necessary for the survival of the nascent Jewish state, she claims. "It's not that the massacres are denied, they are represented in Israeli school books as something that in the long run was good for the Jewish state. For example, Deir Yassin [a pre-1948 Palestinian village close to Jerusalem] was a terrible slaughter by Israeli soldiers. In school books they tell you that this massacre initiated the massive flight of Arabs from Israel and enabled the establishment of a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. So it was for the best. Maybe it was unfortunate, but in the long run the consequences for us were good."

Children, she says, grow up to serve in the army and internalise the message that Palestinians are "people whose life is dispensable with impunity. And not only that, but people whose number has to be diminished."

Since her book has not been published, it is difficult to look at how much bias this "political radical" has imbued her research with. But it is clear that one must take her "research" with a grain of salt given her extreme views.

But even without reading her book, we can see that she is not telling the truth about the characterizations of Arabs in Israeli textbooks. Because she first floated this issue a few years ago, after having only examined seven textbooks, and CMIP wrote a lengthy paper destroying her thesis - mostly based on an examination of those very same textbooks! Here are just the points about her assertion that Palestinian Arabs are simply not shown in the textbooks:

Is it really true that Israeli textbooks never show Palestinian faces? Here are some examples to the contrary, taken just from the books examined by Dr. Peled-Ehanan. In Book 5 on page 370 there are two photographs of Palestinians plowing their land and walking on a Jaffa street at the beginning of the 20th century. On page 372 we see Bedouins making coffee, and on page 373 – Palestinians leading a camel caravan loaded with oranges bound for Jaffa for export. On page 375 there is a photograph of two Arabs talking to a Jew in Jaffa. In Book 2, on page 166 there is a photo of Temple Mount in Jerusalem showing a group of demonstrators against Jewish immigration. A photograph on page 313, showing a Palestinian family leaving its village in 1948, has already been mentioned. Book 3 features a photograph of the Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini on page 93; and one of the late Chairman Yasser Arafat shaking hands with the late Prime Minister Rabin in Washington on page 256. The two photographs reappear in Book 4, on pages 95 and 322 respectively. We mentioned earlier the photograph of the shocked family of Palestinian refugees on page 267. Book 1 has a photograph on page 202 of a man driving a tractor or similar machine in the Arab sector of Nazareth. In Book 6, page 17 we see a photograph of Christian Palestinians praying in a church, and another one of Druze religious leaders gathering in a house of prayer. Dr. Peled-Ehanan's claim regarding this point is clearly false.

As for what she calls ‘racist cartoons’, these would more properly, and in less inflammatory language, be regarded as ‘stereotypical illustrations’. There are some four or five of those appearing in Book 1. This is an illustrated book, full of cartoons and illustrations of various
kinds. We may notice that cartoons of ridiculed figures are reserved in the main for Jews. So, for example, there are two graphs where Arab males and females are represented by stereotypical figures while Jewish males and females are represented by ridiculous cartoons.”
There is also a cartoon figure of a Jew quarreling with a stereotypical Arab over a map of the country.

On the other hand, there is a stereotypical illustration denoting Jews by a figure of a rabbi reading the Torah, which represents the Jewish population in the same way as the Arab with a camel represents the Arabs in general. There is one case in which both Arab and Jew are represented by similarly drawn cartoon figures, each pulling the map of the country to his side, and one cannot tell who is who.

The same book also contains non-stereotypical illustrations of Arabs. On page 195 we see a mechanic at work and children at school, none with stereotypical characteristics. On page 196 we see a businessman wearing a suit and holding a pack of banknotes. This illustration is attached to a paragraph mentioning the rise of income levels in Arab villages. In a chapter about Arab cities in Israel we see an illustration of people standing in line, probably in a bank, and they are all dressed in ordinary clothes; the lady at the end of the line even wears a miniskirt.

If there are texts in which Arab society in Israel is presented as traditional and reluctant to change, there are others referring to it as dynamically changing. Here is one example: “Since the establishment of the State [of Israel, in 1948], this society [i.e., Arab society in Israel] has experienced modernization: The standards of education and living are rising constantly; agriculture, which has shifted to modern methods of cultivation, is no longer the main source of
income; most of the population works in the industrial, services, and commercial sectors; and one important change has taken place in the status of women – most women acquire education, and the number of women who work outside the homes is on the increase.”

Moreover, CMIP cited other textbooks that clearly showed the exact opposite of what Peled-Elhanan is claiming today:

The evidence we have presented, taken from the sources Dr. Peled-Elhanan did use, is more than sufficient for refuting her accusation of racism leveled at Israeli school textbooks. However, for an overview of the actual orientation of Israeli textbooks concerning the issue of racism one may well consider the references aimed at actively combating racist prejudice against Arabs – notably in language and literature textbooks – an elementary procedure in which Dr. Peled-Elhanan has no interest.

Here are some examples:

1) “Many people think that doves are peace loving birds. This view is incorrect; it is a prejudice: people believe it without checking. There are many prejudices. For example:

• The Jews dominate the world and exploit all its inhabitants.
• Black people are inferior; they are incapable of being scientists.
• The Arabs understand the language of force only.

Compile during the [school] year a long list of prejudices. Write them down in a special folder to be named ‘So they say, but it is not true: Prejudices’. Try to attach a fitting illustration or cartoon to each prejudice. Be ready to explain orally why these are prejudice.”
Did I Understand?, Grade 7, Part 5 (1993), p. 259

2) “The lady from the second floor opened her mouth and said that the Arabs are exactly like Jews. There are villains among them, as well as decent people, and they should not be labeled.”

What’s the Connection? What’s the Interpretation?, [upper grades, Elementary School],
Part 2 (n.d.), p. 184

3) “Strange, I never played with an Arab boy before … Bashir and I ate together in the shade … after lunch we played more. Before we parted we had exchanged addresses and promised to write to each other. I hope we meet again.”
Windows 1: Reader for State Schools, [lower grades, Elementary School], (1993) p. 83

Had Dr. Peled-Elhanan seen such references, and a great many others in textbooks she did not bother to look at, she might have been less adamant in her position. Apparently, she preferred to look the other way.

It is clear that Dr. Peled-Elhanan is not being intellectually honest and is twisting the contents of the schoolbooks into her own extreme viewpoint.

If you want to know exactly how radical she is, here is what she said after her own 13-year old daughter was murdered by a suicide bomber in 1997 - during the Oslo process:

My little girl was murdered because she was an Israeli by a young man who was humiliated, oppressed and desperate to the point of suicide and murder and inhumanity, just because he was a Palestinian....[J]ust as my daughter was a victim [of the Israeli occupation], so was he [the suicide bomber]."

Which makes her a poster child for the Mondoweiss crowd.

(h/t jzaik)

Egypt raids Sinai Islamists, 1 dead. Islamic Jihad member arrested

From Ma'an:

Egyptian troops and policemen battled with gunmen in the Sinai peninsula Monday, killing one person and arresting 16 others, a security official and state television said.

The fighting came as the security forces launched raids to hunt down Islamist militants suspected of attacking a gas pipeline to Israel on five occasions this year and police stations, the official said.

Around 1,000 soldiers and policemen forces deployed on Friday and Saturday in northern Sinai to carry out the operation dubbed "Eagle."

A man was killed at dawn Monday during an exchange of fire between suspects wanted by the Egyptian authorities and soldiers and policemen, the security official said.

"Ten people suspected of involvement in the Sinai attacks were arrested," the official said, adding that three automatic rifles and four grenades were also seized.

Egyptian state television earlier reported that security forces also arrested six suspected Islamists, members of a group calling itself the Army of the Liberation of Islam.

The operation came two days after Islamists distributed fliers in Rafah -- signed "Al-Qaeda in Sinai" -- threatening more attacks on police, according to a witness, after a deadly attack at the end of July, two weeks earlier, killed a military officer and three bystanders.

Palestine Press Agency gives details about those arrested - including one from Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Yasser Atiyah Tarabin was born in Khan Younis and lives in Rafah. A member of Islamic Jihad, he was arrested and jailed in Egypt but escaped after the revolution. He was asked to join the Islamist cell "to fight the Jews;" then took him to the El Arish, where he met with other jihadis, received training in martial arts in the Sinai and the Gaza Strip, and he took part in the attack on the police station in El Arish a few days ago. He entered into Egypt through the tunnels, and planned to hit the security headquarters in northern Sinai. He also participated in the procurement of explosives and arms to target the military and the police.

This is not the first time that Gaza terrorists have been found to work with Islamist groups in the Sinai.

Interestingly, Islamic Jihad's mouthpiece Palestine Today is claiming that the Egyptian raid was against Mossad agents!