Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Egypt TV: "Jews use women to harm Muslim society"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Amin Al-Ansari, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on October 26, 2011:

Amin Al-Ansari: In The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, they say: "Women benefit us. They help us, wherever they may be. Whenever a woman comes to our aid, we must not reject her, because we will definitely benefit from her." If women use their clothing to do that – [Jews] benefit. If women use their makeup to do that – they benefit. If women use their moral values to do that – [Jews] benefit. If women aid them through their rebelliousness – they benefit. If women do so through any means – they benefit.

Of course, when Zionism and Judaism, benefit, it means the decline not only of Muslim women, but of humanity as a whole. As proof, whenever any woman extends her hand to them, they cut off this pure hand, and it becomes – Allah forbid – despicable.

Look at the women of Hollywood, who extend their hands to the Jews – after all, it was the Jews who created Hollywood, and this is the most elite class of women in the world that cooperates with the Jews.

What did they do? Marilyn Monroe once said… A woman once said to her: "I’d like to be just like you. I'd like to become a famous actress like you." Marilyn Monroe wrote to her – and this letter still exists: "My girl, you'd be better off marrying a man who goes to work, then returns at the end of the day with the daily bread, and you will live happily with him, raising your children. It's better than being famous, but devoid of will and devoid of honor. Take a look at me. The Jews made me what I am, and now they are killing me."

We Jews don't only own the banks, the government, Hollywood and the media - we also control all women worldwide!

Now, that's power!

(h/t jzaik)

Springtime! Tunisia's next leader goes full Islamist (updated)

Hang onto your hats; there's a lot in this small article.

From Tunisia Live:

Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda invited Houda Naïm, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council based in Gaza, to speak at a rally in Sousse, a coastal Tunisian city, this past Sunday. The event marked the first time in known memory a member of Hamas has addressed the Tunisian public.

Naïm praised the victory of the Tunisian people in establishing democracy, and stated her hope that the “liberation” of Tunisia would lead to the liberation of Palestine.

The event also saw a speech from Ennahda’s general secretary Hammadi Jebali, recently proposed by the party to be the new Prime Minister of Tunisia.

Jebali declared that the occasion was “a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a 6th caliphate,” referring to the historical system of Islamic monarchies.

The tone of this last comment is in sharp contrast to many of the party’s public statements, where it has denied any intention of instituting Sharia or Islamic law in the nascent democracy.

The general secretary also echoed Naïm’s words, stating, “The liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem.”

The Tunisian blogosphere and liberal media are in an uproar over this. One article in English at AllVoices is representative, and it claims that Jebali also was saying he was seeing signs from Allah. A newspaper reportedly placed an illustration on its front page showing Jebali dressed in the robes of a caliph.

And this insane Islamist is the next leader of Tunisia.

(h/t jzaik)

UPDATE: MEMRI now has the video:

Millions of Muslims occupied for six decades - where?

From Eugene Kontorovich at Opinio Juris back in 2009:

In 1949, a land that had for hundreds of years been home to Muslim peoples was forcibly seized by outsiders. They implemented a policy of ethnic dislocation and colonization. While some of the Muslims, chafing under the occupation, turned to terrorism, the recalcitrant state refused to budge even until today.

And the occupied country is — the Second East Turkestan Republic, home of the Uighurs.

The extensive media coverage of and diplomatic reaction to the recent and perhaps ongoing ethnic violence between Han and Uighurs in Xinjiang seems to have missed an important detail.

The Uighurs are not simply a minority group in China that may not be getting the fairest deal. Rather, they are arguably an occupied people – and the massive Han Chinese population in the area almost entirely settlers.

China conquered the independent Second East Turkestan Republic in 1949, in an open land grab. This was news to me — the illegal conquest of Tibet the subsequent year is well known, but apparently without a Dalai Lama, the Uighurs’ national aspirations are paid even less lip service than Tibetans’.

How could there be such silence about an ongoing illegal occupation? I briefly looked at the media coverage and reports of international human rights organizations (Amensty, HRW), and I can find none that discussed the situation as an occupation or the Han as illegally “transferred” people under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nor does this appear to be the position of any nation, though again I don’t claim to have done meticulous inquiry and would be happy to be corrected.

Is there some reason this issue is not on the international law radar? Or have I missed something? Naturally I don’t expect anyone to rush to liberate East Turkestan – I’m a realist. But what about “soft power”? And the role of NGOs? If this is an occupation, it is probably one of the worst ongoing ones — something like 10 million people occupied, which I think is more than West Bank, Western Sahara, Northern Cyrus, Tibet, Abkazia/Ossetia, etc. combined.

Let's start an NGO to free the millions of Uighurs. Millions of dollars can easily be raised when Muslims are living under horrendous occupation, right? Perhaps an overland flotilla of aid to get the ball rolling.

Leftists should be falling over each other to volunteer to help.

(h/t Zach N)

Human shields surround Iranian nuke plant

On Sunday, I posted about a game called Persian Incursion that essentially war-games an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. I haven't played it yet but the review I quoted made it sound really interesting.

I had a brief discussion in the comments with one of the game designers about what possible scenarios are included, and I wrote:

My only remaining question about the likelihood of civilian casualties would be if Iranian civilians are coerced or volunteer to be human shields for military or nuclear sites. Less likely than Hamas, but certainly in the realm of possibility.

The game co-designer, Jeff Dougherty, answered:

That is indeed a possibility, and one we didn't consider in the game. I can see it going either way depending on how it's presented, how deep the media digs on the story, and what the attitude of the rest of the world is at the start....

Well, my scenario has already happened.

Hundreds of students on Tuesday formed a human chain around the uranium conversion plant in central Iran, in a demonstration staged by students to show that Iranians were ready to sacrifice their lives if the nuclear sites were attacked by Israel.

After holding a noon prayer session in front of the plant's main gate, students from Isfahan universities shouted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." They vowed to resist in the event of an attack.

Wow!

There is a small body of literature on the legal status of voluntary human shields. From what I can glean, if they are protecting an unquestioned military installation or target, according to most (except HRW) they forfeit their status as civilians and become considered combatants under international law. If they are shielding a dual-use facility, which would include nuclear research and nuclear material refining, it appears that they would maintain their status as civilians.

Which makes my question, all of a sudden, really relevant.

(h/t Omri at Commentary)

An effective anti-Israel protest in Detroit - and a question

On November 1, Wayne State University's "Students for Israel" group sponsored Gil Hoffman, a Jerusalem Post writer and IDF reservist, to speak.

Anti-Israel students came up with an effective protest. They jammed the auditorium where Hoffman was speaking, some of them holding signs or with their mouths taped up, and at one point they all got up and left, leaving the hall with only 15 or so people left to hear Hoffman.

While it shows that they have no interest in dialogue or co-existence with Israel, there is nothing wrong with their methods - as long as they didn't disrupt the talk or stop interested people from attending, it is a fine and legal way to show displeasure.

However....

According to this account, about 150 protesters participated and it was well organized and planned. They were not only from WSU but also from Fordson High School.

Fordson High is about 95% Arab. Its principal and most administration are Arab as well. There have been charges that the administration has discriminated against non-Muslim teachers.

Hoffman's talk was scheduled for 12:30 PM, right in the middle of a normal school day.

Fordson High is about seven miles away from WSU, a 15 minute drive but it takes some 45 minutes to get there by public transportation.

My question is, did the administration of a public high school allow - or encourage - its students to attend an anti-Israel demonstration during a school day? And if so, did they provide transportation to the event?

If so, the high school administrators should have to answer for their actions.

Crusader inscription discovered - written in Arabic!

From Israel's MFA:

An Arabic inscription that bears the name of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, and the date "1229 of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus the Messiah", was recently deciphered by Professor Moshe Sharon and Ami Shrager of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During the deciphering it became evident that this is a rare archaeological find - the only one of its kind.

The 800-years-old inscription was fixed years ago in the wall of a building in Tel Aviv. The original location of the gray marble slab, on which the inscription is engraved, was probably in Jaffa's city wall.

As Professor Sharon relates, "Frederick II led the Sixth Crusade of 1228-1229 and succeeded, without resorting to arms, in achieving major territorial gains for the Crusader Kingdom. His most important feat was the handing over of Jerusalem to the Crusaders by the Egyptian sultan al-Malik al-Kamil as a result of an armistice agreement the two rulers signed in 1229. Prior to achieving this agreement, the emperor fortified the castle of Jaffa and left in its walls, as it now appears, two inscriptions, one in Latin and the other in Arabic. The Arabic inscription was drafted by Frederick's officials, or possibly even the emperor himself, and it is the one which has been now deciphered".

Although just a small part of the Latin inscription was preserved, it was enough to ascribe it, already at the end of the 19th century, to Frederick II. Today, with the aid of the Arabic inscription, it is possible to virtually complete the text of that fragment.

The unique Arabic inscription is almost completely intact. It lists all of the titles of Frederick II, and as already stated, has no counterpart elsewhere. In Sicily, where Frederick's main royal palace was located, no Arabic inscription of his has been found to date. Furthermore, until now this is the only Crusader inscription in the Arabic language ever found in the Middle East.

Frederick II, despite having been excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX, crowned himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and mentioned his being the 'King of Jerusalem' in this inscription. He knew Arabic and maintained a close relationship with the Egyptian royal family.

I wonder what would happen to such a find if it was discovered in an area that was ruled by a government that includes Hamas.

I'm sure UNESCO would protect Arabic writings that extol Crusaders from any possible harm.

The UN is selective in their cartoon outrage

Remember last week when UNESCO strongly protested a cartoon in Ha'aretz that was intended to make fun of Netanyahu but which they thought was incitement against them?

"And on your way back, you're gonna hit the UNESCO office in Ramallah!"

Well, it seems that there are some anti-UN cartoons that the UN has no problem with.

Read it all at UN Watch.

(h/t Blazing Catfur)

Apartheid? Enlistment rate in IDF higher for Druze than for Jews

From the IDF website:

Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz on Friday (November 4) visited the Bedouin village of Zarzir and met with community leaders, including Hassan al-Hayeb, head of the local council.

Lt. Gen. Gantz also visited the Druze village of Julis in honor of the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday and met with community leaders there as well, including Sheikh Muwafak Tarif.

Lt. Gen. Gantz thanked his hosts and talked about the importance of increasing the enlistment rates from all sectors of Israeli society. He expressed his appreciation for the dedicated service that Bedouins and Druze soldiers have given to the IDF.

In recent years, the enlistment rate in the IDF has increased in the Bedouin and Druze communities. Data shows that the enlistment rate in the Druze sector is higher than in the Jewish sector (83% compared to 72 %) and that 60% of Druze soldiers in the IDF serve in combat units.

Data also shows an increase in the enlistment rate in the Bedouin sector (from 345 in 2005 to 492 currently).

Language poses the largest challenge to minorities serving in the IDF, although surveys show that most minority soldiers view their army experiences as positive.

Shhhhh...the idea of non-Jews being happy and willing to contribute to Israel's defense is a secret that must not get out.

It could really hurt all those conferences and books and people that swear that Israel is an apartheid state.

Today's anti-Israel stunt - plus poster (updated)

Today a bunch of anti-Israel agitators are pretending to be civil rights activists by going on buses meant for Israeli citizens in the territories to travel to Jerusalem. For obvious reasons, these buses do not allow (Arabs and*) non-citizens to enter Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria - communities that for the most part are gated to stop Arab terror attacks.

Anyway, they are all a-twitter on Twitter about how the army is taking them off the buses. Awful, isn't it?

So I made up a poster for the occasion:

*UPDATE: I am told that Arab citizens of Israel do take the buses that go east of the Green Line.

A fire in Gaza

I mentioned yesterday that a pilot program for exporting furniture from Gaza is planned to start next month in an agreement hammered out between Israel, the EU and Gaza exporters.

Israel insists that all goods exported from Gaza, whether agricultural or manufactured, adhere to international quality standards. Very few furniture factories in Gaza meet those standards.

One of those is named "Biseiso" after its owner, who worked hard to meet those standards. He was excited to have the opportunity to export his furniture to the EU and his workers had been working hard to set everything up.

This morning at 5:30, Biseiso's factory was destroyed in a massive fire. Multiple fire companies were needed to control the flames.

Beseiso does not think this fire is a coincidence.

According to him the other factory owners in Gaza are fearful as well that the same fate awaits them.

Whether it is from jealous competitors or from people who believe that Gazans should not profit from "collaborating" with Israel, there are some big problems in Gaza that do not get any attention because so many want to keep the focus relentlessly on alleged Israeli crimes.

And people like Mr. Beseiso are the victims.

Melanie Phillips: Blaming the Victim

The widespread fallacy that the ‘peace process’ has stalled because Israel keeps building more Jewish ‘settlements’ on ‘Palestinian land’...is not only totally wrong but utterly perverse.

Al Arabiya: Al Qaeda returns to Egypt under Iranian cover

If Arab countries are not attacked by Israel, they will certainly be attacked by Iran, and al-Qaeda is ready to help.

Jewish Ideas Daily looks at a WaPo article praising young, attractive PalArabs who want to peacefully destroy Israel.

An Iranian source for the Guardian blames the Mossad for the explosion in Iran on Saturday.

My Right Word notes an interesting loophole in an initiative to register Palestinians to vote directly for the Palestinian National Council - every Israeli and many Jews would be considered "Palestinian."

Khaled Abu Toameh asks why Israeli Arabs don't have better representatives in the Knesset?

The role of Arab Knesset members should be to fight for increased budgets, better infrastructure, new working places and full integration into Israeli society. The overwhelming majority of Israeli Arabs are fighting for integration into Israel, not separation.

The next time Israeli Arabs go to the ballot boxes, they should vote for those who represent their real interests, and not candidates who only know how to deliver fiery speeches and promote hatred.

Video parody: Jewish and you know it (not exactly safe for work)

(h/t Benny, Yoel, Hadassah)

Human organ trafficking war between Sinai Bedouins (updated)

From Al Masry al Youm:

The Al-Tiaha tribe has besieged the Al-Nakhalwa tribe in Sinai since Sunday, accusing it of smuggling Africans and stealing their organs. They killed a Nakhlwa tribesman, whom they believe is involved in human organ trafficking, and arrested his assistant in order to deliver him to the police following fierce gun battles between the two tribes.

Nakhalwa tribe elder Sabbah al-Nakhlawy denied his tribe is involved in such activity.

Meanwhile, a woman by the name of Hanan Mohsen reported to the police that a gang tried to kidnap her and take her organs.

For his part, North Sinai Security Director Saleh al-Masry said the matter was exaggerated. “We have a firm security plan for the area,” he said.

I can't wait for all the people who slam Israel for organ trafficking to denounce Egyptian organ-trafficking.

Because it is obvious that they are motivated by pure humanitarian concerns and not hatred of the Jewish state.

(h/t Dan)

UPDATE: This article by Mordechai Kedar reveals much more about the illegal organ trade in Egypt, and it is shocking. (h/t Jean)

40 killed in first major armed battle in Syria

From Reuters:

At least 40 Syrians were killed in fighting on Monday between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and insurgents in a town near the border with Jordan, local activists said, in the first case of major armed resistance to Assad in the region.

They said troops backed by armour killed 20 people — army defectors, insurgents and civilians — in an assault on Khirbet Ghazaleh in the Hauran Plain, and in fighting that ensued near the town. A similar number of troops were killed, they added.

The troops attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh, 20 km north of the border, on the main highway between Amman and Damascus, after army defectors attacked a security police bus at a highway intersection near the town, the activists said.

Even though everyone is urging the activists to stick to peaceful protests, I don't think Assad would step aside without any military pressure.

Meanwhile, official Syrian news reports that over the weekend Syria staged huge pro-regime rallies to protest the Arab League's censure:

The photos, provided by Syria and showing large rallies in multiple cities, appear to be legit - but it is hard to know for sure. And, of course, there is no way to know what incentives or threats were offered to people to attend.

Some amazing video footage from Israel

From Creative Media Group:

Yemen, Lebanon voted against Syria's suspension from Arab League

The much heralded vote over the weekend calling to suspend Syria's membership in the Arab League was not unanimous.

Iraq abstained:

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Monday defended his country's abstention from a vote on suspending Syria from the Arab League, emphasising that events in Syria have a direct impact on Iraq.

"Iraq's stance was not easy," Zebari told a news conference on Monday.

"Syria is a brother country. It is an important country in the area, and we have special relations with it, as it hosted hundred of thousands of Iraqis in difficult circumstances," he said, referring to Iraqi refugees who fled to Syria to escape violence at home.

Yemen voted against.

And Lebanon voted against:

Where does one begin? In a year of so many lows, Lebanon, by choosing not to sanction Syria at Saturday’s Arab League meeting in Cairo, has probably reached its nadir. For in doing so, it has torn up its much-vaunted democratic credentials and sided with the forces of repression and systematic murder. Subsequent explanations from both the Lebanese president and prime minister did little to justify the way Lebanon, along with troubled Yemen and Syria itself, voted.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati explained that the decision to side with a regime that has killed more than 3,500 protesters, and which has constantly broken all promises to embark upon a program of reform, was based upon “historic and geographic considerations and facts that take into account the Lebanese peculiarity, which we know that [our] Arab brothers understand.”

Lebanon’s “Arab brothers” understand only one thing: Beirut and Damascus are joined at the hip, and the March 8 forces that overthrew the democratically elected government of Saad Hariri in January of this year did so with the overarching aim to restore Lebanon to Syria’s orbit after a six-year hiatus. It is for this and this reason only that Lebanon sided with one of the region’s darkest forces.

Iran is trying to spin the vote as if it was closer than it was, by claiming that Jordanian leaders were divided:

Jordan's vote for the suspension of Syria from the Arab League earlier this week has reportedly caused a rift among the Jordanian government officials.

According to Arab media reports, senior members of the Jordan's foreign ministry have slammed the order made by the League which calls on member states to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus.

A spokesman for the Jordanian foreign ministry has allegedly called the decision not binding and that any Arab country can choose not to follow such orders.

This seems to be fiction as far as I can tell, but one of the comments in this PressTV article is too good to ignore:

All these Zionist gutless puppets who call them selves Arabs have their day coming, their western stance and silence on Israel will bring their destruction by their own people , if you research that fake king abdullah you will find that his mother is a British Jew who was an actress

Wow, a halachically Jewish king in Jordan? Why haven't we heard this before?

(Abdullah's mother Princess Muna did convert to Islam when she married King Hussein - it is one of those racist Jordanian laws we never hear anyone complain about - but she was not Jewish in any way. Her family tree can be seen here.)

Fatah official says elections will be in May 2012

Ma'an (Arabic) quotes Fatah Central Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad as saying that he hedl a number of secret meetings in Cairo ahead of a planned meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas' Khaled Meshal there next month (update: later this month.)

He says that agreements have already been made to hammer out a consensus government ahead of planned May 2012 elections, along with some agreements on restructuring security services and around the elections themselves.

He said Hamas was on board with this agreement even though they have made combative statements against Fatah in recent days.

I'm skeptical, to say the least. So far all the agreements have been for show, and the idea that Hamas would consider loosening its grip on power in Gaza is far fetched. It is only a little less far-fetched that Fatah would cave on the issue of security in Gaza.

What seems clear is that Fayyad will be gone, and whoever replaces him will not be as popular among Western governments. Chances are pretty good that whoever becomes caretaker prime minister will have some terror background.

From UN stunt to "unity" stunt

I reported yesterday that Hamas was complaining that Mahmoud Abbas did not live up to his end of the "unity" agreement from last May and that they would not accept that Salam Fayyad stay prime minister.

Now that the Fatah-led (and Hamas-opposed) UN stunt has spectacularly failed, Abbas is ready to re-consider the unity stunt.

Anything to avoid real negotiations.

From Al Arabiya:

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad signaled on Monday he is ready to step aside to help reconcile the two rival factions of the Palestinian national movement and pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.

The departure of the U.S.-educated former World Bank economist, 59, would be a concession by President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the mainly secular Fatah movement which is dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to his Islamist rivals Hamas, who control the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

Abbas will call in a speech on Wednesday for a government of independent experts to prepare for the elections, presidential adviser Nemir Hammad told Reuters.

This scenario was part of a reconciliation deal signed last April but never implemented. Elections were last held in 2006.

Abbas is also due to hold face-to-face talks in Cairo this month with his arch-rival, the exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. One official said the meeting could bring reconciliation closer “should Abbas abandon his commitment to Fayyad” as his candidate to head the caretaker government.

The narrative of perpetual Palestinian Arab victimhood

At a speech given in September, Shelby Steele said:

The Arab-Israeli conflict, is not really a conflict, it is a war – a war of the Arabs against the Jews. In many ways, this conflict has been a conflict between narratives. We who strongly support Israel have done a poor job in formulating a narrative which will combat the story spun by the other side. We can do better.

The Durban conferences, the request for UN recognition of a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, and the general animus in the Middle East and elsewhere toward Israel and toward the Jews, what are they really about? Is the Durban conference and the claim that Israel is a racist nation really about reforming the people of Israel and curing them of their racism?

I think their real interest is to situate the Palestinian people within a narrative of victimization. This is their ulterior goal: to see themselves and to have others see them as victims of colonialism, as victims of white supremacy.

Listen to their language; it is the language of colonial oppression. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas claims that Palestinians have been occupied for 63 years. The word oppressed is constant, exploited. In this, there is a poetic truth; like poetic license, in a poetic truth a writer will bend the rules in order to be more effective.

...Focusing on the case of the Palestinians, who would they be if they were not victims of white supremacy? They would just be poor people in the Middle East. They would be backwards. They would be behind Israel in every way. So this narrative is the source of their power. It is the source of their money. Money comes from around the world. It is the source of their self-esteem. Without it, would they be able to compete with Israeli society? They would have to confront in themselves a certain inferiority with regard to Israel – as most other Arab nations would have to confront an inferiority in themselves and be responsible for it.

The idea that the problem is Israel, that the problem is the Jews, protects Palestinians from having to confront that inferiority or do anything about it or overcome it. The idea among Palestinians that they are victims means more to them than anything else. It is everything. It is the centerpiece of their very identity and it is the way they define themselves as human beings in the world. It is not an idle thing. Our facts and our reason are not going to penetrate easily that definition or make any progress.

...Freedom is a dicey thing to experience. When you come into freedom, you see yourself more accurately in the world. This is not unique to the Middle East. It was also the black American experience, when the Civil Rights bill was passed in 1964 and we came into much greater freedom. If you were a janitor in 1963 and you are still a janitor in 1965, you have all these freedoms and they are supported by the rule of law, then your actual experience of freedom is one of humiliation and one of shame. You see how far you have to go, how far behind you are, how little social capital you have with which to struggle forward. Even in freedom you see you are likely to be behind for a long time. In light of your inability to compete and your underdevelopment, freedom becomes something that you are very likely going to hate – because it carries this humiliation.

At that point formerly oppressed groups develop what I call bad faith. Bad faith is when you come into freedom, you are humiliated and you say, "Well you know the real truth is I am not free. Racism still exists. Zionism is my problem. The State of Israel is my problem. That is why I am so far behind and that is why I cannot get ahead."

You develop a culture grounded in bad faith where you insist that you are less free than you really are. Islamic extremism is the stunning example of this phenomenon. "I have to go on jihad because I am fighting for my freedom." Well you already have your freedom. You could stay home and study. You could do something constructive. But "No, I cannot do that because that makes me feel bad about myself." So I live in a world of extremism and dictators.

This is the real story of the Palestinians and of the Middle East. They will never be reached by reason until they are somehow able to get beyond bad faith, to get beyond this sort of poetic truth that they are the perennial victims of an aggressive and racist Israeli nation.

Challenging their narrative with this explanation will enable us to be more effective. Until now, we have constantly used facts and reason and have not progressed.

...The irony and the tragedy of all this is that it keeps these groups in a bubble where they never encounter or deal with the truth. This becomes a second oppression for all these groups. They have been oppressed once, now they are free and yet they create a poetic truth that then oppresses them all over again.

How are you going to have good faith if you are raised being told that the society in which you are trying to compete is against you, is racist? It is always the Palestinians who suffer, and will continue to suffer, because all of their energy is going into the avoidance of their situation rather than into being challenged by it and facing into it.

Read the whole thing.

A textbook example of this kind of thinking comes from the comment pages of todays' Al Quds al Arabi (Arabic.) In an article about the Arab League suspending Syrian membership, at Al Quds al Arabi, commenter Majid Dudin says:

The Jews stole all our land, language, and technology from us; they robbed and raped the Canaanite language and corrupted it into what is called the Hebrew language, and their technology is stolen from Europe at the hands of Jonathan Pollard and others.

How perfectly a single comment encapsulates Shelby Steele's argument! Blame everything on the Jews - to avoid being blamed for your own inadequacies and failures.

An entire culture has been raised with this kind of thinking for generations. And they are enslaved by it just as they try to enslave the rest of the world by this false and bigoted framework.

(h/t CHA)

Al Quds al Arabi reports that there are new restrictions on what Saudi women in healthcare are allowed to wear.

The new restrictions include jeans, tight clothing, gold accessories, any clothing with writing or logos, nail polish, and makeup powder.

No restrictions on men's clothing were announced.

There have been stories lately about how Saudi Arabia is liberalizing its attitudes towards women. It may be true, but it looks like for every step forward there is also a step back.

Released Islamic Jihad terrorist brags about his attacks

Palestine Today has an adoring interview with one of the prisoners released in the Shalit deal, Ziad Salameh. (I believe his name in the official lists of those released is "Awadh Ziad Awadh al-Salaima Awad" but there are a couple of inconsistencies.)

Salameh (whose name means "peaceful") went on a stabbing rampage in Tel Aviv in March of 1993 where he stabbed two Israelis to death and injured nine others. The attack occurred near the central bus station. He murdered a 28 year old barber and a 27-year old Russian immigrant.

In his interview Salamah explains that he started off his career with rock throwing - but that wasn't exciting enough so he purchased large knives. He claims that he obtained a fake work permit and exited Gaza along with a number of Palestinian Arabs who were working in Israel, and then took a bus to Tel Aviv. "My goal was to reach the area with the largest number of settlers and kills as many as I could."

He even brags that he managed to stab one "settler" who was hiding behind a car.

Then he was overcome by Israelis who subdued him with pipes and sticks, breaking some of his bones.

Once he was in prison he received medical care for his injuries, obtained his high school diploma and attended four terms of classes at Hebrew University.

He says he never lost hope that he would be freed in a prisoner swap.

If anyone literally has "blood on his hands," it is Salameh.

The cruel Egyptian blockade of Gaza continues

Egypt has arrested 10 Gazans who sneaked through tunnels under Rafah into the country.

The people who were nabbed had tried to enter Egypt legally through the Rafah crossing, but the severe limitations on who can leave Gaza and long waiting lists, along with the corruption of the officials in charge of the crossing, forced them to use more illicit means of entering Egypt.

Three of the people caught were students, and a brother and sister were also caught.

A few weeks ago another dozen or so Gazans were arrested as well in Egypt.

I'm sure that the Free Gaza movement and Viva Palestina are staging noisy protests outside Egyptian embassies worldwide on the cruel, inhuman treatment by Egypt of innocent Gazans. Because we all know how much they care about the lives of Gazans in their open-air prison.

Updates on Iran's "mysterious blast"

From Time:

AP photo from video of blast

Israeli newspapers on Sunday were thick with innuendo, the front pages of the three largest dailies dominated by variations on the headline "Mysterious Explosion in Iranian Missile Base." Turn the page, and the mystery is answered with a wink. "Who Is Responsible for Attacks on the Iranian Army?" asks Maariv, and the paper lists without further comment a half-dozen other violent setbacks to Iran's nuclear and military nexus. For Israeli readers, the coy implication is that their own government was behind Saturday's massive blast just outside Tehran. It is an assumption a Western intelligence source insists is correct: the Mossad — the Israeli agency charged with covert operations — did it. "Don't believe the Iranians that it was an accident," the official tells TIME, adding that other sabotage is being planned to impede the Iranian ability to develop and deliver a nuclear weapon. "There are more bullets in the magazine," the official says.

The powerful blast or series of blasts — reports described an initial explosion followed by a much larger one — devastated a missile base in the gritty urban sprawl to the west of the Iranian capital. The base housed Shahab missiles, which, at their longest range, can reach Israel. Last week's report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had experimented with removing the conventional warhead on the Shahab-3 and replacing it with one that would hold a nuclear device. Iran says the explosion was an accident that came while troops were transferring ammunition out of the depot "toward the appropriate site."

[I]n Sunday's editions, the Hebrew press coyly listed what Yedioth Ahronoth called "Iran's Mysterious Mishaps." The tallies ran from the November 2007 explosion at a missile base south of Tehran to the October 2010 blast at a Shahab facility in southwestern Iran, to the assassinations of three Iranian scientists working in the nuclear program — two last year and one in July.

At the very least, the list burnishes the mystique of the Mossad, Israel's overseas spy agency. Whatever the case-by-case reality, the popular notion that, through the Mossad, Israel knows everything and can reach anywhere is one of the most valuable assets available to a state whose entire doctrine of defense can be summed up in the word deterrence. But it doesn't mean Israel is the only country with a foreign intelligence operation inside Iran. The most recent IAEA report included intelligence from 10 governments on details of the Iranian nuclear effort. And in previous interviews, Western security sources have indicated that U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies have partnered with Israel on covert operations inside Iran. Sometimes the partner brings specific expertise or access. In other cases, Iranian agents on the ground who might harbor misgivings about Israel are allowed to believe they are working only with another government altogether.

Saturday's blast was so powerful it was felt 25 miles away in Tehran, and so loud that one nearby resident with combat experience thought he had just heard the detonation of an aerial bomb. "Frankly it did not sound like an arms depot from where I was because when one of those goes off, it is multiple explosions over minutes, even hours depending on the size of the facility," the resident says. "All I heard was one big boom. I was sure from the quality of the noise that anyone in its immediate vicinity was dead. Something definitely happened, but I would not trust the [Revolutionary] Guards to be absolutely forthcoming as to what it was."

The list of Iranian "accidents" over the past few years includes:

November 2007 - Explosion in a missile base south of Tehran. Dozens of technicians are killed.
July 2008 - Explosion in a convoy of trucks carrying missiles probably intended for Hezbollah. 15 deaths.
August 2009 - a passenger plane crashes after takeoff from Tehran. On board were probably explosives and rockets destined for Hezbollah. 168 dead.
October 2010 - Explosion of the Revolutionary Guard base in south-western Iran where Shahab missiles are stored. 18 dead.
June 2011 - aircraft carrying Russian scientists who assisted in building the Bushehr reactor crashes. Dozens killed, including six scientists.
November 2011 - Explosion at the base of the Revolutionary Guards missile. 17 killed.

And from AP:

A Revolutionary Guard commander killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot west of Tehran was a key figure in Iran's missile program, the elite military force said in a statement Sunday.

Gen. Hasan Moghaddam was killed together with 16 other Guard members Saturday at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Tehran.

Saeed Qasemi, a Guard commander, said Iran owes its missile program to Moghaddam.

"A major part of (our) progress in the field of missile capability and artillery was due to round-the-clock efforts by martyr Moghaddam," Qasemi told the conservative news website rajanews.com.

Another Guard commander, Gen. Mostafa Izadi, called Moghaddam a "founder of the Guard's surface-to-surface missile systems."

Qasemi said Moghaddam was one of a few Guard commanders favored by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"The exalted leader had a special interest in him," he said.

Mako says that Moghaddam had worked closely with Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the senior Hamas member assassinated in Dubai nearly two years ago.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, when asked to comment on the explosion, answered with the Hebrew phrase "כן ירבו" which translates roughly to "May there be many more."

(h/t Yoel)

IAF kills Hamas "policeman"/terrorist

Ma'an reports:

One police officer was killed and four others injured early Monday morning when Israeli warplanes targeted a naval police building in Gaza City.

Medical sources in Gaza identified the victim as Muhammad Kilani. His body was found amid the rubble.

The airstrike came hours after a homemade projectile was fired from Gaza, landing in the Shaar Hanegev area. No injuries were reported.

Was the victim merely a policeman?

Not according to Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades terror group:

Qassam [Brigade member and] Mujahid Martyr Mohammed Zaher Al-Kilani, 23, from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, rose to be a martyr - God willing - the dawn of the day Monday, 14/11/2011, after the Zionist bombing targeted the marine police site... He had a great career as a jihadist and a supervisor, and after hard work and sacrifice and jihad, we consider him a martyr.

Since the current escalation of rocket fire in late October, the IDF has killed about 16 terrorists in Gaza - and not one civilian.

Iran admits it was attacked by Duqu virus

From Reuters:

Iran said on Sunday it had detected the Duqu computer virus that experts say is based on Stuxnet, the so-called "cyber-weapon" discovered last year and believed to be aimed at sabotaging the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites.

The head of Iran's civil defense organization told the official IRNA news agency that computers at all main sites at risk were being checked and that Iran had developed software to combat the virus.

"We are in the initial phase of fighting the Duqu virus," Gholamreza Jalali, was quoted as saying. "The final report which says which organizations the virus has spread to and what its impacts are has not been completed yet.

"All the organizations and centers that could be susceptible to being contaminated are being controlled," he said.

News of Duqu surfaced in October when security software maker Symantec Corp said it had found a mysterious virus that contained code similar to Stuxnet.

Iran's PressTV says:

Iran has developed a software program that can “control” the newly discovered Duqu spyware, the director of Iran's Passive Defense Organization has announced.

“The software, capable of controlling this virus (Duqu), has been provided to organizations and institutions,” IRNA quoted Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali as saying on Sunday.

The Duqu malware has reportedly infected a number of systems in Iran.

“All of the centers and apparatuses suspected of being infected with the virus are under control,” Jalali said, adding that countering and cleansing processes have been carried out at the infected institutions.

It is unclear what exactly Iran is claiming. Microsoft has been unable to create a patch for the exploit being used by Duqu yet, but it did release a workaround.

Duqu installs a Trojan that steals data from machines, seemingly as a precursor for a much bigger attack. It seems to have a lot of code in common with Stuxnet which is widely believed to have been written by a nation-state to attack Iran's nuclear program.

Board game on Israeli strike on Iran looks fascinating

Michael Peck, an editor for Training and Simulation Journal and Military Times, writes a fascinating review - in Foreign Policy! - of a board game that goes into great detail into the issues involved in a possible Israeli airstrike on Iran.

This weekend, I sat down on my dining room table and prepared to set the Middle East aflame. I was playing Persian Incursion, a board game of a hypothetical Israeli air campaign to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. Or, at least so far it's hypothetical. On Tuesday, Nov. 8, the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report suggesting that Iran has continued to build up its nuclear weapons program. And with Israel making serious noises about dropping bombs before Iran develops The Bomb, fiction could soon become reality. I set about seeing which side would win.

Persian Incursion is a paper war game, one of those fascinating yet complex beasts that appeals to armchair generals -- it combines the fun of a strategy game like Risk with the intellectual stimulation of reading contemporary nonfiction. The game was co-designed by techno-thriller writer Larry Bond, best known for co-authoring Red Storm Rising with Tom Clancy. But Persian Incursion isn't a novel -- it's a reference library inside a game. The background information included is staggering. Besides the rules book, there is a target folder and a briefing booklet listing the precise dimensions of Iranian nuclear facilities down to the meter, as well as air defenses

As U.S. history has demonstrated for the last 65 years, before you blunder into a war, it's best to figure out exactly how you're going to win. Although Persian Incursion is a war game, destroying or protecting Iran's nuclear sites is only a means to victory -- not victory itself. The real prize is political. If Israel or Iran can knock down the other's morale enough through military or political action, it wins. Part of the goal, then, is to score points on "political tracks," which measure public opinion and morale. But it's not just Israel and Iran that have political tracks; the game simulates the pressure and acquiescence of other countries that have a dog in this fight, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Russia, China, Jordan, and the United Nations (representing Europe and the rest of the world). Basically, the more supportive a country is toward Israel or Iran, the more political, intelligence, and military points it will provide to that belligerent. And these points are the currency of Persian Incursion; most every Israeli or Iranian action, from airstrikes to missile launches to terrorist attacks, requires them. Think of it as the Monopoly money you need to build your hotel empire.
To add to the unpredictability, Persian Incursion gives each player a chance before the game to purchase extra goodies. Iran's Colonel Noob buys GPS jammers to frustrate Israeli guided weapons, plus a couple of Chinese HQ-9 surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries. And knowing that missiles will soon be headed Israel's way, I choose a third Arrow 2 anti-missile battalion, plus extra tanker aircraft for longer bombing sorties. The political tracks begin with Saudi Arabia somewhat supportive of my Israeli attack and with the United States, Turkey, and the United Nations offering lukewarm endorsement. On the other side, Russia is somewhat supportive of Iran, while China is a full-on ally. This situation is tenuous and fraught with danger for both players. If the Saudi political track shifts more toward Israel, Saudi aircraft could join in the fun. ("Oops, sorry Tehran! We were trying to attack the Jews' aircraft, but we accidentally bombed your reactor. Our king is most distraught.") On the other hand, China's support for Iran could mean an emergency airlift of Chinese weapons.

I begin with a special-forces operation that puts spotters on the ground to improve the accuracy of my airstrikes. Iran responds with a "propaganda barrage" and dice roll to see if it can get Saudi support for Israel to decline -- fortunately, for me, the gods decree otherwise. Israel executes its first airstrike. Combat basically involves Israeli aircraft progressing through successive "nodes" of Iranian interceptors and anti-aircraft weapons. I get lucky again: Iranian interceptors, outdated and often short of spare parts, can't hit worth a damn, and Israeli radar-jamming prowess helps neutralize Iranian surface-to-air missiles. Then, one of my F-16s is shot down, which means a hit on Israeli public opinion. But I've heavily damaged the Isfahan uranium conversion facility, and Iranian morale takes a hit.

The first game turn continues as Iran responds with missile strikes on Israeli cities, designed to lower Israeli morale. But one missile blows up on the launch pad, and another is shot down by my Arrow missiles. Of the two remaining missiles, one hit is a dud, but the other inflicts "major damage," which hurts my political track. Colonel Noob's turn is done.

Read the whole thing. Peck notes that some events that happened since the game was originally designed have changed things - Israel's strained relations with Turkey being the most obvious, but the entire Arab Spring a new important factor as well.. Also, puzzlingly, Hezbollah rockets are not mentioned in any scenario.

I don't know whether it includes possibilities of Israel accidentally bombing a civilian area, or Iran using chemical weapons in striking Israel, or (as Iran has threatened) Iran cutting off oil traffic from the Gulf or attacking Europe. There seem to be a huge number of variables.

Altogether, it sounds like a fascinating exercise.

The game costs $65 plus shipping.

I think I should get a free copy for posting this :)

(h/t Michael Peck)

More proof Juan Cole is a liar

Last week I noted that Juan Cole made quite a number of mistakes in his little "fact box" about Gaza - mistakes that he didn't bother correcting even after they were pointed out to him.

One of them was when he says:

Exports from Gaza to the rest of the world allowed by Israel: 0

He sourced this from HRW, which correctly stated that "No goods have left Gaza through Israel since May 12, according to Gisha, an Israeli rights group focused on Gaza." May was when the agricultural season ended. Which means that hundreds of tons of goods were exported before May 12 - a fact that Cole purposefully misrepresents when he says a flat zero.

But perhaps he was trying to imply that Israel would not allow any more goods to be exported from Gaza this year?

Wrong again.

From the IDF Spokesperson:

In light of the agricultural export season due to start at the end of November, and following the finalization of the trade process from Gaza to various European markets, a continuing education program for Palestinian agriculturists took place last Tuesday in the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza.

As part of the conference, a detailed explanation of the export process was given. This process begins from the moment the product is picked and packed in Gaza, after which it is sent out of Gaza via the Kerem Shalom land crossing and sold in the European market, all while maintaining the freshness and high quality of the products. Furthermore, representatives of the Coordinator of the Government Activates in the Territories (COGAT) have announced that starting next month, an initial pilot program of furniture export from Gaza to Europe will commence.

This conference is part of the ongoing daily cooperation between the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza and the Palestinians in the agricultural sector. The conference was attended by representatives of both the Agricultural Ministry of Israel and Gaza, observers on behalf of the Quartet, representatives of Israeli exporters, representative of the European States in the PA and a representative of the Kerem Shalom land crossing. All the attendees mentioned the great importance of the cooperation in this field and expressed their hope it would expand to other fields as well.

Mr. Tim Williams, the Quartet Advisor said: “It is important that we will see exports from Gaza and not just from the network of the Dutch project. We know that the Quartet is working and supporting the advancement of this field and that Israel already okayed the export of furniture and textiles, and I expect that from now on we will begin to see exports of furniture already in the coming weeks as was promised”.

During the past year, Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have exported more than 399 tons of strawberries, 10 million carnations, 6.5 tons of Cherry tomato and 6 tons of red, green and yellow bell peppers to European markets. In the coming year, Palestinians are expected to export 1,000 tons of strawberries, 20 million carnations and 150 tons of red, green and yellow bell peppers. The exports are carried out thanks to the cooperation between COGAT and the Palestinian agricultural coordinator who work together in order to improve the lives of Gaza’s civilian population.

We see that there is a huge project being coordinated among multiple groups in Israel, Gaza and the EU to ensure exports coming out of Gaza can be done safely and effectively, and the numbers have been doubling year after year.

But Juan Cole, celebrated academic who cares nothing for actual facts, sums it all up as "zero."

Arab representing Israel in Miss Earth competition

From YNet/AFP:

As makeup artists and hairdressers circle her, Huda Naccache calmly discusses the media frenzy sparked by her appearance, clad in a skimpy bikini, on the cover of an Israeli Arab magazine.

The long-limbed 22-year-old, who comes from the mixed Israeli and Arab port city of Haifa, doesn't see the cover shoot for Lilac magazine as anything out of the ordinary.

For her, it was simply another part of a campaign in the run up to the Miss Earth competition in Thailand this December, where she will represent Israel.

But the cover shoot was the first time an Arabic magazine here has put a model in a bikini on its cover, and the first time an Israeli Arab model has been featured on a front page in so little clothing.

The image in question featured a defiant-looking Naccache in a black-sequined bikini, an open white shirt draped over her shoulders and her thumbs hooked in the sides of her bikini bottom.

AFP is burying the lede here, because the fact that an Israeli Arab Christian is modeling in bikinis isn't nearly as important as the fact that "apartheid" Israel chose an Arab to be their representative at Miss Earth.

Here's the controversial cover (click to see entire image) and an inside page from the magazine:

More on her Facebook page and a Daily Mail article about this from September.

(h/t Yoel)

Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya called "Zionist" for Syria coverage

From Syria's SANA agency:

The Jordanian Popular Committee for Supporting Syria against the Conspiracy in addition to Jordanian popular figures on Saturday staged a sit-in in front of al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya TV channels' offices in Amman to express condemnation of the misleading campaign perpetrated by those channels against Syria with the aim of serving the U.S.-Zionist plots against the Arab nation.

The gathered participants expressed their rejection of any attempt of foreign interference in any Arab country under any pretexts or names whether varying between international protection of civilians, direct military intervention, the Human Rights Council or the UN Security Council.

The memorandum expressed the Jordanian figures' condemnation of al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's moving away from the professional performance which is supposed to be unbiased, balanced, honest and subjective.

The memorandum also condemned the escalation and incitement language of the two channels which reached the extent of fabricating and distorting the facts in order to provide a cover for the U.S.-Zionist projects aimed at undermining and dividing the Arab countries under the pretexts of freedom and human rights, like what happened in Iraq and Libya and what is planned for Syria.

This was also reported in - where else? - Iran's PressTV. It adds:

Meanwhile, activists in Qatar had earlier also accused Al-Jazeera of serving Israeli interests in the region.

They posted photos showing the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and his prime minister shaking hands with Israeli officials, activists also criticized the government for its close ties with Tel Aviv.

This is probably the photo they mean, from when Olmert met Qatar officials in 2008 in Paris:

Son of prominent Iranian found dead in Dubai

From AP:

The son of a prominent Iranian conservative who ran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 has died in a Dubai hotel in an apparent suicide, a Dubai police official and an Iranian website said Sunday.

The police official said the body, with a slit left wrist, was found late Friday by hotel staff in an 18th floor room.

There was no evidence of an attack and the death is being investigated as a suicide, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.

Dubai police did not provide further details on the man’s identity, but the Iranian website Tabnak, which is close to conservative Mohsen Rezaei, said that the politician’s son Ahmad Rezaei died in Dubai’s Gloria Hotel. It called the death “suspicious,” but offered no other details.

Prior to his return to Iran in 2005, Ahmad Rezaei had lived in the United States and openly criticized Tehran’s rulers. This put his father, a conservative closely associated with clerical hard-liners, in an awkward political position.

Mohsen Rezaei is secretary of Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, an advisory body to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His father is one of the people suspected of being behind the attack on the AMIA building in Argentina in 1994, and Israeli sources are quoting Iranian news as saying that they think this was a Mossad hit just like the murder of Mahmoud al Mabhouh last year.

Given that Ahmad was a critic of Tehran's rulers, this seems unlikely - if this was a hit, Iran might be behind it. Maybe even to send a message to Israel that it can also assassinate people in locked hotel rooms in Dubai if it wants to.

(h/t Yoel)

A strange definition of "tikun olam"

Crazed anti-Israel nutcase blogger Richard Silverstein has an exclusive!

The face of the Israeli terror machine may have reared its ugly head again in the world. This time it may have produced yet another massive act of sabotage (Hebrew original) at an IRG missile base west of Teheran. ...

Ynet raises the possibility that it was a deliberate act of sabotage on not just a missile base, but an intelligence facility. Teheran Bureau says the IRG is telling the Iranian media that the incident was not an act of terror, but purely an industrial accident. An Iranian who worked at the base for several months and was interviewed by Iranian media discounted the likelihood of an act of sabotage since security at the base was extremely strict.

However, an Israeli source with extensive senior political and military experience provides an exclusive report that it was the work of the Mossad in collaboration with the MEK.

...[M]y source has never been wrong so far in the reports he’s offered.

Silverstein is so anxious to blame Israel for everything that he was once taken in by an obvious Ha'aretz Purim joke article claiming that advertising messages would be projected onto the Kotel. He is known as a thin-skinned, sloppy, and unreliable blogger.

Nevertheless, YNet is now headlining an article with Silverstein's unsourced allegations!

And from what I hear, Israel's Army Radio mentioned it as well.

Not to mention Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today.

Now, from the beginning of this story, everyone recognized that it was entirely possible that Israel or other Western intelligence agencies were behind this explosion. I'm hardly an expert and I noted that as well.

But one of the features of espionage is plausible deniability.

Last week, on numerous occasions, Iran threatened to send hundreds of missiles to Israeli targets if it was attacked, or even if it was threatened with an attack.

Silverstein names his blog "Tikun Olam" in a bizarre attempt to pretend that somehow his unhinged and hateful postings help "repair the world." (By the way, along with most Jews who know nothing about Judaism, Silverstein's concept of "tikkun olam" is far from what the phrase actually means.)

If Iran becomes convinced that Israel has just attacked its missile facility, it will consider an avalanche of missiles aimed at Israel to be a response, not an attack.

So Silverstein, hiding his hate for Israel behind a misunderstood concept of "repairing the world," has no problem with doing his part to help bring war. And if quoting some random Israeli who makes him feel important by even talking to him is the method to do that, then, no problem. (Every real reporter would require corroboration from a second source before publishing something this incendiary.)

Since Silverstein's entire blogging career has always been more about boosting his immense-but-fragile ego and fueling his intense hate of Israel than anything remotely positive, Silverstein can be counted upon as not giving a damn if he just helped edge the region - and possibly the world - towards war.

That's the "tikun olam" of fools.

(h/t CAMERA)

"We harvest the skulls of the Jews"

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from statements made at a rally of the Palestinian Al-Ahrar movement in Gaza, a pro-Hamas group that split from Fatah, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on November 3, 2011:

Rally organizer: Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you.

[…]

Allah's prayers upon you, our beloved Prophet [Muhammad]. You have made your teachings into constitutions for us – the light with which we dissipate the darkness of the occupation, and the fire with which we harvest the skulls of the Jews.

[…]

Yes, our beloved brothers, even though the entire world moves closer to Allah through fasting, through hunger, and through tears, we are a people that moves closer to Allah through blood, through body parts, and through martyrs.

[…]

Oh sons of Palestine, oh sons of the Gaza Strip, oh mujahideen – wage Jihad, wreak destruction, blow up and harvest the heads of the Zionists. Words are useless by now. The lie of peace is gone. Only weapons are of any use – the path of [recently killed] Yousuf and Ali, the path of martyrdom and Jihad. Only our wounds talk on our behalf. We speak nothing but the language of struggle, of Jihad, of rockets, of bombs, of cannons and of martyrdom-seekers. This is the language in which we talk and negotiate with the Zionist enemy.

[…]

We say to the Zionists: Like a bad seed, we shall uproot you from our land, so that it can blossom in the light of the everlasting sun of our Jihad, and of our invincible religion. Jerusalem is not yours – get out of it! Haifa is not yours – get out of it! Tel Aviv is not yours – get out of it! Oh Zionists, get out before we expel you. these are the words of the mujahideen.