Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Palestinian Arabs fabricating facts on arrests, prisoners

From Ma'an:

A report published on Monday has found that over 3,000 Palestinians were arrested by Israel's military in 2011.

Researcher on prisoner affairs Abdul Nasser Ferwaneh said that the average number of arrests in 2011 numbered 276 per month, or around nine a day.

A total of 3,312 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli authorities in 2011, 113 of whom were prisoners released in the October exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.

The detainees represented a cross section of Palestinian society, Ferwaneh said.

The number of annual arrests has actually decreased, Ferwaneh added, noting that in 2007 a total of 7,612 people were arrested by Israel military forces.

Sounds authoritative, doesn't it? Such specific numbers! And Ferwaneh even has an entire website dedicated to his passion of documenting prisoners with the very impartial name of "Palestine Behind Bars."

Only one problem. PCHR also counts all of the people arrested by Israel, and their numbers don't come close. According to PCHR, since October only around 249 have been arrested; Ferwana claims nearly 700 in that time period.

PCHR documents each arrest; Ferwana does not.

But the Ma'an article gets even more ridiculous:

Ramallah based prisoner group Addameer said in early December that Israel had detained nearly the same number of Palestinians they had freed in the first stage of a prisoner exchange deal.

Israeli forces detained nearly 470 Palestinians since the Oct. 18 release of 477 prisoners from Israeli jail in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Ramallah-based rights group Addameer said.

"This wave of arrests reveals that the exchange deal has not deterred Israel’s policy of detention of Palestinians; rather, Israeli prisons are being refilled with almost the exact number of Palestinians that were released in October," the prisoners group had said.

As I have documented, Addameer literally makes things up. According to Addammeer, Israel has arrested over 800,000 Palestinian Arabs since 1967 - and some have said even 900,000. These numbers are absurd and yet they grow by about 100,000 every year. Yet even Goldstone believed them.

Now, let's look at Addameer's claim that Israel has imprisoned as many people as it released since October 18th and see if its record of lies continues.

B'Tselem keeps track of the number of prisoners in Israeli prisons. At the end of September there were 5,269, after the October prisoner release it was 4,772, and on November 30 it was at 4,803 - a lot less than 5,269.

Has Israel gone on a mad rush of arrests since December 1? PCHR counts 105 arrests since then, so even if every single one of those went to prison - which never happens - Addameer's numbers are again shown to be complete fabrications.

What we can learn from Salam Fayyad's threat

From WAFA:

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Monday condemned the Israeli deliberations on a bill submitted to the Knesset for declaring Jerusalem, including West and the East Jerusalem, to be the capital of Israel and the Jewish people.

Fayyad, in a press conference while signing a cooperation agreement between the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency and Jordan Investment Board in Ramallah, stressed that no one has the right to decide the future of occupied East Jerusalem.

“There will never be a solution unless Jerusalem becomes the eternal capital of the Palestinian state,” said Fayyad, adding that the Israeli government, Knesset or any Israeli political party cannot deliberate on the Palestinian inalienable right to self-determination.

There is a contradiction between the two statements. Fayyad is not saying that "no one has the right" to determine the future of the parts of Jerusalem across the Green Line, he is saying that only Palestinian Arabs have the right to determine it.

When Fayyad says "there will never be a solution unless..." he is implicitly saying that "there will never be peace unless..." What he is saying is that without Palestinian Arab control of the historic parts of Jerusalem, there will continue to be fighting, terror, war and whatever else the Arab world wants to serve up.

Palestinian Arab leaders can make such threats with impunity, and without any fear that any Western leaders or the UN will criticize the fact that they are essentially acting like the mob, saying that if you don't want to get hurt, do what they say.

An interesting subtext to his statement is that Fayyad is tacitly admitting that Israel wants peace and that Palestinian Arabs consider peace to be of secondary importance - not as important as getting their demands met. After all, there is no legal, logical or moral reason a solution must include Jerusalem as part of "Palestine." A solution can certainly be found - and reached quite quickly - if Palestinian Arabs would compromise on their demands. But if we take Fayyad's words at face value, he is saying that his people are less interested in a solution to the conflict as they are in gaining all of the land they claim exclusively.

The funny thing is that everyone knows this. Arabs know it, the UN knows it, the EU knows it: Israel craves peace and is willing to compromise to reach an agreement. Palestinian Arabs are more interested in getting 100% of their demands met - to them, it is more important than peace, or independence, or gaining a land that could be a refuge for the descendants of 1948 Arab refugees.

The relative priorities of both sides are neatly encapsulated by Fayyad's demand.

(h/t CHA)

Chanukah Video Night 7: PreSonus Hanukkah Rap

Um...OK.

"Construction at a peak in Gaza"

Palestine Times has a photo essay showing a torrid pace of construction in Gaza, saying it has reached a peak since the 2009 war. This is something that you will not read anywhere in English.

As always, the message depends on who your audience is.

When speaking to the West, cry about how you cannot get hold of concrete and iron. But to your own people, brag about how much you are building.

Zahar brags that Hamas would win elections

From Ma'an:

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said Sunday that his movement would win a sweeping victory in upcoming legislative elections due in May.

The Hamas leader said that Hamas would gain a better percentage than their 2006 election victory, where they won 74 of an available 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Hamas has not yet made a decision about a presidential candidate, he added.

Zahhar made the remarks during an interview with London based pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

In the Arabic interview, Zahar said that Hamas is "delighted" by polls showing Fatah leading them, because he said the polls said the same in 2006, when Hamas rolled to a large victory over Fatah.

One fact about the 2005 local elections and the 2006 legislative elections that most people don't realize: Hamas won in the West Bank as well, not just in Gaza.

In the December 2005 local elections, Hamas won 73% of the vote in Nablus, 72% in Al Birah (Abbas' hometown), and a majority in Jenin. Only in Ramallah itself (where there are a significant number of people working, directly or indirectly, for Fatah) did Fatah manage to eke out a tie.

I don't know if that would happen today, but Hamas is much stronger in supposedly Fatah strongholds than most people know.

Unity! Hamas detains more Fatah members in Gaza

Since the original "unity" discussions in May, the major demand by both Hamas and Fatah has been a very simple one: to release the political prisoners of the other party.

And nothing has happened. For eight months.

On the contrary, both sides have continued to accuse the other of detaining and arresting their members even as soothing words continue to come from their supposed leaders in Cairo.

The latest such event happened today, as nine Fatah members were summoned to appear by Hamas security in central Gaza.

Similarly, Hamas denied a report in Asharq al-Awsat that it now allows Fatah-oriented newspapers to be distributed in Gaza as part of the unity agreements made in Cairo. In a statement, Hamas said that it was irresponsible to report lies like this, and it pointed out that Fatah has restricted Gaza reporters from working in the West Bank as well.

So while Fatah and Hamas continue to pretend that they are making great strides in Cairo, the facts on the ground in Gaza and Ramallah indicate something quite the opposite.

The impression one gets is that they are more interested in maintaining the appearance of unification - to forestall a Palestinian Arab Spring - than in actually doing anything concrete.

Their game playing will inevitably come to a head in the coming year as more promises get broken and planned unification steps get delayed. Fatah and Hamas will be quick to create committees and set up meetings, but the people will notice the paucity of actual results soon enough.

And when the two groups feel pressured to actually do something, the ideologues of Hamas will prevail over the milquetoast leaders of Fatah. After all, Hamas' red lines are a lot starker than Fatah's, and in a battle of ideologies, Fatah will blink first. Just like it collapsed in Gaza fighting with Hamas, so it will cave in the face of Hamas' intransigence.

One major reason is that in the end, Fatah's goals are congruent with Hamas'. Fatah wants to see Israel destroyed as much as Hamas does, just they want to see it done in a Western-friendly manner. For Fatah, peace was never a goal, it was a means to an end. And without a real commitment to peace - not just mouthing words in English to New York Times columnists, but a real commitment - peace doesn't stand a chance.

Reports that Israel attacked arms convoy in Sudan

From Israel HaYom:

The Israel Air Force recently struck two vehicles in eastern Sudan that were smuggling Iranian weapons to Gaza, according to Sudanese media reports published on Sunday.

Sudanese government and army officials have denied that any such attack occurred, and Israeli officials were remaining mum on the reports.

According to Sudanese newspaper Al-Intibaha on Sunday, quoting sources from local tribes who witnessed the attacks, the first IAF strike took place about 10 days ago, targeting a convoy of six Land Cruiser SUVs. Four people were killed and two cars were completely destroyed, the report said.

The second attack, according to the newspaper, took place last Sunday, hitting a Toyota and killing everyone in it. The people in the car, however, were reported to be "gold seekers" and not arms smugglers.

Another local report on the attacks, appearing in the Sudanese Al-Rakoba newspaper, claimed that Israel Defense Force soldiers onboard two Israeli Apache helicopters disembarked on an island off the coast of Sudan, wandered around the island, and then left on the helicopters without Sudanese security forces being able to intercept them. In contrast to the Al-Intibaha report, Al-Rakoba claimed that the attacks occurred in late November.

The same report also noted that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir remarked that his country could not protect its own soldiers and he asked Egypt to help monitor any Israeli incursions into Sudanese territory

The Sudanese newspapers said the targeted vehicles were travelling on a path known to be a Hamas smuggling route: from Port Sudan, where ships carrying weapons from Iran are unloaded, continuing along a western route heading to Egypt and into the Sinai Peninsula, and finally entering the Gaza Strip.

Despite the detailed report, Sudanese government officials were quick to deny penetration of Sudanese airspace by foreign elements. The Sudanese army spokesman also claimed that he had no information regarding such an attack, calling the reports "rumors."

I couldn't find the original Al Intibaha article; the Al Rakoba article is here.

PLO threatens to withdraw recognition of Israel

More moderation from those darlings of the Western world, the PLO:

Mohammed Shtayyeh, member of the Fatah Central Committee and one of the Palestinian Authority negotiators with Israel, was quoted Sunday as saying that the Palestinians may cancel the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel.

Shtayyeh's comments were published by the London-based Asharq Al Awsat newspaper.

This was not the first time that a senior PA official had talked about the possibility of abrogating the Oslo Accords.

The comments came less than 48 hours after Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed to join a temporary leadership of the PLO that would prepare for new elections for the organization's two key bodies - the Palestine National Council and Executive Committee.

You mean that recognition is reversible? Come on, it can't be. Teams of Western Middle East experts have told us that the PLO's recognition of Israel is permanent and proof of their peaceful intent. If the PLO can decide in an instant that their agreements are worthless that would mean that "peace" was a tactical move to take land away from Jewish control, not a strategic move to live in peace with their neighbors. And after hearing how peaceful they are for two decades - even after they launched a terrorist war in the midst of it - how can we believe that they would change their minds?

This is the same guy who sent out his Christmas card wishing to celebrate next year in "liberated Palestine."

UPDATE: Hanan Ashrawi says the same thing, so this is not just ne guy mouthing off - this is a coordinated threat by the PLO.

A breath of fresh air

YNet has a nice article about how Jews and Muslims in Detroit work together on Christmas to do volunteer work for social service agencies.

The first comment is even nicer:

It amazes me how Jews and Muslims live peacefully together in Brooklyn, Detroit, and other regions outside of the Middle East. I think even in Israel and Palestine there must be good stories...

the problem is we, Arabs living in Saudi Egypt or other countries only hear about the bad things going on in Israel/ Palestine.... I think the same applies for Jews living in Europe, Australia, and US... they only hear bad things...

I was personally moved when I read about the Oud concert in Jerusalem... naming a street after Om Kolthoom.... an Israeli child singing om kolthoom in Israeli idol show...

The media doesn't cover that... all we know about Israelis is that "they are European colonialists""" but at least half of Israeli Jews come from the Middle East....

I don't know what went wrong but I think the Arabs had difficult times coping with the way Israel was formed.... other than that, I think Hebrew is the closest language to Arabic.. and Judaism is the closest to true Islamic values (islam need to be reformed just like what was done to Judaism)...

Peace upon you all, and hopefully one day will live in peace....

yazeed , Saudi (12.25.11)

Sometimes, a spark of truth turns into a flame.

Anti-Zionists freak over "Judea and Samaria"

Anti-Zionist activists are at it again, freaking out over a week-old story in Arutz-7:

According to a report in Israel National News, the commander of Israel Army Radio, the national radio station in Israel operated by the Israel Defense Forces, has determined that all the station’s reporters should refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.” The report states the decision was made as a result of complaints made by Israel Media Watch that the radio station’s referral to the area as the “West Bank” gives the impression to listeners that the territory does not in fact belong to Israel.

Israel Army Radio is a popular mainstream station in Israel listened to by people from across the political spectrum. It is thus significant that it is now being directed to use the same terminology used by the settler movement when invoking the Biblical, divine notion of “Greater Israel” that is completely detached from reality, diplomacy and human rights.

The author added:

I just chose to point out this news item since it is a good example of the “zeitgeist” in Israel, the slow unraveling of rhetoric that exposes the reality on the ground.

I love how these guys believe that "West Bank" is a historic term and "Judea and Samaria" are modern, rightist settler terms, a phrase daring enough to ring alarm bells in their little heads that cannot conceive of a Middle East before the 1970s.

So here's a quick look through the news archives from the 1950s through the 1970s.

From a National Geographic News Bulletin, from 1956:

The Free Lance-Star, 1965:

The term "west bank" was used between 1948 and 1967, almost exclusively without capitalization.

Before there were any settlements, the Labor-led Israeli government called the area "Judea and Samaria" as this 1968 UPI article shows:

Soon, the anti-Israel crowd started to push the use of the term "West Bank" as a proper name. Note that happened after 1967, showing that it wasn't a Jordanian initiative, Here's an example of one of the earliest uses of the term as a proper name from an AP article written in 1971, referring to the "so-called West Bank:"

Soon the "so-called" part was dropped, but the two terms were used together for a while still. Here's one from 1974, still with lower-case, from UPI:

But soon the Big Lie that only Israelis referred to the area as Judea and Samaria started to take hold. From Reuters, 1975:

And this lie spread so quickly that only two years later AP accused Israel of trying to rename the "West Bank" to Judea and Samaria!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a lie is created.

So today the use of the correct historical term for the area is considered extremist, and the use of the anomalous term created when Jordan illegally annexed the area for 19 years is considered normative.

(To their credit, most leftist commenters to the article cited noted that there is nothing political about referring to the area as Judea and Samaria. Calling it The West Bank, on the other hand, is purely political - first to make it appear as part of Jordan and later to avoid giving it any Biblical connotation.)

Funny news video from Chanukah, 1979

Check out the kid on the right:

(h/t JTA)

The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Ali Gomaa, who is considered a moderate cleric, said on Saturday that "the grave violations against holy sites" in Jerusalem requires urgent international Islamic intervention.

He said that Israel's temporary closing of the ramp to the Mughrabi Gate on the Temple Mount - which Muslims do not use - was the latest violation against the sanctity of Jerusalem.

Presumably these "grave violations" also include the fact that Jews are allowed, with severe restrictions, to visit their own holiest site.

Gomaa further warned that if Israel would continue to ignore their feelings, it would feel the wrath of one and a half billion angry Muslims.

Gay Men's Chorus singing "Chanukah in Santa Monica"

A bonus Chanukah video, unlike any I've ever seen.

I was actually surprised that they didn't create a big menorah with their hands at the end; their stage was already in roughly the right shape.

(h/t DM)

"Silwan stone-throwers were checking cars for Jews"

I noted that an AFP photographer won a photo-journalism award for his shot of a stone-throwing youth being hit by a swerving car in Silwan.

The photographer, Ilia Yefimovich, was interviewed by "Achbar HaIr" about his photo and what happened that day.

He recounts what happened:

That day there was a funeral in the neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, and I went up to Jerusalem to photograph it for the Russian news agency. At the funeral there was a commotion and disturbances, so we expected a mess. I stood at a major intersection located above the where they have the tent demonstrations in the neighborhood, just below the Cinematheque, and there were bunch of kids who were throwing stones at passing vehicles. For every vehicle they checked if the driver was Jewish and [if so] threw stones at him. At one point, a string of cars passed and the children ran toward the vehicle and began to throw stones at it; the driver pulled the steering wheel and hit the children.

This picture undoubtedly is highly debatable. My job as a photographer is to document the scene - the events I shoot were happening with or without the presence of the camera. I started taking journalism because I wanted to see with my own eyes how everything looks, on the news every reporter puts his personal views . The press here in Israel have a very big problem when the photographer becomes part of the news - then it's not news, it's propaganda. The average reader should be able to read between the lines and understand the truth, and not the opinion of some writers and editors.

You will recall that no photographer bothered taking a shot of the shattered back window of that same car.

(h/t Dan)

Hamas, PIJ say they want to change the PLO, not adapt to it

From JPost:

Hamas is joining the PLO not as a result of a change in its ideology but because it wants the PLO to stick to its original platform – liberating Palestine and achieving the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, Hamas leaders explained over the weekend.

The Hamas leaders’ clarifications came in response to claims that Hamas’s decision to join the PLO was a sign the Islamist movement was moving toward moderation and would abandon its radical ideology.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other radical Palestinian groups agreed on Thursday to join a provisional leadership of the PLO that would look into ways of “activating and reconstructing” the Fatah-dominated organization.

The decision was announced following a meeting of representatives of several Palestinian groups in Cairo.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad are demanding the PLO reconsider its political strategy by scrapping the Oslo Accords and its recognition of the two-state solution.

Hamas’s “foreign minister” Osama Hamdan, said the decision to join the temporary PLO leadership did not mean Hamas would become part of the peace process with Israel.

“Anyone who thinks Hamas has changed its positions and now accepts the PLO’s defeatist political program is living in an illusion,” Hamdan stressed. “Hamas cannot make the mistake of joining a process that has proved to be a failed one over the past 20 years.”

He was quoted by the Quds Press news agency as saying Hamas’s decision to be part of a provisional PLO leadership was aimed at “reconstructing the organization and reconsidering its political program.”

Hamdan emphasized that Hamas remains committed to fulfilling the aspirations of Palestinians, “first and foremost the liberation of our lands from the sea to the river and achieving the right of return.”

By seeking reconciliation with Fatah, Hamas hopes to achieve the Palestinians’ goal of liberating all their lands and securing the return of the refugees to their original homes inside Israel, Hamdan said.

Another Hamas leader, Khalil Abu Leila, said his movement would not join the PLO under the latter’s current political program.

One of the main tasks of the provisional PLO leadership was to “bring the PLO back to its correct path and the goal for which it was established, namely the liberation of Palestine,” he said.

Abu Leila said Hamas had long been demanding the PLO be “reactivated” and reconsider all agreements signed by the organization. His remark was seen as a reference to the Oslo Accords, which were signed between the PLO and Israel in 1993.

Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ramadan Shallah also denied the decision to join the provisional PLO leadership was an indication his group would abandon its ideology.

“We still haven’t joined the PLO,” he said. “In future discussions with other factions, we will talk about incorporating Islamic Jihad into the PLO. Thursday’s meeting was just the beginning of this process.”

Shallah told London-based Al- Hayat newspaper it has already been made clear no organization would be asked to abandon its program as a condition for joining the PLO.

On the other hand, he added, no group has been asked to accept the PLO’s political platform as a condition for joining the organization.

“In principle, there is a Palestinian consensus that the PLO is an address for all Palestinians,” Shallah said. “We are seeking to make this an appropriate address.”

He said that during last week’s discussions in Cairo, PLO and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas made it clear the Palestinians would still preserve the right to “armed resistance” against Israel, despite the talk about the need for a “popular uprising.”

“No one has the right to say armed resistance is illegitimate and the Palestinians cannot resort to it,” Shallah said.

But who are you going to believe, terrorists or Time magazine Middle East experts?

Archaeologists confirm detail of Chanukah story

From Ha'aretz:

Israeli archaeologists have uncovered the first archeological find to confirm written testimony of the ritual practices at the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

An Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeological survey at the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount yielded a tiny tin artifact, the size of a button, inscribed with the Aramaic words: “Daka Le’Ya,” which the excavation directors on behalf of the IAA, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, explain means “pure for God.”

Researchers believe the artifact, dated to the first century, towards the end of the Second Temple period, is a seal similar to those described in the Mishnah. If they are correct, this is the first time physical evidence of the temple ritual was found to corroborate the written record.

The team believes the tiny seal was put on objects designated to be used in the temple, and thus had to be ceremonially pure.

In this vein, and in the spirit of Hanukkah, Jerusalem District archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: “It is written in the Talmud that the only cruse of oil that was discovered in the Temple after the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks, “lay with the seal of the High Priest” – that is: the seal indicated that the oil is pure and can be used in the Temple. Remember, this cruse of oil was the basis for the miracle of Hanukkah that managed to keep the menorah lit for eight days”.

In addition to this artifact, the dig also yielded other Second Temple artifacts, some older from the time of the Hasmonean Dynasty rule, including oil lamps, earthenware pots, and containers filled with oils and perfumes, as well as coins bearing Hasmonean kings such as Alexander Jannaeus and John Hyrcanus.

Wiktionary translates "Daka" as "to cleanse, to purify."

Intriguingly, Jastrow translates "Daka" as "humble" or "crushed." And the Genesius Lexicon translates it similarly:

Is it possible that "Daka l'Ya" doesn't only mean "pure for God" but perhaps "crushed for God" - meaning it is a seal meant specifically for olive oil produced for the Temple service?

(h/t Dan)

Fatah leader begs Christians to stop leaving "Palestine"

Mohammad Shtayyeh, a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, spoke at a Fatah-organized dinner in Bethlehem on Friday night.

During his speech, Shtayyeh asked Palestinian Christians to stay and to stop emigrating to other countries, quoting Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?" He said that no one deserves the land more than Palestinian Christians and that they are part of the "mosaic" of Bethlehem.

Ma'an English did not bother mentioning his appeal to Palestinian Christians. Their exodus from the territories, mirroring the Christians fleeing from every single Muslim-majority country, is something that must be downplayed.

He also threatened the Israeli government, saying that if it doesn't distinguish between Har Homa and Tel Aviv, the Palestinian Arab leaders will not distinguish between Ramallah and Jaffa.

Of course, judging from the Fatah logo, they never did. Except between 1964-1967, when they said they have no political interest in the West Bank.

Given that, Shtayyeh's Christmas card that he sent out to his friends is more than a bit ironic:

At Christmas, all roads lead to Jerusalem and Bethlehem

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year hoping that next year we celebrate together in liberated Palestine

Not a single Palestinian Arab leader ever expressed that wish when those areas were under Jordanian control. Which means that "liberated Palestine" doesn't mean an independent Palestine, but a land liberated from Jews.

(h/t SM)

Stone throwers for UNICEF

Every week we can find lots of photos of people throwing and slinging stones at high speeds towards Israeli policemen, in what are called "peace protests."

The irony gets lost after a while.

But sometimes, a protester will wear something that brings it all back.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a repeat of this photo I found last year:

UPDATE: The UNICEF shirt is a Barcelona football shirt. (h/t Ian)

Egyptian tourism down; man cuts off penis

From Reuters Arabic:

An Egyptian newspaper reported that a young man from the city of Luxor in the south cut off his penis and buried in a graveyard after suffering depression as a result of the decline in tourism since the outbreak of popular protests that led to the removal of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Most residents of Luxor, about 690 km south of Cairo, work in the tourism trade as it has many of the most famous ancient Egyptian antiquities, including the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak, in addition to the large number of tombs of kings and queens of the Pharaohs from the era of the Egyptian empire (about 1567-1085 BC.)

The newspaper al-Wafd in the Sunday early edition reported that the man is 35 years old and married and that his psychological state worsened "due to lack of income due to tourism downturn."

The newspaper added that the Luxor International Hospital received the young man with heavy bleeding and they performed surgery, but attempts to re-attach his penis were unsuccessful.

That will definitely increase tourism!

"Nittel-nacht" open thread

It is "nittel-nacht," and one of the time-honored customs is to avoid blogging all night. (Or something like that.)

Here's an open thread.

Egyptian gas line to Israel blown up again

For the eleventh time this year, the gas line from Egypt to Israel and Jordan was blown up.

The company responsible for the line, GASCO, sent investigators out to see the extent of the damage. It also informed the Misr Insurance Corporation of the damage so it could be compensated.

Hmmm.

Earlier this week, Jordan and Egypt negotiated new pricing for the gas.

Chanukah Video Night 4: The Avoda - Spread the Light

The Guardian: "Mary and Joseph wouldn't make it into Bethlehem" (updated)

Every year we are treated to stories where reporters use Christmas as an excuse to bash Israel.

Here's one from The Guardian:

If Joseph and Mary were making their way to Bethlehem today, the Christmas story would be a little different, says Father Ibrahim Shomali, a parish priest in the town. The couple would struggle to get into the city, let alone find a hotel room.

"If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed," says the priest of Bethlehem's Beit Jala parish. "He would either have to be born at a checkpoint or at the separation wall. Mary and Joseph would have needed Israeli permission – or to have been tourists.

"This really is the big problem for Palestinians in Bethlehem: what will happen when they close us off completely?"

Al Arabiya reports that some 30,000 Christian pilgrims are expected to visit Bethlehem this weekend.

There is no problem for Palestinian Christians to visit. There is no problem for tourists to visit. 500 Gazans are even visiting. Is it really so strange that Israel must give permits for people to cross from or through Israel to PA-controlled areas? And are these permits really difficult to obtain?

CiFWatch has much more.

UPDATE: Commenter Ira_rosen says:

Indeed, The Guardian is correct. If Mary and Joseph tried to get to Bethlehem today, it would be difficult. They were Jewish.

Latma video: Christmas in Eurabia

(h/t Basketballpro66)

Rock throwers hiding behind an ambulance

Tweeted by Captain Barak Raz of the IDF, about the weekly riots in Nabi Saleh:

We've seen this before here and in other riots - hiding behind an ambulance while throwing rocks

He also noted that an Israeli border police officer was hit in the face by one of those harmless rocks.

The YouTube videos of the weekly protests are carefully edited to cut out any rock throwing. For example, here's a screen shot from last week's riot, where you cannot see a single rock thrown - but you see plenty of rocks littering the road behind the Israeli police:

Linkdump - Hudson NY edition

There have been a bunch of great posts in Hudson-NY this week, so here are some of them:

Arab Apartheid by Khaled Abu Toameh

"Kairos Palestine": From Mendacity to Megalomania by Malcolm Lowe

Radical Islamic Television Arrives in Spain by Soeren Kern

Betraying Ben-Gurion by Efraim Karsh

The Muslim Brotherhood Unmasked by Herbert I. London

Turkey Reaffirms Its Support for Palestinian Cause And more from the Turkish Press by AK Group

Spain's Jew-Hating Majority by Anna Mahjar-Barducci

Muslim Persecution of Christians: November 2011 by Raymond Ibrahim

Canada's State-Sponsored Fight Against State-Sponsored Anti-Semitism by Christine Williams

Arab Spring Sending Shudders Through Christians in the Middle East

Khaled Abu Toameh

From Wikipedia, first round results

Al Masry al Youm reports on the second phase of the parliamentary elections in Egypt.

As with the first round, it looks like the Muslim Brotherhood has done exceptionally well, with the more extreme Salafist Nour party in second place.

The majority of the seats were won by the MB's Freedom and Justice party. In Giza, they scored an impressive victory; in Sohag, MB combined with Nour to win most seats. In the East, the MB swept, and this was the pattern for most districts.

Tomorrow the official results of one of the run-off elections are supposed to be announced.

At the moment, the Freedom and Justice party has 49% of the seats assigned by the election. Because of the way the runoff elections work, I think it is possible that the Muslim Brotherhood can end up with an absolute majority of seats, even without a coalition with Nour.

Erdogan's ironic quote of the day

From Bloomberg:

Turkey froze political and military relations with France in retaliation for the approval by the French parliament’s lower chamber of a measure that makes it a crime to deny genocide against Armenians a century ago.

The government recalled its ambassador to Paris for consultations, canceled a joint meeting of economy and trade ministers in January and halted all programs for training and cultural affairs, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday in televised remarks in Ankara following the vote.

The quote:

“People will not forgive those who distort history, or use history as a tool for political exploitation,” [said Erdogan.]

Yes, those 1.5 million Armenians just caught the flu.

And the IHH members aboard the Mavi Marmara were wielding "peace batons" and stabbing Israeli soldiers with flowers.

Last week, Turkey's foreign minister said that Turkey's policies have isolated Israel and helped bring it to its knees. But yesterday, Israel canceled a $141 million military contract with Turkey - not exactly the actions of a nation on the ropes.

Next week the Knesset may pass a bill saying the Jewish people will never forget the Armenian genocide and asks that the Knesset mark the event with a special memorial session held every year, in a move sure to anger Ankara further.

But meanwhile Turkey is at loggerheads with its former allies in Iran and Syria, the EU has been cool to its moves and this latest French law has it in a tizzy.

Which means that Turkey's actions have isolated Turkey a lot more than it has isolated Israel.

The purposeful ambiguity of terrorists joining the PLO

Reuters reports that Hamas and Islamic Jihad plan to join the PLO.

Rival Palestinian factions took a significant step towards reconciliation Thursday as the Islamist group Hamas said it planned to join President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization.

Abbas held a meeting in Cairo with leaders from the factions, including Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal, where a committee was formed to prepare for the inclusion of Hamas, as well as the smaller Islamic Jihad, in the PLO.

Hamas has refused to recognize Israel or renounce violence, while the PLO has signed interim peace accords. It was unclear how Hamas would be included in the PLO, given the discrepancy.

The committee will now prepare for an internal election of the PLO parliament in order to facilitate Hamas and the Islamic Jihad membership.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas's Mashaal had told Abbas that his group was "in favor of peaceful resistance and a truce in Gaza and the West Bank at this stage".

The official offered no further explanation on what that might mean. Hamas has said in the past it would agree to a long-term truce with Israel, but remains sworn to its destruction.

Islamic Jihad clearly sees this as a method to restructure the PLO - away from its signed peace agreements with Israel:

An Islamic Jihad leader said Thursday that joining an "interim leadership framework" of the PLO did not necessarily mean it had formally joined the Palestinian body.

Khaled Al-Batsh told Ma’an that joining the organization requires a clear framework for how the PLO will be restructured.

He added that if there was an agreement concerning these issues, Islamic Jihad would become a member in the organization. However, if there was no agreement, the group said it was still willing to contribute.

“We’re now in the phase of national dialogue," he said. "We’re in the interim leadership framework, which will handle restructuring the PLO, and we hope to succeed.”

Batsh also said "We support reconciliation on the basis of building a unified Palestinian authority in the framework agreement on a national project that meets the need of the Palestinians, as part of upholding our right to resistance and national principles."

Hamas takes a similar stance, saying that this is an opportunity for the PLO to include all Palestinian Arab factions (meaning, terror groups) and elect new members for its national council and executive committee. Meshal also railed against the PLO's unilateralism.

Abbas and his cronies, of course, will do everything they can to present this to the West as if the PLO is not reneging on its signed agreements while they will say in Arabic that the PLO can accommodate the inclusion of unrepentant terror groups.

Their strategy will be to find an ambiguous enough formula that desperate Western leaders can embrace with their eyes wide shut, using their penchant for wishful thinking to patch over the gaping divide between Hamas and PIJ and any possible peace process and then to blame Israel for showing reluctance to negotiate with its would-be exterminators.

It might take a couple of years, but soon we will see op-eds in major newspapers asking exactly what is wrong with Hamas' idea of a "long term truce" before annihilating Israel, or saying that Islamic Jihad has embraced the peace process. Things that are still considered somewhat absurd will become mainstream thinking by dint of repetition of sound bites by the new PLO leadership.

After all, that's what happened with the PLO itself. Remember that it has been over a decade since the PLO supposedly changed its charter to remove all references to destroying Israel and armed resistance - and yet in the meantime it has never published a revised charter!

The Palestinian Arab leadership is skilled at creating just enough ambiguity to allow credulous Western leaders and pundits to mentally fill in the rest with what they fervently hope the terrorists and their supporters are saying. They know that Western wishful thinking goes a long way to help their cause.

UNESCO stops funding PalArab kid magazine that thanked Hitler

A followup to this story from Europe-Israel:

A day after a protest from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to UNESCO’s Director-General over a Palestinian youth magazine which published materials exalting Hitler, UNESCO has agreed that it « will not provide any further support to the publication in question. »

Zayzafouna, a magazine which supposedly promotes democracy and tolerance, published an article by a ten-year-old Palestinian girl who said that in her dreams, Hitler told her, “Yes. I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who spreads destruction all over the world.” The article was brought to the public’s attention by Palestinian Media Watch.

A letter from the office of UNESCO’s Director-General read:

UNESCO’s attention has been drawn to the February 2011 issue of the Palestinian children’s magazine Zayzafouna. This magazine is published by an NGO of the same name under the patronage of the Palestinian National Commission for UNESCO, which is the national body set up by the Palestinian Authority to facilitate its work with the Organization. The February issue features a story written by a 10-year-old girl in which Hitler is quoted by her as stating that he “killed [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who wreak havoc on Earth”. While UNESCO upholds freedom of expression as an integral part of its mandate, the inclusion in this publication of a statement that may be interpreted as an apology of the holocaust is contrary to UNESCO’s constitutional mandate and values. It is totally unacceptable.

UNESCO supported the publication of three issues of the Zayzafouna Magazine six months after the February 2011 issue. The support was provided for these issues following agreement with the editorial board that they would focus on building greater appreciation amongst Palestinians for their heritage and culture. They were to open the way for positive dialogue aimed at overcoming the consequences of the Middle East conflict, and to fight against stereotypes that may be conducive to violence. It was UNESCO’s intention to foster a positive view ofPalestinian heritage based on the values of tolerance and UNESCO’s mandate of building peace in the minds of men and women. This vision guides all of UNESCO’s activities, and we urge all partners to work in this direction.

UNESCO is shocked and dismayed by the content of the February issue, and has requested more detailed information and clarification from the editors of the magazine and to Palestinian Authority.

UNESCO strongly deplores and condemns the reproduction of such inflammatory statements in a magazine associated with UNESCO’s name and mission and will not provide any further support to the publication in question.

The Organization, which is deeply committed to the development and promotion of education about the Holocaust, disassociates itself from any statement that is counter to its founding principles and goals of building tolerance in the full respect for human rights and human dignity.

From what I can tell, UNESCO only funded the magazine for a few issues; the latest issues no longer had its logo.

The last issue of 2010 had a tribute to Yasir Arafat.

The issue beforehand had a story about a child visiting his father in prison, ending off with "I am aware that the enemies are the ones who prevented my father from returning home."

The previous issue to that one was the last one to have the UNESCO logo.

Chanukah Video Night 3: Chanukah Rights!

From Six13:

Muslim Brotherhood is suddenly against Egyptian protests

My, how things change after one wins an election.

Firas Press (possibly quoting Al Balad News) is quoting Muslim Brotherhood and Nour officials as saying that Egyptian security should respond to protesters "with an iron fist."

A Nour party spokesman told a rally that protesters in Tahrir Square are not innocent, but a group of terrorists that the Military Council must address "with full force."

The Nour spokesman also questioned the morality of women protesters who sleep outside the home and in public squares.

Doonesbury blames US troops for Christian exodus from Iraq

Yesterday's Doonesbury comic betrays a very interesting mindset.

AP looked at this phenomenon in 2009:

Christians first began leaving Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, during the economic sanctions and repression under Saddam Hussein, who pushed more Islamist policies. But the trickle turned to a flood after Saddam was toppled in 2003 and the violence escalated, said a prominent Iraqi Christian lawmaker, Younadem Kana.

"I hope to leave for any other place in the world," said Sheeran Surkon, a 27-year-old Iraqi woman who fled to Syria in 2004 after she received death threats, her father disappeared and her beauty salon was blown up.

Sukron awaits resettlement to another country, saying she can’t tolerate the violence and new Muslim conservatism in Iraq.

"How can I live there as a woman?" she asked.

Daoud Daoud, 70, a former civil servant in the northern city of Mosul, now spends his time waiting with dozens of others at a Damascus, Syria, resettlement center, hoping to follow his children to Sweden.

"Iraq as we once knew it is over. For us there is no future there," he said.

More than 2 million refugees of all religions have fled Iraq since the 2003 invasion. The recent ebb in violence has lured some Muslim refugees to return in small numbers.

But few Christians contemplate going back, the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees reports.

"They simply do not feel safe enough. They cannot sufficiently count on state security or any other force to protect them," said the the agency’s acting representative in Damascus, Philippe Leclerc.

In a report last year, the head of its Iraq support unit said that Christians are more likely than other fleeing Iraqis to register as refugees in an effort to emigrate to a third country.

"The vast majority of Iraqis still want to return to Iraq when the conditions permit — the notable exception being religious minorities, particularly Christians," the report said.

"When I came here to my parish in Karrada, we had 2,000 families," said Monsignor Luis al-Shabi, 70, who started at St. Joseph’s 40 years ago. "But now we only have 1,000 — half."

The situation is worse in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora to the south — where 30,000 prewar Christians fled during the six years of war. The now-quiet neighborhood has only a single church and a handful of Christians.

More troubling, when a group of Christian families recently tried to return to homes in Dora, two Christian women were killed, Iraq’s Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly said in an interview after meeting with the pope in nearby Jordan.

Execution-style killings late last year targeted Christians in Mosul, as did a string of bombings. In March of last year, the body of Mosul’s Chaldean Christian archbishop was found in a shallow grave a month after he was kidnapped at gunpoint as he left a Mass.

Since then it got worse:

Abdullah al-Nawfali, who heads the Christian endowments fund, says there has been a sharp increase in the number of Christians leaving Iraq since the October 31 suicide attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad.

More than 50 Christians, including two priests, and seven policemen were killed when Iraqi security forces stormed the Baghdad church in which Islamic terrorists wearing explosive vests were holding worshippers hostage.

Nawfali says the number of Christians emigrating from Iraq in November -- immediately after the church siege – more than doubled from the previous month, and the rate of increase in December was even higher.

He says these statistics suggest that Iraq is in danger of losing its Christian community, which has lived for centuries alongside Muslims and other ethnic and religious groups.

To artist Garry Trudeau, Islamists aren't to blame for murdering and persecuting Christians. Iraq's government and army are blameless for not protecting their religious minorities. No, it is America's fault! Life was so great under Saddam Hussein - why can't we go back to running Iraq with a homicidal dictator?

When Copts inevitably flee Egypt for similar reasons, is Trudeau going to write any comics wishing that Mubarak was back in power? Or will he find a way to blame that on America as well?

We all know who is behind persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East. But some people just can't stop themselves from blaming Big Satan (and, inevitably, his little brother.)

Using Trudeau's logic, the publishers of the Mohammed cartoons are to blame for the people killed in the ensuing riots. Which is an interesting position for a political cartoonist to take.

Nour party spokesman claims he was "ambushed" by Israeli reporter

From AP:

Al Nour spokesman Yusri Hammad

The spokesman of Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist party told Israeli Army Radio in unprecedented remarks broadcast Wednesday that the group is not opposed to the country's historic peace treaty with Israel.

Yousseri Hamad's interview with the Israeli broadcaster is unusual for followers of the Salafi Islamic trend, who typically shun Israel for its policies toward Palestinians and its annexation of east Jerusalem, home to Islam's third-holiest site.

The interview countered Israeli fears that Islamist parties would seek to cut ties with Israel.

In his remarks to the Israeli station, Hamad said the Salafi Nour Party is committed to agreements signed by previous Egyptian governments, including the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
"We are not opposed to the agreement, and we are saying that Egypt is committed to the agreements that previous Egyptian government have signed," he said, noting that if Egyptians want changes on the treaty, "the place for that is the negotiation table."

In response to the interview, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the comments were worth considering.

"This is certainly food for thought and we will of course keep observing very attentively developments in Egypt," he said.

Salafi Muslims follow a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that practiced in Saudi Arabia. The Salafi Nour Party in Egypt has so far won a quarter of the seats in Egypt's parliamentary elections, placing it second only to the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood.

After the interview aired, Hamad told The Associated Press that he did not know he was talking to Israeli Army Radio, and he was told only it was for an Israeli broadcaster. He claimed that had he known, he would not have agreed to the Army Radio interview because "they occupy our Palestinian brothers."

He also said that his party "without doubt" supports changes to the agreement, including raising troop levels in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel. He also said that there need to be guarantees for Palestinians.

"We call for full Sinai rights for Egypt and for our brothers in Palestine and occupied lands, and we see this as directly related to the agreement," he told the AP.

Al Ahram's account contradicts AP's:

Hammad, however, later said he had been "ambushed" by the Israeli reporter that conducted the interview, who, says Hammad, had introduced himself as an Iraqi journalist.

The interview had prompted surprise in Israel – and outrage in Egypt – that a member of Egypt’s hard-line Salafist movement would grant an interview to an Israeli media outlet, especially one associated with the military.

He made the same claim to Al Arabiya:

Hammad told Al Arabiya.net that he received an anonymous phone call and when he started the conversation with the caller, the Israeli journalist at first presented himself as an Iraqi one and spoke with him in Arabic.

“If I knew [the caller being a journalist from the Isareli army radio station], I would not have talked to him,” he said, adding “this is a media deceit and I reject such approach.”

The spokesman said only at the end of the interview the journalist said that he is Israeli.

Speaking of Nour, Hudson-NY has a must-read piece saying that the party isn't really Salafi - but Wahhabi.

Financial Times refuses to correct Hamas claim

The Financial Times wrote earlier this week:

The Islamist Hamas movement celebrated its 24th anniversary last week, with a mass rally in Gaza City that carried a clear and defiant message. “Armed resistance is the way, and it is Hamas’s strategic choice to liberate Palestine,” declared Ismail Haniyeh, the movement’s leader in Gaza.

The same day, as if to remind the world of its violent heritage, the military wing published a list of its bloody achievements since 1987. Among other boasts, it claimed to have killed 1,365 Israeli soldiers, fired 11,093 rockets and mortars at Israel, and carried out 87 suicide bombings.

Honest Reporting called them out on the claim that Hamas had killed 1,365 Israeli soldiers - when in fact most of the dead are civilian,and obviously targeted as civilians - but the Financial Times refused to issue the correction:

thank your for your email, which I followed up with Tobias Buck , our Jerusalem bureau chief, and we don’t feel a correction is warranted. The column clearly attributes its claims to Hamas in Gaza. The statement was carried on the official Qassam Brigades website and referred to “1385 Zionist soldiers”. We and all other outlets tend to translate “Zionist” into “Israeli”, since that is what they mean. Hamas was clearly not talking about civilians.

Honest Reporting correctly notes that since they didn't quote "Zionist" accurately it is disingenuous for them to quote "soldiers" without explanation.

But there is another small point that needs to be emphasized.

The English-language Qassam website did say that Hamas killed 1365 "Zionist soldiers." But at least one Hamas press release in Arabic simply said "Zionists."

From the Hamas-run Palestine Times:

The Information Office of the Qassam Brigades, military wing of Hamas, published today the official statistics on the number of martyrs and wounded, and the jihad operations carried out since the start of the Hamas movement, which started on this day December 14 twenty-four years ago. The Qassam Brigades said in a statement obtained by "Palestine Today." It states: "1848 martyrs, while killing 1365 Zionists and wounding 6411 others." The battalions confirmed they have been carried out 1117 the jihad operations, including 87 martyrdom operations, adding that "it bombed Zionist targets and settlements with 11,093 rockets and mortars." The Al-Qassam Brigades promised, in memory of the people, to start to move forward in the way of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine.

The Arabic al-Qassam website does say "soldiers" though, so I don't know if Palestine Today received a different copy or if they edited it to mean what everyone knows it means - except readers of the Financial Times.

(h/t Honest Reporting)

Jews peacefully visit their holiest site, Muslims freak out

Once again, Muslims are up in arms over several groups of Jews visiting the Temple Mount, site of both historic Jewish Temples.

Palestine Press Agency quotes the always histrionic Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation, as they try to incite anger in the teeming Muslim masses by claiming that the "intruders," including students from Jewish schools, were "performing Talmudic rituals" for Chanukah at the holy site.

Even more outrageously, the groups were led by tour guides who explained the details of the destroyed Temples.

The article helpfully adds that "there was an atmosphere of tension and suspense in Al-Aqsa Mosque" during these awful events where the "settlers" were said to "storm" the Mount. Walking peacefully is considered "breaking in" and "storming" in the parlance of the Muslim supremacists who demand exclusive control over the Mount.

Sheikh Kamal Khatib, an Islamic leader in the territories, underscored the point by saying that "Masjid al-Aqsa is ours and ours alone."

The peaceful cleric also issued a veiled threat that the entire Muslim world would go to war if Jews continue to visit the Har HaBayit. "More than once in history, the Al Aqsa Mosque was the torch that destroyed the hopes of empires, and the Al Aqsa Mosque will be the flame in extinguishing the illusions of the Zionist project, because the Al Aqsa Mosque is part of the faith and doctrine of the hearts of 1.5 billion Muslims, not merely 13 million Palestinians. I advise Israel to realize that the continued violation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque...will translate into action for Arabs and Muslims, in true defense of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and we will never allow [the Jews] to continue desecrating and insulting it... It is not in [Israel's] favor and it will not benefit its people; especially considering the new reality and the changes that are occurring in the region."

Interestingly enough, I have never heard any EU member denounce words like these. I've never read an op-ed in the mainstream media about how Muslim supremacism and fanaticism regarding the Temple Mount is a recipe for a never-ending war. On the contrary - in the face of threats like these, the usual reaction is to agree with the Islamists that it is better not to upset the apple cart and risk angering hundreds of millions of Muslims.

Muslims see that their threats cow the liberal Westerners who pretend to be at the forefront of religious freedom for all.

This Western fear of irrational Muslims starting a holy war at the slightest pretext has a long history.

Which is why threats and terror will continue to be effective.