Isn't it romantic?

Many blogs and other sites have shown their disgust at this series of pictures of President Bush getting, um, chummy with the Saudi dictator Crown Prince Abdullah. I gotta agree; here is the government that is at the very least partially responsible for 9/11 and it sure appears that Bush is still bending over backwards to not offend these murderers and bankrollers of terror.

This is especially bad in light of these latest revelations (not surprising revelations, but always shocking) that the Saudi chief justice is encouraging Arabs to kill Americans:

Is Saudi Arabia an ally or enemy of the United States in the war on terror?

The question is raised with the disclosure of secretly recorded comments from the kingdom's chief justice encouraging young Saudis to travel to Iraq to wage war against Americans.

Sheik Saleh Al Luhaidan (NBC News)

"If someone knows that he is capable of entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise up the word of God, then he is free to do so," says Sheik Saleh Al Luhaidan in Arabic on the October audiotape from a government mosque, obtained by NBC News.

While Luhaidan warns Iraq is risky because "evil satellites and drone aircraft" watch the borders, he stresses making the trip to fight Americans is religiously permissible.

"The lawfulness of his action is in fighting an enemy who is fighting Muslims and came for war," says Luhaidan.

"This statement shows the real face of the Saudi government," Saudi dissident Ali Al-Ahmed of the Washington-based Saudi Institute told NBC, noting Saudi officials, including Luhaidan, publicly oppose holy war in Iraq, but send a different message in private.

"He is telling Saudis it's OK to go to Iraq and kill Americans and Iraqis and they won't be punished for doing that," says Al-Ahmed.

When a Saudi spokesman denied the authenticity of the tape, the network contacted Luhaidan himself in Saudi Arabia to play the tape.

"Yes, this is my voice," the sheik confirmed in Arabic.

But Luhaidan said he meant to convey the message that it's "not worth it for young Saudis to go to Iraq and that the Iraqis are capable of fighting on their own," according to NBC.

The revelations on the tape come the same week Saudi Arabia's crown prince met with President Bush in Texas to discuss oil-related and economic issues, and extremism was also said to be discussed.

Last month, responding to a report revealing Saudi exportation of religious extremism to the U.S., 15 senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding the Bush administration take stronger action against Riyadh.

New York Democrat Charles Schumer was among the signers of the letter, which called for the U.S. to define its relationship with Saudi Arabia more clearly.

Schumer stated: "It is a massive contradiction that a country we call an ally could be both so regressive in their own country and so brazen in its propagation of anti-American, anti-women, anti-Semitic books, publications, and practices. American security is undermined as the Saudi government exports these hateful commodities to millions beyond its borders, planting the seeds for new generations of terrorists and totalitarian Wahhabi leaders."

It is a very sad state of affairs when the Democrats make more sense about an aspect of foreign policy than the Bush administration. And in regards to energy policy (which is, in reality, a defense policy), the US has dropped the ball big-time. It is hard to escape the thought that Bush has a sweet spot for Arab oil oligarchs, and this is blinding him from the conclusion that the US needs a Manhattan project for alternate energy sources, that could eliminate any need for Arab oil within ten years - not only energy independence for the US but for Europe and other Western nations as well.

UPDATE: Friends of Micronesia adds some good links and observations.

UPDATE2: Apparently, His Royal Highness' entourage includes a wanted terrorist.

CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - A member of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's delegation was denied entry into the United States after authorities found he was on a government "watch" list, a US official said.

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The US Department of Homeland Security, in a routine check of the delegation passenger manifest, found that one traveller was on a government list meant to screen out possible terrorists, the official said on condition of anonymity.

"This information was shared with our interagency partners, including the State Department," the official said. "My understanding is that the State Department denied that person a visa and so they did not enter the country."

The official could not confirm whether the person was a reporter or a Saudi official or even what nationality the person was, but another US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was a Saudi.

The second official also said the individual's name had appeared on a US government "watch" list.

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Worth a thousand words

Courtesy of Israpundit, here is a picture that says it all.

But in case you don't get it, the caption adds volumes more about the sad reality that exists today, of the wishful thinking replacing any sort of rational thought, of a desire for "peace" that allows its supporters to completely overlook the blatantly obvious lies being spouted daily by the heir of Arafat's doubletalking legacy.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, sits under a picture of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as he talks to the media during a news conference at his office in Gaza City, Monday April, 25, 2005. Abbas said Monday he expects the militant group Hamas to hand in its weapons after joining the Palestinian parliament this summer, but gave no indication he would forcefully disarm the militant group. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

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Abbas appoints terrorist as new security chief

Once again, Abbas chooses a path towards war and terror.

Good selection of articles from the invaluable Daily Alert.

Abbas Appoints New Security Agency Chief - Ibrahim Barzak (AP/Washington Post)
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday named Rashid Abu Shbak as the new head of the Preventive Security Service, in charge of reining in militants.

Who is Rashid Abu Shbak?
In November 2000, a bomb targeted a school bus just outside the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip, killing two adults and maiming three children for life. Israeli security sources accused Rashid Abu Shbak of preparing the bomb. (Jerusalem Report)

Among the Fatah leaders in Gaza, Rashid Abu Shbak is playfully dubbed the "father of mortars," as he had patronized mortar manufacturing in the resistance. (Frontline-India)

Rashid Abu Shbak is wanted by Israel for his personal involvement in terrorist attacks that have led to the murder of Israelis. (Jerusalem Post)

After the handover of Gaza and Jericho to the PA, Rashid Abu Shbak referred to pre-1967 Israel when he told Yediot Ahronot on May 29, 1994: "The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho will also reach the Negev and the Galilee." (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Abbas Appoints "Collaborator Hunter"
Abu Shbak is responsible for a ruthless campaign against at least 100 suspected "collaborators" in the Gaza Strip, and among many Palestinians is known as the "collaborator hunter."
Head of the Preventive Security Service (PSS) in the Gaza Strip for the past three years, he would now also be in charge of the PSS in the West Bank.
Earlier this year, Israel agreed to remove Abu Shbak from its list of wanted terrorists as a goodwill gesture toward Abbas.(Jerusalem Post)

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The Objective New York Times

The New York Times vehemently defended how well it covers Israel and "Palestine" (which, last I checked, is not a real country but the objective NYT says it is, so it must be - they are way too careful to say something accurate like "Palestinian territories".)

After much gnashing of teeth about how the Times gets attacked from both sides (implying that it must be doing something right) the editor concludes that, hey, it does the best it can.

Now, today, we see this:

WEST BANK SOLDIERS SHOOT PALESTINIAN DRIVER A Palestinian motorist ran over and killed an Israeli at a checkpoint near the West Bank town of Hebron, the Israeli media reported. Israeli soldiers then shot the Palestinian driver. There were conflicting reports whether the driver was killed or wounded. It was not immediately clear whether the driver intentionally hit the Israeli. The Israeli military said it was investigating but had no immediate comment. Greg Myre (NYT)

The same story in the left wing Ha-aretz (the Times' ideological cousin in the Mideast) adds:

The reservists at the roadblock reported that the taxi was seen approaching, and a soldier stepped out to flag down the driver, who was alone, for inspection. At first the driver slowed, but suddenly put on speed and drove straight at the soldier, running him over and critically injuring him. The other soldiers then opened fire at the driver, who died instantly. An ambulance crew called to the site was unable to save the injured soldier.

So, as of the time that the Times ran its story, it may not have known all the facts, besides two: an Israeli soldier was killed and a Palestinian was shot. But guess which fact it decided to put in the headline?

No, the esteemed NYT can't be bothered to put in a sentence or two of context, because, as the editor protests, it is not a history book. The minor fact that Israeli soldiers do not randomly shoot Palestinian taxi drivers, for example, is more of historic interest and not immediately relevant to this story. No, to the Times, the important fact is that a Palestinian was shot, and anything else is just noise.

Three cheers for "objectivity!"

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What bothers me about the Jewish Blogosphere (A Pesach post)

Although I am barely a part of the J-Blogosphere community and I keep this blog mostly for issues dealing with Israel and anti-semitism, I've been bothered by what I've been seeing posted on other Jewish blogs.

There is very little ahavas Yisroel in the Jewish blog world. (Sorry, "ahavat Yisrael" for those who flame about Ashkenazic pronunciation.)

The prominent blogs are very top heavy with denunciations of the political right or left, of Haredim, of prominent rabbis, of non-religious, of the current Israeli government, of the religious Zionists, of the religious establishment and organizations, of those whose ideas of Judaism differ from their own. Few of the J-blogs show any respect whatsoever for those they disagree with in the Jewish world.

Now, cynicism and insults usually make a blog more entertaining but I am afraid that the net result is more negative than positive. I am very appreciative that through reading these blogs I become more aware of problems in other parts of the Jewish world, whether they are cultural or organizational. Being willfully blind is not desirable. But the problems that exist should be presented as problems that need to be solved, not as issues that give us reasons to insult or denounce our co-religionists. Full disclosure does not give carte blanche to being condescending.

We may disagree as to what is the best way to act in religious/cultural/organizational/interpersonal/political issues, but we need to recognize that the other side is almost always acting in good faith as to what they think is the best way to act.

And achdus/achdut is what we need more than ever, for Pesach and beyond.

Have a great Yom Tov, everyone.

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Arab judge who criticized PA is suspended

Yet more evidence that Abbas is a well-groomed Arafat:

The Palestinian Authority has decided to suspend a senior Muslim religious judge (kadi) who criticized the PA judicial system and complained about anarchy and lawlessness.

The decision, the first of its kind since the death of Yasser Arafat, contravenes promises made by his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, to democratize Palestinian society and encourage freedom of expression.

The kadi, Dr. Hassan Jouju, was suspended following an interview he gave to the Jerusalem-based biweekly Sawt al-Nissa (Voice of Women) on April 14. 'The Shari'a (Muslim religious law) judiciary suffers due to the lack of legislation that regulates work, so chaos has spread,' he said in the interview. 'We work by God's will.' The kadi's remarks reflected widespread criticism of the PA's secular and religious judiciary systems, which have long been held responsible for the absence of law and order.

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A moderate Palestinian voice gets denounced

This happened in February:

WASHINGTON — America's largest Jewish policymaking body will host an unlikely guest at its annual gathering this weekend in Washington: the head of America's most prominent pro-Palestinian advocacy group.

Ziad Asali, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine, will participate in a special discussion on March 1 at the annual policy plenum of the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, a policy coordinating body that brings together 13 national organizations and 123 local Jewish communities. It will be the first time in more than a decade that the JCPA gathering has included such a discussion on whether American Jews and Arabs can work together for Middle East peace.

Since he established the Task Force, more than two years ago, the 63-year-old retired physician has been calling for Arabs — both in the Middle East and in America — to reach out to American Jews and work together for peace. The American Jewish community's support of a two-state solution is "essential" for any viable peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians, he said in a recent interview with the Forward.

"If we do not reassure [American] Jews that what we are striving for is a Palestinian state that will live in peace, security and respect alongside an Israeli Jewish state, then we simply cannot proceed" toward realizing that goal, he said. That process, Asali said, should be based on building both personal and organizational rapport between the two communities, and on charting the political common ground.

Asali's moderate voice and solid contacts with the Bush administration and Congress have turned this mild-mannered Jerusalem-born physician into the most visible spokesman for the Palestinians in Washington in recent months. Together with Washington lawyer and Republican activist George Salem, who is on the board of the relatively new pro-Palestinian organization, Asali was chosen by the White House to represent America on the official three-person U.S. delegation to Yasser Arafat's funeral. He and Salem, along with two senators, Republican John Sununu of New Hampshire and Democrat Joe Biden of Delaware, were part of the official American delegation sent to the region last month to monitor the Palestinian Authority presidential elections. And earlier this month, he was invited to testify before a congressional committee on the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace, joining former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross.

At the hearing, he voiced some unorthodox views: One was that Palestinians "absolutely should fulfill all their obligations," as stipulated in the road map peace plan "without delay." Another was that the question of Israeli security is "not negotiable."

It was another statement, however, that got the Palestinian activist invited to speak at the JCPA's annual plenum.

At a press briefing following his trip to monitor the Palestinian elections, Asali said that Palestinians should come to terms with the fact that they would not be able to realize their "right of return" to their old homes in Israel.

Asali, who was six when his family fled Jerusalem in the spring of 1948, says he knows full well how unpopular this position is among Palestinians. His mother, he says, died with the key to their Jerusalem home under her pillow. "But we must now separate the right from the return," he said. The moral right of refugees to recover their properties, he said, should be addressed by a combination of compensation and an Israeli acknowledgement of the wrong that was done to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians. "But in terms of an actual return, well, there is really nothing to return to. It's Israel now."

Asali believes that speaking his mind enhances his credibility. "I am fed-up with making points or scoring points in political debates," he said. "I understand the young [pro-Palestinian] students who scream on university campuses. I know what they are talking about. And I also know that they don't know what they are talking about." Palestinians and their friends in America, he said, should quit focusing on grievances of the past and instead do their best "to avoid the disasters of the future."

And this statement was made this week in response:

The Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition (and its constituent organizations in historic Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Europe and North America, including Al-Awda), and in conjunction with the Right of Return Congress and the listed signatory popular organizations and committees representing various Palestinian refugee communities, join the Arab-American community in declaring that various statements and false representations by the president of the Washington-based "American Task Force on Palestine" (ATFP) Dr. Ziad Asali nullifying the Palestinian right to return and demeaning the Palestinian and Arab people are reprehensible and entirely outside the consensus of our people.
The Right of Return is an inalienable right affirmed by the international community annually since 1948. No single person, group or government have the authority or mandate to forfeit this individual and national right.
In reality, voices such as Asali's are part of a larger concerted effort to introduce a false veneer of moderation as a replacement for the legitimate inalienable rights of the Palestinian and Arab people, represented by their right to return, sovereignty and self-determination. Through organizations like ATFP, Asali has gone even beyond the Geneva Accords, the Nusseibeh-Ayalon Agreement and other such attempts that violate fundamental, inalienable and natural rights that are enshrined in international law. From under the garb of hollow US democratization, Asali has in effect been diligently advancing the neo-Conservative plan for the "New Middle East", where nations and people are reconstituted against their will.

One can imagine peace, and even a two-state solution, when dealing with people like Asali. But the evidence that he truly represents anyone is lacking, and the reliance of the Bush administration on Asali and his group may be yet another manifestation of wishful thinking that pervades Washington and Jerusalem nowadays. The reflexive and utter denunciations of any Arab leader who softens his positions towards Israel even a slight amount speaks volumes more than the existence of such people to begin with.

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American Indians Aren’t Like Palestinians

An interesting take on those who love to use the colonialism argument against Israel.

By David Yeagley
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 9, 2002

MANY PEOPLE SEE A SIMILARITY BETWEEN American Indians and today’s Palestinians. I’m Comanche Indian. I see no similarity whatsoever.

Comanches were once "Lords of the South Plains," (Wallace & Hoebel, 1952). Arabs living in Palestine have never dominated anything but goats. Comanches were independent, and certainly not supported by two billion other Indian ‘brothers,’ like the Palestinian Arabs claim they’re supported by the Arab world.

There’s no similarity in the land claim issue. Comanches, never numbering more than six or seven thousand, were simply strong enough to take over the American southwestern plains, first from other Indians, then from white people. Palestinians have accomplished nothing but suicide bombings.

Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to Palestine. They are leftover Arabs, residual of another age. Knowing Arab history is vital to understanding the situation in the Middle East. (Joan Peters’ From Time Immemorial (1984) is a ‘must read’ on this subject.)

Arabs are from Arabia. Beginning in AD 622, under Mohammad, Arab "prophet" of Medina, the Islamic religion became a war machine and aggressively expanded from the Arabian Peninsula to all directions until AD 750 when it controlled North Africa westward to Spain and southern France, northward to Palestine and Armenia, and eastward 400 miles past the Indus River.

It was spectacular achievement, one which clearly proved Islam to be not a religion of peace, but of dominance. Arabs intermarried, enslaved, and otherwise lorded over every culture they encountered. Arabs established the African and Asian slave routes, which are still used today for slave trade out of India and Nepal, as well as Africa and the Far East.

European Christians finally fended off Islamic dominance to the east and west. By the 15th century, Muslims were ousted from Spain and from most of the Balkans by the 17th century. Mongolians broke Islamic dominance in the Orient. The last phase of Islamic political dominance, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), ended in 1840 when Constantinople submitted to terms of Western powers in its dispute with Egypt. Turkey’s government declared itself secular by 1922.

During all this time Palestine was little more than a wilderness of nomads, loosely associated groups of provincial subdivisions with frequently changing administrations. The people were a "pan-Arab" mix of gypsy-like leftovers, whom the General Syrian Congress of 1919 declared to be "the southern part of Syria." It wasn’t considered "Palestine," a separate Arab nationality, until the 1967 Six-Day War of Israel’s boundary expansions.

A ‘Palestinian Arab nationality’ was something Musa Alami began asserting after 1948, as a political reaction against Israel. As R. Sayigh wrote, "A strongly defined Palestinian identity did not emerge until 1968, two decades after the expulsion [of some Arabs living in parts of Palestine]," (Journal of Palestine Studies, 1977). In twenty years, Alami’s myth took effect.

But the land-by-residence claim gives Palestinian Arabs even less right. In 1950, United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) defined a Palestinian Arab as one who had lived in Palestine a minimum of two years before 1948. This is no ancient claim.

The ancient, indigenous inhabitants of Palestine are long perished from the earth. Canaanites, Phoencians, and then Philistines, all were dominated by the Israelites before 1060 BC. Most of these cultural identities dissolved completely by the neo-Babylonian age, or, the 6th century BC.

Arabs weren’t even in Palestine until the mid-7th century AD, over a thousand years later, after Palestine’s 1,300-year Jewish history. Arabs later living in Palestine never developed themselves or the land, but remained nomadic and quasi-primitive during their 1,200-year stay.

Then a stronger people modern Jews who’d been expelled from their homes in Europe and in Arab countries came in and conquered (without annihilating) the Palestinian Arabs.

As a Comanche Indian, I’m sensitive to this history. I believe the conqueror has a right to what he has conquered. No one owns the land. Only he who is strong enough to possess it will control it and the people living on it. That’s the law of war.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Let sentimentalists say what they will, the man who puts the soil to use must of right dispossess the man who does not, or the world will come to a standstill." (W. T. Hagan, Theodore Roosevelt and Six Friends of the Indians, 1997). The land developers, the agrarians, have become stronger than the hunters.

In the case of Comanches, we lost a magnificent hunting empire, and a lot of ego with it. In the case of "Palestinian" Arabs, what is lost? Why their sense of humiliation?

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Suha still getting millions!

Hey, the woman needs shoes!

French investigators are tracking $7 million transferred by PLO treasurer Nizar Abu Ghazaleh to the Paris bank account of ex-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's widow, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Palestinian officials said the PLO controlled a bank account in Tunisia from which millions of dollars in unexplained payments were made to Suha Arafat - payments they suspect were connected to contracts issued by the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat before he died last year, the report said.

The officials are trying to find out whether the money transferred to Suha Arafat came through Al Bahr and Al Sakhra, two companies which routinely handled purchase orders placed by the PA and which apparently were seeking, according to one official, to 'create a war chest in case the PLO fell back on hard times', it added.

As head of PLO finances, Ghazaleh played a key role in the transfers to Suha Arafat, according to Palestinian officials and French judicial officials probing PLO funds, the report said. Ghazaleh, who died last week, was also chairman of Al Bahr, and Suha Arafat played a key but unofficial role at the firm, helping to broker purchases, according to the daily.

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Israel helps rescue Syrian, Egyptian sailors on sinking North Korean boat

Just try to imagine Syrians trying to save Israelis.

Drama at the open sea: Israeli, American and French naval forces assisted Wednesday in the rescue of Egyptian and Syrian sailors whose ship sank in international waters off the coast of Nahariya.

Shortly before 2:00 p.m. (7:00 a.m. EST), the cargo ship Adora, traveling from Ashdod to Turkey, received a dispatch that another ship, which was apparently transporting cement, was in trouble.

The dispatch said the ship, which was carrying at least seven Egyptian and Syrian crew members and flew a North Korean flag, was sinking in international waters as it was making its way from EL Arish Port in Egypt en route to Syria.

Israeli, American, and French battleships and naval helicopters arrived at the scene, some 56 kilometers (about 35 miles) off the Nahariya coastline; the ship eventually sank, but three crew members have been saved so far.



American divers will apparently attempt to trace the four missing sailors on the ocean’s floor.



Lieutenant Colonel Yossi Meshita, who commanded the Israeli rescue efforts, said “As soon as we got the mission we knew what we had to do.'



'We are not interested in who the sailors are or what their nationalities are,' he said. 'From our standpoint it is about saving lives, and that is what we were trying to do for many hours at sea.”"

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I'm sure that they are very oppressed

Don't you love when people justify suicide bombings by saying that the Palestinians are "forced" to do it because they are so "desparate"?

I wonder what mental hurdles these idiots have to go through to explain stories like this.

I also wonder if these potential martyrs would change their minds if Israel gave the Palestinians the entire West Bank and Gaza?

Yeah, right.

TEHRAN, Iran Apr 20, 2005 — More than 400 young men and women have volunteered to carry out suicide bombing attacks against Americans in Iraq and targets in Israel, a militant group said Wednesday.

The recruiting effort was detailed during a ceremony organized by the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a shadowy group that has been seeking attackers for nearly a year.

The Iranian government has distanced itself from the organization. But the event was attended by Mahdi Rahimian, the head of the Martyr's Foundation and the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, both quasi-government organizations run by hard-liners loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

'Some 440 volunteers, most of them women, signed up today,' said group spokesman Mohammad Ali Samadi.

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Teach Kids Peace

Watch this flash video. It takes about 90 seconds.

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