Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

"Obstacles to Peace"

How many times have we heard that the Jewish settlers who live beyond the Green Line are obstacles to peace? A quick search finds here,
here, here, here, and literally hundreds of other times that this phrase was used in reference to Jewish settlements, often by the State Department and the White House.

Well, now these supposed obstacles are gone from Gaza, so we must be that much closer to peace now, right?

The Palestinian Authority, instead of housing citizens in the Gaza communities abandoned by Israel, has turned them into training camps for armed factions. N'vei Dekalim is used to launch rockets.

Many of the 21 communities emptied of their Jewish residents last summer have now been turned into full-fledged military training camps of the ruling Fatah group and of other Islamic terror groups. According to the groups, the communities also act as recruitment centers for the “people's army” being funded by Fatah.

Two Kassam rockets were fired from Gaza, mid-day Tuesday, toward Israeli towns in the western Negev. A Hamas official told the World Tribune that the rockets were fired from former Jewish towns that have been converted into launching sites for the war against the Jewish State.

Last month, the PA official in charge of interior affairs, Nassar Yusouf, toured the training camp erected on the remains of the community of N'vei Dekalim – which was the largest of the Jewish towns in Gush Katif. Yusouf planned to declare the area a closed military zone, but soon realized that armed hordes from his own Fatah faction had set up a military infrastructure in the place.

It must be an oversight by the major media outlets and our Department of State, but not once have I seen terror training camps in Gaza referred to as "obstacles to peace." Not once have I seen anyone in the mainstream press or officials from the US or EU utter the obvious truth that terror is far more an "obstacle to peace" than Jews who want to live on historically Jewish land.

It is mind-boggling that after the Gaza debacle, where the pseudo-statelet is well on its way to becoming Hamastan, that people think that peace is closer now than it was six months ago.

There is only one obstacle to peace - the fact that the Palestinian Arabs, and the Arab and Muslim world at large, cannot accept the idea of Jews living in the Middle East in positions of power, even if Israel was the size of a tablecloth.

Solving that problem will not bring peace, but it is a necessary precondition of peace. Making more concessions to people who ultimately want you dead or dhimmified is the worst sort of wishful thinking.

AFP resurrects the death scorecard

At the end of an article about Israel killing four terrorists, whose car was filled with bombs creating a huge explosion, AFP restarted the old MSM deathcount to make it appear that Israel is four times more monstrous than Palestinians:

GAZA CITY (AFP) - At least four people were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli air strike on their vehicle in the Gaza Strip.
[...]
The latest deaths raised to 4,911 the overall toll since the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, began in September 2000. More than three-quarters of the victims have been Palestinian.

Ah, numbers.

Did they count the Palestinians killed by other Palestinians as "corroborators"?
Did they count the Palestinians who blew themselves up killing Jews?
Did they count the Palestinians who blew themselves up in "work accidents"?
Did they count the Palestinians who were shooting at Jews?

There is only one reason why AFP would decide to use a number like that in an article, and it isn't for context.

Backgrounder on Muslim Holocaust Denial

Iran's president Ahmadinejad's claims that the Holocaust was a myth is hardly surprising, since the Arab and Muslim worlds have been peddling Holocaust denial for two decades now. The ADL has a well-researched paper on the phenomenon from 2001, including Mahmoud Abbas' book that denies the Holocaust - claims he never backed down from.

But Holocaust denial has taken place in the official media of Jordan, the PA, Syria and Egypt.

One tiny example of how institutionalized Holocaust denial is in the PA:

Clue: Jewish center for eternalizing the Holocaust and the lies.
Answer: Yad Vashem (the official Israeli Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem)

From the February 18, 1999 crossword puzzle of PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
(translated by USA Today, April 4, 2001)

"Palestinian Authority Must...."

Yesterday, the State Department emphasized that the PA must take steps to stop terror. To wit:

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli says Palestinian authorities must do more to stop such attacks:

“The attack once again reminds us of the importance of all sides to do everything possible to contain violence and to tackle terror. The Palestinian Authority must take immediate steps to prevent these attacks, to end the violence, and to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism.”

To achieve the goal of an independent Palestinian state, the Palestinian Authority must put a stop to terrorism.

Strong words!

Too bad they are watered down by the fact that they have been stated so many times before, and not only do the Palestinians ignore these statements; they are rewarded for ignoring these statements!

"Palestinians must recognize the right of Israel and its people to live safe and secure lives today, tomorrow and forever." Bill Clinton, December 14, 1998

"Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must immediately find and arrest those responsible for these hideous murders. They must also act swiftly and decisively against the organizations that support them. Now more than ever, Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must demonstrate through their actions and not merely their words their commitment to fight terror." - George Bush, December 2, 2001
"The Palestinian Authority must do everything in its power to prevent the killing of innocents." - Terje Roed-Larsen at the UN, April, 2003
"Calling Hamas an "enemy of peace," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that the Palestinian Authority must take decisive steps to disarm the Islamic militant group. " - June 20, 2003

"The Palestinian Authority should take immediate and specific action to prevent terrorist acts against Israel, and its leadership must do more to de-legitimize terrorism among the public." - Kofi Annan, July 17, 2002

"The Palestinian Authority must act now to dismantle terrorist networks that perpetuate such attacks, and to prevent future attacks." - White House, August 13, 2003

"Powell Says Palestinian Authority Must Stop Terrorism Now" - October 16, 2003

"Under the roadmap, Palestinians must undertake an immediate cessation of armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere, and all official Palestinian institutions must end incitement against Israel. The Palestinian leadership must act decisively against terror, including sustained, targeted, and effective operations to stop terrorism and dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. Palestinians must undertake a comprehensive and fundamental political reform that includes a strong parliamentary democracy and an empowered prime minister." - George Bush, April 14, 2004

"The Palestinian Authority must in particular demonstrate its complete determination to combat terrorism." - European Council, June 16, 2005

"And the obligation of the Palestinians has to do with the dismantling of terrorist infrastructure and organizations and they're going to have to do it." - Condoleeza Rice, August, 2005

"The Palestinian Authority must earn the confidence of its neighbors by rejecting and fighting terrorism." - George Bush, October 20, 2005

When dealing with people for whom lives are disposable, words are hardly going to have an impact. It is unfortunate that those making these strong statements have no interest in penalizing those who repeatedly ignore their demands.

Weak Kofi: Annan delivers lame apology for map incident

An interesting followup to the story about the UN wiping Israel off the map:

The particular event in question was organized by the Palestinian delegation in the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa, and hosted all of the organization's high ranking officials.

During preparations for the event, the flags of the U.N. and Palestine were placed on the central stage, and a map depicting the territory of Israel was hung on the wall behind it.

However, the map was titled 'Palestine' instead of 'Israel', and all Israeli communities have been curiously erased from it.

Annan, who during the event sat on stage under the map and addressed the audience, apparently failed to notice its peculiarity.

The U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday that 'the map that was displayed at the event is not an official U.N. map. Secretary General Annan believes it was regretful that the map was in the room during his speech. We have informed the event's organizers that such an incident should be prevented from repeating in the future.'

So, according to the UN, the problem is that Kofi Annan was embarrassed by an inaccurate map hung behind him.

The fact that the Palestinian leadership today explicitly denies Israel's right to exist, despite their lies at Oslo, is not worth mentioning.

What exactly is the difference between what Nasser al-Kidwa did and what Iran's lunatic president says? Both negate Israel's existence in no uncertain terms.

But Palestinians are still the world's darlings and therefore need to be rewarded for lying more and more about pretending to want a peaceful solution. Iran is a bit more of a pariah so the UN can afford to criticize its president (while refusing to do anything beyond words.)

HH #49 Anniversary Post

The next edition of Haveil Havalim (hosted next week at the fantastic SerandEz blog) will mark its first anniversary. The tireless Soccer Dad is asking that JBloggers submit a post from about a year ago, to show how our blogs have changed in the past year, or alternatively to write an article about why we started blogging and linking to that.

This blog started in August of 2004, but for many months it was meant to be a compilation of news concerning Israel, terrorism and anti-semitism with very little comment from me. It was still useful and I still often see people finding an old article I posted that is no longer available from the original link.

Other bloggers also started much more complete Israel-news blogs, like News for Members of the Tribe and the excellent Iris, so I started adding commentary and eventually original pieces.

Almost exactly one year ago, one of my earliest commentary posts was tearing apart Reuters' obvious anti-Israel bias in one of its articles.

Since then I have been trying to carve out my own niche in the J-Blogosphere (as SoccerDad put it in a recent comment) .

While I get most of the articles I comment on from Daily Alert and similar sources, I also now will do a regular Google News search on terms like "Zionist." Using this I can often discover interesting articles in the Muslim world, which even when translated into English shows incredible bigotry and hate. Iranian news sources are particularly likely to use the term "Zionist" as an epithet. (For example, now I know that Iran's foreign minister blames Zionists for the assassination of the anti-Syrian Lebanese journalist yesterday.) Much outrageous anti-semitism can also be found this way, helpfully masqueraded as "news" sources by Google.

I also spend time looking through old Palestine Post articles and finding parallels between what Israel went through during its birth and today. I spun off an entire separate blog just to re-post the articles based on that research, and, who knows? Maybe someone will offer me a book deal! For some reason I have blogged a lot from the Palestine Post recently, and even though it is only Monday I think I will nominate my latest article on the Arab League boycott of Jewish goods in 1946-47, which has relevance today.

Anyway, a big מזל טוב to Haveil Havalim on its anniversary, and to Soccer Dad for having created such a successful and important venue for the Jewish Blogosphere!

Since taking office in August, Ahmadinejad has spoken out frequently against Israel in terms which were almost unheard of under his reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami.

European diplomats say his anti-Israel comments, which have included calling the Jewish state a 'tumor' that should be 'wiped off the map', may cause a delay in planned talks between the European Union and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.

What a strong response! Delaying talks is sure to make Iran's insane president think twice about his nuclear program.

Good thing we have the EU to protect the world from nuclear proliferation.

Fatah is a reverse acronym from the complete Arabic name: HArakat al-TAhrir al-Watani al-Filastini, becoming "HATAF", which, since it means "death" in Arabic, was reversed to become "FATAH" meaning "conquest" in Arabic.
The Fatah official emblem shows two fists holding rifles and a hand grenade superimposed on a map of the land they claim as Palestine: present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Fatah joined and began to dominate the PLO in 1969.
The "Palestinian National Authority" is formally delegated its power by the PLO. In other words, the PA is officially run by a terrorist organization.
While there is some controversy about whether the PLO ever modified its charter to recognize Israel (a modified charter has never been published, to my knowledge), Fatah's "constitution" still explicitly calls for Israel's destruction by "armed struggle."
It appears that every major member of the PA is a member of Fatah (including such "moderates" as Saeb Erekat), and not one is known to have said that they do not subscribe to the Fatah "constitution."
Mahmoud Abbas and Farouk Qaddoumi have been in a power struggle over leadership of Fatah and the PLO. Qaddumi, who lives in Tunisia and is adamantly against any compromise with Israel, is the head of the PLO Central Committee and as such, the PA reports to him. Abbas disputes this, and some call him the President of Fatah. Some ugly incidents have occurred as a result.
Either way, it appears that Abbas holds the purse-strings for Fatah in "Palestine" and the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade terror group gets its funding from Fatah.
Qaddoumi wants to move to Gaza.

1946-1947 Arab boycott of Jewish goods hurts Pal Arabs much more than Jews

One of the recurring themes in the history of Palestinian Arabs is the incredible number of times they've been screwed - by their fellow Arabs. From at least the 1940's, the Palestinian Arab leadership and especially the leaders of other Arab countries have not hesitated to use Palestinian Arabs as pawns in their maniacal desire to rid the Middle East of Jews in non-dhimmi roles.

The earliest example of this that I have found occured in late 1945. The Arab League, alarmed at the acceleration of the movement towards Zionist statehood, hit upon a formula that they have repeated many times since then - the boycott of Jewish products (sometimes called "Zionist" products, but as can be seen below, the word "Jewish" was used interchangably with "Zionist" at the time.)

Ain't Arab solidarity grand?

Almost immediately, there were concerns among Palestinian Arabs about the impending boycott and how it would affect their livelihoods:

Notice the outspokeness of the real Arab street about how this would hurt them. "Those in the Arab League who decided on a strike don't worry about us."

Of course, this doesn't stop the Arab leaders, who always know best. On January 1, 1946, the boycott starts as planned. Immediately, there are problems with compliance.

So, the wise Arab leaders decided to extend the boycott to not only Jewish goods but also to Jewish services. No longer could Palestinian Arabs go to Jewish doctors or Jewish-owned movie theaters! That will teach those uppity Jews! (Notice that here is one case where the boycott is explicitly called against "Jews", not "Zionists." The almost inescapable conclusion is that the Arabs were reading from the Nazi playbook, where boycotts of Jewish goods preceded the Holocaust.)

It is also interesting to note that the non-compliance by Palestinian Arabs here in late January is becoming more of a concern to the leaders of the boycott. Not that they were consulted or anything.

The months flew by and the boycott became less and less relevant. Palestinian Arab leaders passed yet another of their many anti-Jewish resolutions at yet another meaningless meeting in August, and called again for their people to abide by the boycott that was still being roundly ignored.

Meanwhile, the Jewish economy was booming as never before! As this October article shows, the Zionists adjusted their economic models to sell more to non-Arab countries. Any effect that the boycott may have had was more than offset by their business in new markets.

As 1946 became 1947, and as Israel became closer to becoming a reality, the Arab leaders refused to believe that the boycott was an abysmal failure. Someone had to be at fault - and that someone was, of course, the Palestinian Arab businessman who refused to go along.

The solution was simple. Bomb the Palestinian Arab businessmen!

Just bombing them in Jerusalem was not enough. This had to become a national event.

It appears that dozens of bombs were set off in Arab businesses by other Arabs as 1947 wore on, putting Palestinian Arabs in the position of either losing their businesses by adhering to a bizarre failure of a boycott, or losing their businesses to the bombs of their leaders who couldn't possibly be at fault themselves.

One at least one occasion, the targeted businessmen had had enough of this.

A "cycle of violence" was now established! But even with the thuggish tactics of the terrorist Arab "leaders," the boycott was still ignored and Jewish businesses were not hurt at all.

The only ones hurt were the ones that the boycott was officially supposed to benefit.

I don't know if this is the first time that Palestinian Arabs were treated like dirt by the people who pretend to champion their cause, but it was certainly far from the last.

Crossposted to Palestine Post-ings.

Hey-hey, Haveil Havalim #48 is out

A Whispering Soul does an outstanding job of finding a ton of cool links in the J-Blogosphere in this week's Haveil Havalim. It appears that the number of links hits triple digits. There is a lot of quality out there in the Jewish blog world and it is nice to see it all in one spot. (Finding the time to check all these links out is a whole 'nother story.)

Yours truly was mentioned as well, and it was for the post I was most proud of this week. So many thanks to whoever nominated me!

(I am working on another major Palestine Post-ings article this week as well, so far I have about 5 articles on a theme and a few more coming. We'll see how much time I get to put it together. )
(UPDATE: I finished it. )

Doctor, I need help. I just can't self-nominate!

I admit I like to be mentioned in the weekly Haveil Havalim, and I admit I like getting the extra hits that mentions like that generate. But I can't nominate myself for these things!

I thought I had a lot of good posts this week, especially the Palestine Post-ings articles on Kiryat Gat/Intel, December 9 1947, and the aborted Palestinian Arab state of 1948. Beyond those, my article on the Palestinian Arab "peace" soccer game got picked up by the Cuanas blog, people seemed to like the Saeb Erekat morality post, and many read the UN map post. And SoccerDad thought I should nominate my post on Paradise Now.

Not to mention that the second annual JIB awards are coming and I also can't bring myself to nominate this blog. It just feels wrong - if people like a blog, it seems to me that they should nominate what they like, not the bloggers themselves. Not that I look down at those who do. It just doesn't feel right to me.

I actually started trying to compose a self-nomination to A Whispering Soul, who is compiling HH this week. I simply couldn't do it.

I think I may need an on-line shrink to help me work through these issues!

The Intellectual Corruption of Academia

Usually, Nobel Prizes for economics aren't controversial. But if one of the winners has the chutzpah to actually think that Jews have the right to live beyond the 1967 borders, well, he becomes a "warmonger" and his theories become "controversial."

Prof. Israel Aumann received the Nobel Prize for economics in Stockholm Saturday evening. Several hundred academics, charging that his theory supports Yesha communities, want the prize revoked.

Prof. Aumann, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, received the honor jointly, shortly after the end of the Sabbath, with American Prof. Thomas Schelling, for their work on understanding conflict through game theory. Aumann brought his entire extended family to the ceremony, where Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf presented the prize.

The Israeli scholar, the eighth Israeli to win a Nobel prize, moved to Israel from Germany in 1956 and is chairman of Hebrew University's Center for Rationality. Prof. Aumann said that war is not irrational and must be studied 'like cancer' in order to defeat it.

Almost 1,000 intellectuals and academics submitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science a petition to protest the 'monstrous' act of awarding Prof. Aumann. They charged that he is using game theory to 'justify the Israeli occupation and the oppression of the Palestinians.' They also want the award to be taken back from Prof. Schelling, whom they blamed for inspiring American military strategy that includes bombing civilians.

The British newspaper The Guardian stated that Prof. Aumann, in an interview with an American website, said that Israel made a mistake in expelling Jewish residents from the Gaza and northern Samaria regions.

'From a game theory point of view it was a very bad move. But if I didn't study game theory, I would also say the same thing,' according to the professor.

"It was a bad move because it sends a signal to the other side that if you apply enough pressure, then we will respond in a way that you are applying pressure. It's a bad move theoretically. It sends the wrong signal," he said. In another interview, he said the Arab-Israeli conflict has been "been going on for at least 80 years and as far as I can see it is going to go on for at least another 80 years. I don't see any end to this one, I'm sorry to say."

Notice that the "academics and intellectuals" aren't protesting that his science or math is wrong - but that they believe (undoubtedly most of them are not familiar with game theory) that these theories are being used to justify wars they don't like.

In other words, math and science and true intellectual pursuits are far less important to these self-appointed guardians of knowledge than doing what they feel is politically correct. These so-called "intellectuals" are against true research and acquiring knowledge, which is beyond ironic.

It is ironic that "academics" are so clueless as to how they are damaging their own reputations as thinkers and seekers of knowledge. It is funny how hysterical these supposedly dispassionate observers become when they disagree with someone's politics. It is sad that many Israeli professors seem to have joined in this farce.

The awarding of Nobel Peace prizes is often controversial, but it is rare for the scientific laureates to generate significant opposition. However, a petition to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences signed by about 1 000 intellectuals and academics from Israel, Europe and America describes the awarding of this year's prize to the two professors as "monstrous".

The critics accuse Aumann -- a member of the hawkish think tank Professors for a Strong Israel, which believes the Jewish state should retain the occupied territories -- of using his mathematical theories to promote his political views.

"Aumann uses his analysis to justify the Israeli occupation and the oppression of the Palestinians," the petition says.

It describes Schelling's theories as directly inspiring the United States military strategy in Vietnam, including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians.

"This strategy resulted in two million civilian deaths and was a complete failure in realising its objectives," the petition says. "Neither of these individuals has contributed anything that improves the human condition; rather, they have contributed to the misery of millions."

The petition is signed by Israeli peace campaigners, economists, academics, Holocaust survivors and left-wing politicians. Signatories from about 50 other countries, including the US and several Arab states, have also supported it. Those from Britain include academics at several universities, members of groups such as Jews against Zionism, and activists in the Respect party.

Shraga Elam, an Israeli writer among those behind the petition, concedes that his objection is to Aumann's political views and not to the quality of the analysis on game theory.

"Every person, including a Nobel Prize laureate, is entitled to his political views," he said. "But ... it is not enough to say that politics does not enter in to it.

"Can a racist or a Holocaust denier receive the Nobel Prize even if he is very talented in his scientific field? Political views are relevant."

There you have it - a self-proclaimed "intellectual" who likes to compare Jews who believe that Gaza shouldn't be Judenrein with neo-Nazis.

What an intelligent, academic argument!

And the sad thing is, these so-called intellectuals have no reason to fear that they will not get tenure or prestigious positions at other universities because of their profoundly censorious views. The left-leaning academic world is an entire culture built on self-congratulatory closemindedness that is the exact opposite of what true knowledge seekers should be.