One cheer for the ICRC - AP shows bias again

It appears that the ICRC has finally approved Israel becoming a member (along with the Palestinian Red Crescent society, that famous humanitarian organization that lends ambulances to terrorists to kill Jews.)

Of course, Israel cannot use its "offensive" Star of David symbol, but has to place it in the new "red crystal."

What is unclear to me is whether Israel has the right to show the Star of David at all if they are working in another country, or if the other country can demand Israel only use the blank Red Crystal, or even if Israel is allowed to display the star outside of Israel. The AP report includes this paragraph that may not be accurate but implies that Israel cannot use the star under certain circumstances:

Israel's military will be able to use the crystal by itself on a white flag to protect medics and other humanitarian workers helping war casualties. But any society could combine the emblem with the cross or crescent - or both - for temporary use.

More explicitly, the Red Cross says:

The Protocol enables the Israeli Society to continue to use its red shield of David as its sole emblem inside Israel. When working outside Israel the Society would need to work according to the requirements of the host country. Normally this would mean that it could display the red shield of David incorporated within the red crystal, or use the red crystal alone.

The AP, as usual, spins this decades-old bias against the Jewish state as being Israel's fault. In the very first paragraph of their story:

The Red Cross admitted Israel to the worldwide humanitarian organization early Thursday, ending decades of exclusion linked to the Jewish state's refusal to accept the traditional cross symbol.

Ah, those intransigent Jews again.

Wouldn't it have been more accurate to say "linked to the organization's refusal to accept the Star of David as a humanitarian symbol"? Or "linked to the organization's refusal to accept Israel"? Notice how the author ignores in this paragraph any mention of Muslim countries' refusal to allow the Red Cross symbol as well.

Beyond that, the argument against the Star of David has always hinged on the idea that the Red Cross/Red Crescent only had two symbols and adding an additional symbol could confuse the matter. Well, guess what? It's not true!

At the Red Cross site we see that the first Geneva convention accepted not two, but three symbols for use by the organization - the Red Cross, Red Crescent and the Persian Red Lion and Sun:

Somehow, three symbols were not too many in 1949. Somehow, a symbol associated with only one country was fine in 1949 (Iran scrapped the symbol after the 1980 revolution, but otherwise it would stil be a valid symbol.) Israel, of course, has tried to get the MDA accepted by the ICRC since the 1930's, when the committee did allow three symbols (although they did put in a rule disallowing any additional symbols after 1929.)

In other words, it may be nice that Israel finally is allowed to join this organization, but the bias against Israel is still clear.

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Post of the morning

Dave Bender brilliantly shoots down a clueless rich rock star.

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Another moronic professor

Being a professor in a California university is no longer a prestigious position - in fact, it appears to be about as related to truth and objectivity as being a propagandist in the Soviet Union.

Here is the latest example. I would say "jaw-dropping"but, alas, it is closer to typical.

On the Beach (Gaza Killing)

By Professor Ronnie D. Lipschutz

Wednesday , 21 June 2006

Bombs, rockets, and artillery shells don’t always go where you aim them or want them to go. Sometimes, however, where they go may serve a political purpose.

This past Friday, some sort of projectile went astray at a beach in Gaza, killing at eight people—six from one family—out to enjoy a day in the sun. We know who killed them; it is less clear what killed them or why. Some thought the wayward shells might have come from an Israeli gunship offshore or from an aircraft. Israeli military officials explained that the deaths were accidental—“collateral damage”— and that the wayward artillery shells were meant to deter the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel. Official sources regretted harm to any Palestinian civilians. But the damage was done. Eight people were dead and Hamas declared it would resume attacks on Israel. Perhaps this was not an accident.

One irony of this episode is that the Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians into Israel are made locally in workshops, notoriously inaccurate, short range and cause few, if any, casualties or damage. Mostly, they have nuisance value. Israel’s reaction, by contrast, is powerful and deadly. It has produced steady stream of Palestinian casualties, both “militants” in cars and houses and civilians who are merely in the way. Predictably, such killings cause resentment, anger and more rockets, all beyond the control of either President Abbas or the Hamas government. Israel can then argue that violence is all the Palestinians know and there is no one among them with whom to negotiate, even as it ensures, with its repeated attacks, that there will be no Palestinians willing to risk negotiations for fear of assassination.

Notice the date on the article - exactly one week after Israel showed voluminous and exhaustive proof that they were not responsible for the deaths, this "professor" willfully ignores that and quotes the earlier, mistaken assumption of responsibility. He adds, smugly: "We know who killed them," asserting a fact that is a lie. Then, predictably, he goes off on a wild and bizarre theory that blames Israel for all and downplays the danger from crude Kassams - merely a nuisance, that only kills a few people a year.

Ronnie D. Lipschutz is Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA (rlipsch@ucsc.edu)

One of his more interesting articles calls for the "peaceful" overthrow of the US government.

UPDATE: Apparently, he wrote this article on the 14th - still after Israel showed that they were not responsible. He didn't seem to work too hard from it being republished or corrected elsewhere, though.

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Just a thought

I have no evidence whatsoever for the following theory, but it sounds plausible.

Looking at the pictures of Palestinian Arabs getting their $300 from Hamas' fundraising tour:

Now, Zahar filled his suitcase with $20 million from visiting Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt. Most of these nations are not places one would expect to be flush with US currency, especially what appears to be mint-condition currency.

However, at least China is heavily suspected of being a major counterfeiter of US currency.

What are the chances that the Palestinian Arabs are being paid with bogus banknotes?

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Are pro-Israel blogs effective?

Dave at Israellycool has an interesting poll that I would encourage you to answer. I wonder myself whether I have ever made anyone more pro-Israel as a result of reading this blog.

Even if I am "preaching to the choir," I think that there is at least one side-benefit of maintaining the blog, and that is that some source materials are out there on the Internet for when people are searching. Many of my "hits" are from people doing Google searches and hopefully a few more posts that are pro-Israel can affect opinions, even subliminally.

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Widening the debate

Meryl Yourish points to a Jerusalem Post article about a "panel discussion" in London:

Informed, honest debate on the Middle East has been stifled because of a fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, according to the participants in a discussion hosted by the Islam Channel in central London on Thursday. The broadcaster is the largest Islamic television outlet in Europe.

The discussion, titled: "Why anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism," was filmed against a backdrop reading "Zionism: The cancer at the heart of international affairs."

The discussion was chaired by Alan Hart, a former ITN and BBC correspondent whose latest book, "Zionism: The real enemy of the Jews" was recently published. He said, "The anti-Semitism card is something the Zionists have exploited to suppress debate."

He said the mainstream media had concealed "the truth of history" out of fear of offending Jews and thanked CEO Mohammed Ali of the Islam Channel for "his courage in widening the debate."

I was always amused at the amount of projection that the terror-supporters use when they accuse Jews of doing something. Almost invariably, they are far more guilty of whatever they accuse Israel or Jews of doing than the accusees.

In this case, I would like to "widen the debate" about the Middle East as well. I'd like to see some honest, open discussion in the mainstream media about various topics that are taboo for fear of offending Muslims or Arabs:

• Why is it desirable to have a Palestinian Arab state altogether? How does it increase peace, or democracy, or world security? Answer with facts, not wild assumptions or wishful thinking.
• Why is it acceptable for Mecca and Medina to not allow any non-Muslims within? Isn't that "ethnic cleansing?"
• Can one be a believing Muslim and also not strive for a worldwide 'ummah under Sharia law?
• What percentage of ordinary Palestinian Arabs truly support a permanent, two state solution where Israel stays a Jewish state? What percentage support terror?
• What concessions have the Palestinian Arabs ever done for peace?
• Why, exactly, is it unrealistic to expect Jews to live freely in a Palestinian Arab state in the territories?
  
• Is Islam compatible with freedom and democracy?
• When the word "Jihad" is used, how do most Muslims interpret it?
• What is the real source of terrorism?

Yes, let's widen the debate. Please.

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Workshops, holy rockets and MSM

From AP:

Palestinian firefighters inspect the rubble of a metal workshop after it was hit by Israeli helicopters in Gaza city, early Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Israeli helicopters fired a missile into a metal workshop in downtown Gaza City, but no wounded were reported, Palestinian official said. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

From Petra (Jordan):

Gaza, June 20 (Petra)--Israeli aircrafts fired missiles on a metal workshop in Al Daraj neighborhood in Gaza, a Palestinian source said.

The source said that the missiles fired by Apache Helicopters destroyed the workshop and caused damage to a number of buildings.
No injuries were reported during the operation.

From the Bahrain News Agency:

Gaza, June. 20, (BNA) Israeli fighter planes conducted today an attack on a metal workshop located at Al Deraj, in Gaza's centre causing injuries to people.
Palestinian sources stated that the Israeli planes targeted the workshop using one missile which caused its destruction and which caught fire due to the attack. Material damages were also caused to neighbouring buildings by shrapnel's.

Just an innocent metal workshop, where presumably Palestinian Arabs are making souvenirs for tourists, or perhaps spare parts for their cars, right? The AP photo caption is the same as the Arab report on the missile strike - no context, just a random act of Israeli violence against some poor Palestinian Arab's livelihood.

At the end of a different AP report, there is a hint as to what could possibly been built at this workshop, but it is only a hint:

In cross-border strife, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City early Tuesday. Residents said nobody was hurt. The military said the workshop was run by Hamas.

Palestinian militants have been pelting Israel with rockets fired from Gaza, and Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, met with angry residents of a town near Gaza that has been a frequent target, and pledged military action to put an end to the barrages.

It is unclear whether AP means to have any repationship between the two paragraphs.

Xinhua, in China, gives a tiny bit more context:

The Palestinian shelling coincided with an Israeli air raid at a metal workshop in Gaza that Israel said it was used to produce crude rockets. No injuries reported in the after midnight shelling.

Earlier, al-Nasser Saladin Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said it had launched a holy rocket that landed near the car of Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

The only other news source I saw that actually mention context is, interestingly, credited to AP as well - but I saw it mentioned in no other story:

Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City early Tuesday, residents and the Israeli military said.

The military said the workshop was run by Hamas and used to make rockets and other weapons. Residents said no one was hurt.

Maybe the reason that the wire services are so reluctant to mention that these "workshops" are meant to create terror weapons is because they could no longer refer to rockets as being "home-made." (At the moment of this writing, there are over 1300 mentions in Google News of "homemade rockets," and exactly the two mentions above saying the possibility that rockets are made in "metal workshops.")

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A Christian's arguments for a Jewish state, 1946

A fantastic and very long article, from the February 22, 1946 Palestine Post, that could have been written today. It was written by Raimondo de Ovies, "Dean of Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta, Georgia" but I have not found out anything else about him. It is well worth reading in its entirety.

The author lays out the moral, logical, legal and historic reasons why a Jewish state should be established in Palestine, including how such a state helps the Arabs themselves. It shows how even in 1946, some of the most clearheaded and passionate Zionists were Christians.

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Demographobia (Yoram Ettinger)

From YNet:

Faulty population stats are driving Ehud Olmert to give up vital assets

Prime Minister Olmert's recent state visits once again brought to the fore demographobia– the illogical fear of Palestinian demographics – as the central claim for Israel to set final borders. But this fear is fundamentally flawed.

Again and again Olmert says that giving up geography is the only way to safeguard Jewish demography. Olmert's determination to pull out of Jewish land in Judea and Samaria – he, too, says these areas have historical and security significance – does not mean he has caved in to Palestinian terror or American pressure. He proved his willingness to bow to terrorism and pressure by supporting Netanyahu in 1996 and Sharon in 2001, as well as during election campaigns for the mayoralty of Jerusalem.

No, now he's inspired to pullout because of demographics. But he's using greatly exaggerated numbers provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics back in 1998. Israel accepted these numbers without benefit of any demographic, media or diplomatic research into their veracity, and they have since become the cornerstone of an intense campaign that has penetrated deep in to the consciousness of Israel's policy makers and public.

The reality, of course, is a bit different that Palestinian predictions of almost a decade ago: The Central Bureau of Statistics says there has been a rise in the number of Jewish births inside the green line, from 80,400 in 1995 to 105,181 in 2005. At the same time, Palestinian births have remained relatively constant at about 40,000 over the same period, and have dropped (particularly in the Muslim community) to around 36,000 since the start of 2006.

According to research conducted by the Gallup (USA) organization in March, 2006, the gap between Jewish and Arab fertility rates has dropped quickly because young Arabs are aspiring to fewer children, and young Jews are aspiring to more. Furthermore, research shows that fertility rates in practice are beginning to reflect this trend.

There is, however, a demographic threat, but the demographic sword is not hanging over the head over a long-term Jewish majority. For example, the annual percentage of Jewish population growth is greater than Arab growth in Judea and Samaria (2.1 percent to 1.8 percent from 1997 to 2004).

Of course, Muslim fertility inside the green line has dropped from 9.23 children per woman between 1960-64 to 4.36 children per woman in 2004. In the overall Arab community there are less than four children per woman.

The momentum of Jewish fertility grows when we weigh in immigration factors (a rise in immigrants, minus for émigrés), or some 20,000 people since 2001. But the prophets of demographic doom ignore this phenomenon, choosing to base their predictions on outdated fertility statistics.

Prime Minister Olmert is convinced that time is working against us, and that Jews will soon become a minority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, he says demographic considerations take on greater significance than geographic or topographical concerns with regard to Israel's national security.

Paradoxically, Zionism pushed off demographobia when Jews were a minority of just eight percent (Theodor Herzl -1900), 33 percent (Ben-Gurion – 1947). Now that Jews have a 60 percent majority in the Land of Israel (67 percent not counting Gaza), we are caving in.

The demographic reality rebuts this demographic fatalism. It is testimony that the Zionist leaders were right in pushing to create a country despite the massive security, economic and demographic difficulties they faced at first.

Now, when the Jewish majority has reached a critical mass, and is backed up by unprecedented military, economic and technological strength, demographobia simply has no place. We certainly must not sacrifice valuable territories on a demographic altar that is flawed at the most basic level.

It is noteworthy that Muslims have vastly exaggerated their population claims consistently when it is in their interest to do so: They've claimed over 5 million Muslims in the US when in fact there are less than 2 million; they've claimed that they are the fastest growing religion in the world when in fact it appears they are losing ground to Christianity; and they routinely exaggerate the number of Palestinian Arabs worldwide as some 9.3 million, an absurd jump from the 1.35 million Palestinian Arabs in 1948 (or perhaps less than a million.) Very few people question the sources of these figures, and the Western mind tends to believe authoritative-sounding statistics.

It is in our interests to verify everything that is said and every number that is reported, because, frankly, the track record of truth is pretty poor.

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Update on Gaza beach blast

A brief update:

Three (anti-Israel) British newspapers claim that the explosion happened while Israel was shelling, not after.

A German newspaper claims it has proof that the shelling was staged. It raises good questions but proving a conspiracy would need much more than questions. At the very least, the cameraman at the scene "first" has no credibility whatsoever.

History News Network has a scoop of an email from the surgeon that removed the shell fragments who positively identifies them as being from Hamas bombs.

Great blog entries from Israel Matzav and Daled Amos.

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Another JBlog aggregator

Newest on the scene is JBlog Central, a promising JBlog aggregator with ratings. (As if we JBloggers weren't under enough pressure already!)

It allows readers to rate postings on a scale of 1-5. For some reason, it adds together all of those scores as well as averaging them. Averaging I understand, but the summation score just ensures that popular blogs get higher ratings. And they rank based on total score, not average.

It would be nice if they showed how many people voted for any particular article so viewers can get a level of confidence in the ratings they are seeing.

It also rewards blogs who syndicate their entire content and not just the beginning of the articles, because the page where you can rate blogs shows all the content that is syndicated. It is less likely that people will click to read the entire entry, go back to JBlog Central and then rate the article.

A corollary is that people can read the blog entries on JBlog Central and never click on the actual blog, skewing readership statistics.

And not to be nit-picky, but they need their own domain name.

The idea is very good; it is nice to surf through the JBlogosphere with a guide to quality, however flawed it might be. This is definitely worth watching, although I am frankly worried that it will affect my postings to be more oriented towards what's "popular" rather than what's on my mind.

Anyway, it is well worth checking out.
Hat tip Chaim

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A note about Palestinian Arab polls

I saw once again today that Westerners are saying that Palestinian Arabs consistently show a preference for a two-state solution in their polls - one a quote from a Georgia congressman, and one from an editorial in the Hartford Courant. Since I researched a recent poll from Bir Zeit University that showed the opposite:

19. As to funding the Palestinian National Authority, which one of these two directions do you support?
1) Hamas continues to reject recognizing Israel, while reaching out to countries like Iran and the Arab world to get funding	60.8%
2) Hamas recognizes Israel and continue to receive funding from the international community	31.0%

I decided to look at other polls and see what they said.

Besides Bir Zeit, the major pollster in the territories is JMCC. Their most recent poll from February 2006 had an interesting, relevant item:

Q17. Some believe that a two-state formula is the favored solution for the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, while others believe that historic Palestine cannot be divided and thus the favored solution is a bi-national state on all of Palestine where Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal representation and rights. Which of these solutions do you prefer?

Two-state solution: an Israeli and a Palestinian 57.9
Bi-national state on all of historic Palestine 22.3
One Palestinian state * 10.5
Islamic state * 2.7
No solution 3.9
Don't know 1.6
No answer 1.1
*These answers were not included as part of the options read to the interviewee

So while the Western media will jump on the "fact" that most Palestinian Arabs appear to support a two-state solution, the poll didn't even ask about whether they would prefer a single Arab or Islamic-only state! And 13% of those polled felt strongly enough about that being the solution that they expressed their opinion without it being one of the choices!

In other words - Palestinian Arab opinion polls don't even ask the right question. Given a choice of an Arab-only state side-by-side with Israel or a state where they have to live with Jews as equals, they would rather be separated from the Jews. But how many would choose that option rather than having a single Palestinian Arab state that replaces Israel?

Given the indoctrination that Palestinian Arabs have received since birth, of a map of "Palestine" that stretches from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, it seems that the polls that Westerners like to quote are seriously flawed at best.

The other relevant question is - why didin't the JMCC include these other options in their polls? This is not the first time that they asked that question. Their May, 2005 poll also showed that some 11% of Palestinian Arabs answered that identical question saying that they preferred an Arab or Islamic-only state without it being one of the choices given. It could be that they want to keep the poll questions consistent so they could do accurate trending, or it could be that they don't want the world to know the real answer.

Also relevant is how the Palestinian Arab public looks at negotiation with Israel. Consistently they will say that they favor negotiations. This appears superficially to be a good thing. But look again at how questions can be phrased:

Q15. Some believe that the negotiations are the best path to achieve our national goals, whereas others believe that the armed struggle is the best way to do so. Which option is the closest to your opinion?
Through Negotiations 38.8
Through armed struggle 17.9
Through negotiations and armed struggle 40.3

So how do Palestinian Arabs view negotiations? Not surprisingly, they regard negotiations as a tactic to get their state, not as a means to give any concessions. A plurality view negotiations as a parallel track to terror, not a replacement for it. And why not? Historically, negotiations have netted them much from Israel without them having to give up anything concrete.

But you will be hard pressed to find a Western commenter look at these numbers and conclude that a majority of Palestinian Arabs want to continue terror to acheive their "national goals" (a number that, when the question was stated a different way, showed 96% want to continue terror attacks.)

Either way, to say that Palestinian Arabs consistently want a peaceful solution to their conflict with Israel and a two-state solution living in peace is not at all borne out by any poll I have yet seen, when one actually looks at the real numbers and not at the press release that accompanies the poll results.

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