Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Women's lib, PalArab style

Islamic Jihad has accused Israel of arresting charity workers. In this painful autotranslation from WAFA:

Islamic Jihad accuses the occupation authorities to arrest citizens working in the framework of charity work
Wafa accused the Islamic Jihad movement, today, the Israeli occupation authorities to arrest citizens working in the framework of charity work, among charities based movement founded to help the citizens.Khader Habib, denied the news reported by the Israeli media, the arrest of occupation cell belonging to the women's movement in the cities of Ramallah and Hebron in the West Bank.

The Sheikh Habib, All prisons in the occupation forces working in the field of philanthropy.

Now, let's see what is really going on:

The Shin Bet exposed during the months of August and September a network of women operating for the Islamic Jihad as part of the organization's terror infrastructure in the West Bank. This was cleared for publication Tuesday.

The network is split into two terror cells – one in Kfar Ayin and one in Kfar Na'ama – that have carried out shooting attacks and have laid roadside bombs around Ramallah. The network has even operated an explosives lab. The Shin Bet and the IDF have arrested a number of the network's members.

One of the senior women arrested is Wadha Faqhaa, 24, from Jilzon, dealt with transferring finances to one of the cells. Faqhaa, head of the Islamic Jihad office in Ramallah, was arrested on August 3. During her interrogation, she said that she received funds from the organization's command center in Syria. Some of the funds she allocated to finance terrorist cells by way of a number of women Islamic Jihad activists serving as money couriers.

Two of the couriers – Haba Hamidat, 21, and Falastin Tsoobah, 21, also residents Jilzon – worked in the Islamic Jihad office in Ramallah that takes care of the organization's prisoners. They were arrested on August 20 and confessed to the accusations against them.

In addition to the two couriers, Faqhaa was also aided by other Islamic Jihad activists who served as a conduit for transferring funds from the organization's central command in Syria to the terror cells.

Two of these activists – Afat Khalifa, 21, from Kfar Naama, and Zakia Guanma, 40, from Jilzon – were arrested as well. They said during their interrogations that they received commission of USD 100 for each money transfer they carried out. These funds then funded the terror attacks of the Islamic Jihad's terror cells.

The sixth member who was arrested is Rania Abu Khadir, 26, from Tzurif. She is the head of the Islamic Jihad's student union at Hebron University. Khadir is suspected of being active in charity organizations, which transferred funds to terrorist organizations and the families of suicide bombers.

Judging from the use of female human shields to allow wanted terrorists to escape, and yesterday's woman suicide bomber and this article, it seems that the PalArabs are hellbent to make their own lives even more miserable than they are now.

But it is no surprise that they have such low regard for their women's welfare. Domestic violence against women in the territories has increased in recent years, with rapes, honor killings and incest all rampant, according to a HRW report released yesterday. (Although the PA gets the brunt of the responsibility in the report, HRW manages to obliquely blame Israel for some of it - after all, if PalArab men don't have jobs, then what choice do they have but to take their frustrations out on their wives and daughters?)

The one article liberals need to read

For all those who excuse Islamic terror, for all those who navel-gaze to try to find out what we did to make them hate us, for all those who are convinced that colonialism and Western values and Zionism are what motivate the jihadists - read this.

Hot for martyrdom

Michael Coren
National Post

Friday, November 03, 2006

Dr. Tawfik Hamid doesn't tell people where he lives. Not the street, not the city, not even the country. It's safer that way. It's only the letters of testimony from some of the highest intelligence officers in the Western world that enable him to move freely. This medical doctor, author and activist once was a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic for "the Islamic Group"), a banned terrorist organization. He was trained under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the bearded jihadi who appears in Bin Laden's videos, telling the world that Islamic violence will stop only once we all become Muslims.

He's a disarmingly gentle and courteous man. But he's determined to tell a complacent North America what he knows about fundamentalist Muslim imperialism.

"Yes, 'imperialism,' " he tells me. "The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology. Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe."

Hamid drank in the message of Jihadism while at medical school in Cairo, and devoted himself to the cause. His group began meeting in a small room. Then a larger one. Then a Mosque reserved for followers of al-Zawahiri. By the time Hamid left the movement, its members were intimidating other students who were unsympathetic.

He is now 45 years old, and has had many years to reflect on why he was willing to die and kill for his religion. "The first thing you have to understand is that it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with poverty or lack of education," he says. "I was from a middle-class family and my parents were not religious. Hardly anyone in the movement at university came from a background that was different from mine.

"I've heard this poverty nonsense time and time again from Western apologists for Islam, most of them not Muslim by the way. There are millions of passive supporters of terror who may be poor and needy but most of those who do the killing are wealthy, privileged, educated and free. If it were about poverty, ask yourself why it is middle-class Muslims -- and never poor Christians -- who become suicide bombers in Palestine."

His analysis is fascinating. Muslim fundamentalists believe, he insists, that Saudi Arabia's petroleum-based wealth is a divine gift, and that Saudi influence is sanctioned by Allah. Thus the extreme brand of Sunni Islam that spread from the Kingdom to the rest of the Islamic world is regarded not merely as one interpretation of the religion but the only genuine interpretation. The expansion of violent and regressive Islam, he continues, began in the late 1970s, and can be traced precisely to the growing financial clout of Saudi Arabia.

"We're not talking about a fringe cult here," he tells me. "Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world. It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys."

He leans back, takes a deep breath and moves to another area, one that he says is far too seldom discussed: "North Americans are too squeamish about discussing the obvious sexual dynamic behind suicide bombings. If they understood contemporary Islamic society, they would understand the sheer sexual tension of Sunni Muslim men. Look at the figures for suicide bombings and see how few are from the Shiite world. Terrorism and violence yes, but not suicide. The overwhelming majority are from Sunnis. Now within the Shiite world there are what is known as temporary marriages, lasting anywhere from an hour to 95 years. It enables men to release their sexual frustrations.

"Islam condemns extra-marital sex as well as masturbation, which is also taught in the Christian tradition. But Islam also tells of unlimited sexual ecstasy in paradise with beautiful virgins for the martyr who gives his life for the faith. Don't for a moment underestimate this blinding passion or its influence on those who accept fundamentalism."

A pause. "I know. I was one who accepted it."

This partial explanation is shocking more for its banality than its horror. Mass murder provoked partly by simple lust. But it cannot be denied that letters written by suicide bombers frequently dwell on waiting virgins and sexual gratification.

"The sexual aspect is, of course, just one part of this. But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses. Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?"

He's exasperated now, visibly angry at what he sees as a willful Western foolishness. "Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."

Then he leaves -- for where, he cannot say. A voice that is silenced in its homeland and too often ignored by those who prefer convenient revision to disturbing truth. The tragedy is that Tawfik Hamid is almost used to it.

Congratulations, Hamas

In the beginning of the current intifada, the PalArab terrorists used suicide bombers to kill any Jews they could reach. At first, Israel reacted defensively, adding many checkpoints and stopping many attacks. The Palestinian Arab people suffered because of the checkpoints but continued to support the terrorists.

The terrorists started recruiting Arabs who worked in Israel to blow up their workplaces. After a couple of bombings, most PalArabs lost their jobs as their Jewish employers did not want to be put at risk. The Palestinian Arabs suffered, the their economy went in the toilet, but they continued to support the terrorists.

The terror continued, though, and after a long period of no active military response, Israel took the offensive in the West Bank to pro-actively go after the terror cells and managed to reduce the threat a great deal. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Arab people's lives got much harder because of the fighting that had moved from Israel's cities to those of the territories. Still, they supported the terrorists.

The terrorists started recruiting women suicide bombers. After a couple of "successes," Israel cracked down on the Arab women as hard as they had on Arab men. The Palestinian Arab women suffered, but still they supported the terrorists.

The lowlife terrorist scum then started to smuggle explosives into Israel using ambulances. As a result, Israel has to stop and inspect every ambulance going through checkpoints, slowing down medical help to many. Palestinian Arabs suffered, but still they continued to support the murderers.

Finally, to stop the threats, Israel started building a fence to separate the Jews from those who wanted to kill them. PalArab farmers suffered from losing easy access to some of their crops but it essentially stopped the attacks. Yet still the Palestinian Arabs supported the terrorists.

Then the terrorists started shooting rockets into Israel. This caused Israel to invade Gaza, killing some innocent civilians along with many terrorists. Life deteriorated yet again for the Palestinian Arabs but still they supported the terrorists - so much so that they elected Hamas to lead them.

This caused the world to place an economic boycott on the territories, and the PalArabs suffered even more. But they continued to support the terrorists.

Now, the PalArabs are elated that Hamas called on their women to rescue their terrorist heroes who were shooting from a mosque. The women, knowing that Israel would not treat them as military targets, managed to dress the terrorists in their clothing and allowed them to escape. The PalArabs are crying with happiness and a new legend has been born.

As a result, the next time they try to do that, the Israelis will treat the women as a military target and shoot them - as they should treat anyone who is aiding terror. Many women will die. Life will get even worse for the PalArabs.

And they will continue to support the people who have made their lives hell because they believe that killing Jews is more important than building a state.

So, congratulations, Hamas, for your brave call to your puppet women to place their lives at risk to save your murderers. Because of your decision, many more of your sisters and mothers will die and your people will suffer more and more.

But they will continue to support you, so it must be worth it.

Newest AFP buzzword: "Ultra-radical"

AFP has addressed a major problem of nomenclature.

We know they describe the Fatah terrorists who want to destroy Israel while they pretend to negotiate as "moderates," and the describe the Hamas terrorists who want to destroy Israel while they get elected and become respectable as "radicals:"

A Palestinian minister has said the ruling Hamas party had reached agreement with president Mahmud Abbas's moderate Fatah on a national unity government, but a spokesman for the radical Islamist group would only say "important progress" had been made.

But then what does AFP call Islamic Jihad, who wants to destroy Israel but it not in the government?

Why, they must be "ultra-radical!"

An Israeli unit, which rolled into the town -- the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ -- took up position around the family home of Thaer Hassan, a member of the ultra-radical Islamic Jihad group, wanted for several years.

The ultra-radical Islamic Jihad, which has been behind all of the most recent bomb attacks against Israeli targets, immediately claimed the attack in which Massud was killed.

Yes, somewhere in the AFP network a style book has just been updated.

Thank heavens we have AFP to create distinctions between terror organizations that share the same goals and methods.

A little something to keep you up at night

Today I got a call from my credit card company asking about a possible fraudulent charge. Sure enough, someone must have gotten a hold of my number and tried to buy thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

From CopQuest.com.

So while it is possible that ordinary criminals are interested in things like police knives, insignia, uniforms and the like, it sure sounds a lot more like some local terrorists are preparing themselves.

I only hope that CopQuest keeps track of the delivery information in cases like these and shares them with local and national law enforcement.

Another grim milestone: over 150 PalArabs killed by each other

YNet reports that Islamic Jihad kidnapped and murdered four supposed "collaborators" with Israel, who they claim were caught doing the heinous crime of disabling rockets meant to kill Jews.

Meanwhile, the Khan Younis clan clashes continue with two more killed.

This means that the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by their own people since Operation Summer Rains (that I know of) is now at 154.

It also means that there were at least 11 murders this weekend in Gaza that the mainstream media, and indeed even most of the Palestinian Arab media, completely ignored.

In fact, I do not recall seeing any articles in the PalArabic media referring to any arrests or trials for any of the criminals - surprising indeed, considering how many policemen they have!

It sounds like these people deserve a state of their own. Because then we can have peace in the region.

Iran offers to give missiles to Israel's neighbors

And Reuters is even handed between a megalomaniacal regime and the leader of the free world.

TEHRAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Iran is ready to share its missile systems with friends and neighbours, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said, after he showed off missiles including some he said had cluster warheads.

Guards commander-in-chief Yahya Rahim Safavi also told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam TV late on Sunday the Guards had thousands of troops trained for suicide missions in case Iran was threatened although he said any U.S. attack was unlikely.

The United States has said it wants to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear programme by diplomatic means but has not ruled out the use of force. Washington believes Tehran is seeking to make atomic bombs, despite Iranian denials.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, was quoted by Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency on Sunday as saying the Islamic Republic was ready to supply air defence systems -- without giving specifics -- to the Lebanese military.

"Tehran also considers this as its duty to help friendly countries which are exposed to invasion of the Zionist regime (Israel)," Sheibani was quoted saying, in response to what he said was a request by Lebanon's army commander, General Michel Suleiman, for help from friendly states.

Iran funded and supplied Lebanon's Hizbollah militia in the 1980s, but now says its support is political and moral. The group used Iranian-made missiles fighting Israel this summer.

"The Revolutionary Guards does not only depend on its technological might because it has thousands of martyrdom seekers and they are ready for martyrdom-seeking operations on a large scale," Safavi said, calling them trained professionals.

An organisation has previously said Iranians have signed up for suicide raids in case Iran was attacked, but officials have in the past said the group was independent of the government and not part of the Guards, the ideological wing of Iran's military.

No Iranians are thought to have directly executed suicide bombings in recent years. But the United States accuses Iran of being a state sponsor of terrorism, a charge Tehran denies.

When a country can be proven to have lied, repeatedly, Reuters ignores it in favor of "reporting" its claims and ignoring the context. Because to Reuters, terrorists and their supporters are just politicians.

Reuters doesn't even bother to mention the many threats that Iran has made against Israel in a story that talks about how Iran wants to arm Israel's Arab neighbors. Somehow, that is not considered relevant. But Iranian denials of terror and its nuclear bomb program are front and center.

Reuters is apparently so enamored of its "even-handed" status that it cannot be bothered to even juxtapose Iran's denial of terror with its claim of training thousands of suicide bombers. To put those facts together would be prejudicial, I suppose.

UPDATE:Reuters also misses the small fact that Iranian missiles in Syria or Lebanon increase the percentage of Europe within range significantly. But as long as Tehran "claims" to only being concerned with defending its Arab friends from Israel, this is nothing to worry about.

Nuttiest Arab news site yet - with a twist

So far in my travels through the Arab news sites with Google translation, I've seen distortions and some bizarre op-eds as well as some very telling omissions, but nothing that was off-the-wall loony.

Until tonight.

Introducing Al-Watan. It's opening cartoon is helpfully translated into English:

We also have this lovely caricature:

One main article goes off into Bizarroland with the claim that the US casualties in Iraq are now between 20,000 and 35,000, with most of them being hushed up very effectively.

Of course, Al-Watan has a very favorable article about the Iranian Holocaust Cartoon competition, throwing in the Jewish lies about death camps, the Western Wall and the kitchen sink, for that matter.

And these are the news articles!

So, which Arab government is behind this twisted "news" site? Syria? Bahrain? Egypt?

Nope - it is based out of Anaheim, CA.

The Yasir Arafat Soccer Championship

This Friday, in Gaza, will be the Yasir Arafat Football Championship. Teams are urged to register today.

I don't know about you, but I get a mental image of a soccer ball morphing into Arafat's kafiyehed head and his mass-murdering skull getting kicked all over the dusty fields of Gaza.

And I smile.

HH XCII

Yehuda from Jerusalem Games has masterfully written and edited this week's edition of Haveil Havalim, the roundup of the best of the JBlogosphere.

As is usual, I did not self-nominate so I am very gratified to have had two of my postings from this week chosen: Gaza: the most secure place on the planet and Anti-semites can't stomach Neturei Karta. This latter article was also recommended by Omri as "sheer brilliance" which I appreciate as well, although he still can't seem to spell my name right.

Speaking of, Muslihoon also wrote a nice recommendation of this blog, although he gives me too much credit for the reason I spell it the way I do. The reason is a bit more boring - back in pre-blog times, when I was spending time on Yahoo message boards, I saw that someone else had already chosen "elder_of_zion" so I had to spell it differently.

Anyway, HH includes some gems from Elie's Expositions, WestBankMama, Israel at Level Ground, Judeosphere and others.

Check it out!

6 PalArabs killed, 7 injured, not a Jew in sight

The Palestinian Arab press has not been reporting any violent internal killings lately. It is unclear whether it is because the headlines are so filled with anti-Israel rhetoric (the preferred way to refer to terrorists killed by the IDF is the civilian-sounding "residents") that the inevitable Arab on Arab violence is not considered news, or if they are in a self-denial phase. The PCHR "human rights" organization did not mention a single killing between October 19th and today while I counted twelve.

But either way, sometimes a massacre occurs that even the PalArabs cannot ignore, and the PCHR today reports on a huge clan clash that you will not see reported in the wire services:

On Saturday, 4 November 2006, five Palestinians were killed, including one woman, and seven others were injured, including a woman and a child, in renewed clashes between El-Masri and Abu Taha clans in Khan Yunis.

PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 9:40 on Saturday, armed clashes erupted between El-Masri and Abu Taha clans in Jamal Abdel Naser Street at the intersections with Jala' and Bahar Streets in the city of Khan Yunis. The clashes erupted after Adnan Yousef Hosni Abu Taha (49) was beaten with a sharp object on the head by members of El-Masri clan. The clashes between both clans resulted in the death of 5 people:

- Abdel Aziz Ahmad Shaker Abu Taha (18), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;

- Bilal Ahmad Shaker Abu Taha (25), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;

- Ashraf Abdel Sami' Shaker Abu Taha (30), killed by several bullets to the head and chest;

- Salim Mohammad Odeh El-Masri (21), killed by two bullets to the pelvis; and

- Maha Nathmi Abdel Hafith Abu Shammala-Abdel Hadi (33), a bystander and a mother of 8 killed by a bullet to the chest.

The tiny McClatchy service mentions a different Khan Younis death briefly but doesn't mention the name.

One also has to wonder how many of the more recent deaths attributed to Israel were just internal fighting that is being spun. Were the two women "human shields" killed last week shot by Israel or by the terrorists in the mosque? The only sources are the PalArab doctors and "health ministry" who are known to be liars.

In any case, my PalArab violent self-death count since late June is now at 148.

Robert Spencer's "The Truth About Muhammad"

Being on the Internet as long as I have, I am always a little skeptical when someone reveals "truths" about a religion that is not theirs. Enough people have taken Judaism and Jewish teachings out of context and I try to resist doing the same to other belief systems.

On the other hand, I admire Robert Spencer immensely, and his Jihad Watch website is invaluable. I have not yet seen him blow anything out of proportion, and if anything he seems to understate the dangers of Islam.

Nevertheless, I approached his latest book, The Truth About Muhammad, with some reservations. Spencer is clearly a scholar of Islam but he appears to be relying on Islamic translations of primary sources, not the original Arabic. And there is no way for an outsider to know whether he is quoting anything out of context, or if he is cherry-picking the worst possible stories to prove his point, either consciously or subconsciously.

To his credit, he relies almost exclusively on (translations of) Islamic primary sources, notably two early Muslim biographies by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd, that are considered reliable by most Muslims. It is important to realize that Spencer is not attempting a biography of the historical Mohammed as much as he is trying to reconstruct his life and legend as Muslims understand him, without the apologetics that usually make their way into the Islamic teachings meant for Western ears.

His point is, that since Mohammed is considered a model to be emulated by all Muslims, it is critical to look at how he is said to have lived his life.

And it isn't pretty.

Many episodes that may be excused in the context of 7th century Arabia cannot be ignored if Mohammed is indeed meant to be a model for human behavior for all time. His many marriages, including to his beautiful daughter-in-law; his start of his military career as a thief; and the consistent "prophecies" that ended up benefitting Islam and himself personally all point to a very problematic model of human behavior. (One such prophecy said not to bother Mohammed or his wives without permission - a very strange thing for Allah to care about.)

A major distinction can be seen between the Jewish prophets and Mohammed: when Jewish prophets sinned, it was recorded as an object lesson for future generations; when Mohammed did something immoral, the very definition of morality was changed to accomodate his whims.

One theme that comes from the book is that in Mohammed's mind (or the angel Gabriel's, if you prefer,) whatever is best for Islam is the correct path. Murdering a parent who is against Islam is good. Agreeing to temporary treaties that give Muslims breathing room is good, even if they have to compromise their principles - and then breaking the same treaty is also good if it comes at a time and place that is advantegeous to the religion.

One of the parts that resonated with me most was an agreement (later superceded) between Mohammed and the Jews of Medina, sharply distinguishing between "believers" and "unbelievers." (p. 91.) It affirmed the unity of all Muslims as a single united community, and it described the responsibilities they have for one another. To my mind, it goes a long way towards describing the "us vs. them" mentality that permeates Islam, and why the most moderate Muslims are so reluctant to act against the radicals and terrorists. When push comes to shove, almost all Muslims would support a bin Laden over any non-Muslim nation, and very possibly this mentality can be traced to this document and similar messages in the Quran and hadiths.

I like to look at groups of people from a psychological perspective, to understand how they think from their own points of view. This book is invaluable in understanding current Muslim thinking and, to an extent, why Islam has not evolved the way the other Abrahamic religions have.

Even if the stories are taken out of context, and even if Spencer is not reporting a large amount of progressive and peaceful statements of the "prophet," this book needs to be taken seriously by Muslims worldwide. I would love to see a critique of this book from a Muslim that relies on the same sources or can meaningfully describe why Spencer's sources are not to be believed, but as Spencer himself shows, many prominent Muslims quote the same sources liberally.

Spencer's hope is that the Muslims who read the truth about Mohammed would use it as a springboard to adapt the religion to modern times. This hardly seems likely, as introspection is not a very Islamic trait - and it is one that can get one killed.

It is also somewhat depressing to realize that Spencer is not describing the interpretations of "Islamists," but of mainstream Islam. The distinction that the media (and this blog) makes between the two seems to be artificial, and this is a difficult lesson to learn.

All in all, this is a very important book, and one worth reading.