Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Gaza, 1955

In 1955, way before Fatah and Arafat and "occupation," Palestinian Arabs staged a series of terrorist raids from Gaza into Israel proper. Israel hit back, briefly but strongly.

Notice from this account in Time magazine how many parallels there are to today.Isr (Notice also that Time refers to the PalArab refugees as "Palestinian Arabs," not "Palestinians.")

The Gaza strip is a geographic absurdity perpetuated by hate and pride. Ever since Israel's warriors swept south in 1948 to the Negeb desert, Gaza has stood as a defiant outpost in which Egyptian soldiers held out against Zion to the day of armistice. All around the 5-by-25-mile sand strip, a stealthy border war has since been waged, and blood spilled almost nightly.

To the young Israeli farmers who labor, gun in hand, in nearby desert settlements, the Gaza strip is an intolerable threat to their lives and lands. To the Egyptians patrolling its long salient of indefensible dunes, it remains a symbol of Arab defiance against unconfessed defeat. Behind the 20-inch-wide furrow that passes for its frontier, 219,000 Arab refugees squat in sandy squalor, existing only on U.N. charity and staring balefully across the border at the slopes now green with Israeli corn.

The incident that touched off last week's Gaza flare-up might have happened any day. Israeli soldiers, their command cars stacked with small arms, sped on routine border patrol close to an Egyptian command post. Suddenly there was shooting. Caught in the open without cover, the Israelis, guns blazing, crossed the border and took the command post. When they retired, they left three Egyptians dead.

As usual in such cases, the U.N. mediator, Canada's Major General Edson L. M. Burns, respected as much for his toughness as for his patience, tried to get both sides together: the familiar rhythm in these flare-ups is violence met with violence and followed by quiet. But this time the rhythm was broken. Small groups of Arab raiders carried the fight deep into Israel. Known as Al Fedayeen (Self-Sacrificers), the sneaker-shod guerrillas are recruited from Palestinian Arab refugees, and are thus adventurers without a country who know Israel's landscape because it was once their own. Most of them are followers of the former Mufti of Jerusalem, who used to recruit men to fight both the British and the Jews. The Mufti has been living in exile in Cairo.

The Self-Sacrificers fanned out across Israel, mined roads, shot up army trucks, dynamited the Voice of Israel's radio tower, just 15 miles south of Tel Aviv. From the cover of citrus groves, they shot down four farmers. Two Yemenite Jews fell, attacked from behind as they bent over irrigation pipes. Another was killed by a burst of Sten-gun fire through the open door of a pumping station. A Jewish newcomer from Iraq was caught as he cycled home from work in a nearby orchard. Tracks showed that he had been dragged off his bicycle, stood up against a wall and shot. A grandfather was cut down as he walked, lantern in hand, with his family; his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson were wounded.

This was something new in the border warfare, and its will-o'-the-wisp character unnerved many Israelis. In the Negeb communities, 50,000 farmers stood guard at their doorways. Troop patrols raced along roads from Dan to Beersheba. After one ambush, soldiers grabbed a wounded Self-Sacrificer trying to get back to Gaza, and learned that he had set out on patrol from the headquarters of his organization at Khan Yunis (Inn of Jonah), southwest of Gaza.

That night Israel struck back in reprisal. A strong armed force drove into Gaza. Arabs playing tricktrack and drinking a late cup of coffee at a cafe in the border village of Beni Sawil watched in silent horror as an entire company of Israeli halftracks rumbled through the streets. But the Israelis ignored them and made for their objective, the big concrete police fortress of Khan Yunis, one of the old "Taggart forts" built by the British. The Israelis were convinced that it was headquarters of Al Fedayeen. The raid was brief and bloody. The Egyptian commander reported 35 killed. The Israelis said they lost one man.

The Israelis sent a message to General Burns answering that they were now ready to accept his ceasefire. But before peace could be restored, two Israeli Meteors overtook two Egyptian Vampire jets as they swooped low over Israeli settlements north of Gaza. One of the Egyptian jets exploded in the air; both crashed well inside Israeli territory. All that farmers found of one pilot was his hair, ripped in one wiglike piece from his skull.

Underlying these skirmishes, and giving them special urgency, was an uncertainty on each side as to the intent of the other. The Israelis feared that Lieut. Colonel Nasser's military junta, anxious to distract attention from its failures in the Sudan (see below), might have decided to stir its people against Israel. Egyptians feared that the big vote for extremist parties in Israel's July elections reflected a popular demand for a more vigorous border policy. At this point, the U.S., the U.N. and Britain all got into the act. General Burns called for a special session of the U.N. Security Council. The U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, West Pointer Henry Byroade, telephoned Washington that he was convinced of Egyptian good faith in wanting a ceasefire, and asked that Washington so inform the Israelis. Assistant Secretary of State George V. Allen telephoned Premier Moshe Sharett in Tel Aviv, and his message helped reassure the Israelis. Both sides agreed to talk ceasefire.

At week's end the continuing sound of gunfire was heard along the Gaza strip, in the way that constitutes normal relationships on the furrowed border. But there was hope now that only steadfast hostility, not open war, was the prospect once more.

Israelis making the desert bloom while Arabs sit and stew? Check.
Palestinian Arabs targeting and murdering Jewish civilians? Check.
Israel avoiding civilians and aiming for a military target? Check.
The world considering only occasional cross-border skirmishes to be a normal part of a "cease-fire"? Check.
The terrorists being led by a man who had no interest in ever accepting Israel? Check.

Islamic supremacism in the UK

From YNet, a story describing a UK documentary that went undercover in British mosques and found that they weren't exactly talking about peace and brotherhood.

The video is on YouTube:

A British television documentary, 'Dispatches: Undercover Mosque,' broadcast on Sunday evening on the UK's Channel 4 has uncovered hate-filled speeches and rhetoric delivered in a number of British mosques, and directed against 'unbelievers,' Jews, Christians, and gays, among others, as well as religious justifications of marriages between prepubescent girls and adult men.

Some of the mosques targeted by the program were previously considered to be centers of moderate Islam in Britain. One mosque featured in the video was associated with a Muslim leader working with the British government to strengthen ties between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

The program's female narrator warned of "an ideology of intolerance and bigotry spreading throughout Britain, with its roots in Saudi Arabia," as images of the mosques and worshippers flashed across the screen.

One preacher was seen saying: "We Muslims have been ordered to do brainwashing."

The main English-language speaker of a Birmingham mosque, Abu Usama, who is an American convert to Islam, spread hatred of Christian and Jews in the footage.

"It has come to pass that the Christians and the Jews, America , France, the UK and Germany, they have come against the religion of al-Islam," Usama said, adding: "Why give up your religion to please someone who is an enemy to you?"

In the film, British Muslims at a mosque were told that that Islam will eventually gain "the uppermost strength" and form an Islamic state. They were instructed to "form a state within a state, until we take over."

In the Islamic state, Abu Usama said if a Muslim tried to leave Islam, he would be killed. "If the imam wants to crucify him he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he's left there to bleed to death for three days," he said.

'Marrying prepuescent girls Okay'

"The Islamic state he predicts will have a single, life-time ruler with no opposition party or elections," explains the narrator.

A video purchased at a bookshop at the largest mosque in London, the Regents Park mosque, contained footage of a young, Saudi-trained Muslim cleric, Sheikh Faiz, who was seen saying: "Kafir (infidel)," as he drew an imaginary line on his forehead. "The worst word that can ever be written. A sign of infidelity. Disbelief. Filth. The sign of dirt." The preacher calls Jews "pigs," and said they would be "killed when the end of the world comes."

"This creature will say, oh Muslim, behind me is the Jew, come and kill him," the preacher shouts, before carrying out an impersonation of a pig sound, saying, "all of them," to the laughter of the audience.

The video showed a leading Muslim figure, who took part in a government taskforce to tackle extremism, comfortably taking part in a religious conference at the Birmingham mosque, in which discrimination against homosexuals was encouraged, as well as violence against girls who refused to wear the hijab.

"Allah has created the woman deficient," said the Birmingham mosque speaker. "Her intellect is incomplete, deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man," he added.

A Saudi video on sale at one of the mosques showed a preacher saying: "Men are in charge of women. Wherever he goes, she should follow him. She shouldn't be allowed to leave the house without his permission."

Another sheikh on video says 10-year-old girls should be hit if they do not put on the hijab covering.

'The summit of Islam is jihad'

One speaker at a Birmingham mosque, Dr. Billal Phillips, said that the marriage of Islam's prophet, Muhammad to a nine year-old girl, Aisha, meant that contrary to modern laws, such marriages were acceptable.

"The prophet Muhammad practically outlined the rules regarding marriage prior to puberty. With his practice, he clarified what is permissible, and that is why we shouldn't have any issues about an older man marrying a younger woman," he said. "It is looked down upon the society today, but we know that the prophet Muhammad practiced it. It wasn't abuse or exploitation, it was marriage," he added.

"Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain," declared Abu Usama. He later was heard calling for Allah "to bring about the means and the ways" to "… go out and perform the jihad."

"The peak, the pinnacle, the crest, the highest point, the pivot, the summit of Islam is jihad," said Sheikh Faiz, on a DVD sold at the mosque in Birmingham.

Iran's plans are right on course

A year ago I wrote a series of articles that maintained that Iran's goal was to become the undisputed leader of the Islamic world and use that as a platform to become a global superpower. Events since then have only solidified my opinion.

Here is an inconsequential article from the Iranian press that, when analyzed, shows the Iranian goals of being the Islamic world superpower is still quite alive and well:

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei called for the adoption of new methods of propaganda for the growth and exaltation of the Hajj pilgrims.

The Leader further reiterated the necessity for taking the opportunity of Hajj to practice cultural and spiritual activities, and called for the adoption of initiatives to propagate the Islamic values and increase knowledge of the Hajj pilgrims.

He underlined that cultural activities spark intellectual evolution, reminding that providing service to Hajj pilgrims is a precious opportunity.

Ayatollah Khamenei also underlined the importance of the spiritual and cultural effects of Hajj, and called for the adoption of new methods of propaganda to elevate the thoughts of the pilgrims to Mecca, the House of God.

At the beginning of the meeting, representative of the Leader and caretaker of Iranian Hajj pilgrims presented a report on the performance of Hajj rituals in Mecca this year, and said that the efforts and progress made by the Islamic Republic in the field of the nuclear technology and the victory of the Lebanese Hezbollah over the Zionist regime's aggression have encouraged the pilgrims from other countries to show more affinity with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

If one wants to be the leader of all Muslims, the best place to show leadership is at Hajj where millions gather annually. Iran grasped this and spends much effort and time to provide Hajj pilgrims with organized Iranian propaganda - both religious and political. Iran is clearly trying to usurp Saudi Arabia's position as the religious center of Islam, and it is trying to establish itself as the political center as well, a position that has been pretty much vacant since Egypt signed Camp David.

Saudi Arabia still has Mecca and Medina, of course, so it still owns the geographic center of Islam and the Hajj destination. But the holy cities of Shiite Islam are both in Iraq (Karbala and Najaf). And Iran has been trying to pump up the importance of its own holy cities of Qom and Mashhad. It would not be surprising to see Iran try to increase its influence on the Iraqi Shiite holy cities to push the Islamic world towards Iran and away from Saudi Arabia.

Hamas to Fatah: "You idiots, the tunnels were to kill Jews!"

I reported yesterday that Fatah accused Hamas of building tunnels under Gaza filled with explosives (and some originating from mosques) to target Fatah offices and residences.

Hamas is now hotly denying it, saying the tunnels were meant to kill any Jewish invaders that might show up and is accusing Fatah of helping the Zionist cause by giving away Hamas' military secrets.

For some reason I'm imagining the Keystone Kops with a serious arsenal.

Terrorists love their press releases

Terrorists using the most Western of devices, press releases, is an interesting phenomenon. Mostly they get ignored except for the photo-ops showing lots of men in ski masks.

But even though it is probably false bravado, it is worth it to read what these guys have to say, if only toremind the world that no matter what Israel does there will be large organized groups who are unwilling to ever compromise.

Here's a press release, autotranslated, from Islamic Jihad threatening Israel with a new type of rocket that includs 100 bomblets. The boilerplate ending paragraphs are as illuminating as the main points:

Military statement issued by the Al-Quds Brigades

The commencement of red flowers in response to rocket attacks on the Gaza Strip and the West steadfast Habib

And the red flowers. The missile contains 100 rockets

The Zionist enemy is still commit crimes and create justifications and pretexts to exercise more aggression against our people, which shows that this enemy eager for blood, and remains the victim is the Palestinian people.

وAnd we in the Al-Quds Brigades military arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, declare that all the cells are ready to respond to the enemy in case of attack on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and we launch a rocket containing 100 rockets, and also the operation and compliance of the Al-Quds Brigades of the people in the West Bank and especially the Mujahideen our people and on top of the soldiers and leaders of Al-Quds Brigades will begin this process immediately at the start of any aggression on our land and people.

And we in the Al-Quds Brigades-stress : the Zionist enemy that knows well that Sderot and Majdal and two, is the target of a missile Al-Quds Brigades, and that any encroachment Bmujahidi Al-Quds Brigades in the Gaza Strip or the West will pay the price dearly enemy.

(He will enough to defend their security and sovereignty)

Glory to the martyrs of shame and humiliation for the traitors and cowards

It is a Jihad, Jihad. Victory or martyrdom

Information War

Al-Quds Brigades

نThe military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine

15-1-2007مToday, Monday, 26 Dhul - Hijjah 1427 Hijri approved 1-15-2007

On a personal note....

The Elder family is not known for planning ahead very much. In that vein, we just decided that a very-long-overdue trip to Israel would be fun - starting next week.

So if anyone knows of a good apartment to rent in Jerusalem (the closer to the Old City, the better) preferably with two bedrooms, kosher kitchen, Internet access and the usual amenities that spoiled Americans might want, for about two weeks, please email me at coolboardpresident - at- yahoo dot com.

תודה רבה!

The Gaza underground

One of the joys of reading the Palestinian Arab press in the auto-translated Arabic is uncovring the rich tapestry of culture, education and technology that these enterprising people have that we just don't hear about in the West.

So while we know about how adept the Palestinian Arabs are at digging tunnels under borders, we didn't know that the same skills are being used in much more productive ways.

Today, Abdel Hakim Awad, spokesman for Fatah, announced an extensive network of tunnels underneath Gaza that were all aimed at Fatah institutions and leaders - and filled with explosives. Not only that, but some of the tunnels originated in mosques. Imagine that!

Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh responded back that the Fatah textbooks included a geography question that was asking the distances between Gaza at 30 degrees longitude and Baghdad at 45 degrees longitude, where an assassination attempt was being planned for Haniyeh. (It seems unlikely that textbooks are that new or topical, but it seems to be what he was accusing.)

There is so much more to learn about these lovely people!

UPDATE: I misunderstood the geography question - it was Fatah that claimed that Hamas had this question, showing not Fatah antipathy towards Hamas but Hamas paranoia (and, Fatah claims, divisiveness.)

The man in this picture, Moshe Aryeh Feldman (he's the one on the left), stayed an extra couple of weeks in Iran to lecture atIranian universities about how evil Zionists are. He just came back home to Austria to see that his wife had left him.

Well, at least someone still loves him.

Morning Palestinian Arab news roundup

All from Maan News:

An infant was shot in the head and killed during a clan clash (top story in Arabic, tiny news item in English)
Two more PalArabs were kidnapped in Gaza
A professor at Najah University says Iran has every right to a nuclear bomb (he didn't even pretend that Iran was only trying to create a peaceful nuclear energy program). He also blames Arabs for not being on Iran's side, saying that they all need to work together against America and Israel.
The Nablus police announced that there were 39 murders and 25 suicides in Nablus in 2006. I know most of these aren't included in my PalArab self-death count.
"Unknown" gunmen shot a PalArab policeman.
A Palestinian Arab minister revealed that there was a plot to assassinate him. The interesting twist is that the would-be assassins were hired for the task, promised $30,000 on a successful hit.
In a remarkable mirror of American-style "peace activism," there is a sit-in in tents in downtown Gaza City protesting Palestinian Arab infighting. And just like the American "peace activists," these neo-hippies want to se all the PalArabs get together in peace and love to direct all their efforts in the fight against Israel. Not so surprisingly, the people behind this lovefest are terrorists who are not involved in PalArab governmental affairs, like the Popular Front.

The PalArab self-death counts are now at 236 violently killed by each other since Operation Summer Rains and 31 so far this year.

Three blind mice

From the Washington Post:

Abbas spoke at a joint news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is touring the region this week on what she bills as an effort to listen to ideas to rekindle the stalled peace process. Rice said she wants to "accelerate" a three-stage U.S.-backed 2003 peace plan known as the "road map" but has been vague about what she means. "When I say accelerate, we want to look at it and see how fast you can move," she told reporters traveling with her.

So far, Rice has been hearing conflicting advice: the Israelis have touted the idea of jumping to the second stage, an interim state, and the Palestinians have pressed for going to the third stage, a permanent state.

The WaPo doesn't bother to illuminate its readers as to what is in the "first stage" of the roadmap that everyone now seems to want to skip.

So let me fill in some of that gap. Here are the first couple of paragraphs of Phase I of the Roadmap:

In Phase I, the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence according to the steps outlined below; such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel. Palestinians and Israelis resume security cooperation based on the Tenet work plan to end violence, terrorism, and incitement through restructured and effective Palestinian security services. Palestinians undertake comprehensive political reform in preparation for statehood, including drafting a Palestinian constitution, and free, fair and open elections upon the basis of those measures. Israel takes all necessary steps to help normalize Palestinian life. Israel withdraws from Palestinian areas occupied from September 28, 2000 and the two sides restore the status quo that existed at that time, as security performance and cooperation progress. Israel also freezes all settlement activity, consistent with the Mitchell report.

At the outset of Phase I:

Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.

Israeli leadership issues unequivocal statement affirming its commitment to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel, as expressed by President Bush, and calling for an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere. All official Israeli institutions end incitement against Palestinians.

Security

Palestinians declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere.
Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption.

So not only are the Palestinian Arabs trying to get around the obligations of stopping terror - so are the current Israeli leaders! Olmert et.al. are ready to give the Palestinian Arabs a state, right now, with seeming no preconditions and temporary borders.

And Abbas, true to form, is rejecting this absurd gift, proving once again that peace and statehood is not the goal of the "moderate" Fatah. Building a state, with an effective police force and judiciary, with the responsibility for job creation and tax collection and all the myriad parts of a real, functioning government is the furthest thing from Abbas' mind. An entity that now has almost nothing continues to bargain as if it holds the upper hand.

And who suffers because of the famous "moderate"'s unyielding position? The people that he supposedly is leading!

Meanwhile, Rice and Olmert and Abbas ignore that pesky little fact that the current elected leadership of the PalArabs is even more extreme and even less interested in running a state than Abbas is!

We are watching the supposed leaders of three countries just pretend that terror doesn't exist, that Hamas doesn't exist and that Abbas has some power, all in a rush to reward a people who explicitly support terror with a state. They are all closing their eyes to the reality that is splashed on the front pages of papers for months - that terror still exists, that Hamas and Fatah can't cooperate, that statehood is not the desired end-state for the majority of Palestinian Arabs.

It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

"Palestinian" flag kerfuffle

The latest salvo in the Hamas/Fatah conflict is that Hamas has added some (presumably Koranic) text to the Palestinian Arab flag:

Fatah is very upset over this move, calling it "illegal."

I'd love to know exactly what it says. Right now I'd say that odds are much more likely that it says something like "Palestine will be liberated through blood and sacrifice" than that it says something like "We love the land!"

Followup on "killing the filthy Kuffar"

Last week I mentioned a Jihad Unspun article showing, from an extreme Islamist perspective, how at least one literal interpretation of the Koran is about as intolerant and bigoted and supermacist as is possible.

My question was and remains, what, if any, is the basis within Islamic jurisprudence to disagree with this interpretation?

A couple of years ago a front-page article in The Spectator pretty much claimed that there is no such thing as moderate Islam. In what may be an oversimplification, the author says that while the Koran has many contradictory verses, in general the later verses trump the earlier ones and (also in general) the later verses tend to be more intolerant.

One serious attempt to refute that article was published in Islamica magazine, and while that author blunts some of the arguments he does not seem to really attack them head on. He anecdotally claims that moderate Islamic scholars have spoken out against the extremist interpretations within Islamic law, however he brings as an example of "moderation" statements by Sheikh Qaradawi, who has written his own fatwas supporting suicide bombing Israeli civilians. He also tries to deflect the argument by comparing Koranic verses with Old Testament verses that seem to be much more radical, which is not so much an argument as it is misdirection.

Daniel Pipes is famous for saying that "militant Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution." However, in a rather exhaustive review by Laurence Auster, Pipes' thesis that moderate Islam represents the majority of Muslims is questioned, as Pipes himself seems unable to come up with a meanigful way to differentiate them.

My question is a bit more basic. Islamic law may be arcane to Western ears but fundamentally it should be a coherent legal system with reproducible and explainable rules. It should not be a big stretch for a knowledgable Muslim to be able to explain to a Western audience some basic rules of interpretation and be able to illuminate how some Koranic verses can be shown to not be taken literally or to have been superceded by other legal considerations.

If a Jew or a non-Jew interprets a Torah verse or a Talmudic argument in a way that makes it look evil, there are no shortage of modern Torah scholars who are ready and willing to create web pages and articles that rebut the arguments one by one. The quality of the back-and-forth arguments are almost irrelevant (a layman would not know easily which arguments are more convincing) but the important thing is that religious Jews are so emotionally invested in their belief system and its underlying basic texts that they will happily research and teach their methods of interpretation to anyone who asks.

Islam, on the surface, is similar to Judaism in that it is a legal-based religion, unlike Christianity. If the extremist interpretations are so abhorrent to the vast majority of Muslims, including Muslim scholars as the Islamica article attests, then where are the web pages that refute the jihadist interpretations, point by point? Where are the books and articles that go into detail about these verses? If the extremists are such a tiny minority, why are we not seeing them treated the way that the Neturei Karta was treated by every major Orthodox Jewish group in the wake of their visit to Iran?

Much of Robert Spencer's work seems to show that there is no real alternative way to interpret Islam that does not tend to support extremism. Where are the Muslims that can prove him wrong - in the context of the Koran and Shari'a?

Because even if the arguments are esoteric and delve deeply into Islamic legal principles that outside people could not possibly appreciate, just the existence of such resources would go a long way towards the West believing that militant Islam is an anomaly and not mainstream.

Personally, I really want to believe that moderate Islam exists and is predominant. But the most moderate Islam that I have seen has been either still way too extreme for Western cultural mores (Qaradawi), or a clear repudiation of Islam's basic tenets (Wafa Sultan).

Am I wrong?