Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Polite requests from Fatah

Some interesting images from Maan News, the first three with identical hilarious captions:

Masked Palestinian militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades ask a shop keeper to close his store as part of a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron February 7, 2007.

Masked Palestinian militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades enforce a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron February 7, 2007.

So the terrorist thugs from Fatah "ask" shopkeepers to close their stores.

At gunpoint.

A few points are worth highlighting, even if they are obvious:

The only people being hurt by the forced strike are the PalArabs themselves.
Fatah is Mahmoud Abbas' party, and in the past many of the tens of thousands of PA policemen also moonlighted as masked "militants."
This is not in Gaza, but in the West Bank, showing that every Palestinian Arab area is at the mercy of armed terrorists rather than the benevolent PA security forces that the world insists is responsible for police work.

Hamas and Fatah can sign all the agreements they want, but in the end their people are so steeped in a culture of violence that no numbers of handshakes will make these areas civilized under Palestinian Arab rule.

How to solve the Temple Mount problem

The Arabs think that Israel is acting aggressively against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They want Israel to stop.

The obvious solution is for them to tell the Waqf to give a part of the Temple Mount to Israel. Israel will appreciate this move so much that it will stop any digs for a while as a goodwill gesture. And to ensure the largest amount of goodwill, the Waqf should give the entire Temple Mount to the Jews.

I call this plan "land for peace."

Since the entire world from Israel's political center through the Europeans, US and Arabs know that "land for peace" is the only formula for real lasting peace in the region, it should work splendidly.

Irshad Manji: Modern Israel is a far cry from old South Africa It's absurd to apply the term apartheid to one of the most progressive states in the world, maintains Irshad Manji

IN the past year, a stream of thinkers across the West - from Australian writer Antony Loewenstein to US academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt - has punctured the usual parameters of debate about Israel. I, for one, welcome any effort to prevent ideas from calcifying into ideologies. As a Muslim refusenik, that's what I do by defying the conventional prejudices of my fellow Muslims. Why would I resent refuseniks of a different kind? It's precisely because I embrace intellectual pluralism that I respectfully challenge Jimmy Carter's recent critique of Israel as an apartheid state. To be sure, I've long admired the former US president. In my book The Trouble with Islam Today I cite him as an example of how religion can be invoked to tap the best of humanity. In no small measure, it was Carter's appreciation of spiritual values that brought together Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, compelling these former foes to clasp hands over a peace deal. Which is why Carter's new book disappoints so many of us who champion co-existence. Entitled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, the book argues that Israel's conduct towards Palestinians mimics South Africa's long-time demonisation of blacks. Of course, certain Israeli politicians have spewed venom at Palestinians, as have some Arab leaders towards Jews, but Israel is far more complex - and diverse - than slogans about the occupation would suggest. In a state practising apartheid, would Arab Muslim legislators wield veto power over anything? At only 20per cent of the population, would Arabs even be eligible for election if they squirmed under the thumb of apartheid? Would an apartheid state extend voting rights to women and thepoor in local elections, which Israel didfor the first time in the history of Palestinian Arabs? Would the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens turn out to vote in national elections, as they've usually done? Would an apartheid state have several Arab political parties, as Israel does? In recent Israeli elections, two Arab parties found themselves disqualified for expressly supporting terrorism against the Jewish state. However, Israel's Supreme Court, exercising its independence, overturned both disqualifications. Under any system of apartheid, would the judiciary be free of political interference? Would an apartheid state award its top literary prize to an Arab? Israel honoured Emile Habibi in 1986, before the intifada might have made such a choice politically shrewd. Would an apartheid state encourage Hebrew-speaking schoolchildren to learn Arabic? Would road signs throughout the land appear in both languages? Even my country, the proudly bilingual Canada, doesn't meet that standard. Would an apartheid state be home to universities where Arabs and Jews mingle at will, or apartment blocks where they live side by side? Would an apartheid state bestow benefits and legal protections on Palestinians who live outside of Israel but work inside its borders? Would human rights organisations operate openly in an apartheid state? They do in Israel. For that matter, military officials go public with their criticisms of government policies. In October 2003, the Israel Defence Forces' chief of staff told the press that road closures in the West Bank and Gaza were feeding Palestinian anger. Two weeks later, four former heads of the Shin Bet security service blasted the occupation and called on Ariel Sharon to withdraw troops unilaterally, which later happened in Gaza. Would an apartheid state stomach so much dissent from those mandated to protect the state? Above all, would media debate the most basic building blocks of the nation? Would a Hebrew newspaper in an apartheid state run an article by an Arab Israeli about why the Zionist adventure has been a total failure? Would it run that article on Israel's independence day? Would an apartheid state ensure conditions for the freest Arabic press in the Middle East, a press so free that it can demonstrably abuse its liberties and keep on rolling? To this day, the East Jerusalem daily Al-Quds hasn't retracted an anti-Israel letter supposedly penned by Nelson Mandela but proven to have been written by an Arab living in The Netherlands. Even the eminence grise of Palestinian nationalism, the late Edward Said, stated flat out that "Israel is not South Africa". How could it be when an Israeli publisher translated Said's seminal work, Orientalism, into Hebrew? I'll cap this point with a question that Said himself asked of Arabs: "Why don't we fight harder for freedom of opinions in our own societies, a freedom, no one needs to be told, that scarcely exists?" I disagree: some people still need to be told that Arab "freedoms" don't compare to those of Israel. The people who need reminding are those who now push the South Africa analogy a step further by equating Israel with Nazi Germany. To them, Zionists are committing hate crimes under the totalitarian nightmare that they dub "Zio-Nazism" (like neo-Nazism). When it comes to granting citizenship, Israel discriminates in the same way as an affirmative action policy, giving the edge to a specific minority that has faced genocidal injustice. Does this amount to Nazism? Spare me. As a Muslim, I could become a citizen of Israel without having to convert. After all, Israel was one of the few countries anywhere to grant shelter, then citizenship, to the Vietnamese boatpeople who sought political asylum in the late 1970s. I don't have to wonder how Syria compares on that score. Now for the ultimate proof of Israel's flimsy credentials as a bunker of Hitlerian hate: It's the only country in the Middle East to which Arab Christians are voluntarily migrating. And they are also thriving there, notching much higher university attendance rates than the Arab Muslim citizens of Israel, and enjoying better overall health than Jews. The Holy Land is gut-wrenching and complicated. As much as I applaud Israel's efforts to foster pluralism, I condemn its illegal Jewish settlements and less visible crimes such as the diversion of water away from Palestinian towns. These contradictions of the Israeli state should be exposed, discussed, even pilloried. And they are: openly as well as often. So there's little point in deciding whose camp is the paragon of vice or virtue. The better question might be: who's willing to hear what they don't want to hear? That's the test of whether a country is more than black or white.

Temple Mount clarity

Seeing Israel's "defense minister" kowtow to the Muslim world in relation to the Temple Mount is just the latest time that Israel has given ammunition to the Arab world to destroy any Jewish claims to the site, and to change the status quo on the Har HaBayit.

The single dumbest thing Israel ever did was to give the Waqf complete control over the area in 1967.

Muslims do not hesitate to say, explicitly, that the Temple Mount is an exclusively Muslim area and that they do not want any non-Muslims to ever step foot upon it. The world's media accepts this is completely true and normal.

The Jewish narrative, which is far more accurate and far stronger, gets ignored.

The fact is that the Temple Mount is the single holiest spot on the planet according to Judaism. It was the site of both Temples and the Jewish claim predates the Muslim religion by some 1500 years.

Every single day, Judaism's holiest place gets desecrated by Muslims there.

I visited the Hulda Gates on the south side of the Temple Mount a couple of weeks ago:

Here was the site where countless Jews would enter and ascend to the Temple over 2000 years ago. Excavated Jewish ritual baths dot the surrounding area. One can go up to the now-blocked gate and recite Tehillim (Psalms) - only to be interrupted by the Muslim prayers that are amplified inside in the mosques that now occupy he southern Mount area, as they desecrate this undeniably Jewish sacred site.

If you are offended by my characterization of the Temple Mount as an exclusively Jewish site that is being desecrated and destroyed by Muslims, ask yourself why you are not offended by the routine descriptions of the area as being exclusively Muslim where Jews are not allowed to pray. Even without even going into the Muslim fantasy that Mohammed went to Jerusalem, it is obvious that the Jewish nature of the site is far stronger and far older than any Muslim claim.

It has been my experience that, without exception, every crime that Muslims routinely accuse Jews of perpetrating is a crime that the Muslims routinely do themselves in far greater degrees.

This is a classic example.

Zionism promotes Muslim unity

Iran's big-cheese ayatollah makes another statement that is completely and utterly wrong:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual leader of Iran, said Monday that the "Zionist regime" is the factor preventing Muslim unity. Khamenei said that Israel was established by “arrogant forces, which sought to create conflict between the Muslim peoples.”

This is Iranian comedy at its best. The only thing that unites Shiites and Sunnis, Hamas and Fatah, Jordanian and Syrian and Pakistani and British and Malaysian Muslims is their hatred for everything Zionist. Whenever there is a major rift in the 'ummah, one can count on some Muslim leader or another to denounce Zionism in an attempt to find common ground (or, if they are fighting, to accuse the other side of being a Zionist.)

Textbook case

A Saudi-funded Muslim school in Britain was found to have textbooks calling Jews "apes" and Christians "pigs," as well as calling Judaism "repugnant" and calling Judaism and Christianity "worthless."

The school's reaction is a textbook case of how Muslims often lie, deny, and claim victimhood when confronted with evidence such as this. First the lies:

King Fahad Academy director Dr Sumaya Aluyusuf ...admitted the textbooks - translated for BBC Two's Newsnight programme by two independent scholars - were kept at the school.

But the translations were "taken out of context" and had "lost some of their meaning", she said.

She said the controversy had arisen from the misinterpretation of the material which was based on the Koran.

Since the Koran itself makes the statements comparing Jews to apes and pigs, there is very little room for misinterpretation.

Then the denial:

"I would like to make it clear that the controversial pages within the books are not taught within the academy," she said.

"However, in view of the public interest I have decided to remove those chapters from the books.

"The school is currently moving towards an international curriculum and new books are being developed for that curriculum."

Will anyone follow up to see if they actually went through scores of books and ripped out the offensive passages? Will anyone check in a year or so the "international curriculum?" Would any teacher currently employed there admit if he or she had taught from these sections?

And finally, the victimhood:

She said pupils and parents had suffered discrimination and intimidation as a result of the controversy.

One local shop had put up a sign saying pupils from the school were not welcome and a passer-by had shouted abuse at a parent waiting outside the school gate.

"The local MP called me and said he was very concerned about the safety of the children and asked if we would like him to send extra police around the area.

Was any of this corroborated by the British media?

This is the classic response to untold numbers of similar cases over they years, and the Muslim reactions are so predictable that one can imagine that they have their own textbook on how to deflect criticism.

A little context on Temple Mount digs

There have been a number of stories in the news lately about how the PalArabs are upset that Jews are digging near the Temple Mount. The stories are silly for a number of reasons:

The purpose is to repair a ramp that leads up to the Temple Mount, not to touch the Mount itself.
The dig is open for everyone to see.
Every dig in Israel for any purpose is overseen by the Israel Antiquities Authority to make sure that nothing of historic interest gets damaged.
The Palestinian Arabs bring up scare stories about Jews trying to destroy Al Aqsa Mosque every few days. This is not an exaggeration; I see new accusations in the Arabic press literally every few days.
The Palestinian Arabs are especially pouncing on this story as a way to deflect world focus away from their internal civil war.
The Muslims have historically and systematically tried to destroy thousands of non-Muslim artifacts in holy sites - for them to complain about Jews doing the same thing is utterly hypocritical
What the Muslims are scared of is not that anything of theirs is going to be damaged - their real fear is that Jerusalem, the ancient holy city of Jews that predates Islam by many centuries, is going to be "Judaized:"
Gaza - Ma'an - The Al Aqsa Brigades have threatened to target Israeli synagogues if the Israeli authorities continue the Judaization of the holy city of Jerusalem and the demolition of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the brigades confirmed that all the synagogues will be targets for the brigades and are not more holy than the mosque of Al Aqsa.

The statement called on Palestinian people in and out Palestine, to go into the streets in protest against Israeli actions in the holy city.

Let's look at where the Israelis are repairing the ramp that leads up to the Temple Mount and where the Al Aqsa mosque is, to see who it telling the truth.

Here is a panorama shot of the southern half of the western wall of the Temple Mount that I took last week (click on it to see it enlarged):

The golden dome on the left is the Dome of the Rock. The smaller grey dome on the right next to the trees is the Al Aqsa Mosque. The blue-tarped ramp in the middle is the temporary wooden bridge that is being repaired that is causing such a pretense of anguish. As you can see, it is pretty far away from the mosque. In fact, the Al Aqsa mosque is on the southern wall of the Mount as this view of the southwest corner shows (click on image for more detail):

The Israel Antiquities Authority website has details on exactly what they are doing and why.

It is not hard for news services to be able to provide context in their sensationalistic stories of the protests.

But it is hard to find any news articles that bother to try.

Exclusive Elder video!

More Arab terrorists kill each other. Yawn.

Between Thursday night and Friday night, 21 more have been killed, including a 7 year old boy and a 38 year old woman. This is of course of no concern to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or the UN (although the UN did come out with a statement against the violence, noting that its own workers were in danger, but no condemnation.)

I'm doing the best I can not to double-count anyone, but as of now, my counts are at 305 Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other since Summer Rains, and 100 killed this year.

UPDATE: It looks like two more were added to the count (Maan said yesterday that 25 were killed over the weekend, now it says 27) so the counts are now at 307 and 102.

UPDATE 2: PCHR counts 29.
Maan News Arabic mentions Hamas killing a Fatah member Tuesday.
The counts are now at 310 and 105.

UPDATE 3:The PCHR numbers were as of Sunday, and on Monday it was announced that three more died from wounds received on Friday.
The counts are now 313 and 108.

UPDATE 4: An 8-year old succumbed to wounds from last Thursday. 314 and 109.

UPDATE 5:I mistranslated a Tuesday article as saying a Fatah member was killed, it was in fact a Hamas member, and one of those injured died as well. 315 and 110.

UPDATE 6:A 20-year old man was found dead in Ramallah on Thursday. 316 and 111.

Christiane Amanpour, Zionist Spy

Ya gotta love Iran's "news" agency:

Member of Parliament from Tehran, Mehdi Kouchekzadeh, Sunday criticized authorization of CNN correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, for her activities in Iran.

"Authorizing those representing the countries which are obviously hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran to enter Iran has no justification from viewpoint of the Iranian nation," he added.

The MP said that Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as well as Foreign Ministry should be answerable to the nation about allowing an agent acting under the guise of the sacred profession of journalism to enter the country to release conspiratorial reports aiming to sow seeds of discord.

"We have all witnessed that over the past years, she released the worst reports to the people of the world, which contradicted the facts about Iranian society," he added.

Kouchekzadeh criticized the officials for inviting the Zionist media and their affiliates to the country to prove their support for democracy and freedom of speech.

"In addition to government organizations, people from all walks of life are bound to protect their environment from impurities," said the MP.

He said that reporters in Iran should have reacted to the presence of Amanpour in Iran.

Hmmm...how should they have reacted? Is Amanpour due for an "honor killing"?

Mossad killing Iranian nuke scientists?

Interesting article at Haaretz, quoting the Stratfor.com site:

A senior nuclear physicist involved in Iran's nuclear program who died under mysterious circumstances two weeks ago was killed by the Mossad, according to a report released in a U.S. website this weekend.

The website - Stratfor.com - features intelligence and security analysis by former U.S. intelligence agents.

Professor Ardashir Hosseinpour, a world authority on electromagnetism, was until recently working on uranium enrichment at the facility in Isfahan, one of the central processing sites in Iran's nuclear program.

The physicist died January 18, but news of his death only emerged six days later in two Iranian media outlets.

A report released this weekend in Stratfor.com stated that the Mossad was behind Hosseinpour's death.

The report said the physicist died from "radioactive poisoning" as part of a Mossad effort to halt the Iranian nuclear program through "secret operations."

The site indicates that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Mossad was involved in the deaths of scientists involved with the Iraqi nuclear program. At least three scientists were killed in those operations.

A website of expatriate Iranian communists said that several other scientists were killed or injured in the operation to kill Hosseinpour at Isfahan, and given treatment at nearby hospitals.

The site says Iranian physicians are trying to determine the circumstances of the deaths, and believe they may have to deal with similar incidents in the future.

News of Hosseinpour's death appeared in the Al-Quds daily, published in Tehran, and in a release by the Iranian Students' News Agency.

Both news items said Hosseinpour died from "poison gas."

Radio Farda - a Persian-language station operated by the U.S. government - said several days ago that the scientist died of "smoke inhalation."

The Radio Farda report said Hosseinpour, 45, was considered an expert in the field of electromagnetism and formerly taught in the physics department at Shiraz University. He also published widely in international publications.

Hosseinpour was also recently employed by Isfahan's Malik Ashtar University of Technology. Several departments of that institution have been implicated as being involved in Iran's secret nuclear program, believed to be conducted in parallel with its official, disclosed program.

If so....bravo!

An interesting subtext

The Jerusalem Post has an article about how disappointed Palestinian Arabs are in the civil war:

Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA-funded daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, said he was concerned that the fighting would tarnish the image of the Palestinians. "Tens of millions of people now look at us as worthless gangsters with no values," he complained.

Addressing both Hamas and Fatah, he added: "Take Gaza and turn it into a state of the Muslim Brotherhood. Take the West Bank and establish a state of your own there with all the Abu's. Your people no longer want a state. We no longer like our killers and executioners."

Columnist Mahmoud Habbash also acknowledged that the fighting had caused grave damage to the Palestinians on the international arena. The internal fighting, he said, has distorted the image of the Palestinians in the eyes of the world.

"The world is watching how the Palestinians are destroying their institutions and achievements with their own hands. They see how we are mercilessly slaughtering innocent people. We are losing the sympathy of the world. I'm afraid the world will now view us differently."

Notice how according to these average, intelligent Palestinian Arabs, the recent infighting is making them all look bad.

But the implication is that the decades of terror that they have supported against Israel, as well as the world, did not do any damage to their reputations. They see terrorism against Jews as not only natural, but accepted by the world, and they perceive that that the world has no problem with them slaughtering Jews - the clear message is that they believe that terrorism against Israel is not counterproductive in the least for their pretense of wanting a Palestinian Arab state.

And the unfortunate thing is that they are right. No matter how much terror has been unleashed against Jews, the world is still supporting roadmaps and other silly initiatives as if every new act of war is somehow an opportunity for Israel to give up more and bring a PalArab state closer.

Unreal.

The insanity of negotiating the Golan

The news last week was that Israel has been secretly negotiating with Syria over the Golan Heights. Already the MSM is starting to push for such an agreement.

This is idiocy beyond imagination.

The strategic value of the Golan cannot be undersetimated. It is not just "high ground," it is a mountain range:

The Golan not only dominates the land below, but also Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee):

Between 1948 and 1967, the Jews who lived on the shores of the Kinneret were shelled constantly from Syria, forcing them to spend every night in bomb shelters. Look at the Ein Gev resort:

Beautiful yes, but also extremely vulnerable.

Not only were the villages shelled, but so were the fishermen on the lake.

Some may argue that the Syria of today is not the same Syria as then. This is crazy - Syria is the conduit for 100% of Hezbollah's rockets, last summer as well as today. Syria hosts Hamas ans other major terror groups.

To pin hope on Syria's antipathy towards Islamist extremism is naive beyond belief - when has any Arab country publicly sided with Israel over any Muslim extremists?

Furthermore, the Golan is as much a part of ancient Israel as any other part of Israel. The major town on the Golan today, Katzrin, was a seat of Torah learning during Talmudic times, with the remains of synagogues still visible. Here is one originally built during Hashmonean times and later rebuilt during Byzantine rule:

Look at the top of the columns: a stylized Torah and etrog:

And on one of the walls, a menorah:

Also, the Golan was the site of a major Jewish stronghold during the Jewish Revolt against Rome with a suicidal outcome that predated Masada by a few years, at Gamla.

There is no question that the Golan is strategically and historically of supreme importance to Israel. The entire reason that Israel does not have a direct threat from Syria is because Israel controls the Golan today. So which is better: an illusory "peace" like the one with Egypt where a single bullet can turn Sinai into a forward position against Israel again, or a time-tested detente against Syria where Israel controls the high ground and from where Syria doesn't dare make a move?

The thought of giving it up to a nation that still actively supports terror is utter insanity.

"Poison balloons" redux

Like a bizarre game of telephone, the Iranian FARS "news" agency has picked up on the "poison balloon" story, added a few more lies, and presents the following:

FNA dispatches from Beirut said that the Israeli planes have so far dropped thousands of these balloons all across the woods and coastal areas in southern Lebanon.

The balloons which come in bright and child attractive colors have been observed specially in Nabatieh, Sour and the surrounding villages and, of course, in Beirut.

The balloons read such phrases as 'Happy Birthday' or 'Happy Night' in English and Hebrew.

Anyone touching or inhaling the gas escaping from the balloons will be poisoned immediately. So far a number of 9 citizens have been poisoned, some of whom are in critical conditions.

The Lebanese army has started wide investigations in this regard, while the international peace-keeping troops deployed in southern Lebanon have also voiced preparedness to examine the poisonous gas and materials contained in and on the surface of the balloons.

Delusions are but one symptom of psychosis.

Another death count update

Six more killed today in the Fatah/Hamas clashes.

Also, I had missed a few earlier murders from January:

A woman was killed in a family dispute January 22.
A woman from Gaza City was killed from a gunshot January 21, not sure who did it.
A 33-year old man from Rafah was shot and killed by those famous "unknown assailants" on the 23rd.

So our updated counts are:
284 Palestinian Arabs killed by each other since Operation Summer Rains,
73 killed in January 2007, and
79 killed so far this year.

Even Maan News, in English no less, noticed that PalArab self-deaths vastly outnumbered those claimed to be killed by Israel in January (they count 50 dead from internal fighting and ignore other murders.)