Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Review of Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East

I am finally (almost) finished with Michael Oren's Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present.

It is an important book, and one that would be difficult for me to do justice to. Oren uncovers a rich and complicated relationship between the United States and the Middle East that is older than the US itself. From the Barbary Wars through the first adventurers and missionaries who visited the area in the 19th century, on through American involvement in Egypt's early bids for independence and on to the American influence on Zionism, it is truly an encyclopedic work.

Meticulously researched, almost any random sentence could become an entire blog entry here. This is both a strength and a weakness as the sheer volume of facts is close to overwhelming. As a reference book it is stellar; as an enjoyable read it is somewhat less appealing, but for students of American history it is invaluable.

Oren shows how the Constitution itself was influenced by events in the Middle East, as our founding fathers realized that a strong central government rather than a loose confederation was the only way to build a centralized army and navy to fight the Muslim pirates of the Mediterranean, even as early American policy zigzagged between paying the North African states "tribute" and threatening them.

It was personally gratifying to see that my recent interest in what I termed Christian proto-Zionism was a large part of this book. Early Americans always looked upon themselves as Jews in the promised land, and the faith that Americans had over the past two centuries influenced US Mideast policy tremendously.

One of the important themes of the book was the influence of American missionaries on the Middle East - and vice versa. Their original intentions of converting Muslims and Jews to Christianity were spectacular failures even as more and more congregations raised money to send more missionaries to try. But when the missionaries changed their tactics and started creating schools that were more oriented to teaching basic skills and American ideology, the reverberations are still being felt today.

Arabs who were taught in these schools ended up becoming the leaders of the Arab nationalist movements - heavily influenced by American ideals of anti-colonialism. Conversely, many of the children of these missionaries who spent so much time in Arab countries gravitated to work in the State Department, whose pro-Arab tilt continues to this day.

Oren goes on to describe America's rising global power after World War I and its part in British policy in Palestine, on through the growing Zionist lobby, America in North Africa against Germany as well as against British and French colonialism and continuing on with FDR's ambivalence towards the idea of a Jewish state.

Oren's last chapter about US policy after Israel was born is much less detailed because, as the author admits, he has little new to add to the huge literature that already exists. Even so, it is a very good hundred page summary with plenty of facts I was not aware of or had forgotten about. (Everyone knows about Israel's accidental firing on the USS Liberty in 1967; how many know about Iraq's accidental firing on the USS Stark in 1987, killing 37 sailors?) He also effectively analyzes every US President's thinking and psyche on Middle East matters.

This book fills in a huge gap in our knowledge of American history and is a very worthwhile read.

(Also check out Pajamas Media's Michael Totten interview with Michael Oren for much more detail.)

2000 British Islamist terrorists

From AP:

The threat of homegrown terrorists attacking Britain is greater now than any time since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, a British Sunday newspaper reported, citing a leaked intelligence document.

More than 2,000 British-based Islamic terrorists are believed to be plotting attacks, according to a government threat assessment prepared this month, which The Sunday Telegraph said it had seen.

"The scale of al-Qaeda's ambitions towards attacking the UK and the number of UK extremists prepared to participate in attacks are even greater than we previously judged," the newspaper quoted the document as saying.

The newspaper said the document was being circulated between the Home Office, defense ministry, M15 intelligence agency and Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch.

The Home Office declined to comment on the report, but said in a statement that security arrangements are under constant review.

But not to worry: 2000 is still only a tiny minority of all British Muslims, so all is well.

Shahid inflation

One of the interesting things about the PalArab infighting is watching how the word "shahid" (martyr) is used.

It used to be easy - if you were killed while trying to murder Jews, you were in the exclusive Martyr's Club with not only large sexual benefits in Paradise but also your families would be paid handsomely by Arab regimes and the Western-supported moderate Palestinian Authority. Even blowing yourself up accidentally while only trying to build a bomb to kill Jews was plenty good enough to join the Club.

But now, what about all these hundreds of PalArabs killed by other Palestinian Arabs? Do they go to Paradise and get to screw lots of virgins? More importantly, do their families get the cash?

Pro-Fatah news sources routinely refer to their people murdered by Hamas as shahids, and I suppose that Hamas does the same to those killed by Fatah. And it appears that the definition just got expanded again:

Clashes broke out in Ramallah on Thursday afternoon after Palestinian security officers accidentally killed a Palestinian youth.

The incident began when a Palestinian military intelligence forces instructed a vehicle traveling in the West Bank city to stop. The driver refused and continued driving. The force opened fire at the vehicle, missed, and accidentally killed a teenager standing next to the vehicle.

The boy, Ahmed Abu Nefisa, was killed on the spot. In response to the killing, the boy's family members began attacking Palestinian Authority security officers and vehicle and set fire to police vehicles.

The rioters also vandalized several shops in the city and vandalized them. Almost all businesses in Ramallah were shut down in response for fear the clashes would continue.

Several hours later, senior members of the security organizations reached an agreement with the family members after promising them that the dead youth would be declared a "shahid" (martyr) and his family members would be compensated by the PA.

You see, it is getting easier and easier to be declared a Shahid. Just raise a stink, attack some police and - you're in, baby!

PalArab self-death update

Things have certainly calmed down in the territories, although not as much as you might think.

While Fatah and Hamas are not as successful in killing each other as beforehand, their efforts to kill Jews continue unabated (as yesterday's foiled terror attack shows.)

Yesterday, a Gaza man blew himself up while working on a bomb, making the counts of PalArabs who have been killed violently by each other go up to 322 since Operation Summer Rains and 117 so far this year.

UPDATE: PCHR mentions a number of incidents Wednesday, including two guys in Gaza who were messing around with a gun. One ended up dead.

Meanwhile:

At approximately 13:00 on Wednesday, 21 February 2007, Nahda Sa’di Hasanein, a 20-year old female resident of Sheja’eya Quarter in Gaza City was admitted to Shifa Hospital suffering from a gunshot wound in the abdomen. She was injured while inside her house; and the source of the shot was not determined. When members of the young woman’s clan were inside the hospital, a verbal dispute broke out when they refused to give information about the injured woman to the Executive Force station in the hospital. At approximately 19:30 on the same day, the Executive Force prevented members from Hasanein clan from entering the hospital because they were armed. An gunfight broke out between both sides in the hospital compound, and led to the injury of 10 people (including a 3-year old.)

Also a bomb set off outside the house of the Director of Police Security.

We are now at 323 and 118.

UPDATE 2: A PalArab policeman, chasing a car that didn't stop at a Palestinian Arab checkpoint (we never hear about those, do we?), fired his gun - and killed a bystander. 324 and 119.

UPDATE 3:Two more killed in Gaza (one shot many times, one stabbed.) 326 and 121.
During this week, 6 PalArab were killed by each other, and one was killed by Israel - and that one was responsible for attempting to kill many, many people.

UPDATE 4: 3 more dead as things are flaring up again. 329 and 124.

UPDATE 5: Apparently, the three killed on Saturday were in retaliation for a "militant" killed late Friday who I didn't count. So we are at 330 and 125.

UPDATE 6: For those of you visiting from LGF or Digg, there are plenty more where these came from. Here is a link to the next installment. And here is one to our last count update.

Arab family in Ramle has honor-murdered 8 of its women

A simply horrendous story in Haaretz:

The murder of Hamda Abu-Ghanem, whose bullet-riddled body was found in mid-January at her parents' house in Ramle, surprised nobody.

As police set about their investigation, everyone was aware that the victim's brother had been threatening to kill her, and that long before the murder, she had taken refuge in a battered women's shelter.

It was a typical "honor killing," meant to remove some perceived stain on the family's reputation.

The perpetrators of most honor killings in the Arab community are not apprehended. Hamda's murder, however, was one too many for the women in the Abu-Ghanem family. She was the eighth woman to be murdered in the extended family in the last six and a half years. All her predecessors also lost their lives in "honor killings."

This time, instead of keeping mum when the police questioned them, the Abu- Ghanem women gave detailed testimonies of everything they knew. One said she had seen Rashad enter the house where Hamda was. Shortly afterward she heard shots and seconds later saw Rashad, the key suspect, fleeing from the building.

The victim's mother told the police that Rashad had forbidden his sister to leave
the house after some men had called her a "prostitute."

"It was a women's revolt against the men of the family. While the men refused to cooperate with the police and forbade the women to speak, the women revealed all. They decided to put an end to the bloody circle of silence," Chief Inspector Haim Shreibhand, who was in charge of the investigation, told Haaretz.

The detectives gathered testimonies from 20 Abu-Ghanem women and assembled the pieces of the puzzle together into an indictment, he said.

Kamal Rashad Abu-Ghanem, 30, was arraigned in Tel Aviv's District Court yesterday for murder. His cousin Mahmoud, who was also arrested, was released for lack of sufficient evidence to file charges.

Rashad Abu-Ghanem was charged with entering the family's home, in Ramle's Juarish neighborhood. His sister was alone in the house, lying on her bed. She probably knew she was about to die. He went up the stairs with a loaded 9-mm. handgun, entered his sister's room and fired nine bullets at her.

Before Hamda, the other women of the Abu-Ghanem family who lost their lives for honor were Naifa, Suzan, Zinat, Sabrin, Amira, Reem and Shirihan.

Like some of the other victims, Hamda had spent the last few years in a shelter, hiding from her brother. Her "crime" was apparently her numerous telephone conversations, and being seen talking to her cousin once.

About a year ago, she asked to move back to her parents' house in Ramle. A few months later, she filed a police complaint against her brother, who had assaulted her. He was arrested, but later released by the court.

"The hardest thing at these murder scenes is the awful silence," said Yifrah Duchovny, Coastal Plain police commander. "Nobody cries, nobody speaks."

"We held everyone who was in the neighborhood at the time of the murder for questioning, and started collecting testimonies. The first one who cooperated with us, perhaps without meaning to, was a relative who said the murder wasn't justified, that Hamda had not breached any honor. Then a female relative agreed with him," Shreibhand said.

The detectives told Hamda's mother, sisters and cousins what the first two relatives had said and asked for their opinion. "Gradually they started to speak. Each one started by saying she had had enough, that she didn't want this situation to continue. The mother, who had first stood behind her son, suddenly started speaking against him, sharing things she knew with us. She said she was angry that he had murdered her daughter."

Hamda's sisters went further. When they confronted Rashad at the police station they spat out at him: "You're a dog," and "Sit in prison for life, murderer." One of them asked him, "Why don't you try to murder me too? I'm not scared of you any more."

The men, on the other hand, hardly said a word to the police. "After the women began to talk, they found themselves receiving threats," said Shreibhand.

The witnesses have been put in safe houses, for fear the men would try to harm them. However, several women were not comfortable in the safe houses and are returning to the neighborhood. "The relations between the men and women in the family have become really tense. We've had special meetings about how to protect the women after they testify and we have a plan," the inspector said.

However, Aida Touma-Suleiman, director of the Women Against Violence group in the Arab sector, said she has grave fears for the women's lives. "I support these brave women. They finally broke the circle of blood and silence. But I'm also afraid they will be hurt. As long as there is no witness protection program, these women will be abandoned after they testify. They may have been courageous, but they have also sentenced themselves to death," she said.

It took eight murders for the Arabs to finally cooperate with the police and even so, the remaining women are in grave danger.

All in the name of Arab "honor."

And this is the same "honor" that means that Arabs will never truly accept Israel's existence and will always try to destroy it - because Israel, by not being destroyed in 1948, has shamed the entire Arab nation.

The case for a larger Israel

Smooth Stone points to an interesting website with a PDF of an entire book, "The Case for a Larger Israel," by David Naggar. He argues that for lasting peace, Israel should expand. Naggar also has a blog that makes some interesting points.

Now, I am way too much of a realist to think that, no matter how compelling the argument, it would ever amount to much. But there is much value in making such an argument anyway, even if the idea itself is doomed before it can get started (not the least by the present Israeli "leadership.")

In the very first Mishna in the Talmudic tractate Bava Metzia a famous case is given. Translated into English:

If two persons hold a cloak, one says, "I found it," and the other says, I found it," one says, "All of it is mine," and the other says, "All of it is mine," the first one shall swear that not less than one half of it belongs to him, the other one shall swear that not less than one half of it belongs to him, and they shall divide it. If one says, "All of it is mine," and the other says, "Half of it is mine," the one who says "All of it is mine" shall swear that not less than three-quarters of it belongs to him, and the one who says "Half of it, is mine” shall swear that not less than one-quarter of it belongs to him; the former shall take three-quarters and the latter shall take one-quarter.

Israel has always been in the position of claiming only half, while the PalArabs always claim all. To the judgmental world, Israel's attempts to solve the problem peacefully by offering to share is interpreted as one side claiming all and the other side claiming half.

This is not the way to negotiate if you want to end up in the most advantageous position. And negotiators are expected to shore up their cases, not to give them away.

Arabs are fond to say that Israel's territorial ambitions stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates. Although the idea is absurd in today's political climate, Israel's claim to the land it has would be immeasurably strengthened if it consistently provided a maximalist negotiating position, rather than the minimalist one it has for the past decade.

The book argues, probably correctly, that an Israel that is much larger would benefit Arabs as well as the world. One only has to compare how Gaza is today with how it was under "occupation" and it isn't hard to see that Israel's rule at its "worst" is better than most Arab rule at its best. But the plausibility of the argument is not as important as the fact that it should be made and made often - because that is how one negotiates.

In the context of the Arab world, people like Abbas (as well as Arafat and Nasser) are considered "moderate." Now, in absolute terms, they are far from moderate - their positions are far more extreme than Israeli "extremists'" positions. But compared to the Muslim Brotherhood cadre of groups, they seem comparatively moderate. Repeat the "moderate" mantra enough, while Jews who feel that they should be able to live where Abraham lived are considered "extremist," and you have a formula for losing the bargain.

But if even some Jews would be putting forth the arguments that there are parts of Jordan and Syria that should be under Israeli control (parts of which were in biblical Israel,) and all of a sudden the Jewish residents of Hebron do not look quite as crazy.

For better of worse, the Arabs have turned Middle East negotiations into a bazaar, a souk where land and "refugees" and paper promises are the coins of the realm. It is way past time for Israel to play the game the way it is meant to be played.

Part of the game, by the way, involves walking away when there is no deal to be made.

How does one reconcile this:

Around 46 per cent of Gaza and West Bank households are "food insecure" or in danger of becoming so, according to a UN report on the impact of conflict and the global boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

The unpublished draft report, the first of its kind since the boycott was imposed when the Hamas government took office last March, says bluntly that the problem "is primarily a function of restricted economic access to food resulting from ongoing political conditions".

With this:

As the United Nations under-secretary general for political affairs reported on the recent anniversary of Hamas' election victory, international aid to the Palestinians increased in 2006 by nearly 10 percent, amounting to a staggering $1.2 billion. Indeed, Palestinians are today the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world.

How can people who are getting more aid that is specifically earmarked for humanitarian issues like food be getting less food?

The unpublished report notes that the food situation has not really changed since the last time they checked, in 2003. Just that since the population is growing, there are more people who have problems getting proper nutrition, but the ratios are roughly the same.

The report links the lack of food to lack of money in the average PalArab household. Yet somehow Hamas and Fatah are finding the money to purchase new weapons and ammunition smuggled in daily from Egypt.

The amount of oversight of the moneys channeled through NGOs and the UN has been reduced sharply since the security situation in the territories (especially Gaza) is so bad.

It seems highly likely that the Fatah and Hamas terrorists have found ways to get part of the $1.2 billion welfare check the world pays the poor, hungry Palestinian Arabs and to use the money for their own purposes.

The irony is that reports like these will be used as instruments to guilt the West into increasing aid - which will end up back in terrorist pockets.

And there will remain unanswered questions:

Why, in the face of an apparent pressing need for food, is there no major Arab initiative to feed their fellow Arabs? (h/t Yid with Lid)
What responsibility does the PA have for this situation, and how come the world gives them a free pass? To wit:

The Gaza greenhouses that generated tens of millions in revenue for Israel have been mostly inactive since Israel left, because there is no security.
Gaza borders the Mediterranean - why hasn't a fishing industry blossomed?
Why aren't there farms growing grain and raising animals that can feed the population? Gaza has plenty of open space, despite how the press spins it.

Palestinian Arab unemployment and economic problems are a direct result of PA policies of terror and corruption. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that fixing those problems will solve the apparent problem of poverty.

The subtext of this report, and others like it, is that Palestinian Arabs have no ability to take care of themselves; that they are unable to restrain their corruption and their seemingly genetic desire to shoot everything that moves. When the international community starts treating Palestinian Arabs like adults who need to solve their own problems without relying on the blank checks that they have received for decades, they will grow up.

There are plenty of genuinely hungry and poor people in this world who truly do not have the ability to improve their own lot. Palestinian Arabs do not fit in that category.

Breaking news:Rumor of Israeli abducted in Nablus (updated)

Maan News has this blurb:
"Unconfirmed reports of Israeli settler from Elon Moreh settlement abducted in Nablus"

No confirmation from any Israeli or other source. Let's hope it isn't true.

UPDATE: Maan no longer reports it so, thankfully, it appears to have been a false report.

Poor Ziopedia Jew-haters

Ziopedia is the virulently Jew-hating website that Eric Hunt wrote an article for bragging about trying to kidnap and assault Elie Wiesel.

Fellow lunatic site Al-Jazeerah.info published a short whiny piece by Ziopedia's publisher that is simply hilarious:

Due to obscene political pressure by the Zionist Mafia, both PayPal and StormPay were forced to suspend our donations accounts. Your generous financial support is needed for ZioPedia.org to survive and remain the fastest growing anti-Zionist voice on the web.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the obscene attempt of the Kosher Nostra to destroy ZioPedia.org by bullying online payment services PayPal and StormPay into suspending their donations accounts, is the silence of fellow dissident sites on the matter. Is is because they are afraid of receiving the same treatment? Or do they see ZioPedia.org as a competitor rather than an ally in the war against a common enemy?

The number of pledges is an even bigger disappointment. Instead of the expected surge in solidarity, ZioPedia.org is now facing the real prospect of having to shut down.

Unless we are able to raise at least $5,000 before the end of February, ZioPedia.org will be forced to close its doors .

Please send the details of your pledge to donations@ziopedia.org and we will get back to you with payment options.

Andrew Winkler

Editor/Publisher ZioPedia - All There Is To Know About Zionism

This is classic stuff - the paranoia, the Judeophobia, the digs at fellow "dissident" sites who haven't all fallen into goose-stepping to Ziopedia's monetary aid, and the utter cluelessness as to why a company like PayPal may not want to be associated with an upstanding website like ZP.

Poor, poor Andrew. This couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Olmert says he'll respond to Qassams - eventually

Ehud Olmert today re-affirmed his vision of an independent Palestinian Arab state - and then said something even dumber:

Olmert said that if the Kassam rocket attacks on Israel continue, Israel would have to retaliate. "We are not going to restrain ourselves forever," he said. "The continued attacks challenge Israel's patience. In the end, if the attacks continue, we will respond."

Funny...where have we heard that before?

In late November, when the "cease fire" was new:

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday morning that any attempt to fire into Israeli territories would be considered a breach of the cease-fire and treated with severity.

According to Peretz, Israel is interested in quiet, but would not accept attacks on its citizens.

A couple of days later, Olmert admitted that he was "a little disappointed" that Qassams were still being shot daily into Israel.

In late December, after a month of straight Qassam attacks in the wake of Olmert's "cease fire", he asked the UN to intervene. Yeah, that really worked.
------------------------------------------

Here is my best shot at keeping track of when rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza so far this month. On the 8th, 10 were claimed to have been shot by Islamic Jihad but only four or so were recorded as having landed. Most of the rest of these numbers were rockets that actually landed in Israel, with links back to the news stories. Numbers in parentheses are Arab claims.

Remember that Israel still regards this as being "calm" and has only rarely responded to Gaza terror since the "cease fire" announced in November.

February 2007 Qassam attacks

A magical place where terrorism always pays

Hadi Saud had a problem.

Last year he was shot in the leg and he never got proper treatment. He was also unemployed and he was jealous of all those Palestinian Arabs who manage to get jobs doing nothing. Even though he was a long-standing member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, the pay was apparently not very good.

So he hatched a plan.

He kidnapped three American women aid workers who were in Nablus, called up the AP and said that he would release them in exchange for medical treatment and a job.

Nablus' district governor negotiated with Saud and they did what Arabs are famous for - they bargained.

In the end, Saud released the women. In exchange, he will get medical treatment and will not be prosecuted for the kidnapping.

The PA: where terrorists always win.

AP's misleading headline

It seems that the wire services send out their articles with a default, suggested headline thatmost newspapers will copy verbatim. So it is interesting to see dozens of headlines in Google News that say:

The article slowly clarifies exactly who this "Palestinian"was:

Israeli troops on Wednesday fatally shot a West Bank leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group who was involved in an attempted bombing near Tel Aviv, the army said.

Mahmoud Abu Obeid, 24, was traveling in a car in the center of Jenin when undercover Israeli troops shot and killed him, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli combat helicopter was seen in the area at the time, they said.

Abu Obeid had fired in the air with an M-16 rifle and then pointed it at troops when they shot at him, said a commander in the Jenin area, Col. Hertzi Halevy.

Abu Obeid was wanted for recruiting a Palestinian from the Jenin area who was caught by Israeli security in Tel Aviv on Tuesday trying to carry out a suicide bombing, the army said. Abu Obeid also had supplied the bomber with the explosives, the army said.

Abu Obeid oversaw the preparation of bombs for the militant group, and the car he was driving was full of explosives, Halevy said. Troops tracked down Abu Obeid due in part with information given to security forces during the interrogation of the bomber caught on Tuesday, Halevy said.

But people glancing at the paper or website will only see that Israel has killed yet another innocent Palestinian Arab for no reason.