Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Qassam Rocket calendar - March

As with the February calendar, the numbers for each date represent the number of Qassams fired on that day. The numbers in parentheses are those I saw reported by Palestinian Arab media, outside of parentheses are those reported in Israeli media.

March

Pride, Iran and the British prisoners

To understand what is going on in Iran, one needs to understand the psyche of Iran's leaders.

A year ago, Iran was riding high - it was working hard at becoming the de facto leader of the Muslim world, and it seemed quite close to becoming a superpower, taking aim squarely at the United States.

Since then, relations have cooled significantly between Iran and most Arab countries, internal criticism has increased, Ahmadinejad's list lost in an election and US pressure has had an effect on the shrinking Iranian economy. Clearly, the leaders have lost momentum, although they are still quite dangerous.

Islam is wedded to the notion of honor. This deceleration of Iranian influence was a challenge to Iran's Muslim sense of pride. And in today's Islamic world, the opposite of honor is not disgrace - it is irrelevance.

Iran simply had to show that it can affect world politics the way it did a year ago.

There is little doubt that this abduction was planned and staged. Great Britain has already proven that the ship was in Iraqi territorial waters. Either Iran also claims the same waters as its own, or Iran is lying.

But notice what Iran is demanding now - just Britain's admission of making a mistake. Notice what the video of the female prisoner was focused on - her admission that it was a mistake.

Iran is trying desperately to make itself look like the wronged party, but more than that - it wants to humiliate Great Britain. Because in the Iranian psyche, honor is a zero-sum game, and if England is humbled, Iran is glorified.

Iran assures the world that all England has to do is say a couple of words and then the great Islamic Republic will magnanimously release the prisoners. To the West, saying a statement like that is not a big deal, although the West certainly has pride as well. Iran was calculating that Great Britain's Western values putting human life above all else will force it to submissively take the blame for this snafu. This will then make Iran's stock zoom in the estimation of the other Islamic nations that share the same values and help restore Iranian honor and leadership.

What Iran did not seem to realize is that Western nations are almost as averse to dishonesty as Muslim nations are to dishonor. England is simply not going to say "oops" when it is in the right.

England should make it very clear to Iran that it has miscalculated, badly.

What's Hamas up to this morning?

I like to check the Arabic version of the Al Qassam (Hamas "military wing") website to see how much this group has moderated in recent months.

Highlights from today's edition:

Readers were asked if they thought the "unity government" would support the terrorists ("resistance option "): 67% said yes.
They condemned an assassination attempt of one of their officials, presumably by Fatah.
They denounced an Abbas advisor who implied that the unity government might crack down on "resistance."
A report on Israeli building activities around Jerusalem and another on Hebron consistently refers to them as "rape" and Israelis as "rapists."
A report on Israeli actions in Nablus against terrorists refers to Israel consistently as "Nazis."
The logo of the page shows a picture missing from the English website:

They sound like peace partners to me!

Gazans stealing sand led to sewage tragedy

From The Age:

However, construction of a new plant did not appear to have been affected by year-old international sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. The Gaza City mayor blamed the collapse on local people digging dirt from an earthen embankment around the structure and selling it to building contractors.

One can imagine that they were not selling shovelfuls of stolen dirt to these contractors. Almost certainly, since it is easier to get dirt that is above ground than to dig it, one can imagine trucks backing up to the embankment shoving in the dirt.

This is so negligent, these victims should almost be added to my list of PalArab self-deaths.

Saudi FM: Take our plan or face war

In an astonishing display of chutzpah, the Saudi Foreign Minister is telling Israel that the absurd "peace plan" that the Kingdom has been pushing is the only hope for peace and if Israel doesn't accept it, it has no interest in peace.

Mahmoud Abbas said something similar.

Remember, this plan says that the Arab world will accept Israel if Israel capitulates on every single issue (descendants of refugees, Jerusalem, 100% of territories.) And even if Israel does agree to commit national suicide by accepting these terms, there is no guarantee that Hamas or Islamic Jihad would.

So it seems to be a good time for Israel to make a counter-offer. Call it the Elder peace plan:

Allow Jews to return to Mecca and Medina, where they lived before the Islamic conquest.
Compensate all Jews from Arab lands for the possessions they lost when they were forced out after 1948.
Give control of the Temple Mount back to the Jews.
Rebuild or pay for all synagogues destroyed in Arab territory since 1800.
Change the laws in Arab countries to allow Palestinian Arabs to become citizens if they choose.
Allow Israeli TV to broadcast in Arab countries.
In return, Israel will establish diplomatic relations with every Arab country. They'll fully normalize relations, send sports teams and orchestras and dance troupes to perform in Arab countries.

And if they reject these terms, then clearly the Arabs are not interested in peace.

Hamas word games

From The New York Sun:

The Word Games That Hamas Plays
The MEMRI Report

By STEVEN STALINSKY
March 28, 2007"I am confident that the siege will be partially broken, which will give our people an opportunity to be prepared for the forthcoming stage." — Khaled Meshaal, Asharq Al-Awsat, February 2

Has Hamas moderated? Or are the Palestinian Arab organization's leaders following in the footsteps of Yasser Arafat, discussing peaceful intentions in talks with the West while declaring jihad in Arabic?

During a press conference in Tehran with President Ahmadinejad on March 4, the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said he supported the recently signed Mecca Accords for power sharing between Hamas and the Fatah Party of Arafat and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr. Meshaal also spoke in favor of other Palestinian Arab objectives, such as the establishment of a state with the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as its capital, and the so-called right of return.

Mr. Meshaal reiterated Hamas's position against official recognition of Israel, and he promised to continue the group's resistance. With a smile on his face, Mr. Ahmadinejad told the Hamas leader: "The Zionist entity is in the worst period in its history, and is headed toward crumbling. … The divine victory … will soon be revealed."

At an address at Al-Murabit Mosque in Damascus on February 3, 2006, Mr. Meshaal said publicly what some Palestinian Arabs have been talking about for some time with their press outlets: They will be patient in their battle against Israel. He promised, "Muslims will take over the world," and he explicitly said his organization's plan is to deceive Israel with semantics.

In his speech, the Hamas leader explained that his people are willing to continue fighting Israel even if it takes 1000 years for victory. Mr. Meshaal also said one aspect of Hamas's current strategy is to rely on such tools as using statements like "we love peace" or "we have given up the option of war," while still planning Israel's destruction.

Mr. Meshaal also promised: "Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. … We will make them lose their eyesight, we will make them lose their brains."

Besides Mr. Meshaal, many Hamas leaders have been discussing the coming "stage," or battle against Israel. A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and columnist for the Hamas organ Al-Resala, Younes Al-Astal, called the Mecca Accords " Sulh Al-Hudaybiyya," alluding to a temporary peace agreement from the early days of Islamic history.

He wrote on February 15: "We are optimistic that the new Mecca agreement will be the key to many achievements, which will provide the internal security that is necessary to renew the siege on Khaybar [ Israel], and to subjugate the Zionists to the demands of the resistance."

There is no doubt that Norway and other countries now clamoring to recognize the "moderate" Hamas know about these statements as well. The problem is that they choose to interpret the "peaceful" statements as being accurate and the terrorist statements as rhetoric for the Arab audience.

The reason is, once again, that the desire for peace in the Middle East is so strong that wishful thinking trumps sober analysis of the truth. People believe what they want to believe and they pick and choose the facts to back up their beliefs, and this is the major reason that the world believes Arab lies and half-truths, over and over again, no matter how many times they are proven wrong.

UN invites terror bank to join

From NRO:

Bank of the Intifada to Join the U.N.
The U.N.’s legal body has recommended that the Islamic Development Bank be granted observer status.

By Anne Bayefsky

The United Nations’ nourishment of terrorism (a concept it has yet to define) reached a new low last Friday. On March 23, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly’s Sixth Committee — its lead legal body comprised of all 192 member states — recommended that observer status be granted to the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), an entity that has been directly involved in paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Back in August of 2001, Ahmad Muhammad Ali, president of the bank, was questioned by the publication Asharq Al-Awsat about payments to the Palestinian Authority for the sake of carrying out the intifada. Ali told the publication that “there was no delay in paying financial assistance to the families of Palestinian martyrs,” assuring it, “We have started paying them soon after receiving the money.”

An Arab Summit in Cairo in late October of 2000 created two funds, the Al-Quds Intifadah Fund and the Al-Aqsa Fund. According to Ali, the IDB is responsible “for the smooth functioning of the two funds.” The final communiqué of the summit made no attempt to conceal the purpose of the funds: “the Al-Quds Intifadah Fund will have a capital of 200 million dollars to be allocated for disbursement to the families of Palestinian martyrs fallen in the Intifadah.”

The creation of a fund dedicated to making suicide-bombing financially appealing was the brainchild of then Crown Prince, now King, Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He announced the move at the Arab League Summit thus:

[W]e propose the establishment of a special trust under the name of ‘The Jerusalem Intifada Fund’ with a capital of 200 million US dollars. This amount will be allocated, to the families and the education of the children of the Palestinian martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the struggle.

(That “education” is one that will certainly include the glorification of the violent and racist goals of the children’s parents.)

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has reported on some of the details of the financial connections between the IDB and terrorism. According to a 2003 report:

Saudi funds which originate in the Jeddah based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) reach the Palestinian Authority Treasury Department via Account 98 of the Saudi Development Fund (SDF). All funds for Prince Salman Ibn Abd Al-Aziz's Popular Committee for Assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen go directly to the PLO, while Prince Nayef's funds from the Support Committee for the Al-Quds Intifada and Al-Aqsa Fund go to the Palestinian Authority.

In June of 2006, the foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the 56-member voting bloc that drives the majority “non-aligned” movement in the U.N., praised the contribution of the Islamic Bank in forwarding the OIC’s hateful agenda. It adopted a resolution explaining its goals and the IDB’s role in achieving them, “Commending the just and legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people…[and] Commend[ing] the efforts of the…Administrative Committee of the Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds funds and the Islamic Development Bank…with respect to the management of the Funds.”

As recently as March 9, 2007, Arab foreign ministers concluded a meeting in Cairo and “decided to upgrade the ceiling of [the] Al-Aqsa fund and Al-Quds uprising by $300 million.”

None of this made the slightest difference at the U.N.

Saudi Arabia, where the bank is headquartered, put forward the application of the IDB for observer status, announcing in accompanying documentation that the IDB works “to promote social progress in accordance with the ethos of Islam.”

...
The U.N. Charter says membership in the United Nations is open to “peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter” — among them the commitment to “fundamental human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person.” This principle, which is supposed to apply equally to any other entity formally accredited by the U.N., didn’t seem to matter in this case to the U.N.’s member states. Instead, the recommendation that the IDB be granted observer status was adopted, by consensus, in the form of a draft resolution. The United States looked the other way. Only Israel registered a concern that the bank had relations to Hamas and pointed out that its “organizational chart showed that it had operated Al Aqsa and Al Quds funds, which had known ties to terror groups.”

Although the recommendation must now be formally ratified by the plenary of the General Assembly, it is expected to be rubber-stamped before June. The Islamic Development Bank will then join the ranks of the 64 other U.N. observers, on a par with the Holy See, the Council of Europe, and the Organization of American States. It will have a standing invitation to participate as an observer in all of the sessions and work of the General Assembly — extraordinary global access to policymakers for an entity linked to terrorists.

The American Embassy in Palestine

The webpage of the "Consulate General of the United States - Jerusalem" seems to imply that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.

There are no activities I can find that take place on the Israeli side of the Green Line.

For example, the Consulate in Jerusalem offers 25 Fulbright Scholarships - with the following condition: applicants must be "legal residents of Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem."

Here is a list of events:

# Burns and Hughes Co-host a Ramadan Iftaar ( )
# Cinderella in Jericho ( )
# Consulate General host a special Iftar Dinner in Ramallah ( )
# Iftar and Storytelling for Shoufat Camp Children ( )
# U.S Consulate Jerusalem Hosts Ramadan Quiz Nights ( )
# YES Alumni Address ACCESS and High School Students in Ramallah (October 5, 2006)
# Ramadan Night at the American Corner in Jericho ( )
# U.S. Consulate Hosts Religious Tolerance Dialogue between Prominent Palestinian and American Muslims (October 4, 2006)
# Ramadan Storytelling and Music for Children ( )
# Concert by Al Kamandjati at the Palestinian National Theater ( )
# Celebrating Ramadan ( )
# USAID Provides Scholarships to Over 2000 Palestinian Students ( )
# U.S. Consulate Reinvigorates Partnership with the Jericho Municipal Library (August 17, 2006)
# Consulate Brings Musician/Environmentalist TH Culhane to Power up Summer Camps in East Jerusalem (July 19, 2006)
# U.S. grant creates Opportunity for Palestinian Women to promote their handicraft skills ( )
# Over 700 Palestinian Youths graduate from U.S.-funded English language training program ( )
# Gazan Students Graduate from English Language Program (June 5, 2006)

The site is available in English and Arabic - but not Hebrew. (Even the US Embassy site in Tel Aviv doesn't provide a Hebrew page.)

The Consulate is physically located in West Jerusalem - on the Israeli side of the Green Line.

The United States Congress agreed to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 1995 by an overwhelming vote, but every president since then has stopped the move. Yet it appears that the US State Department does recognize Jerusalem as the capital of a nation, even if it doesn't have an official embassy there.

PalArabs in deep doo-doo

A sewage reservoir wall collapsed in Gaza, flooding the town of Umm Nasser with so far 9 dead and dozens missing and injured, and many homes under water.

This is tragic enough, but the Palestinian Arab reaction to the event is as predictable as ever:

The Palestinian Arab Interior Minister visited the site, to be greeted by gunfire (this is now being denied.)
Israel offered to help, and was turned down (although they said they appreciated the offer.)
Palestinian Arabs are blaming Israel for the disaster. IMEMC somehow tries to link this with Israeli attacks on the village in years past; the PA Environment Minister claims that the funding to fix the structure was in place but he claims Israel threatened to bomb construction workers and sewage pipes should the new reservoir be built.

Even though it is not directly related to this story, it is worth mentioning again that PalArab terrorists have dug up sewage pipes in Gaza to build Qassam rockets to shoot at Israel. It is possible that the minister is referring to Israel's refusal to allow more pipes to be delivered to Hamastan as threatening to bomb the pipes.

So once again, we see how these wonderful people respond to tragedy: by complaining, allowing and expecting Europeans to fix it, and blaming Israel.

It's funny, but not once have I seen a news story about Palestinian Arabs trying to smuggle water purification systems into Gaza.

UN Watch slams UN in Geneva. UN closes their ears.

A brilliant speech by Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, at th UN Human Rights Council 4th Session on March 23. It is amazing that the UN allowed UN Watch to address the council, but even more amazing was the angry reaction by the UN Human Rights President to the speech, not even acknowledging the issues Neuer brought up:

Mr. President,

Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné Cassin and other eminent figures gathered here, on the banks of Lake Geneva, to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today, we ask: What has become of their noble dream?

In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports from around the world of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has the Council pronounced, and what has it decided?

Nothing. Its response has been silence. Its response has been indifference. Its response has been criminal.

One might say, in Harry Truman’s words, that this has become a Do-Nothing, Good-for-Nothing Council.

But that would be inaccurate. This Council has, after all, done something.

It has enacted one resolution after another condemning one single state: Israel. In eight pronouncements—and there will be three more this session—Hamas and Hezbollah have been granted impunity. The entire rest of the world—millions upon millions of victims, in 191 countries—continue to go ignored.

So yes, this Council is doing something. And the Middle East dictators who orchestrate this campaign will tell you it is a very good thing. That they seek to protect human rights, Palestinian rights.

So too, the racist murderers and rapists of Darfur women tell us they care about the rights of Palestinian women; the occupiers of Tibet care about the occupied; and the butchers of Muslims in Chechnya care about Muslims.

But do these self-proclaimed defenders truly care about Palestinian rights?

Let us consider the past few months. More than 130 Palestinians were killed by Palestinian forces. This is three times the combined total that were the pretext for calling special sessions in July and November. Yet the champions of Palestinian rights—Ahmadinejad, Assad, Khaddafi, John Dugard—they say nothing. Little 3-year-old boy Salam Balousha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Haniyeh’s troops. Why has this Council chosen silence?

Because Israel could not be blamed. Because, in truth, the dictators who run this Council couldn’t care less about Palestinians, or about any human rights.

They seek to demonize Israeli democracy, to delegitimize the Jewish state, to scapegoat the Jewish people. They also seek something else: to distort and pervert the very language and idea of human rights.

You ask: What has become of the founders’ dream? With terrible lies, it is being turned into a nightmare.

Thank you, Mr. President.

UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL PRESIDENT LUIS ALFONSO DE ALBA:

For the first time in this session I will not express thanks for that statement. I shall point out to the distinguished representative of the organization that just spoke, the distinguished representative of United Nations Watch, if you'd kindly listen to me. I am sorry that I'm not in a position to thank you for your statement. I should mention that I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council. The way in which members of this Council were referred to, and indeed the way in which the council itself was referred to, all of this is inadmissible. In the memory of the persons that you referred to, founders of the Human Rights Commission, and for the good of human rights, I would urge you in any future statements to observe some minimum proper conduct and language. Otherwise, any statement you make in similar tones to those used today will be taken out of the records.

The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Monday that the Palestinian cause is the first of Arab cause and the axis of the problems that plague our region.

It warms my heart to know that Saudi Arabia is so concerned with the welfare of Palestinian Arabs.

Especially since Palestinian Arabs are the single exception to a 2004 Saudi naturalization law:

JEDDAH, 21 October 2004 — Expatriates of all nationalities are entitled to apply for Saudi citizenship and their travels abroad with re-entry visas will not disqualify them, press reports said yesterday quoting senior officials.
...
Shubaily ibn Majdoue Al-Qarni, chairman of the security committee which supervised amendments to the law, said Saudi citizenship would be open for all nationals working in the Kingdom. “The law does not aim at a particular nationality. On the other hand, it covers all expatriates in the country,” he told Al-Madinah.

But Al-Watan Arabic daily reported that the naturalization law would not be applicable to Palestinians living in the Kingdom as the Arab League has instructed that Palestinians living in Arab countries should not be given citizenship to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland.

Diplomatic sources have estimated the number of Palestinians in the Kingdom at about 500,000. There are large concentrations of Palestinians in the country’s western, central, eastern and northern provinces.

So the Kingdom has no problem disenfranchising a half-million Palestinian Arabs, most of whom would undoubtedly be happy to become citizens of Saudi Arabia, to "avoid dissolution of their identity."

If Palestinian Arabs have such a strong identity, why would they need the Arab League to protect it by punishing millions of them, leaving them stateless?

Apparently, when Arabs speak about "helping the Palestinian cause," they really mean "keeping Palestinian Arabs in misery for the next few generations."

Liking Israel despite themselves

The Guardian "Comment if Free" column has an article by Alex Stein, clearly not a fan of Israeli policies, who was impressed with the welcome that English fans received from Israelis:

Normalisation is the desire to be a country like any other. Israelis are fiends for it. Whatever the circumstances, they see it as their birthright - the final piece in the Zionist jigsaw. Israel's most virulent critics take the opposite view. Whatever the circumstances, they wish Israel to be made into the exception. And last weekend's festivities in Tel Aviv, in which the drab goalless draw in Ramat Gan was only a sub-plot, provided the perfect opportunity to further assess Israel's place in the world.

The match was an unequivocal hasbara success for Israel. For England, this was just another tiresome away game. For Israel, this was one of the biggest games in the country's history, and a chance to welcome the mythical England supporter - tattooed and bevvied-up, but cheerful and decent all the same. Despite this, most countries tend to greet English fans with fear. The Israeli authorities, however, preferred to adopt Jay-Z's dictum that sensitive thugs need hugs. English flags were paraded throughout Tel Aviv, supplies of beer were increased dramatically, and free transport was laid on. A special one-day festival was held in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park, with fun and frolics, including a chance for some of England's fans to see if their beer bellies could defeat their leaner Israeli counterparts in some friendly wrestling.

The fans could not believe the welcome. They are used to being received by riot police, not adoring admirers. This kind of revelry is normally reserved only for the World Cup. But, for a country that's not always so competent at crowd control, police were sparse. I witnessed a friendly face-off between the two sets of fans on Tel Aviv's beach, in which the Israelis' rendition of Shalom Aleichem, was greeted with English cries of "Let's go fucking mental". Unable to free myself of inherited prejudices, I wondered whether I might hear the occasional anti-semitic chant. Not a whisper, although - on a different tack - I did hear a bit too much of "No surrender to the IRA".

Of course, however friendly the banter, it doesn't take much for trouble to start. But the hands-off approach to security was a tremendous success. Hopefully there's a lesson to be learned.

The match also provided an opportunity to highlight the work of Kick Racism out of Football, an English creation which has now been exported to Israel. The New Israel Fund organised a weekend of activities to showcase the work of the organisation. The legendary John Barnes led a British delegation on a visit to Hapoel Abu Ghosh-Mevasseret Zion, Israel's first joint Jewish/Arab professional team. And at a gala dinner held by the New Israel Fund, Israel's first Arab minister, Raleb Majadele, gave his first official address. Much work remains to be done before the promise of kicking racism out of Israeli football (not to mention the wider society) is complete. But it's vital to know that serious work is being put into achieving this goal.

However, we mustn't forget the arguments of the "exceptionalists". Last week on Comment is free, Ismail Patel argued that Israel should be expelled from Uefa. Patel focused on the problems experienced by the Palestinian football team. These range from a missile hitting Gaza's only football stadium, to the difficulties faced when the team tries to go abroad to play a match. But because boycotting a team because of the policies of its government isn't a particularly frequent occurrence, Patel had to adopt the incoherent strategy tried by others who seek to demonise Israel - weird attempts to establish a universal principle through twisted logic: "Although in an ideal world sports should be kept separate from politics, there is a different reality. Nazi Germany used the 1936 Olympics to showcase Hitler and his fascist ideology, which culminated in the Holocaust and the tragic deaths of 6 million Jews."

And therein lies the rub. Nazi Germany did indeed use the 1936 Olympics to showcase Hitler and his fascist ideology. As we have noted, the Israeli football authorities used the occasion as an opportunity to welcome thousands of people from another country, and as a shot in the arm for the campaign to kick racism out of the sport. Followers of Patel might respond to this by admitting the value of these initiatives, and by arguing for them to be spread more deeply into society. This would not weaken their basic thesis. But, as ideological anti-Zionists, they are engaged in a project to systematically reject every aspect of Israeli society that does not proclaim its own deviance. And so they label projects such as Kick Racism out of Football as superficial attempts to cover up the deeper crimes of the Zionist project.

Despite all this, there is a part of me that's not comfortable with thousands of Englishmen coming to Israel and thinking it's just the Republic of Tel Aviv, a sun-drenched paradise with beautiful girls and uber-chic bars. I have no problem with them knowing about the darker side of life here, which is one of the reasons I try and write as frankly as I can in this space.

But I also want them to know the positive things. If someone like Ilan Pappe can speak of the "many, many good things in Israel, it's an impressive project that the Zionist movement did, the way it saved Jews, the way it created a modern society almost out of nothing", then why can't Ismail Patel? I don't want people to boycott Israel, I want them to engage with it. I want people who are interested to come here and take an honest look at the good and bad things that are going on. Then, in whatever small way they can, to try and strengthen the forces of progress within Israeli society. This, and not the cowardice of boycott, is the imperative that faces all tourists, even England football fans.

The easiest way to distinguish anti-Zionists from anti-semites is to see if they have the ability to say anything nice about Israel.