Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 21, 2008

Strike - no spares

One would think that Palestinian Arabs would know by now that their oft-declared "general strikes" hurts no one but themselves.

I have referred a number of times to the strike of 1946-47 when an Arab boycott of Jewish goods ended up hurting many Arab shopkeepers - while the Jews increased their marketing to other countries, ending up making more money and being less dependent on the Arabs.

The 1936 strike, which Arab historians generally consider to be the high point of Palestinian Arab unity and resolve, resulted in the Jews building a port in Tel Aviv to work around the Jaffa port that was closed by the strike. The consequences for the Arab economy were severe.

A two-hour strike in 1947 to protest the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration resulted in Jewish shops and cafes being busier than ever, serving Arab customers.

And yet these strikes continue as a major rallying factor by the so-called Arab "leaders." Each strike throughout history was roundly ignored by many of the people whose lives were directly affected by these calls. And each time - in the 1936-39 "Great Revolt", in the 1946-47 strike, in the December 1947 strike in response to the partition plan - self-appointed, self-righteous Arabs would decide to "enforce" the strike, if necessary by murdering the people who choose not to participate.

Today, nothing much has changed:

Jerusalem police on Monday detained four Arab residents of the city suspected of threatening east Jerusalem shopkeepers to take part in a solidarity strike in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, police said.

I would venture that the reason that PalArabs continue to go down the same self-destructive path that has proven disastrous for decades is because they don't learn any sort of objective history. One would be hard-pressed to find any Palestinian Arab who considers the 1936-9 "Great Revolt" to be anything but an historic victory, when in fact its consequences directly translated to their "naqba" in 1948, not to mention infighting that killed hundreds of them at the time.

Some people never learn.

Clan clash!

From PCHR:

On Sunday evening, 20 January, Marwan Awad El-Gharabli from Sheja’eya Quarter in Gaza City was killed and two others were injured in an armed clan clash between members of El-Gharabli and Abu Amr clans.

I did not see this in any Palestinian Arabic news site, and since the Gaza takeover I'm sure I am missing many murders and Hamas torture-deaths (no word on the fate of some "collaborators" found a couple of weeks ago, for example.)

But from the ones I can check, the 2008 PalArab self-death count rises to 11.

I am also not counting a man who was killed on the Egyptian side of a Gaza tunnel yesterday.

Reports that Hamas closes Gaza bakeries

The anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas is forcing bakeries in Gaza to close - even though they have enough supplies to stay open for a month (autotranslated, cleaned up):

Reliable local sources in the Gaza Strip said that the illegal Hamas militia's supreme political leadership ordered bakery owners in the towns and camps sector prevent the sale of bread for citizens and closing doors, in a continuation in its scheme aimed to deepen the humanitarian crisis it is going through the Gaza Strip in order to achieve narrow partisan gains.\

A number of bakery owners in the sector were quoted as saying, "they had received orders from Hamas militias to close immediately and prevent the sale of bread for citizens, and not presented themselves to brutality and vengeance of those militias in the absence of Anasiallm orders."

The bakery owners said "that the stocks of material sufficient to meet the precise needs of the population of the Gaza Strip of bread for one full month and more", who indicated that they are able to provide this basic commodity for the Palestinian citizen throughout this period of no orders militia Hamas, which prevented them from doing so.

I take much of what PalPress says about Hamas with a grain of salt but very often their claims are corroborated. In addition, since Hamas' takeover of Gaza it is clear that the campaign of intimidation against the press is working and other Palestinian Arab newspapers have become very reluctant to publish anti-Hamas stories.

This story in particular is consistent with how we have seen Hamas act in the past, as well as earlier reports that Hamas has confiscated fuel meant for hospitals for its own use.

Recent anti-semitism stories

Australians against Jews from South Africa

Threats against Jewish centers in Berlin

Israeli academic anti-semitism

Government attacks on Jewish institutions in Venezuela

Anti-semitic hate crime suspect found with pipe bombs and other weapons in Brooklyn

A Gazan child cries. Reuters is there to blame Israel!

Pity Reuters. They want so much to find pictures that illustrate that "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza that they will grasp at any straw they can find, even a child who apparently skins his knee:

A Palestinian boy cries outside his house in the Gaza Strip January 20, 2008. Gaza's main power plant began shutting down on Sunday due to a fuel shortage caused by Israel's closure of the Hamas-controlled territory's borders in response to Palestinian rocket attacks. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)

I'm surprised that they didn't caption this photo "Palestinian children forced to draw their own crude Israeli and American flags for burning because of a severe flag shortage due to Israel's total, uncompromising blockade of Gaza's innocent citizens."

MSM lies, Israel still supplies Gaza with electricity

The headlines from around the web:

Israel cuts off Gaza's electricity
Gazans reel under power shutdown
Gaza City Goes Dark After Power Cut
Gaza in power cut as blockade bites
Gaza Residents Plunged Into Darkness

Sure sounds like Israel has cut all electricity to Gaza, doesn't it?

And, as happens too often, the MSM is lying, sometimes explicitly and sometimes by broad implication.

The truth?

The Israeli Electric Company (IEC) is supplying nearly 70% of electricity to the Gaza Strip despite Palestinians' claims of a power shortage in Gaza, said Miko Zarfati, the chairman of the workers' committee at the power company.

"This is Palestinian spin. No one has stopped the supply of electricity to the Strip," Zarfati told Ynet. He claimed that his employees worked day and night in a power plant in Ashkelon while putting themselves in danger of being hit by Qassam rockets falling in the area.

The Gaza power plant only produces 30% of the electricity consumed in the Strip while Israel supplies the rest.

"It is simply offensive and arrogant for them to claim that there is shortage," Zarfati said.

The IEC employee was upset that Israel continues to supply electricity to Gaza while the Qassam rockets continue to land in the western Negev.

"The situation is totally absurd. We're continuing to supply them electricity despite the (demand) overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact that Israeli residents and Electric Company workers that are being sent to Gaza Vicinity communities are under threat from Qassam rockets," Zarfati railed.

"The Electric Company sends people to fix power outages that are caused from the Qassam barrages everyday in Sderot and the Gaza vicinity and more than one worker has already been injured in these rocket attacks."

According to Zarafti, the workers have been pressuring him to cut off the flow of electricity to the Strip: "I am being pressured to disconnect the electricity, but I am of course a law-abiding man and I cannot do this.

The decision to disconnect the electricity to Gaza is a decision which can only be made by the Israeli government and I understand the consideration sagainst shutting off the power."

The workers' committee chairman has been thinking of ways to improve the lives of the employees on the front line. "I explode with anger and feel hopeless in the face of the workers' situation and in the face of the whole situation in the Gaza vicinity and in Ashkelon," Zarfati continued.

"I appealed to the Finance Ministry and asked them to approve a plan to reward these employees in some way, a few cents for everything they're going through. Unfortunately, I received a negative response."

The Treasury responded saying "no precedents will be created with regards to salary bonuses for workers living in dangerous areas."

Not only is Israel still supplying Gaza with 70% of its electricity directly - it forces its electric utility employees to endanger their own lives, under Qassam and Katyusha fire, to keep that electricity supply up and running.

This is an astonishing bit of dishonesty from the mainstream media in spinning the story the way they are.

We already knew that Gazan terrorists have been shooting rockets not only at Israel but at the border crossings as well, limiting their own ability to get humanitarian aid, for months. But the MSM doesn't mention it.

We already knew that even though Israel is under no obligation to provide food, fuel or medicine to Gaza, it still accepts dozens of medical patients daily (70 on Sunday alone.) But the MSM barely addresses this.

And now, we learn that Israel puts its own citizens in danger in order to keep the electricity flowing to Gaza. And the MSM happily accepts the Palestinian lies as gospel as it hammers Israel for creating a crisis that doesn't exist.

UPDATE: Honest Reporting covers this well.

Another example of "no coercion in Islam"

From Al-Arabiya:

Egypt's top religious body has called for tough penalties on people who convert to Islam for personal reasons, only to re-convert to their old religion, Quds Press news agency reported on Saturday.

The religious ruling, issued by the fatwa committee at Al Azhar, affects mostly Coptic Christians, who often convert to Islam in order to get a divorce, to remarry, or to marry a Muslim. They then convert back to Christianity once they have achieved the desired result.

According to the fatwa, the practice of re-converting after converting to Islam is "a grave crime that cannot be met with leniency."

It says offenders should be penalized according to Sharia (Islamic law), but did not specify the penalty.

Some scholars say there is no specific punishment for apostasy in Islam, while others claim it is an offense punishable by death.

The head of the Fatwa Committee, Sheikh Abdul-Hamid Al-Atrash, said people are never forced to convert to Islam, but once they do, it has to be out of absolute belief in the religion and total conviction of its principles.

Therefore, he said the decision to convert should not be retractable.

The fatwa says offenders will first be given the chance to "repent," and if they insist on leaving Islam, they should be penalized.

In April 2007, Egypt's Administrative Court ruled that people re-converting to Christianity will not be allowed new identification documents, a decision that infuriated Copts.

"This is an inhuman decision that violates the right of citizenship granted to all Egyptians according to Article 1 of the constitution," said Coptic secularist activist Kamal Zakher.

So many converts to Islam are not altogether sincere. Rather than annulling their conversions - because of this lack of sincerity - the fatwa is saying that they need to be punished as full Muslims when they revert to their original religion.

Of course, they are being forced to pretend to convert to begin with because of sharia-flavored legal systems to begin with.

And we all know the time-honored penalty for apostasy is death.

Apparently the oft-quoted Muslim maxim that "there is no compulsion in religion" is a bit more limited than those words imply.

'We want to offer sharia law to Britain'

From the Telegraph (UK):

[Sharia judge] Dr [Suhaib] Hasan, who is also a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain on issues of sharia law, says there is great misunderstanding of the issue in the West.
"Whenever people associate the word 'sharia' with Muslims, they think it is flogging and stoning to death and cutting off the hand," he says with a smile.
He makes the distinction between the aspects of law that sharia covers: worship, penal law, and personal law. Muslim leaders in Britain are interested only in integrating personal law, he says.
"Penal law is the duty of the Muslim state - it is not in the hands of any public institution like us to handle it. Only a Muslim government that believes in Islam is going to implement it. So there is no question of asking for penal law to be introduced here in the UK - that is out of the question."
Despite this, Dr Hasan is open in supporting the severe punishments meted out in countries where sharia law governs the country.
"Even though cutting off the hands and feet, or flogging the drunkard and fornicator, seem to be very abhorrent, once they are implemented, they become a deterrent for the whole society.
"This is why in Saudi Arabia, for example, where these measures are implemented, the crime rate is very, very, low," he told The Sunday Telegraph.
In a documentary to be screened on Channel 4 next month, entitled Divorce: Sharia Style, Dr Hasan goes further, advocating a sharia system for Britain. "If sharia law is implemented, then you can turn this country into a haven of peace because once a thief's hand is cut off nobody is going to steal," he says.
"Once, just only once, if an adulterer is stoned nobody is going to commit this crime at all.
"We want to offer it to the British society. If they accept it, it is for their good and if they don't accept it they'll need more and more prisons."
...
"The introduction of sharia law in Britain raises complex questions, as some of its basic tenets are incompatible with the fundamental principles of our liberal democracy and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," says Baroness Cox, a leading human rights campaigner.
"There is no equality before the law between men and women and between Muslims and non-Muslims; and there is no freedom to choose and change religion."
Ibrahim Mogra, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain's inter-faith committee, admits that to non-Muslims some laws may seem harsh on women. Those who are married to a man with a number of wives can be treated badly, for instance. But he insists that sharia is an equitable system.
"It may mean that a woman married under Islamic law has no legal rights, but the husband is required to pay for everything in marriage and in the case of a divorce all the woman's belongings are hers to keep."
In fact, Sheikh Mogra argues that sharia in Britain would give rights to women. "A Muslim man can take a second wife under sharia law and treat her as he wants, knowing that she has no legal rights in Britain. It means that she is regarded as no more than a mistress and he can walk out on her when he wants."
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Critics warn, however, that in giving even parts of sharia law official status, Britain would be associating itself with a system that in many ways was intolerable according to Western values.
Professor John Marks, author of The West, Islam and Islamism, points out that apostates from Islam can suffer severe punishment, even honour killings.
"There are more violent cases that are being related to people who choose to convert from Islam," he says.
A survey by Policy Exchange found that 36 per cent of young British Muslims believed that a Muslim who converted to another religion should be "punished by death".
"This clearly goes against the laws of our country. If they come to live in this country they should live by our laws," says Prof Marks.

And here is a new, backhanded argument for making some form of sharia law official in Britain:

Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of some form of recognition of sharia in Britain is that it would help to regulate a system that operates beyond the law.
The Government has expressed concern about imams who may be using the Koran to justify fatwas that clash with British law.
Leaders of four major British Muslim groups published a government-backed report in 2006 that accepted that many imams were not qualified to give guidance to alienated young people.
They agreed to set up a watchdog aimed at tackling extremism and monitoring mosques, but Yunes Teinaz, a former adviser to the London Central Mosque, warns that one of the greatest problems is the imams who arrive in Britain unable to speak English, and with no regard for British law.
"The absence of anyone regulating the mosques and sharia courts means that they can act as a law unto themselves, issuing fatwas that breach people's human rights because they have no knowledge of the law," he says. "They can take people's money despite having no proper qualifications, but worse they can harm the communities that they are in."
Zareen Roohi Ahmed, the chief executive of the British Muslim Forum - one of the four groups on the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Body - concedes that sharia courts in Britain are still poorly organised.
"They need development - the government should be supporting them to deliver their service more effectively," she says.

Who would have thought that Muslims, in their zeal to spread sharia in a secular system, would mirror the arguments of those who want to legalize marijuana?

As Melanie Phillips notes:

It is very important that people realise the crucial difference between allowing a minority the right to practise its own precepts while fitting in with the law of the land, and allowing members of a minority to force the law of the land to fit in with them. It is very important that people understand that the pressure to sharia-ise Britain is far more dangerous even than terrorism because – see the government’s embrace of ‘sharia finance’ – its implications simply aren’t understood and it is likely therefore to be accepted. Salami-slice by salami slice, this is how British society will be dismembered.

Hamas' circle of death

Here's how it goes - a portent of things to come in the Palestinian Arabic media:

* Hamas proudly shoots some 160-odd rockets to Israel since Tuesday, and some 100 mortar shells not only at Israel but also towards Gaza crossing points where humanitarian aid enters.

* Israel decides that allowing these terrorists to continue to receive supplies via Israel, and endangering those who try to supply Gaza with supplies, is somewhat problematic.

* Hamas seizes fuel meant for hospitals (from PalPress):

One of the owners of petrol stations in the Gaza Strip this evening said to our correspondent that Hamas beyond the law in the Gaza Strip by the seizure of a large quantity of fuel had entered the Gaza Strip.

The source confirmed "one of the fuel stations", who asked not to be identified: "These quantities seized by Hamas was necessary to cover the needs of hospitals, where Hamas [is taking them and using them for] putting them in camps in the Gaza Strip for use in Hamas leadership lighting and ceiling space, and houses of Hamas leaders and security headquarters only."

* And now Hamas is anxiously awaiting people dying in Gaza hospitals whose deaths they can blame on Israel.

By the way, even though there were reports that Hamas had stopped firing rockets this weekend, it took credit for one of the rockets Saturday night.

Saudi Arabia anti-semitic? Naaaaah.

From EJP:

An international organization fighting to defend press freedom has denounced Saudi Arabia’s refusal to issue a visa to a Jewish journalist who was to accompany French President Nicolas Sarkozy during his trip to the country earlier this week.

’’The discrimination practiced by Saudi Arabia with respect to Israeli journalists is unacceptable,’’ the Paris-based “Reporters Sans Frontières” (Reporters Without Borders), said.

French-Israeli journalist Gideon Kouts, who is a Paris correspondent for the second Israeli tv channel and writes for Jewish magazine ‘L’Arche’ presented his French passport but the Saudis refused on January 10 to grant him a visa because he writes about Israel.

Of course it isn't because he is Jewish - it is because he writes about Israel!

In the interest of furthering Saudi consistency on banning journalists who write about Israel, here is a link to 9427 articles that mention Israel in the Saudi-based Arab News English edition. I fully expect them to expel Mohammed Mar’i, Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Tariq A. Al-Maeena, Hisham Abu Taha, Walid M. Awad, Sarah Abdullah, and the many other reporters who dare mention Israel's name on the hallowed pages of Arab media.

Bloggers' block Sunday links, plus

It's bad enough not finding interesting, original stories to blog about.

But it's worse when I see others managing to find them!

Judeopundit, who comments here often, finds a wacky left-wing article that claims that Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has saved countless Israeli lives.

He also found a wonderful English Q&A at the Hamas website with its spokesman.

And for a hat trick he discovers exactly why Al-Jazeera maintains contacts with Israel. Hint: It isn't for "even-handedness."

Israel Matzav notices a British watchdog group who finds that - believe it or not - British taxpayer money is being used to fund Palestinian Arab incitement against Israel. What a shock!

Backspin digs up a real, honest to goodness news story about Israel that describes....Israel.

Israellycool continues his liveblogging of what's going on in Israel and Gaza (with a smattering of Nasrallah for extra-special disgusting flavor.)

Daled Amos reports on a story I should have blogged last week on Yasir Arafat's famous blood donation for victims of 9/11 being a hoax - the great champion of terror evidently hated needles.

What can I add to such great stuff? Not much. We have the moderate leader of the Fatah-flavor PA condemning Israel for killing a terrorist that belongs to a Fatah group that the PA denies existing anymore while planning a non-existent terror attack.

An interesting article on Yiddish curses.

And the anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas has decided to stop shooting rockets at Sderot for now. I cannot find any other sources for this, although rocket fire has cooled down over the weekend to "only" five yesterday and two so far today. As has been the Palestinian Arab habit for decades, they are trying to find just the right amount of damage they can do without risking massive retaliation.

That's about it. I'll keep updating my Qassam calendar and I'll check back later to see if I can find any other interesting stories...

Good news Friday

Mack Ness, a Jewish farmer and recluse, who lived his life in deprived circumstances in Watchung, New Jersey, willed a fortune to Israel when he died in January 2004. As a result, Ness is helping to make the Negev bloom posthumously.

Mack Ness lived as a poor farmer in central New Jersey, yet when he died in 2004 he left $15 million to Israel.

The Ness Loan Fund for the Negev has disbursed more than 85 business loans, mostly to people who were unable to get loans from a bank.

Virtual world "Second Life" opened a virtual Israeli community for its "Residents" on Sunday, allowing over 11 million users worldwide to teleport into a vibrant 3-dimensional Internet version of the country. "The purpose of Second Life Israel is to present Israel to a global audience beyond traditional media," said SL Israel founder Chaim Landau. "This is a concept of Israel as a fun, entertaining, thriving and diverse community for Jews and non-Jews, and a home for Israelis on Second Life."
As a Legacy Heritage Fellow at the European Union of Jewish Students in 2007, Landau initiated the Second Life Israel island with Beth Brown, a building and design manager. Users can walk through the Old City in Jerusalem, visiting the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock as easily as they can venture down the promenade in Tel Aviv and weave through the Mahaneh Yehuda marketplace in Jerusalem.

Israel, with fewer than 7 million people, has become a Goliath in the world of technology and medicine. It is third only to America and Canada in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq, ahead of economic powerhouses like Germany, England and China. Bruce Aust, executive vice president of Nasdaq , said 75 Israeli companies worth a total of $60 billion are listed.
American troops use Israeli portable digital x-ray machines in Iraq and Afghanistan that don't require film for developing and are used in battlefield situations. "The quality of their post-doctorates in medicine, nanotechnology and software development is rather incredible," said Marc Stanley, a technology official at the U.S. Department of Commerce who is involved with fostering collaboration between American and Israeli technology companies. Experts attribute the nation's success to a confluence of cultural and systemic factors, such as Israel's highly educated and motivated immigrant population.

Established in 1983, the Golan Heights Winery is credited with remaking the Israeli wine industry and slowly transforming Israel's reputation as a producer of world-class, award-winning wines that appeal to sophisticated international consumers. Its three labels, Yarden, Gamla, and Golan, produce some 17 different varieties and are the most widely exported Israeli wines in the world. In 2007 the winery's 1,600 acres of vineyards produced 430,000 cases, up from 420,000 in 2006, and generated sales of $30 million. Today, says the head winemaker, California-born Victor Schoenfeld, "We have wine shortages. Our demand outstrips our supply."