Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Dead Hamas terrorists trained in Iran or Syria

In an article about Israel's airstrike this morning that killed 5 Hamas members, Arab News adds an interesting detail:

Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank during separate attacks yesterday. The dead included Hamas members, who had allegedly returned from military training in Syria or Iran.
Five members of Hamas’ Ezeddine Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when the van they were traveling in was attacked by Israeli warplanes near the southern town of Khan Younis, medical officials said. Local residents, who knew the men, reportedly said some of them had undergone training in Syria or Iran and returned home after Hamas breached the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.
Egypt closed the border at Rafah about two weeks after the breach, but allowed Palestinians who had crossed into its territory to return.
On Tuesday, Israel’s military intelligence chief alleged that dozens of Gazans, who had gone “primarily to Syria but also to Iran for training in various areas of terror expertise,” had taken advantage of the open Rafah border to return home.

So while Hamas' main objective in storming the Egyptian border may have been to embarrass Egypt, a possible strong secondary reason was to bring back all of their newly-trained terror leaders to plan more ways of killing Jews.

And Israel's job is now to find these people and kill them before they kill Israelis.

Georgetown University hires a real Israel scholar

With all the things we read about the vicious misoziony and anti-semitism at many US universities, it is refreshing to see that one is hiring someone who does not call for Israel to be destroyed:

Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service announced that renowned international historian Michael B. Oren has joined the faculty as Visiting Professor. Beginning in Fall 2008, he will teach undergraduate and graduate students in courses on America in the Middle East, military history of the modern Middle East, and the history of Zionist diplomacy.

“Michael Oren is a great addition to our community of scholars and will enhance our cadre of experts in the growing Program for Jewish Civilization,” said Robert L. Gallucci, dean of the School of Foreign Service. “I am pleased to welcome him to the School of Foreign Service and know he will offer valuable contributions to our understanding of critical issues in the Middle East.”

In addition to his position at Georgetown, Oren is a Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research facility, where he specializes in the diplomatic and military history of the Middle East. Oren joins other distinguished faculty associated with the Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) including Jacques Berlinerblau, PJC director and associate professor of Jewish civilization; Ambassador Dennis Ross, visiting professor of Jewish civilization; Yossi Shain, founding director of PJC and professor of comparative government and diaspora politics; Robert Lieber, professor of government and international affairs; and, Avi Beker, Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor in the department of government.

Read the Hamas press release taking credit for murder

Hamas, for all its terrorist rhetoric, tends to be considered a bit less extreme than Islamic Jihad or Al Qaeda. And like the long line at the supermarket where you feel better when someone goes behind you, the very existence of organizations that are more extreme makes Hamas look a bit more moderate in comparison without having to change their position.

Reporters pick up on this as they take pains to distinguish between Hamas and the other groups, and as a result the word "extremist" is not used quite as much for Hamas as for others anymore.

This is a manifestation of Western projection as well as wishful thinking - it is too hideous to imagine that Hamas cannot be reasoned with, so we really want to think that they are more pragmatic and therefore more reasonable and that peace is possible.

The press has no such compunctions with Israel, routinely using words like "hawkish" and "hardline" to refer to people on the Israeli political right. Over time, readers of the press will start to associate hardline Israeli positions with hardline Arab positions, making a mental parity between the two groups who have that adjective in common.

Keep that in mind as you read this, the auto-translation of the Hamas press release taking credit for killing an Israeli college student with a rocket today:

Recognize the Zionist enemy soldier killed and three wounded by the shelling rapists principals of Sderot

(Fight them and punish God's hands and helps you heal them and recovered the people believing)

Statement issued by the military

..::: Brigades martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam :::..

Recognize the Zionist enemy soldier killed and three wounded by the shelling rapists principals of Sderot

After reconcile God for they, here is the Zionist enemy recognizes killed a Zionist soldier and wounding three of the rapists by the fall of Qassam rockets at Sderot usurped, the Qassam Brigades announced in their successive shoulder and figures (0802-93) and even (0802-97) claimed responsibility for the bombing usurped mentioned ten missiles.

The shelling came in response to the Zionist crime and the massacre committed by the Zionist aviation treacherous this morning in the town of Khan Yunis, which led to the martyrdom of five of the finest Qassam Mujahideen fortunate ..

We in the Qassam Brigades, which declare jihad for the task that we face stress occupation usurper all of the means we have, and break thorn cowardly army on the eve of the Gaza Strip and steadfast stationed ..

It is a jihad victory or martyrdom,,,

Brigades martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam

It is instructive to occasionally read the actual words that Hamas uses. If more people would read their words rather than the sanitized versions that make it into English it would be much harder for natural Western empathy and "understanding" to kick in when thinking about them.

Breaking: Israeli murdered by Hamas Qassam at Sapir College

UPDATE:

At least one person was killed, another was wounded and many were treated for shock Wednesday as least 20 Qassam rockets slammed into the western Negev town of Sderot and surrounding communities.

The victim was apparently in a car, parked next to Sapir College on the outskirts of Sderot, which was directly hit by a Qassam.

A rocket directly hit a home in Sderot, while another exploded in a factory mess hall shortly after the workers had exited.

Another person was lightly wounded in the strike and several people were reportedly suffering from shock.

Hamas' military wing claimed responsiblity for firing the Qassams.

Iran: Anyone who disagrees that Israel is a dirty microbe is a filthy Zionist

Ya gotta love it:

Iran hit out at the European Union on Tuesday for condemning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s description of Israel as a “dirty microbe”, saying the bloc had given in to pressure from a Zionist lobby.

The EU’s Slovenian presidency had condemned as “unacceptable, damaging and uncivilised” a stream of anti-Israeli comments from Iranian officials since the murder of a top Hezbollah commander.

“The issuing of such a biased statement by the rotating presidency of the European Union is the result of pressure from the international Zionist lobby,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region,” Ahmadinejad [had] said.

The foreign ministry warned the Slovenian EU presidency “not to fall into the trap of the Zionist lobby.”

Ah, but Iran has already fallen into our Zionist trap, as we force them to publicly make themselves look even dumber than they already had!

February Qassam Calendar

As usual, this is far from complete, and it is more to show how ignored the Qassam issue is rather than to show how many are being fired. Many Qassams never make it in the news, and the rare times that the IDF publishes statistics shows that I am usually undercounting by about 50%. Also, these are Qassams that make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself.

This list does not include mortars being shot from Gaza, which are usually much more numerous on any given day. It also does not count the occasional rocket from Lebanon. It does count Grad-style rockets that come from Gaza, often to Ashkelon.

February

288 this month.

Previous calendars:

January 2008

December 2007
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February

Saudis try to increase tourism - with polygamy

The New York Times wrote a glowing article about how much fun it is for adventurous people to visit Saudi Arabia:

As part of a group of reforms, the kingdom is trying to develop the country as a tourist destination, first for domestic travelers and later for international ones. Westerners are starting to visit the country on small group tours, a process that has become easier with loosened visa rules.

The country’s starkly different customs are part of the appeal for visitors — some even claim to see advantages in wearing the abaya, the formless black robe that women must wear in public. So are its intact culture, historical sites and unexpected diversity of climate and topography.

...It is a closed country, but a wealthy one, with a mix of modern buildings and ancient architecture. Although non-Muslims cannot see Mecca and Medina (and those with Israeli stamps on their passports cannot enter the country at all), most can visit the old souks of cities like Jidda, which is well-preserved.

...But the biggest draw of Saudi Arabia may be the closed nature of the country itself. The tour operators interviewed for this article said that the majority of clients who went on their Saudi tours were exceptionally well traveled, many having visited 100 countries. Saudi Arabia at this point is a place Western tourists go when they’re looking for something totally different, a culture little touched by the Western world.

The country’s leaders are interested in encouraging the Saudis themselves to move around in their country, believing that the growth of a domestic tourism industry would actually solidify their culture. Families would have more options for traveling together and could see the diversity of their country, which Prince Sultan bin Salman thinks would make them recognize their national unity as “nothing less than a miracle.”

The Saudi desire for increasing internal tourism was discussed in a public meeting ten days before this article was published, so it seems unlikely that the NYT reporter was unaware of one specific proposal raised on how this could be accomplished: by encouraging men to marry multiple wives and keep them far away from each other.

From Youssef Ibrahim:

Here’s an official plan submitted to invigorate tourism in Saudi Arabia: Marry four women, domicile them in corners of the kingdom, travel to visit each during the year, and — boom — you’ve stimulated airline business, hotel occupancy, and car rentals. This was submitted by none less than Hassan Alomair, director of self-development in Saudi Arabia, at a Jeddah conference for the development of internal tourism.

The project combines piety with efficacy by uniting Sharia’s entitlements to multiple wives with economic stimulus, Mr. Alomair argued. Sharing the dais was the female dean of the school of literature at King Faisal University, Dr. Feryal al-Hajeri, who remained silent as he prescribed his harem-induced economic scheming.

Not so with the readers and bloggers on the Saudi daily Al Watan’s website, which lit up on February 12 with commentary. “Why not make it four cows? He can fly around to milk them,” one said. “If that is the mentality of our director of self-development,” another asked, ”how are the others in that department?” There was plenty of accord with Mr. Alomair too. Some saw his idea as a “pillar” for building a true Islamic society, a “refuge” for unmarried Saudi women, and a “cure” for a widening spinster phenomena.

(The entire article is worth reading.)

But the NYT tries to spin the ancient misogynist culture as just part of the fun:

FOR the time being, the experience of visiting Saudi Arabia includes conforming to its norms. No alcohol, pornography or proselytizing materials can be taken into the country. A woman under 30 cannot enter the country without a husband or brother. Women cannot walk about unaccompanied, and they must keep their bodies covered with abayas.

And the Saudis aren’t kidding about it. On a tour she led in 2006, Ms. Zawaideh said, she noticed some Europeans walking around with their husbands, probably business travelers, without abayas or head scarves, and she warned them that the husbands could be arrested for this offense. The women brushed her off, she said, and within an hour, she noticed security people talking with the couples, then taking the men away.

Ms. Zawaideh says that she has no such problem with her clients. Two women wore the abaya all the way to New York, and some found it had the advantages of helping them fit in and protecting against blowing sand.

Joyce Jolley, 76, a retired dental hygienist from Seattle, bought the most severe kind to take home, including a head covering with only an eye-slit opening and a sheer black veil to cover that — more than what Saudi women are required to wear. “It was kind of an adventure,” she said.

Obama vs. Likud

Barack Obama raised up a little dust in a speech to American leaders in Cleveland on Sunday night with this statement:

This is where I get to be honest and I hope I’m not out of school here. I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel. If we cannot have a honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress. And frankly some of the commentary that I’ve seen which suggests guilt by association or the notion that unless we are never ever going to ask any difficult questions about how we move peace forward or secure Israel that is non military or non belligerent or doesn’t talk about just crushing the opposition that that somehow is being soft or anti-Israel, I think we’re going to have problems moving forward.

The bolded statement is interesting on a number of levels.

It is curious that Obama is adopting an apparently anti-Likud stance. Likud, after all, was responsible for Camp David and the surrender of the Sinai to Egypt; and Likud was in power when Gaza was abandoned.

Obama's statement seems even more naive when the latest polls in Israel show Likud handily beating Kadima and Labor. As Shmuel Rosner asks, does this mean that a President Obama would not support a Likud prime minister?

Also, as The American Thinker observes, the word "Likud" has turned into a generalized anti-Israel term by the far left, pretty much their equivalent to "Taliban." It is hard to read Obama's comment as anything but influenced by the strong anti-Likud stance of people who clearly are anti-Israel.

But even assuming that all he meant was that the Likud-like positions of the ZOA and other Zionist organizations have taken over the pro-Israel stance in America - not an unreasonable observation - Obama still needs to go a bit beyond this rhetoric and let us know what his specific ideas are about how a final peace agreement between Israel and the Arab world would look.

Americans, by and large, have the erroneous idea that most Israelis want to see essentially all settlements dismantled. However, both Bill Clinton and George Bush at one point realized that there is no realistic way for Israel to give up the major settlement blocs, and acted accordingly. Even the most dovish Israelis cannot countenance the Jerusalem Jewish suburbs and the large blocs being abandoned, but the US has lately been treating them the same as the most isolated settlements. Where does Obama stand?

Does Obama want to see Jerusalem divided again?

How does he expect Israel to deal with missiles shot towards all major Israeli population centers that would result if Israel withdrew from the entire West Bank?

Does he consider the possibility that Hamas could take over the West Bank, either politically or militarily? How should the US react to a democratically-elected Hamas PA government?

Does he consider Gaza as the PA's responsibility, or is it a separate political entity now that would not be included in any peace agreement?

Would further Israeli withdrawals help the "moderates" on the PalArab side - or the extremists?

These are the real questions that Obama - or any candidate - should answer. The answers would reveal whether they have actually thought through on the issues or are just hazily repeating the "land for peace" mantra that is too often used as a substitute for real thought.

Obama's flippant use of Likud as a rhetorical bogeyman indicates that he has not yet reached that stage.

The best autotranslated name

As I try to decipher Arabic articles that are auto-translated into English, proper names are often a problem - because the software translates the names rather than transliterates them. After some time I recognize a few:

French = Shalit
Singer = Mughniyeh
Exhausted = Livni

But I think I finally today deciphered the biggest mystery of all:

Syphilis = Fatah Central Committee member Abdullah Franji

I very often see quotes in the Arabic media from "Syphilis" and it was hard to figure out who he was, but an interview in Firas Press today with him told me his first name was "Abdullah" and showed a picture of him, which narrowed down the field. So here is Mr. Syphilis:

John Dugard, racist

The latest drivel from John Dugard, of the UN Human Rights Council, shows that he shares the same racist tendencies of all "human rights" activists that can "understand" Palestinian Arab terror.

Although the report will come out next month, it includes this gem:

While Palestinian terrorist acts are to be deplored, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation," writes Dugard, whose 25-page report accuses the Jewish state of acts and policies consistent with all three.

So, like others before him, Dugard thinks that Palestinian Arabs have no ability to tell right from wrong, that they have no ability to think for themselves, and that they have an irresistible urge to perform acts of terror.

In other words, Dugard considers Palestinian Arabs to be akin to animals; they are subhuman beings who react instinctively but without any ability of thought. Their actions are understandable - but deplorable - exactly the way a rabid dog can be understood, but scolded, for biting people.

He makes a distinction between Palestinian terror and Al Qaeda terror, because, of course, Al Qaeda terror is "mindless" while Palestinian Arab terror is against the unjust Jews. Dugard can magically distinguish between the mindset of Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad, knowing that blowing up Jews in Israel because Israel "occupies" Jaffa is much different than blowing up Spaniards in Madrid because Spain "occupies" Andalusia. Dugard is so amazingly smart that he knows that there is a world of difference where PalArab terror is understandable but Al Qaeda terror is outrageous. This is, as he states it, "common sense."

Certainly, Dugard can "understand" how Hezbollah is so upset over "occupation" that it can attack Jewish community centers in South America - because they obviously support Israeli "apartheid." This personification of human rights can discern very fine distinctions of what is considered "understandable" and what goes over the line. He can, after all, show a measure of empathy for one type of terror - because it is done by innocent, unthinking animals - while show horror for the other type of terror.

It takes a very strong commitment to human rights to distinguish between disco bombings in Bali and in Tel Aviv, and John Dugard is just the person to do it. Because when the bombers are Palestinian Arabs, or the victims are Jews worldwide, their rage can be understood and the blame can be placed on Israel.

The other cases of terror are just immoral.

Considering Palestinian Arab terrorists to be subhuman is just a single example of the racism of the Left - excusing and understanding the actions of those who, according to people like Dugard, are simply mentally unfit to be responsible for what they do.

Iranian anti-espionage video

This video was broadcast a year ago on Iranian TV (not, as some think, in the past few days) but it is a fascinating look at Iranian propaganda, not to mention its computer graphics skills.

It features a scary cabal of:

John McCain – a senior White House official, who orchestrates numerous conspiracies against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

George Soros – a Jewish tycoon and the mastermind of ultra-modern colonialism. He uses his wealth and slogans like liberty, democracy, and human rights to bring the supporters of America to power.

Gene Sharp – the theoretician of civil disobedience and velvet revolutions, who has published treatises on this subject. He is one of the CIA agents in charge of America's infiltration into other countries.

Bill Smith – one of the CIA's senior experts on Iranian affairs. For many years, he has maintained close ties with Iranian opposition groups.

It is hokey but it shows that Iran is very nervous about internal spies.

Particularly funny is the part where the spy's sister gets told that his sentence will be lenient because he helped the investigators. Yeah - they'll behead him a little quicker.

Hamas attacks woman student in Gaza university - with an axe

The near-total news blackout that Hamas enforces on Gaza makes it very hard to find stories like these.

IMEMC reports:

Sources within Fateh movement reported on Monday that Hamas security forces attacked a with an axe female student of Al Azhar University in Gaza after breaking into the campus.

The sources stated that Hamas gunmen and security men broke into Al Azhar University and struck Tharwat Abdul-Qader with an axe on her head inflicting serious wounds.

Fateh stated that this attack is part of several recent attempts carried by Hamas-controlled forces and gunmen to control facilities controlled by Fateh movement.

The Fatah-leaning Al-Hayat al-Jadida (Arabic) mentions the attack, saying that the university re-opened today after the incident. Al-Hayat makes it sound like the student was struck in the chest with a hatchet.