Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 27, 2008

AFP's biased article of the day

Just the first paragraph tells you all you need to know:

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Amin al-Siyam says he is awakened nearly every night by the sound of Jewish settlers tunneling under his east Jerusalem house towards the Old City's deeply sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Settlers are digging tunnels, willy-nilly, under the Old City? Only at night? Are they building apartments to live in?

Well, later in the article, if you parse it correctly, you can see that it is the Israel Antiquities Authority who are unearthing a 2000-year old tunnel, not "settlers:"

The Silwan project has aroused similar suspicions, in part because people are not allowed to see the tunnel, but primarily because the work is being funded by the Ir David Foundation, an Israeli settler group.

Here are the aims of Ir David:

The Ir David Foundation is committed to continuing King David’s legacy and strengthening Israel’s current and historic connection to Jerusalem through four key initiatives: archaeological excavation, tourism development, residential revitalization and educational programming.

To dismiss that all into just calling it "a settler group" is more than dishonest - it reeks of bias.

Meir Margalit, a spokesman for the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, says "the problem is not the archaeological digging, it is the agenda of the people who are behind the digging."
He and other Israeli activists fear that sensitive projects like Silwan, if left in the hands of right-wing groups, could one day be used to detonate the Middle East peace process.
"For a long time this has been a problematic issue, but now it is a dangerous issue," Margalit says.

Quoting someone from the ICAHD to talk about archaeology only proves that the main people with an agenda are those opposed to associating anything Jewish with Jerusalem. Similarly:

Yoni Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist critical of Ir David, says IAA reliance on it for funding ties them to its agenda.
"They need the money, and they are not just doing this for the benefit of archaeology," Mizrachi says. "It's one of the few sites operated by private organisations and it is the only one run by a right-wing organisation."

So to these critics, the existence of Jewish archaeological treasures are better not found at all, rather than being funded by "right wing" organizations. There's commitment to science and knowledge for you.

But perhaps the most dishonest part of this entire article is the picture used to illustrate it. Captioned "File photo shows a trench being dug as part of an archaeological dig in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound," it is simple a lie. No archaeological digs have taken place in the "Al Aqsa mosque compound" since before 1948. It in fact shows a trench that was not being dug by archaeologists but by the Wakf on the Temple Mount - with backhoes! - which destroyed untold numbers of priceless treasures. Every criticism that the article levels against the Jews digging to unearth history is refuted by that episode - the IAA didn't stop the illegal Muslim dig proving that if it has any bias it is against Jewish sensibilities; and the Temple Mount is infinitely more politically and religiously sensitive than Ir David/Silwan.

Giving money to real archaeologists to do their job seems much less problematic than having them stand by and allow the wholesale desecration of the world's most sensitive real estate.

This article shows that the AFP has no interest in truth or accuracy - it simply parrots anti-Jewish positions without any real reporting.

That old black magic

From the Saudi Gazette:

Education authorities in Bisha are investigating accusations a father made against the principal of his daughter’s school, saying she threatened students with black magic.

The parent, Fayez Al-Shahrani, accused the principal of claiming that one of the students, who is 23 years old, is possessed by a genie and that she uses the student to terrorize the others.

Al-Shahrani added that the student banged the head of his 16-year old daughter into a wall, causing her physical and psychological harm.

A school where 23-year old women and 16-year old girls study together? And where the principal threatens girls with black magic?

There was another genie/fairy (=Djinn) story in Firas Press, one which I really tried to understand in autotranslation but failed. If someone knows Arabic, please translate this for me:

Advisory opinion on the use of fairy

The Mufti of Nablus province said in a statement issued in Dar Al / Nablus concerning the question of creation and ANSA JANA prevention and privacy, and the total came Fataawa Ibn Taymiyah 1 / 181 (and the creatures in question originally forbidden, but to take the necessary) have Del on the right say that the Almighty God and: (Eyak worship and Eyak draw) chapeau 5, and telling the Prophet: (If enlisted Fight God).
Has shown that it is permissible to use the texts in Palance is possible to the meaning: (and help one another in righteousness and piety do not help one another in sin and aggression) Round 2. The remainder use Jinn on the prohibition, because this section of dissension, as it is known on the issue of lying, jinn prepare them and contact them full of guilty until proven innocent.
The Mufti of Nablus Reacting to what happened recently to claim some people using fairy treatment and surgery admit that this matter is that it was actually not be religiously, and that this is an issue related to the subject Metaphysical This is not evidence of APPROVAL, said that scientists They say: ((that the request for the mother's name is a sign of the Magician Juggler as agreed among them)), and stressed that the use of fairy in any order of things people today is religiously incompatible with the doctrine ballots.

Weeds, part 2

As a followup to my first Weeds post:

I just found another book showing a large number of photographs of Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land, these from 1904. Called "The Cruise of the Eight Hundred to and Through Palestine: Glimpses of Bible Lands" it is a pictorial recounting of a trip of 800 Sunday School teachers to Palestine.

It is fully downloadable in PDF format, as was the book I referred to yesterday.

Here again is a scene of the Dome of the Rock, from a different angle, showing the steps to go into it (click to enlarge):

Again, notice the huge number of weeds, even on the steps. Notice also what is not in the picture - people.

In contrast, once again, here is a similar photograph of the Western Wall of the Temple from the same book:

No weeds, lots of people. And the descriptions of the Wall in all of these books are similar, as the writers are struck by the heartfelt sadness that the praying people felt for the destruction of the Temple.

The book includes hundreds of photographs and is a lot of fun to browse through.

Hate crimes against Jews underreported in NYC

From Northeast Intelligence Report (h/t JammieWearingFool):

By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
25 March 2008: A source inside the Manhattan District Attorney’s office admitted to me during a telephone conversation yesterday that “hate crimes,” specifically those occurring against Jews, are frequently omitted from such classification. Meanwhile, acts that victimize Muslims, regardless of their motivation, are usually reported as "hate crimes." Consequently, crimes against Jews and other religions fail to garner the same media focus as crimes against Muslims and skew the figures used to track criminal motives. Although this is not a new phenomenon, it has recently been accentuated by the incident that took place on a New York subway last week.

At about 6:20 last Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 25 year-old Uria Ohana, a rabbinical assistant, was assaulted by three Muslim men inside the subway station at Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope. As Ohana proceeded through the turnstile, 18 year-old Ali Hussein grabbed Uria Ohana’s yarmulke from his head; Ohana gave chase, and was assaulted by Hussein’s accomplices who were shouting “Alla hu Akbar” - Arabic for “God is great.” The chase ended when Hussein was struck by a vehicle as he ran onto Fourth Avenue. Hussein’s friends abandoned him at the scene, fleeing in a late model GMC Suburban.

The incident received very little media attention, and the motive was not initially recorded as a bias or “hate crime.” "This happens frequently,” admitted this source, adding that the pressure from Muslim special interest groups is much greater than from other similar organizations. “It seems that there is a far greater propensity for law enforcement to recognize and classify crimes against Muslims as motivated by religious bias, and there more pressure from watch dog groups to insure that crimes against Muslims are immediately classified as having their origins in religious bias. What it does is that it skews the actual numbers,” added this source.

He also stated that since 9/11, law enforcement officials have acquiesced to the pressure and demands by Islamic special interest groups to treat most crimes against Muslims as "religiously motivated," even in the absence of any proof. Acts such as graffiti randomly sprayed on a mosque, for example, is classified as a "hate crime." It does not matter that the mosque might be one of several buildings in a specific area that has been tagged or sprayed by vandals. "We are compelled to classify such acts as having a religiously motivated bias, despite evidence that would indicate otherwise. Ordinarily, people would not think it is such a big deal. But when you have many such incidents, it obviously has a significant impact on criminal statistics. It definitely skews them."

Even with this skewing, Jews are far more likely to be the victims of official hate crimes than Muslims, despite the amount of whining by CAIR.

Arab summit a failure before it begins

From Monsters and Critics:

A deep inter-Arab rift over Lebanon's political standoff has hit the upcoming summit of Arab heads of state hosted by Syria, with leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt staying away and lebanon boycotting it.

Yet the Syrians are pretending the non-attendance is not uncommon, and saying the Lebanese absentees are missing a 'golden chance.'

But the absence of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, two regional heavyweights, masks irreconcilable differences with Syria over Lebanon.

... Adding to the climate of tension overshadowing the Arab meeting, Saudi Arabia's envoy to the Arab League Ahmed Katan, who will represent it there, predicted the summit was doomed to failure.

'How can a summit be successful while some parties are trying to undermine it and circumvent its decisions,' Katan told the Saudi daily Okaz.

'Resolutions are made but some countries are obstructing them,' Katan said.

The Saudi official was hinting at Syria, which is blamed for blocking the implementation of a plan adopted by members of the Arab League to resolve the political crisis in Lebanon.

It is not uncommon for Arab leaders not to turn up at summits, but they usually send representatives. Lebanon's total boycott, however, is the first of its kind by the country, which is of one of the founding members of the Arab League.

.... The acrimonious Arab exchanges preceding the meeting might have been behind the decision of the Arab League and Syria to keep all its sessions closed to the media.

The failure of a pre-summit meeting of permanent representatives at the Arab League to reach draft resolutions on the Lebanese crisis and inter-Arab ties does not augur well for the summit.

Pan-Arabism is deader than ever.

Ten Qassams so far today

As of 10:12 PM Israel time, ten Qassams have been shot into Israel from Gaza so far today, the highest number in two weeks.

Yet I cannot find any newspaper articles anywhere talking about this. Nothing about the rockets being a "threat to the calm" or "endangering the tacit cease-fire" or anything like that. In fact, I have yet to find anyone who even added the numbers for today up (you can see the individual Qassam reports on the YNet Updates page - three attacks of two rockets each in the morning, three more attacks in the afternoon.)

Some "calm."

UPDATE: 17.

International Federation of Journalists admits its pro-PalArab bias

In a press release condemning Hamas for restricting press freedom, the International Federation of Journalists states:

“This intimidation and political bullying of journalists does great damage to the Palestinian cause,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “It undermines efforts of journalists throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip to work together to build a unified media movement in favour of stability and democratic development.”

So the major reason to push for more press freedoms in Gaza isn't to help inform the world about truth, but rather to further the "Palestinian cause."

Can you imagine a statement from any international agency professing support for the "Zionist cause" the way that these supposedly objective journalists explicitly support the "Palestinian cause?"

Apparently, press freedom is only important when it goes towards issues that the press supports. In 2002, the union gently chided Palestinian Arab journalists for unilaterally deciding not to take pictures of Palestinian Arab children with weapons - because those pictures were being used by some people to show PalArab depravity. No condemnation, just a statement that "We understand the deep frustration that journalists feel about those who try to manipulate the media message, but journalists need more freedom to do their job in Palestine, not less."

The subtext is that of course it is the journalists who decide what is important and which should be highlighted - and which ignored. They choose the message and they aren't thrilled with those who "manipulate" it.

The IFJ claims to represent over 500,000 journalists in 110 countries. It includes members from the US - four unions are members - as well as Israel.

Today's peaceful Gaza news

So far today, six Qassams were fired from Gaza into Israel, but at least one of them landed near Gaza's Beit Lahia, seriously injuring a 65-year old man.

A leader of the Army of Islam in Gaza was abducted by Hamas two days ago, tortured and killed.

Egyptian president Mubarak was revealed to have referred to Rafah a few weeks ago as "Egypt's border with Iran."

The International Federation of Journalists condemned Hamas for intimidating journalists and restricting freedom of the press.

Gaza bakeries went on strike today, demanding to be able to raise the price of bread.

The 2006 Palestinian Arab self-death count has risen to 46.

UPDATE: Two more terrorist bodies were found from a tunnel collapse last week. 48.

The second-most hated people in the Middle East

The most hated people in the Middle East? That's easy.

But who comes in at #2?

It is, hands down, the Iraqis of Palestinian origin.

Saddam Hussein gave huge privileges to Palestinian Arabs (short of citizenship, of course.) He gave them subsidized housing, forcing Iraqi landlords to charge less for Palestinian Iraqis. When Saddam fell, jealous Iraqi landlords started evicting them - and worse. Many were killed and blamed for terror attacks.

Hundreds fled Iraq, but found that none of their Arab brethren had any interest in taking them in. They have been stuck in real refugee camps - not the towns that the UNRWA runs in Jordan and the territories that it calls "refugee camps" - on the Iraqi borders with Jordan and Syria. And for years, the UNHCR has been trying to find countries to take them in.

Arab countries - even those that accepted thousands of other Iraqi refugees - refused to take the Palestinian Iraqis.

Yet, in 2006, when Canada offered to take a few dozen of the Palestinian Iraqis as refugees, both Hamas and the PA complained to the UNHCR, not wanting them to leave the area - preferrring that they stay in miserable conditions.

The reason? As an Arabic Falasteen editorial said, it is because happy Palestinian Arabs don't support their idea of "unity" - once they go to the West they have little interest in "returning" to the place where their Arab brethren can treat them like dirt:

We have warned and others in more than one location and an article about the dangers to be dissipating refugee diaspora Palestinians, since this will negatively impact on the fabric of their unity and their syndicated in the areas of asylum...these will lead to migration to other European countries and therefore as a result of this disruption to the bloc refugees in Lebanon and the resulting in the end of the negative impact on their right to return to their homes and property.

Today, the situation is similar:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today warned that the situation of the more than 2,700 Palestinians who have been stranded and are living in inhumane conditions in two camps on the Iraqi-Syrian border continues to deteriorate.

“Over the past 22 months, UNHCR has been calling for urgent humanitarian solutions for this group and – even if only temporary – relocation elsewhere, preferably in the Arab region,” the agency’s spokesperson Ron Redmond said at a press briefing in Geneva.

In 2006, Canada received 64 Palestinians from Iraq, while last year, Brazil accepted 107. Recently, Chile, which itself was once a refugee-producing country, offered to resettle an initial group of 117 Palestinians, who are expected to leave Iraq for the South American nation in April.

Additionally, Sudan has extended an offer to accept 2,000 Palestinians, and UNHCR and Palestinian representatives are currently working to finalize a plan to allow the operation to take place.

The agency welcomed these responses from third countries, but reminded countries that there is a further need to help in dealing with acute cases.

So whenever you hear people from Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Syria or Egypt or Kuwait or any other Arab state complain about how terribly Israel treats the Palestinian Arabs, ask them politely what exactly they have done for this group of less than 3000 refugees - who can be easily absorbed by any Arab country. Ask the oil-rich states how much money they contribute for the upkeep of these camps. Ask them whether they would allow temporary visas or work permits to this group of their beloved Palestinian brethren.

And then ask them why not.

"Bomb voyage" - Lebanese girl panics at SMS, plane emptied

From AFP:

A Beirut-to-Paris flight was grounded today after a passenger who had left her boyfriend behind said she feared he might have put a bomb in her luggage to keep her from leaving.
"The girl, Katia Salha, was either in love with this guy called Hussein Mughnieh, or they were engaged, and as the plane was taxiing to the runway she got an anonymous message on her phone telling her that he wished her bon voyage," a security official said.

"She got scared and she alerted a hostess that she feared her boyfriend might have left a bomb in her luggage."

An airport official said the pilot of the Air France flight taxied back to the gate for the plane to be searched.

It is curious that a woman would want a boyfriend who she suspects would want to kill her and a couple of hundred other people.

March 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% (although that number os probably less in recent months.) Also, these are Qassams that don't make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself (March 10 and 30th are examples.)

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 rockets from Gaza.

March

230 total

Previous calendars:

February 2008
January
December 2007
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February

The funniest anti-semite of the week

Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV has brought us a real winner in the shape of Wael Al-Zarad. Check out the video courtesy of MEMRI and then let's look at his words:

In short, these are the Jews. As Muslims, our blood vengeance against them will only subside with their annihilation, Allah willing, because they tried to kill our Prophet several times.

Hmmm...all Jews deserve to die because they supposedly tried to kill someone many centuries ago. Sounds familiar, but I cant quite put my finger on it...

What should we do with these people? What is the best solution for them? Should it be by shamelessly bestowing kisses, regardless of our religion and our morals, on satellite TV and in clear view of the whole world?

I hope you aren't drinking something when hearing this dud talk about "morality."

Should it be through futile meetings, which are usually conducted on carpets red with the blood of martyrs?

I like the imagery, personally. It seems logical that peace will only occur after the terrorists are dead.

Or should it be through an exchange of despicable smiles and ugly handshakes?

I guess that this sounds better in Arabic.

What is the best solution for these people, who have perpetrated every possible thing against us?

Every possible thing? This guy doesn't have much of an imagination, does he?

They have turned our mosques into pubs and bars, where they drink alcohol and get women drunk.

Which is, of course, more immoral than advocating genocide from those same mosques.(The next time I'm in Israel, someone please tell me where to find a bar in a converted mosque, because I'll make a special trip there, to get a woman drunk.)

From the dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they proclaim that Ezra the Scribe is the son of God.

Say what? I must thank Robert Spencer for mentioning that this is in the Koran, because such a weird claim deserves a source.

By Allah, people, the Jews do not deserve such a fuss. They do not deserve to be feared. The Jews are not a terrorizing bogeyman. The Jews are nothing but human scum, who came as scattered gangs to occupy our land.

Of course, if these human scum managed to defeat the mighty armies of Allah, that doesn't say much for those armies, does it?

By Allah, if each and every Arab spat on them, they would drown in Arab spit. By Allah, if each and every Muslim spat on them, they would drown in saliva. By Allah, if the Arabs and Muslims turned into flies, the Jews would die from their buzzing.

And yet, when they actually try to fight those pathetic Jews and get defeated, they whine to the infidels at the UN that it wasn't a fair fight! Once again making one wonder - if the Jews are so pathetically weak and frail, what does that make the Arabs who run away from them so easily?

Therefore, my dear brothers, the Jews do not deserve to be feared so much. Therefore, I ask with pain and sorrow: Isn't there a single reasonable man in any of the Arab air forces? Isn't there a single reasonable man among them, who will break through these aerial borders, and bomb the Jews deep in their own land? Where are all the Arabs and Muslims?

This is my favorite part - this genocidal maniac, frothing at the mouth with his hatred of all things Jewish, himself admits that the Jews are living in their own land!

Rockets? What rockets?

Snapped Shot points to this beauty from Reuters:

Israeli army officers stand in front of the remains of rockets, fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, during a military briefing at the police station in the southern town of Sderot March 25, 2008. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis (ISRAEL)

Is it just me or is this picture framed to highlight something other than hundreds of Palestinian Arab rockets that have been shot towards Jewish civilians?

Nah, I'm sure that the Israeli policeman just happened to walk in front of the cameraman at the precise moment that he snapped the picture.

Gaza news you won't hear anywhere else

On Sunday, Hamas militias attacked the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City. The embassy officially moved to Ramallah but it still seemed to maintain a skeletal presence in Gaza. According to Palestine Press Agency, Hamas assualted a guard and ransacked the building, taking down the Egyptian flag.

100 truckfuls of food entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, including 10 trucks from Egypt.

Israel also sent some 61,000 animal vaccines to Gaza and is coordinating their distribution and the analysis of blood samples.

Hamas abducted more Fatah officers in Gaza.

Weeds

In 1901, Dwight L. Elmendorf set out to visit Palestine and document it with photographs (his "only weapon," as he put it.) He published the pictures in a 1912 book called "A Camera Crusade Through the Holy Land."

The photographs are quite good, but two are of particular interest.

The first is of the "Mosque of Omar," the Dome of the Rock:

And another is of the "Wailing Place of the Jews":

Notice the huge amount of weeds poking through the stones in the "third holiest place in Islam." It is desolate, and it looks like it was rarely visited.

Compare the floor of the Temple Mount - where Jews wouldn't visit because of its holiness - with the smooth floor in front of the Kotel.

In 1901, it was clear which people venerated Jerusalem and which people ignored it.