Gazans claim to have hit Kiryat Gat with rocket

Palestine Today quotes a Reuters report I cannot find anywhere that claims that a Qassam rocket hit Kiryat Gat on Saturday, some 30 kilometers from Gaza. Firas Press quotes the same report, although it looks more like they copied the PalToday report.

Seems unlikely.

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Fitna

The release of the Dutch film Fitna has provoked much reaction in the blogosphere, and not a huge amount yet worldwide.

If you haven't been following the story, Wikipedia describes it like this:

Fitna is a film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Dutch parliament. The movie offers his views on Islam and the Qur'an. The film's title comes from the Arabic word fitna which is used to describe "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial". The movie was released to the Internet on 27 March 2008.

It was originally hosted on a video streaming site LiveLeak, but today LiveLeak removed the video in the face of very real death threats.

Here is a copy from Google Video, which may or may not stay up:


There are two issues to be dealt with here, and it is important not to mix them up. One is the message of the film, and the other is the entire idea of censoring media that offends a group of people.

The message seems to be that Islam is inherently evil, as Wilders takes Quranic verses and juxtaposes them with images of terror and hate speech by Muslim clerics. While there is plenty to criticize about Islam and how it is practiced by many today, this is a bit oversimplistic and smacks more of propaganda than a documentary. A much better example, in my opinion, was Obsession, a 12-minute version is here:


To judge Fitna as objectively more offensive than any number of rabidly anti-semitic videos that are allowed on YouTube is absurd, however. The fact that it is being censored is more troubling than any perceived offense it is guilty of, and really, it does not show anything more than Jihadi videos already do.

A possible Freudian slip by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon illustrates the problem well:

"I condemn in the strongest terms the airing of Geert Wilders' offensively anti-Islamic film," Ban said in a statement.

"There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free speech is not at stake here."

Normally, when one says that something is an incitement to violence, it means that the people watching it would be moved to act violently against the players portrayed in the medium. In this case, though, the only people being incited to violence are the very violent people the film is about, not the viewers. Moon is, perhaps subconsciously, saying that the reason he is against the film is because it can cause Muslims to riot and kill. Ban is effectively giving Muslims veto power over any medium that they deem offensive - he is advocating censorship. Despite his protests, the right of free speech is exactly what is at stake here.

Whether he meant it or not, the vehemence of his reaction is way out of proportion to the objective amount of offensiveness that this video contains. It is well within the bounds of any reasonable definition of free speech and it does not come close to hate speech or incitement to violence, unlike any number of anti-semitic sermons that can be seen broadcast weekly on Islamist TV stations, like this recent example.

The only way to fight this obscene censorship - even if you disagree with the film's message, as many sober people do - is to make sure that it is uploaded and available to everyone who wants to find it, on video sharing sites large and small. It may be a tempest in a teapot but the symbolism of the Islamists managing to shut it down portends much worse things to come.

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Muslim expert weighs in on pedophilia (MEMRI)

The depths of depravity and ignorance of "Islamic legal experts" is mind boggling.

Check out this guy:

Iraqi Expert on Islamic Law Calls to Allow Young Girls to Get Married: In Islamic Countries, Girls Get Their Periods at the Age of 8-10. Westerners Criticize the Prophet Muhammad for Having Sex with His 9 Year Old Wife, But Allow Fornication with Underage Girls

Following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-'Ubeidi, an Iraqi expert on Islamic law, which aired on Al-Rafidein TV on March 14, 2008: Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-'Ubeidi: There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law. Why? Because there might be cases in which it is impossible to keep the girl [single] until the age of maturity. For example, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serbs killed many Albanian Muslims, and there are many mass graves there. [Muslim] families fled from that war, and so did small children, who were not yet at the age of marriage. But if a man takes such a girl in, he might desire her, and eventually commit a sin, even though his intentions were noble. So he can formally marry her, but without having sex with her. She will remain like that until she grows up, and then someone will ask to marry her, or he will find her a husband – this happens in many Islamic countries with girls from Bosnia-Herzegovina – and when he finds her a husband, he will divorce her, so that she can marry again. In such a case, there should be no waiting period. So there is no need for the girl to be of age. Most of the time we act according to what is acceptable to most people, and indeed, most men do not marry a girl until she is of age. In some Islamic countries, the age of maturity can be 8 or 10 years. In Yemen, a girl might get her period at the age of 8. In cold countries, such as Russia, Belarus, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Canada, and so on, a girl might not reach maturity until she is 22 years old. She might not get her period until then. Therefore, the greatness of Islamic law is manifest in the fact that marriage is not just for pleasure. True, it is the basic objective for marriage, but there are some cases that require solutions. [...] Many criminals, the enemies of Islam, ask: "How could the Prophet Muhammad, at 52 years of age, marry 'Aisha when she was only 8 years old, and consummate the marriage when she was 9 years old?" I say to them: People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Why do you permit your young girls to fornicate? They consider it one of their liberties. Therefore, in these stupid countries, you rarely find girls aged 10 or 12 who are still virgins. They permit this. They have even legislated laws stating that if a girl is under the age of 18, and her girlfriend [sic] or whatever has had sex with her, she has the right to have an abortion. How can you permit the outcome without accepting the cause? Why do you allow your girls to have sex and say this is an individual liberty? It is okay to fornicate with girls there or force them to have sex, and so on, and they have the right to have an abortion. If you permit all this before the age [of 18], without a marriage contract and without any legal grounds – how come you forbid marriage?

That's easy - to stop creepy guys like him from marrying them!

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PA "cuts salaries" of Gaza Al Aqsa Brigade terrorists

Firas Press (Arabic) reports that after much negotiation, PA prime minister Fayyad decided to "cut" the salaries of the Al Aqsa Brigades terrorists in Gaza.

The PA had offered to let them keep their salaries if they would promise not to shoot rockets at Israel and they rejected that offer.

This means, of course, that up until now the PA has been using western funds to pay salaries of terrorists in Gaza - for many months after the Hamas coup, when they had literally no jobs to do besides make and shoot rockets at Israeli children.

It also means that the PA continues, today, to pay known members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the West Bank with US and European tax dollars.

I've already shown that the bulk of the PA payroll goes towards Gaza, and Gazans get more than double per capita from the PA than the West Bank Arabs.

Given past experience, it is entirely possible that the PA will relent in the face of pressure and restore these salaries anyway. Some Western leaders will undoubtedly think that it is preferable for terrorists to be funded by the West via the PA than by Iran via Hamas.

And so it goes.

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Peacekeeping, PalArab style (grim milestone watch!)

Ma'an Arabic reports on a clan clash that happened while the two families tried to reconcile:

Twowere killed and eight others injured, four of them seriously, when a reconciliation took place this afternoon to end a family quarrel in the ancient town of Kafr third, south of Qalqilya.

Eyewitnesses said that Kamal Kassim Mara'abe (45 years old) and Muhammad Qasim Mara'abe were killed this afternoon and injured eight others on the background of an old quarrel between the Mara'abe, Nahed families.

The eyewitnesses added that during the reconciliation between both families to end the dispute, the oldest members of the Nahed family attacked Mara'abe family members with guns, which led to two deaths and injuring eight others.

And the cycle of violence continues...

We have now reached a Grim Milestone as 50 Palestinian Arabs are known to have been violently killed by each other this year so far.

UPDATE: 3 dead, 12 wounded. 51.

UPDATE 2: The IDF may have stopped much worse bloodshed.

UPDATE 3: One of the victims was a 13-year old boy, shot in the head.

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Today's Gaza news you won't see anywhere else

Hamas abducted two teachers in Khan Younis, suspected of Fatah activities

Hamas also arrested one of their own, suspected of spying for Israel

Hamas arrested three students in Khan Younis from a secondary school

It is reported that Hamas was searching cars to prevent the firing of rockets by Islamic Jihad towards Israel today.

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Newsweek: Let's blame the non-Muslims for Muslim violence!

An unreal article by Christopher Dickey in Newsweek, who bends over backwards to minimize Muslim violence and to blame it all on stupid mistakes by non-Muslims who end up provoking the violence. With the equally unreal title:
Christian Rage and Muslim Moderation

Some lowlights:

If the satellite networks allow their lenses to zoom back from the book burners, they may discover there's no raging crowd there, just the usual collection of unemployed malcontents on any street in Karachi. And what is most important, we may find that the Muslims of this world are just as weary of this sorry spectacle—maybe even more so—than the Christian, Jewish and secular publics in the West.

We may, and we may not. His examples of Muslim moderation are an interesting combination of cherry-picking and wishful thinking.The Turkish government is "supporting theological scholarship intended to modernize—and moderate—traditional Islamic teachings." A single Lebanese Ayatollah is not openly calling for violence anymore. Saudi Arabia's king is acting against al-Qaeda-style terrorism. And then:

But even with many qualifications and reservations, in my view the conciliatory trends in Islam make an interesting contrast with renewed provocations coming out of Europe.

There's no use wasting much space on the Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, the dyed blond with ugly roots who is promoting a film he says will prove his belief that "Islamic ideology is a retarded, dangerous one."

Yes, freedom of speech is such a nuisance sometimes.

....Danish cartoonists and editors previously unknown to the wider world garnered international attention when they published caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 that brought on bloody riots in several Muslim countries in 2006. Having sunk once again into obscurity, the editors decided to publish one of the cartoons again last month, reportedly after the arrest of an individual plotting to kill the cartoonist. Great idea. Take one man's alleged crime and respond with new insults to an entire faith.

What a wonderful use of sarcasm, Mr. Dickey! I especially like how you characterize the people who were murdered by the cartoon riots as being the victims of publicity-seeking cartoonists in Denmark. The fact that the riots were stoked by Muslim leaders - months after their initial publication - just don't fit your recollections of the events, so we will just ignore those inconvenient facts for now.

The most problematic event of late, however, was Pope Benedict's decision to baptize the Egyptian journalist Magdi Allam in Saint Peter's on the night before Easter, thus converting a famously self-hating Muslim into a self-loving Christian in the most high-profile setting possible. Perhaps Benedict really thought, as the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano opined, that the baptism was just a papal "gesture" to emphasize "in a gentle and clear way religious freedom." But I am not prepared to believe for a second, as some around the Vatican have hinted this week, that the Holy Father did not know who Allam was or how provocative this act would appear to Muslim scholars, including and especially those who are trying to foster interfaith dialogue.

What Dickey refuses to face up to is that even if the Pope's timing was provocative, it doesn't justify any violent reaction. Luckily, it didn't happen this time, but Dickey is justifying it before the fact. Ironically, the progressive Dickey is assuming that Muslims will act like animals and writes his column with that assumption in the forefront.

(h/t Global Freezing)

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Israeli saving the world's birds

This is the sort of story that almost never gets told about Israel.

From Science Alert (Australia):

Each northern spring an awesome aerial torrent of 500 million birds pauses at a tiny fleck of a sanctuary at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, en route from the heart of Africa to the vastnesses of Europe and Asia.

Many birds have flown non-stop from the Central Highlands of Ethiopia, devouring their own muscle and intestines in the 40-hour flight. When they sink to rest at Eilat, in southernmost Israel, they are at the very limits of their endurance. Without this stopover on their ancient migratory path, most of the birds would never complete their journey. Food from its lakes and vegetation is vital to rebuilding their strength for an onward trek that, in some cases, bears them as far as Wales or the Bering Strait.

For 15 years a stoic, courageous and grittily determined Israeli ornithologist, Dr Reuven Yosef, has fought with all the means at his disposal to keep intact this remaining claw-hold on survival for the world’s dwindling migratory bird populations.

Flash floods, savage vandalism, a suicide bombing, landmines and relentless development are among the challenges he has faced in striving to hold open this everconstricting highway of the natural world. If it closes, ornithologists warn, a major route will be sundered and many of the 280 migratory bird species of Europe, Asia and Africa using it may vanish.

Dr Yosef ’s visionary International Birding and Research Centre, Eilat (IBRCE) gained worldwide recognition with an Associate Laureateship in the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. Developed from an old rubbish dump and lovingly restored to 64 hectares of lakes, wetlands, visitor facilities and natural vegetation to harbour birds, the Centre is today acknowledged as one of the world’s ornithological wonders, inspiring projects as far afield as Kenya, Tibet, China, Mongolia and North America.

...Gradually the dry salt marshes fringing the sea succumbed to a concrete plague of hotels, promenades, marinas and gaudy attractions. A strip of wasteland lying between the town and Jordanian border to the east, beneath the smoky thunder of low-flying passenger jets, became a rubbish tip. Nobody wanted it, except a keen-eyed Indian-born ornithologist, Reuven Yosef, who saw its pivotal significance to the wildlife of the planet.

...Wounded and invalided out of the army, he took up studies as an aspiring ornithologist at Ben Gurion University and then at Ohio State University in the US, carrying out field research at the Archbold Biological Station in Florida, famous for the study of migratory birds. While there, he was invited to set up a nature reserve near Eilat that would enhance the town’s appeal to visitors.

Yosef was delighted, both at the chance to help protect bird migration in a world where it faced growing pressures from human activity, but also at the opportunities for scholarship the site presented – sampling each year an astonishing cross-section of the world’s avifauna.

Of the 120 000 hectares of salt marshes that once sustained billions of birds on their migratory journey, only a few hundred remained. The land was poisoned by mining activities extending back almost 3000 years. The rest was a garbage dump, filled with heaven-knew-what. Raising money from friends and supporters, Yosef purchased 64 hectares, and with the help of local earthmoving contractors, effluent from the sewage works, fresh water from the local desalination plant and brackish water from the local saltworks set about creating several lakes – fresh and saline – and restoring vegetation.

Gradually the sanctuary became a welcoming haven to the exhausted airborne travellers, offering seeds and brine shrimp to nourish and restore them. With the birds came scholars from around the globe to study the unending avian throng, 100,000 visitors a year to witness one of Nature’s marvels and 60,000 wide-eyed schoolchildren to learn about a phenomenon that, without great care, their own children may never see.

Not only is he saving untold numbers of bird species, but he is helping Israel gain a hundred thousand bird-loving tourists annually.

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The Mufti's Blue Eyes

Earlier this week I posted a link to a Time article from 1948 that parenthetically mentioned a number of blonde Palestinian Arab leaders.

It turns out that at least one's Aryan features helped cement his bond with Heinrich Himmler. From the March 28, 1948 Palestine Post:

Himmler understood then what most people stubbornly refuse to acknowledge today - the Arab enemy has always been Jews, not Zionism.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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