Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 27, 2008

The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy

A small but illuminating brouhaha erupted over the past two days.

Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for yesterday's rocket attack, but then another statement was released denying those claims and saying that the person who made them, Abu Qusay, were wrong and he was banned from the Brigades.

Then this morning the Brigades reclaimed responsibility and denied the denial.

Beyond the amusement at watching bumbling terrorists try to figure out how to best manage their PR, some of Al-Aqsa's statements are worth examining. Al Aqsa has been criticizing Hamas for the truce, saying that it should have included the West Bank (an indeed they claimed that their rocket attacks have been in retaliation for Israeli raids in the WB.) Even so, in response to an appeal by Mahmoud Abbas, Al Aqsa now say they will respect the "calm."

Fatah and Hamas can't stand each other. This does not in any way imply that one of them hates Israel any less. When it is convenient, Fatah will take an even harder line than Hamas against Israel, even though Western journalists are loathe to mention it. Similarly, any conciliatory gestures towards Israel are also based on convenience, nothing else. And when that "peaceful" Holocaust-denying Fatah leader wants to exercise authority over this "rogue" organization, he can - which means that when they do terror attacks, they have his tacit agreement.

It is a major mistake to think that one of these competing organizations is any more peaceful than the other. One could credibly argue that Hamas' current "calm," as flawed as it is, is more effective than anything Fatah ever accomplished since 2000. The fact that Fatah and Hamas compete with each other has essentially no bearing on whether one or the other is more pro-Israel - that term is completely foreign to both organizations, and both still share the goal of eradicating Israel even if their tactics differ.

Israel's "Physicians for Human Rights" make stuff up

Reuters reports:

Israel's Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) group accused Israeli doctors on Thursday of ignoring what it described as the torture of Palestinian detainees during interrogations.

The PHR said its findings were based on testimony from two Palestinians who developed trauma-related symptoms, such as weak hearing, panic attacks and incontinence during and after their detention.

Israel said those findings were "fraught with mistakes, groundless claims and inaccuracies".

Palestinian prisoners undergo medical examinations before, during and after their interrogation, but doctors in detention facilities fail to report such symptoms, making them complicit in "prisoner torture", the PHR said in a statement.

PHR Executive Director Hadas Ziv told Reuters her organization's findings were also based on reports by other Israeli human rights groups.

Last year, two groups, B'Tselem and HaMoked, said they had found Israeli security interrogators routinely mistreat and sometimes physically torture Palestinian detainees.

The PHR urged the Health Ministry in a letter to forbid doctors from participating in interrogations carried out by Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet.

I found the original PHR Israel report, strangely only as a link to a Word document on their home page.

One would be generous to say that their arguments are flimsy. Here, in brief, is their proof that physicians are complicit in torture:

1) We hear that torture exists. Not from any physicians, mind you, but from a couple of alleged victims and other "human rights" groups who also get their information from the same alleged victims.

2) We know that physicians are employed by the Israel Prison Service and that others have seen these patients in emergency rooms.

3) None of them corroborate any of these allegations of torture.

4) Therefore, the allegations must be true and the hundreds of physicians who don't say a word must be afraid of losing their jobs, or guilty of racism, or supportive of torture.

There is not an iota of proof, or even logic, behind this report. It is purely an attempt to try to add relevance to the PHR organization itself. It is an absurd conspiracy theory that lacks even the shreds of evidence that most such theories use.

Ironically, it also indicates that most Israeli physicians consider IHR a joke, as the IHR cannot even find a single left wing doctor one with first-hand knowledge to support their theory.

Reuters, of course, is only too happy to parrot their claims.

Olmert giving Hamas millions of shekels. Really.

The acronym WTF has rarely been more appropriate. From Arutz-7:

The Prime Minister's office has admitted, in a letter to the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, that it is enabling the transfer of huge amounts of shekels into Hamas-run Gaza.

Asked about this issue by Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of human rights organization Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, the PM's office replied, "The transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip takes place with the knowledge of the Israeli government, for diplomatic reasons."

Notably, the letter states that the money is transferred to the PA, when in actuality, Hamas - not the PA - runs Gaza.

The PM's Bureau letter continues, "The money transfer takes place after consultations on the matter with the relevant elements, in which are taken into consideration various possibilities and ramifications of the stoppage of the transfers. At this stage, in light of the conclusion that was reached that it was an Israeli interest that the money transfers continue, it was decided to continue to transfer certain sums to Gaza."

Law Centers Demands Stop to Money Transfers
Shurat HaDin, an organization representing hundreds of terror victims in ongoing global battles against terror funding, had sent letters to the Prime Minister, the Bank of Israel and the Israel Postal Bank, demanding an immediate cessation to the transfer of funds to Hamas.

Israel Launders Hamas Money
A Law Center representative explained that the funds are transferred in two ways: "For one thing, trucks from Arab banks in Judea and Samaria bring new banknotes and shekels issued by the Bank of Israel to the Gaza crossings, where the money is exchanged for dollars and euros smuggled into Hamas under the Philadelphi Corridor from Iran and elsewhere. This means that Israel is essentially laundering Hamas's smuggled money."

Replacing Old With New
"In addition, the Bank of Israel sends Brinks trucks to the Gaza crossings to replace old, unusable shekel banknotes. It replaces the old ones with shiny new ones - and last November, just days after such an exchange took place, the whole world saw pictures of Hamas terrorists holding their Kalachnikov rifles kissing Israeli banknotes with pictures of Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi and Shmuel Yosef Agnon that they had just received as their salaries; they had not been paid in months, and the Hamas government appeared to be on the verge of collapse, when Israel stepped in with this delivery."

"Without these criminal acts," the Law Center writes, "Hamas' financial hold on the Strip would collapse, and thus these measures are directly responsible for shoring up the Hamas control over Gaza and its continued terrorist activity launched from the region."

Shurat HaDin director Darshan-Leitner had sharp words for the government of Israel, saying it "cannot fight against the Hamas terrorist organization with one hand, and continue to secretly finance it with the other. Hypocritically, the Prime Minister demands that governments around the world isolate and and embargo the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and stop transferring funds to them, while at the same time he authorizes the transfer of Israeli currency into the hands of the enemy. "

"There can be no doubt," Darshan-Leitner said, "that the Israeli government's policy of transferring shekels is assisting the Hamas terrorists with their missile attacks on the Negev communities. If the Prime Minister does not immediately halt the currency transfers to Gaza, Shurat HaDin will take all legal means available against the government to bring this terror financing to a close."

I knew that the PA was giving the lion's share of its money to Gaza but I didn't realize that Israel was the source as well as the conduit.

Throughout the siege, Hamas managed to hang on to power, and now we understand why - there was no siege. It has been known for months that Hamas has taken over the PA institutions in Gaza and that any money that goes to PA/Fatah elements there really go to Hamas.

As a result, Hamas' prestige and power increased during Israel's closing the Gaza border, rather than the stated opposite goal by this same Israeli government.

And this Kadima government is staying in power. Unbelievable.

See also Israel Insider and Seraphic Secret. As of yet, nothing in the mainstream Israeli news media.

Hamas: Teaching children how to kill Jews (video)

From the Al Qassam Brigades website of Hamas, a smiling child learning hate and murder from his now-dead father.

Hamas publishes Shalit letter

The Hamas website published a letter written by Gilad Shalit to his parents. I do not think this is the same letter as the one delivered earlier this month - that one was undated and this one says "June '08."

The Hamas Al Qassam website is using this letter as supposed proof of its humanity, although Shalit does say that he is suffering both physically and psychologically. Of course, the Red Cross has not been allowed to see Shalit.

In the letter, he also calls for negotiations for his release.

Translation by Annie:

Dear Mum and Dad, my dear family, I send to you my many homesick feelings. Two long hard years have passed for me since I left you and have been forced to live in prison conditions.

I continue to suffer from health and emotional difficulties and depressions that exist in this kind of life.

Like in my previous letters, I very much hope that your health and emotional situation has not been harmed since you began to live without me.

I still continue to think and dream of the day when I will be released and meet you again, and I still have the hope that this day is close, although I know it is not dependent on me or on you.

I turn to the government that it should not neglect the negotiations for my release, and it should aim its efforts only at releasing the soldiers in Lebanon.

Missing you,
Gilad
June 2008

A murder I missed

The PHRMG has a poorly organized and belated count of various deaths in the PA territories, and I just saw this one where a man in Nablus was beaten to death on February 22 that I had not counted before.

So the 2008 PalArab self-death count is at 99.

Also, a hat tip to Eric from The Israel Situation who has placed my self-death count pseudo-widget on his blog.

PalArabs get even more money to throw away

AP reports:

An international conference aimed at strengthening the Palestinian police force and judicial system has secured commitments of US$242 million for specific projects, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday.

The outcome of the one-day conference, which brought together representatives from more than 40 countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, "exceeded our expectations," Steinmeier said.
"The result, I must say, is that a clear signal of support for the building of a Palestinian state was sent from here today," Steinmeier said.

This is very interesting. The Palestinian Arabs had a judicial system before the 2000 intifada that had been functioning - with severe problems but functioning - for a number of years since Oslo. The money the put that in place and kept it going has certainly not disappeared; in fact the amount that donor countries have given the PA has increased since then. And there have been no shortage of other funded security initiatives, such as training a special force of officers in Jordan. So why do they need a special conference just to get even more money for "security" when there are already more police per capita in the PA than anywhere else in the world?

PA prime minister Fayyad has managed to pare down the security forces somewhat - from 83,000 to 60,000 according to some - which is still a huge number and included PA police in Gaza who are either doing nothing or working for Hamas. More pointedly, the way he has done so was not a way that would impact the payroll - he has offered thousands of police to "retire" on full-salary pensions. Why would he not try to find real work for these people? Why is he telling international conferences that he needs even more policemen? And what is he doing to ensure that the newly idle "police" don't take their free money and join that other Fatah organization known as the Al Aqsa Brigades?

Once again, Palestinian Arabs are soaking the world for more money but they are unwilling to make the hard decisions that would allow them to save money on their own. So the world can kiss another quarter of a billion dollars goodbye, to chase the billions already wasted into trying to convince Palestinian Arab leaders to act responsibly.

Gaza man murders his 3 year old nephew

Ma'an reports that a 3 1/2 year old Gaza child was killed by his uncle. Apparently the killer was insulted by his brother so he decided to take revenge by drowning the child in the bathroom.

Although this happened on the 14th, I did not see it mentioned in any PalArab newspaper until now.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 98, of which 17 have been children.

Lebanese follies

The international community is pledging hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the Nahr al-Bared camp in Lebanon, destroyed last year in factional fighting.

Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora wants to make absolutely sure that these donors don't even think that this money will go towards giving Palestinian Arabs permanent homes in Lebanon. In response to a question at the donor conference, Siniora stressed that while Lebanon needs to maintain its sovereignty over all its territory this cannot mean that Palestinian Arabs who have lived there for generations will ever become normal citizens. So Siniora needs to make himself look like he cares about Palestinian Arabs who have lost their homes due to fighting, just not too much. Just enough to soak the international community for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ironically, at the same time there is more factional fighting in Lebanon, with a death toll so far of eight. A Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that Syrian soldiers are behind the latest clashes, between Alawites and Sunnis. Siniora won't comment on that one, though.

Hamas coup?

Ha'aretz reports that things are not all sunshine and flowers in Hamasland (h/t EBoZ):

The Hamas military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, has split into two groups after an attempt to depose its military commander, Ahmed Al-Jabari. Palestinian sources say the attempt to replace Al-Jabari with Imad Akal failed, but has split the organization into two camps: one led by Al-Jabari and the other by Akal.

Mohammed Deif, the former head of Iz al-Din al-Qassam, was behind the attempt, according to the sources.

The crisis in the Hamas military wing started, among other reasons, because of the long-standing disagreements and tension between Al-Jabari and the political leadership of Hamas in Gaza. But the tension exploded into the public eye as a result of the Hamas police's attempt to arrest members of the military group who were suspected of criminal activities. The Hamas militants resisted arrest, and the police and Iz al-Din al-Qassam members exchanged fire.

The head of the Hamas police in Gaza, Taufik Jabar, who is not a Hamas member, asked one of the heads of the Hamas political side, Said Siam, to intervene and ask Al-Jabari to hand over the militants - but Al-Jabari refused.

After the refusal, Siam turned to Deif, who was considered Israel's most wanted man for years; he holds no official post, but Deif is still considered to be a symbol to the movement and one of the most respected activists by Hamas militants.

Siam asked him to arbitrate between the sides, examine the matter and make a decision. After a short time Deif announced that Akal would replace Al-Jabari, but he refused.

In recent weeks assassination attempts have been made against one of Al-Jabari's closest supporters, Ali Jundiyeh, and Gazans assume Akal is behind the attempts.

I did not read about any of these in the Palestinian Arab newspapers yet, even the anti-Hamas ones. They did report on a number of violent arrests by Hamas over the weekend of Fatah members as well as a bomb outside the offices of a different terror group.

What is the world coming to when you can't trust bloodthirsty terrorists to act responsibly?

Press-release terrorists

The "Freedom for Galilee Brigades" (also known as the "Imad Mughniyah Brigades"), an Arab terror group based in Israel itself, has claimed a number of high-profile terror attacks - of which very few seem to have actually occurred.

The latest is the claim that they exploded a bomb in a Tel Aviv restaurant today. They even specify the address: 18 Balfour Street. Yet there is nothing in the Israeli media about this.

Even stranger, they claim to have kidnapped a female IDF soldier, named "Dana", and have published her picture (original link lost, this picture is from June 6.

They have previously taken credit for the Mercaz Harav massacre.

They do seem to be a real terror group and to have done real attacks in the past, but these specific claims are very strange.

Gazans suffering from severe math deficiencies!

It is not only shoes and chocolates that Gazans have been unable to get during the "siege" - they also seem to have been suffering from a severe shortage of mathematical ability:

Five days into the truce between Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel, vital supplies of goods are continuing to trickle into the besieged enclave.

Israel allowed 80 lorry loads of goods into the Gaza Strip on Monday - twenty more than the number allowed in per day before the truce was agreed, a Palestinian security source at the Sufa crossing told Ma'an.

The source confirmed to Ma’an that under the truce an increase of 30% in food supplies was agreed. But what is actually being allowed in is no more than 20%, which is not sufficient for the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip.

If Israel allowed 60 truckloads a day into Gaza beforehand, and now allows 80, that is an increase of 33%, not 20%. Which means that Israel is exceeding the agreement, not falling short.

The fact that Ma'an quotes this unidentified source approvingly shows that the math deficiency is widespread.