Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Today's PalArab press roundup

A 24-year old woman was murdered by her brother in an "honor killing" yesterday in Khan Younis.

To mark the start of Ramadan, Egypt allowed nearly 2000 Gazans to go to Egypt and some 900 Gazans to cross back. But none of these were sick people - they will be crossing today. Who knows how many of these 2000 are Hamas terrorists going out to get training in Iran, as happened last year?

While Fatah's leadership in Ramallah does not support the union strikes happening in Gaza against Hamas, Fatah's political leadership in Gaza does.

On the other hand, Hamas accuses Fatah in Ramallah of being behind these strikes, saying that they are meant to set the stage for Abbas to declare Gaza as "rebel territory" and therefore paving the way for him to cede Gaza and negotiate the West Bank alone as "Palestine". It is not too far fetched to imagine a Palestine and a Hamastan as full members of the UN, all the while trying to create a third (or fourth, depending on how you count) Palestinian Arab state via "right of return."

Firas Press, one of my best sources for news, changed their format, apparently without testing it. Now the site looks great but is horribly broken with old stories and bad links littering the site so as to make it unusable.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 156.

Fatah and Hamas still cooperate in terror

Islamic Jihad is not the only terror group to graduate a class of masked terrorists this weekend. So did Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. As Ma'an puts it:

The fighters are part of the Brigades controlled by Fatah, the party which also controls the caretaker government in the West Bank. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is also a member of the party.

The general commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades and leaders of the Consultation Council (senior leadership of the party who discuss Fatah policy) attended the graduation along with members of other Palestinian factions.

Trainees practiced military shows and skills such as storming buildings and kidnapping soldiers, and demonstrated the launch of rocket-propelled grenades for the ceremony audience.

Al-Aqsa Brigades asserted that the graduation of a class of fighters sends a clear message to Israel that resistance is still a valid choice for freeing Palestinian lands and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

If Al-Aqsa has the freedom to have a public graduation ceremony in Gaza, that means that Hamas is allowing their supposed "sworn enemies" to train militarily. The fact that "other factions" attended the ceremony shows that it is probably not only allowed, but encouraged.

Before the Hamas takeover of Gaza, joint terror attacks between Hamas and Fatah were not unusual.

And while Hamas has shown no compunction about cracking down on groups that show too much independence, Fatah is still allowed to operate freely in some cases.

It seems that while the political wings of Hamas and Fatah are still at odds - Hamas arrests Fatah teachers and civil servants at will - their military wings have no problems with each other, and probably cooperate (along with Islamic Jihad.) This idea is reinforced by the fact that Fatah in Gaza still gets weapons, and all weapons smuggling in Gaza goes through Hamas.

Moreover, Abbas - who is not only a "member" of Fatah but its leader - neither instructs Al Aqsa to attack Hamas nor does he tell them to put down their weapons; rather he is quite happy letting them operate as a terror group together with Hamas and PIJ aimed at fighting Israel while keeping them far enough for plausible deniability so he can get Israel to give him more unilateral concessions.

Just like Arafat.

Palestine Today, the mouthpiece of Islamic Jihad, has published more photographs of alive-ammo demonstrations of their skill and ability to march in the desert with ski masks. (This one was in front of an audience, showing that in Gaza, terror is a spectator sport!)

Notice what is missing in all of these pictures: buildings. The supposedly overcrowded Gaza Strip seems to have plenty of room for Islamic Jihad and Hamas (not to mention other groups) to spread out and practice kidnapping and killing Israelis, while we hear whining about the crowded conditions in the cities and "refugee camps" that Hamas has not yet found time to dismantle.

The priorities of the leaders of the Gaza Strip are clear.

10 weeks in a row

It has now been ten weeks in a row that more Palestinian Arabs have killed each other than have been killed by Israel.

And it has been four weeks since any Palestinian Arab was killed by Israeli forces.

Friday open thread

Fridays are always slow anyway....

And yes, it was me singing in the Rachel Corrie video. That's the punishment you get for not volunteering. At any rate, it gave me the opportunity to learn about various audio filters.

"Rachel Corrie" - the video

As promised...

Shalit's 22nd birthday, and freedom further than ever

Yesterday was Gilad Shalit's 22nd birthday. Unfortunately, his chances for freedom seem to be getting dimmer.

While Israel has been offering more and more in exchange for Shalit - relaxing its stand on releasing murderers in exchange for him - Hamas has kept demanding more. While Hamas originally demanded 450 prisoners for Shalit, today it is being reported that this demand has increased - to 1500.

There are a number of reasons for this. In recent months, Hamas has had its own, sometimes violent infighting, and no clear leadership. Some factions have been in favor of negotiating in semi-good faith while others have taken a harder line. And, as Khaled Abu Toameh reports in today's Jerusalem Post, it appears that the more radical are winning:

The results of a recent election held for one of Hamas's key decision-making bodies are likely to hinder efforts to free kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt Gilad Schalit, sources in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The secret ballot was held about 10 days ago for the Shura (Consultative) Council, which is made up of Hamas's senior political and religious leadership and is tasked with discussing all important issues.

The sources told the Post the vote resulted in a major victory for representatives of the "young guard" in Hamas, most of whom are affiliated with the movement's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam.

The sources described the victory as a "coup," pointing out that the newly-elected members were far more radical than those who were ousted from the council.

"The Shura Council of Hamas is now dominated by warlords, thugs and militiamen," one source said. "The new members are not as educated as their predecessors.

Another source described the vote as a "turning point" in the history of the Islamist organization. "From now on, the armed wing of Hamas is expected to play a bigger role in the decision-making process, he said. "The political leadership of Hamas has definitely been weakened."

Given the fact that Schalit is being held by members of Izzadin Kassam, some of whom are now represented in the Shura Council, Hamas is unlikely to soften its position in the talks on a prisoner exchange agreement.

A Palestinian academic closely associated with Hamas told the Post he expected the new council members to endorse a tougher approach in the negotiations over the release of Schalit.

The "young guard" is more likely to see Israeli concessions in Shalit negotiations as proof of weakness and a reason to demand more.

In addition, the prisoner swap with Hezbollah where Israel gave up its most despicable prisoner plus others in exchange for corpses emboldened Hamas to up the ante for Shalit.

Moreover, the "calm" - rather than build "goodwill" towards a Shalit release as Israel intended - has strengthened Hamas even more, as its leaders are not worried about being targeted from the sky. This reduced pressure on them makes them less likely to want to negotiate, showing once again that "goodwill" gestures are supremely counterproductive.

Unfortunately, it does not look good that Shalit will be released by negotiations. We can only hope that the Shin Bet is taking advantage of the "calm" to figure out where Shalit is and how the IDF can rescue him, because that looks more likely than a successful prisoner exchange.

Another sick Saudi marriage case

Another innovation from the Muslim world: "trade-off marriages" where two fathers marry their daughters off to each other. At least some Saudi religious scholars are not thrilled:

TAIF – The controversial divorce case of two minor girls trapped in “an invalid trade-off marriage” to two septuagenarian men goes to court here on Saturday.

The mothers of the two girls, Shaikha 16, and Abeer 11, have filed for divorce on the grounds that the minors were forced into illegal wedlock and were victims of domestic violence.

The case has sparked widespread debate in Saudi society with religious scholars expressing their views as well.

Renowned Saudi scholar Sheikh Abudlmohsin Al-Obaikan has opined that the girls should be granted divorce and the two men severely punished for allegedly trading off the girls in an “exchange marriage” of their daughters without any dowry or wedding ceremony.

The Sheikh’s opinion is also based on evidence that in both cases the marriage did not have the full consent of the minors.

However, the marriage contractor has refuted the charge that the girls were illegally married off. “The contract is perfectly legitimate as it satisfies all the legal pillars of an Islamic marriage including the consent of the two brides and the payment of their dowries,” the marriage contractor said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The two guardians received SR50,000 and SR45,000,” as dowry, he said.

In Islam, a marriage is valid only if both the bride and her guardian fully accept it. Moreover, the dowry should be handed over the bride’s guardian in hard cash and must be seen by the marriage witnesses and guests.

Sheikh Obaikan’s conclusion that the two marriages were illegal is based on reports that the two girls were threatened into marriage by their fathers.

In Yanbu, while Shaikha was doing her pre-marital test, she called her divorced mother, who she had not seen for 10 years, to save her from what she said was a forced marriage.

Shaikha’s mother acted quickly and complained to the authorities, including the National Human Rights Society (NHRS).

After signing the marriage contract, the two couples went to Taif for the honeymoon. There, Shaikha tried to commit suicide to escape marriage to a 75-year-old man and was admitted to King Faisal Hospital in the city. She was subsequently taken to a social care house as the authorities started to investigate the case.

In parts of the Arab world, women seem to be treated about as well as cattle, and not as well as camels.

YouTube caves

YouTube sent me a notice that my "Freaks of Gaza" video infringed on Anis' copyright. And while YouTube gives a way to challenge these notices, it requires my giving up my anonymity, so it isn't worth it.

However, there are other streaming media sites out there, so you can still see the video here.

Are anti-semitic Muslim texts "hate speech"?

From the (Los Angeles) Jewish Journal:

USC Muslim Group Removes anti-Semitic Passage From Its Internet Site

Until earlier this month, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at USC included on its Web site the complete texts of the Quran, Islam's holy book, and the Hadith, which are the oral traditions associated with the life of the prophet Muhammad.

This database included a saying attributed to Muhammad that calls on Muslims to kills Jews:
"The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews," Book 41, No. 6985 stated.
The MSA is a university-sanctioned student group and its Web site is hosted on the USC server. When Rabbi Aron Hier, director of campus outreach at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Reut Cohen of the Horowitz Freedom Center discovered the passage, they sent a letter to Alan Casden, a USC trustee and co-chair of the Wiesenthal Center's board, urging him to have the university remove that portion of the Hadith.

Casden quickly contacted Provost C.L. Max Nikias, who ordered the passage removed, saying it was "truly despicable" and that it violated the university's Principles of Community.

"This is an important reminder that when free speech becomes a platform to encourage violence, then it has crossed the line," Hier said. "We commend USC for having the moral courage to stand up against those who hijack speech and religious freedoms and the good will of the campus community in order to spread a message of hate and extremist violence."

I have mixed feelings about this.

In general, I think it would be a bad idea for USC to host any religious material on its own website. The fact that some of the hadiths are anti-semitic is not the reason they should be removed; the reason is because by not removing them it appears that USC is promoting a religion.

If the MSA wants to provide a complete searchable list of Hadith on its own web server space, that is a worthy endeavor, and they should not feel constrained by the fact that some of the hadiths are objectionable. It is a valuable resource, to be sure, and I'd rather that the verses stay up there so that people can see for themselves some of the source materials of Islam.

For example, besides the infamous tree verse mentioned above, other mentions of the Jews in the Hadiths at USC include:

Volume 2, Book 23, Number 472:

Narrated 'Aisha:
Allah's Apostle in his fatal illness said, "Allah cursed the Jews and the Christians, for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets."

Or the many variants of the hadith quoted above which are still there (Bukhari):

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 176:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:

Allah's Apostle said, "You (i.e. Muslims) will fight wi the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.' "

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

Volume 4, Book 56, Number 791:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:

I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me; kill him!' "

So let's try to be a bit consistent. If hadiths that call for the genocide of Jews are offensive, then they should be repudiated by Muslims altogether, not just temporarily removed from some public websites. If the Muslims stand by these hadiths, let them be visible for everyone to see, along with the ability for others to criticize them. But just removing them does not do anything to stop "hate speech" - the problem isn't hate speech; the problem is the belief system of a large percentage of the world's population.

Syria stealing Lebanon's water. Oh well.

In one of the more egregious cases of Syrian meddling in Lebanon, Al Mustaqbal reports (via MEMRI blog):

Lebanese security sources are saying that teams from Syria's Irrigation Ministry began digging two water wells in Lebanese territory west of Dir Al-'Asheir village in the border region.

According to the sources, the digging began over a week ago.

It was also reported that the Syrian teams have prepared large tanks in Syrian territory to store the water pumped from the wells, and that the water will be used in Damascus and its suburbs.

But for some reason, Syria's repeated incursions into Lebanon - taking land, stealing natural resources - is not called "occupation" by anyone.

Today's PalArab press roundup

Mahmoud Abbas has yet again rejected the idea that Palestinian Arabs who were born in Lebanon should ever become citizens of that country. The "moderate" "leader" once again confirms that in his mind it is far better for them to languish with few human rights and no state for decades more rather than be productive and happy. One wonders if Abbas thinks that Arabs of Palestinian descent should become citizens of Germany or Canada if they so choose?

Israel has intercepted a planned shipment of 1700 natural gas containers headed for Gaza. These containers would make ideal rockets.

The PLO condemned Al Jazeera for not covering Israel's release of 198 prisoners live. They pointed out that Al Jizz will cover press conferences from Hamas terrorists, so why not a Fatah photo-op?

A family fight in Jenin saw a man murdered by his brother-in-law.

The "Palestinian" embassy in Yemen was closed last week, and there were rumors that it was in protest of Hamas offices having opened there. Today the explanation is that they closed because of sectarian fighting in Yemen, not for any political reasons.

Condi Rice is reported to be floating "new ideas" on borders, "refugees" and Jerusalem in her talks.

Jordan's Agricultural Engineers Association is publishing a blacklist of Jordanian firms that import things from Israel. Apparently, they didn't get the memo that there is a peace agreement between Jordan and Israel.

An Egyptian diplomat quotes Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal as complaining that the only country that supports Hamas is Iran.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 155.