Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, October 13, 2008

Another radical PalArab academic

Palestine Today reports about a professor of political science in Al-Najah University in Nablus. Dr. Abdul Sattar Kassem criticized the PA for confiscating Hamas weapons and explosives laboratories last week, saying that all Palestinian Arabs have the right to build whatever weapons they feel like as long as they are aimed at Israeli Jews.

It is not at all unusual for Palestinian Arab academics to be far more radical than their politicians. The next generation of Palestinian Arabs, rather than being influenced by their more pragmatic parents and grandparents, are increasingly being radicalized and incited by their teachers.

Kassem has been a strong critic not only of Mahmoud Abbas but also of Yasir Arafat, thinking that they are not nearly violent enough. He was a professor in Jordan University in Amman and was fired for his criticisms of the university, and he has criticized his own university as well, delaying his career advancement. In other words he is just a hugely angry guy who transfers his hate for all things that don't conform to his worldview to his eager students.

But his biggest vitriol is dedicated to Israel - and Jews. In fact, his hatred of other Arabs is purely derivative of their perceived friendship with, or acceptance of, Israel. His website has some blatant anti-semitism:

The Jews have organized themselves in the US so as to influence the American public opinion and formulated the Jewish lobbies (interest groups) to influence the white house (the American president) and the congress (both house the senate and the house of representatives). Because of the money they have, the Jews started to finance some candidates for the presidency or the congress so as to have them elected, and started to publish items through the mass media or books and educational curricula so as to bring sympathy for the Jews and hatred for the Arabs.

The Jews have capitalized on the ignorance of the American public and gave them so much faulty information. For instance, people thought at one time that the Arabs have tails and drink petroleum. The image of the Arabs has been distorted to a great extent, while the Jews have been enjoying an excellent image.

One of the ironies about Kassem is that he wrote a book harshly critical of the PA (which resulted in an assassination attempt against him) and he couldn't find any Palestinian Arab publisher willing to print it.

So he got it published - in Israel.

Hamas has just launched their own version of YouTube, called AqsaTube.

As can be imagined, it is full of videos inciting hate and glorifying terror.

According to the Intelligence and Terror Information Center, it is hosted by a French ISP and it uses Google AdSense for revenue, thus many companies are unwittingly bankrolling terrorists.
There is at least one video showing how to detonate explosives.

The rip-off of YouTube is so glaring, even the title bar translates to "YouTube maximum AqsaTube".

This video channel of Hamas' also encourages Palestinian Arab terrorist unity, as it generously provides sections of the site to Fatah, the PRC, the Democratic Front, Islamic Jihad and "miscellaneous" terror groups, which include some videos of terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.

There is also a children's section, filled with things like a cartoon showing cigarette-smoking and scowling Israeli soldiers targeting Mohammed al-Dura. Another video meant for children is filled with images of dead children and babies.

It is truly heartwarming to see that Israel's "peace partner" Fatah is now negotiating to unify with Hamas, the purveyors of pure hate.

(h/t jhrhv)

Sunni leader: "Replace capitalism with sharia"

From the Lebanon Daily Star:

Muslims should take advantage of the global financial crisis to build an economic system compatible with Islamic principles, influential Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi said on Sunday. "The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper and not on goods traded on the market is proof that it is in crisis and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up," said the Egyptian-born, Qatar-based cleric.
"The Western system has collapsed and we have a complete economic philosophy as well as spiritual strength," he said at Sunday's opening of a conference on Jerusalem.
"All riches are ours ... the Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil and we have an economic philosophy that no one else has," Qaradawi said.
He urged Muslims to "profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the [Islamic] nation, which holds the spiritual and material resources for victory."
The sixth conference on Jerusalem is being attended by around 300 people representing political parties as well as Muslim and Christian NGOs, from various countries.
It is staged by Al-Quds [Jerusalem] International Institution, which is dedicated to the conservation of the holy city and its sacred places.
Participants in the three-day conference include Khaled Meshaal, exiled head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, and Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The article doesn't mention the other significant part of the conference, which is alluded to by that last sentence: Sheikh Qaradawi, who has been very critical of Shi'ites, seemed to kiss and make up with Iran.

This happened at the same time that the al-Arabiya website was redirected by "hackers" to an anti-Sunni webpage over the weekend, as they took control of the alariya.net domain name and forced the site to move to alarabiya.tv instead. There has been a few such hacks between Sunnis and Shi'ites lately, which cause, naturally, some people to blame the "Zionists."

Needless to say, the conference itself is dedicated to eradicating any Jewish presence in Jerusalem, which, as Khaled Mashaal stated explicitly, will only happen through "resistance."

I cannot find any webpage for the conference itself that will identify the "Muslim and Christian NGOs" that are in attendance. Last year's conference in Istanbul is on-line, and in its photos of Jerusalem section I found two more great old pictures of the Al Aqsa Mosque showing how many weeds were evident in this "third holiest place of Islam" when Muslims had control over it.

Rice praising Hamas?

Firas Press quotes another news source, which I believe has not been very reliable in the past, as saying that Condoleeza Rice sent a message to Hamas through Syria thanking them for maintaining the "calm" in Gaza:

According to sources, who requested anonymity told the "Gazette" that Rice "praised" Hamas' stance on the truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip and of the rocket launchers in the direction of Israeli cities and towns, pointing out that they stressed that "the current U.S. administration is seeking to reassure Hamas [that they are no longer seeking to] send Arab forces to the Gaza Strip" and that "the United States became convinced of the futility of this step in light of the continued commitment of Hamas to control the security situation in the sector and ensure the continuation of the truce with Israel and the prosecution of the rocket launchers".

The sources refused to disclose the form of the message sent by Rice, whether oral or in writing, saying that "Hamas leaders are praising dearly this message and they consider it as a pivotal turning point in the history of the relationship between the United States and Hamas."

I don't know if this is true (I think the newspaper is a Kuwaiti newspaper which has written some unverifiable things in the past and no other media is picking up this story) but if it is, you read it here first!

Not just another tunnel collapse

A small item in the Palestinian Arab Firas Press website (Arabic):

Witnesses said that a Hamas tunnel collapsed today in the Atatra area north of Beit Lahiya. Witnesses said the Hamas gunmen sealed off the area in order to help rescue and evacuation.

There have been no shortage of tunnel collapses, and dozens have been killed this year while smuggling in or building tunnels. So what makes this story so special?

This tunnel is not in Rafah. It is in Beit Lahiya.

Beit Lahiya is also a border town, but it does not border Egypt. It borders Israel.

Somehow, I don't think that Hamas is building tunnels to smuggle in supplies from Israel. It sounds more like they want another few Gilad Shalits.

The Talmud, the financial crisis, and Time magazine bias

Time magazine has an interesting article on how traditional Judaism would respond to the current financial crisis.

A new article at the Journal of Law and Religion by Yeshiva University professor Aaron Levine (not yet online) discusses Jewish legal and ethical issues around the current problems. I would love to read the article, as Levine is a prolific author of books and articles on Jewish business ethics.

Rather than synopsize the article, however, Time chose to interview a different person. Rabbi Eliezer Diamond is Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative Jewish institution.

So rather than a dispassionate review, we are treated to questionable halachic analysis such as comparing purchasing items in a marketplace with knowing about a woman's blemishes before marriage. It appears that Diamond introduced this novel idea, not Levine.

Worse, Time uses this as a springboard for this paragraph:

Diamond belongs to a group called Rabbis for Obama, and says that in light of the financial crisis, its members have begun to discuss how the old wisdom could mediate the new mess. The question these days, he says, is not whether Jews can be induced to be more ethical than the market, but whether the market can be made more ethical. "I think classic rabbinic tradition is certainly pro-regulatory," he says.

Meanwhile, Yeshiva's Levine calls in his journal article for what he describes as "an incentive structure in the workplace that would dissuade people from wrongdoing." He gets quite specific, imagining a "carrot and stick" arrangement. One stick would be an expansion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which mandated greater accountability for CEOs of publicly-owned companies, among other things.

Time has twisted the real business halacha expert's article to make it appear as if Obama's plans are more Talmudic than McCain's. Sarbanes-Oxley indeed demands transparency and accountability but it is not the kind of intrusive regulatory legislation that Obama seems to be advocating. It is possible that Levine does push for Democrat-style regulation; without seeing the actual article I cannot be sure, but the wording here seems deceptive as Time tries to make it look like Talmudic law is unquestioningly pro-regulation.

To see an example of Rabbi Levine's articles on Jewish business ethics that has not gone through the bias of the mainstream media, see here. A more scholarly and dry article on inflation can be found here.

Palestine Press Agency reports that the "Al Aqsa Foundation" is complaining about a new synagogue that is opening today "only meters from the Al-Aqsa Mosque." Ma'an adds that this move is a "provocation to hundreds of millions of Muslims" worldwide. It also says that this synagogue was being built "at the expense of" an historic Muslim steam bath.

As usual, taking facts out of context is very convenient to the bigots who want to rid Jerusalem of Jews.

In fact, a synagogue is being re-dedicated today in the Old City. The Ohel Yitzchak synagogue was built in 1917 on land purchased by Hungarian Jews in 1867.

Those multi-cultural Arabs who are so concerned about the sanctity of world religions drove the Jew of Jerusalem to abandon the structure in the 1936 riots, and they destroyed the synagogue altogether in 1948. The restoration has taken 15 years.

And the ancient steam bath? Well, the Israel Antiquities Authority found that Mameluke steam bath during the synagogue restoration, and preserved it, so this rebuilding of the synagogue didn't destroy this historic bath - it discovered it!

This is another object lesson in half-truths peddled by the Palestinian Arab media, the outright lies of the Al Aqsa Foundation and the complete hypocrisy of Muslims who want Jerusalem to be Judenrein today.

Honor/shame, Iran and Obama

Iran's media is reporting that their leaders are willing to meet with the US, with preconditions:

An Iranian presidential aide has proposed two conditions Washington would be required to fulfill before holding direct talks with Tehran.

"It is the United States that needs to have relations with Iran," said Mehdi Kalhor, the media consultant to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Saturday.

On Saturday, Kalhor said Tehran would accept 'repentance' on behalf of the US government toward the Iranian people.

"Negotiations would be rational if the US moves out of the Middle East and the US government gives up its widespread support for the Zionist regime," he said.

This is in contrast to the Democratic nominee for President:

The frontrunner for President of the United States looks as if he is begging to negotiate with Iran, and Iran appears to be considering granting that wish if only the lowly US works a little harder at its begging.

The Muslim world in general, and the Arab world in particular, is based on an honor/shame culture. People who are so convinced that a more conciliatory attitude from the US will make the Muslim world more pro-Western need to understand this dynamic.

Iran's leaders see the US presidential candidates arguing over whether and how they would engage with Iran. From an honor/shame perspective, this gives Iran immense power over the US.

Iran's leaders have already openly mocked the efforts by the West of using partial sanctions and endless negotiations over Iran's nuclear weapons program. Now they are placing themselves in a greater position of power - to other Muslim nations as well as other nations that subscribe to the honor/shame mindset. The world sees the the US bumbling over how to talk to Iran, and Iran answers from a position of strength - "if you want something from us you need to conform to our political program. We have no need to do anything you want, but you must do what we want because you need us more than we need you."

To even conceptualize that the potential next leader of the free world is already taking on this role as a subservient beggar to a terror state is beyond comprehension. Any tough words he mouths are drowned in the simple facts as they are viewed by the Muslim world.

The honor/shame culture does not reward those who act nice. It honors the winners, because there is nothing more honorable than winning and nothing more shameful than losing.

This doesn't mean that the West must play by those rules. But it does mean that the West must understand the rules and not assume that everyone thinks the way we do. And every time the West backs off in the face of real or perceived Iranian threats, it empowers and energizes Iran to up the ante the next day.

US textbooks treat Islam as the true religion

A couple of weeks ago, a book came out that detailed many cases of bias in US textbooks, which included such problematic passages as "“Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus?” (The World, Scott Foresman/Pearson). " A number of other troubling claims are made, although the brief description of the book doesn't give specific examples.

I just noticed that the report included a mind-blowing table that compares how Judaism, Christianity and Islam are described. In the examples below, the origins of Judaism and Christianity are consistently described as "claims" and "stories" but the claims of Islam are described factually:

Comparison of Language Used for Beliefs of the Three Major Religions in Selected Textbooks
Textbook	Judaism	Christianity	Islam
The World (Pearson/Scott Foresman)	Caption to a picture of a seder plate: "Foods on the seder plate are symbolic of an ancient Hebrew story."		"The pilgrimage, or hajj (haj), to Mecca is an essential part of Islam, the religion revealed to Muhammad . . . .
World History: Continuity and Change (Holt)	Glossary entry: “Ten Commandments: Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai.”		Glossary entry: “Qur’an Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God.”
World Civilizations: The Global Experience (Pearson)		Glossary entry: “Jesus of Nazareth” reads in part, “prophet and teacher among the Jews; believed by Christians to be the Messiah . . . .”	Glossary entry: "Muhammad Prophet of Islam . . .; received revelations from Allah in 610 C.E. and thereafter . . . .”
Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction.(McDougal Littell)		“According to the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth was born around 6 to 4 B.C.” “According to Jesus’ followers, he rose from the dead. . . .”	“Muhammad’s teachings, which are the revealed word of God . . . , are found in the holy book called the Qur’an.”
World Cultures and Geography - Eastern Hemisphere (McDougal Littell)	“Judaism is a story of exile.”	“Christians believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah.”	"The Qur'an is the collection of God's revelations to Muhammad"

This isn't scholarship, this is indoctrination.

PalArabs lie about Jews cutting down olive trees

From Palestinian Arab propaganda outlet Ma'an:

Settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank attacked a Palestinian family collecting olives on Saturday morning, a government official told Ma’an. Mayor Burin Ali Eid of the village of Burin, near Nablus, said a fight broke out when settlers “chopped down five olive trees” owned by the family. Local Palestinian sources said that settlers cut down 15 olive trees in other Nablus-area attacks on farmers.

Yitzhar is a religious Jewish village and the residents would not desecrate the Sabbath by chopping down any trees, so it is clear that these claims are lies. Sure enough, Arutz-7 reports something completely different:

Members of the security team in Yitzhar, in Samaria, spotted a group of Arab men entering an Arab olive grove near the Lehava neighborhood of the community Saturday morning. IDF soldiers were notified and arrived at the scene to question the men and ensure that they did not pose a danger to residents of Yitzhar. The soldiers were surprised to see that the group was busy cutting down olive trees. The men were cutting the trees in a "violent manner," soldiers said, explaining that they tried to show that there was damage to the trees instead of simply pruning them. They were apparently planning to accuse Jewish residents of Yitzhar of cutting down the Arab-owned trees, repeating accusations that have been made in recent years. The owner of the trees was not present and had not notified the army that he was planning to prune his grove, which Palestinian Authority farmers near Jewish towns are required to do.

The IDF did not quite confirm the Yitzhar residents' story:

Following Palestinian reports about clashes between settlers and Palestinian farmers near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, the IDF stated that the farmers arrived at the olive groves without the required permit. The statement said that after the farmers arrived in the area to pick olives, settlers began to crowd around them. IDF soldiers arrived on the scene, fired in the air and separated between the rival groups, restoring calm.

While it is hard to know exactly what happened, it is clear that the Palestinian Arab version is simply a lie, and if any olive trees were cut down on Saturday they were vandalized by Palestinian Arabs themselves.

The Guardian rips off the Elder

Wow, I'm getting ripped off by the big guys now!

An October 7th article in The Guardian is eerily similar to my October 5th posting about Lebanon wanting to sue Israel over hummus and other foods.

In general, I wouldn't think so - Israeli media picked up on the story on Monday - but the reporter, Jenny Percival, not only copies my research on the history of those dishes, but she even links to the same Firas Press article - autotranslated - that I did! I have never seen an MSM outlet link to a Google autotranslated article, something I do often.

So nice to know that my blog allows paid reporters to be lazy and, shall we say, acquisitive.

The good news

Ma'an News (Arabic) is reporting that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that the current financial crisis is proof that God is punishing America for its support of Israel.

He might have his own economic problems sooner than he thinks, though.

According to an article in the Gulf Times last month, Iran needs the price of crude oil to be above $90 a barrel to avoid running the country at a deficit:

“Iran’s break-even price is $ 90 a barrel, and that is a big issue in Iran right now,” Khan said.

“If prices dip below $ 90 a barrel, and we have seen it touch $ 89 earlier this week, then they would have to tighten their public expenditure policy, and probably cut subsidies, which would be an issue for the government there – the public would not be content,” he said.

Iraq has the highest break-even price in the region, according to the IMF figures. The war-torn country needs prices above $ 110 a barrel to balance its books.

The price of crude traded at below $80 in London today.

Which means that Hamas' main source of income is in danger of drying up.

The BBC mentions:

"The direct impact of this financial crisis in the United States for the Iranian people, could actually be more than for the American people, because of the oil price, and our dependency on oil income," explained Saeed Leylaz, one of Iran's most outspoken and independent-minded economists

"If the oil price for Iranian oil will be $75 to $80 a barrel, we will lose $50bn US dollars (a year) and that means we are losing between $700 and $800 per head."

Not to mention that Iran's economy has been shaky to begin with. As a result of dropping oil revenues, Ahmadinejad tried to impose a 3% sales tax - and merchants responded by going on strike yesterday, causing him to back down. Inflation in Iran is at nearly a 30% rate officially, the unemployment rate of working-age Iranians is believed to be 20%, and Iran's economy has not grown per capita since the revolution in 1979.

So Haniyeh might want to think twice before gloating over the West's financial problems. He might have worse ones very soon.