Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Martyr Game

Palestine Press Agency quotes a new report with some statistics on people killed in the Intifada. While autotranslation is not an exact science, the wording used is more suitable for a sporting event rather than a tragic list of victims. There is a sense of glee to which group was most successful at getting members killed by Israel, as the article uses sports terms to list who has more "martyrs":

The study comes after two months of the year's ninth {year] uprising the following results:

- Fatah won first place with 1437 martyrs in its various military wings, including 30 women and 128 children.
- Hamas won second place with 1410 martyrs, 34 women and 96 children.
- Islamic Jihad had ranked third with 766 martyrs, including 24 women and 53 children.
- The Popular Resistance Committees, known as the first destroyers of a Merkava tank, came in fourth place with 151 martyrs, including 3 women and 3 children.
- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine won fifth place with 95 martyrs, including two women, and 5 children.
- Won the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, ranked sixth with 72 martyrs, including one woman and 4 children.

- إUnion delegation secular: mourned (7) martyrs.
- Popular Struggle Front: mourned (8) martyrs, including (3) children.
- The People's Party: mourned (3) martyrs, including a woman.
- Fatah - Intifada: a faction outside the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and is based in Damascus, has led Colonel Abu Musa, which lamented the death of 3 martyrs.
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command: led by Ahmed Jibril, who is based in Damascus has, the two people in the Intifada, while joining the rest of the military wings of various "quality" operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
- Palestine Liberation Front: under the leadership of Dr. Yusuf made a martyr out of only one.
- Army of Islam: "ideas which would like al Qaeda, led by a Doghmash" : 14 martyrs.
- Free Galilee Brigades: faction emerged years ago is not known identity on the Palestinian arena, defined in the implementation of operations to run over cars and bulldozers to the Israeli soldiers and settlers, particularly in East Jerusalem and the West, where the group said on martyrdom 4 guerrillas.

As for the perpetrators of suicide attacks inflicting casualties both among the Israelis or did not sign, bringing the number (173), including (159) and men (14), where women are still the majority of bodies buried in the cemetery figures for Israel, has emerged from the study results are:

-Won first place in the implementation of Hamas with commando operations (69) and men (3) women, including Jeddah, Palestine, and 70-year old "Fatima Najjar,"
- Islamic Jihad had ranked second with (44) and men (4) women.
- A Fatah in third place with (35) and men (7) women.
- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in fourth place with (10) men, has not carried out any operation was carried out by any woman.
- أIn the bottom came the organization of the Popular Resistance Committees, with only one man.

Interestingly, the report lists the numbers of members of these groups out of a total number of "martyrs" that is larger by a couple of thousand. Presumably the difference is made up of civilians. But if that is true, why are so many of the "martyrs" listed here women and children?

The answer must be that the "women and children" listed here include the teenagers who engaged in terror acts and were killed in action. In other words, some 270 or so of the "child victims" and nearly 100 women were active members of terror organizations when they were killed by Israel, if you accept these figures.

News and links

Yesterday the PalArab media was reporting that bakeries in Gaza were being forced to use animal grain to make bread. Today the bakeries are denying that.

Syria is holding massive rallies today to demand the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, with special guest, child murderer Samir Kuntar.

Two parents tortured and killed their daughter in Gaza. I do not understand all the autotranslation but it sounded particularly gruesome.

Hamas has officially declared Fatah to be illegal in Gaza.

Fresno Zionism looks at early indications of what Obama's Mideast policy could be, and is not encouraged. Ami Isseroff thinks that Hamas might like it, though....

Why peace is impossible now

So, it really was a reactor

Free Gaza moonbats working with Hamas try again

Two prominent pro-terror "peace" advocates, Lauren Booth and Ken O'Keefe, are trying to buy a much larger ship to ferry passengers to Gaza. They call their project Aloha Palestine:

Aloha Palestine is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to provide a dedicated passenger ship service to the Palestinian people who have been suffering from the blockade imposed on Gaza.

It is telling that the moonbats are not interested so much in transporting food or medicine to Gaza, but rather in paying passengers. This is mostly because they know they can't afford the $1.1 million they need for this latest exercise in self-promotion at the expense of Gazan interests. (While the Free Gaza freaks happily met with Hamas leaders, none of them have mentioned asking them to stop rocket fire or to release Gilad Shalit.)

Their website happily quotes Jimmy Carter ("It’s an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It’s a crime... I think it is an abomination that this
continues to go on.") and Condoleeza Rice.

Of course, since Free Gaza itself has a major cash crunch, it would seem highly unlikely that Aloha Palestine will raise anything close to what they say they need. Except that in this case, they are not only raising funds from leftist hypocrites who are big on words but short on cash, but they are also working with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to raise the funds.

According to Palestine Press Agency, extreme Muslim groups have already raised some $600,000 for the purchase of their first ship, ironically to be named the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." This ship is meant to be a means for Hamas to not rely so heavily on smuggling tunnels to gain its independence.

While one interesting paragraph at the site says "It is a founding principal of Aloha Palestine that we will never allow weapons, of any kind, to be transported on our vessel(s),"and the article states that Israel and Cyprus have an agreement to restrict what kinds of goods can be shipped to Gaza. But Hamas apparently is aiming to use this ship to gain more legitimacy in the eyes of Europeans, as a first step in a much larger plan.

Notice that yet again, radical Islamists will happily use clueless leftists to achieve their own goals to create a planet where clueless leftists will have no place.

Mississippi's Muslim town

Q: Where in the world can one find a map that looks like this?

A: Sumrall, Mississippi.

Apparently, this section of Mississippi plans to become its own strictly Islamic municipality, called New Medinah, as this article shows.

Today's blood libel. Literally.

From the English-language "International Middle East Media Center," which is a Palestinian Arab propaganda outlet that is considered a "news" source by Google:

This cartoonist is, of course, one of the "moderates." His website describes him as:

A well-known Palestinian cartoonist, provides daily cartoons to various news and media outlets. He was presented with many achievement awards by Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organizations.

His resume continues:

Date of Birth: 27/3/1985
Education: Civil Engineering
: Experiences
. Holds first place in the competition among actors Cartoons –
. Loyalty to the prisoners organized by the Council of Islamic university students –
Recipient of the First Cultural Award Contest (creativity 2007) private –
. Islamic University students
Holds second place in the painting competition within the battle of Jerusalem –
. Substantive organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports
Participated in numerous courses in the fields of art and sports and community –
: Participated in numerous art galleries, including –
A - an exhibition organized by the Kenan Institute for Educational developmental a plastic art exhibition
In honor of the tenth anniversary of the uprising glorious title psychological impact on
. Children and Youth
. B - an exhibition organized by the Progressive Student Union bloc
Recipient of several certificates of appreciation from several institutions including the Ministry –
.

Youth and Sports, Kenan Institute of Educational Development, Youth Union and other Palestinian
. Musharraf in Section Cartoons and photos of the editorial board of the newspaper Youth Morocco –
. Supervisor in the Department of caricature in the cultural magazine tracks –
Tnscherrsumaati cartoon in many newspapers and magazines, local and international –

So these cartoons, depicting all Israelis as evil religious Jews using Nazi-style caricatures and classic anti-semitic themes, are clearly considered perfectly valid in today's Palestinian Arab society. They are not from Islamic Jihad or Hamas - this cartoonist has received awards from the Palestinian Authority institutions for similar cartoons.

These cartoons are not considered extreme or anti-semitic within the PA world of today - they are considered mainstream, to the point that even their English-language outlets are not embarrassed to publish them.

This is why real peace is impossible. The Palestinian Arab media is saturated with images like these - not just anti-Israel images but pure Jew-hatred, fed to the people from birth, inciting loathing for all Jews and Israelis. While the Israeli center continues to come up with projects to bridge the gap between the two peoples, and the Israeli Left continues to show how enlightened and progressive they are, to prove to the world that they are not like those religious or nationalistic or Zionist fanatics and they really love the Arabs, - and even the Israeli Right tries hard to come up with solutions that would help Palestinian Arabs live their lives in peace and prosperity - there are no corresponding peaceful voices on the Arab side.

A large percentage of Palestinian Arabs look at all Jews as the pictures above depict them.

Syrian prostitution booming

From Al-Arabiya:

Defying the worldwide economic downturn, prostitutes in Syria are experiencing boom times as more robust economic activity in Syria has created a booming market for their profession due to an inflow of investments in the private sector that have increased the disposable incomes that fund entertainment and indulgence.

Prostitutes in Syria hoping to cash into the economic boom are accordingly raising their prices and improving their highly sought services for better customer satisfaction as the demand for prostitution peaks.

"This is the oldest profession in human history, and it will continue unabated and will evolve in form and style as long as the methods of service keep pace with modernization," remarked a prostitute working at a night club in Damascus.

A prostitute from on of the Arab Maghreb countries who went by the pseudonym Rasha to avoid social stigma, has been in the business for less than a year after quitting her low paying job at a Syrian company.

She said that her fortunes changed for the better and her living standards drastically improved after she gave up her secretarial position for prostitution,.

"Not too long ago I was looking for a small apartment at the outskirts of Damascus. Now, I have a small fortune and can leave," she said.

Abir, another prostitute, said that the emergence of new professional sectors in the labor market such as telecommunications and insurance have compelled prostitutes to improve the quality of their services, especially since prices are peaking.

Rasha's customers initially paid from $100 to $200 for a few hours. However, in the wake of increased capital she decided to fully devote her time to prostitution and charge more since her customers could afford it.

According to the young Syrian Samer, prostitution is like any other profession in which the price depends on supply and demand. "Prostitution is gradually becoming a legitimate profession, considered mainly as part of tourism," he explained.

The impression of prostitutes working in the area was that the most prominent prostitutes working at night clubs were from Iraq and the Arab Maghreb countries.

Well, that's one way to keep the Syrian economy from collapsing.

No word yet on how Iran feels about this....

The trials of a pro-Israel student group at Berkeley

From J, the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California (h/t Tia):

Long a hotbed of anti-Israel activity, U.C. Berkeley has barely had a strong pro-Israel presence on campus. Until now, with Tikvah: Students for Israel, the Zionist student group at U.C. Berkeley.
We are the group that stepped up to protest when academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt visited Cal in October 2007 to hawk their book, a nefarious smear job titled “The Jewish Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.”
We were also there last month when the virulently anti-Israel academic Norman Finkelstein came to speak.
Before the lecture, we respectfully distributed our literature outside. Once inside, Finkelstein’s level of anti-Semitic vitriol prompted a walkout of Tikvah students and others not associated with our group. We shouted out our opinions while exiting, as the crowd hurled expletives at us. Finkelstein and his colleague then continued delivering their insulting lies.
As a result, the dean of students is now seeking to discipline Tikvah and individual students for an “offense” which in the past barely warranted mention when undertaken by student groups involved in anti-Israel activities.
For example, when Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes tried to speak on campus several years ago, he was shouted down by members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association. At the time the chancellor said, “Uncivil behavior, lamentable as it is, is not a crime, nor is it a violation of the Code of Student Conduct.” No disciplinary action was taken against SJP or its members for that incident, nor when Nonie Darwish was likewise shouted down a year ago.
Only last week, SJP disrupted an innovative Zionist hip-hop concert on campus. Even though no Jewish students were involved in the physical altercation that ensued (contrary to what was reported in the school paper and what SJP claims), we wait to see how the university will deal with the assailants from SJP.
Other violations by SJP of the U.C. code of conduct — such as blocking of pedestrian traffic with demonstrations, the brandishing of fake firearms, physical harassment and intimidation of Jewish students — were presented to the dean of students but have been ignored.
What we see here is a double standard, one for the rest of campus and another for the Jews and those who actively support Israel.
Our tax dollars support the U.C. system, and Jewish donors are very prominent in supporting the U.C. campuses. It’s time for the Jewish community to become aware of what is happening at our university.
Meanwhile, Tikvah has a consistent record of positive, pro-Israel programming on campus. Until our inception a year ago, there was no substantive pro-Israel voice on campus. We changed that, attracting students of various religious and cultural backgrounds to our cause. We have collaborated with many off-campus groups, including the Israeli Consulate, Israel Peace Initiative, S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, U.C. Berkeley Chabad, CAMERA, StandWithUs, JIMENA and more. Once again Jews walk with pride across Sproul Plaza.
We have also sponsored many successful events. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we took out ads in the student newspaper highlighting the civil rights leader’s strong support of the Jewish state. We have hosted lectures by Dennis Prager, Stanley Urman, Israeli Vice Consul Ishmael Khaldi (who spoke about being the highest-ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service) and others.
Last year we held two weeklong programs brimming with pro-Israel activities: Israel Peace and Diversity Week and Israel@60 Week (which included a widely attended on-campus Holocaust memorial on Yom HaShoah). We just finished our latest effort, Israel Liberation Week, and we have also been a positive influence on student government, with John Moghtader, a current senator in the Associated Students of the University of California, leading our group.
We are a grassroots student group. Our goal is to make sure Jewish students do not have to be subjected to a hostile anti-Israel, anti-Semitic environment on campus. That’s our bottom line.

Bravo to Tikvah!

LA Times cannot read a map

From AFP:

Egypt's northern Sinai is running low on fuel supplies because of the amount of smuggling across the border to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, Egyptian officials said on Saturday.
"Smuggling to Gaza through tunnels has led to a drastic reduction in fuel supplies at petrol stations" in the northern Sinai, said Mohammed Hussein, a senior official of the Sinai governorate.
Other local officials said work with agricultural equipment was having to cease because of the shortage of fuel.
Other parts of the Sinai are also being affected as trucks from the north loaded with jerry cans ferry fuel supplies to the north, according to workers at petrol stations.
The authorities in northern Sinai have over the past month imposed a ban on the sale of fuel in jerry cans except for agricultural purposes, and ordered all petrol stations to close overnight.
Almost 170,000 litres (about 40,000 gallons) of fuel being readied for shipment to Gaza on the black market was seized last week, officials said.

But why aren't human rights organizations and left-wing newspapers blaming Egypt for confiscating fuel that is meant for those poor, poor Gazans? No, only Israel has the responsibility for feeding and clothing and fueling Gaza, according to such august authorities as the Los Angeles Times:

In the 2 1/2 weeks since its cease-fire with Hamas broke down, Israel has all but sealed crossings along its border with the Gaza Strip and rejected U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's appeal to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclosed territory that houses more than 1.5 million Palestinians. This response to violence directed against it amounts to collective punishment of civilians, which is illegal under international law, unfair and counterproductive. Hunger and scarcity nurture extremism.

The last comment is a cliche that's been proven false numerous times.

Beyond that, the LAT is conflating two issues. Israel is under no legal obligation to help its enemies. If the UN would try to follow the Free Gaza model and bring goods in from overseas, the worst that Israel would do is stop the ships and check them for weapons or other materials that could be used to hurt Israeli civilians. If the UNRWA would try to bring goods in from Egypt, Israel wouldn't say a word. So when Israel stops goods from crossing through its own territory, it is not engaging in collective punishment - it is exercising its own autonomy, something that the LAT doesn't seem to recognize.

... As the military power surrounding Gaza, Israel has a duty to ensure that civilians receive sufficient food, fuel and medicine.

The LA Times needs to look at a map again and see if Gaza is surrounded by Israel.

Syrian economist: Jews killed JFK!

MEMRI keeps finding these gems....

Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian economist Muhammad Sharif Mazloum, which aired on Al-Kawthar TV on October 10, 2008.
Muhammad Sharif Mazloum: The economic crisis began on August 15, 1971, when President Nixon canceled the Bretton Woods agreement, which linked the old gold dollar to the Jewish gold. Thus, the dollar was severed from gold, and became subjected to the whims and schemes of the Zionist lobby, whose goal was, and still is, to take control of the world's gold, which is deposited in Swiss banks or in the central banks of countries as gold reserves for their banknotes, as well as to enslave the peoples and then to impoverish them. With the American political and economic pressure on governments around the world to sever their currencies from the gold standard, the crisis – or the Zionist economic war against the peoples of the world – began.

That is when the purchasing power of the banknotes collapsed vis-à-vis gold, and with it collapsed the purchasing power of the salaries and earning of all classes, including the unemployed in America, as well as the salaries of the workers and the profits of the industrialists and farmers. The collapse reached its lowest point in 1986, when the dollar lost 90% of its gold value prior to 1971, before the gold dollar was severed from the Jewish gold. In 1971, the gold value of $1,000,000 was 1,000 kg – i.e., one ton of gold. In 1986, the gold value of $1,000,000 was reduced to only 100 kg. In other words, 900 kg were lost from every 1,000 kg of gold.

This may be called the period of the first death of the dollar. The world governments and their economic advisors at the time should have stopped using the American dollar, which lost, as I said, 90% of its gold value. If only the governments of the world at that time had awakened, and had saved their peoples from the rule of the dollar, and from the consequences of the Zionist economic war, which ripped apart the peoples of the world, and continues to do so.

The economic research that we conducted in 1989 revealed the economic war planned by the Zionists even before 1944, when they promised the US government to back the US dollar with their gold. Since the America government does not have its own federal banks, it agreed to sign the Bretton Woods agreement, which gave an ounce of gold for every $35 that reached the Federal Reserve Bank, and its branches throughout America, which are owned by the Ashkenazi Jews.

[...]

In the 1960s, President John Kennedy decided to establish governmental banks to protect the dollar, in which the gold that was pouring into America would be deposited. What became of Kennedy? He was killed by the Zionist lobby. This is a fact that nobody is aware of – but a fact it is. That was the reason Kennedy was killed.

[...]

Global Jewry is trying to prepare the ground for a strong currency. What would that strong currency be? People have no confidence in the euro, and they don't keep gold. This strong currency is what [Israel] is preparing now, and even issued in Gaza – the gold Jewish shekel.

Kudos to my counterparts in the Financial Section of the Jewish Lobby; great job, guys!

The celebrity murderer visits Syria

From Ma'an Arabic:

The dean of Israeli prisoners Samir Kuntar arrived this evening to the Syrian capital Damascus, in a week-long visit that will include a series of activities in several provinces of Syria.

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal welcomed him, saying: "You are now between your family and your people, and we're proud of you and all the resistance heroes."

Kuntar said, "I carry to the Syrian people and the rule of President Bashar al-Assad a salute to the mujahedeen in the glorious Islamic Resistance, and salute the Lebanese people to Syria, which harbors all feelings of loyalty, and love the supervisory positions, especially in the war in July 2006. "

He is due to meet Syrian President Bashar al Assad. He will also participate in the opening ceremony of the Arab International Forum on the right of return on 23-24/11/2008 in Damascus.

It is utterly beyond belief that Israel wants to negotiate with people who pay homage to the most disgusting, notorious terrorist/murderer in Israeli history.

And I am not only referring to Syria.

Double-dipping AP photographer?

Yesterday, AP published this photo:

A Palestinian man cooks chicken using a wood-fuelled stove due to a shortage in cooking gas, in an outdoor kitchen in Gaza City, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. He said he is cooking for poor families and hospital patients in Gaza. Israel's tightening Gaza blockade, a response to Palestinian militant rocket fire, has led to frequent blackouts throughout Gaza and resulted in shortages of food, supplies and even cash. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

I had seen that same photo, along with many others, in the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today newspaper. Palestine Today did not attribute the photographers.

Does this mean that Adel Hana gets paid twice for the same photos? Does it mean that AP employs Islamic Jihad sympathizers? Does AP know that these photographs are being published in another newspaper without attribution?

Friday Links

Israeli envoy: The UN filled with "hostility and hypocrisy" (YNet)

Hezbollah seeks to marshal the piety of the young (NYT) (h/t EBoZ)

The new anti-Semitism? (Christopher Hitchens at Times Online)

Denmark to ban circumcision? (YNet)

"Starvation"

Open thread

It's been a busy week. Let's talk about something else.

Speaking of weeks, on August 1, 1971, Richard Nixon declared that week to be National Clown Week.

Palestinian Arabs fleeing West Bank

Firas Press reports on a huge number of young Palestinian Arab men who have been emigrating from the West Bank.

According to a new report by the Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute in cooperation with the Central Bureau of Statistics,

There are surprising statistics about emigration in the Palestinian territories, which have been exacerbated in recent years, causing a "brain drain" to other countries.

The studies agreed that emigration, both domestic and abroad, has had negative effects on Palestinian society, in social, economic and political arenas.

The study revealed that the Palestinian territories is third in the Middle East in terms of migration rates and ranks sixth among middle-income countries, in addition to being a major part of the most vital migration corridors in the world.

The study said that the number of Palestinians who fled to Jordan since the beginning of this year exceeded 260,000, but during the same period, only 197,000 returned.

This has been a consistent pattern throughout the short history of Palestinian Arabs. The young, smart and ambitious have always sought to leave. These are the hundreds of thousands who emigrated en masse to Kuwait and Iraq in the latter half of the 20th century, the ones who refused to be stuck in "refugee" camps and fed by UNRWA for their entire lives. These Palestinian Arabs - including a large number in Europe and the Americas - represent the best and the brightest of their people, because they were they refuse to live on handouts and in a dead-end situation. While they are proud of their heritage, they really have little desire to live in a Palestinian state themselves. An additional 63,000 emigrants this year is not to be considered unusual.

Half of younger PalArabs want to emigrate. Apparently they don't care about living in "their" land all that much, and the enforced nationalism has not penetrated their psyches a great deal. They just want to live somewhere without worrying about war or the terrible PalArab economy, where they can get real jobs and support their families in honor. Building up a Palestinian Arab state is not a romantic notion to them - it is a bitter joke, as they have seen better than anyone how corrupt the legacy of Arafat has been, how their leaders are more interested in self-preservation than in real progress and how divided their people really are.

If the Arab world was smart, they would welcome these educated and motivated young men as citizens, rather than risk them going to the West. But unfortunately the Arab world is more fixated on keeping these people stateless - in the name of "Palestinian unity" - because of hatred of Israel as well as fear of the changes that an influx of hardworking, smart men could effect in their dictatorships.

So instead we see them leave whenever and to wherever they can. And the ones they leave behind are the lazy ones, or the ones who are attracted to terror, or the ones who just gave up.