Arab sites almost silent on Mumbai

The top news story in the world is essentially invisible to the Arab press.

The Palestinian Arabic newspapers Firas Press and Palestine Press Agency don't mention the terror attacks in Mumbai. Ya Libnan has nothing, and neither does the Lebanon Daily Star or the Jordan Times. The Daily News Egypt is similarly silent.

The Saudi Arab News did have a story in today's edition, though.

And the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today has a brief article, talking only about their taking Israelis hostage in the Chabad House in Mumbai and nothing about the hundred people killed so far. (The autotranslation said "According to Indian media reported four gunmen holding hostage in 6 Israelis built the Bad Religion of the Jews" and it repeated the word "Bad" three times, which sounded unusually anti-semitic for that newspaper until I realized that this was how "Chabad" was being translated from Arabic to English.)

Is it that Muslims killing a hundred people is simply not too interesting to them? Or does their latent sympathy for terrorism - and hatred of Indian infidels - make them embarrassed to mention it, so they'd rather ignore the story rather than figure out how to report it?

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"Hamas version of Google"

Firas Press reports on a "Hamas Google" page hosted in Turkey, that is just like Google but decorated with Hamas pictures (the link is http://www.googlehamas.tk/, try it at your own risk):

You will notice that it keeps the name "Google," changing the O's into Hamas logos.

The article goes on to praise the website, saying how fast the search engine is, how hundreds of people have already used it and how secure it is against Zionist hackers.

Unfortunately, the site no longer works. And the reason is obvious from the error message:

Google
	Error

Forbidden

Your client does not have permission to get URL /custom?sa=%26%231576%3B%26%231581%3B%26%231579%3B&q=test&...... from this server.

This is a real Google error message, and this "Hamas Google" site is simply a shell around the real Google site.

Google caught wind of this illegal use of their name and logo and pulled the plug on all requests from this Turkish server.

Not quite as impressive a technical achievement as the Arabic press thought it was!

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November 24, 1948: Egypt threatens to quit UN

The Palestine Post of November 24, 1948 has an illuminating article about Egypt's opposition to Israel's becoming a member of the United Nations:

Adly Andaros Bey, of Egypt, hinted today that the Arab countries would walk out of the UN if Israel were admitted to membership.

The Egyptian said Israel did not fulfil any of the requirements of the Charter for membership. Israel was not peace-loving, but expansionist, and she was not even a State because she had "no territorial basis and no known frontiers."

Do these arguments apply to "Palestine"?

But his next talking point is most interesting - an argument for natural, self-evident anti-semitism:

"In certain American clubs, houses, hotels and other places, Jews are not admitted." Nevertheless, the U.S. would, in a few days introduce a resolution supporting the admission of Israel to the U.N.

"When this happens in a club, Sirs, the only thing to do for those who do not like the new member is to walk out. That is the only way that remains for us."

"One thing is certain," he said. "We would never sit at the same table with the Jews."

This was not bombast; this was the actual way of thinking.

And there is little evidence that things have changed in the past sixty years.

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Taking advantage of ignorance of Hebrew

Last week, wire services reported on Jewish graffiti on a mosque in Hebron, saying that the "settlers" scrawled "bad words" with spray paint.The story claimed that the Jews wrote “Mohammed is a pig” and “Death to the Arabs”.

As Israellycool pointed out, while desecrating a mosque is certainly not to be condoned, the words that were written, at least in the wire service photo, were not racist or inflammatory - they were Biblical verses. It is possible that there were other things written, but we have no pictures showing that.

It appears that the Palestinian Arabs have picked up on the inability of most people to read Hebrew, because Ma'an now makes a similar claim:

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian ambulances in the West Bank village of Dier Esteyah on Wednesday, according to witnesses.

Red Crescent ambulances were parked in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday when settlers wrote provocative slogans, such as "Death to Arabs" and others, according to the Red Crescent.

The graffitum on the picture merely says "Hebron."

This is of course not proof that no settlers wrote more inflammatory things elsewhere, but it is curious that twice in a row the only pictures that we can see do not support the stories.

Ma'an reporters clearly know how to read Hebrew, so they must be considered complicit in trying to demonize "settlers" as racists or at the very least misleading readers into thinking that the graffiti here is racist.

UPDATE: Aussie Dave points out that there is a Ha'aretz video report that briefly shows the words "Mohammed pig" in Hebrew.

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Hypocritical journalists

Media Backspin quotes Soccer Dad about reporters who are upset that Israel has not allowed them into Gaza for the last two weeks:

This week, after filing a letter of protest, the Foreign Press Association (of which McClatchy Newspapers is a part) took the matter to Israel's Supreme Court and asked the judges to overturn the ban.

"This blackout of the Gaza Strip is hurting Israel's image in the eyes of the world and undermines its standing as the only democracy in the Middle East," the FPA argues in the petition.

Soccer Dad's reaction hits the nail on the head:

I understand that there are reasons for Israel to open Gaza to reporters, but this false concern for Israel's image from a press association strikes me as utter hypocrisy.

This isn't the only hypocrisy that reporters are showing.

Here are a series of stories reported in the Palestinian Arab press about press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza since August:

Hamas to sue media outlets for "biased coverage"

Union of Public Service workers demand a ban on Al Jazeera in Gaza

PA arrests journalist, held in military prison

Call for PA to release four journalists from jail for Eid

Hamas detains three journalists, confiscates their materials

Group calls on PA and Hamas to release 10 journalists

Journalist arrested in West Bank

Gaza journalist threatened, detained and beaten by Hamas

The Foreign Press Association and Reporters Without Frontiers have been utterly silent concerning all of these issues.

Only when Israel - rightly or wrongly - stops them from entering Gaza (from Israel - they have gone into Gaza by boat) do they suddenly pipe up about "press freedom." (And they do not say a word about whether they are allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt.)

Even though these stories have been essentially ignored not only by these journalist associations but by journalists themselves, it is a bit ironic when they claim in their letter to Olmert:

“In fact, a foreign media presence is all the more indispensible as its reporters represent an independent source of information. The mounting threats to Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power in June 2007 force them to censor themselves. But that is not the case with foreign journalists, who can talk about the Hamas government without fear.”

Ever hear of Alan Johnston? They censor themselves more than the Gaza reporters who live there! After all, who reported on the stories I listed above? Certainly not the foreign media!

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Today's PalArab news

In addition to the Jordanian newspaper yesterday, a UAE newspaper has also rejected a PLO ad which includes the flag of Israel, while another one published it.

Even though there was a Qassam and (reportedly) four mortars yesterday shot indiscriminately at Jews, Israel has agreed to send more fuel and food to Gaza today.

Fresh Hamas/Fatah clashes yesterday at Al Aqsa University in Gaza injured 100 students and caused the school to shut down.

There are reports of "secret prisons" in Gaza created by Hamas specifically for Fatah members.

Egypt arrested a blogger yesterday who criticized the government and supported Hamas. His blog can be seen here.

Gaza is again suffering from a shortage of shekels. Where do they all go?

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American girl, Arab man get jail and 100 lashes

From the Saudi Gazette:

The Summary Court in Jeddah has sentenced a 23-year-old Arab national and an 18-year-old American girl to one year in prison and 100 lashes each after they were convicted of adultery.

The father of the girl reported the relationship to the authorities after his daughter became pregnant.

The father accused the Arab man of intentionally doing so in order to force her parents into letting them get married.

The parents of the girl had previously refused to let their daughter marry the man.

The Commission for Investigation and General Prosecution (CIP) summoned the Arab man as part of its investigations.

The Summary Court issued its verdict after hearing evidence from the girl and examining a medical report.

The verdict has become final since no party raised an objection and no appeal would be made.

One hundred lashes is the punishment for unmarried adulterers.

This is proof positive that Islam respects women. They honor them so much that they will beat them half to death if they do anything that they shouldn't!

And someone should really tell the Saudis that they have no idea what "adultery" means.

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Jordanian newspaper rejects PLO ad - with Israeli flag

From AFP:

An independent Jordanian newspaper said on Tuesday it has refused to publish a Palestinian advertisement promoting an Arab peace initiative with Israel because it contains the Jewish state's flag.

"We refused to publish the paid advertisement because the source, the Palestine Libration Organisation's negotiations department, refused to remove the Israeli flag," a senior editor at the Arabic-language Al-Arab Al-Yawm told AFP.

Ah, yes, Jordan. Israel's neighbor that signed a peace treaty in 1994. That well-known "moderate" kingdom, where 98% of its citizens admit that they really don't like Jews too much.

And apparently the PLO likes Israel more than Jordanians do.

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Libya reported to send a boat to Gaza

A very interesting development. Will Israel check it for weapons?

From Africa On-Line:

A Libyan ship loaded with more than 3,000 tons of food aid and medicines leave the Libyan port of Zouara, 120 km west of Tripoli, on Tuesday for the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

The donation being made by the Libyan Fund for Aid and Development in Africa is made up of 500 tons of oil; 750 tons of milk; 1,207 tons of rice; 500 tons of wheat flour and 100 tonnes of various drugs.

In a statement to PANA, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fund Lakhdouri Abdelhamid said the shipment would arrive in the Gaza Strip in one week.

He said the aid was only the beginning and marked the solidarity of the Libyan people with the Palestinians, "who are victims of an unjust embargo imposed upon them by Israel".

In addition, dozens of scouts from the city of Zouara would travel aboard the boat with flags and banners bearing inscriptions expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the embargo imposed on the population.

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Obama letter to Peres on unified Jerusalem?

The Arabic media is reporting on a Kuwaiti newspaper claim that Barack Obama sent Shimon Peres a letter that assures him that Jerusalem will not be under negotiations during the Obama administration and that it will remain the undivided capital of Israel. Also that Obama promised to visit Israel and the settlements.

What the Arab press is not mentioning is that this Kuwaiti newspaper has a history of making up stories. On at least two other recent occassions, the newspaper reported bizarre claims that would then be proven false or extremely exaggerated. It almost seems that the newspaper is trying to form the news in forcing denials from officials, thereby inflating its own importance.

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Morning links

Eye on the UN: Unprecedented attack on Israel by UN GA president

Shiny Happy Dhimmi carnival by Soccer Dad

IAEA wants to help Syria get nuclear technology

A disarmed Palestinian Arab state? (JPost)

The Jerusalem Post takes a page from my book, looks at inaccuracies in Wikipedia Arabic.

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The value of Saudi girls

From the Saudi Gazette, an article that highlights the huge differences between how boys' schools and girls' schools are run in Saudi Arabia:

Fires in girls’ schools are unfortunately a regular occurrence, and have been making headlines ever since the tragic accident in a girls school in Makkah, in March 2002, that resulted in the loss of many innocent lives. [This was when the Muttawa forced the girls to burn to death rather than go out in public without proper covering - EoZ.]

What are the steps being taken to end this phenomenon? Why do fires break out regularly in girls’ schools and rarely in boys’ schools?

REEM Al-Youssef, a student in a government secondary school has vivid memories of the fire that broke out at her school last year.

“We heard the fire alarm while we were in class and most of us felt afraid and helpless -- we didn’t know what to do. We had received informal training by teachers earlier, that taught us how to escape in case of any fire in the building, but I feel these training courses are meaningless unless the building has proper equipment to fight and control the fire,” she says.

According to Al-Youssef, the training courses taught them to start running quickly whenever they hear the fire alarm bell. “The problem is, that if all the students start running to use the same stairs -- which are the only means of escaping -- there will be big crowd there and students may get trampled in the rush, since the stairway is quite narrow.”

Al-Youssef remembers that when the fire broke out at her school, not all the students were able to arrive at the gate, the stairs were very crowded and many students fell and injured themselves while trying to get out.

According to Thuriyah Aabed, a Saudi teacher in an intermediate school, the back gate and front entrance to girls’ schools are usually locked, ostensibly for the girls’ safety, once school starts. Moreover, there is usually a high fence around girls’ schools, which acts as a virtual gridlock and cages the girls in, preventing them from escaping in case of an accident.

“Most of the girls and staff would not be able to escape if a fire breaks out in the building, because the front gate is closed by the guard. I shudder to think what would happen if the guard leaves his post (which, happens very often) and a fire breaks out suddenly,” she said.

Recently, there have been reports in many newspapers that the Ministry of Education has asked school authorities not to call the Civil Defense if any fire breaks out, but they should call the Ministry of Education first.

The main problem that girls’ schools are suffering from, is not having an ideal school building with open spaces. “Most of the girls’ schools are rented buildings, and the electricity in them is designed to take the load of apartments, not multiple ACs, like we have in most school classes,” she added. “If a residential building is used as a school, the electricity used becomes double, which is the main reason why there are more fires in girls schools than boys’ schools -- there are proper school buildings designed for boys,” Al-Jehani said.

According to Al-Jehani, the stairs that the girls use to go to their classes are too narrow , it is difficult to breathe on the cramped stairway during normal days, how can they use this stairway to escape quickly from a fire?

“The space around the stairs is around 84 centimeter [33 inches] and around 600 students are expected to escape through these stairs -- it is impossible to empty the building without having any wounded,” she said.

So boys schools in the Magic Kingdom are built like schools. Girls' schools are converted apartments. Boys' schools are open, girls' schools are cramped.

And boys' schools don't have freaking high fences and locked gates around them to "protect" them.

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What is a child?

In the New York Times article on Hezbollah last week, this was mentioned:

Hezbollah officials often casually mention the link between the Scouts and the guerrilla force.“After age 16 the boys mostly go to resistance or military activities,” said Bilal Naim, who served as Hezbollah’s director for the Mahdi Scouts until last year.

I have seen similar, offhand claims mentioned in the context of Palestinian Arab terrorist groups - they will recruit and accept teenage boys (or girls) as full members.

According to the IDF:

• Since the beginning of violence in the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, 29 suicide attacks have been carried out by youth under the age of 18.
• Since May 2001, 22 shootings attacks and attacks using explosive devices were carried out by youth under the age of 18.
• Since the beginning of 2001, more than 40 youths under the age of 18 were involved in attempted suicide bombings that were thwarted (of them, three during 2004).

This is of course not something that started in the year 2000. This Life magazine cover from 1970 shows that clearly:
Yet the statistics that are given to the Western media will, without exception, refer to any Palestinian Arab victim in the violence who is under 18 as being a "child."

If one subtracts the numbers of child victims who are "young adults" from the total number of Palestinian Arab child victims, the total goes way down. Clearly a disproportionate number of Palestinian Arab children killed are 16 or 17 - 34 of the 80 listed in the PCHR annual report this year, with an additional 9 who were 15. This is hardly a pattern of indiscriminate violence against children when the majority of the victims are over 15.

Which brings up the question: if Arab society recognizes teenagers as being full adults in war, why should human rights organizations consider them children?

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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.

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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

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