20-year-old Nidal As’ad Abu Jami was electrocuted on Saturday morning inside a tunnel under the border between Egypt and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, local medical sources said.
Apparently, Gaza has enough electricity for smuggling tunnels!
The media has been spending a great deal of time in anguish over the situation of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza.
There are a few million other PalArabs, however, in the West Bank. And while life in Gaza gets worse, things in the West Bank are getting markedly better:
Unprecedented military coordination and a sincere effort by the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Hamas has led to a unique economic surge in the West Bank in the past year, according to an internal Defense Ministry report obtained on Monday by The Jerusalem Post.
Prepared by the IDF's Civil Administration, the report cites a three percent drop to 16% in Palestinian unemployment since the beginning of the year. In addition, the report cites a 24% increase in Palestinian average daily wages, up from NIS 70 in 2007 to NIS 86.9.
The stats were collected in recent months from a variety of sources, including the PA and the United Nations International Labor Organization. Since the beginning of the year, the IDF has also removed 113 roadblocks and dirt mounds throughout the West Bank, enabling easier travel between Palestinian cities.
Officers in the Civil Administration said the economic surge was the result of a number of parallel factors but was mainly due to improved coordination between Israel and the PA, as well as a decision by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to make a concerted effort to stop Hamas' build-up in the West Bank.
There was also a 10% increase in the number of workers employed in settlements - up from 23,000 in 2007 to 26,000 in 2008, as well as a 10% increase in the permits issued for Palestinians working in Israel - 23,000 compared to 21,000 in 2007. [The percent increase for workers in the settlements is actually 13% - EoZ]
Does this mean that Palestinian Arabs who fight against terror benefit, and those who support terror lose out?
Another report:
In Ramallah, site of the Palestinian National Authority, business booms and street life is vibrant. Housing construction, which enjoyed a big boom in the 90s when peace seemed imminent, only to collapse with the advent of the 2000 intifada, appears back in business. Cafe life, especially in the more Christian districts, has regained some of the European-style the city was famous for prior to the 1987 intifada. Several boutique hotels do a fine trade and a mighty Movenpick hotel (after several false starts) is due to open in the new year.
...Many shops in Ramallah are superior to anything found in Arab east Jerusalem, so a large number of Jerusalemites are actually going to Ramallah to shop.
In another Palestinian city, Hebron, living conditions also are surprisingly healthy, at least for the 80 per cent of Palestinians fortunate enough to live in area H1. Shops flourish, people are working, and the roads are remarkably efficient. There even are traffic lights, carefully obeyed, in neighbourhoods where chaos reigned supreme just a few years ago.
Hebron also was famous for the grilled chicken restaurants that line the main street, and some of the best have now moved to luxurious new premises.
35% Increase in trade between Israel and the PA
87% Increase in tourism to Bethlehem
953% increase of importing vehicles to the PA
A sharp increase in export of agricultural produce from the West Bank to the Israeli market. 92,000 tons, compared to 30,000 in 2007. (much of it due to Shmitah)
Signing of the allocation agreement between Israel and the PA for a second cellular company ("Watania").
For those who are not congenitally anti-Israel, it is obvious that Israel doesn't want to make Palestinian Arab lives miserable. Israelis want to find a win-win solution where everyone benefits. The PA, for all its faults, has been acting more responsibly lately - more in its own self-interest than in Israel's - and the results are clear. Hamas acts much worse, and it gets treated worse - not only by Israel but by Egypt as well.
The West Bank gains are proof that all of the Israel-bashers who keep trotting out their calumnies about Zionist ethnic cleansing are simply liars. Israel has no obligation to help a territory/statelet that is sworn to its destruction, but it has every interest in helping Palestinian Arabs succeed economically and securely.
The Palestinian Arabs themselves see this much more clearly than those sophisticated Western analysts. The biased audio report I linked to this morning from NPR, where a former Hamas supporter in Gaza rues her vote, is a voice that the MSM does not want us to hear because the "Israeli siege" meme is the accepted narrative.
Ordinary Palestinian Arabs are the major beneficiaries of peace - real peace, real cooperation, on the ground. Israel, even in the midst of rocket barrages from the south, is working hard to improve the lives of those in the east.
The economy was booming before the Intifada as well. Those who blame Israel for defending herself from terror are not being "pro-Palestinian" - they are Jew-haters who are, at best, indifferent to the plight of the Palestinian Arabs they pretend to love so much.
It is not Israel that stops Palestinian Arabs from thriving and succeeding - it is a direct result of how their leadership chooses to act.
Why is this so hard for the mainstream media to understand?
In other link news, my joke Am Yisrael Chai page on Fateh.net got some attention from Global Voices. The page has already received hundreds of hits, including from the Palestinian Arab territories and Egypt.
In commemoration, I hereby dedicate this Open Thread!
Total German-Iranian trade volume rose 7.8 percent between January and September of this year compared to same the corresponding period in 2007, the Federal Statistical Office based in the south German city of Wiesbaden reported Tuesday.
The overall bilateral trade volume until the end of September stood at 3.233865 billion euros, compared to 2.980734 billion euros last year.
German exports to Iran increased 8.9 percent and comprised 84.7 percent of the total German-Iranian trade volume.
The expanding bilateral economic ties come amid fierce political pressure by the German Zionist lobby to force Berlin to cut its business relations with Tehran over the impasse in the Iranian nuclear dispute.
German companies have stepped up their criticism of the German government for backing UN financial sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying their business interests have been severely affected by the controversial political move.
The Managing Director of the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA) Jens Nagel has repeatedly lambasted "unilateral sanctions on Iran as totally incomprehensible."
Several renowned German companies are involved in major Iranian infrastructure projects, especially in the petrochemical sector, like Linde, BASF, Lurgi, Krupp, Siemens, ZF Friedrichshafen, Mercedes, Volkswagen and MAN.
Around 50 German firms have their own branch offices in Iran and more than 12,000 firms have their own trade representatives in the country.
Extrapolating the numbers through September to the end of the year shows that the trade between Iran and Germany is now at $5.5 billion annually.
Practically all of the companies mentioned are part of the Forced/Slave Labor Compensation Fund, set up by the German government to help pay Holocaust survivors and others for the labor they were forced to do during World War II. It also includes a foundation for human rights - and immunity from lawsuits from during the Nazi era.
While some of these companies didn't exist during the Holocaust, it is more than a little unsettling that the German industries that enthusiastically participated in atrocities are now just as enthusiastically bankrolling another genocidal regime, and justifying it in a similar manner.
Last week, Israel's Foreign Press Association protested Israel's blocking reporters from entering Gaza. One of the reasons it gave was that "This blackout of the Gaza Strip is hurting Israel's image in the eyes of the world."
And Reporters Sans Frontieres wrote a letter to Olmert claiming that “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.”
I pointed out then that the Palestinian Arab reporters from Gaza were truly the only source of unbiased information. As bad as they are, they are brave enough to criticize Hamas, something that those objective foreign reporters shy away from while they have no hesitation bashing Israel.
A case in point is NPR's Lisa Gradstein, who wasted no time going into Gaza to file this audio report. She interviews a woman, a long-time supporter of Hamas, who tried to persuade other women to vote for Hamas as well. But now, Gradstein continues incredulously, she blames Hamas for the current situation, and says she wishes she never voted for them.
So does Gradstein go on to find out why Gazans blame Hamas? Of course not - she goes on to say how "other people" say that life is better under Hamas - better security, and less traffic congestion! Then she says "many people" blame Israel's siege for their predicament, and goes on to find those people - people like the UNRWA's John Ging. The next two minutes is all about Israel's culpability, and not a word critical of Hamas.
In other words, Gradstein already had the narrative she wanted to tell - that Gazans blame Israel exclusively - and she didn't let facts get in her way.
The remix of Busta Rhymes’ song Arab Money has caused a bit of a commotion among British and U.S. Muslims. The song, which features some of the biggest names in Hip Hop - including P Diddy, Lil Wayne and Akon, and produced by hip hop powerhouse Swiss Beats - features vocals which consist of lines off Surah Fateha, from the Holy Quran. To cause further anguish, the song is a very typical hip hop club anthem, with the rappers openly boasting about their girls, gambling, drinking and money. Blogs, forums, and social networks have been fervouring with the spread of the track, with many Muslims calling the song racist, disrespectful and offensive.
Further to using the line “Bismillahi r-rahmani r-rahim. Al hamdu lillahi rabbi l-’ālamin” (translated to: “in the name of Allah, most gracious most merciful. All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds”) as the chorus, the song contains lyrics such as “…dropping bombs like the Taleban“, “sitting in casinos while I’m gambling with Arafat…“, “…while I make you bow down and make Salaat like a Muslim“, “all the girls love me, yeah pop some bubbly“.
It seems that many Muslims are angry because the verses in the Quran are very sacred, and saying such things within the same breath comes across as nothing short of inflammatory.
The casualties so far have been award winning DJ, DJ Steve Sutherland, who was temporarily suspended after Galaxy FM received a string of complaints from it’s listeners after he played the song live on his radio programme on Saturday night. The radio station has since released a formal apology, both live on air and on its website, acknowledging that the song is offensive to Muslims, and that a “full internal investigation” is taking place.
No other major UK radio station has played the song, and from the reaction received to Galaxy FM, it would be very surprising if they did. Busta Rhymes nor his record label, Universal Motown, have yet made any official comments.
Here is the video:
And the lyrics are:
Ron Browz, yes! Oh, we back in the most amazin' way Well, lemme introduce you to the new talk Let's get straight to it C'mon!
[Chorus: Ron Browz] Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money! Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money!
[Verse 1: Busta Rhymes] Now, there ain't no way that you could kill the beast dead I got Middle East women and Middle East bread I got oil well money in the desert playing golf Dolce shorts, dashiki with a Louie Scarf Chest cold, diamonds make a nigga wanna cough In Dubai, 20 million on the villa loft And then I step up in the club and then these other niggas mad as shit The way I make the people wanna sing the hook in Arabic!
[Chorus: Ron Browz] Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money! Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money!
[Verse 2: Busta Rhymes] Seven star hotels, Maybach, movie sick Big bitches, knock-kneed camel-toed groupie shit Women walk around while security on camelback Club on fire now, niggas don't know how to act Sittin' in casinos while I'm gamblin' with Arafat Money long, watch me purchase pieces of the Almanac Y'all already know, I got the streets buzzin' While I make you bow down and make Salaat like a Muslim
[Chorus: Ron Browz] Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money! Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money!
[Verse 3: Busta Rhymes] See, now I take trips to Baghdad dummy While I use stacked chips and count Arab money now I don't need to get fresh, about to grow a beard duke So much cake even the money look weird too Domestic bread, and I'm broad, I'm tryna eat right Prince Alwali, Bin Talal, Al Saul They respect the value of my worth in Maui, Malaysia Iran and Iraq, Saudi Arabia!
[Chorus: Ron Browz] Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money! Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Alhumdulillahi Rabil A’lameen We gettin' Arab money! We gettin' Arab money!
Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson today denounced the Shnayder family, owners of the value import store, Net Cost Market, for stocking and selling dozens of packages of roasted sunflower seeds featuring a caricature of a greedy-and-sinister-looking Jew, complete with skullcap, on the label. The Cyrillic letters on the left of the label read, “Shalom, from Israel,” while the right side employs a slang phrase meaning “spit them out everywhere,” alluding to “dirty Jews.” The seeds are available in both 5.5 and 10.5 ounce bags. A survey conducted by Hikind’s office revealed that the seed bags are being sold in all four of Net Cost Market’s Brooklyn locations for a mere $0.99 to $1.99 per bag depending on size.
“I was absolutely appalled when I saw this label,” said an outraged Hikind. “Net Cost Market has become a complicit partner in the dissemination of hatred against Jews. With each bag sold, the Shnayders are literally sowing seeds of hate.” At three of the four locations, consumers who spent $50 or more were given the package of seeds as a promotional gift right at the checkout counter.
Net Cost Market bills itself as the “Costco of the ethnic Eastern European market,” and offers a wide assortment of imports from all over Eastern Europe. The roasted sunflower seeds are produced in the Former Soviet Union by Kremlin Kitchen. “I was not surprised to learn that this anti-Semitic product is being made in Russia,” said Hikind. “
(Update) Hikind just received word from Edward Shnayder of Net Cost Market that all packages of the roasted sunflower seeds featuring a caricature of a greedy-and-sinister-looking Jew, complete with skullcap, on the label are being pulled from the shelves in all four stores effectively immediately.
Whatever your opinions about the house in Hebron that Jews claim to have legally purchased and that the IDF violently evacuated today, one cannot argue that Ha'aretz has been a major factor in inciting the Israeli public against it.
According to Google, Ha'aretz has called this building - named "The Peace House" by the Jews who lived there - the "house of contention" over 900 times since it hit the news last year. More recently it didn't even bother to put scare quotes around that name - it reported as if that is its real name.
This use of the inflammatory name was in editorials as well as straight news articles. Commenters complained and Ha'aretz didn't deign to respond.
Even though Ha'aretz was the only major Israeli news outlet to use that term, it used it so often that wire services started saying that "the Israeli media dubbed" the house with that name.
This is not how a respected newspaper should do things. On the contrary, this is how one would expect a trashy tabloid to act - one that tries to create the news more than it strives to report it.
This is nothing less than explicit media incitement against a significant segment of Israeli society.
Of course, Ha'aretz explicitly admits that it does not try to be objective. The question is why the world still considers it to be a respected newspaper.
Israel also loosened restrictions on travel for Israeli Arabs to the northern West Bank. Starting today, many cars and trucks will be allowed into Nablus without a permit, and some checkpoints will be eliminated.
Now, did you know any of this from the mainstream or even Israeli media?
Hamas denied published reports that it would allow Gaza pilgrims to travel today through Rafah to the Hajj in Mecca. Today would be the last day where pilgrims would have a practical chance of making it to Saudi Arabia in time.
The Rafah tunnel industry is now shipping at the rate of some $700 million of goods annually, far more than they ever got from Egypt in the past.
Last month, there was a much-heralded "interfaith conference" at the UN. Initiated by Saudi King Abdullah, the West looked upon it as "promoting the culture of peace."
Over the past three days, the Muslim World League held another conference in Jeddah. From the Saudi Gazette:
The Kingdom is exerting all efforts to unite Muslims of the world to jointly face various challenges and attempts to defame Islam, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, said here on Sunday.
Presiding over the 9th Makkah Conference on behalf of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Prince Khaled said it was essential to introduce the correct teachings of Islam to non-Muslims and Muslims living in non-Muslim countries.
The theme of the conference under the aegis of the Muslim World League is ‘Introducing Islam to non-Muslim countries in reality and expectation.”
It has become essential to introduce Islam to non-Muslim countries and present them the true picture of Islam, he said. The recent interfaith dialogue meeting at United Nations at the initiative of King Abdullah is a proof of the Kingdom’s keenness to serve Islam, the Emir said.
You mean, the "interfaith dialogue" was not meant for Muslims to learn about other faiths? Shocking!
And, of course, at the end of the conference, in the final statement:
It said Muslim countries must introduce Islam to non-Muslim countries as part of efforts to improve foreign relations.
“They should also make use of their good relations with Western countries to enact laws preventing the denigration of Islam and Muslim personalities,” said a final communiqué issued after the conference.
In it, he makes the incredibly bizarre assertion that Chabad is a worldwide network of spies, and that the Holtzbergs were Mossad agents:
There is an even more sinister aspect to the Lubavitcher organization.
Because Lubavitcher outreach offices are located in some of the most important political, corporate and university centers throughout the world, the Lubavitchers have put together a network that is incomparable for corporate and international espionage as well as for the secret exchange of information. Because Chabad Houses could potentially act as safe houses, where there would be no record of a person's stay, the Lubavitcher outreach network is far superior to that of Aish HaTorah for covert operations.
Most people do not take the Lubavitchers seriously, but I have visited Chabad houses and encountered senior Israeli government or military officials (and probably intelligence agents). One can easily imagine that Neocon intelligentsia trying to develop a relationship with Hindutva (हिन्दुत्व) intelligentsia or politicians might have used the Chabad Nariman House as a meeting place.
Because the Lubavitchers provide an unconditional welcome to all Jews in the hope of bringing them closer to the Lubavitcher way of life, not only have the Lubavitchers been open to potential subversion by Israeli intelligence organizations, but in general Mossad and Shin Bet have found it quite easy to penetrate the haredi community as the two organizations managed to do both in Israel and also in the USA...
To Zionize haredi groups that practice outreach, the Israeli government need only give encouragement to Zionistically indoctrinated Hebrew-speaking young people to participate in outreach programs, and in a few years the targeted haredi community is thoroughly enmeshed in Zionist thinking while Israeli intelligence organizations have a new crop of saya`nim in place ready to serve in Zionist covert operations.
The Lubavitcher shluchim (outreach emissaries) Gavriel Noach and Rivkah Holtzberg fit the saya`an profile to a "T" -- especially Rivkah.
If the Israeli government wanted to put someone into a place with more direct influence over the leadership over the Lubavitchers or another Charedi group, it is just a matter of training agents with the proper intellectual skills to pose as hozrim bitshuvah (returnees). Within a few decades, Israeli intelligence would be running a large easily mobilized Charedi community while the ordinary haredi members would not have a clue.
Who is Joachim Martillo?
I used to read Usenet in the late 1980s, and Martillo was an active poster in various groups. In the beginning, he represented himself as a Sephardic Jew with an overwhelming hatred for Arabs and Ashkenazi Jews. For example, in this message from 1990:
In practically every way, Palestinians are a thoroughly dispicable community whose bigotry and fanaticism prevents them from joining the modern world and who deserve much worse punishment than they are receiving (apparently mostly at their own hands -- poetic justice or the cunning of history, if I have ever seen it).
>(2) Ashkenazik customs are inferior to Sephardic customs > with regard to expressing Jewish sentiments or beliefs.
At least in tefillah and probably in other regards this is halakah. You may check the responsa of Jacob of Emden (an Ashkenazi), ii, 15. Luzzato holds similar opinions. I believe the Vilna Gaon also expressed this opinion but I am not certain. Nathan Adler in Germany considered Ashkenazi pronunciation erroneus.
At some point in the mid-90s, though, Martillo (then calling himself by many variants, including Juan Carlo Santos Martillo Ajami) claimed to have never been Jewish. He became rabidly anti-Zionist, which he remains today, having posted long, unintelligible articles in major anti-semitic and anti-Zionist websites.
He apparently is quite a TCP/IP network guru.
He married a Muslim woman in 2002, who would say things like "don't trust any kaffirs" while at the same time pretending to be an activist for social justice.
He quotes both Pirkei Avot and the Quran on his blog.
The guy is proof positive that a high IQ and a great deal of knowledge - which he clearly has - does not mean that one has any sense.
(Why he identifies himself now as an ethnic Ashkenazi is anyone's guess.)
From Al-Ahram, whose content is controlled by an Egyptian ministry:
Although Egypt opened the Rafah crossing for three days, the Palestinians pilgrims did not reach it since the Hamas militia stopped them from crossing, allegedly for visa reasons.
These Palestinian pilgrims therefore cannot the visas from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and cannot go to the Ka'ba in Mecca, to Mount Mercy in Arafat.
But Hamas men used force and militia, beat the elderly, shed blood on the ritual clothing and fired tear gas and bullets on a bus carrying pilgrims in the Gaza Strip, to prevent access to the crossing, which led to injury 13 of them.
With that, senseless and irresponsible, the Islamic movement Hamas has revealed its true face, which usurped power is the name of religion, and disrupted one of the most important pillars of Islam, and prevented thousands of Palestinians from performing the Hajj, and assaulted the guests Rahman, and prevented them from completing elements of their religion.
Israel has never committed such an act since it occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967, and no one could have imagined that Hamas would do such an act, which it claims is an Islamic movement governed according to the laws of God!!
The mask has fallen, which Hamas has worn for years.
Egypt did not fail .. it did not hesitate to give all it could, and there is no liability on Egypt in this context, can not make more than made .. No one can be required to try harder than that.
As EBoZ points out in the comments, Hamas' reaction was predictable, as written in the Israeli Walla website:
Hamas demanded that the Government of Egypt "put an end to abuse and serve as a mouthpiece of the Zionists". According to Hamas, Al Ahram writers take advantage of the Egyptian democracy to attack "honorable Arab officials," in their words.
Some insane Jew-hating Muslim linked to my site for proof of a Hindu-Zionist conspiracy against Islam.
One of his proofs was this picture that was on an MSN "Hindu Zionist" group, which apparently has approximately one member.
Further research shows that this group got that picture from exoticindiaart.com which shows that the six pointed star is a recurring motif in Indian art: And so are swastikas, as in this jarring image: Which means I just uncovered the Hindu-Zionist-Nazi connection!
Palestinian militants fired three Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Wednesday, further unraveling an Israel-Hamas truce in the Gaza Strip.
The rockets struck open areas near a Kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.
Gaza militants earlier in the day fired a volley of mortar shells into Israel, one of which damaged a power cable transferring electricity to the energy-strapped Gaza Strip, according to Army Radio.
Exactly how much of the "power crisis" in Gaza is Israel's fault again?
(Fatah-linked Firas Press reports on electricity failing in Gaza but doesn't mention any mortars.)
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Elder of Ziyon
