Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

For news junkies....

I try to find topics that are not being covered well elsewhere, but for the main headlines and inside information about the current Gaza op I recommend these three essential blogs:

Aussie Dave at Israellycool has been liveblogging from the beginning, with a bemused attitude. Lots of links to insightful/interesting/humorous pictures and videos.

Jameel at The Muqata has likewise been liveblogging, a bit straighter than Israellycool but with many links you wouldn't know about otherwise. He also is tweeting on Twitter.

Omri at Mere Rhetoric has been writing posts at a mind-boggling pace. His writing is wonderfully sardonic, amusingly snarky and extraordinarily link-dense. Those links bring up a complete hypertext world of relevant facts that we've all seen and forgotten.

Why would Israel bomb a university? Here's why!

Ma'an (as well as many other pro-Hamas venues) publishes an article from a professor at Islamic University in Gaza that asks, plaintively:

Why would Israel bomb a university? - By Dr Akram Habeeb

As a Fulbright scholar and professor of American literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, I have always preferred to keep silent about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I always felt that it was my mission to preach love and peaceful coexistence. However, Israel's massive offensive against the Gaza Strip has spurred me to speak out.

When I learned that Israel had bombed my university with American-made F-16s, I realized that its "target bank" had gone bankrupt. Of course Israeli politicians and generals would claim that the Islamic University is a Hamas stronghold and that it preaches terrorism.

As an independent professor not affiliated with any political party, I can say that IUG is an academic institution which embraces a wide spectrum of political affinities. I see it as prestigious university which encourages liberalism and free thought.

This personal point of view might seem to be biased; therefore, I would invite anyone who would doubt my assertions to browse IUG's website and research its history. They would learn about its membership in various international academic institutions, the active role its professors play in scholarly research as well as prizes and research grants they have received.

Why would Israel bomb a university? Israel did not only target my university last night. It also bombed mosques, pharmacies and homes.

...Israel itself chose to wage its wars to eliminate the indigenous people of Palestine.

How heart-rending! A university, dedicated to independent and liberal thought, bombed heartlessly by the Zionists who want nothing less than genocide against all Arabs of Palestine.

A little research shows that Islamic University is not quite as idyllic as the good professor implies.

From YNet, February 2, 2007:

Kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit spent most of his time in captivity imprisoned on the campus of the Islamic University in Gaza, said senior Palestinian sources on Monday.
Shalit was kidnapped on June 25th 2006 and up until three months ago had been held at the university – a prominent Hamas stronghold – but arguments amongst his captors led to his relocation.
The Islamic University is under complete Hamas control, with faculty members and students alike all loyal to the organization.
Palestinian officials have labeled the university a "sanctuary for wanted men" and they note that Hamas mastermind Yahya Ayyash fled from the West Bank to Gaza in 1995 and hid in the Islamic University for several months during the time he was being pursued by Israeli forces for his role in numerous suicide bombings in the 90's.
Ayyash and other wanted Hamas members took advantage of the fact that none but Hamas loyalists set foot in the university.
That changed last Thursday when troops from Fatah's Force 17 raided the university campus, confiscating some 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles, hundreds of RPG launchers and massive amounts of ammunition.

Fatah troops also uncovered a tunnel opening leading all the way to the Palestinian Police headquarters in Gaza City. Estimates suggest Hamas had intended to fill the tunnel with explosives and destroy the police building.

But isn't that normal behavior in prestigious universities which encourage liberalism and free thought?

Dr. Habeeb is also being a little less than honest when he claims he prefers to stay silent about the conflict. Somehow, his quiet opinions made it into the Washington Post in 2006, in the wake of Hamas' election victory:

Akram Habeeb, 50, who teaches American literature at Gaza's Islamic University, was just as optimistic. "Hamas possesses the potential to establish itself as the Palestinians' most reliable political party" in the world's eyes, he said. "Hamas has a clear vision for a stable and corruption-free Palestine. "
Habeeb was adamant in his belief that Hamas would not allow international donors to "blackmail" the Palestinian people. "Palestine's land has been occupied for long and we have nothing but dignity, so we won't sell our land for the donors' funds." If donors continue to insist that Hamas change its position on Israel, he said, the new Palestinian government would have to "find alternatives" -- presumably among wealthy Arab nations. Experience has given us little reason to expect that will happen, but Habeeb insisted: "Increasing local, regional and even international investments in Palestine will certainly have a strong boosting effect on the ailing economy, especially when Hamas duplicates what it did in the municipalities.
"Certainly some groups at the end of the day will try to sabotage Hamas's efforts but they will fail because most Palestinians have already said the word: Hamas is our legitimate and democratically elected representative."

It sure sounds like he favors the side that supports the genocide of all Jews in the Middle East, doesn't it? Perhaps his determination that Hamas never, ever recognize Israel counts as "love and peaceful coexistence" in his eyes.

So we now know that Hamas used Islamic University for storing weapons, for holding hostages, for planning attacks and for acting as a safehouse for terrorists.

The IDF claimed after the bombing that the university was where Hamas did its research and development of rockets and explosives. This is more than plausible - it also was the place where Hamas recruited a young woman to build suicide bomb belts and to teach others how to build bombs.

Does this answer your question, Dr. Habeeb?

Another day, another lying propagandist for Hamas.

Pajamas Media has more about Islamic U.'s research facilities, where it gets funding from and more details on its terror history.

Protests don't reflect reality

The media has a field day covering the many protests against Israel happening worldwide. The protests are colorful; they always have someone photogenic to publish or a gimmick that makes good copy. The impression one gets is that there is a broad-based mass of people who are genuinely concerned about Gazan lives and aghast at Israeli policy.

While there are certainly no shortage of rabid Israel-bashers in this world, the coverage of these protests shows a deceptive picture.

For one thing, the media usually doesn't mention the groups behind the protests. for example, the one pictured on the right, in Jakarta, was sponsored by radical Islamist group Hizb-ut Tahrir. You woldn't know that unless you look carefully at the entire sign, not shown in this picture but visible here. That group wants to create a pan-Muslim nation that would of course include "Palestine" where Jews would not be the most welcome members.

Other groups sponsoring protests include the Communist Party of India and Hezbollah, not to mention the so-called "peace" groups who have nothing bad to say about thousands of Qassam rockets.

Another point to keep in mind about protests is that even the most Zionist is not going to create a rally supporting a war. This is not a war of choice but of necessity, as the alternatives have all been tried and failed.

Once you take away the people who want Israel to be destroyed out of the picture, the number of protesters is not very significant. Almost by definition, these protesters prefer Hamas terrorists living in peace in the Middle East to Jews doing the same.

The fact is that most governments and sober-minded people, even critics of Israel and even Arab leaders, know that Hamas and its ideology is a serious danger to world peace. They either secretly or openly want to see Israel topple Hamas. Fatah isn't going to do it, Gazans aren't going to, and neither is Egypt. They know that only Israel has a chance - and even that is by no means assured.

The media, by spending so much time covering these protests that are little more than photo-ops for people dedicated to hate, is giving the false impression that the world supports Hamas. Over time, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why it is vitally important to be vigilant about this sort of subtle bias and point it out. So far, media coverage has not been as bad as it has been in the past, but that can change very fast. We have to keep on top of how even innocuous images can effectively become Hamas' best weapon.

Open thread

People have a lot to say, so I will provide a spot for them to say it.

Also, if anyone can find an old-fashioned rendition of Hava Nagila, fast and preferably sung only by a bunch of men, please let me know. I have an idea for a video that should be pretty funny but I need that music. YouTube has a huge number of Hava Nagilas but I couldn't find any that fit the bill, although some of them are mind-blowing.

Saudi family tries to marry off 5 and 11 year old daughters

From Adnkronos (h/t Dhimmi Watch):

A doctor in Saudi Arabia was able to stop the wedding of a five and 11 year-old whose family wanted to marry them to protect financial assets. "Thanks to the law that compels spouses to carry out blood analyses before marriage, we were able to stop a wedding with underage girls, among them a five year-old," said Hani Harsani, the doctor in charge of laboratory analysis in an interview with Saudi daily al-Watan.

"Two sisters came to us accompanied by their parents to undergo pre-marital blood analyses. The first one was five, and the other 11 years-old. When we asked the mother why they wanted to do the tests, she told us that she wanted to marry the girls to cousins to preserve the family's property rights."

During the interview, Harsani remembers an episode when a 10-year-old orphan was brought to do pre-marital blood tests by her brother, who wanted to marry the sister to a 40-year-old friend who already had two other wives.

"We cannot technically impede a marriage with a girl of this age. However, we can delay the process (by refusing to carry out the tests)," said Harsani.

The unanswered question is what stops the family to find a less ethical doctor?

Palestinian Authority blames Hamas for Gaza deaths

From MEMRI (h/t jhrhv):

In his visit to Egypt, PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) placed the responsibility for the Israeli attack on Hamas, saying, "We called the leaders of Hamas, and told them both directly and directly, through Arab parties and non-Arab parties. We talked with them on the phone. We told them, 'Please, do not end the tahdiah.'"

Nimr Hammad, an advisor to Mahmoud Abbas, said: "The one responsible for the massacres is Hamas, and not the Zionist entity, which in its own view reacted to the firing of Palestinian missiles. Hamas needs to stop treating the blood of Palestinians lightly. They should not give the Israelis a pretext." He called upon the leaders of Hamas to stop carrying out "operations which reflect recklessness, such as the firing of missiles."
Bassem Abu-Sumayyah, director of the Palestinian TV & Radio Authority and columnist for the PLO daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, reiterated the accusation that "Hamas blocked its ears… They should have had even a little bit of political and security sense, and not left the people wandering, and losing their way, getting killed and injured. It is clear that Hamas was struck by megalomania since they took over Gaza, which blinded them so they would not listen to any advice.
Editor of the PLO daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Hafez Al-Barghouthi criticized Hamas for not prolonging the tahdiah, and for kidnapping Gilad Shalit: "Prolonging the tahdiah was a supreme national interest. Why hasn't [Hamas] prevented the aggression and the massacre? How many times have we written, and President Abu Mazen has declared, that these missiles [that Hamas is firing at Israel] as ineffective and contrary to the supreme national interest.
Columnist Muwaffaq Matar called for creating an internal Palestinian investigation committee, and blamed Hamas for being responsible for the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza: "Will we learn the lesson, or are our leaders going to run away from bearing responsibility, as they usually do? ...What did the commanders in Gaza expect? That the commanders of the Israeli army will let them know what is the zero hour, so that they will remove their people from the military and security headquarters?.
Abdallah Awwad, columnist for the PA daily Al-Ayyam, argued against Hamas' attempt to be both a government as well as a fighting resistance: "The Israeli incursions after 2000 [during the Al-Aqsa Intifada] and the destruction of the PLO headquarters were enough [for the PLO] to see the incompatibility of being a government at the same time as fighting the resistance… We are paying the price of stupidity, and the maniacal love of being rulers, that has nothing in it except for hollow slogans.

It bears repeating that at the exact same time that Gaza was going downhill under Hamas rule, the West Bank has been economically booming - as the PA started to take responsibility for its own people, Israel has been easing restrictions, and the result has been that West Bank residents' quality of life has been improving dramatically. This proves that Israel is not a racist entity hell-bent on enslaving Palestinian Arabs but a pragmatic country that yearns to live in peace with its Arab neighbors and takes its security seriously.

And it underlines that Hamas is indeed the party responsible for what a hellhole Gaza has become.

I'm nominated for the 2008 Weblog Awards

Elder of Ziyon has been nominated for the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Middle Eastern or Africa Blog. And I am in very good company.

I was similarly nominated in 2006 and was roundly destroyed in the final round, getting less than 10% of the vote of the winner. So to make it interesting I announced my goal to beat The Sudanese Thinker for a distant fourth place, which I managed to get at the last minute.

This year I expect to do about the same as I did then. The category includes some serious heavyweights:

Michael J. Totten - Excellent professional journalist who ran away with the award last year
Martin Kramer on the Middle East - A prolific author, professor and noted Middle East expert. Oh, great.
Fundamentally Freund - Writer who blogs for Israel National News
My Marrakesh - The adventures of an American family in Morocco
Informed Comment - Juan Cole's site. I would love to beat him just to prove how irrelevant he really is. Unfortunately, he'll get 100% of the moonbat vote.
The Sudanese Thinker - my old nemesis. We meet again!
Muslimah Media Watch - I don't know it, but it looks interesting.
Days of My Life - An articulate teenage girl in Iraq.
Israellycool - Popular and essential Israeli blog where I contribute posts as well
Elder of Ziyon - um, who? Some anonymous guy who doesn't even live in the Middle East! What's he doing here?

There were some 23 nominations, so it is a great honor to have been chosen to even compete in this category. I'll let you all know when the voting begins.

Other Israel-themed blogs that were nominated in other categories include Daled Amos, Israel Matzav, and Snapped Shot. Congratulations!

UN Lies

I caught the statement from UNRWA head Karen Abu Zayd and was going to spend some time showing that it was false, but Omri and Meryl Yourish did it first, and better.

Meryl's synopsis:

Here’s what Omri caught:
“What we understood here (was) that there was a 48-hour lull to be called, and this was called by the Israelis,” Abu Zayd said. “They said they would wait 48 hours. That was on Friday morning, I believe, until Sunday morning, and that they were going to evaluate.”

“There was only one rocket that went out on Friday, so it was obvious that Hamas was trying, again, to observe that truce to get this back under control,” she said.

“Then, everything got loose on Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. We were all at work and very much surprised by this,” Abu Zayd said.

Here’s what’s wrong with Abu Zayd’s facts: Everything. She is lying through her teeth. Hamas was not “trying, again, to observe that truce.” Hamas was firing rockets and mortars at will.

Dozens of mortar shells and Qassams have been fired at Israel since Thursday night. Several mortar shells were launched while Israel opened border crossings to allow humanitarian aid into the Strip, but all of them landed within Palestinian territory.

Heads of the Gaza vicinity communities were outraged Friday by Israel’s decision to allow 40 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, despite the incessant rocket and mortar fire at the western Negev.

The AP could easily fact-check this article by looking in their own archives.

The militants kept up their fire on Israeli border areas despite Israel’s agreement to open its crossings Friday. In all, 13 rockets and mortars were fired toward Israel by Friday evening, the military said. One home was struck but no injuries were reported.

And yet, the AP is passing along Abu Zayd’s lies, uncritically.

There was a time that the UNRWA actually had scruples and morals, and tried to do the right thing. That time passed over fifty years ago, as it transformed from an organization that tried to end the Arab refugee problem into one that was dedicated to prolonging it.

Free Gaza freaks turned away

Israel wisely decided not to allow the Free Gaza publicity hounds to arrive in a war zone. The FGM claims that the Israeli Navy rammed and fired on their boat; Israel says that they told the ship to stop and it kept going and rammed into the Israeli boat.

The Free Gaza mailing list quotes a Ha'aretz article about the incident but prefixes it with "We all know the Israelis are inveterate liars, so I wouldn't assume any of it is actually true."

Since there were journalists on board, I am sure that a video will soon be available showing whether Israel fired at them. The CNN video report interviewing a CNN reporter on board says nothing about any shooting, only that the Israeli boat "rammed" the "Dignity." No doubt if there was any live fire, the CNN reporter would have mentioned it. Showing who the "inveterate liars" are.

The FGM freaks explicitly said yesterday in a press release that they will refuse to stop, no matter what:

We are not asking Israel for "permission" to go, and we will not stop until the DIGNITY lands in Gaza.

Just for context: The Free Gaza boat was supposed to have 3 tons of medical aid. During the past three days, Israel has sent 186 trucks filled with aid to Gaza - plus ten ambulances. Each truck, from past experience, holds between 10 and 20 tons of material.

Which means that for all the noise the FGM makes about how necessary their trip is to help Gazans, their "aid" equates to roughly 0.1% of what the hated, lying Zionist enemy has given while under direct attack from Gaza. Proving yet again that the off-key moonbats' purpose is not to help Gazans (they could coordinate sending aid through Israel, as Jordan does, or through Egypt, which sent 72 trucks of its own) but to hurt Israel through PR.

(I'm pretty sure that Israel's tractor trailers filled with aid are far larger than Egypt's.)
(h/t Humanitarian Aid commenter.)

UPDATE: Al Jazeera's report here.

UPDATE 2 - More proof of Free Gaza's lies.

Gleeful Hamas press release on 4 Israeli deaths

From Hamas' Al-Qassam website (autotranslated):

The Brigades of the Martyr Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the military wing of the "Hamas" movement bombed on Monday (29/12) the port of Ashdod with "Grad" rockets and the settlement of Nahal Oz with three mortar shells. The Zionist enemy admitted the deaths of four rapists, including an officer, and injuries to more than 20 others wounded by the Qassam rockets.

The group said in its "The Mujahduha bombed the Ashdod port, which lies 40 km north of the Gaza Strip, Grad rockets at 9:15 "which led to the death of Zionist rapists and injuring more than 20 others, three of them seriously.

The Mujahduha battalions have also shelled the settlement of Nahal Oz with three mortar shells at 9:40 and the Zionist enemy admitted the killing of two soldiers, one officer and wounding four others.

The statement said "We declare jihad on the work of shelling Zionist settlements with Grad rockets and mortar shells, which resulted in the recognition of the Zionist enemy of the killing of four rapists and wounding more than 20 others, three of them seriously.

The group said the bombing was a response to the continued Zionist aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank, in response to the Zionist massacre in Gaza, which led to the deaths of more than 350 people and injured hundreds, and on the continuing unjust siege on our people.

Of course, one of the victims was a 39-year old mother of four, another was an Israeli Arab and a third was a 58-year old man sitting at home. Only one of these attacks hit a military target, and a career officer was killed - who was a Druse.

Hamas knows this quite well, and celebrates the murder of innocent civilians even as it pretends that it targets only soldiers.

In English, however, Hamas has not yet published this press release. Instead, it aims straight at the heartstrings of the useful idiot crowd, with this graphic. It is pretty much the talking points of the pro-terror "peace" crowd in one convenient picture

It is also the exact antithesis of how Hamas sounds on the Arabic website. In Arabic, death is glorified; in English, it is tragic. In Arabic, martyrdom is the highest achievement; in English it is barely mentioned.

Rocket fire after the disengagement.

Many terror-apologists are playing loose with the facts about what happened after Israel voluntarily evacuated all Jews from Gaza, so here is a short time-line of rocket attacks from Gaza in the aftermath of disengagement:

September 12, 2005: The Israeli flag is lowered in Gaza and disengagement is over.
September 12: Rocket attack on Sderot.
September 12: Rocket attack on Yad Mordechai.
9/23: Islamic Jihad attacks Kfar Aza
9/24: Hamas attacks Sderot, 11 injured
9/25, 26, 27, 30 - At least six separate rocket attacks - followed by more...
October 2005: At least 7 rocket attacks
November 2005: At least 11 rocket attacks
December 2005: At least 34 separate rocket attacks, causing numerous injuries and much damage
January 2006: At least 27 separate attacks (most with multiple rockets)

January 25, 2006: Hamas wins the PLC elections.

February 2006: At least 55 rocket attacks
March 2006: At least 47 attacks, with injuries
April 2006: At least 53 separate rocket attacks

..and on and on. (Statistics from the Worldwide Incidents Tracking System.)

Rocket attacks occurred before, during and after disengagement; before, during and after Hamas elections; before, during and after the Hamas/Fatah unity government; through the Hamas coup, through the worldwide blockade of Gaza, through the 2007 "truce" and through the 2008 "truce." They happened while Gazans were happily employed at the Erez Industrial Park in Gaza as well as when it was shut down, they happened while Jews lived in Gush Katif and when they didn't, when the crossings were opened and when they were shut.

Qassam rockets have been shot at Israeli areas since October, 2001, and their numbers have only increased over time. To say that somehow Israeli actions are forcing the terrorists to shoot Qassams and mortars at Israel and to dismiss Israeli justifications for finally saying that enough is enough is the height of arrogance.