Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Iowahawk's "Hail to the Victors"

I've been staying away from commenting on Iran, and now that I've seen Iowahawk's incomparable take on it, I'm glad I did.

A Special Message to the People of Iran
By Barack Obama
President of the United States
Greetings. As president of United States -- or, if you prefer, the Great Satan -- I have have been following with keen interest the vigorous post-election debate and vibrant political dialogue which has been taking place in your great and noble Islamic Republic of Iran over recent days. It has been both educational and fascinating, and as a sports fan I have thrilled to the pageantry, the suspense, and the fast-paced, hard-hitting action. I have to say It's been as exciting as a double overtime game seven NBA final between the Lakers and Celtics! Like millions of others around the world, I can't wait for the exciting conclusion of your distracting nail-biter so I can finally focus on my big health care project at the office. (Now that's what I call a real crisis!) But no matter who prevails in your hard-fought contest, you can rest assured that I will be out there in the stands watching, and ready to congratulate the team who brings home Tehran's coveted Golden Centrifuge Cup.

Read the whole thing.

Another Jew who doesn't get it

Ira Chernus, a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado, has published an article in Religious Dispatches called "Time for Jews to Abandon the Old Foundation Myth of Israel?"

The article assumes that Barack Obama's speech was a major impetus for Jews to abandon the "myths" of Israel, which he defines as

Our enemies threaten our very existence; we are wholly innocent, having done nothing at all to evoke such enmity; we will maintain our self-esteem and self-respect by inflicting enough defeats on our enemies to prove to them—and ourselves—our indomitable strength.

Chernoff offers an alternative, provided by the far-left Jews (he calls them "moderate") of "Brit Tzedek V'Shalom:

* Jews and gentiles have to live together; they are inextricably woven together in a single web of relationship, what Martin Luther King, Jr. called a single garment of destiny.
* Within that web, there will inevitably be both conflict and cooperation; cooperation is perfectly possible, so it pays to make serious efforts to promote it, which means being responsive to the changing concerns of everyone else in the web.
* There are rights and wrongs done on every side; it makes no sense to measure how much blame accrues to any one side, because finger-pointing blocks the way to cooperation.
* Self-esteem comes from promoting cooperation; if self-esteem must depend on showing one’s strength (an open question), the way to show strength is to show understanding of others, respond to their concerns, and find paths of mutual benefit.

As with all reasonable-sounding arguments, one has to realize what the underlying assumptions are and where they are wrong.

Let's start with his statement of the Israeli narrative "myths."

1. "Our enemies threaten our very existence."

There are two definitions of "threaten" - a threat that is existential or one that is verbal. There is no question that our enemies do indeed verbally threaten our existence, and anyone who claims otherwise is willfully blind - just visit MEMRI or Palestinian Media Watch.

As far as whether Israel is under existential threat at the moment, the answer is probably not. The reason has everything to do with Israeli strength and nothing to do with the peaceful intentions of Israel's enemies. Any objective look at history shows that Israeli concessions have not increased its enemies' desire for peace; quite the contrary - and this applies to Egypt as well.

2. "We are wholly innocent, having done nothing at all to evoke such enmity"

This is a lazy straw-man argument. Very few Israelis would say that Israel has never done anything wrong. But Chernus' framing the argument this way implies the far less accurate viewpoint that both sides are equally right and equally wrong - a very skewed view. If one side is 90% innocent and 10% guilty that does not mean that it should be treated exactly the same as the side that states even today that their ultimate goals is the destruction of the others.

3. "We will maintain our self-esteem and self-respect by inflicting enough defeats on our enemies to prove to them—and ourselves—our indomitable strength."

This is an odd projection, apparently of Chernus' upbringing in a typical American Jewish home during the 1960s and 70s. He is confusing understandable American Jewish pride in Israel with the supposed Israeli need for "self-esteem." It is also apparently the lynchpin of his entire view of the conflict - entirely the opposite of the truth. Israel's victories are not due to a need for self-esteem; they are because of a need for self-preservation. Israel reacting to rocket fire is not to bully Hamas; it is to stop Israelis from being traumatized by Qassams. If he doesn't understand this basic fact, he doesn't understand Israel at all.

But Chernus completely ignores the huge role that pride plays in the Arab narrative. He somehow assumes that Israelis have the same honor/shame culture that Arabs do. The Arab side indeed looks at the very existence of Israel, and its inability to defeat it militarily, as an open sore on its collective psyche. To ascribe that mindset to Israelis betrays Chernus' biggest blind spot.

He cannot distinguish between national pride and the desire to shame your enemies - something that the Arab world indeed cannot distinguish between but that Israelis cannot find any relationship between. For Israelis, winning a war is a reason for pride, but pride is not a reason for waging a war.

Now we can look at Chernus' alternative myths, framed as if it is diametrically opposed to his initial assumptions of Israeli myths:

" Jews and gentiles have to live together; they are inextricably woven together in a single web of relationship, what Martin Luther King, Jr. called a single garment of destiny."

It is unclear what Chernus is implying. Jews and Arabs live together in most Israeli cities. Jews live together with non-Jews in many cities worldwide. Who is saying anything otherwise? Does he think that most Israelis are Kahanists?

"Within that web, there will inevitably be both conflict and cooperation; cooperation is perfectly possible, so it pays to make serious efforts to promote it, which means being responsive to the changing concerns of everyone else in the web."

Again, is there anything in Netanyahu's speech that implies otherwise? Why is this being stated as an opposition to what most Israelis believe?

"There are rights and wrongs done on every side; it makes no sense to measure how much blame accrues to any one side, because finger-pointing blocks the way to cooperation."

The fact that there are rights and wrongs on every side does not imply that each side is equally right. These words sound soothing but they only work when both sides have a real interest in working things out - when one side is only interested in taking without giving anything in return, and the other side takes the attitude Chernus describes, the negotiations become a surrender. Israel cannot become a doormat in order to placate the Chernuses of the world. He would better spend his time trying to talk to Mahmoud Abbas - who already has said he is not interested in negotiations at all and would rather wait for Israel to be pressured to give him everything for free.

"Self-esteem comes from promoting cooperation; if self-esteem must depend on showing one’s strength (an open question), the way to show strength is to show understanding of others, respond to their concerns, and find paths of mutual benefit."

Again, Chernus clearly doesn't understand that the role of self-esteem is close to meaningless to Israelis in making policy decisions. He doesn't get that Israel's strength is a reason for self-esteem, not a result of the quest for it. If selfish pride was as important an Israeli attribute as Chernus believes, then Israel would still be holding onto Gaza and South Lebanon.

There are many American Jews who just don't understand the dynamics of the Middle East and, with the best intentions, believe the underlying myths that Chernus falls victim to: that both sides are equally to blame, that illogical pride drives both sides, that both sides are equally interested in real peace, and that both sides have the same mindset. Chernus would be better served to examine the truth of his own set of assumptions before pretending to understand Israel's.

ACLU upset over US shutting down terror "charities"

From Al Arabiya:

Across the United States Muslim charities are being shut down, raided or questioned under terrorism finance laws that give the government unchecked power and creates a climate of fear that is stopping American Muslims from carrying out one of their fundamental religious duties, an advocacy group said Wednesday.

"Broad and vague" terrorism finance laws, expanded by George W. Bush's administration, allow officials to target Muslim charities based on "secret evidence and without notice," the author of an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report published on Tuesday told Al Arabiya.

The report described how the laws also target donors, who are being unfairly prevented from giving Zakat, obligatory charity donations that are one of the five pillars of Islam, due a climate of fear created by law enforcement intimidation.

Freedom of religion is being “trampled on,” said Jennifer Turner, author of the report.

I can't speak about whether the US is acting appropriately in closing down a small number of purported Islamic charities.

What I can say is that, according to many Muslims, money given to terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah is indeed considered "zakat" and fulfills the obligation that Muslim have to give to what they term charities.

And the ACLU is completely wrong in implying that any US government actions are preventing Muslims from giving zakat, as there are no doubt many Islamic charities who do not give money to terrorists and which are tax-exempt under US laws.

For the ACLU to say that closing down some questionable charities somehow impinges on Muslim abilities to give to charity altogether is such an amazing twisting of the truth as to make one suspect anything the ACLU says.

The fact that Barack Obama appears to believe Muslims when they say that shutting down these charities somehow impinges on their ability to fulfill their religious obligation betrays a deep, and troubling, naivete.

Sheikh Salah: Netanyahu building Third Temple

The last time we saw Sheikh Raed Salah, he was claiming that Israel is building a subway to the Temple Mount.

He also constantly tells anyone willing to listen that the Jews are building tunnels under the Temple Mount, building synagogues on top of it, and doing other dastardly deeds to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock. He'll make anything up as long as (a) he gets headlines, and (b) gullible Muslims will believe him.

Now,he is saying that Binyomin Netanyahu is ready to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount.

Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, spoke Wednesday afternoon in front of Muslim students at Haifa University and warned them that Benjamin Netanyahu was intending on completing his plan to gain control of the Temple Mount, which he said the prime minister had tried to do during his first tenure.

The Islamic leader, who was invited to speak by the IQRAA students' organization affiliated with his movement, briefed the students on the history of his movement and on the criminal proceedings taken against him and his people several years ago.

He noted that he had rejected the Shin Bet's offers to agree to concessions in Jerusalem. "We love life, our families, our homes and our children, but if they suggest that we give up our principles and holy sites, we would rather die and we will welcome death."

Salah claimed that the government continued constantly to dig tunnels under the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa Mosque, and that Netanyahu was planning to complete during his current term what he did not complete during his first one – "to dig additional tunnels under al-Aqsa and rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount."

The Muslim students responded by chanting, "Allahu Akbar" (God is great).

That's funny - if I heard that Netanyahu was building the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, I'd also say "God is great."

(h/t EBoZ)

PA legal system only exists for "collaborators"

Since the intifada, I have seen very few articles in the Palestinian Arab press about trials given for regular crimes - theft, murder, extortion, drug-dealing. Arrests, yes; trials, no.

With the exception of trials for "collaborators" with Israel.

This AP article is disturbing on many levels, but in addition it shows that apparently entire courtrooms are constructed just to sentence so-called "collaborators". It also shows the depths of hatred that Palestinian Arabs have towards Israel - to the point that they prefer their wives remain prostitutes rather than speak to Israelis:

A 22-year-old Palestinian woman, who says she became an informer for Israel to earn money that would get her out of prostitution, is going to prison for life. Others convicted of collaboration with Israel by West Bank courts sit on death row.

In the most recent case Monday, a military tribunal in a security compound in the West Bank town of Jenin sentenced 22-year-old Taghreed - her last name was not released - to a life term of hard labor.

The dark-skinned, portly woman, wearing a lace headscarf and blue jeans, remained calm while the sentence was announced. She refused to speak to reporters and none of her family attended the trial, indicating they had washed their hands of her.

The scene played out in a hastily assembled courtroom of plastic chairs, benches and a Palestinian flag.

Earlier, Taghreed had told the court that she turned informer after she left her husband, who had forced her to work as a prostitute and thus turned her into an outcast.

The information the woman sold was low-level - nothing that led to arrests by the Israelis, according to military prosecutor Raed Dalbah.

"If I was the judge, I would shoot her on the spot," said a guard outside the courtroom, spitting on the ground to emphasize his disgust at Taghreed.

In the past two years alone, West Bank tribunals have convicted seven people of collaboration, including Taghreed. She was the only one not sentenced to death, though the executions were not carried out.

During the two Palestinian uprisings, vigilante gunmen often killed suspected collaborators, at times with crowds looking on. After Israel withdrew from parts of the West Bank in the 1990s, it relocated hundreds of collaborators to Israel to protect them from retribution.

Palestinian human rights activists say they oppose the death penalty on principle, but most have not rushed to the defense of collaborators.

"We do not think there should be a death sentence," said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator and human rights advocate. "The punishment has to fit the crime. The crime, in the popular imagination, is the most unconscionable crime. It is a betrayal of everything that people hold sacred."

Does the PA not have a single real courtroom to try criminals?

Human Rights Watch bows to Saudi Arabia

NGO Monitor noticed an outrageous event that happened last month: Human Rights Watch went to Saudi Arabia, one of the worst offenders of human rights on the planet, to raise funds to continue their anti-Israel crusade.

From Arab News, May 26:

RIYADH: Human Rights Watch is gaining more recognition and support in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world. During their recent visit to the Kingdom, senior members of the organization were given a welcoming dinner in Riyadh hosted by prominent businessman and intellectual Emad bin Jameel Al-Hejailan.
Other prominent members of Saudi society, human rights activists and dignitaries were invited to the dinner held to honor the guests.
In an introductory speech at the dinner, Al-Hejailan said the credo of human rights is rising in the Kingdom. He commended Human Rights Watch (HRW) for its work on Gaza and the Middle East as a whole.
HRW presented a documentary and spoke on the report they compiled on Israel violating human rights and international law during its war on Gaza earlier this year.
"Human Rights Watch provided the international community with evidence of Israel using white phosphorus and launching systematic destructive attacks on civilian targets. Pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations have strongly resisted the report and tried to discredit it," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division.
Whitson pointed out that the group managed to testify about Israeli abuses to the US Congress on three occasions.

But wait - HRW pretended to be "even-handed" to the members of the Magic Kingdom:

Keeping with its mission of even-handed criticism, Human Rights Watch has also leveled criticism at other states in the region, including Saudi Arabia. The organization recently called on the Kingdom to do more to protect the human rights of domestic workers.
"Saudi Arabia's current labor law excludes domestic workers, denying them rights guaranteed to other workers, such as a weekly day of rest, limits to hours of work, and overtime pay," said HRW in a statement in March as the Shoura Council was debating the issue.

This is the worst criticism that HRW can muster against Saudi Arabia? Domestic worker rights?

No mention of systematic discrimination against women, including the ban on driving? No mention about the bigotry against non-Muslims in the Kingdom, such as confiscating Bibles at the airport? No mention of the religious police who terrorize people day and night?

Well, of course not. HRW wasn't in Saudi Arabia to promote human rights in the Gulf. They were there to raise money, and it would not make sense to insult their potential benefactors.

Hassan Elmasry, a member of HRW's International Board of Directors and the MENA Division's Advisory Committee, called for the support of the organization.
"Supporters can spot and fully discuss human rights cases or stories with friends or family members before passing stories or cases to HRW," Elmasry said.
The group is facing a shortage of funds because of the global financial crisis and the work on Israel and Gaza, which depleted HRW's budget for the region.
"Our work involved a lot of travel and expenses for researchers. We are so modest and conservative in running a tight budget of less than $2 million to cover costs and expenses for over 20 researchers working on the Middle East and North Africa," he said.
"Half of this amount comes from individual donors. We call businessmen in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world to support HRW by sending donations," said Elmasry, who is also a managing director at Morgan Stanley in London.

As NGO Monitor points out, HRW spends far more time criticizing Israel than repressive Arab regimes (with the interesting exception of Saudi Arabia, which gets more attention but much weaker criticism.)

Apparently, HRW now is using its biased Gaza reports and videos as fundraisers specifically aimed at Arabs. If the gambit works, they will have incentive to expand their criticism of Israel to get more money next year.

Does anyone see an ethical issue there?

Jimmy the Dhimmi frolicking with Hamas

From Palestine Today:

Do you think that there is a single Jew that Jimmy Carter loves as much as he loves Hamas terrorist leaders?

An "Arab News" lie

From the Arab News:

Hamas accepts Israel with 1967 borders

Ismail Haniyeh, the deposed prime minister of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, yesterday said his movement accepts a Palestinian state alongside Israel with its 1967 borders with full sovereignty and Jerusalem as its capital.
“We welcome any push for achieving this dream if there is a real plan for resolving the Palestinian issue,” Haniyeh said in a news conference with visiting former US President Jimmy Carter here.

Really? Haniyeh accepted Israel?

Let's see how Ma'an reported it:

De facto Palestinian Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyeh said on Tuesday he would support any real proposal to establish an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.

Haniyeh’s comments came during a joint press conference in Gaza City with former US president Jimmy Carter. “I will exert pressures towards realizing this dream,” said Haniyeh.

He doesn't say he accepts Israel, just that he has no problem with a Palestinian Arab state in the territories.

We've seen this charade before, where Hamas supposedly is compromising by saying that they wouldn't stand in the way of a Palestinian Arab state but saying nothing about accepting Israel - fully knowing that wishful-thinking idiots will fill in the blanks for him.

Palestinian Arabs, however, know quite well that Haniyeh would never accept Israel. Palestine Today in Arabic reports it this way:

The President of the Government of Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza Strip on Tuesday said that he supports a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in 1967, without mentioning that he recognizes Israel's right to exist, something Hamas rejects.

No doubt some Western news outlets will be trumpeting Haniyeh's statement as if he said he accepts Israel's existence, and nothing could be further from the truth.

The story of Omar Silawi - journalist and Hamas terrorist

Over the past few days PTWatch managed to dig up a bunch of new terrorists that the PCHR considered "civilian" victims during the Gaza operation. (We have now identified 297 "civilian" terrorists.) Here's the story of one of them.

PCHR describes victim #458 as "‘Umar Abdul Hafez Mousa al-Silawi, Male, 35, Journalist in al-
Aqsa Satallite channel, civilian."

From Mada, a Palestinian Arab journalist advocacy group:

(Jan.3) - Aqsa TV cameraman Omar Abdel-Hafiz Silawi (28 years) was killed in Beit Lahiya city (GS) after Israeli forces shelled Dr. Ibrahim Makadmeh mosque. His colleague Ibrahim Muslim said that they were covering the Israeli bombing in that area throughout the day, in particular, Kamal Adwan field hospital and the nearby areas. Silawi was filming and transferred videos to the place where the TV was broadcasting, then he transferred his wife to the hospital to give birth, then returned to take his camera and went to the mosque, which is 100m away from the hospital, and when it was bombed, he was seriously injured. “When I saw him on a stretcher sometimes I was filming him and sometimes helping they race him to the hospital,” said his colleague. “I was crying. They tried to treat him but without results. Our comfort is that his wife gave birth safely to a son.”

A very sad story indeed. But only part of the story.

Here is how Hamas' Al Qassam website describes Omar al-Silawi:

The al-Qassam fighter/martyr Omar Sailawi was born in the Saudi Arabia on the twenty-ninth of the month of September 1981. Although he was born away from his homeland "Palestine", but he was carrying in his heart and love her passion. [He moved to Gaza later - EoZ]

Omar Sailawi joined the ranks of the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas - since his return to the homeland, after his commitment in a mosque in al-Bashir, has begun to receive at the hands of advocates of the movement many religious lessons and courses to become one of the sons of the Muslim Brotherhood Muslims.

The martyr Omar - may God have mercy on him - joined the ranks of the Mujahidin of al-Qassam Brigades in 2004, after selflessly giving in to the demand and urgency to the leadership of Hamas for the organization in the ranks of the mujahideen, so pleased Almighty God to join him, for after being noticed for his the honesty and sincerity.

During the struggle within the ranks of the Mujahidin-Qassam Brigades, the martyr Omar - may God have mercy on him - participated in many Jihad tasks tasks, including:

* Participated in the processing of many of the explosives and mines, which were aimed at Israeli jeeps and tanks.

* Participated in the excavation and processing of tunnels and trenches.

* Participated in repelling the invasions of Zionism, which was aimed at the eastern region of the Jabaliya camp.

* Fired several mortar shells and Qassam rockets at the Zionist settlements and sites.

Yes, this "journalist" was an active member of the Hamas terrorist Al Qassam Brigades, a fact that no journalist advocacy group admits and that PCHR cannot seem to mention - although Hamas happily claims him as an honored member and martyr.

Although it is clear that this is the same person as the "journalist" mentioned above - Hamas' bio also mentions his wife giving birth an hour after he was killed - Hamas does not mention that at all in his biography.

Today's PalArab news 6-16-09

PCHR looks at yesterday's story of a Hamas member who died in PA custody, and notes that the dead man did indeed have signs of torture on his body, so he is being added to the death count.

PCHR also reports that Hamas police fired on a PFLP demonstration in Gaza City on Saturday, injuring three civlians.

Here's Ma'an's English version of the report of an assassination attempt against Carter.

There are reports that the IDF has granted amnesty to 26 Al Aqsa Brigades members in the West Bank, now allowing them free movement.

Gazan group attempted to assassinate Carter?

Maariv is reporting that, according to Palestinian Arab sources, an al Qaeda-aligned Gaza group attempted to assassinate Jimmy Carter on his current visit to Gaza.

According to the report, Hamas police discovered two bombs on Carter's route near the Erez crossing. Maariv says they confirmed the story with members of Carter's delegation.

Hamas police denied the story.

Who counsels patience if your people are suffering?

Five Palestinian Arab groups rejected Binyomin Netanyahu's peace proposal, and one word of their rejection stands out as proof that Palestinian Arab leaders don't give a damn about their people:

Five Palestinian factions exiled in Damascus said yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech the night before was “tantamount to a declaration of war on Palestinians’ national rights.”

In a statement sent to reporters in Damascus, the groups said that Netanyahu’s speech “ignored the Palestinian people’s right to an independent state with full sovereignty, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the homes they fled in 1948, and declared his government’s continued policy to expand settlements in the West Bank under the mask of ‘natural growth’.”

Netanyahu’s policy is “a sure-fire recipe for ... new threats to security, peace and stability,” the statement said. “It is tantamount to a declaration of war on Palestinians’ national rights.”

The groups said they would “patiently continue to struggle for their national rights against the Zionist Entity’s policy of aggression” until Palestinians were able to return to their homes and had an independent state “with Jerusalem as its capital.”

They said they would refuse to meet with “the Zionist enemy...”They further called on the “international community” to pressure Netanyahu to abide by international resolutions.

The five factions that signed the statement were the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People’s Party, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement and the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front.

If the plight of Palestinian Arabs is so dire, wouldn't you think they would try to compromise and find a solution? What kind of leader asks his people to be patient - for decades, no less - and remain in a stateless limbo rather than work towards any sort of independence?

On the other hand, if their real goal is the destruction of Israel, prolonging the suffering of their people is a quite understandable tactic.

What is amazing is that no Arab would dare to point out the obvious fact that Palestinian Arabs remain pawns to this day who are not allowed to freely criticize those who keep them in their misery, who keep them in camps, and who keep them stateless.