Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 09, 2009

How to bribe the Elder

A perk of having a semi-successful blog is that sometimes, people of real importance notice you. And sometimes, they (or their interns!) even ask you to review their books or link to their websites.

Recently, I have gotten a few of those sorts of email, accompanied by very nice compliments, so I will return the favor.

Daniel Gordis, a prolific author, asked me (through his intern at the Shalem Center) to review Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End; as soon as I get a copy I will be happy to review it.

Tilman Tarach, the author of a number of books (including one about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion) just wrote a nice piece in the Jerusalem Post that he asked me to link to, wondering exactly why the "Jordanian option" is dismissed so quickly.

And an intern for David Makovsky at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has asked me to review his latest book written with Dennis Ross called Myths, Illusions,& Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East. Again, as soon as I get a copy, I'll review it.

What can we learn from this? Apparently, I am a sucker for compliments, especially from people who use real names and write stuff that exists outside the realm of cyberspace. And I am a sucker for free stuff, especially books. If you want me to review your book, just send me a copy and I will. (But I will not pull punches if I dislike it.)

Some of my previous book reviews (some for books I got for free, some not) can be seen here.

The golden opportunity of resettling 1350 Pal/Iraqi refugees

From the Christian Science Monitor:

The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.
It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US – and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shiites, the mostly-Sunni Palestinians have spent recent years in one of the region's roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq's border with Syria.
[S]ome critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.
"This is politically a real hot potato," says Mark Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, adding, "[A]merica has become a dumping ground for the State Department's problems – they're tossing their problems over their head into Harrisburg, Pa., or Omaha, Neb."
While the US generally doesn't accept Palestinians, Todd Pierce, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, says that the Iraqi population of Palestinians falls under a different category from those in Gaza and the West Bank. Each applicant will be carefully scrutinized for terrorist ties, he adds.

The US reluctance to accept Palestinians is because it "doesn't want the refugee program to become an issue in its relationship with Israel," says a diplomat in the region, who requested anonymity because he is not cleared to talk to the press. But these Palestinians, he says, will be processed as refugees from Iraq.

People are misunderstanding this issue.

Unlike the vast majority of "Palestinian refugees," these people really are refugees - but from Iraq, not from Palestine. These are the people who have been treated like garbage throughout the Arab world, which has refused to take in their relatively small numbers. These people live in real refugee camps, with tents, not the permanent towns that Palestinian Arabs live in.

The Arab world has consistently refused to help them out, despite pleas from UNHCR. The rich Gulf countries don't spend a dime on helping them out.

On the contrary - they work hard to keep them in misery!

The Arabs have decried all previous attempts to resettle these refugees in Western countries.The reason they give is the most cynical one imaginable - that by keeping them stateless and miserable, they keep alive "Palestinian unity." So it is for their own good!

The US has a golden opportunity to publicize these facts and shame the Arab world into taking responsibility for Palestinian Arabs. It should not take in these people under the radar - it should trumpet this humanitarian action and announce that we have no choice but to take them in because their Arab brethren have refused to help out this population for years and have actively worked to keep them in their camps on the Iraqi border. We need to expose the naked hypocrisy of the Arab world's pretenses that they care about Palestinian Arabs when they are actually the ones responsible for their misery.

This is not nearly as bad as some think it is, and if the US was smart, this could become the most important turning point in forcing Arabs to take real responsibility for their own problems.

Read my previous articles about these refugees and how Arabs treat them:

The second-most hated people in the Middle East
Iraqi "Palestinians" find refuge outside the Arab world
The Arab world isn't embarrassed at all....
The Arab world's nightmare Arab world screwing their own people
Palestinian Arabs fighting to keep their brethren miserable
Guess who offered to help Palestinian Iraqi refugees?

Motive for murder: Victim was Jewish

From YNet:

Gregory Rabinowitz, 56, a taxi driver whose body was found in May near the community of Gan Yavne, east of Ashdod, was killed in a terror attack.

Mahmad Maraneh and Muhammad Khaledi, two residents of Arranah, a Palestinian village near the West Bank city of Jenin, were arrested and later confessed to the act.

Rabinowitz's body was found bound on the city's outskirts, with evidence suggesting he was subjected to severe violence. The state of his remains suggested a nationalistically-motivated act.

Maraneh and Khaledi confessed to the act during their interrogation, telling security forces that they entered Israel as illegal aliens, "picked" Rabinowitz as a random target, had him drive to a secluded location and murdered him.

Their motive, they said, was the fact that he was Jewish and that they wanted to avenge the death of a relative – an Islamic Jihad operative who was killed by IDF forces in February 2007.

Those who pressure Israel to reduce the number of checkpoints don't care too much about the lives of people like Gregory Rabinowitz.

Saudi family sues genie

From the Arab News:

MADINAH: A Shariah court in the town of Mahd Al-Dahab is taking up an important question: Can genies be summoned . . . to appear before a judge?

According to Wednesday’s Al-Watan newspaper, a family has filed a lawsuit against an unnamed genie for stealing mobile phones, sending threatening voice messages through mobile phones imploring the family to move away and pelting family members with stones when they go out at night. The family has been living in the same house for 15 years, but claims that it only recently began to feel the presence of the genie over the past two years.

“We have to look into this case and verify its truthfulness despite the difficulty of its consideration,” said Sheikh Amr Al-Salmi, the head of the local court.

I want to be the genie's lawyer!

A rabbi, imam and priest went on a game show...

From CNN:

A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the "biggest prize ever" -- the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world's major religions.

The show, called "Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor," or "Penitents Compete," features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religion, according to CNN Turk.

If they succeed, the contestants are rewarded with a pilgrimage to one of their chosen faith's most sacred sites -- Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for converts to Judaism, a trip to Tibet for Buddhists and the chance to visit Ephesus and the Vatican for Christians.

Ahmet Ozdemir, deputy director of Turkish channel Kanal T, which will air the show from September, said the program aimed to "turn disbelievers on to God."

"People are free to believe anything they want. Our program does not have a say," he said, according to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

Contestants will be judged by a panel of eight theologians and religious experts prior to going on the show to make sure their lack of faith is genuine.

But the show has been condemned by Turkish religious leaders. The head of the country's supreme council of religious affairs, Hamza Aktan, told CNN Turk that it was "disrespectful" to place different faiths in competition with each other and accused Kanal T of using religion to boost ratings.

I actually love the idea; it is an modern variant of medieval disputations, without the nastiness that happened to the Jews afterwards, win or lose.

I'd watch it, even though Judaism's lack of proselytizing would put the rabbi at a disadvantage - maybe instead he would try to turn the person into a Noachide.

The ultra-left is not anti-Israel enough for Arabs

One of the most pervasive myths when dealing with the Middle East is that compromise on the Israeli side will inevitably bring flexibility on the Arab side. The main purveyors of this myth are the members of the radical, Israel-bashing left, people such as Norman Finkelstein and Uri Avnery.

But Finkelstein is not nearly radical enough for the Palestinian Arabs or the Free Gaza folks. Here is what one Free Gaza Arab blogger has to say about Finkelstein, who visited Gaza last month with Code Pink:

Norman Finkelstein did not show any support for the inalienable right of return for the six million refugees, the core of the... "conflict."

Norman Finkelstein did not admit to the fact that the two-prison solution is a... racist solution, a 19th century idea which does NOT support the INALIENABLE right of return.

Norman Finkelstein: Israel is an occupation; it is the longest occupation the 20th century has witnessed, of the WB and GS, it is a colonization, and is an Apartheid; against the 1948 indigenous population, not to mention its Bantustanization of the GS and WB.

Uri Avnery, Peace Now, patronizingly will reply back saying he accepts the return of only... 20,000 refugees. He is anti-BDS and anti-ROR [right of return]. He is... a "leftist" Zionist... from when does the "left" accept a ... religious state? [or state to begin with]. He is like the "master" who decides. "I" mean... am "I" stupid? How can a democratic state exist when it has a... religious identity?! I must be really stupid here Uri, I mean... for me not to understand your "democracy."

Hilariously, the blogger then calls the 1936-9 Arab riots that killed hundreds of people "civil resistance."

Norman... you completely neglect the Palestinian civil resistance that existed since... 1936. Yes, I assure you. We, Arabs did have that going on. But, will the White man ever challenge his standards of "us"?

Of course, this blogger who advocates a single, democratic, secular state in Palestine seems to have no problem with the fact that Hamas is religious, that the PA constitution explicitly says that its laws are based on Shari'a, and that every Arab state is explicitly Muslim (with the possible exception of Lebanon, for now.)

What do the Finkelsteins and Avnerys of the world think when confronted by people who have no desire for any sort of compromise, who will not be happy unless Israel and Jewish self-determination is utterly destroyed? My guess is that rather then learn that their methods only embolden the Arab obstructionists, they look at their criticism from the Arab side as somehow "proof" that they are really reasonable people, and being hated by both sides is evidence of their correct path. (Lots of newspaper editors use that exact illogic to pretend that they are evenhanded.)

Who owns the keys to the Gaza "prison"?

Two interesting stories today, first from the Free Gaza mailing list, where they describe how two of their members who came on a boat last year have been continually denied in their attempts to go to Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

The two British women informed the Embassy that they would remain in the crossing until an explanation was given as to why they had been denied entry based on unjustifiable and potentially false grounds. The Egyptian officials at the border asked how they entered Gaza, and on explaining that they arrived on the Free Gaza Movement Boats they were told, “So, you don’t need us to answer. You already know why you’re not being allowed out.”

Of course, such a story does not make it onto the Free Gaza webpage, which is dedicated to only vilifying Israel.

The other story is from Ma'an:

The de facto government security forces confiscated the passports of a Fatah member in the Ministry of Finance and his wife and prevented to two from exiting the Strip via the Erez crossing, a Fatah statement said.

The incident was allegedly based on factional affiliation. Fatah officials have reported several cases where members were prevented from exiting the Strip.

So we see Egyptians not allowing people to leave Gaza, Hamas not allowing people to leave Gaza - and Israel blamed for running a "prison."

My letter to the Gaza fact-finding mission

I just wrote this letter to the UN Gaza fact-finding mission. We will see if they respond.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about this method of submitting information to them until today, and their deadline was June 30th.

Dear Dr. Goldstone:

I read yesterday in Ma'an that the UN Gaza fact-finding mission listened to lengthy testimony from the PCHR while in Jordan, and was asked specific questions about the legal status of the policemen killed during Operation Cast Lead as well as the PCHR's methodologies.

I am a blogger who has been looking at the PCHR's claims since it released its list of people killed in Gaza. I have been maintaining a list of people whom the PCHR called "civilian" but who have actually been members of various militant organizations.

So far I and my team has identified some 306 people who were labeled civilians by the PCHR who were, in fact, members of militant groups.

The raw research, including links to prove the militant status for each person, can be found here.

What is particularly interesting is that so far we have identified that fully two-thirds of the policemen killed in Gaza - 189 of them - were also members of the Al Qassam Brigades. Most of these are confirmed from the al-Qassam website itself, and Hamas' "military wing" has continued to add names to its list of "martyrs" weekly.

The inescapable conclusion is that Hamas makes no distinction between the members of its police force and members of its terror cells. As Hamas makes no distinction, the IDF is not obligated to make any such distinction itself, and the entire uniformed police of Gaza can legally be considered a legitimate military target.

PCHR's methodology was inconsistent with its own definitions of "civilian" and it double-counted a few victims. Also interestingly, the PCHR's list of "militants" did not correspond to Al Mezan's list of "resistors" killed during Cast Lead.

By my count, using the PCHR list as a base, some 647 of the dead were legitimate targets, not counting victims who died as a result of secondary explosions (which I do not have the resources to confirm) nor those who were effectively used as human shields, such as the family of Nizar Rayyan who he effectively forced to stay and die with him.

All of my information is online and verifiable. I believe that it shows a much different story about civilian casualties than that given by the PCHR.

I hope that this information is of value to your fact finding mission.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

"Elder of Ziyon"
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Gaza fake civilian update

Tonight I identified two more Hamas policemen, identified by the PCHR as "civilian," as being members of the Al Qassam Brigades (Hamas' "military wing." )

This brings the total number of Gaza policemen killed in Cast Lead who were also terrorists to 189.

The PCHR identified a total of 282 policemen in their English list of the dead, so this means that we have now proven that over two thirds of the Gaza policemen killed by Israel were terrorists.

The PCHR considers these people to be "civilian," and argued that very point to the UN fact-finding mission recently. But the fact that an overwhelming majority of them are admitted by Hamas to be members of the Al Qassam Brigades proves that, in Gaza, there is zero distinction between the police and the "militants."

The only conclusion you can come up with is that the entire Gaza police force is simply a front for the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades. As such, they are a legitimate military target.

Counting all the police, the other "civilians" killed who were members of terror groups and the "militants" that the PCHR counted, we have now identified, by name, that 647 of the people killed in Cast Lead were legitimate targets.

A double honor killing in Saudi Arabia

From the Arab News:

A man may face the death penalty if found guilty of gunning down his two sisters as they were being discharged by Social Affairs officials into the custody of their father.
The two women had been caught in suspicious circumstances with two unrelated men on Thursday.
Police believe the brother murdered his two sisters to save the family honor. The names and ages of the young women and their brother were not made public.
According to Riyadh police, the man followed his father to the social protection home and then waited until the women came out. He reportedly shot one sister in the head and discharged three bullets into the other. He then tossed the gun near the bodies. Guards at the Social Affairs shelter quickly apprehended the man.
The man will face the death penalty unless his family forgives him. If he is spared capital punishment he will still face jail time served in the name of the public right.
Women are usually turned over to Social Affairs shelters if they are caught with unrelated men until their guardians can get them out of custody.

This is another consequence of the honor/shame culture.

The brother didn't kill his sisters because he knew that they were acting suspiciously with unrelated men; he murdered them because they were accused of acting in such a manner. Being accused is just as shameful as being guilty. Facts aren't important, only perception.

But hey...he has a fair shot at being forgiven by his parents.

Using the honor/shame culture to everyone's benefit

Last month I reported that an Egyptian court made marrying Israelis illegal. The ruling mainly affected Egyptians who married Arab Israelis.

Now, the Egyptian government is appealing that ruling:

The Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs appealed the verdict with the Supreme Administrative Court and demanded an annulment of the ruling, according to the official daily al-Ahram.

They appealed arguing that the issue did not fall within the jurisdiction of the administrative court, the Egyptian daily independent al-Shorouk al-Gadid reported Sunday.

On the other hand, the appeal added, implementing the verdict will negatively impact Egypt's image on the international level as it will appear as a country that does not respect human rights and personal freedoms.

Notice that the argument is not that the ruling restricts personal freedoms - it is that it makes Egypt look like it restricts personal freedoms.

A corollary to the Arab honor/shame culture is that appearances are more important than facts. The perception of morality is more important than morality itself. That is how honor killings can occur to begin with. When one's honor is the most important factor in determining how one acts, it allows him to act immorally in order to maintain honor.

Of course Egypt doesn't care about human rights or personal freedoms. That's almost axiomatic. But the world does, and Egypt is not well served in appearing to be immoral. As a result, actions aren't done for the sake of morality, but for the sake of the appearance of morality.

This will not change.

What we can learn from this, though, is that as Western ideals of morality pervade the world, honor/shame cultures can be shamed into at least forcing the appearance of acting moral. When it can be hidden - when there is no shame - there will be no morality in the Western sense, but Arabs can be prodded into acting in moral ways in public by being shamed into it.

This is why it is terrifically important to place the issue of how the Arab world treats Palestinian Arabs as high as possible in the public sphere. There is no excuse for the Arab world perpetuating a fake "refugee" crisis for decades, and the hypocrisy of saying that they do it for the Palestinian Arabs' own good must be exposed. They will not start treating millions of Palestinian Arabs better; they will not give them full equal rights and citizenship rights, unless they are shamed into it.

If the West would start making this into an issue, it would have a dramatic impact. It needs to be framed as a human rights issue, plain and simple.The Arab world chooses to discriminate against Palestinians and will not allow third and fourth generation Palestinian Arabs born in their countries to become citizens, although they do allow other Arabs to become naturalized citizens. The issue needs to be raised as much as human rights are a part of the conversations around China, North Korea and elsewhere.

Once the naked hatred and bigotry against those of Palestinian origin in the Arab world is publicized, the Arab world will at first try to deflect the issue towards Israel, but they would fail. Perhaps Israel can be blamed for the condition of some Palestinian Arabs in 1949 but what has happened to them since is simply the Arab world' s responsibility.

They will never take this responsibility willingly. But, as we have seen, they can be shamed into it.

Women's rights, Saudi style

From the Arab News:

Police are searching for a 28-year-old woman who ran away from a Social Affairs-run women’s shelter in Jeddah on Friday.
Col. Misfar Al-Juaid, spokesman for Jeddah police, said the woman ran away while the police were preparing to take her to jail in line with a court order. He further urged the young woman to surrender and warned the public against giving her shelter.

She must have done something heinous to have an all-point bulletin issued by an entire Kingdom. What was her crime?

The court had ordered the police to take the woman to jail while it examined a case filed against her by her father. The woman fled her parents’ home after accusing them of abusing her and sought refuge at the shelter.

The woman had earlier complained against her father at a summary court. The father had then filed a counter-case against her, accusing her of disobeying her parents, a culpable offense under Saudi law. The court refused to entertain the woman’s petition and instead began examining the father’s complaint.
Before issuing a final verdict, the court ordered police to take the woman to jail. When police arrived to take her, the woman said she needed to use the toilet and on entering the ladies’ toilet she fled.

The woman accused her father of abusing her. The father responded to the court that she had done something much worse - she had disobeyed him. So the Saudi justice system, naturally, decided to drop the charges for the abuse crime and start a nationwide hunt for the 28 year old woman who disobeyed her father.

The Saudis aren't monsters, though. They have a solution:

Urging the young woman to return to her senses and surrender to the authorities, Dr. Ali Al-Hanaki, director of the Ministry of Social Affairs Ministry in Jeddah, said, “The solution now lies in her own hands. Each additional day she refuses to obey the authorities will only worsen her problem.”
He added that the ministry had pledged to resolve her problem without sending her to jail. “We have informed the court of our plans, which include arranging for her to marry and reconciling her with her family,” said Al-Hanaki.

See? They'll find her a husband! No doubt he will be a prize catch for her, arranged by the government itself.

Almost as much of a prize as her father evidently is: