Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Kotel, 1912

For my readers who observe Tisha B'Av, I wish you all an easy and meaningful fast.

Here is a description of the Kotel from a book written by Christian pilgrims in 1912, showing how much Jews would mourn over Jerusalem, not only on Tisha B'Av but every single Friday:

The scene at the Jew's Wailing Place is very touching. It is situated near the Temple site, in fact almost under the shadow of that place. The stone wall bearing that name is one hundred fifty feet long and nearly sixty feet high. Nine courses of stone at the bottom are made of very large blocks and the remaining fifteen courses are made of much smaller ones. The general shape of these hewn stone show that they were not designed by the same builder but that the lower courses were the work of a much earlier period, in all probability of Solomon's time. Here the Jews meet every Friday afternoon to engage in lamentation. About four o'clock in the afternoon as many as two hundred gather here to weep and pray. This beautiful prayer is sung, or rather wailed:

(Leader) "For' the palace that lies desolate,
(Audience) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For the palace that is destroyed,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For the walls that are overthrown,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For our majesty that is departed,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For our great men that lie dead,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For the precious stones that are burned,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For the priests who have stumbled,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn.
(L) For the kings who have despised Him,
(A) We sit in solitude and mourn."

Another one equally touching and showing the Jew's idea of the return of their nation, not only to Jerusalem, but to power as well, is also given:

(L) "We pray Thee have mercy on Zion.
(A) Gather the children to Jerusalem.
(L) Haste, haste, Redeemer of Zion.
(A) Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
(L) May beauty and majesty surround Zion.
(A) Ah, turn Thyself mercifully to Jerusalem.
(L) May the kingdom soon return to Zion.
(A) Comfort those that mourn over Jerusalem.
(L) May peace and joy abide with Zion.
(A) And the Branch spring up in Jerusalem."

Coming there at the time when these exercises are going on one can not help but feel that their sorrow is real and their prayers earnest because of the tear-stained faces; but earlier in the afternoon there may be seen a few people, especially women, in prayer and people coming here at such a time are apt to doubt the sincerity of these people. Several years, ago a party came here and heard several women wailing and as they were heavily veiled, one of the number said, "I do not believe that they are crying. I am going to inspect." He stepped up to one old lady and lifted her veil. Coming back to his friends he said, "I am sorry I did that. There were great tear drops running down over her cheeks."

In the merit of mourning properly over Jerusalem, may we be rewarded to rejoice in its complete rebuilding!

(See also last year's post on the same topic, and also my 2007 post on Tisha B'Av, 1948, the first year no Jews could visit the Old City.)

Today's PalArab news 7-29-09

Fatah said they have a deal with Hamas where they will release 200 Hamas members from PA prisons and Hamas will allow 400 Fatah members to travel to Bethlehem for the Fatah conference scheduled for next week. Hamas said, not so fast. But either way we have shown that Fayyad's comments that the Hamas members couldn't be released because of the integrity of the PA justice system were just another lie.

Another tunnel collapsed overnight, injuring 7 people. There are still some missing from the previous tunnel collapses over the past couple of days.

And who is at fault for the tunnel collapses? According to Palestine Today, it is the Shin Bet! Using flawless logic, PalToday noticed that the owners of the tunnels don't get killed in these collapses, but only the young men they hired. The obvious reason is that they collude with the Israelis to kill the tunnel workers - Israelis, of course, want to kill every man in Gaza - and this way, the tunnel owners can get out of paying them! (The fact that they lose their income is obviously not relevant.)

Speaking of collaboration, Hamas responded to Netanyahu's comments that Hamas will be overthrown by the people of Gaza by saying that this was evidence that the PA is colluding with Israel. I'm not quite bright enough to see the connection.

Al Quds brings us a picture of the Hamas religious police. Hamas has started patrolling the beaches of Gaza on horseback to ensure that men are wearing tops, that women are modestly dressed, and that single men and women do not mix. The article says that this is the first visible manifestation of Hamas imposing Islamic laws on the general population of Gaza.

Palestine Today has a series of photos captioned "the desecration of dozens of Jews of the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Here are the horrible photos, showing in minute detail all the desecration going on. I'm warning you, it's shocking:

See all the rioting, the tearing up of holy Qurans, the rock throwing, the insults being screamed, and the Prophet being insulted?

I'm sorry to have had to show you such awful pictures, but the world must know exactly what terrible things the Jews are doing in the Al Aqsa complex. Like walking, meditating and maybe even - gasp! - praying. The horror!

By the way, here is a photo of Muslims (from Hizb ut Tahrir) showing how much respect they have for the Dome of the Rock, as they display their behinds to the holy spot:

(Yes, I know they bow to Mecca. That's the point.)

Internet down open thread

On my trip I am relying on my broadband card to work, and it is having problems. So I can't blog tonight, and possibly not tomorrow either, and then is Tisha B'Av... Apparently, this is a good time for a long open thread.

The PA finds money for The Arafat Museum

Ma'an reports:

The Palestinian Authority will fund the building of a museum dedicated to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the cabinet decided Monday.

The PA will assume the costs of construction and operations of the new museum, which will play home to documents and artifacts from the history of the Palestinian National Movement, including many articles that belonged to Arafat.

The collection will take the form of a retrospective on Arafat’s life, and has a budget of 2 million US dollars for its first phase. Palestinian architect called Ja’far Tuqan is set to design the building.

Of course, the PA has no money of its own, and lives on donations, mostly from Western countries.

So we are paying Palestinian Arabs to build a huge incitement to terror.

Just a couple of days ago, Fatah's Mahmoud Dahlan proudly told PA TV that Arafat deceived the world when he said he was interested in peace. Which is exactly why Arafat is a hero in the Arab world - not because he was an alleged peacemaker but because he was a terrorisdt.

In other news...

After the weekend's tunnel collapse that claimed 7 victims, another one today has killed one with six more missing.

A tree collapsed on the Temple Mount, so naturally the Arabs are blaming Israeli excavations underneath.

An Egyptian man, who had a sex change operation, is suing Al Azhar University in Egypt for kicking him/her out.

Egypt is seeking the death penalty for some Hizbollah terrorists caught recently in that country.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 129.

Pakistan "dancing girls" victimized twice

This story in Al Arabiya is disgusting on two levels, one from what it says and one for what it does not. It starts off this way:

Clad in a low-cut dress and heavily made-up, 16-year-old dancing girl Shabnam used to spend her nights twirling gracefully for locals and tourists in Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Bejewelled dancers of Swat, famous for its beautiful, pale-skinned women, would beguile at house parties, stag nights and hotels, and Shabnam was just 12 when she followed her mother and sisters into the sometimes steamy profession.

But then Taliban fighters infiltrated the valley and her hometown Mingora. Terror forced Shabnam to flee and although some displaced civilians are returning to areas around Swat, she says she is too scared to go home.

"I don't think the situation will return to normality. The Taliban have terrified not only us dancing girls but the entire population in Swat. I think the Taliban can return any time," she said.

This article is clearly oriented against the Taliban and their religious zeal, and for the first six paragraphs the girls are described merely as "dancers," perhaps baring a little more skin than one would see in the streets but nothing else.

However, they were forced to do a bit more than just dance:

Such entertainment forms were branded un-Islamic and retribution was harsh, particularly as they are frequently associated with prostitution.

"If I dance at a party for a whole night, then do you think they will let me go without sex?" said Shabnam.

"It depends on the people, the place and the community where I perform. Sometimes I had sex with four to five people," she replied.

She left Swat after her cousin was killed.

"My cousin Shabana was the most beautiful and popular dancer of Swat. She was murdered in Mingora city's Green Square," she said. "She was shot dead."

Now look at the beginning of the article - Shabham was forced into prostitution by her own mother when she was 12!

English-language Al-Arabiya does not think this is strange or noteworthy; apparently this is just par for the course.

So Pakistani girls are victimized not only by the Islamic extremists of the Taliban but also by their own families and a culture that utterly demeans them as a matter of course.

Yemeni women abused mostly by sheikhs, upper class

Al Arabiya (Arabic) reports that 80% of abused Yemeni women are victims of "academics and intellectuals," which seems to include sheikhs when translated.

During a symposium on violence against women held today, the author of this study also said that violence against women in rural areas were "almost non-existent because of the customs and traditions in rural areas of Yemen."

In a related story, the "marginalized" women of Yemen suffer routine, extreme abuse by the upper class and religious leaders:

K.M.H, a marginalized girl, 8, was living in al-Odun, Al-Kema district when she was raped by a rich and powerful person with influence over local authorities, referred to as “Sheikh M.D.”
“Sheikh M.D came to our home every night and threatened that he would confiscate all of our possessions under the pretext that we are marginalized, and we have no rights to live freely,” the mother expressed.

The mother went on to say, “We went to the police station to complain about his constant intimidation, but no one would help us. When he knew that we went to the police station he threatened us by saying he would rape my youngest daughter.”
The mother concluded, “One day, while my daughter was walking alone on her path in our village, Sheikh M.D took advantage of the fact that she was alone and raped her in complete disregard of any morals. When she fought back, he broke her neck and choked her to death.” She kept on saying, “no one will punish him, and no body wants to protect us. He raped and killed my daughter. Moreover, he is walking around freely and living his life as if nothing ever happened.”
According to the Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights (YOHR), large numbers of marginalized women have been categorically raped and in many cases, killed afterwards.

S.M.H., a marginalized girl, 18, was raped by a man, referred to as “Sheikh M.T.”

S.M.H confirmed, “We live in Ureem-Aras district. My story is like all stories of al-Akhdam women. One day, there was a quarrel between us and Sheikh M.T. about a piece of land. One night, he came with about 40 armed men. They broke into our house, beat my family members, and then kicked us out of our house.”
She pointed out that, Sheikh M.T restrained her inside her house and raped her while threatening to kill her with his gun.

“We have to wait for the justice of God since there are no laws to protect us or punish people responsible for raping and exploiting us,” She added.

“Sheikh M.T. raped me, but like in many cases, received no punishment. I went to police station to complain, but they do no thing because Sheikh M.T. holds a high position in the community, whereas I am a marginalized girl,” she concluded.

According to the Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights, most of the crimes against marginalized women are committed by sheikhs, rich people, and people in high positions.

Unbelievable cruelty and sickening disregard for women, by people who pretend to be the moral guardians of the religion.

Saudi religious police arrest a sorcerer

From the Saudi Gazette:

A Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) team has arrested an African man accused of practicing magic and sorcery which enabled him to gain full control over a Saudi family for two years.

The man was arrested after the Hai’a received information that he had offered to concoct a spell for the sum of SR8,000, and when a meeting was set up between the informant and the African man Hai’a staff were surprised to find a Saudi man arriving to collect the money.

The Saudi man told the Hai’a that he and his family of a wife and daughter had been under a spell the suspect cast on them when they turned to him with an unspecified problem, and that he had been living in their house for two years, during which time he turned them into his servants.

“We didn’t have a meal without him and we lived according to his instructions,” said the husband.

Such was the sorcerer’s power over the family that he even took the Saudi man’s wife and daughter to Africa for a visit, the husband added.

Among the African’s personal belongings in the Saudi house the Hai’a found incriminating letters from the Saudi’s wife to the spell-caster.

Some talismans and a variety of herbs were also found.

There are two ways that Islam can look at sorcery - as a real, independent power or as something that is completely fake but still forbidden. I found an article, written for a Western audience, that claims the latter:

Practitioners of magic (Muslims, that is) believe in magical power, a demonic power (as it is said that one cannot attain sorcery without seeking the help of the devil), and would often worship it. As such, they would then claim that there is other greater power aside than Allah when as Muslims, they are to, and must, accept only Allah as the one and only God, the powerful one. Believing in any other supreme being would be an act of disbelief towards Allah. Learning magic is also an act of disbelief because they claim to have magical powers, when such powers can only exist in the Almighty himself.

Which would make a certain amount of sense. However, the articles in the Saudi Gazette like the one above seem to imply that the Hai'a/Muttawa are fighting not charlatans, but real honest-to-Allah sorcerers. And indeed this article written by a Muslim for a less skeptical audience claims exactly that:

The Mu'tazilah (one of the groups who deviated in issues of Aqidah) rejected the existence of sorcery and sometimes ruled with kufr against anyone who claimed its existence. They claimed it is nothing but hallucination and imagination. As for the mainstream Muslims (Ahlus-Sunnah wa Al-Jamaa), we say that sorcery is real, it really takes place and when it occurs, Allah creates whatever He wishes. Thus, its effects do not come from the stars, the talismen, the knots or the sorcerer, rather Allah brings about whatever He wishes upon the occurrence of those things.

Campaigns against magic's legitimacy would be far more effective in stopping poor gullible Saudis like the family above. Take one guess as to what the sorcerer did to the wife and daughter.

Yet from the tone of the articles in the Saudi press, it seems that the mainstream Saudi opinion - including religious opinion - is that sorcery is real and a serious danger, which is why the Muttawa do not campaign against the reality of magic but against the practitioners.

"Honor killing" in Gaza

The father didn't just kill his 27-year old daughter for possibly talking to a man on the phone - he tortured her first:

On Thursday, 23 July 2009, Fadia Jawdat al-Najjar, 27, from Jabalya refugee camp was killed allegedly "to maintain family honor."

According to police sources in Jabalya, at approximately 09:30 on Friday morning, 24 July 2009, Jawdat al-Najar, from Jabalya, gave himself up to the police station in Jabalya. He confessed that he killed his daughter, Fadia, inside his home in a late hour on Thursday. He claimed that he found a mobile phone with his daughter and she was talking with someone, which he suspected as an illegitimate relation.

Sources of the forensic medicine department at Shifa Hospital reported that there were signs of torture throughout the victim's body, as well as a fracture in her skull due to her was hit by an iron chain.

This story did not hit the PalArab media until the PCHR wrote about it. In other words, a murder in Gaza was not even reported at the time it happened.

I wonder how many others I miss?

The Jerusalem Post has a story about a Hamas summer camp where the children are re-enacting the abduction of Gilad Shalit.

The photo looked familiar, and sure enough, I had published it back on June 4th, as a series of pictures on the commencement exercises of an apparent Islamic Jihad oriented school in Gaza (following an Islamic Jihad "arts festival.")

They very well might have been re-enacting Shalit's abduction, and Hamas summer camps very possibly do that too, but it just shows that the Jerusalem Post is sometimes sloppy in its material.

Afternoon Arab news

Lots of interesting items:

A book was published in Beirut on the history of Jerusalem that claims that Jerusalem was never really that important to Jews.

Hamas again said they would not let Fatah members leave Gaza to attend the Fatah conference next week, proving again who holds the keys to the "open air prison."

Arabs are freaked out over Jews "storming" the Temple Mount to perform the dreaded "religious rites."

A top Islamic Jihad sheikh says that Arab victory over the Jews is imminent. One of its top leaders said that terrorism is the way that they will prevail.

In Saudi Arabia, a mother is quite upset that the Muttawa approached her daughter for being in a car with a boy - who was her brother.

A former major Pakistani official is saying that he is being demonized politically by Jews. You know, all those Jews in Pakistan.

"Free Gaza" admits it supports terrorism

In a long, rambling article on the Free Gaza website, Ramzi Kysia (one of Free Gaza's leaders) shows that he and his movement really do support Palestinian Arab terror. He is careful to say that not all terror is good, but he all but says that some suicide bombings are.

Here are some excerpts:

On the Right of Resistance

We are often told that resistance is either unwarranted or impossible. Liberal apologists for Israel, such as Thomas Friedman, are constantly demanding that Palestinians lay down their arms, all the while exhorting Israelis to pick them up in ever increasing acts of violence and degradation.

...But even mainstream “peace” movements in the West try to delegitimize resistance by calling on both Palestinians and Israelis to renounce overt acts of violence, equating Palestinians who commit suicide bombings with Israelis who send F-16s, D9 military bulldozers, and Apache attack helicopters to level entire neighborhoods.

The problem is that the usually random and individual acts of violence by Palestinians against Israelis are not equal to the myriad structural oppressions and cruelties imposed on Palestinians through Israeli government policies. No Palestinian fighter jets bomb Israeli cities - because Palestine has no fighter jets....

Even immoral and self-defeating acts of violence against Israeli civilians (such as some suicide bombings are) cannot be equated with the daily humiliations, terror, and death that Israel inflicts on Palestinians by deliberate policy.

This is not to say that any and all acts of resistance are acceptable. Clearly they are not. But it grows tedious to continually hear well-meaning, but otherwise clueless, Westerners try to equate the two sides of this conflict. I am past tired of hearing white people passively whine, or shrilly demand, “Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?”

With respect, just because some people have chosen to remain ignorant of the long and deep history of Palestinian nonviolent resistance - from the 1936 Boycott to Bil’in today - does not mean that it does not exist.

The "non-violent" 1936 boycott was a three-year reign of terror killing many hundreds of people - mostly Arabs killing other Arabs, although they killed many Jews in that timeframe as well. In Bil'in today, some of the "nonviolent" protests include slinging large rocks at the heads of Israelis at high speed. This is what Kysia considers "non-violent."

But far worse is the fact that he is legitimizing "some" suicide bombings, probably every single rocket attack and a myriad of other deliberate attacks by Arabs against Israelis as being a "right." The Free Gaza movement is now explicitly condoning terrorism by Palestinian Arabs, using the logic that what Israel does is worse and therefore killing Israeli civilians is (sometimes) a praiseworthy endeavor. And he is upset that some people want both sides to stop violence.

There are of course multiple layers of illogic, absurdities and lies in this article, but the important point is that now we can say that Free Gaza, like the ISM that spawned it, is in no way, shape or form a "peace" movement. While it might not support its own members using violence, it welcomes Arabs to do all the violence against Israeli civilians that they think is needed. Additionally, Kysia has proven that when Free Gaza talks about "resistance," it is referring to violence no less than it is referring to non-violence.

Morning PalArab (and other) news 7-27-09

Remember the explosion last week of a Hezbollah weapons stockpile in Lebanon? Well, the moderate Lebanese government blames it on...Israel, saying that they were Zionist weapons, left behind in Lebanon for some inexplicable reason.

Minister Louis Farrakhan called Michael Jackson a victim of Zionist leaders, the US government and the media.

Three more bodies were found from a tunnel explosion in Rafah over the weekend.

An Arab columnist slammed Arab governments, pointing out that the PA has been building institutions and trying to do what's necessary to build a state, and yet most of its aid comes from the West, while Arab leaders give money instead to Gaza and Lebanon. He argues that a Palestinian Arab state must be economically viable and that Arab governments have been ignoring it.

Hamas says that a Hamas member who was tortured in PA prisons has died in a hospital in Jordan.

Hamas sponsored a wedding for 500 couples, in Damascus.

In a classic example of a tempest in a teapot, Shimon Peres said last week that Zionist pioneer Zeev Jabotinsky was "largely incorrect," giving as an example his desire to see a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin responded by saying that "Jabotinsky was not wrong, Mr. President. He is relevant today more than any other time in our nation's history," but not saying anything about Zionist aims on the East Bank. Today, Jordanian parliament members are calling on freezing the peace treaty with Israel because of Rivlin's comments.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count rises to 125; if there is indications that the Hamas member was really tortured it will go up again.

UPDATE: Two more bodies from the same tunnel; 127.
UPDATE 2: Paltoday has a total death toll of 7 from the tunnel. 128.

A distinguished nutcase visits the Elder

Only a couple of hours after my post about Leuren Moret and her insanity, she visits the blog herself with what can only be described as a classic comment that cements everything I wrote about her. First, her comment in its entirety:

Like radiation, Zionism respects no religion, no borders, and no socioeconomic class - both radiation and Zionism burn and destroy everything they touch. There are Christian Zionists, Islamic Zionists, Zionist Jews, Zen Zionists, Zoroastrian Zionists, Gnostic Zionists, Rastafarian Zionists, male and female Zionists, and Zionists in every nation. Zionism is about money... period. Zionists are those who follow and practice the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the 1822 Secret Treaty of Verona written by Metternich of Austria. Weapons of Mass Destruction are for the Zionists to carry out their agenda of FAMINE, DEPOPULATION, LANDGRABS, COLONIZATION, STERILIZATION, AND OTHER CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES... It's about money.

What seems to have upset our esteemed Ms. Moret is that I wrote that the object of her hate was Jews, not Zionists.

So her response to my saying she hates Jews starts off by saying that there are Zionists of every religion that cause her to blabber incoherently, not only the Jewish ones. And her defense of this theory is - The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the most notorious anti-Jewish tract ever written!

But...read more of her incoherent ramblings and you can see how the twisted recesses of her mind work:

The treaty was signed by Metternich for Austria, Chateaubriand for France, Bernstet for Prussia, and by Nesselrode for Russia, on November 22, 1822, at Verona.

Basically this was a Zionist treaty, enforcing the principles embodied in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The definition of a Zionist would therefore be a person who prescribes [sic] to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and supports the body of social rules that include genocide, as well as other diabolical and illegal practices. Technologies have been developed such as mind control, gangstalking, and other methods of political control, used to enforce Zionist behaviors in the work force and all arenas of life. These principles and cultural and social practices have been designed to benefit the permanent International War Crimes Racketeering Organization known as the Zionist Anglo-American Economic Empire… the international financiers.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were later discredited by Russian Zionists and intelligence operatives, but they were the very same agents who carried out the Bolshevik Revolution, Famine in the Ukraine 1932-33, and the extermination of 70 million Christian ethnic Russians… all Zionist practices embodied in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

So Moret is pretending that when she says "Zionist" she really means "those who are part of the nefarious Jewish plot to take over the world" - and therefore she cannot possibly be considered anti-Jewish!

And her proof that the Protocols are legitimate is because the people that discredited them were all a part of the conspiracy defined in them, so therefore (by something that logicians would call "WTF?") the Protocols must be real!

So, Lauren, since in your worldview I am All-Powerful, my gift to you is to use my incredible powers of mind control to direct you to go to your nearest qualified psychologist to get you some help. Of course, you will think deep down that the psychologist is a Zionist herself, so you will resist these attempts to salvage your life - after all, by definition, anyone who thinks you are insane is part of my plot - but, hey, I control your mind to begin with so you can't really be sure if your thoughts are really your own, or if perhaps the "Zionists" are planting these thoughts into your head in order to make you write them down and therefore look really stupid, marginalizing you as an opponent to our plans for world domination and thus allowing the Zionist leaders with our big hook-noses to continue with our greedy, diabolical plots! The beauty of what I'm writing is that it has a self-consistency that cannot be disproven, so therefore it must be true!