Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 17, 2009

Arab analysts try to figure out why Gaza creates extremists

There have been a number of articles in the Arabic press that attempt to analyze why there is a proliferation of Al-Qaeda-oriented extremist groups in Gaza. Typical is this one from Al Arabiya [autotranslated]:

Palestinian analysts said that the Gaza Strip has turned into a breeding ground for the emergence of extremist Islamic groups, as a result of the growth of religious institutions, which created many roles and trends after the militant Hamas-controlled Gaza under the Israeli siege to be in a tight semi-isolation from the world, expecting the emergence of extreme manifestations of violence in it.

[A professor at Al Azhar University] pointed out that "the growth of extremism is a result of the spread of poverty, unemployment and the blockade."

Most articles of this type miss the read reason, but I saw one that touched upon it.

Hamas mobilized thousands in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with a culture of the suicide bomber, and built a huge army of the martyrs who are racing to be the first to blow up their explosive belts in Israel to go to heaven by the shortest and fastest routes. It is natural that is a proportion of those frustrated by the current truce will search for other jihadist organizations, to transcend this situation and achieve their aspirations of martyrdom. It is not strange that there should be a component of the armed wing of Hamas among the Jund Allah' members, or that their leader is the nephew of Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Political Bureau of Hamas.

This comes much closer to the truth. Hamas (as well as Fatah) has raised up generations of Palestinian Arabs with the idea that martyrdom is ideal, that Israel is anathema, and dying while fighting Jews is the shortcut to Paradise. Hamas added on a layer of supposed adherence to Sharia law and the concept of creating a unified 'Ummah.

For thousands of youths who have assimilated this message from Hamas itself, is it surprising that they cannot accept the current pause of terror attacks? Hamas' actions do not jive with their words and Hamas does not try very hard to justify their hudna in Islamic terms. This creates an ideological vacuum that other groups rush to fill.

The core of the conflict is incitement to terror. It takes decades to erase the effects of brainwashing kids to desire to blow themselves up, and Hamas media continues to glorify killing Israeli women and children. To a large swath of Arab Muslims, simple-minded dedication to violence is attractive and intuitive (not to mention natural,) and anything that obstructs their desire to murder is to be resisted.

It is easy to blame extremism on "occupation" and the "siege" and so forth, but the simplest explanation is the one that most people are not willing to face: extremism is taught, and that Pandora's box cannot be closed in this generation.

Another Zionist cow crisis in Lebanon

We already know about the terrible crime of Zionist cows invading a pond supposedly in Lebanon and drinking water, thereby proving Zionist imperialism and expansionism.

Now, a Zio-cow has upped the ante, having the unmitigated chutzpah to die on Lebanese territory! From the Daily Star, at the tail-end of a story about how UNIFIL is building a fence to protect Lebanon from the cows:

A decision has yet to be reached concerning the disposal of a cow cadaver recently found near the lake. While Lebanese authorities refused to burry [sic] the cadaver in its territories and requested that it be moved to the occupied part of Kfar Shuba, the Israelis so far ignored the matter.

This must be the Zio-cow equivalent of suicide bombing.

Neo-Nazi ads return to Google

Once again, I am seeing ads from Google AdWords for NSM88records, a neo-Nazi group that sells T-shirts for "white power" as well as with swastikas and pictures of Hitler.

You can complain to Google here.

Indian Muslim women speak out against bigamy

From The National (UAE):

While some Muslim clerics have disagreed with a recent Indian Law Commission report saying bigamy is against the “letter and spirit” of true Islam, many Indian Muslim women, both single and married, say bigamy and polygamy should not be accepted in any society.
In the report presented to government last week the commission said: “We fully agree with the fact that traditional understanding of Muslim law on bigamy is gravely faulty and conflicts with true Islamic law in letter and spirit.”

Even though the commission stopped short of recommending reforms, fearing it could trigger an “unhealthy controversy”, a powerful clerical body said that it could not tolerate any criticism of Islamic law, or Sharia.

“Justice is the basis of bigamy. The commission should also know that this issue is outside its purview,” Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, the spokesperson of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said in an interview.

Some Muslim women, however, believe married men commit bigamy or polygamy out of lust and take advantage of Sharia to justify their behaviour.

“My husband suddenly married a younger woman and began living with her some months ago without divorcing me. I could not get any action taken against him simply because of the Muslim law, which allows him to keep four wives,” Azra Begum, the first wife of a Muslim butcher in West Bengal, said. “I have been forced into miseries since he was the sole breadwinner for our family. His new marriage has also been humiliating and embarrassing for me and my daughter.”
The commission report was prepared in connection with a legal case in which a Hindu man converted to Islam to be able to marry a woman without divorcing his first wife.
Earlier this year, the Delhi-based Allama Rafiq Chariatable Trust conducted a survey among Muslim women in Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh and found that 96 per cent were against bigamy.

“Very surprisingly, except for just five women, all of them said that they did not approve that their husband, father or brother married more than once,” said Maqsood Ahmed, the president of the trust.

Ms Begum said until a woman experiences what she went through, it is impossible to fathom the repercussions that a husband’s additional marriages can have.

“People in our village called us ideal lovers, until my daughter was born. Then, suddenly, 15 years after the marriage, he fell in love with a younger woman and dumped me last year,” said Ms Begum, who recently joined a bulb-making factory as a labourer.

“He has taken a second wife illegally. I loved my husband, I was healthy and I was able to perform all duties that a wife is supposed to do. But I know I cannot get justice now simply because he is Muslim and has the so-called right to keep up to four wives. I am devastated.”

PCHR is "astonished" at Hamas terrorists

PCHR made a big deal about the "policemen" killed during Cast Lead, saying that they were "civilians." The fact that a majority of them were also members of terror groups didn't matter to this "human rights" group - to them, a fake police force that is identical to an armed terror group is still worthy of civilian protection.

So there is a little irony at PCHR's report on the unpleasantness that happened last Friday between Hamas and the Jund Ansar Allah group. One of their statements is:

[The PCHR] reiterates its astonishment by the involvement of members of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades in these incidents, emphasizing that the brigades cannot be a law enforcement body, and its very involvement in the incidents is an encroachment into the powers of law enforcement bodies.

Isn't it astonishing that Hamas doesn't distinguish between its law enforcement and its terror group? Only to PCHR, which clings onto a fiction that would allow it to consider Hamas police to be civilian to begin with, and to consider Hamas to be a normal political leadership of Gaza and not a terror group.

So much for HRW's "objectivity"

Forgetting that HRW claims to have "forensic evidence" that Palestinian Arabs waved white flags while being mowed down by heartless IDF soldiers (without providing any such evidence,) the author of that report has a history of, shall we say, extreme antipathy towards Israel - and support of terror. From Maariv, translated at Commentary:

AUTHOR OF REPORT AGAINST ISRAEL SUPPORTED MUNICH MASSACRE
By Ben-Dror Yemini, Ma’ariv, 16.8.09, p. 13

Joe Stork, a senior official in Human Rights Watch, which accuses the IDF of killing Palestinians who waved white flags, is a fanatical supporter of the elimination of Israel. He was a friend of Saddam, ruled out negotiations and supported the Munich Massacre, which “provided an important boost in morale among Palestinians.”

Last Thursday, many world media outlets covered the press conference in which a senior Human Rights Watch official, Joe Stork, presented the report accusing Israel of killing twelve Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who waved white flags during Operation Cast Lead. Stork, the person identified with the report, has a unique history of Israel-hating: He supported the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich, was an avid supporter of Saddam Hussein and more.

Several times in the past, Stork has called for the destruction of Israel and is a veteran supporter of Palestinian terrorism. Already as a student, Stork was amongst the founders of a new radical leftist group, which was formed based on the claim that other leftist groups were not sufficiently critical of Israel and of the United States’ support of it. Already in 1976, Stork participated in a conference organized by Saddam Hussein which celebrated the first anniversary of the UN decision that equated Zionism with racism. Stork, needless to say, arrived at the conference as a prominent supporter of Palestinian terrorism and as an opponent to the existence of the State of Israel.

He also labeled Palestinian violence against Israel as “revolutionary potential of the Palestinian masses”—language that was typical of fanatical Marxists.

In articles which he authored during the 1970’s, Stork stated that he was against the very existence of Israel as an “imperialistic entity” and, to this end, provided counsel to Arab regimes on how to eliminate the Zionist regime. He also was opposed to any negotiations since this meant recognizing its existence: “Zionism may be defeated only by fighting imperialism,” wrote Stork, “and not through deals with Kissingers.”

On other occasions, Stork expressed his position that the global Left must subordinate itself to the PLO in order to strengthen elements that opposed any accord with Israel. It would seem that he has not changed his ways since then. He is still conceptually subordinate to those who have maintained their opposition to the existence of the State of Israel. Once the world’s radical left supported the PLO. Today, part of the global Left supports Hamas.

Where does Stork stand regarding matters of objectivity and neutrality? He criticized Professor Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, himself a PLO figure, because he edited an anthology which tried, at least seemingly, to produce a balanced presentation. “Academic neutrality is deceitful,” wrote Stork. And what about factual accuracy? Stork claimed that Menachem Begin said that, ‘The Palestinians are two-legged animals.” In fact, Begin said that those who come to kill children are “two-legged animals.” The difference is, of course, huge. Stork, time after time, justifies his high standing in the industry of hate and lies against Israel.

Stork reached his peak in a statement published by the Middle East Research and Information Project, which dealt with gathering information on the Middle East conflict, and in which Stork was a leading figure. This was a statement that included explicit support for the murder of the eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics:

“Munich and similar actions cannot create or substitute for a mass revolutionary movement,” the statement said, “But we should comprehend the achievement of the Munich action…It has provided an important boost in morale among Palestinians in the camps.”

Murder and terrorism, if so, are a matter of morale.

This is the man. A radical Marxist whose positions have not changed over the years. On the contrary. Objectivity, neutrality or sticking to the facts are not Stork’s strong suit. He even proudly exclaims that there is no need for neutrality.

Is it possible to relate seriously to a report against Israel which this man stands behind? Both Camera and Professor Gerald Steinberg have revealed worrying data on the leaders of Human Rights Watch and on the two people who head its Middle East Department—Sarah Leah Whitson and Joe Stork—even before its latest report and unconnected to it. The organization, as part of its false presentation, issued polite condemnations of Hamas rocket fire. But it seems that such blatant anti-Israel bias leaves room for doubt. A Stork-produced report on Israel is about as objective as a report by Baruch Marzel on Hebron.

Israel is called upon to provide explanations in the wake of Human Rights Watch reports. It is about time that Israel publicly exposed the ideological roots of several of this organization’s leaders and demands the dismissal of these supporters of terrorism and haters of Israel. Until then, Israel, justifiably, cannot seriously comment on criticism from such a body.

Book review: "Saving Israel"

Daniel Gordis of the Shalem Center has written an intriguing book with an ambitious goal: to save the Jewish State and, by extension, Judaism.

The full title is "Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End."

For most of the book, Gordis describes the problems facing Israel, and the problems seem insurmountable: peace with Palestinian Arabs is a chimera, young American Jews no longer identify with Israel and have increasingly become immersed in anti-Israel leftism, the ability of Jews to articulate the reasons that Israel is needed is deteriorating, Israel will never be at peace as long as Hamas and Hezbollah and similar groups exist, the number of prominent people who are against the very existence of Israel keeps increasing, Iran and increasing technology ensures that Israel will always live under a cloud of worry about total annihilation, Israel's Arab minority is increasingly radical and hostile to Israel's existence, Israelis themselves have lost passion for Zionism, and an Israel that doesn't embrace its Judaism has little chance of survival.

The problems are laid out well. Gordis doesn't pull any punches and he doesn't hide from any problems. He acknowledges and does not try to minimize the real pain that Palestinian Arabs have and the real problems in Israeli society today. He explores and pokes holes in simple solutions and stopgaps that people have suggested (like Israel trading the Wadi Ara area for settlement blocs to help reduce the demographic problem - even anti-Israel Arabs that live there would end up moving elsewhere in Israel rather than become members of a Palestinian Arab state.)

His description of the problems is so good that they are almost overwhelming.

Gordis brings up two disheartening stories that set up his solution. In one, his son is paired up with a non-religious Israeli at a post-high school class where they taught Talmud. The subject was the very first page of the first tractate in Brachot. The teacher wanted them to go through the daf and list all the questions they could, and the non-religious Israeli's first question was "What's the Shema?" A Hebrew-speaking Israel went through all his years of schooling without knowing the most basic information about Jewish life.

The other story was about a girl from Sderot who was sent to America as a respite from the incessant rocket attacks. Upon her return, she was angry - asking why she had to go to California to see a havdalah ceremony for the first time in her life.

The Zionism of early Zionist poets and thinkers was explicitly anti-religious. Gordis mentions a children's song written by famed Chaim Bialik, about a see-saw, which actually denies the existence of God due to its playful use of a Mishnaic phrase (mah le-ma'alah, mah le-matah? "Who is above and who is below?") He brings other examples of rabid anti-religious sentiment in major early Zionist leaders.

So what does Gordis suggest? He wants the very definition of what it means to be Jewish to change. He wants Israel to become a central part of diaspora Judaism and he wants Judaism to become the central part of Israeli life. He is equally upset at how Israeli schools ignore all Jewish history between the Bible and the birth of Zionism as he is at how the Chief Rabbinate of Israel ignores the opportunities to lead the entire country in debates about the religion, choosing instead to concentrate only on the religious sector.

Only when Judaism returns as the centerpiece of the Jewish state can Zionists articulate the purpose of Israel. Only a people who know who they are and how they became that way can justify their existence and their self-defense.

Gordis, ordained as a conservative rabbi, couches his suggestions in a pluralistic Jewish way. He doesn't refer to his beliefs in the book and one could argue that Conservative or Masorti Judaism has not exactly inspired masses of Jews in America. Nevertheless, his ideas make sense. Israelis need to become Jewishly literate and there need to be public debates about every difficult issue not (only) from a Western perspective but from the rich Jewish tradition. The divide between the religious Zionist, the haredi and the secular Israelis is too large and the religious have been too insular. Gordis shows that non-religious Israelis seem to want to learn more about Judaism as well but all too often do not have the tools.

Although he doesn't suggest it, there should be TV shows in Israel where Jews of all denominations debate current issues from a Jewish perspective. What is the proper Jewish response to Gilad Shalit's kidnapping? Should Israeli shops sell chametz (leavened products) on Passover? What is the balance between defending Israeli lives and the lives of enemy civilians? How much separation should there be between Jewish and Arab Israelis? The number of topics is endless and it can start a real debate, as well as encourage a Jewish renaissance in Israel. This renaissance might not be traditionally Orthodox but it is far preferable to raising a generation of Jewishly illiterate Israelis.

It is certainly possible to be passionate about Judaism even if one is not Orthodox, and the Orthodox should not be afraid to publicly debate others if they are confident about their own beliefs.

Do these suggestions solve the problems that Israel has? Hardly. Gordis' questions are better than his answer. But his ideas are a prerequisite to solving Israel's problems. Israeli Jews need to be confident enough and conversant enough in their own Jewishness to rely on it to inform their decisions. Without that, the Jewish State could, God forbid, turn into just a Hebrew-speaking America that has nothing unique to offer the world and world Jewry.

It is curious that this book was published in the US and Canada, but apparently not yet in Israel. He doesn't spend much time on what can be done in the diaspora to revive Judaism as well as Zionism among Jewishly illiterate youngsters. Perhaps he is uncomfortable with the fact that most outreach in the US is done by the Orthodox and that Conservative Judaism has largely failed in that regard. Nevertheless, this is a large and glaring omission in this book.

His arguments are centered on what Israel needs to do, and he needs to make these arguments to Israeli society, not English-speaking Jews. Those arguments are compelling.

Saving Israel might overreach a bit in its goals, but that doesn't make it any less important as a starting point in creating a framework that could indeed save Israel.
--
A good interview with Gordis can be found here, and his webpage is here (h/t joe5348)

Birth of a new rumor: Israelis selling PalArab kidneys?

In the comments section of an interesting pro-Israel article by Stephanie Gutmann in the Telegraph we see this:

I’m still waiting for Gutmann’s blog on the recent arrests of the 5 main Rabbis from the NY/NJ area ; one of those arrested stands accused of traficking in human kidneys (some people say the kidneys came from freshly culled stone throwing Palestinian children in Gaza to be sold in the US for $160,000).

I should have seen this coming - the convergence of the story of corrupt rabbis in the New York area and a blood libel.

Sure enough, a couple of weeks ago someone from Uruknet mightily tried to prove that the kidneys came from unwilling Arabs. His "evidence" is literally nonexistent but he managed to place enough verbiage around the topic with irrelevant quotes that his audience can suspend all independent thought and believe him since he obviously did so much "research."

It is only a matter of time before we will be reading that Gaza is a huge organ factory meant to enrich the greedy hook-nosed Jews.

Meanwhile, in Yemen....

There's a major civil war going on in the Middle East, and it has nothing to do with Israel.

Don't be surprised if you haven't heard about it. After all, it is Arabs killing Arabs, and that doesn't make news.

From the pro-government Yemen Observer:

Five Yemeni soldiers and 16 from al-Houthi rebels were killed in the clashes between the Yemeni military and Shiite rebels of al-Houthi in the governorate of Sa'adah in the early hours of Friday morning.

Clashes between the warring parties entered into its fourth day in which the government forces have tightened its siege around Sa'adah. According to official sources the al-Houthi rebels have opt for violence and rejected all calls for peace.
Governor of Sa'adah Hassan Mana'a accused al-Houthi rebels of kidnapping 15 local aid workers working for the Red Crescent when they attacked the refugee camp in the al-Anad district.

The al-Houthi followers attacked on Friday the agriculture office in the al-Anad district damaging equipments, furniture and irrigation network that supposed to be distributed to hundreds of farmers, said Mana'a.

As a result of the war in the area around 17,000 families were forced to leave their villages in 10 districts of the province's 15 districts over the past four days.

Military sources said the rebels of al-Houthi killed four tribal chiefs and 15 civilians, among them were women and children.

So is the Yemeni government going after the Houthis in ways that would make human rights organizations happy? Apparently not:

The latest attacks came a day after air force planes hit an outdoor market in the provincial town of Haydan as people were doing their early morning shopping, killing several civilians, according to rebels and local officials.
They also claimed that in a renewed bombardment, with sorties overnight and into early Thursday, military planes bombed several other Saada towns and rebel positions. "Dozens" of people were killed and wounded, including in the towns of Sihar, Miran and Al-Maqash.
A statement from the rebel leader Abdel Malik al-Hawthi, posted on the group's Web site, described the attack as "a mass carnage" and appealed to Yemen's political parties to condemn the government strikes. It said an unspecified number of civilians died and posted gruesome photos of victims allegedly killed in the bombardment.

The Houthis are also claiming that the government has dropped white phosphorus munitions on them, which the government denies.

Over the years, thousands have died in this Yemen civil war.

Of course, everyone knows that. It is on the front pages of all the newspapers, right?

Jew-turned-Muslim Uri Davis elected to Fatah council

From Ma'an:

oud applause broke out Saturday evening as it was announced that "brother" Dr Uri Davis had been elected to the Fatah movement's largest governing body.

Fatah conference spokesman Fawzi Salamah announced that the Jewish professor, who teaches Judaic studies at Al-Quds University in the West Bank, won 31st place out of 81 new members of Fatah's Revolutionary Council.

Ha'aretz also refers to Davis as a Jew.

The only problem is that Davis converted to Islam a year ago and married a Muslim woman.

And, as I mentioned last week, his Jewish roots ensured that he was considered a "non-Palestinian" by Fatah, even after he renounced his Israeli citizenship, and even though he was born in Palestine!

So while Fatah trumpets Davis' election as an example of their inclusiveness, it actually is proof of their anti-Jewish stance.

Update on Rafah mini-war: 28 dead

The Jerusalem Post says that 28 have been killed in the clashes between Hamas and the Jund Ansar Allah group in Rafah. PCHR says "at least" 28 have been killed.

One cute factoid: the leader of the ultra-radical group, Sheikh Abdel Latif Mousa, was an Egyptian-educated physician and was also an employee of the Health Ministry belonging to the "moderate" PA government.

Bullets and mortars from the fighting reached the Egyptian side of Rafah, and an Egyptian child was hit by a bullet.

By sheer coincidence, a member of the Doghmush family was killed in Gaza City at the same time. Hamas battled that family last year. Hamas claims that they had nothing to do with his death, and that it was a clan clash. For some reason, he was driving a police car when he was offed. Hmmm.

So now the 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 167.

UPDATE: At least four of the dead are under 18.

Hamas battles "radical" faction in Rafah (UPDATES)

There is a virtual curfew in Rafah today as Hamas battled members of the Jund al-Ansar Allah Salafist faction over control of a mosque. 15 were injured so far. YNet reports at least 3 killed and mortar fire from both sides.

Hamas banned journalists and photographers from the area of the mosuqe and set up roadblocks and checkpoints.

The leader of the Salafist group, Dr. Sheikh / Abdul Latif Bin Khalid Al-Musa, was holed up in the mosque. He declared in his sermon today that he intended to turn Gaza into an Islamic emirate.

The two groups clashed a few weeks ago as well. Jund Ansar Allah say they are inspired by Al Qaeda.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count mounts...now at 141. (A 14-year old was axed to death today as well.)

UPDATE: 6 dead, 144.

UPDATE 2: 8 dead, including a girl. 146.

UPDATE 3: Ma'an has a bulletin that Hamas has blown up the home of the leader of the Salafist group. Will we be getting a 67-page report from Human Rights Watch about this horrendous crime? You know, with all the keywords like collective punishment, impeding freedom of religion, disproportionate force, shooting at houses of worship, distinction between civilians and militants...

UPDATE 4: 13 dead. 151. Qaeda guys might have done a suicide attack against Hamas! How's that for irony?

UPDATE 5.5: Palestine Press Agency says 16 dead, over 100 wounded. 154. Palestine Today says that it is expected that the toll will go over 20 and that the leader of the group was killed. PalPress disagrees, saying the leader escaped in a tunnel connected to the mosque.

Trouble in Fatahland

The Fatah conference, that stretched from three days to nine and still has not finished counting the votes for the Revolutionary Council, is still under attack for voting problems.

The Arabs that attended are a lot more skeptical about its success- starting with former "prime minister" Ahmed Qurei:

Qurie, 72-year-old former chief negotiator with Israel, earlier said the Fatah congress election “from the outset ... did not meet the minimum principles of transparency.”

Better known as Abu Ala, he was one of 10 veteran Central Committee members who sought re-election. He was a central committee member for years and worked on organising the long awaited sixth congress, which he chaired at its opening in Bethlehem on Aug. 4.

Critics said Fatah clearly bent its own rules to ensure that another veteran, Abbas aide Tayyeb Abdel-Rahim, got a seat on the executive.

He lost by two votes but after a recount Fatah said he ranked equal with the 18th member on the winners’ list and would duly take his place, while the number of appointed members would be reduced by one to three.

Among irregularities [Qurie] noted were 10 ballot boxes for the Central Committee instead of one; a 24-hour delay in announcing the result; many ballots in the same handwriting; armed security men present while the count was going on.

Qurie said he expected challenges to the results of voting for the parliament of the secular party, the Revolutionary Council, that are to be announced today.

“There will be no trust in the results,” he said.

The National (UAE) summed up the conference this way:

After a week of contentious, sometimes raucous deliberations, Fatah, the foremost Palestinian nationalist movement, has managed to elect a new leadership committee. This is no small feat for an organisation that most Palestinians see as fractious, corrupt and without compass. Indeed, the Sixth General Congress was mired in controversy and infighting that threatened to erode further the credibility of a party arguably on the wane. Senior Fatah officials in exile denounced the very holding of the conference in Bethlehem, in Israeli-occupied Palestine, and alleged that Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah and chairman of the Palestinian Authority, was merely mounting a power grab by stuffing the audience with obedient followers.
In a sense, they were right.

As usual, Fatah is so pre-occupied with navel gazing and corrupt power grabs that it has no clue how it is fading into irrelevance. The West still holds onto the romanticized image of Fatah as a moderate, practical group that can lead the Palestinian Arabs to peace, ignoring not only the obvious infighting and fissures but also how sick the average Palestinian Arabs are of the corruption and apathy that Fatah has shown for their welfare.

The people are not passionate for Fatah; quite the contrary. Relying on a fractured, faded and irrelevant party whose members cared more about showing up in the proper limousines than in helping the Palestinian Arab people is the West's major mistake in the Middle East.

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

Tomorrow will be the fifth anniversary of this blog.

Over the years, my readership has steadily risen. Now the blog averages around 1400 hits every day.

(When looking at this graph keep in mind that we still have over four months left for 2009.)

Sometime later this year I should get my millionth hit.

My comments section has also grown dramatically, showing that there is a real community here, which I try to keep reasonably civil. I have over 23,000 comments over the years.

The blog has over 6400 posts now, averaging 3.5 a day (over 4.2 a day if you don't count the days I don't post, Shabbat and holidays.)

My usual goal with the blog is to post things that people are unlikely to have seen in other blogs or in the regular news. Even when I post something that was in the mainstream media, I try to add my own hook or observations. I think that I have been successful in this, although it remains frustrating to have had so many scoops and little recognition. Then again, I am not big on self-promotion. I am most gratified to hear that some prominent authors and commentators do read this blog.

I'm toying with the idea of placing ads on the site, but I am concerned that if I do that my choices for stories might change a bit, as I subconsciously look more for sensationalism. Controversy gets more hits than nuance.

I'm also still fantasizing about writing a book or two (reformatting the Haggadah I put together last year as well as editing my posts into something cohesive.) I never seem to have the time, though.

For those who started more recently, feel free to go back to my older posts from 2006 and 2007 and browse; there is a lot of stuff there you might enjoy.

Anyway, thank all of you for reading the blog!

Tiny news item says it all

From the Jordan Times, in its entirety:

King congratulates Iranian president
AMMAN (Petra) –– His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday sent a cable to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulating him on his re-election as president of Iran.

The West has allowed the farce of the Iranian elections to stand, and the publicity surrounding Ahmadinejad stealing the election has died down. The extremists have won, knowing that they could wait out the Western anger.

Now the Arab world, which had hoped the West would keep the pressure on Iran, is stuck with the results, and has to play nice.