Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A million hits

Woo-hoo! And nearly half of them (477,000) came in 2009 alone...

Horrid rumor of friendship with an Israeli

Palestine Today reports that in an interview with London-based Middle East newspaper, Israeli ambassador to Egypt Shalom Cohen mentioned that he did not feel isolated and said that he was friendly with a number of leading Egyptian intellectuals and politicians.

This is, of course, scandalous.

Egyptian media interviewed all of the supposed friends and they all denied the heinous accusations that they were friendly with an Israeli.

HRW's Garlasco suspended

From the NYT:

A leading human rights group has suspended its senior military analyst following revelations that he is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.

The group, Human Rights Watch, had initially thrown its full support behind the analyst, Marc Garlasco, when the news of his hobby came out last week. On Monday night, the group shifted course and suspended him with pay, “pending an investigation,” said Carroll Bogert, the group’s associate director.

“We have questions about whether we have learned everything we need to know,” she said.
The suspension comes at a time of heightened tension between, on one side, the new Israeli government and its allies on the right, and the other side, human rights organizations that have been critical of Israel. In recent months, the government has pledged an aggressive approach toward the groups to discredit what they argue is bias and error.
Injected suddenly into that heated conflict, word of Mr. Garlasco’s interest seemed startling to many. The disclosure ricocheted across the Internet: Mr. Garlasco, an American, was not only a collector, he has written a book, more than 400 pages long, about Nazi-era medals. His hobby, inspired he said by a German grandfather conscripted into Hitler’s army, was revealed on a pro-Israel blog, Mere Rhetoric Mere Rhetoric, which quoted his enthusiastic postings on collector sites under the pseudonym “Flak88” — including, “That is so cool! The leather SS jacket makes my blood go cold it is so COOL!”
It was a Rorschach moment in the conflict between Israel and its critics. The revelations were, depending on who is talking, either incontrovertible proof of bias or an irrelevant smear.
The Mere Rhetoric posting said Mr. Garlasco’s interests explained “anti-Israel biases.”
Ms. Bogert called the attacks on Mr. Garlasco and her group “a distraction from the real issue, which is the Israeli government’s behavior.”
But some who firmly support Human Rights Watch were left unsettled by the researcher’s extracurricular activities.
Helena Cobban, a blogger and activist who is on the group’s Middle East advisory committee, asked on her blog, Just World News, if Mr. Garlasco’s activities were “something an employer like Human Rights Watch ought to be worried about? After consideration, I say Yes.”

Garlasco's hobby cannot be hermetically sealed off from his work at HRW. Whether or not it shows any pre-existing bias, his obsession - and HRW's reaction for the past week - show an immaturity that is incompatible with the role they claim for themselves. I would argue that this same immaturity is often seen in their anti-Israel reports as well; comparing their assumptions and legal positions on Operation Cast Lead with the IDF report appears to me at least like HRW is filled with people who do not know anything about how wars are fought and who interpret international law with a bias that makes it literally impossible to effectively fight terror without endangering the citizens of any free country.

Moreover, their reports on Israel make the assumption that Israel is identical in its own human rights posture as third-world dictatorships. The reason that Israel no longer cooperates with these organizations isn't because Israel has no interest in human rights (which seems to be the petulant conclusion drawn by the egotistical "human rights" community) but because Israel knows that they will not be given a fair shake. She's been burned too many times.

The inescapable fact is that for the most part, the IDF and the Israeli people themselves have no interest in violating the rights of anyone - as long as their own rights to living in peace and security are not violated as well. Palestinian Arab human rights are no more important than those of Israelis taking a bus. Not only that, but the primary responsibility of any government is protecting its own citizens. These facts are self-evident yet ignored in the multitude of reports that come out against Israel - in HRW's case, about every month.

It is comparatively easy to judge Israel against strict interpretations of international humanitarian law, especially when the interpreters frame each report to look at the human rights of only one side. The issue gets messier when real-world Israel needs to balance its own obligations to protect her own people against the human rights of her sworn enemies. Invariably, some of the decisions that will be made will value the lives of IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens in rocket range above those of terrorists, their supporters and the people who are purposefully used by terrorists as cover.

Israel has every interest in waging as moral a war as possible, and Gaza - by any objective measure - was such a war. Hamas has incentive to endanger its citizens, the IDF has disincentive to kill them. If human rights groups would work with Israel to find a way to improve the IDF's methodology to help save enemy lives while not jeopardizing Israelis, I am certain that the IDF would be happy to cooperate. That is not what these groups do, though, and from reading the IDF report and various Israeli legal treatises, Israelis are far ahead of HRW in applying international law to real conflicts anyway.

Garlasco, from what I can tell, has a lack of real military experience. Working at the Pentagon does not make one a forensics expert. But HRW, in its seeming immaturity, gave him that job more because of his resume than because of his knowledge. This is the problem. For all of HRW's laudatory goals, they have no ability to be as critical of themselves as they are of anyone they set their sights on. To my mind, this is what was exposed here - not a sickening hobby from one of their more visible figureheads, but HRW's tone-deafness and immaturity.

Israel saving the world, again

It's been a while since I looked at the latest Israeli inventions.

From Israel21c:

Israeli researchers have created a miniature robotic fly that can crawl through your arteries and veins to diagnose and treat what ails you.
A snake-shaped robot sent in through a small incision so you don't have to have open-heart surgery. Robotic marching ants that you can send in to inspect water pipes for leaks. And now the latest research from the Robotics Laboratory at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa: Creepy and crawly fly-like robots that get under your skin for very good medical reasons.

Prof. Moshe Shaham, head of the Robotics Laboratory, and his team have developed a miniature robotic fly, about 0.04 inches in diameter, that can enter the body to diagnose diseases and conditions like blocked arteries and deliver drugs like a bomb to infected tumors.

Based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, the tiny robot crawls through arteries and veins. It is steered by a magnet that's moved over the body from the outside. Its miniscule outstretched arms grip the sides of the vessel walls as it zeroes in on its targeted location.

Currently in the early prototype stages, the researchers plan on scaling down the robot to a 10th of its current diameter - about 100 microns. That will bring it a step closer to much less invasive diagnosis and treatment.

Read the whole thing. It's pretty cool.

Open thread (UPDATED)

It's been a busy time, online and off. You guys can take over for a while.

But if you want a topic, check out the unbridled hate that is printed virtually every day by someone named Jihad el-Khazen in the pan-Arab daily Dar al-Hayat. (And he is a "moderate" in the Western MSM definition of the term, as he opposes terror.)

UPDATE: The Washington Times blog picks up on my posting about HRW's sockpuppetry. Which means that sometime tonight I can expect to get my 1,000,000th recorded blog-hit.

Islamic fashion news: Magnetic veils, halal cosmetics, a male "burkini"

All stories from Al-Arabiya:

An Indonesian entrepreneur is stitching magnets into the headscarves worn by some Muslim women, aiming to cure ailments ranging from headaches to fatigue.

Herawati Widodo churns out "healthy" hijabs, or headscarves, from her factory in Central Java, exporting them to Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East.

Widodo came up with the idea after reading research that said magnetic devices could reduce body aches and boost blood flow.
Although there is no direct medical evidence, the scarves are selling very well, especially during the fasting month of Ramadan when many Muslims become more observant of Islamic rites.

The scarves are priced at between 60,000 to 150,000 rupiah ($6 to $15), and some customers have found them beneficial.

"I suffer from migraine headaches and it has stopped since I wore this," said Ari Istiani, buying her fourth magnetic scarf.

For Muslim women who feel they are violating Islam's teachings by using skin creams with alcohol and pig residues, Layla Mandi has the answer: religiously-correct "halal" cosmetics.

The Canadian makeup artist who converted to Islam is marketing cosmetics called OnePure, which she says have the luxury feel of international brands minus the elements banned under Islamic law.

"There are pork derivatives and alcohol in most cosmetics products, so Muslims should really use something else," Mandi said.

A Lebanese-Australian designer, who claims to have created six years ago what is now known as the controversial "burkini," says that despite the controversy she is designing a similar one for men.

Ahiida Massoud Zanetti, 41, who owns a company that specializes in Islamic swimwear and sportswear, says she first designed the Islamic swim suit while she was working as a hairdresser and added it was only meant to be for personal use.

" I wanted to swim, but since I am Muslim I can't be half naked on the beach "
Designer Zanetti

"I wanted to swim, but since I am Muslim I can't be half naked on the beach," Zanetti told Al Arabiya. "So, I decided to design a bathing suit that preserves Muslim modesty."

Since she started exporting burkinis two years ago, Zanetti said she has been getting ordered from countries across Europe and the Arab world, especially Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Morocco.

The only country Zanetti has refused to sell her burkinis to is Israel.

"I do not want to deal with anyone in Israel even though I know that Muslim women there will be using the burkinis," she said with no further explanation.

Zanetti said that after the huge success of the burkini she is now working on designing a similar one for men so they can look "more decent" on the beach.

"All men's bathing suits, regardless of their type, are revealing. A conservative woman with a burkini would most likely be embarrassed to see men's bodies in that way."

The male bathing suit Zanetti is designing will cover what other suits reveal thus making men look more modest and women feel more comfortable on the beach.

Bin Laden, pacifist

The latest "Bin Laden" tape calls for US citizens to pressure the White House to cease the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Who knew he was such a pacifist?

He also asked the American people to stop supporting Israel, now claiming that this was the main reason he attacked America on 9/11. Of course, this only proves that the tape is an elaborate fake by the Mossad, as everyone knows that it was Seventh Day Adventists who attacked on 9/11.

Interestingly, while Al-Quds writes that Bin Laden attacks neocons and the "Jewish lobby" in the audiotape, the MSM articles don't mention anything about the Jewish lobby. We'll have to wait for the MEMRI translation to see how watered down the MSM version is.

Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood urges release of mass murderer

In 1997, a group of Israeli schoolgirls visited what was known as "Peace Island" between Jordan and Israel. A Jordanian soldier opened fire on them, massacring seven 11-year old girls.

Al Arabiya reports that the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan, fresh off of its more extremist turn, is now urging Jordan's king to pardon the murderer, Ahmad Daqamseh.

But before you think that this is just a fringe extremist group that can be ignored, it is worth recalling that last year a much more heterogeneous group of Jordanians demanded the exact same thing. And they included the president of the Arab Human Rights Organization and the head of the Jordan Bar Association. They justified their demand by saying that "pardoning Daqamseh will have a great effect on people."

As I wrote then, let's hope that King Abdullah will remain as aghast at this crime as his father was and let the killer rot. At the time, King Hussein went to Israel to pay his condolences to the families and truly condemned this act, not like the fake "condemnations" that we are used to hearing from Palestinian Arab leaders.

Who started the Gaza war?

Amnesty International, in its report on the Gaza war, introduces the topic this way:

At 11.30am on 27 December 2008, without warning, Israeli forces began a devastating bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip codenamed Operation “Cast Lead”. Its stated aim was to end rocket attacks into Israel by armed groups affiliated with Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

The name of the report is "ISRAEL/GAZA: OPERATION ‘CAST LEAD’: 22 DAYS OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION."

This is a pretty typical description of how the war began. People know that Hamas and other groups had been sending rockets into southern Israel but the conventional wisdom is that Israel started the real war.

It just so happens that Hamas declared war a full three days before Israel did. And this little fact has all but disappeared.

On Wednesday, December 24th, a full three days before Israel's response, Hamas announced "Operation Oil Stain" (or, "Oil Slick" in some translations.)

On that day, they shot over 40 Qassam rockets and over 80 projectiles altogether towards civilians in Israel. It was by far the biggest barrage that Israel had seen since February.

I can only find a single reference to "Operation Oil Stain" in English-language Palestinian Arab media, but Hamas press releases continued to call it by this name even well after the Israeli response started. They never considered it a one-time operation. Hamas looked at Israel's response as being a part of a war it started. For example, here is their press release from December 28th, and this one from January 1st.

A couple of days later Hamas changed its tune, using both the "Oil Slick" term as well as the new term "Battle of Discord" on January 3, and using the new term exclusively on January 4th.

In other words, for about a week after Israel's counterattack, Hamas took credit for starting the war. Once it became clear that Hamas could gain more political points by claiming to be victims of Israeli aggression, they abandoned their earlier boasting about Operation Oil Slick and the media and human rights groups ignored Hamas' declaration of war in every single report to date.

This is a typical case of meta-bias, where the very framing of the description of the war is designed to make it appear like Israel was the aggressor (look at using Amnesty's phrase, "without warning, Israeli forces began...") While of course Israel's response was indeed devastating, Amnesty and other groups ignore that it was a response to a very specific, planned and declared attack from three days before. And by framing the conversation this way, they force any counterarguments to be within this erroneous framework and take Hamas off the hook.

It will be interesting to see if the UN's Goldstone report due out this month will look at things any differently. But given its mandate, that possibility is remote.

12-year old Yemeni girl dies - in labor

From AP:

A 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said Saturday.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Friday while giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province, 140 miles (223 kilometers) west of the capital San'a.
Child marriages are widespread in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, where tribal customs dominate society. More than a quarter of the country's females marry before age 15, according to a recent report by the Social Affairs Ministry.
Youssef was only 11 when her father married her to a 24-year-old man who works as a farmer in Saudi Arabia, said Ahmed al-Quraishi, chairman of Siyaj human rights organization, which promotes the rights of children in Yemen.
Impoverished parents in Yemen sometimes give away their young daughters in return for hefty dowries. There is also a long-standing tribal custom in which infant daughters and sons are promised to cousins in hopes it will protect them from illicit relationships, he said.
In February, parliament passed a law setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But some lawmakers are trying to kill the measure, calling it un-Islamic. Before it could be ratified by Yemen's president, they forced it to be sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for review.

Garlasco responds, poorly

Marc Garlasco finally responds to the story about his obsession with collecting Nazi-era German paraphernalia. And, as could be expected, he twists the facts around a bit:

Now I've achieved some blogosphere fame, not for the hours I've spent sifting through the detritus of war, visiting hospitals, interviewing victims and witnesses and soldiers, but for my hobby (unusual and disturbing to some, I realize) of collecting Second World War memorabilia associated with my German grandfather and my American great-uncle. I'm a military geek, with an abiding interest not only in the medals I collect but in the weapons that I study and the shrapnel I analyze. I think this makes me a better investigator and analyst. And to suggest it shows Nazi tendencies is defamatory nonsense, spread maliciously by people with an interest in trying to undermine Human Rights Watch's reporting.

Actually, he had achieved some blogosphere fame previously, for his poor analyses blaming Israel for various things that he didn't have adequate evidence for.

Secondly, his hobby is not "Second World War memorabilia associated with my German grandfather and my American great-uncle." Unless he has another handle he keeps secret, his obsession - it is difficult to call it anything else - has been specifically with German memorabilia, and specifically with WWII-era German memorabilia (although I saw a few awards from the earlier part of the century.) His book was on specifically German medals.

Thirdly, collecting medals has zero in common with military analysis. To imply that somehow his creepy hobby makes him a better analyst is laughable.

Fourthly, there are serious questions as to how good an analyst he is to begin with. I am not one who can judge, but I would love to hear from military people who have read his analyses. Clearly he has screwed up in the past. And as far as I can tell, his Pentagon career had nothing to do with "analyzing shrapnel."

I've never hidden my hobby, because there's nothing shameful in it, however weird it might seem to those who aren't fascinated by military history. Precisely because it's so obvious that the Nazis were evil, I never realized that other people, including friends and colleagues, might wonder why I care about these things.

If this is true, then why did he agonize in one of his forums as to whether he should use his real name on his book? He was concerned because he sometimes gets quoted on the news, and being associated with this enterprise might hurt his career. That indicates an awareness that he knew that his hobby was potentially offensive to some. He knew quite well that people "might wonder." Yet, like all obsessives, he justified it rather than take up collecting stamps or pink flamingos.

The question he has yet to satisfactorily answer is why his obsession was almost exclusive to Nazi-era German memorabilia. He has simply denied that (as has HRW) and there has been little evidence that he spent even 1% of his collecting time on non-Nazi-era German war materials.

I deeply regret causing pain and offense with a handful of juvenile and tasteless postings I made on two websites that study Second World War artifacts (including American, British, German, Japanese and Russian items). Other comments there might seem strange and even distasteful, but they reflect the enthusiasm of the collector, such as gloating about getting my hands on an American pilot's uniform.

Here he is simply lying. The websites were both specifically geared towards German Nazi-era collections, one named GermanCombatAwards.com and the other was Wehrmacht-Awards.com. I didn't see any post about getting his hands on an American pilot's uniform, but I did see the one on his enthusiasm about seeing an SS jacket:

That is so cool! The leather SS jacket makes my blood go cold it is so COOL!

Marc

It makes my blood go cold, as well, but for completely different reasons.

Which points up to the major problem with Garlasco's non-apology: it is an excuse, with the trappings of some apologetic words, probably forced by his bosses at HRW who are trying desperately to shut this story down.

And the problem is not specifically Garlasco. It is HRW. Garlasco is always trotted out as their "senior military analyst" but we do not know what his areas of expertise really are, and one gets the impression that he is overreaching in his analyses to get to a conclusion that was already decided before he entered the scene. Now he looks a lot flakier, and so does HRW's credibility; their defense of him indicates that they just don't get it.

Ancient synagogue unearthed in the Galilee

This handout file photo provided on September 11, 2009 by the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) shows a large carved stone found during excavations of a recently uncovered synagogue at Migdal on the north-western end of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. The synagogue, dated to the 2nd Temple period (50BC - 100AD) is one of the oldest ever found, and was unearthed at Migdal.... Archaeologists were particularly excited by the discovery of the stone depicting the menorah -- a seven-branched candelabrum -- from the Jewish Second Temple which was destroyed in 70 AD during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. (Getty Images)

In the middle of the 120 square meter main hall of the synagogue archaeologists discovered an unusual stone carved with a seven branched menorah . "We are dealing with an exciting and unique find," said excavation director and Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni.

The menorah engraving is the first of its kind to be discovered from the Early Roman period according Avshalom-Gorni who said the site joins just six synagogue locations that are know to date from the same time.

Avshalom-Gorni posited that the engraved menorah was done by an artist who had visited the main synagogue in Jerusalem known as the Second Temple where the actual menorah was believed to be kept.

3 Katyushas hit Israel from Lebanon

From Ha'aretz:

Three Katyusha rockets struck open fields near Nahariya on Friday. There have been no reports of casualties.

The rockets were fired from southern Lebanon and Israel Radio has reported that the Israel Defense Forces have launched retaliatory artillery into southern Lebanon.

Perhaps if Israel would just withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories, these sorts of incidents would stop. Hezbollah wouldn't have any incentive any more to attack Israelis.

Oh, sorry...Israel already withdrew some nine years ago.

Well, for sure, there must be some sort of valid reason for Hezbollah or their like-minded Islamist buddies to fire rockets at Israel, right? We just have to identify the just cause that Islamists are fighting for and then pressure Israel to give in, because it is an article of faith on this September 11th that people don't just attack civilians without good cause. They're hungry, they're stateless, they're disillusioned, they have poor self-esteem...if we just look hard enough I'm sure we can identify a good, defensible reason that we can blame Israel for.

Pure hatred cannot be the reason, because that is irrational, and everyone is fundamentally rational. To say otherwise makes you a bigot.

Some of my best friends are Zionists...ummm....

A comment at Solomonia by Neurodoc caught my eye:

Now, at the risk of denying Marc Garlasco any of the attention he deserves, might I point out something I have not seen mentioned about another HRW stalwart, Sarah Whitman [sic]? Am I the only one to think it noteworthy that Ms. Whitman's Facebook page identifies as a special friend of hers Adam Shapiro, the same Adam Shapiro who was a founder of International Solidarity Movement, buddy of Yassir Arafat, etc.? I don't see anyone among her friends that I recognize as an ardent supporter of Israel, matching the very much anti-Israel Shapiro.

Indeed, Sarah Leah Whitson's Facebook page includes Shapiro.

Now, I am not a big user of Facebook, so I don't know whether "friends" is meaningful at all in this context. But it may be a useful exercise to see if any of the "objective" members of NGOs like HRW have as many unabashed supporters of Israel as friends as they have unabashed haters.

This is a picture I took on the morning of September 11, 2006 from Jersey City, showing the downtown Manhattan skyline and superimposing the WTC. It is still jarring in its absence eight years later.

(My original photo disappeared from Imageshack, so I am indebted to Seraphic Secret for copying it last year.)