Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

2 Gazans injured...by a Qassam

Palestine Press Agency reports that two Gazans were injured when a Qassam rocket that was aimed at Israel went awry and landed inside a house at the Nuseirat camp.

This is not that rare an event; perhaps 5-10% of rockets fall short in Gaza, and there have been many injuries and fatalities as a result. Last December, in the days before Operation Cast Lead, no fewer than four Qassam rockets caused injuries and deaths in Gaza.

For some reason, PCHR and Goldstone could not find a single case of a fatality in Gaza from Qassam fire during Cast Lead. They also didn't find a single case of death by friendly fire, accidental explosions, "work accidents," tunnel collapses or the like. 100% of Gaza deaths (outside of the Fatah members admitted killed by Hamas) were caused by Israel alone. (Even the number of natural deaths dipped in Gaza during the fighting!)

Amazing how that worked out, isn't it?

Arab League finds a mediator for Algeria/Egypt

Remember when the Arab League was ticked off at the joking suggestion that Israel mediate between Algeria and Egypt in their simmering dispute over football?

Well, maybe they do have a sense of humor after all. Al Arabiya (Arabic) reports that the Arab League has asked a prominent, honorable Arab to mediate the dispute.

His name? Moammar Qaddafi!

The Libyan news agency reported that the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, called Gaddafi on Monday and asked him to intervene as Chairman of the African Union on the basis of his "high visibility, which is distinguished by the leader of each of the parties to an Arab."

The agency said "that the Leader of the Revolution will work to bridge the chasm that has been seen the relationship between the two countries Egypt and Algeria due to the repercussions of the recent football game between the two countries."

OK, maybe the Libyan news agency isn't the most objective source for this story, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. Libya is right in between both countries, after all.

And from the Arab League perspective, Qaddafi is a lot better than any Israeli would be!

Abbas lashes out at Obama

From Al Arabiya:

American President Barack Obama is "doing nothing" to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview published on Tuesday.

"I hope he'll take a more important role in the future," Abbas told the Argentine daily Clarin during a visit to Buenos Aires.

The Palestinians "are waiting for the United States to put pressure on Israel so it respects international law, so it takes up the road map" towards peace, he said, according to publication's Spanish translation.

"It can do two things: put pressure on the Israelis so they reject settlements, and put pressure so they accept withdrawing to the 1967 borders."

Ah, the honeymoon is over.

Of course Abbas is upset that Obama is "doing nothing" - that's Abbas' job!

Free Gaza: "We are against humanitarian aid"

From the Free Gaza mailing list:

On November 7 and 8, The Free Gaza interim board of directors met in London to plan our strategy for 2010 as well as to schedule the next mission to Gaza.

...Israel’s use of force to stop our last 3 voyages has made it imperative to revise our strategy. Instead of sending one vessel to Gaza, we are working on a flotilla, or mini fleet with more boats, including at least one cargo ship, more people, more supplies, and more media on the high seas. And around the world, tens of thousands of people engaged in the mission. Our intention is to build a truly international fleet that will reach Gaza, or, if stopped, be politically costly for Israel.

...The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed established a Free Gaza fund and secured the money for us to obtain a cargo ship. On this cargo ship, we will take construction supplies to Gaza. We had wanted to travel in October / November so that at least some people in Gaza could start rebuilding their homes before the cold weather hit. Unfortunately we could not meet this deadline.

We have the funds for one cargo ship, and one passenger vessel. However, we need at least one more passenger vessel plus the operating expenses before we can go. In financial terms, we need about €300,000, or someone to donate a passenger vessel and €100,000 in operating expenses (fuel, port fees, crew wages, etc.)

The efforts of the Free Gaza Movement are vitally important; we need to end the blockade, not just deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. While many potential funders recognize the significance of our work, for various reasons they have not come through with funding. Most prefer their financial contributions go toward to humanitarian aid for Palestine. But Palestine is not a charity case! There are hundreds of millions being pumped into Palestine by aid agencies that are unable or unwilling to address the political issues, or by donor countries that shirk their political, legal, and moral obligations, by throwing money at Palestine.

This aid is paying for Israel’s occupation by alleviating Israel of the responsibility to care for the people it occupies. We firmly believe that activists and people who care about Palestine should not be raising money for humanitarian aid but should focus on direct action to confront the Israeli policies that leave Palestinians in need of this aid.

FGM is saying explicitly that "this aid" by the donor countries and aid agencies mentioned in the previous sentence "is paying for Israel's occupation."

It is very clear: FGM says that money should be spent on pressuring Israel instead of feeding Gazans and that the aid itself is part of the evil that is the nonexistent "occupation" of Gaza.

And, to FGM fanatics, if Gazans do actually starve to death in order to make that greater good happen, all the better. They just won't quite say that part out loud.

They are also very frustrated that money that could go to their vanity boats is going instead to feeding Gazans. They are a very sick class of people.

Something to keep in mind the next time your newspaper refers to Free Gaza as a "humanitarian" or "aid" group. It is nothing of the sort - it is an extremist political organization that is against the UN, Red Cross, Jordan, Qatar and Egypt giving aid to Gazans!

Notice also that these progressive people have no qualms accepting money from an anti-semite.

Send IDF soldiers sufganiot!

National Donut Week is coming up, where you can send IDF soldiers sufganiot for Chanukah and brighten their day!

Details here.

For those who are more into fine Italian cuisine, you can also send pizza to the people who dedicate their lives to defending Israel (the same organization also sends donuts and burgers.)

Today's PalArab news 11/24/09

Egyptian authorities seized a car full of explosives and weapons near the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. The explosives were already packaged in plastic bags to make it easier to smuggle them through the tunnels to Gaza terrorists. This is in addition to the ton of explosives caught yesterday in a pickup truck.

Israel today allowed the final shipment of calves into Gaza for the Eid al Adha holiday. A total of 7000 calves have been imported into Gaza in recent weeks.

Qatar is sending 250 tons of books and stationary items to Gaza in the coming days, after coordinating it with Jordan (who presumably arranged the passage with Israel.)

The increasing news of an imminent deal to swap prisoners for Gilad Shalit is making Fatah very nervous, and their accusations against Hamas are growing more hysterical (in both senses of the word.) Today, PLO official Yasser Abd Rabbo accused Hamas of "allying with the devil" to embarrass the PA. (He also mentioned the little known fact that the PA is an extension of the PLO, something very relevant when considering Mahmoud Abbas' threats to quit as PA president - he is still the Fatah leader, and Fatah dominates the PLO.)

Another Fatah spokesman went even further, accusing Hamas of negotiating final status issues with Israel, even going so far as to accuse Hamas of being ready to recognize Israel in June 2010.

Notice that the PA and Fatah is attacking Hamas - from the more extreme position. It does not escape the PalArabs that the PA has recognized Israel since 1993, and when they bizarrely accuse Hamas of doing the same horrible crime they are making themselves look even sillier.

Millions of your tax dollars going to terrorists

Ma'an reports:

Palestinian prisoners will receive 550 New Israeli Shekels for the Eid Al-Adha holiday and for October and November, according to a statement released by Palestinian Minister of Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Issa Qaraqe on Monday.

Qaraqe added that the ministry was successful in raising prisoners’ canteen allowance to 50 NIS to allow detainees to purchase sweets during the Muslim Feast starting on Friday.

Qaraqi’ further stated that 35,000 Shekels were sent to 34 detainees in poor health held at Ar-Ramla prison hospital, in addition to 225,000 Shekels for tuition fees. Another payment will be forwarded to prisoners following the Eid Al-Adha holiday, he said.

Since the PA budget is dependent on money from Western countries (far outstripping oil-rich Gulf nations) this means that well over a million of our tax dollars are going towards terrorists in the next month alone.

Notice that taking care of people who tried to kill Jews is a major priority for the "moderate" PA, a cabinet-level position. Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners are paid as well.

Work accident!

Hamas' Al Qassam website reports that two commanders were killed in an explosion while performing a "jihad mission" in eastern Gaza.

Palestine Press Agency mentions a huge explosion that also wounded four. One of the commenters who says he witnessed the blast said that one of the bodies was hurled 200 meters from the blast, headless.

A toast to "martyrs" who turn to toast!

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 215.

Israel offered to mediate between Egypt and Algeria?

From Al-Arabiya:

The Arab League is currently mulling several proposals after it was forced to step in, rebuffing a provocative Israeli offer, to end a bitter tit-for-tat spat between Egypt and Algeria following their 2010 World Cup qualifier playoff match in Sudan.

An Arab League spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that since the tension has been rising Secretary General Amr Moussa h+as been receiving several phone calls from member states calling on the league to solve the crisis.

Arab initiatives to solve the problem intensified in the wake of a provocative statement made by Israel in which it offered to mediate between Egypt and Algeria.

Did Israel really offer to mediate between Egypt and Algeria? The idea is preposterous, as Israel and Algeria do not have any diplomatic relations themselves. Not to mention that Egypt and Algeria would probably prefer all-out war to the indignity of being counseled by Israel.

My guess is that some Israeli pundit or politician made that suggestion as a joke to tweak the Arabs on their internal international football crisis, and that the super-sensitive Arab League took it as a real offer, one which would of course cause add to the embarrassment they feel for the actual kerfuffle itself.

This brings up an entirely new avenue for world diplomacy: whenever Westerners have a problem with an Arab country, or when Arabs have their own internal disputes, the UN should threaten to send Israeli mediators to resolve the issues. They can justify it by saying that Jewish lawyers are well-known to be sly and smart. The thought is so scary to Arabs that they would redouble their efforts to solve their problems peacefully.

Let's try it with the Saudis and the Houthis!

A "metal foundry" in Gaza

On Saturday night, Israel struck a number of targets in Gaza in retaliation for a rocket attack. Wire services described the target in Jabalya as "a metal foundry" which Israel claimed was a weapons factory.

Pictures from Palestine Today might shed light on the matter. First they show the usual staged pictures of dejected people sitting in the rubble for no reason except to look dejected for the photographer:

That wasn't sad enough, so the photographer had to move to a new angle and repose his subject:

Then we get to the inside of the poor, destroyed metal foundry.

Hold on...what is that poster above the door?

Sure looks like a "martyr" poster, complete with a photo of heroic fighters aiming their guns from the top of a building!

Just the sort of decoration one would expect in a regular metal foundry!

I'd say that Israeli intelligence did a fine job in this case.

Hamas rocket deal a myth

As I reported yesterday, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP denied that they signed onto any Hamas deal to stop rocket attacks into Israel.

Palestine Press Agency reports that the DFLP and Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades have also said that they have not agreed to any deal that stops them from firing rockets towards Israel.

The Hamas Al Qassam website itself is also strenuously denying that any such agreement was made, quoting Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida as saying that no such deal is in the works in context of a rumored prisoner swap for Gilad Shalit, that rocket fire is a "strong card" in the hands of the Palestinian Arab people that Hamas will not give up, and that the Al Qassam Brigades does not make any official statements that are not mentioned on its website.

Media outlets around the world jumped on this story: The Guardian, the Times of London, al-Arabiya, AFP.

The original story seems to have come from the Xinhua news agency, quoting Hamas' interior minister Fathi Hammad.

Insomnia open thread - TV spinoff edition

I woke up wondering what American prime-time scripted TV show was the most successful in history, if you include not only the number of seasons it ran but also the number of seasons its spinoffs ran.

My initial guess was Law and Order, but I figured that someone on the Internet must have done the research already.

So far, I have not found it.

Looking at the Wikipedia entry for TV spinoffs, which includes many non-American and non-prime time shows, my guess may be right, but I didn't go through the entire list. Also I am counting partial seasons as whole. To be accurate, the list should really be of the number of episodes.

Notable ones (I am including spin offs of spin offs as well, and my counts might be off):

Law and Order: 42 seasons (not including non-US spinoffs)
All in the Family: 38 seasons (lots of aborted spin-offs, not sure how long they lasted)
Love, American Style : 34 seasons (includes Happy Days)
Dallas: 27 seasons
CSI: 24 seasons

UPDATE: Jonah mentions Star Trek, for which I count 28 seasons. (He says 30, but I find it easiest to just use Wikipedia's dates for the series' beginning and end.)