Friday, July 16, 2010

As I've been mentioning this week, there have been recent statements from Palestinian Arab leaders absolutely rejecting the idea of direct talks with Israel, which President Obama called for.

Today we can add two more examples of Arabs willing to insult the US by utterly rejecting the call for direct negotiations.

One is from Fatah's official spokesman Fahmy Said Zarir.

The other is from the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.

Notice that Obama is not asking for a single concrete concession. If Arab rejectionism against a return to direct negotiations - which was the status quo only a few years ago - is so harsh now, how can we expect any real, lasting concessions from any round of talks?

Even though the Palestinian Arab leaders (the "moderates" - not Hamas) have been very forthright in metaphorically throwing their shoes at Obama, the media is loathe to use the words "hardline" or "intransigent" or "extremist" when referring to Fatah. No, they reserve that for the side that wants negotiations, that has already made many real concessions on the ground, and that has consistently and genuinely shown a desire for peace.

That deceptive use of language is what frames the debate for hundreds of millions of consumers of the news. And that is a real problem.
  • Friday, July 16, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Clubs and bars that serve liquor has become the latest bone of contention between Hamas and Fatah.

Palestine Today quotes Hamas West Bank leader Hamad el-Batawi as saying that new bars and nightclubs that allow mixed dancing and liquor is a "heinous and reprehensible innovation", especially in the towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

He notes that the PA has licensed them, and the PA is dominated by Fatah, so Fatah is responsible for this shameful behavior.
Betawi said: "I condemn these shameful moves which are bad innovations, and are inconsistent with the teachings of our Islamic religion with its good morals and values, and they are contrary to our national interest."

He added: "The Palestinian people are the finest examples of resistance, steadfastness, Jihad and patience, with many martyrs and prisoners; a faithful people proud of our religion and morals and values, but for the PA to open such acts cause this great people to relapse in the mud of vice and corruption, killing the spirit of steadfastness and resistance in their sons."

I seem to remember that once upon a time there were a lot of Palestinian Christians as well, whose religion allows them to drink alcohol. I guess that their rights are nonexistent according to Hamas.
  • Friday, July 16, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the website of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel:

Corrado’s, a large family-owned supermarket, in Clifton, NJ, agreed to stop selling “Jordan Valley” dried dates–Product of Israel. This happened after repeated complaints to two of the younger owner/family members. It definitely helps to be a regular customer to have some say and the possible threat of widespread boycott. It is interesting to note that I had “help” from some of the employees who were from the Middle East who shared my opinions but was too “afraid” to challenge the management. In the end, the Corrados were quite gracious about removing the Israelil products. Sadly, they told me that the wholesaler of the “Made in Israel” products was a Palestinian Arab. Sigh.
The Arab League, in what was probably its first act after forming in 1945, boycotted Jewish businesses in Palestine.

That boycott ended up hurting Palestinian Arabs much more than it hurt Jews. Yet when the Arabs challenged the boycott, they ended up becoming victims of terrorists who were keen on enforcing it - often with "boycott bombs."

It is nice to see that the BDS movement today shares that same mentality. They say they want to help Palestinian Arabs by hurting Israel - yet hurting Palestinian Arabs is no problem at all, as long as you can claim a "victory."

(I wonder if any members of the Passaic Jewish community shop at Corrado's - it might be worth talking to the owner.)

(h/t Divest This!)
  • Friday, July 16, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the Jordan-based Ammon News:
Former advisor to late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Muhammad Abu Tayr, called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "stop distributing smiles in front of television cameras while Jerusalemite homes are being demolished every day before the eyes of the whole world by the occupying Israelis."

In a statement distributed Wednesday, a copy of which was sent to 'Ammon News, Abu Tayr added that "the Arabs, since the beginning of peace negotiations, are moving backwards, and everyone else –with no exception - are running ahead of the Arabs."

"Day after day, we lose.. a home here, another there, a piece of land here, and another there, and yet we come out in front of photographers’ lenses always surprising them with our smiles!” the statement said.

“Until when, Mr. President, will you keep smiling while Israelis are moving forward in Judaizing Jerusalem?" Abu Tayr said.
Maybe a fatwa will follow, banning all Palestinian Arabs from smiling.
  • Friday, July 16, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Here's a story that was put out by AFP yesterday:
Jordanian activists and trade unionists slammed Egypt on Thursday for denying them entry to the Gaza Strip for the second time in less than a month to deliver aid to the blockaded Palestinians.


"We are shocked that Egypt prevents us from delivering aid and medical supplies to Gaza," Ahmad Armuti, president of the Islamist-dominated unions' council, said in a statement emailed to AFP.
"We regret, reject and condemn Egypt's unacceptable position, not only towards our brave people of Gaza, but also towards all Jordanians."

Armuti called on the Jordanian government to demand clarification from Egypt, which "should be pressed to change its position."

"This will not stop the Jordanian trade unions from working hard to break the unjust blockade and resisting any form of normalisation with the Zionist entity," he said.
The group of 150 people, including unionists, journalists and academics, left for Gaza on Tuesday, with 25 vehicles carrying supplies and medical aid as well as equipment to establish a hospital for children, the unions said.

Late last month, Egypt banned several Jordanian trade unionists from Gaza through Rafah, Gaza's only crossing to bypass Israel, saying they had failed to give prior notice of their arrival.
It was covered in the Jordan Times and another Jordanian newspaper. It was mentioned in passing by Al Jazeera within a story about the Amalthea. And that's about it.

Even though AFP is a major wire service, I couldn't find a single newspaper that bothered to mention Egypt's ban on aid from this group.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

  • Thursday, July 15, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Silke in the comments points to a UNRWA document showing the increase in Palestinian "refugees" since 1950. Here it is (transposed to make it easier to read):


YearJordanLebanonSyriaWest BanGazaTotal
1950506,200127,60082,194-198,227914,221
1955502,135100,82088,330-214,701905,986
1960613,743136,561115,043-255,5421,120,889
1965688,089159,810135,971-296,9531,280,823
1970506,038175,958158,717272,692311,8141,425,219
1975625,857196,855184,042292,922333,0311,632,707
1980716,372226,554209,362324,035367,9951,844,318
1985799,724263,599244,626357,704427,8922,093,545
1990929,097302,049280,731414,298496,3392,422,514
19951,288,197346,164337,308517,412683,5603,172,641
20001,570,192376,472383,199583,009824,6223,737,494
20051,795,326401,071426,919690,988969,5884,283,892
20081,930,703416,608456,983754,2631,059,5844,618,141

If you prefer charts:


A couple of things struck me when looking at this.

First of all, there is a missing column in the table. There is one other country that had people defined as Palestinian refugees in 1950 not listed here - and that country is Israel.

According to UNRWA, Israel had 48,000 Palestinian refugees:  31,000 Arabs and 17,000 Jews. Israel managed to integrate the refugees, Arabs and Jews alike, into its society and they disappeared from the refugee rolls within a couple of years.

If Arab countries had worked at treating their Palestinians as well as Israel did (reducing the population by 25,000 refugees a year,) they would have eliminated the refugee problem within 20 years rather than let it fester for thrice that time.

Not only that, but the percentage of refugees compared to total population was about 8% in Lebanon, 2% in Syria, and 4% in Israel. So there is no excuse that the other countries were overwhelmed and couldn't handle the refugees - Israel not only absorbed these refugees but took hundreds of thousands of additional refugees from Arab countries at the exact same time - all without help from any UN agencies. (In Jordan, the percentage of refugees was about 40% of the population, but keep in mind that Jordan also gained a lot of land in the 1948 war that many of the refugees were already living on.)

Isn't it interesting, though, that UNRWA doesn't acknowledge the Palestine refugees in Israel in their statistics? It's almost as if they are embarrassed that the single success story for Palestinian Arab refugees came in the country that they have a seething hatred for.

Another very important fact that we glean from these statistics: Nearly all of the "refugees" that live in Jordan are Jordanian citizens! Not only is UNRWA's definition of a "refugee" skewed by including the descendants of refugees, but they also include a huge population that is not stateless at all!

UNRWA actually admits this, with tendentious logic. This past February, Michael Kingsley-Nyinah, Director of the Executive Office of UNRWA, gave a speech in Malta about how UNRWA looks at Jordanians of Palestinian origin, and his words are amazing:
Refugees residing in Jordan and Syria enjoy a wide range of rights and freedoms that have helped to mitigate the hardships of displacement. Many are granted economic rights and access to the employment market, and the stability of these countries means they are spared the trauma of armed conflict. Among the relatively less disadvantaged are the refugees in Jordan who enjoy the privileges of special categories of Jordanian nationality.


The advantages of residing in Jordan and Syria are welcome and beneficial. Yet they do not obscure the vulnerability inherent in the refugee label. Neither do they detract from the distinctness of the refugee identity.

The refugees and host communities share an implicit understanding that the sojourn of Palestine refugees is temporary – and that this transient state is unchanged by the lengthy duration of their exile. As a corollary, “refugee consciousness” is strong among Palestinians, including the younger generation. The passing years have left intact a sense of injustice, a demand for acknowledgement and a desire for their travail to be justly resolved. Across the Middle East, Palestine refugees define themselves (and are defined by others) by reference to the historical experience of exile.
For any other group of refugees, the UN (meaning the UNHCR) bends over backwards to remove the "refugee label," but UNRWA applies it even in situations when it shouldn't exist. Arab nations refused to treat the early refugees like human beings, and UNRWA eventually not only went along with this evil plan, but institutionalized it.

A person who was born and raised as a citizen of another country cannot be called a "refugee" by any sane definition. Yet the UNRWA does exactly that. With a stroke of a pen, they could have reduced the number of "refugees" by 40% - and they instead kept the label.

One result is that even Jordanians are discriminating against Palestinian Jordanians, sixty years after their ancestors became citizens. UNRWA has made their "otherness" official and has justified it by using the words of those who hate them most by claiming that their status is temporary. By defining Palestinian Jordanians as somehow only temporary Jordanians, UNRWA is justifying their discrimination.

There is another implication of using the word "temporary" to define the "sojourn" of the PalArabs. If their status is only temporary, then surely Israel's status is temporary as well, and will end with their "return."

As I've mentioned before, on two occasions when Lebanon allowed a limited number of so-called "refugees" to become citizens of that country, the Palestinian Arabs jumped at the opportunity. Many more would happily trade in their "refugee" status for the opportunity to be normal, functioning citizens of their host countries, or of other Arab countries. They are not being given that choice, and a good part of that is because UNRWA is doing everything they can to perpetuate and expand the purported number of "refugees" for decades after they no longer should have that label.
  • Thursday, July 15, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The latest poll from thePalestinian Center for Public Opinion includes two questions about a crux issue:

14)  Do you think that the Palestinians must renounce their right of home return, which Israel will never accept, in exchange for having an independent Palestinian state and the conclusion of a peace deal with Israel?

ResponsePercentage
1. Yes, the Palestinians must do that14.0
2. No, they shouldn’t do that even if the price would be the non- conclusion of a peace deal with Israel81.7
3. I have no opinion4.3

15)  If the Palestinian leadership would waive the right of home return in exchange for a financial compensation, would you accept or refuse that?

ResponsePercentage
1. I would accept that13.1
2. I would refuse that81.8
3. Don’t know5.1
There you have it. If Palestinian Arabs are not allowed to "return" to a country that the vast majority have never even lived in, they will overwhelmingly reject a peace deal - even if they know that Israel would never accept them.

The corollary is that even if Israel and the PA are browbeaten into accepting a US-brokered "peace treaty" that includes 100% of the West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem, the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs would not accept that agreement - and many of them would likely join or start new terror organizations dedicated to giving them the "right of return."

I posted yesterday the opinions of the late Shiite leader Mohammed Fadlallah concerning his hatred of Israel's very existence, and wrote that I believed that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs - and Arabs altogether - agree with him. The reason is simple - his beliefs are consistent with the lies that the Arabs have been fed for three generations.

The PA, on the other hand, is officially inconsistent. It still incites against Israel daily in its broadcasts and in its schoolbooks; it still celebrates terror, it still draws maps of "Palestine" from the river to the sea, it still chides Hamas for not being committed enough to jihad against the Zionists. Yet the PA officially recognizes Israel. This inconsistency is not lost on the Arabs, who feel deep down as Fadlallah does, that Israel is an alien presence on Arab (or holy Muslim) land and must be destroyed, sooner or later.

(Of course, the PA is not inconsistent with the desire to destroy Israel either - it is faithfully following Arafat's phased plan from 1974. That is a little too subtle for many Arabs, though, whose hatred of the PA stems from its even pretending to want peace with the hated Zionists.)

So even if the PA somehow signs a peace agreement, if the maximal demands of destroying Israel demographically are not included, it would not be accepted by the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs.

Which goes to show yet again that every agreement that Israel signs with Palestinian Arabs is simply one more step to its destruction, as the gains that the Arabs make will then become the floor for the next series of demands  - or, more likely, the PA would then disappear and be replaced by a more overtly radical group that is more consistent with the incitement that three generations of PalArabs have been raised on, one that will happily rip up the worthless paper promises that the current quasi-government would make.

It is one thing to take risks for peace. It is an entirely different thing to negotiate your own destruction. This poll proves that peace is simply not an objective for Palestinian Arabs.

We know what that objective is.

(h/t Marty Peretz)
  • Thursday, July 15, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms [sic] just released a few recent examples of how Hamas completely restricts what journalists can do in Gaza.

Here are some of them:

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) expresses its concern about the deteriorating situation of media freedoms in Gaza Strip. This week MADA has monitored several violations against journalists, they are: the detention of the dean of Media faculty in Aqsa university Dr. Ahmad Hamad and the Greek director Bindles Baba Byblos after filming a wedding in Beit Hanoun, the prevention of France Press Agency photographer Mohammed Al-Baba from covering a march for “ Hizb Al-Tahrir” in Alnasser area in Gaza, and the prevention of Alshu’la newspaper chief editor Saher Alaqra’ and the correspondent of Sawt Falesteen Radio (Palestinian public radio) Tamim Abu Muammar from traveling to Egypt, in addition to the continued prevention of the three daily newspapers (Al-Hayat Aljadedeh, Al-Ayyam and Al-Quds) to enter Gaza Strip since 7 July 2010.

According to Hamad he said that he had gone on Sunday evening, 11 July 2010 to Beit Hanoun, accompanied by lecturer Mohammad Abu Odeh, and the director Byblos to film a wedding there to conclude it in a documentary film about the life of citizens in Gaza. Hamad added: "After we finished filming we left the wedding around 11 pm, but we were surprised that the police were waiting for us. They asked us about the tape which the director filmed, and when I asked them why? They answered: because you have filmed without permission, and conducted an interview with the father of the groom. And after an argument they took us to a police station in Beit Hanoun, and after they searched the car and watched the tape, the Superintendent Detective said the tape is normal and does not have anything to harm the government. But another person interfered and said that the groom’s fathers hold the government the responsibility for poverty, unemployment and hunger in the Gaza.” After many calls they release us after hour and a half of detention.”

Al-Baba said that he was filming a march of “Hizb Al-Tahrir” in Alnasser area/ Maqqousi Towers on Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 5:00 PM, during the filming, a group belonging to the criminal investigation police unit attacked him and confiscated his personal stuff (camera - laptop – mobile ), and they took him to the police station in Alshate’area. After detaining him for an hour they asked him to sign a pledge that he won’t publish any picture about the march’s event, because there is a superior order banning media converge of the march.

As I reported yesterday, the Hizb ut Tahrir rally was broken up with live fire and Hamas policemen beating participants, seriously injuring a child.

If Hamas is restricting even documentary filmmakers from making videos, and banning journalists from rallies in Gaza, it becomes irresponsible for the mainstream media to report anything from Gaza without adding a caveat that their ability report facts objectively is impossible due to Hamas policies. Every Reuters photo should include the explanation that "this picture was allowed to be shown by Hamas authorities." The media freely mentions Israeli censorship policies when it impacts their work - yet you will not see them say anything about Hamas' complete control over their movements, actions and reporting.

By not reporting on Hamas' restrictions on their freedoms, the Western media in Gaza is complicit with Hamas' policies. The world's perception of Gaza is completely dependent on reporters who willingly withhold most of the information they know about Hamas' excesses.
  • Thursday, July 15, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
A day after the failed Times Square bombing attempt, NBC Nightly News repeatedly called him a "lone wolf."

A month after, CBS Evening News called him a "hybrid terrorist":

In one sense, Shahzad was a lone wolf, with evidence suggesting that he alone bought, assembled, and delivered his botched IED. But, sources say it's also clear Shahzad had some help, drawing inspiration, financial support and bomb training from the Pakistani Taliban.

Now, Al Arabiya released a martyrdom video that he had made months beforehand with the Taliban, describing his motive. (Guess what? Israel wasn't mentioned! I guess he missed the memo to always mention Israel.)

It sure looks like the media tried as hard as possible to minimize this failed terror attack. And this minimization was largely successful, as the new evidence about Shahzad has come out slowly and is mostly downplayed in the press.

Yet the facts are clear - a mere two months ago, a Muslim extremist who was trained by a worldwide terrorist organization tried to kill hundreds of men, women and children in New York City. The fact that his bomb failed is not nearly as relevant as the fact that he could have easily succeeded, especially if he had really aspired to martyrdom instead of chickening out and trying to use a timer. Dismissing him as "incompetent" is besides the point - that there are millions of people who share his vision, and many of those would not have made the same mistakes.

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