Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Invest in Gaza (new EoZ video)

Better ways to spend aid dollars

A fantastic new video from Free Middle East:

Stomach-turning deprivation continues at Gaza museum

The poor, deprived people of Gaza have yet another place to spend their free time.

Welcome to the Al Mat-haf Museum and Cultural Center.

This is Gaza's main archaeological museum. Overlooking the Mediterranean, it boasts impeccable landscaping.

It includes a full-service restaurant:

It includes a well-manicured indoor terrace, complete with fountains.

The wretched poverty is too much to bear. Just looking at these pictures makes one want to join the next flotilla to help these poor, poor people. In June, 2009, Jimmy Carter visited Gaza. Here is what he said at the time:

To me, the most grievous circumstance is the maltreatment of the people in Gaza, who are literally starving and have no hope at this time.

During that same trip, Carter visited this museum along with John Ging. Here is a picture of Carter planting a tree there, with Ging looking on:

You can see how Carter was grieving at the starving people in the museum. Wearing suits. It looks like Treblinka. The museum part seems to be incidental to the work that goes into the terraces and restaurant spaces. Looking at the pieces in the museum, at least according to their web page, they have not identified a single archaeological object that they have display:

The reason might be because of something that the New York Times mentioned when they profiled the museum in 2008:

His collection includes thousands of items, but some of the most extraordinary will not go on display now, including a statue of a full-breasted Aphrodite in a diaphanous gown, images of other ancient deities and oil lamps featuring menorahs. Asked why, Mr. Khoudary noted Hamas’s rule and the conservative piety of the population and said simply, “I want my project to succeed.”

Gazans can take pride in knowing that their most beautiful treasures are hidden away because of prejudice.

Good news from Sweden

From the Sweden, Israel and the Jews blog:

Sweden often gives the impression that it is blinded by hatred of Israel. However in the last couple of weeks following the Ship to Gaza event, some signs of hope have appeared showing that not everybody refuses to see both sides of the story.
In a public statement, the student union of the ruling Moderate party (Fria Moderaternas Studentforbund) writes "We can unload the ships".

The statement refers to the boycott that the Swedish Dockworkers Union currently is imposing on Israeli cargo arriving to Sweden as well as Swedish cargo destined for Israel. In response to the Dockworkers Union’s boycott, the young Moderates offered to offload and load those ships which the dockworkers refuse to handle.

"Today, the Swedish Dockworkers Union has initiated a blockade of goods to and from Israel. The reason is that Israel did not let through a number of ships which were aiming to break their naval blockade of Hamas. To so clearly take a stance for Hamas and their unlimited naval access to accept all the goods they wish, including weapons, is a manifestation of hate towards Israel, not a support for the suffering population. Those who really want to have peace in the Middle East should instead take a stance against the terror group Hamas and the horrible suffering which it has caused Gaza’s population. It is Hamas's fault that people are suffering in Gaza, not Israel’s."

As a sign of their support of Israel the students have consequently decided to act in order to break the Swedish blockade against Israel and load and unload those ships which the dockworkers refuse to handle.

UPDATE: I didn't realize that this story was from a month ago. Still interesting.

Aw, shoot

From Ma'an:

A Bedouin man died Saturday of wounds sustained at his own bachelor party, when guests opened celebratory gunfire in the air to mark the occasion.

The 22-year-old groom sustained several gunshot wounds to his upper body at the bachelor party in the southern Negev town of Al-Kseifa and was evacuated to the Soroko Hospital in Beersheba for treatment. He was pronounced dead after several medical procedures.

Abbas unclear on definition of "violence"

Over the weekend, four rockets an two mortar shells slammed into Israel from Gaza.

At the same time:

President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israel’s continued settlement building on what would become a future Palestinian state was impeding a two-state solution and renewing the cycle of violence.

This is a recurring Palestinian Arab theme: When Jews do something that upsets them, it is "provocative" and it causes them to react violently. This applies to building houses, visiting holy sites, or making municipal plans in their capital.

In the twisted worldview that Palestinian Arab leaders have, anything that makes them upset is considered "violent" and when they use actual violence, they are merely "reacting" to Israeli "violence."

The corollary is that Palestinian Arabs have no self control, no free will, no ability to retrain themselves. Their violence is natural, Israelis living their lives is "provocative."

It would be comical if the repetition of this inanity - that Jews living normal lives on their homeland is inherently "provocative" - had not been accepted as undisputed fact by most of the world.

Don't believe me? Here's a short list of terrorist acts that have been declared "natural reactions" by Palestinian Arab leaders:

Butchering a 13-year old boy with an axe
Murdering an 86 year old man
Running over a Jewish woman with a bulldozer
Massacring teenagers at a school

See? It's only natural!

Another day, another announced flotilla

From the Yemen News Agency:

A broad campaign has started in the capital Sana'a for collecting donations for preparing and sending a four-ship flotilla to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The campaign was officially inaugurated by Rashad al-Alimi, deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security Affairs.

MP Mohammad al-Hazmi, who participated in the Freedom Flotilla and who was arrested by Israel along with two other MPs and a Yemeni activist, said: "Since we returned to Sana'a and were received by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, we have proposed the topic of sending Yemeni ships for breaking the Gaza blockade to President Saleh. So he accepted this, and the Yemeni Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian People has adopted this very strongly and enthusiastically."

"The official position is in harmony with the popular position, and the Palestinian cause is the uniting cause for all Yemenis. Therefore, we find that Yemenis - on the official and popular levels - support the Palestinian cause, the right to resistance, and the right of return, the liberation of Palestine, and the establishment of an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital", Al-Hazmi added.

On the number of participants in the flotilla, Al-Hazmi said: "I would not be exaggerating if I said that tens of thousands of Yemenis want to participate in the Yemeni ships to break the Gaza blockade. Even women have demanded that there should be a place for them in the flotilla. Men and women are greatly yearning, and, in fact, some people are begging to take part in the flotilla, and some other people are collecting money for the flotilla on condition that they should participate in it."

For his part, Abd-al-Qawi al-Shumayri, general coordinator of the Yemeni flotilla, said that the Yemeni flotilla is in the context of international moves to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip. These moves have emerged and grown since the Israeli aggression against the Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010.

Al-Shumayri added that "what is required is to purchase four ships, and not to lease them. The cost of each ship, with a capacity 1,000 tonnes, is around $1 million. Therefore, we mainly depend on collecting donations from the members of the Yemeni people, who interact with any matter of concern to Palestine and Gaza and who sacrifice everything precious to champion their Palestinian brothers."

He noted that the flotilla has set 1 August 2010 as the date for its departure to the Gaza strip. He said that the participants in the Yemeni flotilla will represent all groups of the Yemeni people, including political, ideological, and social parties and trends, including officials and party figures.

On fears that the flotilla and those onboard it will face an Israeli attack, Al-Shumayri said: "We are ready to sacrifice blood, and not only money."

By virtually any measure, Yemen is in much worse shape than Gaza. Yemen's infant mortality rate is triple that of Gaza; its life expectancy is ten years lower than Gaza's, and Yemen ranks 151 out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index. It is the poorest Arab country.

Chances are, the flotilla will never get off the ground. If they don't even have the ships yet, it seems unlikely that they can launch a flotilla next week! This announcement appears to be simply a way for Yemeni authorities to distract their people from their own real problems.

(h/t Ruthie)

Hamas' new tourist resorts

Will the horrors of Gaza never end?

The new Hamas-linked tourist destinations in Gaza that I reported on last Thursday has been noticed by AFP, although relatively few news sites have picked up on it:

The tranquil lawns of the seaside Garden Resort are a high-end oasis in the impoverished Gaza Strip -- and a new source of income for the Hamas-linked charity that owns it.

The beach club, one of several commercial ventures recently launched by groups and individuals linked to Hamas, illustrates the Islamist movement's growing dominance of an economy crippled by a four-year-old Israeli blockade.

The 1.25 million dollar (one million euro) resort is owned and operated by the Islamic Foundation, a charity established by Hamas's spiritual founder, Ahmed Yassin, that has long provided aid to poor families and orphans.

Some 2,000 people have visited each weekend since the foundation established the club and an adjacent fish farm earlier this year, with most paying the eight dollars per family admission fee and many dining at its restaurant.

The Islamic Foundation has launched eight projects in all, including bakeries, farms, a supermarket and a restaurant, and had a nine million dollar budget in 2009, according to Shihab.

"Fifty percent of the revenues of these projects go to establishing new projects to serve the people," he said. "Any for-profit project must advance the goals of the association and its expansion and continuation."

Just down the beach another Hamas-linked charity, whose headquarters were destroyed by an Israeli air strike during the 2008-2009 Gaza war, has established the Freedom Resort, which includes a new 250,000 dollar wedding hall, according to its director, Saber Abu Kirsh.

Hamas is also widely believed to be behind a new shopping mall that opened this week in Gaza City with a ceremony attended by several Hamas ministers and professors at the Hamas-linked Islamic University.

The mall's manager, Siraj Abu Selim, denied Hamas was involved in the three million dollar (2.3 million euro) project, but refused to give the names of any of the mall's owners or chief investors.

Zaza said the government had encouraged the establishment of several commercial projects but had not provided any funding for them.

It plays a more direct role in other projects, however, including the Bisan City tourist village on the northern edge of the territory.

The sprawling facility, which includes gardens, playgrounds, football fields, a petting zoo and restaurants, attracts some 6,000 people every weekend, many of whom are brought in on government-subsidised buses.

And despite the fact that almost all building materials have to be smuggled into the territory, the park includes a new wedding hall and work is under way on what managers say will be an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The 1.5 million dollar project, built on government land under the supervision of Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad, charges 75 cents for adult admission, with children entering for free.

The 270 dunam (67 acre, 27 hectare) park abuts an 84 dunam cattle and chicken farm as well as food processing facilities, also operated by the interior ministry.

The high-end beach resorts have also proven popular, but many wonder how Hamas-linked groups can build new facilities when thousands of homes severely damaged or destroyed during the war remain in ruins.

Abu Kamal, a 53-year-old man whose home was destroyed during the Israeli assault launched in December 2008 in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket attacks, grumbled at the eight dollar admission fee at the Garden Resort.

"The priority should be to rebuild Gaza and build new homes for those of us who had ours destroyed by the occupation during the war," he said.

Just like Darfur!

The Arabic articles about the resort said that rather than the buses being subsidized by Hamas, they were actually a moneymaker for the group.

I didn't quote it, but AFP also uncritically quotes Hamas leaders as saying that they are awash with cash - without asking about the clear cash crisis that Hamas had only a few months ago.

In the comments on my Gaza Mall video, many of the pro-Arab idiots simply deny that the mall exists and swear that this mall is in Jordan or Egypt. I'm sure that they would say the same about this resort.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Latest Latma

Not their best but not bad. One brief joke about the Gaza mall.

Hamas confiscates "inappropriate" T-shirts

From Ma'an:

De facto government detectives in the Gaza Strip seized inventory from several shops and vendors on Saturday, which a police report said displayed "immoral words."

The clothing, manufactured in Gaza City, was mostly cotton shirts with the words "Porn Man Clothing" written on them in bold letters.

Detectives said the clothing was uncovered during a routine inspection tour, and was traced back to a manufacturer in the Ash-Shuja'iyyah neighborhood of Gaza City, where a report said two merchants and a printer worked to create and supply the goods to vendors.

Police said the supplies and the merchandise were confiscated and the individuals involved in making the clothing brought in for questioning.

Investigators said charges would likely be laid.

The seizure on grounds of immorality is the latest in a string of small measures being taken by the Gaza government to enforce what critics call inappropriate laws on personal status.

I am not nearly as surprised that Hamas would confiscate clothing that says "Porn Man Clothing" as I am that there is evidently a demand for such clothing in Gaza.

Enough of a demand that Gaza manufacturers - you know, the ones who have no raw materials because of the Israeli siege - are using their supposedly scarce resources to print up such T-shirts to begin with!

British judge faces anti-semitism probe after his anti-Israel instructions

From the Daily Mail:

A senior judge was under investigation yesterday after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in court that may have swayed his jury into acquitting a group of protesters.

Judge George Bathurst-Norman was said by critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes.

Summing up in the criminal damage trial, he compared Israel to the Nazi regime and accused the country of ignoring international law.

The judge added that 'there may be much to be admired' about the chief protester, and that 'in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal'.

The Office for Judicial Complaints, which deals with objections over the conduct of judges and magistrates, confirmed that an inquiry into how Judge Bathurst-Norman handled the trial of five political activists at Hove Crown Court in June is under way.

Its findings will be considered by Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, who have the final say on any disciplinary action.

A number of complaints are said to have accused the judge not just of anti-Israel rhetoric but specifically of anti-Semitism.

Describing evidence shown in court, Judge Bathurst-Norman told the jury that he could only describe the 'horrific' events shown as 'scenes which one would rather have hoped to have disappeared with the Nazi regimes of the last war'.

In his summing up, he gave his backing to the evidence of one defendant, Ornella Saibene, a former Greenham Common activist.

The judge said: 'She took us through the horrors, and there really is no other word for it than horrors, that emerged in the press and on the news and the footage as to what the Israelis were doing in Gaza.

'You may think that perhaps "Hell on Earth" would be an understatement of what the Gazans endured.'

We discussed this judge here, here and here.

While I believe that some people complaining about the judge would have accused him of anti-semitism, the problem is that he disregarded any pretense of objectivity and instructed the jury how to rule. Bringing up anti-semitism is not the strategy to employ - even if the judge compared Israelis to Nazis.

It is possible that the Daily Mail played up that aspect of the complaints, and lets hope so. The judge should be investigated and punished for his egregious disregard for the law in the courtroom.

UN against "flotillas" to Gaza. Pigs fly.

This has to be one of the most astounding diplomatic victories ever for Israel at the UN:

The United Nations said Friday that groups seeking to deliver aid to Gaza should do so by land, after Israel warned it would intercept two ships seeking to break a blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

"There are established routes for supplies to enter by land. That is the way aid should be delivered to the people of Gaza," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told a press briefing.

"Our stated preference has been and remains that aid should be delivered by established routes, particularly at a sensitive time in indirect proximity (peace) talks between Palestinians and Israelis," he added.

He made the comments after Israel served notice its forces would prevent a planned Lebanese aid flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip.

"We have received information in recent days about a plan to send a new flotilla to break the blockade around Gaza," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Israeli television.

"This is an unnecessary provocation and we believe that preventing such a flotilla is the responsibility of the Lebanese government."

"If this flotilla does leave Lebanon and refuses to be led by our navy to the (Israeli) port of Ashdod, we will have no other choice than to arrest it at sea," the minister added.

"There exists a way of transferring goods, which are not weapons or material for war-like purposes, to the Gaza Strip through the port of Ashdod."

Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev earlier delivered a similar warning in a letter addressed to UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

This is especially notable since UNRWA's head John Ging said the exact opposite only two months ago:

Ging, speaking with a Norwegian newspaper earlier in the week, urged the world to send ships to the shores of Gaza, saying "We believe that Israel will not intercept these vessels because the sea is open, and human rights organizations have been successful in similar previous operations proving that breaking the siege of Gaza is possible."

Hamas, of course, says this this is proof that the UN is Zionist:

Hamas has said the United Nations call for aid groups to send supplies to the Gaza strip over-land rather than by sea amounts to "collaboration with the Israeli occupier".

"The UN call to international organisations to use the over-land road to Gaza instead of the sea is unacceptable and illegal," Sami Abu Zahri, a Hamas spokesman, said on Saturday.

Hamas, which is not participating in proximity talks, said that most Gaza residents "are still banned from leaving the territory and this is why this call [by the UN] is considered a contribution to the [Israeli] blockade".

This last part is especially humorous because the people who restrict Gazans from leaving Gaza are often Palestinian Arabs themselves, as Ha'aretz noticed today. Belatedly.

Israel may be slowly learning a lesson that her Arab neighbors have known for a long time: there is great diplomatic power in saying no. When one side in a dispute is adamant and the other is wishy-washy, diplomats will naturally pressure the side that appears to be wavering. Israel is saying very clearly that if the point of the "aid" is to help Gazans, they will help. If the point is political, it will be stopped. The UN will try to avoid supporting a plan that will force a showdown - as long as there is an alternative.

On-line Al Arabiya poll: Most Arabs don't care about "peace process"

An on-line Arabic Al Arabiya poll (not scientific, but not as self-selecting as PressTV polls) showed that only 10% of their audience followed the "peace process" closely, and 71% say it no longer interests them at all.

A columnist in Asharq al-Awsat, Saleh Qallab, is very upset. He asks, unbelievingly, "Palestine is not the top priority for Arabs?!" He calls the results "surprising and frustrating" and calls this development "dangerous."

It is inconceivable to this editorialist that the wall-to-wall coverage of a people who have nothing to do with the day to day lives of ordinary Arabs has made them sick of the whole topic - especially in light of the Hamas/Fatah split, which turned off a lot of previously supportive Arabs. If Palestinians can't get their act together, they are saying, why should we beat our heads against the wall for these babies?

Qallab allows that Arab nations have other concerns that may appear more pressing, like the war in Yemen and the situations in Iraq and Somalia and the Sudan and fears of an Iranian nuclear bomb and intra-Arab terrorism. Even so, he continues to claim - without any supporting evidence - that the Palestine issue is the "core of conflict in the region," as if those other issues would vanish once there is a Palestinian Arab nation.

It shows once again that ordinary Arabs tend to be far wiser than their intellectual and political leaders. They don't buy the fiction that Palestinian Arabs are the most important issue in their lives, despite being brainwashed to that effect for generations. And more than a few are actively angry at Palestinian Arabs.

The first comment to the op-ed is interesting. An Iraqi now in Sweden writes:

On the issue of Arabs and their problems with Israel, I say why didn't the Arabs will agree to the United Nations partition in 1948? And why did they not give the Palestinians the West Bank and Gaza Strip when it was under their control before 1967? I say to myself, an Iraqi, why would you want me to support the people who applauded the criminal who killed my people, who still have his picture in their homes and who they now they see as a martyr? Do you think I have suffered blindness? The Palestinians do not deserve me, not even a fingernail, and never will!

Apparently, "linkage" is believed more by the Obama administration than it is by the Arab world whose leaders harp on that very fiction.

(h/t Ali for finding the poll.)

Zvi's analysis of Lebanon

Zvi comments on this post:

It sounds as though Hezbollah is very much on the defensive at the moment. It is apparently looking for a way to avoid being blamed as an organization.

The risk to HA is not that a formal STL charge against HA would ignite a civil war. The other Lebanese factions are severely outgunned. They know that the US and Europe will emphatically not save them, and that Syria/Iran will pump in as much weaponry as HA needs to crush them. So the other factions will bluster and anger will grow, but unless HA makes a staggering series of mistakes, they will not mount a serious military challenge.

However, there are significant risks to HA. If the STL makes a credible claim that Hezbollah as an organization was involved in the assassination of Hariri... .

1. This could indirectly implicate HA in the assassinations of other opponents of Syria, which could damage some of HA's alliances.

2. It would probably cause the breakdown of the current government (led by Saad Hariri) to whose collective throat Hezbollah so casually holds a knife.

3. It could severely impact HA's quest for legitimacy in Europe. Heretofore, the EU has been reluctant to place HA on the European terror list. This has allowed Hezbollah to operate with a degree of freedom in many countries. If the EU were to finally add HA to the terror list, then this would cause HA's European financial assets to be frozen and would make it that much more difficult for HA to operate around the world. Heretofore, Lebanon's chief "Europatron/Euromeddler" (France) has opposed adding HA to the list. But if the STL were to formally accuse Hezbollah of participating in the assassination, the EU might feel compelled to act. At the very least, it is very difficult to imagine even left-wingers being so urgent to "engage" the "political arm" of Hezbollah at a time when Hezbollah is under a cloud for assassinating a reigning head of state.

4. This would give Sunni Arabs abroad another dose of dislike for Hezbollah.

5. Don't ignore the humiliation factor or the fact that failing to kill the SLT, despite all of their machinations and violence (even starting a war and launching a coup), makes Hezbollah and its regional masters look like local bullies.

Nasrallah said: "I will declare that Hezbollah had nothing to do with it" and "We must understand that Lebanon is entering a very sensitive and complicated phase... This is not due to internal circumstances or a war with Israel, but because of a report that will soon be published by the international tribunal."

Translation: Hezbollah may try to sacrifice some of its people in order to protect the organization as a whole (whether this causes trouble in the ranks, we'll see). Hezbollah *will* drag Lebanon into it.

But I don't see "complicated" translating as, "We wil smash the nonsense out of the treacherous Zionist-loving March 14." It probably translates to "Please, everyone, walk very, very carefully; this place could blow up like a powder keg." Hezzies will be told to be on guard against Israeli invasion, not because Iran expects this but because it's a useful distraction from the fact that the organization is being indicted by an "incorruptible" foreign investigation for murdering the prime minister, and also that HA has been lying about its non-involvement.

But one thing that is easy to verify. HA is involved and Nasrallah is a liar.

How can we tell? Because Nasrallah is telling us "The guys who did it were undisciplined members." So he knows who they are and what they did, and claims to know why. And yet he has never turned over these "undisciplined members" to the police, even knowing that they assassinated the prime mininster and committed mass murder? Instead, he has denied that HA was involved. Well, clearly he knew.

So, well, Nasrallah is liar and a skunk. We knew that ; - ) but there are so many journalists and people in the Arab world who think that the man walks on water. Poor, poor dupes.

Friday open thread

Friday again looks unpredictable for blogging. It worked out on Thursday but I have no idea how much I will be able to blog on Friday.

The Gaza Mall video have now been seen over 20,000 times but it is slowing down. If you like it, put links to it in any message boards, bookmark sites or similar places so people can see the other side of Gaza that the media ignores. One good mentin could make it go to the next level.

Otherwise, use this thread to discuss whatever floats your boat.

Jordan condemns Jews on Temple Mount

From the Jordan Times (English):

The government on Wednesday condemned the visit of a senior right-wing Israeli lawmaker and several extremists to Al Aqsa Mosque compound under police escort.

Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government Spokesperson Nabil Sharif described the move by Danny Danon, a deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament, as provocative and offensive, calling on Israeli authorities to prevent such practices and spare Muslim and Christian shrines such provocative acts.

Just wanted to point out that the most "moderate" Arabs want to see Jews barred, permanently, from their holiest site. Why this is not considered bigoted by the world at large is one of those mysteries.

And, in case you were wondering, at least some Jordanians would like to expand the Judenrein area to the Kotel as well. An op-ed in Al Anbat, also in Jordan, speaks fondly about the 1929 massacres of Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron and Tzfat, which Arabs link to the Kotel, and the writer concludes:

The Buraq yard (Kotel plaza) and the wall will remain a source of inspiration for the Palestinians to revolt against the occupation and preserve the Arab identity of Jerusalem and its holy sites and its Islamic and Christian landmarks, rejecting the policy of the Zionist settlement at whatever cost and whatever the sacrifices!!!

Nasrallah backs down in face of Lebanese pressure

We mentioned that a speech made by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday caused an uproar in Lebanon. Among other things, Nasrallah accused the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, charged to investigate the murder of former prime minister Hariri, as working for Zionist interests. It is widely assumed that the STL will indict Hebollah members in the plot.

Lebanese politicians slammed Nasrallah for such a slur.

Now, Nasrallah has changed his tune, and says that he knows that "some undisciplined members of Hezbollah may be indicted by STL but not the party."

The plot to kill Hariri was well-planned, and of course Hezbollah had every reason to want to get rid of him. The idea that a rogue Hezbollah group managed to plan and execute the operation without other Hezbollah members knowing is simply ridiculous.

We will see if the tribunal will have the guts to mention Hezbollah, but since something like that could ignite a civil war, they might very well accept this face-saving attempt by Nasrallah as a way out. This way Hezbollah continues its stranglehold on Lebanese politics and military, Lebanon doesn't get sucked into another war and everyone wins.

Except for the Lebanese, of course.

The story of Hayim Farhi - and the first Jewish-led army of modern times

A recent auction of American Judaica did very well, with many pieces getting triple the expected price.

One such item:

A beautifully bound copy of Joseph Schwarz’s Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, Philadelphia, 1850. Translated by Isaac Leeser, this was Leeser’s personal copy accompanied by correspondence with the author. It realized a premium price of $68,880, more than tripling its estimate of $20,000-25,000

The book is available on Google Books and elsewhere, and it contains a fascinating story I was not aware of about Hayim Farhi of Acre.

Wikipedia has a much more readable account, so here is a mix of Wikipedia's and Schwartz's narratives:

Haim Farhi was born to a respected and ancient Jewish family in Damascus. His father Saul had established a banking business that flourished to the extent that it expanded to control Syria's finances, banking and foreign trade for nearly a century.[6][7]

He, and other family members worked as financial agents[8] (Turkish sarraf)[9] throughout the Damascus district, and contemporary sources often mention them as the 'real rulers of Syria'.[10]

They may also have mediated between the Jewish community and the law. They tried to alleviate the tax burden placed on the Jews of Safed. Haim Farhi succeeded his father as banker of the ruler of Damascus. He gained extensive influence with the Turkish government and became the adviser to Ahmad al-Jazzar, the ruler of Acre, probably thanks to his intrigues that led to the execution of the previous advisor, Mikhail Sakruj, a Christian merchant from Shfa'Amr.[11]

Al-Jazzar recognized his administrator's talents, acted upon his counsel, and provided relief, at Farhi's request, from the heavy taxation placed on the Jewish community.

Al-Jazzar was, nonetheless, a violent and cruel individual whose title 'al-Jazzar' means 'The Butcher'. He would often find a pretext to lash out in savage assaults and harm Farhi and others. In fact, al-Jazzar had his adviser's eye plucked out, cut off the tip of his nose, and severed his left ear.[12] A famous illustration of those days shows al-Jazzar sitting in judgment in front of his Jewish adviser, who is wearing an eye patch.

It was during the reign of al-Jazzar, in 1799, that the French general and future Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte tried to conquer the Damascus governorate. In February Napoleon and his army arrived from the south, captured Jaffa and massacred 2,000 Turkish prisoners. They then moved north, captured Haifa and the Jezreel Valley and laid siege to Acre. Al-Jazzar's troops, refusing to surrender, withstood the siege for one and a half months. A British naval force under the command of Admiral Sidney Smith came to the town's defense, and an artillery expert from the fleet, Antoine DePhelipoux, redeployed against Napoleon's forces artillery pieces which the British had intercepted from the French at sea.

Farhi played a key role in the city's defense. As al-Jazzar's adviser and right hand man, he directly supervised how the battle against the siege was run. At the culmination of the assault, the besieging forces managed to make a breach in the walls. After suffering many casualties to open an entry-point, Napoleon's soldiers found, on trying to penetrate the city, that Farhi and DePhelipoux had, in the meantime, built a second wall, several feet deeper within the city where al-Jazzar's garden was.

Discovery of this new construction convinced Napoleon and his men that the probability of their taking the city was minimal. The siege was raised and Napoleon withdrew to Egypt.

After the death of al-Jazzar in 1804, his son Sulayman Pasha succeeded to the Pashalik of Akko. Under him, the Jews enjoyed, according to one traveller, 'perfect religious freedom', and were relieved of the substantial fines they were frequently compelled to pay under al-Jazzar, and were obliged to pay only the customary kharadj.

Pharchi had a distinguished Mahomedan friend, who died suddenly, with his wife, and left quite a young child, only a few years old, called Abdalla, who was without any protectors, and was therefore educated in the house of the noble Pharchi, who viewed him as his own child, and had him instructed in all the necessary scientific branches; and in addition to this, Pharchi caused that Abdalla was appointed Pacha of Akko, after the decease of Seliman. He at first viewed Pharchi as his father, and followed his guidance to execute justice and equity in the land. But as early as one year after assuming the government, he commenced to act counter to this advice and instruction, and was reproved occasionally on this account by his venerable guardian. Abdalla now observed that he stood in his way, and that he would be a check on the exercise of his mere will and pleasure, and resolved therefore to get rid of him. He endeavoured first secretly to accuse him of treason and other charges, to find thus an opportunity to lay violent hands on him. The confidants of Pharchi revealed to him the terrible purpose of his ungrateful ward, and advised him to save himself by flight. But he declined doing this, and he answered magnanimously that his flight would call down on all the Israelites of Palestine the greatest persecution, and might indeed cause their entire extermination, since the Pacha might be induced through his escaping, to wreak his fury on this innocent people. He added, that he was prepared for everything, and would bear patiently whatever might occur, in order to save thereby, or at least to benefit in some degree, his own people.

Now it happened, on Thursday, the 28th of Ab, 5579 (August, 1817) [1820 in Wikipedia], which the pious Pharchi kept as a fast day (as the eve of the New Moon of the month Elul), and as he was about to take his supper, that an officer with his soldiers suddenly entered his apartment; his death-warrant was read to him, in which he was condemned on account of treason, and with the offence that his private Synagogue was built higher than the mosque of Akko, and several other diabolical charges and crimes; and this sentence was instantly executed.

The day following his house and court-yard were ransacked and plundered, and a large quantity of gold, money, silver, and other valuable articles were carried to the Pacha, the monster and parricide. The corpse of this martyr he did not even permit to be interred, but ordered it to be cast into the sea; and when, the day following, it was carried again on shore, he ordered it to be taken out far into the sea, and then to be thrown into the water. The pious widow of Pharchi fled in all haste towards Damascus, but died suddenly on the road, and was buried in Zafed; and suspicion was entertained that she had been poisoned by the furies who surrounded the Pacha.

Abdallah then compelled the Jews of Acre and Safed to pay in full all the back taxes they would have owed had they not been exempted, through Farhi's good offices, from paying over the years.

This deed of terror excited universal consternation and mortal fear in all Palestine, especially among the Israelites; and the parricide now showed himself openly as the persecutor of the Jews in the Holy Land, and exercised such acts of violence and abomination among them, as are not perpetrated by cannibals and savages.

Here, Schwartz details some more specific atrocities that Abdalla visited upon the Jewish community; read the original for details.

Already this is a gripping tale, showing great Jewish influence in the Ottoman Empire as well as great antipathy on the part of some leaders. The two stories of how Al Jazzar maimed Hayim Farhi while he was his adviser, and especially of how Abdallah almost immediately turned against his Jewish step-father as soon as he became Pasha, are fascinating and more than a little scary. It shows that even though Jews rose to political heights under Muslim rule, their hold on power was always tenuous and second-class.

But the next part is, in some ways, even more compelling:

In Damascus dwelt the three brothers of the martyr Pharchi; they were the most distinguished and honoured men of the whole surrounding country, not only through their wealth and their extensive commerce, which was carried on to all parts of the Orient, but also for their great influence in Constantinople and other large cities and towns, and they were likewise famed for their honest and noble conduct.* Their names were Seliman, Raphael, and the youngest Mosé Pharchi; the last mentioned died in 5600 (1840), through the torture inflicted by Serif Pacha, as one of the accused for the murder of Father Thomas, in which this excellent man was, among others, charged with having taken part in the slaughter of that old priest, to make use of his blood at the celebration of the Passover. When these men learned the deplorable death of their beloved brother, they resolved to be revenged on his murderer, even at the greatest sacrifices. Through their great influence at Constantinople they succeeded in obtaining a firman (a decree), signed by the Sheich al Aslam,† literally, the chief of the faith, authorizing them to take hostile measures against Abdalla. It was a small matter with them, on account of their immense wealth, to engage Seliman Pacha of Damascus, Mustapha Pacha of Aleppo, and two other minor Pachas, who were under the jurisdiction of these two principal ones, with their soldiers, to take the field against Abdalla. A large force having thus been collected, the expedition passed over the Jordan in the month of Nissan, 5581 (April, 1821). Abdalla marched out against the advancing Pachas; and a battle took place at the bridge over Jordan called Djisr abné Yacob, in which he was defeated, and he fled in haste, retreating to Akko. The brothers Pharchi now took possession of all Galilee, deposed the officers appointed by Abdalla, and appointed others in their place.

The victors next laid siege to Akko, where the famine rose to such a height, that a single egg was sold at 70 grush,‡ which at that time was near six dollars, and a sheep at 900 grush, or 78 dollars. The siege was continued for fourteen months, during which period the Pharchis supplied the place of the Pacha in the country, and acted as governors. But it was decreed that Abdalla should not yet meet his deserts, and he was permitted to have a few years more indulgence. He succeeded, through treachery, to have the worthy Seliman Pharchi poisoned, through which means he died suddenly in the month of Nissan, 5582 (April, 1822). Mustapha Pacha likewise showed, by his acts and conduct in battle, that he was not true to the cause in which he had embarked.

Raphael Pharchi was therefore induced, shortly after the decease of his elder brother, to withdraw with Seliman Pacha to Damascus. Mustapha, it is true, maintained the siege till the month of Sivan (June), when he also withdrew to his own government.

Three Jewish brothers gained permission from the Grand Mufti of Constantinople to lead an army to defeat the Muslim butcher of Acre! And, for a short time, Jews acted as governors over parts of what is now northern Israel!

The story shows the dichotomy of Jewish existence under Muslim rule. Certainly far better than under Christian Europe - yet the Muslim jealousy of Jewish influence helped start a series of Arab massacres of Jews that began with the Damascus blood libel of 1840, in which Mose Farhi was one of the accused.

(pictures from the farhi.org website)

Hundreds of breaches in Egypt's Gaza tunnel wall

From the WaPo:

The smugglers who sneak consumer goods, cash and weapons into the blockaded Gaza Strip have cut hundreds of holes in an underground steel wall Egypt is building along the border to try to stop them, two Egyptian security officials said Thursday.

Rare footage filmed by AP Television News before dawn Thursday showed one smuggler cutting through the barrier with a blowtorch. The smuggler, his face covered by a scarf, said it took him five hours to breach the obstacle.

As I predicted in May, "in a few months things will be back to normal in Rafah." I was off by a month.

But...

Hundreds of tunnels running under the Egypt-Gaza border deliver consumer goods to the Hamas-run territory, bypassing a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt three years ago. In recent weeks, Israel has eased its blockade by allowing most consumer goods into Gaza again through land crossings, and smugglers say they are more concerned about the competition from legitimate imports than about the wall.

Capitalism wins!

(Notice that while this article does teach us something new, it still falls into the "romantic smuggler" meme we discussed yesterday. Rich Western capitalists are bad; rich Arab smuggler capitalists are good.)

(h/t Daily Inquisitor)