Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, December 05, 2010

PalArab "euphoria" over fires

Untold euphoria prevailed among Palestinians after the fires that broke out in several places in northern Israel, which led to the deaths of more than 40 Zionists, although grief was felt by some [because of] the large amounts of Arab and European aid to assist in fire suppression at the time when the Palestinian people are groaning from violations of the occupation.

Palestine Today met many people whose faces reflected a great joy about what happened in Israel, where they stressed that this was the least that can happen to the entity...

Citizen Bassam Hamdan expressed her delight at the fall of more than 40 people in the ranks of the Zionists, calling it revenge of God Almighty for the children of the martyrs who fell from the Zionist occupation fire, forcing the enemy to know that there are forces greater than all.

The citizen Sami Al Masri described how the Palestinian people always rejoice when there are casualties among the Israelis and this stems from the nature of the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, but feels unfortunate for the participation of Arabs in fire suppression.

Now, when have Israelis ever rejoiced over the deaths of civilians living in enemy states? Let alone unapologetic and public euphoria over the deaths of innocents.

Abbas Resignation Theatre, 2010 edition

From JPost:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to resign as PA president if Israel continued construction of settlements in the West Bank, in a TV interview on Friday, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Saturday.

In an interview with Palestine TV on Friday, Abbas said he would not "afford to remain the president of a nonexistent Palestinian Authority" if construction continued, according to the report.

Time to brush off the ever growing list, compiled by Daled Amos, of times that Abbas has threatened to resign:

November 11, 2009:
President Mahmoud Abbas is considering resigning from his roles on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee and the Fatah Central Committee, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday.

March 18, 2008
Exclusive: Abbas threatens to quit peace talks, revive Fatah terror
(OK, Abbas is not threatening to resign--but we're just getting warmed up...)

Jan 17, 2008
Abbas threatens to quit if 'escalation' continues

June 12, 2007
Fatah movement threatens to quit Hamas-led unity gov't

February 26, 2006
Abbas threatens to quit over Hamas
(Feb 28, 2006 Abbas: I did not threaten to quit)

30 January 2006
Abbas to resign if Hamas fails to work with foreign powers

January 25, 2006
Palestinians Vote in First Legislative Elections in a Decade
Abbas is "a touchy man of dark moods, who often threatens to quit, as he quit as prime minister after four months in 2003 when Mr. Arafat did not allow him enough power."

Jan 17, 2006
PA head Abbas threatens to quit

December 16, 2005
Palestinian Chief Threatens to Quit Over Rival Fatah Slate

March 30, 2005
Palestinian Abbas threatens to quit unless Fatah groups cooperate.

Wed 09 Sep 2003
Abbas threatens to quit unless he gets more authority

Thursday, September 4, 2003
Abbas threatens to quit over leadership

Aug. 21, 2003
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas threatens to resign unless Yasser Arafat approves a crackdown on Hamas

July 9, 2003
U.S. Supports Abbas After Palestinian Leader Threatens to Quit

April 08, 2003
Moderate Palestinian PM threatens to quit as Arafat hinders change.

Of course, he never has; it is an empty threat. But it invariably scares Westerners who false consider him to be "moderate."

Keeping the open thread going....

Sorry, but I don't have time tonight to blog, so ....keep up the discussion.

Thanks to all who wished me a Mazel Tov!

In the Watcher'sCouncil this week, I was nominated twice, for Iran used Red Crescent to send agents and weapons to Hezbollah and UN “threatened” CBC reporter; Hezbollah uses hospital for comm HQ. Unfortunately, both entries tied for fifth place, but it is still nice to be doubly nominated by the Council in a single week! (The winners are pretty good, too :) )

I don't know how many people will attend next week's EoZ Z-Vent Off Broadway Extravaganza Hasbara 2.0 Live One-Person Show Featuring the First Annual Hasby Awards, but in the Facebook invitation there are 34 people who say they will attend and 71 "maybes." And others will show up who didn't receive the FB invite. So it will not be a bad crowd for such an event; from the similar events I've attended held on college campuses and the videos I've seen this is quite respectable. Especially considering that no one knows if I even know how to speak to begin with. Of course, I want more people to attend....Yeshiva University, Tuesday night, 8 PM. Free food to attract the fence-sitters!

I noted earlier that Elecronic Intifada gets donations to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars to run their website, even though it gets fewer readers than mine. Commenter anarchofascist notes that Mondoweiss just was offered a $20,000 matching grant. I guess it pays to bash Israel - literally. None of that Zionist money that Helen Thomas is whining about has managed to filter down to me.

Statcounter says I've averaged about 4500 pageviews a day this past week. That is about 1000 higher than usual.

Here's an open thread for me to catch my breath.

Have a great weekend. Not sure how I'm going to manage to shoe-horn blogging into it...

A Mazel Tov at EoZ HQ

The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon is engaged to be married.

So things will be even more hectic around here than usual.

And to think, it seems so recent that she a typical but quite articulate teenage blogger, with insightful and thoughtful posts (and a tiny amount of teenage angst.)

You may also want to check out her unforgettable guest post here a couple of years later.

And, a bit after that, my readers actually saw her wearing a beach-towel burqa.

Life hurtles on....

EI vs. EoZ

The anti-Israel, anti-semitic Electronic Intifada website, which has been seen this week to have received funds from the Dutch government, says it had a budget of $149,208 in 2008 and $183,760 in 2009.

It's Alexa ranking is currently at 237,143.

Elder of Ziyon's Alexa ranking is higher at 219,966, a bit better than this well-funded site run by at least four people. The EoZ budget for this past year has been approximately $19.

Maybe I should start asking European governments to fund me.

Sarah Palin's Chanukah message

From Sarah Palin's Facebook page:

As Jewish families all over the country and the world come together to celebrate the festival of lights – the miracle of one day’s worth of oil lasting for eight – we are reminded that this holiday is also about the miracle of taking a stand against impossible odds, surviving existential threats, and staying true to one’s values and beliefs through it all.

More than two thousand years after the Maccabees rebelled against their oppressors and reconsecrated their Holy Temple, the Jewish people continue to face threats to their existence, and they continue to persevere and overcome great odds. Today we should all recommit ourselves to ensuring that the miracle of a Jewish state endures forever. The dreidel is one of the most familiar symbols of Hanukkah, with Hebrew letters on it representing the phrase Nes Gadol Haya Sham – “a great miracle happened there.” Indeed a great miracle is still happening there. Todd and I wish the Jewish community a very Happy Hanukkah.

Whether or not you think she is qualified to run the country, there is no doubt that Palin is a deep friend of Israel. These words do not ring hollow as some politicians' messages do.

More evidence at least some of the Carmel fires are arson

From JPost:

Coastal District Police Commander Roni Attia said Friday that two arson suspects were apprehended in the North, near Kiryat Bialik.

The suspects were allegedly attempting to rekindle a fire in the forest with the use of Molotov cocktails. Police are not connecting the arsonists at this stage to the massive fires in the Carmel and Atlit but rather to the fire which broke out earlier at the Tzur Shalom area of Kiryat Bialik.

Attia added that arson is suspected in a number of separate fires, including Kiryat Bialik and Kiryat Tivon.

Earlier on Friday, police found a bike, a bag, and a wig inside near a fire center in Tzur Shalom, leading them to believe that the fire was caused by an arsonist or arsonists.

Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the Post that there are 3 fire centers - Tzur Shalom, the Atlit - Tirat Hacarmel area, and the Carmel hillsides. In one, Tzur Shalom, north of Haifa, "we located suspicious items pointing to arson. As for the other two major fires, it is too early and the incidents are to large in scale to know their causes at this stage." The death toll in the fires rose to 42 on Friday, according to Army Radio.

Now, who would want to do something like that?

Could it be the types of people who celebrate it?

(h/t Israel Matzav)

UPDATE: Commenter Jed says

Update from Israeli TV:
Fire investigator says fire source was from burning garbage.
Suspicion that more fires set up by gang, 2 suspects from Daliat el Carmel arrested by police.

Erekat creates "The Zionist Grinch Who Stole Palestinian Arab Christmas"

From Ma'an:

"The Israel Ministry of Tourism has hijacked Christmas for political purposes," Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erakat said Thursday, denouncing the occupying nation for hosting a pre-Christmas reception in East Jerusalem.

The reception, set for 6 December, will see diplomats, heads of churches and other community members gather in the city to mark the start of the holiday season.

"This is yet another display of the lengths that Israel is willing to go to distract the world from its policies of dispossession against the Palestinian people," the official said in a statement, on the one hand hosting events to celebrate the Christian holiday, while on the other continuing to "sever the ancient link between Jerusalem and Bethlehem through the construction of the Wall and the expansion of settlements surrounding Bethlehem, including Har Homa and Gilo."

The isolation of Jerusalem from its West Bank neighbors, separating holy sites, families and religious networks was condemned by Erekat, who said "we seek an open Jerusalem as the capital of two states, where free access to all holy sites is guaranteed."

In contrast, he added, "Israel continues its plan to make Jerusalem an exclusive Jewish city."

Yes, those wily Israelis are making Jerusalem exclusively Jewish by holding Christmas events there.

And look how much Erekat is decrying the supposed severing "the ancient link between Jerusalem and Bethlehem" when his entire political career is based on severing the ancient Jewish link between Hebron, Shechem, Bet El, Shiloh, and even the Western Wall from the rest of the Jewish state.

Turks, others send help to Israel. Some PalArabs upset.

From YNet:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with other world leaders for sending planes and firefighting equipment to Israel in order to assist the battle against the blaze consuming its northern region.

Netanyahu spoke at a special Cabinet meeting called in the wake of flailing efforts to extinguish the flames. Netanyahu also thanked other world leaders, including Bulgaria's prime minister and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who sent "a very large Russian plane, perhaps the largest of its kind in the world"

"The plane is on its way here, and will arrive in the afternoon," Netanyahu said, also thanking Egypt, Azerbaijan, Spain, Croatia, France, and Jordan for their offers. "I think this constitutes an unprecedented response to our appeal for international aid," he added.

Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey) adds:

Putting aside recent tensions to lend a hand, 10 Turkish rescue personnel and two airplanes carrying firefighting equipment arrived at the Ramat David airbase in Haifa at 10.30 a.m. Friday, Anatolia news agency reported. The planes are aiding firefighting efforts in coordination with Israeli authorities.

Israeli officials said some 100 firefighters from Bulgaria have arrived as well as forces from Jordan and Greece. Fire extinguishing planes were on their way from Britain and Cyprus as well as aid from the United States, Russia, Egypt, Spain, Azerbaijan and Romania.

Commenter Yerushalimey muses:

I wonder, if Israel was not known for sending aid to crises all over the world, if less foreign assistance would be forthcoming. Honestly, I am surprised and grateful we are receiving ANY assistance.

It is indeed one of the small slivers of good news from this disaster.

And while Palestine Press Agency says that Palestinian Authority civil defense personnel are also being sent to help, and there are reports that Jordan as sent aid as well, other Palestinian Arabs are not so thrilled at the idea of Arabs helping Israel.

Palestine Today, which is aligned with Islamic Jihad, has an op-ed slamming any Arab governments who offer to help Israel deal with this crisis.

Our advice to the kind-hearted Arab countries is to think carefully before venturing to help [the Zionist] entity, which flows into lava for day and night on our unarmed people, whether in the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip. Here we have to tell you how happy our Palestinian people are at the killing 40 Zionist wardens burned to death.

The assistance to the entity is not a crime but treason to the blood of all the martyrs, and therefore assure them, that many lessons will be learned from this "divine fire", and the lesson that the most prominent in the demise of this entity is no more a matter of time.

Helen Thomas gets memo, changes "Jew" to "Zionist"

Helen Thomas, speaking in front of a group in Dearborn, kept up and expanded her anti-semitic diatribes - but this time she was careful to substitute the keyword "Zionist" to shield herself from truthful accusations that she is anti-semitic.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Striking a defiant tone, journalist Helen Thomas, 90, said today she absolutely stands by her controversial comments about Israel made earlier this year that led to her resignation. But she stoked additional controversy with new remarks, claiming that "Zionists" control U.S. foreign policy and other American institutions. The local Jewish community strongly condemned her remarks.

Thomas, who grew up in Detroit the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, was in Dearborn today for an Arab Detroit workshop on anti-Arab bias. The Free Press asked her about her comments, which critics have said were anti-Israel.

"I paid the price for that," said Thomas, a longtime White House correspondent. "But it was worth it, to speak the truth."

"The Zionists have to understand that's their country, too. Palestinians were there long before any European Zionists."

Thomas claimed that "You can not say anything (critical) about Israel in this country."
In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Thomas talked about "the whole question of money involved in politics."

"We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There's no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is…We're being pushed into a wrong direction in every way."

Asked by the Free Press how she would respond to those who say she's anti-Semitic, Thomas said:
"I'd say I'm a Semite, What are you talking about? Who are you?"