Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 23, 2012

An Arab expert diagnoses Israel

Jamal Kanj, writing in the Gulf Daily News, explains it all:

Israel's survival kit is: Perpetuate conflict, insecurity to rationalise collective hate and finally play victim.

Devoid of conflict, Israel implodes internally; without hate, Zionism loses its justification; and playing eternal victim to continue blackmailing the West. In the absence of this holy trinity, Israel ceases to exist.

See? It is all so simple!

If Kanj really believes this, and he really wants to destroy Israel, then the prescription is clear:

Convince Arabs to make peace with Israel.

If all Arab countries and the PLO prioritize peace, accepting Israel's security concerns (which Kanj knows are just excuses to murder tens of thousands of innocent Arabs), then Israel cannot survive, according to Kanj. Israel will be "devoid of conflict" and will therefore "implode internally."

But if that is not enough, then the Arabs must learn to unconditionally love the Jews of Israel. If they truly love Israel, Israel cannot justify itse existence, in Kanj's view.

Putting the two of those together would make it impossible for Israel to "play the victim" anymore. And, soon thereafter, Israel ceases to exist!

I think Kanj is onto something. His plan has great merit. Arabs should put it in motion, in anticipation of the quick demise of the Jewish state. This is easier than incitement, and terror, and war - all of which makes Israel stronger, according to Kanj.

And Jamal Kanj is just the man to spearhead such an initiative.

What do the Arabs have to lose? According to Kanj, it has been Arab intransigence that has strengthened Israel so much. It must end now, so Israel can end as well..

The worst that could happen is that Kanj is wrong, and the Arabs will have to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors forever. Israeli Jews would tour all over the Arab world; Jewish backpackers would visit Iraq and Syria; Jewish scientists would work with their Arab counterparts to try to solve problems like water shortages and medical care; Arab Muslims would be able to visit Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque and other historic sites with a mere passport; and a Palestinian Arab state would be freely trading goods and services with their Arab partners.

I know- that is a pretty bad scenario, and one that Arabs are dead-set against happening. They's rather maintain the state of war and continue to incite against Israeli Jews.

But isn't the chance that they can destroy Israel with peace and love is worth the risk?

The Jews again prove they control the media

Once again, a journalist wrote something that offended Jews , and they quickly forced him to resign.

The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times has resigned and is seeking a buyer in the wake of a column he wrote speculating that Israel would consider assassinating President Obama.

Andrew Adler, in an email obtained by JTA, announced Monday that he is "relinquishing all day-to-day activities effective immediately" following the publishing of his opinion piece saying that Obama's assassination was among Israel's options in heading off a nuclear Iran.

Adler named staff writer John McCurdy as interim managing editor until a replacement can be found. Adler said he would publish an apology in his next edition and that reaction from readers had been overwhelmingly negative.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta said earlier Monday that it would suspend its relationship with the Atlanta Jewish Times until Adler removed himself from the newspaper's operations. The federation also called on Adler to sell the weekly.

"While we acknowledge his public apology and remorse, the damage done to the people of Israel, the global Jewish people, and especially the Jewish Community of Atlanta is irreparable," the Atlanta federation said in a statement issued Monday to constituent groups.

Proving again that those Jews are against freedom of the press. Except for the press they own, which is all of it. Except for the Atlanta Jewish Times, which they are against, even though they own it, like all the other Jew-owned media.

(I'm sure that some anti-semites will find a bizarre Jew-hating angle in this story, so I wanted to beat them to the punch.)

UPDATE: After I wrote this, I see that J-Street managed to almost do what I satirized here:

[T]he extremism evinced by the Atlanta Jewish Times’ editor is enabled by a broader communal atmosphere in which critics of Israeli governmental policy are regularly called anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic.

While we welcome the outrage that is being focused around this latest incident, we hope that the American Jewish community will take this opportunity to consider the state of discourse over Israel more broadly.

Yes, J-Street believes that being against President Obama's policies is but a small step away from calling for him to be assassinated.

I wonder how much J-Street stays up at night worried about the extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that is "enabled" by J-Street's public positions against the policies of Israel's democratically elected government?

Viola player at synagogue reacts brilliantly to interruption

This was on YouTube for months, but has gone viral in the past day. And for good reason.

The musician is Lukáš Kmiť.

The venue is the Preslov, Slovakia Orthodox Synagogue.

The interesting part starts at 0:36:

"Hamas will never abandon armed jihad"

From Now Lebanon:

Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said on Monday that the Palestinian Islamist movement will never give up its armed struggled against Israel.

The statement comes as Gaza Strip officials openly attacked the movement's leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, who has decided not to run again this summer for the leadership of Hamas, for prioritizing "peaceful resistance."

"We are fighting for our dignity and rights. Jihad is our path, our life, our pride and we will not renounce it no matter the sacrifices," said Zahar, quoted on the website of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing.

Hamas will "never give up its armed struggle against the Zionist enemy," he said during a speech in Zeitun, a neighborhood in East Gaza, in honor of the "martyrs" of Israel's December 2008-January 2009 Cast Lead operation against the enclave.

Zahar is being mentioned as a possible successor for Khaled Meshal, who is stepping down as its political leader.

Rule One: Always Blame the Jews

Ma'an has a photo-essay:

Artistic glass products, hand-made ceramics and Palestine's one and only producer of the Keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf, Hebron’s factory district used to be flourishing.

Times have changed, however, amid an increase in settler violence, the economic crisis and a flood of cheaper-made Chinese products. The city's old, family-run factories are struggling to survive.

Here's a look into the secret life of the Hebron manufacturing district's graffiti-sprayed walls, ever-struggling businesses and the beauty of the unique products still being made.

The essay is centered around the Hebron Glass and Ceramics Factory:

Interestingly, at least past of its customers are Jews (see the "Shalom" tiles in the lower left:)

That graffiti the article mentions is Arabic:

So how exactly is "settler violence" affecting this shop?

Answer: It isn't. The shop is situated in around what is known as Glass Junction in this map (in north Hebron):

This is quite a distance from H2, where the Jews of Hebron live. The Jews are not even allowed to go near that section of town!

So when Ma'an blames "settler violence" for the financial woes of this shop, there are no facts behind it. It is just a reflexive condemnation, one that is as automatic as breathing - if a Hebron shop is in trouble, the Jews must be at least partially to blame.

Hezbollah increases its firepower

From UPI:

As the Middle East frets about a regional conflict, Israel's military says it believes Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah has long-range surface-to-air missiles supplied by Syria, significantly boosting its defenses against the Jewish state's formidable air power.

The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday that the military command "is also working under the assumption" that the Lebanese movement, which fought Israel's armed forces to a standstill in 2006, has obtained several dozen long-range M600 surface-to-surface missiles from Syria, Iran's ally.

Hezbollah is already believed to have a substantial number of M600s, which are Syrian-produced clones of Iran's Fateh-100 missile.

The M600 has a range of around 190 miles and carries a warhead containing a half-ton of high explosives.

The Israelis estimate that Hezbollah possesses around 42,000 missiles and rockets, including long-range weapons capable of hitting anywhere in Israel and which are changing the nature of Middle Eastern warfare.

That's more than three times the number of missiles Hezbollah had at the outset of the 34-day war in July-August 2006. Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets and missiles, or around 200 a day, into Israel's northern Galilee region during that conflict.

That was the heaviest bombardment Israel's civilian population endured since the state was founded in 1948 but that pales against the threat the nation faces from the missile arsenals of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinian radical of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Military officials have warned Israel's population of 7 million that Israeli cities could be hit by 500 projectiles a day for weeks on end if a new conflict erupts.

"According to Western intelligence assessments, Hezbollah is believed to have taken advantage of the ongoing upheaval in Syria to obtain advanced weapons systems, such as additional long-range rockets as well as Russian-made air-defense systems," Post military analyst Yaacov Katz wrote.

Apart from the addition of "several dozen" M600s to its armory, Hezbollah is believed to have acquired additional 302mm Khaibar-1 rockets from Syria. These have a range of around 62 miles.

The Israelis' big fear is that the Damascus regime, battling against a stubborn 10-month-old pro-democracy uprising aimed at toppling President Bashar al-Assad, will transfer advanced weapons systems, including chemical weapons, to Hezbollah if it looks like the opposition is going to win.

Never a boring week.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah was reported to have gone into Syria to defend an Iranian Revolutionary Guard site.

Egypt's Youm7 reports that the leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, told Hamas' Khaled Meshal that his organization supports the establishment of a Palestinian state "on the entire occupied land" as well as the Palestinian "right of return."

Hamas considers all of Israel to be "occupied." Morsi seems to have allowed himself some wiggle room to pretend that he meant only the land across the Green Line, although even the Youm7 headline understood him to mean "We will seek to establish a Palestinian state on the all of its territory."

Mosri also told Meshal that the Palestinian issue was, is and will remain in the heart of the Egyptian people at the core of the Freedom and Justice Party, claiming that it was one of the key drivers of the Egyptian revolution, protesting the actions of the former regime towards the Palestinian cause, "especially the brave resistance against the occupation."

The UN's 1950 interpretation of the "right to return"

Does UN General Assembly resolution 194 give Palestinian Arabs the right to return to Israel?

Not according to a document written in 1950 by the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, analyzing paragraph 11 of the resolution that is often quoted today.

The document exhaustively analyzes every phrase in that paragraph, which states:

Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;

Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;

One specific part of this 1950 UN document A/AC.25/W/45 is notable:

3. What is the meaning of the term "to their homes"?

There is no doubt that in using this term the General Assembly meant the home of each refugee, i.e. his house or lodging and not his homeland. This is indicated by the fact that two amendments using the term "the areas from which they have come" were rejected. Furthermore by implication it would appear that if the refugees not returning are to be compensated for their property, those returning would reoccupy their homes and be compensated only for losses and damages.

The phrase "to their homes" does not mean "to their homeland."

Which means that if their houses no longer exist, there is no right to return to the area the homes used to be located in.

How many of the original homes of Arabs who fled in 1948 still exist? I'm sure there are some in Jerusalem and Jaffa, but probably not too many altogether. The majority of 1948 refugees were poor and rural, and those homes have by and large been gone for many decades now.

At any rate, the resolution that is used so often to justify the "right" of millions of Palestinian Arabs to flood Israel is very clear in calling for only the specific refugees (obviously not their descendants, but only "all persons, Arabs, Jews and others who have been displaced from their homes in Arab Palestine") to return only to their specific houses. Not land, not area, not village - but their former houses.

And if the houses no longer exist, then their only remaining claim is monetary compensation.

(Ironically, at the time Israel interpreted the resolution to mean "homeland" giving Israel the rights to relocate Arabs to other areas; the Arabs interpreted it the way the UNCCP interpreted the phrase.)

There's lots more in that document that is enlightening, and I plan to go into more detail in the future.

EU agrees on oil embargo of Iran

From Al Arabiya:

European Union nations agreed Monday to slap an oil embargo against Iran’s oil exports in a bid to halt funding of the country's disputed nuclear program, EU diplomats said.

“There is a political agreement on an oil embargo,” said a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity after early morning talks between ambassadors of the 27 EU nations. The deal is to be formally approved by EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

Their agreement was the final step before EU foreign ministers can give their formal approval to the measure. The EU’s 27 foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday.

“(EU ambassadors) have agreed on Iran sanctions,” the senior EU diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Under the deal, EU governments will have to stop signing new contracts with Tehran from the moment the ban comes into place -- probably as soon as this week -- but will be able to fulfill existing contracts until July 1.

This is huge news.

And this part is heartening as well:

Meanwhile, the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln passed through the Strait of Hormuz and is now in the Gulf, the Pentagon said, after Tehran threatened to close the strategic shipping route, while the European Union readied to slap an embargo on Iran’s oil exports Monday.

“USS Abraham Lincoln ... completed a regular and routine transit of the Strait of Hormuz... to conduct maritime security operations as scheduled,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby said in an email to AFP.

“The transit was completed as previously scheduled and without incident.”

The carrier, which can have up to 80 planes and helicopters on board, was escorted by the guided-missile cruiser USS Cape St George and two destroyers.

Earlier, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said a British Royal Navy frigate and a French vessel had joined the carrier group to sail through the waterway.

While allied ships often participate in U.S. naval exercises and sometimes are part of joint naval flotillas, the presence of British and French ships seemed to be a message to Tehran about the West’s resolve to keep the route open.

“HMS Argyll and a French vessel joined a U.S. carrier group transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, to underline the unwavering international commitment to maintaining rights of passage under international law,” said a spokesman from Britain’s MoD.

Hamas' economic might keeps it in power

I had missed this important article published by Ehud Yaari and Eyal Ofer earlier this month:

Since Israel's August 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has evolved from a relatively small movement into a well-funded conglomerate. Instead of being crippled by sanctions and siege, the organization has found ways to surmount early difficulties -- such as frequent payroll delays -- and establish an effective system of governance, ever tightening its grip over its fiefdom. As a result, Hamas has been able to empower loyalists while leaving the main burden of responsibility for Gaza's 1.6 million residents to others. Unfortunately, both the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) and international donors have tolerated this situation, effectively contributing, if indirectly, to Hamas coffers.

The IMF estimated Gaza's 2009 gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 12 percent, an impressive number. According to a September 2010 IMF report, the total Gazan and West Bank GDP was $7 billion, while the gap in per capita income between the two areas was 48 percent; this data, combined with other relevant statistics, implies that Gaza's per capita GDP was around $1,400, much of which derives from payments by the PA. Transfers and remittances added 50 percent more income, implying that average total per capita income was, in fact, $2,100. Yet much of this income does not represent productive economic activities, and unemployment remains high -- probably around a third of the workforce.

One must also take into account the considerable trade conducted via the more than 800 tunnels into Egypt. Based on fragmentary evidence, this trade likely peaked at around $600-850 million per year. ...

Where does all this cash come from? ..The cash inflow seems to come primarily through banks. According to Palestinian banking officials, an average of $2 billion per year has been transferred into Gaza via the Palestinian banking system since Hamas's June 2007 military takeover. The PA alone wires an estimated $1.2 billion per year into Gaza banks, much of it as pensions and salaries for the 77,000 employees kept on the payroll even though they are not working. In fact, this estimate may be conservative; according to PA prime minister Salam Fayad, 54 percent of the PA's $3.17 billion 2010 budget went to Gaza. Most of that figure appears to be salaries, although it also covers what the PA pays directly for electricity, fuel, and water provided to Gaza by Israeli firms.

In addition, the UN Relief and Works Agency annually transfers about $200 million in cash to Gaza, along with $250 million per year worth of goods, grains, and fuel. Cash is also transferred into Gaza by the 160 nongovernmental organizations operating there, by international organizations such as the World Bank, and by foreign government aid organizations, although much of what they spend arrives in the form of goods shipped via Israel.

Hamas likely raises as much as $250 million annually via taxes. ... Hamas also regulates many types of businesses -- from street vendors to Gaza's twenty money-changing companies -- requiring them to pay license fees. In addition, taxes are collected on "luxury" goods coming from Israel, and even on motorcycles and carts.

Hamas also takes a hefty cut from the Egyptian tunnel trade, imposing high "customs" duties and a daily fee on local tunnel contractors.

...Hamas is also exploiting its control over various Gaza resources, such as leasing government-owned heavy machinery to private contractors for a daily fee. This is one of many ways the group has been able to indirectly benefit from the international reconstruction funds flowing into Gaza.

In 2005, Hamas was a modestly sized organization of 4,000-7,000 military personnel, with a small charity and education network and a skeletal party bureaucracy. From 2006 to 2010, however, the funds at the group's disposal reportedly grew from $40 million to $540 million. At the same time, Hamas has gained full control over all government ministries and municipal councils in Gaza, as well as many civilian agencies. It also holds a monopoly of power over every security and intelligence service in the territory, such as the 10,000-strong "blue" police. In total, Hamas pays salaries to at least 35,000 employees, among them many of the 20,000-plus armed personnel. Given this apparent payroll and an estimated average monthly salary of NIS 1,500 ($425), the group may be spending -- according to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah -- as much as $300 million per year on salaries, a sum greater than the entire PA payroll. Hamas also claims that it allocates $30 million annually to its activities in the West Bank, without disclosing the methods by which funds arrive there.

...In addition to its own direct spending, Hamas has been able to tap into financial resources transferred by the PA and aid agencies, ensuring payments to supporters who have replaced Fatah loyalists in government jobs. Lists used by donors to screen for terrorists include very few Hamas operatives; even if this problem were addressed, the screening of PA employees is largely done by Hamas sympathizers. In total, thousands of Hamas members, including many military personnel with fake civilian positions, are paid by outside donors.

The movement has also recently turned to purchasing all sorts of businesses and initiating new ventures, such as the Islamic Bank, the al-Multazim insurance firm, housing projects, hotels, a shopping mall, resorts, agricultural farms, and a fish hatchery. In fact, Hamas's economic mini-empire is fast becoming the main player in Gaza's private sector. The group often forces businesses to close down in order to eliminate competition. It also coerces owners into selling items for cheap or "contributing" to Hamas either in cash or in kind (e.g., building materials). Frequently, new Hamas businesses are registered under the names of straw owners or individuals from Hamas cadres. The group has also taken over all the land belonging to the former Israeli settlement of Gush Katif, along with parts of the Gaza beachfront.

Soon after its 2006 electoral victory in Gaza, Hamas faced great financial difficulties, leading the group to smuggle millions of dollars in cash through Egypt. Today, however, Hamas has managed to develop local sources of steadily growing income, mainly by exploiting the huge aid sums transferred by the PA and international donors to sustain the general population. No effective mechanism is in place to prevent the group from taking advantage of the constant cash flow into Gaza; as a result, a significant part of the money intended to help alleviate the hardship of the region's inhabitants has gone to waste. More rigorous measures are needed to restrict Hamas's ability to siphon off such funding for its own purposes.

Economic sanctions against Hamas have failed, badly.

And this is a major reason why there will never be real unity between Hamas and Fatah - Hamas has too much too lose.

(h/t Yoel)

A nice documentary on Jerusalem paramedics - on Al Jazeera!

Between 1948 and 1967 a border separated Arabs living in East Jerusalem from Jews living in the rest of the city.

Today, much of the city's Arab population remains in the east, while the majority of its Jewish population lives in the west.

Although they are free to do so, few residents move between the city's Arab and Jewish areas. In the minds of most, the border that separated Jews and Arabs 40 years ago still exists today.

Witness follows Jewish and Arab volunteer paramedics who choose to cross these boundaries.

Hezi, a Hassidic Jew, has been working for United Hatzalah, an emergency service run by orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, for more than 15 years. In 2010, the organisation started employing Arab paramedics and Fadi joined to improve first aid services in Jerusalem's Arab neighbourhoods.

In Jerusalem SOS, we follow Fadi and Hezi as they traverse Jerusalem, providing first aid at all hours to the city's residents.

Credit where credit is due, it is a very good film.

(h/t SwissYankee)

Here's some "quake-washing"

From the IDF:

Lt. Col. Dr. Ofir Cohen-Marom receives a delegation from Japan that came to Israel to thank the IDF for their efforts in helping the residents of Minamisanriku, Japan after it was devastated by a heavy earthquake in April 2011.

There are real people out there whose blood boils when they see photos and stories like this. They would prefer that Israel never does anything admirable, because to them, demonization of the Jewish state is their entire raison d'etre, and this stuff makes it harder. for them to do their job.

In other words, there really are people out there who would prefer that a few more Japanese would die than to have Israel save them.

They wouldn't admit it, of course, but it is a fair bet that anyone who ever uses the term "XXXwashing" in a derogatory way towards Israel is, deep down, one of these who would prefer to see the victims of disasters die than have to deal with Israel saving their lives.

Egypt getting upset at Fatah/Hamas fake conciliation

Palestine Today quotes Al Hayat as saying that Egypt is upset at the lack of progress in reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas.

Egyptian sources said that Cairo decided to defer sending a security delegation to both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to follow up the implementation of the reconciliation agreement because of the lack of commitment by both Fatah and Hamas.

Egypt planned to send Egypt a high-level security delegation to both the West Bank and Gaza in the second half of January, but postponed it due to the failure of the two movements' commitment to reconciliation, saying they continue violating the agreement they signed in Cairo.

They pointed out the continuing arrests of Hamas members in the West Bank, as well a the of mutual accusations between the leaders of the two movements.

Unity! Hamas still harassing Fatah members

Palestine Press Agency reports that a leader of Fatah in the Gaza Strip, Abdullah Abu Samhadana, claims that Hamas continues to disrupt reconciliation.

In a radio interview, Abu Samhadana said Sunday that Hamas still calls for arrest of Fatah members in the Gaza Strip and prevents Fatah members from traveling to or from Gaza.

He pointed out that Ismail Haniyeh has not kept his promises, and that the headquarters of Fatah, the Central Election Commission and the PLO are still closed.

Meet the new Mufti, same as the old Mufti (updated)

From Israel HaYom:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday ordered an investigation into the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who called for the killing of Jews in a televised tirade last week.

The prime minister, who has asked Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to oversee the investigation, said at the weekly Cabinet meeting that the remarks made by the grand mufti, a representative of the Palestinian Authority, should be condemned by every nation in the world.

Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said that the fact that the mufti's remarks had been broadcast on Palestinian Authority television and posted on the official website of the Palestinian Authority was disturbing. "If that is not anti-Semitism, I don't know what is," he said.

Just before the Cabinet meeting, National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beitenu) said the mufti should stand trial and be thrown in jail. He described the Muslim leader as an "extremist imam who gets his inspiration from Nazi Germany."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has instructed Israel's ambassadors around the world to condemn the anti-Semitic tirade. Lieberman encouraged the ambassadors to publicly denounce the mufti's remarks, and to approach the governments of their host countries on the issue.

For his part, the mufti told Israel Radio earlier Sunday that he had not in fact encouraged the murder of Jews, but rather had quoted Muslim holy text that makes such a call.

Last week, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the mufti had said that the murder of Jews was justified by Islamic text. The group said Hussein told television audiences that according to the Hadith, the record of the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, Islamic Resurrection would not come until Muslims fought the Jews.

Palestinian Media Watch provided video footage of Hussein's speech in which the mufti says: “Forty-seven years ago the revolution started. Which revolution? The modern revolution of the Palestinian people’s history. In fact, Palestine in its entirety is a revolution, since [Caliph] Umar came [to conquer Jerusalem in 637 C.E.], and continuing today, and until the End of Days. The reliable Hadith, in the two reliable collections, Bukhari and Muslim, says: 'The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: ‘O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ Except the Gharqad tree [which will keep silent].' Therefore it is no wonder that you see Gharqad [trees] surrounding the [Israeli] settlements and colonies."

In 2006, Hussein said suicide bombings were a "legitimate weapon" in the Palestinian struggle for independence.

We noted the speech last week, along with the moderator of that same event calling Jews the "descendants of apes and pigs."

Given that the more famous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was an anti-semite, it looks like things don't change too much.

(Who appointed Hussein as Mufti? During the British Mandate, the position was appointed by the British themselves, and it is not a hereditary position - so who chose this clown to be the Mufti of Jerusalem? )

UPDATE: Challah Hu Akbar found that it was none other than Mahmoud Abbas who appointed the Mufti. Imagine that.