Big headline in September, tiny detail in November

In September, during the PA municipal elections, quite a few media outlets trumpeted this fact:

Palestinians Enforce Weapons Display Ban

Friday September 30, 2005 2:01 AM

JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian authorities began enforcing a ban on public displays of weapons Thursday, arresting three people and confiscating the guns of off-duty police officers in a key step toward imposing order in the chaotic Gaza Strip.

But it has been six whole weeks, and who can expect the PA to keep up such a restrictive law for so long? After all, Israel will keep conceding to them anyway!

GAZA (Reuters) - Hundreds of Fatah gunmen marched in Gaza and fired in the air on Thursday, demanding reforms for their dominant Palestinian faction ahead of its first vote to choose candidates for a parliamentary election.

And this article about either a different rally at the same time, or the same rally seen through a completely different lens:

Hundreds of members of the Palestinian militant group Al-Aqsa Brigades marched through the streets of Gaza City on Thursday morning demanding jobs and an international inquiry into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Masked gunmen marched through the streets and arrived for a rally in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council building. Some shot guns into the air and some members were seen displaying missiles. Militants held pictures of the late leader whilst listening to speeches.

Outside of Israeli papers, no media pointed out the obvious fact that Abbas' claim to be enforcing his ban on public displays of weapons has been shown to be a lie.

Another Palestinian pseudo-concession (itself a reaction to the promise to disarm terror groups) bites the dust. And the media somehow doesn't notice it that Palestinian promises are not worth the paper they are written on.

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Palestinian persecution of Christians (JCPA)

It is interesting that Palestinian persecution of a religious minority gets a free pass by the so-called "human rights organizations".

On the heels of the Gaza disengagement, which was intended to empower the Palestinian Authority to improve the lives of its people, few journalists have reported on the acutely trying times facing the Christians residing in areas "governed" by the Palestinian Authority. In his book, Professor Weiner, Scholar in Residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, provides an in-depth look into the nearly uninterrupted persecution of Christians throughout the decade since the Oslo peace process began.

Living amidst a xenophobic Muslim population plagued by endemic violence bordering on anarchy, the Christians have shrunk to less than 1.7 percent of the population in the Palestinian areas. “Tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to live abroad, while those who remain do so as a beleaguered and dwindling minority," Weiner said.

"Their plight is, in part, attributable to the adoption of Muslim religious law (sharia) in the constitution of the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, the Christians have been abandoned by their religious leaders who, instead of protecting them, have chosen to curry favor with the Palestinian leadership.” Professor Weiner's book reveals and analyzes why this persecution - largely ignored by the international community, the media, and even the human rights organizations - has metastasized to the extent that it threatens the very existence of this 2000-year-old community.

The PDF of the full report is here.

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Israeli blind golfer gets hole in one

An inspiring story:

A blind Israeli golfer realised the dream of every amateur hacker when he shot a hole-in-one.

Zohar Sharon aced the 160-metre (176-yard), 15th hole at the Caesarea Golf Club in Israel during a round on Monday.

Sharon, with a handicap of 20, initially thought he had overhit his tee-shot but was delighted when his caddy, Shimshon Levy, found the ball nestled in the cup.

"He went crazy. I did not understand what he was shouting about, I thought a snake had bitten him," Sharon said of Levy, who accompanies him on his regular rounds of golf and lines him up for his shots.

But the story of Zohar Sharon is much more than just one lucky shot. He is a blind golf champion who only took up the game competitively a few years ago: (this story is from March, 2004)

Zohar Sharon, winner of the 2003 World Invitational blind golf tournament in Scotland, takes a window seat at a restaurant and pub inside Morgan Run, a posh golf club and resort in North County’s Fairbanks Ranch.

Sharon sits by the window of the clubhouse sipping coffee with a huge grin on his face, even though he’s just finished playing one of the most grueling rounds of golf a player could experience, with sight or without.

Flash back 25 years. While on an army demolitions detail, Sharon lost sight in his right eye after a chemical substance was accidentally sprayed in his face. Three years later, he lost his remaining sight forever while driving with his first wife, who had to take the wheel when Sharon’s left eye rapidly filled with blood. Severe depression, and eventually divorce from his wife, followed.

But now he’s a successful golfer and an accomplished painter and sculptor who has exhibited his works in galleries and exhibitions. After he went blind, he also became a trained physiotherapist. He never golfed before going blind. He’s only been serious about the game for three years. Now, he wins golf tournaments playing against people with sight.

He claims to regularly hit 100, but that’s a bit of an exaggeration – his handicap at the Scottish World Invitational was 37, good for an average round of 109. He won his category (B1, for completely blind) at the Tournament by 20 strokes; he would have been first even without his handicap. Next up? The World Blind Golf Championships in Melbourne, Australia, in April.

Sharon lives near downtown Tel Aviv and is 51. Hiss golden-brown skin tone reveals his Yemeni ethnicity. With his receding hairline, athletic figure and barking intensity, Sharon possesses the type A personality of an Israeli colonel (he actually served five years as an officer in the army, after his compulsory three-year stint.). You can’t tell he’s blind. He’s not wearing dark sunglasses and his eyes aren’t an eerie void of translucent glassiness; they are a solid brown that often have an uncanny ability to pierce deeply through the eyes of the person he’s talking to, as if he could see their soul.

Sitting at the table to Sharon’s left at the clubhouse are a father and son tandem, Rafael and Jorge Mareyna, both Mexican Jews who until the last decade lived in Mexico City. They are Sharon’s friendly competition for the day. Also seated is a Canadian Jew, Nitsan Watkin, who for the next week will serve as Sharon’s interpreter and caddy, even though he doesn’t know much about golf.

Seated at the foot of Sharon’s right leg is Dylan, a 3 1/2-year-old Israeli-born golden retriever. Dylan is Sharon’s guide dog. He basically has had the day off running around wild at Morgan Run. Trained at the Israeli Guide Dog Center for the Blind, Dylan loyally sprints after and chomps up Sharon’s infrequent errant and short drives.
This is Sharon’s first golf outing in the U.S., where he’s come to help raise money for the Israel Guide Dog Center. He’s also practicing for a charity event in Palm Springs (held February 9) that raised an estimated $125,000 for the Center and other charities.

Sharon’s first introduction to golf came when the divorce lawyer of his first wife presented him with a putter and some balls. In the mid-1980s, a golf rehabilitation program was developed for disabled Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) veterans. According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, Sharon is one of 20 or so veterans who have participated in this project.

The Superman-strength of Sharon’s spirit and the encouragement and help from his San Diego hosts made this a memorable day on an otherwise miserable afternoon that kept all but a couple hardcore golfers off the greens. Nobody kvetched once about the cold or the rain, not even 73-year-old Rafael, who had a stroke three months ago and was wearing a meager short-sleeved windbreaker, no proper dress for his exposed lean and pale frame. Rafael, who is a member of Morgan Run, doesn’t speak Hebrew and therefore can’t directly communicate with Sharon.

Rafael’s son Jorge learned Hebrew after living in Israel for five years (he also speaks fluent Spanish and English). He has been living in San Diego for a year and a half and plays surprisingly well for having only six months of golfing experience. The physical antithesis of his father, Jorge, 52 and a CPA/financial advisor, stands several inches shorter and has a pudgy frame.

Sharon says he plays golf six times a week, often 10 hours a day. The only day he takes off from the game is on Saturday. He’s religiously observant. He’s not wearing a yarmulke on this day, but always does so when he’s in a tournament or playing with non-Jewish golfers. “I want people to know I’m Jewish,” he says. “I want them to know what Jewish perseverance and courage is all about.”

“Nu, boy nesachek gvar!” (“Come on, let’s play already!”) Sharon says. Sharon travels in one golf cart with Watkin, a Toronto resident and family friend of Sharon’s.

Throughout the afternoon, Sharon and Watkin will be intermittently arguing with each other and laughing hysterically.

In the cart ahead of Sharon and Watkin are the Mareynas, soft-spoken, well-mannered gentleman who speak Spanish to each other and on more than a few occasions yell words of encouragement to Sharon.

Approaching the first hole, the elder Mareyna gives the scouting report to Sharon’s interpreter. “Zohar, the first hole is 180 yards away. It’s a par 3. If you hit it too low, you’ll get it stuck in the dry grass.

Hit it high and straight. There are two sandtraps 50 yards from the hole on both sides of the flag.” Sharon approaches the tee and has Watkin help him lean over to feel the ball.

Watkin painstakingly tries to line up Sharon. Sharon constantly questions Watkin about positioning. Watkin’s lack of golf knowledge immediately frustrates Sharon, who possesses a fierce competitive intensity. “Am I lined up straight? Should I swing open or closed?” Sharon asks.

Sharon takes a couple of practice swings and again asks Watkin if he’s properly aligned. Watkins tells him he’s ready to go.

Sharon looks up in the direction of the flag as if he could see. It’s easy to forget he’s blind.

His first drive is solid. Jorge yells to Sharon, “Maka tova!” (“Excellent shot”).
“Ze haya yamina, nachon?” (“That went wide right, correct?”) Sharon asks. He not only knows the direction of his shots, he can tell the fate of the other golfer’s swings by the sound of their drives.

On his next approach, Sharon is informed that he’s about 20 meters away from the hole. He doubts Watkin’s estimate. “Really, 20 meters?” he asks, looking Watkins right in the eye. Watkins answers him while looking down at the ground.

Watkin has the toughest assignment of the day. He is Sharon’s surrogate caddy for the first five holes; he later gladly relinquishes the role to Jorge. Sharon’s full-time salaried caddy is named Shimshon Levy, who doesn’t speak English very well either and couldn’t attend Sharon’s first U.S. golf visit.

Now on the green, Sharon instructs Watkin to stand next to the flag and clap so he can judge by the sound how far away he is. On other holes, one of the other golfers taps the flag with their putters.

Golf is a frustrating game for people who can see. Imagine how it must be for a blind golfer. When Sharon sinks a putt as he does on the first hole, it’s nothing short of miraculous.

According to Ha’aretz, soon after starting to play, Sharon began working with Dr. Ricardo Cordova, a sports psychologist in Israel. Cordova, who was the psychologist for the Bolivian national soccer team before migrating to Israel, instilled in Sharon the ability to imagine each shot.

“Without Ricardo, I wouldn’t be here right now,” says Sharon. “I’d be completely lost.”
Here’s what Cordova did with Sharon: For several weeks, Sharon didn’t even swing with his clubs. The two worked solely on visualization and biomechanics. Towels were placed under Sharon’s arms to restrict his arm movement and keep them within close proximity to his trunk. Cordova made sure Sharon’s motion didn’t involve unnecessary muscle groups.

Next, Cordova had Sharon practicing his swinging motion – still without the use of his clubs. Sharon would take imaginary swings and relay to Cordova how far the ball flew in the air and how far it rolled in his mind. The third stage of Sharon’s training involved pain. Cordova lined up the ball next to a pole. If Sharon’s head and torso excessively protruded during his backswing, his skull would receive an uncomfortable reminder from the pole.

By the time Cordova allowed Sharon to swing at a ball approximately two years ago, Sharon found it quite easy to drive the ball far distances. His blindness allows him to enter a trance-like state where he imagines every shot and considers all inclines, declines and other hazards that lay on the course.

“Sharon considers golf to be a highly spiritual game,” says Watkin, walking back to the cart in route to the second hole. “He feels absolute peace and tranquility when he’s playing, even if he’s frustrated by an inexperienced caddy.” Watkin continues, “Zohar’s concentration is tremendous. He forgets everything when he’s on the green.”

Sharon puts his putter back in his golf bag, which is attached to the back of the cart. He puts the covers back on his clubs and readjusts the tightness of the bag’s straps. This reporter knocked his head twice getting into the cart, while Sharon enters the cart and moves around the golf bag with ease.

A friendly argument ensues between Sharon and Watkin, evidently about Watkin’s lack of golf knowledge. Dylan the guide dog is tied to the golf cart. He has his rear left leg lifted, relieving himself on the golf cart’s tire. Suddenly, Watkin steps on the cart’s accelerator. Dylan manages to turn around on a dime and sprint, keeping up with the cart.

Before playing the second hole, Sharon is asked if Dylan is forbidden to run around the course without a leash.

“Ata tishmor al lo?” (“Are you going to watch him?”) Sharon asks, undoing Dylan’s leash. And with that, Dylan is free to roam around Morgan Run. While Sharon is mentally picturing his approach for the second hole, Dylan is digging a hole in a sandtrap.

Sharon’s second drive goes beyond the flag, only 20 yards away.

“Keemat be degel,” (“It’s near the flag”) says Jorge, who has a thicker Mexican accent than his father.

The rain picks up once again. On the way to the second green in the cart, Sharon has his left arm around Watkin. Sharon’s head rests on Watkin’s right shoulder.

“I love you,” Sharon tells Watkin (in Hebrew). “I joke with you and I’ve been hard on you but understand I love you.

Caddying is a thankless job. I could never be one.” Sharon repeatedly refers to Watkin as “Ach-ee” Hebrew slang for “my brother.”]

It’s a surreal image: three Jewish golfers of different ethnicities, one blind with a free-roaming guide dog. Sharon’s golf bag says “Caesarea Golf Club Israel.” This scene would never have transpired on this course a few decades ago, not at a blue-blooded resort like this. Before he started playing golf, Sharon’s only opinion of golf was that it was for wealthy elitists. Now he realizes golfers can be normal people.

“Maybe their kids are spoiled, but overall, the people I have met have been fantastic,” he says.

Meanwhile, the sky darkens around the hilltops surrounding the course. After the seventh hole, Sharon acknowledges that the rain on this very unusual day will not let up. When asked if he’s pleased with his performance, he jokes, “I feel like crying.”

Sharon tries to persuade Jorge to be his caddy for another round of golf at the Bridges Country Club in Rancho Santa Fe.
“I would love to, but I have a business to run,” laments Jorge. “You are an extraordinary man Zohar.”

Perhaps Sam Silverstein best summarized the experience of witnessing Sharon golf. Silverstein, who organizes numerous golf tournaments around Palm Springs, played with Sharon at the Canyon Country Club Tournament in Palm Springs two days after the Morgan Run tune-up.

Silverstein told the Journal: “He swings better than I do, and I can see.”

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Rafah round-up (Soccer Dad)

Soccer Dad has an excellent analysis of coverage of the Rafah deal where Condi Rice forced hard concessions from Israel (compromising its security in very real and clear ways) and forced essentially nothing from the Palestinians beyond empty words.

I once noted that Palestinian actions can be regarded as Pavlovian. The argument can be extended here - when the Palestinians ignore demands made of them (by the road map, by the US, by the quartet) the world will still make Israel give them more. When their refusal to do anything beyond the cosmetic is constantly rewarded with more Isralei concessions, what incentive do they have to actually do anything?

Obviously the US conduct is disappointing and the EU conduct is expected. But ultimately the responsibility for Israel's security belongs to the Israeli government - it is the most important function a government has. Other governments say "no" to the US constantly and do not suffer unduly; it is time for Israel to draw a line in the sand. Too many Israelis are dead because Israel has caved to pressure from Washington.

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Notable articles

The last couple of articles I wrote via BlogThis! disappeared and frustrated me quite a bit, so here are just a couple of links without my comments because I'm too tired:

From Zeesen via Beirut to Tehran - an interesting Indian analysis of Iranian and other Muslim anti-semitism
On Islam and Terrorism - An Arab mulls Muslim responsibility for terror in a Saudi newspaper - kudos for some degree of self-examination; jeers for the remaining bigotry that can be seen when read carefully.
Zionist power stems from Western belief in "Holocaust" myth - More Holocaust denial from our friends in Tehran (link may be broken now).

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Iranian satellite can spy on Israel

Russia seems to be quite gung-ho about helping Iran achieve its "purely scientific" ambitions, both nuclear and satellite. It is interesting that in the aftermath of the worldwide furor that Iran created with its anti-Israel statements, it is still business as usual with the terror-supporting, belligerent and immoral Iranian regime.

Words are a lot cheaper than cash.

It is also interesting that the name of the satellite, Sina, is extremely close to the Hebrew word for "hatred" (sin'a.)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said the satellite would be purely scientific. But a month after its launch _ and only weeks after the president said Israel should be wiped off the map _ the head of Tehran's space program now says the Sina-1 is capable of spying on the Jewish state.

The launch of the Russian-made satellite into orbit aboard a Russian rocket last month marked the beginning of Iran's space program. Officials say a second satellite _ this one Iranian-built _ will be launched in about two months, heightening Israeli concerns.

The Sina-1's stated purpose is to take pictures of Iran and to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation. Sina-1, with a three-year lifetime, has a resolution precision of about 50 yards.

But as it orbits the Earth some 14 times a day from an altitude around 600 miles, with controllers able to point its cameras as they wish, Sina-1 gives Iran a limited space reconnaissance capability over the entire Middle East, including Israel.

"Sina-1 is a research satellite. It's not possible to use it for military purposes," said Deputy Telecom Minister Ahmad Talebzadeh, who heads the space program.

But he agreed it could spy on Israel.

"Technically speaking, yes. It can monitor Israel," he told The Associated Press. "But we don't need to do it. You can buy satellite photos of Israeli streets from the market."

The Russian company Polyot built the 375-pound satellite for Iran, but Iran had already developed the necessary infrastructure for its space program. The program represents Tehran's drive to prove it can produce advanced technology on its own.

Similarly, Iran has said its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electricity and showcasing the country's technical prowess _ though the United States believes the program secretly aims to produce nuclear weapons.

Notice how AP says that "the United States believes" as if the rest of the world fully trusts Iran's stated peaceful nuclear ambition.

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Hebrew slang - now and then

A funny AP article on a new Hebrew slang dictionary. There are so many examples that I am quite surprised to have found this in the China Post.

(The beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon told me the other day that "l'hitpajaim" means "to put pajamas on" in modern Hebrew.)

The English "spin" becomes "speen," plural "speenim."

The language of Moses has also absorbed "blind date," "under control" and "hacker" (pronounced hah-cker), along with some 10,000 other words and expressions that have been compiled in a dictionary of Israeli slang, a bestseller since it came out this fall.

The hefty hardcover tome reflects the onslaught of foreign words in the age of globalization and the struggle of modern Hebrew _ revived as a spoken language just a century ago _ to adapt an ancient vocabulary to modern times.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for one, doesn't like the trend. A while back, on Hebrew Language Day, he complained that the once ubiquitous Hebrew farewell "shalom" has largely been replaced by "yalla, bye," an Arabic-English hybrid. He also chastised the satellite and cable TV companies "Yes" and "Hot" for choosing foreign names.

The guardians of proper Hebrew don't seem to be overly worried.

Hebrew is flourishing and has proven its adaptability, said Avraham Tal, deputy director of the Academy for the Hebrew Language _ ironically known in Hebrew as the "academia."

Seeking to stem the use of foreign words, experts at the academy have been inventing Hebrew alternatives for words such as "sensatia" and "conditioner." From time to time, the nation's top linguists present their creations to the academy's plenum, where favorites are adopted by vote, often after stormy debate. A few times a year, the academy publishes a list of new words and asks state radio and TV to use them.

Ruth Almagor-Ramon, the language adviser at Israel Radio, said it's easy enough to introduce words in news casts and other programs, but that doesn't always mean they'll take hold.

"Every word has its fate," said Tal, acknowledging quite a few of the academy's creations have fizzled, such as Hebrew substitutes for "video" and "jingle." A belated effort to get the public to accept a Hebrew word for shampoo seems doomed from the start.

Almagor-Ramon said politicians and ad copy writers are among the worst language offenders.

"There is no way to correct them," she said, noting that in a recent radio ad a Labor Party legislator refused to use the formal Hebrew substitute for "primaries," arguing that no one would understand him.

Journalists don't seem to be far behind in the list of culprits. In a recent front-page article, political commentator Ben Caspit complained about what he said the foreign minister's manipulation of the press and his habit of posing for photographers in faraway "locationim."

The author of the "Comprehensive Slang Dictionary," Ruvik Rosenthal, said Hebrew's relatively small vocabulary _ around 150,000 words, a fraction the size of English _ encourages borrowing.

Rosenthal, who writes a weekly language column in the Maariv daily, mined some 800 Web sites, hundreds of books as well as TV and radio broadcasts for his dictionary. He also consulted with specialists on subcultures _ criminals, youth, computer nerds, the ultra-Orthodox and soccer fans.

The biggest contributors to slang are English, Arabic and Yiddish. "These three are competing without casualties," said Rosenthal.

Arabic rules emotional expression _ "ahla" (great), "walla" (true), "sababa" (cool), "ashkara" (for real) _ as well as the most emphatic curses. With the rise of Oriental culture in Israel after decades of European domination, Israelis feel at ease using Arabic words, despite their ongoing conflict with much of the Arab world, Rosenthal said.

Some of the Arabic already found its way into Hebrew in the 1930s and 1940s, absorbed by children of Zionist pioneers who wanted to blend into the region and distance themselves from their parents' Diaspora upbringing.

English dominates computers, high-tech, dating, fashion and sports. "Yesh lo touch," (he has the touch) a sports commentator has been heard saying of a talented soccer player.

Car mechanics use mangled English, a throwback to British rule when cars first came to the Holy Land: brakes become "breksim," a back axle is a "back ax." Following a strange logic, a front axle is a "back ax kidmi," literally a front back axle.

German still rules in construction, going back to 1920s and 1930 when builders and architects immigrated from Germany to pre-state Palestine. Today, Palestinian and Chinese construction workers communicate on the job with words such as "kabel" (cable), "stecker" (plug) or "spachtel" (spatula).

Yiddish, still a strong source of slang with about 1,200 words in the book, offers some of the juiciest insults, such as "freier" (sucker), "shtinker" (informer) and "nudnik" (pest). However, some of the words are fading away, or are now used only by ultra-Orthodox Jews, Rosenthal said.

Literal translations of phrases from other languages are also popular. "Ma bo'er?" (from the Yiddish "was brennt?" or "what's burning"); "mi pi hasus" ("from the horse's mouth").

In a gray zone between slang and standard Hebrew, some foreign words are squeezed into the corset of Hebrew conjugation: to subsidize becomes "lesabsed," to zap TV channels is "lezapzep," to discuss is "ledaskes," to torpedo is "letarped."

Most Israelis know the boundaries between slang and standard Hebrew, and there's nothing wrong with the flourishing of slang, said linguist Rafael Nir. "It's definitely a sign of how alive the language is, not necessarily a sign of the deficiency of the Hebrew language."

"Slang gives it (Hebrew) something extra," he said.

This is clearly not the first time someone tried to research this phenomenon; check out these two articles from the Palestine Post in 1945:

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"Suicide Bombers Are People, Too "

This Newsweek article about the film "Paradise Now" (portraying Palestinian suicide bombers as complex and sometimes sympathetic human beings) tries very hard not to fall in the trap of glorifying the murderers. Yet its very attempts at staying impartial is immoral itself. This paragraph seems to be justifying why it is even giving the film publicity:

It’s won an Amnesty International Award, a Blue Angel for best European film and is now Palestine’s official entry for the Academy Awards (this is only the second year Palestine has been allowed contribute to the Oscar’s foreign film competition). It opened in New York and Los Angeles two weeks ago to glowing reviews in The New York Times, and Abu-Assad was featured in interviews on NPR and in the Los Angeles Times.

Yet one wonders...

If someone made a similar film humanizing child rapists, would the mainstream media wax so rhapsodically? Could a fictionalizing version of the members of NAMBLA get rave reviews? Or a film about abortion-clinic bombers?

The simple fact is that it is unthinkable to consider showing or creating such a film unless there is an audience that is willing to sympathize with the main characters.

And to take the mind exercise a little further - can anyone imagine a rave review of a film about George Bush or Karl Rove or Ariel Sharon being given by the New York Times or NPR? There might be an audience, but it is literally unthinkable that the liberal media would have anything good to say, no matter how well done it is.

Which means that in a very real sense, they identify more with suicide bombers than with those whose politics they disagree with.

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Another bizarre Iranian conspiracy theory

It is truly mind-boggling how Middle-East Muslims can just make up facts to fit their twisted worldview.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - In Italy the death of Fiat heir Edoardo Agnelli five years ago is viewed as a tragic suicide. In Iran, he is venerated as a martyr for Islam, supposedly murdered in a Zionist-orchestrated boardroom putsch.

On the fifth anniversary of his death, some 200 Iranian students gathered on Tuesday in a candlelit vigil outside the Italian embassy in Tehran, carrying placards reading 'No to the Zionist coup at Fiat' and chanting 'Death to Israel'.

'Edoardo was a martyr for Islam and was killed by the Zionists,' said Hamideh Taghizadeh, among a group of young women in all-enveloping black chadors, clasping posters of Agnelli.

His fall from a motorway viaduct in northwest Italy offers all the ingredients Iranians need in their conspiracy theories -- a heady mix of Judaism, family rivalries and ruthless big business.

The conspiracy runs as follows: after Agnelli converted to Shi'ite Islam, Israeli agents decided Fiat could not fall into such hands, murdered him and ensured the Elkann family, of Jewish origins, should run the carmaking dynasty.

Italian investigators found no suggestion his death was anything other than suicide.

Agnelli did have a strong interest in Shi'ite Islam, once visiting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

But the graduate of oriental literature and philosophy was also interested in other religions and travelled widely in Asia and Africa.He never worked for the Turin-based car empire.

The Agnellis buried him in their Christian family tomb.

Mohammad Ghadiri Abianei, a diplomat who said he had known the Fiat heir during a posting in Rome, claimed Agnelli had converted to Islam and changed his name to Mehdi.

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Arab Denial (Yaron London)

I think most Israelis identified with the latest victims of the radical Islamic hurricane, and joined in the pain of the Hashemite Kingdom and worried about the future of that country.

In my heart I hoped this tragedy would spring forth at least a few drops of sweetness. I hoped the fact that blind murder had finally struck them would lead the Palestinians to question the justice of suicide bombers, but this hope proved false.

I watched the reactions in the Arab world and heard their denunciations of the bombing, but not even one person thought to compare the wanton slaughter of Jews and the wanton slaughter of Muslims.

Most protested the fact that Muslims had the audacity to murder other Muslims, not over the fact that innocents were killed. The message was frighteningly clear: there is nothing wrong with terrorism in-and-of-itself. The mistake in the current instance was the religious makeup of the targets.

For example, a debate was held on Jordanian television in which participants refused to recognize the fact that several Muslim groups have embedded themselves in a culture of murder.

They claimed there is only one Islam, and whoever deviates from its religious message is not Muslim.

By excluding the murderers from the boundaries of Islam, there is no possibility to study the weakness of a society that produces murderers wholesale. Self-criticism is possible only when a society dares recognize the fact that the dregs of that society are, in fact, part of that society.

To our incredible sorrow, there are few signs to suggest that this process has gripped Muslim society.

Denial is the heritage of the masses and the heritage of the intellectuals.

The claim that it is impossible for Muslims to carry out such a loathsome act, and therefore the culprits cannot possibly be Muslim, is simply understood by many Jordanians: If the attack wasn't carried out by Muslims, then it must have been carried out by someone else.

And if it was carried out by someone else, it must have been someone or group trying to weaken the Arabs – in other words, the Jews.

This warped logic has led Arab journalists and statesmen to blame Israel for terror attacks in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh, for the pogrom Muslims carried out on the Copts in Egypt, for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, and of course – the September 11 attacks in the United States.

One British reporter traveled to the village in the West Bank. On a small path near the mourning tent, he spoke to family members of the victims and asked them who they thought was responsible for the massacre. Every single one blamed Israel.

Why would Israel have killed them? The answers were angry and babbled, but they showed clearly that they, too, had internalized the message that Muslims wouldn't have murdered fellow Muslims, and so it must have been Israelis, born with a murderous nature.

In order to reject the possibility that Muslims would murder other Muslims, one would have to erase entire chapters of history. But the memory is an illusive tool. It is the nature of man to preserve those memories that reinforce his worldview, and to erase the ones that call that outlook into question.

These villagers can't stomach the thought that the same emotions that drive the shaheeds (martyrs) they produce also drove Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi to murder their loved ones.

One needn't be an expert in psychology to understand that such an admission would drag them to the edge of the abyss of the naked, terrible truth: those responsible for the murder in Amman are not "others" – Israelis, Zionists, Americans or the CIA, but rather by the victims themselves; that is to say, those wrapped up in self denial.

It is too bad that the author doesn't take the next step - that it is impossible to negotiate in good faith with people who cannot even admit truth when it hits them in the face.

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Quick round up of those who blame Jews for Amman blasts

It is worthwhile to occasionally look at what the terror-supporting morons of the world have to say.

• "The suicide bombers story was created and spun to cover up the real crime. The real targets of the bombings were Palestinian high ranking officials and Chinese military personnel. "(Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? by Dr. Elias Akleh, globalresearch.ca)

• "It is now obvious the Amman hotel bombings were a black op executed by Mossad, British intelligence, or the American military, or it was a collaborative effort of all three (suspicion, however, falls on the Israelis, since they have plenty of experience with these sort of operations..."(Amman Bombings: More Suspicious Details, by Kurt Nimmo, uruknet.info)

• " The fact that few (if any) Israeli Jews have been killed in any of the major terror incidents which have occurred in recent years - despite the fact that the alleged perpetrators are anti-Zionist - is indirect evidence that the bombings are actually being carried out by an Israeli agency, be it the Mossad or some other top secret entity charged with black ops of this nature. Similarly, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the 'al-Qaeda' websites currently being cited in news reports are anything other than undertakings of Israeli intelligence intended to help allay suspicions that the bombings were actually sophisticated operations involving explosives planted inside the hotels." (Israel's latest black op - the most transparent yet?, "socialdemocracynow", Mathaaba.net)


• "Now, with the ceiling story dismissed and the evacuation of the Israelis prior to the attack story all but extinguished, "we are told these al-Zarqawi militants included a "husband and wife team" and they "carried out the Amman attacks with explosive belts after carefully staking out the hotels for a month," according to The Associated Press. The “suicide bombers” story was cooked up to cover up the real crime." - Who Profited from Amman Bombings, aljazeera.com)
  

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Israel caves totally to American pressure on border crossings

It is just insanity. Any benefits from the Gaza withdrawal are being eroded very quickly.

Again, we see American pressure on Israel and Israel refusing to fight this pressure in her own self-interest. Despite the fact that Israel willingly helps the US unquestioningly in areas that the US needs help, time after time the State Department (and seemingly the White House) pressures Israel to do more - meaning sacrificing Israeli lives and her economy on the altar of an illusory "peace".

A Google News search for the past month on US "pressure on Egypt" comes up empty. But for "US pressure on Israel" we find not only this Rafah fiasco, but also pressure on settlements, and on Israeli arms exports to Venezuela and China, where Israel is giving up on hundreds of millions of dollars.

And of course the liberal media prefer to look at Israel thumbing her nose at the US and the US doing all that Israel desires. It is a constant theme among anti-semites, and also in al-Guardian, which asks the absurd question "Why does the US refuse to pressure Israel, even for its own good?"

Rice Secures Rafah Package Stripped of Adequate Counter-Terror Safeguards

DEBKAfile Special Analysis
November 15, 2005, 1:28 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt will reopen on November 25 as a Palestinian-Egyptian facility with a European presence. Video images will be transferred to a control center at the Kerem Shalom crossing which is on Israeli soil. It will be manned by Israelis and Palestinians with a European presence.

Israel will not be entitled to demand that suspected terrorists be kept out or detained. The Palestinians will only be required to report on the arrivals of VIPs, diplomats and humanitarian cases – no one else. Mofaz lauded this as “another stage in Egypt’s involvement.” He made no reference to the failure of Egyptian border police’s failure to secure the Philadelphi border enclave against the massive smuggling of arms and terrorists since the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

As for the crossings from Gaza into Israel, Israel surrendered the prerogative to shut down them down to secure personnel against terror alerts, although these facilities are notoriously prime terrorist targets. Jerusalem has undertaken to first notify the US embassy in Tel Aviv and back up its “request” with specific information, thus parting with its intelligence secrets. It must then wait for permission from Washington – or its refusal - to the closure.

Effective preventive action may well be held up by this delay.

By surrendering this point, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon relinquished a key element of Israel’s sovereign right to self-defense and agreed to hamstring its own army’s freedom to combat terror. The presence of Palestinian customs inspectors at Kerem Shalom makes an additional inroad on Israeli sovereignty.

From Dec. 15 to January 15, “secured Palestinian convoys” will start rolling across southern Israel from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The Palestinians want their own forces to secure the trucks. All that has been settled is that the Americans and Europeans will determine the procedures for their passage through Israeli territory.

There is no sign of the Sharon government standing up to Washington’s demands on that point either, so it is more than likely that Palestinian “forces” will be let loose on a wide swathe of southern Israel to escort 150 trucks a day bound for Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus.

The provisions for the Rafah crossing will also be applied to Gaza’s deep sea port construction of which begins without delay. Israel has therefore forfeited control and oversight over incoming goods and people to Gaza by sea as well as overland.

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750 lashes and 40 months in jail - for praising Jews

He won't make that mistake again!

RIYADH (Reuters) - A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a teacher to 40 months in jail and 750 lashes for 'mocking religion' after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday.

Al-Madina newspaper said secondary school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi will be flogged in public after he was taken to court by his colleagues and students.

He was charged with promoting a 'dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer', the newspaper said. It gave no more details.

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Bill Clinton to Israel: Don't act unilaterally against terror

Ex-president Bill Clinton urged Israelis over the weekend not to overreact to comments by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommending that Israel be 'wiped off the map.'

Speaking at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Saturday, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was 'outrageous,' but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was 'not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West.'

'He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance,' Clinton explained, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that 'true peace and security can only come through principled compromise.'

So Clinton says Israel should compromise with those who want to see it destroyed? I wonder if he gives Bush the same advice, not to act unilaterally when dealing with Al-Qaeda. I seem to remember Clinton unilaterally shooting some ineffective rockets towards Afghanistan jihadi training camps - tsk, tsk, how could he react to a terror bombing in such a way?

I hope that this was taken way out of context. I expect such lunacy from Carter, but not Clinton.

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The Independent's Fawning Obituary for a Terrorist

A terrorist gets memorialized in the Independent (UK)'s obituary page, exactly the same as authors and prominent business leaders. Unbelievably, the obituary lists his terror accomplishments in exactly the same way that obituaries mention others' charitable and scientific accomplishments.

Look - he's a published author of a guide on how to make bombs! He became "extremely pious" so he "embraced jihad"! The suicide attacks using his bombs didn't actually kill anyone - but their explosive power "[led] to the deaths of 245 people!"

This is truly one of the sickest examples of relative morality that has ever been published.

Azahari Bin Husin
Terrorist 'Demolition Man'
Published: 14 November 2005

Azahari bin Husin, statistician and bomb-maker: born Malacca, Malaysia 1957; Associate Professor of Statistics and Valuation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 1991-98; married 1994 Wan Noraini Jusoh (two children); died Batu, Indonesia 9 November 2005.

How and why this mild-mannered Malaysian mathematician transformed himself into "Demolition Man", the most wanted fugitive in South-East Asia, is a puzzle which authorities are hard pressed to solve after his violent death last Wednesday.

Azahari bin Husin eluded capture for three years after allegedly supplying explosives to the Islamist extremist group Jemaah Islamiah which has ideological and financial links to al-Qa'ida. Police say his signature car bombs and explosive backpacks were used in at least four suicide attacks against "soft targets" in Bali and Jakarta, leading to the deaths of 245 people, including 26 British tourists in the 2002 Kuta night-club bombings. Azahari was briefly apprehended in Sumatra, but was unrecognised as the bespectacled militant wanted by Interpol for plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Singapore, and he slipped off. But he struck Jakarta's Australian Embassy in September 2004, personally driving his customised car bomb and parking it 300 metres away. Police suspected him of planting similar bombs in August 2003 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, where he was seen sketching in the lobby weeks before the explosions.

Fingerprints taken from one of the suspected militants killed in a police raid on a safe house in East Java on 9 November matched Azahari's records. An hour-long gun battle ended dramatically when a militant sheltering inside blew himself up, and police found a stockpile of 30 more explosive devices in the rubble. Documents discovered in a cohort's hideout the plans for a pre-Christmas "bomb party" to be unleashed at Jakarta schools and churches.

Azahari was born in 1957 in Malacca, the cosmopolitan port town 150km south of Kuala Lumpur. At the age of 17, he left home to study in Adelaide, Australia, where he became an avid jogger and a motorcycle aficionado. But the gregarious student dropped his mechanical engineering courses after four years. An Australian classmate, John Cooper, recalls the young Azahari as "bright and cavalier. He seemed to have a healthy disrespect for authority."

When, aged 20, Azahiri returned home, the Iranian revolution was in foment and Islamic students around the world took heed. Asahari did well enough in his statistics coursework in Malaysia to be accepted as a foreign student at Reading University, where he was enrolled in the late 1980s. Contemporaries remember his fondness for women, sport, and fast cars. After submitting his doctoral thesis, he left Britain for employment in Jakarta as a property-market analyst, but found he preferred life in academia. He married a co-lecturer at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia at Skudai, Johor, where he eventually was appointed Associate Professor of Valuation and known for his lively classes.

It was only when his young Acehnese wife, Noraini, had difficulty conceiving a baby that Azahari turned to religion. Following visits to a Muslim faith healer, she became pregnant and bore two children in quick succession. After she was diagnosed with throat cancer, Azahari became extremely pious. He embraced jihad and was drawn to charismatic leaders such as the Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Baasyir, spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah. With Noordin Mohamad Top, headmaster of a religious boarding school, he promoted a pan-Muslim territory extending from the southern Philippines to southern Thailand and recruited youths to become martyrs for the cause.

Azahari perfected his bomb-making skills at a jihadi camp in Sadaa, Afghanistan, in 1999, after months of training in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, and went on to design the Jemaah Islaimah bombers' manual with emphasis on backpack explosives. He attended a meeting in Thailand with Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was considered Osama bin Laden's point man in South-East Asia. After Hambali's arrest in August 2003, Azahari rose through the organisation's ranks.

Counter-terrorism experts have described Azahari as a master of disguise. But in the past few years, officials said, he invariably wore an explosive belt around his waist to avoid being captured alive.

One of Azahari's former students, Lum Chih Feng, recalled his teacher's enthusiasm for English Premier League football. He preferred close-fitting Western clothes and rarely wore an Islamic skullcap and robe except at the mosque.

Shortly after his second baby was born in 2001, Azahari left home, telling his wife: "I have a greater cause in life. It is to serve God."

Jan McGirk

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

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Rabin was more hawkish than Sharon is today

IsraelNN points out:

In fact, however, Rabin was totally against a withdrawal from Gush Katif. In his last Knesset speech, he said:
'We will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967... The security border will be placed in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest interpretation of this concept... [We will] include Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are east of what was the Green Line... and also... settlement blocs like Gush Katif; would it be there were others like them in Judea and Samaria as well.'

Neither was Rabin in favor of a Palestinian state, and stated clearly his envisioned solution of a 'Palestinian entity that is less than a state.'

It is also interesting to remember that Rabin's reaction to the first "intifada" was far more violent than Sharon's reaction to the second one. It is perhaps unfair to compare the two, but the sainthood that the Left confers on Rabin seems more than a little misplaced, and conversely the concessions that Sharon has made to the Palestinian Arabs seem foolhardy compared to those Rabin may have offered.

At any rate, the consistent labeling of "dove" and "hawk" done incessantly by the media reflects more their perceptions and wishful thinking than the reality.

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Senior PA officials explicitly support continued terror

For some reason, the mainstream media completely missed these interviews by the PA national security advisor and the PA minister of civil affairs.

The official PA policy is continued terror, period.

Statements by Jibril Rajoub
	(Photo: Al-Arabiya, November 4, 2005)
		Jibril Rajoub, the PA's national security advisor, and a leader of the second generation of Fatah, was interviewed in Cairo by daily newspaper Al-Zaman on October 30, 2005. He stated that Abu Mazen would not, under any circumstances, ask the PA security apparatuses to disarm Hamas and the PIJ as long as Israel occupied the West Bank .
		As a guest on an Al-Arabiya TV talk show on November 4, 2005, Rajoub was asked about his statement in Al-Zaman regarding the disarmament of Hamas and the PIJ. He replied as follows (Translations from the original Arabic):
	“ The West Bank is one thing, the Gaza Strip is something else . Israel retreated from the Gaza Strip and a dialogue was held to deal with the subjects of weapons [i.e., the PA's attempt to stop armed men from roaming the streets] and security for Palestinian civilians. The West Bank is still occupied and resistance [i.e., terrorist activities] is a legitimate right . However, regarding everything concerning the Gaza Strip, we of the PA have decided that a law will be passed by the legislative council to deal with the carrying of weapons.”
		During the program he stated several times that the matter of the various organizations' weapons was an internal Palestinian issue which would be dealt with by a dialogue between the PA and the organizations “taking into consideration the position of the PA regarding one weapon and one law…”
		He also expressed his determined objection to the launching of missiles from the Gaza Strip but did not take a firm stand (and was in fact ambiguous) about launching them from the West Bank . He stated that: “the residents of the Gaza Strip have a right to live in peace. Will a missile fired from Gaza liberate the West Bank ?” The interviewer said: “I understand from what you say that you are in favor of launching missiles at Israel from the West Bank ,” and Rajoub answered: “ I am not in favor of [launching] missiles, but it is our right to resist, to react and to confront the occupation . However, the resistance must follow an agenda we agree on…”
		He was then asked whether it had been agreed that the lull would end at the end of 2005. He answered: “No. The lull is part of our national program, and therefore whether or not it ends also depends on a national dialogue. The lull is open and changes according to developments in the field . Its main objective is to maintain local and international momentum, which serves Palestinian interests.” The lull's function, according to Jibril Rajoub, is “ to exert pressure on the criminal Israeli government .”
	Statement by Muhammad Dahlan
	Muhammad Dahlan (right) at a press conference dealing with the Rafah crossing point (Photo: Al-Jazeera RV, November 7, 2005)
		Muhammad Dahlan is minister of civil affairs and among the leaders of second-generation Fatah activists . During a visit to the town of Khan Yunis , he called to strengthen national unity, “ to complete what was achieved in the Gaza Strip. To liberate Jerusalem and the West Bank and for the refugees to take by force the right to return to their houses ” (Palestinian News Agency, November 6, 2005).

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Got another one

I don't usually post these stories because others do a better job, but since this was not widely reported it is worth mentioning and praising the IDF for yet another job well done.

IDF troops killed Hamas leader in Nablus, Amjad Hinawi, 34, during a gunbattle which erupted before dawn Monday when soldiers attempted to arrest the fugitive.

Overnight Monday, numerous troops operated in Nablus against the city's terrorist infrastructure and arrested eight Hamas fugitives, Army Radio reported.

Among their aims was to arrest Hinawi, but when gunmen opened fire at the soldiers during the operation, troops returned fire, killing Hinawi.

A Kalashnikov rifle, a handgun and two magazines were found on Hinawi's body.

Ha'aretz adds:

Hanawi is believed to have masterminded several suicide bombings in Israel in the 1990s.

Israel has conducted raids against hideouts of commanders of armed groups on nearly a nightly basis since a suicide bombing late last month killed six Israelis in an open-air market in the town of Hadera.

A number of commanders have been killed, prompting vows of vengeance from the targeted groups, in particular the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Palestinians have strongly criticized the IDF raids and assassination operations, saying that they have foiled PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to seek promises of calm from the armed organizations.

Ooooh, not the dreaded "efforts to seek promises of calm"! Abbas must really be serious this time!

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US needing help from the IDF

A fascinating article from Haaretz, excerpted below, shows again how the US needs Israeli expertise to help in Iraq - but does not allow Israel to mention it.

This is a consistent theme through the current relationship of the US and Israel, and it is not one that is good for Israel. If Israel would start acting like a partner rather than a stepchild it would go a long way in justifying the aid that the US gives Israel, showing that it is an investment rather than a bribe or boondoggle as in the billions given to Egypt or millions given to the PA.

The US might not need Israel as much as Israel needs the US but it is not a one-way street by any means.

At the end of last month, Brigadier General Joseph Votel, a boyish-looking, tall and smiling American, made an urgent request to an old friend of his from Washington − also a brigadier general, but in the Golani Brigade rather than the Rangers − Nitzan Nuriel, the chief of the foreign liaison department of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. So urgent was the message that the Pentagon didn't even update their military attache in Tel Aviv. Votel implored Nuriel to send him a top-secret item the IDF has developed that could be useful in combating the improvised explosive devices (IED) used against U.S. forces in Iraq.

Nuriel called the chief of the Engineering Corps, Brigadier General Shimon Daniel, who was the Northern Command chief engineering officer during the war against Hezbollah IEDs before the IDF withdrawal from Lebanon and who has been holding professional contacts with Votel and his aides for the past year and a half. Daniel convened the Israeli experts, Nuriel set off on the obstacle course of coordination and authorization - and within a record time of five days, the items in question and their manuals were on a plane headed overseas.

It may sound exaggerated, unfounded, or at least pretentious, but at the end of 2005, the salvation of U.S. President George W. Bush is in large measure dependent on the military intelligence of Israel: the ability of the IDF, the Defense Ministry and the defense industries to help the Americans thwart the IED attacks in Iraq is becoming the tipping point on which the Bush administration is tottering. This conclusion is the final link in a logical chain, which is known to the decision-makers and those in uniform but has been hidden from others.

Bush's most severe entanglement is in Iraq; the quagmire has resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. troops since the start of the war, though a quarter of them died in accidents, from sickness or suicides. The most lethal factor are the IEDs planted along roadways or in booby-trapped vehicles. By the Americans' admission, the most effective aid in their efforts to defeat the IEDs comes from Israel. The ministering angels who are working to extricate Bush from his distress are, thus, Daniel, Nuriel and Rafael. The last-named is not a person but a corporation: the Armament Development Authority. A bit of Rafael's activity to protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan was revealed last summer in the form of a report that the U.S. Army was acquiring anti-explosives protection kits manufactured jointly by Rafael and the U.S. firm General Dynamics. Other activity is classified.
...
In one of its recent visits to Israel, a delegation from Votel's task force spent three days touring IDF units, guided by the chief engineering officer of Northern Command and with the emphasis on the Engineering Corps' Yahalom unit, a special-operations force. The U.S. Army maintains frequent and regular contacts with the IDF.

The IDF takes pride in this. The U.S. Army is ashamed, citing outdated and transparent pretexts − what will the Arabs say? − which are unable to conceal professional embarrassment. This is not a matter of joint operational planning or intelligence secrets; it is a matter of saving lives − American lives − an issue that is the epicenter of the concern of politicians in Washington. However, instead of congratulating themselves about know-how that was acquired with the blood of the IDF soldiers who were killed in Lebanon and the territories and which is the property of the entire Israeli public, Israeli politicians − the latest of them was Mofaz in his visit to Washington a week ago − are willing to forgo the status of common-law wife and make do with the appearance of a concealed mistress.

Officially, Centcom (U.S. Central Command) is barred from talking directly to Israel − it is supposed to do so only through Eucom (European Command?) or Washington. The prohibition is usually maintained, but life-and-death issues override it. Centcom despaired of the bureaucracy, while soldiers are being killed every day, and three officers who are serving in Iraq came to Israel to learn from the IDF how to combat IEDs. There are also Israeli combatants in Iraq who were released from the IDF to enlist in the U.S. Army. These are not two-footed warriors but members of Oketz, the IDF's canine unit, whose American trainers came to the unit's base to learn how to work with the dogs.

In the best tradition of official Washington doublespeak, even as Israel was requested to say nothing, the Pentagon decided to mention the Israeli angle, to prove that no stone is being left unturned in the effort to defeat the IEDs. A week ago the Los Angeles Times reported that the lone star worn by Votel is making it difficult for him to move along the corridors of the Pentagon. A more senior officer is needed, a three-star general. This is a peculiar idea: another two pieces of serrated tin on a general's shoulder and the explosive devices will be gone. The navy respects expertise and experience, the army respects ranks, the commander of the navy's bomb disposal unit was quoted as saying in National Defense. Maybe it will be Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who gained glory in commanding his troops in post-Katrina New Orleans. Honore, who commands the reserve units and National Guard forces being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, was outraged that the soldiers' training does not include sufficient preparation to deal with the IEDs.

In a self-defensive press briefing at the Pentagon, Lieutenant General James Conway, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that supreme priority has been assigned to combat the IEDs. "The only remaining effective tool Iraqi insurgency has against coalition forces is the improvised bomb," Conway said, and once U.S. and coalition forces find a way to eliminate IEDs, "it's over." The "it" in question is the campaign in Iraq, but before that happens, Conway confirmed it has been proposed to appoint a three-star general above Votel - like Conway's rank − to oversee IED work.

To prove the Americans are learning from the best and most experienced sources, Conway noted that the British had encountered the problem of explosive devices in Northern Ireland and the Israelis have coped with suicide bombers in Israel and Lebanon. "We've tried to study what their experiences were and learn from that." Dutton, the British
general, added another piece of information which explains why it is vital to draw on the knowledge the IDF gleaned coping with Hezbollah devices: the materials and the technology used in making IEDs are entering Iraq from the same source - Iran.

Votel and his colleagues reviewed in public a range of systems and stratagems in use by the enemies of the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan: detonation by wireless, by tripwire, by remote control of cars and by dog and sheep carcasses. Thousands of disruptive systems have been supplied to the forces, but according to reports these also disrupt the U.S. forces' communication network, so the soldiers tend to shut them off. Another difficulty the U.S. has is collecting accurate data about the attacks perpetrated by the IEDs, such as the time of the detonation, the location of the device and the situation of the force that was attacked. An analysis of this data in southern Lebanon helped the IDF improve its combat tactics against Hezbollah.

The key to the booby-trapped cars, an Israeli officer told his American colleagues, lies in mapping the fleet of vehicles in Iraq and marking them in a way that makes it possible to spot them from a safe distance and to identify suspicious vehicles which were not present along the route earlier. The weak point of the Americans is the movement on the roads, for patrols or in convoys. The U.S. Army also understood it is essential to train all logistics personnel and drivers as riflemen who are liable to encounter an attack aimed at killing or kidnapping them, and just to be on the safe side, a simulator for practicing responses in convoys was upgraded.

A soldier who is not present is not hurt, and the original sin of the U.S. Army in Iraq, in its mission to protect the emerging regime in Baghdad, is its failure to develop "control without presence" − a swift action, sparing in manpower and focused, that achieves results without banking on large-scale presence that eventually becomes bankruptcy. The IDF learned how to do this, on an impressive albeit not absolute scale, in its activity against Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank. This is a decentralized combat doctrine, on which the copyright belongs, in part, to the former commander of the Israel Navy, Rear Admiral (res.) Yedidya Yaari, now the president of Rafael.

In the area of combating explosive devices, and in other areas as well, the IDF and sophisticated defense corporations in Israeli industry are so far ahead of their American counterparts that self-admiration needs to be cooled with a doze of modesty; it is not that the Israeli ability is small but that the American needs are large. "The new brigade that is equipped with the Striker combat vehicle is responsible for an area of 38,000 square kilometers in Iraq, almost twice the size of Israel," a realistic IDF officer said this week, "and without diminishing the importance of the lessons we learned and taught others from convoys of eight kilometers to the Beaufort and to the Dlaat outpost [in Lebanon], their convoys have to cover 80 and sometimes 180 kilometers. So we, with all respect, are a drop in the ocean.

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Has the Muslim "blame Israel" excuse lost its potency?

When Arab or Muslim regimes or leaders have had domestic or political problems over the past fifty years, there has always been a reliable way out: blame the Jews, blame Israel, blame Zionists. As long as hatred could be redirected to the always reliable Jews, the heat would be off the true source of the problem, whatever it may have been. it was a free and very effective solution to all kinds of problems.

But it seems that nowadays, the "blame Israel" excuse has lost much of its power. Whether it is because of Israeli diplomatic moves or because of overuse, it seems that only Iran is still using it with any regularity, and that appears to be because Iran is increasingly isolated from its fellow Muslim nations. Indeed, Iran's constantIsrael bashing may be making it more difficult for other Muslim nations to follow suit nowadays.

Iran's isolation can be seen in this news story:

Saudi Arabia has agreed to end all economic boycotts of Israel, allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday to admit the oil-rich kingdom as its 149th member, diplomats said.

The WTO's ruling general council, which includes the United States and Israel, endorsed the Saudi entry during a special session yesterday.

The kingdom's minister for commerce and industry, Hashim Yamani, signed the protocol of accession, which means that Saudi Arabia will become a full member on Dec. 11, just days before a big WTO meeting in Hong Kong.

To join, Saudi Arabia agreed to scrap all economic boycotts and it pledged not to resort to any future discriminatory trade measures against the Jewish state, diplomats said.

This story is nothing short of amazing, even if it is only an empty paper gesture. Saudi Arabia has always been at the forefront of the Israeli boycott and his shows that the boycott has been a complete failure. And it also shows just how out-of-step Iran has become in the world today. I think it is not surprising that in the face of such a crumbling of the united Muslim voice against Israel, Iran redoubles its efforts to paint Israel as a villain, and the general Arab world is not keeping to the Iranian company line::

Asefi condemned last week's bombings in Amman and hinted at Israel's involvement. "The bombings were suspicious. Reports indicate the Zionist regime has been behind the event," he stated.

It should be mentioned that the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper has retracted a report that Jordanian security services evacuated Israeli citizens staying in the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman beforethe bomb attack. At least one Israeli was confirmed dead in the blasts.

The second paragraph (not separated in the original story) is most interesting, in that it is a Jordanian news source that is going out of its way to show that Iran's blaming Israel is ridiculous - again, something that would not have been seen a few years ago.

Another indication that the "blame Israel" days may be on the wane among the general Arab population comes from this story about Arab-American comedians:

There are a few simple rules for being a "real Arab man."

Among them: Ignore the first few buttons on your shirt. Wear tremendous amounts of cologne. Oh, and blame every bad thing in the world on a Zionist conspiracy.

It may be a minor and amusing story but when Arabs can joke about how they always blame the Zionists for everything, it does show that the argument is not nearly as powerful as it used to be.

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Our friends the Jordanians

Two factoids from an article about Jordanian reaction to the terror attacks in Amman.

In one, a man had to insult Zarqawi in the strongest possible terms:

Munder Moomeni, a 38-year-old former soldier who lives next to Zarqawi's house, 13 Ramzi St., described his former neighbour as "a bastard."

"By killing Jordanians here in Jordan, civilian Jordanians going to a wedding, they did something that not even a Jew would do," he said.

Yet another sad example of an Arab who didn't read the memo that said "Make sure you never say bad things about Jews to the press - only Zionists!"

But right after that example of tolerance and moderation from the Arab world comes this:

However, religious leaders in the impoverished town suggested the hotel bombings occurred because Jordan had "strayed from Islam."

"Those who care about the country's security and peace should strive to build the umma [Islamic nation]," the local imam said in his sermon without once directly condemning the attacks.

"What befell the umma happened because it strayed from Islam."

Yes, these are shining examples of that most liberal bastion of Islamic tolerance, and America's close ally in the war on terror.

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Al-Qaeda justifies Jordan bombings, says it's just trying to fight Jews and Christians

A couple of points are noteworthy:

1 - Al-Qaeda does seem to be affected by Arab criticism. Which means that if the "moderate" Arabs had shown the same outrage after 9/11 as they are now for 11/9, Al-Qaeda might be severely weakened by now.

Unfortunately, we know that most of the Arab world was not unpleased by 9/11.

2 - Notice that this statement doesn't complain about "Zionists" in "Palestine", but "the presence of Jews." Let's not hold our breath to see Arabs protest against that, and trying to educate Zarqawi about the centuries of peace and tolerance between Jews and Arabs they always try to tell the West.

3 - It is pretty obvious that when Islamofascists say "Crusaders" they mean "Christians."

CAIRO, Egypt — In an apparent response to Jordanians who took to the streets to call for its leader to “burn in hell,” al-Qaida in Iraq took the rare step Thursday of trying to justify the triple suicide bombings that killed 56 people, mostly Arabs.

Earlier Thursday, the group posted a Web statement claiming responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks. Then a second al-Qaida statement appeared on the Internet “to explain for Muslims part of the reason holy warriors targeted these dens.” That statement appeared after Arab-wide expressions of outrage.

“Let all know that we have struck only after becoming confident that they are centers for launching war on Islam and support the crusaders’ presence in Iraq and the Arab peninsula and the presence of the Jews on the land of Palestine,” the group said.

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Abbas finds suicide bombings immoral - if Palestinians die

Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Jordanian suicide bombings on a purely moral basis:

President Abbas expressed his solidarity with the brotherly Jordanian people, renewing his condemnation of such a terror attack, which he described as a crime against humanity.

As far as I can tell, he has never "condemned" any Palestinian suicide bombing attack against Israel on moral grounds, only pragmatic grounds as being against Palestinian interests:

RAMALLAH, October 26, 2005, (WAFA)- President Mahmoud Abbas condemned on Wednesday the suicide operation in Khedera town, north of Israel. Abbas revealed that such operations harm the Palestinian people's interests and could widen the cycle of violence and bloodshed, expressing at the same time his absolute anger over the operation.
He said that the latest missile launching from Gaza Strip (GS) to Israel and this suicide operation are considered a severe breach to the truce agreement reached in Cairo, adding that it is not acceptable for anyone to take the law into his hands.

In other words, he might agree that the Jews deserved to die, but it should be done in a proper war by the PA at the right time.

He's still Arafat in a suit.

Hat tip to IMRA via Iris.

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Wow - he really is irrelevant!

You know that Abbas has no power at all when his own diplomats don't listen to him. Arafat has more power today from the grave than Abbas ever had.

One has to ask the question - why can't he just refuse to pay their salary and housing costs? Does this mean that the PA's financial heads are also no longer working for Abbas? Is Kaddoumi on the PA payroll? For all the talk from the EU about overseeing the PA's finances and making sure that their millions in "aid" don't end up going to terror and corruption - are they following the money trail between the PA and its diplomats?

[S]ome of the PA's ambassadors in different countries are refusing to give up their posts to newly appointed envoys.

The PA Foreign Ministry recently decided to replace most of its ambassadors as part of a comprehensive plan to reform the diplomatic corps. Some of the ambassadors, who were appointed by Arafat, have been serving for nearly two decades.

But the move has been openly challenged by veteran PLO leader Farouk Kaddoumi, who is based in Tunis and who regards himself as the real foreign minister of Palestine.

Until recently, Kaddoumi was in charge of all the embassies around the world in the capacity of his job as director of the PLO's political bureau. Kaddoumi sent a letter to the ambassadors instructing them to ignore the new appointments and to remain in their posts.

'I wish to inform you that [PA Foreign Minister] Nasser al-Kidwa does not represent the PLO and, as such, he does not have the power to make changes in the diplomatic corps,' he wrote.

Two ambassadors have already announced that they would not step down - Tahsin Mikati, ambassador to Qatar, and Abdel Shafi Siam, ambassador to Mauritania. Their decision has seriously embarrassed the PA leadership, which is now trying to persuade the hosting countries to deport the two.

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Today's Palestinian Police Phunnies XIII - "We should be honorable terrorists, not corrupt policemen"

Sounds like we should redouble our efforts to give ammunition and advice to these guys!

The Palestinian Authority security forces are on the verge of collapse because of rampant corruption and growing anarchy, according to a letter sent by a large group of PA security officers to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The letter, the first of its kind since Abbas was elected earlier this year, reflects growing resentment among the various branches of the PA security forces. It also contradicts claims by Abbas and senior PA leaders that they have taken practical steps to reform the security forces.
...
But what is perhaps most worrying, as far as Abbas is concerned, is the fact that the officers went on to stress that their weapons would be used only against Israel and suspected "collaborators."

Addressing Abbas, the officers said: "We urge you to get acquainted with what's really happening inside the security forces, which have begun disintegrating because of corruption, mismanagement and placing private interests above the national interests of the people, especially with regard to the state of lawlessness prevalent in the Palestinian territories."

The officers also scoffed at the PA's efforts to consolidate the security forces by reducing their number from more than a dozen to three and retiring veterans.

"These measures have led to dissent among the security forces," they said. "Unless you [Abbas] start paying attention to the situation, the Palestinian security forces will collapse, only to be replaced by armed gangs which the Palestinian Authority won't be able to control."

PA security officials here told The Jerusalem Post that they were not worried by the letter "because it was written by a group of disgruntled officers who had been retired or dismissed."

So the PA "security forces" are saying explicitly that their job is to be an armed terror group, not a police force.

I especially like when they say that they aren't going to fight the lawless armed gangs or else they will become a group of lawless armed gangs.

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Israelis inventing alternatives to oil

I don't know how much of this is strictly accurate and how much is wishful thinking, but one can only hope that serious alternatives to oil come soon - from both the environmental and terror-defense perspectives.

An Israeli inventor and company are trying to use garbage and leftover olive pulp from olive-oil factories, respectively, to replace oil in providing fuel and electricity to the Jewish State.

From one ton of garbage, half a ton of oil, 300 kg of gas or 150 kg of green coal, from which electricity is produced, can be extracted, according to inventor Dr. Sergei Rosenberg.

Dr. Rosenberg spoke with Arutz-7 about the development of his invention that turns garbage into oil. "I turned to the Ministry of Infrastructure with my invention and they told me to build such a machine outside Israel and they would consider bringing it here," Rosenberg described. "I built the machine in Moldova and demonstrated there that it works – with the oil undergoing tests demonstrating that the process is not toxic."

Asked by Arutz-7's Yigal Schok why Israel is not pursuing the invention to wean the Jewish State off of Arab-controlled oil, Dr. Rosenberg said that the state was afraid of implementing the changeover due to concern of taking away the monopoly of the oil tycoons. "To my surprise much of the interest actually came from Arab parties because they have a lot of refuse they want to get rid of in an efficient manner," Rosenberg said.

Dr. Rosenberg gained the experience necessary to come up with his invention from working in Russia before he immigrated to Israel. "In Russia I helped with the building of an artificial reservoir, a number of power stations and I designed the water system for the nuclear core in Chernobyl, but Israel did not hire me for similar work since I don't have any connections. I have other ideas, such as wind turbines that operate on air and exploiting the power of the ocean's waves to produce power."

Another company, Genova Ltd., is also working on alternatives to Arab oil. The company has signed an agreement, according to Globes, with an olive press in the village of Julis, in the Galilee to establish a small facility to produce electricity from the waste from olive pressing.

The facility is slated to produce an estimated 200 kilowatts of power, enough to provide 70 homes with power. It will also provide for the disposing of olive waste formed during oil production, which has until now posed an environmental hazard.

Genova’s method heats the waste to temperatures abover 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, transforming it into a flammable gas. Burning that gas is environmentally-friendly, releases no greenhouse gases and causes no damage to the earth’s ozone layer. The gas operates an electricity-generating turbine.

The company hopes to market the product, which will be small enough to fit on a countertop, to other olive-oil producing countries such as Spain and Italy.

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Saudi-funded hate in US mosques

Yesterday, the leader of the Freedom House, a relifious-freedom organization, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Saudi-funded hate literature that was found in US mosques.

Their initial report came out last January and the specifics in the messages that come straight from our "friends" in the Gulf are chilling. And all of them were published and funded by the Saudi government.

Excerpts:

• Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law.
• There is consensus on this matter, that whoever helps unbelievers against Muslims, regardless of what type of support he lends to them, he is an unbeliever himself.
• Never greet the Christian or Jew first.
  
• Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday.
  
• Never befriend an infidel unless it is to convert him.
  
• Never imitate the infidel.
  
• Never work for an infidel.
  
• Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel.
• If relations between Muslims and non-Muslims were harmonious, "there would be “no loyalty and enmity, no more jihad and fighting to raise Allah’s work on earth.”
• Freedom of thinking requires permitting the denial of faith and attacking what is sacred, glorifying falsehood and defending the heretics, finding fault in religion and letting loose the ideas and pens to write of disbelief as one likes, and to put ornaments on sin as one likes.
• As for a Muslim who fails to uphold Wahhabi sexual mores through homosexual activity or heterosexual activity outside of marriage, the edicts found in American mosques advise, “it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and to take his money.”
• Regarding those who convert out of Islam, it is explicitly asserted, they “should be killed.”
• A book for third-year high school students published by the Saudi Ministry of Education that was collected from the Islamic Center of Oakland in California, teaches students, including even now some American Muslims, to prepare for jihad in the sense of war against Islam’s enemies, and to strive to attain military self-sufficiency: “To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah’s way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government. The military education is glued to faith and its meaning, and the duty to follow it.”
• [I]t is basic Islam to believe that everyone who does not embrace Islam is an unbeliever, and must be called an unbeliever, and that they are enemies to Allah, his Prophet and believers.
• Residing among the unbelievers continuously is also forbidden because it is dangerous for the belief of the Muslim. That is why Allah made it obligatory to emigrate from the land of disbelief to the land of Islam.
  The message is that the peaceful coexistence of Muslim and non-Muslim in a multi-cultural state is not simply unachievable, but is undesirable and even punishable: If a Muslim “thinks it is permissible to be under their control, and he is pleased with the way they are, then there is no doubt that he is no longer a Muslim.”
• (Keep this in mind when people castugate the French for not assimilating the Muslims into French culture - the Muslims are more against assimilation than the French. - EoZ)
• A Saudi government textbook for eleventh grade students, copies of which were collected at the King Fahd-supported Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., tackles the issue of atheism. It analyzes atheism’s causes and motives, and describes what the author, Mohammad Qutub, terms “the role of the Jews in the corruption of the European way of life.” He writes that the Jews have seized every available opportunity to attack Christianity, and have done so from every conceivable angle, including by such innocuous-sounding themes as “progress and civilization” or “individual freedom.” First, there is Karl Marx, “and he is a Jew,” who called people to embrace communism and atheism. It adds that he is the one who wrote the famous statement “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Second, there is Freud, “and he is a Jew,” whose theories about sex call people “to free themselves from religion, from morality, and from traditions, claiming that these cause psychological and nervous-system problems.” Third, the Jews guided and controlled the industrial-capitalist movement in Europe and invested their money in usury and so were able to dominate all aspects of European life, thereby causing great corruption.
  “They lured women to go to work in the factories, and when the number of working women increased they lured them into wearing makeup and revealing clothes, to corrupt their morals, and to corrupt young men with them.”
  The Saudi textbook also teaches that Jews destroyed the family when they enticed women away from the duties of motherhood and raising children by convincing them that these imposed “silly restrictions limiting their freedom and growth.” Generations of children have been raised “without families, because the mother is busy at her job,” and the result has been the proliferation of groups “like the hippies, punks, and others.” Lastly, under the banner of “freedom, brotherhood, and equality” the Jews spread atheism and moral corruption by using “individual freedom” as a blanket protection for every form of vice.
• A Saudi government text for seventh-graders, copies of which were collected at the King Fahd-supported Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., maintains that the Jews only memorized the Torah without understanding it, and did not live by its teachings. For this reason, Washington mosque-goers are told that Jews “are worse than donkeys.”
• A more vicious narration can be found in a fourth-grade Saudi state textbook [Document No. 34], copies of which were collected from the Islamic Center of America in East Orange, New Jersey. Titled For Reading and Memorization, this Saudi state publication gives a conspiratorial reading of the history of Palestine. Again, it was the “sinful conspiracy” of imperialism that allowed the Jews “to steal this dear Arab land and to establish a large Zionist state big enough for the largest number of Jews in the world.” This state was intended as,“a thorn in the back of the Muslim nations, and a window through which colonialism can sneak up among the ranks of the Muslims to work, on dividing them and light the fire of hatred between them.”
  The account ends ominously by vowing that,
  “the Muslims will not rest until they cut off this disease and purify the land of Palestine from the plague of Zionism, and until its rightful owners reclaim it….Victory comes from Allah alone.”
  

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