Anne Lieberman has a different take on Keith Ellison’s use of the koran than the media folks do:

While supposed “reporters” would leave us to our own devices, no doubt to assume that Jefferson was so prescient that he envisioned political correctness hundreds of years beforehand, there are those of us who seek a bigger (and more accurate) picture.

Read the post, and you’ll discover that Thomas Jefferson was reading the koran to discover the motivation behind the Barbary pirates, who were Muslims. Funny how that was never taught to me in high school.

I’m still making up my mind about the whole Ellison swearing in thing.

This is the AFP headline. By itself it is not remarkable, but the article is related to the latest explosion in Madrid:

The political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA has said that the peace process with Spain was “not broken”, despite a Madrid airport blast that ended a nine-month ETA ceasefire.

That interesting statement caused me to think how quickly the terrorists all over the world adopt the legacy of Yasser Arafat.

It was Yitzhak Rabin, I believe, that said once: “We’ll negotiate with Palestinians as if there were no terror and we’ll fight terror as if there weren’t any negotiations”. Or something to that end.

Arafat, on his side, slightly changed the above formula to mean: “Kill some Jews and negotiate a bit”. His heirs stick to this venerable recipe so far.

Meanwhile it looks like the Spaniards have not adopted Rabin’s formula:

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said “ETA were the ones who broke off, liquidated, finished the peace process”.

ETA, on the other hand, seems to have assimilated Arafat’s version readily. Works anytime, doesn’t it?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Ha’aretz has an analysis of the current “violence” between the palestinian factions, and calls it what it is: Civil war.

“Civil war” is an apt description for what is now taking place in the Gaza Strip.

For a number of days now, in the northern Gaza Strip but also in other places, battles have been waged between Hamas and Fatah civilians.

However, on Thursday a new record was broken in the Gaza Strip: Hamas gunmen surrounded the home of a senior Fatah man in the Jabalya refugee camp, and assaulted the home of Colonel Mohammed Gharib, leader of the Preventive Security in the northern Gaza Strip.

Using automatic weapons, missiles and grenade launchers, the Hamas attackers killed everyone in the house.

Hamas gunmen also raided the home of Sufian Abu Zeida, a senior Fatah official and former minister for prisoner affairs, but he and his family were not at home.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who returned to the Gaza Strip on Thursday following a pilgrimage to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia, can no longer claim that these are sporadic incidents between small groups of minor Hamas and Fatah figures.

This time, the attackers were members of Hamas’ Executive Force, which answers to Hamas Interior Minister Saeed Sayam.

The head of the Executive Force, Yusef al-Zahar, is the brother of Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.

The attackers “killed everyone in the house.” You won’t read those facts in AP or Reuters. Here’s what the AP says:

Fatah members mourn 7 slain in attack
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Palestinians carried bodies draped in yellow flags through pouring rain Friday in a funeral procession for seven Fatah men killed in the bloodiest battle in weeks of factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Fatah gunmen marched in the procession, firing in the air and calling for vengeance against the rival Islamic militant Hamas group, which is locked in a power struggle with President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party over control of the Palestinian government.

The clash Thursday left a Fatah-allied security commander dead along with six of his bodyguards and one Hamas gunman, the same day an Israeli raid in the West Bank killed four Palestinians.

The violence led to an urgent meeting early Friday between Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Abbas, at which the two agreed to pull back their forces.

Notice how, once again, they don’t use “killed” in the headline. Notice the words in bold that are used to describe the killing—”violence” and “clash.” But there’s no hesitation to use the word “killed” in reference to the IDF. Once again, the AP spins down any negative palestinian news, and spins up the anti-Israel angle.

Once again, this is part of the reason for the high level of anti-Israel feelings in the world. The news is utterly slanted against Israel, in spite of protestations that it is not.

As Ami Isseroff says in this post:

Facts speak louder than any propaganda, and they speak to any honest person who wants to know the truth, as this article from Pakistan shows. This article also shows precisely where Israel’s true strength is. Anyone who is for a strong Israel, should keep this in mind.

I would not say that the feel-good article that Ami refers to should be a good enough reason for us to relax and to take the next few years easy somewhere on the Riviera. But, coming as it does from a Pakistani journalist, it is definitely worth a read. So here it is.

Arabs vs Israel

By Farrukh Saleem

Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb: “If God were to humiliate a human being He would deny him knowledge”

The League of Arab States has 22 members. Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman are ‘traditional monarchies’. Of the 22, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria and Somalia are ‘Authoritarian Regimes’ (Source: www.freedomhouse.org). Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Morocco and Somalia are among the ‘world’s most repressive regimes’ (Source: A special report to the 59th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights). Of the 330 million Muslim men, women and children living under Arab rulers a mere 486,530 live in a democracy (0.15 per cent of the total).

A mere two hundred and fifty miles from the ‘League of Dictators’ HQ in Cairo is the only ‘parliamentary democracy’ in the region; universal suffrage, multi-party, multi-candidate, competitive elections. Israel’s 6,352,117 residents are 76 per cent Jewish and 23 per cent non-Jewish (mostly Arab).

Israel spends $110 on scientific research per year per person while the same figure for the Arab world is $2. Knowledge makes Israel grow by 5.2 per cent a year while “rates of productivity (the average production of one worker) in Arab countries were negative to a large and increasing extent in oil-producing countries during the 1980s and 90s (World Bank; Arab Development Report).”

Facts cannot be denied: The state of Israel now has six universities ranked as among the best on the face of the planet. Hebrew University Jerusalem is in the top-100. Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute of Science are in the top-200. Bar Ilan University and Ben Gurion University are in the top-300. The Arab League does not have a single university in the top-400 (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm). One in two Arab women can neither read nor write (remember, “If God were to humiliate a human being He would deny him/her knowledge”).

Israel’s universities are producing knowledge. Israeli society is applying that knowledge plus diffusing knowledge produced by others. On the other hand, within the Arab League, repressive regimes have erected religious, social and cultural barriers to the production as well as diffusion of knowledge.

Look at how knowledge is abandoning the Arab world: Between 1998 and 2000 more than 15,000 Arab physicians migrated. According to the World Bank, “roughly 25 per cent of 300,000 first degree graduates from Arab universities emigrated. Roughly 23 per cent of Arab engineers, 50 per cent of Arab doctors and 15 per cent of Arab BSc holders had emigrated.”

Israel, on the other hand, has more engineers and scientists per capita than any other country (for every 10,000 Israelis there are 145 engineers or scientists). Israel ranks among the top-7 countries worldwide for patents per capita.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Israel’s pharmaceutical giant, is the world’s largest producer of antibiotics (Teva developed Copaxone, a unique immunomodulator therapy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, the only non-interferon agent available).

Facts are hard to deny: Most members of the Arab League grant Muslim women fewer rights — with regards to marriage, divorce, dress code, civil rights, legal status and education. Israel does not. Spain translates more books in a year than has the Arab world in the past thousand years (since the reign of Caliph Mamoun; Abbasid, caliph 813-833).

Six million Israelis buy 12 million books every year making them one of the highest consumers of books in the world. Israel has the highest number of university degrees per capita in the world; the Arab world has the lowest. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other country (109 per 10,000 Israelis); the Arab world — next to nothing.

Results are for everyone to see: The average per capita income in Israel is $25,000 while the average income within the League of Arab States is $5,000.

The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Two battles took place on Thursday. One was in Gaza, one was in Ramallah. Guess which one gets the worldwide headlines?

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) - A senior Palestinian security officer was killed in an attack Thursday just moments after pleading for help on the phone with a television station: “They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding.”

Col. Mohammed Ghayeb, a loyalist of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, told Palestine TV that his house in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya was being pounded by homemade rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.

Ghayeb’s bodyguards returned fire, sparking a lengthy gunbattle.

“They are killers,” Ghayeb told the television station, referring to the Hamas gunmen. “For God’s sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move.”

Moments later, the phone connection was cut and Ghayeb was dead, said Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa. The officer’s wife was seriously wounded in the attack, Abu Khoussa said.

Two of Ghayeb’s bodyguards and a Hamas gunmen were also killed and more than 35 people were wounded, including eight children who were bystanders.

Try to find that one in the papers. You won’t find it in many, even though Hamas was using rockets and RPGs on a home filled with civilians (looks like those “crude, homemade” rockets are good for more than just launching at Israel, hey?), and caused just oodles of civilian casualties. But once again, the media mostly ignore pal-on-pal casualties. Because Israel didn’t cause them.

Now, this one. First, the headline, which combines the death toll from the above story with the death toll from an IDF arrest in Ramallah that turned into a gunbattle. Note also which is put first—the Israeli “raid.”

10 Palestinians killed in raid, clashes
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli undercover troops burst into a West Bank vegetable market Thursday, seizing four fugitives and exchanging heavy fire with Palestinians in the first major raid since the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to try to ease tensions.

Factional fighting among Palestinian groups also surged, leaving at least six dead and prompting a meeting early Friday between rival leaders _ President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Haniyeh said the two sides agreed to pull back their forces.

And note how the AP downplays the Beit Lahiya attack by Hamas.

The agreement came hours after six Palestinians, including a senior security officer, were killed and more than a dozen wounded in fighting in Gaza between gunmen loyal to Hamas and those allied with Fatah.

Now let’s look at the Ynet article to see what happened in the IDF arrest-turned-gunbattle.

The confrontations developed during the operation of a special IDF force in the city. A special IDF force surrounded a building in Ramallah in which wanted Palestinians were hiding. During the operation, the force identified a wanted man who intended to shoot at the soldiers.

The soldiers shot and wounded him, but he managed to escape.

The IDF reported that during the operation, four wanted Palestinians were arrested, who were subsequently transferred to the security forces for investigation. There were disturbances on site, which included gun battles and stone-throwing.

According to the Palestinians, some of the injured are youths who threw stones at the IDF forces.

Sounds like the “youths” in the area decided to get involved in the battle, and were shot as combatants. But you won’t read that information in the AP report. You will, however, read about how mad Abbas is, and how this is a “setback” for the supposed peace talks (the ones that can’t happen, what with Hamas still running the PA and insisting that it will never treat with or recognize Israel).

Just another example of our biased media, particularly of the AP variety. As for the Reuters view, well, get out your hankies

Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, killing three Palestinians, while a spasm of factional fighting among Palestinians in Gaza left six dead.

Notice, as always, the active verb used to describe terrorists killed by Israel, and the passive verb used to describe palestinians killed by palestinians. But here’s where you really need the hankies.

Smoke rose over central Ramallah after Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers, slamming aside parked cars near the main Manara Square, pushed into the city to carry out what an Israeli army spokeswoman called “routine arrest activity”.

She said four wanted men had been detained.

By the way, note that the Israeli spokesperson is not identified, other than by gender. I’d bet it’s Miri Eisen, who is an IDF spokeswoman. But Reuters and AP almost never give Israelis names and faces. They generally use “The army said” or “According to the IDF” or “Israel said.” On the other hand, they did attribute a quote damning the Israelis—to Mahmoud Abbas. No quote about his dead security chief and the innocents harmed by Hamas, though. Color me unsurprised, as always.