Does AP stand for “All Palestinian”?

Posted on 05/16/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Get a load of this “objective” piece the AP released on the “nakba” celebrations. It’s graf after graf of opinion masquerading as fact.

Palestinians marked the 60th anniversary of their uprooting with rallies, sirens and black balloons Thursday – an annual ritual made even darker this year by crippling internal divisions and diminishing independence hopes.

The memorial provided a stark contrast to Israel’s all-out birthday bash, which included a high-profile visit by President Bush for the 60th independence day celebration.

Bush’s embrace of Israel at a time when the Palestinians were mourning was bound to further harm the tainted U.S. image in Palestinian areas and across the Arab world.

Thursday’s events commemorated the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who either fled or were driven out of their homes during the 1948 war over Israel’s creation. Palestinians call it their “nakba,” Arabic for catastrophe.

Break out the hankies, folks. And the yellow markers. In fact, I ought to start using yellow background for this kind of pseudo-news. They don’t even have the decency to label this “analysis” or even “feature,” ’cause it sure as hell isn’t news. And here’s the latest Palestinian appropriation of Israeli symbolism. I swear, these people have never had an original idea, ever.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, thousands stood in silence in downtown Manara Square as a siren wailed, then listened to a taped Abbas speech.

On Israel’s Memorial Day, a siren sounds for two minutes in remembrance of Israel’s war dead.

Also in the article, the AP manages to minimize the rocket attack on Ashkelon.

Israel’s government, meanwhile, came under mounting pressure to try to oust Hamas, after a rocket fired from Gaza hit a medical clinic in an Israeli shopping mall and seriously wounded four people, including a 2-year-old girl.

While that part is factually accurate, it is misleading. Fifteen people were wounded, four seriously. By mentioning only the seriously wounded victims, the AP once again whitewashes a terrorist attack on Israel. Just as the AP will highlight any and all civilian casualties when the IDF goes into Gaza. It’s gotten so predictable I probably shouldn’t bother writing about it anymore.

Yeah. I’ll stop when they stop.

Posted in AP Media Bias, palestinian politics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Rocket bombardment continues; Barak says not for much longer

Posted on 05/16/2008 by Meryl Yourish

I’ve been reading reports in various Israeli newspapers and other sources about the upcoming Gaza operation. They all seem to have the same background: The IDF will go in, but not in great force. Pinpoint operations to take out the terror infrastructure. If that’s the case, the operation will fail. The IDF went in to do just that months ago, after the bombardment of Sderot and southern Israel increased to fifty-plus rockets per day. The result is what you see now: Hamas and its proxies fire rockets wherever, whenever they want. They lose a crew here or there, but the rockets just keep coming.

“You need to grit your teeth, but not for many more months,” Barak told the residents of Ashkelon during a tour of the scene together with Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i and OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan. “We won’t allow this to continue for much longer. I am not talking about years or many months. We will do what needs to be done.”

Throughout the day a number of rockets were fired into Israel, including a Grad-model Katyusha that hit a field outside Netivot without causing injuries. Two Hamas gunmen were killed when IAF aircraft bombed a terrorist observation post in Gaza City before dawn.

Calev Ben-David of the JPost had this analysis:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking at the Facing Tomorrow conference Thursday night after returning straight from a visit to Ashkelon, made clear that from his viewpoint a military operation is only a matter of time. If Israel’s luck runs out, and a Hamas rocket attack results in multiple fatalities rather than the individual deaths of the past week, the government will politically have no choice but to mount that response sooner rather than later.

Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, still strongly committed to a negotiating process with the Palestinian Authority that would stop dead in its tracks in the event of such an operation, would clearly prefer to put off that option as long as possible.

And the news article quotes “senior defense officials”—the ones who have been talking about a major operation to other news sources as well:

The IDF plans to escalate its operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after US President George W. Bush leaves Israel on Friday, senior defense officials said Thursday.

If they’re not willing to go all-out, then nothing will change. Go back just a couple of months, when Grad rockets were raining down on Ashkelon. The IDF went in, killed a lot of Palestinian terrorists (and a fair number of civilians as well), the world freaked out, the IDF left, and what have you got? Nothing changed.

If Barak thinks that “pinpoint” strikes are going to accomplish anything, he’s mistaken. Unless he kills the Hamas leadership, the war continues. It has ever only stopped when Israel has them on the run 24/7.

“You are mistaken if you thought that targeting buildings, ministries and police stations is going to stop our work,” Haniyeh said, directing his comments at Israel. “We will work under trees, in tents and in the streets.”

Expect world condemnation the moment Israel moves. Say, you know, a thought occurred to me: Two Israeli civilians were killed by terrorist rocket fire in the last week. When Palestinians are killed during IDF operations, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is pretty quick to condemn the violence “on both sides” and urge Israel to stop firing in civilian areas. So this is right up his alley, right? He should have issued a statement condemning the deliberate targeting of civilians right? Right? Right?

Wrong.

Not a word. Not a single, solitary word. But watch how much he says when the IDF crosses into Gaza.

I hope they do it right this time. And while they’re at it, send a Hellfire up Meshaal’s ass. If they could find Mugniyeh, they can find Meshaal.

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Breakfast break

Posted on 05/15/2008 by Meryl Yourish

I was up and working an hour earlier than usual today, thanks to Tig3.0, who is no longer happy being confined to my office. He yowled to be let out at five. Then again at six. Then again at 7:30, when I finally gave up and got up. I am just now able to have breakfast, at 10:30.

I have a new setup that makes Tig less noisy and annoying while I’m working. I leave the office door open, my bedroom door shut, and the bathroom door open. This has necessitated emptying the bathroom trash bin and making me realize I have to get one of those closed-top trash cans for the bathroom, as Tig has decided he likes all forms of papers, and is trying to fish out used tissues from the trash. And may I say: Ew.

I blocked the stairs with a large, cardboard trifold display that was eventually going to wind up with my school pictures on it. That, plus a standing dustpan to fill the corner is more than enough to keep a 12-week-old kitten from coming down the stairs. (Actually, he came halfway down the stairs—twice—while I ate breakfast, and this post was scheduled, so it remained unedited for a while.) He is currently running around like a mad thing from room to room, leaping in and out of the bathtub, yowling little kitten yowls of pleasure, sounding like a herd of cats instead of just the one kitten, and utterly confusing Gracie.

One result of the new setup seems to be that Tig wants to nap in my lap now. It’s cute, but annoying when I have to work, because either he makes my legs fall asleep, or I move and then he wakes up and decides to play, or launch himself onto my shoulder, where he then attacks my hair. He’s turning into quite the shoulder kitty. This is also not necessarily a good thing. If I’m sitting on the floor playing with him, he will sneak up behind me and launch himself onto my shoulder, and of course, claws must be involved to maintain balance.

Tig has learned the word “No” very well. Well, he knows what it means. That doesn’t mean he agrees with it. He’s not unlike most kids in that respect.

Suddenly, there is quiet upstairs. I think he’s sleeping. Of course, the minute I go upstairs he wakes up and hits Kitty Crazy Mode again, instantly.

Well, I’m getting less and less allergic to him. I think I’m going to give him the run of the house this weekend, except for my bedroom. It’s been suggested to me not to let him sleep in my room as a way to keep my allergies further in check. We’ll see if he lets me close the door on him. I really don’t like being awakened every hour on the hour from five o’clock on.

Posted in Cats | Tagged | 6 Comments

The real Palestinian collaborator

Posted on 05/15/2008 by Soccerdad

Often you’ll hear Palestinians complaining that Israel was founded due to European guilt over the Holocaust, but since they had nothing to do with the Holocaust, why should the Jews be allowed to create a state that dispossesses them? The Holocaust was European and the Palestinians argue they’re paying the price.

While there were many forces at work to allow the return of the Jews to Israel and the (re-)creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, certainly sympathy for the Jews after the Holocaust played a role. The status of the refugee demonstrated the need for a Jewish homeland. (A point that was emphasized by the expulsion of Jews from their homes in Arab lands after the UN approve the partition plan.)

The political leader of the Palestinians, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, lived in Nazi German during WWII, trying to enlist the Nazis to impose their final solution on Palestine once they swept through Africa.

Finally there’s proof that the Mufti not only wanted the destruction of the Jews of Palestine, but was fully aware of the destruction of the Jews of Europe.

According to Wisliceny, at the beginning of 1942 Eichmann made a detailed presentation to al-Husaini on the “solution of the European Jewish question.” The presentation took place in Eichmann’s “map room” in Berlin: “where he had collected statistical graphics on the Jewish population in the various European countries.” The Grand Mufti, Wisliceny recalls, was “very impressed.” Furthermore, al-Husaini is supposed to have put in a request to Himmler to have Eichmann send one of his assistants to Jerusalem after Germany had won the war. The representative of Eichmann was to serve as the Grand Mufti’s personal advisor: i.e. when the Grand Mufti would then set about “solving the Jewish question in the Middle East.”We can infer from other documentation that this was not just a vague idea. A declassified document on Nazi war crimes from the National Archives in Washington indicates that as of mid-1942 a special SS commando unit had plans to liquidate the Jews of Cairo following the capture of the city by German forces. (See detail below.) Gen. Erwin Rommel was supposedly disgusted by the proposition. The head of the SS unit, Walter Rauff, had earlier been involved in developing vans that served as mobile gas chambers. It should be noted that he was a German and not a Pole, as suggested in the U.S. government document.

In his memoirs, however, the Grand Mufti feigns astonishment at Himmler’s remark. On his account, Himmler asked him how he would solve the problem of the Jews in his country. Amin al-Husaini says that he answered that they should go back to where they came from. To which Himmler is supposed then to have replied: “Come back to Germany — we will never allow them to do that.” But the Grand Mufti is here white-washing his own role in history. After all, in Berlin on November 2, 1943, he publicly declared that Muslims should follow the example of the Germans, who had found a “definitive solution to the Jewish problem.”

So when the Mufti was enlisting Nazi help for the Middle East, he knew full well that they were capable of. His wasn’t just an idle dream.

When a Palestinian is accused of helping Israel he’s called a “collaborator.” Even though he’s been working to fight terror, the media uses the Palestinian term in order to cast a pall on his noble deed. The term “collaborator” is an obvious reference to those who helped the Nazis against their own countries.

This is more proof that the real Palestinian collaborator was the father of modern Palestinian nationalism. It is also revealing that despite the lofty rhetoric of independence and self determination, Palestinian nationalism is, at its root, a genocidal ideology.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, palestinian politics | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Terror attack in Ashkelon

Posted on 05/15/2008 by Soccerdad

via memeorandum

A Grad missile hit a shopping mall in Ashkelon yesterday injuring 15.

Israel believes Islamic Jihad is getting the Grads from Iran. “It’s part of the Iranian war against Israel,” former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio.

That’s pretty clear. And it’s been with Egypt’s connivance.

Israel Matzav observed:

Peres is now speaking in front of Bush. The part about “we’ll respond at the right time” and wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded was said in Hebrew, not in English.

A Blog for All adds:

Number of days since last Israeli injured by rocket/mortar fire: 0
Number of days since last Israeli killed by rocket/mortar fire: pending updates.

The Washington Post barely covered the attack, focusing instead on President Bush’s visit to Israel.

Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza during clashes with the Israeli military. Medical officials said that two of the dead were civilians. Later, a rocket fired from Gaza slammed into a busy shopping mall in the coastal city of Ashkelon. Sixteen people were wounded, three of them seriously, including a mother and her daughter, according to Israeli hospital and police officials. A group affiliated with Hamas took responsibility for the attack.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the attack “entirely intolerable” and said Israel will “take the necessary steps so that this will stop.”

The violence was a reminder of the obstacles facing negotiators as they attempt to cobble together a peace deal — one that Bush has said he wants completed by the end of his term in January.

By this account, a firefight between the IDF and terrorists is as much a problem as a terror attack against civilians.

President Bush did make a nice statement.

“I suspect if you looked back 60 years ago and tried to guess where Israel would be at that time, it would be hard to be able to project such a prosperous, hopeful land,” Bush said after meeting with Peres. “I doubt people would have been able to see the modern Israel, which is one reason I bring so much optimism to the Middle East, because what happened here is possible everywhere.”Bush elicited a raucous standing ovation from a crowd that included other world leaders and prominent Jewish figures at a ceremony Wednesday night marking the U.S.-Israel alliance.

And I suspect that if you went back 15 years and anticipated what the nascent Palestinian state would look like it would look like you wouldn’t necessarily be surprised. It was foolish to trust Arafat. The changes necessary in the Palestinian world for their to be peace have yet to take place. As long as Palestinian nationalism is motivated more by the destruction of Israel than the building of a society, that society won’t be built.

The New York Times focused more on the terror attack and picked up this amusing bit.

The timing, though, has been difficult for Mr. Bush, in part because Mr. Olmert is the subject of a corruption investigation that some say could cost him his job. When Mr. Bush arrived in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, Mr. Olmert’s banter with the White House national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, was picked up by a sensitive microphone.“Holding on, holding on. Don’t worry,” Mr. Olmert was overheard telling Mr. Hadley.

No word if Secretary Rice accepted DM Barak’s invitation.

See Meryl’s post from yesterday.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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Half witte

Posted on 05/15/2008 by Soccerdad

As the successor to Scott Wilson, the Washington Post’s Israel correspondent Griff Witte had some mighty low expectations to meet in terms of reporting objectively. Witte has very quickly managed to establish himself the equal of Scott Wilson in terms of adopting the Palestinian narrative. A recent Q & A about Israel’s 60th birthday is very revealing.

The first question he actually handled quite well.

Silver Spring, Md.: Mr. Witte, you write that “Israel remains an unfinished project” and I am frankly glad that it is. Can any nation on the face of this earth truly be deemed a “finished project”? Wouldn’t that mean stasis and stagnation? But please do not attribute this status of Israel to the lack of a constitution — Israel is far from alone among the nations of the world to operate without a constitution. Great Britain, for one, comes to mind.

Griff Witte: An excellent question, so thank you. You’re right that no nation ever truly is finished, but I think there’s more debate in Israel than there is in most places about the nature of the state. What are Israel’s borders? How does Israel handle the Palestinian territories? Are its neighbors friend or foe? Is Israel just for Jews, or is it multireligious? Within Judaism, how does Israel balance the needs of the ultra-Orthodox against the needs of the secular?

All of these are questions I hear being batted around this Independence Day. Of course, Israel’s relative youth may account for a good part of the uncertainty.

Another possibility is that Israel has a very strong and vocal left wing that has its own newspaper.

But then we get to the second question.

Oslo, Norway: A common complaint against Israel is that they “kicked out the Arabs.” Not only do Arabs still live in Israel, but there are more Arabs living in Israel now than in any other time in history. What is the reason for the continuation of this myth?

Griff Witte: I don’t know that this is a myth. It has been well established by historians that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes — either directly or through intimidation from the advancing Israeli forces. They ended up in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and many other places beyond.

It’s also well-established, and hardly a secret, that there’s a significant Arab minority still living in Israel. About 20 percent of Israel’s population is Arab.

No mention that most of the Arabs left on their own accord or were encouraged by their leadership to leave their homes.
Continue reading →

Posted in Israel, Media Bias | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The anti-Israel media narrative

Posted on 05/14/2008 by Meryl Yourish

An Iranian-supplied Grad rocket struck a shopping center in Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel 11 miles north of the Gaza Strip. The only way a Palestinian rocket can hit Ashkelon is if it isn’t one of those “crude, homemade” rockets—it has to be an Iranian-supplied and Hamas-approved Grad rocket.

The rocket struck a women’s clinic in a shopping center. Fifteen people were hurt, including infants. People—mostly women and their children—were trapped under the rubble.

The rocket crashed into a women’s health clinic on the second floor of a busy shopping mall in central Ashkelon just before 6:00 pm, wounding 15 people and burying several shoppers under piles of rubble. MDA paramedics dispatched to the scene fought to extract those trapped under large pieces of debris, including four people who were evacuated in serious condition, including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, and 11 more who suffered from moderate wounds.

You would think that this would be the angle that the AP chooses to concentrate on: Women at a health clinic and their children were nearly killed today due to a long-range rocket fired from the Gaza Strip by terrorists, with the full cooperation of Hamas, the democratically-elected government of the Palestinians.

You would, of course, be wrong. This is the AP spin on the incident. Note the second graf of the lede:

A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in this southern Israeli city Wednesday, wounding at least 14 people, as President Bush wrapped up talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s prime minister.

The attack raised the chances that Israel will send large numbers of ground forces into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip – something the army chief has reportedly decided he wants to do.

Once again, the rocket hit a women’s health clinic in a shopping center. The victims were nearly all women and children. Imagine the media outrage if a tank shell went astray in Gaza and landed on a women’s health clinic. Oh, let’s be honest: You don’t have to imagine it. We’ve already seen the media blitz every time Palestinian civilians get hit. We saw it just a couple of weeks ago, when terrorists carrying explosives caused the deaths of a Palestinian family, yet the world blamed Israel for it.

Reuters took its time focusing on Israelis getting hurt by random rocket fire. But then they made up for it in style. Note the second graf of the lede here, too:

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip injured more than 30 people at a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, the Israeli army and emergency service officials said.

The strike came as U.S. President George W. Bush met Israeli leaders in Jerusalem to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of their state — an event Palestinians commemorate as the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, for their people.

This is the new Reuters boilerplate going out on all the Israel stories. See how Reuters manages to spin even the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as a reason behind the bombardment of civilian areas by terrorists:

Hamas and its fellow Islamists say they fire rockets as part of a campaign to destroy Israel and take the land from where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out when Israel was established as a state on May 14, 1948. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

One simply has to sit back in awe and wonder at the yellow journalism practiced today by so-called objective, so-called mainstream media players. And of course, there is never a word of the equal number of Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim lands during the same time period, driven out by Muslims “infuriated” by the establishment of the Jewish state. The fact that the bulk of these refugees landed in Israel and now make up a substantial part of the Israeli population is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. Because it would harm the narrative to point out that there were Jewish refugees from Arab lands whose goods were stolen from them by Arabs. Can’t have two victims in one narrative, can we?

But look at the common threads in both stories. The first paragraph of the lede describes the attack. The second graf then goes immediately into the Palestinian point of view. The attack will cause Israel to invade Gaza. The attack happened during Palestinian “nakba” commemorations. Israeli infants, victims of terrorist rockets? Unimportant. They’re not Palestinian infants, victims of a stray tank shell/terrorist exploding/kassam rocket falling short of its target and hitting Palestinians—all of which are blamed on Israel. The narrative, always the narrative—that of Palestinian victim and Israeli aggressor—must be maintained.

Watch for that narrative when the IDF finally goes into Gaza to clean out the terrorists. Hamas has learned a great deal from Hezbullah. Here’s hoping that the IDF learned a great deal as well.

Posted in Israel | Tagged | 6 Comments

11 hurt in Iranian grad strike on Ashkelon

Posted on 05/14/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Counting the days until President Bush leaves Israel and the IDF goes into Gaza. Because the IDF needs to go in to stop these rocket attacks.

Palestinian terror groups launched a Grad rocket towards Israel late Wednesday afternoon, as US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were meeting in Jerusalem.

The rocket crashed into the top floor of a crowded shopping mall in central Asheklon. Rescue services dispatched to the scene managed to extract three people who were trapped in the debris. MDA paramedics have confirmed eleven people were wounded in the attack, three of them are in serious condition. Several other people are being treated for shock at the scene.

A baby girl who was evacuated to the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon is said to be in moderate condition.

The IDF said the rocket was launched from the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, a frequent base for rocket attacks. The army said it was looking into reports from local residents who said the alert sirens had not sounded prior to the attack.

The AP has noticed the attack, even mentioning that babies were hurt:

A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, wounding at least three people and leaving two trapped under rubble, officials said.

Rescue service spokesman Eli Bean said two babies were among the wounded. Witnesses told Israeli radio stations that the rocket caused considerable damage and Bean said at least two people were trapped.

Two dead and 15 wounded in the last week alone by Gaza rocket attacks. When will Olmert decide that it’s time for something to be done?

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Palestinians lie to PHR; cancer patient alive

Posted on 05/14/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Last month, it was all over the news how the evil Israelis are killing Palestinians by refusing to allow them to enter Israel even for medical reasons. From Ynet:

A Palestinian father of six who was diagnosed with a brain cancer died at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital on Wednesday while waiting for an entry permit to Israel, where he was set to undergo brain surgery and receive chemotherapy treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Three weeks ago, at the request of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel), Dr Elsalam Abria of Haifa’s Rambam Hospital wrote an opinion saying that Muhammad el-Harani would die within a few days or weeks unless he receives proper treatment in Israel.

Ran Yaron, co-director of PHR-Israel’s Occupied Territories Project, said that after el-Harani was diagnosed with cancer last February he was referred to Ichilov Hospital to undergo brain surgery and chemotherapy treatment, which are not conducted in any medical center in Gaza.

El-Harani’s request was rejected for security reasons, prompting PHR-Israel to file an urgent appeal on his behalf to the IDF’s District Coordination Office. El-Harani’s hearing, which was scheduled to take place at the Erez Crossing at the beginning of the week, was postponed by the army.

“The Shin Bet is continuing its harmful policy against cancer patients,” Yaron said, “we are very concerned for the fate of 12 others who have requested entry to Israel for treatment.”

Wow, that sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Except for the fact that it’s a lie. el-Harani isn’t dead. And Physicians for Human Rights knew about it the day after those stories were published.

Muhammad al-Harrani, a father of six from Gaza diagnosed with cancer who reportedly died while waiting for a permit to enter Israel, miraculously “came back to life.” This was not the result of a miracle, but rather, just part of the tactics used by al-Harrani’s family in a bid to secure a permit for him.

Al-Harrani is currently awaiting an entry permit into Israel, so that he can undergo head surgery at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and receive radiation and chemotherapy treatment. At the end of April he was summoned to a questioning session at the Erez Crossing as part of the permit process, but the session was postponed by a week.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, al-Harrani’s story was published. His family reported to the “Physicians for Human Rights” organization that he died. “The sick man could not withstand the wait for the permit,” claimed Ran Yaron, Director of the Occupied Territories Department who blamed the Shin Bet for adopting cruel policies against cancer patients.

However, the next day, the organization discovered that al-Harrani was still alive. Members of group estimated that his brother, who reported the death, “killed” him so he does not report to the questioning session.

So what does PHR have to say for itself? Gee, this never happens.

“This is a rare case where a family member knowingly provided false information to the organization,” Physicians for Human Rights said. “Usually, the organization receives information from the families and from the hospitals, but in this case the information was received from the family and was not confirmed by the hospital.”

So, effectively, PHR just admitted that they took the words of Palestinians, who have every incentive to lie to portray Israel in as evil light as possible, and did no due diligence themselves. Needless to say, the Shin bet is pissed.

“We view these harsh accusations on your part with great severity; not even a minimal inquiry into the facts was conducted.” The Shin Bet noted that due to the suspicion of his involvement in terror activities, al-Harrani was indeed called in for a security check, and it was indeed postponed by a week.

In other words, the Palestinian cancer patient tried to duck out on the Shin Bet interview. Why is that, we wonder? Could have have something to hide?

Not that that would matter to PHR. Even terrorists dying of brian cancer should be allowed into Israel in their worldview.

Not in mine.

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Calling Jimmy Carter: Hamas not looking for peace

Posted on 05/14/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Say, Jimmy Carter, would you mind responding to these words by Mahmoud al-Zahar, whom you said only last week wants peace of a sorts with Israel?

“The Palestinians and the Arabs have crushed the Jews’ assumption of supremacy… The Zionist legend of invincibility has been destroyed.

“Now more than ever I tell you – will never recognize Israel… We will form the Palestinian state on all of Palestine’s territories and the sun of liberty will burn the Zionists. To them I say – you will lose. You will leave and we will keep hounding you. The blood of our slain sons will haunt you forever,” he said.

Carter wrote in op-eds around the world only last week:

Hamas has agreed to accept any negotiated peace settlement between the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, provided it is approved in a referendum of the Palestinian people.

Compare and contrast these words, Mr. Carter. Tell me how Hamas wants peace. And oh yeah—there’s also the matter of flooding Israel with millions of third- and fourth-generation Palestinian “refugees”:

Senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar spoke Wednesday at a Gaza Strip event marking the 60th anniversary of the Nakba – the anniversary of the 1948 events which led to the induction of the State of Israel – and promised his listeners that “the right of return in closer than ever.”

Yep. Those are the words of a group that is willing to accept a peace with Israel. Uh-huh. Sure.

I’m anxiously awaiting the Carter spin on this one.

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Egypt to open Rafah border, breaking agreement with Israel

Posted on 05/14/2008 by Meryl Yourish

Is anyone truly surprised that Egypt will not stand by its Gaza agreement with Israel? Really? You may recall that when the Gaza agreements were being ironed out, and Condi Rice forced Israel to give up the Philadelphi corridor and cede control to European monitors (who fled at the first signs of violence from Hamas), Egypt also agreed to keep the terrorists from smuggling in arms and bombs. Yeah, that’s working out so well, Hamas blew up the border wall and imported thousands of rockets (and Iranian trainers) while they were at it. Now, Egypt isn’t even pretending to keep its agreements with Israel anymore. And of course, no one in the media makes so much as a peep when Egypt violates its agreements. Just as the world manages to ignore the fact that the “blockade” on Gaza is also being perpetrated by Egypt.

Egypt will reopen the Rafah crossing to Palestinians even if Cairo’s initiative to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas fails, according to assessments by Israeli defense officials. The Israel Defense Forces, meanwhile, is taking steps to be able to limit mass marches to the fence separating Gaza and Israel.

Although Egypt denies it, evidence is mounting that Cairo and Hamas recently reached an understanding to open the crossing regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.

Israeli officials on Monday told Suleiman during his visit to Israel that Jerusalem would not agree to a cease-fire unless substantial progress is made in negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier abducted by Hamas in June 2006.

Defense officials also told Suleiman that Israel would not agree to open the Rafah crossing without such progress, conditioning their consent on Shalit’s release to Egypt. Suleiman expressed reservations about the demand, arguing that a cease-fire would help facilitate the deal for Shalit’s release.

However, Egypt could reopen the crossing without Israel’s consent as part of Cairo’s negotiations with Hamas. If Egypt does that, it would be violating understandings on the crossing it undertook under American pressure in November 2005.

The agreement Egypt signed then put the crossing under European supervision under security requirements demanded by Israel. The crossing has remained all but sealed since Hamas’ seizure of power in the Gaza Strip last June, after which Israel imposed a strict blockade on the enclave.

By the way, the PA also wants the crossings closed.

The Palestinian Authority firmly objects to the prospect of reopening the crossing. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is insisting on the presence of PA security forces at the site.

Of course, Hamas would blow through the PA forces in a flash, like they did to take over Gaza last year, but hey, that’s beside the point. The point here is that in violation of agreements, and against the wishes of everyone but Hamas, a terrorist group, Egypt is going to open the Rafah border crossing—which will allow Hamas to import more weapons, more bombs, more rockets, and more Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Iran is planning for the next war, too. It will be a war on at least three fronts, and all three fronts will have thousands of rockets bombarding Israel. Many people are going to die if this one comes to pass. Pray that it doesn’t. The Iranian proxy army buildup continues, aided and abetted by the lack of will by neighboring countries to stop it—as well as by the rest of the world. Hell, even Tom Friedman has noticed the Iranian threat.

For now, Team America is losing on just about every front. How come? The short answer is that Iran is smart and ruthless, America is dumb and weak, and the Sunni Arab world is feckless and divided.

Of course, he doesn’t advocate that we actually do anything about it.

When you have leverage, talk. When you don’t have leverage, get some — by creating economic, diplomatic or military incentives and pressures that the other side finds too tempting or frightening to ignore. That is where the Bush team has been so incompetent vis-à-vis Iran.

The only weaker party is the Sunni Arab world, which is either so drunk on oil it thinks it can buy its way out of any Iranian challenge or is so divided it can’t make a fist to protect its own interests — or both.

We’re not going to war with Iran, nor should we. But it is sad to see America and its Arab friends so weak they can’t prevent one of the last corners of decency, pluralism and openness in the Arab world from being snuffed out by Iran and Syria.

Yes, that would be the world that is unwilling to go along with sanctions. Friedman is ignoring the fact that effective sanctions keep getting shot down by Europe, Russia, and China, no matter what the Bush Administration proposes. You can’t get leverage if you’re the only kid on the block willing to do something about the local bully, but every other kid refuses to help. I’m not saying the U.S. isn’t helpless. But the world bodies refuse to act in anything other than their own short-term self-interest. Switzerland signs natural gas deals with Iran. China and Russia sign major trade agreements and send arms and weapons technology—including nuclear technology—to aid Iran in getting atomic bombs.

The only thing the world is ever in agreement on is its condemnation of Israel. Or aggressive American actions. So watch for the world to ignore Egypt’s violation of its agreement with Israel, and then scream when Israel tries to do something in response to an attack by a newly-supplied Hamas.

Posted in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, World | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Industrial Zones for Peace

Posted on 05/14/2008 by Soccerdad

Writing about an industrial zone on the border of Gaza set to open nearly ten years ago, William Orme of the New York Times reported:

Now, hailed by all sides as the first tangible achievement of the current phase of the tortuous Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process, the Gaza Industrial Estate is expected to be operating before the end of the year. It will employ up to a thousand Palestinians, and eventually more, in several small-scale manufacturing ventures.What was hailed here as a diplomatic and economic breakthrough would almost anywhere else in the world be an unexceptional, small step in industrial development.

Still, it is a measure of the Gaza Strip’s isolation and economic desperation that this tentative, modest project looms so large for Palestinian planners.

Orme, of course, notes how Israel was likely to render the success of such a project unviable.

Gaza’s exports are routinely obstructed by border closings and security checks, further skewing a chronic trade imbalance. For every five trucks that arrive here from Israel, only one goes out, and it typically goes out very slowly.On a recent afternoon at the border checkpoint next to the industrial park, six Israeli customs inspectors examined a truckload of Gaza potatoes for hours, pallet by pallet, bag by bag, with hand-held metal detectors.

Unfortunately, one of the industrial zones bordering Gaza, Karni, was often the focus of terrorism.

In 2004 after Israel arrested an organizer of a terrorist attack in Ashdod where the terrorists were transported through Karni, Israel released some relevant information about the suspect:

Atallah noted that in the weeks prior to his arrest, the Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades tried to carry out another double suicide bombing into Israel, using the Karni crossing as the route for smuggling the suicide bombers. Atallah was responsible for arranging the release of the containers from the crossing; the suicide bombers were to be hidden under a double floor within a container. Atallah said that the terrorist organizations view the Karni crossing as a weak point, lacking full security checks, and providing an attractive route for smuggling terrorists into Israel. For that matter, the Hamas, assisted by Atallah, was planning to purchase trucks and establish a company for transporting containers from the Gaza Strip into Israel and use it as a guise for smuggling terrorists into Israel.

(emphasis mine)

In a 2006 briefing a UNRWA official said:

Recent incursions into the Karni industrial zone have left the infrastructure severely damaged. This usually vibrant area is now empty and quiet. Many of the companies will struggle to get started again. Some of them might not survive. Last month the offices of many Karni based Gazan companies were demolished, even the motherboards of their computers were taken away.”If violence stops there are other things to be done. This industrial zone has to be working again. Otherwise reconstruction will be unsustainable in Gaza”, Mr Grandi said.

The problem is that Karni became a focal point for attack because of its vulnerability. In fact the idea – logical on the face – that facilitating commerce and economic opportunity between the Palestinians and Israel would cement peace between them, has worked out quite the opposite so far.

I bring you this background because Tony Blair knows that he can bring peace to the Middle East by following this path right now.

Mr. Blair, a former British prime minister and now the representative of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers — the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union — announced plans for economic, social and security measures at a news conference. He said it would be “a mistake to think” that the political negotiations could work without changing the reality on the ground.That, he said, meant easing conditions for Palestinians in their daily lives while assuring Israelis their security.

Among the measures, which Mr. Blair said he had been discussing with Israeli defense officials, were efforts to ease the movement of Palestinian people and goods; the development of two industrial parks; approval for new building in Palestinian villages in areas under Israeli control; and the creation of a special Palestinian economic and security zone in and around Jenin, in the north, as a testing ground for the rest of the West Bank.

Will Mr. Blair’s initiatives pay off? The experience in Gaza shows that rather improving the lives of the Palestinians, the economic zones may well become targets for opportunistic terrorists. This is not to say that his effort will fail. Still past experience tells us that Mr. Blair’s good intentions notwithstanding, the implementation of his plan may well make matters worse.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Holidays, Life, Linkfests | 1 Comment

Technological enforcement

Posted on 05/13/2008 by Soccerdad

Ha’aretz reports on a new Israeli startup that has developed technology to detect terrorists:

Quietly, even stealthily, this unknown company has been working for five years now on one of the more interesting technological innovations to be created in these parts.WeCU (“We see you,” in case you are unaccustomed to SMS-speak) promises an automated system to detect people with mayhem on their minds. The system integrates methods and doctrines from the behavioral sciences with biometric sensors.

According to the company’s founders, in under a minute it can screen an individual, without his or her knowledge or cooperation and without interfering with routine activities, and disclose intentions to carry out criminal or terror activity. It can identify subjects who are not carrying any suspicious objects, do not demonstrate any suspicious behavior, do not fit into a predefined social or other profile and do not arouse any suspicion.

Unlike systems currently in use, such as polygraphs or biometric systems based on identifying an individual under emotional pressure, WeCU does not attempt to determine whether the subject is lying, concealing information, under stress or feeling guilty. Instead, it seeks to identify concealed intentions by uncovering an associative connection between the subjects and defined threats.

What isn’t clear is if this system would be deployed in public spaces or if it would utilized in interrogations. On the one hand the company’s saying that it can screen suspects “without interfering with routine activities” on the other hand the CEO goes on to explain:

How does it work? Givon explains: “The technology is patented. We take advantage of human characteristics, according to which when a person intends to carry out a particular activity or has a great acquaintance or involvement with a particular activity, he carries with him information and feelings that are associated with the subject or activity. In effect, his brain creates a collection of associations that are relevant to the subject.”When this person is exposed to stimuli targeted at these associations – such as a picture of a partner to the activity, items from the scene of a crime that he carried out, the symbol of the organization in whose name he is acting or a code word – he will respond emotionally and cognitively to these stimuli. The response is expressed with a number of very subtle physiological and behavioral changes during the exposure to the stimulus,” Givon said.

If the system exposes the subject to “stimuli” how does it do that effectively unless it’s in a controlled environment (such as an interrogation)?

The Guardian’s technology blog wonders (where I first saw the story):

There’s not much info on WeCU Technologies Ltd, but it is a Microsoft Partner and was “incorporated in August 2003”. The partner page has a summary of the approach, but the link to its web page doesn’t work.

While there are some questions about WeCU, one of the founders of the company, Prof. Shlomo Breznitz was previously involved with another startup, Mindfit Technologies that also focuses on cognition.

The trial was conducted at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center of Tel-Aviv University in Israel, where researchers are taking a leading role in the study of age-related disorders. During the two-year clinical trial, doctors conducted a prospective, randomized, double-blind study with active comparators of 121 self-referred volunteer participants age 50 and older. Each study participant was randomly assigned to spend 30 minutes, three times a week during the course of three months at home, using either MindFit or sophisticated computer games.While all study participants benefited from the use of computer games, MindFit users experienced greater improvement in the cognitive domains of spatial short term memory, visuo-spatial learning and focused attention. Additionally, MindFit users in the study with lower baseline cognitive performance gained more than those with normal cognition, showing the potential therapeutic effect of home-based computer training software in those already suffering the effects of aging or more serious diseases.

“These research findings show unequivocally that MindFit, which requires no previous computer experience of users, keeps minds sharper than other computer games and software can,” said Prof. Shlomo Breznitz, Ph.D., founder and president of CogniFit. “In fact, the same cognitive domains that MindFit keeps sharp are also central in most daily activities-including driving-that enable aging independently.”

Breznitz continued, “These findings support CogniFit’s belief that if you exercise your brain just as you do your muscles, you can build the speed and accuracy of your mental functions, significantly. ‘Working out’ with MindFit three times a week from the comfort of your home will yield similar results for your brain as exercising at the gym with that same frequency does for your muscles.”

In unrelated news Prof Breznitz was saved from the Holocaust by being hidden at a Catholic orphanage.

In somewhat related news Japan is considering fielding a facial recognition device to determine if a person buying cigarettes from a vending is of legal age (20 in Japan) to do so.

Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow’s feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country’s 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features.

By having the customer look into a digital camera attached to the machine, Fujitaka Co’s system will compare facial characteristics, such as wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags, to the facial data of over 100,000 people, Hajime Yamamoto, a company spokesman said.

And infra-red sensors give the Air Force an opportunity to detect and eliminate a threat to soldiers on the ground.

The sniper never knew what hit him. The Marines patrolling the street below were taking fire, but did not have a clear shot at the third-story window that the sniper was shooting from. They were pinned down and called for reinforcements.Help came from a Predator drone circling the skies 20 miles away. As the unmanned plane closed in, the infrared camera underneath its nose picked up the muzzle flashes from the window. The sniper was still firing when the Predator’s 100-pound Hellfire missile came through the window and eliminated the threat.

The airman who fired that missile was 8,000 miles away, here at Creech Air Force Base, home of the 432nd air wing. The 432nd officially “stood up,” in the jargon of the Air Force, on May 1, 2007. One year later, two dozen of its drones patrol the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan every hour of every day. And almost all of them are flown by two-man crews sitting in the air-conditioned comfort of a “ground control station” (GCS) in the Nevada desert.

I suppose that there are those who will see in this increased use of video and recognition technology a manifestation of Big Brother. In the limited use they’ve been deployed so far, it doesn’t seem that governments are getting too intrusive. Then again maybe it would be reassuring if governments limited this technology for really important stuff instead of (unsuccessfully) saturating society with it.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel | 5 Comments

Jimmy Carter’s comment is content free

Posted on 05/13/2008 by Soccerdad

Jimmy Carter in the Guardian’s Comment is Free section:

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and fair by all international observers.

Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife, Hamas alone controls Gaza. Forty-one of the 43 victorious Hamas candidates who lived in the West Bank have been imprisoned by Israel, plus an additional 10 who assumed positions in the short-lived coalition cabinet.

As I’ve commented in the past, Jimmy Carter’s say-so that elections are “honest and fair” is worthless as he’s covered for elections stolen by Yasser Arafat and Hugo Chavez.

Still Carter, is not a lawyer and knows nothing about international law. However, David B. Rivkin and Lee Casey specialize in the subject and outlined Israel’s rights and obligations according to international law.

It is because an occupying power exercises effective control over a territory that international law substantially restricts the measures, military or economic, it can bring to bear upon this territory, well beyond the limits that would be applicable before occupation, whether in wartime or peacetime.The Israeli military does not control Gaza; nor does Israel exercise any government functions there. Claims that Israel continues to occupy Gaza suggest that a power having once occupied a territory must continue to behave toward the local population as an occupying power until all outstanding issues are resolved. This “principle” can be described only as an ingenious invention; it has no basis in traditional international law.

The adoption of any such rule (designed to limit Israel’s freedom of action and give Hamas a legal leg up in its continuing conflict) should be actively opposed by the United States. Its adoption would suggest that no occupying power can withdraw of its own volition without incurring continuing, and perhaps permanent, legal obligations to a territory. This issue is particularly acute regarding territory not otherwise controlled by a functioning state — failed states or failed areas of states where the “legitimate” government cannot or will not exercise effective control. Such places — call them badlands — were once rare. Over the past 15 years, though, there has been an explosion in the number of such areas, notably parts of Afghanistan, Somalia and portions of Pakistan.

I suppose that Jimmy should be flattered, they called his declaration that Israel should not be allowed to defend itself “ingenious.” I don’t think they meant it in a complimentary fashion though.

Furthermore restricting Israel’s right to defend itself, has implications in relation to the United States.

Unduly handicapping states that intervene in such badlands — whether to protect their own interests, those of the local population or both — is unrealistic and irresponsible. Requiring agreement by the “international community” (whatever that may be) as a precondition for extinguishing such a designation is equally unproductive if the goal is saving lives. Consider the example of Darfur.Even worse is pretending that groups such as Hamas are merely criminal gangs that must be dealt with as a local policing problem — just one of the potential side effects of imposing an “occupied” status on a territory. This implicates U.S. interests directly, since America’s ability to use robust armed force against al-Qaeda and similar non-state actors remains critical to defending our civilian population from attack.

Perhaps rather than lecturing us about international law, Jimmy ought to sit down and read a book or two on the topic before spouting off.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Hamas, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

“Evolution” = “growth”

Posted on 05/13/2008 by Soccerdad

One of the thing conservatives like me marvel at is the way the supposedly objective media will describe a conservative politician who adopts liberal positions as having “grown” in office. It doesn’t really mean that the politician became more flexible, because a politician moving in the other direction would be described as “having become more conservative.” What “grown” means is “he’s become more like us.”

That’s how to approach the Washington Post’s U.S. Jews’ Relationship With Israel Evolves. “Evolves” in this case means the same thing as “grown” in the context mentioned above.

Growing up at Congregation Olam Tikvah, Michelle Pearlstein remembers how Israel was taught at religious school: “Black and white — you can’t trust anyone, and it was a united front in support of Israel.” Today, Pearlstein, 35, is the Israel specialist at the Fairfax synagogue, where she teaches what is now the mainstream approach: “We call it ‘Israel, warts and all.’ “The change in curriculum is but one manifestation of the changing relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state, even as the country celebrates its 60th birthday this week.

Multiple new polls show that younger American Jews feel less of a connection to Israel than older Jews. And while there is heated debate about some of the polls’ methodologies and conclusions, most Jewish leaders are very concerned about the data. The leaders see them as a long-term byproduct of intermarriage, assimilation and controversial Israeli policies, including settlement expansion in the occupied territories.

I’d put that last bit differently, “… growing ambivalence, reflecting attitudes seen in the media, towards such non-controversial Israeli policies as defending itself against terrorist organizations.” But of course emphasizing “settlements” as “controversial” underscores the reporter’s belief that American Jews are becoming more like her.

Then there’s this:

What affect would a weakening of the emotional link between Israel and American Jews have on U.S. policy toward the Middle East? Last month, a group of left-leaning Jews established a lobbying group hoping to counter the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has often lobbied U.S. governments to maintain a tough line toward Israel’s adversaries.

J-Street is of course not the result of the “weakening” of an “emotional link,” rather it is the expression of contempt by a segment of Jews towards Israel. Though masquerading as a leftist “pro-Israel’ lobbying group, it features the likes of Henry Siegman who has made a career of ripping Israel and apologizing for the likes of Hafez Assad, Yasser Arafat and Hamas.

Experts in Jewish education describe replacing mushy classic ballads like “Jerusalem of Gold” from the 1960s with tracks from Israeli rappers who sing about immigration and sexuality, or jettisoning lessons about pioneering kibbutzim and replacing them with ones about Israel’s technology wunderkinds.

While I can’t disagree with the later sentiment, the first one is offensive. “Jerusalem of Gold” (“Yerushalayim shel Zahav”) is not mushy. It’s beautiful. At least to my (untrained) ear. More likely the problem with it is that it was written Naomi Shemer an Israeli who was associated with the political right and who was proud of her country. And those who wish to see the American Jewish relationship with Israel “mature” have no place for for feelings of nationalism and pride.

Pearlstein said much of the teaching material about Israel is outdated. Either it sticks to Biblical Israel and does not go beyond 1948, or it ends at 1967 — the Six-Day War. “I think that’s because recent years have been so negative,” she says. Her main goal is to teach students to have a connection with Israel, “to show that Jews have always been in this land, we can see it in the Bible and we can see it today.” But you have to do it frankly, she says, by showing “shades of gray, Israel’s challenges as well as its achievements.”

I don’t have a problem with the “shades of gray.” Israel is a country run by people, so obviously it won’t be perfect. The problem is that those who see the importance of adding the “shades of gray” are looking for opacity; they’re looking for for a really dark gray that will block out all light of achievement. (Pardon the cheap metaphor.)

Read (most of the articles in) the Forward or read James David Besser in most American-Jewish weeklies. I would argue that neither of them are pro-Israel. The problem isn’t that they present shades of gray. It’s that the image of Israel that they project is almost unremittingly negative. The problem isn’t that education about Israel in the Jewish community is overly romanticized; it’s that many of the public forums in the Jewish community unfairly criticize Israel.

The evolution hailed by the Washington Post is, in reality, a step back.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Media Bias | Tagged , | Comments Off on “Evolution” = “growth”