Elder of Ziyon

Iranian cleric warns of Jews buying land - in Kurdistan

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:02:00 +0000

From Iran's ever-entertaining PressTV:

A Sunni cleric in the northwestern Iranian city of Sardasht has warned about attempts by Israeli Jews to purchase 'Muslim lands' in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

“Unfortunately, in recent weeks, several individuals affiliated with Israeli Jews have been purchasing property from Iraq's Kurdish Muslim population, in violation of our religious guidelines," said Molla Khezr Rahimi in an address to a Quranic event on Tuesday.

Molla Rahimi, speaking at Sardasht's Amini Mosque, added that "individuals with ties to the Zionist regime" have managed to purchase land in Iraqi Kurdistan by offering lucrative deals.

“Some people have sold their land for worldly profits. They have been tricked by the Jews," Rahimi said.

“Selling Muslim land to people affiliated with Israel is haram (religiously forbidden) under any guise whatsoever, even if the land is being purchased to build a church, because this is part of a pre-planned plot."

The cleric told the people of the Kurdish border city that entering into deals with Israeli Jews for financial gain was wrong, as it would set the scene for further “Zionist presence" in the region.

I'm dying to know what the "pre-planned plot" is. Is Israel trying to purchase all of Kurdistan and kick the Muslims out to build a new Jewish state? Are the Jews trying to buy land near Iran to stage a ground invasion? Maybe they plan to build farms and factories that would smuggle evil Jewish goods into Iran. Or maybe they will use the land to build a tunnel underneath Muslim holy sites to destabilize them.

There are so many possible plots, why can't we hear the details?

Col. Travers and Goldstone

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:59:00 +0000

JCPA is about to put up a very damning report on the anti-Israel bias that Col. Desmond Travers has. Travers was one of the four members of the Goldstone "fact-finding" mission, and his influence over the report is clear. Here it is:

Col. (ret.) Desmond Travers was one of the four members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced what is widely called the Goldstone Report. The Mission investigated Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009. Travers joined the Irish Defense Forces in 1961 and retired after forty years. As the only former officer who belonged to Justice Richard Goldstone's team, he was the senior figure responsible for the military analysis that provided the basis for condemning Israel for war crimes.

After following his repeated public appearances with the other mission members in July 2009, and especially in light of his most recent interviews, serious flaws have now become evident in the methodology he followed, in his collection and processing of data, and in the conclusions he draws. In the past, the flaws in the Goldstone report, and especially its lack of balance, have been criticized by the London Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist, but the fundamental problems of its military analysis have not been fully addressed. In the material presented here, this becomes evident in four specific ways:

1. A Fundamental Bias against the Israel Defense Forces

During the Mission's collection of testimonies from Palestinian psychologists in the Gaza Strip, Travers asked them straight out to explain how Israeli soldiers could kill Palestinian children in front of their parents. In an interview with Middle East Monitor, on February 2, 2010, he asserted that in the past Israeli soldiers had "taken out and deliberately shot" Irish peacekeeping forces in Southern Lebanon. Both of these statements by Travers are completely false. It should be stressed that one of the most vicious and unsubstantiated conclusions in the Goldstone Report is the suggestion that Israel deliberately killed Palestinian civilians.

While Travers assumes the worst of intentions on the part of the Israel Defense Forces, he praises Hamas for their cooperation with the Mission. When he was asked about Hamas intimidation that affected the Mission's inquiries, he replied that that there was "none

whatsoever." Yet the Goldstone Report itself noted in Paragraph 440 that those interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about the presence of Palestinian armed groups because of a "fear of reprisals." He rejects the notion that Hamas shielded its forces in the civilian population and does not accept the idea that Israel faced asymmetric warfare.

2. False Information Reported About Weapons Systems

Travers comes up with a story that the IDF had unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) that could obtain a "thermal signature" on a Gaza house and detect that there were large numbers of people inside. Incredibly, he then suggests that with this information that certain houses were "packed with people," the Israeli military would then deliberately order a missile strike on these populated homes. The primary technical problem with his theory is that Israel does not have UAV's that can see though houses and pick up a thermal signature. More importantly, Israel used UAV's to monitor that Palestinian civilians left houses that had received multiple warnings, precisely because Israel sought to minimize civilian casualties, a fact that Travers could not fathom, because of his own clear biases.

3. Completely Inaccurate Data

Travers rejects that Israel began military operations against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008 as an act of self-defense in response to Hamas rockets. He bases this idea on a "fact" that he presents that in the month prior to start of the war, there were only "something like two" rockets that fell on Israel. Israeli military sources found that there were in fact 32 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel over three days alone--between December 16 and 18, 2008. He adds to his analysis that at this time Hamas sought to extend the tahdiya, or lull arrangement--which he called a cease-fire. Yet the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas announced on December 17 that the lull would come to an end two days later and would not be renewed. The head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal, announced the end of the lull on December 14. To say that Hamas wanted to continue the lull is a complete distortion of events.

In his Middle East Monitor interview, Travers states that he "only came across two incidents of where there was an actual combat situation" – the exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas. Because he minimizes the possibility that Israel was engaged in real combat in the Gaza Strip, it follows that he naturally conclude that Israel was essentially attacking non-combatants during Operation Cast Lead.

4. Lack of Professionalism in Conducting Thorough Investigations

Travers relies on his own prejudices when he looks into the question of whether Gazan Mosques had been militarized by Hamas and turned into weapons depots. In an interview with Harpers, published on October 29, 2009, Travers makes a sweeping generalization: "We found no evidence that mosques were used to store munitions." He then dismissed those who suggested that was the case by saying: "Those charges reflect Western perceptions in some quarters that Islam is a violent religion." How many mosques did Travers investigate? He admits that the Mission only checked two mosques.

Of course, Israel produced photographic proof that large amounts of weapons were stored in mosques, like the Zaytun Mosque. In a subsequent interview, Travers rejected the Israeli proof: "I do not believe the photographs." He described the photographs as "spurious." Travers appears to be bothered by proof that contradicts the conclusions he reaches on the basis of a very limited investigation. In early 2010, Colonel Tim Collins, a British veteran of the Iraq War, visited Gaza for BBC Newsnight (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/ 8470100 .stm, 20 January 2010) and inspected the ruins of a mosque that Israel had destroyed because it had been a weapons depot. He found that there was evidence of secondary explosions cause by explosives stored in the mosque cellar. Travers clearly did not make the effort that Collins made.

In his questioning of Palestinian witnesses in the Gaza Strip, Travers does not ask the questions that a military advisor should raise. He did not ask those giving testimony if they were member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam units of Hamas and were combatants. He also failed to ask them straight out if their homes had been used to store munitions, like Grad rockets. Instead, his questions reflected his ideological bias.

Travers most recent interview also had a disturbing additional element. When addressing the role of British officers in defending Israel's claims, Travers suddenly adds: "Britain's foreign policy interests in the Middle East seem to be influenced strongly by Jewish lobbyists." Travers implies that British Jews have interests that differ from Britain's own national interests and that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government is influenced by these considerations. This statement, unless corrected, places Travers is a position in which his views are suspect of being motivated by anti-Semitic prejudices. Even without this last statement, he clearly emerges as an individual who is not qualified to take part in any serious fact-finding mission and the U.N. should not seek his services in the future. Given his statements, Justice Richard Goldstone should repudiate Col. Travers and completely reject the conclusions that he reached as a result of his work.

Abbas tried to stop Channel 10 corruption report

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:48:00 +0000

Israel's Channel 10 has broadcast details of corruption at the highest levels of the PA, including millions of dollars stolen from public monies (shelled out by the US) and a sex scandal involving a top Abbas aide.

The whistleblower, Fathi Shabaneh, was actually hired to root out corruption in the PA. In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post:

“Some of the most senior Palestinian officials didn’t have even $3,000 in their pocket when they arrived [after the signing of the Oslo Accords],” Shabaneh said. “Yet we discovered that some of them had tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in their bank accounts.

Until today we didn’t hear about one official who was brought to trial for stealing money from the PA, although we had transferred many of the cases to the Palestinian prosecutor-general.”

The PA response is that it maintains transparency with donor countries and operates a strict oversight mechanism on their payments.

This is true - but it is not because of Fatah members suddenly wanting to be honest, but rather because the donor countries insist on it. In other words, the PA is still headed by corrupt thugs who would happily steal everything they can, but they need to be more clever than before so as not to be caught. And they are secure in the knowledge that their pseudo-government will never prosecute them for corruption.

And how does Mahmoud Abbas handle the news that the scandal was going to be broadcast? Why, he did what he always does: he threatened to resign (in a letter to Netanyahu) if Channel 10 broadcast the report.

And Mohammed Dahlan led a meeting of Fatah officials this morning - not to discuss how to root out corruption, but to figure out how to contain the scandal.

This is a classic case of how the honor/shame dynamic works. In such a culture, appearance is more important than reality, so therefore all efforts must be made to give an appearance of honesty and transparency but none to actual soul-searching.This is why we see honor killings and this is why we see such a massive cover-up of corruption.

In fact, the Abbas aide who was literally caught naked in bed by Shabaneh's people said on the videotape, "Thank God it’s you and not the Israelis." He was secure in the knowledge that such a scandal will not ever be publicized by the PA.

What a difference a caption makes

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:10:00 +0000

The same event, as seen by by Reuters and AP.

Reuters:

An undercover Israeli police officer (R) scuffles with a Palestinian youth suspected of throwing stones while trying to detain him during clashes in the Shuafat refugee camp in the West Bank near Jerusalem February 9, 2010. Clashes erupted between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli police that entered the refugee camp, a Reuters witness said on Tuesday.

AP:

A Palestinian rioter tries to grab a weapon from a plain-clothes Israeli police officer, right, during clashes in Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010. Palestinians scuffled with Israeli security forces, after an arrest operation triggered clashes in the camp the day before.

In Reuters' version, the Israeli is the aggressor. In AP's, we learn that the Palestinian Arab is trying to grab a weapon - presumably to use it on the policeman.

In Reuters' version,the Arab is a "youth." In AP's, he is a rioter.

In Reuters' version, the fighting just spontaneously "erupted" on Monday. In AP's more accurate version, an arrest operation prompted Palestinian Arab violence.

Reuters, not surprisingly, relied on an Arab stringer for its description of the events.

Let's look at the stones being hurled, shall we?That concrete block, dropped on a person or through a windshield, could easily kill someone.

And here is what a much smaller projectile looks like upon impact with a human head, luckily protected by a helmet:

This is the kind of "non-violent resistance" that the man of peace, the moderate Mahmoud Abbas, is encouraging.

Qaradawi forbids Hamas to reconcile with Fatah

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:47:00 +0000

As if we needed any more proof that rabid terror-supporting Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi was really a secret Zionist, he just came out with a fatwa - against Palestinian Arab unity.

Qaradawi said that if Hamas would reconcile with Fatah, then Hamas would lose its hold on Gaza. The logic is that Hamas is a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Gaza is now the first piece of land that the Muslim Brotherhood can point to as saying that they control it. Qaradawi does not want to give that up, no matter how much Gazans are suffering.

Qaradawi, who is regarded in some quarters as "moderate," came out with a fatwa in 2007 (according to Palestine Press Agency) saying that Hamas' violent coup was perfectly in line with Sharia law and that it was permissible to murder in order to establish the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza.

Hamas' cash flow problem

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:38:00 +0000

Hamas gets plenty of money from Iran, but it is having a problem smuggling it into Gaza.

According to Asharq Al-awsat, Hamas employees have not yet been paid for the month of January. Apparently, Egypt has been much more vigilant at stopping money from being transferred over the Rafah border.

Hamas is denying any cash flow crisis, saying they are just distributing salaries in a different way.

Hamas has a $540 million annual budget, and 32,000 employees in Gaza. In addition, there are tens of thousands of PA employees who get paid to sit at home and do nothing.

58% of the PA budget goes to Gaza for these non-working employee salaries, fuel, and electricity.

A brief peek into recent Palestinian Arab court rulings

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Palestinian Arab newspapers are different from other nations' media, in that you hardly ever read about court cases and rulings for ordinary crimes. They arrest people, but after that the stories usually disappear. Whether this is a reflection of the complete absence of any normal system of justice, or a cultural anomaly, I cannot say.

However, today there was one of these rare stories, apparently from a military court.

As best as I can interpret it, the following cases were concluded:

* A man was sentenced to death for collaborating with Israel.
* A soldier was sentenced to one year of prison for theft.
* 4 civilians were acquitted of attempted murder charges.
* 6 civilians were sentenced to six months of prison for being "against the general policy of the revolution."

See? They have a perfectly good criminal justice system!

Palestinian NGO Network demands apology from Berlusconi

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:01:00 +0000

From YNet, February 3:

In a speech in Jerusalem, Berlusconi said Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza last year was justified self-defense. But during a stop in the West Bank, he later explained this does not rule out sympathy for the war's victims. some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the fighting.

Berlusconi said, "Just as it's right to cry for the victims of the Shoah, it's right to show pain for what happened in Gaza." Shoah is the Hebrew word for Holocaust.

The Palestinian NGO Network is outraged and demands an apology for Berusconi's equating Gaza with Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Just kidding! They are really demanding an apology for Berlusconi saying that Operation Cast Lead was a reaction to years of Palestinian Arab rocket attacks, and not for saying that it was a case of pure, naked, unjustified aggression meant to murder 1.5 million people.

November 2009-February 2010 rocket calendars

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:16:00 +0000

Q=Qassam
QS=Qassam landing short in Gaza
M=Mortar
MS=Mortar landing short
P=Projectile of unknown type
(Paren) indicates unconfirmed Palestinian claims

November 2009

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
1	2	3 1Q	4	5	6	7
8 1Q	9 1Q	10	11	12	13 2Q	14
15	16	17	18 1Q	19	20	21 1Q
22	23 1Q	24	25	26 5M	27	28
29	30

December 2009

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13 2Q	14	15	16 2Q	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28 (1P)	29	30 1M	31 (2P) 1M?

January 2010

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
					1 1M 1MS	2
3	4 1MS	5	6	7 1Q 10M	8 1M	9 2Q
10 4MS	11 1Q	12	13 1Q	14	15 1M	16
17	18	19	20 1Q	21	22	23
24 1Q	25	26	27	28	29	30 1Q
31

February 2010

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
	1	2 1Q	3 1Q	4	5	6
7 1Q	8 1Q	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28

Two good followups to horrible stories

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:39:00 +0000

From Al Arabiya, in a followup to this story:

Saudi Arabia's human rights commission has hired a lawyer to help a 12-year-old girl divorce her 80-year-old husband, the lawyer said, a move activists hope will lead to a ban on child marriages.

Also from Al Arabiya, in a followup to this story:

Prosecutors in Turkey are seeking life in jail for the father and grandfather of a girl who was buried alive for befriending boys, local judicial sources said Monday.

The pair were arrested after the body of 16-year-old Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing.
A post mortem showed a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning she was buried alive, forensic experts have said.

The judicial source said they would likely face a charge of "premeditated homicide with aggravating circumstances, perpetrated with cruelty" being drawn up by prosecutors.

Turkish law demands life in prison if convicted of those charges.

Gulf girls gone wild!

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:43:00 +0000

From the Arab News:

MAKKAH [Mecca] -Female jail wardens were brought into a girls’ school in Makkah on Monday after students went on a rampage in protest over the confiscation of their mobile phones. The students also attacked the school principal for confiscating their phones.
Police arrived at the girls’ school in the city’s Mansour district after receiving a call from the principal’s husband that his wife was besieged in her office by a group of angry students.
Wardens from a women’s prison were finally brought in to break the siege and rescue the principal. During the riot, girls broke tables and chairs and opened gas cylinders.
The rioting happened after the principal and her assistant found seven camera phones, makeup items and perfume in classrooms while students sat exams. Bringing such items are against the school’s rules.
Once exams were over, students whose mobiles and other possessions were taken rushed to the principal’s office to protest. The principal’s husband said he called the police after receiving a telephone call from his distraught wife.
A number of teachers had earlier unsuccessfully tried to calm the students down. Police have filed cases against the students with the Education Department in Makkah, which has set up a committee to investigate the incident.
The Education Department condemned the students’ behavior and confirmed that bringing mobile phones into schools was not allowed. It added that this is an isolated and rare incident.
The majority of students at the school are from the local African community. There are 750 students of various nationalities in the school.

And the lesson is - don't mess with teenagers' cell phones!

(So they were not really Gulf girls, but I couldn't resist the alliteration.)

Latest IDF secret weapon: Odor-free socks!

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:21:00 +0000

From AFP, January 28th (how did I miss this?)

Israel's foot soldiers are getting new odour-free socks that can be worn for two weeks straight without smelling or stinking up the feet, the Maariv daily reported on Thursday.

"It may sound ridiculous... but this is a very important issue that causes many problems during training," the newspaper quoted Brigadier General Nissim Peretz, the commander of the Israeli military's logistics division, as saying.

The socks, which will be distributed to all new infantry recruits beginning in March, also prevent athlete's foot -- "a nuisance with which every soldier is very familiar," the paper said.

The fabric includes metal components to keep bad odours and fungal infections at bay, it said.

Or, as Jimmy Fallon said, "they've created the socks my college roommate thought he had."

Hamas responded that they purposefully require their men to wear the same socks for months at a time, as their scientists are trying to weaponize them.

Iran nervous about upcoming anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:09:00 +0000

When Iran is nervous, it tries as hard as it can to hide its fears with false bravado.

Iran's latest statement is that its upcoming celebrations to mark the 31st anniversary of the revolution will be a "punch" to the West.

Iran's all powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution would be a "punch" to the world's "arrogant" powers that would stun them.
"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

However, Iran is very nervous that the anniversary will be marred by protesters that will rain on their Islamic Revolution parade:

This year's anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have triggered one of the worst crises facing the Islamic republic since it was founded.
Opposition supporters are expected to stage anti-government protests on Thursday when the traditional regime-sponsored marches to mark the revolution take place across the country.

Ahead of the anniversary, the regime arrested a group of people it accused of having Zionist and CIA ties:

Seven people, including some accused of having ties to a U.S.-backed Farsi-language radio station, were arrested in Tehran, according to Iranian media reports.

The seven "worked as liaisons for anti-revolution satellite organizations and Zionist media," the semi-official Iran Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported Sunday. The people were connected "with the conspiracy," ILNA said, referring to recent anti-government protests in Iran.

The arrests came in an "intelligence ministry operation," ILNA said. "These people were connected with Radio Farda and had gone through the process of selection and training in Dubai and Istanbul and some of them had been officially employed by the U.S. intelligence service."

However, Radio Farda's director, Armand Mostofi, told CNN Sunday it has no employees inside Iran. Radio Farda is based in Prague, Czech Republic, and in Washington. It is affiliated with Radio Free Europe, and broadcasts from Prague. Mostofi said he first heard of the arrests in Iranian news reports.

"A lot of our news comes from the relationships with our listeners," he said. "It's a two-way relationship. Hundreds of thousands of our listeners call in to inform us of what is going in Iran."

He said Iran has consistently blocked the station's Web site and has tried to jam their satellite signal.

"The crackdown of journalists in Iran has worsened in the aftermath of the presidential elections," Mostofi said. "Iran used to be the largest prison for journalists in the Mideast, and unfortunately, has become the largest prison in the world for journalists."

Iran's state-owned Press TV reported the seven included "two Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives." The group planned to "stoke unrest and violence on a march scheduled for February 11," according to the report. That date marks the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.

Yeah, they are nervous.

Nutty Israel-haters: "Underwear bomber was Zionist"

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:21:00 +0000

Jeff Gates, an unhinged Israel hater who writes obsessively about the object of his disgust on many far left and pro-PalArab websites, has uncovered proof that the Christmas Day underwear bomber was really tied to Israel and the FBI!

The results of his crazy investigation can be seen at the equally nutty Palestine Think Tank site. It proves that when someone seeks a conspiracy, it doesn't take too much for them to find it.

Iranian leader calls Israel's destruction "imminent"

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:02:00 +0000

Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah is on a pleasant vacation in Iran.

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, greeted him. As Iran's FARS news agency reports:

"I am very optimistic about the future of Palestine and believe that Israel is moving on the precipice of wane and demise, and God willing its annihilation is for sure," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan Abdullah Shallah here in Tehran.

Elsewhere, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the attempts made by certain Arab governments to help the Zionist regime, and said these attempts are certainly doomed to failure as the Muslim nations always support the Palestinian cause.

Abdullah, for his part, admired the Iranian nation's vigilance against enemies' plots, and said, "Today the Islamic Republic of Iran is experiencing its best conditions and is in its strongest position."

"Everyone honors the righteous positions of Iran," he reiterated.

"Certainly the right will be victorious," he added.

But...I thought that Sunnis and Shiites hate each other!

I guess when they hate a third party enough, they can set aside their differences in a wonderful show of unity and love.

They should thank Israel for providing them with such an opportunity.

The Israeli task force did interview Gazans

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:58:00 +0000

A commenter claims that the IDF task force cannot possibly have been impartial, because I quoted an anonymous IDF source as saying "These investigations are exhaustive and a logistical nightmare. The investigators talk to everyone involved, from the soldiers, to the commanders in the field, all the way up the chain of command. And almost all of the incidents can involve different branches of the army which require debriefings at every level (i.e. air force, tank unit, and ground force like paratroopers, and then also the southern command, and the intelligence unit, etc). so each incident, to investigate properly requires hundreds of hours of interviews, material and footage reviews, comparison with additional intelligence, and with past investigations done within the units themselves regarding the incidents in question etc." - and Palestinian Arabs were not mentioned in this remark.

Obviously, the commenter did not read the IDF report, but it brings up an important point that others probably missed as well: The IDF interviews as many Palestinian Arabs as possible, and nothing (outside of Hamas) is stopping Gaza civilians from filing complaints or testifying.

As the second Cast Lead report mentions, quoted in Ban Ki-Moon's report:

The MPCID has sought assistance from non-governmental organisations (such as B’Tselem) to help locate Palestinian complainants and witnesses and to coordinate their arrival at the Erez crossing point to Gaza, to allow interviews and questioning. To date, MPCID investigators have taken testimony from almost 100 Palestinian complainants and witnesses.

It also goes over the difficulties of getting evidence in a situation like this:

The unique difficulties involved in the investigation of alleged violations of the Law of Armed Conflict in the battlefield should not be ignored. They include: the inability to secure the scene for forensic and physical evidence, either during a battle or after, when the territory is under enemy control; the possible destruction of evidence during fighting and the possible manipulation of the scene by the enemy; the need to recall reserve soldiers back for questioning; the difficulty of accurately identifying the location of an incident, when it is described in local and unofficial terms and slang; and the need to locate the adversary’s civilians as witnesses and overcome their natural suspicion and fear of reprisals by their authorities.

Also,

47. Information on alleged misconduct of soldiers reaches the IDF authorities in various ways, including:

o formal or informal complaints by alleged victims themselves or family members;
o complaints by commanders or soldiers who witnessed an incident;
o reports by non-governmental organisations and the news media;
o complaints or letters by non-governmental organisations, journalists, embassies, or international bodies; and
o complaints forwarded to or filed directly with the Military Advocate General’s Corps by the Israeli Police and other law enforcement agencies.

48. Any person may file a complaint with the Military Police at any civilian police station regarding alleged misconduct by IDF soldiers. Gaza residents can file complaints directly in writing (in Hebrew, Arabic, and English), through a non-governmental organisation acting on their behalf, or through the Military Liaison that works directly with the Palestinian civilian population.

In other words, the IDF investigation does everything humanly possible to discover and investigate complains as thoroughly as possible. They will work together with NGOs - including NGOs that are openly hostile to them - to arrive at the truth.

Goldstone did not take anything close to the same effort to look at or consider Israel's side of the story.

Another telling part of the report, in light of Hamas' denial of apologizing for any Israeli victims of its aggression, is this sentence (para 89):

Israel’s efforts to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict do not lessen its regret for the loss of innocent lives and damage to civilian property.

Pew poll shows Palestinians are big Bin Laden fans

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:22:00 +0000

A new Pew Research poll shows that Palestinian Arabs identify more with Osama Bin Laden than any other polled group, save for Nigerian Muslims.

While only 28% of Jordanians and 23% of Egyptians (and only 2% of Lebanese) declared their confidence in Bin Laden, 51% of Palestinian Arabs showed confidence in him.

PalArabs also showed greater confidence in Hassan Nasrallah than any other polled group (65%), more confidence in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than any other group (45%) and more in Mahmoud Abbas (52%.)
Their answers show them to be much more extremist in their views than any Arab country polled.

The pragmatism that ordinary Palestinian Arabs had shown seems to be disappearing at an alarming rate, and one can guess that the incitement that they see on their own TV shows and other media is a large part of the problem.

Radioactive Dirt Open Thread

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:22:00 +0000

Too funny:

Remember, to see the scientific study yourself, write to

The Atomic Test Booklet,
Dorothy Gray Limited
Box 18
Grand Central Station
New York

HRW again makes baseless claims against Israel

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:30:00 +0000

In Human Rights Watch's latest press release, the organization claims that Israel is not conducting "thorough and impartial investigations" concerning Operation Cast Lead.

While the military is conducting ongoing investigations, officials did not provide information showing that these will be thorough and impartial or that they will address the broader policy and command decisions that led to unlawful civilian deaths, Human Rights Watch said.
"Israel claims it is conducting credible and impartial investigations, but it has so far failed to make that case," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. "An independent investigation is crucial to understand why so many civilians died and to bring justice for the victims of unlawful attacks."
...
The Israeli military has thus far examined specific incidents but not broader policies that may have caused civilian casualties in violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said.

"The Israeli investigations so far have looked mostly at soldiers who disobeyed orders or the rules of engagement, but failed to ask the crucial question about whether those orders and rules of engagement themselves violated the laws of war," Stork said. "For those decisions and policies, senior military and political decision-makers should be held responsible."

HRW is being disingenuous again.

Apparently, no one from HRW read the original Cast Lead investigation report. In that report there were exhaustive descriptions of how IDF actions were entirely consistent with international law. HRW never responded to that report; it never answered its arguments; and as far as I know it never even referred to it.

This is not surprising. HRW bases much of its criticism of Israel (and other countries) on a bizarre, restricted interpretation of international law. With incredible hubris, HRW assumes from the outset that its interpretations are sacrosanct and inherently correct. Yet when Israel comes out with its own interpretation, that is consistent with the Geneva Conventions and other accepted sources of customary international law, HRW doesn't bother to answer with legal arguments: instead, it ignores them and insists that their own interpretations are the ones that the world must adhere to.

HRW is engaged in a massive misdirection, a sleight-of-hand so that it will not have to defend its own mistakes in the law. And it needs to do this for its very existence, because if HRW's version of international law is shown to be incorrect, every single report it has issued on that basis would need to be re-evaluated. So instead, HRW goes on the offensive and fails to address any substantive criticism. (As we have seen, HRW does not have the ability to investigate itself with any degree of objectivity, and it reacts to criticism in ways that can only be described as childish.)

Meanwhile, Israel's ongoing investigations are ongoing and taking literally thousands of man-hours. An IDF source described it to me this way:

These investigations are exhaustive and a logistical nightmare. The investigators talk to everyone involved, from the soldiers, to the commanders in the field, all the way up the chain of command. And almost all of the incidents can involve different branches of the army which require debriefings at every level (i.e. air force, tank unit, and ground force like paratroopers, and then also the southern command, and the intelligence unit, etc). so each incident, to investigate properly requires hundreds of hours of interviews, material and footage reviews, comparison with additional intelligence, and with past investigations done within the units themselves regarding the incidents in question etc.

I've already shown that these investigations are independent, and the people running them do not report to the IDF infrastructure - the very definition of independence. And when new evidence comes up, as HRW claims in the Al Bader flour mill case, the investigators re-open the cases.

Or would HRW prefer that the IDF re-invade Gaza to get first-hand forensics?

As a footnote, HRW again mentions the supposed "fact" that the Hamas police were not a legitimate target. I have shown that at least 75% of the police killed were members of the Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades, the organization responsible for a majority of attacks on Israel. I have shown that the Al Qassam Brigades as well as Hamas themselves do not distinguish between the police and the militants. Even Goldstone quotes the Hamas police as mentioning that "Police officers received clear orders from the leadership to face the enemy, if the Gaza Strip were to be invaded." (He then dismisses that very statement.) Anyone can look at the incredible PTWatch site and see first-hand the detailed obituaries that terror groups wrote to memorialize the police and other "civilians" killed during Cast Lead, including details of their terror careers and the dates that they joined the terror groups.

HRW does not address these findings, nor any other substantive criticism of their logic and methodology. HRW has no ability to defend itself or look at its own claims objectively. It appears that HRW's Joe Stork is engaging in a bit of projection when he accuses the IDF of something that applies far better to himself.

UN ignores Hamas' Goldstone response

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon issued a report to the General Assembly, as a follow-up to the Goldstone Report, regarding implementation of Goldstone's recommendations.

Even though Hamas very publicly responded with its own report, the UN report ignored Hamas' submission altogether. It includes an annex with the entire contents of the Israeli update report and another with the Palestinian Authority response saying at the last minute that they are about to establish a fact-finding commission, but nothing from the Gaza government.

Book review: Good Arabs

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:15:00 +0000

Good Arabs is Hillel Cohen's followup to his earlier book, Army of Shadows (review here.) Army of Shadows detailed the relationship between Jews and Arabs in Palestine before the 1948 war mostly from the viewpoint of early Zionist intelligence agencies. Good Arabs continues on this theme, looking at how the Israeli military and police establishments interacted with Israeli Arabs from 1948 to 1967.

As with the earlier book, Good Arabs is filled with variants of the pejorative term "collaborate." It seems probable that Cohen, who wrote the word in Hebrew, agreed with this translation of the Hebrew word "פעולה". However that Hebrew term has two translations: "collaborate" and "cooperate." When reading the book and mentally replacing the former with the latter, an entirely different impression is given.

To be sure, the Arabs living in Israel during those nineteen years did not have it easy. Most of them were under military rule and many of them saw their lands expropriated from them. Cohen looks at the phenomenon of Arabs who cooperated with the Israeli authorities and finds many reasons for their actions.

Some were opportunists; trying to ingratiate themselves with the strong horse. Some were realists, who felt that Israel wasn't going anywhere and the best strategy was to give the Jewish leaders what they wanted. Some wanted the perks that the Israelis would give to those who helped them - often guns and jobs. Some were, in fact, ideologically inclined to support Israel. Others played both sides of the fence, or, as in one case Cohen brings, played Israel, Egypt and Jordan against each other.

Based on voluminous declassified Israeli police material, much of which quoted the testimony of collaborators against Arabs who were deemed a threat to the state, Cohen attempts to reconstruct the psyche of the minority citizens of Israel during that time, concentrated mostly in the 1950s. Israeli authorities, often heavy-handedly, attempted to stop any "nationalist" discourse and replace the Palestinian Arab narrative with the Zionist narrative in Arab schools. Many Arabs resisted these attempts, others went along with it.

To his credit, Cohen does not try to generalize. He seems wedded to the Palestinian Arab narrative (it is jarring to see him use the word "Nakba" as if the term existed in the 1950s) but he willingly brings anecdotes about the Arabs who genuinely wanted to work with the Jews.

He goes into details about the Communists, who attracted many Arabs in the Triangle and northern regions and who were nominally supportive of Israel's existence but very much against the idea of a Jewish state. The Israeli authorities were keenly interested in Communist sympathizers among the Arabs and used their carrot-and-stick approach to minimize their influence.

As in the last book, Cohen uses the word "nationalists" a bit too freely; most of his examples do not seem to support the type of Palestinian Arab nationalism that we have become familiar with since 1967, but rather pan-Arabism.

Most Palestinian Arabs, especially before the rise of the PLO, cared far less about nationalism than they did about taking care of their families in honor. This simple fact is supported by Cohen's anecdotes, but he doesn't quite seem to grasp it himself. For example, he looks at the difficulty that Israel had to instill a strong Zionist ethos into their thinking as a failure, when in fact it is just the other side of the same coin of the apathy of Arabs towards their own nationalists. After all, the older generation of the 1950s Arabs had already lived under Ottoman, British and Israeli rule; to them their families were a far more permanent part of their lives than their rulers. This is why they worked hard to re-unite their families who were separated by the war. Sometimes this was done by smuggling them in and breaking the law; sometimes by being exceptionally cooperative with the Israelis who let a not-insignificant number return, and sometimes it was a combination of the two - bringing them in illegally and then appealing to past cooperation with Israelis, especially in 1948, to allow their relatives to stay.

The rise of Nasser and the seeming strength of the United Arab Republic union of Egypt and Syria convinced many Israeli Arabs that Israel would soon be destroyed; these Arabs tended to think in terms of how they could optimize their situations given that scenario playing out. Others analyzed the same facts and concluded that Israel was the power they needed to cooperate more with. These pragmatic issues usually trumped the ideological, and it does not appear likely that anyone thought that an Arab Palestine that would result from the Arabs sweeping the Jews into the sea would be any more independent than the West Bank Jordanians were. (One interesting footnote mentions that the Arabs of the Triangle were very happy when they ended up in the Jewish state after 1948, because the Iraqi fighters who had occupied their towns had a nasty habit of rape.)

Cohen also goes into detail into the different attitudes of the Druze, the Ciracassians and the Bedouin to the state, especially in terms of becoming members of the IDF. He notes that Israeli policy was to divide these groups and treat them separately from the mostly Muslim Arabs, which could be a method to help minimize the amount of danger that a united minority group could bring. However, he mentions that Israelis themselves justified this policy by accurately noting that the only reason there was any unity among those groups to begin with was because of the British policy of playing the Jews against the other minorities.

One shortcoming of the book is that after many specific examples of cooperation/collaboration throughout the 1950s by Arabs under Israeli military rule, Cohen dismisses the 1960s with a single paragraph mentioning that Israel's military government power waned, Israel's Arab citizens won more freedoms and then the military government apparatus dismantled in late 1966. There are no details, no examples, no discussion of how this affected the cooperators and the Israelis, especially on the eve of the Six Day War. He mentions that a significant number of Israeli Arabs were actively offering to help Israel on the eve of the war, even after the military government was gone and they were much closer to being equal citizens of the state. The entire seven years should have gotten more detailed attention.

Good Arabs sheds much light on 1950s Israeli Arabs and it demolishes some myths. As with Cohen's previous book, it is an important addition to understanding recent history and it gives us some lessons for today.

Saudi prince shakes Israeli diplomat's hand

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:04:00 +0000

Stop the presses! We have another story of an Israeli shaking hands with an Arab leader - and this time, it was in public!

The New York Times explains:

A handshake between an Israeli politician and a Saudi prince settled an unusual public diplomatic spat on Saturday about the seating arrangements at an international security conference.
Ayalon had accused Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and envoy to Washington and London, of orchestrating a decision to keep him off a panel involving other regional powers meant to discuss the security of the Middle East.
Ayalon began his talk saying it appeared "a representative of a country with a lot of oil" had pressed the organisers to separate the panel because he "did not want to sit with us."
This showed a lack of mutual respect and tolerance, a failing at the heart of the region's problems, he said.
In the subsequent question and answer session, Turki stood up in the audience and said it was not he who had objected and the splitting of the panel was probably due to Ayalon's "boorish behaviour" with Turkey's envoy to Israel.
Ayalon responded to Turki saying Turki had called into question his integrity. He added: "If indeed it was not him who objected to my being here with him, I would welcome him to shake my outstetched hand."
Turki approached the podium, Ayalon descended from it and the men grasped hands.

So far, I haven't seen any mention of this in the Saudi press. Stay tuned. I have a feeling that it will not go over well in the Kingdom.

The day that Hamas pretended to stop targeting civilians

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:24:00 +0000

In one of the more ridiculous episodes in the farce of Hamas pretending to investigate its actions in Cast Lead, Reuters reported the Hamas government wrote that it "regrets any harm that may have befallen any Israeli civilian."

This is an obvious lie. Hamas rockets were doing nothing else but targeting civilians in Cast Lead, as I showed in a recent post. They just redefined Sderot and Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Gat as "military bases" and kept right on shooting at the same civilian cities they always had.

Back in 2008, a very telling episode happened that may have been the very point in time when Hamas stopped publicly bragging about targeting civilians. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had a long interview in which he answered a series of questions from people, and in one of his answers he said:

I think I have responded to the sister I’laamiyyah’s first question previously. But in turn, I ask her: and what is HAMAS’s justification for killing those whose killing is not permitted from the children in the Israeli colonies with the blessed Qassam rockets which don’t differentiate between a child and an adult, and moreover, perhaps [don’t differentiate] between the Jews and the Arabs and Muslims working in those colonies or in the streets and markets of Occupied Palestine, even though the Shari’ah forbids their killing.

Al Qaeda was scolding Hamas for killing innocent children!

Hamas meekly answered:

"Hamas doesn't mean to kill children by its rockets," spokesman Ismail Radwan told reporters in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. His remarks were in response to al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Aymanal-Zawahiri who said Hamas' random rockets kill Jews women and children in violation of Islam law.

But Radwan added that "the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may involve some killings of children."

Since that incident, Hamas has been more reticent in bragging about killing civilians.

In this case, though, Fatah made fun of Hamas for this apology, and in response Hamas denied apologizing.

UPDATE: To certain audiences, Hamas has no problems showing who it is targeting: (first poster and idea h/t sshender)

Horrible teenage honor murder in Turkey for "befriending boys"

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:25:00 +0000

From Al Arabiya:

A 16-year-old girl was buried alive by relatives in southeast Turkey in a gruesome honor killing just because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, police discovered Medine Memi's body in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-meter-deep hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing, the agency said.

A subsequent post mortem revealed that she had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning that she was buried alive, forensic experts told the agency.

"The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl, who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood, was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," one anonymous expert said.

Medine's father and grandfather have been formally arrested and jailed pending trial over her killing, the agency said.

The father is reported to have said in his testimony that the family was unhappy she had male friends.

In honor killings, most prevalent in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, a so-called family council names a member to murder a female relative considered to have sullied the family honor, usually by engaging in an extra-marital affair.

But the practice has gone so far as to kill rape victims or women who simply talked to strange men.

This Kurdish murder shows that "honor killings" are not only an Arab problem.

30 Gaza high school students visit the US; Islamists fume

noreply@blogger.com (Elder of Ziyon) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:02:00 +0000

30 ordinary kids managed to escape the "world's largest open-air prison:"

The U.S. Department of State sponsored a two-week visit to the U.S. focused on human rights and democracy for a group of 30 high school students from Gaza. Two separate groups of 15 girls and 15 boys were selected because of their outstanding performance in their human rights classes at UNRWA schools in Gaza. Along with their teachers, the students visited Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.

While in Atlanta, the students met with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, visited the Martin Luther King Center, and participated in discussions on conflict resolution, human rights, and democracy. In Washington, D.C., the students received a tour of the White House and Capitol Hill, saw a concert at the Kennedy Center, and had dinner with American high school students and their families. In New York City, the students met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and saw a Broadway musical.

U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem Daniel Rubinstein met with the group upon their return to discuss their impressions of the United States. Consul General Rubinstein congratulated them, saying, “I hope your experience in the United States will help you as you become the future leaders of an independent Palestinian state.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders in Gaza are furious. They warned that the US was trying to "brainwash" Gaza students, and said that this trip is meant to "water down the concepts of Islam and sacrifice in the hearts of the children through the dissemination of the infidel West toxins through the likes of these visits. [It is] an attempt to distort perceptions and introduce them to Western lifestyles and deceptive, abnormal manifestations of civil rights."

They also complained that the trip would make Western culture seem desirable to the students, which is completely unacceptable.