Gaza man run over by bulldozer.
Posted: 11 May 2011 03:20 AM PDT
Arab media is reporting that a man near the Rafah tunnels was killed accidentally when he was run over by a bulldozer.
I wonder why in this case they assume it is accidental, while in other cases they assume murder?
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Muslim World Has Inferiority Complex
The Muslim world's inferiority complex
Posted: 11 May 2011 05:54 AM PDT
From Hudson-NY, translating an op-ed by Khaled Montaser in Al Masry al Youm late last year:
We Muslims have an inferiority complex and are terribly sensitive to the world, feeling that our Islamic religion needs constant, practically daily, confirmation by way of Europeans and Americans converting to Islam. What rapturous joy takes us when a European or American announces [their conversion to] Islam—proof that we are in a constant state of fear, alarm, and chronic anticipation for Western validation or American confirmation that our religion is "okay." We are hostages of this anticipation, as if our victory hinges on it—forgetting that true victory is for us to create or to accomplish something, such as those [civilizations] that these converts to our faith abandon.
And we pound our drums and blow our horns [in triumph] and drag the convert to our backwardness, so that he may stand with us at the back of the world's line of laziness, [in the Muslim world] wherein no new scientific inventions have appeared in the last 500 years. Sometimes those who convert relocate to our countries—only to get on a small boat and escape on the high seas back to their own countries.
The dilemma which we Muslims imbibed from one end of the earth to the other—by way of our sons, our intellectuals, our youth, our elders, our men and our women—regards the German writer Henryk Broder. We celebrated him through our media and Internet sites, saying that he had converted to Islam, because he said "I have been saved from misguidance and have come to know the truth, returning to my natural state [fitriti, i.e., Islam]." Our writers and intellectuals portrayed Broder's statement as a slap to Germany's face, since he was one of the most critical opponents of Islam, but now he had announced his repentance.
Then the truth was immediately revealed and the embarrassing predicament which we imbibed of our own free will: for Broder is not to blame; he merely wrote a sarcastic article—but we are a people incapable of comprehending sarcasm, since it requires a bit of thinking and intellectualizing. And we read with great speed and a hopeful eye, not an eye for truth or reality. Some of us are struck with blindness when we read things that go against our hopes.
We actually imagined that the man was speaking truthfully and sincerely! Thus we drank from the bitter cup of failure and shame, products of our chronic ignorance and contemptuous feelings of inferiority and detestability.
How come the Buddhists don't hold the festivities we do for those who convert to their religion? And some of these converts are much more famous than Broder. Did you know that Richard Gere, Steven Seagal, Harrison Ford—among Hollywood's most famous actors—converted to Buddhism? What did the Buddhist countries of Asia do regarding these celebrities? What did the Buddhists in China and Japan do?
Did they dance and sing praise and march out in the streets, or did they accept these people's entrance into Buddhism as a mere matter of free conviction? When Tiger Woods, the most famous golf player and richest athlete in the world, discussed his acceptance of Buddhism, did China grant him citizenship, or did Japan pour its wealth on him? No, being self-confident, they treated him with equality, not servility.
It is sufficient for the Buddhists that these celebrities purchase their nations' electronic goods—without any beggary or enticements.
I have discussed the Arab and Muslim inferiority complex in the past, and some of the stuff is worth revisiting.
May 2005: Why Israel's creation is a "naqba"
July 2005: The flip-sides to Arab "honor"
December 2008: Mixing up importance and impotence
US Defense Dept. analysis of the Muslim world, 1946
Anecdotal but convincing: Pakistan knew where Bin Laden was
Posted: 11 May 2011 04:26 AM PDT
A fascinating article in Hudson-NY by Anna Mahjar-Barducci:
Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Usama bin Laden was killed last week, is the same town I lived in for five years – in a house 800 meters away from his villa.
...All these roads were already heavily patrolled before 9/11, and more so after the Taliban took over the Swat valley: it is unthinkable that the most wanted man tried his luck in reaching Abbottabad at the risk of being stopped at a checkpoint. To avoid this danger, according to experience, there is only one way: to use an official car. No soldier will ever dare to stop what he supposes to be a high-ranking officer.
Abbottabad is considered a "cantonment," or a military town, with many military institutions: the Frontier Force Regiment (popularly known as the "Piffers"), an infantry regiment, and a batallion of mountain artillery. The most remarkable institution, however, is the "Pakistan Military Academy" (PMU), the Pakistani equivalent of West Point, from which Bin Laden's hideout was only a few hundred meters.
In such a place, the presence of security forces and secret services is everywhere. Everyone is under observation, particularly foreigners and newcomers.
Once you gain the confidence of the local officers they may even reveal themselves to you. Some officers of the so-called "secret police" were not exactly the movie image of James Bond. Rather, they were badly dressed and probably having some problems making ends meet. However, this ramshackle police managed to give an American aid-worker suspected of espionage 24 hours' notice to leave the country, It did not take much to raise their suspicion, and for them to take the subsequent action.
Bin Laden's compound was located in Bilal Town, a not very elegant area of Abbottabad. ... The presence of more than 20 people living in the compound, however, could not have passed unnoticed.
...In a country where gossip is a national sport, how is it possible that the presence of people from Waziristan, who were buying food for scores of persons, was never signalled to the police? When I lived there, everybody seemed to know me and my whereabouts. I even received anonymous phone calls although my name was not in the telephone book. I did not know these people, but they knew me.
...Pakistani officials are now protesting that the country's sovereignty has been violated. It probably was. But more importantly, Pakistan's credibility -- if there was any left -- as a reliable partner in the war against terrorism, is now completely gone.
Until now, many thought that Pakistan's double game was due to some deviated sectors of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence); now we understand that there is more to it than that. Americans knew full well that Pakistanis could not be trusted, so they took action without informing the country's authorities -- they were right.
Posted: 11 May 2011 05:54 AM PDT
From Hudson-NY, translating an op-ed by Khaled Montaser in Al Masry al Youm late last year:
We Muslims have an inferiority complex and are terribly sensitive to the world, feeling that our Islamic religion needs constant, practically daily, confirmation by way of Europeans and Americans converting to Islam. What rapturous joy takes us when a European or American announces [their conversion to] Islam—proof that we are in a constant state of fear, alarm, and chronic anticipation for Western validation or American confirmation that our religion is "okay." We are hostages of this anticipation, as if our victory hinges on it—forgetting that true victory is for us to create or to accomplish something, such as those [civilizations] that these converts to our faith abandon.
And we pound our drums and blow our horns [in triumph] and drag the convert to our backwardness, so that he may stand with us at the back of the world's line of laziness, [in the Muslim world] wherein no new scientific inventions have appeared in the last 500 years. Sometimes those who convert relocate to our countries—only to get on a small boat and escape on the high seas back to their own countries.
The dilemma which we Muslims imbibed from one end of the earth to the other—by way of our sons, our intellectuals, our youth, our elders, our men and our women—regards the German writer Henryk Broder. We celebrated him through our media and Internet sites, saying that he had converted to Islam, because he said "I have been saved from misguidance and have come to know the truth, returning to my natural state [fitriti, i.e., Islam]." Our writers and intellectuals portrayed Broder's statement as a slap to Germany's face, since he was one of the most critical opponents of Islam, but now he had announced his repentance.
Then the truth was immediately revealed and the embarrassing predicament which we imbibed of our own free will: for Broder is not to blame; he merely wrote a sarcastic article—but we are a people incapable of comprehending sarcasm, since it requires a bit of thinking and intellectualizing. And we read with great speed and a hopeful eye, not an eye for truth or reality. Some of us are struck with blindness when we read things that go against our hopes.
We actually imagined that the man was speaking truthfully and sincerely! Thus we drank from the bitter cup of failure and shame, products of our chronic ignorance and contemptuous feelings of inferiority and detestability.
How come the Buddhists don't hold the festivities we do for those who convert to their religion? And some of these converts are much more famous than Broder. Did you know that Richard Gere, Steven Seagal, Harrison Ford—among Hollywood's most famous actors—converted to Buddhism? What did the Buddhist countries of Asia do regarding these celebrities? What did the Buddhists in China and Japan do?
Did they dance and sing praise and march out in the streets, or did they accept these people's entrance into Buddhism as a mere matter of free conviction? When Tiger Woods, the most famous golf player and richest athlete in the world, discussed his acceptance of Buddhism, did China grant him citizenship, or did Japan pour its wealth on him? No, being self-confident, they treated him with equality, not servility.
It is sufficient for the Buddhists that these celebrities purchase their nations' electronic goods—without any beggary or enticements.
I have discussed the Arab and Muslim inferiority complex in the past, and some of the stuff is worth revisiting.
May 2005: Why Israel's creation is a "naqba"
July 2005: The flip-sides to Arab "honor"
December 2008: Mixing up importance and impotence
US Defense Dept. analysis of the Muslim world, 1946
Anecdotal but convincing: Pakistan knew where Bin Laden was
Posted: 11 May 2011 04:26 AM PDT
A fascinating article in Hudson-NY by Anna Mahjar-Barducci:
Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Usama bin Laden was killed last week, is the same town I lived in for five years – in a house 800 meters away from his villa.
...All these roads were already heavily patrolled before 9/11, and more so after the Taliban took over the Swat valley: it is unthinkable that the most wanted man tried his luck in reaching Abbottabad at the risk of being stopped at a checkpoint. To avoid this danger, according to experience, there is only one way: to use an official car. No soldier will ever dare to stop what he supposes to be a high-ranking officer.
Abbottabad is considered a "cantonment," or a military town, with many military institutions: the Frontier Force Regiment (popularly known as the "Piffers"), an infantry regiment, and a batallion of mountain artillery. The most remarkable institution, however, is the "Pakistan Military Academy" (PMU), the Pakistani equivalent of West Point, from which Bin Laden's hideout was only a few hundred meters.
In such a place, the presence of security forces and secret services is everywhere. Everyone is under observation, particularly foreigners and newcomers.
Once you gain the confidence of the local officers they may even reveal themselves to you. Some officers of the so-called "secret police" were not exactly the movie image of James Bond. Rather, they were badly dressed and probably having some problems making ends meet. However, this ramshackle police managed to give an American aid-worker suspected of espionage 24 hours' notice to leave the country, It did not take much to raise their suspicion, and for them to take the subsequent action.
Bin Laden's compound was located in Bilal Town, a not very elegant area of Abbottabad. ... The presence of more than 20 people living in the compound, however, could not have passed unnoticed.
...In a country where gossip is a national sport, how is it possible that the presence of people from Waziristan, who were buying food for scores of persons, was never signalled to the police? When I lived there, everybody seemed to know me and my whereabouts. I even received anonymous phone calls although my name was not in the telephone book. I did not know these people, but they knew me.
...Pakistani officials are now protesting that the country's sovereignty has been violated. It probably was. But more importantly, Pakistan's credibility -- if there was any left -- as a reliable partner in the war against terrorism, is now completely gone.
Until now, many thought that Pakistan's double game was due to some deviated sectors of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence); now we understand that there is more to it than that. Americans knew full well that Pakistanis could not be trusted, so they took action without informing the country's authorities -- they were right.
PA Soldiers were Asleep at Joseph's Tomb
PA soldiers at Joseph's Tomb were asleep; fired wildly when they awoke
Posted: 11 May 2011 06:52 AM PDT
From Arutz-7:
Palestinian Authority soldiers last month woke up from a slumber and shot wildly at Jews who had been praying at Joseph’s Tomb, killing Ben Yosef Livnat, according to the private Israel Defense website, which is not associated with the IDF.
The report states that an internal PA investigation totally contradicts original accounts that the armed forces shot at the worshippers after they allegedly broke through a roadblock on their return from prayers at the holy site.
The internal investigation, as reported by Israel Defense, discloses a string of failures by the PA. Three soldiers, who had been trained by American army officers, were sleeping in their jeep several hundred yards from Joseph’s Tomb on April 24, the morning of the last day of Passover.
Nineteen Jews, including Livnat (pictured), a nephew of Likud minister Limor Livnat, passed the PA checkpoint where the soldiers were sleeping. When the worshippers began returning home in their three vehicles, two other PA officers at Joseph’s Tomb also were asleep next to a bonfire they had lit to keep warm.
The report states that they woke up from a slumber, saw vehicles they did not recognize, and started shooting wildly at close range without asking superiors for permission to fire.
The shooting woke up the two officers in the jeep, and one of them also fired without knowing who he was shooting at, but he did not hit anyone. The other officer did not fire because he was guarding without a weapon, in violation of standard procedures. The worshippers later said that the PA forces knew them because they frequently prayed at Jospeh's Tomb.
The Palestinian Authority security forces also did not report the incident immediately, while the IDF, observing from nearby Mount Gerizim, observed the shooting and arrived at the scene before senior PA officers arrived, even though PA units are stationed in Shechem.
An Israeli investigation showed that one of the PA soldiers was a former terrorist. It also found that the PA soldiers wildly fired 44 rounds during the incident - when they were not threatened at all.
(h/t Yerushalimey, Joel)
Posted: 11 May 2011 06:52 AM PDT
From Arutz-7:
Palestinian Authority soldiers last month woke up from a slumber and shot wildly at Jews who had been praying at Joseph’s Tomb, killing Ben Yosef Livnat, according to the private Israel Defense website, which is not associated with the IDF.
The report states that an internal PA investigation totally contradicts original accounts that the armed forces shot at the worshippers after they allegedly broke through a roadblock on their return from prayers at the holy site.
The internal investigation, as reported by Israel Defense, discloses a string of failures by the PA. Three soldiers, who had been trained by American army officers, were sleeping in their jeep several hundred yards from Joseph’s Tomb on April 24, the morning of the last day of Passover.
Nineteen Jews, including Livnat (pictured), a nephew of Likud minister Limor Livnat, passed the PA checkpoint where the soldiers were sleeping. When the worshippers began returning home in their three vehicles, two other PA officers at Joseph’s Tomb also were asleep next to a bonfire they had lit to keep warm.
The report states that they woke up from a slumber, saw vehicles they did not recognize, and started shooting wildly at close range without asking superiors for permission to fire.
The shooting woke up the two officers in the jeep, and one of them also fired without knowing who he was shooting at, but he did not hit anyone. The other officer did not fire because he was guarding without a weapon, in violation of standard procedures. The worshippers later said that the PA forces knew them because they frequently prayed at Jospeh's Tomb.
The Palestinian Authority security forces also did not report the incident immediately, while the IDF, observing from nearby Mount Gerizim, observed the shooting and arrived at the scene before senior PA officers arrived, even though PA units are stationed in Shechem.
An Israeli investigation showed that one of the PA soldiers was a former terrorist. It also found that the PA soldiers wildly fired 44 rounds during the incident - when they were not threatened at all.
(h/t Yerushalimey, Joel)
A Twitter Thread with an anti-Zionist
A twitter thread with an anti-Zionist who hated my posters
Posted: 11 May 2011 07:53 AM PDT
It is fun to watch how Israel haters react to my series of posters celebrating Zionism.
One such hater is someone named Ben White, who apparently is one of the leaders of the anti-Israel crowd. He wrote a book called "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide" and has been praised by the usual crowd of anti-Zionists like Ali Abunimah and Ilan Pappe.
His reaction to my posters was to put up his own spoof poster on Twitter, replacing "Zionism" with "Hasbara" and tweeting "Israel at 63: This is Hasbara!":
Not having ever heard of him, I thought this was a compliment, because I thinkit is a very good example of what hasbara should be. Only when MargieInTelAviv responded
ah can't stand the truth can you? Why not check it out?
did I realize it was meant to be an insult.
I responded:
Of course it is #Hasbara. And it is true. Hasbara is no more an insult than #Zionism!
Ben:
#hasbara in 2011 = treating kids in Haiti, evicting kids in #Palestine
He then included a link to "Hasbara Buster" who claims that Israel's good deeds aren't good in themselves, but an insidious plot to redirect the world from talking about Israeli crimes.
Me:
You are a sad man to get so upset over Zionists doing good things.
Ben:
you are a not-so-bright man if u think its the "doing good things" bit that's objectionable
Me:
Ah. One sided propaganda against Israel=good, telling the other side=evil. Got it.
Ben:
No, its called using acts of charity in strategy 2 defend apartheid. But nice #projection though
Me:
Even your example disproves your thesis. Org is private. But your hate overrides all. Sad.
He then tried to change the subject, with a photo that I suppose is meant to illustrate Zionist evil. Which is the usual modus operandi of people like him - they need to change the playing field in order to pretend to win.
But think about his main argument: he believes that when Israel - or in this case, ordinary Israelis - do good things, they have an ulterior motive: to cover up crimes. And when people like me publicize how great Israel is, we also have an evil motive: to cover up Israel's crimes.
In other words, to these mental midgets, Israel is inherently evil. Everything it does is evil. This is the premise that informs all of their activities. No shades of grey, no nuance, not even the possibility of admitting that things are more complex than they pretend. When Israel does something seemingly bad, it proves it is evil, when it does something good, it's just more proof that it is evil.
Logical people, who make up their minds based on evidence, can look at both sides of a story and decide. Haters, however, already know the answer, and any evidence to the contrary they use to "prove" their own point!
Let's once again look at the oppressed Palestinian Arab cancer patients who enjoyed a day in the snow courtesy of the IDF, the subject of my first poster:
Looking at these photos drives the haters crazy, as we have seen. They cannot reconcile the idea of Israelis - especially Israeli soldiers - actually doing something nice for the people they supposedly despise and who are, they believe, being ethnically cleansed by the very same soldiers. The cognitive dissonance must be painful. They must therefore invent their own elaborate frameworks of bizarre conspiracy theories to reconcile the obvious truth about Israel with their own, twisted, hate.
How can oppressed Palestinian Arab kids allow themselves to be used as pawns by the evil IDF? How dare they laugh and smile and have fun with the symbols of Zionist atrocities? Better that they refuse to go sleddign in Mount Hermon, and stay in their hospitals, than go and have fun when there is a slight chance that someone might photograph them and use them in such a terrible evil hasbaristic way! Don't they see that they are exactly like the Jews in Theresienstadt before the Red Cross visited it in 1944? Their smiles are lies! Their fun is a lie! The pictures are probably Photoshopped! The IDF was probably mowing them down with machine guns!
There is an entire industry out there, with people who are emotionally - and, in this case, financially - invested in demonizing Israel. Showing the truth is a direct threat to their worldview, and for them, this cannot be allowed. To them, Israel is a uniquely evil entity that must be destroyed, and tons of solid evidence showing that they are completely, irrevocably wrong is simply something else that they must do battle with their only weapon: lies.
Posted: 11 May 2011 07:53 AM PDT
It is fun to watch how Israel haters react to my series of posters celebrating Zionism.
One such hater is someone named Ben White, who apparently is one of the leaders of the anti-Israel crowd. He wrote a book called "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide" and has been praised by the usual crowd of anti-Zionists like Ali Abunimah and Ilan Pappe.
His reaction to my posters was to put up his own spoof poster on Twitter, replacing "Zionism" with "Hasbara" and tweeting "Israel at 63: This is Hasbara!":
Not having ever heard of him, I thought this was a compliment, because I thinkit is a very good example of what hasbara should be. Only when MargieInTelAviv responded
ah can't stand the truth can you? Why not check it out?
did I realize it was meant to be an insult.
I responded:
Of course it is #Hasbara. And it is true. Hasbara is no more an insult than #Zionism!
Ben:
#hasbara in 2011 = treating kids in Haiti, evicting kids in #Palestine
He then included a link to "Hasbara Buster" who claims that Israel's good deeds aren't good in themselves, but an insidious plot to redirect the world from talking about Israeli crimes.
Me:
You are a sad man to get so upset over Zionists doing good things.
Ben:
you are a not-so-bright man if u think its the "doing good things" bit that's objectionable
Me:
Ah. One sided propaganda against Israel=good, telling the other side=evil. Got it.
Ben:
No, its called using acts of charity in strategy 2 defend apartheid. But nice #projection though
Me:
Even your example disproves your thesis. Org is private. But your hate overrides all. Sad.
He then tried to change the subject, with a photo that I suppose is meant to illustrate Zionist evil. Which is the usual modus operandi of people like him - they need to change the playing field in order to pretend to win.
But think about his main argument: he believes that when Israel - or in this case, ordinary Israelis - do good things, they have an ulterior motive: to cover up crimes. And when people like me publicize how great Israel is, we also have an evil motive: to cover up Israel's crimes.
In other words, to these mental midgets, Israel is inherently evil. Everything it does is evil. This is the premise that informs all of their activities. No shades of grey, no nuance, not even the possibility of admitting that things are more complex than they pretend. When Israel does something seemingly bad, it proves it is evil, when it does something good, it's just more proof that it is evil.
Logical people, who make up their minds based on evidence, can look at both sides of a story and decide. Haters, however, already know the answer, and any evidence to the contrary they use to "prove" their own point!
Let's once again look at the oppressed Palestinian Arab cancer patients who enjoyed a day in the snow courtesy of the IDF, the subject of my first poster:
Looking at these photos drives the haters crazy, as we have seen. They cannot reconcile the idea of Israelis - especially Israeli soldiers - actually doing something nice for the people they supposedly despise and who are, they believe, being ethnically cleansed by the very same soldiers. The cognitive dissonance must be painful. They must therefore invent their own elaborate frameworks of bizarre conspiracy theories to reconcile the obvious truth about Israel with their own, twisted, hate.
How can oppressed Palestinian Arab kids allow themselves to be used as pawns by the evil IDF? How dare they laugh and smile and have fun with the symbols of Zionist atrocities? Better that they refuse to go sleddign in Mount Hermon, and stay in their hospitals, than go and have fun when there is a slight chance that someone might photograph them and use them in such a terrible evil hasbaristic way! Don't they see that they are exactly like the Jews in Theresienstadt before the Red Cross visited it in 1944? Their smiles are lies! Their fun is a lie! The pictures are probably Photoshopped! The IDF was probably mowing them down with machine guns!
There is an entire industry out there, with people who are emotionally - and, in this case, financially - invested in demonizing Israel. Showing the truth is a direct threat to their worldview, and for them, this cannot be allowed. To them, Israel is a uniquely evil entity that must be destroyed, and tons of solid evidence showing that they are completely, irrevocably wrong is simply something else that they must do battle with their only weapon: lies.
The Palestinian Pound
The Palestine pound: A little revisionist history
Posted: 11 May 2011 08:48 AM PDT
From the Los Angeles Times' blog Babylon and Beyond:
As part of a statehood bid they plan to bring before the U.N. this September, Palestinians are pushing for the creation of a new Palestine Central Bank and the introduction of new currency.
But Jihad Al-Wazir, 48, governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, which hopes to soon evolve into the first central bank, says work is needed before reintroducing the Palestinian pound.
“We do not expect that in September we would wake up the next day and find the Palestinian pound all over the place,’’ he told the Los Angeles Times recently. “That’s not going to happen. The way it looks now, people would like it in the first week and enjoy the fact that the pound is back, but would they put it in their pocket and use it the next day? That would be the challenge.”
Well, there was indeed currency called the Palestine pound. Here's what it looked like in 1939:
Yikes - look at all that Hebrew! And that Jewish shrine on the front - in Bethlehem!
But wait, there's more! Here's what the Palestine Pound looked like in 1948:
In fact, these were the last Palestine Pound notes made, as Israel migrated to the Lira (Israeli pound). The last place that the Palestine pound was legal tender was in - Israel.
Do you think this is the pound note Al Wazir wants to "re-introduce"?
Al-Wazir, by pretending that he might bring the Palestine pound back, is implying that there was once an entity called "Palestine" that issued its own currency, rather than using British currency (equal to one pound sterling) of Mandate Palestine.
Incidentally, before 1948, the Palestine pound was also legal tender in Transjordan. Perhaps it should be re-introduced there as well.
(h/t David G)
Posted: 11 May 2011 08:48 AM PDT
From the Los Angeles Times' blog Babylon and Beyond:
As part of a statehood bid they plan to bring before the U.N. this September, Palestinians are pushing for the creation of a new Palestine Central Bank and the introduction of new currency.
But Jihad Al-Wazir, 48, governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, which hopes to soon evolve into the first central bank, says work is needed before reintroducing the Palestinian pound.
“We do not expect that in September we would wake up the next day and find the Palestinian pound all over the place,’’ he told the Los Angeles Times recently. “That’s not going to happen. The way it looks now, people would like it in the first week and enjoy the fact that the pound is back, but would they put it in their pocket and use it the next day? That would be the challenge.”
Well, there was indeed currency called the Palestine pound. Here's what it looked like in 1939:
Yikes - look at all that Hebrew! And that Jewish shrine on the front - in Bethlehem!
But wait, there's more! Here's what the Palestine Pound looked like in 1948:
In fact, these were the last Palestine Pound notes made, as Israel migrated to the Lira (Israeli pound). The last place that the Palestine pound was legal tender was in - Israel.
Do you think this is the pound note Al Wazir wants to "re-introduce"?
Al-Wazir, by pretending that he might bring the Palestine pound back, is implying that there was once an entity called "Palestine" that issued its own currency, rather than using British currency (equal to one pound sterling) of Mandate Palestine.
Incidentally, before 1948, the Palestine pound was also legal tender in Transjordan. Perhaps it should be re-introduced there as well.
(h/t David G)
A 12-meter Key in Rafah
A 12-meter "Naqba key" in Rafah
Posted: 11 May 2011 09:52 AM PDT
Palestinian Arabs in Rafah have unveiled what they say is the world's longest key, to symbolize when they fled Palestine in 1947-48.
At the two hour ceremony, the organizers pleaded with Arab countries to continue to push their Palestinian Arab guests to "return" to a country most of them have never entered. Which means that they asked Arab countries to continue their apartheid-like practices of discrimination against their Palestinian Arab populations and never allow them to become naturalized citizens, even if they want to.
The person behind the stunt said
The goal is to consolidate this key in the minds of young people, women and children, to tell them that they they were expelled and deported from their land.
In fact, most of their ancestors simply fled their homes out of fear, after their own leaders fled before them. They thought that their neighboring Arab nations would welcome them and allow them to start afresh, but they didn't count on their own leaders and the Arab leaders to create a myth of Palestinian Arab nationalism meant to ensure that they remain in misery forever. If they would have known how their Arab "brethren" were going to treat them for the next six decades, most of them probably would have stayed put.
The organizer continued:
The fight with the Jews is ideological, and therefore it is imperative for young people and children in particular to be aware of this through awareness by the community, through the organization of such events, and the work of innovative ideas as this key of return.
He added a message to Israel, "There will be no security for you," and he called for the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian factions to unite in Jihad and resistance until the restoration of "usurped Palestinian land."
This is the two-state solution that we've been hearing so much about from the New York Times.
Posted: 11 May 2011 09:52 AM PDT
Palestinian Arabs in Rafah have unveiled what they say is the world's longest key, to symbolize when they fled Palestine in 1947-48.
At the two hour ceremony, the organizers pleaded with Arab countries to continue to push their Palestinian Arab guests to "return" to a country most of them have never entered. Which means that they asked Arab countries to continue their apartheid-like practices of discrimination against their Palestinian Arab populations and never allow them to become naturalized citizens, even if they want to.
The person behind the stunt said
The goal is to consolidate this key in the minds of young people, women and children, to tell them that they they were expelled and deported from their land.
In fact, most of their ancestors simply fled their homes out of fear, after their own leaders fled before them. They thought that their neighboring Arab nations would welcome them and allow them to start afresh, but they didn't count on their own leaders and the Arab leaders to create a myth of Palestinian Arab nationalism meant to ensure that they remain in misery forever. If they would have known how their Arab "brethren" were going to treat them for the next six decades, most of them probably would have stayed put.
The organizer continued:
The fight with the Jews is ideological, and therefore it is imperative for young people and children in particular to be aware of this through awareness by the community, through the organization of such events, and the work of innovative ideas as this key of return.
He added a message to Israel, "There will be no security for you," and he called for the Arab and Islamic nation and the Palestinian factions to unite in Jihad and resistance until the restoration of "usurped Palestinian land."
This is the two-state solution that we've been hearing so much about from the New York Times.
Muslim Brotherhood Leader Runs for Egyptian Presidency
Muslim Brotherhood leader running for Egyptian presidency
Posted: 11 May 2011 10:59 AM PDT
Remember those wonderful days of the Egyptian revolt, last February, when the Muslim Brotherhood sought to allay Western fears about themselves by writing an op-ed in the New York Times?
We aim to achieve reform and rights for all: not just for the Muslim Brotherhood, not just for Muslims, but for all Egyptians. We do not intend to take a dominant role in the forthcoming political transition. We are not putting forward a candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for September.
Never mind:
A leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement will run for the post of Egyptian president as an independent candidate, the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper said on Wednesday.
"Abdul Munim Abu al-Futuh has decided to run in the presidential election in response to numerous appeals by his supporters," the newspaper said.
A loophole: since a MB leader is not running as a member of the MB's "Freedom and Justice" party but as an independent, the Brotherhood can have its cake and eat it, too..
Posted: 11 May 2011 10:59 AM PDT
Remember those wonderful days of the Egyptian revolt, last February, when the Muslim Brotherhood sought to allay Western fears about themselves by writing an op-ed in the New York Times?
We aim to achieve reform and rights for all: not just for the Muslim Brotherhood, not just for Muslims, but for all Egyptians. We do not intend to take a dominant role in the forthcoming political transition. We are not putting forward a candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for September.
Never mind:
A leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement will run for the post of Egyptian president as an independent candidate, the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper said on Wednesday.
"Abdul Munim Abu al-Futuh has decided to run in the presidential election in response to numerous appeals by his supporters," the newspaper said.
A loophole: since a MB leader is not running as a member of the MB's "Freedom and Justice" party but as an independent, the Brotherhood can have its cake and eat it, too..
Obsession, free movie available limited time
Obsession, the movie, available for a limited time
Posted: 11 May 2011 11:35 AM PDT
For a limited time, you can watch the entire move Obsession about the dangers of radical Islam online for free:
Obsession: Radical Islam Against the West - Full Version from Clarion Fund on Vimeo.
(h/t Wayne Kopping via Twitter)
Posted: 11 May 2011 11:35 AM PDT
For a limited time, you can watch the entire move Obsession about the dangers of radical Islam online for free:
Obsession: Radical Islam Against the West - Full Version from Clarion Fund on Vimeo.
(h/t Wayne Kopping via Twitter)
Hamas/Fatah Unity Agreements
Afternoon links
Posted: 11 May 2011 01:36 PM PDT
Harry's Place on another wonderful organization that Amnesty International supports whose philosophy would seem, in a sane world, to be at odds with those of a human rights organization.
Noah Pollak's Commentary article on B'Tselem is now available in full.
NGO Monitor surveys NGO reaction to the Hamas/Fatah unity agreement to see if any of them demand that Hamas abandon violence and recognize Israel. Results pretty much as expected.
Martin Peretz: Why should Israel make peace with failed states?
CAMERA details how Hamas is using doubletalk that the Western media is eating up - and points out that nothing that Hamas is saying today is inconsistent with an interview last year where Hamas says it intends to destroy Israel in stages.
PMW: 64% of Palarabs wouldn't object to Bin Laden being buried in "Palestine."
Posted: 11 May 2011 01:36 PM PDT
Harry's Place on another wonderful organization that Amnesty International supports whose philosophy would seem, in a sane world, to be at odds with those of a human rights organization.
Noah Pollak's Commentary article on B'Tselem is now available in full.
NGO Monitor surveys NGO reaction to the Hamas/Fatah unity agreement to see if any of them demand that Hamas abandon violence and recognize Israel. Results pretty much as expected.
Martin Peretz: Why should Israel make peace with failed states?
CAMERA details how Hamas is using doubletalk that the Western media is eating up - and points out that nothing that Hamas is saying today is inconsistent with an interview last year where Hamas says it intends to destroy Israel in stages.
PMW: 64% of Palarabs wouldn't object to Bin Laden being buried in "Palestine."
Israeli Records Syrian Opposition Songs
Meanwhile, whose side are Israelis on?
Well, a popular Israeli singer is recording Arabic protest songs, and getting them smuggled into Syria to the protesters. One such song can be heard here.
(h/t Joel)
Well, a popular Israeli singer is recording Arabic protest songs, and getting them smuggled into Syria to the protesters. One such song can be heard here.
(h/t Joel)
Syria Blames Israelis for Killing Syrians
Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf warned Israel of instability if the regime of his cousin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad falls, vowing to "fight to the end," according to The New York Times.
"If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel," said Makhlouf, who is on a list of 13 Syrian figures subjected to European Union sanctions for their role in violence against protesters opposing Assad's autocratic government.
"Nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbids, anything happens to this regime," Makhlouf told the US daily.
"What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do," said Makhlouf who is a member of Assad's Alawite minority.
So Assad's cousin is telling Israel to stop the Zionist protests if it knows what's good for it.
However, some Arabs are interpreting his statements differently. From the comments there, Sami writes:
A great proof of who is protecting Israel!
Yeah, Makhlouf really cares about Israel.
As is inevitably the case, both sides accuse the other of being Zionist.
"If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel," said Makhlouf, who is on a list of 13 Syrian figures subjected to European Union sanctions for their role in violence against protesters opposing Assad's autocratic government.
"Nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbids, anything happens to this regime," Makhlouf told the US daily.
"What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do," said Makhlouf who is a member of Assad's Alawite minority.
So Assad's cousin is telling Israel to stop the Zionist protests if it knows what's good for it.
However, some Arabs are interpreting his statements differently. From the comments there, Sami writes:
A great proof of who is protecting Israel!
Yeah, Makhlouf really cares about Israel.
As is inevitably the case, both sides accuse the other of being Zionist.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
This Is Zionism: IDF soldiers give Palestinian cancer patients a day of fun
This is Zionism: IDF soldiers give 'Palestinian' cancer patients a day of fun
I wrote once before about the IDF's alpine unit taking 'Palestinian' cancer patients to the Hermon here. Now you have it on video (really a slide show).
Turkey Continues Working to Destroy Israel
The Turkish terror group IHH, which is closely connected to Prime Minister Erdogan's AKP party, has announced that it will send another flotilla of 'supplies' for the desperate Gazans in the third week of June (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
The flotilla will depart from various European ports, including Marseilles.
The flotilla is being delayed for a month - rather than depart on or around 'Naqba day,' which is Sunday, because there are elections in Turkey in early June.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Gaza plenty, IHH, Mavi Marmara, naqba, Turkish obsession with Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem
Is Egypt on the Verge of Starvation?
Is Egypt on the verge of starvation? It seems that a combination of rising food prices, lack of credit and the economic consequences of revolution are putting Egypt in danger of starvation.
Egypt's political problems - violence against Coptic Christians, the resurgence of Islamism, and saber-rattling at Israel, for example - are not symptoms of economic failure. They have a life of their own. But even Islamists have to eat, and whatever political scenarios that the radical wing of Egyptian politic might envision will be aborted by hunger.
The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Justice is already forming "revolutionary committees" to mete out street justice to bakeries, propane dealers and street vendors who "charge more than the price prescribed by law", the Federation of Egyptian Radio and Television reported on May 3.
According to the ministry, "Thugs are in control of bread and butane prices" and "people's committees" are required to stop them. Posters on Egyptian news sites report sharp increases in bread prices, far in excess of the 11.5% inflation reported for April by the country's central bank. And increases in the price of bottled propane have made the cost of the most widely used cooking fuel prohibitive.
The collapse of Egypt's credit standing, meanwhile, has shut down trade financing for food imports, according to the chairman of the country's Food Industry Holding Company, Dr Ahmed al-Rakaibi, chairman of the Holding Company for Food Industries. Rakaibi warned of "an acute shortage in the production of food commodities manufactured locally, as well as a decline in imports of many goods, especially poultry, meats and oils". According to the country's statistics agency, only a month's supply of rice is on hand, and four months' supply of wheat.
The country's foreign exchange reserves have fallen by US$13 billion, or roughly a third during the first three months of the year, Reuters reported on May 5. The country lost $6 billion of official and $7 billion of unofficial reserves, and had only $24.5 billion on hand at the end of April. Capital flight probably explains most of the rapid decline. Egypt's currency has declined by only about 6% since January, despite substantial capital flight, due to market intervention by the central bank, but the rapid drawdown of reserves is unsustainable.
At this rate Egypt will be broke by September.
Aren't you glad Mubarak's gone?
Labels: Egyptian economy, food shortage
posted by Carl in Jerusalem
Syria Withdraws Her Bid for Human Rights Seat
Syria is withdrawing its candidacy for the UN 'Human Rights Council' as one of the four candidates from the 'Asia group.' It will be replaced by Kuwait, which was slated to 'run' for the Council in 2013. It is not clear whether Syria will take 2013 space.
Kuwait is going to replace Syria as a candidate for a seat on the U.N.’s top human rights body in what would be a victory for human rights groups and many governments opposed to the ongoing crackdown by President Bashar Assad’s security forces, Western diplomats said Tuesday.
An intense behind-the-scenes campaign has been waged to prevent Syria from being elected to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council following the government’s attempts to crush a seven-week uprising challenging the Assad family’s 40-year rule.
One Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because no public announcement has been made, said Tuesday that Kuwaiti officials told diplomats in Kuwait they will replace Syria as a candidate in the May 20 secret-ballot election in the U.N. General Assembly.
...
Syria was a frontrunner for a seat on the Human Rights Council as one of four candidates selected to fill four Asian seats.
It was considered likely to win unless another candidate entered the race or it failed to win a majority of votes in the 192-member General Assembly.
You mean it's actually possible to shame the United Nations? I didn't think they had any shame.
Labels: Kuwait, Syria, United Nations Human Rights Council
posted by Carl in Jerusalem
Guess Who Funded Women for Peace?
On Monday, I reported that Deutche Bahn, the German national railway, was withdrawing from its supportive role in a project to construct a high speed rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I also reported that the withdrawal was brought about through the efforts of an organization called Who Profits, which I described as
an on-going grassroots investigation effort by activists in The Coalition of Women for Peace, a leading Israeli feminist peace organization, dedicated to exposing companies and corporations involved in the occupation so as to promote a change in public opinion and corporate policies and eventually lead to an end to the occupation.
I'm sure you folks will all be shocked to hear who funds the Coalition of Women for Peace.
Surely they are funded by Iran or Saudi Arabia? But here’s what NGO Monitor tells us:
In 2006-2009, the New Israel Fund (NIF) authorized grants worth $294,129 to CWP (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).
“Major donors” since 2000 include the European Union, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (587,189 NIS from the German government), Heinrich Böll Stiftung (from the German government), the Moriah Fund, Aaron Back and the Ford Israel Fund, and SIVMO. (This funding does not include support for individual NGOs in the coalition.)
So in addition to the hostile Europeans, liberal American Jews have unknowingly been supporting this viciously anti-Israel organization!
A prominent member of the NIF, chair of its “Pluralism Grants Committee,” is the Union for Reform Judaism’s nominee for its new President, Rabbi Richard Jacobs, who describes himself as “proudly and strongly pro-Israel.”
And you thought rabbi rick was opposed to BDS.
Read it all.
Labels: BDS, Coalition of Women for Peace, high-speed rail line, New Israel Fund, rabbi Rick Jacobs, Who Profits
posted by Carl in Jerusalem
IAF Flyover on Yom HaAtzmaut
Here's a group of IAF F-16I's flying in formation as part of the Independence Day flyover.
Def Poetry - Common - A Letter To The Law
Here’s a sample of Dickinson’s work that could have been presented at Bush’s event:
I’m nobody! Who are you?
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Aboveis a sample of Common’s work, transcribed from a 2007 video with 837,613 viewers on YouTube.
Iran Calls Shots in Syria
MASSACRING THEIR OWN PEOPLE By Tom Gross April 26
This dispatch is a follow-up to my recent article on Syria.
Because some in the international media are still not covering the six-week-old Syrian uprising properly, and indeed certain journalists are still taking Assad regime propaganda at face value, I attach four videos below.
(As recently as yesterday, the correspondent for The New York Times, for example, was still referring to Bashar Assad as though he was some kind of moderate reformer who may have little or nothing to do with the current crackdown in Syria, much in the same way that for years other writers at The New York Times made excuses for Yasser Arafat, deluding themselves that Arafat had nothing to do with the terrorism which he was in fact initiating.)
Bashar Assad, even more than his father, has formed an ever closer alliance with the regime in Tehran, hence U.S.President Obama’s reference yesterday to the role of Iranian advisors in the present massacre of Syrians.
Israel is on high alert in case Assad and his partners in Tehran create a crisis in Lebanon or Gaza. We should not forget that the cause of the crisis that led to the 1967 Six-Day War was Syrian instability, and the willingness of Syria’s Alawite rulers to act against Israel in order to maintain their rule.
Carrying out acts of terror is nothing new for the Assad family, of course. They have been aiding and abetting terrorism against Israelis, Lebanese, Kurds, Iraqis and others for decades.
Al Jazeera is carrying interviews with witnesses in the city of Daraa, and in the Damascus suburb of Duma, saying that after Syrian security forces have shot unarmed demonstrators, they have then executed many of the injured, and shot anyone trying to help them. The authorities have turned off water and electricity in the area, so the injured can’t be treated properly in hospitals in any case.
Meanwhile, Syria is still in line to become the newest member of the (cruelly misnamed) U.N. Human Rights Council when a vote takes place on May 20 at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Be warned, this first video (filmed over the weekend) is one of the most graphic I have ever posted. (The other two videos after that are not nearly as gruesome. In particular I recommend watching the second video. There are some other notes after the three videos.)
-- Tom Gross
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