Hello all,
In this time of conflict in Gaza, it would be good to remember the thousands of young people and children who have been living under the threat of Kassam bombs for more than 8 years. This past summer, my 21 year old daughter Dana made this video. I was in the United States with my two younger children Mayan and Gabi, at Camp Interlaken, where they were guests of the wonderful Milwaukee JCC. I was unaware that Dana had made this video and she showed it to me only this morning, on this the 7th day of the war in Gaza.
Since Saturday afternoon, the Tzeva Adom alarm has sounded 28 times in our kibbutz and many bombs have fallen; however, we are of high spirits and our thoughts and prayers are with our soldiers. Please feel free to distribute this link as you see fit.
Shalom,
Marcell Bar-On
Kibbutz Nir-Am - Gaza Border
h/t Elder of Ziyon
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Monday, February 02, 2009
Life in Sderot
This is what life looks like in Sderot: terrorized civilians, traumatized children, shattered lives. This is what is has looked like for the past eight years:
Sunday, August 24, 2008
The Good News and the Bad News
The good news is that Sir Paul McCartney is scheduled to perform in Israel on September 25th 2008. The bad news is that Salem Fayyad might think that the ex-Beatle's visit to Israel is undermining the Palestinian dream of destroying the Jewish State. Left with practically nothing to do with his time, the Prime Minister of the now defunct Palestinian authority is crafting a new career as an epistle-writer. Whenever someone announces their intention to visit Israel or pursue some joint project with Israel, Mr. Fayyad can be counted on to produce a letter of protest. That is when he is not diverting international aid to fund Hamas.
More good news is that the Ships of Fools have reached Gaza. Or is it the bad news?
The bad news is that the "people of Gaza" were disappointed that the boats were carrying only useful idiots instead of the free lunch anticipated by the local populace. Or is it the good news? I can't make up my mind. But I like it! Me likes it, bwana, because the "people of Gaza" have turned their backs on the pathetic bunch of peaceniks and made them look like the complete fools that they are. I mean they braved the waves and the Israeli Navy warships, for crying out loud, only to be abandoned on the beach by the object of their affection? That's some anticlimax!
So here is an idea for future Gaza solidarity campaigns: buy them gift baskets and save face!
Hamas, on the other hand, might consider smuggling food items through the tunnels, instead of the usual traffic of ammunition, explosives and exotic animals for their squalid zoos.
This might be a good time for Ms. Lauren, nee Sarah, Booth to throw her weight about a bit and demand that the moneys showered on the Palestinians be put to better use. In addition, she might also ask permission to interview Gilad Shalit in captivity. Well, let's not get carried away...
Still, can't say I'm sorry to see the blockade runners embarrassed and thrown under the bus (or under the boat, I should say) by their ungrateful proteges. Disappointed, that's what they were, seeing the anemic solidarity show but no chow. Coooool...
More good news is that the Ships of Fools have reached Gaza. Or is it the bad news?
The bad news is that the "people of Gaza" were disappointed that the boats were carrying only useful idiots instead of the free lunch anticipated by the local populace. Or is it the good news? I can't make up my mind. But I like it! Me likes it, bwana, because the "people of Gaza" have turned their backs on the pathetic bunch of peaceniks and made them look like the complete fools that they are. I mean they braved the waves and the Israeli Navy warships, for crying out loud, only to be abandoned on the beach by the object of their affection? That's some anticlimax!
So here is an idea for future Gaza solidarity campaigns: buy them gift baskets and save face!
Hamas, on the other hand, might consider smuggling food items through the tunnels, instead of the usual traffic of ammunition, explosives and exotic animals for their squalid zoos.
This might be a good time for Ms. Lauren, nee Sarah, Booth to throw her weight about a bit and demand that the moneys showered on the Palestinians be put to better use. In addition, she might also ask permission to interview Gilad Shalit in captivity. Well, let's not get carried away...
Still, can't say I'm sorry to see the blockade runners embarrassed and thrown under the bus (or under the boat, I should say) by their ungrateful proteges. Disappointed, that's what they were, seeing the anemic solidarity show but no chow. Coooool...
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Tisha B'Av
1938 years after the destruction of the temple they are still plotting against us
Dan Margalit
Tisha b'Av, August 10, 2008
Israel Today
Today we mark the destruction of the Temple 1938 years ago. We reflect on the national and moral contents of this day rather than the religious and ceremonial ones, while our Jewish sovereignty is still being challenged with delicate and complex security issues.
The desire to destroy the Jews is as old as the hills and as stubborn as a mule.
Three years ago it had the Jews forcibly expelled from Gush Katif and was going to establish normal economic and trade relations with Pleshet. Except painful unilateral concessions were rewarded with Qassam and mortar salvos at the Negev, leaving the IDF with no choice but to return fire and slam shut the gates of commerce. In any other part of the world, Palestinian terror would have been met with a severe military and economic response.
But the world does not hold Israel up to equal and uniform standards, such as are acceptable in any other violent conflict. Thus Hamas was allowed to raise its head, overtake Gaza and recruit ill-wishing, perhaps naïve, elements who are now preparing to sail from Cyprus aiming "to break the siege" on Gaza and "bring Israel down on her knees."
While the Jewish State is raking its brains trying to find a way to stop the boat from running the blockade, Russia has attacked Georgia without any signs of mercy: 2,000 casualties in just two days. The land of the czars has been and always will be imperialistic.
The Russian State has imposed a cruel and unjust war and has pounded Georgia unrelentingly, until the latter had no choice but to beg for mercy and a ceasefire. When one goes to war – whether justified or not – one must not hesitate nor bat an eyelid. Not the way Israel went to war two years ago in Lebanon and was defeated.
Former US Secretary of State George Schultz once reminisced how upon joining the marines, his commander gave him a rifle and said to him: "Hold on to this weapon only if you are going to use it when necessary. Otherwise get a broom." In plain English. It sounds pretty clear in Russian as well. But for the time being it does not sound very clear in Hebrew.
The important lesson is that Israel must stand her ground and not lose sight of the objective. Israel must demand that this hostile world apply the same criteria that are in order when Russia unjustly invades Georgia.
1938 years ago today our second Temple was put to the torch. Today, more than ever, we call upon our rulers to focus on Jewish sovereignty. Even if it means a token focus.
On this Tisha b'Av our rulers need to stop the Hamas ship from reaching our shores. Perhaps those on board, Israelis included, had better steer for the bleeding shores of Georgia.
Dan Margalit
Tisha b'Av, August 10, 2008
Israel Today
Today we mark the destruction of the Temple 1938 years ago. We reflect on the national and moral contents of this day rather than the religious and ceremonial ones, while our Jewish sovereignty is still being challenged with delicate and complex security issues.
The desire to destroy the Jews is as old as the hills and as stubborn as a mule.
Three years ago it had the Jews forcibly expelled from Gush Katif and was going to establish normal economic and trade relations with Pleshet. Except painful unilateral concessions were rewarded with Qassam and mortar salvos at the Negev, leaving the IDF with no choice but to return fire and slam shut the gates of commerce. In any other part of the world, Palestinian terror would have been met with a severe military and economic response.
But the world does not hold Israel up to equal and uniform standards, such as are acceptable in any other violent conflict. Thus Hamas was allowed to raise its head, overtake Gaza and recruit ill-wishing, perhaps naïve, elements who are now preparing to sail from Cyprus aiming "to break the siege" on Gaza and "bring Israel down on her knees."
While the Jewish State is raking its brains trying to find a way to stop the boat from running the blockade, Russia has attacked Georgia without any signs of mercy: 2,000 casualties in just two days. The land of the czars has been and always will be imperialistic.
The Russian State has imposed a cruel and unjust war and has pounded Georgia unrelentingly, until the latter had no choice but to beg for mercy and a ceasefire. When one goes to war – whether justified or not – one must not hesitate nor bat an eyelid. Not the way Israel went to war two years ago in Lebanon and was defeated.
Former US Secretary of State George Schultz once reminisced how upon joining the marines, his commander gave him a rifle and said to him: "Hold on to this weapon only if you are going to use it when necessary. Otherwise get a broom." In plain English. It sounds pretty clear in Russian as well. But for the time being it does not sound very clear in Hebrew.
The important lesson is that Israel must stand her ground and not lose sight of the objective. Israel must demand that this hostile world apply the same criteria that are in order when Russia unjustly invades Georgia.
1938 years ago today our second Temple was put to the torch. Today, more than ever, we call upon our rulers to focus on Jewish sovereignty. Even if it means a token focus.
On this Tisha b'Av our rulers need to stop the Hamas ship from reaching our shores. Perhaps those on board, Israelis included, had better steer for the bleeding shores of Georgia.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Out of Our Minds
During my daily rounds of the blogosphere, I found this story that really got my pulse going:
New Book May Further the Rift Between Israeli Arabs And Jews
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Israeli Arab organization distributed at Arab schools throughout northern Israel on Wednesday 20,000 copies of a booklet aimed at promoting Arab unity around the popular idea that the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 was a catastrophe, or what is widely referred to in Arabic as the "nakba."
The booklet contains stories written by 150 Arab children in Israel, the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, Syria and Lebanon that are harshly critical of and even hostile toward Israel.
It was produced by the Ibn Khaldun Association in northern Israel, whose director Asad Ghanem told Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that he hoped the booklet would "reaffirm Palestinian consciousness, and maintain and reinforce it among future generations" of Israeli Arabs. Ghanem is also head of the political science department at Israel's Haifa University.
In remarks to Cybercast News Service, Israeli Arab affairs expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a research associate with the Begin-Sadat Center, stressed his view that Ghanem and other Israeli Arabs like him do not view the booklet as a threat to Israel.
"They see this book as designed to strengthen national awareness and to promote a connection between Palestinians who are Israeli and those living in other Arab countries in order to consolidate the Palestinian spirit," said Kedar.
That national awareness and struggle is more commonly known as the "Palestinian cause," which today is largely taken to mean the effort to establish a sovereign Palestinian Arab state in the Gaza Strip and the areas known collectively around the world as the "West Bank," but which many Israelis refer to by their biblical names of Judea and Samaria.
The problem for most Israelis is that the Palestinian cause as formulated by late PLO founder Yasser Arafat does not stop with Judea and Samaria. Even after signing the so-called "Oslo Accords" with Israel, Arafat repeatedly told Arab media that the PLO's "phased plan" remained in effect, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would be only the first step toward the destruction of Israel.
Despite the threat inherent in the Palestinian cause and the "nakba" narrative that fuels it, Kedar said he remains convinced most Israeli Arabs and Jews want to "live together instead of fight each other." Unfortunately, Ghanem's booklet is poised to widen the rift between the two communities by further antagonizing the more hardened elements in Israeli society, whose reaction will be used by Islamists to further radicalize Israeli Arab youth.
This book "will definitely pour more oil on the fire against the Arabs within certain Israeli circles, which will in turn pour even more oil on the fire created by extremist elements on the Arab side," said Kedar.The publication of Ghanem's booklet comes at a time of already markedly increased tension between Israeli Arabs and Jews, a phenomenon that was highlighted last month as Israeli Jews and a slew of visiting foreign dignitaries celebrated Israel's 60th Independence Day while most of the nation's Arabs spoke out against the state or were cowed into silence by extremists.
Israeli media commentators have asserted that national ethnic divisions can be at least partially blamed on an Israeli government establishment that has beholden itself to the principles of political correctness and now refuses to be seen as interfering with its Arab minority by countering negative trends in that community.
Jerusalem Post columnist Carolyn Glick wrote earlier this year that "the natural pull of Israeli Arabs is toward the Palestinians," and that Israel has to make a concerted effort to win the hearts and minds of its Arab citizens, or risk facing an internal explosion in addition to numerous regional threats.
So the Israeli establishment wants to stick to politically correctness and allow free circulation of this piece of inflammatory propaganda (150 stories) rather than interfere (provoke riots) with our ever so hostile and treacherous Arab minority. But the same Israeli establishment does allow the Arab minority to interfere with the Israeli majority in a blatant attempt to shut us up. Said Israeli establishment has just given in to the extortion of a Yaffo-based terrorist sympathiser going by the name of Ibrahim Abu-Shindi, who regularly appears on Israeli TV in order to bash the State of Israel while pretending to work for peace. The man is even the director of an Arab-Jewish Community Center. Well, if it's peace he wants, I'll accept nothing less than the publication of the "bone of contention" poem written by one ten-year-old Israeli boy from Ness Ziona. Please also note that the State of Israel can only afford to publish 500 copies of the poetry contest booklet, while an Israeli Arab organization has the funds to come up with 20,000 copies of their revised "Arabian Nights". Good grief! Fortunately, I am not bound by any multi-crappy-culti PC nonsense. So here's the offending poem:
Ahmed's bunker has surprises galore: Grenades, rifles
are hung on the wall. Ahmed is planning another bomb!
What a bunker Ahmed has, who causes daily harm.
Ahmed knows how to make a bomb. Ahmed is Ahmed, that's
who he is, so don't forget to be careful of him.
We get blasted while they have a blast!
Ahmed and his friends could be wealthy and sunny, if only
they wouldn't buy rockets with all their money.
Anyway, in an extraordinary instance of poetic justice, a mishap seems to have befallen one of Ahmed's bunkers and it is no longer operational. Nor are the houses around it habitable.
I am pleased to see that the saga of Ahmad's bunker, the innocent little poem, has made it to several blogs:
B'nai Elim
Double Tapper
Esser Agaroth
Freerepublic
Infidel Blogger's Alliance
Muqata
New Book May Further the Rift Between Israeli Arabs And Jews
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Israeli Arab organization distributed at Arab schools throughout northern Israel on Wednesday 20,000 copies of a booklet aimed at promoting Arab unity around the popular idea that the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 was a catastrophe, or what is widely referred to in Arabic as the "nakba."
The booklet contains stories written by 150 Arab children in Israel, the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, Syria and Lebanon that are harshly critical of and even hostile toward Israel.
It was produced by the Ibn Khaldun Association in northern Israel, whose director Asad Ghanem told Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that he hoped the booklet would "reaffirm Palestinian consciousness, and maintain and reinforce it among future generations" of Israeli Arabs. Ghanem is also head of the political science department at Israel's Haifa University.
In remarks to Cybercast News Service, Israeli Arab affairs expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a research associate with the Begin-Sadat Center, stressed his view that Ghanem and other Israeli Arabs like him do not view the booklet as a threat to Israel.
"They see this book as designed to strengthen national awareness and to promote a connection between Palestinians who are Israeli and those living in other Arab countries in order to consolidate the Palestinian spirit," said Kedar.
That national awareness and struggle is more commonly known as the "Palestinian cause," which today is largely taken to mean the effort to establish a sovereign Palestinian Arab state in the Gaza Strip and the areas known collectively around the world as the "West Bank," but which many Israelis refer to by their biblical names of Judea and Samaria.
The problem for most Israelis is that the Palestinian cause as formulated by late PLO founder Yasser Arafat does not stop with Judea and Samaria. Even after signing the so-called "Oslo Accords" with Israel, Arafat repeatedly told Arab media that the PLO's "phased plan" remained in effect, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would be only the first step toward the destruction of Israel.
Despite the threat inherent in the Palestinian cause and the "nakba" narrative that fuels it, Kedar said he remains convinced most Israeli Arabs and Jews want to "live together instead of fight each other." Unfortunately, Ghanem's booklet is poised to widen the rift between the two communities by further antagonizing the more hardened elements in Israeli society, whose reaction will be used by Islamists to further radicalize Israeli Arab youth.
This book "will definitely pour more oil on the fire against the Arabs within certain Israeli circles, which will in turn pour even more oil on the fire created by extremist elements on the Arab side," said Kedar.The publication of Ghanem's booklet comes at a time of already markedly increased tension between Israeli Arabs and Jews, a phenomenon that was highlighted last month as Israeli Jews and a slew of visiting foreign dignitaries celebrated Israel's 60th Independence Day while most of the nation's Arabs spoke out against the state or were cowed into silence by extremists.
Israeli media commentators have asserted that national ethnic divisions can be at least partially blamed on an Israeli government establishment that has beholden itself to the principles of political correctness and now refuses to be seen as interfering with its Arab minority by countering negative trends in that community.
Jerusalem Post columnist Carolyn Glick wrote earlier this year that "the natural pull of Israeli Arabs is toward the Palestinians," and that Israel has to make a concerted effort to win the hearts and minds of its Arab citizens, or risk facing an internal explosion in addition to numerous regional threats.
So the Israeli establishment wants to stick to politically correctness and allow free circulation of this piece of inflammatory propaganda (150 stories) rather than interfere (provoke riots) with our ever so hostile and treacherous Arab minority. But the same Israeli establishment does allow the Arab minority to interfere with the Israeli majority in a blatant attempt to shut us up. Said Israeli establishment has just given in to the extortion of a Yaffo-based terrorist sympathiser going by the name of Ibrahim Abu-Shindi, who regularly appears on Israeli TV in order to bash the State of Israel while pretending to work for peace. The man is even the director of an Arab-Jewish Community Center. Well, if it's peace he wants, I'll accept nothing less than the publication of the "bone of contention" poem written by one ten-year-old Israeli boy from Ness Ziona. Please also note that the State of Israel can only afford to publish 500 copies of the poetry contest booklet, while an Israeli Arab organization has the funds to come up with 20,000 copies of their revised "Arabian Nights". Good grief! Fortunately, I am not bound by any multi-crappy-culti PC nonsense. So here's the offending poem:
Ahmed's bunker has surprises galore: Grenades, rifles
are hung on the wall. Ahmed is planning another bomb!
What a bunker Ahmed has, who causes daily harm.
Ahmed knows how to make a bomb. Ahmed is Ahmed, that's
who he is, so don't forget to be careful of him.
We get blasted while they have a blast!
Ahmed and his friends could be wealthy and sunny, if only
they wouldn't buy rockets with all their money.
Anyway, in an extraordinary instance of poetic justice, a mishap seems to have befallen one of Ahmed's bunkers and it is no longer operational. Nor are the houses around it habitable.I am pleased to see that the saga of Ahmad's bunker, the innocent little poem, has made it to several blogs:
B'nai Elim
Double Tapper
Esser Agaroth
Freerepublic
Infidel Blogger's Alliance
Muqata
Friday, April 18, 2008
Gaza Impoverished? West Bank Kinky and Wet!
This is the fashion that is turning the Palestinians into "baby making machines", as Khaled Mashal boasted during his daughter's wedding, certain that soon she would become an egg-laying queen bee.
Women's lingerie hangs from a balcony as a veiled woman watches a Palestinian Prisoners' Day demonstration in the West Bank city of Nablus, Thursday, April 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)
Secondly, I keep hearing that we've been stealing the Palestinians' water. Not according to the picture below. In any case, it seems that this year's rainfall hasn't been so good so far, so Israel is getting ready for water-saving mood. Good to see West Bankers enjoying the pool complete with what appears to be water chutes. Yet we are treating them worse than the Nazis treated us. By the way, are any Jews allowed the use of the pool, or are they Judenrein in PA territory? Or is Apartheid a more appropriate term? Anyway, it appears that we didn't manage to steal all of the water (although I heard that we siphoned off Gaza water reserves). And in case you didn't know, we have the ability to vacuum the air above Gaza and the West Bank, just like in the movies.
A Palestinian jumps into a swimming pool to cool off during hot weather in the West Bank town of Jericho April 15, 2008. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK)
Thirdly, about impoverished Gaza. Does this look like poverty? Because this is an impoverished olympic athlete hoping to win gold for Gaza on the track. By the way, they just compared their "plight" to that of the Warsaw Ghetto. Which reminds me of the Jewish athletic team at the Berlin Olympic Games. 
Nader al-Masri displays his trophies in his house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip April 6, 2008. One of a four-member Palestinian team who hope to compete in China and the only representative from the impoverished Gaza Strip, Palestinian athlete Nader al-Masri is determined to make Gaza proud at the Beijing Olympics in August. Picture taken on April 6, 2008. To match feature OLYMPICS/PALESTINIAN REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
Nader al-Masri prepares to go for a run as his daughter watches in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip April 6, 2008. One of a four-member Palestinian team who hope to compete in China and the only representative from the impoverished Gaza Strip, Palestinian athlete Nader al-Masri is determined to make Gaza proud at the Beijing Olympics in August. Picture taken on April 6, 2008. To match feature OLYMPICS/PALESTINIAN REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
Yeees, so hungry and impoverished...
Friday, February 08, 2008
Brotherly Love
A few instances of brotherly love along the breached border between Gaza and Egypt. They don't call it the Philadelphi route for nothing.
People help a wounded Palestinian during clashes with Egyptian forces at the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip February 4, 2008. Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces exchanged fire at Gaza's border with Egypt on Monday and a Palestinian civilian was killed in the fighting, medical workers said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)
Live ammo was fired as clashes erupted between Palestinians streaming into Egypt and Egyptian forces trying to keep some order. No France 2 crew e.g. Charles Enderlin's cameraman was available for a possible al-Dura shooting incident. Oh, I forget, no IDF troops present either. However, death and injury ensued. Oh, what the heck, BBC is as good a source as any on this one, especially as they report the use of electric batons. I wonder what they would have written if the IDF were to use electric batons - what are they anyway? Some sort of tazers?
A Palestinian security man loyal to Hamas arrests a Palestinian near the closed Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip February 3, 2008. Egyptian forces began closing the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, stemming the flow of Palestinians across a frontier blown open 11 days ago by Hamas Islamists in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (Gaza)
So this is how it's done, at gun point. IDF, you watching?
A Palestinian woman stands among Egyptian riot police as she tries to cross into Egypt through the destroyed section of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt January 25, 2008. Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
Dogs? Do I see dogs? But only the Zionists, being worse than the Nazis, use dogs. No there must be some photoshop here. Has the UN stopped whatever they were doing to call on a Security council condemnation of the use of excessive force against the "helpless" Palestinians? Is Jimmy Carter scribbling away on a new book? At least chapter? Is Norman Finkelstein done with his Hezbullah-sponsored tomb tour in Lebanon? Could he spare for the plight of the Palestinians? Oh, silly me, I forget, Palestinians can go eff themselves if the IDF is not involved.
Egyptian forces in riot gear throw stones during clashes with Palestinians trying to cross into Egypt through the destroyed section of the border wall between Gaza and Egypt January 25, 2008. Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade. REUTERS/Nasser Nuri (EGYPT)
Oh, but this is sweet. What was that Tony Blair said about the need to develop a "clever strategy" in order to solve the problem? Well, it was the Egyptians that found that clever strategy: threw the stones right back at the Palestinians. Israel should draw the conclusions.
Israel to Cut off Gaza Electricity
In an attempt to stop the Qassam salvos, Israel is limiting Gaza's power supply. Which is merciful, trust me. For far fewer, although much more damaging, rocket attacks on their cities, the British took upon themselves the task of redesigning the city plans of Dresden and Hamburg, regardless of civilians, cultural heritage, history, and other such "insignificant" factors. Were it the British at the receiving end, Gaza would have been flattened into a pancake a long long time ago. However, since we are only Israelis, and most of us Jews, our blood and suffering have always come rather cheap. I mean, hey, have we not always been considered somewhat inferior? Expendable? Why change that now, when the whole world can identify with the plight of the humiliated Palestinians whose precious humanitarian aid has just been hijacked by ... care to take a guess? No? Never mind, I'll tell you just the same, by Hamas their own governing party. Hey, boys will be boys, pirates will be pirates, and terrorists will be terrorists. After all, they can always claim they never STOLE anything, those items just fell of a truck and they were plain lucky to be there and collect them, what's the problem?
Not only that, the Palestinian propaganda machine, aka Pallywood, is working overtime, betrayed of course by these people's stupidity but spurred on by the world's willingness to lap up and swallow whatever the Arabs may choose to feed them. Remember Shawshank Redemption? "Now I'm gonna open my fly, and you're gonna swallow what I give you to swallow."
Of course, some of us do have the minimal intellectual requirements to see through a hoax, so here are a few:
Of course, some of us do have the minimal intellectual requirements to see through a hoax, so here are a few:
Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Let it be noted that the time is 1 p.m, i.e. broad daylight. The sun is shining and seeping through the drapes. Not only that, those are no burning candles. Those are electric bulbs mounted on candlesticks.
Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008. Israel agreed to allow some fuel, medicine and food into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, at least temporarily easing a blockade that has plunged much of the territory into darkness and sparked international protests. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
Oh, and is that a microphone? What is it running on? Candle smoke? Embarrassing? Not necessarily.
Yet this is the best: a Palestinian baby in an incubator, its tiny fragile life threatened by the inhumane power-cutting Zionist regime. But guess what? they did not notice that the monitor was on. What was it running on? Ooops!
Now these pictures were e-mailed to me without their original captions, so I can make no time reference or attribution. The most similar I could find on the net were those of Ibraheem Abu-Mustafa:
A Palestinian baby sleeps in the European Hospital in Gaza Strip January 20, 2008. Gaza's main power plant shut down completely on Sunday after Israel closed the borders of the Hamas-controlled territory and blocked fuel supplies, Palestinian officials said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)
And now for a cheap tearjerker:
A Palestinian baker makes bread using a wood-fired oven at his bakeshop in Gaza January 22, 2008. Israel agreed to allow some fuel, medicine and food into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Tuesday, at least temporarily easing a blockade that has plunged much of the territory into darkness and sparked international protests. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
So the poor Palestinians were left without electricity. Where's me hanky? Everybody knows that the Palestinians were among the first in the world to use electricity. Nay, in fact they were the ones to invent and use it. How else can one explain their advanced technology and refined civilization? But the evil Zionist Joos had to come along and cut off their supply. So they have to go back to what they were using hundreds of years ago, way way back before they invented it.
Seriously now, that's what it is, a fire wood burning oven. Oven-baked bread and pizzas are a delicacy all over the world. People travel to Italy and pay loads of money to have pizza al forno. In fact in Sicily they serve no pizza on the no forno day.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Religion of Peace Kills 73-year-old Physicist in Dimona
The murder of a distinguished scientist in a shopping mall calls for celebrations in Gaza. It is not unusual to see Reuters sacrificing their professional integrity, ethical standards and neutrality on the altar of terrorist propaganda. 
A Palestinian boy distributes sweets to people in the southern Gaza Strip after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Israel February 4, 2008. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and police shot dead his accomplice in an attack in a shopping centre in southern Israel on Monday that killed at least one Israeli, emergency services said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
An Israeli man injured in a suicide bombing is brought to the hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. A suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses Israel's secretive nuclear reactor, killing at least one Israeli and wounding six, one critically, Israeli authorities said. Police said they killed a second attacker before he had a chance to detonate his explosives belt. (AP Photo/Diego Mitelberg)
A Palestinian boy distributes sweets to people in the southern Gaza Strip after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in southern Israel February 4, 2008. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and police shot dead his accomplice in an attack in a shopping centre in southern Israel on Monday that killed at least one Israeli, emergency services said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA) An Israeli man injured in a suicide bombing is brought to the hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. A suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses Israel's secretive nuclear reactor, killing at least one Israeli and wounding six, one critically, Israeli authorities said. Police said they killed a second attacker before he had a chance to detonate his explosives belt. (AP Photo/Diego Mitelberg)For a supposedly starving people, it is amazing how quickly Palestinians can produce sweets and candy to celebrate death and injury inflicted on innocent civilians by their suicide bombers. The saintly Poles who saved my family during the Holocaust would have been shot dead by the Germans for smuggling a rotten cabbage or potato to feed the Jewish mother and child hidden in their cellar, yet we are now being considered worse than the Nazis. Apparently, the bombers, Hamas and PLFP terrorists, were dispatched from the West Bank. Initially there was some confusion over the identity of the perpetrators (yes, several terror groups were competing for the honor), as the spokesman of the al-Aqsa Brigades (military wing of Fatah) released a videotaped message from martyr wannabes, whose pictures did not quite match the mugshot of the failed bomber (the one who in the throes of death was still trying to reach for the belt, leaving the police officers at the scene no choice but to put enough rounds in his head to neutralize him). This however did not deter the shameless members of the media from rushing to Gaza to immortalize weeping and sobbing relatives (mostly females hiding behind their veils) holding pictures of the vile monsters as young children. I wonder whether a correction would be coming soon, if at all. Not to mention the practically lack of coverage of the 47 injured and their evacuation. Injured Jews don't make the news. Tearful relatives of psychopathic terrorists do.
In any case, the wounded bomber was initially taken for a victim of the attack (and although I mourn the loss of an innocent lady and worry over the fate of her mortally wounded husband and the other victims - such as a 42-year old single mom who was left to fend for herself while the wounded terrorist was being dealth with, wondering all the while whether her 11-month-old daughter was safe, as she couldn't quite remember whether she had taken her baby to the mall or not - all innocent people enjoying a lovely sunny morning at the mall, I cannot hide the fact that I rejoice at the thought that he was, honestly), and was given first aid by the medical team who rushed to the scene: a doctor and nurses from a clinic right across the street from the Dimona mall. They were in fact the ones to discover the unexploded bomb strapped to the monster's body, when they unzipped his jacket to look for wounds. Surprised by the suicide vest attached to a portable gas tank, they stepped back. The sapper and the police officer who shot the bomber took extra care not to set off the device themselves, as the brainwashed piece of human waste, severely wounded though he was, kept trying to reach for the detonating switch, in a last effort to secure his 72 virgins in heaven. Well, I hope he gets 72 Arafats, George Habashes, Ahmad Yassins, Rantisis, and other assorted terrorists. Alternatively, 72 camels would do just as nicely.
Revital Biton and Marina Shaban from the World Pizza at the mall recognized the failed bomber, as some ten minutes prior to the attack he walked in for a last cup of coffee. Lucky gals, to think that he could gave chosen to go off in a "blaze of glory" right there and then and taken them along as well.
Anyway, it appears that one of the bombers was depressed: his auntie reveals that the poor "baby" was in pain because his parents' divorce and his father's married another woman. Although he had a job and was able to visit his relatives in Jerusalem quite often (huh? despite the closures and the roadblocks and the JOOOOOS slowly but surely isolating the West Bank residents, oppressing them, and generally murdering them and trying to get them to leave their ancestral home, and villages and destroyed olive tree groves? I am in shock!!!), if I am to understand correctly, he could think of no better cure for his depression than to blow himself up among Jews, as befits a normal Hammas supporter yearning to make it to jihadi heaven.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Oooops, I did it again and again
Last night's news almost had me pity the poor poor children of Gaza, forced to burn their books and notebooks to avoid freezing to death because our evil army cut fuel supplies to Gaza. We were once again treated (by Israeli TV, not some BBC, CNN or other terror supporting news agency, no sir, by our own) to heart breaking footage of Gaza in the dark, Gaza drowned by the noise of the generators (only a lucky few can avail themselves thereof), Gaza this, Gaza that and the other thing. But my pity was short lived and proven quite unnecessary, because tonight's news sounded more optimistic: Gaza is no longer bankrupt! Gaza has pulled itself out of its bitter predicament: Gaza has fuel, electricity, food, medicine, can treat its own sick, can teach its own aspiring academics. Gaza can afford to import explosives:
2 tons of explosives found amongst humanitarian aid en route to Gaza
Terror groups take advantage of Israeli permit allowing humanitarian goods into impoverished Gaza Strip, attempt to smuggle two tons of fertilizer in truck transporting aid in second such incident this week.
Three weeks ago potassium nitrate was being passed as sugar. Six and a half tons of it, allegedly provided by the European Union.
Yes, poor Gazan kids. What with the evil Yahood oppressing them and such and denying them their inalienable rights to rocket science, fireworks and suicide bombing. But look on the bright side, perhaps those kids burning books might not need their books any more, after armed thugs practically destroyed a private American school: "We don't need no education..." gains a whole new meaning in Gaza. So does "our daily bread": Allah, you're listening? Forget about our daily bread. Give us our daily explosives, you hear?"
2 tons of explosives found amongst humanitarian aid en route to Gaza
Terror groups take advantage of Israeli permit allowing humanitarian goods into impoverished Gaza Strip, attempt to smuggle two tons of fertilizer in truck transporting aid in second such incident this week.
Three weeks ago potassium nitrate was being passed as sugar. Six and a half tons of it, allegedly provided by the European Union.Yes, poor Gazan kids. What with the evil Yahood oppressing them and such and denying them their inalienable rights to rocket science, fireworks and suicide bombing. But look on the bright side, perhaps those kids burning books might not need their books any more, after armed thugs practically destroyed a private American school: "We don't need no education..." gains a whole new meaning in Gaza. So does "our daily bread": Allah, you're listening? Forget about our daily bread. Give us our daily explosives, you hear?"
I hear Hamas is condemned the attack. I say Hamas did it. Why? I suspect the American owner wouldn't let them shoot mortars (please watch video) at Israel from the premises, fearing IAF retaliation. "Oh, yeah?" said Hamas, "you think WE can't retaliate?"
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
I wanted my unborn son to be a shaheed
Like I said, Jewish mothers want their sons to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, painters, pianists, or something like that when they grow up. I thought Palestinian mothers wanted their sons to be terrorists or suicide bombers when they grow up. I was wrong: they don't want their children to grow up. In fact they don't want them to be born at all. There is no way, no way we did to them what the Nazis did to us, yet we would never send our children, mothers or ourselves to kill innocent civilians in Germany. There is something very wrong with the Palestinians, something bordering on severe mental disease. Plus they lie through their teeth like there is no tomorrow. Please watch out for: physicians in Gaza issue fake medical documents for human bombs. Nursing staff in Ramallah hospital assist and support terrorist activities. Arabs residing in Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva are willing to assist suicide bombers. The two devils' whores never said anything about being relieved that they didn't kill Israelis, civilian or military.
Shimon Iphargan
Maariv, June 29, 2007
Fatma Zeck, a 39-year-old mother of eight, and pregnant with her ninth child, lives in Sajjaiyah, Gaza. Her niece, Roda Habib is 30 years old and a mother of four. They were on their way to a double suicide bombing in Israel. They left Gaza for Ramallah where suicide belts would be waiting for them. Then they were to blow themselves up in Tel-Aviv and Netanya, respectively.
Luckily the Shabak arrested them at the Erez crossing, in the nick of time. Suit has been filed against them in the Beer-Sheva District Court.
Zeck and Habib and are not the first Islamic Jihad women activists to be apprehended minutes before the carnage. The transcript of their interrogation provides a good insight into the reasons why Gaza women, married with children, are eager to sacrifice themselves for the Palestinian struggle. In addition, the two also revealed how they forged medical documents to gain passage into Israel, and also how they recruited other suicide bombers, mainly female students.
"Two months ago, my son Mahmoud came to me and told me that he wanted to martyr himself in Israel", Zeck told the police and the Shabak. He was planning to infiltrate Israel from the Sinai. He drilled crawling and other military skills. At the same time a student from Zeitoun told me she was interested in becoming a suicide bomber in Israel. I referred her to one of the Islamic Jihad activists. He took pictures of her and promised to get back to her. I was planning to blow myself up 4-5 months ago. I wanted to kill Jews as allah ordered us, that is by sacrificing myself to allah. I contacted Hisham al-Ajla from Sajjaiya, who is in charge of Islamic Jihad public relations in Gaza. I had met him four years earlier, when I worked in the Islamic Jihad employment office for women in Gaza. He is a friend of Mahmoud. My niece Roda also wanted commit a suicide bombing in Israel. Four months ago I took Roda to see a doctor whose name I forget, so he could give us letters to enter Israel. We asked the doctor to help us blow ourselves up. We sent the letters to the authorities and obtained entry permits via the Erez crossing for medical treatment. Then we met with Mahmoud and Hisham. Hisham videotaped me and Roda, separately and together, holding hand grenades, shotguns and korans. We recited our last will in front of the camera, we said our names and declared that we wanted to martyr ourselves. Then we went home."
Zeck goes on to say how Islamic Jihad handlers trained her and her niece for the "operation": "Hisham told me about two months ago that I have to learn how to shoot, so that I won't be afraid. I practiced on an M-16 rifle and a Kalashnikov. He also showed me how to assemble and dismantle them. Roda and I also learned how to shoot rockets. Then Abu-Sajjad showed us how to detonate an explosives belt. He told us that the belt looks like a zipper vest. He had already sent a suicide bomber into Israel, but he failed because he didn't know how to detonate it. He also said that the vests were made of cotton, they were very light and easy to put on and take off. He showed us how it was wired, and how to connect the wires in order to detonate it. We were to look at the "on" and "off" buttons. He advised us to wear long sleeved dresses, so that the wires wouldn't show. Then he videotaped us again, and I urged the people of Gaza, Hamas and Fatah, to stop killing one another, to unite and behave like brothers. There was a young man there, Abu-Abdallah. He said that if we had any trouble with the vests, his relatives in Jerusalem would help us ready ourselves for the bombing. Abu-Sajjad instructed us to say we were going to Ram-el-Arabiyah hospital in Ramallah, where two nurses (male and female) would assist us. Also a business man, whose name I don't know, was to take us to a hotel after we did some x-rays. The plan was that the business man would drive us to where we would blow ourselves up.
Abu-Sajjad said we didn't need to know the names of those who were to assist us. When we left for the Erez crossing, I put a small prayer book in my purse along with some money and some clothes. After that we were arrested by the Shabak. They ordered us to take our clothes off and to wear clothes that they gave us. They treated us well. We told them the whole truth."
Zeck told the investigators that she came up with the idea of the double bombing, in Tel-Aviv and Netanya, at the entrance to a shopping mall, in a restaurant or a soldiers' hitchhike post. The operators gave the two women 3,000 NIS (~700 USD) for food and taxi fare. She also revealed how the Islamic Jihad appointed her head (princess) of the propaganda (preaching) committee of the organization. The investigators asked Zeck whether she wanted an abortion, so as not to be delivered as a prisoner. Zeck: "My friend and I wanted to go to heaven as soon as possible. There is nothing more for us in this world. When my son is born, he will also be a shaheed."
Habib, the second terrorist, admits that she dreamt of commiting a suicide bombing in Israel for a long time, because of Israeli actions against the residents of Gaza: "Fatma called and told me that Abu-Sajjad agreed to dispatch me on a suicide mission in Israel. My cover for gaining entry into Israel was the need to undergo urgent surgery in the Ramallah hospital. He took me to a doctor friend of his who drew up forged documents. The next day my aunt Fatma and I received SIM cards from the activists, so that we could call when we reached the hospital. Abu-Sajjad said that someone was going to meet us at the hospital, give us the vests, and explain to us once again how to detonate them. I took my kuran so I could pray on the way. I agreed to blow myself up on behalf of the shaheeds and prisoners held in Israeli jails. Abu-Sajjad also told us that another girl he had sent to Israel had failed and had to return to Gaza. Fatma is a coordinator between the Islamic Jihad terror wing and the girls willing to martyr themselves. A 20-year-old mother of a little child volunteered for a suicide mission, but the organization rejected her because she was too young. Abu-Sajjad assured us that in case we failed, we would be able to return to Gaza without any problem. My husband wouldn't hear about the bombing. He pleaded with me to stay home, for the sake of the children, but I told him I my mind was made up."
Habib told the investigators that she was instructed to travel to Beer-Sheva where someone would be waiting with the vests: "Abu-Abdallah's relatives in Beer-Sheva were willing to assist suicide bombers, and they would give us the vests. Abu-Sajjad claimed responsibility for the Eilat bakery bombing where three people were killed in a suicide bombing. Fatma and I were instructed to blow ourselves up in a restaurant, market, cafe, bus stop, or wherever we saw crowds of Jews. Fatma suggested we go to Tel-Aviv, because there would be many soldiers. Fatma's son wanted to shoot at soldiers near the Sinai. Abu-Abdallah instructed us to be faithful to the organization and not divulge secrets of te organization or betray our handlers. He explained that the vests contained liquid explosives and ball bearings and promised that we would go to heaven. We had to blow ourselves in different locations. Our operator had to decide which of us was to go first."
During the interrogation, the two said they regretted their deeds.
Habib: "The members of the organization made cynical use of us. I am sorry about what happened".
Zeck: "When in court I asked the judges to forgive me for what I did and I thank allah that I am alive. I made a big mistake. I am the one to blame. I am very happy that my niece and I are alive and that our children are not motherless."
How humane do I have to be? A couple of hundred of Palestinians are stranded in the Erez crossing sleeve or tunnel. They want Israel to let them travel to Ramallah. How? How? Young Palestinian men = terrorists.
Palestinian women (even pregnant ones) = terrorists
Palestinian children = we all saw their kindergarten horror shows.
Palestinians working for Doctors without Borders = terrorists.
Palestinian doctors and nurses = terrorists.
Why should we let them travel to Ramallah? So they can pick up explosives vests and blow themselves up in Israel?
Shimon Iphargan
Maariv, June 29, 2007
Fatma Zeck, a 39-year-old mother of eight, and pregnant with her ninth child, lives in Sajjaiyah, Gaza. Her niece, Roda Habib is 30 years old and a mother of four. They were on their way to a double suicide bombing in Israel. They left Gaza for Ramallah where suicide belts would be waiting for them. Then they were to blow themselves up in Tel-Aviv and Netanya, respectively.
Luckily the Shabak arrested them at the Erez crossing, in the nick of time. Suit has been filed against them in the Beer-Sheva District Court.
Zeck and Habib and are not the first Islamic Jihad women activists to be apprehended minutes before the carnage. The transcript of their interrogation provides a good insight into the reasons why Gaza women, married with children, are eager to sacrifice themselves for the Palestinian struggle. In addition, the two also revealed how they forged medical documents to gain passage into Israel, and also how they recruited other suicide bombers, mainly female students.
"Two months ago, my son Mahmoud came to me and told me that he wanted to martyr himself in Israel", Zeck told the police and the Shabak. He was planning to infiltrate Israel from the Sinai. He drilled crawling and other military skills. At the same time a student from Zeitoun told me she was interested in becoming a suicide bomber in Israel. I referred her to one of the Islamic Jihad activists. He took pictures of her and promised to get back to her. I was planning to blow myself up 4-5 months ago. I wanted to kill Jews as allah ordered us, that is by sacrificing myself to allah. I contacted Hisham al-Ajla from Sajjaiya, who is in charge of Islamic Jihad public relations in Gaza. I had met him four years earlier, when I worked in the Islamic Jihad employment office for women in Gaza. He is a friend of Mahmoud. My niece Roda also wanted commit a suicide bombing in Israel. Four months ago I took Roda to see a doctor whose name I forget, so he could give us letters to enter Israel. We asked the doctor to help us blow ourselves up. We sent the letters to the authorities and obtained entry permits via the Erez crossing for medical treatment. Then we met with Mahmoud and Hisham. Hisham videotaped me and Roda, separately and together, holding hand grenades, shotguns and korans. We recited our last will in front of the camera, we said our names and declared that we wanted to martyr ourselves. Then we went home."
Zeck goes on to say how Islamic Jihad handlers trained her and her niece for the "operation": "Hisham told me about two months ago that I have to learn how to shoot, so that I won't be afraid. I practiced on an M-16 rifle and a Kalashnikov. He also showed me how to assemble and dismantle them. Roda and I also learned how to shoot rockets. Then Abu-Sajjad showed us how to detonate an explosives belt. He told us that the belt looks like a zipper vest. He had already sent a suicide bomber into Israel, but he failed because he didn't know how to detonate it. He also said that the vests were made of cotton, they were very light and easy to put on and take off. He showed us how it was wired, and how to connect the wires in order to detonate it. We were to look at the "on" and "off" buttons. He advised us to wear long sleeved dresses, so that the wires wouldn't show. Then he videotaped us again, and I urged the people of Gaza, Hamas and Fatah, to stop killing one another, to unite and behave like brothers. There was a young man there, Abu-Abdallah. He said that if we had any trouble with the vests, his relatives in Jerusalem would help us ready ourselves for the bombing. Abu-Sajjad instructed us to say we were going to Ram-el-Arabiyah hospital in Ramallah, where two nurses (male and female) would assist us. Also a business man, whose name I don't know, was to take us to a hotel after we did some x-rays. The plan was that the business man would drive us to where we would blow ourselves up.
Abu-Sajjad said we didn't need to know the names of those who were to assist us. When we left for the Erez crossing, I put a small prayer book in my purse along with some money and some clothes. After that we were arrested by the Shabak. They ordered us to take our clothes off and to wear clothes that they gave us. They treated us well. We told them the whole truth."
Zeck told the investigators that she came up with the idea of the double bombing, in Tel-Aviv and Netanya, at the entrance to a shopping mall, in a restaurant or a soldiers' hitchhike post. The operators gave the two women 3,000 NIS (~700 USD) for food and taxi fare. She also revealed how the Islamic Jihad appointed her head (princess) of the propaganda (preaching) committee of the organization. The investigators asked Zeck whether she wanted an abortion, so as not to be delivered as a prisoner. Zeck: "My friend and I wanted to go to heaven as soon as possible. There is nothing more for us in this world. When my son is born, he will also be a shaheed."
Habib, the second terrorist, admits that she dreamt of commiting a suicide bombing in Israel for a long time, because of Israeli actions against the residents of Gaza: "Fatma called and told me that Abu-Sajjad agreed to dispatch me on a suicide mission in Israel. My cover for gaining entry into Israel was the need to undergo urgent surgery in the Ramallah hospital. He took me to a doctor friend of his who drew up forged documents. The next day my aunt Fatma and I received SIM cards from the activists, so that we could call when we reached the hospital. Abu-Sajjad said that someone was going to meet us at the hospital, give us the vests, and explain to us once again how to detonate them. I took my kuran so I could pray on the way. I agreed to blow myself up on behalf of the shaheeds and prisoners held in Israeli jails. Abu-Sajjad also told us that another girl he had sent to Israel had failed and had to return to Gaza. Fatma is a coordinator between the Islamic Jihad terror wing and the girls willing to martyr themselves. A 20-year-old mother of a little child volunteered for a suicide mission, but the organization rejected her because she was too young. Abu-Sajjad assured us that in case we failed, we would be able to return to Gaza without any problem. My husband wouldn't hear about the bombing. He pleaded with me to stay home, for the sake of the children, but I told him I my mind was made up."
Habib told the investigators that she was instructed to travel to Beer-Sheva where someone would be waiting with the vests: "Abu-Abdallah's relatives in Beer-Sheva were willing to assist suicide bombers, and they would give us the vests. Abu-Sajjad claimed responsibility for the Eilat bakery bombing where three people were killed in a suicide bombing. Fatma and I were instructed to blow ourselves up in a restaurant, market, cafe, bus stop, or wherever we saw crowds of Jews. Fatma suggested we go to Tel-Aviv, because there would be many soldiers. Fatma's son wanted to shoot at soldiers near the Sinai. Abu-Abdallah instructed us to be faithful to the organization and not divulge secrets of te organization or betray our handlers. He explained that the vests contained liquid explosives and ball bearings and promised that we would go to heaven. We had to blow ourselves in different locations. Our operator had to decide which of us was to go first."
During the interrogation, the two said they regretted their deeds.
Habib: "The members of the organization made cynical use of us. I am sorry about what happened".
Zeck: "When in court I asked the judges to forgive me for what I did and I thank allah that I am alive. I made a big mistake. I am the one to blame. I am very happy that my niece and I are alive and that our children are not motherless."
How humane do I have to be? A couple of hundred of Palestinians are stranded in the Erez crossing sleeve or tunnel. They want Israel to let them travel to Ramallah. How? How? Young Palestinian men = terrorists.
Palestinian women (even pregnant ones) = terrorists
Palestinian children = we all saw their kindergarten horror shows.
Palestinians working for Doctors without Borders = terrorists.
Palestinian doctors and nurses = terrorists.
Why should we let them travel to Ramallah? So they can pick up explosives vests and blow themselves up in Israel?
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Bleez come back, Israil!
Fatah and Hamas are shooting it out in Gaza and the toll is terrible (nearly 50 this week), more than Israel inflicts over, say, several months. The MSM is still grossly biased, so Novosty proudly informs us that the Russian foreign ministry condemns the Israeli air strikes in Gaza. The Russian foreign ministry is foreign, or perhaps alienated enough to barely mention the daily Qassam rocket salvos launched from Gaza into Israel, wounding several people and causing heavy destruction in Sderot during the past few days (24 Qassams launched on Tuesday May 15, 2007 critically injuring mother critically and son moderately; 16 rockets landed on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, seriously injuring a 70-year-old woman plus 18 others. On Tuesday, May 17, 2007, 24 rockets hit Israel and wounded 30 people. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Palestinian terrorists have fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel.)
Why even today, when the Russians kindly issued their condemnation a Qassam landed in a school and destroyed a classroom where several students were taking matriculation exams. Luckily the warning siren went off and the children managed to reach the safety room.
Why even today, when the Russians kindly issued their condemnation a Qassam landed in a school and destroyed a classroom where several students were taking matriculation exams. Luckily the warning siren went off and the children managed to reach the safety room.
As I am posting, Qassams hit a synagogue in Sderot. No word of condemnation or at least concern for the innocent Palestinian civilians caught in the Fatah-Hamas crossfire or executed by each of the belligerent factions. My guess is that the Russian either couldn't care less , or are delighted that there are fewer Muslims in the world, given their "silk glove" war waged against Muslim terror in Chechnya.However, the Palios are at it in earnest: these are victims of the civil war raging in Gaza. I am posting these photos as evidence of internal Gazan violence. I hope the dishonest Gazan reporters will not republish them as victims of Israeli attacks.
A wounded Palestinian boy is rushed to a hospital following factional clashes at Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip. An alleged plot by Hamas militants to assassinate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was revealed on Thursday as deadly factional fighting resumed in Gaza and Israeli air strikes targeted the violence-wracked territory.(AFP/Said Khatib)
A wounded Palestinian man is wheeled on a stretcher after being injured by a mortar shell during clashes between rival Fatah and Hamas fighters as he arrives at hospital in Gaza City, Thursday, May 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Local residents fearing lethal reprisals talked on condition of anonymity to the Israeli press: "Hamas gunmen stop passing cars, commandeer them and shoot the drivers and passengers in the legs, even in the knees. As a consequence people are afraid to venture out of their homes. Hamas and Fatah gunmen attack each other's high ranking officials' residences or offices. People are dying in the streets like flies. Hamasniks believe that killing Fatah men is "halal" and will earn them a place in paradise. The dog Abu-Mazen is unable to take proper measures to stop the fighting. People are praying for "Israil" to reoccupy Gaza. The Palestinians do not have the right to live. "
I swear I heard these words several times on Israeli media. But I wouldn't count on IDF retaking Gaza. We just want to stop the rockets.
Then Khalil Hia, a Hamas official spoke to the press and condemned Fatah violence: "Gunmen chased people out of their homes and shot them in cold blood. A girl was forced to remove her hijab (now that may call for an honor killing) and was then shot BETWEEN THE LEGS (more honor killings required). Although she was bleeding she was released after several hours. Men were forced to strip and were then locked in basements."
Both factions are hiding in mosques and shooting at each other from (and therefore also into) their holy places. The media is still concentrating on the Hamas military command building destroyed by the IAF. And rightly so, that is where the aid money is going in lieu of buying food and medicine for the populace. Oh, dear! I can't blame the local journalists: they too have become victims of the civil war, a few are reported dead. They are afraid to go out and cover what is going on in the streets of Gaza (funny how they were always there heroically documenting Israeli aggression). It appears that journalists have been taking sides in the conflict, after all they are locals and allegiance is still very tribal in Gaza. Meaning that they can be liquidated by the rival factions.
So some had to spend the night in the TV building, while others were taking cover in adjoining buildings.
I must confess it was quite thrilling to see the Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza ducking under the table when something exploded close to the studio in the middle of her live report. I remember Katyushas landing dangerously close to Israeli and foreign journalists during the second Lebanon war, one nearly killed Israeli channel 1 reporter. No harm done when terrorist sympathizers get a taste of the same medicine.Now let's take a look at the humble abode (à la Saddam Hussein or Ceausecu) of pro-Fatah security chief Rashid Abu Shbak in Gaza City where a Hamas raid killed five people. So this is how top brass lives in poverty-stricken Gaza. Once again, this is where the aid money goes. (Abu-Mazen himself lives in a 1.5 million dollar mansion. Haniyeh skimmed some 2 USD million or more from the 20 million in cash he received from Saudi Arabia).
This is where Mohammad al-Dalo (Hamas) used to live with his family before his encounter with Fatah death squads.
This is the entrance to another house in Gaza.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Alan Johnston and the Durmush clan
(Arik Weiss, Ma'ariv April 18, 2007)
The prime suspect in Alan Johnston's abduction is naturally the Durmush clan (and here and actually all over the net) of Gaza – an organized crime family with many ramifications operating a private militia of several hundred armed terrorists, whose infamous record boasts several similar cases, such as the abduction of two Fox News journalists in August 2006. Rumor has it that USD 2 million bought the release of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.
Up until a few months ago, the relationships between Hamas and the Durmush clan were fruitful and idyllic. Hamas often employed the services of the clan for contracted jobs (assassinations and other dirty work) in exchange for hefty sums of money and constant supply of weapons. The clan's name seems to be connected with the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The "romance" ended a few months ago when two Durmushes were killed by Hamas gunmen. It appears that Alan Johnston was abducted in order to renew the income lost in the wake of the Hamas-Durmush feud.
An unknown terrorist group in Gaza claimed recently to have executed the BBC correspondent and even promised to release the videotape of the "event", but the footage was never produced. It appears however that the journalist was killed in the abduction and the fake promise was meant only to clear the Durmush clan of the suspicion of abduction and possibly murder. The BBC has been silent all along, probably reluctant to offend the kidnappers by some inappropriate comment. After all, one never knows, the group holding Johnston might be ideology-driven, and that would complicate the situation greatly (I don't get it, most British journalists are such suckers for Palestinian lies and propaganda, that someone like Chas Newkey Burden is frowned upon when visiting Israel for a travel piece; the Palestinians should be licking the asses of British journalists instead of kidnapping and maltreating them – who knows, perhaps even killing them. Sorry, British journalists, I thought you were smarter than that!!! On the other hand, it's not that, it's your irrational anti-Semitism that turns you into such obsequious lackeys ).
Some 20 journalists have been abducted in Gaza in the past few years, and behind inflammatory declarations there were hierarchy skirmishes or cash shortages involved in all instances. Johnston's abduction seemed just another one of those, except one can never be certain that things wouldn't take a turn for the worst (after all, contrary to general belief, Gaza IS a terrorist haven, I might quote Dante's Inferno – Relinquish all hope, ye who enter here. Gaza is Inferno made in the Palestinian Authority with the assistance of Hamas).
Last year, Amit Cohen of Ma'ariv wrote that the American Intelligence Services warned the PA of contacts between an Al-Qaeda operative and a Gaza resident, and that the Gaza resident received USD 5,000 from Al-Qaeda in order to purchase weapons and attack Westerners, mostly US nationals. Luckily, the Gazan resident was apprehended before doing any harm. British officials fear that Johnston's kidnappers may have been acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda (after all it is no secret that Al-Qaeda has been operating in Gaza for some time now).
A close friend of Alan's, Stephen Farrell of the Sunday Times, says the Gaza is so complex and stratified, that it is premature to conclude that Alan is being held by a certain family. As it is practically impossible to distinguish in Gaza between ideology, money and business, one can never be sure of the real cause behind Alan's abduction was, or who it was that kidnapped him. "But this is our line of work," Farrell says, "and this is what we have to cope with, always fearing a missile launched from an IAF helicopter (you just couldn't help releasing that stinking fart via you buccal orifice, now could you, how many journalists were killed by attack helicopters? And while you are at it, don't you know IAF pilots never release a single missile, it's always a double strike, Mr. Farrell, objective journalist!!!), being shot by a Palestinian sniper (that's more like it) or getting caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs shooting it out in the streets of Gaza (now you're talking!).
Farrell himself had a similar experience while being held for ten hours by Sunnis in Iraq: "I know that the real reasons behind Alan's abduction are far more complex than money or faction rivalry, because nobody really knows what's going on in Gaza." (What are you doing over there then, how can you do any honest reporting? Oh, I forget, you are a British journalist, i.e. you can get away with pointing an accusing finger at Israel.)
Prior to Alan Johnston, no-one had been held in Gaza for more than two weeks:
September 27, 2004: Riad Ali, a producer for CNN, was seized at gunpoint from a car in Gaza City. He was freed the following day. CNN said a tape surfaced shortly before Ali’s release in which the producer said he was being held by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant Palestinian group with ties to Fatah. The brigade had earlier denied involvement in the kidnapping and had joined other groups in condemning it. Ali said on the tape that he is a Druze, a minority Arab population in Israel whose members often serve in the Israeli army. He called for the Druze not to serve in the Israeli army. No demands were made.
January 8, 2005: Ramon Lobo and Carmen Secanella, El Pais. Reporter Lobo and photographer Secanella of the Spanish daily El Pais were briefly abducted by masked gunmen in Gaza’s Khan Younes refugee camp. They were released unharmed 90 minutes later.
August 15, 2005: Mohammed Ouathi, France 3. Ouathi, a soundman for French television channel France 3, was forced into a car on August 15 by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel in Gaza City with France 3 colleagues. He was released on August 22. No group claimed responsibility for Ouathi’s abduction. Reuters reported that a Palestinian militant umbrella group called the Popular Resistance Committees said it had helped mediate Ouathi’s release, but it did not identify the kidnappers.
September 10, 2005: Lorenzo Cremonesi, Corriere della Serra. Masked gunmen abducted Italian journalist Cremonesi, of the newspaper Corriere della Serra, in the town of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. He was released later that day unharmed. He claimed that all his abductors wanted "was to see their faces on Al-Jazeera."
October 12, 2005: Dion Nissenbaum, Adam Pletts, Knight Ridder. Nissenbaum, a U.S. reporter for the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, and British photographer Pletts, a freelancer working for the news organization, were abducted by armed gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip. “A car followed our vehicle for three or four minutes and then stopped us. Six gunmen pointed their weapons and said ’We want the foreigners,’” Ziad Abu Mustafa, a Palestinian interpreter who was with the journalists, told Reuters. He said the captors ordered him to stay behind as they drove off with the two journalists, heading toward the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The journalists were freed later that day after several hours in captivity. Palestinian security officials said the men were kidnapped by renegade members of the ruling Fatah party, CPJ sources said. They said Fatah officials and Palestinian security officers negotiated their release.
March 14, 2006: Caroline Laurent, Elle, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, SIPA, Yong Tae-young, KBS. Gunmen seized Laurent, a reporter for the French women’s weekly Elle, Yaghobzadeh, a photographer from the photo agency SIPA, and Tae-young, a correspondent for South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, at the Al-Dira Hotel in Gaza. All three were released unharmed 22 hours later. Palestinian security services said the kidnappers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Reuters reported at the time. The abductions came after Israeli forces stormed a prison in the West Bank town of Jericho and seized a PFLP leader, Ahmad Saadat, and five other group members held in connection with the assassination of an Israeli minister.
August 14, 2006: Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, Fox News Channel. Centanni and Wiig, a correspondent and freelance cameraman respectively for Fox News Channel, were ambushed by gunmen on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in the center of Gaza City. Two vehicles trapped the journalists’ satellite uplink truck marked “TV.” Gunmen forced the driver to the ground, and abducted the two journalists. A previously unknown group called the Holy Jihad Brigades later claimed responsibility. The group demanded the release of Muslim prisoners held by the United States. The journalists were released unharmed on August 27. They were videotaped converting to Islam and reciting suras. They were also forced to praise their captors in a press conference.
October 24, 2006: Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press photographer, was abducted by unidentified Palestinian gunmen as he walked out of his Gaza City apartment toward his driver and interpreter Majed Hamdan, the AP reported. Hamdan said four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and told him to turn away, pressing a gun to his head, and threatening to harm him. The gunmen shoved Morenatti into a white Volkswagen and sped off. He was released later that day. The AP said no group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. (However, Morenatti seems to be quite close to the terrorists, perhaps rivals of the faction that kidnapped him? We'll never know, Stephen Farrell himself cannot make his mind up. However, Morenatti appears to be a very good friend of Kevin Frayer, who eagerly promotes anti-Israeli propaganda, as seen in his contributions from Gaza/West Bank (on an almost daily basis) and Lebanon (during the second Lebanon war).
January 1, 2007: Jaime Razuri, Agence France-Presse, a veteran staff photographer for AFP, was seized by a group of unmasked, armed men as he was entering the news agency’s bureau in Gaza City, AFP reported. He had been returning from an assignment with his interpreter and driver. Razuri was released on January 7. It is unclear who abducted him. Palestinian security officials suspected that the Dughmush family, a large armed clan in Gaza City, was behind the abduction. The Dughmush clan had been pressuring the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement to turn over 18 people suspected of killing two of its members, according to reports and CPJ sources. But an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said the family helped in releasing the journalist and was not directly linked to the abduction. (Dughmush is an alternate spelling of Durmush.)
The prime suspect in Alan Johnston's abduction is naturally the Durmush clan (and here and actually all over the net) of Gaza – an organized crime family with many ramifications operating a private militia of several hundred armed terrorists, whose infamous record boasts several similar cases, such as the abduction of two Fox News journalists in August 2006. Rumor has it that USD 2 million bought the release of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.
Up until a few months ago, the relationships between Hamas and the Durmush clan were fruitful and idyllic. Hamas often employed the services of the clan for contracted jobs (assassinations and other dirty work) in exchange for hefty sums of money and constant supply of weapons. The clan's name seems to be connected with the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The "romance" ended a few months ago when two Durmushes were killed by Hamas gunmen. It appears that Alan Johnston was abducted in order to renew the income lost in the wake of the Hamas-Durmush feud.
An unknown terrorist group in Gaza claimed recently to have executed the BBC correspondent and even promised to release the videotape of the "event", but the footage was never produced. It appears however that the journalist was killed in the abduction and the fake promise was meant only to clear the Durmush clan of the suspicion of abduction and possibly murder. The BBC has been silent all along, probably reluctant to offend the kidnappers by some inappropriate comment. After all, one never knows, the group holding Johnston might be ideology-driven, and that would complicate the situation greatly (I don't get it, most British journalists are such suckers for Palestinian lies and propaganda, that someone like Chas Newkey Burden is frowned upon when visiting Israel for a travel piece; the Palestinians should be licking the asses of British journalists instead of kidnapping and maltreating them – who knows, perhaps even killing them. Sorry, British journalists, I thought you were smarter than that!!! On the other hand, it's not that, it's your irrational anti-Semitism that turns you into such obsequious lackeys ).
Some 20 journalists have been abducted in Gaza in the past few years, and behind inflammatory declarations there were hierarchy skirmishes or cash shortages involved in all instances. Johnston's abduction seemed just another one of those, except one can never be certain that things wouldn't take a turn for the worst (after all, contrary to general belief, Gaza IS a terrorist haven, I might quote Dante's Inferno – Relinquish all hope, ye who enter here. Gaza is Inferno made in the Palestinian Authority with the assistance of Hamas).
Last year, Amit Cohen of Ma'ariv wrote that the American Intelligence Services warned the PA of contacts between an Al-Qaeda operative and a Gaza resident, and that the Gaza resident received USD 5,000 from Al-Qaeda in order to purchase weapons and attack Westerners, mostly US nationals. Luckily, the Gazan resident was apprehended before doing any harm. British officials fear that Johnston's kidnappers may have been acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda (after all it is no secret that Al-Qaeda has been operating in Gaza for some time now).
A close friend of Alan's, Stephen Farrell of the Sunday Times, says the Gaza is so complex and stratified, that it is premature to conclude that Alan is being held by a certain family. As it is practically impossible to distinguish in Gaza between ideology, money and business, one can never be sure of the real cause behind Alan's abduction was, or who it was that kidnapped him. "But this is our line of work," Farrell says, "and this is what we have to cope with, always fearing a missile launched from an IAF helicopter (you just couldn't help releasing that stinking fart via you buccal orifice, now could you, how many journalists were killed by attack helicopters? And while you are at it, don't you know IAF pilots never release a single missile, it's always a double strike, Mr. Farrell, objective journalist!!!), being shot by a Palestinian sniper (that's more like it) or getting caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs shooting it out in the streets of Gaza (now you're talking!).
Farrell himself had a similar experience while being held for ten hours by Sunnis in Iraq: "I know that the real reasons behind Alan's abduction are far more complex than money or faction rivalry, because nobody really knows what's going on in Gaza." (What are you doing over there then, how can you do any honest reporting? Oh, I forget, you are a British journalist, i.e. you can get away with pointing an accusing finger at Israel.)
Prior to Alan Johnston, no-one had been held in Gaza for more than two weeks:
September 27, 2004: Riad Ali, a producer for CNN, was seized at gunpoint from a car in Gaza City. He was freed the following day. CNN said a tape surfaced shortly before Ali’s release in which the producer said he was being held by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant Palestinian group with ties to Fatah. The brigade had earlier denied involvement in the kidnapping and had joined other groups in condemning it. Ali said on the tape that he is a Druze, a minority Arab population in Israel whose members often serve in the Israeli army. He called for the Druze not to serve in the Israeli army. No demands were made.
January 8, 2005: Ramon Lobo and Carmen Secanella, El Pais. Reporter Lobo and photographer Secanella of the Spanish daily El Pais were briefly abducted by masked gunmen in Gaza’s Khan Younes refugee camp. They were released unharmed 90 minutes later.
August 15, 2005: Mohammed Ouathi, France 3. Ouathi, a soundman for French television channel France 3, was forced into a car on August 15 by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel in Gaza City with France 3 colleagues. He was released on August 22. No group claimed responsibility for Ouathi’s abduction. Reuters reported that a Palestinian militant umbrella group called the Popular Resistance Committees said it had helped mediate Ouathi’s release, but it did not identify the kidnappers.
September 10, 2005: Lorenzo Cremonesi, Corriere della Serra. Masked gunmen abducted Italian journalist Cremonesi, of the newspaper Corriere della Serra, in the town of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. He was released later that day unharmed. He claimed that all his abductors wanted "was to see their faces on Al-Jazeera."
October 12, 2005: Dion Nissenbaum, Adam Pletts, Knight Ridder. Nissenbaum, a U.S. reporter for the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, and British photographer Pletts, a freelancer working for the news organization, were abducted by armed gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip. “A car followed our vehicle for three or four minutes and then stopped us. Six gunmen pointed their weapons and said ’We want the foreigners,’” Ziad Abu Mustafa, a Palestinian interpreter who was with the journalists, told Reuters. He said the captors ordered him to stay behind as they drove off with the two journalists, heading toward the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The journalists were freed later that day after several hours in captivity. Palestinian security officials said the men were kidnapped by renegade members of the ruling Fatah party, CPJ sources said. They said Fatah officials and Palestinian security officers negotiated their release.
March 14, 2006: Caroline Laurent, Elle, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, SIPA, Yong Tae-young, KBS. Gunmen seized Laurent, a reporter for the French women’s weekly Elle, Yaghobzadeh, a photographer from the photo agency SIPA, and Tae-young, a correspondent for South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, at the Al-Dira Hotel in Gaza. All three were released unharmed 22 hours later. Palestinian security services said the kidnappers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Reuters reported at the time. The abductions came after Israeli forces stormed a prison in the West Bank town of Jericho and seized a PFLP leader, Ahmad Saadat, and five other group members held in connection with the assassination of an Israeli minister.
August 14, 2006: Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, Fox News Channel. Centanni and Wiig, a correspondent and freelance cameraman respectively for Fox News Channel, were ambushed by gunmen on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in the center of Gaza City. Two vehicles trapped the journalists’ satellite uplink truck marked “TV.” Gunmen forced the driver to the ground, and abducted the two journalists. A previously unknown group called the Holy Jihad Brigades later claimed responsibility. The group demanded the release of Muslim prisoners held by the United States. The journalists were released unharmed on August 27. They were videotaped converting to Islam and reciting suras. They were also forced to praise their captors in a press conference.
October 24, 2006: Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press photographer, was abducted by unidentified Palestinian gunmen as he walked out of his Gaza City apartment toward his driver and interpreter Majed Hamdan, the AP reported. Hamdan said four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and told him to turn away, pressing a gun to his head, and threatening to harm him. The gunmen shoved Morenatti into a white Volkswagen and sped off. He was released later that day. The AP said no group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. (However, Morenatti seems to be quite close to the terrorists, perhaps rivals of the faction that kidnapped him? We'll never know, Stephen Farrell himself cannot make his mind up. However, Morenatti appears to be a very good friend of Kevin Frayer, who eagerly promotes anti-Israeli propaganda, as seen in his contributions from Gaza/West Bank (on an almost daily basis) and Lebanon (during the second Lebanon war).
January 1, 2007: Jaime Razuri, Agence France-Presse, a veteran staff photographer for AFP, was seized by a group of unmasked, armed men as he was entering the news agency’s bureau in Gaza City, AFP reported. He had been returning from an assignment with his interpreter and driver. Razuri was released on January 7. It is unclear who abducted him. Palestinian security officials suspected that the Dughmush family, a large armed clan in Gaza City, was behind the abduction. The Dughmush clan had been pressuring the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement to turn over 18 people suspected of killing two of its members, according to reports and CPJ sources. But an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said the family helped in releasing the journalist and was not directly linked to the abduction. (Dughmush is an alternate spelling of Durmush.)
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Viagra in the Service of the Hezbollah
By Amit Cohen
Maariv, December 8, 2006
Ten facts on the green fuel that sets the wheels of terror in motion. Millions of dollars' worth of stolen medicine and contraband cigarettes sold in America. A lucrative industry of abducting people for ransom. Banks that can do nothing about it.
1. This scenario has become almost routine in Gaza: gunmen or unmarked vehicles ambush passing cars, preferably with foreign nationals inside. The unsuspecting passengers are then dragged out of their car at gunpoint and driven to secret locations. The abduction is carried out in a couple of minutes and is over in several days. So far no Gaza abduction has resulted in bloodshed, for one reason only: it is business. The rationale behind snatching foreign nationals is purely financial: ransom, extortion or employment opportunities. It is very difficult to try and estimate how much money found its way into the Palestinian terror business coffers thanks to the practice of abduction, since all the abductees deny having ever paid for their freedom - e.g., Spanish Foreign Secretary Miguel Moratinos denies having paid any kind of ransom for the release of abducted Spanish AP photographer Emilio Morenatti.
2. We got some kind of clue as to the sums paid for the release of foreign nationals this last August, when Fox journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were detained by a group calling itself "Holy Jihad Group" that threatened to execute the two hostages and even forced them to convert to Islam in front of the cameras. When they were freed 13 days later, there were allegations that Fox News had paid $2 million for their release. But not according to Gaza officials, who claim that $200,000 had been the price of their freedom, and that the tab was picked up by Hamas. According to Palestinian sources, the man behind the abduction was
Muataz Durmush and here, head of National Resistance Front branch. The Durmush clan is considered one of the most dangerous in Gaza and is in fact closely connected to Hamas. Mumtaz Durmush, Muataz' brother, is the one who snatched IDF corporal Gilad Shalit and here together with Hamas. Muataz Durmush's branch, as well as other branches, receives monthly funding from Hamas for their supporting the organization or for carrying out attacks on its behalf. However, at some stage, Hamas decided to cut Muataz' funding. This angered Muataz, who abducted the two Fox journalists and threatened to kill them in order to "embarrass" and compromise Hamas in the eyes of public opinion. Following lengthy negotiations, Hamas gave in and paid Durmush the requested ransom, as per the monthly budget received until the abduction.
3. Taking hostages for ransom has also become the favorite source of funding for terrorist organizations operating in Iraq. This article published by the New York Times reveals that foreign governments, such as France and Italy, paid Iraqi terrorists over $ 30 million for the release of their abducted nationals during the last year alone. The document also reveals that last year terrorist operations succeeded in raising $ 70-200 million dollars. The money was made by means of extensive criminal operations such as smuggling oil, counterfeiting money and fund-raising through fictitious charities. But even these sums appear somewhat conservative versus the estimations of the Iraqi Oil Ministry. According to figures released by the Iraqi government, the local terror groups managed to raise $ 200 million by oil-smuggling alone.
4. Terror-funding in Iraq has changed significantly since the beginning of the Second Gulf War. During the first year of the hostilities terror was funded by Saddam loyalists. But in 2004 foreign couriers began bringing suitcases full of cash into Iraq. Currently, Iraqi terrorists can sustain themselves without any kind of foreign assistance. This financial independence makes it very difficult to put and end to terrorism or to attempt to cut its financial lifeline. These huge cash stashes go to show how extremely difficult it is for the US administration to deal with terror in Iraq, and they also explain the current Iraqi government failure to freeze the money flow into the insurgents' coffers. Estimates go so far as to suggest that if nothing changes, the insurgents will not only be able to fund their own operations in Iraq, but also to extend financial support to terrorist organizations worldwide.
5. Despite Iranian funding, Hezbollah also resorts to criminal activities to increase its budget – 19 people were brought to trial in the US this year for fundraising on behalf of the Hezbollah by means of illegal activities such as selling stolen Viagra pills and smuggled cigarettes, extortion, theft and money laundering to the tune of over $ 20 million.
6. Following 9/11 the White House decided that terrorist organizations, mainly Al-Qaeda, should be separated from their cash sources, assuming that if there is no money, there will be no terror. But reality backfired. Blocking money channels proved impossible, while the destruction of several financial routes brought about a change in the modus operandi. True, the annual Al-Qaeda budget was cut down from $ 30 million to a mere couple million, but at the same time the cost of terror activities also went down significantly. The 9/11 attack cost half a million dollars, while the Madrid and London cost a mere few thousand dollars. This forced the US intelligence services to re-evaluate their priorities. US officials are now admitting that the main goal is not to divert the terror funds, but rather to follow the money trail in order to identify and locate terror infrastructures. A US official report maintains that freezing assets is not the only or most important objective of monitoring the money trail; it is a means of identifying terrorists or their supporters, and has become instrumental in the war against terror groups.
7. "This is a cat and mouse game", says Yair Dagan, a specialist in the prevention of money laundering and terror sponsoring. "We are always one step behind the terrorists. Attempts to thwart terrorist funding are bound to fail, much like the battle against crime. Terror organizations are beginning to employ financing patterns similar to those used by organized crime." Dagan also maintains that the banking system is unable to cope with this trend. However, he claims, the intelligence community is more apt do deal with it if they turn to non-banking areas." He is worried that Israel cannot keep up with what is going on in the world at large. "The Israeli law prohibiting terror funding compels financial organizations to check all transactions with the Ministry of Defense black list, which is incomplete, to say the least, and full of typos, and this makes it very difficult for the checkers to pinpoint suspects. For instance, the Al-Aksa fund set up by the Hamas appears only once on the Israeli blacklist, while on the US list it is mentioned over 180 times."
8. The US administration has recently admitted that the special powers it enjoyed in the first stages of the war waged against terror are beginning to wear out. The war on terror was authorized mainly by a special executive order issued a few days after 9/11, which placed the crackdown on terror funds at the top of the priority list. At the time, President Bush promised to "starve the terrorists of funding, turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places and bring them to justice." But last month, for the first time since the order was issued, a federal judge ruled to limit the President's authority. Judge Audrey Collins overruled the President's decision to freeze the assets of two organizations defined as "terrorist" – the Tamil Tigers and the PKK. The judge cancelled the executive order allowing the US Treasury the privilege to blacklist suspected terror sponsors.
9. Banks are most likely the ones to suffer because of terror funding. The Royal Bank of Scotland was sued recently for managing a Hamas-linked charity. Previously, American terror attack victims sued French Credit Lyonnais for Hamas funds funneling. A huge $ 875 million dollar suit was filed against the Arab Bank by families of suicide bombings victims. Such suits are a serious threat to banks. Since these are civil suits, the prosecution does not need to prove that the bank actually knew about the terror connection, all it needs is to make the jury think so. In fact, this suspicion acts as indirect aid to terror sponsors. Banks unwilling to risk being associated with terrorist assets flood the system with tens of millions of reports, which make it very difficult to pinpoint the real blood money.
10. Attempt by banks to freeze automatically charity funds suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations are facing judiciary difficulties. A Michigan-based Moslem charity an American bank for violation of its civic rights, because the bank was planning to shut down the accounts of the organization in the wake of an FBI raid of its premises and haul of documents and computers form its offices (and here).
Maariv, December 8, 2006
Ten facts on the green fuel that sets the wheels of terror in motion. Millions of dollars' worth of stolen medicine and contraband cigarettes sold in America. A lucrative industry of abducting people for ransom. Banks that can do nothing about it.1. This scenario has become almost routine in Gaza: gunmen or unmarked vehicles ambush passing cars, preferably with foreign nationals inside. The unsuspecting passengers are then dragged out of their car at gunpoint and driven to secret locations. The abduction is carried out in a couple of minutes and is over in several days. So far no Gaza abduction has resulted in bloodshed, for one reason only: it is business. The rationale behind snatching foreign nationals is purely financial: ransom, extortion or employment opportunities. It is very difficult to try and estimate how much money found its way into the Palestinian terror business coffers thanks to the practice of abduction, since all the abductees deny having ever paid for their freedom - e.g., Spanish Foreign Secretary Miguel Moratinos denies having paid any kind of ransom for the release of abducted Spanish AP photographer Emilio Morenatti.
2. We got some kind of clue as to the sums paid for the release of foreign nationals this last August, when Fox journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were detained by a group calling itself "Holy Jihad Group" that threatened to execute the two hostages and even forced them to convert to Islam in front of the cameras. When they were freed 13 days later, there were allegations that Fox News had paid $2 million for their release. But not according to Gaza officials, who claim that $200,000 had been the price of their freedom, and that the tab was picked up by Hamas. According to Palestinian sources, the man behind the abduction was
Muataz Durmush and here, head of National Resistance Front branch. The Durmush clan is considered one of the most dangerous in Gaza and is in fact closely connected to Hamas. Mumtaz Durmush, Muataz' brother, is the one who snatched IDF corporal Gilad Shalit and here together with Hamas. Muataz Durmush's branch, as well as other branches, receives monthly funding from Hamas for their supporting the organization or for carrying out attacks on its behalf. However, at some stage, Hamas decided to cut Muataz' funding. This angered Muataz, who abducted the two Fox journalists and threatened to kill them in order to "embarrass" and compromise Hamas in the eyes of public opinion. Following lengthy negotiations, Hamas gave in and paid Durmush the requested ransom, as per the monthly budget received until the abduction.
3. Taking hostages for ransom has also become the favorite source of funding for terrorist organizations operating in Iraq. This article published by the New York Times reveals that foreign governments, such as France and Italy, paid Iraqi terrorists over $ 30 million for the release of their abducted nationals during the last year alone. The document also reveals that last year terrorist operations succeeded in raising $ 70-200 million dollars. The money was made by means of extensive criminal operations such as smuggling oil, counterfeiting money and fund-raising through fictitious charities. But even these sums appear somewhat conservative versus the estimations of the Iraqi Oil Ministry. According to figures released by the Iraqi government, the local terror groups managed to raise $ 200 million by oil-smuggling alone.
4. Terror-funding in Iraq has changed significantly since the beginning of the Second Gulf War. During the first year of the hostilities terror was funded by Saddam loyalists. But in 2004 foreign couriers began bringing suitcases full of cash into Iraq. Currently, Iraqi terrorists can sustain themselves without any kind of foreign assistance. This financial independence makes it very difficult to put and end to terrorism or to attempt to cut its financial lifeline. These huge cash stashes go to show how extremely difficult it is for the US administration to deal with terror in Iraq, and they also explain the current Iraqi government failure to freeze the money flow into the insurgents' coffers. Estimates go so far as to suggest that if nothing changes, the insurgents will not only be able to fund their own operations in Iraq, but also to extend financial support to terrorist organizations worldwide.
5. Despite Iranian funding, Hezbollah also resorts to criminal activities to increase its budget – 19 people were brought to trial in the US this year for fundraising on behalf of the Hezbollah by means of illegal activities such as selling stolen Viagra pills and smuggled cigarettes, extortion, theft and money laundering to the tune of over $ 20 million.
6. Following 9/11 the White House decided that terrorist organizations, mainly Al-Qaeda, should be separated from their cash sources, assuming that if there is no money, there will be no terror. But reality backfired. Blocking money channels proved impossible, while the destruction of several financial routes brought about a change in the modus operandi. True, the annual Al-Qaeda budget was cut down from $ 30 million to a mere couple million, but at the same time the cost of terror activities also went down significantly. The 9/11 attack cost half a million dollars, while the Madrid and London cost a mere few thousand dollars. This forced the US intelligence services to re-evaluate their priorities. US officials are now admitting that the main goal is not to divert the terror funds, but rather to follow the money trail in order to identify and locate terror infrastructures. A US official report maintains that freezing assets is not the only or most important objective of monitoring the money trail; it is a means of identifying terrorists or their supporters, and has become instrumental in the war against terror groups.
7. "This is a cat and mouse game", says Yair Dagan, a specialist in the prevention of money laundering and terror sponsoring. "We are always one step behind the terrorists. Attempts to thwart terrorist funding are bound to fail, much like the battle against crime. Terror organizations are beginning to employ financing patterns similar to those used by organized crime." Dagan also maintains that the banking system is unable to cope with this trend. However, he claims, the intelligence community is more apt do deal with it if they turn to non-banking areas." He is worried that Israel cannot keep up with what is going on in the world at large. "The Israeli law prohibiting terror funding compels financial organizations to check all transactions with the Ministry of Defense black list, which is incomplete, to say the least, and full of typos, and this makes it very difficult for the checkers to pinpoint suspects. For instance, the Al-Aksa fund set up by the Hamas appears only once on the Israeli blacklist, while on the US list it is mentioned over 180 times."
8. The US administration has recently admitted that the special powers it enjoyed in the first stages of the war waged against terror are beginning to wear out. The war on terror was authorized mainly by a special executive order issued a few days after 9/11, which placed the crackdown on terror funds at the top of the priority list. At the time, President Bush promised to "starve the terrorists of funding, turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places and bring them to justice." But last month, for the first time since the order was issued, a federal judge ruled to limit the President's authority. Judge Audrey Collins overruled the President's decision to freeze the assets of two organizations defined as "terrorist" – the Tamil Tigers and the PKK. The judge cancelled the executive order allowing the US Treasury the privilege to blacklist suspected terror sponsors.
9. Banks are most likely the ones to suffer because of terror funding. The Royal Bank of Scotland was sued recently for managing a Hamas-linked charity. Previously, American terror attack victims sued French Credit Lyonnais for Hamas funds funneling. A huge $ 875 million dollar suit was filed against the Arab Bank by families of suicide bombings victims. Such suits are a serious threat to banks. Since these are civil suits, the prosecution does not need to prove that the bank actually knew about the terror connection, all it needs is to make the jury think so. In fact, this suspicion acts as indirect aid to terror sponsors. Banks unwilling to risk being associated with terrorist assets flood the system with tens of millions of reports, which make it very difficult to pinpoint the real blood money.
10. Attempt by banks to freeze automatically charity funds suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations are facing judiciary difficulties. A Michigan-based Moslem charity an American bank for violation of its civic rights, because the bank was planning to shut down the accounts of the organization in the wake of an FBI raid of its premises and haul of documents and computers form its offices (and here).
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