USD 100 millions vanish from PA bank account

A few weeks ago Israel transferred USD 100 million dollars to Abu-Mazen (PA). Despite the latter's specific assurances, a few days after the transfer, the money was gone from the bank account only to be channeled to other recipients.

Ben Caspit with Felix Frish,
Ma'ariv, March 8, 2007

Israeli officials are accusing the Palestinian Authority of "deceit and breach of trust" as it was discovered that the PA, in defiant violation of initial agreements, were not using the money for the declared purposes and did in fact divert it to other ends. The US Congress also decided to halt the USD 86 million aid intended to strengthen Pres. Abbas' special presidential security forces. In fact, the US administration had decided to freeze the money transfer after the Mecca agreement and the Palestinian unity government formation, but the decision was influenced by the Israeli reports that the hefty sums received by the Palestinians were being funneled towards undesired purposes.

Olmert is fuming
The Israeli PM office produced a letter signed by Salem Fiyad, Abu-Mazen's money man, detailing how the USD 100 million transferred a few weeks previously were to be used. According to this letter, USD 86 million were meant to strengthen Abu-Mazen's security forces, and the remainder was to be spent on humanitarian purposes, also agreed upon prior to the transfer, and some to be transferred to the Presidential Office. As per this agreement, Israel deposited the money in a previously-designated bank account whence the different sums were to be transferred further to their subsequent destinations. Except that a few days later, the money was "gone" from the designated account, and it later transpired that it had actually been channeled to different destinations, among them Palestinian government salaries and other expenditures, in flagrant violation of the financial embargo imposed on the Hamas-led government.
PM Olmert could not hide his anger, and is expected to confront Abu-Mazen on the issue in a future meeting. Olmert hopes, however, to be able to strengthen the connection with Abu-Mazen and also to revive the peace talks with the PA, while shunning the Hamas government. During private talks, Olmert has reiterated his determination to boycott Hamas ministers even when the unity government is formed, and even if it includes Fatah representatives such as Salem Fiyad and Muhammad Dahlan, who are accepted by the Israeli administration. "We shall not recognize them as members of the Palestinian government, and we shall not deal with them in that capacity", said Olmert.

dumb and dumber?

This is funny. While the Arabs will stop at nothing in their bid to remove Israel from the map and the Jewish people from this planet, our own Australian diaspora is still hiding under their beds, even though the Australian government is not the one to mince words when it comes to denouncing the islamization of the civilized world in general, and of Australia in particular.

Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.” To see that her analysis of “archaeological practice” has nothing to do with anthropological or archaeological analysis, and is just your run-of-the-mill anti-Israel rhetoric, masquerading as junk research.
Her analysis of Israeli society determines that it is a "settler-colonial community", and has “invented” an ancient history in the region by the use of archeology.
She attempts to demonstrate how "(social) science generates facts or phenomena, which refigure what counts as true or real,” and concludes that the "existence of the ancient Israelite and Hebrew kingdoms should be considered “a pure political fabrication.”
Historians are appalled by her junk research.
“El-Haj is not a practicing archaeologist. She hardly knows the Hebrew in which many Israeli archaeological debates are conducted. She has taken part in very few actual digs. Yet she confidently condemns Israeli archaeology as a tool of the Zionists. With only gossip to go on, she accuses one archaeologist of bulldozing non-Jewish strata to get to the levels that might offer details about ancient Israel. Bizarrely, she then concludes her book by reversing herself on such desecration, asking us to "understand" sympathetically the Palestinian mob that destroyed Joseph’s Tomb on October 8, 2000. I guess it all depends on whose narrative is being bulldozed.” Jonathan Burack, The Family Security Foundation, December 28, 2006

Archaeologists have criticized her book harshly:
The dean of Middle Eastern archeology, William Dever of the University of Arizona, “who has authored more than 20 books on Middle East History, said Ms. Abu El-Haj seems intent on writing Jews out of ancient Middle East history, and demonizing a generation of apolitical Israeli archaeologists in the process. Barnard should deny Ms. Abu El-Haj tenure, he said, ‘not because she's Palestinian or pro-Palestinian or a leftist, but because her scholarship is faulty, misleading and dangerous.’ ” Campus Watch

"At the heart of her critique is an undisguised political agenda that regards modern and ancient Israel, and perhaps Jews as a whole, as fictions… "Abu El Haj's anthropology is undone by her... ill-informed narrative, intrusive counter-politics, and by her unwillingness to either enter or observe Israeli society... "The effect is a representation of Israeli archaeology that is simply bizarre... Filling in what is missing from her text becomes fatiguing. In the end there is no reason to take her picture of Israeli archaeology seriously, since her selection bias is so glaring… "Abu El Haj has written a flimsy and supercilious book, which does no justice to either her putative subject or the political agenda she wishes to advance. It should be avoided." Alexander H. Joffe, Lecturer in Archaeology, Purchase College, SUNY Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Chicago: Oct 2005. Vol. 64, Iss. 4; p. 297

"Perhaps the most astonishing part of the book is a discussion on the last page of the text (p. 281). Abu el-Haj describes and condones the attack, and subsequent ransacking, by a Palestinian mob on what is known as "Jacob's Tomb" in Nablus in 2001. Several people were killed as a result of this attack; the gleeful tone in which she describes this act of vandalism exemplifies how her political agenda completely overcame her duties as a social scientist… "This book is the result of faulty and ideologically motivated research. One can but wonder how the 1995 dissertation on which it is based was authorized at Duke University and how a respected publisher like the University of Chicago Press could have published such unsubstantiated work.”
Maeir, Aren, Professor of Archaeology, Bar Ilan University, Isis, volume 95 (2004), pages 523–524, Solomonia Blog

It’s ironic that while supposedly advocating archeology, Abu el-Haj indelibly aligns herself with the Palestinians, who have absolutely no regard or respect for Biblical archeology whatsoever. Doing everything in their power to destroy the archaeological remnants from the Temple Mount, Palestinians dug out a huge underground Mosque in the “Solomon's Stables” area of the Temple Mount, and proceeded to destroy and dump everything they could find of historic significance, while repeating the mantra, “There were never any Jewish Temples in Jerusalem.”
As Arab mobs riot these days over Israel's attempts to rebuild a bridge to the Temple Mount and the to excavate outside the Mugrabi Gate (and therefore, outside the Temple Mount complex and Mosques), one has to wonder why Barnard College is demeaning itself by offering tenure to junk academics, bent on the denying the legitimacy of the Jewish State.
Are you an alum of Barnard or Columbia?
Why not drop an email to Barnard College President, Judith Shapiro, (jshapiro@Barnard.Edu) or Columbia College President Lee Bollingermailto:Bollinger@columbia.edu) and let them know that tenure for Nadia Abu El Haj degrades your alma mater.
Know someone who studied at Barnard or Columbia who values academic research integrity? Send them a link to this posting.
Universities are research institutions, and politics can and should play a role in formulating opinion. Yet when academic research is corrupted to that point that anti-Israel junk-academia peddlers are eligible for tenure at Ivy League schools, I think we need to take a step back and ensure that research at our universities remains free of the likes of Nadia Abu El Haj.
Pass it on.
Jameel.
PS...
Marilyn Chin '74
Director of Barnard Alumnae Affairs
(212) 854-2005
mchin@barnard.edu
Derek Wittner '65
Dean of Alumni Affairs and Development
(212) 870-2741
daw8@columbia.edu
Office of the President, Judith Shapiro
109 Milbank Hall,Tel: (212) 854-2021

NATIONAL (February 16, 2007)
AIJAC 'dumps' scholar over Muslim remarks
JASON FRENKEL with MELISSA SINGER
THE Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has withdrawn its support for a visiting Israeli expert on Islam who earlier this week urged Australia to cap its intake of Muslim immigrants. (but then so did your PM)
AIJAC executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein issued a statement on Friday distancing the organisation, which has partly sponsored Hebrew University Professor Raphael Israeli's six-week Australian visit, from the academic's claims that “life will become untenable” unless the Muslim population is kept in check. (Cowards!)
Professor Israeli said Australia was in danger of being swamped by Muslims – especially from Indonesia – and called for a “preventative policy” to protect national security and ensure Muslims remained a “marginal minority”.
But Dr Rubenstein rejected Professor Israeli's "implication that the Muslim community as a whole is a threat or danger". (Right, they are a blessing in disguise).
"Islamist extremism is a genuine and serious global problem, but it is completely wrong to single out all Muslims for suspicion or negatively stereotype the Muslim community as a whole in this way." (Of course not, it's just almost every single individual, not the ENTIRE comunity).
Dr Rubenstein said AIJAC had censured Professor Israeli over the "unacceptable and unhelpful" remarks, and "will not be co-hosting any of his further appearances in Australia". (Your loss, not his, see below - if anyone knows anything about islam, he's the one).
Professor Israeli had just begun a stint as a scholar-in-residence at the Shalom Institute in Sydney, where he is teaching a course on “Understanding Islam”.
Shalom Institute CEO Hilton Immerman said that while Professor Israeli's views do not necessarily represent those of the Shalom Institute, which "rejects any form of racial stereotyping or ethnic quotas", the course would proceed. (Freedom of speech).
An author of 20 books on the Muslim, Arab and Chinese worlds, he was also scheduled to give talks in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and New Zealand. However, Dr Rubenstein told the AJN that he was unsure whether the talks would go ahead given that AIJAC had withdrawn its support. (Perhaps they should invite and endorse a muslim cleric to explain to them how they are apes, dogs, donkeys, etc.)
In an interview with the AJN, Professor Israeli said radical Islam would not be defeated by a war of words. (Of course not, remember what it took to drive them out of Spain, or what it cost the Balkans to rid themselves of the Ottoman Empire).
“You have to infiltrate all those circles where the Muslim radicals operate, to arrest them, and to limit immigration into western countries where these Muslims, who are bent on destroying western civilisation ... to limit immigration, even students who apply to come from Islamic countries to the West,” he said.
“It serves no purpose when you have this home-grown terrorist, who has been preparing for years to blow up undergrounds in London, and all you do is lead a war of words. The war of words doesn’t help. There is a whole gamut of actions that are possible in order to check this threat of Islam.”
Citing France, where Muslims comprise about nine per cent of the population, as an example, Professor Israeli warned growing Muslim communities could change the political, economic, and cultural fabric of a country. (And how is this not true? Have you not heard of Ilan Halimi? and how his vile murderers appear to have been connected to the Hamas?)
“You have to adopt some kind of preventative policy. In order not to get there, limit the immigration and therefore you keep them a marginal minority, which will be a nuisance, but cannot pose a threat to the demographic and security aspects of a country.”
But Islamic Council of Victoria director Waleed Aly branded the comments “ill-advised and foolish” and said Professor Israeli didn’t understand Australia. (Perhaps, I dare say he understands a thing or two about islam).
“It is clearly possible in the current environment to say things about Muslims that you simply cannot say about anyone else,” Aly said. (Really? when muslims take to the streets and threaten to behead everybody who offends them, their prophet, their god, their quran, their religion, their this and that and the other thing? When they riot and burn flags?)
“The fundamental problem at the heart of this is that he seems to be suggesting that increased marginalisation of Muslim populations will somehow produce something other than mutual resentment. It should be obvious to anyone really that it’s doomed to failure.”
Officially, there are fewer than 300,000 Muslims in Australia according to the 2001 Census, but Islamic community officials estimate the actual number to be at least 500,000 – about 2.5 per cent of the population.
“Even though it’s so low, they are so vocal, and they make so much noise,” Professor Israeli said. “And therefore the situation has to be checked before they increase their numbers, because don’t forget in your immediate proximity dwells the largest or most populous Islamic country in the world [Indonesia], and by necessity, there is demographic pressure from there to channel the surplus of populations to wherever it’s possible.“
And one of the big possibilities is Australia, so they will continue to come legally, or illegally, and settle here, and when they get to the rate of the 10 per cent like in France, then you will see life will become untenable.”He said France might already be at the “point of no return”. (Unfortunately, France is not the only one).
“Then they control whole sections of the economy, there are areas in France where you cannot be elected to Parliament without the support of the Muslims and so on. And therefore, by increasing their numbers they start to have an impact on the social, economic, political and cultural nature of the country.” (There are areas in France where the police are afraid to go in).
He warned that radical Muslims would find it easier to “melt” into the community and plan terrorist acts without scrutiny from authorities if the growth of Australia’s Muslim population was allowed to continue.
“You will have then large concentrations of Muslims, so it’s not thousands, it will be millions, and when they become millions it’s a big mass where individual Muslims, including terrorists, can melt, and then go look for them. (Especially when they wear a burqa).
“In England they already have that problem, they cannot locate them, they cannot sort them out from the general population, and sometimes you have to impose a curfew on a whole area to catch one or two or three terrorists, and by doing that you do an injustice to an entire population, and then they start complaining that they are discriminated against.”
Immigrant Muslims had a reputation for manipulating the values of their adopted countries to suit their own ends, he said.
“And that’s why Islam has become feared in western countries, which are open, democratic, and tolerant of others. And Muslim populations, which are very often minorities, very often abuse that hospitality and use democracy, openness and tolerance to their benefit, to spread their faith and to intimidate their hosts, and very often, to impose their standards and values upon them.”

(Sure, just take a look at this little baby):

Western Values in Danger
The goal of militant and imperialist Islam is absolute grandiose and global. The first step to world supremacy is to turn Europe into a Eurabia. The methods are not by armies, but combinations of oil, emigration, fertility, exploitation of tolerance and democracy, spread of fear, uninhibited terrorism, and millenial patience.
So far, Europe has been asleep. A confused continent, without a gathering purpose, and without sustainable integration policies, is at a loss what to do.
The Euro-Arab “bridge-building measures” are self-deceiving, as long as there is only one-way traffic on the bridge.
The author maintains the United States the only power in the world that may secure the world’s free nations. He is discussing the growing anti-Americanism in Europe, a phenomenon evolving despite America’s role as a guaranteeing force for democracy and freedom. Anti-American sleepwalkers do not see that if the American way goes down the drain, Europe will follow.
Hallgrim Berg attacks international leftism, which is constantly marketing twisted stereotypes of America, and is also criticizing the feebleness of European politicians, particularly France, where hypocrisy is developed into mastery.
Challenged by the most comprising and hard-core totalitarianism the world has seen, the only hope for Western democracy, culture, and our way of living is a more confident cooperation and pooling of resources among European nations and the United States.
About the author: Hallgrim Berg (61); Ph.D. in modern history from the University of Oslo; Member of Norway’s Parliament (1981- 97); Main Spokesman for the Conservative Party in matters of Culture and Media; Chairman of the European Democrat Group at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg (1992-98); self-employed businessman in his native Hallingdal Valley; free-lance writer and entertainer in fields of folklore, music and story-telling.)

4,000 rockets or so

You weren't really supposed to see these pictures, although they were published by the MSM, not on the front pages though. As a friend of mine from Europe said - "We only care about what happens to civilians," (English translation - what you war criminal Zionists do to innocent Lebanese or Palestinians, as per case). Well, I guess that makes Israel a huge military compound, devoid of civilians and civilian infrastructures. I never thought trees and forests were part of the military. Lucky me, I get to learn something new every day, grace a la presse and my fully indoctrinated European "friends".

The 5000 rockets that landed in Israel during just 34 days in the summer of 2006 caused terrible damage: they killed and maimed, damaged homes, roads, industries and animal farms, disrupted the life in Northern Israel, displaced several hundred thousand people, while over 1 million civilians had to spend the better part of the summer in bomb shelters. The forests in Northern Israel were not spared. These forests did not occur naturally. They were painstakingly planted, sapling by sapling, and carefully tended by The Jewish National Fund and volunteers. Even when the fires were put out, the soil kept on smouldering. It appears that these once beautiful forests will take 50 years to recover. Due to the daily rocket barrages firefighter brigades from all over Israel concentrated in the North in order to help the local firefighters. New York firefighters volunteered to serve in the Jerusalem area in their place. Heartfelt thanks, guys. We love you.

End the "End Israeli Apartheid" Farce

While the civilized world was busy celebrating Mardi Gras, the Venice Carnival, the Rio de Janeiro Carnaval, the carnival parades in Germany, heart bleeding, brainwashed academics and uneducated but enthusiastic useful idiots (I sometimes wonder why useful? why not just plain idiots?) in such distinguished cosmopolitan locations as Oxford, Toronto and New York, indulged in unrestrained vitriolic antisemitic Israel-bashing hatefests. I will not post any links, they are simply not worth the trouble.
The guest speakers, as one might guess, are our own Arab MK's (fifth columnists!!!) who are invited year after year to "expose Israeli genocidal policies" and "debunk Israeli democracy". They do that with impunity, I mean return and rant year after year. What does this make of their allegations of genocide? I mean genocide reads mass killings in my book. If Israel was indeed genocidal, it would obviously start with those trying to expose these crimes. I mean we are not exactly famous for being the village idiot. Or are we? With all those Nobel prizes under our belts? And where does that leave our non-existent democracy? In a non-democratic state would these fat-assed traitors (I mean take a look at Arafat's ex-advisor, Ahmad Tibi, yes Doctor of Medicine from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the despicable Azmi Bishara who travels to Syria every other week to suck up to Assadboy and to sell, nay, donate military and state secrets he may be privy to as a member of the Israeli parliament) ever make it home from the airport after delivering a bloodthirsty speech accusing his own country of the most abominable crimes? And I mean year after year? I guess this kind of behavior is tolerated only in non-democratic genocidal Israel. And these pathetic excuses for Israeli Arabs (I guess I should include Zahalka here, please note his Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem - I guess he shares his chemistry skills - read explosive materials expertise - with his friends from the Fatah and Hamas) are Israeli citizens enjoying not only the inflated salaries of our MK's in general, but also generous National Insurance handouts. Why, Mr. Bishara even needed an urgent kidney transplant, or gone to heaven he would have, and guess what. For this noble task he chose the apes, dogs and pigs dressed up as Jewish doctors in an Israeli hospital (obviously built over a previous Arab village that had been bulldozed into oblivion by the IDF). Why, Azmi, baby, Germany not good enough for you? How about Syria? Egypt? Jordan? Why trust war criminal Israeli (Allah forbid) Jewish doctors with your precious earthly body? The thought that they might seize the opportunity to dispatch you to the right of the prophet (ooops, you are a Christian, aren't you?), well then, to the right of your heavenly father, never crossed your lecturing and researching mind? I mean you never thought someone in Israel might wish to pay you back for never missing an opportunity to besmirch your state and country in the vilest possible way and to call for Arab and international support for the Palestinian struggle. Strange genocidal policies, strange non-democratic practices at work in Israel. I believe you are free to relinquish your citizenship and privileges and move to Gaza. Or Ramallah or Jenin. Or Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, for all I care. But wait, dummkopf, don't you know that under islamic law you are a dhimmie? "Convert to islam, pay that stupid tax, whatever they call it, or die, infidel!" That's why you'd rather stay in Israel and commute to Syria. 'Cause if you moved to Syria and badmouthed the regime or the military (not that there is anything to complain about in that perfect little state) or the local Baby Doc, well, I guess you'd be feeding the fish or the lions or the hyenas. While still alive. That goes for all of these clowns, who forget that their oral orifice is not their anus (at least Tibi should know what that is, being a gynecologist) and should refrain from letting crap passing their lips (at least on its way out).
Talking about biting the hand that feeds.

Enough of hate speech. And it isn't even hate, more like anger and contempt at our laws and judiciary system turning a blind eye to such severe transgressions: colluding with the enemy while at war, inciting violence against your own armed forces (IDF is there to protect all Israelis, even traitors), and generally working to dismantle your own state - I mean you do not want a change of government, you want the end of the "Zionist regime", i.e. you want to be Judenrein. And that is in complete contradiction to the UN resolution recognizing the formation of Israel as a JEWISH STATE. Not a binational state, A JEWISH STATE with an Arab MINORITY. You can have your Fallasteen in Gaza - there, no more Jews in Gaza since the pullout. Plus some hefty West Bank chunks. There is your Arab state, your Palestine. The UN provided there could be a Jewish minority in your Arab state, but take my word for it, we shall spare you the discomfort. Not to mention that by our our mere pig/ape/dog presence/breath we might pollute your pure environment. So why not move to Gaza already and work to make it better? Or at least inhabitable? Free of tribal rivalry and frantic bloodshed?
Alternatively you want the Jews for slaves, dhimmies. Please do hold your breaths, though! Oxygen is becoming a rare commodity what with the global warming and all that.

Back to Apartheid now. Well, this is what I call Apartheid (courtesy of lgf):


And this is the Jordanian older brother (in Hebrew and Arabic), with an explicit warning for Israeli vehicles:
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
THIS ROAD IS CLOSED.
It is a Jordanian road. Any (Israili) car travelling on this road will be burned (or will be shot at. I can't be sure, the Hebrew here is a bit odd and my Arabic is practically non-existent).
(December 3, 1950, I believe following the 1949 armistice.) How about this for trying to keep your neighbor's car out of harm's way (well, road in this case)?

Another day, another peace offering

Way to go, Israeli security forces! May the Force be with you!

Yeah, peace... or just talks, Condi, Abu-Mazen, Olmert, Abdallah... been there, seen that, done that already. Over and over again. But the terrorists still have their own agenda and time-table. And like President Bush said, the terrorists need to succeed only once, we have to succeed every time.

This is the scene of the bloody attack perpetrated by the Japanese terrorist Kozo Okomoto at the Lod Airport in 1972. Airport security has never been the same since. Other than that, plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme chose...

October 25, 1956 - Fadayoun hordes were trying to infiltrate Israeli borders. Sometimes they succeeded. Not in this case, though. This is the body of terrorist intercepted on the Gaza (of all places!) border. An Israeli patrol spotted him and shot him.

Somehow one can't think of terrorism as sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. This is one bear one has to get every single time.

Surprise, surprise

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydrolectric dam, NATO said on Wednesday.
The Taliban have used human shields before, but never children, local residents say.
The fighting occurred during Operation Kryptonite on Monday, an offensive to clear insurgents from the Kajaki Dam area in southern Helmand province to allow repairs to its power plants and the installation of extra capacity.
"During this action ... Taliban extremists resorted to the use of human shields. Specifically, using local Afghan children to cover as they escaped out of the area," Colonel Tom Collins, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told reporters in Kabul.
NATO and foreign forces ran into heavy small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire during the clash, but suffered no casualties, Collins said.
The fighting occurred in an area where 700 mainly foreign fighters, including Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks, arrived from Pakistan this week to reinforce Taliban guerrillas targeting the dam, according to local officials.
Earler on Wednesday, NATO said it had killed a Taliban leader in a pre-dawn airstrike between the dam and the nearby town of Musa Qala, to the west, which the rebels have held for 13 days.
NATO said there were no civilian casualties, but local tribal leader Haji Sultan said several villagers were killed.
Helmand Governor Asadullah Wafa would not comment.
The Kajaki dam has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces, mainly British and Dutch.
NATO-led forces have been conducting operations in the area for several months to allow reconstruction on the dam and the power transmission lines to boost output, after fighting halted repair and development work last year.
The Taliban cannot destroy the dam, which would also flood a large area of the Helmand Valley, but its tactics are aimed at making it too unsafe for work to go ahead.
On Tuesday, two Afghan army officers and a police officer were killed in a joint attack with NATO forces on a bomb-making operation in southern Uruzgan province, just to the north of Musa Qala and Kajaki.
Ten suspected insurgents were captured in the operation, NATO said in a statement.

Well, they could have fooled me. I mean for terror groups in our part of the world (including the hezbollah) using human shields, even children, is not a problem. They even dress up as women emerging from mosques when the IDF hunts them down. Except the world does not believe our troops. But I guess NATO enjoys more credibility around the world. In any case, I would have thought that those who insist that they are not terrorists but freedom fighters would be more honorable about how they fight. I was wrong. They are cowardly scum, and should be dealt with as such. Liars on top of that, as well.

MoreToys, Shoes and hezbollywood

A few days ago LittleGreenFootballs posted a new angle on the famous Qana baby, with an interesting picture, followed up by a reminder from EUreferendum. Having never heard (mea culpa) of this photographer and/or panos photos before, thought I'd take some time to explore the site. And to be honest, I was not disappointed.


LEBANON Tyre (Sur) The head of a child's toy doll lies in the rubble of an apartment building which was bombed by the Israeli air force. 23 people were killed. Date 26/07/2006
Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans (How many more toys remain unaccounted for?)

LEBANON Beirut A high-heeled shoe amongst the rubble of Hareth Hreik, a Hezbollah (Hizbollah) stronghold in the south Beirut suburb of Dahiya which had repeatedly been bombed by the Israeli military. Date 23/07/2006 Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans (Spotless brand new cinderella shoe amidst all that rubble. )

ISRAEL Nazareth Civilians with shrapnel collected from the scene of a missile attack by Hezbollah (Hizbollah). The militants fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, as Israel retaliated for the capture of two of its soldiers by attacking Lebanon. Date 19/07/2006 Photographer Ahikam Seri (Over on the Israeli side, people started collecing the ballbearings, sometimes as many as 10k in one single rocket. Oftentimes contaminated with feces or poison).

ISRAEL Meiron Two women comfort each other minutes after a Katyusha rocket hit their home and killed two members of their family. Hezbollah (Hizbollah) militants fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, as Israel retaliated for the capture of two of its soldiers by attacking Lebanon. Date 14/07/2006 Photographer Ahikam Seri (The attack on Meron was a pretty vicious one - a woman and her grandson were killed as they were sitting down to eat Friday night dinner. Can you imagine the what the papers would have looked liked had it been an Israeli missile landing in Lebanon? How many internet entries would have exposed and condemned the Zionist aggression? The UN General Assembly and Security Council, the Spanish Foreign Minister sporting a kaffieh, the public chorus - Israel's response should be proportionate. but when Israeli civilians get killed - deafening silence).

ISRAEL Meiron A woman comforts her two children, minutes after a Katyusha rocket hit their home and killed two members of their family. Hezbollah (Hizbollah) militants fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, as Israel retaliated for the capture of two of its soldiers by attacking Lebanon. Date 14/07/2006 Photographer Ahikam Seri (Imaginary, sometimes real victims in Lebanon generate hundreds of pictures of bloodstains, torn limbs, grieving relatives, wailing Shiite mamas, with duly ensuing violent rioting of bellicose pacifists burning flags and effigies, vowing to commit suicide bombings and destroy Israel and all the rest of well-meaning rhetoric spewed by the religion of peace. A little boy and his grandmother go to their graves largely unnoticed).

ISRAEL Kiryat Shmona A child cries out in fear after the building he resides in was hit by a Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah (Hizbollah). The militant group fired dozens of rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon, as Israel retaliated for the capture of two of its soldiers by attacking Lebanon. Date 07/08/2006 Photographer Ahikam Seri (how many pictures of suffering Lebanese children has the world been treated to? Yet a million and a half Israelis forced to spend 34 days in stifling bomb-shelters ... well, after all they are war criminal occupiers, aren't they. )
ISRAEL Kiryat Shmona A man inspects the damage to his apartment after it was hit by a Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah (Hizbollah). The militant group fired dozens of rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon, as Israel retaliated for the capture of two of its soldiers by attacking Lebanon. Photographer Ahikam Seri Date 07/08/2006 (Thousands, perhpas tens of thousands of houses and apartments were damaged during the conflict. In Israel, not in Lebanon. Even Israeli media would not report or even admit to the destruction inflicted in Israel. We are too proud to whine and ask for compassion. Perhaps we do not want to provide our enemies with a pretext to celebrate the damage they inflict on us.)LEBANON Bent Jbail A Hezbollah (Hizbullah) truck with a Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on top, hidden and camouflaged in a field near Bent Jbail. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Date 01/08/2006
Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans (Rare, but excellent evidence of what Israel had been claiming all along - that the Hezbos were hiding and operating from orchards, fields, actually civilian infrastructures. IDF and IAF were not trying to destroy Lebanon or to cause unnecessary civilan victims. They were trying to neutralize the rockets that were causing so much intentional damage and suffering in Israel).

LEBANON Bent Jbail A Hezbollah (Hizbullah) truck with a Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on top, hidden and camouflaged in a field near Bent Jbail. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Date 01/08/2006
Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans

LEBANON Bent Jbail A Hezbollah (Hizbullah) truck with a Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on top, hidden and camouflaged in a field near Bent Jbail. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Date 01/08/2006
Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans

LEBANON Bent Jbail The hydraulic system of a Hezbollah (Hizbullah) Katyusha rocket launcher, mounted on a truck that was hidden and camouflaged in a field near Bent Jbail. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Date 01/08/2006 Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans (hundreds of rockets A DAY, amounting to nearly 4 thousand rockets landing in Israel during the 34 day war. Misleading wording there, preceding weeks - not the weeks preceding the conflict, but as of July 12th, the day Hezbollah mounted the attack against Israel, killing eight soldiers, kidnapping two, and raining rockets against Northern Israel)

LEBANON Bent Jbail A destroyed Hezbollah (Hizbollah) truck with a Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on top in a field near Bent Jbail. The weapon had been hit by the Israeli army, but 100 metres away another rocket launcher was still intact, hidden by camouflage. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Date 31/07/2006 Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans

LEBANON Bent Jbail A destroyed Hezbollah (Hizbollah) truck with a Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on top in a field near Bent Jbail. The weapon had been hit by the Israeli army, but 100 metres away another rocket launcher was still intact, hidden by camouflage. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans Date 31/07/2006

LEBANON Bent Jbail Tubes (3 of the original 4) of a destroyed Hezbollah (Hizbollah) rocket launcher in a field near Bent Jbail. The weapon had been hit by the Israeli army, but 100 metres away another rocket launcher was still intact, hidden by camouflage. The village in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, had come under sustained attack by the Israeli military in preceding weeks. Hezbollah had fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel. Date 31/07/2006 Photographer Jeroen Oerlemans (so you see, the Israeli forces were trying to destroy the rocket arsenal Iran and Syria-backed Hezbollah put together behind the back of the Lebanese government and army, possibly with their silent approval).

Holocaust Denial

This was just e-mailed to me. I can't make it any more public than by posting it on the net. As with anything else posted on this blog, please feel free to paste, copy, quote, refer, etc.

It's always time to remember and be ready against a new disaster.
This story was aired on Sunday, Dec. 17 (7PM ET/PT on CBS) on "60 MINUTES" about a long-secret German archive that houses a treasure trove of information on 17.5 million victims of the Holocaust. The archive, located in the German town of Bad Arolsen, is massive (there are 16 miles of shelving containing 50 million pages of documents) and until recently, was off-limits to the public. But after the German government agreed earlier this year to open the archives, CBS News' Scott Pelley traveled there with three Jewish survivors who were able to see their own Holocaust records. It's an incredibly moving piece, all the more poignant in the wake of this week's meeting of Holocaust deniers in Iran. We're trying to get word out about the story to people who have a special interest in this subject.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2274705n
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russia peoples looking the other way! Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.

I am sick and tired of Palestinian lies, lies, lies and more lies. They are trying to pass themselves off as victims of genocide, war crimes, etc, perpetrated against them by the IDF. By the Zionist regime. After all they specialize in Holocaust denial. They learned all about the old propaganda tricks on the knees of the Soviet regime. So they have no difficulty bending truth, twisting things around and feeding the old tradition of European anti-semitism. Europeans seem to remain unaware of their own Moslem minorities working hard at establishing Sharia law, plotting to commit terrorist acts and largely failing to become integrated into their adoptive countries. Makes you stop and wonder for a minute, why the hell did they leave their homelands? Was there no Sharia law over there? No terror infrastructure? Well then, perhaps a neighboring country, could have accommodated them and helped them fullfill their dream. Hmmm...
Oh, yes, sometimes women and children, and even defenseless old people do get killed or injured. Yet these are regrettable accidents when they are not deliberately used as human shields. Still I have yet to see ONE single IDF soldier about to execute a mother holding her child in her arms, same as this Nazi soldier shooting a Jewish woman holding a little child in her arms.
Just ONE IDF soldier executing just ONE Arab mother with a child in her arms, in Lebanon, Gaza or the West Bank. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

The Palestinian Butcher at Work

By Nadav Ha'etzni
Ma'ariv (Saturday supplement) 02.02,2007,

Even if one took a magnifying glass to the international media reports one would fail to find any mention of the horrors going right here and, before our very eyes. Leading Israeli journalists travel to Africa to document the atrocities of genocide and child abuse. Drama unfolds when a Palestinian girl is accidentally killed by IDF fire (cool it, Nadav, she may have been killed by a stone thrown by Palestinian demonstrators) but nobody bothers to report the bloodcurdling carnage taking place right here and now, in Gaza and the West Bank.
In order to fill in the gaps, this is what has been going on in Gaza during the past few weeks: Palestinians gunmen wake up sleeping Palestinian children when there are no armed rivals or rescuers around, and kill them in their beds. Or riddle schoolchildren with bullets as they make their way to or from school. They also strip the rival faction women of their clothes and march them naked through the streets. They stop ambulances and slaughter the sick and the wounded if they belong to the rival faction. In the Shifa Hospital they disconnect the medical equipment necessary to treat injured opponents. Fierce gunfighting is raging in the hallways. A Hamas clinic was blown up by Fatah. Last week, armed Fatah men broke into a Jebalya mosque and started spraying everyone with bullets. As a result, 14 worshippers were wounded. Several of them died of their wounds. Unlike the shooting of Moslem worshippers several years ago in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron by a Jewish settler, the Gaza mosque bloodbath passed largely unnoticed. Why should anyone bother? Arabs killing one another are not newsworthy.
Fatah gunmen accompanied by journalists are patrolling Shchem, in search for Hamas loyalists. While queuing up at the bank, they found Fayed al-Akbar, a Hamas local council member , attacked and abducted him while the cameras were running. In a nearby village, they shot an Al-Najah University woman lecturer in the legs, because of her open support for Hamas. In Hebron they shoot at each other every night. Murder, abduction and torture have become the daily routine in Samaria.
When some horror eventually makes the headlines, it is usually associated with Hamas. The media were quick to report the destruction of a holiday village owned by Dahlan – the Americans' darling. Dahlan himself, tucked away in an armored vehicle convoy, is touring Gaza and pouring millions of US aid into the slaughter. The Fatah pogrom perpetrators seem to have the upper hand.
The fighting seems to be conducted by mercenaries on the payroll of murder contractors. Some of them, such as the Durmush clan, reported to have "bought" IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit and to be currently holding him, jump ship to serve the highest bidder. This modest blog has already mentioned that they occasionally snatch foreign journalists. Lately, some of them seem to be carrying out executions for Fatah, having deserted Hamas ranks for a fistful of US dollars.
So why isn't the media reporting any of these? Where are Channel Two's Arab reporters? Where are the self-righteous correspondents from Ha'aretz? Where's the CNN and its competitors? Where is the UN? Where are Yossi Beilin and Uri Avneri? (I might also ask where are the vociferous Arab MK's: Ahmad Tibi, Bishara, Barakeh and the rest of the fifth column ? or should I say filth column?) By the way, has Be'Tselem buried its head in the sand? A long time ago Itzhak Rabin argued that the Palestinians would annihilate terrorism without the assistance of our Supreme Court and Be'Tselem. Instead, terror is on the rise, but guess what, Be'Tselem (Israeli Human Rights Watch) is unavailable at the moment (most likely in search of some Israeli settlers abusing a Palestinian olive tree).
This slaughter spree is being financed by several nations. One side receives direct aid from Bush and Olmert, while its enemy is being backed by Iran and Syria. Only this week the US administration has poured US $ 86 million into the pockets of Fatah murderers. We have also contributed US $ 100 million to keep Abu-Mazen's Fatah squads butchering children and wounded Hamas gunmen, and acquiring more weapons and ammo, as if they did not have enough already. The arsenal on both sides is quite remarkable, and not only in post-disengagement Gaza, where any arms dealer can sell almost anything. In the West Bank, five minutes away from Kfar-Saba and Jerusalem, arms are being amassed in unprecedented quantities. About 2,000 Hamas terrorists have marched through the streets of Qalqilyiah, in full combat gear and armed to the teeth. Last week the good ole Fatah boys rallied in Ramallah to celebrate Fatah' 42nd anniversary with and unprecedented display of weapons.
Now the Egyptians have come up with the grand idea of a creating a Palestinian army. Soon we will be contributing a tank regiment and an air force wing to stregthen Abu-Mazen's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Why, the reader may ask, do we support Abu-Mazen little pogromists? Why, because they are on "our side". Even though this week they succeeded in blowing up three innocent Jews in Eilat
(suicide bomber caught on surveillance camera here), they remain our mythological peace partner. Yet two weeks ago Abu-Mazen urged the Palestinian warring factions to bury their feud and resume killing Israelis . But why discard a wonderful concept just because reality slaps you in the face? The Palestianian butchers go on unabated, except that for a change, they are slaughtering one another. And the world remains silent.

Like I said, unless one is a victim of IDF (or US troops) "violence", one is not a legitimate victim.
As I was posting this, I heard a Gaza resident giving the next account on TV: People don't go outdoors for fear of getting caught in the crossfire. Roadblocks have been set up everywhere, some by Fatah, some by Hamas. They stop traffic and shoot at random. His neighbor's son was shot while riding his bicycle. The whole situation has gone out of control.
Zvika Yehezkieli, the charismatic Channel 10 Arab desk editor, reported that hell has broken loose in Gaza. Everybody is settling old scores (Mafia style blood vendettas). The death squads are acting on their own, i.e. they are not taking orders from their bosses anymore.
Yes, let them have their state, a persistent vegetative state...

Arabs vs. Israel: A Pakistani View

Pakistani columnist Farrukh Saleem holds Israel as a model for Arab aspirations.

Arabs vs Israel
By Farrukh Saleem, January 4 2007

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

The League of Arab States has 22 members. Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman are 'traditional monarchies'. Of the 22, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria and Somalia are 'Authoritarian Regimes' (Source: www.freedomhouse.org). Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Morocco and Somalia are among the 'world's most repressive regimes' (Source: A special report to the 59th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights). Of the 330 million Muslim men, women and children living under Arab rulers a mere 486,530 live in a democracy (0.15 per cent of the total).
A mere two hundred and fifty miles from the 'League of Dictators' HQ in Cairo is the only 'parliamentary democracy' in the region; universal suffrage, multi-party, multi-candidate, competitive elections. Israel's 6,352,117 residents are 76 per cent Jewish and 23 per cent non-Jewish (mostly Arab).
Israel spends $110 on scientific research per year per person while the same figure for the Arab world is $2. Knowledge makes Israel grow by 5.2 per cent a year while "rates of productivity (the average production of one worker) in Arab countries were negative to a large and increasing extent in oil-producing countries during the 1980s and 90s (World Bank; Arab Development Report)."
Facts cannot be denied: The state of Israel now has six universities ranked as among the best on the face of the planet. Hebrew University Jerusalem is in the top-100. Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute of Science are in the top-200. Bar Ilan University and Ben Gurion University are in the top-300. The Arab League does not have a single university in the top-400 (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm). One in two Arab women can neither read nor write (remember, "If God were to humiliate a human being He would deny him/her knowledge").
Israel's universities are producing knowledge. Israeli society is applying that knowledge plus diffusing knowledge produced by others. On the other hand, within the Arab League, repressive regimes have erected religious, social and cultural barriers to the production as well as diffusion of knowledge.
Look at how knowledge is abandoning the Arab world: Between 1998 and 2000 more than 15,000 Arab physicians migrated. According to the World Bank, "roughly 25 per cent of 300,000 first degree graduates from Arab universities emigrated. Roughly 23 per cent of Arab engineers, 50 per cent of Arab doctors and 15 per cent of Arab BSc holders had emigrated."
Israel, on the other hand, has more engineers and scientists per capita than any other country (for every 10,000 Israelis there are 145 engineers or scientists). Israel ranks among the top-7 countries worldwide for patents per capita.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Israel's pharmaceutical giant, is the world's largest producer of antibiotics (Teva developed Copaxone, a unique immunomodulator therapy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, the only non-interferon agent available).
Facts are hard to deny: Most members of the Arab League grant Muslim women fewer rights -- with regards to marriage, divorce, dress code, civil rights, legal status and education. Israel does not. Spain translates more books in a year than has the Arab world in the past thousand years (since the reign of Caliph Mamoun; Abbasid, caliph 813-833).
Six million Israelis buy 12 million books every year making them one of the highest consumers of books in the world. Israel has the highest number of university degrees per capita in the world; the Arab world has the lowest. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other country (109 per 10,000 Israelis); the Arab world -- next to nothing.
Results are for everyone to see: The average per capita income in Israel is $25,000 while the average income within the League of Arab States is $5,000.
The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

hat tip - a dear friend of mine in the US

With the quiet release of a 33-year-old US State Department cable, a good chunk of the edifice of the longest-running big lie was destroyed

Our World: The longest-running big lie
by Caroline B. Glick
The Jerusalem Post, January 1, 2007

Time for world to admit it was duped to the tune of billions of dollars

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Yasser Arafat was a master of the big lie. Since he invented global terrorism with the founding of the Fatah terror organization in 1959, Arafat successfully portrayed himself as a freedom fighter while introducing the world to passenger jet hijackings, schoolhouse massacres and embassy takeovers.
To cultivate the myth of his innocence Arafat ordered his Fatah terror cells to operate under pseudonyms. In the early 1970's he renamed several Fatah murder squads the Black September Organization while publicly claiming that they were "breakaway" units completely unrelated to Fatah or to himself.
In 2000, as he launched the current Palestinian jihad, he repeated the process by renaming Fatah terror cells the Aksa Martyr Brigades and then claiming that they were completely unrelated to Fatah or to himself. This fiction too, has been successful in spite of the fact that all Aksa Martyr Brigades terrorists are members of Fatah and most are members of Palestinian Authority official militias who receive their salaries, guns and marching orders from Fatah.
Last week, with the quiet release of a 33-year-old US State Department cable, a good chunk of the edifice of his great lie was destroyed.

ON MARCH 1, 1973, eight Fatah terrorists, operating under the Black September banner stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan during a farewell party for the US Embassy's Charges d'Affaires George Curtis Moore. The terrorists took Moore, US ambassador Cleo Noel, Belgian Charges d'Affairs Guy Eid and two Arab diplomats hostage. They demanded that the US, Israel, Jordan and Germany release PLO and Baader-Meinhof Gang terrorists, including Robert F. Kennedy's Palestinian assassin Sirhan Sirhan and Black September commander Muhammed Awadh (Abu Daud), from prison in exchange for the hostages' release.
The next evening, the Palestinians brutally murdered Noel, Moore, and Eid. They released their other hostages on March 4.
Arafat denied any involvement in the attack. The US officially accepted his denial. Yet, as he later publicly revealed, James Welsh, who served at the time of the attack as an analyst at the National Security Agency, intercepted a communication from Arafat, then headquartered in Beirut to his terror agents in Khartoum ordering the attack.
In 1986, as evidence of Arafat's involvement in the operation became more widely known, more and more voices began calling for Arafat to be investigated for murder. As the New York Sun's online blog recalled last week, during that period, Britain's Sunday Times reported that 44 US senators sent a letter to then US attorney-general Edwin Meese, "urging the American government to charge the PLO chief with plotting the murders of two American diplomats in 1973."
The article went on to note that the Justice Department's interest in pursuing the matter was making senior State Department officials uneasy: "State Department diplomats, worried that murder charges against Arafat would anger the United States' friends in the Arab world (what US friends in the Arab world?!?!?!) , are urging the Justice Department to drop the investigation."
As late as 2002, in spite of President George W. Bush's pointed refusal to meet with Arafat, the State Department continued to protest his innocence. At the time, Scott Johnson, a Minneapolis attorney and one of the authors of the popular Powerlineblog weblog, inquired into the matter with the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. In an emailed response from the bureau's deputy director of press affairs Gregory Sullivan, Johnson was told, "Evidence clearly points to the terrorist group Black September as having committed the assassinations of Amb. Noel and George Moore, and though Black September was a part of the Fatah movement, the linkage between Arafat and this group has never been established."
So it was that for 33 years, under seven consecutive presidential administrations, the State Department denied any knowledge of involvement by Arafat or Fatah in the execution of its own people.
Until last week.

THE CABLE released by the State Department's historian states, "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, (PLO), and the head of Fatah. Fatah representatives based in Khartoum participated in the attack, using a Fatah vehicle to transport the terrorists to the Saudi Arabian Embassy."
Although clearly skilled in the art of deception, Arafat could never have succeeded in creating and prolonging his fictions and with them, his crimes, without the cooperation of the US government and the media.
In this vein, the release of the State Department cable raises two daunting questions. First, how is it possible that the belated admission of a massive 33 year cover-up of the murder of senior American diplomats spanning the course of seven consecutive presidential administrations has been ignored by the US media? A Google news search for Cleo Noel brought up but a handful of stories - none of which were reported by the major news networks or national newspapers.
On the face of it, the released cable, which calls into question the very foundation of US Middle East policy for the past generation is simply stunning. The cable concludes, "The Khartoum operation again demonstrated the ability of the BSO to strike where least expected. The open participation of Fatah representatives in Khartoum in the attack provides further evidence of the Fatah/BSO relationship. The emergence of the United States as a primary fedayeen target indicates a serious threat of further incidents similar to that which occurred in Khartoum."
The media's silence on the issue does not merely raise red flags abut their objectivity. By not availing the American public to the knowledge that Fatah and the PLO have been specifically targeting Americans for 33 years, the media has denied the American people basic knowledge of the world in which they live.
The media's abject refusal to cover the story raises an even more egregious aspect of the episode. Specifically, what does the fact that under seven consecutive administrations, the US government has covered up Arafat's direct responsibility for the murder of American diplomats while placing both Arafat and Fatah at the center of its Middle East policy, say about the basic rationale of US policy towards Israel and the Palestinians? What would US Middle East policy looked like, and what would have been the results for US, and international security as a whole, if rather than advancing a policy that made Arafat the most frequent foreign visitor to the White House during the Clinton administration, the US had demanded his extradition and tried him for murder?
How many lives would have been saved if the US had not been intent on upholding Arafat's big lie? How would such a US policy have impacted the subsequent development of sister terror organizations like Hizbullah, al-Qaida and Hamas, all of which were founded by members of Arafat's terror industry?
Sadly, the release of the cable did not in any way signal a change in the US policy of whitewashing Fatah. In contravention of US law, for the past 13 years, the State Department has been denying that Fatah, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority are terrorist organizations, and has been actively funding them with US taxpayer dollars.
This policy went on, unchanged even after Fatah gunmen murdered three US embassy employees in Gaza in October 2003. This policy continues, unchanged still today, as Fatah's current leader, Arafat's deputy of 40 years Mahmoud Abbas works to form a unity government with Hamas. Indeed, the central component of the US's policy towards the Palestinians today is the goal of strengthening Fatah by arming, training and funding its Force 17 terror militia.
In a November 14, 2006 interview on Palestinian television, Ahmed Hales Abu Maher who serves as Secretary of Fatah in Gaza, bragged of Fatah's role in the development of international terrorism. In his words, reported by Palestinian Media Watch, "Oh warrior brothers, this is a nation that will never be broken, it is a revolution that will never be defeated. This is a nation that gives an example every day that is imitated across the world. We gave the world the children of the RPG [Rocket Propelled Grenades], we gave the world the children stone [-throwers], and we gave the world the male and female Martyrdom-Seekers [suicide bombers]."
Imagine what the world would have looked like if, rather than clinging to Arafat's big lie that he and his Fatah terror organization were central components of Middle East peace, the US had captured and tried Arafat for murdering its diplomats and worked steadily to destroy Fatah.
Imagine how our future would look if rather than stealthily admitting the truth, while trusting the media not to take notice, the US government were to base its current policies on the truth, and the media were to reveal this truth to the world.

JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post.

hat tip: a dear friend in the US.

Friends of the USA

I just got this from a dear friend of mine. Might as well make it very very public:

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S . PRESIDENT, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?

My Fellow Americans:
As you all know, the defeat of the Iraq regime has been completed. Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete. This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq This action will be complete within 30 days.
It is now time to begin the reckoning. Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. This list is short. The United Kingdom , Spain , Bulgaria , Australia , and Poland are some of the countries listed there.
The other list contains everyone not on the first list. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.
Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war. The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world Hellholes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption.
Need help with a famine ? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France.
In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home . On that note, a word to terrorist organizations. Screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth. Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France , or maybe China . I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France , Germany , and Russia . Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from NATO as well. Bonne chance, mes amis.
I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious Benzes, Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world. I love New York!
A special note to our neighbors. Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off for a change. Mexico is also on List 2 President Fox and his entire corrupt government really need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra tank and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put 'em? Yep, border security.
Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty - starting now. We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska - which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2 above: pick a country and move there. They care.
It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, "darn tootin." Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America It is time to eliminate homelessness in America . To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thank you guys. We owe you and we won't forget.
To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.
God bless America . Thank you and good night.
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.
(Please forward this to at least ten friends and see what happens! Let's get this to every USA computer!)

And the World Is Paying

Despite the fact that the Palestinians are receiving aid at a scope that other countries can only dream of, they are still pitied. Their wretchedness has turned into an industry.

Ben-Dror Yemini,
Maariv11/1/2007 16:44

According to world opinion, the Palestinians are the most wretched and oppressed people on earth. This is the one national group that best fits the victim definition. An endless number of publications deals with their wretchedness and poverty. Not to mention to decades-long refugee status. Here, too, the connection between facts and publicity is loose.
The first article in the series, “And the World Is Silent - A Homemade Genocide,” published in the Rosh Hashana supplement, examined the mass murder that Arabs and primarily Moslems perpetrate against Moslems and Arabs, compared with the relatively minimal number of Arabs killed in general, and Palestinians in particular, in the framework of the dispute with Israel. The second article in the series, “And the World Is Lying,” which was published in the Yom Kippur supplement, dealt with manipulation of the Palestinian refugee problem: even though about 40 million people have experienced population exchanges for the purpose of creating states with a national, ethnic or religious identity, only the Palestinians of all the tens of millions, have remained refugees.
This article will examine the myth of Palestinian misery. The Palestinians are, indeed in a bad situation. No one disputes that. The question is whether this is a self-inflicted Palestinian product for which the Palestinians are responsible, or it is international harassment, primarily American or Israeli.
The myth, which is cultivated by the "forces of progress," says that, naturally, the United States is the root of all evil. Not only does it have an "unbalanced policy," it is also the oppressor of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. And Israel, of course, is worsening the general oppression. Is that really so?
While the Palestinians have acquired a place of honor on the world’s list of wretchedness, well oiled public-relations have turned them into a nation of victims. The facts are different in essence from the myths and the plethora of academic and journalistic publications that are perpetrating a mass fraud on world opinion.
Misery pays. It has turned into an industry. The world opens its pockets. The “great Satan,” the country most hated by the Palestinians, the United States, which vies for precedence only with Israel, the “small Satan,” is the country that has helped the Palestinians since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 more than any other country in the world. Not Saudi Arabia alone, and not the Gulf states, separately or together. Not the countries of Europe, who donate separately and not even the European Union.

Shower them with dollars and they will spit back on you
These are the facts: according to a report by the World Bank, from 1994 to 1998, the United States was the largest contributor to the Palestinians. The figures are no different in the following years, but the 1990s, which ended with the Intifada, are particularly important. It is true that Israel receives more aid. The military aid stems from strategic reasons and this is not the place to discuss them. Most of it, in any case, assists American industry, because Israel must spend the money only in America. With regards to the economic aid, in recent years it has become marginal and it is less than the aid given to the Palestinians.
In everything pertaining to per capita aid for the purposes of Palestinian development welfare, they receive far more aid than the aid given, for example, to Egypt. But the myth repeatedly claims that the Palestinians are the "victims," that they must be given more and more because that, perhaps, will convince them to want peace and to abandon terrorism.
According to the World Bank Report, in the above mentioned years, Washington contributed close to $345 million, compared with the European Union, which contributed $298 million. Japan is also at the top of the list, with a contribution of $306 million during those years. (Even India!!! managed to scrape together some $1.5 million !!!)
The American contribution is actually much bigger: during those years, just like during all the past few decades, the United States has been the largest contributor to UNRWA the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for refugees, which is assisting the Palestinians. UNRWA’s annual budget was close to $300 million a year during that period. Out of that amount, $600 million were sent to the West Bank and Gaza. Even by a multiyear calculation, from 1994 to 2004 the United States is in first place, with $1.3 billion in aid. After the U.S. comes the European Union - 1.11 billion, then Japan - 0.53 billion. Here, too, these amounts do not include the contributions to UNRWA and the "Dawa" (the “charity”) which is used in large part to fund terrorism. We must remember that Hamas operated another, separate fund raising channel, some of which actually went to welfare, education, health and publicity infrastructures, and some of which went to strengthening the military arm and terrorists activities.
Billions have been given to the Palestinians. This money could have led to tremendous change in the Palestinian economy. This money, excuse the cliche, could have turned Gaza into Beirut (except that Hizbullah would turn Beirut into Gaza). But the Palestinians chose another path. The world rained dollars on them and the Palestinians responded with criticism. They were not the oppressed of the world, but rather the pampered of the world. Most of the inhabitants of Africa, who are suffering a lot more, can only dream of aid at the magnitude that was given to the Palestinians. There is poverty in the world. There is exploitation. There is oppression. But the Palestinians are not at the top of the list. They are far from that. They have never suffered from hunger. Their distress is mostly of their own devise.

They chose struggle over prosperity
Back before the Oslo Accords, money was flowing to the Palestinians. 1992 was a peak year for the Palestinian economy. The GDP per capita reached $1,999, and the actual GNP per capita was $2,683. The gap stems from supplements from foreign sources: some came from the UNRWA budget, some was transferred from Palestinians working abroad who sent money, and a significant part came from the work performed by many Palestinians in Israel.


A member of the Israeli security forces displays weapons seized from a Fatah terror cell on their way to kidnap Israelis in 1971.



Theoretically, if not for the terrorism, which forced Israel to impose closures and curfews, the Palestinian economy in the 1990s would have turned into one of the leading economies in the Middle East, after Israel. That is the point in time during which the secret talks were being held in Oslo, after which, following the signing of the Accords, the great flow of international aid to the Palestinians began. But these were also the years of large waves of terrorism. The Palestinians preferred struggle to prosperity. During those years, countries like Yemen, Chad and Nigeria, for example, had per capita GDPs of about $1,000 and they were not the poorest countries in the world. These were the years in which there were African communities of millions, in Congo, in Sudan, in the Sahara, which became refugees. But the international community abandoned them. The black people of Africa, of course, did not create terrorism and did not present a strategic threat. The moral conscience of the world in general and of the West in particular is activated in a very selective manner: via the television screen, by threats of terrorism, by the danger of a rise in oil prices. So the far greater suffering of tens of millions of black people in Africa is ranked much lower than the far lesser suffering of the many fewer Palestinians.The distress of the Palestinians is apparently their most successful industry. This is distress that both perpetuates itself and serves as the basis for more and more payment demands. What is it for? Not for building infrastructures. Not for building an improved education system. Not for rehabilitating the hundreds of thousands who are living in refugee camps (none of them in tents, however). The money went to three main objectives: perpetuating the political situation and the wretchedness; purchasing weapons and materiel for terrorism; and for corruption, by paying enormous amounts that went constantly into the pockets of cronies and hangers-on, such as the millions of dollars that went into the bank accounts of Yasser Arafat in banks around the world, and the coupons clipped by the heads of the Palestinian Authority from almost every economic development deal in the territories.

The supreme objective: Wiping Israel off the map
Israel is not innocent of mistakes, but all Israel's mistakes are dwarfed by the Palestinian liability. Living under an occupation is no great joy, and criticism of the occupation in general and of the settlements in particular, is legitimate. More than legitimate. We are not dealing with theory, however, but with facts: huge sums of money that were given to the Palestinians went down the drain. And the opportunities to win independence and prosperity were rejected in favor of the supreme objective: wiping Israel off the map.
The main turning point was, of course, the Oslo Accords. The entire world volunteered to help the Palestinian Authority, which was established following the Accords. The Palestinian Authority did, indeed, grow and blossom. The big money began to flow. But the Palestinians themselves did not enjoy the fruits of peace. Quite the opposite. They went into an economic decline.Various research entities present contradictory data on the changes in the per capita GNP or the purchasing power of the Palestinians before and after the Oslo Accords. But even the contradictory data shows consistent lines: on the one hand, there was an astonishing, unprecedented flow of funds to the Palestinian Authority, and on the other hand, along with the enormous flow of funds, there was also a drop in per capita GNP. The explanation is simple: after the Oslo Accords, there were several waves of terrorism which led to a series of closures. Fewer and fewer Palestinians worked in Israel. But then the change came. In 1997 there was a turning point and the Palestinian economy began to recover. The Palestinians began to feel the benefits of peace. According to Palestinian data, from 1994 to 2000 there was a real increase of 36% in the GDP. And yet, despite the dramatic improvement, the recovery was short-lived and
ended with the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000. Again, the chance for prosperity was destroyed. Again, the Palestinians chose the path of violence. This is an important point in time. The violence broke out precisely after Israel extended to the Palestinians the most generous offer in the history of the conflict between the two nations. The myths of "Palestinian suffering" and of the "horrors of occupation" are inconsistent with reality.

Far from last place in suffering and poverty
Firstly, the uprising began after two years of the waning of the terrorism and the rise of the economic prosperity. Secondly, those were the days when the Palestinians had a Palestinian state in hand. It began at the Camp David summit, where Ehud Barak, Prime Minister at the time, offered something that no Israeli leader had dared propose before him. It continued under the guidance of Bill Clinton and the essence was a Palestinian State along the 1967 borders with the exception of minor border adjustments of a few percent, including substantial parts of Jerusalem, and exchanges of territory, as compensation for the Palestinians.
And how did the Palestinians respond? This is how Bandar bin Sultan, the highly influential Saudi ambassador in Washington at that time, describes the events of that historic day, January 2, 2001: bin Sultan was sitting with Arafat at the Ritz Hotel before he went into the meeting with Clinton. Bin Sultan told Arafat that this was an historic opportunity, that he had the support of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and most of the Arab world, and that if he refused the proposal, "It would be a tragedy, it would be a crime." It did not help. Arafat went to Clinton and said: "No." Arafat did not want a Palestinian state. Arafat did not want prosperity. Arafat did not want an end to the occupation. Arafat wanted war."
Israel was forced to respond in order to protect itself from the enormous wave of terrorism. Yes, Israel made mistakes. But all of its mistakes are dwarfed, we must repeat, by the Palestinian intransigence against ending the occupation and the conflict, and the refusal to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
We will continue with the facts. The flow of funds for economic aid and human development, to prevent hunger, is supposed to be in accordance with the state of the needy community. Were the Palestinians the neediest community? Comparative data show that the Palestinians are far from last place in poverty. While the GNP was not at Western levels, even among the Muslim or Arab countries the Palestinians are not the last on the list. The Human Development Index for 2003 places the "occupied Palestinian territories," as the Palestinian Authority is defined there, in the 102nd place out of 180 countries. Since 2003 represents one of the low points, at the height of the intifada, and since the GNP during the 1990s was far higher, we can assume that the Palestinians’ ranking during the 1990s was higher. And in any case, even in the dire situation of 2003, the Palestinians were ahead of Algeria (ranked 103) Syria (ranked 106) Egypt (ranked 116), Morocco (ranked 126), Yemen (ranked 156) and certainly most of the countries in Africa and some of the countries of South America.The Palestinians are ranked high in human development, relative to other Arab states, even though the GNP is lower than in those countries. And yet, a comparison of GNP and the international aid, relative to other countries and relative to the size of the population, yields an amazing result: the Palestinians received the greatest amount of aid in the world. Actually, it has been a decade and a half that the Palestinians have been far from being the poorest, yet they received the most.
The figures tell the story. For example, from 1994 to 1998, the Palestinians in the territories received more than $2.6 billion in aid from the donor countries, and another $600 million through UNRWA, but that is only part of the picture. An enormous number of Palestinian NGOs received support from many funds, primarily European. Additionally, "charity organizations" sent money, mainly to entities that engaged in terrorism and/or religious activities. The money came from Muslims in America and Europe, from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. The cumulative amount each year comes to hundreds of millions of dollars. Comparative data for 2003 shows an even more surprising picture. While the poverty-stricken Yemen received external aid of $30 per capita, each person in the Palestinian Authority received $470. Even in absolute terms, this is distorted. Egypt received external $1.286 billion in aid while the Palestinian Authority received $1.616 billion in aid. It is superfluous to say that the population of Egypt is 73 million and the Palestinian population is only 3 million.This is not the end of the Palestinian audacity - an audacity in which American support, both economic and political, is met with ingratitude. In 2003, among other things following the terrorist bombings, Washington decided to make its aid to NGOs around the world conditional on the signing of an agreement under which the recipient does not support terrorism. We should clarify that this was the policy vis-a-vis every entity in the world and not just the Palestinians. However, some of the Palestinians did not like that. They wanted both money and support for terrorism. An internal debate developed, with the expected nationalistic rhetoric. The radical elements prevailed and at the beginning of June 2004, the Palestinian legislative Council passed a resolution rejecting the American conditions.The Palestinians wanted both aid and the option to funnel that aid to finance terrorist activities or to entities that support terrorism. Why? Because of the Palestinian "national honor," which includes supporting terrorism, was more important than accepting American aid.

Weapons are more important than welfare, education and prosperity
Three researchers - Michael Keating, Anne Le More and Robert Lowe - edited a comprehensive book of articles on the aid, called “The Case of Palestine: Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground,” which was published in 2005. The three will never be accused of being overly sympathetic to Israel. However, two clear facts emerge from the book: first, that the Palestinians have received the greatest amount of aid since World War II, not just in absolute terms, but also taking into account the adjustment for the various indices. And, in effect, relative to the number of inhabitants, the Palestinians have received more aid than the Marshall Plan, which was designed for the recovery of Europe after the Second World War. Second, in the words of the book, "Aid may have been part of the problem rather than the solution, and massive international aid has not prevented the decline of Palestinian society."As usual with books of this type, it is also full of allegations against Israel, such as the claim that the aid contributed to perpetuating the occupation (how does that fit in with the Palestinian intransigence in refusing a Palestinian state and the Clinton initiative?), but if we relate solely to the data - of the World Bank, of the International Monetary Fund, of research institutes - they tell the full story.
Throughout the territories there are now tens of thousands of privately held weapons which are not part of the weaponry of the Palestinian security forces. The price of a rifle, according to type and production year, ranges between thousands of shekels and thousands of dollars. When we talk about Palestinian distress, it is also worth remembering Palestinian priorities, both national and private: weapons are more important than welfare, education, and prosperity. Money is not the problem. The problem is the preference for weapons.
If the Palestinians had been fighting the occupation - they would have had an independent Palestinian state long ago, very close to the 1967 lines. But the Palestinians have made every effort to convince public opinion in Israel that the goal is not the end of the occupation. The Palestinian goal was and, for many, still is - the end of the State of Israel. Fantasy has overcome reality.
Like the dream that has been nurtured about the right of return, which only increased the misery of those who have been forced to remain refugees, so the dream of the destruction of Israel has only increased the wretchedness of the Palestinians. The blame is not theirs alone. The blame also belongs to their propaganda agents in the West. The blame belongs to the propaganda agents who treated them like oppressed wretches and not like people with equal rights who should be held responsible for their actions. There is no other explanation for the fact that since the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians in the territories alone have received $5.5 billion, if we do not take into account additional sources that are not mentioned in the official reports. This comes to about $1,300 per capita. Just for the sake of comparison, under the Marshall Plan, every European received only $273 (after adjustment for the index). The Palestinians deserve to receive this aid. They have many good reasons. However we can now see what happened to this vast amount of money. It was spent on corruption and the Fatah movement was removed from the government. It was spent on weapons at the encouragement of the central government and the result is social breakdown and anarchy. And above all, the blame rests on those who helped the inflow of this enormous amount of money without making the Palestinians undergo a process of withdrawal from their futile dreams of destroying Israel. The result is mainly the continued destruction of Palestinian society.

Now consider all the aid the Palestinians have been receiving over the years - they should not be looting their own government and police buildings. Nor should their children. Still...

Moreover, they could and should have built some playgrounds for their children instead of letting them play in, on and around blown-up cars. Not to mention that these wrecked-vehicles could easily become death-traps. Where are their responsible, loving parents?

These vehicles were destroyed in the Fatah-Hamas fighting. Please do not even think of mentioning IAF missile strikes (double or otherwise).