CONTENTS
1. Finally, America gets a female President... on “24”
2. It’s Hurry Potter: Newspaper editors employ speed-readers to review book
3. Al-Jazeera commentator: “Most of the Turks here are drug dealers”
4. Ahmadinejad praises Islamist victory in Turkey
5. Economist launches audio version of entire magazine
6. Building the biggest bridge in the world: A Bin Laden project
7. UK’s Gordon Brown won’t rule out military action in Iran
8. Peres: International community does have power to make Iran back down
9. “What? You haven’t heard about them?”
10. “BBC to teach its stars honesty” (Daily Telegraph, July 25, 2007)
11. “VisionTV gives Islamic radical more air time” (National Post, July 23, 2007)
12. “Haleh Esfandiari” (By Mark Steyn, New York Sun, July 23, 2007)
This dispatch includes some “lighter” items first, followed by some more serious ones. It also includes a number of items about the media itself which are not directly related to the Middle East.
FINALLY, AMERICA GETS A FEMALE PRESIDENT... ON “24”
Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that a female (to be played by “Ocean’s 12” actress Cherry Jones) is likely to be U.S. President in the upcoming season of the hit Fox show “24”.
Hillary Clinton will no doubt be watching very closely.
“24” has already had two African-American presidents.
IT’S HURRY POTTER: NEWSPAPER EDITORS EMPLOY SPEED-READERS TO REVIEW BOOK
The seventh and final installment in the Harry Potter series was released at one minute past midnight, local time, on Saturday, and in an age of instant reaction and online blogs, newspapers in the highly competitive British market (which received no advance copies of the 608-page book*) wanted a review in time for editions the same morning, reports Reuters from London.
Britain’s bestselling daily Sun tabloid employed speed-reading champion Anne Jones to write its review. She took just 47 minutes and one second to read the book but still had time to conclude:
“Without being too critical, the plot does seem to be a bit complicated, but I would not change a word. ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ is a real page-turner.”
It was certainly a page-turner for her.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours worldwide, breaking all records. Borders, the second-largest U.S. book chain, said it sold about 1.2 million copies on the first day, the highest of any title in its history. (This compares to the 850,000 copies Borders sold when the sixth book in the Harry Potter series was released in 2005.)
(*The American version has 759 pages, the British has 608.)
AL-JAZEERA COMMENTATOR: “MOST OF THE TURKS HERE ARE DRUG DEALERS”
Commenting on the Turkish elections held on Sunday, Hani Al-Sibai, a London-based Islamist commentator on al-Jazeera gave this criticism of Turkish secularism:
“What has become of Kemal Ataturk’s Turkey? Go to Europe, and you will see. Most of the Turks here are drug dealers, outcasts. Moreover, the English here have a custom. On Christmas, they eat what they call ‘turkey.’ Imagine, they call it ‘turkey,’ and they serve it as food at the table. This shows the kind of hatred that is deeply rooted in the West they serve the Turkish, Ottoman, Muslim man as food at the table, for entertainment and as a sign that they have slaughtered him. What has become of Turkey?”
AHMADINEJAD PRAISES ISLAMIST VICTORY IN TURKEY
Meanwhile Iran’s hardline, Holocaust denying president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has congratulated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the Islamist victory in Turkey. In Arabic here.
Erdogan’s (moderate) Islamist Justice and Development Party received about 340 of the 550 seats.
ECONOMIST LAUNCHES AUDIO VERSION OF ENTIRE MAGAZINE
The Economist is launching a downloadable online audio version of its entire magazine, to fit the needs of subscribers it says have no time to read.
The London-based weekly which claims a worldwide print circulation of 1.2 million says it will be the first leading international publication to offer a full audio edition every week.
From this week listeners will be able to scroll through the Economist online and download audio versions of articles by section or in its entirety. The audio service is free to subscribers, and costs £4 ($8) for non-subscribers.
Previously the magazine had sold “This week in the Economist,” a five-minute podcast of selected stories.
BUILDING THE BIGGEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD: A BIN LADEN PROJECT
Osama Bin Laden’s elder half-brother is lobbying investors to build a 17-mile bridge that would be the longest in the world, connecting the continents of Asia and Africa.
Sheikh Tarek Mohammed Bin Laden, 60, says he hopes that the project would rehabilitate his family name.
Known as “the bridge of the century,” it would stretch between Yemen and Djibouti on the Horn of Africa and include a freeway and rail links. Two new luxury cities would be built on either side of the Red Sea.
Sheikh Bin Laden who runs the Saudi-based Bin Laden Group, a construction conglomerate which manages Mecca’s holy sites, among other interests has already won pledges of land from the presidents of both countries after shuttling between the capitals in his private jet to outline his plans in recent weeks.
At present, the longest suspension bridge in the world is the 2.4 mile Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, which opened in 1998 and has a center span of more than 1.2 miles. Bin Laden’s proposed bridge would be more than three times as long with a center span of 3.1 miles, allowing even oil tankers to sail underneath.
UK’S GORDON BROWN WON’T RULE OUT MILITARY ACTION IN IRAN
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday he would not rule out military action against Iran, but believed a policy of sanctions could still persuade Teheran to drop its disputed nuclear program.
“I firmly believe that the sanctions policy that we are pursuing will work, but I’m not one who’s going forward to say that we rule out any particular form of action,” Brown told a news conference, when asked if he would rule out a military strike against Iran.
The United Nations Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions since December on Iran for failing to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can produce fuel for power plants or material for warheads. A third sanctions resolution is being considered. Many believe that Iran’s activities are aimed at producing nuclear bombs.
PERES: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY DOES HAVE POWER TO MAKE IRAN BACK DOWN
Separately, Israel’s new president, Shimon Peres, told the French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday that unified international pressure could force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Peres said that “Iran only has power when the world is divided,” and as proof cited North Korea, South Africa, Libya and Ukraine, saying that each of these nations gave up their nuclear programs in the face of international pressure.
“WHAT? YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ABOUT THEM?”
I attach three articles below. The first, from the Daily Telegraph, reports that 16,000 members of the BBC will be sent “on a mandatory new training programme to teach honesty to BBC staff.”
The article adds that “The Safeguarding Trust course is being set up as part of the damage limitation exercise by the corporation after the revelation that six children’s and charity television programmes had misled viewers.”
As I mentioned on this website/email list last week, many of the BBC’s UK-based staff (such as Andrew Neill, who is cited in the Daily Telegraph article, are thoroughly professional and objective) but when is the BBC going to teach its foreign affairs reporters and analysts to be objective?
The second article, from the Canadian paper, the National Post, reports that “A day after saying it regretted broadcasting a lecture by a Pakistani preacher who says Muslim scripture advocates violent holy war and the ‘extermination’ of Jews, VisionTV put him back on the air again this weekend.”
(VisionTV calls itself “Canada’s Multifaith, Multicultural Television Network”.)
Mark Steyn, in the final article attached below, writes about the American hostages currently being held in Iran. “No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now. What? You haven’t heard about them?” This situation is put into perspective when one recalls the enormous fuss made by the media over Alan Johnston (as previously detailed in several dispatches on this website/email list).
Steyn continues, “It would be nice to think the press has ignored these hostages out of concerns that they might inflame the situation Or maybe the media figure that showing American prisoners on TV will only drive Bush’s ratings back up from the grave to the rude health of intensive care.”
-- Tom Gross
FULL ARTICLES
BBC TO TEACH ITS STARS HONESTY
BBC to teach its stars honesty
By Andrew Pierce
The Daily Telegraph
July 25, 2007
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/25/nbbc125.xml
John Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman will be required to join Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, on a mandatory new training programme to teach honesty to BBC staff.
The Safeguarding Trust course is being set up as part of the damage limitation exercise by the corporation after the revelation that six children’s and charity television programmes had misled viewers.
Mark Byford, the deputy director general, giving evidence to a Commons Culture Select Committee yesterday, said all employees, no matter how senior or famous, would have to attend the course if involved in making programmes.
Mr Byford, who was giving evidence with Caroline Thomson, the chief operating officer, said: “Everyone must be reminded about what the BBC stands for and what trust is.”
But the BBC may find some presenters more resistant than others. Andrew Neil, who presents the Daily Politics show on BBC2 and This Week on BBC1, was contemptuous.
“All 16,000 of us are going to be sent to re-education camps, a bit like Pol Pot’s Cambodia,” he told his viewers.
Philip Davies, a Tory MP on the select committee, also questioned the need for the course as he thought the requirement for honesty ought to be obvious.
Mr Byford, standing in for Mr Thompson who was on a delayed family holiday, acknowledged that further deceptions might come to light. “We cannot be 100 per cent certain that we have captured everything. Some investigations are still going on,” he said.
Michael Grade, the chairman of ITV, also giving evidence to the committee, gave a hint that production company RDF, which has been suspended while the inquiry into wrongly edited footage of the Queen for the BBC is ongoing, might not work for him again.
“If anyone is found to have deceived or lied to viewers, we won’t do business with them. Anyone who wants to make programmes for me should be aware that if you are caught deceiving the public it is one strike and you are out,” he said.
ITV is awaiting the outcome of an audit ordered after allegations against GMTV and shows including The X Factor, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Soapstar Superstar.
Channel 4, in partnership with Five, will publish an Independent Producer’s Handbook that will provide a guide to the regulatory rules governing the making and broadcast of programmes and will also beef up its own training programme.
VISIONTV BACKPEDALS ON “REGRET” TO AIR PREACHER
VisionTV gives Islamic radical more air time
Jewish groups outraged; Vision backpedals on ‘regret’ to air preacher
By Stewart Bell
The National Post
July 23, 2007
www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=9ee9b974-42ed-406b-9674-98ac52d79e65&k=43135
A day after saying it regretted broadcasting a lecture by a Pakistani preacher who says Muslim scripture advocates violent holy war and the “extermination” of Jews, VisionTV put him back on the air again this weekend.
A leading Jewish organization said yesterday it would launch a formal complaint with Canadian broadcast regulators after Vision aired another hour-long talk by fundamentalist Israr Ahmad on Saturday.
The preacher’s reappearance on Canadian television came as a surprise to some, since VisionTV had issued a statement on Friday expressing regret for broadcasting Mr. Ahmad’s lecture on violent jihad on July 14.
But despite the statement, Vision aired another lecture Saturday afternoon by Mr. Ahmad, who compares Jews to “parasites,” describes the Holocaust as “divine punishment” and calls Jews “condemned.”
“It is most troubling that VisionTV made a calculated decision to re-broadcast a segment featuring a radical Imam, whose words have the potential to incite hatred and violence,” Frank Dimant of B’nai Brith Canada said yesterday.
“It is a complete abdication of their responsibility to knowingly give a platform to this individual whose calls for jihad can clearly be interpreted by his supporters as a call to engage in terrorism. B’nai Brith Canada will be launching a formal complaint with the CRTC calling for a full investigation of this matter.”
Canadian Jewish Congress spokesman Len Rudner said he was “deeply concerned that Vision continues to provide a podium from which Israr Ahmad can speak and gain credibility.
“It’s fair to say that we know what Mr. Ahmad stands for, the question now is whether or not VisionTV wishes to associate itself in any manner with an individual who holds such a hateful agenda.”
Vision, which is available in 7.8 million Canadian households, has a strict code of ethics that forbids the broadcast of programs that could incite violence, overseas conflicts or strife between religions. Vision could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Last week, a Vision executive, Mark Prasuhn, described “Dr. Ahmad” as a religious scholar he is a medical doctor and in a recent interview the preacher acknowledged that he was not welcome in Canada. “I had no official information about a ban [from entering Canada] but I understood that I was not in the good books of the U.S. and the West, especially after 9 /11, due to my concept of radical Islam; which demands a Muslim to struggle against the prevailing corrupt and exploitative system in the world,” he said.
Mr. Ahmad heads a self-described “revolutionary” organization called Tanzeem-e Islami, which wants to turn Pakistan into a fundamentalist Islamic state and a launch pad for the global domination of Islam.
Although he is a popular speaker in Pakistan, Mr. Ahmad’s theories about a Jewish conspiracy to secretly rule the world through banking institutions have given him little credibility outside the Muslim world.
The controversy comes as Canadian authorities are struggling to deal with a growing number of Islamist extremists who support terrorism against the West. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says many youths have been influenced by radical spiritual leaders.
Mr. Ahmad’s followers in Canada include terror suspect Qayyum Abdul Jamal, arrested last summer for his alleged role in a plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.
“NO, NOT THE GUYS BACK IN THE SEVENTIES”
Haleh Esfandiari
By Mark Steyn
The New York Sun
July 23, 2007
www.nysun.com/article/58902?page_no=1
How do you feel about the American hostages in Iran?
No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now.
What? You haven’t heard about them?
Odd that, isn’t it? But they’re there. For example, for two months now, Haleh Esfandiari has been detained in Evin prison in Tehran. Ms. Esfandiari is a U.S. citizen and had traveled to Iran to visit her sick mother. She is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, which is the kind of gig that would impress your fellow guests at a Washington dinner party. Unfortunately, the mullahs say it’s an obvious cover for a Bush spy. Among the other Zionist-neocon agents currently held in Iranian jails are an American journalist, an American sociologist for a George Soros-funded leftie group, and an American peace activist from California, Ali Shakeri, whose capture became known shortly after the U.S. and Iran held their first direct talks since the original hostage crisis.
Two months in an Iranian jail is no fun. Four years ago, a Montreal photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, was arrested by police in Tehran, taken to Evin prison, and wound up getting questioned to death. Upon her capture, the Canadian government had done as the State Department is apparently doing kept things discreet, low-key, cards close to the chest, quiet word in the right ears By the time Zahra Kazemi’s son, frustrated by his government’s ineffable equanimity, got the story out, it was too late for his mother.
Still, upon hearing of her death, the then Foreign Minister of Canada, Bill Graham, expressed his “sadness” and “regret,” which are pretty strong words. But then, as Reuters put it, this sad regrettable incident had “marred previously harmonious relations between Iran and Canada.” In his public pronouncements, Mr. Graham tended to give the impression that what he chiefly regretted and was sad about was that one of his compatriots had had the poor taste to get tortured and murdered on to the front pages of the newspapers. With an apparently straight face, he passed on to reporters the official Iranian line that her death in jail was merely an “accident.” The following year, Shahram Azam, a physician who’d examined Ms. Kazemi’s body, fled Iran and said that she had broken fingers, a broken nose, a crushed toe, a skull fracture, severe abdominal bruising, and internal damage consistent with various forms of rape. Quite an accident.
The longer American prisoners are held in Evin, the more likely it is they’ll meet with a similar accident. It would be nice to think the press has ignored these hostages out of concerns that they might inflame the situation. (To date, only National Review, Bill Bennett on his radio show and various doughty Internet wallahs have made any fuss.) Or maybe the media figure that showing American prisoners on TV will only drive Bush’s ratings back up from the grave to the rude health of intensive care. Or maybe they just don’t care about U.S. hostages, not compared to real news like Senate sleepovers to block unblocking a motion to vote for voting against a cloture motion on the best way to surrender in Iraq.
But I’ll bet the mullahs wouldn’t really care if everyone put Haleh Esfandiari on the front pages 24/7. It’s only a few months since they seized a bunch of Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines in international waters (an illegal act) and paraded them all over Iranian TV (in breach of the Geneva Conventions) and dressed up the female sailor in Islamic garb (another breach).
And the U.N. and the EU and all the other transnational arbiters of global order sent a strong message: “Whoa, you guys really need to tamp things down, de-escalate, defuse the confrontation ” Er, but for some reason, they sent the strong message to the British government, not the Iranians. And, with the sailors’ humiliation all over the media, the British public was inclined to agree. Almost to a man, they rose up and told Tony Blair: “This is all your fault for getting us into Iraq.”
But outrage at Iran? There was none. The ayatollahs figure that’s how it usually goes with a plump, complacent western world that just wants to be left alone and wishes these crazies would stop trying to catch its eye. Officially, Iran is “negotiating” with the European Union over its nuclear program. If this were a real negotiation, instead of a transnational pseudo-negotiation, the Iranians would be concerned to stop any complicating factors coming into play. Instead, every week they gaily toss new provocations into their EU chums’ laps: In recent days, they’ve stoned to death various fellows for adultery and homosexuality, two activities to which Europeans are generally very partial. But why let a few stonings throw your negotiations off track? And, if the Americans are so eager to get a seat at the negotiating table, why not remind them of the rules of the game? Last week, the Iranians paraded their U.S. hostages all over TV as they confessed to engaging in espionage, along the way fingering the Woodrow Wilson Centre and George Soros as key elements in the plot to overthrow the ayatollahs. If only.
The week before, Iran captured 14 spies near the Iraqi border whom it claimed were agents of American and British intelligence equipped with surveillance devices. The “spies” in question were squirrels as in small furry animals very protective of their nuts (much like the Democratic Party re Mr. Soros). I’m prepared to believe that a crack team of rodents from NUTS (the Ninja Undercover Team of Squirrels) abseiled into key installations in Iran and garroted the Revolutionary Guards, but not that the U.S. and British governments had anything to do with it. If they have any CIA or MI6 training at all, they must be rogue squirrels from the Cold War days who’ve been laid off and gone feral.
In America, public opinion is in no mood for war with Iran. In Washington, Congress is focused on finding the most politically advantageous way to lose in Iraq. In Europe, they’ve already psychologically accepted the Iranian nuclear umbrella. In the western world, where talks are not the means to the end but an end in themselves, we find it hard despite the evidence of 30 years to accept that Iran talks the talk and walks the walk. Once it goes nuclear, do you think there will be fewer fatwas on writers, stonings of homosexuals, kidnappings in international waters, forced confessions of American hostages, and bankrolling of terror groups worldwide? These latest hostages are part of a decades-old pattern of behavior. The longer it goes without being stopped, the worse it will be.
* “Israel is paying former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya’s salary”
* Hamas and Fatah students shoot each other during classes yesterday at Nablus university. No Western academic boycott of Palestinian universities proposed.
* This dispatch concerns Palestinian affairs, apart from the last article by Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal which starts: “As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.”
CONTENTS
1. Hamas thanks Jimmy Carter, its “useful idiot”
2. Palestinian rocket smashes through baby’s crib
3. Dozens wounded following Hamas-Fatah clashes at An-Najah University
4. Hamas asks IRNA to open branch office in Gaza
5. Three sisters stabbed to death in Gaza
6. Canada announces resumption of direct aid to Palestinian government
7. New Fatah terror group “to target Israel”
8. Presidential Guard attacks Barghouti’s children
9. “Israel pays Haniya’s salary” (Yediot Ahronot, July 24, 2007)
10. “Syria occupies Lebanon. Again.” (By Bret Stephens, Wall St Journal, July 24, 2007)
HAMAS THANKS JIMMY CARTER, ITS “USEFUL IDIOT”
While much of the rest of the world is shunning Hamas for the murderous organization that it is, and ever more Palestinians (according to Palestinian opinion polls*) are despairing at its increasingly repressive rule in Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya on Sunday thanked former U.S. President Jimmy Carter “for his intervention in the Palestinian domestic crisis.”
Carter had spoken out on behalf of Hamas against the secular Fatah party at the very time that Hamas thugs were throwing Fatah members to their deaths from Gaza rooftops last month.
Haniya’s comments were passed on during a meeting with Carter Center director Scott Caster at Haniya’s office in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian-run Ma’an news agency.
Kayhan, one of the most hardline Iranian government dailies, which supports Iran’s Holocaust-denying president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had also previously endorsed Carter’s pro-Hamas comments.
* (For polls showing a drop in Hamas’s support among Gazans, see item 5 here.)
(The first article below reports that funds transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority have been used to “fill the bank account of former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.”)
PALESTINIAN ROCKET SMASHES THROUGH BABY’S CRIB
Virtually unreported outside Israel, attacks on Israeli civilians continue almost every day. For example a rocket fired from Gaza yesterday afternoon hit a baby’s crib. The baby was on the other side of the room at the time but was still injured by flying shrapnel. Her mother and grandmother also required medical treatment for shock at Barzilai hospital.
The target was a kibbutz near Ashkelon in other words while some western newspapers are full of “sensation stories” warning of a “humanitarian” crisis in Gaza and claiming that Gaza is a “gigantic prison” from which nothing is getting in and out, Hamas is in fact continuing to bring ever more costly and sophisticated weaponry in.
Several other Qassam rockets have been launched at Israel in recent days, and at least one other woman was injured as a result.
Some of those few media outlets that report this use the word “claim”: “Israel claims that rockets fired from Gaza ” It is puzzling why they do this since Islamic Jihad’s Gaza branch have proudly claimed responsibility for the attacks.
DOZENS WOUNDED IN HAMAS-FATAH CLASHES AT AN-NAJAH UNIVERSITY
Also virtually unreported yesterday evening or today in Western media are the vicious clashes that occurred yesterday afternoon between supporters of Hamas and Fatah on the campus of An-Najah University near the West Bank city of Nablus.
According to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, the clashes involved hundreds of students, dozens were injured, and some are said to be in a critical condition. Chairs, computers, classroom equipment, metal and wooden objects and fists were used, as well as guns. At least one student was shot in the head, several were shot in their legs, and others received severe beatings.
Both pistols and Kalashnikov assault rifles were used during the fighting, which was described as one of the worst ever on a Palestinian campus in the West Bank.
The university’s administration has temporarily closed the campus, the largest on the West Bank. University President Rami Hamdallah said Hamas students had been responsible for starting the fighting.
Another West Bank university, Bir Zeit, was also closed down earlier this month following severe violence between Hamas and Fatah supporters.
Many western academics were no doubt too busy organizing their boycotts of Israel to notice what is happening on Palestinian universities (which incidentally Israel built for the Palestinians during the more peaceful initial years after the Six Day War).
And of course even though the BBC has near hourly reports on how awful Israel is, it didn’t mention these clashes even once in any of its many reports on the Middle East on its website yesterday and today.
HAMAS ASKS IRNA TO OPEN BRANCH OFFICE IN GAZA
Hamas’s ambassador to Teheran, Abu Osama Abdolmoti, on Sunday called on the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) to open a branch office in Gaza.
In a meeting with IRNA Chief Jalal Fayyazi, Abdolmoti “thanked IRNA for reflecting the heroic resistance of the oppressed Palestinian nation and informing the world of their innocence.”
He said “IRNA’s support for Hamas would encourage the group to ceaselessly continue its campaign against the occupiers.”
IRNA is one of the propaganda tools of the Iranian regime.
In a separate development, gunmen stormed the offices of a senior Fatah lawmaker in Gaza on Monday, wounding several office workers, Reuters reported.
THREE SISTERS STABBED TO DEATH IN GAZA
This news was barely reported.
That’s because the sisters 16-year-old Nahed Hija, 19-year-old Suha and 22-year-old Lina were not killed by Israel but were murdered by fellow Palestinians, probably in some perverse Islamic “honor killing.”
They were found dead on Monday, each with multiple stab wounds. In February, three unrelated woman were killed within a 24-hour period in the Gaza Strip. At the time, there were concerns that vigilante “Islamic morality” groups were behind the murders.
CANADA ANNOUNCES RESUMPTION OF DIRECT AID TO PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT
Canada announced yesterday that it is resuming the granting of direct aid to the Palestinian Authority after it suspended aid in 2006 following Hamas’s formation of a government.
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement: “Given the commitment of the new Palestinian government to renounce violence, recognition of Israel and commitment to agreements signed previously, including opportunities to move the peace process forward, Canada will offer assistance to the new Palestinian government.”
MacKay said the money would be “tracked” to make sure it wasn’t misused.
Canada was the first country to announce the suspension of direct aid to the Palestinian government in 2006 after the victory of Hamas in the legislative elections.
Senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar yesterday unveiled a number of documents seized last month from the PA security apparatuses which he said implicated a number of former PA officials and Fatah leaders in embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from PA money. He said Fatah had “stolen the international aid money meant for the Palestinian people.”
NEW FATAH TERROR GROUP “TO TARGET ISRAEL”
Sources tell me that radicals from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party have in the past few days organized a new terrorist cell in the northern West Bank to commit attacks against Israel. The group will be called the Abu Ammar Brigades.
The move comes a few days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert granted an amnesty to the senior leadership of Fatah’s declared military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, after they signed a document pledging to refrain from terrorism.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians since it was established by Yasser Arafat after he launched his Intifada in the fall of 2000.
Arafat was also widely known among Palestinians as Abu Ammar, and the new terror group is apparently named in his “honor”.
PRESIDENTIAL GUARD ATTACKS BARGHOUTI’S CHILDREN
Palestinian security forces in Ramallah assaulted the children of former Fatah Secretary-General Marwan Barghouti, the Al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper reported yesterday.
The Palestinian Authority launched an investigation into the alleged attack on Monday night of Qassam and Ruba Barghouti by members of Mahmoud Abbas’s Presidential Guard.
The incident is said to have taken place when a Presidential Guard patrol stopped Ruba Barghouti’s car as she was driving home from the Bir Zeit University.
Rafik al-Husseini, Abbas’s chief of staff, visited the family home later on Monday night and promised a thorough, speedy, inquiry into the matter.
Marwan Barghouti is serving multiple life terms in Israel for the murder of Israeli civilians and of a Greek monk who was mistaken for an orthodox Jew. In spite of this some in the international community and on the Israeli left have suggested that Barghouti should be released and enter Palestinian politics. A few in the media have even compared him to Nelson Mandela, which is of course a grave insult to Mandela.
-- Tom Gross
ISRAEL PAYS HANIYA’S SALARY
Israel pays Haniya’s salary
Funds transferred by Jewish state to Palestinian Authority used by Prime Minister Fayyad to pay wages of government workers, including dismissed Hamas ministers
By Ronny Shaked
Yediot Ahronot
July 24, 2007
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3429088,00.html
When Israel decided to unfreeze $600 million it owed the Palestinian Authority, it did not intend for the money to be used to fill the bank account of former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
After receiving the funds from Israel and additional aid from the United States and European countries, the Palestinian Finance Ministry decided to pay the monthly salaries of government members, including dismissed Hamas ministers and the group’s representatives in the Legislative Council.
Each of these officials received on Monday NIS 12,000 (about $2,836) from Palestinian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad’s treasury. One of the people to receive this sum was former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of Hamas’ most radical members.
Young Fatah members slammed the move, saying that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was “using double standards against Hamas he declared war on them, but pays their wages and helps them stabilize their government in Gaza.”
WILL THE ARAB WORLD AND THE MEDIA PROTEST THIS CASE OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATION?
Syria occupies Lebanon. Again.
A land grab proportionally equivalent to a foreign power occupying Arizona.
By Bret Stephens
The Wall Street Journal
July 24, 2007
www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010375
As of this minute, Syria occupies at least 177 square miles of Lebanese soil. That you are now reading about it for the first time is as much a scandal as the occupation itself.
The news comes by way of a fact-finding survey of the Lebanese-Syrian border just produced by the International Lebanese Committee for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, an American NGO that has consultative status with the U.N. Because of the sensitivity of the subject, the authors have requested anonymity and have circulated the report only among select government officials and journalists. But its findings cannot be ignored.
In meticulous detail supplemented by photographs, satellite images, archival material and Lebanese military maps predating Syria’s 1976 invasion (used as a basis of comparison with Syria’s current positions) the authors describe precisely where and how Lebanon has been infiltrated. In the area of the village of Maarboun, for instance, the authors observed Syrian military checkpoints a mile inside Lebanon. In the Birak al-Rassass Valley, they photographed Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. On the outskirts of the village of Kossaya they found a heavily fortified camp belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in violation of U.N. resolutions and Lebanese demands.
This is a story to which I can contribute my own testimony. In May 2005 I paid a visit to Lebanon, just a month after Syria had announced that it had fully withdrawn its 14,000 troops from Lebanon in compliance with Resolution 1559. The rumor in Beirut was that a company of 200 or so elite Syrian soldiers remained encamped within Lebanon near the Druze village of Deir al-Ashaer. I decided to have a look. After a long drive over rutted roads, I found it.
Or rather, what I found was a hillside outpost that I was able to enter without crossing any apparent international border. The man in charge was a Syrian intelligence officer who “invited” me into a sweltering tent while he phoned his commanders for instruction. After a few tense minutes of silence with the soldiers inside, the officer reappeared, explained that the camp was 50 yards inside Syrian territory, and ordered me to go. From there I went to the village, where the mayor insisted the camp was several hundred yards inside Lebanon.
Who was right? Inclined as I was to believe the mayor, it was hard to sort out contending claims over remote parcels of land. A week later, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the U.N. had “verified all [Syrian military units] had withdrawn, including [from] the border area.” It seemed that was the end of the story.
I should have known then that anything “verified” by the U.N. must be checked at least twice. I should have known, too, that anything to which Mr. Annan devoted his personal attention would inevitably become worse. Last September, Mr. Annan paid a visit to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after the latter had declared he would treat any attempt by the U.N. to deploy peacekeepers along the Lebanese-Syrian border as a “hostile act.” To defuse the impasse, Mr. Annan simply accepted Mr. Assad’s assurances that Syria would police its border and prevent arms smuggling. “I think it can happen,” said the diplomat at a press conference. “It may not be 100%, but it will make quite a lot of difference if the government puts in place the measures the government has discussed with me.”
What happened, predictably, was the opposite. In May, Fatah al-Islam, a terrorist group whose leadership was imported from Damascus, attacked Lebanese army outposts outside the Palestinian refugee camps of Nahr El-Bared and Biddawi, causing a bloody standoff that continues till this day. In June, current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a report citing numerous instances of arms smuggling from Syria to Hizbullah and the PFLP. Yesterday, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that he once again has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv missiles he could only have obtained via Syria. Israel confirms his claims.
Mr. Ban’s report is notable for its clarity and seriousness. Taken together with the border report, it paints an alarming picture. Though the land grabs are small affairs individually, they collectively add up to an area amounting to about 4% of Lebanese soil in U.S. terms, the proportional equivalent of Arizona. Of particular note is that the area of Syrian conquest dwarves that of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms. The farms, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and which amount to an area of about 12 square miles, are claimed by Hizbullah as belonging to Lebanon a useful pretext for it to continue its “resistance” against an Israeli occupation that ended seven years ago.
Needless to say, Hizbullah which purports to fight for Lebanese sovereignty makes no similar claims against Syria. For his part, Mr. Assad refuses to agree to a demarcation of his border with Lebanon, just as he refuses to open an embassy in Beirut. The ambiguity serves him well: He can seize Lebanese territory without anyone appearing to take notice, supply terrorist camps without quite harboring the terrorists, and funnel arms to Hizbullah at will all without abandoning the fantasy of “Greater Syria” encompassing Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Israel itself.
It would, of course, be nice to see the Arab world protest this case of illegal occupation, given its passions about the subject. It would also be nice to see the media report this story as sedulously as it has the controversy of the Shebaa Farms. Don’t hold your breath on either score. In the meantime, the only countries in a position to help Lebanon are France and the U.S. They could strike a useful blow by closing their embassies in Damascus until such time as Damascus opens an embassy with all that it implies in Beirut.
* For once, an article in the liberal press tells it as it is: “Arabs pile into Darfur to take land ‘cleansed’ by Janjaweed”
* Policeman jailed for 16 years for raping Holocaust survivor
CONTENTS
1. “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo”
2. Not so peaceful Nobel Prize winners
3. Italian ambassador treats wounded troops to Mediterranean hospitality
4. For once, an article in the liberal press tells it as it is: “Arabs pile into Darfur to take land ‘cleansed’ by Janjaweed”
5. The BBC and the Arab League: jointly silent on Darfur
6. Policeman jailed for 16 years for raping Holocaust survivor
7. Has Red Ken met his match?
8. Has President Ahmadinejad met his match?
9. UK Conservatives to make serious efforts to oust “Red Ken”
10. Which major newspaper will be the first to kill its print edition?
11. Giuliani’s girls go head to head with Obama’s girls on YouTube
12. Oprah Winfrey is the latest “Obama Girl”
I attach items written by myself for the National Review in recent days. These can also be accessed at the National Review website.
EXTRA LINK TO VIEW
Imagine...
“BUSH IS NOT GOING TO LEAVE OFFICE WITH IRAN STILL IN LIMBO”
According to the Qatari daily Al-Watan, Iran has let it be known that it has missiles capable of reaching 600 targets in Israel, which it says it would use if Iran is attacked by the United States. The Arabic link is here. (The article was not published by the paper in English.)
Meanwhile, the balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favor of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the British paper The Guardian reports today:
“The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: ‘Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.’”
Vice President Dick Cheney, who has long favored the possible use of military action against Iran, has apparently won the president’s support over Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, both of whom are said to oppose considering military action against Iran.
NOT SO PEACEFUL NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS
Following up on the item about Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner turned-would-be George Bush killer Betty Williams, one should remember that some Nobel Peace Prize winners have actually ordered the murder of representatives of the American government.
ITALIAN AMBASSADOR TREATS WOUNDED TROOPS TO MEDITERRANEAN HOSPITALITY
It is rare that one comes across a story about European generosity to American troops, so this piece, from the American Forces Press Service, provides a welcome change to all those negative stories about European attitudes to America.
Too bad it hasn’t appeared in the mainstream media. Here are some highlights:
WASHINGTON A busload of wounded service members [many with limbs amputated] brought their appetites to the Italian Embassy here July 13 as the ambassador and his staff transformed the building into Washington’s most authentic Italian restaurant.
Italian Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta hosted them for an evening of dinner and entertainment ... Guests dined on world-class Italian cuisine lasagna, prosciutto and melon and salami skewers among the offerings all prepared by the ambassador’s personal chef and served buffet-style.
... Tenor Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Guiliano, a member of the Army Band, presented a vocal performance in pitch-perfect acoustics. As he sang, musical notes composed by Puccini bounced off embassy walls adorned with Renaissance-era paintings and Etruscan artifacts...
FOR ONCE, AN ARTICLE IN THE LIBERAL PRESS TELLS IT AS IT IS: “ARABS PILE INTO DARFUR TO TAKE LAND ‘CLEANSED’ BY JANJAWEED”
For four years now, the left-liberal media has strenuously avoided mentioning that the perpetrators of the genocidal ethnic cleansing against the indigenous non-Arab population of Darfur are Arabs.
Papers like the New York Times and the Guardian and networks like the BBC and CNN have gone out of their way to ignore or downplay the fact that Arabs are behind the genocide. Of course, they wouldn’t dream of obscuring the facts like this if any other group were behind the attacks on Black Africans (Serbs, Israelis, Americans, or Europeans, for example).
This piece in the normally glaringly anti-western newspaper the Independent of London (the paper of which the notorious Robert Fisk is one of the chief foreign correspondents) therefore stands out:
Arabs from Chad and Niger are crossing into Darfur in “unprecedented” numbers, prompting claims that the Sudanese government is trying systematically to repopulate the war- ravaged region.
An internal UN report, obtained by The Independent, shows that up to 30,000 Arabs have crossed the border in the past two months. Most arrived with all their belongings and large flocks. They were greeted by Sudanese Arabs who took them to empty villages cleared by government and janjaweed forces.
One UN official said the process “appeared to have been well planned”. The official continued: “This movement is very large.”
Just to be clear, before the attacks started in 2003, Darfur was home to seven million people, mainly from three African tribes, Fur, Marsalit, and Zargahwa. Darfur literally means “Land of the Fur.” Some 2.5 million have now been forced to flee after attacks by Arab militia backed by Sudanese troops and warplanes. At least 200,000 non-Arabs have been killed and countless women and young girls raped.
The 22-member-state Arab League has done its best at the UN and other international bodies to ensure nothing is done to stop these crimes.
Where are the demonstrations by the so-called Western human-rights groups outside the offices of the Arab League?
** For more on the way left-liberal media has avoided mentioning who the perpetrators of the crimes in Darfur are, see the relevant paragraphs here.
** and this piece “Silence on the Arab Street” by Kamel Labidi, a courageous Tunisian journalist, which is the sixth item here.
THE BBC AND THE ARAB LEAGUE: JOINTLY SILENT ON DARFUR
Updating my earlier story on how the BBC and the Arab League together cover up what is going on in Darfur, I just watched the BBC program “HardTalk” in which presenter Stephen Sackur interviews for almost 30 minutes Amre Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League.
Sackur didn’t ask Moussa about Darfur once, and instead just concentrated on allowing him to bash Israel. What a surprise.
(The BBC likes its anti-Israel programs, of which there are many, and the 30-minute interview with Moussa has now been broadcast seven times in the last 24 hours.)
Meanwhile, the BBC has just apologized and ordered an internal enquiry after it was caught repeatedly lying in its entertainment programs see here and here. But when is it going to apologize for all the lying it does in its news and current affairs programs?
POLICEMAN JAILED FOR 16 YEARS FOR RAPING HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
The Haifa District Court in Israel today sentenced Ahmed Hindawi, a 23-year-old Arab-Israeli policeman, to 16 and a half years in prison for raping and sodomizing a 70-year-old Holocaust survivor:
Hindawi had been driving along a highway north of Haifa, he noticed the victim walking along the side of the road. He stopped the car and demanded she enter the vehicle. The victim refused and crossed over to the other side of the road. Hindawi then exited his car and grabbed her, throwing her over the railing on the side of the road. The woman tried to push Hindawi off, but he struck her on the head until she released her grip on the railing. He then pulled her into a thorny bush and raped her.
Hindawi then urinated on her in order to humiliate her, and left her there with injuries all over her body.
His victim, who had rebuilt her life in Israel after surviving the Holocaust, is now a mental and physical wreck, according to the judge.
Hindawi’s short sentence 16 years was apparently based on the fact he had made a full confession and pleaded guilty. Nevertheless this utterly despicable crime surely deserved a life sentence. (There is no death penalty in Israel.)
HAS RED KEN MET HIS MATCH?
My friend and former colleague, Boris Johnson, former editor of Britain’s Spectator magazine and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph, is to challenge the truly awful “Red” Ken Livingstone for the position of Mayor of London.
The highly charismatic Boris, who is also a Conservative MP, is expected to electrify the race and pose the most serious challenge to Livingstone’s hopes of winning a third term.
Livingstone has made many enemies as mayor, not least through his anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.
Among other things, Livingstone reacted to an entirely inoffensive question from a Jewish reporter for the local London paper the Evening Standard by telling him he was like a Nazi concentration camp guard; called the American ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, a “chiselling little crook”; and told two British Jewish businessmen (who are not of Iranian origin) “go back to Iran” and live “under the ayatollahs.”
Many Londoners think it is Livingstone who is the “chiselling little crook” and will be hoping for a Boris victory.
HAS PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD MET HIS MATCH?
Following up my earlier post today on the Mayor of London, “Has Red Ken met his match?,” we now have to ask whether the former Mayor of Teheran (President Ahmadinejad) has met his match?
Maybe it is a scene for Oliver Stone’s new movie?
UK CONSERVATIVES TO MAKE SERIOUS EFFORT TO OUST “RED KEN”
Following up my posting from Friday morning, “Has Red Ken met his match? ” within the last hour Boris Johnson has officially declared himself to be a candidate for mayor of London.
He used today’s edition of the British capital’s main newspaper, the Evening Standard, to officially announce his candidacy.
To add to what I wrote previously on Livingstone: at the same time as repeatedly calling for a boycott of Israeli companies, Livingstone has just signed a contract with a Chinese firm to take over one of London’s rail networks. China has brutally occupied Tibet since 1950, and is a key arms supplier to the Arab tribes committing genocide against the indigenous non-Arab African population in the Darfur region of Sudan. Not that the far Leftist London mayor would care about that.
WHICH MAJOR NEWSPAPER WILL BE THE FIRST TO KILL ITS PRINT EDITION?
Which major American newspaper will be the first to throw up its hands and say “Stop the Press! We’re only publishing online”?
Jon Fine of BusinessWeek is predicting that the San Francisco Chronicle may be the first to dispense with the paper, the presses, the trucks, and the mail rooms. He gives it another 18 to 24 months to survive as a printed product.
GIULIANI’S GIRLS GO HEAD TO HEAD WITH OBAMA’S GIRLS ON YOUTUBE
First, Temple University senior Leah Kauffman’s risquι video “I Got a Crush on Obama,” generated over 2.3 million views on YouTube.
Now, having seen the pro-Obama video featured in serious media like The Economist (“It is hard to envisage any other candidate inspiring anything similar,” opined the lofty weekly), Rudy’s girls are fighting back with their joint release today (with Obama’s girls) of a Giuliani v. Obama “political debate song” on YouTube.
OPRAH WINFREY IS THE LATEST OBAMA GIRL
The girls of the YouTube videos may need to step aside. The most important “Obama girl” is now likely to be talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who has announced she is to hold a fundraiser for Democratic hopeful Barack Obama at her palatial home near Santa Barbara, California, on September 8.
Obama already has the support of Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Winfrey’s fundraiser will be a chance for him to gain even more California showbiz money. Forbes magazine estimates that Winfrey is worth $1.5 billion. Obama has so far raised over $58 million for his White House bid.
Links in the item above:
-- Tom Gross
* More money and guns for Fatah
* List of 256 prisoners Israel agrees to release this Friday said to include a leader of the terror group that murdered the Israeli tourism minister at the Jerusalem Hyatt hotel in October 2001, and the leader of the group responsible for the 1974 Ma’alot school massacre in which 22 young Israeli schoolchildren were murdered including some thrown out of school windows by the Palestinian terrorists
* With Israel getting nothing tangible in return, outraged Israelis turning against Olmert
CONTENTS
1. Fatah terrorists supposedly renounce use of violence
2. Organizers of Ma’alot school massacre allowed to roam free
3. Palestinians given yet another chance. Will they take it?
4. Likud’s popularity rises in Israel
5. Hamas’s support drops in Gaza
6. Terrorist convicted for preparation of suicide belt in hospital
7. “4,000 British citizens or residents trained at terror camps”
8. Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israel...
9. ... But Israeli humanitarian aid keeps flowing
10. Egyptian al-Qaeda chief “flees to Gaza”
11. Other al-Qaeda related attacks in recent days
12. “They don’t need more guns, militias and Force 17s”
13. “Back to the Oslo illusion” (Yediot Ahronot, July 15, 2007)
14. “What to do now about the Palestinian Authority?” (By Khaled Abu Toameh, JCPA)
FATAH TERRORISTS SUPPOSEDLY RENOUNCE USE OF VIOLENCE
Scores of Fatah gunmen in the West Bank have signed a pledge renouncing attacks against Israel in return for an Israeli promise to stop pursuing them.
The Israeli government led by Ehud Olmert is to grant amnesty to 178 wanted members of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who will then join the official Palestinian security forces, and Israel will remove them from its lists of wanted terrorists, according to an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has carried out scores of suicide and other deadly attacks on Israeli civilians since Yasser Arafat established the group in 2000.
The Israeli cabinet committee headed by Olmert also officially announced this morning that it will release 256 Fatah prisoners this coming Friday, July 20.
The list of those to be freed is said to include Abdelrahim Malluh, the deputy leader of the terror group that murdered the Israeli tourism minister at the Jerusalem Hyatt hotel in October 2001.
ORGANIZERS OF MA’ALOT SCHOOL MASSACRE ALLOWED TO ROAM FREE
And in a further concession, Israel agreed to Abbas’ request to allow Nayef Hawatmeh to return to the West Bank without being arrested. Hawatmeh heads the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO faction best known for seizing a school in the northern Israeli town of Ma’alot in 1974, and then massacring 24 Israelis there, 22 of them young schoolchildren some thrown out of school windows by Hawatmeh’s group.
Media reports of Olmert’s presumed agreement to allow Hawatmeh not to be arrested have been met with outrage in Israel. Hawatmeh has until now never expressed remorse for his deeds.
Israelis are shocked at the number of known perpetrators of terror who are being “let off” while Israel’s captive soldier remains in Palestinian hands.
The editorial of Israel’s most popular newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, noted that the vast majority of terrorists who were released in previous exchange deals returned to their old ways despite signing pledges not to do so. The paper urges against a return to “the illusions of Oslo,” and advocates having as little to do with Palestinian affairs as possible.
For more criticism of the deal, see the first article below, titled “Back to the Oslo illusion”.
PALESTINIANS GIVEN YET ANOTHER CHANCE. WILL THEY TAKE IT?
The Jerusalem Post discusses the risks Israel is taking in exchange for the chance of peace with the Palestinians. “Ultimately, the Palestinians must decide if they want the state they claim to have been fighting for, or not. If so, they will have to begin waging peace rather than war, and will have to focus inward on building, rather than outward on attacking. As usual, all of us will lose if they make the wrong choice.”
In a televised speech yesterday, U.S. President George Bush announced the holding of an international conference this fall as part of a renewed drive for peace in the Middle East. And he said that the U.S. would be providing $190 million of aid for the Palestinians in the 2007 fiscal year, which ends on 30 September, and also specified that the U.S. would be making a contribution of $80 million for the Palestinian security services. Olmert’s spokeswoman welcomed this.
Washington is hoping to persuade Arab nations without diplomatic relations with Israel, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to attend the conference.
LIKUD’S POPULARITY RISES IN ISRAEL
In the latest poll conducted for Ha’aretz, the support for the Kadima-Labor center-left coalition in Israel is falling again, and the opposition Likud party led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would surpass the 30-seat mark if elections were held today.
HAMAS’S SUPPORT DROPS IN GAZA
A phone survey of 408 randomly selected adult Palestinians in the Gaza Strip conducted between 10-12 July by Near East Consulting, shows a fall in support for Hamas in Gaza since the group seized power last month.
Although Palestinians said there was now less street crime, 56% of Gazans said that since Hamas took power, they felt unable to voice their opinion freely in public and 69% of Gazans said that the way Hamas had taken control last month was wrong.
63% of Gazans said they most trusted Fatah’s Abu Mazen (President Abbas) while 37% said they most trusted Hamas’s leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya.
If elections were held today, 45% of Gazans would vote for Fatah, and 22% would vote for Hamas, with the rest saying they would refuse to support either faction.
Strikingly, if Fatah reformed itself, 60% of Hamas supporters in Gaza said they would then support Fatah.
TERRORIST CONVICTED FOR PREPARATION OF SUICIDE BELT IN HOSPITAL
It is not only in Britain that terror attacks are being formulated in hospitals.
Yesterday Palestinian terrorist Murad Abu Rob was convicted in Israel under terrorism laws for the preparation of a suicide belt in a Nablus hospital as part of a suicide car bombing in March last year that killed four Israeli civilians in Kedumim.
Abu Rob had prepared the suicide belt, complete with screws and nails to maximize injuries to the victims, at a hospital in Nablus and transported the belt to the suicide bomber. In addition, Abu Rob together with other operatives produced the film of the suicide bomber prior to the attack. Abu Rob also housed the terror operative for a week before the attack took place. The sentencing hearing will take place on September 9, 2007.
No doubt President Abbas will campaign, and the international media will soon write, sympathetic stories demanding Abu Rob’s release.
“4,000 BRITISH CITIZENS OR RESIDENTS TRAINED AT TERROR CAMPS”
Up to 4,000 Islamic extremists have attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan or on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border before returning to Britain, many in the pre 9/11 period, reported the Sunday Telegraph, citing security sources.
Concerns over “sleeper cells” have been heightened since the failed “doctors’ plot” attacks in London and Glasgow two weeks ago.
Terrorists who are believed to have trained in Afghanistan include Richard Reid, from Bromley, Kent, and Saajid Badat, from Gloucester, who were both jailed for plotting to blow up aircraft with shoe bombs.
Andrew Rowe, a Londoner of Jamaican origin serving 15 years for terrorist offences, trained at one such camp in Afghanistan.
Dhiren Barot, brought up in London and now serving 30 years for plotting a “dirty bomb” attack in Britain, trained in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Others believed to have trained in Pakistan include Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the July 7, 2005 London transport bombers; Muktar Said Ibrahim, the leader of the failed July 21 transport bomb plot, and most members of the “Operation Crevice” plot to blow up nightclubs or shopping centers with fertilizer bombs.
It was only last year that the British introduced counter-terrorism laws making it illegal to attend a terrorist training camp.
HAMAS CONTINUES TO FIRE ROCKETS AT ISRAEL
Virtually unmentioned in the European and North American media, Hamas is continuing to fire Kassam rockets at Israeli civilians. Three hit Israel yesterday evening, including one that destroyed part of a residential home in Sderot. No casualties have been reported although several people have been treated for shock.
... BUT ISRAELI HUMANITARIAN AID KEEPS FLOWING
Contrary to false reports in several prominent western media, the Israeli army is continuing its efforts to help the humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip. In the latest aid on Sunday:
* Approximately 8880 tons of food, medical supplies, dairy products, flour, sugar, reproductive eggs, rice, cooking oil, straw and animal feed, raw food materials and construction supplies, were delivered to Gaza across the Sufa Crossing.
* Approximately 1050 tons of food, medical supplies, dairy products, meat products, fruit, cooking oil and reproductive eggs were delivered across the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
* Approximately 4180 tons of wheat seed were delivered across the Karni Crossing.
EGYPTIAN AL-QAEDA CHIEF “FLEES TO GAZA”
Agence France Presse, citing the Egyptian independent daily Al Masry Al Youm, reported that the head of al-Qaeda in Egypt, Khaled Mahmoud Ahmed, has fled the country for the protection of the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.
In recent days, Cairo’s metro system has been on high alert after a bomb threat against one of the stations, with bomb squads and sniffer dogs deployed and metal detectors installed at stations.
OTHER AL-QAEDA RELATED ATTACKS IN RECENT DAYS
Suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in three attacks in Pakistan at the weekend, after Islamic extremists called for holy war following a deadly army raid on a pro-Taliban mosque in Islamabad, which resulted in over 100 deaths.
On Sunday, the Algerian army halted an attack by around 50 al-Qaeda radicals on police stations and killed four in the troubled north eastern Kabylie region, the El Watan and Liberte dailies reported.
There were a number of bomb attacks on civilians in Iraq, including two car bombs which killed at least 80 people in a busy commercial area in the northern city of Kirkuk yesterday. Among other buildings, the blast destroyed the offices for the Kurdish Olympic committee. (Will the IOC condemn this? For more on the double standards in sport, see Football killing fields: International soccer singles out Israel.)
Also yesterday, a bomb rocked a market in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing several civilians.
In Lebanon yesterday, the death toll for the number of Lebanese soldiers killed in the battle for the Nahr Al-Barid camp with al-Qaeda inspired fighters reached 100.
A new al-Qaeda videotape posted Sunday on a radical website featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom. Bin Laden glorified those who die in the name of jihad saying even the Prophet Muhammad “had been wishing to be a martyr.”
Bin Laden was last heard from in a July 1, 2006 audiotape in which he voiced support for the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and warned nations not to send troops to fight the Islamic regime that had recently seized power in Somalia.
“THEY DON’T NEED MORE GUNS, MILITIAS AND FORCE 17s”
Attached as the second item below is a piece by Khaled Abu Toameh, titled “What to do now about the Palestinian Authority?”
Abu Toameh who is a Palestinian journalist born in Tulkarem in the West Bank (and a longtime subscriber to this email list) says the “Palestinians need good governance, better media, freedom and democracy, and to rebuild their civil institutions. They don’t need more guns, militias, and Force 17s. This is what I hear in the Palestinian street.”
He concludes: “The Palestinians need to get their act together and find a way to resolve their problems, and then Israel can talk with them. But under the current circumstances, if I was Israel I wouldn’t pull out from one inch of land because there is no strong and reliable partner on the other side.”
Abu Toameh’s piece below is based on his presentation at the Institute for Contemporary Affairs in Jerusalem on May 24, 2007 before the Hamas takeover of Gaza in mid-June.
For more on Abu Toameh see When was the last time you saw Khaled Abu Toameh interviewed on BBC or CNN? (Jan. 4, 2006).
-- Tom Gross
“WE SHOULD DISENGAGE FROM THE PALESTINIAN WORLD”
Back to the Oslo illusion
Israel’s immunity gesture will restore terror infrastructure in West Bank
By Guy Bechor
Yediot Ahronot
July 15, 2007
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3425515,00.html
The Palestinian terror infrastructure in the West Bank has been embroiled in an existential ordeal for at least a year: The IDF’s successful nightly targeted killings, which employed the element of surprise, have completely impeded its operations.
Instead of plotting terror attacks against Israel or against Israelis, Fatah activists, particularly those operating within the ranks of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, as well as Jihad activists (Hamas is not particularly prominent in these activities) are busy seeking refuge, escaping and living underground in constant fear of the IDF. This is one of the IDF’s key successes in the war against terror that has completely shattered what has remained of the Palestinian Intifada.
The collapse of the terror infrastructures was very perplexing for the Palestinians because albeit it being originally established against Israel, it also represented Fatah’s strength against Hamas. Fatah demanded a truce from Israel that would also include the West Bank (and in exchange guaranteed progress in the Gilad Shalit affair although it has no control over his destiny) and in any case asked for immunity for hundreds of persecuted activists.
Now Fatah activists will get what they wanted from the Israeli government. The West Bank will once again become an immune paradise; anti-Israel terror will be restored without interference and will pose a serious threat to Israeli society, which has experienced relative stability and calm in recent years.
DISENGAGE FROM PALESTINIANS
True, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants to bolster Fatah and the nationalist stream vis-ΰ-vis Hamas, yet these very same people also perpetrate terror acts against Israel. The IDF knows from the experience it gained in prisoner release deals with Ahmed Jibril and Hizbullah that 80 percent of released Palestinians, all of whom had made a commitment not to be involved in terror, immediately resumed their terror acts against Israel.
In 2005, for example, a few prominent prisoners were released as a gesture to Mahmoud Abbas yes, that very same Abbas. Within a month they were apprehended for preparing the infrastructure for firing rockets at Israeli communities in the West Bank, no less. They even climbed a rung in their acts of terror.
Why does this happen? For released prisoners, terror is livelihood, a way of life, their honor and self determination. Moreover, those released within the framework of a prisoner deal must prove that they have not changed; they must reaffirm their status, and the only way to do so is by means of perpetrating terror acts against Israel.
Perhaps the Israeli government has still not internalized the disengagement mentality that is required here, because any involvement in Palestinian issues on our part always ends in a big bang. What we think bolsters Mahmud Abbas usually serves to weaken him and vice versa. Moreover, will one immunity deal or another change the face of the huge conflict raging between the nationalist stream and political Islam in the Arab world?
As we are not familiar with the rules and as real risks to Israel’s security are at stake, such gestures should be avoided as should involvement in the Palestinian world - which is entirely delusional as far as we are concerned.
Should Israel worry about convening the Palestinian national council? Should it bring Naif Hawatmeh here? What’s going on? Have we returned to the delusional years of Oslo? These are delusions whose time has passed, and the Israeli government would do well to avoid the self-deception, the involvement and the ensuing disappointment that will inevitably occur when it all explodes in its face.
Israel would do well to announce it will no longer interfere in Palestinian life. Not in punishing Hamas nor in compensating Fatah; not in unnecessary targeted killings nor in delusional prisoner releases.
We should disengage from the Palestinian world, for better or for worse, and focus on ourselves alone.
WHAT TO DO NOW ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY?
What to do now about the Palestinian Authority?
By Khaled Abu Toameh
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
July 12, 2007
Within a few months after Abbas came to power, Palestinians started realizing that he was not delivering. Instead of fighting corruption, he surrounded himself with the same Arafat cronies. There was a decrease of perhaps 30-40 percent in the level of corruption but an upsurge in internal violence.
The January 2006 election that brought Hamas to power was mostly about: “Let’s punish these Fatah thieves.” Hamas was building schools and kindergartens and clinics, while the PLO was building a casino and villas for its leaders. I believe some 30-35 percent of the Palestinians who voted for Hamas did so as a vote of protest because they were unhappy with the way the Palestinian Authority was running the show.
Let Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO and Fatah start rebuilding their institutions, reform themselves, get rid of the corruption, and come up with a new list of candidates. Then run in another free and democratic election and offer the Palestinians a better alternative to Hamas.
The Palestinians do not need more guns and military training. If the U.S. has $86 million and wants to help the Palestinians, then help them build civil institutions, help them build freedom, educate them about good things. What’s the point in taking 200 Presidential Guards to Jericho to train them? Who are they going to fight at the end of the day? In Gaza they were defeated.
What should Israel do at this stage? Nothing. There is no one to deal with on a serious basis on the Palestinian side. Abbas doesn’t even have control over his own Fatah militias. Israel should just sit and wait. Don’t repeat the mistake of unilateralism, when Israel left Gaza to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.
It is ironic that the West is supporting the guys who are suppressing the moderates and people who want democracy. The West is actually undermining its own goals.
WHEN ABBAS TOOK OVER THE PA
In the post-Arafat era there was a lot of hope among the Palestinians that the Palestinian Authority would become a better body. There was much talk of reforms and democracy, good governance, and an end to financial corruption. Mahmoud Abbas’ 2005 election campaign was about ending financial corruption and building good institutions. Palestinians saw Abbas’ agenda as aimed at repairing all the damage that Arafat had done.
Within a few months after Abbas came to power, however, Palestinians started realizing that he was not delivering. Instead of fighting corruption, Abbas surrounded himself with the same Arafat cronies. There was a certain decrease in the level of corruption, but it wasn’t enough.
Instead of bringing democracy and restoring law and order in the Palestinian areas, there was an upsurge in internal violence in 2006. For the first time, the number of Palestinians killed in internal fighting was even higher than the number of Palestinians killed in fighting with the Israelis. If a judge can’t issue an order because he’s afraid or if a Palestinian security commander can’t return a stolen bicycle, what kind of an authority is this?
HAMAS WINS IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
In January 2006 at the request of the United States, the Europeans, and the international community there were parliamentary elections and Hamas decided to run for the first time. Hamas actually copied the platform of Mahmoud Abbas from a year earlier and promised the Palestinians reforms and democracy. Hamas’ list was called Change and Reform, and Hamas fielded a very impressive list of candidates that included university professors, doctors, and engineers. If I were living in Gaza back then, I would have also voted for Hamas, not because I support suicide bombings and want to eliminate Israel, but because the January 2006 election was mostly about: “Let’s punish these thieves.” I know Christians, secular Palestinians, and PLO people who voted for Hamas because they were unhappy with the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinians felt they did not have much to lose by voting for Hamas. It is true that Hamas is a terrorist organization and a very dangerous ideological, religious, fanatic group. It’s true that Hamas wants to destroy Israel. Yet when I go to the West Bank and Gaza, I and most Palestinians still see the other side of Hamas, providing a vast network of social, economic, education, and health services. I have seen Hamas doing what the Palestinian Authority should have been doing with the international aid. Hamas was building schools and kindergartens and clinics, while the PLO was building a casino and villas for its leaders. So this is one reason why Hamas won the hearts and minds of many people in the election campaign.
But not all of those who voted for Hamas did so as a protest vote. Of course Hamas has its own supporters, especially in Gaza. There are many who really believe in Hamas’ ideology and that Israel can be eliminated. However, I believe that 30-35 percent of the Palestinians who voted for Hamas did so as a vote of protest against Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.
It is amazing that Condoleezza Rice did not see what any Palestinian child could see on the eve of the elections, namely, that Hamas was going to win. One day before the January 2006 election, I was asked by the Wall Street Journal to write a small op-ed about the elections and I wrote that the Palestinians were headed toward a regime change. Everyone here knew that Hamas was going to win.
So Hamas came to power and again there was some hope among the Palestinians. Maybe the Islamists would succeed where the secular PLO had failed? Maybe the Islamists would at least bring good governance?
HAMAS WOULD DEFEAT FATAH IF AN ELECTION WAS HELD TODAY
Yet the election created tensions between Fatah, who refused to give up power, and Hamas. I am confident that if we held another free and democratic election tomorrow in the Palestinian areas, Hamas would win again, and this time by a larger majority, because the man on the street is saying that no one gave Hamas a chance to rule. Besides, why should any Palestinian vote for the same Fatah people he voted out of office 18 months ago?
Immediately after the elections, the international community should have come to Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah and told them they lost the election because they are thieves, because their people don’t trust them anymore, because they failed to deliver. Let them start rebuilding their institutions, reform themselves, get rid of the corruption, and come up with a new list of candidates. Then run in another free and democratic election and offer the Palestinians a better alternative to Hamas.
This remains the main issue for the Palestinians: reforms and good governance even more than ending the occupation. There is a feeling that members of the Palestinian security forces are responsible for a lot of the anarchy and chaos on the Palestinian street and this also applies to Gaza.
PALESTINIANS NEED GOOD GOVERNANCE, NOT GUNS
The Palestinian Authority continues to be the largest employer in the Palestinian areas. Many institutions are continuing to function including the Ministry of Health and the Foreign Ministry. The Palestinians have 79 ambassadors around the world much more than Israel. The real problem with the Palestinian Authority is not the civilian aspect as much as the security and judicial systems. This is where we have seen a near total collapse. The Palestinian security forces behave more like militias. Their loyalties are not known. In the fighting in Gaza, many Palestinian security officers refused to participate and there are reports that hundreds defected to Hamas during the fighting.
We didn’t have this under Arafat because he was a strong and charismatic figure who brought the Palestinians together. There was a feeling back then that you don’t mess around with the Palestinian Authority because Arafat is ruthless. But today you have Abbas who is very hesitant and weak and unwilling to carry out serious decisions. So people no longer relate to the Palestinian Authority in a serious fashion.
If the U.S. really wanted to help, the Palestinians do not need more guns. Everyone has guns, there are too many guns on the streets. The Palestinians don’t need more military training. If the U.S. has $86 million and wants to help the Palestinians, then help them build civil institutions, help them build freedom, improve their education system, teach them something positive. What’s the point in taking 200 Presidential Guards to Jericho to train them? Who are they going to fight at the end of the day? In Gaza they were defeated. Palestinians need good governance, better media, freedom and democracy, and to rebuild their civil institutions. They don’t need more guns, militias, and Force 17s. This is what I hear in the Palestinian street.
Arafat used to tell the international community: “Give me more millions and I will kill Hamas and Islamic Jihad; I will prevent all the suicide bombings.” He took the money and under him Hamas became even stronger. Hamas is in power today because of Arafat and Abbas. Giving Abbas guns and more millions of dollars is not going to help. Indeed, just by announcing that the West is going to give Abbas money, this is backfiring and causing him a lot of damage on the Palestinian street. It makes him look like a puppet and makes Hamas even more popular.
AL-QAEDA’S LIMITED PENETRATION OF GAZA
In Gaza we are seeing attempts by some Palestinians to imitate al-Qaeda more than the actual penetration of al-Qaeda. Various groups in Gaza are operating al-Qaeda-style. One is the Army of Islam, another is the Righteous Swords of Islam. Yet there is no real evidence that al-Qaeda itself is in Gaza, but some of these groups may be funded by al-Qaeda-linked organizations or global Jihad institutions. In the past six months over fifty Internet cafes have been bombed in Gaza. Women have had acid thrown in their faces. Four women were killed by Islamic groups in Gaza in the past four months. There is reason to worry because the border with Egypt is practically open and there are all these elements coming in and out.
Some of the reports about the presence of al-Qaeda bases are exaggerated. We saw how Fatah lied when it said it raided the Islamic University in Gaza and claimed that it found an Iranian general there. Some of these reports are being spread by Fatah as part of the war against Hamas and to frighten the West “If you don’t give us money, look what you’re going to get in Gaza.”
IRAN AND FATAH
We hear about Iranian money coming into Gaza, but we don’t see any Shi’ite influence. There were individuals in Gaza and even in the West Bank who tried to establish Shi’ite groups, but we don’t see any impact.
Hizbullah is also involved, but most of the people taking money from Hizbullah are from Fatah in the West Bank. According to Hamas literature, Hamas doesn’t like Shi’ites and doesn’t like Hizbullah either, so Hamas is not taking money from Hizbullah. But I’ve interviewed several armed Fatah groups, especially in Nablus, and most of them were on the Hizballah payroll and said it openly. So money plays a very important role.
WHAT SHOULD ISRAEL DO?
What should Israel do at this stage? Nothing. Israel should stay away from the internal affairs of the Palestinians. There is no one to deal with on a serious basis on the Palestinian side. Abbas doesn’t even have control over his own Fatah militias, so what are you going to talk to him about? Israel should just sit and wait. Don’t repeat the mistake of unilateralism, when Israel left Gaza to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.
I’m one of those who argued before Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza that this would send the wrong message to the Palestinians and empower Hamas. Hamas came to power a few months after the unilateral disengagement because the man in the street was saying: “This is wonderful. Hamas has managed to drive the Jews out of Gaza with rockets and bombs, while the PLO has been negotiating with the Jews and they didn’t get as much. Look at what Hizbullah did in Lebanon. Kill them and they’ll give you more.” This is what worries me. Israel’s unilateral disengagement undermined the moderates throughout the Arab world.
I also don’t see any Arab country willing to send forces to maintain order in Gaza. The feeling in the Arab world is to try to disengage from the Palestinians.
The Palestinians need to get their act together and find a way to resolve their problems, and then Israel can talk with them. But under the current circumstances, if I was Israel I wouldn’t pull out from one inch of land because there is no strong and reliable partner on the other side.
CONTENTS
1. “The war on Britain’s Jews?” now on YouTube
2. Anti-Semites on British left attack program’s presenter
3. PFLP chief: “Arafat died of AIDS”
4. 200 suicide bomb vests captured in truck from Syria
5. Israeli peace activists hang Syrian flags by the Knesset
6. Israeli websites close down to mark year since IDF soldiers abducted
7. Arab League envoys postpone Israel visit
8. Last refugees start fleeing Lebanon battle camp
9. Leader of group holding Red Mosque killed by Pakistani forces
10. Israel allows fruit, vegetables into Gaza
11. Palestinian “collaborator” brutally tortured in Hamas prison
“THE WAR ON BRITAIN’S JEWS?” NOW ON YOUTUBE
The Richard Littlejohn program titled “The War On Britain’s Jews?,” which aired on British TV on Monday night and was featured in Monday’s dispatch, can now be seen online in six parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Due to the nature of YouTube, these links may be taken down in the coming days. If you intend to watch it I would advise watching it as soon as possible.
To remind readers, the BBC shelved this program when they heard it would focus on British anti-Semitism, and it was instead shown on Channel 4.
ANTI-SEMITES ON BRITISH LEFT ATTACK PROGRAM’S PRESENTER
While some mainstream reviewers in the British media welcomed Littlejohn’s program, some on the left were extremely nasty about it. No doubt they felt uncomfortable having their anti-Semitism pointed out to them and tried to change the subject. One reviewer in the Guardian for example, started talking about “Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians” an interesting remark given the fact he was meant to be writing about British anti-Semitism and called the subject of anti-Semitism “tedious”.
On British radio, George Galloway, MP dismissed the program by saying: “Richard Littlejohn is a driveling guttersnipe who long ago fell out of the gutter into the sewer. This man is a moron.”
As Littlejohn (a leading British journalist, and a long-time subscriber to this email list) is finding out, when non-Jews condemn anti-Semitism, they can themselves become the target of anti-Semites.
One of the problems is that the mainstream media just don’t report many anti-Semitic attacks in the UK, which are only mentioned in the Jewish media. For example, a British ultra-orthodox Jew was thrown into a river in north London by a gang making anti-Semitic remarks two weeks ago. They smashed his glasses on the ground before doing so, so that he wouldn’t be able to see clearly once in the water. He was rescued by a couple that walked past shortly after.
Still, anti-Semitism in Britain remains below that of other countries. For example, in Ukraine yesterday, there were three anti-Semitic attacks in a single day. No serious injuries were sustained.
* The latest prominent international personalities to sign a petition condemning the proposed British academic boycott of Israel are the Dalai Lama and Mikhail Gorbachev.
* The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed a resolution criticizing the proposed British academic boycott of Israel. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D- Pennsylvania) is the resolution’s prime sponsor.
PFLP CHIEF: “ARAFAT DIED OF AIDS”
Ahmad Jibril, Secretary-General of the PFLP General Command, told Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV on July 5, 2007 that Yasser Arafat died of AIDS.
“To be honest, the French gave us the medical report that stated that the cause of Abu Ammar’s death was AIDS,” Jibril said. (Arafat’s nomme de guerre was Abu Ammar.)
Click here for more on Arafat.
200 SUICIDE BOMB VESTS CAPTURED IN TRUCK FROM SYRIA
Somewhere in Syria, there’s a factory mass-producing suicide bomb vests.
The Associated Press reports that Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf confirmed that 200 explosive belts were captured in a truck crossing into Iraq from Syria yesterday. There is no doubt they were designed to murder as many ordinary Iraqis as possible.
Today marks the first anniversary of Hizbullah’s attack on Israel that triggered last summer’s Hizbullah-Israel war.
We know that Syria is also resupplying weapons (some originating in Iran) to Hizbullah as fast at it can so they can once again be aimed at civilians throughout northern Israel.
ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVISTS HANG SYRIAN FLAGS BY THE KNESSET
Activists from Israel’s “Peace Now” group hung dozens of Syrian and Israeli flags across the entrance of western Jerusalem on Tuesday from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road to the Knesset (Parliament) building. The demonstration was part of a campaign to pressure Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government to open talks with the Assad dictatorship in Syria.
Organizers said that they would also hold a rally today in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel to mark one year since the start of the Hizbullah-Israel War and to call for political negotiations as the best way to ensure security for Israel’s northern towns, which were hardest hit by Hizbullah rockets during the 34-day war.
In related news, Olmert said in an interview with the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel that he has sent messages to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asking him to restart the negotiations and that he is ready to meet him anywhere Assad chooses.
ISRAELI WEBSITES CLOSE DOWN TO MARK YEAR SINCE IDF SOLDIERS ABDUCTED
Israel’s major websites shut down for five minutes at 9.05 this morning, to mark the exact hour at which two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were kidnapped last year.
The homepage of each site was replaced with a message reading “This soldier cannot be found,” a play on the standard Internet error message “This page cannot be found.”
In London next Monday (at 6.30 pm), British Jews (noting the enormous coverage afforded the now released Alan Johnston and contrasting it with the almost complete lack of coverage about Israel’s kidnap victims) are planning to hold a demonstration outside the Syrian Embassy in Belgrave Square. Syria and Iran are the de facto controllers of Hamas and Hizbullah, the two kidnap organizations.
They are also protesting other Israelis missing and believe held by Syria or Iran including Ron Arad, Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz, Zvi Feldman, and Guy Hever whom they say “the international community have allowed to virtually disappear into oblivion. For their families, not knowing what happened to their loved ones is a daily nightmare.”
* In its annual report last week, the BBC acknowledged that they received more than 5,000 complaints from UK viewers objecting to their bias against Israel in their coverage of last year’s war, and complaining that the BBC had breached its legal obligation to report impartially. The BBC report admitted “we did not give our audiences enough information about Hizbullah and its aims.” This was the largest number of formal complaints about any single subject the BBC has ever received.
ARAB LEAGUE ENVOYS POSTPONE ISRAEL VISIT
What would have been the first ever official visit to Israel by Arab League envoys has been postponed, Egyptian and Israeli officials said.
The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan had been scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other officials today. The visit may proceed later this month instead.
The Arab League has softened its hardline stance toward Israel in recent months in efforts to counter a growing Islamic fundamentalist threat in the Middle East, as represented by Iran and al-Qaeda.
LAST REFUGEES START FLEEING LEBANON BATTLE CAMP
The Lebanese army is moving in hard in what it says is its final assault on Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. According to news reports from Lebanon this morning, between five and 10 shells were slamming into the camp every minute and heavy machine gun fire could be heard.
The differences between this and Israel’s 2002 operation in Jenin is that the Lebanese army are trying to kill as many people as possible, whereas in Jenin Israel tried to capture and disarm militants, the government of Lebanon is keeping CNN and others away from filming what is going on, CNN and other stations are not mentioning the lack of media access, and the Islamic extremists in the north Lebanon camp (unlike those in Jenin) are not responsible for murdering hundreds of men, women and children in dozens of suicide attacks.
Lebanese troops have been battling the radicals at Nahr al-Bared camp for nearly eight weeks now. Several thousand Palestinians remain trapped in the camp but the BBC and CNN don’t seem too interested in their fate.
Humanitarian organizations have been unable to deliver supplies into the camp since June 20, forcing remaining residents to scavenge for food and water in abandoned houses.
For more on Jenin, see here.
LEADER OF GROUP HOLDING RED MOSQUE KILLED BY PAKISTANI FORCES
The Pakistani government says Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the leader of the group that took over Islamabad’s Red Mosque last Tuesday, was killed when Pakistani troops stormed the mosque. Pakistan says it has killed about 80 Islamic fighters there. The true number is believed to be higher. Many women and children are believed to have been trapped inside or held as hostages.
The western media’s coverage of this siege has been completely different to its highly sympathetic coverage of Islamic militants holed up in Bethlehem’s Church of The Nativity in 2002 and Israel didn’t storm the church and kill anyone. (Following European Union pressure, it allowed all the Palestinian militants to go free save for the 13 most wanted killers who were instead allowed to resettle in EU countries.)
ISRAEL ALLOWS FRUIT, VEGETABLES INTO GAZA
Contrary to reports in some prominent western media, Israel is allowing supplies into Hamas-controlled Gaza. For example, yesterday the Israeli army delivered trucks carrying 300 tons of fruit and vegetables, including bananas, apricots, plums and avocados, into Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas continues firing rockets into southern Israel.
Also, in an ambush this morning, Hamas killed one Israeli soldier (a 21-year-old a dog-handler) and injured two others.
Egyptian officials said there is no chance that Fatah and Hamas will resume talks any time soon. On Tuesday Egypt deployed hundreds of reinforcements for its forces along its border with Gaza.
The European Union will donate a further 80 million euros ($110 million) in aid to the Palestinians, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said yesterday. The European Union has already given the Palestinians hundreds of millions of euros in the last few months. The EU says it will try to ensure none reaches Hamas.
PALESTINIAN “COLLABORATOR” BRUTALLY TORTURED IN HAMAS PRISON
Khaled Abu Toameh reports today that “A Palestinian man detained by Islamic Jihad members in the Gaza Strip last week on suspicion of ‘collaboration’ with Israel has been found dead in a Hamas-controlled prison.”
According to an unnamed Palestinian journalist, the supposed “collaborator” Fadel Duhmush, was handed over to Hamas a few days after he was captured by Islamic Jihad. The journalist added that “I heard from people who saw the body that he had been brutally tortured in the Hamas prison.”
The body has been transferred to Shifa Hospital because the victim’s family refused to bury him out of fear for their lives.
-- Tom Gross
* “Johnston’s kidnappers received $5 million and a million Kalashnikov rifle bullets”
* Osama bin Laden’s surprising new daughter-in-law
CONTENTS
1. American “Rachel Corrie” judge compares Israel to Nazis
2. AFP surprised after Sarkozy calls Hizbullah terrorists
3. Stoned to death in Iran
4. Iranian regime following 2008 U.S. presidential campaign with interest
5. Alan Johnston update: BBC finally admits to having relations with Hamas
6. Melanie Phillips on the BBC (By Melanie Phillips, July 9, 2007)
7. Jane Felix-Browne, a 51-year-old grandmother and parish councillor from Cheshire, England, marries Osama bin Laden’s 27-year-old son
I attach items written by myself for the National Review in recent days (and one item by Melanie Phillips.) (These can also be accessed at the National Review website.)
I am glad to report that these items are increasingly being linked to by various mainstream media around the world. For example, here’s The Times of London’s world web round-up yesterday.
AMERICAN “RACHEL CORRIE” JUDGE COMPARES ISRAEL TO NAZIS
The death of the pro-Hamas American activist Rachel Corrie in Gaza in 2003 is continuing to stir controversy.
The latest comes from American judge Michael Hawkins (of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) who yesterday in court outrageously compared Israel to Nazi Germany:
Judge Michael Hawkins asked Justice Department lawyer Robert Loeb to consider the hypothetical case of a U.S. oven manufacturer during World War II: “If the company continued selling ovens to Germany, knowing they were being used to kill Jews, would there be legal grounds to go after the company?” he asked.
Don’t believe much of the rest of the AP piece linked to above either, about what AP refers to as the “peace” activist Corrie. Instead, see the photos of Corrie, Corrie’s parents, and the child victims of those arms smugglers Corrie did so much to defend, at the foot of this page.
AFP SURPRISED AFTER SARKOZY CALLS HIZBULLAH TERRORISTS
The Paris-based international news agency Agence France Presse has been taken aback by the fact that new President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday called Hizbullah a “terrorist group.”
“Questioned as to whether the president had described Lebanon’s Hizbullah as ‘terrorist,’ as Jewish organization officials escorting the families claimed, Elysee spokesman David Martinon said: ‘Yes,’” say a shocked AFP at the top of a story which is meant to be about developments in the Middle East.
Sarkozy’s approach to terrorists is certainly different to that of his predecessor Jacques Chirac. See, for example, the final photo here.
STONED TO DEATH IN IRAN
Jafar Kiani, from the village of Aghche Kand in Qazvin province, was buried up to his waist, after which the crowd hurled stones at him until he was dead.
No this isn’t a scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
It happened. Today. In Iran. Under the regime’s Islamic law.
The woman with whom Kiani (may he rest in peace) supposedly committed adultery is also waiting to be stoned to death.
It will be even more horrific for her. Under the Islamic punishment of stoning, a male victim is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, whereas a female is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.
And the Iranian regime still has its defenders in the West.
IRANIAN REGIME FOLLOWING 2008 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN WITH INTEREST
(July 12, 2007)
The Iranian state media this morning headlines Hillary Clinton’s call to bring the troops home.
Meanwhile President Ahmadinejad says that centrifuge installation will continue.
ALAN JOHNSTON UPDATE: BBC FINALLY ADMITS TO HAVING RELATIONS WITH HAMAS
That Hamas and the BBC have close relations isn’t exactly a revelation. See here and here, for example.
But finally the BBC, the world’s biggest broadcaster, has itself admitted to being in touch with Hamas the group that unlike other Islamic terror groups, has made a habit of deliberately targeting children (in school buses, bat mitzvah birthday parties, pizzerias filled with kids and so on).
A senior BBC executive has confirmed that the BBC held private meetings with Hamas whose gunmen usually wear ski masks to hide their identity in the days leading up to the release of reporter Alan Johnston.
In a new posting on the blog of the BBC News website, BBC Middle East bureau editor Simon Wilson confirms that he held meetings with Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus to discuss Johnston’s fate. In his piece, titled “The Joy of Alan,” Wilson hints he was ordered to do so by more senior officials at the BBC.
Wilson also reveals that he and several colleagues were nearly kidnapped themselves on one of their outings to Gaza:
“One grim day, a group of masked and armed men apparently looking for a hostage turned up 20 minutes after one of my colleagues had just left a building in Gaza City. Shortly afterwards, a contact in a western intelligence service gave us chilling and compelling evidence that our every move was being followed by a car full of armed gang members.”
The BBC isn’t the only organization apparently now cooperating with Hamas. Yesterday in an interview with Italy’s RAI TV, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Gaza’s Hamas rulers were forging ever-closer ties with al-Qaeda and inviting al-Qaeda operatives to enter Gaza. “Thanks to the support of Hamas, al-Qaeda is entering Gaza,” Abbas said.
Would Wilson and other BBC officials also now like to comment on this report in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida especially located by my sources in Gaza that Jaysh Al-Islam (the so-called Army of Islam group who were holding Johnston) received $5 million and a million Kalashnikov rifle bullets in the deal to release Johnston?
I think British TV license-payers are entitled to know what is done with their money.
MELANIE PHILLIPS ON THE BBC
By Melanie Phillips
July 9, 2007
www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1577
The BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, reporting on the aftermath of Alan Johnston’s release (in which he placed Hamas’s stated, documented and constantly reiterated genocidal intentions in metaphorical quote marks by saying merely that this was what ‘Israel believes’), gushed thus:
“To get the mood in Gaza, I rang the BBC’s excellent Fayed Abu Shamala, our senior journalist there. No-one worked harder to get Alan Johnston out. He gave a vivid account of the last few days in Gaza, which I think is worth quoting at length. Israel may not like it, but there are signs that some people in influential positions in the West are changing their view of Hamas after everything it did to release Alan Johnston.”
According to Tom Gross in 2004, however, ‘the BBC’s excellent’ Fayed abu Shamala is actually rather close to Hamas:
“Some of the foreign BBC staff are quite open about their sympathies for Hamas. The senior BBC Arabic Service correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Fayad Abu Shamala, told a Hamas rally on May 6, 2001, (attended by the then Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin) that journalists and media organizations in Gaza, including the BBC, are ‘waging the campaign [of resistance/terror against Israel] shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people.’ The best the BBC could do in response to requests from Israel that they distance themselves from these remarks at the time, was to issue a statement saying, ‘Fayad’s remarks were made in a private capacity. His reports have always matched the best standards of balance required by the BBC.’ Indeed, today, three years later, the BBC is continuing to use Abu Shamala as much as ever. He was, for example, one of the BBC reporters in Gaza last month, who contributed to the BBC’s highly slanted reporting (on both the BBC English and Arabic services) of Israel’s operation to root out Hamas bomb-makers in Rafah in the southern Gaza.”
Abu Shamala was by Johnston’s side when he came out of Gaza. Shouldn’t the BBC acknowledge that their ‘excellent’ senior Arabic service correspondent in Gaza who reports on Hamas is a close associate of Hamas? Indeed, shouldn’t the BBC’s senior Arabic correspondent in Gaza have no such affiliation at all? Or to put it another way, why should the British TV licence-fee payer subsidise a Hamas supporter broadcasting propaganda about Hamas under the guise of objectivity and detachment?
Hello, BBC trustees? Anyone still actually alive in there?
JANE FELIX-BROWNE, A 51-YEAR-OLD GRANDMOTHER AND PARISH COUNCILLOR FROM CHESHIRE. ENGLAND, MARRIES OSAMA BIN LADEN’S 27-YEAR-OLD SON
Yes, it’s true, according to today’s Times of London:
A British woman has married a son of Osama bin Laden after a holiday romance and is to apply for a visa so that he can visit Britain.
Jane Felix-Browne, a 51-year-old grandmother and parish councillor from Cheshire, has until now kept her marriage to Omar Ossama bin Laden, 27, secret from everyone apart from her immediate family and close friends. But she has now agreed to speak about her relationship with bin Laden’s fourth eldest son.
“It would be nice if, like any other married woman, I could stand up and say this is my husband and this is his name, but I have to be realistic about things,” she told The Times. “I hope people don’t judge me too harshly. I married the son, not the father.”
“I just married the man I met and fell in love with to me he is just Omar. He is the most beautiful person I have ever met. His heart is pure, he is pious, quiet, a true gentleman, and he is my best friend.”
Mrs Felix-Browne, who has been married five times previously, met the young bin Laden in Egypt in September. They were married in Islamic ceremonies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
She was aware before her marriage that her new husband already had another wife and a two-year-old child. “I haven’t seen her but I have spoken to her for about an hour on the telephone,” she said. “She is fine about it.”
Osama Bin Laden has at least 17 children.
* “Al-Qaeda infiltrate UK police”
* “Alan Johnston personally thanks Khaled Meshal”
* Israeli government launches Persian-language website
* Is jogging right-wing?
CONTENTS
1. Mamma Mia! It’s “Tony Blair: The Musical!”
2. Jihadi humor at its sickest
3. Al-Qaeda have infiltrated the British police, says UK press
4. Syria intensifies Internet crackdown, and also blocks hotmail
5. Israeli government launches Persian-language website to counteract Iranian lies
6. Is jogging right-wing?
7. Michael Moore invited to show “Sicko” in Teheran
8. Oliver Stone to make a film on Ahmadinejad?
9. “Alan Johnston called Hamas supreme leader Khaled Meshal in Damascus to thank him in person”
JIHADI HUMOR AT ITS SICKEST
(July 8, 2007)
Kafeel Ahmed, the young Indian Muslim who burnt most of his skin off last weekend while trying to murder passengers at Glasgow International Airport, had told his family:
“I am involved in a large-scale confidential project. It is about global warming. I cannot reveal the details.”
AL-QAEDA HAVE INFILTRATED THE BRITISH POLICE, SAYS UK PRESS
(July 7, 2007)
While investigations are still under way about the British doctor’s plot as many as 45 Muslim doctors and medical staff are involved according to the Daily Telegraph al-Qaeda supporting extremists have infiltrated the U.K. police too, according to a report in today’s Daily Mail.
The paper says it has seen a secret dossier drawn up by MI5 which has so far identified eight police officers and civilian police staff suspected of links to extremist groups including al-Qaeda. Some are believed to have attended terror training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
The Mail adds: “Astonishingly, many of the alleged jihadists have not been sacked because it is claimed police do not have the ‘legal power’ to dismiss them: We can also reveal that one suspected jihadist officer working in the South East has been allowed to keep his job despite being caught circulating Internet images of beheadings and roadside bombings in Iraq. He is said to have argued that he was trying to ‘enhance’ debate about the war.”
Meanwhile, I wonder whether the British National Health Service, employer of most of the medical terror suspects, now regrets these kind of ads they put up on the NHS website:
“There are numerous careers in over 70 professions within the NHS this means there is something for everyone. The NHS is also anxious to reflect the local population it serves. To this end, it actively encourages applicants from a range of backgrounds, regardless of gender, age, religion or race, to apply for jobs. Applications are particularly welcome from professionally qualified Healthcare staff from outside the UK.”
It seems like al Qaeda have been reading the NHS website.
SYRIA INTENSIFIES INTERNET CRACKDOWN AND ALSO BLOCKS HOTMAIL
(July 9, 2007)
Syria has stepped up its muzzling of the Internet, blocking access to websites critical of the Assad regime, including some run by the more moderate Arab dailies, a human-rights group said yesterday.
The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said that sites blocked by firewalls within Syria include the Saudi-owned, pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat (The Middle East), and the Beirut newspaper Al Mustaqbal (The Future), owned by the family of the murdered former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
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