Tuesday, June 03, 2008

  • Tuesday, June 03, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
In Jordan, if a man kills a woman for reasons of "honor," his sentence may be as light as six months in prison. But if a woman murders a man for similar reasons, things are a little different.

Firas Press reports a woman in Jordan found out that her husband was planning to marry another woman and she poisoned his milk, killing him.

She is sentenced to death by hanging.

Apparently, "honor" is not a mitigating factor for women who kill. Perhaps they are considered as if they have little honor to begin with.
Professor Abdelwahab Elmessiri of Ain Shams University in Cairo has just won the Jerusalem Prize from the General Union of Arab Writers.

His major work is the (Arabic-only) "Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism," which was published in 1999.

I found a four-part article by this professor in Al-Ahram where he summarizes his theses of the encyclopedia, and it is pretty much what one would expect - a ridiculous analysis based more on his own biases and perceptions than on any reality, all dressed up is pseudo-scholarly garb.

To summarize his thinking, he defines the concept of a "functional group":
Functional groups, defined as a group of people, usually a numerical minority, either imported from outside the society or recruited from within its ranks, and generally defined in terms of a definite, limited, abstract function (profession, etc.), rather than their complex, concrete, and full humanity. They are entrusted with certain jobs or functions which members of the host society (the majority) either cannot or will not perform for a variety of reasons. Among the characteristics of these groups, besides those mentioned in the first part of this series, are: Separateness from time (history) and place (homeland) and the illusory feeling of a separate identity.

The following are examples of functional groups:

1. Hebrew and Macedonian mercenaries in the Hellenic states.
2. Armenian merchants in the Ottoman empire.
3. Gypsies in Europe.
4. Eunuchs in the Chinese and Ottoman courts.
5. Chinese in Southeast Asia.
6. Arab traders (especially Lebanese) in Africa.
7. Huguenots in England and Canada.
8. Mamelukes in the Islamic Middle East (especially Egypt).
9. Cossacks in Tsarist Russia.
10. Janissaries in the Ottoman empire.
11. Ethiopian prostitutes in Africa.
12. Jews in Europe, especially Eastern Europe.
Jewish communities, especially in Europe, are a prime example of the functional group. The Hebrew Kingdom of David and Solomon, and the United Kingdom of Judah and Ephraim, were not characterised by high technological standards. Therefore, they failed to offer job opportunities to the population. This forced large numbers of people to emigrate, forming functional groups in new host societies. Due to their weakness, and consequently their failure to afford protection to their population, the Hebrew Kingdom and the United were the source of thousands of captives who worked as mercenaries or merchants. The idea of Zion, a country of origin, was deeply entrenched in the Hebrew imagination, which loosened the ties binding Hebrews (and later Jews) to the countries they lived in. The Mediterranean and the ancient Middle East were dominated by a number of powerful empires which recruited members of the Jewish communities as mercenaries, settlers, and spies. But the decisive reason that contributed to the transformation of the Jewish communities into functional groups is the very nature of Western feudal society. Commercial and financial activities were not subsumed under the two main normal activities of this society, agriculture (the peasantry) and warfare (the knights). Therefore, they had to be assigned to a group of people imported from outside the society.

What complicated matters was the nature of land ownership in Western feudal societies. There were laws prohibiting members of the Jewish communities (as well as monasteries and churches) from owning land. Due to this, members of the Jewish communities were concentrated in the commercial and financial sectors, and their status as middlemen was firmly established. By the 13th century, they were largely landless, which made their transformation into functional groups almost inevitable.
This is all very interesting in an abstract sense, and one gets the clear impression that the author used his perception of Jews as the paradigm for this concept and then shoe-horned in his other examples so as to make it appear universal.

What he pointedly fails to address is the idea that Jews' historic separation from their host countries during the diaspora is more a function of the oppression imposed from without rather than a role that the Jews embraced from within. To Elmessiri, this persecution is a minor point, while in reality Jews have been more than willing to assimilate into their adopted homes when given the chance. He implies that ancient Israel and Judah disappeared because of Jewish voluntary emigration in order to fulfill this strange will to be a "functional group" rather than because of attacks from without.

In other words, Elmessiri is trying very hard to turn Jews into the architects of their own misery, which might not be classically anti-semitic but is clearly a biased and warped perspective.

Elmessiri's descent into pure fantasy can be seen by his definition of Zionism:
In attempting to define Zionism, I did not follow the normal course, namely choosing one or two definitions. Instead, I developed what I term the "basic comprehensive Zionist formula". This formula, in my view, includes all the elements of Zionism that form the basis of Zionist consensus, regardless of the strain of apologetics (socialist, religious, liberal, fascist, etc.) used to justify it. This formula could be summarised in the following elements:

1. The Jews form an organic people (a Volk) that is organically attached to Palestine, and therefore does not belong to Western civilisation.

Why exactly are the two mutually exclusive? Obviously, Zionism is the most Western of all Middle Eastern nationalisms.

2. They are also a functional group without a function, a pariah Volk, a parasitic people in Zionist or anti-Semitic parlance.
Not a "persecuted" people, but a "parasitic" people.

3. To transform this parasitic people into a useful one, it should be transferred to any area outside Europe (Palestine eventually became the targeted area, on account of its strategic importance to the West).

Even though he admits Jews' historic connection to the Land of Israel, here he denies it as irrelevant, in order to fit his pre-conceived notions of "Jew as colonialist." Considering Zionist Jews as revenants would destroy his theory.

4. The pariah Volk would then be settled there, replacing the indigenous population (that should be either exterminated or expelled, as is always the case with similar settler colonial projects).

Again, he considers this concept as being "Zionist consensus," not bothering to notice the million Arabs who live in Israel as citizens under this Zionist rule.

5. In its new habitat, the pariah Volk would reconstitute itself as a state that would serve as a base for Western powers and a fortress defending Western interests in the region. In exchange, Western powers would support the new state and guarantee its survival and continuity, as long as it discharged its function, namely serving Western interests. In this way, the Jewish Volk would achieve through the Western imperialist formation what it failed to achieve through the Western cultural formation.

The idea that Jews wanted to move to Israel in order to serve Western interests, as opposed to their own, is the height of Arab fantasy.

But it is dressed up in lots of big words, and it also fits a comfortable Arab formula of how to look at Jews and still appear intellectual and nonbiased, so this encyclopedia of drivel is worthy of awards and praise.
Ma'an continues to ludicrously claim that settlers from Ariel have been releasing wild pigs to harass Palestinian Arabs.

But now the pigs are getting smarter:
Herds of wild pigs dumped in the outskirts of the West Bank city of Salfit by residents of the nearby Ariel Israeli settlement, are preventing civilians from leaving their homes in the evening, for fear of being attacked.

Eyewitnesses from the Al-Freiz neighborhood near the settlement said that in the evening after the sunset prayer the pigs attack gardens.
Not only do the pigs know to attack only Arabs, but they know when the exact prayer times are!
  • Tuesday, June 03, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Another Palestinian Arab has been killed in a tunnel collapse:
The body of a 40-year-old Palestinian man was pulled out of the debris of a tunnel collapse on the Gaza-Egypt border on Monday evening.

Medical sources said Ramadan Hilmi Ramadan died when the tunnel caved in near the As-Salam neighborhood of Rafah.

Four Palestinians were hospitalized following after the tunnel that runs under the Gaza-Egypt border collapsed at 11.30 am on Monday.
Egypt has recently found more large caches of weapons and explosives meant to be smuggled to Gaza in those same tunnels:

"We found 27 plastic bags loaded with ammunition, a number of rockets, anti-tank missiles and bombs, which were hidden in the mountains in the Al-Roda area" of north Sinai, the official said.

Authorities also found another cache containing 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) of TNT about four kilometres (2.5 miles) west of the Gaza border, the official added.

On Saturday authorities said they found a cache which included about 30 anti-aircraft missiles, 3,000 bullets and rifles.

Meanwhile, terror groups continue to shell the crossings that provide them with food and fuel, with no condemnation from within or without Gaza:

The Nahal Oz crossing was shelled by Fatah three times on Sunday and five times on Monday by the PRC.

The Sufa crossing was mortared twice on Thursday by Fatah.

For the first time, a Russian-manufactured Katyusha rocket was shot from Gaza at Israel. Earlier Grad rockets were made in Iran.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 76.

Monday, June 02, 2008

  • Monday, June 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
The good news is that Kuwait actually has two members of its parliament who are women.

The bad news is that the male MPs are upset that they don't wear their hijabs:
Muslim hardliners in Kuwait's parliament walked out of the body's inaugural meeting on Sunday to protest two female Cabinet ministers who were not wearing headscarves.

The nine men left just after lawmakers and ministers started taking the oath of office. They returned after the two women, Modhi al-Homoud and Nouria al-Subeih, were sworn in. Neither of the women were wearing long dresses or covering their hair, which Islamists maintain is required by their religion.

No female legislators have won any seats since 2005 when women won the right to vote in Kuwait, but the prime minister appointed two to the Cabinet.

Al-Homoud, the minister of state for housing and development, ignored attempts by conservative lawmakers remaining in the chamber to take the floor as she read her oath. She wore a skirt rather than long robes or a headscarf.

Al-Subeih, the education minister, dressed conservatively though not with a headscarf and was not interrupted. She went through a similar situation when she was first appointed in April 2007.

Many women in Kuwait wear headscarves and long dresses, but Islamic dress is not mandatory like in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Right after this incident the lawmakers voted to force the women to abide by male rules:
The conservative-controlled Parliament later approved by 33 votes to 21 a proposal by Islamist and tribal MPs to refer the case of the two women ministers without hijab to the house legal committee. It will have to establish if the two violated a law requiring women to “abide by Islamic regulations while voting or contesting the elections.”
This is the Kuwaiti version of equal rights for women: if they are going to be visible, they had better be invisible.
  • Monday, June 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Firas Press prints a foaming-at-the-mouth article trying to blast Professor Mordechai Kedar, who was interviewed on Al-Jazeera recently and apparently was more adamant about the Jewish attachment to Jerusalem than the Al Jazeera hosts were comfortable with:
Host Jamal asked: "What do you think of the Declaration of Israel from building new settlements eve of a meeting with Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas' and passengers think it is a provocation and disregarded and embarrass the Palestinian side ..!?"

Professor started shouting, "What's this question?! لI think that no one in this world has the right of Israel to ask such a question?! Build or not build what does it matter to you ?! We are building in Jerusalem is the land of Israel, which Israeli for three thousand years, why must we ask permission from anyone .?! Should we agree to what is right ?! "

Said to him, Jamal: "But Jerusalem an occupied territory of Palestine" and he answered: "Who said this!?"...
He also emphasized that Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. This was enough to send the firasd writer into convulsions, although the autotranslation is unclear I think the message is:
Jerusalem and the first Qiblah and the third the Two Holy Mosques and plot our Prophet Muhammad and the recklessness of those pigs this time the Zionists who damage Larsen returned to the impact of any one of them ..! I firmly believe that this pig is the pronunciation of the Zionist amateur or a purely personal opinion whatsoever .. '
The rest of the article is even harder to understand but plenty of insults are thrown in.

Although the author admits that he didn't actually see the interview, it sounds like it was a good one - I can't wait to see if MEMRI translates it.

UPDATE: Arutz-7 has much more detail (h/t Soccer Dad.)
  • Monday, June 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
The extreme hatred that Arabs have towards that Zionist entity sometimes manifests itself in unusual ways.

The Arab world has a huge multimedia company called Rotana, owned by Saudi Prince Waleed bin Talal. Rotana includes divisions for music, movies, and television.

Recently, Rotana changed the logo of one of its movie divisions from green and white to blue and white. This caused quite a stir, and the Firas Press report includes the most amazingly stupid conspiracy theories one can imagine:
The movie channel Rotana showed its true face after it adopted the logo colors of the Zionist entity, replacing the Saudi flag colors, which carries the banner of "No God but Allah," and the news channel Melody quoted says that the Saudi Royal Canal has sold large number of shares to an Israeli company,. Rotana has denied that, but that its magazine of the same name published an extensive report on its pages talking about investing in a Zionist channel.

Rotana, which reversed the colors of the logo of blue and white as a condition of partnership as a source refused to reveal the name then be denied an Israeli partner has entered the heart of their networks, but the colors and shortly after the second year celebrations channel indicates that the news whispered by some valid and that the flag of Greater Israel now enters every home...

The infiltration of the Israeli media and satellite channels are not new, especially since the partnership held by Al-Jazeera news agency Ramatan with Israel is no longer a secret, but there are some who say that the Zionist Agency owns half the shares of Al-Jazeera, which retains the Prime Minister of Qatar share a huge addition to the good relations with Israel.
Yes, Al Jazeera is a Zionist plot, and those Jews are now buying up all Arab media in order to send their propaganda deep into all Arab homes. This is all done in secret, and the only way to really know this is going on is because they insist that their newly-acquired companies change their logos to reflect their new Zionist masters. Besides that, everything is hush-hush, only to be revealed by a privileged few who notice such subtleties.

Even funnier is that one can look at Rotana's home page and see that they came up with different colors for each division on order to differentiate them, and blue just happens to be one of the colors for one of their movie channels.

What kind of weird psychology is behind a huge group of millions of people who are extraordinarily allergic to the color blue?
  • Monday, June 02, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
Recently, Islamic Jihad claimed to have discovered a cell of "collaborators" with Israel. They apparently tortured these alleged Israeli spies and then handed them over to Hamas.

Human Rights Watch described the events this way:
“An armed group like al-Quds Brigades has no legal right to arrest, detain, or interrogate suspects,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.

A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told Human Rights Watch that, as of May 18, all three men had been transferred to the custody of the Hamas-controlled Internal Security Force. The spokesman, Ihab al-Ghussein, said Hamas had called on Islamic Jihad to transfer the men after learning of their detention. “They were severely beaten and tortured,” he said.

Relatives of one of the abducted men, Salah Abdullah Awad, 44, a former captain in the General Intelligence Service of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, told Human Rights Watch he showed visible signs of torture when they recently visited him in prison.

“He was unable to stand normally on his feet. Someone was helping him to stand and walk,” Awad’s 24-year-old son Bakr told Human Rights Watch. “He was very tired, with clear signs of torture on his body. There were remains of burns on his feet.”
As condemnations go, this one of Islamic Jihad by HRW is fairly mild. But that didn't stop Islamic Jihad from going ballistic on the organization. Palestine Today reports that Islamic Jihad responded (autotranslated):
The report bears the words aimed to divide the ranks of the Palestinian resistance, and causing a fabricated stir to divert attention from suffering of our people and the siege and aggression (by Israel).

We recall that more than a million and a half Palestinians are subjected to genocide by the unjust embargo, which will continue for the second year and killed 171 martyrs of the sick, children and elderly, neither children nor women nor Sheikhs escaped from this holocaust and genocide, (with Israel) bombing houses in Gaza and targeting their occupants in their homes.

The Islamic Jihad movement irrefutablely explained through an official document issued by the Palestinian internal security apparatus that those involved were not subjected to torture and had been screened by professionals hour they receive between good health, and materials available in possession of documentary photographic movement that they made an explicit confession. [The photos show] they are in good condition, which deny and refute the allegations being subjected to torture.
There is a bit of irony there, as Islamic Jihad released another statement over the weekend condemning the PA for making "political arrests" against their members in Jenin. Apparently, a non-governmental terrorist organization like Islamic Jihad can abduct and detain anyone they feel like and call it an "arrest" but the actual functioning government is not allowed to arrest any members of Islamic Jihad.

There is also a more interesting form of hypocrisy here, being shown by Human Rights Watch. The organization considers Israel to be the "occupying power" in Gaza even though it withdrew from there years ago. But in this report they recognize that there is only one real government in Gaza, namely Hamas:
“As the de facto political authority in Gaza, the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya needs to show it won’t tolerate vigilante abuse," [Stork said.]

Human Rights Watch said that Hamas should either release the men now in their custody or charge them with a recognizable criminal offense and try them in accordance with international fair trial standards. While in detention, the men should be treated fairly and granted access to a lawyer. They should also be speedily brought before a judicial authority with the power to review the legality of their detention and order their release.
If Israel is still legally occupying Gaza, then it is Israel that should be arresting suspects and giving them a fair trial. The legal definition of occupation means to take over the day-to-day functioning of the territory being occupied, including the judicial system. The fact that HRW is calling Hamas the "de facto political authority in Gaza" shows that even HRW realizes that Israel is not a legal occupier of Gaza - except when that organization decides to condemn Israel for various perceived "crimes" in much harsher terms, in which case it is far more convenient to call Israel an occupier responsible for Gaza rather than a legal combatant against Gaza's "de facto" government.
Ma'an reports that a member of Hamas' Qassam Brigades, named Sari Abu Samra, died of wounds sustained during "training" sessions in Beit Lahiya a few days ago.

Our 2008 PalArab self-death count climbs to 75.

Meanwhile, Gaza gunmen attacked a Christian school for the second time this year and stole a bus belonging to the Bible Society.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

  • Sunday, June 01, 2008
  • Elder of Ziyon
AFP reports:
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on the world's Muslims on Sunday to work to "erase" Israel, in the latest verbal attack by Tehran against the Jewish state.

"As the Imam Khomeini said, if each Muslim throws a bucket of water on Israel, Israel will be erased," Mottaki told a conference in Tehran, recalling a saying by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked international outrage for his repeated attacks against Israel, which he has predicted is doomed to disappear and described as a "stinking corpse" and a "dead rat".

His most notorious attack was in 2005 when he repeated another saying from Khomeini calling for Israel to be "wiped from the map".

Mottaki added: "More than ever, the Zionist regime is disintegrating from within. Today, the Islamic resistance in this region has shattered the regime's legend of invincibility."

While Ahmadinejad and top military commanders reguarly predict the demise of Israel, such virulent attacks from the foreign ministry are relatively unusual.

Of course, the apologists for Iran's terrorist ambitions like Juan Cole will claim that this is a mistranslation, even if the state-run Iranian media embraces exactly that same translation for internal consumption. Besides the two examples I gave earlier this year, here's another from a billboard on a Tehran street:


As I finished up my May Qassam calendar, I noticed something that has never occurred before:

There was at least one Qassam rocket every single day in May.

Every other months there are some days where none are reported, or that "only" have mortars. This was the first time in the 16 months I've been keeping track that there were attacks literally every day.

And even so, demand for real estate among Israelis in areas around Gaza is at an all-time high. Far more are moving there than are moving away, making terrorist claims that they aim to depopulate the nearby communities rather pathetic.


May 2008
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa




1
2
3




10 1 21
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
8 12 3 1 2 3 22
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
4
3
8
2
8
2
1
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
2
3
2
1
1
2
4
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
4
2
1
1
6
4
3














147 total
As usual, this is far from complete, and it is more to show how ignored the Qassam issue is rather than to show how many are being fired. Many Qassams never make it in the news, and the rare times that the IDF publishes statistics shows that I am usually undercounting . Also, these are Qassams that don't make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself, often causing damage or even deaths.

This list does not include mortars being shot from Gaza, which are usually much more numerous on any given day. The mortars are turning deadlier as well. It also does not count the occasional rocket from Lebanon. It does attempt to count Grad/Katyusha rockets from Gaza.


May 2008
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa




1
2
3




10 1 21
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
8 12 3 1 2 3 22
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
4
3
8
2
8
2
1
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
2
3
2
1
1
2
4
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
4
2
1
1
6
4
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
3

4

1
11

147 total

Previous calendars:

April 2008

March 2008
February 2008
January
December 2007

November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February

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