Tuesday, January 27, 2009

  • Tuesday, January 27, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights used to be one of the better places to find out about Palestinian Arab infighting that I would use as a source for my "self-death" counts.

Yet, even though there are verified reports that Hamas has killed dozens of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza during the initial operation, and even though the PCHR has been keeping its own count of those supposedly killed by Israel and their circumstances, they have not said a word about these murders on their website.
  • Tuesday, January 27, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Two weeks ago, commenters Bill and Bill #2 wrote quite a bit about white phosphorus, and I wanted to post it so it would get a larger audience (as well as come up in Google searches for years to come...)
[Bill]: White phosphorus is *not* a chemical weapon. It is an incendiary. The 'WMD' nonsense is the revival of an old leftist slander against US forces in Iraq.

[Bill #2]: There are two types of white phosphorus (WP) smoke shells, one bursting and one with base ejection of smoke producing material. The bursting shells produce an immediate white smoke screen through the sudden oxidation of phosphorus in air. The base ejection shells emit larger discrete phosphorus-soaked felt that disperses and allows the phosphorus to oxidise more slowly. The ones that Israel are accused of using (so far) is the base ejection shells that are really only useful in producing smoke screens and not so useful for their incendiary effect. They are also safer in their usual deployment since the phosphorus is embedded in a carrier, making it far easier to treat incidental burn injuries.

You can tell the difference between the two:
Bursting smoke has a omnidirectional spherical burst with a large number of larger burning fragments of phosphorus extending beyond the white cloud. They are normally detonated at ground level, since the smoke cloud will approximate a hemisphere sitting on the ground, and in addition the heat of oxidation makes the resultant cloud qickly rise in a column of smoke and thus be less effective at ground level.

Base ejection smoke has a small burst where the smoke-producing fragments are emitted and spray out in a limited cone to the ground. This munition has its best effect when deployed in air burst to achieve a wider dispersion of its discrete smoke producing elements. The characteristic cone or fan of smoke producing elements in the air is quite photogenic, so there are numerous pictures of this.

Neither are Chemical Weapons, as banned by the Geneva Convention 1925. Most nationalities in WW2 and later deployed white phosphorus bursting smoke shells, and nobody was brought to trial for use of these as 'Chemical Weapons' at Nuremberg.

Neither are Incendary Weapons, as defined by Geneva Convention Protocol III(1980), Article 1: "(b) Incendiary weapons do not include:
(i) Munitions which may have incidental incendiary effects, such as illuminants, tracers, smoke or signalling systems; ", so the restrictions on their use in Article 2 is not applicable.

[Bill]:If could butt into your excellent post, I should point out that some of the confusion stems from WP's dual uses as a pyrotechnic and as an incendiary, and to the confusion (often deliberately used by anti-mil types) regarding applicable Int'l Law.

Pyrotechnics (smoke, marking, tracers, flares etc) are not restricted at all, and are specifically exempted both by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCCW).

The CWC, just as Geneva III did, specifically excludes from the definition of 'chemical agents' weapons that operate by thermal effect (heat)- i.e. incendiaries.

The CCCW's main body forbids the use of incendiary weapons against civilians (who are already immune to attack under Geneva IV)- but not against combatant forces. Burn 'em up.

Protocol III (1977) to the CCCW additionally prohibits the use of incendiaries against combatants when they are amidst or in proximity to civilian populations: but neither Israel nor the US is a signatory to Protocol III.

[Bill #2, responding to a question]: The white bursts with the fan of smoke trails [that are visible in photographs] are base ejection white phosphorus.

Hamas has found discarded shells verifying their use, but are of course incorrectly claiming a war crime in their deployment: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ tol...icle5519433.ece You can look up the empty munition they triumphantly display at Janes: http://www.janes.com/extracts/ex...h/ jah_0461.html

I would not want to be in the area when one went off, but that is mainly because you will have a heavy empty shell casing falling to the ground after it has ejected its smoke producing contents, and it's got to land somewhere. If you were at ground level underneath the deployment of the felt wedges, you would be almost certainly safe if you were in a car or under some non-flammable overhead shelter. The residue from the burning phosphorous is poisonous, but then again many of the residues from military explosives are similarly poisonous too. The burning phosphorus oxidises to phosphorus dioxide, and scavenges the water vapour in the air to form the smoke you can see in the pictures. This is the reason that it is used - the smoke shell does not have to contain all the material that provides the obscuration, but enlists the water vapour in the air to assist in that process. You would want to avoid breathing the smoke, but the smoke screen is passable by friendly troops without requiring the use of gas masks, so you shouldn't consider this a gas chemical weapon. The phosphorus pentoxide is transformed by the water then into phosphoric acid, the same chemical found in fizzy cola drinks and rust remover. The low concentration of phosphorus in the smoke is unlikely to be dangerous to those exposed for short periods.

Should a burning piece of phosphorus-soaked felt from the smoke shell come in contact with clothing or skin, you would first treat it as for any other burn - the first aid is for dousing with water and removal of remaining burning pieces. With proper deployment, the base ejection smoke shell is safer, since it is unlikely that phosphorus fragments are driven into a body as might be the case with impact bursting white phosphorus shells.

[EoZ]:Do you have any idea of what kind of phosphorus payload was shot by Hamas at Israel in a Qassam yesterday, and where they could have gotten it from?

[captainfish]: I liked in the article the evidence cited as evidence of Israeli use of chemical weapons was that people's feet were burned when they walked in the area that was under one of these bursts.

Seems rather odd that the burned residue from an air burst would still be "burnable" after laying on the ground after a while. And, why would you walk on the ground with bare feet in an area that is under attack?

[Bill #2]: In the Second World War, 20% of the mortar munition supplied to American troops in Normandy was bursting white phosphorus (WP) munitions http://www.nationmaster.com/ency...phorus-(weapon) . All major participants in this war used it. Since then, it has remained in use, basically because it is so effective for rapid smoke screens.

EOZ, it is most likely that the phosphorus load for the Qassam came from an intact 81mm WP mortar bomb. Just a small sample of the many countries that make bursting WP mortar bombs are China, Iran, Turkey, Austria, Russia, and the USA. Since the white phosphorus contents are self igniting, it is not a material that lends itself to home manufacture or scavenging and reuse of existing WP munition's contents. Some countries make Red Phosphorus base-ejecting mortar bombs, which could be used but are nowhere near as useful as a payload for a Qassam which necessarily has to use an impact fuse. As a military munition, a Qassam WP warhead provides no military purpose either for illumination nor concealment purposes, and thus its unguided firing at civilian areas probably does contradict the laws of warfare against firing at protected persons, as it does if its payload was all explosives. The good news is that it is probably not a 120mm mortar bomb, which would weigh about 12-13kg, probably more than a Qassam is capable of carrying the distances they want, and so their payload is likely to be poorly matched with the rocket engine.

With regard to the Israeli smoke ammunition, base-ejection shells that eject a fan of phosphorus-saturated felt-wedges, if you deprive the phosphorus oxygen, such as dousing them with water, sand, or soil, they remain ready to re-ignite after oxygen can again reach the phosphorus. I speculate that the wedges of felt are engineered to not form an oxygen-restrictive ash crust around the felt which would otherwise reduce their effectiveness as smoke producers. There is no military reason for having some the phosphorus left unoxidised and a potential hazard - it is an unwanted side effect.

An old party trick was to ... [exact description redacted by me, Bill #2, for safety's sake on consideration]... and light it when it was sitting on a large coin. When you rubbed the residue left on the coin between your fingers, smoke came off your fingers [Do Not Try This At Home]. Essentially it was a mini scale distillation of the red phosphorus, turning it into yellow and red phosphorus sublimating on the cooler metal object. White, yellow and red phosphorus are all phosphorus, but differ in the way the atoms are arranged in the solid (they are called allotropes of Phosphorus). Each allotrope of Phosphorus has markedly different reactivities, with red phosphorus being the least reactive.

This is what is possibly happening on the ground, captfish. When the felt wedges are burning on the ground, some of the white phosphorus is evaporated, but due to the inadequate oxygen doesn't burn but condenses on any nearby object that is below that of its boiling point, as white, yellow and red allotropes. As oxygen becomes available, the white phosphorus will burn, but the other allotropes may only oxidise slowly. Over time, some of that yellow phosphorus will catch fire, but some may have enough red phosphorus in it to be stable enough to not burn. Someone comes along with bare feet, steps on an oxygen-deprived felt wedge, or on a residue of condensed red and yellow phosphorus and the oxidation process accelerates with consequent heat. As I can personally witness, even skin friction can make the mix of allotropes burn.

The proportionally huge number of poorly supervised, by western standards, young people in the civilian population means that there is a huge pool of curious boys who will investigate anything that seems to relate to the events happening around them. I suspect that many of these boys are not being educated to be wary of military munitions, especially those articles which seem to be a 'dud' and apparently inert, or even those which are believed to be expended. They also may gain this nonchalance from poor weapons and munition handling by their elders. Wandering around in a battleground in bare feet is an extremely bad idea, for more than one reason.

Note that the interspersal of active Hamas fighters and civilians has made separation of the curious from dangerous objects, buildings and places impossible. This is a war crime by Hamas, and by these actions Israel is permitted to fight Hamas in such areas as their protected nature has already been compromised by Hamas. The rules of war were drafted to make the attempted use of human shields by one side useless since they would not be protected by international law, and thus be dissuaded from trying. Various commentators seem to be misinterpreting these laws of war, accidently or deliberately. The laws of warfare were developed to reduce the consequential damage to civilians, and to allow Hamas to be shielded by these laws is to increase the civilian deaths and suffering that will result in the long term.

I reject the claim: "Two wrongs don't make a right!", as it is perfectly clear that the deliberate placement of military personnel and munitions in otherwise protected places dissolves their protected place status. Thus under international law, there is only one wrong being committed here, not two.

I reject the claim: "The laws of war disallow the use of white phosphorous under all circumstances." People might feel it is morally wrong, but it is not a war crime.

I reject the misguided belief that the Principle of Proportionality means that you can only fight an enemy with only an equivalent force, and must stop if your enemy is taking more casualties than you are.

I reject the notion that Hamas shouldn't be held to the same moral standards that Israel is held to.
  • Tuesday, January 27, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Commenter Bill #2, who is incredibly knowledgeable about weapons, noticed a news item I translated from the Palestine Today about a British "expert" who determined that Israel used uranium weapons in Gaza based pretty much on watching the explosions on TV. Bill did a little research:
Following your link and doing a bit of research, the 'expert's name is Dai Williams. From where is his expertise? Well, if you read his own introduction at http://www.grassrootspeace.org/ d...iams_oct03.html , you can see where his expertise comes from:

• Is he a biological researcher? No
• Is he ex-military with extensive experience or training in either EOD (Explosives Ordnance Demolition) or BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment)? - No
• Is his background in civil engineering or demolitions? No
• Is he a chemical engineer, especially one studying explosives No

Dai Williams is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, from his own web page at http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/. So far there is nothing to suggest that he is an expert in the subject matter of identifying explosives type by detonation cloud. He has done work as an environmental consultant in the oil industry for many years.

So far, there has not been definitive proof of the use of depleted uranium (DU) in Lebanon, as far as I understand. A lot of supposition and allegations, but so far no definitive proof. [The UN found that Israel did not use it, but Bill #2 is taking the allegations at face value, for argument's sake. - EoZ] Given that the type of explosions would be the same if DU wasn't used in either case, and possibly the same if DU was used in either or both cases, it is so far just an allegation based on what was seen on television from Gaza. Any deep penetrating explosion is going to have a similar dust and smoke plume, with the debris channeled up into a high dust cloud as it takes the path of least resistance upward. This can include the path that the incoming bomb took, or it can mean the tunnel itself if the explosion happened inside the tunnel, as you would expect with precision-guided munitions. The cloud of hot gases and dust will rise quickly, emphasizing the narrowness of the cloud, and often it will continue to rise to form a miniature mushroom cloud as the dust and gases stop rising as they cool at the top of the plume.

Let's look at some of his other claims (not exhaustive, just some quick ones):
"Some versions of these warheads also use tungsten but tungsten does not burn." http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/ pdf...weapons2006.pdf

Well, that's news to light globe manufacturers who seem to insist on putting inert gas inside glass envelopes with the tungsten filaments for no reason whatsoever. Let's look at a reference, just to be sure: Tungsten Powder "In finely divided form, highly flammable."[3]. Eric Lassiter in his book Tungsten[4] describes how tungsten of 1µm or smaller can be pyrophoric (likely to ignite spontaneously on exposure to air). Finally, United States Patent 3946673 "Pyrophoris penetrator" - 'Alloys of tungsten, zirconium and one or more binder metals are utilized as pyrophoric penetrators.' I think I will agree that bulk tungsten will not burn, but in the presence of the shock waves, temperature, and pressure from high explosives, the metal may be finely dispersed and raised to a temperature that may be causing it to burn, especially if the explosive is oxidizer-rich. I would agree that uranium is more pyrophoric than tungsten, but the claim that tungsten can't be used because it doesn't burn is not convincing.

"Now tungsten will be no good for that because it will burst but is no more than that; while uranium if it fragments, it will turn then into a firebomb." http://www.grassrootspeace.org/ d...iams_oct03.html
Certainly the standard enthalpy of formation is high for U3O8 (-3575 kJ/mol), but it is much lower for the other uranium oxides: UO2 (-1085 kJ/mol) and UO3 (-1224kJ/mol)[1]. This is the energy released by oxidizing (burning) uranium. Compare this to tungsten dioxide (-586 kJ/mol) and aluminum oxide: Al2O3: (-1676 kJ/mol), zirconium dioxide (-1097 kJ/mol), magnesium oxide (-602 kJ/mol) and water (-285 kJ/mol). Note that tritonal, an explosive used in bombs, uses a mixture of TNT and aluminum powder to increase brisance, but if we take the energy released just by TNT, we have a figure of 950kJ/mol[2], but you can't harness the full energy of the standard enthalpy of formation like you can with the TNT since you still need an oxidiser - which may be partly supplied by the TNT itself - and it needs to be finely dispersed enough for the oxidisation to achieve a useful effect. The problem is you may not get much of the higher energy from the U3O8 in a limited oxygen environment than you might if you just added aluminum powder to your primary explosive. You can't just look at the standard enthalpy of formation, and make a prediction without reference to other things such as the stability of the oxides which may affect the oxidation of the underlying metal and the rate of its burning.

"Researcher Dai Williams believes this is a new class of weapons using enriched uranium, not through fission processes but through new physical processes kept secret for at least 20 years." http://www.globalresearch.ca/ind...& articleId=3813
Well, maybe not so much a secret, since enriching uranium through centrifuge methods (i.e. non fission process) has been going on since 1945, and Iran is proud of its ongoing work with uranium hexafluoride gas centrifuges[6]. Wikipedia has a super secret page on these non-fission enrichment processes[9].

Dai actually raises a very interesting point[8], one overlooked by many. Depleted uranium can be used as a shaped charge liner[5] for the type of anti-tank weapons supplied to Hamas and Hezbollah (Self Forging Fragment). Iran has significant deposits of copper[7], so it is unlikely that it would be driven to deploy depleted uranium because of a lack of copper, the traditional shaped charge liner. Note [5] refers to a five times better penetration to that of copper. If there are traces of depleted uranium, they may be due to Iranian, although it is anyone's guess at whether Iran would risk exposure through the deployment of such material. If it has, then that may explain some of the DU material that people are claiming to have found. It is also possible that people may be unwittingly using DU-based weapons.

In conclusion, we just don't know, but I think it's a stretch basing one supposition onto another as proof.

Notes:
[1] http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cboo...Units=SI& cTC=on
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Tri...Trinitrotoluene , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritonal (using public sources here)
[3] http://www.ilo.org/public/englis...14/ icsc1404.htm
[4] ISBN 0306450534
[5] http://www.freepatentsonline.com...om/ 4441428.html
[6] Official Iranian web site: http://web-srv.mfa.gov.ir/output...nts/ doc7949.htm
[7] http://www.indexmundi.com/en/ com...copper_t20.html
[8] http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/ pdf...u26leb19oct.pdf , page 25
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ele...tope_separation
OK, it was more than a little research!

Bill #2 also wrote a pretty exhaustive treatise on white phosphorus in the comments that I've been meaning to post....
  • Tuesday, January 27, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Martin Fletcher of NBC writes about Danny Malhouf, a a 70-year-old Israeli plasterer from Ashkelon, who used to employ Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

According to Malhouf, Haniyeh was a good worker, and they were close friends:
"He was a good worker, he worked for me for five years on a salary. He went with my son to Netanya, all over, he came to my house and I went to his in Gaza.

"There was no border post then, we all just came and went. We went to him, I went to Jabaliya like going to my own home, we ate fish there, we lived together, no difference between Jews and Arabs. We ate together, they went to Tel Aviv in their cars, I went to his house, his old house, not the new one now! Gaza was like Tel Aviv for me.

"Weddings, funerals, we were friends. He came with his wife and two children to my daughter’s wedding. But one day his brother was killed and from that very day he became a Hamasnik."

On May 20, 1990, a mentally unstable Israeli named Ami Popper, who had been dishonorably discharged from the IDF, put on his army uniform, lined up 7 Arabs and shot them dead. One of them was Haniyeh's brother. Popper was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms for the murders (a sentence later reduced to 40 years.)

Malhouf continues:

"I went to Ismail’s house for the funeral. There were four men in masks. I thought, walla! I’m finished. I’m a dead man. Then one took off his mask and it was Ismail. He said, ‘I told you not to come. I’m finished. I’ll never come to Israel again.’ He came with me to the Erez border to make sure I was safe, and he never came back to work. I never saw him again.

"He wasn’t religious – only later when his brother died. Then I didn’t see him again till [I saw him on] TV, and he’s prime minister! But today, let him stay in the bunker.

"That day at the funeral, I told him, get better, you can’t kill the Jews, we are one state, you are many, you won’t beat us.

"What’s to talk about? They ate with us, worked with us, lived like kings. What happened? They want to get rid of us, what? Tough, we have our state, that’s it. Nothing they can do about it. There they kill each other, what did they get out of it?

"That’s it, if you see him, best wishes to Haniyeh. I say to him, Ismail, get better, stop making problems, it’s over. That’s my message to Ismail. And lose the beard. Tell him your boss, Danny the plasterer, Rachel’s husband, sends his best wishes and stop making all those problems. We all want peace."
The story, as interesting as it is, is not the point I want to make. I want to highlight a couple of comments made to this story by American Arabs:
Well, I am glad that there is somebody that's showing the truth to the world. Haniya was a peaceful man until a zionist killed his Brother (and he is one among thousands killed or captured in Israili jails).
Thank you Mr. Mahlouf for stating that the palestinian violence is a reaction to the Israeli's every day terrorism.
To the Arab mentality - even American Arabs - Haniyeh's transformation into a mass murderer is a perfectly logical consequence of his brother being killed by a nutcase. The fact that Israel punished Popper exactly as if he had killed Jews is irrelevant - this is a case of honor, and if your "family" kills one of mine, my "family" can kill as many of your as we feel we need to.
This story just proves that violence only creates more extremists. Israel's most recent carnage in Gaza will only create more hatred.
This Arab is saying that Haniyeh's transformation is perfectly natural. It would never occur to him to similarly justify Israeli actions as natural - no, that privilege belongs solely to Arabs who of course turn into extremists while Israelis are expected to be stoic adults who turn the other cheek.
What a ridiculus story! Please stop propaganding. It is not working anymore. You made a genocide, you used illegal weapons and you burned babies. Most of the killed people are kids, women and old men and you talk about peace. Stop being hepocrites and liers. You will pay your crimes sooner or later.
No comment.
Please send my message to Danny Mahlouf.

Hello Mr. Mahlouf,

Salaams.

I pray for peace between Israelis & Pastinians every moment of every day.

I also understand and value very highly the freindship
and working relationship you both had fostered based on trust.

This trust was shattered by Israli dishonored soldier
who killed innocent seven Palastinians.

I am a very proud citizen of this great country on the earth, the USA. If one kills seven innocent people he will get life sentence. In your country this heartless, barbarian, cruel Israeli was dishonorably discharged. Is this the type of justice
your country men and your Court of Justice believe in?
This man, who is trying to give a message of peace, is still so consumed with hate that he cannot read the article properly. He thinks that Popper's only punishment was to be dishonorably discharged, something that Fletcher makes clear had happened beforehand. Fletcher also says that Popper got seven consecutive life sentences. Even the most peaceful, reasonable Arab cannot think the slightest bit objectively when he is convinced beforehand of the evil of the Zionists.

And these aren't Arabs who are from Gaza - these are Americans, who understand Western mores, and they are still consumed with ugly, blind hate. If they cannot read this story and understand the point, what are the chances that their cousins in the Middle East will ever be able to accept a true peace with Israel?

Monday, January 26, 2009

  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From AFP (h/t Henrik):
Hamas has launched a probe which is expected to be extremely critical of the failures of its military wing during the recent Gaza offensive, the respected Jane's Defence Weekly magazine said Monday.

Citing an unnamed top Hamas military commander, Jane's said a full report due soon would be critical of almost every decision taken by battlefield commanders during the 22-day assault, which ended last week.

The report will highlight the losses of interior minister Said Siam and around 50 of Hamas's top explosives experts as among the most significant.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said last week that it lost only 48 fighters during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, although Israel has reported killing more than 500 Hamas members.

It is a little hard to fit 50 explosives experts into a grand total of 48 dead Hamas members.

Unless, of course, they were counted as "civilians."

Which, of course, they were.
  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
No, it doesn't mean "no hijab."

It is a bumper sticker campaign to stop any moves that might allow women in Saudi Arabia to drive.
Bumper stickers in Saudi Arabia have taken a distinctly political turn as men opposed to allowing women to drive have taken to putting their views on their cars in the face of mounting concern the ban may be lifted.


A report in Britain’s the Daily Telegraph Wednesday quoted an anonymous government official as saying the government had decided to lift its ban on women drivers and would issue a decree by the end of the year.

For those opposed to lifting the ban, bumper stickers have become a popular outlet for expressing their displeasure, the Saudi newspaper Shams reported Sunday.

"There has been a decision to move on this by the Royal Court because it is recognized that if girls have been in schools since the 1960s, they have a capability to function behind the wheel when they grow up," a government official told The Daily Telegraph. "We will make an announcement soon."

Women activists in the kingdom have brought the issue to the limelight in recent years by breaking the driving ban and risking arrest.

The sticker, widely displayed by men opposed to giving women the right to drive, has a picture of a woman and steering wheel inside a prohibitory traffic sign.

Women in Saudi Arabia are prohibited from driving by law. The driving ban dates back to its establishment as a state in 1932. Reasons cited for the ban are usually related to mingling of unmarried women and men, which is prohibited in the conservative kingdom.

Scholars and Religious Police officials argue that allowing women to drive would lead to moral decay by make dating easier and encourage youth to flirt with or chase women drivers.

Critics also defend the bad based on the safety of women and their ability to handle certain difficult situations like car breakdowns, accidents, or driving in remote areas. Some also fear that if women drive, they will start changing their dress code since the existing one, a cloak and a face veil, might not be practical behind the wheel.
  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
For the first time in recorded history, the Jais Mountain in the United Arab Emirates was covered in snow.
So rare was the snowfall that a lifelong resident of the area said the local dialect does not even have a word for 'snow,' the UAE daily The National reported.

Sunday's snowfall was only the second time in recorded history that it has snowed in the emirate, with temperatures dropping two degrees below zero as 20 cm (eight inches) of snow accumulated in some places.

A helicopter pilot who flew up to the top of the mountain said: “The sight up there this morning was totally unbelievable, with the snow-capped mountain and the entire area covered with fresh, dazzling white snow.”

“The snowfall started at 3 p.m. Friday, and heavy snowing began at 8 p.m. and continued till midnight, covering the entire area in a thick blanket of snow. Much of the snow was still there even when we flew back from the mountain this afternoon. It is still freezing cold up there and there are chances that it might snow again tonight,” Major Saeed Rashid al-Yamahi was quoted by local press as saying.

  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Today began the 81st (!) Conference of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo. I'm not sure what was accomplished in the first 80 sessions of this organization.

Attending the five-day conference are representatives from Egypt, the PalArab territories, Jordan, Lebanon , Syria and the Arab league as well as the UNRWA Vice-Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi.

I think it is safe to say that the amount of hot air generated at these conferences could provide a small country with energy independence.

Even so, a telling statement was made by the Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine Affairs of the Arab League, Ambassador Mohamed Sobeih, at its opening. According to Palestine Today, he accused Israel of deliberately attacking UNRWA schools in Gaza, "in order to end the refugee issue."
Mohammed Sobeih warned that the Jewish state "wants to break the will of the Palestinian people and their steadfastness, and they want to be aggressive towards the Agency [UNRWA] and its presence, because UNRWA does not want to work to end the issue of Palestinian refugees."
Israel of course has no intentions of harming UNRWA facilities, but Sobeih is right about UNRWA's goals - that this agency has not the slightest interest in solving the Palestinian "refugee" problem; in fact, that it tries as hard as it can to maintain and perpetuate that problem!

After all, the only reason why the descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees are still considered "refugees" themselves is because UNRWA defines them that way! Nowhere else in the world are the descendants of refugees considered refugees themselves. This way, the number of "refugees" will continue to grow forever and UNRWA employees can remain safely employed for generations to come.

Originally, the UNRWA indeed tried to resettle refugees in Arab countries in order to solve that problem. But as the Arab states resisted these moves - even though the UNRWA offered them economic incentives (works programs) - and the UNRWA gave up, turning itself into a huge bureaucracy that is dedicated exclusively to aid and no longer to resettlement or any other solutions.

This desire to perpetuate Palestinian Arab misery is so ingrained in the psyche of the Arab League and the UNRWA that the idea that this problem should ever be solved is regarded as an insult. There is no embarrassment for an Arab League representative to speak of any such ideas in a derogatory way - in front of the a UNRWA representative.

In other words, Sobeih admitted what any neutral observer could have seen for decades: Israel is interested in solving the Palestinian Arab "refugee" problem and the Arab League and UNRWA are not.
  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Times of London buries some very good investigative journalism on the bottom of an article about US attempts to limit arms smuggling to Hamas:
A document circulated to ministers by Israeli military intelligence last week suggested that despite the bombardment, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is well advanced with a huge programme of arms resupply for Gaza.

According to the document, the Iranians are attempting to smuggle munitions from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, where the arms shipments are loaded onto commercial vessels.

In recent weeks at least two Iranian destroyers have been sent to the Gulf of Aden on the pretext of fighting piracy. The Israelis suspect that the destroyers, which are currently in port in Aseb in Eritrea, may have had some role in the shipments.

In January 2002, Israeli naval commandos stormed the Iranian cargo ship Karine A in the Red Sea. They found 50 tons of arms, long-range rockets and explosives being shipped to Yasser Arafat, then the Palestinian leader. Israeli defence sources believe the same route and methods are being used again.

According to the sources, once in the Red Sea the cargo is taken on one of two routes. The first is to dock in Somalia and Sudan, where professional smugglers carry the cargo overland to Sinai. In Sinai, Bedouin specialists smuggle the shipment into Gaza through the notorious border tunnels.

Despite intensive Israeli bombing, some tunnels remain open. Palestinian sources in Rafah, the Gaza Strip’s southern town, estimate that 100 tunnels are still in action, about 20% of the pre-war total.

A second arms smuggling route into Gaza has also been used by Tehran, according to well briefed sources. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has sent shipments through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean to anchor off the Gaza coast, inside Egyptian territorial waters, where the Israeli navy is barred.

After dark, Iranian frogmen transfer weapons in sealed containers to Palestinian fishing boats. This can prove dangerous as the Israeli navy may open fire without warning, but according to the sources it has worked well in the past.

The intelligence report suggested that Iran plans to ship Fajr rockets with a 50-mile range to Gaza. This would bring Tel Aviv, its international airport and the Dimona nuclear reactor within reach for the first time.

Maariv adds a couple of details on the Iranian frogman operation (via Daily Alert:)
According to an Israeli security source, the IDF has encountered Iranian-leased weapons ships anchored ten miles out to sea opposite Rafiah in Egyptian waters.

The weapons are packed in waterproof containers which travel under the surface. During the night, Iranian frogmen transport the containers and tie them to Palestinian fishing vessels located closer to shore.

The Palestinian vessels return to Gaza, towing the containers underwater to avoid detection.
Which means that the Free Gaza terror supporters are very possibly a part of a weapons smuggling ring when they board "fishing boats" to "protect the poor fishermen."

The Times also adds another tidbit, showing that Iran is repeating what it did in Lebanon after the 2006 war- trying to make Hamas into heroes by paying off the population:
Tehran has also promised to rebuild Gaza. Last week Hamas announced that every home-owner whose house had been destroyed would receive €4,000 (£3,820). The families of those who died will receive €1,000 and the wounded will receive €500.
  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades shot a rocket towards Israel that fell short in Beit Hanoun, and Hamas attacked them, injuring some and arresting the rest.

A "Palestinian political expert" was satisfied with Hamas' performance during the war, because he says that the definition of success is the fact that Hamas managed to keep shooting rockets at Israeli civilians throughout.

An unknown group called the "Gaza Martyrs Brigades" took responsibility for firebombing the car of a pro-Hamas professor in the West Bank.

Last Thursday, PA official Yasser Abed Rabbo told journalists that Israel's stopping its operations before dismantling Hamas was a "big mistake" and that Hamas' survival is "bad for all of us."

A British "expert" has accused Israel of using uranium bombs in Rafah. He bases his expert testimony on the similarities he saw on television between explosions in Rafah where Israel was attacking tunnels and explosions he saw in Lebanon where Israel was attacking underground bunkers. I guess this "expert" doesn't realize that Israel didn't use any uranium in Lebanon either. (Arab media has been accusing Israel of using depleted uranium armaments for a while now, and the ever-vigilant UN is investigating these ludicrous claims.)

A Palestinian Arab human rights organization is calling on Hamas to stop its murders, attacks and torture of Fatah members in Gaza.

Gaza terrorists are saying that angels from Allah came down from heaven to guide them during their fighting. The angels must have felt that the ratio of 100-1 deaths was really good. (h/t Womble)
  • Monday, January 26, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Early in the Gaza operation, Israel-bashers pointed to the fact that the IDF had prepared for the war as evidence that Israel was not interested in peace.

Dr. Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas in Damascus, just said that Hamas was preparing for war since the truce began last summer. How much will this bother those "peace" advocates?

Marzouk also said that, while it is true that Gaza lost 1500 people, not to worry: the good Muslim sisters in Gaza gave birth to more than 3500 children in the meanwhile.

Which sort of demolishes the idea that the IDF engages in "genocide." Not that his audience would understand that.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

  • Sunday, January 25, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
There have been some rumors that the Matriarch Rachel appeared to Israeli soldiers in Gaza and helped steer them away from danger. Some prominent rabbis in Israel are supporting the story, others are a bit more skeptical.

Perhaps the best summation comes from David Hazony at Commentary:
For weeks now, we have been hearing rumors about a mysterious woman who appeared before Israeli troops in the thick of the Gaza battles. Not just any woman, mind you, but the biblical Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, matriarch of Israel. (My nine-year-old daughter gave me an excellent speech about the pluses and minuses of believing these rumors.) Israel’s former chief rabbi, Mordechai Eliyahu, announced that he himself had sent her. And now another former chief rabbi and Shas spiritual leader, Ovadiah Yosef, has confirmed these reports.

This is the point where I’m supposed to say how ridiculous it is. A hoax, or a superstition, or something. But I’m not gonna’ do it.

I don’t care if you call the appearance of Rachel a metaphor or a miracle. There is a point in rabbinic discourse where miracles and metaphors all mingle together, where the word “literally” loses its meaning, making room for midrash — the art of saying something illiteral and literary. To say that Rachel was with our soldiers, that our matriarch was protecting her boys, is a deeper statement than anything that can be made by a professional reporter with a camera.

Let’s give the religious spinmasters the benefit of the doubt. Of course she wasn’t there. But, of course, she was.
It is most interesting to see how this story is being reported in the Muslim world. Usually, Muslims are the ones who publicly ascribe their actions to supernatural or divine influences, and they also believe that their religious values are what will help them to ultimately destroy the mostly infidel, secular Jews.

But now they are seeing that the IDF soldiers who entered Gaza did have a greater public spirituality than in previous operations. They are talking about miracles, about prayer, about their increased desire to wear tefillin and tzitzit.

And when Jews talk about G-d, Muslims get nervous. Their entire worldview of Jews is based on Jews having fallen from grace because they angered Allah by not doing their commandments and by not listening to their prophets. Even anecdotal stories about Jewish spirituality on the battlefield get lots of attention in the Arab and Muslim media.

Now, Islam Online is quoting "experts" on Judaism to try to debunk the Rachel story (in Arabic only, of course.)
Commenting on this story in history, a Palestinian professor, an expert on the Jewish history spoke to "Islam Online. Net," saying: "It does not have a scientific basis; Rachel, the wife of Prophet Abraham, Prophet Yusuf's mother, is not known to have participated in the fighting having sanctioned the extermination of children and women."
It goes without saying that this "expert" cannot get even the basic outlines of Rachel's life correct.
Dr. Zakaria Sinwar, a professor of history at the Islamic University in Gaza, and an expert on the Jewish issue, he said: "The Torah did not mention in their books that Rachel was a woman fighter, or participated in the fighting in one day, or sanctioned the extermination of children and women. "

According to Dr. Sinwar in an interview with "Islam Online. Net," "Israel has tried from the outset to show that this is a religious war .. their scrutiny of religious reading of the Torah reveal a dimension of ordering the bloody killing of the young."

He said that the "repetition of the talk about the emergence of Rachel during the war demonstrates that the Israeli soldiers lack the sense of the military .. Are they waiting for Rachel to show them on the whereabouts of the resistance and mines?!. Is Rachel a better means of spying then their advanced technology?!".

He added: "After their failure, the soldiers tried to give an aura of holiness and a religious dimension. Their talk about Rachel is not linked to any historical or religious facts, only naive attempts to imitate what is spoken by the people of Gaza from the verses of Allah and victory in the battle against Israel .. The soldiers say that the angels of Gaza also have fought with us. "

The Palestinian resistance has emphasized the "Islam Online.Net," that God directly supported them, bringing a dense fog, which enabled them to plant and detonate improvised explosive devices in the mechanisms of military occupation.

During the war in Gaza the Israeli media showed images of a soldier on the tank reading the Talmud, and the second leading some religious ceremonies before the launch of missiles, and the third wearing a Jewish skullcap religious symbol.
One only tries to debunk stories that one's audience might otherwise believe.

The terrorists that pray that their Qassam rockets kill Jewish children seem to be getting a bit uneasy that the Jews are praying at the same time to help kill the terrorists. It is almost as if they realize, deep down, that G-d might prefer to be on the Jews' side, as He appears to have been for other wars between Jews and Arabs.

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