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Jules Crittenden had this to say today:

Of course. It has nothing to do with the Palestinian people’s decision to elect a terrorist organization to its government, or the failure of moderate leaders to rid themselves of corruption and exercise true leadership.

The spectacle of Palestinians committing atrocities against Palestinians far beyond any of Israel’s supposed crimes ”illustrates the failure of Bush’s Mideast policy.” It couldn’t possibly suggest that the Palestinian people are incapable of governing themselves and under present circumstances decades, possibly centuries from that.

The famous last words of a Fatah gunman prior to be executed by Hamas gunmen, “We’re not Jews!” brought the retort from a Jewish colleague of mine, “Well, you are now.” But the truth is, while the Palestinians would do to the Jews what they are doing to each othr if they had half a chance, the Jews would not do this to them, nor to each other.

In addition to Bush’s fault, of course, it is Israel’s fault. I’m seeing some Arab fear. Where is the Arab shame? Here’s a thought. How about doing something?

Notice the following paragraph, reread it carefully: The famous last words of a Fatah gunman prior to be executed by Hamas gunmen, “We’re not Jews!” brought the retort from a Jewish colleague of mine, “Well, you are now.” But the truth is, while the Palestinians would do to the Jews what they are doing to each othr if they had half a chance, the Jews would not do this to them, nor to each other. Notice he did not say “We’re not Israelis,” he said “We’re not Jews.” Does that not tell you that the terrorists’ goal is not merely the eradication of of the Zionist Entity but the completion of Hitler’s dream?

As Crittenden so aptly put it, Jews with all their faults could never ever do to others what these Hamas/Fatah thugs are doing to each or even to themselves. Yet, these guys having demonstrated amply what they really want… not a two state solution side by side with the Zionist Entity but a one state based on the most extreme and repressive Islamist rule. And yet, while any other country around the world would take the most extreme measures to defend themselves against such a potential neighbor, the Quartet will soon (as soon as the initial shock wears off) that to prevent another internecine Palestinian slaughter Israel should do another gesture or two on behalf of these thugs to demonstrate good will and encourage them. The world’s hypocrisy when it comes to anything involving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is raising such a moral stench it’s becoming unbearable. And yet, neither the EU nor the Realpolitick James Baker dogs at Foggy Bottom will change their outlook. As far as they are concerned, it’s merely a matter of “better the Jews Israelis, than us.”

The more history changes, the more it stays the same. When Hitler in the 30s said exactly what he was going to do, nobody believed him but he, nevertheless, did it. When Stalin said exactly what he wanted to do, nobody in the West believed him but he, nevertheless, did it. When bin Laden said exactly what he wanted to do nobody believed him but he nevertheless did it! When Ahmedinajad says he wants to “wipe Israel off the map” nobody believes him… When Hamas says that it cannot rest until the Zionist Entity has been wiped off nobody believes them, not even in Israel… Little does the West realize that as a beast gets used to flesh and blood it craves more and more of the same… I hope and pray the West wakes up and realizes the carnage in Gaza, could next happen anywhere in the West. If these animals have little regard for their own why would they have any regard for anybody else? Thinking that a problem will go away if you ignore never worked, why would it work now?!?!?
Chaim

The Iranian Republic News Agency has already found the perpetrators of yesterday’s explosion at the Great Mosque in Samarra:

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Thursday expressed condolences on the occasion of Wednesday’s sacrilege to the holy shrines in Iraq and considered the occupiers and Zionists the main masterminds behind this ‘big crime.’
The holy shrines of Shiite Imams, Ali al-Naqi (AS) and Hassan al-Askariya (AS) in the Iraqi city of Samarra were attacked Wednesday morning for the second time by terrorists. The holy shrines were first attacked on February 22, 2006.

“While being vigilant in the face of dangerous divisive policies of enemies, the ulema and dignitaries in the world of Islam and all Muslims, particularly the Iraqi people – Shia and Sunni – should maintain self-restraint and amity with their Muslim brethren more than ever,” the Supreme Leader said in a message issued on the tragic event.

The criminal seditionists once against committed another crime, said the Leader adding the explosion at the holy shrines and the sacrilege to the Askari shrines have pit the world of Islam against a horrible conspiracy aimed at fanning the flames of a civil war in Iraq and engaging Muslim states in bloody religious and sectarian events.

The Leader said, “The disgraceful and blind-hearted agents behind this big crime, whether they are remaining stooges of Saddam’s Baathist regime or the beguiled Wahhabi and Salafi fanatics, it cannot be doubted that the intelligence services of the occupiers and Zionists are the main masterminds of these heinous schemes.

“The occupiers have left the scene open to terrorists and panic-mongers to weaken the bases of the popular government of Iraq and justify their illegitimate presence in that country and are causing discord among Muslim brethren.”
The Leader stressed that the Askari shrines were respected in Samarra by Sunni Muslims for centuries and nobody had in any time insulted them.

“Now, this is the second time that this holy and exalted site has been violated shamelessly and criminally during the domination of the occupiers,” said Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Supreme Leader urged the Iraqi Shia and Sunni brethren not to be entrapped by the enemy conspiracies.

“Muslims throughout the world should be vigilant of the discord-sowing and war-mongering policies of enemies of Islam. Today, enemies will fan the flames of discord in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and any corner of the world of Islam that they can and instigate Muslims on various religious, partisan and ethnic pretexts to stand against each other and commit fratricide.”
The Leader warned that Muslims should not help the enemies achieve their “dangerous and disgraceful objective”.

The Supreme Leader called on the Sunni ulema to condemn the Samarra catastrophe and voice their disdain towards those behind this event.

Ayatollah Khamenei also invited the Shia ulema and followers of the Ahl-al-Beit (the infallible family of the Prophet (PBUH)) to self-restraint.

The Leader advised all ulema and religious dignitaries of the world of Islam to show amity towards their brethren and respect the religious sentiments of any faith.

Yep, folks, you heard it here! “It cannot be doubted that the intelligence services of the occupiers and Zionists are the main masterminds of these heinous schemes.” “But…” I can already hear you saying gentle reader, “there are no Zionists in Iraq, and the insurgent fanatics hate the Jooz even more than they hate each other!!!” Who you gonna believe, truth and common sense or the exalted, the unHoly, Ayatollah Khamenei? Dare you say the Ayatollah is misspeaking?!?!? Off, off with your head, infidel!

So now the real truth has finally come out… those horrible Wahabbis and Salafists fanatics are nothing more than American and Zionist agents. Why even the Americans do nothing more than the bidding of the Zionist Entity. Ahhh, dem Jooz, dem Jooz, tssk, tssk Well there it is folks… the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but lies… Iranian style!

 
Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
(Photo from: Wikipedia)

Chaim

Lebanon’s Daily Star reports on Syria’s desperate lies:

DAMASCUS: Syria has roundly denied claims by UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen of illegal arms trafficking from Syria into Lebanon. A senior Syrian Foreign Ministry official, quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency, called the claims “false.”

On Monday, the UN Security Council reiterated “deep concern” about “illegal movements of arms” across the Syrian-Lebanese border. The council issued its non-binding statement after hearing from Roed-Larsen, who cited Lebanese Army reports of “a steady flow of weapons and armed elements across the border.”

“The information from the government of Lebanon on trafficking of arms and militants across the Syrian-Lebanese border is disturbing,” the envoy said.

He also cited detailed reports from Israel and other states “on illegal transfers of arms,” indicating that some weapons produced outside the region arrive from third countries and are brought clandestinely into Lebanon via Syria.

 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently sent an independent mission to assess monitoring of the border, and the team’s report is expected at the end of the month.

But the Syrian Foreign Ministry official, whose name was not given, said that “Roed-Larsen is [taking verbatim] information that Israel is spreading about arms trafficking,” adding that “his claims made to the UN Security Council are aimed at damaging Syrian-Lebanese relations.”

Syria denounces the misleading reports that Roed-Larsen typically presents to the Security Council. It has therefore cut all links with Roed-Larsen, who is at the service of known international interests and does not serve the UN agenda,” the spokesman said.

He also accused the envoy of “always ignoring the flagrant interference in domestic Lebanese affairs of known parties who are blocking the Lebanese from reaching a national understanding and resolving their problems.” In particular, he accused Israel of “violating the sovereignty, unity and independence of Lebanon and of continuing to occupy Lebanese lands in defiance of international law.”

In case you were not sure whether Syria was indeed guilty of Terje Roed-Larsen’s accusation or just a victim of a blood libel, let’s examine that last sentence: he accused Israel of “violating the sovereignty, unity and independence of Lebanon and of continuing to occupy Lebanese lands in defiance of international law.” The fact remains that in 2000 Koffi Annan (not Israel’s best friend, remember?) praised Israel as he certified that the Zionist Entity had removed itself from every last inch of internationally recognized Lebanese borders according to the borders set in 1920.

What does this tell you? It shows that Assad and his rats, when caught red handed, will not hesitate to accuse one and all in desperate efforts to obfuscate the truth. Like Jozef Goebbels they hope that by repeating a lie long enough people will become to accept it as the truth. What will they gain by that? Why, gentle reader, if they can convince the EU and the US that not Syria but Israel is the aggressor then everybody will turn their attention on the Zionist Entity which will give Assad and his boys more time to plan further murders of Lebanese politicians who oppose them. In fact, if Syria feels safe from prying eyes it may try many more terrorist acts like yesterday’s murder of lebanese MP Wallid Eido, his son, two bodyguards and two innocent bystanders. Eido was the chairman of the Lebanese Parliament’s Defense Committe and a staunch opponent of Syria’s bid to take over Lebanon.

Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, made similar complaints on Monday.

The 15-member Security Council also reiterated its full support for Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government.

In its statement, the council called on all Lebanese political parties to show responsibility “with a view to preventing, through dialogue, further deterioration of the situation.”

Roed-Larsen also highlighted “allegations of widespread rearming and the possibility of renewed fighting among the Lebanese.”

Baby Assad’s neck is starting to warm up alarmingly, for the sake of a free and independent Lebanon, for the sake of the downtrodden Syrian people… let’s permanently tighten the noose around his neck by speeding up that international tribunal.

Chaim

Ahmed Al-Jarallah is, yet again, pointing the  finger as he writes:

THE Gaza massacres are the other face of an ongoing battle between the legitimate army and Fatah Al-Islam gang in Naher Al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon. Both these battles have Iran and Syria on one side and Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the other. Since the signing of the Makkah Treaty between Hamas and Fatah to stop fighting and establish a national unity government, the Syrian regime has been trying to win Hamas back to its side. The Syrian intelligence has succeeded in winning back its alliance with the leader of Hamas, Khalid Mishaal, who resides in Damascus and is working hard to set aside the Makkah Treaty to serve the interests of Tehran and Damascus, regardless of the large number of innocent Palestinians being killed in the process.

Babby Assad is desperately trying to deflect the world’s attention from his own upcoming trial, from his own crimes against Lebanon. To achieve that he foments trouble throughout the area, hoping that if the region goes up in flames there will be neither time nor interest in pursuing justice. This situation serves the putrid little maggot from Iran, Ahmedinajad, just perfectly as it serves to consolidate his influence among various IslamoFascists groups in the area. The more Assad tries to ignite the region, the stronger his actions serve to indict him and prove his culpability. What Assad Jr. fails to realize is that at the first opportune moment the putrid little maggot will sell him out as a gesture to the West. That gesture will definitely buy him time and lower the pressure against his nuclear development.

Damascus put the blame on the Makkah Treaty to initiate a brotherly conflict in Palestine to get Hamas on its side. To achieve this, the Syrian regime ignited a fight between brothers living in the Gaza Strip, which will add to the misery and suffering of Palestinians. Hamas started the mutiny against the authority of Abu Mazen and declared a war on the legitimacy of the state. Abu Mazen must stand firm and eliminate the existence of Hamas, which serves Syrian interests. Arab countries must support Abu Mazen to achieve this because vested interests have turned Gaza into a battlefield which has resulted in the death of innocent people. It is time for these bloody games to stop. Iran is working hard to ease the pressure exerted on it from the international community because of its nuclear program, while the Syrian regime is  increasing the pressure in Gaza and Lebanon to keep the sword of justice away from the necks of its leaders … but their plans won’t work.

Abu Mazen has proven himself ineffectual as a leader, ineffectual as a peace partner, ineffectual in everything! He only plays “firm” (and not very convincingly!) when talking to the Zionist Entity, not when it comes to confronting his own thugs. Unfortunately, there are no leaders in sight to replace him. Mohammad Dahlan, has fled from Gaza and is hiding currently in Cairo, others who also at various points were seen by the EU and the US as saviours of the Palestinians are also in hiding.

Could any of these figures save the Palestinians from themselves? At best, it is very debatable! Would they have the courage, the will, the strength, to break through the corruption and make the right the decisions for their people and the region? I am afraid the answer is all too obvious and unfortunate… So what should the West do? Certainly not send more moneys that will never find their way to the people. Certainly not build, at present, a Gaza port (as Netherlands has just decided). Such a port will only serve to bring in more weapons for the Palestinian gangs to shoot and kill each other while encouraging further terror on Israel. It would also make it easier for Al-Qaeda to establish a firmer foothold in the area. Will the West ever wake up?
Chaim

In the Netherlands, it would seem, there is the law and then those “with special needs” who can supersede the law…

THE HAGUE, 14/06/07 – The municipality of Diemen may not freeze the welfare benefit of a Muslim woman who wears clothing that covers her entirely. She cannot be asked to remove her burqa to improve her chance of getting a job. Nor is she required to accept work that is contrary to the Koran, according to a ruling by an Amsterdam court.

The woman started wearing the burqa in the summer of 2005, and decided to apply for benefit a year later. In March, the Diemen local authority stopped the benefit payment for three months because of “culpable actions” by the woman that formed an obstruction to finding work.

The woman applied for work at call centre company Telfort, the Bedrijven Vereniging Amsterdam Zuidoost and at Aurora, a telework centre. All three rejected her because the burqa represented a safety risk, gave insufficient scope for normal communication and for other practical reasons.

The court judged that it was not the woman’s fault that she was rejected. Also, it would be “disproportional” for the local authority to insist that she should remove the burqa to improve her chances of finding a job. In the verdict, the court took into account the fact that the chances of the woman finding suitable work were by no means exhausted.

The Muslim woman was offered a job at call centre Annie Connect, selling lottery tickets by phone. But she justifiably refused this, said the judges. Although every welfare benefit recipient is obliged by law to agree to generally accepted work, it is “a generally known fact that Muslims are not allowed to gamble”, the court stated. The job at Annie Connect was therefore not generally accepted work.

Many Islamic scholars have said that the complete covering of the face (except for the eyes) is not a requirement of the Quran. Even Sheikh Al-Qharadawi a leading figure of Sunni Islam has previously declared, for example, that European governments are within their rights in proscribing it in public institutions. If this woman wants to be supported from the public dole, then she is as obligated as everyone else to obey the rules for such support For a court to declare otherwise, shows not only the judge’s disregard and lack of respect for the country’s rule of law it also shows his/her total lack of understanding of what a court of law is supposed to be.

There is no question that freedom of religious expression should never be tampered with, everyone who loves liberty and democracy must stand up to forcefully defend such freedom. However, when an individual’s practice is no more than a voluntary extra (rather than a religious requirement) that impedes his/her following the law of the land (especially at taxpayer’s cost!), no court should ever rule in favor of the religious zealot!

There is no religiously compelling reason for the woman to dress the way she does. Especially if she only chose to do so in 2005, did she not follow her religion before that? Did she suddenly become a born again Muslim? Are there no jobs in Denmark other than call centers? This lady has shown herself to be no more than a skilled manipulator of the system, which is why she only applied for positions she either would not get or which her “religious beliefs” would find objectionable. The state should not indulge her, as it will only encourage tens of thousands to follow in her footsteps. I’m afraid that when it comes to this particular court’s idiotic decision, I must paraphrase Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist…. This Court is a Ass!!!

Chaim

Once again, I feel compelled to post an editorial opinion from Kuwait’s Arab Times by its Editor-in-Chief, Ahmed Al-Jarallah:

ONCE we learn the international tribunal which was formed by the United Nations under Article 7, has the authority to summon the president of any country, then we will know why the Syrian regime has done its best to prevent the formation of an international tribunal to try the murderers of late Rafik Al-Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon. The Syrian regime feels the danger is closing in and big names will be accused of assassinating Hariri and a group of Lebanese elite. Certainly this international court will provide the security cover for Lebanon against terrorist operations and undo attempts by vested parties to shackle the Lebanese system.

I am very much afraid, that as soon as the Judges have been chosen and the Tribunal will be about to start its work, that the real problems in Lebanon will start… Unless… the putrid little maggot, Ahmedinajad, realizes he’s got little to gain from serving as a shield for Baby Assad and he, Ahmedinajad, will order his Lebanese minions to stay low and sacrifice the murderous Syrian. That would be the logical thing to do, but logic as we understand it in the West, is not something that is not a widespread practice in the Middle East.

The Syrian intelligence has been trying its best to show the world that Lebanon badly needs its guardianship, which explains why Lebanon became the scene of booby-trapped cars which claimed the lives of innocent people and extremist gangs mushroomed under different names. The Syrian intelligence has done all in its power to keep President Bashar Al-Assad away from being interrogated by the tribunal. The regime was so confused it had to take quick action, which resulted in issuing contradictory statements to deny the regime’s involvement in the assassination of Hariri. Sadly Syria won the support of some Lebanese followers, who agreed to play to the tune of the Syrian music. Cleric Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah has dedicated his money and efforts to have a share in the rule of Lebanon claiming he is the only one who cares for Lebanon’s interests. 

There is no question that aside from his obvious lust for Lebanon, Assad Jr. has much to hide, much to fear… and so do his followers in Lebanon, his accomplices… Hassan Nasrallah, Nabi Berri, and Michel Aoun have much to gain from Assad and his friends and relatives not being called to the International Tribunal. I also very much doubt that Nasrallah has actually spent a wooden nickel of his own money… it all came from Iran and Syria

The Lebanese people are paying the price for the mistakes of a minority who are serving foreign interests and executing the agenda of Iran and Syria. After forming the international tribunal, the Syrian regime is expected to increase its devastating activities in Iraq and Lebanon to create a different scenario unlike the battles in the Balkan and the trial of Serbia’s President, Slobodan Milosevic, who died a lonely death in the prison of justice.

The Lebanese people and the average Palestinian in Gaza are paying the price for the greed, the corruption and the blood lust of their leaders under the direction of Syria and its Masters in Iran. The current situation in Gaza is hurting most those it was supposed to help the most. Palestinians are trying to flee en masse, those who can’t are hoping for Israel to take over again or for the Jordanians to do so. The PA cannot continue like this, unfortunately while the terrorists on both parties (Hamas and Fatah) may be killing each other they are killing and maiming some of their regular citizenry including innocent children.

The same is happening in Lebanon, terrorists have entrenched themselves in Palestinian refugee camps where the Lebanese security forces have not been allowed in for the last 40 years. The end result of Lebanon not having full sovereignty over every inch of its territory is the situation we see now. Syrian associated terrorists, many of them foreign, have taken over the camps and doing their best to engulf Lebanon in a war for its life. Lebanon, beautiful Lebanon, was considered the Riviera of the Middle East in the 50s. It could once again flourish as such, with its long standing tradition of coexistence between Shiites, Sunnis and Maronite Christians. If Lebanon manages to expel all foreigners, if it regains full control of every millimeter of its soil, it has a chance to once again be that beautiful, dreamy, Riviera of the Middle East. But… first it must contend with the likes of Baby Assad and Ahmedinajad… and with international help… smash them!!!

Chaim

The last two days of Gaza infighting in have so far produced 16 dead ans a few dozen wounded, with both Fatah and Hamas breaking into each other’s leaders homes to kill, to burn the houses down and to kidnap so the that the kidnapped officials could be thrown down from Gaza towers to their death. Today, Tuesday, the fighting goes on without any signs of abatement:

Hamas TV: We have taken over the northern Gaza Strip

Hamas launched a full-scale attack Tuesday afternoon against Fatah security bases and positions in Gaza, and succeeded in taking over a number of them, Israel Radio reported.

Hamas-affiliated television said that the organization overtook the entire northern section of the Gaza Strip, the report stated.

Israel Radio also reported that a top Fatah military official sent a message to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stating that security forces were holding their ground, but calling on the Fatah leader to order an end to the current policy of restraint, allowing troops to return fire.

Less then an hour after the attack, Abbas called for an immediate cease-fire.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, Fatah announced that within several hours, the faction would decide whether to stay in the unity government with Hamas, or leave the Palestinian Authority government altogether, Israel Radio reported.

The announcement coincided with a Hamas attack on the National Security headquarters in Gaza, an incident which followed a recent threat of such action by the extremist Islamic faction. National Security is one of the armed forces affiliated with Fatah.

Hamas also announced that Fatah must evacuate all buildings used by Military Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guard, National Security and Preventive Security.

Hamas and Fatah signed a truce and agreed on setting up a unity government in Riyadh under the auspices of Saudi Arabia in March, but gunmen in Gaza took to the streets on numerous occasions since then and internecine bloodshed never ceased completely.

In recent days, internecine Palestinian violence reached new heights when rival factions took their fights into the hospitals, even causing treatment at one hospital to cease for several hours after a doctor was dragged to the street and shot six times in the legs. On Sunday, a Hamas member and a Fatah operative were killed by being cuffed and thrown off high-rises.

Early Tuesday morning, PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his family were attacked when rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) were fired at his house.

Abbas, the leader of Fatah, blamed Hamas of attempting to effect a coup d’etat and destroying the rule of law, accusing Hamas’s political wing – led by Haniyeh – of backing the military wing in its attempt to topple Abbas.

Two more Palestinians were killed in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp since Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, Fatah spokesman Maher Miqdad, speaking on a Palestinian radio station, blamed Iran for the internecine violence in the Gaza Strip. Miqdad was quoted by Israel Radio.

Miqdad said Iran is sponsoring a Shi’ite war using Hamas.

Iran was using Hamas to “conduct ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian territories,” Miqdad was quoted as saying.

Palestinian women bewailing the reigning chaos
(photo from: The Jerusalem Post)

The situation in the PA has reached a point where according to standard practices death must be avenged, this is a point of no return, all the multiple truces were of no avail. The hatred and the violence unleashed against the Zionist Entity has resulted in internecine fighting that has seen a ferocity far above that shown to the Jews, a barbarism that shows the world the Palestinians do not want peace, they do not know the meaning of the word. When the whole educational system, when every show on TV preaches violence, destruction, the honor and rewards of becoming a shahid, it is no wonder that there is nothing but chaos prevailing in Gaza.

The head of the Egyptian mediation team, Lt. -Col. Burhan Hamad, said neither side responded to his call to hold truce talks Tuesday.

“…They have killed all hope. They have killed the future,” said Hamad, who brokered several previous short-lived cease-fires.

We are dealing here with leadership that does not truly wants to improve the conditions of their people, we are dealing with barbarians who want absolute power no matter how many of their own people must die, must be maimed. Yet, the West is blinded by their own short term interest…

Both sides have become more and more ruthless in recent days. Two men were thrown off high-rises earlier in the week, several people have been shot from close range in field executions, and hospitals have become firing zones.

On Tuesday morning, a gun battle erupted at the European Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Hamas gunmen controlling the rooftop traded fire with Fatah-allied security forces posted nearby. Fifteen children attending a kindergarten in the line of fire were rushed into the main building of the hospital, funded largely by European donations.

Elsewhere, a member of the Hamas military wing was kidnapped and executed by Fatah gunmen. The dead man was identified as a cousin of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader Israel assassinated in 2004.

Separately, Hamas gunmen attacked the home of a senior Fatah security official with mortars and grenades, killing his 14-year-old son and three women in the house, security officials said. Other Fatah gunmen stormed the house of a Hamas lawmaker and burned it to the ground.

The fighting also spilled into the West Bank, with Palestinian security forces seizing two employees of the Hamas-linked Al Aksa TV station in the city of Ramallah and confiscating equipment. Fatah gunmen said Hamas leaders in the West Bank, a Fatah stronghold, would be targeted if Hamas doesn’t halt its attacks in Gaza.

The latest fighting disrupted final exams for university and high school students. The three Gaza universities called off final exams set for Tuesday. High schools were trying to move test centers to areas out of the range of fire, said Mohammed Abu Shkeir, the deputy minister of education.

Is that the way a civilized society resolves its problems, is that the way for any group to attain independence and lasting peace? The answer, gentle reader, is rather obvious but it points to a bigger more nefarious hand working behind the scenes. Earlier Tuesday, Fatah spokesman Maher Miqdad, speaking on a Palestinian radio station, blamed Iran for the internecine violence in the Gaza Strip. Miqdad was quoted by Israel Radio. Miqdad said Iran is sponsoring a Shi’ite war using Hamas.

Yes, the putrid little maggot and the Syrian murderer of Lebanese politicians and journalists are pulling the strings. Babby Assad, told the UN Secretary General, Ban ki Moon, that he would destabilize the whole Middle East if the International Tribunal would go ahead. Assad Jr. is certainly keeping his word, in cahoots with Ahmedinajad who is pulling all the string. A destabilized Middle East will provide the Iranian maggot with the excuse to flex muscle and cause more death, more devastation, and indulge his thirst for power. If he succeeds, he will then use the Middle East as a lauinching pad for his attack on the West. The West can continue talking and negotiating, or… it can pull itself together rise up from its self induced stupor and let that descendant of apes and pigs know that not only will his interference with other regimes not be tolerated, but the consequences will be hell!!!

If the West is firm for a change, if it can prove unequivocally that it means business for a change, the putrid little maggot will self destroy. The people of Iran are already, increasingly, loosing patience with the repressive Ayatollahs regime. Iran’s economy is sliding downwards at too fast a pace. With the unequivocal encouragement and support of the West Iranians will fiercelesly bring down the dictatorial regime and return to live in peace with their neighbors and trade partners while creating a prosperous, highly educated society. Will the West rise up to its duty or… will it continue talking… continue to be fooled?

Palestinian mourners shout as they carry the body of
Fatah leader Jamal Al-Jedyan, during his funeral in the
Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip,
Tuesday, June 12, 2007.
(photo from: The Jerusalem Post)

Can a country that refuses to use 50% of its resources be as successful as it can be? If those resources are human brains which are denied opportunities, denied education and the persons to whom those brains belong are treated as property rather than as fully human, can such a society truly prosper?

Mona Eltahawy, writes on SaudiDebate.com:

Families stop Arab women achieving real potential

Dr Khaled bin Jabor al-Thani, deputy chairman of the permanent election committee in Qatar, spent about three years preparing 150 Qatari women to run in their country’s municipal elections in April. Qatar became the first Gulf country to give women suffrage when the small emirate held its first polls in 1999 for the 29-seat council that advises the ministry of municipal affairs and agriculture – but none of the six women candidates who ran that year was elected. It was clear women needed help.

But of the 150 women who were getting that help, only three completed the training and actually contested the elections this year, running against 116 men.

Why?

It was because their families didn’t want them to compete.

Ponder on those numbers for a moment – just three out of 150 women. When the figures are that stark, asking ‘Is the family holding back women’s advancement in the Arab world?’ sounds like a trick question. But it was in fact the subject of a debate I recently took part in during a conference in Doha on women’s issues called ‘Spirit of Empowerment’.

Dr. Khaled was my debating partner and while his shocking anecdotal evidence was quite enough to tip the scales and the audience our way, we had actually won long before we started. In a poll taken before our debate, a resounding 78 percent of those in the audience said that families are holding back women’s advancement in the Arab world. And more poignantly, one after another, young Qatari women got up during the conference with a litany of complaints about their families that could best be summarized thus: their families won’t let them grow up. Whether it was complaints of being barred from traveling alone or being forced to study what their families chose for them, it was clear that these women were being treated like little girls. And the law in many Arab countries colludes to keep them that way.

It is tempting to tell women who complain of being barred from traveling alone to just get up and go, but remember that in many Arab countries a woman cannot apply for a passport without the signature of a male guardian and in some she can’t leave the country without said signature.

How long will the Arab world continue to infantilize half of its population, at the expense not just of their mental and emotional well being but at the cost of its gross domestic product too? As countless studies have shown – the UN’s Arab Human Development Report being just one of many – Arab countries consistently miss the development train because half of their populations remain either illiterate or are held back by the social and traditional factors our conference audience complained about.

The first Arab Human Development Report famously declared in 2002 that the region suffered three critical deficits that kept it off that development train: lack of freedom, knowledge and rights for women. The latest report focuses solely on women and argues that women in the Arab world are not realizing their full potential and are still denied equality of opportunity.

For a closer look at what the family does to women, I refer you to Roses in Salty Soil: A Feminist Ethnography of the Phenomenology of Women’s Depression in Egypt Today, the MA thesis of American University in Cairo graduate Dalia Mostafa that takes an in-depth look at the experiences of 10 Egyptian Muslim women from various socio-economic and educational backgrounds. Seven out of 10 of the women she studied suffered from depression because of pressures from their families. The complaints Mostafa came across were almost identical to those voiced at our conference.

For those who think the wealth of countries like Qatar and other Gulf states translates into greater freedom for women, I remind them of this brilliant observation by Nader Fergany, the Egyptian statistician who headed the team that produced that first Arab Human Development Report:

“A person who is not free is poor. A woman who is not empowered is poor. And a person who has no access to knowledge is poor,” he told Al Ahram Weekly in an interview in 2002.

Many of the women at our conference were either university students or had already received their degrees. Their education and relative wealth might shelter them from what would surely be much harsher complaints were their illiterate sisters from across the region at the conference – and yet the Bachelors and Masters degrees and the affluence of our audience were still not enough to guarantee freedom from family constraints.

So what was there to argue about during our debate? Nothing, really. There were moments when our debate opponents, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani seemed to be arguing against us for the sake of arguing. But the debate, like the conference itself – organized by Art of Business – was not about ignoring the obvious in the Arab world but rather giving Arab women the chance to argue over their issues and – just as importantly – show the younger ones examples of women whose success was a glorious vindication of the ability to navigate avalanches of “no’s” from their families and to come out with some hard-won experience. For young women, thirsty with the need to hear that it can be done, such role models are crucial.

When I was in my early 20s and struggling desperately with the decision to take off a headscarf I had worn for nine years, it was such older women whose experiences provided the cool hands of grace that guided me out of my feelings of guilt and confusion. And so One young Qatari woman who successfully runs a business in a sector that is dominated almost universally – not just in Qatar – by men, told me her family put their foot down on her traveling abroad alone after an uncle chastised her parents for allowing an older sister to travel alone to the U.S. for a summer course.

“I’m 27 years old and I can’t leave the country by myself,” she complained. I told her I was 28 when I first traveled abroad by myself.

It was equally gratifying to see the women in the audience argue among themselves. When one ultra-conservative woman who wore the niqab, or face veil, said she chose not to travel abroad because she worried that if she got into an accident none of her male relatives would be there to ensure her body was properly covered, another Qatari woman eviscerated her arguments, telling her that there was nothing in Islam that obliged a woman to cover her face and that if she wanted to curb her own horizons it was her loss.

Just a few hours before that exchange, we heard the daring journalist Tawakol Karaman, founder of the media and human rights organization Female Journalists Without Chains, recount how she was one of the very few Yemeni women who removed her face veil publicly to prove that Islam did not impose niqab on women

One young Qatari woman who successfully runs a business in a sector that is dominated almost universally – not just in Qatar – by men, told me her family put their foot down on her traveling abroad alone after an uncle chastised her parents for allowing an older sister to travel alone to the U.S. for a summer course.

“I’m 27 years old and I can’t leave the country by myself,” she complained. I told her I was 28 when I first traveled abroad by myself.

It was equally gratifying to see the women in the audience argue among themselves. When one ultra-conservative woman who wore the niqab, or face veil, said she chose not to travel abroad because she worried that if she got into an accident none of her male relatives would be there to ensure her body was properly covered, another Qatari woman eviscerated her arguments, telling her that there was nothing in Islam that obliged a woman to cover her face and that if she wanted to curb her own horizons it was her loss.

Just a few hours before that exchange, we heard the daring journalist Tawakol Karaman, founder of the media and human rights organization Female Journalists Without Chains, recount how she was one of the very few Yemeni women who removed her face veil publicly to prove that Islam did not impose niqab on women.

More distressing than listening to my debate opponents make arguments that I’m sure they didn’t agree with was to hear some participants lose sight of our discussion and focus instead on the West and what they claimed was its miserable lack of family cohesion. It was classic defend-by-attack mode. And it perfectly wastes our time. Distracting arguments about the West trying to corrupt our societies under the guise of women’s rights are more insulting to Arab societies than they are to the West. And surely we can take pride in our culture without putting down someone else’s? But that culture must be challenged and when it hurts – physically or emotionally – half of its population, what good does denial and attacking the West do?

The wholesale rejection of anything just because the West does it is a ridiculous example of how too many noses are cut off to spite our own face in the Arab world. But talking about women’s rights as if they were an exclusive club for western women is nothing short of ignorant, because it denies the existence of our own women’s rights activists, many of whom were leading by example in the late 1800s and at the turn of the last century.

Denial will never win the head butting contest with reality. What is gained by pretending that despite all evidence to the contrary, the constraints Arab families place on women are not so bad because they save us from whatever disasters women’s rights have visited upon the West? Arab women suffer depression because of those constraints. Our economies lag behind most regions in the world. And what is gained? The ability to point to women and their miserable status as proof that we are “good” Muslims and Arabs? What good are the 10-lane highways of Saudi Arabia if women are forever consigned to the passenger seat or the two back rows of the public buses? What good are the American universities that have opened branches in Doha’s Education City if they only serve to remind the young women who fill their halls of the freedoms they can’t have?

Arab women deserve the freedom to grow up.

I wrote, on January the 3rd of this year, about the 2002 UN Report which attributed all the problems in the Muslim world from poverty to lack of opportunities, to general backwardness in relation to the rest of the world to three main causes: lack of freedom, poor general education and educational emphasis mainly in the area of religion, and an appalling lack of women’s rights. On the last cause, lack of women’s rights, I quoted from the report as follows :

Women’s status. The one thing that every outsider knows about the Arab world is that it does not treat its women as full citizens. The report sees this as an awful waste: how can a society prosper when it stifles half its productive potential? After all, even though women’s literacy rates have trebled in the past 30 years, one in every two Arab women still can neither read nor write. Their participation in their countries’ political and economic life is the lowest in the world.

Governments and societies (and sometimes, as in Kuwait, societies and parliamentarians are more backward than their governments) vary in the degrees of bad treatment they mete out to women. But in nearly all Arab countries, women suffer from unequal citizenship and legal entitlements. The UNDP has a “gender-empowerment measure” which shows the Arabs near the bottom (according to this measure, sub-Saharan Africa ranks even worse). But the UN was able to measure only 14 of the 22 Arab states, since the necessary data were not available in the others. This, as the report says, speaks for itself, reflecting the general lack of concern in the region for women’s desire to be allowed to get on.

I then commented, thus: In other words, the Arab World is an area riddled with repressive totalitarian regimes, lack of women’s rights and above all a lack of education that will bring their people into the 21st century. Worst of all… since political freedom is almost nonexistent, since the lack of women’s rights are not the concern of many, and as far education… well… “65m adults are illiterate, almost two-thirds of them women. Some 10m children still have no schooling at all.” To put this number in perspective… there were 280 million people within the 22 member nations of the Arab League in 2002 as the report says, ranging from 68 million in Egypt to 565,000 in Qatar.

When 42 million Muslim women remain illiterate, that culture is wasting tremendous brain power. In the west, where laws guarantee absolute equality between the genders, even if in real life women may still have some catching up to do, women have been in the forefront of the academic, scientific research and business fields. The west is so much the better precisely because they have made use of those resources so wasted in the Muslim world. Women are not regarded as children in the West, as the father of two daughters and three sons, I always encouraged my children equally. I always taught them that the only force strong enough to stop them from pursuing their dreams was each individual’s self. Then I proceeded to encourage and help them along. Today, my daughters are successful both on their own rights as well powerful partners to their husbands. My sons, also (when it came time to marry) looked for strong and intelligent women. Why? To raise a family successfully, to give each child what he or she needs, to nurture what each has to offer takes two parents who are strong, intelligent and understanding. Aside from the physical differences between genders, both the father and the mother bring different skillsets to the family, lest those skills are utilized to their utmost that family will suffer, the future will suffer, the world as a whole will be so much the worse.

Unless women are recognized as equal, unless they are allowed and encouraged to pursue their intellectual interest, the Muslim world will not rise again to where it was 700-800 years ago. At the time, the Muslim world stood at the very pinnacle of science and math. When education became something only certain elites could pursue, when new and outrageous interpretations of the Quran, became the vogue, the Islamic world started to slide and that was the beginning of the rise of IslamoFascism, that also was the beginning of a heretofore unseen, unheard repression of women’s rights.

Are they wearing a veil because Islam presccribes it…
or because the men demand it?!?!?

Chaim

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Avraham Burg, scion of a powerful political family. who himself was one of Israel’s most powerful men before retiring from politics, had this to say:

Burg: Defining Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end

Avraham Burg, former Knesset speaker and former head of the Jewish Agency says “to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It’s dynamite.” In an interview in Haaretz Weekend Magazine, he said that he is in favor of abrogating the Law of Return and calls on everyone who can to obtain a foreign passport.

Burg, who was interviewed on the occasion of the publication of his book “Defeating Hitler” said “the strategic mistake of Zionism was to annul the alternatives. Israeliness has only body; it doesn’t have soul.”

“Judaism always prepared alternatives,” says Burg, who three years after leaving Israeli politics is now a citizen of France and a successful businessman

“Just as there was something astonishing about German Jewry, in America, too, they created the potential for something astonishing. They created a situation in which the goy can be my father and my mother and my son and my partner,” Burg says.

His book ruminates about Israel and Zionism, compares Israel and Germany, harshly criticizes Eichmann’s hanging, reflects on Judaism in the age of globalization and remembers his father’s house.

Burg said he started his book in mourning for the loss of Israel. “During most of the writing the book’s title was ‘Hitler Won.’ But slowly I discovered the layer of not everything being lost. And I discovered my father as a representative of German Jewry that was ahead of its time. These two themes nourished the book from beginning to end.”

The Roman Empire was not defeated by mighty armies. It was destroyed from within. When in their “sophistication” people no longer identified with the old values, when the emptiness of new ideas, the sophistry of politicians who spoke pretty words while offering no substance, when there was nothing worth defending, no ideals worth pursuing, Rome fell like the house of cards it had become. Rome, the once mighty empire, had become a large, empty, soulless body. It took, however, well over a millennium before Rome lost its soul.

Israel, at 58 is already starting to show signs of emptiness. If it is not too remain a Jewish State, then it lacks purpose, it lacks legitimacy. To merely be a western like enclave in the Levant, was not, is not, will not be sufficient reason to sustain its existence. Almost from its inception, as a careful perusal of Israel’s history will show, the successive socialist governments tried their hardest to do away with the trappings of religion thereby slowly destroying the fabric, the identity, that made Jews different and a cohesive group.

For 2,000 years of exile Jews kept their identity because of the flame that burned deeply within their heart, because of their yearning for ancestral home, because their Holy Days prayers always closed with “Beshana haba’a b’Yerushalayim – Next year in Jerusalem.” Naftali Herz Imber, Yiddish and Hebrew poet, New York drunkard, explained that yearning best, in the second stanza of his Hatikva (the poem that later became Israel’s national anthem):

Od lo avda tikvatenu
Our hope is not yet lost

Hatikva bat shnot alpayim
The hope of two thousand years

Lihyot am chofshi be’artzenu
To be a free people in our land

Eretz Tzyion v’Yerushalayim
The Land of Zion and Jerusalem

I am not a political Zionist, I left Israel disilliosoned at what the Zionist dream had degenerated into, but my heart still swells with tears as I hear the stirring melody and words that express my exact hopes, my exact prayer.

Avraham Burg, who once had a shot at becoming the top man in the Labour Party and possibly Prime Minister, represents the cancer within that is destroying the soul of a nation. It is a good thing he left Israel, it is rather symbolic he settled in France – a country more aligned with Israel’s enemies, a country where antisemitism is rampant. His choice of adopted country speaks volumes, were Israel to adapt his ideas it would immediately cease to exist. Perhaps his book should have kept its original working title of “Hitler Won.”

If Burg’s ideas were to be implemented, then he will singlehandedly achieve what 2,000 years of persecution and murder failed to accomplish. Neither the ancient Greeks, nor the Romans, nor the Babylonians, nor the Persians, nor the Spanish Inquisition, nor the hordes of Bogdan Chmielnicky, nor Adolf Hitler and all the others were able to put a dent in the Jewish spirit in spite of all the killings and forced conversions through the ages. Only Burg and his ilk, only the cancer festering within, can achieve that. To paraphrase Bill O’Riley, Israel is a Jewish State, if you don’t like it move to America… or France!

Chaim