Tuesday, February 14, 2006

  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
I just found out that one of the Farsi words for "fart" is "gooz."

So, without comment, here is today's GoozNews from Iran:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here on Monday afternoon, "The message of the Iranian nation's Islamic Revolution is peace and security for entire mankind, based on monotheism, justice, and nobility of human beings."

Iran's former president and Head of International Institute for Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations Mohammad Khatami said insulting others is not compatible with democracy and those who have insulted Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) must apologize for their shameful act.

Hundreds of students of Jamia Hamdard University condemned the blasphemy committed on Islam's holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) by a number of Western publications.

Hundreds of students, teaching staff and non-teaching staff of Jamia Hamdard today held a demonstration inside its campus, voiced their hatred towards Denmark, US, the Zionist regime and European Union for condoning the publications and called on the world's Muslims to boycott Western products, particularly those of the US and Denmark.

Issuing a warning, the demonstrators chanted slogans such as `Death to US', `Death to Denmark', `Death to the Zionist regime' and `Death to Britain', and called on the world's Muslims to further protest such moves. They called US President George W Bush "the most ruthless criminal in history."


A number of theology and Basiji (volunteer forces) students gather in front of the British Embassy in Tehran on February 14, 2006, in protest over the publication of the blasphemous cartoons against the Muslim Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in a number of European press.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Saturday that the real holocaust should be sought in Palestine, where the blood of the oppressed nation is shed every day and Iraq, where the defenseless Muslim people are killed daily.

Stressing that these crimes mark western liberalism, he noted that the Zionists are about to be annihilated and that the era of occupation of Palestine is over.

The chief executive added that meanwhile, the destruction of colonial and Zionist culture is quite obvious.

Turning to the fact that Zionism has lost its philosophical foundations, he called on the Western states to resume worshiping God Almighty rather than selling the glory of enlightenment to the disgrace of being subject to the Zionists.
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
Someone found my site by searching for "elder porn".

Apparently, some Canadian likes me!
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
How else can you reconcile these two statements?
In other remarks, al-Faisal said that for all the shock in the Western world about the suicide attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and in Iraq, most Muslims were even more surprised.

The attacks were the result of a cultlike attitude fomented by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden that ran counter to the central tenets of Islam, which holds that "killing one soul is like killing all of mankind," Prince Turki al-Faisal said.

"Inasmuch as the West was surprised, if you like, by this culture of death, I can assure you that the majority of Muslims were even more surprised because this culture of death runs counter to everything that Muslims hold dear to themselves," al-Faisal said.

"Nothing justifies any terrorist act whether through suicide bombing or through any other activity," al-Faisal said.
And then immediately afterwards, in the same talk:
Still, he distinguished the suicide attacks carried out by Palestinian groups against Israel, saying the attacks were justified by groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad as "legitimate means of war under occupation."
So "killing one soul is like killing all of mankind" unless that soul happens to be Jewish and living in an area that Muslims consider Judenrein. In that case, it is praiseworthy.

This is our close ally.
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
Honest Reporting is giving away a free trip to Israel.

"Grand Prize is a trip for 2, including round trip airfare from New York, with a 5 night stay at the 5 star Jerusalem Pearl Hotel, plus a 2 night stay at the Dan Hotel in Herzliya.

"When you sign up for the raffle, you'll also become an HonestReporting subscriber, supporting Israel's battle against media bias."

(Disclaimer: If you enter the raffle by clicking on the link above, I get an additional chance to win myself. But I am a big fan of Honest Reporting anyway.)
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
We all know that the Intifada was an amazingly bad move on the part of Arafat, taking the Palestinian Arabs from being hopeful about a possible future state into a suicidal terror existence. We know that most Palestinian Arabs were employed in Israel before the Intifada and that the Palestinian Arab economy has plummeted because of the loss of most of these jobs.

But I just stumbled onto some Palestinian economic statistics showing to what degree Palestinian Arabs depend on Israel for their livelihoods. Without Jews buying their goods, Palestine could never exist.

(Palestinian Arab) Foreign Trade
Foreign Trade Indicators, 1997-2000 Value in Million US $

Exports Imports Indicators 1997 1998 1999 2000
Total Palestinian Exports 382 395 372 401
Total Palestinian Exports by Country



Exports to Israel 358 382 360 370
Exports to Arab Countries 19 11 10 29
Export to other countries 5 2 2 2

Over 92% of their exports went to Israel before the intifada. The same site shows 73% of Palestinian Arab imports came from Israel in 2000.

Arafat must have known these statistics. He must have known that starting up a war with the very nation that you are completely dependent upon is economic suicide.

Yet, who among the Arab world is willing to say a bad word about Arafat? Who has the honesty to say that Arafat caused more pain to the Palestinian people than any other human being? While Israel built their infrastructure, increased their life expectancy and decreased their infant mortality rates, gave them jobs and electricity and water and a hope for peace and independence, Yasir Arafat single-handedly threw it all away.

As long as Arabs consider him a hero, as long as their capacity for self-delusion is so spectacularly high, as long as their hatred for Jews surpasses their love for their own people, there is no hope for peace. And everyone with a brain knows this.
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon

An air train of 27 cargo jets have delivered 100 million flowers over the past two weeks for St. Valentine’s Day tomorrow. El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), Cargo Air Lines (CAL) and foreign airlines handled the shipments.

Israel Flower Growers Association secretary general Haim Hadad says Valentine’s Day is a peak export event for flower growers, who prepare for it months in advance, growing special red flowers. Target markets are the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, the UK, US, and Russia. Flower growers, exporters and airlines have created an efficient network for delivering flowers to Europe within 24-48 hours of being picked.

Israel’s flowers centers are the northern Negev, Lachish region, Sharon, Emek Hefer, Jezreel Valley, Arava, and Jordan Valley.

Flowers overseas cost $0.50-0.60 each ahead of Valentine’s Day, double the usual price. Hadad estimates that export sales will total $50 million. Valentine’s Day has been marked in Israel in recent years, with many people sending red flowers to their loved ones.
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
It is nice when knowledgable columnists echo things I've been saying. I think that he is overemphasizing the role of the West in creating this "neo-Islamic" Salafist movement (clearly there are masses of Middle Eastern Muslims brainwashed by political Islam without any help from the West) but altogether a very worthwhile article.
February 12, 2006 -- 'GOD? What about him?" the sheik asked with a frown.

We were in a London mosque, discussing the sermons the sheik delivers at Friday congregations. I had asked why God almost never featured in (or, at best, got a cameo role) in sermons that focused almost exclusively on political issues.

For the sheik, what mattered was "the sufferings of our brethren under occupation." In other words: In our Islam, we don't do God — we do Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq!

Here we have a religion without a theology, a secular wolf disguised as a religious lamb.

How did this neo-Islam — a political movement masquerading as religion — come into being, and how can those who know little about Islam distinguish it from the mainstream of the faith?

USING Islam as a vehicle for political ambitions is not new. The Umayyads used it after the Prophet's death to set up a dynastic rule. Three of the four caliphs who succeeded Muhammad were assassinated in the context of political power games presented as religious disputes.

Fast forward to the 19th century, and the Persian adventurer Jamaleddin Assadabadi, who disguised himself as an Afghan to hide his Shiite origin and set out to build a career in the mostly Sunni land of Egypt. Although a Freemason, Jamal (who dubbed himself Sayyed Gamal) concluded that the only way to win power among Muslims was by appealing to their religious sentiments. So he transformed himself into an Islamic scholar, grew an impressive beard and donned a huge black turban to underline his claim of being a descendant of the Prophet.


His partner was Mirza Malkam Khan, an Armenian who claimed to have converted to Islam. Together, they launched the idea of an "Islamic Renaissance" (An-Nahda) and promoted the concept of a "perfect Islamic government" under an "enlightened despot."

Malkam had a slogan of unrivaled cynicism: "Tell the Muslims something is in the Koran, and they will die for you."

The trick worked, because the overwhelming majority of Muslims didn't know Arabic, and those who did had as much difficulty reading the Koran as an English speaker has with Chaucer.

LATER in the century, the campaigns of Sayyed Gamal and Mirza Malkam produce the Salafi movement. The term comes from the phrase aslaf al-salehin ("the worthy ancestors") and evokes the hope of reviving "the pure Islam of the early days under Muhammad."

The Salafi movement gave birth to the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Moslemeen) led by Hassan al-Banna in Egypt (1928), and to an Iranian Shiite version, the Fedayeen of Islam, led by Muhammad Navab-Safavi (1941).

In the '40s the movement produced two other children. The first was a hybrid of Marxism and Islam concocted by a Pakistani journalist Abul-Ala al-Maudoodi, who saw himself as "the Lenin of Islam." The other was a hybrid of Nazism and Islam promoted by the Palestinian Mufti Haj Amin al-Hussaini and Rashid Ali al- Gilani, an Iraqi firebrand of Iranian origin.

From the 1930s through the 1960s, the offspring of Salafism organized terrorist operations killing hundreds of people, but failed to win power anywhere. Instead, most Muslim nations were seduced by Western ideologies such as nationalism, socialism and communism. Yet most of those ideologies lost their luster by the 1970s — and various versions of the Salafi movement began to fill the vaccuum.

In 1979, it won power in Iran under a semi-literate mullah named Ruhallah Khomeini. In the 1980s, it dominated Pakistan through a group of army officers known as "the Koran Generals." In 1992 it came close to seizing power in Algeria through the Front for Islamic Salvation (FIS). In 1995, it seized power in Kabul under the banner of the Taliban. Most recently, it won the election in the West Bank and Gaza under the label of Hamas.

SALAFISM'S biggest successes, how ever, have come in the West — where the emergence of large communities of Muslims has created a space in which neo-Islam can thrive.

This new space is of crucial importance for two reasons.

* It allows Salafism to promote its ideas and recruit militants in freedom — something not possible in most Muslim countries, where local despots won't tolerate any breach of their control of the public space.

* Muslims living in the West have no first-hand experience of the intolerance and terror that neo-Islam has practiced in Muslim countries for decades. Instead, they see Islam as an element of their identity and, although seldom going to the mosque, consider neo-Islamist militants as "lobbyists" for themselves.

Anxious to control its constituency within Western democracies, neo-Islam, in its different versions, uses tactics developed by other totalitarian ideologies, notably fascism and communism.

ITS first move was to promote a visual apartheid to distinguish its adherents from the rest of society — in the same way that Lenin, Hitler and Mao wanted their followers to wear specific uniforms.

For men, the props are beards, khaksari (earthly) garments such as shirts falling down to the knees, baggy shalwar (pantaloons), an araqchin (cloth cap), a checkered Palestinian neck-scarf and sandals or shoes without laces. The garments must never come in bright colors (although green was the color of Mohammed's clan, the Bani-Hashim); black and white are the preferred shades of neo-Islam. The neo-Islamist will also always carry a worry bead plus a miswak (a wooden tooth pick), which is supposed to have been favored by the Prophet.

When it comes to women, the choice of clothes is even more limited. Women are obliged to cover their hair, and also avoid bright colors. The more radical neo-Islamists promote the burqa, a head-to-toe drape with two holes for the eyes.

Only a small minority of the world's Muslims follow this visual apartheid. Some of the most outrageous neo-Islam outfits can be seen only in the West, never in any Muslim country.

Once visual apartheid is achieved, the neo-Islamist moves to Phase Two: making his followers brain-dead. This is done by persuading them that there is a unique Islamic answer to all questions ever asked or ever to be asked.

And where does the answer come from? From "fatwa factories" set up by (often semi-literate) sheiks in some Muslim countries. The most complex issues of life, from banks charging interest to euthanasia, are often answered with a simple "yes" or "no."

The idea is that, as Maudoodi (the "Lenin of Islam") believed, Islam was sent by God to turn men into robots obeying divine rules as spelled out by the sheiks.

Maudoodi claimed that, when God created man, He made His creature's biological existence subject to "unquestionable laws." Yet God failed to to apply the same rule to man's spiritual, political and cultural existence. Realizing His mistake, God sent Mohammed to preach Islam, which provides the "unquestionable laws" needed for the non-material aspects of man's existence.

NEO-ISLAM pursues its culture of apartheid by dividing the world into "Islam" and "un-Islam."

Wherever Muslims are a majority is designated as Dar al-Islam (House of Peace); the rest of the world is Dar al-Harb (House of War) or, at best, Dar al-Da'awah (House of Propagation). The claim is that it is enough to be a Muslim to be always right against non-Muslims.

This is not how Muhammad taught Islam. His biography is full of instances where he ruled against a Muslim in a dispute with a non-Muslim. For him, the world was divided between "right" and "wrong," and "good" and "evil," not Islam and non-Islam. It is possible to be a Muslim and do evil things, while a non-Muslim could also be an agent of good.

That neo-Islam is uncomfortable with the idea of religion as something to do with God is not surprising. In Islam, the only absolute and immutable truth is the Oneness of God. Thus what the Koran or shariah (not to mention self-appointed sheiks) offer are relative matters, open to infinite interpretations.

Neo-Islam's attempt at destroying individual freedoms is as much a threat to Islam as the Inquisition was to Christianity.

To protect itself, Islam needs to revive its theology with emphasis on divinity (marefat al-ilahiyah). In other words, Islam must re-become a religion.

THIS does not mean that Muslims should stay out of politics or ignore Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir or any other cause. What it means is that they should recognize that these and similar causes are political, not religious, ones. Nobody prevents Muslims from practicing their faith in Palestine or Kashmir. These disputes are about territory, borders and statehood, not about faith.

Neo-Islam is a form of fascism, hence the term Islamofascism. Its primary victims are Muslims, both in Muslim majority countries and in the West.

In many Muslim countries, neo-Islam has been exposed as a political movement and can no longer deceive the masses. In the West, however, it is has managed to dupe parts of the media, government and academia into treating it not as the political movement it is, but as the expression of Islam as a religion.

It is time to end that deception and recognize neo-Islam in its many manifestations as a political phenomenon.

Neo-Islam has as much right to operate in the political field as any other party in a democracy. But it does not have the right to pretend to be a religion — it is not.

Iranian author Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates.

Monday, February 13, 2006

  • Monday, February 13, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Betrayal of Denmark

It is worth reading in full. Here are my comments:

The West has sacrificed its ideals and thrown democratic, liberal Denmark under a train to try to mollify people who want us dead anyway. It is a disgrace and it is against our own deeply-held convictions.

In the end, everyone does what is in their self-interest. Sometimes the self-interest in money, sometimes it is human lives, but too rarely does self-interest easily coincide with ideals, except for those who truly can think long-term.

I once worked for a major telecommunications company who proudly spoke of its ideals, and how it would stand up against discrimination in its own policies as well as when dealing with others. When we were being told this spiel, I asked a simple question: If Saudi Arabia wanted a billion dollar contract with the company but says that no Jews may come and work on it, would they turn down the contract? The hemming and hawing answer made it clear that ideals only go so far.

Denmark does not have the market share of many products that Arab countries do. Denmark does not threaten the lives of those who do things that it disagrees with. Therefore, Denmark gets shafted.

Newspapers that pretend to have lofty standards suddenly forget their own slogans when faced with either economic or physical harm. If they would be honest about it, that wouldn't be so bad, but when they cloak their fear in high-minded concepts like "respect for the feelings of others" they are just hypocrites.

It is not only newspapers; but it is countries as well. The lack of vehemence in supporting Denmark's free speech and the amount of scraping and bowing to irrational demands of a few members of a religion is telling.

It is understandable that nations and companies and media outlets will want to act in short-term self-interest, but what they are not seeing is that in the long term, this is not self-interest - it is slow suicide before the onslaught of radical Islam in its desire to take over the world. Apologizing to would-be mass murderers will not make them like you; all it does is make it easier for them to crap on you next time.
  • Monday, February 13, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Telegraph is reporting on US contingency plans to take out Iran's nuclear capabilities, and the Boston Globe is talking about how Iran could react to a strike:
Iran is prepared to launch attacks using long-range missiles, secret commando units, and terrorist allies planted around the globe in retaliation for any strike on the country's nuclear facilities, according to new U.S. intelligence assessments. Obtained with the assistance of North Korea, Shahab 3 long-range missiles could be tipped with chemical warheads and strike Israel and U.S. military bases in the region. Iran is believed to have at least 20 launchers that are frequently moved around the country to avoid detection.
Iran purchased at least a dozen X-55 cruise missiles from Ukraine in 2001 that are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as far as Italy. Intelligence officials also point out that Iran controls a small island at the mouth the Strait of Hormuz and could use missiles and gunboats to temporarily shut off access to the economically vital Persian Gulf, sparking an oil crisis.

Plus a US strike to Iran would not be surgical but could lead to a much longer engagement:
A report, "Iran: Consequences of a War," written by Professor Paul Rogers and published Monday by the Oxford Research Group, says attacks on Iranian facilities, most of which are in densely populated areas, would be surprise ones, allowing no time for evacuations or other precautions. Rogers, of the University of Bradford's peace studies department, says: "A military operation against Iran would not...be a short-term matter but would set in motion a complex and long-lasting confrontation.

It seems clear that fears of Iranian retaliation now should not enter into the equation of deciding when to attack, because their capabilities will only increase over time, heading towards nukes (anyone who believes that their nuclear program is peaceful is a fool.)

I think that any US attack on Iran will result in a full scale ground-war retaliation - against Israel. Just like Saddam Hussein sent his Scuds to Israel trying to escalate the war into an Arab/Israeli war, Ahmadinejad will do the same thing in his attempt to be the undisputed leader of the Muslim world. Unlike Saddam, he really will send chemical warheads and dirty bombs to Israel. Any military option will be very, very ugly.

But waiting for UN Security Council resolutions will make the ultimate war even worse. A nuclear Iran is far worse than a nuclear North Korea.

The US should immediately enforce a total embargo against Iran of all goods. It should tell every trading partner that if they trade with Iran, they lose their business with the US. Iran is getting stronger by the week but it cannot survive for more than a few months without trade with Russia and other countries. The main non-military option to avoid the deaths of thousands of people cannot wait. And it is time for the US to use its economic might as a non-lethal weapon, exactly the way that Arabs and Muslims always threaten to use theirs.

It would start an economic crisis, but that is far better than the alternative.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

  • Sunday, February 12, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
This week's Haveil Havalim is being hosted this week by one of my favorite bloggers, AbbaGav. As usual, it is an excellent roundup, taking up far more time than I can imagine.

Through it I found some interesting cartoon comments that I had missed, plus lots of interesting posts on other topics.

And I am honored that AbbaGav mentioned two of my posts as well. He hit the posts that I liked the best, but the blogosphere liked this one by far (thanks to a link from SimplyJews, a blog made up by fellow Elders.)

While I am at it, last night I passed the 20,000 page hit mark, with the last 10K coming much quicker than I had hit the initial 10K (5 months versus 12). Thanks to all who read me and hopefully appreciate my posts.

Have a great week!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

  • Saturday, February 11, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Detroit News, last Sunday, printed an editorial that is a little simple-minded but largely accurate:

Nolan Finley

Palestinians failed democracy, not the other way around

Democracy didn't fail when the Palestinians used their first truly free vote to install terrorist leaders. The Palestinians failed. Again.

Those who see the Hamas victory as evidence that democracy is not the answer for all people in all places ignore the unique nature of the Palestinians. They lack a key ingredient for sustaining freedom - self-interest.

The Palestinians' lust for Jewish blood is stronger than their desire to lead peaceful, secure lives, to rule an independent state, to lift themselves out of their misery.

That, given the opportunity, they would give their votes to terrorists should not be a shock. This is the same people who deified Yasser Arafat, the father of modern-day terrorism.

Terror defines Palestinians

Under Arafat, terrorism became an inseparable part of the Palestinian identity. He perfected the use of terror as a means of gaining a political wedge, proving that those willing to shed blood without relenting, without remorse and without regard to external pressure will be rewarded with a seat at the table.

Their suicide bombers should have made the Palestinians international pariahs. Instead, apologists depicted the violence as the natural response of a persecuted people. The excuses invited more terror, from more sources and in more places.

Even the Bush administration pretended that the Palestinians were the victims of terrorists within their midst, but beyond their control. The Hamas victory makes it impossible to sustain that pretense.

The Palestinians knew what Hamas was when they gave it their votes. They chose terror over peace, just as they did five years ago when they answered Arafat's call to unleash a brutal wave of terror to cover his impotence at the bargaining table.

The defenders of terror are now spinning a new scenario, one that has Hamas morphing into a political organization and renouncing violence.

Hamas is unrepentant

But note that Hamas is not saying that. Its leaders remain committed to wiping the Jewish blot from the Middle East.

Even if Hamas mouthed the right words, who could believe that it has suddenly turned away from decades of violence?

Terrorism is the history of the Palestinian people, and it will be their future if they are allowed to again slip past the supposed zero-tolerance policy on terror.

Hamas is no different from al-Qaida. Both are terrorist groups, and both target innocent victims.

It was considered in the interest of world stability to smash the al-Qaida-backed Taliban government in Afghanistan. Why isn't it similarly desirable to smash the Hamas government in the Palestinian territories?

Hamas doesn't want to lead, it wants to kill, and has done so in more than 200 terrorist attacks against Israel during the past five years, including dozens of suicide bombings.

Pretending Hamas can be something other than it is will only lead to more killing.

The large Arab community in Detroit is up in arms. One article that got printed in the Detroit News espouses absolute, provable lies, defending the indefensible in praising Hamas:
Hamas is not part of an effort to take someone else's land away. Its struggle is defensive, not offensive.

Neither does Hamas want to create a state wherein one religion reigns supreme. In Israel, Jews have automatic citizenship and other rights not afforded to people of other faiths. The double standard applied to Hamas -- and Arabs and Muslims -- is fueling support for more extremist groups.
Looks like the author hasn't read the Hamas charter. But, hey, lying isn't a problem when you are defending the blameless Palestinian people. And the parts where they want to kill all Jews is just an inconvenient detail, not to be mentioned in a major American newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Arab American News is calling for the editorialist to be fired. Where they can't parse simple explicit language in the Hamas charter, they somehow see vicious racism in a pretty accurate article:
The venom that poured forth from Finley's pen was like the pre-Holocaust venom directed by Hitler against Jews.

We are shocked that an editor would write such a racist diatribe. We are more shocked that a publication like the Detroit News would print it.

While Finley's bias against Arabs is very well known, he has generally hidden it under the cover of his very pro-Israeli views.

This time there was no such veil. Finley openly, directly, shamelessly consigned an entire group of people to hell: "Terror defines Palestinians," he wrote, and "The Palestinians' lust for Jewish blood is stronger than their desire to lead peaceful, secure lives, to rule an independent state, to lift themselves out of their misery."

Unfortunately, the new publisher of the News, Dave Butler, upheld Finley's right to say what he did. In several email discussions with several community members, Butler insisted this was an issue of free speech and that a debate over the column would educate and inform.

How do you debate, Mr. Butler, whether Palestinians are human beings or not?

Neither Butler nor Finley would suggest such a debate about any other group of people.

Apparently the new ownership of the Detroit News doesn't know what responsible journalism is.

There are no words strong enough to adequately condemn these statements. Nolan Finley should be fired. Now.

Notice that not once were any of Finley's statements shown to be inaccurate, or his logic shown to be faulty.

An almost comical example of fake pathos comes via another article in Arab American News. The author describes the scene as he read the editorial to his proud Palestinian children (who were born in the United States):
I read them the piece to show them that even in America; hate is alive and well, as long as it is “couched” in a newspaper “Editorial” and excused as a mere expression of free speech. Of course, there are limits placed on free speech, but those limits do not apply as long as those on the receiving end are Palestinians.

After I read them Mr. Finley’s column, my youngest son, who is 13 years old, looked up at me with a painful expression on his face, and asked me “Why do they hate us”?

I pondered his question for awhile, trying to answer him, but I was at a loss for words. Why do they hate us was the same question that many Americans, elected officials, and pundits were asking after the horrible attacks of 9-11. One not very enlightened answer was that they hate us because of our “freedom.”

The answer that I finally gave my son was that we, the Palestinian people, are hated by our enemies because of our legitimate and moral struggle for freedom. They hate us because we are tenacious in our struggle for justice, a word that is bandied about, but few understand in relation to what the Palestinian people have had to and are continuing to endure. They hate us because when most people would have given up and disappeared silently into the night, we remain, standing erect, firm in our conviction that we deserve to live in freedom and dignity, and we will not be denied.

In a way, I guess I am thankful for Mr. Finley finally showing the world his fangs and for the Detroit News for helping expose his hatred to the world at large. His words have reenergized me and many others to work harder than ever to combat bigotry whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head. I also want to thank him for helping me show and explain to my children that Mr. Finley lives on the fringes of American society, even though his bosses at the Detroit News are trying to make him and his hatred part of America’s mainstream.

Next time I am sitting with my children sipping a cup of Arabic coffee under one of my family’s ancient olive trees, overlooking the landscape of the village of my birth - ringed by Jewish-only colonies that were built on stolen lands - I will once again tell my children about Mr. Finley’s remarks.

Maybe when Mr. Finley finally retires from spewing forth his poisonous venom in the pages of the Detroit News, he will be allowed to immigrate to Israel and make his home alongside his fanatic brethren in the extremist, Jewish-only colonies that are built on stolen Palestinian lands. He would make a great spokesman for them; after all, he has been practicing for many years.
Here's a great spokesman against hate, don't you think?

So, in summation, the Arabs reacted to an editorial by attacking the author, by trying to get him fired, by calling him bigoted without a shred of evidence, and by defending terrorists. And not a single acknowledgement that, hey, maybe the policies of the people they are so strenuously defending, that their people voted for in great numbers, may have something to do with why people aren't exactly supporters of a Palestinian terror state.

The author with the 13-year old wrote in other articles that he cried when the mass-murdering uber-terrorist, Yasir Arafat, died. But somehow he cannot tell his son honestly that Americans don't support terrorists because people like him name streets and public squares after people who murder Jewish children, that his people celebrated the deaths of thousands of Americans, and that his people overwhelmingly supported Saddam Hussein and now support Iran's Ahmadinejad in his quest for a second Holocaust.

Nah, it's easier to pretend that he is interested in high-sounding concepts like freedom and justice (but apparently not freedom of speech for people who hate terror.) The truth sometimes hurts too much.

Friday, February 10, 2006

  • Friday, February 10, 2006
  • Elder of Ziyon
Sad but not surprised say Jewish community leaders following the release of a poll that asked for the views of British Muslims towards Jews and Israel.

Conducted by Populus for a group of Jewish organisations and first published in The Times, it surveyed 500 people across the country between December 9 and 19 last year, nearly 50 percent agreed with the conspiracy theory that "the Jewish community in Britain is in league with the Freemasons to control the media and politics". while 37 per cent believed that Anglo-Jewry was a "legitimate target as part of the struggle for justice in the Middle East".

Of the conspiracy theory, Board of Deputies chief executive Jon Benjamin said it was "completely bizarre" while he added. "It is concerning to hear that Jews are considered legitimate targets."

...Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala told the Jewish Chronicle on the question of Jews being an legitimate target, "completely unacceptable. I just hope people were confused by the question, otherwise it is very disturbing."

Jewish leaders have called for seeking better dialogue with Muslims.

"None of these responses surprises me at all," said Dr Richard Stone who is active in interfaith dialogue and is chair of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia. "It's a demonstration of how urgently work is needed to bring Jews to meet Muslims."
That is a bizarre interpretation, to put it mildly. I don't know anything about Dr. Stone, but it is strange that he looks at abject Jew-hatred through a lense of Islamophobia, rather than ask for Muslims themselves to teach tolerance.

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