This is preposterous. Iran’s nuclear missiles have nothing whatsoever to do with Palestinians, and it’s just a pile of crap that the administration either a) believes the Arab claptrap that the Palestinians are the most important issue in the region, or b) is willing to blackmail our closest and most powerful ally this way.
Israel is an independent country, the ravings of some American anti-semites notwithstanding. The Israelis will do as they please, and if we do not help provide them with security, they will find security through their own means. That is, taunting Israel like this achieves absolutely nothing aside from making an Israeli strike against Iran more probable.
Peace is possible only when people feel secure. When you remove security, when you present Israel with the prospect that we will stand by as Iran prepares the weapons needed to destroy Israel, you risk war.
Apollo posted this at 8:33 PM EDT on Monday, May 4th, 2009 as Arafatistan, CHANGE!
Using my head as a prop, an old teacher gave some good advice to a young teacher. The older one said, “Be careful what you put in here [tapping my forehead] because you’ll never get it out again.” What we teach children lasts, and sometimes the little things—like a teacher using you as an example—can make an impression decades later.
What, then, are the children of Palestine learning when the youth orchestra is disbanded for playing to Shoah survivors? [Emphasis added below.]
Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday.
Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a political issue and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.
He added that Younis has been barred from the camp and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.
“She exploited the children,” said Hindi, the head of the camp’s popular committee, which takes on municipal duties. “She will be forbidden from doing any activities…. We have to protect our children and our community.”
When learning history and music and paying tribute to survivors takes second place to propaganda, there’s no real hope for the future. Is there an Arabic word for doublespeak—how does preventing an orchestra from playing “protect our children”?
Some countries are going to give $4.5 billion to the Palestinians over two years. What makes this truly remarkable is that the GDP of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank combined is $6.64 billion. For the next two years, these donors will increase the Palestinian GDP by 1/3! Considering that Gaza is substantially poorer than the West Bank (the CIA no longer lists their economies separately, but the last I checked Gaza had a per capita GDP of around $600), and that most of these handouts will surely go to Gaza, it’s possible that this single conference will nearly double the GDP of Gaza for the next two years.
By the way, $900 million from U.S. taxpayers.
Apollo posted this at 2:33 AM EST on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 as Arafatistan
And Hitchens has particularly lost it when discussing Sarah Palin:
And it must be easy for a woman who couldn’t, when first asked, name a single newspaper or magazine that she had ever read…
The subtle distinction between “couldn’t” and “wouldn’t” isn’t one that Hitchens would normally miss, and one he particularly should not ignore in a column defending a man who defended terrorists. I wouldn’t complain about the “low blows” of others if, in the same column, I dishonestly painted the most popular governor in America as illiterate.
If you’re already familiar with The Pioneers of Tomorrow — now featuring Assud the Rabbit following the martyrdoms of Narhoul the Bee and Farfour the Mouse — you can skip the first 5 minutes of the segment below. But you should catch the rest of it:
Assud: Who will host this show if you are martyred? Will 100,000 Saraas take your place?
Saraa: Allah willing, Assud.
Assud: We’ll take them from among the Pioneers of Tomorrow, Allah willing.
Saraa: Allah willing, there are thousands of soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow.
Assud: Martyrdom for the sake of Allah is what we hope for, right?
Saraa: Right, Assud.
[snip]
Saraa: What do you have to say to the cartoonist who started all this and affronted the Prophet by drawing him?
Assud: He’s a criminal…
Saraa: Yes, a criminal.
[Tasnim, a caller to the show]: I say to him, and to all of them, that no matter how much they try to hide him, we will manage to kill him, to assassinate him.
Assud: Allah willing.
Saraa: I pray that Allah makes the earth swallow him up, so that he serves as a lesson to others like him, Tasnim.
As Geoff has said, what’s amazing about this show is that it manages to be fantastically evil while being fantastically lame at the same time. I mean, wow.
Tom posted this at 1:10 PM EST on Friday, February 29th, 2008 as Arafatistan
The members of Protectors of the Homeland practise
their song at the police headquarters in Gaza City
Hamas militants have launched a new weapon in their struggle with Israel: a troupe of honey-voiced singers known as Protectors of the Homeland.
Wearing crisply pressed fatigues in urban camouflage blue, the six band members gather each day to practise in an old office within the Gaza City police headquarters.
The small room throbbed with energy as their dusty 12-track amplifier screeched with feedback before being tamed by an engineer.
To the accompaniment of a backing track from a laptop computer, the men then started polishing their routine of songs, almost all of which have strong Islamic and militaristic content and titles like Change and Reform. Such uplifting lyrics as “By the shrouds of the dead we are inspired” are typical.
Amir Taheri gives us a glimpse of intra-Islam feuding [emphasis in original]:
Britain and a few other Western democracies are the only places on earth where Muslims of all persuasions can practice their faith in full freedom. A thick directory of Muslim institutions in Britain lists more than 300 different sects — most of them banned and persecuted in every Muslim country on earth.
A Shiite Muslim can’t build a mosque in Cairo; his Sunni brother can’t have a mosque of his own in Tehran. Editions of the Koran printed in Egypt or Saudi Arabia are seized as contraband in Iran; Egypt and most other Muslim nations in turn ban the import of Korans printed in Iran. The works of a majority of Muslim writers and philosophers are banned in most Muslim countries.
In Britain, all mosques are allowed; no Muslim author or philosopher is banned. More importantly, rival Muslim sects do not massacre each other, as is the case in half a dozen Muslim-majority countries.
The only time that the British media practice self-censorship is when an item might be seen as remotely anti-Islamic. Every British publisher has turned down at least one book proposal for fear of hurting Muslim feelings. “Taking Muslim sensibilities into account” is also the reason given for the cancellation of some art exhibitions and the selection of works on display in others.
Even the most rabid anti-West and pro-terror Islamist clerics are granted visas to come to the United Kingdom and spread their message of hatred (at times, as guests of Mayor Livingstone and his friends). Hamas and Hezbollah are strongly present in Britain; the Islamic Liberation Party, banned in all Muslim countries, has its headquarters in London.
A few thoughts and observations. First, an Islamic civil war seems to be a possibility. Should the West try to head it off? Can it?
Second, if the Islamic Liberation Party is so extreme that it’s banned in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, what on earth is it doing headquartered in London?
The German foreign ministry went so far as to suggest that Hamas’ triumph necessitates increasing aid to Gaza because of the hardships Hamas rule will cause. It seems that if you choose terrorism, either at the ballot box or in the streets, the Europeans, like the good hands at Allstate, will be there to pay for the mess.
But there’s another, perhaps more important, lesson to be drawn from the Hamas ascendancy. The Bush administration pushed for democracy in the Palestinian territories and got what it wished for — in spades. The assumption behind the push for democracy in Gaza and in Iraq is that Arabs can be trusted to handle political freedom. Even the Democrats demanding an immediate pullout from Iraq hope that with democracy, the Iraqis will be able to sort out their problems themselves via some euphemistic “political solution.” That is unless the antiwar Democrats are really advocating turning all of Mesopotamia into one giant Gaza Strip — the far more likely result of U.S. withdrawal.
For many disciples of the “international peace process,” it’s a matter of faith that the Palestinians just have to want peace, because how else can you have a peace process? For many supporters of the Bush Doctrine, Iraqis have to want democracy, because if they don’t, what’s the point of having a freedom agenda? But what if these are just beloved Western fictions? We see a well-lighted path to the good life: democracy, tolerance, rule of law, markets. But what if the Arab world just isn’t interested in our path? As a believer in the freedom agenda, that’s what scares me most.
I believe that’s what Robert Malley and Aaron David Miller told each other. Otherwise, I have no explanation for this dispatch from a not quite parallel universe.
The United States and others should support Abbas and encourage progress in the West Bank, but smartly. Sticks for Gaza coupled with carrots for the West Bank will divide Palestinians, radicalize Gazans, provoke violence by those who are left out and discredit those the United States embraces.
Yes, we must at all costs avoid that situation. I shudder at the thought of a world where Gazans aren’t rational, Hamas is violent, and US wish is not law in Gaza.
Dividing Palestine geographically is no more a recipe for success than dividing Palestinians politically.
What makes these assertions so persuasive is that the authors provide not one wit of evidence for either one. A skeptical person might point out that in the lengthy history of this region, its most peaceful periods were when the Palestinians were ruled by outsiders as a small piece in a larger entity. Though I wouldn’t know where to find such a skeptic.
The diplomatic equivalent of the medical precept is do no harm.
Again, the persuasiveness of this assertion rests on its complete lack of support. That dastardly skeptic, if he should show himself in public, might point out that, aside from the fact that Henry Kissinger likes to be called “Dr. Kissinger,” diplomacy and medicine don’t really have much in common.
Since Hamas’s electoral victory, U.S. policy has helped strengthen radical forces, debilitate Palestinian institutions, undermine faith in democracy, weaken Abbas and set back the peace process.
Yes, I think any rational person would agree that it’s all America’s fault.
Added: For extra fun, check out the less-than-serious title the WaPo front page put on this:
Rejected headline: You Gaza Have Faith
Apollo posted this at 10:33 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 as Arafatistan
I believe that H.L. Mencken once noted that democracy was the belief that men knew what they wanted and deserved to get it, good and hard. Hence the mess in Gaza. Cox and Forkum get it about right:
Hubbard posted this at 10:03 AM EDT on Monday, June 18th, 2007 as Arafatistan
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – A televised graduation ceremony at a Palestinian kindergarten in Gaza shows little boys dressed in black masks, camouflage fatigues, carrying toy guns, and waving green Hamas flags.
The children vow that their most “lofty aspiration” is death for the sake of Allah.
The ceremony aired on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Television on Thursday. The kindergarten is run by the Islamic Association in Gaza, which is the group that gave rise to Hamas.
In part of the video, girls in white dresses, some wearing butterfly wings, are shown dancing.
Then the boys, dressed like Palestinian militants, march in formation before dropping to flat to the floor to crawl on their stomachs like fighters do.
The boys shout, “Allah Akbar” (Allah is great).
“Who is your role model?” the boys are asked. “The Prophet,” they respond.
“What is your path?”
“Jihad,” they shout.
“What is your most lofty aspiration?”
“Death for the sake of Allah.”
The video clip and translation were provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute on Friday. (See MEMRI video)
Tom posted this at 5:35 PM EDT on Friday, June 1st, 2007 as Arafatistan
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — At a recent kindergarten graduation ceremony, young girls smiled behind their brightly colored princess dresses and the boys showed off their best dress shirts. They sipped on juice boxes, played on swings and jumped on and off seesaws.
It was a welcome relief from the war that surrounds them. But when these 5-year-olds spoke, it became apparent just how much the ongoing violence has affected them.
“I’m going to bomb, bomb, bomb the school with everybody in it,” said Omar Hussein, as he clutched a pink toy airplane.
At another point, a girl enthusiastically sang, “I give a knife to my father to slaughter the chicken. He gives me a machine gun and a rifle. Now, I am a soldier in the liberation army.” (Watch the children make soldier pledges)
You’re a Bendel bonnet / a Shakespeare Sonnet / You’re Mickey Mouse!
The character, named “Farfur,” or “butterfly,” but unmistakably a copy of the Disney character, preached against the U.S. and Israel each Friday on the show called “Tomorrow’s Pioneers.”
“You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists,” Farfur squeaked on a recent episode. “We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers.”
Hamas is sick and evil. With people raising children like that, I get more pessimistic.
Hubbard posted this at 9:15 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 as Arafatistan
The Palestinian who blew himself up in the Israeli resort of Eilat on Monday was unemployed, despondent over the death of his baby daughter and driven to avenge his best friend’s killing by Israeli troops, relatives said.
Dozens of neighbors celebrated outside 20-year-old Mohammed Siksik’s house after the fiery attack that killed him and three other people, waving his photo and praising him as a martyr. Inside, his mother greeted mourners with a smile.
“He told me: ‘Meeting God is better for me than this whole world,’” said Rowayda Siksik, wearing a white veil.
She said her son told her only that he was going to carry out an operation inside Israel. “He said, ‘Goodbye, I am going, mother. Forgive me.’ I told him, ‘God be with you.’”
Siksik never found steady work, getting by with occasional jobs with his father, installing tiles. “You can’t find work in this place,” his mother said. Her son lost his 7-month-old daughter to a nerve disease, she said.
A disturbing story (H/T) but it does have a potential bright spot:
Outside the house, Islamic Jihad and Fatah members argued heatedly over who would sponsor Siksik’s funeral. The two groups claimed to have jointly planned the attack.
Since they love death so much, perhaps someone will bomb the funeral. For that loathsome mother, perhaps the mother of all bombs?
