It's Almost Supernatural

Downtime

I'll be down in East London on business for a while, so there will be no blogging until Friday. Pity really, because last week was the busiest week in terms of traffic that It's Almost Supernatural has ever had. My stats for last week show average pageloads in total of 222 per day, with an average of 146 for unique visitors. It's mainly due to the various links into the rejected maps entry.

The average for the previouse week was much less. Total average pageloads was at 132, with an average of 101 unique visitors.

As You Were...

When Mahmoud Abbas thinks he can treat these guys from Islamic Jihad with legitimacy...

...Israel pays this price

Visit MediaBackspin for the coverage.

Anatomy of a French Media Scandal

CAMERA.org has a comprehensive analysis on the Mohammed al-Dura affair where they work through the claims and counterclaims.

One of the reasons I have focused on this subject is the outrageous level of invective that Charles Enderlin resorted to when providing the voice over for the footage.

Despite the dangerous exchange of fire between Israeli and Palestinian positions taking place that fateful day, Enderlin accused Israel not just of killing al Dura, but of specifically targeting him.

3 pm... everything has turned over near the Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip...here Jamal and his son Mohammed are the targets of gunshots that have come from the Israeli position.... A new burst of gunfire, Mohammed is dead and his father seriously wounded.

Enderlin wasn't even at the scene yet he makes as if the voice over is live, first describing Mohammed and father as being the targets of gunfire, and then allowing for the burst of gunfire that allegedly killed them Mohammed.

Hope?

The new members of the Palestinian cabinet.

Two intersting notes:

• Saeb Erakat, the unyielding former negotiations minister has been excluded from the cabinet and frankly, I am ecstatic. The man was always whispering conspiratorial nothings into Arafat's ears and did his best to thwart all proposed deals with Israel. Whilst Abu Ala, Abu Mazem, Rashid, and Dahlan were viwed as supporting a solution at Camp David, Erakat was seen by many as a devious irritant blocking all deals. Erakat has never had any political base outside of Arafat, and his exclusion proves that.
• Mohammed Dahlan, the leader of the security forces in Gaza has been included. I am cautiosly optimistic about his inclusion. Dahlan is a tough (and often emotional) man, but many Israeli military men regard him highly.

UPDATE
LGF reminds us that Nasser Al-Kidwa, nephew of Arafat, recently gripped by an irrational degree of hysterical conspiratorial theories about the death of Arafat, is still part of the cabinet.

UPDATE
David Gerstman disagrees with me about Dahlan, and you can see why here, here, here, and here

Outrage as Three Palestinians Killed

Lawlessness reigns as the Palestinians fool the world into thinking that they are embracing democracy: Gunfire kills 3 Palestinians.

The three were killed in separate incidents.

Remember the confusion that surrounded the tragic death of Norhan Deab? 

The IDF, after an initial investigation, concluded that IDF forces had not opened fire anywhere in the vicinity of the UNRWA school playground at the time that Deab was killed. IDF officials noted that the District Coordinating Committee in the area had received reports that Palestinians returning from the Hajj to Mecca had been firing rifle shots to celebrate their return.

Well, take a look how one of the three Palestinians was killed.

A gunman celebrating the release of prisoners in the Jenin area accidentally shot and killed one person. Omar Saleh, 34, from Ejja village near Jenin, was killed when a local man fired into the air to celebrate the release of a prisoner from Israeli jail. According to a preliminary investigation conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the incident occurred when Eyad Tawfiq, 30, arrived at his house in the village after he had been released from jail. His brother-in-law, 28-year-old Haibat Taha, welcomed him by firing into the air from his M16 rifle. When he put the rifle back on his shoulder, a number of live bullets hit four men standing nearby. One of them, Salah, was killed by a live bullet in the abdomen.

I write this with absolute respect for the tragedy of both these incidents, but it is important to note that people do get killed when madmen release their euphoric craziness by firing wildly into the air. Perhaps we need to start donating non alcoholic champagne for them to spray into the air?

The second incident occurred when masked (read cowards) psychopaths kidnapped and murdered a senior officer with the PA's Military Intelligence Force.

In the third case, also on Monday night, 50-year-old Farida Abu Rayan was shot and killed during a violent brawl between her relatives and a rival family in the northern Gaza Strip.

There was a fourth incident, but thankfully this time the masked psychopaths kidnapped and later released the director of the library at the American University near Jenin. The gunmen told him that they had mistaken him for the dean of the law faculty, Dr. Amin Dawwas, who they were planning to kill.

The Local MSM

For those that don't know MSM is the mainstream media, and almost every week I try and get an analysis of the local MSM just for you.

Here is this week's edition, again courtesy of D. (Click "continue reading" to view the analysis.)

South African Blog Awards

Voting for the inaugural South African blog awards has begun and It's Almost Supernatural officially endorses Commentary for the best overall South African blog.

You can vote once every 24 hours so go on and support the South African blogosphere by casting your votes.

It's Almost Supernatural doesn't really classify as a South African oriented blog, but being that I focus on a specific political item it seems that I did manage a nomination in the best Political blog category.

Cast your votes

The Rejected Maps

2000 was a mountainous year for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It heralded the start of the current uprising of armed Palestinians targeting mostly unarmed Israeli citizens. It was also a year of seemingly amazing progress as then Israeli PM Ehud Barak took Israel closer than she had ever been to reaching an end of conflict agreement.

There have been numerous debates regarding what Israel really offered in 2000; first at Camp David and then by agreeing to the even more generous Clinton Parameters. Both deals were outrightly rejected by Arafat, without him even making a counter offer.

Palestinians repeatedly claim that the Israeli offer amounted to nothing less than a series of non-contiguous Bantustans preventing any viable Palestinian state.

Dennis Ross was the lead US envoy to the Middle East from 1988-2000. Few people can claim to have been as committed to the cause of peace in the Middle East as much as Dennis Ross has been. In his recent book "The Missing Peace" Ross includes maps depicting the offers that were on the table for the Palestinians.

Palestinian Characterisation of the Final Proposal at Camp David.

This map reflects a map proposed by the Israelis early at Camp David, but it innacurately depicts Israeli security zones carving the WB into three cantons, and includes Israeli settlements in the proposed Palestinian state. Official Palestinians now cite this map as the final offer they turned down at Camp David. (The initial Israeli proposal called for a Palestinian state in 87% of the WB [and 100% of Gaza]. This map shows that state comprising only 83% of that territory.)

Map Reflecting Actual Proposal at Camp David

While no map was presented during the final rounds at Camp David, this map illustrates the parameters of what President Clinton proposed and Arafat rejected: Palestinian control over 91% of the West Bank in contiguous territory [and 100% of Gaza] and an Israeli security presence along 15% of the border with Jordan. This map actually understates the final Camp David proposal because it does not depict the additional territorial swap of 1% that was offered from Israel territory.

Finally, this map reflects the Clinton Ideas of December 2000. These ideas were accepted by Israel but were rejected by the Palestinians.

No formal map was presented to the Israelis and Palestinians in December 2000 by President Clinton, but this map illustrates the Clinton ideas--a Palestinian state in 95% of the West Bank and 100% of Gaza (bringing total territory relinquished by Israel to 97%). This map actually understates the Clinton ideas by not showing and additional 1 to 3% of territorial swaps to the Palestinian state from areas within Israel.

Think about it...the monstrous images captured over the past four years could rather have been sources of wonderment had Arafat just said "Yes".

Stay tuned to It's Almost Supernatural for more details of what was proposed by in the Clinton ideas in term of security, territory, the refugees, and Jerusalem.

UPDATE
You can read my first entry concerning the Dennis Ross book here.

Update on Bizarre Story of Al-Dura

MediaBackspin have the latest on the new questions raised from the Muhammed al-Dura video. Whilst it is important to bear in mind that at the centre of this mess is a the life of a real boy, I still think it is important to consider this case in the context of a discussion on how  images have been leveraged by some in the Palestinian camp as a pretext to foment more and more hatred.

When France 2 invited two independent journalists to view previously unreleased, raw footage of the death of Mohammed al-Dura, the network sought to bolster the credibility of the controversial video. Instead, the veracity of the original France 2 report -- blaming the IDF for al Dura's death -- continues to crumble. CNSNews reports that the two journalists said that IDF fire could not have killed the 12-year-old boy during a fierce firefight at Gaza’s Netzarim Junction. What’s more, the two -- Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of the French news weekly l'Express, and filmmaker Daniel Leconte, of the film company Doc en Stock -- also indicated that many Palestinian casualties appeared to be staged: "The only ones who could hit the child were the Palestinians from their position," Leconte told Cybercast News Service. "If they had been Israeli bullets, they would be very strange bullets because they would have needed to go around the corner." France 2 earlier tried to explain the situation by claiming that the gunshots that struck al-Durra were bullets that ricocheted off the ground, but Leconte dismissed the argument. "It could happen once, but that there should be eight or nine of them, which go around a corner? They're just saying anything," Leconte said…. They also found that the first 20 minutes or so of the cassette showed scenes of young Palestinians "playing at war" in front of the camera, falling as if wounded and then getting up and walking away. The two go on to note that they were surprised that the unedited video contained no footage of the child's death throes. Charles Enderlin, the France 2 reporter who provided voice over for the video (he wasn't present at Netzarim) had previously claimed that images of Dura's "agony" were too unbearable for viewers. Questions about the video’s veracity have lingered ever since the fateful September 30, 2000 shootout. First, Esther Shapira produced on German TV "Three Bullets and a Child: Who Killed Mohammed Dura?" The hour-long documentary was the first media investigation. Shapira found that it wasn't possible that Dura was killed by IDF fire. James Fallows in The Atlantic subsequently came to the same conclusion. * Later reports in Readers Digest and the Wall Street Journal suggested that much of the footage was faked. France 2 continues to maintain that the footage, for which cameraman Talal Abu Rahma received an award, is genuine. But one French MP is calling for a government inquiry into the affair.

See my previous entries on the topic here and here. My original entry on this subject made note of the claim by France 2 reporter Enderlin that the footage of al-Dura actually being killed was removed due to the excessive agony of the scene. Enderlin has since flip flopped on the issue.

As for the "agony" that Enderlin said he edited out of the report, Leconte and Jeambar said it did not exist on the master cassette. Enderlin told Telerama magazine late last year that there had been a "misunderstanding," that he had meant to use the word "agony" to describe the scene of the shooting of Mohammed al-Durra. However, in an online discussion forum for Le Nouvel Observateur news magazine on Feb. 10, Enderlin was asked how he would describe the same video images today. He replied that he would say the same things, but that in the editing process he would include footage of the "child's agony," raising a question once again about his previous claims. During the first edit, Enderlin said, the video in question was "cut considerably at the time because it made the report too hard."

The Whinger

Listening to the beating taken by Iqbal Jassat on 702 today by the DA was really entertaining. Tim Modise invited Jassat onto the show this morning, to give credence to his recent barrage of attacks on DA leader Tony Leon. Here is one of the letters:

The DA under Tony Leon`s aggressive leadership has become synonymous with negativity which must have placed such a burden on his spin doctors that they resort to scraping the barrel in seeking to defame and discredit his opponents as a means to defend him. This is exactly what Martin Slabbert has done by accusing me of being associated with Holocaust deniers ("DA does not practise representivity", The Star Letters, February 10). Indeed, by resorting to name-calling, Slabbert has ignited a long overdue debate on the DA`s silence on many issues. Has anyone ever heard Leon barking about the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib or the torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails? Does Slabbert really believe Leon is taken seriously about his so-called commitment to the rule of law in Zimbabwe while he is regularly exposed to Israeli apartheid on his visits there and chooses to ignore atrocities against innocent civilians by the Sharon regime? It is foolish to distract attention from these issues by referring to "links to Holocaust denial web pages" - a question of freedom of expression. Iqbal Jassat Chair: Media Review Network, Pretoria

Yet again Mr Jassat uses local issues as a pretext to push his agenda of hatred. It really amazes me that 702 get away with regularly using the MRN as a credible source of Middle East information and opinion.

Many callers discredited Jassat (who had already been discredited by the DA members on a factual basis - more on this tomorrow) by referring to the voluminous hateful Holocaust denial links (and letters) that can be found on his MRN website.

Here's a typical letter that can be found on the MRN site. You will have to ignore the first paragraph; even the most ardent of moonbats wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

Dear Sir, Will someone please explain how it has come about that the land of Palestine, which was an established entity up to 1984, suddenly disappeared from atlases and maps and how Palestinians could have “occupied Israel” prior to 1948 when there was no such state in existence at that time? (Ed - don't worry... this makes sense to no-one) The continual reference to the “holocaust” prompts me to asks a few simple questions which I hope your many defenders of Israel, Zionism, Jewry and the “holocaust” will answer for me. a) If the Nazis murdered six million Jews during a period of ten years (from 1936 to 1945) then 600 000 people were, on average, killed yearly giving a daily figure of about 2000. When and where did the Nazis find the time, money and manpower to undertake this exercise? b) Who kept a record (written or otherwise) of the number of Jews who lived in Europe and of those who were allegedly murdered? Have any authentic and reliable records been found anywhere? If no records are available (in writing) then where was the figure of six million obtained from? c) What happened to the remains of those who were allegedly murdered? Were they buried? If so have any graves been found as in Bosnia? If they were incinerated or gassed (as alleged) then the ashes from dead bodies would surely have at least formed mounds. Were any such mounds found? If the bodies were allowed to rot then where are the Skeletons? Before I am branded an anti- Semite I feel that I should mention that these questions have been nagging many of my friends and associates and that honest answers (verified by authentic documentary evidence) will assist in dispelling a large number of sceptical views of the atrocities allegedly committed by the Nazis who seem to have provided the Israelis and Serbs (and South Africa’s Nationalists) with invaluable lessons in oppression and genocide.

Tim implied that he knew nothing of any ulterior motives Jassat may have had; arguing that he brought Jassat onto the show to discuss the alleged selective criticism of HR abuses by the DA. A quick read of Jassat's letter shows that Tim is either lying, or he is really shtooopid. The many references to Israel are clear evidence that Jassat's underlying intention was to slam Israel. He doesn't care about the human rights abuses that the DA allegedly ignores. On that note, it was pretty funny when the DA members quoted DA press releases criticising the exact human rights abuses that Jassat charged them of ignoring!

More details on this tomorrow.