It's Almost Supernatural

European Tolerance

Ah...those nuanced progressives...

French Anti-Semitism hits 10 Year High

Number of attacks on Jews and Muslims doubles; Britain and Canada report similar trend. Anti-Semitic and racist attacks in France during 2004 were at their highest level in nearly 10 years. The French newspaper Liberation reports there were 970 attacks against Jews, as opposed to 601 in 2003. Most of the attacks came from individuals of "Arab or Muslim extraction." The French report comes on the heels of a February 2005 report that said anti-Semitic attacks have reached record levels in Britain as well. British Jews suffered 532 attacks in 2004, a nearly 50% rise over the previous year.

IDF Pull Outs Part 2

As planned, last night Israel handed over security control of Tulkarem to the PA. The next city to be discussed for transfer is Kalkilya. After the transfer masked Palestinians celebrated in their "fashionable" way by firing freely into the air. Armed Palestinian security officials made no attempt to temper the celebrations. This post shows why this barbaric form of celebration should be outlawed.

What would the anti-gun left think of westerners celebrating a victory by wildly firing anonymous rounds into the air?

IDF Pull Outs part 1

UPDATE
Here's a picture of the celebrations. If the PA were serious about confiscating all illegal weapons then wouldn't these guys be more tempered with the open display of their rifles?

Worth Reading

Here's an interesting post from Only in Israel about lectures given by the Red Cross to IDF soldiers at checkpoints: Red Cross Comes to Visit.

SA Blog Awards

The winners of the South African Blog awards were announced on Thursday night at Cool Runnings and you can see all winners here. Kudos to lifestyle blog 2oceansvibe for winning the best overall South African blog award.

Special mention goes to Commentary for winning the best political blog. I was runner up in that category, and I certainly don't feel bad being second to those guys.

Hopefully next time I'll attend the event.

Lovely Neighbours

Here's a statement from the Israeli PM's office regarding the execution of Palestinian Muhammad Mansour.

It's another example of the level of brutality that Israel constantly needs to deal with. Those that repeatedly condemned Israel for not negotiating with Arafat since the end of 2000 fool themselves into believing that negotiations alone will bring peace. They are wrong. A fundamental change in various parts of Palestinian society needs to occur. How many functional governments allow their people to get away with this level of deluded barbarity?

But that's okay because you won't actually see this happening on a documentary. People will rather be bothered by their broken hearts resulting from the images of a Palestinian man denied access through a checkpoint. That draws the (crocodile) tears.

Friday, 18 March, 2005 On Thursday, 13.1.05, Muhammad Mansour was kidnapped for interrogation in the context of being suspected - by fugitive Fatah Tanzim terrorists in the Balata refugee camp - of cooperating with Israel. According to the fugitives, Mansour admitted that he cooperated with Israel and worked with an Israel Security Agency (ISA) officer, having passed on information that led to the arrest and death of several senior fugitives in the camp, including Nadr Abu Lil and Hashem Abu Hamdan, senior Fatah Tanzim terrorists in Nablus, who directed several attempted suicide attacks inside Israel and who were killed in an Israeli action. After his interrogation, Mansour was brought before a Muslim cleric who heard his confession before Mansour was executed, in order to add religious credibility to the confession. Mansour was filmed confessing and expressing regret for his actions. On the evening of 14.1.05, fugitives called on residents of the Balata refugee camp to gather in the marketplace in order to observe the execution. Thousands heeded the call. Mansour, his hands bound, was ordered to kneel on the ground. Tanzim fugitives shot Muhammad Mansour in full view of the gathered crowd. When Mansour fell over onto the ground, one of the fugitives emptied an entire clip from his sidearm into Mansour's head. The mother of Nadr Abu Lil thereupon came out, stabbed Mansour's corpse and gouged out its eyes. The mother of Hashem Abu Hamdan and his brothers thereupon gashed Mansour's corpse with knives and axes. When an ambulance came to collect the body, it was stoned by the mob. The ambulance driver was beaten and forced to flee the scene. Mansour's corpse was later delivered to the hospital, after having been further abused by the mob. The mob set out for Mansour's house and was met by his father who came out and declared that his son was a traitor whom he disowned. Thus the mob was deterred from burning the home. A senior Tanzim fugitive from Balata, Ala Sanakhara, told a Palestinian Authority publication that they were responsible for Mansour's murder due to the fact of the latter's having caused the death of a Tanzim "fighter" and that they took upon themselves the responsibility to act in place of the security services. The state of Israel wishes to clarify that Muhammad Mansour had no connection whatsoever with any ISA officials or with any other Israeli elements.

Lebanese Opposition Leader: Sheba Farms Not Ours

A moonbat representative from the Red Cross and regular letter writer to South African newspapers, Gunvant Govindjee has created a masterpiece of mendacity in his latest letter to the Business Day (15/03/2005).

Govindjee claims that Israel is guilty of hypocrisy in calling for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon, since Israel, in Govindjee's lunatic mind, still occupies part of Lebanon.

The part referred to is the small enclave known as the Sheba farms. Today a letter writer counters the mendacity by correctly stating that the UN has officially declared that Israel has fully withdrawn from Lebanon - the Sheba farms are not part of Lebanon.

Walid Jumblatt, an opposition leader in Lebanon recently declared that the Sheba farms are not part of Lebanon, and that the dispute is only perpetuated by Hizbullah for its use as a reason to continue the armed struggle against Israel.

IDF Pull Outs

A quick summary of the IDF withdrawals taking place at the moment. The IDF is, in line with the requirements of phase 1 of the roadmap, withdrawing from areas reoccupied since the eruption in 2000 of the intifada. (The armed Palestinian uprising which has targeted mostly unarmed civilians.) Prior to the start of the intifada in 2000 the Palestinians had civil control over virtually all population centers. They had full civil and security control over what looks to me like more than 60% of their population centers (the percentage is my estimate, I may be wrong). During the intifada, Israel gradually redeployed troops reducing the amount of population centers where the Palestinians had full security control.

Israel and the Palestinian delegates agreed at the Sharm-al-Sheik summit on the transfer of 5 Palestinian towns.

Today, Israel handed back Jerico to Palestinian security control. In other changes today, the IDF moved one of its checkpoints allowing for easier access to Ramallah. The military changed regulations concerning its southern checkpoint as well, so that troops will from now on only inspect Palestinian cars leaving the city, and not those entering.

The deal was almost undone due to disagreement over the fate of 17 wanted terrorists in Jerico. Finally Israel agreed to not to try and arrest or harm the terrorists so long as they desist from any new terror operations. The PA vowed to disarm the 17 and to follow and restrict their movements in the town.

The next town to be transferred is Tul Karm (expected to be handed over on Sunday).

Qalqilyah is then expected to be handed over some time next week.

The remaining 2 towns to be handed over are Ramallah and Bethlehem.

The Unthinkable

I missed this Ha'aretz report saying that Mahmoud Abbas is ready to concede on one of the main stumbling blocks preventing an end of conflict solution.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will tell militant Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo Tuesday that the right of return of refugees should be looked upon "realistically," and that not all Palestinian exiles will return to former homes in Israel and the territories, Israel Radio said, quoting the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. Palestinian sources told the paper that Abbas will tell the participants in the Cairo parley that the right of return cannot be fully implemented, and that those who cannot return should be granted compensation.

Tuesday has come and gone, but unfortunately there were no reports confirming this announcement. This should still be considered a positive development since these reports condition the Palestinian public for what they will eventually need to concede on. In the lead-up to Camp David, Ehud Barak cunningly released a steady stream of leaks to the media, which readied the Israeli public for the concessions he was about to make.

Of course, no Israeli PM will ever concede on the refugees issue. The idea is to end up with one Palestinian state, not two. Barak however, did agree to the idea of compensating the refugees to the tune of US$30 Billion.

The Big Issue with Jews and Satan

Quite an interesting development from the local magazine that creates employment for many previously destitute people on our streets.

The Big Issue printed a letter from a reader containing the following sentence

If you want to blame someone for creating Satan, that would be the Jews.

The sentence in the letter could easily be classified within the parameters of hate speech. Following a series of letters criticising the editor for failing to omit the offensive sentence, the Big Issue have responded declaring why they decided to print the letter.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to any readers who may have been offended by the letter in question. Our decision to print it was taken so as to illustrate the point made by writer Owen Wolff in his `Bewitched and Bewilderd` article (also in the February 2005 issue) that most of the negative responses to the original article (the December 2004 `What is Wicca?` cover story) came from intolerant and irrational fundamentalist 'Christians' who seem completely unwilling to accept the existence of other faiths. In no way do we condone hate speech, but we do believe in exposing bigotry and intolerance, and encouraging debate around issues of public interest.

I think it is unfair to use one intolerant Christian as an example in order to single out Christians in general as being intolerant of other beliefs. It is common knowledge that people from all religions can be intolerant of others, and so, painting only Christians as intolerant or irrational discriminates against Christians in particular.

I fully support the initiative of the publishers of the Big Issue in starting a magazine which provides previously destitute people with the opportunity to earn a living. Perhaps they should however, refrain from controversy, since the last thing they would want is for offended readers to stop buying their publication. Heck, in printing just one letter they potentially offended Jews, Christians, and Muslims (Muslims in that one sentence read: All non-Christian movements are starting to unite in their belief against a common enemy, namely the Christians").

Israeli Hospital Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The Hadassah Medical Organisation in Israel has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize. It has been cited for its promotion of Jewish-Arab cooperation, providing equal treatment to Palestinians and Israelis. Three areas are cited: the ability to maintain the value of equal treatment for all people despite treating more terror victims than any other medical center; the model of cooperation and coexistence set by the mixed staff of people of all faiths; and the medical organization's ongoing initiatives in creating bridges for peace even throughout the intifada.

Several reasons were given by the nominators for their choice: The two medical centers are run according to humanitarian Jewish values that require giving high level of health care to people of all ages, religions and ethnic origins. It has worked flawlessly, they said, to implement these values throughout the raging terrorist violence of the last four and a half years, while treating more intifada victims than any other medical centers in the country. It is also an example of Jewish-Arab cooperation, as it has trained Palestinian pediatric oncology specialists from Augusta Victoria Hospital in east Jerusalem on behalf of the Peres Institute for Peace. "I can't think of a nicer way to celebrate our founding," commented Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America president June Walker.

This development flies in the face of the recent loathsome anti-Israel accusations found in the British Medical Journal. (You can read all about the episode with the BMJ here).

Bennie Penzik includes this interesting account from freelance journalist Mike Levine in his weekly vignettes.

Levine writes of a conversation he had during a recent hospitalization in Jerusalem, where he met a fellow patient, a medical doctor from Gaza. Here are extracts;

“I was curious how someone from Gaza, a hotbed of anti-Israeli terrorism, could manage to get himself admitted into a hospital in Jerusalem. He told me that there never was hostility between most of the doctors in Gaza and their colleagues in Israel, that in fact, there was constant communication, and that Israeli medical people had often shipped medical supplies and medicines when Gaza had shortages, which was often. He told of numerous children sent to Israel for treatment and surgery impossible to do in Gaza, and that there never was a charge for anything! He told me that most of the educated people in Gaza were more than ready to live in peace with us, but that they were afraid to speak out, fearing a ‘collaborators’ execution.