Al Qaeda No. 2 In Crazy Rant Which Kind Of Makes Sense

In an audiotape on an Islamist website, Al Qaeda's number 2 terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri lets rip all his pent up feelings in a hilarious rant that rivals the infamous French Taunter's "English pig-dogs" tirade in Monty Python:

"Poor Obama comes to Kabul pledging that Taliban will not return to power... You threaten the Taliban; you are just a puppet of the tyrants"

... I blow my nose at you, sons of a silly person! 

He does makes an interesting comment though, that "These Arab Zionists are more dangerous than Jewish Zionists". At first glance, this is a load of nonsense, spoken by a psycho. None of the Arab leaders he challenges are anything close to being Zionists. And neither they nor the "Jewish Zionists" are "dangerous" in the ways which he refers to.

But his fear (which he disguises as contempt), is somewhat understandable. Why should he be scared of Jews? (whilst he's cowering in his cave). The Arab leaders he mentions aren't as obviously Islamist and terror-supporting like Ahmadinejad, so it's no wonder he's scared they're turning into Zionists, and he's worried of their betrayal!

It all makes sense when you look at it from the angle of Israel's enemies. On the one hand, there are the barbaric, mass-murdering Islamist terrorists. And on the other, are the "intellectual" types, the liberal-lefties, the Western leaders - our supposed "allies" - and self-hating Jews. These are the people we are supposed to identify with. "Normal" people. The people who fight for democracy and freedom and equal rights. 

But more and more, they are the people who are denying Israel it's right to self-defence and existence, and we are becoming increasingly alienated as age-old antisemitism reproduces itself as discrimination against Jews as a nation rather than a religion. When our friends and allies start to turn against us then it really is a dangerous time for Jews and Israel.

So even though al-Zawahiri is very deluded in his fears - Israel is the one thing the Arab world seems to agree on, in that they want to destroy it - if the Arabs were to turn into Zionists, it would indeed be disastrous for the anti-Zionists! Now the Jews on the other hand, we make up less than 1% of the world population, we're nothing to worry about!

Terrorists Caught

About a month ago, an Israeli policeman was shot dead, and two injured, in a Palestinian terror attack. It has now emerged that the terrorists were arrested, and were none other than Hamas operatives, in a smaller terror group.

They had been involved in terror activities for years, stockpiling weapons including the rifles that had been used in the attack, holding shooting training sessions, and plotting other attacks to kidnap or kill Israeli civilians or security officials, for which they bought disguises to look like religious Jews.

Members of the group had previously been jailed for terror-related activities.

Probably the most shocking part of it all is this:

"Two weeks before the attack, a leader of the cell accompanied his daughter to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, where she underwent surgery to remove an eye tumor. The surgery was funded by an Israeli aid organization."

But when you think about it, maybe it's not so shocking after all. Two weeks ago, EoZ linked to a story on how an Israeli reporter broadcast a news appeal to help raise funds for medical treatment for a dying Palestinian baby. 

At that time, the news was generally filled with stories of the rockets that were falling on Sderot, so the reporter Shlomi Eldar was not hopeful. But an Israeli Jew, whose son had died in the army, donated $55,000.

During the operation though, the mother confessed to Eldar that she would want her baby to carry out a suicide attack in Jerusalem. She told him "we will all sacrifice ourselves for the sake of Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it". Eldar demanded "Then why are you fighting to save your son's life, if you say that death is a usual thing for your people?".

The woman replied:

"For us, life is nothing, not worth a thing. That is why we have so many suicide bombers. They are not afraid of death... After Mohammed gets well, I will certainly want him to be a shahid... For us a shahid is a tremendous thing."

The disregard for human life, of their own, their children, and needless to say of Jews, is obviously not so unusual for the Palestinians. But these two incidents really illustrate a sick irony, that these Palestinians want to kill Jews even when their own childrens' lives are saved by Jews. If they won't be turned by that, then what hope is there for peace?

Confirmed: British Jews Love Israel!

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research have released the findings of a survey of British Jews' attitudes to Israel. 

JPR's executive director, Jonathan Boyd concluded that:  

"Jews in Britain are pro-Israel and pro-peace. Their hawkishness on some issues is typically motivated by a clear concern for Israel's security, while their dovishness on others reflects a deep-set desire to see the country at peace".

Results that stand out include:

- 90% believe that Israel is the ‘ancestral homeland’ of the Jewish people

- 72% view the security fence/separation barrier as ‘vital for Israel’s security’

- 72% agree that the Gaza War was ‘a legitimate act of self-defence'

- 87% agree that ‘Iran represents a threat to Israel’s existence’

More from Robin Shepherd.

There are some disappointing findings, such as that 67% want to give up land to the Palestinians and that 74% are opposed to the expansion of settlements, but it is heartening to see that on the whole British Jews are clearly very supportive of Israel and of the necessary actions taken to ensure the security of Israeli citizens. 

Although the sample of 4081 people may not be representative of British Jews from every category, it does confirm one thing: that the lefty self-haters are indeed in the minority. Jewish support for Israel is as strong as ever.

Flotilla Updates

From Israel Matzav - finally there is confirmation of links between the Turkish "charity" IHH, and Turkish government officials.

And the IDF has released the English version of the videos confirming what happened in the flotilla incident, as I previously blogged:

Hoffman Exposes Anti-Israel Judge

In January 2009 during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, seven people broke into a factory in Brighton, England, and caused £180,000 of damage, later confessing to their crime.

But this week, after their trial, they walked free. The factory was exporting military equipment to Israel, and their defence was that although they had committed a crime,it was justified as they were doing so in order to prevent the greater offence of Israeli 'war crimes'.

The judge, George Bathurst-Norman, said "You may well think that hell on earth woud not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time." He was born in Arab Jaffa and was brought out of retirement to try this case. The local MP Caroline Lucas supported the defendants, claiming that "all democratic paths had been exhausted" before they destroyed the factory. Lucas had previously blamed Israel for the Mumbai massacre, and supports boycotts of Israeli products. More on the judge's bias on EoZ blog.

Yet again Israel is denied it's right to self-defence, this time because of corruption in British courts. As Robin Shepherd puts it:

"Bigotry against the Jewish state is now so entrenched in contemporary British society that juries have begun to acquit criminals merely if they can show they acted against Israeli interests. No other defence is necessary."

Now Jonathan Hoffman has fisked the evidence, the 87 page transcript of the judge's summing-up of the case - comments he made to the jury before they decided to acquit the defendants. Through a combinaton of the omission and distortion of facts, blatant lies, and antisemitic analogies, the judge succeeded in manipulating the jury with his demonisation of Israel. Hoffman observes that Bathurst-Norman was more a member of the defence's legal team than the judge, and this is no exaggeration. Read Hoffman's brilliant piece in it's entirety; that the biased, hate-filled rantings that he examines come from a judge is almost beyond belief.

On the whole affair, Melanie Phillips concludes: 

"for a judge to abuse the task of summing up evidence to a jury by turning it into a platform for his own personal prejudice is startling even by the standards of Britain's degraded and vicious Judeophobic public discourse." 

"If the senior judiciary does not institute action against this judge for such a gross abuse of his position, we shall have to conclude that they too see nothing wrong with it - and thus have abandoned all claim to objectivity, fairness or due process in the justice system. We shall have to conclude that, for the English judiciary, there is now one law for the gentiles and another law for the Jews."

Hoffman calls for action: 

"The bottom line is simple. Judge Bathurst-Norman behaved more like the Defence Counsel than the neutral Officer of the Court that he was supposed to be. The role of a Judge - far from advancing his own political agenda - is to clarify points of law to the lay members of the Jury. Bathurst-Norman's comments reveal that he has an extreme anti-Israel agenda. This case must therefore be declared a mistrial and retired under a neutral Judge. And Bathurst-Norman should be prevented from ever presiding over such a case again."

"Please complain to the Office for Judicial Complaints here. [Use the above quotes from Hoffman and Phillips to help form your argument]. The case is R vs Robert Nicholls and others at Lewes, case number t20097131. Please also ask your MP to write to the Justice Minister and Lord Chancellor, Ken Clarke."

Flotilla Mistakes... But Not What They Think

According to retired general Giora Eiland, the IDF investigation into the Gaza flotilla incident found that:

"Mistakes were made in the various decisions taken, including within relatively senior ranks, which contributed to the result not being as we would have wished... In this inquiry we found that there were some professional mistakes regarding both the intelligence and the decision-making process".

At this point, some people will be thinking, 'go on... get to the war crimes bit', but sadly for them the mistakes that the IDF made weren't that juicy. For myself and a lot of other people though, the mistakes were glaringly obvious from within hours of the incident, once the commandos' accounts started to come out, reinforced by the IDF's video evidence. 

So what mistakes does the report accuse the navy of? Only this:

"Failing to sufficiently consider the possibility that the commandos would encounter violent resistance when attempting to keep the ships out of Gaza... [and] not cooperating sufficiently with the Mossad in gathering information ahead of the flotilla's arrival".

The commandos were not expecting, did not want, and were not prepared for a violent battle. And they certainly didn't initiate it. As we've seen from the videos, the IDF boats alongside the Mavi Marmara were attacked even before the soldiers were able to board. In fact the report explains that the only reason the soldiers had to be lowered on board from helicopters was because the boats came under attack and the ladder was cut.

They had barely landed on the ship before they were overcome, their anti-riot paintball guns useless against the mob of activists armed with knives and other weapons. Not only were the soldiers shot at first by the activists, and with their own guns that the activists took from them - starrting with only the second soldier to descend, who was shot in the stomach - but a gun and bullets were found on board that were not Israeli weapons. Eiland said the commandos "only used force when they were under immediate danger to their lives", as they were instructed, and all the evidence confirms this.

If the IDF soldiers had been more prepared from the start, more aggressive even, if they had boarded with a more offensive mentality, then perhaps the nine activists may not have died. The soldiers may have found a way to take over the ship by force, but without their own lives being endangered so that they had no choice but to shoot.

Apart from those mistakes though - made by senior officials, not the soldiers themselves - the report concludes that:

"the Navy Commando soldiers operated properly, with professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness and that the commanders exhibited correct decision making... the use of live fire was justified".

So we know that the IDF's actions on the flotilla were justified. Last week we saw Hezbollah's preparations for war: stockpiling weapons in civilian areas. And now, in an amazing CNN report, we can see Israel's preparations for war: how to minimize civilian casualties.

The report is amazing for two reasons: first, how much effort Israel puts in to minimize civilian casualties, when the enemy are so determined to do the opposite, deliberately using their people as human shields, and second, the fact that CNN reported this at all; it is very rare to get such an insight into the evil tactics of Israel's enemies, and into the morality of the IDF in having to fight these people under such difficult conditions.

The question is whether this will count for anything when the next war comes.

UPDATE: Just Journalism analysis of the way the media reported the IDF investigation. Unsurprisingly, it seems that for the Guardian and Independent, the main findings of the investigation - namely that the activists were armed and attacked first - were just side points.

CNN Fires Terrorist-Supporting Editor

CNN have been forced to fire their senior editor of Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, over this tweet she posted on Sunday:

"Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot.."

Honest Reporting wonder what it is about Fadlallah that Nasr respects - his support for Hezbollah, who comment on "the necessity for the destruction of Israel", his links to terrorism, or perhaps his Holocaust denial. 

HR also point to how on his death bed, when asked by a nurse what he needed, he answered, "for the Zionist entity to cease to exist". And one of his last acts before he died was to issue a fatwa authorising the use of suicide bomb attacks.

Whilst Nasr's Lebanese background should not have been a problem in hiring her as senior editor of Middle East affairs, her being a terrorist sympathiser is.

Nasr blogged her apology: 

"It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I'm sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah's life's work. That's not the case at all." 

She then rambled on trying to explain why she does and doesn't respect Fadlallah.

This wasn't enough for CNN though, who fired her, explaining that 

"At this point, we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward".

What they mean is that, although she's been working for them for 20 years, as a pro-Palestinian, pro-Hezbollah, and very obviously anti-Israel reporter/editor, her bias wasn't obvious enough to raise questions about her loyalties and commitment to journalistic integrity - until now.

The Augean Stables blog has more on her reporting. AS also links to the Guardian's sickening obituary by Ian Williams, who really rivals Nasr's tweet in mourning the terrorist Fadlallah as a "moderate" deserving of respect. The Guardian obviously take their own standards a lot less seriously than CNN, and so would doubtlessly be more likely to promote Williams to Middle East Editor than they would to fire him for writing such a loving obituary for a terrorist.

UPDATE: Elder of Ziyon links to another fan of Fadlallah, this one Britain's ambassador to Lebanon, who wrote on her blog on the official British foreign office website, that "The world needs more men like him".

The result? The piece was removed and she wrote a very insincere "apology", almost identical to that of the CNN's Octavia Nasr. More on this from Robin Shepherd.

On the subject of Hezbollah, EoZ highlights the evidence that even whilst there currently is no war between Israel and Hezbollah, Hezbollah are committing war crimes, storing weapons near schools and hospitals in civilian villages, deliberately using the residents as human shields.

Turkey And Islamism

In an interview with the Times today, Turkey's President Abdullah Gul says:

"I consider it very wrong to interpret Turkey's interests with other geographic regions as it breaking from the West, turning it's back on the West or seeking alternatives to the West. Turkey is part of Europe."

However, the Times points out that Turkey's "interests with other geographic regions" includes welcoming Iran's President Ahmadinejad, who both denies the Holocaust and wants to create a Holocaust, by "wiping Israel off the map"; congratulating him on his fraudulent election victory; voting against UN sanctions to try and halt the Iranian nuclear programme; supporting the terrorist organisation Hamas - as "respecting the choice of the Palestinian people in Gaza", and preparing to host Sudan's war criminal President al-Bashir at an Islamic conference until the EU objected. 

On the flotilla incident, for which Turkey is demanding an apology, compensation, and for Israel to agree to an international inquiry into the incident, Gul asks:

"If an army of a state kills your people in international waters, how would you react?" 

The Times though refers to those killed as 'civilians' (at least not 'peace activists') and fails to mention the Turkish government's support for the flotilla and for the IHH, the radical Islamic "charity" that sent the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara - on which there was no humanitarian aid, and many of the activists, with links to terrorism, brutally attacked the IDF soldiers before they even landed on the ship.

So really, the question should be, "If a government-supported flotilla of terrorists and terrorist supporters was going to break your country's security blockade, how would you react? And if they ignored your warnings not to approach, and then stood ready wielding knives and batons, and then attacked and overcame you and your fellow soldiers when you boarded, how would you react?"

The Turkish politicians are not speaking or acting for the secular majority of their population. And if they are, many of those will have been manipulated in their thinking by their government. But there will be many Turks who are opposed to their Islamist government; most will probably be anti-Israel too, but at least opposed to the terror regimes that their government supports.

In an open letter to Turkey's PM Erdogan (on Harry's Place), a Turkish-American Muslim citizen asks:

"Mr Erdogan, do you even care about the ordinary, normal Muslims of your own country and the world? If you do, then why have you successfully established such frightening friendships and contacts with some of the most dangerous and brutal dictators of the so-called Islamic world?"

"These countries need genuine democracies, freedoms, and liberation from Islamism... how do you sleep at night, Mr Erdogan, when you officially invite the genocidal maniac Omar al-Bashir to Turkey... responsible for butchering hundreds of thousands of Muslims. Did it ever occur to you to send some 'humanitarian ships' to Sudan?"

Read the whole letter, it really paints a picture of what Erdogan and his government are doing in Turkey and how it effects the Muslims who yearn for a peaceful, moderate existence in their country.