09-Dec-18: More on that Jordanian conference to "defend" Jerusalem

Jordan's Minister of Endowment (Awqaf), of Islamic Affairs
and of and Holy Sites Abdel Nasser Abul Basal [Image Source]

Expanding on what we reported yesterday ["08-Dec-18: How closely aligned are Jordan and Hamas?"], we offer some additional information from an Arabic-language source (via machine translation), :

The [Jordanian] Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Dr. Abdel Nasser Abul Basal, stressed that the increasing frequency of incursions and violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque was the main objective of holding the second international conference of the road to Al-Aqsa.

Abu al-Basal said that the most important challenges facing Al-Aqsa Mosque are the daily and hourly closures and the establishment of Jewish prayers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque which diminish the value of this great place and condemn it. He added that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is not negotiable, sharing, sharing or in any way, and that it is necessary to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the first of the Qibla and the third of the two Holy Mosques.

He pointed out that this conference is not a research conference to present research and articles, but its main purpose is to discuss solutions and ways to support the cause of Al Aqsa Mosque and the participation of Jerusalemites in their efforts and their struggle to defend Al Aqsa Mosque...

He... has received responses and turnout where the number of participants at the moment [is] a thousand, 500 participants from within the country and 500 from outside. He said that this conference came to remind all the Islamic, Arab and international countries that their internal concerns do not relieve us of the obligation to preserve and defend Jerusalem... It is the duty of all institutions to stand by the Jerusalemites and not leave them alone in defending her.

Muslim faithful outside Al Aqsa [Image Source]

Consistent with the congratulations (mentioned in yesterday's post) passed along by Hamas, the Iran-aligned Taghrib News Agency website adds [here] that

The conference will be held under the patronage of King Abdullah II and is titled “A Call from the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque”.

It's a significant bit of information. It would be a pity if we publicized it and then found out it was not accurate. Though we have been searching, we have not yet found confirmation in Jordan's government-controlled media that the anti-Israel gathering has the imprimatur of the monarchy or that King Abdullah II will be its patron.

24-Jul-17: Stabbing for Al-Aqsa again

The kosher shawarma stand where today's stabbing "for
Al Aqsa" happened [Image Source]

There has been an Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack today (Monday) in Petach Tikvah.

According to Ynet, the Arab attacker stabbed his victim, an Israeli Arab of 32 who is a driver for Egged, the national bus co-operative, at a spot close to a shawarma (grilled lamb meat) stand near the busy Petach Tikva Central Bus Station, injuring him moderately-to-severely.

According to Times of Israel

The assailant then tried to escape on foot, but was wrestled to the ground by civilian bystanders and handed over to police. Some reports said a driver who was passing by helped stop the attacker by ramming him with his car as he tried to escape. Others said a local pizzeria worker helped subdue him by hitting him with a wooden pizza tray. The assailant, a 21-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, was arrested and taken for questioning by police. Police spokesman Luba Samri said Monday’s attack was nationalist in nature. She said the attacker was a Palestinian working illegally in Israel.

Ynet says the victim was rushed to Beilinson Hospital in nearby Rabin Medical Center with injuries to upper body including stabbing injuries to the neck. This, it has to be noted, is where Palestinian Arab stabbers are taught to aim when carrying out Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks.

In Ynet's telling, the stabber told police he "did it for Al-Aqsa." He has a criminal/terror record, having been imprisoned in 2015 – 2016 for "a nationalistically motivated attack" on Israelis.

We're witnessing a great deal of evil being done "for Al-Aqsa" at the moment.

19-Jul-17: The Al-Aqsa factor: Rats, snakes and chickens

Jerusalem: Al Aqsa, Old City walls and new Jerusalem [Image Source: AP]

The police helicopter flying over our home as we type this is a reminder of where the attention of the security services here in Jerusalem is focused tonight.

We're in the middle of another official Palestinian Arab temper tantrum. They call it something else, of course. And while foreign news media are paying scant attention, the reality on the ground here as well as throughout Israeli and Jewish news media is heavy enough to cause a rising sense of anxiety about where the Palestinian Arabs are going to take this.

Here's what we knew last night:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party called for a “day of rage” to take place in eastern Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday.
Additionally, Fatah’s military branch, Tanzim, determined that Friday prayers this week would be conducted in Palestinian public squares, and that sermons would be devoted to supporting the Al-Aqsa Mosque and protesting Israel’s bolstered security at the Temple Mount. The calls follow clashes that broke out in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday when Muslim worshipers blocked a road in protest of new metal detectors placed by Israel at the entrance gates to the Temple Mount, three days after Arab terrorists killed two Israeli police officers near the flashpoint holy site. The protest was prompted by the Islamic Waqf, which together with other Muslim groups issued a statement calling on Muslims “to reject and boycott all the Israeli aggression measures, including changing the historical status quo including imposing the metal detectors.” ["Fatah Incites ‘Day of Rage’ in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories" | Algemeiner/JNS.org | July 18, 2017]

Image Source

From the same source, reports during the day today speak of serious disturbances and a rising drumbeat of officially-instigated Arab-on-Israeli violence:

Clashes erupted between Muslim rioters and Israeli police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday for the fourth consecutive day. Around 200 protesters convened near the Old City’s Lions’ Gate and performed Islamic prayers to protest the bolstered security implemented at the Temple Mount following last Friday’s terror attack that killed two Israeli police officers near the holy site.
Several of the protesters began shouting chants in support of the Temple Mount complex’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, and were asked by police to leave the area. When one of the protesters refused to comply with the police order, several other protesters began rioting and throwing water bottles at the officers. The police responded by implementing crowd control measures and arresting the man who defied the police order.
Wednesday’s protests came after Muslim rioters clashed with police in the Old City Tuesday night, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party called for a “day of rage” to take place in eastern Jerusalem and the disputed territories. Riots also broke out in Jerusalem’s Old City Sunday when Muslim worshipers blocked...["Riots Continue in Jerusalem Amid Heightened Temple Mount Tensions", Algemeiner/JNS.org | July 19, 2017]

It's not hard for an observant bystander to detect just how calculated the whipping up of the current violence actually is. The larger challenge is in seeing how this is part of a much longer narrative - an effort over generations to depict the Arabs, then later the Palestinian Arabs, and the Islamic world in general, as being under attack by Israel and the Jews.

We tweeted earlier today about the importance of looking at history and understanding the deep old roots of this week's violence. It may have been triggered by three similarly-named, murder-minded clansmen - all Mohammeds from the Jabarin clan - traveling up to Jerusalem on Friday to have themselves a shooting attack. But it started a lot earlier:

Attn news editors: Before your reporters fall prey to this notorious Pal Arab shell game, insist they read https://t.co/HZguqXN3F0 pic.twitter.com/f2lVXsxEPe

— This Ongoing War (@ThisOngoingWar) July 19, 2017

Making that point more concisely is one specific caricature - this one:

Evidently posted by Fatah during 2014 and still online here

The website hosting it is an official one: the "Fatah Information and Culture" website and snapshotted for an analytical piece [here] on November 16, 2014 by Israel's Foreign Ministry. Fatah is headed by the president-for-life of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. That's his portrait next to his predecessor's in the screen-shot's top-left corner.

Many will see the drawing as a revolting piece of bigotry but it's more than that: Their sacred Al Aqsa under attack by ravenous, insatiable rats. Jewish rats. It's the work of a noted Palestinian Arab cartoonist, Mousa Ajoa whose bio emphasizes that he holds a BA in history (yes!). His work and career are profiled here on the Arab Cartoon Award website. He's a celebrity.

But the malevolence runs deep. The fact it's still online three years later indicates this cartoon touches a responsive, angry and - above all - useful spot in the Palestinian Arab psyche. (If they do take it down for some reason, we took the precaution of perma-archiving it here for future reference.)

Cartoons have a unique way of being the fuel for fires that ignite passions, violence and wars: this archive illustrates the point.

We're indebted to Gregg Mashberg (@gregg_mashberg) for alerting us to the existence of this hideous piece of agit-prop. Gregg downloaded the screenshot himself from the Fatah site in November 2014 and noted that, in his words, "It covers all the bases":

• Published by Fatah, not Hamas
• With the “moderate” Abu Mazen’s face on it side-by-side with that of the ultimate Palestinian hero
• Depicts Jews as rats, as vermin, clearly marked with Stars of David for ease of identification as they swarm around, gnawing hungily away at the religious site's foundations
• And, by the way, what is it that people do with vermin?
• Particularly with vermin eating away at your key religious symbol?
• This is Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas calling for an “exterminator” to stop the Jews from destroying the Muslim shrine.

Not fake news - just ask the editors [Source: Al Jazeera]

(There's Palestinian Media Watch commentary on it here.)

Given what’s happening now - along with the reality that a picture often is worth 1,000 loud and vicious words – the conscious, systematic resort to inflammatory messaging and imagery like this is not an encouraging sign.

That's especially true given the long history that Al Aqsa's so-called "defenders" have of warning it's about to be defiled or destroyed or worse.

On that point, we recommend reading Nadav Shragai's comprehensive review of a century of "Al Aqsa is in danger" lies, libels and incitement to murder. It's online and downloadable from the JCPA site. It will help many readers get a better understanding of the scurrilous process that lies behind Al Jazeera's signature articles blaming Israel and warning against Israeli plots. When confronted with malicious witch-hunts and lethal journalism, as we all are at this moment, being equipped with facts and factual analysis can be its own reward.

Interestingly, we see, and you might have noticed, the absence of foreign leaders and leading figures in the peace-making movement and analysts of complicated world situations who are turning to Palestinian Arab civic and religious leaders with appeals to tone down the fury and rage. In other words, for a more proportionate response.

You might imagine that at least some of those personages - who in the past decried what they termed Israel’s “indiscriminate,” “heavy-handed” and “intentional” measures - might have had something equally helpful to offer Abbas and his raging cronies.

Evidently not.

Perhaps they have learned not to mix in when the subject is, you know, about religion and sensitive stuff. Or perhaps there's a current shortage of courage and backbone?

03-Jun-17: Watch the chilling joy of a terror-massacre mastermind

Image Source: FBI

If you're already familiar with the details of our daughter Malki's murder in the Sbarro pizzeria massacre of August 9, 2001, this post probably will not add much to your knowledge or state of mind.

We are currently trying to get the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to co-operate with the US Department of Justice and extradite our child's killer and the chief planner of the massacre, Ahlam Tamimi, to the US.

In the course of our efforts, we are referring a number of agencies, governments and specific individuals to video clips that throw light on the woman and the things she has said on video since being released by the Israeli government in the 2011 Shalit prisoner-exchange deal.

We created this post for that purpose (and before we knew of the events in and around London Bridge overnight).

Ahlam Tamimi lives today in complete freedom as a terror-celebrity in Jordan with her husband Nizar Tamimi. They are cousins, and he too is a prematurely-freed murderer. In Jordan, she enjoys extraordinary protection by the king and his regime.

Jordan signed an extradition agreement with the US in 1995. The US has requested that its provisions must and should apply to Tamimi who is a fugitive from the FBI ["Individual Charged in Connection With 2001 Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem That Resulted in Death of Americans"]. She was added to its Most Wanted Terrorists listing on March 14, 2017.

Jordan has refused the request. There is no internal debate about this within the kingdom. It appears to be a supremely popular decision.

The video clip below [the source is here], one of scores we have found online, shows Tamimi, a terrorist in the service of Hamas, interviewed on an Al-Aqsa TV program that first aired on July 12, 2012, some nine months after she was freed in the wake of the conditional commuting of her prison sentence: 16 consecutive terms of life imprisonment. Unlike the usual labels that some kinds of analysts and some news services like to use, this woman shows no sign of being crazed or insane.

The massacre she engineered was not an incident, not an assault, not an attack - it was an act of terror, whose principal purpose was to terrorize. And it won wide applause. Watch. See. She is not seen in her society as an aberration but as a celebrity. A heroic figure. Someone to emulate.

Al-Aqsa is operated by Hamas and beams its programs throughout the Arabic-speaking world.



MEMRI ("The Middle East Media Research Institute") which does invaluable work providing translated documents and videos to English-speaking audiences, published the following Arabic-to-English translated transcript [source here].

July 12, 2012 Clip No. 3539 | Released Hamas Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi on Palestinian Public's Delight at Suicide Bombings 

Following are excerpts from an interview with released Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 12, 2012.

Interviewer: "Sixteen Zionists were killed [in the suicide bombing you helped carry out]. Was the sound of the explosion...?"

Ahlam Tamimi: "It was very loud. The mujahid Abdallah Barghouti did a perfect job producing the guitar [containing the bomb], and the results amazed everybody, thanks to Allah...
Afterwards, when I took the bus, the Palestinians around Damascus Gate [in Jerusalem] were all smiling. You could sense that everybody was happy. When I got on the bus, nobody knew that it was me who had led [the suicide bomber to the target]... I was feeling quite strange, because I had left [the bomber] 'Izz Al-Din behind, but inside the bus, they were all congratulating one another. They didn't even know one another, yet they were exchanging greetings...
While I was sitting on the bus, the driver turned on the radio. But first, let me tell you about the gradual rise in the number of casualties. While I was on the bus and everybody was congratulating one another, they said on the radio that there had been a martyrdom attack at the Sbarro restaurant, and that three people were killed. I admit that I was a bit disappointed, because I had hoped for a larger toll. Yet when they said 'three dead,' I said: 'Allah be praised.' 

Interviewer: "Was it an Israeli radio station or a Palestinian one?"

Ahlam Tamimi: "That station was in the Zionist language, and the driver was translating for the passengers... Two minutes later, they said on the radio that the number had increased to five. I wanted to hide my smile, but I just couldn't. Allah be praised, it was great. As the number of dead kept increasing, the passengers were applauding. They didn't even know that I was among them. On the way back [to Ramallah], we passed a Palestinian police checkpoint, and the policemen were laughing. One of them stuck his head in and said: 'Congratulations to us all.' Everybody was happy...

We plan to post additional Tamimi clips in the coming days.

18-Apr-16: For the jihadists of Hamas, planting bombs on Israeli buses is something to sing about

The Hamas music-video is online here

The Islamist terror organization Hamas has praised this afternoon's attack on a Jerusalem city bus. But so far, at least, it has taken no credit for carrying it out.

Hamas praised the attack on the bus in Jerusalem but doesn't claim responsibility in a tweet from the official Hamas twitter account, The tweet in Arabic said "Hamas praises the operation in Jerusalem, and regards it as a natural reaction to Zionist crimes, specifically for the extrajudicial killings and the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque." ["Hamas praises Jerusalem attack", Ynet. April 18, 2016]

Hamas' bashfulness is a little too disingenuous for its own blood-soaked history and track-record of savagery.

For instance, just six weeks ago, Hamas began promoting a music video [online here] in which a group of its singing-and-dancing all-stars parade in front of a bus made up (poorly) to look like it belongs to Egged, the veteran Israeli co-operative that operates most of Jerusalem's city buses. The Hamas mock-up is smoking and is meant to look it has been freshly exploded.

The Hamas video clip was first shown to an eager Palestinian Arab audience on the Hamas-operated Al-Aqsa satellite television network on February 6, 2016, and then beamed throughout the Arabic-speaking world via a multitude of streaming-video websites and cable networks that carry the terrorism-steeped Al-Aqsa programming.

Not a mock-up: The aftermath of today's bus attack on southern Jerusalem's Moshe Baram Street [Image Source]

Via Palestinian Media Watch [here], here's a taste of what the lyrics mean:

O bearer of good news, strap on an explosive belt
Nothing will be told about the Intifada except for the roof of the bus that flew off
O Martyrdom seeker, respond to Al-Aqsa’s call
Make the bomb even more powerful
Bring Netanyahu down
And the losses should be too many for him to count
Scatter them in all directions, terrorize their families...

Twenty-two years ago, almost to the day, in April 1994, Hamas carried out two bombing attacks on Israeli buses, one in the northern city of Afula (8 murdered, 55 victims injured) and another in the northern coastal city of Hadera, a week later (six killed, 30 injured). Murderous Hamas bombings of people traveling on Israeli buses evolved into an especially effective mode of jihadist warfare in the years that followed [table].

01-Dec-15: PA president: When the subject is terror, double-talk and blatant hypocrisy work

PA president Abbas tells the Climate Change conference in Paris
on Monday that Israel is to blame "for all the ecological problems
in the occupied Palestinian territories" [Source] 

Not for the first time, we owe a debt of gratitude to the people at Palestinian Media Watch. Without their monitoring and translating of Arabic-language materials emanating from the PA regime, most people would be left to believe what the autocratic Mahmoud Abbas (elected to a four-year term as PA president almost 11 years ago) says when speech-writers prepare his comments in the English language. His Arabic speeches are considerably more revealing.

A PMW bulletin issued today [here] throws valuable light on why no one in the Palestinian Authority leadership - and certainly not Abbas who controls it - has expressed condemnation, shock, horror or revulsion at the daily acts of violence against Israeli civilians that got into high gear at the end of September.

Out of one side of his mouth, the English-speaking side that finds its way into press releases and evening news programs, he declares his opposition to terror:

• Abbas "reiterated Palestine’s solidarity with the French people and sincere condolences to all countries affected by terrorism... We strongly condemn these terrorist and barbaric acts, which require genuine efforts to combat terrorism in all its forms and everywhere in the world." [Speech to this week's Climate Change conference in Paris, reported via Palestine National News]
• "[T]he PLO affirmed its choice of peace as a strategic option and of a solution resulting from negotiations, it firmly repudiated violence and affirmed an ethical, principled rejection of terrorism in all its forms..." [Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 26, 2013] 
• "The PLO and the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and condemning of terrorism in all its forms..." [Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 23, 2011, submitting his bid for UN recognition of a Palestinian state - via WAFA News Agency, the official mouthpiece of the Palestinian Authority]

Leaves no doubt about his complete, total, wall-to-wall opposition to terror in all its forms, everywhere and forever.

Two weeks ago, speaking on official PA television, he said almost, more or less, practically the same thing. Except upside down. In PMW's words and Abbas':

• Referring to the current Palestinian terror uprising, which at the time of Abbas’ statement had already murdered 14 Israelis [more since then, tragically] Abbas announced on PA TV that it is a “peaceful uprising.”
• Abbas: “No one called for this uprising and no one asked for it. It stemmed from the hearts of the young... We said to everyone that we want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is. That’s what this is. However, the aggression of firing bullets has come from the Israelis.” [Official PA TV, Nov. 16, 2015]
• PMW: According to Abbas, when Palestinians kill young Israeli parents in front of their children, kill Israeli teens, or kill Israeli fathers with their sons, it is not to be condemned as terror because it is an expression of “peace.” And therefore, when Israelis kill the stabbers and shooters who are trying to peacefully kill Israelis - it is the Israelis who are the “aggressors.”
• PMW: Significantly, Abbas openly admitted that he called “to everyone” for this violence: “We said to everyone that we want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is. That’s what this is.”

• PMW continues: One of the many PA calls to Palestinians to participate in this so-called “peaceful uprising” that Abbas might have been referring to was his Sept. 16, 2015 speech “blessing the blood” spilled fighting to prevent Jews from “defiling” the Al-Aqsa Mosque with “their filthy feet” when going to the Temple Mount. This “defiling of an Islamic holy site” was the excuse used by the PA as trigger for this current terror campaign. Excerpt follows -
• "We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every Martyr (Shahid) will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah... The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem." [Official PA TV, Sept. 16, 2015] 
• Neither one to shy away from public demonstrations of rank hypocrisy, Abbas has taken several opportunities during these past two months of blood-letting attacks by his people - many of them children and women - to express solidarity and support for the victims of terror... in other places: France, Russia, Lebanon and Jordan. 
• From another source - the Iranian mouthpiece with the strange name, PressTV - there's this gem of selective jihad-friendly outrage: "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned “the horrific events” in Paris and expressed sympathy and solidarity with the French people and government. “We condemn it in the strongest terms and we hope that this region can get rid of terror and the terrorists,” said Abbas, calling on all nations to “collaborate in the fight against terror... Terror has no religion nor a nation or a loyalty to one, whatever this terror maybe it is condemned by us and we stand against it all the way.”
• From the same source: ""Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat also denounced the assaults as “criminal and murderous,” adding that these acts have nothing to do with Islam."
• PMW [here] reminds us that throughout these two months, "Abbas has not condemned even one attack" by Palestinian Arabs against Israelis. 

Where, in any mainstream news reporting or analysis, have we seen these points made?

02-Nov-15: Terrorist rides bus from Hevron to carry out stabbing attack in Rishon Lezion

Rishon Lezion - immediately after the attack [Image Source: Video]

There has been another Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack.

This one, around 3:50 this afternoon (Monday) was executed by a Palestinian Arab terrorist in his teens who traveled from Hevron to the Tel-Aviv suburbs - specifically to the main bus station in Rishon Lezion, and Herzl Street, its main commercial precinct according to Globes, to make his contribution to defending the Al Aqsa mosque-compound-myth.

Presumably expressing what a New York Times article today calls "the extent of Palestinian frustration", the attacker, according to Ynet's report

stabbed a 35-year-old man on a street corner, seriously wounding him . He continued to a commercial area on an adjacent street, where he stabbed another person, who was lightly wounded. He then attacked an 80-year-old woman outside of a cosmetics store, inflicting severe wounds.  A store employee shut the door. Passersby got hold of the terrorist, a 19-year-old resident of Hebron, and brought him into the store, where he was held down until police arrived and arrested him.

The Ynet article points out that the past week has been marked by unrelenting violence centered in what it terms the Hamas-aligned city of Hebron, which is Hebron some 100 kilometers from Rishon LeZion by car.

Though there is still some uncertainty about the identities, it appears that this afternoon's victims are an 80-year-old woman, stabbed multiple times in the upper body, and suffering moderate-to-serious injuries; a man said to be in his forties, left in serious condition from his stabbing injuries, and a man in his twenties, with knife wounds to the legs. Israel National News says all received emergency treatment at the scene from Magen David Adom (MDA) medics and then rushed to nearby Assaf HaRofeh hospital in Gedera. Medics also treated several bystanders for shock.

The attacker was arrested by police and is being interrogated.

25-Oct-15: Making sense of the Middle East, chapter 389

Said to be Islam's third most sacred site [Image Source]

"Jordan wants Israel to remove Aqsa surveillance cameras"
- Agence France-Presse, December 17, 2013

Said to be Islam's third most sacred site [Image Source]

"Israel agrees to Jordan’s proposal to install cameras at Al Haram Al Sharif"

- Jordan Times, October 25, 2015

Still waiting to see if anyone in the mainstream media thinks this is worthy of comment.

29-Nov-14: Is Turkey providing cover for Hamas terror?

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey hosts Khaled Mashaal
and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in his Ankara bureau, June 18, 2013
[Image Source: Turkish Prime Minister's Press Office]

Since the disclosures made in Israel two days ago about Turkey's involvement in a major Hamas terrorism initiative directed at killing yet more Jews and sowing ever-greater chaos in Jerusalem, we have been paying extra attention to what is making news in Turkey.

(For the background, see this post: "27-Nov-14: Hamas terrorist ring is busted; Israel says the handlers operate from Turkey; Qatar is involved")

Let's start with the Turkish 'denials' of involvement in hosting, tolerating or otherwise co-operating with the terrorists of Hamas. Ynet yesterday published a not-so-comprehensive refutation of the allegations:

Turkey denies harboring Hamas terror command | Ynet, November 28, 2014 | Itamar Eichner | Turkey denied on Friday the claim that Hamas planned terrorist attacks from headquarters in Istanbul. The Shin Bet made the accusation on Thursday, setting off a diplomatic face-off between Israel and Turkey. Turkish sources argued that the Shin Bet's announcement was meant to demonize Turkey and sabotage attempts to mend the countries' diplomatic ties. Israel requested NATO and the American government to take steps against Turkey in response. "It's illogical for a NATO member to host a terrorist organization that trains and plans terror attacks on its soil," said the Israeli statement. Turkish diplomats were enraged by Israel's allegations, calling them "lies and deception... There are elements in Israel who are trying to torpedo the attempts to smooth things out between the two countries and turn a new leaf. They are telling lies, as though Hamas operates in Turkey with the government's knowledge. Turkey has a dialogue with Hamas, but will absolutely not allow any terror organization to operate on its soil."

Had Ynet quoted Turkish names or Turkish titles, the broad, but entirely non-specific, Turkish statements might have had some persuasive value. But they did not. It's simply "Turkey denied" and "diplomats said". So we went looking elsewhere.

So far, the only article we have found (Turkish, but published in English) is from the website of the Turkish newspaper, Daily Sabah. It published the denials of Turkish involvement with the busted Hamas gang ["Top Hamas Official Denies Israel's Claims of Hamas Fighters Trained in Turkey", November 2, 2014], by interviewing a person it oddly sees as a credible source: Osama Hamdan, the man who runs Hamas operations in Lebanon. The 'unimpeachable' Hamdan clears things up by saying (direct quote):

"This is a story made up by Israel... I can say this for certain this is a big lie. They say these lies about Turkey or Jordan for political reasons. They know that after their attack in Gaza there is huge sympathy for Palestine from Europe, from Latin America. Also there is huge sympathy for Turkey. The Turkish government, politically, stands by the rights of Palestinians. They are trying to create stories about militant activities outside Palestine and involve these countries in it. These countries are not supporting terrorist actions. They are supporting Palestinians against occupation. What Israelis say about training and recruiting in Turkey is a big lie..."

To us, it's actually fairly clear that Hamdan is admitting the facts. But he is changing the definitions: what Turkey is doing (our interpretation of what the Hamas terrorists is saying) is supporting the Palestinian Arab anti-"occupation" "resistance" activities. And that's not terrorism, even if Israel and the rest of the world say it is.

Daily Sabah has some fascinating aspects to its own story, according to its Wikipedia entry. Established in 1985, it ran afoul of the Erdogan government which seized its assets in 2007 and then sold them off to (as it happens) a media company controlled by Erdogan's son-in-law. Starting in 2009, it was the local publishing partner in Turkey of the New York Times, distributing the New York Times International Weekly on Sundays. That Sabah/NYT partnership ended earlier this year but Wikipedia is unable to say why. We also don't know.

Osama Hamdan, defender of Turkish virtue, pursuing
a favourite theme in July 2014 [Image Source]

What we do know is that in choosing to defend Turkey's honour by turning to Osama Hamdan, the editors at Daily Sabah somehow neglected to draw readers' attention to the man's passionate attachment to nauseating antisemitic blood libels. On July 28, 2014, here's what he said on the Al-Quds TV channel (controlled by Hamas, beamed throughout the Arabic-speaking world). It's translated from Arabic by the indispensible MEMRI organization:

The Israelis concentrate on killing children. I believe that this is engraved in the historical Zionist and Jewish mentality, which has become addicted to the killing of women and children. We all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians, in order to mix their blood in their holy matzos. This is not a figment of imagination or something taken from a film. It is a fact, acknowledged by their own books and by historical evidence. It happened everywhere, here and there. [Transcript here; Video clip here]

Another major Turkish news source, Todays Zaman, published the Israeli claims ["Israel claims ‘foiled Hamas attacks’ were planned in Turkey", November 27, 2014] but has not - as far as we can tell - found any Turkish government source who will go on the record to deny them. Nor have we seen any Turkish official going on the record anywhere else so far to deny. We do expect those denials to come.

Some of the stories that are capturing Turkey's headlines in the recent past are, we think, worth noting.

• "Muslims discovered Earth is round, Turkey's science minister says", Hürriyet Daily News, November 29, 2014 | Muslim scientists working around 1,200 years ago were the first to determine that the Earth is a sphere, Turkey's science, industry and technology minister, becoming the latest Turkish official to inform the world about apparent scientific firsts on the part of Islamic world...
• "Foreigners don’t like Muslims, only their money: Turkish President Erdoğan", Good Morning Turkey, November 28, 2014 | “Foreigners” are unable to solve the problems of the Middle East because Western states “don’t like us” and are more interested in just following the cash, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Nov. 27. “Only we can solve our problems. I speak openly; foreigners love oil, gold, diamonds, and the cheap labor force of the Islamic world. They like the conflicts, fights and quarrels of the Middle East. Believe me, they don’t like us,” said Erdoğan during an address to the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) in Istanbul. “They look like friends, but they want us dead, they like seeing our children die. How long will we stand that fact?”...
• "Erdoğan says America was discovered by Muslims, not Columbus", Hürriyet Daily News, November 15, 2014 | "...Converting people by force, by the sword, has never been a part of Islam. Our religion has never been a tool of exploitation," Erdoğan continued, arguing that "those who colonialized America for its gold and Africa for its diamonds, now do it in the Middle East for its oil with the same dirty plot..."

Tonight there are reports in many news channels [for instance, "Isis launches attack on Kobani from inside Turkey for first time", The Guardian, November 29, 2014] that jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror forces have launched an attack on the beleagured border town of Kobane, Syria, from inside Turkish territory. Turkey is officially and energetically [here] denying that too.

12-Sep-13: Terrorist "sleeper" units launched while Abbas remains "steadfast" on peace talks

Making no secret of their intentiions, Al Aqsa terrorist threat
is made in the name of Fatah [Image Source]

The 9/11 commemorations are behind us, and with them the universal calls for learning lessons, never giving in to terrorists and so on. Today is the day after, and reality is back.

The lessons were mostly never learned and the terrorists, far from having surrendered, grow increasingly active and brazen, and while this is not about chemical warfare, it's no less life threatening.

We wrote here just a week ago about the rising cacophony of Palestinian Arab voices decrying the 'peace' talks under way with Israel, declaring them a failure, futile, pointless and an act of treason on  the part of any Arab taking part. (Click on "4-Sep-13: Futile and going nowhere: do we understand their peace strategy better now?" for a reminder.) Note how some of those doing the decrying are holders of high positions in the self-pampering elite that runs the Palestinian Authority.

Recall also, before reading the report in the following paragraph, that one man is the head of the Palestinian Authority and of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of Fatah.

The Fatah-aligned al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades on Tuesday distributed a leaflet calling for its “units and sleeping cells” to start launching attacks against “the Zionist enemy” beginning on Friday, the eve of Yom Kippur. The attacks are a protest against the effort to “Judaize and divide” Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque, according to The Jerusalem Post [Khaled Abu Toameh's report is here]. “We call upon our people to participate in a popular intifada on Friday in honor of the blood of the martyrs and to defend our land and Aqsa Mosque, which is being subjected to Judaization and division,” the leaflet said. It was distributed by Fatah in the Gaza Strip, according to the newspaper. [Source]

The START Global Terrorism database says

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade primary tactics are suicide bombings and firearms attacks.

Uniquely in the world, this particular terrorist group operates within a society - that of the Palestinian Arabs - where it enjoys overwhelming support for its barbaric tactics. The evidence for this is fresh and absolutely irrefutable. What does their savagery have to do with resistance? Nothing. It's almost exclusively directed at civilians, buses, public places and restaurants. In a word: terrorism.

Does everyone agree with us? No.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in London on Sunday, having earlier insisted that Israelis and Palestinians were determined to pursue direct peace talks. The pair laughed and joked in the Queen Elizabeth room of London's Ritz Carlton hotel before heading off for their closed-door meeting... "Despite tough decisions that have to be made and despite pressure that exists on both sides... both the Palestinians and Israelis have remained steadfast in their commitment to continuing the talks," Kerry said [AFP, "Israel, Palestinians 'remain steadfast' on peace talks", September 8, 2013]

26-Feb-13: What might be behind this morning's Grad rocket attack on Ashkelon

Iranian RGC test-fire an Iranian missile. The image comes from a Guardian report from July 2012, headlined "Iran tests missiles capable of hitting Israel" 

Far too many people claim to understand the daily events of this part of the world. The generalizing and pontificating leave us - as people who watch closely, live in the area and have experienced terrorism far too closely - unconvinced and skeptical. It would be better if the experts were more open to distinguishing facts from press releases and owned up to the frequently mutually-contradictory reports that characterize the terrorists' side of the narrative.

Here's what can be said today with utter confidence: at least one serious rocket - a GRAD - exploded in Ashkelon this morning, as we reported this morning ["26-Feb-13: A Gazan rocket attack on southern Israel this morning"]. That's fact, backed up with photographs and eye-witness reports. 

Now to the who, the why and the sometimes mischievous speculation.

Hamas says if there was a rocket attack today, it could not possibly have originated in their territory:

"This is only a lie. None of the Gaza Strip factions claimed responsibility for firing that missile, and the government is checking all the details," Ehab al-Ghussein said in a statement. Israel is attempting to divert attention from its crimes against the Palestinian people, most recently, the death of Arafat Jadarat after being allegedly tortured in an Israeli jail, the statement added. [Source: Ma'an News, a Palestinian news syndication agency based in Bethlehem, funded by European money and generally not sympathetic to Hamas]

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which owes its allegiance to the "moderate" president of the "State of Palestine" organization and admits to being affiliated with Fatah, claims its men did it, according to CNN which says it has an email letter to prove it. The Washington Post agrees, and Maan supports them:

"We must resist our enemy by all available means," the group said in a statement emailed to reporters. "We stress our commitment to armed struggle against the Zionist enemy." [Source: Ma'an News]

Is their claim of 'credit' true? Probably not. The rocket certainly came from a Gazan source, and almost nothing ever flies out of there without the local bully boys from Hamas being fully aware and on top. Hamas has no current desire to give its bitter rivals Fatah any credit for any of the things (terror, in one word) that Hamas claims to be doing better and more often. We think the Washington Post, CNN and Maan are being disingenuous or were fooled.

Mahmoud Abbas, who controls Fatah and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and who prefers that people call the Palestinian Authority, which he heads, the "State of Palestine" these days, implies that if there's trouble, it's probably Israel that is causing it:

A statement from Abbas’s office said that at a meeting Monday night with his security chiefs, he instructed them “to protect the security and safety” of Palestinians, noting that “the policy of the occupation is to aggravate the situation and drag the area into chaos.” Abbas sent a similar message at a meeting Tuesday of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Accusing Israel of escalating tensions, Abbas said: “We don’t want tension and escalation. We want to reach a peaceful solution...” [Source: Washington Post in the past hour]

Does Abbas really want to avoid tension and escalation and a peaceful solution? Certainly, if the question comes from the Washington Post who will then publish his answer. And maybe not so much when he's speaking to his own people in their native language.

But what if it were someone completely else, like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard? That's what Israeli journalist Avi Issacharoff, until recently, at Haaretz; now at The Tower, the new blog of The Israel Project, wrote earlier today (and some of what he writes is echoed in reports today published by the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, as well as in earlier reports of Iran providing rocket technology to Hamas):

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps are currently in the Gaza Strip, high-level Palestinian security sources tell The Tower . The Iranians, according to our security sources, are experts in missile production, and are in Gaza to help Hamas and Islamic Jihad develop long-range missiles. Israeli security and political officials declined to elaborate, telling The Tower only that this isn’t the first time delegates from Tehran had entered the Hamas-controlled territory... This morning’s rocket attack was apparently not carried out by Hamas, but by its rival Islamic Jihad, a smaller organization believed to be largely to fully under Iran’s control. Two weeks ago one of Islamic Jihad’s leaders in the West Bank, Sheikh Bassam al-Saadi, told me his group enjoys “warm and positive” ties with the Islamic republic [Source: The Tower]

Though he sounds confident about this Iranian Revolutionary Guard report, Issacharoff touches on a number of other dimensions more tentatively:

• Was today's attack intended to show solidarity with the fiery protests erupting across Judea and Samaria in the past weeks? He says maybe.
• Related to the months of simmering violence? To the Palestinian Arab prisoner hunger strikes? To the death of Arafat Jaradat? He says maybe.
• Will it affect relations between Israel and Hamas? Between Hamas and Islamic Jihad? He says maybe.
• Will there be an Israeli reaction? He says maybe.

We think he's right (maybe) about all the maybes; candidly, we tend to be more impressed with journalists who own up to not knowing everything about what's happening than with those who claim to have all the answers. 

We wonder about those Middle East experts (Jon Donnison of the BBC for instance) whose published reports declare with what seems to be unshakable confidence - even though based entirely on non-facts at this stage - that a Palestinian Arab security prisoner died because of bad treatment in an Israeli prison. Yet how many of them will even comment on the horrifying news released today that 

At least 141 people, half of them children, were killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into the northern province of Aleppo, Syria... A Human Rights Watch researcher, who visited Aleppo last week to inspect the targeted sites, said up to 20 buildings were destroyed in each area hit by a missile. There were no signs of any military targets in the residential districts. [Source]

As we said at the top, too many people claim to understand daily events in this part of the world. For us, looking at how the explanations get fashioned and manipulated, simplified and generalized, then packaged into confident-sounding reports for radio, television, newspapers, websites and social networks by people who clearly know as much or less as we do, we remain mostly baffled.

22-Jan-13: Malaysian prime minister feels like "one nation" with the terrorists of Gaza

Malaysia's PM grips fist of Hamas arch-terrorist - and says
he's 'happy' [Image Source]

Reuters is reporting this afternoon on an official visit to the Gaza Strip by Malaysia's prime minister. The Reuters report calls it part of "a diplomatic push by Gaza's Islamist rulers" without mentioning that this is only the second time ever that a head of state has paid obeisance to the terrorist clique in control of the Gaza Strip. The first was when the owner emir of Qatar came for four hours in November 2012.

Though they don't say it, most journalists know that more circumspect political figures have avoided setting foot there lest they be politically damaged by the vile odor emanating from the bloodstained involvement of the Hamas leadership in mass killings of their fellow Palestinian Arabs, and of Israeli children, women and men.

Not so Mr Muhammad Najib Abdul Razak.

Malaysia's top politician, accompanied by his wife and foreign minister, crossed over from Egypt to Rafah for a ten-hour visit today that appears to have gone without a hitch. The drama, if any exists, comes from the suggestion by Saleh Salem, the writer who authored the news report for Reuters, that today's visit somehow "defied Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip" (his words).

Blockade-busting? It's an odd characterization for a serious global newsagency to reach for. Are we being invited to imagine him and his first lady in frogman's outfits scuba-diving their way to the Gaza shore?

For the benefit of the Reuters editors in far-off London, we will point out that Gaza has a border with Egypt, and a gate in the Rafah Crossing that is not controlled by Israel. Egypt sometimes, presumably for good reasons, has imposed restrictions on incomings and outgoings. Does that qualify as an "Israeli blockade"? Qatar's Al-Thani drove through it with an equally small degree of drama at the start of his visit two months ago.

A Malaysian news report describes in lurid detail how this afternoon's blockade busting went:

Travelling by land from El Arish International Airport in Egypt near the Gaza border, Najib and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor went to the border crossing at Rafah and entered a holding room while waiting to have their passports to be processed. After their passports were processed they entered the Gaza side and were met by Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh.

On today's agenda: laying a foundation stone for new office premises to house "the Palestinian Prime Minister's office". (The Malaysian report seems to overlook the existence of two different Palestinian prime ministers; we assume Salam Fayyad of Ramallah is not the kind to take it personally.) He also got an honorary doctorate from Al-Aqsa University; a Malaysian report says his acceptance speech included the disclosure that "some people were unhappy with his visit to Gaza". Nevertheless:

"I decided to follow my heart. and my heart says I should be with the Palestinian people."

Reuters story says the Malaysian party paid their respects to

the family of top Hamas military chief Ahmed Al-Jaabari, whose assassination by Israel in November started an eight-day war in which more than 160 Palestinians and six Israelis died.

without mentioning a word of Jaabari's direct responsibility for the "deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians" [Wikipedia] or the senior management role this "military chief" took took in "coordinating" the collection of charity money for Hamas and the spending of that cash on terrorist activities [Haaretz].

So where do the Malaysians stand on the fight to stop terrrorism? Answer: side by side with the child-killers. Here's a direct quote from the Palestinian Maan News coverage of Abdul Razak's speech:

"We may be far from you in distance, but we are one nation and believe in the struggle of the Palestinian people... 

Here's what his host, the arch-terrorist and head of the Hamas regime, Ismail Haniyeh, said in response:

"Haniyeh said the [Malaysian's] trip was a response to a visit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made to the Western Wall in Jerusalem after casting his vote in the election. The Hamas leader said the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest existing prayer site, was "a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic Wall" and Jerusalem was an "an Islamic, Arab and Palestinian city."

Unlike the smooth talking Malaysian, there are some serious nations that see through the Hamas "struggle of the Palestinian people" rhetoric. Which of them designate Hamas as a terrorist organization? Currently, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Canada, Israel and Japan; Australia goes part of the way, banning Hamas' "military" division. This diplomatic boycott by Western countries of Hamas is because of "its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist, honor past Israeli-Palestinian agreements, and renounce violence" [Haaretz].

It's encouraging to see there are Malaysian voices quite outraged by Muhammad Najib Abdul Razak's kowtowing visit to the baby-killers of Gaza. Click here to view an example in the Malaysian language, which is published under an English-language headline "Shame on you, Najib!!". Thanks to Google Translate, here is a brief excerpt from that Malaysian message:

"People of this country also need to be convinced that this country will never cooperate with terrorists like Hamas as did the Najib administration. We will not elect a government that collaborate with terrorists who kill children and innocent people in Israel."

Warms the heart.

27-Sep-11: Press freedom, democracy and terrorism: how is it that some people keep getting them mixed up?

For some weeks, there has been a steady stream of protests and advocacy concerning the arrest by Israeli authorities of a senior journalist. We're referring to Samer Farik Muhammad Allawi. He lives in Pakistan and has worked until two months ago as Aljazeera's Afghanistan bureau chief. Al Jazeera is headed by Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, a member of Qatar's royal family.

On 9th August 2011, which happens to be the tenth anniversary of the murder of our daughter in a Hamas massacre, Allawi was arrested at the Allenby Crossing on Israel's border with Jordan. The charge was involvement in Hamas activities. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization.

Yesterday, Allawi was convicted in an Israeli court. Since the fact of his arrest has gotten wide coverage, and since - for strange and inscrutable reasons - the things he admits to doing have not (the Reuters report here, for instance), we are making our small contribution here to publicizing what Samer Farik Muhammad Allawi admitted to doing.

• Allawi, who happens to call himself a Palestinian Arab by birth, admitted that was recruited to Hamas in 1993.  
• Until 2004, he served Hamas as a member of its Supreme Palestine Committee that supervises and directs Hamas institutions and activity.  
• He collected donations for Hamas fronts including the Al-Aqsa Association and the so-called Palestinian Information and Media Center.
• While working for SPC, Allawi traveled to Syria in 2001 and 2003 in order to report on his activities to Musa Abu Marzook, deputy to Hamas fuehrer, politbureau head and Terrorist-in-Chief Khaled Mashal.  
• Allawi says Mashal asked him in 2004 to come and work for him as Hamas representative in Iran.  Allawi said no.
• Allawi admitted that in 2000, during a meeting with a Hamas operative in Dubai, he agreed to carry out activity of a military or organizational nature for Hamas.  Specifically, Allawi proposed that he would work to aid Hamas in advancing its goals by utilizing his position as a senior journalist with Al Jazeera.
• In 2006, Allawi met in Qatar with Hamas terrorists who also serve as Al Jazeera correspondents. Collectively they agreed to exploit their work with Al Jazeera in order to strengthen Hamas in a variety of ways including criticizing American operations in Afghanistan and expressing support for the Palestinian resistance - a euphemism for the terrorist groups, chiefly Hamas, that target Israeli civilian populations.
• In 2010, during another meeting with Hamas "operatives" in Al-Jazzera's hometown of Qatar, Allawi was asked again to undertake subtle public advocacy to benefit Hamas and the Palestinian struggle by leveraging his journalistic position to undermine support for the Americans.

Allawi was convicted yesterday (26-Sep-11) on the basis of his own confession, in the framework of a plea bargain. He will serve no additional jail time, though he now has a suspended sentence of three years hanging over his head.

Those who believe Aljazeera and similar news agencies deliver objective news reporting with no bias, no advocacy, no hidden deals or agendas, will keep believing. But at least now there's a written record of what this particular reporter has admitted. (And we have it in Arabic too, here.)

Oh, and in case he plans to go report from Gaza, Allawi's Hamas colleagues, those world-class champions of democracy and free speech, have introduced some brand new rules. The BBC has a summary today: "Gaza foreign press restrictions imposed by Hamas... New restrictions on foreign journalists working in the Gaza Strip have been introduced by the Hamas authorities. The Islamist movement which governs the Palestinian territory says journalists must now apply five days in advance in order to work there."

We wonder whether Aljazeera's editors will consider this worthy of their objective, impartial attention.

19-May-11: Quotes of the day - religious leader foreshadows Hamas plans for the Jews

Theology-driven hatred: Click here for
the MEMRI-TV video clip

You might not recognize the name but Yunis Al-Astal is a highly influential religious figure in Gaza's Islamic life. His sermons are broadcast far and wide via the official Hamas television station Al-Aqsa TV. And he manages to find time to serve as a parliamentarian, representing the Khan Yunis district in the 132-delegate Palestinian Legislative Council on behalf (who else?) of Hamas.

Come, let us listen together to the words of wisdom of this man of the cloth. Courtesy of a MEMRI translation, here is what the children of Hamas-controlled Gaza learned from the theological leadership of their community via a television broadcast eight days ago, on May 11, 2011:

"All the predators, all the birds of prey, all the dangerous reptiles and insects, and all the lethal bacteria are far less dangerous than the Jews... In just a few years, all the Zionists and the settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve humanity of their evil... When Palestine is liberated and its people return to it, and the entire region, with the grace of Allah, will have turned into the United States of Islam, the land of Palestine will become the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, and all these countries will turn into states within the Caliphate. When this happens, any Palestinian will be able to live anywhere, because the land of Islam is the property of all Muslims. Until this happens, we must reject all the resettlement plans, naturalization, or even reparations prior to the return of the refugees." 

A little over two years ago, the same gentle soul was in the news for having expressed similarly transcendental thoughts for the religious edification of his flock (click to see a video with English subtitles, again courtesy of MEMRI).

“Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam…[and will become] an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe... Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world."

Back in 2007, he explained how women can find fulfillment and grace by means of the practical implementation of jihad:

"The most exalted form of jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one's soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom. Martyrdom means life next to Allah... When jihad becomes an individual duty, it applies to women too, because women do not differ from men when it comes to individual duties... Safiyya, the aunt of the Prophet Muhammad, used a pole to kill a Jew in the Battle of the Trench. Likewise, in the Battle of Hunayn, Umm Sulaym had a dagger, and when asked about it, she said: 'If an enemy of Allah comes near me, I shall stab him with this dagger.' History has recorded, in shining letters, the fact that Al-Khansaa sacrificed her four children at the battle of Al-Qadisiyya. She inflamed their emotions and she herself incited them to fight until they attained their martyrdom, and then she thanked Allah for honoring her with the killing of them all."

This religious fanatic can be accused of many things. But as foaming-at-the-mouth barbarians go, he is nothing if not consistent. The same needs to be said for Hamas with its relentless encouragement (April 2011 example here) of young women to commit suicide as an act of war and hatred and religious devotion.

The world has much to fear from these people and their ideas.