IRIS Blog

Muslim Brotherhood Document Found Detailing Plan for Establishing Global Islamic State
Vast secret plan combines jihad, surveillance, infiltration and propaganda (Via Little Green Footballs)

British Journalist Calls Zarqawi "My Brother"

Villepin Says 'Unrest' didn't Count as 'Riots'; No Ethnic/Religious Divisions
Perhaps he didn't read this

Here is more evidence to add to yesterday's topic: the fraudulent Rafah deal.

EU Cannot Enforce Security at Rafah

The European Union has been denied enforcement authority at the Palestinian Authority terminal along the Egypt-Gaza border.

An agreement for the operation of the Rafah border crossing has limited the role of EU personnel to monitoring. Under a Nov. 23 accord, released on Monday by the privately-owned Independent Media Review & Analysis, the EU would not have the authority to either detain suspicious people or confiscate baggage at Rafah....The accord said an EU monitor could require a PA security officer to re-examine baggage or vehicles deemed suspicious.

But the EU monitor could not order PA officers to block the passage of either suspicious people or baggage. The accord said that an EU monitor unhappy with the performance of PA security officers could register a complaint with their commanders.

Their commanders have already said that no Palestinian will ever be denied entrance. Here, for example, is Mohammed Dahlan, the PA?s Minister of Civil Affairs:

The PA, for its part, won?t prevent any Palestinian from crossing the border

Here is Walid al-Sahi, the Director of Preventative Security at the Rafah Crossing as reported here two weeks ago:

anyone holding a Palestinian identity card will be able to enter

See also: DM Mofaz Threatens Closure of Gaza Crossings

Update: (Dec. 1) Yet more evidence of the debacle:

The Situation at the Rafiah Crossing - Total Neglect (Yediot Aharonot, translated by the must-read Daily Alert)

Less than a week has gone by since the Rafiah crossing was opened between Gaza and Egypt and the Israeli security establishment is extremely worried by the new reality, which was defined Wednesday by a senior security source as "total neglect." Army sources argue that because of pressure by Secretary of State Rice, the agreement had been signed too hurriedly, without providing an answer to Israeli security needs.

According to the Israeli understanding of the agreement, the Israeli-Palestinian joint command center was supposed to obtain comprehensive information about whomever is passing from Gaza to Egypt and the reverse. In actuality, since the crossing has been opened, Israel only receives pictures of whomever is crossing and only eight minutes or so later information arrives about the identity of the person passing through. In that time, it is possible to go through the crossing without Israeli security authorities knowing the identity of the person. A senior member of the General Security Services remarked: "It's like watching a movie without any voice or subtitles."

After raising the matter with the EU representative, it became clear that there was no common understanding. The EU's Italian general argued that he doesn't recognize a requirement to pass on data to Israel in real time. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, who heads the political-military section of the Ministry of Defense, stated that the critical clause exists: "With this situation, the agreement is worthless."

Shared at: Third World County, Stuck on Stupid, Rempelia Prime, Right Wing Nation, Don Surber, Bright & Early, Adam's Blog

The IRIS blog slogan is essentially the title of this Robert Spencer opinion piece today:

Israel, Front Line of the Global Jihad (summarized by the Daily Alert)

-Israel stands virtually alone in the world not only because of lingering anti-Semitism, but because Palestinian Arabs and their allies have succeeded in convincing opinion-makers that their land was taken illegitimately by Israel, and that they are oppressed there.

-The facts are otherwise: The state was established legitimately and with the approval of the United Nations, and even the "occupied territories" were obtained according to what have been universally recognized throughout history as the rules of war.

-Or should the United States give up the "occupied territories" of California, Texas, and other Western states? Should Russia withdraw from its "occupied territories" in Konigsberg, eastern Finland, and eastern Poland? Should Muslims across North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, India and Southeast Asia withdraw from those "occupied territories" back to Arabia?

-I can't help but notice that there was no call to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when those territories were under Jordanian and Egyptian control respectively.

From the Asoociated Press:

Page after page, self-appointed hate hunters underline passages in Pakistani schoolbooks, flagging hard-edged Muslim views toward other faiths such Hindus and Christians. They note sections that speak of martyrdom and the duty to battle perceived religious enemies. ''Children are sometimes being force-fed a diet of hate, anger, and intolerance,'' said Ahmad Salim, leader of a campaign to push Pakistan's education system to remove what activists consider extreme language and images from the curriculum. Educators and activists argue that battles against Islamic extremism are only superficial without deep revisions of schoolbooks.

It's clear some textbooks pay homage to violence. In a Palestinian seventh-grade Arabic language book, a protest poem called "The Martyr" includes the lines: ''And the flow of blood gladdens my soul....And who asks for a noble death, here it is.'' The Palestinians' 11th grade Islamic Culture book has dozens of appeals for Islamic solidarity to confront ''enemies'' such as Israel, its allies, and Western culture. ''The Islamic nation needs to spread the spirit of jihad and the love of self-sacrifice [martyrdom] among its sons,'' reads one passage.

This report is biased to play down the extent of the problem, but it is good to see some mention of the phenomenon appearing in the mainstream media (MSM).

For a more accurate assessment of the relentless child terror propaganda, see this must-read: Planting Seeds of the Next War: The Truth about the Palestinian Schoolbooks

Armed Men Steal Lion Cub from Gaza Zoo

Three weeks ago, armed men kidnapped Sabrina, a three-month-old lion cub, from the Gaza City Zoo.

The four men also tried to abduct Sakher, Sabrina's brother, who, despite being little bigger than a labrador, managed to scare them off.

Sabrina "needs 3kg of fresh red meat per day and a lot of exercise. If she doesn't get these things, she will become very dangerous," said zoo director Saud Sawar.

Now what in the world would a militia want with a lion who had become "very dangerous" in a place in which one gunman admitted was "a jungle full of gangs and militias?"

Unfortunately I have experience with why people steal dangerous animals in dangerous places. I grew up in a neighborhood known only for its record-setting murder rate. My family had more than one German Shephard guard dog stolen from us. These animals are purpsefully abused and undernourished to become dangerous and therefore very useful.

A key tactic of the Palestinian hero Saddam Hussein was feeding people to lions. I predicted in August that Gaza would become a world terror hub after Israel left and have been documenting the evidence ever since.

Prediction: Saddam's terror tactic of feeding people to lions will be adopted in Gaza.

Terror's Stealth Weapon: Women

Women evade most terrorist profiles because they are perceived as wives and mothers, not bombers....Based on my study of suicide bombings since 1985, 34% have been carried out by women. Female operatives not only better penetrate a crowd of civilians than their male counterparts, they also get more publicity....

However, although many of the bombers have been eager martyrs, there is evidence that some have been manipulated or used as pawns by men. The Chechen women who helped take over the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow in 2002 did not control the detonators for their explosive devices, according to surviving hostages. Reem Riyashi, Hamas' first female bomber and a mother of two, was reportedly coerced to become a shahida, or female martyr, in 2004 by her husband and her lover, who together decided that the extramarital affair brought such shame that only martyrdom could resolve it....It becomes clear that perpetrating violence has done little to help women level the playing field in societies that consider their deaths more valuable than their lives. But in death, they serve another grim purpose: prompting security services around the world to subject women, including pregnant women, to humiliating and sometimes invasive searches ? thus feeding the resentments that lead to more terror.

Optimism Fades for Rapid Gaza Economic Recovery

Almost three months after Israel left the Gaza Strip, optimism has begun to fade among some Palestinian officials and businessmen who hoped the withdrawal would bring rapid benefits to their shattered economy. Some say that even the rare successes, such as the speedy revival of agricultural production in greenhouses abandoned by departing Jewish settlers, represent a negligible contribution to restoring Gaza's economic fortunes. "Not a single investor has come to us since the Israeli disengagement," said Amr Hamad, Gaza head of the Palestinian Federation of Industries. "Frankly, they may be scared off by Gaza's negative image - the kidnappings and shootings."

Some experts argue that a much-publicized project to continue export production at the former settler greenhouses may, in fact, have a negative effect on Gaza's welfare. Mohammed el-Bakri of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees said the production of crops such as strawberries and carnations meant Gaza was exporting its most precious commodity - water.

Abbas Urged to Cancel Fatah Election Results, by Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)

On Monday, Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip called off primary elections after rival Fatah gangs fought street battles and stormed polling stations, firing into the air and stealing ballot boxes.

"What happened in the Gaza Strip is a real disaster for Fatah," said Haitham Salah, a Fatah operative. "It shows that we are living in a jungle full of gangs and militias."

Many of the candidates who lost the vote have since complained of irregularities and cheating.

Sources said followers of PA Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan were among the gunmen who raided several polling stations to protest that the names of thousands of Fatah members had been omitted from voting lists.

An absolute must-read by Shmuel Katz:

Even those Israelis who claim that peace between sovereign Israel and the Arabs is a practical possibility rest their claim on the bald assumption that there exists a solid body of Arabs who are "moderate."

They do not face the reality, taught by many decades of experience, that the most "moderate" of the Arabs (who might have a hand in setting the policies of their people) do not differ, in their view of what Israel's future should be, from the manifestly immoderate mainstream Arabs. They differ only on the method, or process, by which the elimination of the Jewish state is to be accomplished.

A must-read:

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

On Friday, the day of the opening of the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza, I predicted that the "anti-terrorist security measure" of a live video feed given to Israel in exchange for five sweeping strategic concessions was a "charade". My prediction was:

Get ready for a lot more terrorists and heavy weapons in Gaza and the West Bank.

Yesterday I reiterated that:

The Rafah deal was a complete capitulation by Israel. The "video feed" was a meaningless attempt to save face

Today brings news that:

Senior Hamas Operative Crosses into Gaza Strip, by Khaled Abu Toameh

Only days after the Rafah border crossing was reopened, another senior Hamas operative who previously lived abroad crossed back into the Gaza Strip.

Fadel Zahar is the first high-ranking Hamas official known to return to the Gaza Strip since the border crossing was reopened last Friday. His brother, Mahmoud Zahar, is the top leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Fadel Zahar was deported from the Gaza Strip in 1991....Many Hamas members who have been living in different Arab countries have returned to the Gaza Strip since Israel relinquished control over the Rafah terminal....Sources close to Hamas said many of its activists, including top leaders, have managed to return to the Gaza Strip since the Israeli pullout. Last month one of the founders of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed al-Milh, returned to the Gaza Strip after spending 20 years in different Arab countries.

Shortly after the Israeli withdrawal, three top Hamas fugitives infiltrated into the Gaza Strip. One of them, Nihro Masoud of the Jabalya refugee camp, was one of the founders of Izzaddin al-Kassam. He fled to Egypt 14 years ago and spent most of his time in Sudan.

Of course, this is all further confirmation of my predictions since August that the post-Gaza withdrawal priority of the Palestinians would not be constructive state-building, but rather a:

two-pronged strategy of creating a world terror hub in Gaza and then transfering as much of that capability to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

I predict that tomorrow the mainstream press will bury this news and be filled instead with praise for how smoothly and successfully the opening went.

Thanks to these fine sites for publicizing this entry: The Political Teen, Don Surber, basil's blog , bright & early, Choose Life, Common Folk Using Common Sense , Jo's Cafe, Robonik, Is It Just Me?, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Those Bastards , The Business Of America

On August 15, the first day of the expulsion of the Jewish residents of Gaza, I predicted the abuse they could potentially suffer at the hands of the government without the constraint of an honest news media:

Warning to the settlers: civil disobedience like this is a very dangerous strategy when there is only a hostile press to filter the news coverage and provide no restraint to the army's potential freedom of action.

Listed below is a depressing reprise of the subsequent mistreatment. The question is: so what? Because of media vilification, the Gaza settlers are the most despised of the settlers, who are themselves the most despised of the most despised people in history. The reason we should care is that allowing the news media to unfairly despise any group is dangerous to us all.

This is the same press that buried the killing of millions during the Holocaust and covered up the deliberate starvation of millions during the Ukrainian famine. This is the same press that demoralized Americans and convinced the Viet Cong to continue fighting despite American military victories, which enabled the massacre of millions in Southeast Asia ("Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American anti-war movement....Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."). This is the same press that is covering up the existential threat of the global Jihad (including the largest attempted terror strike, using chemical weapons that were quite possibly from Saddam's missing WMD stockpiles, as well as the apparently second-deadliest attack). They are obscuring the immediate threat to Europe and particularly covering up its most concentrated strain--Hamas (an "honest group" persuing a "clean government campaign").

Here, then, is the evidence of the abuse of the Gaza expellees.

Our World: Recipe for Social Disintegration, by Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post):

In his appearance Sunday before the Knesset's new anti-corruption investigative committee, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss announced that he will be publishing his report on the government's implementation of the withdrawal and expulsion plan from Gaza and northern Samaria in January.

Lindenstrauss's report is set to review the insufficient protection of the communities around the abandoned Gaza Strip; the impaired functioning of the government ministries and the government's Disengagement Authority in implementing the withdrawal and expulsion plan; and the negligent manner in which the expelled Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria have been treated since they were ejected from their homes and communities....There can be no doubt that on all three issues the government acted with gross negligence on almost every level, and a fair accounting of its failures is important both to punish the officials responsible and force the relevant authorities to improve their organizations.

At the same time, it is disturbing that Lindenstrauss is apparently not planning to review one of the most alarming aspects of the implementation of the withdrawal and expulsion plan this past summer: the rampant abuse of the civil rights of opponents of the plan by the criminal justice system....The authors substantively prove that the abuses suffered by protesters at the hands of the judicial and law enforcement arms of the state were systemic, widespread and enabled, if not requested, at the highest levels of government.

Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz, according to the report, made it absolutely clear to state prosecutors in public remarks that they were to treat non-violent protesters as if they were involved in a rebellion against state authorities whose purpose was to destroy the state and its institutions.

See also: Unsettled, Jerusalem Post editorial:

On the eve of disengagement, a massive government public relations campaign maintained that "there is a solution for each evacuee." Today, more than 100 days after nearly 9,000 Israelis were uprooted, it emerges that there is no solution for many of the evacuees, and indeed there never was.

Many Israelis are indifferent, if not downright hostile to the plight of these fellow citizens. The daily Hatzofeh newspaper recently found a novel way of gauging sentiment by launching a fictional initiative to house evacuees in Tel Aviv. Its make-believe real-estate office, it reported, was inundated with antagonistic responses, hotly opposing the introduction of personas-non-grata into the city.

Families whose world literally came crashing down must somehow cope in this atmosphere of apathy and worse....None of the evacuated farmers has yet been compensated and none has received land to cultivate. There hasn't even been remuneration for the hothouses purchased via the World Bank to offer employment to local Palestinians. The World Bank argues that since these hothouses were looted (by Palestinians) there's no obligation to reimburse Israeli farmers who kept their part of the bargain....the mortgages for their demolished homes, as well as insurance premiums for razed structures, are deducted regularly from the compensation each family is due. Thus families - whether or not they cooperated with the disengagement authorities - are forced to continue making payments on houses the government demolished.

Sharon?s Party Favors Palestinian State
That's a big change from the earlier claim: Sharon: No More Disengagements

Bush Vows to 'Protect' Borders
Maybe then there won't be any more stories like these:
Mexican Deported 17 Times Charged with Drunk Driving Manslaughter

No More 'Holiday' Trees at Capitol
America has been the most supportive society in history toward religious minorities--let's show some appreciation by letting the Christian majority celebrate their holiday without the silly political correctness that benefits no one

Israel Responds to Gaza Rocket Attack with Another Bombing of Empty Field
This time the excuse is that Israel does not want to "escalate" prior to the Palestinian elections--see this post for the depressing context

by Barry Rubin (Turkish Daily News, summarized by the Daily Alert):

-The Palestinian movement has no able leader today. The glorification of violence, disdain for compromise, and deep factionalism whose seeds Arafat planted have now come close to destroying it. As a result, the Palestinian leadership will be unable to develop a viable strategy for peace or getting a state. No order will be established in the Gaza Strip. The moderates will not be able to change any of this.

-Yet the world hardly seems to notice what is going on. Rhetoric continues to be about "helping the moderates," brokering peace through road maps, or just blaming Israel for the lack of progress.

-The latest sign of disaster is the resignation of PA Finance Minister Salam Fayad, a former International Monetary Fund official. He has been portrayed accurately as the most honest man in the PA, trying to curb corruption and create a system of accountability. Fayad's presence made donors believe they could give money to the PA without expecting it to be stolen or wasted.

-The final round of Palestinian local elections will be held in December. Not only are these likely to see further advances by Hamas, but the number of Palestinians who will now be under Hamas local rule will probably exceed 40%. In the general Palestinian parliamentary election scheduled for January, Hamas is likely to do very well, changing the historic course of the Palestinian movement, even though it will not attain a majority. Hamas is clearly running on a platform of destroying Israel and escalating terrorism.

Clearly this pundit has not read yesterday's Associated Press, in which two AP reporters claimed that Hamas was running a "clean-government campaign" and "has wooed Palestinians in part with its image as an honest group that will not tolerate corruption and graft."