The Last Exile

I got a late start to my day but no matter because it’s obviously a very slow news cycle. I figure it has to be an slow news cycle to explain why both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail are running articles which run the gauntlet from ode to a grill cheese to a contest to name the ‘best’ public restrooms in the country – apparently Mildred’s is still in the running – for those who care.
I did check to see if the Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail carried the UNIFIL statements vindicating the Israeli narrative over the recent border skirmish between Israel and Lebanon and found nada. This only confirms my sneaking suspicion concerning the editorial bias in this country; if you can’t crucify a Jooo – why bother?

Of course, either the G&M or the T-Star could have run articles or op-ed pieces discussing the use of disproportionate use of force without blaming the Israelis and can we really have that? I would bet the farm if the Israelis were ‘found’ at fault the articles would still be running.

But, put all of that aside for a moment, and just concentrate on the Lebanese narrative because it is telling us something profound about the current Arab mentality towards the Israelis and suggests the real reason there will not be peace any time soon in the middle East has nothing to do with Israeli culture, mentality or intentions and owes more to do with an irrational sense of both grievance and entitlement on the part of the neighbors. If the Israelis cannot cut or trim the hedges within the borders of Israel without pushing the envelope; what hope can there be for peace?

I have said it before and no doubt I will say it again. No one does refugee like the Palestinians. Ma’an News:

Al-Arish – Ma’an – Egyptian security forces said 60 new and stolen cars en route to Gaza were seized by officers south of the border on Tuesday.

The cars, mostly BMW and Toyotas, were being dismantled and prepared for transport through a specially-made tunnel in Rafah’s Al-Duhnieh area, police said.

h/tip Israel Matzav

I am dedicating this for Dr. Dawg who dearly needs a new theme song.

It’s catchy, nu?

h/tip The Rebbetzin’s Husband

The Dubai authorities are verring further and further into the ridiculous with Dubai’s Chief of Police now calling on Interpol to seek the arrest of Meir Dagan – head of the Israeli Mossad reports the Jerusalem Post:

Dubai’s police chief directly accused Israel of the killing, and called on Interpol to seek the arrest of Mossad chief Meir Dagan, urging it to issue a “red notice against the head of Mossad.”

A UAE official was quoted by the Associated Press as saying on Thursday that at least 18 people – including two women – were now suspected in what Dubai police have described as a highly coordinated operation to kill Mabhouh.

Did I mention this is not the slightest shred of evidence produced tying the alleged killers (and I do mean ‘alleged killers’) to either the victim, the murder scene or even the Mossad? So good luck with arrest warrant for Meir Dagan but while we are on the topic of arrests – just how and why is it that Dubai is so accommodating to illicit arms-dealing terrorists in the first place? Perhaps, if Dubai would pay more attention to the background of those it offers safe harbour too – the Chief of Police wouldn’t have to worry about ‘visitors’ being offed in the first place.

And while we are speculating, this tidbit needs to be worked into whatever scenario….

The investigation has now widened to the United States. The alleged killers used fraudulent passports to open five credit card accounts through US-based banks, said an official who has close knowledge of the investigation. The official gave no additional details.

This works with my CIA/FATAH joint venture.

And if it wasn’t bad enough that the Dubai Chief of Police is lost in an alternative reality but now the EU is aiding and betting the deranged. Ynet News:

Ahead of Lieberman’s visit to Europe, European Union foreign ministers are expected to condemn assassinations and the use of fake passports on Monday, a move designed to censure Israel over the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai.

Diplomatic sources said the ministers, meeting in Brussels, may not mention Israel by name but their statement was intended to show disapproval at the assassination last month by a team of assassins.

I cannot wait for Lieberman’s response and can feel the outrage already from the Euroweinies. If there is anything Lieberman knows how to do extremely well – its offending everyone and their grandmothers without even breaking a sweat.

In a follow-up to this mornings post on corruption within the Palestinian Authority, an arrest warrant has now been issued for Fahmi Shabaneh. Jerusalem Post

The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against former top PA anti-corruption official Fahmi Shabaneh, ironically, on charges of corruption and undermining the PA.

It comes a day after Shabaneh issued an ultimatum to PA President Mahmoud Abbas to remove the corrupt officials in the Palestinian leader’s office within two weeks or he will expose more cases of corruption that “would seriously embarrass the PA and even harm its relations with Arab and Muslim countries as well as donors.”

Wednesday’s arrest warrant was signed by the PA prosecutor general, who also accused Shabaneh of involvement in selling land to Jews. However, Shabaneh is a resident of Jerusalem, where the PA does not have the power to make arrests. 

You make think Shabaneh is safe as long as he does not leave East Jerusalem but he does risk being kidnapped by Fatah officials and kidnapping is not out of the realm of a Palestinian security officials job description.

If Shabaneh is turned over to the Palestinian Authority he faces an automatic death sentence if convicted by a PA military court for ’selling land to Jews’. This racist law is considered a capital criminal offence of the highest order within the Palestinian Authority. Nor would Shabaneh be the first to suffer that fate. Shabaneh has only one faint hope – if enough people in the international community take up his cause the Palestinian Authority might be persuaded it is within their best interests not to try him on trumped up charges. So who is up for the challenge?

The upper echelon of the Palestinian Authority got caught and called to account for treating the public coffers of the Palestinian people like their own personal slush fund. So who is to blame for the sad sorry state of corruption with the PA? The Jerusalem Post carries the official response.

Former top Palestinian Authority anti-corruption official Fahmi Shabaneh issued an ultimatum to PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to remove the corrupt officials in the Palestinian leader’s office within two weeks or he will expose more cases of corruption that “would seriously embarrass the PA and even harm its relations with Arab and Muslim countries as well as donors.”

According to Shabaneh, the material he will expose is far more severe than what had been published so far. In response, the PA published a statement on Wednesday morning saying that Shabaneh’s allegations were part of an Israeli conspiracy aimed at undermining Abbas because of his refusal to return to the negotiation table unconditionally.

Shabaneh, at least sounds like a realist;

“Had it not been for the presence of the Israeli authorities in the West Bank, Hamas would have done what they did in the Gaza Strip,” Shabaneh told the Post. “It’s hard to find people in the West Bank who support the Palestinian Authority. People are fed up with the financial corruption and mismanagement of the Palestinian Authority.”

“I have bought my cemetery plot,” says Shabaneh

The Jerusalem Post also carries an in-depth interview with Sabaneh which is worth the few minutes it takes to read but mark my words in a few years some earnest Israeli university student will write a thesis attempting to prove the Israeli occupation is the result of widespread and systematic corruption within the Palestinian Authority. 

(Reuters Photo)While I can understand Sabaneh’s prediction that at some point in the future Hamas will overthrow Fatah from power and control in the West Bank; its really no solution. Any Hamas’ leader who lives in a refugee camp but has granite countertops in his kitchen is not who I would bank on of being a fiscally responsible guardian of the public trust or coffers.

UAE may be in a position to answer that question. Ynet News:

Dubai will be issuing an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should it turn out that the Mossad was behind a recent assassination of a senior Hamas man in the Emirates, a police official said Thursday.

The senior official told the al-Jazeera network that Dubai will seek to arrest PM Netanyahu “because of the fact that he was the one to approve the execution of the crime in the United Arab Emirates.” Senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in a Dubai hotel on January 20th. However, Hamas only publicized the assassination nine days later.

On Monday, Hamas’ Muhammad Nazal charged that al-Mabhouh was attacked by Mossad agents who ambushed him in his hotel room. “When he arrived, they surprised him,” Nazal said. On Wednesday, Dubai Chief of Police Lieutenant Colonel Dahi Khalfan Tamim warned both Hamas and the Mossad against operating in Dubai territory behind the backs of local authorities

Yadda. Yadda, and Good luck with that but isn’t harbouring a wanted murderer a crime?

I never really grasped the versatility of the blame Israel crowd till now. For example, when weather creates a disaster here like a broken water pipe or a storm downs a power line people here put it down to ‘an act of G-d’ and leave it at that and concentrate on getting it fixed. At no time does anyone suggest its a nefarious plot conducted by Zionists to kill off civilians. Not so in the Gaza Strip where huge storms were raining down on the normally arid region. Ynet News:

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip accused Israel on Monday of being responsible for making flooding worse. According to their claims, the IDF opened a dam between the city of Gaza and the central Gaza Strip, which caused flooding in dozens of houses. In the Eshkol regional council, which borders the Strip, the claims were dismissed. The council said it knew nothing of such a dam.

Palestinian medical sources said that civil defense services had evacuated dozens of houses in the area after they had been flooded. No injuries were reported. Palestinian rescue personnel are working to clear the water but many residents are still unable to return home. The civil defense called on residents to avoid entering the area with vehicles.

Interesting how no feels odd or foolish for suggesting the IDF operates a secret dam in the middle of the Gaza Strip between Gaza City and the Central Gaza district and can move in and out at will to open or close the dam without Hamas’ knowledge – of anything; be it the secret dam or the movement of the IDF.

Of course, if you were inclined to an irrelevant religious bent and not Palestinian; you might suggest it was the power of both Orthodox Jews and Hamas both holding prayers for rain on the same day, and suggest in the future both groups work together to co-ordinate their prayer days so no two groups pray for the same thing on the same day – given the present circumstances of the unintended consequences of having your prayers answered.

I ask; who knew the Arab world was endanger of being Hebrewified? But alas, one cannot get anything past the intellectual desert mice sized brains of Arab Writer’s Union. Ha’aretz.

The Arab Writers Union formed a Damascus bureau meant to prevent the infiltration of Hebrew terms into Arab culture, Israel Radio reported on Sunday, adding that the new group said it would prevent the “normalization” of cultural ties with Israel.

Hussein Jumaa, the head of the AWU, said that the formation of the new bureau was meant to curb the influence of Israeli culture on the Arab world. The fact that Arab media outlets interview “Zionist politicians and researchers,” Hussein said, “could lead to the coming generations in the Arab world to know about Zionist intellectuals and writers than they do about Arab men of letters.”

Let’s not mince words. This is an attack directed primarily against Al Jazeera; as Al Jazeera is the only cable news station which regularly broadcasts interviews with both ‘Zionist politicians, intellectuals and researchers in the Arab world.

I have a confession to make. I have been watching the English news version of Al Jazeera since the summer. Yes, me – the Zionist Hack. I can’t answer for the Arabic edition but the English language edition I have found it not only informative but actually quite objective. Both CNN and Fox could learn a lot from watching Al Jazeera.

Overall, its been a far better news source than any of the cable news broadcasts in North America. While I still often take issue concerning some reports in which “Israel” makes headlines; I grudgingly have to give part marks for Al Jazeeza’s holding the fire to both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as well and this is the line in the sand where other Arab news fear to tread.

Apparently, a group of pretty dim Iraqi politicians got the bright idea to sue Israel and demand compensation for the 1981 destruction of the Osirak Nuclear reactor. Jerusalem Post.

Iraq will demand that Israel pay compensation for bombing the unfinished nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, an Iraqi member of parliament told the Iraqi al-Sabah newspaper in an article published on Tuesday. Muhammad Naji Muhammad claimed that his government was planning to enlist the United Nation’s help to pressure Israel into compensating Baghdad, according to a DPA report cited by Channel 10.

“Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Foreign Ministry turned to the UN and the Security Council demanding that Israel pay us reparations for damage caused to the reactor in 1981,” Muhammad was quoted as telling the newspaper. Baghdad is demanding that the UN establish a committee to assess the scope of the damage caused by the Israeli strike in order to calculate the appropriate compensation.

For once, I really hope the Iraqi government really is just that stupid, because if the current Iraqi government is stupid enough to demand compensation for the Osirak nuclear reactor from the Israelis – (a nuclear reactor the current government of Iraqi will be forced to acknowledge was illegal anyway); they are stupid enough to deserve to be financially buried by the compensation demands of the Israelis for the unprovoked scud missile attacks during Gulf War 1 and the forced expulsion of Iraqi Jews after 1948.

Of course, every Israeli victim and their family who suffered as a result of a Palestinian terror attack deserves to receive compensation for the fact the Iraqi government was paying out ‘bonuses’ for terror attacks (whether successful or not) to Palestinian terrorists and/or their families. That’s just off the top of my head, and if there is one thing the Israeli people do not lack – it’s this – the availability of sharp Jewish lawyers with way too much time on their hands. In fact, I expect the Israeli lawyers could bury the Iraqis in counter-claims reaching all the way back to the Babylonian captivity…..just saying.