Palestinians admit Gaza not starving, Hamas steals aid

"There is no starvation in Gaza. No one has died of hunger," Khalil Hamada, a senior official at Gaza's Ministry of Justice, told London's Daily Telegraph

via israeltoday.co.il

perhaps this is because Hamas would be blamed for not taking the flotilla aid?

The Christian Science Monitor, relying on conversations with businessmen in Gaza, reports that the Hamas government is benefiting financially from the "blockade" by virtue of its control of the tunnels on the Egyptian border, through a 14.5 percent value-added tax on goods that pass through the tunnels (with an even higher levy on cigarettes), as well as money changing activities and tax revenues. The vast sums of money flowing into Hamas' treasury are being used for the purchase of land and buildings throughout Gaza.²⁶ In testimony before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on February 25, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked: "Much of the material that gets in to Gaza, which still comes through the tunnels - through smuggling - actually is taxed by Hamas, which then provides Hamas with the money that they use to buy arms and other material that is used against Israel."²⁷

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde on October 10, 2009, Bassem Khoury, minister of national economy for the Palestinian Authority, offered this description:

The shelves of the stores are full, and you can find anything you want if you can pay the price. The cost of real estate has tripled as a result of the tunnel economy. Hamas is benefiting from the situation, since the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is continuing to pay the salaries of civil servants in Gaza and this is half of our budget. Then these employees buy goods that come in by way of the tunnels, on which Hamas gets paid a tax. The result: the Palestinian Authority's economy is cut off from the VAT revenues that were previously collected [by Israel] for goods imported into Gaza, while Hamas doesn't know what to do with its money.

Khoury emphasized that "taxpayers in Europe should know that as a result of this system their money ends up in Hamas' pocket." He questioned the desire of both Israel and Egypt to combat the smuggling, arguing that everything is done to maintain a status quo of sorts, so long as Hamas is not too strong militarily.²⁸

via jcpa.org

Egyptian Sex Slaves Smuggled into Gaza Tunnels

The subject Arab Sex Slaves have been fascinating to Westerners for hundreds of years.  Today it goes on in the Gaza Strip and it is not glamorous like these gorgeous paintings below.

The Slave Market (c. 1884), painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

The tunnel network also serves such criminal purposes as drug running³³ and trafficking in young women. In an article published on December 28, 2009, in the Kuwaiti newspaper Awan, journalist Shima Yusuf reported on the phenomenon of "importing" minor girls from Egypt and selling them into prostitution in Gaza, supposedly for purposes of marriage or domestic work. A report by UNICEF confirmed the selling of young Egyptian girls from impoverished villages to wealthy older men in other Arab states.³⁴

via jcpa.org

Slavery: Islam is truly centered around slavery: from the 'slaves of Allah', totally submissives to His edicts, up to the women's condition. It is lip service to say that slavery is abolished in Islamic countries. Very odd and amazing but un-Islamic concession to modernity. --''Slavery in Islam is legal, having sex with children is legal by way of marriage or slavery. It is not possible for a Muslim to prove otherwise. It is a false argument even by Islamic standard to ask someone for proof of legality of something because proof is only needed for illegality of something'' (Mughal at FFI). Slavery is acknowledged by so many quranic verses than its abolition in Islamic countries (only in 1969 in Saudi Arabia) is an oddity. See Right Hand possession, Submission and Woman.... -----Below could very well be a depiction of Muhammad and Saffiyah...

Otto Pilny ''The Slave Market'', oil on canvas, around 1930.

via forum09.faithfreedom.org

The Economic Situation in Gaza: Facts and Figures

Is the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza causing consequences as dire as those described by the human rights organizations? U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in testimony before Congress on April 22, 2009, that the situation in Gaza is different from how it has been described. In response to a question by Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Clinton said: "Congressman, the crossings are no longer completely closed. There are many items that are being transported through the crossings....We have looked at the lists and a lot of what has been said was not permitted to cross [into Gaza] is just not accurate."¹²

A survey by Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories presents the scope of connections between Israel and Gaza in 2009:¹³

• Health: 10,544 patients and their companions left Gaza in 2009 for medical treatment in Israel. 4,883 tons of medical equipment and medicines entered Gaza that year in coordination with the Palestinian Authority and international agencies. Israel helped the Palestinian Authority stem the spread of avian (bird) flu in Gaza; 44,500 doses of vaccine were sent to Gaza through the World Health Organization, and three patients left Gaza for medical care in Israel. In addition, two elevators were transferred to hospitals in Gaza, as well as mammogram equipment for breast cancer detection and a computerized CT system.
• Electricity: Israel continued to supply electricity to Gaza from its power plant in Ashkelon. In addition, 41 truckloads of equipment were transferred for the maintenance of the electrical system in Gaza. Between April and October 2009, Siemens carried out maintenance work on the power system in Gaza, to which more than 100 million liters of diesel fuel were delivered for its operation.
• Communications: 45 truckloads of communication equipment were sent to Gaza at the request of the Palestinian Authority.
• Water and sewage: 95 truckloads of equipment for water and sewage systems, as well as 3,720 tons of chloride for water purification, were transferred during 2009. Israel assisted the North Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant Project by transferring 48 truckloads of equipment for the project.
• The private sector: 77 percent of the contents of trucks sent into Gaza in 2009 were for the private sector. 257 Palestinian businessmen exited Gaza to Israel, the West Bank, and abroad. 10,871 head of cattle were transferred to Gaza, mainly for the Ramadan and Eid al-Adha holidays. In preparation for winter, 3,607 tons of glass for windows was transferred to Gaza.
• Money: Over NIS 1.1 billion (approximately $300 million) was transferred to Gaza in 2009 to fund salaries and the activities of international organizations. In addition, NIS 40 million (approximately $10 million) in worn banknotes were replaced. In February 2010, Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached an agreement on the transfer of social security payments and pensions to beneficiaries in Gaza who have worked in Israel. The money is to be transferred to Palestinian banks in the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority can then deliver the money to beneficiaries in Gaza.
• Humanitarian aid: 141,390 tons of humanitarian aid were transferred by the international community through Israel, including 115,043 tons of food and 2,990 tons of medicines and medical equipment.
• Entry of international organizations: 21,200 foreign staff members and over 400 diplomatic delegations entered Gaza in 2009.
• UNRWA: 3,282,000 liters of fuel and diesel were transferred for use by UNRWA. In addition, special equipment for summer camps, including swimming pools, ice cream machines, musical instruments, and sports equipment were transferred to UNRWA.
• Agricultural export: The export of flowers and strawberries was approved as part of a joint project with the government of the Netherlands. Since the beginning of the project, more than 7 million flowers and 54 tons of strawberries were exported.
• Leaving Gaza: As noted, 10,544 patients (and their companions) exited Gaza. 147 students exited Gaza for academic studies abroad, in response to requests made by the international community. 374 Christians exited Gaza to spend Christmas in Israel and Bethlehem, while 100 Christians exited Gaza to participate in the pope's visit to the Holy Land in May 2009. 17 representatives exited Gaza to participate in the Fatah General Convention in Bethlehem, and approval was given for players on the Palestinian soccer team to leave Gaza for training and friendship games in the West Bank and abroad.

    According to the report of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a total of 7,233 truckloads of humanitarian aid from the international community passed from Israel to Gaza in 2009. In addition, the Crossings and Border Authority of Hamas also published a report detailing the traffic through the border crossings for 2009, showing that 63,480 people passed through the Rafah crossing to and from Egypt during the year.¹⁴
 
The Flow of Funds to Gaza under the Hamas Government
The governor of the Central Bank of the Palestinian Authority, Jihad al-Wazir, reported that since June 2007 (the date of the Hamas military takeover of Gaza), overall monetary transfers to Gaza have totaled over $5 billion from governmental and extragovernmental sources.¹⁵ He was referring to the funds sent to pay the salaries of civil servants in Gaza, international organizations operating in Gaza such as UNRWA, and foreign communication networks that operate in the Strip. Al-Wazir confirmed that 56 percent of the PA budget is designated for Gaza. Mahmoud Abbas told the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan on December 31, 2009, that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah transfers 58 percent of its budget to the Hamas government to pay its expenses for electricity and water, while the Hamas government collects taxes from the residents for the services that it receives for free. He stated that the import tunnels under the Gaza border provide all the consumer goods required in Gaza, except for iron and cement.¹⁶
Gaza receives additional aid funds directly from Iran and the Arab countries. The Hamas government's health minister, Bassam Naim, reported on March 21, 2010, that the Hamas government received a grant of $40 million from the Islamic Development Bank and the Qatar Red Crescent Society to purchase equipment for the hospitals in Gaza.¹⁷
In addition, the Hamas government also benefits from aid that is given on the purchase of goods and services for Gaza. Until November 20, 2009, the European Union paid the cost of industrial diesel fuel to operate Gaza's power plant, an amount estimated at NIS 50 million per month (over $13 million), for a total exceeding $156 million per year.¹⁸
The Hamas government also receives funds to cover the cost of electricity that is supplied by Israel.¹⁹

via jcpa.org

...and that doesn't include the stuff smuggled in the tunnels when they are not smuggling rockets and weaponry

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Turkish Journalist Who Took Cropped Pictures Hanging Out with Terrorists

Little Green Footballs has more information on the Turkish journalist who took the cropped pictures:

Adem Ozkose’s connections to Islamists go quite a bit deeper than this. A reader in London emailed a link to the following article about Ozkose published last month at Turkish media site haber5.com: Haber5.com - Gerçek ve Özgürlükçü - Son haberler | Adem Özköse’nin kitapları yolda…

It turns out that Ozkose, as well as working for the Turkish ‘Real Life’ magazine and helping IHH try to run the Gaza blockade, is also a writer of Islamist books with at least one publisher deal and possibly more.

And the article at haber5.com is accompanied by the following picture, showing Adem Ozkose with two of his associates.

Here’s Ozkose interviewing a Hamas spokesman, and openly expressing his support for jihad: Mehraba.com » Özköse Gazze’yi ve Hamas’ı anlattı. (Google Translation.)

Accompanied by this photo:

Here’s Ozkose with a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, spreading the message: “Insurgents who kill civilians is not a killer.”

Accompanied by this photo:

Here’s Ozkose with a very sympathetic article about the Taliban: “The Taliban won the hearts of the Afghan people.”

Accompanied by the following photos:

And here’s Ozkose interviewing Umm Nidal — a Palestinian mother and Hamas parliament member whose three sons were killed while murdering Israeli civilians, some of them children — and treating her as a heroine: “I thank God that seven Israeli soldiers kill Muhammad as my other two sons were killed.”

Accompanied by this photo and translated caption:

It would have been normal if these meetings were part of objective reporting, but it is not. As LGF notes that in all of the cases

the articles written by Ozkose are not merely reporting on terrorist groups — these articles are promoting the jihadist ideology.

Can you expect honest reporting from such a guy?

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

The Young Turks Go Spinning

via youtube.com

The Young Turks follow the narrative that counters all found evidence.  Further there was no aid on board of the Mava Mamari. What is more is it appears that Hamas has rejected any aid resulting from the flotilla. It has been confirmed that Obama was behind the demand forcing the young IDF soldiers to use paint balls against violent terrorists through the Israeli defense minister former PM Barak. Many of Obama's top staff were behind the flotilla which used cruelty only seen in movies.

the key: Under the law of a blockade, intercepting a vessel could apply globally so long as a ship is bound for a "belligerent" territory, legal
experts say. 

the blockade is legal if it proportionately can be argued that it saves lives. Even if it doesn't

Obama Is Watching You!

He's the first president to give off the pronounced whiff that he's condescending to the job - that it's really too small for him, and he's just killing time until something more commensurate with his stature comes along.

via powerlineblog.com

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said he had a one-on-one meeting with Obama, who told him that he was a Muslim, the son of a Muslim father and stepson of Muslim stepfather, that his half-brothers in Kenya were Muslims, and that he was sympathetic to the Muslim agenda. He asked the Arabs to show patience.
Obama promised that once he overcame some domestic American issues (like healthcare reform), he would show the Muslim world how he would deal with Israel.

via directorblue.blogspot.com

Yahoo and Apple are adopting the Obama Administration's ethnic cleansing

narrative for Jerusalem's Jews:

A few weeks ago, many iPhone users, including HonestReporting's Managing Editor, noticed that something had changed on their pre-installed weather application. The data for Jerusalem, as supplied by Yahoo, simply stopped updating. But this was no bug in the system. A new search for Jerusalem now gives users a choice between West Jerusalem in Israel and East Jerusalem located in the West Bank.
Yahoo has clearly decided to artificially divide Jerusalem. It's contorting its systems in all sorts of strange ways to do it. The question we must ask is what right does Yahoo have to use the data from an Israeli weather station in order to divide Jerusalem? This is deliberate dishonesty. According to its own data, the West Bank does not contain a place called Jerusalem. The weather station is in Israel. This is nothing more than a manipulation of data to advance political propaganda.
This is a deliberate attempt by a large multinational internet corporation to play politics in the Middle East. Yahoo should not be surprised if its political activism comes at a cost. Not just from supporters of Israel but from consumers generally. We as consumers never gave internet companies the right to formulate foreign policy or (as Facebook recently found) privacy policies. We elect governments to do these things. Yahoo, a corporate entity, should learn its place and stick to it.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Hillary Clinton encourages betrayal

It isn't that Clinton is just being irrational. U.S. policy apparently hopes to use Brazil and Turkey in future as intermediaries with Iran to try to negotiate. But that's precisely part of the problem: you don't use a "rotten" timber to build your policy house; it's a mistake to employ a demonstrably unreliable party as your agent because things are certain to go wrong.

via rubinreports.blogspot.com

Rumors are running hot that Clinton will be the Vice Presidenet nominee. The inside scoop seems to believe that Obama is uncomfortable with how Joe Biden immediately gave his support to Israel after the flotilla attacked Israel. Obama apparently was the guided hand behind the navel attack on Israel's sovereignty. Obama has people that know international law. He knows Israel is legally right, but he doesn't care because he is violently hostile to America and Israel. What kind of immoral individual would send young men to meet terrorists with paint guns? Obama and Clinton don't just have a different point of view. Our government is sadistically ill and obvioulsy not just ethnic cleansers of ancient Jewish land. Obama and Clinton are attempting genocide on a mass level.

Obama backs U.N. investigation of Israel? Israel should investigate Obama.

There was no AID on the Mava Mamari. What is more is it appears that Hamas has rejected any aid resulting from the flotilla. It has been confirmed that Obama was behind the demand forcing the young IDF soldiers to use paint balls against violent terrorists through the Israeli defense minister former PM Barak. Many of Obama's top staff were behind the flotilla which used cruelty only seen in movies.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.
While UN Ambassador Susan Rice is reported to have played an important role in pushing for U.S. support of a UN investigation, the decision is, one official stressed, of course the president's. The government of Israel has been consulting with the U.S. government on its own Israeli investigative panel, to be led by a retired supreme court justice, that would include respected international participants, including one from the U.S. But the Obama administration is reportedly saying that such a “kosher panel” is not good enough to satisfy the international community, or the Obama White House. 

via weeklystandard.com 

Considering all that has come out regarding the relationship of Obama to the flotilla and the Obama administration's attempt to keep these Israeli soldiers from protecting itself it seems obvious that there needs to be an internal investigation of Obama by the U.S.  Now Obama is supporting a Goldstone styled libel on the flotilla incident. 

There has been rumors that Joe Biden will be replaced by Hilary Clinton.  Could the reason be that Obama is unhappy with Biden's Pro Israel statements?

Rashi and Zionism

Answering the question, put in the name of Rabbi Isaac, as to why the Torah does not begin with the first mitzva, Rashi replies that the Torah begins with an account of the Creation so that if there ever comes a time when the nations of the world accuse the Jewish people of having stolen the Land of Israel, the Jews can respond: “The entire world was created by and belongs to God. He created it and He granted it to whomever He deemed fit.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

What do you mean they were not peace activists!?