Dead Israelis don't count (letter to the Sun)

I sent the following self-explanatory letter to the Sun today:

• Your story today about the acquittal of Parveen Sharif on charges of withholding information about her brother's imminent suicide bombing mission in Israel was interesting, but contained a glaring omission. There was no mention at all that 3 civilians were killed and 65 were injured in the suicide bombing at Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv. In fact, the impression from your report is that the suicide bombing never took place, since the report concludes with the words "Omar — who posed clutching an AK47 rifle with another British bomber — failed to detonate his device in 2003. He killed himself in shame." In fact this was a joint mission with fellow Brit Asif Hanif who did blow himself up. Moreover, contrary to what was written, there is no definitive evidence about how Omar Sharif died, but most informed commentators accept that he was killed by a Hamas operative who had organized the attack.

The problem is that the Sun is actually the only pro-Israeli newspaper, yet even it does not think that dead Israelis really count.
Incidentally the Sun story was genuinely interesting because it revealed that Parveen Sharif (who incredibly is a teacher) told pupils after 9/11: “I am on Osama Bin Laden’s team.” Those following the case will also know that she sent email messages to her brother telling him he "must be strong in his mission" and that she recieved email messages from her brother telling her that she would "have to look after the family from now on". But, of course, the jury found her not guilty of failing to inform the authorities about an imminent terrorist act on the grounds that she "could not have known about it". The question I'd like to have asked is "What exactly did she think her Jihadist brother was doing when he told her he was going to Israel?" Maybe she thought he was going to visit the Wailing Wall or swim with the dolphins in Eilat.

When Islamaphobia is wrong but anti-semitism is OK

The sports pages were full of indignation and disgust at the racist chanting of West Ham supporters against Spurs' Egyptian striker Mido during the Spurs-West Ham match on 20 November. The West Ham fans chanted"Your Mum's a terrorist" and "Shoe Bomber" at Mido. The Football Association were so concerned about it that they have launched an investigation. All very admirable, for sure. There should be no place for such racism in football.

Yet at the very same match the West Ham fans were (as they have been doing for the past 30 years) singing much more virulently anti-semitic songs like "Gas the Jews" accompanied by the hissing sounds. Funny how the footballing authorities have never shown any concern about that isn't it.

Naive Americans pay homage to Hizbullah

The excellent MEMRI site has posted a very worrying article about The US Presbyterian Church and familes of 9/11 victims visiting, of all people, Hizbullah in Lebanon. Just what is it about "Death to America, terrorism as martydom" that these naive imbeciles do not understand?

Israel under attack from Hizbullah

Apparently Hizbullah from Lebanon is mounting a massive artillery bombardment against Northern Israel and terrorists have also crossed the border in an attempt to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Of course nothing about this on any UK news channel yet (and I doubt if there will be). Given that this is, of course, being sponsored by Iran it looks like the Iranians are determined to bring a direct confrontation as fast as possible. This is extremely serious.

The ridiculous UK attitude to the extradition of a terrorist

The Home Secretary has finally agreed to extradite Jihad fanatic Babar Ahmad to the USA for various terrorist offenses. Based in London he used his computer skills to recruit and fund Islamic terrorism around the world (including attempting to set up a terrorist training campl in the USA) and is quite unrepentant about his views, which include seeking to replace Britain's democracy with an Islamic state. You would have thought that, after the London bombings, people in the UK would have twigged by now about the Islamic threat and the way that people like Ahmad are central to it. But no, people still don't get it. This scumbag, who rejects every idea of democracy and human rights for any non-Muslims, is now the hero of the British left and liberals (see, for example, the way the Guardian reports the story here including the usual rubbish from people like Vanessa Redgrave) and of course the Muslim Council of Britain said that "the ruling could contribute to further alienation among Muslim youths". Listening to the news and discussion programmes all day, you would have thought this guy was some kind of modern-day Martin Luther King. The concept that he is guilty of the crimes he is charged with is simply not even discussed let alone believed by the media. To them he is simply a martyr being sacrificied to those beastly Americans.

Daniel Pipes on the Palestinian attitude to terrorism

A great article by Daniel Pipes about the Palestinian reaction to the Amman suicide bombing that claimed a number of Palestinian lives. But I'm afraid it's optimistic. Judging from everything I've heard since the bombing even the so-called moderate Islamists have not changed their view that suicide bombings against Israeli civilians are always justified. In fact the Islamists (as well as the whole liberal media) get mad if you even suggest that there are similarities between a suicide bombing in Israel and one in Jordan.

BBC reporting on Israel

The BBC is inviting statements from members of the public about its impartiality on the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here is what I sent to them:

Dear BBC

On several occasions during the last few years I have had cause to complain to the BBC about its coverage of the Israel-Palestine issue, especially its various news programmes.

My concerns have invariably been about the anti-Israel bias in reporting, which is endemic across all aspects of the organisation including even its teletext service. The BBC's coverage of Palestinian suicide bombings has been particularly biased since inevitably the reporting focuses on Israel's response to these savage attacks and usually focuses solely on Palestinian victims. Bizarrely, BBC reports after suicide bombings have often focused on the families of the suicide bombers but rarely on the Israeli victims' families. Other examples of the systematic anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian bias include:

• failure to report on the widespread corruption and internal fighting within the Palestinian Authority;
• failure to report on the systematic anti-semitic indoctrination practiced by the Palesinian Authority, which includes the deliberate indoctrination of children (leading for example, to the stated desire of 80% of all Palestinian children to become suicide bombers);
• failure to report on the widescale, brutal slaughter and torture of so-called Palestinian 'collaborators' by the Palestinian authority, while at the same time exagerrating relatively minor instances of brutality on the Israeli side;
• failure to distnguish between the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists on the one hand and the much rarer accidental killings of Palestinian civilians during Israel's targeted raids on terrorists;
• failure to report on the wild celebrations that take place on Palestinian streets following suicicide bombings, focusing instead on the words of 'condemnation' from the official PA officials who are known to say the exact opposite in Arabic of what they tell the Western media in English;
• failure to report on the widespread fanaticism of terrorist groups that completely dominate Palestinian society, while at the same time exaggerating the role and impact of the miniscule extremist minority of Israelis.
• general obsession with showing Palestinians as victims and Israelis as aggressors irrespective of the evidence in any situation
• failure to show the normal Israeli perspective at any time; thus, for example, the only Israeli civilians ever interviewed are usually the more extreme settlers who represent a tiny minority viewpoint;
• failure to acknowledge the unique vulnerability of Israel, which is the only country in the world that is existentially threatened. In particular, failure to acknowledge that the majority of Palestinians (as well as overwhelming majoirty of all Arabs) are committed to the destruction of Israel and this is also now the stated nuclear objective of another state (Iran).
  

Hizb al-Tahrir welcomed to LBC

On LBC News this morning they were doing an item on the public response to the anti-terrorism laws and in particular the defeat of the 90-day rule. Guess which representative member of the British public was the (only) person invited in for their views? None other than a spokeman from Hizb al-Tahrir, the fanatical Islamic group that is banned throughout the rest of the world but who are still, despite recent attempts byt the government, legal in Britain of course. The interview was surreal with the interviewer treating the Islamist as if he was some kind of diplomat. At no time before, during, or after the interview was there any statement about who or what Hizb al-Tahrir represented, so normal uninformed listerners would have been unaware of the irony of asking this guy about a decision made by the British Parliament when the group reject the legitimacy not just of that Palriament but of all democray.

BBC Question Time: how do they get these audiences?

I Just caught a few glimpses of Question Time tonight. Despite all the credible evidence that over 80% of the public supported the 90-day detention of terrorist suspects it seems that as usual the BBC has managed to find an audience of 90% against. This includes the usual anti-War lefties who think they are being really incisive when they bring up the usual rubbish about weapons of mass destruction. To these morons the fact the WMD were not found is actually proof that we do not face a realistic terrorist threat. Also, why were there 5 people on the panel and only one, Geoff Hoon, who supported the 90-day proposal?

The Tory woman on the panel was particularly obnoxious. How the 'party of law and order' voted against the proposal is beyond belief; their nauseating and hypocritical rationale about the overriding importance of civil liberties is simply a joke. They never deserve to be taken seriously again. What a complete bunch of bastards.

It's beginning to feel like Tony Blair is the only politician in the country who truly understands the nature of the threat we face.

10 minutes after writing the above I watched the end of the program and it was immediately followed by Andrew Neil's programme about the week's news and guess who his two guests were? Claire Short (who led the Labour rebellion against Blair) and Kenneth Clarke (Tory terrorist-appeaser-in-chief). So nice to see the BBC keeping up its lack of bias! Is there anything more sickening than this alliance between the extreme left and the right? - surprised they didn't invite Ken Livingstone's terrorist supporting cleric Qawadarwi and they could have all had a real love-in telling us how Islam is a religion of peace while Blair and Bush are the root of all evil in the world.

Hiding the nature of Islamic fanaticism

Strange isn't it how the British media (especially the BBC) will go to extreme lengths to cover up or ignore major stories that reveal the true nature of the global Islamic threat. After last month's suicide bombing in Hadera (which claimed its 6th fatality when another inured Israeli woman died yesterday) all the news outlets mentioned Mahmoud Abbas's condemnation of the attack, but none covered the story of how the bombing was wildly celebrated throughout the Palestinian Authority. The Jerusalem Post, noted that:

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Kabatiya, south of Jenin, Wednesday night to celebrate the suicide bombing in Hadera, which was carried out by local resident Hassan Abu Zeid.

Chanting Allahu Akbar (God is great), some 3,000 people, including Fatah and Islamic Jihad gunmen, converged on Abu Zeid's home to "congratulate" his family on the success of the attack, which killed five people and wounded more than 30.

They also called for more suicide attacks in Israel.

"With blood, with soul, we redeem Hassan," the crowd chanted. "Oh Jihad, Jihad, give us more [suicide] bombings. Oh [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, prepare more coffins."

Also notice how the British media is covering up the fact that the French riots are being conducted by Muslims (maybe they are scared it will happen here too). The excellent website jihad watch carries the following well written piece by Hugh Fitzgerald in relation to the riots:

From 1830 to 1962 the French ruled in Algeria. They introduced modern agriculture. They allowed the humiliated and degraded Jews, through the loi Cremieux, to become French citizens and hence free from Muslim laws, humiliation, and degradation. There were universities -- real universities. Some of the best French Orientalists lived in Algeria, and published their works in Algeria -- Emile Fagnan comes to mind.

What is Algeria like today? The last Christian religious, a group of Italian and French monks exercising their vocation of charity and never attempting to be missionaries, all had their throats slit.

When Chirac visited Algeria, mobs besieged him chanting: "Visa, visa." It seems ironic now that the world has decided that the French have been beastly to their Muslim immigrants, but it’s true. Who, in his right mind, would if he could, not live in France rather than Algeria? Algeria is no longer Algerie française, as the car horns of its defenders used to toot in French cities during the days of General Salan, and that assassination attempt in Clamart, and the harkis, and Pontecorvo's absurd movie (a favorite of campuses) about the wonderful fight of the FLN against the bad bad French. See, if you can find, what the eminent anthropologist of Mexico, who worked for the French government in France, Jacques Soustelle, has written of that period.

Well, the "winds of change" blew through Algeria all right. The line of succession, from FLN to corrupt army leaders, continues to rule. And as always, the vehicle for extreme protest in any Muslim country will always be -- Islam. Nothing but Islam.

If Algeria did not have gas and oil deposits, it would sink into nothing. For even as one of the beneficiaries of the largest transfer of wealth in human history (8-10 trillion dollars to the Muslim oil states since 1973), Algeria, like Iran, like Saudi Arabia, like the sheikhdoms, is amazing not for what it has achieved with all that money, the result of no effort on the part of its people, but how little it has achieved.

It took a kind of genius in reverse to make a mess with all that money. But the Muslim states proved equal to the task. If you seek Islam's monument, look at Iran, look at "Saudi" Arabia, look especially at the once-civilized place that is now called Algeria.