Muslims are protesting

Isn't it incredible that, despite the terror reaped on civilians by their co-religionists, there has NEVER been any kind of public demonstration by Muslims in the UK to protest against terrorism. Yet on Saturday they were out en masse to protest against laws (already massively watered down because of their objections) intended to protect us from terrorists. And isn't it even more incredible that, in all the hours and pages of media exposure about this event not one commentator raised a question about the irony of this.

LBC: a platform for the propaganda of Hizb ut Tahrir

Here is a self-explanatory letter I have just written to Jonathan Richards, Editorial Director, News LBC Radio Ltd

Dear Mr Richards,

I am an occasional listener of LBC News and have been shocked to hear two lengthy ‘interviews’ in the last month (13 November and today) with spokesmen from the Islamic terrorist supporting organisation Hizb ut Tahrir. I say ‘interviews’ in inverted commas because these were actually unchallenged publicity pieces by the organisation and the spokesmen were in both cases treated as if they were revered diplomats presenting well accepted viewpoints.

Maybe your editorial staff and presenters are simply unaware that Hizb ut Tahrir is banned throughout much of the rest of the world, that it disseminates racist material, is pledged to establish a Caliphate, in which non-Muslims would be politically disenfranchised, in which women would be constitutionally prevented from holding senior political office, and in which apostates and homosexuals would be executed. They are dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel and support suicide bombings against civilians not only in Israel but also in Iraq, Kashmir and Chechnya.

If LBC is going to continue to provide a platform for this organisation I would like to know why your reporters do not at least challenge the vile propaganda and lies presented and probe their views on issues such as those listed above?

What makes this kind of lengthy Jihadist propaganda even more unacceptable is that, for a supposed 24-hour news channel, LBC News spends scant time reporting on real news that could better inform people to be wary of the likes of Hizb ut Tahrir. For example, people would be less likely to accept their standard clichés about “the occupation of Palestine” if LBC actually reported about the brutal and sustained terrorism being suffered by Israelis at the hands of the Jihadists. Only this week, for example, LBC chose to either ignore completely or report in the most minimalist way a number of terrorists attacks inside Israel including the massacre carried out by a suicide bomber at a shopping mall in Netanya, relentless rocket attacks from Gaza into Southern Israel and fatal stabbings at checkpoints. When I have asked before why these events go unreported the answer is always that there is insufficient time to cover such stories. It is strange how you always find the time for Jihadist propaganda that is not news at all.

The next time you hear a wishy washy liberal criticising Israeli checkpoints..

We now know that the suicide bomber in Netanya this week was identified as he approached the shopping mall as suspicious and was actually stopped by police. Although the police had the opportunity to kill him before he exploded they did not since they could not rule out 100% that he was deaf and in any case were prepared to take the risk of arresting rather than killing him. With hindsight this was negligent but it confirms the extreme lengths taken by Israelis to avoid any unnecessary deaths (and is only the latest in a long line of cases where individual Israelis lost their own lives by showing compassion to the bombers). This destroys the myth perpetuated in the UK media about the Israeli shoot first and ask questions later policy.

And the next time you hear a wishy washy liberal criticising Israeli checkpoints, think about the following that happened today (from the Jerusalem Post - another story you wont hear about anywhere in the UK media):

An Israeli soldier was stabbed to death Thursday by a Palestinian attacker at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said. The soldier was identified as Sgt. Nir Kahane, 20, of Kiryat Tivon. The Palestinian approached the checkpoint at around 3:45 p.m. and suddenly pulled out a knife, which was hidden in his clothes, and slit the soldier's throat. The al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. The checkpoint where the attack took place is the point of entry for thousands of West Bank Palestinians from the Ramallah area into Jerusalem on a daily basis.

The local IDF commander said that Israel would be forced to further increase security checks at the checkpoint, which has been the scene of previous attacks in the past, as a result of the latest attack.

"This incident hurts all our attempts to improve the quality of life of the Palestinians and we will have to decrease it in order to provide the greatest security to our forces," Col. Miki Edelstein told Israel Radio.

EU taxpayers funding families of Palestinian suicide bombers

Here is a letter I sent to the Sun newsdesk today:

On December 5, 2005 Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas approved financial aid to the families of every Palestinian suicide bomber and terrorist killed 'in action'. The order was signed on the very day a Palestinian Arab blew himself up at a shopping mall in central Israel, slaughtering five people and wounding more than 50. The bomber's family, along with those of every other deceased killer, will now receive at least $250 a month in direct government aid (which is significantly more than the average wage), according to the new law.

And guess where the bulk of the money the PA is dishing out comes from? The EU taxpayers as you can see from the EU's own website: www.eufunding.org/

Full details of this story can be found here:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20445

The Sun did not even mention the suicide bombing today. Perhaps you think its readers are not interested. Well I think they would be interested in the above story.

Unbelievable Islamic indoctrination of children

Check out this clip on Saudi TV (thanks to Harry's Place for finding this on the excellent MEMRI site - I understand that the clip is not new). What hope is there for the future when Muslims indoctrinate their children with such hatred?

The Western ignorance of Palestinian terrorism

Palestinians continue their murderous terrorist campaign (5 Israelis killed and dozens critically injured in yesterday's suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Netanya) and the Western media continues to ignore it. The latest terrorist attack was barely covered on any TV news channel and was completely missing in most of the newspapers. Yet the barrage of anti-Israel propaganda continues (see for example Honest Reporting's story about this) . How can intelligent, uninformed observers make a rational judgement about, for example, Israel's security fence, if they are not given the information about the context for it?

And the news at the moment is truly depressing. It turns out that at about exactly the same time as the terrorist attack yesterday the Palestinian PM Abbas announced that the families of suicide bombers would recieve a monthly income of $250 from the PA (see my letter to the Sun above. Meanwhile, despite Abbas's pathetic 'condemnation' of the terrorist attack (he says it is 'not in the interests of the Palestinian people' but note he never actually condemns it as immoral) the glorification of suicide bombers and indoctrination of children continues to be official PA policy (see HonestReporting update on this).

And just to complete the depressing news we are now finding out about what went on at the so-called 'Islam Global Unity Conference' on 4 Dec in London. Carol Gould reorts "It was shocking and terrifying. It had been advertised as a celebration of the MiddleEastern/Asian community in music and culture, but was a disgraceful Jihadists' rally. 25,000 angry young Muslims were whipped up to cries of 'Allahu Akhbar' by the likes of Yvonne Ridley, Imran Khan, various crazed Israel-loathing sheikhs and, of course, George Galloway."

How Western Democracies are inviting their own destruction

Robert Spencer (of the excellent Jihad Watch website) has written a report of the speech by Oriana Fallaci in New York this week. As usual Fallaci provides a brilliant analysis of the Jihad threat and the way the Western democracies are succumbing to it. Fallaci, a veteren ant-fascist campaigner, has been vilified by both the right and left, and has also of course been subject to the usual death threats from muslims. Here is an extract from the report about the threat to Europe:

“I do not see Islamic terrorism as the main weapon of the war that the sons of Allah have unleashed upon us. It is the bloodiest, but not the most pernicious or catastrophic aspect of this war.” Far more dangerous to the West in the long run is unrestricted Muslim immigration, which already has brought at least 25 million Muslims to Europe (not counting, Fallaci said, the huge numbers of illegal aliens). That number will double by 2016 and, as Bernard Lewis and others have predicted, almost certainly create a Muslim Europe by 2100.

Yet all this immigration has not been accompanied by integration and assimilation – not because of European racism, but by the Muslims’ own choice. Fallaci noted that many other groups have assimilated into European societies, but Muslims have not. “They dont even care to learn our language. They only obey the rules and laws of Sharia.” They do not want to learn European ways; rather, “they want to impose on us their own habits and way of life. They have no intention of integrating with us. On the contrary, they demand that we integrate with them.” Today’s Islamic expansionism, therefore, does not need the armies and fleets with which the Ottoman Empire once terrorized Europe. It only needs the immigrants, whom short-sighted politicians and befuddled multiculturalists continue to welcome. Fallaci said that Europeans – French, Dutch, Germans, English, Italians – are about to reach the status of the Comanches, Cherokees, and Sioux: “We will end up on their reservation.” She noted that some Muslim spokesmen, confident of their imminent supremacy, already refer to non-Muslim Europeans as “indigenous people” or “aboriginals.”

What to do about all this? Establish dialogue with Muslim leaders? Try to strengthen moderate Islam? Fallaci was dismissive of both options. Muslims have no intention of entering into genuine dialogue with non-Muslims, she said, and “I do not believe in moderate Islam. What moderate Islam? Is it enough not to cut heads off? Moderate Islam is another invention of ours.” Adopting Western dress, she said, was easy; adopting Western values was not.

Then Fallaci threw down the gauntlet to the multicultural, politically correct, and fearful. “There is not,” she asserted, “good Islam or bad Islam. There is just Islam. And Islam is the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is the Mein Kampf of this movement. The Qur’an demands the annihilation or subjugation of the other, and wants to substitute totalitarianism for democracy. Read it over, that Mein Kampf. In whatever version, you will find that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit against themselves and against others is in it.” As jarring as such language is to contemporary sensibilities, Fallaci here made a statement of fact that can be verified or disproved. And indeed: Islamic terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Zarqawi, and others have never hesitated to quote the Qur’an copiously to justify their actions. It remains for those who identify themselves as moderate Muslims to convince violent Muslims that they are misusing the Qur’an – if indeed they are – and should lay down their arms. They have had no notable success in this so far.

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.

More reaction to Iran

The Sun seems to be the only British newspaper that recognises the seriousness of Iran's threat to Israel and the West -- it covered the initial story on page 2, and followed today with another news item, an editorial and a 2-page spread about Ahmadinejad on pages 32-33 with the heading "The most evil man in the world".

Unfortunately, plenty of the British public (who've been brainwashed by the BBC in the last few years into believing that Israel and the USA are the real threats to world peace) seem to think this is all an American-Zionist plot to create a pretext for military action against peace-loving Iran. Have a look at the following sample of posts on the BBC website highlighted by Melanie Philips today:


• It is also somewhat in poor taste for us Brits to condemn Ahmadinejad's fiery wording when our government has stood by an American President who is even more guilty of such charges. Bush and Blair led an illegal war where thousands of innocent people have died and for us to now turn around and comment from afar on a situation in the Middle East that we have made far worse is beyond belief...
• Is this story true? The current American regime is expert at creating faked excuses for military and political action. The WMD scam in Iraq for example. The Americans who operate in concert with Israel have made almost daily unsubstantiated threats against Iran, Syria, and any country that opposes a domineering foreign policy. Maybe Iran is just sick of Americans...
• Israel continues its brutal human rights abuses against Palestinians ...and the rest of the middle east therefore continue to hate Israel. In a nutshell. When will we see justice for the innocent people killed? America provides billions of dollars annually to Israel, which is used on advanced military hardware mercilessly against palestinian people. Only when the killing stops will ties be mended.
• OK, his remarks were a bit strong, and personally I do find them offensive. But I'm not sure it's any worse than what Bush said about Iraq, and at least Ahmedinejad is using only words, not bombs.

Suicide bombing in Hadera

Another 5 Israelis killed and 30 seriously injured by an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber in Hadera during a 'truce'. Funny how this seems to have escaped the attention of almost the entire British media.

Our wonderful Iranian friends

The following comes from a report on a conference hosted by Iran entitled 'The World without Zionism' (and remember this is the country that most liberal scholars keep telling us poses no threat to world peace, and that both Ken Livinstone and CND feel has every right to pursue its nuclear power programme):

Iran's hard-line president called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

"There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students Wednesdays during a Tehran conference called "The World without Zionism."

"Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury (while) any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August and replaced Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who advocated inter-civilization dialogue and tried to improve Iran's relations with the West

Ahmadinejad referred to Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a "trick," saying Gaza is part of the Palestinian territories and the withdrawal was meant to make Islamic states acknowledge Israel.