Pizza Hut mocks 'hunger strike leader' Marwan Barghouti
Earlier this week, the leader of the 'Palestinian' terrorist 'hunger strike' for better cable TV, Marwan Barghouti, was caught on camera
eating a candy bar in the bathroom of his cell.
On Tuesday, Pizza Hut Israel released the ad below in which Barghouti is asked, 'if you're already going to break the [hunger] strike, why not at least have pizza?'
The ad was on Pizza Hut Israel's Facebook page, where it was quickly
removed.
With the Arab world
threatening to boycott Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut Lebanon
apologized on its Facebook page.
If you're in Israel (I'm in the US again), please visit a Pizza Hut today. Pizza with a sense of humor.
Labels: humor, hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian terrorists
'Palestinian' 'hunger strike' 'leader' caught on camera (twice) sneaking a candy bar in the bathroom
Oh dear. Here's Marwan Barghouti, the supposed 'leader' of the 'Palestinian' terrorist 'hunger strike' in an Israeli prison caught - not once but twice - sneaking candy bars in the bathroom of his cell.
Let's go to the videotape.
I wonder how many 'hunger strikers' will continue if they see their 'fearless leader' in this video. Hope it's being broadcast on the big screen outside Ofer prison in Ramallah, where the worst of the terrorists live.
Labels: hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian terrorists
What a place for a tailgate party!
I have mentioned that there are some 'Palestinian' terrorists in Israeli jails who
claim to be on a
hunger strike.
In a move that's nothing short of brilliant, the National Union (Ichud Leumi) youth group has been holding a massive barbecue outside the Ofer Prison. The Ofer Prison is at the entrance to Ramallah along Route 443 and is the home of many high risk security prisoners. And the barbecue is enhanced by fans.
Let's go to the videotape.
The fumes have the 'Palestinians'
fuming.
The Wall Street Journal reported widespread Palestinian anger over the barbecue:
Palestinian newspapers on Friday condemned the barbecue as another aggression against the Palestinian people.
“How can anyone barbecue with the smell of meat near political
prisoners fighting for their country?” said Qadura Fares, head of the
Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which supports the inmates. He spoke at a
demonstration Friday by dozens of Palestinians at Ofer prison, north of
Jerusalem.
Various anti-Israel groups have joined the chorus of condemnation.
The Palestine Information Center, a primary center for anti-Israel propaganda, called the Israelis the “
scum of the earth“:
Well. Boo. Hoo. (
Read the whole thing for a lot more reactions from the Jew haters and the self-hating JINOs).
In the meantime, the funes are having their effect. YNet reported yesterday that 186 hunger strikers have already
officially dropped out.
Momentum in a mass hunger strike launched by Palestinian security
prisoners last week suffered a blow on Saturday when all of the 84
prisoners in the Hamas wing at Gilboa Prison, and two prisoners in
Megiddo Prison, ceased to strike.
The break is the second to have taken place since the hunger
strike got underway last week, with 100 prisoners reporting that they
were dropping out just 24 hours after it began.
The latest sign of cracks forming in the unified protest, which
is being led by Marwan Barghouti—a convicted terrorist—comes just days
after 1,187 Palestinian security prisoners announced that they had begun
the hunger strike.
What are the 'Palestinian' demands? You won't believe them....
The demands included a provision that the Prisons Service install
public telephone wings, similar to those installed for criminal
prisoners.
The second demand laid out by the prisoners was that Israel
restore the procedure of two visits per month by prisoners' families.
Nine months ago, the Red Cross, which finances the
transportation of family members on buses from the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to prisons, reduced the number of family visits from twice a
month to once. ostensibly due to financial problems.
The prisoners also demanded that visits be extended from 45
minutes to 90 minutes and that Israel not prevent immediate and extended
family members with security-related offenses from visiting.
Additionally, prisoners are also demanding that they be allowed to be
photographed with their families once every three months.
They've also asked for
more cable television channels. Yes, really. What they'd really like is to be in a '
prison' like this one.
Palestinian guards confirmed yesterday that Ahmed Saadat, a leading
militant captured by Israeli troops in the raid, kept birds and flowers
in his quarters. Western officials said that Saadat in effect used other
prisoners as “domestic staff”.
An official told The Times that
Fuad Shobaki, the alleged moneyman behind a 2002 weapons shipment
intercepted by Israel, smoked up to five Cuban cigars a day and was
known as “The Brigadier” to inmates and staff. He was also seized.
“Saadat
and Shobaki were very much in charge,” one prison source said. “These
guys were running the prison. They did what they wanted, when they
wanted.”
But that prison was run by Britain and not by Israel. The Israeli Prison Service apparently still has some notion of punishment.
Labels: Ahmed Saadat, Fouad al-Shobaki, hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian terrorists
NY Times publishes op-ed by terrorist, 'forgets' to mention his five murder convictions
A group of 'Palestinian' terrorists in Israeli prisons started a hunger strike on Monday. The group is
led by mass murderer Marwan Barghouti, the former leader of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, who has been in an Israeli prison for the last 15 years, and who was considered toxic enough not to be released as part of the 'terrorists for Gilad' trade of 2011.
The New York Times considers this such important news that on Saturday - in the middle of the Passover holiday - it posted an
op-ed by Barghouti on its web site, which made the print editions on Sunday. Barghouti refers to Israel's 'system of mass arbitrary arrests' as if there was no reason to arrest him. He complains that Israel has 'violated international law' for nearly 70 years, a period which goes back to independence and is clearly not meant to be limited to the post-Six Day War era. He refers to himself and his fellow terrorists as political prisoners.
There's one small part he left out, and which the New York Times did not bother to correct until late Monday, long after almost everyone who wanted to read the op-ed had (except for those who are keeping two days of Passover who would probably not find Barghouti persuasive anyway). On Monday, the Times posted this on its web site to correct the record.
Yes, that would be the same trial that Barghouti refers to in the editorial as a 'political show trial.'
I'm reminded of Gilda Radner's famous line upon being caught in a semantic mistake on Saturday Night Live.... "Never mind...." Too bad the Times took two days to fix the 'mistake.' But then, who would expect any better of them?
Labels: anti-Israel media bias, hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti, New York Times, Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian terrorism
Is the 'Palestinian' hunger strike #FakeNews?
Hmmm.
Labels: hunger strike, Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian terrorists
The problem is what happens when and if he returns
Israel has a problem with 'Palestinian' hunger strikers. Despite the fact that the Knesset has passed a law allowing force feeding, we have Leftist doctors who have decided to defy orders and let the 'Palestinians' starve themselves to death. The Israeli government lives in fear of a 'Palestinian' terrorist dying in Israeli custody. And so, we have this:
So we kick the can down the street for four years. And then? And how many more terrorists will we release this way?
Labels: deportation, hunger strike, Palestinian terrorists
Even Ban calls flotilla 'not helpful'
Even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called the flotilla of fools currently heading for Gaza '
not helpful.'
“[Secretary General Ban Ki-moon] continues to
believe that a flotilla will not help to address the dire situation in
Gaza and reiterates his calls on the government of Israel to lift all
closures, with due consideration of Israel’s legitimate security
concerns,” Undersecretary General Jeffrey Feltman said at a Security
Council briefing.
The statement comes days after Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor called on Ban to condemn the so-called “Freedom Flotilla,” amid preparations by the Israeli Navy to block its three boats from reaching Gaza.
“The international community must send an
unambiguous message to the organizers and participants of these
provocations that such initiatives only serve to raise tensions in our
region,” Prosor wrote. “This attempt to challenge Israel’s naval
blockade of Gaza holds the potential for dangerous consequences The
flotilla’s sole purpose is to create provocations that pose security
risks, and constitute a breach of international law.”
Feltman said Ban was “closely following media reports” about the flotilla.
Ban is also 'deeply concerned' with the health of terrorists.
Feltman also said Ban was “deeply concerned”
about Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel, naming Islamic Jihad
detainee Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike for nearly two
months to protest his detainment under administrative detention, which
allows Israel to hold prisoners without charging them.
The Red Cross on Tuesday said Adnan faced “immediate risk of death.”
He wouldn't be facing an immediate threat of death if he weren't starving himself. Maybe he should consider breaking his fast.... /Just sayin'....
In any event, it is truly amazing how much time Ban has to devote to Gaza given the true suffering going on in Syria, Iran, Iraq and many other countries that are living under truly repressive regimes. Oh wait... Gaza is also living under a truly repressive regime... Hamas... It would be nice to see Ban criticize them once in a while too.
By the way, if the name "Jeffrey Feltman" rings a bill, it's because
it should. He's a former State Department diplomat....
Labels: Ban Ki-Moon, flotilla of fools, Gaza plenty, hunger strike, Jeffrey Feltman
'Palestinian' terrorist released after 266-day hunger strike
A 'Palestinian' terrorist has been released from an Israeli prison after a 266-day hunger strike, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman wants him rearrested.
The terrorist, Samir Issawi, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for terrorism in 2002, and was set free as part of the 'terrorists for Gilad deal' in 2011. He was rearrested for engaging in terrorism again. Now, he has been
released again. And Liberman is justifiably furious.
Just after his release, Liberman notes that Issawi called for the
kidnapping of IDF soldiers, saying "the release of prisoners will only
be achieved through kidnapping and prisoner exchange deals, nothing will
be achieved without that."
"A prisoner that was released on conditions and calls, the same day,
for the kidnapping of soldiers of the nation that freed him needs to
serve his full sentence in jail without any reductions, and if he wants
to hunger strike let him do that as much as he wants," commented
Liberman.
In 2002 Issawi was sentenced to 26 years in jail for terrorism, going
free after a mere 10 years in the deal to free Gilad Shalit. After
signing a promise not to return to terrorist activities, Issawi promptly
broke those conditions and was rearrested in August 2012.
After 8 months of hunger striking, Issawi was admitted to an Israeli
hospital, and offered an arrangement to stop his hunger strike and go
home after 8 more months of imprisonment. Issawi agreed to the deal, and
was subsequently freed this week to his Jerusalem home.
Liberman, in criticizing the release, referenced the 1981 hunger
strike by Irish prisoners protesting the British decision removing their
special status as political prisoners.
"More than 10 of the protesters died in the hunger strike, among them
a striker that was elected at the time to the British Parliament by one
of the voting regions in North Ireland," remarked the foreign minister.
"Despite all that, the British government under Margaret Thatcher did
not submit to the prisoners' demands. In the end the strike ended
without the conditions of the striking prisoners being met."
"Every normal democratic country that aspires to defend itself, like
the great democracy of Britain that I mentioned... would already
yesterday have returned Issawi to his cell," said Liberman. "Like the
British minister Humphrey Atkins said of the Irish hunger strike, 'if he
persistently wishes to commit suicide, he is welcome to pursue his
intent."
Releasing the likes of Issawi very definitely sends the wrong message.
26 more 'Palestinian' terrorist murderers are to be released on Sunday. Why would any 'Palestinian' think twice about trying to murder a Jew?
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, hunger strike, Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian terrorism
'Palestinians' threatening another hunger strike
'Palestinian' terrorists being held in Israeli jails are
threatening to once again go on a hunger strike, claiming that Israel has failed to honor the deal made to end their last hunger strike.
After the deal, the minister alleged that Israel had committed not to renew administrative detention for any of the Palestinians currently being held without standard legal process.
At a Sunday press conference in Ramallah, another PA official told the press that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) had renewed administrative detention to punish prisoners and show them that their hunger strike had failed.
The official also noted that the IPS had banned detainees who were part of the hunger strike from making purchases at a prison store, and that many continued to suffer from medical neglect.
He also claimed that Israeli prison facilities lack specialized doctors and necessary medical equipment, noting that 18 prisoners suffer from serious medical conditions.
Just wondering: When Hamas kidnapped Gilad Shalit and held him for five years plus, did they have any specialized doctors or medical equipment to treat him? I doubt it.
And by the way, one part of the 'Palestinian' end of the bargain was that they would not engage in terror activities in jail. It took about a week for the Shin Bet (General Security Service) to find out
that commitment had been broken.
So let them go on strike. Let them all starve to death. Let them all die. Faster, faster.
Labels: hunger strike, Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian terrorists
Put them back in isolation
A month ago, I argued that we should let the 'Palestinian' terrorists being held in Israeli jails
starve to death. Instead, responding to the terrorist-loving Obama administration and Europeans, Israel '
negotiated' with the terrorists, and agreed, among other things, to end the practice of putting them in isolation. Most Israelis were
outraged.
It's now been about two weeks since the hunger strike ended, and already, we see the results of
letting the 'Palestinians' out of isolation. (In fact, Israel Radio reports that the plot was uncovered last week, which means it only took a week).
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has uncovered a plot by jailed Palestinians to kidnap an Israeli citizen to use as a bargaining chip in securing their release.
The Shin Bet noted that the revelation came just weeks after Israel had reached an agreement with Palestinian prisoners ending their hunger strike, in which the prisoners pledged to refrain from engaging in anti-Israel terror activity.
...
According to the security agency, the cells consisted of five Palestinians, including three currently serving sentences in Israel prisons. One of them, Ibrahim Animat, a 34-years-old originally from the Hebron area, is serving a life sentence in Shikma prison for the rape and murder of an Israeli woman near Beit Shemesh in 2010.
The Shin Bet said that Animat served as the liaison between cell members from the Gaza Strip and cell members from Hebron.
It also said the cell members initiated the plot while serving sentences together in Shikma. After one of the members, Ramsi Arar, 31 from the Hebron area, was released he remained in full contact with the other members and plotted the kidnapping, which was supposed to take place in the coming weeks.
And you wonder why the 'Palestinians' were placed in isolation and denied cell phones?
It's time to stop pretending that these are petty thieves and parking violators. It's time to treat them like the terrorist murderers that they are. The deal - such as it was - is off. Put them back in isolation and take away their privileges!
Labels: hunger strike, kidnapping, Palestinian prisoners
Overwhelming majority of Israelis: Government should have let 'Palestinians' starve themselves to death
An overwhelming majority of Israelis apparently believes that hunger-striking 'Palestinian' terrorists should have been
allowed to starve themselves to death. The Israeli government reached a deal that ended the hunger strike earlier this week.
Telephone poll of a representative sample of 500 Hebrew speaking adult Israeli Jews carried out by New Wave for Yisrael Hayom on 15 May and published on 18 May 2012.
Do you think that the state should have met the demands of the hunger striking security prisoners and improve their conditions of incarceration?
Yes 5.9% No 85.2% Don't know 8.9%
Wow. I guess you can't even fool most of the people some of the time.
Labels: hunger strike, Palestinian terrorists
MK slams 'Palestinian' terrorist deal
As many of you probably heard already, Israel reached an agreement with the 'Palestinian' terrorist hunger strikers on Monday. The terms of the deal are
here. At least one Likud MK, Danny Danon, is
not pleased with the terms.
"This deal was a serious mistake; instead of making things tougher for the terrorists they are giving them a prize,” said Danon. “The situation for security prisoners must be clear: no family visits, no special benefits. And key prisoners must be in solitary confinement.”
Danon plans to bring the matter up before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in an attempt to block implementation of the deal, according to a report by Arutz Sheva.
Danon also said that just as Israel would not grant a Hezbollah member held in an Israeli jail family visits, similarly members of Hamas should not be able to receive visitors either, as both groups deny the existence of Israel.
The Almagor Terror Victims Association also came out against the agreement on Tuesday, saying in an official statement that it set a dangerous precedent as it was the first time the government had signed a deal with imprisoned terrorists. The group also slammed the involvement of Egyptian mediators in internal Israeli affairs.
I don't understand why the government did this deal. Who cares if a bunch of terrorists starve themselves to death, regardless of what the UN and the Euroweenies think? This strikes me as pretty spineless.
Labels: Danny Danon, hunger strike, Palestinian terrorists
Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Tuesday, May 15.
1) Hungering for more information
Both the New York Times and Washington Post reported on the recently ended prisoners strike. Both reports were pretty straightforward, but not without troubling omissions.
Isabel Kershner reported Palestinians in Jails End Hunger Strike for the New York Times.
Although only a minority of the hunger strikers were identified with Mr. Abbas’s secularist Fatah Party, he had taken the lead in pressing for a resolution. Israeli officials preferred to give Mr. Abbas the credit, and presented the agreement as a good-will gesture.
“In response to the request of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Israel has negotiated the end of the strike,” said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman. “It is our hope that this decision will serve to build confidence between the parties and further peace.”
We'll see how much more responsive he is to Israeli overtures now.
Most of the 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been tried and convicted of security offenses.
Israel’s internal security agency, known as the Shin Bet, said in a statement that the agreement became possible after the prisoners made a commitment “to completely halt terrorist activity inside Israeli prisons,” and “to refrain from all activity that constitutes practical support for terrorism, including recruiting people for terrorist activity, guidance, financing, coordinating among recruits, aiding recruits,” and related activities.
The two sides had seemed intent on reaching a deal before Tuesday, when the Palestinians commemorate the “nakba,” or catastrophe, on the anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. The war that followed the declaration led to the flight or expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and the day is traditionally observed with protest marches.
The acknowledgement that most of the prisoners had been convicted of security offenses is important. Most of those still in jail committed their crimes after the Oslo accords. In other words they committed terror after the Palestinians officially renounced terror. Yet it was Abbas of Fatah, the moderates who want peace who was interceding for the prisoners.
Karin Brulliard of the Washington Post reported Palestinian prisoners end hunger strike following agreement with Israel:
The officials said Israel also agreed to free about 320 prisoners who are being held without charge or trial in administrative detention, provided they finish their current six-month detention terms and no new evidence against them surfaces.
Administrative detention, which can be renewed indefinitely, is a key focus of the detainees who have been on hunger strike the longest. Critics say Israel uses it punitively and, by withholding evidence from both detainees and their lawyers, prevents them from mounting a proper defense. Israel says divulging that information could expose informants and jeopardize national security.
Sahar Francis, director of the prisoners’ rights organization Addameer, said the concessions granted by Israel amounted to a success for the prisoners. But the change to administrative detention is vague, she said.
I wish when organizations like Addameer are quoted more background is given. Here's what NGO Monitor has written about the group:
Addameer (Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association) 2009. Addameer refers to the Israeli army as the “Israeli Occupying Forces,” and accuses Israel of “collective punishment” and a “policy of using Palestinian prisoners as pawns to achieve political and military gains.” Addameer endorsed the call for BDS against Israel, which calls for “[e]nding [Israel’]s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall,” and compares Israel to apartheid South Africa, in a manner consistent with the Durban Strategy of anti-Israel demonization and the use of soft-power warfare.
Addameer then is part of the Palestinian society that denies Israel's legitimacy. This is something that should be remembered and reported.
Why did Israel make the deal? Brulliard explained early in the report::
The prisoners — all jailed in Israeli military prisons on suspicion or convictions of terror-related activity — agreed to “completely halt terrorist activity inside Israeli prisons,” Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, said in a statement.
Here it would reasonable to point out that Palestinian prisoners often make such promises, but they also regularly violate them. Already a number of those released in the Shalit deal last October have been re-arrested by Israel. Again this is something that needs to be reported.
The final paragraph in the Washington Post report is troubling:
The prisoner issue is deeply emotional for Palestinians, most of whom have relatives who are or have been incarcerated in Israeli prisons. Palestinians said at least 2,500 prisoners participated in the hunger strikes.
There are two ways to read this. The first is that it is emotional for the Palestinians because Israel arbitrarily arrests Palestinians. The second is that even though Israel is fully justified in arresting Palestinians involved in terror, the prisoner issue is emotional.
I have no doubt that the second is true. But what does it say then if Israel justifiably arrests such a high percentage of Palestinians? Shouldn't the prisoner issue then be framed as being indicative of widespread support for terror against Israel in Palestinian society?
By casting the "prisoner issue" as an emotional one for Palestinians with no further background suggests the first option is true.
Two central points are usually omitted from news stories about administrative detention. According to NGO Monitor these are:
Most NGO statements omit the fact that administrative detention is a common procedure used by democratic and rights-respecting states around the world in security-related cases, including the US and the UK. Israel's detention law meets and often exceeds the due process standards required by criminal procedure and human rights law.
Contrary to the claims of NGOs, it is not true that administrative detention is “without charge.” The administrative detention laws require that the detainee be brought before a judge within a short period of time and any detention must be based upon credible evidence. All detainees have the right to challenge their detention to the Israeli Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice.
Finally if administrative detention and hunger striking prisoners are worthy of news coverage, shouldn't these two stories also be reported?
The omission of so much information suggests that Israeli arrests and detentions are arbitrary and unique. Unfortunately, when the mainstream media covers this situation its omissions help construct a false narrative.
2) Intelligence design
Marc Thiessen requests Mr. President please don't kill this terrorist. However, this isn't exactly a plea for clemency:
A drone strike would vaporize this ingenious terrorist intent on attacking the United States. But it would also vaporize all the intelligence inside his brain. Our national security would be better served if the United States captured al-Asiri and kept him alive for questioning, so we can find out what he knows.
What would be lost if President Obama chose to kill, rather than capture, al-Asiri? According to former senior intelligence officials involved in terrorist captures, a high-ranking terrorist leader such as al-Asiri could provide us with treasure trove of information on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the terror network that poses the greatest threat to the homeland today.
Two related article underline Thiessen's concern.
Patrick Poole reports that Al-Qaeda Infiltrator was Working for Brits not CIA, Cover Blown for Election Year Politics. This is the plot that was masterminded by al-Asiri.
As the story broke, the establishment media was more than happy to attribute the intelligence coup to the CIA and the Obama administration, describing the mole as a “CIA informant.”
It turns out that wasn’t true. The double-agent hadn’t been recruited and placed by the CIA, but by British intelligence, who also managed the operation. In fact, the Americans had only recently been made aware of the joint British-Saudi effort.
The leaks about the operation from the American side have infuriated British intelligence officials, who had hoped to continue the operation. The leaks not only scuttled the mission but put the life of the asset in jeopardy. Even CIA officials, joining their MI5 and MI6 counterparts, were describing the leaks as “despicable,” attributing them to the Obama administration.
Since George W. Bush is no longer president we can't expect the media to look into whether intelligence was compromised for political gain.
But it isn't just the White House that might make such political calculations, sometimes the intelligence agencies do too. Peter Huessy asks (regarding intelligence spending) What are we getting for our $80 billion?
"Don't worry" says the former deputy director of its Counterterrorist Center: it is not the fault of the intelligence community: "They screw things up all by themselves" he states. "On major foreign policy decisions, intelligence is not the decisive factor".
Is the intelligence community really that innocent?
Now retired, this same 28-year CIA veteran had a hand in the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran. The report was a bombshell: its summary dismissed Iran as a threat to US, effectively taking it out of the mix of national security issues in the 2008 Presidential campaign.
No doubt those working in intelligence are devoted to their tasks. The question remains how will what they learn be used?
Labels: Campaign 2012, CIA, hunger strike, Middle East Media Sampler, Palestinian terrorists, Soccer Dad
Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Friday, May 4.
1) All the Islam that's fit to whitewash
David Kirkpatrick reported in Support From Islamists for Liberal Upends Race in Egypt:
Egypt’s most conservative Islamists endorsed a liberal Islamist for president late Saturday night, upending the political landscape and confounding expectations about the internal dynamics of the Islamist movement.
The main missionary and political groups of the ultraconservatives, known as Salafis, threw their support behind Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a dissident former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood known for his tolerant and inclusive view of Islamic law.
The endorsement goes a long way toward making Mr. Aboul Fotouh the front-runner in a campaign that could shape the ultimate outcome of the revolt that ousted the former strongman, Hosni Mubarak.
But no matter how many times Kirkpatrick describes Dr. Aboul Fotouh as "liberal," In How Egypt's Presidential Election Will Change the Middle East and the World, Barry Rubin writes:
By declaring his candidacy, Aboul Fatouh was in fact taking a more radical approach. Later, when the Brotherhood felt more confident after winning almost half the parliamentary seats it became more aggressive.
Most important of all, Aboul Fatouh is the candidate endorsed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Qatar-based anti-American, antisemitic hardliner. Qaradawi would never endorse anyone who was actually “moderate” much less “liberal.”
In The American Media Gets an Egyptian Presidential Candidate All Wrong, Eric Trager also writes:
Indeed, Abouel Fotouh’s exit from the Muslim Brotherhood hardly implies his moderation, and he has continued to embrace the Brotherhood’s core aim of establishing a sharia-based legal system. In this vein, his presidential platform calls for “the application of sharia law as a comprehensive concept for achieving the fundamental interests of the people,” which include ending poverty, unemployment, corruption, and “deviance.”
Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Abouel Fotouh embraces an interpretive “maqasid” approach to sharia, which places a rhetorical emphasis on broader aims such as justice and compassion. But also like his colleagues in the Muslim Brotherhood, Abouel Fotouh’s progressive façade frequently slips. In this vein, when military vehicles ran over a Christian-led demonstration outside of Egypt’s state-run media building on October 9, killing 28 people, Abouel Fotouh blamed the Christians for choosing “the wrong place and the wrong time” to demand their rights. He further stated that the massacre advanced the “foreign and Zionist aims of igniting sectarian strife in Egypt.” Abouel Fotouh’s insensitive response to the killing of Christians was hardly out of character. When the U.S. released a report in 2007 criticizing the Mubarak regime’s treatment of Copts, Abouel Fotouh called it “divorced from reality,” and belittled anti-Coptic discrimination by claiming that anti-Muslim discrimination in the West was worse.
Meanwhile, while reaching out to Salafists on the campaign trail, he qualified his prior support for non-Muslims running for president. “It’s the right of any faction, Islamist or non-Islamist, to nominate, or not nominate [candidates]—it’s up to them,” he said in a recent interview on Salafist satellite television. “But Egypt cannot have a president who does not have an Islamist orientation. The Egyptian people expressed this in the parliamentary elections, and in other elections.”
Yesterday, Kirkpatrick tweeted a link to a moderate sounding paper, Fotouh wrote for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2006. Among the topics covered in the paper was rights for religious minorities. (.pdf)
It is important to stress that Muslims cannot practice their beliefs except by protecting the non-Muslims among them and preserving their right to difference in religion. In reformist Islam the citizen is considered the foundation of society, regardless of his religion or color. Justice for all people is an Islamic value, as the Quran says “God commands justice.” The foundation on which the treatment of non-Muslims is built is that the individual is for society and society for the individual, with all that this entails in terms of cooperation, mutual understanding, love, and respect. We praise God that our society has never experienced the likes of what happened to Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to an American who was just like her, only white, as the law at that time stipulated that the seats at the front of the bus were for white citizens, not black.
The implication here is that religious minorities in Egypt had more freedom than American blacks did in the 1950's. It's something he said on the Muslim Brotherhood website too, regarding a 2006 report on religious rights in Egypt.
For his part, Dr. Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) executive office, rejected the content of this report.
" America should rather condemn itself first, and then issues reports against others are issued. The status quo is sour in Egypt, but we reject any intervention from the US administration for a blackmail ."
He said he doesn"t want to comment of such a US report because the truth and neutrality of the US administration in issuing the reports is questioned and because it also exploits such reports to blackmail regimes in various countries. It doesn't aim to apply results of such reports results for the good of nations.
In other words, Copts were not singled out for special persecution or as Eric Trager commented:
In 2007, AbouelFotouh sided w/ Mubarak against US report on rel freedom in & belittled anti-Copt discrimination
Kirkpatrick is the reporter covering "The New Islamists" for the New York Times. His portrayal of Aboul Fotouh as a liberal is pretty typical of his coverage of this story.
2) Hungering for a story
New Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times Jodi Rudoren glamorizes Palestinian hunger strikers in Palestinians Go Hungry to Make Their Voices Heard:
The newest heroes of the Palestinian cause are not burly young men hurling stones or wielding automatic weapons. They are gaunt adults, wrists in chains, starving themselves inside Israeli prisons.
Read the whole article, nowhere will you get a sense that Israel was justified in issuing the detention orders. Israel National News provides some context:
In late January, the GSS and Israel Police foiled a shooting attack planned by an Israeli Arab in collaboration with an Islamic Jihad terror cell from Tulkarem in northern Samaria.
Last August, Islamic Jihad terrorists from Gaza were involved in the deadly cross-border ambush of an Israeli civilian bus that left 8 Israelis – 7 of them civilians – dead.
...
On two separate occasions within the last month, terrorists associated with Islamic Jihad have been arrested attempting to smuggle pipe-bombs, firearms, knives, and ammunition into Israel.
An analysis of Palestinian social networking sites (.pdf) shows an interest in the hunger strikers, but also mass dissatisfaction with Palestinian leadership - both in the West Bank and in Gaza (via Daily Alert).
The "Hunger Games" – hunger strikes by prisoners in administrative detention held without what they see as due process – began in Egypt, and spilled over into the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain, generating much attention and proving quite successful. Governments have shown they do not know how to cope with people willing to risk their lives for what is presented as a struggle for freedom and legal rights. This tactic has been adopted by the Palestinians, and as reflected on social networking sites, the Palestinians perceive that Israel too is hard pressed to cope with the quiet protest, that the expected damage to Israel’s image is substantial, and that therefore Israel ultimately will be forced to change its policy. This can be seen as an "upgrade" of the idea of shuhada, in that individuals are willing to sacrifice their lives for the Palestinian cause without mass killing.
The relative calm in the security situation and the events in the Arab world are channeling attention to domestic affairs, both in Gaza under the Hamas government and in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. An open and highly critical discussion is underway about the Palestinian leadership, its inability to achieve a solution to the Palestinian problem, and its inability to handle domestic affairs such as the economy, unemployment, corruption, and civil society institutions. Some users have expressed increasingly evident dissatisfaction with both the Gazan and the West Bank leaderships and are seeking ideas on cultivating a new leadership that champions social power, and not necessarily the struggle against Israel.
Part of the dissatisfaction no doubt results from Abbas's Police State:
The repression also extends beyond Palestinian outlets. In July 2009, the Palestinian Authority banned Al-Jazeera from operating in the West Bank after the news channel reported on allegations that Abbas and former Gaza security chief Mohammad Dahlan were accomplices in the death of Yasser Arafat. In January 2011, following its publication of internal documents related to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations known as the "Palestine Papers," Palestinian security officers (among others) attempted to storm Al-Jazeera's Ramallah offices.
These and other incidents have had a chilling effect on reporting. As former Palestinian intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh remarked in 2010, "al-Jazeera and other Arab media outlets... are afraid to publish anything that angers the Palestinian Authority."
Amid such accounts, in April 2011, Human Rights Watch issued a 35-page report titled "No News is Good News: Abuses Against Journalists by Palestinian Security Forces." It revealed that Palestinian journalists in the West Bank "have had their equipment confiscated and been arbitrarily detained, barred from traveling abroad, assaulted, and in one case, tortured, by Palestinian security services."
There is another big story going on regarding the increasing stifling of dissent. That's just one story of many that the New York Times is paying no attention to. But if it is something that perpetuates the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians or, lacking context, makes Israel look bad, the New York Times won't miss it.
Labels: Egyptian elections, freedom of religion, hunger strike, Middle East Media Sampler, Palestinian prisoners, Soccer Dad
Boo Hoo! Hunger-striking assassin hospitalized
Some of you might recall the
conditions under which former PFLP Secretary General Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the assassination squad that murdered Tourism Minister Rechavam Zeevi in 2001, was being held prior to his
capture by Israel in 2006. Saadat, who had hoped to be released as part of the terrorists for Gilad deal, is now on a hunger strike demanding to be held in
more hotel-like and less prison-like conditions.
Ahmad Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was transferred to a hospital Sunday after suffering a serious deterioration in his health, according to a PFLP statement obtained by Ma'an news agency reported.
Saadat was moved to Ramla prison hospital by the Israel prison service (IPS) after joining a hunger strike on April 17 protesting certain Israeli policies, such as solitary confinement, in which he has been held for three years.
Other PFLP prisoners rejected an IPS offer to release Saadat from a solitary confinement in return for ending their hunger strike, the report said.
Boo. Hoo.
Labels: Ahmed Saadat, hunger strike, Palestinian terrorists
Let them starve!
'Palestinian' terrorists being held in Israeli jails have gone on a
mass hunger strike in the hope of forcing the Israeli government to take their leaders out of isolation, grant them access to more TV channels, higher education and more. Eight flytilla 'activists' awaiting deportation have joined them.
Some 2,300 out of 4,500 Palestinian security prisoners said they will return all meals served on Tuesday. Half of them said they were on hunger strike until further notice.
The strike began on Palestinian Prisoner Day, after the IPS rejected the inmates' requests for various benefits. The inmates are demanding that their leaders be taken out of isolation, access to more TV channels, higher education and more.
The IPS addresses hunger strikes only after inmates have refused food for the second day in a row and in response clean their cells of various food items, TV screens, radios and hot plates.
The IPS is estimating that many of the prisoners will stop their hunger strike on Wednesday. A special team will be on contact with the protest leaders but the IPS stressed there will be no negotiations. The protest leaders declared this will be the most determined hunger strike in decades.
Two weeks ago, Israel
exiled another 'Palestinian' hunger striker to Gaza rather than continue to hold her. And in February, an Islamic Jihad member ended a 66-day hunger strike after
Israel agreed to release him... on April 17. Maybe we need to be a little tougher?
Labels: hunger strike, Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian terrorists
Hunger strike? What hunger strike?
You will recall that at the closing session of the President's Conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that in response to Hamas' refusal to allow the Red Cross to see kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel would
revoke all of the 'special privileges' accorded to Hamas terrorists in Israeli jails.
In response, the terrorists were supposed to go on a one-day hunger strike on Monday, which the Prisons Service would be just fine with them doing (it saves us money on their food!). But the terrorists forgot to go on strike.
They're all eating today.
There is no evidence of a hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners at any of the country's prisons, an Israel Prison Service spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The comments came after several reports appeared on Sunday claiming that a Hamas body responsible for prisoners had coordinated a hunger strike in response to steps by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to limit certain conditions for the prisoners, such as high speed internet access, frequent family visits, and courses resulting in MA and PhD degrees.
...
"There have been no reports of hunger strike or a return of meals," the Israel Prison Service spokeswoman said said on Monday.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said he was not concerned by the threat of a hunger strike, Israel Radio reported.
"They can strike as much as they like," he was quoted as saying.
Let them go on a hunger strike for as long as they want. Heh.
Labels: Gilad Shalit, hunger strike, Israel Prisons Authority, Palestinian terrorists
