I trust that many of you will recall Farfur, the 'Palestinian' Mickey Mouse. For those who have forgotten here is a reminder:
But it seems that we're not going to have Farfur to kick around anymore. You see Farfur has been 'martyred' by the 'evil Israelis.' Just imagine how all those little tykes from Hamas are going to feel about Israel now....
Al-Aqsa TV, run by the Palestinian Territories ruling party Hamas, has featured a squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur in the weekly children's program "Tomorrow's Pioneers."
However, the show's final episode had the character being beaten to death.
"Farfur was martyred while defending his land," said a teen hostess of the program. The mouse character had called the Israeli a "terrorist" and the hostess said he died at the hands of the "killers of children."
Station officials said plans are for other programming to replace the Farfur show.
Farfur and his co-host, a young girl named Saraa', had taken every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the U.S. and support of "resistance" – the Palestinian euphemism for terrorism, reported the Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch.
Farfur told children they must pray in the mosque five times a day until there is "world leadership under Islamic leadership."
"We, tomorrow's pioneers, will restore to this nation its glory, and we will liberate Al-Aqsa, with Allah's will, and we will liberate Iraq, with Allah's will, and we will liberate the Muslim countries, invaded by murderers," the mouse character said.
Saraa' explained the nucleus of world Islamic leadership will be from "all of Palestine," meaning elimination of the entire state of Israel.
Farfur urged the children to "resist" Israel, "the oppressive invading Zionist occupation."
In one segment, Farfur said, "We will win, Bush! We will win, Condoleezza! We will win, Sharon!" Then, he quipped, "Ah, Sharon is dead" (sic), reinforcing his message that the plan for world domination is progressing.
Saraa' warned the children they must give an account to Allah after they die for what they did or did not do for Palestinians imprisoned by the Israelis and for the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, disputed territory Palestinians consider sacred to Islam.
"I remind you that Al-Aqsa and the prisoners are a responsibility on our shoulders, and Allah will ask us on Resurrection Day what we gave for their sake."
Child viewers phone in to the show and recite poems with images of hate and violence, according to PMW.
One child said, "We will destroy the chair of the despots, so they will taste the flame of death," and another, "Rafah sings 'Oh, oh.' Its answer is an AK-47. We who do not know fear, we are the predators of the forest."
But just give them a statereichlet and they will stop teaching their children to murder.
According to a report on Palestinian Media Watch, Mickey Mouse is now appearing on 'Palestinian' (Hamas) television. No, not the real Mickey Mouse, but a knock-off who - you guessed it - teaches 'Palestinian' children to hate Israel and America, and aspire to Islam’s inevitable and impending world domination.
The squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike, named Farfur, is the star of a weekly children’s program called Tomorrow’s Pioneers on the official Hamas TV station (Al-Aqsa TV). Farfur and his co-host, a young girl named Saraa’, teach children about such things as the importance of the daily prayers and drinking milk, while taking every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the US and support of "resistance" – the Palestinian euphemism for terror.
Farfur tells children that they must pray in the mosque five times a day until there is “world leadership under Islamic leadership.” The earnest and soft-spoken Saraa’ explains that the nucleus of this world Islamic leadership will be from “all of Palestine,” i.e., including Israel. Farfur refers to Israel as “the oppressive invading Zionist occupation,” which the children must "resist."
In a religious warning that is striking, considering the young age of the target audience, Saraa’ announces that after death, the children will have to answer to Allah for what they did or did not do for the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and for Palestinian prisoners:
“I remind you that Al-Aqsa and the prisoners are a responsibility on our shoulders, and Allah will ask us on Resurrection Day what we gave for their sake.”
IDF troops operating in the northern Samaria city of Jenin this morning shut down three television stations and a radio station owned by Hamas, which were used to incite 'Palestinians' against Israel.
Hopefully, that will take Farfur off the air for a while.
A week ago Friday, Hamas television killed off Farfur the Muslim mouse claiming that he had been 'martyred' by Jews who wanted his land. This past Friday, the incitement continued at Jihad television. Still hosted by Saara, this is what happened when one kid called in:
But give them a statereichlet and they'll stop all this hatred on a dime. Right Feigele?
Hamas' death channel unveiled its replacement for the 'martyred' Farfur this past Friday. It's Nahul the bee who tells child host Saraa that he is Fafur's cousin and wishes to continue on Farfur's path to 'martyrdom.'
Here's an excerpt(Hat Tip: NY Nana):
Nahoul is actually a known character on Arab television. Here are another two excerpts of a much more innocent Nahoul.
Hamas tries to cover the 'Palestinian' Mickey Mouse
Under increasing pressure due to the worldwide exposure given to Farfur, the 'Palestinian' Mickey Mouse, Hamas tonight has pulled the furry critter off its television station for 'review' according to 'Palestinian' information minister Mustafa Barghouti.
Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.
Barghouti wrote that following a request from his ministry, the program was pulled from the Hamas-affiliated Al Aksa TV and "placed under review."
In the statement, Barghouti said his ministry "would continue to ensure freedom of expression and freedom of the press, but that media outlets breaking the law would be penalized."
Barghouti complained that the Mickey Mouse story continued to receive attention by "some American television stations" after it was resolved, and that media did not broadcast video of Israeli human rights violations supplied by his ministry in recent weeks. [When was there last an Israeli suicide bomber? CiJ]
Israel has long complained that the Palestinian airwaves are filled with incitement.
Diane Disney Miller said she was disgusted that a rip-off of her father's iconic cartoon character was being used on a new Hamas TV show to encourage Palestinian children to take up arms against Israel and America.
"Of course I feel personal about Mickey Mouse, but it could be Barney as well,'' Ms Miller, 73, told the New York Daily News.
"It's not just Mickey, it's indoctrinating children like this, teaching them to be evil,'' said Ms Miller, who owns a winery in northern California.
"The world loves children and this is just going against the grain of humanity.''
...
The Disney Company had no comment but Ms Miller praised the New York Daily News for informing the public about the program.
"What we're dealing with here is pure evil and you can't ignore that,'' Ms Miller said.
"I'm awful glad you're doing something about it, writing about this and keeping it in the public eye as much as it can be.''
Hamas officials denied they were using the show to incite children against Jews.
"Our problem is not with the Jews,'' Yehia Moussa, a Hamas leader in the movement's Gaza Strip base, told The Associated Press.
"Our problem is with the (Israeli) occupation and the occupiers.''
An Israeli leftist almost comes face-to-face with reality
The Washington Post's post-global has a brief piece by one Hanna Rosin, an Israeli leftist who lives - where else - in the US. Ms. Rosin was recently in Israel visiting her right-wing relatives when she happened to catch Farfur the 'Palestinian' Mickey Mouse on Hamas television. It almost caused her to have an epiphany:
"Tomorrow's Pioneers," which runs on a Hamas affiliated station, is not some nutcase cable access show. It's "educational television," the Hamas equivalent of Sesame Street or Baby Einstein, the kind of show that appeals to parents who think kids today spend too much time with their Game Boys. In some episodes Farfour tells kids to study hard for their exams and drink their milk. In other episodes he shows them how to hold an AK-47 and launch a hand grenade.
This is the hardest thing to get your head around. Martyr culture is not just for the hopeless youth of refugee camps. I remember once visiting a West bank school that was the Fatah-affiliated equivalent of Maret- a tony outpost for the children of professors and accountants. Even there the most prominent space was reserved for the Martyr's Wall, a collection of photos and bloody mementos of neighborhood kids who'd been killed while fighting the enemy. No youthful aspirations exist outside the context of the noble death wish. For a fourteen-year-old, to aspire to be just an accountant is shameful, a betrayal. To be a martyr is the ultimate goal.
We are once again in one of those moments when some American official is gamely setting out to tackle the Middle East peace process (in this case Condi Rice) But if anyone has one spark of hope for the success of such a process, the Martyred Mouse will kill it off. Even the most willfully blinkered lefty Israeli (such as myself) just has to throw up her hands at a preschool program that includes among its vocabulary phrases "murderers of innocent children" and "criminal plundering Jews." This seems only one step short of the child soldiers of Uganda, kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army. " "We will annihilate the Jews," one young female caller told Farfour."I will commit martyrdom."
Fortunately, in the next paragraph, Rosin returned to her 'senses.'
One bit of good news: " Israel's Education Ministry announced Sunday that it had approved a textbook for use in the state's Arab schools that for the first time described Israel's 1948 war of independence as a 'catastrophe' for the Arab population," the New York Times reports. Hardly a radical concession, but still very controversial in Israel. The Education Minister, my relatives would point out with disgust, is of course a longtime, loyal Laborite.
And a founder of PeacePiece by Piece Now.
I wonder if Ms. Rosin is friendly with Olmert's son Shaul, who lives in New York.
By the way, when there's an election here, people like this charter airplanes to come here to vote (no absentee ballots unless you're in the army or the diplomatic corps). There are left-wing airplanes and right-wing airplanes. And with the number of leftists living abroad these days, those numbers can change the election results. Amazing, isn't it?
Hamas TV reports taking over northern Gaza Strip but is shut down by Fatah
Hamas TV reported this afternoon that Hamas has 'taken over' the northern Gaza Strip. Then Hamas TV - which broadcasts from the Ramallah area - was taken over itself by Fatah troops. It is now playing pro-Fatah lullabies according to Israel Radio.
Of course Fatah, which claims that it cannot fight terror, did not take over Hamas TV when Farfur was on the air.
This has to be the surest sign that the Olmert-Peretz-Livni government has gone mad. The London Daily Telegraph reported this morning that Israel is considering giving military support to 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen's Fatah movement in their ongoing battle with Hamas.
Even though Fatah is closely connected to Palestinian militants with a long record of attacks against Israel, the Jewish state is coming round to embracing the movement as a more pragmatic bulwark against Hamas, which they believe receives military aid from Iran.
...
"We believe that time is working against the moderates," said a member of the Israeli cabinet yesterday.
"Time is of the essence when it comes to the influence of Hamas in the Gaza Strip - to sit and do nothing, not even while we're being attacked but afterward, is something we cannot afford." The week's third attempt at a truce, declared on Wednesday, appears to have calmed much of the fighting, but gun battles were reported outside a government building and the Islamic University in Gaza yesterday.
The article is bylined by Carolynne Wheeler in Tel Aviv, and she must be sitting in Tel Aviv because otherwise, I don't know how she could say that the fighting has been 'calmed.' Mind you Ms. Wheeler is so out of things she apparently doesn't even know that Sderot exists:
Diplomats were told by senior foreign ministry and military sources that the smuggling of arms and money to Hamas from Syria and Iran is continuing, and that Israel fears Hamas will advance to longer-range rockets if they do not take action now. Rockets have landed on the southern reaches of the Israeli city of Ashkelon but have not yet struck residential areas. Most alarming, the sources said, is the increasing determination and power of Hamas.
But is helping Fatah really the answer? This is from Khaled Abu Toameh writing in the Jerusalem Post over the weekend:
Reports that the US has been supplying Abbas's forces with guns and millions of dollars with which to take on Hamas's supporters have only added fuel to the fire. This week's bloody clashes have shown that despite the money and weapons, Fatah is either unprepared or unwilling to engage in a major confrontation with Hamas. Fatah, it is worth noting, has more soldiers, weapons and money than Hamas.
But some Fatah leaders admitted this week that what the faction was lacking was the support of the Palestinian public. "Most Palestinians still don't trust us," said a veteran Fatah operative in the West Bank. "Most Palestinians still hold us responsible for the financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority. And what's worse is that many Palestinians don't like the fact that we are being supported by the US and Israel."
A SIGN of Fatah's dwindling popularity on the streets of Gaza was provided by the recurring Hamas attacks on the homes of senior Fatah leaders Rashid Abu Shabak, Samir Masharawi and Maher Miqdad. Some Fatah leaders and their families have since fled [with Israel's assistance] to the West Bank.
Even if the current wave of intra-fighting ends, it will only be a matter of time before the next explosion on the Palestinian street. The gap between Fatah and Hamas is so wide that the sarcastic comment sounded by many Palestinians these days is that it would be easier to make peace between Hamas and Israel than Hamas and Fatah. "Fatah and Hamas are worse than each other," said a former adviser to Yasser Arafat. "We need a new leadership that will save the people from these two monsters. While Hamas's Farfur is preaching hatred to the children, Fatah is recruiting kids aged 12-18 for military training."
Do we really want to be giving military (or any other kind of) assistance to an implacable enemy that is training kids aged 12-18 to fight against us? I don't think so.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
