Friday, August 24, 2012

Gatestone Update :: Khaled Abu Toameh: Israel Welcomes Palestinians without Permits, and more


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Israel Welcomes Palestinians without Permits

by Khaled Abu Toameh
August 24, 2012 at 5:00 am
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For years, the Palestinian Authority has been demanding that Israel lift travel restrictions imposed on West Bank Palestinians, but now that Israel has permitted tens of thousands of Muslims to visit its beaches and malls, Israel is being denounced. What is clear is that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas wants to see Palestinians living a good life. Improving the living standards of Palestinians is something that these two parties are not interested in. They would rather see Palestinians direct all their anger and frustration only toward Israel.
For many years, the Palestinians had been complaining about Israeli restrictions that ban them from entering Israel, but during the holy month of Ramadan, in an unprecedented move, the Israeli authorities granted permits to tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank to visit Israel during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims from the West Bank have been entering Jerusalem for Friday prayers at the Aqsa Mosque without permits.
Many Palestinians, particularly shopkeepers in the city, welcomed the Israeli move, noting that it boosted the local economy.
Then, in a move that angered Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinians, the Israeli authorities went a step farther by allowing tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians to enter the rest of Israel.
For the first time in many years, in scenes reminiscent of the good old days before the peace process when Palestinians were able to enter Israel freely, the beaches of Tel Aviv and Jaffa were full of Palestinian Muslims who also converged on shopping malls and water parks in different parts of the country.
But the scenes of Palestinians enjoying themselves on Israeli beaches and shopping in Israeli malls have angered Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas also fears that the easing of restrictions may have a moderating effect on Palestinians at a time when the Islamist movement is working hard to recruit more followers, especially in the West Bank.
Hamas does not want to see Palestinians happy and enjoying themselves, especially not in Israel. Hamas would prefer to see Palestinians live in misery and poverty so that it could find fertile soil for recruiting terrorists.
The Palestinian Authority, for its part, is now accusing Israel of seeking to damage the Palestinian economy by opening its doors to Palestinian vacationers and shoppers.
Some Palestinian officials in Ramallah are even talking about an Israeli "conspiracy" to undermine the Palestinian Authority. Other officials are opposed to the new Israeli policy because they believe it is aimed at promoting "normalization" with Israel -- something the Palestinian Authority leadership considers a crime.
Earlier this year, the Palestinian government in the West Bank fired a school principal who took his students on a trip to the Tel Aviv beach.
For years, the Palestinian Authority has been demanding that Israel lift travel restrictions imposed on West Bank Palestinians. But now that Israel has permitted tens of thousands of Muslims to visit its beaches and malls, Israel is being denounced for trying to damage the Palestinian economy.
What is clear is that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas wants to see Palestinians living a good life. Improving the living standards of Palestinians is something that these two parties are not interested in. They would rather see Palestinians direct all their anger and frustration only toward Israel.
Otherwise, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority fear, Palestinians may vent their anger against their own leaders.
Related Topics:  Khaled Abu Toameh

The Smear Campaign Against Geert Wilders

by Peter Martino
August 24, 2012 at 4:45 am
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Kortenoeven is manipulating the Jews, using their religious concerns for his own personal political agenda. The bill against unstunned ritual slaughter was supported by all the parties in the Dutch parliament, and yet these people are singling out only Wilders for criticism. Wilders, whose unpopular support for Israel and for Jews has been unwavering, leads the fight against anti-Semitism in the Netherlands -- and on the European continent.
Few politicians are as pro-Jewish and pro-Israel as Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party PVV. The 49-year old Wilders, who lives under round-the-clock police protection because of Islamist death threats, has visited Israel over 40 times. In his recent book Marked for Death: Islam's War against the West and Me, Wilders, who was raised a Catholic, relates how he lived and worked in Israel for one year as a young man and how he admires the Jews and their state.
Geert Wilders also leads the fight against anti-Semitism in the Netherlands -- and in Europe. Two years ago, the senior Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein advised "recognizable Jews" to leave the Netherlands and emigrate to Israel and the U.S. because of the Dutch government's inability to prevent the anti-Semitic violence committed by Jew-hating Muslim immigrants. An indignant Wilders reacted that "Jews shouldn't emigrate; anti-Semitic immigrants should."
Public opinion, misinformed by the Western media, is as anti-Israel in the Netherlands as in any other European country. Consequently, it is not electorally rewarding to take pro-Israel positions -- Wilders has nevertheless been unwavering in his support for the Jewish state.
Despite Wilders's record as a friend of the Jews, it is strange to see that there is a smear campaign going on which accuses the PVV leader of harboring anti-Semites within his own party. This campaign has everything to do with the upcoming general elections to be held in the Netherlands on September 12th.
Last year, the Dutch Chamber of Representatives approved a bill of the Animal Party to ban unstunned ritual slaughter. The bill received a large majority. Apart from three Christian parties, the bill was supported by all the parties in the Dutch Parliament, including Wilders's PVV, the Social-Democrats, and also the Conservatives of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Yet only the PVV has been singled out for criticism -- although the party, which has Jewish parliamentarians, allowed its representatives to vote as they pleased regardless of the party line.
The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries in the world. Secular people frequently lack understanding of religious sensitivities, while they are often driven by emotions in other respects. The Dutch secularism probably explains why the Dutch have a party such as the Animal Party, which aims to extend "animal rights," resembling human rights, to beasts. All the Dutch parties have a spokesman for animal rights, including the PVV, whose animal welfare spokesman is one Dion Graus. Graus is a highly emotive, though popular, character, who hosted the television show Beasts with Dion before he became a PVV parliamentarian.
While Graus was not the instigator of the bill to ban no-stun slaughter, he defended this bill in parliament, comparing unstunned slaughtering of animals to "torture." Graus never said, however, as some maliciously claim, that "the Jewish practice of Schechita [Jewish ritual slaughter] constitutes torture." Nor did he advocate a bill to "ban the import of kosher meat into the Netherlands." Nor is Graus, as some also claim, seeking to ban brit milah, the Jewish practice of circumcising male infants. While the PVV opposes female genital mutilation, it has never taken a position against male circumcision, nor does it intend to do so. Male circumcision has become a political issue in Germany, but is simply not an issue in the Netherlands.
The ban on unstunned ritual slaughter is an initiative if the Animal Party and is supported by all the major parties, including that of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, Uri Rosenthal -- who is Jewish, Pro-Israel, and whose wife is Israeli. And yet these people are singling out only Wilders for criticism.
As far as unstunned ritual slaughter is concerned, the practice is banned in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Switzerland and New Zealand. But not yet in the Netherlands. Last June, the Dutch Senate rejected the bill which the Chamber of Representatives had previously approved. The Animal Party has announced that it will table a new bill after next month's elections. Charges that the PVV is targeting the Jewish community in the Netherlands is also utter nonsense.
The current campaign against the PVV has everything to do with the upcoming elections. Last June, shortly before the PVV disclosed its candidates, a number of parliamentarians (none of them Jewish) left the party because they feared that Mr. Wilders would not give them a safe seat on the party list. One of these soon to be ex-parliamentarians, Wim Kortenoeven, is now waging a personal vendetta against the PVV, accusing Wilders of "refusing to give Graus the boot and dissociating himself from anti-Semites within his party." Two weeks ago, Kortenoeven travelled to the U.S. to see American Jews whom he suspected to be sympathetic towards Mr. Wilders, urging them to pressure him into dissociating himself from Graus "so that the Freedom Party would then be free to vote against the proposed ban on shechita and brit milah."
The proposed ban on no-stun slaughter in the Netherlands is an initiative of the Animal Party. Opposing such a ban would be harmful within the secular Dutch political context in which Wilders has to operate. And no one in the Netherlands is proposing – or even considering to propose -- a ban on the male circumcision of infants. To say so is simply uninformed and ridiculous.
Equally ridiculous is the accusation that Geert Wilders is condoning anti-Semitism within his own party. What is more, it is extremely unfair towards a politician who is not only the greatest friend of Israel and the Jewish people on the European continent, but who leads a life under constant police protection because he courageously opposes radical Islam, the most dangerous foe that the Jews -- and also the Christians and secularists -- currently have.
Last Tuesday, the Telegraaf, the largest Dutch newspaper, ran a front page article headlining that Wilders' "Jewish sponsors" in the U.S. are "furious" with him. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles was quoted as saying "Demonizing religious rituals is the terrain of dictators," while Kortenoeven accused the PVV of being "led like a mafia gang." The article stated that in the past Wilders had returned from his Jewish friends in the U.S. with "coffers full of donated dollars." The article implied that Jews use their money to buy political influence in foreign countries – which in itself is an old anti-Semitic slur. Wilders denies the allegations. In a reaction to the article, he called Kortenoeven's story "totally stupid" and asked "Where is his proof?"
Kortenoeven is manipulating the Jews, using their religious concerns for his own personal domestic political agenda.
Related Topics:  Peter Martino

France Seeks to Reclaim 'No-Go' Zones

by Soeren Kern
August 24, 2012 at 4:00 am
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Despite the scale of the damage, French police have hesitated to make any arrests for fear of sparking more riots. Residents of the neighborhood know the names of the perpetrators but "nobody dares to speak for fear of reprisals." "You can no longer order a pizza or get a doctor to come to the house."
The French government has announced a plan to boost policing in 15 of the most crime-ridden parts of France in an effort to reassert state control over the country's so-called "no-go" zones: Muslim-dominated neighborhoods that are largely off limits to non-Muslims.
The crime-infested districts, which the French Interior Ministry has designated as Priority Security Zones (zones de sécurité prioritaires, or ZSP), include heavily Muslim parts of Paris, Marseilles, Strasbourg, Lille and Amiens, where Muslim youths recently went on a two-day arson rampage that caused extensive property damage and injured more than a dozen police officers.
The crackdown on lawlessness in the ZSP is set to begin in September, when French Interior Minister Manuel Valls plans to deploy riot police, detectives and intelligence agents into the selected areas. The hope is that a "North American-style" war on crime can prevent France's impoverished suburbs from descending into turmoil.
If the new policy results in a drop in crime, Valls is expected to name up to 40 more ZSP before the summer of 2013.
The initial 15 ZSP are: Seine-Saint-Denis (Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen), Paris (Paris XVIIIe), les Yvelines (Mantes-la-Jolie, Mantes-la-Ville), l'Essonne (Corbeil-Essonne), la Somme (Amiens), le Nord (Lille), l'Oise (Méru et Chambly), la Moselle (Fameck et Uckange), le Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg), le Rhône (Lyon IXe), les Bouches-du-Rhône (Gardanne et Bouc-Bel-aire), Marseille (Marseille IIIe, XIIIe, XIVe, XVe et XVIe), le Gard (Vauvert et Saint-Gilles), l'Hérault (Lunel et Mauguio) et la Guyane (Cayenne, Matoury, Remire-Montjoly).
Many of these new ZSP coincide with Muslim neighborhoods that previous French governments have considered to be Sensitive Urban Zones. (Zones Urbaine Sensibles, or ZUS) -- also "no-go" zones for French police.
At last count, there were a total of 751 Sensitive Urban Zones, a comprehensive list of which can be found on a French government website, complete with satellite maps and precise street demarcations. An estimated five million Muslims live in the ZUS -- parts of France over which the French state has lost control.
Consider Seine-Saint-Denis, a notorious northern suburb of Paris, and home to an estimated 500,000 Muslims. Seine-Saint-Denis is divided into 40 administrative districts called communes, 36 of which are on the French government's official list of "no-go" zones.
Seine-Saint-Denis, also known locally as "Department 93" for the first two digits of the postal code for this suburb, witnessed fierce rioting by Muslim youths in 2005, when they torched more than 9,000 cars.
Seine-Saint-Denis, which has one of the highest rates of violent crime in France, is now among the initial 15 ZSPs because of widespread drug dealing and a rampant black market. Because, however, the suburb also has one of the highest unemployment rates in France -- 40% of those under the age of 25 are jobless -- it remains unlikely that a government crackdown will succeed in bringing down the crime rate in any permanent way.
Also on the list of ZSP is the department of La Somme, which encompasses the northern French city of Amiens. On August 12 and 13, around 100 Muslim youths in the impoverished Fafet-Brossolette district of Amiens went on a rampage after police arrested a man for driving without a license. Muslims viewed the arrest as "insensitive" because it came as many residents of the neighborhood were attending a funeral for Nadir Hadji, a 20-year-old Algerian youth who had died in a motorcycle accident on August 9. It later emerged, however, that police were called to an estate in northern Amiens after reports that youths were loading fireworks into a car. Police discovered as well the ingredients for petrol bombs, including empty bottles and a canister of gasoline -- hence the arrest.
In response to the riots, about 150 policemen and anti-riot police were deployed to the Fafet neighborhood and used tear gas, rubber bullets and even mobilized a helicopter after Muslim youths shot at them with buckshot, fireworks and other projectiles from nine in the evening until four in the morning.
At least 16 police officers were injured in the melee, one of them seriously. Youths also torched and destroyed a junior high school canteen, an anti-juvenile delinquency sports room, a leisure center, and a kindergarten, as well as 20 automobiles and 50 trash bins. The cost of repairing or rebuilding structures that were damaged or destroyed could run to €6 million ($7.4 million). (Photos here.)
Gilles Demailly, the Socialist mayor of Amiens, said the violence reflected a descent into lawlessness orchestrated by ever younger troublemakers: "There have been regular incidents here but it has been years since we've known a night as violent as this with so much damage done. The confrontations were very, very violent." He added, "For months I've been asking for the means to alleviate the neighborhood's problems because tension has been mounting here. You've got gangs of youths playing at being gangsters who have turned the area into a no-go zone. You can no longer order a pizza or get a doctor to come to the house."
The Fafet-Brossolette district of Amiens is home to mostly Muslim immigrants from former French colonies such as Algeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Mali, Morocco and Tunisia. Unemployment in the riot-hit part of Amiens runs at 45%. Among people under 25 years of age, who account for half the population, two out of three are out of work.
Despite the scale of the damage, French police have hesitated to make any arrests for fear of sparking more riots. Police did not, in fact, make any arrests until more than three days after the riots ended. A spokesperson for the local police said that four people between the ages of 15 and 30 were arrested in an overnight swoop on August 17 in connection with arson, robbery and trafficking stolen goods. Two of the individuals were immediately tried at the criminal court in Amiens and were quickly released on probation.
The clashes in Amiens follow more than five days of violence between rival Muslim gangs in the southwestern French city of Toulouse. Police in the city's Bagatelle district (officially classified as a ZUS "no-go" zone) have characterized the Muslim-on-Muslim violence as "a kind of guerilla war" between two gangs of individuals between the ages of 15 and 20. The violence was apparently due to "the result of a settlement of accounts between drug dealers, as well as because of old resentments exacerbated by boredom and the heat of the month of Ramadan."
On August 14, two local imams in Bagatelle organized a march through the streets calling on the youths to stop the violence. Local media reports say the residents of the neighborhood know the names of the perpetrators but "nobody dares to speak for fear of reprisals." According to the deputy imam of Bagatelle, Siali Lahouari, "it looks as if we are in Bosnia or Afghanistan, not Mirail [a suburb of Toulouse]."
In July 2010, Muslim youth in the La Villeneuve suburb of the southern city of Grenoble went on a rampage after police shot and killed an armed robber, Karim Boudouda, who had led police on a car chase after holding up the casino at Uriage-les-Bains, near Grenoble. The rioting started when an imam recited a prayer for the dead man in the presence of 50 Muslim youths who had gathered in a park. One of the youths fired a gun at riot police who were deployed to the neighborhood; the police then opened fire to disperse the crowd -- who then went on to torch 80 cars as well as several businesses.
In August 2009, around 40 Muslim rioters in the Paris suburb of Bagnolet hurled Molotov cocktails at police and firefighters; torched cars, and one person fired a handgun during a rampage prompted by the death of a teen pizza deliveryman who was fleeing from the police. The violence broke out after an 18-year-old, riding his motorcycle through the neighborhood, tried to flee a document check by police; the man lost control of his motorcycle, hit a barrier and died en route to the hospital.
In July 2009, Muslim youths torched more than 300 cars across France after the suicide death of an Algerian youth held in police custody on charges of extortion.
In October and November 2005, thousands of Muslim youths in Paris and other major cities in France went on a rampage after two young men in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois were electrocuted when they entered an electric power substation while running away from police. Overall, the riots affected 274 towns and cities across France, and resulted in more than €200 million in property damage.
In response, the French government declared a "three-month state of emergency."
Soeren Kern is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics:  France  |  Soeren Kern

Maximum Delhi

by Claire Berlinski
August 23, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Despite my long complaint the other day about reporters who fly into countries they know little about and report on them as if they knew what they were talking about, I'm about to do exactly that: I'm off to Delhi this afternoon to see if I can become an India expert in less than three weeks. (Why? Oh, just one of those impulses. Curiosity. A sense that I should know more about India. The last time I visited was in 1996, so I'm not really up-to-date.)
While trying to do just what I advised foreign correspondents never to do--to bone up quickly on the country they're about to go to by reading the local press--I found some intriguing articles that aren't precisely breaking news in the US. I thought I'd share them, adding the caveat that I have no idea who the authors are, know nothing about their biases or reliability, and for all I know they could be utter nonsense. I'll tell you more about what I think once I've been there for 48 hours, spoken to a few cab-drivers, and become a widely-renowned India expert. I'm planning to learn all of India's 438 spoken languages on the flight--one per minute--so I should be in good shape to hit the ground running.
Paradiplomacy: The editors of First Post view the recent visit to Japan of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a sign of a trend:
... it is an acknowledgment of the reality that it is the State governments in India today that are shaping India's economic fortunes. With the Central government in the grip of a policy paralysis, State-level leaders have stepped up to seize the momentum. In that sense, the trend is towards economic decentralisation, in direct contrast to the situation in Europe, where countries are learning that their future lies only in greater economic and political centralisation. ...
Unlike nation-states, of course, these subnational governments are not sovereign actors, and do not, for instance, command an army or send ambassadors. Nevertheless, since most of the issues that are of critical importance to international investors – for instance, issues relating to land, law and order, infrastructure and human resources – are in the domain of the States (as in India), they will increasingly be more influential in shaping international relations.
The experience of China in this area is illustrative. As China opened up its economy, its provincial governments and leaders have been given a degree of functional autonomy to advance the economy as they deem fit. In recent years, they have become significant players on the international stage, particularly in shaping China's foreign economic relations. ...
Assam communal violence: Now here's an example of a local report that, as I noted in the above-mentioned long complaint, is written for local people who understand the context better than I do. Obviously this is fine reporting if you know who the actors are, but I'd like to know a lot more about who the Bodos are and the history of the Bodoland People's Front. And what's section 144 of CrPC? Still, this piqued my interest: Sounds like there's a lot more going on here than these two-paragraph mentions of "communal violence in India" we're getting in the US press might suggest. I'll tell you all about it next week, when I'm an expert.
GUWAHATI/KOKRAJHAR: The tentative peace in Kokrajhar was abruptly broken on Thursday with the arrest of Bodo MLA Pradeep Brahma on charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy and intimidation, in connection with the violence that broke out between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims on July 20. Nearly 80 people have died in the clashes so far and more than four lakh from both communities displaced.
This is Bodo leader Pradeep Brahma, about whom your faithful correspondent knows absolutely nothing.
The district immediately erupted in protests, with Brahma's supporters blocking highways and rail routes, carrying banners saying 'Deport Bangladeshis'. The local administration declared curfew and imposed section 144 of CrPC, preventing movement of people and goods in Kokrajhar indefinitely.
Bodo leaders, who were huddled in deliberations all day, set a deadline of 24 hours for Brahma's release. "We went by the law," said Assam DGP J N Choudhury. "There were allegations against the MLA and evidence based on statements of witnesses. It is now for the court to take the decision," he added. Brahma will remain in judicial custody for 14 days.
Congress-Bodo front ties hit
Several Muslim bodies claimed to have mobile footage of Bodo MLA Pradeep Brahma allegedly wielding an AK 47 rifle and leading rioters at Juramari village in Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar on the night of July 23. Copies of this footage were presented to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former home minister P Chidambaram during their visits to the affected districts. Bodo leaders reacted in anger and asked why no action has been taken against those involved in the killing of four Bodo youths on July 20 in Kokrajhar. It was this incident that sparked off the clashes.
Uttarakhand Communal Harmony: Here's a nice feel-good story that definitely won't make the news in the US--it's only news if people are killing each other:
Muslim residents of Joshimath in Uttarakhand offered Eid namaaz (prayers) on Monday in a gurdwara (Sikh temple), after being invited in by its head priest, according to the local media. There is no mosque or idgah in Joshimath, a town perched above the Alakhnanda deep in the Garhwal Himalayas. Usually its 800-odd Muslim residents offer namaaz at the town's Gandhi Maidan, a public ground.
On Monday, however, Gandhi maidan had turned into slush. It had been raining heavily for several days and Eid, the festival day too dawned in a downpour. The Muslim community was struggling with the problem when the head of the local gurdwara sent a heart warming message to them: The Muslims could use the main hall of the gurdwara for offering namaaz.
So, at 9:30am, the congregation of Muslims in bright new clothes trooped down to the gurdwara and offered the ritual prayers in the big hall. After the ceremony, they embraced the Sikh community members waiting outside the hall. Some Hindus from the town were present too and offered greetings to the other two communities.
In China, where social networking sites Facebook and Twitter are banned, the authorities have long viewed the mobilising capabilities of the Internet with deep suspicion.
In 2009, the authorities blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The major reason was ethnic riots in Urumqi, capital of the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region, that left 197 people dead and more than a thousand injured on July 5, 2009.
The events across the Himalayas in recent days, where rumours that proliferated through cyberspace and SMS fuelled mass panic in several Indian cities, have reaffirmed those fears in this country, prompting calls in the state media outlets for the authorities to keep a watchful eye on the Internet.
"The scene is familiar to Chinese," the Communist Party-run Global Times, a popular tabloid known for its nationalistic views that is published by the People's Daily, said in an editorial in its Chinese and English editions on Thursday.
"What happened in India can help us understand more objectively whether the Internet can foment social instability and how it does so," the newspaper said. "The exodus [of northeasterners from some Indian cities] was a result of public panic that was easily ignited by rumours. It takes more than working with social networking websites to appease the agitated public and prevent this from happening again."
Wouldn't it be nice to know more about all of this? I'm hoping I will, soon. I'll keep you posted.
Related Topics:  Claire Berlinski

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