Two Italian UN peacekeepers look at a destroyed UN armored vehicle that was attacked by a roadside bomb, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on Friday May 27, 2011, injuring Italian peacekeepers. Italy's Joint Chief of Staff's office confirmed Friday that Italian peacekeepers in the U.N. mission were wounded when a blast hit their vehicle in Sidon, some believed to be in critical condition. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

So there you have it, folks. Terrorists don’t attack people. Bombs do.

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Source

I somehow doubt the words described in the caption – “Down with Israel” – consitute “graphic language.” So I’m guessing that the Arabic shown in the photo means something else.

Here’s a closer look at the pre-”eliminated” photo:

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Are there any Arabic speakers with amazing eyesight amongst you, who can descipher the true meaning?

I suspect the words are way less euphemistic than the caption writer would let on. And if my spidey instincts serve me well, you have to ask why he altered their meaning.

Egyptians hold Palestinian flags during a rally calling for the end of the Israeli occupation on Palestine, in Tahrir square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, May 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

What does this say about the AP caption writer’s definition of the “Israeli occupation”?

At least that is what the AP would have us believe.

Wearing their Islamic style uniforms, Iranian Jewish school girls, react with joy, at the Fakhr-e-Danesh school of Iranian Jewish community, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 3, 2011. About 20,000 Jews live in Iran which has the biggest Jewish community in the middle east outside Israel, and they have one Jewish representative in the parliament under the constitution. Under the country's strict Islamic regulations, women should cover themselves head to toe, although they are allowed to show their faces, and religious minorities must follow Islamic dress codes such as head scarves for women. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

At least that is what I think the AP caption writer is implying.

Because I somehow don’t think they would be so blatantly “reacting with joy” in Iran to bin Laden’s demise.

Palestinian Hamas security officers help an injured worker following an Israeli tank shelling at Gaza's Industrial area east of Gaza city, Friday April 22, 2011. Three Palestinian workers were wounded when Israeli tank fired on them inside Gaza Industrial area near Karni crossing in the eastern Gaza Strip, Palestinian official said. (AP Photo/Mohammed Asad)

The caption to this Mohammed Asad photo (yes, the warning bells should already be sounding) states as fact that IDF tank fire was behind the wounding of 3 palestinians.The only words suggesting this was only a claim, rather than an established fact, are at the very end of the caption – “Palestinian official said.” And even then, those words euphemize “Hamas terrorist.”

But even the palestinian Ma’an News agency does not pin the blame on Israel, and the left-wing Ha’aretz actually reports that errant palestinian mortar fire was responsible.

A pro-Palestinian group says one of its activists has apparently been kidnapped by Islamic militants in Gaza.

A video claiming to show the kidnapping emerged from Gaza along with a demand by an extremist group to the Hamas government to release two of its leaders arrested last month. The group set a deadline of Friday afternoon, threatening to execute the hostage.

Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, said the abducted man in the video appeared to be one of its activists. She asked that his name be withheld.

Meanwhile, props to AP for including this sentence:

ISM operates in the West Bank and Gaza and is known for trying to prevent the Israeli military from carrying out its missions. Arraf said this activist has been going in and out of Gaza for more than two years.

Update: The Jerusalem Post has more details on the kidnapped tool.

An Italian human rights activist was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip by the al-Qaida-linked radical terrorist group Tawhid wal-Jihad, the group announced on Thursday.

The radical Islamist terror organization Tawhid wal-Jihad announced on Thursday that it has kidnapped an Italian human rights activist in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.

According to sources in the Strip, Victorio Larginoni arrived on one of the first flotillas to Gaza several years ago and has been living there since, according to the report.

In a video released by the group, the captive can be seen blindfolded with his hands tied. Tawhid made an ultimatum to Hamas that if it doesn’t release one of its senior members by 5 p.m. Friday, that it will execute the Italian national, Israel Radio reported

Update: Sky News has more (including a different name for the hostage):

Gaza Militants ‘Will Kill Kidnapped Journalist’

Islamist extremists in Gaza say they have kidnapped a European journalist and will kill him within 30 hours if Hamas do not release a number of Palestinian prisoners.

A Salafist organisation, inspired by al Qaeda, has posted a video of what they claim is an Italian journalist on YouTube tied up and blindfolded.

He is held by the hair and his face looks beaten.

If the claims are true it is the first time in four years that a foreigner has been abducted in Gaza.

When Hamas seized control of the strip, it imposed a zero tolerance policy on the kidnapping of foreigners after securing the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston who had been held for three months.

The kidnapping is a direct challenge to Hamas by a group espousing a more extreme Islamist ideology.

The video demands the release of what it calls “mujahideen”, or holy warriors who have been arrested by Hamas and are being held in jails in Gaza.

In particular it is calling for the release of a leader or sheikh who was arrested a week ago by Hamas.

Salafist organisations are a constant thorn in the side of Hamas, firing rockets out of Gaza in contravention of a ceasefire imposed by Hamas and calling on Hamas to launch a more aggressive form of resistance against Israel.

The video names the captive as Italian called Vittorio Arriogoni.

He is thought to have arrived in Gaza as part of an aid convoy in 2008 and has since become famous in Italy for his passionate defence of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

He was one of the few western journalists to have reported from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2009 when Israel imposed a draconian ban on foreign reporters entering the narrow coastal enclave.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has been given little more than a day to comply with the group’s demands.

Update: I’ve managed to locate the following videos of Arriogoni.

More videos here.

I somehow don’t think the terrorists are going to be so enamored with those tattoos and eyebrow ring.

Update: Arriogoni seems to have last posted on Facebook yesterday evening. Meanwhile, you can get more of an insight into his hatred of Israel here.

Update: Here’s the video of him released by the terrorists.

Update: The Palestinian Press Agency is suggesting Israel is behind his kidnapping!

Update: An example of Arriogoni’s brand of journalism.

Update: In this blog post, Arriogoni minimized the capture of Gilad Shalit by palestinian “commandos” (at least according to the auto-translation). Oh, the irony.

Update: Moronic “peace activists” have launched a petition demanding his release. Because everyone knows, terrorists are influenced by petitions.

Update: Comment left on an anti-Israel blog regarding the kidnapping.

Horrible it is indeed. But perspective, perspective.

The Salafists (first I’ve heard of them, but who am I?) are retail kidnappers. Israel kidnaps wholesale. Keep a comparative eye open, always. In a way, the siege of Gaza is a kidnapping (or cruel detention) of 1.5M people.

Update: Judging by how Arriogoni reacted to being detained by the IDF a few years ago, I’d say he’s not faring too well right about now (hat tip: Alana)

Manifestly violating every human and civil right and against every international law, I spent the last six hours with Andrew locked in a piggish toilette full of fleas and parasites and without drinking water. This was the treatment we received because we announced a hunger strike in order to ask for the restitution of the fishing boats stolen to Palestinian fishermen offshore Gazan coasts when we were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers.

They took away the telephones we were given yesterday by our lawyer but, even more shameful and clearly violating international laws, they prevented us from getting in touch with our lawyers and with our consulates even though Andrew and I asked for it tenaciously many times.

In order to report these regrettable events I had to stop my hunger strike so that I could have back my telephone and pass on this reporting. Based on what I could hear before they separated us, Andrew will keep staying in that cell (absolutely non compliant with every standard of every convention about detention and human rights) as long as he will continue his hunger strike.

The detention I lived today and Andrew is still living can be considered a real torture more than a punishment.

It’s more than probable that Darlene, who is continuing her hunger strike, is suffering the same inhuman treatment.

I’m about to report this seriously severe event to the Italian, the Scottish and the American consulates.

It’s important being constantly informed about mental and physical conditions of our friends.

Tomorrow I will have to turn to urgent medical treatments to cure dozens of bites from insects and parasites which attack me every night leaving my body full of sores.

Vittorio Arrigoni, kidnapped in an Israeli prison in Ramle.

Update: I signed the petition (see signature 333)

Update: See my latest post for updates in the wake of his death.

Political reasons?

The female palestinian prisoner on the protester’s placard – Sana Muhammad Hussein Shehada - is serving 3 life sentences in prison for transporting a suicide terrorist to Jerusalem in 2002. Three innocent people were killed and dozens wounded in the attack.

Incidentally, this didn’t bother our “peace partners” of the PA, who broadcast the following on their television station.

It is so sad to see young children get so caught up in “politics.”

Palestinian supporters of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) rally in the West Bank city of Nablus, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011 to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the political party. The U.S. consulate in Jerusalem restricted personal travel for staff members in some areas of the West Bank on Saturday, a day after the Obama administration vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned Israel. At the same time, Palestinians demonstrated against the U.S. for vetoing the Arab-backed Security Council resolution draft. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Notice how the AP caption writer went out of their way to refer to the DFLP as a “political party.”

Which is interesting (and disturbing), considering they have been actively involved in terrorism since their inception.

Founded in 1969, the DFLP is Marxist-Leninist. The DFLP split off from the PFLP in 1969 over personal and ideological rivalries and became the third-largest PLO faction. At first, the DFLP advocated toppling “reactionary” Arab regimes such as the Hashemite dynasty that ruled Jordan. After Jordan expelled the PLO in 1970, the DFLP operated out of Lebanon and then Syria. It refocused on replacing Israel with either a secular Palestinian state or a “single democratic” state for both Arabs and Jews. The group received arms from the Soviet Union. In 1974, the DFLP spearheaded a PLO resolution proposing the creation of a “national authority” in the West Bank and Gaza as a first step toward the liberation of the “whole of Palestine.” At the spring 1977 Palestine National Council meeting, the DFLP gave full support to the Palestine national program, seeking the creation of a Palestinian state from any territory liberated from Israel.

In mid-1979, the DFLP reportedly experienced an upsurge in its membership and an accompanying increase in influence. Although it remained a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the DFLP coooperated incrfeasingly with anti-Arafat Palestinian extremists.

The DFLP strongly disapproved of the PLO leadership’s failure to take more severe action against Anwar Sadat after his peace initiative. Furthermore, the DFLP signed the Tripoli declaration in 1983, rejecting the Reagan and Fez peace plans and contact with the Israelis.

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Activities

The DFLP has confined its attacks—which have involved knives, guns, car bombs, and grenades—to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. It does not operate internationally. Its most famous attack was a May 1974 assault on a school in the Galilee town of Ma’alot in which 25 Israeli teenagers were murdered; the group called the killings a response to then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Arab-Israeli shuttle diplomacy.

The DFLP claimed responsibility for an August 2001 raid on a Gaza Strip outpost in which three Israeli soldiers were killed but has otherwise been fairly quiet in the current crisis.

DFLP operations always have taken place either inside Israel or the occupied territories. Typical acts are minor bombings and grenade attacks, as well as spectacular operations to seize hostages and attempt to negotiate the return of Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners.

—-

External Aid

Prior to the rift following the March 1987 Palestine National Council meeting in Algeirs, Syria had provided most of the DFLP’s outside support through financial support, training, and as a safe haven. The DFLP received training in the Soviet Union and aid from Cuba. The DFLP was also in contact with members of the Nicaraguan Sandinista Liberation Front.

AP Photos/Dan Balilty

Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem are increasingly lining up to request Israeli citizenship.

But this is no embrace of the Jewish state.

Instead, it seems to reflect waning hopes that peace talks will achieve a Palestinian state and fears that the Israeli separation barrier snaking around east Jerusalem could one day lock them out of the city.

But if you read the rest of the article, you’ll notice that while this is listed as a reason, there’s others which are related to Israel’s relatively good treatment of its Arab citizens, as well as fears about living under Hamas rule.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it shortly after, giving Israeli ID cards to its Palestinian residents. Since then, they have had the option of taking Israeli citizenship. But few have done so in a society where even cooperating with the Jewish state — much less accepting its citizenship — is considered taboo.

East Jerusalem Palestinians have boycotted local elections and lived under permanent resident status, allowing them to remain in the city while holding out hopes that their home will become the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The numbers of those who have applied for Israeli citizenship are still small — only hundreds per year. But in recent years, there has been a steady increase.

Over the past five years, about 3,000 Palestinians applied for Israeli citizenship, and about 2,300 received it, according to the Israeli Interior Ministry. The number of Palestinians granted Israeli citizenship has increased each year during that time, from 147 in 2006 to 690 in 2010.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said about 13,000 of east Jerusalem’s Arab residents, or roughly 5 percent, now hold Israeli citizenship.

Though the numbers are meager compared with the total 260,000 Palestinians who live in east Jerusalem, they may indicate an undercurrent of concern about their future.

The moderate Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank and is pushing to establish a state with its capital in east Jerusalem, has taken note of the uptick in Palestinian applications for Israeli citizenship.

“We think this is wrong, and this doesn’t help,” said Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib. “We discourage Palestinians from doing that.”

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas run rival government in the two Palestinian territories, with Hamas ruling over Gaza.

Though Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem is not recognized internationally, and the future of Jerusalem is the toughest issue in stalled Israel-Palestinian peace talks, the city’s status has worked to the benefit of its Palestinian residents in some ways.

Their Israeli ID cards give them the right to travel freely throughout the country and enjoy Israeli social welfare support. Neither are available to Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel did not annex.

Every day, there’s at least one Palestinian who asks for help filling out an application for Israeli citizenship, said a Palestinian man with a card table and vintage typewriter in the Interior Ministry parking lot. He makes his living typing applications in Hebrew for Palestinians. He declined to give his name because being involved in applying for Israeli citizenship is frowned upon in Palestinian society.

A 31-year-old taxi driver said he submitted applications last year for him and his wife to be able to travel abroad without risk of losing their residency rights. His cousin said he also applied for hassle-free travel. They refused to give their names for fear of retribution from Palestinian militants.

Mariam Ikermawi, director of the Palestinian advocacy group Jerusalem Center for Women, said some Palestinians in the city are applying for Israeli citizenship because they’ve lost hope in the Palestinian leadership’s ability to bring about an independent state alongside Israel.

“We have been let down by the Palestinian Authority big time,” Ikermawi said.

Others fear a future state would be taken over by the militant Hamas.

Another factor could be the barrier Israel has been building for the past eight years along the West Bank to keep attackers out, cutting through parts of east Jerusalem. In response, throngs of Palestinians have moved to Jerusalem neighborhoods on the “Israeli” side of the barrier, out of fear that the wall could eventually become the border between Israel and a Palestinian state.

“We used to say we are Palestinians. Now we say, ‘I am a Jerusalemite.’” said Ikermawi. “We started feeling we belong nowhere.”

Even the left-wing Ha’aretz, which is highly critical of Israel, explains (in a 2007 report) the phenomenom as resulting from palestinians wanting to enjoy Israeli benefits of citizenship.

The Interior Ministry has received hundreds of applications for citizenship from Arab residents of East Jerusalem over the past few months, instead of the average of several dozen, said ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.

Hadad was unable to provide specific figures but said there has been an increase of hundreds.

The trend appears to stem from Palestinian fears that they could lose Israeli social benefits, such as health care or welfare payments, if their neighborhoods are shifted to Palestinian control in the future.

When Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, the city’s Arabs were given the opportunity to become citizens, yet they rejected it because they refused to acknowledge Israeli control over the city.

Instead, they were given the status of permanent residents, holding Israeli ID cards and making them eligible for many benefits enjoyed by Israelis. In contrast to West Bank Palestinians, permanent residents also enjoy freedom of movement in Israel.

Of course, the idea of Israel’s Arabs receiving benefits does not fit well with the whole Israel-as-an-apartheid-state narrative.

Neither does the even more “objectionable” idea that palestinians would actually prefer to live in the state of Israel than a future palestinian state.

So it is understandable why the AP would want to obfuscate those points.

A wounded Palestinian prays as he lies in the treatment room of Al Najar hospital following an Israeli air strike on a Hamas military training camp, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. The Israeli air force hit suspected militant sites in the Gaza Strip repeatedly in the course of Tuesday, leaving several Palestinians injured. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

Notice how he is portrayed as a “palestinian man” – not even as a “militant” – despite the presence of a ski mask, which indicates his terrorist affiliation (unless he was a bank robber or skier).

And a religious one at that.