Abed al-Raouf Saedallah, 61, works in a shop to support a family of 11

The truce was a rest for both sides, Palestinians and Israelis alike…

—-

Ismaeel Abu Khalil, 19, high school student who works in a grocery

The Palestinians were more committed to the truce than Israel, as the big Palestinian factions suspended the rocket attacks to nearby Israeli cities.

Right.

About that:

The ceasefire agreement with the armed Palestinian groups in Gaza, set to expire before the end of the week, has not lived up to its name, statistical findings have concluded. According to the security establishment’s data, 2008 saw an increase of over a thousand rockets and mortars from the previous year.

In 2007 over 1,200 rockets and 600 mortar shells were fired towards the western Negev. As 2008 comes to a close, 2,900 rockets have so far been fired at Israel.

Despite a relative lull during July and August, during which an average of five rockets and six mortar shells were launched each month, November saw a steep escalation in violence, with 148 rockets and an additional 85 mortar shells documented.

In 2004, before the Gaza pullout, less than a thousand rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israel from the Strip.

Back to the Al Jizz article..

Aminah*, 60, widow (husband was killed in 2001 in an Israeli air raid)

Our conditions as Palestinians are very difficult. People are burning wood to cook their food.

I have no power in my home, so I sit in the street next to my house.

I don’t believe in the truce.

Once I will see gas, electricity and food in the markets, then I will believe in the truce.

I guess she needs to get out more.

Footage shows settler executing Palestinians in Hebron

A Zionist human rights organization released footage documenting a Zionist settler shooting two members of a Palestinian family on Thursday in Hebron.

B’Tselem provided the footage, which was originally filmed by Palestinian resident of Hebron Jamal Abu-Sa’ifan following the eviction of the new settlement on Thursday afternoon. Settlers attacked the nearby house of the Abu-Se’ifan family and during ensuing clashes, a settler fired his handgun at 40-year-old Hosni Abu-Se’ifan, who was shot in the chest and is in stable condition. His father, 65-year-old Abd al-Hai Abu-Sa’ifan, was moderately wounded in the arm. The two were taken to a Hebron hospital.

Not much of an execution when the victims live to see another day.

Then again, it won’t be the first time.

Digital sleuths are coming closer to uncovering the mystery surrounding North Korea’s secretive leader, Kim Jong-il, who has dropped from public view and is widely rumoured to be gravely ill or worse.

Pyongyang has released several “recent” photos of Kim, 66, in an effort to prove his good health, but digital analysis by keen-eyed online investigators has fingered them as being either dated or doctored using tools such as Photoshop.

It comes after US and South Korean officials reported Kim had suffered a stroke in August, following his failure to appear at a September parade marking North Korea’s 60th anniversary. Kim, leader of the world’s most erratic nuclear power, had appeared at the 50th and 55th anniversaries.

The Times of London reported over the weekend that South Korean “Government officials and academic North Korea watchers” had received intelligence suggesting that Kim’s 62-year-old brother-in-law, Chang Sung Taek, who runs North Korea’s secret police, was making key decisions while Kim recuperated.

Last week, North Korea, which has Asia’s only communist dynasty but has no public succession plan, released undated photos showing Kim watching a military soccer match, looking over a canopy of trees and standing with soldiers.

In the latter image, which depicts rows and rows of soldiers, Kim is front and centre. A close-up analysis of the picture reveals that, while the soldiers’ legs cast a shadow at a sharp angle, the “Dear Leader’s” shadow is dead straight.

Furthermore, a black line running behind the first row of soldiers mysteriously disappears when it reaches Kim, before continuing behind those standing next to him. And others have spotted a white smudge next to his left foot, which indicates Kim may have been superimposed onto the image.

The inconsistencies were first reported by The Times of London and a separate analysis by a BBC designer “discovered apparently mismatched pixels to the right of Mr Kim’s legs”.

It follows questions surrounding other photos of Kim, released in October, that appeared to show lush foliage in the background, which horticulture experts said was not possible in that area at that time of year.

It prompted widespread speculation that the photographs were in fact taken in July or August, about the time when Kim is believed to have fallen ill.

Authorities in North Korea have released only still images – not video – of Kim, and he has not met anyone outside North Korean officials, further fuelling the rumours. Some experts have said the very fact that so many photos have been released is, ironically, a sign his health is not normal.

North Korea expert Aidan Foster-Carter told the BBC that North Koreans did not baulk at using photo fakery and “it does seem likely he’s still ill”.

“They sometimes don’t realise that what a domestic audience will accept won’t necessarily work for a more sceptical international audience,” he said.

Looks like the North Koreans have utilized the photoshop skills of their “partners”, the Iranians.

Update: Alternative title for this post: Jong-il? You Bet He Is.

Jewish settlers beat up Palestinian boy near Hebron

Bilal Daana was attacked by a group of settlers near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron. They beat him up and threw stones at him, the Palestinian medics said.

The boy was taken by Israeli soldiers to a checkpoint at the entrance to Hebron from where he was transferred to the local Al-Ahli hospital.

The incident was the latest in a surge of settler attacks on Palestinians, peace activists and Israeli soldiers since the authorities dismantled a settlement outpost near Hebron last month.

In other words, the headline and last paragraph convey what is essentially an allegation by palestinian medics as fact.

Interestingly enough, not all of the palestinian media outlets are reporting this incident, including Ramattan News and WAFA.

Meanwhile, here is how the palestinian Ma’an News reports it:

Israeli settlers wounded six-year-old Palestinian Bilal Da’na from Hebron after pelting the young boy with stones near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, Palestinian sources in Hebron said.

Notice the difference between this version and the AFP version?

In the AFP version, the palestinian medics claimed that the “settlers” “beat him up and threw stones at him,” whereas the Ma’an version mentions only “pelting..with stones.” Which is it? Surely if the “settlers” had really beat up the child, the palestinian media would have mentioned this.

Sounds to me like the palestinian medics elaborated for the sake of the international media. And the international media were more than willing to report their version as fact.

Time may tell whether or not this palestinian boy was indeed injured by Jewish residents of Kiryat Arba. What is clear, though, is once again, the mainstream media are not reporting fairly or accurately.

Concern over earlier reports of increased rates of physical birth-defects and stillborn deliveries are heightened in the southern Gaza Strip after Director of Social Health Department in the de facto Health Ministry Salah Rantisi announced that he found an additional foetus with physical mutations in an ultrasound.

Rumors have been circulating that the defects are the result of nuclear materials dumped from the Israeli nuclear facility near Dimona.

In recent weeks the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority announced the beginning of a field survey to measure the effects of nuclear radiation, possibly emanating from Israeli military facilities, in the eastern Gaza Strip.

For their part, environment authorities in the Gaza Strip said in a statement on Monday that no radiation has been found in the air in Khuza’a. However, they suggested that radiation could be found in the earth or in water resources.

The statement explained that a technical team examined the area and found no radiation. The team encompassed experts from the power authorities, natural resources authorities and the Islamic University of Gaza.

Of course, in the Palestinian Arab psyche, if any kid is found with a birth defect it must be the fault of Zionists. Evidence really isn’t necessary, because it is so blindingly obvious that Zionists are behind every natural problem.

For those who are interested, here is a map of the Negev:

The diabolical Zionists have managed to find a way for their radioactive materials to pass over Beersheba and countless other Jewish communities without causing any harm, and they only target pregnant Arab women in Gaza!

Perhaps it is because the Jews smear lamb’s blood on their doorposts…

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Abdelkhader Badawi, 17, into hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008. Israeli troops shot and killed Badawi while throwing firebombs near the West Bank Jewsih settlement of Bet El, Israeli army sources said. Palestinian sources said the youth was throwing stones.

Leaving aside the fact that stones themselves can be deadly, it is clear from the caption that the palestinians felt compelled to deny Badawi was throwing firebombs. One could even surmise that there’s an implied admission that had he been throwing firebombs, the IDF’s actions would have been justified.

The question is: was he throwing firebombs? I’m willing to bet he was. After all, the palestinians do have a habit of throwing more than stones. But perhaps more tellingly, they once again can’t stick to one story. Consider the Hamas version:

A 17-year-old boy is dead and at least two others may be injured in north eastern Ramallah after Zionist troops opened fire on a group of young men near the Beit El settlement on Tuesday night.

While Zionist forces claim the boys were preparing to launch Molotov cocktails, eyewitnesses said they were harmlessly “hanging out” in the streets.

So what was it? Were the palestinians throwing stones or harmlessly hanging out?

As I said, the answer is likely none of the above. They were throwing firebombs, and suffered the consequences.

Update: This Ynet report contains a quote from a PA official who basically admits the palestinians throw more than rocks.

A PA official from Ramallah told Ynet that the army was conducting patrols in the refugee camp with no apparent reason, and this in turn provokes youths to attack the troops – a phenomenon which has faded in recent years.

Eyewitnesses told Ma’an that an Israeli military vehicle “intentionally” slammed into a car being driven by a Palestinian on Saturday near Nablus, seriously injuring the driver.

The Israeli jeep involved was reportedly a military jeep driven by a soldier on a bypass road northwest of the West Bank city of Nablus.

Witness Ala Al-A’mud told Ma’an in a telephone interview that the jeep’s driver “intentionally pushed a Palestinian’s car” off the road and over the cliff of an adjacent ravine, where it finally crashed.

30-year-old Awni Abu Shushah was “seriously injured” in the apparently intentional crash. Shushah is the manager at one of the nearby stone factories, according to a worker at the facility.

Rescue workers moved Shushah to a local hospital in Nablus, where he remained in serious condition, according to medical officials.

Of course, why would we bother to ram a car off the road when we could easily incapacitate the driver using our Zionist Electromagnetic Weapon of Death ^TM ?

Needless to say, this is not being reported anywhere else, although like other palestinian blood libels, it will likely get a fair bit of airplay on other palestinian, Arab and neo Nazi sites.

Update: The reason the link no longer works is that Ma’an inexplicably deleted the story. Perhaps it was too obviously fabricated even for their liking?

Update: I guess not. The story is back.

In the palestinian world, things work in exactly the opposite way. Take this Ramattan News Agency report on the death of a 60-year-old palestinian woman:

Israeli soldiers have beaten to death a Palestinian woman late on Thursday in Jerusalem, witnesses and Palestinian medical sources said.

Witnesses told Ramattan the Israeli soldiers have beaten Maryam Ayyad, aged around 60, when she tried to prevent them to arrest Palestinian students rent property she owns in the village of Abu Dies in Jerusalem.

They pointed out that the soldiers shoved the woman to the ground and beaten her on the head to death.

Palestinian medical sources said that the old woman died as she was struck in the head.

As it turns out, she likely did fall down some stairs.

An Israeli military spokesman denied this, saying Ayyad fell down some stairs while troops searched nearby but that there was no physical contact between them at the time.

“A military medical unit spent 30 minutes trying to revive her but had to declare her dead. During the resuscitation efforts, her family said she had suffered from heart problems,” the spokesman said.

Ayyad’s family decided against an autopsy and buried her before dawn, said Musa Jaffal, a doctor at a local clinic. Jaffal said Ayyad suffered from diabetes and hypertension.

Nesrin Jasan, an Abu Dis doctor who inspected Ayyad’s body, said she had fallen and struck her head.

Of course, none of this matters to the palestinian news outlets, whose sole aim is to poison the palestinians and the rest of the world against Israel.

An injured Palestinian is helped by foreign activists after clashes between demonstrators and Israeli border police officers erupted during a protest against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village Naalin, near Modin, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. Israel says the barrier is necessary for security while Palestinians call it a land grab. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In case you are indignant that I would accuse this man of over-acting (or even acting for that matter), consider that there is not even one news story – not from the palestinian sources nor “human rights” organizations terror enablers such as the ISM – mentioning anyone injured at Naalin yesterday (see update below). And trust me, when a protester suffers as much as a scratch, they’re sure to mention it.

This is reinforced by the captions accompanying the other photos taken of this man.

Take this one from AFP/Getty Images:

Activists hold a comrade who was hurt during a scuffle with Israeli soldiers at a protest against the construction of Israel’s controversial separation barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin near Ramallah on August 7, 2008. Over the last four years the village of Nilin has been the scene of near daily demonstrations against Israel’s barrier of concrete and steel that cuts through parts of the West Bank. Israel says that the barrier is needed for its security, critics describe it as a land grab. Earlier in the week a young Palestinian boy was fatally shot in the back of the head at one such demonstration in the village.

A scuffle is a minor fight or altercation. You would not expect someone from a scuffle to emerge looking like Jim Morrison after a bad trip.

Now consider this next picture and caption from Reuters, in which the caption writer does not even make mention of any injury.

A Palestinian reacts during a protest against the construction of the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin near Ramallah August 7, 2008. REUTERS/Fadi Arouri (WEST BANK)

Yep, that’s some reaction.

Once again, proof that for the palestinians and the mainstream media, the whole world really is a stage.

Update: I have subsequently found a palestinian report claiming demonstrators were injured after being “showered with rubber-coated metal bullets and sound bombs.” However, I still smell a rat, especially considering Ma’an’s track record in unreliability, as well as the captions mentioned above.

Update: Commenter Ms Missive writes:

It looks more like an epileptic seizure which, in all seriousness, can be triggered by stressful situations.

Again, I am sure the palestinian media, as well as the likes of the ISM, would have reported such an occurrence had it occurred. And the caption writers from Reuters and AFP would not have written of a man merely “hurt during a scuffle” or “reacting.”

If I am proven wrong, I’ll retract my contention that this seems like an act. But until then, I stand by it.

Update: Soccer Dad raises a good point:

I thought something looked off about the picture. But notice something else. There’s a guy off to the left with a kerchief over his mouth standing around nonchalantly holding a water bottle. If there was a real emergency, I don’t think that’s the pose he’d likely have. Even if he weren’t among the throng attending to the eye-rolling guy, he’d be looking at them – not looking away.

The world’s lowest divorce rate, 10.82% was announced in Palestine on Tuesday in the biannual report of Palestine’s Supreme Court.

Taysir At-Tamimi, a supreme judge and head of highest council of the legislative judiciary, issued the report on the first part of 2008. The report tracked the 67,196 legal cases that were brought before it in the first half of the year.

For the first part of 2008 the courts reported 15642 marriage contracts, of these 800 were repeats. Repeated marriages are counted when a widow remarries, or on rare occasions when Muslim men marry a second or third time. The court also recorded 1,693 cases of divorce.

The report thanked the department of family consultation and reconciliation for its commendable efforts in working through family problems before they end in divorce. In the first half of this year the department consulted on 2,239 cases of which 1,148 were reconciled, and 10,91 were transferred to the courts.

I would be sending the palestinians a congratulatory bouquet of flowers had it not been for a number of issues:

• Based on past experience, I cannot trust palestinian statistics
• Even assuming they are accurate, 10.82% is nowhere near the world’s lowest divorce rate.
• Palestinian divorce rates would likely be higher if the women did not have other options for getting out of unhappy marriages