Conscious ignorance

Many despotic and theocratic regimes in the Middle East will deflect attention away from the brutal treatment of their people by blaming all the problems on Israel. All the while, the crimes of the anti-Israel crowd, including Hamas and the other thuggish rulers, remain ignored.

Have a look at this horrific video, taken back in 2007 shortly after Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup. Watch, and you will see Palestinians singing a song at a wedding ceremony. Moments later, armed Hamas policemen storm in, guns blazing, on the backs of pickup trucks. Gunfire goes of, innocent people are savagely beaten, and the ceremony is broken apart as police vehicles drive over tables and chairs.



Where were the angry protests taking place across the world for this? Obviously, there are none. Anyone who thinks that these people--Hamas--actually care about the welfare of Palestinians, are blissfully ignorant. If the Gaza offensive is stopped, and everything goes back to status quo, is this brutal treatment of innocent people to be excepted? Are lost Palestinian lives only a tragedy if they are killed by an Israeli bomb as opposed to a gang of bearded lunatics wielding guns and screaming "Allah Akbar" as they attack the people they want to "liberate"?

Another stunning example:

Yemen is a country filled with weapons...more guns than people in fact. It ranks as one of the poorest nations in the world, and its people are struggling for food. The government is largely corrupt, and the threat of extremism is never far. Have a look at this laughable accusation by the Yemeni authorities. This is just plain ignorance...Al-Qaeda inspired Salafists are targeting innocent Muslims in mosques, police patrols, schools, and even foreign embassies, and the blame immediately shifts to the Jews. Unless the people of Yemen (and many, many other countries) except that their so-called "Arab brothers" are responsible for many of the problems they face, the country is going to continue meandering down a path of poverty, violence, and starvation.

SANAA (AFP) — A Yemeni court began on Saturday the trial of three Islamists accused of establishing contact with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and offering to collaborate with the Jewish state.

The three men are accused of operating under the name of Yemen's barely-known Organisation of Islamic Jihad and spreading false news of attacks on government buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Yemen between May and September 2008.

The prosecution charged the main defendant, Bassam al-Haidari, 26, of writing directly to the prime minister of Israel by email, offering to work for the Jewish state.

"We are the Organisation of Islamic Jihad and you are Jews, but you are honest, and we are ready to do anything," Haidari said in the email sent to Olmert, the prosecution charged.

The list of charges say that Olmert responded to Haidari, also known as Abu al-Ghaith, welcoming his offer to collaborate.

"We are ready to support you to become an obstacle in the Middle East. We will support you as an agent," Olmert was quoted as writing back.

The group, which includes Imad al-Rimi, 23, and Ali al-Mahfal, 24, has also claimed in Internet messages signed by Abu al-Gaith that it prepared 16 car bombs to attack governmental buildings and embassies, according to the charges.

The three defendants denied all the charges and demanded a lawyer. The court agreed to their demand and adjourned the hearing to January 17.

Yemeni authorities rounded up six suspects in Sanaa shortly after a September 17 attack on the US embassy that killed 18 people.

The interior ministry said at the time that the arrested group included Abu al-Ghaith al-Yamani, who was the signatory of an Islamic Jihad claim of responsibility for the attack on the US mission.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh later that an Islamist "terrorist cell" with links to Israeli intelligence had been dismantled.

Hmmm...I think that President Saleh should be more concerned about his neighbor to the north, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where a deranged and incorrect interpretation of Islam is exported through fiery, angry clerics eager to march off young Arab men and women to their deaths as "martyrs".

I want to make perfectly clear that I am posting this story because of my concern for the Arab people, not to be pro-Israel. Anyone who reads my work knows I am a strong supporter of both Arabs and Israel, and that terror groups like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Hamas are the bane of my existence. The Arab people are never going to be able to unify if such blatant hatred continues to run through even the highest of government officials and others who would otherwise be respected.

Turkish Hypocrisy:

One final point I feel compelled to make is the hypocrisy of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan. He has been a fierce critic of Israel's operation in Gaza, even though his own country is engaged in a war for its security. Last year, Turkey felt the need to send soldiers across the border into Iraq to protect its citizens from a Kurdish separatist group known as the PKK, which desires an ethnic homeland for Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere. Exactly, how is this different from Israel's decision to move against Hamas?

Basically, Erdogan wants to believe that Turkey can do whatever it wants to protect its citizens, even if it means destabilizing a peaceful region like Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turks will point to bombings and other terror attacks by the PKK in order to justify the operation...its almost a mirror image of Israel's operation in Gaza. However, when Turkish tanks rolled over the border into Iraq I don't recall any masked protesters in San Francisco waving PKK flags and calling for Turkey to be "radiated", as some haters have gone so far to say about Israel.