Hamas Gaza the Blind Terrorism

Posted in Arab World by korzac

In those days where the media war is sometimes just as important than the real war on the ground, Israel opened a channel on You Tube where IDF footage shows how the Hamas hide his rockets in and around civilian’s houses and mosques .

To face this Hamas purposely brutal kidnapping of his own people, to be used as shields against Israeli defence attacks when they launch rocket on civilians in Israel, the IDF adopted several preventive ways to minimize the Gazan casualties.

Sderot, Hamas rockets attack on civilians.

To illustrate one of those ways I quote a few excerpts from the article by Noah Shachtman on Wired. The article called “Robot Planes, Life-and-Death Choices Over Gaza”:

…”The man, Gil’s superior officers told him, was a known Hamas terrorist. The neighborhood, a militant haven. So when the black blotch of a man stepped out into the alley, and began to fiddle with dark strings that looked suspiciously like wires, Gil’s Colonel gave the order to a second aircraft, flying nearby: Take this man out. He’s setting up a booby trap for our soldiers.

Weapons in Gaza Mosque Struck by Israel Air Force 1 Jan. 2009

The double-tailed, 40 foot-long Heron spy drone banked over the Gaza rooftops, and zoomed in on the man, to get a better look at the now-designated target. The man was tying the wire at about eye-level, from one home to another. It was an odd location for a booby trap. But a perfect place to hang clothes. Gil, his voice rising, told everyone to stop. ‘Don’t attack! Don’t attack’ he yelled. ‘The man, he’s doing laundry.’

Robot planes

Looking back, Gil is pretty sure he made the right decision. But he can’t be certain. ‘I prefer this kind of mistake,’ he says in a voice, soft as tissue,’than to have the innocent on my conscience.’ “,

Hamas, rockets on civilian in Ashkelon

….”That’s different from the American system, where decisions are often made by the commander on the ground, or by a network of legal and intelligence analysts. It means means ‘a lot of moral dilemmas’ for the pale father of two. ‘You see a Qassam [rocket] launcher with children around it. Now, what do you prefer: Let them fire the rocket, and have it fall on a kid in [the Israeli town of] Sderot? Or drop the bomb, and risk Palestinian children?’ he asks.”…see here for the whole article.

And what did the Hamas doe to defend his people, knowing that shelling Sderot for 8 years and finally not renewing the truce with Israel may have some harsh consequences?…The Hamas did nothing. Miscalculating the Israeli response to their terrorist aggression, they didn’t bother to prepare their own people for the war they instigate.

Weapons Horde in Gazan Mosque 13 Jan. 2009

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist ‘Omar Hilmi Al-Ghul, arrive at the same conclusion I quote…”In response to Mash’al’s call to Gaza residents to stand firm, he wrote: “[Mash’al] does not take into account the interests of the [Gaza] residents, who are being sacrificed, while the commanders, who have abandoned the fighting, hide in the tunnels they prepared in advance – although they should be courageously leading the fighters in battle.”

Precision Airstrikes on Hamas Terror Targets 7 Jan. 2009

Referring to Mash’al’s statement that the resistance is still alive and that it has not been defeated, Al-Ghul wrote: “Where is the victory that Mash’al is speaking about, allegedly from the battlefield. Can [Israel’s] renewed occupation of Gaza, its division, and the destruction of its infrastructure and its residents’ homes [be considered victory]? Can the [fact that] thousands of Palestinians have been killed or wounded, as opposed to [only a few] dozen occupying Israeli soldiers [be considered victory]?…”

And more here, …””Hamas does not care if a destructive war is waged against Gaza – such as the one that is going on today. For Hamas, realizing an historic vision for which it has been yearning over many years justifies a heavy toll – as long as what is gained is a land crossing that will enable Hamas members to [transport] the goods and money that they have been hiding. It sees a crossing as the only opening to the outside world, as an umbilical cord [connecting it with the world]… see more here.

Israeli Air Force Strikes Rockets in Transit 28 Dec. 2008

: Hamas rockets on Sderot

Louis Michel, the European Commissioner and humanitarian aid commissioner , who was not always a great supporter of Israel, visiting Israel he said, I quote:

…”, [he] has ruled out Monday during a visit to Gaza any dialogue between the EU and Hamas, describing it as “terrorist movement” that killed “innocent civilians”.

“Hamas is a terrorist movement. He missed an opportunity to be an interlocutor of the international community and was thus clearly an element of the division of the Palestinian people,” said Michel in the press in Gaza.

‘You can not talk to a terrorist movement that uses terrorism as a means. We can not accept how Hamas behaves be confused with resistance. When you kill innocent civilians, it is not the resistance is terrorism, ‘he added.”, see more here (in French) and here.

What more can be said on the Hamas? .. Well, there is more to be said and with their own voices. Look at the following clip:

To see the IDF channel see here.

12Aug2008

Mahmoud Darwish Palestinian Poet is gone

Posted in Arab World by korzac

This is a short note on Mahmoud Darwish after his premature dead. It is not an obituary, and it is not an analysis of his poetry. I am only a casual reader, impressed by some of his poems mirroring his feelings and those of most Palestinians.

Mahmud Darwish

A ‘reading’ of Mahmoud Darwish poetry can be done in one of two ways: to forget the causes of the Israel- Arab conflicts and to consider only their consequences, or to remember the causes and the consequences together, and to arrive at the conclusion that the Palestine side, with the help of other Arab countries, are a major and integral part of the Palestinian tragedy. If you prefer the second way, then Mahmoud Darwish expulsion from Israel as a kid in 1948, was caused by the then overall situation, when at the initial point of the Israel-Arab conflict, the Arab countries attacked Israel with only one goal to ‘trow her into the sea forever’.

If you prefer the first way, then the exile the sorrow and tragedy of the Palestinians are an immaculate conception without cause. Mahmud Darwish choice was in many ways ‘the immaculate conception’.

In the course of Mahmoud Darwish’s life, this goal, to ‘trow Israel into the sea forever’ was never abandoned by the Palestinians. Today Israel is on firm shore and the Palestinians are divided into “two states”, Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank state and the Hamas’s Gaza Strip state. Reading his poetry, with in the foreground and in the background, the long range goal of Israel’s overthrow by any means and the view of no causes, are the twin roads leading to the Palestinians suffering, fuelling his activist poetry, coronating him as the national poet of the suffering Palestinian people..the poet Naomi Shihab Nye once said of him:

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye

…”Mahmoud Darwish is the Essential Breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging, exquisitely tuned singer of images that invoke, link, and shine a brilliant light into the world’s whole heart. What he speaks has been embraced by readers around the world-his in an utterly necessary voice, unforgettable once discovered.”… see here.

But much later, in 2007, he says this, I quote….

..” ‘We woke up from a coma to see a monocolored flag (of Hamas) do away with the four-color flag (of Palestine),’ Darwish said before some 2,000 people who attended the reading in the northern port city of Haifa. ‘We have triumphed,’ he said with thick irony. ‘Gaza won its independence from the West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons who don’t greet each other. We are victims dressed in executioners’ clothing. We have triumphed knowing that it is the occupier who really won.’ “… see here.

Here Israel is the occupier. Again a de facto statement, forgetting why Israel is in the West Bank, and why Mahmoud Abbas, ironically, needs the Israeli army to prevent the remains of the future Palestinian modern state from falling in the hands of the Hamas. Mahmoud Darwish’s dream of an independent Palestine was surely not that of an Islamic (Hamas) Palestine, ruled by the Iranian will of expansion.

To conclude here are Mahmoud Darwish’s own words:

…”With all his criticism, he remained hopeful that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was attainable. “I do not despair,” he told Haaretz. “I am patient and am waiting for a profound revolution in the consciousness of the Israelis. The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms – all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace.”… see here.

“Let it Be’…

3Aug2008

Israel, Lebanon, Palestine phone calling

Posted in Arab World by korzac

In the Gaza strip Hamas is banning anything interfering with his grip on the local media. But Lebanon is now lifting a ban on phone calls from Lebanon to Palestine.

…”There is a famous Lebanese song by the singer Sabah that goes: “Hello, hello, hello, Beirut? Please, dear, get me Beirut, and hurry up please!”

[today]…many Palestinians in Lebanon have been putting new words to the old tune in the past few days: “Hello, hello, hello, Palestine? Please dear, get me Palestine, and hurry up please!”…

Qlick here to hear the song

The reason is that the Lebanese government has officially lifted the ban on calls to the 970 country code this week, making it possible for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to call their relatives in historic Palestine for the first time in decades.

‘I am thrilled with the news, but I cannot help feeling bad about all the years I spent in Beirut without being able to contact my family and relatives who are still in Palestine,’ Imad said.’Still, better late than never.’

The 970 country code was established in 1993 and was issued to the Palestinian Authority which at the time was in control of both the West Bank and Gaza.

Since then, the Islamic Hamas party has taken control of the Gaza Strip, while President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party controls the West Bank. But the Hamas-Fatah split has apparently not affected the phone network.

Now that Lebanon has lifted the ban, Syria is the only remaining country that doesn’t allow phone calls to the 970 country-code.”…see here.

And where is the Israeli connection?

…”Debsy, [Hisham Debsy, media adviser for the PLO embassy in Lebanon], bristled when asked about the possibility of security breaches in the telecommunications network now that the lines are reopened. “You have to refer to the Lebanese government for this answer. Israel did not wait for the lines to reopen in order to hack into Lebanese land lines and mobile phones,” he said. Indeed, even if it was impossible to call Israel/Palestine from Lebanon, it has always been possible to call Lebanon from Israel/Palestine.” see here.

Now, perhaps in the near future, we will hear a new song by the singer Sabah, from Syria to Israel… “Hello, hello, hello, Israel? Please dear, get me Israel, and hurry up please!”…

2Aug2008

Porno, Bombs, Internet and Belly Dance

Posted in Arab World by korzac

How to live under the new Hamas directives..

“Belly-dancing is naked women. This is not Islamic,” says the new Palestinian culture minister, Attallah Abu al-Sibbah, an Islamic scholar who has joined the Hamas government which was installed last week, (2006). ” …

….”But there’s no doubt that Hamas wants to impose its narrow vision of moral purity on the Palestinians, who until recently enjoyed one of the most secular cultures in the Middle East. The ban on belly- dancing reveals Hamas’s intense suspicion, which it shares with all Islamist organisations, of pleasure and female sexuality’ it’s no accident, after all, that belly-dancing has been taken up with such gusto by feminists, myself included, who love its celebration of the natural female body.”.

This was written on April 7, 2006.”… See here for the full article “Hamas, and the sexual power of real women”

Today (2008), Under the excuse of the porno ban (see here ), remebering the above statement about belly dancing, Hamas is continuing monitoring the internet in the Gaza Strip, hearing seeing and reading any flow of news into his Internet jurisdiction area.

I quote from Menassat:

..”Palestinian journalists in the Strip are up in arms about the whole affair as the filtering has slowed and even halted Internet traffic entirely during busy news days.

‘What Hamas wants from monitoring the Internet is to control its impact on public opinion,’ Alyan said.”….

The director of Reuters’ Gaza office, Nidal Al Mughrabi, told MENASSAT, ‘The decision has had a huge impact on our work, since we are an international agency known for our up-to-date news coverage, and we are in competition with other international agencies.’ “..

…”Saleh Al Masri, a journalist and editor at the Palestine Today website, told MENASSAT, “We are not against regulating the Internet, but we were highly affected in terms of download speed. Our readership too dropped by more than half.” …

Gaza-based writer Abdullah Alyan said, ‘Pornography is only an excuse for the filtering, the other reasons are monitoring people’s use of the Internet, especially news sites and forums, to curtail the widespread online campaign against the Hamas’ government and the behavior of its members in Gaza.’ “see here.

Hamas’s monitoring Gaza’s strip Internet does not affect other to monitoring the Hamas sites.

Two websites operated by Hezbollah and Hamas were being hosted by a Canadian internet service provider even though the militant groups are barred from operating in the country, CBC News has learned.

Halevi wrote a letter of complaint to iWeb, the Montreal internet company that owns computer servers that play host to the websites.The company replied the websites were inoffensive and just “an informational portal such as CBC.ca.”Halevi said he was shocked by the response.”That was amazing because there is a big difference between CBC and the Hamas, al-Aqsa TV website. The messages are totally different.”

CBC News translated some of the Arabic section of the Hamas website, a discussion forum.One post included a list of instructions on how to conceal a bomb in a crowded market. Another posting explained how to make a roadside bomb look like a rock.The site is also full of anti-Israeli rhetoric, and pages that glorify those who died in suicide attacks as martyrs, see here.

So Hamas is banning any ‘import’ of so called porn and belly dancing but is exporting bomb making and shahid education for future explosing martyrs.

And a last remark by Palestinian culture minister Attallah Abu al-Sibbah (2006) wich may be actual today…”The Egyptians come here and do it [belly dancing]. And there are a lot of Russian belly dancers in Egypt and they come here too. People do it indoors, in secret. There’s lots of it. If the phenomenon of belly dancing spreads our people might react against it by killing people. We don’t want our people to become like the Taliban.”..see here.

A surprising belly dancer is Haifa Whebe .

haifa wehbe and ragheb alama

Haifa Wehbe Belly Dances for Ragheb Alama see here.

21May2008

Hamas ‘Freeing’ Gaza from Porn Sites

Posted in Arab World, NowPublic-Texts by korzac

Is it not an impossible request to ban pornography, sex and voyeurism by simply issuing a ban? Even in Gaza ruled by the Hamas,not every one will welcome the ban. A part of Gaza’s population is basically similar to the West Bank population. A town like Ramallah, more open to the world, can be considered by many Gazans as an example of how a better life is possible, and among other things, a free internet is maintained and available. Will bans, of any sort, not induce ‘hackers’ to bypass them? Only if the Hamas will threatened surfers with unsupportable penalties have they a chance to succeed. But for the more ‘Western’ inclined Gazans, perhaps ’emigrating’ to the Western Bank..is not an impossible solution, reminding me of “The escape from LA” movie, starring Kurt Russel.

Here is the ban news:

…” ‘Islamist group Hamas has told the main Palestinian telecoms company to block access to pornographic Internet sites in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas government official said on Monday.”….The aim of the move is to protect the Palestinian community from cultural pollution and to protect the young generations from the misuse of the Internet through viewing pornographic sites,’ Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nono said…’An Internet provider in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas seized in June after routing President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah forces, estimated that about 400,000 Gazans surf the Web and said almost half of them were aged 18-35.’…’Attacks against video stores and Internet cafes have increased over the past two years. Some of the attacks had been claimed by radical Muslim groups who say such places run contrary to Islamic values.’ “…see more.

It turns out that issuing a ban in Gaza has no influence on the Israeli internet providers.

Israeli owners of sex sites report, I quote..” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict apparently does not disturb and even encourages Arab internet users from consuming kosher Hebrew porn. Operators of a number of porn sites report that between two and 10% of their users arrive from Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority. Some websites even go as far as offering services in Arabic.”….” The most popular video clip among Arabs, ‘Code name: Deep investigation,’ is described as ‘a parody dealing with the Vanunu affair with agents investigating the affair using erotic means’. “…” Nothing seems to stop the porn-consuming Saudi, not even technical difficulties: ‘In many places Israel is blocked, at times the entire suffix ‘.co.il’ is blocked. Users connect through proxy servers and reach us that way,’ he said”…see here the full article.

So Gazans know how to satisfy themselves not only with the “Sex, lies and videotape” movie. Maintaining myself a blog, (not porno or any related subject), I see every day entries from the Gaza strip and the West Bank on my blog.

Now if the Hamas ban will succeed, what shall be with the fate of private porno sex and future sex extortions in Gaza? From a “Jerusalem Post” article “Fatah-Hamas mired in tawdry accusations”, Hamas and Fatah are accusing each other of sex scandals homosexual relations, sex orgies etc.

Here are a few quotes,..”The alleged “sex scandals” are said to have occurred in the Gaza Strip, which fell into Hamas’s hands in June.”…” Some of them had individual sex, while others preferred group sex. Some of them paid money for sex, while others performed sexual intercourse with males in front of their wives.”….” The sex allegedly took place in hotels, clinics and private homes – in some cases with a picture of Yasser Arafat hanging overhead.”..

And here a few Fatah accusations against the Hamas sex scandalls, I quote ..”According to Fatah, a Hamas imam was recently caught having sex with a male minor in a mosque basement. In another incident, according to Fatah, a senior member of Hamas’s armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, was expelled from his refugee camp after he was caught having sex with a male colleague in a vehicle. And according to a report on a Fatah-controlled Web site, a Hamas man was caught naked together with his neighbor’s wife in her bedroom”…see here for the full article.

Now, as always, a ban, even in Gaza, has his pros and cons. Each reader can decide for himself what are his preferences.

8Apr2008

Visual Lies in Tibet the Gaza Strip and Salvador Dali

Posted in Classical World, Art, NowPublic-Texts by korzac

Fake photos are the holy grail for reshaping the world. If we use them in their naive ordinary context we are inclined to think that they represent real events. But today it is harder to believe that a photo is an authentic document reporting an event witnessed by an impartial photographer. A photo has lost his property of evidence, because in some political situations it represent a visual lie and ironically needs evidence to ‘prove his evidence’.The following excerpt is a good example.

..”Evidence is accumulating that the Chinese regime orchestrated violence in Lhasa in order to discredit the peaceful protests of Buddhist monks.

According to the Dalai Lama’s Chinese translator, Ngawang Nyendra, a witness reported that a Chinese policeman in Lhasa disguised himself as a Tibetan and joined the protesters holding a knife in his hand. This witness also recognized the man from BBC news footage and news photos provided by China.

A Chinese woman from Thailand (who prefers that her name not be used) was studying in Lhasa when the protests broke out in March. As one of her friends is a policeman, she visited him at the local police station quite often and got to know other policemen there.

(Photo: The upper portion shows the uncropped photo distributed to news media by the Chinese Embassy, with a Chinese policeman in disguise holding a knife;
The lower portion, the edited version of the same scene distributed by the Chinese Embassy after the man’s identity was revealed at a rally in Darmasala/ from the Epochtimes website). Source: chinaview.wordpress.com

After the protests on March 14, she and other foreigners were sent to the police station where she saw a man with a knife in his hand walking in with some arrested Tibetans. The man later took off the Tibetan-style clothes and put on a police uniform.

This woman was sent out of Lhasa with other foreigners the next day. When she arrived in India via Nepal, she recognized the policeman she had seen in Tibetan garb from BBC TV news and photos that the Chinese embassy had provided to the media.

Ngawang Nyendra said the witness was shocked when she saw the policeman in the BBC broadcast. She realized then that the man had disguised himself as a Tibetan in order to incite people to riot.

(photo: Cropped copy of the Chinese policeman that was released by the Chinese Embassy purporting to show a Tibetan with a knife taking part in a riot/ from the Epochtimes website)”… Source: chinaview.wordpress.com

Here is another story from the Gaza Strip, this time the photos are not photoshop-doctored but staged in a visual lie: “Darkness at Noon — MSM (“mainstream media”) Plays Along with Hamas Photo Staging .”

I quote, ..”The Jerusalem Post caught another fauxtography scam out of the mideast this week. It appears that Hamas legislators have staged fake power outages to illustrate how oppressed they are for the benefit of journalists. The Journalists were treated to a photo op of the Hamas legislators sitting in their halls of power surrounded by burning candles in rooms with curtains drawn. The scene was set to show how they have had their power cut by the eeeevil Jews. Only problem is, midday sunlight can clearly be seen against the curtains. So, the candles were unnecessary. All they had to do was open the curtains and they would be able to see just fine. Obviously Reuters (and others) allowed Hamas to manipulate the facts. But that didn’t seem to bother any of these so-called journalists who were quite happy to go along, see more.

Now look at the well know Salvadore Dali’s photoportrait as the Mona Lisa..

Is Salvador Dali a liar?

13Feb2008

Hizbullah’s chief of staff Imad Mugniyah Killed

Posted in Arab World, NowPublic-Texts by korzac

Imad Mugniyah has been killed in a mysterious explosion in Damascus.

He is considered as the chief of staff of the Hizbullah.

Two Quotes:

1-“Explosion hits Damascus residential area

An explosion tore through a residential area in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Tuesday, but it was not immediately clear if it caused any casualties.

Security officials at the scene refused to comment.Witnesses saw a mangled white car being towed away by police who cordoned off the area, which houses an Iranian school, a police station and a main Syrian intelligence office.No further details on the explosion were immediately available. It was not clear what caused the blast”….see here.

2-…”Damascus car bomb kills man: witnesses

Security officials at the scene refused to comment.

The upmarket district houses an Iranian school, a police station and a main Syrian intelligence office. A police truck towed away the destroyed car, a new model Mitsubishi Pajero.

Syria’s Baathist government, which bans all opposition, prides itself on maintaining stability. The blast was not reported by state media and the target was not immediately clear.

Several officials from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas were at the scene but there was no indication any of its members had been the target”… see more.

From the israeli press ‘Ynet” Published: 02.13.08, 16:12

Military Intelligence: Hizbullah lost its number one figure

I quote…”Reservist Military Intelligence officers tell Ynet of Imad Mugniyah’s prowess as terrorist mastermind. Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom: One of most dangerous terrorists ever.”..

…” Military Intelligence and other national security organizations do not hide the fact that various attempts were made to track Mugniyah’s path. However, it appears that the arch-terrorist was well aware of his “popularity” in Israel and succeeded in using the strict compartmentalization of information among his associates to maintain a low profile.”…

‘As important as Nasrallah’
Yoram Schweitzer, a senior research fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), believes that Mugniyah’s significance within Hizbullah was close to that of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s.”… …”Although Nasrallah is the leadership figure, political and very capable, and even though Mugniyah was an operational figure, he led tens of special missions and we shouldn’t underestimate his position,” Schweitzer said in a conversation with Ynet.”…see here.

Update from the Hizbollah site in English

Hamas, PFLP-GC Condem Moghnieh Murder by Zionist Gangsterism
Source: Al-Manar TV, 13-2-2008
Quote…”In a series of condemnations of the assassination of Hizbullah top commander Imad Moghnieh, Hamas accused “Israel” of killing Moghnieh, saying it was a “new example of Zionist gangsterism.”…see more.

Quote ….”Israel” Accused of Killing Hizbullah Figure
…”Moghnieh was head of the Hizbullah resistance branch during Lebanon- ‘Israel’ war in 2006.”…””Down with “Israel” … Down with America,” shouted Lebanese peoples in the village of Tayr Diba where he came from, east of the southern port city of Tyre.”…”Former Mossad head, Danny Yatom said on ‘Israel” Radio,’ He was not only being targeted by ‘Israe’, but also by the Americans and many other parties.”…see more.

Addenda.
Because of the possible repercussions of Imad Mugniyah’s violent death, on Israel Syria Hezbollah Lebanon the USA and others, I bring here two interesting posts from Tony Bey,(Tony Badran) Research Fellow (Levant), Foundation for Defense of Democracy, see here.

The first post “Mughniyeh Assassinated in Damascus” see here.
The second post “Schenker on Mughniyeh and Syria” see here.

Also published on NowPublic.

25Dec2007

Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew

Posted in Arab World by korzac

” Israel kills 2 militants in Gaza – Hamas( 12.24.07)
(I quote)…’Air strike on car traveling near al-Bureij refugee camp kills two Islamist group members, wounds two more’…’Israel has killed more than 20 militants in the past two weeks in increased military action in the coastal territory.” …, see here.

This is the daily (sad) chronicle of belligerence along the Gaza Strip border. As any warfare system, to achieve such precise results, it needs Intelligence.

The Israeli Mossad and Shabak (Hebrew) have a good reputation as intelligence agencies. These everyday clashes between the Hamas and the IDF in the Gaza strip shows how updated or perhaps streaming intelligence, targets in real time the Hamas men on their way to launching the qassams into Israel.
As a matter of fact, this is a situation where the countries surrounding Israel, strive to get their own intelligence on Israel.

Ronen Bergman, Israeli security and intelligence analyst, in an Article from 07.31.07, wrote … “The ‘intelligence war’ between Iran and Israel is gaining momentum, as both countries’ intelligence services are increasing efforts to recruit Hebrew and Farsi speakers to their ranks.”..”The Iranian regime needs Hebrew speakers to work as translators, intelligence agents and as part of its propaganda machine against Israel. The main source of Hebrew speakers is Palestinian students studying abroad or Palestinian terrorists sent for military training in Iran and Lebanon.”.. “One of the most prominent centers for Hebrew studies is located at Iran’s embassy in Beirut, where Hezbollah members learn Hebrew at the Education Center”, see here, …

“Meanwhile (I quote), Israel’s Mossad agency on Tuesday published an ad in the country’s largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, inviting Israelis who speak fluent Farsi to join its ranks. The Persian-speaking Mossad recruits would presumably be responsible for translating intercepted Iranian transmissions and materials published by the regime in Tehran.”…see here, (July 31, 2007).

Now, Egyptian universities do the same, …”More than 10 Egyptian Universities currently offer Hebrew courses, usually as part of Oriental Language faculties that also teach Turkish and Persian.
Two major Egyptian universities, Ain Shams University and al-Azhar University, even boast a separate Hebrew language faculty. This is a major accomplishment, especially in universities that are considered bastions of strong anti-Israel sentiments.”…(12.20.07), see here.

Other countries, on their official public intelligence sites, advertise for linguists jobs in the Middle East languages.

The MI6 (UK) is also recruting Linguist Careers in SIS (MI5) (From on 05.06.06) ..”We are currently recruiting linguists with skills in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Chinese.. .”, see here.

The MI5(UK) is also recruting in his language unit…”The Security Service protects our society from terrorist threats. To do so we need to recruit people from all the diverse communities we serve.”…” Arabic (all dialects, particularly North African), Kurdish Central (Kurdi, Sorani),…. Somali, and Persian.”…see here.
The NSA (National Security Agency, USA) is recruting: …” Career Paths in Foreign Language NSA is particularly interested in individuals who are proficient in Asian or Middle Eastern languages. We are looking for those with the following language capabilities Arabic, Persian-Farsi ….”,(Among other languages), see here.
…”The FBI (USA) needs to English-speaking candidates with a professional-level language fluency in, between other languages, Arabic, Farsi , Hebrew, …”, see here.

Today (12.24.07) Ynet publishes an article on a “Study compiled by US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)”..that.. “explores several hypothetical scenarios for unconventional warfare in our region… ….”Given certain conditions, Israel could potentially survive such a nuclear scenario, the study found. Iran, on the other hand, would be completely and utterly obliterated. ‘Iranian recovery is not possible in the normal sense of term, though Israeli recovery is theoretically possible in population and economic terms,’ wrote Cordesman, who compiled this study entitled ‘Iran, Israel, and Nuclear War’.”…see here.

This is meanly a future “What if” option study, well organized ,explanatory and frightening, based on know nuclear warfare factors, where ‘intelligence on the spot’ and direct need of Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew languages is of lesser use , see here for the original study (pdf 2,2MB)

On the other hand, in contrast to the cited report, here is another headline from the “Jerusalem Post”, ‘PA official: IDF has infiltrated Izzadin Kassam’ (Dec 24, 2007).

..”Israel has managed to infiltrate Hamas’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, by recruiting some of it members as ‘collaborators,’ Palestinian Authority security officials revealed Sunday. “, see here….. Here the direct use of Arabic and Hebrew languages is a necessity, if precise targeting of the moves of man, ammunition and cars is the goal.

It seems that the need to intensifying the Farsi and Arabic studies, is today beyond question, if one wants streaming ‘Human’ intelligence from inside Iran or any other Islamic threat.

_________________________________________________________

Iz Adin al Qassam. Islamic fundamentalist, , and Gazan folk hero, killed by the British colonial rulers of Palestine in the 1930’s.

As a footnote I append here on February 10, 2010 it can be said the (targeted..) killing of Iz Adin al Qassam in the 1930’s was already a know procedure by the British Mandate..

As a second footnote it is well worth to remember the article published by the Guardian “Is Iran losing the intelligence war? see here, from where I quote :

…”An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service….”..see here.

And finally, from the Guardian article …”

…”Since George Bush left office, many people have begun to dismiss the possibility of a US attack against Iran.

Judging by today’s event, the same can not be said about an intelligence war against Iran. Obama is no Bush, but he is no pacifist either. It is possible that he, alongside other allies, is going to rely more and more on intelligence as an alternative to military action. With domestic problems increasing at home, this will disappoint Ayatollah Khamenei, as such operations do not provide him with much needed excuses to try and rally the public around the flag.”…

So “Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew” is a more relevant than ever issue in Middle East affairs.

____________________________________________________

This story was published on NowPublic here are the comments

ryan

flagged this story as Good Stuff at 08:48 on December 25th, 2007

korzac, I never realized that my Hebrew skills were so marketable…but I wont be working for Iranian intelligence anytime soon. Thanks for posting this fascinating story.

korzac

at 11:08 on December 25th, 2007

Ryan, it has already been said somewhere, that we are “אור לגויים” (A Ligth Unto the Nations)…
Thanks for the flag.

denseatoms

flagged this story as Good Stuff at 19:14 on December 25th, 2007

Very interesting story, korzac. It had me wondering if there are any “stoppers” that Israelis use to detect foreigners — words that are difficult to pronounce even for fluent speakers. For example, soldiers in the Dominican Republic have asked people they suspect to be illegal Haitian immigrants to repeat the word “perejil” (parsley). It has a Spanish “r” sound different from the Creole equivalent, followed by the guttural “j” (like “ch” in “Bach”),which somewhat resembles the Creole “r”. And a Dutch friend of mine told me that resistance fighters in World War II demanded that suspected German spies say words with the Dutch “g” sound (as in “Van Gogh”).

korzac

at 00:05 on December 26th, 2007

denseatoms, about your Dutch friend, I can tell you that he is right. Because my first language is Flemish (the Belgian variant of Dutch) I know the difference in sound when a “g” is pronounced by a Belgian and he same “g” as pronounced by a non-Belgians.
As for Israel, the situation is more complicated, because most of us where ‘foreigners’ in the past, when emigrating to Israel from many countries over the world, so when we speak today Hebrew there are always phonetic reminiscences of our first languages. Phonetic ‘stoppers’ wouldn’t help here…But I suppose there are o

korzacsol

..decoherence of my little shtetele

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