Bloodthirsty Liberal

Hoo boy, this one’s got the works: bells, whistles, ribbons, bows, buckles, and even comes with optional spinning hubs.

Resist this brilliant, far-reaching proposal, I dare you!

The London daily Al-Hayat reports, citing an Egyptian diplomatic source, that during their trip to Washington on January 8, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman presented to U.S. President Barack Obama a plan for renewing negotiations, called “End Game.”

The plan includes the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, including eastern Jerusalem, with an option for territorial exchange, as well as international guarantees for the establishment of the Palestinian state, and a proposal for sources of authority for a permanent arrangement by the international community.

The source added if these principles are agreed on, an international peace conference will be held in Egypt in March or April, and to this end efforts will be made for the completion of the Palestinian reconciliation.

…’67 borders… east Jerusalem… Palestinian state… what no right of return for everyone one-eighth Palestinian and his goldfish?! This is an outrage! This is an insult! This is a Zionist plot to seize the internal organs of Palestinian children and make frilly little umbrella drinks out of their blood (my favorite being Mohammed Al-Durr-ade: one part lime juice, one part Campari, one part selzer, and one part O-negative Palestinian blood—preferably from a boy under the age of twelve).

They called it “End Game” because it was dead before the ink was dry. Not that George Mitchell didn’t drop his spoon into his lobster bisque and hop a 747 to Cairo for “consultations” the moment he heard about it.

How about we propose a peace plan for a change? Before we talk details of territory and “sources of authority for a permanent arrangement by the international community” (whatever the [bleep] that’s supposed to mean), let’s start with one teensy-weensy premise: stop hating.

Let PM Netanyahu explain:

[B]ased on recent experience, we’ve seen that in Lebanon we had an international guarantee – the United States [sic] Resolution – 1701 – an insurance policy signed by the entire international community and you know that that unfortunately has failed, in fact it’s failed miserably and Hizbollah is just pouring in weapons, more and more weapons to fire into Israel. And you know that we had also an understanding with other countries when we left Gaza about the Philadelphi corridor and I appreciate the efforts made by President Mubarak and the Egyptian government to stop it, but you can see that there is massive infiltration continuing all the time. We can’t afford to have that replicated a third time in the center part of the country that dominates our cities, dominates our population, and dominates our airfield.

…

It is a peculiar notion that the Hamas that committed a double war crime of firing on civilians, our civilians, while hiding behind civilians, their civilians, is basically exonerated and the international community or parts of it is directing the fire against Israel which did what any country would do and that is try to pinpoint the rocketeers and try to stop them from firing on us. I think the battle against terror has been sorely hurt by the Goldstone Report and it’s also meant to, of course tie our hands so that we cannot take actions to defend ourselves.

…

But we have another challenge, and that’s the challenge of peace. We want to move forward and in order to move forward we need immediately to negotiate peace. We said that on day one in the formation of the government. We have not been met by a similar position from the Palestinian side. What we’ve done in the nine months that we’ve been in office was one: to call immediately for peace talks, second: to remove hundreds of roadblocks, checkpoints, and other obstacles to move and as a result the Palestinian economy has soared to about 8% growth. We think that together we could get it to reach an even higher level. Third: I gave a speech at Bar-Ilan that formed a national consensus about the idea of peace, of a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state and fourth: we took an unprecedented step in the Cabinet to restrain the construction in the settlements for a ten month period. This is what we did.

During that time, what we’ve seen the Palestinian do is one: raise preconditions that didn’t exist for the sixteen years from the onset of the Oslo process. Two: incite their public and their people in their national media and by their official leadership in ways that are fully contrary to peace. Third: to promote the Goldstone agenda and these are all contrary to peace. These all lead to the other direction.

Israel has been trying to get the Palestinians to enter the negotiating tent; the Palestinians have climbed up a tree. They’re not in the tent, they’re not in the entrance to the tent, they’re climbing higher and higher in the tree and they like it up there. People bring ladders to them. We bring ladders to them. The higher the ladder, the higher they climb.

I’m tempted to say give them a rope and let them hang themselves, but that just reinforces my uncharitable misperception. Instead, I’ll just calmly and peacefully observe that all plans and proposals are a waste of garlicky breath if they don’t guarantee Israel’s security.

I’m quite sure that’s their point—peace is merely a Trojan horse meant to breach Israel’s perimeter—and, if so, they will never get anywhere. Which is also their point.

God bless the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) for staying up to date on this crap—and God damn the BBC for the crap itself:

Narrator Jane Corbin takes viewers on a “walking tour” of “what is happening on the ground” in eastern Jerusalem, scurrying from one “stop” to another to report on Israel’s alleged misdeeds. Omitting essential facts and context that explain Israel’s position, she provides a one-sided perspective that establishes Israelis as the villains and the Palestinians as their innocent victims.

In his analysis of the program, Robin Shepherd, director of international affairs at a British think tank and former London Times bureau chief, correctly points out:

The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern day propaganda.

…

Corbin’s bias is evident from the start as she introduces the “battlefield,” as she terms it. Those wielding “the weapons” are “the Israeli authorities,” while the victims are the Palestinians whose homes are being demolished.

Bulldozers are seen dismantling a structure as Arab women cry, and Corbin breathlessly informs viewers that “demolitions have been increasing in recent days.” She confides that she has gotten hold of “a list that shows there’s another forty to go before the end of the year” and absurdly suggests that the reason for this is that the Jerusalem municipality “has a budget it has to use up for demolitions.” Shockingly, she makes no mention of why these homes are being demolished, leaving viewers with the false impression that it is an official Israeli policy — complete with budget — to render Arabs homeless.

In fact, Jerusalem authorities demolish only structures that are built illegally — something Corbin does not bother to inform viewers until halfway through the program when she revisits the topic of home demolitions.

Of course, there is no arbitrary quota of houses to demolish or a “budget” that must be “used up.”

No, that money has been allocated to the Ministry of Harvesting Internal Organs of Palestinian Children.

I mean, come on.

I used to be scared of monsters in my closet, but I outgrew it. Evidently the British leftist media will never, ever, outgrow their fear of Jews in the Middle East.

Even when they admit it:

In March 2009, the BBC Trust shook the British journalistic establishment by ruling that BBC News Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen violated the broadcaster’s editorial guidelines. The ruling has been the focus of much attention in the UK press, and, according to one report in a British newspaper, “will cause great concern within the BBC newsroom.”

The findings are also causing serious concern among the many who have long felt the BBC’s news coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict is biased against Israel, and who now have further reason to be skeptical of the broadcaster’s Mideast news. British journalist and author Chas Newkey-Burden, for example, wrote in response to the ruling that “it is extraordinary to think that the BBC entrusts a man such as Bowen with coverage of such a monumentally important issue.”

This is true not only because Bowen wrote such a problematic article, but also because of his disturbing refusal, after the article’s many shortcomings were brought to his attention, to take responsibility for any of those shortcomings. Instead of admitting error, Bowen and others in the BBC redoubled their commitment to the flawed article, spending their time (and British stakeholder resources) coming up with disingenuous defenses to the article’s distortions.

In short, the Middle East editor and those at the BBC who initially backed his piece were given a choice between defending journalistic ethics or defending an unethical journalist, and they opted for the latter.

As far as I can tell—and supported by corroborating evidence—Bowen still serves in this role.

We interrupt the Scott Brown Show to bring you this important announcement.

When a right and proper leftist is abused by Egypt, what is she supposed to do?

Say it with me, now: blame Israel

Oh the shame of it all. Last month, 1,300 pro-Palestinian activists from the US and Europe came to the region in the name of peace and social justice to demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Led by the self-declared feminist, antiwar group Code Pink, the demonstrators’ plan was to enter Gaza from the Egyptian border at Rafah and deliver “humanitarian aid” to the Hamas terrorist organization.

But it was not to be. Led by Code Pink founder and California Democratic fund-raiser Jodie Evans, the demonstrators were not welcomed by Egyptian authorities. Many were surrounded by riot police and barbed wire as they demonstrated outside the US and French embassies and the UN Development Program’s headquarters. Others were barred from leaving their hotels.

Those who managed to escape their hotels and the bullpens outside the embassies were barred from staging night protests in solidarity with Hamas on the Nile. In the end, as the militant Israeli pro-Palestinian activist Amira Hass chronicled in Haaretz last week, all but 100 of them were barred from travelling to Gaza.

The lucky few allowed into the Strip included neither Evans nor her friends, former Weather Underground terror leaders Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayres. But they bore no grudge against Egypt. The Egyptians were mere puppets of the real culprit: Israel. As Evans said, “It’s obvious that the only reason for [Egypt’s treatment of the demonstrators] is to make Israel happy. Israel is behind the refusal [to allow the demonstrators into Gaza] - what other excuse could there be?”

I was tempted to make a joke here about blaming Florida for being denied admittance to Wyoming—but we’re past education here. Past logic, discourse, debate.

What we are left with is rank, unadulterated Jew-hatred. Even “anti-Semitism” seems too clean and clinical—we need the Germanic (appropriately), not the Latin, to describe the bitterness from the Left.

Which is when they are at their happiest:

Unfortunately for the lucky 100 who were permitted to enter Hamastan, the diversions didn’t end at the Egyptians border. Hamas immediately placed them under siege. The Palestinian champions had planned to enjoy home hospitality from friends in Gaza. But once there they were prohibited from leaving the Hamas-owned Commodore Hotel and from having any contact with local Gazans without a Hamas escort.

Rather than being permitted to judge the situation in Gaza for themselves, they were carted onto Hamas buses and taken on “devastation tours” of what their Hamas tour guides claimed was damage caused by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead. And then these international protesters were forced to participate in a Hamas-organized march to the Erez crossing.

As Hass tells it, in “a slap to many feminist organizers and participants,” no Palestinian women were allowed to participate in the march, which “turned into nothing more than a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators.”

…

Hass’s participation in the pro-Hamas propaganda trip is a bit surprising. In November 2008, she was forced to flee from Gaza to Israel after Hamas threatened to kill her. At the time, Hass appealed to the Israeli military - which she has spent the better part of her career bashing - and asked to be allowed to enter Israel from Gaza, after sailing illegally to Gaza from Cyprus on a ferry chartered by the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit.

But I’m getting tired of this. These skanks and skunks are such loathsome and detestable company (Latin has its uses, too), I can’t stand to be around them, even to expose their execrable language and behavior.

I like to be more positive (you know me!):

COGAT Announcement: Summary of 2009 Shows 28% Rise in Humanitarian Aid To Gaza

…

During 2009, international organizations were more active in the Gaza Strip despite the complex security situation in Gaza. There was an increase of 125% in the number of internationals crossing into the Gaza Strip and some 400 delegations of foreign officials, including activists and diplomats, who have entered Gaza Strip in coordination with the Gaza CLA.

Furthermore, there was a 28% increase in the transfer of humanitarian goods from Israel to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings.

…

During the operation there were approximately 1,600 cases where the Gaza CLA coordinated the evacuation of populations from combat areas, and of casualties via international organizations, including the Red Cross. In addition, 1,400 truckloads of humanitarian goods were transferred from Israel into Gaza Strip through the crossing points, during the fighting, coordinated by the Gaza CLA and supplied by international organizations.

During the conference, Gaza CLA commander Col. Moshe Levy, said: “the fruitful cooperation between the Coordination and Liaison Administration and the international organizations allows us to respond to the needs of the Palestinian population in Gaza, which currently lives under a regime of terror.”

“Because of the cooperation and the support given by international organizations, there is a wide and varied supply of food and medicine in the Gaza Strip, a fact well established by in official reports of UN personnel,” added Col. Levy.

There I go getting all logical again. Israel not only allows aid to the Palestinians (unlike Egypt), it allowed aid and medical treatment during its war on Hamass, Operation Eat Lead. And the hoors in Code Pink would have known that if they had asked to be among the 400 delegations of diplomats and “activists” Israel allowed to cross its border.

Logic, BTL, stop it!

You’re right, you’re right… I’ll just call them the names they deserve. But as a gentleman with too much respect for the fairer sex, I’ll have to log off to carry on as I must.

Keep that title handy. Something tells me we’ll be seeing a lot of it. (Something tells me we already have.)

Today’s installment:

At a Hamas ceremony honoring the families of the martyrs in Jabaliya, in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the families said: “We are willing to sacrifice our children, ourselves, and our money to say ‘There is no god but Allah’ and to free the homeland.”

But can you blame ‘em?

Israel has complained to the US administration that the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are engaging in incitement by honoring a woman responsible for the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history, and calling the men who killed Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai last month martyrs.

Israel’s complaint came, ironically, shortly before US Middle East envoy George Mitchell heaped praise on Fayyad and Abbas Wednesday night during a US television interview.

Twice during the interview, on the Charlie Rose show, Mitchell called Fayyad an “impressive leader” and said that he and Abbas represented “strong and effective leadership for the Palestinian people.”

God, what an idiot.

Far from being punished for ram-rodding their children into the cannon’s mouth, they are rewarded for it. I blame them first, their enablers second, and Israel not at all.

Aggie reported ten days ago that Egypt is building an iron wall to keep the Palestinians penned in. She noted (somewhat cynically) that this violation of international law, of decency itself, was taking place without protest, without any notice being paid.

Patience, Aggie. Patience:

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a number of different occasions in recent days at Egyptian construction workers building a steel fence meant to separate Egypt from the Gaza Strip, Egyptian media reported on Thursday.

…

The Arabic BBC network reported that, according to eyewitnesses in the Gaza Strip, a number of incidents have taken place in recent days in which fire was opened at the Egyptian side of the border fence. According to various reports, fire exchanges took place between Egyptian soldiers and Gazan smugglers.

Egyptian newspaper al-Gumhuriya condemned the incident Thursday morning and defended Egypt’s “sovereign right” to build the fence as a means to pressure Hamas. The paper’s editorial argued that the fence currently under construction is “the same fence that exists now, with invisible reinforcements being made to its foundations.”

According to the report, steel plates which are 50 cm think and 18 meters long are being used to reinforce the fence, as well as plates with a 35 cm thickness and 15 meter length. The paper also slammed sources from the Egyptian opposition who criticized the construction of the fence.

“There are those who wish to present Egypt as a contributor to the blockade on the Palestinians by blocking arms smuggling passages. But these people forget that the smuggling of arms through the Sinai is a direct attack on Egypt’s sovereignty, and on its legitimacy.

“It is Egypt’s right to develop the fence which separates it from Gaza and it is its right to build a fence that will be strong and not be toppled by bulldozer, as this one was when hundreds of thousands of residents of the Strip stormed it in January 2008.”

I wonder how hard it would be to paste the name Israel in for Egypt? I wonder how Egypt would react to that excuse?

But I don’t know why the Palestinians would bitch so much. Most of the wall is out of sight:

… [A] significant portion of it to be underground. The fence will reach a depth of 20 to 30 meters and will span many kilometers along the Egypt-Gaza border, parallel to the Philadelphi route.

Meanwhile, media in Cairo reported that the Egyptian security forces uncovered 10 more smuggling tunnels linking Gaza to the Sinai on Wednesday.

And, as Aggie reported:

Egyptian forces demolish tunnels or fill them with gas almost every week, often with people still inside them, and Palestinian casualties in the tunnels have been steadily rising.

I almost sympathize with the Palestinian smugglers.

Almost.

I’m sure I’m repeating myself, but I support statehood for Palestine if only so they can get straight to the civil war they so desperately want:

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said Tuesday that his Movement filed a lawsuit against Mahmoud Abbas for telling lies and rumors about Hamas, categorically denying that his Movement suggested a presidential and legislative extension for several years.

In a press statement to Al-Jazeera net, Dr. Zahhar noted that the lawsuit was filed after Abbas fabricated lies about the escape of Hamas leaders to Egypt during Israel’s war on Gaza.

He added that the charges were pressed with Gaza courts, but he ruled out that the Palestinian prosecutor in the West Bank will summon Abbas for questioning because of the current circumstances.

Abbas during his speech on Tuesday before the central committee of the Palestine liberation organization (PLO) fabricated another lie saying that Hamas had offered him a secret deal to extend his term of office and the mandate of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) for three to four years.

For its part, the Movement of Hamas stated Tuesday that Abbas’s speech was full of contradictions and lies, and misled the public opinion.

Wow, a leader whose speeches are “full of contradictions and lies, and misle[a]d the public opinion”? That’s gotta suck.

These two factions hate each other almost as much as the socialist Democrats hate the Blue Dogs.

At least our senators don’t act like this—yet:

The offices of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in Khan Yunis were raided earlier this week. According to Hassan Abu Kaware’, UAWC coordinator in Khan Yunis, he headed to UAWC offices on Monday morning, 14 December 2009. He found that the computer at his desk was missing. He explained that he did not find any traces of destruction on walls or windows, and none of the files or the other possessions in the offices were stolen. Abu Kaware’ reported the incident to the police who did not travel to the scene to conduct an investigation. The police only took his testimony in the police station.

It should be noted that this is the third attack of its kind in the Gaza Strip this week. The offices of Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) and the Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) were stormed and attacked by unknown persons over the course of last weekend.

Sounds like the work of home grown, right wing terrorists to me. Probably GIs returning from Iraq.

This, on the other hand, has the fingerprints of Mahmoud Abbas all over it—and may explain Zahar’s intemperate rant above:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns Palestinian security services arrest and illegal detention of Hamas supporters in the West Bank. PCHR calls upon the Palestinian National Authority and security services in Ramallah to stop arbitrary arrests and to release all political detainees.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, Palestinian security forces have waged a campaign of arrests in the past two days, during which they have arrested dozens of members and supporters of the movement. This campaign coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the establishment of the Hamas movement. … At least 116 individuals have been arrested.

The Palestinians yammer on and on about the symbolic importance of Jerusalem as the capital of their future (and always will be) state.

I think Gettysburg is a better fit.

PS: The title of this post refers to the name chosen by Rod Smart, a player in the short-lived XFL football league. It appeared on the back of his jersey.

We should send one each to Zahar and Abbas.

Another in an endless series of lessons to those who think that if Israel changed its zoning laws, all would be well:

[T]he minute UNRWA deviates from the goal for the sake of which it was established and presumes to take on a political mission, set forth ideological demands in return for its services, or seek to make a cultural impact by mandating the study of the Holocaust to which the Jews were subjected, the relationship that now exists between it and the Palestinian refugees will be disrupted.

…

First, there is no universal consensus regarding the historical authenticity of the Holocaust. [Some] doubt that the Jewish version of [the Holocaust] is historically untrue.

Millions of Europeans concur with the French philosopher Roget Garaudy [and] his book The Founding Myths of Modern Israel.

…

Second, even if all the world governments conceded that the Holocaust happened according to the Jewish version, it would never convince a Palestinian – because he knows that the world has acknowledged the injustice done to [the Palestinian people] yet disregards the holocaust being perpetrated against it on a daily basis This [holocaust] is eating away at the Palestinians’ flesh with roadblocks, and is breaking its bones with the blockade – while the entire world looks on in silence, [as if] it had swallowed its tongue. And if Mr. John Ging, UNRWA operations director in Gaza, asked any group of Palestinian students, ‘What is a Jew? ‘ – the answer would be given promptly: ‘A Jew is death, wounds, torture of prisoners, destruction of homes, devastation, perdition, deception, siege, and oppression.’

…

It is not enough for us Palestinians to refuse to teach our children about the Holocaust. We must introduce special classes about the Nazis of the 21st century – the Israeli Jews….

It’s hard to select the most offensive thing from the above, but I had to laugh at the part where the writer told UNRWA to butt out of teaching history and stick to forking over the heaping piles of money to maintain the Palestinians in the ignorance and misery to which they have become accustomed. May they choke on it.

And if you think his is a minority opinion

Following are excerpts from an interview with Muhammad Yousef ‘Adas, former advisor to UNESCO

The reason for the whole issue is that [the Jews] meddle with the economy, thus gaining control over nations. They finance wars. They are the cause of wars and economic corruption. They helped other countries to shackle Germany, by means of the World War I treaties, with which we are familiar. […]

“Like Roger Garoudy said, the number of [victims] is very controversial. These figures emerged from a myth, not from facts. […]

…

Interviewer: “Nobody is held accountable for this, but whoever denies the Holocaust is harassed, fired, arrested, or even physically eliminated.”

Muhammad Yousef ‘Adas: “Physical elimination goes without saying, if the other solutions are difficult to accomplish.

…

“There are statistics that show that there were only a few hundred thousand – at most 400,000 – Jews. And some statistics give much lower figures…”

Interviewer: “Some say 5,000.”

Muhammad Yousef ‘Adas: “5,000 Jews. […] It is not merely deception. It has become an industry – the Holocaust industry. They profit from this a great deal.

…

“There is a fundamental racism in Western mentality. The Jews are part of this racism because they are white Europeans. The Europeans… Let’s put Hitler aside – the Europeans in general believe that the white race is…”

Interviewer: “The supreme race.”

Muhammad Yousef ‘Adas: “Right.”

To summarize: maybe only 5,000 Jews died in the Holocaust; those who survived are vile racists; the real Holocaust is being visited upon the (brown) Palestinians by the (white) Jews.

Well we respect all opinions here at BTL.com—but we respect facts more:

The United Colors of Israel

Of course, the Palestinians are not without their values, too:

Another in the occasional briefs on Israel’s official, stated policy of treating Palestinians as some sort of lesser being. [For those blind to irony, duck! That was a big, steaming pile heading right at you.]

Today, December 11th 2009, a newborn baby girl suffering from a heart condition was transferred to the Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel from the Nasri Children’s Hospital in the Gaza Strip for immediate medical treatment.

The Head of the DCO in Gaza, Col. Moshe Levi said: “The District Coordination Office routinely coordinates and absorbs the many patients that are transferred from the Gaza Strip into Israel for medical treatment. This incident is an example of the many incidents that the DCO deals with on a daily basis and acts to help and save human lives in the humanitarian framework of the State of Israel. We view this with much importance and concentrate many efforts in the humanitarian realm and the transfer of patients from the Gaza Strip to Israel for medical treatment.”

In 2009, ten thousand sick patients and their escorts were able to leave the Gaza Strip in order to receive medical treatment within Israel and the Judea and Samaria region.

Yes, yes, very charitable, we’re sure. But we all know Israel does this sort of thing only to harvest the organs of Palestinian children. [See irony warning above.]

Ten thousand patients? And have we been told about a single one on the evening news or in the pages of the major newspapers? [No irony here, if you’re unsure.]

This day in Europe:

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) expressed disappointment over the conclusions issued after the European Union Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels.

EJC President Moshe Kantor said that the declaration hardly takes into account recent Israeli concessions including a moratorium on settlement building, removing roadblocks, boosting the Palestinian economy and accepting the premise of a Palestinian state.

…

“This will only embolden the Palestinians by sending them the message that they don’t need to negotiate because they will receive everything on a silver platter. It also ignores the fact tha israel has repeatedly called for immediate and direct negotiations without preconditions, something repeatedly ignored by the Palestinians”

“Israel has taken significant steps towards the renewal of talks by its actions, including freezing the settlements, and it is time to push the Palestinians back to the negotiation table, not in the opposite direction,” Kantor said.

This day in European history:

1505: Bohemia

Ten Jews were tortured and killed after being accused by a local shepherd of killing a local girl. Years later, on his deathbed, the shepherd confessed he made up the whole story.

You don’t see the connection? In Europe, Jews are to be sacrificed based on fraudulent claims, same as ever.

Hamass to Palestinian girlhood: you’re not going out like that.

The Hamas Culture Ministry and the Palestinian Ulemaa Council have condemned a decision to hold a Palestinian beauty pageant in the West Bank, with the support of the Fatah government.

The bodies noted that such pageants harm women’s honor, Islamic and Palestinian tradition, and Palestinian values, and is inappropriate for the difficult Palestinian situation.

“Palestinian values”: and what would they be, pray tell?

Not really relevant, but if I haven’t posted this Wendy’s commercial from the 80s before, shame on me: