[cross-posted to Tikun Olam]

The idea that Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz will do six months in the brig for committing the brave and even noble deed of leaking the names of all Guantanamo detainees to human rights lawyers is profoundly distressing:

A military jury recommended Friday that a Navy lawyer be discharged and imprisoned for six months for sending a human rights attorney the names of 550 Guantanamo Bay detainees.

...Diaz was convicted Thursday of communicating secret information about Guantanamo Bay detainees that could be used to injure the United States and three other charges of leaking information to an unauthorized person.

...After the first day of his trial Monday, Diaz had told The Dallas Morning News he felt sending the list -- which was inside an unmarked Valentine's Day card -- was the right decision because of how the detainees were being treated.

...In early 2005, as he was concluding a six-month tour of duty as a legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Diaz sent an anonymous note to a New York civil liberties group containing the detainees' names.

...''I had observed the stonewalling, the obstacles we continued to place in the way of the attorneys,'' Diaz told the newspaper. ''I knew my time was limited. ... I had to do something.''

I regret that Diaz, facing the full brunt of military justice bearing down on him seems to have decided that folding his tail between his legs and begging for mercy was advisable under the circumstances. And who really can blame him?

Diaz, who could have received up to 14 years in prison, gave emotional testimony during the sentencing hearing, apologizing for his actions.

''The prosecutors were right: I'm a meticulous man. I should have done better. It was extremely irrational for me to do what I did,'' Diaz said.

...Diaz said he now believes it was ''cowardly'' to release the names and other identifying information in that manner.

Read the Morning News story. It's devastating and includes this jaw-dropping quotation from Diaz (remember he served 18 years as a Navy lawyer):

I think a good case could be made for allegations of war crimes, policies that were war crimes," he said.

Matthew Diaz is an American hero. He should not spend a day in jail. Patrick Leahy should call him to testify before the Judiciary Committee so he can tell the nation why his conscience impelled him to do what he did. And if his lawyers or family read this, please tell us more about him, his case, and what else we can do to support him.

Brian Whittaker has done a terrific piece of research journalism to explain how MEMRI pulled the wool over the eyes of the international media in its reporting about a Hamas TV show, in which Mickey Mouse allegedly encourages a young Palestinian girl to profess her readiness to become a suicide bomber. Even the AP, CNN, and progressive bloggers like Matt Yglesias (Jihad TV? C'mon Matt, you can do better than that) were suckered into reporting the story pretty much as MEMRI (or in Matt's case, Palestinian Media Watch) gave it to them. The trouble is--the program transcript as reported by MEMRI was wrongly translated:

In the Hamas video clip issued by Memri, a Mickey Mouse lookalike asks a young girl what she will do "for the sake of al-Aqsa". Apparently trying to prompt an answer, the mouse makes a rifle-firing gesture and says "I'll shoot".

The child says: "I'm going to draw a picture."

Memri's translation ignores this remark and instead quotes the child (wrongly) as saying: "I'll shoot."

Pressed further by the mouse - "What are we going to do?" - the girl replies in Arabic: "Bidna nqawim." The normal translation of this would be "We're going to [or want to] resist" but Memri's translation puts a more aggressive spin on it: "We want to fight."

The mouse continues: "What then?"

According to Memri, the child replies: "We will annihilate the Jews."

The sound quality on the clip is not very good, but I have listened to it several times (as have a number of native Arabic speakers) and we can hear no word that might correspond to "annihilate".

What the girl seems to say is: "Bitokhoona al-yahood" - "The Jews will shoot us" or "The Jews are shooting us."

This is followed by further prompting - "We are going to defend al-Aqsa with our souls and blood, or are we not?"

Again, the girl's reply is not very clear, but it's either: "I'll become a martyr" or "We'll become martyrs."

In the context of the conversation, and in line with normal Arab-Islamic usage, martyrdom could simply mean being killed by the Israelis' shooting. However, Memri's translation of the sentence - "I will commit martyrdom" turns it into a deliberate act on the girl's part, and Colonel Carmon has since claimed that it refers to suicide bombers.

When I read about this story first at Matt Yglesias' blog I wrote a doubting comment at his blog as soon as I noticed his source was Palestinian Media Watch. If you write about the Mideast conflict as long as I have you tend to know which sources are immediately credible and which are only credible if independently verified. And MEMRI is one that I never credit unless verified by a more reliable, and less tendentious source.

If I knew to keep my distance why could not AP, CNN and other publications have invested in the time it would take to ask Arabic speakers to vet MEMRI's translation? Now, they wouldn't have egg on their face. Of course, the problem is the damage is now done. MEMRI's story, though false, has circulated deeply and widely. No amount of clarification from the Brian Whittakers of the world can correct the false impression planted by the anti-Arab propagandists.

On a final note, I completely agree with Brian that it is unpardonable for Hamas to place children in the position they did in questioning the girl on this show. Using children for political purposes is despicable and worthy of condemnation. But if we're going to condemn this program, let's do so based on accurate, credible information and not based on someone's fever dream of Arab anti-Semitism and annihilationsim.

I also note that the AP provided a translation of a speech by the Mickey Mouse character which should also be questioned:

“You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists,” the character squeaked on a recent episode. “We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers.”

Which is summarized thusly:

Hamas militants have suspended a television program that featured a Mickey Mouse look-alike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination

AP doesn't say where this translation comes from: MEMRI? Their own independent sources? Remember what The Who used to warn us? "We won't be fooled again." Let the media beware and verify MEMRI stories and translations before running with them.

A big hat tip to Sol Salbe.

[cross-posted to Tikun Olam]

[cross-posted to Tikun Olam]

The face of Israeli hate has once again reared its ugly head. A recent immigrant from France who had also lately become religious lured an East Jerusalem taxi driver to his death in what appears to be a nationalist inspired hate crime:

The 26-year-old Tel Aviv man accused of murdering an East Jerusalem taxi driver on Monday, Julian Soufir, told police, "I decided to murder an Arab."

Police said their initial investigation revealed that the suspect, an immigrant from France whose family lives in Netanya, went to Jerusalem on Monday morning to find a taxi driver to murder.

They discovered the murder of Taysir Karaki, 35, from Beit Haninah north of the capital, almost by chance after they stopped two young men walking down the middle of a Tel Aviv street at around 4:00 P.M., near Yonah Hanavi Street...

The body of the East Jerusalem man was discovered in an apartment [there] on Monday afternoon. His throat had been cut, and his body bore the signs of a severe attack.

A preliminary police investigation revealed that the dead man had been invited to the apartment by the 25-year-old Israeli...

The motive behind the murder seems to be nationalistic, as the suspect said that he had killed the taxi driver over his Arab nationality.

Neighbors said that the suspect had recently become religious

The victim appeared to have no political affiliation whatsoever and little involvement with politics. He leaves behind a widow and two young children:

Karaki's father, Yasser Karaki, told Haaretz his son, who was married and the father of four children ages six to 12, had driven the children to school and set off for work at 8:30 A.M. "He was a good guy, he was not involved in politics; all he wanted to do was make a living for his children," the elder Karaki said.

The few dozen friends and relatives who gathered on Monday at the Karaki house seemed shocked at the idea Karaki was murdered for nationalistic reasons. A neighbor, Wahib Liftawi, said the police called his nearby grocery store.

"They told us Taysir had had an accident and we should go to the police station in Neve Yaakov," Liftawi said. "Khaled, Taysir's brother, went there and then to Tel Aviv to identify the body. We heard on the news that French people took him to Tel Aviv. They asked him to help them to the apartment with their luggage and then they stabbed him. Allah will not forgive them; he was a good boy."

For many Israelis, this incident be merely a one-off event perpetrated by what they hope will turn out to be a mentally deranged individual. It will not resonate. It will not fit any pattern. It will not involve much soul-searching. This will be because of the protective shell covering Israelis that prevents them from interacting or empathizing with Arabs.

We will have to see what influences played upon the terrorist. Where did he get the idea that killing an Arab was a laudable endeavor? Was he a follower of extremist settlers as previous Jewish terrorists have been? We shouldn't jump to conclusions till we know the facts. But previous similar crimes make us wonder whether this one will fit the pattern of Jewish extremism. And no doubt Soufir will join the ranks of Jewish 'martyrs' (at least in the eyes of the Kahanist crowd) like Eden Natan-Zenda, Yigal Amir, Baruch Goldstein and too many others who struck a blow for Jewish "justice."

Haaretz quotes an Israeli Arab Knesset member making a cogent point about how this crime fits into Israeli Jewish attitudes toward Arabs:

MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra`am-Ta`al) said...that "an atmosphere of incitement, hated of Arabs, and the escalating racism in the country are fertile soil for this crime," and added that " the court will probably find mitigating circumstances for the murderers."

No doubt he is correct. Jewish terrorists often serve much shorter sentences than Arab terrorists. And the treason case against Azmi Bishara could also have served as a trigger for the crime. Maariv and other Israeli media were braying for Bishara's head and Jewish Knesset members were calling for him to be kidnapped and tried for treason. This is precisely the type of incitement to violence Tibi is talking about.