THE PRESISDENT'S POODLE Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, August 31, 2004.

Folks, let's try to understand what Israel will be up against until the November presidential election in the United States. You know that Arabs in general, and the Palestinian Arabs in particular, want John Kerry to win that election and George W. Bush to lose. What you may not know is that the Palestinian Arabs now have a blank check to kill as many Jews as possible, without fear of any serious retaliation by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon! Why? Because any serious retaliation will embarrass President Bush and hinder his re-election! So Jews in Israel are going to be sitting ducks for the next two months - more so than ever before! If you want a parallel: During Israel's prime ministerial election of 1996, Labor party leader Shimon Peres appealed to Yasser Arafat to cool it, because terrorist attacks would hurt his chances of beating Benjamin Netanyahu in that election. And so it was three years later when Labor leader Ehud Barak was running for the premiership. Unfortunately, and as already implied, the situation is inverted with President Bush's campaign for re-election. But let me make things even clearer. First, it should be emphasized that Arafat's Palestinian Authority coordinated many of its terrorist attacks with Saddam Hussein to distract President Bush's preparation for the war against Iraq. Second, not only did Saddam provide the families of suicide bombers with $25,000, but he also sent highly trained terrorists and intelligence experts to work with the Palestinian Authority. And so the Arabs hate President Bush with a hatred no other people can equal, and they will do everything they can to prevent his re-election - which means they will do everything they can to massacre Jews. Witness what happened to two buses in Beer Sheva. But now let's see what Sharon does in response to that barbarism. One last word. Every time Sharon utters the word "disengagement" - a euphemism for expulsion or transfer - he thereby encourages Arabs to kill Jews. And when President Bush calls Sharon his "friend," as he did while the Republican National Convention was enfolding in New York, rest assured the President expects Israel's Prime Minister to behave as his poodle. Professor Paul Eidelberg is a political scientist, who writes on Israel's need for a constitution as substrate for government. He is founder and president of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached at: eidelberg@foundation1.org To Go To Top

MONKEYPOX MOHAMMED Posted by Beth Goodtree, August 31, 2004.

With all this fuss about Iran's nuclear weapons program (excuse me, nuclear power program for a country that's overflowing with oil), everyone seems to have forgotten that terrorism by small groups and not countries is probably our biggest threat. And judging by past behavior, launching a nuclear weapon is not as likely to occur as something else that can be done on a smaller, less expensive scale. The goal of this would not merely be to inflict mass murder, but panic and the potential economic upheavals or collapse that are so valued by the criminal Islamists. Enter Monkeypox Mohammed. Bioweapons were tailor made for the terrorist. I'm not talking about the steady stream of genocide bombers coated with rat poison, strychnine, or even AIDS that terrorist Arabs use against Israel and any westerners they can find. These haven't worked because the heat of the explosions usually breaks down the chemicals or disease agents. But think of one man, woman or even child, like a modern-day Typhoid Mary, free to roam the land coughing and sneezing as much as possible inside enclosed buses, crowded subways, congested airport terminals, shopping malls and the like. It is a catastrophe in the making that we, the US, Israel and the rest of the civilized world, as the main targets of the only type of terrorism routinely carried out today -- Islamic terrorism, have barely addressed. I first got the idea for this because of a quote from some over-the-top unofficial terrorist who said "The US would run with blood." For some reason, I associate 'running with blood' with Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever and not with weapons. So it got me to thinking. While Ebola is not a very good bioweapon for a number of reasons, there are many which would be ideal for use by an individual terrorist to wreak havoc. The lone 'Typhoid Terrorist' scenario might lay out this way: The terrorist or his/her 'handlers' finds and obtains, or exposes him/herself to a disease that can be transmitted through the air and takes at least 36 hours before symptoms appear. This way the terrorist can enter the target country of their choice without being turned back for showing signs of illness. (China, for example, takes everyone's temperature before they are allowed to enter the country.) The disease must also not be rapidly fatal or disabling, yet be highly contagious. This will allow the terrorist time to disseminate it as widely as possible. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, they had a very active bioweapons program. During this time they weaponized, or tried to weaponize such diseases as anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, Marburg, Ebola, camelpox, monkeypox and a host of others. Once the USSR collapsed, unscrupulous Russians then sold their knowledge and even the diseases themselves to rogue nations, groups and individuals. Nor was the Soviet Union the only one with a bioweapons program. To this day, many rogue nations as well as the better-funded terrorist groups continue to work feverishly on better ways to exterminate the civilized world using disease vectors. What makes the scenario of a 'Monkeypox Mohammed' so frightening, is that Islamists aspire to die while murdering innocent people who do not adhere to their fanatical and murderous form of Islam. Unleashing a plague that would also kill themselves and untold numbers of their own is not a deterrence. Infecting themselves or even their children, and thus spreading the disease, is not seen as 'evil,' but rather, viewed as 'holy work.' The Arabs occupying Israel's land have proven that time and again by teaching their children, through official venues such as schools and mosques, to grow up to be 'martyrs' by killing themselves while attempting to murder and mutilate as many innocent others as possible. And then of course there are the 9-11 murderers. Middle and upper class Islamists, with all the benefits that a privileged life could offer, gleefully killed themselves while murdering thousands. This means that eradicating poverty as well as ignorance (whether self-imposed or through circumstance), is no remedy to the cancer of Islamism and its Hitlerian genocidal aspirations. Do I have any answers to address this threat? No. But the question of whether or not there will ever be a Monkeypox Mohammed is not a question. There will be. The big question is how to identify such a person before they can wreak havoc on the civilized world, murdering perhaps thousands, all in the name of that god of peace, Allah. Beth Goodtree is an award-winning writer who lives in the NYC metro area. She writes political commentary/analysis, and the occasional science and humor articles. Her website address is http://hometown.aol.com/bgoodtree. To Go To Top

PROPAGANDA PUTS ISRAEL'S EXISTENCE AT RISK Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, August 31, 2004.

MANY self-professed experts on the Middle East rely heavily on Palestinian propaganda, hence their shallow observations and inaccuracies. This sin permeates the entire world media, including in the United States. It influences public opinion and puts Israel's existence at grave risk. Some advocate deeper American involvement in the conflict (euphemism for greater pressure on Israel), probably of the same kind we had for decades. We finally have a president who is prepared to shuffle the cards and enforce significant demands on the Arabs. Although the Bush policy enrages the Arabs, it offers, for the first time, a true promise. President Bush's call for a complete cessation of violence, democratization of Palestinian-Arab society, reforms, and elimination of corruption as a prerequisite for peace is a brave, bold, and farsighted new policy with a promise for eventual success. Five million Israelis are grateful to those who believe that they be allowed to live securely in their homeland. How very generous! Another common mistake by these observers is their use of the term "Jews" instead of Israelis. They never commit a mistake when using the term "Palestinians." By now they should know that "Jews" equates with "Arabs," or "Muslims." "Palestinians" equate with Israelis. One fact is clear: If Yasser Arafat, the arch-terrorist, wished to lead his people to a peaceful Arab-Palestinian state next to a Jewish Israel, he could have achieved it 40 years ago. Israelis never denied the Palestinians the right to a state of their own. Since 1947, the Arabs and Arab-Palestinians brought it upon themselves. The media perpetrate the myth that the Arab-Palestinians in the territories are a separate nation with entitlement to a separate country. Not until 1964 did Arab-Palestinians decide to define themselves as a national entity. However, clause one of their National Charter contradicts the concept: "Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation." An Arab-Palestinian state, Jordan, already exists on the former territory of Palestine. Do the Palestinians deserve two countries? As for contentions that Israel is governed badly, Israelis, as opposed to Arab-Palestinians, live in a free democracy. They are the only people entitled to choose their government. It is outrageous to suggest that the Israeli right and religious groups are the most dangerous elements in Israeli society. Ariel Sharon's right of center government was elected because of persisting Arab terror and because the Israeli left under Ehud Barak failed so miserably. Israelis are exceedingly individualistic. Shortsighted "elements" cannot sway them. No ultra-religious party is a member in Mr. Sharon's coalition. His is the most secular and center coalition in the history of Israel. Some suggest that the haplessness of the Arabs is somehow due to the Israeli actions. Recently I read of the Palestinians: "If you put rats in a steel cage and heat it they become frantic" Zoological metaphors aside, yet again the perpetrators are portrayed as victims. The real victims in the Middle East have always been the Israelis, not the Arabs. Most news organizations have accepted the term "barrier" for Israel's security fence, of which 8 percent is wall and 92 percent fence. Some prefer to deceive by continuing to call it a "wall." After years of incessant terror that killed and maimed thousands of innocent Israeli civilians, should anyone worry if the barrier enrages the Palestinians? I believe most reasonable people would agree that having a family member blown to pieces by a suicide bomber is a worse fate than being inconvenienced and enraged. The fact remains that since the partial completion of the barrier, not one major terrorist attack has taken place inside Israel. The barrier is a necessity, not a frivolous choice. It is wrong to compare the Israeli resistance against the British in the late 1940s to Arab-Palestinian "resistance." Like the French and the Polish in World War II, Israeli resistance attacked only British soldiers and British military installations. Not one Israeli blew up British women and children in their cafes and buses, nor did they hijack airplanes. As for Israeli communities in the territories of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, if these communities must be vacated in order to "give" the Arab-Palestinians a cleansed land, as some suggest, do they also agree that a million Arab-Palestinians inside Israel need to be vacated? This appeared as a letter in the Toledo Blade. To Go To Top

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUTE (IHT) AND THE TERROR STRATEGY Posted by Honest Reporting, August 31, 2004.

Terror returned to Israeli streets today, as Palestinian suicide bombers murdered at least 16 civilians onboard two commuter buses in Be'er Sheva. A four year-old boy was among those killed and many children were injured in the dual attack, which occurred on the last day of summer vacation. Yet while the world shudders at the pictures from Be'er Sheva, at least one Mideast reporter would seem to believe that today's bombing was a positive development. Yesterday (Aug. 30) in the International Herald Tribune, Israel-based journalist Jonathan Cook responded to the visit of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, who urged Palestinians - in the spirit of his grandfather - to adopt peaceful paths to promote their cause. Cook actually rejects Gandhi's suggestion as impractical for Palestinians, claiming that 'nonviolence is unlikely to be effective as a strategy,' and that Palestinians now understand that violence is the surest way to get their struggle noticed. Bombing buses is immoral, but it makes the front pages, reminding the world that there is a conflict. In other words, Cook understands and appreciates a 'need' for Palestinians to conduct suicide bombings like the ones that shattered Be'er Sheva on Tuesday. By endorsing terror in this manner, Cook gives hope to terrorists the world over that promotion of their cause will be in direct proportion to the magnitude of their attack. Why would an influential and respected newspaper, owned by the New York Times and printed in more than 180 countries worldwide, publish such a view? It's not surprising that Cook, one of the journalists behind the 'Jenin war crimes' myth in April 2002, claims Israelis themselves are to blame for the terror they endure. What's new here, though, is the sector of Israelis he holds responsible: The efficacy of nonviolence might look different to Palestinians were they receiving the steadfast support of leftist Israelis. But in reality it is the Israelis, not the Palestinians, who are the missing peace partners. Let's understand Cook's logic: The Hamas terrorists who carried out today's attack would have pursued peaceful means - if only Israeli groups such as Peace Now had held out their hand further. Yet after Ehud Barak offered a Palestinian state in Gaza and 96% of the West Bank, only to be answered with a terror campaign, how can any credible news outlet declare that Israelis are the 'missing peace partners'?! Cook's article also contains factually inaccurate statements, such as the claim that the media only pay attention to Israeli blood and gore - not to Palestinian suffering or non-violent protest, which he implies is abundant yet causes news outlets to 'barely stifle their yawns.' Cook's case in point - the Palestinian hunger strike currently underway in Israeli prisons. But in fact, the press has been covering this strike on almost a daily basis - see full Reuters reports for example, on Aug. 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 28, and 30. Today, aboard buses in Be'er Sheva, the world was once again reminded of the perverse Palestinian strategy of terror. How an experienced western journalist can see such horrific acts as the way out of the conflict baffles the mind... and tears at one's heart. Comments to International Herald Tribune: letters@iht.com Honest Reporting monitors the media for inaccuracy and unfairness in how they report the news about Israel. Ther website address is http://www.honestreporting.com. You can help support their research online or by sending contributions to: HonestReporting, 400 South Lake Drive, Lakewood, NJ 08701-3167. To Go To Top

UNDERSTANDING THE ENEMY; EMPATHIZING WITH THE ENEMY; DYING FROM THE ENEMY Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August , 2004.

THIS JUST IN! August 31st: 2 BUSES (#12 & #63) IN BE'ER SHEVA, ISRAEL WERE BLOWN UP AT 2:55 pm WITH A TOTAL - SO FAR - OF 12 DEAD & 100 INJURED, 7 CRITICAL (means life-threatening injuries). Victims mostly teens. Last day of vacation. School starts tomorrow. 2 homicide bombers were from South Hebron area where there is no security fence. Emergency numbers: Be'er Sheva Soroka Hospital: 12 55 177 [from US 972-], New immigrant hotline: 12 550 81010 Be'er Sheva Municipality hotline: 12-55 070-106 & 08 646 3777 We are awaiting word from Shimon Peres and Peace Now. They are expected to inform the Israeli people that, if the Jews had NOT settled in Israel, the Arab Muslim Palestinians would NOT be forced by frustration to kill Israelis anywhere in the Jewish State. We are awaiting word from Prime Minister Sharon pledging to accelerate the Gaza withdrawal/surrender/abandonment - as a severe lesson to the Terrorists. ******* I have listened ad nauseum to Left Liberals tell us how we must 'understand' the grievances of the Muslim Arab enemy. How we must reach out to win their hearts and minds. How they are really just ordinary people like you and me. There is a film being released in England that shows how Terrorists, including the flying suicide bombers who crashed in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania were ordinary - even likeable - fellows. Well, dear Liberal friends, I think I understand why they would want to kill 3000+ American infidels (non-Muslims). I think I understand why they would ambush a family on a road in Israel and then calmly walk over and put bullets into the heads of the pregnant mother and each of her four screaming little girls. Clearly, the terrorists were 'making a statement' which they thought should be understood with sympathy to their cause. When terrorists ambushed Americans working to re-build the services in Iraq, dragged them around, burned their bodies and hung them from a bridge to express their deepest feelings with cheering, one must 'understand; their motives. When one observes the sawing off of Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Berg's heads, your heart must go out to the Muslims who are 'reluctantly' carrying out the de-capitation with the guilt they must be feeling. Just imagine the guilt and trauma Yassir Arafat must have felt when he ordered the execution of American Ambassador Cleo Noel and the French Charges des Affaires in Khartoum by Arafat's Force 17. Those orders were given directly by Arafat via telephone and caught on tape by the Israelis. The pro-Arab U.S. State Department felt so badly for him that they suppressed the tape intercept given to them by none other than Ariel Sharon. They didn't want to accuse Arafat of murdering Americans and make him feel badly. I suppose I could offer thousands upon thousands of stories where Terrorists committed heinous murders and their intended victims were supposed to 'understand' why they had to die. I recall when Arafat was marauding in Beirut, he had his 'misunderstood' terrorists use the Roman torture technique of being drawn and quartered - only he used 4 cars to tear his victims into 4 parts. How 'understanding' the Liberals and Peace Now were, knowing that with a little kindness and understanding, Arafat would have realized that what he was doing was wrong and would have stopped or, at least buried each torn-off limb. But, remember that Arafat was kicked out of Jordan by King Hussein into Lebanon for the same behavior. Surely, King Hussein just didn't 'understand' Arafat's sensitivities as did Rabin, Peres, Beilin - et al. In Lebanon, he established a Terror State and a 12 year Civil War where 100,000 Muslims and Christians killed each other in vicious ways. Somehow, we Americans - or at least the U.S. State Department understood his need to kill so we stopped Ariel Sharon from wiping out his army, including Arafat and escorted him safely to Tunisia with his staff and their arms. But, we really ought to understand his deep conflicted motives that causes him to murder and, if we understand, then we have to let him express himself because that's just the way it is. He had the rights of Pursuit of Happiness. Right? But, some Jews also had remorse and pity so Rabin and Peres brought Arafat and his leaders back from Tunis in 1993. They also 'understood' that Arafat had grievances and a yet unfulfilled destiny in completing 'intifadas' and it was up to them to offer up the Jewish victims to ease his frustration. There was a time in 1982 when Israeli soldiers captured a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, having driven off Arafat's Jihadists and found corpses of Christian Arabs stacked like cordwood in the halls - completely drained of their blood. They were used for transfusions into Arafat's wounded men. How can the Liberals complain about the merciful act of saving Arafat's wounded in an act of mercy? One must 'understand' and reach out to Arabs to teach them mercy and love of their fellow humans - even if we are considered infidels by the Muslims. Because that's how the Muslims view both Christians and Jews - as the other, as the non-believers. All non-Muslims are considered fair game to the Jihadists and we can't interfere with their unrequited frustrations. Think of how understanding Rabin, Peres, Beilin were by sacrificing fellow Jews as they reached out for the hearts and minds of Arafat's Palestinians through the Oslo Accords, surrendering 7 prime cities in Israel's heartland to the resurrected PLO and the fading Yassir Arafat. Rabin, Peres, Beilin gave them guns and bullets. Despite the Camp David Accords, Egypt smuggled in explosives and advanced weapons to the Arab Muslim Palestinians that were illegal under Oslo. The world 'understood' and accepted the canards that Israel would get "Peace for Land" if they merely restrained themselves and NOT retaliate. How the Leftists proudly marched for Arafat and his Muslim Arab Palestinians. Clearly, they 'understood' how to reach Arafat's heart and mind. He always received them with warmth and embraced them. Rabin, Peres and Beilin later admitted they did not expect that Arafat would keep his commitments to the Oslo and, therefore, knew Jews would inevitably die for their gesture of persuasion and 'understanding' of Arab Muslim Palestinian frustration. After all, it wasn't their fault that Arafat broke every single line of each successive agreement. After each horrific suicide bombing, these 'understanding' Israelis closed the borders for a few days to placate angry Israelis and promptly opened them shortly thereafter for more killings of Jews. That gesture of opening the gates to Palestinian Terrorists continues as a doctrine of sympathetic 'understanding' by Israel's government to this day. Surely, the Israelis, the relatives of the Terrorists' victims just didn't 'understand' what such noble leaders as Rabin, Peres and Beilin - followed by Barak, Netanyahu and now Sharon were doing in appeasing and pacifying the Arab Muslim Palestinians. Israeli victims and their families could never 'understand' how noble their sacrifice was for the 'greater good' as did Rabin and Peres and now Sharon. Yes, we must 'understand' why Terrorists of Islam must be 'understood' and reached out to. We must not hunt them down and kill them on the spot. We mustn't torture them for information on the identity of approaching suicide bombers or question them about where explosives are planted. Israel must not kill Yassir Arafat while there is still time to turn him to the good side or so says his handlers - the State Department. Americans are told that must continue paying Arafat $200 million of American tax-payers' dollars each year to keep his spirits up and we must not insult his enablers, the pro-Arab State Department, as they struggle to prepare yearly reports for Congress, assuring Congress that Arafat is doing everything he can to stop Terror and, of course, not pocket the money for himself. We must strive to 'understand' that the 9/11 Terrorists, the Mujahadin who are attacking American soldiers in Iraq, the Taliban Mujahadin who are attacking our soldiers in Afghanistan, the myriad of Arab Muslim Terrorists who attack Israelis on an almost daily basis are simply ordinary Muslims and loving guys and girls who are merely 'mis-understood' and expressing their justifiable frustration. The recent 9/11 Commission's Report suggests that, instead of retribution, we must reach out to the Muslim Arab world to win their hearts and minds - or so says Lee Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission. Humanists, called Left Liberals, 'understand' that we must study the reasons why these 'ordinary, decent folk' want to kill us. Above all, we must not kill them - not until we exercise lengthy due process. We must not attack and destroy the cities and armies of those nations who fund, plan and supply the arms that kill us - especially not if they are building and hiding WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical). We must be 'understanding' and use diplomacy to plead with them to stand down their plans to subjugate the entire non-Muslim world and bring their Sharia'a strict Muslim laws upon us. Above all, we must be patient with the Saudis and not misinterpret their funding of strict Muslim schools (called Madrassas) all over the world, where the curriculum is basic hatred for the Judeo-Christian world and eventual world domination over all by Islam. We must forgive and forget that the Saudis, 'due to no fault of their own' funded Global Terror, including Osama Bin Laden and the families of the Homicide Bombers. We are told frequently how the Muslims and their religion of Islam is a peaceful religion which means us no harm. Clearly, it is 'unfair' to profile Muslims and Middle Eastern men entering America's borders - or before boarding an airplane within America. Just because Muslim Arabs have been the primary source of Terror Attacks is 'no reason to profile' them as suspicious - even if they are taking photos of bridges, malls, subways, etc. I say to the 'understanding' Liberals who empathize and sympathize with the Muslim Terrorists that I hope they personally reach out and visit the Terrorists on their own turf. Perhaps they might get out alive, perhaps not. They certainly 'deserve' a chance to reach out and massage the heart of a Terrorist - although they may lose their head in the bargain. Clearly, as the Left Liberals point out, it is all our fault because we have simply 'mis-understood' the Muslim Arab Terrorists and thought Islam had declared war on the West, especially Israel (who the Muslims called "The Little Satan") and America (The Great Satan). The backward, uneducated Arab Muslims who are taught to hate us is not the fault of their rulers but rather, we of the progressive world. All we have to do is close our universities, slow down our technology so the Arab Muslims can catch up and not feel frustrated. Surely, the Terror would stop and the Left Liberals could go back to whatever Leftists do when they are not saving Terrorists. If Israel and America would just follow the example of France and Europe, generally they too would not have to be worried about being terrorized and hit with a nuclear device or other WMD (Weapons of Mass Destructions) including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical). If we would just stop hassling Iran or Syria, they would immediately cease building Nukes and/or Chemical warheads for missiles from North Korea and China. We simply must learn about the sensitive nature of the Arab Muslim mind and appeal to their good nature or so we are advised by our Left Liberal friends. ### [CAVEAT: If this offends some of our Left Liberal friends - good! If this hurts some of the victims' families and friends, I am truly sorry, but let us put the blame where it belongs and end the Arab Muslim Terrorists' Right to Pursue their Happy Terror at our expense!] Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

NEW REPORT ANALYSES EUROPEAN AID TO PALESTINIANS - FINDS EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY Posted by EU Funding Organization, Aug 31, 2004.

The Funding for Peace Coalition (FPC) has released a new report detailing the diversion of unprecedented sums of financial aid from the Palestinian people towards corruption and violence. The FPC report is called "Managing European Taxpayers' Money: Supporting The Palestinian Arabs - A Study In Transparency." It publishes evidence, which substantiates a compelling connection between European funding and ongoing Palestinian corruption and terrorism. It also highlights the utter failure of European organisations to monitor where these funds have been directed. The details of theft, nepotism, and embezzlement on the part of the PA are supported by incompetence and apathy on the part of European agencies. The FPC has continuously stressed that the PA has soaked up huge sums of donor aid. Since 1993, the European Union alone has contributed over $2 billion directly and indirectly to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Member states have donated a further $2 billion in the same period. FPC's work raises the following major issues, each of which strikes at the very sprit and letter of the European Union's Constitution: # European aid has not reached its intended target - the Palestinian people. It has been diverted towards graft, terrorism and incitement to hatred. * Despite repeated denials from senior European politicians and civil servants, terrorists are on the Palestinian Authority payroll. This includes, in particular, members of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades who have openly admitted their direct roles in acts of murder. The salaries of these murderers come directly from budgets provided by European government aid, even though the Al-Aksa Brigades have been officially classified as terrorists by Europe. * European taxpayers' funds have not been managed transparently in everything connected with aid to the PA and to the Palestinian people. The facts have been concealed and continue to be concealed from European taxpayers. * The methods used to fund the PA might even be considered to be money laundering. FPC's study does not deal with the question of whether aid should be given to the Palestinians, or what level of aid is appropriate. It assumes that providing aid to the Palestinian people is important and helpful to the cause of peace. The FPC report focuses on whether aid transfers from European sources are accomplishing the stated goals of the donor community, and on the transparency of its management. The lack of monitoring controls highlighted in the report should come as no surprise. FPC has continually commented on these issues over the past 12 months. And there is growing pressure within Palestinian ranks calling for an end to decades of corrupt leadership. Mohammed Dahlan, a former PA Interior Minister, was quoted in "The Guardian" in early August 2004. He observed that all of the funds which foreign countries donated to the Palestinian Authority, a total of $5bn, "have gone down the drain and we don't know to where." According to FPC's spokesperson, David Winter: "Every piece of information in our report has been thoroughly checked. The extensive footnoting of the report allows the reader to check any and every fact presented." Why is there a need for this report? Winter says: "We believe that, if we can draw sufficient attention to the issues, the political drive will be created to ensure that the Palestinian Arabs receive the intended benefit from the billions in aid channeled through their leadership and institutions. With proper management, we believe that mutual tolerance can be encouraged and ultimately regional peace can be achieved. Aid money will then be available to resolve other, often more pressing, humanitarian issues - possibly such as the crisis in Sudan and others." Asked whether the European Commission had misled the European Parliament, Winter responded, "This is a key question which the FPC report addresses. For example, there have been countless reassurances that the PA payroll is tightly controlled. It is international donors who help pay for these employees. In fact the payroll has been found to be bloated with fictitious names or comprised of groups adjudged as terrorists by the EU itself." Estimates have put total donor aid to the Palestinians since 1993 at over $10 billion in direct and indirect aid. Have the European contributions, which are paid for by taxpayers, been transferred to the right people? Have they been managed in acceptable ways? Has the Palestinian public benefited? The availability of this new report means that the interested public can read the facts and decide for themselves. ### "Managing European Taxpayers? Money: Supporting The Palestinian Arabs - A Study In Transparency" can be downloaded at www.eufunding.org/FPC2004Report.pdf PDF format) The FPC represents people of a variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds and of political views concerning the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. What unites them is the concern that international aid is not reaching the Palestinian people, and not making the intended contribution to peace in the region. The FPC's activities are undertaken entirely on a voluntary basis by its members To Go To Top

SLICK TRICK Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, August 31, 2004.

The recent red herring that the FBI and American media lobbed at Israel and the American Jewish community is exceptionally hard to handle because it's been coated with crude oil. So let's not waste our time trying to pick it up. We may, however, want to consider kicking the stinking item back where it came from -as this fish story was simmering long before the FBI or CBS hooked it, and its origins are rotten. As much as the rumored accusations may shake-up the American Jewish community, it behooves AIPAC and all American/Israel advocacy groups to remain undeterred, and to focus on the far more real and pressing concerns at hand. Rather than scrambling to control the damage, assuming a defensive posture, or even feigning a business-as-usual attitude, the American Jewish community may want to consider taking an offensive strategy, or at least demanding an apology. After all, the FBI was "tailing" an ally, managed to leak dubious details, and the American intelligence community continues to suppress information which is essential to Israel's security. Someone should have the chutzpah to ask, "why are you withholding security data which has a direct bearing on your ally and friend, Israel?" In addition, the United States intelligence agencies are in the throes of their own security crisis and there is evidence of far more serious breaches of trust and breakdown within the system involving countries which are hostile to America and have sponsored and/or participated in terrorist activities. The current pseudo-scandal is bound to bring up the dreaded dual loyalty issue and some of the allegations may even contain some threads of truth, but the timing of this investigation and its disclosures indicate that the AIPAC/Franklin affair is clearly a calculated diversion aimed at covering-up something far more sinister than simply embarrassing President Bush during the week of the Republican National Convention. So let's begin by taking a brief look from wherest all this came... Anti-Israel academics like Ian Lustick developed the "Neoconservative Cabal" theory prior to the Iraqi War. The Jewish professor is actually proud of this accomplishment. I received an email from him on June 24th in response to an article I wrote, "The Lustick Files", which addresses his pro-Palestinian/anti-Zionist activities. The highly acclaimed scholar, who has served as an advisor to several presidential administrations (H.W. Bush included) and the CIA, was kind enough to make some minor corrections to my piece, as well as to validate my complaints against him I wrote: "Ever wonder where those accusations about Jews, like Wolfowitz, Abrams and Perle, being the cause of America's involvement in Iraq come from?" He responded: "As a matter of fact I think I was the first person to refer to the 'neoconservative cabal' and blame them (before the war started) for the catastrophe that was about to unfold. I can provide the references if you want." Professor Lustick's opinions feature prominently on pro-Palestinian propaganda sites and he remains the darling of the Jewish liberal and Arab intellectual elite. And speaking of Arab intellectuals, Dr. James J. Zogby, President of the American Arab Institute has an article featured under the heading of "Washington Watch" and posted at Saudi-online, in which he attempts to weave a tale of intrigue involving "neo-conservative" Douglas Feith, an Iraqi opposition leader, and an Israeli settler. But all he really ends up doing is exposing the obvious policy discrepancies between the President, State Department, Pentagon and CIA. Zogby, the intellectual, also let's us in on how Gen. Tommy Franks has been quoted as calling Feith "the... stupidest guy on the face of the earth." Ralph Nader won't be left out of the election feeding frenzy. A few weeks ago he publicly accused President George W. Bush and Congress of being "puppets" of the Israeli government and the pro-Israeli lobby. Once you watch the clip at rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/c04/c04062904_muslimvote.rm?start=72:02.0 you'll have a full understanding of how a little clown like Hitler rose to power. If you can't view the actual file, here's an excerpt - compliments of Al Jazeera: "The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show." Last, but not least, a variety of anti -Semitic sites like ReportersNotebook.com provide the online public with a full "profile" of every Jew working for the current administration and which "thinktank" and lobby they hatched from. One has to wonder how much of American taxpayers' dollars the FBI doled-out on this project, and what kind of funding went into the CBS production in order to garner the type of "accusations and information" that have been posted and freely accessible on every half-assed, anti-Israel Internet site for over the past two years. 60 minutes would do better to dedicate their time and efforts to following this whale of a very true tale, which has far more damaging implications for America: What were the Chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism,Technology, and Homeland Security, and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee doing on the morning of 9/11 before that first plane hit? Senator Bob Graham, Senator Robert Kyle and Congressman Porter Goss were having breakfast with the Mahmud Ahmad, the then Pakistani Chief of intelligence the same man who ordered $100,000 to be wired into hijacker Mohammed Atta's bank account. Somebody call the FBI! Oh, I forgot, they're too busy tailing Israel. Somebody call the Department of Justice! Oops, but they're occupied with slapping gag orders on FBI whistleblowers. [By the way, my sources are the Washington Post, New York Times, PBS, the Guardian, the French News Agency and Times of India -that's as good as anything Leslie Stahl can come up with]. I guess those three lawmakers were clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person, but that didn't stop Goss and Graham from chairing the original 9/11 bi-partisan commission. And Goss is the soon-to-be appointed CIA Director. Under the circumstances, I guess there will be no untainted legislator left who would dare to question the flaws and corruption in America's intelligence apparatus? But we should note that current Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts did make an admirable attempt at reform by submitting a proposal which recommended a break-up the CIA . Meanwhile, George Bush recently expanded the CIA Director's powers. It's ironic and highly suspect that post 9/11 the CIA continues to maintain and nurture a close working relationship and alliance with the likes of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, while they clearly avoid fostering a relationship with Israel. Zeev Schiff of Haaretz writes that, "he CIA sees Israel as disruptive in American efforts to improve its relations with the Arabs. The CIA also argues that Israel is a bad influence on improving relations between Washington and Damascus. It's not surprising the CIA was the first to charge that Israel has an agent in the Pentagon - an accusation Israel says is entirely baseless." In spite of the mistakes which led up to 9/11, the CIA continues to actively promote relationships with the Arab tyrannies which brought them disaster, while they actively pursue relationships with members of the "xis of evil" (to an Israeli, this self-destructive course sounds terribly familiar). It appears that the democratic system of checks and balances has succumbed to an Orwellian sort of death. American justice has been relegated to the dust bin of history. Some frustrated, responsible and naive individuals may try to retrieve and reinstate justice to its former glory. A word of advice: While you're sifting through the trash, be smart enough to ignore those rotting red herrings, and you may be lucky enough to find a real smoking gun. But do it before September 8th when congressional hearings on the approval of CIA Director nominee, Porter Goss, begin. AIPAC and those American individuals and groups affiliated with the U.S. Government, but who claim to care about the future of Israel and the American Israel relationship, should be asking themselves and the powers-that-be some very difficult questions. The CIA is a very well-oiled machine - they possess paper shredders which are far bigger and better than those of Enron Corporation. And, America's intelligence community seems to have a well-budgeted staff ready and willing to rearrange and glue certain choice shreds together in such a way that will cover their backsides, while making Israel and her supporters among the American Jewish community look bad. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter and columnist. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

ARIK OR ACHAV: SHARON'S GONE DICTATORIAL Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, August 31, 2004.

"Nothing will stop me. Nobody can shackle my hands and feet," Sharon shouted at a recent cabinet meeting. He was responding to Labor and Social Affairs Minister (National Religious Party) Zevulun Orlev's question, why Sharon was planning to present the Gaza disengagement timetable to Likud ministers alone, rather than to all members of his cabinet. Sharon also threatened, "There will be disengagement, in this government or in another government that I establish." Israel today has it's own Napoleon... But, at least Napoleon built an empire for the glory of France; Ariel Sharon seems to be working hard for the Palestinians. It's not so dissimilar to Shimon Peres's earlier global shnoring - fund raising - for Palestine. What Arafat couldn't get earlier Israeli prime ministers to agree to do - kick Jews out of their homes - even under Clintonian and EU pressure; even with the Oslo War foisted on Israel, Arik - Sharon's nickname - is willing to do unilaterally, i.e. without receiving any quid-pro-quo from the Palestinian Authority. Let's try to put this into Jewish cultural and historical context. In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of 1st Kings, ch. 21, there's a story about the wicked idol-worshipping Achav son of Omri, Ahab in common English. He was the king of Israel (the northern kingdom as opposed to the southern kingdom of Judah). King Achav wanted to purchase a vineyard that was close to his palace, but the owner Navot, wouldn't sell it to him or even trade up for a better field elsewhere. Achav lusted for the field, and was quite distraught over Navot's unwillingness to sell it to him. But, Achav's - even more evil - wife Jezebel came up with a solution. She sent out letters with her husband's - the king's - forged signature to the elders of Navot's hometown with a plan to frame Navot for blasphemy and cursing the king. The elders carried out the plan, killed Navot, and when Jezebel informed Achav of Navot's death, Achav took possession of "his" vineyard. When the prophet Eliyahu - Elijah - heard of this, he asked Achav - in G-D's name - "Have you murdered and inherited also?" Eliyahu then told Achav G-D's punishment, "In the place that the dog's licked Navot's blood, so too, shall they lick yours." The rabbis of the Talmud learned several lessons from these stories about Achav and his family. Regarding Achav's father Omri - whom the bible tells us "did evil in the eyes of the L-RD and was worse that all who went before him" - R. Yochanan asked, "In what merit did Omri deserve kingship?" He answered, "Because he built a city Shomron - Samaria - in the Land of Israel" (Sanhedrin 102b). About Achav himself - although he was personally very sinful - the rabbis point out that during his rule, all the soldiers went out to fight their enemies and returned safely, but in King David's time many fell in battle. They asked why, and answered, that in Achav's army there great unity of purpose, but in David's army - although David was very righteous - many soldiers spoke Lashon HaRa - slandered each other - there was hatred and disunity (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 4). Even though Achav was a "secular Zionist nationalist," who did not follow G-D's Torah, because his family settled the land, because they had focus, unity, and purpose, to achieve national goals, they were victorious in battle, and brought honor to the Kingdom of Israel. There are some interesting parallels between Ariel Sharon and these stories. Sharon's son's name is Omri. And as the former chief advocate for Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria - the West Bank - and Gaza, one can say, in this "merit" did Sharon deserve to be prime minister. Yet something "evil" has happened to Sharon, and now he plans to expel these Jews and bulldoze their homes - just like his other nickname - the bulldozer. Sharon seems to "lust" over the destruction of Jewish communities in Gaza, in a way, reminiscent of Achav's lust for Navot's vineyard. Sharon too, was once a "secular Zionist nationalist," who with purpose - the defense of the Jews in Israel - fought successfully in the famed paratroop 101 brigade and several wars. He too, "built many cities in Israel." Yet today, he lacks resolve to fight the enemies of the nation, putting all his energies into destroying Jewish communities, "Nothing will stop me...There will be disengagement, in this government or in another government that I establish," he bellows. And while fighting Arab armies, Arab irregulars and terrorists, was always a unifying activity, destroying Jewish homes and lives, and giving away parts of the Jewish people's patrimony, the "Promised Land," certainly is anything but unifying. When Zevulun Orlev called for a national referendum on the disengagement plan at that recent cabinet meeting, Sharon asked whether Orlev was sure he wanted a referendum. Orlev answered, that it was the only way to prevent a civil war. And there has been much talk recently in Israel of civil war. Proof, that Sharon's policies are dividing the country rather than unifying it. One of the many side issues of the disengagement plan has been whether the Israeli army or Israeli police will expel the Jewish settlers. Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi, who is responsible for overseeing the police, feels it should be the army's job, while Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz says that though the army will oversee the work, the police should be the ones to actually drag the residents from their homes. Because the Israeli Army is based on a universal draft, this has led to a public debate, with many people complaining of the "politicization" of the army, if it carries out the expulsions. Many people argue, the army should be fighting Israel's enemies, not it's own citizens. Rabbis have called on soldiers to disregard orders and refuse to participate in the evacuation. During the cabinet meeting, Sharon accused one of his ministers of "false patriotism". In the end, the cabinet voted 6-2, to have the police carry out the expulsions, while the army provides general security, and later destroys the properties. Yet, when Police Chief Moshe Karadi heard of the cabinet decision, he responded, that it would be "virtually impossible" for the police to evacuate the settlers, but then added, the police would carry out whatever mission it was assigned. Karadi admitted that regular police duties would suffer if officers had to evacuate settlers instead, but said, he was not aware of any officers' intention to refuse the assignment, something that would not be tolerated, he insisted. Faced with an intractable enemy from without, the so-called Palestinians, and the prospect of multi-generational warfare with them, the last thing Ariel Sharon wants to do is bring disunity to the nation. Whether it's his own "lust" to take that which is not his, like Achav, that drives him to expel Jews from their homes, or simply by mimicking King David's period of disunity, Sharon might just bring the tragedy of many "fallen in battle," home to Israel. Sharon, stop your dictatorial disengagement farce now... Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko To Go To Top

CONTEMPTIBLE WORK Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, August 30, 2004.

Our sages taught us that there is no distinction between honorable and contemptible work, since all work brings honor to the worker. The Sharon government, on the other hand, has demonstrated the existence of contemptible work: work that brings contempt to the worker and his supervisor, and that nobody wants to touch. Such is the work that the Ministers of Defense and of Internal Security are trying to foist on one another, the contemptible work of expelling Jews from their homes. Professors for a Strong Israel is amazed that in the midst of this Oslo War, when they should be concentrating on defeating the enemy, the Security Cabinet convenes ... to decide which Minister will commit the indecent act, the act that ought not and cannot be carried out. Will they call up reservists with emergency orders (tzav 8), as in wartime, in order to free up regular soldiers to do the contemptible deed? The security forces -- police and army, regular and reserves -- exist to fight the enemy, not to fight the citizens of Israel. Dr. Ron Breiman is chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI). His phone number is: 050-5-518 940 To Go To Top

WE SHOULD HAVE BUT ONE FEAR Posted by Gary M. Cooperberg, August 30, 2004.

In these seven weeks following the mourning of Tisha b'Av, we read prophesies of consolation every Sabbath. The prophet Isaiah seems to feel the pain we endure today as our own leaders seek to remove us from parts of our own land. His words should serve to strengthen us andreassure us that our G-d has not abandoned us. The Creator of the Universe will never let either our enemies, our "friends" or even our own leaders undo the destiny He has already begun to set into action. We were not returned to our ancient homeland in order to give parts of it away. We are destined to repopulate and rebuild all of our Divine inheritance. We have neither the right nor the ability to give away our Divine obligations. Peace is a noble goal and one which must be pursued. But we will never achieve peace by abandoning our Jewish obligations. To seek to uproot Jews from their homes and attempt to give away that which was given to us by G-d will only invite Divine Wrath upon us. Yet, despite our mistakes and suicidal tendencies, our G-d will fulfill His prophesies. As we watch anti-Semitism grow all over the world, and see great nations allying themselves with the ever-growing Islamic monster which seeks our destruction, we must understand that even this is part of the process of redemption. It is a test, both for the nations of the world, and for the Jewish people. For the nations it is time to decide whether to express their faith in the Living G-d of Creation, by standing with the Jewish State for Biblical reasons, or fall prey to their fear of Islamic powers. For Israel, the Jewish People, it is time to decide whether to express our faith in the Living G-d of Creation, by returning to and holding on to all of our Divine inheritence, or to fall prey to our fear of other powers. This is truly the bottom line. Peace will not come with fences. Peace will never come from abandoning our homeland. And peace certainly will never come as a result of denying our G-d. We are approaching the New Year when G-d sits in judgement of all of Mankind. As we hear the Shofar sounded each morning in the month of Elul after our prayers, we must redouble our efforts to come close to our G-d and defy those who would have us abandon Him. When the Torah was given to the Jewish People on Mount Sinai, G-d Himself sounded the great Shofar. It was an awesome alarm which frightened all the nations of the world. At that time everyone knew their Creator and feared Him. That recognition and fear will return in the near future as redemption takes place. The sounding of the Shofar every day in Elul is but preparation for the Commandment to hear the sounding of the Shofar on Rosh HaShannah. And the sounding of the Shofar on Rosh HaShannah is but preparation to us all to hear the great Shofar of redemption which is to be sounded in the near future and, once again, will be heard around the world as nations tremble and fall. Rather than be concerned about what the nations are saying, the Jewish nation should be concerned about offending our Creator. How dare any Jewish leader suggest removing Jews from any part of Israel! If Sharon really wants peace he would do better to suggest removing our enemies and extending Jewish presence to all Jewish land under our control, including Gaza, Bethlehem, Jericho and (Ramallah) Bet El. Any attempt to remove Jews from any part of our homeland will result in tragedy and only serve to promote terror rather than abate it. We have suffered enough. We have made enough mistakes to learn from them. As we hear the warning sounds of the Shofar each morning let it penetrate our ears and enter to the depths of our Jewish souls. We should have only One Fear. We should fear the Living G-d of Israel above all else and stop placing ourselves and the entire world in danger by acting against His Divine Plan. To Go To Top

STAND PROUD AND TALL Posted by David Wilder, August 30, 2004.

Almost exactly sixty five years ago, Nazi forces conquered and occupied the second largest city in Poland, Lodz. Less than a week after the occupation, Rosh HaShana 1939, the Germans ordered that all businesses remain open and that synagogues be closed. This was only the beginning of the havoc to be wreaked on Lodz's two hundred and thirty thousand Jews. In November Jews were ordered to wear a yellow arm-band, easily identifying them as enemies of the Third Reich. A month later the arm-bands were replaced by the infamous yellow badge in the shape of a star of David. In February, 1940 the Nazis officially announced the creation of the Lodz Ghetto. On May first the fenced-off ghetto was closed. Two hundred and thirty thousand people were squeezed into less than five square kilometers. The ghetto was sealed, and so was the fate of its inhabitants. Two years later the Germans transported another twenty thousand Jews to the Lodz ghetto, together with five thousand gypsies. In early January 1942, the Germans began a transport of all Jews under the age of 10 and over the age of 65 to the first Nazi extermination camp, Chelmno, only about 65 kilometers from Lodz. A Nazi-appointed Jew, Mordechai Haim Rumkowski, head of the Lodz ghetto Judenrat, or council, made a famous speech: "A grievous blow has struck the ghetto. They are asking us to give up the best we possess - the children and the elderly. I was unworthy of having a child of my own, so I gave the best years of my life to children. I've lived and breathed with children, I never imagined I would be forced to deliver this sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age, I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters! Hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers: Give me your children... I must perform this difficult and bloody operation - I must cut off limbs in order to save the body itself. I must take children because, if not, others may be taken as well - God forbid... I must tell you a secret: they requested 24,000 victims, 3000 a day for eight days. I succeeded in reducing the number to 20,000, but only on the condition that these be children under the age of 10. Children 10 and older are safe! Since the children and the aged together equals only some 13,000 souls, the gap will have to be filled with the sick. I can barely speak. I am exhausted; I only want to tell you what I am asking of you: Help me carry out this action! I am trembling. I am afraid that others, God forbid, will do it themselves. A broken Jew stands before you. Do not envy me. This is the most difficult of all orders I have ever had to carry out at any time. I reach out to you with my broken, trembling hands and beg: Give into my hands the victims! So that we can avoid having further victims, and a population of 100,000 Jews can be preserved! So, they promised me: If we deliver our victims by ourselves, there will be peace!!! The parents dressed the children in their holiday best, as if they were about to attend a party. The children were then separated from their parents and transported to Chelmno. As the train pulled out of the station, filled with babies and the elderly, the cry 'Mama' could be heard from inside the cars. In less than two weeks, over 20,000 Jews were sent to their deaths at Chelmno. Regarding Rumkowski, who was killed at Auschwitz in 1944, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center: Within the ghetto, Rumkowski had gradually overcome opposition with the aid of German intervention and by introducing an evenhanded system of food distribution. Ultimately, he ruled with an iron hand. The few who dared to oppose him, ran the risk of his taking revenge, which in some extreme instances meant being included on the lists of candidates for deportation. His figure more than that of any other Jewish leader, has attracted the attention of historians and writers. In the view of some, Rumkowski was a traitor and a collaborator. Others believe that his policies helped extend the life span of the Lodz ghetto, which remained in existence when all the other ghettos in Poland had been liquidated. Those who hold the latter opinion point out that the five thousand to seven thousand survivors of the Lodz ghetto constituted, in relative terms, the largest among all the groups of Holocaust survivors in Poland. The Lodz ghetto was liquidated in August, 1944 and the Soviets liberated the area in January of 1945. Of the over 250,000 Jews living in the ghetto, less than 900 remained. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/lodz.html and http://www.datasync.com/~davidg59/rumkowsk.html) That's the way it was then. Yesterday, Jews and gentiles gathered in Lodz to mark the 60th anniversary of the ghetto's destruction. Among those there: Israeli science and technology minister Ilan Shalgi, Polish prime minister Marek Belka and Lodz mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki. The ceremony, at the Lodz cemetery, was followed by a march to the Lodz train station, infamous site of Jewish transports to concentration camps. It's very important to remember what happened sixty years ago - in Lodz, in Auschwitz, and throughout Europe. The other night, while attending a wedding ceremony in Jerusalem, I had the honor and privilege to meet a man, who in my eyes, is a giant. In truth, I know very little about Rabbi Haim Menachem Teichtel. My guess is that he is over 80 years old - he was born in Hungary, and was fortunate to escape the flames of the holocaust. So, not knowing him, how can I call him a giant? Simply, because I know of his father. And with a father like his, he too has to be a Jew of gigantic proportions. Rabbi Haim Menachem's father was named Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtel. A supremely talented scholar, the very pious Rabbi Teichtel believed, along with other religious Hungarian Jews in the pre-1940s, that Zionism was an evil disease, to be kept at a distance. As World War Two progressed, Hungary's Jews witnessed what was happening to their Jewish brethren throughout Europe. However, they thought it couldn't happen to them. Rabbi Teichtel, with his brilliant mind and his unbelievable spirituality, realized otherwise. Analyzing the situation at hand, Rabbi Teichel came to an unavoidable conclusion: had Jews seen the handwriting on the wall and moved to Israel, in keeping with the goals of Zionism, the calamitous events plaguing them would not have occurred. He rejected his previous life's philosophy which stated that Jews should not move to Eretz Yisrael and decided to repent, for what he viewed as a terrible sin. Rabbi Teichtel, being trapped in Budapest, decided that his repentance would take the form of a book, which he titled Em Habanim Smacha, which literally means, the Mother of the Sons is Happy. The entire work, quoting hundreds of Jewish texts and scholars from memory, is dedicated to an appreciation of Eretz Yisrael, including the many reasons why Jews should live in their land, the Land of Israel. The book is a tremendous source of praise for the land, and bears witness to its author's humility - a giant Torah scholar who rejected his earlier beliefs, announced his change of heart publicly and wrote a classic Torah volume to convince others of the rightness of his ways. Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtel's family escaped the horrors of Aushwitz, but the Rabbi was not so fortunate. He survived the camps only to be killed days before the liberation by a Ukrainian while attempting to prevent the barbarian from stealing a piece of bread from a woman. So, where does this all lead? If we are to learn from the past, we should recognize, for the nth time, that appeasement does not work. I cannot evaluate the deeds of Mordechai Haim Rumkowski - I certainly do not know if, when reaching the next world, he was judged as a traitor or a hero. But his premise, saving the many by sacrificing the few, was already tried, only a few years earlier, by then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. So why try again? From Rabbi Teichtel we can learn many things - but first of all, not to ignore the obvious, the events taking place around you. Putting on blinds, saying, "it won't happen to me," is a sure recipe for defeat. That's what happened to Hungarian Judaism, at the cost of more than a half a million killed, over 60 percent of the Hungarian Jewish population, obliterated in the course of one year. One last example that I feel obligated to mention. Last night the IDF again destroyed the Hazon David synagogue, as well as the small, makeshift camp at the site of the Hebron Heroes neighborhood, between Hebron and Kiryat Arba. How paradoxical that these two quintessential sites, one a place of worship in memory of two murdered men, and the other, the seeds of a neighborhood in memory of 9 soldiers and officers and three civilians, all killed by Arab terrorists, should be again destroyed on orders of the Israeli government at the same time that Israel, the Jewish people, and even Polish leaders, thousands of kilometers away, commemorate the slaughter of Jews sixty years ago. What would the martyred victims of Ghetto Lodz say if they knew that the Jewish people, with their own hands, were destroying synagogues in Eretz Yisrael, in Hebron, built in memory of murdered Jews? It is so imperative that we learn from the past, but too many times we seem to either forget or ignore, and it is such a blunder. Appeasement is fatal mistake, and blinders do not change reality, they just screen out what you do not want to see. If Israel really wants to honor those Jews who lived and died in Lodz, it is not enough to attend ceremonies and make speeches. We must collectively reject and then correct the erroneous ways of the past, adopting the right means of action - standing tall and proud for what is legitimately, rightfully ours, never acquiesce, when necessary take the offensive rather than hide behind a good defense, and never, ever, despair. With blessings from Hebron. David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com To Go To Top

ALLEGED SPY AFFAIR WON'T HARM STRONG US-ISRAEL TIES Posted by Gerald M. Steinberg, August 30, 2004.

By their very nature, allegations of espionage and abuse of classified material get huge headlines, although the evidence - if any - usually remains murky and hidden from public scrutiny. This is particularly the case regarding the US and Israel, reflecting the wide security cooperation that has developed in response to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and other mutual threats. Mixed with hints of conspiracy and dual loyalty, such cooperation presents a huge target for the relatively small number of American officials and journalists who want to see this relationship halted. For many years, claims involving Israel and spying have been manipulated in the effort to drive a wedge between Washington and Jerusalem, particularly after the Pollard fiasco. The damage to relations in that case was extensive, and its echoes are still being felt today, making another "affair" the dream of all those who wish to disrupt US-Israel cooperation. But the lessons from Pollard appear to have been learned by both the Israeli government and the US. At the same time, the absence of real and juicy spy scandals has spurred the invention of fictitious ones. A few years ago, false charges that Israel was stealing and selling the Pentagon's technical secrets to China were later revealed to have been part of a personal campaign of revenge involving two American officials working for different branches of the government. And headlines claiming that Israel was eavesdropping on the US were also exposed as nonsense. In another case, the head of the CIA - George Tenet - sent an apology to then Mossad head Danny Yatom apologizing for accusations linking Israel to espionage. These periodic leaks and allegations, including the current case, reflect a wider agenda. The Arab lobby in Washington is gaining influence and access to the media, and peddling such stories is one means of moving the focus away from terrorism and the growing pressure from many Americans to end support for the corrupt regimes in the Middle East. In addition, fringe Republican Pat Buchanan and his adherents cling to the classical anti-Semitic myths in which Jews are portrayed as all powerful, and secretly manipulating US policy. The post-war complications in Iraq and the charge that a neo-conservative kabal (code for Jews and Zionists, even though the top two neo-cons - Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney are neither) led America into this confrontation have revived these myths. This may explain the attempt to involve AIPAC - the "powerful" pro-Israel lobby - and the timing of this leak at the height of the US election campaign. Yet despite these efforts and short-lived headlines, US-Israel security cooperation has become stronger, reflecting an understanding of the necessity of sharing resources and knowledge in order to counter the threats to both. In addition, the underlying shared values of democracy and freedom remain central, and mark the difference between American and European attitudes towards Israel. As a result, in the earlier alleged espionage cases, including the Pollard affair, after the dust cleared, this common core remained intact, and there is no reason to expect the outcome to be different this time. Indeed, investigations into the sources of the allegations and the embellishment added by CBS News may deter the next round of this game. Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg directs the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University. To Go To Top

FOLKS, I HAVE A DILEMMA Posted by Arlene Peck, August 30, 2004.

Like too many of my countrymen, I am getting overloaded. And it has gotten to the point that I am so disgusted with the elections and the lack of choices that we have, that I don't know who will be the least horrible of choices. I'm at the point of saying "anybody but Bush" because of the current US president's programs, or lack thereof, on the economy, environment, abortion and stem cell and gun control issues. Oh, and let's not forget the Social Security and healthcare issues that are in dire danger. The prescription drug situation is a national disaster. However, the only redeeming attribute that he might have, and I say this questioningly, is his support of Israel, something that I have yet to see in John Kerry and company. I don't know too much of what he's thinking, as all we've heard about for months is his heroism, or lack thereof, in Vietnam. I probably wouldn't worry about Israel so much if I detected a little bit of leadership and strength in the politicians who are running that country. I hesitate to say "leadership", as I haven't seen too much of that since Yitzhak Shamir was prime minister. Amazingly, though, the Bush administration, knowing that the terrorists receive much of the cash and the rest goes into Yasser Arafat & Company's villas, is still send them funding. What kind of mentality do the US politicians have that they think they know what is best for the Jewish State? It's comical that anyone can look to George Bush as the rescuing cavalry, least of all Israel. Lordy, we can't even stop the abyss of incompetence that our politicians are leading us into, let alone guide others whose very survival is at stake. But Israel is doing pretty "well" in the incompetence department, also. I sit here astounded that one man, or maybe two if you count Shimon Peres, are blithely going along selling off pieces of the Land of Israel in order to please President Bush & Company, including the persistently biased (toward the Arabs) State Department, many of whose graduates are on Arab payrolls as "consultants". Treason, anyone? How do they do it? I remember when US President Jimmy Carter "gave away" Florida, and Castro opened Cuban prisons and mental institutions and gave us their 'boat people'. Meanwhile, thousands cross my state border from Mexico daily and the current president calls it a "guest worker program". They may not be coming over to blow us up, but it is draining our economy. Our stock market is still down four years later. We have no health plan. The environment is getting worse, and we are so beholden to the Arabs for our oil that terrorism is being overlooked for oil. I don't think that we have one employee left in the USA who is actually working for an American company. Everyone seems to have been out-sourced to India or the Philippines. It is virtually impossible to call any service company, that hasn't out-sourced. Even our IRS. Yet, somehow, we're supposed to know what to tell Israel to do in order to have peace, "peace in our time", a peace treaty disguised as surrender - like the Paris accords with the North Vietnamese. We tell them they will have peace if they just "show restraint" in the face of suicide bombings; if they just did as they are told by our president or State Department, then everything will be just fine and Israel will attain this elusive peace - a peace of the cemetery. The latest travesty was a report that a senior Israeli official, the country's attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, is urging that Israel consider adopting the Fourth Geneva Convention as regards Judea, Samaria and Gaza. He made a big issue that it isn't disputed land, but rather 'occupied territory', which Israel now acknowledges. Couple that with the Israeli Supreme Court ruling on the wall and I can only shake my head in wonderment. The Los Angeles Times, which never met a terrorist that they didn't report as a "freedom fighter" or "activist", is ecstatic when these loose cannons have a slip of the tongue that makes Israel look bad. The paper picked an opportunity to cite a Haaretz report on how Prime Minister Sharon declared that "more than three million Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza were a population living under occupation, and suggested that continuing to exert control over them was ultimately harmful to Israel." Don't they realize the damage they do with such idiotic comments? I almost had to laugh when the LA Times lost it and didn't know how to report the Iraqi sports team players who were giving press conferences saying that if they weren't busy at the Olympics, then they would be back home in Iraq fighting with the "brothers against the Americans." This, from a team that previously would have had their feet shredded in a blender if they lost by that psychopath Uday Hussein. Amazing how Iraq totally forgot that the only reason that they were at the games in the first place was because my tax dollars made it all possible. The talk shows, however, weren't as benevolent as the local media when it comes to the "insurgents" and were saying how we should nuke them. I know the mentality of the enemy, and frankly, at this point in time, I wish that Israel would make the announcements that any terrorist attack would be answered by missiles and bullets that have been soaked in pig entrails. It worked when General Pershing buried his terrorists wrapped in pig carcasses almost fifty years ago. I wonder what the market is for pig manure today? When I was living in Israel, I remember how the Arab "workers" would sabotage the jobs they were working on and pee in the air conditioning systems and put rotten eggs in the mortar. Why shouldn't it be a reversal today, with it being well known that parts of a pig would be used whenever they might want to do their damage? What about the security barrier that President Bush and Colin Powell call an impediment to peace? I think that it would be a wonderful addition to notify the PLO that if they want to climb over, under or around it, then they might have to go through pig, pig, pig. Knowing their primitive and backward mentality, I'll make a bet that the terrorist brotherhood would think twice about anything "impeding" their entrance into Paradise. (I just wish I knew of a wall that we could build in my neighborhood of Southern California to stop the constant flow of illegal aliens who are constantly coming over our border.) Maybe it's time for Israel, in addition to standing up and doing what they have to do without asking permission from the US, EU, UN or anyone else, to give consulting advice to my government on how to build a wall that could solve our problem? Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com To Go To Top

ALLEGATIONS OF ISRAELI SPYING USUALLY DISAPPEAR - EVENTUALLY Posted by Alex Safian, August 30, 2004.

Reports that the FBI suspects a mid-level Pentagon employee specializing in Iranian affairs of conveying classified documents to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and further that two of the lobby's employees may have passed those documents to Israel, have led to a predictable storm of press coverage, much of it overheated. CBS, for example, led its Nightly News on Friday with its "scoop," and ABC's Nightline replaced its scheduled program with coverage of the spy story. For some unexplained reason the Nightline program included a segment on the USS Liberty incident and an interview with discredited Israel-basher and conspiracy theorist James Bamford. Israeli officials and AIPAC have strongly denied any involvement in spying on America, and it is far too early to say whether anyone will be arrested or convicted of anything in this case, or whether any sensitive information was compromised. But there is no doubt that in its coverage of the affair the media has forgotten two fundamental facts: * There have been entirely similar charges in the past of alleged spying for Israel which ended up being dropped for lack of evidence or merit. * Countries don't just spy on their enemies, they also spy on their friends. It is well known, for example, that Israel has spied on America at least once in the past, in the Jonathan Pollard affair, which Israel apologized for. Less well known, however, is the fact that the United States has also spied on Israel, even recruiting Israeli military officers and politicians. Israel's Alleged Spies Supposed spies for Israel have included David Tenenbaum, an Orthodox Jew and engineer who worked at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren Michigan. Tenenbaum was charged with passing sensitive information on the Patriot missile and advanced armor to Israel. (Detroit Free Press, Feb. 20, 1997) More than a year later the case was quietly dropped, with the FBI stating only that "The case is closed. No criminal charges have been filed." After the case was dropped, Tenenbaum got his job back, but he has filed a lawsuit against the government claiming that he was singled out for scrutiny and prosecution solely for his religious beliefs. (Detroit Free Press, Oct. 13, 2000) Also suspected of spying for Israel was CIA employee Adam Ciralsky. According to an internal CIA memo, Ciralsky was guilty of "deliberately compromising U.S. government classified information to an Israeli national, accepting compensation from an Israeli national in exchange for U.S. government classified information, and deliberately concealing from the U.S. government a relationship with an Israeli national." (Associated Press, Feb. 7, 2000) Despite the seemingly serious charges against Ciralsky, he has to this date not been charged with any wrongdoing, and he has filed his own lawsuit against the U.S. government, charging that he was: "unjustly singled out for investigation and subsequently interrogated, harassed, surveilled and terminated from employment with the CIA solely because he is a Jew and he practices the Jewish religion. Moreover, this ultra vires and constitutionally repugnant conduct was knowingly undertaken by defendants in conformance with a custom, policy and practice of both the CIA and FBI. Here, Mr. Ciralsky seeks damages to compensate for him for his injuries, and injunctive relief to prevent further harm to himself and other Jewish-Americans who work or seek to work in the federal government in so-called intelligence agencies. Indeed, damages and injunctive and other equitable relief are being sought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ..." In addition, because of the anti-Semitic language used in many of the CIA's memos on Ciralsky (references to his "rich Jewish friends" and "wealthy daddy"), the agency arranged to have the ADL provide sensitivity training to its internal investigators. (U.S. Newswire, Apr. 14, 1999, letter from CIA Director George Tenet to the ADL) Perhaps the most serious instance of supposed spying by Israel against the United States involved a person code-named "Mega," who may well not have existed. As reported by the Washington Post on May 7, 1997: "The FBI has opened an investigation to determine whether a senior U.S. government official has been passing highly sensitive information to the Israeli government, according to sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry. "The investigation was launched in January after the National Security Agency intercepted a secure communication between a senior Israeli intelligence officer in Washington and a superior in Tel Aviv that referred to someone code-named 'Mega,' and an attempt to obtain a sensitive American document, U.S. government officials said." Israeli officials strongly denied that they were spying against the United States, and also denied that they were familiar with anyone code-named "Mega." As the officials explained, however, the Hebrew term for the CIA sounded something like "Mega," perhaps explaining the confusion. In any event, no one was ever charged with being "Mega," and it seems the investigation was, again, quietly dropped. Though, of course, not before Israel's reputation was again dragged through the mud. Despite the nonexistence of "Mega," the Post story certainly did reveal spying - on Israel by the United States. For as the report indicated, the NSA monitored a secure communication between Israeli intelligence officials. Just monitoring the conversation, whether it was secure or not, is spying. But a secure communication would be encrypted, and because Israel is one of the world's leaders in the science of cryptography, there is no chance that even the NSA's supercomputers could have cracked the Israeli code. The only other possibility is a U.S. mole within Israeli intelligence who passed on to the U.S. the key to the Israeli code. In other words, the "Mega" case proved beyond any doubt that the United States was spying on Israel. Nor was it an isolated incident - there have been previous cases of such spying by the U.S. America's Spies in Israel Yosef Amit was an intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Forces, responsible for running agents in Arab countries, who eventually rose to command an intelligence base on the border with Lebanon. While there, Major Amit ran into difficulties with the law in 1978, and was discharged from the IDF. Eventually going to work as a private investigator, he was recruited into the CIA by Tom Waltz, a Jewish CIA officer based at the American embassy in Tel-Aviv. The Americans were supposedly especially interested in information on Israeli troop movements and plans in Lebanon and the territories, which Amit provided. He also apparently passed to the Americans secret documents from Israel's internal security service, the Shin Bet, which he got from a friend who worked there. The Shin Bet eventually caught up with Amit in 1986, when he was secretly arrested for espionage. The trial was also secret, though it is known that Amit received a long prison sentence. (Ha'aretz, Dec. 12, 1997) Another U.S. spy was the Israeli politician Andrzej Kielczynski, a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and also a member of the Likud Central Committee. Kielczynski was recruited into the CIA in 1985 by the same Mr. Waltz who recruited Yosef Amit, and he allegedly turned over to the Americans information on where Israel based nuclear weapons, and also helped to uncover Jonathan Pollard's spying against America. (Ha'aretz, May 18, 2001) Kielczynski later sued the CIA, claiming breach of contract - supposed promises of money and American citizenship having not been forthcoming. In contesting the suit, the CIA did not deny that Kielczynski was a CIA asset. Instead, it won the case by citing a 125-year-old precedent (Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105 [1875]) to the effect that "secret information agreements to which a United States government agency is a party cannot be enforced in the courts ... because its litigation could jeopardize confidential information." (New York Law Journal, Feb. 27, 2001) In other words, the CIA's own legal defense confirmed that it had recruited Kielczynski as a spy against Israel. Conclusion Spy stories and allegations always garner banner headlines and television "exclusives" if Israel is involved, but the reality is that most such cases fade away for lack of any credible evidence. Many seem to be the result of overzealous investigators, some of whom may harbor unfriendly attitudes towards Jews or Israel (witness, for example, the anti-Semitic language in the Ciralsky memos). The media, and the public, should remember this when new spy allegations crop up. The media should also remember that spying is a two way street -- and while Israel has spied on America in the past, so has America spied on Israel. Alex Safian is CAMERA Associate Director. CAMERA monitors the news and TV media for how fair they are in reporting on Israel. The website address is www.camera.org. To Go To Top

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, August 29, 2004.

National Security Advisor, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace on August 19, 2004. Some of what she said was morally indefensible...real politik at its worst. Thirty million Kurds, living in adjacent territories now designated as parts of other peoples' lands, remain stateless. This was not supposed to be. With the break up of the Ottoman Turkish Empire after World War I, the Kurds - native to the region for thousands of years (Guti, Kardu, Kassites, Hurrians, Medes, etc.) - were promised independence in the Mandate of Mesopotamia. They were sacrificed, however, on the altar of British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism after Britain received a favorable decision on the Mosul Question from the League of Nations in 1925. Arab Iraq emerged instead with the oil-rich Kurdish region encompassing Mosul and Kirkuk attached to it. Its navy having recently switched from coal to oil, the British Empire decided it was against its best interests to allow the separation of the Kurdish lands from what their oil-rich Arab friends claimed to be purely Arab patrimony. A similar problem was brewing in the Mandate of Palestine; indeed, Arabs would later claim that they would view the birth of Kurdistan as another Israel. So, in an era in which other peoples were gaining national rights, the Kurds were told they were unworthy of such aspirations. Dr. Rice told them the very same thing not long ago. So, on this issue, there is no disagreement between the Oval Office and Foggy Bottom. Sandwiched between two regional powerhouses, Ataturk's Turkey and Reza Shah Pahlavi's Iran, the only real option left was independence in at least part of Mesopotamia. Denied this, frustrations caused by suppression, massacres, subjugation, and such led to periodic, explosive Kurdish revolts. Among other things, Kurds found their very language and culture outlawed in Turkey and Iraq - with similar goings on in Syria and elsewhere as well. Besides the Jews, if ever a people needed the protection of their own nation state simply for their own survival, certainly it was/is the Kurds. Regardless, while Dr. Rice was delivering her words of wisdom regarding the necessity of creating a 22nd or 23rd state for Arabs in the region (second - not first - Arab one within the original 1920 borders Mandatory Palestine) at the Institute of Peace, she totally shot down questions relating to Kurdish fears, anxieties, and aspirations in Iraq. Here's some of what she had to say about those Arab aspirations, however: "The President believes that the Palestinian people deserve not merely their own state, but a just and democratic state that serves their interests and fulfills their decent aspirations." Despite the bloodshed and turmoil in the Arab areas of Iraq; despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been killed by Iraqi and other Arabs over the decades; despite the fact that the Kurds have been marked as traitors because of their close ties to America; despite the fact that the most stable and democratic areas in Iraq are in the Kurdish areas...indeed, despite all of this and more, Dr. Rice brushed off a question regarding a Kurdish referendum on independence (which showed that at least 80% of the Kurds wanted this) with the following disdain: "...It's the role of leadership to convince people that they really ought to stay in the same body." A sickening disgrace. While all nations have to consider "reasons of State," America is strong enough to truly be a shining light and beacon of hope more often than not. And I say this not out of naivete. Did Condy advise Yugoslavia to remain intact while Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, Albanians, Macedonians, and others were doing a number on each other? Unless my memory fails me, not that long ago, the United States hastened the process of the dissolution of that nation by taking sides in a conflict that has been going on ever since Stephan Dushan of Serbia tried to stop the Turks centuries ago...the first Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The war was not as clear cut as, for public relations purposes, America made it out to be. Many a jihadist from the Middle East joined the fight for the further Islamization of the Balkans. Yet Condy brought the issue of Bosnia and such up at the August 19th presentation. This is not to say that all those diverse folks should have been forced to live as one. The glue that held them together - however reluctantly - was Marshall Tito. When he died in 1980, Yugoslavia's fate was predictable. But, if America went to war to help bring about this dissolution process in Yugoslavia - allegedly because of the atrocities and ethnic cleansing occurring among different ethnic groups who were doing a number on each other (though we unfairly singled out the Serbs) - then how is it possible to look at Mesopotamia/Iraq and not see that a similar situation exists there? Besides the age-old animosity between the Arabs themselves, Shi'a and Sunni, the Kurds and others - Chaldean Christians, Jews, etc. - have been in an even more precarious situation because of an earlier forced union born of British petroleum interests. Most of Iraq's Jews, by the way, have fled to Israel, where they now number in the hundreds of thousands. And many got there with help from the Kurds. The excuse offered that granting Kurds independence in the Kurdish areas of Iraq won't work because it will be too destabilizing in the area - i.e. it will tick off the Turks and Arabs - is pure hypocrisy. True, one fifth of Turkey is Kurdish...but one fifth of Israel is Arab. Thirty eight Israels can fit into Turkey, and Turkey's population is eleven times that of Israel's. But this doesn't stop Dr. Rice, the State Department, and others from demanding that a miniscule, 9-mile wide Israel allow yet another rejectionist Arab state, dedicated to its destruction, to be created in its own very backyard. And Israel has consented to this...fool that it is...but, in all fairness, not that it has much of a choice in the matter given that its best friend insists that this must occur. "Justice," after all, demands that Arabs have two dozen states and Kurds none...don't you know? Regardless of America's best intentions - and we were right in going into Iraq to remove Adolph, er Saddam - the Kurds will be in for serious trouble when we leave, as we will so sooner or later. Decades of previous history and Arab subjugating, murderous actions and attitudes forecast this. And with more Arabs - dominant Shi'a as well as Sunni - speaking out against the American occupation, the future is indeed frightening for those who supported America the most...the Kurds. Arab spokesmen have already let this be known. At the beginning of the American war for the liberation of Iraq (or for oil, depending on how you look at all of this), there was talk about the creation of a federal system whereby the rights of the various ethnic groups would have some semblance of security. Those days are gone. The majority Shi'a, rid of Saddam and their Sunni masters, now have "other" plans. Assuming that the "moderates" emerge on top when the dust settles - which is by no means a given - this still changes little regarding the Kurds. And we may quite possibly wind up with the Islamic Republic of Iraq - like its Iranian neighbor to the east. Think how the course of history could have been changed had Israel been reborn prior to World War II and the Holocaust. Must additional hundreds of thousands - or more - Kurds be gassed and slaughtered in other ways yet again? Long before Saddam, the supporters of Arab nationalism had won over those of a multi-ethnic Iraqi nationalism in the country. Nothing has changed, except that the forced Arabization process has become even more intensified. Furthermore, America is well aware of this. No one says that there will not be risks associated with doing, at long last, what is right for thirty million much abused, stateless people. The Foggy Folks and such don't seem to worry too much about the risks tiny Israel will be forced to take so that Arabs can get yet another state. But the birth of Kurdistan is long overdue. And it can occur in such a way that its own future is tied to not allowing some of those fears - by the Turks, in particular, regarding their own Kurdish population - to become reality. Indeed, Turkey may lose some of its own "headaches" by allowing them to move to the new Kurdish state... like diaspora Armenians moving to Armenia, Jews to Israel, Greeks to Greece, and so forth. Additionally, a formula can be worked out to share the vast oil wealth of Iraqi Kurdistan with others as well... Shi'a and Sunni Arab Iraq, but Ankara also. The latter has felt that it was robbed of the Mosul fields by the Brits in the 1925 decision by the League of Nations. The Turkmen of Iraq need their rights protected as well, but unlike the Kurdish situation, there are already a number of independent Turkish lands. Turks are not stateless. Again, despite America's best intentions, given the fact that an autonomous Kurdistan within a united, federal Iraq is apparently no longer a real option, America must think long and hard about very possibly becoming an accomplice to a future, even more tragic fate for its consistently loyal friends, the Kurds. We betrayed them several times already over the past century. We must do better this time. To Go To Top

EQALITARIANISM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT Posted by Dorothy Werner, August 29, 2004.

Successive Israeli governments, including the current one, have allowed Arafat's Wakf free reign to destroy the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. There is a direct connection between this and the negative image of 'religious' Judaism. Contrary to what is generally believed, egalitarianism is very much at home in Judaism. The Judaism's Egalitarian World web site http://www.jeworld.org/ presents the equality that lies at the basis of Judaism for all who may be interested in filling this vital gap in their education. To Go To Top

FOUR ISRAELIS SAVED FROM NEAR-LYNCHING Posted by Bryna Berch, August 29, 2004.

This was a news item in today's Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNN.com). "They are simply animals. They walk around freely amongst us, but if we make a mistake and come to their areas, it could cost us our lives." So said this morning Yaakov Shabo, one of four Israelis who made a wrong turn on Friday into an Arab-populated neighborhood and were saved at the last moment from a lynching. "Another minute and I would have been dead," another of the Israelis said. "I thought we were going to end up like those two poor soldiers who were killed in Ramallah" - a reference to Yosef Avrahami and Vadim Norzitch who were brutally lynched in the Ramallah police station when they made a wrong turn into the city on Oct. 12, 2000. Shabo said that he and three others were on their way from Beit El to Jerusalem when they arrived in the area of the Atarot Airport and turned right instead of left: "The problem was that our driver didn't know the way, and the escort somehow got lost, and when we arrived at the checkpoint, the soldiers waved us on [assuming we were Arabs] instead of checking us. Very soon we realized our mistake, and tried to turn around, but then a mob of Arabs came out and started stoning us - rocks, metal pipes and debris, concrete blocks, whatever they had." Shabo said that among the hundreds who attacked, "they were all happy to kill Jews. None of them tried to save us - except for two who acted like human beings. They told us to get out of the truck and they would get us out of there safely. I said, 'What about the truck?' They said, 'Forget about the truck! You have to get out of here!' So I ran with them to the checkpoint and told t! he sol diers that they have to save my friends who are about to be killed." Scenes of the near-lynching caught on film show Arabs pelting the truck from all sides, with one man attacking the door of the truck with a metal pipe. The army in fact sent in a force to extricate the three remaining Israelis. "I felt like the soldiers who came were like angels coming to save us," said another of the Israelis. The damaged trucks were later towed to the checkpoint as well. Three of the four Israelis were taken to hospitals in light condition and have already been released. Shabo, who was hurt more seriously, expects to be released today or tomorrow. Police sources investigating whether the drivers in fact entered the area in error have apparently concluded that they did not intentionally violate the ban on entering PA-controlled areas. Nothing has been said, however, about a police investigation of possible criminal violations by the Arab mob. To Go To Top

THE LONG KNIVES ARE OUT! Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 29, 2004.

The accusation of a spy giving information on Iran's purported nuclear capability to Israel is starting to boil. Today's questions are: How many knives have been drawn? And how many backs are to be stabbed? We are told that the investigation of a staff member in the Pentagon has been ongoing for a year. Why would the FBI under Director Mueller choose three days before the Republican Convention for re-electing President George Bush to leak this story to CBS TV News? Was Bush the target of a set-up scandal just before he appears at the Convention? Clearly, there are political knives aimed at numerous intended victims. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld established a group, with Doug Feith as its director, to investigate the faults in the government that led to 9/11. We know that this group was greatly resented by the Pentagon, the FBI, CIA and the State Department. They were furious that another group, NOT under their control, was looking into their own investigation results on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the global Terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda. As the 9/11 Commission pointed out, there were massive failures in and between all the Intel organizations before 9/11 - with, no doubt, more Terror acts to come from those institutional failure endemic in the system. Getting rid of Doug Feith has been a primary objective of these various Intel groups, including especially the pro-Arab State Department. One is reminded of those close to Julius Caesar who successfully conspired to murder him. They agreed that it would be best if they all stabbed him at once so no one individual would carry the guilt. "Et Tu, Brutus?" Stabbing the Jewish State of Israel would be an extra benefit, assuming that President Bush was not aware of the plans by Mueller of the FBI, the Pentagon, CIA, Ashcroft of the Justice Department and the leakage which generally comes out of the propaganda team in the bowels of the State Department. So, what might the "Long Knives" expect to get out of a somewhat manipulated expose? They would give AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, a black eye on the front pages of most newspapers and in radio and TV coverage. If (as expected) it is proven that none of these things happened as first charged, the accusation would still stick and, be assured, the corrected facts would appear much later in a two inch column on page 50. NPR Radio would likely not even mention that the charge was false. In the meantime, several things could play out. We may see a lot of speculative coverage by such hostile news outlets such as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Npr, Washington Post, CNN, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, etc. Israel will and has denied the accusation but, will not be believed. AIPAC has similarly denied and not been believed. Jews will feel their automatic knee jerk guilt reaction syndrome because that's the way we are. Israel will feel that it must become even more subservient to the Washington agencies and especially to the State Department's plans to re-partition the tiny Jewish State, in addition to establishing what we all know will become a Terrorist Palestinian State in the heartland of Israel. Assuming President Bush was NOT part of the FBI/Justice/State trap, then he will be forced to display anger towards Israel. Although Michael Ledeen of AEI, (the American Enterprise Institute), has said the accusation was laughable, nevertheless its planners expect results. "Long Knives" are costly in terms of long-term planning and the risk of exposure. The decision to distance Israel from America has long been a goal of the Arabist State Department, Saudi Arabia - among the other Arab or Muslim nations of Iran, Syria, Egypt, et al. Even more peculiar is the expenditure of resources while there is a major threat from Al Qaeda to use everything from NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) weapons to strike at America and/or the other Free West countries. What would bring the FBI, CIA, Pentagon and State to work together to embarrass the President before elections? Granted that all four bureaucracies are furious at the President for daring to restructure their castles by appointing a security Czar over all of them. We know how angry the Generals have been at Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld for threatening their bureaucracies by restructuring the military for greater efficiency - to include turning up wasteful spending. Having control of their separate budgets has always been a war of how much each gets and the unspoken custom that waste is to be looked into only by a forgiving Congress. Keep in mind that the CIA has a $30+ Billion budget while the Pentagon has an Intel section with a separate $3 Billion budget. The stench of this investigation is overwhelming in terms of what was to be achieved from its inception. While Israel has always been a target of opportunity for the State Department, it appears that the President has been added to their list. I cannot help but wonder if another deal has been struck, with the political challengers' "think team" to rescind ALL of the Bush efforts in terms of NOT restructuring the FBI/CIA/Pentagon Intelligence agencies if Bush is not reelected. Clearly, they all want to go back to the way things were before 9/11. Certainly they don't want a faith-based President who prays and makes decisions on what G-d may inspire. Naturally, Israel fits under Bush's umbrella - which is an irritant to these folks - especially the State Department. If this waste of manpower, money which should have been better applied to the serious threat to all America by the radical Islamists, then it is past time to fire the Directors of the FBI, CIA, Pentagon Generals and a clean-out of the State Department. THIS JUST IN August 29th: FOX NEWS reports that Middle Eastern men are exploring the possibility of obtaining ambulances but, not asking about patient care and medical equipment - just about load, speed, etc. - which translates into "Ambulance Suicide Bombs". While the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, Justice and State are playing Keystone Kops against a trusted and proven ally when they should be on the street, finding the really bad guys. As the radical Islamists trained to merely fly and NOT to land airliners, they now just want to drive ambulances loaded with explosives, as they do now in the Middle East. Perhaps it would be better if the plotters of this current spurious accusation got off their lazy bottoms and into the street rather than wasting resources to change a Presidential election. Let us hope their subversion is limited to merely embarrassing the President. Shaking up a fat and well-funded bureaucracy creates lots of enemies who believe they are entitled to their over-funded and fat life. Clearly, the "Long Knives" are out and there are lots of backs to be stabbed before this conspiracy is over. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. ARUN GANDHI Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, August 29, 2004.

I do not understand what all this uproar about Gandhi's grand son is all about? Gandhi himself was against the establishment of a Jewish State in mandatory Palestine. His "pro-Jewish" statements invariably came with a "but." He did not acknowledge Jews as a national group but as a religion. See:http://www.twf.org/News/Y2001/0815-GandhiZionism.html This article is by and was forward by Jock L. Falkson. Falkson wrote, "Here is Maurice Ostroff's timely rejoinder to Arun Gandhi, who accuses Israel of apartheid. He writes that whereas Israel "ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or gender... it is Israel's Arab neighbors, which enforce gender and religious apartheid." Dear Mr. Gandhi, In Hebrew we have an expression "kol hakavod" which literally means all honor to you. It is used when one wishes to encourage someone for doing something admirable. And I am writing to say kol hakavod to you for establishing the Gandhi Institute to honor the memory of your revered grandfather Mahatma Gandhi. No doubt, you follow your grandfather's devotion to truth, as expressed in his autobiography "Story of My Experiments with Truth". I trust therefore that you will welcome a few observations about the truth of the Israel Palestinian conflict. In an article on your web site "The World After 9/11" you wrote "Palestinian young people are not sacrificing their lives simply because their religion tells them to, nor, as the American media will have us believe, because they are told they will enjoy luxuries and sex with beautiful women in heaven." As this appears to be one of the basic premises governing your outlook on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I hope that, as a devotee to truth, you will agree that its veracity deserves critical examination. The cycle of violence commonly quoted in the media is: suicide bombing - Israeli response - retaliatory suicide attack and so on. But this simplified sequence omits the essential initial motivating factor, viz. incitement. To break the cycle, it is essential to remove this obvious root cause. While the PA sends "messages of peace" in English, it continuously incites its people in Arabic to "Kill and be killed." PA television spots urge young people to seek a martyr's paradise. It shows a child writing a farewell letter saying "Mother, don't cry over me, be joyous over my blood." Small children, wrapped in mock explosives participate in public parades and are taught to use murderous weapons. The undeniable truth is that naive young people are in fact being lured by religious exhortations, glorifying death as 'Shahids', and sent to certain death by cruel, cynical recruiters. Yes! cynical. No son of an Arab politician or religious leader has ever blown himself up. Your description of Israel's anti-terrorist barrier (ATB) as an apartheid wall, as headlined in The Times of India (Aug. 27) is particularly disconcerting. You are quoted as saying "the barrier, which Israel calls its bulwark against suicide bombers but Palestinians see as a bid to annex occupied land, might isolate Palestinians but not silence them just as apartheid rule failed to suppress blacks in South Africa". The Times provided some balance by adding, "Israel denies any such intention and rejects comparisons with apartheid South Africa. It says the barrier could be torn down and negotiations on Palestinian statehood could proceed if Palestinians ended attacks on Israelis." The irony is that while you obviously intended your rally against the ATB to spread a message of non-violence, it ended with Palestinian youths hurling stones as graphically illustrated in an AP picture. The truth is that the ATB against which you are protesting has prevented the killing and maiming of countless uninvolved persons including the elderly, the infirm and infants, Jew and Arab alike. It was surely not your intention, but many see your much-publicized protest against the ATB without a simultaneous, highly visible condemnation of Palestinian incitement and terror, as support for that terror. It is difficult to see any resemblance between this rally, which ended in stone throwing, and your grandfather's famous non-violent Salt March to Dandi. It is sad that as a lover of peace and truth you appear to have been influenced by abusive labels invented by propagandists, which, though inaccurate, are nevertheless propagated as catch phrases by uncritical media. The appellation of apartheid to Israel is as unjustified as it is offensive. The abhorrent South African apartheid system not only denied the vote to Black citizens, it legislated to force discrimination in almost every aspect of daily life while Israel's Declaration of Independence specifically "ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or gender." The truth is that it is Israel's Arab neighbors, which enforce gender and religious apartheid. The truth is that Israeli Muslims, Christians, Druse and other minority groups enjoy exactly the same civil and political rights as Jews. The truth is that they serve in the Knesset and speak freely against the government. The truth is that Israel is in fact, the only country in the Middle East where voting takes place in a truly democratic manner. Your revered grandfather wrote: "When in despair I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won; there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall." If we seek the truth, let's avoid propaganda and fearlessly examine factual history no matter where our enquiry leads. Then let us decide who are the tyrants and murderers and against whom the protests should be directed. About your visit to Chairman Arafat, you have been quoted as saying "In principle, he agreed to non-violence, but we couldn't come down to any brass tacks. I couldn't pin him down to any action. In an half-hour discussion, I won't change his opinion". Looking at the half full glass perhaps we should be optimistic about your further statement "The fact that he agreed in principle is a first step. Hopefully we can work on him to move further". You can help break the cycle of violence if you can persuade the PA to replace the lethal incitement programs, which their kids now receive, with the constructive educational programs they deserve. This would enable the negotiations to resume. What is more, the ATB will become unnecessary and can be torn down, to the great relief of Israelis as well as Palestinians. And you, sir, will be able to extend your peacemaking efforts to regions in dire need, such as Darfur where it has been estimated that 1,400 people are dying daily. To Go To Top

ISRAEL TO THE RESCUE - AN EXCHANGE Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, August 29, 2004.

BULLETIN: ISRAEL TO THE RESCUE I believe there is no doubt at all that Iran is in the final stages of completing its military nuclear capabilities. You may have seen the news clips of Iran parading its long range missiles and rockets which are within range of Tel Aviv. I am confident you all realize that nuclear bombs in the possession of the fundamentalist Iranian Muslim regime, which is not hiding its support of international Islamic terrorism, including such groups as Hizballah, is an imminent and extremely dangerous scheme. Incidentally, it was reported yesterday by Israel's 2nd TV Channel News that Hizballah is now accountable for 78% of Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The Arab-Palestinians are thus widening and internationalizing the scope of their terrorism and their ultimate plan of annihilating Israel. Some experts predict that Iran can be nuclear-capable within ten (10) months. This is the context and the scope of the crisis and the backdrop of the war in Iraq. Friends, before attacking President Bush, how many of you understand that Iraq is intended as a buffer between Iran and the rest of the Middle East? You can bet your life that the next President of the USA, whoever he may be, will have to deal with this looming threat within his first term in office. If you agree with me that "negotiations" with Iran is an unattainable fantasy, that at best it might merely postpone the inevitable for a short while, just so that Iran can use the time to consolidate its preparations even further, you belong to those who understand the situation as well as the Middle East. It might also influence your choice of President in November. I know who I am voting for. Some of my US friends console themselves by offering the following scenario: We are not worried, so they say; Israel will have to react, as it did in Iraq in 1981, and will take out Iran's nuclear reactor. The US will tacitly acquiesce and will offer Israel the necessary diplomatic protection. The world will secretly rejoice, including some Arab countries, while condemning Israel's "aggression" and its protector, The Great Satan, but after a few months, Israel's "flagrant violation of international law" will be forgotten. If the above scenario is probable, I am in strong opposition to it. It is high time for the western world to take control and responsibility for Islamic aggression and stop the reliance on tiny Israel to do the dirty job for it. The USA, Europe and Asia must openly support Israel's needs. The more moderate Arab countries, including the new Iraq, must be coerced to fully join in with the West in its quest against fundamental Islam. All must drop the smoke screen of the "Palestinian" issue and start facing the real crisis. The Arab-Palestinians must be told to be content with their already existing Palestinian state of Jordan. No other viable solution exists. Everybody knows it, and any further delays just perpetuate the nearly 60 years' old on going charade. Israel can indeed help, as it has always done, but it should do so only as a full and equal partner, in the open. The world deserves Israel's intervention only if it accepts a strong and viable Israel, stops vilifying it, and agrees to a defendable long lasting solution to the MiddleEast conflict. Any other solution is a smoke screen, a fallacy, a delusion, that serves only one purpose: A deferment of the obligatory solution to a time in the future when a resolution will prove exponentially more difficult whilst the Iranian nuclear missiles are ready on their launchers to be fired. Your Truth Provider, Yuval Dear friends, I received many supportive comments for my Israel to the Rescue bulletin of yesterday. So far, I received only a single critical one from the Movement for One Democratic Secular State organization (www.onestate.org). This "movement" for a "democratic" and "secular" country in place of Israel is so ridiculous, one does not know if to laugh or cry. How many of you believe that it is possible to have a democratic and secular state with Arab majority? Can you point to one other example? In such a "state" the Arabs will gain immediate majority. Why do the Arabs deserve yet another state (the 23rd) while the Jewish people are deprived of even one? The organizers of this misguided "movement" begin from the wrong bigoted misconception that Judaism is just a religion. Nothing can be further from the truth: The Jewish people are a nation with a common Jewish religion. All the traits which define a nation exist, including common language, history, national holidays, customs, etc. But even without Judaism, if the Arab-Palestinians can become a separate "nation" since 1964 deserving of a separate country, surely Israel, born in 1948, deserves a country too. Besides, Israel with its one million Arabs, is already a democratic secular state? But let us go back to the short letter I received from this "movement" and my response. The point they raise is important for all to understand. Your Truth Provider, Yuval Their letter: How nice of you to call for us Americans to die for you? Aren't enough of our children dying for Israel in Iraq already? Iran is no threat to us - send your own kids off to die if you're so worried about Iran, leave our kids alone. My response: Are you sure you read what I wrote? I am not calling Americans to die for Israel. For 56 years Israelis have been dying for America, and the world, being in the forefront of the war on Arab and Islamic terror and subversion. If you do not understand that the world is already in WWIII, and on the brink of some nuclear calamity from extreme Islamists who do not care to die as they murder YOU, you are either blind or stupid, or both. What I said in my bulletin is the following: If the US, Europe and Asia want Israel to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them by attacking the Iranian nuclear reactor, the least they can do is treat Israel with respect, protect her and make her stronger. Got it? Yuval. To Go To Top

THE FINE ART OF A SET-UP - ENGINEERING AND DENIAL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 28, 2004.

THIS JUST IN ON AUGUST 27TH: An accusation has been floated, presumably by the U.S. State Department, to the effect that information on Iran's nuclear capability has been "subversively" passed on to Israel through AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. You will find the timing and purpose of this leak quite interesting. When the pro-Arab State Department leaks accusations against Israel, you have to look beyond the mere hostile dirty tricks of this Arabist institution. So, let's look deeper, little by little. At this time the Saudis have launched an expensive PR campaign to take away the image of the Saudis being 'deep pockets' for Terror, including Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. They would like us to forget that 15 of the 19 hijacking suicide bombers on 9/11 were Saudis. (The other 4 were Egyptian). The State Department would like us to ignore the fact that the Saudis fund Madrassas (school of strict Islam) in America that teach the 'Taliban/Wahhabi' type of Islamic religion to children, to hate America and eventually make America into a Muslim nation. The State Department, having been deeply penetrated by radical Islamists, would find it an ideal time to engineer an attack on the Jewish lobby to equalize the pressure away from the Saudis. Even today, the State Department - after 9/11 - allows Saudis in with barely a glance at their affiliation with Terrorist groups. So, that's Phase One of the benefits the State Department and the Saudis expect out of their engineered accusation with their "Blame the Jews" syndrome. But, that is comparatively minor as we probe deeper. The next level down in our search is the subject of the leak or at least a well-molded accusation. The accusation is that the 'always convenient and secret mole has leaked information' about America's discussions on Iran's nuclear enterprise to AIPAC to be passed on to Israel. AIPAC has, of course, denied the allegation, knowing that our various Intel Agencies watch AIPAC - as they do all lobby groups of all nations. AIPAC being squeaky clean would not deter the Arabist State Department from floating one of its infamous accusations through the back door channels of its media leaker connections - this time CBS TV News. So, let us examine the leak: Israel and the U.S. are committed to exchanging Intelligence on mutually threatening problems. Israel, for example was the U.S. Humint (Human Intelligence) for America's attack on Iraq. Israel also assisted the U.S. in the 1991 attack against Iraq after Saddam had invaded Kuwait because America just didn't have human resources on the ground. So, in effect, Israel has proven herself time and again as an invaluable source of Intelligence for America and has discharged her obligations to the exchange far and beyond what could be expected of a small nation. The U.S. and Israel have been routinely exchanging information on Iran as a growing nuclear threat to the region and well beyond. That includes America and Europe. This is no great secret unless a leaker out of State wishes to characterize this exchange as "stolen information" which is what seems to be their goal. Clearly, the Bush Administration and State would like to avoid angering the Arab oil world by unilaterally taking out Iran's Russian nuclear reactor and the spread out, underground nuclear development sites in Iran. We would like Israel to do the job and, of course, take the heat. The Arabs would most certainly wish to direct their anger at Israel instead of at their business partner, the United States. We buy their oil; we sell them prodigious quantities of arms; we have provided technology on WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) weapons which, of course, are now threatening our cities; they bank with us; we sell them goods and services from road-building to massive airports. Here enter the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, Bechtel and hundreds of other U.S. companies. Well, you get the idea. But, Israel is still a small nation with limited reach with respect to striking nuclear targets in Iran. The United States, on the other hand, has the capability to project massive military power, using sea-based aircraft and cruise missiles, land attack and the unlimited budget to carry out such a strike. However, Israel would be pounded by the U.N., the E.U. and the Arabist State Department should she save the world by striking Iran's nuclear plants - like she did when she hit Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, just before it went operational. These same nations could not embargo the U.S. if it undertook the project. If the U.S. is indeed planning such a strike, it would be convenient to have an alternate target of Israel against whom the Arabs could vent their fury. Remember, in the Arab world, adjusting history to whatever is claimed is no problem. Some may recall how the Arabs explained away their defeats in successive wars against Israel by telling their people that it was the Americans they were fighting and not the Jews. Losing to a Superpower did not carry the shame of losing to a small army of poorly equipped Jews. There are auxiliary benefits to blaming the Jews. First, it forces AIPAC to lower its profile in lobbying Congress for Israel. Next, it intimidates Jewish leaders NOT to challenge U.S. government policy when it supports Saudi Arabia, Syria or Arafat. Moreover, it generally successfully panics Israeli leadership to be more compliant on such issues as giving up more territory and allowing a State Department team to go to Israel as authorities to decide borders for Jewish settlements. Such accusations of disloyalty are beneficial just before an election where Jewish voters generally vote Democratic. If the voters can be sufficiently intimidated to either vote Democratic or not at all, the game plan of intimidation will have worked. I think of the reported statement of former Secretary of State Zbignew Breshinsky, later denied, when he said: "A little anti-Semitism is a good thing" - presumably for keep Jews in their place. Another ancillary benefit of this current accusation was to impugn the integrity of Doug Feith who advocated and coordinated an investigation of Saddam's linkage with Al Qaeda. Here again, the State Department and other Arabists in the Government were furious over Feith's probe of Arab Muslim links to Global Terrorism. In essence, the State Department was cut out of the loop and thus unable to offer its usual protection of Arab Muslim allies by sidelining investigations against them. Other Intel Agencies were also angry that the results of their investigations were to be reviewed by Feith's group which was set up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. So, Feith was targeted plus whatever benefits could be squeezed out of an intimidated Israel. Floating a story and a scenario engendered by the Arabist State Department to the effect that the Jews had obtained secret information about Iran is mildly clever - if not transparent. The PR campaign will guide Arab thinking, particularly that of the fanatic Ayatollahs of Iran against the State of Israel as its most imminent enemy. Perhaps part of the thinking is to provoke the Iranians into a pre-emptive strike against Israel so Israel will have to respond in force - which will also allow the U.S. to intervene. Intervention in this case would be to save Israel after a saturation missile attack by Iran. It would give the U.S. to follow on with its own cruise missile attacks on Iranian nuclear sites as if to her rescue. In the meantime Israel would suffer as the bait and raison d'etre for the Iranian attack. The reason for the timing of this accusation is anyone's guess but, it would certainly be detrimental to the incumbent, George Bush, coming prior to the Republican Convention leading on to the November elections in eight weeks. Mind you, I do think that Iran's nuclear capability must be eliminated before it goes operationally nuclear. I wrote about Iran's obtaining tactical nukes from East Germany though under Soviet control when the Soviet Union collapsed. Four to six tactical nukes went missing and, in my opinion, were purchased by Iran. Disinformation was soon floated in the American media that nothing was missing and we could all sleep peacefully. When Israel blew up Saddam's nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, the world condemned Israel but, behind closed doors, the champagne corks were popping. Much, much later there was a reluctant acknowledgment that Israel had done the world a great favor. But, at the time, that didn't stop then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman from cutting off all exchanges of Intelligence with Israel both as a punishment to Israel and as a favor to the Saudis. The story of how deep the Saudis have penetrated the State Department and the other American Institutions, especially the Intelligence community is yet to be revealed. Even the 9/11 Commission avoided deep questions of the State Department for allowing thousands of Saudis and other Arab Muslims into our American laboratories, universities where sleeper cells were established in deep cover. I cringe when I hear Lee Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission tell Americans how we must reach out to the Arab Muslim world, winning their hearts and minds. Somehow the 9/11 Commission has decided that the radical Islamic Fundamentalism endemic in the world of Islam must be the fault of the Free West - and that the dictators of Arab nations are not to be blamed for keeping their people backward, uneducated and hostile to America. For Lee Hamilton and others of the 9/11 Commission, it must be America's fault for not reaching out and perhaps bringing more Muslim Jihadists into America through the portals 'guided' by the gate-keepers called the State Department. Let us watch "The State Department Hustle" to blame the Jewish nation for whatever we are about to do to protect ourselves from Iranian nukes. If they can just get the media to cooperate, the focus of enmity will be on Israel, instead of Iran, the Saudis and Arabist State Department. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

GUSH KATIF MEMORIES Posted by Steven Plaut, August 27, 2004.

Gush Katif is the name of the set of Jewish settlements at the western end of the Gaza Strip. Just recently, Ariel Sharon pushed through his plan for unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza, thus ensuring that he will go down in history as part of the Oslo appeasement and capitulation pantheon. Sharon showed that his concept of democracy differs little from that of a Third World dictator; after calling a Likud national referendum on the plan, which was defeated 60 percent to 40 percent, Sharon declared that Likud voters could get stuffed because he was going to implement the plan anyhow. The disengagement plan is not conditioned upon anything the Palestinians may or may not do - not even on whether they will refrain from using Gaza for terrorism and rocket attacks against Jews. What exactly does Sharon think the Palestinians will do in Gaza once the Jews expelled - take up quilting? Since the Peel Plan in 1937, each and every suggestion for partitioning Palestine west of the Jordan River between Arabs and Jews has been met with waves of pogroms and Arab atrocities. Why should anyone expect anything different to result from Sharon's proposal? The main victims of the Sharon's plan will be the Gush Katif settlements, which will be reduced to rubble, or, worse, handed over to the jihadniks and mass murderers. Thinking about Gush Katif, I am taken back to an earlier, more peaceful time - and my own tour of duty there. Gush Katif: Winter 1994. "Fare thee well, O Gaza, for we are parting; Fare thee well, O Gaza, and let's not see one another any more." The words are from one of the more popular songs heard on Israeli radio these days, with "Oriental" melody and instrumentation. The song screams out in high decibels from the ghetto-blaster in the room of the regular soldiers next door in the barracks. The scene is an Israel Defense Force base deep inside the Strip. In semi-tropical Gaza in February during one of Israel's worst winter droughts, it has been raining nonstop since our group of reservists checked in to the base for a 22-day tour of duty amid the sand dunes along the Gaza Coast. Gaza, land of the Philistines, land of Islamic terrorists. One can see Egypt off in the distance. North is Gaza City, a cesspool of Islamic fanaticism and violence, the city in which the chained and blinded Samson brought the house down upon his Philistine tormentors. We are near the Gush Katif settlements, a collection of Jewish farming settlements populated mostly by Orthodox Jews from the center of Israel and immigrants. Just over yonder behind the dunes sits one of the strip's seamier refugee camps. The strip is home to some 800,000 Palestinian Arabs, most of whom would like nothing better than to see us and our ilk buried deep beneath the sand and mud here. The northern two-thirds of the Strip are covered with citrus orchards stretching in all directions, now lush and green from the rains. The southern third is mostly desolate sand dunes. Our camp is a mound of sand and dirt with a few barracks. We reservists have the honor of serving as guards for the station and its indigenous inhabitants, a group of young men and women doing their mandatory army service, the "regulars" or "sadirniks." They are 19 and 20. Reservists are Israeli men who have finished their regular service and continue to spend quality time away from their homes and families in military service, up to the age of 50. The reservists, miluimniks, are mostly recent dischargees in their 20's. I am nearly twice their age, the oldest man here - eight years older than the commanding officer. As these things go, this base is considered to be a relatively soft reserve assignment. It is quiet and the surrounding countryside is beautiful and tropical, the sea switching intermittently from stormy to delightful. If one ignored the geography and politics, it could be a hill anywhere along the central California coast. The flora is the same. In some ways the surroundings look like a photo from a tourist brochure: countless palm and date trees, flocks of sheep and goats tended by Bedouin shepherds and shepherdesses, the occasional camel or donkey cart. The nights are filled with the croaking of millions of Gazan frogs, enjoying the puddles and pools formed by the recent unusually hard rains. When the sea is calm, it fills with fishing boats, some actually run by Gazan smugglers. The food in the navy is considered edible, relatively speaking. We sleep in real barracks, although unheated, and my room has no glass in the window. We have real, albeit unheated, showers with real hot water. By contrast, the infantry who fill the strip consider the navy soldiers to be pampered sissies who actually need food, toilets and hot water to function. On the other hand, some of the more elite units, like the paratroopers, look down their noses at the infantry because they actually need sleep. The navy is also considered a relatively civilized branch of the military. The soldiers are well-behaved, and even follow orders - well, sort of, after a fashion, Israeli-style. Our duties are actually quite simple. Guard the place. Just guard. That, and occasionally riding shotgun on convoys racing around the strip. The night we arrive, the commander spells out our duties. Back in the center of Israel the army has a tough job, he explains. It has to locate the terrorists. We are blessed with a far simpler assignment. Here we do not have to search for the terrorists because we know exactly where they are. He then traces out a 360-degree circle around himself. Once within the barbed wire, the main features of life are the cold and the boredom. We do day and night watches and patrols, each lasting four grueling hours. The time passes at an excruciatingly slow pace. In one sense I have lucked out. I am serving with Don, a childhood buddy from Philadelphia who grew up with me in the Habonim youth movement. Doing reserves with a childhood chum is the army equivalent of winning the lottery. We pass the time gossiping and reminiscing, and when that gets boring, we try to recreate dialogue from old TV shows, tell jokes, and so on. In our drab green uniforms we look like a couple of large middle-aged olives. It is Friday morning, the Muslim Sabbath. It is the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. I am on the bus heading back to camp after spending nearly 20 hours at home on a short furlough. Suddenly the radio blasts a news flash: there has been a massacre in the Machpelah shrine of Hebron perpetrated by one Baruch Goldstein, an ex-American and a fanatic. The passengers are shocked, none more than me. In the evening I am dozing when the camp siren goes off. The entire base scrambles to battle positions. The loudspeaker tells us this is not a drill but a real alert. Groggily I climb into the fortified trench, banging my knee in my half-awake rush. My helmet is on my arm, as there is not a single one in the entire base that fits my head. Don sarcastically tells me to prepare photon torpedoes and phasers. A short while later the alert is canceled. For the next week similar alerts and scrambles will help us pass the time. The violence is not restricted to the "territories." Arabs are rioting in Jaffa and Nazareth and even in the Bedouin town of Rahat outside Beer Sheba. (The Bedouins serve in the Israeli army and are usually considered as loyal and moderate as Israel could hope for.) Israeli Arabs attack soldiers and police with rocks and knives. The hatred in their faces, after two generations of citizenship and democratic education, matches anything that can be seen here in Gaza. Despite the media myth concerning the "brutality" of the Israeli army as it "suppresses" the Palestinians, the foremost concern of the military seems to be to avoid shooting rioting Arabs, no matter what the provocation. At least once a day - sometimes more - we drill the Procedures for Opening Fire (POF), a long list of instructions and prohibitions designed for dealing with rioters, attackers, and suspicious persons, starting with warnings and ending with shooting into the air and then, where there is no choice, at an attacker's legs or car tires. It is my 43rd birthday today, and I have celebrated by pulling the very worst guard duty possible, the double-whammy. It begins with an evening shift - 6 to 10 p.m. - followed by a 2 to 6 a.m. shift. In between the two shifts one can sleep for maybe ten or twenty seconds at a time. In the morning I have also been selected for the honor of riding shotgun on one of the convoys. By Murphy's Law, I conjecture, a convoy on my birthday should get attacked by rock-throwers. Don and I survived the 60's together. If they throw rocks at us, he notes, at least this will give a new meaning to the expression "getting stoned for your birthday." Gaza is filled with eccentrics and the bizarre. On Sabbath, the settlers, mostly religious, go for long strolls, oblivious to any dangers. Among them is a group of Burmese - members of a tribe from the jungles of East Asia who believe they are descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel - who converted and live as Orthodox Jews in Gaza. One sees them all over the strip. The men sport yarmulkes and their tzitzit dangle down their sides. Two walk by on Saturday and point at us, probably saying to one another, "That's funny, they don't look Jewish." Exactly one week has passed since the massacre in Hebron. It is early Friday morning. I have lucked out and got a weekend furlough, good until Sunday morning. The sun has just come up and it will be a warm sunny day. At 7 a.m. I am outside the perimeter awaiting the bus, carrying my laundry, my M-16 and two or three clips of bullets. There is a mist over the palms and the birds are singing. With the world outside the perimeter filled with madness, the insanity of army life is starting to seem normal and sensible. A hawk has landed in the field opposite the watchtower, munching on something. Through the field binoculars I can see it is a chocolate pudding container, a treasure stolen from the scraps upon which our infantry neighbors subsist. Seagulls are bobbing on the gentle swell of the sea. The warm sun makes it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. My kingdom for a nap. Never mind the violence and terror out beyond the dunes. Forget the politicians. I can make my peace with the filth, the food, the cold. Just let me sleep. Like in the old Song of the Valley of the pioneers: "Rest comes to the weary, and slumber to the toiler." Let me close my eyes. Let me curl up in fetal position. Just for an hour or two. ***** As part of the propaganda juggernaut designed to panic Israelis into withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and leave it judenrein, the Left - a term that these days also means large parts of the Likud - has been blustering about how Gaza was "never Jewish land," never had Jews living in it, is not at all part of the Jews' national heritage, and so on. For example, Israeli Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz has declared that "Gaza is not at all Jewish heritage." Oh, really? Well, let's put aside for the moment all those stories in the Bible about Jews spending time in Gaza, from King David to Samson. Let's talk about the historically unassailable evidence of Gaza being an integral part of the Jewish homeland long before the Gush Katif settlements were set up. Gaza had a thriving Jewish community until the Jews were ethnically cleansed from Gaza in the 1948-9 war. When you hear the mindless Left blabbing about how "ethnic cleansing" took place in the Israeli War of Independence, understand that the only ethnic cleansing that took place was of Jews expelled from Gaza (and the West Bank), and later of Jews from all the Arab countries. For some strange reason, the Left has never heard about any of those ethnic cleansings. The Gaza Jewish community had as its rabbi starting in 1906 one Nissim Ohana, born in Algeria and trained as a rabbi in Jerusalem, who also served later as an important spiritual leader in Alexandria, Egypt, in Malta, in New York, in Cairo (where he was chief rabbi of Egypt), and in Haifa (where he was Sephardic chief rabbi in the 1950's). Not long ago the Israeli religious newspaper Hatzofe devoted an article to Rabbi Ohana and to the Jews living in Gaza in the first half of the 20th century. Rabbi Ohana was on warm cordial terms with the Muslim Mufti of Gaza, the article reports, and the two wrote a book together. There is one other detail worth knowing about this famous rabbi of Gaza: I am married to his granddaughter. In fact, the rabbi is one of the figures discussed in my book The Scout. So when Shaul Mofaz states that Jews have no heritage to preserve in Gaza, let him speak for himself. Steven Plaut is a professor at Haifa University. His book "The Scout" is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at steven_plaut@yahoo.com This article appeared on www.jewishpress.com. To Go To Top

USING THE INTERNET TO MARKET TERRORISM Posted by Dr. Reuven Erlich (Colonel, Ret.), August 27, 2004.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad markets its terrorist messages using Internet sites supported by Western (mainly American) companies (despite the fact it has been declared a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union) Overview 1. Palestinian and international terrorist organizations make massive use of the Internet to spread propaganda supporting terrorism and as a means of maintaining contact between organizations (and headquarters), their infrastructures and their target populations (often over enormous distances). 2. The importance of the Internet as a means of marketing terrorism became significantly greater after the events of September 11, 2001. That was because the Web makes it relatively easy for them to evade the difficulties imposed by various governments (particularly the American government). It also enables them to exploit liberal Western laws ensuring freedom of speech to spread their propaganda without effective supervision and with no censorship whatsoever. 3. The following case study examines the way the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) uses the Internet to spread its terrorist propaganda. The PIJ Internet infrastructure - Survey 4. The PIJ operates three main and three subsidiary Internet sites. A description of those sites and of the Internet companies supporting them follows. The data provided here are primarily based on an examination of the Haganah Internet site in the United States (http://internet-haganah.us/haganah/), which tracks terrorist Internet sites, predominantly of an Islamic nature. Other sources used were the MEMRI (particularly "Islamist Websites and Their Hosts Part I: Islamist Terror Organizations," by Marie-Helene Boccara) (http://www.memri.org/news.html ) and Whois Domain-Based Research Services ( http://whois.net ) sites. The picture as presented here is by no means complete. In addition, the survey does not include sites which support the PIJ but do not officially belong to the organization. 5. The three primary sites:- a. http://www.qudsway.com: The site posts current notices from the organization, archival material about its activities, publication of books and articles sponsored by the PIJ, encouragement of terrorism against Israel and praise for the suicide bombers. b. http://www.palestineway.com: The contents of this site are similar to those of Qudsway. c. http://www.sarayaalquds.com: This is the site of the organization's operational-terrorist wing (the Jerusalem Battalions). It includes updated documentation about the Battalions, archival material about the organization's terrorist activities, publication of books and articles sponsored by the PIJ, encouragement of terrorism against Israel and praise for the suicide bombers. 6 The three subsidiary sites:- a. http://www.jimail.com/abrar/: It posts notices, information about the organization's activities, publication of books and articles sponsored by the PIJ, encouragement of the use of terrorism against Israel and praise for the suicide bombers. It is inactive but directs surfers to the organization's main sites. b. http://www.rabdullah.com: This is the organization's site dedicated to its current leader, Ramadan Abdallah Shalah. It documents his pronouncements, activities and worldview in favor of an uncompromising armed insurrection for the "liberation" of "all Palestine" and the establishment of an Islamic state. It posts articles, lectures, speeches, pictures and a biography of Shalah. c. http://www.shikaki.com: This is the organization's site dedicated to the memory of its founder and leader, Fathi Shqaqi, who was killed in Malta in 1995. It documents his pronouncements, activities and worldview in favor of an uncompromising armed insurrection for the "liberation" of "all Palestine" and the establishment of an Islamic state. 7. Insofar as can be verified, the organization's Internet infrastructure is supported by Western companies located mainly in the United States; in one case it is supported by an Iranian company. The PIJ appears on the lists of terrorist organizations prepared by the United States and the European Union. Preference mainly for the United States is not a matter of chance but rather convenience: it features companies which can provide advanced technological support, the PIJ can easily "disappear" among so many American and Western companies, and because of freedom of expression laws, it does not strictly or effectively control the sites of the various terrorist organizations (in the United States reliance is placed on the First Amendment to the Constitution). 8. In that context, it is worthwhile to note that other Palestinian terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as international terrorist organizations such as - paradoxically - Al-Qaeda, all extensively use Western companies and technology, particularly those in the United States. Dr. Reuven Erlich (Colonel, Ret.) is director of The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S) in Israel. [Editor's note: Graphics, pictorial information and additional information of companies supporting the terrorist websites are included in appendices that can be found at http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/8_04/internet.htm] To Go To Top

END THE POLITICAL INTERFERENCE AND RELIGIOUS COERCION OF RABBIS NOW! Posted by Steven Plaut, August 27, 2004.

The political interference by the Rabbis is getting more and more unbearable. The attempt to impose their opinions and life styles, regardless of the preferences of the majority of their fellow citizens, is outrageous. They are arrogant and anti-democratic and coercive. I am of course referring to the Reform Rabbis in the United States. While not every Rabbi or every member of the Reform synagogue movement has been recruited into the "Political Liberalism as Judaism" school of pseudo-Judaism, enough have. The "Political Liberalism as Judaism" doctrine and pseudo-religion dominates the main institutions of the Reform synagogue movement, including their council of Rabbis. And of course the leftist SWAT team for the Reform movement is the Ridiculous - er, I mean the - "Religious" Action Center, under the commissarship of David Saperstein, who recently launched a Reform jihad against Israel's attempts to defend its children from terrorists by constructing a security wall. The RAC is more worried about inconveniencing the Palestinians than about the rights of Jewish children to ride buses without being blown up. It is far more critical of the Boy Scouts for not hiring gay scout leaders than of the PLO. But no less outrageous is the theological coercion efforts of the Reform Rabbis, attempting to impose their liberal political theology not only on fellow American Jews but on the US as a whole. While whining about supposed Orthodox religious coercion in Israel, the Reform Establishment today embodies the worst form of Jewish religious coercion on earth, with the only problem being that the religion in question is liberal politics and liberation theology. The Reform movement has adopted the entire agenda of the American Left, down to and including bashing Israel for daring to defend itself. The Reform establishment is today barely distinct from the buffoons in the Tikkun-Aleph-Renewal cult of Michael Lerner and Arthur Waskow, other than the fact that they have not - yet - endorsed LSD use by Jews. The Reform establishment opposes school choice for Jews and wants Jewish children confined to public schools; it supports every wacky idea to emerge from the most extremist environmentalist movements; it supports affirmative action quotas that discriminate against Jews; the number one item on its agenda these days is gay "marriage"; David Saperstein's comments opposing welfare reform were so outrageous that a few years back the were cited with approval by the American Communist Party newspaper. The Reform establishment blocks school vouchers by trotting out the old bogeyman of religious coercion, while at the same time its entire raison d'etre is religious coercion - liberal theological PC fad "religion" coercion, that is. No tradeoffs, no policy analysis, no understanding of markets, no thinking nay deeper than a leftist bumper sticker. The Reform Establishment supports partial-birth killings of babies but vehemently opposes execution of convicted murderers and terrorists. It wants Israel to return to its 1949 borders with all "settlers" expelled. Reformies in Israel have led the anti-globalization hoodlums seeking to make the world safe for Marxism. The US Reform movement has conscripted itself on behalf of jailed Stalinist terrorist Lori Berenson, in Peru. I have a serious question for David Saperstein and the Reform Establishment (and for parts of the Conservative synagogue movement as well). I am not being facetious. In your opinion, are Michael Moore, Teddy Kennedy, and Ralph Nader Jewish? I am serious. After all, if being Jewish is nothing more than liberal political activism, why are these people not to be regarded as Jewish? And don't answer that it is because Jews eat kosher and keep shabbas, because we know how common that is among Reform Jews. And do not reply that it is because Reform Jews base their liberal politics on the Bible. Come on now. Where does the Bible endorse homosexuality and abortion and Palestinian statehood in the West Bank? And many of the Reform leaders I have met know the Bible far less well than your average Mormon. So seriously, if all of Judaism is liberal self-sanctimonious agitprop, why can't Moore, Kennedy, and Nader be considered Jewish? And if a Jewish liberal marries a non-Jewish liberal, why should anyone consider that an intermarriage? After all, they have exactly the same "religion"!! There is virtually no religious coercion in Israel. True, the politicized religious parties once forced the cinemas closed on Sabbath but today the whole country has DVDs. True, once the Orthodox politicos forced the buses to stop running on Sabbath, but who cares when everyone has a car? I would venture to say that almost no Israelis ever are forced to observe ANY religious ritual against their will. And other than some minor difficulties for those wishing to have a "civil" wedding, which is quite possible today, no secularist in Israel has to have any contact whatsoever with the Orthodox institutions if he/she does not want to. It is not the religious parties who are responsible for the nation self-destruction in Israel but the secularist ones, although the religious parties display cowardice in not stopping it. But contrast that with the political interference and coercion by the Reform movement in the US. In an era when true believers in liberalism are an endangered species outside the Bay Area and Hollywood, the Reform establishment lobbies in the name of "Judaism" and "Biblical ethics" to impose its leftist political biases and life style on all Jews and on the entire United States. It seeks to hijack Judaism, Jewish holidays, and Jewish ethical authority on behalf of the PC fads of the liberal-Left. The time has come to get these Rabbis and other Reform leaders out of our bedrooms, out of our politics, and back to their proper roles. Stop this liberal pseudo-theological coercion! Steven Plaut is a professor at Haifa University. His book "The Scout" is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at steven_plaut@yahoo.com To Go To Top

AN OPEN LETTER FROM YAD ELIEZER Posted by Sori Tropper, August 27, 2004.

Dear Friend, I've written so many drafts of this letter and then scrapped them, because each of them fails to convey the heartache that Yad Eliezer sees each day. First I tried with statistics. Nearly 1 in 3 children in Israel are living below the poverty line. This is an unbelievably high number but it doesn't put a face onto real living tragedies. You can't see, from a number, a child who won't go to school because he's ashamed of his shoes. You can't see from a number a single mother, who was just diagnosed with a severe, chronic illness and terrified of losing her children because she can't afford to feed them. Then I tried to write something about Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and how intertwined they are with the concept of Tzedaka, about charity being the essence of Klal Yisrael. But most books and articles say this so much better that I can. And so, I'm just going to tell you some simple facts: * Yad Eliezer is feeding over 7000 of the most desperately needy families all over Israel. * We receive heartbreaking requests constantly. * We work on a shoestring budget so that whatever you send is used as real Tzedaka. * We need you desperately. And - in the merit of your Tzedaka and Chesed, may you all be blessed with a happy and healthy new year. Sincerely, Sori Tropper Yad Eliezer P.S. Please contribute to our Rosh Hashanah drive via our secure website at http://www.yadeliezer.org This letter appeared in Arutz-Sheva (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). [Editor's note: This group does incredible work, with practically no overhead expenses. On the AFSI trip in October 2002, I had the soul-satifying experience of packing some of that month's supplies (see "The Settlements Revisited, http://www.think-israel.org/afsitrip.html).] To Go To Top

EU SUDDENLY OPPOSES "RIGHT OF RETURN" Posted by Steven Plaut, August 27, 2004.

The "right of return" has been of interest in much of the world press in recent weeks, but this time - for a change - it is NOT the supposed "right" of Palestinians to return to Israel's lands. The newest debate over the right of return concerns that of ethnic Germans, at least 15 million of whom were expelled from their homelands at the end of World War II. These have suddenly become a matter of interest (see for example the Wall Street Journal's "War Echo: Ousted by Poland in 1945, Germans Want Homes Back," Aug 11, 04) for the simple reason that many of the countries who expelled German refugees after World War II have become or are becoming full members of the EU. There has arisen a wave of attempts by ethnic Germans expelled by these countries to use EU institutions to recover property or receive compensation, and in some cases possibly even to return to their former homes. Their chances of success are negligible. That is because the EU, led by Germany itself in this matter, is unalterably opposed to any "right or return" for ethnic Germans. Yes, the same EU insists that "Palestinian refugees" have an inalienable right to return to Israeli lands do not think ethnic German refugees have such a right. Before World War II, there was a large Diaspora of ethnic Germans throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Many were from families who had migrated in as far back as the Middle Ages or even earlier. They lived in Poland, Russia, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic countries, Hungary, and the Balkans. In some areas they had come in when the countries were absorbed into the Habsburg Empire or freed from Ottoman domination. They had entered as merchants, literate civil servants, shop owners, mercenaries, missionaries, or other things. Most were urbanized and constituted almost the only skilled non-agricultural craftsmen in the towns of underdeveloped countries. They often dominated the guilds. In one of history's many delicious ironies, German Christians often migrated to the towns and villages of Central and Eastern Europe alongside Germanized Jews and they often worked in the same trades. The period between the two world wars saw the radicalization and Nazification of many of these Germans. The best-known story is that of the Sudeten Germans, who played a role in the annihilation of Czechoslovakia. When Hitler signaled them that the time was right, the Sudetens launched pogroms, terror atrocities, and armed uprisings against Czechoslovakia, all in the name of "self-determination," but in reality to provide an excuse for Nazi aggression. Pretending to be "oppressed" and "occupied" by democratic Czechoslovakia (sound familiar, Middle East fans?), their "plight" was the fig leaf for Fascist aggression by Germany. History would later largely replay the story, when the "Palestinians" would be Sudetenized, and their "plight" would become the cover for the aggression by Arab Fascist states against Israel. Less well known are the similar tales of insurrection and sedition by the German minorities in the rest of Europe before World War II. While not all ethnic Germans openly supported and aided Hitler, enough did. After the War, most ethnic Germans were expelled at bayonet point from the countries in which they had lived for generations, and the refugees were "repatriated" to West Germany (and in smaller measure to Austria). Stalin expelled large numbers of Russia's Germans to Siberia and other points east. Altogether, it is estimated that 15 million ethnic Germans were evicted from the non-German states of Central and Eastern Europe, about three quarters of these just coming from Czechoslovakia and Poland. (Ethnic Japanese were at the same time expelled from Manchuria and Korea, for essentially the same reasons.) The German refugees were absorbed and resettled by Germany, mainly by West Germany, and without a dime in aid from the UNRWA, the UN's refugee agency that has ladled out cash to Palestinians for decades. Like the Palestinians, these ethnic Germans had become refugees due to a war of aggression launched by their ethnic compatriots, a war in which they found themselves on the losing side. Unlike most Palestinian "refugees," who became "refugees" by fleeing battle zones at the command of Arab militia chiefs in the Israeli War of Independence, these Germans became refugees because they were driven out by force by their host countries AFTER World War II had been ended. The Germans left behind large amounts of property, whereas almost all the Palestinian "refugees" had been impoverished sharecroppers for Arab Feudalist aristocrats, with little or any property left behind. More important is the fact that Germany and Austria have renounced the rights of any of these ethnic German refugees to return to their previous homelands and even to receive any compensation from those countries in any form. To the contrary, Germany (but not Austria) has paid out reparations to the very same countries who evicted these German refugees. True, many of the ethnic German refugees were innocent bystanders, who had never been Nazis and had never abused anyone. But the German government and the Eurocrats say: Tough. These German refugees were just a few more millions out of the untold millions of victims of Germany's own crimes, and they simply had to go on with their lives without handouts. Their "compensation" would consist of their resettlement in a free, democratic, and prosperous capitalist Germany. It was a Germany that passed its own Law of Return that allows all ethnic Germans to receive citizenship therein. The same Eurocrats and media pundits who denounce Israel as "racist" because it has a Law of Return granting automatic citizenship to Jews requesting it have never had any problem with the similar German "racist" law. Meanwhile, there has been intense resistance in Europe even to commemorating the plight of ethnic German refugees. There is a lesson in all this for 2004. Those ethnic Germans actually had far more of a legitimate claim for compensation and recovery of property than any "Palestinian" claiming to be a "refugee" does. Palestinians played exactly the same role as Sudeten Germans played, and calls for a Palestinian "right to self-determination" echo similar calls for the Sudeten Germans from the 1930s. Both sets of calls are little more than a figleaf for fascist aggression against a democracy. Like the Tory Loyalists who fled the infant United States, the ethnic German refugees were never thought to be entitled to any compensation from the states they fled nor from which they were driven. Not only did they get no compensation from the countries evicting them (neither did the Tory Loyalist refugees expelled from the US), but Germany itself paid compensation to the countries expelling these ethnic Germans, countries that had fallen victims to Nazi aggression. The very same world leaders and media commentators who insist Israel must compensate "Palestinians" and allow them to "return" to Israeli lands, the lands of that same Israel that has been the victim of Arab aggression and Fascism for almost six decades, cannot understand why these "Palestinian refugees" should become as much of a non-issue as are the ethnic German refugees from the late 1940s. So what is the real reason the Euroclowns have no interest in any "right of return" for ethnic Germans, but demand one for "Palestinians"? Simple. Granting such a right to ethnic Germans would not result in the demise of Israel, so the Europeans have no interest in it. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. This article appeared yesterday in www.FrontPageMagazine.com To Go To Top

WHOM TO REWARD AND WHOM TO PUNISH AND OTHER ITEMS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 27, 2004.

The Arab-Israel conflict and the war with terrorism are matters of loyalty, ideology, and morality. Which motivates people the most? For most, it is ideology first, loyalty second, and morality third. For me, it is the reverse. I decide first what is the right thing to do, and second does it harm my own peoples. For some ethnic groups, there could be a conflict between those two criteria, but not with the Jewish and American peoples, though there can be between our foolish and malign State Dept. and Israel. There are Jews in the State Dept. who willingly do the Departmental dirty work against Israel, knowing that our naive Jewish people assume that as Jews, they would not knowingly harm Israel. Their future harm to Israel is policy in the State Dept. (which struggled to prevent the Jewish state from coming into being, defending itself, and vanquishing its enemies). It does not benefit the United States, for which Israel is an ally and the Arabs are enemies. Loyalty takes second place among leftists whose ideology causes them to uphold the oppressive Arab regimes against US interference even when those regimes are in a loose alliance to bring the US down. Leftist ideology in Israel causes people to urge dangerous concessions to the Arabs who want to bring Israel down. This ideology is impervious to appeasement's failure with aggressors and totalitarian fanatics and to the facts about the Arab goal of conquest of Israel. Ideology is dangerous when it overrides not only loyalty but also morality. Of course, the Left postures about morality. With righteous indignation, the Left accepts Arab propaganda about Israeli brutality and ignores actual Arab brutality. A disloyal ideology prompts phony ethics. This is so perverse as to appear insane. It is a rationalization if not a neurosis. The American government has favored many dictatorial regimes, also with feigned ethics. The State Dept. argued that it was being pragmatic and preserving stability. To the contrary, by supporting illegitimate regimes, it fostered instability. Such is the immorality of the Right. In dealing with foreign countries and their behavior, the US seeks to punish some and reward others. Unfortunately, ideology and private commercial interests may determine which, rather than loyalty and morality. The US is a poor judge. Let us use the P.A. as an example. The P.A./PLO is anti-American. It is the originator of modern terrorism, and formerly was a satellite of the Soviet Union. It is a party to international jihad, which is anti-American. It broadcasts mosque sermons advocating the murder of Americans. What would be a rational, ethical, and loyal American response to the P.A./PLO? That response would be to let Israel smash the P.A./PLO and end Arab hopes for more territory. What is the actual, ideological State Dept. response to the P.A./PLO? That response is to ignore Arab anti-Americanism, make much of the few crumbs of intelligence that the PLO may give the US, hinder Israel from smashing the P.A./PLO, donate billions of dollars to the P.A., and propose statehood for it. In other words, reward it. You can see that the ideology of the State Dept., traditionally anti-Zionist, overrides considerations of loyalty and morality. State Dept. policy is not loyal to the US or it is besotted with appeasement that constantly fails. State Dept. policy is not moral in nurturing Arabs not only having murderous intent to Americans, which they sometimes act on, but which also murders Israelis rather than let them have their own country. It is not so much that our diplomats are ignorant or stupid, as that they are warped. There is one possible excuse for people who are the object of jihad yet support jihadists. They may be grievously uninformed. American and Israeli education neglects the subject and have a politically correct slant on it. Most of the major media side with the Arabs or against Israel. It is difficult to expect uninformed and unwitting people to understand what is not explained. Many politicians absorb some of the same distorted propaganda and react to it. REFUGEE RETURN After WWII, caused by Germany and featuring fifth columns made up of ethnic Germans that facilitated Nazi invasion, some Eastern European countries shipped 11 million ethnic Germans to Germany. Germany integrated them. Recently, a few Germans have proposed that the descendants of those expellees be allowed to return to their families' former property or receive compensation. The German Left disagrees. It contends that Germany started the war, Germans haven't lived in those countries for 50 years, there are few left alive who did, and the plan would revive issues that would work against peace. Those objections are customary and valid. So is the reason for the expulsion. The German Left ignores that logic when it comes to Arab refugees. It proposes that the few living Arab refugees and their many alleged descendants be allowed into Israel or receive compensation. As Arafat knows, an influx of Arabs would doom the Jewish state. Keeping the issue alive promotes war. The Left thinks the influx would correct an historic wrong. (I think that voluntary exiting of the Arabs and the expulsion of the Germans corrected historic wrongs.) The Israeli Left proposes the opposite for the Jewish refugees from Arab states. The Left opposes compensation for the Jews. It calls compensation a "provocation." The Left suggests sacrificing for the greater good (Prof. Steven Plaut, 8/20, e-mail). The Left makes these assertions without explanation, so far as I can tell. An attempted explanation would expose the hollowness of leftist policy. ARAB PRISONERS' DEMANDS The terrorists in Israeli prisons are hunger-striking over more than a hundred demands. Half the demands are to allow all sorts of breaches of security, not to punish for violation of prison rules, and to make prison life for the murderers much more pleasant. They demand an end to certain searches, head counts, restrictions in who may go to what parts of prisons, and the ban on fruit knives and ropes. Unbelievable! There were other demands that are debatable (IMRA, 8/20). NOMINEE FOR CIA DIRECTORSHIP INCURIOUS Rep. Goss is a former CIA agent and the head of the House committee on intelligence. He opposed clemency for Pollard on the basis of false allegations. He accepted what he was told without verification. His failure to check does not augur well for his Directorship of the CIA. Goss reiterated CIA rumors that Pollard had approached four other countries before finding Israel interested in secrets he could sell. (Israel never paid him; it just reimbursed some expenses. His genuine concern for Israel is obvious.) Those countries are not named, so reporters cannot check. Why did Goss believe rumors? In 1999, Goss worried that if Pollard were released, he would reveal more secrets. Pollard's information came in 1985; by 1999, it was stale. Goss should have known that. Goss went on to speculate that Pollard would be wealthy, if released. (Nonsense, the State of Israel doesn't pay his legal expenses now.) Goss claimed that Pollard compromised top US secrets. These secrets were not identified - the accusation is false. Nor is the deed possible. Pollard did not have the clearance to do that. Pollard was convicted on one count of passing classified information to an ally. Goss speculated that if this were wartime, the death penalty would have been warranted. Sounds delusional (IMRA, 8/20 from Elliot Goldenberg of the Forward) and demonic. JUDGING THE GAZA ABANDONMENT PLAN There are two separate issues about Gaza: (1) Should Israel retain Gaza for itself; and (2) Would abandonment of Gaza enhance or degrade Israeli security? People confuse the two issues. Many people who think Israel should not maintain at least parts of Gaza for its own people fail to analyze the effect of abandonment on Israeli security. Abandonment would end Israeli control of the P.A. borders. The Arabs could import weapons that would undermine Israeli security. Even PM Sharon acknowledges that the P.A. would keep fighting. Then it would import heavy weapons, the better to conduct that warfare. In the absence of the IDF, the terrorists would be free to train. (Egypt and Jordan have volunteered to train them.) Then when warfare resumes, the P.A. would be more formidable. PM Sharon asserts that if the P.A. keeps fighting, the IDF could return to Gaza. (Since he expects the P.A. to keep fighting, then he expects the IDF to have to return to Gaza. Then what would have been the point of leaving?) He says that now. After Israel abandons Gaza, however, international peacekeepers could enter, along with human shields. It would be unrealistic to expect these people to obstruct terrorism rather than Israeli counter-terrorism. It would be difficult for the Israeli Army to push through them, to get at terrorists. At present, Israel maintains in Gaza a buffer zone of one kilometer from the Green Line. If Israeli forces departed, they would be unable to maintain this zone. The Arabs would build up to the Line, presenting opportunities for undetected infiltration into Israel. The difference between the stated abandonment plan and IDF practice in Judea-Samaria is that in Judea-Samaria, the IDF has forces on both sides of the security fence. In Gaza, it would not. Of course, an Israeli withdrawal would be as a result of terrorism. The terrorists would have forced thousands of Israelis to evacuate. The P.A. would claim justifiably a great victory. Terrorists would be heartened. The P.A. would assert that its war was justified, for despite wartime suffering, its people won a major concession. The Sharon regime alleges that abandonment would reduce tensions. No, it would increase them. Partial evacuation would not satisfy the Arabs. The Arabs would press all the harder for more evacuation. This evacuation of legally authorized settlements without compensation would imply that the obstacle to peace really is the settlements, which is not the case. Pressure would grow for Israel to depart from the other settlements. "Israel should be focusing more on the facts and arguments that are the basis of its moral position. Israel is not a colonial thief but a native people returning to its home, with a license from the League of Nations and genuine historic and legal claims to the disputed territories." The author asserts that Israel should give up some of its claims because the Arabs also have claims and because Israel wants peace (IMRA, 8/20 form Max Singer of Jer. Center for Public Affairs. That makes no sense. It doesn't matter what claims the Arabs proffer, since their claims are inferior. The Arabs already have 78% of Palestine, now called Jordan. Nor is there any evidence that relinquishing any territory would bring peace. Israel tried that, but the Arabs indicated that they want the whole country; they don't want to recognize an infidel state; they are in jihad. ARAB CONSPIRACY THEORY ABOUT U.S. ELECTION Cartoonists in Jordan, Qatar, S. Arabia, and Bahrein depict both US Presidential candidates as controlled by a conspiratorial Jewish lobby. Egypt's official "Al-Ahram" editorialized to that effect on 7/12 (NY Sun, 8/25, p.7). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

THE BODY SHOP IS FOR "PALESTINE" - PLEASE SIGN THE PROTEST PETITION Posted by David Frankenthal, August 27, 2004.

Hi Friends, For those who doubt The Body Shop's support for the quintessential goal of the PLO - "the liberation of "Palestine" - please be aware that The Body Shop was already recognizing a "Palestine" in 2001. http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=20773 http://www.palestinecampaign.org/archives.asp?xid=122 The map in the top left corner of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign website does not show an Israel. I wrote to The Body Shop twice to determine the facts regarding their "Palestine" campaign to determine what was donated, who exactly were the recipients, and the purposes for which the donations were used (see email exchange below). They responded to my first email within thirty minutes with the same form response they are sending to most of you, essentially claiming they are not responsible for what they do. They have not responded to the second email which I sent a day later, last Thursday (August 19). It is important that The Body Shop sees and hears our united protest in support of Israel. Please refrain from shopping at The Body Shop and please read and sign the petition at PetitionBodyShop . Signing this petition will send a strong statement not just to The Body Shop but to every retailer out there who thinks they can take up the PLO cause with impunity. Thank you and please pass this email on to your friends. And thank you to those who have already signed and to those who will. For further info please see http://www.geocities.com/truthmasters/TheBodyShopBoycott.html Best wishes. David "A company which condemns the testing of cosmetic products on animals somehow finds itself allied with groups dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, some of which use terror bombing of innocent civillians going about their daily lives. That's a very strange value to be driven by." - American Thinker (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3729) teach on wrote: Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 20:50:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: The Body Shop Donations to the "People of Palestine" - Please answer the questions asked To: CustomerCare@Bodyshop.com, usa.info@the-body-shop.com, ukcustomer.relations@the-body-shop.com, consumer_helpdesk@thebodyshop.ca, feedback.aust@thebodyshop.com.au, info.sa@the-body-shop.com CC: comments@foxnews.com, ludlum@kfwb.cbs.com,larryelder@kabc.com, Oreilly@foxnews.com, wsj.ltrs@wsj.com, foxnewsonline@foxnews.com, editor@usatoday.com To The Body Shop: Thank you for your form response to a question I did not ask (see below). Your response to the questions I raise here would be appreciated. If you do not respond to these questions I will assume you are refusing to respond. Please answer the following: I understand that your Gulf stores gave their entire revenue proceeds for June 30, 2001, to "the people of Palestine" to be donated "to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, which will send the funds to designated areas in Palestine". http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=20773 For the general public's knowledge and awareness of how The Body Shop is using the revenue from their purchases, could you please indicate exactly how much was donated to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation and who among the "people of Palestine" the Foundation made the checks out to, how much was given to each recipient, and for what purpose? Thank you. David Frankenthal "Comments@bodyshop.com" wrote: Dear Customer, The Body Shop does not have a position on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The four winners of the 2002 Human Rights Award, including the National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced, were chosen by an independent jury, including international human rights experts, for being the best examples of peaceful grassroots activism on the issue of housing within a human rights framework, regardless of their religion, ethnicity or nationality. The Body Shop supports the integrity of the Award jury and the robustness of the selection process but played no direct role in choosing the winners themselves, other than providing four of the 14 jury members, of which the Chair has always been an independent member. The Body Shop is committed to the issue of human rights in a number of ways. For example, through The Body Shop Foundation, the company gives support to a broad range of small grassroots organisations, which are at the forefront of positive social and environmental change. This support is given for people of all races, gender, nationality and ethnic groups, without prejudice, and based on criteria including a project's demonstration of commitment, vision and sound management. Best Regards, The Body Shop -----Original Message----- From: teach on [mailto:teachntrain@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 8:03 PM To: CustomerCare@Bodyshop.com; usa.info@the-body-shop.com; ukcustomer.relations@the-body-shop.com; consumer_helpdesk@thebodyshop.ca; feedback.aust@thebodyshop.com.au; info.sa@the-body-shop.com Subject: The Body Shop Donations To The Body Shop: I understand that your Gulf stores gave their entire revenue proceeds for June 30, 2001, to "the people of Palestine" to be donated "to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, which will send the funds to designated areas in Palestine". http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=20773 For the general public's knowledge and awareness of how The Body Shop is using the revenue from their purchases could you please indicate exactly how much was donated to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation and who among the "people of Palestine" the Foundation made the checks out to, how much was given to each recipient, and for what purpose. Thank you David Frankenthal David Frankenthal can be reached by email at teachntrain@yahoo.com To Go To Top

OOF GENIES AND SPIDERS Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, August 27, 2004.

Please carefully consider the implications of this interview. Does anyone believe it is possible to have dealings with people who live almost entirely within a world of fantasy? Giant spiders, mystical knights in white robes and of course everyone will swear by the beard of the prophet that he saw them! I suspect someone selling them genie occupied lamps would do well. This appeared today on http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40167. It is entitled "Operation: Iraqi Freedom". An Iraqi sheik claims Allah sent giant spiders to the town of Fallujah to help its residents fend off attacks by U.S. military forces. Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'i spoke to Syrian TV on Monday, claiming several Arab television stations videotaped the helpful arachnids. The interview is featured on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, or MEMRI TV. The organization translated the conversation into English. "They [the Americans] attacked Fallujah and tried to cause great damage to its residents," he explained. "They destroyed mosques and homes, killed women, children and youths, and spread corruption in Fallujah. Nevertheless, we believe that Allah protects the believers, and indeed, Allah stood beside Fallujah, and I'd like to mention some miracles Allah performed in Fallujah. It is possible that the media does not know about them." Continued Al-Sumide'i: "The first miracle that occurred in Fallujah took the form of spiders that appeared in the city - each spider larger than this chair, or about the size of this chair. The American soldiers left, holding the legs of this spider, and I too, in one of the Friday sermons, held up a spider, with all its magnitude, in front of the satellite channels and in front of the world. This spider also had thin black hair. If this hair touches the human body, within a short period of time the body becomes black or blue, and then there is an explosion in the blood cells in the human body - and the person dies." The sheik's interviewer then asked about the alleged TV coverage: "The people saw it, but the TV stations did not air it?" Responded Al-Sumide'i: "The people saw it and the TV stations indeed aired it. I held the spider, and there were between 13 to 15 TV stations, including Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, Al-Majd, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi and other stations, and they saw it with their own eyes." Some Arab Internet sites have repeated claims of Iraqis about the spiders, and there also are stories circulating of phantom white-robed knights on white horses sent by Allah that killed U.S. Marines in battle. In a statement reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's spokesman, "Baghdad Bob," the sheik claimed the U.S. was underestimating the number of American casualties in Iraq by a factor of 100. "Today, if a hundred Americans are killed, they say there was one casualty," he said, "and if dozens of tanks were blown up, they say one was blown up. No one will notice the losses caused to the American forces until they return to their bases - if they return, and in my opinion they will not return - but if they return, the world will see and the American people will see the number of losses." Al-Sumide'i claimed there were mass graves in Iraq filled with the bodies of American forces. "A mass grave was created in a desert area near the Saudi boarder for the American soldiers killed. There is also a lake near Al-Sa'diya. The Americans place the casualties inside white or black bags, seal them and toss them from a plane into the lake." Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

THE SUBVERSIVE LETTER Posted by David Ben-Ariel, August 27, 2004.

This was written by a former parliament member and rabbi, Meir Kahane, whose funeral I was honored to attend in Jerusalem. That is the "subversive letter" that the Israeli authorities asked the Attorney General to examine for possible criminal actions. Of course, it is the Israeli authorities who are the criminals. Criminals for having destroyed their own Jewishness and now seeking to wreck an entire people and state. It will not help them. The young soldiers, the youth in the street have abandoned them. They return to normalcy and sanity. They return to Judaism and will yet save the state from gentilized Hebrews. If we hope to save Israel from tragedy, we must surely begin by saving Israel from itself. Beyond a doubt, the real danger facing the Jewish State is not the Arabs who dream of destroying it, but the Jews who are setting about doing that at this moment. And because so many trusting and simple Jews cannot begin to believe this I commend to their attention the following paragraph from a news item that appeared in the Israeli press. "The police have asked the Attorney General for a legal opinion concerning a leaflet signed by Knesset Member Kahane that contains in their opinion, hints at subversion." Subversion. Nothing less. A flyer handed out to soldiers that hints at subversion is clearly a very serious matter, so serious that it is important that every Jew read the leaflet for himself and gauge both the subversive nature of it as well as the minds of the Israeli officials who today shape the destiny of Israel. The leaflet is really a letter to the Israeli soldier and was handed out by the tens of thousands to soldiers throughout the country. "The L-rd is with you brave soldier... go with this, your strength, and save Israel." (Shoftim, 6) Jewish soldier! May your strong and pure hands be blessed. Know that you are the son of a chosen and special people, a holy and unique people. Carry your role and destiny with pride and honor - happy are you! "For you are a Holy People unto the L-rd, your G-d, and the L-rd hath chosen you to be a special people from all the nations." (Dvarim 14) Jewish soldier! Know that all the people of Israel - in the Land and the Exile - are proud of you and bless all your actions. Be strong and of courage! "For the L-rd, your G-d, walks with you to fight for you against your enemies and to save you." (Dvarim 20) Jewish soldier! Turn your back on the error-ridden and those who would deceive us, who try to place within you guilt and doubt concerning the justice of your cause and your struggle. Know that you are the healthy and the just one and they are the sick and the blind. Do not go with them and keep your foot from their path. Separate yourself from this evil congregation. And let the commands of your officers and of the L-rd always be as a lamp unto thy feet. "The wicked have set a trap for me but I have not strayed from Your commandments." (Tehillim 119) Jewish soldier! Total faith in the justice of your struggle and a clear understanding that you fight against an enemy thirsty for Jewish blood, an enemy that for many years - long before the establishment of the State - murdered and raped Jews, men, women and children. Before you is a cruel enemy, who, from hiding murders the innocent and from ambush rises to commit unspeakable horrors. These are your enemies, O Israel! "If one comes to slay you, slay him first." (Sanhedrin 74) Jewish soldier! Know that you are the messenger of the L-rd of Hosts, whose hand is outstretched to repay our enemies seven-fold for their sins. Only a powerful hand - the emissary of the L-rd - prevents them from wiping out entire communities. "Let us be strong and of good courage for our people and for the cities of our L-rd." (Shmuel II, 10) Jewish soldier! Only a foreign and gentilized culture that preaches perverted concepts and national suicide calls for "mercy" for blood-thirsty enemies. Children and women in the midst of our enemies, as part of a people dreaming of your destruction, took part in attacks on you. Save your soul from the Hellenists and the gentilized, who babble nonsense. And the true Jewish values, write on the tablets of your heart. "'When you go to war against your enemies...' (Dvarim 20). What is the meaning of 'your enemies'. Said the Holy One, Blessed Be He: Go out to them as the enemy. Just as they do not have mercy on you, so have no mercy on them." (Tanchuma Shoftim, 15) "'When you go to war against your enemy.' If you have pity on them they will go to war against you. It is comparable to a shepherd who found a sick, infant wolf in the woods. He had pity on it and nursed it from the goats. His employer saw this and said to him: Kill it, do not have pity on it or it will cause havoc with the sheep. The shepherd did not listen. When the wolf grew up he would see a sheep and kill it, an ewe and eat it. The employer said: Did I not tell you not to have pity! So did Moses tell them: If you have pity on the nations in the Land, then those that you shall allow to remain will be as thistles in your sides." (Eyleh ha'Dvarim Zuta) Jewish soldier! This land - all of it - belongs to the Jewish people as a Divine gift from the Creator of the world, and no other people has any claim to it. Our right to the cities and settlements that were built in the last century are based on the fact that our ancestors lived in Hebron, Shchem, Bethlehem, Judea and Samaria 2,000 years ago. Here is your land, go up and conquer it! "The Land is precious to Me, said the Holy One Blessed Be He. I will put my children who are precious to Me into the land that is precious to Me." (Tanchuma Massey 6) Jewish soldier! Precious and tremendous! You are part of the army of the Holy One, Blessed Be He! Happy are you that you merited seeing the return of the L-rd to Zion. Happy are you that you merited defending the lives of Jews and the Jewish State that arose after centuries of exile, degradation and holocausts! And above all - be proud that you are a Jew, separated and raised above all the nations! Happy are you, how good is your lot and how sweet your portion and how beautiful your inheritance. And if so, find yourself a rabbi and drink the waters of life, the words of the living G-d, the words of your Holy Torah. Return to your roots. Return to the L-rd, your G-d, to His statutes and laws and commandments. "And you shall place these words on your heart and on your soul." (Dvarim 11) Soldiers of the IDF! "Only fear the L-rd and worship Him in truth with all your soul, for consider the great things He has done for you." (Shmuel I, 12) David Ben-Ariel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall." Contact him at http://www.pushhamburger.com/david.htm To Go To Top

MORE MOSLEM PLANS TO DESTROY JEWISH BONDS WITH TEMPLE MOUNT Posted by Gail and Emanuel A. Winston, August 27, 2004.

Dear Friends, Let me say it again! From Ben Gurion through Weizman, through Dayan, through Peres, Beilin, Barak, Netanyahu and now Sharon - the game plan was to eliminate all Jewish Holy Sites and make the Jewish nation secular. (Prime Minister Menachem Begin was the exception. He believed in our Jewish heritage.) The ongoing destruction under the Temple Mount without Sharon's objection and with his issued permits, is merely a continuation of the anti-religious policy to insure that the Jews will never get their hands on Solomon's Temple and start the contruction of the Third Temple. This destruction of our Jewish ethos has ramped up anti-Semitism around the world. As Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres fragment Jewish society, they encourage violence against Jews in all nations - including Israel. Clearly, Sharon should be forced out of office before the Jewish nation dissolves into Civil War. Sharon has proven himself to be a 'spoiler' and NOT a unifier. Arik Sharon, Israel does not need a dictator with delusions of grandeur. This email - a news item in Arutz-Sheva August 20 about the Temple Mount - was sent us by a friend, who wrote: Remember when I reported to you how our guys feel? -That even if we would think that all of what our PM says is not as important as what he does or does not do and if we would think/believe that he is the only master tactician living who can handle giant double speak games one more promising than the other and still not give an inch, we still feel/think/know for sure that this kind of negligence/neglect (see below - nothing new it goes on and on) on his part & his leadership is what will bring us down. He has continuously permitted a disintegration of OUR holy sites in front of the world w/o so much as a whimper of protest either at home or abroad. This disregard for our historical link to our Land is what will undo us - He should/MUST be encouraged to gather his guys together to put an immediate stop/end to this kind of our destruction that goes on DAILY!! Please consider this kind of motion as a priority - if done it can only snowball into great accomplishment and VICTORY! Thanks - From a real ticked off - Avery The Moslem Waqf plans to remove another few thousand tons of dirt dug up in the course of its illegal construction/destruction work on the Temple Mount. The dirt contains ancient remnants from the Temple Mount, and the leaders of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities will meet on Sunday with Antiquities Authority Chairman Shuka Dorfman to counter this intention. In the past, the Waqf has received permits from the Prime Minister's Office and the Public Security Ministry to remove dirt of this nature. It is well-known that the Moslem goal is to erase all vestiges of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site in the world. Islamic Movement leader Israeli-Arab Sheikh Raed Salah has said that the "use of the Temple Mount is exclusively a Moslem Arab Palestinian right," adding, "There never was any First or Second Temple in the vicinity of the Mosque." Archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has told Arutz-7 that the Waqf's objective is to turn "the entire Temple Mount compound into a large mosque, with absolutely no Jewish, Christian or other presence there. The archaeology there absolutely does not interest them; they merely want to cover up all signs of Jewish history there." To Go To Top

TALI FAHIMA IS IMPRISONED, AND SHIMON PERES AND YOSSI BEILIN AREN'T? Posted by Nadia Matar, August 27, 2004.

Tali Fahima, an Israeli extreme leftist activist, who was arrested about three weeks ago, is suspected of involvement in the planning of the terrorist attack at the Kalandia checkpoint. She is the girlfriend of the Tanzin head Zbedi, who took responsibility for planning that attack. She is charged with maintaining close ties with wanted terrorists from the Palestinian Authority. It is also suspected that she was connected with the planning of the transfer of the explosive charge to Zbedi's people. And I want to ask: If this is true - what's all the commotion about? What is so terrible about what she did, if she did it? The question that must be asked is: Why is the anonymous Tali Fahima put in jail, while her spiritual guides, Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, did, and continue to do, exactly the same thing, but are still at large? Tali Fahima embraces with Zbedi? Shimon Peres recently embraced Zbedi's commander, the arch murderer Yasser Arafat, and is ready at any moment to embrace the terrorists Dahlan and Abu Ala! Not to mention Yossi Beilin, who still gallivants throughout the entire world and kisses everybody who's anybody in the terrorist leadership of the PLO. Together they plot how to exert pressure on Israel so that it will capitulate to the Arabs. Tali Fahima is suspected of involvement in a terrorist attack, because she agreed to transfer some explosive charge? In the context of the Oslo accords, Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin transferred thousands of weapons and ammunition to the Arab terrorists, knowing that these weapons would be directed against Jews. The cities of refuge that Peres and Beilin gave the murderers protected them from Israeli punishment. The Oslo Accords also gave a green light to the digging of tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, through which a tremendous quantity of arms were smuggled for terror against Jews. Consequently, Tali Fahima might be responsible for the injuring of several Israeli Border Guard policemen (and we send them our best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery) and the death of one Arab, but we should not forget that Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, the architects of the Oslo Accords, are responsible for the murder of more than a thousand Jews, and the injuring of tens of thousands! Incidentally, Ariel Sharon's hands, as well, are not free of blood - for he agreed, as part of the "disengagement" plan, to rearm the terror agents of the PLO Evil Authority! Tali Fahima is the fruit, the direct result of the Oslo mentality. She negates the eternal tie of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. She justifies the false claims of the Arab enemy and his murderous activity, and, in actuality, does everything in order to aid and abet the Arab enemy in its war against the Jewish State of Israel. Just as, in the army, not only the guard at the gate is to be tried for a serious failing, so, too, not only Tali Fahima is to be placed on trial, but as well also her spiritual mentors: Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, and the other Oslo architects and criminals. They must be charged with collaboration with the enemy, and the giving of arms, ammunition, and portions of our holy homeland to the enemy. Only by placing on trial these leading individuals will there be a deterrence of activists on the extreme left. It will also deter weak politicians who are in power at present from continuing to actualize the platform of the murderous Arab foe - whose sole aim is the expulsion of Jews from all of the Biblical Land of Israel. The case of Tali Pahima only highlights the need to "Put the Oslo criminals on trial!" Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

BNEI MENASHE - OUR BRETHREN Posted by Col. (res.) Moshe Leshem, August 27, 2004.

This was written by Col. (res.) Moshe Leshem about an important project. We would appreciate you helping by sending a contribution to Col. Leshem. Write him at leshem18@zahav.net.il They stood there waiting for us at a small airfield, waving Israeli flags and "Welcome" signs. Children in large kipot, wearing tzitzit on top of their shirts, joined adults weeping with joy as they sang Am Israel Hai and Hevenu Shalom Aleikhem. Gavriel, Shmuel, Elisheva, Vered, Yirmiyahu, Dael and Gershon all embraced us warmly, hovering over us as though we were eagerly-anticipated relatives they had heard so much about but never seen before. You're probably already asking: "What's so special about this story?" It sounds like so many other stories about family reunions at airports all over the world. What's unique in this case, dear friends, is that the event took place at a tiny airfield in the heart of the jungles of northeastern India, in the State of Mizoram. Those who welcomed us were the Bnei Menashe. They may look somewhat different from the people we're used to, but their hearts bear a powerful love and yearning for the Land of Israel. The Bnei Menashe are the descendants of one of the Ten Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel about 2,700 years ago. When they tired of wandering, they settled in northeastern India. I heard about the Bnei Menashe from Rabbi Eliahu Avihail, who has spent most of his life searching for the scattered remnants of Israel. The Bnei Menashe call him "our father." I first visited this marvelous community last April, returning home with an enthusiastic desire to help them achieve the object of their prayers. I told my wife: "Rachel, we're going to visit them again and stay longer this time." Rachel was just as excited about the idea as I was. She made plans, gathered study material and learning aids and we set out on our way. The road to Aizawl, capital of Mizoram State, winds through hills and forests. Everything is so green! Torrential rains fall constantly during monsoon season, but nothing could deter our ardent guides, singing at the top of their lungs as we proceeded by bus and other vehicles. Our destination: the Hebrew Study Center set up by Amishav, a non-profit organization headed by R. Avihail and Michael Freund. The Bnei Menashe are part of an extensive tribe whose descendants are now dispersed throughout northeastern India and neighboring Myanmar (Burma). They do not look like typical Indians, nor does their language resemble others spoken in India. The tribe's history and migration paths are shrouded in mystery, particularly because of the lack of written documentation. Its heritage is passed on orally from one generation to the next, manifested in the observance of clearly Jewish customs such as circumcision on the eighth day, Shabbat, Passover rituals and more. As we climbed the Center's stairs, we saw "Welcome" signs all along the wall, written with an authentic love that was evident throughout our visit. The modest classrooms, too, were decorated with posters of Israeli landscapes, Jewish holidays and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Allenby Sela and his wife Vered run the Center and teach Hebrew. Both are members of the Bnei Menashe who came to Israel ten years ago and returned as emissaries. Students are divided into three groups: Children, youth and adults. The first two groups study during the day, while adults attend classes in the evening, after a day's work in the city or nearby villages. Rachel wasted no time. She planned a special curriculum, inspired by her vast experience in teaching and the keen enthusiasm she felt from the start. She taught for hours on end, her students eagerly absorbing every new word and every new line of poetry. Our son Uri, 16, was also very helpful, teaching youngsters current Israeli songs and slang and spending hours playing soccer with them on the muddy field nearby. News of our arrival attracted many new students. The youth class, that generally numbers 25, expanded to 65 and had to be divided. Teaching Hebrew at the end of the world is a somewhat surrealistic experience. The city itself has about 300,000 residents living in hillside houses on bamboo stilts or concrete pillars. We were nearly the only people there who looked European, but everyone heard of Israel and treated us with love and admiration. We walked down Zion Street and shopped at stores with names like Israel Center. Our bus passed a sign reading Tamar in Hebrew, decorated with Stars of David and Israeli flags. People smiled at us everywhere. On Sundays, we visited small, distant villages, traveling for hours along primitive roads and sometimes soaked by heavy rains. There, we met families whose sons serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Parents proudly showed us pictures of their children in uniform, their eyes tearing with longing to see and embrace them once again. Even in the most remote areas, we saw homes with mezuzot, small synagogues with Hebrew names and cemeteries with Hebrew gravestones. We brought the Bnei Menashe new prayerbooks in Hebrew and Mizo, Star of David pendants and hats with Hebrew inscriptions. Their delight was simply indescribable! Everyone wanted to know when they could finally come to the Land of Israel. They asked us about current Israeli events. The younger ones expressed interest in joining crack IDF units. They embraced us, photographed themselves with us and asked us to stay a little longer. Some asked us to convey regards and letters to their children. Others gave us notes to place in the Western Wall. Longing for Zion among the Bnei Menashe is reflected in prayers and in a powerful desire to move to the Land of Israel. We are not a religious family, but I participated in all their daily and Shabbat services, including the fasts of 17 Tammuz and 9 Av. Their prayers, recited in Hebrew, are authentic and sincere. They spend much time praying and sing much of the liturgy with great fervor. Nowhere in the world have I ever heard Shma Israel recited as it was in the small Bnei Menashe synagogue in Aizawl. The congregation's overwhelming emotions touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. They enunciate slowly in a loud and clear voice, pleading with the Creator to redeem them and bring them to the land of their ancestors. We gathered at the synagogue for the Fast of 9 Av, noticing that it was full to capacity, including the women's section. Worshippers sat barefoot on the ground, mourning the destruction of the Temple. The service leader read the Book of Lamentations in Mizo, so that all would understand, his expressive voice reciting the words in a wailing tone. The congregation, too, wept in authentic sadness. For the Bnei Menashe of Aizawl, the concluding words of Lamentations have a special meaning: Wherefore dost Thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn Thou us unto Thee, O G'd, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old... [Lamentations 5: 20-21] Time passed quickly. A month had gone by and we were on our way home. A busload of youngsters - with kipot and tzitzit, of course - accompanied us to the airfield, singing loud and clear together with our son Uri, hoping to spend as much time as possible with him before we left. They lined up to say goodbye and we embraced each and every one of them. So many tears flowed at our departure. "Don't forget us," they said. We promised not to forget, assuring them we would exert all efforts to help our brethren, the Bnei Menashe, return to their land - and we will do so. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

A LETTER FROM GUSH KATIF Posted by Anita Tucker, August 27, 2004.

I feel like I'm living in two different worlds. The world of the Media and the world of reality here in the eye of the storm in Gush Katif. On the one hand these last few weeks the amount of rockets, mortars, anti-missile attacks, shooting etc has been endless day and night. The unbelievable thing is that nobody pays much attention to it! The crazy thing is even the people who had damage to their homes don't even get excited - the regional council calls the essayers for the income tax and after a pain in the neck run around and their trying to cheat the familiy out of getting proper repairs that they deserve - their house is eventually repaired and that's it. The family may give charity - and have a little meal of thanksgiving. Last week among the many booms I heard - there was one that seemed especially close - but I was busy with all my guests (kids) and ignored it. Eventually I saw army jeeps near my house and went to ask what happened and it turned out a mortar launched bomb exploded on the path entering to my neighbor's house - no damage except a deep ditch in the path and shrapnel spread around. It turned out her son was about to leave, opened the door to walk out - remembered that he forgot his tefillin, walked back in to get them and boom - Ah, so what a gift to feel such direct miracles. There were many others here in Netzer this week and we didn't pay attention to them till one morning we all got these phone calls about having to stay in houses for the next half hour as the IDF was about to explode a bomb that amazingly hadn't exploded but had been rocket-launched and landed right near someone else's front door near my neighborhood. (Benny and Rachel Yefet's married daughter with the triplets - remember that heart-warming episode - related to you about a year ago?) So the terrorists knew they were suceeding to land them into the community - no one stopped them and so they just continued. Lovely. But no one seems too disturbed and everyone kept on as usual. Then I read and listen to media - and I think - are they totally nuts? - they obviously don't care if tomorrow the rockets are launched and reach all over southern Israel. Then I decide to stop reading again. Then I go to an absolutely magnificent evening the youth of Netzer Hazani prepared for the older generation and all the adult kids married and not. It was a magnificent heartwarming extravaganza -in the style of "This is your life" telling the stories of Netzer Hazani from the start till today and expressing the youths's total faith in the future and love of their home, of their lifestyle and of Eretz Yisrael. They did it via skits, music, fantastic movie clip they prepared of past pictures and movies and interviews they filmed in the last few weeks. The most beautiful thing was that they got all the High school age kids to take part in some way from the blackest Kippa types to the one with the crazy hair style who has temporarily (hopefully) taken off his skull-cap as part of his rebellion stage or whatever- it was their idea and put together solely by them as part of the youth's efforts to make sure none of the parents get depressed and give up. They also had it set up beautifully with fancy set tables etc. food etc. And walls of old pictures they gathered together as well as computer stations all over with slide shows of pictures of different periods in the community as well as everyone's wedding pictures. It was all in good taste with a healthy formula combining humor, faith, facts and stories. All this was done outside with tons of shooting in the background and no one blinking an eyelash because of the shooting. Everyone had a great time and felt lifted and proud. There are also endless groups coming to visit every day. There are people writing asking about how they can help, about possibilities of coming to live here, about donating money etc etc. The youth are going out to their appointed cities in the rest of the country and talking to the people there - again wishing them A Good Year, asking them how things are going, what is new with them, giving them the newly published Gush Katif Calender for a donation of 10 shekel- with the beautiful pictures of the views in our area, so far the reactions are very enthusiastic. When the youth go back to school the adults will continue where they left off. Towards the upcoming Holiday of Succoth and then again right before the opening of the new session of the knessset some big activities are being planned that will again unite the People of Israel in their love for the Land of Israel and show our MK's what the people who will elect them next time really want to see happen in Israel! It will, with G-d's Help make the recent human chain look like small dice. Here in Gush Katif, despite the fact that the government has cut off all help for building and developing -it seems wherever you go you see people building hothouses, sorting factories, expanding their homes, doing repairs. New people seem to be moving into all the communities. So I'm left with a choice of being in depression from the unreal world of the media (no official has yet to this day come to talk to anyone in Gush Katif about the disengagement plan - or anything connected to it ???) or choosing to be being excited, thankful, amazed, etc., for the very touchable real world I'm living in. The choice is simple. Effie Eitam (head of the National Religious Party) and family were in Netzer Hazani for Shabbat, as the guest "rabbi" -he spoke about the gov't and the crazy things they are doing as being an integral part of the Redemption, but we the people have to know to choose the good and not the bad with G-d's help. We had a Circumcision here on the Sabbath for the baby of a young couple that had moved in here on the day after Sharon announced the disengagement plan (they were supposed to have moved in two weeks earlier but house repairs weren't ready in time). A beautiful saga - the wife is from Croatia and the husband a Yemenite from a religious family. They met on a love boat cruise. She was working as a barman (lady) and he as a security man. They travelled together all over the wild west as cowboys and he learned a profession as a nail trimmer for cows. He was only willing to marry her if she became Jewish - so they came to Israel and she started learning - she became Orthodox and converted and now was only willing to marry him if he became religious - so no problem they married, worked a bit - looked around for a Yishuv -came to Gush Kayif to visit met the Yefets (Itamar H.Y.D.'s parents) who sort of adopted them -they moved here. So our Doctor, Sodi Namir was the Circumciser and was here with his wife kids and Effie Eitam was honered with being the child's G-dfather and of course Maayan's mother and sister came from Croatia as well as the Yeminite side of family - In short, it was a very moving Sabbath. A world totally different than the atmosphere the media tries to put us into. Tonight I am going to translate some articles on our situation written by Rav Yigal Kaminetzky - Young Israel want to publish them in their bulletins in the US. Tomorrow a group of English speakers are coming on tour - and I'll be showing them around - in the morning I have celery orders to take to Kfar Darom and another one to our Katif marketeer. Stuart is going to babysit in Talmon. Today we returned Tami's twins to Yavneh to the other grandparents - the girls were with us for three days we had a great time but are pooped and my house looks like the enemy attacked. Yesterday we entertained Aviel's kids together with Tami's took them to the pool in groups and then to new big playground in Katif (in memory of the murdered Hatuel girls) - then bought them pizza for supper and took it to the big lawn area near the lake. Turned out Golani brigade was having a picnic and a ceremony there as well so we had free entertainment of ceremony as well, fun fun fun. Tomorrow night we have a wedding to attend as well as Sept. 1 and Sept. 5. May we have only joyous occasions. I read an article about Shimon Peres being responsible for everything including the disengagement idea. Who knows? - the whole thing is too crazy to be anything but part of G-d's big plan and part of a sifting process. We can only keep up our striving and helping the large majority of the People of Israel express their caring and love for the Promised Land of Israel and to thank Hashem for the privilege to witness so many miracles and keep up the planting and building and -. All the yeshivas and Bible learning groups here in Gush Katif (I think there are at least ten if not more) take their job of learning and being careful to carry out the L-rd's commandments in joy and happiness and very seriously. We are really trying to be a major influence in getting G-d to be an active force for the People of Israel and the Land of Israel. The same is true for all the groups who read the Psalms in most of the communities in Gush Katif. Also there is a bonding between the various communities in Gush Katif - like Netzarim to Nisanit. Kfar Darom to Rafiach Yam and others. There are endless charity groups and those who do righteous acts in Gush Katif - so that a pretty thick pamphlet is being published listing the official ones as there are so many. So this should, with G-d's help, make the right things happen - whatever they are at this stage. Good night for now. Love, Anita Anita Tucker is a resident of Netzer Hazani, Gaza, Israel. To Go To Top

DIVIDING THE NATION Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 27, 2004.

The Prime Minister of Israel could not have done a better job of hacking apart the Jewish nation of Israel if he were a schohet cutting up chickens. While Sharon was busy dismembering the nation, Shimon Peres is 'humorously' calling for a unity government. So, if these two collaborating confederates do merge, they will have neatly divided the nation into numerous splinter groups. There will be Sharon and Peres locked in a deadly embrace with Arafat squeezed in. There will be the Likud of the Right rejecting partition, dismemberment and the inclusion of the Labor Left. There will be the Labor Party Leftists who will reject the Sharon-Peres axis. There will be the Pioneering Settlers of Gaza, Judea, Samaria - and the Golan Heights - who will fervently resist re-partition, dismemberment and the return to the 1967/1949 "Auschwitz Borders". Recently, Sharon managed to introduce a 'spoiler' to poison the atmosphere among the settlers. Their role is to start a movement to split the settlers between those who would be willing to take money to leave their homes and those who are determined to stay in the homes, farms, schools, synagogues, factories, businesses, water and infrastructure that they spent three generations of their own sweat, toil and lots of their own money. The Sharon Plan to divide and conquer will cause even more divisions among the Israeli people and ripe for attacks by the Palestinians. I believe that this Prime Minister is at an advance stage of dementia or has deliberately betrayed his own people. Take your pick. Because of Sharon's once and now gone competence in the field of the military, he uses past popularity to drag loyal followers into a plan to splinter the Land like a broken dish. Clearly, he is not to be trusted as he lies and snakes his way toward whatever is in his twisted mind. He has adamantly refused to explain his willingness to break apart the nation. IF he is 'merely' selling off pieces of the Land to please President George Bush, Jr. and the pro-Arab State Department, he has committed treason. IF he thinks he can placate the Arab Muslims and the various Muslim Arab States, then he has mixed stupidity with dementia - a deadly mixture in the mind of any nation's Prime Minister. IF he sees himself as the reincarnation of any of the Kings: Herod, Saul, David, or even Pharaoh - then he is in a dream world of delusion from which he cannot rescue himself. Clearly, he must be removed from office before the improved Kassem missiles (or imported, smuggled missiles from various Arab States) cross over from Egypt and are then launched into Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Beersheva, Beit Shemesh, Ashdod - or any of the smaller cities and villages in the south half of Israel. It is past time to clean a mad house filled with those followers who blindly follow a dictator who has clearly taken leave of his senses. Israel's land mass, even as it is, is very small - 300 miles long and 50 miles wide WITH Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan. Should Sharon and Peres succeed in smashing this brittle land into pieces, there will be nowhere for the Jews to go. IF Sharon is successful in his dismemberment and abandonment of his own people, Jews will not be safe in any country of the world. Sharon and his gang of bootlickers must be thrown out of office. There are some true patriots in Likud who would be able to hold the nation together. Member of Knesset Uzi Landau has shown that he can accomplish the job as a unifier. Uzi Landau has the long term experience and dignity that will bring something to the office of Prime Minister that is currently missing. Many of my friends disagree and have their own preferences. Landau is clearly respected - even by the Left as a decent honest man. The question is: Can Israel achieve putting "One Honest Man" into the seat of Prime Minister in time before she is dismembered by the current Sharon Administration? Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

ARABS PROVE ISLAM A LIE Posted by Beth Goodtree, August 27, 2004.

I just looked over transcripts of some Arab 'educational' material (http://israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=67761) and couldn't believe what I'd read. According to Palestinian educational television, Islam is a lie based upon lies. Of course they never actually say this, but if one extrapolates the absolute 'truths' they present, this is the only conclusion that can be drawn. Below are just some of their illogical or damning teachings (depending upon your point of view) that can be drawn from these latest diatribes. But first, some facts.   It is undisputed fact that Islam regards Jesus as a prophet.   It is undisputed fact that Jesus was Jewish. Let's start with something very, very basic - something even the two esteemed historians who presented the material, Dr. Jarir Al-Qidwa, Head of the PA Public Library and Arafat's Advisor on Education, and Dr. Issam Sissalem, Senior Historian and Educational TV host, former head of History Dept. of PA University, can understand. According to the website Islam101 (http://www.islam101.com/religions/christmas.html): "He (Jesus)and his followers used to worship in the temple which other Israelites used. The message of Jesus was to call people back to the religion of Abraham and Moses from which they had gone astray." and "Based on the statements of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.), Muslims believe that Prophet Jesus will return to earth at a time when Muslims will be in a dire need of a leader." and "The Holy Quran also gives a detailed account of the mission and lives of Jewish prophets like Moses and Zakarea (Zechariah)." Meanwhile, both Dr. Al-Qidwa and Dr. Sissalem state that there is no such thing as Judaism nor that Jewish King Solomon's Temple existed:   Al-Qidwa: The Temple is the fruit of their (Jewish) imagination. If what these two 'learned' individuals claim is true, then Islam, which claims Jesus (who was a Jew) as one of their main prophets and future saviors, is based upon a lie. At the same time, the statements of Dr. Al-Qidwa and Dr. Sissalem fly in the face of facts proven by legal expert and erstwhile Judaism researcher, Dr. Nabil Hilmi, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Al-Zaqaziq. In the August 9, 2003 edition of the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi stated that he takes as fact the Bible's account of the Exodus: "...is based on what is written in the Torah. It can be found in Exodus, [Chapter] 35, verses 12 through 36..." That Dr. Hilmi tried use these facts as the basis to sue every Jew on the planet for gazillions of dollars is immaterial. That he clearly stated in his interviews that he had verified the factual aspects of the Bible, even using the Egyptian police to do the detective work is significant. Dr. Hilmi has stated that the Hebrew Bible is fact, and that the Jews of today are absolutely the descendants of the Jews of yore. This alone flies in the face of what Drs. Al-Qidwa and Sissalem present: Sissalem: "I want to point out that we should not focus much on what is called the [Biblical] Hebrew tribes, who are in fact Bedouin Arab tribes. There is no connection between them and these Khazar Jews [of Israel today]. Those [Hebrew - Arab] tribes were erased and ceased to exist and no traces were left of them..." If nothing else, Dr. Sissalem has negated Dr. Hilmi's lawsuit against modern-day Jews by saying that we have no relationship to the Jews enslaved for hundreds of years by the Egyptians. It also implies, by extension, that if the Egyptians want to sue for return of goods ostensibly stolen from the ancient Egyptians, they should be suing the Bedouins. Unless of course, Drs. Sissalem and Al-Qidwa are wrong....... Further along, a very damning statement comes from the esteemed Dr. Sissalem: "...the Bible expresses a tradition of legends, that has no connection to history." (emphasis mine) Notice how he didn't state 'little connection,' or even 'only partial connection.' Dr. Sissalem stated very clearly the word 'NO.' Yet if one reads the Koran, it clearly states that Abraham settled, by God's command, in the place of what would become the Ka'ba (22,27). Since Dr. Sissalem stated that the Bible has "...NO CONNECTION TO HISTORY," any mention of certain individuals and even groups from the Bible must be false. Therefore, since the Koran mentions Abraham, it must be a lie too. The same holds true for other individuals and groups mentioned in the false piece of literature, the Bible, as well as the Koran. Such people as Ishmael and Moses, and groups such as the ancient Egyptians. Therefore, the words of Mohammed, as written down in the Koran, are based upon a lie. This aforementioned statement even negates the rest of these learned men's arguments that the 'Palestinians' are the descendants of the Canaanites and therefore entitled to take away Israel's land from the Jewish people and claim it for their own: "...when our nation or our Canaanite forefathers came to Palestine." Since the Canaanites are extensively written about in the Hebrew bible, according to Dr. Sissalem, there is no such thing as Canaanites since the Bible has "...no connection to history." This means that the Palestinian claim of being the ancient Canaanites is a lie. In essence, Drs. Al-Qidwa and Sissalem have not merely proven that the Koran is a lie, but that their very own contemporary scholars and statesmen are citing falsehoods when they quote the Koran, since it frequently mentions people and places which are mentioned in the Bible, and, as they will tell you, has no connection to history. So instead of discrediting the Israel and the Jews, these two distinguished Arab experts have proven that Islam is a lie based upon lies. Bravo - who knew you were working for us! Beth Goodtree is an award-winning writer and editorialist. She lives in the NYC-metro area and can be contacted at: BGoodtree@aol.com To Go To Top

AN INDEFATIGABLE UNDERMINER Posted by Gail and Emanuel Winston, August 27, 2004.

Dear Friends, In a normal country, the people should be so enraged at what is disclosed in the following article by Elyakim HaEtzni that they would storm the Courts, demanding the imprisonment - if not the death penalty - for Shimon Peres as he has acted like the ultimate betrayer of the Jewish nation and the Jewish people all over the world. So many Jews have died under the Peres Plan, conceived in secret as the Oslo Accords, and now what appears to be a Sharon-Peres Plan from the beginning. Let us not forget Peres' meetings with Yassir Arafat in the early 1980s, setting up schemes to drive the settlers out of the Land of Israel given to the Jews by G-d. Peres' counted on Arafat's Terrorists adding to the nation from his earliest days until now and, if allowed to, well into the future. How many Jews must be murdered as a result of the scurrilous planning of Shimon Peres - now assisted by Ariel Sharon?   Sometimes, one can find tomorrow's news in old newspapers. Urit Struck of Hevron sent me two articles that appeared in Haaretz in December of last year, and they are truly enlightening. Amnon Lord quoted from them in Makor Rishon and I will do the same here because of the importance of the matter; so that we will know how the dark conspiracy to destroy the settlement enterprise was born and who is the dark figure pulling the strings, the figure who will this week or next pop out of the shadows to reap the rewards of the destruction and devastation that he periodically sowed. You guessed it: Shimon Peres. Ostensibly, what chance did the man have, he who is responsible more than any other for the 1,500 Oslo War dead and thousands injured, to appear out in the open and to again ascend the public stage, in order to again obtain a central role in the national leadership? What chance did he have, essentially, to manage, with or without the title of Foreign Minister, the foreign policy of Israel? An architect who designed a building that buried its tenants underneath it, a doctor who caused the death of his patients - who would allow the former to design a prestigious government project or the latter to run the national health system? And we have yet to expose the depths of the absurdity. This bad man has been exposed time and again in public as an "indefatigable underminer" and as the master of "dirty tricks", as the late Yitzchak Rabin called him, as a conspirator, as a liar and incorrigible schemer, as well as being obsessed with honor and publicity to the point of illness. What does it say about our society that we are again allowing this dangerous man to lead, to represent us? Chamberlain, he of the umbrella, brought the world the "Oslo" known as "Munich", assuaged the Yasser Arafat of those days, Hitler, groveled before him and appeased him, and caused, by his foolishness, stubbornness and short-sightedness, the deaths of perhaps 60 million people in the Second World War; and all in the name of "peace". Is it at all reasonable that the English people would place in his hands the running of the country in its war against Hitler, against the results of his own actions? The British, a sensible people, brought in Churchill - Chamberlain's rival, who had warned against Chamberlain and his policies - and forced Chamberlain to resign shortly after the outbreak of war. Since then, he disappeared from view, from any position, from memory - with the exception of the memory of disgrace - he became a symbol of negative, despised and held in contempt. The people of Israel is no less sane and normal than the English. When the terrorist war exposed for all the embarrassment of Oslo, and thus that of its wise men, its architects and its initiators, Shimon Peres above them all, the people were repelled by them and chose instead someone who was seen to be, and who presented himself as, the diametric opposite of Peres, just as Churchill was the opposite of Chamberlain: Ariel Sharon. And it was here that the people of Israel fell into the trap. With the entry of Peres into the government, the century's greatest bluff is exposed - a fraud, deceit and misrepresentation for which it is difficult to find historical precedent. As it turns out, above Sharon, pulling the strings the whole time, was... who, if not that selfsame Shimon Peres? Oslo he brought upon us openly, and the Palestinian state on the ruins of the Jewish settlement enterprise he brings upon us disguised as Sharon. Hannah Kim, in Haaretz, raised the curtain a bit for us, so that we might witness the construction of the plot to steal the heartland of Eretz Yisrael from us, to divide the nation and bring it to the edge of civil war. Avi Gil, Peres' right-hand man in the past and currently, who was a director under Peres and works closely with him until today, is also a close friend and confidante of whom? You guessed it: Omri Sharon. This selfsame Gil organized a meeting with the millionaire industrialist Dov Lautman whose purpose was to influence Sharon to begin the dismantling of the settlements in the Strip. They believed, writes Hannah Kim, "that the moment even a single settlement will be evacuated, the rest will fall like dominoes." Who took part in the meeting? Their names speak for themselves: Dan Meridor, Ami Ayalon and Yaakov Perry, Danny Rothschild, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Dalia Rabin-Pilosoff, the publicists Moshe Teumim and Tal Zilberstein, and Uzi Baram. There, at that meeting, was born and there originated the demand to withdraw from Gaza. Not American pressure, not an American initiative - we did it all to ourselves. The plot originates with Peres, Sharon carries it across the ocean and it returns as American pressure. The meeting with Lautman was before Sharon and Olmert went public with their declarations. The group threatened to start a public campaign attacking Sharon if he would not come out with his own initiative to dismantle the Jewish settlement in Gaza. I still remember the birthday party Peres arranged for himself at the Tel Aviv Cultural Center. In his speech there, with Sharon seated beside him in silence, he one, single demand, as if it was a personal birthday wish, was to withdraw from Gaza; that is, to extinguish the Jewish settlement there. Avi Gil reported on the Lautman meeting to Omri Sharon, who reported to his father. Among other things, Lautman and friends passed along to Sharon poll results, among them one survey according to which most Likud members support uprooting the Jewish communities of Gaza. It is well worth noting this point, how polls are played with. Afterwards, of course, we went and directly asked all the Likud members, and it turned out that the poll was false. But by then, it was too late. Peres already achieved what he wanted. Sharon responded immediately and asked Omri to check with the Lautman group if the Labor party would join his government if he went with uprooting the settlements. Matters were so far advanced that Avi Gil and Sharon Jr. already sat to plan the division of portfolios in the national unity government. Note: we are talking about December of last year, eight months ago. And that is how the famous "disengagement" plan was cooked up - in Peres' kitchen. In a different article, Hannah Kim says that the famous Road Map, the pernicious document according to which the whole world (America, Russia, Europe, the UN) commits itself to take everything from us - including Jerusalem - and return the refugees, and according to which we accept upon ourselves control and oversight of the "Quartet", and essentially relinquish our very sovereignty. This Road Map was also born in Peres' ailing mind. It was Peres who sold it to Condoleezza Rice, it being nothing other than a reincarnation of the Peres-Abu Mazen agreement of 2001, reached with Sharon's approval and according to lines Peres developed beforehand with Sharon, as Sharon himself admitted. Why is it dangerous "to knock on the devil's door"? Because Satan might open the door. After Peres, as himself and disguised as Sharon, sold George Bush the "vision" of a temporary Palestine in all of Gaza and half of the territory of Judea and Samaria, it became the "Bush vision" for all of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem. Matters went so far that when Sharon's representatives, among them Dov Weisglass and Giora Eiland, asked that same Condoleezza to write explicitly in a letter to Sharon from Bush that at least the blocs of Ariel, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion will remain ours, she simply threw them out of the room, according to a report by Nachum Barnea. And Barnea gets his information right from the source. Sever Plotzker wrote in Yediot Aharonot this April in connection with the corruption in the Palestinian Authority, that even the idea of "donor nations", which transferred to Yasser Arafat four billion dollars thus far, was thought up by - guess who - Shimon Peres, of course. And now that it seems that all that money disappeared, Peres is again meandering among people in the American and European administrations in order to convince them to pour more billions into the Palestinians. As you read how the World Bank is being made a guarantor to receive the property of the Jews in the communities targeted for uprooting, and how a financial celebration is being prepared for the Palestinians on the occasion of our flight from the Gaza coast, which will be called "an international operation for the development of the Gaza Strip", for otherwise a terrorist state will arise there after our retreat - be aware that it is all at the instigation of Shimon Peres. That is precisely how he justified the Oslo agreements. As we see Sharon eat away at Judea, Samaria and Gaza like a pathogen - we just heard that he cancelled all of the construction plans that Sha'ul Mofaz alreaddy approved, among them in Ariel, Maaleh Adumim and Beitar Elite, "privileged" places, supposedly secure - it is important that we remember: Sharon is Peres. And when we hear about the subversion and dark plans of Peres, it is important that we remember: Peres is Sharon; just as Avi Gil is Omri Sharon and vice versa. To Go To Top

ON LABOR DAY WE SHOULD HONOR THE HUMAN MIND Posted by Fredric Hamber, August 26, 2004.

It is fitting that the most productive nation on earth should have a holiday to honor its work. The high standard of living that Americans enjoy is hard-earned and well-deserved. But the term "Labor Day" is a misnomer. What we should celebrate is not sweat and toil, but the power of man's mind to reason, invent and create. Several centuries ago, providing the basic necessities for one's survival was a matter of daily drudgery for most people. But Americans today enjoy conveniences undreamed of by medieval kings. Every day brings some new useful household gadget, or a new software system to increase our productivity, or a breakthrough in biotechnology. So, it is worth asking: Why do Americans have no unique holiday to celebrate the creators, inventors, and entrepreneurs who have made all of this wealth possible - the men of the mind? The answer lies in the dominant intellectual view of the nature of work. Most of today's intellectuals, influenced by several generations of Marxist political philosophy, still believe that wealth is created by sheer physical toil. But the high standard of living we enjoy today is not due to our musculature and physical stamina. Many animals have been much stronger. We owe our relative affluence not to muscle power, but to brain power. Brain power is given a left-handed acknowledgement in today's fashionable aphorism that we are living in an "information age" in which education and knowledge are the keys to economic success. The implication of this idea, however, is that prior to the invention of the silicon chip, humans were able to flourish as brainless automatons. The importance of knowledge to progress is not some recent trend, but a metaphysical fact of human nature. Man's mind is his tool of survival and the source of every advance in material well-being throughout history, from the harnessing of fire, to the invention of the plough, to the discovery of electricity, to the invention of the latest anti-cancer drug. Contrary to the Marxist premise that wealth is created by laborers and "exploited" by those at the top of the pyramid of ability, it is those at the top, the best and the brightest, who increase the value of the labor of those at the bottom. Under capitalism, even a man who has nothing to trade but physical labor gains a huge advantage by leveraging the fruits of minds more creative than his. The labor of a construction worker, for example, is made more productive and valuable by the inventors of the jackhammer and the steam shovel, and by the farsighted entrepreneurs who market and sell such tools to his employer. The work of an office clerk, as another example, is made more efficient by the men who invented copiers and fax machines. By applying human ingenuity to serve men's needs, the result is that physical labor is made less laborious and more productive. An apt symbol of the theory that sweat and muscle are the creators of economic value can be seen in those Soviet-era propaganda posters depicting man as a mindless muscular robot with an expressionless, cookie-cutter face. In practice, that theory led to chronic famines in a society unable to produce even the most basic necessities. A culture thrives to the extent that it is governed by reason and science, and stagnates to the extent that it is governed by brute force. But the importance of the mind in human progress has been evaded by most of this century's intellectuals. Observe, for example, George Orwell's novel 1984, which depicts a totalitarian state that still, somehow, is a fully advanced technological society. Orwell projects the impossible: technology without the minds to produce it. The best and brightest minds are always the first to either flee a dictatorship in a "brain drain" or to cease their creative efforts. A totalitarian regime can force some men to perform muscular labor; it cannot force a genius to create, nor force a businessman to make rational decisions. A slave owner can force a man to pick peanuts; only under freedom would a George Washington Carver discover ways to increase crop yields. What Americans should celebrate is the spark of genius in the scientist who first identifies a law of physics, in the inventor who uses that knowledge to create a new engine or telephonic device, and in the businessmen who daily translate their ideas into tangible wealth. On Labor Day, let us honor the true root of production and wealth: the human mind. Fredric Hamber is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Send comments to reaction@aynrand.org. To Go To Top

SOCRATES IN ISRAEL Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, August 26, 2004.

Imagine Socrates in Israel. What would be the fate of this lover of truth? To answer this question, recall the trial of Socrates in Plato's dialogue, the Apology. Socrates was accused of not believing in the gods of Athens, indeed, of being an atheist and corrupter of youth. Despite his proven patriotism, he was convicted and sentenced to death by Athens' democratic assembly. Consider Socrates' accusers. Their names are not important, save to say they represented Athens' political and intellectual elites. Whether opinion-makers or policy-makers, they had one thing in common: they feared truth on the one hand, and a diminution of their power on the other. Now, as we all know, Socrates went around Athens questioning all sorts of people about their "gods," meaning those ends which democrats pursue with the greatest zeal. He saw that Athenians were preoccupied with money-making or pleasure-seeking and security. He also saw that freedom and equality in democratic Athens were leveling all moral distinctions. The bad was called good, the good was called bad, and everyone had his own "lifestyle," monotonously trivial. In other words, moral relativism or pluralism permeated the mentality of Athenians, thanks largely to its educators, the sophists, the counterparts of today's "intellectuals." Socrates understood that the lack of conviction fostered by relativism, or the disunity resulting from pluralism, would render Athens incapable of persevering in a protracted conflict with a militaristic regime like Sparta. No wonder the elites of Athens hated Socrates, who readily exposed their self-serving motives and folly. They not only envied his superior mind, but they feared his influence on youth. Socrates had to be silenced if the fools and mafias that ruled Athens were to remain in power. Let us now imagine Socrates in Israel. Socrates would show that, contrary to its reputation, Israel is not a democracy. He would reveal that Israel's rulers use the language and some of the trappings of democracy - periodic, multiparty elections - to legitimize what, in reality, is a system of self-perpetuating oligarchies or fiefdoms called "political parties." The Knesset members of these parties, he would show, are not accountable to the people in constituency elections. As a consequence, every few the people vote for this or that party list and then relapse into servitude. Pluralism being the god of Israeli elites, one party may form a coalition with another party to the disgust of their respective voters. Alternatively, a member of one party may join a rival party when he fails to have a "safe place" on his original party's list. Socrates would expose the dishonorable character of such parties and show that they are more concerned about plundering the national treasury than serving the national good. He would also question the justice of giving equal political rights to the loyal and the disloyal. What would be done to silence this gadfly? In Athens, Socrates was silenced by real democrats. Here, in Israel, he would be silenced by pseudo-democrats. But how do pseudo-democrats silence and rid themselves of their opponents? Of course none would accuse Socrates of being an atheist when atheism is rampant among Israel's political and intellectual elites. Today a much more effective term of obloquy is "racism"! But what sort of racism would Socrates be accused of by Israel's truth-haters? Surely it would be anti-Arab racism. After all, Socrates would easily show that the Arabs are committed to Israel's dismemberment. He would point out that the Islamic religion urges Muslims to kill "infidels" in general, and Jews in particular. Socrates would expose the moral cowardice of Israel's political leaders. He would show how they are responsible for the murder and mutilation of Jewish men, women, and children; how, by their weakness, they incite Arabs to despise and butcher Jews. Socrates would also reveal the stupidity and lack of honor prevailing among Israel's political elites, who make their Arab executioners their equals in the Knesset - of course in the name of "democracy." All this would get Socrates in trouble with the truth-haters that control Israel. How they would resent this gadfly! Needless to say, these shameless pseudo-democrats would severely restrict Socrates' freedom of speech - naturally in the name of democracy! Indeed, they would enact a law making it a crime to tell the truth about Israel's Arab enemies! Socrates, however, would not remain silent. The unexamined life is not worth living. Nevertheless, Israel's truth-hating intellectuals would bar him from speaking at universities, fearing he would undermine their standing with students. They would conceal their fear of Socrates by calling him a "racist" and even a "fascist." Socrates would also be denied access to the media where he might answer his calumniators - who would justify this censorship, again in the name of "democracy." Under no circumstances must Socrates have the opportunity to corrupt the youth! And were he to form a party - admittedly, not his way - it would certainly be banned from the Knesset with the connivance of Israel's High Court of Justice. No "racist" (and undemocratic) party must be permitted to sully the dignity of an assembly that boasts of such patriotic parties as Balad (the Arab National Democratic Party) and the United Arab List! Socrates could not survive very long in "democratic" Israel. No, its ruling elites will not poison this truth-seeker with hemlock. Instead, they will simply defame him by slanderous lies, until lying became the modus operandi of the only democracy in the Middle East. To Go To Top

THE POLICY OF APPEASEMENT AND DEFEATISM Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, August 26, 2004.

Finally, I am able to pour out the anguish that has resulted from watching Ariel Sharon dismantle the land of the Jews. Moshe Dann, Israeli political commentator, supplied me with a phrase that opened the emotional floodgates. I had e-mailed him a simple question, "What is going on?" He replied, - Ehud Olmert's (Sharon's Deputy Prime Minister) latest says it all: "unilateral withdrawal to whatever the international community will allow." Moshe calls it "the policy of defeatism and appeasement." How perfect! Who then is running Israel, the supposed land of the Jews? The "international community"? Certainly not the Jews. Did they leave one ignoble Diaspora existence where their destiny was dictated by others to create another entity, supposedly of their own, wherein these same powers control the lives of the Jews? Leslie Susser of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes of "quick action" by Ariel Sharon averting a "showdown" with the United States over "settlement building in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). How did Sharon avert this "showdown?" - by a policy of "appeasement and defeatism," of course. You may remember that Sharon had coerced his cabinet to approve a preposterous Road Map plan in 2003 designed by Israel's "friends" - The United Nations, the European Union, the Russians and the American State Department. Sharon in the document agreed to dismantle "illegal" settlements and not expand existing ones. The Israelis are thus to remain in what Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz borders of the former Green line" - a corridor along the Mediterranean Coast in which a much smaller Israeli population existed prior to the Six Day War. This is to be the dictated destiny of the Jews while the Arabs expand all over Judea and Samaria and, of course, in so-called Israel proper and Jerusalem itself! What is this garbage about negative demographics in Israel? The Arabs don't even need demographics. Whole masses of tiny Israel are being given to them by the Israelis themselves in this insane policy of "appeasement and defeatism." By the way, what was to have been the Arab obligations under the infamous Roadmap, now a companion piece to the disastrous Oslo "Peace" accords? The very first paragraph of the Road Map agreement, just like all the very first paragraphs of all the duplicitous "peace" agreements that the Arabs have signed before and the Israelis have swallowed since, says, "In Phase I, the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence according to the steps outlined below; such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel. Palestinians and Israelis resume security cooperation based on the Tenet work plan to end violence, terrorism, and incitement through restructured and effective Palestinian security services. Palestinians undertake comprehensive political reform in preparation for statehood, including drafting a Palestinian constitution, and free, fair and open elections upon the basis of those measures." Has any of the above ever happened since the Oslo agreement and the Israelis orchestrated return from Tunisia of a totally defeated Yasser Arafat in 1993? Of course not. Does any realistic political pundit or historian believe it will ever happen? Nevertheless, Israel marches on with its woeful policy of appeasement and defeatism. Just this week, General Moshe Yaalon, Israel's chief of staff and another General who many of us thought genuinely embraced a policy of strength and containment, and, most probably like Olmert, acting as point man for Sharon, declared that Israel could return all of the Golan Heights to Syria without compromising security! This statement is contrary to an evaluation of a coterie of American military analysts that visited the Golan after the Six Day War. Syrians for years, with the most modest of weapons, rained terror down on the Israeli farmers of the Hula valley beneath the Golan Heights. Equally outrageous is Sharon's courting of the Egyptians to take over policing of Gaza and the underground tunnels that reach directly from Egyptian land in the Sinai through Rafah to Palestinian homes from which the weaponry is dispersed! This week IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis news agency, reported that Israeli Deputy Director-General for Information declined to raise the issue of Egypt's failure to act against the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to Gaza as the focus is currently on explaining the IDF operation in Gaza! Shades of Oslo. The Israelis deliberately turn a blind eye on complete non-compliance and continue on the inane path of appeasement and defeatism in the preposterous hope that their centuries old enemy will simply change their minds and go away and leave the Jews alone! Where is this all leading? One can only shudder in contemplation. Perhaps the Hashem of those that truly believe will, once again, save the Jews from their own self-destruction? Jerome Kaufman is host of the http://www.israel-commentary.org website, which specializes in essays and commentaries of importance to events in Israel. Contact him at jkaufman253469MI@comcast.net To Go To Top

THE DOG THAT DIDN'T BARK Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, August 26, 2004.

"The dog that didn't bark" is an expression from a Sherlock Holmes mystery. It was an important clue that led to identifying the criminal. It seems that the killer entered and left the estate grounds one night but without the guard dog barking an alarm at the intruder's presence as expected. From this non-event Holmes reasoned that the dog must have known the killer and that clue led to solving the case. There is an analogy to U.S. Mid-East policy where U.S. silence, i.e. our failure to "bark" when we should, in the face of outrageous events is also a clue to U.S. attitudes. We can contrast the significance of when the U.S. "barks" and when it is silent. We observe that when Israel defends itself the Administration is very capable of promptly barking its disapproval. For example when Israeli forces entered Judea and Samaria to root out terrorist murderers, Colin Powell had no trouble barking at Israel in a nasty manner for them to get out and be quick about it, and such outbursts also carry an implied threat. When Israel began construction of its security fence this Administration was quick to criticize and, for a time, to punish Israel by reducing loan guarantees by some 300 million dollars. When Israel assassinated terrorist leaders, who had so much blood on their hands, the Administration was also quick to warn Israel to consider the consequences of its actions. All this establishes that the Administration watches every detail of Israeli actions and is quick to issue public criticisms and warnings to distance itself from our only true ally. This serves to accentuate the contrast between criticism of Israel vs. its noticeable silence in the face of Arab crimes and pronouncements. On the other hand when the U.S. fails to respond to Arab outrages against Israel, that silence is significant. For the record it is true that when Arafat's killers slaughter innocent Jews in especially large numbers the Administration will serve up a perfunctory condemnation of the act, a growl, so to speak. But there is no holding the killers responsible nor any withholding of funds to the PA as was done for a while with Israel. The U.S. message is clear. No bark, no bite. The Arabs can safely disregard those pronouncements because it is only an empty public relations gesture in return for which Israel is expected to show gratitude, practice more restraint, and the killers again go unpunished. U.S. silence is highly significant when Israel's enemies make direct threats and issue inflammatory lies. When Saddam Hussein earlier threatened to "burn half of Israel" there was no American comment. Iran has repeatedly threatened Israel with annihilation once they acquire nuclear weapons and regardless of any Israeli peace with the Palestinians. No public denunciation from the administration. When Arafat, in Arabic, incites his people to continue to slaughter Jews - again silence. When Arafat displays his map of the Middle East with NO Israel - more silence. Arafat indoctrinates Palestinian children with murderous hatred of Jews along with layer upon layer of lies. Not only is there no U.S. criticism but Arafat's PA continues to receive hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. When Egypt trains for its next war against Israel with U.S.-supplied weapons and incites its people with raw anti-Semitism - again more silence. When Saudi Arabia pours forth Nazi-type invective against Israel and Jews - continued silence. Going beyond the above, the State Department conducts an even more active policy of a double standard against Israel. It not only ignores evidence of flagrant Arab crimes against Israel, but it demands that Israel accept these crimes without protest. Mr. David Bedein of the Israel Resource News Agency has published a list of 20 such actions by the State Department in his Aug. 4, 2003 article titled, Is the State Department on the Saudi Payroll? These are only a few of the many egregious actions that are constantly going on. And yet successive administrations, and the State Department, continue to behave like the dog that didn't bark. Israel's Arab enemies certainly observe all this and they may draw conclusions about the real attitudes of the U.S. administration.The Administration's cynical excuse is that they want to be "even handed" in their Mid East policy. One cannot be "even handed" between aggressors and the aggressor's victims. The hard reality is that the administration is actually practicing a consistent double standard against Israel which is even worse than being unfairly "even handed." The question is what kind of game is being played here? In truth this policy has been in place from the birth of Israel. It is not hard to guess that the State Department, which leads our foreign policy, is maneuvering between two conflicting forces. One force is the pro-Israel sentiment among the American people and the U.S. Congress to support a loyal and democratic ally. The other force is pressure from the numerous Arab and Islamic governments, combined with our need for their oil. That would be bad enough but the gratuitous nastiness that often accompanies State Department actions towards Israel suggests that there is also an additional element of domestic anti-Semitism that exists independently of balancing conflicting geopolitical interests and independently of America's national interest. The Arabs are adept at this type of politics. Their posture is always that of pretending to be aggrieved victims of what they call "Israeli aggression" and their endless complaining that America uncritically supports Israel. And behind this is their perpetual threat of the Arab and Moslem masses rising up in outrage against American interests. As long as U.S. policy makers succumb to these threats, they will continue to be made and we will remain hostage to them. But as with a cancerous growth, our failure to respond early and morally is leading to a metastasis of hatred from being directed mainly against Israel to now targeting other countries, including the U.S. We see it in Saudi Arabia which long supported terrorism against Israel but which recently has come under internal terrorist attack. The Saudis are now very strong to fight terrorism, but only inside their own kingdom. And the U.S. has long ignored anti-Israeli terrorism as long as it was mainly Israelis who were killed. Even in the early 1970's when Arafat's thugs kidnapped and murdered American diplomats Cleo Noel and George C. Moore in Khartoum, Sudan, U.S. policy even then was to play down the threat in the expectation that it would remain very contained and limited. Today we find ourselves becoming as much of a target as Israel. Nevertheless our policy of selective silence remains largely unchanged. We still ignore the existential danger to Israel, our most loyal and most supportive ally. But we also deliver another unintended lesson to our enemies and to our few remaining friends. The lesson is that the U.S. will betray a loyal friend in order to appease an enemy in the hope that it will somehow work to our benefit. Egypt, Arabia, France, China, Russia and others all betray us and yet we call them friends and there is no price for them to pay. And then we wonder why so may nations feel entirely free to turn against us. It would also be unfair to place all the blame on the morally corrupt U.S. officials and especially the State Department. Much of the blame must also be shared by the defective, and insufficiently assertive American Jewish leadership. They also resemble "The dog that didn't bark" when they should have boldly spoken truth to power. The Jewish left in America makes matters even worse by masquerading as supporting peace even while they loudly "bark" their support for Israel's enemies. Israel is our most loyal and most supportive ally; therefore those who betray Israel also betray America's national interest. This article was published in http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3779 To Go To Top

WHERE'S THE EVIDENCE? Posted by IsrAlert, August 26, 2004.

This was written by Israel Zwick, who holds advanced degrees in biology and psychology but often writes on topics of Jewish interest. Though he lives in New York, he has children and grandchildren in Israel. The whole world seems to be eager to establish a new sovereign state called "Palestine" east of the Jordan River. In fact, much of the world already assumes that this state already exists, because there are so many references to it on maps, in brochures, on web sites and in reference books. It is difficult to comprehend the enthusiasm for establishing this state, when there is no evidence that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is willing or able to join the family of nations as a responsible, democratic and peaceful state. 1. Where is the evidence that the PA is capable of holding free and democratic elections to establish a representative government? 2. Where is the evidence that the PA is capable of collecting taxes and distributing the funds appropriately where it is needed? 3. Where is the evidence that the PA can issue passports and visas in a responsible manner? 4. Where is the evidence that the PA can live in peaceful coexistence with its neighbors? 5. Where is the evidence that the PA will devote efforts to developing commerce, technology, and education to enhance the quality of life for its citizens? 6. Where is the evidence that the PA will respect the environment of its historically rich landscape? 7. Where is the evidence that the PA will respect the rights of all religions and ethnic groups living within its borders? 8. Where is the evidence that the PA will respect the religious, historical and archeological sites within its borders? 9. Where is the evidence that the PA can establish a responsible a police force that will promote peace and security among its citizens? 10. Where is the evidence that the PA can provide security for planes and ships entering and leaving its ports? 11. Where is the evidence that the PA can develop, import, and maintain munitions in a responsible manner? 12. Where is the evidence that the PA will respect and provide for the needs of children? 13. Where is the evidence that the PA can be accountable for the money that it receives and spends? 14. Where is the evidence that the PA government will attend to the needs of its citizens? 15. Where is the evidence that the PA can form a stable government with elected leaders that feel safe from assassination by insurgents? 16. Where is the evidence that the PA can contain Islamic militants and prevent them from drawing Israel and the USA into another Middle East war? This list can go on and on, but there is only one answer. There is no evidence whatsoever that these things will occur in a state operated by the PA or any other Palestinian group. In fact, all the evidence available is to the contrary. A Palestinian state would become another uncivilized, barbaric, autocratic, corrupt, racist state, similar to 20 other Islamic states in that region. Now that we know what's going on in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Iraq, why is the world so eager to establish another state that could easily become another powder keg that would endanger world peace, stability and security? I have no answer to this. Perhaps the wise men who promote the Geneva Understandings and other designs for a Palestinian state could explain this to me. I would really appreciate it, because I can't figure it out. Since I am a reasonably intelligent and educated person, there must be a lot of other people who don't understand this either. I think the UN, EU and other supporters of a Palestinian State need to provide us with some answers. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

BEHIND EVERY ROCKET IS A STORY Posted by Michael Freund, August 26, 2004.

This article appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem Post. Glancing at the headlines, it is easy to think that all is quiet in Israel these days. With an occasional exception, there are hardly any more terrorist attacks grabbing the headlines, and daily life seems to be returning to normal. Sure, every once in a while we hear something about a few mortar rounds being fired at Jews in Gaza, or about an attempted stabbing or two in Jerusalem. But for the most part, life in the Holy Land appears to be back on track. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Appearances notwithstanding, the Palestinian war against Israel continues, and it would be foolish to think otherwise. Take, for example, the events of August 18, when Palestinian terrorists in Gaza launched a couple of Kassam rockets at the Jewish community of Neve Dekalim. The incident was duly reported, and then quickly forgotten, just another passing item on the media's radar screen. But behind every rocket, there is a story. And in this case, it proved to be a painful, and tragic one. August 18 was a quiet Wednesday afternoon, and Donel Benjamin was sitting at home, working on his computer, when the rocket struck. Donel, a 25-year old who made aliyah from India in 1997, is a member of the Bnei Menashe, a group claiming descent from a lost tribe of Israel. He works in Neve Dekalim's supermarket, and decided to go home for a quick afternoon break before returning to work. But the Palestinian projectile changed all that, when it blasted its way through the first floor of Donel's house, nearly destroying the structure and wiping out the family's belongings. Miraculously, Donel's mother and brother, who were home at the time, were unharmed, but Donel himself was not so lucky. Shrapnel from the rocket tore its way through his flesh, causing grave damage to his legs and head. He was rushed to a hospital in Beersheba, and underwent emergency surgery, which may very well have saved his life. Donel is now recovering from his wounds, his head wrapped in bandages. Thankfully, he remembers nothing of the attack, but complains of the pain that he still feels throughout his entire body. His four siblings and his mother, a widow, are by his side, hoping and praying for his speedy recovery. The local municipal council has already begun work to repair Donel's home, but the family now faces enormous obstacles, both financial and psychological, with which they must contend. Of course, none of this was reported in the media, which incorrectly asserted that Donel was a foreign worker and that he had received 'only' moderate wounds. And that is truly unfortunate, because while his current situation might be heartrending, Donel's story is in fact an inspiration. As a member of the Bnei Menashe, Donel grew up in the far reaches of northeastern India, in the lush green hills of the state of Mizoram. There, he was raised to believe that he and the members of his tribe were descendants of Israel, the offspring of Jews who had been forced into exile many centuries ago, where they lost contact with mainstream Judaism. Nonetheless, they continued to preserve the memory of their Jewish ancestry, and to live according to the laws of Moses as best they could, from circumcision to the Sabbath to the laws of family purity. From generation to generation, they passed down the tradition, clinging to it as best they could. Donel, and others like him, dreamed of one day making aliyah, thereby closing a historical circle and returning to the land of their ancestors. In the past decade, Donel and his family, along with some 800 other members of the Bnei Menashe, have made aliyah under the auspices of Amishav, the organization which I head. All of the immigrants undergo formal conversion and build new lives as Israelis and Jews in every respect. They are productive members of society, they serve in the army, support themselves, and live observant Jewish lifestyles. But another 6,000 are still stuck in India, waiting to fulfill the dream of return. And the only impediment standing in their way is the refusal of Interior Minister Avraham Poraz to allow them to come. For over a year, Poraz has adamantly refused to budge, citing, among other reasons, the Bnei Menashe's religious observance, and their desire to live in the territories, as things he finds objectionable. Recently, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, sent two rabbinical emissaries to India to visit the Bnei Menashe, study the community and its background, and report back to him on their findings. I accompanied the rabbis on their visit, and we have every reason to believe that the result will be favorable, and that the Bnei Menashe will at last receive the official recognition from Israel which they have sought for so long. But in the meantime, as Donel recovers from his wounds, his countless friends and family members still in India wait impatiently, hoping they too will be given a chance to come home to Israel. They are undeterred by the violence, nor are they dissuaded by the obstacles which Poraz puts in their path. Their goal is to rejoin the Jewish people after centuries of separation, and they are confident that this will come to pass. So as much as the Palestinians might wish to scare the Jewish people with their rockets and their missiles, Donel and the Bnei Menashe stand as living proof that they will never succeed. Because come what may, the dream of returning to Zion lives on. Michael Freund serves as Director of Amishav (www.amishav.org.il), a Jerusalem-based group which reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. To Go To Top

THE ACTIONS BY ATTY-GEN. MAZUZ MAY BE ILLEGAL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 25, 2004.

When Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon appointed his new Attorney-General, Meni Mazuz, there was great deal of suspicion - given Mazuz' lack of experience at that level. It soon came clear when Mazuz decided to dismiss charges against Sharon and his son, Gilad, of bribery on what came to be know as the Greek Island Affair. Sharon's son had almost zero business experience yet he was given some $640,000 by David Appel to conduct the business arrangements for building a resort on a Greek island only because of his father. It was obvious to all but the newly appointed Mazuz that this was an illegal scam. But, prostituting one's office in Israel seems almost an everyday occurrance among high officials. High level crooks in politics, the military or the courts simply never go to jail. Now we see Mazuz once again doing his boss, Arik Sharon, a favor by compromising Israel's sovereign rights to the territories of Judea and Samaria. Mazuz now claims that Judea and Samaria might be "occupied". Mazuz would adopt a version of the Geneva Conventions wherein Israel would be forced to formally admit that Judea and Samaria are "occupied territories". (1) Mazuz seems perfectly willing to play the role of 'spoiler' so Sharon can override the Likud vote of 60% to 40% against Sharon's 'Disengagement Plan' of abandoning Gush Katif and uprooting all the 8,200 men, women and children who have lived there for three generations. We have watched Sharon's gang, in subversive linkage with Shimon Peres and the pro-Arab U.S. State Department, grow progressively uglier in their efforts to make Gaza, Judea and Samaria Judenrein. Applying the Geneva Convention would mean that Israel is not permitted to house its citizens in YESHA - and could even give such residents the international status of "war criminals". International Law Professor Talia Einhorn said that Mazuz's position could pave the way for the international community to negate Israel's claim to the Old City of Jerusalem and other Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Ramat Eshkol, Pisgat Ze'ev, Neveh Ya'acov and Gilo. [However], "According to international law," Einhorn writes, "Israel has full rights to try to populate the entire Land of Israel with dense Jewish settlement, and thus actualize the principles set by the League of Nations in the original Mandate Charter of San Remo in 1920. That British Mandate for Palestine states clearly that it is based on the international recognition of the historic ties between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. Clause Two of that mandate charges Britain with 'ensuring the existence of political, administrative and economic conditions that will guarantee the establishment of the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel." "Even the White Paper of 1922," she continues, "which restricted Jewish immigration to the land, emphasized the Jewish Nation's rights to a national home in the Land of Israel - while at the same time tearing away almost 80% of the mandate's area on the eastern side of the Jordan and giving it to Emir Abdullah" [of Saudi Arabia]. Prof. Einhorn says that there is nothing in international law that requires a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean - not even the U.N. Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947. That resolution states that "independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem" shall come into existence in Palestine. But, Prof. Einhorn notes the widely-overlooked fact that the introduction to the Resolution states specifically that it is merely a "recommendation" and nothing more: "[The General Assembly] recommends to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the U.N. the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future Government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out below." The fact that the Arab states did not accept the Partition Plan, explains Prof. Einhorn, voids the recommendation of any legal basis. She further writes that Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for negotiations and a "withdrawal from territories" (not "withdrawal from the territories") captured in 1967, are similarly "recommendations". These resolutions were drawn up under the U.N. Charter's Clause VI, which deal with non-mandatory recommendations - as opposed to Clause VII resolutions, "which are mandatory, and which deal with a threat to world peace - such as those taken earlier this year against Iraq." (2) This last trick of the Sharon government to use the Attorney-General for personal prejudices is an embarrassment for the nation. Mazuz is a lightweight lawyer with no experience in international law. His opinion on such matters is being mis-used by Sharon to continue his re-partition/dismemberment schemes. Be assured that the advise to pull off this low level trick had its genesis in the bowels of the U.S. State Department. Impartial professors of international law have always concluded that the territories of Judea and Samaria were "Disputed Territories" and not "Occupied Territories". Mazuz conveniently ignores the fact that these territories were not under the legal control of any other nation. Jordan tried to annex Judea and Samaria (West Bank) but, following international law, no other countries recognized this land grab - except for Britain and Pakistan. Subsequent attacks against Israel by the Arab states (most of which were newly created by the Western Allies after they defeated the Ottoman Empire in WW One), including Jordan, brought these areas under Israeli control in June 1967. The Arab states gambled that they could succeed in beating the new State of Israel and occupy her lands. But, the Arab states lost six wars along with the land they gambled away. It is clear that Sharon is using the office of the Attorney-General to subvert Israel's right to her ancient homeland. For this bit of treason, both he, Mazuz and the entire gang of Sharon's should minimally be launched out of office - if not indicted and jailed. They have proven themselves to be no less of a clear and present danger then Shimon Peres and the Oslo Gang. Get rid of this rotten bunch before Israel is reduced to the area of Tel Aviv on her way to extinction. ### 1. "Attorney-General: Judea and Samaria Might Be 'Occupied'" 2. "Law Prof: Judea and Samaria are Israel's" ARUTZ 7 August 24, 2004 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

TEACHING RETREAT Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 25, 2004.

There can be no forgiveness for the Jewish leaders and generals who taught the failed tactic of retreat to the embattled Jewish people. Even more unforgivable was to teach the enemy that Israelis can be made to run from the field of battle. In direct proportion to our infamous retreats, our enemies grew more confident and thus more Jews were murdered and maimed. The politicians and generals who chose retreat and abandonment of the Land of Israel were and are traitors to their people. They should be brought to trial before a Peoples' Court and tried for crimes against their own people. If found guilty, they should be imprisoned for life at hard labor. For all the Jews they made it possible to murder, you would think that hanging would be the correct punishment but, that would end their penalty too soon. These politicians and generals taught Retreat to the Jews while teaching the Arab Muslim terrorists to advance. None are above reproach. The Sinai Desert was given up to Egypt - who had never ever owned that land. Oslo taught the Jews that their leaders could scurry around in secret and give away their Land to howling savages - who also never owned (or deserved) the Land. With each retreat, the Muslim Arab terrorists learned they could too easily get away with murder of the weak Jews. Jewish leaders made corrupt deals to let thousands of Arab Muslim Terrorists out of prison for virtually nothing in return for a bad bargain. Most simply rejoined their Terror cells and commenced killing Jews. Prison had merely been a convenient place to improve their terror skills from their co-terrorists in jail. They had been taught that being caught for committing terror acts was merely a matter of awaiting another mass release. Now Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has offered and pledged the next lesson of Retreat as he dismembers the nation in his so-called "Disengagement Plan". Behind his declaration to the Arab Muslim Palestinians that he will cleanse Gaza/Gush Katif of Jews, he speaks of making the rest of YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza) also "Judenrein". We learn that he works with the infamous Shimon Peres to accomplish this Retreat. In the Arab Muslim culture, even the willingness to discuss peace is considered as a defeat for the enemy and a victory for the Muslims. Given that they would never abandon their Land, when their self-declared enemy agrees to cut and run, their expectations and pride swell, knowing their enemy is on the run - so they raise their ante. Israel's politicians and generals try to use the tactics of Western civilization where you can negotiate a peace with an enemy - as the Free West did with Germany and Japan - AFTER they beat them soundly. Not so with Arab Muslims. The credo of Retreat for Peace is merely an acceleration of War to the Muslim Arabs. Even the political leaders in America and Europe are beginning to learn that you cannot win the hearts and minds of Muslim Arabs. They are in a permanent State of War "Dar al Harb" with the unbelieving 'infidel' (all non-Muslims). They are on the march to achieve their Great Caliphate, where all the planet will accept Sharia Law (strict Islam - like the Taliban) and worship Allah. They aim for nothing less than world domination for Islam. When the Jews or Christians retreat and give up Land as a gesture for peace, for the Muslims it is a signal of weakness and, therefore, they attack. While the Americans are just beginning to learn that radical Islam has declared war with it, the Israelis have had 56 years of lessons as a State and at least another half century of Terror attacks before Statehood was declared in 1948. There is no excuse that relieves Israel's politicians and generals of their blindness in advancing the cause of Final Arab Muslim Conquest. They are simply traitors to the Jewish State who have often engaged in treason with the enemy in time of war. (There has never NOT been a time of war by the Muslims against the Jews.) Worse yet, these same politicians had a plan from the time of David Ben Gurion to de-Judaize the Jewish State into a secular state. As they gave away our religious holy sites such as the Temple Mount, they taught the Jews that they had no ancient claims to our ancient homeland. The national memory of our Patriarchs and being the People of G-d's Covenant was shoved aside, insuring that they emptied the nation of purpose and pride in being Jewish. The Arab Muslims saw that the spirit of the Jews was fading at the teachings of their own leadership. Conversely, the Muslim Arabs belief in their Allah grew and gave them greater courage in battle. They had an anchor in radical Islam while Israel's Politicians taught that being Jewish was simply of no consequence. Most of the Israeli people soon followed their role models. With the exception of Menachem Begin (and perhaps Yitzhak Shamir) none of the so-called Jewish leaders had any belief in their Jewishness and, therefore, in their rights to the Land gifted to them by G-d. These non-Jewish Jews tore the heart out of the Jewish people and replaced their Jewish faith with Retreat and Surrender of our Land. Observe the contemptible cowardice of the non-Jewish Jews of Israel's Supreme Court. Their rulings for the Arabs rights to encroach on Jewish Land and against Jewish security is a distinct part of their lessons of Jewish Retreat. I have little doubt that, one day, they, the politicians, the political generals and the Supreme Court will have to stand before a Peoples' Court, charged with treason and betrayal of the Jewish nation. To Go To Top

NEW JIHAD WEBZINE FOR WOMEN Posted by IsrAlert, August 25, 2004.

This was written by Sebastian Usher, BBC World Media correspondent. Radical Islamists have launched a new magazine publication on the internet especially for women. The aim of the magazine is to show women how to reconcile the apparent contradiction of fighting jihad while maintaining family life. The magazine is called Al-Khansa, after a famous Arab woman poet in the early days of Islam, who wrote eulogies to male relatives who had died in battle. It appears to be the first "jihadist" publication aimed exclusively at women. The magazine says it is published by an organisation called "The Women's Media Bureau in the Arabian Peninsula". And it claims that the former leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Abd-al-Aziz al-Muqrin - who was killed by Saudi security forces in June - was one of its founders. Al-Khansa also appears to be linked to the most well-known jihadist outlet on the internet, Sawt al-Jihad - or Voice of Jihad. The first edition of the magazine uses fierce language similar to that found on Sawt-al-Jihad. One of its encouragements to jihad reads: "The blood of our husbands and the body parts of our children are our sacrificial offering." TV presenter attack The main objective of the magazine seems to be to teach women married to radical Islamists how to support their husbands in their conflict with the authorities. It also gives them specific advice on how to bring up their children in the path of jihad, how to provide first aid and what kind of physical training women need to prepare themselves for fighting. Most of the articles are written as if by women, although it is not clear if they actually were. Some take a somewhat patronising attitude, dwelling on supposed female wea knesses that must be overcome in the cause of jihad - such as over-dependence on home comforts like TV and air conditioning. A section on current affairs also devotes some space to an attack on the recent development of having women presenters on Saudi TV, suggesting it is a kind of prostitution. The issue of Saudi women's rights also comes in for scorn. The publication of the magazine is another sign of how radical Islamists have developed the internet as an essential tool for information and propaganda. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

GENEVA CONVENTIONS Posted by David Frankfurter, August 25, 2004.

Dear Friends, Ha'aretz reports that the Israeli Attorney General recommended that Ariel Sharon formally declare that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the West Bank & Gaza Strip (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/468472.html). Mazuz bases himself on the International Court of Justice advisory opinion relating to Israel's anti-terrorist fence. He argues that the ICJ assumed that the Geneva Conventions apply, and that de-facto the Israelis treat the Palestinian population as if it applied - so it is logical to formally adopt the Convention. Mazuz' oversimplification has raised a number of questions. Formal adoption of the convention would be acknowledgement by Israel that all of the territory is occupied rather than disputed - contradicting decades of Israeli policy (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=67852). It ignores the Jordanian invasion and occupation of lands that were assigned to Israel in 1948 - and allows a significant victory to the Arab policies of violence and terror. It would also acknowledge that there is a Palestinian State, occupied by Israel. It would put large Jewish cities and townships at significant legal risk - East Jerusalem and its surrounds, Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim - many areas already privately conceded by Palestinian Arabs to belong to Israel should any final settlement be reached. Even if one were to think all of these were things to be traded for peace, it gives up all of Israel's major trading cards without 30 seconds of negotiation with any Arab partner - legitimate or not. The only things left to negotiate are Tel Aviv and Haifa! And yet, none of this is what concerns me. Why should Israel cave in to Palestinian pressure regarding the Geneva Conventions? When was the last time that any Palestinian leader applied ANY of the Geneva Conventions to their own people - whether de-facto or by formal adoption and compliance? Let's just think about some of the things that the Geneva Conventions demand: - Combatants need to wear a uniform and be clearly distinguishable from protected civilians. - It is prohibited to use ambulances, hospitals, schools and other protected civilian infrastructure for military or terrorist activities. (Neither UNRWA nor the Red Cross/Red Crescent have an exemption). - It is prohibited to house weapons production or storage facilities within civilian areas. - It is prohibited to launch rockets or other military attacks from civilian areas. - It is forbidden to attack protected civilians. - ... and the list goes on, and on, and on. And I haven't even mentioned the expectation that a legitimate negotiating partner might honour signed commitments and treaties. The Geneva Conventions are a package. If the Palestinian Authority want to invoke their protection, they must turn around years of abusing the Conventions and prove a demonstrated willingness to adhere to them over time. Best Regards To subscribe to Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. Or go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/dfrankfurter/ To Go To Top

CIVIC LEADER OR JUST A THUG? Posted by Eric Rozenman, August 25, 2004.

On August 23rd, The Washington Post published a long feature article by correspondent Molly Moore, entitled "Refuge Is Prison For Hunted Palestinian; De Facto Sheriff Wanted by Israelis." The story depicted a terrorist as a family man, freedom fighter and civic reformer. The article started on the top left of page one and jumped inside, occupying nearly a full page. Datelined "JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank," it began: "Israeli F-16 fighter jets roared lower and lower in the summer sky, and Zakaria Zbeida broke out in nervous tics... " 'Every minute I fear death,' said the gaunt 28-year-old commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the militant wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and a man wanted dead or alive by Israel as a terrorist leader. "While Zbeida spends most of his waking hours in hiding, he has not shied away from becoming the self-appointed sheriff and unofficial mayor of the this refugee camp of 15,000. The role is a shift for a militant accustomed to fighting Israel. Pinned down by Israeli forces, Zbeida has turned to exercising local power by punishing accused criminals, mediating family disputes and serving as chief broker between residents and the sluggish Palestinian bureaucracy, according to the accounts of numerous residents and officials." Zbeida's pregnant wife and young son "move from house to house and see him sporadically." He "roams freely throughout the refugee camp, where almost every door is open to him ..." He and his "fighters" torch the offices of Palestinian Authority officials they deem corrupt, "rough up" young men "harassing" (taking photos of) female students at a local university, and, as for an alleged rapist, "Zbeida dispatched someone to administer a bullet in the leg, according to residents." The reporter allows him to pose as a provider of law-and-order when the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - which, like other terrorist organizations the Palestinian Authority is obligated to uproot - contributes to and profits from the anarchy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She fails to press him on his allegation that only "the resistance" remains to keep law and order in the camp since "the Israelis have destroyed all the Palestinian Authority institutions." Failure to ask Zbeida about obvious contradictions Moore notes in her article that "Last month, Zbeida and his fighters torched two Palestinian Authority government buildings because officials refused to meet their demands for protecting and finding jobs for al-Aqsa fighters, according to witnesses." Yet, when Zbeida blames only Israel for destroying "all the Palestinian Authority institutions," she apparently doesn't point out the contradiction to Zbeida. Moore also fails to note that Israeli military forces returned to areas under PA jurisdiction because the PA wasn't eliminating groups like Zbeida's. Civic leader or just a thug? Moore writes that overall, "the refugee camp has embraced Zbeida as a native son and as a protector during Israel's harshest incursions. He has parlayed the empathy and respect into the role of crude policitian, rough-edged social worker and lawman. His soldiers [Sic.] have become a local police militia, according to Zbeida, his relatives and camp residents." Or maybe they're afraid to say otherwise. Palestinian journalists have protested intimidation by "soldiers" such as Zbeida's, and critics of Yasser Arafat and the PA have been beaten and shot. No doubt "almost every door is open" to Zbeida, who otherwise might "dispatch someone to administer a bullet." Moore never openly raises the question of whether Palestinians feel intimidated by Zbeida's violence. Is the praise people have heaped on him genuine or is it just the result of people's fear of Zbeida's violence? (Similar gushing was routinely heard about Saddam Hussein when his thugs held power.) For example, Moore relates "When young men harassed female students on a local university campus by taking their photographs with cellular telephones - a serious offense in Palestinian society, which is very protective of women's privacy - Zbeida sent fighters to confiscate the men's cars and rough them up." Moore adds, "He then recommended that the university hire security guards to prevent future problems." "Recommended"? Was he really concerned about the young women's privacy or was this just a shakedown for jobs for the men under his command? Moore doesn't probe these uncomfortable questions with Zbeida or university officials. Moore's Precise Observation of Irrelevant Detail Moore writes that Zbeida's "mother and brother were shot dead by Israeli soldiers" who "attacked the Jenin refugee camp in response to suicide bombings in Israel." Israeli soldiers "shot dead" Zbeida's mother and brother, but he "dispatches someone to administer a bullet in the leg." Moore habitually manipulates language to the benefit of Palestinian Arabs and detriment of Israeli Jews. She also chronically misuses a fiction-writing technique called the "precise observation of irrelevant detail." For example, besides sending a "neighborhood boy out for another red and white pack of L&M cigarettes," "Zbeida's skin is the color of roasted pecans. A year and a half ago he was helping build a bomb when it exploded in his face, leaving his high cheeks, nose and forehead permanently blackened." It matters neither that the cigarettes are L&M or that the pack is red and white nor that Zbeida's skin is either roasted pecan color or blackened. What should matter is what he would otherwise have done with the bomb, what it would have done to its intended victims, or why. Is he "fighting Israel" to "'grab back his [son's] rights for him to live in peace'" as Moore quotes Zbeida uncritically? Or - the PA having rejected a West Bank and Gaza Strip state in exchange for peace with the Jewish state before Palestinians launched the current violence - is he participating in a terror war to destroy Israel? The correspondent does not probe hard: "Although he has acknowledged authorship of violent actions carried out by his group, Zbeida declined to discuss how he chose targets that killed civilians." The basic questions remain unasked Moore doesn't ask him what his vision of living "in peace" is and what it would take for him to give up violence. Will he be satisfied with nothing but the destruction of Israel? Is a two state solution acceptable to him? If so, what did he think of Barak's 2000 offer? Was he pleased that Arafat rejected it? Why? More to the story? Moore lets Zbeida reverse cause-and-effect to blame Israeli counter-terrorism for Palestinian terrorism: Zbeida admits no regrets for "the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in bars, restaurants and on buses" since "'they killed my mother ... She was a civilian'." Moore doesn't include the Israeli perspective regarding the killing of his mother; she just writes that the mother was shot while standing at a window. Since Israeli soldiers don't routinely target civilians, there's likely some context missing from this story. Moore glimpses the full picture Moore does point out specific terrorist attacks Zbeida has organized and notes that Israeli sources describe Zbeida as "extensively involved in terrorist activities." These include the murder of six Israelis at a polling place in 2002. Zbeida's al-Aqsa Martyrs cell claimed responsibility for an early August checkpoint bombing that killed one Arab, wounded a dozen others and six Israeli Border Patrol officers. (This premature explosion was criticized by Palestinians, though Moore doesn't say so). While Moore finds space to include irrelevant details about Zbeida's life, she doesn't provide any stories or details about any of his Jewish victims. Moore integrates into the article important context regarding how useful Israel's security fence has been in preventing terrorist attacks. And she also manages to include criticism of Zbeida from one Palestinian, although it is at the very end of the article and the main criticism is that Zbeida should stick to "resistance" (terror) against Israel and leave the Palestinians alone. Where's the beef? Moore's story is based in part on "three lengthy interviews conducted in hideouts" in the camp over a three-month period. The interviews may have been "lengthy," but they apparently didn't involve any probing questions. A different picture The day before Moore's article came something very different, the cover story on the August 22 Washington Post Sunday Magazine: "Fear Itself: Learning to Live in the Age of Terrorism," by staff writer Gene Weingarten. Much of the lengthy, thoughtful article dealt with Israelis living in Jerusalem, people personally affected by repeated attacks by terrorists like Zbeida, yet determined to live as positively as possible. There were a few problems with the article, such as the usual distorted psychobabble about the cause of terror, but overall it offered substantive context and is worthy of commendation. It is interesting to note that Weingarten is not on The Post's foreign news staff. He's assigned to the magazine and writes a regular humor column. Eric Rozenman is Washington Director of CAMERA - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America - which monitors the news and TV media for how fair they are in reporting on Israel. The website address is www.camera.org. To Go To Top

DRIVEN FROM OUR HOMES Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 24, 2004.

For centuries we Jews have been driven from our homes simply because we were Jews! The reasons and accusations are no longer relevant. The people, the nations, the religious orders who uprooted and expelled Jews were all assured by their current leaders that they were doing the work that would please their gods. Their teachings were perniciously evil and reached deeply into the minds of men. Usually before such an expulsion, there preceded a period of forced conversion, torture and burnings of the recalcitrant Jews who refused to accept another religion before Judaism. The sacred scrolls of the Jews (The Torah) and later sacred books were burned to erase the word of G-d. The destructors had never talked with G-d as did Abraham and Moses or accepted the obligations of His Covenant but, nevertheless they maintained they were the rightful heirs to G-d's Covenant with the Jewish people. Instead, they borrowed bits and pieces of these laws, claiming that the 'lowly' Jews did not deserve such an exalted position of being G-d's Chosen servant and a 'light unto the nations'. They all drove Jews from their homes, falling on the Jews' confiscated properties as carrion eaters always do. Often the Jews had lived in those nations for hundreds of years before those then in power came to dominate them and drive them away. Nevertheless, despite long-term established residency, the Jews were viewed as separate and apart - and so we were. A remnant of Jews escaped from the graveyards of Europe and the newly created Arab states, only to be followed and attacked by the pagan Arabs - assisted by the killer nations of Europe. Jews are obligated to retain their separateness and not accept foreign gods and ways of other peoples. Jews were committed to keeping G-d's Laws and, as His keepers, they were to be the role models both in their behavior and by teaching the sacred Laws of Torah to those who would listen. Now, once again, we Jews are being prepared to be forced from our homes by non-Jewish Jews in collaboration with the same savage nations who murdered us in countless numbers. Special Jewish Forces are being assembled in the Israel Defense Forces who have been screened for their non-Jewishness, their lack of commitment to the Land of Israel, and their disdain for Torah and for observant Jews. Some say they have been selected because they have an amoral nature - sometimes called sociopaths and in that no different than such leaders as Shimon Peres. Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel (Arik) Sharon has bonded together with Shimon Peres to resurrect the Rabin, Peres, Beilin Oslo plan to drive Jews from their homes. This is not the first time Jews have turned on their own people. Too often through the centuries Jewish leaders have joined with foreign forces to evict Jews from their homes, nations and finally take their lives. The 'Judenrat' (Jewish leaders) of Germany and other occupied European nations acted as collaborators with the Nazi SS to gather up and assist in transporting Jews to the Nazi death camps. They maintained they were doing it to save Jews but, they were really doing it to save themselves but, were killed in the end. They had their counterparts in the United States who refused to intercede with the Government under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, lest it provoke anti-Semitism in America. Presently, Ariel Sharon is preparing to drive the Jews who have lived in Gaza for 30 years out of their homes, leaving synagogues, schools, yeshivot, farms, factories, water and infrastructure - all of which are intended to be given over to the Arab Muslims Palestinians 'cum' Terrorists. The Jews arrived in Gaza at the urging of the then Leftist Labor government after the 1967 Six Day War to re-unite it with the rest of Israel. It was then barren, empty of people with only sand dunes no one but the Jews wanted. The Jews built greenhouses, tilled the sandy land and created a fertile cornucopia of vegetables (without bugs), fruits and flowers for internal consumption and export. Sharon and the Leftists ignore the prior centuries of Jewish presence in Gaza so the de-Judaization and re-partition can proceed. Now Sharon wants the Jews out and the Palestinian Terrorists in. This was from a man temporarily elected to office, who has no mandate to re-title the Land but has assumed Pharaonic-type powers as a man-god on earth. Sharon, Peres and the non-Jewish Jews of the Left are following the long-established custom of allowing the enemies of the Jews to drive them from their homes. Our enemies have always offered a litany of excuses for driving Jews out so the Sharon/Peres rationale merely adds to the list of excuses. Sharon and the Left have determined that Israel is not to be a Jewish State in practice but rather a secular Jewish State, theoretically acceptable to Arabs and Europeans. Sharon and all past leaders of the Left had/have one hidden agenda. That was to de-Judaize the nation and to insure not one holy location remained for Jews to be drawn to or rally around. Thus, you see the Temple Mount handed off to Arabs or the Marat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs - where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivka, Ya'acov and Leah are buried) - among other holy sites disposed of by the non-Jewish Jewish leadership. The coming harassment may very well have such features as concentration camps for those Jews who resist ejection from their homes. Some, perhaps many, will be shot if their resistance is too firm. We already observe the build-up of disinformation by Sharon and his politically controlled GSS (Government Secret Services). The propaganda is that there are "dangerous settlers planning to assassinate Sharon" which, once accepted by the public will allow the round up of all the Jewish leaders in YESHA - especially those in Gaza/Gush Katif and probably the Golan Heights. This was a ploy used by Rabin, Peres, Beilin to demonize all those who correctly objected to the subversive Oslo plan. IF they can imprison the leaders under the archaic British law of "Administrative Detention", they can more easily drive the Jews out of their homes with less resistance. This was the technique used by Hitler's SS: First imprison the leaders and ordinary citizens will be terrified and follow orders like sheep. So once again, another chapter is being written in the History of the Jews being driven from the land, from their homes - leaving all they have built so others (their self-declared enemies) can take the fruits of industrious Jewish work. This time it is the non-Jewish Jews who have virtually captured the leadership of the Israeli Government and turned it into an authoritarian regime which parallels any of the Arab Muslim governments in the region. If ever there was a more evil and soulless regime, it is Sharon's current Administration which most certainly need purging. Having conspired with foreign nations during a War of Terror is, indeed, nothing less than treason. Successive Israeli administrations have shown that they simply have no interest in what their public thinks. This arrogance has ramped up since Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres discovered they could make unilateral decisions with little resistance from the Knesset (Parliament). As for the people, they only exist to pay taxes and the bloated salaries that include months of vacation for the Members and Ministers of Knesset. Perhaps the secret Oslo debacle was the first major leap away from any normal democratic control over their actions. Their discovery of the 'no checks and balances' over elected governmental officials shows a drift into dictatorship under the guise of being a democracy. Even the Israeli Courts have created an internal mind-set that leans Left and against the nationalistic Pioneering Settlers. For instance, the Israeli Supreme Court under Chief Justice Aharon Barak has ruled that the Barrier Security Fence must be re-built to accommodate the comfort of the Arab Palestinians more than for the Israelis' security. The dissolution of the Jewish State has been the goal of the members of the so-called "Quartet", the anti-Israel U.S. State Department, the anti-Semitic E.U. (European Union), the hostile U.N. (United Nations) and Russia, whose history of anti-Jewish pogroms are legendary. Regrettably, we now see a Jewish government join these corrupt nations thinking they will be allowed to exist as a secular State. To accomplish this destruction of the Jewish State of Israel, they needed to recruit unworldly and naive Israeli leaders to go along with what will be the re-partition/dismemberment of Israel. It was not difficult to flatter such naive, unworldly leaders as Rabin, Peres, Bibi Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and now Sharon. Those who elected Arik Sharon were assured that his brilliance as a General also insured he would be a competent Statesman. He has failed in the one thing he was elected for - mainly ruling the nation and understanding the world at large. Unlike the Europeans who have experienced centuries of political manipulation and long-term planning in their history, Israel has only 56 years. Her short-sighted leaders have small talents to parade before their voters who themselves are rather insular with little understanding of world affairs and don't begin to understand why even our so-called friends want us off the map of the Middle East. If you look into the backgrounds of most of Israel's Prime Ministers, you would find shallow small thinkers, unsuitable for the job of Prime Minister. But, through party affiliations they were pushed up the political ladder until they were appointed by their party as the nation's leader. Some were intelligent but had little or no wisdom. Their best thoughts in terms of future planning were a week or possibly a year ahead but, mostly, they were consumed with keeping the power of their office. The fate of the nation always ran a distant second unless it had something to do with advancing their Party finances and keeping their job. That kind of thinking may be acceptable in large countries with no nearby enemies but, Israel is surrounded by millions of hostile Muslim Arabs who simply want to kill them. To further demonstrate the corruptions of the Sharon regime, it has been reported that prior to the recent vote among Likud, Sharon sent his son Omri to Arab villages to recruit them to "temporarily" join Likud so they could vote for re-partition and, after having done so, resign their Likud membership, reverting to their normal hostile loyalties to Yassir Arafat. Larger nations can survive incompetent leaders and parliamentarians who cannot think clearly. Their nations can survive stupidity but Israel is tiny and mistakes on security can too easily be fatal. Leeching up to the leaders of larger nations who massage the weak egos of Israel's inept leaders and take advantage of their ignorance as man-children is pure evil - but effective. Can we really blame these almost Jewish leaders for their ignorance, greed and selfishness? Indeed, we can. While they are stupid in their administration of the nation's security, they were not so unaware that they avoided plundering the nation's treasury for themselves and their party. As a nation and a people, Jews cannot bring themselves to jail or hang political criminals. The most we can do is to pray that HaShem (G-d) brings justice to these people. As for the nations who wish us dead and buried, may HaShem plague them with incurable disease, drought and floods (some of which is actually occurring now). For their evil planning, let their land burn in the sun and their cities crumble when the earth shakes. Hopefully, they will understand that Nature has become the hunter and the instrument of their punishment from a G-d whose patience has worn thin. Sending a plague of howling Muslims across the planet blowing up what they can, ought to be a recognizable message. We see today the Leftist Jews become as the Vichy French collaborators were to the Nazi conquerors or, in this case, any Superpower. In the case of Israel, we see the Left as collaborators with the Arab Muslims, the Europeans and the anti-Israel U.S. State Department in the manipulation of Israel to surrender through a succession of incremental retreats. There is a difference. The Germans wanted the French to live under their domination whereas the enemies of Israel want the Jewish State destroyed and every Jew dead. The crime of the Jewish Left is that they not only collaborate but, they lead Israel on to self destruction. Perhaps then, a civil war is necessary with the Jews who hate the Jewish nation and their own Jewishness being driven out to lands where they will feel more comfortable, more assimilated and more non-Jewish. Keep a diary of those who betrayed the Jewish Nation and the Jewish people. Should the nation fall because of their subversion, hunt them to extinction in the lands to which they will flee - hoping to hide from their crime. However, it is likely that G-d will place the mark of Cain to mark them as untouchables who wander the earth as killers of their brothers. If the Jewish State of Israel falls to Leftist Jews collaborating with our enemies, then all Jews will be hunted to extinction in any land they may flee to. The World could not bear having Jewish witnesses looking at them, day after day, as the criminals they would be. Every Jew in America, Europe - wherever - would have to be murdered so the last witnesses of the crimes against G-d and His Chosen would not be there to testify. No witnesses - no crime = no guilt. The Jewish people are often called "The People of the Book" and thus recorders of history. Regrettably, we Jews carry this to an extreme. We Jews believe that if we identify the problem and write about it, all others will thereby be informed and act appropriately on our revelations. While ideas are grand, we truly believe we have solved problem by writing about them. For some, however, writing turns into action and decides the day. When Arab and/or Muslims write and harangue their people about "Jihad" (Holy War for Islam), they actually convert the writing into murder of Jews. When Jews stop writing and rise up to defend their rights to the Land G-d gave them to live, only then will Jews stop running from their shadow and anchor themselves to the Land without apology and without requiring anyone's permission. Then the Jews in the Jewish State will have both security, sovereignty and dignity. Clearly, it is time to eject Sharon from office and elect One Honest Man for Prime Minister. He is there and, although he does not want the job, as a patriot, he could be recruited to save the Jewish nation. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

A MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE BY PROFESSOR TALIA EINHORN Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, August 24, 2004.

Dear friends, If I had one dollar for each letter I receive from ignorant and biased readers, condemning Israel for her "violations" of the 1949 Geneva Convention, and other "international laws," and a dollar for each letter of response I write in return, I would be a very rich man. The tragedy of Israel's situation is that Arab propaganda succeeded to dupe most of the world, including educated people, world leaders, the media and academia, with lies and deceptions about the "illegal occupation," and the "illegal Jewish settlements." We live in an era of sound bites. Very few actually pick up material to examine it in depth and study the facts. Those who do, know the truth. Those who do not should better read the truth from the authoritative pen of Tel-Aviv University International Law Professor Talia Einhorn. This news item appeared in http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=67852# International Law Prof. Talia Einhorn said today that Attorney-General Mazuz's position stating that the Geneva Convention should apply to Judea and Samaria could have far-reaching ramifications. She said it could pave the way for the international community to negate Israel's claim to the Old City of Jerusalem and other Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Ramat Eshkol, Pisgat Ze'ev and Gilo. Speaking with Arutz-7 today, Prof. Einhorn said that Israel has long held that the territories are not "occupied" but rather "disputed" - this because they were not under the sovereign control of another nation before Israel liberated them. As she recently wrote, "Up until 1948, Judea, Samaria and Gaza were a part of the British Mandate. In the 1948 War of Independence, Egypt illegally grabbed the Gaza Strip, and Jordan took Judea and Samaria, the 'West Bank.' Egypt did not claim sovereignty in Gaza, but Jordan deigned, in 1950, to annex Judea and Samaria. This annexation was not recognized by international law. The Arab nations objected to it, and only Britain and Pakistan recognized it - and Britain did not recognize the annexation of eastern Jerusalem. In 1967, after the Six Day War, these territories - which were originally meant for the Jewish Nation's National Home according to the Mandate Charter - returned to Israeli control." Einhorn adds that in 1988, King Hussein of Jordan rescinded his country's legal and administrative ties to Judea and Samaria. "From the standpoint of international law, there is no essential difference between the areas on the two sides of the Green Line," she said. Einhorn further said that the Foreign Ministry is correct in objecting to Mazuz's position, "as first we denied The Hague's right to deliver a ruling in this case, and now we adjust our own positions to fall in line with its conclusions." "According to international law," Einhorn writes, "Israel has full right to try to populate the entire Land of Israel with dense Jewish settlement, and thus actualize the principles set by the League of Nations in the original Mandate Charter of San Remo in 1920. At that time, the mandate for the Land of Israel was granted to the British, and the introduction to the mandate charter states clearly that it is based on the international recognition of the historic ties between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel. Clause II of that mandate charges Britain with 'ensuring the existence of political, administrative, and economic conditions that will guarantee the establishment of the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel.'" "Even the White Paper of 1922," she continues, "which restricted Jewish immigration to the land, emphasized the Jewish Nation's rights to a national home in the Land of Israel - while at the same time tearing away almost 80% of the mandate's area on the eastern side of the Jordan and giving it to Emir Abdullah." Prof. Einhorn says that there is nothing in international law that requires a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean - not even the UN Partition Resolution of Nov. 29, 1947. That resolution states that "independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem " shall come into existence in Palestine. However, Prof. Einhorn notes the widely-overlooked fact that the introduction to the resolution states specifically that it is merely a "recommendation" and nothing more: "[The General Assembly] recommends to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future Government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union set out below." The fact that the Arab states did not accept the Partition Plan, explains Prof. Einhorn, voids the recommendation of any legal basis. She further writes that Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for negotiations and a "withdrawal from territories" (not "withdrawal from the territories") captured in 1967, are similarly "recommendations." These resolutions were drawn up under the UN Charter's Clause VI, which deals with non-mandatory recommendations - as opposed to Clause VII resolutions, "which are mandatory, and which deal with a threat to world peace, such as those taken earlier this year against Iraq." Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

ASSESSING BERNARD LEWIS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 24, 2004.

PITFALLS OF REVIEWING GREAT PEOPLE Bernard Lewis is the acknowledged dean of scholars of Arab Islamic society. How does one review his latest book, From Babel to Dragomans, in a few columns? The New Yorker did so by putting in into the context of his whole career (Ian Buruma, 6/14). The challenge in doing so is to be representative and not overbalance the review in one direction or another. Reviewer Ian Buruma seized the challenge by ruefully finding parts of the book narrow in vision or inconsistent with the general thrust of Mr. Lewis' scholarship. Mr. Buruma argues capably about cases to which Lewis' general theory of a clash of civilization may not apply. Those points do not amount to a refutation of that theory. I think it is not the proper way to evaluate the grand theory of a great person. These things run in cycles. The originators and immediate followers of grand theoretical frameworks, such as Darwin, Marx, Dewey, Freud, and Einstein, tend to stuff every phenomenon into the framework. The next generation finds exceptions not explained by the grand theory. The third generation produces a modified theory that encompasses or excludes exceptions. In that regard, Buruma doesn't cut Lewis enough slack. Buruma cites exceptions as if they repudiate the theory. A more valid approach would be to treat the exceptions, some of which are debatable, as exceptions, leaving the theory still widely applicable. HOW ONE ACCUSES AND WHOM ONE CITES One of the themes of the review is that Lewis' political interests prejudice his scholarship. "Nor was the fastidious scholar of Middle Eastern subtleties much in evidence when Lewis glibly used the attack on the World Trade Center to advocate a war on Saddam Hussein. ... he suggested that seeing the US go to war with Saddam would be 'the dearest wish' of other Arab regimes. Of course, the feelings of most Arab leaders were a little more complicated than that, and the chaos created by the American intervention is now causing almost universal alarm." "A little more complicated?" How? We are tantalized but unsatisfied. "Almost universal alarm?" Is it alarm or appeasement? How objective is objection by foreign countries and domestic political opponents of the Administration, looking for any excuse to criticize the US government? "Critics of the war on Iraq, such as Rashid Khalidi, who holds the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia, attribute American failures in the Middle East to ignorance, or worse," etc.. Edward Said was, at least in Arab affairs, a non-scholarly, Arab polemicist. He seized a position of leadership in Mideastern studies by condemning Western academic integrity as biased because of the cultural identity of the scholars. That condemnation, ethnically based and biased (what most people would call "racist"), was incorporated into the pantheon of political correctness. that people are psychologically afraid to challenge. Said often debated in an ad hominem way, calling names rather than citing evidence. Western academia having been penetrated by non-academic leftists, Prof. Said gathered a ready following. They exploited his critique to climb over the real scholars and entrench themselves in positions of influence at universities and especially centers of Middle Eastern studies. Ironically, many of them were Westerners who, by the definition convenient for Said, were disqualified at birth. Their success and the inability of some universities to resist the excesses of multi-culturalism and demands for "diversity" and political correctness left Said almost a sacred cow. His comeuppance came shortly before his death, when his autobiography was exposed as largely a fraud. All his career, he had posed as a typical Palestinian Arab refugee, demanding sympathy for them, whereas he was not typical but privileged, not Palestinian, and not a refugee. He confirmed the expose by altering his autobiography in accordance with the facts revealed by the investigator. This admission did not stop his admirers from denouncing the critique. Real, scholarly investigation and discovery of lack of integrity does not interest them. Political correctness does. Said was an anti-Israel Arab - that was good enough for them. If the truth about him be inconvenient, twist it out of the way. "Expertise is often beside the point in political argument. Said's criticism of 'Orientalist' scholars, among whom he counted Lewis, was not that they were ignorant but that they were arrogant and contemptuous of Muslims, and disguised political agenda's with scholarship." (Few were more ignorant, arrogant, contemptuous, and with a political agenda at the expense of scholarship than Said, as exposes have shown.) "It is hard to deny that Lewis has a political agenda. But contemptuous?" Buruma makes the point that Lewis came to identify with the society he studied, and like a loving parent, over-reacted to its shortcomings. It is to Buruma's credit that he does not totally accept Said's theses. That is the mark of scholarship. In this era of a war on Islamism and terrorism, the subject of much of Bernard Lewis' work, the other side's capture of the citadels of US academia should cause alarm in The New Yorker. A US magazine interested in free speech and the exchange of ideas should object to Middle Eastern Studies being subsidized by Arab states and serving as their indoctrination centers helping to paralyze US defense. Other magazines object, and Prof. Khalidi comes in for his share of obloquy. His pro-terrorist efforts have been documented. It is unwise to ignore them and cite his purchased position as authority for criticism of Lewis. Let us summarize the vicious cycle: (1) Vested interests endow a university chair; (2) The chair is filled by a polemicist; and (3) The polemicist is cited as authority. One should be leery of whoever does that citing. Is it an intellectual lapse or the common symbiotic relationship among pro-Arab propagandists? STRIKING ISRAEL IN PASSING "Lewis is at his best when he identifies Western double standards in dealing with the non-Western world." Buruma asserts that Lewis nevertheless overlooked "arbitrary colonial borders, coups engineered by British and American secret services, and Western manipulation of local despots, including Saddam Hussein, played some role in creating failed states and tyrannies." Indeed those were problems, but how long can they serve as an excuse? Just as people tend to go too far when originating theories, they excuse too many of their own societies' shortcomings. The same is true with US foreign policy. Opponents of Bush condemn it all; proponents of Bush excuse or praise it all. I think that the truth is somewhere in between and shifting. The official opposition candidate may offer an alternative with its own shortcomings. Candidates are mischaracterized as strong or weak as if they necessarily believe what they preach. "The bienpensants, he (Lewis) says, are obsessed with Israeli violence against Arabs, while ignoring far worse brutality among the Arabs." The problem with that balanced quotation is implying that Israeli violence against the Arabs, though milder than Arab violence, may be improper. Why didn't he qualify Israeli violence with, "taken in self-defense?" Am I oversensitive about possible insinuations against Israel? No, the review's next paragraph refers to, and attributes to Lewis without a quotation that would enable us to see whether Lewis meant to put it the way Buruma does, "Israeli oppression of Palestinians." What oppression? The Arabs, with their daily terrorism, massive flouting of the law, and, thanks to submissive left-wingers among the Jews, discrimination in favor of Arabs and against Jews, oppress the Jews, as they do in every Arab state that lets any Jews live there. Let us take a moment to resolve how Zionism did treat the Arabs. Modern Zionism (with British help) drained the swamps that had infected the Arabs with malaria. In building the local economy, Zionism created economic opportunities for Arabs, who poured into the areas of greatest Zionist rebuilding. Zionist health measures boosted Arab longevity. When defense against Arab aggression brought Judea, Samaria, and Gaza under Israeli administration, Israel extended such measures to the Arabs there. Israel built seven colleges for those Arabs (not realizing they would breed centers of insurgency.) Israel restored the purity of the water supply in Gaza that the Arabs had ruined. Arab municipalities were encouraged to elect their own administrations (but they turned to terrorists). Arabs from the Territories, who had been forbidden to visit and worship in al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem when Jordan controlled Judea-Samaria and Jerusalem, were allowed by Israel to do so. (There the nice Arabs sometimes riot, requiring restrictions). Whereas the Arabs of Gaza were forbidden to work except as terrorists, when Egypt had seized and controlled Gaza, Israel encouraged them to work in Israel. Israel would have done more, but the Arabs manipulated the UN into forbidding Israeli improvements in Arab housing, etc., in order to maintain resentment against Israel by Arab refugees. Thus it is the Arabs who oppress Arabs. Giving the local Arabs too much autonomy, and not sufficiently advancing its own claims to the Territories, Israel found itself under attack, before, during, and after supposedly successful negotiations with Arafat's Arabs. The Arabs signed for peace and shot for war. Israel was entitled to take defensive measures. Those measures are seen by pro-Arab states and agencies with a jaundiced eye. For taking them, Israel is called brutal. Nobody called Egypt and Jordan brutal, oppressors, or occupiers for their harsher rule over the same Arabs. "ISLAMIC RAGE" Lewis' theory of the clash of civilization is that there is an Islamic rage against the West, culminating in Islamist terrorism and a jihad against the West. Buruma thinks this theory does not cover various problems it purports to. He suggests that this rage is confined to the Arabs, and does not affect the three-fourths or four-fifths of Muslims who are not Arab. The first exceptions cited are Turkey and Iran, which "can't really be described as failed states." Let the reviewer define "failed state." The failure of Iran's economy of Iran and its corruption and hated tyranny indicate it may be one. Those states are in flux; the jury is still out. Buruma denies that Islamic rage afflicts Iran, because the theocracy came into being out of a modern revolutionary movement, not particularly religious. It did, but that is not relevant. The clergy co-opted the revolution. Their theocracy embodies Islamic rage against the Great Satan and the Little Satan, with all the terrorism, subversion, and preaching of hatred that follows. "Lewis claims that the lack of separation between church and state is the basis for Islamist revolutions. But in the non-Arab Muslim world, in places like Indonesia and Malaysia, religious ideologies have so far failed to make much headway." In Pakistan, the problem is not religious fervor but authoritarianism, alleges Buruma. The problem with that analysis is that it issues from a Western definition of church-state separation. In many Islamic countries, whose government is considered by Westerners as secular, there nevertheless is establishment of Islam and persecution of non-Muslims. Jihad is going on in Indonesia and by Pakistan. Indonesian extremism is growing. Pakistan's school system is that of the Islamist madrassas, training thousands of terrorists. S. Arabia spreads this extreme interpretation to Islamic societies that Buruma thinks of as secularist but are radicalizing. Another exception is Bosnia. It was not motivated by Muslim rage. Lewis accepted reports of Muslims plotting an Islamic republic there, but most Bosnia Muslims simply "did not wish to be crushed by the Serbs." I would agree that the Balkans are an exception and that the Bosnian Muslims generally were low-key about religion and still are. It is not quite fair to suggest that they merely did not want to be take over by the Serbs, when with their 40% of the population of Bosnia at the time, they intended to rule over the Serbs with 30% and the Croats with 30%; total = 60%. On the other hand, as I recall, the Muslim President of Bosnia did declare intent to set up an Islamist state. This may not be Muslim "rage," but it is part of Islamic theology. Another stated exception to Muslim rage being the motivator of Islamic policy is Arab nationalism. Yes, in part. However, Arab nationalism is episodic and largely dissipated. In these complex affairs, there are Islamic overtones. Eventually, the Islamist element rises. That has been happening in recent years. Lewis may have sensed this years ago. Buruma admits that the failure of Arab nationalism has led to a revival of Islamic alternatives. Lewis thinks that the fundamentalist leaders are enraged at Western consumerism whose temptations steamroll over indigenous ways of life. Speaking for Lewis or for himself - it isn't clear here - Buruma concludes that the rage is confined to the leaders. In dictatorships, however, it matters mostly what the leaders think. The leaders often are representative of their countries' cultures. My logic is different from Buruma's. Mine is based on noting the Arabs' self-contradictions in thinking and behavior. For example, the Arabs both resent our materialism and relish its temptations. Masses of them enter the West because their own societies cannot sustain them economically, but they hate the West culturally. Of course their leaders strive to exclude Western influences, but the masses are anti-Western, too. "Rage," which may be the wrong word for detestation, extends to Muslims beyond the Arab world. This was demonstrated by the Islamic world, whose hollowness in its lip-service disapproval of the attack on the World Trade Center and its innocent thousands, magnified its general approval. They hate the West and especially its standard-bearer, America. MANY VALID POINTS BUT MISSING THE POINT The book review makes valid points but misses the main one. The main point was made by Pres. Bush, whose critics don't comprehend it and who, himself, no longer seems to. What is it? It posits a loose axis of Islamist, Islamic, and rogue states and terrorist organizations and supporters seeking to bring down Israel and the West, and to dominate the whole world. This axis is not all terrorist, not all Islamist, and not all Islamic, but the affiliates all more or less cooperate with one another. P.S.: If more Americans realized this main point, fewer would object to the war on Iraq. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

THE POLICY OF APPEASEMENT AND DEFEATISM Posted by Dr. Jerome S. Kaufman, August 23, 2004.

Finally, I am able to pour out the anguish that has resulted from watching Ariel Sharon dismantle the land of the Jews. Moshe Dann, Israeli political commentator, supplied me with a phrase that opened the emotional floodgates. I had e-mailed him a simple question, "What is going on?" He replied, "Ehud Olmert's (Sharon's Deputy Prime Minister) latest says it all: 'unilateral withdrawal to whatever the international community will allow.'" Moshe calls it "the policy of defeatism and appeasement." How perfect! Who then is running Israel, the supposed land of the Jews? The "international community?" Certainly not the Jews. Did they leave one ignoble Diaspora existence where their destiny was dictated by others to create another entity, supposedly of their own, wherein these same powers control the lives of the Jews? Leslie Susser of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes of "quick action" by Ariel Sharon averting a "showdown" with the United States over "settlement building in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). How did Sharon avert this "showdown?" - by a policy of "appeasement and defeatism," of course. You may remember that Sharon had coerced his cabinet to approve a preposterous Road Map plan in 2003 designed by Israel's "friends" - The United Nations, the European Union, the Russians and the American State Department. Sharon in the document agreed to dismantle "illegal" settlements and not expand existing ones. The Israelis are thus to remain in what Abba Eban called the "Auschwitz borders of the former Green line" - a corridor along the Mediterranean Coast in which a much smaller Israeli population existed prior to the Six Day War. This is to be the dictated destiny of the Jews while the Arabs expand all over Judea and Samaria and, of course, in so-called Israel proper and Jerusalem itself! What is this garbage about negative demographics in Israel? The Arabs don't even need demographics. Whole masses of tiny Israel are being given to them by the Israelis themselves in this insane policy of "appeasement and defeatism." By the way, what was to have been the Arab obligations under the infamous Roadmap, now a companion piece to the disastrous Oslo "Peace" accords? The very first paragraph of the Road Map agreement, just like all the very first paragraphs of all the duplicitous "peace" agreements that the Arabs have signed before and the Israelis have swallowed since, says, "In Phase I, the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence according to the steps outlined below; such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel. Palestinians and Israelis resume security cooperation based on the Tenet work plan to end violence, terrorism, and incitement through restructured and effective Palestinian security services. Palestinians undertake comprehensive political reform in preparation for statehood, including drafting a Palestinian constitution, and free, fair and open elections upon the basis of those measures." Has any of the above ever happened since the Oslo agreement and the Israelis orchestrated return from Tunisia of a totally defeated Yasser Arafat in 1993? Of course not. Does any realistic political pundit or historian believe it will ever happen? Nevertheless, Israel marches on with its woeful policy of appeasement and defeatism. Just this week, General Moshe Yaalon, Israel's chief of staff and another General who many of us thought genuinely embraced a policy of strength and containment, and, most probably like Olmert, acting as point man for Sharon, declared that Israel could return all of the Golan Heights to Syria without compromising security! This statement is contrary to an evaluation of a coterie of American military analysts that visited the Golan after the Six Day War. Syrians for years, with the most modest of weapons, rained terror down on the Israeli farmers of the Hula valley beneath the Golan Heights. Equally outrageous is Sharon's courting of the Egyptians to take over policing of Gaza and the underground tunnels that reach directly from Egyptian land in the Sinai through Rafah to Palestinian homes from which the weaponry is dispersed! This week IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis news agency, reported that Israeli Deputy Director-General for Information declined to raise the issue of Egypt's failure to act against the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to Gaza as the focus is currently on explaining the IDF operation in Gaza! Shades of Oslo. The Israelis deliberately turn a blind eye on complete non-compliance and continue on the inane path of appeasement and defeatism in the preposterous hope that their centuries old enemy will simply change their minds and go away and leave the Jews alone! Where is this all leading? One can only shudder in contemplation. Perhaps the Hashem of those that truly believe will, once again, save the Jews from their own self-destruction? Jerome Kaufman is host of the http://www.israel-commentary.org website, which specializes in essays and commentaries of importance to events in Israel. Contact him at jkaufman253469MI@comcast.net To Go To Top

VESSEL OR VASSEL? Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, August 23, 2004.

Ok., I was admittedly groggy - it was before my morning coffee. But on the morning of April 10th, I accessed the BBC News Service and the first glimpse of the banner headlines catapulted me back 2000 years plus. I was a bit unnerved as I read, "US 'making progress' in holy city". The accompanying photo showed a row of fully-armed marines running past an ancient, crumbling wall. The text that followed clearly indicated that the "holy city" was in reference to Najaf in Iraq, and not Jerusalem. But as an observant Jew and Israeli with an acute sense of historic continuity, I was nevertheless unsettled by what I pray is not a prophetic headline. The modern State of Israel has, over the years, become a vassal-state subservient to the United States. We appear to be mimicking the ancient history of Judea in its relationship to Rome - which eventually led to destruction. Like our ancestors, we've created and invited a situation which has led to our domination by a superpower. Some people are actually advocating the idea that Israel become America's 51st state. But mistakes need not be repeated, and with foresight and some wisdom we Israelis can choose to arrest and rectify a rapidly deteriorating situation.. I should add that although things may get worse before they get better, I have full confidence that, with a little effort, the people of Israel will see this distressing situation reversed. The regression from being America's democratic ally with a shared security agenda to becoming a subservient state barred from making sovereign, unilateral decisions is a process worth reviewing. Indeed, Israel has relied on and benefitted greatly from the tremendous military and economic assistance she has received from America, in addition to unprecedented support on the diplomatic front. But while we became secure and complacent with that relationship, the world was changing, as were America's partners. Israel was asked by former President George H.W. Bush not to intervene in the the first Gulf War, so as not to upset the newly formed and very delicate US/Arab/European coalition. In recompense for our "remarkable restraint" we were firmly ushered to the Madrid Conference table. When then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had the good sense to say "No" to unprecedented demands, including a settlement freeze, the United States and Israel's "peace camp" orchestrated a coup. Ten billion dollars in promised loan guarantees, which were urgently needed to help absorb an influx of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, were suspended in a flagrant attempt by America to interfere in the Israeli election process. The maneuver succeeded, (although Bush did lose his election bid) and within months a new U.S. President and new Israeli Prime Minister graced the White House grounds alongside a beaming and "rehabilitated" Yasser Arafat. Are we idiots or what? Some of us heard alarm bells back then and we protested vigorously both before and after the accords, but most people got caught-up in the euphoria of the times. And terror reigned and prospered among doves, balloons and pretty ceremonies. We israelis had traded our unique legacy of striving to be a light unto the nations - a holy vessel, in exchange for a rather pathetic place in a normalized, globalized world. How had we forgotten that entry into the elite world community is restricted to non Jewish nations only? Rather than leave the club, we decided to seek sponsorship and acceptance via a very established, amicable and influential member. America pays a price for having to shlep Israel along as her side-kick, but it's all worth it, because when it's tee-off time on the Gulf course, guess who gets to be the ball? If President Bush is willing to turn a blind eye to natural settlement increase in larger and well-established Israeli Jewish communities in order to garner the Jewish vote and bolster Sharon, are we supposed to be grateful for the reprieve? Are we expected to say, "Thank you Mr. President for allowing us to grow this week?" And what about after the elections, when pandering for the Jewish vote is over? Regardless of who wins, America is committed to continuing along a foreign policy route which spells disaster for all of us. I'm hardly an economic expert but it seems apparent that, as far as Israel is concerned, the the laws of supply and demand work like this: Demands are made and pressure applied upon Israel in direct proportion to the availability and price of oil on the market. When the pipeline freezes, the heat is turned-up on Israel. Justice and morality are expendable when economics and oil are at stake. It's worth noting that Pre 9/11, the Taliban were negotiating partners with Enron Corporation over a proposed oil pipeline. Attorney John Loftus writes that: "... ongoing terrorist investigations appear to have been hindered during the same sensitive time period while the Enron Corporation was still negotiating with the Taliban. An inadvertent result of the Taliban pipeline cover-up was that the Taliban's friends in Al Qaida were able to complete their last eight months of preparations for 9/11 while the Enron secrecy block was still in force." He reports that a second secrecy block was in effect "against any investigation that would embarrass the Saudi Royal family. Originally, it was designed to conceal Saudi support for Muslim extremists fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan and Chechnya, but it went too far. Oliver North noted in his autobiography, that every time he tried to do something about terrorism links in the Middle East, he was told to stop because it might embarrass the Saudis. This block remains in place." http://www.john-loftus.com/enron3.asp A few months before 9/11, the Former Director of India's Intelligence Bureau, D. C. Pathak wrote "The U.S. State Department apparently continues to rely heavily on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to deal with the situation created by the Taliban and to preserve the American stakes in Central Asia...the U.S. policy makers had continued to hope that Taliban's firm control of Afghanistan would help the U.S. to achieve access to the Caspian oil through Unicol... The U.S. State Department would do well to take note of the fact that there are powerful sympathisers of the Taliban in the present ruling elite of Pakistan." http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2001/06/05/stories/13050611.htm Are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan America's friends, or is America being held hostage by those nations? Under the current circumstances, will America eventually be compelled to sacrifice Israel on the altar of oil? And will Israel's leadership accept such a decree and dutifully bind the nation on that altar? Israel, it's time we got ourselves some real leadership and re-established ourselves as a sovereign nation. It's also time that we severed some cords and re-established an effective working relationship with America based on mutual respect and mutual security concerns. Israel needs to stand on her own two feet, and a voluntary reduction in U.S. economic aid would be a step in the right direction. Land for oil or any other commodity is not a workable formula as far as the Land of Israel is concerned. And on that note, the rallying cry of the settlers should surely be:     No, No, We won't go!    We won't bend to Texaco! Ellen lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter and columnist. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

DO YOU SUPPORT THE CREATION OF A PLO STATE IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL? Posted by Yrachmiel Elias, August 23, 2004.

The U.S. government, together with Russia, Europe, and the United Nations, is pursuing a policy that will form a Palestinian state within the Israeli territories of Gaza, Judea and Samaria. This policy will require theexpulsion of thousands of Jews from their homes. This referendum seeks to assess your support for (Yes) or opposition to (No ) a Palestinian state in the Land of Israel. The Nations watch Am Yisrael and loudly cry out to G-D and demand that the Jewish people stand firm on the land of their heritage and further expect us to physically protect our birthright! SHmuel Ha'Levii, General Manager Yrachmiel ben Menachem Mendel Elias, Webmaster/Editor Professor Ya'acov Golbert, Legal Council Radio Free Israel Web-Site Http://www.radiofreeisrael.com Reply to: RadioFI1@netvision.net.il "Do you support the creation of a PLO state in the Land of Israel?" Cast your vote and voice your opinion to the world. Click here. To Go To Top

THOSE WHO FORGET THE LESSONS OF HISTORY.... Posted by Janet Ann Suzuki, August 23, 2004.

Israel was given to the Jews by Almighty God Who commands in Scripture that this tiny area of the Middle East must be defended; not given away. The Ancient Israelite disregarded the Commandments (the Perfect Roadmap) concerning what they must do to assure their security in the land. As warned, this disobedience resulted in the Chosen People being driven from the land and scattered throughout the world. For 2000 years they were persecuted beyond comprehension. As foretold in Scripture, the Jewish people were eventually gathered together and given another opportunity to reclaim their God-given land. Fifty-seven years have come and gone and this has yet to happen. It is my belief that many Jews need to get a better grasp on their own spiritual history. There is truth in the saying, Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. Many of The Chosen People are repeating the transgressions of their ancestors. They rely on their own sincere but fallible reasoning in a futile attempt to achieve peace and security. They refuse to relocate or deport those who are considered a threat from within; they are influenced by the opinion of others and enter into negotiations with those who believe that Jews have no right to exist in the land; and bit by bit they are giving up their God-given land to a people who despise The God of Israel. Do many Jews reject the Commandments of their Loving Father or are they sincerely unaware of His flawless directions? Either way, the struggles of the Chosen People in relationship to faith, identity and security are ongoing. My prayer is that the hearts of the Jewish People are opened to the Truth and they will, in turn, bow and seek the Will of God. On the other hand, I sincerely fear that continued disobedience to the Commandments and lack of faith in the Ways of the Almighty will ultimately climax with history repeating itself when the Chosen People are once again driven from their God-given land. Related Scripture: Exodus 23:31-33; Numbers 33:55&56; Deuteronomy 30:2-4; Deuteronomy 30:2-4; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 119:90; Psalm 119:160; Isaiah 40:8. - bible.gospelcom.net To Go To Top

ISRAEL: A STATE OF CONFUSION Posted by Ken Heller, August 22, 2004.

This is by Professor Paul Eidelberg, who is an original and brilliant thinker. Contact him at eidelberg@foundation1.org to be put on his mailing list. Public discourse in the so-called democratic, Jewish State of Israel is steeped in confusion. How so? Take the word "democracy," the mantra of Israel's political, judicial, and intellectual elites. Israel, they boast, is the "only democracy in the Middle East." That's almost equivalent to saying Israel is the only Jewish state in the Middle East! It may well be argued, however, that Israel is neither democratic nor Jewish, or that it can't be both Jewish and democratic. Some may even argue that Israel is not even a "state"! After all, Israel has no clear or recognized borders, and it seems to be governed not from Jerusalem but from Washington. As far as a political scientist like myself is concerned, if Israel is a state, it cannot be a Jewish state! Why not? Because the concept of the "state" in modern times derives from Machiavelli. The state is wholly a human product, based on the autonomy of human will. The laws of the state depend solely on the will of the sovereign, be it the One, the Few, or the Many. This idea of the sovereign state obviously conflicts with the Torah which proclaims the sovereignty of God. This is more than academic. What should an observant Jewish soldier do if the government, consistent with a law enacted by the Knesset, orders him to expel Jews from Gaza when his rabbi has ruled that such action violates Jewish law? If you say the laws of the State are supreme, you are flirting with fascist doctrine. In any event, both those who oppose and support the transfer of Jews from Gaza do so in the name of "democracy"! Perhaps we ought to define this shibboleth? "Democracy" literally means the "rule of the people" or popular sovereignty. But as previously implied, the notion of popular sovereignty is foreign to the Torah. Moreover, the rule of the people reduces to the rule of the majority. Although majority rule is an important Torah principle - see Exodus 23:2 - its operation is limited by higher principles, such as the Ten Commandments. But since when must the majority adhere to any or all of the Ten Commandments? Why should the majority submit to the "religious coercion" of a minority? Actually, Exodus 23:2 refers to judicial proceedings in criminal cases. The plain meaning of the verse is, "Do not go with the [bare] majority [rov] to do evil [that is, to convict, but otherwise] incline toward the majority." Consider the Hebrew word rov. Although it may be translated literally as "majority," the term "probability" most often conveys its operational meaning. What is decisive is not the will but the judgment of the majority, for it is more likely to accord with truth. Moreover, the majority principle in Torah jurisprudence applies only in cases of doubt and only among equals in scholarship. (See Yevamot 14a.) To clinch the point, there are many cases in Jewish law when the court would accept the conclusion of an outstanding individual jurist or scholar over and against his colleagues! (See Berachot 37a, Kiddushin 59b, Yevamot 108b, Gittin 15a, 47a.) A democracy would cease to be a democracy if the majority were to recognize and defer to the wisdom of some outstanding individual. Deference to wisdom is distinctive of a Torah community. This cannot be said of any democracy, where mediocrities put themselves forward as candidates for public office. The decency and civility still visible in democracy have nothing to do with democracy itself. They derive ultimately from the ethical precepts and judicial principles of the Torah. Consider the two basic principles of democracy, equality and freedom. Neither one nor the other provides any moral standards as to how man should live. What is there about democratic equality that would prompt a person to show respect for teachers or parents? What is there about democratic freedom that would prompt him to restrain his passions, to be kind, honest, or just? On the other hand, if freedom and equality are derived from the Torah's conception of man's creation in the image of God, these two principles will then have ethical and rational constraints. Otherwise, freedom will lead to license, while equality will lead to a leveling of all moral and intellectual distinctions. Is not this evident on college campuses throughout the democratic world? Can Israel long endure in its present state of confusion? To Go To Top

WILLFUL BLINDNESS IN GAZA Posted by Women in Green, August 22, 2004.

This was written by Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post. The drumbeat of anti-Semitic and anti-American incitement marches on in the Egyptian government-controlled press. In recent weeks, the media in Egypt has come out with a series of articles that, like the long and continuous stream of their poisonous predecessors, dehumanize Jews, and criminalize both Israel and the United States. In one recent piece in the ruling National Democratic Party's newspaper Al-Liwaa Al-Islami, Dr. Rif'at Sayyed Ahmad wrote a dirge of Holocaust denial entitled "The lie about the burning of the Jews." Like most Holocaust denials, this one argues that the Jews made up the Holocaust in order to blackmail the world into giving the Jews a state where they proceeded to carry out a "holocaust" against the Arabs. In another article, in the government's religious magazine Aqidati, columnist Hussam Wahba penned a long blood libel against the Jews in which he argued repeatedly that the Talmud demands that Jews murder non-Jews wherever they are to be found. And, of course, that Jews murder non-Jews in ritual killings to make Passover matzot. Less graphically, two Egyptian government magazines, Al-Ahram Al-Arabi Weekly and Al-Ahram Weekly published articles claiming that US concern about the genocide being carried out in the Darfur region of Sudan is really just a ruse for Washington to gain control over the Sudanese oil fields. Unfortunately, if it weren't for the Middle East Media Research Institute's painstaking translations of these articles, there would be almost no way for us to know about the Egyptian government's continuous campaign to hammer deep and enduring hatred of the Jews, Israel, and the US into the hearts and minds of the Egyptian people. The Israeli government rarely bats an eyelash in response to these expressions by Hosni Mubarak's media. It certainly doesn't link Israel's willingness to treat Egypt with deference to the cessation of this Nazi-like dehumanization of the Jewish people. And it doesn't seem to consider that the deep and abiding hatred for all things Jewish that is so studiously inculcated into the Egyptian consciousness may have policy implications for the stability of the cold war that exists between our two countries. To the contrary, as Egyptians ingest their daily diet of venom, Israeli generals are vigorously engaging their Egyptian counterparts in discussions on the role that the Egyptian military will play in a post-Israeli withdrawal Gaza. Earlier this month a high-ranking delegation of Egyptian generals, led by Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, was treated to televised embraces by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and his underlings at the Defense Ministry. Next month, our generals are scheduled to fly to Cairo for a reciprocal visit. The aim of these friendly parleys is to work out the Egyptian role in Gaza after an IDF withdrawal. Egypt's engagement of Israel is part of its two-pronged strategy for Gaza. At the same time that it discusses altering the 1979 treaty with Israel in a manner that will allow the Egyptian military to deploy up to 15,000 troops along the border with Israel, and perhaps in Gaza itself, it is holding discussions with the PA, Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad to put together a plan for what Gaza will look like after these terrorists take full control of the area. Both Egyptian and Israeli sources involved in the bilateral security talks have informed the press that Egypt has laid down four conditions for its support for Sharon's unilateral Israeli retreat from Gaza. These conditions involve (1) the transfer of control over the 10-kilometer-long Gaza-Egypt border to Egypt; (2) full Palestinian control over the Rafah border terminal with Egypt, the PA airport in Dahaniya, and the Gaza seaport; (3) the reopening of the "safe passage" route connecting Gaza and Judea to enable uninhibited Palestinian travel through Israel; and (4) an Israeli commitment not to reoccupy or attack the Gaza Strip after an IDF withdrawal. These demands, breathtaking in their effrontery, would endanger the national security of Israel. Yet Mofaz did not cancel the talks, indeed the government continues to behave as if the Egyptians are being helpful. Maj. General (res.) Doron Almog, who commanded the Southern Command from 2000-03 authored an article in the current issue of The Middle East Quarterly entitled "Tunnel Vision in Gaza." Almog argues that transferring control over the Gaza-Egypt border, or the so-called Philidelphi corridor to the Egyptian military, would be disastrous not merely to the stability of Gaza, which he claims is liable to quickly deteriorate into a "mini-Afghanistan" as a result. The move, he writes, could well destabilize the entire region by encouraging Egypt to abrogate the peace treaty. Almog writes that Egyptian "[t]olerance for smuggling and infiltration, like anti-Israel demonstrations in Cairo and incitement in the media, appears to be designed to relieve some of the pressure exerted by anti-Israel public opinion in Egypt." Taking his analysis a step further, the Egyptian government encourages anti-Semitism and enables terrorism against Israel in order to promote domestic stability in Egypt itself. As Almog notes, Egypt "is an authoritarian and inefficient state that has failed to meet even minimal goals of political and economic reform." If they didn't have Israel to hate, the frustration of Egyptians with the failure of their government to enable their national advancement and promote civil liberties would turn on the regime itself. So regime stability is dependent on anti-Semitism and support for Palestinian terrorism. Given this state of affairs, Almog argues that Israel must not provide Egypt with a role in Gaza after the withdrawal. Rather, he concludes that Israel must retain total control of the international crossing points and border zones in Gaza even though doing so will provide the Palestinians with a rhetorical basis for claiming that Israel has not withdrawn. Like Hizbullah with the Sha'ba Farms, the Palestinians will use Israeli control of the borders to justify further terrorism emanating from Gaza itself. Almog's view of Egypt is strengthened by the Egyptian-brokered deal between the PA, Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad for the post-IDF withdrawal period in Gaza. Reports of the deal vary but they all boil down to a few common elements. Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad will not be dismantled. Rather, they will either continue to operate autonomously but in a coordinated manner with the PA militias, or they will join the Palestinian army in Gaza that Cairo is set to train. Terrorism against Israel will not cease, but its focal point will likely move to Judea and Samaria to provoke further Israeli retreats. Several reports this week have claimed that Marwan Barghouti, the head of Fatah in Judea and Samaria who is now serving six consecutive life sentences in Israeli prison for six separate murder convictions of Israeli citizens, has played a large role in organizing the Egyptian-sponsored agreement. Yediot Aharonot reported this week that Barghouti, who is in solitary confinement, was able to conduct these negotiations with Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in Damascus and Beirut through meetings he has held in recent weeks with 48 different attorneys. According to Ofer Lefler, the spokesman for Israel Prisons Service, prison authorities have no legal ability to prevent Barghouti from holding such meetings. But this is a willful misreading of the law. According to the Prisons Service Regulation 29(B), "if suspicion arises that a meeting between a prisoner and his lawyer will enable the commission of a crime that endangers the well-being or security of another person or the security of or well-being of the public or national security, the head of the Prisons Service or the prison warden may order the prevention or interruption of such a meeting." Barghoutis's actions are motivated by clear goals. He wishes to strengthen his own position and he wishes to continue to coordinate cooperation between Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas in the conduct of the war against Israel as he has been doing since the planning stages for the war in the summer of 2000. Egypt's two-pronged strategy of engaging Israel and the terrorists in separate negotiations is also clear. Egypt wishes through its coordination of the various terror factions to promote relative stability in Gaza among Palestinian terrorist groups to prevent Palestinian refugees from moving into the Sinai. At the same time, it wishes to provide a framework for cooperation to ensure that all terrorist factions remain directed against Israel and only Israel to prevent destabilization of Egypt and promote destabilization of Israel. Finally, Egypt seeks to enhance its position in the Arab world by extending its support for global jihad from the diplomatic sphere to direct sponsorship of terror against Israel even as it wins plaudits for its "constructive role" from both Israel and the US. While the impetus driving Egypt and Barghouti in their moves to turn Gaza into a "mini-Afghanistan" are clear, Israel's policies on the issue are incoherent yet familiar. In planning for the retreat from Gaza today, as with the Oslo accords 11 years ago and Israel's view of Egyptian intentions at the Suez Canal in 1973, Israel's strategic planners are seized by wishful thinking about the intentions of our enemies as we voluntarily abandon the means to defend ourselves. Those earlier strategic misconceptions based on fantasies caused us thousands of otherwise preventable deaths. We can only hope that our leaders and strategists will get wise to reality this time, before we are forced to pay yet another unthinkable price for their willful blindness to reality. To Go To Top

THE REAL REASON SHARON'S "SECURITY WALL" WILL NOT WORK Posted by Steven Plaut, August 22, 2004.

There is one major issue related to the "Security Wall" that is being totally ignored by the media and by Israelis. Sure, the weaknesses associated with the idea of the "Security Wall" have already been well expounded. The Wall is too easy to climb over, dig under, swim around, or blow holes in. Even worse, there is nothing stopping the Palestinians from shooting mortars, rockets, and missiles over it. The Wall is much too close to the "Green Line", and signals Israel's willingness to capitulate and return to its 1949 "Auschwitz Borders". The Wall should in fact be a set of security cages, caging in the large Palestinian towns while leaving the rest of the West Bank and Gaza as free range in which Jews live and move freely. But all that is old hat. There is one OTHER reason why the Wall will fail. Suppose hypothetically Israel were to build a Security Wall 3000 kilometers high, one that could not be dug under, shot over, nor could it have any holes blown in it. Just suppose. Even then, the Wall would do nothing to stop the terror and carnage. Why? Because the Wall does nothing if you let the terrorists walk into Israel through the gates in the Wall! Israel's policy has always been to allow tens of thousands of Palestinian day laborers to enter Israel freely. Even after each terror bombing, a few days later the gates have been opened. The much-touted Gaza fence, supposedly a precedent and role model for Sharon's new "Security Wall", has failed to prevent the suicide bombers and other murderers from entering israel for the simple reason that Israel just lets them waltz in through the gates! Indeed, one part of Sharon's pledge to President Bush in the recent White House pow-wow was that Israel promises to continue to let the "day laborers" enter, no matter what. The US does not allow unrestricted entrance of day laborers from Mexico nor Canda, but wants Israel to agree to allow tens of thousands of Palestinians to enter Israel, no matter how many Israelis get murdered as a result. So never mind that the Wall cannot stop a single Kassem rocket (Kassems were discovered this week in the West Bank, and so are no longer just a problem from Gaza, and can strike Lod airport and Jerusalem). The Chinese Wall failed. The Roman Walls failed. Sharon's Wall will fail. The Security Wall is the latest Israeli attempt to find an alternative to Israeli military victory. There is no magic solution that can serve as an alternative to Israeli military control of the ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Everything else is wishful thinking and foolish belief in magic. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

TO THE GRANDSON OF MAHATMA GHANDI Posted by Jan Willem van der Hoeven, August 22, 2004.

I am shocked about you! This is the way you follow your grandfather's example, living in the safety of that great land of the United States of America, coming for the first time to Israel and the Middle East, having already made up your apparently anti-Semitic mind to criticize Israel for defending those still left of her people? What do you want Israel then to do in the face of such aggression from the days of the Grand Mufti, and Palestinian leader, Amin Al Husseini, who urged Hitler to speed up the final solution - and Gamal Abdul Nasser who announced at the beginning of the six day war that he was going to drive the Israeli nation into the Mediterranean Sea, until the present-day despots - who are not accountable even to their own people - from Arafat to Nasrallah, and from Bashar Al-Assad to the Iranian leaders, all of whom with the most deadly weapons of mass destruction intent, like Hitler and Nasser, on Israel's final destruction. As even Arafat himself once said in an interview in one of the Dutch papers: "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel". And now you come as a follower of your grandfather, committed to non-violence like him and already take sides against the very nation that up to this very day has been the victim more than any other nation of the most despicable violence that can be imagined. You thus cause great shame to yourself and the memory of your grandfather! What do you want Israel to do? Bomb whole Arab cities like the U.S. did with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with 250,000 dead - to have finally peace with Japan? Or as the Allied forces did with the cities of Germany, causing innumerable civilian deaths to win the war with Nazi Germany? Or the way Israel does it: unlike any other nation - with pin pricking precision taking out the chieftains of terror one by one, if possible without civilian casualties AND BUILDING A WALL as a non-violent way to defend herself against cruel senseless killers and terrorists whose ways you cannot really change with all your rhetoric, even if you will stay in Ramallah for years to plead with them! So you go back after your short and already disgraceful upcoming visit here to America which fights her wars a lot more aggressively even at this moment in Iraq and Afghanistan than the self-critical Israelis do. Will we hear then your voice of concern against the fence your Indian nation has been building against Kashmir - or other nations that have erected this basic defense themselves or will you settle down to your easy nonviolent lifestyle in America - after having done your despicable anti-Semitic stint here in the Middle East? May God have mercy upon you, Mr. Arun Ghandi! Jan Willem van der Hoeven is Director of the International Christian Zionist Center in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.israelmybeloved.com/iczc/index.htm and they can be reached by email at iczc@iczc.org.il To Go To Top

DWELLING IN DENIAL Posted by Women in Green, August 22, 2004.

This article is by Professor Paul Eidelberg. While Ariel Sharon and his colleagues dither about "disengagement," and thus dwell in denial, the enemy from which the prime minister wants to distance Israel is accumulating long-range missiles. What is the nature of this denial? To answer this question I turn first to the recently deceased Edward Said, an Arab professor at Columbia University. Said admitted that "The Arab world is a sink of corruption and mediocrity and the most appalling and murderous tyrannies." Said did not dwell in denial. Contrast Israel's ruling elites. These elites refuse to take the murderous tyranny of the Arab world seriously, a world steeped in hatred of Jews and Israel. Devoid of Jewish pride, they long to "negotiate" with a tyranny called the "Palestinian Authority," which uses Arab children as human bombs to kill Jews. The denial in which Israel's political and intellectual elites dwell is pathological. This pathology is fostered by the moral neutrality of contemporary education. Politicians like Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres persist in the mindless policy of surrendering Jewish land to Arab terrorists primarily because Israeli universities are silent about the monstrous evil that animates the Arab world. They speak of the Arab-Israel conflict which, in fact, is nothing less than an Islamic war against Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish state. And to further obscure the implacable nature of this "conflict," Israeli universities have imported factitious programs in "conflict resolution." Political scientists see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, and politicians inhale this immoral atmosphere. Denying the enormity of evil, they refuse to take the relentless hatred of Arabs seriously. Accordingly, Israeli political scientists have never formulated, and prime ministers have never pursued, a national strategy commensurate with the tyrannical and bellicose nature of Israel's enemies. Wandering in the make-believe world of "peaceful coexistence," no Israeli government has ever taken the ideological offensive against the Arab world described by professor Said, who, by the way, despised Jews and Israel. To expose the malignant nature of Islamdom would not be "politically correct," especially in the academic atmosphere of cultural relativism. Seven centuries ago, the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that Arabs are a savage people: "Savagery has become their character and nature," which means that the horror of bloodshed and therefore the sanctity of human life is foreign to Islam. How diametrically opposed to Judaism! For the Jew, the sanctity of human life derives from the Torah concept of man's creation of the image of God. That verse in the Torah speaks to us of free will and simultaneously teaches us the idea of the human community. Contrast Islam's affinity to fatalism, its division of mankind into "believers" and non-believers," and its treatment of "non-believers" as subhuman. While Islamic fatalism facilitates or reinforces Islamic tyranny, Islam's contempt for "infidels" encourages Islamic savagery. No wonder jihad is a basic Islamic principle, and no wonder Islam is the world's seed bed of terrorism! Armed with weapons of mass destruction, Islam is the most dangerous enemy of mankind. Such weapons may soon be in the hands of the Palestinian Arabs. Dwelling in the denial of evil can only lead to disaster. It took 9/11 to prompt President George W. Bush to speak of an "axis of evil." He nonetheless obscured the identity of that evil by referring to America's enemy as "international terrorism." Mr. Bush dwells in and out of denial. However, thanks to the 9/11 Congressional Commission, the president has come around to the position of Daniel Pipes who defines the enemy as "militant Islam." Of course, the intrepid Dr. Pipes prudently distinguishes militant Islam from Islam per se. I ask: when has Islam not been "militant"? One can appreciate Dr. Pipes reticence in this matter. Limiting the enemy to militant Islam orIslamism") has not saved him from the charge of "racism." But what shall we say of Israel's political leaders, its judicial leaders, and its intellectual leaders? They dwell in denial of the evil confronting their country, an evil born or magnified in the Quran, whose almost every page consigns "infidels" to hell? What shall we say of Israeli non-believers who, despite the overwhelming power of the IDF, have allowed the disciples of Muhammad to stain the streets of Jerusalem with Jewish blood? What shall we say of a prime minister anxious to sign an agreement with these Janus-faced murderers in order to co-author the fiction of a non-bellicose Palestinian state? We look in vain for a political leader with courage enough to say that signing agreements with Arabs may be "politically correct," but hardly conducive to peace. Does not Egypt, in violation of its peace treaty with Israel, supply arms to terrorists in Gaza, while its government-controlled media spew Nazi-inspired hatred of Jews and thus prepare Arabs for the final war against the Jewish state? Even Israel's peace treaty with Jordan has not prevented the "moderate" King Abdullah from stoking the fires of the intifada, thereby encouraging Arabs to hasten Israel's politicide. Dwelling in denial, silent about the evil permeating Islam, Israel's ruling elites undermine the moral sensibilities and vigilance of Jews on the one hand, and incite Arab contempt and murder on the other. This denial, this silence, is sanctioned by Israeli law! Two decades ago a Labor-Likud government enacted legislation that prohibits Jews from telling the truth about the Arab ethos. Hence no one should expect the government to declare: "Israel's Arab enemies, like the Assassins of a thousand years ago, are unrivaled in racism, hatred, and murder. When these Arabs kill Jews, they feel they are killing not human beings but noxious insects. Israel is confronted by unmitigated evil." Such a statement, however, would make utter nonsense of Sharon's policy of self-restraint toward Arab terrorism. And so Israel's ruling elites continue to dwell in denial, refusing to take the "culture of hate" seriously. While they dither about "disengagement," Arabs accumulate more and deadlier weapons to kill more and more Jews. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

IF WISHING MADE IT SO Posted by Barry Rubin, August 20, 2004.

There is often something very wrong in the Western reasoning process dealing with the Middle East. The flaw, simply stated is that wanting a good outcome, people distort reality, ignoring factors which show that a happy ending is not within easy reach. Since this line of reasoning thoroughly dominates so much of the discussion few ever see pointed out the absurd contradictions involved. Exhibit Number 1: A liberal journalist in America's leading east coast newspaper writes that Muslims are reconsidering the extreme interpretations of their religion recently prevailing. The specific case in point is a challenge to the notion that a martyr (read terrorist) going to heaven will get several dozen black-eyed virgins as a reward. But the author offers no evidence for this assertion. Virtually the entire article consists of an old story about a German scholar who claims the word "virgins" is a mistranslation for some other, perhaps more culinary, reward. A single publication by a non-Arab, non-Muslim Westerner is neither part of the Muslim debate nor going to have any effect on it. Indeed, the fact that the scholar did not even dare publish his findings under his own real name tells far more about the condition of the world than anything else. Actually, what is noteworthy is how few Muslims, especially Arabs living in the Arab world, are fighting the currently dominant extremist interpretations prompted by radical Islamists which are in fact gaining in power. Exhibit Number 2: In the same week, a conservative researcher writes an article in America's leading west coast newspaper that Arab liberals are flourishing and want American help. The article ridicules those who say that Arab liberalism is weak and wants to stay arms'-length away from the Americans. Two quotes are cited in the article as sole proof of this assertion. One comes from a noble writer of fiction who plays no part in political life; the other comes from an Arab journalist who has said the exact opposite on such matters in a dozen articles I have read. The truth is that outside of Kuwait there is not a single serious liberal party in the Arab world; that outside of Egypt there is not a single liberal newspaper in the Arab world (there are two in Egypt both of small circulation). Arab liberals show great courage, in speaking precisely because there are so few of them and they face such overwhelming odds. Publicly, at least, they must struggle to reconcile their feelings that the prevalent Arab political ideas are ridiculous with their need to survive and their desire to have influence. The arguably most courageous Arab liberal gave a lecture at an obscure American university some months ago, a forum where he had little to fear from his government's repressive apparatus. When asked how Americans can help bring democracy to the Arab world his sole recommendation is they write Congress asking for a change in American policy away from supporting Israel and backing "dictatorships," without even a mention of how he felt about Iraq or any regimes by name. Helping Arab liberals and hoping for a more moderate interpretation of Islam are good things. But one should not confuse a good goal with a false claim of its triumph. Misassessing intelligence, whether about invading Iraq or the threat from radical Islamist terrorism is not a good idea. People who totally disagree made a common mistake in those cases. Which brings us to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign claims that the real problem is that President George W. Bush had not been energetic enough in pressing for peace. If Kerry wins he will solve the problem by working hard and sending a special envoy to mediate. Others assert that it will be Bush who will put a priority on the issue and succeed if he wins a second term. Yet most of these people admit there is no Palestinian leadership ready to pursue a compromise peace or implement commitments if one was available. Unfortunately, there are more signs of growing radicalism - an open call for fighting until Israel is destroyed - than five years ago, and this includes those in Fatah who criticize Yasir Arafat. So what is the basis for believing that harder work will bring success? What more telling sign is there of the Arab world's real atmosphere than Jordanian King Abdallah's major speech in which, despite himself being a moderate, the only way he felt possible to criticize Arafat and the Palestinian leadership was to accuse them of excessive moderation. He defined the Palestinians' real problem and mistake is of having offered Israel too many concessions. Meanwhile, the man in Israel most identified with arguing that Arafat is a real partner for peace to whom Israel should make concessions stated privately not long ago that it disgusted him to say nice things publicly about Arafat because he had such low regard for his veracity and performance. It isn't just apologists for terrorism and radicalism who misrepresent the evidence, but also the "well-intentioned" who think distorting reality can promote peace or moderation. Often, they don't even realize they are doing so. It is simply that any evidence pointing away from their preferred result is ignored. And that can be a deadly error. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and co-author of "Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography" and "Hating America: A History" (Oxford University Press, August 2004). H columns can now be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html. To Go To Top

CONDI'S CONDOM'S FOR ISRAEL Posted by Marcel Cousineau, August 21, 2004.

The ongoing growth of Jewish settlments is most troubling. As my mentor and ex-Secretary of State under George Bush Sr. James Baker said, "It is the greatest impediment to peace". The fact that non-moslems continue to build homes and have babies has caused his hemorrhoids to flare up again and this time with a vengeance. The moslem arabs have our green light to do as they wish. We hope to help them shortly with their prison uprising. James wants George Jr. and me to get busy slowing down this global threat, this cancer of Jewish expansion on their land. Colin has to lay low on this effort for a little while and I have to be careful not to stir up a hornet's nest. Already today, I had to back down just a bit and give our permission for nominal growth with these non moslems. Imagine that, they need and follow our permission to live and breed, and breath, at that. Gosh, it's so much fun being a super power elite, sure beats teaching those juvenile delinquints at university. Our token and meaningless sanctions on Syria are not intended to accomplish anything; they are just a show for public consumption. We have not interfered with the weapons super highway from Iran to Hizbollah on the front lines with Israel via Syria, as we have not called for Egypt to immediately halt all weapons smuggling via their tunnels into Gaza. These two operations that we've intentionally ignored have not had the desired effect so maybe it's time that we expand from lead to latex. Because the non-moslems are growing in population and expanding their cities and villages building way too many nice homes, we must work even harder to stop it and not arouse the ire of the fools who voted for my boss. That won't be hard to do, the massses are actually dumbed down and we have succeeded in weakening Israel by our briliant peace efforts. Haa,ha,ha,ha, what dummmies these Israeli politicians,and their electorate, we give them the rope and they hang themselves, ha,ha,ha,ha. I propose flooding Israel with condoms, from the schools to the Knesset. Already, P.M. Sharon has given the go ahead to place as many dispensers there as we wish. You have to admit that he is a good old boy and does everything we expect of him. He's even offered to wear one on his head to influence the citizens of Israel that having babies is not good and condoms are Israel's hope for the future. If any of you would like to donate funds for this valiant effort please send a check or money order to;    Condie's Condoms for Israel   care of- National Security Agency    Washington D.C. To Go To Top

MORE MOSLEM PLANS TO DESTROY JEWISH BONDS WITH TEMPLE MOUNT Posted by Bryna Berch, August 20, 2004.

This is a news item from today's Arutz-7. Why when Israel asserts Jerusalem is Jewish and she asserts that ALL of Jerusalem belongs to Israel, does she lets her historic treasures be destroyed? It's not as if she can go to Ebay and buy back her history. The Moslem Waqf plans to remove another few thousand tons of dirt dug up in the course of its illegal construction/destruction work on the Temple Mount. The dirt contains ancient remnants from the Temple Mount, and the leaders of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities will meet on Sunday with Antiquities Authority Chairman Shuka Dorfman to counter this intention. In the past, the Waqf has received permits from the Prime Minister's Office and the Public Security Ministry to remove dirt of this nature. It is well-known that the Moslem goal is to erase all vestiges of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site in the world. Islamic Movement leader Israeli-Arab Sheikh Raed Salah has said that the "use of the Temple Mount is exclusively a Moslem Arab Palestinian right," adding, "There never was any First or Second Temple in the vicinity of the Mosque." Archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has told Arutz-7 that the Waqf's objective is to turn "the entire Temple Mount compound into a large mosque, with absolutely no Jewish, Christian or other presence there. The archaeology there absolutely does not interest them; they merely want to cover up all signs of Jewish history there." To Go To Top

HOLY CITY? GIVE ME A BREAK! Posted by Alan Caruba, August 20, 2004.

What if I were to invite you to visit the "holy city" of San Diego, named after a saint? So was St. Augustine, Florida. Providence, Rhode Island references God's grace. There is hardly a major city where one cannot find an impressive cathedral or other religious structure. From one end of America to another, you can find "holy cities", but while they honor religious figures or ideals, they do not claim to be "sacred" ground. So what makes Iraq's Najaf a "holy city" other than the fact that there is a big mosque there? What, for that matter, makes every grain of sand in Saudi Arabia "sacred"? Or makes Mecca and Medina more sacred than cities that preceded both by well over two thousand years, Jerusalem and Vatican City in the midst of Rome? Other than pure arrogance, what gives Islam the right to claim Jerusalem as an Islamic holy city when Muhammad never physically stepped foot there, nor anywhere else outside of Arabia? Returning to Najaf, the home base of Muqtada al-Sadr, the renegade Shi'ite mullah, just how holy is a mosque when it serves as a place to store weapons and plan military operations against an interim government? So I suggest that the time to give him five minutes to get out of town or watch his mosque turned into a parking lot has arrived. This is likely to make a lot of Arabs angry at the Big Bad United States of America, but frankly these people don't need any excuse to dislike us. I get a lot of email from people in the Middle East who don't like what I have to say about Islam. One universal theme runs through virtually all these communications and it is that the United States and Israel are responsible for the "oppression" in their nations, not the monarchs and despots that run those nations. It is the U.S., they contend, that supports these dictators and, therefore, is to be blamed for their actions. As for Israel, it is responsible for everything that is wrong with their lives. By contrast, militant and even peaceful Muslims are never to blame for anything. In the past, I have tried to reply reasonably that the United States has not only suffered attacks on its homeland, but also a long succession of attacks going back to the seizing of its diplomats in Iran in 1979, the bombing of Marines in Lebanon, the attack of the USS Cole, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All by Muslims. It was Muslims who blew up trains in Spain, a nightclub in Bali, synagogues in Turkey and Argentina, foreign compounds in Riyadh, and let's not forget those US embassies in two African nations. For good measure, I tried to point out that our military has gone in harm's way to defend and protect Muslims in Kuwait, in Somalia, in Bosnia, and against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now it is engaged in the liberation of 25 million Muslims in Iraq, setting them on the path of democracy and freedom. None of this, I assure you, has the least affect on the thinking of my correspondents, nor, I suspect, on any of the other millions of totally ungrateful slaves of the despotic governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, the Sudan, and other nations where Islam plays a significant role in governance or whose militants are engaged in insurrections to become the government. In Islam, there is no separation of church and state. Islam so suffuses the lives of Muslims throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, they are utterly blind and indifferent to the fact that it has consigned them to backwardness, poverty, and the mercy of whoever is in charge. There is little hope for the individual Middle Eastern Muslim, even if he is an educated member of the middle class. That is why most of the 9-11 hijackers came from this segment of Saudi Arabian society. That is why Osama bin Laden, who came from a Saudi family of great wealth, uses Islam to advance his self-glorification and evil agenda. And right now, the Saudis have launched a public relations campaign to tell us what good friends of ours they are. With friends like these, who needs enemies? So here come the Americans with our military power and these morons sit in front of their television sets listening to and watching al Jezeera tell them over and over again that their sacred lands or holy cities are being destroyed by us simply because we want their oil. Yes, we want their oil. We are paying $44 a barrel for it right now! Has the money gained from its purchase in the past done anything to benefit the individual Muslim? Has it built a decent infrastructure or educational system in any of these places? I suggest we Americans get over the notion that we are "creating" Islamic enemies. Just as the nation of Israel was born surrounded with Islamic enemies and has battled them for over a half century, the only thing the United States can do is kill our enemies and liberate the rest who must be dragged into the 21st century and connected to the rest of the world before they destroy us in the name of Allah. Alan Caruba's is a veteran science and business writer. His website address is http://www.anxietycenter.com To Go To Top

JEWISH SETTLER, JESUS, CRUCIFIED BY ARAFAT Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, August 20, 2004.

Newsflash...Dateline Palestine: Jewish settler named Jesus born in illegal outpost in occupied Bethlehem. His family builds settlement on occupied Arab land. The young Jewish radical then grows up and decides as one of the "hilltop youth" to go settle in Muslim Nazareth, oppressing peaceful Arab Canaanites. Joining a settler group, he later sets up shop as a carpenter, but is drawn into radical Jewish politics and becomes one the most wanted right-wing extremists in Palestine. Years later, as a grown man, he goes up to the Temple Mount in an attempted attack on the holy Arab Canaanite Mosque, but Palestinian security forces arrest him and bring him to President Arafat for trial. The "Rais" finds him guilty of all the Palestinian's sins and orders his execution as a collaborator. One more Jewish settler crucified in Palestine. As broadcast by PA TV... Sounds crazy? Not really, if you pay close attention to what the Palestinian Authority has been broadcasting to its people, as "history" lately. Thanks to Itamar Marcus over at Palestinian Media Watch (www.pmw.org.il), who monitors Palestinian television broadcasts, we now "know" that: 1. The Hebrews of the Bible have no connection to the Jews of today. 2. The Hebrews of the Bible were Arabs. 3. The Prophets of the Bible were Muslims. 4. Biblical King Solomon was a Muslim Prophet. 5. Solomon's Temple was not built by Israelites but by Arab Canaanites. 6. The Canaanites are the forefathers of the Palestinians. 7. The Bible is legends based on what Jews imagined and not on history. 8. The Jews of today are descendents of a 13th Century Khazar tribe with no history in the Land of Israel. 9. The location of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a Zionist invention. 10. Zionism is Racism. The following discussion below, was broadcast on PA TV by "historians," Dr. Jarir Al-Qidwah, Head of the PA Public Library and Arafat's Advisor on Education and Dr. Issam Sissalem, senior historian and Educational TV host, who is the former head of the History Dept. of the Palestinian Authority University. The moderator was Mohammed Albaz. PA TV, Aug. 2, 2004... Albaz: "Where did the story of Solomon's Temple come from?" Al-Qidwah: "Solomon's Temple, I believe, was built by the Canaanites who were the neighbors of the Israelis, the Israelites...I want to state several words clearly: the Bible became an archival document, not representing what the Israelis and the first Jews were, but what they thought they were, what they imagined. The Temple is the fruit of their imagination. In any case, when our nation or our Canaanite forefathers came to Palestine, they built the Temple, a temple in Jerusalem." Sissalem: "We, as the Palestinian nation fighting for its freedom and liberation, must not focus too much attention on these false [Biblical] legends. The history of our land continues more than ten thousand years. The land of battles and wars, [many] armies, tribes and commanders came through. I want to point out that we should not focus much on what is called the [Biblical] Hebrew tribes, who are in fact Bedouin - Arab tribes. There is no connection between them and these Khazar Jews [of Israel today]. Those [Hebrew - Arab] tribes were erased and ceased to exist and no traces were left of them. That group did not have a pure religion. They claimed that Solomon, may he rest in peace, built the Temple. Does the land testify to this? Solomon was a prophet and we see him as a Muslim and part of our [Islamic] heritage. There is no historical text that proves the existence [of the temple] or that it has a real history other than the Bible, and the Bible as we have previously mentioned, was written based on ancient legends." I won't bore you any longer with this insanity, if you "must" read it, check out PMW's site. But what I can tell you is, that the falsehood bothers Israelis so much, that the usually self-flagellating, left-leaning Ha'aretz, last May, featured an article "A campaign of denial to disinherit the Jews". In it, the author tells us, "Years ago, a group of archaeology students from Bar-Ilan University went to Jerusalem's Kidron Valley, hoping to save archaeological remnants from earth the Wakf [Muslim religious trust] had dug up on the Temple Mount and dumped in the riverbed. A Wakf official who noticed the students began yelling at them. One sentence struck them in particular: 'You have nothing to look for here, just as the Crusaders had nothing to look for here. Jerusalem is Muslim.'" According to the article, a recent study by Dr. Yitzhak Reiter, conducted for the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies states: "In the last generation, the Islamic and Arab history of Jerusalem has gradually been rewritten. At the heart of this new version is the Arabs' historic right to Jerusalem and Palestine. The main argument is that the Arabs ruled Jerusalem thousands of years before the children of Israel. In addition to building the Arab-Muslim case, the Muslim thinkers are formulating a denial and negation of the Jewish-Zionist narrative. Included in that effort is the de-Judaizing of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem as a whole." And if you thought Palestinian insanity was bad enough, it seems to be contagious... Reiter - who is a specialist in Contemporary History of the Middle East at Hebrew University's Truman Institute - points out that not only Palestinian propagandists like Arafat and PA-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Akram Sabri, have lost it, but both former and current Jordanian Ministers of Wakf Affairs, the Muslim world's most popular cleric, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, and others as well. For example, the former Jordanian minister of Wakf affairs, Abed al-Salaam al-Abadi, Sheikh Raed Salah and several Islamic Internet sites refer to Abraham as the builder of the Al-Aqsa mosque 4,000 years ago. Whereas the current Jordanian minister of Wakf affairs, Ahmed Khalil, has said that Israel is intervening in Al-Aqsa (Temple Mount) affairs "in order to build the fabricated temple there". The Qatar based Islamic cleric, Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a leading theologian - who achieved star status thanks to his weekly religious phone-in program Al-Sharia wa Al-Haya (Islamic Law and Life) on the Qatari satellite channel, Al-Jazeera - has identified the Jebusites as an ancient Arab tribe that wandered from the Arabian peninsula, together with the Canaanites, around 3,000 BCE and therefore predated the children of Israel in the land. So have members of the Saudi royal family, Palestinian archaeologists, such as Dr. Dimitri Baramki, Syrian clerics and others in the Arab/Islamic world. And of course the Palestinians are descended from the Jebusites... Egyptian archaeologist Abed al-Rahim Rihan Barakat, the manager of the archaeological site at Dahab in Sinai, recently wrote in an article appearing on the Internet site of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, "The myth of the fabricated Temple is the greatest crime of historical forgery." And, a Fatwa on the Internet site of the Wakf in Jerusalem states that David, Solomon and Herod did not build the Temple; rather they repaired something that had been there since the time of Adam. So, next time you get the "crazy idea" that just maybe Israel can make peace with the Palestinians, or that the Islamic world is ready to live in peace, justice, and "truth," with the rest of the world, knock that revisionist baloney right out of your head. They're having a psychotic episode, gripped in mass insanity... And, if Jesus ever comes back, he'll be a Palestinian "Shaheed" (martyr) who the Israeli occupation has killed - as Yasser Arafat has stated on numerous occasions - and you'll hear it first, on PA TV. Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko This article can also be read at: http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_4665.shtml To Go To Top

DOCUMENT: OFFICIAL LIST OF DEMANDS BY PALESTINIAN PRISONERS Posted by IsrAlert, August 20, 2004.

When IMRA first saw this list of demands being circulated by third parties on internet it did not distribute it as the list is so absurd that it might possibly have been a hoax. These demands are being made by prisoners who have already have a record orchestrating numerous murderous terror attacks from within prison using telephones, weapons, etc., smuggled into the prisons via family members, August 15, 2004 Palestinian Prisoners Demands Presented to Israeli Prisons Service (IPS) www.addameer.org/hunger_strike/demands.html One: Family and/or Lawyers Visits 1. To remove the glass/plastic barrier between prisoners and visitors 2. To increase the period of family visit to one hour 3. To allow personal contact with children as in the past 4. To allow all family members and relatives to visit 5. To allow brothers and sisters to visit as in the past 6. To allow private visits (without barriers) 7. To allow second and third degree relatives to visit 8. To relocate detainees/prisoners in areas close to their residential areas 9. To relocate prisoners who are immediate relatives in one prison 10. To allow personal belongings and clothes to be brought during visits 11. To allow prisoners to take photos with family members and children 12. To allow family visits for Arab prisoners once every 6 months for at least four hours 13. To allow visitors to bring with them an unlimited number of photographs of relatives 14. To allow visitors to bring with them bed-covers, watches, Palestinian head scarves, head wear, etc. 15. To make family visits on Fridays as in the past 16. To bring in families to visit as soon as they arrive to the prison. No delays either at the prison or at checkpoints. 17. To allow prisoners to take out cantina (canteen food and drinks) to the visit without limitations 18. To allow prisoners to take to any kind of drinks to the visit and not limit it to "Sprite" 19. To allow prisoners to be in plain clothes during the visit and not restricted to uniforms of certain colors or design 20. To allow prisoners' handwork to be given out at the visit after coordination 21. To allow bringing in all kinds of cigarettes, audio-tapes, and video-tapes during the visit Two: Phone Calls 1. To install pay phones in prison sections and/or yards and/or cells or allow mobile phones in every cell or for every prisoner 2. To allow prisoners representatives to make phone calls to prisoner's organizations and lawyers and to Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs. 3. To remove all signal-distortion equipment - known to cause various health problems including cancer Three: Food 1. To prepare and define a list of quantities of all sorts of food that prisoners have the right to receive and to provide this list to prisoners representatives 2. To change the basket of vegetables and fruits and end the practice of the administrations taking part of it 3. To allow prisoners to buy vegetables, fruits, fish, and meats of all sorts on a monthly basis 4. To allow prisoners in all prisons to prepare their own food according to their customs and religions 5. To give back kitchen equipment that was taken away from prisoners in all "security" prisons 6. To change old kitchen utensils and replace them with new ones 7. To open bakeries and allow Palestinian prisoners to work at them; to allow bread to be brought in during visits Four: Health Care / Treatment 1. To develop and expand clinics and equip them for emergency cases especially at Nafha prison; A practicing physician should be at the clinic 7 days a week 2. To allow a Palestinian prisoner to be present and working at the clinic 3. To conduct surgery for prisoners immediately (without the usual intentional delay) 4. To allow physicians from outside to be able to check prisoners and ease the procedures in doing so 5. To widen the range of physicians to include all specialties 6. To allow dental surgeries/ teeth implants at the expense of prisoners by their own doctors 7. To perform kidney, cornea and prosthetic transplants for those prisoners who have been waiting for years. 8. To allow the purchase of medical mattresses, pillows, shoes and some pharmaceuticals through the cantina 9. To solve all problems related to the hospital in Ramleh 10. An overall medical checkup for every prisoner at least once a year 11. A optician visit to every prison on a regular and constant basis; eye checkups for every prisoner once every 6 months, changing of glasses when needed, allow the use of eye lenses; and to provide all needed supplies to solve health problems related vision 12. To allow prisoners to have the equipment necessary to measure blood pressure and sugar levels where needed Five: Counting 1. To end all practices and policies accompanying counting the prisoners; allow all those prisoners in isolation back to regular sections Six: Collective Punishment 1. To end all collective punishments 2. To end the policy of fines 3. To end the policy of confiscating personal belongings and punishing prisoners by denying them family visits 4. To return all money confiscated from prisoners accounts to be able to use them in enhancing the health care and the education of prisoners 5. To compensate prisoners for every item that was damaged intentionally through raids on cell-blocks 6. To define the maximum isolation period as a punishment to a week and to provide humane detention conditions in isolation cells: access to toilets, a washing sink, a two hour recreation period, to allow a fan, to allow books and radio and cantina, not to handcuff prisoners inside the cells, to end the policy of handcuffing prisoners while meeting prison administration Seven: Education at Universities 1. To allow prisoners to study at Palestinian, Arab, and International Universities 2. To end the policy of punishing prisoners by denying them the right to continue their education 3. To allow newspapers, journals and magazines without any delay 4. To allow purchasing different electronic dictionaries not limited to one brand 5. To allow all cells to have access to a computer and not only students 6. To allocate study rooms and halls and to reopen all libraries 7. To allow stationary without limitation in type or quantities 8. To allow photocopying research material, educational material Eight: Cantina 1. To allow buying from Arab sources and end the monopoly 2. To cancel the additional 17% tax 3. To unify the prices for all prisons 4. To end all restrictions on the items allowed 5. To form an investigation committee to check on the legality of the 17% additional tax and on the right of prisoners to benefit from the profit of the cantina Nine: Movement within each section and the recreation area 1. To increase the recreation time to four hours a day as used to be the case 2. To restore visits between section and cells to day-long visits 3. To leave cell doors within each section open all day 4. To restore the right of elderly, ill prisoners, those who spent over ten years of imprisonment, and prisoners with special needs to get to yards and recreation areas freely 5. To allow university students to choose recreation time suitable for them 6. To allow prisoners representatives to be able to visit sections, recreational areas, and to be present at family visits in order to be able to follow up on issues and concerns and solve any problem without making this right dependant on the mood of security guards 7. To open the gate to the recreational area every half an hour to enable prisoners to get to the area or back to sections 8. To allow freedom of movement within each section without restricting the time or period 9. To install water pipes in each section 10. To restore the weekly general cleaning day as in the past 11. To install water pipes to the recreation area and the yard as used to be the case 12. To restore the recreation time from 15:00 to 17:00 and from 17:00 to 19:00 13. To allow working prisoners to stay at the recreation area until 20:00 14. Not to transfer a prisoner from any prison before spending 2 years in it unless the prisoner applies for a transfer 15. To cancel the policy of moving certain prisoners constantly around the prisons, never settling in one 16. To allow Friday Imams to be able to move from one section to another 17. To allow having events, debates, celebrations in the recreation areas and yards as in the past 18. Freedom to transfer among cells within one section without any sort of restriction 19. To remove the ban on practicing Karate during the recreation period Ten: Tools, Instruments, private and general equipment 1. To allow the following to be purchased at the cantina by every prisoner: a light-bulb for reading, electronic dictionary without restricting the brand, electric shaving-machine, and electric fan 2. To install air ventilation in the cells and section as well as air conditioning 3. To install air conditioning at the visiting area and waiting cells 4. To provide electric kettle 5. To provide an electric toaster for each cell 6. To provide a small refrigerator in each cell 7. A small photocopier in each section 8. To install an Antenna for the radio 9. To allow winter jackets 10. To allow waist belts 11. To allow sport ropes 12. To allow to have cameras in each section and to be able to take collective photos 13. To allow fruits knife in each cell Eleven: Searching and Security Checks 1. To end the practice of body search by hand and to restrict it to electronic scanning 2. To stop searching children 14 years old and under during visits 3. End totally strip search 4. End night searches and the practice of Matsada unit, dissolve it or end it's services 5. Not to handcuff prisoners during the search 6. Never to damage or confiscate personal belongings while searching 7. To stop searching prisoners each time they leave to the recreation area or to prayers 8. Security search be limited to only once a day maximum and not to force prisoners outside the section during the search 9. Security search to be conducted during the recreation period 10. To limit the overall general search to once every 6 months Twelve: Working Facilities 1. To increase the number of working prisoners in the various facilities 2. To restore kitchens, laundries, and sewing and allow Palestinian prisoners to work at these facilities 3. To allow at least two prisoners to work in the section (corridor) outside the cells till 22:30 and extend their recreation time till 20:00 4. To re-allow a prisoner to work in yard and recreation area as in the past and to make available a storage room and a room for working and working tools 5. To allow a prisoner to work at the clinic 6. To restore the special recreation period for workers 7. To raise payment for workers 8. To allow an additional worker at the library 9. To allow a worker to fix electric equipment in each section as in the past 10. To allow all tools for hairdressing and to change them once every 6 months Thirteen: Counting 1. To allow prisoners in the upper beds not to step down at the morning count and to limit to them just raising themselves up in their beds 2. To be content by showing the hands for those who are in toilets at the time of counting taking into consideration to avoid using the toilet around the time of count unless it's urgent or to pass the cell and return to it later Fourteen: Transfer, Travel and waiting (passing) sections 1. To allow prisoners to have cantina with them while being transferred (canned food, etc.) 2. To be moved directly to the buses without being held and delayed in waiting rooms 3. To change seats in the buses to more comfortable ones 4. Each prisoner to be handcuffed separately from others and to stop using the plastic handcuffs and replace them with the metal ones 5. To allow prisoners representatives to meet newly transferred prisoners at the bus as they arrive 6. To improve all conditions at the passing (waiting) sections in each of Asqalan, Ramleh, and Birsheva prisons 7. To remove the darkened windows of the buses Fifteen: General Demands 1. To return to prisoners all the cans (canned food) and cups and all what was confiscated in Asqalan and Nafha after the last raids 2. To allow handwork and to be able to purchase all needed at the cantina or to be able to get it during visits 3. To remove asbestos from the cells to improve ventilation in cells and sections 4. To provide once again what the administrations used to provide at their expense: tooth paste, tooth brush, soap, cleaning and hygiene provisions, etc. 5. To make available lists of IPS rules in every section in Arabic 6. To increase the number of allowed TV channels 7. To re-install wooden boards to all beds, change the beds each year, paint cells each year, and to install sides to the beds 8. To remove all male guards from female sections 9. To improve all conditions and to meet all needs of imprisoned minors 10. To end the use of arbitrary transfer of prisoners from one prison to another 11. To remove one bed in each cell 12. To end the use of the special classification of certain prisoners "prisoners sentenced for serious offences" and end all unjustified punishments against them and to allow them to be able to work at various facilities in the prisons 13. To implements the Geneva Convention and all international human rights standards and agreements 14. To use only the buses to transfer prisoners between prisons and/or to and from court hearings 15. To allow visits on special occasions as religious holidays 16. To double the number and the period of visits during holidays 17. To allow prisoners to send out written material: diaries, poems, studies, prose, etc. during visits 18. To define the life sentence as in the case of Israeli prisoners and to consider seriously the provision of parole 19. Not to interfere in Friday prayers and/or preaching and not to punish preachers for whatever they say 20. To allow hard covers for books and never to remove them 21. To separate shower area from toilets 22. To provide prosthetics for those prisoners with amputations The Unified Leadership of the Hunger Strike ADDAMEER Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association 11 August 2004 The website of IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis - provides a digest of current media, polls, significant interviews and events. Its is www.imra.org.il To Go To Top

THE DEATH CAMPS OF GAZA Posted by Rabbi Baruch Melman, August 20, 2004.

Death camps in Gaza? Have the Jewish people stooped so low? Have they betrayed their morality in spades? Hath they done finally unto others what others hath done to them? Get me Turtle Bay. Yes, the camps are very real. But no, Israel is not to blame. These are the camps run and managed by the Palestinian Arabs themselves, financed by the world community. Yes, the same world community that tried to kill all the Jews not so long ago, now hires children to do it for them. In these death camps children are brainwashed to glorify death, to revel in it, and to embrace it. They are taught to yearn for it even more than they yearn for life. They are given sex education as well. They learn from their elders that death is even better than sex, for their reward in death is a life of eternal and perpetual debauchery. Whether all at once or seriatum, every youth has learned to desire it. No family is willing to face the shame and humiliation of not contributing their child to the fires of Moloch. The deeper their suffering, the more they wish to suffer. They embrace and lovingly caress each corpse, wishing that they could be next to line up and donate their blood for the cause of perpetuating their eternal suffering. The world of course blames Israel. It is Israel's fault that they are driven to this. It is Israel's fault that Arab children are dying each and every day. Israel must convince them that they must live. They must stay alive. They surely must. But Jewish children. Are they not allowed to have dreams, and live long enough to fulfill them? Israel should open her gates and let in the screaming hordes, the bloodthirsty hordes, the children of the dream- or rather nightmare? Lay down your weapons, O Israel, and bare your throat for the child's bomb/blade. With his bare hands he would rip out your heart if only he could. And let him we must, lest the children burst into pieces and shards of flesh out of a sense of unrelieved shame, crying and wailing in their collective frustrations. Oh world, why do you permit these camps? Liberate them from the worship of the cult of darkness. Bring them to the light, to see the light of a life worth living. Crush the camp guards, the mind controllers, the agents of morpheus unbound. But alas I fear it is too late. For the children themselves are now running the camps. Even as more die, even more rise to soon take their places. The infection has spread too far, too fast. The contagion must not spread, for the Life Camps have no choice. To Go To Top

XM RADIO IN HEBREW! Posted by Yaniv Gelnik, August 19, 2004.

Dear Friends! I have recently been in touch with the executives at XM Radio asking that they add a Hebrew station. XM Radio is a digital, commercial free satellite radio service based in DC, but heard around the country. If we are able to get enough signatures, they will add it, so please take a moment to sign the petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/896510630 Please forward this email to your friends so they will sign too! Thanks for your help! To Go To Top

FLYING IN THE FACE OF FACTS Posted by Ted Belman, August 19, 2004.

PM Sharon in continuing to push for Disengagement is flying in the face of the facts. What are they? 1. Likud voted, by a margin of 60 to 40, against bring Labour into the governing coalition to enable it. 2. There is no money allocated in the budget to pay for uprooting the settlers and US has refused to pay for it. 3. No financial model has been presented to the Knesset or to Israelis showing how disengagement saves money. But we are told the high cost of building the trench and the high cost of redeploying the IDF. 4. There is no security arrangement for Gaza that would prevent Gaza from becoming an armed camp or from attacking Israel after it withdrew. There is no doubt about it, Israel would be less secure. The rocket attacks will only increase. 5. It is far from certain that Israel will retain control of access to Gaza by land, sea or air. 6. Except for the letters from Bush, which suggested but failed to ensure that Israel could keep the settlements, the Bush Administration has continually taken the position that Israel must not enlarge the settlements and must dismantle certain settlements. They are against a "land grab" and in favour of Israel trading something in exchange for the large blocks. 7. Both America and Israel pay lip service to the Roadmap notwithstanding that there is absolutely no evidence, in word or in deed, that the Arab countries or the "Palestinians" are willing to live up to what is required of them. 8. The construction of the fence has been discontinued because the Israeli government is caving into world pressure. The ICJ said it was illegal, the High Court of Israel said it had to be less inconvenient to the Arabs and must not be a "land grab", the State Department is micro-managing where it will be built, the Vatican has also registered its objection to the proposed route and the IDF said that the proposed new route renders Israel defenceless. 9. The rational for the construction of the fence was that would save lives, which it has, but also that it would become a de-facto border, despite protestations to the contrary. This rational can no longer be sustained. Also, the fence cannot be routed through the minefields of Jerusalem. It is just too problematic. 10. There is nothing unilateral about disengagement as Israel has given the US a veto over everything Israel wants to do. 11. The insurgency in Iraq supported by Iran, Syria, Hezbolla, Al Qaeda, Hamas and Arafat, among others, serves to underline that these same groups will not allow Israel a moments peace or a permanent stay in the ME. 12. The US is preventing Israel from building the fence where it would serve to protect Ben Gurion airport or to include many major settlement blocks. Disengagement, of which the fence is a part, is an attempt to create a more manageable situation for Israel for the long haul. Whether it will achieve this is far from certain. In fact the contrary seems more probable. Disengagement doesn't save money because the trench, the fence, the IDF redeployment and the resettlement will cost billions. It doesn't make Israel more secure in the same way abandoning area A under Oslo didn't make Israel more secure. It doesn't ensure that Israel can keep parts of Yesha. It doesn't solve any of the problems associated with Jerusalem. In fact it doesn't solve anything. The Roadmap, Oslo and Res 242 were all attempts to find a solution that the Arabs would accept. Sharon's Disengagement Plan is an attempt to find a solution the US will accept. They all involved a retreat by Israel from any idea of Israel retaining control of or sovereignty over Yesha. They were and are premised on the idea that the Arab world will live in peace with Israel. No sign of that. It is clear that the US has always tried to get Israel to disgorge almost all of Yesha. They certainly oppose a "land grab" as Powell puts it. Just as the status quo was better before we entered the Oslo Accords then after, so the status quo now is better than what disengagement will bring. Israel should not give up the control it now exercises, not should it incur the costs that disengagement will entail, nor should it retreat from Gaza and parts of Yesha until there is a "New Middle East". If Sharon wants Israel to retreat, the onus of proving that Israel will be better off is on him. He has failed miserably in satisfying this onus. If the US wants Israel to retreat, let it offer something worthwhile in return. Instead it should develop a different paradigm. Benny Elon's plan is one such paradigm. It envisions the two state solution as involving Jordan and Israel rather than Palestine and Israel. To this end, Israel should abandon the Roadmap, destroy the remnants of Oslo and embrace the Jordanian solution Ted Belman is co-host of IsraPundit, a pro-Israel advocacy site. Its website address is http://IsraPundit.com To Go To Top

HANAN ASHRAWI TAKES GOLD IN ATHENS Posted by IsrAlert, August 19, 2004.

Isralert@aol.com source: Isralert subscriber/commentator Angela Bertz, Israel The year is 2005, the city is Kiev and the event is "The Eurovision Song Contest". Between the Danish and Albanian participants a Palestinian quartet from Jenin belts out a foot stomping number "Bind, Bond, Band this ain't your land". They didn't even have to qualify. The year is 2006, the city is Berlin and the event is "The 2006 World Cup". On day 3 the Palestinian team, aptly named after one of their many "Freedom Fighters" (homicide bombers) emerge from the gloom of the tunnel into the bright sunlight. They are all set to play Chile in their opening match. They didn't even have to qualify. Sound inconceivable. Not really if you consider that on the 13th August 2004 as the flag bearing ceremony in Athens unfolded, an event almost as bizarre took place. Following Pakistan and just before Palau out marched Sanna Abubkheet representing and bearing the flag of the totally non-existent nation of "Palestine". In fact they didn't even have to qualify like every one else to compete in the events. Of course the Palestinians are no strangers to the Olympics. Who will ever forget their proud performance in Munich 1972. Their cold blooded attack on 11 Israeli team members, who were taken hostage and brutally murdered stunned the world. Sadly the Israeli team refused outright to take part in this event in Athens and the International Olympic Committee was forced to come up with a few new events specially suited to the Palestinian team. Hannan Ashrawi set the Palestinians on fire, taking gold on the very first day as she took part in "The spew out as many lies and distortions as you can a minute" event. Her turbo powered and very practiced mouth, well trained for years and without the aid of anabolic steroids for this exacting sport is rumoured to be insured for 10 million dollars of UN aid money. It was a new world record, setting a largely one sided and biased crowd of spectators alight as she defended 4 years of savage Palestinian terrorism against Israel. This year saw the opening of the stone throwing competition. Much to everyone's surprise some of the competitors were as young as 6 years old. Only the intervention of older brothers and a sprinkling of fathers dodging behind the youngsters allowed the Palestinians to take the Gold, Silver and Bronze in this fast and frenzied event. Another outstanding performance took place in the shooting arena with the Palestinians taking another trio of medals in "The Shoot at a Passing Car" event, made all the more exciting by being staged from behind a quickly erected house. This was quickly following by another glorious performance in "The Get past that Checkpoint" event with the Palestinians bringing on their top women's team, many of them claiming to be pregnant or to have metal pins in their legs. Despite the setbacks it was another clean sweep of medals for the team. The Palestinians are expecting another clean sweep of medals in "The Tunnel Digging" event which will take place later this week and who isn't waiting with bated breath for "The Blow up that Bus" event. The Olympic Charter is a whopping 108 pages long. You can surely guess the gist of it. For those that don't it basically follows the same lines as the barely plausible and defunct 26 page UN charter, with some modifications made for sport. Both charters call for tolerance, preservation of human rights and for the fundamental freedoms of all, without distinction of race sex, language or religion. What a joke! The very presence of a so-called Palestinian team makes a complete mockery of these charters especially if you consider that their own charter clearly calls for the "Destruction of the State of Israel". Maybe the IOC has been watching too many romanticized BBC media reports or listening to grave UN official's talk grimly of the poor plighted Palestinian people as if such a down trodden entity, let alone such a nation exists The Palestinians outstanding performance in such events as shooting is in no small part due to massive amounts of aid money provided by the UN and the Norwegian Government, who have for years turned blind eyes and deaf ears on terrorism. This is backed by the sanctimonious EU who have for years insisted that they have no evidence that funds are used to finance terrorism, despite no improvement in the daily lives of the people. Funds abound for weapons and the Palestinians take no small amount of pride in showing pretty pictures of their demonized children attending summer camps, dressed up in combat uniforms with top of the range machine guns slung over small shoulders. There is no such nation as Palestine and I am appalled that with the Palestinians "Track Record" for barbarism - over 100 homicide bombings to date and thousands more shootings, lynchings etc, deliberately and systematically aimed at Israel's innocent civilians that such savagery should be rewarded. The Palestinians have in fact achieved a feat both on and off the sports field that even a recognized nation has never surpassed and that is to defy every charter that calls for respecting the dignity of human life. Does that really deserve a gold medal? IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

PALESTINIAN LEADERS TRICK THEIR PEOPLE AGAIN Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, August 20, 2004.

What do Marwan Barghouti, Yasser Arafat, Ahmad Qureia, and leaders past and present of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others, have in common? Besides encouraging their followers to kill Jews in Israel, they regularly pull the wool over their followers' eyes, lying, cheating, and profiting from the suffering of the Palestinians. They habitually sacrifice average Palestinians, in their struggle against Israel, while protecting themselves and their loved ones from harm. The latest is the case of Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Arafat's Fatah movement, founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade (outlawed as a terrorist organization by the US) and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Barghouti is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison for his involvement in terrorist activities that caused the deaths of many Israelis. What did he do? Hamas and Islamic Jihad, along with Fatah's Barghouti, recently called on Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons to start a hunger strike. They've been into it for a few days now, the prison authorities report that over 2,000 prisoners are starving themselves. The Palestinian Authority and Israeli Arab groups have organized demonstrative solidarity days with the hunger strikers, but not Barghouti, he was caught on a hidden video camera in his cell...eating! That's right, while his fellow prisoners were refraining from food, Marwan Barghouti, the Tanzim terrorist leader, was caught on camera feeding his face. First he covered the door and window of his cell - so as not to be seen - then he washed his hands and pigged out. According to Prison Services spokesman Ofer Lefler, Barghouti asked wardens for the food and ate without knowing that a camera was filming from a small hole in the wall. Israel wanted to catch him, to show fasting prisoners how their leader was behaving, Lefler said. "I want to show the world and the Palestinians that we are dealing with terrorists," Lefler continued, "Barghouti is sitting on a pot of meat and he sends his friends to die." Imagine that... Then there's Yasser Arafat. No, he wasn't caught eating yet, but he did tell the Palestinian Legislative Council in Ramallah, that the hunger strikers are "shaheeds" (martyrs-I guess he's planning their early demise) saying, "Your release is at the top of our list of priorities. Together we will continue fighting until the establishment of our own state with Jerusalem as its capital. [Minister of Internal Security Tzahi] Hanegbi says that he doesn't care if you starve to death. I say to him that he does not scare us when he says we will die since we are all prepared to be Shaheeds." Arafat threatens martyrdom every so often to encourage his people to kill themselves, but when faced with real opportunities to be a martyr himself, he backs off (see my April 2004 article, "Arafat Plays Victim Again). Yasser has done a good job of making sure Suha - his wife - and little girl Zahwa - aged nine - are safely absconded in France, far from any real danger. That's while other nine-year-old Palestinian children attend terrorist summer camps, dreaming and praying for martyrdom (i.e. to kill Israelis and themselves). Suha lives on over $150,000 a month, with $millions more in the bank. In fact, the French have been carrying out an investigation into Suha's accounts, it seems she might be involved in Yasser's money laundering activities. Yasser has been accused of having skimmed over the years $1-3 billion from Palestinian funds, for private usage. So, while Yasser Arafat encourages the children of his people to sacrifice their lives for the cause, he makes sure his daughter is safe in France, and while millions of ordinary Palestinians are in starvation-type conditions, living from day to day, Arafat's wife allegedly lived at a $16,000 a day hotel (suite plus 19 rooms) in Paris wh en she first got there, shopping in the most exclusive Parisian shops, and now has a mansion in an exclusive Parisian neighborhood. Charges of corruption in the PA are rife, and recently Arafat was forced to admit - in a speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council - to making "mistakes" and pledged to clean up the Palestinian Authority. But he refused to sign anti-corruption legislation. In a "stormy and tense" follow-up meeting afterward, with pro-reform legislators, Arafat told them, "[that his speech] was enough and that there is no need for any signatures," said Azmi Shouabi, one of the meeting's participants. Then there's Ahmad Qureia (Abu Ala) the Palestinian Prime Minister and another Fatah leader. He's been embroiled in what's been called the "PA cement scandal". Several Arab companies have been importing cement from Egypt on behalf of Israeli contractors. The Egyptian cement is then used to build parts of the separation fence, as well as new houses in Jewish communities in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). They've been making a lot of money. And, according to reports, the Al-Quds Cement Factory in Abu Dis, in eastern Jerusalem, has been accused by others in the PA, of supplying material for the construction of the fence in Abu Dis itself, and Jewish communities in Yesha. That factory is co-owned by the family of the PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia. So while Qureia screams about "the settlements and the wall," he and his family are pocketing profits from their construction. Maybe the Hamas and Islamic Jihad people are better? Not a chance. While calling for more Israeli deaths - read, more Arabs killing themselves in terror attacks against Jews - Hamas and Jihad leaders scrambled like rats to hide in the woodwork every time Israel attempted another "targeted killing". After Israel picked off Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab last year, all the top Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were reported to have gone into hiding. That scenario repeated itself several times over the next year as Israel eliminated terrorist leaders Sheikh Yassin, Rantisi and others. Shortly after Abu Shanab's departure last year, I had to pay a condolence call, where I tried to cheer up a mourner by telling him a joke. I told him, "I heard on the radio that one of the top Hamas officials was on a live telephone interview with Al-Jazeera TV [which is very important for their propaganda campaign], when he heard something outside, the sound of helicopters in the distance. He immediately told the reporter, 'I am sorry, this interview is over, I have to go now'. Click went the phone." I told him, "The good news is that all the top Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists are reported to have gone into hiding. They're all running like rats. Those so-called 'holy warriors' who send off others to murder and die, they're terrified." That cheered him up, and it should cheer us up as well. For all their rhetoric, all these terrorist leaders aren't running to be martyrs either. And do you think any of their sons or daughters are becoming suicidal bombers? Not a chance... Compared to Arafat, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders (many who are now dead), who regularly incite the Palestinian masses to sacrifice themselves for Palestine, Barghouti's little indiscretion - eating during a hunger strike - seems rather mild. And, can we really fault old Yasser for trying to better himself from the Palestinian's pocketbook, or, Ahmad's avaricious behavior? It really is indicative of a much broader problem, that Palestinians face, the perfidy of their "leaders". But then again, they are terrorists aren't they? And the biggest victims of Palestinian terrorism are the so-called Palestinian people themselves... Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko To Go To Top

KEEP OR RETURN TERRITORY? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 18, 2004.

Should a country return territory acquired in war? Most people ask this way: (1) Should gentile countries return land; and (2) Should the Jewish state return land. The reason for such questions usually being divided into two forks is that diplomats and journalists speak with forked tongues. They have one standard for the Jews and another for all others. The diplomats and journalists vehemently deny having a double standard. They vigorously affirm that it is out of respect for the Jewish people and the ethics of Judaism that they expect more of the Jews. Isn't it an odd compliment that those who do not think more of the Jews expect more of the Jews? Thanks, but no thanks. Don't tell this Jew that putting my people at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the world's worst fanatics is done out of respect! It is a kiss of death. I will instead treat the question with a single standard. Some people measure up to this standard. Some rank low against it. One question, one standard, one law for all - that is ethical behavior. International law holds that countries should not gain from their aggression, and countries should not acquire land through warfare, with one notable exception. That exception is that the object of aggression may retain territory used for mounting it, if it needs that land in order to repel likely future aggression. This exception is studiously ignored by people who propose that Israel return Arabs' land acquired in war. Their evasion indicates their level of ethics. Ironically, they make their proposal on the basis of ethics and often with righteous indignation. Alert Jews have learned to discount righteous indignation by their enemies. Jews not as alert take criticism too seriously, failing to recognize as enemies countries and journalists posing as friends. Some of these supposed friends pull out their otherwise uncelebrated Jewish ancestry as purported qualification for friendship. Even a dog can recognize a mad dog as no comrade of his. Many of my people have less sense about the Thomas Friedmans and their US Presidents. The double standard here is that most countries are founded upon aggression. Some of the chief proponents of Israel ceding territories to the Arabs themselves sit upon territories they refuse to cede but international law demands. France is the accretion of multiple imperialisms, though most of those probably preceded the international law cited. The US demands that Israel yield territory it seized in self-defense, while keeping Puerto Rico and Hawaii, among other places, seized by offense and coup. The Arab states encompass one of the world's greatest empires, and leading Arab states retain an imperial imperative. So it goes. Each hypocritical country that urges Israeli territorial cession should be reminded of its own unsavory history. Now to particulars. Gaza, Judea-Samaria, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai are the areas Israel acquired in self-defense during war, after the Arabs repeatedly used them for launching aggression against Israel. Israel was entitled to keep those areas. Gaza and Judea-Samaria did not belong to any country to "return" them to. Gaza had been captured by Egyptian aggressors and Judea-Samaria by Jordanian aggressors. They were seized from the Palestine Mandate for a Jewish national home. As chief heir of the Mandate, Israel has the senior claim to them. There is no need for Israel to yield them. The notion of a "Palestinian" nationality was a fraud designed to give color to a false Arab claim. The Golan Heights originally was in the Mandate by right, but Britain arbitrarily removed it. Unlike Gaza and Judea-Samaria, it has legally been incorporated into the State of Israel. In a world of law and not of double standards (antisemitism by another name), that should conclude its status. The Sinai was not legally part of Egypt. Israel made a big mistake in returning it. Those who naively propose for jihadists land-for-peace ignore international law. Should that law be ignored by people who cite it often against Israel (usually quoting out of context), or should the law be ignored? Ask yourself, should aggressors not suffer penalty, so as to prevent and deter? How ethical is the notion that Israel should cede territory to the Arab aggressors? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

JEWISH POPULATION GROWTH IN GUSH KATIF: 3.81% Posted by Gush Katif, August 18, 2004.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, as found by Hagai Hubberman, since Sharon's announcement of his "disengagement plan", the following population growth has been registered: Gush Katif has grown by 3.81%. Between December 31 2003 and June 30 2004 Gush Katif has grown from 7,858 residents to 8,158 residents. This is an increase of 300 - a growth rate greater than anywhere else in Yesh"a. Nissanit, which was supposedly considered to be pro disengagement, has grown from 978 residents to 1,031 residents during this time. Likewise, the growth in various towns of Gush Katif was recorded as follows: Neve Dekalim - 2,571 residents to 2,623 residents, Netzarim - 405 residents to 442 residents, Kfar Darom - 392 residents to 441 residents, Morag - 185 residents to 221 residents. Over this past half year, the entire Jewish population of Yesh"a has grown by 2.73%, from 236,658 residents to 243,128 residents - or 5,629 people. The Shomron has grown by 2.11%, The Binyamin Mateh by 2.65%, Gush Etzion by 2.87%, Hevron District by 1.38%, while The Jordan Valley has grown by only 0.74%. The Megiloth District is the only one which has shown a decrease by 0.56%. The larger Yesh"a towns of Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel and Beitar Elite have grown by 2.80% and the 14 regional councils have grown 2.93%. As of July 30, the Jews in the city of Hevron are 566 as opposed to 554 which was registered a half a year beforehand on December 31. The four towns of the Northern Shomron which have been slated for the first expulsion stage have also grown, although not by very large numbers. Ganim has grown by 3 residents, apparently births, from 164 to 167 residents, Kadim has grown from 154 to 162 residents, and Homesh has grown from 203 to 205 residents, while the more significant growth was in Sa-nur - from 45 to 69 residents! The Gush Katif website is http:/www.katif.net To Go To Top

THE VIEW FROM GOLDA'S BALCONY Posted by Michael Freund, August 18, 2004.

As soon as the show ended, you could tell it had been a rousing success. For 85 solid minutes the audience sat enthralled as actress Tovah Feldshuh gave a riveting performance in the one-woman Broadway play Golda's Balcony. Set during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the show is packed with history, emotion and sheer power as Israel teeters on the brink of defeat and prime minister Golda Meir struggles to save the Jewish state from those who would destroy it. The drama is undeniable, as we are taken back in time to a pivotal moment in Jewish history, one whose scars continue to weigh on our collective conscience, a moment when Israel came perilously close to a near-death experience. Alone and with the weight of Jewish destiny on her shoulders, Meir grapples with the prospect of deploying the ultimate weapon as a measure of last resort, eventually using the nuclear threat to elicit some emergency assistance from the Americans. And though her commitment to peace remains unshakeable, Israel's Iron Lady has no qualms about standing up for Jewish rights and waging war when necessary. At the performance's conclusion, the packed theater erupted into a prolonged standing ovation, the cheers and applause filling the hall and undoubtedly pouring out far beyond. But as I looked around at the largely Jewish audience, I could not help but wonder just what precisely lay behind their rhythmic and vociferous clapping. Was it the eloquent dialogue of the play, or possibly the persuasive and moving way in which Feldshuh had delivered it? Or maybe it was the show's triumphant use of both humor and tragedy to underline the contradictory impulses that often accompany great events? And then it occurred to me, as I joined the crowd by putting my own hands together, that something far deeper was at work here. This wasn't just a spontaneous reaction by a satisfied audience, but a longing, a yearning for days gone by, to a time when Israel had leaders who seemed larger than life. Sure, Golda had her faults, and historians still argue about her handling of the build-up to war. But after a decade of premiers, from both Right and Left, who have promised one thing during their electoral campaigns only to carry out something else entirely once they were elected, one cannot help but look back on Golda and feel a pang of distress. Distress that we just don't seem to have the type of leaders we once did: people who were forthright in their opinions and firmly grounded in their principles. People for whom the safety and security of the Jewish people and the State of Israel lay at the core of their very being. People like Golda Meir. In a September 1973 television interview she did not hesitate to tell an American audience the simple and basic truth of the Middle East conflict. There was no self-flagellation, no beating of the breast over Israel's so-called occupation, or any of the other mealy-mouthed poppycock to which we have grown so accustomed of late from various Israeli spokesmen. Instead Golda put the blame squarely where it belonged: on Arab rejectionism and extremism. "We're the only people in the world," she said, "where our neighbors openly announce they just won't have us here. And they will not give up fighting and they will not give up war as long as we remain alive here. "This is the crux of the problem: It isn't anything concrete that they want from us. They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don't know of a compromise. "And that," she pointed out, "is why we have no choice" but to fight. Three decades may have passed since Golda uttered those words, but very little has in fact changed. Our enemies still seek our demise and Israel continues to do battle for its survival. But one thing that has most assuredly been altered is the quality of our leadership. Golda was a wartime prime minister, leading her country into battle, armed with the most potent of all weapons in a nation's arsenal: Confidence in the justness of our cause. Who today, on either side of Israel's fractured political spectrum, offers us even a glimmer of such conviction? And that, I think, is what all the clapping at the end of the show was really about. For a brief hour-and-a-half, those of us in attendance were reminded of a time when Israel stood firm, as did its leaders, when the country's moral calculus had not yet been infected by self-doubt and self-criticism. So while we may have been applauding the actress on stage and the performance she had given, what we were truly cheering was the spirit and fortitude that Golda Meir, and others like her, will always represent. So here's hoping that life will soon imitate art, and that the cries of "encore," of longing for leadership, will not go unheeded. Now more than ever, the need has never been so acute. The writer served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. To Go To Top

DON'T BUY ANY MORE EUROPEAN PRODUCTS Posted by Yrachmiel Elias, August 17, 2004.

How many years have we been told that the Jewish People have control of the world economy? All the problems of the world are blamed on us! We are money grabbing, unfeeling beasts that should be removed from the earth! Chas V'Chalillah (G-D Forbid) we were not here to insure their safety and the continuation of the world with our presence! Now is the time for us to show exactly how much power we do have! Stop buying all European products - Yes even those BMW'S and Mercedes cars, all that beautiful French wine and cheese, English Scones, Kippered snacks, sardines from Norway, Olive Oil from Greece, Russian Vodka, Swedish Vodka - boy I know that will be hard from some of us! Pour our buying power into completely made Israeli and Jewish Products! Try it for one week! See the difference in the world opinion of the money grabbing Jews! They said it, we didn't! Use the power that G-D gave us! Please forward this message to at least 10 other people! Several weeks ago, Germany announced its decision to stop all arms sales to Israel. Since then, other countries have followed suit. In response, Israel has canceled its annual multimillion dollar contract for its nationwide DAN buses which were manufactured in Germany, and is looking at other bus suppliers in the US, and Japan. The Europeans and their Muslim allies should understand that boycotts works both ways. When we said NEVER AGAIN, we meant it. Europe is stuck in the mentality of 1933 and conditioned to thinking of Jews as defenseless entities. The reality is very different. As long as Europe adheres to and supports its primitive Middle Ages death cult, European products must be off limits. We continue to call for a complete boycott of travel and products from the following countries France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Holland, and China, due to their support, sponsorship, and/or participation in global Islamic terror. The voting record of the above countries at the UN openly endorses Muslim terror. Remember, every time you buy a bottle of Evian, a Carlsberg product, a Spanish melon, a Godiva chocolate, a Dior lipstick, a Gucci bag, or a German kitchen appliance, you are financing the next Muslim mass murderer. The European Union gives over $10 million per month to the Palestinian Authority, knowing full well that the money is funneled to buy, import, and train Muslim terrorists and their weapons of mass murder. We strongly encourage everyone to buy Canadian, American and Israeli products instead. Buy Estee Lauder or Ahava instead of Chanel, Dior, and YSL. Tell the salespeople why. Educate the public when you shop. Europe is underwriting the Arab war to exterminate the Jewish state. We cannot sit idly by while this happens. Make your voice heard and let them feel the sting in their pocketbooks. Let the Europeans know that supporting terror does not pay. Please send this to at least 10 other people for the sake of Eretz Yisrael This message can be found on http://www.radiofreeisrael.com/ boycott%20european%20products.htm To Go To Top

WASHING JIHADI CRIMES WITH PALESTINIAN CRIMES? Posted by American Chin High, August 18, 2004.

That song, that excuse, that hymn of "poor" 'Palestinian' victims, has been used by the most vicious butchers around the globe, from the Arab Muslim Hitler - Saddam Hussein - through "apologizers" for the massacre on 9/11, through, massacres on youth in Bali, or by the attackers on rescue workers in Iraq, etc. In fact the bloody Jihadi mass murderers want us to see the US telling Israel what/how to defend it self, preparing the road for attacking Americans. Incidentally, the Iranian hijackers in 1979, "forgot" to use this card - maybe they were more honest than today's Jihadists. Getting really "in" to the 'successful' excuse momentum, stepping over of course the reality of guilty 'Palestine,' "Palestinian" parents and leaders inflict on their kids the most brutal child sacrifice known to mankind today - using them as human bombs or human shields for adults terrorists. Imagine a mass murderer trying to wash his hands clean by admitting to one more murder - exactly what "washing" Jihadi crimes on the innocent via 'Palestinian' crime is. While they try that, don't lose sight on the real aggressor! The problem is that this insinuating subliminal message by Jihadi butchers manages to blind - for the moment - many in the West. The notion of: 'Oh, they have issues, there's a bitterness in the Arab Muslim world because of 'Palestinians' is capable of overshadowing the reality. Never mind that this is just a flag of excuses to murder for those that want to radicalize/Islamize the entire world, but - while hearing it, just by mentioning it - we should not lose sight of the real aggressor in the Israeli 'Palestinian' peninsula, the real guilty "Palestinian" side, that cult of self planned victimhood, the most vicious parenthood on earth. This includes tricks to create drama, such as adding dead bodies to anti-terrorists operation sites, inflating by ten times as much the number of dead, radical Palestinians killing kids and pinning it on Israel, like Muhammad Al Dura and the kids in Rafah tunnel and other occasions of "unexplained' deaths by their officials, or the very sophisticated saturated photography industry they have at their disposal, whether the women there are actors or are weeping, filled with the death culture that leads to their kids' death. This should never be overlooked or hidden away, or in any shape or form be ignored, because it encourages the Jihadi murderers who are in desperate search of excuses. And it does a disservice to the very victim we are now being drawn attention to: "Palestinian" kids, and to Israelis. Never reward that death cult by "feeling" for the resulting death/injuries unless we point the finger at the orchestrators of it all. It is more than safe to say with all honesty, that "Palestinian" self-made "victims" have a share in the atrocities committed in their 'name'. To Go To Top

WHAT EGYPT IS UP TO IN GAZA Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 17, 2004.

The numerous reports over the past couple of weeks about Egypt's plans for Gaza boil down to what one would expect: (1) Israel abandons its Gaza communities and implicitly Jewish claims to that part of its patrimony; (2) Egypt helps restore the P.A. military to combat capability; (3) The Gaza port and airport open up for arms imports, escalating that combat capability; (4) Egypt and the P.A. do nothing against the western "Palestinian interests." That is code language for not intervening against terrorist organizations or committing the P.A. to abandon its jihadist, terrorist doctrine. Any reform would be irrelevant to tolerance and peace. To the contrary, reform that strengthens the P.A. military or economy, would bolster jihad and promote war. What does Israel get out of this abandonment? (1) Turning its tremendous investment over to its enemy. (2) Restore the badly beaten terrorist forces to the offensive. (3) Revive the terrorist regime, about to collapse and perhaps lead to an Arab exodus and therefore peace (in conjunction with US pressure on Israel to unfreeze revenues it formerly gave the P.A.). The P.A. would be able to import heavy weapons. (So much for the US "war on terrorism!" Do not imagine that they would move those weapons forward in open, WWII type formation, which the IDF could crush. Instead, they would fight the Arab way - positioning them along the border and suddenlly bombarding Israeli cities as well as military sites, just to kill and destroy as much as possible. This would be a softening up tactic, probably aligned with a massive bombardment by Hizbullah's 13,000 rockets, to be followed by invasion from Egypt, to "protect" the Palestinian Arabs from Israeli self-defense. That is what the US has been building up the Egyptian Army for, or didn't it realize what Egyptian military doctrine holds? Was it unaware that having Egyptian intelligence officers training P.A. forces would lead to spying on Israel in anticipation of invasion and leaving special forces there to prepare the way? The Arabs don't worry about the ethics of indiscriminate carnage. Who would do anything about that or in time? Not the UNO, which is concerned only with censuring Israel. Not the US, which would ask that Israel not take "disproportionate action. Not France, which hates the Jewish state. Not China, which protects other rogue states. So much for the notion that an Israeli abandonment of Yesha would "separate the two peoples." The only way to separate them is to get the Arabs out of Yesha and Israel, so they no longer can make trouble there. The answer is not to withdraw from Yesha, Golan, Lebanon, and Sinai. My scenario may be premature. The Arabs may prefer to start with modest terrorism, protected from Israeli retaliation by Egyptian forces and perhaps by those of the Quartet. (What else is NATO for?) Meanwhile, that terrorism and the usual State Dept. pressure upon the enigmatic and compliant Prime Minister of Israel would be exerted to remove Israelis from the rest of Judea-Samaria and from parts of Jerusalem. The re-divided city would experience again the sniping from the Arab side, as after Jordan had seized part of it in the 1948 war. That is what State Dept. policy on Jerusalem would achieve for the holy city. You know this prelude to mass-murder is well meant, for isn't it true, "The US is Israel's greatest friend?" Each Israeli withdrawal would be precedent for another. It would demonstrate to anti-Israel foreigners what pressure on Israel can do - they would maintain pressure. Thus yielding to pressure does not relieve it. That lesson Israel has failed to learn. The more the pressure, the more the withdrawal, the weaker is Israeli resistance, and the stronger the jihad. Israel will have given up its patrimony, secure borders, and justification for sovereignty. A Jewish exodus would ensue, if the Jews could find somewhere to go. If not, Holocaust II. Meanwhile, it seems as if everyone is condemning Israel and urging reliance upon the UNO. What a moral code have these indignant masses, some of whom label themselves "progressive!" Their "progress" is my people's death and the Arab guns turn more on the rest of the West. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

HEY, WHEN IN DOUBT - BLAME THE JEWS Posted by Arlene Peck, August 17, 2004.

When I was in college, I used to kid and say that I was majoring in "popularity and friends". It's a good thing I didn't know then all that I know today. Because anti-Semitism is alive and well, and, today it's not just in those red-neck areas of Georgia where I grew up. Now they're more polished and re-elect terrorists such as Cynthia McKinney. Gawd, even mall stores like the Body Shop are now, along with their bath salts promoting the Arab Homeland and are sending their profits into funds the "return the Palestinians" back into Israel which they claim the Jews took away from them. I am sick and tired of reading the newspapers that are literarily filled with stories of Al Qaeda and pictures of the adventures of hooded terrorists and who they've bombed and mutilated. We start our day with the latest terrorist attack and end with who was beheaded by these seventh century barbarians. Iraq? They are like the rest of them. They have no idea what democracy is and perhaps will never have one, no matter how hard we and the rest of the world try. They don't want it and hate everyone from the outside who tries to help. They don't even want to help themselves. It's easier to send our soldiers to the front lines to get blown up. Yet, with all of the daily updates of terror from this evil, dysfunctional society which is 1.3 billion strong there are not even a dozen or so mosques from thousands from Morocco to Indonesia, who find this barbaric and savage behavior from their brothers abhorrent. I've yet to hear from even one who is even a teensy bit vocal about it. Out of 1.3 billion people? ONE! Hey, if the European Union and United Nations can sit calmly by and watch hundreds of thousands Sudanese murdered and a million displaced from their homeland, do you think that they are going to come to any aid of the Jews? This is the group that is still aggravated that the Jews survived the Holocaust! I remember when Israel tried to deport 400 vicious terrorists from Lebanon and the United Nations met almost daily to take their resolutions against Israel and CNN covered it with glee. They meet and have conferences to protest the security wall which seems to be extremely effective in stopping the terrorist from entering into Israel and blowing themselves and everyone in sight to smithereens. It's OK for us to have a fence in California to keep out the masses of Mexicans from pouring over our borders. And, they don't even want to kill us. They just want to get our drivers license and on our social services and send money home. I was in El Arish as a journalist the day the "peace" with Egypt was given the booty of Yamit and another large city. I sat there while Egypt was also given back the only producing oil fields (which had been developed by Israel) and which had made Israel independent of oil imports. I watched them pass over the buffer of the Sinai Peninsula and many militarily important sites. Even after getting everything, the Egyptians haggled, successfully about Taba which was a resort built by the Sonesta Hotels. The same way the Lebanese did about Sheeba farms. For that Israel received the "cold peace". Then, the Egyptians were primitive in their knowledge. A lot has changed since then. During that time, the United States has armed them to the teeth with the most sophisticated and deadly of modern weapons. And, of course we've taught them how to use them. Who are they expected to use them against? Their Arab brothers? I don't think so. Frankly, I find it pretty scary that a President who all of Israelis polls say that they find preferable to Kerry in the upcoming election has cut Israelis aid from 3.7 billion last year to 2.7 billion because Bush is angry about the security fence that Israel has been forced to build. Yet, he sends enormous amounts of money to Egypt to not attack Israel. I'm tired of fighting the world and more importantly, the self-haters who somehow think if they make nice to the enemy, they'll be loved. Well, I've got news for them. The double standard that everyone takes for granted is anti-Semitism. Pure and simple hatred for the Jews. And, I don't care anymore. I do care that the Jewish state desperately needs to have new leadership that has Israel's best interest at heart. When Bush says "Jump" their leaders say, "How high." It's time for Israel to do what they have to do and the hell with everyone else. My mother, Queen Mollie, used to say, "Don't worry about what 'they' think." When "they" are paying your bills, then you can worry? And, frankly folks, I don't notice anyone paying my bills. I think the daily sight of American citizens being carried home in body bags by these same savage barbarians who've been getting a free ride in the arena of world opinion is starting to sink in. But, for the most part with our State Dept. its business is usual and whatever it is, has to be the fault of "the Jews" I've given up trying to understand why everyone hates the Jews. Although I tend to think I have a pretty good idea. I think it's because we gave the world a conscience with the Ten Commandments. Until then, they were perfectly happy coveting other people's wives and sleeping with their sisters or sheep. It annoys the Muslim world and EU that in fifty-six short years the Jewish nation has accomplished far more than most of them put together. Israel leads in the field of medicine, bio-technology, hi-tech fields and yes, agriculture. Those amazing drip irrigation systems they perfected save between 40-50% while giving a 300% return in crop increase. To Israel's neighbors and critics who are vast, and those who have never done one productive thing in their entire existence Israel's achievements become a breeding ground for envy and jealousy. I remember when I was a kid; my mother would go out and collect rents in an old Dodge when she had a Cadillac at home. I used to ask her why and she'd tell me, "People don't like it when you have more than them. They're jealous." How right she was! They have been at the highest levels in all areas of scientific research, biotechnology, telecommunications and high-tech electronics & software, with a per capita GDP of $20,000 compared to; average of no more than $1,000 for the barbarian Arabs. This bothers Europe tremendously that Israel's technology is so far ahead of anything they've been able to come up with. Israel with a population of just 6,000,000 has more high-tech and bio-tech start up than either UK, France or Germany. People who get to be too successful aren't always liked. Those with no accomplishments and sub-human savage mentalities and actions are resentful of those whose technological and economic gains are light years beyond their comprehension. The only basic national resource that Israel had (since they gave Egypt their only oil wells) has been its people and their talent. Its pretty much a secret but, Israel's expertise in the matters of fighting terrorism since 9/11 have been invaluable in helping our country fight it. Have you ever wondered how Israel can pin point the terrorist in West Bank and Gaza right from the air, when these master minds of terror on their way to carry out their bombings? Israel knows where all the bodies are hiding and helping the United States find them. Maybe it's time for the Jewish State to start giving a bill for that aid. I'll bet it's a lot more valuable than the paltry 2.7 Billion Israel receives. I think that our average CEO's like Michael Eisner are taking that much out of the till of their companies every year! I sat there astounded recently when I went out with a man who told me that it was time for the Israelis to leave and leave the country to those it belonged to. And, this imbecile was a Jewish man! I don't know who worries me more. The obvious enemies or the brain-washed self-haters who give them encouragement. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com To Go To Top

PR OVER PROOF Posted by Lori Lowenthal Marcus, August 17, 2004.

If the Gaza Strip is comprised of fewer than 90,000 acres, is it possible that eight million of those acres were destroyed? Does it matter? In Arab presentations to the media, a good story trumps truth. Facts are frequently disposable inconveniences. A Palestinian official announced that nearly eight million non-existent acres of prime Gazan orchards were destroyed and blames the Israelis. The Gaza Strip's actual size being totally irrelevant, the charges are reported as fact, even when a little arithmetic could expose them as nonsense. It's the "round up the usual suspects" exercise. Because who cares about proof; PR is better. The very best example of that is, of course, Jenin. The international media was convinced, and in bold headlines informed all, that hundreds of Arabs had been brutally slaughtered by Israelis during the famous "Jenin Massacre." So persuasive were the Arab propagandists and allegedly grieving families that members of the press believed they were smelling the "stench of rotting Arab corpses," and viewing overflowing burial pits of hundreds of dead Palestinians. That was the story they wrote and that grabbed worldwide attention. The truth, of course, was that not hundreds or thousands, but fewer than 60 Arabs died during the fighting, and of that, more than half were terrorists. There were no rotting corpses, just rotten lies. In the Gazan town of Rafah, the PR-over-proof professionals recently scored another goal. On May 19th, a battle took place in which seven Gazans died. What was the Arab spin? A "procession" of Palestinians, including men, women and children, were passing through the streets of the Rafah refugee camp. All of a sudden, the news reports repeated the spin, huge Israeli tanks created a "horrifying scene of death as an Israeli tank and helicopter opened fire on the Palestinians." According to the media, at least 23 Palestinians were murdered. Lifeless bodies were strewn about and dozens of houses were demolished. Two Palestinian children, a brother and a sister, were killed, shot through the head. Dozens of reporters rushed in for interviews and photo opportunities. The usual suspects, of course, were the Israelis. And that's how it was reported. In time, the truth came out. The "procession" was more of a demonstration. The Palestinian leadership and the mosque imams had instructed the Gazans, and especially encouraged women and children, to march upon the Israelis, surrounding the men in their midst armed with AK-47s. The IDF tank and helicopter did not "open fire on the Palestinians," but shot at a wall of an empty building in order to disperse the crowd. There weren't 23 Arabs killed, there were only seven. And of the seven, five were shot by the armed Arabs themselves, either intentionally or as the terrorists battled the Israelis. The two children killed were hit by Arab gunfire. But the truth was reported through only a few sources, and only after the "massacre" stories had already raged through the media. The propagandists had pulled another "Jenin." The truth, emerging after careful analysis, was not the news. The glib assertions by the Palestinian authorities, available before deadline on the day of the battle, were. You'd think the media would have been gun-shy after Jenin was proven a non-massacre. And yet, everyone danced as the same tune was played again. In the beginning of August, in the small town of Beit Hanoun in the Northern section of Gaza, another PR pirouette was brilliantly executed. Israel's deployment in the Gazan town, described by officials as "Gaza's breadbasket," allegedly left the town in ruin. The presence of the Israelis was described as a "five-week siege and occupation" that resulted in a huge amount of destruction. But what really piqued my interest was a description of the damage given by a former resident of Beit Hanoun, the current Palestinian Housing Minister Abdelrahman Hamad. According to Minister Hamad, "eight million acres of farmland in the northern Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed by the incursion." I'm not good at math, but eight million acres sounded like a lot. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the Gaza Strip is 360 square kilometers. Do the math - there are fewer than 90,000 acres in all of Gaza. The entire town of Beit Hanoun cannot be 25,000 acres altogether. On the slide down from eight million to 25,000, I began to wonder how much was really "uprooted". Apparently, numbers have no meaning. When the deaths of Palestinian children by Palestinians' bullets are falsely attributed to Israelis, and corpses multiply beyond reality, where is there any place for fact? The Israelis are always blamed, no matter the actual source of death and destruction. The Arabs pronounce, and the journalists comply, by "round[ing] up the usual suspects." And so, we'll always have Jenin. Play it again, Sam. Lori Lowenthal Marcus is a lawyer, a writer, and President of the Zionist Organization of America, Greater Philadelphia District. She can be reached at the ZOA website (www.ZOA.Philly.org). To Go To Top

SHARON'S "BONE ON A STRING" Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 17, 2004.

As to be expected, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threw a bone to the Likud Committee just before a meeting to vote on his 'disengagement' [aka dismantlement] plans which include bringing the Labor Party into his minority government. The 'Bone' that Sharon threw out was that he approved the building 1001 homes in the areas of Judea and Samaria. Apparently, Sharon's sudden generosity was linked to a temporary back door political approval by the Bush Administration to save Sharon's position as Prime Minister as his popularity sinks. Without Sharon leading the charge on disengagement/re-partition, the plan would stall and fail. Bush and the pro-Arab U.S. State Department has a lot invested in keeping Sharon in power. Neither Sharon nor the Bush Administration have a problem with throwing a 'Bone' out, attached to a string because they can yank the bone back at any time. There is the implied threat to the Pioneering Settlers in YESHA (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) that, if they protest his first phase of surrendering Gaza/Gush Katif, he can always withdraw the building permits in their areas. This is a typical carrot and stick tactic by Sharon. If the plan is to evacuate the 8,200 men, women and children from Gush Katif/Gaza and shortly thereafter all or a large part of the communities in Judea and Samaria then, what difference would these 1001 building permits make? If Sharon pacifies the Likud Central Committee and the Pioneering Settlers of Gaza, Judea and Samaria, then tactically they will have silenced the righteous opposition of citizens threatened with loss of home and livelihood. Then it will be easier to move onto the rest - the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley, followed soon by half of Jerusalem Naturally, the shock and screaming will begin after Sharon moves to forcibly uproot the farmers who have lived in the 21 communities of Gush Katif for three generations. But, by then it will be too late. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

THE HIGH COST OF REMOVING JEWS FROM THEIR LAND Posted by Dr. Judah Tzoref, August 17, 2004.

This was written by Marcel Cousineau. It should be disseminated in USA among as many true Christians as possible. During my postgraduate research at Oxford University (1978-1981) I participated as a guest in chapel meeting of Israel-loving Christians. That was an inspiring experience. What Israel's enemies have been unable to do after 5 war, a false ally and 'friend' is succeeding in doing. Removing Jews from their land and rewarding it to Islamic terrrorists is what President Bush is doing, plain and simple. For someone who calls himself a Christian, it is the height of arrogance to pick a fight with the God of creation. There is no way to misunderstand the stated will of Israel's G-d related to His people and the land He has given them. The prophet Amos gives us the immutable word " 'I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,' Says the Lord your God." Amos 9;15 What this says is that President Bush and Ariel Sharon will fail in removing Jews from Gaza and Judea and Samaria. What it dosn't say is the price we will pay for the arrogance of blind fools who assume that they can trump G-d. After Hurricane Charley made it's unexpected turn and devistated parts of Florida leaving thousands homeless,I thought about the flippant ease of the Bush dictate to Israel to stop building homes and living on their land. We had mandatory evacuation orders here similar to those imposed on Israeli's living in certain parts of their land. I read some reports of survivors planning to make an exodus out of Florida. I am keeping my bags packed for another quick exodus from my land west of Gainesville,Florida. Charley was heading directly here but crossed from the west to Daytona,catching the people in it's path unexpectdly. We're in for more surprises like this. What if we have another major hurricane that ruins cities and destroys thousands of homes? Will anyone see the correlation between the Bush attempt to remove Jews from their homes and Americans losing their homes and lives? Only a few, the rest will blindly go down with the captian of this sinking ship. The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on and are punished for it. Proverbs 22;3 verse 14 of Amos; "Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will REBUILD the ruined cities and live in them. So a phoney Christian President flouts G-ds stated will and with an arrogance birthed in the recesses of hell,seeks to accomplish what Israels' enemies could never do. We Americans will pay an unbearable price, we have already begun to suffer. It is no coincidence that strange fires are devouring cities and homes in California and that all of Punta Gorda Florida has been devistated,along with Arcadia,and Sebring. The blind fools who lead us and make insane policy that rewards the Islamic terrorists they claim to be fighting will not awaken to their madness, they will continue down the same path to destruction and we will all pay dearly. I've seen this before thru out history, it is a clear sign of G-d's judgment on a nation that has rejected Him and His law. Israel will be around long after Mr. Bush and my country are consigned to the ash heap of history,that is the end of all arrogant demi-god and their evil plans against the Israel of G-d. To Go To Top

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, August 17, 2004.

Last week, an Arab suicide bomber was caught by our IDF soldiers and border policemen at the Kalandya checkpoint. The terrorist was on his way to blow himself up in one of Israel's major cities. The alertness of the soldiers prevented the terrorist from entering and thus he blew himself up close to the checkpoint, wounding several border policemen. Once again it was proven to all of us what important work our dear soldiers and border policemen do at the checkpoints- often endangering their lives to protect the citizens of Israel. Despite that, the extreme leftist women of Machsomwatch continue to harass our soldiers daily, inciting the Arabs against the IDF and thus helping the Arab enemy in its war against Israel. In the last few weeks, different articles have been published in the local and international media, besmirching our soldiers at the checkpoints and accusing them of all sorts of violent behaviors against so-called "innocent" Arab civilians. Women in Green has found out that most of those stories are distorted and do not represent what really happened. One blatant example is the Channel 2 news report of a few weeks ago, showing a soldier at the A-Ram checkpoint brutally beating and arresting an Arab. The report only mentioned how cruel that soldier was. Women in Green met that soldier and we found out what really happened: An Arab man came along and wanted to enter into Jerusalem. He carried many bags. The soldiers asked him to open his bags so he could check them. The Arab refused. Then he reluctantly agreed and opened one bag. Then the Arab proceeded to pull out from one of his bags a screwdriver and tried to stab the soldier with it. Luckily the soldier managed to overtake the Arab and announced to him that he was under arrest. The Arab resisted arrest. We all know how security personnel must deal with criminals who resist arrest: one throws them on the floor, put their arm behind their back and handcuff them. That is exactly what the soldier was doing. But, at the very moment that he started arresting the Arab who a few seconds before had tried to stab him, the Machsomwatch extremists showed up with journalists and video cameras- as if it was all planned ahead as a provocation- and started filming the poor soldier arresting that Arab. No word about the fact that the Arab had tried to kill the soldier. On the contrary, the Arab later filed a complaint with the police against that soldier saying he had tried to stab him (!) and the Machsomwatch leftists backed up his false testimony even though they had not been there. The soldier awaits trial now and does not know what is going to be. It is a must to show our soldiers and border policemen how much we appreciate their work! Women in Green will go on Wednesday Morning, August 18, to the Kalandya, A-Ram and other checkpoints in the Jerusalem area- giving the soldiers treats, cold drinks and a lot of TLC (tender, love and care)- thanking them for protecting us all. We call upon all who cannot be there with us that morning, to send us by email or fax (972-2-930-9148) letters of support to our soldiers in Hebrew or easy English. We will personally hand them over to the soldiers. Please keep your letters short and to the point. Soldiers do not have a lot of time to read them. 2) BOMBARD THE MINISTERS WITH FAXES AND PHONE CALLS DEMANDING: "DO NOT GIVE THE ARABS GUNS AGAIN!!!" Women in Green has been shocked to hear that Sharon's government intends on repeating the criminal mistakes of Oslo and once again wants to give guns to the murderous Palestinian Authority. The first time this was done, over 1500 Jews were murdered and tens of thousands were wounded. We cannot allow this to happen again! A father of seven was murdered by a PA policeman with guns that had been supplied. Phone, fax and email minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz tel: 972-3-697-66-63 fax: 972-3-697-62-18 email: sar@mod.gov.il 3) WOMEN IN GREEN URGE ALL TO BUY PRODUCTS OF JUDEA-SAMARIA AND GAZA The following is an item from the Arutz 7 news report: news@IsraelNationalNews.com> It is entitled "Gush Shalom In The Service Of The Nationalist Camp". The extreme left-wing Gush Shalom organization is busy. [...] Possibly most important is its continued campaign to dry up the economic sources of the Jewish communities in Judea,Samaria and Gaza. "A penny to the settlements is a penny against peace," reads its website, above a listing of all made-in-Yesha products. The organization asks that readers print the list, distribute it to friends and relatives, hang it on neighborhood message boards, and browse it while shopping - so that they will know what products to make sure not to buy. Interestingly, those who are interested in actually strengthening the communities and specifically buying these products will also find the list of interest. It can be found http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm. Women in Green call upon all to print out the list, cut all the leftist pro-Arab propaganda written on the top, hang it in your community centers, distribute it to friends and make sure to urge everybody to buy the products from Judea, Samaria and Gaza- Israel's Biblical Heartland! You can also send an email to Gush Shalom and thank them for doing the research and work of finding all the hundreds of products made in Yesha. It used to be that the left accused the settlers of being "parasites". Gush Shalom list of hundreds of products proves that the Jews in Yesha are one of the most productive sectors in Israel! Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

THE WAR OF WORDS - WE ARE LOST IF WE DON'T WIN IT Posted by Jock L. Falkson, August 17, 2004.

How Successful PR Overcomes Facts Of History The trouble with Jewish writers and spokespersons for Israel is that they are imbued with history. We mostly turn to history for the facts to back our proposition or rebuttal. We believe, reasonably, that we must win the argument when the historic facts support our contention. After all you can't argue the facts. I've got bad news for you. Because of the awesome power of the TV networks to influence hundreds of millions of people every day, a clever PR lie can prove a stronger weapon than historical facts to the contrary. And a comment in a TV briefing by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, for example, seems to have the power to change international law. The "Palestine" Lie Take the "Palestine" lie for example, as the Arabs began to call the land which became part of Jordan after '48 by conquest and annexation. Palestinian Arabs had no historic attachment whatever to this name. It was conferred on the Holy/Promised Land which the British wrested from the Ottoman Empire in 1917 - and ruled as a future Jewish Homeland. Until 1948 all Jews and Arabs living in the British mandated territory of Palestine were Palestinians. All Jews and Arabs traveled on the same "Palestine" passports issued by His Majesty's High Commissioner. Arabs never occupied a territory called Palestine. Local Arabs were indistinguishable from those in the neighborhood - Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Trans-Jordan. Indeed the first PLO leader to be, Ahmed Shukairy, then Ambassador for Saudi Arabia, explained to the UN Security Council in 1956, that "Palestine" was just a part of Southern Syria. And that the indigenous Arabs were Southern Syrians! Nevertheless, facts and history to the contrary, the hallucinatory claim that Arabs were an ancient people who inhabited "Palestine" since time immemorial, began to be accepted by a majority in the United Nations as fact. How did that come about? How TV Changes Perceptions It did not come like a bolt from the blue. It happened over a period of time as the result of a persistent, 24/7 mantra articulated by Arab spokespersons in every TV forum and channel. And by their writers in every printed medium. Until this lie embedded itself into the minds of men who had simply become dulled to its invalidity. It was a PR triumph as potent as anything Goebbles ever did in his misbegotten life. Despite all history to the contrary the Arabs have persuaded the majority of world nations, plus the International Court of Justice, that the territory recovered by Israel in '67 from Jordan, had belonged to the Palestinians. The result of this PR victory was to make Israel "occupiers" of a territory that was never Palestinian. Moreover the Arabs succeeded in morphing themselves into justified resisters of Israel's "colonialism" no less. The Administered Territories At the end of the Six Day War many world's democracies understood for a brief period, that Israel was a brave little country that had fought and defended herself against two wars of annihilation launched by Egypt, Syria and Trans-Jordan in 1948 and 1967. Having prevented this Arab genocide, Israel now had to administer the Gaza Strip and so called West Bank pending a mutually agreed peace agreement. Israel then correctly referred to the new areas under her control, as "administered territories". An excellent and true definition. The mantras of "colonialism" and "occupation" are still very active however. No matter that this Palestinian lie holds as much water as a sieve. For Israel never annexed these areas, as did Trans-Jordan after the West Bank came under its control (1948). How "Disputed" Became "Occupied" In vain did former Secretary of State James ("fuck the Jews - they don't vote for us") Baker, patiently explain to an Arab journalist that the land was not "occupied territory" - it was "disputed territory". And would remain so until its status changed in a final peace agreement. Until then, Baker confirmed Israel had the same settlement rights as Arabs. In vain did Prime Minister Rabin correct King Hussein of Jordan and Arafat on Larry King Live when both Arafat and Hussein used the terms "occupied territories" and "withdrawal". Rabin immediately corrected both, explaining that the proper term [based on the Declaration of Principles] was "redeployment". He reminded Arafat and Hussein that the September 1993 Oslo Accords, required mutually agreed borders in "final status negotiations". Neither King Hussein nor Arafat contested Rabin's correction. [A good friend has shown me a video of this June 5, 1995 program.] Rabin, victor of the Six Day War, was merely reaffirming Israel's position using military terminology. Israel's forces would be redeployed after a peace agreement. First the agreement then the redeployment. How anyone can call this "colonization" and get away with it is beyond belief. But that we have been stuck with this as well as "occupied territories" and "withdrawal", once more illustrates the power of PR to spread lies and overcome historical facts. It will be interesting to interject here that Arafat and the PA did not always believe they would get 100% of the territories. Responding to an Arab journalist on August 3, Jordan's King Abdullah said: "At the beginning, the talk was about the return of 98% of the occupied Palestinian territory, then it changed to a talk of less than 50% of these territories. We do not know in a year or two years, what percentage the talk will be about." "We wish the Palestinian leadership would determine for us clearly, what it wants, and not to surprise us every now and then with decisions and acceptance of issues it had rejected in the past." (From the King's website.) Powell Succumbs To "Occupied" Lie Even the US State Department which had always used "disputed" succumbed this year and started using "occupation" and "occupiers". Colin Powell uttered these loaded words for the first time in a press briefing a few months ago. Yet he of all people knew that Israel recovered the "west bank" in 1967 from Jordan, not from the Palestinians. Next is another example of the power of PR to turn legality into illegality, night into day. This remarkable ability previously scorned by Israel's governments, left and right, continues to haunt us. State Changes Legality of 242 Powell and his top echelon in the State Dept. knew every detail of how Israel, the US, and likeminded nations, had fought a tooth and nail battle to prevent the definite article being attached to "territories" in Resolution 242. The clause in question was simple and brief: "(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;" The Arab nations and their allies likewise fought tooth and nail to make it read: "from the territories occupied in the recent conflict;" Fortunately the US/Israel view that Israel should not be required to return to its previous, insecure borders, prevailed. Once More Into The Noose PR power, which Israeli intelligentsia and politicos brusquely brushed aside as unworthy of consideration, has resulted in the totally unfair demand by the International Court Of Justice to destroy our anti-terrorist barrier because it is built on so called Palestinian land. While Israel is unlikely to meet the Court's total demand, the cost of moving certain parts of the barrier could run into hundreds of millions of dollars. But the cost of removing thousands of legally settled residents could easily reach a billion dollars or more. And we, the Jews of Israel, whom some reckon to be too smart for our britches (a people that out-thinks the world to bend it to our will, as Malaysian PM Mahathir inelegantly described us) ... this smart people lets the Arabs lead us by the nose into a PR noose time and again. Israel must win the War of Words This thinking people, I regret to say, has a picayune budget of a mere $10 million to counteract Islamic and Arab propaganda. This is enough to keep us permanently in a losing situation. And as explained can lead us into enormous sums of unforeseen expenditure. Yet we'll find that money somehow. The government of Israel needs to appreciate that thus far we have been defeated in the War of Words. This is the war we must fight and win at all cost. Unless we do we stand to lose all - even our legality. We are engaged in a War of Words whether we like it or not. And we must learn how to win this war. Let us assail their lies. Let Israel fight our word war with truth. Let us call a spade a spade and brand the murderous Palestine Authority as the Palestine Terrorist Authority it is. Let us (for starters) attack them for their Nazi, Judenrein, racist, apartheid policy; for their blatant anti-Semitism and hateful anti-Jewish incitement; for their Koran based imperative to wipe the Jewish State off the Mideast map. To win the War of Words Israel will probably require a fully fledged Ministry of Information staffed by experienced people who really know how. To be put on Jock Falkson's email list, email him at falkson@barak-online.net To Go To Top

THE KEY TO JIHADIST IDEOLOGY AND STRATEGY Posted by Lawrence Auster, August 16, 2004.

When trying to explain the Islamists' global campaign of mass murder, both liberals and conservatives, despite their fierce mutual disagreements, make the same underlying mistake. People on the anti-war left believe that Al Qaeda attacked us because we're imperialist, or because we're racist, or because we don't do enough for Third-World hunger (yes, there are people who actually believe the hunger argument; most of them are Episcopalians). By contrast, many people on the pro-war right, especially President Bush, believe that the Islamists hate us for our freedoms, opportunities, and overall success as a society. In other words, the left believes that the Islamists hate us for our sins, and the right believes that they hate us for our virtues. Both sides commit the same narcissistic fallacy of thinking that the Islamist holy war against the West revolves solely around ourselves, around the moral drama of our goodness or our wickedness, rather than having something to do with Islam itself. A very different perspective on the Islamist challenge comes from Mary Habeck, a military historian at Yale University. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation on August 13, Habeck said that the various jihadist groups base their war against non-Moslems on the Islamic sacred writings, particularly the Sira, which, unlike the Koran, tells the Prophet's life in chronological sequence. Using Muhammed as their model, the jihadis live and think and act within paradigms provided by the stages of Muhammed's political and military career. According to Habeck, this internally driven logic of Islam, and not any particular provocation, real or imagined, by some outside power, is the key to understanding why the jihadis do what they do. The first stage or paradigm is Muhammed's early life in Mecca, a non-Islamic society where no Islamic way of life is possible, and where Moslems are powerless and oppressed. The second paradigm is the hejira, the escape from Mecca to Medina, a new place that is more pure and where a true Islamic society and state can be founded. After this Islamic state is formed, the third paradigm kicks in. This is jihad, organized violence against non-Moslems for the purpose of building up the wealth and power of the Islamic community and bringing the world under a single Islamic state. Jihadists conceive and rationalize their own activities in terms of these paradigms. Thus when Osama bin Laden left Saudi Arabia for Sudan, and when he later left Sudan for Afghanistan, he saw those journeys as corresponding with the hejira, leaving a corrupt land, where he was powerless, for a more pure Islamic place from which jihad could be waged. In addition to the three stages in the growth of the Islamic community culminating in jihad, there are three basic approaches to waging jihad, called collectively the Method of Muhammed, that various Islamist groups respectively adopt toward the ultimate goal of establishing the world-wide rule of Islam. The jihadis' choice of method depends on whom they see as their immediate enemy in that larger struggle; each jihadist group, moveover, is defined by which of these methods it adopts. The first method is to fight the Near Enemy prior to fighting the Far Enemy. The Near Enemy is anyone inside Islamic lands, whether it is an occupier or someone who has taken away territory that used to be Islamic. The second method is to fight the Greater Unbelief - the major enemy, which today is the United States - before the Lesser Unbelief. And the third method is to fight the Apostates first, and then the other Unbelievers. Apostates are false Moslems, people who call themselves Moslems but aren't, a group that includes secularist Moslems such as Saddam Hussein as well as Shi'ites, who are considered heretics. It is these notions, deeply embedded in the jihadis' reading of the life of Muhammed, and not determined by what is happening in what we think of as the real world, that determine their major strategic directions and whom they choose to kill. For example, the terrorists who murdered 190 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004 did not target Spain because of its involvement with the U.S.-led Iraqi reconstruction; the group had been planning the Madrid attack for two years, going back to before the American invasion of Iraq. They attacked Spain because it was the Near Enemy - a formerly Islamic land that they hoped to win back for Islam. Similarly, regarding the all-important question whether the Wahhabist Osama bin Laden would have been willing to work with the secularist Apostate Saddam Hussein in an attack on America, Habeck says it is entirely possible, because bin Laden believes that his primary enemy is the Greater Unbelief, the United States, and therefore in the short term he would cooperate with an Apostate such as Hussein. Then, after America had been finished off with Hussein's help, bin Laden with the enhanced power and prestige gained from that victory could redirect the jihad back at Hussein and other Moslem Apostates. The key point is that, while specific actions by the West might provoke the jihadis to greater attacks, their fundamental strategic and military decisions are not determined by anything done by the United States or Europe or by other major enemies of Islam such as the Hindus, but rather by which Method of Muhammed each jihadi faction follows, and each of these strategies has its own internal rationality, though it is not a rationality that makes sense in non-Islamic terms. The same is true for Wahhabism itself, says Habeck. Wahhabism began in the 18th century when there was no Western colonial power in the Islamic world; it was not set off by any Western intrusion into the Moslem lands. Similarly, the contemporary Islamist idea that America is the center of all that is evil in the world, making America the "Greater Unbelief", was conceived by a Moslem scholar between 1948 and 1951 when he was residing in the United States. This was decades before the U.S. had any large-scale involvement with Israel, and decades before its culture spiraled downhill, though, from the point of view of that visiting Moslem, America was already quite decadent at that point and ripe for destruction. What is most striking in the Method of Muhammed is the utter absence of any transcendent notion of morality. Unlike in traditional Western religion and philosophy, where God or the Good is the measure of human actions, in Islamism (which after all is simply a pure form of Islam) the measure of human actions is the shifting power tactics and military strategies of a desert brigand and war leader. Lawrence Auster is the author of "Erasing America: The Politics of the Borderless Nation." He offers his traditionalist conservative perspective at 'View from the Right.' This article appeared on Front Page Magazine and is archived at http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=14660 To Go To Top

ARABS EXPLOIT WESTERN MISUNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION (AND OTHER ITEMS) Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 16, 2004.

The Islamist forces in Najaf practice a type of hit-and-run warfare against US troops that constitutes a war crime. They open fire, then flee into the sanctuary of the city's shrine, holy to Shiite Muslims. US forces are reluctant to pursue them and damage it. If the US were to destroy the shrine, then, it is believed, non-combatant Shiites would become outraged not at the war criminals who abused the shrine's sanctity, but at the pursuers who seek justice. That indicates hypocrisy by those Muslims. At least we ought to ask them on what basis that would rail at US troops for return fire, without railing at the militiamen who abuse the shrine's sanctity, by opening fire that risks return fire. The US fights gingerly also because of a misunderstanding about religion. We Americans define religion too broadly. We should define it as a creed about a supernatural creator of the world. Instead, Americans suppose that the various world religions have more in common, such as a code of similar ethics. They don't. The Muslims believe they must conquer the world. To them, this end justifies means such as deception, rape, dispossession, enslavement, and murder. They think differently from Westerners. They exploit the Western notion of the sanctity of temples so as to use mosques as firing posts and to intimidate Western forces from firing back. The P.A. did this in Bethlehem. The P.A. captured one of Christendom's holiest churches and held priests hostage, while getting other countries, already unsympathetic towards the terrorists' Israeli pursuers, to demand not that the P.A. depart but that Israel desist. The US government was one of the unsympathetic parties. I take no satisfaction from finding US forces now in the same position towards treacherous Arab forces as Israeli ones were recently. I wish my fellow American troops success and safety. But I also wish that now that the US experiences what Israel has, the US realize what the West is up against and that Israel and the US have a common goal in combating Islamism and terrorism. The US should facilitate Israeli success and accept more readily and gracefully Israel's help. U.S. PRESSURE GETS ISRAELIS BLOWN UP Buckling before US demands, Israel reduced the number of checkpoints. Immediately, as is ALWAYS THE CASE, a reduction in Israeli security measures prompts an increase in attempted terrorism. Preliminary reports were of some injuries in one or two explosions. Thus the US pressure, ostensibly made in order that those undeserving Arabs have an easier life, results in some Israelis losing their lives or being crippled for the rest of their lives. The answer is a separation of the two peoples that goes far enough to put the Arabs at a great disadvantage if they thought to renew their aggressions. That means Arab population transfer. If Israel had self-respect, it would reply to the US compliment for reducing the number of checkpoints, "Thank you for praising our reduction in checkpoints and other security measures, so that our Arab enemies should have easier lives while striving to snuff out ours. Taking advantage of the US pressure for this reduction, terrorists wounded x Israelis, one maimed for life. The same thing happened on July x, y dead and z wounded, June x, y dead and z wounded," etc. "US pressure leads to innocent deaths, is immoral, and is no sign of friendship." AT WAR, BUT NOT KNOWING WITH WHOM Israel is at war but fails to declare it. Therefore, its attempts to utilize wartime defensive measures are rebuffed as if untoward. The US is at war but fails to define it. Pres. Bush once seemed close to identifying the axis of enemies, and Sen. Kerry has no idea who they are. ISRAELI SUPREME COURT RULES ON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS Some P.A. Arab journalists, including those with permits to enter Israel, were denied press cards by the government of Israel. As a result, they could not cover news in Israel or in parts of Yesha. They petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the government's decision. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Arabs. It declared that the government did not properly balance the interests of security and the free press. The government should have conducted security clearance tests for each individual journalist. The burden is on the government, in the case of those who had clearance to enter Israel in a non-professional capacity, as, say, tourists. If they may come in as tourists, why not as journalists? (IMRA, 8/11.) The Court ruling, as excerpted, fails to recognize that: (1) Arabs who enter Israel as journalists have entre to more sensitive places than do tourists; (2) More latitude should be given security agencies in wartime, and especially with citizens and agents of the enemy; (3) It is not the duty of Israel to balance freedom of the press in Arab countries with security its own country, nor is there freedom of the press in the P.A., where journalists report numerous death threats if they cover the spread of anarchy in the P.A.; (4) If the Supreme Court were interested in freedom of the press, it would secure it for Israel, where the print media shuts out most other views and broadcast media practices ideological censorship contrary to the standards of journalism, and the government shut down the dissenting radio station, Arutz-7. For that matter, the Court and its way are not democratic. Non-elected and self-perpetuating, it usurped the power to impose its ideology on the elected branches. NOMINEE FOR CIA DIRECTOR OPPOSES POLLARD RELEASE Rep. Goss, nominated to become Director of the CIA, helped author the Congressional resolution opposing the release of Pollard. Rep. Goss asserted that Pollard was the worst traitor in US history. Years earlier, the courts had made the prosecution apologize to Pollard for calling him a traitor, which he was not. A traitor is someone who serves a wartime enemy. Pollard spied for Israel, not at war with the US and not an enemy. Nor had the prosecution indicted Pollard for treason. What they do is to smear him anonymously about being a traitor. Some journalists go along with the defamation. They don't cover the real issues: his deprivation of equal justice and government violation of the plea agreement, after having praised his full cooperation during interrogation. The government gave him a disproportionate sentence, life without benefit of parole, for a crime that usually draws 2-4 years. He already has served 18 (IMRA, 11/12 from Justice4Pollard). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

THE ISRAEL REFERENDUM IS GATHERING MOMENTUM - BULLETIN #2 Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland, August 16, 2004.

The Israel Referendum was launched a few days ago. [Editor's note: (See below).] In the few days since the Israel Referendum was launched, it has been gathering momentum continuously. Here are some of the highlights: 1. On their site, the Global Israel Alliance (GIA) staff members have posted an impressive, professional, informative introductory page, complete with a sound track and link to the online ballot. My compliments to GIA! 2. Today (16 Aug 2004), World Net Daily published an article on the Referendum (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39980), including the link to the online ballot. 3. A number of e-mailers and sites have disseminated the Referendum information and linked to the online ballot. Fore example, CAFI has posted a link to the IsraPundit Bulletin #1 on its front page (in the right-hand column of CAFI, click on the yellow GIA logo). Another example is Think-Israel - check under August 14. 4. Several web groups featured information as well as links. For example, the AFSIgroup carries the information as message 1336. What you can do to help: Overall, the task at this point is to get the word out. Specifically, you can help by: - Telling your family and friends, organization, congregation, etc. - If you belong to friendly web groups or e-mail list that have not yet informed members of the Referendum, please do so. - If you visit sites that permit comments, please post the information as a comment, if appropriate. - if you are a blogger, or if you know friendly bloggers, please try to get the info and/or links posted. A special effort should be made to ask LGF to post about the Referendum initiative. - Visit the GIA site. - If you can come up with additional ways in which to spread the word, do so and suggest that other do the same by posting comments to this post. Joseph Norland is co-host of the pro-Israel advocacy website, IsraPundit (http://IsraPundit.com). To Go To Top

WHAT IDIOTS RUN THIS COUNTRY? Posted by Jack Engelhard, August 16, 2004.

Is Israel a nation or a wholly-owned subsidiary of the United States? Is Israel just a tenant in the building owned and operated by the US Department of State? Is Israel the maid? Does it do windows? Does it shine shoes for the Man? Does Israel go running at the first snap of two fingers? Does Israel need to be petted? You bet it does. Where else but in Israel would the headlines read, "American actor Chris Noth to Visit." Is Israel on a "Going Out Of Business" binge because it is the last falafel stand on the corner and can't take the heat from McDonald's? Is Bush better than Kerry, if it's true what I'm hearing, that next time around the Bush Administration will act much tougher toward Israel? I can't vote for Kerry. I think he's a fraud from beginning to end, and we already know what people he's going to bring along if he gets in. But how much worse can he be if it's true that this Administration, today's Administration, demands that Israel return to Auschwitz borders? The Israelis (along with Americans) are the sweetest, most glorious, most courageous, most literate, most industrious, most liberty-loving, most open-hearted people on this earth. Israel is indeed a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Israel is indeed a light unto the (blinded) nations. I knew it when the toughest commander of the toughest unit of the toughest brigade invited me to his home and reminded me to kiss the mezuza on the way in. I knew it when, on the military base in Haifa, all the (even non-religious) cadets gasped and everything came to a halt in the mess hall when I unknowingly picked up a milk spoon for meat. I knew it when one Friday night I was invited to dinner in Netanya at the home of the most glatt non-kosher family in Israel, and when I asked the mother why she was lighting Shabbat candles, she was shocked and offended. "This is Israel, after all," she said. I knew it when the manager of that bank in Haifa tried so hard to confound tongues (my English, her Hebrew) until I asked her if she spoke Yiddish. Then she smiled, and nearly wept: "Nu, I am Yiddish daughter." So how did these people, this nation, get so cursed, cursed with such idiots who run their country? Every Monday and Thursday, yet another minister says more territory will have to be given up. Will there be anything left? Is all of Israel just one big bargaining chip? Is nothing sacred? Is there no territorial sovereignty? Are there no Zionists left in Zion? (Among the leaders, I mean.) Where else is this done? What other (self-respecting) nation gifts its land? Name one. This was supposed to be a humor column, but I have forgotten the joke. Maybe it is a joke. Maybe I wasn't kidding after all when I once suggested that Israel's leaders must be the descendants of Chelm, the legendary home of nitwit Jews. How else to explain? Here's the army chief saying he's ready to give up the Golan Heights and adding, "The army could defend Israel's borders wherever they are." Hello? Defending? What defending? On your watch, more than a thousand Israeli Jews have been left dead, and you talk about defending? Too late to say defending. That was Monday. On Thursday we got word that "in a largely symbolic gesture, four settlements in the northern West Bank also would be dismantled." Yes, that was the prime minister's mouthpiece talking, and yes, Gaza is just for starters, and these four settlements? Also just for starters. Where does it end? Who cares about land? Who cares about the Israelis living on the land? Anybody? In the Knesset, in the Cabinet, wherever decisions are made? Is anybody home? For the Jews of Europe, Israel is the mother ship. Do they have to hear this, that so much relinquishing is going on? Repeat after me - "The Holy City of Jerusalem." This was where I intended to be humorous, how, taking a cue from Israel, the US was giving back Texas. You know, symbolic gesture. We don't need Texas and we don't need Texans. We don't need California. We're giving that back, too. As the top Israeli general said about the Golan, "From the point of view of military requirements, we could reach an agreement with Mexico by giving up Texas and California." But humor escapes me when, as an American, I find my country lording it over its only true friend in the Middle East, and then this friend goes ahead and does Stepin Fetchit. "Yezzuh Mastah!" No pride? Was there no Moses? No Joshua? No King David? Was there no Rachel? From today's leaders, is there no love of the land, no affection for the people? Is there no sense of heritage? Are there no Torah promises to keep? About those of us sitting here, and who go back before 1948, do you, in Israel, know how our hearts leaped when the flag of Israel came across our television screens at the Olympics? Do the leaders of Israel know what they have and what they're selling out? Do they know the trust of the past, the present and the future that's been invested in them? I don't think they do. Are they really that stupid to believe that giving up land is the answer? Where was the world's embrace after Israel gave up Sinai? Egypt itself is itching for another go. Egypt's press is the most anti-Semitic anywhere? even after "peace" and after Sinai. I speak as an American grateful to be an American. There is no paradox in faulting my country for going hard on Israel when it goes soft on that other world that brought on 9/11. (Saudi Arabia, for example.) Lincoln wrote and spoke in the measures and cadences of Moses, and our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution is an abridgment of Israel's Torah. We owe. We owe the Israelis more than that snarl they're getting from us. "The United States is virtually our only friend. But even the US supports retreat to almost the 1967 borders." Thus spoke the prime minister of Israel's mouthpiece, and that is very sad. That is deplorable on the part of the United States and on the part of Israel: That Israel should allow itself to be so maneuverable, so easily manipulated, so readily duped. So gullible! Anti-Semites hate us because we're so smart? If they only knew. Oh, but they do. In his (1960s) anti-Establishment anthem "Masters of War", Bob Dylan lamented, Stop? "You're playing with my world." Exactly that. So say the good and wise people of Israel. "You're playing with my land." Will the leaders hearken? Or is there a curse (of leadership) that dates back to something else we once did? Moses spoke of blessings and curses. The curses we know. The blessings, when do they begin? Jack Engelhard is the author of the novel "Indecent Proposal" and the award-winning memoir "Escape From Mount Moriah." His novel "The Days of the Bitter End" is being prepared for movie production. Reach him by email at viewopinion@aol.com. This article appeared in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com) as an opinion piece. To Go To Top

BUSH PRESSURED ISRAEL FOR BROADER WITHDRAWAL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 16, 2004.

This article by Nicholas Kralev reveals how the Bush Administration pressured Israel to withdraw from Gaza and then broadened the withdrawal to include parts of Judea and Samaria. It's called "White House urged broader withdrawal" and appeared in the Washington Times (www.washingtontimes.com) on August 13, 2004. For several year I have been writing about the nations gathering as pall bearers for the Jewish nation of Israel. This includes both our dedicated enemies and our occasional friends who have a divided mind about Israel's continue existence. In Kralev's article, you will see and sense the perfidy IF you read between the lines. You will see the fingerprints of the Bush Dynasty, including James Baker and his gaggle of Jew boys (Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Dan Kurtzer and later Martin Indyk). As Court Jews, they were always ready to undercut the Jewish nation in deference to their boss and Yassir Arafat. You will also see the shadow of the Saudis in the planning - always in deep collaboration with the oil maggots and the pro-Arab State Department which is carefully building the scaffold on which to hang the Jewish nation. Add the Europeans (the E.U.), the U.N. and Russia as the rest of the 'Quartet' who re-vamped the Bush Road Map so it was deadly to the Jewish nation. Look for Kofi Annan's dirty fingers, always a helpful ally to whomever would take Israel down. With shame and embarrassment, we also have our Jews or rather non-Jewish Jews of the Left who eagerly join the cabal to first reduce Israel in size, followed by weakening her will to resist and finally bailing out to save themselves - like the proverbial rats who leave a sinking ship. The Leftists who can afford it have been purchasing apartments in England, America and other places elsewhere, outside of Israel, just in case their European and Arab allies succeed in dismantling the Jewish State. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon is the biggest and most gullible appeaser of all. He has swallowed the bait that creating a truncated Israel will appease the Palestinians, the Arab nations and their numerous proxy terrorist organizations. Somehow a shrunken Israel is supposed to pacify the rabid terrorists and nations who support them, especially Syria and Iran. Sharon and his gang of small-minded politicos believe that a fully established Fence will keep terrorists out when they are already tunneling under it and lobbing rockets over it. It is not the Wall that is minimizing Terror attacks right now. It is the IDF cleaning out the rat's nests on the ground and pin-point bombing the terrorist leaders from above. As long as they are running from Israeli troops, the killing and suicide bombing is down. But, Sharon is planning to withdraw those troops, road patrols and check points in order to force out the Jewish Pioneering Settlers. Sharon's propagandists are telling the Israeli people: "See, casualties are down because of the Wall." What Sharon is NOT telling the people is that, when Gaza (first) is turned over to the mix of radical Islamic terrorists (Mujahadin), and they get organized, the Wall will not stop the missiles, nor the hundreds, perhaps thousands of tunnels. That Wall is not tall enough to keep out determined hordes of radical Islamic Terrorists. Sharon's folly (The Wall) will bring the radical Arab Muslim Palestinians and foreign Muslim Terrorists in hordes to their side of the Wall which is right next to Israel's population centers. Sharon's folly (The Wall) is taking food out the mouths of children and the elderly living below the poverty level. It is costing Billions of dollars. Sharon will tell you that he will cross over and punish the Arab Palestinian Terrorists IF they attack Israel - except this time the terrorists will better organized and prepared with better, deadlier and more sophisticated weapons. The current tunnels into Gaza from Egypt (with President Hosni Mubarak's cooperation) will no longer be necessary because soon they can truck, fly or ship in large missiles, artillery and even armor. Sharon propagates the lie that somehow Israel will maintain a watch on the Gaza borders and hold down the smuggling of arms. Sharon's flimsy Wall will be no better (probably worse) than the Bar Lev line in the Sinai at the Suez Canal which was overrun by the Egyptians in a day. Meanwhile, Israel's enemies and erstwhile friends will insist that full scale counter-attacks and re-taking of territory cannot be allowed - regardless of the provocation. Jews, always anxious to be loved and accepted are too easily euchred with false promises given by both enemies and their sometime friends. So, the Army will be thwarted by having moved out the civilians and creating another State of Palestine that will be considered sovereign and untouchable by the rest of the world. In the end the Quartet, that is the U.S. State Department, the E.U., the U.N. and Russia, are only interested in their own interests, not Israel's. They already know that the Muslim pagans cannot be pacified or re-educated away from strict Koranic Sharia'a law which orders them to displace the infidel. They know that the backward Arab Muslims will never give a thriving nation of Jews one day of peace. So, for the good of the majority, it is better for Israel to vanish - in the hope that a sacrifice of this magnitude will dampen down the radical Muslims - thirst for Global Terrorism and world domination. What? Have they (we) learned nothing? The radical Arab Muslims won't unlearn all their weapons' technology nor will they reduce their inventories. Nor will they lower their goals for world domination by Islam. As you cannot de-program a trained attack dog, neither can you de-program a terrorist - particularly those educated to hate and kill Jews since the age of 3. Those countries and influentials in the Free West who are pro-Arab have evolved the philosophy that 'maybe they will return to the day when Terror was not so well organized'. Or 'maybe they'll be pacified', or so goes their wishful thinking. In the meantime, almost every nation of size in the Free West has experienced a growing state of terror by radical Muslim terrorists. These are NOT what the media calls 'extremists', 'militias', or 'freedom fighters', but actually radical Muslim terrorists killing for Allah as Sharia'ah law requires. No political or media double talk will change the fact that Islam has declared war on the civilized world. Perhaps that will only come clear when there is another 9/11 or 3/11 or Iran develops operational Nuclear Bombs while the (so-called) Free West dithers. Of course, they need to keep the Jews in a stupor of false hope so they go quietly to their next execution, in spite of this horrific reality facing all nations. There are none so blind as those who do not wish to see. The Bush administration played a major behind-the-scenes role in pressing Israel to broaden a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to include four Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said yesterday. That and other changes were the price Israel had to pay for securing President Bush's written endorsement of the plan in a letter he presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington in April, Mr. Ayalon said "We were thinking just of Gaza. They suggested [some withdrawal] from the West Bank. I think this is a very major change," the ambassador told The Washington Times in an interview at the Israeli Embassy. "We agreed to modify our plan ... so they really had their imprint," he said. Mr. Ayalon said that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, her deputy Stephen Hadley, and Elliott Abrams, senior director for Near East and North African affairs at the National Security Council, were deeply engaged in negotiating the plan's final version. "They didn't give us a blank check and endorse the plan without careful studies and questions - they sent their people to Israel," Mr. Ayalon said. Another Israeli official, who asked not to be named, said the first time the plan was discussed officially with the United States was in Rome in November. That happened during a previously undisclosed meeting between Mr. Sharon, who was on a visit to Italy, and Mr. Abrams, who flew in from London, the official said. Dennis Ross, the top Middle East envoy in both the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration, said yesterday that the final plan was chosen from several options discussed by the Israelis. Mr. Ross said the White House was correct in demanding modifications to the plan given the "explicit" endorsement Israel subsequently received from the United States. The Israeli official later explained that at least three options were on the table when the plan was first discussed internally: a withdrawal from a large part of the West Bank, a pullout from Gaza only, and a pullout from Gaza and a small part of the West Bank. The official said the Bush administration deserves credit for pressuring Israel to adopt the third option. Although Mr. Bush called the plan "bold and courageous," its critics in the Arab world and Europe initially saw it as an official U.S. endorsement of the Jewish settlements that will remain in the West Bank. Official U.S. policy has been for decades that settlements are an impediment to peace, although successive administrations have tolerated them. After initial skepticism, the plan was accepted by the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Mr. Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert, yesterday told settler leaders in Israel that even more settlements would have to be removed from the West Bank. "In the future, there will be a need to evacuate more settlements in Judea and Samaria - not because it's just, but because there is no choice if we want to remain a Jewish and democratic state," Mr. Olmert said, using the biblical names for parts of the West Bank. Mr. Olmert's comments reportedly irritated Mr. Sharon. The Bush administration has been widely criticized for not being engaged enough in the peace process. Mr. Ayalon took issue with that assertion, but he said intense American involvement is not always necessary. "Nobody could have been more involved than President Clinton, and it didn't work. It's not a matter of American involvement that is a major factor in success," he said. "It's a matter of having a partner." "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is no longer a partner", Mr. Ayalon said, "and many Palestinians are beginning to realize it." "There is a growing realization among the Palestinians that the Arafat system is not the solution but the problem," he said. "They are becoming more and more emboldened." He said an internal conflict among the Palestinians is inevitable because of widespread dissatisfaction with Mr. Arafat's leadership, although Israel would not like to see a civil war. Mr. Ayalon also said that "Israel is pleased with its war on terrorism," noting that "a fence being built to separate Israel from parts of the West Bank has reduced attacks". "The mission can never be accomplished, because it's an ongoing war, but we are prevailing, and the results are less fatalities, less successful attempts by the terrorists and, I think, there is a growing realization on the other side that terror cannot succeed," he said. "We could not have done this without the great help of the United States, which has supported us morally and politically," Mr. Ayalon said. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

HANDLING THE TRUTH Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, August 16, 2004.

This was written by Kenneth Lasson and appeared in Baltimore Jewish Times, July 09, 2004. Kenneth Lasson is a law professor at the University of Baltimore and a frequent contributor to the Baltimore Jewish Times. Last May, Tali Hatuel was driving the family station wagon from her home in Gush Katif, a Jewish settlement in Gaza, to Ashkelon, an Israeli town 20 miles to the north. Eight months pregnant and with her four young daughters in tow, she was planning to have an ultrasound exam on what would be her first boy, and then join her husband, David, at a rally against the Israeli government's controversial "disengagement" plan. In a flash, Palestinian gunmen ambushed the wagon, forcing it off the road. When rescue workers arrived a short time later, all they found was carnage. Meirav, the 2-year-old, was still strapped into her safety seat. She had been shot in the head at point-blank range, as were her sisters: Roni, 7, Hadar, 9, and Hila, 11. Their mother was dead from multiple gunshot wounds. Just to make certain that there would be no survivors, the terrorists shot a bullet through Tali Hatuel's abdomen. Two groups, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committee, were quick to claim responsibility in a phone call to the Associated Press. The Voice of Palestine praised the deed as a "heroic" operation against "five settlers." Only a few major American papers reported the atrocity, and the funerals afterward. Fewer still noted that a number of mourners were attacked by Palestinian gunmen as they entered Ashkelon's new cemetery. They were among the thousands who surrounded David Hatuel, 24 hours earlier a loving husband and father, as he wept, "You were my flowers. I am all alone, and there is no one left." Shock. Horror. Revulsion. How else to regard the wanton butchery of an unarmed mother and her children blasted off a public road, or a public bus full of civilians blown up by a bomb, or a hostage beheaded? Such intuitive responses to terrorism are dictated by common sense and human sensibility. Yet in much of the world in which we live - at least according to many of those who record and comment on the course of contemporary human events - the victims of terror are often considered its cause, and depicted in the same negative light as those who revel in hatred and violence. "Seek truth and report it," is the first tenet in professional journalism's Code of Ethics. "Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information." Thus are we appalled to witness once again the way that Jews have become the focal point of blame when they are not lumped together with their perceived sponsors, the "Great Satan America." Indeed, much of the Muslim world believes that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were a Jewish-American plot, that the democratically elected prime minister of Israel is a butcher as bad as deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, even that the war in Iraq was instigated solely on behalf of Israel. Sadly, such canards are only the most recent in a long history of incitement emanating from Middle East mosques, and distortions promulgated by much of the Arab and European media. A catalog of current editorial excesses, and the religious tyranny that fuels it, confirms the almost complete abandonment of journalistic objectivity. The standard instead is that noted long ago by Mark Twain: "Get your facts first, and then you can distort 'em as you please." In Europe and the Middle East, the grotesque slayings of the Hatuel family received scant attention. The Times of London buried the mind-numbing murders in a single brief mention eight paragraphs into an article on the political question surrounding Israel's proposed disengagement plan. The current president of the European Union, Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, likened the purposeful executions of mother and children to the accidental deaths of young Palestinians caught in Israeli-Palestinian crossfire. Even in the United States, where journalistic ethics are taken seriously, the massacre of the Hatuels was minimized. National Public Radio reporter Julie McCarthy implicitly blamed the victims: "There was ample evidence ... to show that their continued presence in Gaza is provoking bloodshed. Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian gunmen after the men ambushed a mother and her four small daughters outside the Gaza settlement of Gush Katif. They were on their way," said Ms. McCarthy, "to protest Israel's planned pullout from Gaza." Perhaps there was no way that she could have fit into her dispatch the irony that Tali Hatuel, 34, was an Israeli social worker who was often called on to comfort and assist victims of terrorism. Nor did she report that back in Gaza City, there was dancing in the streets as news of the murders spread; masked Palestinians handed out candies, raised flags of the Islamic Jihad, and sang victory songs. Baltimore Jewish Times Washington correspondent James D. Besser, a veteran journalist who has covered Middle East affairs for nearly two decades, said he feels that Ms. McCarthy's biases are over the top. "A few months ago, I almost stopped my car and screamed when I heard one of her reports," he said. Mr. Besser also feels that CNN reporting is tilted against Israel, that some American papers like the Minneapolis Star-Tribune are very pro-Palestinian, and that the Arab press is based on anti-Semitism and wholly biased. "Although all reporters have biases, they should be committed to writing honest stories," making a point to talk to people on all sides of an issue, he said. "The same is true of the news organizations for which they work. But many don't." NPR was not alone in its dismissive coverage of the Hatuel tragedy. ABC News carried a brief story, labeling the attackers as "extremists" and equating the murders of a woman and her children with Israel's targeting of terrorists. The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times devoted only a few paragraphs to the incident amid their primary reports of political turmoil in Israel. Even then, in keeping with longstanding editorial policy, the Times and Tribune refused to label the gunmen as "terrorists." The same with the Boston Globe and Washington Post. All of this, concluded the Committee for Accuracy in Mideast Reporting, was in stark contrast to the way in which most of the media treat the deaths of Palestinian children for which CAMERA provided numerous specific examples. Why does this happen? "There is no such thing as objectivity in the new journalism," said Eric Rozenman, CAMERA's Washington director. "It's post-modern moral equivalency, in which there is no such thing as objectivity. Each side has its own merits. All history is considered biased." Also, Mr. Rozenman says, many European newspapers, as well as some in the United States, have bought into the notion long nurtured by the Arab world "that Palestinians are downtrodden and oppressed, through no fault of their own, victims of Israeli racism. In truth, it is they [the Arabs] who are racist." When Americans are killed in the Gaza Strip - as happened last October when Palestinian terrorists bombed a diplomatic convoy - there is likewise little political condemnation or journalistic follow-up. The Associated Press reported that incident as "an unprecedented deadly attack on a U.S. target" in the territories. There have been more than 50 U.S. citizens murdered by Palestinians in Israel over the past 10 years alone. Among them were Dr. David Applebaum, an internationally known emergency medicine physician, and his daughter, Nava, who were sitting in a cafe in Jerusalem discussing her wedding the next day; four American students having lunch at Hebrew University; a New Jersey tourist eating pizza in a Sbarro's Restaurant in Jerusalem; and Koby Mandel, a 12-year-old from Silver Spring who was bludgeoned to death by Palestinians when he wandered out of his village with a friend on a hiking trip. Peter Jennings of ABC News made a passing reference to the Mandel murder, after which he was quick to point out that while six Israelis under the age of 18 had been killed since the previous September, 143 young Palestinians had died. The Mandel story was not covered by any of the mainstream Arab media, and barely noted in Europe. Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab network that claims "to cover all viewpoints with objectivity, integrity and balance," did not report on any of the American deaths. As for the murders of Tali Hatuel and her daughters, Al Jazeera made brief mention as follows: "Palestinian resistance fighters have killed five Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip before being shot dead by Israeli occupation troops. The dead included a mother and four children ... on an access road to a Jewish settlement." It is not only terrorism in Israel that gets short shrift from the Arab and European media. On Jan. 23, 2002, the Wall Street Journal's South-Asian bureau chief, Danny Pearl, was on his way to an interview with an Islamic fundamentalist leader in Pakistan when he was kidnapped by Islamic rebels. Four days later, photos of Pearl, including one with a gun aimed at his head, were e-mailed to his editors. Calling themselves the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, his captors demanded the release, within 24 hours, of Pakistanis detained at Guantanamo Bay as suspected terrorists. They sent a videotape in which Pearl, whose parents immigrated to the United States more than 40 years ago and whose grandmother still lives in Israel, was heard to recite these words: "I'm a Jewish American. I come from a family of Zionists. My father's Jewish. My mother's Jewish. I'm Jewish." He was then summarily decapitated and dismembered. He was 38. Last May, a similar fate befell Nicholas Berg, a 26-year-old, self-employed telecommunications expert from suburban Philadelphia. Berg was working in Iraq when he was taken captive by a band of terrorists. A grainy five-minute videotape provided horrifying details of his death. As was the case with the murder of Italian hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi in April, the grisly killing and mutilation of four American civilian relief workers in Fallujah, the terrorist bombings in Madrid and Bali, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks themselves, Berg's murder was carried out in the name of Islam and the Arab people by extremists incited by a perverted interpretation of their religion. "Allah is great!" they intoned reverently, as they seized body parts from six Israeli soldiers killed by a land mine in Gaza, paraded them through the streets, and explained that they would use the remains as bargaining chips. One might never know of any such events by reading or watching Arab media. Indeed, the silence among the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, not to mention their governments, sheiks and mullahs, was deafening. Al Jazeera's only mention of Berg was in a passing reference to the effect that his father supported the Stop the War Coalition and blamed his son's death on the United States. A year earlier, it had nothing to report about the slaying of Danny Pearl. Although it reported the more recent kidnapping and beheadings of Westerners, there was no editorial condemnation of them. Similar silence was heard in Al-Ahram, a leading Egyptian news weekly in Egypt, and Dar Al Hayat, the largest paper in Saudi Arabia. While Muslim governments and their media were quick to condemn the U.S. military's mistreatment of prisoners in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, they remained mute about the atrocities committed against Americans in Iraq. So did the European press and politicians, whose clarion call was for the prompt removal of "foreign troops." Another indelible image of the current intifada is that of Muhammad al Dura, the 12-year-old Palestinian killed in his father's arms in September 2000. The video of his death was televised around the world, and became an icon of the Palestinian cause. Postage stamps have been issued in the boy's honor; streets have been named after him. That it has been empirically proven that Muhammad al Dura could not have been shot by the Israel Defense Forces appears lost in the rubble of Middle East reporting. In June of 2003, James Fallows, a first-rate investigative journalist for the Atlantic Monthly, did a cover story analyzing the incident in great detail, and concluded that al Dura most likely fell victim to an errant shot from the Palestinians, if he died at all. (The doubt was underscored most pointedly by Danny Seaman of Israel's Government Press Office, who claims that the coffin at al Dura's funeral was empty.) Immediately after the incident, Gideon Meir of the Israeli Foreign Ministry was called by the local commander of the IDF, who said that the army did not kill the boy. "The video was running around the world. The damage to Israel was unbelievable," Mr. Meir said. Fiamma Nirenstein, a veteran Italian journalist and Jerusalem correspondent for the daily La Stampa, wrote that certain intellectuals and journalists form the true cradle of contemporary anti-Semitism. "We have to know how to say that the free press is a failure when it lies, and that it does lie," she said. She cited a European radio commentator who said that after the diffusion of the images of Muhammed al Dura, Europe could finally forget the famous picture of the boy in the Warsaw ghetto with his hands raised. This, she said, "is obliteration of the Holocaust through the overlapping of Israel and Nazism, namely racism, genocide, ruthless elimination of civilians, women and children, an utterly unwarranted eruption of cruelty and the most brutal instincts. It means pretending to believe blindly, without investigation, the Palestinian version of a highly disputed episode and of many, many others. It means taking for granted the 'atrocities' that the Palestinian spokespersons always talk about, and ignoring every proof or fact that doesn't serve its position." Mr. Fallows' careful expose about the cause of the Arab boy's death was largely ignored by the world press, while the much more calculated murders of Israeli children continue to be perceived as equivalent casualties. Over the course of the current intifada, no one phrase has created as much of a firestorm as the "massacre at Jenin." In April 2002, shortly after the IDF invaded a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank city, Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nations' special envoy in the region, described the scene as "horrific beyond belief." Mr. Larsen's shocked vision was quoted widely in the world press, and trumpeted by the Palestinians as evidence of Israeli brutality. Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat charged that Israel had massacred 500 Palestinians. That number made its way from the CNN screens to the U.N. Security Council, which demanded immediate access to the scene. The worst journalistic excesses occurred in the British press. The Independent, the Telegraph, and the Times all quoted the same lone Arab, who said he saw Israeli soldiers heap 30 bodies beneath a half-wrecked house. "When the pile was complete, they bulldozed the building, bringing its ruins down on the corpses. Then they flattened the area with a tank," he said. The Telegraph reported that hundreds of victims "were buried by bulldozer in [a] mass grave." The Evening Standard stated, "We are talking here of massacre, and a cover-up, of genocide." The Times reporter wrote that "rarely, in more than a decade of war reporting from Bosnia, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, have I seen such deliberate destruction, such disrespect for human life." The Guardian called Israel's actions in Jenin "every bit as repellent" as Osama bin Laden's attack on New York on Sept. 11. "Massacre evidence growing" read a headline on the BBC Web site on April 18, 2002. People around the world assumed this to be true, not only because it had been carried by BBC News, widely considered to be the standard bearer for reportage from the world's combat zones, but also because a U.N. aid worker and a host of other media organizations across Europe said it was so. In truth, though, there was no massacre. When the facts emerged months later, both the United Nations and Human Rights Watch confirmed what Israel had been saying all along: the final fatality figures were 26 Palestinian fighters, 26 civilians and 23 Israeli soldiers. (The military casualties would have been much less and civilian death toll much higher had the IDF chosen to subject Jenin to aerial bombardment.) Yet acknowledgment of the truth in the media, not to mention published corrections, has been paltry or nonexistent. To many, the vision of a slaughter at Jenin remains indelible. John Ward Anderson, the Washington Post's Jerusalem correspondent, recalls that his newspaper did not buy into the massacre story. ("We don't consider it our responsibility to run around correcting mistakes that others have made.") But on April 11, 2002, his immediate predecessor in Israel, Lee Hockstader, wrote a long account of the fighting in Jenin that was clearly sympathetic to Palestinian claims. The Post never subsequently acknowledged Mr. Hockstader's mistaken reporting. Conservative columnist William F. Buckley was one of the few to doubt the Big Lie of the Jenin "massacre," almost as it was happening. In an essay at the time in the National Review, he noted the stereotype of "the Arab as a born liar" that had been observed by various 19th-century British explorers, one of whom wrote that "out of the very stones they will fabricate such a tower of falsehood that you can only stand and gape in wonder and admiration at their fruitful invention." The line between government and media is virtually nonexistent in the Palestinian press. Violence against both Americans and Israelis is routinely celebrated by the Palestinian Authority. A music video broadcast repeatedly on the official PA television channel rhapsodizes about the deaths of U.S. soldiers. Palestinian textbooks talk about how to eradicate the evil of Israel. The central square in Jenin was renamed to commemorate the Iraqi suicide bomber who killed four U.S. Marines at a checkpoint in Iraq. For years, sermons preached in Palestinian mosques and broadcast on radio and TV stations have praised attacks on the United States. "Oh, Allah, destroy America, for she is ruled by Zionist Jews," intoned Sheik Ikrima Sabri, the mufti of Jerusalem. "Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them." A thorough database search found no European news outlet that reported the fact that there was dancing in the streets of Gaza following the deaths of Americans or Jews. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, homicide bombers are still glorified in the PA media, mosques and schoolbooks. They are also celebrated in summer camps that are named for "martyrs" and their dispatchers. Palestinian textbooks containing messages extolling Jihad and Shahada (martyrdom) have not been changed. Even some American Muslim clerics urge their followers to pursue the path of Jihad by destroying Jews and Americans alike, whom they call "pigs and monkeys." That Western journalists are intimidated by the Palestinians is patent. A number of non-partisan sources: the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, Freedom House and even Palestinian rights groups have observed that the PA routinely harasses, arrests, beats and tortures journalists who print or report items critical of the PA or chairman Yasser Arafat. Such pressures feed into the pervasive phenomenon of reporters' self-censorship. Last May, at least three men attempted to kidnap James Bennet, the New York Times bureau chief who was reporting from a hospital in the Gaza Strip. They tried to shove him into a Mercedes sedan that pulled up, its rear door open. A struggle and cries for help brought police officers at the hospital running, and Mr. Bennet escaped. No Arab regime bears a democratic sense of responsibility to protect freedom of the press. PA intimidation is standard practice. The fear of physical harm is powerful. After having filmed the barbaric lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah, what else could have motivated an Italian broadcaster to apologize to the PA? In the past five months, at least 12 journalists have been attacked in the Palestinian territories in what appears to be an organized campaign to intimidate the media. Amid the shrill cries of outrage when Israeli soldiers detain journalists, there is no protest when worse happens at the hands of the Palestinians, such as when a photographer working for Agence France-Presse recently had his arms broken by a masked man in Ramallah. Meanwhile, all Palestinian media - newspapers, radio and television - remain under the absolute control of Mr. Arafat, who relies on incitement to bolster his public status. Many Middle East newspapers echo an almost identical anti-U.S. theme, modeled on images and quotes aired by Al Jazeera, which continues to refer to homicide bombings against Israeli civilians as "martyrdom operations." The harshest criticism of Al Jazeera, though, comes from dissident Arab journalists. According to outspoken Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, "Al Jazeera has a big problem with objectivity. They are being led by the masses, they don't lead the masses. They know the taste of the Arab street, and the Arab street is anti-American." Munir al-Mawari, an American reporter born in Yemen who worked for Al Jazeera in 2000, agrees. "It's well known that most of the journalists are either radical Islamists or Arab nationalists," he said. Mamoun Fandy, an Egyptian-American writer, argues that Americans are always portrayed on Arab television as barbarians, while Arabs are always depicted as heroic. It took 25 years, he said, for the Arab media to gain some credibility after Egyptian reporters announced during the 1967 War that Arab guns were bringing down Israeli planes like flies. "Their coverage of [the current intifada] could well cause them to lose it again," he said. Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli Arab, is the West Bank and Gaza correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and U.S. News and World Report. He previously served as a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report and a correspondent for Al-Fajr, a Palestinian newspaper. "In the Arab world, if you are an independent journalist or you criticize the regime, then you are branded a traitor and that kind of suppression of dissent is how dictatorial Arab regimes survive," he said. "When Palestinian journalists are intimidated, it affects foreign journalists, who depend on Palestinians to be their guides and translators in the territories. Many translators often mis-translate or even reprimand Palestinian interviewees critical of the Palestinian Authority, and foreign journalists' ability to accurately gather facts is thus hampered." According to Mr. Toameh, some in the foreign media knowingly hire journalists who are political activists, and rely heavily on them for their reporting, but keep quiet about their backgrounds. "It is hard to say if this is due to intimidation or to the need to maintain a good relationship with the PA, but it seriously affects the ability of journalists in the region to report the facts on the ground to the world," he said. "The bulk of the blame, however, rests with the PA, whose tyrannical approach and control of the media creates an atmosphere of intimidation and fear." Sometimes what is left out in the news is as telling as what is included. In a recent interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw, King Abdullah of Jordan blamed Israel for most of the problems in the Middle East. Mr. Brokaw asked some tough questions: "But isn't a lot of the burden also on the Palestinians, particularly on Yasser Arafat, and then just this week again Hamas has said, 'We'll send more suicide bombers across the border'" And, "Why isn't there more condemnation of the use of young Arabs, Palestinians particularly, as suicide bombers by you, by President [Hosni] Mubarak of Egypt, by the Saudis, by the other Arab leaders?" Unfortunately, these questions and the king's answers to them were excised from the interview that aired on television. Although NBC did report that Prince Nayef, the Saudi interior minister, said, "Al-Qaida is backed by Israel and Zionism," the network provided no explanation as to why it edited King Abdullah's remarks, even though Mr. Brokaw ostensibly has editorial control over NBC News. Similarly, how many Western papers carried the recent story of a U.N. ambulance being commandeered by Palestinian terrorists? (Very few.) How many of the Washington Post's readers would know that its coverage of President Bush's recent speech to the Newspaper Association of America omitted his pointed praise of the Israeli initiative to withdraw from Gaza, his condemnation of Palestinian leadership, and his concern about Iran's potential nuclear weapons threat against Israel? (None.) "One of the conceits of journalism," said Eric Rozenman of CAMERA, "is the Big Lie. When it is bought into by journalists covering the Middle East, it forces Israel to operate on an uneven playing field." Andrea Levin, CAMERA's executive director, is more blunt. "If journalists don't understand that Arabs want to destroy Israel, then they get everything wrong," she said. The PA employs the Big Lie regularly and effectively. For example, reports that Israel uses poison gas on Arab children have been aired repeatedly without any apparent attempt to question their veracity. The PA and its predecessor, the PLO, often doctor or misrepresent photographic images such as one of a bloodied Jewish student beaten by Palestinians, but presented to the world as a Palestinian student beaten by Israelis. (In a now famous videotape, a corpse being borne aloft in a funeral procession suddenly jumps off and runs into the crowd.) On the other hand, few papers report the fact that Palestinians regularly use ambulances to transport terrorists and arms. The ultimate Big Lie is that "occupation" and oppression of the Palestinians is the root cause of their conflict with Israel. But there was anti-Zionist violence long before any occupation began in 1967 as in the bloody Arab pogroms of the 1920s and '30s, long before there was any Jewish state at all, much less "settlements." By now, though, a large and growing portion of the Arab population has been indoctrinated by the PA and Hamas to aspire to an exclusive homeland, a sovereign Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. That is the mantra preached in the mosques and taught in the classrooms: Jews are infidels, evil usurpers of land and right and swallowed all too eagerly by Europeans. The dynamic of the Big Lie dilutes language and turns history on its head. Only people with an appreciation of historical fact recognize that the root cause of the conflict is not occupation but anti-Semitism. As Cynthia Ozick wrote recently in a long and thoughtful essay in the New York Observer, "Because history has been assaulted and undermined by worldwide falsehoods in the mouths of pundits and journalists, in Europe and all over the Muslim world, the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism has finally and utterly collapsed." The Palestinians' European sympathizers feel that Israel is a pariah among nations, an unnecessary thorn in the geopolitical thicket of the region, if not of the world. Scholars call for an academic boycott of the Jewish state. Others advocate an economic boycott of this "apartheid regime." No British or French or German journalist asks the question, if Arabs can live peacefully in Haifa, as they do, why should not Jews be allowed to live peacefully in Hebron? It may be understandable why Arab journalists, largely controlled or intimidated by their tyrannical governments, would promulgate falsehoods, but why wouldn't their European counterparts be more like the comparatively circumspect and balanced American media? Mr. Rozenman credits "the great American tradition of news consumers talking back. They don't have that in Europe." For this reason, CAMERA has set up programs in Europe to assist Jewish groups there in challenging biased news reporting. In view of the worldwide media bias that persists and appears to be growing, however, how successful can such efforts be? Journalists, said Mr. Rozenman, especially Americans, are sensitive to criticism, although they don't always agree with it. This is especially true when they are held accountable to their own Code of Ethics, which is what CAMERA and Honest Reporting, another Middle East watchdog organization, seek to do. Both CAMERA and Honest Reporting take credit for the change in tone and substance of dispatches by Reuters, one of the world's largest news-gathering wire services. Similarly, for several years the Associated Press steadfastly refused to acknowledge the clear connection between the terrorist organization Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the PA until it reported last week that the PA prime minister himself, Ahmed Qureia, said, "We have clearly declared that the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah. We are committed to them and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group." "The language of the conflict sets peoples' unconscious parameters and perceptions," said Mr. Rozenman. "Reuters is a big stone in a big pond that ripples out to many news disseminators around the world. Thought is all semantic, and the psychology of war depends on the mobilization and accuracy of language." Correspondent Jim Besser says that European hostility toward Israel is more complicated. "Some of it is simple anti-Semitism; some a desire to pull for the underdog [perceived to be the Palestinians], some that it is more exciting to report from a besieged Arab town," he said. All such bias, Mr. Besser said, runs counter to objective journalism. The National Unity Coalition is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" To Go To Top

WORLD VISION INTERNATIONAL'S PRO-PALESTINIAN AGENDA Posted by NGO Monitor Organization, August 16, 2004.

Founded in 1950, World Vision International describes itself as "a Christian relief and development organization working for the well being of all people, especially children." Operating in 92 countries worldwide, it carries out its mission "through emergency relief, education, health care, economic development and promotion of justice." World Vision claims to be "an independent private Christian organization and is not formally affiliated with any government, denomination, foundation or corporation." According to its website, almost 80 percent of the organization's funding comes from private sources, including individuals, corporations and foundations. The remainder comes from governments and multilateral agencies. World Vision's 2003 Annual Report states that $1.25 billion was raised in cash and goods for the organization's work, of which $59.5 million was expended on humanitarian programs in the Middle East and Eastern Europe regions. World Vision has operated in the Middle East region since 1975 and has a number of ongoing projects, including: Child Sponsorship; Education; Health; Area Development Programs; Living Stones Housing Project; Emergency Relief. These activities, while relatively small scale, are focused on the Palestinian population. World Vision's Partnership income for "Jerusalem / West Bank / Gaza" amounts to $219,000. It is important to note that World Vision's report has no direct reference to Israel, instead treating Jerusalem as a separate entity tied to the Palestinian Authority. Instead, in keeping with the organization's Christian ethos, World Vision refers to the region as "the Holy Land". The organization's Brief History of the region repeats many of the standard Palestinian myths and distortions. For example: "In 1948 a war broke out resulting in the establishment of Israel on 77% of historic Palestine." Pointedly, in using the passive tense, the authors of this summary fail to mention the Arab invasion that led to the war. Similarly, the profile offers no background or context to the 1967 Six Day War that led to Israel's control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip simply stating: "In 1967 Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip." The current Palestinian campaign of violence is blamed solely on Israeli policies leading to Palestinian "disillusionment", Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount and the failure of Camp David. World Vision, strangely, quotes an Israeli death toll of 302 in the period September 2000 to March 2003, some hundreds less than the accurate figure for that time. By quoting a significantly higher Palestinian death toll and ignoring the terrorism that was responsible for the deaths of Israeli civilians, World Vision promotes an amoral equivalence between perpetrators and victims of terror, and offering no context to the loss of life. Instead, Israeli security measures are described as "a policy of sealing entries and exits to cities, villages, and towns as a form of collective punishment of the Palestinian population." World Vision's casual attitude towards Israeli security is demonstrated in a December 17, 2002 news article "Bethlehem has little to rejoice about at Christmas" which states: "Bethlehem's population of 120,000 is under collective punishment. The reason given by Israel for re-entering Bethlehem is because the last suicide bomber to blow up a bus in Jerusalem was from the Bethlehem area." Other news archives demonstrate a lack of context behind events. For example, a January 5, 2004 news article "World Vision helps 245 homeless families in Rafah" claims that "One hundred homes were demolished and another 70 were severely damaged during an Israeli army incursion on October 10th," failing to mention the terrorist activities and weapons smuggling tunnels that prompted the Israeli military operations. World Vision's response to Israel's security barrier also displays almost no acknowledgement of this impact of this obstacle in preventing terror. For example, Tim Costello, Word Vision Australia's Chief Executive described the barrier as "part of the problem, not part of the solution", in a July 14, 2004 op-ed in The Age (Melbourne). Costello evokes the highly politicized and inappropriate claim that the barrier "is reminiscent of the Cold War and Eastern Bloc oppression." (Costello's comparison reflects the Palestinian propaganda effort to compare the Berlin Wall, designed to keep citizens from fleeing, with Israel's security barrier, which saves the lives of its citizens.) These issues are noted in Colin Rubinstein's response to Costello, who also points to reliance on the faulty advisory decision of the ICJ, in response to the highly politicized indictment from the UN General Assembly. Analysis of World Vision International's website also reflects the clear political agenda, with little attention to entirely legitimate Israeli security concerns, as well as a total disregard for the effects of Palestinian terrorism on the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thus, World Vision's activities in the region reflect a strong political bias, with a high level of misunderstanding and negative attitudes displayed towards Israel, while encouraging or at least condoning terrorism and incitement. This agenda is entirely inconsistent with the claimed emphasis on "economic development and promotion of justice". The NGO Monitor organization (www.ngo-monitor.org) promotes critical debate and accountability of human rights NGOs in the Arab Israeli Conflict. The Monitor is produced by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Institute of Contemporary Affairs. To Go To Top

US CODDLES SAUDIS (AND OTHER ITEMS) Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 16, 2004.

FOR LOVE OF AN ARAB The Jewish woman arrested for plotting terrorist was in love with an Arab commander. That is said to be her motive in offering to be a human shield for that murderer of her people (Voice of Judea, 8/10). I know what love is. Her feeling is not love. I did whatever my wife genuinely needed, but would not have murdered innocent people to please her, and would not have felt her worthy of love if murder would please her. The Israeli woman must have a sadistic insanity, an ideology gone awry, plus infatuation. Love can make people foolish, but not like that. Nevertheless, when Arabs come by, Israelis should put the cows in the barn, the computers and cars locked up, and daughters off the beaches. Am I kidding? Not entirely. I had kept a few years of statistics of Arab crimes against the Jews in Yesha and in Israel. They specialized in stealing cattle and computers, cars, agricultural equipment, and land. Arab rustlers put some Jewish farmers out of business. The US media ignored the story. ANOTHER ARMS SMUGGLING ROUTE TO THE P.A. Bedouin are smuggling arms from the Negev into the Hebron area of Judea (IMRA, 8/10). THOSE BEDOUIN OUTPOSTS update According to Voice of Judea, tens of thousands of illegal immigrant Bedouin are being offered compensation to move from illegal outposts to established villages, while unauthorized Jewish outposts are about to be unceremoniously torn down (Op. Cit.) perhaps illegally. SUDAN COMMITTING GENOCIDE WHILE PRETENDING TO STOP IT The UNO calls the Darfur conflict "the world's worst humanitarian crisis." Sudan pledged to stop the genocide against non-Arabs in that part of the country. Instead, it barred foreign relief for the victims enrolled into its police guard some militias committing much of the mayhem, arrested 49 people who spoke out against the genocide, and claimed it was cracking down on war criminal but convicted petty criminals. Human Rights Watch stated, "Incorporating the Janjaweed militias into the security services and then deploying them to protect civilian 'safe areas' is the height of absurdity." (Jane Wardell, NY Sun, 8/11, p.1). The "world's worst humanitarian crisis?" Then why accept the word of the genocidal regime that it will stop the militias and that no international force is needed to stop (the regime and the) militias? The UNO is an excuse for inaction. I must have missed it when Human Rights Watch protested that the P.A. uses the same tactic as the Sudan. For consistency, surely Human Rights Watch denounced the absurdity of the P.A.'s plan to recruit terrorist militias into the P.A. police forces being refurbished, supposedly to crack down on terrorism. Or is Human Rights Watch consistent when it comes to Israel? SUPPOSE THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT THE NAZIS OR COMMUNISTS? The "Jerusalem Post" endorsed the Reform Judaism position that it cares for both the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs, and that it wants dialogue between them and peace. The "Post" went on to lament that there can be no deal with the P.A. until Arafat loses power over it. Meanwhile, it suggests that Israel find a way to get relief from terrorism and allow the P.A. to reform (Foreign Ministry, 8/10). How? Don't propose the impossible as if that were a solution! There is no indication of P.A. reform of jihad and terrorism and intolerance. None! Those who talk about reform must be referring to fiscal reform that is irrelevant to the Arab-Israel conflict and phony police reform, which is a euphemism for re-outfitting and streamlining the terrorist forces. Any decent person who proposes such "reform" has not given it sufficient thought. The problem is that the Arabs are as driven by a thirst for conquest as ever the Nazis were. During WWII, would the forerunner of the "Jerusalem Post" have cared for both the Russians and the Germans, and call for dialogue and peace? Would it suggest there can be no deal with the Nazi regime until Hitler stopped leading it, but there could be with his designated successor? Would it suggest that Russianss try to avoid getting killed and let the Third Reich reform? HOW "HAARETZ" VIEWS CHECKPOINTS IN YESHA Arabs lodged 1,500 complaints about soldiers at checkpoints. The abuse is widespread, but only a few led to convictions. The answer is to eliminate the checkpoints, because although they were designed to bar terrorists, they "destroy the character" of the guards (Foreign Ministry, 8/9). The editor assumes that if there are many complaints, they must be true, and that Israeli investigations and trials are cover-ups. However, Arabs accuse baselessly. I have reported Arab abuses at checkpoints, and soldiers not being allowed to deal with this properly. That, "Haaretz" ignores. Even if there were many Israeli abuses, eliminating the checkpoints would lead to innocent deaths. The answer would be to have older reservists specially trained to reduce tensions at checkpoints. That the IDF did. However, the Arabs come to make trouble. The answer is to withdraw Israeli support for the P.A. regime, bar P.A. Arab workers, and win the war, so the Arabs disperse from there. JUDAISM'S MESSAGE TO THE ARABS GETS THROUGH An Israeli Chief Rabbi was interviewed in Jerusalem on Arab TV. His message was that Judaism forbids the harming of Muslim holy places, and believes in peace. He asked that Muslim preachers spread a similar message of tolerance for the Jews. Al-Jazeera broadcast the interview 10 times and sold it to six other Arab stations (Arutz-7, 8/10). By contrast, when reporters from supposedly moderate Jordan cover Israel, they are ostracized by their professional organization. SUDAN'S MESSAGE ABOUT ISRAEL The Foreign Minister of Sudan told reporters that his government had "information that confirms media reports of Israeli support" for the rebels in Darfur. He was sure the next few days would reveal much Israeli contact with the rebels. (I'd be proud if Israel did. Why doesn't the US?) Israel considers the claim an attempt to blame it, in order to divert attention from Sudanese guilt (Nadia Abou El-Magd, NY Sun, 8/9, p.7). The Arabs constantly accuse Israel on the basis of alleged evidence not made public and therefore conveniently uncontestble. THE PRESBYTERIAN BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL Presbyterian Church officially, but not by membership vote, condemned Israeli defenses against terrorism. Without proof, it accuses Israel of perpetrating vicious attacks on civilians - it equated Israel's assassination of terrorist leaders with Arab attacks on innocent civilians. The Church plans to withdraw its investment in companies that spend more than $1 million in Israel. It calls Israel the root of terrorism, for imposing an occupation, which it didn't and doesn't, rather than the terrorists, who broke their peace agreements to resume the war, who made war before Israel controlled Yesha, and who pledge to continue the war if Israel were to withdraw from Yesha. Then the conflict is over the existence of a Jewish state, not Israeli control of Yesha. What does the Church really want? Judge by its endorsement of an Arab "return" to Israel. The numbers of hate-ridden Arabs in this migration would swamp the Jewish people and end their sovereignty (if not their lives). Thus the Church agrees with the Arabs that Israel should not exist. Israel is the only country the Church boycotts. Not chosen for a boycott were: China, which has occupied Tibet for half a century and commits crimes against humanity there; Iran, which threatens nuclear holocaust, executes dissenters, and denies freedom of religion; and N. Korea, Sudan, Russia, Belarus, and Cuba (Arutz-7, 8/10 from Alan Dershowitz). Why not boycott the terrorist P.A. and other Arab governments for preaching hatred? Strange conscience! SAUDI INITIATIVES S. Arabia proposes phony diplomatic initiatives, but is taken for earnest as a constructive international leader. It offers a plan that superficially seems new and hope-giving. The world dutifully applauds. The plan quietly collapses, but people remember that S. Arabia tried to help. In February 2001, Thomas Friedman drummed up a Saudi proposal to end the Arab-Israel conflict. Six weeks later, its ideas were seen to be old and failed. They amounted to a call for an end to the Jewish state in return for a promise to end the war. S. Arabia intervened against the Security Council resolution calling for a UNO presence in Iraq. S. Arabia then proposed an all-Islamic force, claiming it wanted to help Iraq. Meanwhile, it sends terrorists into Iraq. S. Arabia exempted itself from the all-Islamic force, suggesting that bordering states not participate. It further made difficulties by suggesting that the Islamic force replace the existing coalition forces. Iraq was not impressed (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 8/9, p.7). HOW B'TSELEM OPERATES B'tselem makes false or exaggerated charges against the government of Israel, and gives the government little time to reply. The reply usually is ignored by the leftist media, which sympathizes with the Arabs against an Israeli presence in Yesha The latest charge is that Israel practices apartheid. (The idea here is to accuse Israel of something in disrepute, however false.) In this case, the conditions described no longer exist. Thus the siege of P.A. cities ended long ago. Israel removed half of the roadblocks and checkpoints, because the fence improved security (and the US demanded it). The few dozen barriers in Hebron should not be called roadblocks; rather, they guard the entrance to the Jewish community. Roadblocks remain where the terrorist threat is strong, but B'tselem does not acknowledge that. B'Tselem declares closing off of certain roads illegal, even though imposed to contain terrorism (IMRA, 10/10 from Haaretz). The criticized measures are defensive, not apartheid. S. Africa was under no danger from the blacks, whereas Israel has been under Arab attack and treat of genocide for decades. Why doesn't B'Tselem condemn the terrorists? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

BENNY ELON PRESENTED HIS PLAN TO JORDAN'S CROWN PRINCE Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, August 16, 2004.

This was a news item in Arutz-Sheva today. MK Benny Elon, whom Prime Minister Sharon fired from his position as Tourism Minister because of his opposition to the disengagement/expulsion plan, presented his "Jordan is Palestine" plan to Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan. Elon disclosed to Arutz-7 today that his meetings with Hassan and other Jordanian officials took place several months ago in Jordan, while he was still a Cabinet minister. He said that the Prince said that his country would be hard-put to accept such a plan because it doesn't trust Israel: "They saw what happened in Lebanon [with the sudden abandonment of the Southern Lebanese Army - ed.] and with the collaborators in Yesha [Judea, Samaria and Gaza]," and also that Israel always gave precedence to diplomatic initiatives with the Palestinian Authority as opposed to with Jordan. Despite this reaction, MK Elon feels that if and when the U.S. agrees to recognize Jordan as "the representative of the Palestinians, and treats Israel-Jordan as the democratic axis in this region," including significant economic aid to Jordan, "our neighboring kingdom's leadership will view this plan much more sympathetically." MK Elon headed Yeshivat Beit Orot in Jerusalem before entering politics, and succeeded the murdered Rehavam Ze'evi as head of the Moledet Party. The Elon peace plan, entitled "The Right Road to Peace," calls for the residents of the refugee camps to be resettled in Arab countries, while other Arabs living in Yesha will become Jordanian citizens. "The first to go [to Jordan] will be the terrorists, of course," Elon said, "while those with property here and who have been living here for generations - they held Jordanian citizenship up until 1988, when King Hussein took it away - will continue to live in Judea and Samaria, but with renewed Jordanian citizenship." MK Elon will depart tomorrow for the United States, where he will continue to promote his plan among American leaders. He will also meet there with Jewish and Christian leaders in an attempt to increase their awareness of the dangers and negative ramifications of the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Holy Land. The Elon Plan, which is being mailed to all Jewish residents of Yesha this week, calls for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, which Elon says is an "entity without a future, whose existence precludes the end of the conflict." The plan also calls for Israel to take absolute steps to end Palestinian terrorism, including the collection of all weapons, dismantling of terrorist hotbed refugee camps, and the expulsion of terrorists and their accomplices. The next step in the Elon Plan is international aid to Jordan in recognition of its role as the only representative of the Palestinian people and to help it absorb a certain amount of refugees. In this connection, Haggai Segal reports that Jordan has greatly restricted, over the past few days, the granting of entry visas to Arab citizens of Judea and Samaria - leaving thousands of Arabs stranded at the bridges and entrances from Israel to Jordan. According to the plan, however, Israel will be sovereign over Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with Arab residents receiving Jordanian citizenship. The last stages of the plan involve an internationally-funded completion of the "exchange of populations" that began in 1948 between Jews of Arab countries and Arabs in Israel. This will include the complete absorption of the former refugees in the various countries. Israel and Jordan will then declare the end of the conflict between them and will establish full and friendly relations. The plan makes clear that a small, sliced-up and crowded Palestinian state in the areas of Judea and Samaria, aside a threatened and narrow Israel - such as envisioned in the Road Map plan - is a sure recipe for war in the near future. MK Elon explained that he distributed his plan to the residents of Yesha because, "We saw, during our campaign against the disengagement plan for the Likud Party referendum, that this population has fantastic quality. The determination and the dedication and talents of these people who, by going from house to house, actually changed public opinion [a reference to the fact that the plan enjoyed majority support amongst the Likud membership until the Yesha residents went from house-to-house over the course of 2-3 weeks, leading to a 60%- 40% victory against the disengagement - ed.]." "I believe that if this population studies the plan, and gets to know it, and makes comments on it - we, the [right- wing] politicians, were not able to come up with an agreed-upon plan, but maybe this public will be able to. Just like the Oslo Plan fell, and the Road Map fell, and Sharon and his disengagement will fall - the public will come to us and ask us, 'What do you propose?' - and then, we must not hesitate or stutter! We must have a serious plan, one that is on the table and known, and that is what will win." Segal asked, "Your problem, however, is not in convincing the Israelis, but rather in persuading Jordan to agree to take on the role you're assigning it." Elon: "This is something I learned from Arik Sharon. First we have to convince the Israelis, then the Americans, and only then - everyone else. It's inconceivable that we keep looking for a partner, checking what they'll agree to, and building our positions based on that - as [Yossi] Beilin did. I believe that in Jordan we have with whom to talk." Here he disclosed that he had met with Hassan, and that the meeting was "not at all bad." Relating to the understandable Jordanian fear that a surplus of Palestinians will overthrow the Hashemite Kingdom, Elon said, "There is no reason for us to view the situation as if the Palestinian state will be formed there; rather, for us, the Jordanian government as it now stands is much better than any Palestinian Authority that could arise there... In short, Hassan made it clear that under certain circumstances, he could agree to this plan - and that Jordan was originally not even in f! avor o f detaching itself from the Palestinians, as King Hussein did in 1988." Asked whether he had discussed his plan with Prime Minister Sharon, MK Elon said, "Yes, and more than once. I reminded him that he himself had said many times that Jordan is Palestine. He said that now, however, we have a tactical need for Jordan, in that it does much of the work of protecting our border. This is of course good, but we need to have a comprehensive strategic plan that will end the conflict - as the only one who gains from its perpetuation is Arafat, not Israel. We must know that the British gave up 78% of its mandate - the historic Land of Israel - in order to create a Palestinian state on it; this is much to be regretted, but it is inconceivable that on the remaining 22%, yet another Palestinian state should be formed. We have to know and make it clear - first of all to ourselves - that Sharon wants to return us to the Green Line. He says he wants to preserve the settlement blocs, but really he is fooling everyone, in! cludin g, possibly, himself; pay no heed to his act of getting upset at Olmert for saying it aloud." To Go To Top

HOW ARAFAT'S GUNMEN SUPPRESS THE NEWS Posted by Jeff Jacoby, August 16, 2004.

Two days after the liberation of Baghdad, a senior news executive at CNN disclosed that his network had for years been sanitizing its reports from Iraq. In an op-ed column titled "The news we kept to ourselves," Jordan Eason confessed that CNN routinely chose not to report on the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. To have revealed the truth, he wrote, "would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff." Suppressing news by threatening reporters with violence or death is one of the dirty little secrets of Middle East journalism. In his 1989 memoir From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman wrote that "physical intimidation" was a major impediment to honest reporting from Beirut during the years when southern Lebanon was in the grip of Yasser Arafat's PLO. "There were ... stories which were deliberately ignored out of fear," Friedman admitted. "How many serious stories were written from Beirut about the well-known corruption in the PLO leadership ... It would be hard to find any hint of them in Beirut reporting before the Israeli invasion." Instead of reporting what they knew, journalists censored themselves. "The Western press coddled the PLO," Friedman acknowledged. "For any Beirut-based correspondent, the name of the game was keeping on good terms with the PLO." That was more than 20 years ago. Has anything changed? In the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accord, Arafat and the PLO assumed control of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank. Reconstituted as the Palestinian Authority, or PA, they lost no time cracking down on the press. Arafat's "security forces have made more than 30 arrests of journalists and editors," the Columbia Journalism Review noted in 1996. "Although they have been almost completely freed from the Israeli yoke of military censorship, Palestinian journalists are being fettered in new ways. Reporters Sans Frontieres, a watchdog group based in Paris, released a report ... deploring the Palestinian Authority's policy of suspending newspapers and employing threats and violence against journalists.... The result is a tame, compliant press that ... rarely engages in investigative journalism and publishes only ...'vegetarian' criticism of the regime." Khaled Abu Toameh, a veteran Arab reporter who covers Gaza and the West Bank for The Jerusalem Post and US News and World Report, noted recently that no credible, professional reporter can get a job at the three major Palestinian newspapers. "There are many professional Palestinian journalists," he told the Middle East Forum last April, but they can only find work with the non-Palestinian press. Unfortunately, the intimidation of journalists extends to the wider Arab and Western media too. On Sept. 11, 2001, Americans were shocked by footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets to celebrate the terrorist attacks on the United States. But those scenes disappeared from the airwaves soon after - not because they weren't newsworthy, but because the Palestinian Authority gave orders to suppress them. An Associated Press cameraman was summoned to a PA security office and warned not to release the material he had filmed. A top aide to Arafat told the AP's Jerusalem bureau that if the footage were aired, "we cannot guarantee the life" of the cameraman. Other news outlets were likewise ordered not to use any images of the 9/11 revelry. Most of them caved, and the images dried up. Journalists like to cultivate a reputation for fearlessness, for a publish-and-be-damned commitment to putting out the story no matter what. The reality is not always so heroic. Sometimes the media are not fearless at all - and their coverage, or lack of it, can amount to collaboration with dictators or thugs. Meanwhile, the intimidation goes on. In June, Abu Toameh reported in The Jerusalem Post that the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, an armed wing of the PLO's Fatah faction, admitted responsibility for a beating that left an Agence France Press photographer with two broken arms. In July, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate - an Arafat front group - warned that any reporter caught covering clashes between rival groups in Gaza would be punished severely. Just last week, armed gunmen threatened to attack journalists working for Arab satellite stations unless they stopped covering the current turmoil in the Palestinian Authority. "People in the rest of the world ...do not get an accurate picture of what happens in the region," Abu Toameh said in April. "Partly to blame are foreign journalists who allow themselves to be misled.... The bulk of the blame, however, rests with the PA, whose tyrannical approach and control of the media creates an atmosphere of intimidation and fear." For too many journalists, it seems, keeping on good terms with Palestine's bad men is still the name of the game. Jeff Jacoby is a syndicated columnist for The Boston Globe. This article appeared yesterday in the Boston Globe and is archived at http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/ articles/2004/08/15/how_plo_suppresses_the_news/ To Go To Top

THE AM-PAKT AFFAIR: Part 2 Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, August 15, 2004.

Part 1 of this article is below: http://www.think-israel.org/aug04bloged.html#aug04.60 Oh what a tangled web we weave... (Sir Walter Scott) Michael Moore must have scraped the bottom of the editing-room barrel in order to salvage a seemingly insignificant scrap of an interview which has Porter Goss, nominee for CIA Director, confessing that he's language-challenged and unqualified for a job in the CIA. "I don't have the language skills....We're looking for Arabists today ..." An "honest" statement from a politician who clearly had a communication problem with the former head of Pakistani intelligence - who he just happened to be having breakfast with on the morning of 9/11 - the same man who had ordered $100,000 to be wired into hijacker Mohammed Atta's account a few weeks earlier. Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the US Senate select committee on intelligence, must have also misunderstood the ISI chief's intentions on that fateful morning because after the attack occurred, he told reporters that Mahmud Ahmed, director general of Pakistan's intelligence service, was "very empathetic, sympathetic to the people of the United States." (Vero Beach Press Journal, September 12, 2001). But, in truth, one has to wonder if the heart of Al Quada's paymaster wasn't leaping for joy as Atta's plane hit the tower. A few days after the attack, in a PBS interview, Graham remained remarkably sympathetic, understanding and diplomatic towards the Pakistani leadership, while admitting the Taliban-US connection: I was in Pakistan two weeks ago, met with the President and other leading officials of that nation. They are in a very difficult situation. The Taliban started in Pakistan. There are parts of the Pakistani population that feel a strong affinity for the Taliban. Pakistan has been the United States ally for most of the period of the Cold War and was a major staging ground for our support in Afghanistan when we were attempting to eject the Soviet Union. (PBS Newshour "Congressional Action" September 14, 2001) About two weeks before the attack, Graham had led a three-member Congressional delegation, including ( you guessed it) Porter Goss and Jon Kyle to Islamabad to review aspects of Pakistan-US relations. The delegation met the ambassador to Pakistan from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, Abdul Salam Zaeef (at that time Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the only three countries that recognized the Taliban regime). "The Afghan Islamic Press reported that the staffers discussed the extradition of Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire living in Afghanistan who is wanted in the United States....Zaeef assured US delegation that the Taliban would never allow bin Laden to use Afghanistan to launch attacks on the US or any other country." (Agence France Presse - AFP August 28, 2001) Methinks this goes beyond a language and comprehension problem, but nonetheless, after decades of wheeling and dealing with Pakistani intelligence services, the U.S. Government discovers that they need to hire more Arabic language experts to work in the FBI and CIA. But what good is a translator if her superiors slap a gag order on her ever time she discovers pertinent information? "Sibel Edmonds is a former FBI translator. She blew the whistle on the cover-up of intelligence that names some of the culprits who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. These culprits are protected by the Justice Department, the State Department, the FBI, the White House and the Senate Judiciary Committee. They are foreign nationals and Americans. Ms. Edmonds is under two gag orders that forbid her to testify in court or mention the names of the people or the countries involved." (Baltimore Chronicle, May 7, 2004) The case has proved to be a growing concern to the FBI because it touches on three potential vulnerabilities for the bureau: its ability to translate sensitive counterterrorism material, its treatment of whistle-blowers, and its decisions to classify potentially embarrassing material as secret. (New York Times, July 30, 2003) Daniel Ellsberg, the former US defense department whistleblower who has accompanied Edmonds in court, has stated: "It seems to me quite plausible that Pakistan was quite involved in this ... To say Pakistan is, to me, to say CIA because ... it's hard to say that the ISI knew something that the CIA had no knowledge of." - (The Guardian, Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004) I urge you to read the excerpts of the interview that Jim Hogue conducted with Ms. Edmonds at http://baltimorechronicle.com/050704SibelEdmonds.shtml and stay with this case. As US citizens, you must understand what's at risk here. It's a shame and embarrassment because the very foundations of the U..S. system of justice, and checks and balances has collapsed under unspeakable corruption, and dumb-downed American citizens are the last to know.. The world teeters on the brink, because accountability doesn't count when the careers, fortunes and reputations of the-powers-that-be are at stake. We're not much safer since 9/11 and although the cold war is over, things remain very, very hot. Why is the congress being so careful to avoid this particular scandal? Well, besides the already mentioned political egos at stake, this is a bi-partisan disaster and nobody's in a position to throw the first stone. And, it would be utterly humiliating for the U.S. Government to come forth to publicly acknowledge that in their race to end the cold war and maintain superpower hegemony, America behaved in a rather zealous and, occasionally, reckless manner. As a result, they ended up bolstering a nuclear power in an unstable and volatile region, promoting global Jihad, and toying with and endangering their good friends and fellow democracies, Israel and India.. Up until recently, nuclear Pakistan continued to enjoy immunity as it disseminated weapons and technology to at least a few of those nations appearing on America's list of states sponsoring terrorism. This list which includes Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, remained unchanged from 1993 up until recently, when Afghanistan was given the honor. It's incredible negligence that the defense establishment failed to include Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia on that list - they just never seemed to rate as part of the "axis of evil" - even though they have been running the show. Security issues should have certainly been separated from global political and economic concerns. Things like this don't happen in a vacuum, so let's go back about 25 years.... Noble Prize-winning former President Carter specialized in creating foreign policy nightmares. Michel Chossudovsky discloses that Carter's National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski confirms that it was the U.S. and not the Soviet Union who triggered the Soviet- Afgan War... "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention ..." (Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur, 15-21 November 1998) When asked if he regrets having supported Islamic fundamentalism and giving arms and advice to terrorists, Brzezinski responds: "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? " Well, only history will tell, Mr. Brzezinaki. And how can we forget that, "In 1979, President Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah of Iran to be deposed by a mob of Islamic fanatics. A few months later, Muslims stormed the U.S. Embassy in Iran and took American Embassy staff hostage." (Ann Coulter FrontPageMag April 1, 2004) And speaking of history, Ms. Edmond's delayed and gagged case sheds incredible light on what would have happened had Jonathan Pollard gone through "proper" American channels, once he discovered that the U.S intelligence community had reneged on their agreement with Israel and were withholding crucial security information in violation of established US-Israel understandings. The materials that Pollard passed on to Israel 20 years ago take on a startling relevance in this post 9/11 era. His information and actions saved Israel from catastrophe. The information included data on Soviet arms shipments to Syria, Iraqi and Syrian chemical weapons, the Pakistani atomic bomb project, Libyan air defense systems, as well as planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets. Time was of the essence and waiting-out gag orders was probably not an option. There's something else that Pollard gave Israel which may clue us into why Porter Goss, George Tenent and Casper Weinberger are so reluctant to see him released. It seems, according to an article which appeared in the June 2003 issue of Moment Magazine, that Pollard gave Israel the 1984 list of Arab intelligence agents, including Osama Bin Laden. According to the author, Attorney John Loftus, former prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice, "Pollard's file shows that, contrary to what Congress was told, US intelligence knew perfectly well that they were laundering money through Saudi Arabia to fund known terrorists in their drive to oust the Russians from Afghanistan. To protect themselves from charges of negligence, senior members of US intelligence covered up the Saudi-Al Qaeda connection right up to 9/11." Here's what Goss, the man who had breakfast on 9/11 with the hijackers' paymaster had to say about Pollard, "He is one of the worst traitors in our nation's history. There is absolutely no reason to let this guy out of jail. None." I believe that what lawmakers Goss. Graham, Kyle and every other President and advisor since Carter dread, is the possibility of a disclosure of the money trail. It would be a supreme shame and heads would definitely roll. But heads are already rolling all over the Middle East, starting with Daniel Pearl's. And people with foresight and conscience, like Pollard, sit in prison or get slapped with a gag orders and lose their jobs, like Sibel Edwards. And, a lot of people are losing their lives. Israel is painfully familiar with this phenomena. Since the inception of Oslo, we've seen it happen time and time again. Last Friday, a Palestinian "policeman", who was issued an Israeli gun, ambushed and killed Shlomo Miller, father of seven. That's right, our Israeli leaders armed them as part of "peace" agreement and the CIA helped train the butchers who have turned our world upside down. And we're barred from utterly destroying the terrorist infrastructure, because either: 1) America is afraid that the monster that she birthed and nurtured over the years will be unleashed unless Israel shows restraint and capitulates. OR 2) America fears that Israel will stand-up as a sovereign nation and take unilateral action to defend herself, like she did in 1981 when she destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor. An action which the world now thanks us for. In the meantime, a few months before elections, Senator Graham, a Democrat, was rather pressed to get the nomination of Republican Goss approved as head Director of CIA. "I will be urging my colleagues to see that this nomination is considered as expeditiously as possible ... his support for the Joint Inquiry's recommended reforms of our Intelligence Community give me confidence that he will be a vigorous and visionary leader." (Miami Herald August 10, 2004) It would be a mistake for the American people to allow the Senate to endorse the nomination of Porter Goss as Director of the CIA, and not because of the little celluloid scap that Michael Moore found. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter and columnist. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

IMPRISONED TERRORISTS ON STRIKE Posted by Bryna Berch, August 15, 2004.

Aljazeera, among many other news sites, was most sympathetic. They write, 'The prisoners have submitted a list of demands, which include improved health and sanitary conditions, increased family visitation rights, an end to strip searches and to "arbitrary and indiscriminate beatings", among other things.' Doubtless, removing the glass separation with their visitors will improve sanitation and installing computers and cell phones in their cells will benefit their mental health. This is a news item in today's Arutz-Sheva (http://www.IsraelNN.com). Meals are not being served today to hundreds of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Israel - because they have embarked on a hunger strike. The terrorists demand better humanitarian conditions, though no fewer than 70% of them are estimated to have Jewish blood on their hands in one way or another. The strike is expected to spread from the 3-4 prisons in which it began today to many others across the country. "For inhumane people to demand humanitarian improvements is an absurdity bordering on contempt," said Yehudit Dasberg today. Mrs. Dasberg, who has been in the forefront in the struggle against releasing terrorists from prison, adopted her two young grandchildren after their parents - Yaron and Effie Ungar - were murdered in a Hamas terror attack in June 1996. "As far as I'm concerned," said Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi on Friday, "they can starve until they die." Prison Service officials said that they did not take this literally, and would in fact have medical staff on hand to ensure that this did not happen. Government officials have said, however, that they do not plan to give in to the terrorists' demands. The imprisoned terrorists demand the removal of the glass walls separating them from their visitors, as well as other improvements in their visiting arrangements. They also want telephones in their cells or wings, as well as the right to have cell phones, a computer in each cell, no Value Added Tax on their canteen purchases, air conditioners in their cells, no more body checks, and more. The Prison Service responded to their refusal to take meals by taking away the televisions from their cells, canceling all visitations and sports activities, and more. Prison and police officials say that they will not give in on any demands that have to do with security. "The jails have become, over the past few years, top headquarters for the Palestinian terror organizations," they say. Dozens of terror attacks have been planned during this period by imprisoned terrorists, with the aid of cell phones smuggled to them by visiting relatives. Some 850 such phones were found and confiscated over the past year. "We would rather see terrorists die of hunger than to see Israeli citizens murdered in terror attacks," unnamed prison officials said. The strike is not expected to be a short one. Jerusalem police have stepped up their preparedness to meet the threat of possible Arab violence in solidarity with the striking terrorists. PA prime minister Ahmed Qurei took advantage of the situation to demand the release of all 8,000 PA prisoners being held in Israeli jails. "The release of all the prisoners is an essential condition for any solution or progress in the peace porcess," he said today. "The government regards the prisoners issue as being at the top of its list of priorities." To Go To Top

GAZA, SECURITY WISE AND HISTORICALLY, IS PART OF ISRAEL Posted by Yoram Ettinger, August 15, 2004.

1. REDUCING TERRORIST PLATFORM. Israel's re-control of Gaza (given up in 1993) would REDUCE hate education (engine of homicide bombing), recruitment and training of terrorism, terrorist maneuverability, manufacturing and smuggling of terrorist equipment. General Earle G. Wheeler, former Chairman of the Joint C-O-S: "The occupation of Gaza by Israel would reduce the hostile border by a factor of five, and eliminate a source for raids and training of [Palestinian terrorists]...The strip serves as a salient for introduction of subversion and terrorism. Its retention would be to Israel's military advantage ... Gaza provides a salient into Israel..." (Memo to Defense Secretary McNamara, June 29, 1967. General Wheeler's analysis is doubly relevant in 2004, with a less predictable globe, with a more threatening Mideast, with a more horrific terrorism, with each area ceded by Israel to the PLO/PA - since 1993 - becoming a platform for terrorism, and with the PLO/PA establishing itself as a systematic violent violator of all commitments made since 1993. 2. JEWISH EXPULSION FROM GAZA dates back to the Romans (61 CE), Crusaders, Napoleon (1799), Ottoman Empire, British Mandate (due to the 1917 bombing), Arab anti-Jewish pogroms (1929) and Egypt's occupation of Gaza in 1948 (destroying the Jewish Kfar Darom, the birth place of Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yitzhak, the 2nd century contemporary of the icon, Rabbi Akiva). Each time, Jews returned to reconstruct Jewish presence. 3. JEWISH PRESENCE IN GAZA DATES BACK TO BIBLICAL TIMES: Abraham the Patriarch was punished for giving away Grar to the Philistines (near Dir Al-Balakh in today's Gaza); Joshua 15:47 ("This is the land of the tribe of Judah... Ashdod... Gaza..."); Judges 1:18 ("The tribe of Judah took over Gaza, Ashqelon and Ekron"); Kings A:5:4 ("and King Solomon controlled the area from the River... up to Gaza"); Kings A:18:7 (King Hezekiah re-occupied Gaza); Maccabees A:13:43 (Prof. Abraham Kahana's interpretation states that Gaza was re-taken by the Maccabees in 96 BC); Kadmoniyot 13:13:3 (King Alexander Yanai-Janaeus took over Gaza); Giorgio Gucci the traveler from Florence documented the 1384 Jewish production of wine in Gaza; Jewish presence was also documented by Bertandon de la Brocquiere in 1432, Benjamin of Tudela and Meshullam of Voltera in 1481, Felix Fabri in 1483, and George Sandys in 1611; Gaza was the home town of Rabbi Israel Najara, the author of the 16th century hymn "Yah Ribbon Olam"; "Land of Israel and Southern Syria - Travel Log", 1921 p.104 ("Jewish families lived in Gaza, during the 14th-17th centuries, next to the government office buildings"); p. 99 ('in 1884, Sepharadic Jews re-established Jewish presence in Gaza"); P.49 (In 1921 there were a few Jewish families in Gaza and Beer-Sheba). 4. A nation's fortune depends on the collective memory of its individual components, which is the foundation of national security and national history, without which there is no future. The geographic cradle of Jewish history/memory centers in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and not in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Netanya. Disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria amounts to severing Jewish nationhood from significant components of its memory/history, which could deteriorate into disengagement from the future. Yoram Ettinger is an expert on US and the Middle East affairs; a consultant to cabinet members in Israel; a former Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC; a former Consul General of Israel to Houston, TX; and a former Director of the Israel's Gov't Press Office. To Go To Top

'WHY DO THEY GIVE THEM GUNS?' (AND OTHER ITEMS) Posted by Moshe Feiglin, August 15, 2004.

Why Do They Give Them Guns? Those who are looking for rational considerations and national responsibility in the decision-making of the Israeli government will have a tough job. The decision by Rabin and the Oslo crowd to give weapons to the terrorists, although criminal, at least possessed a distorted logic. It was based on the assumption that the former murderers would suddenly change their spots and turn into innocent sheep. Since that time Israel has sunk into the depths of blood-letting and despair. Reality has a thousand times demonstrated the folly of the Oslo criminals, but despite this Sharon and his yes-men have announced their intention of operating the deed. No less grave is the fact that the same people who were responsible in the past are frequently involved in the crime. The person who was involved ten years ago, as a young general, in supplying weapons to the terrorists, and who as CGS watched from the sidelines and did nothing while IDF soldier Madhat Yusuf bled to death at Joseph's Tomb, is the same scoundrel who now, as Defense Minister, is taking steps to give weapons again to the terrorists. It seems that the Oslo criminals should be brought to trial not only in the name of justice, but simply to prevent the continuation of this dance macabre. One of the major activists against the Oslo Agreements was the late Shlomo Baum, who was Sharon's deputy in Unit 101. Shlomo said at that time: "Shimon Peres doesn't care if Israel becomes a heap of dust, as long as he (Peres) is standing on top of it". It is now becoming clear that this applies equally well to a whole group of heartless people who are sucking the marrow of what still remains of the Israeli banana republic. All kinds of officials who are representing Israel in meetings with the leaders of the murderers have indirect business links with them. Israeli politicians and apparatchiks suddenly becoming rich are now a widespread phenomenon. Most of the adult sons of Israeli prime ministers, from Yitzhak Rabin onwards, now live abroad. Israel is therefore currently enslaved by a leadership that has abandoned the national future and is mortgaging it for the benefit of their personal future. This reality recalls the describe of the Israeli leadership at the beginning of Megillat Ruth.The light at the end of the tunnel is the end of that story, that with G-d's help will repeat itself at the current moment in history. The Likud Conference This coming Wednesday the Likud Conference will be convened in Heichal Hatarbut in Tel Aviv, in order to urgently debate the subject of the Labor Party's entry to the government. Under Sharon's regime nothing is done in accordance with democratic culture or from good will. Although the demand to convene the Conference was made after the required number of signatures of Likud Central Committee members had been collected, Sharon naturally ignored the Likud Constitution and only after endless sessions of the Likud Court was the ruling given to convene the Conference. Congratulations for the successful efforts to hold this special session are due to a few stubborn people who did not give up in the face of the wall of cynicism constructed by Sharon. Congratulations are particularly due to Uzi Landau who led the move, to Shevach Stern and Natan Engelsman who initiated it, to MKs Gilad Arden and Miki Eitan who also put all their weight behind the efforts in the Likud Court and, last but not least, lawyers Yoram Sheftel and Yariv Levine who did all the excellent legal work on a voluntary basis. Sharon has already announced that he will not be obligated by the decisions of the Central Committee will not obligate him, but only by those of the Knesset. Sharon's words mean nothing, since everyone knows that if he were to prefer in a different situation the opinion of the party, he would have said the exact opposite. He is not a man of his word and there is therefore no point in attaching importance to what he says. However, for those who wish to understand the legal basis of the issue of who is authorized to decide regarding the Labor Party joining the coalition, here is a short explanation: The following appears in the Likud Constitution: "The Knesset faction shall represent the party in the spirit of the principles of the party, taking into consideration the decision of its authorized institutions, and shall act in every issue related to the activities and authority of the Knesset." The person signing the coalition agreements on behalf of the Likud is not the prime minister but the representative of the Knesset faction. The faction is obligated by the Likud Constitution to take into account the authorized Likud institutions, or in other words, the Likud Central Committee. A decision by the Likud Central Committee next Wednesday against the Labor Party joining the government will make it difficult to carry out this move. It is clear that Sharon doesn't give a damn for the Likud Constitution, the law, or any basic democratic values. He acts according to a kind of jungle instinct, judging who can hurt him or help him more. He doesn't really take much interest in arguments about justice, law, or democracy. He is far more concerned about the strength of the media, the Left, the Americans, money, etc. Many people think that to oppose him is useless, since he will continue on his way regardless, and even the coming conference won't shift him from the path of national destruction that he has chosen. However, deeper examination of the processes indicates that every tactical victory, and Sharon's ignoring of the Likud institutions and democratic processes, is bringing his political end ever closer. Sharon had the most stable government imaginable. The moment he turned his back on his party and joined forces with the Left, the process of decline began. If he had listened to the Central Committee, he would not have been forced to try and obtain legitimization for his path in the referendum of Likud members. His government would have continued peacefully. If he had acted in accordance with the results of the referendum, Sharon would not have found himself in a minority government and have to woo Daliah Itzik. Sharon is placing himself in the hands of his political opponents, attracting people who hate him from within and from without, and the signs of his fall and of the coming elections can already be seen on the horizon. It is reasonable to assume that next Wednesday the Likud Central Committee will give Sharon a means of retreat. It is however unlikely that Sharon will accept this chance. Who is a Foreign Body in the Party? Last week there was a confrontation on Radio Channel 2 between two founders of the Likud: Eli Shitrit (the head of the Tagar group) and Aharon Meltzer (the head of the Forum for Preservation of Likud Values), against the Director-General, Arik Barami. The confrontation between the two sides began when Barami decided to change the lock on the door of the office of the founders in Metzudat Ze'ev, and in practice to evict them from the building. Barami, as well as the legal advisor of the party, and in fact the entire party machine, are acting on behalf of Sharon and not on behalf of the party. "I broke into Akko jail", said Eli Shitrit to the interviewer, "so Barami's lock wasn't a real problem for me. The problem is the silencing of people in the Likud." To justify his action Barami explained that Manhigut Yehudit was using this office to oppose the disengagement plan. "So what's wrong with that?", asked the interviewer. "This is a foreign body in the Likud", said Barami, hoping that the media would be on his side. The heads of the founders explained how they had invited Manhigut Yehudit to join the Likud, how good it was that there was an ideological group in the Likud such as Manhigut Yehudit, and how ridiculous Barami's arguments were. "If there's a foreign body in the Likud", the founders concluded, "it's Barami's people and not Manhigut Yehudit". What's Happening in Manhigut Yehudit We are currently acting in several ways. The major one is the long-term building of belief-based consciousness and of the need for belief-based leadership for the State of Israel amongst all citizens of the country. The decline of the existing leadership has created a tremendous leadership vacuum, and without doubt at a certain stage the dam will burst and the public will joyfully accept the belief-based alternative. Our task is simply to continue to develop in preparation for that moment. For this purpose we are renewing the issue of the Metzuda newspaper that will be distributed personally to all Likud members. The first issue will be distributed, G-d willing, just before Rosh Hashana. Young Manhigut Yehudit members will distribute the newspapers and at the same time create links with all the Likud members. We are currently working on the newspaper and at the same time building Young Manhigut Yehudit. This is a long-term strategic move (we are thinking ten years forward) that will be carried out slowly but surely over a period of five years. We wish to address the Israeli public represented faithfully by members of the Likud. To construct an independent channel of communication with our target audience is a great challenge. The Lechatchila news sheet (that continues to appear regularly) built up the awareness of the need for Jewish Leadership amongst a public of synagogue goers. With G-d's help Metzuda will perform the same task amongst Likud members, and through them we shall reach the overall Israeli society. Apart from this long-term move we are also active within the party. We are constantly recruiting new members, and Sharon's attempts to prevent their enrollment in the Likud proves the importance of our efforts. We are taking legal steps to overcome the obstacle in the department for registration of new members in Metzudat Ze'ev, as well as other steps. Just as in politics, here also Sharon is trying to cause despair. We have to reach the opposite conclusion, of course. If Sharon is afraid of our recruiting, this is very important, and it is certain that if we are persistent and patient we shall succeed in overcoming the obstacles in the end. Intellectual activities are continuing all the time. Two new books from the Manhigut Yehudit library are currently being edited. One is a collection of articles written by Motti Karpel in Lechatchila. The other is a collection of articles written by Moshe Feiglin over the last ten years, and broadcast over Arutz 7, or published in various newspapers. From these books we can learn of the overall development of the belief-based philosophy of Manhigut Yehudit over the last decade. Both Karpel and Feiglin made accurate predictions of what is currently happening. These forecasts prove that the belief-based consciousness permits proper understanding of reality and provides the appropriate tools for confronting its challenges. The following is an example: "If someone thinks that Sharon's plans will be delayed because the Mafdal and Haichud Haleumi are in the government, he's making a bad mistake. Sharon will make use of them exactly up to the point when it will be possible to continue the process of destruction. He will then present them with a choice: to participate in the destruction, or to leave the government and allow Sharon to get the Labor Party and the Haredim to join his government." Our aim: To perfect the world in the kingdom of the Almighty - Manhigut Yehudit Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

YAMIN KITZONI - THE RADICAL RIGHT Posted by IsrAlert, August 15, 2004.

This was written by Isaac Kohn and appeared on the Arutz-Sheva website (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.Com) on August 10, 2004. It is archived at Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org). The news items are popping out like hot pop-corn kernels. The unbridled incitement and witch-hunt against unnamed members of the 'extreme right', and the cruel harassment of others like Moshe Feiglin and Noam Federman has created a media circus designed to silence the anti-expulsion protests. The trumped-up hype and hysteria is reaching a crescendo. Even staunch political figures from the 'right' side of the field, such as Effie Eitam and Tzachi Hanegbi have recently raised their voices in condemning the 'virtual' radical right and releasing the dam that will drown in its turbulent currents those the 'Left' labels as the 'Radical Right.' But who and what is the Radical Right? The students settled into their seats as the nine o'clock bell rang. Across the blackboard, in thick white chalk, were written two words, in bold four-inch letters. The instructor raised his hand indicating his desire to begin, Silence fell across the room. Pointing to the blackboard, he turned to the class. "Good morning and let us immediately begin today's lesson. Please note the two simple words in the phrase that I wrote here. Without further ado, I'd like the first volunteer to explain the phrase according to his or her understanding. The rest of you are to pay close attention and formulate your own conclusion. Each of you will get the opportunity to voice his opinion. Who'd like to be the first? "There, Avi. Please come to the front of the class and read the phrase out loud." Somewhat shy and a bit hesitant, Avi stood in front of the blackboard and read: "Radical Right." Swallowing, he began. "A Radical Rightist is a person whose ideas regarding these lands are considered outmoded, archaic and contrary to the opinions voiced by those who oppose and reject any ties to these lands. A Radical Rightist is one whose love for these lands is unquestionable; yet, in doing so, his mental capacity is always questioned. His wild assertion that these lands were liberated rather than occupied creates a sallow discomfort for those promoting the Islamic 'big lie' and therefore, the mere voicing of such an absurd position conveys the indecency of a Radical Rightist. As such, a person who places the Jewish values, morals and mores above all other considerations is a Radical Rightist worthy of persecution, expulsion, arrest and incarceration for daring to voice his convictions." Avi's adrenaline was at its peak. Someone in the back raised his hand to ask a question. The instructor motioned that there be silence and no question until Avi finished. "A Radical Rightist is one whose concern for his children and his neighbors, for Jews in general, are denounced as racial discrimination. For welcoming the fence as security against terrorism he is ostracized for promoting apartheid. A Radical Rightist is a person who insists that the primary responsibilities of the Israeli government are to ensure the safety and security of its citizens before any other considerations. And his insistence that establishing a terrorist state on these lands is sacrilegious, stupid and suicidal is dubbed moral ineptitude. "The Radical Rightist is the one who long-ago voiced the audacious and ludicrous prediction that the guns Israel gave the Palestinians would be used to kill and murder those same Jews who so benevolently demanded and succeeded in arming our enemies. And the Radical Rightist is stupefied that Israel will now, again, allow the Palestinian Authority terrorist-police to carry guns, with which they will be better equipped to murder more Jews." Avi was on a roll. The class was mesmerized, the silence palatable. All forty pairs of eyes were riveted towards the speaker. In the distance, the roar of fighter jets could be heard as they streaked towards another target. Avi paced in front of the class. His determined demeanor captivated his fellow students. "A Radical Rightist is one who insists that terrorism must be uprooted and eradicated and asserts that concessions are counter-productive. Demanding his G-d-given rights to these lands makes a person a despised Radical Rightist whose mere existence creates an uncompromising atmosphere and Arab reluctance to make peace. A Radical Rightist is the obstacle on the path to brotherly coexistence between Israel and her bitter enemies. If the Radical Rightist would only open his blind eyes and recognize the utopian Camelot being promulgated by the 'other side', then tranquillity and well-being would envelope the Middle East. A thousand years of serenity would reign supreme. If only..." "Wait a minute, Avi," the instructor interrupted as the students shifted in their seats. Some began to discuss what they had just heard. The instructor raised his voice requesting silence. "Who, exactly is the 'other side' you mentioned? Do you mean the Left, a Radical Left?" Avi smiled. The audience was captivated by his oratory invective and he decided to aim for the jugular, "No! I don't mean the Radical Left. There is no such thing as a Radical Leftist." "There isn't?" queried the instructor. "No! There isn't. Radical Leftism doesn't exist. It's a non-starter of a phrase. It does not describe the 'other side' I am talking about." The instructor and class remained totally silent, waiting for Avi to explain. "You see, the 'other side' is the liberal, democratic, open-minded, progressive, tolerant, broad-minded, unprejudiced, generous and charitable sector of the Jewish world in general and the Israeli public in particular. The 'other side' is fair, impartial, honest, very moral and upstanding. The 'other side' seeks only justice and truth in their pursuit of one-sided evenhandedness. "Their demand that Israel cease all defensive actions, stop the fence construction, retreat from all land already ceased to the terrorists, remove all road obstacles intended to deter the next suicide bomber and allow the Palestinians unhindered movement, is not deemed radicalism, but rather fair treatment for the poor and underprivileged, Israel-inflicted, UN-supported refugees. Violence perpetrated by the 'other side' is not an act of violence, but a legitimate protest in the name of universal justice and liberalism. Therefore, there is no Radical Left, but only a Radical Right." Avi stopped for a second and looked around the room. Not a whisper. He continued: "When the Chareidi minority is labeled 'a cancer in our midst' and it is urged that they be 'pulled out by the roots,' the liberal media hardly mentioned it. When a judge labeled the same group 'lice', a loud yawn reverberated through the liberal ranks. When rabbis quote the Torah to indicate the issur of relinquishing lands, they are labeled 'radical rightist provocateurs.' Painting Mohammed as a pig is a shameless act of the Radical Right, as is a tee-shirt with the slogan 'No Arabs, No Terror.' Yet, Nazi caricatures of long-nosed, multi-tentacled figures of Chareidim in sinister black clothing is simply a legitimate act of frustration against 'forced religious indoctrination.'" The class sat mesmerized. With fist clenched, eyes brimming with the fire of passion, Avi raised his voice. "A Radical Rightist is an individual whose contrary opinion throws open the doors of administrative detention and incarceration without cause and shuts down the halls of justice; a person considered a danger, a menace, a threat and therefore his basic human rights are waved aside. Trumped-up charges, insinuations, arrests and harassment by the 'other side' are justified preventive measures. Preventive of what? Of exposing the Left's long-range plan for the dismantling of the State of Israel. "The Radical Right has no rights. "The Temple Mount is in danger of being blown up by these 'radical' men, the title of 'potential political killers' is branded into their forehead, their women are 'lunatics' and their children, disposable. No measures are deemed too severe in quelling the potential danger they may pose. The bright, liberal Left is the prosecutor, judge and jury and the Radical Right has no right to defend its beliefs. "Had our prophets lived today, each would have been labeled a Radical Rightist and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as seen fit by the 'other side.'" Avi stopped speaking and walked back to his seat. The thick silence in the class continued as the instructor walked over to the front of his desk. "Any more volunteers?" IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

ARIK'S WAR AGAINST THE JEWS Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 15, 2004.

You can no longer artfully avoid staring into the eyes of Sharon's assault on the Jewish nation - especially his assault against those who defy re-partition of the Land and uprooting of Jews from their homes. Sharon has used his best war-learned tactics to first assault small sections of his adversary and then move on to the next. Sharon is not alone in devising strategies to best pry the Jews from their Land. He is working closely with Washington - particularly the pro-Arab U.S. State Department and Jim Baker's Jew boys, Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Daniel Kurtzer (and later) Martin Indyk who offer advice on where the Jews are weakest. We already know his plans for Gaza, because much of those plans were adopted from the Oslo Accords, some from Yossi Beilin's Geneva plan and, of course, the Bush Road Map. We have learned about his tactics to cut off water and electricity in the manner of a Roman siege where the objective was to starve the population into submission. It appears as if Sharon always wanted to think of himself as a reincarnation of King David but, in reality, he looks more like Herod - cruel and not a friend of the Jews. Sharon had additional plans. While he had lied to the people about evacuating Gaza to save Judea and Samaria, he actually planned to evacuate both. This was the wish of his mentor Bush and the State Department. This we recently learned from Ehud Olmert. Now additionally we hear that Sharon and Bush will also force the Jews who live on the Golan Heights to evacuate. First Gaza, next the rest of YESHA, then the Golan and - finally those parts of Jerusalem dominated by Arabs, including the Temple Mount. Sharon's plan to divide and conquer comes from understanding the willingness of Jews to collaborate in their own surrender if they are promised peace - which never comes. Baker's Jew Boys understood this very well. Knock off a few and the rest will quickly forget and settle down. Observe how, afer a terrorist massacre the Jews quickly forget their rage, in 2 hours the blood is hosed off and in 2 days it's off the front page and out of the minds of the general public. We are masters of forgetfulness and masters of avoidance. So, what to do? First the Jews of Gaza, Yesha, the Golan, the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem must act as one. Any attack on one must be viewed as an attack on all. Know that Arik Sharon is now a creature of other nations and, therefore, like Herod is an enemy of the Jews east of his Border Wall. Any Jew of the political Right who does not fall into line with his re-partition plan is to be designated as an extremist. Soldiers and police who do not follow his orders to uproot their fellow Jews, despite their conscientious objection, are to be dealt with harshly. Clearly, the Jews both East of Sharon's Border Wall and those in the coastal cities who believe his re-partition plans are dangerous must appeal to all citizens of Israel. If the Jews of Gaza, Yesha, Golan, Jordan Valley, Jerusalem are not permitted to live in their homes than all of Israel will inevitably experience the same fate. Those of the Left who wish to dispossess their brother Jews of homes, land, farms, schools, synagogues, businesses, water and infrastructure must similarly be dispossessed and share the pain. The hostile Arab Muslims will see to it that happens because they will attack when the truncated Israel appears vulnerable. Let all those in Tel Aviv and Haifa who leave their homes in the morning, find that they too cannot go home. Let the streets be flooded with people who will hand out letters of explanation, asking drivers and walkers to join a national embargo against Sharon's internationalist plans to chop up Israel. Do not allow Sharon to cut off pieces of Israel and then go on to the next piece - for peace (?!) He and the State Department are counting on the Jews to respond in a loosely, fragmented manner so they do not have to face the full collective fury of the Jewish people and the Jewish Army. He is counting on Jews to engage in typical endless arguments and never unify into one force. Unfortunately, we Jews have earned this unenviable reputation of being easily misdirected aways from the subject of survival. Even the Romans understood this weakness - as described by Josephus in "The War of the Jews". As the Romans crept up, with sword in hand to cut our throats, the Jews paid no attention because they were consumed with arguing amongst themselves. So, dear Jews of Gush Katif, Judea, Samaria, Golan, Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, the Likud, and the political Right in the coastal cities - Get it right this time! There is a saying: "If you don't hang together, you will hang alone." "Hanging together" means staying together, united, to face an implacable enemy. Foreign interests hope to pacify the rising tide of Global Islamist Terror by sacrificing Israel. First of all, why should we allow ourselves to be sacrificed. Secondly, it won't work anyhow, because radical Islam has declared a Global Jihad for world domination - by the sword (today that's a missile). They have recruited naive Jews with promises of peace if only you "first sacrifice some of the Jews". That's what they (the Nazis) told the Judenrat of Europe. Just select some of your Jews for the round-up. We will re-locate them for work in a nice place and it will be better for those who remain. In the end, none remained - including the Judenrat. If you are prepared to stand up to the Golem of Jerusalem, the deluded Jewish warrior, don't stand up in small numbers but, stand together - like on July 25th, the day of the Human Chain when 200,000 men, women and children stood together from Gush Katif to the Kotel. And please do it soon. Forget about the date that Sharon tells you of when he will march against you with his specially trained squads. Any dates for evacuation you have seen are simply misleading lies. Sharon and his foreign interests already know they have action dates planned well in advance in order to insure your fragmentation and weakness. Move before he moves and, above all, force him out of his seat of power before he can accommodate the State Department, the E.U., the U.N., and the Bush Dynasty. (By the way, Kerry will be worse.) No doubt, Sharon plans some actions before the November Presidential elections. I fear the Likud Committee will not confront Sharon and thus Likud will share Labor's fate of becoming irrelevant in future elections. While Sharon may hold the temporary levers of Power, people in the street may have a far greater power - if you are united. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

WHY DO WE SUPPORT ISRAEL? Posted by Patrick D. O'Brien, August 14, 2004.

Does the average American understand what's at stake? The United States and Israel have many mutual political interests. Ethical and altruistic considerations aside, this is the primary impetus behind international alliances. I do love Israel, and I am proud that my nation is Israel's best friend, but I know that it's not for purely noble reasons. Geopolitical manoeuvring and backroom deals are part and parcel of the international political landscape. However, so long as such practical matters of utility are necessary, I am very glad that such a fortuity has brought our two nations and peoples together. As an average citizen, I don't need to understand in great detail every facet of our complex relationship with Israel, but I've learned that the Jews of Israel have much in common with us culturally, politically, and economically. I consider them to be my brothers and sisters, and I can't imagine not having Israel as our friend. Sadly, not all Americans understand this special bond. I've noticed over the years how many of Israel's most ardent critics here in the U.S. decry the amount of foreign aid that the United States gives to Israel (this year's estimate is about $2.7 billion, down from last year's $3.7 billion). It seems to be their favorite point of criticism because it is a hard, established number. One also notes how a lot of these same people are of the opinion that the "Palestinians" are engaged in a legitimate conflict against an aggressive occupying force, and so they take issue with the fact that much of the assistance provided to Israel from the U.S. is in the form of military aid (about 80% this year). I have heard on more than one occasion the mournful plaint, "I don't know about you, but I don't like knowing that my tax dollars are being used to fund the military of a country that kills children." Of course, the fact that Israel is only trying to protect its own children - all too often from these same Arab children - is wholly lost on these people. I won't comment right now on the implicit value judgments in such selective affinities. Personally, I would support Israel no matter what. It's abundantly clear to me that it is only just to do so. Not all of my fellow citizens get that, though. So I'd like to make a more practical and compelling case for why the United States should and must support Israel. To begin with we are both democratic states trying to maintain order and stability in a disorderly world, which sometimes has all the stability of a drunkard on stilts. Interestingly, many of Israel's American detractors don't seem to consider just how little the United States gets in return for its aid to other states in the same region as Israel. Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority together receive U.S. aid comparable to that of Israel, which is in large part, to placate them. Egypt is basically paid not to attack Israel. If one looks into the matter at all, it becomes clear that Israel actually earns its U.S. foreign aid, and then some. The double standard employed by Israel's American critics in this matter is somewhat disturbing. This article is an appeal to my fellow Americans who do not understand why it is not only moral, but also imperative for the United States to do its part to ensure Israel's welfare, and indeed, survival. Among the most important assets that Israel provides the U.S. with in return for financial assistance are: Invaluable intelligence information The war on terror is a euphemistic title, which really means "the war on Islamofascism." Israel is on the front lines of this war every day, and has been for some time now. Rabid antisemitism is more or less de rigueur in Arab/Muslim society, accounting for some of the hatred fuelling the terror. Israel is also despised for bringing democracy, success, and the rule of law to an area, which knows very little about such things. In the hate-polluted and culturally stagnant waters that are modern Arab/Muslim affairs, Israel has been the local target of choice for the irrational fury of Islamic terror. As a consequence, Israel has excelled at combating terror like no other nation on Earth. A crucial part of neutralizing Islamic terror is having good, actionable intelligence. Useful and current data needs to be gathered and properly analyzed before it can be acted on. Since Arabic is one of Israel's official languages, Israeli agents are on the ball with electronic, on-the-ground, and print intelligence. They've got agents all over the Arab world. And since 9/11, U.S. intelligence agents and special operations soldiers have begun to pay especial attention to the Israeli playbook, because Israel knows better than anyone how to fight fourth generation warfare. We've participated in joint exercises with Israel in spheres of warfare that are somewhat alien to us, since we haven't had to deal with vicious criminals trying to blow up our kids every day. To be frank, we are pretty damn fortunate to have Israel's expertise to help guide us in these matters. Now more than ever, America needs this sort of tutelage and intelligence support. In my book, that's worth about a billion. Technological/economic gains Not only does Israel easily rank among the world's elite in intelligence gathering and analysis, but also its citizens are brilliant and highly educated. Beyond the cultural Jewish spirit for excellence, they have the incentive to succeed in unique ways economically because of Israel's scant natural resources. So, Israelis have tapped into their greatest and most reliable resource: themselves. In fifty-six short years, Israel has accomplished what many nations haven't been able to do in centuries. With a driving demand for survival and success against all odds, Israelis developed an energetic and ambitious entrepreneurial enthusiasm. This attitude has helped to propel Israel to world leadership in the fields of medicine, scientific research (many disciplines), agriculture, telecommunications, high-tech electronics & software (the country's leading industrial sector), and more recently, the biotechnology industry. To quote industrialist Efi Arazi, "Israel now has a critical mass in high technology that is far ahead of anything in Europe." The United States is deeply involved in many of these enterprises and derives enormous benefits from Israel's unrivalled supremacy in many of these fields. And of course, many American businesses will be given preferential treatment in securing joint venture contracts for Israeli projects. Many Americans have no idea how many Israeli contributions are part of our life. The drug Copaxone, which gives hope to those suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, was developed by Israelis at the Weizmann Institute. ICQ instant messaging was invented by four young Israelis in their twenties, and bought by AOL. Israel's drip irrigation systems save between 40-50% of water usage, while giving a 300% return in crop increase. Israel's innovation and supreme industrial feats confer massive benefits to their economy and to America's. Another billion here, I'd say. A democratic presence in the Middle East I think it's pretty hard to put a price on this, especially when considering the totalitarian states in that area whose people hate America and the west. Having moved past its strategic role as America's democratic foothold in the Middle East against the "Red Menace" of Soviet Russia, Israel is now viewed by some to be our bulwark against the area's "Green Menace" of militant Islam. I don't personally believe that Islam will ever be an insuperable threat to western civilization. I optimistically like to think that we'll (all) eventually deal with it, if for no other reason than to save ourselves and our freedoms (not to mention the millions of Muslims who might not be averse to a departure from grinding misery, repression, and poverty). However, until the rest of the free world gets its tolerant and multicultural head out of la-la land, it's a good idea for both Israel and the United States to have a strong and defensible secular democracy in the region. The Middle East is hardly the most stable place in the world, and poses severe, if not long-term challenges to democracy. With the psychotic mulllahcracy of Iran, the oil-drunk Saudi terror sponsors, and various other erratic and violent regimes in its immediate neighborhood, Israel has some experience dealing with this sort of thing. We can only gain from this experience. Below the strata of our governments, I see a mutual affinity among American and Israeli citizens with regard to shared values like: freedom of speech, the rule of law and due process in court, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, equality between sexes, and all of the other worthy advantages of democracy. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if hateful Muslim Arabs look at Israel and its democratic principles with scorn and enmity. Israel is a reminder of what sort of governance truly works for its people, offering freedom and happiness. It's high time the Arab world got beyond its visceral rejection of innovation based upon a backward and anachronistic amalgam of religion, tribal values, entrenched statism and xenophobia. There are other considerations of security, which make having a democratic ally in the Middle East an idea that behoves the United States. Cha-ching! - there's another billion. Israel's U.S. foreign aid has now more than paid for itself. But wait, there's more. Peace through superior firepower The cooperative military ventures between Israel and the United States are nothing short of spectacular. The strategic value derived from these joint projects is hard to measure, and the lives they save makes them priceless. The Arrow missile, as was shown recently, promises to be an indispensable replacement for the useful, yet not quite useful enough, Patriot missile system. >From the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) and satellite technology, to Israel's state of the art Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and down to more mundane military matters, the U.S. takes advantage of Israel's technological prowess and pioneering spirit. In today's world, military supremacy is of paramount importance for free nations, and the U.S. and Israel are a step ahead of everyone else. This is all the more important to the U.S. when we now have the same monsters hammering on our door as Israel's. Also, I'm sure there are also a few black book projects that we don't yet know about. Heck, that's got to be worth another billion, at least. And when it comes to military might, Israel reigns supreme in the Middle East. The IDF has approximately 150,000 active duty strength troops and another estimated 500,000 regularly trained reservists, which can be mobilized inside of 72 hours. This formidable fighting force is also equipped with the best available equipment, armaments, intelligence, and logistical support. And Israel's Air Force has a fleet second in size only to the United States. After having had to defend Israel in five major wars, the IDF is among the world's most seasoned and battle-trained armed forces. With fresh hostilities each day, Israel's sons and daughters in the IDF are regularly tested and retested in battle. Israel is also in possession of (openly) secret nukes. In the unlikely event of America needing a "helping hand" in the region, isn't it good to know that Israel's first-rate military is on our side? They're numerous, well trained, disciplined, armed to the teeth, and they're already there - no deployment. It may well prove to be quite a godsend one day. The value of the peace (and peace of mind), however tenuous, that all of these military factors buy for the United States, through a powerful deterrent to our enemies, and as a potential front line in a future American offensive in the area is truly incalculable. As arrogant and contentious as it may sound, there truly is something to be said for the accessibility of peace through superior firepower. I am obviously not an expert in geopolitics, economics, or foreign policy. I know a thing or two about these matters, though, because I think it's important to understand at least a minimum of what goes on in ones government, and what sort of relations ones country has with others. For practical and personal reasons, I've grown quite fond of Israel over the years, in great measure because I've discovered how tightly knit, on many levels, our relationship with them is. The bottom line here is that dollar for dollar, Israel gives back to the U.S. far more than other nations, especially Arab states, which receive more or comparable aid (and which consistently vote against us at the UN, by the way). I'm almost willing to describe Israel's role in our relationship as being on the United States' payroll; certainly not as a "puppet," but as a valued and crucial friend whose services are indispensable. Israel earns our foreign aid, whereas other countries take our money and give nothing back, or worse, actively work against us. And anyone who thinks that Arabs hate us primarily because we support Israel is either ignorant or looking for another specious justification for slandering the U.S. and/or Israel. Or worse, they are seeking a way to excuse Islamic terror. If this is what you believe, you need to look into this matter more objectively, turn off your emotions, and rethink your position. The United States is the Great Shaitan and Israel is the Little Shaitan. And if you think that Europe is not hated by those who think that shari'ah is a good idea, all I can say is stay tuned, and perhaps prepare for dhimmitude. It makes sense for us to support Israel. It is in a nation's best interests to do what makes sense for its well being, for its standing in the world, and for the security of its citizens. Beyond all this, I just love Israel. The values of Israel's people are more consonant with American values than any other people I know of. I have no issue with the vast majority of my nation's values. I love it here, and I think that in the balance, we are a just nation, like Israel. I am grateful to live in a free and open society where what I do as an individual counts, if only a little a bit. Israelis seem to have a similar outlook, and I am truly glad to live in a nation that supports such people. Despite the material reasons for our alliance, at the end of the day, I am absolutely convinced that there is also pure, human worth in our unique mutual friendship. I think it's also important to remember that Israel is trying to lead a modern, secular, democratic, existence in the middle of a region comprised mainly of hostile and combative totalitarian regimes. This means that Israel holds itself to standards that its enemies don't. I think many westerners are resentful of Israel's perceived transgressions against liberal democracy because they don't take into consideration just how much adversity Israel is up against. Israel is not in the midst of like-minded nations as European states are, and they are not the global powerhouse that the U.S. is. Such an attitude against Israel is, of course, hypocritical coming from Americans. And in some instances I regret to say that, yes, it certainly appears to be antisemitic. The fact is that for Israel to lose just one battle against its pugnacious neighbors, is to lose all battles. That will be the end of the short story of the Jewish homeland's rebirth. When I need to explain to others, as I've done here, what's in it for us, then I have to face the fact that some people don't seem to care if the Jewish state is wiped off the map by the Arabs who seem to have all the patience in the world to make that happen. I find it unsettling, just sixty years after the Holocaust, that some of my countrymen have forgotten one of the principal reasons why Israel must be defended - this is the only place in the whole world that every Jew can call home. This tiny strip of land that comprises about two percent of the Middle East is all that stands between the Jewish people and an ocean of Arabs/Muslims clamoring to spill their blood. This isn't hyperbole either; this is the reality for Jews in Israel. For me, this is the best reason for the United States to support Israel - because it's the right thing to do. So, some of my fellow Americans are apparently uniformed or wilfully ignorant in their one-sided criticism of Israel when it comes to this U.S. foreign aid red herring. They don't seem to object to Arab states which take the same American money that Israel gets, while giving back little outside of hatred and death. Some of my fellow Americans are blind. Just three years after deranged Arab/Muslim savages killed 3,000 of us on our own soil, they still don't seem to see how critical our alliance with Israel is. They wonder how we can afford to send so much foreign aid to our one true friend in all of the Middle East. I wonder how we could afford not to. Contact Patrick O'Brien at patrickafir@yahoo.com This article appeared yesterday on IsraPundit and is archived at http://israpundit.com/archives/008079.html To Go To Top

THE ISRAEL REFERENDUM Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland, August 14, 2004.

By now you may have heard about the Israel Referendum - the colossal pro-Israel initiative undertaken jointly by Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and Global Israel Alliance (GIA). Put simply, the objective is to collect 1,000,000 signatures AGAINST a PLO state, and to submit the signatures to President Bush and the Congress in the first week of October. Click here to go to the referendum online. PLEASE VOTE NO TO A PALESTINIAN STATE Lend your hand to distributing this initiative.     Contact people. URGE THEM TO VOTE 'NO'. This is what I posted on IsraPundit. It is archived at http://israpundit.com/archives/008113.html Over time, IsraPundit has reported about several pro-Israel initiatives. Among these, the Israel Referendum is the most ambitious and exciting, and a great deal rides on its success. With this articles, IsraPundit begins a series of reports and updates, describing the genesis, rationale and progress of the Israel Referendum. More significantly, this Bulletin is also an action-call, outlining what each of us can do to ensure the success of the Israel Referendum. On May 8, 2004, the Jerusalem Post published an article entitled, "Christian Zionists to hold referendum", which informed that A week after the Likud voted in a referendum against withdrawing unilaterally from the Gaza Strip, Christian Zionists in the US are planning a referendum of their own. "Do you support the creation of a PLO state in the Land of Israel?" will be the question that Christians across America will be asked to vote on, according to an initiative of the Global Israel Alliance and Americans for a Safe Israel. The Global Israel Alliance Israel affairs director, Kim Hadassah Johnson, intends to present the referendum idea at National Religious Roundtable event on Tuesday in Memphis... The referendum ballots will be disseminated through every church and community center that considers itself within the Christian Zionist spectrum. When tabulated the results will be presented to every member of Congress, to Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, and to Bush. In the same vein, on August 4, 2004, Arutz 7 published a piece under the heading, "U.S. Christian Referendum Against PLO State", reporting as follows: "The goal of the project is to receive up to one million votes, with the vast majority presumably voting against such a state. The organizers then plan to put all the ballots in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer and drive them to the White House, followed by tens of thousands of supporters, in advance of the presidential elections. The message to President Bush will be: "Your core group of 20 million voters will vote for you if you adopt a policy against a Palestinian state - but about a quarter of them will stay home and not vote at all if you ignore them on this issue." The emphasis on US Christians, the core constituency of President Bush, is more than obvious. Since the Referendum's inception, however, several non-Christian individuals and groups, both in the US and throughout the world, have demanded that they too be included, so the Israel Referendum is now open to all, even though the emphasis on US Christians remains in place. As noted, the initiative is undertaken jointly by AFSI and Global Israel Alliance (GIA). IsraPundit has already posted an e-interview with AFSI's executive director, Helen Freedman, and an interview with Kim Johnson of GIA is currently in the works. What you can do immediately: 1. Go to the GIA site, where the online ballot is posted, fill it out and log it. Remember that the ballot is not restricted to US Christians. Under "Church or organization", enter religious organization if applicable, or leave it blank otherwise. The state and ZIP entries for US citizens are of particular significance - Karl Rove will be most interested in these details. Comments of support are also important. Note that a "No" vote means NO to a PLO state in Yesha. 2. Read Kim Johnson's letter to Israel Supporters (reproduced below). Kim has listed five action-oriented tips - please do your best. To see and download a WORD version of Kim's letter, complete with GIA logo, click here. 3. Follow the Israel Referendum Bulletins on IsraPundit. 4. If you maintain an e-mail list and/or a website, please post links to this IsraPundit article, as well as to the GIA ballot. Tell your family and friends about the Referendum, and spread the word by any means at your disposal. Above all, please be aware that the Israel Referendum is not a garden-variety initiative; it is outstanding in scope and potential impact. Do your best to help. Finally, I am grateful to AFSI and GIA for granting me the privilege of participating in this initiative through IsraPundit. This is GIA's letter to Israel's supporters: Dear Friend of Israel: Thank you for your interest and support for the Global Israel Alliance "Israel Referendum Campaign!" There are many ways in which you can join with us, and Americans For A Safe Israel, to be a part of this important and historic effort. Information about the referendum and the ballot for the referendum can be found on www.globalisraelalliance.com. We would like to place this link on as many Christian and Conservative websites as possible that support the Land of Israel. The vote will run from July until early October. Therefore, we need to reach as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Below are some ways you can help us to spread the word and change the destiny of two nations: o Send this link to your friends and encourage them to vote. o Host the ballot on your website. The link can be copied and placed on your front page or a frame can be opened and the ballot placed directly in it. o If you are a part of a local congregation or church, you can share "The Israel Referendum Poll" with your pastor (see brochure/flyer) and refer him to our website www.globalisraelalliance.com and/or he can contact us directly for more information. o Offer to promote the Referendum within your local congregation. There is a printable ballot on the website which can be passed out or put on the back of the weekly bulletin, a vote taken, and the ballots returned to our headquarters in New York. o You can help support "The Israel Referendum Campaign" by sending $1.00 or a larger contribution to the Global Israel Alliance, 1623 3rd Avenue, Suite 205, New York, NY 10128. Please make checks out to GIA/AFSI IRC. Together, we can make a difference in the future of Israel and America! Blessings, Kim Johnson Director Global Israel Alliance khj@globalisraelalliance.com Click here to go to the referendum online. Joseph Alexander Norland is cohost of IsraPundit (http://israpundit.com). To Go To Top

THE LEADING PALESTINIAN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS (AUGUST 2004) Posted by IsrAlert, August 13, 2004.

This is a Special Information Bulletin from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S) (www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/8_04/pto.htm). Fatah - The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Tanzim / Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades) 1. Fatah was established in Kuwait by Arafat in the early 1960s. Since its inception it has operated in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and is considered the leading organization in the Palestinian national effort. Its influence became even stronger when in 1969 Arafat became the leader of the PLO. 2. Tanzim (The Organization) is the group within Fatah which dominates activities in the field and at the popular level. Tanzim was established in 1983 and operated underground until 1991. Its aim was to reorganize Fata in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and was responsible for its day-to-day activity (security, politics, information/propaganda, social issues, etc.). Tanzim activists spearheaded Fatah operations in the first violent confrontation (the so-called intifada ) (1987-1993) and led the events which resulted in the Oslo accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. 3. During the "Oslo years" Fatah operatives were integrated into official Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions. Arafat, however, was careful to appoint those close to him from "outside" ("the old guard") to key positions in PA institutions and in the security forces, to the great displeasure of those who had led the first violent confrontation. There was much bitterness among Tanzim operatives who wanted to preserve their image as "revolutionary," which in their opinion was the source of their status. 4. When the current violent confrontation broke out (September 2000), Fatah operatives in the PA-administered territories who supported the PA, and most of whom worked for the Palestinian Security Services, began taking an active part in terrorist activities against Israel. Initially they confined themselves to shooting attacks and planting side charges to blow up soldiers and Israeli civilians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They claimed responsibility for the attacks using the name Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which during the current violent confrontation has become the became the generic name for all Fatah field operatives. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades 5. As the violent confrontation gathered steam, Fatah terrorist activity was upgraded and its members became more involved in the activities of other Palestinian terrorist organizations, relying for funding on both the PA and external sources, especially Hezbollah and Iran. That allowed many operatives a certain amount of license, currently (Summer 2004) expressed as anarchy in the PA-administered territories. In addition, independent terrorist factions broke away from Fatah, both ideologically and organizationally, such as the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip, led by Jamal Abu Samhadana. 6. The four years of the recent confrontation (beginning September 2000) led to the disintegration of the organization's structure and its weakening in the eyes of the local Palestinian population, and caused internal strife between warring factions. Thus the "middle generation" increased its protests against the "old guard" and the "outsiders," demanding a larger share of key positions within PA institutions. 7. Fatah operatives are responsible for many terrorist attacks, among them suicide bombing attacks within Israel: -A suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem (March 2, 2002); 11 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem (April 12, 2002); 6 Israeli civilians murdered. -An infiltration into Kibbutz Metzer (November 10, 2002); 5 Israeli civilians murdered. -Double suicide bombing attacks in Beit Shean (November 28, 2002; 6 Israeli civilians murdered. -Double suicide bombing attacks in Tel Aviv (January 5, 2003); 22 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem bus (January 29, 2003); 11 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem bus (February 22, 2004); 8 Israeli civilians murdered. -Double suicide bombing attacks in cooperation with Hamas at the port of Ashdod (March 14, 2004); 14 Israeli civilians murdered. Hamas - the Islamic Resistance Movement 1. Hamas was established in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Muslim Brotherhood foundations in 1987, at the beginning of the first violent confrontation. It reflects the decision of the radical Islamists, headed by the late Ahmad Yassin, to add a Palestinian national aspect to the da'wah (changing Palestinian society by means of indoctrination, preaching and education, the modus operandi of the Muslim Brotherhood). That aspect advocates the destruction of the State of Israel as their main goal and perpetrates acts of terrorism against Israel as the primary tool for advancing that goal. 2. According to Hamas ideology, the Palestinian problem is basically religious and therefore cannot be solved by any political compromise. Hamas claims that the land of Palestinian, "from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea" is consecrated to Islam and none of it can be given up, especially Jerusalem. Thus Hamas denies the possibility of any political settlement with Israel and objects to any and all agreements between the PA/PLO and Israel, and totally rejects the Oslo accords. For that reason, Hamas has refused to accept the authority of and to join the PA. 3. Terrorism is one of the main tenets of Hamas ideology. As far as Hamas is concerned, as long as Palestinians (within Israel and the territories) live under the "occupation" they are obliged to oppose it through a jihad (holy war), that is, an uncompromising armed insurrection against Israel. However, Hamas also recognizes the necessity of temporary tactical cease-fires ( hudnas ), especially to avoid confrontations with the PA (and with the Arab counties and the international community), which might adversely affect its status and image. 4. The late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was the founder of Hamas and its spiritual leader. The person currently in charge of its day-to-day activities is the chairman of the Hamas Political Office, Khaled Mashal, who has held the post since 1996. The Hamas leadership is geographically divided. The "internal leadership " is situated in three centers: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israeli prisons.There is the " external leadership," made up of Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood members who joined Hamas after its founding, and those from " the inside," who were expelled from the PA-administered territories. That branch of the leadership is located mainly in Syria (after having been ousted from Jordan in 1999) and also has representatives in various Arab countries, such as Lebanon. 5. Hamas reaches decisions on matters of principle through dialogues among the various leaderships, although the "external leadership" has the most influence and authority. Its position is usually more extreme and intransigent as a result of the influence exerted on it by Syrian and Iran and the support they receive from those sources. In any case, the "internal leadership" had its wings severely clipped by Israel's targeted killings of its senior members (particularly in the Gaza Strip) and by the arrest of many of its members in the West Bank. 6. Hamas has an operational-terrorist infrastructure ( Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions ) in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and abroad. Most of those active in the West Bank are directed by the "external leadership," although its power base is in the Gaza Strip, where it even founded a militia called the People's Army. 7. During the current violent confrontation, which began in September 2000, Hamas has been the leading organization in the armed insurrection and responsible for an enormous number of terrorist attacks. They were perpetrated in the PA-administered territories and Israel, none abroad. Hamas policy is sometimes determined by political expediency (thus at a certain point the movement agreed to a temporary cease-fire, which was not honored). 8. Some of Hamas's more prominent attacks against Israel include: - The kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas (February 16, 1989), Ilan Sa'adon (May 3, 1989) and Nissim Toledano (December 13, 1992). -The kidnapping of Corporal Nachshon Waxman (October 9-14, 1994). Waxman and Captain Nir Poraz were killed in an exchange of gunfire. -A suicide bombing attack on the Number 5 bus in Tel Aviv (October 19, 1994); 22 Israeli civilians murdered. -Two suicide bombing attacks on the Number 18 bus in Jerusalem (February 25 and March 3, 1996); a total of 47 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack at the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv (June 1, 2001); 21 Israeli civilians murdered, most of them teenagers. -A suicide bombing attack at the Sbarro Restaurant in Jerusalem (August 9, 2001); 15 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya during the Passover Seder (March 27, 2002); 30 Israeli civilians murdered. The attack resulted in Operation Defensive Shield. -A suicide bombing attack in Rishon Le'tzion (May 7, 2002); 16 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack at a major intersection in Jerusalem (June 18, 2002); 19 Israeli civilians murdered. -A suicide bombing attack on the Number 2 bus in Jerusalem (August 19, 2003); 23 Israeli civilians murdered. The attack brought the temporary "cease fire" [ hudna ] to an end. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) 1. The PIJ has an extremist Islamic ideology which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel as a means of bringing about an Islamic revolution in the Arab world. The PIJ was formed in the middle of the 1970s around a nucleus of Palestinians studying at Zagazig University in Egypt. Their leader was a medical student named Fathi 'Abd al-Aziz al-Shqaqi. 2. The founders despaired of the idleness of the Muslim Brotherhood and were eager to emulate the radical jihad movements which flourished in Egypt at that time. They wanted to found an Islamic Palestinian organization which would unite radical Islam with uncompromising Palestinian nationalism, an alternative to the Fatah/PLO's "secular" brand of nationalism. 3. Shqaqi and his followers returned to the Gaza Strip in the early 1980s, impressed by the Islamic revolution in Iran (1979). He and Sheikh 'Abd al-Aziz 'Odah founded the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is under Iranian patronage. Recruiting supporters in the mosques and universities, the organization established its infrastructure, including terrorist cells. Over the years a number of factions broke away from the PIJ, none of them of any importance. 4. The PIJ was prominent during the first violent confrontation (1987-1993). After the Oslo accords, to which they objected fiercely, the PIJ perpetrated suicide bombing attacks as a means of sabotaging any effort to come to a solution. On October 26, 1995, Shqaqi was killed in Malta and Dr. Ramadan Shalah, one of the organization's founders, was appointed to replace him. 5. During the current violent confrontation, the PIJ joined Hamas and Fatah to perpetrate terrorist attacks against Israel, using the organization's operational-terrorist infrastructure (Jerusalem Battalions). The organization has opposed various cease-fire agreements but agreed to join the hudna (temporary cease-fire) under prime minister Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as part of an inter-organizational agreement. Prominent PIJ terrorist attacks against Israel include: -Two car bombs which exploded at the Beit Lid intersection (January 22, 1995); 21 Israeli soldiers murdered. -A suicide bombing attack on a bus in Wadi 'Ara in the northern part of Israel (March 20, 2002); 7 Israeli civilians murdered, 30 wounded. -A suicide bombing attack on a bus at the Yagur junction near Haifa (April 10, 2001); 8 Israeli civilians murdered, 15 wounded. -A car bomb with a single terrorist exploded next to a bus at the Megiddo junction in the northern part of Israel (June 5, 2002); 17 Israeli civilians murdered, 50 wounded. -A car bomb with two terrorists exploded next to a bus at the Karkur junction near Hadera (October 21, 2002); 14 Israeli civilians murdered, 50 wounded. -A shooting attack near Hebron (November 15, 2002); 12 Israeli civilians returning from prayers killed, 16 wounded. -A suicide bombing attack at the Maxim Restaurant in Haifa (October 4, 2003); 21 Israeli civilians murdered, including 6 members representing 3 generations of the same family, 60 wounded. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) 1. The PFLP was founded on December 11, 1967 with the union of two left-wing Palestinian organizations. Its leaders were Wadi' Haddad (who later became responsible for terrorist operations) and George Habash, the general secretary. The PFLP is a Marxist organization which advocates armed insurrection. It perpetrates show-case, media-oriented attacks, particularly the hijacking of planes, to bring the Palestinian cause to public attention. 2. In 1971, under the leadership of Habash, the organization took a more pragmatic line. Nevertheless, the PFLP never agreed to recognize Israel and left the PLO after the acceptance of the "Stage Strategy" (June 1974) as adopted in Cairo by the Palestinian National Council. Although the PFLP continued its pragmatic line, it however is still opposed to the Oslo accords and is critical of the Palestinian Authority, despite the fact that it made its peace with Arafat and returned to the ranks of the PLO. 3. In May 2000, George Habash resigned as general secretary because of failing health and was replaced by Abu Ali Mustafa. Mustafa directed the organization to perpetrate terrorist attacks against Israel. He was killed in a targeted attack on August 21, 2001 in Ramallah and replaced by Ahmad Sadat. Sadat directed the assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli Minister of Tourism (October 17, 2001). In the wake of Israeli and international pressure Sa'adat was arrested by the Palestinian Authority and is today in "custody" in Jericho. The PFLP's political leadership resides in the PA-administered territories and Syria, and a small operational-terrorist wing in the PA-administered territories (the Shaheed Abu 'Ali Mustafa Battalions). 4. During the current violent confrontation the PFLP called for an armed insurrection and perpetrated a number of terrorist attacks despite the fact that its operational-terrorist wing is smaller than those of the other Palestinian terrorist organizations. It is party to the inter-organizational dialogues but refused to participate in the hudna when Abu Mazen was prime minister. 5. Some of its more prominent attacks include: -The hijacking of an ElAl plane (July 23, 1968); 16 prisoners were released. -Hijacking of 3 planes belonging to Western countries (September 6, 1970): Three commercial airliners were hijacked and blown up after the passengers were evacuated. An attempt to hijack an Israeli (ElAl) airliner was foiled. Three days later another Western plane was hijacked as well. -The assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi (October 17, 2001). -A suicide bombing attack at the West Bank village of Karnei Shomrom (February 16, 2002); 3 Israeli civilians murdered, 25 wounded. -A suicide bombing attack at a bus station at the Geha junction in Tel Aviv (December 25, 2003); 3 Israelis murdered. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) 1.The Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP) was founded on February 22, 1969, when it split from the PFLP, changing its name shortly thereafter to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Since its inception it has been led by Naif Hawatmeh. The DFLP, which belongs to the PLO, initially had a radical Marxist-Leninist ideology and cooperated with other radical left-wing organizations (some of them underground). It supports armed insurrection against Israel and began its terrorist activities in 1973. Since the terrorists were expelled from Lebanon (1982) its position has become somewhat more pragmatic and usually similar to that of Fatah. 2. Hawatmeh and other senior members of the DFLP are based in Syria, but the organization has senior political figures in the PA-administered territories and maintains a small operational-terrorist wing in the Gaza Strip. 3.During the current violent confrontation the DFLP has confined its activities to a small number of terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip, but has participated in various internal Palestinian dialogues. Its most prominent terrorist attacks against Israel include: -Terrorist attack on the northern border town of Ma'alot (May 15, 1974); 25 Israeli civilians murdered, many of them children. -Attack on a private home in the town of Beit Shean (November 19, 1974); 4 Israeli civilians murdered. -A wagon rigged with a bomb which exploded in Jerusalem (November 13, 1975); 7 Israeli civilians murdered. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) 1. The PFLP-GC was established in April 1968 by Ahmed Jibril, mostly around a nucleus of former Syrian army officers. They joined the PFLP but split from it after an internal struggle with George Habash and other PFLP leaders. 2. Since its inception the PFLP-GC has advocated armed insurrection. Although the organization has no particular ideology, it has certain Marxist characteristics. In April 1977 the organization split when a pro-Iraqi faction left because of the PFLP-GC's pro-Syrian orientation. 3. In June 1974 the PFLP-GC joined the PLO although it opposed the latter's political initiatives. In 1983, however, encouraged by Syria, it joined the organizations contesting Arafat and Fatah; therefore its membership in the PLO was suspended in 1984. 4. The PFLP-CG, under Syrian influence, opposed the Oslo accords and advocated the continuation of the armed insurrection during the 1990s. Because their opposition is similar to that of Hamas, the two organizations were drawn to one another and today often coordinate their positions. 5. The organization's operational-terrorist infrastructure and bases are located mainly in Syria and Lebanon (including Ein Saheb, which was attacked on October 5, 2003). Its attacks usually come from over the Lebanese border and its presence in the PA-administered territories is minimal. Its attacks against Israel include: -Blowing up a Swissair plane (February 21, 1970); 47 murdered. -An attack on a bus of children from Avivim, a moshav near the Lebanese border (May 21, 1970); 12 Israeli children murdered. -An attack in Kiriyat Shmonah in the far north of Israel (April 11, 1974); 18 Israeli civilians murdered. -The kidnapping of 3 Israeli soldiers in 1982 who were exchanged on May 20, 1985, for 1150 Palestinian prisoners. -" The night of the hang-gliders " (November 25, 1987); 6 Israeli soldiers murdered. The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) 1. The PRC is a terrorist organization active in the Gaza Strip. The organization was founded in September 2000, at the beginning of the current violent confrontation, by former Fatah and Palestinian Security apparatus members. Its ranks also include ex-Hamas terrorists, some of whom were wanted by Israel and who joined the Palestinian Preventive Security apparatus, and operatives who belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian. 2. The organization was founded by a Rafah resident, Jamal Abu Samhadana who formerly belonged to Fatah/Tanzim. He split with Fatah and founded the PRC and is its leader. Since its inception it has been attacking Israel, and thanks to the funding it has received has grown from modest beginnings into an organization responsible for the murders of at least 10 Israelis. Abu Samhadana was wounded during the violent confrontation while attempting to assemble an explosive device. 3. The PRC (and its operational-terrorist wing, the Salah al-Din Brigades) is responsible for a large number of attacks against Israelis in the Gaza Strip, both civilians and soldiers. Some of its more prominent attacks include the following: -Large explosive charges meant for Israeli tanks which killed three Israeli soldiers on February 14, 2002; three more on March 14, 2002; and one on September 5, 2002. -Attacks on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip: a side charge was detonated as a bus full of children passed near Kfar Darom on November 20, 2000, killing two; shots were fired at a bus carrying airport workers near the Rafah terminal on October 8, 2000, wounding 8 Israeli civilians; shots were fired at a car on the road from Kerem Shalom to the Rafah terminal, killing the woman driver. Akram Salameh 'Atia Said, a member of the PRC who was sentenced to 24 years in prison (See below), admitted during interrogation to having planned to perpetrate a suicide bombing attack at Kfar Darom. -Mortar attacks on Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip, including civilian villages, some within a very short period of time: three on the same day (April 28, 2001) against moshav Netzer Hazani (five young people wounded, one of them seriously); one (April 29, 2001) against the village of Kfar Darom; and one (May 7, 2001) against the village of Atzmona. 4. In the past the organization attempted to set up operations in the West Bank as well. In January 2002, Akram Salameh 'Atia Said was sent by Jamal Abu Samhadana from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to shoot at Israeli civilians and soldiers. He infiltrated through the fence at Kissufim, went to Lod and from there to Ramallah. He was arrested on February 25, 2002, convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison. 5. The PRC was apparently the organization behind the attack on the American convoy at Beit Hanoun in the northern part of the Gaza Strip (October 15, 2003). Two side charges were detonated, blowing up a vehicle and killing three security personnel who were accompanying the American cultural attache. So far the Palestinian Authority has avoided a serious investigation of the incident. 6. PRC terrorists have various weapons at their disposal: small arms, explosives (commercial and homemade), mines, hand grenades and anti-tank rockets and mortars. The PRC has recently (July 2004) begun launching homemade Nasser 3 rockets at Israeli villages close to the Gaza Strip. The weapons are obtained by smuggling (usually through tunnels between Rafah and Egypt). In addition, they purchase from arms dealers and manufacturers or produced independently. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

POLLARD SERVED HIS TIME! LET HIM GO! Posted by Deb Kotz, August 13, 2004.

Apparently Pollard case is being taken up once again. Rep. Anothy Weiner (D-NY) - an amazing friend to Israel - has written a letter on his behalf to Bush. Pollard recently celebrated his 50th birthday in jail and has served 19 years of his sentence, more than any other U.S. citizen convicted of spying for an ally country. Please email a letter to Bush president@whitehouse.gov showing your support for Pollard's release. The President's email: president@whitehouse.gov The Vice President's email: vice.president@whitehouse.gov White House phone: 202-456-1111 Fax: 202-456-2461 Senate and House switchboard: 202-224-3121 Click on "Govt. Email Addresses" at http://www.vipac.org for other officials. A SAMPLE LETTER Dear Mr. President: You have said you support Prime Minister Sharon's risk taking for peace. He has lost his majority in the Israeli Knesset taking the political risks you have urged him to make. Couldn't you show him some reciprocity by releasing Jonathan Pollard from prison and sending him to Israel? Congressman Anthony Weiner wrote you a letter this week urging that you do this. His letter is particularly pertinent since in it he mentions the special security briefings he has received concerning the Pollard case and how that classified information supports his call for releasing Pollard now. Pollard has served more than his fair time. It would be fair of you, and a fair return for the risks Prime Minister Sharon has run at your urging, if you would release him now. I am pasting a copy of Congressman Weiner's letter underneath my name. Sincerely, (your name here) CONGRESSMAN ANTHONY WEINER'S LETTER Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington DC 20515-3209 Congressman Anthony D. Weiner August 7, 2004 President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: I write to request that you grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard. Today is Mr. Pollard's 50th birthday. This is the 19th year he has celebrated his birthday in prison. No other person convicted of espionage on behalf of an United States ally has ever been imprisoned for so long. Mr. Pollard has admitted he broke U.S. laws. He has expressed sorrow for what he did. Mr. Pollard cooperated fully with the investigation into his activities and he waived his right to a jury trial. He has served more than enough time for the crime of passing information to an ally. The life sentence which Jonathan Pollard is now serving is not a reflection of the severity of the crimes he committed, but rather the result of ineffective counsel. In a recent review of Mr. Pollard's case, former United States District Judge George N. Leighton wrote, "[t]he evidence shows that the government engaged in serious misconduct that went unchecked by an ineffective defense counsel, Richard Hibey, and ... these constitutional violations severely prejudiced Mr. Pollard, and resulted in his sentence of life in prison." I have been advised that Mr. Pollard has not submitted a formal petition to the Pardon Attorney of the United States Department of Justice. This is due to the Justice Department's continuing refusal to permit Mr. Pollard's attorneys access to portions of five sentencing documents in the court's docket, totalling approximately 35 to 40 pages of material. The attorneys have the appropriate security clearances to see these court documents, and they plainly have a "need to know" what is in their client's court file. Until they have been afforded access to these materials, they believe it is premature to submit any application for executive clemency or similar relief. I hope that your administration will ensure that Mr. Pollard's security-cleared legal counsel is given an opportunity to review these documents so that they can present an effective and viable clemency application. Mr. Pollard did commit a serious crime and he deserved to be punished for his action. However, after reviewing the facts of the case and receiving multiple classified briefings on this matter, I believe that he has served a sentence that far exceeds the appropriate term for the crime he has committed. Mr. President, the time has come to free Jonathan Pollard. As he celebrates his 50th birthday in jail, I respectfully urge you to grant him clemency and send him home to Israel. Thank you for your consideration of this matter. Sincerely, (signed) ANTHONY D. WEINER Member of Congress Deb Kotz is an active member of the Brandeis Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and maintains an email list to distribute articles of interest to the local community. She can be reached at DebKotz@aol.com To Go To Top

SHARON - CAUGHT IN ANOTHER LIE Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 13, 2004.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made much of his attempts to insure that the Pioneering Settlements of Judea and Samaria would be protected from the same uprooting/transfer plan he has scheduled for Gaza/Gush Katif. When Sharon lies, it is with malice and a great deal of planning. It has been reported in the August 13th Chicago Tribune (1) that Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel would have to remove "more that the four 'West Bank' (sic) settlements listed for elimination under Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan." Sharon is said to be furious over this disclosure. Strangely, the word in Washington within the Congress from well-informed Congressional sources is that they are NOT pressuring Sharon for evacuation. That it is Sharon who is doing the pressuring - against his own people, ignoring the 60%/40% vote in the Likud Party AGAINST dismantling Gaza/Gush Katif, by firing those of his Cabinet ministers who refused to vote for this transfer of Jews. I have said that Sharon is the Golem of Jerusalem who has turned against his own people. I was just notified by the Israel Government Press Office that they no longer wished to receive my projections. This reminds me of the orders by then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to the Jerusalem Post to cut off the delivery of the Post to all Israeli Consulates, Embassies and (it seems) El Al passengers. This was because the Post spoke about the lies coming out of the government. Sharon's Leftist agenda can no longer be hidden by his calculated lies to deceive everyone about his plans to re-partition Israel back to what Abba Eban called "Auschwitz Borders". Eban meant that Israel could not defend herself without YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza) and withdrawing back to the 1949 Armistice Lines (called the "Green Line") would make Israel vulnerable to another attack by a combined coalition of other Arab States' well-armed armies. Sharon's plans are tactical and his planning exacting - only now he has taken the Jewish people in Israel as his enemy. The top echelon of the Israeli Military and Intelligence no longer trusts Sharon. He has stopped listening to senior military and political advisors. He has literally told them to: "Shut Up!" and his decisions are final. Sharon is completely out of control and represents a clear and present danger to the nation. Nothing he says can be taken at face value. We have, unfortunately, seen this aberrant phenomenon in Shimon Peres who now seems to be the advisor and co-conspirator of Sharon. Olmert threatens or seems to urge reprisals against Israel, presumably, by foreign powers, namely the E.U. (European Union), U.N. (United Nations and the pro-Arab U.S. State Department who form the "Quartet" along with Russia. Recall how Rabin and Peres frequently visited France, England and America to urge that they pressure Israel to comply with their Leftist plans for evacuation and re-partitioning of Israel. It appears as if Sharon has moved Left into the Labor pack. If the world's only Jewish State is to survive and be sovereign, Sharon and his lackeys must be sent packing by the electorate. I cannot shake this uneasy feeling that, within this outpouring of lies, there is a deeper layer of betrayal which I have written about in the past. That was the E.U.'s plan to use NATO troops to occupy areas to be abandoned by Israel. This would include the involvement of the U.S. State Department with the approval of the Bush Administration. Recall that it is the U.S. who supplies the troops, equipment, arms and pays for a great deal of NATO's existence. If Sharon and Peres are colluding with the Europeans as was done by Rabin, Peres and Yossi Beilin in creating the secret Oslo Accords, then Sharon will forcibly evacuate not only Gaza but also Judea and Samaria, to be followed shortly by the Golan Heights and significant holy sites in Jerusalem with half of the Capital City's land. This ties into the discussion wherein Israel will be allowed into the E.U. as a "Junior" member on probation which is otherwise known as an obedient captive member nation. Since I have never trusted the Europeans or the Arabist U.S. State Department, bonding Sharon to this untrustworthy lot might explain what Sharon is up to - and why. As the "Golem of Jerusalem", I wonder who or how many masters he obeys. But, this is an unholy pact and plan to divest the Jewish State of the Land promised to the Jewish People by G-d forever. 1. "Homeless Arabs Seize Office in Gaza: Arafat Target of 4-hour Protest" by Tamer Ziara, AP CHICAGO TRIBUNE 8/13/04 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

ANOTHER TACK: 'HOW DO YOU KNOW?' Posted by Women in Green, August 13, 2004.

This was written by Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post writer, and appeared in the Jerusalem Post, August 5, 2004. Why does small, uniquely beleaguered Israel achieve so much more? When my daughter was six years old, she once demanded to know where her beloved grandmother went after she died. "To heaven," I replied. "How do you know?" came the merciless follow-up question. "That's where people's souls go," I exasperatedly sought to extricate myself. But then came the clincher: "How do you know? Did a dead person ever come back to say so?" I recalled that exchange a few days ago when viewing clips from official PA television, compliments of the Palestinian Media Watch. Two personable preteen schoolgirls were discussing shuhada (martyrdom) in deadly earnestness, praising the virtues of the paradise guaranteed them if they explosively terminate their earthly existence in the holy mission of killing Jews. The proudly approving adult moderator asked encouraging leading questions in a serene studio setting. Children phoning in chimed cheerfully and extolled self-destruction and the pleasures of the reward awaiting them in the hereafter. No participant came close to asking what my kid had asked at a much younger age. That in a nutshell is the yawning cultural chasm between us and those whose raison d'etre is our annihilation. Any talk of concessions and compromise with them is senseless wishful thinking, if not life-threatening delusion. Even if Palestinian grown-ups would, for various expediencies, ever opt to temporarily exploit our "confidence-building gestures" and unilateral pullbacks, their progeny wouldn't be placidly reconciled to our continued existence. In all likelihood it'll indoctrinate its own offspring and transmit hate via the societal genetic code. PATV specializes in song clips passionately praising those who have already blown themselves up or youngsters leaving letters to their parents before undertaking pretend-suicide bombing missions themselves. One need only watch this frightening fare to realize that terror isn't the result of PA inability to control renegades. The PA actively sponsors, recruits, and trains the next generation of mindless murderers. NEW FILM footage from Arafatland's summer camps show 10-year-olds forced to jump through flaming hoops. They crawl under barbed wire, learn to toss grenades, drill roadside ambushing maneuvers, practice attacking Jewish drivers, flinging them brutally to the ground and stomping them, while yelling in collective hysteria: "This is what'll be done to the enemy." After such bloodcurdling diversions, the campers participate in a "graduation" ceremony. They march to the podium, salute, and are handed diplomas. Brainwashing is never more effective than at a young age. It cannot be imagined that any of these underage trainees could shed what was inculcated into them and become peace-loving folk who'll broad-mindedly tolerate Jewish neighbors (even if the latter all cower behind the Green Line). Worse yet, this purposely promoted mass-psychosis isn't limited only to the territories immediately adjacent to our homes in this narrow oddly shaped state, where no center of habitation is too distant from the juvenile pre-programmed human guided missiles. German police recently raided a mosque in Frankfurt and confiscated videos imported from oil-rich Gulf states in which children enthusiastically act out the beheading of American Nick Berg - down to the most gruesome detail. These were shown to small fry in religious instruction classes. They're a hit all over the Muslim world, including in its new European outposts. This bloodlust appears too widespread to be simplistically ascribed to Jewish oppressors who drive desperate Palestinians to the ultimate extreme. Those who slander Israel with much alacrity, both at home and abroad, would do well to ponder the UN's Human Development Index (calculated on the basis of such factors as life expectancy, adult literacy, income, and women's status). Israel, despite its objective tribulations, emerges as the 22nd best place to live from a list of 177 states. All the Arab countries feature far below us. The PA occupies 102nd place, ahead of our free and independent neighbors Syria (106) and Egypt (120), who lose no opportunity to denigrate Israel but can hardly blame their backwardness on "Zionist occupation." The plain fact is that the Palestinians' association with awful Israel leaves them considerably better off than their counterparts in all too many Arab lands. If any freethinkers remain in the Arab world, they ought to ask themselves where their national energies flow and why a small, uniquely beleaguered state like Israel achieves so much more. Resorting to facile excuses from the tendentious and tattered anti-imperialist lexicon is a cop-out. The true measure of human development is that there's no mind control in our midst, that dissent and debate are integral to Jewish tradition, that in over three millennia of Jewish history no tyranny could take root among us, that no one can turn our kids into homicidal automatons, that our little girls don't dream of dying, that they don't believe everything they hear (not even from their mothers), and that they insistently inquire "How do you know?" Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

TERROR, FUNERALS AND WHAT WE CAN DO Posted by Voice of Judea, August 13, 2004.

1- FUNERAL 4:00 PM The funeral for Shlomo Miller, father of 7, Security officer of Itamar who was murdered this morning by Arab terrorists near Itamar, will be held at Har Hazeitim in Jerusalem, today, Friday at 4:00 PM. 2- "Israeli civilian killed in shooting attack near Itamar" By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service An Israeli civilian died of his wounds Friday shortly after he was hit in a shooting attack near the "settlement" of Itamar, south of Nablus. As the gunman was trying to escape, Itamar security guards got to the scene and fired at the terrorist, killing him. The wounded Israeli was evacuated to a hospital for treatment, but died in the ambulance. Also Friday, Israel Defense Forces soldiers fired at two armed Palestinians on the Karni-Netzarim road in the northern Gaza Strip and wounded them. The terrorist responsible for this mornings fatal shooting attack in the Shomron community of Itamar was a 25-year-old member of Yasser Arafat's Preventative Security Force. Voice of Judea Commentary: This week Arabs launched serious attacks in Gaza, near Barkan in the Shomron, in Northern Jerusalem and now near Itamar. The Arab who carried out the fatal attack near Itamar used a PA weapon that was issued by the Israelis and was a member of the "Palestinian" Preventive Security Services. Israel must abort the recent proposal made by Defense Minister Moufaz to reissue weapons and permits to PA cops/terrorists. These weapons are turned against innocent Jews. Israel must also stop confiscating weapons from the "settlers". In most cases "settlers" are prevented from taking their weapons off of their "settlements". Every day Arab terrorists are laying ambushes on the roads throughout Judea and Samaria. Israeli authorities must not abandon the "settlers" to drive into these death traps. Restrictions preventing "settlers" from carrying weapons on these dangerous roads must be lifted! SEND AN EMAIL NOW TO NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com These emails will be printed out and delivered to the Defense Minister. Demand that no guns be given to Arafat and that "settlers" receive the necessary arms to defend themselves on their "settlements" and on the roadways. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN! 3- GEDUD HAIVRI LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN: VOLUNTEER GUARDS FOR YESHA In view of the recent dramatic increase in terrorist attacks in the Shomron, The volunteer guard association known as the Gedud HaIvri is calling for Jews around the world to come to Israel in the effort to help defend vulnerable Jewish towns in the Shomron as well as in other areas of Israel. The Gedud HaIvri prides itself in operating the only civilian security canine unit in Israel, offering courses for those who wish to use specially trained dogs in the defense of Israel by detecting bombs and terrorists who hide in ambush near Jewish roads and towns. The dogs, are trained to track and sniff out terrorists. The need is great and the hour is late. Anyone who wishes to join this life-saving volunteer association will be offered free room and board in Israel. The fee for the canine course can be waved partially for volunteers who are training and guarding full time. Every person can make a difference even if they are just standing at an observation position with binoculars. IF YOU CAN'T DEDICATE A YEAR OF YOUR LIFE TO HELP DEFEND FELLOW JEWS IN ISRAEL PERHAPS YOU CAN HELP SPONSOR THOSE WHO ARE RISKING THEIR LIVES DAILY. We must not stand idly by during this great hour of need. Sponsoring the building of "settlements" is wonderful, but we must not neglect securing these towns! Financial sponsors are desperately needed. It costs no less than 1000 dollars per month per volunteer to cover training, expenses for dog maintenance and room and board for the volunteer. Send 1000 dollars to help sponsor a volunteer and a dog for the month of Ellul. Send 12000 dollars and sponsor a dog and volunteer for a full year. Send checks to Gedud Haivri Kfar Tapuach D.N. Efrayim Israel 44829 Visit www.defendisrael.net for more info The Gedud HaiVri needs your help in our fight against terrorism. Help the Gedud HaIvri save lives in Israel. Donations can be made at http://www.defendisrael.net/donate.shtml You can subscribe to the Voice of Judea emails by sending an email to jsid@amanda.dorsai.org To Go To Top

GOOD TERRORISTS BUT NOT GOOD OCCUPATIONS? Posted by Professor Ya'acov-Peres Golbert, August 13, 2004.

In February of this year, several young Israelis have been sentenced to prison terms for refusing, on grounds of conscience, to serve in the army because it is an army of occupation. Now a young Israeli woman has been arrested and accused of having assisted her ex-lover, an important terrorist in Jenin, in carrying out mass murder of Israelis, and justifies it as "resistance to occupation." They all believe they will be recognzed as moral heroes. They are wrong. They will be recognized for the foolish dupes that they are. Mind you, they are in good company. They have been influenced and encouraged in their path by some of the most respectable people around. The US State Department has accepted the position of the Arab and Islamic countries that people resisting occupation have the right to commit any atrocities against the occupying power and its civilian population. The "doctrine" is that "there is no such thing as a good occupation." The European countries have also bought the line enthusiastically. They have found justification in that "doctrine" for allowing no way to defend herself. A British Member of Parliament says she "understands" why Arabs become suicide bombers and states that, if she were subjected to the daily "humiliations" that they endure, she would become one also. And the International Court of Justice (sic) denies the right to defend itself against terrorist murderers and must pay compensation to Arabs inconvenienced by the fence it built to do so. The world would have us believe that all this condemnation is because Israel is occupying the Palestinians. The Belgian ambassador once reminded Israel that Belgium< was under occupation twice in the last Century and, therefore, sympathizes with the suffering of the occupied. The Finnish Foreign Minister declared that there is no difference between Israel and Nazi Germany. The Danish Foreign Minister pretty much said that the Palestinians have every right to murder Israeli children because they are under Israeli occupation. Norway's ambassador also intoned the observation that, in his country, when they were under occupation, people who shot Germans and bombed their public places were called "resistance fighters". (Note, in what role this casts Israel in the current situation. The equation is simple: Occupiers are Nazis. The occupied have the right to kill them and their population.) Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, has toed the line that nothing is terrorism if it is done against an occupier. Some learned diplomat proclaimed piously that "there is no such thing as a good occupation." All that is patent nonsense, however. No one ever objected to the Allied occupation of Germany. Not even Belgium or the Scandinavian countries and certainly no Member of the British Parliament. If Germans had taken to shooting Allied soldiers and their dependents and bombing the bars and clubs they frequented, it is quite certain that no one, not even the Belgians or the Scandinavians, would have graced them with such a nice name as "resistance fighters". One can be certain that the American Secretary of State would not have called it a "grey area" in which there can be "differences of opinion". There would have been zero tolerance for the notion that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". The reason is clear, of course.Germany had just waged a war of aggression against the whole of and had inflicted enormous suffering on the population, culminating in mass enslavement, wholesale slaughter and genocide. Germany had to be de-Nazified. Of course. Similarly, Japan had to be reconstructed in the mold of a responsible member of the world community. Of course. Let's try to state it in a way that even minority Parliamentarians, the pinstripes at the State Department and European foreign offices and impressionable and idealistic Israeli youth might understand. The fact is that there are two categories of occupation, not one. There are Bad Occupations and Good Occupations. The occupations of Norway Denmark and of Belgiumwere Bad Occupations. The occupation of Germany was a Good Occupation Israel's occupation of the Palestinians is clearly a Good Occupation. The Arabs are the ones who launched, not one war of aggression, but several, all for the goal of "driving the Jews into the Sea" and "turning the Mediterranean red with Jewish blood." How can the foreign offices of Europe forget? The difference is only that Germany was successful for a time and the Arabs were not, thank God! That does not make the Arabs victims, however, nor does it make Israel a Nazi occupier. Israel's mistake was in not even de-Nazifying the Arabs under Israeli rule. Moreover, the principle that territory may not be acquired by force never included territory taken in a defensive war. Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia, the Sudetenland and the Free City of Danzig (which was also German, really), as well as the Kurile Islands and the southern half of Sakhalin Island were all annexed unilaterally after the advent of the UN Charter by victims of aggression who had less justification than Israel has in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Yet no one ever referred to Gdansk as "Occupied Danzig" or to Gdinia as an "illegal settlement". In fact, NATO has recently admitted two of those states, which annexed territory unilaterally. In both cases, annexation was accomplished by bloodshed and "ethnic cleansing" on a massive scale. Both states have recently been admitted to the European Community. I refer to Poland which expelled the indigenous German population of Pomerania Silesia Danzig and its half of East Prussia, and the Czech, which expelled the indigenous German population of the Sudetenland. Both of them then annexed those territories unilaterally. Moreover, has far greater claim to Judea Samaria, the Golan Heights Jerusalem than those states has to the areas they have occupied and annexed. The fact is, the world has no standards and no principles. It professes very sanctimoniously to have them, of course, but it does not. If the world had standards, it would insist that Israel not withdraw to the June 4, 1967 lines on the Golan. Those lines include Banias and territory along the eastern shore of the Kinneret that were seized by Syria in a war of aggression against Israel in 1948 and the UN Charter prohibits acquisition of territory by force, as the Arabs never tire of repeating. Or is that another Good Occupation? This article is archived at http://netzahyisrael.org/good%20terrorists.htm To Go To Top

DEPUTY PM: MORE WITHDRAWALS AFTER DISENGAGEMENT Posted by Bryna Berch, August 13, 2004.

This is a news item from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com). If Sharon and his sidekick Olmert get their way, withdrawal from Gaza will lead to expulsion of the Jews in Samaria and Judea and eastern Jerusalem. We're talking half a million Jews ethnically cleansed from their homeland and their homes! Why aren't Jews around the world outraged! We are letting these nutters - who, by the way, were elected to clobber the Arabs, not the Jews - do what the Arabs haven't been able to. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whom many consider to be Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's 'trial-balloon dispatcher,' told Army Radio today that Israel will retreat from many more Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria than those included in the Prime Minister's disengagement plan. Olmert made the comments while touring the separation fence in the area near Modi'in, in central Israel. He assured reporters that, despite the fierce opposition to the Prime Minister's disengagement plan, the withdrawals from Gaza and parts of northern Samaria would indeed take place, and be but a prelude of things to come. The Deputy Prime Minister's words are sure to rattle some supporters of the disengagement plan who believed previous claims that a withdrawal from Gaza would strengthen Israel's diplomatic position, ensuring that Jews could remain in Judea and Samaria. Olmert implied that if the Prime Minister succeeded in carrying out the Gaza withdrawal, it would actually speed up the withdrawal process in Judea and Samaria. "The government is going to get rid of many settlements, and not just those willing to leave, in order to combat the daily disagreements with the nations of the world." Olmert was apparently referring to widely publicized statements by some members of the four northern Samaria communities (Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim) expressing their desire to leave willingly and receive compensation. Later, while touring the Samaria Jewish communities of Nili and Naaleh, Olmert assured reporters that changes would be made in the route of the separation fence to impinge less on the Palestinian Authority Arab population. Olmert also stressed that Prime Minister Sharon would succeed in garnering the approval of the Likud Central Committee on Wednesday for bringing the Labor party into the coalition, in order to attain approval for the withdrawal plan. Many in the party's Central Committee, even those supporting the Prime Minister's policies, virulently oppose Labor joining the government. Sharon has already announced that the opinion of the Committee does not bind him to any particular course of action. Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad (National Union) responded to Olmert's revelations saying he knew all along that Prime Minister Sharon was merely tricking people into supporting a limited withdrawal, while preparing to foist the next one upon them. "This is only the first course in the poisoned meal Sharon and Olmert intend on feeding the residents of Israel," Eldad said. To Go To Top

DAHLAN HELPS OLAF FIND THE LIGHT Posted by David Frankfurter, August 13, 2004.

Dear Friends, One dark night, a man was searching frantically under a street light. A passerby stopped to help. "What are you looking for?" he asked. "I dropped a valuable ring when I was further down the road," was the answer. "So why are you looking so far away from where you lost it?" was the obvious follow-on. "Because the light is over here!" answered the searcher. I just wrote to you about the statement by the EU fraud squad, OLAF, (http://europa.eu.int/comm/anti_fraud/press_room/pr/2004/15_en.html) that "To date, there is no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU Direct Budget Assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to finance illegal activities, including terrorism." Mohammed Dahlan seems to feel that OLAF needs some direction, so today's report in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/ JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1092280016704) helps guide them away from the street lamp, back to the places evidence might be found. Former PA security minister Mohammed Dahlan revealed that at least two of the Fatah militias, the Jenin Martyrs Brigades and the Abu Rish Brigades, were financed and armed by the PA leadership. In addition to their responsibility for the chaos in the Gaza Strip, the two groups have also been involved in attacks on the IDF and settlers. Dahlan told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was aware of the fact that these groups were receiving money and weapons from the PA... "The Jenin Martyrs Brigades, whose members kidnapped Jabali, is financed and armed by the PA. The group's members are PA employees. As for the Abu Rish Brigades, they too are financed and armed by the PA because they are members of the National Security Forces. Arafat knows who is financing them." Given that the EU provides a significant portion of the budgets that the PA uses to pay these terrorists, and given that the EC has said: "...If any evidence comes to light that the PA is knowingly employing members of terrorist organisations, the PA will need to act immediately to take these people off the payroll and bring them to justice." So how will the EU to answer these new charges? Reading the many statements, reports, answers to MEP questions etc. of the European Commission one knows the standard answer. The reports of the EU Parliamentary Working Group on Budgetary Assistance to the Palestinian Authority put it well: "Given the fungible nature of EU budgetary support, it is not possible to link any salary payment...to EU funding" Don't let the fancy words confuse you. Making money fungible means that the EU deliberately transfers all overseas aid to the PA to a single general-purpose bank account, where it is mingled with funds from other sources. That way, the EU can deny funding terror. Simply stated, this is money-laundering. A criminal offence in most modern democracies - mainly because it has been known to be common practice amongst criminals and many subversive organizations for some decades. Best Regards, David To subscribe to Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. To Go To Top

THE SUCKER OF ISRAEL: BODANSKY'S REVELATIONS Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, August 12, 2004.

Israeli-born Yossef Bodansky has been the director of the U.S. Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare for more than a decade. His latest book, "The Secret War of the Iraq War" (Harper-Collins 2004), is the basis of this article. Indeed, I will quote extensively from Chapter 3 of his book and inject comments en passant. Chapter 3 refers to an investigation that had begun in the fall of 2002 in Israel, and which involved the intelligence services of more than six countries. "The investigators' findings," writes Bodansky, "provided the 'smoking gun' supporting the [Bush] administration's insistence on Iraq's centrality to global terrorism, the availability of operational weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and proof of the close cooperation between Iraqi military intelligence and al-Queda." The data accumulated during this investigation could have provided the casus belli - the justification for war - and urgent imperative to take on Saddam Hussein. Yet in the first of several indecisive and self-contradicting political maneuvers, the Bush administration preferred to accommodate [Prime Minister Tony] Blair's pressure to keep Israel at arm's length, not implicate Arafat [who was working strategically with Saddam], and placate Blair's fellow West European leaders rather than go public with the findings of the investigation. Despite mounting international criticism and skepticism in the media, the American public was not presented with one of the strongest and most explicit justifications for the war with Iraq (p.51). Had the public been informed of the Arafat/Saddam/al-Queda nexus - which would conjure in American minds the horror of 9/11 - President Bush's restraints on Israel and even his road map to Palestinian state would have appeared ludicrous. Indeed, exposing that "axis of evil" would have required Bush to encourage Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to eliminate Arafat's Palestinian Authority in coordination with the war on Iraq. But now for another Bodansky revelation: On the night of September 13, 2002, Israeli Special Forces intercepted and captured a three-man squad attempting to cross the Jordan River and enter Palestinian territories [sic] on their way to Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Their interrogation revealed that they were highly trained members of the Baghdad-based Arab Liberation Front (ALF), sent to conduct spectacular strikes under the banner of Arafat's Fatah... The three ALF terrorists were trained for several missions, including an operation that involved shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down civilian airliners as they approached Ben-Gurion Airport and using anti-tank rockets and missiles to ambush convoys - including American groupings on their way to Iraq. They were also to organize and train Palestinian terrorists... The three had been briefed in Baghdad that they would get the missiles, heavy weapons, and explosives they might need from Fatah via [Tafiq] Tarawi [chief of the Palestinian Authority's General Intelligence Service and Arafat's closest confidant]... The Israel interrogators were most interested in what the three had to say about their training... at Salman Pak - a major base near Baghdad - by members of Unit 999 of Iraqi military intelligence. They recounted that in an adjacent part of the camp, other teams of Unit 999 were preparing a select group of Islamist terrorists specifically identified as members of al-Queda. The three ALF terrorists told the Israelis that... the Islamists also received elaborate training with chemical weapons and poisons, specifically [the extremely potent poison] ricin. Moreover... the ALF terrorists recounted, Islamist detachments traveled to Turkey, where they were to strike American bases with chemical weapons once the war [on Iraq] started... Within a week of the capture of the ALF trio, a delegation of senior Israeli intelligence officers traveled to Washington to brief the White House about their findings... Since the Bush administration was hard-pressed to justify going to war with Iraq, one would think it would readily publicize Israel's intelligence data. Not at all! The White House, says Bodansky, "was reluctant to advertise this evidence because it demonstrated Israeli intelligence's major contribution to the war on terrorism." Nevertheless, and despite Europe's pro-Palestinian posture, Israel quietly shared the acquired data with several European governments. This led to the destruction and capture of several Arab and Chechen terrorist networks in Paris and London, as well as support networks in Spain and Italy. As Bodansky sees, "Israel had in fact demonstrated to the Europeans why Saddam Hussein had to be toppled, and soon." And yet, "most Western European governments adamantly refused to address Iraqi training of al-Queda in the use of chemical weapons and poisons." But this is not all. As Bodansky points out, acceptance of the evidence provided by Israel would also acknowledge the intimate involvement of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority in international terrorism. The European governments insisted not only on separating the Palestinians from the war on Iraq, but demanded that the Arab world be compensated for the American-led attack, by forcing Israel to accept a political solution favorable to Arafat, regardless of the extent of Palestinian terrorism! Moreover, Tony Blair led a European effort to salvage Arafat and reward him with a Palestinian state, hoping to demonstrate that the war was not indiscriminately anti-Arab. As for the Bush administration, "Having to choose between further alienating the Western Europeans, who insisted on keeping Arafat out of the war, and bolstering its case against Iraq by providing concrete Israeli evidence, the White House decided to go with the Europeans..." The Palestinian Authority's involvement with Iraqi terrorism and weapons of mass destruction was thus hushed up, as was Israel's contribution to the effort to disarm Iraq. The present writer asks: If the U.S. is so dependent on Israeli intelligence - as indeed it is - why didn't Prime Minister Sharon make demands on the Americans in accordance with Israel's vital national interests? Why has he behaved as a "sucker"? Throughout 2002 and before it launched its attack on Iraq in March 2003, the United States sought to gain the cooperation of various Arab regimes. The attempt was futile and revealed the ignorance of the Bush administration even as regards seemingly pro-American Arab states. The elimination of Saddam Hussein could not but pose a threat to the autocratic nature of these states. Besides, and as Bodansky points out, "For the Saudis, any semblance of cooperating with the United States in the occupation and destruction of Baghdad - regardless of the fact that they hated Saddam Hussein - was sacrilegious" (p. 62). Moreover, U.S. occupation of oil-rich Iraq and the establishment of a pro-American Iraqi government would undermine Saudi influence and importance in Washington. This also applies to Egypt, a key player in the Middle East. Despite these obvious facts, the Bush administration, while preparing for "Operation Iraqi Freedom," insisted that Israel maintain a "low profile" and act with restraint vis-a-vis Arafat's Palestinian Authority. To placate Washington, prime minister Ariel Sharon, on September 29, instructed the Israel Defense Forces to comply with American requests to ease the siege of Arafat, and to withdraw from Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Even more significant, Sharon bowed to Washington, at Israel's expense, by not exposing Arafat's connection with Saddam Hussein. "It is impossible to say no to our big friend [the United States]," Sharon told the newspaper Yediot Aharanot. But this is precisely what Arabs states were saying to Washington, including Egypt, which receives two billion dollars each year in U.S. military aid. In November, Cairo said no even to "Washington's request for special security measures in the Suez Canal during the passage of navy warships on their way to the Persian Gulf" (p. 62). While receiving nothing from Egypt, the U.S. received crucial intelligence about Iraq from Israel. Yet Washington expected Israel not to become involved in any military campaign to topple Saddam, regardless of any sort of attack on the Jewish state. It mattered not to the administration that Israel had documentary evidence that Iraq was directly responsible for Palestinian terrorism. The evidence showed that Saddam and Arafat, acting in collusion, ordered suicide bombings in Israel to distract Washington from its war plans against Saddam's regime. Nevertheless, Washington applied constant pressure on Jerusalem to make concessions to Arafat, and warned Sharon not to do anything once the war started "even if Iraq launched missiles at the tiny state"! Jews were expected to bleed for their big American friend. And bleed they did. Some 130 Jews had to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists in March 2002 before Prime Minister Sharon screwed up enough courage to launch "Operation Defensive Shield." Moreover, the operation was terminated before the IDF could completely destroy the weapon factories in Jenin, the venue for suicide bombers. Jews had to be reduced to body parts to placate the United States, or rather, to preserve Ariel Sharon's "friendly" relations with George W. Bush. Here, a slight digression. While Israel dutifully supplied the U.S. with intelligence about Iraq - intelligence that would save American lives - Jonathan Pollard languishes in prison for having (illegally) supplied Israel with such intelligence, but which Washington withheld in violation of the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between the two countries. Jewish blood is cheaper than American blood - or so we must conclude not only from Washington's attitude toward Israel, but also from the submissive attitude of Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. After a mid-October meeting with Bush who called Sharon a "close friend" and affirmed Israel's right to self-defense, "Sharon came out of the Oval Office," writes Bodansky, "deeply insulted and personally hurt when, at the last minute, a six-page 'position paper' on the future of the Middle East that included veiled threats to Jerusalem was stuffed into his hand." Bodansky goes on to say: Sharon had not expected "his friend" Bush to sandbag him, especially in light of Sharon's close cooperation with America, even at the cost of Israeli lives. Despite Sharon's indignity, Israel made unilateral concessions to the Palestinians that enabled greater movement to would-be martyrs and bomb-makers. As a result, Israeli citizens suffered some of the most lethal strikes in recent memory, including, on the morning of Sharon's meeting with Bush, a bus bombing in which fourteen civilians were killed and close to fifty wounded (p. 65). Some critics will say - and rightly say - Israel desperately needs a prime minister that can say no to Washington and uphold Israel's interests. But has the Knesset nothing to say in this matter? Isn't the Knesset also responsible for the well-being of the Jewish people? And if the Knesset lacks the power to constraint the prime minister, must there not be some deadly flaw in Israel's system of government? Professor Paul Eidelberg is a political scientist, who writes on Israel's need for a constitution as substrate for government. He is founder and president of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached at: eidelberg@foundation1.org This article is archived at http://www.freeman.org/m_online/aug04/eidelberg.htmhttp://www.freeman.org/m_online/aug04/eidelberg.htm To Go To Top

TEMPLE MOUNT, CHECKPOINTS, SENATOR COLEMAN (AND OTHER ITEMS) Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 12, 2004.

TEMPLE MOUNT: CONTROL AND SECURITY Israel has reversed its previous transfer of control over the Temple Mt. from Jordan to the P.A., back to Jordan. Reason given: the P.A. used that control in furtherance of its war on Israel. Israeli experts worry that Islamists may bomb the mosque there, and blame Israel. "According to numerous reports in Israel and abroad, extremists in the settler movement, sometimes under the influence of religious edicts written by rabbis, have plotted an attack on the mosques, which they see as an affront to Judaism (Michael Saucier, NY Sun, 8/6, p.1). Without bodyguards, Internal Security Min. Hanegby sat down outside his house with the kind of right-wing "extremists" he warned are plotting violence against the PM. It shows up his warning (Voice of Judea, 8/8). His warnings make it easy for Arabs to attack and blame the Jews. Need it have taken years of warfare for Israel to decide that? Why leave the Mount in the hands of Arabs, after the Arabs denied Jews access to their holiest site, built illegally, and destroyed Jewish artifacts! Let Muslims tolerate Jewish prayer on the mount or pay the consequences if they riot! Israel cannot expect respect from the world, if it fails to demonstrate self-respect. Vague and unsubstantiated "reports" of Jewish plots lack credibility. Skepticism should be engendered by the Left's history of being the violent, brutal, subversive element. The incitement against Rabin and his murder were part of the secret police's dirty tricks against the religious Right. The dirty tricks were proved; right-wing incitement was not. The assertion that some rabbis issue religious edicts condoning assassination of a Prime Minister has been disproved, before. Agents provocateurs managed to get some rabbis into a theoretical discussion of what the Talmud permits or requires under hypothetical circumstances. When the rabbi mentions forceful pursuit of justice, his words are distorted into authorization for violence now and under actual circumstances. The purpose is to find a pretext to condemn him and by extrapolation his followers and the whole religious Right. It behooves a newspaper to cite the edicts, not just tell us that there are edicts. NICE GUYS DON'T FINISH An Israeli soldier described what it is like to guard a checkpoint. The Arabs are supposed to go through in an orderly line, so that the guards can check for terrorists. The Arabs try to prevent this. Hundreds keep moving beyond the point at which they are ordered to halt. They know that the soldiers will not do anything to them at that point. The soldiers cock their rifles, but the Arabs know the Jews won't shoot them, so the crowd surges forward. The Israelis pretend to take out shock grenades, but the Arabs know the Jews won't throw them. The crowd keeps coming. The Israelis are reduced to shouting, pushing, and perhaps punching. For that, one soldier, probably a Muslim, has been indicted. This is what the reporters, human rights watchers, and other leftists have been waiting for. Now they accuse Israel of human rights violations. Where was their concern when the crowd was advancing on the few soldiers who, by letting them approach too closely, risk being stabbed or may let some terrorists through, in the confusion? The Arabs know what they are doing. Arabs could not do this in Iraq, where the US troops would open fire rather than risk their lives for nothing against a fanatical enemy (Voice of Judea, 8/8). When Israel uses US tactics, the State Dept. calls it brutal. But the whole Arab crowd is brutal. Doesn't it deserve to be shot, in self-defense and as a deterrent that would enable security measures to be reinstated? SEN. NORM COLEMAN (R., MN) Sen. Coleman praised PM Sharon for exercising "leadership" and giving "hope to the entire region," by being someone who "acts" instead of just talks (IMRA, 8/9). That is, PM Sharon is persisting in the abandonment plan rejected by the Party referendum that, when he anticipated winning it, he had pledged to abide by, and he is putting over by dictatorial measures in the Cabinet, smears in the media, and deception of the public. What "hope to the entire region?" Hope of getting Israel away from the tank-trapping, secure borders that Yesha offers, and out of the core of its homeland. The jihadists would celebrate their great victory and gain enthusiastic support from an otherwise worn out people. Contrary to the popular notion, it is not hopelessness in their cause that motivates terrorism but hope in succeeding. Sharon gives the Arabs hope. No wonder Egypt is exploiting the Sharon plan! Sen. Coleman, a fellow Jew, is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is a Republican Party liaison with US Jewry. How sad for US Jewry, pathetic for the GOP, and ignorant by the Senate! They just go along mindlessly with the popular wisdom of the day. But that wisdom of the day jibes with the State Dept. folly of the century. A sensible, informed, and courageous Senate would call for an investigation of the oft-failed State Dept.. It would investigate how the State Dept. came to adopt policies bound to fail, why it persists in them, and in particular who in it greased the red carpet for Saudi 9/11 terrorists and post-9/11 Saudis to enter the US. EGYPTIAN EXPLANATION FOR U.S. INTEREST IN SUDAN The Egyptian press accuses the US of planning military intervention in Sudan in order to control the oil extraction there. The US should allow the Sudan government more time to fulfill its promise to intervene against the genocidal Arabs (IMRA, 8/9 from MEMRI). Giving the government that sponsored genocide more time to halt it means more time to foster it. The Arabs and others said that about US military intervention in Iraq: it was to control the country's oil extraction. They were wrong about that, too. And they forgot that the retreating Iraqis set fire to Kuwait's oil wells. What the Egyptian press left out was the special interest that Egypt has in Sudan, its neighbor, another Nile riparian country. Egypt is interested in controlling irrigation water extraction. LEFTIST PLOTTER OF TERRORISM While the government of Israel warned of right-wing assaults on it by unnamed individuals, it re-arrested a leftist Israeli for continuing association with terrorists and plotting attacks on Israelis. The last time, she was aided in her legal defense by leftist organizations (Arutz-7, 8/9). Why? ILLEGAL OUTPOSTS PM Sharon indicated that the government soon would uproot the unauthorized Jewish outposts in Yesha. His government offered the Bedouin hundreds of millions of dollars to move from their illegal outposts in the Negev, which harbor 76,000 people, and to retroactively legalize seven illegal Bedouin communities (Arutz-7, 8/9). The Jewish outposts harbor just a few people, each. Sharon's motto could be: help the enemy; harm the Jews. The Bedouin once were loyal to the State, but they have been changing and often stone Israeli buses. PM SHARON ASSURES ISRAELIS ON SECURITY PM Sharon still vows never to compromise on matters of security. In practice, he has acceded to US demands for relaxation of security matters. As a result, Israelis were killed. Then he reinstated the security measures. If reinstated, why ever relaxed (IMRA, 8/9)? This innocent blood is on his head and on that of the State Dept., as well as of the Arabs. P.A. CONTRADICTS DENIAL OF CHILD TERRORISM The P.A. denies Israeli complaints that it uses children as human shields for terrorists and increasingly to commit terrorism. But in its own study, it states that 60% of children detained by Israeli security forces do not belong to military groups. That means that 40% do! The total that does must be considerable, if 40% of 2,800 detained, or 1,120 children, were admittedly enrolled in terrorist organizations (IMRA, 8/8). P.A. denials are refuted by the devotion of TV and schools to recruiting children for terrorism. SURGE OF TERRORISM Israelis have sustained more casualties from terrorism during the past four years than during the preceding 53 (IMRA, 8/8). That is one way of looking at the figures. The usual way is to note what a high percentage of terrorist attacks Israeli security agencies thwart. The increase in attacks follows the development of autonomy for the Arabs and allowing the P.A. to influence Israeli Arabs in preventable ways. P.A. REVISES HISTORY In its indoctrination centers, the P.A. has replaced thousands of years of Jewish history, much of it recorded, with false claims that the ancient Israelites and Canaanites, who preceded the advent of Islam and the advance of Muslim invaders both were Muslim Arabs. This false history is to bolster the fabrication of a Palestinian Arab nationality at the expense of Jewish history and claims to the country (IMRA, 8/8 from Palestinian Media Watch). And the world says nothing! WHAT DOES JORDAN WANT? Tel Aviv U. Jaffee Center for Security reports that the King of Jordan has become confident and decisive, as shown by his scolding of Arafat for not being confident or decisive. The Center believes the King is interested primarily in Jordan, not much in pan-Arab causes. His perspective is one of concern for the anarchy in the P.A. and in Iraq (IMRA, 8/8). SAUDI ALERT A Saudi newspaper warns that the Israeli secret service may fabricate attacks on European Jews, so as to propel them into Israel and onto Arabs' land (IMRA, 8/8). Since the European Arabs are antisemitic marauders, they are driving the Jews to Israel. Most of Yesha is state land, not owned by Arabs. However, the government of Israel wishes to vacate such land there as is owned by Jews. Rather than admit that, the Arabs pretend that the Sharon plan for abandoning much of Yesha is a plot to absorb much of Yesha. Sharon pretended the same, but US pressure gives him an excuse for proceeding with abandonment and abandoning absorption. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

DIVESTTERROR.ORG LAUNCHED. REPORTS ON INVESTMENTS IN TERRORIST-SPONSORING NATIONS Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 12, 2004.

This is a special report from the Center For Security Policy: Press Release: August 12, 2004 # 04-06 from Director Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. $200 Billion Worth of Stock Held in Companies Doing Business in Rogue States (Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy released today a ground-breaking report entitled "Terrorism Investments of the 50 States," which found that America's 100 largest and most prominent public pension systems hold in their portfolios some $200 billion worth of stock in public companies that do business in terrorist-sponsoring states. The report makes clear that this investment translates conservatively into $73 billion worth of business with - and financial life-support for - the regimes in question, and vital resources for the terrorists they aid and abet. Fortunately, it also represents leverage for Americans and the public pension plans that represent millions of them, leverage that can be used to open a new, and potentially decisive financial front in the war on terror. "We cannot hope to prevail in this war unless and until we cut off the billions of dollars flowing to terrorist-sponsoring regimes from America's state pension funds via investments in companies doing business with such regimes," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., president of the Center for Security Policy. "This report should serve as a wake-up call to state officials who have the power to ensure that public pension funds invest so as to support - rather than undermine - our efforts to defeat the terrorists." Gaffney added, "We are hopeful that this report and the accompanying DivestTerror.org campaign will catalyze close scrutiny of public pension funds at every level of government and, in turn, the portfolios of college endowments and other institutional and private stockholders. Where such investments are in companies that help terrorist-sponsoring nations, they should be divested." Highlights of the Center's report include the following: * On average, America's leading pension systems invest between 15 and 23 percent of their portfolio in companies that do business in terrorist-sponsoring states. * On average, the 100 pension systems analyzed invest in 101 companies that have business activities in terrorist sponsoring states. Some 39 were found to be invested in more than 100 companies with corporate ties to terrorist-sponsoring states. * The $73 billion in projects being undertaken in terror-friendly states by companies that America's pension systems hold in portfolio is almost certainly but a fraction of the actual total business being done there. Due to the fact that financial data is available for relatively few of the companies operating in terrorist-sponsoring states, the role being played by public companies in the viability of governments that sponsor terrorism is probably, if anything, even greater than indicated by this number. * On average, the Nation's leading public pension funds were invested in: 73 companies doing business in Iran; 24 companies doing business in Libya; 26 companies doing business in Sudan; 31 companies doing business in Syria; and 9 companies doing business in North Korea. "As Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has put it, the idea that any public pension plan would, in effect, be rendering assistance to nations that harbor, arm, train and otherwise support our enemies in the war on terror is 'unconscionable.' It is a particular affront, however, to all the police officers and firefighters - who are being asked to put their lives on the line each day for our security and well-being - that their pension funds are willing to hold the stock of companies, which, in turn, provide critical revenues, advanced technology and moral cover to countries that threaten both," Gaffney observed. Along with the report's release, the Center announced the launch of its DivestTerror.org website and an accompanying national grassroots campaign. The campaign will empower millions of American investors to play a role in the financial war on terror. Specifically, DivestTerror.org will educate elected officials, public employee beneficiaries, college students and professors and individual investors as to how they can enlist in and help wage that war. "People across this country want to know what they can do to enhance the security of their families and communities in this time of war and mortal danger," Gaffney concluded. Terrorism Investments of the 50 States and DivestTerror.org provide how-to manuals for each of us to make a real contribution to defeating those who enable and engage in terror. I urge every American to go to DivestTerror.org to learn how to ensure that the leverage of their investments is employed to weaken and, wherever possible, to destroy governments and organizations that sponsor terrorism." A full copy of the Center's new report is available at http://www.divestterror.org/ For more information, or to interview Frank Gaffney, please contact Adam Bromberg or Mark Coyle at 703-683-5004. To Go To Top

THE AM-PAKT AFFAIR: Part 1 Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, August 12, 2004.

I don't read spy novels, nor do I adhere to conspiracy theories. Michael Moore holds no interest for me (the last movie I saw was Shrek 2) and I don't have the head to read Seymour Hersh. But, I am concerned over the state of the world, and the absence of true leadership, and stuff like accountability and justice. The following article is comprised of a variety of both reputable and, admittedly, more debatable sources. Yet, it brings up issues which should be of great concern to all of us. It also transcends partisan political lines and truly bridges the gap between Democrats and Republicans, Israeli leftists and rightists, and all thinking individuals - whether liberal, conservative or undecided. It doesn't matter if your heart rallies to the cause of justice for Daniel Pearl, justice for Jonathan Pollard, or justice for all. Anyone with concern for either the future of America and/or of Israel should take heed and grapple with the information below and learn to ask questions, as we're all in this together... "On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed - the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban." (Washington Post, May 18, 2002) In addition to Congressman Goss, Senator Graham, and the Pakistani Intelligence chief it should be noted that the other participants in the meeting were Senator [Democrat] Jon Kyl, the chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, and Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Maleeha Lodhi. The meeting was in session when the first plane hit. It seems that SIS head General Mahmud Ahmed "...lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Center. The U.S. authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh [Omar Saeed] at the instance of General Mahmud [Ahmad]. Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief... Indian inputs... helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link." (Times Of India, October 9, 2001) It appears that sources close to deceased Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Pearl say that prior to his beheading in Pakistan on January 29/30 2002 "he was working to uncover links between the intelligence services and terrorism." (The Guardian, April 5, 2002) This week, President Bush nominated Porter Goss, the former CIA agent and Republican Congressman [Florida], to head the CIA. Coincidentally it was Goss and Senator Bob Graham [Dem-Florida] who co-chaired the bi-partisan congressional inquiry on 9/11. But under the circumstances, they should have been the ones questioned by the first commission. One has to wonder why the apparent conflict of interest was "overlooked" by the powers-that-be. It's also interesting to note that while Saudi connections are alluded to in the inquiries report, the Pakistani link is absent. In an article published by Global Outlook, author Michel Chossudovsky notes that "While the Washington Post scores in on the "notoriously close" links between General Ahmad and Osama bin Laden, it fails to dwell on the more important question: what were Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham and other members of the Senate and House intelligence committees doing together with the alleged 9/11 "money-man" at breakfast on the morning of 9/11." Seeing as these law makers and intelligence specialists were well-acquainted with the inner-workings of the spy network in Pakistan, I find it odd that the ever-diligent media didn't question the earnestness of following statements by Goss and Graham when they appeared on the The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on December 11, 2002 Senator Graham: - "I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States." Rep. Goss: "You all know that we've worked very hard trying to create a clearer accountability trail for people with responsibilities here ..." Senator John Kyle, had this to say: To defeat terrorism, we must not only go after the terrorists themselves, but also track, expose, and cut off terrorists' access to financial and logistical support. That is why we must continue our efforts to connect the dots between the horrific attacks of two years ago and those who supported the attackers. (nationalreview.com September 100, 2003) But Senator Kyle, as sincere as his comments may be, was among those sharing danish and coffee with the Al-Qaeda -connected General on the morning of 9/11. And yet he chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security. Even if the original relationship was well-intentioned and mutated due to an increasingly complex world, there was indeed an ISI (Pakistani Intelligence), CIA, Al Qaeda connection. Furthermore, as government representatives for the State of Florida who have worked with the intelligence community, and have a good relationship with Florida's influential business and private sector, Graham and Goss should have been barred from chairing the 9/11 inquiry on purely ethical grounds. It must be remembered that in addition to being Saudi, a good number of the of the Hijackers had lived in Florida and attended well-respected flight schools in the area. Atta had received U.S. military training and there are reports that CIA operatives were also trained at those schools. I haven't read the book, The New Pearl Harbor by David Griffin, but the Baltimore Sun had this to say: "...there is a very good synopsis of the ISI, which is the Pakistani intelligence service. He shows the direct connections between the CIA, the ISI, and Mohamed Atta. He makes a very convincing case that the Pakistani ISI had been helping to plan 9/11 for a long time." It seems that for all of the touting of America's seeming full-proof democratic system of checks and balances, it is hardly immune to corruption and scandal-especially when elections are forthcoming and George Bush openly declares that "Pakistan is an ally in the war terror..." There are increasing suspicions and calls for accountability. In a recent article entitled, Politics and Terrorism Alerts Don't Mix, conservative George F. Will, columnist for the Washington Post, calls on the government to be aware of public temperament at a time when "cynicism is aggravated by government insensitivity to suspicions that already are rampant..." He writes that, "... if a terrorism alert is based on intelligence some of which is years old, the government should say so immediately." He goes on to cite a "nonfanatic" article which appeared in last month's New Republic which he feels is evidence of the public's growing disbelief. That article claimed, "...that the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistan to deliver a 'high-value target' (HVT) in time for the November election. A Pakistani intelligence official says a colleague was told during a spring visit to the White House that 'it would be best if the arrest or killing of (any) HVT were announced on 26, 27 or 28 July' - during the Democratic convention." Now here's an interesting twist, Tony Karon, columinst for Time Magazine feels that although Israel's candor and ability to admit a mistake may "shock Americans" that kind of honesty "has been distinctly lacking in Washington's investigation of the 9/11 attacks." He notes that "Israeli leaders freely admit that the growth of Hamas was partly a tragedy of their own making." What's the historic mistake that American leaders are loathe to admit? "It is generally accepted among historians.... [That] the program to recruit, arm, train and deploy [bin Laden's organization] involved three U.S.-allied intelligence agencies - those of Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - working in conjunction with the CIA, which was coordinating America's own covert assistance to the Afghan jihad." (Time Magazine, April 8, 2004) As an Israeli, I can tell you firsthand that the blemishes and blunders are embarrassing to look at- especially when the media is so focused on Israel and the mistakes that we make and scandals we create. But maybe that honesty about our imperfections and our open struggle with choices is the key to the survival of our nation, and is what true freedom is all about. What appears to the world (and to many Israelis) as political, security and economic chaos, may actually be part of a painful growth process. American Jews should not be blinded by the perfectly beautiful and slick piece of election propaganda entitled: President George W. Bush: A Friend of the American Jewish Community found at http://www.rjchq.org/media/PDF/GWBandJsh_Community.pdf Nor should they fall for what I'm sure will be a stunning production, in response, by Democratic candidate John Kerry. There's something quite rotten under the facade. For those American Jews who feel that I'm jeopardizing the alliance that both Israel and Diaspora Jewry enjoys with the American government and its representatives, please be assured my efforts are directed towards rectifying the relationship. If the American-Jewish relationship is based solely on unquestioning subservience, then you might as well be living in ancient Egypt, Babylon or Rome. Asking questions in no way conflicts with your loyalty to the United States government, as it's your duty and right as a citizen of a democratic state. But more importantly, it's your obligation as a human being who has been commanded by G-d to "choose life" and "pursue justice". If Porter Goss, who was intimately involved in the intelligence community during America's years of historic foreign policy blunders, becomes head of the CIA, then America, the American Jewish community and Israel has a lot to be concerned about. He will more than likely continue to court Pakistan, Egypt and the Saudis rather than expose the depths of negligence and take corrective measures - it's just too embarrassing to do otherwise. But more about that in Part 2 of this article. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter and columnist. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

OMRI'S STORY Posted by Rabbi Baruch Lederman, August 12, 2004.

Children are you to the L-rd your G-d... For you are a holy nation... a treasured people... (Deut. 14:1-2) We are a special, holy, treasured people. When we realize this, we embrace our role as G-d's children and as such we come closer to Hashem (G-d). Sometimes Hashem's children reunite with their Father in the most unexpected ways, as the following true story illustrates: Though born in the Jewish state, Omri's childhood was devoid of any Judaism. Omri Vartash grew up in Kibbutz Ruchama - an affiliate of the communist Shomer HaTzair Movement. A product of secular Israel, it didn't occur to anyone, apparently, to mark his bar mitzvah - not even with a symbolic celebration. He'd never set foot in a synagogue, or wanted to. "I knew that religious people didn't eat bread on Passover, but that was the extent of my information on that holiday." His parents enrolled him in the School of the Arts in Mitzpeh Rimon, to develop his artistic talents. When, in time, Omri received a tempting invitation: to travel to Italy, the home of theater, to study acting, he jumped at it. The Theater Lab was headed by the world-renowned Jerzy Grotowski, who even after his death is held in such high esteem that some theater fans stand up respectfully at the very mention of his name. "My parents were elated to hear that I would be studying with the great Grotowski," Omri recalled. "They stood tall, bursting with pride, and told anyone who was willing to listen!" Occasionally, Grotowski would invite one of his students for a private meeting. His students hailed from all over the world. "Every one of us hoped for a chance for such intimacy with our mentor, a relaxed conversation in his home or in some secluded place. We learned so much from him then; it was a mini-lesson on the 'tricks of the trade' of theater life, a truly eye-opening talk." And then one day, it was Omri's turn. He was beside himself with excitement. What would Grotowski say to him? What questions should he ask "the master"? Grotowski invited Omri to dinner in an Italian restaurant. There, in the midst of devouring an enormous plate of spaghetti, he asked the young Israeli a very pointed question: "What do you know about the Baal Shem Tov?" He even pronounced the Baal Shem Tov's name correctly "Baal what?" Omri asked, thoroughly confused and at a loss. "What Shem?" The words sounded like Hebrew, but what was Grotowski talking about? Now it was the great director's turn to be shocked. "You are a Jew, are you not! Do you mean to tell me that you've never heard of the Baal Shem Tov? Who educated you? Where did you grow up? Why, he was one of the greatest men of your nation!" Grotowski, the Polish gentile, looked long and hard at his student. Then, patiently, he proceeded to tell him about the Chassidic movement, which began in the Ukraine and spread across Grotowski's native Poland. But mostly, he described the holy Baal Shem Tov, and the miracles he performed. Omri Vartash, kibbutz-born secular Israeli, sat in an Italian restaurant in the heart of Rome, and listened breathlessly. He'd never heard anything remotely like it. "It was the most meaningful discussion of my life. I started to think: 'How could this knowledge have been hidden from me for all these years? I'm completely disconnected from the history of my own people! How is it that a Polish gentile knows more than I do?" Omri never imagined what would happen next. The next morning, Grotowski phoned to set up another meeting with his Jewish student. And he gave him a book, an English translation of Shivchei HaBesht (Praises of the Baal Shem Tov). "Read this! It will greatly enrich you," his "rebbe" told him. Omri took the book, and so began his journey into Judaism. He read the book from start to finish, and the more he read, the more he wanted to know. Meanwhile, Grotowski was keeping tabs on his student, to see what he would do with his newfound knowledge. "I'm simply astonished!" Omri told him. "But what should I do next?" "Continue your search!" Grotowski told Omri. "You came here on a spiritual quest but all the spirituality you could ever need is right there before you, in your own ancient religion! I know that there are special books that explain the laws and customs to Jews who are searching for the truth." Omri didn't sit idle; he went looking for more. And he began committing himself to observing certain practices. "I started by maintaining a separation between milk and meat, despite the fact that I didn't yet eat kosher food. And, with Grotowski's encouragement, I began going to synagogue for the first time in my life. I tried to take part in the prayers." "The deeper I went in my research of Judaism, the deeper my relationship became with Grotowski. My non-Jewish friends noticed that the two of us had developed a special kinship. He would question me in great detail about my visits to the synagogue, and about my experiences during prayer." "You have no further need to remain here," he told Omri, one day. "You must return home, and continue there to search for your roots." And Omri, forever loyal and obedient to his master's words, packed up his bags and returned to Israel. When he got home, he told his baffled parents just what he had learned from the famous director Grotowski: that he needed to become religious. "My parents were speechless. Totally. They'd sent me to him so that I'd return as an accomplished actor. Instead, I was now going to become a 'dos' ('ultra-Orthodox Jew)!" In Jerusalem, he continued along the path to Judaism. Omri accepted upon himself, completely and absolutely, the yoke of religious observance, and totally became a part of the Torah world. On the advice of a Torah sage, Omri decided that he needed to make use of his acting skills and of everything he had learned in Italy, in order to increase awareness of Torah. He and an actor friend, who was also returning to his roots, began to write skits that would teach children about their heritage. "What we try to do is to use our acting skills to serve the greater public. We are tools to assist people in rediscovering their beliefs," explains Omri. The duo began their work with no equipment, no scenery, and no props. They traveled, as they were, from school to school, and performed for children. Today, three years later, there's no sector of society before whom the duo haven't performed - Yeshiva schools, Chassidic cheders, even some secular high schools. A highlight of their career was being awarded a National Prize, in recognition of a play they wrote, and performed all over the country, about guarding one's speech. There is one performance that to Omri will never forget. The school principal warned that none of his students could sit still for more than five minutes. Throughout the play, the children sat unmoving, their eyes glued to the stage. Afterwards, one of the students, complete with a dyed blond, moussed, "mushroom-style'' hairdo, approached. There were tears in his eyes. He had a tough appearance, but his heart was soft. "You spoke about prayer," he explained. "Never in my life did I cry as much as I cried just now." Says Omri: "Keep in mind that we're talking about a teenager whose entire life is entwined in the Western culture, with all its ugliness. Yet the Torah message succeeded in penetrating his soul, and awakening his faith. That is what is most moving for us." (The foregoing, researched by Aharon Granot, was submitted by Rabbi Aryeh Moshen.) Rabbi Baruch Lederman is Rabbi of Congregation Kehillas Torah, San Diego, CA. This essay was delivered as a Dvar Torah for Re'eh (a comment on the portion of the Torah read this week). 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THE RACE AGAINST LIES Posted by Phyllis Chesler, August 12, 2004.

Today, anti-Israel propaganda is all the rage at international film festivals and on television, world-wide. It passes for the truth and is considered "brave." In the 1940s, when the media and the American leadership refused to inform US citizens about the extermination of the Jews, a band of activists took it upon themselves to get the word out to the American people. Today, I will follow their inspiring example and make available two documentaries that honestly and accurately depict the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on my website, www.phyllis-chesler.com. In 1942, Palestinian Jew Peter Bergson (a.k.a. Hillel Kook, the nephew of the first Chief Rabbi of Israel) and a small band of activists began an extraordinary and heartbreaking "race against death" as they tirelessly campaigned for American assistance to rescue the doomed Jews of Europe. When Kook began, two million Jews had already been exterminated. Tirelessly, Kook lobbied Congress, staged public and theatrical rallies, and placed paid ads in the nation's leading newspapers. His ads asked: "They Are Driven to Death Daily, But Can They Be Saved?" and "How Well Are You Sleeping?" America's failure to respond was due to the lingering effects of the Great Depression, nativism, and anti-Semitism. In addition, Kook's efforts were actively obstructed by the American State Department, the media, (especially the New York Times), and the leaders of organized American Jewry (especially Rabbi Stephen Wise, Congressman Sol Bloom, New York state judge Samuel Rosenman, communal leader Nahum Goldmann and Ira Hirshmann of the War Refugee Board). However, Kook was backed by Ben Hecht, Max Lerner, media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, many orthodox rabbis, and many Christian legislators such as congressman Will Rogers, Jr., and senators Guy Gillette, Edwin Johnson, and Elbert Thomas. When the New York Times refused to print the truth about what was happening to the Jews or when they buried it on back pages, Bergson had Hecht compose eye-catching paid ads in the New York Times and other papers. In their riveting book, Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust, Professors David S. Wyman and Raphael Medoff carefully and dramatically document all of this. The heart of the book is a never-before-released twelve-hour interview with Kook himself which Wyman conducted in 1973. The parallels to today's world are chilling. Actually, in some ways, the situation today is worse. The propaganda campaign against the Jews and the Jewish state is far more global and technologically sophisticated. The receptivity to Big Lies, especially if they are visually presented, is even greater today than it was sixty-four years ago. Such propaganda not only flourishes on every continent, especially in the Islamic world, but is especially favored by progressives, humanitarians, academics, and leftists in the West. There are about 14 million Jews left in the world. Each and every one, but the Jews of Israel most of all, are being systematically and perilously endangered by this non-stop onslaught of propaganda.The Western media has still not caught on to the way in which Arabs and Palestinians are systematically using media technology to brainwash people with simplistic and highly biased versions of reality. Photo opportunity journalism, staged Israeli shootings and massacres, especially of children, are rampant; true depictions of Israeli security fence building, Palestinian home demolitions, and the alleged purposeful killing of political activists (such as Rachel Corrie of the International Solidarity Movement) are systematically presented out of context and in totally one-sided ways. The propagandists never, ever show the numerous acts of kindness and ethical behaviors on the part of the Israeli Defense Forces nor do they show the systematic slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians, nearly half of whom are women and children. The Great Propagandists focus only on the Palestinian "refugees" who are seen as the innocent victims of Israeli aggression. They never show us the human face of the true refugees of the Middle East who are (persecuted) Jews from Arab countries whom Israel absorbed with no help from the UN, or from UNRWA, nor do they explain that Palestinian suffering is primarily due to corrupt and murderous Palestinian and Arab leadership. In my view, Israel is definitely and regrettably responsible for at least 5% of Palestinian suffering; but no more. I have gone on record over the years, as have many other Jews, protesting this 5%. It is important not to pretend that 5% responsibility is equal to 95% responsibility. On August 12, 2004, HBO will be airing James Miller's BBC/Channel 4 film, "Death in Gaza," (in Arabic and Hebrew) in which he interviewed Palestinian children only. Presumably, Miller was going to interview Israeli children too but he never did. Miller's widow, Sophy, has gone on record accusing the Israelis of purposely killing him on his last day of shooting in Gaza; if this was indeed his last day then perhaps Miller did not plan to interview any Israeli children after all. After his death, Miller's wife and colleagues finished the film for him, and began a campaign seeking "Justice for James Miller." The film has been aired at many film festivals to rave reviews. The fact that the script was written by acclaimed journalist, Saira Shah, with whom Miller worked on "Beneath the Veil," which was broadcast by CNN, ensures a devoted and vocal following. Shah, who is the English-born daughter of an Afghan father, is also the author of the "Storyteller's Daughter," which is a beautifully written book about her search for her Afghan roots. Nearly four years ago, propagandists claimed that Israelis purposely killed the young boy, Mohammed al-Dura; the photo of al-Dura in his father's lap instantly became the icon for the al-Aqsa Intifada. By now we know that the boy most definitely was not killed by Israelis; ongoing investigations may soon reveal that the boy either may not have died at all - or may have been killed by Palestinians on purpose. Crazy? But what if it's true? Mohammed Bakri's film "Jenin, Jenin," showed the Israelis committing a massacre there. Like "Death in Gaza," Bakri's film has also been acclaimed at numerous film festivals. But, although Bakri is the darling of the Israeli left, and has been protected by the Israeli Supreme Court, the film is a lie. There is only one filmmaker who has presented the truth in the matter of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and his nom de guerre is Pierre Rehov. I interviewed him in my home a few weeks ago. Rehov lives in Paris and, until the al-Aqsa Intifada, only visited Israel "for fun in Eilat." That changed in 2000. Since then, he has made six films about the Arab-Israeli conflict and is currently working on a seventh. When he could not get a distributor in France for his first film, he simply enclosed it in the copies of the magazine that he himself distributed monthly in France. Soon, everyone was talking about - and pirating the film. His "The Road to Jenin" was a huge success on Israeli television. Rehov has not yet attracted a network to showcase his six films nor does he have a distributor in the United States. His latest film, "Hostages of Hatred," will be shown at the upcoming Hampton International Film Festival. His films have been seen in both France and Israel. Indeed, on the anniversary of the Park Hotel Passover massacre in Netanya (which led to the Israeli incursion into Jenin), Rehov showed his film about Jenin and dedicated it to the 24 Israeli soldiers who died going into Jenin on foot from booby-trapped house to booby-trapped house, vulnerable to sniper-fire every inch of the way. Rehov invited the families of the dead soldiers and the survivors of the Park Hotel massacre. He personally fed 400 people. A former chief rabbi of Israel presided at a Passover seder table which stood in the exact spot where the suicide terrorist had blown himself and 32 Israelis to pieces. The rabbi said: "The only time that the blood libel against the Jews was ever true, (that Jews used non-Jewish blood to make matzot), was here, where the suicide bomber's blood mingled with Jewish blood on this Passover." In Peter Bergson's/Hillel Kook's honor I have resolved that I must, in a small way, act as Kook would have done at this moment in history. Thus, starting today, on August 11, 2004, my website, (www. phyllis-chesler.com), will be hosting the recent films of Algerian born Jew, Pierre Rehov. I want those people who will watch "Death in Gaza" to finally have the option to see "the other side," in my view the truer side, which Rehov captures in his films. "Silent Exodus" is about the approximately one million Jews who had to flee Arab countries and about what their lives were like under Islam before Israel became a sovereign entity. "Hostages of Hatred" is a film which primarily interviews Palestinians - including children - about their views. The hero of "Hostages" is, perhaps, Bassam-Eid, the Director of Human Rights Monitoring for Palestine who bravely "tells it like it is." "The Road to Jenin" is Rehov's film about what really happened in Jenin. The esteemed Bergson/Kook paid for ads in the NY Times when the major media (other than Hearst's publications) refused to print the truth. I can do no less. It is little enough to do. Please view his films at my website. Please send us your comments. Please help him find a distributor and a network. Point of Information: I have submitted three of Rehov's films to HBO and begged them to consider airing any one of them. I have been told that the process takes from 4-6 weeks. I have also asked for a review copy of "Death in Gaza." They have promised to get me one but as of this writing, I have yet to see the film. However, I googled more than 400 descriptions and reviews of it. Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., is the author of twelve books including her latest, "The New Anti-Semitism. The Current Crisis And What We Must Do About It." She is working on a new book about the importance of independent thinking for Palgrave-Macmillan (St. Martin's). She may be reached through her website www.Phyllis-Chesler.com She wishes to acknowledge the support of Jerome Gordon, who suggested that she read "Race Against Death" and who is sharing the costs of mounting Rehov's films on her website; of Lisa Magnas, who is helping her get the word out about Rehov's films; and of Bill Lange who is ably assisting in the effort. To Go To Top

THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT'S ANTAGONISM TOWARDS THE JEWS AND ISRAEL Posted by Ruth Matar, August 12, 2004.

The U.S. State Department has a long history of antagonism towards the Jews and Israel. Often it has successfully promoted a separate agenda than that of the elected government. The PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) is certainly everything but a pro-Israel media outlet. However, it produced a report and subsequent video called "America and the Holocaust - Deceit and Indifference". This is an account of the horrible activities of the U.S. State Department, their lies and indifference to the Holocaust, and their intentional stone walling and withholding information while they knew that thousands of Jews were being killed in the Death Camps. Six million Jews were killed in the Death Camps. Even then the State Department tried to prevent the establishment of a final refuge for the pitiful remnant of survivors who tried to make their way to Israel. The Arabist State Department intended to vote against the rebirth of Israel in the General Assembly, and were prevented from doing so by virtually last minute instructions from President Harry Truman himself. In November of 1966, Yehuda Avner, a veteran Israeli diplomat, was asked to personally deliver a letter to former U.S. President Harry Truman from Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. This is a verbatim excerpt from their conversation (Jerusalem Post, August 3, 2004, "A Walk With Harry Truman"): "... Truman began to speak about his own State Department as if it was a hostile power: "'Those State Department fellows were always trying to put it over on me about Palestine, telling me that I really didn't understand what was going on there, that I ought to leave it to experts. Some were anti-Semitic, I'm sorry to say. Dealing with them was as rough as a cob. They didn't want instant recognition of statehood. "I had my own second thoughts, too. But I'd made my commitment to Dr. Weizmann. AND MY ATTITUDE WAS THAT AS LONG AS I'M PRESIDENT, I'D SEE TO IT THAT I MADE POLICY, NOT THE SECOND OR THIRD ECHELONS AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT. [Emphasis is mine. --R. M.] "So, on the day the Jewish state was declared, I gave those officials about 30 minutes notice. And then, exactly 11 minutes after the proclamation of independence, I had my press secretary, Charlie Ross, issue the announcement that the United States recognizes Israel.'" And ever since that fateful vote at the United Nations, the State Department has waged an unremitting war against the Jews and Israel. The State Department has always had a separate agenda towards Israel. The Middle Eastern desk employs many so-called Arabists. Many of these are people whose parents were Ambassadors in Arab States, who were brought up there. The following are examples of U.S. Secretaries of State who were, to say the least, antagonistic toward the Jewish State of Israel: George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Colin Powell and others. And even today, after the horror of the 9/11 terror attack, the U.S. State Department continues its long history of covering up the misdeeds of Saudi Arabia and its sponsorship of worldwide terror. Let us not forget the Jewish graduates of State Department indoctrination: Martin Indyk, Sandy Berger, Aaron Miller, Dennis Ross, and Daniel Kurtzer. (Former Secretary of State James Baker of "F*** the Jews" inelegantly in private, called them his "Jew-boys".) It seems that the State Department believes that it is easier to do the Jews in if you use other Jews to do the dirty deed! One of the best byproducts of my weekly Letter from Jerusalem is the emails and faxes I receive from all over the world. Internet is an incredibly effective invention for rapid dissemination of what's happening! I was shocked to receive the following fax from one of my email friends. The fax was very brief: "Dear Ruth, you probably heard by now that Martin Indyk is going to be a Senior Foreign Advisor to John Kerry, should he win the election." Let me tell you about Martin Indyk and his relationship and dealings with Israel! Indyk was appointed as Ambassador to Israel by President Bill Clinton. Clinton then used Indyk as his point man to push through a game plan to re-partition Israel. Indyk's background: He was born in 1951 in London, England. He was raised and educated in Australia. According to the New York Times of September 23, 2000, he was an intelligence agent in Australia, and served as Deputy Director of Australia's Intelligence for the Middle East. (He may also have been working for British Intelligence.) He was brought to the U.S., given instant citizenship, and made Ambassador to Israel in 1995. Middle East experts, who knew that Indyk had a separate questionable agenda towards Israel, were not allowed to testify. He was the first Jew to serve as the American ambassador to Israel. Indyk became the most objectionable and provocative Ambassador that any country, let alone Israel, had to put up with. He did not even attend Israel's Independence Day celebrations, which was intended as a big insult and polished his image as an Arabist working for the Arab nations. (He said that he had a previous appointment). He was recalled by the United States from his position as Ambassador when Netanyahu became Prime Minister in 1996, and sent back for his second stint in the year 2000. In February of the year 2000, Martin Indyk showed his true colors and his animosity toward Israel, as he tried to buy Israeli Arab votes with U.S. Embassy funds for a referendum on whether Israel should give the Golan to Syria, in order to advance the "peace process". Knesset Member Uzi Landau, (now a Minister in the Sharon Government) wrote the following letter to President Clinton in this regard. Uzi Landau did not mention the American Ambassador by name, but the Ambassador was Martin Indyk! President Bill Clinton The White House February 14, 2000 Dear President Clinton, I would like to draw your attention to a matter of grave concern that threatens to cast a shadow over the special relationship between Israel and the United States, which we all hold so dear. The following headline appeared in Yediot Ahronot, Israel's most widely-read newspaper, on February 11: "U.S Embassy Tries to Mobilize Arab Support in the Referendum". According to the article, senior U.S. Embassy officials have of late conducted a series of meetings with Israeli Arab leaders. The express aim of these meetings, according to the report, is to pressure Arab leaders to produce a large turnout among their constituency in the event that a referendum is held regarding the future of the Golan Heights, as the Arab vote could prove decisive. In addition, the report states that the U.S. diplomats promised to arrange financial assistance to back information campaigns that will be undertaken by Israeli Arab groups for this purpose. In response, the U.S. Embassy spokesman did not deny this information. If the information in the article is accurate, this would constitute an unprecedented and intolerable act of gross interference in Israel's internal affairs. I can not emphasize enough the severity of this act, which demonstrates blatant disregard for the most elementary norms of accepted international behavior between states and nations. For over fifty years, the U.S.-lsrael relationship has been based on intimate ties of friendship and mutual trust. There can be no greater blow to a friendship, be it between two people or two nations, than a breach of faith. I pray this is not the case. Accordingly, I request that you immediately instruct the American Ambassador to Israel and the U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem, as well as all American diplomats posted to Israel, to investigate this matter, and if it turns out to be true, to refrain forthwith from any and all such activity. I would also like to request that the Secretary of State reiterate publicly America's commitment to refrain from interfering in Israel's internal decision-making process. The people of Israel may have to face troubling and fateful decisions in the months and years ahead. We have the right to expect that our closest friends and allies will allow us to make such decisions by ourselves. Sincerely, Uzi Landau, Member of Knesset Subsequently, in the same year, September of 2000, American ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, was charged with mishandling security information by using a laptop computer considered insecure. He was then recalled from his position as Ambassador to Israel. Will Martin Indyk's questionable past as the United States Ambassador to Israel make John Kerry somewhat hesitant about making him his Senior Advisor on Israel Issues? Another State Department man, Sandy Berger, served as Clinton's Deputy National Security Advisor. He was also certainly not a friend of Israel. Sandy Berger told an audience at Tel Aviv University: "[The current violence in the territories] "IS BOTH THE CURSE AND THE BLESSING OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT." Interestingly enough, Sandy Berger who until recently served as one of John Kerry's Senior Advisors, was also accused of mishandling security information. He was caught stuffing 50 highly classified papers into his pants. This, of course, "inadvertently". (Needless to say, Sandy Berger is no longer one of the top advisors of Presidential Candidate John Kerry.) Does the State Department give their people a special course in filching secret information from their own government? Why does Kerry unfailingly pick State Department enemies of Israel as his Senior Advisors? Will Martin Indyk meet the same fate as Sandy Berger? I just realized that I forgot to mention one of the Diplomats who are actively antagonistic towards the State in Israel, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, William Joseph Burns. In May of 2003, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns came to Israel and secretly met with a coterie of Israeli doves and Palestinian Ministers and officials under the banner of "Peace Now" at the U.S. Consulate in West Jerusalem. This secret discussion was about the "Road Map". The following is a quote from Jinsa Report #332, dated May 12, 2003: "No one was supposed to know that according to the minutes, Burns stated his view that 'THE COMMON SENSE OF ALL PEOPLES WILL OVERRIDE THE CONSERVATIVE AND CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINTS ONCE THEY SEE THE ROAD MAP'S POTENTIAL'. [Emphasis is mine. - R. M.] He told the anti-Government group to continue with their political activities 'as new peace attempts reflects the people's will and will result in fundamental changes'. We think everyone should know, particularly the White House, that an American official is actively undermining Prime Minister Sharon, the landslide winner of the last election, by encouraging the landslide losers. WE THINK EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THAT MR. BURNS THINKS THE VIEWS OF AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES AND CHRISTIANS WILL BE OVERRIDDEN BY PEOPLE WITH 'COMMON SENSE', IMPLYING THAT TWO OF THE STRONGEST GROUPS OF SUPPORTERS OF BOTH ISRAEL AND PRESIDENT BUSH HAVE NONE... We are offended by Mr. Burns' behavior. Not least by his apparent belief that his behavior matters less if it remains 'off the record'." Thus we have two examples of State Department personnel, former Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who are exhibiting their own antagonism toward Israel, without White House sanction. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, in addition, shows arrogant disdain for both American Conservatives and Christians, strong supporters of both Israel and President Bush. Assistant Secretary of State came to Israel on August 3 to pressure Israel with regard to building 600 homes in Maaleh Adumim, a city with 28,000 inhabitants, which is only 10 minutes drive from Jerusalem. I am not claiming here that President George W. Bush is free of blame in this continued pressure on Israel. Every American Administration since the rebirth of Israel has put pressure on Israel for their own geo-political reasons. As it is said: "Countries have no friends, only interests". Successive Israeli Prime Ministers have tried to withstand this American pressure with varying degrees of success. I blame Israeli Prime Minister Sharon just as much as George W. Bush for the current situation. When Arik Sharon defended his people, he was a hero and he was loved by his people. Sadly, Sharon, as a politician, has emerged as a leftist, dedicated to repartitioning the Land of Israel. He wants to de-Judaize Israel by transferring Jews out of their homes, schools, synagogues, farms, factories, businesses and ever their graves. He's starting with the 8,000 Jewish men, women and children in Gaza and intends to continue with the so-called outposts in Judea and Samaria. Does anybody in his right mind believe that President George W. Bush is enthusiastic about the present tense relationship between the U.S. and Israel, especially before a closely fought election? I firmly believe that Ariel Sharon has misled President Bush into thinking that the majority of the Israeli People agree with the policies of wholesale retreat in the face of Arab terror, and of repartitioning the Land of Israel. This is absolute misinformation fostered by Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres and the rest of the Oslo Architects, Israeli leftist media, American and Israeli liberal "intellectuals", and the "Analysts" of the U.S. State Department. Do you want to know the real feelings of the Israeli People? Then consider the 200,000 strong Human Chain holding hands on the 90 kilometer distance from Gaza to the Western Wall. Jews from all around the world flew in for the day to join this Human Chain. This was the most inspiring event I have ever taken part in! This Human Chain expressed the real feelings of the Jewish People - the pundits who sit on their backsides and pontificate don't have a clue! We hope and pray that President George W. Bush will, like President Truman, decide that he himself should decide on foreign policy toward Israel, "not the second or third echelons at the State Department". Finally, George W. Bush may not be the best possible President for Israel. However, the reality is that the choice is between Bush and Kerry. If Kerry becomes President and Teresa Heinz Kerry his First Lady, it may well be Israel that is told to "shove it." The danger signs are all there. John Kerry seems to be choosing Senior Advisors on Israeli Issues who have a track record of antagonism toward Israel. With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

VISITORS HELP DEDICATE "KATIF PARK" Posted by Rachel Saperstein, August 11, 2004.

The dedication of a children's playground in Moshav Katif in memory of the murdered Tali Hatuel and her four daughters was the focal point for visitors to Gush Katif. Bus loads of members of Young Israel, the One Israel Fund, and Likud party veterans accompanied by MK Naomi Blumenthal joined the Hatuel family at this emotional ceremony. The Likud party veterans, all members of the Etzel and Lehi pre-State underground liberation movements, had their office in Likud's Tel Aviv headquarters shut down last week on the prime minister's orders because of their support for the Jews of Gush Katif. Tali's sister, Mrs. Orit Kaufman, said in a plaintive voice that Tali would have been sitting in this park with her newborn son watching her four daughters climb and run had they not been murdered. MK Blumenthal talked about Gush Katif and its vital role as a part of Israel. "We cannot give even one small part of Israel to the Arabs" she declared. "We will be having a Likud convention to decide the future direction of Likud." She asked the people of Gush Katif to come to the convention: "We can't resist you" she smiled. "You are our heroes." The park was built through monies provided by One Israel Fund whose Israel director, Rabbi Irwin Borvick, accompanied the group. A major contributor was Mr. Michael B. Farkash of Miami, Florida. Mr. Farkash visited the Hatuel family shortly after the murder and determined that a park would be a suitable memorial. At the Neve Dekalim Hesder Yeshiva the visitors heard an explanation of the "Yamit Wall", the moving memorial commemorating the expulsion of Jews from the Sinai city of Yamit in 1983. Rabbi Zvi Schwartz, who as a young rabbi at the Yamit Yeshiva was expelled with his wife and children, recalled the final days of Yamit. Today a teacher at the Torat Hachaim Yeshiva in Neve Dekalim he is again faced with expulsion. He reminded the visitors it was then General Ariel Sharon who carried out the expulsion and destruction. During a luncheon meeting Gush Katif Chief Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky spoke of the unique position of the people of Gush Katif. The people of Gush Katif have roused the people of Israel, showing them what strength there is when there is belief in Torah. He informed the visitors that volunteers will be collecting two million signatures in Israel on a petition to the Knesset to revoke the Prime Minister's edict. A massive prayer meeting before the High Holy Days in also planned. Many visitors were visibly moved by the events of the day. "We cry for the people of Gush Katif and admire their strength" one remarked. "I can't understand" said another, "how a prime minister of Israel can expel Jews from their homes and give their communities to Arab terrorists." A third visitor added, "We realize this is only the first in a long line of expulsion of Jews from the Land of Israel." Mr. Dror Vanunu, director of the Katif Development Fund, reminded the visitors of the huge expenses incurred in the demonstrations, human chain and other massive activities undertaken by Gush Katif. He asked people to donate to our struggle, noting that each family in Gush Katif has donated IS 1000 to the cause. More information is available in: gkatif@netvision.net.il Tax deductible donations can be made out to "Friends of Gush Katif". In the U.S.A Friends of Gush Katif c/o Mark Zwebner 588 S. Forest Drive Teaneck, New Jersey 07666 USA In Israel Katif Region Development Fund Neve Dekalim Gush Katif 79779 Israel Rachel Saperstein lives in Gush Katif, Gaza and teaches in Ulpana Neve Dekalim, a school for girls. To Go To Top

THE GOLEM OF JERUSALEM Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 11, 2004.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (for some) can only be likened to the "Golem of Prague" - only in this case the Golem turns against his master, the people of Israel. Those who know Sharon well always have understood that he is the quintessential opportunist with loyalty first and foremost to himself. He has no loyalty to one party, one ideology and will switch without a moment's hesitation if it benefits him personally - which includes but is not limited to politics. In every article I have written about Sharon, I always give him due credit for performance in the military. He has proven to have extraordinary courage and military vision. He sees military situations through the eyes and sense of the Arab Muslim enemy. There is a reason that such a personality can successfully merge his thoughts with that of the enemy. People who have multiple personalities can logically jump from one set of views to another and then another, in effect, become one with the enemy. Such a man gets inside the head of his enemy and knows how he feels and what he is likely to do in battle. To a normal person this is aberrant behavior but, to a man like Sharon, that abnormality is put to good use when fighting the enemy. But, what happens when the Golem of Jerusalem turns on his own people. What happens when the friendly Golem becomes a strange creature who strikes down anyone who stands in his way. When Sharon's world was the military, he could swing his arms against the enemy and all admired and cheered. But, when the Golem had to live among ordinary people and those arms continued to swing, striking people Left and Right, everyone had a problem. Sharon has become a Golem completely out of control. Would that the Rabbis could utter a few words of incantations and, like the Golem of Prague, turn him back into the dust from which he was made. But, Sharon is a Golem of flesh and blood and only HaShem has the right and the power to return Sharon to his Maker. We Jews have our own history, many who turned from Good to Evil. Recall Shabtai Zvi, whom his followers believed him to be the Moshiach (Messiah). When he was captured by the followers of Mohammed, he accepted conversion to become a Muslim. Many blindly followed him, not understanding they followed a false Moshiach. Sharon has, at one time or another, been everything when it suited his purpose. He once created a Party called Shlomzion, which called for expanded settlements while at the very same time it called for the establishment of another Palestinian State on the same land. Here again the fractionalized personality was there to see but, few really wanted to see. There is no one statement that Sharon will make that can be relied upon. He will change in a blink of an eye, no matter whom he puts at risk - including the entire nation of Israel. Such a divided personality should not be a Prime Minister because he can never represent the people or the State. Sharon can only represent the many selves he happens to be at any given time. Presently, he appears to be the Golem of Jerusalem but he really is the Golem whose present master is President George Bush or the pro-Arab U.S. State Department. Their wishes are his command until he finds a new master. Sharon has no real friends, only useable acquaintances, although when in his presence, he exudes warmth when he wants to. Ask all of those who thought they were once close to him - only to find themselves completely estranged once they were no longer of use or perhaps disagreed with his policies and Modus Operandi. Arik Sharon, as Prime Minister, is a clear and present danger to the continued existence of the nation and its people. He will sacrifice anyone to achieve whatever temporary goals he wishes to achieve. He uses his brilliant but aberrant mind like a razor to slash all opposition. For the moment, he is slashing those who disagree with his disengagement plans because he truly believes he is right until he changes his mind again. He presently carries out the orders of the Bush Dynasty to truncate the Jewish State of Israel so that a Terrorist Muslim State can be born in Israel's heartland. He has been advised by the Israeli military high command that Israel - in an even more reduced size as he plans will be even more vulnerable and almost indefensible. He pushes them away and would fire them, if he could, as he did fire those of his Cabinet members who refused to obey his orders and vote for uprooting the 30 year old settlements in Gush Katif/Gaza. Sharon has a well defined and well kept record of reversing himself on almost every issue vital to Israel's security and sovereignty. For those who believed in him - including me - this is a painful statement. Sharon has become the Golem of Israel who roars and rages like a tormented creature gone wild. May HaShem take pity on this poor creature. It is said that HaShem makes some of us mad before he recalls us. Let no man or woman take that responsibility upon themselves. Let no one touch him. Clearly, it would be a blessing if HaShem brings this troubled creature to his side and brings peace to his anguished soul. The damage he has done and will do if he is allowed to continue in office will hopefully be stopped and the Jewish Nation allowed to heal. Since Sharon is unlikely to retire gracefully, it would be better for the nation to go to elections and retire Sharon to his farm. Like all nations, Israel needs her heroes, even when they end their years in disgrace. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

ISRAEL SOLVES OIL AND SEWAGE PROBLEM (AND OTHER ITEMS) Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 11, 2004.

A new Israeli company in Judea has redesigned sewage treatment plans to convert 95% of the sludge output into petrol suitable both for fuel and for petrochemicals. That could end the oil shortage and the massive sludge disposal problem. At present the sludge is dumped into landfills or the ocean, where it spreads contamination (Arutz-7, 8/6). The sludge produced from sewage treatment now has too many toxic chemicals to make decent fertilizer, as had been hoped. The news brief does not indicate whether the volume of contaminants in the sludge is reduced 95% along with the waste sludge. Oil burning would remain a "greenhouse effect" problem. By producing renewable energy, even if not clean, it is a great advance for humankind and for the planet. It also would reduce Arab revenue and power. U.S. ADMITS TO "PRESSURING" ISRAEL The State Dept. admits that it is continuing to pressure Israel over the continued existence of outposts in Judea-Samaria. The US government is agitated by Israel not fulfilling its commitment under the Road Map to demolish those outposts. ZOA is agitated over this US pressure, as if the threat to peace is from isolated outposts on vacant land. The threat to peace comes from the P.A. failure to crush terrorism (and to reform Islam). The US has a double standard in condoning extensive illegal Arab building. Why should Israel fulfill the Map provisions when the P.A. does not (IMRA, 8/6) and never fulfilled its Oslo obligations? The US does not pressure the Arabs, who are its enemy rather than, like Israel, an ally. Congress enables Presidents to exert legitimate pressure. For that, the State Dept. does not exert itself. We have orange alerts in the US but State Dept. aid for terrorists in the P.A.. The Quartet means no good with this Map, and Israel had no right to accept it. The US has no right to demand anything of Israel, which has suffered tens of thousands of casualties over the years, thanks to US pressure on Israel and appeasement of the Arabs. (Some of the pressure and appeasement was to: wait for Arab invaders to strike first; get Israel to desist when winning wars; offer spitefully unfulfilled promises not to let Egypt move its missiles forward and give cover to an invasion in 1973; train the P.A. in how to be snipers and in counter terrorism that it could use against Israel; to set up a terrorist entity called the P.A. and demand that Israel abstain from most measures of defense against that entity and actually subsidize it.) ARABS WARP HISTORY An official Egyptian daily described Israel as a European creation designed to protect European interests. IMRA calls this "dream-world history." Britain tried (in vain) to use the Hashemites to protect its interests. Then the US sought to use Israel to protect its interests, but instead is manipulated by its blind subservience to Zionism (IMRA, 8/7 from Al-Ahram). Knowing Europe as unified, "Al_Ahram" falsifies history by projecting that notion back into its period of disunity. The US tries in vain to use Egypt for that, as before it tried to use Iran and before that, other Arab states. US policy is anti-Zionist, as by arming Egypt with what it needs to invade Israel and by working to get Israel to divest itself of the strategic borders needed to repel Arab invasion. The absurd notion that "Zionism" dictates US foreign policy not only is unsupported by the facts, which indicate the opposite, but it reflects antisemitism - the hoary theme of Jewish plotting for world domination. At present, the jihadists are driving for world domination. The Arabs confuse every era of history discussed. Take their intent seriously but not their claims. THE DEMOGRAPHIC THREAT One of the arguments made in behalf of the abandon-Gaza plan is that it would reduce the demographic threat. This threat is alleged to be that if Israel retains Gaza, the Arabs there would demand the right to vote in Israel, and the UN might switch from supporting Arab independence to supporting Arab integration within Israel. With their numbers, the Arabs would take over the Jewish state. MK Uzi Landau considers that argument a non-sequitur. Keeping the 7,000 Jews in Gaza would not give Gaza Arabs a right to vote in Israeli elections. They can vote in the P.A., where they live. Israel does not interfere in the P.A. (except for defense). Arab population growth in an area without natural resources therefore is a problem for the Arabs, not for Israel. Other Arab societies have reduced their birth rate greatly, why not the P.A.? Why don't the international agencies that proposed reductions in other Arab birth rates do so for the P.A.? Why don't they press the P.A. for reform, as in women's rights? (IMRA, 8/7 from Ury Arad of Haaretz) instead of mildly suggesting it. I think that arguing not logically, strategically, and with regard to the ways of the world is an Israeli weakness not monopolized by either the Left or the Right. It is amusing to see each side arguing that the other side makes poor deductions. MK Landau may be correct but he is not politically correct. In today's world, political correctness trumps factual and logical correctness. Yes, it would not be proper for the UN to demand a P.A. Arab right to vote in Israeli elections. Rarely, however, are UN demands of Israel proper. Has Landau forgotten how biased the UNO is against Israel? It would resolve whatever the Arabs want. It is true that Israel hardly interferes in Arab affairs in the P.A., except in self-defense. Does this mean that Israel's leaving those Arabs self-governance is recognized by the rest of the world? No. The rest of the world considers Israel to be an occupying power, although under international law, it never was; it was an administering power. Bias overrules fairness. Of course the P.A. Arab population explosion affects Israel! It means more mouths for the same water shared by Israel. It means more misery for the world to blame on Israel rather than on the over-populating Arabs. It reduces the vacant areas that Israel as of right should claim for itself. The societal P.A. reform Landau calls for may not be relevant to what causes the Arab war on Israel: intolerance. What would be relevant is reform of the Islamist view that promotes war. The failure of strategic thinking by patriotic Israelis, assuming that moderate leftists can be patriotic as are right-wingers, is to take the Arab presence for granted. The Right focuses on the Territories, without realizing that the same problem exists in Israel. Measures must be taken to reduce the Arab population in Israel. Israelis should be considering what such measures to implement. Too politically correct, they lack the courage to do so. They would rather risk casualties or conquest than challenge politically correct concepts. Nor should the Arab population be considered a permanent feature of the Territories. The Arab population there ebbs and flows. Israelis should be considering what measures can make for an outflow. Two obvious measures, since the P.A. is one, large terrorist base, are to bar Arafat's Arabs from working in Israel or in Jewish communities of Yesha and to stop subsidizing the P.A.. Let the Arabs take care of themselves, and let Israel use its revenue to take care of itself! Those and other measures would cause an exodus of Arabs. Comparable measures should be taken in Israel. The demographics would change. The likelihood of war would recede. Jihad would suffer a blow. Western security would be enhanced. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

THE POSTER GIRL OF THE ISRAELI LEFT Posted by Steven Plaut, August 11, 2004.

Israelis this week are expressing shock and astonishment over the arrest of a 29 year old Jewish leftist woman from Tel Aviv for collaboration with one of the worst Palestinian terrorists and murderer still above ground. They should be neither shocked nor surprised. The Jewish "peace activist" from Tel Aviv, 29-year-old Tali Fahima, has been arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks against Jewish targets and aiding arch-terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi from Jenin. She was assisting her Palestinian terrorist "lover" in planning terrorist atrocities. Tali had been a long time activist in Israel's pro-Palestinian anti-Israel Left. Along with the rest of her comrades, she frequently demonstrated for "peace" and against Israeli "oppression" and "occupation" of Palestinians. Like the rest of her comrades, the real "rights of the Palestinians" she was interested in defending were the "rights" of Palestinians to conduct mass murder and genocide against Jews. Her "alliance", one between a Jewish leftist and a Palestinian terrorist, is symbolic of the broader alliance between the anti-Semitic Jewish Left and Islamist fascism, and that is the real "axis of evil" currently endangering Israeli survival. Tali's arrest will come as a shock only for those who have been blissfully ignorant of the nature and the agenda of Israel's radical Left over the past two decades. In reality, just like the American campus Left has long been little more than a movement of anti-Americanism, so Israel's Far Left is today - even more so - nothing more than a movement of anti-Israelism and Jewish self-hatred. Israel's radical Leftists seek the destruction of their own country. They consider their country an evil apartheid monstrosity and they are willing to see as many Jews murdered as it takes to end this "Zionist abomination". For the past two decades, Israel's leftists, led by the academic extremists and tenured traitors from Israeli universities, have served as the attack dogs against their own country, as Israel's version of Taliban John. Like Taliban John and the handful of other American-born terrorists, they regard their own country as the embodiment of all that is evil. They denounce Israel as an apartheid country, whereas in reality Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is NOT one. They justify Palestinian terror and atrocities (and also support the Iraqi "resistance" against the United States and Britain), while denouncing every effort by Israel to defend its civilians as "state terrorism" and as barbarism. The only form of resistance against terror by Israel they are willing to countenance is total capitulation to Arab fascism. Israeli Leftists today serve as the Jews-for-hire, as the Israel-bashing court jesters for every anti-Semitic and Israel-hating organization, magazine and web site on earth. The anti-Semites never tire of the rush and thrill of seeing yet another Jewish leftist willing to declare from their podium that all the problems of the planet are the Jews' fault, that the Jewish Israelis are evil and greedy and racist, that Israel is an aggressor and the obstacle to peace, and that Arab atrocities and violence are the understandable response of "oppressed" Arabs to Jewish bullying. The Israeli Left has produced its own school of historic revisionists, the "New Historians", who have rewritten history and distorted truth in order to advance the cause of Arab aggression and Islamofascism. These Jewish leftist pseudo-historians are the moral equivalent of Holocaust Denials in other countries. Academic standards have been junked and Far Leftist faculty members hired and promoted as acts of solidarity by other leftists within the university system. Faculty members at Israeli universities routinely denounce their own country as a racist, fascist anomaly. Some openly call for Israeli existence to be ended and for Israel to be replaced by a Palestinian-majority Middle East PLO-led state, covering all of Israel and the "occupied territories". Were such a state to come into existence, a second Holocaust of Jews would quickly follow and Jewish history would likely end. A sociologist at Ben-Gurion University recently made headlines for publishing an article in anti-Israel European newspapers denouncing Israel for implementing "symbolic genocide" in the form of assassinating Palestinian terror leaders. (Had Jews managed to assassinate Hitler in 1943, they would also have been guilty of genocide against Germans according to this "academic thinker.") The articles of a colleague of his at Ben-Gurion University from political science appear on neonazi and Holocaust Denial web sites, including the one run by convicted nazi Ernst Zundel, and this "academic" routinely denounces Israel as a nazi, fascist, terrorist country. For the past two decades, the loyalty of Israel's Far Leftists has been pledged to the enemies of their own country. Their mantra has effectively been: "The enemies of my country, right or wrong!" Tali Fahima is not the first traitor and collaborator with terror to emerge from the Israeli radical Left. A terror and espionage ring broken up and arrested in the 1970s featured two Jewish leftists, one an ex-kibbutznik. Mordecai Vanunu, a communist graduate of Ben-Gurion University recently released from prison after serving a long term for nuclear espionage, has long been the guru and role model for Israel's radical Left. A few other Israeli Jews have been arrested for collaboration with and assistance to terrorists. Tali Fahima personally symbolizes everything that went wrong with Israel's Left in the past two decades, during which treason largely replaced protest and dissidence as the driving motive of the radicals. Like Taliban John's capture, her arrest should serve as an ominous wakeup call and siren warning about the dangers from leftist radicalism. For years, the Israeli media has been hectoring the opponents of Oslo and the anti-Left dissidents, claiming they are collectively responsible for Yigal Amir and the assassination of Rabin. Let us see what they will be saying now about the Eva Braun that has emerged from the Left. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

OLAF SPEAKS Posted by David Frankfurter, August 11, 2004.

Dear Friends, A number of you have written, knowing my interest in things financial, asking me to comment on this week's reports about the EU fraud squad (OLAF) announcement that the Palestinians have not used any EU money for terror. If you read the press release itself, rather than the newspaper articles, you will find it as interesting for what it says, as much as for what it doesn't say. It says that "To date, there is no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU Direct Budget Assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to finance illegal activities, including terrorism... the investigations are still ongoing, therefore final conclusions cannot be drawn." It doesn't explain why it takes 18 months to reach this stage, without issuing a proper report. It doesn't say why it is limiting its investigations to Direct Budgetary Assistance - just one part of European aid to the Palestinian Arabs. It doesn't mention the lies told by the European Commission - for example that all Palestinian Authority salaries were converted from cash to bank deposits in September 2001. A minor detail you say? When it still hadn't happened in September 2003, the resigning Palestinian Prime Minister called it "a cover for theft." It doesn't mention the 7,000 names that couldn't be found when, as a result of immense international pressure, the security services were finally moved to bank deposits in early 2004. It doesn't mention the $2m a month in unexplained salaries that were paid for all those years since the EC claimed that this fraud had stopped. It doesn't explain the fact that no one has been charged for this "theft". Could it be that the money was not in fact stolen, but used for the illegal purposes OLAF hasn't yet noticed? It doesn't say that OLAF is going to interview the terrorists themselves. OLAF might ask them if it was co-incidence that immediately after these 7,000 mystery people fell off the payroll, the al-Aksa martyrs brigades went public, complaining that the PA had stopped paying their salaries. Given that OLAF so proudly announces that there is no evidence of terror, this must just be co-incidence, no? But most importantly it doesn't say what DID happen to all those billions that have been handed over to the Palestinian Arabs over the past decade, with no tangible benefits being seen. It doesn't even hint that it may have investigated the mounting roar of evidence - much from the Palestinians themselves - that the money has been stolen to line the pockets of a corrupt leadership. Former Palestinian Authority Legislative Council Speaker, Rafik al-Natsheh is more forthright. In July 2004, he described Arafat as the "protector of corruption and the corrupt." He added that the PA did not need foreign aid. There were billions of dollars that were in the possession of the authority, "but no one knows anything about the funds." To subscribe to Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. To Go To Top

ISRAELI ROBOTIC HELICOPTER HITS THE MARKET Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, August 11, 2004.

This news item appeared in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com). An Israeli firm, Steadicopter Ltd., has announced that development of the first fully autonomous robotic helicopter has been completed and it is now available for purchase. The company is marketing the drone to military purchasers. Designed for surveillance, the helicopter flies without a pilot or remote control and can be outfitted with different types of cameras for reconnaissance from up to 13 kilometers away. The price is about 125 million dollars for the helicopter, which weighs 30 pounds and is five feet long, a camera and the launch platform. Steadicopter business development manager Amir Rochman noted that the aircraft also has civilian uses, such as high-voltage cable inspection and news photography, although there are no current plans to make the helicopter available for private purchase. "The system is designed for surveillance and control of designated areas, and provides real-time information to the command center for passing on to the operating ground forces. The helicopter is equipped with stabilized flight control systems, cameras for day and night vision and receivers/transmitters for real time operation and monitoring. The ground control system is composed of a PC with navigation and flight control software that enables the operator to guide the helicopter to the location of the event using a digital map or an aerial image of the area," explained Rochman. Steadicopter, founded in 1999, is a graduate of the prestigious TEIC (Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator Company) which is a entrepreneurial program located in Haifa that has received grants from the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israel Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Last year, the Steadicopter prototype was stolen - presumably by someone who wanted to copy it - from the firm's plant in Kfar Maccabi, near Tel Aviv. No money or computer software was taken during the break-in, leading the company to suspect industrial espionage. To Go To Top

A REVIEW OF THE DOCUMENTARY: "THE JUNCTION" Posted by Michael Schau, August 11, 2004.

The Junction is a documentary that focuses on the first two victims of the Palestinian uprising in the fall of 2000. Their deaths occurred when violence broke out near a crossroads in the Gaza Strip where the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and the Palestinian "refugee camp" Nusseirat meet. Fahmi Abou Ammouneh was a young Palestinian who took part in the riot against an Israeli military outpost guarding the settlement. Rocket firing Israeli helicopters broke up the assault, which led to Fahmi's death. David Biri was an Israeli soldier assigned to the fort who was killed by a roadside bomb escorting civilians to their Netzarim settlement. This Palestinian area that had homes and orange groves was later razed by the Israeli military, which the film turns into an atrocity according to the Palestinians and selected Israelis interviewed. Viewing this film is like watching a movie starting in the middle of a story with out any background leading up to that point. There are also assumptions made that do not stand up to facts and many facts are ignored. The film makes it appear that the assault against the army compound was only a spontaneous response against the Israeli occupiers because of Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, also the site of the Dome of the Rock, Islam's third holiest site. Arafat's chief of security Jabril Rajoub pre-approved Sharon's visit. If unrest was supposedly started over the Israeli "occupation", by September 2000 the entire Gaza strip lived entirely under Palestinian jurisdiction and about 2% of the West Bank's population lived in areas where Israel had complete control. By no conceivable stretching of the words could the violence be describes as a popular uprising against foreign occupation. This "popular uprising" was launched and choreographed by the leadership - and above all by Yasir Arafat. He needed a provocation and that is exactly how Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount came off to the Palestinian's, a provocation. The Palestinian Minister of Communications Imad Faluji later revealed that Arafat had been planning the newest infitada for months. Even with a manufactured crisis there were only minor clashes at the site. Not a single Palestinian was killed that day at the Temple Mount. It was the official Palestinian Authority media exhorting the Palestinians to violence. Both of the youths' deaths are directly linked to Palestinian actions but the film treats them as victims of a useless conflict where both sides are equally guilty. What is not shown in the assault against the fort is the Molotov cocktails (gasoline in bottles) thrown and sniper fire coming from the apartments towering over the fort, which precipitated the Israeli response. The film is not shown in chronological order of the events, which adds to the confusion in telling the story but also misrepresents the death of Israeli soldier, David Biri. He was riding a convoy escorting settlers back to their homes when they were halted by an explosion. While checking for damage a second bomb was deliberately set off while David was outside the armored vehicle, murdering him. This happened a whole day before the so called infitada. Their families and friends in a depressing mix of bitterness and unthinking fanaticism recall both young men. In one scene the sister of the Palestinian was asked by the interviewer to acknowledge that Israelis have also died in the infitada. (In fact Israeli civilians were lynched, stabbed, killed in drive by shootings and other horrible ways. Israeli troops did not target innocent Palestinians, but Palestinians did target Israeli civilians). She barely shrugs and states that people everywhere die every day. Pretty cold. Everywhere in the Palestinian streets the film showed pictures of the local "martyrs" who blew themselves up killing Israelis. Rather than show how both families lost kids in a pointless conflict it made the Palestinians look like death-worshiping fanatics. Even the soldier David Biri came off in the home videos as a goofy kid who didn't really know why he was there. The fact that the intifada has brought only misery and economic ruin to the Palestinians is not addressed here. While the Sharon government is criticized, the Palestinian Authority is not rebuked for failing their people. This unbalanced, uncritical film does no one justice and is not recommended. Michael Schau is a librarian who writes video reviews for Library Journal and Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO). He writes, "I gave the documentary on the 2000 uprising a negative review, even though it won an award (Best Documentary, 2003 Haifa Film Festival) and was praised in the French press." The review is at http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=1689 To Go To Top

ISRAEL - A STATE OF MIND Posted by IsrAlert, August 10, 2004.

Isralert@aol.com source: Isralert subscriber Naomi Frankenburg, Canada This was written by Tashbin Sayyed, Editor-in-chief of California-based newspapers "Muslim World Today" and "Pakistan Today." He is also president of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance and an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute. If one has to look for one basic, elementary cause of terrorism engulfing civilization today, it is religious absolutism. Religious absolutism results from a belief that a particular faith represents the absolute truth and therefore must be accepted by everyone else without question. Such an absolutist ideology encourages bigotry of the highest order and promotes extreme hatred of other faiths. Since true intellectual enlightenment respects diversity and rejects bigotry, religious absolutists, as a matter of faith, tend to be anti-intellectual. That's why all absolutists are, by nature, fundamentalist and obscurantist. They preach literalist philosophies and demonstrate an intrinsic repulsion for modernity. They abhor open societies and work to destroy any system that promotes tolerance and advances the cause of democracy. Nazism, Communism, Japanese imperialism etc. all claimed to have possessed the absolute truth and tried to impose it on others, causing a great amount of human suffering in the process. Fortunately, none of these philosophies enjoyed the backing of any church and therefore lacked religious legitimacy, making it relatively easy for the civilized world to eventually defeat them. Radical Islam or Islamism, driven by extremist and an obscurantist interpretation of Islam, is the current face of this evil. Because it has very cleverly managed to hijack Islam, a faith of more than 1.2 billion people, its sway is absolute. Most Muslim societies have fallen under its influence and, as a consequence, have become the breeding ground of terrorism. Events of the recent past have reconfirmed, beyond any doubt, its destructive potential. Being a totalitarian ideology, radical Islam demands absolute submission. And since it knows that enlightened and informed souls do not make obedient slaves, it is committed to keep Muslims backward and uninformed. Radical Islam, like any other totalitarian ideology that thrives on lies, manipulated Holy Scriptures, fabricated traditions of the Prophet and literalism, and cannot allow its prey to be exposed to an open intellectual environment. That's why it enforces strict censor and does not allow unconditional pursuit of knowledge. This is the only way it can keep the masses in the dark and in its control. In an Islamist controlled society, debate is forbidden, difference of opinion and dissension is considered a perversion, and modem education a threat. Individual reasoning is forbidden, and expression of doubt about any aspect of the "religiously mandated" social, cultural and political sociology is barred as blasphemy. Anyone attempting to challenge the status quo is instantly declared an apostate. An Islamist mind is a possessed mind - a condition that compels him or her to live to destroy others. An Islamist does not believe in living side by side with anyone who does not conform to his or her ideology. His life is a constant Jihad (holy war) to overwhelm and eradicate infidels. No one is more threatened by radical Islam than the Muslims themselves. That's why some of us who have somehow escaped the Islamist control and influence have taken upon ourselves to expose the scourge and by doing so exterminate it. As a Muslim, it is my experience and observation that radical Islam can only be defeated by providing Muslims a basis of comparison - by informing them of the truth about the others. In an Islamist controlled society, Muslims see Jews, Christians and Hindus through a cleric's lens. Whatever image of the others has been created by a dogmatic and obscurantist clergy has been accepted by the Muslim masses as truth. Nobody is permitted to challenge this one sided propaganda. The result has been that this state of affairs has deprived the Muslim street of the ability to make an impartial and rational judgment. No Muslim living in this darkness is aware of the light outside. Only a Muslim can change it. Only a Muslim can remove the darkness of hatred. For starters, we can begin by letting Muslims know the true nature of other faiths, especially of those faiths that have a tradition of democracy, debate and openness. I have no doubt that if an honest picture of others is shown to Muslims, they will certainly reject the images created by radical Islam. Muslims need to be told what kind of evil the ideologies based on evil concepts of "final truths" are capable of. They must know about the Holocaust. Muslims can learn a great deal by studying the struggles of the Jewish people. True reasons why the Jews have always been persecuted by others must be brought home to the Muslims. The truth will liberate them. Jews, throughout their history, have been the symbol of intellectual freedom and have therefore represented the highest level of openness. Their love for knowledge, their penchant for debate, their urge to learn by questioning, and their refusal to submit to any dogma has always posed a challenge to the establishment that depends on the blind following of the masses. The Jews' thirst for truth has always threatened the status quo. Absolutist fundamentalists do not like the status quo to be disturbed. To prevent the Jewish state of mind from disturbing the status quo, absolutists have always looked for ways to keep the Jews confined in physical ghettos. But physical ghettos could not prevent the Jews from pursuing the path of truth. Nobody could succeed in confining them in intellectual ghettos. Jews, despite their political poverty and social helplessness, have continued to demonstrate the power of openness by excelling in intellectual fields. Despite their relatively small numbers, they always remained an overpowering influence on thoughts and ideas. And for a dogmatic state of mind, nothing can be more dangerous than a free mind. All throughout their history, Jews have been forced to struggle to preserve their identity and traditions. They have always found their lives and properties in jeopardy; at the mercy of a jealous and envious establishment. Expulsions, inquisitions, gas chambers, and holocausts have always remained just around the comer, confirming that the absolutist and fundamentalist state of mind cannot tolerate a free mind to exist. Anti-Semitism symbolizes this complex. Christian Europe was fortunate to have lived through the throes of reformation, counter-reformation and various movements that ushered in enlightenment and made the French Revolution possible. This experience allowed Europe to see the benefits of democracy, pluralism and tolerance. Acceptance of democratic values made it possible for the feuding states of Europe to make their mark as prosperous and developed nations. The surge of Nazism underlined the need of permanent vigilance against absolutist minds, and the defeat of Adolf Hitler's war machine reconfirmed that minds once freed of absolutism will never allow Fascism to enslave them again. Muslims, on the other hand, were not so fortunate. They did not feel the necessity of any reformation. They were living in their own fool's paradise. And there were reasons for Muslim lethargy. Up until 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded and conquered Egypt, Muslims never felt a need for self-evaluation and self critique. The very fact that they remained in control of much of the world as rulers from 622 A.D., when Prophet founded the first Islamic state of Medinah, gave them a sense of superiority. But absolute power corrupted them absolutely. They became victims of the worst kind of ethnocentrism that took away their ability to respect others and learn from them. Seemingly unending successes and worldly conquests contributed in perpetuating the belief that their faith represents an absolute truth and is destined to run the affairs of the world for ever. They truly believed that all other faiths and peoples are dhimmis (second class citizens). Even the fall of their Khilafah, the Ottoman Empire in 1924, could not prompt Muslims to look for any faults and weaknesses in themselves. The Islamists, once again, succeeded in convincing the masses that their fall had been caused by a Judeo-Christian conspiracy. Exploiting the universal Muslim sense of loss at the demise of Ottoman Empire, Radical Islam went on to build its own campaign of terror. There was no one to challenge them. Corrupt and undeserving Muslim rulers supported the evolution of radical Islam for their own selfish reasons: it could keep the masses distracted and prevent them from noticing their ruler's corruptions. In order to ensure that radical Islam remains in control of the Muslim heart and mind, the Islamist state joined hands with the dogmatic mosques that preached the most rigid and the most exclusivist interpretations of Islam - Deobandi, Salafis and Wahhabis. Saudi Petro-Dollars helped this un-holy alliance to gain legitimacy and hijack mainstream Islam. It took a while before the civilized world realized the threat this posed. Based on the theory that the world is divided into two major realms, the dar ul Islam (House of peace), consisting of Muslims only, and the Dar ul Harb (House of war), consisting of infidels, the Islamist state sought/seeks to control the world by overwhelming all open societies. Radical Islamists are aware that they cannot succeed without destroying the United States of America and the State of Israel, as both symbolize open, pluralistic and democratic values. The American and Israeli passion for spreading freedoms poses a direct threat to Islamist designs. While Israel's presence right in the heart of an Islamist controlled region gives hope to freedom- loving Muslims, it scares the extremists. Islamists fear - rightly so - that either directly or indirectly Israel will export democratic values to its immediate neighborhood, jeopardizing radical Islam's sway. All democratic and freedom-loving peoples also need the Muslim world to be educated and informed. Education opens a mind. And an open mind is always an enemy of extremism. The world has counted on education and openness to correct Muslim perceptions about non-Muslim civilizations and to provide a basis for stability in the region and peace in the world. Once educated and informed, as this thinking goes, the Muslims could surely overcome their age old prejudices and biases against "infidels." Knowing that an educated and informed Muslim street will not allow it to control its collective heart and mind, radical Islam is always on guard to find a way to defeat any plan that is aimed at educating Muslim masses. As a first step in this direction, Islamists have launched a smear campaign against Judeo-Christian values and civilization. Radical Islam's job has been made easier by misinterpretations of the Holy Scriptures that condemn Jews and encourage violence against "infidels." Thousands of fables demonizing Jews and Christians that have been passed down as the Prophet's Sayings and Traditions, are also being used to legitimize the fundamentalist terror. These manipulated Holy Scriptures and fabricated traditions help radical Islam in laying the responsibility for Muslim defeats, setbacks and downfall at the door steps of Judeo-Christian powers. According to radical Islam, the Western concept of democracy is un-Islamic. Man, in the eyes of the Islamists, does not have the authority to legislate; it is solely God's right. The concept of the nation-state is condemned as a Judeo-Christian conspiracy aiming to divide the Muslim Ummah (faith-based Muslim nationhood). Radical Islamists realize that their spin and mesmerism will only work so long as the Muslim street is not exposed to the truth - as contained in modem and scientific knowledge and the principles determining the directions of open societies. In order to prevent the Muslim masses from gaining such insight, they have made certain that modem education does not reach the grass roots level. They have succeeded in achieving this by labeling all modem education as un-Islamic. Consequently, the Muslim world is plunged into an abyss of darkness, anti-modernity, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. I am convinced that the only way to save the Muslims from being permanently consigned to the dustbin of history is to destroy the basis of anti-Semitism from the Muslim traditions and liturgy. And this can only be done by exposing the Islamist agenda. Muslims have to be informed of the real reasons of anti-Semitism by creating an alternative source of information and education from within the Muslim community. Only a Muslim challenge to the dark ideology of Islamism can undo the damage done to the Muslim mind. Since only Jews represent over five thousand years of human pursuit of knowledge, struggle to prevail over bigotry and absolutism, and perseverance against a perpetual desire on the part of evil forces to destroy them, their history - if presented in an honest fashion to the Muslims - can go a long way in destroying anti-Semitism. Therefore it is vital that Israel is supported, defended and protected by all those who want the Muslims to progress as civilized people. I consider the rebirth of the Jewish State to be a blessing for the Muslims. Israel has provided the opportunity to show the world the results of the Jewish state of mind in action... a mind that yearns to be free, and a mind that longs to see that all humanity enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If the American civic faith has given the world a hope to be able to live with dignity, self respect and honor in peace, the Jewish traditions and culture of pluralism, debate, acceptance of dissension and difference of opinion have manifested themselves in the shape of the state of Israel to present the oppressed Muslim world with a paradigm to emulate. And if we want this world to be free of any kind of terror, we will have to defend this state of mind, whether it is seen in the shape of Israel or in the form of the United States of America. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

IS THE U.S. PRO-ISRAEL? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 10, 2004.

How Democrats hate Pres. Bush! Some, having found me criticizing many of Pres. Bush's policies, wonder why I do not also criticize his having resumed the Gulf War. The answer is that I don't judge a policy by which official promulgated it, I judge the official by each policy he promulgated. I do not practice advocacy journalism, whereby a reporter first decides whom he supports and whom he opposes, and then automatically praise the former, and fault the latter. Advocacy journalism is the mode. Good policies are condemned for their association with unpopular politicians, and bad policies are tolerated for their association with popular politicians. Policies are not evaluated on their merits. The country as a whole loses thereby. The country is losing greatly over its misunderstood and misunderstanding policy towards Israel. The government misunderstands what should be its policy. People misunderstand what that policy is. They think it must be what it is reputed to be. Don't they know about false labeling? US policy on Israel is falsely labeled. It is labeled pro-Israel. One can understand the public's feeling reassured by the first couple of Presidents who called themselves pro-Israel, but later restricted, penalized, and demoralized Israel. However, people continue falling for the same ruse. After the second time, people who are fooled are fools. A dear relative of mine has grown impatient with their stupidity. I lament it but am not surprised by it. Thoughtlessness is the common human condition. "Common sense" is the exception. In my career as a systems analyst, I frequently repaired malfunctioning systems that predecessor systems analysts failed to install successfully, for inability to analyze. Much less do people analyze foreign policy. They take their cues from the media on which they naively rely. If they were better educated and independent-minded, journalists might have to re-establish integrity. Verbal reassurance about Israel is again forthcoming from our Presidential candidates. Now it is Sen. Kerry's turn to promise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in accordance with US law. Some people still take comfort in such a promise. It was broken by the last two incumbents. Worse, the lawbreaking it entails is covered up by the major media, which pretends that the law offers the President a waiver to exempt implementation. It does not. The law has a waiver, but it does not apply to the moving of the embassy. How can one tell whether the candidate means it, this time? Try this as a criterion! Look for double standards towards Israel. The terrorist attacks in Iraq parallel the terrorist attacks against Israel. The methods are similar. The responses by the US and coalition forces in Iraq are similar to the responses by Israel. Nevertheless, the US, which indulges in the same tactics as does Israel, criticizes Israel for utilizing those same tactics. A double standard towards the Jewish state, i.e., towards the Jews, indicates either prejudice against Jews or some other antagonism towards Israel. That puts Bush on the hook. It does not let Kerry off the hook. His current advisors come from the Clinton circles, that had double standards of their own. The Clinton circles, like the Bush administration, criticize terrorism but advocate statehood for the main Palestinian Arab terrorist organization. During the Clinton regime, the State Dept. often criticized an Israeli response to terrorism but not the terrorism that invoked it. That is another double standard. Both administrations criticized Jewish building as illegal when it was not, but failed to criticize the more extensive Arab building as illegal when it was. What this series of double standards indicates is that the Jews fighting for their lives were judged wrong when they were right, and the Arabs fighting to take innocent Jewish lives were judged right when they were wrong. If that isn't anti-Israel, if not antisemitic, tell me what is! American needs not only to elect a President but to clear out the State Dept. bigots. If Kerry is not going to be anti-Israel, let him hire advisors who are not anti-Israel. U.S. CONFOUNDS SHARON RATIONALE FOR WITHDRAWAL PLAN The US criticized Israel's plan to build several hundred housing units in Ma'ale Adumim, in Judea-Samaria. The criticism refutes PM Sharon's rationale for his plan of abandonment. He had argued that by giving up all of Gaza and part of Judea-Samaria in advance, Israel would be allowed to keep the rest of Judea-Samaria. The US criticism, however, indicates that the US does not want Israel to strengthen other parts of Judea-Samaria for retention by Israel. Where then does this leave Pres. Bush's supposed support for such retention? The answer is it always was supposed but never was support. Pres. Bush merely stated that the rest of Judea-Samaria should be retained until final status negotiations disposed of them. To the US, that core of the Jewish homeland is just a bargaining chip (IMRA, 8/2). Sharon's rationale was ill-thought out, if it were sincere rather than a rationalization. One doesn't gain a concession from fanatical jihadists nor approval from the traditionally anti-Zionist State Dept. by making concessions in advance. Instead, those concessions are lost. Worse, those enemies use them as precedent for more withdrawal. The way to bargain is to insist upon how important the area is to Israel. But Israel's secular leadership does not think it is. It appreciates neither the Territories' strategic nor psychological value. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

FROM LOVE TO HATE Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 10, 2004.

Once upon a time, Arik Sharon was a most loved figure. When he was a General, he did what he did best, fighting with a deserved brutality the Arab enemy who had openly and often pledged to eliminate the State and the Jewish people. Then he was loved and admired by those who appreciated his courage, daring and intelligence about the Arab Muslim enemy. For those who disagreed with his forthright understanding about the nature of the Arab Muslim hostility, he was feared and respected. When Sharon was in his own element, the gun powder of defending his people in War, he was a hero and loved by his people. But, then Arik Sharon left the military and entered a new element. He became a politician but he brought with him the talents and tactics of war. Regrettably, he turned those talents for destruction against his own people. Now, the admiration, even love, began to shift toward suspicion and, for some, even hatred. Throughout our lives we earn peoples' respect and trust or hatred through what we do. Sharon, in his military years, rightfully earned the respect, honor and even love for his role in defending the nation. But, when he became a typical politician, his past became blurred and finally forgotten when he initiated the dismantling of the nation under a slogan of "disengagement" from the Arab Muslim Palestinians. Had he publicly maintained his politically-Left face from his early days in the Leftist Party called "Mapai" which later became the Labor Party, the people would not have been shocked or surprised. Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres made no pretense of hiding their Leftist ideology so when they secretly negotiated the Oslo Accords behind the backs of the nation and in concert with foreign interests, we were not surprised. Lies and contempt for the public was part and parcel of the Labor Left's way of governing. Sharon was elected February 6th by a 60% landslide over then Prime Minister Ehud Barak who had offered Yassir Arafat 97% of YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza) plus half of Jerusalem. Sharon won because the people believed that Sharon, the warrior, and Sharon, the builder of and advocate for the Pioneering Settlements would do the job. He would decisively put down Arab Muslim Terrorism, stop the hemorrhage of concessions to enemies by prior governments and secure the people of Israel and the Land of Israel in a non-apologetic, sovereign Jewish State. Instead, Sharon has become a reincarnations of Barak, Rabin and Peres rolled into one great package. Sadly, Sharon, the politician, emerged from the closet as a Leftist, dedicated to re-partitioning the Land of Israel. The years of speeches, promises and recommendations to take the land and build upon it, vanished as if he had never spoken. He had entered the Leftists ideology of lies, no less than Rabin, Peres, Barak, Yossi Beilin, et al. His secret weapon of de-Judaizing Israel began to fire. As the Leftists before him had engaged in agreements with foreign powers to lie, intimidate and manipulate the public to please other nations who had deep vested interests with Arab oil nations, so too - Sharon joined them in collaboration. Every move to sway the public, threaten them with everything from escalating Arab Muslim Terror, to jailing objectors with Administrative Detention, to cutting of utilities and Army protection is being used. Jews are being threatened with forcible transfer out of their homes, schools, synagogues, farms, factories, businesses and even their graves. Sharon is starting with the 8,200 Jewish men, women and children in Gush Katif (Harvest Block) and an unknown number in the so-called outposts in Judea and Samaria. Thus, the man who was loved for his defense of the Jewish nation is now looked upon by many as a traitor, engaged in treason to please other nations. Even to say so is risky. Like King Herod who called in the Romans to suppress the Jewish people so he could keep his throne, we sadly see a befuddled Sharon, trying to please President George W. Bush who, in turn, is demanding that Israel be re-partitioned to accommodate another Arab Muslim State of Palestine in Israel's heartland. Even as the Arab Islamists display their perfidious Terror across the Globe, Sharon and Bush conspire to implant an operational base in Gaza as a forerunner of a fully fledged state of Terror in all of YESHA. It is an ugly daisy chain of deceit betrayal, treason. Sharon has now parted from the Jewish people and, like Herod, he belongs - body, soul and pockets - to foreign interests. Sharon has earned the distrust and even hatred from those he has betrayed in word and deed. Is it any wonder that many Israelis and Jews world-wide have gone from love to hate in such a brief time? Rabin, Peres, Barak and Beilin can claim their own graveyards for the Jews who fell to the Oslo Accords, so too is Sharon building he own cemetery for the Jews who will inevitably fall from the dismantling and re-partition of the Nation. Since the Oslo Accords were signed September 13, 1993 on the White House lawn with President Clinton more than 1500 Jewish men, women and children have been cruelly murdered by Arab Muslim terrorists, with tens of thousands wounded, many maimed for life. There will always be those Jews, particularly the non-Jewish Jews of the Left, who will close their eyes to the future and only conveniently use Sharon's past - that of a hero to achieve re-partition. Observe the example of King Saul who defied G-d's instructions by not killing ALL the pagan enemy Arabs then in the Land of Israel. Saul was stripped of his kingship by the Prophet Samuel and, finally, he fell on his own sword for his betrayal of his people. How the mighty have fallen! Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

ISRAELI GIRL AIDS ARAB TERRORIST Posted by Voice of Judea, August 10, 2004.

1- ISRAELI GIRL AIDS ARAB TERRORIST LOVER Another story about an Israeli girl who fell in love with an Arab terrorist was released today in the Israeli media. Talya Pahema is being accused of aiding Zecharia Zaveida in the planning of terrorist attacks within Israel. Zaveida is the number one wanted terrorist in Jenin. Photos of the couple can be found on http://glz.msn.co.il/glz/news/3D24383EAFD44DBC9B81B2EE4297F51A.htm 2- PM SHARON TO AUTHORIZE SEVEN BEDOUIN OUTPOSTS (IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is visiting the Bedouin-Israeli areas of the Negev today. The centerpiece of his visit is the presentation of Mr. Sharon's plan to formally recognize and retroactively authorize seven illegal Bedouin outposts. The residents of the many other Negev-area unauthorized Bedouin outposts will be asked to move to the seven large, approved villages, where they will receive compensation for their move. The entire project is expected to cost the state one and a quarter billion shekels over six years. Bedouin leaders have so far rejected plans to settle them in recognized villages. There are currently approximately 76,000 Bedouin in 120 illegal outposts and villages. Voice of Judea Commentary: Many of these Bedouins migrated to Israel from Egypt and other foreign lands, some came to Judea and Gaza, and then from there into other parts of Israel. In this way, thousands of non-Jewish foreigners who are getting increasingly hostile and anti-Israel have developed a most effective system to enter into Israel, while receiving citizenship and funding from Israel. Ironically, today, Sharon told the Americans that he would hasten to tear down 23 Jewish "outposts" and that he would not build housing units already slated for construction in Maleh Adumim, Ariel and other Jewish towns. We might suggest a simple solution for Sharon, the Americans and the "settlers": Let the "settlers" convert to Islam, and replace the Kippot with Kafiahs. If it were not sad it would be funny. 3- Armed police plan halted Israel has suspended its plan to allow "Palestinian police" to patrol armed. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is unlikely to put into action his plan for allowing a "Palestinian Authority" crackdown on reformists vigilantes because of right-wing Israeli outcry at the idea of arming potential terrorists, Haaretz said Tuesday. Jerusalem sources confirmed the report. Voice of Judea Commentary: Even Israeli leaders sometimes listen to their constituents and carry out the will of the nation. If you have not yet sent an email to protest against possible plans of arming PLO terrorist cops, then you should send an email now to NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com Keep the pressure on. The cabinet may yet support this insane proposal. 4- TERROR ATTACK IN SHOMRON Terrorists fired on an Israeli bus near Barkan, wounding two people. The Al-Aksa Brigade claimed responsibility for Tuesday's early morning ambush on the Trans-Samaria Highway near the Barkan "settlement", which targeted an armored bus carrying workers. Several other motorists were shot at, but none were hurt. Security forces found bomb components at the scene, suggesting that a much larger attack had been planned.. Voice of Judea Commentary: If you have not yet sent out an email protesting the possible plan of arming more of Arafat's cops/terrorists please do so now, and forward this request to anyone you can. Send email demanding that Israel refrain from arming more of Arafat's terrorists. In the end, these guns are turned against innocent Jews. Send your email protest to NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com Also urge Israeli officials to ease restrictions on "settler" gun licenses. "settlers" have a right to defend themselves on these dangerous roads. Israel must stop canceling "settler" gun licenses and must allow the "settlers" the right to carry arms on the roads. This is a matter of Pikuach Nefesh - saving lives. Arabs are stepping up attacks on the roads. Send an email now and urge Israel's Defense Minister not to arm more PLO cops and to permit more "settlers" to travel on the roads with weapons for self defense. 5- Report: N.Y. synagogue on Al-Qaida list A New York City synagogue was found on a CD list of Al-Qaida targets. New York's Eldridge Street Synagogue was put on a list of possible terrorist targets based on information found on computer discs seized at the home of an Al-Qaida leader in Pakistan last month, Time Magazine reported. Synagogue officials, who were not aware that the building had been added to the watch list, questioned the magazine's reporting, saying that if there were a real threat they would have been contacted by officials. Voice of Judea Commentary: I know my Jews. They will read this article in disbelief, and refrain from getting off of their apathy. "Why would Al-Qaida target us? Stop trying to scare us!" Jews are absolutely amazing. They are so incredibly stupid when it comes to assessing danger and taking necessary steps to avert the danger. Synagogue officials said, "If there were a real threat they would have been contacted by the authorities". As if they need to be contacted to begin to understand that terrorist Islamic cells are alive and well in New York and throughout America. Are they completely brain dead? As if it would help if they were given any warning by authorities. If the murder of 3000 New Yorkers, a mile away from the synagogue was not enough to wake them up, what good would a call about some information found on a Pakistani computer have done? 6- Franks: Israeli-Palestinian fight fuels resentment Israel's conflict with the Palestinians fuels anti-U.S. resentment in the Middle East, Gen. Tommy Franks said.. Franks, who retired from the military last summer after leading the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as the head of the U.S. Central Command, said the Israel-Palestinian issue is a major, major, major issue. And I believe it demands our focus. It's work that we're going to have to do. And all you need to do is just tune in Al-Jazeera. And you can convince yourselves that the level of hatred, the level of animus that exists in the region for Americans is very, very high. And it will find a lot of its origin in what we see in this Middle East problem." Franks appeared Monday at the National Press Club. Voice of Judea Commentary: I know that these stories are not popular ones. Most Jews do not want to hear it. Jews don't want to have to think about the cruel reality that mainstream American generals and politicians hold an opinion shared by millions of Americans that link Israel to the mess in Iraq and that blame Israel and Jews for terrorism in America. It is our task to broadcast uncensored news and views and to help the Jewish people lift their heads out of the sand, where far too many Jews have chosen to bury their heads, latching on to pleasant and comfortable illusions that help them continue to deny reality. It is much easier to ignore the truth and to avoid dealing with painful and difficult facts. And the fact is that American Jews are at great risk. The big risk is not Islamic terror. This does not mean that there are not many Islamic terrorist cells collecting information and plotting to kill Jews in America. There are plenty of plots that have been uncovered concerning Jewish targets in America. However the greatest threat of all is posed by average Americans responding to the backlash of Islamic terror and the war in Iraq. The Jew and Israel, one and the same in the mind of the ordinary American are being blamed for the quagmire in Iraq and for importing terror into America. How true ring the words of The Yaavetz, Rabbi Yaacov Emden in his siddur Beit Yaacov: "It seems to me, in our present peaceful existence outside the Land of Israel, that we have found another Eretz Yisroel and Jerusalem. This to me is the greatest, deepest, most obvious, and direct cause of all the awesome, frightening, monstrous and unimaginable destructions that we have experienced in the Diaspora." You can subscribe to the Voice of Judea emails by sending an email to jsid@amanda.dorsai.org To Go To Top

A MAGINOT LINE IN THE SKY Posted by Moshe Feiglin, August 10, 2004.

We are once again seeing an example of the methods used by countries to prop up their crumbling regimes. To the question: 'Will the State of Israel continue to exist in another 30 years?', most of those asked answered in the negative. This is something unique to Israel. Most Israelis regard their country as a fleeting incident, and the great efforts made to acquire foreign citizenship are evidence of this. Such a popular feeling of emptiness considerably worries the leadership. Governments aspire to presenting as rosy a picture as possible, since a lack of physical and economic security present a threat to them. When it becomes impossible to prevent the public sensing the approaching disaster, the leadership begins to resort to magical solutions, such as inventing an enemy that can be easily pursued. It's always a good idea to send the ignorant masses to hunt down witches, Jews, or the extreme Right. Or, alternatively, you can hide the enemy from the people. You can build a Wall of China, so that the Mongols disappear, or Maginot Line behind which the Germans will simply evaporate, or a Bar-Lev Line, behind which the Egyptians will vanish and every Israeli will feel secure under Golda's apron. And now, of course, we have the separation fence. Quite a few leaders have promised their nations, when on the brink of disaster, that they possess a secret weapon that will reverse the situation. To admit a mistake, to present the public with the naked truth and to propose a difficult, demanding, path, is something that very few leaders are capable of doing. Such Churchill-like figures are not very thick on the ground here. Last week we were told of the successful trial of the Arrow missile. The Arrow is the best weapon system of its kind in the world. It incorporates the most advanced technologies of the 21st Century, something that only 3000 Jews working together on a single objective are capable of achieving. This prestigious system faces the Scud missile, a flying barrel based on the V2 missile, after the German engineers who built it were taken prisoner by the Russians at the end of the Second World War. However, the Arrow has no chance in this struggle. Despite the world fear of the missile threat, no country is purchasing it, not even the Americans who have aided in its development. The Arrow is the last word from the technological aspect, but ridiculous from the conceptual one. Aryeh Stav, editor of Nativ, has compared the interception to two gunmen fighting a duel. One of then can fire whenever, in what direction, and as often as he wants. His opponent is only permitted to fire after the first has pulled the trigger, and then only at the bullet leaving the first gunman's barrel, at the final stage of its trajectory. Amazingly enough the Arrow system succeeds in doing so. Unfortunately, laboratory conditions do not reflect the real-life situation in the future battlefield. According to the data published it is necessary to fire at least two Arrow missiles to guarantee hitting a single Scud missile. This means investing at least five million dollars to down a single Scud (that costs about five percent of this). If you calculate the total number of Egyptian and Syrian missiles currently threatening Israel, and try and deploy against them an effective number of Arrow missiles, you reach a cost exceeding the entire Israeli defense budget. In other words, even if you totally disband the IDF and spend all the money on Arrow missiles, you still can't provide a 100% solution to the greatest threat to the existence of the State of Israel. Just keep in mind that the Dan Metropolitan Area is a single soft target, whose destruction with non-conventional weapons would bring an end to the Israeli story. This means that a 50-60% effective solution is worse than none at all, since it creates an illusion of security and diverts resources to an impossible path. We have addressed the economic aspect only, and not the tactical issues of the conception. A missile carrying a chemical warfare warhead, intercepted by an Arrow missile over Kfar Saba, will cause damage even if it does not complete its planned trajectory and reach Tel Aviv. And what will the Arrow do if it encounters missiles with multiple independently targeted warheads (MIRV)? It is only a question of time until these appear, and what will the Arrow do then? Split up to intercept them? In fact, both the separation fence and the Arrow missile (that is also a kind of separation fence in the sky) are systems intended to create an illusion of confrontation with reality, that a leadership lacking moral direction cannot understand, and whose challenges it is certainly incapable of confronting. Our leaders will continue to spend many billions in order to buy time in power, using false solutions. The economic price is the least important part of the issue. The billions wasted on these white elephants are taken from the mouths of hungry children, but the even more serious result is that Israel has been left exposed to a threat to its very existence, and its citizens have been sold the idea that the State is providing the required security. A real solution actually exists, but it is associated with a totally different concept. Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

EUROPE'S SECRET BATTLEGROUND Posted by Bryna Berch, August 9, 2004.

This was written by Beth R. Alexander and it yesterday as an article on the United Press International website. It is archived at http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040808-100734-9298r WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) - When Ilka Schroeder, a former member of the European Parliament, spoke of the EU's Middle East policy as an "anti-Semitic war it is helping to finance against Israel" and said Palestinians were being used as "cannon fodder for Europe's hidden war against the U.S.," her words went unheeded. Now OLAF, the European Union's anti-fraud office, after probing the issue, is sending investigators to Israel to interview Palestinians in Israeli prisons to ascertain whether European funds to the Palestinian Authority are used to support terrorism. This development, reported in the Aug. 5 London Telegraph, comes after the Berlin-born Schroeder, 26, spent the major part of her five-year term in Brussels challenging the way the Palestinian Authority spends EU funds while the EU continued to send millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to the PA. Some of this money, she claims - based on Israeli government reports from the spring of 2002 - is channeled to a black budget and used to support terrorist activities against Israel. European Commissioner for External Affairs Christopher Patten dismissed the charges at the time as "Israeli propaganda." The European Commission declares on its website that EU aid to the PA is conditional upon "full responsibility placed on the (PA) Finance Ministry for managing the Palestinian Authority payroll." "People tell me I'm altruistic because I'm not Jewish," Schroeder told United Press International. "I do not like the word 'altruistic.' The issue of anti-Semitism is really important. To stop this cruel development, these inhuman ideologies, that's why I do it," she said in a phone interview from Berlin. Schroeder summarized her thesis in a Dec. 22 address to the Center for German Studies at Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, Israel. "The Europeans supported the Palestinian Authority with the aim of becoming its main sponsor," she said, "and through this, challenge the U.S. and present themselves as the future global power. Therefore, the al-Aksa intifada should be understood as a proxy war between Europe and the United States." She elaborated her position in an earlier address in New York. "You have only to see the exhibitions on Israel and Palestine in the European Parliament's foyer - where Israel is accused of sociocide and branded as an apartheid state - to know which side the EU is on," she said. The EU's primary goal, Schroeder said, is the internationalization of the conflict to underscore the need for its own mediating role. "The longer the conflict continues and the deeper it gets, the more evident is the incapability of the U.S. to moderate a peace process. ... This is why the EU does not wish the (Palestinian Authority) to give up too early and why the EU is strengthening the PA. ... The Palestinians are ... cannon fodder for Europe's hidden war against the U.S. ... Schroeder made it clear that she does not believe EU officials conspired with PA leader Yasser Arafat to wage war against Israel. Rather, a convergence of interests emerged, with both Europe and the Palestinians sharing an interest internationalizing the conflict. The oil-dependent Europeans, with sizable Muslim minorities, want a sphere of influence in the Middle East independent of Washington. The Palestinians know international troops can do little to curtail guerrilla attacks but can hamper retaliation by armies such as the Israel Defense Forces. British author Bat Ye'or has described this alignment as a "Euro-Arab alliance that gave birth to Eurabia." "The EU has been completing a slow metamorphosis into the 'Christian' arm of the Pan-Arab world, different in religious observation but united in its views of Israel and America," she wrote in a July 27 article published in FrontPageMagazine.com. In her New York address, Schroeder decried the prospect of German soldiers in East Jerusalem - with or without the blue helmets of the United Nations. Schroeder was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 as an undergraduate studying economics in the Free University of Berlin. She then switched to Political Science and earned a Masters degree while serving in the European Parliament. She left the Green Party in 2001 to become an independent member after becoming disillusioned with some of their policies. She began her political career opposing the war in Kosovo and denouncing globalization. The 1999 war against Yugoslavia, the outbreak of the second intifada against Israel in the autumn of 2000, compounded with policy changes in the international arena following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington prompted Schroeder to address what she perceived to be blatant anti-Semitic policy in the European Parliament. In 2002, she began a campaign to convince the other members of Parliament - then 626 and now more than 700 - of her belief that EU funding to the PA was being spent illegitimately and had to be curbed. Her decision followed the presentation of material to the European Commission discovered in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces during Operation Defensive Shield in the spring of 2002. This material linked EU budgetary aid with terrorist activities. Documentary evidence uncovered in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters showed orders, many bearing the signature of the Palestinian leader himself, to the PA minister of finance, - recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars of EU funding - to pay members of the al Asqa Martyrs Brigade for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. OLAF began an investigation in January 2004. EU officials traveled to Israel to see if these findings were justified, and this was followed by the decision to interrogate al-Asqa Martyr's Brigades members. The EU has been one of the major donors to the PA since 1971, when the European Commission made its first contributions to UNRWA, the U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees. The European Commission states on its website that $3.81 billion was granted to the PA between 1994-2001, including grants from the commission, independent grants from the then-15 EU member states, contributions to UNRWA and loans from the European Investment Bank. As OLAF took action, Schroeder single-handedly undertook to establish an inquiry committee in the European Parliament, intended to investigate claims of illegitimate aid diversion. Schroeder said her proposals for an inquiry committee were met with much resistance. Not only was she a woman challenging a male-dominated institution, but she was the youngest member of Parliament. "Once I started this initiative, I was politically more or less dead for them," Schroeder told UPI. She did not stand for reelection in the June polling. The inquiry stalled, yet Schroeder was undaunted. She referred to her colleagues who wished to ignore the issue as "simple-minded anti-Semites" and accused EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten of "winking approval of terrorist attacks funded by the EU." EU Commission spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez denied any allegations of misspent EU money. "We take such accusations extremely seriously, and so far we have not been able to find any misuse of funds," Gonzalez told UPI. "Our own reputation and the name of the EU Commission would be at stake," she said in a phone interview from Brussels. Regarding the latest investigations of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Gonzalez said this is a matter for OLAF and "the Commission has nothing to say on this." The antifraud office of the EU works independently of the commission, Gonzalez said. The European Commission's website states that conditions attached to EU assistance to the PA have contributed to placing "the Palestinian Authority to a level of fiscal responsibility, control and transparency which rivals the most fiscally advanced countries in the region." Rejecting Schroeder's proposal for a thorough investigation to be led by an inquiry committee, the presidents of the European Commission set up a Working Group "in order to downplay the importance of the issue," Schroeder said. The Working Group simply reported that the International Monetary Fund does not have control over PA spending and therefore cannot know how EU funds are spent. Yet the European Commission states on its website that it continues to fund the Palestinian Authority on condition of "a single treasury account monitored by the IMF." Direct budgetary assistance continued to be directed to the PA even after it was discovered that PA spending does not comply with conditions set out by the European Commission. "Instead of coming clean, the EU Commission, headed by Patten, and the Conference of Presidents thought it was better to sweep the investigation under the carpet," Rachel Ehrenfeld, a witness on the Working Group and director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy, told UPI. Patten views the monthly 10 million euros in direct budgetary assistance as "an important contribution, in order to prevent further collapse into anarchy, chaos and misery." The money is supposed to go into "basic public needs" - education, healthcare, police, and salaries of civil servants. The European Commission has just approved a further package for the West Bank and Gaza of 124.25 million euros, according to its website. Schroeder admits that Europe is not a "monolithic bloc," and interests differ from country to country. In a Dec. 22 interview with the Jerusalem Post, Schroeder spoke of the reaction she received from the European left when initiating the inquiry into misuse of funds. "They thought I was absolutely crazy and couldn't understand why anybody would stand up for Israel. It has been hardest to make my point among the left because they are the most into anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism," she said. However, the lack of support she received from her colleagues did not surprise her. "Most of the parliamentarians are in line with the Commission's EU policy in the Middle East, and they don't want to make public where exactly the EU money is going," Schroeder told UPI. Schroeder's disdain for anti-Semitism has encouraged her to set up a Center against anti-Semitism in Berlin. She will be visiting the United States in September, having accepted an invitation from Georgetown University to teach politics in Washington, and hopes to use the trip to raise funds for her new initiative. Schroeder sees an obvious need for this establishment given the high levels of ignorance she perceives throughout Germany. After the EU voted en bloc in favor of a U.N. resolution against Israel's security barrier, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana visited the Jewish state. On July 23 opposition Labor Party leader Shimon Peres told Solana that the EU must sever all ties with the Palestinians unless changes were made in the PA. But Solana admonished Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that the EU would be involved in the peace process - and the Middle East - "whether Israel likes it or not." According to Schroeder, that's half the problem. "The way things are right now, I would expect Europe not to be very helpful for Israel (in facilitating peace), but it would rather increase the danger since any peaceful negotiation at the moment would lead to at least a weakening of Israel," she told UPI. To Go To Top

THE BODY SHOP SUPPORTS "ARAB RIGHT OF RETURN" - JOIN THE BOYCOTT Posted by Naomi Ragen, August 9, 2004.

I don't usually respond to e-mails about boycotts, etc. but this one about the Body Shop really threw me for a loop. I googled: "The National Committee for the Rights of the Internally Displaced Palestinians in Israel", the organization that is going to get this award from Body Shop. Its website spews racist propaganda,with no mention of the history of the "displacement" ie. the war the Arabs started against the Israeli state and their urging Arabs to leave the country so that could roll the tanks in. No mention of the 650,000 Jews thrown out of Arab lands and displaced... No mention that "right of return" is a codeword for flooding the Israeli state with terrorists from all over the world to destroy it. If this is the way the BodyShop feels about my country, they can forget about my money. I'll buy Estee Lauder. Naomi Friends, Below is a hard-to-believe alert regarding The Body Shop, the beauty stores chain, which is promoting an "Arab right of return" to Israel, as company policy! If you don't believe it, go to http://www.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsgl/news_article.jsp?index=7 and scroll down to the heading "From Israel". Please join the boycott of The Body Shop and write a letter of protest to the following two important The Body Shop addresses: To complain: http://www.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsgl/contact.jsp ukcustomer.relations@the-body-shop.com and usa.info@the-body-shop.com Acknowledgements to Avi of the FTIAN (Five Towns Israel Activism Network) and Myra who sent out the original alert below. Thanks for helping to spread the word. See http://www.geocities.com/truthmasters/jointheboycott.htm "The Body Shop Supports Arab Right of Return" From Myra Eder Helfer No doubt most of you have shopped at The Body Shop which is in every mall. I have too. But no more. The other night I was looking at a Body Shop product in my collection of stuff and happened to notice Arabic writing on the back. An acquaintance pointed out that the Arabic no doubt identified the product as it was below a long list of different languages doing just that. But there was no Hebrew. That bothered me so today I went to the company web site, http://www.the-body-shop.com and surfed it a bit. There, right on the company news page, was the announcement of a 2002 award to pro Palestinians in Israel seeking the right of return. As most of you know, the so-called right of return is the call of terrorists as it uncontrovertibly means the destruction of the Jewish state. There is absolutely no question about this cosmetics' company stand on this issue. You of course have to make your own decision, but The Body Shop will not see my money. Please check out the link above and go to company news or directly to the link below which will take you there. Also please pass this along to those you deem appropriate, including any Jewish agencies where you know someone. If I have misjudged any of the recipients of my email and you are pro-Palestinian, my comments stand. Myra Eder Helfer See the link: http://www.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsgl/news_article.jsp?index=7 To complain: http://www.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsgl/contact.jsp STOP TERRORISM, the most large list of Islamic terrorists attacks http://www.almidfarah.fanspace.com/islamic_terr_even.htm Islam, Arabs and Israelis, into the 1970s http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch28isl.html Naomi Ragen is a novelist and essayist. American-born, she makes her home in Israel. Contact her at nragen@netvision.net.il. To Go To Top

IS ISRAEL'S HIGHER MORAL GROUND REALLY NOT MUCH HIGHER? Posted by American Chin High, August 9, 2004.

If Israel is really not a whole lot better then them... Then, Why did they invent specially designed low range missiles, minimum damage controlled, (for the sole purpose to aim at mass murderers terrorists)? Why is Israel always the (only) one to make gestures - 'less restricted checkpoints' etc. to the Arabs each short time period, and the obvious result that terrorists genoicide bombers take advantage? Why is only Israel the giver, always, including the current Gaza Give away, with the result of blood thirsty Hamas & other garbage Jihadists' evil smiles and moral-boosting for their crimes. But Arabs don't even begin change their hate & violence school. - the minimum. Why does Israel go from door to door during anti terror operations, running into booby trapped bombings from the invisible Goliath menace? Why doesn't Israel have in its textbooks that Arabs are Pigs and Monkeys? Why don't Israelis go en masse to dance, givig out candies to kids on public squares, celebrating by the thousands, when any Arab dies? Why don't Israelis pay - behind the curtains - some groups, to target kindergartens and hospitals? Why don't Israelis have on its official TV, Glorifying mass murderers (http://www.pmw.org.il) that aim at babies? Why aren't Israelis pushing the UN to transfer Arabs, like the arabs do to Jews? Why don't (most) Israelis go around with bloody graphic pictures of its innocent victims to incite non Arab Muslims against Arab Muslims? Why is it that most Arab palestinian dead and injured are combatants, and most Israelis hurt, maimed and dead are non conbatants, purely innocent? (http://www.ict.org.il). Why is it that - while Israel fights for suvival - israel still manages to have so many groups helping the Arabs, politically, financially etc.? Why is it that Israeli court ruled for the lifesaving-fence to be altered at certain araes, so that not to burden Arabs, the murderers who want to enter and kill their kids. Why is it that in most Israeli courts, Israel prefers to benefit the Arabs living in Israel over the non Arabs? Why has Israel always tried - and still does - to help palestinian Arab refugees that were actually evacuated by Arab leaders, the same type of cruel leaders that block Israel's attempt to help, in order to have them play as 'victims'? Where else in the middleeast could an Arab vote? Could a Jew be a head of any Arab Muslim state, the same as an Arab in Israel could be head of Israel? To Go To Top

JERUSALEM BEING SURRENDERED BEHIND THE SCENES? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 9, 2004.

Over the objections of Israeli businessmen who offered three times the price, a large building and 12 acres in Jerusalem were sold by the Egged Bus company to an Israeli Arab who moved into the eastern part of Jerusalem. The Arab is an old friend of Deputy PM Olmert. Deputy PM Olmert has been the government's spearhead for statements breaking new ground for "right-wing" concessions to the Arabs. This Arab has been buying up property in Jerusalem for the P.A. (IMRA, 7/31). Israeli leaders choose friends poorly. As is well known, the nationality of landowners is used to justify jurisdiction over the land. The term for that is "creating facts on the ground." Arabs and the US object when the Jews create facts on the ground but not when Arabs do. Having observed that double standard, forthright Israelis ought to tell the outside objectors to stop commenting on Israel until they acquire an ethical code. Speaking of ethics, however, this brief implies another corrupt real estate deal. Such deals are rife in Israel. Unfortunately, this one not only cheats Israelis financially. It also betrays their security and their heritage. Thousands of Jews died to safeguard the national homeland, but the supposed right-wingers in power now undermine the homeland. We can anticipate thousands more dying for the same cause, needlessly so. Israeli secularists are worried that the growing Orthodox population in Israel will require the traditional method of slaughtering cattle. Meanwhile, the secularists are empowering the Arabs to perpetrate fiendish slaughter of Jews. The big danger to Israel from Israeli Jews is not from the religious ones but from the secular ones. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

WHO SAID LAPID IS ANTI-SEMITIC? Posted by Dr Judah (Yehuda) Tzoref, August 8, 2004.

He is even willing to share the same coalition with Orthodox Jews. It took a while for Lapid and his party to catch the potential immersed in the political stew. But as soon as Shinui's leadership came to terms with the back-scratching codes of the governmental Jacuzzi, it can teach us all about the lore of "clean" politics. The trading skills of Lapid, who struck a perfect Orthodox deal, are indeed enviable. On the one hand, he accepts a "kosher" certificate from Yahadut HaTorah that once and for all acquits him of his anti-Semitic stain. On the other hand, guys, and this is indeed the best grist to his mill, he is going with Orthodox Jews to demolish synagogues in Gush Katif? As for Yahadut HaTorah, its defiled liaison with the gang of Lapid shall demand an answer on an inescapable day of judgment. Dr Judah (Yehuda) Tzoref is a scientist, trained at the Technion in Haifa and Oxford University in England. His expertise is in physics and energy engineering. He is a grass-roots activist on behalf of Israel. He lives in Rehovot. To Go To Top

ABOUT THE BLUE AND WHITE FUND Posted by Anita Tucker, August 8, 2004.

What a great idea -perhaps tell your USA friends about this. This is the introduction on their website: http://www.blueandwhitefund.com/freeshare.htm MARCH 11, 2004 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - The Blue and White Fund, one of the first U.S. mutual funds to invest exclusively in Israeli companies that are publicly traded on the NYSE, NASDAQ and Amex, as well as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) announced today that they will present every American boy and girl at the time of their First Communion, Confirmation, Bar and Bat mitzvah with a free stock certificate worth $18 as a gift, and an incentive to invest in Israel. "We are pleased to announce that we will present a completely free stock certificate to every American boy or girl who contacts us on these special occasions, as a free gift in order to encourage American youth to invest in their future and the Israeli economy. Donating money is a wonderful concept, but even greater is the ability to teach America's youth how to invest, and give children an important topic to bond with their parents. And it is for those reasons every American child who has their Bar/Bat Mitzvah, First Communion or Confirmation will receive a free stock certificate," said Shlomo Eplboim, Founder and CEO of The Blue and White Fund. "In the past two decades, Israel's exports have grown nearly 700 percent to $29 billion; Israel ranks just behind the Netherlands in education, with 20 percent of the population college educated; it has more engineers per capita than any other place on earth; Israel holds the third highest number of patents globally. Israel doesn't need charity as much as it needs investment, as investment creates long-term solutions. And youth, by participating in this program can start supporting Israel and themselves at a very early age. They can wake up every day and check their stock and see how Israel's economy, and their investment is doing." To Go To Top

PA HISTORIANS: ISRAEL'S BIBLICAL HISTORY IS ACTUALLY ARAB MUSLIM HISTORY Posted by Itamar Marcus, August 8, 2004.

On an educational program on PA TV, two senior Palestinian Authority [PA] historians went to great lengths to deny ancient Jewish history and erase the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. At the same time they describe an ancient Palestinian - Arab history, creating a historical connection to the land that never existed. Two central components of this Palestinian myth consist of turning Biblical Israel into Muslim-Arabs, while teaching that the Palestinians are the descendents of the Biblical Canaanites, who are also turned into Arabs. With both the Canaanites and Israelites becoming Arabs and the religion of ancient Israel becoming Islam, the PA takes authentic Jewish history, documented by thousands of years of continuous literature, and crosses out the word "Jewish" and replaced it with the word "Arab". This creative historical revisionism is not new in the PA. Denying the thousands of years of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, coupled with the invention of "Palestinian" history of thousands of years, have always been of supreme importance to the Palestinian Authority. The PA is struggling with the challenge of creating a Palestinian national identity when no Palestinian national history exists. Even the term "Palestine" historically had nothing to do with Arab identity, and most of the population only migrated in the last century after the improved living conditions and work opportunities brought about by the Zionist movement. Thus, incessant denial of Israel's history and right to exist, and the invention of a PA history have been backbones of PA indoctrination and education for years. In the broadcast last week on PA TV the following are some of the main points of the"history". 1. The Hebrews of the Bible have no connection to the Jews today. 2. The Hebrews of the Bible were Arabs. 3. The Prophets of the Bible were Muslims. 4. Biblical King Solomon was a Muslim Prophet. 5. Solomon's Temple was not built by Israelites but by Arab Canaanites. 6. The Canaanites are the forefathers of the Palestinians 7. The Bible is legends based on what Jews imagined and not on history. 8. The Jews today are descendents of a 13 th Century Khazar tribe with no history in the Land of Israel.[*] 9. The location of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a Zionist invention. 10. Zionism is Racism. The following are selections from the discussion on PA TV, PA TV, Aug. 2, 2004: The historians: Dr. Jarir Al-Qidwah, Head of the PA Public Library and Arafat's Advisor on Education Dr. Issam Sissalem, Senior Historian and Educational TV host, former head of History Dept. of PA University Moderator: Mohammed Albaz PA TV, Aug. 2, 2004 Albaz: "Where did the story of Solomon's Temple come from?" Al-Qidwa: "Solomon's Temple, I believe, was built by the Canaanites who were the neighbors of the Israelis, the Israelites... I want to state several words clearly: the Bible became an archival document, not representing what the Israelis and the first Jews were, but what they thought they were, what they imagined. The Temple is the fruit of their imagination. In any case, when our nation or our Canaanite forefathers came to Palestine, they built the Temple... a temple in Jerusalem" Sissalem: "We, as the Palestinian nation fighting for its freedom and liberation, must not focus to much attention on these false [Biblical] legends. The history of our land continues more than ten thousand years. The land of battles and wars, [many] armies, tribes and commanders came through. I want to point out that we should not focus much on what is called the [Biblical] Hebrew tribes, who are in fact Bedouin - Arab tribes. There is no connection between them and these Khazar Jews [of Israel today]. Those [Hebrew - Arab] tribes were erased and ceased to exist and no traces were left of them... That group did not have a pure religion. They claimed that Solomon, may he rest in peace, built the Temple. Does the land testify to this? Solomon was a prophet and we see him as a Muslim and part of our [Islamic] heritage... There is no historical text that proves the existence [of the temple] or that it has a real history other than the Bible, and the Bible as we have previously mentioned... was written based on ancient legends." Sissalem: "The Quran came directly from the Prophet [Muhammad]... while supporting all that preceded it in the [Biblical] Prophetic inscriptions, that, as you noted, appeared in the Quran as Muslims believing in the one and only God, and these [the Hebrew prophets of the Bible] are part of our [Muslim] heritage. They have no connection to the Imperialistic - Settlement Jews [Israelis] and nor to those that were destroyed." Al-Qidwa: "The Jewish presence in Palestine and Jerusalem ended approximately in the year 70, when Titus utterly destroyed the Second Temple of Herod." Sissalem: "When the Zionist movement started to set in motion the Imperialist - Settlement plan, it tried to base itself in the biblical legends, as we said, The Bible expresses a tradition of legends, that has no connection to history." Viewer calls studio: "We say that when the Israelites... migrated to America. But the World Zionist Movement and the Free Masons drove them, while distorting the Bible and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the newly prepared Bible, drove them to come here [Israel]... these [the Jews] are the foreign invaders that will pass as the others passed, Allah willing." Al-Qidwa: "Allah willing." Sissalem: "Allah willing." Albaz: "Allah willing." Caller continues:"And Palestine will be for them a cemetery, Allah willing..." Al-Qidwa: "Zionism is racist movement... that mixes or wears religious cloak, and it is false, but it mixes the nation and religion, like the mixture of the Jews. The Jews are a religion and not a race. The peculiar mixture we mentioned in the beginning is meant to follow the historical roots of the Bible, establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, and a so-called Jewish temple in the place of the [Islamic] Al Haram." Al-Qidwa:"The issue of the temple is a Zionist innovation. No one said that the temple that was built in Jerusalem, neither the Canaanite nor Roman, no one said that it was in the place of the [Islamic] Al Haram." Al-Qidwa: "These Jews, [after being conquered by Rome] were dispersed ... among many nations. The last, after many hundreds of years, the Khazar Jews, [are the ones] who live in Palestine [ie, Israel] today. When these people started to write the Bible they found that it was written in a [foreign] language... when they reached Palestine they had no knowledge or culture." Albaz:"And without any historical or other link [to the land]." Al-Qidwa: "And without any historical or other link... At first they were Shepherds. When they needed agricultural instruments, they went to the Canaanite cities to buy metal rods and knives and other things..." Sissalem: "... About the Jews of Khazar... they had a state [in the Kavkaz (Caucasia)] and it was destroyed by the Vladimir Family and the Mongolian attack, that invaded them in the 13 th century. They dispersed in seclusion in ghettos, in what is called Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, and came to us [to Israel] in the 19 th century, with false Zionist claims based on legends." * [Editor's note. See http://www.think-israel.org/khazars.html. Modern genetics has disproven the idea that Jews aren't Jews but Khazars.] Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). You can view part of the discussion on the PMW website. To Go To Top

THE MANCHURIAN PRIME MINISTER(S) Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, August 8, 2004.

Dear friends, You will enjoy the following article. I heard many comments about the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate." In this over-sensitive election period there is no wonder people read into it maybe more than the makers intended (or maybe not!). This article by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman treats the most serious subject facing Israel in a most amusing way. Congratulations to him! Your Truth Provider The recent remake of the 1962 Frankenheimer film based on Richard Condon's 1959 book, The Manchurian Candidate, leads to much political speculation as to which of the two presidential candidates today most aptly fits the film's scenario. In the original film, North Korean agents capture a group of American soldiers, carry them off to a Manchurian-based re-education center, hypnotize them and unleash them on the American political scene to do their bidding. In the remake, a global multinational corporation (Manchurian Global) arranges the kidnapping of an American unit in the Gulf War, where they are hypnotized and subcutaneously injected with neurological transmitters. A mere heartbeat from the presidency, one, a decorated war hero, rides on the coattails of his wartime exploits to carry his party to victory. Either candidate is a possible fit for avid observers of the political landscape. Is Bush doing the hypnotic bidding of Halliburton, feeding their appetite for global profits? Or are Kerry and Edwards robotic servants of the trial lawyer's guild, ever-promising healthcare reform while simultaneously protecting the very group responsible for the skyrocketing health insurance premiums which lie at the heart of the malaise? I won't even mention Vietnam. I heard Kerry speak in 1971, on Moratorium Day, as leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, describing how he tossed away his medals in disgust. Suddenly the military service he was so ashamed of is now the centerpiece of his campaign. So which candidate is the Manchurian? It's a toss up. But it's far from speculative if one were to turn one's gaze to Israel, whose recent succession of Prime Ministers galvanize the Israeli electorate with promises of defending the country's interests, are given a mandate for decisive action, and in no time at all are seemingly doing the bidding of the US. Leader of the right of center Likud Party, Netanyahu signs away the Jewish claims to the ancient holy city of Hebron, city of the founders of Judaism and first seat of the Davidic monarchy. Barak accepts with seeming equanimity Clinton's betrayal of Jonathan Pollard. A proud Jew, he nevertheless agrees to relinquishing Jewish sovereignty over much of ancient Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest real estate, under the terms of the Oslo Accords. And Sharon, who rose to prominence on his legacy of being a fearless warrior and leader of the movement to resettle Israel's ancient hills and valleys, now advocates the transfer of entire Jewish villages, causing psychic trauma to those who devoted over three decades to living the Zionist dream, rearing children and grandchildren in the process, all with the tacit approval if not blessing of every prior Israeli government. Now I am not necessarily insinuating that visiting Israeli leaders and even Supreme Court Justices are being kidnapped, taken to Quantico where they are hypnotized and made to forget their ordeal, to be summarily released back to Israel where a phone call from the US can induce the desired hypnotic bidding. Do I have all the facts? Obviously not. But is there a better explanation? Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE Posted by Voice of Judea, August 8, 2004.

1- IDF SOLDIERS GIVEN IMPOSSIBLE TASK? IDF veterans have come to the aid of a fellow soldier "B", who was arrested and charged with unlawful behavior at a military checkpoint, in Hawara, near Shechem. According to the military indictment, "B" hit an Arab who tried to sneak through the checkpoint. "B" continued to hit the suspect, after he was already cuffed. B's friends have contributed their savings to hire an attorney on his behalf and are insisting that "B" did nothing out of the ordinary and that it is an impossible task to stay calm at the checkpoints, where thousands of Arabs pass through into Israel. The Hawara checkpoint is especially problematic as it is only several miles from Shechem, where most of the terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria originate. Soldiers are forced to police the checkpoint and to prevent Arabs from sneaking through. The Arabs regularly charge through and around the checkpoint. In a 7 page article published in the weekend edition of Maariv's 'Sof Shavua' magazine section, Maariv made a point of reiterating the fact that "B" is not Jewish, hinting that he is a Muslim. Sgt. Sergey Zaminsky was quoted, saying, "Hundreds of 'Palestinians' get closer and closer to the checkpoint, beyond the point where they are supposed to stop. We charge our weapons but this does not scare them anymore. We would then take out a shock-grenade and pretend that we are going to use it. This does not move them in the least as they know we will not use it. You need to move a huge crowd of people, and you simply don't have the means to do so. You then jump on the cement dividers and start shouting 'get back'. You have no other tools. You shout and start pushing all of them; elderly women, men and children. This is the only solution left. Here, this sounds crazy, however, there, at the checkpoint, it is legitimate." Voice of Judea Commentary: American soldiers would have blown that Arab to martyrdom long before he could ever have been in spitting range of the soldier. In Israel, soldiers are forced to maintain a strange, suicidal and impossible standard of "purity of arms" and morality. The Ramban coined a phrase, "mercy of fools", which would accurately depict Israel's excessive lack of force used the Arab enemy. Soldiers are sent out to carry out mission impossible, to prevent thousands of would-be suicide bombers from sneaking through with the general enemy population. The soldiers are expected to take off their combat hats and behave like girl scouts and to be gentle. On the other hand, they are supposed to keep their finger on the trigger ready to shoot, after it might already be too late. Arab terrorists want Israeli soldiers to be as hesitant as possible before applying reasonable force or shooting at them. In this way they can get closer to the soldiers, cause more damage and sneak through with greater ease. The trial of "B" will do wonders to destroy the morale of good IDF soldiers and aid terrorists to achieve their objectives with greater ease. The Arabs are laughing as the Israeli politicians turn IDF soldiers into confused, chocolate, play soldiers who are losing enthusiasm and morale as they think twice before pulling that trigger. Instead of the Arab thinking twice before he even contemplates sneaking by the soldiers, it is the soldiers who think twice before shoving them back. The majority of Arabs support suicide bombings. They need to be convinced that it is risky business to try and sneak bombs or terrorists across IDF checkpoints. 2- NEW ZEALAND ANTI-SEMITISM REACHES NEW HEIGHTS After two Jewish cemeteries in the New Zealand capital of Wellington were desecrated in the past three weeks, security is being heightened at the third Jewish cemetery in the region. On Friday the Makara cemetery was vandalized and dozens of gravestones were uprooted and smashed. Swastikas were sprayed on walls and scratched into the lawns, in what has been called the worst anti-Semitic assault on a cemetery in New Zealand's history. Voice of Judea News and Commentary: New Zealand Jews are in a panic. Could it be that there was such serious dormant anti-Semitism that was just waiting for an excuse to explode? While it is clear that the NZ Prime Minister's remarks and behavior concerning the alleged Mossad passport scandal triggered off the recent rash of anti-Semtic incidents, the intensity of the backlash has caught the Jewish community entirely off guard. And it seems, G-d forbid, that the worst is yet to come. One can not turn a blind eye to this development. Just as much as one cannot deny that anti-Semitism is not a logical science. In other words, there is no way to know when and what the trigger will be in any society, however comfortable and safe the Jews there might feel. It is all an exercise in acrobatic illusions and delusions. Every "good Exile" comes to an end, and sometimes in the most abrupt way and at the least expected time. To quote an appropriate story brought down in last weeks, "Shabat BeShabato" journal on Ekev, "The story is told of Rabbi Rabbah Bar Bar Hanah concerning one of his journeys at sea: We were once traveling on a ship and saw a fish that sat with sand on his back, and grass growing on it. We thought that it was land. We ascended on to it as we baked and we cooked on his back. The back of the fish got hot and he flipped over. Had the boat not been close by we would have drowned." Prof. Rosenberg continues, "The immediate associations provoked by this story are articulated by the Maharsha who pointed out the usage of the words, 'we thought', 'we ascended', 'we baked', 'we cooked' to be 'symbolic of the Jew who has assimilated within the nations as if he is no longer in Exile'. The Ein Yaakov preceded him in this thought,. Rav Yaakov Bar Shalomo Eban Habib was exiled from Spain in 1492, later escaping to Portugal. There he was also pursued until he wandered to Greece, where he compiled the Ein Yakov. Rav Yakov explains that this is a hint that Jews will find comfort and serenity in their Exiles. The fish/land represents the great historic illusions that blind the Jew into believing that the foundations of his new strange land are firm and stable. The fish that flips over represents the revolutionary flip-flop and change. The 'land' that seemed so stable is exploding and trembling, and we have to try and get back on the ship." Indeed, it is time to come home to Eretz Israel. 3- Israel seeks to back Bush. As if we are his real problem. Israel plans to crack down on "illegal West Bank settler outposts" before the U.S. presidential elections. Jerusalem sources said Sunday that the removal of the 23 remaining outposts is hoped to bolster George W. Bush's chances of re-elections in November, as it would show Israel was honoring its side of the U.S.-backed peace "road map". According to sources, Israeli officials made the undertaking in talks last week with visiting White House envoy Elliot Abrams. Jta Voice of Judea Commentary: Hmm. On the one hand, it is so clear to everyone that Israel's behavior and actions towards appeasing the Arabs can bring popularity to an American candidate, who will be judged for his tolerance of Israel's treatment of Arabs. On the other hand, we also have fallen into this big anti-Semitic trap of lies, pretending that America is pro-Israel and that this "special relationship" will last forever. And blaming ourselves for Arab terror. Some actually believe that if we only keep the Americans happy, we will be safe. Israeli "leaders" think that when America, "Israel's friend" asks her to jump, we need to ask how high, so as not to alienate our best friend. Sharon and all former Prime Minsiters of Israel decided which steps to take to quell Arab attacks and thus how many Jewish lives will be saved in Israel, only after considering the exact impact these steps will have on our "special relationship" with America. Ironically, Bush may stand to fall in upcoming elections, due to his falsely perceived support for Israel. And Israel stands to continue to risk the lives of her citizens as a result of limiting the intensity of her own war on terrorism, so as to keep the Americans happy. Eventually, U.S. and Israeli relations are on a complete collision course, regardless. All of the Jewish lives that were sacrificed by "well-meaning" friendly Prime Ministers in the meantime will be forgotten long after the fall of Bush and long after U.S.-Israel relations turn sour. Americans don't really hold Israel accountable for their own security debacle? It is no secret that anti-Semitic elements are succeeding in blaming the Jews for the war in Iraq. They tell us that U.S. "favoritism" of Israel has brought upon America the quagmire in Iraq and 9/11. In fact, the official U.S. government commission of inquiry includes this in their conclusions: The following are excerpts from the full document, available at the 9/11 Commissions website. [Bin Ladin] also stresses grievances against the United States widely shared in the Muslim world. He inveighed against the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islams holiest sites. He spoke of the suffering of the Iraqi people as a result of sanctions imposed after the Gulf War, and he protested U.S. support of Israel (65-66). Many Americans have wondered, Why do they hate us? Some also ask, What can we do to stop these attacks? Bin Ladin and al Qaeda have given answers to both these questions. To the first, they say that America had attacked Islam; America is responsible for all conflicts involving Muslims. Thus Americans are blamed when Israelis fight with Palestinians, when Russians fight with Chechens, when Indians fight with Kashmiri Muslims, and when the Philippine government fights ethnic Muslims in its southern islands. America is also held responsible for the governments of Muslim countries, derided by al Qaeda as your agents. Bin Ladin has stated flatly, Our fight against these governments is not separate from our fight against you.(14) These charges found a ready audience among millions of Arabs and Muslims angry at the United States because of issues ranging from Iraq to Palestine to America's support for their countries repressive rulers (68). Director of 9/11 Commission: 'Israel the Reason for War in Iraq'. Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission, has suggested that a prime motive for the war in Iraq was to protect Israel. "Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on Sept. 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts. European 'Allies'. "And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell," said Zelikow, who at the time was a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Inter Press Service uncovered the remarks, newly reported by Information Clearing House (far-reaching motto: News You Won't Find on CNN). "The statements are the first to surface from a source closely linked to the Bush administration acknowledging that the war, which has so far cost the lives of nearly 600 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis, was motivated by Washington's desire to defend the Jewish state," IPS reported. Let's face it: Terror defeats those people who allow themselves to be terrorized. In Spain, the outcome of elections was determined by Al Qaeda terrorists. The incumbent lost due to his participation in the war effort in Iraq. The people blamed their government's fight against terror for the pre-election terror. In the United States, Kerry is leading in the polls. One need not be a rocket scientist to understand that just as Bush may be judged unfavorably for the false perception of his "favoritism" of Israel and for his "Jewish war in Iraq", the Jews themselves may be scapegoated and blamed for the ongoing war of terror waged against America. If I was a Jew living in America, I would be extremely concerned about the threat posed by Islamic terrorists as well as the ongoing threat posed by the resident anti-Semites. I would look at the World trade Center as a wake up call, and I would look closely at the conclusions being drawn by the 9/11 commission. I would look at elections in Spain and play close attention to the current U.S. elections. If Bush is ousted and blamed for the war in Iraq then who will be blamed after the next terrorist attack hits America? Who will be blamed when Israel is accused of being intransigent and unfair to the Arabs? Who will be blamed when Israel finally has no choice but to say "no" to Arab and American pressure? Who will pay the price when Israel is blamed for endangering U.S. interests? It is already happening. Wake up! 4- ISRAELI RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS NOT SO EXTREME AND DANGEROUS AFTER ALL Yediot Achronot published an article about the proposed administrative detention of "right-wing extremists" with a picture of several "right-wing extremists" who are shown sitting with Minister of Internal Security Tzachi HaNegbi. Hanegbi came out to greet the "extremists" who were holding a protest outside of his house. From the picture, one can learn just how scared HaNegbi is of the right-wing extremists he warns about constantly in the media. He is shown without bodyguards, sitting right next to them, yawning and looking rather comfy. To view the picture, visit www.Yeshashelanu.org Voice of Judea Commentary: It is clear. Sharon wants to go ahead with his controversial plan and he fully intends to transfer Jews out of Gaza and Northern Shomron. He wishes to swiftly silence any effective opposition to his treacherous plan. The legality of the opposition protests is of zero interest to the Sharon government. Sharon has had a hard enough time selling his defective program to the masses. Sharon already failed to receive the support of his own Likud party. It is easier to simply silence and arrest your opposition and to spook others from speaking too loudly against the plan. Thus far Sharon and his poodles have succeeded. They have even enlisted the support of Effie Eitam, leader of Mafdal. They have effectively divided and conquered the nationalist camp. 5- THOUSANDS JOINING ON-LINE PROTEST AGAINST ARMING ARAFAT Thousands of people are participating in an online email protest against Israeli plans to once again provide weapons to Arafat's cops/terrorists. Israel confiscated many weapons that they had provided in the cheerful early Oslo days, after Arab PA cops turned their weapons against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The online protesters are sending emails to NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com and expressing their opposition to arming PLO terrorists. The goal of the organizers of this unique online protest is to collect 100,000 emails and to deliver them in person to the Defense Minister. The Defense Minsiter is also being asked to ease restrictions on "settlers", who are prevented from carrying weapons on the dangerous roadways in Judea and Samaria. Yekutiel Ben Yakov, organizer of the online protest said, we did no expect to see this sort of immediate and excessive support. The outpour of solidarity with our effort to save lives in Israel is most encouraging. What is happening is a chain effect, with thousands of people forwarding information with our email instructing all of those who support Israel to participate in this easy form of protest, in the hope that this evil decree can be reversed, so that we can save lives here in Israel. We urge anyone who has not yet sent their email protest to please do so and to forward out the message to as many people as possible. Letters can be sent through the regular mail to Internet / Online Protest Jaffa Rd 210 Suite 14, Jerusalem Israel. Emails to NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com Contribute funds and volunteer We are also seeking contributions to sponsor street booths and tables where people can sign our petition and sponsors to print stickers and posters "No Guns for Arafat" Volunteers and donors can call in Israel 02 502 2175 or from USA 718 874 2057 Checks can be sent directly to The Committee For Israeli Safety Jaffa Rd. 210 Suite 14, Jerusalem Israel." You can subscribe to the Voice of Judea emails by sending an email to jsid@amanda.dorsai.org To Go To Top

SHARON'S ABANDONMENT OF THE BIBLE AS THE MAIN BASIS FOR OUR CLAIM TO THIS HOLY LAND Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, August 8, 2004.

The Sharon Government has divorced itself completely from its Biblical roots by proposing its Disengagement Plan to abandon that part of the Promised Land described in the Bible as the Gaza area. The consequences of such action by this Government has widespread negative implications for Israel. Without its Biblical foundations, and G-d's Promise to the Jewish People, Sharon's actions deprive Israel of its claim to this Holy Land. It is in defiance of the Will of G-d as set forth in the Bible and must be resisted by every citizen of Israel who cares about Jewish Religion and Jewish tradition. Ariel Sharon's Government should be ousted, and Mr. Sharon should be retired to his farm in the Negev to live out his remaining days on this earth. Moreover, Sharon is to be denounced for his passivity with regard to the U.S. State Department's actions concerning further building in Maale Adumim and the new neighborhood between that important community and Jerusalem that was scheduled to be built. In effect, Sharon is acquiescing to the demands of the Saudi Arabians who are dictating the policies that the U.S. State Department religiously follows. Prime Minister Sharon is shortsighted. He has abandoned the traditional Jewish religious ties that Israel has to its Holy Land for what he believes to be military reasons. Being a completely secular Jew, the Bible, and its traditional teachings mean nothing to him. But it still has a great deal of meaning for the majority of the Jewish People. It is as if he is making military decisions on a battlefield, and even then many military people and Ministers are vigorously opposed to his strategy of abandoning Gaza. He has completely ignored the Jewish religion, its history and ancient Heritage. He is not worthy of carrying on the tradition of Moses, King David and other renowned past Jewish leaders. Sharon is not the man the electorate thought him to be. He does not possess the necessary vision, and courage to stand up to those who would denigrate the historical State of Israel and its eternal relationship to the G-d of Israel. Would that members of his Likud Party realize the danger he is causing to the Jewish People, and to the continued existence of their own Likud Party. That he contemplates having Shimon Peres as his Foreign Minister clearly demonstrates this lack of vision, and his betrayal of the People who elected him. It was Peres who was responsible for giving away Jericho, which is a vital part of the Holy Land. The electorate rejected Peres and all that he stands for in the last election. To bring Peres back, is an indication of the callous and shallow nature of Sharon, and to what depths he will sink in order to stay in power. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

WHEN YOU CAN'T SAY "MUSLIM" Posted by D. Haimson, August 6, 2004.

This was written by Phyllis Chesler and appeared in FrontPageMagazine.com, July 21, 2004. Phyllis Chesler is the author of twelve books including her latest, "The New Anti-Semitism. The Current Crisis And What We Must Do About It." She may be reached through her website www.Phyllis-Chesler.com I took a brief vacation but fool that I am, I continued to read the New York papers. On July 18, 2004, the New York Times ran a front-page story on the Sudan. ("Despite Appeals, Chaos Still Stalks the Sudanese.") A photo of a skeletal, dying child in her mother's arms cried out to all with eyes to see. Is "chaos" responsible for this child's death and for the torture, famine, and genocide that has been perpetrated on nearly two million people over the last twenty years? Surely, the paper of record will tell us. But not willingly. The plot unfolds like a puzzling murder mystery. The article has 39 paragraphs. We do not learn much in the lead paragraph. Only in paragraph two do we learn that "gunmen" stormed a girl's school, shackled the children together and set the school on fire. "Gunmen?" From Mars, perhaps? In paragraph three we are told that the Sudanese government has promised to rein in the "Janjaweed militia." Are they the "gunmen" of paragraph two? Are there more than one "militia" sowing "chaos" in Sudan? What are the names of the other militia? In paragraph four, we again learn that the government has promised to rein in unidentified "militias." By now, most readers have probably glazed over and moved on to another story. Not I. Grimly, I soldier on and am rewarded. In paragraph five, the writer admits "ARAB militias have continued to drive the African residents of Darfur out." Finally, the journalist, Marc Lacey, has identified the perpetrators of "chaos" as "Arab." But, amazingly, we are never told that the Janjaweed militias are both Arab and Muslim and that they've been functioning as state-sanctioned genocidal maniacs against African Muslims. This genocide is an ethnic Arab Muslim attack on black African Christians, Muslims, and animists, and is therefore almost invisible. Only a satirist-not I-could do justice to the politically correct typo that finally appears in paragraph eighteen of this story. Where Lacey may have meant to write "Arab MUSLIM," we read, instead, that "Arab ARAB militias" have been attacking "black Africans." (Check it out, who could make this up?) Was Lacey afraid to describe the perpetrators as Arab Muslims or did his editor delete the word "Muslim?" Does someone over there believe that the use of the word "Muslim" is tantamount to "racial profiling?" Is the torture and murder of Muslims utterly unimportant unless it is caused by Americans in uniform or by Israelis in self defense? Does the politically correct liberal media not really care about the relentless slaughter of innocent Muslim civilians if other Muslims, "ethnic Arab" Muslims are doing the slaughtering? If a newspaper does not describe things accurately, it will never, ever be able to help it's readers understand what is going on or how to defend themselves in the war that has been declared against us. For those who flinch from the truth, let me set an example. Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were Arab Muslims from Saudi Arabia. There, I've said it. Am I saying that all Arabs, Muslims, and Saudis are terrorists? I am not. But I am saying that al-Qaeda, which is a terrorist network, is all-Muslim and mainly all-Arab and that if the liberal media does not yet understand this, the West is doomed, lost. My good friend, Jerome Gordon, reminds me that the Gray Lady, aka The New York Times, did not cover the Holocaust very well either. They buried the news about the extermination of the Jews and gypsies on back pages and minimized it until the war was over. David Wyman and Raphael Medoiff, in their book, A RACE AGAINST DEATH: PETER BERGSON, AMERICA AND THE HOLOCAUST, remind us of this. Thus, the Times did not cover the genocidal slaughter of six million European Jews while it was happening and it has not, until recently, covered the systematic twenty-year enslavement, forced starvation, and genocide carried out by Arab Muslims against African Christians, Muslims, and animists in Sudan. I went back and re-read the Times piece one more time. Aha! Finally, I get it. Lacey has posted his story from Nyala, Sudan. Perhaps he's still there. If Lacey were to write the truth about who is doing what to whom he might lose his "access," get thrown out of the country, or worse - be kidnapped by 'gunmen," or "militia," or "Janjaweed militia," and be-headed by Arab Muslims on video. I am not light-hearted about any of this. I take it all quite seriously. In fact, from this point of view, I can understand Lacey's exquisite restraint about exposing the evil-doers clearly, by name. D. Haimson sends out links to significant and timely articles related to Israel and Jewry. To subscribe, write to dhaimson@w3-4u.net To Go To Top

PETITION: NO GUNS FOR ARAFAT Posted by Voice of Judea, August 6, 2004.

SETTLERS ABANDONED FOR SLAUGHTER? Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Moufaz is under fire for pledging to rearm Arafat's policemen, in spite of the fact that Israel had canceled their gun permits in the past, after countless PA cops/terrorists turned their weapons on Israeli soldiers and citizens. Moufaz answered criticism by stating that Arafat's police need guns to put down riots and anarchy and that the Shin Bet would review every permit before it is given. In the meantime, hundreds of "settlers" have had their gun licenses revoked over recent months. Yekutiel Ben Yaakov, a resident of Kfar Tapuach said, "The Sharon government is abandoning us to be slaughtered. Known terrorists will be given weapons by the Shin Bet, while many law abiding Jews are being disarmed and expected to walk like sheep to the slaughter." Voice of Judea Commentary: Send emails and ask why it is easier for Arab terrorists to get guns than for "settlers"? Ask why most "settlers" are forbidden from carrying their weapons outside of "settlements", where Arab terrorists, often armed by the Israeli army, regularly ambush and kill unarmed "settlers"? Ask why the Shomron Command has authorized weapons being confiscated from guards in Tapuach who have no criminal record and who are forced to guard with spoons and rocks against armed Arab terrorists? Ask Moufaz if he is aware that there are thousands of Jews who are aware of this reality and who will hold him accountable fo rescinding the gun permits from many Jews in the Shomron and other regions? Arming blood thirsty terrorists and confiscating legal weapons from law abiding victims is an open invitation to slaughter the "settlers". Moufaz and his buddy General PM Ariel Sharon can explain their actions away from today until tomorrow. However, we are not blind and nor are the Arab marauders who plot to murder us. There is no verbal acrobatics that could explain away the fact that they are abandoning "settlers" and soldiers to be massacred by known Arab terrorists. They know full well that blood thirsty Arab terrorists can never resist a good opportunity to slaughter a Jew. Why are they giving them this opportunity? To quell riots? Oh that makes tons of sense. Throwing more weapons into their pool of violent anarchy is like throwing more bombs into a chain of explosions and on to a mine field as the mines are exploding. The Bible says that Ishmael shall be a wild beast. The last thing these beasts need are more guns to play with. SEND YOUR EMAIL MESSAGE NOW- DEMAND THAT NO GUNS BE GIVEN TO ARAFAT'S POLICE/TERRORISTS AND THAT RESTRICTIONS BE EASED ON JEWISH "SETTLERS" TO CARRY WEAPONS IN THEIR TOWNS AND ON DANGEROUS ROADWAYS. Send emails to: NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com PLEASE SEND THIS EMAIL OUT TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND ask for everyone who receives this email to send this email petition back and to forward out to as many people as they can. This is life or death for many Jews who will G-d forbid fall victim to shots fired from the weapons they wish to give to these terrorists. Include your name, address and email in your email. Every email will be delivered to Chaim of the Shomron Command and to the office of the Defense Minister Shaul Moufaz. STAND UP AND BE COUNTED - SEND EMAIL PROTESTING - NoGuns4Arafat - SEND TO NoGuns4Arafat@aol.com You can subscribe to the Voice of Judea emails by sending an email to jsid@amanda.dorsai.org To Go To Top

MULTI-CULTURALIZING ANTI-SEMITISM: THE ADL'S FANATICISM FOR FITTING IN Posted by Bryna Berch, August 6, 2004.

This article was written by Julia Gorin and appeared today in the Jewish World Review (www.jewishworldreview.com). Julia Gorin tours with Right Stuff Comedy (http://www.rightstuff.com) and performs in the monthly New York-based show Republican Riot (http://www.juliagorin.com/RepublicanRiot/). Send your comments by clicking here. I recently noticed a poster going up on telephone kiosks throughout the city, in which a Far Eastern child admonishes, "Anti-Semitism is anti-me." My eyes scanned to the bottom for an explanation. There I read "Anti-Semitism is anti-everybody," and was directed to the Anti-Defamation League's Web site to help fight anti-Semitism. Mystified by the confusing, discordant message being attempted, my mind tried a few extrapolations: Be careful being anti-Semitic; you might accidentally offend an Asian-American if he's adopted by Jews... Don't be anti-Semitic, because we all come from Adam and Eve, so we're all related... Ah, the poor Buddhists and all that they've suffered from anti-Semitism. I walked on, then came to another kiosk, this one sporting an androgynous Lutheran minister. Ok, I thought, perhaps this one makes more sense: To a man (or woman) of the cloth, anti-Semitism runs counter to the teachings of the church. Or maybe this minister used to be a rabbi but converted? Eventually I came upon a third poster: Apparently, anti-Semitism is also anti-Naomi Campbell. So now I had a black woman, an Asian child and a gender-vague minister being offended by anti-Semitism. Some semblance of an understanding began to take form in the fog that this ad campaign created in my brain: Equate anti-Semitism with discrimination against minorities that are more visibly minorities; remind people that anti-Semitism is no different from racism. Could that really be it? Could the message really be that shallow? A friend suggested that to counteract accusations that Zionism is racism and that Judaism is a racist religion, the ADL is showing that anyone could be Jewish, that there's no specific race in Jewry. Perhaps the ADL is trying to appeal to the simplistic idiocy of some on the Left in their own language by showing them the error of their ways through something so superficial as images of diversity. She was on to something: Giving the ADL the benefit of the doubt (after all, aren't Jews supposed to be smart?), I thought maybe the campaign was designed to do battle with the new, leftwing anti-Semitism, half of which masquerades as anti-Zionism and the other half of which has become more vocal in this country since 9/11 - when tasteful self-censorship on the question of the Jews ceased and more people started asking, "Just how much of the world do the Jews control?" and: "If Israel would just go away, things would be so much less complicated and we'd be safer." I decided to call the ADL. "Anti-Semitism is indivisible," explained Graham Cannon, Director of Marketing and Communications, who assured me twice that the ADL was very proud of the campaign. "You can't isolate one group and hate them. You can't split these things." Mr. Cannon added that the ads would be ongoing, with new images replacing these three every two months. Upon hearing that the ads also would be going up around college campuses across the country, I gave Mr. Cannon a chance to demonstrate that there was some intelligence in the underlying motivation for the campaign, and asked whether perhaps it was meant to counter the new leftwing anti-Semitism. Cannon didn't address this point at all, ultimately directing me to Abraham Foxman's quote from the press release: "The new campaign, aimed to reach and engage a broad and diverse audience, is designed to change the perception that anti-Semitism is strictly a problem for Jews. Anti-Semitism is everyone's problem. Anti-Semitism in a society is an expression of a hatred of the other, it is contrary to our values of democracy, diversity and acceptance." We were back to that. Back to the same hollow rhetoric that reduced the lessons of the Holocaust to some watered-down notion of the importance of tolerance for all people. We were back to the flawed assumption that hatred is a package deal. Yet if that were true, the campaign would be useless from go - because if you're a hater, you do hate everyone. Obviously, there is something that separates hatred of Jews from hatred of other minorities, and its effects need to be addressed more directly rather than universalized. A George Will quote comes to mind: "Celebration of tolerance is the first refuge of the intolerant." Precisely what Jews don't want to believe. Ever afraid of being singled out, we thought that when we joined the "minority" club and took cover under one big umbrella, that there'd be safety in numbers, that no one would try to tell us apart and we'd be privy to the same protections other minorities are. To the minorities, we were saying: "Hey, guys, we're one of you. We're in the same boat." As well, we hoped these groups - whose backs we'd watched and with whom we'd marched - would return the favor in the Jews' hour of need. But they didn't. Because they've got nothing in common with Jews, whom they see as a privileged minority and part of the power structure. On the Israel front, the sympathies of our "co-minorities" as a group are instinctively inclined to the poorer, darker, more oppressed-seeming Palestinians. Witness last year's minority-dotted anti-war rallies, complete with posters reading "Sharon=Hitler." So much for half a century of Jewish effort. Here again, a benefit of the doubt to the ADL campaign: Show a black, a gay and an Asian in order to target blacks, gays and Asians who might be swayed to anti-Semitism in today's environment of misconceptions about Jews. (The press release does say the campaign aims to target a "broad and diverse" audience.) Still, the new slogan campaign is an attempt to re-bond on that tenuous, artificial, lowest-common-denominator connection simply as a group that's been oppressed. It is a re-intensified effort at the decades-old campaign which countless Jewish dollars funded and which failed so miserably. In fact, one can see the disastrous ineffectiveness of this strategy by doing exactly what the ADL asks and logging on to their site, which chronicles the resurgence of anti-Jewish thinking, anti-Jewish graffiti and anti-Jewish violence throughout the world. Instead of tackling the misconceptions that are planted in the minds of the masses and that have led to a revived anti-Semitism, we see a reverting back to the flawed approach of a bland, generic anti-hate message that has already backfired. We're not being told that anti-Semitism is bad in and of itself and why, but it's bad because it's like being racist, dude. Naturally, setting people straight on the issues is the harder task; the truth is never as neatly packaged as the lie that's big enough, said loudly and often enough until believed. But that's not a license for groups like the ADL to take the easy way out. We can't all just get along until we've had it out first. Instead of wasting all that ad space on meaningless slogans, the organization could have conveyed a message that educated, that actually meant something. For example: "Zionism is humanism: If everyone has a homeland, why can't the Jews have the only democratic one in the Middle East?" Even better, without changing the current campaign, they could have endowed it with some meaning: "Anti-Semitism is anti-everybody" could be a reference to Jews as the canary of civilization: "Anti-Semitism is anti-everybody. Because it always starts with the Jews, then they come for the rest of us." Such a message would provide a historical context and tell people - particularly the younger generation - something they probably don't know or haven't thought about. Good intention can no longer justify decades of organized Jewish bumbling - the likes of which led to Jewish college students and the adult Jewish Left to actually be taken by surprise at the display of Jew-hatred on college campuses, and to be so ill-prepared to counter it. Fanaticism says: If what you are doing isn't producing the desired result, intensify your efforts. Or, if you've dug yourself into a hole, keep digging. Hence we see the ADL redoubling its counterproductive efforts. Anti-Semitism isn't anti-everybody, Mr. Foxman. It's just anti-Jewish. To Go To Top

URGE PRES. BUSH TO OPPOSE SALE OF MISSILES TO JORDAN Posted by Zionist Organization of America, August 6, 2004.

Click here to tell President Bush that you oppose this sale. The Bush administration is planning to sell sophisticated AMRAAM missiles to Jordan. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports (Aug. 2, 2004) that Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz "has personally asked the Pentagon to cancel its planned sale of AMRAAM air-to-air missiles to the Hashemite Kingdom." These missiles could be turned against Israel or end up in the hands of anti-Israel forces. Please take a minute to express to President Bush your opposition to this sale by e-mailing his office your opinion via ZOA's Legislative Action Center. The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver. To Go To Top

ISRAEL'S GREEN LIGHT FOR TERROR Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, August 6, 2004.

Professors for a Strong Israel notes that many steps taken or contemplated by the Sharon government constitute a green light for terror: - The granting of renewed permission for terrorist "police" to carry arms; - The return of Shimon Peres to the Foreign Ministry; - The cessation of IDF activity in Beit Hanoun against Kassam missiles; - Opening the Rafiah crossing despite fears of mined tunnels; - Surrender in the matter of building in Maaleh Adumim; - Moving the fence back to the Green Line; - And above all - the "disengagement" plan that will pour gasoline on the fires of terrorism. What else has to happen in order to disengage the Sharon government from the Oslo folly? Dr. Ron Breiman is Chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI) To Go To Top

DEMOCRACY'S FALLACY; WHAT HAPPENED TO WESTERN CIV? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 6, 2004.

"THEN THE OTHER PARTY MUST BE GOOD" - DEMOCRACY'S FALLACY As Arab attacks on Israelis mounted during PM Peres' Labor Party regime, Israelis turned to the other major Party, Likud, for salvation. Voters assumed that if Labor were weak, then Likud must be strong. There is no logical basis for that assumption. In fact it is incorrect. So pointed out the late Rabbi Meier Kahane. Under the years of Likud regimes of PMs Begin and Shamir, Israel committed many acts of appeasement. The leaders did not think through their premises. (Ask, "What if?" Denying he was setting precedent, PM Begin set precedent for abandoning territory, and Defense Min. Sharon set precedent for demolishing "settlements," when they uprooted the Jewish communities they had established in the Sinai, and turned the area over to Egypt. Shamir was Prime Minister during an Intifada. He was not sufficiently forceful to nip it in the bud. (A mood of defeatism set in.) Likud failed to incorporate the Territories and end Arab claims to them, instead let Jordanian law apply to the Arabs there and gave them autonomy, naturally leading to demands for Arab statehood and making Jewish claims seem tenuous. Likud went along with Labor policies that let the Muslim Waqf rule the Temple Mt., bar Jewish access to it (by threat of violence), and beat up Jews on it. (Rabbi Kahane did not live go see the disgrace of Israel allowing the Arabs to dig up Jewish antiquities and truck them out onto dumps, where, even if not damaged or destroyed, their archeological value was lost by removal from the context of the historical site.) Likud does not decry the fallacy of relying upon international peace conferences and agreements and the notion of "land for peace." The Arabs prove those measures specious by continuing to assert their claims over the whole of Israel. The crux of the problem, however, is not whether Israel gives away territory, but whether it allows Arabs on it to claim it. None of the Likud leaders has the courage to say that they cannot permit the Arabs of Israel and the Territories, multiplying fast, to become a majority (for the Jews would lose control over their own national destiny and probably their lives). None has the courage to say that "the Arabs must go." (They call it racist to protect themselves from Arab racists.) Therefore, although the supposed nationalists would go further than the Left in protecting Israel, they would not go far enough and would fail in the end. Then they are not "better" than Labor, they, like Labor, are failures. Without the Jewish religious perspective of Zionism, Israelis have been unable to figure out what to do or to have the courage to do it (from an old article of his, sent to me by a follower of his). THE DYNAMICS OF IRAQ The US is making a novel experiment in Iraq. It is attempting to introduce democracy to an Arab culture, alien not only to the functioning of democracy but to the philosophy behind it. Democracy depends on more than elections and forms of government. It also depends on tolerance of different groups and dissenting speech, civility, adherence to rule of law, and rule in behalf of the whole people. Arab culture is intolerant of different groups and dissent, is abusive, is lawless, and it pits one tribe and group against the other. (A problem with Arabs in the US is that they wish to get fellow Arabs into the State Dept. to act as representatives of the Arabs rather than as of the Americans, and they suspect Jews in the State Dept. of acting in behalf of Israel. The Dept. acts as agents of S. Arabia.) The experiment is daring but may be doomed. What then? WHAT HAPPENED TO WESTERN CIV.? I remember Western civilization fondly. We have moved into a post-modern, multicultural, relativistic society, in which radical feminists attack the institution of the family rather than just reform it. (They do not want to give women a choice.) The great books of Western civilization that inspired our society, flawed but unequaled in my time, are fading from university curriculums. Non-academic and non-demanding subjects, serving specific ethnic pressure groups, are put on a par with academic ones. The result is vulgarity and mediocrity. Introspection is gone; egoism is left. The West has been losing its cultural identity to secularism, internationalism, and to ignorance of its history and its accomplishments (but not to some of its past crimes, for which it currently is guilt-ridden). Muslims hate that degeneration in the West and fear it would overtake them. (Westerners are proud of their culture's popularity abroad and take that as a mark of its quality. They don't realize that low pursuits can be highly tempting.) In Israel, secularists have been depriving the Jewish people of their cultural and national identity. They de-Judaize education and government in the name of separation of religion from state. They do not want their country to be a Jewish state. The insincerity of the Shinui Party in this is shown in its drive to draft Yeshiva students but to continue to allow Muslims exemption even from civilian national service. Although the Muslims detest the Jews for their religion, they hate Jews without religion more. They consider Israel an outpost of the West. The rulers of Israel refuse to see the clash of civilization with the Muslims. No matter how much murder and slander against it, the State of Israel fails to realize that an independent infidel state in the Mideast, especially a Jewish one, contradicts Islamic doctrine and pride. That is the basis of the Arab-Israel conflict. Notions of statehood for Palestinian Arabs are an excuse for waging that conflict. The answer is to restore Hebrew civilization (Prof. Paul Eidelberg, 7/22, email, based on his book about to be published). The Islamic procedure described is arrogance. His prescription, unfortunately, is developed in the book and not detailed in the article. We'll have to suspend judgment on that. In an 8/4 personal e-mail follow-up, Prof. Eidelberg elaborated: Islam always had contempt and hatred for the children of Israel, but Israeli secularists exacerbate that contempt and hatred. The Hebrew civilization is not likely to ride in on the tide of the religious parties in Israel. "The religious parties use the Torah for politics, rather than use politics for the Torah - which means that these parties collaborate with secular parties in degrading Israel as a Jewish state. They accomplish some good, but they alienate many Jews and "undermine Israel's reputation as a Jewish state." "Suppose Israel were headed by an authentic, Torah-oriented prime minister. Would such a PM release, arm, and, in effect, pay Arab terrorists to murder Jews? Would such a PM uproot Jews from their homes in Gaza and thereby magnify Arab contempt and encourage them to murder more Jews? Would such a PM shake the hands of Yaser Arafat? If such a Jew were prime minister of Israel, he would arouse the awe of Christians and the fear and respect of Muslims. He would unleash the IDF and exact swift and - vengeance against Arab terrorists. He would not be crawling to Washington, let alone to Cairo, as Israeli prime ministers have been doing at the cost of Jewish national honor." Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE HON. ARIEL SHARON Posted by Rabbi Haim Cassorla, August 5, 2004.

Dear Sir: I know that you have great insight into the "Arab mentality." I know that you, more than most people know how to strike fear in the hearts of the enemies of Israel. I also know that you are not afraid to speak out in the most direct way to the oppressed, and/or threatened Jews throughout the world. You do this with not the slightest fear of alienating one of the greatest of the old Colonial Powers. For this, I am proud of you, and am proud of our shared political heritage in the party of Menahem Begin OB'M. With all of this in mind, I ask you to take seriously, but without taking offense, my suggestions regarding your relations with the "World's Greatest Power." I think you need to know something about the "American mentality," and you may be a little surprised to learn that it is not too different from the "Arab mentality," or even the "Israeli mentality." Please listen carefully and, maybe, this old Rabbi can teach you something. I know that you love the Negev, even more than I do, but I live in the South East of the United States now and I think that you might understand this lesson as sharing "Southern Wisdom" from one "Southerner" to another. If there is one characteristic that Southerners appreciate more than most, and especially admire in Israelis and in the general character of the State of Israel it is "gumption." Gumption is almost as translatable as Hutzpa. They are related, in that both have a large helping wild spirit and jackass stick-to-itivness. Gumption also includes a lot of the fabled Israeli Alef-Bet attitude. The idea that there is no other option, and so holding on can only bring benefit. Gumption includes fighting for what is right and sticking to your guns. It also includes standing up to overwhelming force(s) and stating the truth about a situation. You know that most people think you have a large amount of gumption in your own character. Fairness in dealing with friends and enemies alike is another characteristic Americans honor. The "handshake" deal is legendary in this country, and many of the Jewish immigrants to this country built great fortunes because the word went out that they were "men of their words." Business empires rose and grew as the word spread that "if he says so, he surely will do it." Similarly, businesses toppled when it was discovered that the owner's word was not his "bond." When you put those two together, you arrive at the trait that I am taking the liberty to advise you to display at this moment with the American government. It is called "standing up on your hind legs." There comes a time in most relationships when there is a requirement that one of the parties "lay it all on the line" and "stand up on their hind legs" and tell the other party in the relationship, "this is it." Israel has just taken a beating in the ICJ and in the UN (again). The United States is, as I read in the Israel press online, putting pressure on Israel to keep to "agreements" and not build in Jerusalem. I suggest, sir that the proper response, at this time might be to "stand up on your hind legs and show some gumption." Mr. Prime Minister, tell the President of the United States that it is time for the United States to keep to some of the promises the U.S. has made to Israel. 1. The United States, under Bill Clinton promised to free Jonathan Pollard. It is time for Jonathan Pollard to be let out of jail. Israel, as you know has kept its word and complied with that agreement, which should have led to the release. 2. Every United States administration since 1967 has promised to recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Each, in turn, has found an excuse to delay any such move until it was too late for that administration to act. It is time for the United States to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. President George H. W. Bush paid Jordan, (for what I don't know), as Jordan supported Saddam Hussein in Gulf War I, and asked Israel to lay low. In this Gulf War President George W. Bush is asking Israel to cede lands to a nascent Arab terrorist state as Israel's contribution to the War on Terror. Understand, please, that the people of Israel, and the people of the United States, and the "Arab Street" all respect righteous and firm positions taken by leaders who "stand up on their hind legs" and show some "gumption." The terrorists who fear the fence fear it because they feel "it will serve as a border." Many of us throughout the world who otherwise could be counted as your supporters despise the fence because they are sure that the world will view it as a border. Already, the press speaks of "incursions into Palestinian territory." As far as I can tell, "the Green Line" is no more valid as a border of the State of Israel than the current cease-fire line. Mr. Prime Minister, there is not any way that you can be forced to "keep your promises" when the government of the United States has consistently reneged on its promises to Israel. Start with this, sir: "Everything is on the table and open for discussion, but Israel will not accept the validity of any agreement with the United States until the United States honors its commitments to Israel under those agreements." Understand this, sir, the Mediterranean Sea is just as wet and just as deep no matter who pushes you into it. I know that if I remind you of Baba Matzia and the resolution of the opening question, "Two people are holding the same garment," you will remember that what you cede is lost, and is no longer contested. Cede nothing, and you will find friends all over the world. Cede everything, and your enemies will still be your enemies. You will find strength and support as soon as you "stand up on your hind legs" and show some "gumption." Shalom, Berakha, VeTova, Rabbi Haim Cassorla To Go To Top

THE 'EVERYTHINGISRAEL' COMPANY IS BEING FOUNDED Posted by Voice of Judea, August 5, 2004.

1- SHARON BOWS TO AMERICAN PRESSURE According to headlines in today's Israeli media, Sharon plans to make good on his promise not to expand Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. The Israeli government has prepared detailed maps marking the present borders of every Jewish town in Yesha and will enforce immediate demolition of any new Jewish home built. The Americans have made it clear that they expect Israel to tear down any new Jewish buildings in Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Maleh Adumim. Voice of Judea Commentary: Well so much for Sharon's promise that he would retain 5 "settlement" regions. The United States offered Sharon no such permit. And since Sharon feels he needs permission from America, Israel will now join several other racist nations that still prohibit Jews from owning property or from living in certain regions. Jew haters around the world must be having a field day with this one. "Sharon, your own Prime Minsiter forbids Jews from owning homes and building in your own land, why should we allow Jews to live in our neighborhoods...", they shall say. How sad to think that a Jewish leader over a sovereign Jewish state will prostrate himself like a little court Jew and carry out orders to prevent his own citizens from living and building homes in the G-d given land of Eretz Israel. Indeed a sad day in Jewish history. Sharon does not understand that he will never find salvation from Washington. "Israel Betach BaHashem Ezram UMaginam Hu - Israel must have faith in G-d..." 2- SHIN BET CHIEF ENLISTS EITAM TO SUPPORT ARREST OF RIGHT-WINGERS Avi Dichter, Chief of the Shin Bet convinced Effi Eitam, the leader of Mafdal, the "religious nationalist" party to support plans to detain known right-wing activists, as a preventive measure to smash potential future violent actions that could upset Sharon's disengagement plan. For the past several weeks government officials in Israel have been warning that "right wing extremists" might be plotting to take drastic action, so as to railroad Sharon's plans to expel the Jews from Gaza and Northern Shomron. It matters little that no evidence has been provided to support these wild allegations, since administrative arrests require no evidence, and the suspects are not given the right to a trial of any sort. (Galei Tzahal, Aug 4, 04) Voice of Judea Commentary: While walking down Jaffa road in Jerusalem earlier today, I spotted Israel's Minister of Public Security, and I asked him if he knows of any democratic government in the world, other than Israel that arrests citizens without trial under administrative detention and if there is anything that could be done to ensure that no Jew is arrested without the right to defend himself in court by abolishing administrative arrests. He answered, "I hope there will never again be administrative arrests of Jews in Israel." Several months ago, I met Ehud Olmart and posed the same questions to him, as well as asking if he supported the release of Noam Federman, who was then sitting out a 9 month administrative arrest. Olmart assured me that he was opposed to administrative arrests. Ironically, the only one who seems to support Dichter in his crusade against the right is none other than Effie Eitam, the so called leader of the so called right-wing Mafdal. 3- MECAA COLA IN ISRAEL The anti-Semitic owner of Mecca Cola who has boasted giving 20 percent of his proceeds from the sale of his drink to "Palestinain" causes, has finally broken into the Israeli market. Arab Israelis in Northern Israel will be selling the drink, adorned with a design of Jerusalem's Temple Mount and the mosques, that presently occupy Judaism's holiest site. Israeli Arabs will now quench their thirst drinking Mecca Cola, to the delight of French Muslim entrepreneur Tawfik Mathhlouthi, owner of the anti-Israel Cola and also of a hateful anti-Israel radio station, known as Radio Mediterranean. Voice of Judea Commentary: All the haters of Israel should choke on their coke! Where is the Jewish entrepreneur to manufacture Jerusalem Coke, with a picture of the Temple Mount and of the Holy Temple? Let 20 percent of the new drink be donated to a fund to rebuild the Holy Temple, speedily in our times. The Arabs and Jew haters around the world boycott products from Judea and Samaria and often enough any Israeli made products. The time has come for Jews to band together and buy only Blue and White - Israeli products. G-d only knows why Olmart is allowing this vicious Jew hater the right to market his drekky drink in Israel. The same Olmart has aided the Europeans in identifying products from Judea and Samria, caving in to their anti-Semitic demands to mark the origins of the products exported from the "territories", and now he allows known Arafatian supporters to peddle their dreadful drinks in Israel. Where are the Jews to reverse this dsicrimination? There is a company being founded, known as "EverythingIsrael" that has set out to do exactly that - To specifically market and resell Israeli made products, with special emphasis being given to products manufactured in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Anyone interested in investing in this interesting and profitable venture can call Ezra at 067 910 341..from abroad 011 972 67 910 341. 4- FUND TO HELP ISRAELI ARAB BUSINESSES A 6,000,000 dollar joint fund of the Koret Israel Funds and Mercantile Discount Bank is to start giving loans of 30,00000 dollars to assist Arab businessmen, according to teh Jerusalem Post. Voice of Judea Commentary: With so many thousands of Israeli businesses closing as a result of international boycotts and other problems, it would be expected for these grants to be given to strengthen Jewish corporations. Indeed the time has come to create "EverythingIsrael", a for profit corporation that will specifically market and resell Israeli goods. Where are the Jewish funds to help this Jewish cause? I speak not of charity, but of a sound investment to market Israeli goods, placing an emphasis on the products "banned" by the haters of Israel. Those interested in making an investment could yield profit and help thousands of small Israeli businessmen at the same time. Call Ezra if you are interested in investing in "EverythingIsrael" at 0547910341 or in U.S. dial direct 718 874 2057. or email to Ezra@defendIsrael.net 5- ISRAEL NEEDS BLOOD Magen David Adom has entered into a blood-drive until Friday to replenish blood banks, in need of blood. There is a special need for rh negative type and type O. Those interested can call in Israel 1 800 400 101 Those who donate will receive a full year of "blood insurance" for themself and their family. You can subscribe to the Voice of Judea emails by sending an email to jsid@amanda.dorsai.org To Go To Top

SIMPLE RULES FOR CREATING A GIANT WAVE OF ALIYA TO ISRAEL Posted by Bernard J. Shapiro, August 5, 2004.

1. Crush terrorism and pre-empt all existential threats to the State of Israel. Why move to a country unable to protect its Jewish population? 2. Annex all state lands within the borders of Israel (post 1967). Annex all property stolen from the Jewish People during the last 2000 years, including Church and Waqf property (exceptions, of course for Holy Places. The term Holy Places does not include fraudulent claims of Muslims to Jewish or Christian Holy Places.). Remove all illegal Arab buildings and farms. 3. Require all voting citizens of Israel to do military or community service for 3 years (including Arabs). The right to vote and be a citizen will depend such service + a loyalty oath to the Jewish State. 4. Re-affirm that Israel is a Jewish State and NOT a democratic (one man one vote) state of all its citizens. The loyal citizens of Israel whether Jewish, Christian, Druze, Beduin or Arab will have equal rights. 5. Adopt Prof. Paul Eidelberg's constitution with constituency elections. 6. Open up Judea & Samaria for massive building, thus creating giant suburbs close to the heavily populated Israeli coastline. A system of toll roads, and light rail will connect these suburbs to the coast from Ashdod to Nahariya. This will solve the over population along Israel's coast and create a better quality of living for all Israelis. 7. Anyone in Israel who raises up a rock to crush Jewish skulls, or a knife, gun or bomb to kill Jews should be expelled from Eretz Yisrael. A final thought: It took Jews 2000 years to regain Eretz Yisrael. We should most emphatically not allow the world who wished us dead to influence our decisions on how we should LIVE. Bernard J. Shapiro is the Executive Director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies and the editor of its monthly magazine, The Maccabean Online (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) and the Freemanlist. To Go To Top

THE PA HAS CREATED A VIOLENT DEATH-SEEKING REALITY FOR THEIR CHILDREN Posted by IsrAlert, August 5, 2004.

IsrAlert source: Naomi Frankenburg in Canada THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY MUST BE PLACED IN HISTORY AS THE WORLD'S GREATEST CHILD ABUSERS. PALESTINIAN CHILDREN LOOK FORWARD TO KILLING JEWS BY BLOWING THEMSELVES UP. THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY EDUCATES THEIR OWN CHILDREN THAT TO DIE A SHAHID (A MARTYR) SHOULD BE THEIR LIFE'S GOAL. THIS FILM, PRODUCED BY PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH REVEALS HOW THE PA EXTOLLS SUICIDE MURDER. PA POLLS SHOW 70-80% OF ARAB PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SEE SHAHADA AS A WORTHWHILE OBJECTIVE TO THEIR LIVES. THE PA HAS CREATED A VIOLENT DEATH-SEEKING REALITY FOR THEIR CHILDREN. TO VIEW THE VIDEO, WHICH SHOCKED THE U.S. SENATE CONCERNING THE HATE INDOCTRINATION OF ARAB PALESTINIAN CHILDREN BY THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, PLEASE CLICK HERE: www.isratv.com/video/filmpmwadsl.asx IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

WAR ON WANT'S WAR AGAINST ISRAEL Posted by NGO Monitor Organization, August 5, 2004.

Founded in the early 1950s, London, UK Mission statement: "Fighting for a world without poverty...As part of our strategy to make a difference to workers living in poverty we recognise the need to support organisations working in areas suffering from political conflict. Our aim is to ensure that workers in conflict zones are able to work in secure conditions." Palestinian partner NGOs include the highly politicized Union of Palestine Medical Relief Committees Previously run by British MP George Galloway, expelled from the Labour Party for public incitement against British forces serving in the Iraq conflict, and under investigation for alleged links to the Saddam Hussein regime. Sources of Funding: No information available Website: http://www.waronwant.org/ Email contact: Louise Richards, Chief Executive lrichards@waronwant.org War on Want is an explicitly political organization that uses economic issues to further its agenda. Among the major issues on this agenda is its "Palestine campaign", and in July 2004, this included "The Writings on the Wall" - a political campaign in support of the effort to demonize Israel's security barrier and defense against terrorism. This explicit political and demonizing agenda was acknowledged by Louise Richards, Chief Executive of War on Want, who declared, "It is imperative that the UK government backs the international legal process and applies full economic and diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government to end their assault on the rights and welfare of the Palestinian people." As part of its media and publicity campaign on this issue, War on Want features MP's and entertainment celebrities who are asked to sign a mock "wall" denouncing Israel's policies and supporting the ICJ "advisory opinion". In this political campaign, War on Want declares "The separation wall (or 'fence') being built by Israel officially under the guise of 'keeping Palestinian suicide bombers out' is set to be 650km long - that is, twice as long as the Berlin wall, and three times as high." As in other cases of anti-Israel political propaganda, War on Want's diminution of the brutality of Palestinian terrorism violates core principles of human rights, and undermines any claims to justice and morality from the members of this group. In a cynical use of publicity, War on Want has recruited Roger Waters, a former member of rock group Pink Floyd, which had success in the early 1980s with an album and movie entitled "The Wall". Rogers repeats the false claims blaming Israel for the suffering and victimization of the Palestinians. "The poverty inflicted by the wall has been devastating for Palestinians. It has kept children from their schools, the sick from proper medical care and continues to destroy the Palestinian economy." In making such claims, Mr. Waters appears to be entirely ignorant of the history of the conflict, the decades of Palestinian and Arab rejectionism and war against Israel, corruption, and the resulting poverty and suffering that began long before "the wall". Similarly, War on Want's 'Palestine Campaign' includes a recently published report entitled "Fighting Palestinian Poverty". This text repeats the fictitious Palestinian version of history and rhetoric of hatred and justification for terror: "The Palestinians have endured the gradual loss of their land and systematic displacement as a result of Zionist colonisation of Palestine since the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. They have also experienced military invasions, violence, settlement building on their land, and the destruction of the Palestinian economy." In this text, the historic links and presence of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel for over 4000 years are erased, following the lead of Yasser Arafat and Palestinian propagandists. Similarly, there is no mention of Arab rejection of the 1947 UN Partition resolution, the wars and invasions, or terrorism. The result is a justification for violence that is the anti-thesis of War on Want's claims to pursue justice. (Compiled with the assistance of Media Response - UK) The NGO Monitor organization (www.ngo-monitor.org) promotes critical debate and accountability of human rights NGOs in the Arab Israeli Conflict. The Monitor is produced by The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Institute of Contemporary Affairs. To Go To Top

AN APPEAL TO FRIENDS OF A JEWISH RADIO STATION IN MONTREAL Posted by Radio Shalom, August 5 2004.

A JEWISH RADIO STATION IN MONTREAL is a tool of instant communication. A Jewish station of high quality is indispensable. It is necessary to have such a station to counter the menace facing the Jewish world today. Radio is the instrument that responds most effectively to the community's needs. HELP US GET OUR LICENSE TO GO ON THE AIR ON A.M. RADIO. We've been on the air since 1999, but it has been difficult to hear us, because our listeners need a special radio. Now is the time to participate in a wonderful adventure, full-time Jewish broadcasting, accessible on an ordinary radio. RADIO SHALOM IS AN INDEPENDENT, not-for-profit radio station, recognized by Revenue Canada as a charitable organization and thus permitted to issue tax receipts. Radio Shalom is not affiliated with any political party, nor with any community or religious organization. There are many radio stations in Montreal and area, broadcasting programming to other ethnic groups: Chinese, Haitian, Portuguese, Mohawk, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Arabic, to name a few. Radio Shalom will represent OUR community. INCLUSIVE: Radio Shalom is a radio station for ALL JEWS AND ALL OTHERS INTERESTED. This includes English and French-speaking Jews, Ashkenazi and Sefardi, Hassidic, and Jews with no real affiliation. HELP US with your donation and your support. You will be contributing to an important Jewish cultural icon. All donations will receive valid income tax receipts by mail. SUPPORT AN A.M. RADIO STATION FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY BECOME A FRIEND OF RADIO SHALOM WE INVITE YOU TO CONTRIBUTE Many thanks for reaching us, for listening to our programs on 91.3 fm subcarrier or on the internet www.radio-shalom.ca You can phone us any time at 514-738-4100. To Go To Top

FRAMING THE QUESTION STEERS THE ANSWER Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 5, 2004.

The value of an official investigation may depend on its scope. Minimize the scope, and key issues can be ignored. Likewise, a narrow indictment may enable a criminal to escape justice and even claim that a not-guilty verdict exonerated him. So, too, a small framework for a question can produce a non-comprehensive answer. It all depends how the question is put. For example, Democrats ask what did Iraq have to do with the 9/11 attack on the US. There is some evidence of some involvement, but the involvement seems minor and the evidence inconclusive. Based on the negative answer, Democrats go on to conclude that the war on Iraq was not justified. I think the Democrats laid out a small framework of questions, omitting other, pertinent ones. Their question assumes we are in a war on 9/11 Islamist terrorists. Are the terrorists who attacked the US other times to be let go? Is the loose alliance of Arab terrorists, other Arab and Persian states, and rogue Communist states to be excused because they may not have been involved in that one attack, because they were busy planning others? A more valid question would be, did Iraq play a role in international terrorism. The evidence it did is more credible. There are still other questions and other reasons for the war. There is the question of weapons of mass-destruction. Iraq has had them, used them, retained on the payroll the staff for making them, violated the terms of the armistice not to make them or at least keep them, was caught with them but inspectors destroyed them, kept evading inspectors, and failed to account for their stock of weaponry. There is some evidence that when Iraq found war imminent, it shipped its stock of weapons and sent its scientists to Sudan and Syria. War critics ask only whether US occupation forces found weapons of mass-destruction, knowing that they found little. They ask the wrong question. WAR ON AL-QAEDA TOO LIMITED The US fights against al-Qaeda in various ways in various countries. A conspicuous exception is France (and perhaps other European countries). In France, al-Qaeda has organized tens of thousands of Muslims into paramilitary units. One hears of no action by the government of France against those units, and of no word of objection by the government of the US. Isn't that peculiar? France is a major critic of the US war on Islamism and striking against non-immediate targets, such as Iraq. Here is an opportunity for the US to rally France to join that war and to put it on the defensive against its geo-political or cultural war on the US. First the US should approach the French government about this. Perhaps it has, but without result (though the probable next President is pro-American). Then the US should publicly profess great concern about what will befall France, and more about how we want France to remain the cultured France and not become like war-torn Algeria, and some concern about the danger radiating outward from France. The West cannot prevail against Islamism if it allows Islamism to destroy it from within. ARABS: ANTI-ISRAEL WITHOUT BEING ANTI-SEMITIC? Antisemitism is not yet officially approved in the West. Therefore, the Arabs do not want to be perceived as anti-Semitic. They decidedly are, of course, as their mosque sermons broadcast over state TV routinely call for murdering Jews whom they call choice names as a race to be liquidated. (Their sermons call for the deaths of others, too. Most edifying and elevating!) Some people hold the opinion that these sermons do not represent genuine Islam. What Islam is supposed to be doesn't matter at present. What matters is what, to the heavily armed Arabs and other Muslim states and followers, they think it means. They are at war now, long before anyone who suggests that their Islam should be purified persuades them of it. A good indirect case can be made that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, for anti-Zionists would deny just to the Jewish people the right to sovereignty. A double standard towards the Jews evinces anti-Semitism. An indirect case is not needed, when there is a direct case. What could be more direct than the following news brief, in which the Arabs prove themselves antisemitic? American Jewish representatives sought (not for the first time) to obtain a UNO resolution that condemns anti-Semitism. The Arab states opposed it (Foreign Ministry, 7/29 from Haaretz). STRANDED ARABS: Update Previously reported: A couple of thousand Palestinian Arabs were stranded in Egypt, when the Rafiah checkpoint was closed and the P.A. refused to let them re-enter Gaza through the checkpoint that Israeli opened up for them. It now is further reported that the Rafiah checkpoint was closed in response to intelligence of an imminent terrorist attack there. When Israel decided to close it, it notified Egypt and the P.A., so that they could direct the travelers to the alternative re-entry point set up for the purpose. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and some of the stranded Arabs petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to find a humanitarian solution regardless of the P.A.'s non-cooperation. The organization claims that Israel allows only five buses a day to take the people to the alternate entrance (IMRA, 7/29). No explanation was given for the alleged limit. The organization contradicts itself. It estimates 2500 people. Five buses at 50 seat equals 250 people per day. At that rate, it would take 10 days to rescue the entire lot, but ALL the people had been stranded for more than two weeks. This confirms Israel's claim that the P.A. bars them. The organization appeals only to Israel to be humanitarian, and not to the P.A. Why? Why doesn't the world hear about how inhumane the Arabs are to each other? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

WHAT PRESBYTERIAN USA NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST OR A PALESTINIAN HOMICIDE BOMBING CAN RUIN YOUR WHOLE DAY Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, August 4, 2004.

Last week, delegates representing the three-million-strong American Presbyterian Church voted, by a margin of 431-62, to study the idea of divesting itself from Israel - that is, refusing to invest church money in companies that do over $1 million annually in business there. In addition, they have condemned Israel for building an anti-terrorist fence because it inconveniences Palestinians. They forget that Palestinian terrorism destabilizes and inconveniences the entire world: It impacts the global economy, airport travel is a logistical nightmare, thousands of lives have been lost, and survivors' lives have been ruined. In fact, you might cynically say, a Palestinian homicide bombing can ruin your whole day. The security fence is being erected to defend the brutalized Israeli civilians. Would the Presbyterian church suggest that the United States ignore the radical Islamic threat resulting in 9/11? Are we wrong to establish a Homeland Security Program to defend ourselves? I can only conclude that the issues of divestiture and the security fence need to be rethought by the World Court and Presbyterian Church. Their current position can only lead one to believe that they care more about the inconvenience of the Palestinian terrorists than the destroyed lives of their victims. The National Unity Coalition is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" To Go To Top

INSIDE THE AIPAC CONVENTION Posted by Carrie Devorah, August 4, 2004.

President Bush addressed AIPAC conference attendees, the Tuesday morning of May 18th. He arrived at 8:58am. Spoke until 9:28am. His remarks hit newswires by 9:32am. His message was consistent to speeches from the past. The President reminded AIPAC he renewed his commitment from Auschwitz, mankind must come together to fight such dark impulses, anti-semitism. The president spoke about blood left on the streets of Jerusalem, and other cities; Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair bound elderly jew executed rolled off a cruise ship into the sea; Daniel Pearl, the jewish journalist beheaded in editorial pursuit; and most recently, Nicholas Berg, the jewish Pennsylvanian raised on American ideals different from tribal cultures. The President made no mention in his speech of Bus 19 standing floors beneath him. The President s speech writers, contacted before National Day of Prayer, were advised ZAKA and Christians For Israel had joined together in historic unity. Chris Michel, in the speech writer s office, who fielded the call, said Call me with details the week prior to the event. The follow up call was made. The requested email was sent, detailing the event, Bus 19;s sponsors, ZAKA, the volunteer orthodox corps retrieving body bits at terrorist sites for burial, Christians For Israel supporting Israel s right to exist peacefully in the Holy Land. The writers were made aware the bombed bus shell, detonated in political fratricide, January 29th, 8:38am, was one block from where the President s envoy on the roadmap to peace, John Wolf, met with Sharon. Two graphic photos of Bus 19 s murdered were sent along to make the point a thousand words could not. The President s National Day of Prayer official remarks were sent out hours after the President s joint remarks with His Majesty King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. There was no mention of Bus 19 standing a few miles east of the White House. The President thanked Abdullah for advice explaining America s position on the roadmap to peace to Palestinian Prime Minister Mr. Queria. President Bush said the world must recognize the possibility of a Palestinian state attuned to the cultures and to the Palestinian people. AIPAC was looming. A third call was placed to the President s speech writers. They remembered the little bus from Israel with a Big Picture message about terrorism in Israel, a lesson for America. They remembered the murdered. They could not forget the photos making the point AIPAC convened to fight, terrorism murdering Israeli Jews. One photo showed a woman s body on the road. Her right leg was ripped off mid thigh. The second photo was of a man. Nicholas Berg s decapitation has become almost Hollywood. The body of a man, cut in half, is horrifying. The writer, referencing the President s slide in polls, ended the call, thank you for looking out for the President. The President s speech writers, focusing on Jews dying outside of Israel, ignored three days of AIPAC attendees filed in silence, past Bus 19, AIPAC s Strategic Terrorism Tour in the bowels of the DC convention center. Banners they marched past named the murderer, the murdered. Thin black lettering, elegant on white backing prophesized a memorial wall may be chiselled in marble stone, someday. Bus 19 showed 850 young future leaders of America, and maturing attendees, what Palestinian hate looks like after a bomb murderer detonates himself next to a man reading Psalms. Two floors above, it was as if Egged Bus 19 was all but forgotten as AIPAC attendees rushed to shake the President s hand and digitally memorialize themselves with him. There was no chant of Bus 19. The newswire transcripts notated applause rang throughout the President s remarks. Our nation is stronger and safer because we have a true and dependable ally in Israel. Applause. By defending the freedom and prosperity and security of Israel, you're also serving the cause of America. Applause. The President told AIPAC attendees the message to pass on at their 500 meetings scheduled at the Senate and House, A free, prosperous and secure Israel is in this nation's national interest, He manifested his vision of a Middle East where young Israelis and Palestinians can play and learn and grow without living in the shadow of death. Concluding, May God bless Israel. National Day of Prayer came and went. As did AIPAC. Dogma came before God. Maimonides said, "Accept the truth regardless of its source ". Jews, a mom once said, actions speak louder than words. Her son was one of the murdered commuters of Egged Bus 19. Bus 19 stood at the Hague in front of the International World Court of Justice prior to arriving in America for May 6th. Devorah says My brother is one of eleven commuters on this bus who bought One Way Tickets to their death. January 29th terrorism murdered 11 jews in Israel. The world has failed to acknowledge this tragedy is not a Jew problem but a problem of good people defending against bad people. Maybe prayer will succeed where politics is failing. Carrie Devorah is an award winning photojournalist based in Washington DC. She is the sister of bomb murder victim Yechezkel Chezi Scotty Goldberg murdered January 29 2004 on Bus 19, in Jerusalem, one block away from Prime Minister Sharon's residence. To Go To Top

A $64,000 QUESTION Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, August 4, 2004.

Why do they hate us? A friend of mine recently went to Hong Kong on business. His local associates invited him for dinner, and the conversation somehow turned to World War II. The host told my friend it was hard for him to believe that Germans had really killed 6 million Jews. My friend assured him that as incredible as it might sound, it was historic fact. The host responded, "The Jews must have done something truly terrible if the Germans punished them in such a harsh way." At first glance, his response may seem unashamedly anti-Semitic. Actually, for someone unfamiliar with intricacies of European history, it is perfectly logical. One person can be killed in anger, by mistake, by accident, or as a result of a misunderstanding. Killing six million people requires a well organized industry. Disposing of 6 millions bodies in a minimally sanitary fashion alone presents enormous technological and logistical problems. Besides, unlike most other industries, this one promised no hope of profit. Even if you confiscated everything those six million people used to own, from bank accounts to gold teeth to shoes to toys that silly Jewish kids dragged after them into the gas chambers, you wouldn't have collected enough to cover expenses. It is only reasonable, therefore, to conclude that Jews must have done something terrible to warrant such efforts. It is much more difficult to believe that Germans attempted to exterminate us out of totally selfless, completely unmotivated hatred. Inevitably, within a generation or two, this simple logic will lead humankind to conclude that the Holocaust was nothing but a Jewish myth. Why not? The world has already decided, contrary to facts, that there is a people called "Palestinians" that somehow owns Israel's land, although even at the UN you won't find a single legal document making their ownership valid. If, in addition, humankind finally succeeds in implementing the final solution, then, soon afterwards, everyone will agree that Jews themselves were nothing but a myth. This will restore the balance: a terrorist organization created in 1964 will become an ancient nation, and an ancient nation will never have existed. Let's look one step further. We know that the Nazis did not invent anti-Semitism. As far as we can tell, anti-Semitism has accompanied us throughout history everywhere we lived, no matter what we did or did not do. It could be violent or subdued; it could be explicit or subtle; but, it has always been present in the very air we breath. When Israel was restored, we hoped it would become our haven from anti-Semitism. Instead, humankind made Israel the focal point of its eternal hatred for the Jews. It is only reasonable to conclude that we have done something horrible to deserve it. Take, for instance, the recent decision by the International Court of Justice (isn't that a truly Orwellian name?) regarding the legality of Israel's security wall. In essence, it means that Israel has no right to defend itself. The law of every civilized country allows a person to defend his or her life with necessary means. Only criminals sentenced to death are denied the right of self-defense in the face of imminent mortal danger. Obviously, Israel would not have been sentenced to death had the Jews not committed some terrible crime. Such a conclusion is so logical that even Jews cannot escape it. So, how can you expect gentiles to accept the fact that they hate us without any fault of ours? But what exactly was our terrible crime against the rest of humanity? Crucifying Jesus couldn't be it, since we were hated long before we invented Christianity. Besides, even if you believe that Jesus really existed and really was crucified by Jews, you have to agree that not a single one of those bad Jews is alive today. Then what are you hating me for? I certainly have never crucified anyone, and neither has any Israeli. Could it be the goyishe blood in our matzo dough? After all, how can one be sure what Jews mix in it? I know I've never killed anyone, whether to add my victim's blood to the dough or for any other purpose. But can I guarantee the same about other Jews? Take the Chassidim, for example. Compared to some other Jews, they look pretty menacing with their peyes and hats. Who knows what they do when no one is watching? In March 1911, a body of a 10-year old Christian boy was found in Kiev. The boy had died of multiple puncture wounds. The police immediately adopted a working theory: the boy had been exsanguinated by Jews for the purpose of obtaining his blood, which, as everyone knew, was an essential ingredient of the matzo dough. Based on that theory, the police arrested Mendel Beilis, one of the very few Jews who lived in the area, and accused him of the murder. Fortunately for Mr. Beilis, his case attracted attention of Russian liberal journalists (a century ago in Russia the L word had a very different meaning than in today's U.S. of A.) who raised public awareness of it to the level of an international scandal and helped organize Mr. Beilis' defense. Renown experts on Judaism told the jury what could and what could not be added to the matzo dough and why the blood of even kosher animals (which the murdered child was not since he didn't have split hooves) is never used in Jewish recipes. After a two-year-long ordeal, the jury that didn't include even a single Jew (remember O.J. Simpson's trial?) acquitted Mr. Beilis. Soon afterwards, the victim's mother and her common-law husband were arrested, tried for the murder of the boy and easily convicted. During their trial, it became clear that the police had overwhelming incriminating evidence against the parents from the very beginning. They knew Mendel Beilis was innocent when they arrested him. They knew who the murderer was while they were trying to extort a confession from Mr. Beilis by locking his young son in the adjacent cell and forcing him to listen to child's desperate cries. Why was the framing of a Jew more important than punishing those who murdered their own child? Was there any logic in it? Of course there was. About a month before the murder, liberal factions in the Russian parliament, the Duma, introduced a proposal to abolish the Pale of Settlement. Imagine what would've happened if the law passed: 5.5 million Jews would've flooded Russian cities poisoning the lives of 200 million Russians by their vile presence among them. Mr. Beilis was acquitted, but his case had stirred up anti-Semitic sentiment in the population, and the law was defeated. The Pale of Settlement was abolished only when the entire tsarist government fell. So, Beilis was framed in order to help prevent the abolishment of the Pale of Settlement. Does that explain it? Not really, since the next logical question would be, what harm would Jews really bring to the Russian majority by living among them? Why was it so important for the Russian Empire to keep Jews within what was essentially a huge ghetto? I will try to answer that a little later. Meanwhile, let us forever remember the lesson of the Beilis case: Anti-Semites will murder their own children in order to falsely accuse Jews. Remember what Golda Meir said about the Arabs? Does it make sense? I guess it depends on whether you are a Jew or not. Now, let's talk about the Arabs. Not so long ago, Saudi Prince Abdullah announced to his subjects and the world that the recent string of terrorist acts on the sacred soil of his kingdom had been perpetrated by Zionists. For some reason however, Saudi authorities did not even try to convince anyone that the four alleged terrorists they summarily killed without a trial were Jews. I guess, for Muslims that would have amounted to corpse mutilation, and, that, as they have convincingly demonstrated to us in Fallujah, is against their religion. Nobody asked how the four dead Muslim Arabs happened to be Zionists. Nobody asked why the Saudi kingpin, instead of fighting real terrorists, chose to libel the Jews who, by the way, are forbidden from setting foot on his piece of camel dung floating on top of an oil spill. Isn't there something painfully reminiscent of the Beilis case? The truth is that the Saudi royals are the leaders of the Wahhabi sect of Islam. The Wahhabi version of the "religion of peace" is the only variety of Islam allowed in the kingdom. This is despite the fact that, on the one hand, Saudi Arabia remains a faithful ally of the United States (I'd love to know, against whom), while, on the other, Wahhabism is exactly that extremist, militant variety of Islam against which out president declared his war on terror. Oy, how complicated things are for those who stubbornly refuse to see the truth! If you really want to understand why everybody hates us, imagine that you must kill someone. Never mind why, just play along for a while. Anyway, since you didn't have a choice, you killed him and, naturally, buried the body. The very next day you are peacefully strolling along, minding your own business, enjoying the weather and your peace of mind, when suddenly someone delicately taps you on the shoulder. You turn around and see your victim. No, it is not a ghost or a zombie. It's him, alive, although obviously unwell. Dirty bandages cover the terrible wounds you left on his body. A monstrous bruise decorates his face, which you accidentally hit with the shovel while dragging what you thought was his dead body to the shallow grave. Pieces of dirt are visible in his curly hair. The smell of earth emanating from him is overwhelming. All this confirms that you didn't dream up last night's murder. And yet, here he is, back from the grave. What terrifies you the most is that your victim isn't seeking revenge or even justice. All he wants is to live in peace with you, as if nothing had happened. He is smiling at you, squinting his eyes myopically, because you broke his eyeglasses last night. If you want, he will lend you some money. If you want, he will teach your child to play piano. Just tell him what you want; he will be happy to oblige; he will do his best. I know you would never hurt a fly. I know if you had been in charge of Abu Ghraib, unbearable boredom would've been all the inmates could have possibly complained about. But, please, stretch your imagination. Here is your victim, the one you left for dead just yesterday, the living witness of your horrible crime, standing in front of you bearing no malice. Can you imagine what it would feel like? Had he tried to stick a knife in your back, it would hurt of course, but not as badly as having to live in this nightmare. Therefore, the most reasonable thing you can do under the circumstances is to wait for an appropriate moment and kill him again, and this time you make sure it is for good. Imagine, now, that the morning after you feel that barely perceptible tap on your shoulder again - not the second time in a row, not even the two hundred twenty-second time in a row, because you have long ago lost count of your attempts to end this unending nightmare, but haven't lost hope that one day your victim won't be able to crawl out from the grave you dug for him. Anti-Semites hate us for the same reason they are forced to lie every time they need to accuse us of something. They hate and fear us the way a very bad person hates and fears his conscience. That should give you some idea of what's going to become of this planet when we are no longer among its inhabitants. Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based Information Technology consultant. To read other articles by the author, go to http://www.middleeastfacts.com/yashiko/ or email ysagamori@hotmail.com This article appeared in the Forwerts. To Go To Top

ANTI-ISRAEL ACADEMIA Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, August 4, 2004.

Dear friends, The despicable phenomenon of Israelis and Jewish people vilifying Israel continues to enrage any reasonable person who seeks truth and objective debate. On a dispatch from Israel today, August 3, 2004, NPR carried a segment about the chaotic situation among the Arab-Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. One of the speakers on the segment was a certain Dr Nitza Nachmias, a lecturer in Haifa University. Apparently, together with her duties in the Univetrsity, she is also active in the extreme liberal-left Tikkun organization, bent on protecting Arab-Palestinians while attacking Israel's policies. Despite all the abundant evidence about Arafat's corruption, about this terrorist criminal who walked away from the peace conference, who caused untold suffering to millions, who is facing an uprising of his own people, and despite the latest media articles, including the New York Times, calling upon Arafat to resign, the bigot Dr. Nachmias blames PM Sharon for the situation. This, friends, is beyond reason and logic. This is an outrageous assertion amounting to libel. Put simply, it is disgusting. To listen to the interview, please click on the following link, or copy and paste it into your browser: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=3813772 I called Dr. Nachmias a coward, because most Haifa University faculty members are listed with their email addresses. Dr Nachmias is not... Evidently, she wants to be heard, but prefers not to hear. This article was written by Asaf Romirowsky, who is a research fellow for the Middle East Forum (http://www.meforum.org/). It appeared yesterday in www.FrontPageMagazine.com. It is archived at http://www.meforum.org/article/622 Jewish students face a daunting challenge on campus defending Israel's right to exist as a democratic and Jewish country. Some examples: David HaLevi, a graduate of the University of Chicago, says "If one took a stance as a Zionist, or even as a member of Israeli (Jewish) society, on campus you removed yourself from academic discourse... You were considered outside any rational framework and made to feel shame and guilt for siding with 'the Jews.'"[1] One student gives the following insight into a class taught by Columbia University's Joseph Massad. "Mr. Massad explicitly tells students at the beginning of the course that he is presenting one side of the Arab-Israeli conflict... A perfect example of brainwashing," the student wrote. "Mr. Massad in his writings has said Israel is illegitimate as a Jewish state."[2] Graduate of UC Berkeley Daniel Frankenstein remembers being heckled and called a "conservative Zionist bastard" [3] when he ran for student-body president. These are only a few telling examples. Generally, Jews on the left and on the right see the importance of Israel, as even the far left publication Tikkun indicates in its proclamation, "we call upon the Palestinian people to acknowledge the right of Jews to maintain their own homeland."[4] However, when one enters the halls of academia the so-called consensus on Israel's existence is nowhere to be found. College campuses have become podiums for those who disparage Israel, as seen in the different human rights, anti-globalization and anti-imperialism groups that have adopted the Palestinian cause. In academic circles, individual scholars' views are often turned into a political litmus test. For example, Fouad Ajami, the articulate interpreter of Arab culture and politics who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, has been subject to scathing attacks from Arab critics such as Asad Abu Khalil in a review of Ajami's book The Vanished Imam. In addition, Daniel Pipes noted how the Nation asked the leftist Jew Andrew N. Rubin to critique Ajami's book for being too supportive of Israel.[5] Journalist Jay Nordlinger writes, "Jewish students and faculty feel that they are under siege, forced to explain or defend 'their' state, or even their status as Jews..."[6] The anti-Israel activism on college campuses underscores the need to provide our students with a broad understanding of Israel before they leave our schools for the college campus. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not black and white - it is very asymmetrical. Yet the Palestinian cause has become the flagship of many Middle East departments across North America, primarily because of the late Palestinian apologist Edward Said. Said's Orientalism positioned the Palestinians as the symbol of the latest Western prejudice against the Arab world and Islam in general. Thus, in the post-1967 era the Arab-Israeli conflict was portrayed in this light, with Israel the latest wing of the West oppressing non-Europeans. Said's thesis adds another element to the political correctness that already dominates American society and it should not be allowed to cloud the issues at hand. Our students must recognize that there is no acceptable use of terrorism. There is also no acceptable notion of eliminating a living and breathing state like Israel. Those who advocate such are the ones who should be on the defensive. An open climate for discussions about Israeli society and Israel's quest for peace will provide our students a safe place in which to reflect on what Israel means to them as American Jews. The similarities between America's new reality and Israel's on-going one, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, became apparent post-9/11. As Ilan Berman states, "Israel's stable, pro-Western and democratic character, its robust defense infrastructure and modern military, and its strategic location in the volatile Middle East have only grown in importance to the United States since September 11."[7] Both nations are engaged in a war against terrorism. However, the character of the Jewish State is still questioned on a daily basis. Teaching Israel and Zionism in the academy raises tensions within the politically diverse American Jewish community. Historically, American Jews aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, which was once associated with a liberal position on social issues and strong support for Israel. However, in the post-Vietnam war era, as world events dictated changes in American foreign policy, American Jews appeared increasingly comfortable on the political right. As the Washington Post writes, "almost half the Jews who chose Gore over Bush are uncertain they would vote the same way today. Perhaps even more crucial, prominent Democratic donors have crossed party lines. Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress and a supporter of Democrats, wrote a $100,000 check last year to the Republican National Committee. 'It would be a mistake for the Jewish community not to show our appreciation to the president,' Rosen said."[8] The neo-conservative movement focused on, among other things, the importance of a democratic Israel to the United States. After Israel's 1967 victory and the annexation of the territories, the radical left began to view the Jewish state as a hegemonic, oppressive power. Thus, the tension between historical general Jewish political sensibilities and its support for Israel. Like Israelis, American Jews have varied political preferences. While they may not all unconditionally support everything Israel does, the land of Israel is the Jewish state and has the right to exist in security. We must help our students expand their knowledge about Israel and give them the tools to help Israel in her daily struggle to exist in peace. Notes: [1] http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=58841 [2] http://daily.nysun.com/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=NYS/2004/04/19&ID=Ar00200&Section=New_York [3] http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2004-05-19/feature.html [4] http://www.tikkun.org/community/index.cfm/action/core_vision.html [5] http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1236 [6] http://www.nationalreview.com/15july02/nordlinger071502.asp [7] http://www.acpr.org.il/ENGLISH-NATIV/04-issue/berman-4.htm [8] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A41204-2003Dec6?Found=true Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

THE WORLD'S CHANGING VIEW OF ARAFAT Posted by Bryna Berch, August 4, 2004.

This was written by Barry Rubin and is all about how Arafat has spent the last 40 years welding a group of Arabs into a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters - these are not Rubin's words. He does point out that the world doesn't like Arafat as much as it used it. Whoopie do. I hope he doesn't think that when Arafat dies, the Palestinian Arabs will become peaceful and reasonable. It ain't the man. It's the culture. And if we started denazification tomorrow, it would take generations to change them. And even if they were ever to act human, why should Israel give up its land to them? Professor Barry Rubin is Director of The Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) and Editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA). His columns can be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html. The world seems to be discovering the basic facts about the Palestinian movement's leadership and especially regarding Yasir Arafat. It is increasingly obvious that he is impossible to deal with diplomatically, uninterested in ending the violence or making the peace, and repressive as well as incompetent in leading his own people. Nevertheless, despite this factor as revealed by growing turmoil in Gaza, battles among Palestinian factions, and protests about Arafat's leadership, four basic principles have been largely overlooked. Without comprehending these points it is impossible to understand what is going on in the Middle East now and in earlier years: 1. The problem is not merely Arafat himself but the extremist ideology, distortion of reality, maximal goals, rationale for terrorism, and refusal to accept a real peace that both he and his colleagues represent. This approach has cost both Israelis and Palestinians dearly. 2. These factors blocking the chance for a just and lasting peace did not originate a few weeks ago when Palestinians started complaining more openly about their own leaders but goes back many decades. Indeed, they are the reasons why this conflict did not end ten or twenty or even thirty years ago. And the central issues have been, as they are today, the refusal to accept Israel's existence, the glorification of hatred and terrorism, and the rejection of compromise on the Palestinian and Arab side. 3. Arafat is not merely a dictator but the man who has done the most to set the agenda in which Palestinian politicians, ideologues, and gunmen prefer spending years more in trying to destroy Israel than to build a stable, peaceful, and productive state of their own. 4. Finally, it is vital to see the connection between, on one hand, the nature of the Palestinian leadership and movement, and on the other hand, the bitter realities that have shaped Israeli policies in response. It is harder to make a deal with someone who wants to destroy you than with someone who wants to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Regarding this last point, it obviously requires more force to fight someone who is willing to use any terrorist means than with someone who sets limits to his struggle. It is far more difficult to reach an understanding with someone who preaches hatred as the basis of his society than with someone who is eager for conciliation once reasonable demands be met. After all, it should now be clear that the Palestinian leadership rejects real peace, refuses to implement its agreements or promises, has no interest in stopping terrorism, steals aid money and then blames Israel for Palestinian suffering, carries out daily incitement to kill Israelis, terrorizes its own people, and sponsors terrorism. How do you deal with an adversary like this? Doesn't it make sense that Israel does not want to make more concessions, take more risks, and trust its future to such an enemy? Isn't it clear that Israel must use force to stop terrorism since Palestinian leaders encourage, protect, and pay for it? Under these circumstances isn't a security fence a necessity, an act of legitimate self-defense? Such responses are not the choice of a demonized Israel or satanized Prime Minister Ariel Sharon but a rational and appropriate response to the violence and anarchy fostered by Arafat. This point is so important, so obvious and so ignored that it bears repeating: To recognize that the leader accepted (up to now) by Palestinians has been a corrupt autocrat who uses terrorism and incitement while rejecting peace means the world should support Israel's actions in defending itself. How then could the EU's members vote unanimously in the UN to condemn Israel's security fence? (Answer: by endorsing an International Court of "Justice" decision that Israel had no right of self-defense against terrorists.) Implicit in the condemnation of Arafat - especially now that his victims are visibly Palestinians - the world also must understand what it requires to defend oneself against Arafat and a movement and doctrine he has led and shaped, most of which continues to be loyal to him. Consider only one of a thousand points of evidence revealing the kind of person we are dealing with here. Nabil Amr, a veteran Fatah activist, became a dissident, writing an open letter to Arafat last year accusing him of throwing away the chance for a peaceful solution and an independent Palestinian state. A few weeks later, shots were fired at Amr's house. Recently, Amr was shot and his leg has to be amputated. Arafat originally declares - as he always does in such circumstances - that this crime will be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. Now he has canceled the investigation and accusing Israel of responsibility for the shooting, when obviously it was carried out by his own men. Finally, after four years of totally unnecessary violence - there could have been an equitable peace in 2000 - and forty years of Arafat, the world seems to be getting the idea of what is actually going on. The New York Times and Washington Post both had Arafat-must-go editorials, though they were not so keen on the idea when the U.S. government made this its policy two years ago. As for the Arab media, there have never been so many open denunciations of Arafat, including calls for his resignation and changes in the Palestinian leadership. Some places in Europe and the European Union bureaucracy (and of course that part of the Israeli left for whom wishful thinking is their religion) remain the last bastions of believers that Arafat is a man of peace. Beyond bashing Arafat as an individual, however, it would be good to think about the political and strategic implications for those who are next-door neighbors of such a leader, system and world view as the one he created, both for Palestinians and the entire Arab world, and which hundreds of thousands of his people fervently embrace. To Go To Top

THE TEMPLE MOUNT IS IN OUR HANDS? Posted by IsrAlert, August 3, 2004.

This was written by Ran Baratz, a secular doctoral candidate at Tel Aviv University. It appeared in Maariv and is archived at http://www.maarivenglish.com/index.cfm?fuseaction= printArticle&articleID=10337 During recent years, experts have been telling us how pragmatic and content with a minimum, Zionist leaders like Ben-Gurion were. However, even if we totally ignore the 'maximalism' of Ben-Gurion's efforts (which angered the Arabs and the post-Zionists), the claim does not hold water. Zionist leaders were satisfied with a minimum because previously they had nothing. However, they always wanted more than they had. You would never have heard them say that the "dream" must remain a dream. Moderate pragmatism applied only to realization of the dream, which is limited by circumstances, not to the vision. Vision that is consciously transformed into a dream that need not be fulfilled, is the opposite of Zionism. If the Zionist leaders had implemented today's minimalist advice to be satisfied with a dream, we would have, at best, nothing more than what the historical "Covenant of Peace" movement would have wanted: an Arab state with a autonomous Jewish minority. The Temple Mount is the holiest place of the Jewish people. Not only for religious Jews. For the people: the Temple that destroyed twice was the main symbol not only of the Jewish religion but also of Jewish sovereignty. The Temple Mount is a symbol of the flourishing Jewish life that thrived here. The Western Wall, which has minimal historical significance, is a symbol of the destruction, decay and conquest of the Land of Israel by foreign forces. The apathy that part of Israel's Jewish population shows towards the importance of history and the holiness of the Temple is enunciated the total asymmetry in the way that we and the Arab world relate to the national struggle. Just imagine what the dreamers would consider a reasonable Zionist reaction if the Arabs were to blow-up the Western Wall, which they claim is, for practical purposes, the holiest Jewish site. Would they rally around the flag, take-up arms, shout battle cries and begin an apocalyptic war against the Arab world? Apparently not. They would call that war "fanatical" and "barbarian". Why then, do you think, that al-Aqsa, whose holiness has greatly increased since it has seemingly been in Jewish hands, has been the catalyst for just such a war? This asymmetry between the Jewish disregard for the holiest Jewish place, a real, historical site, and the seriousness with which Moslems relate to the Dome of the Rock (which may not even be the site referred to in the Koran), shows the desire for a Jewish national homeland to be a wild dream. If we carry no baggage, lack affinity, have no commitment to history and tradition, feel no obligation to promote and build our vision, and do not attribute holiness to our past, our land, religious symbols and historical sovereignty but agree that the Arabs consider everything holy, we do not have a chance. If "enlightened" Zionism accepts holiness only when it belongs to someone else, we can start packing. The desire to build the Third Temple is worthy, Jewish and Zionist in the highest degree. The fact that there is a group of daydreamers that want to return to the kingdom of the Second Temple period (as if it were similar to that of the First Temple period) should not hide this from us. If only a way could be found to rebuild it. This is not necessarily a cause for war. If the Moslem wanted, it could be done peacefully with proper respect for the place's holiness for Jews (an ambition far from current reality since they are currently destroying the remains of the Temple), if they would let us pray there. If they don't accept our sovereignty? Then there would be a war in any case. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

GOOD MORNING, NEW YORK TIMES Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, August 3, 2004.

Dear friends, This is another one of these important communications. In reaction to Yoel Marcus' article "Good Morning, New York Times" in Haaretz today, July 30, 2004 (following), here is a quiz: Who wrote the following lines on Thursday, July 22, 2004? "It's been the misfortune of the Palestinian people to be stuck with Yasser Arafat as their founding father, a leader who failed to make the transition from romantic revolutionary to statesman. All he seems capable of offering Palestinians now is a communal form of the martyrdom he seems to covet... That the Palestinian lands are in total ruin, that the fruits of the Oslo accords are in tatters, seems of no importance to him. His reflexive insistence that this is all the fault of `Zionists,' the West, other Arabs, is unsustainable. Arafat himself bears a large share of the responsibility for these misfortunes... Mr.Arafat should accept his limitations and retire as President of the Palestinian Authority" No! Not me! Neither did any of the superb commentators who have been writing about the conflict for years, devoid of any bias, with clear insight and complete integrity. So who woke up on July 22, 2004 with the sudden revelation after so many years? Believe it or not, the answer is The New York Times in its Editorial titled The Arafat Problem (following). And who suddenly agrees with the NY Times? Haaretz's ultra liberal commentator Yoel Marcus, the one that poured tons of ink to criticize Sharon and anybody who dared not to adopt the ill fated and bankrupt doctrines of Peres, Beilin and good intentioned leaders such as President Clinton. So here is how I sum it up: Thank you for waking up! Good morning NY Times, Good morning Yoel Marcus and Good morning all of you, pro-Palestinian left-liberals, who refused to accept and digest the truth about Arafat. Good morning all the phoney "peace" seekers, "peace" organizations, the duped-by-the-media and Palestinian propaganda Rachel Corries of the world, the divestment from Israel campaigners, the ignorant, malicious or anti-Semitic university professors and world leaders who ran to kiss Arafat's thorny cheeks in his Ramallah terror nest. Good morning Mr. Peres and Mr. Beilin, Good morning all our leftist Jewish brethren, Good morning the NY Times readers who believe everything the paper writes, Good morning all the naive souls who believed Arafat, the master liar, who believed that Arafat held a key to peace, despite 40 years of murderous terror, instigated and planted by him everywhere he went. The blood of thousands of innocent people all over the world, including his own people, is on his hands. This is not a freedom fighter, just a common criminal murderer. Good morning to all those commentators, including Yoel Marcus, who vilified Prime Ministers Shamir, Netanyahu and Sharon with more venom than they ever reserved for Arafat. Awakening to reality must be really tough. At least the NY Times and Yoel Marcus have the minimum courage to admit it. Will all those I mentioned above, have the same courage? Your Truth Provider, Yuval Here is the Yoel Marcus article "Good morning, New York Times" (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/458090.html) Over and over, I read the editorial calling for Arafat's resignation and all I could say was: "Good morning, New York Times." It's taken the paper the better part of a decade to finally grasp what many Israelis feared after Oslo: that Arafat was not capable of making the move from leader of a militant liberation movement to leader of a state-in-the-making, with all the status and responsibility that come with it. The New York Times wrote, and I quote: "It's been the misfortune of the Palestinian people to be stuck with Yasser Arafat as their founding father, a leader who failed to make the transition from romantic revolutionary to statesman. All he seems capable of offering Palestinians now is a communal form of the martyrdom he seems to covet ... That the Palestinian lands are in total ruin, that the fruits of the Oslo accords are in tatters, seems of no importance to him. His reflexive insistence that this is all the fault of `Zionists,' the West, other Arabs, is unsustainable. Arafat himself bears a large share of the responsibility for these misfortunes." This about-face by The New York Times has really given Arafat's dwindling prestige the final push. Terje Roed-Larsen blamed Arafat this week for the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Colin Powell called him a master of yo-yo rhetoric. With three opinions on every subject and a degree in doublespeak, Arafat is a pro at fooling the public. He's never kept to any agreement and has turned his nose up at every possible offer. Clinton, Bush, and now John Kerry, are united in the belief that he is an obstacle to peace. Even Shimon Peres told Javier Solana that Arafat is a fruitcake. In the Palestinian Authority he is also being raked over the coals. Hanan Ashrawi ripped him to shreds in a Swiss newspaper and told him to go home. "The time has come to put this solo performance behind us," she wrote. Dr. Ibrahim Hamami, a prominent Palestinian physician, says Arafat has become a liability to his own people. "You treat the Palestinians like a pair of shoes," writes Hamami, "to be worn or kicked aside as the mood strikes. The solution is for you to pack your bags, take your crooked friends and go somewhere else. Just go. Get out of here!" Many times, since Arafat came to Israel as a beribboned peacemaker planning to establish a Palestinian state, I have wondered in this column why, as soon as he set foot here, he began to incite his people to war and terrorism. Didn't it ever occur to him that a Palestinian state would rise or fall over terror? What did this Nobel Peace Prize winner think? That the Oslo accords were a license to terrorize the country and spill Israeli blood? From his first day here, it was obvious that Arafat was suffering from schizophrenia. He couldn't decide what he was: the head of an emerging state, a terrorist ringleader or a globe-trotter. He built around himself a corrupt Mafia-style regime with the gang he brought over from Tunisia. He kept a handle on things by greasing palms, torturing his rivals and brutally bumping them off. I am not belittling Israel's role, with its overuse of force against the Palestinian Authority and the widespread destruction it has caused. But somewhere along the line we began to realize that we are sick and tired of living year after year in the grip of bloody terror. There was a time when both Clinton and Barak offered Arafat 97 percent of the territories. Arafat's response was the Al-Aqsa Intifada that claimed thousands of lives. Israel is now preparing to leave the Gaza Strip. But Arafat, over in the Muqata, is busy sabotaging the start of Israel's withdrawal from the territories and dragging his people down into the depths of despair. "Occupation" is not some kind of magic word that makes everything okay. Once Israel was under occupation, too - British occupation. Our leaders fought the British, and the British hit back hard: They arrested, deported, shot and hung. But the struggle did not keep our leaders from building infrastructure for the day the state was born. Not only has Arafat built nothing, but he has turned the Israeli right into the majority. It's hard to say which is worse. Arafat is now in the classic dictators' bind: The moment he weakens, the Palestinians will rebel against him. Which means he will hang on for dear life until enough is enough, and the Palestinians - and only them (not Israel, God forbid) - get up the nerve to settle the score and kick him out. Now, they even have a permit from The New York Times. NY Times EDITORIAL: "The Arafat Problem", July 22, 2004 It's been the misfortune of the Palestinian people to be stuck with Yasir Arafat as their founding father, a leader who has failed to make the transition from romantic revolutionary to statesman. All he seems capable of offering Palestinians now is a communal form of the martyrdom he seems to covet. Mr. Arafat should accept his limitations and retire as president of the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli occupation, with all its excesses, remains the last prop for Mr. Arafat's popularity, and even that has lost its power to insulate him from serious political challenges. Encouragingly, Palestinians, increasingly fed up with Mr. Arafat's corruption, cronyism and deafness to their needs and aspirations, are becoming more assertive about demanding change. In the fall of 2002, members of Mr. Arafat's own Fatah movement mounted the first open political rebellion and forced Mr. Arafat to fire his entire cabinet and ostensibly cede some power to a prime minister in early 2003. That process has not worked, as Mr. Arafat has clung to power, and the Gaza Strip's ongoing descent into lawlessness is emboldening calls for change, which will only intensify as an Israeli withdrawal from the territory draws closer. Mr. Arafat didn't help his cause there when he picked a relative, Mousa Arafat, to be the new security chief. This week, the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, one of the most loyal of Mr. Arafat's lieutenants and the chief negotiator of the Oslo agreements, proffered his resignation. ''The very fabric of Palestinian society is coming apart,'' he said. Mr. Arafat's Palestinian Authority has become so discredited in Gaza that more people now look to Hamas, the radical Islamist movement, to provide some stability. Nor do Mr. Arafat's longstanding international benefactors pretend any longer that he is capable of responsibly governing a sovereign state if he ever got the chance. The retirement of Mr. Arafat, who is 74, would allow the creation of a more credible Palestinian government that could garner international support and claim the moral high ground in the confrontation with Mr. Arafat's equally stubborn nemesis, Ariel Sharon. But there is, of course, no sign that Mr. Arafat is interested in much beyond his own myth. Pinned down for the last two years in his battered Ramallah bunker, Mr. Arafat has abused his control over the authority's treasury and militias. It seems to be of no importance to him that the Palestinian lands are in total ruin and that the fruits of the Oslo accords are in tatters. His reflexive insistence that this is all the fault of ''Zionists,'' the West and other Arabs is unsustainable. Mr. Arafat himself bears a large share of the responsibility for these misfortunes. Saying that it's time for Mr. Arafat to go is not the same as saying it is time for Mr. Arafat to be removed by force. He is, after all, a democratically elected leader, though the term he won in 1996 was never meant to be this long. Any Israeli or American-sanctioned move against him - or even an internal coup - would probably backfire. Ideally, Mr. Arafat's exit would be dictated by the Palestinian electorate at the polls, but there is nothing ideal about the Palestinian quandary, and it is unlikely that new elections can be organized in the occupied territories anytime soon. The dire situation calls for Mr. Arafat's immediate retirement. Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

DARFUR - EXPOSING ARAB GOALS FOR WHAT THEY ARE Posted by IsrAlert, August 3, 2004.

This was written by Shlomo Avineri and appeared in The Jerusalem Post yesterday. The EU and the UN have finally decided to take the first timid steps to try to put an end to what it happening in Darfur in the Sudan. The recent report by Human Rights Watch on Darfur corroborates the worst suspicions of those who have followed developments in western Sudan. There have been killings on a massive scale, expulsions, the systematic torching of villages and - last and not least - the use of rape as a weapon of intimidation and humiliation against the province's black population. These are not just the depredations of unruly Arab militias. They are the instruments of the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in its war against the black, non-Arab population of the province. This is, of course, not the first time Sudan has been involved in violence against its non-Arab population. For decades the Sudanese government has been trying to suppress an insurrection of black tribes, mainly the Dingas, in the South. In that case Khartoum was trying to impose Islamic law on the Southerners, who are mainly Christians and animists. In Darfur, those oppressed by the Sudan government are themselves Muslims. But in both cases, the Khartoum government has been engaged in oppressing and brutalizing black, non-Arab population groups. International public opinion - obviously slow to react, as in the case of Rwanda, to a horror in a far away land, where the victims are blacks and the details appear murky - has, however, overlooked the wider context in which these actions have occurred. One of the characteristics of Arab nationalism - epitomized in the official ideology of the Arab League - has been to view the region as exclusively Arab. Obviously, the majority of the population in the arc stretching from Morocco to Kuwait are culturally and linguistically Arab. Yet by calling it "the Arab region," Arab nationalist discourse states not only a demographic fact but also presents a normative entitlement: In the book of mainstream Arab nationalism, there is only one legitimate nation-bearing people in the area - the Arabs. This exclusivist, hegemonic aspect determines much of Arab politics. Hence there is no Arab voice accepting the rights of the Kurds in northern Iraq for self-determination; hence the difficulties of Algeria in accepting the Berbers - and their language - as a legitimate political component of the country; hence the violent opposition to the attempts of the Christian Maronites to mold a slightly different identity for Lebanon; hence the angry response in Egypt when the issue of the Christian Coptic is raised. The Egyptian riposte has consistently been that there are no minorities in Egypt. It is in this context that the deep unwillingness to accept the legitimacy of Israel has to be understood. If any nation in Central or Eastern Europe were to maintain that it has the monopoly of being a Staats-Nation (to use a historically discredited German term), nobody would accept it - and international opinion would, justly, brand it as racist and chauvinistic. This, however, is at the core of the belief system of Arab nationalism. The violence in Sudan - as well as the current violence in Iraq, aimed, among others, also against Kurdish autonomy - is just a more violent expression of the same pernicious thread running though dominant Arab political thinking. No wonder the Arab League, so vociferous on other issues, has been silent. What is happening in Darfur is much worse than what Slobodan Milosevic tried to do to the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Nobody wants to see the international community involved in another humanitarian war in Africa. But the issue in Darfur is not just a need for more or quicker humanitarian aid. It is the consequence of a deep, far-reaching version of ethnocentric Arab nationalism, and it has to be robustly confronted, intellectually and politically, for what it is. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

MARTIN INDYK: ARAFAT'S YES-MAN Posted by David Bedein, August 3, 2004.

This appeared on the Front Page Magazine (www.frontpagemagazine.com) website yesterday. Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry's newly appointed Middle East advisor, Martin Indyk, has been working for years to garner American support for Yasser Arafat and his terrorist regime. As the Middle East Advisor to the Clinton administration, Indyk managed to help Arafat wrest complete control over the Palestinian people through deceit and subterfuge. And now, if he gets his way, American troops may find themselves in the middle of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip-providing cover for Hamas and Palestinian Jihad. The Israeli newspaper correspondent, Natan Guttman, from Ha'Aretz, reported that Indyk has said he expected the Israeli government to pay more serious attention to John Kerry. Sources close to Indyk indicated the Kerry campaign felt miffed that the Israeli government had yet to dispatch its head of state to meet with Kerry, and that the Israeli government was simply too closely coordinated with President George W. Bush. The very mention of Indyk, who served two stints as ambassador to Israel, sends shudders down the spine of senior members of the Israel defense and foreign policy establishment. For the past year, Indyk, in his new capacity as the head of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, has conducted a campaign to dispatch U.S. troops to intervene in the Middle East conflict. Indyk has gone so far as to say that the U.S. should sent troops or create a protectorate over the West Bank and Gaza. Such a step would place the U.S. in a virtual state of war with the Israeli army, which has always viewed some of the West Bank and Gaza as vital to the security concerns of the state of Israel. Indyk - who, by the way, is funded by millionaire toy inventor Haim Saban, who also catapulted Ehud Barak into his disastrous short term as Prime Minister of Israel - is generally looked upon as the man who planned the Oslo process that gave Yassir Arafat and the PLO armed control over most of the Palestinian Arab population. In 1994, journalist Haim Shibi of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported that in 1987, Indyk had convinced more than 150 members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment that Israel should unilaterally withdraw from territories gained in 1967 Six Day War. Indyk oversaw every step of the disastrous Oslo process with this precise policy in mind of Israel giving up land vital to her defense. And Indyk did not hesitate to misrepresent the intentions and policies of the PLO while doing so. Particularly, the PLO has never adhered to the basic commitment it made to cancel its covenant that calls for the eradication of the Jewish state. In September 1995, with the signing of the second Oslo interim agreement at the White House, the U.S. Congress mandated that the U.S. would only be able to provide funds to the Palestinian Authority and provide diplomatic status to Arafat if the PLO covenant was finally canceled. The Palestinians have never done it, yet the foreign aid money kept rolling in to the Palestinian Authority. On April 24, 1996, the PLO convened a special session of its Palestine National Council (PNC) to consider the subject of the PLO covenant cancellation. Our news agency dispatched a Palestinian TV crew to cover that session, which filmed the event. The film crew brought back a videotape that showed a lively discussion, the conclusion of which was to ratify Arafat's suggestion that the PNC simply create a committee to "discuss" the subject. I rushed the video to Ambassador Indyk for comment, but he did not respond to that request. In addition, he chose to ignore the decision of the PNC and instead to issue a falsified report to President Clinton and to the U.S. Congress that the PLO covenant had been canceled. As a result, Arafat was provided with a red carpet greeting at the White House on May 1, 1996. The next day, Hebrew University Professor Yehoshua Porat, a former activist in Peace Now and an expert in Palestinian studies who is fluent in Arabic, convened a press conference in which he shared documents of the PNC session and the videotape that proved Arafat never canceled the PLO covenant. But the damage was already done. Thanks to the obfuscations of Martin Indyk, Arafat received the crucial diplomatic recognition and foreign aid that he needed from the U.S. to buttress the PLO. In December 1998, Clinton himself came to Gaza, accompanied by Indyk, and asked for a show of hands from members of the PNC as to whether they want to cancel the PLO covenant and make peace with Israel. He got his true answer when the next day, Arafat's trusted spokesman, Yassir Abed Abbo, told the Palestinian Arabic media that the PNC had, of course, not canceled any covenant. In September, 2000, Dr. Uzi Landau, then serving as the head of the Knesset State Control Committee (the equivalent of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs), took the unusual step of filing a formal complaint against United States Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. Landau quoted the September 16, 2000 report in the Guardian of London that "the U.S. Ambassador to Israel yesterday urged Israel to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians." Mr. Indyk said: "There is no other solution but to share the holy city..." and Landau also noted that Ambassador Indyk was similarly quoted by the Associated Press, The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz. Landau went on to say that "the timing of the speech and the political context in which it was delivered leave no room for doubt that Ambassador Indyk was calling on the Government of Israel to divide Jerusalem. Indeed, the Guardian correspondent described the remarks as 'a sharp departure from Washington orthodoxy in recent years.'" In addition to his remarks concerning Jerusalem, Ambassador Indyk offered his views regarding secular-religious tensions in Israel and the role of the Reform and Conservative movements in Judaism. He also intimated his tacit support for Prime Minister Barak's so-called secular revolution. As a commentator in the liberal daily Ha'aretz, noted: "readers are urged to imagine what the Americans would say if the Israeli ambassador to Washington were to come to a local religious institution and say such things." Landau, who today serves in a ministerial post in the Israeli government that negotiates the sensitive relations between the U.S. and Israel, mentioned in his letter to Clinton that he wished to "strongly protest Ambassador Indyk's blatant interference in Israel's internal affairs and democratic process... I am sure you would agree that it is simply unacceptable for a foreign diplomat to involve himself so provocatively in the most sensitive affairs of the country to which he is posted. If a foreign ambassador stationed in the United States were to involve himself in a domestic American policy debate regarding race relations or abortion, the subsequent outcry would not be long in coming. Ambassador Indyk's remarks about Jerusalem are an affront to Israel, particularly since he made them in the heart of the city that he aspires to divide. By needlessly raising Arab expectations on the Jerusalem issue, rather than moderating them, Ambassador Indyk has caused inestimable damage to the peace process. It is likewise inexplicable that Ambassador Indyk would choose to interject his private religious preferences into the debate over secular-religious tensions in Israel." Landau made it a point even more by stating that "this is not the first time that the American Embassy in Israel has interfered in our internal affairs. In February, I wrote to you in the wake of media reports that Embassy officials were lobbying Israeli-Arab leaders regarding a possible referendum on the Golan Heights. My fear is that such interference in Israel's affairs is rapidly becoming routine." Landau concluded his missive to Clinton with a "Request that you recall Ambassador Indyk to the United States." Unfortunately, Landau's protestations did not help. Only two months later, in early November 2000, Arafat's Second Intifada terror campaign was getting underway, and Indyk was strongly condemning Israel's military actions against Arafat's forces. Indyk remarked that what the Israelis had to do was to get Arafat to act against the perpetrators of the violence, such as Hamas, Tanzim gangs and the Islamic Jihad diplomatically. He did not mention that Arafat's own Force 17 bodyguard, Preventive Security and other Palestinian Authority forces were also responsible for a considerable portion of the violence. Indyk never wants to hold Arafat responsible when Arafat's personal forces carry out terrorist activities and kill people. And in late November 2000, when Israel issued a "white paper" on intercepted intelligence from Arafat's headquarters that showed documentary evidence that Arafat and his mainstream PLO gangs were indeed facilitating the campaign of terror, Indyk made a special trip to Jerusalem to demand that the Israeli government withdraw its report. Indyk had just reported to the U.S. Congress that the Palestinian groups organizing the terror campaign were NOT under Arafat's control. Eight months later, on May 21, 2001, in an address to Ben Gurion University, Indyk stuck to his guns and continued to position Arafat and company as U.S. colleagues in the War on Terror by telling Israel: "What you do is you get Arafat to act against the perpetrators of the violence, Hamas, Tanzim gangs, the Islamic Jihad and you get the Israeli government to hold back the Israeli army while he does so. But that requires a great deal of energy and commitment on Arafat's part - in very risky circumstances to take on the very angry Palestinian street - and that requires a great deal of restraint and forbearance on the part of the government of Israel." Indyk's admonition to Israel to turn the other cheek when it comes to Arafat has become his mantra. Meanwhile, Israelis and even some American citizens have died at the hands of the PLO. In geopolitical circles, Indyk's ideas of dispatching U.S. troops to an area where they could become targets of the PLO or be killed in crossfire between Israeli troops and Arafat's forces had rendered him obsolete. That is until Senator Kerry appointed Inyk as his man for Middle East policy two days ago. Now they will have to take Indyk's personal policy to hide the crimes of Fatah and the PLO and coerce American soldiers to protect Arafat's terrorists seriously. Imagine if the PLO fires upon Jewish population centers and American soldiers get killed in the crossfire. Because this is what the PLO wants. Furthermore, the PLO openly and verbally supports the insurgency in Iraq. How long will it be before American soldiers are taken hostage by Palestinian terror groups, or worse, killed like the 241 U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983? Are American lives threatened by Kerry's choice for his Middle East advisor? Time will tell. So will the November elections. David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency. (http://Israelbehindthenews.com). To Go To Top

HIZBULLAH, EXTREMISTS, RATIONALIZING EVIL-DOING Posted by Richard H, Shulman, August 3, 2004.

HIZBULLAH MORE OF A MENACE TO ISRAEL Hizbullah recently had increased the number of its rockets that could reach Haifa from 10,000 to 12,000. Now it has rockets whose range encompasses Tel Aviv, in central Israel and Ashdod, further south (IMRA, 7/25). The price for temporarily sparing a few soldiers in Lebanon keeps rising. It did not take much imagination to foresee this. Imagination is in short supply among my fellow Jews. RATIONALIZING ONE'S EVIL-DOING Many but not all of the Jews of Yesha live there out of religious duty to preserve it. PM Sharon wants to uproot some (or all) of them (for reasons he has failed to show are sensible or honorable). He has appointed, of all people, a religious Jew, to head the task of transfer. This official knows what he is planning is wrong. It is wrong in terms of secular Zionism and justice, and it violates the rule of Torah he says he believes in. He is the darling of opponents of Judaism. Asked why he does it, he replies that he, at least, would do it with compassion. The story was told to Jonathan Pollard. Mr. Pollard has heard that kind of rationalization from criminals many times during his 18 years of imprisonment. Criminals are adept at making excuses for what they do (IMRA, 7/25) when they admit having done it. The Judenrats in Nazi-occupied Europe rationalized the same way. In the end, the entire ghettoes were liquidated, including themselves. One who did escape, a Mr. Kastner, was very "tight" with the Nazi leadership, yet assured fellow Hungarians that he would save them. His deal was to save a limited number, his relatives and fellow-townsmen, and bring them to Israel. There he was a high-ranking member of the Labor Party, until, under great odds, an individual got him brought up on trial and the resulting embarrassment apparently led to his assassination. WHAT ARAB IMMIGRANTS DO IN EUROPE Arab immigrants in France attack Jews. Most attacks are not reported, usually out of fear. (Then the government can deny its full extent). They also commit crimes against the general population but especially their own women. These Arabs find a life of crime acceptable. They reject loyalty to their country, being faithful only to their religion. The more violent they become, the more France engages in appeasement of them. Thus it recognized officially the Moslem Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt (and is equivalent to Hamas). The Brotherhood preaches violence, so violence is what French appeasement reaps. France set up a national council for Muslims, expecting it would be moderate, but it became the voice of extremism. Ten French Arabs were convicted of having attacked a girl. Their relatives left the court vowing revenge. Some days later, the court was burned down and the girl's family had to flee. The same phenomenon is occurring in the rest of Europe. Countries that allowed schools to be run in the Muslims' foreign languages saw even less assimilation. However, Westernized Muslims feel alienated and are striving for jihad. The men import Muslim wives from their home countries. In France, al-Qaeda has recruited tens of thousands of men. It is training them militarily. In Germany, they are following an Iranian model that glorifies suicide-homicide for its own sake. They are building terrorist cells. In England, Arabs falsely claim refugee status. They are being taught about explosives. Although French intelligence has identified to British authorities which terrorists have crossed over from France, and which British mosques they attend, the British police do not intervene. Europe may be taken over in a decade or two (IMRA, 7/25). Now tell me that mass-expulsion is not a proper solution! HALF THE ARAB MODERATES Sheikh Al-Qaradahwi traveled to London, to organize Muslims. He denied accusations of extremism. Detractors, however, quoted statements of his such as that "Between Muslims and Jews there is only the sword." (IMRA, 7/26.) Islamists in Western society deny in general terms general accusations of extremism. Their organizations' English-language literature professes missions in democracy, tolerance and charity of a kind that the Arabs do not believe in and those organizations oppose. Westerners gearing up for the war on Islamism had better learn swiftly to discount Islamist denials and make their accusations specific, with quotations, and not general and evadable. Islamists are freely traveling in the Western world, organizing Islamist subversion. The West also should have strict rules barring known Islamists from entering their countries as visitors or for any other reason. Civil liberties arguments against this kind of restriction are fallacious. They go back to the era of the McCarren Act in the US, if I recall. It barred Communists from entry. It was superfluous, because the Communists had too few supporters in the US for foreign organizers to do anything with. The Soviet bloc had in their embassies the agents it needed. The Act was abused to bar people without genuine association with Communism. Now there are millions of supporters of Islamism in the West, either fanatical or primed by their culture to become so. The foreign clerics have much human material to organize. They should be barred. Changes in the times, i.e., changes in circumstances, leave many people unable to adapt what they learned from the past to current problems. ISRAELIS CALLED "EXTREMISTS" No, they don't blow up people of other faiths. These Israelis, organized by the "settlers," formed a human chain 90 kilometers long from Gaza to Jerusalem. The 130,000 people protested the Sharon plan to abandon Gaza and affirmed their love of the Land of Israel, with tears in their eyes and the national anthem in their throats. Even the leftist newspaper, "Maariv," found it moving. In furtherance of his scheme, and to preserve himself in power before his Cabinet crumbles altogether, PM Sharon has invited the Labor Party into the Cabinet. Now, however, Foreign Min. Shalom has declared opposition to the invitation. Sharon is more likely to be remembered for his later betrayal of his country and having become hated by its people, than for his earlier salvation of his country (Voice of Judea, 7/26, e-mail). HOW ARABS GET THROUGH THE FENCE Arab men seduce female Israeli soldiers. The soldiers then tell them the secrets about observation posts, changing of the guard, etc.. One's rifle was stolen from the hotel room in which she arranged a tryst with an Arab. Perhaps the gender of the guards should be changed? It's worse on the beaches. Arab youths flock there and either pretend to be Jewish or act nicely and many Jewish girls do not care about the ethnic difference. Intermarriage is growing, because the girls have not been brought up with a sense of Jewish values and loyalty (Op. Cit.). Their promiscuity has gone from being shameful to being subversive. That society is getting sicker. The naive girls, married or not, end up as virtual captives in a hostile atmosphere. Not wanting to be "racist," they become victims of racism by the enemies of their country. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

HAS THE EU BEEN LEFT BEHIND IN THE MIDDLE EAST? Posted by David Frankfurter, August 3, 2004.

Who needs Chairman Arafat? Groomed by the KGB, the predominant figure in the Palestinian revolution for over 3 decades is promoted by his European apologists as having abandoned the ways of terror. No longer does he plan the murder of Israeli athletes at Olympic games or the massacre of Christians in Lebanese villages like Damour. So why are Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and elsewhere beginning to revolt against the mechanisms of Arafat's rule? And, why does the EU insist on executing its Middle East policy as if nothing has changed? The background history is simple and brief. The security services of the USA, UK and Sweden in 1990, 1991 and 1997 respectively had all declared that the PLO and the PA leadership were involved in racketeering at the expense of the Palestinians themselves. In 2002, the Israelis submitted documentary evidence to the EU, exposing the philandering of the PA, even to the extent of supporting violence. And yet, by the end of 2003, the EU and member countries had transferred around EUR 4 billion directly and indirectly to the PA. This year's growing evidence of corruption has been startling. Aside from the French investigation into the luxurious living of Mrs. Arafat in Paris, mayors in the West Bank have resigned in disgust at the internal nepotism and continuing violence. Similarly, hundreds of members have left Fatah, the backbone of Chairman Arafat's domestic political power. In May and June, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt joined the calls for swift and meaningful change. As if this was not enough, the UN's special envoy in the Middle East Terje Roed-Larsen recently condemned the failures of the PA, led by Chairman Arafat. The Norwegian diplomat, who is known to have a close relationship for at least a decade with the Palestinians, stated in his July report to the Security Council: "Regarding the crucial area of security reforms, the president of the PA has lent only nominal and partial support to the commendable Egyptian effort aimed at reforming the ailing Palestinian security services." Amazingly, this criticism has led him to become a persona non grata with his former friends. It is reported that he cannot visit Palestinian territories under threat of death. History tells us that the end of totalitarian regimes is often preceded by chaos. Today, in Nablus, Jenin and elsewhere, local gangs have taken the law into their own hands. Rioting and kidnapping abound in Gaza. The commander of PA's civil police in Gaza, Ghazi Jabali, has been thrown out of office by the mob. He is accused of extorting sexual favours and embezzling over $20 million. This money comes from the PA budget - 60% of which is covered by overseas donors such as the EU. The Palestinian street erupted again over the appointment of Jabali's successor, Musa Arafat, a cousin to the great beholder of European hopes. Where does this leave the European Union? The brutal fact is that the EU is finding that its wonderful relations with the Palestinian leadership - bought with wads of unsupervised money - is not enough to bring it the influence it seeks. Brussels has spent years backing the PA, an institution, which is evidently pervaded with corruption and violence. Even the possible current alternatives to Chairmen Arafat, including Mohammed Dahlan and Abu Ala, do not posses backgrounds coated in democracy and appeasement. Nevertheless, the EU has made it clear where it will continue to channel its energies. The meeting of Foreign Ministers in Brussels in mid July was dominated by criticisms of Israel's security fence. Europe is determined to force Israel to listen to their demands. Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, declares: "And if Israel is not prepared to engage in dialogue in a satisfactory way with the European Union, then obviously the European Union must also consider possible consequences of that." As this was not enough, Europe is also demanding a par with the Americans in influencing the peace process. The EU Ambassador to Israel, Giancarlo Chevallard, was subtle but direct: "The EU does not oppose the US position in the driver's seat, but Israel should take into account that the EU can be of great help. We have good relations with - the Palestinians, and we therefore constitute a potential lever for influencing them, provided that we can have a similar influence on Israel?" Chevallard and his colleagues conveniently ignore the fact that the Americans have also given over $1.3 billion in aid to the Palestinians over the past decade, in addition to their aid to Israel. And Washington has pressured the Israelis at the key moments, as well as being critical of the Palestinian leadership. Israel has a plan to withdraw from Gaza. It may not be perfect, but it offers a clear way forward to peace. Brussels should use their rhetoric to encourage the Palestinians to meet their Roadmap obligations and abandon their weapons. European money should be directed from supporting a negligent PA to backing the Israeli disengagement and the costs involved. The neglected Palestinian Arabs, denied money and responsible leadership for years, will be the first to benefit. Instead of bullying Israel into capitulating to terror, Europe should start to earn its place as a diplomatic force. To subscribe to Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. To Go To Top

REROUTING OF DEFENSE BARRIER LEAVES ISRAEL'S HEARTLAND UNPROTECTED Posted by IsrAlert, August 3, 2004.

This is a DEBKAfile Special Analysis, July 28, 2004. The fateful June 30 judgment by Israeli High Court Justices Aharon Barak, Mishael Heshin and Eliahu Matza, that saving Palestinians from hardship must take precedence over saving Israeli lives, foredoomed to failure the security barrier's efficacy in separating Palestinian terrorists from their chosen targets in the most heavily populated parts of Israel. The alacrity of prime minister Ariel Sharon and defense minister Shaul Mofaz to comply with this ruling - as though it were a judgment from heaven - has stamped Israel's four-and-a-half year conflict against Palestinian terrorism with the mark of its government's weakness. A cursory examination of the map attached to this article betrays the extent to which the Sharon government has botched the entire defense barrier project. The map shows the revised route as approved by Mofaz Tuesday night for presentation to the prime minister's office Wednesday, July 28. } Ignoring the extensive population fluctuations since 1967, the route has been dragged closer to the old Green Line. The barrier starting from Elkana north of Trans-Shomron Highway 5 now turns west to skirt the eastern outskirts of Rosh Ha'Ayin and wind south along the Rosh Ha-Ayin-Ben Shemen Highway 444. From Ben Shemen, the fence turns east up to Maccabim. No barrier is allowed to protect the next 8 kilometers of Highway 443 from Maccabim to Givat Zeev on the western fringe of Jerusalem, despite its proximity to Ramallah. The IDF promises to 'secure' the road by other means. In the Jerusalem district, the fence will circumvent the houses and lands of the Palestinian villages of Bidou (opposite the Jewish suburb of Har Adar) and Beit Iqsa. The latter abuts on the Jerusalem suburb of Ramot and the western edge of Mevassaret Zion. The same village is also situated in strategic command of the Motza-Sakharov Junction section at the Jerusalem end of the main Highway 1 from Tel Aviv. Palestinian terrorists will therefore retain unimpeded access to the following key locations in central Israel: The Rosh Ha'Ayin conurbation (30 km northeast of Tel Aviv) south of Highway 5; the residential-industrial block of Shoham, Elad, and Beit Arie, as well as Ben Gurion international airport, Israel Air Industries and the urban center of Modi'in that depend on Highway 444, plus the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway 443. All the locations on this list will remain dangerously unprotected against - and within range of -Palestinian mortars and Qassam missiles, as well as suicide bombers. So too will the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway 1. Should West Bank Palestinians decided to launch simultaneous barrages against the segments of Highways 443 and 1 under their guns, they can cut Jerusalem off from the rest of the country, leaving it dependent on the old, narrow, winding 395 route through Ain Karem. One could shrug off these perils and say: leave it all to the Israeli army to take care of, were it not for two fresh developments. 1. Israeli forces deployed more than a month in the northern Gaza Strip, focusing on Beit Hanoun, are yet unable to stamp out the Palestinian Qassam missile offensive against southern Israel. The fact of the matter is that no army in the world today, even US forces in Baghdad, are capable of totally halting missile and mortar attacks carried out by small, swiftly moving teams who keep their weapons hidden at home. Official Israeli releases catalogue the missile attacks directed against the western Negev to the east of the Gaza Strip. They omit mention of the missiles the Palestinians shoot north in the direction of the Ashkelon power station. So far, the Palestinian missile launchers have shot wide of this target, but their first hit could put out the lights in large parts of Israel. 2. The current power struggle in the Palestinian leadership is misrepresented as a conflict between Arafat at the head of a war-and-terror faction and peace-loving reformists. Israeli spokesmen refrain from pointing out that the opposition fighting Arafat and his corrupt ways wants control over Palestinian institutions, but certainly not for the sake of ending the war against Israel. Quite the reverse; Arafat's foes are as determined as he to continue their terror campaign against the Jewish state, only they believe that reformed Palestinian security forces in their hands would wage this war to greater effect. By failing to expose the real objectives of Palestinian anti-Arafat, pro-reform dissidents as regards Israel and agreeing to reduce the defense barrier's usefulness as a shield, the Sharon government is playing into inimical Palestinian hands. Regardless of who comes out on top of the Palestinian leadership conflict, the IDF will be left with the tough task of defending the almost indefensible. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

AN EXCERPT FROM "THE AMERICAN PROPHECIES" Posted by Michael D. Evans, August 2, 2004.

The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, "The American Prophecies". While Lincoln's hands were full with the issues surrounding the Civil War, he did at least express sympathy concerning the establishment of a Jewish homeland. In fact, Lincoln even received a prophetic appeal from Henry Wentworth Monk in March of 1863. When one of the President's public addresses was opened for questions, from the back rows of the room Monk stepped forward, introduced himself as a visitor from Canada, and asked the President: "Why not follow the emancipation of the Negro by a still more urgent step, the emancipation of the Jew?" Lincoln faltered at this. "The Jew - why the Jew? Are they not free already?" "Certainly, Mr. President, the American Jew is free, and so is the English Jew, but not the European. In America we live so far off that we are blinded to what goes on in Russia and Prussia and Turkey. There can be no permanent peace in the world until the civilized nations ... atone for what they have done to the Jews - for their two thousand years of persecution-by restoring them to their national home in Palestine." "That is a noble dream, Mr. Monk," Lincoln responded, "and one shared by many Americans. I myself have a high regard for the Jews... But the United States is at the moment a house divided against itself. We must first bring this dreadful war to a victorious conclusion ... and then, Mr. Monk, we may begin again to see visions and dream dreams. Then you will see what leadership America will show the world!" However, despite what intentions Lincoln may have had in his heart concerning this issue, he was assassinated before he could act on any of them. Yet God still held the U.S. in His hand as a tool to fulfill prophecy. A new call for American support of replanting Israel in its ancient lands would soon come from a Christian businessman of Oak Park, Illinois, who would pick up the torch that MacDonald and others had lit. Again the push towards a Jewish homeland came from a Christian and not a Jew, but given the Jewish perspective of the time, perhaps this is not so remarkable. From 1881 to about 1920, the United States saw the greatest period of immigration, among which were three million Jews from Eastern Europe. It was the time of America's Open Door and the Great Melting Pot. It is not surprising that a Jewish poetess, Emma Lazarus, would write the words emblazoned in bronze on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch Whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles... "Keep ancient lands your storied pomp," cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Palestine at the time was a desert wasteland in the hands of the unfriendly Turks-America held much greater promise than returning there. In fact, the Jews in the United States came to view America as their Promised Land. They were comfortable in America's graces and felt no need to seek peace elsewhere. This great sentiment was not without its repercussions, however. As the poor Jews of Europe flooded to America, it not so much answered "The Jewish Problem" as brought it to America. The United States felt it could not hold them all, and some other answer would have to be sought. As a result, in 1921 Congress passed a quota targeting mostly Europeans who were unskilled workers. Another law was passed in 1921 that limited each country to sending the equivalent of only three percent of its nationals already living in America in 1910. This law limited immigration to 357,000 people. Three years later the Johnson-Reed Immigration Restriction of 1924 lowered this quota to two percent, while also lowering the base year to 1890-when only 150,000 people were allowed in. The government's restrictive immigration policy thus cut immigration from 800,000 in 1921 to 23,000 in 1933. Ellis Island's role quickly changed from a depot to a detention center. In 1915, Ellis Island admitted 178,000 immigrants; by 1919 that number fell to 26,000. Something would different would have to be done to solve the Jewish Problem in Europe rather than shipping them to the United States. However, before any of this even really started, God had appointed someone to step forward with a solution-William Eugene Blackstone. Blackstone was born into a Methodist home in upstate New York in 1841, but followed his fortunes west to Oak Park, Illinois after the Civil War. Though he was not an ordained minister, but rather the founder of a construction and investment company, Blackstone was an ardent student of the Bible from his boyhood. In 1878, he published a book called Jesus Is Coming that sold over a million copies (no small feat in a nation of only about fifty million-roughly a sixth of what America's population is today). While the book was offensive to many who had grown comfortable in their American Christianity and were content to live the American dream, it was welcomed by such men as Dwight L. Moody and Cyrus I. Scofield who appreciated his more literal interpretation of the scriptures and welcomed a more active and evangelical, missions-minded Christianity. It so touched the American conscience that it "in a large measure set the tone for this period of history." Blackstone's book was so well documented that it was actually more scripture than commentary, listing hundreds of Bible passages for the reader to review on their own because of the limited space. It was a hard book for any true believer to ignore. Suddenly, once again, an American was becoming a beacon to the world pointing to Bible prophecy. The book was eventually translated into forty-eight languages, including Hebrew, and is still in print today. Chapter fifteen of the book is titled simply, "Israel to Be Restored," and starts with this passage: Perhaps you say, "I don't believe the Israelites are to be restored to Canaan, and Jerusalem to be rebuilt." Have you read the declarations in God's Word about it? Surely nothing is more plainly stated in the Scriptures. From here he goes on to list eighty-nine different Scripture passages that support this assertion. Later in the chapter he further states: It would seem that such overwhelming testimony would convince every fair-minded reader that there is a glorious future restoration in store for Israel... I could fill a book with comments about how Israel will be restored, but all I have desired to do was to show that it is an incontrovertible fact of prophecy, and that it is intimately connected with our Lord's appearing.[i] Perhaps Blackstone's remarks seem somewhat overstated to us some six-and-a-half decades after the birth of Israel as a state, but to those of his time, some six-and-a-half decades before the event, the confidence of his statements was no less than prophetic. Few in America's churches seemed to give any real credence to the possibility that the Jews would ever have their own land and state again, let alone in their ancient homeland with Jerusalem as their capital. For their part, the Jews overall had little interest in the idea themselves. By the outbreak of World War I, only about 20,000 of the 2.5 million Jews in the U.S. belonged to any type of Zionist organization.[ii] American Jews were quite happy where they were. However, Blackstone looked upon Israel as "God's sun-dial." He even went so far as to say, "If anyone desires to know our place in God's chronology, our position in the march of events, look at Israel."[iii] For Blackstone, it was the next milestone to what for along the river of prophecy. In what light did the American churches interpret the scriptures that Blackstone was quoting? How could they have missed the obviousness of these prophecies concerning the rebirth of Israel? They interpreted them as referring to "spiritual Israel"-as the Church of the modern day. Wisely, Blackstone had a few things to say about this as well-a subject that would touch on some of the darkest episodes for the descendants of Isaac in the next century. He saw quite plainly that Israel and the church were separate entities with separate futures as applied to their different covenants. God had not forsaken one for the other, but rather had a unique plan for each. However, by replacing literal Israel in the Bible with the Church, Christians of the time no longer had to feel any responsibility to the Jews as God's Chosen People. This "Replacement Theology" would be exactly what would quiet the church in Germany during World War II as the death camps sped into full swing. They had no obligation to the Jews. They were "suffering for their sins of rejection the Messiah." It was as if Jesus' death cut them free from these people rather than grafted them into their tree. However they saw it, this insidious virus-an invisible anti-Semitism-allowed the mainstream German Church to look the other way as the most horrific and ungodly things were done. As Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor wrote: The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man in nothing but the product of heredity and environment - or, as the Nazis liked to say, 'Of blood and Soil.' I'm absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desk and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. Michael D. Evans is the author of "Beyond Iraq: The Next Move," and founder of America's largest Christian coalition praying for the peace of Jerusalem, Jerusalem Prayer Team.org. To Go To Top

40-TON BOMB TO DROP ON WHITE HOUSE Posted by Beth Goodtree, August 2, 2004.

Starting now, every citizen in America has the opportunity to launch a 40-ton bomb aimed straight for Congress and the White House. Thanks to a coalition of people crossing all political and religious affiliations, we have a chance to profoundly alter government policy that would be disastrous for America. In the aftermath of 9-11, President Bush swore that "You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists." Yet when it comes to Israel, US government policy has been aiding and abetting the terrorists, while punishing the victims of Arab/ terror. This policy gives terrorists the message that homicide bombings, rocket attacks, kidnappings and more are not merely acceptable to the US government, but that such behavior will be rewarded by US policy. Since last year, President Bush has been promoting a scheme dreamed up by the Wahabbi Islamist Saudis in 2002. As reported in the BBC, Saudi Arabi first proposed Israel cut out her soul, expel her own people, and give her land to those committed to her destruction. This scheme was presented by the US, EU, Russia and UN in 2003 and given the positive-sounding name of `The Roadmap.' It demands that a Muslim country, founded and occupied by past and present terrorists and their followers be created within the heart of Israel. These terrorists, who erroneously call themselves `Palestinian,' admit that they are nothing more than Arabs of various backgrounds. They also admit they have no rights or claims as a group to any country of their own. And they further admit that the purpose of a `Palestinian' country is to destroy Israel, as evidenced by the following quote: "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct `Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism." - Zahir Muhsein, Executive Committee Member of the PLO, from a March 31, 1977 interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw. The creation of such a `Palestinian' state, besides giving legitimacy to terrorism and a safe harbor for the likes of al-Qaeda, is in the worst interests of the American people. In the past year, these terrorist organizations that will become an integral part of the new `Palestinian' country deliberately bombed and murdered a group of Americans traveling there to hand out scholarships. They have murdered Americans, including children, and they danced in the streets when we were attacked on 9-11. They have only contempt for America. They incite hatred from their official mosques, schools and media outlets while picking the American taxpayers' pocket to fund them. For those of us who feel outraged yet voiceless, The Global Israel Alliance is giving us all a chance not merely to have a voice, but to create a sonic boom. They have put forth a new kind of referendum that gives every American a chance to send a message directly to Congress and The White House. For the next 2 months every American can vote on the following question: "Do you support the creation of a Palestinian State within Israel?" One may vote online or by paper ballot made available at various non-sectarian organizations as well as religious institutions. Millions of Americans are voting and these votes will be tallied and personally delivered by tractor trailer (capacity 40 tons) to both the White House and Congress. Imagine the impact on Bush's reelection hopes when 40 tons of ballots tell him that we deplore his rewarding terrorism, illegitimate claims to land within a peaceful and democratic sovereign nation, as well as outright lies. We revile his creation and funding (with our hard-earned tax dollars) of yet another Islamic state founded upon terrorism and meant to convert land that is holy to Christians and Jews into another Islamist entity. We, your constituency, will un-elect you based upon your anti-Holy Land, anti-US policy, or re-elect you if you reverse your stance. For more information or to vote, contact http//globalisraelalliance.org, or call (414) 324-1503. Beth Goodtree is an award-winning writer and editorialist. She lives in the NYC-metro area and can be contacted at: BGoodtree@aol.com To Go To Top

NOTHING CAN STOP OUR SONG - THE SONG OF THE REBUILDING OF GUSH KATIF Posted by Anita Tucker, August 2, 2004.

Gush Katif: Israel's very own "Harvest Belt" With the help of Heaven: 14th of Tammuz, 5764 - July 25th, 2004 Recently, for reasons not clear, it has become increasingly difficult for the residents of Gush Katif to obtain mortgages for constructing new buildings and making home improvement for existing buildings. Harvest Belt residents, reeling from the damage caused by more than 4000 short-range missiles fired into their homes, are being prevented by the State of Israel from rebuilding their homes. Yesterday, in an insensitive, slap in the face, Minister of Housing Tsippi Livni finally let the cat out of the bag. Livni confirmed reports and made it official: The Department of Housing of the State of Israel will no longer provide government mortgages to Gush Katif residents, thereby effectively cutting off the possibility receiving other kinds of loans. What is going on here? Have we forgotten why we came to Israel in the first place? Does our leadership still believe that Israel is a State for the Jews, as the United Nations intended and the founders of the modern Israeli state declared so boldly little more than half a century ago? Even more difficult and painful to hear than Livni's crass bureaucratic blurbs was what the President of Israel, Mr. Moshe Katsav, had to say during his visit to Gush Katif. In Mr. Katsav's opinion, there is no longer a reason to build more nursery schools and kindergartens for pre-school children in Gush Katif! Hearing such words, we are immediately reminded of how Miriam the Prophetess, sister of the Biblical prophet Moses, would respond - in the spirit of how she rebuked her own father, Amram: 'The Government only outlaws working on our homes - but you are passing sentence on our children!' It goes without saying that we view such a Government 'action' as blatantly illegal, and exhibiting a total insensitivity to the legitimate needs of the governed in this country. We are investigating the legal and political ramifications of such a position. One can only guess what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is thinking. He now thumbs his nose at the most basic responsibilities expected of him as the leader of the only real democracy in the Middle East, is ruthlessly pressing his plan forward even BEFORE it is approved as law by the cabinet and the Knesset (Parliament). In light of these very serious developments, the law-abiding citizens of Israel's Harvest Belt who are in various stages of building their homes in the Land of Israel - a right dreamed of by the People of Israel for all the centuries of our exile - are left hanging in the breeze, by the very Zionist government elected to protect their interests! We who see the distress of our brethren in this hour of need decided to prove to Israel and the world that "Nothing can stop the Song of the Rebuilding of Gush Katif, the Rebuilding of Zion." As a result, we entered negotiations with one of the larger banks in Israel, and we agreed to create a fund to serve as collateral for the bank to issue loans for continuing the building process. The bank has committed to being responsible for collecting contributions to the fund, and has agreed to extend loans to Gush Katif residents for the purpose of construction of housing and other infrastructure needed to support Gush Katif's growing population. The criteria and conditions of the loans will be comparable to those of mortgages that would have been issued by the Ministry of Housing. A committee of public figures in Gush Katif will work with the bank regarding those meriting loans, and the level of payments necessary for the loans to be given. We call upon the public to help defray the costs of this program, by providing guarantees and being signatories for the mortgages. We ask all who have the willingness and ability to assist in this endeavor to be partners in the rebuilding of the promised rebuilding of the Holy Land, as related in the Bible by the ancient Prophets of Israel. Help restore hope to the citizens of Gush Katif. The Members of the Public Committee for Rebuilding Gush Katif are: Arileh Tsur, Chairperson The former head of the Gaza Coast Regional Council Telephone: 972-50-746-189 Moti Sendor Founder and Manager of the Katif.net Internet Site http://www.katif.net    English Version: http://english.katif.net Telephone: 972-54-684-085 Rabbi Gabi Kadosh Community Educator and Spiritual Leader Telephone: 972-67-775-435 For more information, send e-mail to: bonim@katif.net Anita Tucker lives in Gush Katif, Gaza. She can be reached at tucker@isdn.net.il To Go To Top

THE PROBABLE TAKEOVER OF FATAH BY ITS MILITIA WILL CREATE A MORE RADICAL, HARD-LINE MOVEMENT WITH GROWING HAMAS INFLUENCE Posted by IsrAlert, August 2, 2004.

Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi is a researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam. His previous writings include "Is Hamas Preparing to Inherit the Palestinian Authority?" Jerusalem Issue Brief #3-14 (January 7, 2004); "Al-Qaeda's Intellectual Legacy: New Radical Islamic Thinking Justifying the Genocide of Infidels," Jerusalem Viewpoints #508 (December 1, 2003); "Who is Taking Credit for Attacks on the U.S. Army in Western Iraq? Al-Jama'a al-Salafiya al-Mujahida," Jerusalem Issue Brief #3-3 (August 5, 2003); and "Understanding the Breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations," Jerusalem Viewpoints #486 (September 15, 2002). The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the IDF. This is a Jerusalem Issue Brief, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Institute for Contemporary Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 30, 2 August 2004. * For the first time since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, popular rage aimed at the "corrupt leadership" enjoys the backing of the most powerful militia in Gaza - the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. * Arafat's opponents support the holding of municipal elections and elections to the Palestinian parliament in order to remove the Old Guard from power. In this way, the leaders of the intifada hope to receive the share of power they feel they deserve, and this would also improve Mohammad Dahlan's chances of succeeding Arafat. * The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which continues to express its commitment to the armed struggle, is striving to upgrade its status from an armed militia under the command of the political leadership of Fatah to become a central political element, controlling the mother movement by force and playing a major part in the decision-making process. * Thus, this is not an ideological struggle between old Arafat-Tunis hardliners originating from outside the territories and young moderate insiders, but rather a power struggle involving a broad spectrum of Arafat opponents, many of whom are no less inflexible and militant. * The probable takeover of Fatah by its militia will create a more radical and hard-line movement with regard to settling the conflict with Israel. In light of past operational cooperation between the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas, under the "Nationalist and Islamic Forces" umbrella, Hamas could become a stronger factor at a later stage by cooperating with these Fatah militants. A Significant Challenge to Arafat The organized protests that have recently erupted in the Gaza Strip represent a significant challenge to the leadership of Yasser Arafat. For the first time since the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994, popular rage aimed at the "corrupt leadership" enjoys the backing of the most powerful militia in Gaza - the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - which is the military wing of the Fatah movement headed by Arafat himself. Moreover, the criticism is being directed specifically toward Arafat for his lack of openness and his despotic way of running the PA. By late July, the revolt had spread to the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus. The sequence of events in Gaza began as follows: On 16 July 2004, armed Palestinians belonging to different factions within the Fatah movement abducted and then released police commander Razi Jebali, the head of the coordination office with Israel Khalid Abu Olah, and four French humanitarian activists in Khan Yunis. A PA military intelligence facility was also set on fire by Palestinian mobs. During the next two weeks, groups of armed Palestinians rallied against the corrupt leadership of the PA, burned down a police station in the village of Zawaidah, and briefly took over the governor's office in Khan Yunis, retreating only after Arafat yielded to their demand to reinstate eleven dismissed officers. (1) The escalating struggle with Arafat was also evidenced by the attempted assassination in Ramallah of former PA cabinet minister Nabil Amr, who was targeted by forces loyal to Arafat (that had threatened former PA Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas [Abu Mazen] in the past.) The Hidden Hand of Mohammad Dahlan Behind the rage in the Palestinian street stands the home-grown, local leadership, the Young Guard within the Fatah movement, as opposed to the Old Guard who had returned to the territories with Arafat from Tunis and elsewhere in 1994 after the Oslo Accords. Mohammad Dahlan, former head of the Preventive Security Service (PSS) in Gaza, is considered to be the hidden leader of the dissidents who defines the goals and targets, and orchestrates the rebellion by remote control. (2) Dahlan appears to have successfully gathered to his side a strong coalition comprised of loyal officers in the PSS, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades operatives, the Popular Resistance Committees (a terrorist militia headed by former PSS officers), the Abu Rish militia in Rafah, and the Fatah leadership in the Gaza Strip. (3) As the riots persist, more and more Palestinian politicians have dared to join the public demand for political reforms and the criticism of Arafat. Former Palestinian cabinet minister Rafiq al-Natshe said Arafat "runs a dictatorship," operates "gangs" to stay in power, and "oiled parliament members with twelve million dollars" in order to depose him from his former position. (4) Hannan Ashrawi, a prominent Palestinian spokeswoman and parliament member, called for the end of Arafat's "one-man-show" and accused him of unlawfully holding control of the security forces. (5) The PA Minister of Housing, Abd al-Rahman Hamad, called on Arafat to give up a portion of his security powers and appoint a strong minister of interior. In an interview with the Beirut daily Al-Hayat (25 July 2004), Mohammad Dahlan denied any connection to the revolt in Gaza, emphasizing that his dispute is with Arafat's corrupt assistants and advisors and not with Arafat himself, whom he called the "symbol" of the Palestinian people. However, Dahlan did not hesitate to express his sympathy for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. "I am proud of defending them [Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades operatives] every time it was necessary. They are familiar [to the Palestinian people] and are proud of their heroic operations, which brought dignity to the Palestinian people." (6) Despite his public denials, this is not the first time Dahlan has challenged Arafat in the past year. He has often criticized Arafat's ruling style in closed sessions, diplomatic meetings, and even in briefings with Western journalists. (7) In recent months, Dahlan has urged Fatah leaders in Gaza to invigorate political life within Fatah by beginning an electoral process to select the local leadership after years of organizational stagnation - ignoring Arafat's strong opposition to such moves. (8) Dahlan has also begun to go public with his criticism, charging in an interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Watan (1 August 2004) that Arafat is sitting on "the bodies of the Palestinians" and on "their ruins." He also revealed that five billion dollars in financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority over the last number of years has vanished, and that he has no idea what happened to the money. (9) The initial goals of the current "rebellion" were the removal of Razi Jebali and Moussa Arafat (Arafat's nephew) from their positions of power as commanders of the Palestinian Police and the National Security Forces, respectively. Both long-time Dahlan rivals were blamed for corruption and cronyism. However, the criticism against them is only the tip of the iceberg and serves as an indication of deeper aspirations by the intriguers. Dahlan and his counterparts, backed by Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei and parliament members, are demanding that Arafat implement comprehensive security reforms, which primarily include the reorganization of the security services under a defined hierarchy and the transfer of Arafat's security authority to the prime minister. In addition, Arafat's opponents support the holding of municipal elections and elections to the Palestinian parliament in order to remove the Old Guard from power. In this way they hope to further weaken Arafat's influence and pave the way for the leaders of the intifada to receive the share of power they feel they deserve. This would also improve Dahlan's chances of succeeding Arafat. The Dream of the Martyrs On 15 July 2004, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades published for the first time a detailed political platform under the name, "The Dream of the Martyrs," which reveals their future aspirations. The Brigades cast responsibility for the dire straits of the Palestinians on all levels of the PA leadership who were involved in corruption or in the "fruitless" peace negotiations. Defining "corruption and the [Israeli] occupation" as "two sides of the same coin," they call for establishing a judicial committee with authority to investigate all suspected Palestinian officials without any restrictions. Even more interesting from the Israeli perspective is the Brigades' political vision. The Brigades express their commitment to the same outlook represented by Yasser Arafat, namely, the establishment of a Palestinian state up to the 1967 borders, evacuation of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and implementation of the "right of return" of millions of Palestinian refugees to Israel's sovereign territory. Following the Fatah ideology consistently, they announced their total commitment to pursuing the armed struggle against Israel until all Palestinian national objectives are realized, including the return of the refugees, which means the destruction of Israel by demographic means. (10) Thus, this is not an ideological struggle between old Arafat-Tunis hardliners originating from outside the territories and young moderate insiders, but rather a power struggle involving a broad spectrum of Arafat opponents, many of whom are no less inflexible and militant. Arafat is fully aware of the severe and unprecedented challenge to his leadership. Under growing domestic pressure, he consented to dismiss Razi Jebali and appointed Abd al-Razeq al-Majaidah as supreme commander of Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He also canceled the new appointment of Moussa Arafat and ordered a reduction in the number of security services to three. (11) Finally, in response to broad public pressure, he appeared to acquiesce to a broad reshuffle of the Palestinian cabinet and to transfer some of his own security powers to Prime Minister Qurei, who then withdrew his previous resignation. (12) But this time, it seems that Arafat's tactics are not as effective as they were in the past. Arafat is finding it more difficult to please his opponents without taking into consideration their demands and giving up his security powers. Lessons from the Current Crisis The major lessons to be learned so far from the current crisis in Gaza are as follows: 1) The rebellion against Arafat serves the interests of the moderate Arab states (Egypt and Jordan) as well as Israel, the U.S., and the EU, all of whom desire to see the end of Arafat's political role or at least a significant decrease in his influence on the decision-making process. 2) Dahlan has strengthened his position as a national leader and as a would-be successor to Arafat. He has become identified with the reformers rather than with the old, hated regime of which he was a part for many years. 3) Arafat's opposition is heterogeneous and includes moderate Fatah leaders alongside the armed militias, although the two groups represent completely different political agendas. While the moderate reformers are finding in this course of events a political opportunity to promote democracy and to renew negotiations with Israel, the militias, which continue to express their commitment to the armed struggle, are striving to gain political power at the expense of the Old Guard. Thus, a victory over Arafat in this round will not necessarily lead to a new and pragmatic Palestinian line. 4) Israel's planned unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip has accelerated the struggle over future Palestinian rule. In this context, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is striving to upgrade its status from an armed militia under the command of the political leadership of Fatah to become a central political element, controlling the mother movement by force and playing a major part in the decision-making process. 5) The probable takeover of Fatah by its militia will create a more radical and hard-line movement with regard to settling the conflict with Israel. However, the moderate leaders of Fatah, reading the political map, prefer to side with the rebels and lash out at Arafat in order to clear themselves from possible accusations of corruption and connection to the "old regime." 6) Gaza's slide into chaos, the crumbling of the Palestinian Authority, and even the eruption of a limited Palestinian civil war have all become real and possible. The current crisis, even if contained, foreshadows the likely scenario to be expected on the day after Arafat leaves the scene. 7) Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are out of the game. At the same time, they are taking advantage of the rivalry inside of Fatah in order to emphasize their anti-corruption agenda and to demand the establishment of a supreme joint Palestinian leadership. In light of past operational cooperation between the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas, under the "Nationalist and Islamic Forces" umbrella, Hamas could become a stronger factor at a later stage by cooperating with these Fatah militants. It is not surprising that Palestinian political observers from Mustapha Barghouti to Khalil Shikaki envision a unity government that integrates Palestinian Islamists into the political system.(13) The Twilight of Arafat's Rule In short, the revolt against Arafat originated from his own Fatah movement and signals the twilight of Arafat's rule. The Young Guard in Fatah is striving to force a change of generations in the leadership of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, keeping Arafat only as a "symbol" and a "spiritual leader" for the Palestinian people. Surprisingly, at this historical junction, the interests of Israel and the new Palestinian leadership coincide, although from different approaches. The new Palestinian leadership sees in the proposed reforms and elections a golden opportunity to take over Palestinian rule. Israel, for its part, is interested primarily in stability in the Palestinian territories, in toppling Arafat, and in the establishment of a new Palestinian Authority capable of taking responsibility for security issues. Yet, after the dust settles, a Palestinian political outlook based on a "zero-sum game" may be expected to once again dominate Palestinian-Israeli relations. Notes 1. http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/756/345.html http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/757/057.html 2. http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/759/463.html 2. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/700/re3.htm http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1090045862446 3. Ibid. 4.http://www.alhaqaeq.net/defaultch.asp?action=showarticle&secid=5&articleid=21142 5. http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2952802,00.html 6. http://www.daralhayat.com/arab_news/levant_news/07-2004/20040724-25P01-03.txt/story.html 7. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,747635,00.html 8. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/447971.html 9. "Dahlan: Arafat is Sitting on the Bodies of the Palestinians," Voice of Israel Radio, 1 August 2004 (Hebrew). 10.http://www.alhaqaeq.net/defaultch.asp?action=showarticle&secid=5&articleid=21138 11.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=6422 12.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=6667; http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1386. 13. Khalil Shikaki, "Let Us Vote," Wall Street Journal, 30 July 2004. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

CONCRETE EVIDENCE Posted by David Frankfurter, August 2, 2004.

Dear Friends, The Palestinian demonstrations against the corruption of their leadership were a long time coming. Then they suddenly seemed to disappear from view. Mathew Kalman reports (1) the reason in The Globe & Mail of June 21, 2004: But the most troubling aspect of Mr. Arafat's reassertion of control was a warning to Palestinian journalists to cease all coverage of the kind of street protests that rocked the Gaza Strip and some West Bank cities last weekend. Reporters have also been threatened with severe punishment if they depict clashes between rival groups in the Gaza Strip, such as the gunfight in Rafah that injured 12 people on Sunday. The ban effectively prevents international news outlets from covering these events, since they depend on Palestinian photographers, reporters and editors to produce news footage and written copy for broadcasters, print media and wire services. And if you think that the threats against journalists are idle, consider what happened to former Palestinian Information Minister, Nabil Amr. Al Babwa dryly reports (2): German surgeons have amputated the leg of Palestinian legislator Nabil Amr, who was shot by masked men on the night of July 20th in his Ramallah home, colleagues of the former minister said on Thursday. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has called off an investigation into the attack and has blamed Israel for shooting Amr. Following the shooting attack, Amr was taken to a hospital in Jordan and from there to Germany. An operation to save Amr's leg was not successful and doctors were forced to amputate it. (Albawaba.com) Of course, the Arab press blithely quotes Arafat blaming Israel for the shooting, ignoring previous reports that Amr was in fact shot after criticising corruption in the Palestinian Authority, and publicly placing the blame at Arafat's feet. No wonder the investigation was scrubbed within a week of it being called. One of the things that interested me about the protests was the focus on the 'cement scandal', where several Palestinian legislators (including the current Prime Minister) are accused of selling cement to build Israeli settlements and the anti-terrorist fence, with Arafat's full knowledge. Why were people so upset that they were willing to go to the streets? So much worse has been reported. Billions in international aid has disappeared. The IMF caught $900m in PA assets stashed away in private accounts of the leadership. Israel would have bought the cement from somewhere, after all. While this reflects a great deal of hypocrisy, is it THE issue people should risk their lives over? Then I read the UK Palestinian Information Center website (3) on the subject. [Better click quick before it's taken down.] It would seem that the real issue is not 'helping the Israelis' or 'lending a hand to the wall.' The real issue is money. Apparently, the cement was heavily subsidised by Egypt, in order to provide housing for refugees. Using averages of the price ranges quoted, superprofits of about $29m were made on the $35m of cement at retail value which did not reach its intended destination. That's an awful lot of Palestinians cheated out of proper housing by their own officials. And Europe sits and wonders why $5 billion in their aid money so far has not resolved the refugee status of 600,000 Palestinians and their descendants who left Israel in 1948, while a similar number of Jews who fled Arab states are now productive permananent citizens of the modern, thriving, democratic state of Israel. (1) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040721/MIDEAST21/International/Idx (2) http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=282020&lang=e&dir=news (3) http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_6930.shtml To subscribe to Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. To Go To Top

BEWARE THE RISEN PEOPLE Posted by Bernard J. Shapiro, August 1, 2004.

As I survey the fragile planet we call home, my mind makes note of the chaos, blood, and tears. The cries of a million lost souls shatter the night in a million corners of the earth. The sensitive, compassionate among them try to feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked. One by one their energies dissipate. They try to hold back the tide with a teaspoon and then see the impossibility of the task. The Jewish people are but a cosmic speck in this universe. To many Jews who feel deeply about their own people, that speck becomes the whole world. Other Jews are irrevocably tied to non-Jewish pursuits. May we as a people open our eyes and begin to see the world as it really is. Without becoming depressed and morose, we must realize that there are powerful forces in the world that wish us ill. May we mobilize our strength to fight our enemies until they are defeated. May we not succumb to false prophets of peace. We all want peace. We pray for peace in our Sabbath services every Friday night. After thousands of years, being victims of persecution, expulsion, torture, extermination, forced conversion and discrimination, it is natural that we yearn for peace with every ounce of our bodies and souls. It is because our hunger for peace is so strong that we must be doubly cautious not to fall for a pseudo-peace. Today none of us believe Chamberlain really negotiated "peace in our time" with Hitler. Why did some Jews believe that Peres and Rabin really negotiated "peace" with Arafat, one of today's Hitlers? Why do many still believe that it is possible to make peace with the barbarians who surround Israel and wish only to destroy it. (Santayana said and it is true today: "Those who do not learn from history are forced to repeat it.") The Jewish people must learn from history and learn the value of unity in the face of so many enemies who wish them ill. I pray that Israelis who have fought in countless wars will understand that there is no magic cure, though they crave to be free of constant conflict. As Jews we are all involved in this historic struggle to survive. It is not our fate or that of the Israelis that we should retire from this struggle. I have a vision and a dream that I must reveal. In the name of G-d, the Almighty, Defender of His People, Israel, I say to my people's enemies: Beware of the thing that is coming, that will take what you would not give. That will free the people of Israel from your atrocities. I say to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: Be aware of the Risen People who will sweep the Arab scourge into the dustbin of history. Know that the Jewish soul will be set free. The spectacular victories of the Israeli army and the return to Zion demonstrated that power. But it wasn't a miracle. It was just the soul of the Jew coming to its own. It was just the Jewish soul freed at last to be itself. And I see it coming, the Jewish soul released to be itself. I see a new proud Jewish government coming to power in Israel. A government that reclaims the Jewish Holy Places and restores Jewish sovereignty in all of Eretz Yisrael. I see Moslem control and Islamic sites removed from the Temple Mount to make it ready for Moshiach. I see the enemies of Israel, who raise up their hands to murder or injure Jews, driven from our Holy Land. I see the secular Jews of Israel and the world becoming more observant and returning to the Torah. I see religious Jews becoming more tolerant of diversity in Jewish practice. I see a new Israeli foreign policy that grovels before no nation, no matter how powerful. I see Israel's Foreign Minister informing every nation that their embassies must be in Jerusalem. If they don't respect Israel's capital, then may have a consulate in Tel Aviv. I see the government demanding that the Vatican return all the property it has stolen from the Jewish people during the last 2000 years. Maybe they will refuse and we could always hold their property in Israel as a down payment. The Vatican has been used to dealing with obsequious groveling Jews, but now they would see proud fearless Jews. I see an Israeli government that would change its relationship with America from one of subservience to one of equal alliance. Yes, I have a dream (apologies to MLK) that Jews will no longer debate the obvious: like whether to hold onto what is theirs or trade it away; whether to struggle for survival or to give up from fatigue. I have a dream that the Jews of the kibbutz and the Jews of YESHA will be reborn as brothers and patriots. From the Galilee to Eilat, all the people of Israel will share the same dream of a powerful independent Zionist nation. I have a dream that this strong, proud independent Israel will win the respect of all the nations of the world, including the Arabs. Instead of the contempt it has earned in recent years, Israel will again be a light unto the nations. And finally, I have a dream that this new Israel will find the peace it so dearly deserves. A peace with strength and self-respect. As I look back at 4000 years of Jewish history, I have but one urgent hope and prayer: We must make this dream a reality. There is no alternative. May the Lord, bless the leaders of Israel with the courage to pursue peace, and the wisdom to know when it is not attainable. May the Lord bless the Jews who return to Zion and give them jobs and new friends to ease their transition into Israeli life. May the Lord bless the war-weary Israeli people with the stamina to bear up under the strain, if peace not just around the corner. May they understand that their fate may be that of endless struggle to survive in a hostile world and may they have the strength to understand that there is still no alternative (ein brera). May the people of Israel prosper and go from success to success never forgetting that their destiny lies in their might, their righteousness and their faith in HaShem. Bernard J. Shapiro is the Executive Director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies and the editor of its monthly magazine, The Maccabean Online (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) and the Freemanlist. To Go To Top

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ISRAEL MEDIA Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 1, 2004.

During the recent Democratic convention, two question came up. Should reporters personally contribute funds to candidates? Should they by law have to make their contributions public? Also discussed was: Is a feature story on the front page by reporters with a bias toward a certain Party or candidate not equal to a monetary contribution? This reminded me of articles I had previously written about the Hebrew Press of Israel. It is no secret that the Hebrew newspapers, TV and radio outlets are definitely Left - politically. That, of course, translates into biased reportage. I had proposed some time ago that a 5% equality program be enacted into law by the Israeli Knesset (Parliament). The concept would recognize the bias of the Hebrew Media and allow the Party of the Right to purchase equal space for the base cost of that space, plus 5%. As you may know, when newspapers and/or TV and radio news programs sell time and space, the cost is enormous and generally unaffordable in any way equal to the power of the media outlets' promotion of their own agenda. When the same journals or stations issue politically biased stories, they are published at the lowest manufacturing cost by the media outlet. The media of Israel, including Ha'aretz, Ma'ariv, Yediot Ahronot, TV Channels 1 and 2 and the radio act as an organic extension of the Labor Left political parties. They do not merely report the news; they make the news. Their publishers, editors, journalists, reporters, opinion commentators have all been employed - not only for their writing or speaking skills but, they must meet the politically correct criteria of the Media outlet's owners. In other words, any journalist who is known for being politically to the Right or Nationalistic would simply not be hired. Or if was not PC (Politically Correct) to start with and changed later based upon what he observed, would he no longer be PC? The Hebrew Media, in effect, act as 'thought police' for the political Left. We are accustomed to seeing this kind of biased reporting in Al Ahram, Egypt - Pravda, Russia - Third World journals who either take their orders from the Party Leaders or simply anticipate the PC thing to say. The Media is not elected to be a Shadow Government or a propaganda arm of any party! This is not a matter for Judicial Review - because the Israelis Court system has shown itself to be biased to the Left. Neither the Political Left nor the Right would have any problem identifying Israel's Media as decidedly Left. The entire gamut of news released to the public is so controlled that the only access Israelis have to 'mostly' unbiased information comes through their Email, Fox News, occasionally CNN and some of the religious journals like HaModia and Yated Ne'eman. However, that does not equal the daily menu of deeply biased or 'spun' news that is fed to the Israeli public daily. When the government is controlled by the Left, there is no problem feeding stories to the Leftist Media. Their reporters, journalists, editorial editors and writers are ready to absorb the story and give it the proper Leftist spin. When the Right is the government, they will face media opposition "UNLESS", they are following a Leftist program. This, of course, is happening now, as Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon, in linkage with President George Bush, led by the pro-Arab U.S. State Department, has adopted the Oslo program and the Bush Road Map (redrawn by the Quartet, the State Department, the U.N., the E.U., and Russia). These schemes are intended to transfer Jews out of Gush Katif in Gaza now, with more to be evicted from Judea and Samaria later. (The Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem are all also on the negotiating table of those named above.) The Leftist Media has enthusiastically supported Sharon's thrust as long as he stays with the transfer policy initiated by the Left. As an aside, on Sunday July 25th it was beautiful to watch Channel One screen several sections of the Human Chain from all parts of the country with people standing 4 and 5 deep in solidarity with the people of Gush Katif facing expulsion. But, the look on the announcer's face was as if he was sucking a sour lemon at this positive outpouring of spontaneous support from the people for the men, women and children threatened with eviction from their homes. The estimated count given by the Leftist Media of any Right/Nationalistic demonstration was, as always considerably lower that the actual count of those participating - and vice versa. In effect, the Hebrew Press and TV is now and always has been an organic extension of the Political Left. Their reportage reflected the ideology and planning of the Left - whether the government was under the control of the Labor Party or not. Regrettably, we have come to expect politicians to lie to the public and now must fact the fact that the Media is a collaborator in their political lies. The Leftist Hebrew Press has established, with its own price line, the value of its space. When they sell that space for advertisement or sell it to the political Right, there is an established price per column inch. Therefore, when they publish biased articles, editorials, opinion pieces which benefit the Left or conversely attack the Right, they have made a monetary political contribution. There are laws, even in Israel, that political contributions must be openly declared and there are limitations. I will grant you that the political crooks in both Labor and Likud have illegally taken money from foreign sources and, regrettably, it seems as if none of the crooks ever go to trial and from there to prison. But, even with a decidedly Leftist, activist Supreme Court under Chief Justice Aharon Barak, there are a modicum of laws that should be followed. For years there has been a corrupt partnership between the political Left of Labor, the Leftist Media, the Leftist Court and always the Leftist Labor Union of the Histadrut. This linkage is not accidental but owes its bonding to clever planning and ruthless action. The people of Israel are treated like a herd of dumb milk cows who are sent to graze (work - if they are lucky enough to find a job) during the day and milked for money and votes at the end of the day. In fact, this last week of July was the first day of the year when a wage-earners' salary goes to him or her and NOT in taxes to the government. In other words, for 7 months of the year, the job-holder is paying taxes and for 5 months, he can keep what he earns. The corruption of politics know exactly how to mislead, misinform, dis-inform and generally how to control the thoughts of the people. The media's role is to provide biased disinformation to insure that they have a choke-hold on what the people think. Any media outlet that starts to report the news accurately, fair and balanced is set upon by the those who do the dirty work of the government. The closing down of Arutz 7 (Sheva) radio station is an ugly demonstration of corrupt dictatorial power. You can still hear Arutz 7 on your computer but that's hard to do while you're driving in traffic. And you can still read it on your computer in several languages. Both the Left and the Right tried to shut down the only radio station which broadcast straight news and it was Arik Sharon who succeeded in closing it down - in anticipation of his coming program to transfer the Jews out of Gaza, Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley and a significant portion of Jerusalem. With Arutz 7 out of the way, Sharon/ Peres/Labor and the Leftist Media could get down to the business of demonizing all Jewish Pioneering Settlers. They could effectively divide the Jewish nation by claiming to those West of the 1967 Armistice Lines that the Settlers' mere right to life East of the Armistice Lines was a threat to their safety West of the '67 (or1949) borders. Abba Eban called those lines: "Auschwitz Borders", meaning we could not defend Israel on any side of those 'Borders' nor the people who lived within those borders. The 'conceptzia' was that, if those Jews were 'transferred' out of the Land (G-d forbid), somehow the Arabs would cancel their Koranic thrust of radical Terrorist Islamism and live peacefully with the Jews. This was the line of propaganda carried by the Leftist media who operated alone and unchallenged in the stream of information delivery. The lethal failed Oslo Accords soundly proved that Arab Muslim Palestinians would not and could not tolerate Jews, let alone live next to them in peace. More than 1500 Jews (including 45 Americans) have been murdered by Islamic Terror since Oslo was signed, with tens of thousands more injured, many maimed for life. But, the daily Hebrew Press and TV news poured out a constant stream of carefully altered news to the effect that erased the deadly results of Oslo while continuing further withdrawal and transferring of Jews from their homes, schools, synagogues, factories, farms, businesses, infrastructure and water resources - all to be transferred to the incoming Muslim Arab Palestinian 'so-called' refugees. Clearly, the Media is not what is called the free Press in Israel. It is a dedicated propaganda mechanism that reflects a deep ideology of the Left, dedicated to appeasement, pacifism and the de-Judification of the Israel. The hard working observant Jews of Gaza/Gush Katif, Judea, Samaria, the Golan and Jerusalem are anathema to the secular Leftist Media and their leaders in the Labor Party. Therefore, since the Media has demonstrated its bias and its ability to mislead and provoke the public, they must be reigned in by Law. That could be as earlier proposed above by allowing the political Right to purchase space at the base cost of that space plus 5% for overhead. Space should also be allocated as "Free" in order to answer especially hostile, misleading and demonizing articles, editorials, feature stories, photographs, cartoons and commentary - all within the category of political activism. This segment would require an Ombudsman to rule on issues. Although the Knesset has given up much of its authority to the Prime Minister's Office over the years and is about to begin a 3 month vacation, now is a time to retrieve that authority and to represent the public - which is supposed to be their job and obligation. Pass a law for Truth in the News and ignore the shrieks and shouts about freedom of the Press. Israel's corrupt and biased Media has given up its right long ago to take shelter under Freedom of Press or Free Speech - which they deny to anyone who disagrees with them. They have bastardized the system and shamed the profession of Journalism. From the families who own the Media, down through the Publishers, Editors, Directors, Producers, Journalists, Reporters - they have made a mockery out of Freedom of the Press and Free Speech. The Hebrew Media have both volunteered and been employed as Agents Provocateurs to mislead the public. Clearly, the Hebrew Media cannot be counted upon to control themselves in the matter of ethical, fair and balanced journalism. Therefore, there must be laws passed that mandate "Truth in Reporting". Please send this to all of the Hebrew Media, with copies to individual journalists and Members of Knesset. Please translate it into Hebrew, if possible. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

SAVE YOURSELVES Posted by Shmuel Neumann, Ph.D., August 1, 2004.

My father survived the Holocaust by posing as a gentile. He was able to get a job in town hall and in the middle of the night broke in to steal identity papers. He thus was able to frequently switch identities. During his travels, he worked in one town hall and heard that in two days they were going to round up the Jews to send them to concentration camps. My father took a stack of identity papers to the local synagogue. After the prayers, the men sat down to learn while uncomfortably stealing distrustful glances at my father who looked to them like a gentile. Before they started the Talmud study, my father put down the stack of identity papers and explained to them that he was a Jew working in town hall and that they were going to be rounded up and taken to a concentration camp to be killed. They stared at him with disbelief. Disbelief not that they would be killed: Disbelief that this gentile was not setting them up. They acted as though as soon as they touched the stolen identity papers, they would be arrested. "Save yourselves." my father pleaded. I am a Jew. Take any Gemorah and test me. He stayed for the Talmud shiur and proved his facility with the commentaries. "Save yourselves," my father pleaded. He explained that his parents and siblings were taken away and killed. Not one person elected to take the papers and they all perished. Some appeared to rather die as a Jew than live as a gentile. Others were frozen in inertia. Not one saved themselves. Well, the experiences of the fathers are signs to the children. I spent a day pleading with the residents of Chomesh to save their community. Sharon intends to demolish this community by next Tisha B'Av. Although 70% of the Likud Party opposed to the disengagement plan Sharon is undeterred. The 200,000 person human chain and million signature petitions are publicity stunts that are insufficient to stop the bulldozer, Ariel Sharon. "Save yourselves," I pleaded. "Saturate the settlement. What does it take to increase the population? It's ridiculously simple. Rent all houses and then furnished rooms, temporary hosing and caravans to hundreds of families. They need not vote in the yishuv just as most of the yeshiva families are not full members of the yishuv and cannot vote. As soon as a rental agreement is signed, the newcomers record the change of address in the Misrad Hapnim, the department of the interior. These people may maintain a second dwelling anywhere else. If one can afford it, there is nothing preventing a family from keeping an apartment if Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and a house in Eilat, Tiberius, the Golan or Galil. You can have only one primary residence, but you can have as many domiciles as you wish. Within days, you can take in thousands of new residents." "Save yourselves," I pleaded. "Permit not just dozens, but hundreds and if physically possible thousands to become permanent members. There are numerous houses that could be rented for next to nothing, but most of these have been cannibalized and are in need of major repair that people can do themselves. Facilitate the purchase of houses as the purchase price is reasonable." "Save yourseves," I pleaded. "Accept into the community people of other nationalities that have the standing to ask their governments to put pressure on Israel to not evict their citizens based solely on race or religion. When Sharon boldly pontificates that by 2005 there will be no JEW in Gaza, he violated the international standard of human rights. At best, he may be within his legal rights to proclaim that there will be no ISRAELI in Gaza, but he has no right to evict only Jews. If American Christians may remain in Bethlehem and American Moslems in Jenin, American Jews must be permitted to remain in Chomesh. If an Israeli Moslem may remain in Gaza, then the Israeli government has no right to remove Israeli Jews. They certainly have no right to remove an American Jew. If there were numerous American Jews living in Chomesh, then as soon as a formal disengagement plan was approved, the American Jews would file a civil rights action in the US against the State Department and against Israel. These American citizens would ask their congressmen to insist that no American citizen be forcibly evicted until the United States courts determined that civil rights were not violated. The complaint is currently being prepared." "Save yourselves," I pleaded. "File complaints in court against the illegal Arab houses and get them demolished. On the road to Chomesh, there are numerous illegal settlements. Illegal Arab settlements. Houses illegally constructed and which even according to Palestinian law must be demolished. The fact that the Israeli government destroys only the houses of Jews, built according to code but without a final building permit is bald-faced racism. File a formal complaint against Arab squatters so that there is no Arab presence between Shavei Shomron, the next community and Chomesh." "Save yourselves," I pleaded. "There is land available for sale near Chomesh. Buy it and take possession. Open tours to Sebastia and other tourist sights in the area so that you do not appear as frightened settlers cowering behind a circle of covered wagons." It all fell on deaf ears. Despite these settlers' self-destructive, self-defeating, misguided agendas, every Jew has an obligation to NOT stand idly by while his brother bleeds. We have an obligation to saturate each and every settlement that Sharon and the Peresites slates for evacuation. We have an obligation to demand that the Ministry of Housing continue to sell and rent all houses under their control in Chomesh, Sa Nur, Gadid and Kadim as the "Disengagement" has been voted only in principle and not in action. The Ministry of Housing is violating the law and we must not stand for it. We must insist that the law be applied equally, Jew and Arab alike. If a Jew is removed from his property because the land registration of the property purchase was not finalized, then, all so-called Palestinians who do not have currently recorded ownership of their land in the registry in Tabu must be forcibly removed from their lands and houses. Unless Israel forcibly removes gentiles, they have absolutely no right to employ force and violently remove Jews from their homes, demolish their homes and destroy their farms. There are currently over 30,000 court orders for the demolition of illegal Arab houses, but they are not implemented. It is a disgrace that they only destroy the houses of Jews. The Israeli government must stop discrimination. If it determines that its citizens must be removed from a given area, then all Israeli citizens including Christian and Moslem Israeli citizens must be removed. Israel would never forcibly remove an Israeli Christian or Moslem from Judea, Samaria, or Gaza. Similarly, if Israel forcibly removes American, non-Israeli Jews, then American Christian and Moslem must also be forcibly evacuated. If they will refuse to forcibly eject a Christian or Moslem, then Jewish expulsion is patently illegal. Furthermore, if it is a crime for a Jewish Israeli citizen to visit area A, then Israel must enforce the criminal prosecution of any Israeli citizen who visits Area A, even if that Israeli citizen is Moslem or Christian. Doing what is right is an individual obligation irrelevant of what everyone else is doing. But truth is heavy, so few care to bear it. To anecdotally illustrate this point: A righteous person enters heaven and the Almighty tells him that as he suffered his whole life and as he remained righteous throughout the course of upheavals and threats, he could have anything he wanted. Having suffered his whole life, the righteous man was curious what torment was in store for the wicked in the afterlife in Hell. He asked the Almighty for a peek of the underworld. Suddenly, the clouds parted and the earth opened. He was amazed to see festivities and celebrations that he could never have imagined. Everyone was beautiful and dressed in unbelievably exquisite clothing dancing, singing and devouring food that was indescribably delicious. Looking down, he tells the Almighty that this has made him hungry, could he have something to eat? The righteous martyr thinks to himself, that if the food in Hell was so delectable, he couldn't imagine how good the food in heaven would be. In short order, he gets his meal. "A tuna fish sandwich!" he apoplectically screams. "Down there they get twenty course gourmet meals and I get a tuna sandwich" The Almighty quips, "For two, it doesn't pay to cook." To Go To Top

FORD FOUNDATION; Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 1, 2004.

FORD FOUNDATION; JERUSALEM ARABS; MISGUIDED TOLERANCE Embarrassed by the discovery that its funds were aiding anti-Israel activities, some rather bigoted, the Ford Foundation promised reform and stated what monitoring it would do. Did it do that? Some recipients of Ford grants still engage in those activities. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, for example, continues to defame Israel politically and ideologically (MEPF, 7/13 from Miriam Gardner of American Yated Neeman, 7/2). Was Ford embarrassed by finding out what disreputable activities it financed or by others finding out? I think the latter, because its aid was too weighted in that direction and it beneficiaries too vitriolic for their selection to have been inadvertent JERUSALEM ARABS Jerusalem Arabs engage in their share of terrorism. But the government allows them to build housing illegally. As a result, they can accommodate more Arabs who sneak in (MEPF, 7/13 from Miriam Gardner of American Yated Neeman, 7/9). It is difficult to peg the Arabs of Jerusalem. They enjoy the best of both worlds: they extract benefits from Israel but favor the P.A. that they nevertheless do not want to be ruled by. Perhaps it is not the same individuals in both cases. However, Arabs can hold contradictory positions. Last century, when Zionists were paying premium prices even for marginal land from Arab landlords, those same landlords organized terrorism against Arab sellers and Jewish buyers. Landlords both profited from bringing Jews in and were outraged over their coming. ARE MOST MUSLIMS REALLY MODERATE? The professed moderates are bluffing. The do not want to restrict jihad or promote other reforms. They say it wouldn't be Islam any more. Among the proposed reforms is tolerance. They prefer to look forward to humiliating the infidels. None propose real reform (they mostly discuss it in vague terms). They do not denounce terrorism specifically. Call their bluff. Ask them to repudiate elements of Islamic law that justify jihad (MEPF, 6/18 from Miriam Gardner of American Yated Neeman). Islamists have no difficulty collecting money from moderates for jihad in the guise of charity. MISGUIDED TOLERANCE IN ISRAEL Bar-Ilan U. has a branch in Tsefas, an Orthodox Jewish town. Almost all the students attending it are Arabs. They pose as Jews to the local girls. Only after the girls have fallen in love and are desperate to marry, do they reveal their true ethnic identity. Several students have committed or cooperated with terrorism. Some now hang up banners of suicide bombers (MEPF, 7/23 from Miriam Gardner of American Yated Neeman). Israel is raising up an educated fifth column. Israel calls it tolerance. I call it self-defeating. I've been in love, but would be disillusioned by deceit, not base marriage on it and to my people's enemy. It might help if the girls were warned what to expect from living among Arabs, who hate the converts and distrust their children. Who will warn them, when the educational system is controlled by political correctness and preferences for Arabs over academic achievement? At every turn, political correctness is found destructive! It really is not tolerance but censorship. I suggest that after three dates, invite his family to Sabbath dinner, and see who comes. ISLAMIST MEN EXPLOIT CHRISTIAN WOMEN A captured Islamist was recorded explaining that Muslims are allowed to marry Christian women in order to gain access to identification documents needed in jihad (Arutz-7, 7/23). I feel sorry for those women who marry for love men who marry for documentation. Islamists are heartless. How good can their cause be, when it wrecks so many lives and in so many ways? MISREADING IRAN The US wants the UN to impose sanctions on Iran for developing nuclear weapons in violation of international rules it agreed to. The chief European governments instead thought they could coax Iran into compliance. They know that Iran secretly has been violating the agreement for many years, lied when caught, promised to stop, lied again, and when caught promised to stop. Iran has been discovered again developing the machinery for making materials suitable for nuclear weapons (Anton La Guardia, NY Sun, 7/27, p.1). Time after time, appeasement of totalitarians fails. The cost to Europe has been high. Cannot the Europeans learn that lesson? They want to look down on the US as "cowboys," as opposed to their self-proclaimed sophistication. It turns out that they are cowards, as contrasted to US sophistication and determination. We need more of both traits; when will they get some? When will West Europeans realize that Islamists do not abandon the goal of jihad, regardless of what arrangements they make? Does the US finally realize that totalitarian, i.e., unscrupulous, N. Korea, regardless of what arrangements it makes, will not abandon its goals, which includes using nuclear weaponry to intimidate other countries? HOW DEMOCRATIC IS ISRAEL? The Israel Broadcast Association struck the phrase, "Jerusalem, heart of the nation," out of a commercial by a group opposing PM Sharon's plan to abandon much of Yesha. This action was ordered by the Prime Minster or Deputy PM. Jerusalem now in PM Sharon's eyes is controversial (Arutz-7, 7/22). If this skimpy brief is related faithfully, it is significant. First, it means that Sharon secretly must be contemplating surrender of part of Jerusalem and perhaps more than he lets on now. Second, it means he and the Association exercise political censorship. Jerusalem represents the soul an mission of the nation, and has for the Jewish people for thousands of years. Some secularist, bribed, or blackmailed Israelis no longer think so. They would cut the heart out of Zionism, without realizing that they would be cutting the ground out from under their feet. One concession leads to another, in an Israel monitored and bullied by the State Dept., scheming for too many concessions for Israel's survival (or for American safety in the war on Islam. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

 

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