THE MASTER PLAN TO DEFEAT THE HIZBALLAH Posted by Steven Plaut, January 31, 2004.

Sharon's prisoner capitulation is already having its impact. The Hamas is openly threatening now to start snatching Israeli civilians in order to extort Israel, now that the Hizbollah showed how effective a tactic it is. The HizbAllah (that is its correct spelling) promises to kidnap some new Israeli hostages soon. And Israel threatens that if it does, Israel will retaliate Really Really Hard. Yep, it is the return on the RRH doctrine. All of which proves that Israel is planning to defeat the HizbAllah by causing its leaders to laugh themselves to death. No sooner does Haaretz, the newspaper of the thinking Israelis, run Uri Avnery's screed about how Ariel Sharon is the cause of the kidnapping of the three murdered POWS because he did not agree voluntarily to release all the imprisoned Palestinian terrorists on his own initiative before the kidnappings, when the editor of Haaretz publishes an editorial today in which he repeats the same charge. By refusing to pursue peace by releasing all the jailed Palestinian murderers and terrorists wholesale, it is Ariel Sharon's fault that the Hizbollah kidnapped and extorted. You know how everyone whines when Israel blows up the house of a suicide bomber, claiming it is inhumane, unlike the blowing up of civilian buses which is a legitimate form of protest against occupation? Well, just guess who ELSE is blowing up terrorist homes without a squawk from the media or the Eurotrash. Pakistan. They get the locals to do the dynamiting and bulldozing. This is from the New York Times (http://www.nytmes.com/2004/01/31/international). SLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 30 At the start of the month, Pakistan massed several thousand troops in and around the town of Wana, near the country's mountainous border with Afghanistan. Using a harsh century-old British method, officials handed local tribal elders a list and issued an ultimatum. If 72 men wanted for sheltering Al Qaeda were not produced, they said, the Pakistani Army would punish the tribe as a group, demolishing houses, withdrawing funds and even detaining tribe members. Several days later, several thousand tribal elders held a jirga, or council, and agreed to raise a force of their own to find the wanted men. In the last two weeks, the tribes have handed over 42 of them. Tribal members, meanwhile, have bulldozed and dynamited the homes of eight men who refused to surrender. Pakistani officials said they would wait to see how many of the wanted men were handed over, particularly foreigners. Depending on the results, they will shower the area with money, or soldiers. 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.

IS ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION FOR ISRAELIS JUST? Posted by David Ben Ariel, January 31, 2004.

This was written by Jo-ana D'Balcazar and appeared yesterday in "Pakistan Today" and is archived at (http://www.paktoday.com/joana30a.htm). Jo-ana D'Balcazar, M.A., is a political analyst in International Relations and a specialist in the European Union and the Middle East Crisis. Send comments to: politics2see@hotmail.com Undoubtedly, the Federman case is one of the cases that awakes controversy among those who defend Israel, those who believe that terrorists want peace with Israel, those who just let terrorism claim more blood without imprisoning terrorist leaders who openly take credit for genocide bombings, and those who support the liberation of Arab-Palestinian terrorist prisoners. The point is not whether people agree or disagree with Noam Federman's politics, but that as an Israeli, his civil rights should have been respected. While 400 Arab-Palestinian terrorists possibly are about to be liberated, Federman is still seen by many as the mastermind behind the alleged Jewish terrorist underground. Is it fair to consider him a terrorist or a citizen defending his right to live peacefully in Israel? Who is attacking whom and who is being defended from whom? Noam Federman is detained under administrative detention. Let us stop here. What does it mean being in "administrative detention"? Supposedly, it means to hold a person prisoner when there is credible intelligence that such a person is about to commit a terrorist attack. The argument here is that Federman was arrested for allegedly masterminding terrorist attacks against Arab-Palestinians hiding behind the new Jewish terrorist underground. Then, wait a minute. If this is the current Israeli law to be used in "emergency situation," why has it not been applied to the self-confessed terrorist leaders of Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, among others? The emergency situation is clear in these cases when they even announce future terrorist attacks. Ironically, they not only announce them, and not only fulfill their attacks, but also proudly take credit for killing and maiming innocent Jews. And then, they are treated and celebrated by Arafat and almost every Arab-Palestinians not as murderers, but as martyrs. Have not terrorists publicly confessed being responsible for many of the terrorist attacks including genocide bombings? Besides, Israeli intelligence has a lot of evidence about terrorist leaders. Something here is just not making sense. Federman, allegedly, was imprisoned for fear that he might plan attacks against Arab-Palestinians within Israel. Why is it then that the Arab-Palestinians terrorists in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not also detained, but instead they are even encouraged and supported by Arafat and the neighboring states, such as Iran, Libya, and Syria that are sponsoring terrorism? It is not a crime to allow the growing terrorist campaign whose goal is to destroy Israel, a democratic country since its modern foundation in 1948? Sarcastically, terrorist leaders with clear evidence of terrorist participation, including Yasser Arafat, former terrorist leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and now Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, are still walking around free planning more and more terrorists attacks. Let us not forget that Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, responsible for many terrorist attacks, is nothing else but a military arm of the Palestinian Authority. One can argue that Arafat, in a sense, is under special prison treatment because he cannot leave his headquarters in Ramallah. Well, he might be under special prison treatment but he still operates and officially commands the Palestinian Authority. This is where the controversy starts. For instance, the head of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, received only a restraining order after he was accused of raising funds for the terrorist group of Hamas. Does it mean that Federman is more dangerous than Arafat and Ra'ad Salah and other Arab-Palestinian terrorist leaders? Therefore, some argue that the use of "administrative detention" is being used as a tool against those who oppose the destruction of Yesha towns, which are located in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Federman resides precisely in Hebron, part of Yesha towns. Will this mean that residents in those areas, who oppose leaving their towns and decide to defend themselves against terrorist attacks, will also be imprisoned for "fear" that they will attack Arab-Palestinians terrorists? Now, there is enough intelligence information about the whereabouts of known terrorist leaders in Judea and Samaria. Why not then go after them and apply this "emergency situation" instead of letting them plan, announce, and commit their publicized terrorist attacks? Would it not be more logical to apply the "administrative detention" law to imprison real terrorist leaders and not people or Israeli citizens who want to defend Israel precisely from those genocidal attacks? This reminds us of the case of the American Christian-Zionist David Ben-Ariel, who was imprisoned allegedly for trying to destroy the Dome of the Rock for the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple. Ben-Ariel repetitively declared that he was there only to protest, not to destroy the Mosque. Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger, who defended Federman, also represented David Ben-Ariel during his trial in Israeli High Court and Jerusalem's Municipal Court. Ben-Ariel is now free and back in the United States. The Israeli government decided that Ben-Ariel cannot visit Israel and that he might be eligible to return in 2005. Why not deport the leaders of terrorist groups who are living, apparently with more rights, in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza? The Federman situation has caused many Israelis to reexamine their conscience. Again, the controversy arises. Federman, an Israeli, who has not committed a genocide attack, was imprisoned under an "emergency situation," while the Israeli government has agreed to free about 400 Arab-Palestinians terrorists. The condition is that they must be without "blood on their hands" and with less than 3 years remaining from their prison sentences. It is naive to believe that these 400 terrorists will obey "a promissory note for not continuing with terrorism." Plus, instead of being deported, they will be sent to Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Does this means a victory for the terrorists and a slap for Federman and Ben-Ariel? Simply said, something is not clicking. Ironically, it appears that terrorism is dictating the terms for peace negotiations. Is it that negotiation for liberation of verified Arab-Palestinians terrorists is more negotiable than that of Federman? Even though genocide bombings did not stop, but increased. This is why the fence has been adopted as a "security measure." There are two questions. First, is it fair to consider Federman as a terrorist and not as a citizen defending Israel? Remember, it not a matter whether people agree or disagree with Federman's politics, but about Israeli civil rights. Second, can this "emergency situation law" be applied immediately to all known terrorist leaders in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza? What do you think?

A QUESTION ABOUT HIZBALLAH AN MEXICO Posted by Tamar Bush, January 30, 2004.

This was written by Terence Jeffrey and appeared on the Townhall website (http:/www.townhall.com) January 28, 2004. Politicians serious about preventing another Sept. 11 should listen to the leader of Hizballah, and then read an indictment unsealed this month in Detroit. "Let the entire world hear me," said Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27, 2002. "Our hostility to the Great Satan is absolute." There's good reason to take this sheik seriously. In 1983, his Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. According to the opinion of U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the case of Peterson v. the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nasrallah attended the meeting in Baalbek, Lebanon, where the 1983 attack was planned. Until Sept. 11, it remained the deadliest terrorist strike ever against the United States. The sheik's Sept. 27, 2002, rally in Beirut celebrated the Palestinian intifadah. It was broadcast live on Lebanese TV and monitored by the BBC. "Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September," Nasrallah said that day, "Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America!" Six months later, according to the BBC, Nasrallah warned Americans that if the U.S. invaded Iraq, "The region's people will receive you with rifles, blood, arms, martyrdom and martyrdom operations." Now, turn to May 3, 2003. That's when FBI agents searched the Dearborn, Mich., residence of Mahmoud Kourani, a 32-year-old illegal alien from Lebanon. In a statement submitted last week in federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chadwell revealed words the FBI found on audiotapes there: "You alone are the sun of my lands, Nasrallah! Nasrallah!/. . . your voice is nothing less than my jihad." "We offer to you Hizballah, a pledge of loyalty," said a tape. ". . .. Rise for Jihad! . . . I offer you, Hizballah, my blood in my hand." Kourani pleaded guilty to harboring an illegal alien. A judge sentenced him to six months. On Jan. 15, a second indictment was unsealed, charging Kourani with conspiracy to provide material support to Hizballah. "Kourani was a member, fighter, recruiter and fundraiser for Hizballah," said the indictment. "Operating at first from Lebanon and later in the United States, Kourani was a dedicated member of Hizballah who received specialized training in radical Shiite fundamentalism, weaponry, spy craft, and counterintelligence in Lebanon and Iran." "Kourani," Chadwell added in his statement, "is charged with conspiring with individuals at the highest levels of the terrorist organization, including one of his brothers who is the Hizballah chief of military security for southern Lebanon." Kourani got to America, the prosecutors allege, with the help of a Mexican official. "On approximately Feb. 4, 2001, Kourani surreptitiously entered the United States by sneaking across the U.S./Mexico border in the trunk of a car," wrote Chadwell. "He reached Mexico by paying $3,000 used to bribe an official in the Mexican Consulate in Beirut, Lebanon, to give him a Mexican visa." Do prosecutors believe that official was Imelda Ortiz Abdala, the one-time Mexican consul in Beirut who was arrested by Mexico in November, according to the Associated Press, "on charges of helping a smuggling ring move Arab migrants into the United States from Mexico"? "They are not sure if that is the person that received the money," said Sandy Palazzolo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Jeffrey G. Collins of Detroit. "They have information that she worked there during this time frame, but they don't know if that is in fact the person that he did bribe." In a sentencing memorandum in Kourani's alien-harboring case, Chadwell told the court Kourani's "offense of conviction was part of a continuing scheme to bring illegal aliens to the United States from Lebanon through Mexico." Kourani has pleaded not guilty to providing material support to Hizballah. I asked his attorney, Nabih Ayad, about the claim in the indictment that Kourani was a member, fighter, recruiter and fundraiser for Hizballah. "He denies all that," said Ayad. Kourani also contests the government's assertion that he bought a Mexican visa for $3,000 in Beirut. "My client told me specifically," said Ayad, "that he got it legitimately through the Mexican consulate." Why did Kourani come to America? "I think why millions of Americans, the immigrants, come to the United States," said Ayad. "Basically, to make some money. . . . According to his statements to the FBI agents, he was here to make some money to go back with $10,000 for his wife and children." Whatever the eventual outcome in this case, simple prudence demands that a question be asked of our political leaders: If they don't secure our borders against illegal immigration, how can they secure our country against Hizballah? And Hizballah, as Sheik Nasrallah says, seeks "Death to America!"

SELF-PROCLAIMED "EXPERT" DISTORTS HISTORY AND TAKES US ALL FOR FOOLS Posted by IsrAlert, January 30, 2004.

This was written by Rachel Neuwirth, a free-lance writer from Los Angeles and appeared on the website (http://) "Let's not mince words: American policy today toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is insane," asserts Mr. Thomas Friedman in his article "War of Ideas: Part 4" (New York Times, Jan. 18, 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/opinion/18FRIE.html?th). Well, Mr. Thomas Friedman, I shall not mince words either. American policy is not "insane," but your flawed observations and analyses are. From your first assertion that the Palestinians are "gripped by a collective madness" causing them to "commit suicide" to your cure-all suggestion that an Israel reduced to a nine-mile wide strip will be a more defensible Israel, you have shown yourself to be neither a friend of Israel nor an expert on this matter. Once again you have ignored the basic fact that the Israeli-"Palestinian" conflict is nothing more than the same old Arab-Israeli conflict using a new platoon, the so-called "Palestinians." Even "new historian" Benny Morris came to the conclusion that the long history of [Arab] rejectionism has perpetuated this conflict. http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030421&s=morris042103 What is "insane" is your claim that Israel is in the way of the Arab/Muslim world modernizing and liberalizing. What hinders that process is not Israel or America, but rather the corrupt, despotic systems of government in most Arab/Muslim states including Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Arab leaders refuse to modernize because they realize it will involve democratization which would spell an end to their regimes. If anything, Israel is the ONLY example of modernization, liberalization, and democratization in the entire Middle East. Yet you blame her for the shortcomings of her enemies. What is "insane" is that you criticize the Bush team for a "just do nothing policy" in the "Palestinian"-Israeli conflict. The Bush team knows there is little it can do until the corrupt, terrorist-supporting regime led by Yasser Arafat ends. The American administration knows that until that time, sadly, there is no hope for peace any time soon. What is insane is insisting that Israelis must evacuate their communities in Judea-Samaria (your "West Bank") in order to be MORE secure when, in fact, the opposite is true. The brave Israelis living in these territories are the first line of defense in keeping OUT those "collectively mad" Arab terrorists "committed to suicide [Jihad]." What is "insane" AND ignorant is that you overlook the fact that an Arab-"Palestinian" state already exists and has existed since 1922. It is called Jordan. Even the Arab world recognizes Jordan's historic ties with the Arab "Palestinians." Prior to 1967, no Arab state ever called for another independent Arab-Palestinian state even when Arabs were in full control of today's so-called "occupied territories." Nor did they ever recognize a distinct "Palestinian" nationality. As Zahir Muhsein, former head of the PLO's military division, stated in 1977: "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. (Amsterdam-based newspaper "Dagblad de Verdieping Trouw", March 31, 1977). If Arab terrorism emanating from Judea-Samaria ever ends, the Arab-dominated areas could possibly confederate with that existing Arab-"Palestinian" State of Jordan. Or those Arab-"Palestinians" could simply wade across the knee-deep Jordan River and become official Jordanian citizens. But it has become painfully apparent (except to you) that they will NEVER renounce their right to murder Jews or wipe Israel off the map. And THIS is why they should NEVER be allowed to create a state along Israel's underbelly from which to continue their war on the Jewish state. What is "insane" is that you are so wedded to your distorted, yet simplistic, view of the conflict that when questioned about it, you overreacted. According to journalist Steven I. Weiss, when Manhattan attorney Harvey Schwartz suggested that you were "willing to sacrifice Israel on the altar of Iraq," you yelled "F**k you" and slugged him. (http://www.jewsweek.com, December 13, 2003). Perhaps, Mr. Friedman, you should reflect on the conclusions of Japanese researcher Nobuaki Notohara who lived among the Arabs for some 40 years and of Kuwaiti columnist Muhammad al-Rumayhi who reviewed Notohara's recent book: "[The author] says: 'I think that oppression is an incurable disease in Arab society, and therefore any author or researcher who speaks of the Arab society without being aware of this simple and obvious fact is not a serious researcher.' Mr. Al-Rumayhi concludes that in order to enter the modern age, the Arab value system requires revision. (http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD64804) Mr. Notohara has never claimed to be a Jew, a Zionist, or an expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict; but he certainly has a lot to teach you about sanity AND reality! Or perhaps, Mr. Friedman, you could learn from Walid Shoebat (43), who grew up fully indoctrinated in the hate-filled Arab culture and became a zealous, Jew-hating Muslim in the West Bank, progressing from a boy who threw stones to a young man who was a full-fledged Molotov Cocktail tosser... and perhaps even more. Eventually, he learned the difference between right and wrong. Now he says: "The world does not see the truth about what's happening in the West Bank," Shoebat told the Star in an interview yesterday afternoon. "My purpose is to tell the West that they aren't getting the real picture, that what they're seeing is propaganda. I know the truth because I was there, I was part of it. And the truth is, we wanted to kill Jews long before the occupation. I wanted to kill Jews." (http://www.thestar.com/ January 21, 2004). In conclusion. There are two insanities at work here. First is the insanity of your reasoning and depiction of Israel as the main source of every ill known to the Middle East. But equally sad is the insanity of those who fill your lecture halls time and time again to listen to your distortions. The Arab World's war of ideas, Mr. Friedman, can never be blamed on Israel and/or America. If anything, these countries offer hope to the mass of Arab peoples living under despotic regimes. Let's place blame where blame is due and not mislead American readers. Thomas Friedman: you stand accused of waging your very own intifada against the Children of Israel, and for that there is no excuse. You are nothing more than a full-blown apologist for Arab terrorism. You have spent ample time in the Middle East but it has taught you nothing.

EU POLICY ON ISRAEL: ASSAULT, DEFENT, ASSAULT Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 31, 2004.

NGO Monitor reports that the EU invested financial and political capital in the "peace process," without effect. The EU is so hostile towards Israel as to help demonize it. Europe attempts to impose its ways on the Mideast, implicitly and mistakenly assuming similarity in history and conditions. European journalists and academics as well as diplomats have adopted the Arab version of events. They ignore the cause of the conflict - Arab rejection of Israeli sovereignty - and focus on pos-1967 issues such as "settlements." They ignore the terrorism and wars preceding the 1967 war. Europe also has invested billions of dollars in Arab states, hoping to promote its interests and stability, stemming the tide of immigration. That, too, has failed. It had to -- Europe ignores regional threats and matters of security. Europeans concentrate on ideals, but their efforts have not promoted human rights and democracy nor ended P.A. corruption. Europe welcomed Syria's President warmly, while Syria increased its antisemitic remarks. The EU also has spent large sums in Israel, not with transparency but intervening in Israeli politics and society, attempting to influence public opinion there. (Subversive.) EU foreign policy is primarily "lofty declarations, unquestioned assumptions, flawed analyses, and unrealistic policies." "From an Israeli perspective, the tone of such declarations has often been perceived as patronizing, paternalistic, and poorly informed." De-emphasizing security, the EU stresses preventing violence via diplomacy. It does not realize that this policy leaves the aggressive Arabs freer to use violence. This philosophy has clashed with US policy in Iraq and on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. EU policy relies on "constructive dialogue" and trade with Iran, while Iran acquires missiles and fissile material. Israeli military responses to terrorism are called counter-productive. European thinkers ignore the effect of these attacks on Israel and their threat to Israeli security and survival. Mistakenly thinking the Arabs the victims and Israeli force excessive, EU policy is biased in favor of the Arabs. The EU funds NGO campaigns to demonize Israel. The EU's moral equivalence between P.A. terrorism and Israeli defense against it is not ethical. Without evidence, the EU declares Israeli defenses not only excessive but that they do not bring security. The evidence suggests otherwise. Some European states vote for resolutions justifying suicide bombing against Israel as "resisting Israeli occupation." The moral posturing may be just a cover for Europe's major policy consideration, which is oil and other economic interests. Siding almost exclusively with the P.A., and taking its cue largely from the anti-Israel Israeli Left, Europe, which subsidizes the P.A., urges US pressure on Israel, alone. Europe talks about the subsidy being transparent, but it is not, and Arafat steals it. What he doesn't keep under his own name, he uses to incite his people against the Jews and to wage war on Israel (IMRA, 1/10 from Gerald M. Steinberg). So much for EU anti-militarism. THE EU DEFENDS FROM NGO MONITOR The EU rebutted NGO Monitor. It denied the accusation of undue closeness to Arafat, on the grounds that its requires beneficiaries to function independently of officials and to work with NGOs. NGO Monitor erred, said the EU, in describing a major aid recipient as "a political tool that presents a distorted picture of the Israeli press." These NGO recipients were selected in a transparent process and are neither political nor discriminatory. They have positive purposes, such as enhancing Arab human rights and media access. Offering the Arabs a "decent life can undermine the spread of violence and hatred." (Jihad is a religious phenomenon, not an economic one.) The "People to People" program's objective is not to support a political camp but to encourage dialogue. Besides, the EU does not endorse all their views. UNRWA already has refuted claims that it fosters hatred against Israel. The main supporters of UNRWA, the US and the EC surely would not "support a UN Agency if it was (were) responsible for inciting hatred and violence through its support for Palestinian education." The EU's main goal is "a peaceful resolution to the conflict in line with the Roadmap, based on two states living in peace and harmony within recognized international borders. It is inconceivable that we would conduct activities which could be used to promote hatred and violence or put innocent lives in dangers." (IMRA, 1/10 from NGO Monitor.) NGO MONITOR REFUTATION Some of the EU defense was that a different agency of it was responsible for some program or a different amount was spent. NGO Monitor accepted that rebuttal and modified its website. It also backed away from claims it could not prove. Its main thesis it upheld. NGO Monitor was warning of the widespread manipulation by alleged "human rights" groups to attack Israel politically and ideologically. It provided evidence of this by some beneficiaries of EU funding. For example, NGO Monitor erred in describing a major aid recipient as "a political tool that presents a distorted picture of Israeli press." For example, the EU-funded Ilam mission statement is about standards to empower Arab residents of Israel, but it uses biased language to claim stiff censorship in Israel, without mentioning that the Israeli press criticizes the government and the Arab press is free to operate within Israel. (The "Jerusalem Times" is an Arab daily that takes the P.A. line.) Why shouldn't the public know that the EU funds groups that are political tools in the de-legitimization of Israel, rather than an unbiased tool of democracy? The Ford Foundation, Oxfam Belgium, and US government have acknowledged similar abuses and halted some of their subsidies accordingly. The EE reply reiterated EU guidelines and funding criteria. NGO Monitor agrees that the beneficiaries' mission statements are in accord with EU funding criteria. Monitor's point is that the beneficiaries' activities are not! The EU reply failed to address the accountability of the beneficiaries. How does it try to prevent NGOs form involvement in P.A. corruption? Doesn't say. Instead of dismissing criticism and relying on circumstantial evidence, the EU should investigate independent reports, such as those showing that UNRWA ignores the use of its camps as bomb factories and for terrorist organizations and its schools for incitement to violence against Israel (Op. Cit.). I don't believe the main EU defense, that it just seeks reform. Its aid primarily is seditious. Its efforts for democracy ignore Israel's real undemocratic aspects. They solely would empower Israeli Arabs, engaged in a struggle for control of the country, and help P.A. Arabs engaged in a war for that control. Hey ignore P.A. antisemitism because the EU is antisemitic. The EU ignores problems of Israeli security, because, as its Road Map makes clear, it seeks Israel's insecurity. If the EU doesn't cynically realize this, then its left had doesn't know what its right hand is doing. As for its denial that the NGOs work with Arafat, let us bear in mind that the P.A. is a dictatorship, and Arafat is the dictator. He has cracked down on independent-minded NGOs. Since their work now is anti-Israel, he tolerates them. Mr. 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.

A HEART-RENDERING LETTER Posted by Heshy Riesel, January 30, 2004.

This was posted on the www.e-thepeople.org website. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak my mind. I lost my job this past year. When Clinton was president I was secure and prosperous, but in the last year, we had to close our operations. We simply could not compete with foreign labor. This foreign labor worked for low pay under very bad conditions. They worked very long shifts, and many even died on the job. This competition could hardly be called "fair." I was forced out of the place where I had worked for 34 years. Not a single government program was there to help me. How can Bush call himself "compassionate?" Far worse, I lost two of my sons in Bush's evil war in Iraq. They gave their lives for their country, and for what? So that Bush's oil buddies can get rich. My pain of losing my sons is indescribable. While it is trivial next to the loss of my sons, I regret to say that I also lost my home. I simply have nothing left. How can Bush call himself a Christian when he neglects people like me? I am a senior citizen with various medical problems. I'm not in a position where I can begin a new career. I was reduced to the point where I had to live in a hole in a ground, all because of President Bush. And when the authorities found me there, did they have any compassion for my misfortune and ailments? No, I was arrested. Mr. Bush, I dare you to look me in the face and tell me you are a compassionate man! I dare you to look me in the face and tell me you are a Christian. If I had any money left, I would donate it to the Democrat Party. If Al Gore had been elected in 2000 I would still have a job, a home, and most importantly, my dear sons! Regards, Saddam Hussein

THE EXPLOSION OF ANTI-SEMITISM: WHY? Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, January 30, 2004.

Hatred of Jews and of Judaism is as old as the hills: one may even call it the equivalent of a law of nature. The hatred is subterranean. It surfaces and explodes under various external forces. Of course there are philo-Semites, but anti-Semitism is the norm. I will not go into the theological reasons for this anti-Semitism. Instead, I limit myself to the explosion of anti-Semitism that coincides with the Arafat War against the Jewish state, a war that erupted after Ariel Sharon went up to the Temple Mount in September 2000 and preached peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. To be sure, Arafat had planned the war long before Sharon's stroll on the Temple Mount. Nevertheless, even though Arafat used Sharon's visit to the Mount as a pretext for initiating the war, that visit was a precipitating cause. But I was talking about the explosion of anti-Semitism. It is my contention that the explosion of anti-Semitism that has swept the democratic world during the past three years would not have occurred were it not for the failure of Israeli prime ministers to eliminate the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its terrorist network. No one is more culpable in this regard than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose landmark victory over Ehud Barak in the February 2001 election was a mandate to destroy the PA and thereby abrogate Oslo. By his readiness to create a Palestinian state on Jewish land, and by calling this land "occupied territory" while perpetuating the myth of the "Palestinian people" - actually a welter of Arab gangs - Sharon actually confirms the accusation that Jews have stolen their land. Coming from him it is hundred times more convincing than from any Arab. This most crucial fact aside, Arafat's and his minions could have been eliminated in one swift and sweeping attack using overwhelming force, which could have been done before and certainly after 9/11. Instead, Mr. Sharon pursued a policy of self-restraint against the terrorists. This had predictable consequences. First, it revealed that such was Sharon's commitment to a Palestinian state that he would refrain from eliminating the PA as "negotiating partner." His appointment of Shimon Peres as Foreign Minister was all Arafat needed to sleep peacefully. Second, failure to destroy the PA enabled Arafat's minions to accumulate more and more weapons, as well as deadlier weapons. This could not but prolong the war. Third, this prolongation of the war enabled Arabs and Muslim throughout the democratic world to inflame anti-Semitism; and this could the more readily be accomplished by TV clips of Israeli retaliation against terrorist attacks. Operation Defensive Shield should never have been necessary. Jenin should never have been the focus of CNN and BBC. Targeted killings should never have been a cause for denunciation. There should have been no Arab bomb factories, no incitement of Arabs via the Palestinian media, no brainwashing of Arab children to emulate suicide bombers. And there should have been no "security fence" to arouse Jew-haters. All this could have been avoided were it not for the gross incompetence of Israeli prime ministers, above all, Ariel Sharon. This incompetence - to put it mildly - has been a primary cause of the explosion of anti-Semitism. When Israel defeated its Arab enemies in the Six-Day War, the Jewish state was admired throughout the world. What they admired was not the justice of Israel cause so much as Israel's display of power. The world respects strength, not weakness. The world certainly has no respect for Jewish prime ministers willing to sacrifice their people's heartland for "peace." It certainly has no respect for Jewish prime ministers who negotiate with and reward terrorists. It must certainly despise Jewish prime ministers who release and arm Arab terrorists to provide for their country's security. It must surely despise a Jewish prime minister that exchanges 435 terrorists for a single Israeli and the corpses of three Israeli soldiers. Is it any wonder that Jew-hatred has exploded around the world? Organizations which are now activated to combat anti-Semitism are shadow boxing. As long as the Israeli Defense Forces target various terrorists, as long as Arab women and children blow themselves up to kill Jews, anti-Semitism will persist. Because Arabs are willing to die for their cause, they will win the support of thoughtless men and women, of whom there is no shortage. As long as Israeli prime ministers behave like cravens and cretins, Jews everywhere will become targets of the anti-Semites. As long as the Jews of Israel do not rise up and put an end to this humiliating and degrading state of affairs, Jews everywhere will suffer the taunts and torment Professor Paul Eidelberg is Head of the Yamin Israel Party in Israel. Prof Paul Eidelberg is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy, 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and Email: Constitution@usa.net A version of this article is archived on the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, Maccbean Online (http://www.freeman.org/m_online/mar98/eidelb2.htm).

WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD SHARON? Posted by Tamar Rush, January 30, 2004.

This was written by Mike Levine Yesterday Prime Minister Sharon stood in front of three caskets containing the bodies of soldiers kidnapped from the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon who were killed by Hezbollah, and whose bodies were held for ransom for three years. This is what Sharon said: "I WARN TERRORISTS NOT TO KIDNAP ANY MORE OF OUR SOLDIERS." You could almost hear Sheik Nasrullah laughing! Arafat, no doubt, was in stitches. In fact they were laughing heartily all over the Arab and Islamic world. They know all too well what Sharon's warning is worth. It's worth a mouthful of warm spit! If Sharon had the balls he was born with he would have immediately, the day these soldiers were kidnapped and murdered, sent in the airforce with 1,000 pound bombs and obliterated all the known Hezbollah camps and infrastructure. He would then have issued a warning to Syria, the sponsor of Hezbollah, that Damascus was next if they do not immediately pull out of Lebanon and disband what's left of Hezbollah. On the very same day that we were delivering, by comfy air conditioned buses, 435 Arab terrorists to freedom, and a plane load of murderers to Lebanon, we received in return three pitiful coffins and one Israeli businessperson who evidently went to Lebanon to conduct some dealings with the enemy. Maybe weapons. Maybe drugs. We don't know yet, and may never know. On that sickening day a Palestinian Policeman employed by Arafat detonated a huge bomb filled with the usual assortment of nails, iron scraps, and other deadly shrapnel in a bus in Jerusalem. A bus filled with people heading to work or for treatment in one of two major hospitals. The top of the bus flew 70 feet in the air. Ten innocent humans died instantly. Many of the dozens injured will die in the coming days. Sixty wounded. The location where this homicidal maniac blew himself up? Near the Prime Minister's residence! A block away from the cafe that was bombed recently with 23 dead, and around the corner from the country's main Synagogue. This attack was planned for several weeks to coincide with the day we released hundreds of murderers of our people, and the place was chosen in order to send a taunting message to Sharon that they are all laughing at him for the spineless, weak-kneed way in which he continues to respond. History has shown only too often and well that our enemies respect only force, and that whenever we make concessions, whenever we appease them or negotiate with them, we pay the price in dead babies, women, and old people, as well as kidnapped soldiers. While we here in Israel were mourning our three dead soldiers, in Beirut Nasrullah and the entire Lebanese government were celebrating. It was a joyous event shown on television in every country on earth. The returning terrorists were accorded a hero's welcome, with flowers and kisses. In his triumphant speech Nasrullah promised to kidnap more of our soldiers in order to trade them for hundreds more! We get three coffins. They get hundreds of live, healthy, well-fed terrorists ready and willing to go back to the business of slaughtering Jews. A terrific deal, eh Mr.Sharon?

NEGOTIATION WON'T BRING PEACE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 30, 2004.

Arabs are developing military skills. Jordan is developing an upgraded version of the turret of the Challenger-1 main battle tank (IMRA, 1/13). Israelis think it incumbent upon themselves to negotiate peace before they lose their "military edge." I think it incumbent upon them to win the war before they lose their ability to defend themselves. The problems with negotiations are: (1) Arab treaties don't make peace; and (2) The world insists that Israeli negotiators make concessions that weaken Israel against a war. The Foreign Ministry set up a new website of information about Israel in Arabic. It will include op-ed articles from the Arab world "so that we can hear the views of our neighbors." The theory behind the website is that factual information "is the desired alternative to conflict and confrontation." Israel wants to send a message of peace (IMRA, 1/12). The theory reflects Israeli ignorance about the conflict. The conflict is caused by an Arab ideology of confrontation. Israeli ignorance of that cause prevents Israel from taking appropriate counter-measures. The website would offer the Arabs information they won't believe and op-eds they and Israelis can get from Arab TV and that contain falsehoods, threats of war, and false promises of peace if only Israel would make concessions that facilitate Arab war. The website has as much chance of fostering peace as would one with those similarly fanatical and totalitarian enemies of the Jewish people, Nazi Germany and the USSR. Indoctrinated fanatics don't end conflicts because of information from the enemy they deem liars. The Arabs are in a jihad, which is a religious imperative impervious to being advised that the enemy they demonize is decent.

PALESTINIANS SEE KIDNAPPING IDF SOLDIERS AS HOSTAGES AS PRECEDENT Posted by Itamar Marcus, January 30, 2004.

Yesterday Israel released over 400 Palestinian terrorists and those who had aided terrorists from its prisons in exchange for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers and a civilian who had been kidnapped by the Hizbullah terror organization. Those opponents of the deal in Israel fear that exchanging terrorist prisoners for kidnapped Israelis will encourage more kidnapping. Confirming Israel's fears, the Palestinian media has cited numerous PA sources expressing the sentiment that Hizballah has created the precedent, and the "resistance" is more effective than negotiations. Even Arafat's Fatah "emphasized the necessity to follow in the footsteps of the act of Hizbullah, so that all prisoners and detainees will be released." The following are a collection of statements from the PA media: The Minister for prisoners and detainees affairs, Hisham Abdul-Raziq, expressed his joy at the completion of prisoners exchanging between Hizbullah and the Government of Israel. This deal includes the releasing of four hundred Palestinian prisoners... The spokesman of the committee of the relatives of the prisoners in Israeli jails, Halid Al-Hatib... said: "The Government of Israel, by reaching this agreement, sends the Palestinians a message, which indicates that the releasing of your prisoners will not happen through negotiations." Palestinian National Council member, Basam Abu Sharif, thanked Hizbullah for its efforts to release four hundred Palestinian prisoners. He described this act of Hizbullah as a Pan-Arab one deserving respect... The Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements described the deal as "an achievement", which confirms that the resistance is "a realistic and practical option" for the freeing the land and people. One of Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyah, told the French News Agency that the deal is a Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab achievement and he added: "This deal confirms that the resistance is a realistic and a practical option, which is capable of achievements to liberate the land and people.  [Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Jan. 26, 2004] The wife of the prisoner, Nafiz Haraz, a resident of Gaza who served 19 years in jail of life imprisonment... said: "every single prisoner who is released is an achievement for us and a victory for the resistance... We thank Sheik Nasrallah for this important achievement of releasing prisoners. He is the hawk of the Arabs..." The [Palestinian] citizens believe that Hizbullah's action opend a new door of hope for the families of the prisoners, after it was closed during the [discussions of] political solutions between the [Palestinian] National Authority and Israel, which did not lead to any practical results..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Jan.27, 2004] "... the military branch of the Fatah movement, organized a civil and military parade yesterday in Rafah to express appreciation and gratitude for the efforts made by Hizbullah in releasing Arab and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in the prisoners exchange deal with Isreal. In a manifesto of the Abu Al-Rish Regiments, the military branch of Fatah emphasized the necessity to follow in the footsteps of the act of Hizbullah, so that all prisoners and detainees will be released." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Jan. 29, 2004] Itamar Marcus is director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

FOR SHAME, SHARON! Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 30, 2004.

What a shame that Sharon only seems to be able to be clever when it comes to his own skin. If instead of investing public funds and resources into bolstering his popularity he were to use them to fight the terror, all of us including Sharon would be in better shape. Once people can calm down a bit and actually think about what has happened, a goodly number of them will be totally disgusted by Sharon and his antics. These are news item from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=57038). Sharon must resign. In an impressive military-state ceremony, the State of Israel last night welcomed home the bodies of Staff-Sergeant Benny Avraham, Staff-Sergeant Adi Avitan and Staff-Sergeant Omar Suaed... President Katzav, Prime Minister Sharon, Defense Minister Mofaz and Chief of Staff Yaalon addressed the ceremony, with Chief Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Weiss read a quotation from the Bible in honor of the soldiers and their families. During the ceremony, the fathers of the Jewish soldiers, Adi Avitan and Benny Avraham, recited the Kaddish prayer said in honor of the dead; and an imam recited Al-Fatcha, a Muslim prayer in honor of the dead, alongside the father of Omar Suaed. Prime Minister Sharon, who called the decision to go ahead with the exchange with the Hizbullah that led to the return of the bodies "a Jewish decision", addressed the ceremony saying, "The reality of our lives sometimes forces us into a terrible mix of sadness with sadness. It appears that is the price a society that values life must pay." "We are here with a heavy heart before these three caskets draped in the national flag. We considered with great seriousness all of the data, and we placed on the scale one decisive factor: Jewish sensitivity. We have paid a great debt today," Sharon continued, "a debt of honor due our soldiers, and due their tortured families." Regarding the issue of the confrontation with the Hizbullah, the prime minister said, "The State of Israel will not allow the terrorist organizations to turn kidnapping into a system." He issued a warning to Lebanese terrorist elements that Israel has harsh tools at its disposal to combat kidnapping that it has not yet employed - but would, should it become necessary... ...Several Knesset members refused to attend. Shas party head Eli Yeshai called the ceremony a wasteful "festival"... Were the abundant speeches and musical accompaniments truly necessary? It is interesting to see how many of those present will come to comfort the families when television cameras are not around." Another person opposed to the ceremony, who was instrumental in bringing a case to court objecting to the release of the terrorists, was Meir Indor, of the Almagor terror victims association. "Now it can be revealed," Indor wrote after the ceremony, "Everyone fooled everyone else!" He explained that the ceremony, which does not appear in any state protocols, was produced under orders of the prime minister "to milk the public for support, after the criticism he was exposed to as a result of the deal." Indor also blamed the media for collaboration, as well as the ceremony organizers for "dancing on the coffins." On the other hand, offended by what was not included in the ceremony, was the spokespersons for the Action Committee for Jonathan Pollard. In none of the speeches delivered at the ceremony, even those which referred by name to missing or imprisoned Israelis abroad, was there any mention of Jonathan Pollard, imprisoned in the United States for his activities on behalf of Israel, the activists noted with disappointment. At approximately the same time that the Israeli airplane carrying Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of the three IDF soldiers landed in Israel, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah was presiding over a celebration in Beirut marking the return of the dozens of Lebanese terrorists released by Israel in the exchange. During his address to the large crowd last night, Nasrallah stated that his organization would kidnap more Israelis in order to obtain the release of other terrorists imprisoned in Israel. Noting the numbers of prisoners released by Israel in the exchange, Nasrallah taunted that just for information on Ron Arad, Israel will release all of its security prisoners. The Hizbullah's original demand was for the release of approximately 4,000 terrorists and their accomplices. During the negotiations leading up to the just-completed exchange, Israel appeared willing to release Samir Kuntar, responsible for the deaths of four Israelis, in exchange for details on missing navigator Ron Arad. Released terrorist leader Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, originally captured by Israel as a bargaining chip for Ron Arad, commented in an interview with Al-Jazeera television that while he was pleased to be released, the Arab world must not forget "the others still in jail." Similarly, one of the terrorists released yesterday into Palestinian Authority jurisdiction in Gaza told Israeli media, in Hebrew, "I have a message for Sheikh Nasrallah. We had only a few months left, it was not much. But we have brothers who are in jail for life; they are suffering." The Arab terrorists released into PA custody were greeted by cheering throngs in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. 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.

FRIDAY IN THE HOLY CITY Posted by Judy Balint, January 30, 2004.

This was written by Stuart Pilichowski, Mevasseret Zion. It started out simply enough. A cold, beautiful Jerusalem morning. I got to the Kotel, the Western Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem at 8:00AM for Yakir's bar-mitzvah celebration. Yakir was born during (into?) the SCUD War. I'll never forget the first baby pictures. It was hard to see him clearly: he was in a plastic tent. That was his gas mask. Great way to enter the world. A slap on the tush and then preventive measures against chemical and poison gas. He did a great job leading the services and reading from the Torah. It's pretty normal to become bar-mitzvah at the Kotel so I didn't really think twice about the enormity of where we were and what it meant in the realm of things. We too quickly become accustomed to what should always remain most meaningful. The exotic and mysterious lose their allure. Sometimes even for our loved ones. Maybe it's just me. Then we heard the news. A bus bombing in Jerusalem. Reports were first coming in. We later learned of the terrorist rising at 4:00 in the morning and going to his prayer services before setting out on his way to destroy lives. To destroy families. A reminder: The bomb is not "just" a block of C4 explosive or something. It's laden with nails and ball bearings to maximize the damage. It's horrible enough to sit at your worktable and manufacture a bomb that you know will savagely slaughter innocent lives. But to top it off with bits and pieces to take full advantage of the damage you can cause is just unfathomable to me. I wonder what the Allah he thought he was praying to was thinking about this worshipper's "religious" intentions. My daughter-in-law and two granddaughters were in a taxi on the way to the Kotel when they heard not only the radio reports coming in, but also the sirens blaring from every direction. Avigayil, 4 1/2, began crying. She understood. She was sensitive. She was frightened. Temimah, 3 years old, said let's pray. Even at such a young age they seem to know. Israeli intuition? We toured the Old City after breakfast. What struck me during a stop at a museum showing the banishment of Jews from the Old City in 1948 by the Arabs (not Palestinians - that's a new term) was that not only aren't things changing, but I was actually bothered by a burning question I've always had: What have we Jews done so sinfully or wickedly that we to this day warrant such bitter hatred? Yakir. He was kidded about being a "flower child" because he delivers flowers on Fridays in honor of the Sabbath. While his friends were celebrating their buddy's bar-mitzvah last night, Yakir's Uncle David turned to me and said, "Just another few years and all these kids are going to be wearing uniforms. They're going to be protecting us." Unspoken was the fact that perhaps (certainly?) a few years later some wouldn't even be around. While we were dancing and singing songs of joy and celebration into the night, burials, eulogies, and cries of anguish were already happening in Jerusalem. The dead do not remain in the Holy City overnight. They must be buried. Why? I'm not sure. Perhaps because death is a sure sign of absolute conclusion. Nothing more can be accomplished by the deceased. Only the memories and past deeds remain. Jerusalem, the City of Peace, requires action, movement up the ladder towards always aiming for greater achievement. Never remain passive. Always stay optimistic and struggle to climb the mountain. To come full circle, when I was getting flowers for the bar-mitzvah celebration and for the Sabbath this Friday morning, the store seemed unusually quiet for a Friday morning. After all, it's the busiest time of the week. The fellow in the store said his brother-in-law was killed in the blast and buried last night. Everyone is touched somehow. Shabbat Shalom "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" by Judy Lash Balint (Gefen) is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com

URI AVNERY DEFENDS HIZBOLLAH Posted by Steven Plaut, January 30, 2004.

We have often commented on the antics of Uri Avnery. Avenry heads a splinter anti-Israel extremist group called "Gush Shalom" www.gush-shalom.org, no doubt funded by the usual overseas ill-wishers. Avnery is considered the father of Israeli anti-Zionism and wrote a book "Israel without Zionists" back in the late 1960s. He is so extremist that when his own mother died, she cut him out of her will and declared in her will that she regards him as a traitor. He has been compared by many to Lord Haw Haw. Mikey Lerner of Tikkun regularly runs Avnery's ravings and endorses them. I guess Lerner runs the rebuttals of Avnery on the same web page on which he posts a photocopy of his Rabbinic ordination certificate and the transcript of his studies from Rabbinic seminary.... Avnery runs ads in the Israeli press for his movement, paid for by Guess Who. They inevitable involve attacks on Israel and defense of Palestinian hatred of Jews. But today's ad in Haaretz by Avnery goes a bit beyond his usual fare. Avnery writes a short screed under the title "Only with Violence/Force" in which he defends the Hizbollah having kidnapped the three Israeli soldiers and holding their bodies as extortionate bargaining chips to force Israel to release the hundreds of imprisoned terrorists. You see, explains Avnery, it is all Israel's fault. Had Israel voluntarily released all the terrorists long ago, the Hizbollah would have had no reason ro grab Israeli hostages in the first place to extort the release of the terrorists. SO because Israel was obstinate and "only understands the use of force" (his words), it is all the Sharon government's fault. Avnery does not consider the possibility that executing the 450 terrorists would also have removed any incentive for the Hizbollah to grab bargaining chips. Someone just asked me why Israel has not tossed Avnery into "administrative detention", which is usually used to hold terrorists and occasionally Kahanists. I do not have a good answer. 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.

TEHRAN TERRORFEST Posted by Bryna Berch, January 30, 2004.

This article was written by Amir Taheri and appeared as a Opinion column on the New York Post website (http://www.nypost.com). January 26, 2004 -- THE other day at the World Economic Forum's inaugural session at Davos, Switzerland, Iran's President Muhammad Khatami repeatedly nodded his head in approval as forum founder Klaus Schwab called for the eradication of international terrorism. In his own speech, Khatami called for a "dialogue of civilizations" as an alternative to war and terror. Meanwhile, militants from some 40 countries spread across the globe were trekking to Tehran for a 10-day "revolutionary jamboree" in which "a new strategy to confront the American Great Satan" will be hammered out. The event starts Feb. 1, to mark the 25th anniversary of the return to Iran from exile of the late Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, the founder of the "Islamic Revolution." It is not clear how many militants will attend, but Iran's official media promise a massive turnout to underline the Islamic Republic's position as the "throbbing heart of world resistance to American arrogance." The guest list reads like a who's who of global terror. In fact, most of the groups attending the event, labeled "Ten Days of Dawn," are branded by the United States and some European Union members as terrorist outfits. These include 17 branches of the Hezbollah, a worldwide militant Shi'ite movement created by Tehran in 1983. For more than two decades, Tehran has been a magnet for militant groups from many different national and ideological backgrounds. The Islamic Republic's hospitality cuts across even religious divides. Militant Sunni organizations, including two linked to al Qaeda - Ansar al-Islam (Companions of Islam) and Hizb Islami (The Islamic Party) - will enjoy Iranian hospitality. So will Latin American guerrilla outfits, clandestine Irish organizations, Basque and Corsican separatists and a variety of leftist groups, from Spartacists to Trotskyites and Guevarists. Tehran is the only capital where all the Palestinian militant movements have offices; some have training and financial facilities there, too. Iranian officials claim that the presence of these organizations is limited to "cultural and information activities." The militant offices are known as "daftar ertebat" - "contact bureaus" - while the training offered by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards is presented as "courses in self-defense." But the war in Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein have shaken the traditional Khomeinist assumption that the United States will never risk a direct confrontation with the Iranian regime. The old view is expressed in a celebrated dictum of Khomeini that is painted on the walls of the conference center where the militants will meet: "America Cannot Do A Damn Thing!" Now, however, many in Tehran believe that unless the Khomeinist regime modifies aspects of its behavior, notably in its relations with terrorist groups, it might find itself in military conflict with the United States. "Anyone who ignores the presence of the American war machine all around us suffers from deadly illusions," says Imadeddin Baqi, a member of the outgoing Islamic Majlis (parliament). Until at least last December, one idea was to either cancel the terrorist jamboree or curtail it to a single prayer session at Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran. That idea was vetoed by the "Supreme Guide," Ali Khamenei, who believes that any show of weakness by the regime could encourage its numerous opponents inside and outside the country. Thus Khamenei plans to use the global jamboree to show that Iran is still a revolutionary force to be reckoned with, and that he alone, and not the ineffective Khatami, calls the shots in Tehran. Khamenei also hopes that the next elections, to be held 10 days after the terror jamboree ends, will produce a new majority that shares his strategy. His game plan is to unify the regime by cutting the so-called "reformists" down to size and adopting a wait-and-see tactic until after the American presidential election. The militants headed to Tehran will likely be told they must lie as low as possible for the next few months without abandoning their radical goals. The Tehran gathering is also expected to deepen the recent informal alliances made between Islamist militant groups and a variety of communist, anarchist and environmentalist militant groups against the "American common enemy." The Khomeinist leadership has taken note of the success of the Islamist-Leftist alliances in organizing rallies against the liberation of Iraq last year. Khomeini himself presided over an alliance of Islamists, communists and other Marxist-Leninist groups that brought down the Shah's regime in 1979. "Today, mankind has a common enemy," says Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, who heads the powerful Council of Guardians in Tehran. "And that enemy is the American Great Satan. Anyone who fights the Great Satan for whatever reason is on our side, and anyone who does not is on the opposite side." Nevertheless, it is clear that the Khomeinist regime is prepared to change aspects of its behavior and even concede some tactical retreats to weather what many in Tehran call "the Bush storm." But the regime's strategy - aimed at driving America out of the Middle East, destroying Israel and replacing all Arab regimes with "truly Islamic" ones - remains unchanged. It is no accident that two words are popular in Tehran these days. One is detente, often used by Khatami and the so-called "reformists." The other, used by the more hard-line Khomeinists, is hudhabiah, which is the name of a truce signed by the Prophet Muhammad with a Jewish tribe in Medina at a time Muslims found themselves in a weak position. At the end of the truce period, the Prophet's army, having rebuilt its strength, attacked the Jews and massacred all its adult male members, seizing women and children as war booty. It is against this background that the question of what to do with Iran must be debated. The Khomeinist leadership, isolated abroad and threatened at home, appears ready to offer almost all the behavioral changes required by Washington and the Eureopean Union. But it cannot change its nature. And there is no guarantee that this particular beast will not bite again, and hard, as soon as it feels that it is no longer threatened. A scorpion does not sting because it is naughty; that is dictated by its nature. The current mood of retrenchment in Tehran may lead to a brief detente, as Khatami wants. But that would mean nothing but a tactical move; the strategy of terror remains unchanged.

BECAUSE, IF YOU DON'T CRY, WHO WILL? Posted by Linda Olmert, January 29, 2004.

The article written below is from December 2001 on the Jewish World Review website (http://www.jewishworldreview.com). I am sending it now not only because the words are so poignant, or because the writer hailed from my hometown of Toronto and made aliya 8 years ago. I am sending this article because the words were prophetic: Yechezkel (Chezi) Goldberg, of blessed memory, was slaughtered this morning along with nine others on a bus, by a terrorist in the center of Jerusalem. Please see that this article makes it's way through the web at least with the alacrity of the jokes that we send: as a tribute, and as a cry. The scene: 7:30 a.m. Israel time, Sunday December 2, 2001 - Eight hours after the triple terror attack at Jerusalem's popular Ben Yehuda Pedestrian Mall. He walked into shul, synagogue. I nodded my acknowledgement, as I always do. He made some strange gesture, which I didn't comprehend. I continued praying. A few minutes later, he walked over to me and said: "Didn't you hear?" "Hear about what?" I replied. He grew impatient, almost frustrated. "Didn't you HEAR?" I understood that he was talking about last night's terror attack on Ben Yehuda Mall, a trendy night spot frequented not only by Israelis, but also Western tourists. I assumed that he obviously was intimating that someone we knew was hurt or killed. I replied: "About who?" He looked at me as if I had landed from another planet. "About who? About everyone who was attacked last night." I nodded. "Yes, of course I heard." "Then why aren't YOU crying?" His words shot through me like a spear piercing my heart. Our sages teach that "Words that come from the heart, enter the heart." He was right, of course. Why wasn't I crying? I could not answer. I had nothing to say. He pointed around the shul. "Why aren't all of my friends crying?" I could not answer. I had nothing to say. "Shouldn't we all be crying?" I could not answer. I had nothing to say. What has happened to all of us, myself included? We have turned to stone. Some would call it "numbness." Some would call it "collective national shock." Some would say that we all have suffered never-ending trauma and it has affected our senses. Frankly, the excuses are worthless. All the reasons in the world don't justify our distance from the real pain that is burning in our midst. When an attack happens, in the heat of the moment, we frantically check to see if someone we know has been hurt or killed. And then, if we find out that "our friends and family are safe," we sigh a deep sigh of relief, grunt and grumble about the latest tragic event and then, we continue with our robotic motions and go on with our lives. We have not lost our minds, my friends. We have lost our hearts. And that is why we keep on losing our lives. When I left shul, my friend said to me with tears dripping from his bloodshot Eyes: "I heard once that the Torah teaches that for every tear that drops from our eyes, another drop of blood is saved." We are living in a time of absolute madness. It is obvious what is going on around us and yet, we detach ourselves and keep running on automatic in our daily lives. Last night, when it was only ten people who were known killed and just 200 injured, even MSNBC.com referred to the triple terror attack as a "slaughter." (More tragedy, it turns out, awaited us a few hours later.) And yet, we are not crying. I know a woman who lost sensitivity in her fingers. When she approaches fire, she doesn't feel the pain. That puts her in a very dangerous position because she might be unaware she is burning herself. If we are being hurt and we don't feel it, then we are in a very risky position. A devastating three pronged suicide attack on Jerusalem's most popular thoroughfare should evoke a cry of pain and suffering from all of us, should it not? Unless of course, we have lost our senses. And if we have lost our senses, then what hope is there? When our enemies pound us and we don't react because we no longer feel the pain, we are truly in a dangerous and precarious position in the battle and struggle to survive. Perhaps, my friends, we are being foolish to really believe that the nations of the world should be upset about the continuous murder and slaughter of Jews - if we ourselves are not crying about it. Am I my brother's keeper? The most effective way for us to stop the carnage in our midst is to wake up and to react to it from our hearts. How can we DEMAND that the Creator stop the tragedy when most of us react like robots when tragedy strikes? If WE don't cry about what is happening around us, who will? If YOU don't cry about what is happening around us, who will? If I don't cry about what is happening to us, who will? Maybe our salvation from this horrific mess will come only after WE tune into our emotions and cry and scream about it. As King Solomon said, "There is a time for everything under the sun." Now is the time for crying. May He protect each and every one of us from our enemies so that we will not have to cry in the future. From JWR: "Chezi Goldberg is a Jerusalem based counselor for Adolescents and Families At Risk. This is his first contribution to these pages. Send your comments by clicking here."

VIDEO OF TODAY'S TERROR ATTACK Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 29, 2004.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted a video of the results of todays butchery in Jerusalem. This is not for the weak of mind or stomach. You will see body parts and human internal organs strewn about. The next time someone tells you how inhuman it is to rid Israel of these wretched Arab monsters, show them this film. One of those you will see torn apart was a neighbor another was the relative of my daughters close friend. There are not a lot of degrees of separation between Jews, especially in Israel. Now I have to go to a funeral. The video is at http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?swiU04um0

PA COP, MEMBER OF ARAFAT'S FATAH, MURDERS 10 IN BUS SUICIDE BOMBING Posted by IsrAlert, January 29, 2004.

[IMRA:  So much for the "concepts". Ali Yusuf Jaara carried out a murderous suicide bombing today. Concept #1 Suicide bombers are the product of poverty - give them employment and you stop the attacks Reality #1 Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem was gainfully employed. He supported his extended family with his salary. Concept #2 Recruit the terrorists in PA security to prevent them from carrying out attacks Reality #2 Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old member of Yasser Arafat's Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades was employed by the PA as a policeman.] The following news item was in Ha'aretz today: Ten people were killed and at least 50 wounded in a suicide bombing on a bus in central Jerusalem, shortly before 9 A.M. Thursday. The blast took place on Egged bus No. 19, on the corners of Arlozorov and Gaza streets, very close to the official residence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was not in the building at the time. The site of the explosion is also close to the Moment Cafe, where 13 people were killed in a March 2002 suicide bombing. Magen David Adom said that 10 people were in serious condition, 15 had moderate wounds and the rest sustained light injuries. All of the wounded were taken to hospitals in the Jerusalem area. The Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Palestinian sources named the bomber as Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem. Palestinian security officials said later Thursday that the bomber was a member of the Palestinian police, from the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The bomber was in the back of the bus when the explosives were detonated, said Jerusalem Police Commander Mickey Levy. "It was a very serious attack on a bus packed with passengers," Levy said. "According to what we know at the moment... we're talking about a suicide bomber." The blast tore apart the bus, turning it into a twisted wreck. Shattered glass lay on the ground. One side of the bus had been blown out and the back half of the roof was blown off. Channel Ten quoted the driver of the bus, who was wounded in the attack, as saying that he did not see anyone suspicious get on the bus. "It was like a pastoral scene - the sun was shining and it was serene outside - but the bus was a nightmare. Bodies were sitting in their chairs, burnt, motionless," said witness Drora Resnick. "There were burnt children sitting together. People started rushing off the bus, but they were still there, not moving." A resident of the area, who only gave his first name, Ofer, said he heard the blast and ran to the scene. "I saw sights that we are now becoming used to seeing: a bus with its back part cut off, people jumping from the bus," he told Channel 10. Stephane Ben Shushan, who owns a chocolate store in the upscale neighborhood, was walking to work and was outside his shop, about 10 meters away, when the explosion went off. "It's indescribable," he said. "It's a real nightmare, you can smell the blood." He said there was heavy traffic and the bus was driving slow at the time. The explosion came just two days after senior Egyptian officials made another attempt to win a pledge from Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis. The attack was a further setback to international efforts to bring about a resumption of peace talks. The U.S.-led road map peace plan has been stalled almost since its inception in June of last year. The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing, and senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called for a renewal of "a meaningful peace process." Otherwise, he said, "violence will breed violence, bullets will breed bullets." The last suicide bombing in the capital ahead of Thursday's attack took place on September 9, 2003, when seven people were killed and dozens wounded in suicide bombing at the popular Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim Street. Emergency numbers Hadassah University Hospital, Mt. Scopus - 12 55 121 Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem - 12 55 122 Bikur Holim - 12 55 123 Shaare Zedek Medical Center - 12 55 125

EVENTS IN ISRAEL TODAY: January 29, 2004 Posted by David Frankfurter, January 29, 2004.

1) At around 9.00am local time, a homicide bomber attacked a crowded Jerusalem bus. Detonating himself at the back of the vehicle, he left at least 10 dead and around 50 wounded. 2) In its reports today, the Associated Press chooses to call the victims of today's bus bomb "10 bystanders" ignoring the fact that Israeli Jewish civilians were (by the terrorists' own admission) the deliberate targets of the bomb. Likewise, in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe condemned the bombing as an "indiscriminate act of violence," as if this act of terror was not carefully planned. Many of the dead and injured were Israelis making their way to one of Jerusalem's main hospitals, which was the final stop on the route of the bus that the terrorists chose to bomb. 3) The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the "armed wing" of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization claimed responsibility for the attack. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is under the sole control and funding of Arafat's Fatah (using in part European Union grants which have been constantly been defended by senior European leaders such External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, who was formerly a senior figure in the British Conservative Party). The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades named the bomber as Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman, working for Yasser Arafat's police force in Bethlehem (his salary also paid from the same EU grants). 4) The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, paid a "courtesy call" on the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in nearby Ramallah, an hour after the bombing, before visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. On Tuesday Dr Williams described Israel's security fence as a " terrible symbol," ignoring the fact that it is being built to keep such bombers out.

END THE OCCUPATION, NOW! Posted by Harv Weiner, January 29, 2004.

This was written by Dwight Owen Shweitzer, and appeared today on the Israel Insider website (http://www.israelinsider.com). "April 1948, Tel Aviv. Israel's new Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, announced an end to the occupation of a small portion of the State of Israel today, an occupation that has continued unabated since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 74 when they expelled the Jewish population and renamed the land - Palestine. "Certain non-Jewish residents of the small portion of land recently returned to us have been invited to stay but apparently object to the return of sovereignty to the rightful owners. This, even though the Jewish leadership has agreed to forgo the claims of the Jewish People to the return of 80 percent of the State of Israel being given to the Arabs in the made-up state of Transjordan in exchange for peace. "Unfortunately, even a concession of such magnitude made to peacefully achieve a quick and peaceful reinstatement of Jewish control over that tiny fraction of their land being offered, which is largely desert, is apparently inadequate to insure its peaceful return." Did anyone ever see that story? The answer is no, because no one wrote it, not then and unfortunately, not now. Diaspora Jews had long since accepted the fiction that land stolen is land lost, when international law existing since Roman times held that "first in time is first in right," a legal premise that has continued unchanged in almost every law book throughout the world and to this day. Interestingly enough, our Arab brothers and sisters understood this concept only too well and so conveniently created the fiction that the Jewish people of today aren't related by blood and genetics to those Jews expelled by the Romans so many centuries ago. These "modern" Jews sprung out of the ether sometime after the "real" Jews conveniently disappeared. Why these "neo Jews" (my phrase) decided to take up Hebrew, the five books of Moses, the same Torah scrolls with the same rituals and historical connections of the "real" Jews is somehow left to the fertile imaginations of the creators of this rather ridiculous fiction. Of course one might pause to wonder why anyone with half a wit would choose to be Jewish at a time when Jews were not safe anywhere and particularly unsafe everywhere. A time when Jews were blamed for every possible misfortune of their fellow men, women and children. So what do our founding fathers do when the remnant of their ancient homeland is, like a bone to a hungry dog, tossed to them and then made to fight for the right to keep even that? They act as if the State of Israel really was created in 1948 and that what they were given was a gift out of the goodness of a world heart that really felt bad that the Holocaust happened on their watch. This one small act in a long and unhappy history of bad calls was the precursor of all that has befallen my ancient homeland since the day when someone should have said, "Thanks, but remember what we are giving up to get this little sliver of home." If they had, say after the 1948 war, just said "We have the right to it all but we are willing to settle for this, just leave us alone to live with you in peace." If they said it in 1956 or even waited until the 7th of June 1967 and reminded the world again after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 that it had always been Israel, that might have been enough. For what we must also "never forget" is that we live in a world that defines justice as anything but the rights of the Jewish People to get back what was stolen from them. It doesn't seem to matter whether the theft was by the Romans or the Swiss bankers or the French insurance companies, or the Germans or the Austrians or the Spaniards or the Russians and oh so many others for so long in ways too numerous to mention. The legacy of that slight historical omission is that our Land, that holds centuries of our blood in its arid sand, is somehow not ours, and not to be reclaimed like the stolen goods of centuries since; this is the legacy of Jewish hubris and it is a legacy we will be shackled with as a millstone around our collective necks until we face the world and say Judea and Samaria are Israel and have been since before the creation of every state on the face of the earth save Egypt. On that day, our cause shall be just, and those who accuse us of occupying our own land, those who have our blood on their hands and our gift to the world in their hearts will be made mute. The ebb and flow of history inexorably favors those whose cry for "justice" is also a cry for truth, for it is truth that is the greatest gift to be sought, fought for and achieved. The truth, so simple and explicit, is that we cannot be occupiers of our own land. Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

GUNMEN OPEN FIRE DURING CHURCH SERVICE IN PAKISTAN Posted by Freedom Now World News, January 29, 2004.

PATOKI, Pakistan: At least three armed men entered St. Paul's Church firing several rounds during a Sunday prayer service in Patoki, Pakistan, on Sunday, Jan. 25. No injuries were reported. According to eye-witnesses, three of the attackers, Azad Hussein, Mohammad Ali and Amanat Ali, yelled: "We will teach you a lesson and even demolish your church," while firing several rounds from semi-automatic weapons during the service. "These men have a butcher shop in front of our church,  Rev. Saleem Gill, the church pastor said. "They throw [animal] remains in our compound, which is nauseating to worshippers." According to Gill, prior to the attack, the three men would often disrupt services by playing loud music and taunting congregants, especially women, with continued harassment and vulgarity. When church officials asked these men to stop their disturbance, the men threatened to demolish their building and entered the church premises the next day to open fire, Gill said. The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) sent a team of investigators to the location and filed a complaint with the local Sadder Police Station on Jan. 27. "We are making all efforts to get justice and to highlight this case for appropriate action," Shahbaz Bhatti, chairman of the APMA said. "The Christian community is fearful that the perpetrators will return to attack again if authorities will not deal seriously with this case." Bhatti claims that police are often reluctant to protect non-Muslim minorities and have sought to "hush up" this incident. He says he is concerned that the callousness of the police regarding this attack may encourage increased violence against Christians and other non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan. St. Paul's Church serves 80 Christian families living in town of Patoki, district of Kasor, where approximately 700 Muslim families reside. On Jan. 15, extremists set off two explosions at Holy Trinity Church in Karachi, causing numerous injuries and extensive damage. Since 2001, there have been a series of attacks by Islamic militants on Western and Christian targets in Pakistan.

ENLARGING SHARON'S GRAVEYARD:BUS BOMB IN JERUSALEM NEAR PM'S HOME, 10 K;50 W Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 29, 2004.

Today at 8:50 A.M. a Homicide Bomber from the Dahaishah Refugee Camp in Bethlehem blew himself up in Jerusalem on the #19 bus killing instantly 10, wounding 50, 12 critically. The passengers were mostly Israeli Jews and Arabs, patients and support staff, doctors and nurses who were going to Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus in Ein Kerem, plus other commuters. This happened 3 hours BEFORE Sharon released 436 Terrorists in trade for 3 bodies and one kidnaped Israeli. Sharon went ahead with the exchange despite this horrific bombing outside his home. Some of the released Terrorists went to Ram'Allah to meet with Yassir Arafat. In the Dahaishah Camp, reports indicate that the Arab Muslim Palestinians were celebrating in the streets. The Homicide Bomber was Ali Yosef Jara, a former "Palestinian" Policeman, one of the Terrorists from al Aksa Martyr's Brigade (connected to Arafat's Fatah movement). He was also related to one of the Muslims Arab Terrorists who took the Church of the Nativity hostage and who was subsequently exiled to Ireland. Elements of Fatah are known to operate with funds, explosives and support from Hizb'Allah. Sharon joins Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu and Barak by enlarging his own cemetery as Israelis are murdered by released terrorists. The slogan outlawed by Israel's Ultra-Left Supreme Court: "No Arabs = No Terror!" is still true. I would add: "No weak politicians = fewer dead Israelis!" to that slogan. Israel is running out of graveyard space for Israelis killed due to weak Prime Ministers tied to a short leash of foreign interests. No doubt, Israel will shortly hear from President Bush expressing condolences, with commentary from Secretary of State Colin Powell representing the U.S. State Department, saying that: "We won't let Terror stop the 'peace process'." Clearly, it is time to cut the puppet strings that make Sharon dance. He has become a liability and a Clear and Present Danger as a leader who is controlled by foreign powers. It is also time for a house cleaning of major proportions if Israel is to survive the onslaught of Terror, Death and Maiming that is upon her. The # 19 bus was driving on Rehov Gaza (Gaza Street) one block from the Prime Minister Sharon's residence, near the Cafe Moment, rebuilt after 21 young people died in another homicide bombing. This is at the intersection of Gaza and Arlozorov Streets around the corner from the Prime Minister's home, the President's residence, the American Consulate, Terra Sancta Convent, the Great Synagogue and the Jewish Agency building. The top of the bus was blown off, with bus and body parts blown up into apartments nearby. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm)

KILL JEWS - IT WORKS! Posted by David Wilder, January 29, 2004.

Why do Arabs continue to kill Jews? It's clear that the suicide bomber who exploded in a Jerusalem bus this morning, murdering 10 Jews (as of this writing) and wounding about 50, was acting out the goodness of his heart. While the palestinian policeman' from Bethlehem, who belonged to Gedudei El-Aktza of Arafat's Fatah, was blowing the #19 bus to smithereens next to Ariel Sharon's official residence, Israel was in the process of implementing the 'prisoner exchange' with Hezbollah. Israel released, not only 400 live terrorists, but also 60 bodies of dead Hezbollah warrior terrorists. Today's terrorist attack was an attempt to even the equation. After all, we were only getting three bodies back. So the terrorist exploded in an effort to even the score. Ten killed, fifty wounded, equals 60. Plus three soldiers' bodies - Israel comes out on top. That's one reason to kill Jews. But of course, there are more. Two days the Yesha Council held a unique press conference, during which they revealed the contents of 'secret discussions' between Yesha leaders and the highest levels of the Prime Minister's office. These leaders met, one at a time, with Dov Weisglass, Sharon's Chief of Staff. He offered them a seemingly, tantalizing deal. The Sharon government would 'disengage' from seven Yesha communities sometime in the near future. Those communities named were: Kfar Darom, Netzarim and Morag, in Gush Katif, Kadim and Ganim in northern Shomron, and Sa-Naur and Homesh in central Shomron. In return, Sharon promised to refrain from any other 'disengagements' until a final agreement with the PA terrorists. In addition, he promised to try and 'save' the rest of Gush Katif in Gaza. At the press conference, the Yesha Council vehemently rejected this 'deal,' calling it a disgrace. But that's not really what is important. What is important is that the 'deal' was offered in the first place. Our Arab enemies could view this planned eviction of Jews from at least two different perspectives. On the one hand, they must have been disappointed at the small number of communities Sharon was offering to destroy. But, on the other hand, the very fact that Ariel Sharon, the great warmonger, the brain behind Sabra and Shatila, would even consider deleting any Jewish settlements in Israel must have been seen as a great victory. Their analysis must have been short and sweet. The reason behind Sharon's proffered 'disengagement' was simple. The above-named communities and their surrounding vicinities are all prime targets of Arab terror attacks. Numerous security forces are needed to provide them with even semi-adequate protection. Sharon himself said, not too long ago, to a group of Bedouins that he hopes the time will soon come when Israeli troops will no longer have to serve in Gaza. Why? Because it's too violent there. The terrorists may not all be university graduates, but simple arithmetic isn't beyond their capabilities. They know that one plus one equals two. Kill Jews plus Kill More Jews equals capitulation-withdrawal-'disengagement.' One need not be a genius to figure it out. Actually, today's prisoner exchange is a case in point. In truth, were I in a decision-making position, I really don't know what I'd do. It is similar to a King Solomon trial (when having to decide which woman the baby belonged to, Solomon commanded that it be cut in half). But the absurdity of the deal screams out to the heavens. Elhanan Tennenbaum, an Israeli colonel in the reserves, whose kidnapping is cloaked in mystery and question marks was freed. In addition Israel received the bodies of three soldiers who were killed by Hezbollah on the Lebanese border for the purpose of kidnapping them. Hezbollah terror leader Nasrallah is already on record proclaiming that he will kidnap more Israeli soldiers in order to use them to liberate other captured terrorists. In return Israel was forced to release four hundred! live terrorists - four hundred, most of whom will undoubtedly return to their favorite pastime - and we all know what that is. (See: Jibril, Achmad: Victory Over Israel - How I Added One Thousand Soldiers to my Private Terror Force.) It seems that the nucleus of the deal was not Tennenbaum or the dead soldiers. Rather, it is the missing aviator Ron Arad. Israel has been promised, at the very least, information concerning Arad, and particularly, whether he is still alive. For that information we will release another Arab murderer. The price to obtain Arad, living or dead, will be astronomical. In other words, Israel, pushed into a corner, is continuing to acquiesce. Our enemies take the offensive, we take the defensive, they are victorious and we lose. One of rules of Israeli negotiations centers on the principle which states that terrorists 'with blood on their hands' i.e., who have murdered Israelis, will not be released from jail. Despite this code of conduct, several Arabs with 'blood on their hands' were today set free. And ten others, with blood on their hands and faces, legs and arms, all over their bodies, were also liberated - not from Israel, but from this world, for eternity. Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantissi said after today's bombing, "It's not important who carried out this operation. The only thing which is very important is that we are resisting occupiers who came ... to occupy our land and to kill our people." Rantissi isn't talking about Gaza - he's talking about Jerusalem and Hebron, Tel Aviv and Haifa, Eilat and Kiryat Shemona. It's only logical. After all, Sharon is folding - in the midst of a war he's offering to 'disengage' from Israeli communities, he's offering a palestinian state, he's releasing hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails, in return for... Killing Jews! So, in reality why not KILL JEWS - IT WORKS! David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron. Their website address is http://www.hebron.org.il

TERRORISTS RELEASED WHILE JEWS GO TO JAIL Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 29, 2004.

It seems fitting and in the proper spirit of the Sharon Judenrat that on the same day that hundreds of blood thirsty, Arab murders are released into the world and Jews are butchered on the streets of Jerusalem that two decent, suffering Jews are locked up. The first news item is from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com). The second item is from the Hebron Community website. Pas And Shvu Sentenced To Jail Time (IsraelNN.com) Hebronite Yitzhak Pas and Matityahu Shvu of Havat Maon were each given a 15-month sentence for illegal possession of IDF weapons for criminal purposes. The sentence was handed down by the court as part of a plea bargain worked out by counsel for the defense in which other charges against Pas were dropped. Yitzhak Pas is the father of Shalhevet Pas, the 10 month old infant brutally murdered by a Palestinian terrorist who fired at her through the window of her bedroom as she slept in her crib. From www.Hebron.org.il The prosecutor demanded that the two men be sentenced to a minimum of six years in jail, claiming that they were planning to commit a terror attack against Arabs in revenge for the murder of Itzik and Oriya Pass' infant daughter, Shalhevet. However, the judge rejected this argument, saying that there was no basis for this assumption. Two days ago, when offering pleas for punishment, the prosecutor spoke of the two men as 'terrorists' and 'extremists,' noting 'where they live.' He was severely reprimanded by the judge, and told to 'stick to the issue at hand.'

I AM ASHAMED TO BE AN ISRAELI Posted by Steven Plaut, January 29, 2004.

I have spent most of the past 12 years being ashamed to be an Israeli. Israeli governments made me ashamed, and they did so by abasing, disgracing and humiliating me as a Jew and as an Israeli. I have been ashamed for 12 years at being an Israeli because this was the period in which the governments of Israel abandoned the struggle for Jewish national survival. They stopped trying to defend me and all other Jews. They lectured me that it was my fault that the Arab fascists were attacking Jews, and that it was within my power to stop the carnage if only I would agree to demean myself sufficiently, to grovel before the terrorists of the Middle East, and to appease the anti-Semites. I could achieve peace if I would agree to place my neck in an Arab noose, but if I refuse to do so then I would be the impediment to peace and my obstinacy would be to blame for all further carnage. For 12 years, my government pursued a policy of defending me and my family by abandoning all attempts to defend us. My government decided to pursue peace by pretending that war did not exist. After two millennia of anti-Semitism, my government decided that anti-Semitism does not REALLY exist, and that when people randomly murder Jewish children it is because they have some legitimate grievances, because they have suffered, and because Jews have shown them insufficient sensitivity. My government implemented policies based on the presumption that the making of concessions to blood-thirsty terrorists would be rewarded with moderation and goodwill, that importing armed Nazis into the suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem would cause them to seek peace. My government followed policies based on the notion that the Jews were evil, insensitive, and selfish. My government decided that if Jews would only "share" their land and resources with those who rule the entire territory from the Atlantic Ocean to Central Asia, that is, with those who refuse to agree to any "sharing" that allows a Jewish state to exist anywhere in the Middle East, then there would be peace. My government decided that rewarding terrorists for violence would end violence, an dthen told me that there was simply no alternative to coddling terrorists and nazis. My government pursued peace by pretending that war did not exist. My government sought peace through arming and bankrolling terrorists. My government decided that anti-Semitism can only be overcome by redressing the "underlying grievances" that it reflects. My government fought terrorism by not fighting it, and by trying to appease it. My government insisted that I must coddle anti-Semites and terrorists, and must pander to their agenda and desires for there is no other choice. My government over the past 12 years preached to me that it was my own pride and my parochial patriotism that was the obstacle to peace. It told me I must seek peace through self-abasement and self-humiliation. My government told me that if I would show willingness to compromise, then so would the Arabs. My government has been wrong about everything, but refuses to admit it has been wrong about anything. My government decided that Palestinians are a "nation" and that chunks of my Jewish lands were in fact "Palestinian lands". My government decided that Arabs may freely live any place they wish anywhere in the land of Israel, but I may not live freely where I might choose if it happens to be across the "Green Line". My government instituted discrimination against me and against other Jews in the name of "affirmative action", quotas and preferences for Arabs and directed against me. My government fought for my survival through cowardice and endless "restraint", turning my other cheek against my will, pursuing endless "goodwill gestures", which only enflamed the violence. It did so despite the fact that I and my fellow Israeli citizens voted repeatedly to revoke the "Oslo approach" and voted in favor of pursuing war against our enemies, not appeasement. My government abandoned all of northern Israel to the mercies of the Hizbollah rockets, now aimed at me in the thousands. My government abandoned the Jewish towns near the Gaza Strip to rocket barrages from the PLO. I have spent the past 12 years cringing in shame. My government made me feel that way. But I have NEVER felt as ashamed at being an Israeli as I did this week, when my government decided to reward the Hizbollah for murdering three of my fellow citizens in cold blood. My government also abandoned Ron Arad, releasing his kidnapper, rewarding the terrorists who kidnapped him, who "sold" him to Iran and possibly murdered him. My government decided to release nearly 450 murderers with blood on their hands in order to "buy" the release of the carcasses of three of my fellow citizens who were murdered by the Hizbollah after they had been kidnapped by it. My government had abandoned southern Lebanon to the Hizbollah and assured me there would be complete tranquility thereafter. After the farcical Israeli "withdrawal" ordered by my government, the Hizbollah has fired almost daily into Israel, has sent in terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians, and snatched the three soldiers (two Jews and one Bedouin Arab) whose bodies were released this week, after murdering them in cold blood. Last week the Hizbollah murdered one more army officer working a bulldozer; in response my government punished some empty Hizbollah buildings. The prisoner "deal" was possible only because my government refuses to execute the murdering savages, the terrorists. My government thinks capital punishment is inhumane, and its absence has made possible the murders of 1300 of my fellow countrymen. That is like twenty two September 11ths, when measured proportional to population. The Hizbollah also held as prisoner a man who had entered Lebanon for criminal purposes, possibly a drug deal to pay off his gambling debts. I opposed releasing any terrorists to get him released. I might have considered agreeing to release a handful as payment to the Hizbollah to keep him imprisoned there, if he is indeed a drug smuggler. My government decided to respond to the murders of the three POWs by rewarding their murderers, not by converting three Hizbollah towns into large parking lots, not by bathing the Hizbollah leaders in napalm. My government signaled to all my fellow citizens that it was unwilling to avenge our deaths. My government let every Israeli soldier know that his life would be worthless if captured by the enemy because my government would always seek "deals" with those who murder POWs. My government made it known that by grabbing some Israelis as hostages, anyone could obtain any concession they want from my country. My government also let every soldier know that, if captured in war, he would be abandoned to his fate by my government. My government agreed to this "deal" with the Hizbollah, a deal that spit on the family of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad. The man who kidnapped and "sold" Arad has been released by my government as payment for the release of the common criminal. My government is trying to cover its shame by boasting that it "held out tough" and refused to release the baby-murdering terrorist Samir Kuntar, the man who murdered the members of the Haran family in Nahariya. My same government boasts that it would have released this arch-murderer had the Hizbollah so much as told Israel where Ron Arad (or his grave) is. So much for "standing tough". My government is a disgrace. My government practices cowardice and pretends it is courage. My government displays indifference to the Israelis who will now be murdered by those released terrorists and murderers. My government had the gall to pretend it was acting out of compassion and morality when it signed this capitulation, when it placed that smirk on the face of the Hizbollah chief terrorist, boasting of his victory. To drive home the point that the "deal" proves to the world that the Jews are on the run, the terrorists blew up a bus in Jerusalem, the same Jerusalem they pretend is holy to them, as part of celebrating the stampede of Jewish flight. After all, the Hizbollah was being rewarded for terror, so why should not the Palestinians follow their lead in obtaining Israeli surrender? The bus atrocity in Jerusalem was carried out by the "Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades," a PLO terror group under the direct command and control of Yassir Arafat. My government pretended it was suddenly acting out of Jewish ethical values. My government would not know a Jewish ethical value if it popped up in its face. My government pretends there is a "Part B" to this capitulation, in which information about Ron Arad will be released. I do not belive them. I think my government is lying to window-dress this act of cowardice. As I watch the victory smile on the mug of the Hizbollah Chief Terrorist, my own government makes me cringe. My government makes me ashamed of being an Israeli. 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.

ISRAEL'S REVOLVING DOOR Posted by Arlene Peck, January 29, 2004.

Have they lost their minds? Israel has let out another four? Five? hundred more terrorists. For what? The remains of three dead soldiers and one live businessman with dubious ties and who shouldn't have been there in the first place? And, who apparently is under suspicion of engaging in drug deals at the time he was taken captive. Truly, I think the powers that be who are running the country are not dealing with a full deck. Even the fact that they pick such historic good friends of the Jews as Germany to broker the exchange I find astounding. Why not the French? Or maybe the Saudis? Ah, but the logic set by the cabinet is that these busloads of freed terrorist are to be prisoners with less than two years still to serve without "blood on their hands." Wow, what exactly does that mean? Are these savage terrorists who "don't have blood on their hands" (yet) acceptable because they failed in their attempt to collect the fee for bombing innocent civilians? Would that make them nice guys who should be let out? Then if only the nice terrorists are going to be released, then why is Israel willing to open the jailhouse doors to let a terrorist murderer like Lebanese prisoner, Samir Kuntar out to kill again. Why? Because they've been promised that they will receive concrete proof as to the fate of that poor man, Ron Arad who was kidnapped by these savages almost twenty years ago. Great! They'll smile and tell Israel "He's dead" and then the murderers go free. One of these prisoners is even suing Israel for $1.4 million dollars, folks, claiming he was raped by his Israeli interrogators. With the mentality of Israel as of late, I wouldn't be surprised it they'd pay it. Hey, in this moronic bargain the enemy doesn't even have to supply Israel a body. All they have to do is tell what happened to him and Voilia!, another terrorist goes free! Does anybody out there see anything wrong with the revolving door that the misguided leaders, and I use the word loosely, have set up for whenever their prisons get too full? Have any of you actually read the conditions of this "exchange." According to the Israeli government statement on prisoner exchange, "Israel has apparently accepted the principle that the sovereign state of Lebanon has borne no responsibility for the open holding of hostages by an armed camp." Of course they don?t. There is no more Lebanon. It's all Syria now. Good Lo-d! What kind of message does this give to the terrorists? You want land? Money? The prisons opened? Well, apparently in Israel, all you have to do is kidnap someone and you won't even have to go meet your 72 virgins. Just grab somebody out of a restaurant, or disco or hey, kidnap a few Jewish kids out of school and they'll give you anything you want to get them back. They don't even have to be living when you trade them when you give Israel your 'wish list.' How the enemy must be laughing in they're mosques. What contempt Israel has earned. I remember Rabbi Meir Kahane telling me years ago, "The people in Israel want to be loved. I don't want the love of the Arabs. I want them to fear us, and respect us." Now I know what he meant. He knew the meaning of the words, "Never Again." I feel like an idiot. I'm one of those silly American journalists who go on Front Page Jerusalem (a Christian radio show which is heard in a hundred stations across America) or, I speak to a group of Hillel kids and tell them, "You want to support Israel? Then get on a plane and travel there. The people of Israel need you. Don't be afraid." Yeah right. You bet your bippies that I'll think twice the next time because crazy and irrational actions like this release don't make me want to encourage the mindless to travel there. What does this do to morale? How does the IDF feel now? Knowing, that their hard-earned capture of these savage barbarians was for nothing. Do you think that the United States would be crazy enough to open the gates at Guantamno and let those dangerous men loose? I have an idea! Maybe the damn fools who think it prudent to let even more terrorists roam the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem give a little more thought. As long as they are setting them free why not give them a one way ticket for them and their families to any Arab country of their choice. But, I'll make a bet with you. Just as always, they wouldn't find any of their Arab brothers willing to take these trouble-makers in. The Palestinian Arab want to push Israel into the sea? They should be pushed back into their Arab lands. Anyone of the twenty-two that they already have will do. Shimon Peres, who gave the PLO an army and guns, was quoted in the LA Times, "There's no room for joy here. We paid a high price because we are more sensitive to human life than Hezbollah is." Lovely. Maybe it's time to stop being so politically correct and sensitive to the human life of the terrorists and show some cohones. Israel is in a war and has the power to do something. It's time to do it. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com

DAVID BEN GURION WAS RIGHT THEN AS HE IS NOW! Posted by Women In Green, January 29, 2004.

David Ben Gurion, the Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1937. "No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel. No Jew has the authority to do so. No Jewish body has the authority to do so. Not even the entire Jewish People alive today has the right to yield any part of Israel. It is the right of the Jewish People over the generations, a right that under no conditions can be cancelled. Even if Jews during a specific period proclaim they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations. No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People. Our right to the country - the entire country - exists as an eternal right, and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and complete redemption is realized."

TIME TO DUMP SHARON Posted by Kevin Bjornson, January 29, 2004.

It's time to dump Sharon. He's under a legal cloud over alleged misuse of power for personal financial gain. That makes him more vulnerable to attack, and less able to fight; much like Clinton was during his scandals. Netanyahu would be a much better leader. I advise the new leader to not exchange imprisoned terrorists for kidnapped civilians - whatever is rewarded will be encouraged. If military personnel were kidnapped, that would be a different matter, but the exchange should be equivalent, not lopsided. The effect of this would be to channel the aggression of terrorists unto the IDF, whose profession is to deal with matters of that sort. The release of kidnapped Israeli citizens should be a necessary condition of any exchange of terrorists for IDF personnel, but no additional credit given. BTW, I like the idea of the WB barrier. Since fixed check points are a sucker move (due to vulnerability to surprise attack), why not eliminate them, and seal that border entirely? That way, West Bankers would have to travel through Jordan; the long trip would be more difficult to make and easier to trace through intelligence.

WASHPOST'S SKEWED REPORT ON ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CLASH IN GAZA Posted by Leo Rennert, January 29, 2004.

This is a letter I wrote to the Washington Post about a Molly Moore column. Molly Moore's Jan. 29 report of exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza has two important flaws which have the effect of humanizing terrorist groups and downplaying Israel's need to protect itself against them. First, with the lead paragraph, she casts the story in the form of human tragedy -- a father who pleads with his son not to leave the house when the fighting erupts, but the son bolts out the door and gets killed. It is not until the last sentence in the SEVENTH paragraph that we're told that the son was listed by Islamic Jihad as among four of its fighters killed during the fight. In other words, the son was a terrorist rushing to join other terrorists. Would the Post cast a story about a U.S. military clash in Iraq with insurgents as a bereaved father's loss of a son? Second, it is not until the last sentence in the TENTH paragraph that we're told the supposed reason for the Israeli raid into Gaza in the first place. It cites a statement from an Israeli military spokesman that Palestinians had been conducting attacks against convoys traveling to and from a nearby Jewish settlement. Again, that's NOT THE FULL STORY from the Israeli side. Israel said there had been recently a marked escalation in the planting of roadside bombs and the lobbing of rockets into the settlement. In other words, it wasn't just attacks against convoys but a widespread increase in terrorist attempts to kill more and more Jews. Why can't Molly Moore report accurately Israel's position when she so solicitously goes out of her way to describe the Palestinian side?

IT'S ASPIRATION, NOT DESPERATION: The Death Worship of Suicide Bombers Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, January 29, 2004.

"I always wanted to be the first woman who sacrifices her life for Allah. My joy will be complete when my body parts fly in all directions." These are the words of female suicide terrorist Reem Reyashi, videotaped just before she killed four Israelis and herself two weeks ago in Gaza. What is surprising about this horrific statement is that she put a positive value on her dismemberment and death, distinct from her goal to kill others. She was driven by her aspiration to achieve what the Palestinians call "shahada," death for Allah. She had two distinct goals: To kill and to be killed. These independent objectives, both positive in her mind, were goals greater than her obligations and emotional ties to her two children. This aspiration to die, which contradicts the basic human instinct for survival, is at the core of the suicide terrorism fervor. Only when this death worship component is recognized as a basic tenet of Palestinian belief will it be possible to understand the challenges Israel and the world face from suicide terror. Palestinian society actively promotes the religious belief that their deity craves their deaths. Note the words of a popular music video directed at children, broadcast hundreds of times on PA TV, which depicts the earth thirsting for the blood of children: "How sweet is the fragrance of the shahids, how sweet is the scent of the earth, its thirst quenched by the gush of blood, flowing from the youthful body." This conviction that the deity thirsts for or craves human death as tribute and sacrifice has its roots in ancient beliefs. The Bible cites ancient cultures of the Land of Israel: "Their sons and their daughters they sacrifice to their Gods" [Deut: 12]. Even the Israelites were drawn to it: "And they built altars to give their sons and daughters to Molech which God did not command nor consider this abomination [Jeremiah: 32]." As recently as 500 years ago, South American tribes used to leave children to die on mountain tops as presents to their gods. The common denominator driving human sacrifice cults was the belief that the deity craved the death of innocents. This is precisely the belief that the leaders of Palestinian society are inculcating in their people. Moreover, Palestinians have been taught on PA TV by their religious leaders that they are born for the very purpose of dying for Allah: "The believer was created to know his Lord and to uphold Islam to be a shahid, or intend to be a shahid. If the Muslim does not aspire shahada, he will die as in the Jahiliya [pre-Islam faith]. If we truthfully request it of Allah, He will grant us its rewards even if we die in bed." This message is of paramount significance. The Muslim is born in order to die the right death, according to Palestinian Islam. Death need not be the termination of life to be prevented, but can be transformed into the ultimate achievement, on the condition it is for the deity. Those who do achieve this death are promised rewards by religious leaders on PA TV: "All his sins are forgiven from the first gush of blood; he is exempted from the torments of the grave (Judgment)... he marries 72 Dark-Eyed [Virgins or Maidens of Paradise]... on his head is placed a crown of honor, one stone of which is worth more than all there is in this world." EVEN CHILDREN are not spared the indoctrination that the deity wants their deaths. A telling example is the story of 14-year-old Faras Ouda, a boy elevated to heroism by the Palestinian leadership. Yasser Arafat regularly singles out Ouda as a role model for children, addressing children on TV once as "peers, friends, brothers and sisters of Faras Ouda," another time telling them "This generation represented by your colleague, the hero Shahid, Faras Ouda!" Yet another time he said, "We are saluting to the spirit of our hero Shahid Faras Ouda, Faras Ouda, Faras Ouda!" What was Faras Ouda's great accomplishment that Arafat elevated him to archetypical role model? The boy's goal in life was to die for the deity, as reported in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al Jadida: "On the day of his death Faras Ouda left his home with a slingshot, after having made himself a wreath decorated with photos of himself and having written on it 'The Brave Shahid Faras Ouda.' Faras Ouda wanted to die for the deity, achieved it, and thus became Arafat's hero. Palestinian mothers have been taught to aspire to death for Allah for their children. A mother explained recently on PA TV why she expressed joy upon hearing of her son's death: "A mother makes sounds of joy because she wants him to reach shahada. He became a shahid for Allah Almighty. I wanted the best for him; this is the best for [my son] Shaadi." PA ideology rejects the value of 'life' that other societies hold supreme. As expressed by a senior historian, professor Issam Sissalem, in a lecture on PA TV: "We are not afraid to die, and do not love life." Like their adult role models, Palestinian children have learned to see dying for the deity as their goal in life. In a chilling talk show interview on PA TV, two 11-year-old girls explain cheerfully and eloquently what they and their young friends desire: Walla: "Shahada is very, very beautiful. Everyone aspires to shahada. What could be better than going to paradise?" Host: "What is better, peace and full rights for the Palestinian people or shahada?" Walla: "Shahada". Yussra: "Of course shahada is sweet. We don't want this world, we want the Afterlife. We benefit not from this life but from the Afterlife... Every Palestinian child aged, say 12, says "Oh Lord, I would like to become a shahid." Public opinion polls indicate that Yussra and Walla represent an overwhelming majority of Palestinian children who embrace this belief. According to three different polls, 70 to 80 percent of Palestinian children aspire to shahada. In the ancient world, there was widespread belief that the deity wanted humans to die as the ultimate form of worship. People gave their children to the deity of Molech and the Baal. This ancient belief has now returned to plague the world. The world had assumed that the Palestinian suicide terrorist was facing a dilemma of having to choose between the "value" of killing Jews and the value of life. Clearly, this is false. Killing Jews is one "value." Death for deity is itself a value, indeed, a value greater than life. Seeking shahada is not desperation but aspiration. As the mother explained her joy after her son's death: "I wanted the best for him." Itamar Marcus is director of Palestinian Media Watch (http://www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. The TV quotations in this article can be viewed on the PMW web site.

LEGENDARY ISRAELI TANK THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION Posted by Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D., January 29, 2004.

If Israel's Finance Ministry ultimately has its way, the famed Merkava Mk. 4 tank may soon be a thing of the past. For the moment, the government has given the Merkava a temporary stay of execution, deciding in late November that it would continue to fund the tank program into the 2004 fiscal year. But the rate of production probably will be reduced and the program cut back or killed in the coming years. The current fleet has 3,900 tanks. Strong, eleventh-hour lobbying by military and industry leaders has kept the program on life support. But many observers believe that new austerity measures adopted by the government may soon force reluctant ministers to once again revisit this issue. Seeking to bridge an ever-widening budget gap, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli's current minister of finance, is targeting the Merkava, a program which many believe is too costly and wasteful given the nation's other more pressing priorities. Many of these same officials also contend that the program is superfluous given the recent defeat of the Iraqi military by American-led forces and its elimination as a near-term threat to Israel's security. The Merkava is the country's only indigenously produced main battle tank and represents a formidable part of the defense manufacturing base in Israel. Israel spends approximately 1 billion NIS ($228 million) a year on tank procurement. Supporters contend that eliminating all tank production in Israel is not only shortsighted, but also fiscally irresponsible. They note that both the human and financial costs of any shut down would be high and should be weighed accordingly. More importantly, though, the recommendation ignores key strategic considerations which fall outside of the purview of the Finance Ministry. Proponents argue that while Israel contemplates a reduction in its ground forces, the countries it may one day face in battle - Egypt, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia - continue to upgrade their arsenals with ever more modern, lethal and offensive armor, missile, naval and aircraft platforms. In a recent interview, Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz expressed concerns over the massive buildup in Egypt's offensive armament, particularly its acquisition of state-of-the-art American equipment saying, "We look with concern at the strengthening of Egypt, and we ask: What is it for? After all, we have peace with Egypt and I see no country threatening them. A new reality may develop that in a few years there will be a different leadership in Egypt, and that could change how they relate to Israel." The combined tank forces of Egypt (3,000), Syria (3,700), Lebanon (280), Jordan (990) and Saudi Arabia (750) stands at roughly 8,720. In October, the Pentagon approved the sale of 125 additional M1A1 Abrams tank kits to Egypt along with associated services and upgrades. The move brings to 880 the number of M1s in Cairo's inventory. The M1 is the U.S. premier battle tank. Among the Merkava's principal advocates is Maj. Gen. Haim Erez (Res.). During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, his brigade was the first to cross the Suez Canal in pursuit of the fleeing Egyptian Army. His commander was Ariel Sharon, now Israel's Prime Minister. "The Merkava MK.4 provides its crew with excellent protection and survivability from new threats that have developed since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and is essential to sustaining the country's qualitative military edge," said Erez. "If the IDF had had such a tank in 1973, I estimate that the Armor Corps would have sustained 90 percent fewer losses." The fate of the Merkava program was the topic of a forum held in Tel Aviv on November 16 by the Manufacturers Association of Israel. Representatives from Israel's major defense companies, former officials of the Ministry of Defense, Knesset members, retired military officers and experts in strategic and international relations concluded that cutbacks to the program will have serious repercussions far beyond ordinary tank production. The group estimated that more than 220 sub-component suppliers would be immediately affected by the loss of the program. Many of these would probably be forced into bankruptcy. Up to 10,000 jobs could be affected, both directly and indirectly, from a shutdown of the Merkava production line. These would include not only engineers and scientists, but skilled manufacturing workers. In Israel, technology spin-offs from the military are responsible for a large portion of the country's non-defense commercial exports. According to the Manufacturers Association, between $200 million and $250 million in defense annual technology exports can be attributed to the Merkava. This figure excludes Israel's contract with Turkey to provide upgrades for its inventory of M-60 tanks. It is likely that the reverberations of any government decision to end the Merkava program will be felt in the United States as well. Nearly 22 percent of the Merkava's content is of American origin, including a portion of its armor plant and its 1,500 hp MTU engine, produced under license by General Dynamics Land Systems. GDLS is now under contract to manufacture 400 Mk4 engines at a cost of nearly $200 million. Should the Merkava program be cancelled, Israel will have no choice but to pay a contract termination penalty estimated to be around 90 percent of this amount. Experts believe this may have played a large part in the government's decision to reverse its immediate plans to kill the tank. Long-term consequences also must be considered, said Brig. Gen. Shlomo Pazzy (Res.), the former Head of Planning in the IDF Logistics Branch, "Today, Israel is regarded by the United States and its allies as a leader in defense systems. Kill the Merkava program, and these leading nations will no longer feel obliged to allow Israel to participate in the co-development of advanced technology... Our economic and military survival depends upon our integration into the world of cutting edge science and engineering." Since 1970, Israel has spent more than $6.5 billion in the Merkava. Program officials point to the fact that advancements in tank electronics, survivability and battle management systems have been adapted to the requirements of the Israel Air Force (IAF). Many are now standard features in IAF cockpits. Meanwhile, many within Israel's defense establishment have begun to question the suggestion by some in the Sharon government that Israel consider replacing the Merkava tank with the M1 Abrams. This, however, is unlikely. The United States has no intention of restarting M1 production at the Lima Army Tank Plant in Ohio. And even if it did, the cost of the M1 surely would be more than Israel could afford. At $8 million to $9 million per copy, the Abrams is far more expensive by millions of dollars than the Merkava. For a nation looking to reduce its defense expenditures, a move to purchase the M1 makes little sense. Moreover, the tank that the United States would most likely offer would be an export version of the M1. Israel would then have to make additional investments in technology upgrades to ensure the tank was suited to its requirements. The M1 tanks sold to Egypt are provided as kits and assembled at a plant outside of Cairo - a plant built by the United States at a cost of $1 billion. Egypt manufactures 40 percent of parts and equipment locally. Alternatively, some have suggested that the United States might offer Israel M1 tanks straight out of its domestic inventory or used tanks currently in Iraq. Neither is an attractive option, given the significant improvements that would have to be made. According to an Israeli armor expert, "the cost would be enormous." Though the M1 is a superior main battle tank, its design is better suited to the kind of open maneuver warfare characteristic of Europe or the broad desert expanses of the Middle East. Israel requires a tank that performs equally well in the open desert and the mountainous terrain of the Golan Heights as well as the dense urban environment of the West Bank and Gaza. The Merkava was developed by Israel's foremost tank designer, Maj. Gen Yisrael Tal (Res.). Drawing upon the lessons of the 1967 and 1973 wars, he devised a tank with revolutionary characteristics: modular armor, a special mechanical suspension system allowing for greater maneuverability, a rear door that permits the transport of infantry into battle, cabin overpressure for enhanced WMD protection, and a front-mounted engine providing greater survivability to the tank crew. Since it first came into service with the IDF in the late-1970s, the Merkava has been produced in several versions. The latest, the Merkava Mk. 4, has a fully stabilized 120 mm smooth-bore cannon, an advanced fire control system, a 60 mm mortar launcher, improved ballistic armor and a 1,500 hp engine. Even if all of these characteristics could be incorporated into an Israeli version of the M1 tank, many in Israel's defense community still fear that acquiring a foreign tank once again will make Israel reliant upon an overseas supplier for not only the basic platform, but, more importantly, the spare parts. Israel has a long and unpleasant history with nations who thought little of using the leverage conferred by military dependency to influence Israel's options on and off the battlefield. It is a view strongly felt by Maj. Gen. Ami Sagis (Res.), the former head of logistics in the IDF. The Merkava, he notes, "makes an enormous contribution to Israel's security [and] is important to Israel's economy. It has allowed us to develop a manufacturing capability for weapons and other systems on a level equal to or greater than the world's most technologically advanced nations." Israel can never be sure that, in an emergency, it will be able to obtain an uninterrupted flow of parts from a foreign source. Indeed, the speed of modern warfare may make timely delivery all but impossible. As a precaution, the IDF will have to maintain a large and costly inventory of spares to meet any future contingency. Yet, having a robust domestic industrial base for tank manufacturing can help to mitigate these concerns. In an emergency, the Israeli companies responsible for the Merkava would be called upon to meet surge requirements. Their ability to meet the Army's logistical demands could spell the difference between victory and defeat, explains Pazzy. "At least under these circumstances, we can control what our industries do." Critics of the Merkava's cancellation point to another assumption that may be guiding the government's thinking. It could be that Jerusalem is hoping that if it switches to an American-made tank, the United States would be willing to assist in financing the difference in the purchase price through an increase in Israel's annual foreign aid allotment. It is difficult to imagine this happening at a time when the U.S. government already is straining under a growing mountain of war-related debt. The U.S. decision to provide $9 billion in loan guarantees earlier this year was intended to assist Israel with its many war-related expenses by lowering the cost of its commercial borrowing. At the same time, Israel is scheduled to receive an additional $60 million in military aid in 2005 as part of a negotiated agreement to end its reliance on Economic Support Fund assistance. What makes the Merkava affordable is that Israel is able to use a small portion of its annual foreign aid package to purchase parts in Israel. Known as offshore procurement, this shekel-denominated assistance helps to strengthen the local economy. The bulk of the roughly $2.1 billion in military assistance Israel receives annually from the United States is dollar-denominated and must be spent in America. Industry experts note that ideally Israel should produce between 60 and 70 tanks per year in order to achieve the optimum economies of scale. Many in Israel's military establishment have begun to voice another more worrisome concern - the fear that U.S. policymakers may come to resent the fact that America, not Israel, is shouldering an ever-increasing share of the nation's defense burden. These are costs that rightfully should be borne by the Israeli taxpayer, notes one observer. "The U.S. government would prefer that Israel use its foreign aid to meet its extraordinary defense requirements, not serve as a substitute for current government spending." Israelis closely involved with the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship are fearful that America, burdened by overseas commitments, may come to see the Jewish state as a financial and political liability rather than as an important regional asset. So far, this has not been the case. Israel has been a close ally to the United States in not only the conflict with Iraq, but in the ongoing war on terrorism. However, this could change if Israel's budget cutters are not mindful of the defense costs they are asking others to shoulder. There is no question that Israel faces some difficult economic choices in the months and years ahead. Barring a sudden reversal in its revenue projections, it will have to reorder its spending priorities. If this means eliminating the Merkava, a program that for nearly three decades has been central to Israel's national defense, then many military experts are wondering if there are any "red lines" left in the military budget. At a time of growing Palestinian unrest and increasing regional tension, many fear that cutbacks of this sort will only signal weakness to Israel's enemies leading them to believe, in the end, that war with the Jewish state remains an option. In the last two decades, the military intelligence available in both the Arab and Islamic worlds has increased dramatically, making defense planners acutely aware of even subtle changes in Israel's defense posture. The huge qualitative military edge which Israel once enjoyed over its neighbors has diminished, in the view of some Israeli security experts, to a critical level. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has raised the alarm over the Finance Ministry's proposed cuts to the country's military budget next year, warning that they will impair the operational readiness of all branches of the armed forces. Last November, the Treasury recommended a NIS 7.1 billion ($1.6 billion) cut in the defense budget at a time when Israel's General Staff insisted it could barely absorb NIS 3 billion ($684 million). Yet, heavy armor has, and is likely to remain, an indispensable part of Israel's force structure for the foreseeable future. Supporters of the Merkava note that even though the U.S. maintained total air superiority over the forces of Saddam Hussein in both the first and second Iraqi wars, it was the tank, backed by infantry, that ultimately was responsible for securing the battlefield. The project manager for the Merkava, Brig. Gen. Zeev Bar-Gil (Res.), laments the possible demise of the Merkava. "It took Israel over three decades with investments of several billion shekels in research and development in order to build and deploy one of the best tanks in the world. The fear is that with one government decision all of this, the skills and technology that it represents, could be lost overnight. This would cause irreversible damage (not only) to our defense industries... (but) to our national security as well." It is a fear that Bar-Gil, and a growing number of military experts in both Israel and America now share. Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D. is president of Fishbein Associates, Inc., a public policy consulting firm based in Potomac, Md. His Web site is www.fishbeinassociates.com. This article can be found at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/article.cfm?Id=1335

COLUMBIA U. HIRES ANOTHER ANTI-ISRAEL EXTREMIST Posted by Yardena Even, January 29, 2004.

NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has protested Columbia University's decision to hire yet another anti-Israel extremist for its faculty. Mary Robinson, the former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, has been hired to teach in Columbia's Department of International and Public Affairs and to serve as a senior research scholar at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute. (Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan.23, 2004) Examples of Robinson's anti-Israel extremism: * Under Robinson, the UN Human Rights Commission sanctioned the use of "all available means" --which implicitly includes suicide bombings and other terrorism-- to fight Israel. (New York Sun, April 29, 2002) * In an interview with Salon.com on July 26, 2002, Robinson falsely claimed that "the occupation is at the root of many of the human rights problems, and the intifada, which had started then [in September 2000], was only at the stage of stone throwing and young people being killed" --in fact, there had been many suicide bombings and other mass terror attacks before then. * While condemning suicide bombings, Robinson in the same breath asserted that America is to blame for future Palestinian Arab suicide bombings: "I find it very disheartening that there is not more understanding here [in America] of the appalling suffering of the Palestinian population, nor appreciation that this is not going to lead to a secure future. It's going to lead to greater hatred and desperation, of further suicide bombings." (Salon.com, July 26, 2002) * Robinson continues to defend the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic conference at Durban in 2001, in which she participated. She has complained that "there are those who refuse now to accept that any good came out of Durban." (Salon.com, July 26, 2002) * Robinson cited "the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay" - the arrest and questioning of Al Qaeda terrorists-- as an example of human rights violations. (Salon.com, July 26, 2002) * Robinson's report, as U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, on conditions in Judea-Samaria and Gaza was denounced by the Anti-Defamation League as "distorted and detrimental" because Robinson "opted to blame the Israeli military and settlements for provoking the Palestinian violence." ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "The hiring of Mary Robinson sends a message that those who hate the Jewish State are welcome at Columbia. How many Jewish parents will want to send their children to a campus with such a hate-infested atmosphere?" Other anti-Israel extremists at Columbia: * Rashid Khalidi, who was recently named to the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies, has been a longtime adviser to PLO terrorist chief Yasir Arafat and a member of the PLO's Palestine National Council. * Until his death last year, terror supporter Edward Said held the prestigious post of Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia. Said publicly supported the Palestinian Arabs' murder of fellow-Arabs whom it accused of helping Israel (Critical Inquiry, Spring 1989); personally threw rocks at Israeli soldiers at the Israel-Lebanon border (New Republic, July 24, 2000); and fabricated his life story to make it appear as if he was a refugee driven out of Jerusalem by the Jews when he was a child, when in fact he grew up in Egypt (Commentary, Sept. 1999). * In 2002, Columbia hired Irish poet Tom Paulin as a visiting professor, even though Paulin told the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram Online that American Jews who reside in Judea-Samaria "should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them." Paulin also said he "never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all," and "I can understand how suicide bombers feel. I think, though, it is better to resort to conventional guerrilla warfare. I think attacks on civilians in fact boost morale." In addition, in one of his poems, Paulin referred to what he called "the Zionist SS." (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 14, 2002; Forward, Nov.22, 2002)

GEORGE BISHARAT'S FACTUAL ERRORS AND MISREPRESENTATIONS Posted by Tamar Sternthal, January 29, 2004.

On Sunday, Jan. 25, the Los Angeles Times published "Two State Solution Again Sells Palestinians Short," an op-ed charging Israel with "ethnic cleansing" of the Arab population in 1948. Written by George Bisharat, a professor at the University of California's Hastings College of Law, the essay contains numerous factual errors and questionable claims concerning Israel's treatment of Arabs today and in 1948. Factual Errors 1) Bisharat falsely claims that "Palestinians living in Israel" - (in other words, Israeli Arabs) - "cannot serve in the armed forces." This fallacy is particularly offensive given that many Israeli Arabs have died while serving in Israel's army. The day that Bisharat's column appeared, for example, the Los Angeles Times itself reported on Israel's planned prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, mentioning Sgt. Maj. Omar Souad, an Israeli Arab soldier who was kidnapped by Hezbollah in October 2000 (Laura King, "Israel, Hezbollah Strike a Deal on Prisoner Swap," Jan. 25) He is presumed dead. Some of the other Israeli Arabs who died in the line of duty for Israel include Sgt.-Maj. Madin Grifat, 23, of Beit Zarzir, killed by a mine in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 9, 2002, Maj. Ashraf Hawash, 28, of Beit Zarzir; Sgt.-Maj. Ibrahim Hamadieh, 23, of Rehaniya; Sgt.-Maj. Hana (Eli) Abu-Ghanem, 25, of Haifa; and St.-Sgt. Mofid Sawaid, 25, of Abu Snan, who were killed by Hamas terrorists who infiltrated their unit on January 9, 2002. Christian Arab Staff Sgt. Rogia Salame was mortally wounded by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza on Feb. 5, 2001. Likewise, Druse Border Police Cpl. Yusef Madhat was shot to death by Palestinians Oct. 1, 2000 at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Morevoer, Mary Curtius of the Los Angeles Times reported on the Jan. 9, 2002 attack ("Hamas Takes Responsibility for Attack," Jan. 10, 2002). She wrote: Three [sic] soldiers of a mostly Bedouin unit were on duty at the rain-soaked position. Bedouin, who are Arabs, are not required to serve in the Israeli army. However, they are allowed to volunteer, and about 2,000 Bedouin serve, according to an army spokesman. In addition, on Jan. 14, the Los Angeles Times carried a page 3 report about Ariel Sharon speaking to Bedouin troops in the Gaza Strip. Entitled "Sharon Talks of Possible Troop Withdrawal From the Gaza Strip," the Laura King article stated: "Sharon, speaking to Bedouin troops, who are often called to hazardous duty in Gaza, said he hoped the Israeli military presence in the Mediterranean seaside enclave would end..." Though Israeli Arabs may opt out of military service, they certainly have the right to serve, and many exercise that right. 2) Bisharat also trots out the false Palestinian propaganda that "Palestinians [Israeli Arabs] have restricted access to land (most real property in Israel is owned by the state or the Jewish National Fund and is leased to Jews only.)" Legally and practically, Israeli Arabs have equal access to state-owned land (80.4 percent of all land in the entire country). About half of the land Israeli Arabs cultivate is directly leased to them by the Israeli government through the Israel Land Administration (ILA) ("Rural-Urban Land Use Equilibrium," Tel Aviv: Ministry of Agriculture, 1979), as cited by David Kretzmer, The Legal Status of the Arabs in Israel, Westview Press, 1990, pp. 60-61). Moreover, Israeli Arabs have even enjoyed an affirmative action-type program, providing them with access to land at a cheaper rate than Jews. For example, the ILA charged Jewish citizens $24,000 for a capital lease on a quarter acre of land near Beersheva, while a Bedouin family in nearby Rahat paid only $150 for an equivalent plot of land (Ezra Sohar, Israel's Dilemma, New York, Shapolsky Publishers, 1989, p. 97). In another case, Eliezer Avitan, a Jew from Beersheva, applied to the ILA to lease land at the same subsidized price that was made available to local Bedouins. The ILA rejected his application, so he sued, but Israel's Supreme Court ruled in ILA's favor, saying the administration's discriminatory policy was justified affirmative action for Bedouins (Israel Supreme Court, Avitan v. Israel Land Administration, HC 528/88). The ILA also administers Jewish National Fund land, which makes up 13.1 percent of the land in Israel. JNF's official policy restricts its land for Jewish access only. In practice, though, JNF land is leased to Israeli Arabs on short-term and long-term bases. For example, the ILA has leased on a yearly-basis JNF-owned land in Besor Valley (Wadi Shallala) to Bedouins (Aref Abu-Rabia, The Negev Bedouin and Livestock Rearing: Social, Economic, and Political Aspects, Oxford, 1994, pp. 28, 36, 38). Through a legal loophole, Arab citizens have also gained access to JNF land for long-term housing purposes (Kretzmer, Legal Status, p. 64). All of this information is available in CAMERA's backgrounder, "Land, the Palestinian Authority and Israel," by Alex Safian. 3) Bisharat wrongly states, "In 1948, about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland..." While some Palestinian Arabs were expelled, such as those who resided in Ramle and Lod, the vast majority of Arabs fled of their own accord, many due to false rumors spread by Arab propagandists. For example, Hazem Nusseibeh, an editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948, admits that he and Hussein Khalidi, of the Arab Higher Committee (the representative body of the Arabs of British Mandate Palestine), fabricated atrocities in reporting about the battle at Deir Yassin "so the Arab armies [of neighboring countries] will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews." Nusseibeh said in a BBC television series "Israel and the Arabs: the 50 Year Conflict" that: This was our biggest mistake. We did not realize how our people would react. As soon as they heard that women had been raped [which was a fabrication] at Deir Yassin, Palestinians fled in terror. Scholars such as Dr. Efraim Karsh and Arieh Avneri have demonstrated that claims such as Bisharat's regarding mass expulsions and dispossession are wildly exaggerated. For example, in the July-August 2000 edition of Commentar, Karsh details the Arab flight from Haifa, one of the largest Arab population centers. In the Commentary article are a number of quotations that disprove or contradict Bisharat's statements that Arab leaders allegedly exhorted the Palestinian Arabs to stay. According to Karsh's research, before fighting broke out, the Arab upper classes fled despite the urgings of Haifa mayor Shabtai Levy and other Jewish authorities that they remain. The Arab Higher Committee (AHC) in Beirut ordered an evacuation, promising the Haifa Arab leadership that retaliatory action would be forthcoming - "it is only a matter of days" - and warning that "since there will be a lot of casualties following our intended action... you [would] be held responsible for the casualties among the Arab population left in the town." About the Arab rejection of the truce and decision to leave, British commander Major-General Hugh Stockwell told the Arabs: You have made a foolish decision. Think it over, as you'll regret it afterward. You must accept the conditions of the Jews. They are fair enough. Don't permit life to be destroyed senselessly. After all, it was you who began the fighting, and the Jews have won. The next day, Haifa's remaining Arab leadership met with Stockwell and his advisers to discuss their evacuation. Almost all of the 30,000 decided to leave, and a few days later, only 3,000 remained in Haifa. After the Arabs left, Jews urged their former neighbors to return. On April 25, the American Vice Consul Aubrey Lippincott reported to Washington that: Jews hope poverty will cause laborers [to] return [to] Haifa as many are already doing despite Arab attempts [to] persuade them [to] keep out. Two days later, according to Lippincott, Farid Saad of the National Committee (the official leadership body of Haifa Arabs), acknowledged that Jewish leaders had "organized a large propaganda campaign to persuade [the] Arabs to return." In contrast, the Arab Emergency Committee employed scaremongering and threats to keep residents from returning. For example, Sheikh Abd al-Rahman Murad of the National Committee warned a number of escapees from the neighborhood of Wadi Nisnas that if they returned as they planned, the Jews would kill them allwomen and children alike. Even Haled al Azm, the Syrian Prime Minister in 1948-49, acknowledged the Arab leadership's responsibility in creating a mass Arab exodus from Mandate Palestine: Since 1948, we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return. (The Memoirs of Haled al Azm, p. 386-7) Likewise, refugee Habib Issa recalled: The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade... He pointed out that they were already on the frontiers and that all the millions that Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean... Brotherly advice was given to Arabs to leave their land, homes and property and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down. (Al-Hoda, June 8, 1951) Misrepresentations 1) Bisharat implies that Israel is to blame for poor infrastructure in Israeli Arab towns: "Palestinian towns and villages are starved of resources, with many lacking connections to the country's electrical or water systems." As Tzvi Bar, Mayor of Ramat Gan, pointed out in an Oct. 13, 2002 Ma'ariv article, Israeli Arab towns have inferior infrastructure largely because much of the Israeli Arab population has failed to pay its taxes: Among the jobs of a local council is to build roads, set up a water and sewage system and infrastructure, and other assorted services. The Arab town councils also have to give these services to their residents. But, if the readers will examine the Ministry of the Interior data, he will discover - to his shock perhaps - that in the past decade the property tax debt in the Israeli Arab sector has accumulated to over two billion shekels! Not only that, but the Arab town councils, which include 10.4 percent of Israel's total population, receive 24.3 percent of the total balance grants which are given to local councils throughout Israel. The meaning of this for the year 1999 alone is that the Arab local councils received grants exceeding half a billion shekels to their relative numbers. Why do the Arab local councils deserve to be supported by the government at the expense of the Jewish local councils? 2) Bisharat writes: Ironically, those who today protest that the return of the refugees would destroy Israel unwittingly confirm this viewpoint, for the refugees are simply the Palestinians and their offspring who would have become Israeli citizens had they not been exiled. Israeli Arabs who have grown up as Israeli citizens are quite a different population than many Palestinian Arabs who have been subjected to years of vicious anti-Israel propaganda disseminated in the Arab countries in which they have resided.

CHAREN ARTICLE ON FEMALE MUSLIM MURDERERS Posted by Chana Shavelson, January 28, 2004.

On Jan. 14, Hamas dispatched its first female suicide bomber to a Gaza checkpoint. Reem al-Riyashi, a Palestinian mother of two small children, killed four people and wounded at least 10 others, including several Palestinians, in the attack. Al-Riyashi was the first mother to detonate herself in the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nationally-syndiated columnist Mona Charen takes al-Riyashi's recent "murder-suicide" as her point of departure in "Lady Killers" (Creators Syndicate, Jan. 23), a cogent analysis of how long-standing Muslim incitement to hate and kill has created a new breed of female terrorists. (The article is archived at http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=mch). A key element of the incitement, explains Charen, is an Arab and Islamic press that has regularly celebrated terrorism perpetrated against Israelis and other non-Muslims. Such incitement is not new, and Charen offers a sampling of Arab media coverage in the case of Wafa Idris, the first female terrorist to detonate herself in January 2002: "Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a London-based Arabic language newspaper, hailed her (Wafa Idris) for killing 'in the heart of the occupied city.' (Note well: the attack took place in West Jerusalem.) The Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, reports Memri (www.memri.org), praised 'Her dreamy eyes and the mysterious smile on her lips, that competes with the famous smile some artist drew on the lips of Mona Lisa.' A Jordanian Islamist wrote in the daily Al-Dustour, 'Wafa carried her suitcase (of explosives) which is ... the most beautiful prize any woman can possibly win. Her spirit was raging, her heart filled with anger, and her mind unconvinced by the calls for peace and coexistence ...' " Open praise for terrorists, Charen intimates, flows naturally from "a press in the Islamic world that is just staggeringly false and propagandistic," in which "the most vile and idiotic slanders against Jews and Americans are presented as fact" (emphasis added). The columnist debunks the idea that poverty and despair alone create terrorists: "Americans have difficulty understanding how people can be driven to such lunacy. Liberals, in particular, are inclined to blame poverty for most of the hatred and violence in the world. During the Cold War [as now] ... liberals reflexively blamed poverty. They underestimated the power of ideas." (emphasis added). Charen concludes with other examples of how the Arab and Muslim worlds encourage and even cater to the new female "martyrs": "In Pakistan, mothers of 'martyrs' are popular speakers. In Chechnya, a women's group called Black Widows is responsible for more than 165 murders by suicide. In March, an Arabic newspaper in London reported that Al Qaeda is setting up training camps just for women jihadis." Arab and Muslim states long have glorified male terrorists by naming schools, summer camps and athletic events in their honor; a common sight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is children sporting pendants and swapping trading cards with the faces of terrorist masterminds emblazoned on them. Now women and mothers are being enlisted in these societies to kill Israelis and non-Muslims too. Charen's clear exposition of the phenomenon provides a critical backdrop for Israeli government insistence that Palestinian leaders must condemn - and make strong efforts to stop - the ubiquitous incitement to violence in their society. Charen's work also fosters a fuller understanding of the true roots of terror, a topic often written about but rarely reported accurately. Charen's column should be commended and brought to the attention of the general media and our government representatives. Chana Shavelson is Research Analyst for CAMERA (http://www.camera.org).

A LOST PIECE OF JEWISH HISTORY: The Rescue of Bulgarian Jews Posted by Deb Kotz, January 28, 2004.

This was sent to me by several sources. Michael Bar Zohar was born in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia in 1938. After W.W.II, when he was 10, his family immigrated to Jaffa, Israel. He did his military service in Air Force intelligence and paratroopers, and became a journalist and writer of books (including David Ben Gurion's biography), as well as a public servant. Part of the year he spends in the United States, where he is a professor at Emory University and a very busy speaker. It was at Emory in 1993 that he read a New York Times article about the wartime rescue of about 7,200 Jews in Denmark He wrote to the newspaper about the much bigger rescue in Bulgaria, and, only after much checking, did the newspaper publish it. The flood of positive reaction to this little known tale, and colleagues at the university, convinced Bar Zohar to write about it. A great many Jew knows the story of how the Danes rescued 8,000 Jews from the Nazi's by smuggling them to Sweden in fishing boats. Very few Jews, including me, until yesterday, know the story of how all 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were saved. Not a single Bulgarian Jew was deported to the death camps, due to the heroism of many Bulgarians of every walk of life, up to and including he King and the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 1999, Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti Defamation League flew with a delegation to Sofia to meet the Bulgarian Prime Minister. He gave the Prime Minister the first Bulgarian language copy of Zohar's remarkable book, Beyond Hitler's Grasp written in 1998. This book documents the rescue effort in detail. The ADL paid for and shipped 30,000 copies to Bulgaria, so that the population could partake in the joy of learning about this heroic facet of their history. This story is clearly the last great secret of the Holocaust era. The story was buried by the Bulgarian Communists, until their downfall in1991. All records were sealed, since they didn't wish to glorify the King,or the Church, or the non Communist Parliamentarians, who, at great personal risk, stood up to the Germans, and the Bulgarian Jewish Community, 45,000 of whom went to Israel after the War, were busy building new lives, and somehow the story remained untold. Bulgaria is a small country and at the outset of the War they had 8 million people. They aligned themselves with the Nazi's in hopes of recapturing Macedonia from Yugoslavia and Thrace from Greece. Both provinces were stripped from them, after W.W.I. In late 1942 the Jews of Selonica were shipped north through Bulgaria, on the way to the death camps, in sealed box cars. The news of this inhumanity was a hot topic of conversation. Then, at the beginning of 1943, the pro-Nazi Bulgarian government was informed that all 50,000 Bulgarian Jews would be deported in March. The Jews had been made to wear yellow stars and were highly visible. As the date for the deportation got closer, the agitation got greater. Forty three ruling party members of Parliament walked out in protest. Newspapers denounced what was about to happen. In addition, the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Kirili, threatened to lie down on the railroad tracks. Finally, King Boris III forbid the deportation. Since Bulgaria was an ally of Germany, and the Germans were stretched militarily, they had to wrestle with the problem of how much pressure they could afford to apply. Theydecided to pass. Several points are noteworthy. The Bulgarian Jews were relatively unreligious and did not stand apart from the local populace by virtue of garb, or rites. They were relatively poor by comparison to Jewish in other countries, and they lived in integrated neighborhoods. Additionally, Bulgaria had many minorities, Armenians, Turks, Greeks, and Gypsies, in addition to Jews. There was no concept of racism in that culture. The bottom line here is that Bulgarians saw Bulgarian Jews as Bulgarians, and not as Jews. And, being a small country, like Denmark, where there was a closeness of community, that is often missing in larger countries. 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

ARE THE SETTLERS OF BIBLICAL ISRAEL GROWING MUSCLE? Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 28, 2004.

This was in today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). Sharon has been denying that he has made up his mind to start clobbering the Jews in Samaria and Judea. When he goes to Washington, he wants to show Mommie Conned Rice what a good boy he is - even if it damages Israel severely. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is apparently going ahead with his plans for what he calls his "disengagement plan" - known by others as unilateral retreat in face of continued terrorism and no diplomatic options. National Security Advisor Gen. Giora Eiland, who is responsible for getting the plan off the ground, has convened four teams on various aspects of the plan - security, legal, financial (such as compensation to residents who will be expelled) and humanitarian (such as issues of PA employees being allowed in to work). Eiland met with the Prime Minister this afternoon. The Prime Minister's Bureau was apparently taken off guard by yesterday's Yesha Council press conference in which it was announced that Sharon plans to dismantle and expel the residents of seven outlying Yesha communities. The seven are Kadim and Ganim in northern Shomron; Sa-Nur and Chomesh in central Shomron; and Morag, Kfar Darom and Netzarim in Gaza. The terrorists responded immediately to the news by firing two mortar shells at Netzarim; no one was hurt. The Yesha Council leaders announced last night that Sharon's top aide Dov Weisglass had not only informed them, for the first time, of semi-official plans to destroy the seven towns - but also asked the Council leaders to agree to the plan. In exchange, the Council heads stated, Weisglass offered to have the Knesset pass a law banning further settlement destruction until the finalization of a permanent agreement with the PA. Following the revelation of his plans, the Prime Minister convened an urgent consultation with his aides and told them that the publicizing of his plan sabotages his intention to provide U.S. President George Bush a detailed plan next month for the stopping of Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Sharon is known as one of the prime forces, over the past three decades, in the development of Jewish cities and towns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. His break with the Yesha leaders, with whom he worked very closely for so long, was symbolized by the presence at the Yesha Council press conference of his good friend Ze'ev Chever, head of the Amanah settlement organization. Sharon's consternation at the reports was evident, Yesha Council sources say, in the fact that he departed from his normal custom of maintaining media silence. In an infrequent appearance last night, he denied part of the Yesha Council leaders' accusations, saying that he would not agree to legislate a law that would "tie the hands of the government." He did not relate to the charges that he plans to destroy seven Jewish communities. Yesha leaders met at the Knesset today with 15 Likud MKs, telling them of the proposals Weisglass put forth last night. Bentzy Lieberman, head of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, told Arutz-7 this morning that the goal is to attempt to make it clear to the Prime Minister that if he attempts to present such a plan to the Americans, "he will find, when he comes back, that he no longer has a government behind him." "It was told to us quite clearly," Lieberman said: "Agree to the removal of some towns, and we'll pass a law against any further removals until the signing of a final agreement. This was the deal that was offered. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister or his office tried to pull a fast one on us [in trying to obtain our approval for his disengagement plan], but we didn't fall for it, and instead we were the first to announce the details of the plan - which is a continuation of the Oslo process." Lieberman said that Sharon's aides met separately with several Yesha leaders, "and to none of us did they mention all the yishuvim [communities] that they plan to uproot. To me, for example, they didn't mention Ganim and Kadim." Some Yesha Council sources say that the plan might even involve the expulsion of Jews from other areas as well, such as the South Hevron Hills. Asked if there were any circumstances under which the Yesha Council would agree to the removal of a Jewish community, Lieberman said, "No. Sometimes we explain our objections based on various external factors, such as quoting the Chief of Staff as saying that leaving Netzarim would require the deployment of a tremendous amount of soldiers - but these are just 'extras.' We say clearly wherever it must be said: There is no difference between a Jewish town in Judea and one in the Negev or the Galilee: They must not be touched." MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) was asked today how he feels about the deal offered to the Yesha Council: the destruction of seven towns in exchange for a moratorium on further expulsions. Eldad said that he is "of course against any deal having to do with ceding parts of the Land of Israel, but even if I did not feel that way, I would still recommend not entering into any such deal with Ariel Sharon. He is the man who originally mocked the idea of a partition fence, and yet now is building it with vigor; he was against a Palestinian state, and now favors it; he built the Yesha communities, and now wants to uproot them; he was always strongly against a unilateral withdrawal under fire, and now he supports it, under the pressure of terrorism... This has nothing to do with parliamentary no-confidence, but rather on the personal level; when you make a deal with someone, you want to make sure that it will be carried out as agreed." Asked at what point he would advise his party colleagues to quit the government, MK Eldad said that this is not a fair question: "I was originally against joining the government, such that many red lines have already been crossed from my standpoint. I can say, however, that the official National Union party policy is that the moment the Cabinet decides on the removal of a Yesha community or the establishment of a Palestinian state, we quit the coalition."

UNITED WE STAND - DIVIDED WE FALL Posted by Ruth Matar, January 28, 2004.

Dear Friends, For many months the Women in Green traveled the length and breadth of Israel in our "Truth Mobile" to collect signatures for a Petition addressed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, protesting his plan to create a Palestinian state in the Biblical Heartland of Israel. Wherever we found the busiest place in any given town, we set up our tables loaded with Petitions, and used loudspeakers to ask people to sign. Since Jews from all over the world are now coming home, we might have printed the Petitions in many more languages. We limited ourselves to Hebrew, English and Russian. (Yes, we do have a fair amount of Russian members - one of them the famous refusnik Ida Nudel) The text of our Petition to Prime Minister Sharon is as follows: We, the undersigned raise our collective voices in protest against your recent statement (and the subsequent remark of U.S. President Bush) about creating still another Palestinian State within the heartland of the historic Land of Israel. The events of the past year have clearly indicated that establishing such a State would jeopardize the continued existence of Israel. The widespread Arab terror, and Arafat's refusal to arrest those responsible, confirms the high degree of collusion among the organizations responsible for such terror. The uncompromising nature of the Muslim Religion and Arab enmity are a reality. Arab incitement to terror and hatred of Israel and Jews, constitute a continuous threat to the safety of everyone. The Palestinian Authority, like its predecessor the PLO, will always seek Israel's destruction. It will enlist foreign troops to be stationed within its borders, and amass sophisticated weaponry, no matter what the restrictions of any signed written Agreement. As Israel's elected leader you cannot put your citizens to such risk and danger. We demand that you never agree to the creation of an additional Arab Enemy State. * * * The response was amazing. People literally stood in line to sign the Petition. They brought their friends; they brought their family; they brought their neighbors; they even brought passersby to show them this new phenomenon: the Women in Green daring to stand up against the much touted "consensus". The Israeli media is unfortunately dominated, or, in fact, almost completely controlled by the left, which has been insisting that the People of Israel are anxious to give up their Land for "Peace". And here, people like them, mothers, grandmothers and young girls, have come to tell them: "Take a good look! The emperor is naked! That consensus is one Big Lie!" And now that we had collected more than 350,000 signatures on our Petition in a fairly short time, we thought that the media in Israel and the rest of the world would finally be interested in us. The same way that they are so interested in former Shabak chief Ami Ayalon's giveaway scheme, planned together with his Arab partner, Sari Nusseibeh. Their scheme for a peaceful solution between Jews and Arabs was that the Jews give away large parts of their Promised Land, and that the Arabs graciously accept the gift. According to their own website, as of yesterday, they had the signatures of 156,000 Israelis and 100,000 Palestinian Arabs. Ami Ayalon was invited by the President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, to discuss his "peace" initiative. Were the media interested in our 350,000 plus signatures? These signatures, with the exception of some 200 Israeli Arabs, were all of Jews. That's a lot of signatures collected in a relatively short time, in a small country like Israel with only 6.6 million citizens, by small groups of very committed people. No, the media was not at all interested! In fact, there was a deafening silence! Our problem thus became how to get the general public to become aware that the majority of Jews in Israel are against the creation of an Arab State within Biblical Israel. The media certainly was not interested in helping us, and Prime Mister Sharon deliberately ignored our Petition drive, even though we faxed him every signature. Of course, he also ignores the Likud party platform on the basis of which he was elected, which specifically rejects the creation of an Arab state in the Holy Land. Fortunately, the President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, invited us to meet with him at his residence in Jerusalem to discuss our Petition drive, and a delegation of Women in Green met with him on Sunday, January 25, 2004. Ma'ariv, the second largest newspaper in Israel, in their January 22 edition, was amazed at this invitation, and expressed the opinion that the fact that President Katzav even invited the Women in Green, showed that he was completely above politics. Our meeting with President Katzav was inspiring. He is a charming, soft-spoken man, who truly tries to be a man of the People, and to represent the consensus of the population. He never misses making condolence visits to the families of terror victims, something that many of our politicians fail to do. We brought the President a Historical and Archeological Map of Judea and Samaria, illustrating the number of places holy to the Jews that date back to Biblical times. Most importantly, we brought him a sample of the 350,000 signatures, 100,000 of them, in boxes labeled "The Land of Israel for the People of Israel", because we feel that President Katzav must represent the consensus of the population, and the 350,000 signatures on our Petition represent the will of the People. We also brought him letters from two important United States organizations: AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE LAND AND PEOPLE OF ISRAEL and NATIONAL UNITY COALITION FOR ISRAEL. The text of their letter appeared in a full page advertisement in the Jerusalem Post of January 23, and is reproduced in full herewith: AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT KATZAV PRIME MINISTER SHARON AND MEMBERS OF THE KNESSET January 23, 2004 Dear President Katzav, Prime Minister Sharon and Members of the Knesset, We, the AMERICAN COMMITTEE for the PRESERVATION of the LAND and PEOPLE of ISRAEL, together with the NATIONAL UNITY COALITION FOR ISRAEL, are sending you this open letter. We have learned that President Katzav is meeting with WOMEN FOR ISRAEL'S TOMORROW [WOMEN IN GREEN] in the very near future, concerning petitions they have gathered containing over 350,000 signatures opposing the creation of a 23rd Arab state within the Biblical Land of Israel. We understand that these signatures were collected in a short period of time from all over Israel. This is evidence that an overwhelming number of Jews in Israel oppose the creation of an Arab state within the Holy Land. We are sure you know that G-d promised the Land of Israel to the Jewish people and there are absolutely millions of Americans who believe what the Bible says in that regard. The U.S. Congress, as the representative legislative body upon which Israel relies for its generous support, reflects the strong ties of the American people to the Nation of Israel. We are positive that the current level of terrorism (Islamic Jihad) would not subside, but simply get worse with the establishment of a Palestinian state. That Palestinian state would not only threaten the existence of the Middle East's one democracy, but would threaten all of Western civilization, as well as facilitate the globalization of radical Islam. Our civilization has been founded on Judeo-Christian moral and ethical values, which stand in stark contrast to the values of radical Islam. Another Arab Islamic state established as a reward for Arab terror will foster further terror - not only within Israel, but especially towards the United State, and ultimately promote a complete globalization of the Islamic Jihad. We respectfully ask that you consider all the implications for world Jewry and Christianity when determining the possibility of statehood for those who have repeatedly sworn to eliminate the Jewish Homeland of Israel. Please do not forget that whatever Israel does has always affected the world, since Israel was created by G-d to be a "Light unto the Nations." Sincerely, AMERICAN COMMITTEE for the PRESERVATION of the LAND and PEOPLE of ISRAEL. ACPLPI is a non-profit organization under the laws of the State of New York. 3 West 16th Street, Suite 305, New York, NY 10011, ACPLPI@yahoo.com NATIONAL UNITY COALITION FOR ISRAEL. The Largest Coalition of Pro-Israel Jewish & Christian Organizations in the USA. 200 Organizations Representing 40 Million Americans. Phone: 913-648-0022, Fax: 913-648-7997, www.israelunitycoalition.com, voices@israelunitycoalition.com. * * * We think that President Katzav was impressed with the magnitude of the support from the United States, of 40 million Americans, both Christians and Jews. That this support from the American People is not exaggerated, is borne out by the recent public opinion survey commissioned by the firm McLaughlin and associates: a) 66.6% are against expelling the Jews from their homes in the territories. b) Nearly 3/4 of Americans (73.6%) support halting $200,000,000 in annual aid to the Palestinians. c) 55.7% of respondents said they agree that the Palestinian's goal is "the eventual destruction of Israel". d) 65.2% said the Palestinian Authority "cannot be trusted to fulfill peace agreements that it signs with Israel". Referring to the massive number of signatures we had obtained, President Katzav was of the opinion that Prime Minister Sharon would be forced to bring a question of such importance to the People for its decision. This is where we differ with the President. There is no point in having such a referendum since taking part in it would mean that the Jewish People consider an Arab State in the Holy Land an option. No one has the right to give away any part of the Land of Israel to a foreign entity, as G-d has Promised the Land of Israel to the Jewish People for eternity. As it is written in the Torah: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine; for you are settlers and residents with Me" (Leviticus 25:23) To the wonderful American organizations who published the full page advertisement in the Jerusalem Post, Yasher Koach! You should go from strength to strength. For in truth, IF WE ARE UNITED WE STAND - IF WE ARE DIVIDED WE FALL. 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

IS BUSH SERIOUS ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR? Posted by Herbert Zweibon, January 28, 2004.

Is the Bush administration serious about the war against international terror? Writing recently in National Review Online, scholar Michael Ledeen points out that immediately after the 9/11 attacks, America seemed determined to confront global terror head-on, "but our instant understanding of the world after the terror attacks has long since been diluted by the usual triumph of old reflexes and bureaucratic emphasis on procedure at the expense of content." As examples of those "old reflexes," Ledeen cites the administration's failure to deal with Iran's nuclear threat, or Syria's sponsorship of terrorist groups (such as Hezbollah), and Bush's gentle approach to Saudi Arabia. "Our diplomats are so intent on pretending that we can 'work with' Iran, that they failed to take any serious steps to prevent the recent appeasement of the mullahs' covert nuclear program," Ledeen writes. Likewise regarding Damascus: "If we were serious about waging war against our enemies, we would have put enormous pressure on the Syrians to shut down the network of terrorist facilities in Lebanon, and expel Hezbollah," he continues. "It seems the administration has decided to 'manage' Iraq until Election Day, and then take stock of the situation," Ledeen explains. The idea is to refrain from taking the initiative, refrain from expanding the war on terror beyond Baghdad; just do enough to be able to say "yes, we are rounding up lots of bad guys," in order to impress voters. Ledeen may be right, but the problem goes well beyond managing the situation until the election. President Bush has lost the moral compass evident in those splendid speeches when he said the war was against terror and those who harbored terrorists and identified the axis of evil, those regimes which seek weapons of mass destruction and are prepared to provide them to terrorists. In Korea, as Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, has pointed out, "North Korean nuclear and missile programs now operate with impunity inside the hermit kingdom" and the "six-party talks designed to pressure North Korea into disarmament have transformed into a mechanism to pressure the United States into conciliatory gestures toward the Kim Jong Il regime." But the loss of direction and purpose is most evident in the President's policy toward the Arab-Israel conflict, the litmus test in the war against terror. And the failure here was apparent from the start, in the President's much-praised speech to the UN on June 24, 2002 when he outlined his two-state "vision." The President ignored what we at AFSI pointed out in our pamphlet "The Palestinians" in 1977: "The Arabs of Palestine have allowed themselves to be defined as an 'anti-nation,' one that derives its entire meaning and purpose from the desire to destroy another nation." But when that reality thrust itself upon him, when instead of the "new and different Palestinian leadership...not compromised by terror" he called for in his speech, he found that Arafat simply consolidated his power, the President did a U-turn and pressured Israel to accomodate the terror-master. Far from asserting pressure on the Palestinian Authority, the President has agreed to send yet more aid to Arafat's corrupt kleptocracy. (For a chilling look at Arafat and Co.'s misappropriation of donor funds and how the money is used to fund terror, see Rachel Ehrenfeld's new book Funding Evil.) Meanwhile Arafat has proclaimed his "sadness" at the capture of Saddam while the Palestinian Arab "anti-nation" took to the streets to demonstrate its undying love for Saddam. To fight terror effectively, President Bush needs to match his noble rhetoric with deeds and to adopt a policy that does not distinguish between terrorists and their promoters, whether they are named Saddam, Bashar, Kim Jong, Osama, or Yasser. Herbert Zweibon is chairman of AFSI - Americans For a Safe Israel (http://www.afsi.org). AFSI is a Zionist organization dedicated to the territorial integrity of Israel including Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan and Jerusalem, the indivisible 3,000 year old capital of Israel. This article is #163 January, 2004 Outpost, a publication of Americans For A Safe Israel.

PEACE WITH HAMAS Posted by David Franfurter, January 28, 2004.

Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz al-Rantissi has declared that his willingness to come to peace terms with Israel, and then went on to explain the impossibility of peace which includes radical Islamic groups. (Click here to see the report in Aljazeera.) Al-Rantissi explained that Hamas can't win militarily against Israel right now, so it is willing to allow a ten year truce (while he re-arms of course), after which his organisation will once again fight a battle to destroy Israel. For this privilege, all Israel has to do is withdraw to the 'Auschwitz borders' of 1967. Of course he forgot to mention that the proposal is modeled on Muhammad's 10 year hudna, which did not last. As soon as Muhammad felt strong enough, he found an excuse to break his truce & wipe out his enemies. Can anyone point to a reason why Hamas may act differently? David Frankfurter sends "Letters from Israel" emails to subscribers. Contact him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com

SADDAM'S WEB OF BRIBERY 'WENT ROUND THE WORLD' Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 28, 2004.

Wait until they publish the people in the States and Europe on the Saudi payroll. That will really be big-time. This was written by Philip Delves Broughton and Jack Fairweather and appeared on the Telegraph-UK website (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) today. Saddam Hussein bribed his way around the world, buying the support of presidents, ministers, legislators, political parties and even Christian churches, according to documents published in Iraq. The list of those who allegedly benefited from Saddam's largesse spans 46 countries. According to the newspaper al-Mada, one of the new publications that have emerged since the removal of the dictator, Saddam offered each of his friends lucrative contracts to trade in millions of barrels of Iraqi crude under the United Nations oil-for-food programme. The 270 individuals and organisations alleged to be in his pay included the sons of a serving Arab president, Arab ministers, a prominent Indonesian leader, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, the party led by the Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and even the Russian Orthodox Church. Abdul Sahib Qotob, an under-secretary in Iraq's oil ministry, said the documents "reveal how Saddam jeopardised the oil wealth of Iraq on personalities who had supported him and turned a blind eye on the mass graves and injustice he inflicted on the sons of the Iraqi people". He said the ministry was building up a legal case and might seek the help of Interpol to recover the money. Interpol refused to comment. A senior official at the oil ministry said last night: "This is oil money that should be used for reconstructing Iraq. We will use all means to get it back." Al-Mada based its list on documents allegedly obtained from the former State Oil Marketing Organisation, or Somo, the commercial arm of Saddam's oil ministry. The newspaper showed two sets of photocopied documents to The Daily Telegraph. One was a set of contracts signed by Sadam Zibn, director of Somo, and Ali Rajeb Hassan, his deputy in the late 1990s. The other was a list of recipients of oil contracts, arranged by nationality. Their awards of oil were given in a spreadsheet over a three-year period. The editor of al-Mada, Fahkri Karim, claimed that he had many more. "I have seen rooms of such documents. There is a lot more information," he said. He said the documents were salvaged from Somo in the chaotic hours when the Americans entered the city. Yesterday Le Monde named several Frenchmen alleged to have been on the list. Gilles Munier, secretary-general of the Franco-Iraqi Friendship Association, said the list was confusing. He said he and his organisation introduced numerous businesses, oil and otherwise, to contacts in Iraq but that it was all perfectly legal. For each successful introduction, he received a commission. "Everything was done within the rules of oil-for-food," he said. "There was nothing illegal about it and it didn't deprive the Iraqi people of what they were owed under the programme." Patrick Maugein, the head of the French oil firm Soco International, said he did a lot of business in Iraq under the oil-for-food programme, but none of it was illegal. "There isn't a refinery in the world which would have accepted a secret load," he said, noting that UN inspectors monitored every tanker. He said that unlike Africans, the Iraqis were not in the habit of giving their partners anything extra. The list published by al-Mada gives the numbers of barrels of oil attributed to each of those Saddam wished to reward. Al-Mada published its scoop in what was only its 45th edition.It said that "millions of barrels of oil were offered to individuals who had nothing to do with the oil business" in what it called the former regime's "largest corruption operation".

ASSUMPTION BEHIND A TWO-STATE "SOLUTION" Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 28, 2004.

Western supporters of the Road Map think they are promoting a two-state "solution," by setting up a PLO state. However, the official P.A. website Map of Palestine includes all of Israel (Prof. Louis Rene Beres, Midstream, 1/2004, p.8). First two states, then one. The P.A. hopes that the great powers will continue to pressure Israel into giving it concessions without requiring it ever to end or declare an end to the armed struggle. That is the Arab notion of maintaining Islamic honor. They would deceive infidel friends and infidel enemies into thinking they are making peace, without yielding anything.

NASRALLAH'S BEARD Posted by Tamar Rush , January 28, 2004.

This was written by Dov Goldstein and was an Op-Ed piece in today's Ma'ariv International (http://www.maarivintl.com) Much to my own surprise, I find myself making equal comparisons between Prime Minster Ariel Sharon and Hezbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. What is my similarity of feeling for the Israeli P.M. whom I have always openly supported and the lying despicable Lebenese bully? I believe both of them. I believe the Prime Minister that the decision to swap 430 terrorists for one live man kidnapped under soon to be investigated suspicious circumstances and three dead bodies was a decision driven by morality and good values. I don't believe that his decision was motivated by his recent drop in stature or by an attempt to distract the public from the cloud of possible indictments looming over his head. I also believe Nasrallah, unfortunately, vis a vis his plans to kidnap more soldiers. Although he deserves all condemnation and should be treated like the despicable man he is, there is one thing I can say for him. He is trustworthy. He keeps his promises. Don't misunderstand me. My heart goes out to the Tennenbaum family who will surround him with love and stand by him to help him clear his name. And of course I feel for the families of he three IDF soldiers, and I am praying with them wholeheartedly that their boys will return alive. And even if this latent hope is dashed it is their right to have a grave on which to pour out their hearts and cry. But in the familiar battle of mind over heart, this time heart has taken the cake: Israel gave in. Israel made a bad deal. Israel made an unjustified and costly sacrifice all for the principle of the obligation to return captives. Did you see Nasrallah at the press conference? Did you see his face, flashing a contemptuous smile at Israel? And did you hear how he mocked the Israel and the government? How the ministers ran to the telephone to report on the results of the meeting before the formal decision was even made? I was ashamed. He was right. He won. Israel rightly earned his contempt. Israel, or at least the mainstream of its leaders always clung to the idea that the Arabs only understand force. It's not true. The natural order has been inverted. Nasrallah has proved the exact opposite is true: Israel only understands force. Without the Palestinian violence, Sharon would not agree to a Palestinian state. Without Palestinian terror, the Likud would not have changed its mind and decided that the Western parts of the Land of Israel are under an occupation which must be ended. Without Nasrallah's bullying and determination, Israel wouldn't agree to release hundreds of prisoners in return for one live man and three bodies. Israel by giving in to Nasrallah, granted his team a number of wins, for which Israel will pay dearly. Israel has crowned Nasrallah, the head of a small band of terrorists, despised by even the Lebenese government as the respected pan-Arab leader from whose violent and brutal ways the Palestinians will learn an invaluable lesson. Israel proved that not the failure Abu-Mazen or the and not even the more sophisticated Abu Alla are the ones who can drag concessions out of Israel, but rather only Nasrallah who aims at Israel 1000 Iranian long range missiles and laughs at its weakness. Israel's unmatched military power can crush and subdue Hezbullah and pick lice from Nasrallah's beard. But because of its political weakness and its leadership's feebleness it gave in to tyranny and bent before Nasrallah.

THE MIDEAST PEACE CHARADE Posted by Tamar Rush, January 28, 2004.

This article was forwarded to me from my friend Bob in the USA. This was written by William F. Jasper and is from the October 18, 1993 issue of the New American. Some folks pretend that "no one knew", and that they "were as surprised as anyone" when the PLO brought war, not peace to this land. B.S.!!!!!! It is being heralded as "miraculous," "an impossible achievement," "a stunning breakthrough," "a dream finally come true." Pundits and news commentators cannot resist drawing parallels to the "collapse of communism" and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. Superlatives compete with super-superlatives in describing the significance of the event. And why not? After decades of bitter enmity, war, terrorism, charges, and countercharges of genocide and repression that have involved almost every nation in the world in the intractable Middle East imbroglio, the two main irreconcilables have kissed. Well - at least they've shaken hands. And other implacable antagonists apparently are ready and willing to set aside their arms and their hatreds to come to the peace table. Or so it appears. "Amazing Event" The possibility of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief Yasir Arafat joining hands in anything except a death struggle would have seemed pure fantasy only a few weeks ago. And yet, on Monday, September 13th, there they were on the White House lawn making peace, with all the world looking on in amazement. This was an even more improbable event than the sensational Begin-Sadat rapprochement of 1978-79. Rabin, 71, is one of Israel's military heroes of the 1967 six-day war that saw the surprise route of the combined armies of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. To millions of Arabs, he is the nemesis responsible for their ignominious defeat and the loss of strategic Arab real estate, while to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians he is the devil who drove them from their homes and later directed brutal reprisals against uprisings in the Israeli-occupied territories. During last year's election campaign he promised Israeli voters he would never speak with the "terrorist" PLO. Arafat, 64, is Israel's nightmare, while to millions of exiles of the Palestinian diaspora and to Arab inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank he is not only a hero and their main hope for establishing a Palestinian state, but through the PLO's welfare organizations is actually the source of their daily bread. To many "hard-line" Arabs and Islamic "fundamentalists," however, he is a "traitor" for recognizing Israel. To Arab heads of state he is alternately a necessary evil, a useful tool, a colossal headache, a dangerous rival, and a thorny destabilizing force. The Carter-brokered Camp David peace accords won Sadat and Begin a Nobel Peace Prize, and already Arafat and Rabin have become the odds-on favorites to carry away the prize this time around. An amazing global consensus seems to have developed -- at least among the politicians, analysts, and spinmeisters who have dominated the "discussion" of this matter in the major media. Peace, they say, is busting out all over. Kalashnikovs and bombs are transforming into olive branches. Rejoice! Huzzah! Of course, a few cautionary notes have been sounded: This peace is fragile, we are told, and fraught with many challenges ahead that require commitment and sacrifice - especially from the United States and the rest of the First World. What? You did not hear those caveats amidst the exaltations? No matter, say the "optimists"; after all, isn't peace worth it? Cause for Concern But therein lies a major problem with this super triumph of symbol over substance and mendacity over goodwill: No mutually agreed upon definition of "peace" -- or description of concrete objectives that will constitute peace -- has been forthcoming, and no one has explained the basis for our (the U.S.) role in this risky, ongoing "process." Those are not, or at least should not be, trifling concerns. If the major parties to the contract cannot even agree on basic terms and the "guarantor" (that's us, according to our President) is still in the dark as to what his obligations are, it just may be that it is a bit premature to start popping the champagne corks. And one need not be a "rejectionist" Arab radical, an "extremist" member of Israel's Likud opposition, or an "ultra-right" American "isolationist" to find real fault with the precarious course on which we have embarked. Danger Signs The tragic results of past treaties and peace agreements suggest that we hold up on the euphoria until a thorough and sober assessment of this "surprise" agreement can be made. In the interim, there are abundant danger signs screaming out for our attention. Some of the most obvious warning signals that should alarm all observers include: Secret Agreements. Ever since Yalta, we have been trapped in secret executive agreements that have involved our nation in fiascos piled on top of betrayals. This one appears to be no different. President Clinton has made "undisclosed" commitments of security and economic aid to Israel that could literally blow up in America's face. Secretary of State Warren Christopher acknowledged, for instance, that American soldiers may be deployed to the Golan Heights. The financial commitment, we are told, will be minor, with the bulk of the economic end being covered by Japan, the European Community, and the Arab states. We heard that same tune before Desert Storm and Operation Restore Hope, and we are still paying the piper. Intentional Confusion. The Israelis and the PLO have not been able to come to agreement on even some of the most basic definitions. Rabin insists that the PLO include in its renunciation of terrorism a repudiation of the intifada (Palestinian uprisings in the occupied territories), a demand Arafat refuses. Arafat tells the Arab world that he will be given control of the bridge over the Jordan; Rabin says it was explicitly agreed upon that Israel would retain control. And on and on. Crooked Players. The major and minor characters in this unfolding drama are as unsightly and diabolical an assortment of terrorists, communists, socialists, and oneworld globalists as have ever come together. Collectively they have probably done more to promote tyranny and undermine freedom than any similar gathering in history. Looking to these architects of disorder for a "peace" solution makes as much sense as calling Arsons R Us to put out a fire. A Stacked Deck. The entire peace plan process has been scripted to entangle the United States and the rest of the world ever deeper and deeper in the Middle East conflict, to poison U.S. relations with moderate Arab countries, and to increase the call for a United Nations World Army to police the planet's trouble spots. It plays to the "new world order" game plan in which the UN is transformed into an all-powerful world government. Transforming Terrorists Although arguably not the most dangerous character in the evolving peace production, Yasir Arafat is without question the most notorious and presents the greatest credibility challenge to the accords. There's just something about masterminding and directing a three-decade spree of murder, mayhem, bombing, rape, hijacking, kidnaping, assassination, torture, and extortion that makes one an unlikely candidate for the role of Francis of Assissi. But, reports say, he is being forced into this peacemaking role by economic realities; he has lost the massive subsidies that for years flowed unabated from the Soviet Union and the rich Arab states. Moreover, it is said, he is mellowing and seeking his place in history as the father of the Palestinian state. Perhaps. But he has made these promises before, forswearing terrorism only to kill again when it suited his purposes. Some "highlights" from his abbreviated PLO resume include the following accomplishments: May 1972: Members of the Japanese Red Army acting in support of the PLO open fire with machine guns and grenades at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport, killing 26 and wounding 70. October 1972: The PLO's Black September group massacres Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics. May 1974: Maalot school massacre. 28 killed, nearly all children. 1976: PLO, Libyan, and Iraqi terrorists overrun Maronite Christian villages in Lebanon, brutally murdering hundreds of civilians, including women and children. March 1978: Terrorist bus rampage on the Haifa-Tel Aviv highway leaves 35 dead and 80 wounded. Then there was the murder of American citizen Leon Klinghoffer in the PLO's Achille Lauro hijacking, the murderous attacks on the Rome and Vienna Airports, the La Belle disco bombing in West Berlin, the bombing of the Istanbul Synagogue - to name just a few. Surely such a sterling record should qualify Arafat and Company for world recognition as the sole "representatives of the Palestinian people," no? Who better to govern and police the troubled West Bank and Gaza Strip? Apparently no one, according to the negotiators. So the PLO will soon begin forming a "police force" 20,000 to 30,000 strong, it says, to enforce the edicts of the Arafat-headed Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority created by the agreements. It will be a socialist, centrally planned regime, naturally, with an Electricity Authority, an Environmental Authority, a Land Authority, a Water Authority, a Development Bank, a Port Authority, etc., "and any other Author ity agreed upon." All of which will require mucho dinero, of course. Article XVI of the accords refers to the need for a multilateral "Marshall Plan" for the region. Arafat figured $11.9 billion over the next seven years from "the international community" would be a good start. The World Bank, headed by Council on Foreign Relations member Lewis T. Preston, came in with a slightly lower sum. In a report strategically time-released on the eve of the historic signing, the bank said the new government would need at least $3 billion over the next decade. Although less than a third of what "Mr. Palestine" is asking and about half of what the PLO reportedly took in annually during the late 1980s, $300 million a year is still nothing to sneeze at. The PLO could do a lot with that much money. Soviet Source Arafat has always been a truly "international" man, spreading his good fortune and influence generously around the globe. His thugs have trained and aided the communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the FMLN in El Salvador, the ANC in South Africa, Khomeini's revolutionaries in Iran, Idi Amin's butchers in Uganda, and virtually every terrorist outfit in the world. And it is no secret that the principal source of his guns and training was for years the Soviet Union, though oftentimes the support was channeled through Eastern European, Cuban, and Middle East surrogates. Arafat was so dependent on the Soviets, East Germans, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Albanians that he rarely made any serious move without first getting counsel from his communist superiors. For years, his chief contact in the Soviet Union was Vladimir Buljakov, head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry's Middle East Department. It is also no secret that during the PLO's Lebanon sojourn Arafat met daily with Soviet "Ambassador" Alexander Soldatov, a high-level KGB agent who had been expelled from Britain for espionage. And General Ion Pacepa, head of Nicolae Ceausescu's secret police, revealed after his defection to the West that Arafat had intimate ties to the Romanian DIE. In fact, in his 1987 book Red Horizons, Pacepa explained that Arafat's best friend and head of PLO intelligence, Hani Hassan, was actually a DIE agent and that the PLO's Beirut telephone monitoring center (built by the KGB) was wired directly to the Soviet Embassy. But those relationships supposedly ceased with the "end" of the Evil Empire. Or did they? Are the obituary writers a bit premature again? Although not nearly as visible as in former years, the Soviets are far from dropping out of the Mideast picture. On September 15th, for example, John P. Hannah reported in the Wall Street Journal that Russian transport planes had landed in Damascus on August 5th carrying components of Scud-C ballistic missiles from North Korea for Syria's President Hafez al-Assad. The Scuds are capable of carrying chemical weapons deep into Israel and are in violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) agreement Russia recently signed. This blatant treaty violation by our "partner," Boris Yeltsin's Russia, was taking place amidst reports from defense intelligence experts that the Russian military continues to modernize its strategic nuclear forces and recently conducted a major exercise of its Strategic Rocket Forces that included a mock attack on the United States. And these actions followed close on the heals of other troubling Russian conduct: belligerent threats against Lithuania, illicit attempts to deliver rocket fuel to Muammar Qaddafi, a new relationship with Iraq, etc. In spite of the best efforts by our Establishment media and politicians to put a new face on our erstwhile adversary, the "changed" Russia continues with embarrassing lapses into the nasty, old Stalin-KhrushchevBrezhnev-Andropov habits. This should be of particular concern since Russia is our co-guarantor in this Mideast gambit. Three-phase Plan Those who insist that post-Gorbachev Russia is now our "ally" are worse than foolish. So too are those who see in Comrade Arafat a born-again pacifist beset by hard-liners and fundamentalists. The PLO's maximum leader learned well from his Soviet mentors the value of creating splinter groups to serve as surrogates. Thus, many years ago he began creating fictional "radical" factions within his organization. Black September, Black June, the Abu Nidal Group, the Colonel Hawari Group, Abu Jihad's Western Section, and other covert units and proxy groups were formed to carry out the dirty work while Arafat's mainline Fatah worked toward achieving political respectability. These "deniable" elements allow Arafat and the PLO top command to have it both ways. They can present a conciliatory face to the West, while promising Palestinian militants that the PLO is committed to the destruction of Israel. Arafat is a master at this dissembling. It is all part of a three-phase plan adopted by the top PLO command two decades ago. The first phase, from 1967 to 1974, called for shocking the world with brutal terrorist acts as a way to put the Palestinian cause before the world. Phase two, from 1974 to 1983, centered on winning political legitimacy, while continuing the "armed struggle" through separate, clandestine branches. The third phase, which we are now witnessing, is a two-part strategy for destroying Israel. The first part involves the creation of a Palestinian state (through negotiation) on territory relinquished by Israel; the second calls for using that territory to launch a final assault against the Zionist infidels. Ultimately, Arafat is fond of saying, this strategy will see final victory in the raising of the Palestinian flag at the Haram Ash-Sharif (the Temple Mount in Jerusalem). In fact, he reportedly evoked this same image when addressing Arabs during the negotiations in the first week of September. And only a few days before he formally accepted the agreement, Arafat told Palestinian critics of the accord on September 1st that "this is the Phased Plan we all adopted in 1974. Why should you oppose it now?" He is obviously trying to play it both ways, which is nothing new. In 1988, he publicly "renounced terrorism" and accepted Israel's right to exist. At the same time his terrorists were landing on Israeli beaches. And, it should not be forgotten, during the Persian Gulf War he broke ranks with his Arab brethren and supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. He viciously denounced the United States and danced with glee as Scuds dropped on Israel. Helping Hand Due to these lapses in etiquette, Arafat's propaganda campaign to craft a "moderate" image for himself and his gang has had its ups and downs over the years. But there is no question that he has had a great deal of help along the way in covering his tracks. The first big boost came in November 1974, when the pudgy, stubble-faced "freedom fighter" addressed the UN General Assembly in New York. The communistand Third World-dominated body recognized the PLO as the "representative of the Palestinian people" and granted it observer status. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter (a charter member of David Rockefeller's world-government-promoting Trilateral Commission) lifted the "terrorist" label from the PLO to allow its officials greater access to the United States and to enable the organization to open an "information" office in Washington, DC. The following year the United Nations secretariat appropriated $500,000 for a public relations campaign to (as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times for October 9, 1978) "create a moderate image for the Palestine Liberation Organization in the United States and other Western countries." In 1979, Arafat garnered his first recognition by a European power when he was received by the socialist government of Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky at the Vienna meeting of the Socialist International. This had been arranged by the communist Ceausescu regime. General Ion Pacepa has revealed that at the request of Arafat, he (Pacepa) had been sent by Ceausescu to Germany in 1979 to ask the Socialist Prime Minister Willy Brandt to arrange for the Socialist International (SI) to officially recognize the PLO. Brandt willingly accommodated his comrades in the struggle and prevailed upon Kreisky. Brandt, who is the current president of the Socialist International, which boasts lineal descent from the First International of Karl Marx, continues to aid the Arafat legitimacy campaign. It is interesting to note the hand of the SI in much of the current Mideast dealings, particularly since it is completely ignored (or censored) by the major press. Yitzhak Rabin's Labour Party is a member of the Socialist International, and his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, is a vice president of the SI. Peres, of course, is Israel's main negotiator and together with Rabin has had the main job of selling the Israeli people on the idea that Arafat and the PLO have changed. The SI connection helps explain the choice of Oslo, Norway as the site of the PLO-Israel secret negotiations over the past nine months. Norway's president, Gro Harlem Brundtland, is also a vice president of the SI. Even more important, however, is the fact that her socialist foreign minister, Johan Jurgen Holst, who led the negotiations and shuttled back and forth between Tunis and Oslo, is a member of the Trilateral Commission (TC) and the former director of the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, Norway's sibling to America's Council on Foreign Relations CFR). Insider Handprints Everywhere one looks, the handprints of the CFR-Trilateral Insiders are to be found all over this "peace" accord. It actually began long ago. Back in 1979, when the SI was recognizing the PLO, the Atlantic Council, an offshoot of the CFR, came out with a report urging the U.S. to develop "informal contacts" with the PLO. The report was authored by John C. Campbell, the CFR's former director of studies. During the Reagan years, Secretary of State George Shultz (CFR) made moves to recognize Arafat and even sent ships to rescue Yasir and his henchmen when they were trapped in Lebanon by Israel and rival fedeyeen groups. During the CFR-Trilateral-dominated Bush presidency, the current process was set in motion. Over the past two years, the CFR has held numerous meetings in Washington and New York with key players in the Mideast drama and principal political players and opinion molders in the United States. On April 24, 1992, for example, the CFR held a special Members' Conference on "Political Change in the Arab World," chaired by Donna E. Shalala (CFR, TC). Besides the Arab participants, speakers included Professor John Waterbury of Princeton (CFR), Professor Kurt Campbell of Harvard (CFR), and New York Times correspondent Youseff Ibrahim. These and other politically correct participants in the CFR's briefings would later be trotted out in the editorial pages of the nation's major papers and on television to sell the accords to the American people. The Council's hand was also directly involved in the whole negotiation process. The chief U.S. participant has been Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who, until appointed by President Clinton, was the vice chairman of the CFR. You may recall that it was Christopher's "diplomacy" under President Carter that brought about the overthrow of two of America's strongest allies, the Shah of Iran and President Samoza of Nicaragua. Heading up Christopher's Mideast negotiating team were: Assistant-Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Edward Djerejion, Special Middle East Coordinator Dennis Ross, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Dan Kurtzer, all members of the CFR. These and other State Department participants were regulars at CFR meetings over the past two years, where Council members received privy information on the secret negotiations, and, no doubt, provided "advice" to the government officials. This incestuous relationship between the official and private policy elites at the Council on Foreign Relations and the secrecy with which they operate in fashioning their subversive new world order should not be tolerated in this republic. Neither should we allow our government to send American fighting men or American tax dollars to advance this, or any other, new world order scheme.

TERRORIST CHARITY AND BOCA ISLAMIC CENTER PR Posted by Joe Kaufman, January 27, 2004.

(Coral Springs, FL) Americans Against Hate is urging law enforcement to investigate the Islamic Center of Boca Raton's usage of material published by the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Saudi-backed "charity" that has been found to have raised millions of dollars for the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The material is found on the Islamic Center's website, www.icbr.org, within the section 'Embrace Islam.' The origin of the material is a web-based book published by the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, entitled 'This Is The Truth,' which is currently located on Al-Haramain's website, www.it-is-truth.org. This is the second instance of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR) being cited for having information concerning Al-Haramain on its website. Less than a year ago, the ICBR was reported as having had a link on its site to the terrorist charity's homepage, www.alharamain.org. The graphic link was seven inches in width, and was located on the ICBR's website for well over three years - including during the September 11, 2001 attacks - and was only taken down in 2003 after negative press coverage. Ibrahim Dremali, the Imam of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, is an advisor to the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), located in North Miami Beach. AMANA's website, www.al-amana.org also contains a link to the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, under the heading 'Good Islamic Organizations and Websites,' on the same page as a picture of the World Trade Center in flames on 9/11. Just this past week, the United States Department of Treasury added four branches of Al-Haramain to the "U.S. list of groups and individuals suspected of bankrolling terrorism, effectively freezing any assets they hold in the U.S." (CNN, January 23, 2004) Joe Kaufman, the Chairman of Americans Against Hate, stated, "The fact that the Islamic Center of Boca Raton is using material from an organization that the U.S. has deemed a supporter of those that attacked us on 9/11 is serious. This is especially vital given the ICBR's previous involvement with another 'charity' that America has taken action against for its terrorist fundraising, the Global Relief Foundation. I urge law enforcement to look into this matter immediately." The website of Anmericans Against Hate (AAH) is http://www.ameriansagainsthate.com

PETITION FOR ARGENTINE JEWRY Posted by AMIA JUSTICE ORGANIZATION, January 27, 2004.

On July 18, 2004, the people of Argentina will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. This tragedy took the lives of 85 people and injured over 300 others. TEN YEARS have passed and no one has been convicted of this crime - the largest anti-Semitic catastrophe since World War II. Recently declassified documents indicate that members within Argentina's own government and police force may have collaborated with the terrorists in this heinous act. Please read and sign this petition to President Nestor Kirchner requesting that JUSTICE be served. This petition will be presented to President Kirchner at the 10th anniversary commemoration ceremony this summer. President Kirchner, as well as the Argentine government, is very conscious of world opinion and your signature will contribute significantly to the wave of support for action on this matter. After signing, it is very important you forward this to your family, friends and colleagues. The petition is on our website. To sign, Click Here IT TAKES ONE MINUTE. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Please note that after signing you will be sent a confirmation e-mail for verification purposes. Only after clicking on the link will your online signature be authenticated as a new entry. Thank you for your time and consideration!

REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST Posted by Barry Rubin, January 27, 2004.

The word "reform" is somewhat in favor for today's Arab world. Even pillars of the establishment in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, for example, are talking about the need for change in their domestic systems. Yet what does this impulse actually amount to in reality? --It is mainly a gimmick to answer the U.S. pro-democracy policy which has already brought the overthrow of Iraq's regime. To ward off American pressure or a possible liberal upsurge, the rulers are trying to portray themselves as the real reformers. --In Gulf Arab monarchies, notably Saudi Arabia, this idea is part of regime strategy to fight a growing internal terrorism problem fed by the system of anti-American, anti-Israel indoctrination intended to preserve the regime and traditional structures of society. The rulers recognize that there is a need to tone down some of the deliberately fostered extremism lest it turn against themselves. --Of course, to some extent there is also recognition from the top that their systems really are outmoded and inefficient, that they are falling further behind the rest of the world. --In several countries the elite are more Westernized in thought than are the masses. They know about Western political philosophy and are affected by what the rest of the world thinks about them. For these people, Jordan and Morocco are two examples that come to mind, having a more "modern" society is a point of pride. At the same time, though, one can expect relatively little to change. Even if the current situation is dismal and stagnant, those in control today would rather be running the swamp than be sitting in the prison of a democratic regime. Aside from the simple fact of self-interest--those in power seek to remain in power enjoying their privileges--there are some other good reasons for the tremendous difficulty in fixing what is wrong with the Arab world. At best, the process of change is going to take a long time. To say even that it has barely begun is an exercise in wildly wishful thinking. While the Saddam lesson is having some effect on Arab regimes, they also bear in mind previous historical events as teaching them caution. These include: First, events in the USSR and the Soviet bloc, where Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms created a chain reaction that ended with the complete collapse of Communism. The revolution in Romania, the only Communist state where the dictator was put in front of a firing squad, is an especially frightening example for these people. Second, Iran, where the shah's efforts at modernization and reform made for social dislocations which helped spark an Islamist revolution that overthrew him. Third, Yugoslavia, where greater openness led to bloody ethnic civil strife that resulted in the country's disintegration. Fourth, Algeria, where holding free and fair elections was about to bring an Islamist regime, prevented only by a military coup and a bloody civil war that continues down to this day. Fifth, the violent ethnic strife in Iraq is a warning for other regimes which might face Sunni-Shia, Muslim-Coptic, Muslim-Christian, Muslim-Alawite, Arab-Berber, or Arab-Kurdish strife. The Lebanese and Sudanese civil wars have already taken place. In this context, consider the following iron paradoxes facing reform: --The current system, with all its problems, does keep the incumbent regimes in power. If they avoid the kind of extreme adventurism of Saddam Hussein they are unlikely to meet his fate. Even Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, no exemplar of brilliant realism, has well understood this fact. By confessing his secret efforts to get nuclear weapons and offering compensation for past terror attacks against a Western target or two, he has bought immunity from American retaliation and international sanctions. Most regimes will get away with having to do far less. In Syria's case, talking about renewed negotiations with Israel seems to that regime enough show of moderation to be left alone. Of course, Damascus has no intention of bargaining seriously with Israel, much less reaching an agreement. But similar tactics got the regime through the 1990s unscathed. --Change may undermine the regimes and eventually bring them down. They know that this is the goal of the liberal reformers. In some cases--most obviously in Syria--the United States also hopes that reform will lead to domestic regime change; in others places--notably Egypt--local paranoia convinces leaders that America is conspiring against them. --Any opening will benefit radical Islamist forces to create more instability and make things worse. Advocates of reform deride this claim by saying that the masses really favor democracy but even many potential liberals support the regime fearing that something worse might happen if it fell. In several cases, popular opinion has opposed liberal reform and apparently sided with the Islamists. The failed attempt by regimes to give women the vote in Kuwait in 1999 or to change laws unfair to women in Egypt and Jordan provide examples. --Many people, including those in leading positions, believe their own propaganda. Their world view is shaped by radical Arab nationalist thinking with a strong dash of Islamist (or at least the reactionary-traditionalist version of Islamic) thinking. They are certain of vast conspiracies against them, the total evil of Israel and the United States, the threat of the West, the decadence of democracy, and the horrors of modernism. The result is that it is going to take the Arab world a long time to get out of its current mess and the prospects for democracy seem quite distant. This will be even more true if things go badly in Baghdad but the situation is bad enough even given a best-case outcome for post-Saddam Iraq. Professor Barry Rubin is Director of The Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) and Editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA).

THE POW-HEZBALLAH DEAL IS INSANE Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 27, 2004.

This news item is from today's DEBKAfile. It is titled " Iran, Europe Are Part of Hizballah's POW Sting Operation " It is archived as http://www2.debka.com/article.php?aid=776 This is so insane that is hard to believe that even Sharon and his low-lives could come up with it. I guess we will all be a bit wiser in a few days. If this turns out to be true, then we must assume that Sharon has cracked a deal with someone to protect him from prosecution and this is part of the payment. The rest will come in the form of destroyed Jewish communities and the deportation of their Jews. The Israeli-Hizballah POW-abductees-DIA deal going into effect Thursday is even more lopsided than first reported, as discovered by DEBKAfile's intelligence sources from unpublished elements of the accord. Tuesday, January 27, the Israeli government published the lists of prisoners to be released two days hence for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers kidnapped three years ago by the Hizballah on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border and businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum. It includes 371 Palestinian prisoners and 60 detainees, 30 Lebanese and Arabs, and 1 German plus 59 bodies. Extra Palestinians were listed to top the figure up to 400 in case appeals to Israel's Supreme Court in the next 48 hours block some of the releases. However Part One of the deal is dwarfed by Part Two, according to the fresh revelations obtained exclusively by DEBKAfile's sources. They also demystify some puzzling remarks dropped in the last three days: Saturday, January 24, the German mediator, Ernest Uhrlau, thanked Iran for its contribution (!); 24 hours later, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, reversing a long-held claim, announced that the missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad was not in Iran but Lebanon. Our sources have discovered that not only Germany, but France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands are "contributing" to the victory parade the Hizballah chief is stage-managing in Lebanon to celebrate the successful outcome of the deal. These European countries are preparing to release Iranian, pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian Lebanese, Hizballah and other prisoners under sentence for assorted terror-linked crimes dating from the 1980s, mostly against American and Israeli targets. However, in a second round of releases, Israel will pay up too by setting free thousands of Palestinians, including men convicted or detained for murdering Israelis, on top of the 400 going to their West Bank and Gaza Strip homes Thursday. Israel's reward will be information attesting to the fate of its missing airman. Over a TV talk show Monday night, two former Shin Beit directors, Shabtai Shavit and Yaacov Peri, spoke persuasively about the need to pull back from Part Two of the deal before it gets out of hand. They questioned prime minister Ariel Sharon's claim that the transaction was moral when even the German mediator has not been told whether the information on offer proves the navigator is alive or dead. Like a majority of Israelis, his family is against handing over terrorist killers for his remains, certain that they will soon return to their old ways and gained a further incentive to continue kidnapping Israelis. It has gradually dawned on informed Israeli circles that Part Two is the outcome of the German mediator actively assisting Iran and the Hizballah chief to use the POW deal for a sting operation against Israel. He has struck a secret side deal with Tehran to open a great many European prison gates to Iranian, pro-Iranian, pro-Syrian, Lebanese and possibly Palestinians convicted of terrorism. Israel has been drawn over its head into the arrangement by the lure of unspecified information about a serviceman who fell captive 18 years ago. Part One of the POW deal therefore may now be labeled "the small transaction" because Part Two is ballooning out of hand from a single name, that of the Druse Nahariya killer, Samir Kuntar. The fallout is already palpable: 1. The Hizballah chief has begun boasting about how he sprang more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli confinement than all the Palestinian leaders, from Yasser Arafat to Abu Mazen, and Arab rulers rolled together. He is therefore claiming the adulation of the Palestinian and Arab masses and the right to force international diplomats to reckon with him as a strong regional voice in any future Middle East steps and decisions. For the Europeans, a new and forceful representative of the Palestinian people takes the place of the discredited Arafat. 2. Sharon and his defense minister Shaul Mofaz, who refused to negotiate with Arafat but agreed to engage Nasrallah, will find it hard to continue dismissing him as a mere terrorist chief. 3. The Europeans have nailed two birds with a single shot: First , Israeli concessions have enabled them to extend their protection to the Hizballah and its chief in case the United States takes action against a group listed officially in Washington as a terrorist organization. Second , for the same price, Europe has built itself a new bridge to Tehran, whose hard line leaders will be grateful to find relief from much of the international pressure weighing on their sophisticated weapons, including nuclear programs. DEBKAfile's sources with access to the text of the Israel-Hizballah agreement mediated by Germany were surprised by the gaps. There is no provision for either contingency of Arad being discovered alive - however unlikely, or being proven dead. In both cases, Israel is committed to freeing thousands of Palestinians. One source said: "Had there been any chance of recovering Arad alive, the price might have had a modicum of logic. But if Hizballah and Iran come up with proof that he is dead, Israel is trapped in a blind commitment and can hardly turn round and say we are reneging on the deal because you murdered our airman." In the interests of morality as well as avoiding the Hizballah-German-Iranian trap, Sharon and Mofaz would have done better to heed the last wish of Batya Arad, the aviator's mother, who said on her deathbed: "If my son is dead, not a single terrorist should be given away for his body." Interestingly no comment has come from Washington on the European ramifications of the POW swap even though notorious murderers of Americans may go free. DEBKAfile's Washington sources note that last week Sharon said Israel was wiling to iron out of the security barrier separating the West Bank and Israel the enclaves winding round the Jordan Valley, Ariel, Beit Arieh and Gush Etzion. In a conversation with the Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer Monday, January 26, he said he was considering re-routing the fence, whose construction has slowed down in the last week. Mofaz has meanwhile set up a special defense ministry team to take care of Palestinian humanitarian needs. When these developments are added to the prospect of thousands of Palestinians being turned loose from Israeli prison in the coming weeks, including convicted murderers, the Israeli government looks as though it is in the midst of a sweeping policy change as regards the Palestinians. This departure, which coincides with the arrival of John Wolf, a senior state department official, may be Sharon's way of meeting the Bush administration halfway in its demands with regard to the barrier and the need to address the human problems of the Palestinian people.

COMMITTEE TO STUDY BUILDING A SYNAGOGUE ON TEMPLE MOUNT Posted by IsrAlert, January 27, 2004.

Haifa's Chief Rabbi, She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, a leading member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, says that the blanket ban on entering the Temple Mount is, for all intents and purposes, no longer in effect. "The longing to ascend to the holy site is so great," he acknowledged, "that every month, many religious Jews ascend to the site, and what we must do is to make clear exactly where the permitted areas are." The reason for the original rabbinic ban was because of the fear that Jews would unknowingly walk in areas that are Halakhically forbidden. "For very long, it was impossible to ascertain where these areas were, but now the situation has changed." Rabbi Cohen said that a synagogue existed on an area adjacent to the historic Temple Mount - in today's Temple Mount complex - for 400 years, and that the Rambam [Maimonides, 1135-1204] prayed in it. Rabbi Cohen addressed an Ariel Institute gathering yesterday on contemporary and Halakhic [Jewish legal] issues connected with the Holy Temple. In the audience were dozens of rabbis and public figures, including police officers. It was decided to establish a non-governmental committee that will look into the possibility of building a synagogue on the Temple Mount. Waqf and police officials have allowed Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount during the morning hours since August of last year - but they are not permitted to pray there. This morning, the police detained five Jews who allegedly took advantage of their presence at the holy site to utter a prayer.

NEVER AGAIN? AND THEN THERE WAS TAPUACH Posted by Sarah Friedman, January 27, 2004.

Last week, the Jewish Nation suffered a fierce and devastating blow, when a synagogue was destroyed. One may question with great concern. Where? France? Poland? Prague? Of course had it been in one of these known anti-Semitic countries our lives would have been made much easier. We would all rise up in unison chanting "Never Again". The Israeli government would denounce the anti-Semitic act and possibly send emissaries to aid in the reconstruction of the synagogue. If it had happened in Poland it would surely become a new site visited by tens of thousands of Jewish youth annually. When a synagogue was destroyed last week and our holy ark, presumably containing our holy Bible swept away into captivity, I could not help but cry and shudder with pain. No! This synagogue where G-D's divine presence rested was not in Poland or France, rather, here in the heart of the Holy Land. No! This holy sanctuary was not destroyed by neo-Nazis or French anti-Semites, rather by Israeli soldiers and police sent by the Israeli government itself. After the Holocaust, when thousands of survivors swam to the shores of the Promised Land, when Jews from all over the world sand out in unison, a prayer- "... to be a free nation in our land...", who would have believed that we would see the day when a synagogue would be destroyed. Have we forgotten our past? Is "Never Again" a slogan recited only on Holocaust Memorial Day, which pertains to acts of anti-Semitism in Poland and Germany? Last week while being forcefully held down by a soldier girl (in a ditch by the side of the road), all I could do was watch as hundreds of soldiers walked up to our hilltop "660"- "Tapuach West". They were not going there to protect us. No! They were marching together to destroy our synagogue. Now, several days after the construction there remain only a pile of debris. Of course, there was a successful attempt to rebuild it, but the soldiers were quick to destroy it again. In many ways it is hard to condemn them. Orders are orders, and of one refuses to obey, he or she will be put in jail. Throughout history, people have been driven to do atrocities. How? Is it because of this fear of being punished or maybe 'not accepted'? Is it because people are so easily brainwashed into believing that what they are ordered to do is always for the good of the society? Whatever the answer may be, may we so easily forgive those who do such acts? Last week while our synagogue was being destroyed, I made several attempts to break free of my capture, in order to block an army jeep or police vehicle from going to our hilltop. Each time I tried, I was quickly seized, and once back in the ditch, told the same words over and over again. The painful sentence "Calm down, there is nothing one can do!" will be imbedded in my mind forever. What will these soldiers answer their children when asked about this black moment in history? As for us, residents of hilltop "660", we will not give in to the self-hating, anti-Semitic whims of Minister Tomy Lapid and his friends. Unlike the soldiers who will do terrible deeds if ordered, we fear not military officers nor corrupt politicians, only the Almighty Himself. Where today a pile of debris lies, with G-D's help a new synagogue will soon stand in all its glory. You can support the rebuilding of the Shul by sending an email to paypal@hameir.org Pleace sign the Kahane Shul Petition: It requests the Sharon government to allow the Shul to be rebuilt. Click Here. Sarah Friedman is director of community events at Kfar Tapuach she lives with her husband and their two small children on the Tapuach west "outpost".

SEX SLAVE JIHAD Posted by Aryeh Zelasko , January 27, 2004.

This was written by Donna M. Hughes and appeared on the Front Page Magazine website (http://www.frontpagemagazine.com) today. Dr. Hughes is a Professor and holds the Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. A measure of Islamic fundamentalists' success in controlling society is the depth and totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women. In Iran for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments on women and girls, enslaving them in a gender apartheid system of segregation, forced veiling, second-class status, lashing, and stoning to death. Joining a global trend, the fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls: buying and selling them for prostitution. Exact numbers of victims are impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in Tehran, there has been a 635 percent increase in the number of teenage girls in prostitution. The magnitude of this statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, many of them are on the streets, others are in the 250 brothels that reportedly operate in the city. The trade is also international: thousands of Iranian women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery abroad. The head of Iran's Interpol bureau believes that the sex slave trade is one of the most profitable activities in Iran today. This criminal trade is not conducted outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists. Government officials themselves are involved in buying, selling, and sexually abusing women and girls. Many of the girls come from impoverished rural areas. Drug addiction is epidemic throughout Iran, and some addicted parents sell their children to support their habits. High unemployment 28 percent for youth 15-29 years of age and 43 percent for women 15-20 years of age is a serious factor in driving restless youth to accept risky offers for work. Slave traders take advantage of any opportunity in which women and children are vulnerable. For example, following the recent earthquake in Bam, orphaned girls have been kidnapped and taken to a known slave market in Tehran where Iranian and foreign traders meet. Popular destinations for victims of the slave trade are the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. According to the head of the Tehran province judiciary, traffickers target girls between 13 and 17, although there are reports of some girls as young as 8 and 10, to send to Arab countries. One ring was discovered after an 18 year-old girl escaped from a basement where a group of girls were held before being sent to Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The number of Iranian women and girls who are deported from Persian Gulf countries indicates the magnitude of the trade. Upon their return to Iran, the Islamic fundamentalists blame the victims, and often physically punish and imprison them. The women are examined to determine if they have engaged in "immoral activity." Based on the findings, officials can ban them from leaving the country again. Police have uncovered a number of prostitution and slavery rings operating from Tehran that have sold girls to France, Britain, Turkey as well. One network based in Turkey bought smuggled Iranian women and girls, gave them fake passports, and transported them to European and Persian Gulf countries. In one case, a 16-year-old girl was smuggled to Turkey, and then sold to a 58-year-old European national for $20,000. In the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, local police report that girls are being sold to Pakistani men as sex-slaves. The Pakistani men marry the girls, ranging in age from 12 to 20, and then sell them to brothels called "Kharabat" in Pakistan. One network was caught contacting poor families around Mashad and offering to marry girls. The girls were then taken through Afghanistan to Pakistan where they were sold to brothels. In the southeastern border province of Sistan Baluchestan, thousands of Iranian girls reportedly have been sold to Afghani men. Their final destinations are unknown. One factor contributing to the increase in prostitution and the sex slave trade is the number of teen girls who are running away from home. The girls are rebelling against fundamentalist imposed restrictions on their freedom, domestic abuse, and parental drug addictions. Unfortunately, in their flight to freedom, the girls find more abuse and exploitation. Ninety percent of girls who run away from home will end up in prostitution. As a result of runaways, in Tehran alone there are an estimated 25,000 street children, most of them girls. Pimps prey upon street children, runaways, and vulnerable high school girls in city parks. In one case, a woman was discovered selling Iranian girls to men in Persian Gulf countries; for four years, she had hunted down runaway girls and sold them. She even sold her own daughter for US$11,000. Given the totalitarian rule in Iran, most organized activities are known to the authorities. The exposure of sex slave networks in Iran has shown that many mullahs and officials are involved in the sexual exploitation and trade of women and girls. Women report that in order to have a judge approve a divorce they have to have sex with him. Women who are arrested for prostitution say they must have sex with the arresting officer. There are reports of police locating young women for sex for the wealthy and powerful mullahs. In cities, shelters have been set-up to provide assistance for runaways. Officials who run these shelters are often corrupt; they run prostitution rings using the girls from the shelter. For example in Karaj, the former head of a Revolutionary Tribunal and seven other senior officials were arrested in connection with a prostitution ring that used 12 to 18 year old girls from a shelter called the Center of Islamic Orientation. Other instances of corruption abound. There was a judge in Karaj who was involved in a network that identified young girls to be sold abroad. And in Qom, the center for religious training in Iran, when a prostitution ring was broken up, some of the people arrested were from government agencies, including the Department of Justice. The ruling fundamentalists have differing opinions on their official position on the sex trade: deny and hide it or recognize and accommodate it. In 2002, a BBC journalist was deported for taking photographs of prostitutes. Officials told her: "We are deporting you... because you have taken pictures of prostitutes. This is not a true reflection of life in our Islamic Republic. We don't have prostitutes." Yet, earlier the same year, officials of the Social Department of the Interior Ministry suggested legalizing prostitution as a way to manage it and control the spread of HIV. They proposed setting-up brothels, called "morality houses," and using the traditional religious custom of temporary marriage, in which a couple can marry for a short period of time, even an hour, to facilitate prostitution. Islamic fundamentalists' ideology and practices are adaptable when it comes to controlling and using women. Some may think a thriving sex trade in a theocracy with clerics acting as pimps is a contradiction in a country founded and ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. In fact, this is not a contradiction. First, exploitation and repression of women are closely associated. Both exist where women, individually or collectively, are denied freedom and rights. Second, the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran are not simply conservative Muslims. Islamic fundamentalism is a political movement with a political ideology that considers women inherently inferior in intellectual and moral capacity. Fundamentalists hate women's minds and bodies. Selling women and girls for prostitution is just the dehumanizing complement to forcing women and girls to cover their bodies and hair with the veil. In a religious dictatorship like Iran, one cannot appeal to the rule of law for justice for women and girls. Women and girls have no guarantees of freedom and rights, and no expectation of respect or dignity from the Islamic fundamentalists. Only the end of the Iranian regime will free women and girls from all the forms of slavery they suffer. The author wishes to acknowledge the Iranian human rights and pro-democracy activists who contributed information for this article. If any readers have information on prostitution and the sex slave trade in Iran, please contact her at dhughes@uri.edu

HAMAS IN THE CLASSROOM Posted by Yardena Anat Even, January 27, 2004.

This was written by Daniel Pipes and Asaf Romirowsky. It appeared on the Jewish World Review websote (http://www.jewishworldreview.com). We broke the news in October 2003 that Mustafa Abu Sway, a visiting Palestinian professor at Florida Atlantic University, is "known as an activist" in Hamas, a group on the U.S. government's terrorism list. We also revealed that his salary is being paid by the U.S. taxpayer (via the Fulbright exchange program). Our little scoop met with yawns or with disbelief. Abu Sway himself denounced our article as a "witch hunt." FAU ignored the revelation ("we have no reason to take any action"). The hometown Palm Beach Post published four skeptical responses, including an editorial insisting that "there is no known evidence" against Abu Sway. Actually, being named as "a known activist" in Hamas by the Israeli government - who knows terrorism better? - qualifies in itself as "evidence," but we since October have learned that Abu Sway also: * Was a board member and raised funds for two Jerusalem-based Hamas-related organizations, the Heritage Committee and the Foundation for the Development of Society, both of which were shut down in February 2003. * Has worked with the Palestinian "Charity Coalition" that includes such organizations as Al-Aqsa Foundation (South Africa) and Comite de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens (France), both known as Hamas fundraisers. * Is connected to Sheikh Ra'ed Salah's Islamic Movement in Um al-Fahm, Israel, 14 members of which were arrested in May 2003 for Hamas fundraising. If this does not count as evidence of ties to Hamas, we are not sure what does. In a written response to us, Abu Sway denies each of these points, other than board membership on the Foundation for the Development of Society and meeting Ra'ed Salah one time. How does one assess his denial? As one usually does in such matters, by checking a person's general credibility. Abu Sway these days says, "I cherish the Jewish presence [in Israel] and advocate non-violence." But in the past, before he was under scrutiny, he spoke very differently: * At a 2002 interfaith meeting in Israel, reports Christianity Today, he remarked, "to audible gasps from Jews in the audience, that he wished the state of Israel 'would disappear'." * The Jerusalem Jewish Voice, reporting on the same meeting, recorded Abu Sway saying that he wished for "the end of the state of Israel." * In a 2003 study published by the U.S. Institute of Peace, Abu Sway is quoted stating "To imagine shared sovereignty or dual sovereignty is not being faithful to Islamic tradition" and specifically calling for an Islamic state of Palestine to replace Israel. The contradiction here points to a clever switching of messages as suits his needs of the moment. Another example: speaking to an American audience via ABC News in 2002, Abu Sway deemed the Arabic term jihad "a very beautiful concept which is deep in the area of spirituality." But in his role as co-author of a Palestinian Authority textbook (available at www.edume.org), he explained to seventh graders that jihad is a military obligation that "becomes the individual religious duty of every Muslim man and woman - if the enemy has conquered part of its land."

ZOA ASKS FINLAND FOR FUNDS TO MONITOR ARAB SETTLEMENTS Posted by Aaron Lerner, January 27, 2004.

NEW YORK - In response to reports that the Peace Now movement has asked the government of Finland for a grant to monitor Jewish construction activity in Judea-Samaria, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) will be asking the government of Finland for a grant to monitor Palestinian Arab construction in those territories. ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "It would represent an unconscionable, racist double standard if Finland funds monitoring of Jews but not of Arabs. Therefore we are presenting the Finnish government with an opportunity to prove that it is not biased, by asking it to provide the ZOA with the same level of funding to monitor the widespread Palestinian Arab construction in the territories." The Israeli government has previously estimated that Arabs are building at ten times the rate of Jews in Judea-Samaria. According to a report in the Israeli weekly Makor Rishon by the Israel Resource News Agency (Jan. 23, 2004), Peace Now requests funds for "regular bi-monthly ground surveys" of Jewish construction, using volunteers, and "renting a light plane twice a month" to engage in "aerial photography" of the territories. The ZOA likewise proposes to recruit volunteers to engage in regular bi-monthly ground surveys of Palestinian Arab areas, and to rent a light plane twice each month to undertake aerial photography. Peace Now's grant request defines its goals as: "To monitor settlement developments on the ground, accurately and reliably; To make this information available to the Israeli and international public; To advance the fulfillment of the Road Map." The ZOA's grant request will likewise monitor Arab settlement developments; make the information available to the Israeli and international public; and advance analysis of the Palestinian Authority's failure to fulfill the Road Map. Peace Now's grant requests states that it will engage in "Contacts with diplomats, leaders and press in order to convey reliable information on all aspect of settlement issues." The ZOA's grant request will say the same thing. Peace Now's request states that "funding is necessary to support the staff and rent the vehicles for aerial photography." It is requesting $17,000 to hire a coordinator; $13,000 to rent a jeep; and $20,000 to conduct aerial surveys. The ZOA's request will ask for exactly the same thing. Peace Now states in its grant request that it also receives $100,000 from Americans for Peace Now and 150,000 Euros from "European Foundations" for its settlement watch project. The ZOA will state in its grant request that it does not receive such funding, thus making the Finnish government's support all the more necessary. Aaron Lerner runs IMRA (Independent Media Review Analysis), which tracks the media, polls and events of importance in the Middle East. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il 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.

EXCLUSIVE REPORT ON THE ATTACK ON TAPUACH Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 27, 2004.

This from a witness in Israel over the government's attack on a hilltop outpost of Tapuach: "Meanwhile the army did not come last night. Perhaps they knew that it won't be easy to get Kahane people off that hilltop without both sides badly injured. Anyhow, we asked the court not to dismantle, as the Hilltop is a legal part of the settlement which is also legal. The answer will be at 4 pm today. If the court postpones dismantling, it is only because they know there won't be compromises but a lot of people hurt. That will not stop them from coming a month later in middle of the night when no one is there and dismantle a tin building. But, what will they do with the Torah and prayer books - act like Arabs or Jews? It is a terrible situation. (Eventually they removed the religious articles, but nevertheless destroyed the synagogue.) I'm not on the Hilltop, because the police often club even non-violent dissenters on the head ,and when they drag you away, they often drag you down the hill with your head and back hitting the ground that is rocky. (This time they didn't do that.) Meanwhile the Shin Bet comes in close and takes pictures of each individual, even at a Women In Green demonstration, phones are tapped." But, the Arabs keep on building (illegally, but without Israeli government objection) on the Jews Hilltops surrounding Maale Adumim, walk in the Malls among all the Jews, are expensively dressed, buy in stores that I can't afford to walk into, and live without fear. If I walk into their neighborhood, good chances are that I'll never walk out alive. The courts decided to postpone the dismantling of The Tapuach Hilltop. Goes to show that when push comes to shove, strength, determination and not compromise wins out. When they know you fight to the end, they back off. But, for how long? This evil government will send the army in middle of the night to dismantle, a week later, a month later, who knows? The government returned the next day, with hundreds of well-armed security men, some firing their weapons into the air. They behaved roughly. At last report, some people were barricaded on the roof of the synagogue, so the government couldn't just demolish it then. When the police finally did, they smiled. Were they enjoying their sinful humiliation of Judaism in the Jewish homeland? I think they were pleased with eliminating the synagogue, because it was erected as a monument to the slain Rabbi Kahane. The government and leftist mentality is not its own antisemitism but the Kahanists for warning about it. My informant explains that the community had applied for building permits for the synagogue. It didn't occur to residents that in a supposedly Jewish state, the government would not understand that building a synagogue was natural for a Jewish community. In Israel, a supposed democracy, the government is in charge of almost everything, takes inordinately long to make decisions, and acts arbitrarily and politically. The notion of settlements and outposts being illegal largely is misunderstood. The illegality is mere technicality. The government acts maliciously to harm people of different views from its own. The Sharon government is more or less, with a show of independence here or there, in the service of the antisemitic Shinui Party, the anti-Zionist State Dept., and the terrorists who murder Israelis. The witness explains that this small outpost would be precedent for larger dismantling. I replied, yes, the government does things by degrees, starting small, to see what it can get away with and accustoming people to. Ariel Sharon maneuvers against his people with the same cunning that he maneuvered on the field of battle. It is too bad he now is on the side of Israel's enemies. In frustration, the witness exclaimed that when the government officials meet their maker, they'd encounter divine justice. I replied, "I'd find the accomplishment of justice more reassuring if some of those people you mentioned would receive their divine punishment on earth and in public view. It would be exemplary." Why are outposts being demolished? I think it is because the Quartet wants to show that the Jews are not entitled to their homeland, are not sovereign in their state's decisions, and to clear the way for a turnover of the territories to the Arabs, regardless of Israel's superior legal, historical, and moral claim and the Arabs' declared use of the territories as bases in the final conquest of Israel. The Quartet calls that a peace plan, we need not. Hitler and Stalin called their schemes peace plans, too. The analogy fits. Mr. 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.

PALESTINIAN MILITANT TURNED PEACEMAKER Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 27, 2004.

This is amazing for two reasons. One, that it happened at all and two, because the BBC is reporting it. This story is by Raffi Berg and wa on the BBC New online. Walid Shoebat vividly remembers the tumultuous days of June, 1967, when Israel and its Arab neighbours were at war. For six days and six nights, Walid and his family hid in the bathroom of their home in Jericho, as fighting raged outside. "On the sixth day, everything went quiet," Walid told BBC News Online. "My father was listening to Arab radio and the news said: 'We cleansed Jerusalem of the Jews'. Then we opened the door and there was this Israeli tank with the Star of David flag standing in our street!" Less than a week after the war began, Jordan had been repelled from the West Bank, Israel had taken over and the map of the modern Middle East had been redrawn. A humiliating defeat for the Arabs, the Israeli victory spawned a new generation of young nationalists determined to restore lost pride, vanquish the enemy and establish a Palestinian state. "From kindergarten we were taught that Jews were dogs," said Walid. "We were taught that Jews were the converts of monkeys, that Jews were Sabbath breakers and prophet killers. We even considered Arabs in pre-1967 Israel traitors because we could not understand how they could co-exist with Jews." 'To die as a martyr' As a teenager in the mid-1970s, Walid joined the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and became a local activist - printing fliers, organising demonstrations and confronting Israeli troops. "My whole dream was to die as a shaheed [martyr]. At demonstrations I would open my shirt hoping to be shot - but the Israelis would never shoot at the body, so I never succeeded," he said. One day, in the middle of a riot, Walid was part of a group which snatched an Israeli soldier who was trying to quell the violence. They beat him senseless and tried to lynch him, before he was rescued by troops and the group fled. "We ran to a monastery where the nuns protected us - even they hated the Jews!" Walid was eventually caught and imprisoned in the Muscovite Prison in Jerusalem, but was released after a few weeks. He returned to violence straight away, bombing an Israeli bank in Bethlehem. 'How do you explain this?' The course of Walid's life took a turn when his parents sent him to the United States to get a better education. Walid enrolled in Loop College in Chicago, where he became president of the Palestinian Students' Association, raising funds for the PLO and recruiting volunteers to fight in Lebanon. He eventually moved to California, where he met his current wife, a Catholic from Mexico. "I wanted her to convert to Islam," he said. "I told her Jews had corrupted the Bible and she asked me to show her some examples of this corruption. At this point I had to go and buy a Bible and I started reading it and I saw the word 'Israel' all over it. I had to be brutally honest - the very word I hated the most was throughout this book! "I thought: 'How do you explain this?' Then I started thinking, really the Jews didn't do us any harm but we hated them and accused them of all this horrible stuff. I began to think more openly." In the mid-1990s, Walid went to a family reunion in southern California where a row broke out after he defended the biblical matriarch Rachel, whom his uncle had called a "Jewish whore". " 'You deserve to be spat at'," my uncle said, "and they threw me out the house". "I realised they knew nothing about history, all they knew was the same propaganda that I had been taught." Speaking out Walid's convictions led him to renounce violence and convert to Christianity but it was at a price: his family disowned him and his own brother threatened to kill him for abandoning Islam. His disappointment with his own family's ideology and remorse at the folly of his youth strengthened Walid's resolve to speak out against militancy as a way of solving the Palestinian problem. "Yes, there is personal risk to myself. If I went back to my village of Beit Sahour I would live five minutes, I can guarantee it. But I hope that by speaking the truth I will open other people's eyes." "I chose to speak out because I was a victim, as a child I was a victim of this horror. Now I see other victims, millions of them, kids. "I was taught songs about killing Jews. You need to get rid of the education system where they are teaching this type of thing and get rid of the terrorist groups. It will take a generation, but until then, there's not going to be peace, it doesn't matter what kind of land settlement you have." A militant-turned-peacemaker, Walid wants to meet the Israel soldier he tried to kill almost 30 years ago. His voice cracking with emotion, Walid said he would offer the soldier his hand and say to him: "'Please understand, we were just children, brainwashed to kill you, to hate you.' I would seek his forgiveness." 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.

SUICIDE-BOMBER CHIC AT NPR Posted by CAMERA, January 27, 2004.

National Public Radio bias is unabating. On January 19, on "All Things Considered", NPR host Robert Siegel reported on Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel's angry reaction to an art exhibit in Stockholm considered by many to be a glorification of Palestinian terrorism. In protest against the exhibit, Mazel unplugged a light illuminating a pool of blood-red water on which floated an image of a female suicide bomber, and tossed the light into the water. The ambassador's action came in the context, he later explained, of chronic anti-Israel activity in Sweden, some of which the creator of the art exhibit, Dror Feiler, promoted. According to a January 18 interview with the Ambassador: "Dror Feiler is the main anti-Israel activist in Sweden. In the past few years before I got here, he was known as someone who stands outside the embassy and passes out flyers against Israel. He appears in lectures here and he writes articles and it is all against Israel. Every second word of his about Israel are the words 'apartheid' and 'racism'. He is Israel's number one enemy and everything that he does is Anti-Israel." [Interview with Zvi Mazel, Israel's Ambassador in Sweden and Dror Feiler, the artist, IBA RESHET BET, JAN. 18, 2004, By courtesy of Prof. Murray Kahl http://www.upjf.org/documents/showthread.php?threadid=5911] But Siegel omitted any reference to the anti-Israel environment and interviewed only Feiler. The NPR host did refer to having "tried" to reach Mazel, but gave no indication why, if Mazel couldn't be interviewed, the network didn't find one of the many other speakers who could have presented Israel's views. Siegel lobbed mostly sympathetic questions and was silent in response to Feiler's extreme allegations, including his charge that Israel is "a rogue state." Feiler said: "...Mr. Mazel is behaving the same way like his government is behaving. He has disrespected international laws, and he is bullying his way around like the Israeli government is doing. And it's not surprising that the diplomats of such a rogue state, I would call them, are behaving like this." In contrast to NPR, most other mainstream media provided a broader view of the individuals involved in the incident and the background against which Mazel acted. Excerpts below are typical: Jan 18 New York Times -- Greg Myre: "Mr. Mazel, who has served in his post for a little over a year, said he has faced considerable anger directed at Israel during his time in Sweden. 'There is a hostile ambience in this country that is orchestrated by the press and the extreme left,' he said." Jan 19 UPI -- Joshua Brilliant: "The controversial piece was the work of a former Israeli, Dror Feiler, and his Swedish wife Gunilla Skold-Deiler. Dror Feiler, 52, was raised in a communist kibbutz in Israel, moved to Sweden in 1973, and gave up his Israeli citizenship." Jan 19 Los Angeles Times -- Laura King: " 'Maybe if he had been sitting in that restaurant, and his wife had been killed, he might have changed his mind,' said Tova Bahat, who was widowed in the [Haifa terrorist] attack [committed by the Palestinian woman featured in Feiler's exhibit], and her 3-year-old son critically hurt." Jan 20 Associated Press -- Dan Perry: " Reflecting a deepening rift with Europe, Israel's ambassador to Sweden received strong support in Israel after vandalizing a Stockholm art exhibit he saw as glorifying Palestinian suicide bombers. Zvi Mazel's outburst - captured on a security camera before he was escorted from Sweden's Museum of National Antiquities - added fuel to a debate over artistic freedom and Europe's views about Israel. But Mazel said those were minor issues compared with what he described as a tide of European anti-Semitism that reminded him of the eve of the Second World War. " 'This exhibit was the culmination of dozens of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish events in Sweden,' the veteran diplomat told the Associated Press by phone. 'When you don't protest it gets worse and worse. It had to be stopped somehow, even by deviating from the behaviour of the buttoned-down diplomat.' "The exhibit opened in tandem with an international conference on preventing genocide set for this month in Stockholm, but is not tied to it. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson David Saranga said the exhibit broke an understanding Israel had with Sweden that the genocide conference would not include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "There has long been debate over where criticism of Israel ends and anti-Semitism begins. But the current round touched a deeper chord because many Israelis feel outsiders often accept the Palestinians' use of suicide bombings against civilians... "Even government critics in Israel sided with Mazel. 'Mazel was not an ambassador but a human being,' wrote columnist Ben Caspit in the Maariv newspaper. 'His hand, which pulled the plug, was the hand of all of us.'.. " 'We are in the 1930s now: That is the feeling of many of us who know history,' said Mazel, referring to the decade that saw the Nazi takeover in Germany and led to the slaughter of 6 million Jews. 'There is a feeling among many people, including me, of a tragedy that could be coming.' " CAMERA - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America - monitors the media for anti-Israel bias. Its website address is http://www.camera.org.

A REVEALING AND WORRISOME EUROPEAN POLL Posted by Leo Rennert, January 26, 2004.

These pieces were extracted from a news item in today's Ha'aretz. "The poll by the Ipso research institute for Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera was conducted in Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, and Britain. Asked if Jews in their countries had a "mentality and lifestyle" different than other citizens, 46 percent said yes. About 40.5 percent said Jews in their country had "a particular relationship with money" and 35.7 percent said Jews "should stop playing the victim for the Holocaust and the persecutions of 50 years ago." Some 9 percent of the respondents said they "don't like or trust Jews," and 15 percent said "it would be better if Israel didn't exist More than 68 percent said they believed Israel had a right to exist but the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was "making the wrong choices." More than 71 percent of those polled said Israel should leave the occupied territories and Palestinians should stop attacking Israeli targets." Not very encouraging. But we need to keep some things in perspective. Some of the questions strike me as fitting the label of "push" polling. By this, pollsters mean questions that "push" respondents into giving a certain answer just by the way the question is phrased. For example, the Corriere della Sera poll asked Europeans if Jews were "different" and 46 percent said "yes." If I had been asked the question, I also would have said "yes" because Jews are and should be different. But that's a benign view. The other more pernicious view -- and I suspect the majority view of the "yes" respondents -- is that Jews are a group totally apart with separate agendas that clash with accepted European norms. Egyptians held that view in Biblical times before the Exodus. But whichever way you want to slice the question semantically, it was a loaded question. Aside from some of the loaded questions in the poll, one might also ask why the poll confined itself to Jews to begin with. Its findings would be far more revealing if similar or other loaded questions had been asked about Muslims, immigrants in general, gays, gypsies, blacks, etc. Or what Europeans in some countries think about Europeans in other countries. (Boy, would you find a lot of stereotypes in polling in that direction!) That said, the finding that anti-Semitic views correlate directly with anti-Israel views should come as no surprise in view of how Europe's new anti-Semitism has morphed into deep prejudice against Israel (vide the Swedish art exhibit glorifying a female suicide bomber) or, if you prefer, how the constant drumbeat of denunciations of Israel has fed the new anti-Semitism. I'm sure different lessons can be drawn from this. Some Jews - I would call them highly naive - would solve the anti-Semitism problem by joining the anti-Israel "Sturm und Drang" (I.e. the likes of Michael Lerner). Others would draw the more appropriate conclusion that, as Jews, we're all one people facing common foes and dangers.

BASELESS SPECULATION ABOUT ARAB OFFERS TO NEGOTIATE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 26, 2004.

The Arabs are on jihad. They have no Western notion of scruples in their quest to conquer. They explain their offers to negotiate as not seeking peace but, on the basis of Islamic history, as seeking an advantageous position or a respite from setbacks. Every negotiation in which they engage strives to gain the upper hand. Nevertheless, each Arab offer to negotiate brings expressions of hope of a turn towards peace or of praise from the Western media. Syria is going through the motions now. The US expresses "cautious optimism." Syria is not giving evidence of a newfound desire for peace. It suggests negotiations so it might acquire strategic territory at Israel's expense. The Western media should not get taken in yet again. There are some signs of Israeli sophistication about this. Israeli officials remark that while Syria claims an interest in peace, it continues to arm Hizbullah and promote terrorism against Israel.

THREE LETTERS ON THE ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA ON CABLE TV IN NEWTON, MASS. Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 26, 2004.

By Emanual A. Winston, Middle East commentator and analyst. I understand that Newton, Massachusetts has elected, through its city board to be a conduit for Muslim Arab Terrorist Propaganda on its Cable TV show. That would make Newton the first town to request that Arab Muslim Terrorists be broadcast in America. Clearly, Newton will become well known to Americans in the coming weeks - even infamous. U.S. soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan while Newton's board and Mayor has decided to become a voice for Arab Muslim Terrorists broadcasting in America. How did Muslim Terrorists sign up Newton? Who was paid or has the Newton Board of Cable TV 'unanimously' volunteered its services - out of sympathy with their cause? Has Newton become a base for the voice of Arab Muslim Terrorists, connected to Arab American Muslim organizations who are pressing for Newton's accommodation? Who exactly are the Newton Cable TV (NewTV) Board members? What is their connection to an Arab Muslim Terrorist News Network? The program planned to begin broadcasting into Newton living rooms is called "Mosaic" - a collection of 11 Middle East TV stations that will bring weekly anti-Israel propaganda in the form of "news reports" - all done under the guise of 'free speech'. Nine of the stations are from Arab countries, one from Iran - all controlled by their (non-democratic) governments). The 11th is the Arabic Channel of Israel. SINCE NEWTON SEEMS SO INTERESTED IN BEING PUT ON THE MAP, YOUR STORY WILL BE POSTED WITH MOST MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS & TV NEWS CHANNELS. Please write to Mayor David Cohen who must sign a now-expired contract with NewTV. dcohen@ci.newton.ma.us phone: 617-796-1100 Please monitor your local & national Media to be sure they are not falling prey to the same. "Hezb'Allah TV comes to Newton" by Charles Jacobs, President of the David Project. In spite of a vigorous protest by many from Newton's Jewish community, the Board of Newton Cable TV (NewTV) unanimously decided at a public meeting last week to begin broadcasting Arab propaganda shows into Newton living rooms. Over 50 Jews braved zero temperatures to voice opposition to a program called "Mosaic" - a collection of 11 Middle East TV stations that will bring weekly anti-Israel propaganda in the form of "news reports" - all done in the guise of free speech. Nine of the stations are from Arab countries, one from Iran. All these are controlled to some extent by their (non-democratic) governments, which exercise severe censorship of journalists. The 11th is the Arabic Channel of Israel. Mosaic was introduced to NewTV and defended in the meeting by Newton residents who think that news on American TV is "controlled by the government," and that we need to see why people around the world "hate us." Well, hatred is surely coming our way. Hatred of America, of Israel, and perhaps of Jews. One of these hate broadcasters is Lebanon's Al Manar TV, which is operated by Hezb'Allah (please check their web site: http://www.manartv.com/.) This is the equivalent of allowing the KKK or Joseph Goebbels cable access. A proponent of Mosaic said he was confidant Americans were smart enough to distinguish between truth and propaganda (apparently only when it comes to non-U.S channels.) But he certainly wasn't smart enough. Mosaic's fans in Newton were taken in by the program's claim that it presents an objective sampling of the way the US and its allies are seen by the Arab and Iranian world in the Arab and Iranian media. But as Professor Sol Schimmel explained to the Board, Mosaic feeds American viewers "what the Arab and Iranian governments would like Americans to believe their populations are seeing on their own TV screens, not what they actually do see, which is virulent anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism." This will be censored news, Potemkin Village "news" that will edit out for American consumption Arab TV "reports" that the CIA attacked the twin towers on 9/11 in order to prepare Americans for the "assault on Islam." And the "reports" that "the Jews" bombed the WTC, a canard believed now throughout the Islamic world. Nor will Newton audiences see the sermons from Muslim clerics broadcast from Mosiac's Palestinian station. Like this one: "Oh Allah, destroy America, for she is ruled by Zionist Jews... Allah will paint the White House black." "All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs... We will blow them up in ... Tel Aviv and in Netanya... we will bless all those who educate their children to jihad and martyrdom." Mosaic will also cleanse from it broadcasts its Egyptian station's 41 part series on how the Jews control the world, based on the notorious anti-Semitic libel, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But neither Mosaic nor its defenders are telling us that. Mosaic's Syrian station featured purported footage of Jews murdering Christian children and catching the blood in mixing bowls to make Passover matzo. The Arab TV news we'll get in Newton will be cleaned up... to make its perspective seem reasonable. But here is the real question: Why would NewTV board members, our neighbors, allow racist anti-Semites to broadcast anything to our community? David Duke couldn't get on Roxbury Cable if he were doing a show on gardening. We lost because the board thinks it can afford to be insensitive to Jewish communal interests and because it is morally confused about free speech. This, even though Rabbi Gershon Segal of Congregation Beth El told the Board these same stations are used to persuade Palestinians to blow themselves up and murder Jewish men, women and children. Essentially, the board response was that if Jews don't like a show that says Israel and its Jewish supporters are to blame for the ills of the world - we can just make a program that says we're not. If they say we murder children, we can come on and say we don't. What could be more reasonable? (And what could be better for cable business!?) These are likely the reasons Mosaic is making its way into American living rooms across the country. Promoters of Mosaic in Newton argue that even if it borders on hate speech, we Americans need to know what the Arab world is like. Of course we do, but Mosaic pulls a veil over the region's realities: its religious and cultural intolerance of "the other," its religious apartheid. Mosaic blocks out news about the oppression of women, about clitorectomies, and honor killings, and the brutal treatment of homosexuals in the Arab world. NewTV will broadcast shows that censor news about the oppression of Christians in Egypt, and Lebanon and Iraq, about the black Christian jihad-slaves in Sudan, and the black Muslim slaves serving Arab masters in Mauritania; about the plight of the Bahais in Iran; even about exploited workers who nowhere in the Arab world are permitted free labor unions. In the progressive City of Newton we will not hear about death penalties for those who wish to change their religion from Islam. Censored: the news that apostasy is a death sentence in the Islamic world. And most surely kept from Newton eyes will be the single most important news - that under Islam, Jews and Christians are legally considered dhimmis, a despised and restricted underclass, who are religiously forbidden to establish self-rule anywhere in "the Arab realm." The Mosaic fans are not at all interested in "diversity" of views. They are interested in demonizing America and Israel. Diversity is not served by broadcasting selected, censored, propaganda produced by the ruling ideologies, dictatorships and tyrannies. by JAT List Owner (jat.action@runbox.com) Newton (MA) Alderman Bob Gerst is taking a leading role in the NewTV controversy. With his leadership, we believe that it will be possible to reverse the NewTV decision to broadcast the Arab propaganda network, Mosaic. Two kinds of action will be needed. 1. We will need to have as many Newton residents as possible contact the Mayor immediately. Mayor David Cohen's email: dcohen@ci.newton.ma.us; link: mailto:dcohen@ci.newton.ma.us; Phone: 617-796-1100. 2. We will need to have an impressive turnout at an upcoming Board of Aldermen meeting. Under the terms of the agreement between Newton and NewTV, which expired March 2001, Newton required NewTV to "produce or assist Authorized Users in the production of original, non-commercial video programming with an emphasis on programming focusing on Newton issues, events, and activities for cable casting on the PEG access channels." Alderman Gerst writes: "I find it hard to interpret that clause as a directive to exhibit, instead of produce, non-original video programming which focuses in no way on Newton issues, events, and activities." Alderman Gerst has docketed a discussion of the NewTV renewal for an upcoming Board of Alderman meeting. The date has not yet been set but will probably be in about two weeks. We will announce that meeting when it is scheduled, because it will be very important to have a large turnout of citizens opposed to the broadcast of an Arab propaganda network over NewTV. The renewal of the contract between the City of Newton and the present Board of Directors of NewTV is now sitting on the Mayor's desk awaiting his signature. It is imperative that everyone concerned about the broadcasting of an Arab propaganda station over Newton's public access channel write or phone Mayor Cohen immediately and urge him not to sign the renewal, or to postpone his decision about signing until the Newton community has had a chance to consider the direction in which the present board wishes to take NewTV. ARGUMENTS These are some arguments against having the Arab propaganda network Mosaic broadcast over newTV include: 1. Mosaic broadcasts Hezb'Allah TV, among other stations. 2. The producer of Mosaic, Jamal Dajani, is on record favoring the elimination of the State of Israel (he favors a "one-state" solution). Dajani stated this position in a "Mosaic special" on the Road Map. 3. The backers of Mosaic have said "the idea is to let Americans see the news as those in the Arab world do." However, Mosaic, in fact, is a propaganda broadcast created and carefully tailored to influence American viewers; it is not at all representative of what viewers in the Middle East see. 4. Mosaic deliberately mistranslates the Arabic as part of its American propaganda effort. For example, they translate "the zionist entity" as "the Jewish State" to give the false and misleading impression that the broadcaster accepts Israel's existence. 5. Mosaic is not responsible journalism. For example, when the IDF calls in a helicopter strike to take out a car in which a known Hamas official and his driver are traveling, the Mosaic story will describe a heinous Israeli assault on Palestinian civilians. The viewer will have no way of knowing that the target was a car carrying terrorists, and may actually gain the impression common in the Muslim world that Israeli soldiers routinely and deliberately murders random civilians. 6. We do not wish to invite Hezb'Allah TV into Newton living rooms. We would not invite Al Qaeda to broadcast daily over our local public-access network, and we do not want the Voice of Hezb'Allah to broadcast daily over our local public access network. 7. Picking up Arab propaganda stations for rebroadcast, as Mosaic does, will give the governments that produce these newscasts the dangerously false impression that their style of propaganda-masquerading-as-news is acceptable to western audiences. It is not. We owe it to the millions of Arabs who see only propaganda broadcasts to send a clear message to their governments that journalists must be free of government direction before we in the west will find Arab and Persian news programming acceptable for rebroadcast. 8. Picking up programs from Egyptian, Syrian, and other national television networks will give these governments the dangerous impression that the vile anti-Semitic programming and incitement to murder Jews that they broadcast at home is acceptable to American audiences. This will work against the efforts of the State Department, which has issued stern protests against the vile, racist programming broadcast at home by the very stations that NewTV proposes to rebroadcast excerpts from. 9. NewTV is a local public access network. As residents of Newton, we do not feel that it is appropriate to bring in outside programing, especially when the lone daily program scheduled for broadcast is produced by an individual who seeks the elimination of the State of Israel.

OUR MEETING WITH PRESIDENT KATZAV Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, January 26, 2004.

Women In Green have been aware for some time that the overwhelming majority of the Jewish People, after living with continual Arab terror for three long years, are against the creation of another Arab State within Biblical Israel. The problem was how to get the general public to become aware that these are the facts. Certainly, you can not get this information from the general media. It goes out of its way to give the impression that the majority of people go along with Prime Minister Sharon in his advocacy of another Arab State in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. This in spite of the fact that the Arabs in a truly racist and anti-democratic fashion support that the Jews be uprooted from their homes. Traditionally and historically, Judea, Samaria and Gaza and the Jewish communities located therein, have always been part and parcel of the Jewish Homeland. Sadly, it is this area that is to make up a major part of the new Arab state that is to be created. Accordingly, the 350,000 signatures that Women In Green have gathered by visiting the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Gat, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Herzliyah, Netanyah Petach Tikva, Kiryat Ono, Tiberias, Safed , Kiryat Shmonah and many, many others is truly representative of how the Jews in Israel feel about the creation of another Arab State alongside of Israel. That is why we welcomed the opportunity to visit with President Katzav to convey to him these facts. Prime Minister Sharon has deliberately and totally ignored the wishes of his people in that regard. He has been faxed each and every page of the Petition, directed to him by 350,000 citizens of Israel. They have implored him not to support the establishment of another Arab state in their midst. Sharon has furthermore disregarded the Likud Party Platform on the basis of which he was elected. That Platform specifically rejects the creation of an Arab Palestinian state within Biblical Israel. Our Jewish People have witnessed Arab terror at close hand and properly concluded that the majority of the Arabs wish to destroy the Jewish State of Israel. To establish another Arab state alongside of Israel is not only a reward for Arab terror, but it will encourage and promote such Arab terror in the future. In the schooling of their children and in their propaganda the Arabs refuse to recognize the Jewish State of Israel, nor are they willing to live in peace with it. It is thus reasonable for our Jewish citizens to conclude that the Arabs will not change their stance in the foreseeable future. At the time our delegation from our organization, of men and women, met with President Katzav, we conveyed to him the following: 1. We presented him with a sample of over 100,000 of the over 350,000 signatures we had previously obtained. The President's office had called us not to bring the entire amount of signatures, but merely a sample of them. The President's office suggested we bring 5 such boxes, but we actually brought them 7, because we wanted there be over 100,000 such signatures. We pointed out to President Katzav that these signatures reveal the true feeling of the Jewish People in Israel, with regard to the creation of another Arab State in their homeland. This attitude of our Jewish people is not properly reported in the media. Many people are unaware that they are part of a great majority who feel that way. When Prime Mister Sharon advocates the creation of such an Arab state, he is acting in a dictatorial fashion. The Will of the People is opposed to what he intends to do. By the way, the electorate had chosen Prime Minister Sharon in the last election, on the basis of his Party's Platform. This platform specifically states that it is opposed to the creation of another Arab State in our midst. 2. Recent polls in America, clearly indicate that approximately 70% of Americans are opposed to the creation of another Arab State within Biblical Israel. This reflects the sentiment of millions of Americans who do not support President Bush's present "Road Map" Proposal. During our meeting a letter written by the Presidents of American Committee for the Preservation of the Land and People of Israel and National Unity Coalition, representing over 200 groups of Christians and Jews who are opposed to the creation of such an Arab State within Biblical Israel, was presented to President Katzav. A Full Page Ad to that effect appeared in the Jerusalem Post's local and international edition as well as the French edition of that paper, on the Friday, January 23, 2004, preceding our meeting with President Katzav. 3. At this meeting we presented to President Katzav a Historical and Archeological Map of Judea and Samaria showing the Jewish Biblical roots to their homeland. This map was meticulously made up by two of our devoted members, who spent hundreds of hours of research verifying the facts stated therein. 4. Our spokesperson Nadia Matar urged the President to do all in his power to obtain the release of our Prisoners of War Ron Arad, Zecharia Baumel, Yehuda Katz, Zvi Feldman, Guy Hever, and Jonathan Pollard. The President responded to this latter plea of Nadia's by saying that just today he had mentioned the release of these prisoners while he was paying a shiva call to a family of a soldier in the north, killed by the Hizbullah. However, he indicated that the media does not always relay such statements he makes in that regard. As to Jonathan Pollard, the President stated that both the left and the right were unanimously united in their efforts to bring Jonathan home. Referring to the massive number of signatures we had obtained against the formation of an Arab state, President Katzav was of the opinion that Prime Minister Sharon would bring the question of such importance to the People for its decision. He thought the procedure for this would be a Referendum, submitted to the People of Israel for its decision. Nadia and several of our women responded that no one has the right to give any part of the Land of Israel to a foreign entity. Ben Gurion as early as 1937 recognized this fact at a World Zionist Conference, and it has been often repeated since then. Esther Beit Halachmi, one of our women, expressed this view to the President, in an eloquent manner. The banners that were posted on the boxes we presented to the President carried the message that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People of Israel eternally. President Katzav urged our organization to remain steadfast in our national beliefs, and praised our organization for its courage and convictions. As a result we, in Women In Green, were strengthened by the words and encouragement that the President gave to our delegation. [Ed note: This is a news item from today's arutz-7: Katzav met several weeks ago with former Shabak chief Ami Ayalon, who presented the President with a petition signed by several tens of thousands in favor of an Arab state to be formed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Women in Green notes that it was signed by "many Arabs, whereas our plan is signed chiefly by Jews, showing therefore that it reflects more truthfully the true desires of the People of Israel." Today's petition, addressed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, states, "We raise our voice in protest at your declaration, followed by a declaration by Pres. Bush, regarding your consent to establish a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel. The events of the past year have once again proven that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority are enemies of the Jewish Nation, and are no different than Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist organizations, whose sole purpose is to liquidate the State of Israel. A Palestinian state in the Land of Israel is, aside from 'stealing the poor man's lamb,' also an existential danger to the State of Israel. As our elected Prime Minister, you must declare and actualize the historic bonds between the Nation of Israel and the Land of Israel. We oppose a Palestinian state!" The petition was faxed to the Prime Minister's Office, which proffered no reply.]

ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS ON THE RISE IN FRANCE Posted by Leo Rennert, January 25, 2004.

This is an Associated Press news item that appeared today on the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com). Anti-Semitic attacks around the world dropped in 2003, with only seven counted in the United States, but the number rose sharply in France, according a report released Sunday. Israel has repeatedly warned of rising anti-Semitism around the world, pointing especially to bombings against Jews in Turkey and Morocco and attacks on Jews throughout Europe. The Israeli government has made the subject a top priority in recent meetings with European leaders. "There is a deep strengthening of classic anti-Semitism that is appearing in unprecedented quantities and quality," said Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky at a news conference in Jerusalem. Israeli government figures compiled in the report showed that in 2003, there were 235 violent anti-Semitic incidents in the world, down from 319 in the previous year. In the United States, the number dropped to seven in 2003 from 12 in 2002. But in France, violent incidents rose to 85 in 2003 from 69 in 2002, more than a third of all attacks around the world last year, according to the report, noting that 79 percent of anti-Semitic violence in 2003 took place in Western Europe. Sallai Meridor, chairman of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, which helped compile the report, cited several incidents in France in which students were attacked for wearing Jewish symbols like skullcaps. The attacks have led to a fear among French Jews, forcing them to cover or remove their skullcaps or religious symbols to avoid anti-Semitic violence, especially from the Muslim population there, Meridor said. The French government announced in December a campaign against anti-Semitic violence that includes encouraging French schools to lead class trips to Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp from World War II, and punishment for anti-Jewish remarks in the media. Extra security at Jewish places of worship and schools and "exemplary sanctions" against anyone found guilty of anti-Semitic acts is part of the new policy. Attacks have been shown to climb along with tension in the Middle East. However, in many instances of anti-Semitic incidents, anger at Israeli government policies stems from hatred of Jews in general, Sharansky said. In November a poll commissioned by the European Union found that 59 percent of Europeans consider Israel a threat to peace, more than any other country. The same month 23 people were killed in bombings at two synagogues in Turkey. In an effort to crackdown on anti-Semitism, Israel has designated Jan. 27 as "National Day to Combat anti-Semitism," which will be marked in the Jewish state and several European countries, Sharansky said.

JUDGE YOUNG'S REMARKS WHEN SENTENCING THE SHOE BOMBER Posted by Yehoshua Friedman, January 25, 2004.

This comes from the Far From Perfect website (http://www.seadoc.net) December 24, 2003. Scott Trask, an engineer with WSTR-FM, wrote: "Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it? His trial is over. How much of this Judge's comments did you hear on TV? Everyone should hear what the judge had to say. This is worthy of your time. The real eye opener is that the news media did not report anything on it. US District Court Judge William Young made the following statement in sentencing "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to prison. It is noteworthy, and deserves to be remembered far longer than he predicts. "How much of this Judge's comments did you hear on our TV sets? ZERO! Please pass this around. Everyone needs to hear what the judge had to say." "January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid. Judge Young: "Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you. "On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. "On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutive with the other. "That's 80 years. "On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years consecutive to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 for the aggregate fine of $2 million. "The Court accepts the government's recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines. "The Court imposes upon you the $800 special assessment. "The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further. "This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence. "Let me explain this to you: We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. "There is all too much war talk here. And I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, where we deal with individuals as individuals, and care for individuals as individuals, as human beings we reach out for justice, you are not an enemy combatant. "You are a terrorist. "You are not a soldier in any war. "You are a terrorist. "To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. "Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view, "You are a terrorist.And we do not negotiate with terrorists. "We do not sign documents with terrorists. "We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice. So war talk is way out of line in this court. "You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You're no warrior. I know warriors. You are a terrorist. "A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders. "In a very real sense Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and where the TV crews were and he said you're no big deal. "You are no big deal. "What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. "What was it that led you here to this courtroom today? "I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I asked you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty, and admit you are guilty of doing. "And I have an answer for you. "It may not satisfy you. But as I search this entire record it comes as close to understanding as I know. It seems to me you hate the one thing that is most precious: You hate our freedom. "Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, and to believe or not believe as we individually choose. "Here, in this society, the very winds carry freedom. They carry it everywhere from sea to shining sea. "It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely. "It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, and will go on in their representation of you before other judges. "We are about it. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. "Make no mistake though: It is yet true that we will bear any burden, pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. "Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. "The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. Day after tomorrow it will be forgotten. But this, however, will long endure. Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America, the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice.. Justice, not war. Individual justice is in fact being done. "The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged. And juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically - to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice. "See that flag Mr. Reid? "That is the flag of the United States of America. "That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. It always will. "Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him down."

PRISONER/HOSTAGE EXCHANGE PROBABLY THIS THURSDAY Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 25, 2004.

This is to puke. Freeing hundreds of twisted Arabs! If they didn't succeed in murdering Jews, it wasn't from lack of trying. So now they get another chance. And Hizballah gets seasoned recruits. Wow. I can't wait. On the other hand, the released terrorists have signed an agreement that they won't commit any more acts of terror - just like the last batch of released terrorists did. Ain't that reassuring? This account is from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). German mediator Ernest Uhrlau announced yesterday that the prisoners-for-hostages exchange with Hizbullah will be carried out this week. The basic framework is as was approved in November, i.e., 435 prisoners who live in Palestinian Authority-areas and Lebanon, including Sheikh Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, in exchange for abducted citizen Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers killed by Hizbullah over three years ago: Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan, and Omar Souad. A second stage of the agreement is the formation of an international committee to investigate the whereabouts and condition of missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad; Lebanese-Druze Samir Kuntar, who murdered several members of the Haran family in 1979, will be released in exchange for "solid evidence" that Arad is either alive or dead. Hizbullah chieftain Nasrallah reportedly told Kuntar's family that he would be released three months from now. The official German announcement of the deal is somewhat different. It states that Kuntar will be returned to Lebanon without delay as soon as the negotiations regarding him are completed successfully - and that the sides hope this will occur within 2-3 months. The Germans also state that committees will be established to reveal the whereabouts of Ron Arad and of four Iranian diplomats who have been missing in Lebanon since 1982. "In exchange for a clarification about Ron Arad's fate and his return," says the German announcement, "Palestinians and other Arabs will be freed based on negotiations without preconditions." Prime Minister Sharon expressed gratitude to the German government for its efforts in mediating the deal, as well as to Gen. Ilan Biran, who has conducted the Israeli negotiations over the past months. In addition to the 435 PA and Lebanese prisoners, Israel is also to release 12 other incarcerated Arabs, as well as a German Hizbullah agent. The latter is a convert to Islam arrested by Israel in 1997 after he was sent to perpetrate a suicide attack against Israelis. None of the 450 prisoners succeeded in murdering Jews. Israel has also agreed to give the Lebanese maps of the minefields it planted in southern Lebanon, hand over the remains of 59 Hizbullah terrorists killed in fighting with the IDF who are currently buried in cemeteries in northern Israel, and clarify the fate of 24 other Lebanese who have been listed as missing in the past two decades. Hizbullah head Nasrallah held a press conference this afternoon, gloating over the "victory" he had achieved over Israel and promising to achieve the release of even more Arab prisoners from Israel. Three other soldiers missing in action were not even mentioned in the deal, and their families feel that they have been abandoned. The three - Tzvi Feldman, Zechariah Baumel and Yehuda Katz - have not been seen for certain since the Sultan Yaaqub battle in southern Lebanon in 1982, although there have been many reports that one or more of them were seen in Syria shortly afterwards. Yonah Baumel, Zechariah's father, said today that he was happy for the four Israeli families in the current deal, even though he feels the price was too high. He further said that he had asked Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz not to release any Syrian prisoners at present, but was rebuffed. "I take that very hard," Baumel said. He said that he knows that his son's case is not directly connected with Hizbullah - "Hizbullah wasn't even in existence in 1982" - but he has strong criticism of the entire system: "I, by myself, conducted negotiations [in the 1980's] for the return of one soldier in exchange for one terrorist - not one for 300 or 400." The big winner from this deal is apparently Hizbullah leader Sheikh Nasrallah, who is perceived as the only Arab leader to have "liberated" lands from Israel, and will now be able to preside over a joyful parade of returned prisoners. However, some analysts feel that whatever gains Hizbullah derives from the deal will not offset the organization's image as a liability to Lebanon's development, and/or that Hizbullah may still be sacrificed by Iran and Syria in order to gain points in the Western world. Domestic political reactions to the latest news on the deal leading to the release of the Israeli hostages: Infrastructures Minister Yosef Paritzky (Shinui): "I'm glad this difficult story has come to an end. The heart is with the families of the fallen, who can finally bring their dear ones to burial in Israel... Obeid and Dirani are no longer an asset to us, but rather a liability, as they have already given us all the information they have." Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev (NRP) told Arutz-7 today, "I was one of the sharp opponents of the deal at the time, for three reasons: our moral obligation to Ron Arad; the great concern that freed terrorists would resume their terrorist activities; and the extra boost that it gives Hizbullah. But now that it has been approved and will be carried out, I stand behind it and see no reason to continue to object to it and to cause more pain to the families. There are times when we must unite." Orlev said that the government decided in November that Samir Kuntar "would not be freed, period, but if there are new developments, such as concrete information on Ron Arad, the government will have to decide anew whether this justifies the release of Kuntar." He added that terrorists "with blood on their hands will not be released," but in any event, "the list must be publicized 48 hours in advance, and we, with the families and our friend Meir Indor and the terror-victim organizations, will carefully check it to make sure there are no mistakes, as there were in the past, and that we do not pay too high of a price." MK Yuri Stern (National Union): "This exchange is an act of insanity, contrary to all principles of the war against terrorism. It is liable to strengthen Hizbullah and encourage abductions of other Israeli citizens." The twin brother of Omar Souad, one of the three soldiers whose bodies will be returned to Israel this week, said last night, "No price is too high for the State of Israel to pay for their release." Other hostage relatives have not felt the same way. In 1969, Prof. Shmuel Samueloff and another Israeli Jew spent 99 days in a Damascus prison after their TWA plane was hijacked on its way to Israel. Naomi Samueloff, who went to the U.S. to gather support for her husband's release, was asked her thoughts at the time about a possible exchange of Syrians in exchange for her husband. She replied, "I am not prepared to request anything that might endanger anyone else or undermine my country's security - not to mention its principles." Shortly afterwards, when asked a similar question, her reply became a headline in the New York papers: "Should a Thief be Paid to Return What He Has Stolen?, Asks Proud Wife of Damascus Prisoner." (source: "99 Days in Damascus," by Uri Oren, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p. 147, 154) MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said that he is sure that in the end, Samir Kuntar and other terrorist murderers will be released, "because it has been shown that Prime Minister Sharon and the ministers simply cannot withstand the pressure from the families. The terrorist organizations know that this is our weak point, and they will continue to take advantage of this by trying to collect more bodies." In Eldad's opinion, "Hizbullah is holding us by the throat. Otherwise, there is no explanation for the fact that last week, after the murder of our soldier who was dismantling mines placed by Hizbullah to kill Israelis, we retaliated so weakly. It was because this deal was in the works, and we were afraid to rock the boat. We are dancing to Hizbullah's tune." Yehudit Dasberg, who is raising her two grandchildren following the terrorist murder of her daughter and son-in-law Efrat and Yaron Ungar in June 1996, is also strongly against the Tenenbaum deal. Although terrorists with "blood on their hands" are not to be released, she acknowledged in a talk with Arutz-7 today, "the government is already saying that Samir Kuntar, who participated in the murder of four Jews, will be released if information on Ron Arad is received. So why are they acting as if they will never release murderers?" In addition, she feels that "the hundreds of prisoners released in the 1985 Jibril deal [in which 1,150 Arab prisoners were freed in exchange for three captive Israeli soldiers] brought about the first intifada, which in turn led to the second one [and many Israeli deaths]. The government then did not know what would happen and had good intentions, but we must not repeat the same mistakes again." She explained that she has a list of terrorists freed in previous exchanges that later took part in murderous terrorist attacks. "How are the murderers of our three soldiers being punished? Exchanges of this type merely encourage more kidnappings and more murders, and we thus lose another level of deterrence. Ariel Sharon, who is supposed to be Mr. Security, has made every possible mistake and thus destabilized our security in every corner." "It's been said that the politicians simply cannot face the families, and that's why they gave in," Arutz-7's Emanuel Shilo said. Mrs. Dasberg acknowledged, "So that three mothers can bring their child to burial, all of Israel must face the prospect of even more terrorist murders and deaths on the streets? I simply do not understand. How will they be able to show their faces in public? True, if it were my child who was involved, I would very very much want this exchange to go through. But I expect from our Prime Minister, who is responsible for the security of the entire state, to ignore my private tears, and deal with the needs of the collective. This is a problematic area today, when the public awareness is that the individual is in the center, and the rest is not important... What happened to our national proportions?"

ALJAZEERA'S ACCOUNT OF THE HOSTAGE/PRISONER SWAP Posted by IsrAlert, January 25, 2004.

This is from Alzaeera news (http://english.aljazeera.net) today. Hizb Allah Secretary General Sayyid Hasan Nasr Allah says the longest held Lebanese detainee Samir al-Qantar will be released in two or three months. Nasr Allah reiterated on Sunday Hizb Allah would ensure the release of all Lebanese prisoners being held in Israel. He was speaking at a press conference in Beirut on the details of the prisoner swap between his group and Israel. Israel agreed on Saturday to release 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese and 12 other Arab prisoners in exchange for Israeli Elhanan Tannenbaum and three Israeli soldiers. Hizb Allah says Tannenbaum is a Mossad spy while Israel insists he is a businessman. Nasr Allah said the Lebanese prisoners would be home on Thursday or Friday. While al-Qantar was not included in the first batch of detainees, Nasr Allah stressed the deal hammered out with Israel included Samir. Two-stage deal The swap would take place in two stages, said the Hizb Allah chief. In the first stage 23 Lebanese, 400 Palestinians and 12 Arab detainees would be released this week. A German national being held by Israel for allegedly supporting Hizb Allah would also be released. The bodies of 59 slain Arabs would also be handed over, said Nasr Allah. The Palestinians being released were all captured for their participation in the Intifada against Israel's occupation, added Nasr Allah. In the second stage, al-Qantar would be released. Hizb Allah will also try to secure the release of more Palestinians and Syrians. Difficulties surrounded the release of some Syrians because they held dual nationalities-Syrian and Israeli, said Nasr Allah. Israel has refused to negotiate the fate of these detainees, insisting they are Israelis and not Arabs. As for Jordanian detainees, Nasr Allah revealed most of the 25 being held would be released before the al-Adha feast on 1 February. He vowed to continue negotiations to have all detainees released. Nasr Allah also thanked the German mediators. Longest-held prisoner Al-Qantar welcomed the deal in a letter to Nasr Allah on Sunday. "We congratulate the resistance and our nation for this great achievement which will lead to the rapid release of our comrades," he said from his jail cell in Israel. "I thank you for the support that you have given my case in the past few weeks. "For my part, I will remain steadfast with my head held high and will do my duty however long it takes." Al-Qantar is a former member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was jailed for 542 years in 1980 for the death of three Israelis. Palestinians Israel holds about 6000 Palestinians, many without trial or charge. Nasr Allah said he received assurances those released would be allowed to return to their homes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The resistance group also received assurances no Palestinians would be forcibly transferred from their homes from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. Addressing Palestinians, the Hizb Allah chief said hopes were high among many families. He vowed to continue negotiating for the release of more Palestinians. The names of those to be released would be announced within two or three days, he added. Hizb Allah spearheaded the campaign to oust Israeli forces from south Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation. Details Meanwhile, senior Israeli security officials were meeting on Sunday to iron out the technical details of the exchange, according to media reports. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel had taken the right decision. "The decision over the prisoner exchange deal was not an easy decision. I think we took the right, ethical and responsible decision," army radio quoted him as saying before a cabinet meeting. Among the Lebanese set for release are Shaikh Abd al- Karim Ubaid and Mustafa Dirani, who were captured by Israel in 1989 and 1994, and held in exchange for news on missing Israeli pilot Ron Arad. Arad's plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 during the war. Related Aljazeera links: Coming home: Israel's high-profile prisoners Israel, Hizb Allah agree on prisoner swap Hizb Allah warns Israel on detainees Secrecy over Hizb Allah-Israel talks Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

PULLING THE PLUG ON DIPLOMACY Posted by Barry Shaw, January 25, 2004.

In keeping with its legendary reputation for winning international hearts and minds, Israel's government has developed a revolutionary model of diplomacy. It will dispense with speech altogether and start ripping plugs from the wall instead. This exciting advance in Israel's grasp of realpolitik was on display during the past week, when its new ambassador to London was confirmed as a Russian with a command of English which (he told the civil service vetting panel) leaves something to be desired; while in Stockholm its ambassador to Sweden dismantled the spotlights on an art exhibit and deposited one into the middle of the installation. Thus was born something we might call performance diplomacy - or how Israel decided to solve its communication problem by turning aggression into an art form. Of course the ambassador, Zvi Mazel, was grossly provoked. Entitled 'Snow White and the Madness of Truth', the exhibit consisted of a small ship bearing a picture of the Maxim cafe human bomb Hanadi Jaradat, who murdered 22 people in Haifa last autumn, sailing 'with the smile of an angel' in a pool filled with red water. This glorification of genocidal mass murder was -- grotesquely -- part of a three-day conference hosted by the Swedish government on 'preventing genocide.' As Mr Mazel said: 'It is not a piece of work; it is a political call to kill Jewish people.' The fact that the artist happens to be a deracinated Israeli merely underscores the pathological self-hatred of the Israeli far left which stokes the fires of European prejudice. Now the embassy's Swedish landlord has even told the Israelis to relocate on the grounds that they 'pose a threat to other residents.' Mr Mazel was correct to link the exhibit to Sweden's near-daily incidents of Judeophobia. But however strong the provocation, an ambassador should not descend to acts of vandalism. His role is to represent his country. And what such a reaction tells us is that Israel has no self-control: that it no longer has the words to make its case, but lashes out with its fists instead. Israel disagrees. Back home, the ambassador has become an overnight hero. With this one gesture, he is seen to have avenged the daily torrent of lies, blood libels and malevolent dehumanisation that now characterise European attitudes to Israel. Ariel Sharon thanked him for 'standing up to antisemitism.' Other ministers said it was 'an outcry from all of us' and that he should be given an award. The feeling is that Israel now has no choice but to act in this way. But Israel has chosen not to act in any other way. It has all but turned its back on the hate-fest in Europe. As its diaspora minister Natan Sharansky admitted, it has actually vacated the battlefield of European antisemitism and effectively abandoned British and European Jews to fight this poison virtually unaided. Time after time, diaspora Jews have pleaded with Israel's government to bring some professionalism to the statement of its case -- only to be slapped down by expressions of mulish indifference or active resentment, on the grounds that Britain and Europe are lost causes and that diaspora Jews should either make aliyah* or shut up. The result has been a shambolic and incoherent presentation of its case; a complete absence of any publicly sustained forensic attack on the prejudice surging throughout Europe and the Islamic world; and continuing incompetence in the appointment of its ambassador to London. This ambassador needs to possess three outstanding qualities: a faultless command of standard English, high-level diplomatic skills, and the ability to see deep inside the British heart and grasp the lethal question - 'Why should a Jewish state exist at all?' -- that lurks behind every question Israel is asked. Israel knows this. It has been told this many times. It has listened to countless pleas to get its diplomatic act together, the latest of which was offered by a recent Board of Deputies delegation. It gave its answer this week by confirming London's new ambassador, Zvi Hefetz - a Russian-born lawyer with no diplomatic experience and self-acknowledged limitations in English, the latest beneficiary of the usual political patronage which has thrust so many unsuitable Israeli spokesmen into the world spotlight. It is an expression of the deepest contempt for British Jews, and total indifference to the unequal struggle going on here against anti-Jewish prejudice. Mr Hefetz may of course turn out to be an outstanding diplomat with an extraordinary insight into British society and an undetected fluency in English to rival that of the late Isaiah Berlin. But the signs are not auspicious. It seems instead that the people of the book have abandoned the word altogether for the deed. Why bother about a minor detail like how the guy talks, when his beginner's guide to diplomacy presumably now contains instructions on tripping a fuse whenever he blows one himself? Barry Shaw writes "The View From Here." Write him at netre@matav.net.il to subscribe.

WELCOME TO K'CHOLMIM Posted by David Yisrael HaLevi, January 24, 2004.

Shalom. I am writing to introduce all of you to a new organization called K'Cholmim (As Dreamers), which is the beginning of a new and passionate Zionism founded on the principles of love, understanding, and participation in Am Yisrael - The Nation of Israel, Torat Yisrael the Torah/religion of Israel, and Eretz Yisrael - the Land of Israel. As K'Cholmim strives to realize such broad ideals, while still offering particular and specific ways to bring these ideals about, we hope to serve as an instrument of God and as a mechanism for the realization of His ideal conception of mankind. Among the ways K'Cholmim seeks to achieve this is through education and the various other activities we run - all aimed to aid in the furtherance of the Jewish Peoples return to our Holy Mission, a mission that we were all born into as part of a covenantal community. We at K'Cholmim hope that all of you will join us in this great undertaking, an undertaking that is none other than the destiny of the Jewish People. From our first chapter at the University of Chicago, we have now opened up over one dozen chapters at both universities and communities from Florida to New York, to Chicago, to Toronto, to California. In Israel we have a chapter at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv and a chapter in Jerusalem. Classes at these chapters explore a part of the rabbinical world view, especially how much of normative Judaism understands Israel's role as central to Judaism. Discussions at at the Aliyah Shabbatonim have turned to be a surprisingly powerful experience for many, causing most to remember moments and experiences of love/understanding/participation in the three major themes of Judaism that they had not thought of for a long time. Our website, which I encourage you to visit, is http://www.kcholmim.org. We have articles on Am Yisrael (The Nation of Israel), Aliyah, Programs and Internships in Israel and Ahavat Yisrael (Love of Israel) - as well as a weekly Dvar Torah. We have kippot made by Jews from Uganda for sale to raise money for them to return to Eretz Yisrael. We are also raising money for them to finish a giurl l'chomre under the supervision of the Chief Rabbi in Eretz Yisrael. And we have recently added campus posters that can be downloaded for student activists to use so we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel. We at K'Cholmim strongly feel that while systematic visions and understandings of what it is to be Jewish and to live as a Jew exist and have existed throughout Jewish history, they must continuously be updated, discussed, and most importantly find meaning in the Jewish masses that they are supposed to serve. As Paul Tillich, the great Christian theologian points out so beautifully in his "Systematic Theology," if the Answers don't address the Questions, then we have not done our jobs. That most Jews so easily and nonchalantly dismiss all of traditional Rabbinic Judaism as something 'childish', 'foolish' or otherwise 'stupid' is appalling. But in truth, most Jews are rejecting that which they remain entirely ignorant of. K'Cholmim believes that the only possibly way we can find answers - authentically and halachically Jewish answers to the problems that face our troubled nation today - is to first educate ourselves more thoroughly in our own history and tradition, in our own wisdom. To be K'Cholmim we must return to our roots and understand what it means to be a Jew, and that means knowing and loving Am Yisrael, Torah, and Israel, and understanding how these ideas all fit together and why. That is no small task, but it is our destiny. "You are not required to complete the task, yet you are not free to withdraw from it." (Avoth 2:21) David HaLevi is founder of K'Cholmim. It's website address is http://www.kcholmim.org. Or email david@kcholmim.org

ZIONIST PROFESSOR SUED FOR VIEWS IN ISRAEL Posted by Bryna Berch, January 24, 2004.

This article was written by Susan Rosenbluth and appeared in the Jewish Voice and Opinion (http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com) of Englewood,New Jersey. As if Israel didn't have enough resident Arabs trying to do her in, she has a bunch of Marxist academics demonizing her and trying to get rid of sane academic voices like Steven Plaut. I keep wondering: if their aid to the Arabs were to succeed so well that Israel is destroyed, do they have some marker or ID to tell the raging Arab mob 'me friend. me good guy'. Or will they too become casualties of the Arab hate of Israel? Meantime, suits are costly. If you'd like to help Dr. Plaut defray expenses, write him at Steven_Plaut@yahoo.com In this article, Ben Gurion U (BGU) officials are quoted as claiming BGU is apolitical. You might want to read Dr. Arieh Zaritsky's article, "Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech in Israel's Universities During the Oslo Decade" in the September-October 2003 Think-Israel. Dr Zaritsky is a professor at Ben Gurion U and he has a very different take on how 'apolitical' and impartial BGU is.] To voice an opinion to Ben-Gurion officials, write to: Professor Avishay Braverman, President, Ben-Gurion University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer--Sheva 84105, Israel Fax: 972-8-647-2937 Professor Jimmy Weinblatt Rector, Ben-Gurion University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer--Sheva 84105, Israel Tel. 972-7-6461105 Fax: 972-7-6472945 weinb@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Professor Avishai Henik Dean of Social Sciences henik@bgumail.bgu.ac.il 972-8-6472945 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, P.O.B. 653, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Be'er-Sheva 84105, Israel. Ben Gurion University 1430 Broadway, 8th Floor New York, NY 10018 phone 212-687-7721 fax 212-302-6443 email info@aabgu.org Lis Gaines, President Vivien K. Marion, Executive Vice President It does not matter to Professor Neve Gordon that scholars continue to debate exactly what is meant by "antisemitism." The Ben-Gurion University (BGU) academic, whose pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel columns have appeared in numerous publications in the Jewish state and abroad, has launched a libel suit against another Israeli professor who dared to call Dr. Gordon an "antisemite." The outcome of the suit may say more about the state of free speech in Israel than it will about either of the litigants. In fact, some observers in Israel say the case bears an eerie resemblance to the famous libel suit brought by Holocaust denier David Irving against Holocaust academic Deborah Lipstadt. In 2000, Mr. Irving sued Ms. Lipstadt for libel, claiming that when Ms. Lipstadt called him a Nazi apologist and admirer of Hitler, she had "damaged his reputation and credentials as a serious historian and writer." Ms. Lipstadt's winning defense was that her depiction of Mr. Irving as a Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier was entirely true. "Politics and Human Rights" The object of Dr. Gordon's suit is Prof Steven Plaut, a professor of economics at the University of Haifa. A nationalist pundit and prolific political commentator, Dr. Plaut frequently excoriates Israeli leftists such as Dr. Gordon, who teaches "politics and human rights" at BGU. Known for his sapient wit, Dr. Plaut has frequently published articles on the Internet and elsewhere in which he holds left-wing political opinion and behavior - including that of Dr. Gordon - up to ridicule. The objects of Dr. Plaut's essays are always public people - politicians, authors, or commentators - whose public pronouncements and/or behavior provoke Dr. Plaut to comment. Dr. Gordon, who claims to specialize in "political theory and human rights" and writes a monthly column syndicated by Knight Ridder, was obvious grist for Dr. Plaut's mill. Libelling Israel? Going further than most writers on the Israeli left, Dr. Gordon has repeatedly called Israel a fascist country which engages in state terrorism that does not differ morally from the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists. An Internet search did not turn up a single piece in which Dr. Gordon sympathized with Israeli victims of terror or the Israeli government's search for a way to protect its citizens. A listing of his articles showed that most of them have been published in pro-Palestinian and leftist political journals rather than in academic publications. Just a few weeks ago, he published a piece entitled "Why Is the World Silent in the Face of Israeli Apartheid?" In the article, he claims the Israeli government is "forcing the Palestinians into ghettos." He calls the security fence Israel is building the "apartheid wall," and, he says, it "clearly exposes Israel's lie, revealing that security is not the government's real objective." Requesting Pressure Written just before the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the piece calls on "international leaders" to use the Holocaust commemoration to raise their voices against Israel and its elected leaders on the issue of the security fence. In the piece, he calls on these "leaders" to use whatever means necessary to force Israel to adopt the policy of concessions and appeasement endorsed by Dr. Gordon. "The international leaders should tell Prime Minister Sharon that at this historical moment he has an option between walls and ethnic cleansing, on the one hand, and open borders and freedom on the other. They should also let him know, in unequivocal terms, that they will use all necessary means to ensure that Israel will choose the latter," he wrote, leaving out any mention of Israel's security needs or the ongoing scourge of Palestinian terrorism. Dr. Gordon has repeatedly endorsed boycotts against Israel, and his pieces are routinely carried by pro-boycott websites, magazines, and organizations. Last spring, before the war on Iraq began, Dr. Gordon signed a petition declaring that Israel was planning to perpetrate atrocities and massive crimes against humanity once the war against Iraq began. "Signs of Fascism" Dr. Gordon does not limit himself to conducting diatribes against Israel only when he is in the country. Last spring, in the US, he told students at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, that the realization of peace in Israel is most challenged not by terrorist organizations, but by Israel's own government. "Israel's gravest danger is coming from within," he told the students. "It is the creeping rise of a proto-fascism." He said there is evidence that Sharon's government is employing tactics, such as phone tapping and e-mail interception, to track the plans of peace groups. "This kind of surveillance has become legitimized," said Dr. Gordon, calling it a sign of fascism. Withhold Loan Guarantees To fight back, Dr. Gordon suggested Americans oppose US loan guarantees to Israel. He said they should tell the US government that Israel "should be held accountable for the use of American products," such as Caterpillar bulldozers, which are manufactured in the US and sold to Israel. The bulldozers are used to flatten Palestinian homes in Gaza, Dr. Gordon told the students. According to reports, Dr. Gordon said nothing about the fact that the homes that are leveled are those found to contain smuggling tunnels from Egypt to Gaza. Terrorists use the tunnels to smuggle weapons, ammunition, and even personnel. Dr. Gordon is no kinder to US leaders than he is to his own. He recently called President George Bush's "war on terrorism" a "war that has destroyed all sense of shame." Demoralizing the Troops In January 2003, just about the same time that he launched the suit against Dr. Plaut, Dr. Gordon wrote that he had been expelled from his IDF unit, the educational corps. According to Dr. Gordon's essay, "Israel's Slippery Moral Slope," he was asked to lecture on "leadership" to some 60 future military commanders from the elite Givati infantry brigade who were about to begin an officers' training course. He divided his lecture into two parts, he said. The first examined several leaders and concluded that while Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot were as "charismatic and intelligent" as Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela, only the latter three were guided by "universal moral values," namely "the equality of all people." The second part of the lecture maintained that "so long as the occupation of Palestinian territories continues, the Israeli military will not produce worthy leaders." His contention, he wrote, was that, "within the context of occupation, even the most humane officers would find themselves trampling human dignity." Defending the IDF His soldier-students evidently would have none of it, telling Dr. Gordon the IDF's primary objective is to protect Israeli citizens. Most of the soldiers stressed to Dr. Gordon that the "IDF is the most moral army in the world." It evidently was Dr. Gordon's last lecture to the troops. He was convinced that as long as the soldiers considered protecting Israeli lives their most important job, they could never be moral because it meant they had "rejected the notion that human beings are created equal." He did not explain whether he considered the lives of suicide bombers to be equal to those of Israeli civilians, or who, besides the IDF, should be given the job of protecting Israeli civilians. Better To Die In another essay, Dr. Gordon noted that attacks in eastern and western Jerusalem "damage and demoralize," but, he said, while suicide bombers attack the western part of the city, providing "a very real personal threat," this is not "a national threat." "The random killings of civilians in no way jeopardize Israel's existence," he said. By contrast, he said, the eastern part of the city is under attack "by Israeli authorities" who "exploit the ongoing conflict to accelerate Israel's geographic and demographic conquest of East Jerusalem." "The strategy is clear - to strangle and intimidate the Palestinian population," he wrote. Norman Finkelstein Dr. Gordon's libel suit against Dr. Plaut is based on two short sets of comments that Dr. Plaut published on the Internet. In one, Dr. Plaut described Dr. Gordon as a "groupie" of Norman Finkelstein, an American author who has been denounced as a Holocaust denier and an antisemite by many publications, including the Washington Post, and by such luminaries as Elie Wiesel, Alan Dershowitz, Dennis Prager, and Jonah Daniel Goldhagen. The New York Times compared Mr. Finkelstein's book, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Holocaust Industry has been described as a diatribe against Jews for trying to extort gentiles into compensating them financially for the Holocaust, which Mr. Finkelstein says has been "grossly exaggerated" in terms of the number killed. Arguing that Israeli Jews use the Holocaust in order to oppress the Arabs, Mr. Finkelstein has been accused of endorsing Arab terror and the destruction of the Jewish state. Dr. Gordon's critics say that he, too, by blaming Israel, expressing sympathy for the Palestinians, and withholding compassion for Jewish victims, is endorsing Arab terror and the destruction of the Jewish state. "Extortion?" Citing Dr. Gordon's review of Dr. Finkelstein's book, Dr. Plaut maintains that Dr. Gordon "strongly approves of Finkelstein's claim that the Holocaust is being used by racist Jews to justify their presence in Palestine and to oppress Arabs." According to Dr. Plaut, Dr. Gordon agrees that the use of the Holocaust as "extortion to extract money from Germans and others is a crime." In articles published in Ha'aretz, the left-wing magazine, The Nation and on the Internet, Dr. Gordon has publicly praised Dr. Finkelstein, comparing him favorably to the Prophets of the Bible, which is why Dr. Plaut called him a "groupie." In his suit, Dr. Gordon translated the American term "groupie" to mean "walking in the furrow" of Holocaust deniers. In his lawsuit, Dr. Gordon defends Mr. Finkelstein, arguing that he is not a Holocaust Denier, but, rather, the son of Holocaust survivors who is furious that "certain elements in American society" have transformed "the memory of the Holocaust into a profitable industry by cynically using the outrageous crime perpetrated by the Nazis against humanity and notably against the Jewish people, in order to pocket billions of dollars and/or to advance policies that are violent and/or uphold the control of another people." Although his defense of Mr. Finkelstein was impassioned, Dr. Gordon said he has never met him personally. "Judenrat Wanna-Bes" A second comment by Dr. Plaut is also cited by Dr. Gordon in his suit. Dr. Plaut noted that Dr. Gordon, as a member of Taayush, a radical group made up of Israeli leftists and Arabs, visited Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in early 2002 in Ramallah when the latter was protecting Palestinian terrorists who had murdered Tourism Minister Rachavim Ze'evi from being arrested by Israeli troops. Dr. Plaut called those Israelis acting as human shields "Judenrat wanna-bes," explaining that they had appointed themselves representatives and liaisons to mass murderers of Jews. Dr. Plaut has also described Dr. Gordon as a fanatic antisemite. An Assessment According to Dr. Plaut, everything he has written about Dr. Gordon is nothing more than his assessment of Dr. Gordon's public writings and behavior. "Gordon is a very public figure, an op-ed columnist, a representative of several radical political organizations, a very public hand-holder of Yasir Arafat"and criticism of his political opinions and political actions is a legitimate expression of free speech," said Dr. Plaut. In the US, Dr. Gordon would have to prove that Dr. Plaut bore the leftist writer malice. But both men admit they have never met or spoken. Dr. Plaut said he knew nothing about Dr. Gordon before the latter launched his lawsuit against him, other than his published political writings and actions. Dr. Gordon admitted that, in the US, where freedom of speech is guaranteed, his suit would probably be dismissed, leaving him vulnerable to a costly counter-suit by Dr. Plaut. But in Israel, said Dr. Gordon, he believes he stands a chance of winning. One Definition "An antisemite is someone who hates Jews just because they are Jews," said Dr. Gordon. "And that's not me." He was unwilling to concede that some of his actions, including visits of encouragement to Mr. Arafat in Ramallah; published statements, such as all the Israeli government understands is "violence;" and denunciations of Israeli leaders, including Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ehud Barak, as "war criminals," might lead critics to justify the "antisemite" appellation. Dr. Gordon denied he ever served as a "human shield" in Ramallah, although he admitted going to visit Mr. Arafat in Ramallah after the Passover massacre in Netanya in 2002. He conceded that while he would not sue anyone who called Mr. Arafat "a murderer," he personally believes the name does not fit. He said he saw no connection between visiting Mr. Arafat and condoning Palestinian violence against Jews. And, he said, someone who sees such a connection is not entitled to the opinion that Dr. Gordon is behaving like an antisemite. Court Shopping? Although Dr. Gordon resides in Jerusalem, he and his attorney, Farid Gahnem, whom Dr. Gordon described as "a friend and brilliant," chose to file the lawsuit in Nazareth. According to some reports, the case will be heard by a female Israeli-Arab judge. Asked why he chose Nazareth, Dr. Gordon said he had conducted a "statistical analysis" and found that the courts in Nazareth were the "fastest in the country." "Fast," of course, is a relative term. Dr. Gordon's suit was filed in January 2003, and there has still been no action on it. Dr. Plaut's supporters believe Dr. Gordon was "shopping" when he opted to file the case in Nazareth, hoping an Arab judge would look favorably on Dr. Gordon's suit at Dr. Plaut's expense. Extremist Plaintiffs Nevertheless, say Dr. Plaut's supporters, when the case finally comes to court, it will be decided in favor of the defendant, mimicking the David Irving libel trial, which was held in London. The Irving trial was won by the defendant, Ms. Lipstadt. "To begin with, both cases involve a political extremist suing for libel a courageous critic who labeled him an antisemite and fanatic because of his writings and political behavior," said Richard Lakisher in a piece entitled "The David Irving Trial in Israel," which was posted on the Arutz 7 website last month. Like Dr. Irving, Dr. Gordon maintains that criticism has hurt his reputation. This criticism, he says in his suit, comes not just from Dr. Plaut, but also from writers whom Dr. Gordon says have been influenced by Dr. Plaut. Free Speech for Whom? Asked if he is trying to silence Dr. Plaut, Dr. Gordon said, no. He claimed he is in favor of free speech, but to avoid a lawsuit from him, any critic would have to try to guess what criticism he would find acceptable and which actionable. He said he would not mind if Dr. Plaut had written, for example, that Dr. Gordon's views were "inimical to the Jewish state and could cause it harm." Asked why that opinion of his work would be acceptable to him while the opinion that it is the work of an antisemite is not, Dr. Gordon had no response. "Just don't say I want to stifle free speech," he said. Trying To Stifle But Dr. Plaut and his supporters insist that is exactly what Dr. Gordon is trying to do. They say that like Dr. Irving, Dr. Gordon is attempting to use the court as a club to suppress free speech in an anti-democratic manner. "The plaintiff has filed a frivolous nuisance suit to bully his critics so that they will be afraid to denounce the plaintiff's political views and behavior," wrote Mr. Lakisher, adding that, like David Irving, Dr. Gordon is using the framework of a libel suit "to try to force his critics into silence." "There are other significant similarities between the two trials. In both, the plaintiffs - Irving and now Gordon - have records of praising and promoting the views of people commonly seen as Holocaust deniers. In both, the plaintiffs associate with extremist antisemitic organizations and with individuals widely considered to be antisemites, and collaborate with them in publishing their views. "Both plaintiffs are venomously critical of Israel and its leaders and have expressed 'understanding' for anti-Israel terrorism. In both cases the extremist plaintiffs claim that their good names as researchers were damaged by those who attack their behavior and denounce their writings and opinions. In both cases, no attempt was made to prove that actual material damages were suffered by the plaintiff," said Mr. Lakisher. Allowed and True Dr. Plaut and his attorney, Dr. Haim Misgav, will probably use two defenses: that the criticism offered by Dr. Plaut was an assessment of Dr. Gordon's political speech and behavior and was, thus, protected free speech; and, like Ms. Lipstadt's defense, Dr. Plaut will argue that what he said about Dr. Gordon is true. One measure might be the types of organizations that have posted Dr. Gordon's pieces on the Internet or published them in their news magazines. "Gordon's articles have been published and cited on a wide variety of neo-Nazi, Holocaust Denial, and Islamist fundamentalist newspapers and web sites," said Mr. Lakisher. Dr. Gordon denies that he gave those sites permission to host his work, claiming that they took his pieces on their own. Dr. Plaut maintains that the fact that these groups want Dr. Gordon's work demonstrates its content. Speaking Volumes Some of the organizations which have touted Dr. Gordon's work include the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, which routinely spreads anti-Jewish blood libels; al-Jazeera satellite television; Radio Islam (which carried Dr. Gordon's work alongside its reprinting of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion); the pro-terrorism Web Site the "Electronic Intifada;" and the US-based Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR. "While Gordon claims that he himself did not place his articles on some of these more antisemitic websites, the fact that the articles appealed to the operators of those sites sufficiently for them to carry them speaks volumes about their content," said Mr. Lakisher. In 2002, Holocaust revisionist Paul Grubach wrote a piece denouncing Cambridge University Professor of Modern History Richard J. Evans, who was instrumental in helping Deborah Lipstadt triumph over David Irving. Mr. Grubach cited a work by Dr. Gordon entitled "Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics, and the Case of Israel," to prove his point that Israel is "a state with a horrendous human rights record, a long history of persecuting Palestinian Arabs, and in which severe discrimination against non-Jews is enshrined in law." This piece by Mr. Grubach and the citation from Dr. Gordon's work is also posted on the web site belonging to Mr. Irving. Recycling Calumnies Dr. Plaut is by no means Dr. Gordon's only critic. Daniel Doron, president of The Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, an independent pro-market policy think tank, recently called Dr. Gordon "one of the rabidly post-Zionist revisionist historians." "Most of the articles Gordon has published are devoted to denouncing Israel as a fascist, terrorist state," said Mr. Doron. He recognized that Dr. Gordon "would probably claim that he is fighting for the rights of oppressed Palestinians," but, he said, it is telling that he "devotes most of his energy to recycling calumnies that subvert Israel's legitimacy." Human Rights for Whom? For a while, Dr. Gordon, who is not a medical doctor, was the leader of the pro-Arab "Physicians for Human Rights" in Israel, an organization that was publicly denounced as "extreme" by the Israel Medical Association. Prof Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan University organized a petition that condemned "Physicians for Human Rights" as openly antisemitic. Dr. Plaut called Physicians for Human Rights "a group dedicated to preventing all forms of Jewish self-defense against Arab nazism, and it has never heard of an abuse of human rights by Arabs that it wishes to condemn." "It does not regard blowing up school buses full of Jewish children or cafes with Jewish mothers to be human rights abuses, merely protests against 'occupation,'" he said. Campaigns Asked about the lawsuit, Dr. Gordon claimed that Dr. Plaut has initiated a "campaign" against him, asking his friends and supporters to contact Dr. Gordon and harass him. Dr. Gordon said Dr. Plaut had posted requests for this campaign on a website devoted to the teaching and philosophy of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Dr. Plaut, however, said he had never asked anyone to harass Dr. Gordon, and, further, said Dr. Plaut, he had never posted anything himself on a Kahane website. "If they used some of my material, then it was unauthorized," said Dr. Plaut. But Dr. Gordon is well-acquainted with campaigns of this nature. In October 2002, his friend, Yigal Bronner, from the Dept of East Asian Studies at Tel Aviv University, was arrested by the IDF for "refusing to take part in the occupation of Palestine." Dr. Gordon mounted a campaign on behalf of Mr. Bronner which included asking supporters to send protests to many senior Israeli officials concerning Mr. Bronner's imprisonment. Dr. Plaut's supporters have been sending their comments to Avishay Braverman, president of BGU, and to Vivien Marion, the new executive vice-president of American Associates of BGU. Death Wishes Dr. Gordon said that he was including in his suit a complaint that Dr. Plaut had asked people to send him "death wishes" via email. Asked if he meant "death threats," Dr. Gordon said no one had threatened him. "They send me messages saying they hope I die soon," he explained. Asked if he had reported these emails, he said he had filed a complaint with the Beer Sheva police. But when asked, a spokesman for the Beer Sheva Police Department said they had no record of such a complaint. Things in Common Although they represent opposite ends of the political spectrum, Professors Gordon and Plaut have more in common than just their professions in academia. Both carry American passports. Dr. Gordon, who was born and raised in Israel, is the son of Americans. Dr. Plaut made aliyah from Philadelphia in 1981 and resides with his wife and three children in Haifa. Dr. Gordon's PhD is from Notre Dame in Indiana. Prof Plaut's doctorate is from Princeton University. Dr. Plaut is a tenured professor; Dr. Gordon is not, but, he said, he is on a "tenure track." When asked why he had opted for a lawsuit as opposed to countering Dr. Plaut's articles with more essays and rebuttals of his own, Dr. Gordon said he would not do that because he had "no argument" with Dr. Plaut. "He can say anything he wants unless it slanders me," said Dr. Gordon, explaining that he himself - and, of course, the judge - would be the ultimate arbiters as to what is slanderous and what is not. "I have the right to protect my own good name," said Dr. Gordon. Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt In the US, lawsuits that attempt to stifle free speech are not the approved way to protect anything, as Christian Evangelical leader Jerry Falwell found out in 1988 when he tried to sue Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt for libel. The Supreme Court ruled that because Dr. Falwell was a public person he could not be shielded by the law from individuals making hurtful statements even if such statements were made with "a bad motive." "The sort of robust political debate encouraged by the First Amendment is bound to produce speech that is critical of those who hold public office or those public figures who are intimately involved in the resolution of important public questions, or by reasons of their fame, shape events in areas of concern to society at large," said Chief Justice William Rehnquist, speaking for the majority. "In the world of debate about public affairs, many things done with motives that are less than admirable are protected by the First Amendment." A public figure, he said, could hold a critic liable for the damage to reputation caused by publication of a defamatory falsehood only if the statement was made with the knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. Dr. Gordon, who expressed displeasure at being compared to Dr. Falwell, said he was glad he did not live in the US where his claim against Dr. Plaut would be held to that standard. He seemed surprised to hear that, in the US, people would rather see a public person who was under attack strike back with a rebuttal of his own rather than with a lawsuit. Asked if he was receiving any help in paying for his suit, Dr. Gordon said he was receiving no funds from any organization or individual. Support from AFSI Among Dr. Plaut's staunchest supporters are Helen Freedman and Herb Zweibon, director and president, respectively, of Americans for a Safe Israel. Dr. Plaut has frequently written for AFSI's newsletter, Outpost. Ms. Freedman and Dr. Zweibon also noted the similarities between the current lawsuit and the David Irving Libel trial. "There is so much in Gordon's hate-filled resume, However, while Gordon feels entitled to freely express the most extreme fanatic sentiments, he does not believe Plaut is entitled to express his own views on them, and is using the courts in an attempt to silence criticism. Gordon's suit in the Israeli courts is no more likely to succeed than Irving's appeal to the British courts, but it has major nuisance value, putting Plaut to the expense and travail of a trial," said Ms. Freedman. Getting SLAPPED In the US, Dr. Gordon's case might be categorized as a SLAPP suit, an acronym for "Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation." Originally used by giant corporations as a means of stifling grass roots complaints, SLAPP suits have come to mean any lawsuit brought against an individual or an organization in an effort to stifle dissent and deny freedom of speech. A SLAPP suit is typically a libel suit aimed at chilling the defendant's participation in free and open debate. When SLAPPs are defended against on the basis of First Amendment Rights, they are usually dismissed. Frequently, a summary judgment is entered for the defendant who can then sue for damages and legal fees. Many SLAPP suits are ultimately dismissed when the judge believes the suit has no merit and was brought only to harass and intimidate an individual into keeping quiet. But even if the suit is dismissed, the damage of being sued can be profound. Legal fees, in the US and Israel, can be ruinous. Several states, including New Jersey, have adopted anti-SLAPP laws as a means of discouraging suits which are intended to stifle free speech and open debate. Harrassment in Israel According to Mr. Lakisher, in recent years, frivolous lawsuits have become a common form of harassment in Israel, "where free speech on the right is sometimes weakly protected and where libel laws allow attempts at suing for all sorts of things that are regarded as protected speech in most other democratic systems." He noted that in a recent case, a left-wing professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University sued four people, including two other professors, for libel. He lost and was ordered to pay court costs and damages to the defendants. "The David Irving trial of Israel is likely to have a similar outcome," said Mr. Lakisher. Blaming BGU One of the unintended victims seems to be Dr. Gordon's Ben-Gurion University. Last month, the school's Washington-based American Associates of BGU appointed a new executive vice president, but no sooner did Vivien Marion assume her position, than she was hit with the Gordon-Plaut controversy. According to Ms. Marion, she has already received a number of angry emails and letters, asking why BGU is not speaking out against Dr. Gordon's attempt to stifle free speech. Ms. Marion and her associate, Lea Golan, BGU's America-Israel liaison, seemed as upset by Dr. Gordon's extreme left-wing positions as they did about the free-speech issue. "What can we do? We can't get rid of every disgusting person," said Ms. Golan. "Apolitical Campus?" Although Ms. Marion and Ms. Golan insisted BGU was an "apolitical campus," they had no comment when asked why the school had permitted Dr. Gordon to post his suit against Dr. Plaut on its website in both Hebrew and English. They also had no comment when asked if BGU had plans to allow Dr. Plaut to post his rebuttal to Dr. Gordon. Dr. Plaut, who said he is considering filing a suit against BGU in the US, noted that Israel is in desperate need of anti-SLAPP legislation. Neither Ms. Marion nor Ms. Golan attempted to discredit those who drew an analogy between the Gordon-Plaut suit and the David Irving Libel trial. Ms. Golan seemed especially annoyed that Dr. Gordon uses his Ben-Gurion affiliation on every piece his writes. "I guess he thinks it gives him credibility," said Ms. Golan. [Ed note: You can read the article by Mr. Lakisher on the December Blog-Ed page of Think-Israel.]

JUSTICE Posted by IsrAlert, January 24, 2004.

Professor Paul Eidelberg is Head of the Yamin Israel Party in Israel. Prof Paul Eidelberg is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy, 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and Email: Constitution@usa.net A version of this article is archived on the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, Maccbean Online (http://www.freeman.org/m_online/mar98/eidelb2.htm). The source for this item was ruvin2 at Jewishclubmaoz. What would Socrates, the "gadfly" of Athens, do were he in Israel today? He would surely inquire about justice. Sooner or later some Israeli would say justice is "giving to each his due." Socrates would probably lead him to a more refined definition, perhaps something like the following. Justice is giving equal things (such as rights and honors) to equals, and unequal things to unequals in proportion to their inequality, i.e., in proportion to their merit (as is done in classrooms), or in proportion to their contribution to the common good. Any sensible Israeli would then see that to give Arabs, who strive for Israel's demise, the equal political rights of Jews, who struggle for Israel's welfare, is not consistent with justice. He would then conclude that if justice is to prevail in Israel, its Arab inhabitants must either be disenfranchised or undergo a profound political and religious metamorphosis. If Socrates led Israelis to this conclusion he would probably be condemned by Israel's political and intellectual elites and indicted for "incitement" and "racism." True, he might point out, during his trial, that Israeli Arabs do not perform military service; that they engage in massive tax evasion; that they supported Saddam Hussein despite his threat to incinerate Israel; that they aid terrorists (including suicide bombers) and commit terrorist acts themselves; hence that it is unjust to endow such disloyal Arabs with the equal rights of Jews. All this would probably be of no avail at Socrates' trial. He would almost certainly be convicted and imprisoned, and any appeal to Israel's egalitarian or leveling Supreme Court would be futile. This is quite a commentary on Israel's ruling elites, from whose lips the honeyed words Peace and Democracy are ever dripping but hardly a word about Justice. Not a single public figure in Israel has the courage to tell the truth about the manifest injustice (and deadly consequences) of giving the vote to this country's Arab inhabitants. Indeed, it is against the law in Israel to tell the truth about this issue. Now we are prepared to go to the root of things. What needs to be said, and what no one dares say in Israel, is that this country was founded, in 1948, on a monumental injustice: giving to Jews and Arabs - to loyal and disloyal inhabitants of Israel - the equal right to vote in this supposed-to-be Jewish State. Not Peace but Justice is the true and most fundamental issue in Israel today. In Israel, however, justice has been reduced to a leveling equality, which is why the sense of justice has been murdered in this country. This is why the killers of so many Jews in this country go unpunished. This is why Arabs who have butchered Jewish women and children have been released by various Israeli governments. This is why various Israeli politicians have clasped the bloodstained hands of Yasser Arafat. You will not go to the root of things by explaining their behavior in terms of their desire for "peace." You will not truly explain their surrender of land for which Jews have so long yearned for, fought for, and bled for, in terms of "American pressure." No, the suffering and humiliation of Israel today is the inevitable result of the monstrous injustice prescribed in its so-called Declaration of Independence, that all inhabitants of this State - Jews and Arabs alike - would receive equal political rights. This is not justice but the negation of justice and even of common sense. This negation has made babes of Israel's ruling elites. It has made fools of Israeli politicians, of Israeli judges, of Israeli intellectuals. It has driven this country to suicidal madness - the prey of Arabs armed by Israelis posing as men. All this is described in Isaiah 3:4; 5:20; 28:7, 15-18; 29:9, 14; 44:25. Hence the "peace process" and even its critics obscure the most important issue, the issue of JUSTICE. Until that issue is faced - until Jews pursue JUSTICE - neither politics nor political analysis nor prayer will save Israel from recurring disasters.

US WAR ON TERROR MAY SPREAD TO SYRIA, REPORT SAYS Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 24, 2004.

This was written today by Jeff McKay, CNS News correspondent. (CNSNews.com) - A new report indicates that Syria may be the next target in the U.S. war on terror. In a report released Friday by the London-based Jane's Intelligence Digest, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as saying that the U.S. is considering "multi-faceted attacks," which could be conducted against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, controlled by Syria. According to the report, the U.S. move would "almost certainly involve a confrontation" between American Special Forces and Syrian troops. The report highlights potential military action against Somalia as well as Syria. According to the Jane's report, "Covert U.S. forces have periodically infiltrated Somalia over the past two years to conduct surveillance and even potentially snatch suspects wanted for the November 2002 suicide bomb attacks in Mombassa, Kenya." In near simultaneous attacks, al Qaeda terrorists bombed a hotel and attempted to bring down an Israeli airliner using a shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile. In addition, the Jane's report states that during the past six months, there has been an increased US military presence along the Syrian border with Iraq "and, on several occasions, [the U.S.] has sent special forces into Syrian territory or penetrated Syrian air space." The report also detailed a running gun battle between Saddam loyalists and U.S. troops who crossed into Syrian territory, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people, including Syrian nationals. The Syrian government has always maintained close ties with both Iraq and Iran, and has been a hotbed of Arab radicalism, allowing terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah to maintain offices in Damascus. The ruling power in the Syrian government is the Baath Party, a secular and socialist-leaning political group headed by Syrian President Bashar Assad, the son of former Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad. Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party led Iraq before its fall to U.S.-led coalition forces. Administration officials have expressed increasing frustration with Syria and have said the country "is on the wrong side in the war on terror." Just last year, Congress adopted the Syrian Accountability Act, a comprehensive outline pledging sanctions if Syria does not halt its support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil, and be accountable for its role in the Middle East. Over the last three weeks, three high ranking Cabinet officials have made it clear that Syria needs to take immediate proactive measures to create stability in the Middle East. While briefing reporters after President Bush's recent trip to Mexico, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice suggested that hundreds of millions of dollars - and maybe Iraqi weapons -- may have been smuggled into Syria. "There are a number of issues that we'd like to discuss with the Syrians......including the borders with Iraq and what may have happened in the past there and what may be continuing to happen there," said Rice. Earlier this week, an Israeli soldier was killed while clearing mines planted by Hizbullah at the Israel-Lebanon border, when Hezbollah terrorists fired anti-tank weapons. Israel responded by shelling Hizbullah positions during a raid by the Israeli Air Force in Lebanon. The terrorist action launched from Syrian-controlled Lebanese territory drew a rebuke from Secretary of State Colin Powell. "The deliberate action that [Hizbullah] took, which resulted in the loss of life, once again demonstrates the nature of that organization," Powell told reporters. "I would hope the Syrians would, once again, understand that any support (for terrorists) is destabilizing in the region and is not in the interest of peace." The Jane's report said any U.S. action against Hezbollah in Lebanon could create a domino effect, creating immediate instability in an already unstable region. "The political consequences of a U.S. attack against Lebanon...could result in the destabilization of a country that is still rebuilding its infrastructure a decade after a ruinous 15-year civil war and would also fuel Muslim and Arab hostility toward the US at a time when US-led occupation forces are fighting the ongoing insurgency in Iraq," noted the report. It also said any U.S. actions could lead to a regime change in Syria. "However, given the Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, it remains entirely possible that Washington will soon launch military strikes against Lebanon, regardless of the consequences for wider regional stability," the Jane's report said. US objectives from a confrontation with Syria would include neutralizing Hezbollah and ending its presumed connections with al Qaeda; withdrawal of Syrian occupation forces from Lebanon; potential regime change in Damascus; and creating better coexistence between Israel and Syria. With U.S. troops regularly patrolling the Iraq-Syrian border, and with a massive military presence in the region, the question of whether the war on terror would lead to Damascus is an ongoing topic of discussion in some quarters. "Syria clearly needs to do more," said Jon Alterman, Director of Middle East Programs for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "While there are some in the office of the Secretary of Defense who may want to raise the options, raising the options doesn't mean the action is around the corner," he said. "While the Syrians are looking into many avenues, including re-starting peace talks with Israel, it is clear the government can't keep doing what it has been doing." Alterman, who was in Syria as recently as a month ago, says this is a time of confusion on the "Syrian street" as to what path their government will take in the post-9/11 world. "The Syrian people do not know what role their nation should play in the world. They do know that with their ties to Iraq cut off, their world is changing," Alterman added. Jim Besser, the Washington correspondent for The Jewish Week said he doubts U.S. military action against Syria is imminent: "I don't see this administration embarking on another military campaign while issues are still pending in Iraq, and before an election with successes already in hand," he said. "There needs to be peaceful coexistence in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors, but without the terror groups reined in, the region will remain unstable." According to Besser, although an imminent military move against Syria is unlikely, he believes the US-led war on terror will not end in Iraq. "In the end, one thing that is for sure is there must be a focus on al Qaeda, and all groups with al Qaeda ties," he said.

POPE TELLS ALL IN THE STAR Posted by Arlene Peck, January 24, 2004.

Dang! I just discovered I've been looking for love, or fair and unbiased reporting in all the wrong places. All this time I've been writing and complaining about the attacks on Israel from mainstream papers like The Los Angeles Times. Or, I've watched CNN and the BBC spew their hatred and, I shouldn't have been paying any attention to them. Folks, I've discovered it's the trash scandal sheets that know the real scoop. For instance, while on a recent trip to the hairdressers, I sat under the dryer with a stack of those magazines that are read by everybody but, no one has ever admitted to buying. What a Mecca of real information. For instance, did you know that "The Star" had the real scoop on 'alleged anti-Semite' Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of the Christ." It was from none other than "The Man" Pope John Paul II who, apparently despite his failing eyesight and the apparent inability to form a coherent sentence, has seen this movie and "given it two thumbs up." I find it truly amazing that at this point in time the Pope who appears to have to have his head propped up could even raise that hand, but hey, it was a Vatican official who reported it so how could there be any doubt. Except Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, (according to the L.A. Times and we know how truthful they are) quoted Foxman as saying he snuck into a screening, paid a $295 registration fee and found it "painful, offensive and capable of stoking anti-Semitism." Interesting how the Jews could look at this abomination and find it "unambiguous portrayal of Jew as being responsible for the death of Jesus." And concerned that Mel's movie "could fuel latent anti-Semitism that exists in the hearts of those people who hold Jews responsible for the death of Jesus." Funny, how the Catholics see the same thing and give it "two thumbs up." An article in the mainstream press denies that the pope made any reference to Gibson's movie, for or against. So who knows what the real story is folks; but I'm sticking with the Star, because you know how reliable the mainstream press is especially when it comes to Jews and Israel." Anyway, this same Vatican official reported " 'It is as it was' the Holy One said." And, hey, he should know. He was probably there. I wonder if this movie goer Pope who has been ever so vocal about the dangers of the Fence that Israel has been building to protect them from the violent neighbors who surround them has ever noticed the monstrous fence that encompasses his hometown, Vatican City? And, that's just to keep out the tourists who are vying for one of those favored visits with him. Remember how cute he and Arafat were in those photo-ops? I suppose he's been to busy being a movie critic to notice those stories and lawsuits the Catholic church has been paying out to victims of pedophiles. And, speaking of that! The Star was full of all kinds of juicy tid-bits about super star Michael Jackson's (Jacko's) Dream Team. Imagine my surprise when next to a full page spread of the friends and supporters of possible upcoming felon Jackson I should see, next to a clip of Louis Farrakhan, Jackson pal Rabbi Shmuley Boteach! How delighted I was to see a picture of the good Rabbi, kepot and all, smiling into the camera saying, "I don't believe Michael Jackson is a pedophile. It is the rest of his life that is so screwed up." And, "The Star" heard it first. Actually, that triggered thoughts of another encounter I had with the "celebrity Rabbi." It was a couple of years ago and he was promoting that scholarly book, "Kosher Sex". He had arranged at a local theatre a 'dialogue' with yet more paragons of virtue, Hustler Magazine publisher, Larry Flint and "white trash with money", Rosanne who now is redeemed because she's discovered Kabala. Naturally the audience was filled to the brim with young Orthodox kids who had come to be enlightened with their dialogue of sex, pornography and I'm sure religion was tied in there somewhere. When the Rabbi was able to get a word in edgewise, between Rosanne's four-letter expletives, he was generous in his praise with those who shared the stage with him. So, I wasn't too surprised in the class he showed by praising his good friend Michael Jackson. Yet another surprise was awaiting me in the full page spread of "Jackos Dream Team" Liza Minnelli) was also in this 'Star special' giving glowing reports to "suspected" pedophile Jackson. Now, would you have ever seen such earth-shattering news in the mainstream press? Probably. But elsewhere in many of these same scandal sheets as of late was even more about one-time star, Minnelli. It seems that the tabloids say Liza Minnelli has a new man in her life. Several have said that "Liza (57) is often seen with Yossi Dina, 49, a former Israeli army captain described as a pawnbroker to the stars" He supposedly lends her diamond jewelry, and she invites him to high-profile events such as Liz Taylor's recent AIDS fundraiser. The news out here in Hollywood is giving glowing reports to this happy couple. Aw, but I have a scoop that I don't think even the tabloids know yet. I know Yossi personally and his reputation is that he only likes under aged, blond, bimbetts. Hmmmm, maybe I can start writing for the Star or Inquirer? Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess - Arlene speaks regularly around the country and keeps a packed suitcase ready to GO. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com

PEACE NOW SEEKS $50,000 ESPIONAGE GRANT FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND Posted by Aaron Lerner, January 24, 2004.

This was written by David Bedein, Bureau Chief Israel Resource News Agency, Beit Agron International Press Center, Jerusalem. It appeared in "Makor Rishon", a weekly Israeli newspaper, Jan 23 2004. The translation was provided by David Bedein. Documents that have been received at the office of Israel Resource News agency confirm that the Peace Now organization has submitted a $50,000 budget request to the government Finland, conduct intelligence activity in the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan , Gaza and Jerusalem. In the Peace Now grant application to the government of Finland, Peace Now delineates the purposes for which the grant will be used: "1. Regular bi-monthly ground surveys must be conducted whose purpose is to document the numbers of empty houses in settlements and ongoing construction in settlements. This work engages tens of volunteers, who travel around the west bank in cars (armored if possible) tracking developments. 2. Aerial photography: Twice a month a light plane is rented in order to allow settlement watch staff to ascertain the extent of ongoing physical expansion in existing settlements. Once a baseline survey is completed, subsequent surveys cane be used to measure expansion using GIS overlays. This mechanism will yield tangible graphic and quantitative data for the public." Peace Now defines its objectives to the government of Finland in the following manner: "To monitor settlement developments on the ground, accurately and reliably To make this information available to the Israeli and international publics To advance the fulfillment of the Road Map" Peace Now identifies the "target groups" for the government of Finland as: "Israeli public The Israeli political leadership International Diplomatic Corps Israeli and international press" Peace Now defines the "final result of the activities" for the government of Finland as: "Regular and reliable reports, in real time, disclosing the situation of settlement construction Regular and reliable reports, in real times, monitoring the dismantlement of outposts and settlements according to requirements of the Road Map Contacts with diplomats, leaders and press in order to convey reliable information on all aspect of settlement issues" Peace Now informs the government of Finland that it would use the $50,000 grant in the following manner: "$17,000 Coordinator, $13,000 Jeep, $20,000 Aerial Surveys" Peace Now informs the government of Finland that "funding is necessary to support the staff and rent the vehicles for aerial photography. Peace Now defines itself for the government of Finland as an "educational foundation". Peace Now indicates in its grant request that it also receives $100,000 from the Americans for Peace Now and 150,000 Euro from "European Foundations" for its settlement watch project. A spokesperson for Peace Now indicated that the "European Foundations" mentioned in the report were actually funds from the European Union. IMRA - Independent Media Review Analysis - tracks the media, polls and events of importance in the Middle East. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il

GOOD NEWS FROM EUROPE AND THE US Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 24, 2004.

Don't let the Arabist/anti-Semitic taint and news blackouts in the media fool you, there is heartening news coming out of Europe and the United States. Recent actions and polls done in both places show a definite reversal in the indifference to recent anti-Semitic trends. So here are a few kudos. A Big Tres Bon to France!  Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, a well-known French comedian, is being prosecuted for his anti-Semitic rantings on network television. During a prime time TV show, "On Ne Peut Pas Plaire a Tout le Monde," ("You Can't Please Everybody") on Dec. 1, 2003, Mr. M'Bala included in his skit raising an arm and shouted "Isra-Heil!" - a reference to the Nazi slogan, "Heil Hitler." Further, he dressed up as an Orthodox Jew and decried the "American-Zionist" axis. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said he was "shocked" by the performance, the show's host, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, apologized for the episode, and prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation Dec. 24 into whether the comic's skit and "incriminating comments" constituted racial defamation. Apparently they did. Now the comedian must stand trial and Justice Minister Dominique Perben said that "justice would be inflexible" if racism is proven. "Racism is an evil that I don't want to see develop in this country," he said. Bravo! Go Americans!  According to a poll commissioned by the firm McLaughlin & Associates which was conducted in mid-January, 67.4% of 1,000 Americans surveyed say the Palestinians have not met the conditions outlined by President George W. Bush for statehood, including fighting terrorism and ending incitement, and 66.6% are against expelling all Jews from their homes in the territories. Also, nearly three quarters of Americans (73.6%) support halting $200 million in annual aid to the Palestinians, and just 15% support continuing the aid. Additionally, 55.7% of respondents said they agreed that the Palestinians' goal is "the eventual destruction of Israel" compared to 21.3% who say their goal is statehood alongside Israel. Meanwhile, 65.2% said the Palestinian Authority "couldn't be trusted to fulfill peace agreements that it signs with Israel" vs. 18.6% who said they trust the PA. Apparently, Mr. and Ms. Average American know the real deal. And since this is an election year, look for President Bush to, at least temporarily, halt his unreasonable demands upon Israel while letting the Palestinian-Arab entity slide. Right on American public! Cheers to the Brits!  Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy fired British Legislator Jenny Tonge as party spokesperson on Children's Affairs after she expressed sympathy for suicide bombers and suggested she would consider becoming one herself if she were a Palestinian. Kennedy characterized Tonge's remarks as "completely unacceptable; they are not compatible with Liberal Democrat party policies and principles," he stated. "There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism." Ms. Tonge made the remarks about suicide bombers during an address to a meeting of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. She had visited Palestinian areas last June and compared their life with the Nazis' treatment of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. She said suicide bombing "is truly born out of desperation," and while the phenomenon was widely criticized, she said, "I can understand. I am a fairly emotional person and I am a mother and a grandmother," she continued. "I think if I had to live in that situation.... I might just consider becoming one myself." Ms. Tonge, a physician besides being a legislator, tried to 'clarify' her remarks the following day, but to no avail. Both sides of the British political scene came out against her. A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, sought to distance the party from Tonge, saying she was "expressing her personal views" and insisted that the "Liberal Democrats do not condone terrorism in any circumstances whether by suicide bombers or anybody else." Meanwhile, Michael Ancram, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Labor Party, said the comments would "sicken those across the world who have lost loved ones to suicide bombers." Bravo Britain! Cheers Again For Britain!  A new poll out shows that an overwhelming 78% of Britons are not prejudiced against Jews. Although he poll also revealed that one in seven Britons believes the Holocaust has been exaggerated, Lord Greville Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said he was surprised that the numbers who believed the Jewish suffering had been exaggerated were "so low, given the anti-Semitic, racist element present in this country." And although the number of people revealed to be anti-Semitic is a relatively small minority, Home Secretary David Blunkett articulated his "deep concern" at the numbers who believe the Holocaust is exaggerated. He found the result "worrying and disappointing," stating "it means people are prepared to set aside not only the evidence, but the overwhelming emotion that goes with it." It appears that Britain's leaders are willing to tackle the anti-Semitism that has been so rife of late. Again, Bravo! Israel and its fate is the core of Judaism, in the same way Mecca is core to Islam and the Vatican is central to Catholicism. These recent events are proof that the anti-Semitic ploy of trying to separate Israel from Judaism is no longer working. An anti-Semite is an anti-Semite and has no place in the civilized world. And there are countries with the guts to fight them. Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WEST TAPUACH SYNAGOGUE: Tell It To Your Grandma! Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 23, 2004.

Below is an account of the destruction of the Tapuach Synagogue, written by Janet Kasten Friedman, who was there. Janet Friedman is the wife of Rabbi Yehoshua Friedman, Founder of the Noahide Fellowship. They live in Kochav HaShachar (Morning Star), a pioneering community near Jericho. From Israel Club Maoz: "This account reminds me of one I read years ago of the massacre of the student protesters in Teineman Square in China. The journalist in that report wrote how the troops were all specially picked to be basically "country bumpkins" with no direct knowledge of the nature of university students. They were then feed a daily dose of hate propaganda explaining how dangerous and filthy the students were. To further insure they would ruthlessly murder the student, just before being sent into action, they were given some sort of shots to protect them against a 'deadly disease' the students were supposed to be infected with. It was probably an amphetamine. The grandfather of scientific warfare, Sun Tzu, taught that all warfare is based on deception. He emphasized how and why it is necessary to deceive the enemy. It is the nature of tyrants and tyranny to view anyone outside of the ruling circle as an enemy. This includes their Army as well. Deceptions, manipulations and outright lies are all the tools of the trade for Israel's ruling elite. To put it in the simple language American politician enjoy using: Deception is how bad people get good people to do bad things. It was through deception that religious soldiers were used on Shabos to destroy a small Jewish community, Gilad Farm, a while back and it was through deception that the Synagogue in Tapuach was destroyed and it will be through further deception that Jewish towns will be destroyed and the Jew deported to Gulags. All of this being done by nice Jewish boys and girls." HELP REBUILD THE TAPUACH SHUL. PLEASE SEND YOUR SUPPORT TO PAYPAL@HAMEIR.ORG OR BY MAIL TO: HAMEIR LDAVID P.O. BOX 960121, 143 DOUGHTY BLVD. INWOOD NY 11096 USA HAMEIR LDAVID P.O. BOX 4005 ARIEL 44837 ISRAEL There used to be an Israeli schoolchild's expression, said when someone is lying to you: "tell it to your grandma!" Presumably the child thinks the old-fashioned, and perhaps slightly senile lady is more likely than himself to believe the lie. Or perhaps the expression comes from "sipurei savta" = "grandmother's tales" meaning old-wives stories. I am indeed a grandmother, but even when I was young I was often accused of being naive, old-fashioned and gullible. But I was not gullible enough to believe the tale I was told today! The tale was told to me by an Israeli soldier who spoke American English. I never met him before and don't know how long he's been in Israel, but he obviously believed what he told me. I was at Tapuah where my married son lives with his wife and kids. Hundreds of soldiers and police were there to destroy the synagogue. True, it was only an unfinished wooden structure; but the Divine Presence has dwelled in little wooden shuls throughout most of Jewish history. The army sped in there the moment the Supreme Court ruled that the synagogue was to be targeted. I also sped there as fast as I could hitchhike; but by the time I got there at 1:30 the road had already been closed. In general, the resistance to the destruction was not very well organized. Many people could not make it even as far as I had gotten. I tried to run around the back way and was stopped by soldiers, first male then female. They held me in a jeep for a little under 2 hours and then let me out, presumably because most of the destruction was over. I made a beeline up the hill and was stopped about a half a kilometer from the synagogue. I tried to weave my way around the soldiers, but they were many and fast. When a jeep came I lay down on the road and was promptly dragged off by a team of female soldiers. I repeated this tactic several times over the course of about 2 hours. In between scuffling we shared water and I explained to these kids that it was nothing personal. I love them and pray for them daily; but that destroying synagogues is not the proper function of the IDF. My "function" requires me to resist such destruction. Here's where I heard the grandmother's tale: "Can I just speak to you for a few minutes? Please, Janet?" He knew my name, this American-born soldier, and that's a good resistance-breaking technique. Hey, I might as well listen, since I've got a soldier-girl sitting on my legs and another two holding my arms. Literally a captive audience! If I wanted to I could tell him I don't listen to traitors, but hey, he's a nice boy, and means well and I might as well listen as not. "OK, talk. I'm not going anywhere right now, anyway. I love you guys, its not your fault... but I can't let you destroy a synagogue without resistance... if I could, I would stop you completely!" "We're not destroying it. We're only taking it apart to be put back together again somewhere else... maybe even here on this same hilltop..." So this soldier explained to me gently, sweetly, in New York English, in attempt to be humane and help me see the Error of my Ways in resisting Army Orders. He seemed to even believe it himself: the army isn't destroying a synagogue; its simply taking it apart in order to move it! The soldiers down the hill in the jeep had told me the same thing, but I had thought I just didn't catch the Hebrew linguistic nuances. "What's the difference" I asked my sabra captors in the jeep, "between 'destroying' (leharos) and 'taking apart' (lefarek)? I thought they were just correcting my Hebrew. No. They were correcting my political incorrectness. 'Destroying'," they explained pedantically, "means breaking up the pieces so they can't be rebuilt. 'Taking apart' means unscrewing all the pieces carefully, leaving them intact so they can be re-assembled elsewhere." "That's why," explained the soldier from NY. "this 'action' is taking so long. The army doesn't want to destroy..." Well, when they finished the 'action' on the synagogue, a voice yelled, "yalla, let 'er go!" The young woman got off my legs, the men let me go through, and I completed my beeline up the hill. Soldiers were coming down and I was going up. What do you say to Jewish soldiers who have just destroyed a synagogue? Should I avoid looking them in the eye? Should I turn my face from them, not to look at an evil person? Will they think I am ashamed of myself for having been so silly as to get full of mud and scratches at my age, and for what? To resist the mighty IDF?! Should I curse them out, my own fellow Jews, my son's friends, brethren in arms, who, until today, had spent their time trying to protect us all?. Should I yell "traitors!"? I decided to to what R. Kook said to do: Hate the sin; love the sinner. I said to the groups of frighteningly silent soldiers, who were coming in groups down the hill. "See you tomorrow at the Temple in Jerusalem." Most of the soldiers ignored me, army orders, no doubt. A few said "amen", but the "mishmar ha gvul" guys "protecting" the bulldozer from my dangerous influence, shoved my into a gully where I landed (thank G-d) feet first and was held there till the bulldozer was safe. I got to the synagogue. It was not "taken apart"; it was destroyed! Beams were broken in the middle, corregated roof-material was split into splintered pancakes. A pile of ashes was on the side. If anything was neatly "taken apart" I saw no sign of it. I've long since stopped trying to understand why Sharon, or any other elected or self-appointed Israeli politician would want to make any concessions to Arabs. It clearly only hurts us and cannot help. In my mind I think of Leftist ideology and the actions spawned by it as a kind of autism. Does anybody really understand what the autistic person is thinking?! I no longer waste my time trying to understand the mysteries of mental illness. But I wondered: how will they get Jewish soldiers to carry out anti-Semitic attacks? Today I learned how: They indoctrinate the soldiers to believe they are doing an innocent, even a good, deed. They are simply "moving" us to a safer place! They "protected" me from getting run over by a jeep (never mind that the jeep was going to destroy a synagogue). They "dismantled" the synagogue, they didn't "destroy" it! These Jewish soldiers are 18-21 years old. Their schools never taught independent thinking. They watch TV and movies and seldom read anything deeper than a newspaper. Those newspapers are chock full of leftist propaganda spiced with pornography. Their social lives revolve around the army and carving out a niche for themselves among their peers. They are good kids, generous of heart and very Jewish just under their hedonistic exterior. But they are pitifully naive, woefully unaware that the people who are supposed to be in charge are selling us all down the drain. Please, American-speaking Soldier, wherever you are now, please listen to me, now! They lied to you! Next time they do it, tell 'em: "Tell it to your grandmother!"

SYNAGOGUE SAVAGERY: CHILLEL HASHEM Posted by Emanual A.Winston, January 23, 2004.

Israel, in desperate need of a strong image to the world, instead sends troops to destroy a synagogue. Would Christians send troops to destroy a church? Would Muslims even think to destroy a mosque? Only the shallow-minded dummies like Mofaz, Lapid and their boss Sharon would shame the nation thinking they will receive gratitude from Bush, the Arabs and the Europeans. When Netanyahu gave away Hebron, he, too, thought that he would be applauded by America, the U.N. (United Nations), the E.U. (European Union) but, all he got was the comment: what else can you part with? When Ehud Barak ran like a river rat from Lebanon, he thought that he would be applauded by Clinton and receive money for re-locating. Of course, Barak thought whatever came into his mind and out of his mouth must be true. All Israel rescued was an influx of Hezb'Allah with 12,000 missiles now positioned at all parts of Israel's Northern border. Now, the world stands in shock and feels shame for the Jews who turned into 'pintele Yids' (small cringing Jews) in their disposition to please Bush. The Arabs laughed; the Christians in Europe smiled and the Christian Fundamentalists simply felt shame for the Jews they have been trying to help. Jews like Sharon, his sons, Dov Weisglass and all of Sharon's other "Yes" men, talk to themselves in their little conference rooms, certain they have absorbed the world. They take no advise from anyone because they believe that they know everything better than anyone else. If they were warned that destroying a small synagogue would make them look stupid, cowardly, irreverent, anti-religious and small, they would have told you, Not to worry. We know what we're doing. But they usually don't know what they are doing. In fact, they have not a clue. In fact, they are uneducable. So, what synagogue will Sharon, Lapid, Mofaz knock down tomorrow? What sort of show will this trio of misfits put on for the world in the near or more distant future? Let's see what more you three can do to shame the Jewish nation and the Jewish people. ### Links for eyewitness stories about the Synagogue Savagery: Jan. 22, 2004 "Imagine thinking: "I COULD HAVE been that man" "A Lamentation for Tapuach" by Tsvi Selengut "Heroic Hilltop Community of Tapuach West Defending Themselves from Sharon's Troops Who Came To Destroy the "Illegal" Synagogue!" Full Photos Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm)

GIVING ANTI-SEMITISM THE BOOT: Amid European Worries, Italian Soccer Acts Posted by IsrAlert, January 23, 2004.

This article was written by Tom Rachman, Associated Press Writer. It was published in Tampa Bay Online (http://ap.tbo.com). ROME (AP) - Soccer hooligans - not exactly known for well-mannered behavior - committed a memorably despicable act at a Rome stadium a few years back, holding up a vast banner at opposing Jewish fans: "Auschwitz Is Your Country; the Ovens Are Your Homes." Five years on, in a Europe faced with new violence against Jews, Italian soccer is using the same stadium for a charity "Match of Memory" to fund a Holocaust museum. In addition, professional players have been ordered to march onto the field at this weekend's matches in T-shirts marking Holocaust Memorial Day. Jewish leaders wonder if soccer, Europe's unifying obsession, might be a way to tackle anti-Semitism. "It's about time," said European Jewish Congress secretary-general Serge Cwajgenbaum. "It's an informal type of education that should maybe be enlarged and maybe should be seen all over." He and other Jewish leaders have argued that Europe is gripped by a new anti-Semitic outburst, 60 years after the Nazis killed 6 million Jews. In the past three years, Jews in Europe have suffered assaults, synagogues have been targeted and, on one occasion, teenagers on an amateur Jewish soccer team were attacked with sticks and metal bars. Both the world soccer's governing body, FIFA, and its European counterpart, UEFA, fight racism in the sport, but neither has tried to combat hatred of Jews specifically. The Italian effort has gained considerable support, with dozens of local celebrities signing on to participate in the "Match of Memory" on Tuesday, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The game will be broadcast on state television, with proceeds going to a planned Holocaust museum in Rome. Among those watching the match will be Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. "It's not my style to go to football games, especially not when we deal with a ceremony of such sobriety," he said by telephone. But "it's an important thing everywhere to remember what happened in those times, especially these days when the memories of those times are vanishing together with those who lived them." Soccer may seem a strange choice for such a solemn event. Soccer violence has killed dozens of fans; fans have pelted black players with debris and taunted them; teams considered to have Jewish supporters suffer grotesque chants and insults. Roman Jewish community official Raffaella Spizzichino remembered the moment in November 1998 when she came to Rome's Olympic stadium to support her team AS Roma, and read the Auschwitz banner hung by extremist supporters of crosstown rival Lazio. Rather than turning away from the sport, she helped organize the upcoming soccer events. "We chose to do this to break the taboo in the soccer world, which often forgets the Holocaust," she said. "Why do this in the world of soccer? Because the world of soccer is what draws most attention." However, journalist Simon Kuper, who studied the links between politics and soccer in his book, "Football Against the Enemy," doubts there is a link between anti-Semitism among soccer hooligans and recent attacks on European Jews. "The hooligans or hard-core fans know that shouting anti-Semitic stuff is shocking to people, which is why they do it. These are not people who have elaborate neo-Nazi ideologies," he said. Kuper says anti-Semitism is terrible, but the recent phenomenon has been greatly mischaracterized. "You get the sense that Europe's on the brink of another Holocaust. Every famous figure who says something anti-Semitic - it's all proof that Europe's old demons are reappearing, we're sliding back," he said. But most of the recent anti-Semitic violence was committed in France by Muslim youths who have no political power, he said. "These acts are not a very good measure of widespread attitudes, and as far as I can see they do not relate to these people at football matches." Wiesel, however, disagreed, saying current European anti-Semitism is not the work of a small, disaffected group. "My generation has good antennas," he said. "We have antennas and we feel it's anti-Semitism and it's dangerous. We have a right to say so and a duty to say so." Although the thugs who hang signs mocking the memory of Auschwitz may never be converted, officials hope millions of other fans who witness such acts will at least begin to say, "Enough." "I believe it's important for all those who go every Sunday to the stadium," said Francesco Ghirelli of the Italian Soccer Federation. "It's a moment to listen and remember - an important cultural moment." Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

ISRAEL'S MAARIV NEWSPAPER LAUNCHES ONLINE ENGLISH VERSION Posted by Eli S. Pollack, January 23, 2004.

PRESS RELEASE: JERUSALEM - ISRAEL - Israel's leading newspaper, Maariv, along with two US partners, announced this week the launching of its online daily English edition www.maarivintl.com. The site, officially launched on January 20th, 2004, will provide a full range of daily news, business news, and opinions and editorials, as well as up-to-the-minute breaking news. Designed similarly to Maariv's popular Hebrew site, it will stand out among competing sites with its mid-stream, balanced approach to Israeli politics for which Maariv is already well-known. In addition to top quality news, the site will offer a host of valuable features and services including: publication of reader comments to articles, an in-house e-commerce store, 24-hour live video streaming from the Western Wall, classified ads, stock and currency quotes, and an online radio streaming with over ten thousand songs. The Maariv International site is a product of a three-way joint venture between Maariv and two US based companies, E-Shop Enterprises and Joya Global Corp. All parties will play a pivotal role in the success of this joint venture. While Maariv will supply the site with ongoing content as well as its world renowned reputation and brand name, Joya Global Corp will be responsible for overall technical development of the website and for translations. E-Shop Enterprises will focus on business development of the site and on cultivating various revenue streams that the site will generate. "We have found that there is a growing demand amongst both Diaspora Jews and non-Jews alike for our content" says Ofer Nimrodi, Maariv's publisher. "The online English edition will allow readers who do not read Hebrew to receive quality content from Israel, along with a true picture of what transpires in Israel." Articles and breaking news on the site will be translated throughout the day from Maariv's Hebrew online site (maariv.co.il) which currently boasts over 200,000 unique users a day. "We are excited about the creation of this Joint Venture and the launch of the new site" says Jess Dolgin, CEO of E-Shop Enterprises, who initiated and spearheaded the formation of the venture. "The site will provide English readers worldwide with an invaluable source of news and information from Israel, along with many additional services. The goal of the joint venture partners is to take the online Anglo-Jewish experience to the next level." Maarivintl.com (also accessible through maarivinternational.com and maarivenglish.com) will maintain the overall look and feel of its Hebrew counterpart and will be updated by both Israeli and US based translators. "We are happy to be partners in providing the English reading public a fresh and unbiased look at both Israeli news and politics which is long overdue" says Elliot Moscowitz, CEO of Joya Global Corp, "our goal is to deliver the highest quality of online news and services possible geared specifically to the needs of the world wide Anglo community who take a serious interest in real news from Israel? For more information about the Maariv International website, please contact Jess Dolgin 310-344-7376.

ISRAELI-SUDAN DETENTE IN THE WORKS Posted by IsrAlert, January 23, 2004.

This was written by Itamar Inbari and appeared in the Maariv International (http://www.maarivinternational.com). An Israeli delegation visited Sudan this week in order to facilitate the immigration of 18,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel, according to a report by Kuwaiti newspaper A-Siasa. European diplomatic sources in Geneva told the newspaper that the delegation, comprised of Foreign Ministry and IDF representatives, was allowed to visit following US intervention. The sources added that the warming up in Israel-Sudan relations follows two recent developments, one being the peace agreement recently finalized in Sudan, which ended the civil war between the North and the South. Another reason cited was the recent thaw between Israel and Libya over the past 6 months. The sources explained that these relations are part of Israel's attempt to end hostility with Arab states. A senior Ethiopian official told the sources that Sudanese President, Omar Al-Bashir, did not meet with the Israeli delegation because he was attending the Cairo Summit hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the time. Even so, the meeting featured senior Sudanese officials who closely supervised the talks between the Israeli and Ethiopian delegations and also took an active role in formulating the agreement to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel. According to the report, Sudan agreed to allow Israel to use its airports in order to ensure that the planned immigration operation is successful and also offered to designate several airplanes for that purpose. The European sources also reported that during meetings in Khartoum the parties agreed that an Israeli delegation would fly to the Sudanese capital in order to oversee the operation. The sources noted that Sudan's President updated his Egyptian counterpart on the planned initiative before approving the Israeli delegation's visit.

SPIN: THE ART OF IGNORING THE OBVIOUS Posted by Tamar Rush, January 23, 2004.

This was written by Vernon Richards. In any debate, to confuse an opponent, the classical approach is by and through obfuscation, tangential diatribes, and/or classic political spin. The desired effect is to create confusion, to weaken an opponent's resolve and momentum through diversionary tactics. It is an age-old approach employed when one's own arguments have weak moral or logical foundations. The tactic is often the only option when tasked with presenting an inferior argument, which cannot be promoted through persuasiveness based on reason, logic, or moral clarity. This method becomes the only viable option because a more progressive concept cannot be beaten by an inferior philosophy without those arguing on behalf of the lower standard first concealing obvious truths in layers of fog. On hearing such rhetoric, a reasonable layperson may detect that there is something wrong with either the message or the delivery, but sufficient time for careful analysis and appropriate response is seldom available, as expediency quickly sweeps both the obvious facts with the muck into the past. Once the audience has been so prepared, one can then make suggestions and offer premises that would have otherwise been easily recognized as irrational or unconscionable. When carefully prepared and delivered under the axiom "the bigger the lie, the easier it is for people to swallow," otherwise outlandish suggestions can result in a mental shock effect, which over time can break down resistance. To the masses for which the spin was constructed, the net effect is confusion and the blunting of reasonable responses and actions, as well as more of an inclination to accept the unacceptable, or at least to tolerate the intolerable. Indeed, when not properly recognized and challenged, there is the potential that otherwise good people might eventually accept that right is wrong, or that evil means can be sanctified if associated with a seemingly good cause. Take the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for example. Claiming that Israel is the sole instigator and villain in this passionate and tragic play is a tactic designed to hide many truths in plain sight. The weak-minded demonstrate personal failure when they bury their heads in the sand, and are akin to the Germans who "closed their drapes" as the Jews were rounded up. We all see and hear about the things going on in the Middle East every day, yet many continue to hide behind silly libels against the US and Israel to either justify continued support for the Palestinian cause and methods, or to remain silent. In a population of 6.3 million, Israel has endured over a hundred suicide bombings. If the same proportion of attacks had occurred in the USA (288 Million people), there would have been 4571 suicide bombings with over 40,000 killed and hundreds of thousands wounded (often maimed for life). The number killed would be the equivalent of twelve 'Sept-11/Pearl-Harbor' type mega-attacks! Almost everyone would know more than one victim. Pause... and think about it. The reaction of this nation would likely be more severe and violent than the Palestinians have faced to date from all Israeli actions. Without second thoughts or significant dissension we would be sending our armies marching orders to destroy everyone suspected of supporting the attacks in any way. Political correctness would yield to the logic of survival and nearly every American would support any and all means necessary to completely ruin individuals, organizations, and governments deemed remotely culpable, with collateral damage of much, much less concern. Truth is truth, to the end of reckoning. Spin may distract, but does not diminish her. When "Old Europe" and our own schizophrenic State Department say, "create a Palestinian state, coddle the Saudis, don't offend anyone," it only serves to embolden despots and their terrorist foot soldiers. When we respond to left-leaning media, our Arab "allies," and the Europeans, we lose moral authority and giving sanctuary and encouragement to despots and terrorists alike. As with the Israelis, our survival and democracy depends on us living with both eyes wide open, willing to do the hard things necessary to protect our children's future. Islamic extremists, and Palestinians in particular, continually debase themselves as they bask in their hatreds, blood lust, and thirst for revenge. Ongoing anxiety and suffering cries out for intelligent deliberation, judgment, and then effective action. State department coddling and financial/humanitarian-aid notwithstanding, nothing we can ever do will make fascist fanatics love us. We can only make them fear and respect us. The world should with unison loudly reject when terrorists weave pure spin claiming violent murderous tactics are a legitimate option in pursuit of freedom and self-determination. In fact they have had, and do have, complete control of their future and far superior options to choose from, but have chosen to surrender that future by engaging in illegal and immoral activities. They have spent their entire allowance pursuing these doomed options, and now claim to be victims when facing the unavoidable consequences of their poor choices. Obfuscation aside, no people have the right to exercise their right to self-determination, if the path they choose in pursuit of the same involves bombing cafes, night-clubs, busses, targeting women, children, students, simple commuters and pedestrians, and families in their homes. It is the opinion of this author that engaging in and supporting such activities disqualifies an individual, culture, even a whole people from normal inherent rights to freedom of movement, association, assembly, self-determination, and self-rule. Palestinian extremists, who appear to enjoy support by the majority of locals, are simply not advanced, mature, or grown-up enough to be trusted with certain freedoms. Current events and past history has proven they will only exercise those freedoms to terrorize, kill and maim. To propose otherwise is to essentially argue to immediately empty all prisons worldwide and to abolish all laws and punishments based on concepts of personal responsibility. And it follows that opposing the rule of law is in fact a proposal for wholesale regression to principals akin to middle-age tribal conquest and rule. While it is heart wrenching to see and hear of the suffering of innocent Palestinian children in the current conflict, yet we must not forget the culpability lies squarely on the shoulders of the parents and leaders who have failed them. The only thing we can do to help them take that necessary first step of real change (accepting personal responsibility for their mistakes and failures), is to expose and resolutely reject the spin they spew to deceive themselves and others. Conveniently ignoring the vast majority of official violent passages and verse, promoters acting in the cause of Islam will continue to quote the same oft-repeated minuscule 'goodies' from the Quran to tell us the 9-11 episode is not 'real Islam.' From President George Bush to brother Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), every 'lover' of Islam is using a huge loudspeaker to announce to the world that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Islam does not preach violence, terrorism, murder, killing, raping, burning, and looting... etc. The terrorists have hijacked peaceful Islam. How very nice those words are... Islam is the light of the world. The world would surely plunge into a new dark age without the light of Islam... One can't help wondering why they feel inclined to praise Islam and its works quite so often. Self-praise is no recommendation, and the barrage seems aimed to both reassure themselves and to deceive the uneducated. The world asks, if Islam is such a virtuous religion, then why does it need such a huge broadcast to proclaim such to the billions of 'ignorant Kafirs,' 'Islam is peaceful' ad infinitum, as if repeating it often enough can alter reality or somehow create truth out of thin air. No other religion in the world needs such a huge advertising campaign to deflect criticism. Is there anything wrong with Islam? Of course not! Everything is fine and dandy with Islam. That great cry from the dust of tens of millions of dead and persecuted is simply the wind. If anything seems amiss with Islam, it is not the fault of the 'best religion' of Allah, but is by sinister design from the evil Jews, the satanic West (Christians), the vile Maalaoon Indians (Hindus) and the repugnant secularists/ freethinkers. In the classical strategy of transference, when challenged they parlay and deflect criticism by accusing the accusers of being guilty of what Islam is itself most guilty of; persecution, misinformation, intolerance, prejudice, and bigotry. Violence and spin, the chief exports of Islam, grows louder daily, yet somewhere in the fog, truth still stands silently and solidly in opposition to the din. The Emperor's Raiment The grand Emperor, Muhammad, enjoyed grand clothing and fine robes as ornate and decorated as any great leader of vast kingdoms, but sought ever finer raiment so that others might see outwardly the greatness and power of his office and influence. He had the finest clothes and trappings commensurate with his desires, but a great tailor and wizard from another land whispered in his ear that he could create an adornment so beautiful, grand, and powerful that all who saw it would naturally worship the wearer as the greatest of all leaders. The material to be used possessed the unique quality of being visible only to the truly enlightened and intelligent, but would be invisible to stupid infidels. Work commenced and soon the great one was on proud display with his new robe for all the world to see. The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen should be studied carefully as it seems more applicable today than any other time in history. Today many view plainly the works of Islam yet continue to issue the usual politically correct euphemisms of how beautiful and perfect the new robes appear. The simple innocence and honesty of an unafraid, unsophisticated child is called for to give the rest of us the courage to state the obvious. Who are the new weavers of the emperor's new clothes today? Islamic apologists, the myopic liberal media, academia elitists, as well as an unusual conflagration of fascists, communists, European socialists, anarchists, and many other far-left and far-right organizations throughout the world. You can call me stupid, I just don't see it. The reader is hereby promised that if you study without bias the facts herein in their entirety, the robes will become invisible to you too. The spectacle of 'Islam Undressed' is neither benign nor pleasing, and is likely to invoke embarrassment or horror from the looker, but should also result in a healthy dose of apprehension and accompanying survivalist thinking. Survival is the first order of the day, once secure we can return to debating the niceties of various more subtle political and cultural differences and resurrect more sensitive approaches to handle political, religious, and racial sensibilities. For now, the sight of this self-described great emperor needs to be dealt with, particularly his intentions with respect to the sword of Jihad in his right hand already dripping in blood. The issue at hand is the war we are engaged in, which we are told is a war against 'terror'. But terror is a method, not an enemy. Those who limit their thinking to the constraints of the politically-correct 'thought police' seem content to believe that we are not really fighting individuals or nations, but rather some kind of abstraction, as if somewhere there are soldiers with "Republic of Terror" embroidered on their uniforms marching lock-step to attack us. Terrorist acts are simply the weapon of choice deployed by the true enemy. So in reality we are no more in a war against 'terrorism' than we were engaged fighting the scourge of Machine guns in WWI, Zeros in WWII, the plague of German Tanks in WWII, or the threat of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. Though such vague, loose nomenclature may be reassuring in our society obsessed as it is with political correctness, it is unnecessarily nebulous. Such poor precision is deception and prevents rational evaluation of the true threat behind the terrorist weapon deployed against us. In wartime, machine guns, kamikaze zeros, tanks, and bombs don't kill people -- actual real people acting on some nationalistic, political, or religious ideology pull the trigger. There are two very practical pieces of advice upon which one can base fair judgment of other people, religions, and governments. In fact those who fail to embrace this advice completely are destined to remain forever as lost as 'old' Europe is today. I believe my source is a good one. The first litmus test to use in judgment is, "Only through a man's works is his true nature exposed." The other is, "By this we can know if man has truly repented, he will confess and forsake the bad behavior". By these two pieces of advice, one can fairly judge the value of individuals'/groups' actions, and also gauge the progression of an individual/group if and when they realize their actions lead to bad fruit, and make claim to be reformed. Until then, it would be stupid to call the kettle anything other than 'black,' even when speaking from a pot that is less than white. Civic piety allied with political correctness is collectively blinding us, keeping us from asking reasonable questions about Islam, questions upon which the survival of our civilization may depend. Does Western culture obsessed with tolerance render us incapable of drawing reasonable conclusions about Islam's core values and designs? The general reluctance to criticize any non-Christian religion and the almost universal public ignorance about Islam make for a dangerous and potentially lethal mix. Until the day Islam takes full responsibility for the violence being produced in her name, we must be realistic and realize all we can expect is more of the same... a little 'hand wringing' is probably all we will ever see from their regional and world leaders, along with more finger pointing at Israel and the West. The reasons for such pessimism will become clear later. In the mean time, until we see effective action and hear convincingly from this supposed vast silent majority of peace-loving Muslims, it is expedient for the rest of the world to take off the blinders and begin to live with both eyes wide open. The book "Islam Undressed" is a critical analysis of 'real' Islam, studying its people, politics, culture, philosophies, and practices yesterday and today. A copy of the book can be obtained by sending a request to Islam_Undressed@yahoo.com.

THE TAKING DOWN OF TAPUACH WEST Posted by Moshe Burt, January 23, 2004.

On Tuesday morning, 20 January, 2004, immediately upon receiving a Supreme Court decision denying Tapuach-West's appeal regarding their Beit Knesset, a force of several hundred military and police, equipped with bulldozers descended upon the site. The Army quickly placed barriers at the Tapuach Junction to prevent the arrival of Shul supporters. However, some of the supporters were able to arrive in any event. And so, the Tapuach group was caught flat-footed. By about 2:15 PM, the destruction of the Shul had begun. Despite the court's mandate that the demolition of the synagogue must be carried out with great caution, witnesses state that hundreds of police and military arrived at Tapuach-West "with great violence, most of them armed, and some of them even fired in the air... Some people have been knocked unconscious by their violence. " The Aron HaKodesh which housed the Shul's new Sefer Torah, placed there two weeks earlier, was violently confiscated by the army. One young female resident begged the police not to confiscate the Aron, that it belonged her family. She was brutally beaten-up by police officers for no other reason than for asserting ownership of the Aron. In the aftermath of the dismantlement, information has come to the fore which, if proven, indicates that Yesha Council, by virtue of their silence and inaction, may have been complicit wih Prime Minister Sharon, the police and the military in the "rabbinic supervised" trashing of theTapuach-West Shul. "Senior Yesha Council official Bentzi Lieberman released a message to the media calling on the IDF to exercise restraint and comply with the law while carrying out orders to destroy Yesha outposts. The veteran Yesha activist reiterated the Yesha Council remains opposed to the uprooting of any Jewish community (outpost) in the Land of Israel, adding the Tapuah West community was authorized by former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Binyamin Netanyahu. Lieberman stated Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could have permitted the process to obtain permits for the synagogue but instead ordered the building destroyed." The Council further stated that "...it objects to the evacuation of any Jewishly-held point in the Land of Israel, and that with a little good will, the government could have authorized the synagogue, just as the Barak government did in the past in similar situations. At the same time, the Yesha Council said it would not take part in the efforts to prevent the demolition 'in cases where we do not know in advance the nature of the resistance.' The Council thus leveled some veiled criticism of the Kach supporters in Tapuach, implying that they might respond violently to the evacuation." (Arutz-7 Demolition of Tapuach Synagogue Begins With Violence14:17 Jan 20, '04 / 26 Tevet 5764) Although Yesha Council did issue some weak statements in opposition to the trashing of Tapuach-West's Shul, very reliable sources, both among the Religious-Nationalist movement and the opposition Labor Party have indicated a secret back-room deal struck at the highest levels of both the Yesha Council and the Sharon government whereby Yesha Council would not interfere in the bulldozing of Tapuach-West's Beit Knesset and in echange, the government would refrain from dismantling a certain unnamed outpost. On an internet forum, a number of people submitted emails describing how they contacted Yesha Council inquiring as to how to get to Tapuach-West and what the Council was doing to help Tapuach. They apparently received responses from the Council "not to be concerned about Tapuach-West." And particularly damning was a statement in a Hebrew newspaper attributed to "an unnamed Yesha spokesman" which said "Baruch shepetarnu m'hamivneh hazeh" -- "Blessed is the one who set us free from this building." Just what we need -- lies and deceit within the Nationalist ranks. Is there nothing sacred? "Surely this thing is known..." (Torah Gems, Volume 2, page 20 on Parsha Sh'mos, Perek 2, posuk 14 quoting Binah Le-Itim.) "At the beginning of the Parsha, we are told that when Moshe grew up, he went out to see his brethren ... their ways and behavior. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and there was no one else in sight, i.e., no other Hebrew ... willing to defend the man .... being beaten, he assumed that was because their slavery had destroyed their will to struggle. On the second day, though when he saw two Hebrews fighting one another and one said to him, 'as you killed the Egyptian,' he saw that that man believed that Moshe's actions on the previous day had been wrong. Moshe responded, 'Surely this thing is known' -- it is not their slavery nor their lack of strength to fight back that is causing them not to resist the Egpytians, because they are perfectly willing to fight one another. What is evidently missing is a sense of justice, of mutual support, of helping the weak, and that is the reason why the redemption had not yet come. 'Surely, this thing is known' -- now I understand the matter." And so too, in our generation, it's not that we are weak and can't fight, it's just not politically correct among those who are assimilated, who seek to be as the goyim, who seek "a state of all of it's people" or are afraid to assert Jewish possession of Eretz Yisrael and who are totally devoid of Torah. In our generation, divisiveness and Chillul Hashem abound. IY'H, that B'nai Yisrael comes to our collective senses and finally sees the imperative dangers, both within and without, and acts to defeat them. May we not lose further valuable Jewish neshamot to the machinations and chesbonot of the anti-Torah politically self-interested. In the merit of our collective unity, emunah and actions, may we be zocha to compell Hashem to do what he want's to do, to bring us Moshiach, the Geula Shlaima, and an end to low, dirty politics, political equivocation, perfidy and false cheshbonot; Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!! Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network . He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

PR CHIEF: Don't Use word 'Hasbara' Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 23, 2004.

This was written by Greer Fay Cashman and appeared in yesterday's Jerusalem Post. It was a hasbara man's dream. Gideon Meir, Deputy Director General for Public Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had completed his presentation to several hundred WIZO members from 28 countries and was about to quit the stage when cries of protest echoed through the ballroom of the Tel Aviv Hilton. The women didn't want to let him go. Involved in presenting Israel's case in their places of domicile, they wanted to hear more - and they wanted to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. The look of surprised delight on Meir's face said it all. His constant uphill battle includes having to contend with anti-government viewpoints as expressed by the Israeli media. In fact a WIZO leader from Panama, where Israel has no embassy, asked whether views that run counter to government policy could not be censored. In the absence of Israeli diplomats, she said, WIZO had to take responsibility for most of the hasbara effort, and it was extremely difficult to defend issues that were being criticized by the Israeli media. "We are paying the price for the fact that we are a democracy," responded Meir. "Being a democracy means having a free press that represents the different views of Israel and allowing foreign media access to 99 percent of the places they want to go to." While Israel as a democracy accommodates dissenting voices, Meir pointed out, "on the Palestinian side there is not one voice of dissent." One of Israel's major hasbara problems said Meir, "is that we don't want to be defensive. We want to be pro-active." Actually, he dislikes the word hasbara that translates as information or explanation because "it has a negative or apologetic connotation and we have nothing for which we have to apologize. We have a strong case." An inter-ministerial task force will be focusing on the issue of the security fence in the weeks ahead in preparation for deliberations that are set to begin at the International Court of Justice in the Hague on February 23. The Palestinians are calling the fence an apartheid wall, said Meir. Israel is calling it an anti-terror fence because its purpose is to protect people inside Israel from Palestinian terrorism. In the battle for public opinion, Israel's toughest challenge according to Meir is media distortion and undisguised anti-Israel bias. Various examples that he screened included an El Mundo report on the terrorist attack on the Dolphinarium in which the suicide bomber was humanized. "He died last Friday with 19 young Israelis in a suicide attack in Tel Aviv," read the report. While Israel's credibility is often questioned with regard to any given incident, said Meir, "the credibility of the Palestinians is never questioned." Meir cited several instances where it should have been. Similarly, Israel is always portrayed as the aggressor and the Palestinians as the victims. When Israelis and Palestinians are depicted in a photo montage, the Israelis almost always come off looking worse. Meir showed a British example that featured the faces of Binyamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat. Netanyahu had a fierce, hard-line scowl, while sweetness and light emanated from Arafat's visage. And yet, noted Meir, Arafat is the only political leader in the world whose attire relentlessly represents the continuing armed struggle. "Even (President Fidel) Castro (of Cuba) occasionally wears a business suit. But you'll never see Arafat in a business suit. He always wears the uniform of the armed struggle."

HE BROKE THE LAW AND SHOULD PAY THE PRICE Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, January 23, 2004.

There they go again, those "wild weeds from Brooklyn," as former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called them, religious Jews and rabbis at that, starting trouble in Israel. Rabbi Arik Ascherman is currently on trial along with two other Israeli activists. They don't deny blocking the bulldozers, but they said the demolitions were illegal and had a "duty" to stop them. Were they trying to stop the bulldozing of "illegal outposts"? Not a chance. No, it was Israel's bleeding-heart liberals... Ascherman - a Reform rabbi and leader of the left-leaning Rabbis for Human Rights - was charged with blocking police from demolishing illegally built Arab structures in eastern Jerusalem in two incidents last year. His co-defendants, Shai Eliezer Tzvi and Omer Ori, were charged with joining Ascherman - the former rabbi of Richmond's Temple Beth Hillel - in the second incident. Arabs around the country regularly build houses on vacant land or build additions to existing structures, without getting the necessary building permits. The Arabs - both "Palestinians" and Israeli citizens - generally refuse to recognize Israel's authority to issue permits. And, since every time Israel wants to enforce the building laws, Arabs, Israeli leftists and their international followers turn it into an "international incident," Israel only infrequently carries out the court-ordered demolitions. Despite the protests, both houses were torn down. The Israeli prosecutor Shlomit Landes told the judge in the Jerusalem Magistrate Court that the activists had illegally prevented police from carrying out orders, and that the legality of home demolitions was not the issue before the court. They simply broke the law in trying to prevent the police from carrying out demolition orders, which were the response to Arab building-code violations. But Ascherman has international backing, the North American branch of Rabbis For Human Rights. Simcha Weintraub, a Conservative rabbi from Brooklyn, presented a letter to Israeli officials in the United States, signed by more than 300 American rabbis in support of Ascherman's breaking the law. Back in October 2002, during the height of the left's hysteria campaign against "settlements," then Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg called the people protesting at Gilad Farm in Samaria "Jewish Hamas." They were protesting the expulsion of people from their homes on legally owned Jewish land, that for political purposes, the Sharon government found convenient to expropriate, calling it an "illegal outpost." If Jews protesting the theft of their property are "Jewish Hamas," what are Ascherman and his group? Where is Burg now? At the same time, Meretz Party Knesset member Yossi Sarid said: "All of the settlements were created by law-breaking and violence and I hope the spread of this cancer will end quickly. The outposts are worse than suicide-bomb belts." Does Sarid endorse Arab law-breaking, while condemning Jews? What about the law-breaking of his friends, Ascherman and Rabbis for Human Rights? Illegal Arab building in Jerusalem or elsewhere undermines Israel's sovereignty. Radical leftists, whether rabbis or not, who help the enemy in wartime - Israel has been at war for more than three years now - damage Israel's image abroad and undermine its resolve to win. More than 1,000 Jews have been killed in the intifada. If Ascherman's actions strengthen the resolve of the Palestinians to continue fighting - i.e., killing Jews - will Sarid now say that Ascherman and his group are "worse than suicide-bomb belts"? Where is Yossi Sarid now? But worse, Ascherman and Rabbis For Human Rights are known to regularly support the Arabs living in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank. For example, following the murder of shepherd Yair Har-Sinai in July 2001 by terrorists from Yata, a hostile Arab village, Rabbis For Human Rights organized a campaign to protest the Israeli army's security measures imposed upon the population of Yata and the environs. It's from that area that the murderers of Har-Sinai, Dov Dribben, and 14-year-olds Kobi Mandel and Yosef Ishran came. I guess that's a Jewish and Zionist "duty" also. The left in Israel is continually harassing the brave Jews who are building up the Jewish homeland in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Yet, they seem to overlook at best, and more often help the Arabs who are working to steal the Jewish people's patrimony. This conflict, between the Jews and Israel on one side and the Arabs - "Palestinians" - on the other, is being fought on the political level, on the military level and also on the territorial level, house by house. Arabs stealing land, or building illegal additions to their homes, is an act of war. As for Ascherman and his group, I don't have words strong enough to describe them. Ariel Natan Pasko is an Israeli independent analyst and consultant in international relations. This article appeared yesterday on the Jewish News Weekly website (http://www.jewishsf.com).

ISRAEL COMES TO THE SOPRANOS Posted by Jules Segal, January 23, 2004.

This was written by Jason Orenstein and appeared on the Israel Insider website (http://web.israelinsider.com) on January 21. Orenstein is a graduate of Yeshiva University who made aliyah last January. Ironic. There is no better word to describe the events unfolding today in the Land of Israel. "This is very sad, very grave, but this is the reality of Israel in 2004. There's Sopranos on television, and there's Sopranos in Israel." So spoke Senior Labor party legislator and Member of Israel's Knesset, Ofer Pines-Paz, who, in a single sentence, aptly summed up the success and ultimate failure of secular Zionism. Pines-Paz was referring to what he termed as a "political earthquake" resulting from the alleged bribery scandal involving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Sharon's son, Gilad, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and potentially many more high-ranking government officials. Sadly, this is not the first time that the names of Sharon and Olmert have arisen in political corruption scandals. In fact, political corruption among Israel's leadership dates back to the period of the pre-state Yishuv, and is perhaps the one area where Israel's political leaders, of both the left and the right, are able to walk side by side. At the very same moment, a political earthquake of another sort is raging in the Land of Israel. The Likud, headed by the likes of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, has undergone a transfiguration to the point where its policies now resemble those of their long time political opponents, the Labor party. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism, of which the Likud party is a direct descendant, must be turning in his grave. Revisionist Zionism, as well as the Likud's party platform, rejects the notion of the creation of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. To hear Sharon and Olmert speak not only of favoring the creation of a Palestinian state, but that if it can not be achieved through negotiations, they will bring it about through unilateral concessions, is truly mind-blowing. MK Amram Mitzna, if he weren't too busy trying to foist non-government sanctioned peace deals such as the Geneva Accords down our throats, would be charging Ariel Sharon with highway robbery. After all, it was Mitzna, then head of the Labor party who was routed by Sharon in Israel's last election, who ran on the platform of making unilateral concessions to the Palestinians and of the need to create some type of physical separation between us and them. Lo and behold, the very platform that forced Mitzna to resign his leadership of the Labor party, as he and the party became the laughingstocks of the country, is now the platform of Ariel Sharon and the Likud. Sharon has stated time and again that he is willing to make painful concessions. Included in those concessions will no doubt be the uprooting and transfer of Jews from their homes. Should this come to pass, it will not represent the first time in the long history of the Jewish people that Jews have been expelled from their homes simply because they are Jews, but it will represent the first time this will be done to Jews living in the Land of Israel, our ancestral Homeland, by fellow Jews. (In 1982, Ariel Sharon oversaw the destruction of Yamit, a Jewish town in the Sinai, not Israel). The defining goal of secular Zionism was for Israel to become a nation like all other nations, as well as to create a new Jew, one who would bear little resemblance to the traditional Diaspora Jew who because of his numerous Jewish practices and beliefs was shunned by the non-Jews. In this regard, secular Zionism has been an almost complete success. In Israel, one can find on TV "The Sopranos," "Sex in the City" and "Friends." Israeli secular culture -- on TV, in the movies, literature, education, clothing or music, is based almost entirely on western societal norms and values, predominantly found in Europe and the United States, as opposed to representing Jewish values and beliefs. This ideology, of striving to be a nation like all other nations can also be found in our leaders of today. Can one really look at our leadership today, or even over the past decade, and say that the prime motivation behind their actions was in accordance with Jewish values or rather with trying to win favor and acceptance in the eyes of the nations of the world? Sadly, the same values that allow our leaders to become involved in all manners of political corruption are the very same ones that allow them to call for the transfer of Jews from their homes in the Land of Israel. In the Tanach (the Jewish Bible), one can find what is expected of the leadership of the Jewish people. He is to be one of the highest moral character, as well as being of great spiritual stature. One who can lead the Jewish people in both war and prayer. He is not expected to be perfect, rather one who when confronted with wrongdoing can lead the nation in sincere repentance. He is to be the embodiment of a Jewish nationalist, with a love for the Land of Israel and the people of Israel coursing through his veins. These are the values -- Jewish values -- that are so sorely lacking in our leaders of today. The Jewish people and the Jewish state are deserving of and crying out for a leader with the Jewish values necessary to lead the Jewish nation. Only Jews, proud Jews, in heart, mind, body, spirit and soul need apply. Israel Insider is "an independent, nonpartisan online publication that aims to provide an 'inside perspective' on the latest news, analysis and commentary from and about Israel."

THE HEADSCARF DILEMMA Posted by Yahiko Sagamori, January 23, 2004.

Whatever the French do, be it shaving the heads of female Nazi collaborators, cooking, or being obnoxious to innocent American tourists, they do it with passion. Their pursuit of religious freedom is no exception. Thus, on St. Bartholomew's Day of 1572, French Catholics began passionately slaughtering French Huguenots and kept going until the score exceeded 70,000. That's a lot of dead Protestants, especially for those primitive times when every throat had to be slit manually, individually, and, obviously, very personally. It didn't stop there, of course. Eventually France, like the rest of Western Europe, became a predominantly Catholic country, and, for awhile, maintaining religious freedom there was a piece of cake. A living testimony to the openness of the French society in modern times, 2% of its population remain Protestant, and 1% are actually Jewish; neither of them willing to rock the boat, preferring instead to enjoy whatever liberte, egalite, and fraternite is afforded to them by the magnanimous Catholic majority. Then came the Muslims. I am not talking about Bosnians escaping Serbian pogroms or Iranian intellectuals unable to live in the stranglehold of the ayatollahs. I am talking about the influx of true blue Muslims who had suffered no persecution in their native lands; who had never aspired to become a part of the European culture; who carried jihad in their hearts and turned every place in Europe where they settled into as close semblance of their native Turdistan as the local laws allowed, and then some. Today, those Muslims constitute close to 10% of the French population. With them came the soaring crime rate and the resurgence of anti-Semitism that had been dormant until then in quiet post-Holocaust Europe. With them came a whole new set of political problems for the polite Europeans. Raised in the most oppressive societies in the modern world, the newcomers were unable to appreciate liberte or even grasp its meaning beyond the obvious opportunity for abuse and personal gain. Faithful Muslims, they abhorred the idea of fraternite with the infidels. It didn't prevent them, however, from demanding their share of egalite, and that's where the French have stumbled. It's not just the fact that girls in traditional Muslim headscarves looked drastically out of place in French schools - or anywhere around civilized people. It's that the Muslims have a tendency to introduce themselves into the Western societies with a strange combination of stealth and in-your-face attitude. They would enter quietly and begin quietly testing the limits of the host's tolerance. Once those limits are reached, they, assisted by local (often, Jewish) lawyers, would offer a novel interpretation of the host's laws that, suddenly and unexpectedly, implied the newcomers' inalienable right to turn the country that accepted them into a part of the Caliphate. In response, the French did what they always do whenever France is being raped: they looked dignified to the maximum degree possible without appearing disrespectful to the rapist. This time, for whatever inexplicable reason, their fictional dignity has led them to ban Muslim headscarves from public schools. Occasionally, I, too, stumble into a character sporting a headscarf. Frankly, I cringe at the sight the same way I would probably cringe if I saw someone with a swastika tattooed on his forehead. Both are symbols of hatred towards everything that we cherish in our civilization. An ancient, eternal hatred directed at me, my country, and my world is what I feel when I see one of those creatures walking along the street dressed, even at the height of the summer heat, in a shapeless overcoat that reaches almost to the ground and an ugly scarf wrapped around the head, leaving open only the face that looks so stern, it resembles that of a shaven ayatollah. I sincerely feel that admitting faithful Muslims into my country is wrong. These people are our enemies, and, thanks to the liberties we enjoy here, they don't even consider it necessary to hide the fact. Too bad the INS never consulted me on the subject. They let those people in without demanding that they first renounce their faith, or their dress code, or even their hostility towards us. Guess what? In my book, it means they should be free to wear whatever they consider proper, no matter how I feel about their sense of fashion. What's more, if I am unable to prevent the enemy from moving into my neighborhood, I will feel safer if they wear their uniform openly. Generally, in a free country, the government shouldn't be allowed to tell people what they may or may not wear as long as they meet the demands of basic modesty. And if a person decides to don something that advertises his or her religious affiliation, the government should have no say in it either. Not surprisingly, the interpretation of freedom offered by the French government contradicts mine. France has decided to outlaw Islamic headscarves in public schools. That immediately raised an obvious issue of egalite. Even in France, the government cannot outlaw symbols of any one religion. To avoid discrimination, the government announced its opposition to yarmulkes and large crucifixes. Small crucifixes, unlike small headscarves, tiny yarmulkes, or peyes of any detectable size, were allowed. Then someone alerted the public to the imminent danger that Muslim girls, in lieu of headscarves, may begin wearing bandannas. The government assured the nation that bandannas will not be allowed when used as religious symbols. In other words, Christian and Jewish kids will be allowed to wear bandannas, but Muslim girls won't. Vive la liberte religieuse! You know how kids are. I have no doubt that some of the Catholic children will try to undermine the government's efforts by smuggling in huge crucifixes hidden under their clothes. Obviously, sooner rather than later, one of them is bound to get caught, and the French Republic will proceed to outlaw the subversive practice. For the sake of egalite, the new law cannot be specifically directed against crucifixes but will ban all concealed symbols of any religion. Now, here's the real can of worms. Every Jewish boy carries an unmistakable symbol of his religious affiliation concealed inside his clothes. Will the French lawmakers use the case of the crucifixes as a precedent and outlaw only large symbols of the Judaic faith or will they ban all of them, regardless of the size, like they did with the yarmulkes? Will they require the owners of smaller ones to carry them openly to ensure that their sizes at all times remain within the limits established by law? Will they entrust specially assigned government officials with the difficult task of monitoring the size of those religious symbols? Will France expel well-endowed Jewish boys from its public schools or, in order not to deprive them of equal access to education, castrate them instead? Why do I feel that Jews are so likely to become victims of the French campaign against Muslim headscarves? Can anything that happens in Europe nowadays be good for the Jews? Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based Information Technology consultant. To read other articles by the author, go to http://www.middleeastfacts.com/yashiko/

VENGEANCE: A KEY COMPONENT TO THE REDEMPTION Posted by IsraelUpdate, January 23, 2004.

This was written by Binyamin Zev Kahane, who, together with his wife, was killed by Arab snipers. If we take a close look at the Exodus from Egypt, we notice that practically the entire story centers around the plagues which Pharoah and the Egyptians suffered. From our early childhood, we are familiar with, and take great pleasure in, the episode of the plagues. The plagues play such a central role, that we sometimes forget to ask: Hey, wait a minute! Why should the Exodus focus so predominantly on the plagues? Why should the liberation of the Hebrews, the nation which brings light to the world, have to be so closely associated with the suffering of another people? An Exodus Without Plagues? Let us rephrase the question: Could the Almighty not have taken us out of Egypt in another fashion? Could he not have taken us out with "Darke Noam" (pleasantly)? Could God not have performed a few miracles ("nice" ones, where nobody gets hurt) in which the Egyptians would somehow be unable to prevent the Jews from leaving? If so, then why did God have to make the Exodus hinge upon cruel abuse of Pharoah and the Egyptian population? Hashem is Omnipotent, and if He wants to redeem His people, he can do so without plagues and without pain. Since every detail of the Exodus (our redemption and establishment as a nation) is important, we must ponder this question. The question is compounded when we read the Haggadah of Pesach, and see a very peculiar dispute among the rabbis. If until now we had thought that there were ten plagues, the rabbis in the Haggadah learn out from the verses that there were actually many more. One of the sages reaches 50 plagues, the second 200, and the third, 250! How odd. Who cares how many plagues the Egyptians were stricken with? Isn't the important thing that the Jews left Egypt? How to Make a Better World To understand this, we must understand that the Jewish People is like no other nation, and consequently, its "national liberation" is like that of no other nation. The Jewish nation is the representative of the Almighty in this world; the chosen nation, whose goal is to bring good and Divine kindness to a world which was created for this very purpose. If so, its liberation has a clear goal, too. And that is to bestow goodness upon the world - Divine Goodness from the God Whom these people represent. But when bestowing good upon the world, there is a "small" obstacle in the way: the evil which also exists in the world. Obviously, good cannot reign in a world in which evil exists. As we have said so often: there can be no co-existence between good and evil. And so whenever one wants to bring good to the world, he must overcome an obstacle which is not always a pleasant one: He must "burn out the evil from thy midst." Striking Down Evil - Kiddush Hashem! Now we know why when an event of this magnitude takes place the liberation and establishment of God's People in the world it had to focus upon the confrontation with, and the defeat of, evil. The confrontation with the Egyptians was not an incidental one, as one would deal with some annoying pest. This confrontation expressed the eternal struggle between good and evil. It is the confrontation between blasphemy of Hashem ("I do not know Hashem," as Pharaoh brazenly proclaimed), versus "I know Hashem," which is expressed through the very existence of the Jewish People in the world. Every plague against Pharoah, who stubbornly stuck to his evil and his refusal to accept Hashem was in essence a plague against the ideology of "I do not know Hashem," and a proof that indeed, there is a God in this world, and He is the God of Israel. Now it is clear why it was important for the rabbis in the Haggadah to multiply the number of plagues in Egypt: Because the plagues are an expression of the power and existence of the true God who defeats falsehood. In other words, each plague against the evil gentile is a Kiddush Hashem. A sanctification of the God of Israel. There is No Peace With Evil The same holds true today, in these times of redemption. Today, as well, many do not understand why the redemption must revolve around conflict and war with the Ishmaelites. Now it is clear. The Ishmaelites try with all their might to halt the redemption process, the process which is meant to bring good upon the world. They spearhead the evil and falsehood that exists in the world! Each and every pigua is a "pigua" against God, a declaration of "I do not know Hashem, and I will not let Israel be redeemed." On the flip side, every time we strike them; every victory over them; any act of vengeance is a step forward in the redemption process, the process of Kiddush Hashem. This authentic Jewish viewpoint pulls out the rug from under the feet of all those who seek "shalom" with those who "do not know Hashem" and aspire to wipe out His People. Peace can only be with those who acknowledge God's choice of Israel and the land He chose for them. Any kind of "shalom" with such people is a coming to terms with evil with those who aspire to liquidate God's sovereignty. Furthermore, this authentic Jewish view pulls out the rug from under those who "share in the sorrow," or condemn acts of vengeance, that are taken against the enemy. God forbid that we ever feel sorry about it. It is a Kiddush Hashem, just as in the Exodus from Egypt, which we celebrate until this very day. The email address for Israel Update is Israelupdate@hameir.org. Their website address is http://hameir.org

URGE BUST TO PUSH LAWS AGAINST JIHAD AND ANTI-SEMITISM Posted by Mike D. Evans, January 23, 2004.

Anti-Semites are attacking Jews all over the world -- even throughout America -- preaching and teaching holy war and hatred. The United States must make efforts to stop this dangerous development. Your help is needed! Please go to ConservativePetitions.com to see what is at stake. click here Join me in urging President George W. Bush to declare war on anti- Semitism as Lincoln did on slavery. Call on him to use the power of the White House for legislation that will stop anti-Semitic teaching and actions. The majority of the 1.3 billion Muslim world believes Hitler's hateful lies about the Jews. Our government must recognize and understand that 150 million Islamic fundamentalists are not peaceful Muslims. Americans must admit that this distorted form of Islam exists, and that this religion kills! These Islamic clerics teach killing Jews and Christians is the greatest honor in life, guaranteeing paradise. The time has come to make a stand against hatred and holy war. Fight this Jew-hatred by adding your voice to a petition that in effect sends a letter to the President with reasons why such legislation is needed for America. Then tell everyone you know about this threat in our midst. Here's again is where to act: Click Here P.S. America must continue to shine the bright light of truth into the darkness. God honors our nation when we honor Him and stand with the embattled Jewish people against the vicious lies. Pray for God to touch hearts and create a loud outcry that cannot be ignored. Mike Evans heads the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a group whose members include some 300 prominent Christian leaders. Their website address is http://www.jerusalemprayerteam.org

A NEW COMPUTER VIRUS Posted by Jules Segal, January 23, 2004.

The original source for this essay is unknown. A new computer virus has been detected that you may want to take precautions against. This is the Palestinian Virus - a virus that settles in your PC, claims it was there before your PC was built or Bill Gates was born, then demands parts of your hard drive. If you want the virus to leave you and your PC alone, you can try to give the virus the hard drive space it wants, but it will refuse the deal and start killing data on your computer. Some people have suggested a solution for this virus problem is to give the virus its own PC. As stated above, this virus has been known to refuse the offer. Other nearby PCs won't take the virus either, even if the virus is compatible with the other computers. The virus seems to want nothing less than to take over your entire computer together with the removal and destruction of all your data. Software based anti-virus solutions have been proposed, but so far only hardware solutions have had any impact. The only solution we have been able to determine that may work is the physical removal of the virus from your computer. The only problem with this solution is all the other computers will object, and you will be castigated in the media and by the UN.

COMPROMISE? Posted by Tamar Rush, January 23, 2004.

Al-Aretz's Aloof Benn says, "Weisglass, Rice agree - PA to blame for freeze in talks. But then: WASHINGTON - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in unusually candid remarks, said on Thursday the United States was stalemated in efforts to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and placed blame on both sides. "We're having a great deal of difficulty," Armitage told Egypt TV. "(Palestinian) Prime Minister Quriea (Abu Ala) is not able or willing to make any tough stands on the question of security and on the other side, the Israelis are intent on not compromising either," Armitage said. "So we're at a bit of a stalemate." What more can we do? We have suffered over 1,300 deaths siince Oslo - and still we signed the suicidal "Road Map" in Aqaba. During the first 38 weeks since the Road Map was issued, there have been a total of at least 954 Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks or attempted attacks, in which 140 people were murdered and 743 wounded (source: ZOA). Compromise???????? The "Oslo Accords" gave the "Palestinians" legitimacy, land, security forces, arms, autonomy, control over the daily lives of almost all their people, and hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and gifts. And they got more: They got offers of up to 97 percent of all the land they were demanding; They got offers of an independent state of their own. They got offers of half of Jerusalem as a capital for their state. They got offers of the top of the Temple Mount on which stand their mosques. They got Oslo +. Israel, in return, got 1,300 deaths through lynching, burnings, bombings, stabbings, hit-and-run attacks, stoning, sniping, ambushing and drive-by shooting. Israel got more than 10,000 of its people wounded, maimed, paralyzed. Israel got thousands of its families decimated, tens of thousands of its citizens left with inconsolable anguish in their hearts and souls. Israel got diminished security, increased danger. Israel got no safety, no peace. Israel got nothing, nothing but blood, dismemberment, tears and fear. And Israel is being accused of being "not willing to compromise?" Why haven't the Arabs EVER been asked to "compromise" or "trade land for peace"???? I think we all know the answer to that one. "We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."

A LAMENTATION FOR TAPUACH Posted by IsraelUpdate, January 22, 2004.

Join me, Friends of Isralert, in an imaginary trip into the near future. Imagine that in a matter of months, if not weeks, Israel's Prime Minister is indicted and forced to withdraw from the government. Imagine you learn that in addition to bribery that same PM had ordered the destruction of shuls, schools, homes and communities in Yesha in a sinking-man's effort to gain favor from an Attorney General known for his anti "settlement" stance. Imagine how you'd then feel about what happened in January 2004 in the "disputed" territories. Imagine your disappointment, your outrage, your sense of utter betrayal, our loss. Imagine yourself doing something about it NOW. Where there is no man be that man, while you still can. Harv Weiner HELP REBUILD THE TAPUACH SHUL. PLEASE SEND YOUR SUPPORT TO PAYPAL@HAMEIR.ORG OR BY MAIL TO: HAMEIR LDAVID P.O. BOX 960121, 143 DOUGHTY BLVD. INWOOD NY 11096 USA HAMEIR LDAVID P.O. BOX 4005 ARIEL 44837 ISRAEL DON'T WAIT PLEASE WRITE OUT A CHECK AND SEND OUT RIGHT AWAY! WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW! "A Lamentation for Tapuach" was written by Tsvi Selengut A shul has been destroyed. Oh G-d help us. Why, why must our own people annihilate each other in such a way? The Shechinah has been pushed away by these godless rulers. The name of G-d defamed in public. The pictures on the news show young men and women crying as their house of prayer is destroyed. While one lady, brave indeed, was arrested. She pushed a soldier, who was attempting to destroy her shul, off the roof. Men were thrown on the ground crying, as they watched seemingly inanimate beams removed one by one. We saw beams, but they saw people, angels screaming for mercy on each beam. The animals tore away at it like vicious rapists. They stole the innocence of a young place where jewels of torah once filled. They ravaged its beauty and tenderness. Like boars they ripped at its flesh walls, and gutted it of its torahs. They ripped it until not a page of the word of G-d was left. Naked, it stood. Its walls gone, its insulation of torah removed, its beauty of prayer stolen. Yet there stood the faithful, waiting for the redemption watching through tears as their love was violated in front of them. Yet there they stood praying, and crying, and dancing. For even something this terrible must be in the Lord Almighty's plans. Woe to us, the sight of the lord's house lying naked, unwanted, and spit on by its own people. Yet there the faithful lay shaking, convulsing on the ground, as their love, their jewel, their riches, their life was ripped from within them. As they engaged in these lamentations a chayelet, stood watching the scene laughing, she saw it as amusing that these zealots, these extremists were so emotionally distraught. They are deserving of this, she thought, they will weep as their homes will soon be taken. And where are my leaders, my lovers, my brothers. They put their eyes in torah all day. They study the word of G-d, but for them it is a vale. My mind is puzzled and my heart is heavy, I am lightheaded at my people's ignorance and cold-heartedness. Just as Zion has wept as a widow for 2 thousand years, so does the illegal outpost of Tapuach West weep today. For we realize now, that if the holy temple was built on the mountain of G-d, they would destroy it too. So I proclaim from the Illegal outpost of Har Habayit, through the streets of Al-quds, even through Nablus, onto the highest mountain in Palestine, by my blood and my life, Zion shall never fall again. For on this day I have heard the cries of Meir, Binyamin, and Talia. I have heard the cries of our martyrs, I have heard the screams of six million as they burn in the ovens of fire, and I have heard the word of G-d to our fathers: "To you have I given this land." Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

FROM FEDERMAN TO TAPUA AND THE HAGUE, AND BACK Posted by Moshe Feiglin, January 22, 2004.

Noam Federman is being held in "protective custody". His arrest is, of course, quite legal. An IDF bulldozer destroys a synagogue built with loving care on an exposed hilltop in the heart of the country. The law must be enforced. In The Hague, jurists from the International War Crimes Court are beginning their day's work. IDF officers (who gave the orders for the bulldozer) are in their sights. Sharon has in the meantime evaded conviction for war crimes, while the "sane" Leftist proponents of the separation fence, and in fact the whole country that has been overcome by this madness of fences, are now standing trial. "The law must be enforced", explains the State Attorney, "I cannot defend you". "What is your attitude to the concept, 'The Rule of Law'," I was asked by Ha'aretz reporter Lily Galili a month ago. I replied that this concept is abhorrent to me. "This is a totalitarian idea. I am in favor of the rule of justice". A small criminal acts in contravention of the law. A medium criminal evades the law. A big criminal acts using the law. However, those who chose to act criminally using the law, those who destroyed a synagogue instead of thousands of other illegal buildings in the same region, are in fact saying that they believe in the law of the strong, not in the law of those in the right. Israel is now trying to obtain American agreement that the court in The Hague has no legal jurisdiction. Perhaps America will throw us a bone on this occasion. Together with America we will seem to be strong for another few days. But perhaps America won't agree. However, it is clear that by adopting this militant culture towards those of its citizens in the right, Israel has cast aside any possible defense that could be presented. It is only a question of time until we all are charged with war crimes in the Hague court. It is of no importance what will be decided there. We ourselves have formulated the principle. They will treat us precisely in accordance with the law of the strong, just as we act towards Federman and the settlers. But despite this we will win in the end. We will do so because in some dark cell (of Federman, and of Pollard) and on some destroyed hilltop in Samaria, there are a few people who have been humiliated and tormented. Their brothers decided to trample them underfoot. But they are holding for all of us the strongest weapon of all - they are holding justice. Because of this we shall win. Moshe Feiglin begain Manhigut Yehudi (Jewish Leadership) a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Feiglin has emphaticaly said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values.

DEMOGRAPHICS WEREN'T A CONCERN AT SINAI Posted by Rabbi Berel Wein, January 22, 2004.

The current discussion regarding demographic projections of Jewish population here in Israel and in the Diaspora is being conducted, like many of our discussions, as though there is no historical background present in which to set the scene. It is obvious that Judaism and the State of Israel cannot exist without live Jewish people being present in numbers that form somewhat of a critical mass. Yet, it is not clear what numbers are really necessary to form such a critical mass. The Bible records for us that there were 600,000 Jewish males between the ages of 20 to 60 who left Egypt. Adding women and children and the aged to that number it is estimated that the Jewish population then numbered close to three million. According to the Bible, there was no material increase in the numbers of Jews during their forty-year sojourn in the desert of Sinai. From the time of the entry of the Jews into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian exile, no exact population figures are given in the Bible. In fact, the thrust of Jewish halacha and practice has always been never to actually count Jews directly. The census in the Sinai desert at the time of Moses was taken by counting the half-shekel donations to the Tabernacle and then later, in the time of Saul, by counting sheep brought by the Jews to the counting stations. David was punished for conducting a direct census of the Jewish population of his time. Thus the number of Jews existing in First Temple times is uncertain. What is certain is that the complete demise of the Northern Kingdom of Israel certainly lowered the Jewish population in the world substantially. Ezra rebuilt the Second Temple and the Second Commonwealth beginning only with some forty- two thousand Jews. By the time of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Jewish population was in the millions. There are no exact figures again, but the Talmud speaks of great numbers of Jews in both Israel and Babylonia during second-century times. However, the ravages of Roman persecution and the rise of early Christianity - and its rabid anti-Semitism during the Dark Ages - appear to have once again dramatically reduced the Jewish population. It is estimated that at the time of Rashi (11th century France) there were only 5000-10,000 Ashkenazic Jews in the world! There were probably no more than a million Jews overall in the world at that time. Even by the time of the seventeenth century Chmielnitzky pogroms in Eastern Europe (in 1648-9) there were hardly two million Jews in the world. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Romanov czars of Russia thought that they could solve their "Jewish population problem" through conversion to Christianity, pogroms and forced emigration. This was based upon their assessment that the Jewish population was small enough for such solutions. Yet, by 1939 the Jewish population in Europe as a whole approached eleven million and in North and South America there were an additional five million Jews while the Land of Israel hosted almost half a million Jews. Jewish population in the world in 1939 was estimated at nineteen million, probably the high-water mark of Jewish demography in its history. The Holocaust, assimilation and intermarriage, Communism and the Soviet Union, all have conspired to bring down the current world Jewish population to about thirteen to fourteen million. The truth be said, even this figure is probably somewhat inflated, since the population surveys of Jewish America indicate that there are only about three million "core Jews." These Jews are identified as born of two Jewish parents or converted to Judaism religiously (though not necessarily halachically), and one who identifies as being a Jew. Thus in reality Israel already contains the majority of world Jewry's "core Jews" within its borders. There are really no longer any vast untapped reservoirs of Jewish population left in the world. Yet, we should not despair for we have never been a numerous people. The Bible itself tells us: "I have not chosen you because of your great numbers, for you are the smallest in numbers of all nations." Yet, the smallness of our numbers has not in any way diminished our influence or progress in human history. In fact, a case may be made that our very smallness has made us such an intensive, dynamic people. Fifty years ago, David Ben-Gurion said that when the State of Israel housed five million Jews it would be secure. Well, we have passed Ben-Gurion's benchmark but our security still eludes us. Nevertheless, all of our history tells us that security, accomplishment, growth and achievement bear little connection to Jewish numbers and demography. As such, we should concentrate on not only making ourselves more numerous, but more intensively Jewish as well.

KNESSET OFFERS CHRISTIANS NEW STANDING IN ISRAEL Posted by IsrAlert, January 22, 2004.

This was written by David Parson and appeared today on the ICEJ News Service from Jerusalem website (http://www.icej.org). Leaders of Christian Zionist ministries were invited on Tuesday to the inaugural meeting of the new Knesset Christian Allies' Caucus to launch what co-chairman Dr. Yuri Shtern termed a "political upgrade" of relations between Israel and its Christian supporters across the globe. The historic moment, the first time the Knesset as an institution has officially acknowledged and engaged with the growing Christian pro-Israel movement worldwide, featured not only many warm mutual greetings, but some rare and unusually frank exchanges as well. In one instance the co-chair of the newly formed caucus, MK Yair Peretz of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, who represents a segment of society that maintains little contact with Christians, made a sincere appeal for Christian assistance to help Israel meet the needs of its poorest communities during these tough times. Peretz suggested that due to the nation's budget constraints, Christians could perhaps distribute Passover baskets to needy secular families this spring and school bag kits to underprivileged children at the start of classes next fall. Meantime, Gadi Golan of the Foreign Ministry's religious affairs department delivered an impassioned plea that the Israeli government across the board should stop overlooking their Christian friends and especially that they should cease "humiliating" Christians in the land with visa and tax problems. "As Israelis, we should know the terrible mistakes we have committed, and yet these beautiful people keep going on quietly with their many kind works among us," said Golan. The Knesset Christian Allies' Caucus is the outgrowth of an idea that had been brewing over recent years among Israeli lawmakers, particularly after broad segments of Christianity aligned to stop the construction of a provocative mosque next to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. But through MK Shtern's efforts, the caucus was rushed into being in recent weeks after a number of Christian expatriates residing in Israel ran into difficulties renewing visas in the second half of 2003. Shtern apologized for the visa situation, citing last autumn's long civil servants' strike and Israel's restrictive policies in dealing with security concerns and illegal workers. "We have to and will keep working on it, however," insisted Shtern. Most Christian ministries present reported progress in the processing of visas and thanked the Knesset members for their recent intervention with Ministry of Interior officials. Clarence Wagner, International Director of Bridges for Peace, noted that scores of Christians abroad had contacted his offices welcoming the formation of the Knesset caucus earlier this month. "There was an amazing response," he said. "The phones were ringing off the hook." "We too were surprised by the enthusiastic response to the announcement of this Knesset caucus," concurred Malcolm Hedding, Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. "I can assure you that the eyes of the Christian Zionist world are upon what you are launching here today, and therefore it must not fail. This forum must be a pro-active mechanism for developing better ties between Christians and the Jewish state and community worldwide." In an attempt to broaden the effectiveness of the informal committee, Shtern (of the right-wing National Union) and Peretz selected six other Knesset members from an array of factions to join the caucus, including Chemi Doron of Shinui, Gila Gamliel and Gilad Eran of the ruling Likud party, Gila Finkelstein of NRP, Arieh Eldan of the National Union, and Isaac Herzog of Labor. "We will not be demanding that Christians adopt any particular political viewpoint on the conflict here," said Shtern in clarifying the goals of the caucus. "We simply are reaching out to Christians to support Israel on the basis of our fundamental right to live here in peace and security." In a statement, the caucus members said they would seek to (1) recognize and further mobilize those Christians around the world who are contributing to the security of the State of Israel and the welfare of the Jewish people; (2) bring to the attention of the Israeli public the unqualified support Christians are giving to Jewish aspirations in the Land of Israel; and (3) provide Christian and Israeli leaders with a Knesset forum for face-to-face encounters and enhanced co-operation. Among the organizations represented at the launch of the caucus were the ICEJ, Bridges for Peace, Christian Friends of Israel, The Ebenezer Fund, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the National Unity Coalition and the Jerusalem Summit. Over recent decades, the Christian groups represented have been working to build political and moral support for Israel in national and international arenas, to assist and encourage Jews making Aliyah, and to provide social and material assistance to poor and needy communities in Israel and Palestinian areas. The caucus members said they would now begin to develop joint welfare projects with the participating Christian Allies that could be given high-profile launches from the Knesset itself, while also enlisting Christian support for new informational efforts to improve Israel's standing internationally, with an urgent need to focus on Europe. Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

THE RABBIS' MEETING WITH THE POPE: IMMEDIATE RESULTS Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 22, 2004.

This is from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com). Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger spoke with Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch this morning about his visit last week, together with Chief Rabbi Rishon LeTzion Shlomo Amar, with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. He said that the meeting had more historic value than practical value, "but we were told in advance that this would be the case. In the Vatican, there is no such thing as decisions on the spot; everything takes much time, with committees and the like. Despite this, our meeting was a great departure from their regular protocol: It was planned only three days in advance, and in fact the Pope expressed opinions, though not officially; in addition, only the three of us were there, and photos were permitted - major changes from hundreds of years of protocol." The meeting was called in order to discuss anti-Semitism, the redemption of our captives, and a mutual condemnation of terrorism. It had some unexpected ramifications, however: "I can tell you something that the rabbi of Warsaw told me just this week - something very wondrous that resulted from this meeting. He said that after we met, he received dozens of calls from Poles who wished to confess their role in killing Jews during the Holocaust. The rabbi rebuffed them, though, saying he wasn't a priest for confession. But one man insisted and said he couldn't sleep at night, and told him that that at age 11, his uncle came from the front wearing an army uniform and wanted to show him how to shoot. So just for fun, he [the uncle] took 50 Jews and shot them on the spot. He, the 11-year-old, threw the bodies into some kind of hollow in the ground and covered them. For 62 years, he told no one, figuring that the Jews are not important. But when he saw on television how the Pope received the Chief Rabbis with such honor, calling them 'my older brothers' in front of the whole world, he said he realized that he did a great sin, and he therefore called the rabbi and said he wants to show him the 'burial' spot, and that he wants to atone by helping bring them to proper Jewish burial. This is something that came directly out of our meeting."

THE CONTRADICTIONS OF TOM FRIEDMAN'S PEACE STRATEGY Posted by Leo Rennert, January 22, 2004.

Letter 1: For a long time, I've felt that Tom Friedman is typical of a naive, idealistic American trait that if you just sign a decent treaty and treat fairly all Arab and Muslim countries, things will eventually work out for both Israel and the United States. In following this course, he tended to overlook or brush aside a festering evil within the Arab world and instead pounced on Israel for building settlements in "occupied" territories. But in view of his last two columns, I think this kind of comparatively benign critique of Friedman can no longer remain operative. If you read the five-part NY Times series on Friedman's peace plan for the Middle East, you find two basic components -- a prompt, unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, coupled with U.S. rapprochement with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What this amounts to, of course, is a sellout of Israel's existential interests and a return to the days when the United States thought it could do business with totalitarian Arab rulers -- never mind that these people spread the vilest incitement against Israel and the U.S., while abetting terrorist attacks against both Israel and the U.S. Here's how Friedman, however, rationalizes his anti-Israel and pro-Arab dictatorships agenda. By pressuring Israel into major one-sided concessions, he argues, the Arab world will look more positively on both Israel and the United States and terrorists might even see the light of day. And, after Iraq, he posits, we should go out of way to win or recoup the goodwill of the mullahs of Iran, the Saudi theocrats, Assad's regime in Damascus, and Cairo's repressive, terrorism-supporting regime (who help smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip?) to stabilize the region -- especially if we throw Israel to the wolves. This is 1939 all over again! Rank appeasement. Ariel Sharon once told George Bush that he wasn't going to let happen to Israel what happened to Czechoslovakia. I don't think Bush will. But Friedman would! Letter 2: Columnist Tom Friedman's prescriptions for how to deal with Iraq and the wider threat of global terrorism left me a bit confused ("War of Ideas, Part 5, New York Times). First, he declares that "smashing someone in the face is necessary to signal others that they will be held accountable for the intolerance they incubate." But then he turns around and argues that the United States will fail unless it forges a "rapprochement with Iran, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia." Stupid me. I thought that Iran, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were prime examples of countries noted "for the intolerance they incubate." Smashing them in the face may not be the wisest approach to get them to change their ways. But how would cozying up to them get rid of the intolerance they incubate?

SYRIA AND THE GOLAN Posted by IsrAlert, January 22, 2004.

The sources for this item are Arutz-Sheva; UPI/Washington Times; The Jerusalem Post; Ramit Plushnick-Masti, "Many Israelis Want to Keep Golan Heights" (AP/Washington Post); and "Top U.S. Senator: Iraq WMD May Have Gone to Syria" (Reuters). Proving once more how volatile the situation is on Israel's northern border in relation to both Syria and Lebanon, Arutz Sheva reported the following on January 21: Southern Lebanon Labor MK Efraim Sneh said this morning that the 12,000 Hizbullah missiles deployed in southern Lebanon deter Israel from taking strong military action in the north. Sneh, who was Deputy Defense Minister when the IDF unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon under then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak in May 2000, said, "I warned Barak that withdrawal from southern Lebanon without an agreement [with Lebanon] would create a vacuum that would be filled by Hizbullah, but I didn't imagine that the consequences would be so grave." Syria Syria has completed chemical warheads for its arsenal of Scud-based missiles, Middle East Newsline reports. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said that Syria, with help from North Korea, has succeeded in designing and installing chemical warheads for its various Scud missiles, with a range of 250 to nearly 700 kilometers. The chemical agent deployed in the CW warheads is sarin, regarded as a most toxic material. "Since the 1970s," Bolton said, "Syria has pursued what is now one of the most advanced chemical weapons capabilities [in the Arab world]. It has a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin that can be delivered by aircraft or ballistic missiles, and has engaged in the research and development of more toxic and persistent nerve agents such as VX." When Hizballah and the Syrians unleash these awesome weapons of mass destruction on Israel's northern towns and villages, the result will be devastating. We might well pray that, as the United States and Britain dealt with Iraq, Israel will have the fortitude to deal with this life-threatening danger before it is too late. But not, as Shmuel Katz - an advisor to Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a former Knesset Member - so clearly and convincingly explains, by another withdrawal (like Israel's unilateral withdrawal from South Lebanon) - this time from the Golan Heights! With Syria, trade peace for peace In implementing the separation of forces agreement with Syria after the Yom Kippur War, Israel withdrew from territory it had captured at Kuneitra and its surroundings. Subsequently, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, reporting to the Knesset on June 3, 1974, said, "There is no place for an interim stage. Once we achieve further progress in a settlement with Egypt the question will arise whether Syria is indeed ready to sign a peace treaty with Israel." The agreed line of separation (which included the whole of the Golan) promised Israel security from future attacks from the Syrian aggressors. Indeed, that line has been the most untroubled border experienced by Israel to this day. Thus it was that Prime Minister Begin in 1981 received the Knesset's consent to incorporate the Golan into Israel's territory. A thriving Jewish community has been growing on the Golan ever since. The Yom Kippur War was not the only occasion for an unprovoked Syrian attack on Israel. It was the third. Syria had joined in the Arab League campaign to abort the very creation of Israel in 1948. The Arabs were thwarted in their major objective - Israel survived - but Syria converted the Golan into a tremendous system of fortifications for future attack on Israel. That, indeed, was the only constructive Syrian act in the years of its possession of the Golan. Meantime, it contented itself with making life in the Galilean plain below as miserable as possible, mainly by the intermittent lobbing of shells into Jewish villages. During those years there were children who did all their schooling in the underground bunkers erected as protection against Syrian shelling. Then came the attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria in June 1967. That attack was bombastically proclaimed in advance - by Egyptian president Nasser - as the war that would put an end to Israel. This time Israel decided to put an end to the towering threat of the Golan. IDF units scaled its formidable heights, bringing the Golan into Israeli hands at last. Six years later, on Yom Kippur, the complete surprise of the Syrian attack (like the Egyptian attack in the south), momentarily threw Israel off balance. It was only after some hard fighting and heavy casualties that Israel regained control of the vital Golan bastion. Does the sane nation exist which would, after that threefold experience, hand back the Golan to Syria on any terms? It is all the less likely when, throughout the years, the Syrians have been one of the most important backers and sources of terrorism against Israel - harboring some of its leading perpetrators; sowing, spreading and teaching its children murderous propaganda, demonizing not only Israel, which it threatens to destroy, but the Jewish people as a whole. Winston Churchill, during World War II, laid down a clear-cut principle for a very similar set of circumstances: "Twice in our lifetime," he told the House of Commons on February 22, 1944, "Russia has been violently assaulted by Germany. Many millions of Russians have been slain and tracts of Russian soil devastated as a result of repeated German aggression. Russia has the right of reassurance against future attacks from the West, and we are going all the way with her to see that she gets it." Yitzhak Rabin phrased it succinctly in a speech in 1992: "Whoever abandons the Golan endangers the existence of Israel." For the Jewish people, the Golan has a fascinating history, largely associated with the post-biblical period and the revolt against Rome, its memories resonating historically as Jewish as those of Judea and Samaria. What has, moreover, been forgotten is that it was so recognized in the Mandate for Palestine. Yes, most of the Golan was included in the territory envisaged for the establishment of the Jewish National Home in the Mandate in 1922. But the British, to whom the League of Nations had entrusted the Mandate as a trustee for the Jewish National Home, violated the Mandate and, a year after its promulgation, illegitimately gave away the Golan to Syria. Article 5 of the Mandate for Palestine reads: "The Mandatory [power] shall be responsible to seeing that no Palestinian territory shall be ceded, or leased, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign power." That was in 1923. The British signed an agreement with France whereby in return for certain benefits to itself in Europe, Britain transferred the Golan to France. France then included the Golan in its own Mandate for Syria. When France's Mandate came to an end in 1945 and Syria became an independent sovereign state, Syria became also the mistress of the Golan; and therefore the Golan was turned into a powerful base for attacking - and destroying - the Jewish National Home. The undignified decision of Israel's president, in a knee-jerk reaction to a seemingly softer tone from Damascus, to honor President Bashar Assad with a visit to Jerusalem indicates once again the ease with which Israeli political leaders constantly ignore the painful lessons of 50 years experience with the Arabs. They seem to forget Israel's national policy and the Golan's status as a part of Israel. Three prime ministers in turn acted out of the deluded belief that Syria would make peace with Israel if the Golan was given back. They did not grasp that Syria needs the Golan primarily as a base against Israel. They forgot the reasons why the Golan was incorporated into Israel and why it must remain there for good. Israel can offer Syria peace and, indeed, economic and cultural cooperation - but Syria must first put an end to the promotion of terror and the harboring of terrorist organizations, the anti-Semitic politicization of children, and its virulent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda. But these are not matters for negotiation; putting an end to them is a normal basis of civilized behavior. Otherwise it is useless, indeed counterproductive, to call for negotiations for the sake of negotiating. (Published in The Jerusalem Post, January 19, 2004.) More U.S. Money in Syria Despite Act Despite the Syria Accountability Act endorsed by Washington last December, last week the Syrian government awarded a contract to U.S. Improvid Petroleum Recovery and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for exclusive oil exploration, prospecting, and production in the northeastern part of the country. "The U.S. share of oil investments in the country is the most important....The new contract which was signed in Damascus after the American president endorsed the Syria Accountability Act raises suggestions that American oil companies might have received guarantees from the U.S. administration that the act won't be implemented," said one analyst. U.S. oil investments in Syria are estimated at $600 million. Analysts noted that a month after Bush signed the Act into law, the U.S. administration has not taken any concrete step to implement or discuss the issue of implementation. (UPI/Washington Times) Crime Should Not Pay - Moshe Arens (Ha'aretz) Crime should not pay - that is a maxim of all civilized societies. This is equally true for nations that have committed crimes against their neighbors. Aggression should not be rewarded, it should be punished. The accepted rule of international behavior is that a nation committing aggression not be "rewarded" by the return of territories it lost as a result of the war it had started. Violation of this rule is nothing less than an invitation to further aggression. Today's Germany is not demanding the return of territories it lost to Poland in the last world war. Nor is Japan demanding the return of Korea or Manchuria to Japanese control. Only the case of Israel and its Arab neighbors seems to be different. People tend to forget that the doctrine of "territories for peace" was used by Hitler in 1939, when he declared that he would leave Europe in peace if territories in Poland that Germany lost in World War I were ceded to Germany. Now along comes Syria, which attacked Israel three times: in 1948, 1967 and again in 1973, demanding control of territories it lost in wars of aggression and demanding that Israel "return to the 1967 borders." Common sense and the accepted rules of international behavior should determine Israel's response to Bashar Assad's overtures. Sure, we are prepared to negotiate a peace treaty with Syria. But forget about the Golan Heights, and consider yourself lucky if you are not presented with a bill for economic reparations for the damage your aggressive behavior has caused Israel and its citizens over the past 56 years. U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) said Wednesday: "I think that there is some concern that shipments of [Iraqi] WMD (weapons of mass destruction) went to Syria." Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

A LETTER TO CHARLOTTE KATES OF ISM Posted by Isaac BenAmi, January 22, 2004.

This letter was written by an Israeli citizen to Charlotte Kates of New Jersey Solidarity, who led a scheme a few months ago to demonize Israel on the Rutgers Campus. [Ed. note: see the article by Merav Zarifa in the September-October 2003 issue of Think-Israel, entitled &quo;Rutgers' Sukkot Hatefest."] Dear Ms. Kates, I think you are a remarkable woman. You are neither an Arab nor a Jew, you do not study the Middle East, or any associated subject, and correct me if I am wrong, you have never visited this region. Therefore I am somewhat astounded at your expertise and at your comments on Israel being an "Apartheid" state. I have lived in Israel for many years and I would be delighted to take you on a little virtual tour of our country. Let me first give you a couple of minor points. Israel occupies 0.1% of the land mass of the Middle East and it is the only Jewish state, not only in this region, surrounded as we are by 22 Arab states, but in the world. Let us begin your virtual tour! You have already been through immigration at Tel Aviv Airport with your boyfriend, whom we shall call Ken. You will have filled out a visitors form. This form will not ask you, as it will in many of the countries that surround us, what is your religion, and it will certainly not ask you, as they do in Saudi Arabia, for a "certificate of religion". The day is Sunday. You will want to attend a church service. No problem in the Apartheid State of Israel. We tolerate and freely allow worship for all religions. This is more than can be said for nearly all of the surrounding 22 Arab nations. In fact many of them would not even have a single church, let alone a synagogue. After a lovely service you and Ken would head for a leisurely lunch, maybe at one of the lovely beach front restaurants in Tel Aviv. You would most likely have returned to your hotel and put on a very casual outfit, as fitting the very hot Israeli summers. This could be a pair of shorts and a tight fitting skimpy t shirt. No problem in the Apartheid state of Israel. In Israel we allow freedom of dress, especially for women, who are not made to wear bulky long robes, a veil to cover their face, and, wouldn't it be a pity if you had to cover that lovely coiffed hairdo, as you would probably have to in most of the surrounding 22 Arab states. During lunch Ken could gaze lovingly into your heavily painted eyes, complete with a good application of black mascara. He would be free to lean across and kiss your lips, finely painted with lip liner, 2 shades of burgundy lipstick and gloss. People would probably think you were in love, especially as Ken has proudly displayed a good wine on the table. Public displays of affection and consuming alcohol in the Apartheid state of Israel is nothing unusual and its not even scorned upon. That's more than can be said for most of the surrounding 22 Arab states, where your glossy lips would be considered whorish and alcohol is forbidden. But, Ken being a little flirtatious pinched one of the young waitresses while you went to reapply your lipstick. It was harmless and luckily for the young girl in the Apartheid State of Israel, her father and 6 brothers will not take her to the family pool in the evening and drown her, as they would in some of the surrounding 22 Arab states. After lunch you and Ken drive around. You are even allowed to drive. It is not forbidden in Israel. You stumble across a kindergarten. The children are running around and enjoying themselves. They are not made to sit for hours reciting by rote, pages of meaningless text from religious books. Their games are in the sand pit or on the swings. They are not infested with hate or told the only honor to their lives will be in death. In the Apartheid State of Israel we rejoice in life and living. We do not promote murder and violence by brainwashing our children with hatred, as they do in many of the surrounding 22 Arab states. By the end of the day you and Ken come across a political rally. Many thousands have turned up. In the Apartheid State of Israel, all the citizens, men, women, Jew, Arab and Christian are free to vote. We are allowed to openly criticize the government and our media, including the T.V. and newspapers, offer, without prejudice, a choice of opinions. Every person has the right to openly agree or condemn the government. This can certainly not be said for most of the surrounding 22 Arab states, ruled as they are by oppressive dictators, where any dissent is met with dire consequences. Of course most of the 22 surrounding Arab countries can't offer you a good old fashioned homicide bombing as a tourist attraction. This can only happen in the apartheid state of Israel, surrounded as we are, by so many hostile countries, determined, as you are, to wipe us of the face of the earth. Where else can you get on a crowded bus, often packed with children and come face to face with some poor, plighted Palestinian ghoul who thinks life isn't very jolly, having been fed and brainwashed by evil organizations like Hamas to believe that the only way forward is to murder innocent people. This dehumanized creature will have been fed on a 24/7 diet of lies and hate incitement, he will have been coaxed with the reward of 72 vestal virgins waiting for him in Paradise. His demonic mother will be dancing in the street waving her $10,000 check. While Israelis are scraping their dead children off the sidewalks, the Palestinians will be lighting fireworks and dancing in the street, to honor this mass murderer as a hero, often to their children who are being systematically nurtured to be the next generation of mass murderers. The Apartheid state of Israel. Forgive me Ms. Kates but you seem somewhat confused as to the meaning of the word. It usually refers to segregation. Its funny isn't it that a large section of the Jews who live in this apartheid state had to flee for their lives from nearly all of the surrounding 22 Arab states. These countries not only have no tolerance for Jews, they refer to anyone who is not a Moslem as an Infidel and an enemy. I find it somewhat curious that you find nothing "apartheid" about these countries. Maybe you should do a project on how many churches there are in Saudi Arabia. Let me help you - there are none. It would not be tolerated. I am proud to live in this Apartheid State. In 55 years we have become one of the most technologically advanced nations on this planet, with many innovations that have made Israel a true leader in many fields. It is tragic that we have to live in a region that feels threatened by our achievements. Israel is not an apartheid state and it is appalling that a so-called intelligent and thinking person like you can go around finding feeble excuses for mass murder. Ms. Kates there is no justification, in any society, for getting on a crowded bus, often packed with children, detonating an explosive belt, often packed with nails and shrapnel and destroying innocent lives. This is not a freedom fighter, or a person seeking justice, but a chronically and irreversibly evil human being. I can only assume that one day in the near future Ms. Kates, you will chip off that heavy layer of make up and discover your conscience. As always, DAVID

SHAME THEM FOR ALL ETERNITY Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 22, 2004.

The way to prevent future bombers suddenly became clear when I read that the latest homicide/genocide bombing by a Palestinian female was done to 'save face' because she had had an affair. All it requires is using the bomber's own twisted worldview against them. In Arab society, the idea of 'face' is so important it even supercedes life itself. Like the feudal Japanese, committing suicide is more acceptable to them than making atonement in this life for some transgression. And while the civilized world may regard such thinking as primitive and self-defeating in the extreme, one cannot deal with such people on a higher level. One must base one's actions and words in terms to which the less civilized person or society will respond. In the society from which this latest bomber came, 'face' is all about bringing honor to her family and peers. Therefore, if one can turn the bomber's act into a source of eternal derision, shame and ridicule far worse than whatever it was they were killing themselves for, it will be a disincentive for them to go around blowing up innocent people. So here is what Israel, and any other country that suffers from homicide bombers should do. First, never return the body for 'proper burial.' It merely gives those who support that sort of behavior a chance to glorify the bomber in a public funeral parade. Instead, the remains of the bomber should be disposed of in a manner which is forbidden by whatever credo they follow. In the case of a Muslim, wrapping them in a pig's carcass, burying them in unhallowed ground after 24 hours have passed (maybe call it 'The Cemetery of the Accursed'), and then pouring suet on the soil is taboo to their beliefs and would be a great disincentive. (To those who would object to such treatment as disrespectful, I pose the question: 'Why is a homicide bomber worthy of respect?' This is not about disrespect of a religion; it is about dishonoring a murderer to convince others that the same fate will await them if they choose to murder. Decent, non-murdering people of all faiths are worthy of respect, not those who pervert their own religion to justify killing. May I also remind you that Muslims have, in the past, used Jewish and Christian tombstones for urinals and paving stones while Jews would never desecrate a Muslim cemetery. Nor have the offending parties restored any of these desecrated burial artifacts.) Meanwhile, a tombstone should be erected. This tombstone will be a monument for all time attesting to the shame of the bomber. In the case of the recent female bomber, it might read: "Here lies Reem Salah Al-Rayashi, a murderess and adulteress who abandoned her children by blowing herself up to kill as many innocent people as possible in the vain hope of selfishly redeeming her promiscuous soul in the blood of innocents. This murdering adulteress brought untold suffering to her own people. Her act caused them to lose several days wages and forced them to undergo many hardships in order to eventually return to their jobs. May her name be remembered and cursed forever." And speaking of workers, they too can be employed in the eternal shaming of the homicide bomber. Whenever crossings are closed because of a bombing, billboards should be erected all over where the affected people live and commute saying something like "Reem Salah Al-Rayashi caused today's closings. She murdered innocent people because she wanted to atone for her adultery." Going along with this theme, signs should also be erected where there are more stringent security measures. Such a sign might read "Reem Salah Al-Rayashi, the murdering adulteress, is responsible for your suffering and long wait." Likewise, periodic announcements saying the same thing can be made over the loudspeakers for those who failed to read the signs. At the same time, loudspeaker cars can be dispatched to the bomber's home town telling the people that any suffering they may undergo to prevent future bombings can be attributed to_______ (use the name of the bomber). These loudspeaker cars can also announce the original shameful act, which caused the bomber to kill him/herself while murdering innocent people. Even skywriting planes, flying over the bomber's territory can be employed. It would be like writing their sins on Heaven's window. Every hardship undergone by the people who are effected by the bomber's act -- and thus subsequent security measures -- must be blamed on the bomber as loudly and as often as possible. The whole point is to shame the bomber to as many people as often as possible, thus making them remembered for their heinous acts. If the potential bomber knows that the shame and loss of face they suffer now would be far greater if they were to commit a bombing, they wouldn't do it. Even their families would encourage them not to do it for the shame it would bring to the family name. It's time to stop letting homicide bombers have a hero's burial, have songs written about them, and have schools named after them. It's time to have their own people remember them as the ones who brought them hardships. It's time to shame the bomber for all eternity to the world in general, and to his or her own people in particular. Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

THE COWARDS OF BAGHDAD Posted by Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D., January 22, 2004.

They left Baghdad almost as quickly as they had arrived, but with an urgency that belied their reputation as heroes and champions of the common man. Once the United Nations (UN) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) felt the sting of terrorism in the lawless streets of Baghdad their instincts were the same - to cut and run. This is certainly not the example set by the world's great battlefield humanitarians: Henry Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross; Clara Barton, Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross; or Florence Nightingale, who braved Russian shelling during the Crimean War to bring aid and comfort to Britain's battlefield wounded. Nor is it in the tradition of the numerous private aid agencies that remained in places like Eritrea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Guatemala, East Timor, the Philippines, Bosnia, Chechnya and Lebanon even as fighting raged around them. It has now been six months since the UN departed Baghdad. Little has changed in Iraq. Violence and mayhem remain unchecked throughout the country. Everywhere, Iraqi civilians are in dire need of humanitarian aid. It may be some time before Iraq resembles Vermont. Both U.S. and Iraqi officials have pleaded with Secretary General Kofi Annan to authorize the return of the UN, but to no avail. Citing ongoing security concerns, the Secretary General has balked at sending a survey team to the Iraqi capital until the Coalition could guarantee its safety. But safety is not what the UN and the ICRC are all about. Their missions are to assist the needy, relieve suffering and help to bring order out of chaos -- regardless of the risk. Yet when it comes to Iraq, both organizations seem to have forgotten that these tasks are written into their job descriptions. Like it or not, danger will always be an occupational hazard of war. Perhaps it is time the UN and the ICRC woke up to this reality and to their responsibilities to those they are sworn to serve. A Sorry History The UN has a long history of rapid-fire withdrawal whenever the going gets tough. In September 2000, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was the first to flee West Timor after a spate of killings that left nearly 100,000 East Timorese to fend for themselves in squalid camps. In September, 2001, the UN ordered its 80-person staff to abandon Afghanistan and seek refuge in Islamabad, Pakistan, in anticipation of an imminent U.S. strike against the Taliban and the followers of Osama bin Laden. The scene was repeated again in July 2002, as the UN hurriedly evacuated its staff from war-torn Chechnya following the kidnapping of a senior aid worker. While there is no disguising the fact that the UN and the ICRC are non-combatants in Iraq, their missions remain what they always have been: to purposefully venture into harm's way to bring aid and comfort to the victims of war. This work cannot be carried out from the salons of Geneva, Paris or New York; it must be done in the field where the need, and the risk, is greatest. If Baghdad - and by extension Iraq - were a peaceful place, capable of providing its own social services, then the UN and the ICRC would not be needed. But this is surely not the case across this beleaguered city. More sobering is the hypocrisy the UN and the ICRC show towards the United States as it battles to bring law and order to a chaotic corner of the world. It is not enough that the U.S. suffered its largest single terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and is struggling against an elusive enemy. Americans must also endure the sniping of those in the international community who are unable, or unwilling, to bear the cost in either lives or treasure for the principles they espouse. Ever since September 11th, ICRC spokesmen have publicly chastised the Bush Administration for its decision to hold terrorist suspects in military detention at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba. They have upbraided Washington for using what the Red Cross calls disproportionate and indiscriminate force on the battlefield and have faulted the Pentagon for occasionally permitting both Iraqi and Afghan POWs to be photographed after their capture. Most egregiously, the ICRC also has been quick to condemn the U.S. for the deaths of non-combatants during the Iraq campaign. Yet it has been less than forceful in highlighting the perfidious manner in which Saddam's soldiers routinely fired upon Coalition forces from within schools, mosques and hospitals in their efforts to avoid reprisal. As a result, the U.S. sustained higher casualties in the Iraq campaign than was necessary because the Pentagon's rules of engagement sought to minimize the intentional loss of civilian life. "We choose targets carefully to avoid civilians," noted a spokeswoman for the U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a news conference on April 10th."Our ground and air forces take similar care to avoid damaging neighborhoods, hospitals and religious sites." Fight or Flight The first to flee the violence of Baghdad were representatives of the United Nations. Within days after its Baghdad headquarters building was bombed on August 20, 2003, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan decided it was just too dangerous for the mission to remain at full strength. He ordered that the staff of 300 in Baghdad be reduced to a token presence. The attack on the UN headquarters left 17 dead and 100 injured. Killed in the blast was the Secretary's special envoy to the country, Sergio Vieira de Mello. A second car bombing on September 22nd in a parking lot outside the UN's Baghdad compound killed a policeman and compelled the organization to further reduce its profile in the Iraqi capital. Then came the suicide attack on the Baghdad offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross on October 27th. At least ten people were murdered in this bombing which occurred when an ambulance bearing the insignia of the organization drove into the ICRC compound and exploded. The ICRC insisted it was the first time the organization had been deliberately attacked in 140 years. Pierre Krahenbuhl, Director of Operations for the ICRC in Geneva, decided to draw down most of his staff in the Iraqi capital. Left behind was a caretaker operation, one not focused on delivering services to the needy, but instead protecting ICRC property from looters. The ICRC headquarters issued a statement condemning the bombing and noted that attacks that targeted civilians were violations of "international humanitarian law and negate the most basic principles of humanity." The last straw came for the ICRC on November 8, 2003, when, in response to mounting attacks against coalition forces throughout Iraq, the organization's leadership decided to shutter its doors and cease all operations in Baghdad. "We decided that in view of an extremely dangerous and volatile situation that we would have to temporarily close our offices in Baghdad and Basra," said Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the ICRC. The View From Tel Aviv If you are an Israeli sitting in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv these days, the ICRC's use of the terms "extremely dangerous" and a "volatile situation" to describe the situation in Baghdad must seem more than a little disingenuous. After all, there have been more than 130 suicide attacks in and around Israel over the last three years and literally thousands of Palestinian bombings, shooting, kidnappings and stabbings. Yet, ICRC and UN agencies seem to function normally despite the perceived danger. Their representatives have no difficulty traversing the battle lines, bringing supplies to the Palestinians, writing reports and insinuating themselves between the combatants at every turn. Witness the Israeli siege of the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. During this operation against a known terrorist stronghold, UN and ICRC representatives were on the scene, braving the bullets, in order to make sure that no opportunity was lost to paint a fictional picture of Israeli brutality. In fact, when it comes to condemning Israel, the UN and ICRC representatives seem to be emboldened by danger. Their actions echo the observation attributed to Winston Churchill that there is nothing so exhilarating as the caprice of the bullet. Either these UN and ICRC workers are a tougher lot than their Iraqi-based counterparts or they have managed to find ingenious ways to adapt to local conditions. Sadly, all evidence points to the latter. The fact is that these workers enjoy the comfort and protection of the terrorist militias that control much of the Palestinian-controlled territories. For reasons of both personal survival and personal sympathy, they have struck a devil's bargain with the very people responsible for so much civilian suffering. The UN and the ICRC rarely run afoul of the terrorists because they are in bed with the terrorists, providing cover to their operations in the refugee camps, justifying their actions before the world media, ignoring their use of Red Cross ambulances to transport weapons and guerillas, and permitting the widespread misuse of international relief funds provided by the international community, most notably through UNWRA, the UN Works and Relief Agency. Even more galling to Israeli observers must be the appeal of the ICRC to the "most basic principles of humanity" when speaking of its own painful loss in Iraq. Where is the plea for the "principles of humanity" when bombs go off in Israeli malls and on crowded Israeli buses killing and maiming innocent men, women and children? Only the targeted retaliation by the Israeli military against known terrorists and their hideouts seems to arouse the indignation of these two esteemed organizations. In fact no Israeli response is ever deemed appropriate, neither retaliatory action nor pre-emptive strikes to neutralize so-called "ticking bombs." Today, in Iraq, American troops are subject to an average of twenty attacks per day. Not only is the sophistication of these attacks growing, but so too is the brazenness of their perpetrators. Many of these are roadside bombs which indiscriminately kill soldiers and civilians alike. Nearly 250 Americans have died in Iraq since President Bush declared an end of major combat operations in May. Administration spokesmen have declared their intention to remain in Iraq as long as it takes to bring stability to the country and to ensure that all necessary relief aid is made available to those Iraqis who most need it. Yet it took only one bomb to drive the ICRC out of Baghdad and two bombs to force the UN and its staff to drastically reduce its presence in this city. By contrast, the innocent Iraqis served by these two organizations have nowhere else to go. They can neither flee their conditions nor seek sanctuary outside the city. Instead they are left to die by the score, unfortunate collateral casualties in an unrelenting terrorist war. The same is true for the thousands of Israelis who, for the last ten years since the signing of the Oslo Accords, have found themselves subjected to the indiscriminate killing now so commonplace throughout Iraq. Their toll, though, has been significantly higher: More than 900 Israelis have been killed and 6,000 injured in more than 19,400 terrorist attacks between September 29, 2000, and January 1, 2004. In contrast to the UN and ICRC action, the Italian Government did not choose to retreat after eighteen members of its stabilization force were killed in a November 12th suicide bombing in Nasiriya. It was the worst loss suffered by a U.S. coalition partner since the start of the war. Eleven Carabinieri paramilitary police, four army soldiers, an Italian civilian, and an Italian filmmaker were killed in the blast. Just hours after the incident, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made it clear that his country would not abandon its commitment to the Iraqi people and the United States to continue to help stabilize the country. The UN and the ICRC had many options in Baghdad after their headquarters were attacked. They could have reinforced their compounds with additional Iraqi guards, moved to a more secure location, retained the services of foreign security personnel or sought the protection of Coalition forces. None of these was acceptable. Each was rejected. Instead, the two organizations ordered their staffs to flee Iraq's capital city in what can only be described as a shameful display of weakness. Abandoning their posts at a time of profound human need has surely earned them the ignominious title: "The Cowards of Baghdad." Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D. is President of Fishbein Associates, Inc., a public policy consulting firm based in Potomac, Maryland. He is a former Professional Staff Member (Majority) of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and a former Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to Senator Daniel K. Inouye. He can be contacted through his company web site at: www.fishbeinassociates.com or fishnet@pipeline.com.

IN THE GULF WAR, U.S. EXPECTED WMD TO BE USED AGAINST ISRAEL Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 22, 2004.

If you think it paranoid to suspect the Quartet of plotting the destruction of Israel (then you haven't read the Road Map and deduced its destructive consequences), be advised that the Quartet had paved the way for weapons of mass destruction to be used against Israel. When the US had an agreement with Israel to inform it of Arab military plans, the US secretly violated the agreement. The US knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, notably nerve gas, and expected Saddam to launch missiles of nerve gas at Israel. The US kept this knowledge from Israel. Its silence induced Jonathan Pollard to inform Israel on his own. Israel prepared, thereby rendering Saddam's weapon largely useless, so Saddam launched conventional missiles, instead. That spared tens of thousands of Israeli lives and avoided an expansion of Gulf War I. For his life-saving spying, Pollard has been punished to an unprecedented degree, but those in the US government whose subversion otherwise might have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Israelis, remain unpunished. Then Defense Secretary, Caspar Weinberger inadvertently gave away his complicity in the anticipated slaughter of Israelis. On the first day of the attack, Sec. Weinberger commented over the radio, "It is a shame that Israel is being hit with nerve gas." Israel was not struck by nerve gas. Then why did he say it was? He knew Iraq had it, and expected Saddam to use it. Therefore he assumed the Scuds carried poison gas supplied in part by members of the Quartet (Ibid.). He has never answered for that. Amazing what investigations are not undertaken! There's also an agreement Israel has broken. Under international law, every government is obliged to punish terrorists when it can, as common enemies of mankind. "No government has the legal right to free terrorists as a 'goodwill gesture'..." Even the US Presidential pardon is limited to offenses against the US. Nevertheless, PM Sharon had released about 500 terrorists, in what he called a goodwill gesture. At least two of the terrorists are known to have gone on to commit suicide bombings that took the lives of more Israelis. But the State Dept. was pleased with the gesture. This international law derives from concepts of a higher power, concepts that originated in the Torah. PM Sharon, like his predecessors, violated international law, Jewish law, and common decency in freeing terrorists (Prof. Louis Rene Beres, Jewish Press, 2/9, M1). The releases earned Arab contempt rather than goodwill. They fueled the Arab war on the Jewish people. Israeli politicians' naivete denied justice and inflicted further injustice. There is an element of sadism in the opportunistic State Dept. pressure on Israel to free murderers (while Europe condemns the US for executing some of its own murderers). There is an element of masochism in Israeli compliance. So long as Israel acquiesces, so long will it be pressured. Half the antisemitism is opportunistic --the victim's meekness tempts those bullies not simply driven by ideology against the Jews. Mr. 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.

JIHAD UNSPUN AND GOOGLE NEWS Posted by Honest Reporting, January 22, 2004.

The Google search engine is the most popular method in the world for finding information online, handling more than 200 million search requests a day. Building on their success, Google has now developed Google News (www.news.google.com), a portal that is quickly becoming one of the most influential sources of world news. Here's how it works: Google News has accepted thousands of news sources for inclusion in a pool, which Google's computer continually scans by algorithm to group articles by topic. When the user types in a search word, such as 'Israel', Google News presents links to hundreds of relevant news stories on that topic. (Greater prominence is given to articles more recently released, and more popular online.) But with the proliferation of vitriolic anti-Israel and anti-Semitic material on the web (the number of neo-Nazi websites in Germany, for example, has tripled in the past four years) and much of it deliberately disguised in 'news format', the question is: What does Google News consider a legitimate news source - as opposed to fiction or propaganda? The Google News website states only: While the sources of the news vary in perspective and editorial approach, their selection for inclusion is done without regard to political viewpoint or ideology. This goal to present a broad spectrum of viewpoints is praiseworthy, but HonestReporting is concerned with Google News' acceptance of one particular site - Jihad Unspun - as Mideast 'news', despite the site's record of blatantly distorting established facts, glorifying terror, and publishing highly defamatory anti-Semitic material. Jihad Unspun's articles appear prominently on searches for Israel-related topics on Google News. But click through, and this is what Jihad Unspun serves up: - Outrageous 'Zionist conspiracy theories', such as the canard that 9/11 was a sinister Zionist plot, as were the recent Istanbul bombings: 'Zionist Intelligence Engineered Istanbul Blasts'. - The authors generally refuse to call Israel by name, employing instead the terms 'Zionist forces' and 'Hebrew state'. Some examples: 'Resistance Fighters Attack Zionist Vehicles' (i.e., deadly terror attacks on Israeli civilian cars) 'Zionist Chief of Staff Promises More Suffering for Palestinians' 'Hebrew State Refuses British Involvement' 'Zionist Terrorist Forces Demolish More Palestinians Homes, Mosque' - All of Israel is referred to as 'occupied territory' and all Israelis are 'settlers'. For example, a report on the closing of the Sbarro's pizzeria, site of the horrific 2001 bombing, reads: Owners of a Zionist restaurant in central occupied Jerusalem have failed to convince customers to frequent it anew. Clients deserted the 'Subaru' restaurant after a Palestinian commando blew himself up in it about three years ago, killing 17 settlers and wounding tens others. - The site publishes the writings of the rabidly anti-Semitic Edgar J. Steele, including an article with these passages: It isn't Arabs rigging the US stock market and commodities futures markets - it is jews. It wasn't Arabs who sent our military into Afghanistan and Iraq - it was jews It wasn't Arabs who forged the Anne Frank "diary" - it was jews. It wasn't Arabs who lied about gas chambers at Dachau and Auschwitz - it was jews. It wasn't Arabs who demolished the World Trade Center - it was jews. It wasn't Arabs who had Jesus Christ crucified - it was jews. The owner and publisher of Jihad Unspun is Khadija Abdul Qahaar (a.k.a. Bev Kennedy), who converted to Islam after 9/11, became an advocate for its most radical fringe, then launched the website without any journalistic credentials. While the site is duly protected by the First Amendment (we found no overt calls to murder), the material Jihad Unspun publishes does not meet a reasonable definition of 'news', but is rather anti-Israel and anti-American propaganda that masquerades as news. Google News recognizes this loophole in its system - in March of last year Google News responded to an email campaign protesting the inclusion of the radical Indymedia site (where the term 'Zionazis' was prevalent), and removed Indymedia from their service. With the highly influential Google News still a work-in-progress (it remains in experimental 'beta' mode), HonestReporting encourages subscribers to write to Google News at news-feedback@google.com, encouraging the removal of Jihad Unspun from their list of legitimate news sites. Though the goal of providing a spectrum of news sources is laudable, hateful propaganda has no place on Google News. Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias. Honest Reportng monitors the media for inaccuracy and unfairness in how they report the news about ISrael. Ther website address is http://www.honestreporting.com

PETITION FOR NOAM FEDERMAN, IN PRISON WITHOUT A TRIAL Posted by David Ben-Ariel, January 21, 2004.

To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Defense Minister Shaul Mufaz We demand that Noam Federman be granted full civil rights, as are extended to all Israeli citizens. If Federman is suspected of committing a crime, indict him and put him on trial. Allow him to see all evidence being used against him. Allow him to present a full defense, as is granted to anyone accused of a crime. If there is no evidence against him, and he is not accused of a crime, Noam Federman should be, and must be, immediately released from prison. Either put Noam Federman on trial or free him. Sincerely, Click Here David Ben-Ariel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall." His website address is http://benariel.port5.com/

ONE HONEST MAN Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 21, 2004.

Do you think Israel could stand one honest man in the Prime Minister's Office? Don't you think that the Israeli people, Right and Left, deserve a leader who has a reputation for being honest with his people? One who has not been identified with as an inveterate liar, or accused of accepting illegal foreign monies, a man who does not believe in secret connections with foreign interests. In brief, One Honest Man. Some may recall that President Harry Truman was viewed by most as One Honest Man. He really never wanted the job, which made him an even better President. So, let's get to it. There is one man you all know who comes with a great deal of experience in government and no baggage of tricky deals. His name is Uzi Landau, a Member of Knesset. I don't think he wants the job of Prime Minister but I strongly believe that he'd be darn good at it. At least, he would give straight answers to your questions which, as I recall, never seemed to be the habit of the last five Prime Ministers. MK Landau has the credentials for the job, well beyond present and would be candidates for the job. He is calm, unflappable, knows every job in the Knesset and Cabinet. Strangely, he is trusted by both the Left and the Right. If there were a political contest, no doubt, there would be mud thrown but none would stick to MK Landau. He lives a quiet life with his family. He is a steady man who does not exhibit the typical hunger for power. Normally, the expression of an Honest Politician is considered an oxymoron but, not when describing Landau. When he speaks, it is with authority and no fumbling because he knows what he is talking about. MK Landau is known to all as a patriot but makes no big show of it. He quietly goes about doing his job with competence - which is a lot, given the usual scramble for power, perks and special accommodations by most politicians. And, very important, MK Landau listens if someone brings him genuine advise. He wants solutions to problems, not BS. Israel will soon have need of a thinking, honest Prime Minister. Given the trouble Israel has with the world's nations, he had better be a respected, well-spoken leader (in English) who does not bend under pressure from good friends and dedicated enemies. Israel needs a Truman-like 'Honest Man' as much as a drowning man needs a life preserver. Some nations just don't get lucky until the right man rises to power, even when he doesn't seek that power. So, where do we go from here? Will a fast talker with a golden tongue take the office for a few years? Will another Barak or Peres manage to rise up from the ashes? Will Americans choose the next Prime Minister - as happened on a few occasions. You can ask Uzi Landau but, he will probably turn you all down - at least the first or second time. But, if his Party really needs a candidate who can run as the "One Honest Man", I think the public is ready. In the end, because Uzi Landau is a true patriot, he will accept a job which brings no pleasure, no gratitude with a great deal of pain and pressure. I can think of no other man who can handle the challenges of this most crucial job in Israel's history. Ask Uzi Landau. And don't take NO for an answer. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm)

SHALOM FROM NOKDIM Posted by Kaeren Fish, January 21, 2004.

I am writing on behalf of the community of Nokdim in Gush Etzion. We are a community of 110 families, with a great variation of cultures, levels of religious observance, academic background, mother tongues, and just about everything else. We are situated south-east of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Judean desert, very close to Herodion. My husband and I are originally South-African, we have 6 children and have lived in Nokdim for 4 years. Nokdim does not receive any regular funding from any charitable organization or institution, and we are not currently being sponsored by any body. So that you understand the picture: The drive from Nokdim to Jerusalem (where most of us work) takes 45 minutes. The road passes through an Arab village (the shorter route was closed by the I.D.F. in September 2000 and was never reopened. A new by-pass road is under construction, but work proceeds slowly.) Three of our neighbors have been killed in shooting attacks on the road. For this reason, many people are reluctant to drive at night; some travel to work and back only by bus (bullet-proof), and children generally travel only to school and back (again, on bullet-proof busses). Hence our most pressing need is to have some cultural activity going on in Nokdim itself. We have plans for, and have started construction of, a children's library and activity center (in memory of Sarit Amrani, a 25-year old mother of 3 who was the first victim of terrorism in Nokdim). The fund that was set up for this purpose will not be able to cover the project; we are short of about $50,000 to finish the building and equip it with books, computers, games and outdoor activities. Owing to the economic situation (in Israel in general, and in Nokdim in particular) the job of "cultural coordinator" has been abolished, and hence there is also no activity organized for adults. An urgent need, for the psychological welfare of the community, is a cultural coordinator and a regular budget for activities - lectures etc. I estimate that around $250 a month could make a substantial contribution to the quality of life of both adults and children by providing extra-curricular activities. The economic situation of Nokdim reflects the economic reality of Israel as a whole: several people have lost their jobs; in addition, many mothers have quit their jobs in Jerusalem because of the uncertainties of the road. Nokdim is not surrounded by a fence. There is a constant I.D.F. presence of 3-4 soldiers who help with guard-duty at the gate by day (by night the Nokdim residents stand guard.) If you would like to help send some assistance to Nokdim directly, please make check out to: AMERICANS FOR A SAFE ISRAEL and mail to: PO Box 459, Huntingdon Valley, Pa. 19006. ALL the money will go to Nokdim.

THE ARABS FROM A JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE Posted by Leo Rennert, January 21, 2004.

h This should be read along with the"Kingdom of Silence" article in the Jan. 5 New Yorker. It is a Special Dispatch from MEMRI and it is archived at http://www.memri.org/bin/opener@latest.cgi'ID=SD64804. In an article titled "How the Arabs Appear to the Japanese," the head of the Kuwaiti National Council for Culture, Art, and Literature, liberal columnist Muhammad Al-Rumayhi, reviewed the book The Arabs: A Japanese Point of View, by Japanese researcher Nobuaki Notohara. The book, which was recently published in Arabic, included criticism of societal patterns, oppression, and the absence of self-criticism in the Arab world. In his review, Al-Rumayhi presents the book as required reading for anyone interested in reform in the Arab world. The following are excerpts from Al-Rumayhi's article:(1) What Enabled the Japanese to Enter the New Cultural Age' "Whenever some Arabs meet at a scientific convention and Japan is mentioned, the participants compare Japan's revival to the yearned-for Arab revival. They say that Japan succeeded in entering the new age while at the same time preserving its social culture. Apparently, this is the majority opinion among Arab observers. It appears that this is an apologetic view or justification aimed at saying, 'You can enter the age of modernization, globalization, and production without giving up your social heritage, the traditional political pattern, and the behavioral norms that are inappropriate for our time.' "'And if they are told that the Japanese entered the new age because they changed the political patterns and social behavior to which they were accustomed and because they adopted new ideas, some Arabs respond to this with amazement and denial...' "Now a Japanese man comes along who expresses, in excellent Arabic, the opposite of what certain Arabs think. This is what Nobuaki Notohara wrote in his book. As soon as I read the book, I thought it [worthy of being] a required book for every Arab statesman who believes that reform is still possible in our Arab region. "The testimony of Notohara - who dwelled among the Arabs for some 40 years and saw both Bedouin and urban culture, who speaks Arabic like an Arab and who followed Arab literary works and translated them into Japanese - is to the best of my knowledge the first Japanese testimony written about Arabs in their own language..." 'Oppression is the Only Thing That Does Not Need to Be Proven in Arab Countries' "The author points out the tension clearly apparent in the crowded Arab cities; [he] refers to the tension in the Arab street. He thinks that this tension stems from oppression. 'The people walk through the streets as if they were being followed, faces frozen and silent, and [there are] long queues. A person is harmed by oppression even in a taxi, as the driver chooses his passenger according to where he [i.e. the driver] wishes to go, and refuses to take someone he doesn't like.' The book concludes with a comment that 'the residents of the Arab cities are unhappy and dissatisfied. The people are silent and do not speak, but out of this suffocating silence we hear a cry!' "Notohara believes that the reason for this atmosphere lies in the absence of social justice, and adds that he has the right to say something to the Arabs after all these years of living among them: 'The absence of justice means the absence of the fundamental basis for human relations. Thus, people in the Arab countries say time and again that [in the Arab world] everything is possible because the laws that exist are not implemented and not honored.' "The law does not protect the people from oppression because it is violated, and Notohara cites many examples and adds: 'Oppression is the only thing that does not need to be proven in Arab countries.'" In the Arab World, 'The Ruler Rules For His Entire Life' "One of the phenomena of oppression that surprise modern Japanese is that 'the ruler rules for his entire life, while the Japanese prime minister's term lasts no more than a few years. In every [Arab] country there is a ban on some newspapers, and authors and publications are subject to censorship.' "A Japanese individual does not expect to see such phenomena. '... Anyone visiting Japan sees cars with loudspeakers in the streets [verbally] attacking the prime minister and the ruling party without anyone harassing them... But in the Arab countries the regime and the ruler are one. In most Arab countries, the only criteria for respecting a citizen and for the extent of his patriotism is the degree of his loyalty to the ruler. All these are alien to us Japanese of the modern age...' "The author is aware of the fact that Japan was in the past subject to oppression. But the Japanese freed themselves from it, and it became history. [The author] says: 'I think that oppression is an incurable disease in Arab society, and therefore any author or researcher who speaks of the Arab society without being aware of this simple and obvious fact is not a serious researcher.' "'As a result of oppression, the people try to be conformist in their opinions, dress, and homes, and under such circumstances the individual's independence disappears. Similarly, the phenomenon of public responsibility is absent. Oppression engenders fear and creates spurious respect [for the government].'" No Justice - No Public Responsibility "'Due to the absence of justice, there is no public responsibility. This is why Arab residents destroy parks, streets, public drinking fountains, and public transportation, thinking that they are destroying government property, not their own. Similarly, responsibility for... political prisoners [meaning those fighting for civil and human rights] who sacrificed themselves for society is lacking; society itself has abandoned these courageous people. People in Arab countries see the problems of political prisoners as a private problem of the family of each prisoner.' "The Japanese individual wonders: 'I can understand that the regimes [fight] prominent individuals, thinkers, authors, politicians, scientists, and artists, but why does the people itself abandon them'' "According to the author, 'the Arab adopts his ideas from outside, while the Japanese shapes his ideas on concrete events in Japan that he experiences every day. In Japan, new facts are added every day, while the Arab makes do with reconstructing events from the distant past...'" 'People Need Domestic and External Criticism' "The author compares Japan to the Arabs: 'The Japanese had to deal with the bitter and difficult experience of the Japanese military taking control of the emperor, the government, and the people and leading the country to war... But we recognized our mistake and decided to correct it. We expelled the military and decided to rebuild what was destroyed by the military oppression. We learned that oppression leads to destruction of national resources and the murder of innocents... Self-criticism is a great value in the life of every people, and people need domestic and external criticism.'" Why Don't the Japanese Hate America (While the Arabs Do)' "The author says that several times his Arab friends have asked him: 'The U.S. destroyed you by dropping two nuclear bombs on your cities. Why don't you hate America'' He answers: 'We must admit our mistakes. We were imperialist and we conquered peoples and destroyed many lands - China, Korea, and Oceania. We must criticize ourselves and then correct our mistakes. As to feelings, this is a limited personal matter that does not build the future.' "Notahara insists that awareness of problems is the right approach to correcting them... The Japanese does not expect coming to a bank to withdraw money and having the teller give him less than the amount coming to him, or coming to the museum and having the museum director offer to sell him archeological exhibits... "In his book, Notohara describes many instances; once he saw a nun in religious garb who paid a bribe. Why' Because in her institution, she could not get any attention without it. The author shows that the Arab value system contains many flaws that do not comply with the progress for which the [Arabs] yearn." 'I Think We All Need to Read This Book With Open Eyes and Hearts' "I have tried to present in brief this book, which opens the eyes of anyone who wants to see. It presents two matters: Japan freed itself of many of its old values ... in order to enter the modern age, [and] the Arab value system requires revision... "I think that we all need to read this book with open eyes and hearts." Endnote: (1) Al-Quds (Palestinian Authority), January 8, 2004.

PORTRAIT OF SUICIDE BOMBER DISPLAYED IN SWEDEN'S SUBWAYS Posted by Yardena Anat Even, January 21, 2004.

After Glorifying Homicide Bomber, Sweden Should Take Lead To Make Suicide Bombing A 'Crime Against Humanity' INSTEAD, Swedes advertise (in their subways) "art" installation glamorizing the female Palestinian suicide murderer of 21 Israelis... Huge posters of this exhibit plastered in the Stockholm underground/Tunnelbana give a sense of repulsion. All said and done, this is definitely not art in a good sense. To me personally there is no difference between this exhibit and a poster of Osama bin Laden calling for Jihad. Unfortunately The Liberal Left who don't mind such atrocity has contributed to the present acceptance of so called "art" glorifying and paying homage to a Suicide Bomber created by society's reject - a sociopath - Dror and his Swedish Wife "Gorilla" who reside in a country, Sweden, known as a natural kennel for breeding nazis. A decent society of the world must take Sweden to the international tribunal in Hague for glorifying murders and terrorism. And in my opinion, The initiators of the call should be folks at HaAretz who support and encourage hate against their own country and their people by publishing poisonous works the likes of Amira Hass and Gideon Levy or Uri Avnery. You are to blame. It is commonly known that there is a rapid emergence of dormant anti-Semitic tendencies in Europe Liberal Left and the Radical Israeli Left feeds into this pile of hatred. It boggles the mind that the moment an opinion is publicized through the medium of art, it becomes sacrosanct, regardless of the actual content being conveyed. Of course, the defense of human life and the protection of the ideals of our common humanity must transcend art. The fact is, the piece in question attempts to dehumanize the victims of terror by comparing them to a killer who has, by virtue of her acts, given up her own humanity. Now, if you have a drop of decency in your conscience left you will take action and responsibility to drum sense into your cold-blooded supporters in Sweden.

ARE SYRIA AND ARAFAT "PEACE PARTNERS" Posted by David Ben-Ariel, January 21, 2004.

This is by Jo-ana D'Balcazar, a political analyst in International Relations, specializing in the Middle East Crisis and the European Union. MIDDLE EAST: JANUARY 20, 2004 - Has not the U.S. declared a global war against terrorism and listed Syria as one of the states sponsoring terrorism? So, what is this wishful-thinking of granting more time to see whether Syria and Arafat change their terrorist behavior? It is clear by Israeli and American evidence that Syria supports terrorism, including in Judea and Samaria (West Bank). So, instead of exercising a consistent policy, how cab the new approach be a passive one? Homicide bombings against innocent Israeli civilians continue coming from Judea and Samaria, while the Palestinian Authority, although it doesn't say so publicly, far from eradicating terrorism, backs and supports the Al-Aksa Brigades (its terrorist arm). How can Israeli President Moshe Katsav expect that Syrian President Bashar Assad, while still supporting Hizbollah, honestly would accept to hold peace talks in Jerusalem? To believe that, would be either foolish or naive. Interestingly, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a US News & World Report interview on Jan. 8 that the U.S. "will continue to encourage the Syrians to change aspects of their behavior that we [USA] think are inappropriate." Didn't Assad fool Powell during his earlier visit to Damascus, promising that he would stop Syria's support and shut down the Hamas and Hizbollah headquarters in Damascus? Well, that was wishful-thinking on the part of Collin Powell, as nothing that he was promised then happened. Didn't Powell learn yet that Assad and terrorists can't be trusted, or is he still on his wishful-thinking parade? Someone needs to wake-up. The statistics are clear. Deaths and injured people continue to increase. Finally, isn't it time to keep a consistent policy against all entities and states sponsoring terrorism, including Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Iran, and Libya instead of believing in empty "peace" promises? Diplomatic and economic support to these groups has proved an ineffective approach witnessed by an ever-increasing bloodshed. This U.S. inconsistent policy, is no doubt what increases negative attitudes toward U.S. If the U.S., as expressed by Powell during a January 14 radio interview co-produced by the BBC, Public Radio International and WGBH TV I Boston, "has been acting on the basis of principle, we're [USA] interested in freedom, democracy, and human rights." Then, this statement also, does not apply in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Freedom, democracy, and human rights? Supposedly, the U.S. is an ally and friend of Israel. Yet, when Israel - the only democratic country in the region - defends herself against terrorist attacks coming from the Palestinian Authority region, the U.S. criticizes, instead of supporting, Israel. Let us not forget that, as we said before, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, as part of the Palestinian Authority, proudly takes credit for several homicide bombings. Moreover, Arafat, by keeping silent, indeed backs the Brigades. Is not Israel doing the same the U.S. is doing against Al-Qaeda, which is eradicating the terrorist infrastructures? Are not the homicide bombings, not one, but continued suicide bombings, despicable enough? Who are the ones committing genocide against human rights of innocent civilians, that are even celebrated? Alternatively, we may ask, why the UN and the world, blindly, can only count victims from one side but not the other? Or is it that Israeli victims are not supposed to be counted, despite that they are the main target? The point is that there are 21 Arab nations that in several occasions had attacked or condemned Israel, the only democratic nation in the area. Israel for thousand of years has been struggling to survive. Nowadays, since the establishing of the Modern State of Israel, its struggle has been to fight for its right to exist. The Arabs had fought against Israel since its independence but, interestingly enough, have lost all their wars, including the 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Sinai War, the 1967 Six Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur, etc. The results? The terrorist group of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, very conveniently changed its name, and it is now known as the "Palestinian Authority", even though the same leader "Yasser Arafat" leads it. Arafat has legalized his terrorist policy and obtained the historical Jewish lands of Judea, Samaria, Bethlehem, and Hebron as part of the yet to see "Palestinian State." Is Arafat just pursuing his original PLO goal, which is to destroy Israel' Otherwise, how can you explain that in the PLO's official website, the map of the envisioned State of Palestine, an Israeli state does not appear, as it does not exist, or it has never existed, even though it is Israel, not Arab-Palestine, the one that has existed in that area for thousands of years? Although historical facts prove it, Arafat is rewriting history and the world is buying it. Thus, at the end, who is smarter, the victim or the terrorist? No comment. Then the challenge comes clear for Pres. Bush. Bush has said that he is a man who keeps his word. He declared a war against global terrorism, so this will be a good time to stand by his word. Arafat succeeded in selling the concept of the "Palestinian People." When in fact, there has never been a Palestinian homeland, language, or Palestinian culture, but it was only the political invention of the Romans in the second century to erase the Jewish identity. What the world now knows as Palestinians is nothing more than Arabs. Moreover, 57% of Europeans, based on the poll sponsored by the European Commission, consider Israel, instead of the Palestinian Authority, as the obstacle for peace. Yet, Arafat's public relations and marketing strategies - with all the millions or billions he cleverly accumulated, as reported by Forbes - succeeded, while Israel miserably fails to keep the original names of their historical lands: Judea and Samaria. All this can be traced to the leftist politics that have misguided Israel ever since. but fortunately, there is fresh hope that this idea might be in the process of changing. Unless Israeli leaders prefer to believe Arafat's empty peace promises. Bottom line, Israel and the U.S. should take public relations and marketing lessons from Yasser Arafat. Arafat sold himself as dressed with a democratic and diplomatic uniform, which covered and still disguises his terrorist garb. Arafat's fortune, as estimated by Forbes, consists of $300 million, placing him in sixth place of richest world leaders, while the true innocent Arab-Palestinians live in miserable poverty. Is not time to wake up and smell the coffee? If conventional war did not destroy Israel, apparently, a terrorist policy is paying off. Israel continues to make concession after concession while the killing of innocent Israelis does not stop but increases. So much for Syria and Arafat as peace partners. Does Israel need more empty peace promises? What do you think?

NPR SMEARS ISRAEL Posted by CAMERA, January 21, 2004.

Aggressive bias continues at NPR, America's foremost publicly-funded radio network, with lopsided time afforded Israel's detractors, whether man-in-the-street Palestinians or critics from the political fringe. Unsupported and anecdotal charges of Israeli misconduct are routinely aired without any balance or counterpoint. Partisan (and sometimes extremist) groups critical of Israel are characterized euphemistically as neutral champions of "peace" and "human rights." These are some recent examples. 1) January 9 -- Morning Edition: NPR's Peter Kenyon devoted an entire "Morning Edition" segment to the grievances of Palestinians in Nablus in the wake of Israeli military action there. Israel was accused, among other things, of house demolishing, killing "unarmed bystanders," damaging "ancient walls and streets," delaying Palestinian firefighters as they try to "save burning buildings" and wrecking water and sewer pipes in the city. Listeners heard from: 1) a Palestinian bakery owner who says - with no apparent evidence - that "maybe" the "Israeli army are going to come and kill me in my store;" 2) the Palestinian fire chief of Nablus who alleges Israel blocks firefighting and knocks down "electric cables;" 3) the Palestinian mayor of Nablus who says desperate boys are attacking Israeli tanks "because of the occupation." Kenyon cited charges of Israeli misconduct at checkpoints leveled by B'Tselem, a pro-Palestinian group which he characterizes misleadingly as an "Israeli human rights group." He reports B'Tselem's charges that Israeli soldiers have "beaten" men with "rifle butts" and "beaten and handcuffed" students "to an olive tree." A dramatic indicator of B'Tselem's extreme advocacy of Palestinian positions is the fact that in tallies of those killed it categorizes as "civilians" Palestinians who have been killed in the course of bombing, stabbing and shooting to death Israeli civilians. For example, B'Tselem includes the following listing under Palestinian civilian victims of Israel: "Abd a-Salam Sadeq Hasouna, from Nablus, the West Bank, killed by IDF gunfire after having fired at Israeli civilians in a banquet hall in Hadera, in Central Israel." Not only had Hasouna "fired at" Israeli civilians with his M-16 assault rifle -- he killed six of them and wounded 24 attending a young girl's Bat Mitzvah. (See www.btselem.org) Despite the very serious allegations leveled in the segment, there was not a single Israeli speaker to convey the need for operations in Nablus to disrupt terrorist violence emanating from a city that has produced a quarter of the suicide bombers of the last three years. The only Israeli "rebuttal" was Kenyon's ambiguous reference to a written response by the army saying the B'tselem charges were being investigated and such efforts are "time consuming." In contrast, other major media presented essential context for Israel's actions in Nablus. * One day before NPR's story, the New York Times wrote on Jan 8: - " 'Nablus is the hottest and most dangerous town,' an Israeli commander in Nablus told reporters on Tuesday. 'Most of the suicide bombers, most of the bombs, most of the ammunition, is in Nablus.'" * Agence France Presse wrote on Jan 7: "Israel has come to regard Nablus as a hotbed of militancy. A suicide attack on December 26 on the outskirts of Tel Aviv was carried out by a bomber from a village close to the town. Israeli military sources said 27 Palestinians had been arrested in and around Nablus since the middle of last month, and that the drive against the 'terrorist infrastructure' would continue. Militants from the Nablus region had attempted to carry out 18 separate attacks against Israeli targets since early October, one source said. 'The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is operating in the city of Nablus due to serious alerts of terrorists organising and carrying out terror attacks from the city,' said the source. 'The IDF regrets that terror organisations operate in densely operated civilian environment and take advange of cilvilian infrastructure. We do our upmost to leave innocent civlians out of harm's way.' " 2) January 14 -- (Multiple NPR programs were seriously distorted on this date): A Morning Edition segment reported by Linda Gradstein was again focused on events in Nablus, primarily on the case of a Palestinian killed there by the Israelis. The circumstances of his death are disputed, with the man's brother, Mustafa al Khasass, alleging gratuitous murder by the Israelis who are said to have shot the victim in the face at close range and then prevented his evacuation to a hospital. Gradstein reports "several neighbors" confirm the "exchange" between the victim and the soldiers. Likewise, she says Nablus governor, Mahmoud Aloul, asserts "hospital reports" supposedly corroborate the event which "looks like a summary execution." One Israeli army spokesman is heard presenting the military perspective that the Palestinian man was shot from a distance when soldiers believed he was armed and threatening. But the segment concluded once more with Gradstein repeating allegations of B'Tselem, yet again described as "the Israeli human rights group." The group's director charges "excessive force" by Israel and "cases of Palestinians killed with no justification whatsoever." The skewed segment consisted of three critics of Israeli policy and one defender. 3) Morning Edition (1/14/04) -- NPR's Peter Kenyon concluded a "Morning Edition" report on the suicide bombing at Gaza's Erez checkpoint that killed four Israelis with a reference to the death of Tom Hurndall who had been shot by an Israeli soldier nine months earlier. Once again, an extreme, anti-Israel group was misrepresented as devoted to "peace." NPR host Bob Edwards called Hurndall a "British peace activist" and Kenyon said "he was part of an international peace group." In fact, Hurndall was a member of the International Solidarity Movement, a self-avowed pro-Palestinian group whose spokespeople have endorsed violence against Israel. ISM leaders have said "the Palestinians have a right to resist with arms, as they are an occupied people ... Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics -- both nonviolent and violent...". The same leaders have described "suicide operations" as "noble." (Palestine Chronicle, January 29, 2002) Unlike NPR, numerous other major media outlets reporting Hurndall's death did not whitewash his controversial political activity with the misnomer "peace." The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press referred to Hurndall as a member of the "pro-Palestinian" International Solidarity Movement. Reuters, the New York Times, the Washington Post and AFP termed Hurndall merely a "British activist" or an "activist." 4) All Things Considered (1/14/04) -- A segment reported by Linda Gradstein the same day was also based on the allegations of a partisan political group critical of Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights. Gradstein quotes false and misleading charges by the organization's director, Arik Ascherman who claims "it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits to build legally" in Jerusalem. Gradstein herself resides in Jerusalem where specialists on the subject of Arab housing, such as Justus Weiner (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs), could have readily been enlisted to offer rebuttal and balance on this contentious subject. Weiner's recent book on construction in Jerusalem documents that it is actually not difficult for Arabs to secure ordinary building permits. (As in any modern city or town, building cannot impinge on services and infrastructure.) Over the last five years an average of 183 have been issued to Arab residents. Weiner notes that "the percentage of applications that result in the issuance of a building permit is virtually identical in Arab and Jewish neighborhoods." Arab preference to build illegally, without having to pay permit fees, and with scant chance of retribution has helped spur the massive illegal construction in the city. According to Weiner, a Palestinian Legislator bragged at a 2002 conference that Palestinians had "erected 6,000 illegal homes without building permits, out of which only 198 were demolished." The rampant unlicensed building has been encouraged by the PA. None of this is mentioned by NPR. Instead, Gradstein quotes Ascherman as saying his effort to stop Israeli bulldozers from demolishing Arab houses in east Jerusalem "was an act of civil disobedience over what he called an 'unjust and immoral Israeli policy.'" Gradstein also cites charges by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, an extreme fringe group whose leader, Jeff Halper, has repeatedly compared Israeli laws to the Nazi Nuremberg laws. CAMERA - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America - monitors the media for anti-Israel bias. Its website address is http://www.camera.org.

WONDERFUL ISRAEL, NOT FOR IMMIGRANTS Posted by Tamar Rush, January 21, 2004.

This was written by Menachem Ben and appeared today on Maariv International. It's archived as http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm'fuseaction=article&articleID=1472 We have to make way for the Palestinians! Who needs those Russian engineers and doctors anyway? Get ready for the "One State Solution!" (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.) Boaz Gaon's upsetting article last weekend about the 50,000 Soviet immigrants returning to Russia and our sour faces, did not even raise an eyebrow in the media. Nothing. An Olympic silence. As if this wasn't a serious slap in the face for Zionism. As if this wasn't an unbelievable loss to Israeli society. As if this wasn't twice the total number of immigrants who arrived in Israel in 2003, and as if it is not exactly clear who is responsible. Although the departure represents only 5% of the million or so immigrants that have come here, the trend is gathering pace. Not surprising, perhaps even pre-destines, given the malevolence they experienced at our hands. For years the Interior Ministry, a Shas stronghold of bigotry and rabid xenophobia, displayed antipathy and spewed hatred against "those gentiles"' to the man on the street, who almost never objected to the public humiliation of the Russians. Only when teenager Mizrachi Musat murdered a Russian contemporary in some caf' simply because he spoke Russian, was there some sort of distress signal in the media. And the likes of Tal Friedman (popular TV host), who sits on the "Wonderful Israel" TV show presenting damaging and cynical stereotypes of the typical Russian cashier in Israel. We are talking about working women, who do not shy away from any sort of work (and who do not automatically apply for government benefits.) They are normally very amenable and efficient workers. Yes, Friedman and co. already have a part in the waves of desertion that will only increase. Very funny. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, can also rub his hands in glee. The tens of strangulating and humiliating restrictions that his ministers, from Eli Suissa to Eli Yishai, with the support of the Attorney General, imposed on the immigrant population (which continues today under the supposed control of Avraham Poraz of Shinui,) succeeded beyond all expectations. The number of those returning to Russia is growing, while the immigration flow has been severely curtailed. Was there anything we did not do to frighten off the immigrants' (Not all of us, of course. There were and there are those amongst us who display total support and affection for immigration.) We kicked out the halahically non-Jewish mothers of frontline immigrant Russian soldiers; we forbade them to marry here; we buried them outside the fence of the Jewish cemeteries; Israeli children mocked and victimized them; they were swindled, and their absorption money was stolen. Every Russian woman was called a 'prostitute;' our Finance Ministers, from Sylvan Shalom to Bibi Netanyahu, cut back their allowances; we allowed the Interior Ministry bureaucracy to define them as "not entitled" (because their Jewish connection was never officially proven, and that after they had already arrived in Israel,) and we left them to roam the streets, homeless, worthless with no citizen's rights of any sort. We are talking about over a million immigrants who came here from Russia and the former Soviet Union. People who brought with them inestimable amounts of education and knowledge, professional skills, culture, and excellent work and study habits - a phenomenal treasure house of human, cultural, and economic resources - not to mention their electoral blocking of Shas' intended government takeover (Shas knows this well, hence the hatred.) But the threat has still not been removed. If we do not embrace immigration from all countries; different colors and accents with warmth and love, the demographic grip will close in upon us from within and from without.

THE LESSIONS OF THE UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL FROM LEBANON Posted by IsrAlert, January 21, 2004.

This was in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). Sgt. Yan Rochansky, 21, who was killed on Monday by a Hizbullah-fired missile on the northern border, was laid to rest today in the military cemetery in his hometown of Herzliya. In retaliation for the killing, Israel Air Force jets bombed two Hizbullah training camps in southern Lebanon early yesterday evening. The attack was accompanied and followed by much verbiage: Israel threatened both Syria and Hizbullah, Hizbullah threatened Israel, and the United States is blaming Hizbullah for the "escalation." The targeted camps, chosen by Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, are used to train terrorists on their way to attacks against Israel. No casualties were reported from Lebanon, and the IAF planes returned safely to their base. Labor MK Efraim Sneh said this morning that the 12,000 Hizbullah missiles deployed in southern Lebanon deter Israel from taking strong military action in the north. Sneh, who was Deputy Defense Minister when the IDF unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon under then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak in May 2000, said, "I warned Barak that withdrawal from southern Lebanon without an agreement [with Lebanon] would create a vacuum that would be filled by Hizbullah, but I didn't imagine that the consequences would be so grave." Analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA notes that MK Sneh is one of the few Labor Party members who objects to a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. "It is most unfortunate that more people are not making the obvious connection between what we are facing now in the north, and what we will face in the south if we unilaterally withdraw from Gaza," Lerner told Arutz-7 today. Syria has completed chemical warheads for its arsenal of Scud-based missiles, Middle East Newsline reports. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said that Syria, with help from North Korea, has succeeded in designing and installing chemical warheads for its various Scud missiles, with a range of 250 to nearly 700 kilometers. The chemical agent deployed in the CW warheads is sarin, regarded as a most toxic material. "Since the 1970s," Bolton said, "Syria has pursued what is now one of the most advanced chemical weapons capabilities [in the Arab world]. It has a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin that can be delivered by aircraft or ballistic missiles, and has engaged in the research and development of more toxic and persistent nerve agents such as VX." Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

HEZBOLLAH AND TAPUACH Posted by Voice of Judea, January 21, 2004.

1. Hezbollah laughing all the way to Beirut Hezbollah parliamentary leader mocked Israel's retaliatory raid in southern Lebanon yesterday. Israel's air strikes in southern Lebanon yesterday in response to the murder of IDF soldier by Hezbollah was greeted with laughter by the Hezbollah. A Hezbollah representative in the Lebanese parliament said, "Israel's cosmetic air show over southern Lebanon succeeded in doing absolutely nothing. The Israeli's did not even succeed in appeasing internal public opinion with their lame show of impotence." Amos Gilad a spokesman for the Israel defense ministry said that Israel continues to reserve the right to attack. And that Israel continues to hold the Hezbollah and their Syrian handlers responsible. Voice of Judea Commentary: Nobody takes Sharon seriously. What does it mean to hold the Syrians accountable and to reserve the right to respond and to defend Israeli citizens' Somebody needs to explain to the Israeli government that it is not their right to respond and to defend Israeli citizens; it is an obligation, not a right, to defend your citizens! When Sharon wants to do something, he knows very well how to achieve his goals. Sharon wanted to destroy the synagogue in Tapuach West yesterday and he carried out his wishes with a vengeance. He should only show the same fervor when it comes to saving Jewish lives. To hold the Syrians accountable means to dismantle Damascus together with Teheran who both continue to orchestrate continuous terrorism against Jews. Sharon is very brave when it comes to dismantling Jewish homes and places of worship. Our brave general has lost what it takes when it comes to dealing with the enemies of Israel. 2. Tapuach Synagogue: the battle continues Anyone who thought that it would be easy to destroy the Tapuach synagogue is in for a bit of a shocker. After several hours of fierce resistance on the roads adjacent to Tapuach west hill and on the roof and in the synagogue itself, the police and troops finally succeeded in tearing down the Kahane synagogue. Close to a thousand Israeli soldiers and Israeli policeman battled with several hundred men women and children who came to defend the synagogue. Twenty five people were arrested in the Malay, 2 are still being held. Six Jewish worshipers and two soldiers were wounded during the demolition. In spite of the apathy on the part of the Yesha council hundreds of Jews from neighboring towns attempted to make their way to the synagogue Tuesday afternoon. Left wing parliamentarians, such as Ofer Penus from Labor, as well as right wing activists claim that a deal was struck between the Yesha council and the Government, permitting the destruction of the Kahane synagogue in exchange for other political favors. This might explain the passive reaction by Yesha council leaders who told many people who called them yesterday, "they are not getting involved in organizing or aiding the Tapuach synagogue, in spite of the tragic precedent that was being made by the synagogue's destruction." Volunteers who arrived on the scene after the synagogue was already destroyed began clearing the rubble and rebuilding a temporary house of prayer, with the broken beams and wood that remained. At approximately 4:00 an IDF jeeps rammed the new makeshift synagogue causing the new and flimsy building to collapse. Worshipers who arrived on the scene early Wednesday morning began rebuilding the synagogue yet a third time. At 1:00 pm approximately 50 soldiers arrived on the scene to dismantle the building and arrest those present. A scuffle is presently underway between troops and worshipers. Residents of Tapuach West vow that "they have no plans of changing their religion or their religious practices and that they will continue to pray 3 times a day and study Torah in the place where the synagogue once stood. They explained that their spirit can not and will not be broken and that they will continue to live and practice Judaism as proud Jews in the land of Israel." A tour conducted by the OU - Orthodox Union of America - brought a bus load of Rabbis and community leaders to view the damage only moments before the IDF had returned to destroy the third synagogue. Members of the group pledged 2 new caravans that can be used to house the torah and the synagogue. The 2 members of the tour, Harvey Schwartz and Jay Herzog pledged to sponsor 2 immediate caravans to be placed on the hill. If the first one is destroyed than the second one will be placed and so on. Residents of Tapuach west are urging Jews and non Jews from around the world to file complaint with their local Israeli consulates and embassies a well as with the Israeli government to measure their protest against this desecration. The sponsor of the first Sefer Torah, Eric Greenberg, pledged to donate a second Sefer Torah in the coming year as well. People who would like to contribute towards the rebuilding of the synagogue as well as to help with our efforts should use anyone of these ways: (1) call 718 874 2057 (2) send an email to info@defendisrael.net (3) Contact PAYPAL@HAMEIR.ORG (4) write In the USA: HAMEIR LDAVID P.O. BOX 960121, 143 DOUGHTY BLVD. INWOOD NY 11096 In Israel: HAMEIR LDAVID P.O. BOX 4005 ARIEL 44837 ISRAEL The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.net. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net

DUNGEONS, DRAGONS AND MEDIEVAL CURSES Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, January 21, 2004.

Q: What two utterances will compel a secular Left wing-Israeli to get in touch with his or her 'spiritual' side' A: Yigal Amir The secular Left becomes deeply religious - in a dark, subterranean sort of way - upon the very mention of that name. The oracles of the Left were particularly wicked this week as news of a possible wedding for Amir surfaced. Meretz MK Yossi Sarid proclaimed on Israel Radio, "We need to do everything to make sure this wedding does not take place." The prominent czar of Meretz continued his rantings in the press: "I would be pleased to be invited to his funeral not his wedding. The curse of the world is on him, his bride and his seed." Not to be outdone, Meretz MK Ran Cohen declared that the "abominable murder is not worthy of one second of joy." Labor Mk Eitan Cabel spewed out similar wrath: "The State of Israel needs to let Yigal Amir the murderer rot in prison, and never let him marry...There is no reason in the world for a hated murderer such as Amir to have children." Labor MK Dalia Itzik declared that a "pool of blood" would be the only appropriate venue for the wedding. Yes, the enlightened ones seemed ever - so primitive this week and they conjured up images of the Inquisition with its shadowy priests delivering incantations, curses, and torture. I feel a bit silly having to remind those champions of humanity of the following: Ceaseless solitary confinement and virtual castration is not consistent with human rights. The official canon of the Left decrees that Yigal Amir killed their lord and he should, therefore, be condemned to eternal damnation. A tacit addendum to the doctrine implicates all those who voiced opposition to the Oslo Accords as inciters to murder (for the record, I would like to say that I was at home that night). Come on! Even the Catholic Church, save for maybe Mel Gibson, has softened-up on that stuff. For the official news services to connect the wedding story to Dalia Rabin Pelosoff's admission to the hospital with a reported heart condition was a bit...shall we say... unscrupulous. Yigal Amir does not have an exclusive on delivering heartache to this country. He gets to share the honor with the architects of the Oslo Accords. If, over the past decade in Israel, one has been admitted to the hospital with panic attacks, heart palpitations and other stress related symptoms, then they can consider themselves one of the lucky ones - as they got off easy. Does anyone happen to have the figures on the amount of valium, anti-depressants, anti-spasmodics, tranquilizers, sleeping pills and blood-pressure medication that's been prescribed over the last several years in Israel' I hear TEVA's stock is up. An accurate description and recap of events is called for, because a little honesty may help relieve the collective knots in our stomach and ache in our heart. I hate to interrupt the Left's feeding frenzy with facts, but chew on this for a while... In the fall of 1995 elections were fast-approaching and Yizchak Rabin was lagging behind in the polls. Terror was on the increase and the public was out on the streets screaming bloody murder. It was a given that Oslo was already a dismal failure. The Left-wing coalition along with Peace Now initiated frantic damage control measures. They enlisted the help of the the ever-ready media and Shabak (the General Security Service) to help stem the tide. For lack of a better term, I have to say that things took a very 'weird' turn. An enormous 'Peace' concert featuring Israel's most popular idols and icons was planned as a sort of last-ditch effort to save the process. Israel's most cunning prophets of peace were summoned and assembled to speak , sing and offer hope. And then shots rang out and the party was over. Darkness descended upon the already greying landscape, followed by curses, erroneous accusations, false arrests and candle children. There was utter confusion and the ensuing investigation took on the flavor of an hysterical witch hunt. But in the end, Yigal Amir was convicted in an Israeli court of law and sentenced to life in prison. In spite of the intrigue surrounding the case, conspiracy theories and lingering suspicions, there is no doubt that Amir pulled a trigger. But there are unanswered questions, and Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff and her mother, the late Leah Rabin, would be the first to tell you that. There was negligence and scheming on the part of the security services, media, public and government. The case is likely to keep resurfacing and we will continue to be plagued by unanswered questions, because justice has not been fully served and treason is in the air. Those who believe the countries current woes began with an assassins bullet are a little late in the game. The crime even predates Oslo, the handshake on White House lawn, and Madrid. It may have begun at Sinai. Whether we turned our backs on commitments made at biblical, spiritual, territorial or strategic Sinai makes no difference - as it's all the same. Regardless of one's personal world view and politics, we're all part of the same people living a page in the ongoing epic narrative of the Jewish People. It's time the Left crawled out of their subterranean space, where only tunnel vision is possible, and saw the light. It's time we all took a panoramic view of our history and remembered who we are, where we are and reviewed our obligations and commitments as part of the Jewish people. The Left need not be concerned about inappropriate celebrations. From what I understand, living in a cell under 24 hour-a-day surveillance is not conducive to marital bliss. Allowing minimal simcha for a man condemned to a life in prison for a crime that, in some grand existential way, every member of the Jewish nation played either an active or passive part in; may help put things in perspective for all of us. Knowing that Yigal Amir will step on the glass while standing under a wedding canopy within prison walls is, in a 'weird' sort of way, almost cathartic. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, writer and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com

ONE MIRACLE PROVEN, ANOTHER IN THE OFFING' Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 21, 2004.

In the January 21, 2004 issue of the Moscow Times online*, a group of respected scientists proved that the Exodus from Egypt as written in the Bible was quite possible. In fact, Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg's Institute of Oceanology, made the following statement in a telephone interview: "I am convinced that God rules the Earth through the laws of physics." The six-month study used differential equations to determine if, given the proper wind speed, meteorological, oceanographic, and geologic conditions, the waters of the Red Sea could part enough to leave a passageway for all 600,000 Israelites to cross and then fall back upon the pursuing Egyptian army. Not only did these scientists prove it was indeed quite achievable, they located the probable crossing point - a reef that runs from the biblical starting point of the Hebrew's escape to the north side of the sea. (This might be a good place for an archaeological dig, nu') Interestingly, this is exactly what I was taught in religious school (and I am not Orthodox) - that God performs His handiwork through the forces of Nature. When asked how the miracle of Israel could be explained this way, my teacher said that humans are also part of nature. And it was human will and human struggle that made the present state of Israel come into existence. So what is the next miracle in the offing' Hold onto your kippahs and keffiyahs, because this one's a biggie and we may have already started to see it happening. It is all about the Temple Mount and that defiler and polluter of the most sacred and holy ground in all of Judaism, Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. We may be watching a miracle in the making. The following are the facts surrounding this possible miracle. The Temple Mount is situated on earthquake-prone land and has suffered extreme seismic events in the past. Also, it is literally like a multi-layered cake of archaeology, each structure having been built upon the rubble of the previous one. This makes the foundations for the present usurping Muslim structures extremely vulnerable to any ground shaking. On top of that, the WAQF (the Arabs controlling Judaism's holiest site) are excavating beneath it, probably to destroy any archaeological evidence that the Temple Mount is indeed a Jewish holy site. This excavation has so weakened the initially weak foundations, that one entire section of the Wall is in danger of collapse. All it needs is a little push from Nature... maybe by way of God. On January 19 (of this year) there was a news item discussing the seismic susceptibility of Jerusalem. In a three-year study, conducted by the Geological Survey of Israel, researchers used computers to map Jerusalem's topography, geology, soil and the Old City's subterranean labyrinth of cisterns and tunnels. They warned that the area of the Temple Mount will fall victim to another major earthquake within the next 50 years. Meanwhile, there has been an unusual amount of large seismic disturbances worldwide recently. Here are some headlines** from the past two months to illustrate that point (notice that volcanic eruptions are also included because volcanoes and earthquakes often go hand-in-hand): The world's most lethal quake in at least 10 years laid waste most of Bam's mud brick buildings in Iran in seconds. The most powerful quake (6.5) to strike California since a 7.1 quake rocked the desert near Joshua Tree more than four years ago in 1999. North Carolina (USA) experienced its strongest earthquake in more than a century. The most powerful quake to hit the Taitung area of Taiwan in over the past 30 years. Volcano Shiveluch on Kamchatka has spewed ash to the altitude of 3 kilometers above its crater. A big number of small tremors have been registered at the volcano, and thermal anomalies have also been registered there. Shiveluch awakened January 11 after a brief period of dormancy. Klyuchevskaya Sopka is showing heightened activity, with ash spews reaching 100 meters above the crater and a big number of local crust tremors registered. About 300 tremors were registered in the vicinity of the Karymski volcano. Volcano Bezymianny, which spewed ashes to the altitude of 8 kilometers on January 14. A huge column of ash shot out of the Ecuadorean volcano making it the 6th one showing signs of eruption in the South American country. Mount Aso in southern Japan erupted. The list of geologic events in merely the past two months is, to say the least, abnormally high. And such events have global repercussions, geologically speaking. As one tectonic plate moves, it pushes those next to it, which then push those next to them and so on. Now earthquakes have, in the past, destroyed Al Aqsa several times. And while each event was a potential opportunity to reclaim that holiest of Jewish land and rebuild the Temple, the time, according to the Bible was not ripe. Before the Temple could be rebuilt, the Jewish people would have to return to, and reclaim their aboriginal land in what is now called the State of Israel. Well, the Jews are back in their native homeland and making aliyah (return) in droves. The walls and foundations supporting Al Aqsa are on the verge of collapse due to poor planning and irresponsible excavations. All the signs of a coming "geological event" are playing out before our eyes. Maybe it's time to start planning that Third Temple... *(http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/01/21/003.html) **http://www.angelfire.com/on/predictions/2004daily.html Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

WHAT ARE THE ARABS DOING TO THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 21, 2004.

Two million Christians or more have fled from Arab rule, in the past two decades. In the P.A., Christians are being murdered, raped, and intimidated. Systematic persecution has reduced their numbers to a tiny proportion of the population there. Ironically and unfairly, the P.A. is successfully making the accusation that Israel is persecuting then and causing this exodus. The logical fallacy in blaming Israel is that the exodus occurs only under Arab rule, not under Israeli rule. Few people realize or admit that Israel does not rule the P.A. now. They do not know that many of the Christians who fled the P.A. went to Israel, which they prefer to live in. The Christian population of Israel is burgeoning. The charge is specious. Joseph Farah, a Christian Arab reporting in the US, suggests that reporters and diplomats interested in this issue ask Christian refugees why they left, instead of taking believing the notoriously false P.A. propaganda (Jewish Press, 1/9, p.4). Mr. 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.

TAPUAH WEST SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED AGAIN Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 21, 2004.

Eventually the Synagogue will be rebuilt. Whether the reputation of the Israel Defense Forces will be able to be rebuilt is another question. (IsraelNN.com) Army troops a short time ago returned to the Shomron community of Tapuah West and destroyed the start of the rebuilding of the synagogue that began yesterday afternoon after the army destroyed the first building under construction. 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.

THE STATE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY Posted by Tamar Rush, January 21, 2004.

Please excuse my ignorance, but I have just watched President Bush's "State of the International Community" speech, and I am puzzled by his request (demand') that the "Patriot Act" be extended (Why not just make it a Constitutional Amendment'). America was attacked by Saudi Arabia, and only Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Mexico had nothing to do with the attacks of 9-11-2001, AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CERTAINLY WERE NOT INVOLVED IN THE OPERATION! So why should the American people agree to accept living in a Police State? Why don't you just ban Saudis (heaven forbid you should actually invade Saudia) from entering US territory, and allow Americans to live in freedom' To a "foreigner", the self-flagellation policies accepted by the American public since 9-11 make very little sense - but then, there's a lot I don't understand about contemporary US society. I'd appreciate an explanation.

THE CROOKS Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 21, 2004.

The speculation is that the reason Sharon is so eager to destroy Jewish communities, especially the Synagogue at the community of Tapuach, is to ingratiate himself to his Minister of inJustice, the Grand Wizard of Israel's KKK, Tommy Lapid. Lapid is a political creature without principles or conscience. His entire political career has been dominated by his two obsessions; his own self aggrandizement and his hatred of the Haradim. Saving Sharon would significantly advance both. Let us pray that there is enough decency left in Israel's criminal justice system to actually force these crooks out of office and eventually into jail. While they are checking out the Apple bribery business maybe someone would be interested in looking into who is making the money on the Fantasy Fence. Also, it would no doubt be educational to go over the books and find out who and how money was made in Yeshah under the watchful eyes of Sharon in his various offices. (IsraelNationalNews) Tycoon David Appel was indicted this morning on suspicion of bribing Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert in connection with his plans to build the world's largest vacation resort on a Greek island he wished to purchase. Today's indictment is an amendment to an earlier one. Sharon and Olmert, who served at the time as Foreign Minister and Jerusalem Mayor, respectively, have not been charged - but the political establishment is in suspense at the expected political fallout. Appel is suspected of paying Gilad Sharon, the Prime Minister's son, some three million dollars for serving as "consultant" - a job that entailed surfing the internet for information on tourism. The suspicion is that Appel actually intended to "purchase" his employee's father's influence-peddling abilities. He is alleged to have told Ariel Sharon, "Your son will make a lot of money." Appel is similarly accused of bribing Trade Minister Ehud Olmert when the latter served as Mayor of Jerusalem. The suspicion is that Appel's financial support for Olmert when the latter ran for Knesset came in exchange for Olmert's help in connecting Appel with Greek officials. As mentioned, however, neither Ariel Sharon nor Olmert are mentioned in the indictment. Appel and his lawyer, Moshe Yisrael, continue to insist that the indictment is "nonsense," that the law enforcement agencies are acting unfairly towards them, that there was no bribes given or taken, and that there is no doubt that this will all be proven in court. Many analysts believe that Prime Minister Sharon, however, will be the subject of intensified pressures to resign. Most analysts believe Mr. Sharon will not be able to survive the indictment, explaining that once the connection is made and the case proceeds, the links to the prime minister, Olmert, and Sharon's son Gilad will tighten. If Sharon is forced to resign, the law is that the President chooses his replacement, after consulting with the Knesset faction heads. However, Likud faction head Gideon Saar has already begun speaking with his colleagues in order to bring about a change in the law, thus that the replacement will be chosen internally by the resigned Prime Minister's party. 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.

THE REPLAY OF OSLO: This time with the help of U.S. Ambassador Kurtzer Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, January 21, 2004.

The headline in the Jerusalem Post, January 20, 2004, read as follows: "Sharon upset at Qurei-Peres meeting." Along with Qurei was Saeb Erekat, PA Minister of Negotiations. With Peres were Uri Savir and Avi Gil, who had participated in the original Oslo negotiations. Sharon should not only have been upset. He should have forcefully rejected the attempted replay of the failed Oslo process. Once again, Norway's Terje Roed Larsen, now holding a powerful UN position, is involved by hosting the Peres-Qurei meeting at the Norwegian Embassy. The Israeli electorate resoundingly rejected the Labor Party, the Oslo Process and its perpetrators in the last Israeli election. It is ludicrous that Peres, who is not a member of the current government, should try to be involved in the determination of Israel's foreign policy. Despite the horrible consequences to the Jewish People, we are once again being led down the same path of Oslo by the same individuals who visited this catastrophe upon us. If Sharon was truly acting in behalf of the Jewish People, he would not allow the Oslo Process to be reinstituted. The article also pointed out that Sharon complained of another meeting, this one between PA Minister of Negotiations Saeb Erekat, Yossi Beilin and Labor MK Haim Ramon. This meeting was hosted by U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer at his home in Herzliyah. The incredible interference in the determination of vital Israeli foreign policy is shockingly clear. To invite to his own home Labor and radical Left-oriented individuals, together with PA leaders, crosses all red lines of proper diplomatic behavior, Kurtzer has repeatedly interfered in Israeli internal affairs in the past and his recall should have been demanded by the Sharon government long ago. Israel should demand from the United States that it recall Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer forthwith. 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

THE FANTASY FENCE Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 21, 2004.

Sharon's Fantasy Fence is not about security. It is about money. Money for his friends and ultimately for him. I have yet to see anyone address this as the real reason for this idiocy. In American political jargon it would be called a pork barrel. This was written by Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review and Analysis) and is archived on the IMRA website (http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=19509). TEL AVIV - Palestinian infiltrators have succeeded in breaching Israel's new security fence and barrier system. Israeli security sources said Palestinian infiltrators have scaled the four-meter high concrete fence by using a simple ladder. The Israeli project calls for the establishing of a 730-kilometer fence at a cost of $1.9 billion. Most of the project consists of a concrete wall or chain-link fence with sensors, cameras and military patrols. In one case, the sources said, Arab infiltrators brought a ladder to the fence in the northeastern West Bank. They quickly scaled the fence and entered a waiting car that took them to Israeli Arab villages. The infiltrators were deemed as Palestinians looking for work. The sources said an Israeli command center spotted the infiltrators but could not respond quickly enough to capture them. They said this constitutes a breach in security that must be resolved.

MISSILES FROM LEBANON Posted by Aaron Lerner, January 21, 2004.

Labor MK Efraim Sneh said on Israel's Channel 2 Television morning program yesterday that the 12,000 missiles in southern Lebanon that cover much of Israel deter Israel from action against Hezbollah. "I warned (the prime minister) Barak that withdrawal without agreement from Southern Lebanon would create a vacuum that would be filled by Hezbollah," Sneh said, but I didn't imagine that the consequences would be so grave. Recently Labor MK Shimon Peres termed Sneh "worse than Likud" for objecting to the Labor Party proposal to unilaterally retreat from the Gaza Strip. Army Radio reported last night that Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who is a supporter of Beilin's Geneva Initiative and served as Minister of Tourim when Israel retreated from Lebanon said that "those who claim that we surrendered to Hezbollah by withdrawing from Lebanon are not completely wrong." Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis), which provides a "current digest of media, polls and significan interviews and events.". Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il

JEWS DESTROY A HOLY PLACE OF WORSHIP OF OTHER JEWS Posted by Elias Yrachmiel, January 21, 2004.

We say never again - but in our wildest dreams did we ever believe that Jews would again turn on their brothers - just because they could? Because we misguidedly believed that they love Am Yisrael and not just the power that came with our votes? Because we want peace so much that we would do anything to bring it about - even the desecration of Holy Ground! We gave them their time to make this a makom patur - a safe place for all Jews and they have failed. What do we do now - just sit and wait for a miracle - or make changes for all of Klal Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael? Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaqer The Eternal One of Israel never lies, Or changes HIS mind, As HE is not like a man, That HE should change HIS Mind! The netzahyisrael group has list subscription; to subscribe send an email to List-Subscribe@netzahyisrael.org. Their archive of current and previous essays and commentary can be found on http://netzahyisrael.org/blogger.html

VIEW FROM THE OUTSIDE Posted by Judy Lash Balint, January 21, 2004.

Sometimes it's helpful to get a different perspective. Generally, Jerusalem Diaries posters are English speaking immigrants already living in Israel. Today, we're sending a letter from Bradley Fish, a professional musician, instructor, and recording artist who is currently based in Madison, WI, but is planning to move his recording and production business to Israel in the summer of 2004. "What an amazing trip. Past the "green line" I found very spiritual people. It was the opposite of the secular, (even sometimes anti-religious), hip,Euro-American-Israeli vibe in Tel-Aviv, with its big buildings, clubs, restaraunts, and busy streets where I've been hanging. These people spend a lot of time in meditation and prayer, Jewish rituals, and study of the Tanach (holy books). Education includes a LOT of debate. They are surrounded by nature, and a lot of Arab villages. This place is beautiful - "Settlement" is an inaccurate and very loaded term. Suburb is much more accurate. It reminded me a little of being in a suburb in Colorado. A rapidly growing community of 1,000 BIG families (Closing in on 10,000 people) on the other side of the (non-existent) "green line" (Israel's pre-1967 borders, also called the Auschwitz borders - only about 9 miles wide at points) and the new security fence. I got to Beit El in a bullet-proof bus from Jerusalem for 6.5 shekels (about $1.50). It used to be double that but the government cut the costs to encourage people to take the safer public transportaion - since so many Jews were getting shot by Arabs on the highways. Its a 20 minute drive or 30 minute bus ride from Jerusalem. The Judea and Samaria communities are higher up in hilly, rock terrain. From a lookout point you can see the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and Tel Aviv. I stayed in the house of a very welcoming religious Jewish family with 7 kids in a nice, modern house, not unlike my parent's house where I grew up. The outside was stone. The inside had hardwood floors and windows imported from Canada, a modern kitchen and 2 American style bathrooms. All Israeli houses have a cement bomb shelter in the basement, they also had a few bedrooms in the basement. The family lives a block from the kids' school and a few blocks from the synagouge. There are street signs and American style paved roads and a small park. It looks like like any small but nice modern suburb in the States. Before the intifada broke out, this family used to go often to the nearby Arab villages, which are built on top of Ancient Jewish communities built during the 1st and 2nd temple periods - something like 2,000 and 3,000 years ago - long before the start of Islam. There are a lot of historical, archeological remnants of the ancient Jews. Now its not safe for a Jew to go there. The residents of the Arab villages are smashing ancient artifacts in an attempt to erase history. So, a brief history. Since there never was an autonomous Palestinian state or even a people of this name (Before the '67 war the only "Palestinians" were Jews - this is all very Orwellian), it would be at least more accurate to call this area the "Discarded Jordanian Teritorries". After Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and other Arab countries all attacked Israel in '67, Israel miraculously won and took a lot of land. Israel offered the land back to Jordan for a peace treaty, but Jordan refused. Egypt accepted a land for peace deal and got the Sinai (Triple the size of Israel itself and the only oil Israel ever had) back. This is an extremely "cold peace" by the way. Egypt gets almost as much US aid as Israel (funny, the American Left never mentions this) and continues to arm itself to the teeth. Jordan's King Hussein killed tens of thousands of its "Palestinian" Arab citizens and was happy to give Israel the gift of some more. To this day Jordan is more than 3/4 "Palestinian" Arabs. the King. of course is not Palestinan, although his wife is. Originally, this land was called Judea and Samaria - all part of biblical Israel. I checked out the Arutz-7 radio station here. Most of the media in Israel is left wing. These guys are on the right. They recently got shut off the air, for now, on a legal technicality by people on the far left trying to keep them off the air. In the meantime, they continue to "broadcast" radio, TV, and print on www.israelnationalnews.com. It's a good resource for up to date info and commentary from Israel. A week ago over 120,000 people showed up in Tel Aviv to protest the dismantling of the "settlements". That's over 2% of the country's population at the rally - like over 3 million Americans showing up to protest in Washington. It got very little coverage in the mainstream world media, but when a handful Air Force pilots refuse to serve, it's front page news...very interesting... A few more observations... I took a random sampling of Israelis I met here about where they or their parents were born. So far the answers I've gotten have included: England, Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Australia, Scotland, Sweden, India, Holland, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Paraguay, Uzbekistan, Russia, South Africa, Lithuania, Poland, USA, Canada, Hungary, Pakistan, Turkey, and a lot more....I also met Jews who are 12th generation Jerusalemites. Jews have always lived here continuously. I see Jews of every skin color here. It is totally mind-blowing. Middle Eastern, Black, White, Latino, Asian, and many diverse mixes. Whether its coincidence or not, this is biblical prophesy being realized. Fascinating. Meanwhile, Israel is surrounded by Arab-only countries (the Jews have been ethnically cleansed). Yet somehow, according to the left, Israel is the "apartheid state". hmmm....VERY interesting. Again, VERY Orwellian. The only Arabs in the middle East that can vote in democratic elections live here in Isrel (1/5 of the country's citizens). The surrounding countries espouse Jew-hatred in print (many Nazi publications are now best sellers in the Arab world, including Hitler's Mein Kampf) and on TV (see the recent CNN story on the Arab world's most watched TV show depicting Jews as sucking the blood of Arab children) to a population that is 50% illiterate, dirt poor, and purposely kept out of touch with the Modern world by its oil rich dictators. There are more than 1/4 of a million Jews living in Yesha (Israel's Judea, Samaria and Gaza) that Bush wants moved. Israel is the smallest country in the Middle East. Where will they be moved and how will this be paid for? The family of 7 living in a big house in Beit El could only buy a 1 room apartment for the same price in Tel Aviv, an extremely crowded city. Are we going to move these people for the crime of being Jewish? If there ever does end up being a Palestinian state, why will no Jews be allowed there? Things are far from perfect here. The government ought to be treating its foreign (mostly Asian and eastern European) workers better. The Russian Mafia has a foothold that needs to be broken. The people are sick of the violence. The declining economic situation, caused by all the terrorism and resulting lask of tourism has been tough on most segments of the population. Also, a bunch of 18-21 year old kids in the army are responsible for policing a population that wants them dead and teaches Jew hatred in the classrooms and promotes suicide bombings in posters and music videos. It's bound to lead to conflicts. Having said that, given the situation, they seem to be doing a decent job. The problem is that generally, being TOO humane is causing problems. Last week, a 22 year-old Palestinan mother complaining she had a medical problem that needed immediate attention and claiming she had a plate in her leg so the metal detector might go off - blew up, killing 4 of these kids when they let her in past a check point out of concern for her health. Arafat is a billionaire, siphoning the money of his invented Palestinian people (he was born in Egypt) and these new "Palestinians" gave up their Jordanian citizenship to become "Palestinians" under PLO (a terrorist organziation) sovereignty in the 90's. Then the PLO walked away from an insanely generous (possibly suicidal) offer of a Palestinian state from Israel and began the intifada instead of building a country. The Palestinan people have to deal with their own thugs taking their cars or killing them if they don't LIKE them. Slavery still exists in Arab countries like Libya, and human rights don't exist, along with Women's rights or religious freedom in the 22 Muslim Arab countries in the mid East, but all I hear from the American left and is about the "Apartheid state of Israel". They could care less about black slave trade. Its those damn Jews. In Israel women can do anything they want, and you can practise any religion free of persecution. I've been in the Bahai temple and a mosque in Haifa. Try bringing a bible into Saudi Arabia or walking around as a woman without a head covering. I'm afraid many of my friends in the states are buying the big lie and the double speak that is so prevelant. Even in Israel the left wants to give the Arabs land for the illusion that it will bring Peace. Sorry, it won't. The Jew hatred in the Arab world is too venomus. There is a lot of misinformation, double speak and anti-Semitism floating around at home, too. I've had people in Madison tell me about how filthy rich the Israelis are. (Israelis make 1/2 as much money as we Americans do, pay the same rent and double for imported items like cars and stereo systems.) A lot of jaded people on the left want to support the Palestinians who have no respect for human life, women or freedom and hate Jews. For some reason, this tiny country of 5 million people - the population of Wisconsin, on a plot of land about 1/3 the size of Wisconsin - surrounded by 1.3 billion hostile Muslims is the greatest threat to World Peace according to a European poll, a continent where Jews have been getting harassed a lot lately. The BBC, CNN and NPR give horrendously anti-Israel accounts of the situation to uniformed listeners. If someone were to say that we should all leave Madison, WI because this is occupied Native American ground, or give California back to Mexico, I'd say they may have a strong case. However, to say that Israel should its give Ancient land to set up yet another Arab terrorist state is unfounded, preposterous and dangerous. Please, don't fall for the big lie, guys. Oh, finally, I want to say that I'm having an amazing experience out here, I'm optimistic for the future of this country and I'm amazed by the strength and resilience of the people and the potential for good things to happen here. Also the weather rocks. Judy Balint is author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com

SWEDEN'S PERFIDY Posted by Leo Rennert, January 21, 2004.

When controversy first broke over Ambassador Mazel's attack on the Swedish art exhibit glorifying a suicide bomber, the Stockholm museum took refuge behind the artist's sacred right to free expression. But it now turns out this was a phony excuse. The museum didn't just select an entry showing a Palestinian female bomber sailing on a sea of blood with a caption depicting her as "Snow White." To advertise an exhibition tied to an upcoming Swedish conference on genocide, they plastered posters showing the bomber's picture all over Stockholm - a poster in each of 26 subway stations. In taking this pro-active step to advertise the entire exhibition by calling attention to its most obscene entry, the museum became complicit in this inciteful propaganda effort to justify the killers of Jews. And to make matters even worse, the museum did not act independently in this matter, but hand in glove with the Swedish government, the official sponsor of the upcoming genocide conference, which this nauseating exhibition was designed to promote. Now, in the face of protests, museum officials are turning around and taking down the offensive posters, but not the exhibit itself. That's a patently transparent move to wash their hands of any guilt - and try to make the artist solely responsible for the uproar. But it won't wash. The museum and the Swedish government joined with the artist when they gave maximum exposure to this vile propaganda effort to extol suicide bombers, and should be condemned as well.

IF HERZL WERE PRESENT IN HERZLIYA Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland, January 20, 2004.

I find the news about the destruction of a synagogue in Tapuah West, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, most distressing. Hitherto, I harboured the illusion that the Zionist project was about building a Jewish state, not about demolishing it. To see the Old General display a lion heart against his people and feet of clay to his people's enemies gives one pause. Of course, the demolition is hardly a surprise, for it was foretold in Sharon's speech in Herzliya. Herzliya having been invoked, I ask the reader to compare the words and acts of the Old General with Pat Robertson's words at the same Herzliya gathering, in December, 2003. As quoted from The Official Site of Pat Robertson, Pat Robertson beseeched Israel: "[P]lease don't commit national suicide. It is very hard for your friends to support you, if you make a conscious decision to destroy yourselves." Indeed, I find it increasingly difficult with every passing day. Pat Robertson continued: I hardly find it necessary to remind this audience of the stated objectives of Yasser Arafat, the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. Their goal is not peace, but the final destruction of the State of Israel. At no time do they, or their allies in the Muslim world, acknowledge the sovereignty of Israel over even one square inch of territory in the Middle East. If a Palestinian State is created in the heart of Israel with sovereign power to deploy troops, import modern weapons - even weapons of mass destruction - and operate with full secrecy and diplomatic immunity, the ability of the State of Israel to defend itself will be fatally compromised. The slogan "land for peace" is a cruel chimera. The Sinai was given up. Did that bring lasting peace? - No. Southern Lebanon was given up. Did that bring lasting peace? - No. Instead Hezbollah rode tanks to the border of Israel shouting, "On to Jerusalem!" Now, as many as 10,000 rockets aimed at Metulla, Qiryat Shemona, and all of Northern Israel have been put in place throughout Southern Lebanon. Arafat was brought up at the knees of the man who yearned to finish the work of Adolf Hitler. How can any realist truly believe that this killer and his associates can become trusted partners for peace? I ask you, IsraPundit's reader: If Herzl himself were present in Herzliya, if Herzl himself observed the destruction of the synagogue in Tapuach West, would he side with the Old General or with Pat Robertson? I know for sure with whom I side. Joseph Norland is co-publisher of IsraPundit (http://israpundit.com), which is "dedicated to pro-Israel advocacy through the presentation of news and views."

ADMONISHING PRESIDENT BUSH Posted by David Ben-Ariel, January 20, 2004.

Dear President Bush: You have lost your way! It's such a tragedy because you could've become a hero in our British-Israelite history, judged as a great leader with character and conviction, yet you've chosen to ignore your conscience (to the peril of all) and have become drunk with delusions of a peace without biblical foundation! Now you shamefully follow the March of Folly with such comrades as Neville Chamberlain instead of Winston Churchill! Your misguided roadmap hurls the Middle East down the Highway to Hell and invites EU road rage (to ditch America and drive their stake into the heart of Israel and occupy Jerusalem!) Fasten your seatbelt! EU turbulence is just ahead! (Isa. 28:18). President Bush, Commander-in-Chief of Manasseh, leader of the "Lost Tribes" and head of Joseph: May you wholeheartedly repent of your accursed involvement with lying peace treaties (signed with blood) that will soon be littered (with many lives) along the way and encourage Israel to know President Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" and Rabbi Meir Kahane's biblical solution to liberate the Arab-occupied territories, annex them and expel all who refuse to live in peace within the Promised Land of Israel (not Ishmael). After all is said and done, and you kneel before our common Creator and face our Jewish Lord and Savior - as a professing Christian, you know the Holy Land is given to the Jews (as custodians for all 12 Tribes) and that the God of Israel cannot be mocked and doesn't renege on His promises. Why would you reward ungodly terrorists by erasing our forefather Israel's name off the map to supplant it with "Palestine" (Ps. 83)? Why would you dare to dismantle the Temple (Jerusalem) and dismember our Mother (Jewish homeland) to divide Israel's inheritance among bastards, whose illegitimate claims don't hold water' (Joel 3:2, Jer. 2:13). Who are you to tempt the Lord your God? Don't you know that the nations are soon to be judged for defiling the Holy Land with their unholy presence as "peacekeepers" and unnecessary meddling as mediators? Does God need the bloody UN to impose their will on His City or the German-Jesuits to stamp the Middle East with their Merovingian mark? President Bush, descendant of King David through your royal lineage: May God bless you to keep the Faith, uphold Jerusalem and boldly support the Scriptures and prosper rather than vainly attempt to override them and miserably fail! May the God of your fathers bless you to make a u-turn and burn with His zeal (untouchable to hostile men or nations) and shine with the light of His Word, filled with His Spirit of joy (knowing God's anointing is upon you and that the faithful are praying for you!) David Ben-Ariel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall." His website address is http://benariel.port5.com/

PREDICTIONS FOR THE COMING YEAR Posted by Morris J. Amitay, January 20, 2004.

Making predictions for a new year should usually be considered risky business - except, it can be argued when it comes to the Middle East and Israel. Unfortunately, we can be assured that too many things will not really change. For instance, it is a safe bet the UN's antipathy toward Israel will continue to be expressed in its numerous resolutions, statements and conferences devoted to the "inalienable rights of the Palestinian people". Writing in the Wall Street Journal recently, Max Kampelman reminded us that since 1964, the UN Security Council has passed no fewer than 88 anti-Israel resolutions and the General Assembly more than 400! Apparently this august body cannot find more important issues to occupy its attention. So we can expect more of those lopsided majorities in the General Assembly supporting Arab-sponsored resolutions decrying the "occupation" and highlighting Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. In the somewhat weightier Security Council, the United States will again have to exercise its veto to protect Israel from unjustified attacks, with the U.K. occasionally abstaining. And predictably, the UN's slide into irrelevance will continue. As for the Palestinians, you can count on their vitriolic expressions of hatred towards Jews, Israel, and the United States. These openly expressed attitudes should raise the obvious question why our country would support the emergence of yet another virulently anti-American corrupt dictatorship. Hope, it seems, must spring eternal at the State Department whose m.o. is "to do business" with just about any dictator. But with wiser heads in charge, the goal of a fully sovereign Palestinian state by 2005 looks like a non-starter. As long as Arafat is alive there can be no progress toward any kind of genuine accommodation - much less "peace". For the foreseeable future we can also forget about any Palestinian leader announcing the abandonment of the so-called "right of return". An entire generation raised on hatred of Jews and the United States cannot become peace loving overnight, as their admiration for Saddam Hussein and the insurrection in Iraq demonstrates. A common theme in PA sermons, calls for the destruction of the U.S., Britain - and, of course, Israel - will remain a constant in 2004. In Israel, the "peace camp" will continue to ignore reality while giving aid and comfort to Israel's enemies. Peace Now will count and publicize every new (Israeli) structure in the disputed territories, while B'Tselem will denounce any real or perceived slight suffered by the Palestinians in response to Israel's measures to protect its citizens from murderous attacks. The Yossi Beilins, oozing their good intentions, will continue to search for Arab "peace partners" in all the wrong places, thereby earning the well-deserved contempt of a majority of Israelis. Most of the Islamic world will also maintain its campaign to demonize the Jewish State while blaming it for their own self-inflicted wounds. Egypt will accelerate its military build-up (with U.S. help) but with no external threat in sight. Syria will surely not relinquish its hold over Lebanon or crack down on terrorist groups. It might, however, express a willingness to accept the entire Golan (including the Sea of Galilee shoreline), from Israel in exchange for vague promises of peaceful intentions - another non-starter. In Iran, repression by the mullahs will continue despite a restive population demonstrating its desire for freedom. Here in the United States, the The New York Times will continue its barely disguised campaign to undermine the Bush Administration's reconstruction efforts in Iraq, while putting Israel in the worst light by slanted reporting, critical editorials, and Tom Friedman's fixation on "settlements" as the source of all evil in the Middle East. Not to be outdone, The Washington Post, will continue to routinely describe Israeli Government officials as "right wing" or "hard-liners" - but never refer to opposition figures as soft-liners or left-wingers. In an election year, we can also be certain Jewish contributors and voters will be wooed with promises of support for Israel that will soon be forgotten after Election Day. (How many party platforms have we seen pledging to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem?) Suffice it to say, it is always preferable to be pandered to than ignored. This emphasis by politicians on linking Jewish American support with Israel will be resented and decried by those Jews who frequently seek to burnish their liberal credentials at Israel's expense. So we can expect Americans for Peace Now and leading Reform Rabbis to continue their carping about Israel's "humiliation" of Palestinians, and their calls for the U.S. to even-handedly impose a solution. On the much more positive side, however there is the certainty that strong support for Israel will continue to be championed by the U.S. Congress. Whether by its resolutions, letters, or by adding funds for Israeli defense programs, the Congress, on a bipartisan basis, will maintain its welcome support for the Jewish State. For this, we can be grateful, but should never take it for granted. All in all, one thing is for certain, 2004 should be a year full of challenges for Jewish Americans and for Israe1. Morrie Amitay is a former Executive Director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (washingtonpac.com).

CONCISE EXPLANATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST WAR Posted by Steven Plaut, January 20, 2004.

Myth #1: Israel is an aggressor. Truth #1: Israel is the victim. Myth # 2: The "intifada" wave of Palestinian terror was caused by Israeli occupation. Truth #2: The "intifada" wave of Palestinian terror was caused by removal of Israeli occupation. Myth #3: The territory of Israel used to be an Arab Palestinian state. Truth #3: There has never been an Arab Palestinian state anywhere, anytime. Myth #4: Arabs are mistreated by Israel. Truth #4: Arabs under Israeli rule are treated infinitely better than are Arabs living under Arab regimes. Myth #5: The West Bank is Palestinian land. Truth #5: The West Bank is Jewish land, even though some governments of Israel have been prepared to relinquish it. Myth #6: Creation of a Palestinian state will produce peace. Truth #6: Creation of a Palestinian state will produce escalated war, perpetual terrorism and barbarism. Myth #7: Arab war and terrorism against Israel was produced by Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Truth #7: Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was produced by Arab war and terrorism against Israel. Myth #8: Israeli leftists are seeking to achieve peace. Truth #8: Israeli leftists are motivated by hatred of their own country and their own people, and are seeking their destruction. Myth #9: Arab terrorism is a byproduct of poverty. Truth #9: Arab terrorists are almost all middle class and educated yuppies. Myth #10: The key to peace is granting Palestinians hope. Truth #10: The key to peace is taking away Palestinian hope (of destroying Israel). Myth #11: The Palestinians seek to have their own state alongside Israel. Truth #11: The Palestinians and their apologists seek to destroy Israel and conduct genocide against Jews. Myth #12: Zionism is a form of racism. Truth #12: Anti-Zionism is a form of racism. Myth #13: Arab violence is a result of excessive use of force by Israel. Truth #13: Arab violence is a result of insufficient use of force by Israel. Myth #14: Israel can only achieve tranquility through displays of niceness. Truth #14: Israel can only achieve tranquility through displays of harshness. Myth #15: Israeli displays of flexibility and willingness to make concessions build Arab trust. Truth #15: Israeli displays of flexibility and willingness to make concessions are seen by the Arabs as signs of weakness and encourage Arab aggression and irredentism. Myth #16: The bulk of Palestinians want peace with Israel and oppose terror. Truth #16: Virtually all Palestinians support war and endorse terror. None have publicly denounced terrorism. Myth #17: Arafat is trying to halt the terror. Truth #17: Arafat personally commands the terrorist groups carrying out most of the violence. Myth #18: The Road Map is an effective plan to achieve peace. Truth #18: The Road Map is an effective plan to achieve the destruction of Israel. Myth #19: The Palestinian cause is similar to that of black South Africans under apartheid. Truth #19: The Palestinian cause is similar to that of the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia. Myth #20: Israel is an apartheid country. Truth #20: Israel is the only state in the Middle East that is NOT an apartheid country. Myth #21: The Arab war against Israel is a struggle for justice. Truth #21: The Arab war against Israel is a struggle for injustice. Myth #22: The Middle East war is a result of unwillingness by Israel to share land and resources. Truth #22: The Arabs control land from the Atlas mountains to Central Asia. The war is because they are unwilling for the Jews to control an area smaller than New Jersey. Myth #23: Arabs became refugees because Israel expelled them. Truth #24: Jews from Arab states became refugees because the Arab countries expelled them. Myth #25: The Middle East war is about Israel refusing to acknowledge the Palestinian right of self-determination. Truth #25: The Middle East war is about the Arab world refusing to allow the Israeli Jews the right of self-determination. 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.

WORK HAS BEGUN TO REBUILD TAPUAH WEST SYNAGOGUE Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 20, 2004.

This was a news item in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com) today. (IsraelNN.com) A small number of persons have already returned to Tapuah West, the site of the destroyed synagogue, taking the first steps towards rebuilding the structure. AT about 13:00 today, IDF troops entered the area and carried out a demolition order for the partially completed synagogue. The building was recently dedicated as the International Headquarters of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea. While Tapuah West is legal, authorities stated the synagogue did not have a permit. Officials in the community explained the permit was requested but the government was unwilling to hold off on the demolition order issued by the prime minister and defense minister, seeming intent on destroying the building. 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.

ASSAD HEMMED IN Posted by Isralert, January 20, 2004.

These are two pieces on Bashar Assad of Syria. The first is a DEBKAfile (http://www.debka.com) Special Report, entitled "Assad Hemmed in, Sends Hizballah to Lash out against Israel." The second is called "Sharon: It Would be a Mistake to Rescue Assad from World Pressure." It's by Gideon Alon and it appeared in Ha'aretz. 1. ASSAD HEMMED IN, SENDS HIZBALLAH TO LASH OUT AGAINST ISRAEL Syrian president Bashar Assad is a very worried man. In a typical reflex action, he sent his Hizballah proxy to shoot up an Israeli military tractor, killing one Israeli soldier and injuring another, on the very day, January 19, that a group of Syrian opposition leaders based overseas held its first known public get-together in Brussels. DEBKAfile's sources report the group last met five monthsago in Washington. Its new venue in Europe recalls the pattern of conduct followed by overseas Iraqi resistance groups prior to the Iraq war. Just as any such meeting Washington would have had to be sanctioned by the powers-that-be, so too Monday's gathering in Brussels could not have taken place without the approval of European Union leaders and the Belgian government. The Bashar regime finds itself increasingly isolated. Europe is clearly lining up with the United States on the Syrian problem. As one of Damascus's main trading partners, Europe is capable of squeezing the Assad regime economically even more than America. DEBKAfile sees two reasons for this particular European alignment: A. France and Germany in particular are seizing the opportunity of collaborating with the United States in an effort to mend their feud over Iraq. That is not to say they go along with the Bush administration's Iraq policy - only that as pragmatists they accept the reality of the Middle East being the focus of US global strategy and key plank of the US president's re-election campaign. Therefore, anyone failing to pitch in will be left out in the cold. B. Iraq is undergoing tidal changes, which are relevant to the Syrian question in two ways: 1. The Americans are pulling ahead in the war against the pro-Saddam guerrillas. Despite the massive suicide car bomb attack Sunday, January 18, at the gates of the US-led coalition compound in Baghdad, in which 24 Iraqis died and 120 were injured, the number of anti-US strikes has dropped by some 70 percent since Saddam Hussein's capture on December 14. The daily count of 50 attacks has dwindled to an average of 15. DEBKAfile's military sources report that American commanders are bracing for the next wave of assaults expected to surge in the spring and early summer when the Bush re-election campaign is at its peak. But meanwhile, Bashar Assad is in deep trouble, forced to realize he may have picked a loser. Having backed the pro-Saddam guerrilla war in Iraq with infusions of fighting strength, funds and weapons, his entire Middle East posture is now in question. It was based on the proposition that as long as the Americans were kept on the run in Iraq, they would leave him alone on such thorny issues as weapons of mass destruction - his own and the ones he hid away for Saddam Hussein, his domination of Lebanon and his support for the Hizballah and Palestinian terrorism. The other side of the proposition was just as simple: any decline in the anti-American guerrilla offensive would leave Syria shorn of its Iraqi lever against Washington and expose Assad to extreme heat. This is exactly what happened. 2. In the wake of the Iraq war, Syria finds itself severely hemmed in on all sides. In northern Iraq, whatever it may call itself, a self-ruling Kurdish state is rising with its own armed forces. Although part of the Iraqi federation, it will be out of bounds to Iraqi federal troops. President Assad regards a fully autonomous Kurdish entity a strategic threat to Syria's territorial integrity - particularly in view of the secret military and intelligence relations between the two Iraqi Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Mustafa Barzani and Israel. This concern has driven Damascus in recent weeks to woo Iran and Turkey in search of partners to resist the Kurdish momentum in Iraq. Viewing the Syrian ruler's plight, European leaders have grasped that there is nothing to be gained by continuing to champion this Middle East leader. Another recent development is directly pertinent to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. For decades, many Europeans and some Israelis espoused the cause of an independent Palestinian state. But because the Palestinians under Yasser Arafat's leadership opted for a violent campaign to achieve their ends, a path emulated by Bashar Assad, the Palestinians will lose out; Kurdistan will rise to statehood in 2004 - not Palestine. A small group of moderate Arab leaders - Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Jordan's King Abdullah - have suddenly woken up to Syria's plight and are scrambling to mount a rescue operation. They are resorting to the rusty device of cooking up a new peace initiative to bring Syria and Israel together. Their initiative is still at its outset. So far, it bears a strong resemblance to the gimmicky Saudi peace plan of 2000 that quickly melted away in the heat of the Palestinian campaign of suicidal violence. On Monday, January 19 too, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon threw cold water on the Syrian ruler's attempts to pick his way out of the minefield by suggesting peace talks. Let Assad first address the demands coming at him from the rest of the world, he said, before sitting down for talks with Israel. Sharon then turned aside to warn Israeli political figures urging him to take the Syrian feelers seriously that negotiations would entail relinquishing the Golan Heights, a step too unpopular for any Israeli politician to risk. Assad knows he is cornered. The Syrian opposition leader, an American lawyer of Syrian descent called Farid Ghadiri, aired the substance of the decisions taken at the Brussels gathering before European media. He called on the Syrian people to rise up against the Assad regime and fight for democracy without waiting like the Iraqis for outside forces to do the job for them. Syrians, he said, are capable of carrying out their own revolution. This is the first time since the Assad dynasty seized power in Damascus in 1974 that anyone has urged Syrians to overthrow their government so bluntly. The Syrian president's response was typical. All of a sudden his peace talk evaporated and made way for an order to the Hizballah to start shooting across the Lebanese-Israel frontier. Hence the anti-tank missile that hit an Israeli military tractor clearing bombs near Moshav Zarit, killing one Israel soldier and injuring another, and sending this usually calm border into a fresh spiral of of tension. Assad appeared to be calculating that the tactic of violence which failed him against the Americans in Iraq, might just work against the Israelis. To see the above mentioned site for the "Syrian Democratic Coalition", go to http://www.reformsyria.com/. 2. SHARON: IT WOULD BE A MISTAKE TO RESCUE ASSAD FROM WORLD PRESSURE Addressing the issue of Syria, Prime Minister Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday: "I hope it is clear to everyone that negotiations with Syria that start from where they left off means giving up the Golan Heights." Syrian President Bashar Assad "can prove the seriousness of his intentions by responding positively to the world's demand to cease his support for global and regional terror and end his support for the terror organizations and then we will be happy to negotiate with him on every issue without any preconditions." Palestinian terror gets its orders from Damascus, and Hizballah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards activity in Lebanon is all with Syrian permission. "Assad is on the list of those most responsible for the spread of international terror." The Western world is closing in on Assad, pressuring him, and it would be a mistake to rescue him, Sharon said. "We're interested in peace with Syria, but not in exchange for lip service meant to relieve Syria of the pressure it faces." Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

COURTS OK DESTRUCTION OF TAPUACH WEST SYNAGOGUE Posted by Voice of Judea, January 20, 2004.

The high court of Israel rejected the petition filed by Jewish worshipers on Tapuach West, 10:00am Tuesday. The high court of Israel gave a green light to Sharon's Government to execute the immediate destruction of the Kahane synagogue on the Shomron hill of Tapuach West. While the Judge did ask the police and the soldiers who will implement the demolition to show respect for the Torah scroll and the holy place of worship, the ok was granted to destroy the building. Residents of Tapuach West said, "Only a sick and cynical anti Semitic judge could speak of destroying a Shul while showing proper respect to the place. How does one show respect to a holy place as they smash the walls on top of the ark holding the torah scroll and on top of men, women and children who are praying inside? Only a sick twisted, sadistic and cynical person could say such a thing." In the mean time the Head Rabbis of the settlements in Yesha called upon the Sharon Government to withdraw this evil decree and warned against the horrible implications and the grave sin of tearing down the synagogue in a statement they released early this morning. Residents vow to resist, and vow to continue to pray in the holy place, regardless of the consequences. Ezra Stein said, "The destruction of the Kahane Synagogue on Tapuach West, marks the first shot in Sharon's 'Kristalnacht' against Jewish property in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. A state that discriminates against Jews and Judaism is neither a Jewish state nor a democracy. How many times has Israel permitted wanted Arab terrorists to hide out in Mosques and churches so as to not in any way damage the structures or offend religions? However zero sensitivity is shown when it is Judaism and Jewish places of worship." URGENT PLEA FOR HELP! Residents of Tapuach West are urging the public to join hands in resisting the destruction of the synagogue and in preventing the desecration to God's name. They request that people come immediately to Tapuach and to the synagogue. Organizers are also seeking emergency funds for transportation, housing and food for those who have already arrived. It is very likely that many of the residents of Tapuach will be injured God forbid during the demolition of the building. Many may be arrested and detained as well. Funds are urgently needed to cover these expenses. GIVE WHAT YOU CAN. EVEN $10 OR $20 MAKES A DIFFERENCE. Checks can be mailed or Fed Ex'd to: Kahane Building Fund Rehov Moriah 3 Jerusalem, Israel 94386 For more information on wire transfer option or to contribute via credit card call 718 874 2057 or from Israel at 067 910 341 or email info@defendisrael.net OR pay through Paypal by emailing paypal@hameir.org [Additional Information. News items in Arutz-7: "Hundreds of pro-Land of Israel supporters began making their way to the site as soon as word of the ruling was learned. The security forces quickly placed barriers at the Tapuach Junction to prevent their arrival, but some of the supporters were able to arrive in any event." "David HaIvri of Tapuach told Arutz-7 today that the town is in the process of registering the building for a permit: "We never would have dreamt that a Jewish town in Israel would not be permitted to build a synagogue," he said. "But we know Ariel Sharon from what he did in Yamit, and our job is to try to stop this from happening once again." Sharon, as Defense Minister in 1982, oversaw the evacuation and destruction of the city of Yamit and neighboring communities in northwestern Sinai following the signing of the peace treaty with Egypt. Sharon has since expressed regret for these actions." "Eyewitness Gershon Hershkovitz said, "Hundreds of police/soldiers arrived here with great violence, most of them armed, and some of them even fired in the air. No one was hurt by the shots, thank G-d, but this is a bad precedent - and some people have been knocked unconscious by their violence... They took out the Torah scrolls and other holy books fairly roughly - but some 30 people are barricaded on the roof, so they can't take down the building... We call on people from all over to come and help us." "By late this afternoon, some 30 residents had been arrested, the furniture had been taken out of the synagogue, and one wall was knocked down. Another eyewitness said that the books were taken out in an orderly fashion, "but our resistance wasn't just for show. We were trying to stop them. We also want to show them that it won't be so easy for them to take down other places in the Land of Israel." The grassroots organization Cities of Israel released the following statement: "We are shocked at the destruction of a synagogue, which could easily have been authorized by Defense Minister Mofaz. If the identical event were to happen in Europe, it would rightly be castigated as anti-Semitism. Indeed, pressures from abroad to raze Jewish homes and institutions in [Judea and Samaria], while Arab homes and institutions sprout untouched, are just that - anti-Semitic." The organization also called on "Israel's friends abroad" to strongly protest and denounce the American pressure that "Prime Minister Sharon has specifically indicated is the impetus for these steps."]

HIGH COURT GIVE THE GREEN LIGHT FOR SYNAGOGUE DESTRUCTION Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 20, 2004.

This is a terrible thing that's happening. The first paragraph was in yesterday's Arutz-7 website (http://www.IsraelNN.com) The rest of the story comes from today's article. [Ed. note: See the article posted by Voice of Judea below, appealing for help to save the synagogue on Tapuach West.] (1) (IsraelNN.com) The Supreme Court this morning rejected an appeal filed by residents of Tapuah in the Shomron seeking to stop the planned IDF destruction of the Tapuah West synagogue that was dedicated earlier this month. The High Court's rejection of the appeal permits the army to proceed as planned. (2)Demolition of Tapuach Synagogue Begins With Violence Only a few hours after the Supreme Court rejected a petition this morning against the demolition of a synagogue in Tapuach, hundreds of police and soldiers arrived on the scene early this afternoon and began the destruction in a most violent manner. The residents of the Shomron community of Tapuach claimed in court not that the synagogue is authorized, but rather that it is a basic need of the community, and that the decision to raze it is solely political. The judges rejected the suit based on what the Tapuach lawyer said was only a "technicality," and added that the demolition of the synagogue must be carried out with great caution. Hundreds of pro-Land of Israel supporters began making their way to the site as soon as word of the ruling was learned. The security forces quickly placed barriers at the Tapuach Junction to prevent their arrival, but some of the supporters were able to arrive in any event. David HaIvri of Tapuach told Arutz-7 today that the town is in the process of registering the building for a permit: "We never would have dreamt that a Jewish town in Israel would not be permitted to build a synagogue," he said. "But we know Ariel Sharon from what he did in Yamit, and our job is to try to stop this from happening once again." Sharon, as Defense Minister in 1982, oversaw the evacuation and destruction of the city of Yamit and neighboring communities in northwestern Sinai following the signing of the peace treaty with Egypt. Sharon has since expressed regret for these actions. The Yesha Council said it objects to the evacuation of any Jewishly-held point in the Land of Israel, and that with a little good will, the government could have authorized the synagogue, just as the Barak government did in the past in similar situations. At the same time, the Yesha Council said it would not take part in the efforts to prevent the demolition "in cases where we do not know in advance the nature of the resistance." The Council thus leveled some veiled criticism of the Kach supporters in Tapuach, implying that they might respond violently to the evacuation. A Voice of Israel reporter noted today that there is a precedent in previous evacuations for the destruction of a synagogue. It occurred in the Maon Farm in November 1999. Eyewitnesses said that it was carried out carefully, under the watchful eye of an IDF rabbi: first the Torah scrolls were gingerly taken out, and then the building was gradually razed. Today in Tapuach, however, as reported by eyewitness Gershon Hershkovitz, the story was quite different. With loud screams and other noise in the background, Hershkovitz said, "Hundreds of police/soldiers arrived here with great violence, most of them armed, and some of them even fired in the air. No one was hurt by the shots, thank G-d, but this is a bad precedent - and some people have been knocked unconscious by their violence... They took out the Torah scrolls and other holy books very violently - but some 30 people are barricaded on the roof, so they can't take down the building... We call on people from all over to come and help us." The Torah scroll, in the memory of terror victims Binyamin and Talia Kahane, was introduced into the synagogue in a festive ceremony only two weeks ago. Many hundreds of people from all over the country participated in the joyous occasion. Tapuach residents deny that the building is a center for the promulgation of the teachings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, Binyamin's father. In fact, Talia's father, David Hertzlich, said that he uses the building "just to teach little children the verses of the Bible."

DANIEL PIPES' RATIONAL WARNNG DISTORTED BY SENATOR HARKIN Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 20, 2004.

Daniel Pipes once warned the American Jewish Congress that the increased presence, stature, affluence, and enfranchisement of US Muslims endanger US Jewry, because the Muslims are led primarily by Islamists. He clarified that statement a year later, by explaining that he made the same point to audiences of women, gays, civil libertarians, Hindus, Evangelical Christians, atheists, and scholars of Islam. They all are endangered by the increase in Muslims here. Distorting the statement, which correctly assessed the extremism of US Muslim's leadership, Sen.Tom Harkin of Iowa condemned Mr. Pipes as bigoted. He also claimed that US Muslims have become Americanized, taking on American values. (No proof given.) Pipes defends his prediction by citing the example of France. A French weekly's editor explained that post-War Jewry had thrived in France until a few years ago. Then Muslim immigrants reached a critical mass and rejected Jews as Jews and Zionists. They have set more than 20 synagogues and schools on fire, routinely harass Jewish children and teachers, beat rabbis in the street, and gain fame by calling Jewish nationalism dangerous. The country's elite has been reluctant to condemn this Muslim attitude and action. French Jewry is considering mass emigration. Sen. Harkin, let not the US make France's mistake! (Pipes #406, 1/5, e-mail.) Imagine, a US Senator unaware that Islamism is engaged in a world war, and consider the US their chief enemy!

CLINTON SPEAKS OUT Posted by Tamar Rush, January 20, 2004.

This was an item on the Little Green Footballs website (http://littlegreenfootballs/weblog). Speaking in Saudi Arabia, Bill Clinton rhapsodized Mohammed as a sort of Arab Henry Ford, and said that if cars had been around 1400 years ago (stay with me here), not only would Mohammed have made the desert kingdom the first automobile producing nation on earth, he would have even let the women drive! Saudi Arabia bars women from driving and being seen in public with men other than family members. A fatwa, or edict, issued by the head of the country's Department of Religious Research, Missionary Activities and Guidance in 1990 declared women should not be allowed to drive because Islam supports women's dignity. Clinton said, however, Muhammad would have let his wife get behind the wheel. "He probably would have made Saudi Arabia the first automobile producing nation on earth and put her in charge of the business," he said, according to Reuters. The former president was speaking at a conference in the Red Sea port of Jeddah, where women delegates, covered in black robes, were separated in the meeting hall from the men by a screen. OK. That's stretching a metaphor w-a-a-a-y past the breaking point. [Ed note: Comments made by a reader: Shouldn't that be 'wives' in paragraph #3, not 'wife'? One of Mohammad's wives was 9 years old - isn't that below the driving age?]

WELCH STAR IN RACE ROW Posted by Tamar Rush, January 20, 2004.

This was written by Lucy Ballinger and appeared Sunday on IC Wales, "the national website of Wales" (http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk). Obviously, her values are different than mine. I think Rhys-Davies showed courage. ONE of the biggest Welsh movie stars in Hollywood kicked off a race storm last night after making anti-Muslim remarks. Outraged Islamic leaders in Wales demanded an immediate apology from Lord Of The Rings actor John Rhys-Davies, who claimed an increase in Europe's Muslim population was a "demographic catastrophe" threatening "Western civilisation". The 59-year-old Ammanford actor's comments were originally made in an interview with American journalists from World magazine, but this week they were used by the far right British National Party in a leaflet to campaign for support among cinema-goers. Last night Rhys-Davies stood by his views which follow Robert Kilroy-Silk's inflammatory anti-Arab column. But he criticised the BNP for hijacking his words for their own ends. In the interview, Rhys-Davies, who plays heroic dwarf Gimli and recorded the voice of computer-animated character Treebeard in the Hollywood blockbuster, interprets Tolkien's story of good versus evil as a metaphor for modern race relations. He said: "There is a demographic catastrophe happening in Europe that nobody wants to talk about, that we daren't bring up because we are so cagey about not offending people racially. And rightly we should be. But there is a cultural thing as well. "By 2020, 50 per cent of the children in Holland under the age of 18 will be of Muslim descent. "I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be challenged. And if they do not rise to meet that challenge, they will lose their civilisation. That does have a real resonance with me." The 6ft tall actor, who wore facial prosthetics and performed on his knees to portray the 4ft 2in dwarf in Lord Of The Rings, even says he is aware that his beliefs could end his career, which has seen him star in the Indiana Jones films and James Bond movie The Living Daylights. "I am for dead, (traditional) white male culture," said Rhys-Davies, who divides his time between his homes in Los Angeles and the Isle of Man. "Many do not understand how precarious Western civilisation is and what a joy it is. "From it, we get real democracy. From it, we get the sort of intellectual tolerance that allows me to propound something that may be completely alien to you. "I'm burying my career so substantially in these interviews that it's painful. But I think there are some questions that demand honest answers." The BNP reproduced some of his comments on their website, where they ask people to print them off and distribute them at showings of Lord Of The Rings. BNP leader Nick Griffin last night defended using Rhys-Davies' words for their Stand, Men Of The West leaflet, which he claimed was popular with film-goers in the Valleys. "He is not a racist in terms of race hate and nor are we," he said. "We just feel his views dovetail with our message as the comments in the interview quoted reflect our opinions too." Rhys-Davies said it was "distressing to find yourself on a BNP leaflet", adding: "But on reflection, these people can't really do any great harm unless you allow them to." The actor's over-the-top views were criticised by Tolkien Society publicity officer Ian Collier. He said: "The Tolkien Society is not a politically-aligned organisation and we do not in any way condone the use of his works to support messages of racial hate, just as Tolkien himself objected strongly to the use of Northern Myth by the Nazis. "There is documentary evidence that Tolkien did not agree with these views and we are saddened to see this kind of misrepresentation occurring." The views were greeted with contempt by the MP for Rhys-Davies' former home town, Ammanford. "I condemn these comments as being racist and ill-informed," said Adam Price, Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East & Dinefwr. "It is obvious that this man who now lives in the lap of luxury in Hollywood is out of touch with realities of the nature of present day European society. "His attack on Muslims and comments about the threat that they pose to Western society shows his ignorance of world events and the true teachings of Islam. "Ammanford people will feel very let down by a man with such close connections to the town." Last night Mohammed Javed, chairman of the Muslim Society for Wales, said: "We want an apology. This could stir up racial hatred in society. It's ignorance, he should learn more about Islam and the religions before he makes these comments. "They are based on his ignorance and nothing else." Chief executive of the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association (Awema) Naz Malik agreed. He said: "I do not know why he has said these things. If 50 per cent of people in Holland under 18 are Muslims in 16 years time, so what? In Britain the fastest growing race is mixed race, people of dual heritage. It is a cause for great celebration that our cultures are mixed. "We live in a global society - we celebrate what is good in cultures and challenge what is bad in civilisations. "Does he ever listen to any music other than European? Does he eat Indian food? Does he ever appreciate art other than that from Europe? "I feel sorry for this actor because he must feel very insecure about his future. I feel sorry for his close mindedness." Wales Friends of Searchlight's Ian Titherington accused the BNP of hijacking the actor's comments. He said: "Tolkien's Ring Trilogy is generally considered to be the best fantasy story ever written. "It really shows how desperate the BNP are, to try to make political capital out of a cinematic re-production of fantasy." LAST NIGHT we spoke to John Rhys-Davies from his Hollywood home and asked him to defend his opinions. Here's what he said... I BELIEVE in racial equality not racial discrimination. All I was commenting on was that there are cultural changes taking place in Europe that I consider to be unacceptable. The fact that a minister of the French government has to fly to Cairo to talk with one of the religious heads in one of the mosques to get his approval for a ban on headscarves can be seen in two ways. One, is how wonderfully culturally sensitive. The other, it seems to give an authority to a wholly unelected figure well outside Europe's jurisdiction. I am really proud to be living in a society that accepts women as our equals, that accepts civilised discourse that allows people to hold different opinions without coming to any act of violence. Here in America when that earthquake happened in Iran the reaction of everyone I knew was horror and dismay, the reaction of everyone when they heard that the old woman had been brought out alive long after they thought there was anyone there was absolute awe at the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit to survive. Contrast that with people jumping up and down and clapping at the 9/11 disaster in certain countries. I don't think that Western society is opposed to Islamic society at all. I think a very important part of Islamic society is opposed to Western society. It is time that ordinary Muslims stood up to be counted. Most societies can benefit from a good stirring of genes, but most cultures are tolerant of each other. I do not see Buddhists throwing bombs into Christian churches, I do not see Christians blowing up Hindu temples, I do not see those sorts of challenges. When we are prepared to overlook certain things because we don't want to rock the boat, this is wrong. The greatest act of racism is to expect that other people will not behave according to your values and standards. Yes, I am for dead, (traditional) white male culture. It's pretty damn good, pretty damn marvellous, pretty wonderful. That's not to exclude other cultures, but it's not to diminish mine. I'm sorry that might be perceived as infringing some sort of racial taboo, it's certainly not intended to be a racial remark. We are losing the ability to sit down and be able to have a tolerable argument. I do not want to see a society where, should I ever have any, my granddaughters have their fingernails pulled out because they are wearing nail varnish. I hope that my friends and relatives in Wales are not going to be shocked by what they are going to read about. Do not brand me a racist because I am most certainly not. But I will stand by this: Western Christianised Europe has values and experience that is worth defending.

I'M NOT A FEIGLINITE Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 20, 2004.

This was written by Michael Fuah, General Manager of Manhigut Yehudit. Manhigut Yehudi (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. It was begun by Moshe Feiglin, who has emphaticaly said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. When a person whose sole interest is money is shown a beautiful flower, he doesn't enjoy its appearance, nor its fragrance, but only asks "How much does it cost?" The same thing happens when a society motivated mainly by personal aims encounters one motivated by ideology. The cultural gap is apparently the reason for the name "Feiglinites" given by the media and Education Minister Limor Livnat to members of Manhigut Yehudit. As one who greatly admires and works closely with Moshe Feiglin, I wish to announce that I am not a Feiglinite! Furthermore, although I think that in the current situation he is the most suitable candidate for the post of prime minister, I am not a Feiglinite! The term "Feiglinites" derives from a philosophy that attributes importance to loyalty to a person and not to an idea. Those who believe in loyalty to an idea are similar to those who can enjoy the appearance and fragrance of a beautiful flower, while those who are career-motivated ask merely "How much does it cost? Who should I flatter now, and how will I benefit from doing so?" Amendment 19c to the Likud Constitution, which is currently being proposed by Manhigut Yehudit, lies precisely on the borderline between two cultures. It is proposed that an MK or minister cannot be a candidate to represent the party for a period of five years if he votes in the Knesset or the government against decisions of the Likud Central Committee. This is an amendment required at a time when lack of public integrity is commonplace. The situation in which people are elected on a basis of a specific political platform and then adopt a diametrically opposed policy is especially conspicuous in a party such as the Likud, and the reason for it is simple. In order to advance within the ranks of the party you have to express loyalty to its values. From the moment that you have been elected, and you want to be popular with the media, you begin to adopt a more Leftist attitude, or kick the party from which you came. Call Central Committee members "Indians" and you will be considered clever, refer to them as "criminal elements" without naming even one of them and you will be commended for your courage to the acclaim of the press. Not by chance does amendment 19c, which was intended to establish new standards of reliability and integrity in political leadership, so frighten the current leadership. The idea of the Jewish State proposed by Manhigut Yehudit is greater than all the current leaders of Manhigut Yehudit, and does not depend on one person or another. The name "Feiglinites", which centers on a specific personality, is foreign to the movement and expresses a different culture. It is true that the name "members of Manhigut Yehudit" is not sufficiently trendy for the media. Furthermore, it is difficult to use such a name to refer to a group, since many people feel they belong to it, including mainly Likudniks. This is in fact its strength. Anyone who makes efforts to cause Israel to change from being a state of all its citizens to a Jewish State, already belongs in fact to Manhigut Yehudit. Those who have already joined the Likud, and the many others joining now, are simply concentrating their joint efforts in the political field in order to advance this process. The intensity of the reaction proves that they are succeeding.

URGENT PLEA FROM SHOMROM HILLS IN ISRAEL Posted by Voice of Judea, January 19, 2004.

SEVERAL HUNDRED SOLDIERS AND POLICE HAVE BEEN DISPATCHED TO TAPUACH FOR THE DISMANTLING OF THE SYNAGOGUE ON TAPUACH WEST AND ARE PRESENTLY CONVERGING ON THE REMOTE HILL TOP. HUNDREDS OF JEWS ARE MAKING THEIR WAY TO THE SYNAGOGUE TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH THE RESIDENTS OF TAPUACH WEST AND TO PARTICIPATE IN AN EMRGENCY PRAYER VIGIL BEING ORGANIZED FOR 8:00 PM TONIGHT. Residents of Tapuach west in the Shomron hills of Israel have sent an urgent plea to Jews around the world to pray for their synagogue that is at risk of being torn down by the Israeli troops to satisfy American and Arab dictates. The synagogue was built one month ago to facilitate the basic religious needs of the approximately 100 Jewish residents on the hill. Extreme anti religious minister Tommy Lapid of the Shinui party demanded the destruction of the synagogue several weeks ago. The synagogue was built in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane as well as in memory of his son Binyamin and daughter-in-law Talya hy"d. The 3 Kahanes were murdered by Arab terrorists. Binyamin and Talya were ambushed and killed several miles away from Tapuach 3 years ago; their 6 orphaned children continue to reside in Tapuach. In addition to requesting the active participating in tonight's prayer vigil and in addition to the urgent request for Jews worldwide to join in prayer on behalf of the synagogue, residents are also requesting desperately needed funds to house and feed the hundreds of people who are coming to the hill and to continue with building plans of the synagogue on the hill. Yekutiel Ben Yaakov said, "We will not be broken regardless of the evil decree; we will continue to study Torah and pray in this holy synagogue on this holy land of Eretz Yisrael. They can come with their tanks and come with their tractors, we come in the name of god and the spirit of Judaism will overcome the evil edicts of the modern day Hellenists." Desperately needed funds can be mailed or Fed Ex'd to the Kahane Building Fund: Rehov Moriah 3 Jerusalem, Israel 94386 for more information please call 718 874 2057 or email info@defendisrael.net This is an urgent plea for prayer, physical participation and desperately needed funds! The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.net. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net

AMERICAN MISSILE DISCOVERY IN IRAQ Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 19, 2004.

It has just been reported that American Intelligence has concluded increasing fatal hits on American aircraft is due to a more sophisticated ground-to-air missile being employed by Iraqi (militants) - can't call them Terrorists due to PC Media policies. So far, 9 helicopters have been hit by missiles and 46 American soldiers have been killed. (1) Shoulder-fired missiles can range from low tech RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) to very intelligent missiles that track heat, proximity sensors, fire-and-forget guidance systems - each having different distance capabilities. Israelis should pay attention because this affects you! Incoming and taking off airliners with hundreds of passengers will be in range of the Bush/Powell/Sharon new Arab State of Palestine. Some will recall that we Americans provided the "Mujahaddin" (Muslim guerillas in Afghanistan - including Osama Bin Laden) with Stinger missiles and the training to use them. It worked well as the Afghans wreaked havoc on Soviet helicopters and other low-flying combat aircraft. The Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan because even their combat-hardened pilots could not avoid these smart shoulder-fired missiles. Some Stingers have flowed from Afghanistan through Pakistan and on into Iran and are still operational - somewhere. There are also other types available. They are made by France, England, Germany, Sweden, Russia, etc. Israel will absolutely face a mix of these weapons once the Arab Palestinians are allowed to get within range and with no Israeli patrols to stop them. The hits against American aircraft in Iraq with increasing frequency didn't take deep analysis to conclude that ground-to-air missiles of a higher quality were being used. These are coming mostly through the Syrian (or Lebanese) border along with trained foreign (Muslim) Terrorists from many nations. (CNN presented a one hour program, War on Terror, on Saturday January 17 at 7 PM CST which forthrightly described the Muslim Terror network throughout the world. This program concentrated on the millions in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.) But, not to worry - President George W. Bush is supplicating Syria's President Bashar Assad through the good offices of James Baker's Institute at Rice University. Bush has already indicated that he will NOT employ the sanctions authorized by the Syrian Accountability Act, the law Congress just passed. But, instead Bush seems to be using the backdoor "Presidential Waiver" to pander to Bashar Assad. I, for one, never believed that Bush and Company would ever use this bill to punish Syria. We have all been suckered by the Waiver Provision. Consider the millions paid to Arafat under the "Presidential Waiver" after the U.S. State Department issued its annual whitewash of Yasser Arafat's PLO. The "Presidential Waiver" has been used every six months to stop the U.S. State Department from moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. An impertinent question: "Does the Congress provide phoney bills for their electorate, knowing the President will always use his Waiver clause?" Bush, through James Baker, has just sent Edward P. Djerejian to plead, massage and make promises to Assad - just as Baker did with Bashar's late father, Hafez al Assad. I would guess the promises are to sell him vast quantities of U.S. weapons, using American aid (read: free). America did this with Egypt to the tune of $2 Billion a year since the Camp David Accords, which adds up to about $50 Billion of American taxpayers' dollars given away to Egypt. Strangely, something of that nature is occurring now with Libya. Reports indicate the American weapons' industry, with Bush approval, had been negotiating with Moammar Kaddafi since the middle of last year. Now, that Kaddafi has 'koshered' himself so that he can be supplied with advanced American aircraft, missiles, tanks - possibly using the Egyptian formula. So, forget about the Bush pledge to confront Global Terror. Nudge it over to the column marked cash flow through aid-supported sales to benefit what General/President Dwight Eisenhower called the military/industrial complex. Sales and/or gifts to Syria and Libya will be a new and windfall market to American arms manufacturers. Thus, you can expect new and profitable wars in the future - courtesy of the Bush family and their rings of political cronies in industry. Thus goes the Global War against Terror. The 'Lesson' Israel has to learn out of the "new" Intelligence about American aircraft being shot down in Iraq by shoulder-fired missiles is this: When - at the behest of the Bush/Quartet Road Map and the collapse of Prime Minister Sharon's instincts for survival, another Arab State of Palestine is created, Israel will face the same circumstances of missile Terror facing Americans in Iraq - only closer in to their homes. Not to be alarmist but - what's to stop Global Terrorists from targeting American planes on American airfields: civilian and/or military? Or European civilian and/or military airfields? No aircraft, civilian or military, will be safe from ground attacks in the narrow air corridors left for Israel to fly. Civilian airliners, circling to land in Israel, or slowly gaining altitude in take-off will be literally sitting ducks for the present sophisticated missiles now in production. As the years pass, Israel will become even more unable to defeat close-up missiles with the electronic counter-measures currently installed on most Israeli and some international aircraft. In fact, the entire aircraft industry, globally, are now contracting for these anti-missile systems at extraordinary expense (instead of eliminating the threats at their sources). But, not to worry. Bush seems certain he can tame the Arab/Muslim 'militants' and they will turn in their present inventory of missiles and promise not to purchase more or fire them at landing aircraft. Sure! Sharon seems delusionally confident that, even though he brings the 'militants' within easy range (should we say 'a stone's throw' away?) of all incoming and outgoing aircraft, there will be NO danger. One can only wait and pray that a giant passenger plane from EL Al, British Airways, Lufthansa, et al, will not be shot down with 400 passengers on board. I would guess that the lawsuits against Israel's incompetence and dereliction of passenger safety would be in the hundreds of Millions to Billions of dollars. Of course, all foreign airlines would terminate flights to Israel. El Al would remain the only carrier but since the new State of Palestine was born by the Bush/Sharon diktat, who would fly through a combat air space, even with El Al? I would think that liability would lie personally with Sharon for malfeasance of office - given that he already knows that the Arabs promised continual Terror - even after a peace treaty and another Arab/Muslim State of Palestine was given to them. Sharon already knows that advanced shoulder-fired missiles have been smuggled in from Egypt - with President Mubarak's knowledge. Israeli Intelligence has probably already calculated that it could not maneuver or fly over the Judean and Samarian mountains - except at very high altitudes, given the presence of shoulder-fired missiles - once another Arab/Muslim State of Palestine exists and presses up on Israel's borders. Clearly, both Sharon individually and the successive Israeli government administrations, past, present and future will be responsible for putting Israelis and such foreign nationals who dare to fly into Israel in jeopardy. Kaddaffi had to pay over a Billion dollars for Pan Am flight #103 which his Libyan Terrorists were responsible for crashing over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, killing 259 people on the plane plus 11 on the ground. While the intent was somewhat different, the end product, that of shooting down civilian airliners, will be the same - although the criminal charges will be malfeasance in office and dereliction of responsibility to protect civilians. Sharon has again demonstrated his incompetence to protect the citizens of Israel. Just days after a woman suicide bomber came into Israel with a stream of Palestinian workers and blew herself up along with four teenage Israeli soldiers, Sharon opens up the same gates again. This can be no less than criminal, given the facts. Israeli politicians seem unable to learn a lesson from the grief of others, as is happening in Iraq. First, Israelis must experience their own tragedies, several hundred times, before they get the idea. Clearly, Sharon and Bush's new Arab State of Palestine will be an excellent ground base from which to launch shoulder-fired missiles at all aircraft. Additionally, the Arab/Muslim Palestinians can also launch long range mortars, missiles and artillery over Sharon's "Wall of Life" meant to separate the Arab Terrorists from the Jewish communities. They will be able to hit anywhere in the nine mile width that is left of the Jewish State of Israel. Good thinking, Arik! But, do pack a bag in case the Israeli citizenry decide to revolt and run you, Peres, Beilin and all the radical Lefties out of town. ### 1. "Iraq Rebels Seen Using More Skill to Down Copters" by Eric Schmitt NEW YORK TIMES January 18, 2004 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm)

PROOF: THE ALLIES COULD HAVE BOMBED THE CAMPS Posted by Bryna Berch, January 19, 2004.

This appeared on the Arutz-7 website (http://www.IsraelNN.com) today. Photographs taken by British pilots in 1944, at the height of the Holocaust, reveal the truth of the long-time Jewish claim that the Allies could have bombed the railroad tracks leading to the Nazi death camps - and even the gas chambers themselves. The archives of some five million photos are being made available today on a new internet site (www.evidenceincamera.co.uk). Some pictures show a clearly-identifiable plume of smoke rising from a crematorium in Auschwitz, while others show smoke rising from burial pits where bodies that were unable to be taken to the crematoria were burned. "One thing is certain," says Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum director Avner Shalev. "These photos show once again, in a most chilling manner, that which was known before: The Allies were able to reach the death camps, fly over them, photograph them - and bomb them." British sources say that the tremendous amount of photographs that were taken made it difficult to analyze all of the relevant ones. The Allied intelligence services apparently chose the ones that were of immediate military importance. Shalev adds that it was in mid-1944 when the destruction of 600,000 Hungarian Jews was at its peak. Yad Vashem archives already have pictures taken by American and South African pilots of the death camps, including some which show the smoke of dead Jews rising skyward. In many cases, an analysis of the time and date of the picture, together with information on the various transports of Jews that arrived at the camps, can produce an accurate picture of the precise origin of the transport eternalized in the photo. Because of the tremendous interest generated by the site, it has been largely inaccessible since its launching this morning.

A FAQ ON PALESTINE Posted by Isralert, January 19, 2004.

This is a piece from the Peace Encyclopedia available at http://www.yahoodi.com. It is the section on Palestine and the Palestinians (http://www.yahoodi.com/peace/palestinians.html#whatwa). Reading it on the Yahoodie website allows you to immediately link to other sites with detailed information on the different subjects.. [Ed. Note: The Background page of Think-Israel (http://www.think-israel.org/background.html) has additional accurate sources of information on the Arab-Israeli conflict.] Use of a term like "Palestinian" without the suffix "Arab" and the term "Israeli-Occupied Palestine" have served to confuse the public into thinking that there has always been an independent "Palestinian" people which hasn't been given the opportunity for self-determination. In fact, any such failure has been the fault of the government of Jordan, which covers the majority of what was once known as "Palestine" and in which the majority of Palestinian Arabs live. "Palestinians" [are an] Arab people no one heard of before 1967. Are the Palestinians native to the land where Israel now exists? "The fact is that today's Palestinians are immigrants from the surrounding nations! I grew up well knowing the history and origins of today's Palestinians as being from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Christians from Greece, Muslim Sherkas from Russia, Muslims from Bosnia, and the Jordanians next door. The civil and tribal wars between Yemmenites (from Yemen) and Kessites (from Banu Kais of Saudi Arabia)... are well known among Palestinians. "My grandfather, who was a dignitary in Bethlehem, almost lost his life by Abdul Qader Al-Husseni (the leader of the Palestinian revolution) after being accused of selling land to Jews. He used to tell us that his village Beit Sahur (The Shepherds Fields) in Bethlehem County was empty before his father settled in the area with six other families. The town has now grown to 30,000 inhabitants." - Walid, a Palestinian Arab defector, talking about the recent immigration of Arabs to Palestine. quoted from "Answering Islam" The current PLO and Arab claim (and mainstream media regurgitation of it) is indeed a very distorted version of `recorded history' and can only qualify as pure Orwellian propaganda. In fact, putting aside all the myths and propaganda, the only area that would qualify historically as truly Arab land, is the Arabian desert peninsula. Unfortunately, it seems that Goebbels was correct in stating that if a lie were repeated often enough, it would come to be "perceived" as truth. No doubt, some Arabs have lived in the area of the Mandate of Palestine for many centuries, but not as many of them as had the Jews. What is more, Jews had lived in Arab lands since times preceding Islam itself. And yet, these Jews in Arab lands were never regarded as citizens of the Arab lands they lived in and were unceremoniously expelled in the years subsequent to Israel's establishment. In other words, residency alone did not confer national rights on those who inhabited an area. Nor did it make a people out of congeries of Arabs and other nationalities that had come to the area of the Mandate of Palestine while the Jewish people were restricted. The nations of the world recognized this after World War I when the League of Nations determined that the geographical area called Palestine was to become a homeland for the Jewish people, the people that had been continuously associated with this land since ancient times when it was known as Judea and Samaria. - David Basch So why did so many Arabs end up in Palestine? During the British Mandate, even well into the 1940s, Arabs were allowed into "Palestine" in huge numbers without visa or passport, especially from the Hauran District of Syria, while the British continued to do everything possible to prevent Jews from entering, even down to the last minute when all attempts were made to deny entry to thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. Only in 1948 were Jewish refugees allowed free entry to their homeland, and that was because Israel had, once again, become an independent nation. [The Arabs of Ottoman Palestine may have] had certain attachments to the fields they were cultivating but at the same time they were destroying the Land. Parkes stated that "in the wars between villages it was far too common a practice to cut down fruit trees and olives and to destroy crops, and this in the end caused as much loss of life through hunger as was caused by the actual casualties of fighting". He concluded that "in spite of the immense fertility of the soil, it is probable that in the first half of the nineteenth century the population sank to the lowest level it had ever known in historic times." Palestinian leaders claim that Israel is built on Arab land, when the truth is that eyewitnesses such as Mark Twain and Rev. Manning of England who visited the Holy Land in the last century wrote that the land was barren and empty. The population then was less that 5% of today's population. In fact Joan Peters in her book "From Time Immemorial" tells us that the return of the Jews in 1800's and early 1900's created jobs and Arabs from impoverished areas were drawn into the Holy Land for work. Peters also tells us that in 1948 so many Arabs were new to the area and could not qualify for the UN requirement for refugee status (people forced to leave "permanent" or "habitual" homes) that they added a clause permitting refugee status for Arabs who had been there as little as two years. Thus the Zionist slogan "The Land without a people for the people without a land" was absolutely correct. The slogan did not mean that there were no inhabitants at all in Palestine, it just indicated that the non-Jewish population constituted a conglomeration of dozens of heterogeneous groups of residents having very little in common, i.e. not constituting a single nation, a people. These residents were not united by any specific national idea. Parkes wrote that the Balfour declaration for the first time established a "unit called Palestine on a political map... There was no such thing historically as a 'Palestinian Arab', and there was no feeling of unity among 'the Arabs' of this newly defined area." So before the creation of the State of Israel, who were the Palestinians? Until 1950, the name of the Jerusalem Post was THE PALESTINE POST; the journal of the Zionist Organization of America was NEW PALESTINE; Bank Leumi was the ANGLO-PALESTINE BANK; the Israel Electric Company was the PALESTINE ELECTRIC COMPANY; there was the PALESTINE FOUNDATION FUND and the PALESTINE PHILHARMONIC. All these were Jewish organizations. In America, Zionist youngsters sang "PALESTINE, MY PALESTINE", "PALESTINE SCOUT SONG" and "PALESTINE SPRING SONG" In general, the terms Palestine and Palestinian referred to the region of Palestine as it was. Thus "Palestinian Jew" and "Palestinian Arab" are straightforward expressions. "Palestine Post" and "Palestine Philharmonic" refer to these bodies as they existed in a place then known as Palestine. The adoption of a Palestinian identity by the Arabs of Palestine is a recent phenomenon. Until the establishment of the State of Israel, and for another decade or so, the term Palestinian applied almost exclusively to the Jews. What was the identity of the Arabs of Palestine at the end of the Ottoman Empire? On August 11, 1919 in a memorandum to Lord Curzon, Lord Balfour stated that "whatever be the future of Palestine, it is not now an 'independent nation,' nor is it yet on the way to becoming one". Professor of history Reverend James Parkes wrote in Whose Land that "before 1914,... the mass of the population [in Palestine] had no real feeling of belonging to any wider unit than their village, clan or possibly confederation of clans". He stressed the point that "up to that time it is not possible to speak of the existence of any general sentiment of nationality". A Palestinian Arab, Professor of history Rashid Khalidi recently confirmed Balfour's and Parkes' statements that the population of Palestine at the beginning of this century did not represent a distinct nation. In his book Palestinian Identity, he wrote that only at the beginning of the twentieth century did the Arabs of Palestine start to see "themselves as part of other communities, both larger and smaller ones. This identification certainly did not include all sectors or classes of the population. But it did constitute a new and powerful category of identity that was simply nonexistent a generation or two before, and was still novel and limited in its diffusion before World War I." ...the non-Jewish residents of Palestine tried to don several different identities. First, they attempted to become Ottomans. This attempt failed after the defeat of the Ottoman army and subsequent withdrawal of Ottoman authority from Palestine. As Khalidi wrote, "in a period of a few years, Ottomanism as an ideology went from being one of the primary sources of identification for Palestinians, to having no apparent impact at all." Then came the turn of the Syrian identity that did not last long either. When the French crushed the two-year-old independent Syrian state in 1920, the elite of the Palestinian Arabs decided to change orientation again. Khalidi quotes the nationalist leader Musa Kazim Pasa al-Husayni, who said, "Now, after the recent events in Damascus, we have to effect a complete change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine". It is important to note that the nationalist movement among the non-Jewish residents of Palestine did not originate on its soil, but was imported from Egypt, Turkey and France. Parkes wrote that it was "exclusively political in the narrowest sense, and showed little awareness of the day-to-day problems which would arise if its political objective were reached". Illiterate fellahen became the pawns in the game of power-thirsty Arab nationalists who tried to repeat King Abdulla's success in Jordan at a smaller scale in the remaining part of Palestine. Are the Palestinians a separate and unique people, different from the other Arabs? When did the notion arise - of the Palestinians as a separate Arab people? There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass. But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today. Greed. Pride. Envy. Covetousness. No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough. - Joseph Farah, Arab-American journalist, editor and CEO of WorldNetDaily The concept of "Palestinians" is one that did not exist until about 1948, when the Arab inhabitants, of what until then was Palestine, wished to differentiate themselves from the Jews. Until then, the Jews were the Palestinians. There was the Palestinian Brigade of Jewish volunteers in the British World War II Army (at a time when the Palestinian Arabs were in Berlin hatching plans with Adolf Hitler for world conquest and how to kill all the Jews); there was the Palestinian Symphony Orchestra (all Jews, of course); there was The Palestine Post; and so much more. The Arabs who now call themselves "Palestinians" do so in order to persuade a misinformed world that they are a distinct nationality and that "Palestine" is their ancestral homeland. But they are no distinct nationality at all. They are the same - in language, custom, and tribal and family ties - as the Arabs of Syria, Jordan, and beyond. There is no more difference between the "Palestinians" and the other Arabs of those countries than there is between, say, the citizens of Minnesota and those of Wisconsin. What's more, many of the "Palestinians", or their immediate ancestors, came to the area attracted by the prosperity created by the Jews, in what previously had been pretty much of a wasteland. - New York Times, June 12, 2000 (via CFICEJ's ISRAEL REPORT May/June 2000) Meeting in Cairo in 1964, the Arab League resolved to divert the waters of the Jordan River, which are vital for Israel's existence. At that same conference, there was a public declaration of the intention to destroy Israel, and the PLO was founded. - Anita Shapira, The New Republic, 29 November, 1999 It is mainly in the past few decades that "Palestinian" has been co-opted by the Arabs, as if the name belongs exclusively to them, pretending to have a long history and independent national identity. Until 1967, most of those who now call themselves Palestinians were reasonably happy with their Jordanian citizenship and with calling themselves "Jordanians" Even today, there is strong support among the "Palestinian" majority of Jordan for their Hashemite monarchy, though King Hussein relies on his Bedouin troops when he needs absolute loyalty. The use of a term like "Palestinian" without the suffix "Arab" and the term "Israeli-Occupied Palestine" have served to confuse the public into thinking that there has always been an independent "Palestinian" people which hasn't been given the opportunity for self-determination. In fact, any such failure has been the fault of the government of Jordan, which covers the majority of what was once known as "Palestine" and in which the majority of Palestinian Arabs live. "Palestinians" [are an] Arab people no one heard of before 1967 before Israeli governments certified this piece of propaganda... As has been noted many times before, prior to 1948, that is before Jews had begun to call themselves Israelis, the only persons known as "Palestinians" were Jews, with the Arabs much preferrring to identify themselves as part of the great Arab nation. - David Basch The actual word "Palestine" came from the Romans, not the Arabs, and there has never been an independent country or state of Palestine, nor a Palestinian rule. Yet we are led to believe that there are Palestinians and then there are Arabs. Avi Erlich wrote in his book Ancient Zionism, A Palestinian Arab claim to the Land of Israel cannot rise above a claim to houses, lost from the larger Arab Empire. Neither Moorish homes in Cordoba nor Arab homes in Jerusalem can reasonably constitute lost nations... Homeland represents the grafting of a specific place with a specific national idea. No Palestinian idea beyond the claim to land or other lost property has ever been articulated. Borrowed and usurping nationhood does not count. Palestine has always constituted a single geographical, political and demographic unit with Greater Syria and Egypt. On its soil the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt intermingled. Palestine also witnessed, as a land bridge linking Asia, Africa, and Europe, several movements and waves of conquerors who dominated it for different periods of time and left behind varying degrees of influence. - By Abdul Jawad Saleh, in Transformation of Palestine, printed in Challenge, February 1995, published on the WWW by the Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society, Bir Zeit University, the West Bank Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted: "We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds." "There is no such country [as Palestine] 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria." - Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader, to the Peel Commission, 1937 "Palestine was part of the Province of Syria... politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity." - The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations submitted this in a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947 "It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria." - Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, to the UN Security Council The Romans had changed the name of the Land of Israel to "Palestine." But from A.D. 640 until the 1960s, Arabs referred to this same Land as "Southern Syria." Arabs only started calling the Land "Palestine" in the 1960s. Until about the eighteenth century, the Christian world called this same Land, "The Holy Land." Thereafter, they used two names: "The Holy Land" and "Palestine." When the League of Nations in 1922 gave Great Britain the mandate to prepare Palestine as a national home for the Jewish people, the official name of the Land became "Palestine" and remained so until the rebirth of the Israeli State in 1948. During this very period, the leaders of the Arabs in the Land, however, called themselves Southern Syrians and clamored that the Land become a part of a "Greater Syria." This "Arab Nation" would include Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Transjordan as well as Palestine. An observation in TIME magazine well articulated how the Palestinian identity was born so belatedly in the 1960s: Golda Meir once argued that there was no such thing as a Palestinian; at the time, she wasn't entirely wrong. Before Arafat began his proselytizing, most of the Arabs from the territory of Palestine thought of themselves as members of an all-embracing Arab nation. It was Arafat who made the intellectual leap to a definition of the Palestinians as a distinct people; he articulated the cause, organized for it, fought for it and brought it to the world's attention. If there was an Arab Palestinian culture, a normal population increase over the centuries would have been expected. But with the exception of a relatively few families, the Arabs had no attachment to the Land. If Arabs from southern Syria drifted into Palestine for economic reasons, within a generation or so the cultural tug of Syria or other Arab lands would pull them back. This factor is why the Arab population average remained low until the influx of Jewish financial investments and Jewish people in the late 1800s made the Land economically attractive. Then sometime between 1850 and 1918, the Arab population shot up to 560,000. Not to absolve the Jews but to defend British policy, the not overfriendly British secretary of state for the colonies, Malcolm MacDonald, declared in the House of Commons (November 24, 1938), "The Arabs cannot say that the Jews are driving them out of the country. If not a single Jew had come to Palestine after 1918, I believe the Arab population of Palestine would still have been around 600,000... "Because Arabs until the 1960s spoke of Palestine as Southern Syria or part of Greater Syria, in 1919 the General Syrian Congress stated, "We ask that there should be no separation of the southern part of Syria, known as Palestine." In 1939 George Antonius noted the Arab view of Palestine in 1918: Faisal's views about the future of Palestine did not differ from those of his father and were identical with those held then by the great majority of politically-minded Arabs. The representative Arab view was substantially that which King Husain [Grand Sherif of Mecca, the great grandfather of the current King Hussein of Jordan] had expressed to the British Government... in January 1918. In the Arab view, Palestine was an Arab territory forming an integral part of Syria. Referring to the same Arab view of Palestine in 1939, George Antonius spoke of "the whole of the country of that name [Syria] which is now split up into mandated territories..." His lament was that France's mandate over Syria did not include Palestine which was under Britain's mandate.Syrian President Hafez Assad once told PLO leader Yassir Arafat: "You do not represent Palestine as much as we do. Never forget this one point: There is no such thing as a Palestinian People, there is no Palestinian entity, there is only Syria. You are an integral part of the Syrian people, Palestine is an integral part of Syria. Therefore it is we, the Syrian authorities, who are the true representatives of the Palestinian people." Assad stated on March 8, 1974, "Palestine is a principal part of Southern Syria, and we consider that it is our right and duty to insist that it be a liberated partner of our Arab homeland and of Syria." In the words of the late military commander of the PLO as well as member of the PLO Executive Council, Zuhair Muhsin: "There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity....yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel." The following are significant observations by Christians of the Arabs in Palestine in the 1800s: "The Arabs themselves, who are its inhabitants, cannot be considered but temporary residents. They pitched their tents in its grazing fields or built their places of refuge in its ruined cities. They created nothing in it. Since they were strangers to the land, they never became its masters. The desert wind that brought them hither could one day carry them away without their leaving behind them any sign of their passage through it." Stephen Olin, D.D., L.L.D., called one of the most noted of American theologians after his extensive travels in the Middle East wrote of the Arabs in Palestine "...with slight exceptions they are probably all descendants of the old inhabitants of Syria." Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon that did not become a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six-Day War and Israel's capture of the West Bank. ...the Arab leadership realized how much more effective they could make their efforts to "throw the Jews into the sea" if they became Palestinians rather than Arabs. By then, the Jews of this country (the only people called Palestinians before the War of Independence) were named Israelis. Even The Palestine Post became The Jerusalem Post. By adopting the name 'Palestinians,' the Arabs succeeded in converting the Arab-Israeli conflict from a war of annihilation against the Jewish population to a struggle of dispossessed natives against colonialist invaders. It was a spectacularly effective canard, eventually adopted by Israel's own fiction weavers, the 'new historians.' - David Bar-Illan, The Jerusalem Post, 'Eye on the Media', November 5, 1999. What was the initial reaction of the Arabs of Palestine to this new and separate national identity? ...after the Six-Day War, when Yasser Arafat and Fatah tried to establish their infrastructures in what they referred to as the West Bank they were rejected by the Arabs themselves. Neil Livingstone and David Halevy wrote in Inside the PLO, "The effort, however, turned out to be one of Fatah's greatest failures, not so much because of Israeli efficiency in ferreting out the secret network as because of Palestinian apathy. At that point many Palestinians living in the West Bank were actually relieved to be out from under the oppressive yoke of Jordanian rule and simply wanted to find some kind of accommodation with the Israelis. Within months Arafat was forced to leave the West Bank on the run". The Arab leaders are well aware of the fragility of the Palestinian identity for the majority of the Palestinian Arabs. This is the main reason why they have not allowed the Palestinian Arabs living in the refugee camps, for almost half a century, to intermingle with Arabs of their countries. Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri confirmed this on February 5, 1998 in an interview with London MBC Television. He said the following; "We do not want to fall into the trap of resettling the Palestinians. This would lead to resettling the Palestinian refugees and their eventual assimilation. The Palestinians themselves have consistently rejected this approach so that their cause and characteristic identity might not be lost". When Al-Hariri said, "the Palestinians themselves rejected this approach", he missed one important word - leaders. It is the Palestinian leaders who try to prevent the assimilation of the Arabs among the Arabs. It is the Palestinian leaders who today more and more openly declare the Israeli Arabs to be their "property", to be an unquestionable part of the "Palestinian people". If Israel does not confront this dangerous tendency she arrives at an extremely perilous situation. There is a way to deal with this matter. Edward Said wrote that, "Unlike other peoples who suffered from a colonial experience, the Palestinians do not primarily feel that they have been exploited but that they have been excluded, denied the right to have a history of their own". Israel has an excellent chance to mend this problem. As was stated earlier, the non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine tried to take on several different identities; none of them brought relief or happiness, most likely because all of them were artificial. Who is the real enemy of the Palestinian Arabs? "Arafat himself is one of the world's foremost terrorists. He knows it, we know it, and he knows that we know it. So what's he up to? Muddying the waters, that's what.... The [Jerusalem marketplace] massacre was, he said, nothing to do with him. But where's the evidence the Israelis are trying to starve the Palestinians into submission? There isn't any. Where's the evidence the Israelis have a siege mentality against the Palestinians? Again, there isn't any. The truth is... the Arab world has repeatedly tried to destroy the only democratic nation in the entire Middle East. If Arafat wants he can make a legitimate deal with the Israelis right now and end the so-called 'state terrorism' against his people. Yet instead he prefers to use his own people as pawns in his own cunning, devious game. It is Arafat himself, not the Israeli people, who is the enemy of the Palestinians." - Editorial (Canada's Calgary Sun, Aug 12, 1997) What will be the function of the new 'secular, democratic' Palestinian state? First of all, who really believes that a Palestinian state will be either secular or democratic? A secular Islam... is a contradiction in terms; in the Middle East, the idea of a secular State is merely a weapon recently added to the armoury of the PLO. - Jacques Givet, "The Anti-Zionist Complex" "We are slowly and dangerously moving towards a police state where intimidation and threats become the norm instead of the rule of law." - Daoud Kuttab, a prominent Arafat supporter and Palestinian journalist, after he was fired from his job for signing a petition protesting the P.L.O.'s decision to shut down a pro-Jordanian newspaper (Reuters, 6 August 1994) "I am not Mr. Chairman. I am His Excellency, the President of Palestine." - Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the P.L.O., in response to a greeting by Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt (Jerusalem Post, 17 December 1993) Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

BIRTHRIGHT BETRAYED? Posted by IsrAlert, January 19, 2004.

Does it make sense to cut a program when it's so successful? Sending young people to Israel during their formative years pays huge dividends. The Birthright program must not be slashed. This news item written by Uair Sheleg appeared in Haaretz. A long-term study of how the Birthright tour affects participants demonstrated that if prior to the trip only 38 percent of participants expressed a sense of connection to the Jewish people, one year afterward, the rate of those feeling such a connection was 65 percent. Despite its success, the project faces severe budgetary distress after the Israeli government and the local Jewish communities greatly curtailed the scope of their participation in the past two years. This has cast a heavy pall over the future dimensions of the project, if not its very existence. (Ha'aretz) [Ed. Note: See also Michael Freund's article on the Birthright Program below. It was posted January 14, 2003.]

IN THEIR OWN WORDS Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, January 19, 2004.

This was written by 'Carlos' and was on the Peace with Realism website (http://www.peacewithrealism.org). It's called "The Palestinian "Resistance" Revealed: The Arabs' War of Genocide It is hard to tell Israel's story these days. In writing any article for this site I try to document my sources carefully. Nevertheless, sometimes people dismiss the article without even looking at the sources. It's in support of Israel, therefore it must be biased, is what I sometimes hear. It is hard to change a mind that is already made up. The Palestinian Disinformation Campaign has been very successful at implanting an image of the conflict in people's minds that is difficult to overcome. It is the image of the Palestinian as victim, as heroic underdog waging a "resistance" against Israeli settlements and against a "brutal occupation." The Arabs have invested billions of dollars - far more than Israel has at its disposal - into public relations, and has successfully created a popular image that is close to a complete reversal of the truth. The truth is that this war is not a war against settlements or against occupation. It is a war against the existence of Israel. It is a genocidal war, because its aim is the complete destruction of Israeli society and the murder and expulsion of the Jewish population. In many other articles I have tried to support this position with facts, logic, and references to current events. This feature is a little different. For those who are not inclined to believe Israel's supporters when they tell this story, here we will allow the Arabs to speak for themselves. In their own words they will tell us what this war is really all about and what their intentions really are. We will not be relying merely on the opinions and sentiments of individual Palestinians, but on material from official sources, including government newspapers and TV broadcasts and statements by political and religious leaders. Expressions of mutual hostility by isolated individuals are easy to find; there is much of it on both sides. But only on the Arab side do we find a calculated and officially supported strategy to liquidate the other community. Two basic points will emerge: first, this is not just a war against Israel but a war against the Jewish people, and second, its goal is not peaceful coexistence in two separate states but the complete destruction of Israeli society. I will now step aside and allow the Arabs to tell us through these official sources what their intentions are. If the world at large will not believe the Israelis, maybe it will believe the Arabs. "Thanks to Hitler, blessed memory, who on behalf of the Palestinians, revenged in advance, against the most vile criminals on the face of the earth. Although we do have a complaint against him for his revenge on them was not enough." - Columnist Ahmad Ragab in the Egyptian Government Daily Al-Akhbar, April 18, 2001. "Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not tactics." - Article 9, The Palestinian National Covenant, 1968 (never rescinded). "We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.... All the rich Jews who will get compensation will travel to America... We of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps. Within five years we will have six to seven million Arabs living in the West Bank and in Jerusalem... You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State... I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under total Arab-Muslim domination!" - Yasser Arafat, "The Impending Total Collapse of Israel" (address to 40 Arab diplomats at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden), January 30, 1996. Two Israeli reservists who made a wrong turn into Ramallah were murdered by a Palestinian crowd inside the PA police station where they sought shelter. The Palestinians celebrated the killings (see photo). In a sermon broadcast live on Palestinian TV the next day, Dr. Ahmad Abu-Halabia, a member of the "Fatwa Council," appointed by the Palestinian Authority, urged: The Jews are Jews, whether Labour or Likud, the Jews are Jews. They do not have any moderates or any advocates of peace. They are all liars. They are the ones who must be butchered and killed. As Allah the Almighty said: 'Fight them... Allah will torture them by your hands and will humiliate them and will help you to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers...' "Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Whenever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them - and those who stand with them - they are all in one trench, against the Arabs and the Muslims - because they established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab world, in Palestine." - Dr. Ahmad Abu-Halabia, Friday Sermon, Zayd bin Sultan Nahyan mosque in Gaza, October 13, 2000. "The PLO's aim is not to impose our will on the enemy, but to destroy him in order to take his place... not to subjugate the enemy, but to destroy him." - Filastin al-Thawra (official weekly magazine of the PLO), June 1968. (Cited in Barry Rubin, "The Terror and the Pity: Yasir Arafat and the Second Loss of Palestine," Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 6 no. 1, March 2002.) The Peace With Realism website (http://www.peacewithrealism.org) "works toward a just peace in the Middle East." but meantimes focuses on countering the lies that have been disseminated. The website is maintained by two Jews whose families came from Iraq. They write excellent essays on different aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

THE ISLAMIC DRUG ADDICTION Posted by Irwin N. Graulich, January 19, 2004.

Worse than cocaine. More devastating than heroine. 1.2 billion Muslims with an irrational, dangerous "craving" for Jews and Israel as the major reason for their problems. It is not an obsession; it is truly an addiction. When the world body of Islamic nations has its first major conference in several years, their focus was not on the social diseases which caused 9/11, Islamic fundamentalism/terrorism, suicide bombers or the lack of progress in many Muslim nations. In order to help them cope with their real illnesses and problems, the drug of choice distributed at the Malaysian meeting was "hatred for Israel." A good, healthy Muslim should be defined as one who acknowledges their problems and does not deny it like CAIR. Yet, a drug regimen became necessary because the entire purpose of the Arab and Muslim media is to make their readership and viewers feel good, instead of hear the truth. To help them believe obvious lies, they needed to use mind-altering substances called "antisemitic propaganda" a la the Joseph Goebbels indoctrination method. A sickly, desperate addict needs the same excuses as a sickly, desperate belief system in order to survive. Muslims have been injecting Jewish "Heroin(e)" into their souls for 1400 years, the most recent and lethal batch being the "state of Israel." This persistent, habit-forming compulsion blossomed into full force in 1948 with the raising of the Israeli "poppy" plant (and mommy plant). In "The Land of Milk and Honey" this God-given vegetation produced baby Jewish poppy plants that could not be destroyed, despite trying to burn the crop like the Nazis had done. Unfortunately, the Muslim world does not blame the users for their disastrous addiction problems who simply should take personal responsibility for their actions. Instead, like every addict and leftist social organization, they conveniently blame society and the physical substance itself, in this case taking the form of Israel and Jews. Naturally, the actual drug abuser has virtually no responsibility. The fact that there are hundreds of millions of decent, fine Muslims throughout the world is beautiful, but irrelevant to this issue; just like there were some good Germans in Nazi Germany. However, the dominant Muslims are the militant monsters/distributors whose evil addictions affect the youth and masses in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Syria, Iran and other despicable drug dens throughout the world. Today's Muslim leaders/dealers are potentially ruining Islam forever. Just like the addict hates the drug but loves the experience, the addicted Muslim hates the Jew and loves the experience, because it provides them with a convenient "pleasurable" excuse for their own failures. The idea that "I cannot provide for my family because of Israel," is "rushing" through their bloodstream and they cannot rid their system of this Jewishly inspired high. So Muslims keep "shooting 'em up" with Jews. There seems to be just one major issue in the Arab and Muslim world. Look at the websites, newspapers, media. Israel--nothing else seems to matter quite as much. There is a definite physical need for Israel and Jews that overwhelms everything, just like cocaine. And these drug dealers are now selling their vile drugs in Europe and on American college campuses. These places are quite susceptible to the need for new stimulants and highs, as they become God and values free. Instead of considering a 12 step recovery program, the entire Muslim world is now focusing on a new type of cocaine which has only recently come onto the market. It seems to be more deadly than anything previously available. This new "drug" threatens to destroy these drug addicts in their homes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and any other place that threatens America. It is called "American Coke" - and it doesn't come in a can or bottle. The entire world knows its deadly force because "It's The Real Thing!" The author is a motivational speaker on morality, ethics, Judaism, and politics. He is President and CEO of Bloch Graulich Whelan Inc., a corporate communications, marketing and branding company located in New York City.

THE SHARON MAFIA Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 19, 2004.

This is from yesterday's Jerusalem Post. It's entitled "Ariel Sharon to be mentioned in Appel indictment" Sharon and his sons will most likely be mentioned in this week's indictment of David Appel, regarding the Greek Island affair, reports ynet. According to the indictment, Appel allegedly bribed PM Ariel Sharon and his son Hilad in return for assistance in promoting a resort abroad. This will be the first time that the two will be mentioned by name in an official document with reference to illegal activities. Deputy PM Ehud Olmert will also be mentioned: when serving as mayor of Jerusalem, he organized a dinner for the mayor of Athens where he met with Sharon. In an interview to the Jerusalem Post published Sunday morning, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's former aide David Spector claimed he knows enough about the prime minister to cause his downfall. He is sure that once the police finish their investigation, they will issue an indictment against him. "I believe that there will be an indictment against Ariel Sharon," he told The Jerusalem Post on Friday. "In a normal country there wouldn't be a prime minister who would stay in power in such circumstances." Once one of the invisible men behind the prime minister, Spector has stepped into the limelight and become one of his better-known accusers, an unusual choice for a man whose business as a public relations and security expert depends on anonymity. It's not one he took lightly. Attacks against him by Sharon and his defenders left him no choice, said Spector, explaining that he will do what he needs to do to defend himself. "If I did well for Israel, then I am willing to take upon myself the title of the man who caused it [Sharon's downfall]," said Spector. "What should I do, send him flowers and thank him for slandering me? No. There comes a stage when you have to put an end to it. "All of this is one big conspiracy from the beginning to the end. When the material that the police have gathered over time, when this business comes out, people will see to what extent it is a group of criminals. This is a crime industry. The prime minister and the people around him do not hesitate to lie." Spector takes credit for pushing Sharon to visit the Temple Mount in September 2000, and for the image makeover that paved the way for him to become prime minister. In the last six weeks he has become known to the public as the whistleblower who released tapes allegedly incriminating the prime minister and his sons in financial corruption. On Monday Spector made waves when he appeared on Channel 2 and accused the prime minister of lying when he said that all financial transactions under investigation were made by his sons. Spector has both threatened that he can bring down the prime minister and refused to do so; he has spoken in concrete terms only about what is already known regarding Sharon, preferring to merely allude to additional information he could reveal. From his new, wood-paneled office in the middle of Or Yehuda's industrial district, the public relations and security expert is walking a fine line these days between standing up in his own defense and attacking the prime minister, whom he once considered his friend. Spector, who runs the Specurity Security Center, said he is speaking up only because the prime minister harmed his reputation by accusing Spector of initiating an investigation into him and his sons, Omri and Gilad. Spector's professional task has been downgraded in Sharon's version of their relationship from prime adviser to private investigator. Although Spector claims to have been paid more than NIS 1.5 million in fees by Sharon, with additional sums paid out to his assistants, he is referred to by the prime minister and his supporters as a "volunteer." To counter this claim, Spector has a seven-page document, dated September 10, 1999 and classified "top secret," in which he writes to Omri Sharon of his plan to pave the way for Ariel Sharon's victory in the Likud primaries and the total rehabilitation of the Likud Party. Spector, for three years a man under siege, this week went on the offensive. It's not a position he is comfortable with; he shifts in his chair as he speaks. "I am working only on my image and my truth," said Spector. "I am not taking any action that may hurt the prime minister. I am not at all interested in doing so. If I were a player, then he wouldn't have been prime minister for a long time already." But he warned should the personal attacks continue he is prepared to defend himself. "From a moral standpoint I am permitted to do everything." "Look at the way Ariel Sharon runs things... what would some people do out of greed for power? They are working according to the their own agenda, not out of the people's best interest. They are working in the best interest of the family... Show me another country which is run by a Byzantine court like this. The prime minister sits with his sons and the people around him and decides everything," said Spector. Spector has been attacked in the media for speaking up and releasing tapes, a move some consider unethical in light of the type of trust clients need in his business. Yes, silence is a rule, Spector said, but even attorneys can break privilege if their clients attack them. The fact that he was taping everything was well known, and some say was a joke often made in his absence. People would comment that he didn't need to be briefed, because he could just check everything on tape. Surprisingly, Spector wishes Sharon well. He wishes the situation were such that the prime minister will emerge clean as snow, but based on what he knows, he thinks that's unlikely to happen. Initially, there were warm feelings between Spector and the prime minister. Spector was hired to help him with security matters in advance of the 1999 primaries to head the Likud because he knew Dov Weisglass, but when it became clear that he also dealt with public relations strategies, he was hired to do that as well. It became his primary function for the Sharons. Spector first met with Sharon on September 15, 1999, in Weisglass's Tel Aviv office. At that time, it was widely believed that Sharon was simply a placeholder for Binyamin Netanyahu. He didn't have a good relationship with the press and was seen one-dimensionally only as a warrior. Spector suggested an image makeover. He pushed Sharon to widen his political agenda to include economics and social issues, and suggested that Sharon show more emotion and be more personal. Spector brought in a small group of professionals, not politicians, to work with them. But divisions arose between him and Omri Sharon and Uri Shani, Sharon's former bureau chief. Spector said he was the only one who supported Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount; Omri and former bureau chief Uri Shani thought it was a bad idea. Afterward, Omri didn't speak to his father for a week. But Spector said he still believes it was the right move and that it was instrumental in helping Sharon become prime minister. Still, Spector said, he was uncomfortable with the growing discord between himself and Omri. It was also increasingly difficult to keep business transactions professional and aboveboard. In October he resigned, but on good terms. Their relationship took a downward spiral with the start of the state comptroller's investigation into Sharon's financial dealings in the last year before he became prime minister, an investigation which Sharon has blamed Spector for launching. Spector denies the charge. "He and his attorney ran things in such a way that he got himself into trouble. His own attorney harms him and incriminates him - I am referring to attorney Dov Weisglass - and since they are they are partners to the same trouble, they decided to incriminate someone else," said Spector. When the state comptroller asked Spector questions, he answered honestly. "I did not sign an agreement with Ariel Sharon to be a criminal, and I am not willing to be a partner to immoral activity," said Spector. Filed in one of the many labeled notebooks on a shelf in his office is the police's search warrant. They searched both his office and his home, said Spector. Everything he has spoken out about is known to the police as a result of these searches. The media has since reported that Spector denied Sharon's involvement in any of the financial dealings when questioned during the state comptroller's investigation. The state comptroller's office said it could not confirm or deny that report. Spector said he was quoted out of context. Spector noted that he has no attorney, and he doesn't need one. In the Monday Channel 2 interview, he offered a tape relating to material revealed in the state comptroller's report of September 2001 regarding an organization called Peace for Jerusalem precisely because he is acting defensively and not offensively, he said. Peace for Jerusalem was created to fight the possible division of Jerusalem in an agreement with the Palestinians. The state comptroller's report notes that while Sharon's involvement with donations was improper, no action should be taken against him because the money was never used. The money should have been returned to the donors, said Spector. "They said they would return the money - is there one donor who got back money? They are keeping the money in a bank account - for what? For themselves," said Spector. The tape showed a conversation between Spector and Sharon dealing with foreign donations. He chose this tape because it shows a pattern of Sharon's involvement in financial matters, even though he has denied such activity, said Spector. "I showed that Arik Sharon was involved in the smallest details of how to send the instructions to the donors." Spector said that he has always fought for his client. "I was in the largest battlefield in the country - the media." He was slandered in the Ma'ariv newspaper, sued, cleared his name and received hundreds of thousands of shekels in damages. He wasn't afraid at that time of Ma'ariv publisher Ofer Nimrodi, nor is he afraid now of Sharon. "I do not have any plans to release any more tapes." Still, he warned, "I will protect myself. If they continue to soil my name and to release more incorrect details, I will work to clear my name." If he were working with Sharon today, Spector said he would tell him to hold a press conference. "Tell the truth and stop being a coward and straighten things out with the public. Tell the real story," said Spector. 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.

THE FEIGLIN PHENOMENON Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 19, 2004.

This was written by Gil Hoffman and appeared in Friday's Jerusalem Post. When Education Minister Limor Livnat warned last week that a gang of right-wing extremists who have infiltrated the Likud, posed a serious danger to the state and its ruling party, she paid Manhigut Yehudit leader Moshe Feiglin the ultimate compliment. After years of failed experiments that included challenging Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the Likud leadership and trying to elect a religious-Zionist president, Feiglin suddenly gained a platform for expressing his ideas about what he calls "Jewish leadership." At last week's Likud convention, Feiglin went from camera to camera to respond to Livnat's charges on all the local television stations. With ministers and MKs banned from speaking at the convention, Feiglin became the main opposition to Sharon, and his speech, carried live on television and radio, was the most anticipated at the event other than the prime minister's. Not bad for a man who less than a decade ago had to resort to aggressive street rallies in order to gain attention for his Zo Artzeinu ("This is our land") protest movement, which tried to put a stop to the Oslo Accords. Feiglin served six months in jail after being convicted in 1997 of sedition and unlawful assembly, charges that his supporters considered a political attempt to punish him for highlighting the dangers of Oslo. Manhigut Yehudit ironically began the same night that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. Hours before the murder that much of the Left blamed on the instigating of right-wing rallies, a meeting took place at Feiglin's Ginot Shomron home in which the need to start a new movement focusing on Jewish leadership was first discussed. That meeting ended early when news reached them about the assassination. Feiglin and his partners decided that even if they succeeded in toppling the Left, the Likud that dismantled the Sinai settlement of Yamit would be no more loyal to the cause of settling the entire land of Israel. At first, Feiglin didn't dream of joining the Likud. Manhigut Yehudit, which was first unveiled at an April 1997 press conference, first considered running on its own as an independent party, then made news when it tried to run Ben-Gurion University Professor Herman Branover as a candidate for president against Shimon Peres and Moshe Katsav. Four years ago, when Ehud Barak was in power in 1999 and the Likud hit its nadir, two veteran Likud activists approached Feiglin and asked him to bring his movement inside the party. Feiglin joined along with thousands of supporters in 2000. "I thought it was crazy at first," Feiglin says. "For me, the Likud was almost a leftist party and I had nothing in common with it. But ideologically, we decided it was the best party to represent the nationalist camp and the best way to reach our ultimate goal of establishing Jewish leadership in the country." When no other candidate could be found, Feiglin tried to challenge Sharon for Likud chairman in 2000, but he was not permitted to run, because he had only been in the party for seven months. He later challenged both Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu in the 2002 Likud primary and despite not campaigning, finished with four percent of the vote, more than MK Haim Ramon achieved when he finished third in a concurrent race in Labor. FOLLOWING A membership drive that drew more than 10,000 people to its ranks, Manhigut Yehudit won an impressive 132 seats in the 2,900 member Likud central committee. The movement tried to use its new power to propel candidates into the Knesset, but Feiglin lost the seat on the Likud list reserved for a settler to Sharon-supported Yehiel Hazan and its candidate for the immigrant slot lost to Netanyahu-backed Michael Gorlovsky. Feiglin, who won the 39th slot on the national Likud list, would have been the next name to join the Knesset ahead of cosmetics queen Pnina Rosenblum, but the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin, ruled that Feiglin's sedition charge involved moral turpitude and that he was therefore barred from running for the Knesset for seven years. After Feiglin was pushed off the list, many Manhigut Yehudit members voted for other parties in the January 2003 election, which angered many in the Likud who continued to see the movement as a foreign element in its ranks. But Manhigut Yehudit's failure in the Knesset election only strengthened the group's resolve to make changes inside the Likud. Ahead of next month's decisive Likud convention, Manhigut Yehudit members proposed dozens of changes in the Likud charter, the most famous of which would block MKs and ministers who defy the central committee from running for Knesset with the party for five years. If the proposal passes, Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Livnat could face being banned from running with the party in the next election. "We are saying that the Likud is not a rag that the prime minister or other elected officials can throw into the garbage," Feiglin says in the proposal's defense. "The Likud has its charter, and its institutions, and the MKs are mere representatives." Feiglin is convinced his proposal could pass, but efforts are underway in the Likud to prevent it from coming to a vote. Regardless of what happens in the convention, Manhigut Yehudit is positioned as a force to be reckoned with in upcoming years, and no judge will be able to prevent Feiglin from getting elected to the Knesset next time around. "There is a feeling in the public that our ideas are taking root," Feiglin says. "We will have our ups and downs in the tactical steps that we take along the way to implementing our long-term strategy. But we have maintained the same goal all along: Building a layer of Jewish leadership and eventually taking over the state." Moshe Feiglin is a member of the Knesset and a founder of Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), which promotes a strong Jewish identity for the Jewish state.

THE SEVENTH YEAR Posted by David Wilder, January 19, 2004.

The seventh year is known to be one of rest, allowing for study and introspection, looking back at the past, learning from it, drawing conclusions, while amassing strength and looking to the future. So the time has come to look back. Exactly seven years ago Israel signed and implemented the Hebron accords - ceding over eighty percent of the city to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. December 30, 1996-News from Hebron: Several members of the Jewish Community of Hebron met with Prime Minister Netanyahu for over half an hour early yesterday afternoon. None of the problems raised by the Hebron residents were resolved at the meeting. When asked about the continued renovations in the Kasba behind the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, the Prime Minister admitted that he knows the buildings are to be filled with terrorists. But he said that the buildings belong to the Arabs, and "they can populate them with whoever they want." When questioned about the Jewish property to be transferred to Arafat and the PA, Netanyahu claimed that this is a "pandora's box" that must not be opened. When asked about other security issues, Netanyahu told his visitors to 'trust him.' Asked about the possibility of terrorist attacks and car bombs on King David Street (Shuhada), Netanyahu gestured that he was aware of the problem, but did not suggest any solution. January 14, 1997-From "Moments of Truth" by David Wilder: "Tonight not only is Hebron on the chopping block. Tonight almost all of the land area of Judea, Samaria and Gazza is up for grabs. In addition to abandoning Hebron, Netanyahu has agreed to part with close to 70% of Yesha by September 1, 1998. Netanyahu is not only beheading The Jewish Community of Hebron. He is castrating the Land of Israel... abandonment of land in Israel is contrary to our very existence. We came back to Eretz Yisrael to settle the land, to live on the land - not to divide it and hand it over to our enemies, to terrorists. The direction of the present `moment of truth' is clearly negative. But eventually, this will change and the crossroads we are turning down now will reach a dead-end, and we won't have any choice but to turn around, come back, and turn the other way. Whatever the cost, we must know this, and live accordingly." January 17, 1997-News from Hebron: "At ten minutes after six this morning, the last officer left the Hebron Military Compound and handed the keys to his Arab counterpart. Leaving the compound, this act completed abandonment of 80% of Hebron to Arafat. Arab soldiers were deployed throughout the areas evacuated by the Israeli army. Thousands of Arabs, many of whom spent the night outside the compound, began chanting, "With blood, with fire, we will liberate palestine."... The initial stone-throwing attacks by Arabs in Hebron, and the IDF's unwillingness to arrest the perpetrators is far from encouraging. The distance between throwing rocks, or throwing hand grenades, or shooting, is very short... Concession to American pressure will only lead to more and more capitulation. Concession to terrorism will only lead to further terror. Arafat has proven his ineffectiveness in preventing terror attacks." January 17, 1997-From 'Rest in Peace' by David Wilder: "Last night Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking at a press conference, told viewers that "Israel is not withdrawing from Hebron, rather is resituating in Hebron." There are those who have written Hebron off - they expect Hebron's Jewish community to leave. They have declared: Hebron - Rest In Peace. For some reason they really believe that we are in the midst of a peace process. They also believe that a Jewish presence in Hebron is provocative and unnecessary. But, they are wrong. Only true peace brings true rest. Hebron will not rest, surely not as part of this false peace. The lie called Oslo will not allow us peace and quiet. Much to the contrary. The more we concede, the more trouble we will have. Hebron has been transformed into a `piece' - the exact opposite of its true essence, which is total unity. The immediate future will be very difficult - of that I have no doubts or illusions. If the Jewish People were able to overcome the results of a Holocaust that left one third of our people murdered, and in spite of that were able to create a viable state only three years after the furnaces were extinguished, we can overcome anything. It will not be easy, but we will persevere." ----------------------- So, you ask, what has changed? The words all sound the same - then and today. Most of what I wrote then I could rewrite today, just changing the date. Ideas that I thought to develop concerning Sharon I found already written, about Netanyahu. It's enough to want to make you cry. Except for one small change: January 20, 1997 Letter-Response to questions: There are presently 54 Jewish families in Hebron. The population is 540 There are over 200 children and over 200 yeshiva students. At the moment there are no vacancies - we are beginning to build to make room for more people. January 20, 2004 - 7 years later: There are presently 80 Jewish families in Hebron. The population is over 800. There are over 300 children and over 300 yeshiva students. At the moment there are no vacancies - we are building to make room for more people. In the past seven years people have been killed in Hebron, soldiers and civilians. Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, Shalhevet Pass, Shlomo Shapiro, Gadi and Dina Levy, to name a few. Others were wounded. Many many escaped only due to Divine miracle. Hebron suffered two years of constant shooting attacks, perpetrated from the hills Bibi handed to Yassir on a silver platter. We were badgered by the Israeli left, by the police, by foreigner observers and interveners. Yet, Hebron's population has risen from 540 to 800. Then there were fifty four families - today 80 families. Then 200 children, today 300 children. Then 200 yeshiva students, today 300 yeshiva students. Then, no room for new families, today no room for new families. In the past seven years we built new apartment buildings in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and next to Beit Hadassah. A new building is going up in Tel Rumeida. The old "Arab market" is now filled with young Jewish families. Almost no one has left Hebron in the past three years. And the waiting list of families wanting to live in Hebron still exists. Why? Because the Jewish people believe in Eretz Yisrael - the Jewish people are not willing to abandon their homeland, their cities, their roots. Four years ago over 500,000 people visited Hebron annually. Of course, during the years of the "Olso War" those numbers dropped. However, in 2003, they rose back to over 300,000. People come from all over the world, Jews and gentiles alike, to see, to feel, to experience Hebron. Despite the problems, the dangers, the "situation." According to the schedule sitting on my desk, this week alone we have some twenty buses of visitors touring Hebron. True, the politicians still haven't learned and there are those amid us who are still, for one reason or another, blind. But amongst many, in Israel and around the world, the spirit still exists, the spirit of love for our people and our land. My friends, this is the power of Am Yisrael - this is the power of Eretz Yisrael. I will conclude as I did on January 15, 1998, in an article Next year without Oslo: I can only but bless all of us that in a year from now I'll be able to write about how finally all Israel woke up, putting an official end to the curse called Oslo. We will then began to live again as proud Jews in our G-d - given Homeland - holding our heads high, doing what we know is right - in Hebron, Jerusalem, in all of Eretz Yisrael. Amen David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron. Their website address is http://www.hebron.org.il

THE ISRAELI LEFT DEFENDS "ART" AND WOMEN Posted by Steven Plaut, January 19, 2004.

Ah, the Israeli Left! Every days brings us new wonders from it. The Israeli Ambassador to Sweden takes action, praised by Ehud Barak, against the nazi pro-genocide "art" piece of the local ex-Israeli kapo, a work of "art" celebrating the woman suicide bomber who mass murdered 21 people, many of them children, in Haifa. A "work of art" accompanied by a poem comparing the murderer to Snow White and stating that she looked so beautiful there covered with red blood. And hours later the entire Israeli Left is out there defending the "artist" and attacking the Ambassador who stood up for Jewish dignity. The Far Leftist daily Haaretz runs an editorial, several Op-Eds and lots of letters to the editor denouncing the Ambassador and defending the piece of "art". Suddenly "artistic" expression is absolutely protected. Except the theater by the Ambassador is not. Now it is interesting to place this sudden absolutism of the Left regarding artistic expression in context. This is the very same Israeli Left that insists that any poster that shows politicians the Left likes in unflattering manner, such as Yossi Beilin or Yossi Sarid wearing an Arab kafiya, should be grounds for prosecution for "incitement". This is the same Left that cheered uncontrollably when Tatiana Suskind, the poor young woman who had made a poster of the Prohet Mohammed as a pig, was sentenced to a long prison term. This is the same Left that has campaigned to tear down and bulldoze a memorial stone marker for Baruch Goldstein, who shot up the Mosque in Hebron. This is the Left that wants the Kahanist groups all behind bars because some of them put up posters or write graffiti whose artistic value the Left questions. And this is the Left who argues that T-shirts that read "Where there are no Arabs there is no Terrorism" should be jailed for "racism" and "incitement". In other words, by defending this nazi obscenity in Sweden, the Left is showing how openly anti-Semitic and anti-democratic it is. Some in the academic Left are also chiming in. Here is a letter written by Prof. Amiram Goldblum, one of the founders and long-time leaders in Peace Now, circulated this week on the web: "The Stockholm Bully" Amiram Goldblum The aggressive response of Mazel to what seems to be an idiotic artistic expression, will remain in public memory as another display of Israeli violence, deriving from 35 years of occupation. That is also the source of the governmental response, praising the bully rather than recalling him and replacing him ASAP. Israel has enough rednecks in the academy, no need to have them as diplomats. Amiram Goldblum, Ph.D. Cell: 972-54-653292 Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Tel: 972-2-6758701 Molecular Modeling and Drug Design Fax: 972-2-6758925 Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products School of Pharmacy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem ISRAEL 91120 email: amiram@vms.huji.ac.il Inside Information on Dror Feiler, the Kapo who made the Swedish "art" celebrating the massacre in Haifa: Eliezer Feiler, the father of the "artist," was a member of the staff of the Israeli communist party. His wife - as self-portrayed by the radio interview - is a devoted communist as well. They live on a kibbutz. Dror was raised as a "red-diaper baby". Every time a gynonazi from the Palestinians has blown herself up as a murdering suicide bomber, the Left has whined that her actions prove how oppressed and suffering the po' Palestinians are, especially their womenfolk. Naturally, the same blubberings were heard this week after a mother of two from Gaza murdered four Israelis, including those guards who had just shown her pity, and wounded 9 others, two very seriously, when she made her children orphans. Now it turns out that the Feminist Take on the murderess has met with some snags. It seems, the mother was suspected by her husband of carrying on an extramarital affair and the only way she could escape being murdered by him and to "restore" her family's honor was to carry out the suicide bombing. She was coerced into carrying out the mass murder by the Hamas, which has now announced it will adopt as its general policy the coercion of women suspected of "moral offenses" to redeem themselves through such mass murders. SO much for the theory that Israeli "occupation" and brutality cause the terror.... My guess is that one of these moons, the Palestinians will start equipping pregnant women with explosives around the bellies to try to blow up Jews. You realize what that would mean? Why, it would be the Palestinian version of Roe vs Wade! Oh and I can guarantee you that at the next world Feminizt conference, the Palestinian women will be there wailing about the harshness of the treatment of women - by the Israelis. 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.

MOFAZ ORDERS SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 19, 2004.

This is from the Arutz-7 website (http://www.IsraelNN.com). (IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has ordered the destruction of the newly dedicated synagogue in the community of Tapuah West in the Shomron. The synagogue and Torah study hall was dedicated in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his son and daughter-in-law, Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev and Talia Kahane. They were all murdered by Arab terrorists. The synagogue/study hall serves as the international center of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea which was established by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Yesha Council officials have recently stated the community of Tapuah West is legal and has all the necessary permits, defending the dedication of the synagogue earlier this month. Tapuah residents and community leaders are appealing to the Supreme Court to intervene to stop the planned destruction. 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.

THE SIX DAY WAR "BOUNDARIES" Posted by Israel BenAmi, January 19, 2004.

This was sent to me by Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto. I retain a US flight planning map, 1:5,000,000 covering the area from England to Pakistan, the Middle East included (US Air Force-England to Pakistan [NS-140],3rd edition,1953). It served me when, during the late 50's, I ferried - with French Air Force papers - Sud Aviation Vautour strike fighters from France, via Tunisia or Algeria, to Israel. All the international frontiers on the map are marked like Morse code "Dot-Dash-Dot-Dash, etc., except the 1949 Israeli-Egyptian,Syrian and Jordanian demarcation lines, which are marked ............(Dot-Dot-Dot, etc.). At the bottom of the map there is a special NOTE : " Boundaries shown thus . . . . . . . . . are not necessarily recognised by the US Government." Intrigued by the present general international (and some national) religious, dogmatic reference to the "June 1967", (i.e., the 1949 Rhodes Armistice - not peace) Israeli-Arab demarcation lines as the Israel-Arabia "Natural Frontier", I had another look at British, French and other maps and Atlases. Nowhere did I find the "June 1967" demarcation lines accepted by the world community as formal frontiers. Arabia attacked in 1967 ("We shall throw the Jews into the sea"-vox Nasser on May, 22, 1967, at Bir Gafgafa in the re-militarised Sinai - contrary to signed agreements) and lost. The non-recognised lines moved to provide better defence, proving, when Israel was attacked again, by surprise, in 1973, that moving them was justified. So, let's get a bit more pro-active where the "holy 1967 lines" are concerned, lest we'll start believing ourselves that they are sacro-sanct.

GET OUTTA TOWN! Posted by Arlene Peck, January 18, 2004.

Wow! I feel ever so much safer now that President Bush has gotten so vocal and is standing in the door of the Baghdad O.K Coral telling the enemy in his best Texan drawl, "Turn yourselves in... or die!" Hey, I like that "Get outta town" attitude. Do ya think that Israel might adopt that same attitude? Or will Bush send his deputy, Colin Powell, over on one of those "emergency meetings" we've all come to expect, to discuss how the Jewish State by their insurgent attitude is a hindrance to the roadmap to hell? Maybe it's because we in the U.S. are more poetic in our demands that nobody thinks of having "emergency sessions" in the United Nations to complain. For instance, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, said at a news conference, "We will be relentless in the pursuit of these targets." He continued, "The timing is perfect for the anti-coalition forces and the former regime elements to make a decision that it is time to "embrace the future," Sanchez said. Now, isn't that lovely, "embracing the future"? So, maybe that's why there isn't any protest from the left when he finishes the comment with, "We are focused. We are effective in our pursuit of these individuals. We are going to capture them or kill, as our mission." Lovely, doncha think? And when he does go after the bad guys, I'll bet that President Bush won't be wearing his white hat. Nor will any of his deputies rushing over to demand that the jails be opened in Guantanamo and the prisoners let loose as a "good-will gesture." Hey, we're proud of that deck of cards that we've been so relentless in pursuing! If the truth be told, I kinda like that attitude of tough love that we in the United States are taking with our good friends, the Iraqis. In fact, since jobs are so plentiful here, and President Bush has offered to give amnesty to ten million illegal aliens who have set up camp on our doorstep, he now wants us to use all of our extra billions of dollars to go to Mars! Which on retrospect gives me an idea. How about sending all of those pesky terrorists who are so busy ambushing United States soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with the mistreated terrorists who Israelis have to contend with on a daily basis in vicious attacks against their civilians and send them to Mars? Interestingly enough, while Bush wants to travel to the moon and set up manned stations on Mars, there are people in America who can't afford to go to the doctor. The problem as I see it is just in semantics and the gentle phrasing of words that our government has mastered so well. If Israel's prime ministers would learn the art of double-speak and double-cross instead of just telling things as they are, maybe the acceptance of cutting the cancer out of the country wouldn't be so impossible. After all, it hasn't taken much for the world - and even worse: Israelis; and worst of all: the Israeli government - to accept the thought of moving the Jews out of their rightful land so it could be turned over to the Arabs. All they have to do is use the words, "peace" and "transfer" in the same sentence to make it palatable? Because if the truth be told, the steady rise in Arab fundamentalism is a cancer. I recently spent some time with Dr. Pinchas Gerber, Ph.D. (http://sdf.shomron.org.il/) who is the director of the Shomron Development Fund which was established to help the families of the Shomron live normal, healthy lives. He spread out the map and pointed to the areas which have now been given over to the Arabs and it cuts through the very heart of the tiny Jewish state. Why is the phrase "moving them out" in relation to the Jews acceptable, and not the other way around? I wonder: If Israel were to go after these killers, would U.S. officials still see it as an "impediment to peace" under the "road map plan"? And, why is it imperative that Israel feel an obligation that they have to accede to the wishes of the world, or even the demands of the USA? What is the obligation to follow orders from the American State Department? When did Israel become a banana republic? Would it ever be possible, as touted in our anti-drug program, to "Just say NO?" After every bombing, there are 20,000 Arab "workers" who wait at the gates of Gaza to come back to their jobs when Israel closes the crossing - then Israel re-opens the crossing after two or three days, fearful of charges of "collective punishment." Since the re-openings are always followed by more bombings (or shootings), wouldn't it be desirable to tell the "workers" that NO, this time they're staying out? And, actually mean it! Good L-rd, why do we, in the U.S. always underestimate the value of Israel's friendship? Even the pictures which are coming back from Mars, which I again suggest as a good place to begin the twenty-third Arab state, are from former Technion students. Israel gives enormous help in science, medicine and technology and. now that we are finally experiencing the daily threat of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, Israeli forces are teaching security to American forces and airport personnel. In fact, if the truth be told, I'll bet that there is a lot more tangible help that Israel is giving to the USA that nobody talks about so "we don't make the Arabs angry." Israel should worry more about what is good for her, rather than pleasing those that most often would delight in her demise. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess.

SEEING RED Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, January 18, 2004.

Pride. Yes, that's the word I've been searching for. It's been a while since any diplomatic move on the part of Israel has done me proud. What Zvi Mazel, Israel's ambassador to Sweden, did last Friday is a testimony to the tenacity of the Jewish spirit. It seems that the man who has tip-toed for years through Israel's diplomatic minefield, smoothed ruffled feathers and sipped champagne at embassies in Cairo, Madagascar, Romania and Paris; finally blew a fuse in Sweden. Having served on the front lines of Israel's diplomatic front, I bet Ambassador Mazel has seen more than his share of anti-Semitism and affronts to Israel over the years. But every Jewish soul has its saturation point and it seems that "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" was too much for the red-headed ambassador. So, he did the right thing and pulled the plug on the outrageous abomination that was part of the exhibit in Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities. Art or the lack thereof is no longer the stuff reserved for discussion over cocktails in elite cultural circles. It's making headlines, because the public is fully aware that what hangs in the galleries and is heard in the concert halls is a direct reflection of the state of our society -and it's not a pretty picture. Several weeks ago the British Cartoonist Society presented their top award to an artist who depicted a naked Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating the head of a Palestinian baby. In response, I wrote an article which explored caricaturing and the crossing of forbidden lines (see article at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=3025. I would like to reiterate that what and how an artist draws or designs is a direct reflection on who that artist is and what kind of soul he or she has (take note Mr. Feiler ). A few weeks later, Professor Menahem Alexenberg explored the dangers inherent in separating art and aesthetics from righteousness and ethics (see article at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=3119 He was disturbed by the awarding of the prestigious Wolf Prize to Daniel Barenboim. It seems that although the renowned conductor acknowledges the Wagnerian connection to the Holocaust, he nevertheless saw fit to break a taboo by playing Wagner's music in the Jewish state. Meanwhile, certain astronomers, geologists, writers and artists are intrigued by the discovery that, 120 years ago, the skies turned red over Oslo due to a cataclysmic volcanic explosion in Indonesia. They believe this may have inspired the artist Edvard Munch to paint his classic work 'The Scream' (the eruption may have also triggered and Islamic fundamentalist revolution). So I addressed the issue of the existential scream as a sort of wake-up call that can be heard via today's earthshaking events and natural disasters (see article at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=3148). Munch's guts may have screamed upon viewing the blood-red sky over Oslo, and Mazel reacted in a similar manner when he viewed the blood-red waters in Stockholm. Something shook-up the Israeli ambassador to the core - and that's a healthy sign that his Jewish soul is alive and well - and living in Sweden. The same, however, cannot be said of Mr. Feiler. The Swedish-Israeli's (is that an oxymoron?) soul is about as fit as the one he depicted on the little ship that drifts in the bloody pool. There are limits to artistic expression, freedom of speech, diplomacy and democracy. There are also limits as to how much an individual Jewish soul or the Jewish nation will take. So let's bring this international incident to a close by saying 'bravo' to Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel and letting Dror Feiler sail into the Swedish sunset via the bloody waters that people like him helped create. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, writer and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com

DRUZE RELIGIOUS LEADER COMMITS TO NOACHIDE "SEVEN LAWS" Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 18, 2004.

This was a news item from Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com). The spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, this weekend signed a declaration calling on non-Jews in Israel to observe the Seven Noahide ("Bnei Noach") Commandments, as laid down in the Bible and expounded upon in Jewish tradition. Several weeks ago, the mayor of the primarily Druze city of Shfaram, in the Galilee, also signed the document. The declaration includes the commitment to make a better "humane world based on the Seven Noachide Commandments and the values they represent commanded by the Creator to all mankind through Moses on Mount Sinai." Behind the efforts to spread awareness of the Torah's Seven Universal Laws is Rabbi Boaz Kelly, of the directors of Chabad-Lubavitch institutions in the Krayot area of Haifa and the chairman of the Worldwide Committee for the Seven Noahide Commandments. The recent signature by Sheikh Tarif is part of Rabbi Kelly's ongoing efforts among Israel's non-Jewish community. In the past few years, Rabbi Kelly's organization has placed roadside ads in Arabic calling for observance of the Noahide Laws, as well as distributing Arabic-language pamphlets on the subject among Arabs in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. According to the Torah, all humankind (the offspring of Noah, or Bnei Noach) is subject to seven Divine commandments. They are: to refrain from idolatry; to refrain from sexual immorality; to refrain from blasphemy; to refrain from murder; to refrain from theft; to refrain from eating the limb of a living animal; and to establish courts of law. Support for the spread of the Seven Noahide Commandments by the Druze spiritual leader contains within it echoes of the Biblical narrative itself. The Druze community reveres as a prophet the non-Jewish father-in-law of Moses, Jethro (Yitro), whom they call Shu'eib. According to the Biblical narrative, Jethro joined and assisted the Jewish people in the desert during the Exodus, accepted monotheism, but ultimately rejoined his own people. The Tiberias tomb of Jethro is the most important religious site for the Druze community.

WASH POST REPORTER RELIES ON HAMAS AS SOURCE FOR FACTS Posted by Robert G. Samet, January 18, 2004.

Set forth below is a letter recently sent by EyeOnThePost, Inc. to officials at The Washington Post pointing out a major violation of journalistic ethics by Middle East reporter Molly Moore in which she relied upon Hamas for a false factual report about the Gaza bombing. This is important, not only because journalistic ethics require reporters to rely upon credible sources for their facts, but also because it demonstrates that this particular reporter has completely lost the objectivity necessary to make the most basic judgments about the credibility of her sources. This is not an isolated transgression by Ms. Moore. Molly Moore is a Post reporter who stretches to defend Hamas terrorists, while criticizing Israel for targeting them. In one front page article by Moore she noted in the opening paragraph that a well known terrorist targeted by Israel was sitting on the roof of his house reading the Koran when Israelis killed him and another was talking on a pay phone while visiting his sick mother at the hospital. In that article she relied upon quotes provided by B'Tselem, a radical Israeli group that distinguished itself through the false reports of its Arab investigators of a massacre in Jenin in April, 2002 and a group called the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, whose name itself reveals its bias. That article also cited as sources the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (known by its Arabic acronym, LAW), the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. (Israel's Lethal Weapon of Choice, As Assassinations of Militants Increase, Citizens' Uneasiness Grows, Sunday, June 29, 2003; Page A01) The public reluctantly tolerates the practice of relying on unnamed sources in news reports, because it is viewed by some as a necessity. The Post frequently cites unidentified Palestinian witnesses on the ground, despite the well known fact that the PA and Hamas routinely coach people to serve as witnesses and tightly orchestrate media access to sources. The Post often unabashedly cites unidentified hospital officials for facts they could not possibly have witnessed. With unidentified sources we are asked to take it on blind faith that the reporter will exercise appropriate judgment in determining who is and is not a reliable source for facts. Reliance on the Hamas web site as a source for facts on the ground was a shameful demonstration of a lack of journalistic integrity and clearly shows that reporter Molly Moore cannot and will not exercise responsible judgment in evaluating the credibility of her sources. The Washington Post should recognize that this is not a simple faux pas that can be excused, but rather, a further demonstration of Ms. Moore's slanted attitude favoring Palestinians against Israel... a slant that prompts her to grasp at any source, no matter how incredible, for facts that will paint a negative picture of Israel and Israelis. Dear Mr. Graham: When did Hamas attain the status of being a credible source for facts about events on the ground in the Middle East? Molly Moore's first article on the Wednesday, 1-14-04, Gaza bombing, in its last paragraph, cited the Hamas Web site for a report that after the bomber set off her bomb, "Israeli soldiers began firing weapons in the direction of the Palestinian workers that were inside the terminal." It may be appropriate to refer to the Hamas web site when reporting on Hamas taking responsibility for a terrorist bombing or to report Hamas' official position or statement with regard to a subject, but Hamas, a terrorist organization, is not a credible source for reporting facts about events on the ground, and it was entirely inappropriate for your reporter to report facts and rely upon Hamas for the same. It now appears the facts were fictitious, because no other news source has reported the same. This highlights the folly of relying on Hamas to report anything in a truthful manner. Fortunately, this article was substantially changed before going to print Thursday morning. It appears someone recognized the inappropriateness of such reporting and also the inaccuracy of the report about Israeli soldiers firing in the direction of Palestinian workers. Unfortunately, this article remained up on the Web site for a prolonged period of time on Wednesday. The original article has now been removed, but I have a copy if you need it. Will you please point out to your reporters the inappropriateness of relying on Hamas' web site as a source for factual reporting about events? Will you be issuing a correction for the misinformation you reported to however many tens of thousands of your web site readers? Female Suicide Bomber Kills Four at Gaza Crossing by Molly Moore Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, January 14, 2004; 5:30 AM JERUSALEM, Jan. 14 - A 21-year-old female suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a laborers' pedestrian crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel Wednesday morning killing at least four Israelis, injuring as many as nine other Israelis and four Palestinian workers, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials. The explosion tore through a corregated metal enclosure used by Palestinian day workers at the Erez Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, according to initial reports from Israeli and Palestinian security officials. The attack occurred at about 9:35 a.m. well after the morning rush hour when several hundred workers transit through the checkpoint. "The terminal was completely destroyed," said Boris Shor, an Israel rescue worker interviewed by the Israeli Y-Net Web site. "Everything was shattered, glass was everywhere, we saw body parts scattered there." Israeli officials said that at least three of the four Israelis killed in the incident were soldiers or border security guards. The militant wings of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, claimed joint responsibility for the attacks, according to the Hamas Web site. The groups said the attack, carried out by a Gaza woman was retribution for the attempted assassination of a militant leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank. The bomber was identified as Reem Saleh Rishi, 21, an activist in Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah Movement, according to Israel Radio. "The Erez Crossing is designed for allowing Palestinians to work in Israel and put food on the table of Palestinian homes," said David Baker, an official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "This is clearly a detriment to that goal and works counterproductive to the Palestinians' own interests." Israeli officials could not provide figures for how many Palestinian workers are permitted to use the crossing each day. While thousands of Palestinians were allowed to cross into Israel prior to the ongoing conflict, Israeli authorities have reduced dramatically the numbers, and during some periods have completely shut down the crossing to workers. Israeli security officials say no Palestinian suicide bomber has managed to escape from Gaza to launch an attack inside Israel since the intifada uprising against Israel began more than three years ago because of a fortified and well-guarded security fence system surrounding the Gaza Strip. However, several attacks have been launched at crossing checkpoints, including three assaults at or near the Erez Crossing prior to Wednesday's incident in which six Israeli security officials were killed. Last June four Israeli soldiers were killed during an attack near the crossing. On Oct. 14 three American security guards died when a bomb buried in the roadbed detonated beneath their vehicle in a diplomatic convoy about one and one-half miles inside the Gaza Strip from the Erez Crossing. The Hamas Web site reported that after the suicide bomber detonated herself, Israeli soldiers began firing weapons in the direction of the Palestinian workers that were inside the terminal. None of the initial reports could be immediately verified because Israeli security officials cordoned off access to the Erez Crossing on both the Israeli and Gaza sides. EyeOnThePost is a grassroots organization that monitors how the Washington Post reports the Arab-Israeli conflict. They can be reached by email at EyeOnThePost@comcast.net or visit their website at http://www.eyeonthepost.org.

EREZ BOBMER WAS 'FAMILY HONOR' VICTIM Posted by Isralert, January 18, 2004.

This was written by members of the Jerusalem Post staff. Military sources claim that the terrorist who blew up four days ago at the Erez Crossing, killing four Israelis along with herself, was forced to carry out the suicide attack as punishment for cheating on her husband, according to a Sunday report in Yediot Ahronot. On Wednesday, 21-year-old Reem Salah al-Rayashi left her 18-month-old daughter, Doha, and her 3-year-old son, Obedia. According to a Sunday Times report, her husband drove her to Erez Crossing. IDF sources said that the investigation has already revealed that her husband, an activist in the Hamas organization, not only knew about his wife's plans in advance, but even encouraged her to carry out the suicide attack. Moreover, the person who recruited al-Rayashi to carry out the suicide attack and equipped her with the explosive belt was none other than the lover with whom she cheated on her husband. The attack marked the first time Hamas had used a female suicide bomber. Though Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have used women in the past, none of those bombers was married and none was a mother. In justifying his group's first use of a female bomber, Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said holy war "is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women." Some have speculated Hamas was forced to use a woman because Israeli security focused on young men as potential bombers. al-Rayashi was the daughter of an established family in Gaza. Her father was the owner of a large battery factory selling mainly to Israel. Both her family and her husband's are denying rumours of an illicit love affair. After the bombing, Raiyshi's family refused to speak to reporters, a rarity in these cases, and did not set up a mourning tent for her. Her brother-in-law, Yousef Awad, said Raiyshi and her husband had a huge argument with the rest of the family two months ago and had not been seen since. He refused to elaborate. A senior Palestinian security official in Gaza denied Raiyshi had cheated on her husband, saying religion was her main motivation in becoming a bomber. "This woman was extremist in her religious belief and her personality was stronger than her husband's. Apparently she convinced him that she should carry out this attack, promising to meet him in heaven," the official said. Days before, Iyad al-Masri, 17, died when his bomb belt exploded prematurely - one week after his 15-year-old brother, Amjad, and a cousin were killed in Nablus. Many Palestinians were critical of the terror groups' choice of recruits in both cases. Members of the al-Masri family blamed the terror organizations for taking a second son away from the family in one week. Over the past 39 months of Mideast violence, more than 400 Israelis have been killed in 108 Palestinian suicide bombings. The majority of bombings have targeted civilians in Israel - at restaurants, bars and bus stops. The debate begins Both suicides have sparked a rare debate among Palestinians about the attacks, focused not on wisdom or morality, but on the militants' choice of recruits. While some offered the usual praise of the attacks as a brave strike against Israel, others were deeply disturbed the terror groups would leave two young children orphaned and deprive a grieving family of a second son. "If society does not have the courage to speak out on this issue, we could soon see 10-year-olds and pregnant women blowing themselves up," Palestinian commentator Hasan Badtil wrote in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. Up to now, such criticism has been relatively rare. In a society where consensus is valued, criticizing the armed groups openly is seen by many as treasonable. Also, many fear retribution. Throughout the flare-up of Mideast violence, many Palestinians have supported the suicide bombings as a legitimate tool in the fight against Israel. However, a spontaneous debate erupted recently in a Nablus pool hall, the Associated Press reported, with most of the 25 men there opposed to both attacks. "She is crazy," Saher Qussini, a teacher, said of al Raiyshi. "She has two children, she is responsible for her children, and she should be teaching them." Qussini also criticized as counterproductive her choice of target - a crossing that thousands of Palestinians pass through to get to jobs in Israel and a border industrial zone. Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who has spoken out against suicide attacks, said the anger among ordinary Palestinians at the death of a mother and a second son could help turn public opinion against the bombings. The attacks brought "the question closer to home. Some people don't want to see their children do these things." The discussion has also seeped into the media, with debates about recruiting mothers and children as suicide bombers playing across newspapers. "In war we should not lose our humanity. We should not wage a war with women and children," said Hafez Barghouti, editor of Hayat al-Jedida, the Palestinian Authority's newspaper. "Our factions are committing mistakes, and we have to raise our voice against that."

TOM FRIEDMAN'S ROAD MAP Posted by Leo Rennert, January 18, 2004.

This is a response to "War Ideas, Part 4" by Thomas L. Friedman, an op-ed piece in the New York Times, January 18th. Tom Friedman's solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a prompt, unilateral Israeli pullout from the West Bank and Gaza - is a toxic mix of chutzpah and naivete that would mortally wound the Jewish state and undermine U.S. interests by signaling radicals throughout the Middle East that terrorism works. It would embolden homegrown guerrillas and foreign terrorists in Iraq to force a similar retreat by the U.S.-led coalition and extinguish any hopes for a democratic Iraq. And it would give Hamas and Islamic Jihad more "Lebensraum" from which to pursue their war of terror to take over all of Israel. Legally and diplomatically, Mr. Friedman's prescription flies in the face of the "road map" sponsored by the United States, the United Nations, the European and Russia, which requires a permanent cessation of Palestinian violence as a pre-condition for significant Israeli political concessions. It also would scrap U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, the ultimate blueprint for regional peace. Resolution 242 does not demand an Israeli quasi-surrender but only envisages a pullout from some areas captured by Israel in 1967. Contrary to Mr. Friedman's roseate view of the results of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, there is no peace on Israel's northern border because Iran, via Syria, keeps financing and arming Hizbollah's destructive operations and appetite for more territorial concessions. While Damascus and Tehran - along with Yasir Arafat and Palestinian terror kingpins - undoubtedly would welcome Friedman's road map, genuine reformers in the region could kiss their hopes goodbye. The entire Mideast would be at the mercy of tyrants and terrorists.

DEFENSIVE CONQUEST: They Attacked; We Advanced Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 18, 2004.

Israel has nothing to explain to the International Court of Justice at the Hague regarding the Defensive Wall being built in Israel. In 1948 the Arabs in each country announced that they would attack Israel, kill all the Jews and, as they proclaimed: "We will dance in their blood" and "Push them into the sea". As they proclaimed, so did they attack. They refused the partition voted by the United Nations in November 1947 and thus gave up any claim to land they would lose in their unprovoked aggressive war against the new born Jewish State of Israel. Israel as the intended victim State, won that war, resulting in what can only be defined as Defensive Conquest. Israel had to pay dearly in lives lost and in what lost monies they had to raise to buy junk weapons from the scrap yards of Europe at usurious prices. These same European nations now dare to judge Israel for creating a barrier to Arab Terrorists. These were the same nations who refused to sell Israel weapons to defend herself and her people, many just liberated from the Nazi death camps. The Arabs attacked and the Jews advanced. In each of the 7 wars launched by the Arabs against the Jewish State (including the 1991 Gulf War when Saddam hit Israel with 39 SCUDs), the Arabs always attacked with the same intention of committing a blood Genocide and overcoming their humiliation and shame from always being beaten by the Jews they hated and despised - Jews whom they thought were weak. Their own religious legends of fiction assured them that each defeat was an anomoly and that the Jews were the weak, cowardly people who could not, would not fight. They attacked and we advanced. Each time, the price for the Jewish State to stay alive was paid in Jewish blood and great debt. Each war came at a greater cost in both lives and treasure on more weapons. After each war that the Arabs instigated and lost, they retired to spend their treasure on re-arming (which should have gone to educate their primitive backward communities). But, the Arab Terrorist Losers diverted all the loot to war that they got from donor countries and the black gold, that is, the oil the Western countries extracted. The Arab Terrorist nations and organizations used these Billions to buy tanks, guns, missiles, aircraft, explosives and, for many, attempted to build WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). Israel is still fighting a war against the unremitting Terror by Arab/Muslim Terrorists, who have proclaimed in their manifesto, their Muslim Mein Kampf that, they shall continue killing Jews even if it takes them 100 or 1000 years. Israel has started to build a "Wall of Life" which fits their slogan of Ein Breira (No Choice). I do not agree with this Wall, not because of its existence and purpose but where it is placed. It walls off too many Jews who live in the villages, towns and cities called 'settlements'. I believe there already exist two natural barriers against attacks by any coalition of Arab armies from the East. A first line of defense is the Judean and Samarian Mountains and the second is the Jordan River. They are effective and they are much cheaper than the "Wall of Life" now being built for Israel's protection of her peoples' lives. The Golan Heights is the first line of defense from the Northeast protecting Israel from attack by Syria. Israel paid for that land with tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of thousands of injured. Israel earned that land over and over again because the Arab/Muslims attacked again and again in war and with Terrorism between the wars. Israel owns that land because G-d promised it to the Jewish people. You can read that repeatedly in the Bible. As a relevant aside, it is interesting to watch the Left Liberal Media give honor to the pagan Koran which follows the moon god of the Arab desert tribes but the Media scorns the Jewish Bible from which the Christian Bible is written. Arab/Muslims knowingly gambled away the land they controlled by attacking Israel in 7 wars and now demand that they deserve the Land they lost be given back - as if they deserved it. They made bad judgements in their investments in war and death. They killed Jews and they got their own people killed. There is a price that unrepentant serial aggressors must pay. Each time they attacked, their purpose was to occupy the Land of Israel, take as their plunder what the Jews had built and enjoy the "dancing in the blood of their Jewish victims". Israel paid with rivers of blood and hundreds of Billions of dollars which the Arab aggressors still owe by way of compensation for the 7 wars and for the Jewish lives and property they confiscated in the home countries from which the Arab countries ejected them.. The Land of Israel owes no explanation to the world's nations, to the Court in the Hague or to their American friends. I offer the same advice to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon now that I gave to Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir before the Madrid Conference in October 1991. Don't go! It's another ambush for the Israeli nation and the Jewish people. Whatever you say will be irrelevant. Whatever proof you submit will be considered trivial and ignored. All your planning and discussion on the merits of your case are wasted effort. This will be another International circus where Israel will be put in the dock and pilloried. Regrettably, I do not expect you to take any sensible advise. As for the "Wall of Life", it is only a temporary barrier, much the same as one would find in Separation Walls, moats and bars in a zoo. Israel's wall is 3% high concrete (but this is all that you see in the news) and 97% chain link fencing. Such walls exist in every civilized country, including America, to keep out illegal aliens. But, Israel has always been judged under different rules, customs and laws - only because they are Jews and anti-Jewish bias still exists. People who take joy in blowing themselves up to kill an enemy who is not of their primitive pagan religion are dangerous animals. Perhaps one day they will evolve into civilized human beings. But, until that time, the Wall of Life must be erected to separate the killers from our people whom they have declared are their prey. They attack! We advance! G-d promised. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm)

THE TEMPLE MOUNT FAITHFUL Posted by David Ben Ariel, January 18, 2004.

We are very excited to advise you that, thanks to G-d and in His mission, the Chairman of our Movement, Gershon Salomon, will be undertaking a special speaking tour of the United States and Canada in June/July 2004. The situation in Israel and all the world makes this trip more important than at any time in the past. In the name of the G-d of Israel He will carry with him from Jerusalem exciting news and messages about the soon complete redemption of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple and its significance to the nations at this critical time The critical situation in Israel and all the world makes this trip more important and exciting than at any time in the past. He is coming to share with you that his vision concerning the soon rebuilding of the Temple, the coming of Mashiach ben David, the making of Israel into a Biblical nation with a Biblical mission and to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests and a treasure among the nations (Exodus19:5,6) and its significance to all the nations, is soon to come to pass. He will share with you the Word of G-d from Jerusalem that nothing can prevent these major godly end-time events, not even the end-time war which has actually started already. He will ask you to prepare yourselves for the establishment of the kingdom of G-d from His holy house in Jerusalem to all the world and the major godly end-time events which are soon to take place. He is coming to share with you the intensive activities and preparations of The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, the end-time Movement of G-d, for these exciting events - the cornerstones in the midst of Jerusalem for the Third Temple and other stones; architectural plans for the Third Temple; intensive learning of Temple worship by priests and Levites and preparing them for worship in the Third Temple; the search for the original Temple Menorah and Vessels in the Vatican; the creation of other vessels and garments for the Temple worship; the intensive campaign for the rebuilding of the Temple and making modern Israel once again a Biblical nation; the marches to the Temple Mount; the search for the Ark of the Covenant and archaeological remains from the First and Second Temples; the joining of many people from all over the world to the Faithful Movement and her campaign which fulfils the exciting end-time prophecy: "My house will be a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah56:7); the standing of many rabbis in Israel and most of the Israeli nation with the campaign of the Movement; the exciting news of the recent discovery of the lost ten tribes and their regathering to Israel as a precondition for the coming of Mashiach ben David; the bulge and falling of walls on the Temple Mount; the earthquake in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount of which the scientists in Israel recently warned and its significance to Jewish tradition which holds that it will remove the mosques and all the pagan Islamic presence on the Temple Mount; and much other information. He is also coming to raise support for the Movement which is so important to strengthen and encourage its campaign and activities in Israel more than at any time in the past. Its activities will affect all the world at this special time. Everyone is called on to support and help the Movement which was dedicated by G-d to fulfil His prophetic end-time plans. He is also coming to strengthen Faithful Movement members in the United States and Canada and our common campaign in North America for the holy goals of the movement. He will be bringing visual media with him which will show you the activities of the Movement and the preparations for the Third Temple. Mr. Salomon is already scheduled for many meetings on this tour but his schedule is open to other invitations. He will be more than glad to speak in your congregation, with your group or in your area. This is the time to have Gershon speak in a meeting in your congregation or area. For this please contact Laura O'Bryant in the United States on telephone: (407) 678-1653, fax: (407) 699-6399, or e-mail: TMount99@aol.com as soon as possible so that the schedule can be arranged. Please fulfil the expectations of G-d and give your assistance and stand with the greatest cause of all generations - the building of the Third Temple, the house of G-d, in Jerusalem, the establishment of the kingdom of the G-d of Israel from Jerusalem to all the world and the coming of Mashiach ben David. The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement is based in Jerusalem. Its website address is http://www.templemountfaithful.org. Reach them by telephone at 972 (2) 625 1112.

BE ALERT. ARAB PROPAGANDA MAY BE COMING TO A SCHOOL NEAR YOU Posted by Israela Goldstein, January 18, 2004.

Wheels Of Justice (WoJ) is a vehicle for pro-Palestinian propaganda and lies. Its so-called "Wheels of Justice Tour" is a propaganda bus sponsored by Al Awda and the Internatioal Solidarity Movement (ISM). It is touring high schools in California, before heading to Las Vegas and Arizona. David ML of California writes: "If Wheels of Justice (WoJ) is headed for a school near you, you may want to work with local authorities and school leadership, as many of us did here in the Bay Area, to alert the authorities as to the real nature of WoJ and the subversive message that it contains. Their schedule is available at http://www.justicewheels.org/calendar/month.php The ISM and Al Awda bill themselves as "non-violent." However, the leaders of the movement have endorsed suicide bombing as an appropriate technique of "resistance" and the groups openly advocate the destruction of the Jewish State "by any means necessary." In Palo Alto, the group was met by a hundred Jewish protestors. I hope that everyone in the southwest will check this calendar and work now to get their school district to refuse time to this group. This can be done on the grounds that this group may call itself non-violent, but it actually endorses terrorism and advocates the violent destruction of the State of Israel.

AMBASSADOR MAZEL'S "PERFORMANCE ART" Posted by Bryna Berch, January 18, 2004.

I think the reason Jews all over the world are making so much of Ambassador Mazel's effective protest is because, except for Dan Gillerman's UN Security Council speech in early October, this is the first instance of Jewish self-pride we've seen in an Israeli Government official since Oslo began. This account was on the Arutz-7 website (http://www.israelnn.com) today. Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Tzvi Mazel caused an international diplomatic incident Friday with his act of protest against an installation art piece equating an Islamist suicide bomber with her Israeli victims. The Ambassador literally pulled the plug on the exhibit, on display at Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities. The piece, entitled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth", consisted of a pool of red liquid - to represent blood - with a miniature raft carrying a smiling headshot of the female terrorist who blew up the Maxim restaurant in Haifa on October 4, 2003, killing 21 Israelis. The fairytale-like text accompanying the display referred to the terrorist as "Snow White", "you poor child", and mourned the loss of her "innocent heart". The text concludes: "And many people are indeed crying: the Zer Aviv family, the Almog family, / and all the relatives and friends of the dead and the wounded / and the red looked beautiful upon the white." Enraged by the artistic defamation of the Israeli victims of terror, and the whitewashing of the Islamist terrorist, Ambassador Mazel unplugged the floodlights illuminating the exhibit, letting one fall in the water. He was subsequently asked to leave the museum premises. The Ambassador explained afterwards that he did not act until Swedish officials refused to comply with his requests to remove the exhibit. Mazel told the Swedish press, "As ambassador, I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality." President Moshe Katzav, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (who appointed Mazel to his post) and other Israeli officials have expressed their unequivocal support for the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden. Prime Minister Sharon called Mazel and praised his "stand against anti-Semitism." Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi praised Mazel, saying that he should receive a special citation for his actions. Minister-Without-Portfolio Natan Sharansky stated that anyone supporting the "art" exhibit that glorified the Maxim Restaurant suicide bomber encourages and supports those who wish to eradicate the Jewish People. Foreign Ministry officials immediately went on the offensive, attacking the Swedish government for allowing the display at an exhibit linked with a state-sponsored upcoming international conference on genocide. According to the Foreign Ministry, the display was a violation of understandings reached with the Swedes ahead of the conference. Therefore, "if it is not removed, Israel will reconsider its participation in the conference," officials said. In contrast, Deputy Knesset Speaker Mohammed Barakeh is calling for the dismissal of Israel's Ambassador to Sweden, calling on cultural and artistic institutions in Israel to make their protests heard. He called the ambassador's actions an unacceptable act against a world renowned artist. The artists behind the installation piece are Dror Feiler, an expatriate Israeli, and his Swedish wife, Gunilla Skold Feiler. The Swedish government is expected to summon Ambassador Mazel on Monday for "clarifications". On Saturday, Swedish Foreign Ministry officials said they "maintain that it is unacceptable to destroy works of art in this way." The Swedish Ambassador to Israel said today that his government cannot and will not interfere in the art exhibit by asking for its removal. Within hours of the Stockholm incident, a Hebrew-language petition in support of Ambassador Mazel was already published on-line at http://www.ezra.org.il/shagrir/. It has garnered more than 2500 signatures as of press time.

AN AMAZING REPORT Posted by David Wilder, January 18, 2004.

I received this document today from Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director of the International Christian Zionist Center. After speaking with him, I have no doubt that the below account is authentic and accurate. It must be widely disseminated. This amazing report written by my friend and journalist Dmitry Radyshevsky came this morning into my hands. I publish it hereby in full as I believe this voice needs to be widely heard. Recently he, the executive director of the First Annual International Jerusalem Summit, had an in-depth conversation with a very influential Palestinian Arab who no longer resides in the territories. While he now can afford the luxuries of open thought and free speech, his identity must be protected. The conversation appears here without commentary. His revealing analysis provides a concise formula for resolving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, reveals insight into current Palestinian thinking, and should be a daily reminder of what Israel is enduring. "Israel won the first intifada. The Palestinians were exhausted. Arafat was at his lowest point in Tunisia. At that time Israel could have imposed any solution, and the Palestinians would have accepted it. Instead, you went to Oslo - without consulting with either Arabs in the territories or Jordan... And the Arabs concluded that Arafat had won. "Palestinians were prepared to accept the status quo - a de facto peace - but Israel imposed on them the Arafat Gang with the old Arab mentality - rejection of any peace with Israel. The first thing that the PLO did upon return was to close down the opposition newspapers and fire every independent journalist. "After Oslo, Palestinians thought we would have lightly armed police to keep public order. But when we saw these guys with submachine guns, we exclaimed: 'This is not police - this is fedayeen.' They made it clear right away: 'We came back to continue the struggle. It is more convenient to fight Israel from here than from Tunisia.' "The 'police' installed a dozen armed structures, all in the business of robbery, rape, and extortion. A relative of mine had a store next door to a headquarters. These 'officers' would come in every day, take whatever they wanted, and tell him to put it on the organization's account. When the amount reached 15,000 shekels, they arrested the owner and accused him of being an Israeli spy. They kept him in the basement for three days and let him go only when he agreed to forget the debt. When he came home, he prayed to Allah to erase these 'headquarters'. A few months later, Israelis bombed the building. He called me saying: 'Allah heard my prayers!' Any Palestinian can tell you a dozen stories like this. "Israeli Operation Defensive Shield made Palestinians more free by putting the PA security services out of business, which reduced the number of rapes, acts of extortion, and torture. "Israel keeps misleading us by sending wrong signals. They say Arafat is no longer a partner, but Sharon is about to meet with Abu Ala, and Omri Sharon meets with Rajoub. But among the Palestinians everybody knows them as Arafat's people. And so the Palestinians think that in fact Israel is plotting to make Arafat strong... You should either acknowledge you're working with him or get rid of his gang once and forever. Be straight and consistent. Tell the truth. "Jerusalem Arabs want to keep their permanent resident status; they see what is going on in the West Bank and what Arafat has done to them... They panic; they say, Labor wants to hand us over to Arafat and Labor wants to bring Hamas to Jerusalem. Israel could turn them into an example for other Arabs: if you are loyal permanent residents in Israel, you will live as well as Israelis do. "Palestinians want to go back to the pre-1987 situation, when one could travel from Ramallah to Ramat Gan, to earn money and go back home, without Arafat or check points. "You must force Lebanon and Syria to remove limitations on Palestinian refugees - let them settle where they want and let them work. Don't say they need to disband the camps. Force them to remove the limitations on leaving, and Palestinians will leave the camps of their own will. "You must disarm all of Arafat's armed forces and leave only a civilian administration. If you don't do it now, Arafat will be followed by thousands more 'arafats'. "Enter the territories, disarm all the 'security services', and stay there. If you let the people know you are there to stay, that you will not allow the jihadists to return and multiply, people will believe in you and help you. "Palestinians will not fight for Arafat. Intifada is not a popular revolt; it's a war conducted by several armed groups. "The only other alternative you have is to go back and hide behind the 1967 borders, and then prepare for the worst: Hamas in the Old City and French Hill, and the total war for destruction. Then both Jews and Arabs will die. "No one will say any of this in the open. First you must enter the territories and prove you're serious. And then I'll give you 500 influential Arabs who will support you." May God Himself open the eyes of Israel's leaders to the cry of this courageous man!

AN ARAB SOAP OPERA Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 18, 2004.

This account of the lastest female mass murderer was written by Aaron Lerner, Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il It sounds sort of like when the Mafia gives you an offer you can't refuse. Yediot Ahronot reports this morning that 22-year-old Reem Al-Reyashi, the mother of two who blew herself up at the Erez Crossing from the Gaza Strip to Israel, murdering four Israelis and injuring ten on 14 January, was pressured by her husband to carry out the suicide attack after he caught her with her lover who is also a member of Hamas. In traditional society she faced execution by male family members for defaming the honor of her family. Israel Radio Arab Affairs Correspondent Avi Yissakharov noted this morning that every female Palestinian suicide bomber has had a background of personal problems. 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.

THE ANTI-TERRORIST BARRIER - THE FOREIGN OFFICE SEES SOME LIGHT Posted by Jock L. Falkson, January 17, 2004.

The Jerusalem Post's leading news item Friday reported "Israel is now considering a quick image boost by changing the name to 'anti-terrorist fence' to combat propagandistic (sic) phrases that opponents are using to describe the fence, such as 'the Berlin Wall' or the 'apartheid wall'." (My point though not my words.) The fence word is quite the wrong for something the width of a 4 lane highway. And it has been made 'treif' among the nations because the Palestinians successfully attached 'apartheid' to it. We should stop fighting windmills and just drop it. Besides, the better expression by far is 'anti-terrorist barrier'. First because barrier describes exactly what it is: a 7 part construction of which the fence is but one component. Second because 'Berlin', 'apartheid' or 'racist' cannot be successfully attached. The barrier construction consists of these 7 elements: 1. On the eastern side there are electronic sensors to detect infiltrators. 2. Then a ditch to prevent cars from charging through the fence. 3. A dirt road enables border police to carry out search patrols. 4. Then there's the 10 foot high chain-linked fence, equipped with monitoring sensors, which triggers an alert when the fence is touched. On the Israeli side there is: 5. a swath of fine sand, to enable Israel to track infiltrators who get through the first lines of defense. 6. a paved road for security patrols. 7. rolls of razor wire and mounted video surveillance cameras. So to have called this a fence in the first place was an unfortunate choice of word. Keeping 'fence' will not succeed because it has been unalterably corrupted by the apartheid image. To continue using it will be an unforgivable mistake. Some TV news sources are reporting that Israel wants to adopt 'Terror Prevention Fence' instead. The PR genius who thought up this alternative does not understand that keeping the fence word is the problem, not part of the solution. Secondly, 'prevention' is weak, wimpy and passive where 'anti-terrorist' is strong, even dynamic. Finally 'terror prevention' is 2 words whereas 'anti-terrorist' is one. Enough already. To help win this important PR war of words Israel had best switch to anti-terrorist barrier. As for the wall, it is an anti-sniper wall. We must also add what the Palestinians strictly won't and don't, that it will be a mere 3 percent of the fully completed construction. They are doing their damnedest to misrepresent the length of the wall as 100 percent. Jock Falkson is an Israeli writer and translator. He can be reached by email at falkson@barak-online.net.

ALL TOGETHER NOW Posted by Judy Lash Balint, January 17, 2004.

It was another one of those uniquely Israeli evenings where overwhelming joy and energy is tinged with sadness and remembrance, with a good measure of resolve and "davka" thrown in. The normally staid hall of Jerusalem's Great Synagogue became a lively concert hall last night that attracted around 1500 people to a benefit for Israeli victims of terror and their families. Organized by the One Family Fund and co-sponsored by The Jerusalem Post and New York's Yeshiva University, the event raised funds for the myriad of needs of those hit by Arab terror over the past three years. The stained glass windows, marble pillars and heavy glass chandeliers of the Great Synagogue resounded to the beat of three popular Jewish music acts, as hundreds of disappointed supporters clamored unsuccessfully to get in as the hall quickly filled up a few hours after Shabbat. Mid-January is high tourist time for observant college students on inter-session as well as parents visiting their kids studying for the year in Israel and organized solidarity groups - and last night's concert brought them together with dozens of terror victims and their families for an evening's entertainment. But this was not merely a concert - the evening opened with everyone reciting Psalm 121: I will lift up my eyes to the hills...and was interspersed with moving testimony from several terror victims who have sufficiently recovered to be able to stand on stage and give thanks. Billed as the All Together Now Concert, the first act was the Israeli trio, Oyf Simches. Headed by the versatile thirty-year-old Amiran Dvir, the group sang and danced through a lively, fast-paced forty-minute set that had the students dancing on the sides of the stage. The young women were invisible behind a heavy screen, but the guys with tzitzit flying quickly worked up a sweat as they executed their own brand of Jewish break-dancing. Several rows of ultra-orthodox students, still dressed in their Shabbat clothes, stayed in their seats but swayed to the music, payot (side-curls) waving. The Oyf Simches lads belted out some well-known numbers, and showed off their well-rehearsed choreography to the delight of the crowd. Down in the front row, I recognized Sharon Maman, 24, a survivor of the Ben Yehuda Mall bombing of December 2001, sitting in a Christopher Reeves-like wheelchair. The last time I'd seen Sharon was in May 2002, when Rabbi Avi Weiss took a group from his Riverdale synagogue to visit terror victims at Hadassah Hospital. Then, six months after the attack, Sharon lay inert in his hospital bed with a poison-soaked nail embedded near his brain. He was paralyzed and had no speech. Last night, Sharon was holding a can of soda, turning to talk to his brother and enjoying his proximity to the action on stage. It's more than two years since a homicide bomber irrevocably changed Sharon's life, and the lives of all those around him, but the simple act of clapping still evades him. Apparently Sharon doesn't remember his life before the attack, but he clearly remembers that he's 24 years old - he frequently looks over at the carefree young men around his age dancing a few feet away. Before Yehuda Glantz appears, One Family Fund founder Marc Belzberg addresses the crowd. Marc, a Canadian born, forty-something successful businessman and philanthropist gives over just one idea - that the concept of 'family' means standing together in good times and bad. Belzberg introduces a short film about the work of One Family Fund. Profiles of several Israelis permanently disabled by terror are powerful testaments to the human spirit. Whether it's the family who lost half of their ten members at Sbarros, the young Ethiopian paralyzed from the waist down, the sixty year old woman whose body is still riddled with shrapnel or the young man who lost his sight and hearing, the sentiments expressed are the same. No hatred, just a steely resolve to go on and overcome their unfathomable disabilities. The blind and deaf young man relates how three days after the terror attack, his doctors had told his parents to prepare for his death. "But today I'm walking and running. I told them, just wait another year and I'll be seeing them." Next up is Yehuda Glantz. Yehuda had been wandering through the crowd unrecognized while Oyf Simches was playing. Now, up on stage clad in a black beret, black shirt and pants with tzitzit (ritual fringes) dangling, he shows off his considerable musical talent. An immigrant from Argentina, the bearded Glantz's music has that Latin rhythm and beat. He's an enormously versatile musician, who changes instruments with almost every number. Jumping easily from keyboard to guitar to accordion to banjo to a tiny guitar with a Spanish name, he invites the dancers on stage to keep him company during his set. The climax is his signature version of the classic La Bamba, with the original Spanish lyrics transformed into Hebrew. While the next band is setting up, Sari Singer, the daughter of a NJ State Senator, gets up to speak. Singer was lightly injured in last summer's Bus #14 bomb. She relates how she returned to the US for the summer but came back to Israel in September to pick up her life here. I met Sari's father and brother at a news conference here a few days after the attack. The two, secular Jews with very limited Israel experience, were clearly bewildered at the change in their daughter and sister. On stage Sari is wearing a long skirt and speaks passionately about the need for Israelis not be cowed by Arab terror. "We're not afraid," she declares. Idan Lory, gravely injured when British born terrorists blew up Mike's Place bar on the Tel Aviv seashore is invited up. A slight young man with dark brown beard and a white silk kippa balanced on his bushy dark brown hair, Lory quietly describes how he spent more than a month in a coma and awoke to discover that he had been burned over sixty percent of his body. The full bodysuit he has to wear for the next three years is visible on the thin arms that extend from his T-shirt. Lory traded places on the stage with four American Jews his age. The members of Blue Fringe, the latest up-and-coming Jewish band, could have just as easily have been at Mike's Place last summer. In fact, bass player Hayyim Danzig hasn't been back to Israel since the August 2001 Sbarro attack, when his brother narrowly escaped injury. In a Jerusalem Post interview, Danzig admitted something very unusual for a rock star: his parents wouldn't allow him to return until now. All four members of the slightly bookish looking group spent time studying in Israel, but returned to the US to finish college. Today, they're a sought-after band who combine funk, jazz, ska and soul with a Jewish message. Their most popular number is "Flippin' Out," written by lead singer Dov Rosenblatt, son of NY Jewish Week editor, Gary Rosenblatt. The song takes a satirical look at the experience of thousands of graduates of Modern orthodox high schools who come to Israel and "frum out." Still, they received a huge welcome last night at their international debut from hundreds of their peers who could easily fall into that category. As the crowd started to thin and dribbled out into the cool, damp Jerusalem night air, a girl who looked to be about bat mitzvah age standing in front of me turned to her mother to remark: "What a great concert - too bad so many people had to suffer to make it happen." Judy Balint is author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). The book is available for purchase from http://www.israelbooks.com.

SNOW WHITE AND THE MADNESS OF TRUTH AKA NAZI ART Posted by Tamar Rush, January 17, 2004.

Elizabeth Greene, whose letter is printed below, has a truly, post-modernist perspective on the matter of the Stockholm installation. Viewed as a Dada-ist, piece of performance art, the Israeli Ambassador's actions at the Swedish Gallery should be viewed as "Art", just a much as the installation in question. Had the rearrangement of the installation been carried out by a self-proclaimed "Artist", there would have been no protests. In fact, the performance artist would most likely have received a supplementary grant to further his "re-arrangement" project. The Swede's reaction is another example of the primitive anti-intellectualism that has prevented the evolution of high art in the Nordic regions. To the Swedes; Pay the Ambassador for his "Performance", and shut up! From: Elizabeth Greene To: sb.infoforum2004@primeminister.ministry.se Cc: registrator@foreign.ministry.se Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 2:59 PM Subject: Snow White and the Madness of Truth aka Nazi Art It is my understanding that the Israeli government and your government were not going to show the Nazi Art made up by Kapos. Instead, you reneged and set up the Israeli Ambassador by inviting him to the sea of blood. What stake does Sweden have in increasing the anti-Semitism in Europe? I think the Ambassador's actions were a daring and effective performance art piece that captured beautifully the concept that the murder of Jews can no longer be treated as ethically neutral and philosophically tolerable. The particular choice of dousing the lights of public adoration of the thuggish "suicide bombers" in the symbolic pool of Jewish blood was a magnificent conceptual visual. Bravo to him, and a shrug to those who don't have the sensitivity to recognize artistic brilliance and instead condemn it because they don't like the message. Shame on you. Shame.

BAKED NUTS Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, January 17, 2004.

At any time, the current handwriting on the Middle Eastern wall would be unsettling. But this is an election year, and the man whom many claim to be the most "pro-Israel" President ever seems to have now bought into the State Department's position that Israel must return to the post-'48 fighting armistice lines which left it about as wide as many people travel on shopping trips or to go to work. I imagine Mr. Bush has neighbors whose ranches have more strategic depth. Armistice lines are not "borders," regardless of how many times the media and others refer to them that way. They simply mark the points where fighting stopped or was stopped - in Israel's case, where it managed to halt a multi-pronged attack on its reborn life by surrounding Arab states. Those lines were never meant to be permanent borders, as a reading of the comments of United Nations' officials clearly shows. Living within its nine-mile wide existence before war was forced upon it yet a third time in 1967, Israel constantly received the message that, regardless of how miniscule it was, Arabs would still not accept non-Arabs having national rights in "their" region. Forget about Turks and Iranians for now; they pose substantially different and more complicated stories vis-a-vis their relations with Arabs. So size was not the issue then nor now. That Israel is has always been the Arabs' problem. Prior to '67, Israel was constantly attacked by fedayeen using surrounding states as staging areas. And it was also attacked by those states themselves. Syria, for example, used the gift that Great Britain gave it of most of the Golan Heights after World War I to rain death on Israelis below. If Arabs have ruthlessly suppressed fellow Muslim Kurds and Berbers who have dared to assert their own identities and political rights (not to mention non-Muslim Sudanese Blacks, Egyptian Copts, etc.), their attitude towards "their" kelbi yahudi - Jew dog - Jews, one half of whom, in Israel, were from refugee families fleeing "Arab" lands, daring to demand a sliver of national dignity in the Dar al-Islam, should come as no shock. It is one thing for Arabs to wish for a return to the good old days of their own Caliphal imperialism whereby all who stood in the way of their conquests and forced Arabization were given little choice in the matter. That's how most of the twenty-two "Arab" states that now exist became "Arab" in the first place. The often bloody struggle of millions of native non-Arabs for rights in those lands goes on as these words are being written. Go to the Kurdish Media web site for just one example of this much ignored fact. Look up Berbers or the Sudan for a few others. And there's more. This all becomes truly pathetic when the Arabs' racist, domineering attitudes are endorsed by so many other supposedly "enlightened" voices, such as those in academia or the media....the same ones that never cease to demand less than perfection from Israel. If it doesn't involve Israel's reluctance to allow the creation of a murderous good cop/bad cop Arafatian/Hamas state in its backyard, most of those voices are deaf, dumb, and blind to the issue. Justice for Arabs and the hell with everyone else has evidently become the guideline. Oil and other business interests have lots to do with this, but they're not the whole story. Given all of this, it is worrisome to see the public reemergence of James Baker III on the political scene. He has evidently been appointed as Dubya's personal envoy to the Middle East. Baker has been in the background for decades, especially since his close friends, the Bushes, gained ascendancy in American politics. His law firm represents Saudi Arab interests in this country and typifies how people move through the revolving doors of businesses tied to Arab interests back and forth into government positions - especially those in Foggy Bottom...the very same institution which opposed President Truman's recognition of Israel in the first place in 1948. Baker's law partner, Robert Jordan, was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia by President Bush in 2001. Casper Weinberger and many others have been through these lucrative doors as well. Most often, their influence has spelled trouble for an Israel trying to get a fair hearing. Baker has consistently showed venom towards both Jews in general and the Jewish State in particular. While his "_ _ _ _ the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway" comments are legendary, they simply expressed, a bit more vividly, his already well known positions. While I have not seen it myself, reliable sources report that in Time Magazine on February 13, 1989, he spoke of Israel as his "turkey" on a turkey shoot...a quarry to be trapped, cornered, and manipulated at will. And then there was his reaction to Israel's surgical strike against Saddam's nuclear reactor. And his promise to Saddam's twin butcher, Hafez al-Assad of Syria, that the latter would receive the entire Golan back from Israel - prior to negotiations. The list goes on and on... Now add to this Bush and State's virtual insistence that Israel must return - contrary to UN Resolution # 242 - to the suicidal, pre-'67 armistice lines (that's what the flack over the route of Israel's security fence is all about), and the future does not bode well for those who truly care about arriving at a fair solution to the Arab-Israeli impasse. If Baker is the man and these are the positions Mr. Bush apparently now endorses during the election year of his likely last term as President, what can we expect once he has been reelected for the last time and has nothing to lose in terms of voters? Turning to the Democrats, the situation is even worse. The likely challenger, Dr. Howard Dean, has expressed his great admiration for Jimmy Carter, who has never met an Arab disemboweler of Jews he didn't blame the Jews themselves for...regardless of how often the latter showed more willingness to bare their necks for peace than would be expected of anyone else or accepted under an objective definition of fair play or sanity. Dean has espoused Carter's own distorted version of "even-handedness" regarding Arab-Israeli politics. Note also that Carter's alleged "humanity" and concerns are highly selective. While expecting Jews to cave in to all that Arabs demand for the creation of their 23rd state, he remains strangely silent on the plight of some 30 million stateless Kurds who still have no "roadmap" in their future and whose murderous abusers have largely been Syrian and Iraqi Arabs. But not a peep about this or Arab atrocities against millions of Blacks in the Sudan, etc. from Dean or Peanutland. While the Baker and Carter choirs insist that the proposed 23rd Arab state (second Arab one within the original 1920 borders of "Palestine") not be a "bantustan," they expect the sole, resurrected State of the Jews that one needs a magnifying glass to find on a world map to forsake its own minimum security needs to allow for this. Just how much room do they think there is between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River? Keep in mind Israel's pre-'67, 9-mile wide, armistice line imposed width. Jews historically lived in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") until they were massacred by Arabs in the early 20th century. Most of Israel's settlements have been built on strategic high ground areas in the disputed territories to give it a bit more of a buffer both envisioned and permitted by Resolution #242 in the latter's call for the creation of "secure and recognized borders" to replace those suicidal armistice lines. These areas were unapportioned lands of the Mandate, not Arab, and many thousands of Arabs from elsewhere moved in and settled here as well. Remember, those armistice lines were never meant to be permanent "borders." A true compromise must be reached involving concrete and measurable concessions from both sides in order for any semblance of justice to prevail. Israel doesn't want to rule over millions of Arabs, regardless of where they originated from. But Baker and Carter's interpretations of this call for a unilateral retreat by Israel. Poll after poll taken among Arabs have shown that even if Israel did this (as indeed virtually happened in 2000 at Camp David and Taba), most Arabs would still support terrorism and reject Israel's right to exist anyway. So what both camps are demanding is not "justice," but a travesty thereof. While Carter (and thus Dean) is a lost cause in this regard, Dubya - at least once upon a time - seemed to know better. Perhaps there's still hope. But I suggest that those who care do a lot more than that at this point in time. Gerald A. Honigman has lectured and appeared on TV, talking about foreign policy. He frequently writes on Israel, the Arabs and the Kurds. He lives in Volusia County, Florida.

SWEDISH INSTALLATION WRECKING Posted by Leo Rennert, January 17, 2004.

By stacking the deck against Israel in assembling its "anti-genocide" exhibition, Sweden forfeited its right to protest Ambassador Mazel's action. After soliciting art contributions from many countries, the Stockholm museum put on view 20 pieces. Three were from Israel - all promoting the Palestinian side! A pro-Israeli piece of art was rejected, according to Haaretz, following diplomatic pressures by Syria! Where was Sweden's righteous outrage against this Swedish attack on freedom of artistic expression? And where was Sweden when Palestinians engaged in vandalism of a far more vicious kind by destroying Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and repeatedly firing on Rachel's Tomb outside Bethlehem? Sweden is solidly in the camp of those celebrating the murders of Jews. Raoul Wallenberg, who was more interested in saving Jewish lives, would weep.

SHARON POPULARITY DOWN Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 17, 2004.

This news item was on the Arutz-7 website (http://www.israelNN.com). Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's popularity is rapidly descending, according to a poll published in Yediot Acharonot newspaper today. The survey, conducted by pollster Mina Tzemach, indicates that 56% of the Israeli public feels that Sharon is not trustworthy, and that 46% of the populace thinks he should resign. Just over half say he need not resign. Asked who their preferred replacement would be in the event that Sharon steps down, more respondents chose Binyamin Netanyahu than any of the other candidates - Ministers Olmert, Shalom, and Mofaz. The survey also showed that 68% of the public is against withdrawing from the Golan Heights in exchange for a written peace agreement with Syria. Mr. Sharon has caused controversial headlines of late regarding his plans for a possible unilateral withdrawal from areas in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza; his lack of communication with the public regarding critical issues; and the continuing investigation into his and his sons' involvement in the Greek Island issue, the South African businessman's loan, and campaign funding. 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.

EX-ISRAELI ARTIST FOR JIHAD AND TERROR Posted by Steven Plaut, January 17, 2004.

Among the Israeli or ex-Israeli leftist anti-Semites trekking the globe is one Mapplethropian "artist" named Dror Feiler. Feiler hates Israel with a passion and supports Jihad and Palestinian terrorism. He lives in Stockholm whence he spreads his views, including on the internet. You can read about his "art" and his support for Palestinian terror through it at http://www.tochnit-aleph.com/texts/feiler.html. He also claims to be a musician who makes "music and noise" and my guess is more of the latter than the former. Among Feiler's recent "artistic" creations is a work celebrating the terrorist woman who blew herself up inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, murdering 21 people, some of them Arabs, many of them children. Feiler seems to think this woman is a great hero, so he drew a portrait of her floating happily in a pool of Jewish blood. It was part of the preparations for some sort of Swedish conference on "genocide", which by all expectations will end up endorsing Arab plans to conduct genocide against Jews. The painting was on display in Stockholm when the Israeli Ambassador decided to respond to it in a manner almost unseen since the start of Oslo. He responded to it as a Jew and Zionist; he destroyed the monstrosity. Curiously, the Ambassador is an appointeee of Uber-appeaser Ehud Barak, who was on TV this evening cheering on the Ambassador for this rare act of Israeli self-pride and courage. Barak did NOT suggest that Feiler be granted the Israel Prize. "This was not a piece of art," the ambassador told Sweden's SR radio news station. "It was a monstrosity." "For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims," he said. "As ambassador [of] Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality." Feiler, who described the ambassador's actions as "vandalism," announced that he would not perform as long as Mazel was present. Feiler told the Associated Press that his installation aimed to call attention to how weak people left alone can be capable of horrible things. "[Mazel] tried to stop free speech and free artistic expression from being carried out in Sweden," Feiler said. Feiler describes himself as the "eye-bleeding ultimate composer of intifadic and eruptive lung-outs." Feiler runs a PLO front group called Jews for Israeli Palestinian Peace (JIPF). It is celebrated on PLO web sites such as http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/authors/DrorFeiler.php He also serves as head of European Jews for a Just Peace, which might or might not have other members besides himself. It seems that Abu-Feiler is also a regular posteur and pretty representative of what is broadcast to the world from a Far-Leftist chat list operated under the auspices of the University of Haifa, entitled the ALEF list. Headed by a lestist professor of theater at Haifa University, this list operates on the University of Haifa computer and every message carries somewhere the University of Haifa name. Its contents may be viewed by those with strong stomachs at http://list.haifa.ac.il/pipermail/alef/. There you will find calls openly endorsing terror, calls for Israel's destruction, demonization of Jews and Judaism, endorsement of treason, all posted by Israeli and ex-Israeli far leftists, and a few fellow travellers. It turns out that Dror Feiler, the grand artiste of the Intifada, is one of the people who post to this University list. Consider http://list.haifa.ac.il/pipermail/alef/2003-June/001332.html or http://list.haifa.ac.il/pipermail/alef/2003-August/002144.html Feiler's email address is dror@chello.se, in case you would like to chat about art with him. Incredibly, he is not the most anti-Israel or pro-terror posteur on this ALEF list. The list by the way is closed to people who are not anti-Jewish and anti-Israel, and dissidents have been removed from the list by its moderator, Avraham Oz (no relation to Amos), for expressing pro-Israel sentiments. Oz has been in the news this week because his Dean shut down a "theater" Oz claimed to be running due to suspected misallocation of funds and other alleged misdeeds. The whole sordid business is described at http://www.ee.bgu.ac.il/~academia/2004_01_16.txt. If you would like to tell the officials at the University of Haifa what you think about an openly treasonous chat list on which people like Dror the Jihadnik post their "thoughts", please contact them. They and their emails are to be found at http://multimedia.haifa.ac.il/manage/html/html_eng/english_archives/oldindex.html 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.

CIA: SAUDI ARABIA WILL GO NUCLEAR: Contradicts statements by White House, State Department Posted by Tamar Rush, January 17, 2004.

This article appeared today on the World Net Daily website (http://www.wnd.com). It is from Geostrategy-Direct, an online newsletter published by World Tribune (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/). The U.S. intelligence community has concluded Saudi Arabia intends to acquire nuclear weapons, the intelligence newsletter Geostrategy-Direct reports. The assessment is contained in a report by the National Intelligence Council, a group under CIA director George Tenet. The council has released a report, called "NIC 2020," that envisions trends in the Middle East and other global regions over the next two decades. The intelligence community regards Saudi Arabia as being next in line to acquire nuclear weapons, the report said. The council asserted the United States would have more difficulty in handling Saudi Arabia, a leading exporter of crude oil, than it would have with Libya and Syria. As Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reported in June, Saudi Arabia is among a growing list of nations that could pose a nuclear threat to the United States. Like Egypt, it has missiles and a large army and is a candidate for an Islamic revolution similar to Iran's 1979 conflict that overnight turned the country from being a stable U.S. ally to a vicious enemy. Geostrategy reported in June that the Saudi royal family has become alarmed by the prospect of its neighbors having a nuclear bomb and has been secretly obtaining help from Pakistan for its missile and nuclear program. (See http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33164.) Riyadh helped finance Pakistan's nuclear program precisely to ensure that the royal family will have a bomb in case of an emergency, Geostrategy said. The CIA report envisioned Saudi Arabia as reducing its dependency on the United States and using nuclear weapons to bolster the kingdom's security. In contrast, the intelligence community sees Libya and Syria as seeking a rapprochement with Washington. "Ironically, some of the most significant proliferation might involve moderate states such as the current Saudi regime rather than 'rogues' such as Libya or Syria," the report said. "The former will seek ways to ensure their security without overly heavy reliance on the United States. The latter will seek to escape the opprobrium of being 'rogues' and to be fully rehabilitated as members of the international community." The report was released on Dec. 8, 11 days before the Bush administration announced a Libyan agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons and medium-range missiles. The CIA participated in a British-U.S. team that toured Libyan nuclear and missile facilities in October and December 2003. The United States has expressed satisfaction over Libya's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspections of Tripoli's nuclear facilities. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the administration could soon review the lifting of a range of U.S. sanctions on the North African state. "The next step is to make sure we have a clear understanding of what Libya possesses, make sure it matches up with what we think they possess and what they tell us they possess," Powell said Tuesday. "And they are very forthcoming to this point. And then make sure that we have worked with them to verify their holdings and the destruction of those holdings in accordance with the terms of the agreement. "When we get that under control and we have a good sense of all of that, then we'll start to examine the political and policy issues that relate to bringing Libya back into a different relationship with the United States and with the rest of the international community," he said. Intel contradicts administration The U.S. intelligence community assessment of Saudi Arabia contrasts with statements by administration spokesmen that the kingdom would not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. That assertion, by the White House and State Department, came in October after Saudi Arabia was reported to have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan. The NIC report also appeared resigned to the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a development that was said to have prompted Saudi cooperation talks with Pakistan. The Iranian drive for nuclear weapons might not be affected by a change a regime in Tehran, the report said. The intelligence community envisions increasing unrest in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A regime change in Saudi Arabia would prompt a major increase in oil prices, rock the Persian Gulf region and lead to increased tension with neighboring Iran, the report said. "Replacement of the Saudi regime by a radical Islamist successor, for example, might increase Arabian-Iranian tensions, with a rivalry for Islamic leadership - one party Sunni, and the other Shia - vershadowing whatever common characteristics would set both regimes apart from the Al Saud," the report said. "Radical regime change would unavoidably affect relations with Washington and probably the U.S. role in the region. It also would affect the Arab-Israeli equation - in a major way if the change of regime occurred in Egypt or Jordan."

MEL GIBSON AND FAMILY Posted by Ben Ronn, January 17, 2004.

Please read this news item from the LA TIMES from March 2003, and, if you believe it as I do, you should forward this to all your friends who you feel would find this of interest. LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson and his parents are under fire today from a leading Jewish group for reportedly anti-Semitic impulses in the former's new film and the latter's denial that Al Qaeda executed the Sept.11 attacks. The actor's father, Hutton Gibson, told The New York Times he flatly rejected that the terrorist group led by Usama bin Laden had any role in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon Sept. 11. "Anybody can put out a passenger list," the elder Gibson told The Times. "So what happened? They were crashed by remote control." He and the actor's mother, Joye Gibson, also told The Times that the Holocaust was a fabrication manufactured to hide an arrangement between Adolph Hitler and "financiers" to move Jews out of Germany to the Middle East to fight Arabs. "Go and ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body," Hutton Gibson told The Times. "It takes one litre of petrol and 20 minutes. Now six million?" Said Joye Gibson: "There weren't even that many Jews in all of Europe." Rabbi Marvin Hier, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, shot back. "To bigots and anti-Semites, no amount of evidence or scientific proof is ever enough. In their world, only hate matters." The comments from the Gibson family come just after the actor built a church near Malibu that caters to a revisionist version of Catholicism. According to The Times, the church has a congregation of 70, including the star of such films as "Braveheart" and "Conspiracy Theory." Mel Gibson, a devout Catholic, is directing and co-wrote the soon-to-be-released movie "The Passion," rooted in a theological movement known as Catholic traditionalism that seeks to return the faith to its pre-1962 period, before the Pope issued what is known as Vatican II, a series of proclamations that did away with the notion that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. "If the new film seeks to undo that," Hier told The Times, it would not be uncovering truth. Rather, it would unleash more of the scurrilous charges... directed against the Jewish people, which took the Catholic Church 20 centuries to finally repudiate."... Gibson has filmed this in Latin and Aramaic with no subtitles. His father says that the "Second Vatican Council was a plot put out by the Jews."... When asked if Jews might be offended by his movie, Mel Gibson says: "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible. PLEASE PASS THIS ON! LET'S NOT GO TO ANY MEL GIBSON MOVIES BECAUSE HE IS TOTALLY BIASED AGAINST JEWISH PEOPLE! HIS FATHER SAID THAT ALL OF HIS TEN CHILDREN ARE WITH HIM, SO THEY ALL BELIEVE THESE LIES. THE 'PASSION PLAYS' IN GERMANY WERE THE MOST ANTI-SEMITIC PLAYS PERFORMED ANNUALLY PORTRAYING JEWS AS UGLY AND MISERABLE. LET'S BOYCOTT MEL GIBSON AND SPREAD THIS E-MAIL Ben Ronn runs BRE (Ben Ronn Enterprises) in Houston, TX, 77055. You can contact him by phone at 713 686 4646 or email him at brehttx@localnet.com. This email was distributed by Communaute-Juive-France-owner@yahoogroup

Posted by Israel BenAmi, January 16, 2004.

While definitely NOT politically correct, this could do the trick! "In 1909, General Black Jack Pershing was made Military Governor of Moro Province in the Philippines. Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States forces in the Philippines by Muslim extremists. So General Pershing captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts for execution. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the now horrified terrorists. Muslims detest pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their by-products. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise (and those virgins) and doomed to hell. The soldiers then soaked their bullets in the pigs blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. Then soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorists' bodies and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc. They let the 50th man go. And for the next forty-two years, there was not a single Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world. Maybe it is time for this segment of history to repeat itself, maybe in Iraq? The question is, where do we find another Black Jack Pershing?"

ISLAMIC MILITANTS TARGET PAKISTAN'S BIBLE SOCIETY Posted by Stephen Crawford, January 16, 2004.

KARACHI, Pakistan: Two explosions in Karachi extensively damaged the office of the Bible Society, on Thursday, Jan. 15. The blasts injured 15 people, including two Bible Society employees, and shattered windows in the adjacent Episcopal Holy Trinity Church and School for Girls. The first blast was caused by a grenade thrown through the window of the Bible Society's reading room at 3:15 p.m. by two unidentified men on motorcycles. Fifteen minutes later, a bomb concealed in a parked car exploded outside the Bible Society's premises. Pakistan's Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, blamed Islamic militants for the attack. The car bomb, according to Reuters, was similar to the one used by Islamic extremists to kill 12 people outside the U.S. Consulate in 2002. "This terrorist act has increased the sense of insecurity among Christians", chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Shahbaz Bhatti, said in response to the attack against the Bible Society. "The Alliance calls on all people of goodwill, both inside and abroad, to join together to stop the scourge of terrorism", Bhatti continued. Since 2001, there have been a series of attacks by Islamic militants on Western and Christian targets. Last week, Rev. Mukhtar Masih was shot dead in his hometown of Khanewal after receiving death threats by local extremists. CSI's president, Rev. Hans Stuckelberger, responded to the murder by urging Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to help end the cycle of violence against the country's Christians and other non-Muslim minorities, by ordering increased security measures and by repealing all laws that discriminate on religious grounds. Stephen Crawford is a member of Christian Solidarity International (CSI). He can be reached at csi@csi-usa.org or 805-777-7107. This letter was distributed by Freedom Now (http://www.freeworldnow.com), a group devoted to wiping out slavery internationally and focusing on the Sudan.

MUSLIM SUBVERSION Posted by David Ben Ariel, January 16, 2004.

This was the introduction of an email forwarded to me: "We normally do not advance to our readership letters we receive from friends or enemies. We consider those letters private in nature. From amongst the thousands of notes received since we commenced to submit to the readership of the various Reconstructionist Movement & Radio Free Israel Bulletins, I found the following letter from Devorah Hoger, a Jewish lady, formerly a member of the US military and a formidable asset to her roots, a letter she sent to one Mr. Rosenblatt, a docment that, with her permission I reproduced herein. A most sobering call to reality and arms." Dear Mr. Rosenblatt, It never ceases to amaze me how naive and down right stupid the American Public is. It is not conducive to American life or values to espouse us as the melting pot of the World, when indeed, we have been invaded deliberately by insurgents, usurpers, bigots and racists who espouse hatred 24/7 to everyone within ear length of their hatred for the Jews. They proclaim the Holocaust a great lie, told by people who cannot live anywhere and (promote) that no Nation wants the Jews. Alleged Zionist conspiracies abound, but the Islamic rabid hatred and political defiance to gain more control in the USA to serve their alleged religious ideology purported as better suited but in reality fit to be labeled out right Fascism, has already put a strong hold on all our Constitutional Rights. According to Ben Wizner of the ACLU in Long Beach California, for $20 per Muslim, he will help muslims end the Constitution completely AND enforce Sharia'a Law upon all of us. Never in the History of the United States has such subversion permeated on our shores brought in by a group of Fascist Immigrants, Islam. The only time there was subversive activity within the United States was during the Civil War. When I tune into CNN or C-Span and listen to a Muslimah demand Jihad against the American Government and the American People, your redress of their immigration into the USA, is already too late. Now I will address the reasons why I consider Islam Fascist and undeserving of protection under the guise of a Religion or be protected as such. Dar-al-Islam: This is the Islamic mandate that considers all land ANY muslim puts his feet on, immediately becomes Islamic. By reversion or by force, the choice is on the non-Muslim, either way, you die. Dar-al-Harb: This is land not yet taken over by Islamics and this is the true reason why America was attacked on 9/11/01. It was an attack against Americans who are "Infidels" or non-muslims. All non-muslims are Infidels. They are not religiously tolerant people for any religion other than Islam. When reporters tell Americans we should be tolerant of these Fascists, they do a great disservice to the American people, and every Veteran fighting this war in Iraq, and every Veteran who ever fought for this once fine Nation. Jihad: This is not a "spiritual Journey." This is warfare. Jihad is the personal responsibility of every Muslim. This means to kill the non-muslim wherever he hides, children and women are equal targets. Only when they are completely subdued and reverted to Islam will there be peace or a call for the Jihad to stop be issued. Shahid: The personal desire to attain Paradise, the fact they achieve it by killing innocent women, men and children is immaterial. This is where the 70 Virgins enter the picture. Dhimmia: Slave status. Any one who isn't muslim is dhimmia and has dhimmi status. Dhimmis cannot own property. They cannot own a car or animal for transportation. They cannot testify in court against a muslim. They can be raped and murdered by a muslim, but, their lives are meaningless so there is no authority dealing with the murderer. If a muslim wants to kick in your door and rob you of everything you possess a crime has not been committed. If the muslim kills your spouse or your Mother and there are no adults left, the children are confiscated, used as sex slaves by their clerics and forced to convert to Islam. Dhimmis cannot walk on the same pavement as a muslim, and they are forced to dress so as to show their physical inferiority to a muslim. If a muslim desires to beat or kill you for not adhering to your dhimmi status, there is no law to prevent it. There is no justice for those living under Islamic rule who are not muslim. Shari'a Law: This is a barbaric court. If a muslim attempts to leave Islam, they are considered an Apostate and can be killed. If someone is caught stealing from another muslim, they can lose a hand and a leg. If someone speaks out against Islam, as I am doing now, they can be beheaded. Muslim murderers and torturers go free. Muslims can murder other muslims and walk free especially if it involves family honor killings. Dhimmi's and women cannot testify as a witness in Sharia'a Court. Women can testify only in matters such as childbirth, but only if she is muslim. Women can stone other women to death for adultery even if the woman's husband is raping a child, the muslim woman can immediately serve the death penalty on the victim of rape. Sharia does not consider the slaughter of a dhimmi a crime. Taquiya: The art of lying to non-muslims by telling them they are a religion of "Piece." Clearly the US Government and the American people, believe they mean "Peace." No Muslim means Peace. Kaffur: Inferior dhimmi. All non-Muslims are inferior to muslims. All religions are inferior to Islam, and all followers of other religions "offend" Muslims who are notoriously religiously intolerant. Mosques: A place to hide your bomb belts, weapons and ammunition and plan the murder of Americans and Jews. Racism and bigotry rule. Fatwa: A call for all muslims to kill a person for speaking out against Islam, or attempting to leave this cult of death. Note: No fatwa was issued against OBL, Sadaam, or any muslim mass murderer because all of Islam respects the carnage they heaped upon the world. Until the muslims and all of Islam tosses these Fascist Idealogies to the scrap heap where they belong, and not in a democracy or republic, lands they migrated to, there can not be a moderate muslim. It serves no purpose to continue to lie to people by not telling the truth or not KNOWING the truth. Before you or any Citizen allows one more muslim into the USA, it is best these facts about Islam be known. Every American has a right to know what they are dealing with and to act accordingly. The issues I brought up are the very elements which make Islam a 5th Column in any Nation they enter and a seditious and treasonous element anywhere they go. They cannot and will not assimilate. They will force Islam on us all and all future generations in America. Their loyalties are to Islam, the moon god, and they are committed to slaughter. Look at their States of origin, they are not fleeing persecution, they have entered America to persecute us, the dhimmis. How could our Government leaders and our American citizens be so stupid? I would like to walk into a muslim owned store without hearing about how the Jews and Americans are the sons and daughters of Monkeys, Pigs and Donkeys. I would like to not be an adversary to muslims but I am not the adversary, they are. Recently, I walked into a furniture store in Philadelphia, named Jerusalem Furniture. I had never been in there before and within the first 5 minutes, I got a dose of hatred from this Palestinian witch that I will not soon forget. What does her anti-Semitism and hatred for Americans have to do with selling furniture? Housten, we have a HUGE problem here. HUGE... Finally, I would like to assert that the Muslims in America already outnumber the 5.6 Million American Jews. In 1986, in Phoenix, Arizona, almost overnight, millions of muslims entered that State. They were arrogant, and intolerant and nasty to Americans. Overnight, there were more Middle Eastern Arabs in Arizona than there were legal and illegal Mexicans. I got a figure of 2.5 million Arabs who entered America in one state alone and in one year, but that was before 9/11/01. I assess there are more than 40 Million muslims in the USA and it is growing. Our INS "forgot" to include the muslims of Asian descent, Mexican, Hispanic, African not to mention the majority of our criminal element incarcerated are also muslims. The day I had the first Fatwa issued on me, on American soil, in MY Country, is the day I came to the realization that we allowed our Nation to be taken over from within. I have had 6 more Fatwa's issued against me and I am working on my 8th. I am not a political leader. Close the borders until we get a grip on reality. CLOSE the borders. Sincerely, Devorah Hoger

WHO SAYS THE GOLAN IS SYRIAN? Posted by Dr. Aaron Lerner, January 17, 2004.

This article was written by Professor Yoav Gelber of the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa. It appeared in "Yediot Ahronot" yesterday and was translated into English by Moshe Kohn. Before we proclaim that "the Golan is Syrian," it is worthwhile doing a quick review of its history. Ever since the establishment of the Syrian state, that country has lost more significant segments of its land than the Golan. In 1920 Mosul was given to Iraq and Tripoli to Lebanon, and in 1937 the Turks took Alexandretta. Yet Syria has maintained correct relations with all three of those annexing neighbors. It would seem that her insistence on getting the Golan back in its entirety stems solely from her desire to weaken Israel. In the original division between French Syria and British [Mandatory] Palestine [after World War I], most of the Golan Heights was within the borders of Palestine. In the course of the demarcation of the boundary, local landowners applied heavy pressure, and as a result - and due to the absence of Zionist counter-pressure - the line was moved [somewhat] westward. Upon gaining independence, Syrian refused to recognize that line, and ever since they have been demanding that the border run down the middle of the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret [the "Sea of Galilee"]. During the [1947-1948] War of Independence [Arab-Israel War], the Syrians gained control of areas west of the Jordan and afterwards demanded that the border coincide with the water line. The response of Israel's foreign minister at that time, Moshe Sharett, was that it was unthinkable that Israel should hand her Syrian enemy what the British had refused to give their French ally. Under the 1949 armistice, the Syrian Army retreated across the border, and the area they vacated was declared a demilitarized zone. The struggle for the control of that area reached its peak when Israel started to drain the Huleh Valley swampland. In the spring of 1951 violence broke out throughout the demilitarized zone, leading to the expulsion of the Arab residents of the area to Galilee and across the border, and Israeli sovereignty over the area was ensured. There was a de facto partition of the demilitarized areas: Israel controlled the central section and the Syrians had el-Hamma on the Kinneret's northeastern shore and two tels on the fringes of the Galilee "panhandle." This partition is the basis of the difference between the two concepts, "the international border" and "the June 4 [1967] lines." What did not obligate the Syrians then should not obligate Israel [today]. There is no need today to hand the Syrians a border that they rejected in the1940s and 1950s. The Golan has been under Israeli rule longer than under the rule of independent Syria (36 years as against 21 years). [The Golan town of] Katzrin is no more Syrian than Jaffa, Lod, Ramleh, or Acco [Acre] are Palestinian (under the 1947 United Nations partition proposal), and we ought to think of the consequences of setting a precedent by giving up the Golan. The weight of the historical arguments might have been different if Syria held Israel by the throat. But the only real Syrian threat against Israel is the threat of missiles aimed at Israel's center. Security arrangements in the Golan might be a partial solution regarding the security of the Israeli settlements situated along the pre-1967 line, but is no answer to the threat of missiles fired from points far from the demilitarized zone and from far Israel's warning systems. The sole constraint on the implementation of this threat is the Israel Defense Forces ' proximity to Damascus, Israel's withdrawal from which would abandon the Dan region, the Coastal Plain, and Haifa to Syrian missiles. The argument that a peace agreement is the best defense against missiles is delusive. There has never been a war that was not receded by peace. And the risks of war in our case are not symmetrical: we cannot afford a single loss, whereas our neighbors have survived several debacles. That is why Israel stubbornly insists on security arrangements in any pace pact with any of her neighbors. Syria has far more serious problems than we in the military sphere, in the economic sphere, and in the political sphere. She needs peace in order to solve some of them, and it is she - not Israel - that has to pay the main part of the price to achieve it: first and foremost by ceasing to support Palestinian and Lebanese terror, and also by waiving her claim to most of the Golan. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il IMRA provides "a current digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events."

JIHAD - THE ISLAMIC DOCTRINE OF PERMANENT WAR Posted by Alyssa A. Lappen, January 16, 2004.

"The Subversion of Christianity" by the noted Islamic scholar, Jacques Ellul, can be read online (http://www.jesusradicals.com/main/library/ellul/subversion/subversion.html). In Chapter 5, Ellul argues that Christianity embarked upon the Crusades, and obtained the idea of Holy War, slavery, church and religious law, and anti-Semitism, from Islam. There are three other important books on the subject that can be read online: 1. "The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India" (http://www.bharatvani.org/books/siii/) by Sita Ram Goel. 2."Muslim Slave System in Medieval India" (http://www.bharatvani.org/books/mssmi/) by K. S. Lal. 3. "Jihad - The Islamic Doctrine of Permanent War" (http://www.bharatvani.org/books/jihad/) by Suhas Majumdar. This next is an excerpt from the brilliant introduction to Majumdar's book. "There was a time, not so long ago, when the exponents of jihad minced no words and pulled no punches. They were brutally frank in spelling out what jihad really meant. But times have changed, particularly after the collapse of Christianity in the West and the rise of modern rationalism and humanism. Standards of moral judgment have increasingly tended to become universal, and no statement of faith can escape scrutiny simply because it is made in a book hailed as holy by some people. Defenders of jihad have been forced to develop an apologetics. They are now trying to protect by means of scholarship a doctrine which has so far been sustained by means of the sword. In the present study, Professor Suhas Majumdar has seen through this "scholarship", and demolished it brick by brick. He has rescued the doctrine of jihad from under the mass of pretentious verbiage, and made it stand in its pristine purity. Let no one say any more that jihad does not mean what it has meant all along in the blood-soaked history of Islam, and what we are witnessing today in Kashmir." Alyssa A. Lappen is a freelance journalist and prize-winning poet. Her work has appeared recently in such journals as Midstream, FrontPageMagazine.com and Campus-Watch.org and in many others over the last two decades.

SETTLERS ARE AN OBSTACLE, BUT TO WHAT? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 16, 2004.

Pro-Arab propaganda depicts the Jews in Yesha as the obstacle to peace. It is an illogical claim, since Arab aggression preceded Jewish settlement in Yesha. That settlement was a consequence of Arab aggression. The real cause of war there is Arab intolerance of Jewish independence and, increasingly, a jihadist thirst for committing genocide. The propaganda does more than blame lack of peace on some Jews. It offers what appears to be a rational solution, a mutual trade. The Israeli Left likes this propaganda line also because it does not weigh the merits nor find all the evil on one side, the Arab side. It purports to balance the scales of justice by presenting Yesha Jewry as bad people obstructing peace. Some balance: likening merely people living in their ancestral homeland with terrorists trying to murder them! Were two million more Jews in Yesha, the terrorists might have to give up in futility. The dearth of Jews in Yesha, the "parts of the Land of Israel that are closest to us historically and religiously," is an obstacle... (Women In Green, 12/31, e-mail). What obstacle, then, do the Jews of Yesha present? Their communities require a military presence to protect them. That military presence keeps many terrorists from infiltrating Israel. It also affords Israel safer borders from invasion. By denying the area to Arab sovereignty, Yesha Jewry keeps Arafat from realizing a major step in his plan for conquering Israel in phases, one phase being to take over Yesha. By contrast, the Left, the media, and the Quartet, by promoting Israeli withdrawal, promote that step and the war that is sure to follow. Mr. 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.

DIPLOMATIC MANEUVERS IN ME ARE CONFUSING Posted by Samson Krupnick, January 16, 2004.

It appeared that after the Iraq victory culminating in the capture of chief mass murderer ("terrorist") Saddam Hussein, the United States would proceed with force to attack other nations sponsoring mass murder ("terror"). The war against mass murder is presumed to be a difficult series of operations worldwide. It requires patience and determination to track down the mass murder corps. High casualties are anticipated, but that cost in lives is the price of restoring democracy to the world wherein people may live in tranquility and comfort. Alawite Syria, Shiite Iran and Wahhabi "Saudi" Arabia in the Middle East are either engaging in mass murder or are supporting mass murder organizations with personnel, weapons and funds. Logically, the United States took the initiative to single out Syria. Congress passed a bill, signed by President George W. Bush, entitled the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act. Syria is accused of housing Resident Arab ("Palestinian") mass murder organizations such as Shiite Hizbollah, "Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit financed Wahhabi Hamas and Islamic Jihad, seeking weapons of mass destruction, and permitting mass murderers to cross Syria's border into Iraq. Syria is to withdraw its 20,000 troops from Lebanon, occupied for many years. President Bush was authorized and directed to apply economic and diplomatic sanctions if Syria fails to comply with American requests. The term of the American Ambassador to Syria ended in August. The United States waited for Syria to make some positive move towards American requests, to no avail. Instead, President Bashar Assad personally - and not through his Foreign Minister as did his father - approached the European Union for support. In addition, Assad declared a readiness to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel "from the last point of negotiations" some four years ago. Four years ago then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was prepared to surrender toe Syria virtually all of the Liberated Golan Heights, but balked at the Syrian demand for control of the eastern shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in reaction to the Syrian offer, said point blank: "As long as he has his terror organizations there cannot be any negotiations". Sharon presumed correctly that the Assad offer was to placate and impress the United States. However, there was a sudden about face by President Bush. Instead of proceeding with sanctions after a given deadline, suddenly a new American Ambassador to Syria was appointed. New U.S. Ambassador to Syria Margaret Scobey promptly met with Assad. Later, she met Assad together with Senator Bill Nelson, Member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee, who "discussed relations between the United States and Syria". Apparently sanctions will not apply. Possibly, diplomatic efforts and offers of economic assistance to Syrian economy now in shambles might do the trick. What to do with Shiite Iran is a bigger puzzle. Iran is desperate to acquire nuclear weapons. Assisted by Russia, they are making significant progress in that direction. Iran now has missiles - thanks to France and Russia - which can reach Israel. Iran has been supplying Hizbollah for many years with sophisticated weapons. All of these shipments came through Syria. If the United States can neutralize Syria, Israel would benefited considerably. Israel's military covenant with Sunni Turkey, with an air base in part, reduces the danger of an Iranian attack on Israel. Wahhabi "Saudi" Arabia, now and before, has been a top supplier of funding to worldwide "Muslim" mass murder organizations, especially Wahhabi Al Qaeda and the Wahhabi Muslim Brotherhood, and also to the "Palestine" Authority's four mass murder groups. American pressure must stop "Saudi" Arabian support of mass murder at all costs, a policy which will be complicated by the fact that U.S. oil companies almost exclusively maintain "Saudi" Arabia's oil industry infrastructure, and enjoy almost 100% U.S. tax free income on their profits. There are signs of grumbling among Saudis about "bribing" mass murderers for safety. Actually, the "Saudi" Arabian "government" has suffered several costly attacks from local mass murder groups, reflecting a struggle for "Saudi" state power among rival al Saud tribal princes, who control the various groups. Possibly, the "Saudi" Arabian "government" will cease helping mass murder. A peace offer came from a very strange source. Saif al Islam, son of Libyan President Muammar Gadafi, whose mother is Jewish, met with several Israel Knesset members at a conference. Gadafi offered a peace agreement with Israel, even offering to pay compensation to Libyan Jews who fled following the establishment of the State of Israel, and then again after Gadafi came to power in 1969 when he overthrew the mild monarchy of King Idris, fondly remembered by Libyan Jews for his humane reign. There were some 30,000 Jews in Libya in 1948. Many escaped or were murdered. After the Six Day War of June 1967, 8,000 Jews, following a pogrom in Tripoli with 16 Jews murdered and 25 wounded, fled Libya. Negotiations between Libya and Israel began in secret, but Arab sources exposed the negotiations. It is quite likely that Gadafi is anxious to see Libya restored to international status as a respectable nation. An arrangement with Israel would provide a gateway to both the United States and Britain. The European Union is strongly pro-Arab and particularly pro-"Palestinian". In the past three years Europe has invested heavily to help "Palestinians". There was no positive move in any peace direction. Suddenly, personnel changed and newer members of the European Union delegated a representative to change their policy towards Israel. This of course is a very welcome shift of the European Union towards Israel. Truly these diplomatic maneuvers at this stage are certainly confusing. We hope for the best. Shabbat Shalom from Liberated Yerushaliyim, Samuel Krupnick is Board Member and Treasurer, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Israel Chairman, Jerusalem Embassy Initiative, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Yakir Yerushaliyim (Jerusalem Prize) Award Winner, 2001; Board Chairman, Encyclopedia Talmudica; Former Board Chairman, Shaare Zedek Hospital; and Columnist, National Jewish Post and Opinion (www.jewishpostopinion.com).

PARENTS OF DEAD 17-YEAR OLD SUICIDE BOMBER CRITICIZE POOR PLANNING Posted by Itamar Marcus, January 16, 2004.

17-year-old Iyad al Masri died last week when the suicide bomb strapped to his body exploded prematurely killing only himself. His family this week expressed outrage and demanded an investigation, not of the decision to recruit a 17 year old boy for a suicide operation, but of the poor planning that left "no chance of success." They complained that he was sent during a time of curfew on the city and their son had no experience leaving the city during a curfew "which made it impossible for him to reach his target." They further complained about the "exploitation of the anger" of their son in recruiting him following his brother's recent "Martyrdom", however, no criticism is expressed of the act of recruiting of their son, a 17-year-old, for a suicide terror mission, had it been planned properly and succeeded in killing Israelis, as well. The following is the translation of the family's complaints in the PA daily. "The Shahid's [Martyr's] family expressed its reservations about what had happened to its son and described it as a death in vain, which raises legitimate questions and necessitates an investigation of what happened... The family, which lost two of its sons within 11 days, doesn't hide its reservations of what seems to be an exploitation of the anger within the youth Iyaad al Masri after the murder in cold blood of his little brother Amjad by the occupation soldiers, and its disapproval of having sending him [Amjad] to his certain death... The family said that her son was sent to commit a Shahada-Seeking operation [suicide bombing] "that had no chance of success and that its outcome was obvious", while mentioning that the group which sent Iyad to commit the suicide attack did not take into account the chances of his success or failure though everyone knew that he was doomed to die. The father, who emphasized his national affiliation, said that he and every member of his family are proud of their national affiliation, and that they are no different than any Palestinian in supporting the uprising against the occupation and opposition to its aggression. He noted that the group that enlisted his son and sent him to commit an attack of sacrifice under the conditions which existed, exploited the circumstances that had been created as a result of his brother becoming a Shahid [Martyr - his brother's recent death], without taking into consideration the giving of his [Iyad's] life for nothing... The family of the Shahid is raising a number of question they want investigated... The Shahid's father pointed out that his son was sent to carry out the attack while Nablus was under curfew and strict military closure, and his son had never left the city [during a curfew] which made it impossible for him to reach his target." [Al-Ayyam, January 14, 2004] Itamar Marcus is director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

SETTLEMENTS - CIVILIAN HEROISM Posted by Dr. Aaron Lerner, January 16, 2004.

The IDF reports that from September 2000 to January 12 2004 there were 8,248 Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and 11,155 in the Gaza Strip. And that count doesn't include the huge number of Palestinian attacks using rocks or firebombs. And yet, despite the significant dangers that the residents of the Jewish communities in these areas face, each morning they take to the roads, sending their children off to school and driving off to work and errands. And some don't make it back home. Incredible bravery. Ongoing civilian heroism well beyond anything many expected (Shimon Peres, among others, expected at the start of Oslo that the "settler problem" was temporary since the Israelis would ultimately run for their lives). But that's only part of the story. This is an armed population. Many of the men are veterans of combat units. Given the media image of these Jewish communities you would expect that this onslaught of Palestinian terror would be met by numerous and frequent retaliatory strikes against neighboring Palestinians. But that's far from the case. Despite everything, self restraint was and remains the byword of these communities. A self-restraint possibly unmatched anywhere else in the world. Some claim that the continued growth of the Jewish communities has a negative impact on the prospects for peace when in truth growth serves as a catalyst for Palestinian moderation by showing the Palestinians that there is a cost to be paid for refusing to reach a peaceful settlement with the Jewish State. That time is not on their side. These Jewish communities deserve praise and encouragement - not mud slinging and restrictions. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il IMRA provides "a current digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events."

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 16, 2004.

I believe that it is reasonable to assume that Generalissimo Sharon, who as Defence Minister was in charge of the destruction of Yamit, would know all this as well. So it would seem that his plan is not to launch a frontal attack on the Jews of Yeshah but to try to destroy them in bits and pieces. Aping the Arabs salami tactics in his efforts. We see this is his plan by the types of communities and locations he has chosen to destroy first: Small ones that even the Jews of Yeshah will find hard to justify in defending. Of course the first few will draw a great deal of protest but after the third or fourth, who will come? Also, the SHABAK will no doubt have their provocateurs on hand to create incidents so as to discredit the protests in the eyes of the general public. Most likely that after a year or so of picking off the weaker communities, a thousand or two Jews will have been deported from their homes. If by then there has been no rebellion in the Army or an armed insurrection on the part of the Jews, the stage will be set for the destruction of a major city in Yeshah. After the first city is destroyed and there is still only passive resistance, the rest will go very quickly. Read this article, which appeared in Arutz-7 (http://www.israelNN.com). That is Sharon's plan. Brigadier-General Says Destroying Yishuvim an Impossible Mission. (IsraelNN.com) Retired IDF Brigadier-General Oded Tira, who commanded the destruction of Yamit in Sinai, states in an interview in the IDF's weekly BaMahane magazine that tens of divisions would be required to remove 50,000 Jews from their Yesha (Judea, Samaria & Gaza) homes. He added a portion of the 50,000 would continue efforts to return to their homes after taken out by soldiers and police. Tira estimates such an operation would last for a year, and the world would be subjected to daily doses of difficult scenes on television news. Tira, who today heads the Israel Manufacturers Association states that only through dialogue, is there a chance of reaching an agreement with Yesha residents, not by force. Speaking with correspondent Tali Lipkin-Shahak, Tira explains that if ordered to remove 150,000 Yesha residents from their homes, it would be an "impossible objective", explaining in Yamit, it took two months for the division to deal with 4,000 persons. Removing all of Yesha in a short time period is an impossibility he explains. Even removing 50,000 as is being discussed today is a most complicated operation he adds, describing the TV will depict Jews beating Jews for the period a year, a horrifying sight. Using Yamit as an his analytical base, he explains the news cameras will be showing difficult sights and even person whom are not sympathetic to Yesha residents will begin to have second thoughts. The soldiers and officers he explains will have to operate without the national consensus behind them. Tirah adds with certainty that 18 and 19-year-old soldiers and 21-and 22-year-old officers will not be capable of such a mission that in his opinion will require the wisdom, experience, and fortitude of older officers. 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.

UN WANTS TO CONTINUE HOLOCAUST Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 15, 2004.

Has that esteemed, Islamic-controlled world body come out and said it wants to continue Hitler's holocaust? Hardly. But judging by recent and future planned actions as well as statements, I fully expect Kofi Anan to lead the oh-so-civilized UN in a joyful goose-step parade over the bodies of dead Jews. Let's start with the anti-terror security barrier. If it were up to the UN, Israel would leave her borders wide open, have no checkpoints or work visas, and meekly, humbly, humiliatingly allow in any sniper, genocide bomber, baby-killer, home invader, axe murderer, etc. Judging by the purpose of the fence, the fact that the UN wants Israel to have no barrier between herself and the murderous monsters of the pseudo-Palestinian-Arab entity* means the UN want Jews to be murdered and their only homeland and safe haven utterly destroyed. If the UN were so concerned with barriers and fences, it would have The Hague investigate the US barrier between America and Mexico, the armed and fortified barrier between North and South Korea, or the barrier that India is building against Pakistan. Meanwhile, Botswana is erecting an electric fence to keep out Zimbabweans trying to escape Mugabe's genocidal policies. Not a peep from the EU or the UN on any of these fences. Fortunately for the Jewish people, despite the daily onslaught of humiliations and continual debasement by most of the world, Israel is not going to lay down and let herself be overrun by the genocidal hordes streaming in from Arab-occupied Gaza, Judea and Samaria. In the end, the world body will have to decide which it prefers - a benign fence or Israel taking justified self-defense measures done with extreme prejudice. Getting back to the Islamo-Nazi-controlled UN, let's take a gander at Mr. Goose-Step himself, Kofi Ana. Recently, Kofi made a statement about anti-Semitism and bigotry. It was meant to show him as 'caring' about the fate of the Hebrew people. Unfortunately for him, some of us are onto his slithering and deceptive ways. Here is what he said while delivering the inaugural Robert Burns Memorial Lecture: "The recent upsurge of attacks on Jews, synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish targets in Europe, Turkey and elsewhere, show this hatred to be, not just the stuff of history, but virulent still." Not one mention of the Islamic-wide conspiracy to destroy the aboriginal homeland of the Jews - Israel. Not one acknowledgement that Israel is as central to Judaism as Mecca is to Moslems or the Vatican is to Catholics. Is Kofi aware of this? I would hope so, since he apparently considers himself to be educated. Is he aware that most Jews are the original and indigenous people of Israel, albeit on the run from numerous campaigns of genocide? Most likely. But Kofi is the cheerleader for the Neo-Nazi world that would see all Jews subjugated or dead. Don't believe me? Let me remind you of Durban. In 2001, there was a UN World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa. Kofi Anan, as head of the UN, was ultimately responsible for its tone. For starters, they tried to resurrect the 'Zionism is Racism' mantra of anti-Semites everywhere. Then in true Arab form, the Arabs/Islamists once again attempted to steal the suffering of the Hebrew people and claim it for their own by lobbying to draft a resolution that anti-Semitism be defined as "anti-Arab sentiment" since Arabs are Semites. Copies of the infamous anti-Semitic forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" were for sale at the conference, and signs included such phrases as 'Hitler Should Have Finished the Job,' 'Israel a Terrorist State,' 'Sharon is a war criminal,' 'Zionism is racism' and 'End Israeli Apartheid.' Moving forward in history to the autumn of 2003, Kofi Anan presided over a veritable UN consensus to murder Jewish children. It all arose from a resolution that called for the protection of pseudo-Palestinian Arab children yet made no mention of Jewish children and babies. This resolution was overwhelmingly passed. In response to it, Israel drafted the first resolution it has put forth in 32 years. The resolution merely copied the one to protect Arab children but called for the protection of Jewish children. Under Kofi's reign it overwhelmingly failed. Nor did he condemn the failure. So now the UN is at it again. Watch for the Hague Court's Israeli Anti-Terror Barrier case to become another forum to advocate, in a diplomatic, civilized and polite way, the extermination of the Jewish people. Heil Kofi. *pseudo-Palestinian-Arab entity: The people occupying Gaza, Judea and Samaria are merely Arabs from varying ethnic and national backgrounds, not having any historic ties to the land as 'Palestinians.' The original and only Palestine was the Jewish one - dating back more than 2000 years. The only people referred to as Palestinians were the Hebrew people, until the early 1960s, when an Egyptian by the name of Mohammed Abdel Rahman al Qudwa al-Husseini changed his name to Yasser Arafat, gathered together a mob of Arab undesirables whose own native countries refused to take them back in for their murderous behavior and renamed them 'Palestinians.' This group of usurping Arabs is an entity because they have no legal status and entity was the most civilized word I could use for a people whose own polls show that they overwhelming support the genocidal bombings of Jews. Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

THE DIVISIVE PLAN TO EVACUATE YESHA Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 15, 2004.

In the early 1980s between observations and inquiries, I wrote several articles about the Labor Left's plans to evacuate all the Jews from the Jewish heartland of YESHA (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) and the Golan Heights. The basic phased plan was to use the power of high office then controlled by the Labor Party to cut off or squeeze all services to the civilians (pejoratively called: "the settlers") living in YESHA - to begin with. That would include but not be limited to restricting road building or improvements, holding back building permits for building, withholding the installation of water, sewage and electrical hook-ups. Additional, last phase of pressure would come in the form of withdrawal of military road patrols, checkpoints leaving the area defenseless against Terror.. The worst acts of the various governments in power have been stripping the armories of the Kibbutzim, Moshavim and small towns of rifles and heavy caliber machine guns - with insufficient ammunition to hold off any coalition of attacking Arab armies and/or Terrorists. If such a coordinated attack occurred, the Arab/Muslims would likely infiltrate and take over at least several communities, if not many. Capturing Jews as hostages has long been an Arab/Muslim Terror tactic. That would increase exponentially the tragedy of the Terrorists' urdering at least 1500 Israeli men, women and children since the Oslo peace accords were signed on the White House lawn September 13, 1993. This withdrawal of arms for self-defense was accomplished by mandatory inspections of the weapons - and then holding them indefinitely. (Please write to me if this didn't happen in YOUR community, because knowing your community is well defended creates a good deterrent to attack, however, it did happen to very many communities - on both sides of the Green Line.) Ammunition was strictly rationed to the point that those called "settlers" could only resist any coordinated Arab/Muslim aggression limited to hours - or perhaps days. At one point even officers who lived in the territories and not on duty were required to turn in their personal, licensed side arms. Neither soldiers nor their officers were trusted by the Leftist government if they lived in YESHA, particularly if they were observant Jews - and more than 40% of the higher soldiers and officers are observant. These were the opening phases of a campaign to make the territories Judenrein and vulnerable. The closing phase, that of totally eliminating military security, would be to create a climate of fear for the 'settlers.' After the withdrawal of road patrols, checkpoints and army bases, the 'settlers' would be exposed to the Palestinian Arab shock troops, now trained to be Terrorists and suicide bombers by years of insidious education, beginning as early as age 3 to teach children to hate and kill Jews. The 'settlers' and the 'settlements' are Israel's primary line of defense. If they are weakened and made vulnerable or evacuated, either willingly or forcibly, then the Terrorists will have nothing preventing them from entering any and every home, village, town and city to commit Terror. And they will become the training center for Terrorists to cast their murderous acts all over the world. So, give these pioneers credit for protecting you, wherever you live. Although there were special Israeli units being trained to forcibly evacuate their own kindred and extended families, they would rely upon the Arabs to create an atmosphere of Terror wherein Israeli civilians, including parents driving children to school or going to work would be impacted by the Terror on the road or even inside their own homes as Terror continues on. January 13, a young father of 5, including triplets still in their hospital incubators, was shot and killed by a sniper in a car on a road near his own home. These children join thousands of other orphaned Israeli children, plus those yet to be killed or orphaned under the Bush-Sharon Road Map. In Gaza, an Arab/Muslim Palestinian mother of two children, aged three and one, exploded herself on January 14th at a checkpoint. Her explosives set off the metal detector but she explained to the guards that she had a metal implant in her leg so the guard let her through and waited for a female soldier to do a body check. Then she detonated 10 pounds of explosives with ball bearings and screws, murdering the four young guards and wounding 9 others, including Arab Palestinians heading for work. Think of how many Palestinians prepared this women for her martyrdom, namely, planning, brainwashing, arms, explosives, et al. Sheik Yassin, the head of Hamas, bragged that "there is no truce, operations will continue" and we will use women because they cause less suspicion. She left behind a video, stating that her passion was to kill Israelis and enter Allah's heaven. Don't kid yourselves - this is a religious war. Sheik Yassin declared that 'Jihad' (holy war) was an "obligation of all Muslims, men and women." They say they intend to eliminate all non-Muslims, Jews and Christians. Their goal is nothing less than world domination after they eliminate the Jews, they will aim at the Christians. One of their favorite mottos is "First the Saturday people; then the Sunday people." Terror was to be the final instrument of what has come to be known as 'ethnic cleansing' In Israel's heartland of YESHA. But, it seems that despite the on-going Terror, more people have been moving into the YESHA communities than into any other part of Israel. Several units of Israeli troops, a regenerated remnant of PM Rabin's goon squads, were to be unleashed on the smaller settlements that were easiest to evacuate. This would be accompanied by offers of re-settlement compensation monies - as was done by Arik Sharon when Yamit was forcibly evacuated in the Sinai. Only how, in G-d's Name, can Israel afford to compensate 220,000 men, women and children for their homes, factories, farms, wineries and dreams, sweat and tears? Would America put up the money? Or is America just issuing threats, - such as those threats by the current U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer (one of James Baker's Jew-boys)? The compensation was the carrot and the Terror was the stick for those settlers who were not in Israel's heartland for ideological reasons. They could be more easily moved out. Those committed to stay because of their deep-seated religious beliefs in G-d's Promise of the Land to the people of Israel - they would have to be forced out by these specially trained elite forces called Yatam or Yassam (depending on how you would pronounce it). The Yassam and the Arab shock troops would then be free to attack settlers with impunity. Regrettably, those of the Labor Left were never brought to trial or even investigated for their illegal meetings with Yassir Arafat, his terrorists or to act as co-conspirators in what would be the murder of more Jews by Arab/Muslims. I am told there is no statute of limitations for justice placed on those who would conspire to commit murder, particularly when those murders have actually taken place. Clearly, the first planning of forced transfer of Jews which flowed into the Oslo Accords should have been indicted in light of all those killed - some 1500 since Oslo, plus hundreds of thousands wounded, many maimed for life. It's not too late to jail those responsible! It is now 2004 and once again I sense a re-formatting of the original plan to evacuate or forcibly transfer Jews out of the 'territories' under Sharon's adherence to the Bush Road Map (as reconstituted and distorted by the Arabist U.S. State Department). This has been resurrected by the same Osloids, now collaborating with the Europeans in an equally anti-Israel plan called "the Geneva Accords". This, of course, would include turning over to the Arab/Muslim Palestinians all the infrastructure of the evacuated Jewish presence. Each area would be quickly packed with so-called Arab Palestinians refugees from the surrounding Arab countries who were told to leave Israel in 1948 so their brethren could sweep the Jews into the sea. Then they would create another Arab/Muslim Palestinian State, which would be an instant center for training Terrorists, for stockpiling arms, for planning Terror attacks all over the Free World. It is estimated that these so-called refugees at last count could range from 3 to 5 million claimants. This arrangement would satisfy the Europeans, the Bush Administration (especially the pro-Arab State Department and a few of the Arab nations - for a short time. Few doubt that this would bring long term quiet and certainly not peace. As the Israelis move back under Sharon's slavish desire to follow the Bush Road Map, the Terrorists would move forward as they did when then Prime Minister Ehud Barak ran from Lebanon. The question now is, has Prime Minister Ariel Sharon adopted the Labor Left's early plans for evacuating the territories of YESHA. Will the military's eyes be closed> Road patrols and Army checkpoints for Terrorists closed down? Will there be forced evacuations by specially trained Israel regular Army forces or police units? Will Sharon abandon YESHA to the Arab/Muslims and their persuasive use of Terror throughout the State of Israel - because YESHA is actually all of Israel's first line of defense and many of the Terror attacks have occurred in Israel's main cities. I cannot help but wonder how much coordination exists with the Arabist U.S. State Department, especially as Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer provides Sharon with a list of so-called 'outposts' and 'settlements' that the U.S. (Bush and Powell) ordered to be evacuated. I notice that Sharon is pulling the same trick of hoodwinking the Knesset and the public as did Rabin - who promised frequently that in matters of land transfer, he would leave it to the people to decide in a referendum. Rabin lied and thus came to Oslo without any input or advise from the Israeli people or the Knesset or world Jewry. Now Sharon tells the Knesset that he will bring such decisions to the Knesset for debate but, like Rabin, he is probably lying and will bully through whatever he decides (or whatever the U.S. forces him to do) because, like Rabin and Peres, Sharon believes he knows what's best for the small Jewish country of Israel. Sharon's ego has blossomed since he became Prime Minister and he is sure he knows best. Withdrawing troops from the heartland territories is a deliberate sentence for the execution of Israelis by Palestinian Arab terrorists. The Arab/Muslims will understand the message of withdrawal as a clear invitation by the Sharon government to freely attack the citizens of YESHA and murder those who refuse to be driven out. Make no mistake about it. Sharon clearly understands what it means to make people expendable in the broader scheme of things. Now it is time to collect evidence of a massive betrayal should it occur - to be followed by Nuremberg-like trials for enabling Terror and for illegal evictions of citizens from their own homes. These should include those in government, past and present who conspired against the people and collaborated with foreign interests. I recall Saddam Hussein's method of driving out the Kurds in the North and replacing them with Arabs. Clearly, he planned and committed murder in his method of forced transfer. Now that he is a prisoner of America, I trust he will be brought to trial and executed by the Iraqi people who suffered so much torture and death from his regime. Conspiring to arrange or act as an enabler to murder your own people should most certainly carry the death penalty. Don't you think? Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm)

ARAFAT AND PICOT-SYKES Posted by Lee Rennert, January 15, 2004.

My letter was in response to an article in Ha'aretz. It was very enlightening on your part to report that Yasser Araft now traces all Arab and Palestinian problems to the 1916 Picot-Sykes Treaty (more about the treaty in a moment). It shows that with some people, the older they get, the more they tend to regress. Your readers will remember that Arafat, in his zeal to revise the past, not so long ago pulled the wool over the eyes of Bill Clinton and Yossi Beilin by signaling that he would be satisfied with reversing Israel's victory in the 1967 War. But that turned out to be just the first stop on his backward journey. It didn't take long before it became clear that what he really wanted was to reverse 1947-48, when modern Israel was founded. After all, he still orders Palestinians each year to commemorate their "great catastrophe," - by which he doesn't mean Israel's 1967 takeover of the West Bank and Gaza, but the earlier establishment of the Jewish state. Palestinians, he insists, will never relinquish the "right of return" of millions of Palestinians - his formula for erasing what happened in 1947-48. Now Arafat appears to have set himself an even more ambitious goal as he slides back further into the past with his efforts to undo history and restore Arab glory. What he really wants, according to your report, is to roll back Picot-Sykes, the secret British-French treaty during World War 1 that set the stage for the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the war. What he overlooks, of course, is that Arabs - after getting rid of British and French colonialism - took over the major fragments of the Ottoman Empire. They're now called Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and (Syrian-ruled) Lebanon. Still, Arafat is not satisfied. He wants a total Arab restoration by scrapping Picot-Sykes and reviving Nasser's dream of a single great Arab nation. But will he even stop there? As his plans for recapturing the past have progressed - or to be more exact, regressed - from 1967 to 1948 to 1916, perhaps the next stop in his time machine will be 1492 when Spain's Christian monarchs ended centuries of Moorish rule in Andalusia. If you're going for a big Arab score, why stop at restoring the Ottoman Empire, itself but a fragment of a once much greater Islamic commonwealth? Arafat, however, could run into a bit of a problem if he keeps pushing the calendar too far back. He could end up hurtling back a couple of millennia and discovering that Judea and Samaria were part of a sovereign Jewish nation. Perhaps Arafat should be reminded that if can pick which year in history he wants to return to, why can't Jews?

WE WERE BORN TO ESTABLISH AN IDEAL WORLD Posted by David Ha'Ivri, January 15, 2004.

This was written by Rabbi Binyamin Zev Kahane. You can read other of his essays in http://www.kahanebooks.com. He and his wife were ambushed and murdered by Arabs on December 31, 2000, leaving their six children orphaned. At the end of "Parshat Shmot" we find a confrontation between Moses and Aaron on the one hand and the officers of the children of Israel on the other. On the one side stood Moses and Aaron who had been assigned by Hashem to carry out a seemingly suicidal mission: to enter uninvited into the house of the king, of the imperial, menacing kingdom of Egypt, and to request that he let the Jewish slaves go free. In spite of the odds, Moses and Aaron, with faith in Hashem, went and fulfilled their mission completely. (According to our sages, all the elders that accompanied them dropped out along the way because of fear, until Moses and Aaron alone remained to face Pharaoh). And certainly Pharaoh rejected their request out of hand. The problem was, not only did he reject their request, but also in order to quell the "undesirable" excitement and expectation amidst the Jews, he informed them that their work conditions would become more severe. Not only would they have to keep up the stringent quota of bricks they were now required to produce, but also they themselves would have to gather the straw needed to make the bricks! The Character of the (Jewish) Officers Now entering into the picture are the "Officers of the Children of Israel." From the verses in our parsha, and from the commentary of our sages, we know that these were not essentially bad men; in the last analysis, they only wanted to lighten the burden of the Jews. More than this, they were prepared to bear the heavy burden for the sake of their brethren, rather than hand over to the Egyptian taskmasters those who were unable to fulfill their quotas. And for this reason, "The officers were beaten"!! (Shmot 5:14) In fact, the officers were themselves sort of communal leaders who apparently represented the Jews before the Egyptian ruler. As practical men who recognized the nature of the playing field, they played the game, they did not believe either in "making noise" or in revolutions. They were a kind of "workers committee" that wanted to lighten, a bit, the harsh conditions, hoping for some improvement. In their eyes, any noise, any demonstration, any meeting with Pharaoh that was not carried out according to the rules of protocol, would be destructive and damaging to the delicate work of many years. Like a Bull in a China Shop For this reason, the moment they heard about Moses and Aaron and their results, they became very angry. They opposed them with fervor: You are novices!! You are adventurers!! May Hashem look upon you and judge, for you have brought us into foul odor in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to place a sword into their hands to kill us!!" (Shmot, 5:21) Among other things, we have a confrontation here between the old guard leadership of the 'status quo' who wish to protect their achievements - which although modest, were achieved through hard labor - and New Men, who through their 'exaggerated' requests not only accomplish nothing, but also even cause the destruction of earlier achievements. In the eyes of the officers, Moses behaves like a bull in a china shop. And in fact, reality proves that the officers were correct. Seemingly, just after Moses and Aaron leave Pharaoh's presence, a harsh decree is put upon the nation. And who suffers for this? Moses and Aaron? No, of course not! The officers are the ones who suffer. They are the ones who receive the beatings for the sake of the people who cannot fulfill the impossible quotas. And all because of the irresponsibility of Moses and Aaron. The position of the officers seemed so correct, that even Moses himself thought they were in the right. He had so little confidence in his own opinion, that he sinned by showing a lack of faith in Hashem, by crying to Him, "Why is evil happening to this people, why did You send me?" There is No Smooth Rebellion And with all this...the officers were not right! The reason (and also the lesson from this) is that there is almost never a revolution or change where the first stages do not involve a loss of accomplishment! Sometimes this is essential, for the 'accomplishments' of the past are parenthetical; the arrangements of small-minded people, which though successful for putting out fires, establish a dismal situation which in themselves prevent any change. And sometimes, even in the case of true accomplishments, we must know that in order to bring change, there is no choice but to lose real accomplishments, at least temporarily. Because there will always be one Pharaoh or another who will threaten that if we don't sit quietly he will nullify our achievements, "and you will lose out because of this." But if we give in to his threats, we will remain captives in the hand of Pharaoh, we, our children and our children's children...until the end of time. Redemption - Or Slavery Under Improved Conditions In conclusion, whoever wants to progress - and this is true in every area - must take into account, that he will almost certainly find himself, at least temporarily, losing some ground. Whoever is not prepared for this will find himself, all his life, remaining in the straits of Egypt. Whoever wants change needs to warmly thank the 'existing officers' for their accomplishments, but say to them: now we are going further, we are going to progress. It is possible that a part of your accomplishments, or some of your accomplishments will be lost, either temporarily or permanently. But this is the price to pay for reaching the greater and ultimate goal. For we were not born in order to be slaves with improved conditions in Egypt; we were born to be redeemed. We were not born to live in villas in settlements surrounded by fences, like ghettos, with improved mortgage benefits: we were born to conquer and rule all of the land of Israel, free of the goyim and of our enemies. And if the price, more or less temporarily, is the loss of economic or security benefits, due to lack of participation on the part of the existing regime, or the necessity of gathering our own straw to make bricks for a while, the price is worth it. For we were not born to live with the status quo, after the fact. We were born to establish an ideal world, as it was at the beginning.

SECURITY ESTABLISHMENT TO OPEN EREZ CHECKPOINT ON SUNDAY Posted by Deb Kotz, January 15, 2004.

This is an article about the Arab woman who massacred the IDF soldiers, who wanted to be kind to her. It was written by Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and appeared January 16, 2004. The security establishment plans to reopen the Erez checkpoint on Sunday morning, four days after it was closed following a suicide bombing in which four people were killed. In talks held Thursday at Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's office, it was decided to open the western entrance of the checkpoint to workers and merchants entering Israel, starting early next week. The Erez industrial zone will remain closed until an alternate site for inspections is found, instead of the one that was destroyed on Wednesday. Mofaz decided late Wednesday to impose a total closure on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians can enter Israel only in humanitarian cases, though goods will be allowed in and out of the Strip. The IDF Southern Command would only make a decision on when to lift the closure on Saturday evening, Army Radio reported. A military spokesman said Mofaz had decided on "a general closure on the Gaza Strip," meaning no laborers would be able to enter Israel for work. Reem Salah Riashi, the mother of two young children, became the first female Hamas member to carry out a suicide attack when she detonated her bomb at the checkpoint that served thousands of Palestinians entering Israel to work. The fatalities were identified as Border Police Staff Sergeant Vladimir Trostiansky, 22, of Rehovot; Israel Defense Forces Staff Sergeant Tzur Or, 20, of Rishon Letzion; IDF Corporal Andrei Kegeles, 19, of Nahariya; and security guard Gal Shapira, 28, from Ashkelon. All the victims were laid to rest on Thursday. As of Thursday morning, nine victims of the blast were still hospitalized at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. The attack was meticulously planned. Palestinian sources said that 22-year-old Riashi had undergone an intensive period of training after being recruited at the mosque where she prayed. When she arrived at the crossing Wednesday, she had detailed intelligence regarding the inspection procedure, and took full advantage of the weak spots that planners of the attack had identified. She played her role, designed to mislead the security guards, to perfection. Witnesses who were in the terminal at the time of the attack say that Riashi was the very picture of wretchedness. She arrived at the crossing at around 9:30 A.M., some 90 minutes after 4,000 workers employed in the Erez industrial zone had passed through, choosing a day that many women come to the Erez checkpoint to request work permits in Israel. She passed unhindered through the Palestinian checkpoints at the south of the terminal, telling the police officer on duty that she was sick. From there, she progressed, with four other Palestinian women who were totally unaware of her plans, via the "security sleeve," toward the Israel section of the terminal. The building has been reconstructed several times in recent years, and, in the aftermath of shooting attack two years ago, security procedures have also been refreshed. Now, Palestinians have to go through a rotating metal device, and then pass through a metal detector. The Israeli guards - IDF soldiers, Border Police and security guards from private companies - watch them from behind reinforced windows. Only people who have passed through the metal detectors are allowed to progress into the terminal itself. When Riashi passed through the detectors and set them off, she told security guard Gal Shapira, who was stationed at the entrance to the terminal, that she had metal pins in her leg. She even lifted her dress slightly to show the guard a bandage. Shapira told her to pass through the detector again, and again the alarm sounded. The bomber then began to cry, lying on the floor and begging to be let through. The other women also asked the guards to let her through. Shapira called his superior, who told Riashi to move into the terminal. In the meantime, a female guard was called to conduct a physical examination. Security procedures dictate that when necessary, women be examined in a side room and by a female guard. When the female guard turned away to find gloves for the examination, the bomber advanced some four meters into the terminal. When she was in the midst of a group of guards, she detonated the explosive belt she was wearing around her waist. The device, which contained around five kilograms of explosives, killed four people, wounded nine others. The injured were evacuated to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, where doctors said that two remain in moderate condition. Among the injured were the female guard and a Palestinian woman who was applying for a work permit. The damage to the small building was severe. The commander of the Northern Gaza division, Colonel Yoel Strik, was in his office at the time of the blast, around one kilometer away. Strik was in the middle of a conversation with Channel 2's military correspondent, Roni Daniel. Moments before the explosion, Strik was speaking about the Erez crossing. Every few months, there's an attack at the Erez crossing, he was saying, and they are always large-scale. The conversation was cut short by the blast. The initial report was that a mortar had landed nearby, but Strik heard the explosion and recognized it immediately as a bomb. When he arrived on the scene a few minutes later, he was proven right. Daniel's cameraman documented how the officers tried to restore order and others drew up lists of the dead and injured. There is no hysteria evident in the pictures, just businesslike activity. At the same time, troops were closing down the Erez industrial zone. Within a few hours, the Palestinians employed there were told by loudspeaker to leave their places of work. They were rounded up outside the factories, underwent security checks and were sent home to the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia declined to condemn the attack, saying that continued Israeli attacks and restrictions on the Palestinians are leading "to more escalation on both sides." Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath said that the Palestinian Authority was capable of stopping such terror attacks, but that Israel must first halt its attacks on the Palestinians, Israel Radio reported. Speaking from Copenhagen, Sha'ath said that last August the Palestinians unilaterally halted attacks, but this collapsed because Israel failed to abide by this as well. Sha'ath refrained from condemning Wednesday's bombing. Despite the bombing, the Erez crossing will not be closed this morning. Some 15,000 workers and traders from Gaza will pass through the site on their way to work inside Israel. Only the industrial zone will remain closed, until a solution can be found for the ruined terminal. "The days when Gaza was sealed off because of a terror attack in Afula are long gone," a senior officer from the Southern Command told Haaretz Wednesday. Despite the dangers involved, the IDF is keen to get back to normal as soon as possible. Deb Kotz is a volunteer distributor of informative and timely emails for the Baltimore-Washington chapters of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

COLIN POWELL: Let's Be Consistent Posted by Steven Plaut, January 15, 2004.

You know how Colin Powell wants to offset anything Israel spends on its Security Fence from US aid to Israel? You might want to write him and President Bush and ask how come the US has never offset from its aid to Egypt all the money the Egyptians are spending on building illegal tunnels into Gaza that allow the PLO to smuggle in explosives, like the sort that yesterday were used by the Palestinian mother of two to massacre the compassionate IDF soldiers. 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.

THE MEDIA SHOULD SHIFT FOCUS IN GAZA TERRORIST ATTACK Posted by CAMERA, January 15, 2004.

[Ed note. Background: Reem Salih al Rayashi, 21, a mother of 2, blew herself up while murdering three IDF soldiers and a civilian. This occured inside the security check terminal, where thousands of Palestinian workers are allowed to pass each day to work at the nearby Erez industrial zone in Gaza. In a video made before the bombing, Rayashi declared it was her lifelong dream to become a suicide bomber. She is already being worshipped in Palestinian society as a glorious role model for Young Arabs.] By publishing Reem Al-Reyashi's "martyr" photo and highlighting her motherhood, too many media reports are inadvertently glorifying the female terrorist who killed four Israelis at the Erez checkpoint in Gaza on Wednesday, January 14. At the same time, virtually every report so far has failed to explore two key aspects of her attack: 1) the ploy the terrorist used to attempt to gain entry into Israel and the consequences it will have for Palestinian women, workers, and those who need to quickly pass through checkpoints due to medical emergencies. Witnesses reported that Al-Reyashi approached the checkpoint with such a bad limp that she was offered assistance by another woman, whom she rebuffed. Then, according to Ha'aretz newspaper reporter Amos Harel: "When Riashi passed through the detectors and set them off, she told security guard Gal Shapira, who was stationed at the entrance to the terminal, that she had metal pins in her leg. She even lifted her dress slightly to show the guard a bandage. Shapira told her to pass through the detector again, and again the alarm sounded. "The bomber then began to cry, lying on the floor and begging to be let through. The other women also asked the guards to let her through. Shapira called his superior, who told Riashi to move into the terminal. In the meantime, a female guard was called to conduct a physical examination. Security procedures dictate that when necessary, women be examined in a side room and by a female guard. "When the female guard turned away to find gloves for the examination, the bomber advanced some four meters into the terminal. When she was in the midst of a group of guards, she detonated the explosive belt she was wearing around her waist." 2) the implications of her statement that she had wanted to become a "martyr" since she was 13 years old, which was approximately 1995. Consequences of Faking A Medical Condition This terror attack demonstrates once again why Israelis must check all Palestinians entering Israel, even women and even those who appear to be in need of medical care. As a result of Al-Reyashi's faking a limp and claiming a medical condition, Palestinian women, and patients who appear to be in obvious pain, will now be subjected to even stricter scrutiny at checkpoints to ensure that they also are not human bombs. Any future reports about the inconvenience of checkpoints, and particularly reports about medical care being delayed by security checks, should include reference to Al-Reyashi's cynical fabrication of a leg injury to aid her entry into Israel to murder Israelis. Al-Reyashi's ploy is in the tradition of other Palestinians who have faked medical conditions or abused the supposed neutrality of medical personnel to transport explosive belts, combatants and terrorists. For example, *On March 10, 2003, Palestinian ambulance driver, Aslam Jibril, pleaded guilty to transporting explosives hidden in his ambulance on March 26, 2002. The explosives, weighing 10 kilos and attached to a belt [worn by suicide bombers], were hidden underneath a stretcher, which was carrying a young boy (his nephew) pretending to be sick. (IDF Spokesperson, March 10, 2003) *"Troops arrest wanted militant in ambulance. In the Gaza Strip, soldiers arrested a wanted militant who was traveling in a Palestinian ambulance at the Gush Katif junction, Israel Radio reported. The troops became suspicious after noticing that there were no medical personnel or injured persons in the vehicle. They proceeded to search the ambulance and found the Palestinian." (Ha'aretz, June 11, 2002) * "Israel Radio Correspondent, Nissim Keinan, reported this evening from Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip that today he observed a Palestinian ambulance parked next to Netzarim Junction unloading crates of ammunition and fire bombs. He observed some of the bombs [being] thrown." (IMRA, October 4, 2000) Terrorist Yearned to Murder Since Early Years of Oslo Process As reported by Fox News (Jan 14), "Smiling at times in a videotape that showed her cradling a rifle, Al-Reyashi said she had dreamed since she was 13 of 'becoming a martyr' and dying for her people. 'It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on the doors of heaven with the skulls of Zionists,' said Reyashi, wearing combat fatigues with a Hamas sash across her chest." In initial reports, we have yet to see anyone connect the dots in this statement. If Reyashi dreamed of "becoming a martyr" since she was 13, that means that she dreamed of murdering Israelis in approximately 1995 (reports vary as to whether Reyashi was 21 or 22), when Israel and the Palestinians were engaged in the Oslo peace process, and Gaza was under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Her statement highlights the likelihood that it is not any action of Israel's that provokes terrorism, but the pervasive incitement/indoctrination against Israel that Palestinians have been subjected to since 1993, when the Palestinian Authority came into existence. Palestinian Murder of Father of 3-Month Old Triplets Given Scant Attention: On Tuesday, January 13, Ro'i Arbel, a 29-year-old father of 3-month-old triplets (and two other young children) was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in a sniper attack. Yet his compelling human interest story has so far only been published in Israeli papers. His murder has mostly been relegated to one or two sentences in articles about other developments in Israel or the disputed territories. Media coverage has been extensive about the personal aspects of the female bomber who perpetrated the Gaza bombing (a different attack than the one that killed Ro'i) and her photo has been published. By what journalistic standard is this story given prominence, while lives cut short or changed forever by the terrorists are almost entirely ignored? CAMERA - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America - monitors the media for anti-Israel bias. Its website address is http://www.camera.org.

LOST IN TRANSLATION Posted by Tamar Rush, January 15, 2004.

This was written by Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff and appeared in Newsweek October 27, 2003. The Feds listen in on terrorists but often don't have a clue to what they're saying. It's a real problem, not helped by the FBI's refusal to hire Jews, whose families are from Arab countries, and who speak Arabic. The clash of civilizations rages in some surprising places, and one of them is the large room in the FBI's Washington, D.C., Field Office that houses a unit known as CI-19. In one set of cubicles sit the foreign-born Muslims; across a partition is everyone else. They have the same vital job: to translate supersecret wiretaps of suspected terrorists and spies. But the 150 or so members of CI-19 (for Counterintelligence) segregate themselves by ethnicity and religion. Some of the U.S.-born translators have accused their Middle Eastern-born counterparts of making disparaging or unpatriotic remarks, or of making "mistranslations" - failing to translate comments that might reflect poorly on their fellow Muslims, such as references to sexual deviancy. The tensions erupt in arguments and angry finger-pointing from time to time. "It's a good thing the translators are not allowed to carry guns," says Sibel Edmonds, a Farsi translator who formerly worked in the unit. To fight the war on terror, the FBI desperately needs translators. Every day, wiretaps and bugs installed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) record hundreds of hours of conversations conducted in Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages like Farsi. Those conversations must all be translated into English - and quickly - if investigators are to head off budding Qaeda plots against the United States. Today, more than two years after the 9/11 attacks, the FBI is still woefully short of translators. FBI Director Robert Mueller has declared that he wants a 12-hour rule: all significant electronic intercepts of suspected terrorist conversations must be translated within 12 hours. Asked if the bureau was living up to its own rule, a senior FBI official quietly chuckled. He was being mordant: he and every top gumshoe are well aware that the consequences could be tragic. Since 9/11, goaded by the dire warnings of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Congress has poured billions of dollars into the war on terror to beef up manpower, including hiring foreign-language translators. (CALLING ALL LINGUISTS... TO SERVE YOUR COUNTRY, reads the latest help-wanted ad posted on the FBI's Web site.) The bureau has made some headway: before 9/11, the FBI had only 40 Arabic and 25 Farsi speakers to listen to national-security intercepts. Today, officials claim, there are 200 Arabic and 75 Farsi speakers on the job (about two thirds are contract employees). Still, that's not nearly enough: every week, say informed sources, hundreds of hours of tapes from wiretaps and bugs pile up in secure lockers, waiting, sometimes for months on end, to be deciphered. The bureau's slow progress is not for lack of money. Rather, the FBI's understandable but obsessive concern with security, its sometimes cumbersome bureaucracy and, critics say, the remnants of its nativist culture make it a difficult place for Muslims and foreign-born linguists to get jobs and work. A shortage of Arabic speakers has plagued the entire intelligence community. Though U.S. intelligence was using all the best technology - spy satellites, high-tech listening posts and other devices - to listen in on the conversations of possible terrorists, far too often it had no idea what they were saying. A congressional inquiry after 9/11 found enormous backlogs. Millions of hours of talk by suspected terrorists - including 35 percent of all Arabic-language national-security wiretaps by the FBI - had gone untranslated and untranscribed. Some of the overseas intercepts contained chillingly precise warnings. On Sept. 10, 2001, the National Security Agency picked up suggestive comments by Qaeda operatives, including "Tomorrow is zero hour." The tape of the conversation was not translated until after 9/11. The FBI is still overwhelmed. Because of a threefold increase in FISA wiretaps to monitor the terror threat, the bureau has struggled to keep up. Mueller has been adamant about trying to monitor conversations - in real time - in the dozen or so truly urgent terrorism investigations. But he has been disappointed again and again. One FBI official described an oft-repeated awkward scene in the director's office: a top investigator comes to brief Mueller on a high-priority case, the kind that appears in the Threat Matrix shown to President George W. Bush every morning. During the course of the presentation, it becomes obvious that there are significant gaps in the case. The sheepish agent finally admits that hours of wiretaps have yet to be translated. Mueller, a no-nonsense ex-Marine, swallows his exasperation and tersely instructs his subordinates to "do better." In theory, there are rules for prioritizing which conversations are to be translated first. Can the information be obtained elsewhere? Is the speaker a known Qaeda member? Is there other intelligence suggesting urgency? In practice, says one street agent, "it all depends on how loud you scream on the phone to headquarters." Agents who live in fear of missing the smoking gun that might prevent a catastrophic terror attack are at a loss to explain the bureau's inability to fix the problem. "We keep getting these signals that they need a full-court press and no stone unturned," says one agent. "But the jewels might be on a diskette in a secure locker in Washington. It keeps some of us awake at night." G-men tell horror stories of blown opportunities, like the one about a Qaeda suspect whose phone was tapped right up to the moment he left the United States. Only after he had surfaced in Yemen did the translators in CI-19 get around to listening to a CD-ROM of his conversations sent to a field office. The suspect had been talking about leaving the country for some time. (FBI officials declined to comment on the matter, except to say that the facts are more complicated than the story suggests, and to note that without evidence of a crime the suspect could not have been detained anyway.) The grumbles of street agents are not just the usual grousing about the "suits" back at Washington headquarters. In the weeks before the Iraq war, Newsweek has learned, agents in a field office on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States were closely watching a radical imam with disturbing ties to Qaeda elements in northern Iraq. The FBI feared that the imam might try to launch a terror attack in the United States in retaliation for a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Agents put the imam under round-the-clock surveillance. But, lacking a translator who could listen to his conversations in real time, the agents loaded FedEx boxes with CD-ROMs and sent them to Washington to be translated. The recordings languished there for weeks and even months before transcripts were made. Desperate for faster action, the FBI field office hired a translator - but had to settle for one who had trouble understanding the imam's particular dialect.

LET'S SPEAK TURKISH TO THEM Posted by IsrAlert, January 15, 2004.

This was written by Israel Harel and appeared today in Ha'aretz. Peace, say those who call themselves men of peace, is more important than territory. Why, in their doctrine, is this truth applicable only to Israel but not, for example, to Syria? Why do they ask us to concede - for the sake of peace, of course - all of the Golan Heights, while it never occurs to them that this demand could be made, also for the sake of peace, from the Syrians? After all, Syria has 10 times as much territory as Israel, and its population, relative to its size, is sparse. The Golan was under Syrian control for about 21 years only, while Israel has controlled it for over 36 years. The Golan is approximately one-fifth the size of the Alexandretta region, which the Syrians claim belongs to them, but which Turkey - another country known for its lack of territory - annexed for itself. The oil-rich Mosul region was taken from Syria close to 80 years ago, as was the Tripoli region in Lebanon. Syria, therefore, has no lack of territory, and, as evident from its concessions to Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon, territory is not its primary concern. Syria is in a crisis, the head of Military Intelligence tells us. Its economy is collapsing; the upper echelon of the government, from the Alawi minority, fears for its future; and the army, whose equipment has hardly been updated since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is in the process of disintegration. America includes Syria in the axis of evil and Congress is enacting sanctions against Damascus. Pressured by all these, Syrian President Bashar Assad is perhaps trying to weave negotiations with Israel. Our response is reserved, as it should be at the outset of any negotiations - and certainly negotiations with Syria, through whose troubles we could obtain, even as a downpayment, the restraining of Hezbollah and the expulsion of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership from Damascus. In light of the above, it is difficult to accept the assault on the government, from both the opposition parties and the media, which have accused it of foot-dragging. More than the critics - who, in their great wisdom, declare in advance that "the Golan is Syrian," - want peace, they are hell bent on a withdrawal for its own sake, when this means the destruction of the settlement effort in the Golan. In their personal dealings, these critics probably know how to bargain and earn the highest profits, particularly if their negotiation partner is desperate and on the brink of bankruptcy. The same is not true, according to their reasoning, when the national interest is at stake. Considering their declarations that we have no business being in the Golan, the Syrians will have difficulty agreeing even to Israeli control at the precipice line. Assad's visit to Ankara earlier this month was justifiably dubbed "historic." Indeed, after 66 years of insistent Syrian claims for the return of the Alexandretta region, which Turkey took over in 1937, a Syrian president makes a first-ever visit-concession to Turkey - a kind of unconditional surrender. Assad's gracious manners, a few short years after Turkey was on the verge of invading Syria, are, therefore, a recognition of the annexation of the Alexandretta region to Turkey and its right to build dams along the Euphrates River. Arid Syria, whose claim that the water also belongs to it has a basis in international law, is so desperate that she concedes the water too. We could learn a lot, if only we desired, from these strategic concessions. At the end of World War I, the British and the French carved up the Middle East into countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and, later, Jordan. This last was established on the territory that was promised in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 for the national Jewish homeland - a promise that was approved by the League of Nations, the body that preceded the United Nations. The imperialists determined artificial borders for the countries they established, and the ethnographic division was also arbitrary. It tore apart (and also artificially joined) tribes and members of faiths such as the Sunnis and the Shi'ites. One of the results was the gouging, under the pressure of the powers, mainly at Syria's territory. The latter wisely accepted its losses - because it has territory aplenty, but not water. That is why Hafez Assad could not accept the construction of the dams on the Euphrates and began aiding the Kurds in a revolt against the Turks, to pressure Turkey into halting the cessation of water to Syria - just as he helped Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror organizations. Turkey responded by moving troops to the Syrian border and Assad, who knew a bit about the Turks - and they about him - capitulated. At that time, proposals were raised in Israel - this was at that height of the Hezbollah terror activities in Lebanon and northern Israel - "to speak to Assad in Turkish." The Israeli leadership, however, lacks the Turkish determination, which causes an inferior opponent to accept its situation. It is because of this weakness that to this day, Israel has not succeeded in putting an end to Syria's support of Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror, as the Turks put an end to the support for the Kurds. Now, when the pressured and disintegrating Syria is serenading on Israel's doorstep, we must set the price, including interest and linkage, for Syrian aggressiveness over the years. If we resolutely demand - "in Turkish" - peace with the Golan, Syria is liable to come to terms with reality, following the precedents of Alexandretta, Mosul and the Euphrates. Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

THE JEWISH STATE AND A PALESTINIAN STATE: Mutually Exclusive or Inclusive? The Palestinian Refugees - Myth and Reality Posted by Hatikvah Educational Foundation, January 15, 2004.

This is Ad #6 in a series of ad placed by the Hatikvah Educational Foundation. As were all of the Hatikvah ads - this was written by Yoram Ettinger, former Israeli liaison with the U.S. Congress. See http://www.acpr.org.il/hatikvah/ for the series. THE BASIC FACTS *There were 100 million refugees in the world since Second World War, and 80 million refugees during 1933-1945. Most are no longer refugees. Only the Arabs have perpetuated the Palestinian refugees, as a means to destroy Israel. *820,000 JEWISH REFUGEES and 300,000 PALESTINIAN REFUGEES were produced by a war launched, against Israel, by the Palestinians and the Arab states. *300,000 PALESTINIAN REFUGEES: 800,000 Arabs resided in the country in November 1947 and 170,000 upon the conclusion of Israel's War of Independence. Of the 630,000, 100,000 were allowed to return, 100,000 were absorbed in Arab countries, 50,000 Bedouins joined their tribes in Jordan and Sinai, 50,000 were migrant laborer who returned to their homes in Arab countries. *A PALESTINIAN REFUGEE, according to UNRWA, was any Arab who stayed in the country for two years prior to 1948. *A MAJOR MIGRATION FROM MUSLIM COUNTRIES, especially to the coastal plain, took place during 1830-1947. MOST PALESTINIAN REFUGEES resided in the coastal plain. MOST PALESTINIAN REFUGEES WERE ARAB MIGRANTS *The origin of most Palestinian refugees was from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Algeria and Libya, migrating during 1830-1947. The Arab population of Jaffa, Haifa and Ramleh grew 17, 12 and 5 times during 1880-1947. *"30,000-36,000 SYRIANS migrated to Palestine in recent months" (Syrian daily, La Syrie, Aug. 12, 1934). *JAFFA ABSORBED ARABS FROM 15 COUNTRIES, who populated some "Egyptian Neighborhoods": Abu Kabir, Salameh, Sumeil, Sheikh Muneis, Feja, etc. Egyptian occupation (1831-1840) produced thousands of Egyptian migrants in Jaffa, Petach Tiqva, Hadera, Kalansawa, Acre, Beit She'an, Nablus, etc. *THOUSANDS OF ARAB MIGRANT LABORERS were imported by the Ottoman Empire and Britain for infrastructure projects, and as a result of the expansion of Jewish businesses, while severe British measures limited Jewish Aliya. CAUSES OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES *ABU MAZEN: "Arab armies forced Palestinians to leave their homes." ("Filastin A-Thawra", March 1976). *LONDON ECONOMIST (Oct. 2, 1948):"The most potent factor [in the flight of Palestinians] was the announcements made by the Arab-Palestinian Higher Executive, urging all Haifa Arabs to quit...It was clearly intimated that Arabs who remained in Haifa would be regarded as renegades." *THE FLIGHT OF THE ARAB ELITE (BEFORE THE WAR), the INTER-PALESTINIAN GANG WAR (as it was during 1936-39) and the ARAB DEFEAT on the battle field, expanded the number of refugees. Many returned to their countries of origin. *"[ARAB LEADERS] ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FLIGHT... They disseminated rumors exaggerating Jewish atrocities...They instilled fear in the hearts of the Arabs, until they fled, leaving their homes..." (Jordan's "Al-Urdoun", April 9, 1953). *In 1948, The BRITISH MANDATE urged Jewish and Arab minorities to evacuate mixed towns. The Arabs evacuated (Tiberias, etc.) and the Jews stayed and prevailed (Safed, etc.). MISREPRESENTATION OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PHENOMENON has been intended to de-legitimize Israel and to legitimize the "claim of return", as a means to destroy Israel. "Hatikvah Educational Foundation was established in response to the rising educational needs of an uninformed public about the post-September 11, 2001 reality in general and the post-September 11, 2001 reality in the Middle East in particular. "Hatikvah's first project is the publication of 25 bi-weekly full page ads. They provide facts (geography, topography, security, military and history) on the implications of a Palestinian state, west of the Jordan River, on Israel's survival and on vital US interests and values."

US AMBASSADOR KURTZER REFUSES TO CONDEMN FATAH MURDERS Posted by Elias Yrachmiel, January 15, 2004.

Last night, Shlomi Arbel, age 28, driving north of Jerusalem, was murdered. Shlomi leaves 5 children, ages 4, 2 and triplets who are still in incubators. The Fateh movement, the mainstream movement of the PLO under the direct control of Arafat, Abu Allah, Abu Mazen and now in negotiation with Israeli left wingers led by Yossi Beilin under the Geneva Initiative, took credit for the murder of Shlomi Arbel. The Fateh, declared by the US and Israel to be a terrorist organization, is allowed by both governments to operate because of political negotiations that continue between Israel. This morning, Israel Resource News Agency asked the spokesmen of the US State Department in Israel - the US embassy in Tel Aviv and the US Consulate in Jerusalem if the US would condemn the Fateh for praising and taking credit for the murder of Shlomi Arbel. After no response was received from either official, Israel Resource News Agency called the office of US Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Daniel Kurtzer. We left a message with his secretary, Debbi, asking if Ambassador Kurtzer would issue a condemnation of the Fateh praise for the murder of Shlomi Arbel. We called Debbi two hours later for the response. Debbi's answer was that Kurtzer was en route to the US and that he would certainly not have any comment on the matter. I explained to Debbi that she should remind Ambassador Kurtzer of the Talmudic edict that SHTIKA K'HODAAH DAMI, which connotes that "silence is agreement". Ambassador Kurtzer, a former Dean of Students at Yeshiva University, is familiar with that Talmudic teaching. This morning, following Shlomi's murder, another member of the Fateh blew herself up at a checkpoint this morning, killing four Israelis in the process. Ambassador Kurtzer has stressed on a number of occasions that he expects Israel to go easy on the checkpoints and to ease up on curfews on Arab drivers on the roads. The results of Kurtzer's advice are clear. Meanwhile, from Israeli government documents that Israel Resource News Agency has examined, we have verified that the US State Department has succeeded in making Israel resume humanitarian aid assistance to the Palestinian Authority, even though Israeli intelligence has documents which show that current Israeli humanitarian aid to the PA gets siphoned off to private PA accounts in Europe. From other Israeli government documents that we have examined, we find that the US State Department has also succeeded in getting the Israel Ministry of Justice to discourage suits of murder victim families against the PLO or the PA. In terms of the rule of law in Israel, Ambassador Kurtzer convened a press conference at the end of December in which he told the Israeli press corps that no matter what the Israeli courts decide concerning the legality of the property claims of 43 families in the Migron west bank outpost happened to be, he expected that Israel would abide by the American directive to evacuate Migron. On a totally different subject, Ambassador Kurtzer was asked if the US embassy would look into reports of widespread persecution of Christian residents of the Palestinian Authority. No response has yet been received. Elias Yrachmiel's blogsite, http://netzahyisrael.org/blogger.html, is an activist site, devoted to redeeming the Land of Israel.

A SOLUTION TO SAFER BODY SEARCHES OF SUSPECTED SUICIDE BOMBERS Posted by Jock L. Falkson, January 15, 2004.

The tragic suicide bombing at the Erez terminal outside Gaza on Wednesday claimed the lives of 3 Israeli teenaged soldiers, and a private Israeli security guard. It would appear Israel has no effective solution to Arab women who decide to explode themselves into the arms of Allah who awaits with special rewards for the so called murderous courage of so called shaheeds. Here is a suggested system which would provide an effective solution to conducting body searches of suspects without endangering the lives of young Israeli soldiers, male or female. 1. Israel's first line of defense must start on the Palestinian side of the terminal. The Palestine Authority must search all those wishing to cross over into Israel. 2. Any Palestinian, male or female, who registers possession of metal (probably shrapnel) on metal detectors, becomes a suspect. 3. The suspect must be directed to a specially constructed search room built from heavily reinforced concrete. 4. The room should have a see through window made of especially strong explosion-resistant glass. 5. The roof should be canvas/plastic covered to allow the upward force of the explosion to escape harmlessly above. 6. The suspect must be required to strip each layer of clothes separately, until the metal is revealed. 7. Female/male suspects will only be observed by Israelis of the same sex. The suspect will be able to see the observers through the glass. 8. If no metal is revealed the suspect should be turned back on the grounds that the metal could be inside the body. If this system were in force, the 4 innocent Israelis would be alive. No funerals, no grief stricken families. No sad and embittered nation. It is true of course, that the suggested method is unlikely to be a permanent solution. Even a signed peace accord will not serve if the Palestinians secretly continue to plan our extermination. Meanwhile the terrorists will surely seek other methods of killing innocent Israelis. This is the publicly stated mission of the Palestinian terrorists, their funders and political spokespersons. Nevertheless, until a peace is reached, Israel will have no alternative except to seek fresh solutions to safeguard our people. We cannot, will not, and must not give up. The Jewish State is too precious to the Jewish People. Jock Falkson is an Israeli writer and translator. He can be reached by email at falkson@barak-online.net.

ISRAELI-IRANIAN DIALOGUE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 15, 2004.

The Defense Minister of Israel broadcast to the people of Iran his plans to minimize their casualties in any war Iran would launch against Israel. Iranians called up the station to express appreciation for that policy and their general admiration for Israel. Israeli newspapers misquoted the Defense Minister, and the Government of Iran quoted the opposite of what he had said. Israel rebroadcast his remarks to refute the distortion (IMRA, 12/24). The article quoted the actual remarks, which were unmistakably humanitarian. The article did not quote the distortions. The people of Iran detest their theocratic dictators. I think that the US should help them, with whatever it takes, and soon, to gain freedom. Such an action greatly would reduce support for international terrorism, intimidate terrorist states, and increase support for anti-terrorism. Mr. 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.

THE IRISH OF THE WORLD: Understanding Our Current Struggle Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 15, 2004.

This article was written by the columnist John Derbyshire and appeared yesterday on the National Review website (http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire200401140857.asp). He makes interesting and valid comparisons between IRA and Arab Palestinian terrorism. I think he's wrong to say that neither group is capable of doing all that much damage longterm. I also think the analogy between the groups breaks down in that the Irish have a focused objective - unite northern Israel and the Irish state. The Arabs, on the other hand, are developing their terrorism skills - with Saudi Arabia acting as Mr. Moneybags - in Israel. If they win, they'll move ahead to fight the rest of the Western world. We all know, and have known since 9/11, that our country faces a threat. What kind of threat is it, though, that has brought us this war on terror? I doubt there are many of us who think that it is the kind of threat that Britain faced from Hitler, or the Roman Republic from Hannibal - the threat of conquest and subjugation by an enemy power. On the other hand, the threat is plainly not trivial. I remarked soon after 9/11 that the behavior of the administration was that of people who had asked their highest-level security people, at some sober meeting, across some polished table set out with notepads and water glasses, what was the worst that might happen, and been told in reply: "We could lose a city." George W. Bush is the kind of man who, after being told that, would immediately say, or think: "Not if there's anything I can do to stop it." But is this right - could we really lose a city? What are the stakes in the war on terror? What is the nature, what is the scale, of the threat we face? Folk like me, who pass comment on public affairs for a living, think about this constantly. (Not that many other citizens don't likewise. I am only saying that when opinions are your business, this is one point on which you must have an opinion.) We read anything we can find that will help clarify the issue in our minds. We don't, of course, all come to the same conclusion, even after reading the same material - human nature precludes that kind of unanimity. We come to some kind of conclusion, though. Here is mine. Sometimes I find myself reading something idly, something I did not particularly seek out for purposes of enlightenment, something I read just to while away some time in a doctor's waiting room or suchlike, yet which turns my mind to the main issue. This happened the other day. The item I was reading was Lawrence Wright's fine long New Yorker piece about his experiences in Saudi Arabia. Wright had been hired by the English-language Saudi Gazette to train young Saudi reporters. He spent several weeks in Saudi Arabia early in 2003, a period which overlapped with the start of the Iraq war. In this New Yorker piece (it is in the January 5 issue) he tells of his experiences inside the Saudi press, and passes comments on the talk, attitudes, and beliefs of urban Saudis. Some of what he says is familiar to us by now. The Saudis are resentful of America. Many of them hate us, and those who do not hate us do not love us. They are addicted to wildly improbable conspiracy theories, mainly involving Jews. None of them is capable of imagining much in the way of human motivation, certainly not at the national level, beyond money and blood-lust. Wright: "One of the relentless themes of the Saudi media was that the twin objects of American power were oil and murder." They are spoiled rotten by their oil wealth, and incapable of doing any kind of real work, all of which is done by foreigners. (Recall P. J. O'Rourke's report from the 1991 Gulf War about Western journalists in Saudi Arabia running a book on who could be the first to spot a Saudi lifting anything heavier than his billfold.) Perhaps the most horrible aspect of Saudi society is its exclusion of women from just about everything. "Almost all public space... belonged to men. The restaurants had separate entrances for 'families' and 'bachelors,' and I could hear women scurrying past, hidden by screens, as they went upstairs or to a rear room." Wright has a number of things to say about this at different points in his story, and with each remark he makes, the impression mounts that there is some deep societal sickness, something pathological going on here. Speaking of the 9/11 hijackers' fantasies of being rewarded with virgins in the afterlife, Wright says: "Such abstractions don't seem quite so strange in a country where images of women piped through a satellite dish seem more vivid than actual Saudi women - whom the male reporters at the Gazette liked to call B.M.O.s, or 'black moving objects.'" He goes on to comment on the wretched state of marriage in Saudi Arabia - a revelation which, at this point in the narrative, one does not find the least bit surprising. Another thing Wright brings out is the ugly generation gap. Middle-class Saudi men are often quite worldly. Frequently they have been educated in the West, and can at least see a Western point of view. Their sons, whom they find it difficult to communicate with, are more worrying, to them as well as to us. Having nothing much to hope for in the way of a career or a satisfying married life, these young people huddle in their rooms with computers and Koranic tracts, fixing their hopes on the next world, or on the ersatz immortality offered by a Cause. In a subsequent interview about the New Yorker piece, Wright says that he found "a great mood of hopelessness and despair and sadness, especially among the young reporters that I was working with." I don't think it is unfair to take the situation in Saudi Arabia as representative of that in the Arab world at large, and to some lesser extent the Muslim world at large. To the degree that we have a problem with Arabs, and with Muslims in general, Saudi Arabia shows the concentrated essence of it. So...what is it? And what is the threat? In the first place, it is certainly not a Hitler-sized or Hannibal-sized threat. These societies are such abject failures that there is no prospect of them being able to overthrow us by force. When you read about the Arabs - I have been reading a great deal this past couple of years, though I continue to think that David Pryce-Jones The Closed Circle is the best general introduction to the topic - you build up a picture of how comprehensive is the failure of their societies in the modern age. They are not merely political failures: they are military, economic, cultural, and social failures, too. In these respects, they are no threat to us. Their very failure, though, and the massive inferiority complex it leaves them with, gives rise to a threat of sorts, as of course we found out on 9/11. To get a good analogy for the scale of that threat, carry out the following thought experiment. Imagine you are a citizen of a single nation with some decent cultural achievements to its credit in the past - at very least, in the decorative arts, in poetry and literature, and in the transmission of knowledge from the ancient world to the late-medieval. Imagine now that your nation finds itself living in the shadow of a much richer, more powerful, more aggressive nation - a nation that is aggressive not only in arms, but also in culture, spreading its language and art, even its social customs and political institutions. Suppose, further, that this bigger, richer, more aggressive nation has seized a part of your territory, planted its own people there, and denied your claim to sovereignty over it. As a young person of spirit, how would you feel about this? The analogy I am drawing is, of course, with Ireland vis-a-vis Britain. In my analogy, Ireland plays the part of the Arab world, perhaps of the larger Muslim world, while Britain plays the part of the West. The analogy is far from perfect, of course. The West never ruled the Arabs in the way, or for the length of time, that Britain ruled Ireland. I cannot think of any Western leader who dealt with the Arabs as Oliver Cromwell dealt with the Irish. Nor did Ireland ever suffer the extreme misogynist neurosis that Lawrence Wright describes in Saudi Arabia. Nor were her rulers and people ever corrupted by great wealth that required no effort on their part to generate it - Ireland's economic problem was not wealth, but poverty. One historian of Ireland remarked that she was, from Britain's point of view, strategically vital but economically worthless, and that this accounted for Britain's centuries-long policy of "neglect punctuated with repression." The Arabs are an opposite case: economically vital to us, but not important in any other way. The analogy does work in one respect, though: in each case there is a Cause, rooted in blood and honor, in history and in the resentment that the weak feel towards the strong, the failed towards the successful - a Cause to which young persons can dedicate their lives. It is a Cause, furthermore, so overwhelming in its demand on the emotions that any kind of action, anything at all, is justified in furtherance of it. Hence terrorism; hence the war on terror. No Irishman - none since Fergus of Dal Riada, at any rate - thought that his people could conquer Britain. That was not the objective of modern Irish terrorism. The objective was to expel the hated Other from Irish land, and to kill as many of them as possible, for sheer hatred's sake. Following that, the people of Ireland, though the nation might remain weak and inconsequential in the large affairs of the world, would return to their authentic essence, speaking only their own language, practicing only their own crafts and religion. Hence the dreary long backwardness of the "De Valera dispensation" in Ireland (1932-73)... Though in fairness it should be said that it was, for all its dreariness, nothing like as bad as the mullahs' Iran, or as the Islamic republic that Saudi radicals dream of will undoubtedly be. There are other points at which the analogy works, too. In the post-1969 terrorism that has plagued Ireland and Britain, there have never been more than a few hundred active terrorists at any one time. The vast majority of Irish people were indifferent to the terrorists, or hostile to them. A small number of Irish people - perhaps one percent, which would be around 50,000 - were willing to give actual aid and comfort to the terrorists. Some larger number probably felt a slight emotional tug towards them, but not enough of a tug to bring them to any action. (Conor Cruise O'Brien remarked somewhere that when an Irishman hears of an IRA terrorist attack, he thinks to himself, "What a terrible thing!" But immediately afterwards, like an echo, there comes a tiny voice far at the back of his mind saying: "Ah, but aren't they fighting for our lost land?") Still the main picture is: 99 percent indifferent or hostile to terrorism, one percent - a few tens of thousands - willing to give active shelter or support, one percent of one percent - a few hundreds - carrying out the vile acts themselves. Outside the more fevered regions of the Middle East, places like Palestine, the percentages are probably not very different. If this analogy is right, the Arabs are, in a sense, the Irish of the world. Their threat to us is the one the Irish terrorists posed to Britain: decades of bombings and shootings, occasional sensational atrocities like the assassination of a national personality or the destruction of a large building. All of this rooted in a nagging sense of inferiority, of social and cultural failure, that failure believed to be the result of historical wrongs committed by malign foreigners, those wrongs constantly magnified by telling and re-telling. (I write with some feeling here, having been buttonholed several times too often by Irish - or, much more commonly, "Irish-American" - bores apparently capable of droning on and on about the Saxon Yoke and the wickedness of Elizabeth the First until the crack of doom. I know Irish history as well as any of these crackpots, in fact considerably better than most of them, and am in fact generally sympathetic, but I know psychopathology when I have it hissed into my ear.) That, however, is only the physical threat. Along with it come other, secondary threats. There is, for example, the rise of the Security State, with all the annoyance and tedium of baggage searches, metal detectors, security passes, and so on, and the chipping away at civil liberties that inevitably ensues. Closed-circuit police cameras are now a routine feature of British streets, a thing that would never have come to pass without the erosion of ancient liberties called for by the fight against Irish terrorism. Worse yet is the moral threat: the slow sapping of determination to fight, the seductive voices ever whispering that one more concession, one more act of sympathetic understanding, one more appeal to international arbitration, one more small retreat, will cause the terrorists to lay down their arms. Britain was considerably corrupted by this moral threat at last, making concession after concession to the IRA terrorists, even dismantling the Northern Ireland police and security forces and freeing terrorist murderers, while the terrorists kept all their arms, and would probably be using them now but for the collapse in sympathy for terrorists everywhere in the civilized world after 9/11. Do we have the stomach for a "long, twilight struggle" of this kind, with the stakes not nuclear annihilation, not national conquest and subjugation, but only repetitive, spirit-sapping local atrocities, some of them on our own soil, year after year after year? To judge from Lawrence Wright's article, the Arab world looks set fair to provide the raw material for such a fight for decades to come. And if Irish history is a guide, this may continue to be the case even after the Arab world acquires rational, constitutional forms of government, if it ever does. It only takes one percent of one percent, encouraged and sheltered by one percent. Plenty of room for that, even in a tidy west-European-style social order. And how long will this struggle be, anyway? Irish terrorism is not dead yet, but if anything kills it at last, it will be the prosperity and sophistication of the modern Irish republic, her ancient and peculiar sense of nationhood dissolved by globalized economics, her religious intensity vitiated by the easy hedonism of Euro-culture, her aching sense of dwelling in the shadow of a richer, stronger power dispelled by the equalization of wealth and the shrinking of distances. Can equivalent forces act on the Arab and Muslim worlds, to bring them out of darkness into the light? Well, undoubtedly they can, but it is hard to see much sign of such improvements at present. This is going to be a long, wearying fight.

THE JIHAD AGAINST BENNY MORRIS Posted by Steve Plaut, January 15, 2004.

One of the most comic things of recent days has been watching the Far Left have conniptions over Benny Morris. Morris is a professor of history at Ben Gurion University. He is a vintage "New Historian", who devoted most of his career to proving that Israel is a big evil bully that was the Goliath in 1948 against the poor Palestinian David, that Israel expelled the poor Palestinians in 1948, and was guilty of most of the other problems of the Middle East. But then about two years ago, Morris started having partial second thoughts. He repeatedly blamed the PLO for the Oslo violence, refused to endorse the calls for a Second Holocaust and destruction of Israel coming from so much of the Left, and criticized the anti-Israel Left. That ignited a bonfire of hatred against him by the Left. The one thing the Left hates more than anything else is when one of its own turns coat and challenges the leftist canon and theology. In web site after URL, the Leftists attacked Morris for his "betrayal". As it turns out, they were over-reacting, because Morris only partly renounced his earlier anti-Israel views. The best documentation of Morris' confused sets of pronouncements has been presented in a series of pieces by the eminent Efraim Karsh, a professor at the University of London, including in his excellent book "Fabricating History" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/ 0714650110/002-5812149-5068025?v=glance) and in some recent articles in Commentary Magazine. Morris is still proliferating assorted stories about Israeli "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians in 1948-9 and war crimes committed by Israelis, even while antagonizing the Left. Then last week Morris gave a long interview in Haaretz, the Far-Left Israeli daily, in its weekend magazine. There he stated that Yes he still believes that Ben Gurion wanted to expel the Arabs living in what became Israel, Efraim Karsh's well documented debunkment notwithstanding, but that Ben Gurion would have been JUSTIFIED in doing so. He then went on and defended Israel's rights to defend itself against Arab aggerssion. He said that under certain circumstances, Israel would be justified TODAY in expelling its Arabs. The shrieks of outrage from the Left, especially the Tenured Left, were deafening. All this week, the leftist academics have been demanding an auto da fe against Morris. Some of the most shrill theatrics are coming from his colleagues at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheba, which as you know has more than its fair share of tenured radicals and anti-Israel fanatics. So Ben Gurion University, whose reputation has suffered because of the activities and behavior of its leftist radical faculty, is now being assaulted by the Left for allowing a "Kahanist" like Morris serve on the faculty! Poor Ben Gurion University just cannot win.... The Haaretz Magazine is crawling with letters from leftist professors this week denouncing Morris, not for his years of "New History" anti-Israel "research", but for his endorsing what they call a "Kahanist transfer" solution. Among the many fine scholars joining the assault against Morris in Haaretz are Dr. Hagai Kim, who likes to call Israeli Arabs "Israeli Palestinians", Prof. Oren Yiftachel, whom you may recall as the geographer who had an anti-Israel article rejected by a British academic journal that is boycotting Israeli academics, Lev Grinberg, a Ben Gurion University faculty member with ties to Tikkun, and some others. 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.

A MUSLIM INFORMED ME Posted by Dutch Griffin, January 15, 2004.

A Muslim recently informed me that Jews control American media. Well, the Jewish prowess is in entertainment, not propaganda. That should be obvious because American media has not been a friend to Israel. Our major news sources are usually too busy mimicking European socialists, to stand up for Israel. Besides, it is Muslim shares that dominate CNN, AP and Reuters - and it is the Saudis who are pouring money into the United States to dull the senses of Americans. His only evidence to back the lie that Jews control the media, is the fact that Christians support Israel. That was an insult because the Christian community is well informed and we support Israel because they are deserving - and for no other reason. Furthermore, what we despise about Islamic societies does not come from Jews, it comes from Islamic terrorists and their clerics. Muslims have given us plenty of grief - even Thomas Jefferson spoke boldly against state sponsored Muslim jihad pirates that plundered our ships off the Barbary Coast. In contrast, the numerous Jewish contributions to America are very important, and date back to our Colonial period. I do not believe Jews should have to apologize for doing their share to help develop the most technologically advanced, most philanthropic and most moderate powerful nation in history. Americans are glad to have them, and we are concerned about malcontent newcomers wanting to divide us. Here are some things I've learned about Islam that did not come from any Jewish source. The original Quran and Hadith references can be found in Dr. Robert Morey's book: Islamic Invasion, and many other objective scholarly sources. Dr. Morey has a doctorate in Islamic studies. Because Imams and Mullahs are beaten by him in open public debate, they have issued a fatwa against his life. They want to murder him. 1. Muhammad owned and traded black slaves, and slavery is legal in some Muslim countries today. There are thousands of Christian children who are sex slaves to depraved Muslim owners in Sudan. Jesus came to free us from our bonds, not enslave us. 2. Most seventh century Arabians did not believe Muhammad, the entire Middle East was converted by bloodshed and force, not through belief. Muhammad commanded his army to propagate his message by killing and looting. Muslims believe he was a greater prophet than Jesus, so apparently for them it is better to kill than to heal, and better to steal than to sacrifice. In Islam, oppression is the way to submission. That is why Islamic governments are still oppressive. Saddam Hussein has killed more Arabs than anyone else, but Muslims still adore him. 3. The traditions of making pilgrimage to Mecca, running seven times around the Kabah and throwing stones at the devil, all predate Muhammad by centuries. He merged the region's ancient polytheistic pagan religion into Jewish and Christian history, and he proclaimed that the powerful moon god, Allah, was the Living God of the Jewish/Christian Bible. This notion is ridiculous because the Living God, and Allah, have nothing in common. 4. Muhammad believed in jins, or genies. He also worshipped al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat, three goddesses of the stars. Their father, Allah, was the moon god centuries before Muhammad came along, even Muhammad's grandfather had "allah" in his name - pertaining to the moon god. 5. Muhammad confused every Bible story he ever heard. He even taught that Jesus' mother was the sister of Moses - he didn't know that the two Miriams lived fifteen hundred years apart. Muhammad also said Haman was building the Tower of Babel in Egypt when the flood came; but the Tower of Babel was built in Babylon, after the flood, and Haman lived there during the Persian empire, two thousand years later. Archaeologists have found the Tower in Iraq, right where the Bible says it should be. 6. Islam is not supported by history: even the non-Christian contemporary Jewish and Roman historians, Josephus and Tacitus, verify that Jesus was crucified - yet Muslims still teach that Jesus was not crucified. The Bible was written by many witnesses, and it is also verified by prophecy, history, science and pieces of stone you can hold in your hand - but there is nothing on the planet to validate the lone claims of Muhammad. 7. The account of Muhammad's night ride to Jerusalem is self refuting; because it describes the city as it appeared later, after Muslim conquest - not how it actually would have looked at the time of the "night vision." Jerusalem's Christians and Jews were prolific in their documentation of that period, and Muhammad's visit was never recorded by them. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Quran, and it was only chosen for the Muslim holy site as marketing strategy, to bring commerce, prestige and power to the new rulers of the region, almost a century later. 8. There are no miracles in the Quran. The Hadith, written after Muhammad's death, claims many silly miracles like a palm tree crying for Muhammad, and that Muhammad cut the moon in half with his sword. It also claims that every night the sun sinks into a muddy pool. 9. Muhammad's credentials as a prophet were a hairy mole on his back, and occasional epileptic seizures. They were superstitious enough to think that his mole was a sign from Allah, and that Allah was speaking to Muhammad during his seizures. 10. Muhammad preached that black and white spotted dogs are an appearance of Satan, and that other dogs are Jewish spies. A British military unit was recently attacked by Iraqi villagers, just because they had dogs with them. Muhammad also taught that men live on the moon, he did. 11. The Hadith teaches that if a fly drops in your soup, it's alright to eat it - because, although one wing of the fly contains poison, the other wing contains the antidote. Muhammad also taught that there are benefits from drinking camel urine. Muslim research has failed to vindicate these quaint errors in chemistry. 12. Muhammad taught that the Devil spends the night in your nose, and the Hadith claims that if you fall asleep during prayers, it's because the Devil is peeing in your ear. 13. Muhammad taught that the sex of a child is determined by which parent has an orgasm first. Because of this some Muslim clerics have discounted DNA research as heresy. 14. There are a hundred Muslims in the world for every Jew, yet only nine Muslims have ever won Nobel prizes. One hundred and thirty Jews have been awarded Nobel prizes. That's a ratio of about fifteen hundred Jewish scholars to one Muslim. Islamic societies really don't have much positive to contribute to the world besides oil. Even in modern times, their petroleum industry had to be developed for them - and obviously without any appreciation, since they broke their contracts, seized the foreign assets and now spend the revenue to fight us, the Great Satan! They would serve God better if they created jobs for their people, developed their own countries, and stopped whining. If it's so great over there, why don't Muslims stay there instead of coming to America? If we are the Great Satan, then it must be Hell for them here. 15. If Muslims ever had an Age of Enlightenment, Islam would vanish overnight. They did have a Golden Age in art and science, but that period was heavily influenced by their hospitality and respect towards Jews, particularly in academics. Historically, people prosper when they treat Jews well, and people eventually suffer when they don't - just as God promised in the Bible. Look at all the impoverished Muslim societies today - Israel could be a great positive influence in that region, but Arabs are indoctrinated to hate Jews more than to love themselves. It's time Muslim societies accept responsibility for their own failure, and stop accusing Jews of every sinister conspiracy imaginable. 16. Jesus, a true spiritual figure, was disciplined in mind, body and spirit - Muhammad had twenty wives. He married Aisha, his favorite, when she was six years old. As an old man, he took her to bed when she was nine. Deceived by lust and greed, Muhammad invented a ludicrous, oppressive and immoral religious system. His true followers, the Islamic terrorist murderers, will not collect seventy-two virgins when they follow him to hell. Some Muslims in America scream because of our airport security - they should be happy to enjoy a safe flight. Around the globe metal detectors have been installed at every major airport - guess what, no one is looking for a Jewish or Christian terrorist bomb. It is wrong for anyone to come into this country who does not respect our security, or our Jews. It is un-American. Dutch Griffin is a Christian Zionist. A resident of Bellflower, California, he has frequently traveled to Israel, sending remarkable pictures of Israeli sites home to his friends.

CNN LIES! Posted by Tamar Rush, January 15, 2004.

For three years myself and others have been monitoring CNN for anti-Semitic bias and for unbalanced reporting about the Israeli/Palestinian Question. We have tried to call the world's attention to the outright lies, the historical distortions, and the slanted pro-palestinian presentations. The writer of this article, Bert Kinzey, recommends simply turning off CNN, not watching it, and writing to tell them why. A very sensible suggestion. This letter was distributed by Richard Loughran. He writes: "Reporter Bert Kinzey is a former Army officer who became an expert in military aviation and has authored literally dozens of books, principally aimed at the aviation enthusiast and scale modeler, and that are definitely apolitical. However, with his research efforts on military subjects he has gained a wealth of contacts within the U. S. military, and is one of the premier authorities on military subjects in this country." Hello, Everyone, As many of you know, although some do not, I wrote a book about the Gulf War shortly after it ended in 1991. It was published by McGraw Hill, and was titled, "The Fury of Desert Storm, the Air Campaign." While that book's primary focus was on the air war, much of it also addressed the news coverage of the war. I pointed out how there were two big losers during that war; Iraq and the news media. Both the news media and Iraq had many things in common, one of which was that they brought their problems on themselves. I explained how the news media, particularly CNN, inaccurately reported the war, misstating the facts, and in many cases deliberately telling outright lies. I spoke in person to the people in the Pentagon that CNN had interviewed and filmed for that report, and they told me how CNN edited what they said to make it seem like they were saying exactly the opposite of what they actually said. I spoke with CNN's people here in Atlanta and at the Pentagon, including Wolf Blitzer, and he admitted he knew nothing about the military. A CNN employee in Atlanta admitted to me that they did not care if they got their reporting accurate. They only wanted to get it on the air first and in the most dramatic manner possible. Their primary purpose was to make money by selling ad space, not reporting the news. The story goes on and on. Unfortunately, twelve years later, the situation has not improved at CNN. I have watched them as well as other news sources recently, and their lies and inaccuracies are even more common than they were in 1991. Their bias is also beyond belief. They are showing almost exclusively an anti-war stance by people who are so delusional that they believe that peace is merely the absence of war. While everyone, including news organizations, have their own bias, it is neither professional nor honest to concentrate almost exclusively on one side of an issue, particularly one so important as this. For example, CNN concentrates almost exclusively on those few nations that are against us in this effort and makes almost no mention of the many more that are supporting us.. They ignore and do not report on our success in Afghanistan where we have returned women to classrooms and professional occupations and where people are returning to that country with expectations for a bright future free of terror, all thanks to America. Before we drove out the Taliban, people were fleeing Afghanistan. CNN also makes the viewer believe that those who protest the war are in far greater numbers than those who are supporting it. This is clearly not the case, and even CNN's own surveys show that 66% of Americans support military action to disarm Iraq. (ABC and FOX surveys place that percent in the upper 70s.) For example, this past Saturday, over 3,000 people turned out in Atlanta, the home of CNN, to support the war on a dreary and rainy day. At the same time, there was an anti-war rally in Atlanta that was attended by twenty-two, that's right TWENTY-TWO protesters. Anyone care to guess how CNN covered it? I recently heard the percentage of students that protested the war at universities across America, and in almost every case, it was less than one percent. That means that ninety-nine percent did not protest against the war, and in many cases the number gathering to support President Bush and our troops far exceed the number who protested against it. But who does CNN report? Clearly, all sides need to be presented in a balanced manner, and CNN skews their coverage extremely in one direction. In my view, their coverage with its inaccuracies, lies, distortions, and blame America first bias is nothing short of criminal. CNN has seldom reported much about the continuing atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein throughout his time in power. Here is a man who has attacked his neighbor to the east and his neighbor to the southeast. Here is a man who has fired missiles at his neighbors to the southwest and the west. Hussein has gassed his own people and habitually tortures those that disagree with him. He has had the wives and children of dissidents brought in and tortured, raped, and killed those family members before their very eyes. Here is a man who would destroy oil wells and dams to create ecological disasters and kill the Iraqi people. On the other side of the coin are the Americans who will bring freedom from this oppression to the Iraqis, who will bring food and medicine to them, who will protect Iraq's infrastructure, and who will treat Iraqi prisoners who surrender in a humane way. But CNN makes America out to be the bad guy! How does that work? If you are like me and believe that the freedom of the press carries with it an obligation to be accurate, fair, balanced, and honest, I ask you to do two things. First, please pass this e-mail on to everyone you know so that they may realize what CNN is doing. Second, I ask you to stop the lies, turn off CNN, and send them an e-mail that you are doing so. I ask you to look elsewhere for your news coverage. I find the FOX News Network, The News Hour on PBS, and MSNBC to be far more fair. Sure, there is some bias anywhere, but it is not so extreme nor calculated. On these networks I hear both sides about equally. I hear about France like I do on CNN, but I also hear about Japan and Australia as well as the many other countries that are backing us in so many ways. As of today, three countries in Europe are against us, and twenty-two have come out in support of us. Most of the twenty-two have never been mentioned on CNN, but representatives of France and Germany are on CNN almost hourly. So please take a look at several news choices and find one that is accurate, fair, and balanced. It is only that way that you will get an honest view of what is going on. I am not telling you which one to choose, I'm only asking you to turn off CNN. Finally, I would like to remind you to do a third thing. As most of you know, I have a son who is a Navy pilot and who has been flying missions in the Middle East since last November. So, as the father of one of our deployed military personnel, and as a former Army officer myself, I ask all of you to remember our troops, support them, and pray for them even more than you usually do in these critical days ahead. I know many of you also have family members or friends who are over there ready to do their jobs in support of our country. It is those troops who keep us free, and who are ready to lay down their lives to protect our country. It is not the movie stars nor the news reporters that have ever protected us. For those of you who pass this on to your friends, I thank you for your help in spreading the word about CNN. God bless America.

GIVOT BAR: PARTNERSHIP 2000'S NEW INITIATIVE Posted by Edmond Silber, January 14, 2004.

Our last Partnership 2000 Solidarity Mission from Montreal to Be'er Sheva was in November 2003. An exciting new initiative was started: to build a brand new village in the Negev - Givot Bar. We hope that in contributing to its growth, we will forge a bond between our Jewish children in Montreal and the Jews of Israel. We hope all Jews in Canada and in the United States will participate. Through Partnership 2000, the Regional Council of B'nei Shimon is seeking the participation of FEDERATION CJA and the Montreal Jewish community in the challenge of making the desert of Israel bloom. As part of its plans for the community of Givot Bar, they have created a Montreal Forest, wherein a tree will be planted for every Jewish baby born in our city. With this gesture, the Mayor of B'nei Shimon hopes to foster a connection between the next generation of Jewish Montrealers and the state of Israel. The pioneers of Givot Bar are creating a brand new community. An initial group of twenty-five families have undertaken to populate this sparsely inhabited region of the Negev, thus fulfilling the classic Zionist ideal of building a village from scratch - with their own hands and ideas - as well as the pressing demographic and security imperatives of Israel. Within ten years, Givot Bar will be a thriving home to 600 people. In order to register to have a tree planted, parents or grandparents of children born in Montreal any time after September 1, 2003 are asked to call Carole Blank of FEDERATION CJA at (514) 345-2645, extension 3292, with the child's name, date of birth, parents' names and mailing address. There is no fee to participate. For the past eight years, Partnership 2000 has forged a special relationship between the Jewish community of Montreal and the city of Beersheva and the B'nei Shimon Regional Council. The aim of Partnership 2000, an innovative program of the Jewish Agency, is to build people-to-people connections between Diaspora Jews and Israelis. For more information, contact Carole Blank, Administrative Assistant, Israel & Overseas Department Israel et Outre-mer. Tel: 514-345-2645, ext. 3292; Fax: 514-345-2649; Email: caroleb@fedcjamtl.org; Website: www.federationcja.org.

SACRIFICES FOR PEACE Posted by David Ben-Ariel, January 14, 2004.

Judah must remove the foreign mosques of Ishmael's alien god and restore the altar of the God of Israel upon the TEMPLE Mount and proceed to "offer burnt offerings upon it. as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. And they sat the altar uon its bases, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries [resident sworn enemies and international pressure and opposition]: and they offered BURNT OFFERINGS upon it to the LORD, even burnt offerings morning and evening" (Ezra 3:2-3). It's time for Judah to make their move upon the Temple Mount and RESTORE JEWISH WORSHIP AT JUDAISM'S HOLIEST SITE. The Temple Mount must host the royal House of Prayer for All Nations. whose international representatives will be most welcome and their generous offerings gladly accepted (Isa. 56:7). Jerusalem undivided: the eternal capital of Israel! David Ben-Ariel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall"

EUROPEAN UNION'S ANTI-SEMITISM CONFERENCE Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 14, 2004.

Perhaps the E.U. (European Union) through the E.C. (European Commission) in its up-coming Conference on Anti-Semitism (1) intends to reverse its centuries old bias against Jews which peaked during WWII, but did not end there. In 1945 at the end of WWII, the Europeans, particularly England (in deference to the Arab oil countries) used their considerable powers to curb immigration of the remaining Jews trying to escape from the graveyards of Europe to Israel. Now, once again, the Europeans and Arabs - acting much as they did during WWII - have ramped up their long-term hostility against the Jewish people. After WWII some Jews tried to go back to their homes in Europe but found them occupied by locals and were very often murdered on the doorsteps of their own homes. Many tried to smuggle themselves to Israel but found the way blockaded by the British. Those who got as far as the Mediterranean Sea were captured and interred in concentration camps on Cyprus. Between the end of the war in 1945 and the November 1947 U.N. (United Nations) vote for partition of the Palestinian Homeland for the Jewish people into an Arab and a Jewish State was a mere few years. Did the French, Germans, Poles, British, Russians really change their Church-taught hatred in that brief time? It would appear not, although their participation in the murder of the Jews living in their countries brought a brief moment of shame and guilt, allowing a remnant to escape and for the a U.N. vote to approve a Jewish State which was named Israel. After Israel declared her Independent State on May 14, 1948, seven Arab armies attacked the fledgling State. I don't recall the Europeans, the U.N. or even America protesting this Arab invasion - with the exception of trivial, pro-forma speeches. These countries conveyed every appearance that they expected the Arabs to succeed and, thus, solve the Europeans' on-going Jewish problem. I don't recall that any of these nations stepped in to help the new State of Israel or to supply her with the weapons to fight. I do recall how all these nations assisted the Arab nations with weapons, once the Arabs attacked and prevented Israel from achieving a greater victory when she beat them. I also recall the arms embargo against Israel by the Europeans and the Truman Administration in the dubious name of peace In subsequent years , each time the Arab nations prepared for war or launched an attack, the Europeans and American oil interests assisted the Arab attackers, thereby always protecting them from their own gamble. The Arab nations risked land and lives only for the opportunity to confiscate all of Israel under the to goal "Push all the Jews into the sea". This pure anti-Semitism was always there and, therefore, no one expected the anti-Semitic Europeans to be shocked into moral awareness by their own participation in Hitler's murderous "Final Solution". The U.N.'s record is a window into the European heart, soul and conscience - none of which existed when it comes to voting against the Jewish State. They slavishly obeyed the Arab block in the U.N. and almost always voted with that block against Israel (approximately 400 anti-Israel resolutions to date). Now they are going to have a meeting on Anti-Semitism in the E.U. Perhaps it is because they have learned that whatever follows ramped up anti-Semitism is usually aimed at them, too. Jews may always be the lead-in victims but, now they know that they, also, are the larger target. Muslims are becoming a critical mass in numbers and are beginning to push out native Europeans as they migrate into European countries. They are making heavy demands on their host governments for every European country to accommodate their ways and, by the abusive use, of their sheer numbers, they virtually take over control of the nations who hospitably allowed them in. Since 9/11 (and before) Muslim Terror Cells abound in the European nations with England and France acting as the leading host nations. (3) Like the U.N., which has a powerful voting block of Arab nations, the European nations respond submissively to the threat of radical Islamic fundamentalist Terrorism as their numbers increase in their respective nations. When anti-Semitism ramps up by young Muslim thugs by beating Jews on the streets or blowing up Synagogues, the Europeans experience conflicting emotions. One, given their prior hostility to the Jews and their various roles in helping to kill Jews, they cheer the attacks (quietly or out loud). At the same moment, the guilt of their tacit or active participation in Hitler's Jewish "Final Solution" tugs at them. In the interim, they loudly deny that anti-Semitism is increasing and they further deny that they do little to curb the Arab/Muslim attacks. Another facet of their confused emotions is their reliance upon Arab oil, their large Arab market for weapons, goods and services. Being dependent on oil alters one's mind-set to adopt the overt hostility of their Arab neighbors towards Jews and the Jewish State seems natural. Here the schizophrenia become startling clear. In all European nations, the Muslims are not welcomed into the local culture. The Arab/Muslims immigrants bitterly complain about being excluded from local society. On the other side of the Dr. Jekle/Hyde personae, the Europeans overtly support Arab nations in their cause of destroying and then occupying the Jewish nation. Of course, they cannot phrase it that way and generally use language in the U.N. that speaks about peace while pushing Israel into untenable positions. Anti-Semitism, Jew Hatred runs deep in Europe. Thousands of years of teaching by the Church of Rome has permeated every Christian variant, namely the Church of England, the Russian Orthodox Church and all others. (By way of exception, in the more recent past, Christian Fundamentalists who believe in what the Bible says, have come to the aid and support of the Jewish State.) Anti-Semitism has become endemic at the U.N., as displayed recently in Durban, South Africa at a similar 'set-up' Conference on Racism. Driven by Palestinians and Arab/Muslims, the attendees virtually rioted in an orgy of hatred and racism against Israel, so blatant and embarrassing that, Colin Powell as head of the American (though Arabist) State Department, had to withdraw the U.S. delegation. Imagine, the Christian nations of Europe are planning on what to do about anti-Semitism. This from a massive religion which adopted a Jew as their lord and have been destroying his Jewish brethren - even his own family - for centuries. Granted, the Jews never accepted a human as any sort of G-d and are very picky about whom they acknowledge as their Moshiach (Messiah). But, what is more interesting is the level of rage, even to the point of committing the most heinous acts of murder and Genocide in the name of their lord or for Muslims, in the name of Allah. Each of these civilizations have butchered each other and have often even killed off their own people. Yet, these past orgies of blood-letting faded away from thier consciousness, teaching them nothing. I grant you, a resurgence of Islam versus Christianity is well developed but both take time out to attack the Jews and the Jewish State although each represented no threat to either. There are at most 16 million acknowledged Jews on this planet of 5 to 6 Billion. The minuscule land mass of Israel is only 300 miles long and 50 miles wide (including Judea and Samaria). Israel is so small that the label of Israel on maps must be printed out into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea lest the word obscure that sliver of land. Yet 22 Arab/Muslim nations rant about Israel and the Jews as their primary focus for hostility. Europeans are even worse, given their land mass, population and comparative wealth. Everyday in the European, Arab and American Media, there is a fascination as to what Israel has done that day and every day. Why this all-consuming interest? Christians of Europe are once again meeting to speak about "their Jewish problem". Such meetings have been conducted for centuries - usually ending in decisions to displace the Jews, convert the Jews, burn their Torah Scrolls of the Jews, wrap their Rabbis in wet Torah parchment and burn them to death slowly...etc. Decisions by the Church led to the butchering of the Jews by the Crusaders marching behind what for Jews became a most hated symbol, the cross. The Arab Crescent ran a near second. What did the Christians and Muslims want from a tribe of Jews so small in number? So, now the European nations under the E.C. is going to meet - which for Jews is like the Wannsee Conference of Heydrich, Eichmann and others of Hitler's brain trust to evolve "The Final Solution to their Jewish Question". If their past is any indicator, their present role in the U.N. and E.U. forecasts that the direction of this meeting should probably go something like this: Under the guise of being 'fair and objective', there will be lengthy testimony as to provocations by the Jews. This will cover a broad band, from the existence of the Jewish nation to those insular, 'cosmopolitan' Jews daring to walk the streets of Paris, Berlin, et al, in their provocative garb, that is, those little head coverings called kippot or yarmulkes. We should be hearing inspired hostile commentary from Jack Straw of Britain or De Villapen of France or perhaps La Pen - given their past hostility to Israel. Being open-minded and fair to all, we will likely hear testimony from articulate Arab/Muslims, some educated in Britain or America with very cultured accents and stylish suits. But, under this facade is a shaven Arafat - both in attitude and purpose. Then there are always a cadre of black anti-Semites who will be eager to be heard from. Let us lead off with Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Colin Powell, Jesse Jackson and maybe even Andrew Young, Louis Farrakhan and, if Baby Doc Duvalier can ju-ju up the dead cannibal Idi Amin, perhaps he can float in for some anti-Jewish diatribe. Perhaps the Pope of the Church of Rome can send an emissary to critique Israel's 'terrible' treatment of the Pope's hugging buddy, Yassir Arafat. We will see a gaggle of well-known non-Jewish Jews of the Radical Left, desperate to pound their chest in a mea culpa. How about Shimon Peres, as the lead off hitter, followed by Yossi Beilin, Yossi Sarid, Ehud Barak, Noam Chomsky and some Tikkun/Peace Now followers? We could add the leaders of the Arab world who ejected their own Jews, seized their properties (private and communal) after Israel defeated their numerous attacks. Egypt could give testimony why they don't like the Jews, followed by Syria's Bashar Al Assad, the Ayatollahs of Iran, Saddam from his prison cell, Kadaffi from Libya, some Saudi Kings and Princes et al. Given what these leaders have done to their own people, their lively imaginations could dream up fantastical accusations against the Jewish nation that causes the anti-Semitism. All in all, the up-coming gathering will likely resemble, in parts, the Spanish Inquisition, the Wannsee Conference, the Evian and Bermuda Conferences and the many Arab League conferences to solve "their Jewish Question". What they might be the outcome? It is likely that they will evolve a new, more advanced form of anti-Semitism under the guise of doing good. Be assured, the up-coming Conference against Anti-Semitism will be or already has been hijacked, so then there are certain pre-concluded decisions already arranged. For example: the theme of the Conference is to deal with anti-Semitism, but nothing would stop it from being re-formatted to question the legitimacy of establishing the Jewish State of Israel. It could turn into an E.U. power grab to control the 'Quartet's' Road Map. The 'Quartet' is the E.U., U.N., Arabist State Department and Russia. The Quartet hijacked and re-designed the Road Map that President George W. Bush's conceived to first disarm and dismantle the Terrorist Organizations of the PLO. But, the 'Quartet' has since dumped this first step from the Bush plan. In its new iteration, Israel must build the Palestinian State with no prior disarming or dismantling of Palestinian Terrorist Organizations. Then the E.U. connived with some rejected out-of-power Israelis who invented the Geneva Accords which many of the E.U. nations had a hand in secretly evolving and funding.(4) It could be as simple as a concluding vote wherein the judgement of the assembly is that the Jews brought anti-Semitism upon themselves. Such a conclusions would exonerate the Europeans as co-conspirators with the Arab/Muslim nations and Terrorist organizations - as well as their own immigrant Muslims, in promoting Jew hatred. Of course, in such a hijacked Conference, they could decide that the only way to eliminate anti-Semitism is to send a European force, called "Peace-Keeping Force", into the region to establish another Arab State of Palestine - possibly employing NATO Forces, based upon a recent agreement with NATO (without America). Europe wants more power and eliminating American influence from NATO would help them get it. With such a stretch of logic and fact they would tell the world that they are 'really' saving Israel and world Jewry from the rage of the Muslims. In which case, I would start to look for the fingerprints of Colin Powell and the Arabist State Department in this assemblage of a Kangaroo Court who have longed wished to dissolve the Jewish State. This assemblage of unrepentant, unreconstructed anti-Semites will not offer solutions to anti-Semitism but, more likely to give it a boost. Regrettably, we see a beaten Prime Minister Sharon caving in to outside interests while ignoring the safety of the only Jewish State. It is additionally unfortunate that Israel, under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress, has agreed to attend this meeting and which gives an undeserved legitimacy to this Forum. As a first step toward solving their own anti-Semitism, let them meet by themselves, publically expose their endemic Jew hatred, put a lid upon the World's hostile Media and cease carrying water for the Arabs. ### 1. "Europe's Moral Treachery Over Anti-Semitism" by Cobi Benatoff, President of the European Jewish Congress & Edgar Bronfman, President of the World Jewish Congress FINANCIAL TIMES January 5, 2004 2. "The "Anti-Semitism? Controversy" by Romano Prodi European Commission Meeting January 7, 2004 [both from the CIJR (Canadian Institute for Jewish Research) Jan. 9, 2004] 3. "Terror Cells Regroup - & Now Their Target is Europe" by Anthony Barnett, Jason Burke, & Zoe Smith THE OBSERVER Jan. 11, 2004 4. "The E.U. Directly Funds Anti-Semitism" by Kevin Meyers DAILY TELEGRAPH 1/11/04 & "The E.U.'s Aid to Terror" by P. David Hornik FrontPageMagazine.com 1/12/04 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

DEMOGRAPHIC DECEPTION Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, January 14, 2004.

Did the Almighty call for a census? If not, then it would be wise for us not-too-wise Israelis to stop obsessing over the regional population figures. The computation of our numbers and their comparison to the enemy's is an unnecessary exercise in anxiety and cowardice. Anyone with an inkling of Jewish history knows that numerical predictions have very little bearing on what was, what is and what will be for the Jewish people. Which is why I find it so disturbing that some of our most 'distinguished' intellectuals, politicians and even some rabbis, are caught-up in the demographic game. Any thinking Jew should be able to transcend quantitative numerical values. Qualitative measurements and achievements are more suited to us. Historically speaking, being part of the larger multitude rarely bodes well for us as a people. We do better as a remnant. Being part of a remnant is not a bad thing, as it means you were fortunate enough to survive. From the public relations perspective, promoting aliyah by encouraging people to come to Israel because we need bodies, and are severely outnumbered, is hardly a brilliant or effective hasbara pitch. I'm sure we can do better than that. Numbers and measurements don't seem to be an obstacle in G-d's way. Those 'G-d fearing' among us, who can't get past their fixation with roman and arabic numerals, seem to be lacking in the essential component known as faith (which could be the real reason behind why so many observant Jews are still clinging to the Diaspora). Although I'm no psychologist, there is something a bit pathological about the insignificant 'remnant' of Ultra Orthodox Jews who still hold by a virulent form of anti-Zionist ideology and claim that their gedolim were correct about the futility of the Zionist experiment (State of Israel). They kind of hang-out like vultures waiting to say, "I told you so." Quite frankly, that's sick and the antithesis of Judaism. Last week Ultra-Orthodox MK Rabbi Yisrael Eichler announced that authorities are hiding the truth from the public, explaining we no longer have a Jewish majority between the "Mediterranean and the Jordan" (see article at http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=55771) He based his findings on a recent study from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Since when does Rabbi Eichler revere and adhere to particulars emanating from a Zionist agency? Maybe we don't have a demographic problem, but perhaps the other side does... In what appears to be yet another astounding reversal in the the creative process, a twenty-two year old Arab mother of two, turned suicide bomber, blew herself up at the Erez checkpoint in Gaza on Wednesday. The bomber told soldiers at the crossing point that she would set off a metal detector due to a surgical implant she had as a result of broken leg. Out of respect for her sense of modesty, our soldiers escorted her to a private room where she could be searched by a female security officer. A very humanitarian gesture, but a deadly mistake. The pre-bombing video shows this smiling Hamas mamma holding an assault rifle and declaring before the camera, "I always wanted to be the first woman to carry out a martyr attack, where parts of my body can fly all over. That is the only wish I can ask God for." (NOTE: I asked this lofty theological question over a year ago and still have yet to receive and adequate answer: If male suicide bombers get 72 virgins in paradise, what do the female bombers get?) This isn't the first Arab women to reject and invert the female role of a life-giving, responsible nurturer and opt instead to be a destroyer and/or induce her own children to murder. And this is precisely why we Jews should put our demographic fears to rest. A good portion of the Palestinians are a mixed multitude - conceived and sustained by their Islamic/Arab brethren for the sole purpose of destruction. They consume themselves with their all-consuming hatred. They come into this world to take and they give nothing back. They have no past, they have no future, and they will propagate into a nothingness as vast as the desert sands from which they came. For those of you who are still concerned about the facts on the ground, there are ways to alleviate your existential anxiety, while at the same time ensuring Jewish continuity in the Land of Israel: a) Make aliyah. We need your ingenuity, faith and spirit - not just your body. b) Turn off the radio and/or television and spend a romantic evening with your spouse. c) And at the risk of inciting an international incident, help establish a new, or support and secure and existing, Jewish community in YESHA or the Golan. If we do our part as creative, productive and G-d fearing people, committed to living on the Land and preserving it for our children, then I'm sure we will receive the Divine assistance needed with regards to our demographic challenge. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her hus= band and six children. She is a painter, writer and co-founder of helpingisr= ael.com. She can be contacted through her website: http://www.artfromzion.com

DEFENDING SOVEREIGNTY Posted by Harv Weiner, January 14, 2004.

Professor Jeremy Rabkin of Cornell presented the Shalem Center Annual Lecture last Thursday and since I didn't get a chance to ask a question, I posted him and he was kind enough to send my an extensive reply. It is important, so I share it with you. HARV WEINER'S QUESTION: Do you agree that one of the major stumbling blocks most European countries have, as well as major portions of Liberal America, towards Israel as a sovereign power is the idea that Jews really do 'belong' to a territory called the Land of Israel and that their support of the Palestinians - an entity which, if it existed in SouthEast Asia or deepest Africa would be totally ignored - is more anti-Israel/Zionist/Jewish than pro-Pal? And if so, how does one counter that without referring to the religious element in Jewish nationalism or does one need to avoid that issue? JEREMY RABKIN'S ANSWER: . Thanks for taking the trouble to write to me. You raise very pertinent and serious questions and I'm not sure I have all the relevant answers. It seems to me there are two different (or at least, distinguishable) issues here. One is a somewhat philosophic argument - what is really, as a matter of intellectual rigor, at the bottom of the argument? Then there is the political or rhetoric question - what do most people (not people intent on very rigorous argument) find easy to accept (or hard to accept)? One of the main points I tried to make in my lecture was that the idea of sovereignty is not some confused, anachronistic notion left over from late medieval times. It is closely connected with quite modern ideas about political authority. And it is the dominant idea in American thinking, at least regarding the way the world is supposed to be organized. And closely parallel ideas (regarding the organization of the world) are dominant in India, China, Japan, Russia, most of Latin America... really, in most of the world. Europe is exceptional in thinking that sovereignty is unnecessary or unimportant. So the first thing I say to Israel is - you don't have to be defensive or embarrassed at asserting your national sovereignty, just because Europeans disapprove. Europe is the exception, not Israel. I think the argument at that level goes quite far (and is politically quite useful) in North America, in India and China and Japan and Russia and even in much of Latin America. A sovereign state can't put its ultimate security concerns in the hands of an international assembly - that's what all these other large and important states also think. Of course, at a deeper level, there's the question not simply about what it means, in general, to be sovereign but whether this particular community should be sovereign and within which borders. America and most other nations agree that sovereign states are sovereign but don't agree that, for example, the Kurds should be organized as a sovereign state. If you want to explain why the Jewish people should be a sovereign state within particular borders, you can't just invoke an abstract theory of sovereignty. You need something that speaks directly to Jewish claims. I don't believe the world has ever had a general doctrine which explains which people should be organized as sovereign states. Some scholars or statesmen have tried to articulate general doctrines but they aren't applied or not consistently. The true answer, I think, is that those who are able to assert and defend their sovereignty will retain it. Those who aren't need allies - and often their allies abandon them, rather than fight some other people's battle for independence. It is not necessary for people in Israel to believe the same arguments for Israeli sovereignty that people in other countries believe. Israelis can believe in a biblical claim which others - say in Japan or India or China - don't believe. I don't see that as a problem. I think that is inevitable and in a way as a pattern that is consistent with the underlying logic of sovereignty. One central premise of sovereignty is that different peoples don't have to agree - they can have their own states. They can have their own ideas about why they feel the affinities that they do with the citizens of their own state, compared with others. There is no political master plan for the world that assures everyone gets what he deserves - because we don't all agree on what everyone deserves. So it is up to Israel to decide for itself what it should do. But of course, it really does help to have friends and allies. I'm sure you know that a lot of Americans are sympathetic to Israel because they regard the restoration of Jewish sovereignty as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. A lot of Europeans find this attitude revolting - and a sign that America is in the grip of "religious fundamentalism." If you read about the origins of the Balfour Declaration, you find that British statesmen - Lloyd George, Balfour himself, Churchill and others - were quite entranced with the idea that the restoration of a Jewish state would fulfill a vision announced in the Bible so many centuries ago. They didn't claim British policy was exclusively or even predominantly based on religious beliefs about biblical prophecy. None of these men was all that religious or all that pious. And they had a lot of other competing concerns - not only for British interests in foreign affairs but for their own success as party politicians in Britain. But there was something there that attracted them. And there is something like that which attracts a lot of Americans - quite apart from people who hold to strict views about the literal truth of the Bible, quite apart from people who would call themselves (or be fairly called by anyone) "fundamentalists." I don't want to claim any great authority here for any particular advice. But it seems obvious to me that a crucial part of politics is building coalitions with people who feel some similar impulse, even when they don't agree on precisely the reasons for this policy. Quite apart from Israel, you see in America that people of different religious faiths come together on many issues - say, for example, in opposing abortion (or unlimited access to abortion) or "assisted suicide" or euthanasia. I don't think it is deceitful or improper for these coalitions to rest on a certain vagueness about their premises. Different groups may share a certain spirit without agreeing on precise premises. And whoever wants to nurture a coalition has reason to reach out for people who share a similar outlook, even if they differ on details or reasoning. So, I think there are a lot of people who are sympathetic to Israel's claim to independence for reasons which have, in some very general way, to do with their recognition or recollection of biblical associations between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Anyone who holds to this view may want to think through, with some rigor, how the argument goes or should go. But for political purposes, I don't see that it is helpful to insist on any particular version of this argument or to insist that everyone must hold to the same version. By contrast, it seems to me that much European opinion - and it now seems to be dominant opinion in Europe - is hostile to Jewish sovereignty because, at bottom, it is hostile to the idea of nations. Because of that, it is hostile to the idea of sovereignty. I think it is, for most purposes, quite enough to say that outlook is unacceptable to Americans and to most other peoples in the world. Even if the issue is cast in terms of sovereignty - a rather abstract, legalistic claim - the European outlook is not a winner, not outside Europe. For most purposes, I think it is enough to win the argument (or engage it) just at that level, without getting into all the complexities of what we mean by nations, which nations, what the Jewish claim, in particular, rests upon. I don't think it is necessary to emphasize this point but I do think it is true that European impatience with sovereignty, especially Israeli sovereignty, is related to European impatience with difference among peoples - and the Jews remain, in the European imagination, THE people of "difference" and it haunts their thinking. I hope this is somewhat helpful. I don't mean to tell you what arguments you should emphasize to the outside world - let alone what arguments people in Israel should cling to in their own thinking. I am just trying to explain here why I think it goes rather far to emphasize sovereignty as an argument, before one gets to the ultimate roots of these claims. Finally, I should give a succinct answer to the precise question you raise: Is Euro and Liberal support for Palestinians more a matter of anti-Zionism than sympathy for Palestinians? My answer: OF COURSE! Just look at the indifference these same people show to the Kurds, to the Taiwanese, to the Tibetans, to the Christian people of southern Sudan, etc. etc. etc. Harv Weiner runs IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com

BARRY SHAW: ISRAEL'S NEXT AMBASSADOR TO BRITAIN Posted by Barry Shaw, January 14, 2004.

To those who elected me to be the next Israeli Ambassador to Great Britain. I want to thank all of you who displayed faith and such good judgment in me. I promise to do a much better job in representing Israel's interests than Zvi Hefetz, the previous candidate. But that wouldn't be difficult! I promise to protect Israeli interests - rather than my own, or those of certain top politicians. I promise not to open my mouth until I have something positive to say. At least I will be understood. If Zvi Hefetz opened his mouth in Britain nobody would understand what he was saying. I promise that my office, and my ear, will be open to any member of the British Jewish community. With Mr. Hefetz you wouldn't have been able to get past the door, he wouldn't understand what you were telling him, and he wouldn't care anyway. I promise that my appointment will be like a breath of fresh air. If Mr. Hefetz had been appointed, I would hate to tell you what that would smell like.... Barry Shaw posts 'The View from Here.' He writes that this will shortly become 'The View from Kensington Gardens,' with special thanks to take-a-pen.org

A PEOPLE WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 14, 2004.

This was written by Jason Orenstein and appeared yesterday in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com). The most noteworthy statement to come out of the "The People of Israel Will Not Surrender" rally, held at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on January 12th, 2004, did not come from any of the many Knesset members who graced the podium to speak out against the prime minister's and other Likud leaders' latest obsession over unilateral withdrawal. Rather, it emanated from the man who was single handedly responsible for the scheduling of the rally in the first place; namely, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In a statement issued to the media after the rally, the prime minister unequivocally stated that, "Israel is a democracy, and decisions are made not by protesters, but by the government, my government." It is ironic that Sharon claims to be the defender of Israel's democracy, when he himself serves as one of the prime obstacles to Israel being able to function in a truly democratic manner. Demonstrations, like the "The People of Israel Will Not Surrender" rally, are the backbone of a vibrant democracy, falling under the individual's Right to Assemble and Freedom of Speech. Once a government is elected, a citizen has little recourse when displeased by the policy of his elected officials, short of waiting until the next set of elections to roll around. One of the few methods that a citizen has at his disposal is demonstrations. Prime Minister Sharon, through his comments, effectively disenfranchised an entire segment of the population, comprising hundreds of thousands of individuals. He essentially told them that there are two things that they could do about their disapproval with his policies, nothing and like it. That is not exactly the type of expression that one would expect to hear coming out of the mouth of the prime minister of Israel, a country that prides itself on being the only true democracy in the Middle East. But it does put Sharon in the company of every Arab dictator in the Middle East. After all, Israel is to be just like all the nations. The problem is further exacerbated. When an individual votes in Israel's national elections, in order to determine who will serve in the Knesset, as well as who will be prime minister, he is not able to vote for a particular candidate, rather he must vote for a party. The number of votes each party receives determines how many seats each party will receive in the next Knesset. In that sense, each voter is voting not for a particular candidate that one feels is qualified or worthy of leadership, rather for an ideological platform. This system serves as a threat to Israel's democratic system, as can be seen from the current state of the Likud. The official Likud platform is staunchly against the creation of a Palestinian State west of the Jordan River. Yet, Prime Minister Sharon and the members of his Likud-led government are in fact calling for the establishment of that very thing. What is the voter in Israel to do when the only criteria by which he is able to determine who he wishes to elect is by voting for a party's ideological platform, only to find that the elected officials are not bound to adhere to it? Can there be a greater mockery of Israel's democratic system than this? Consider the following as one of the many possible reforms that could be made to the current electoral system in Israel, which would serve to improve its current state of affairs. Short of the ideal reform, where all members of the Knesset would be elected through direct elections, Israel will be divided into 12 electoral districts (consistent with the theme of the twelve tribes of Israel). From each district, ten representatives will be elected to serve in the Knesset, for a total of 120 seats. Each party would then form a list of the ten candidates that would be running for election within a particular district, and who, upon their election, would be directly responsible for and answerable to their specific constituency. Only when terms such as "accountability" (for which there is currently no word for in the entire Hebrew lexicon) and "constituency" become commonplace in Israeli society will the elected leaders be forced to both hear and listen to the will of the citizens of Israel. Only when the citizens of Israel are able to truly elect leaders that will represent them and be held accountable for their actions, and not as the current system has it, where 120 kings are elected to the Knesset, answerable only to themselves. Only then will Israel's citizens truly have a voice through which they can be heard and help shape the future of their country, and that of the Jewish People.

ISRAEL HEADLINES Posted by Voice of Judea, January 14, 2004.

These are some recent headlines. 1) Sharon vs Kahane: Sharon Orders Demolition of Kahane Synagogue Defiant Kahanists dedicate new Torah scroll and inaugurate the Synagogue PM Ariel Sharon's harsh edict demanding the dismantling of the newly constructed "Kahane" synagogue in Tapuah West was met with determined opposition from residents and supporters who gathered by thousands at the far-flung Jewish outpost. Sharon's strict orders to destroy the house of worship before the opening ceremony Sunday, January 4th were left unfulfilled, as the buses rolled in from across Israel. The flood of supporters surging up the steep 1-mile road to the outpost brandishing torches served as an impressive sign of popular support for the synagogue and the Torah dedicated in memory of Rav Kahane and his son Binyamin and daughter-in-law Taliya. An indelible mark was firmly imprinted on the hearts of all those present, as well as on the neighboring Arab-occupied village of Yasuf, which could hear both cries and prayers of the impassioned crowd as they placed the Torah into the ark, shouting forth the Shema Yisrael. Rachamim Sultan, one of the participants who journeyed all the way for New York, "It is inconceivable to miss an event commemorating the Kahanes who dedicated their lives to strengthening Israel's security. They were murdered, and thus prevented from completing their mission of warning Am Yisrael of the impending dangers which face it. Our participation tonight shows the world that Kahane Hai [Kahane lives on] and that we continue their work." The newly constructed shul will act as temporary home for the Sefer Torah before it its permanent home in a yet-to-be constructed building in the outpost. At that point the current shul will be transformed into a memorial for the many victims of Arab terror, including the Kahane family. In the meantime, however, a Beit Midrash (Torah study hall) is operating in the unfinished building, as fund-raising efforts are underway to complete construction and to commence the building of the future home of the Sefer Torah. People wishing to contribute funds to the project can send checks made out to the "Kahane Building Fund," at Rehov Moriah 3 93486 Jerusalem. 2) IDF withdraws troops from the northern Shomron. The Israeli media reports that IDF is downsizing its presence in the northern Shomron yishuvim, Kadin and Ganin allegedly due to a lack of manpower. Yesha representatives accused Sharon of abandoning Jewish communities, thus beginning the implementation of his plans for unilateral withdrawal. Today the Arutz 7 news site published a story about three IDF reservists serving in the Shomron town of Shavei Shomron who abandoned their posts and returned home. Voice of Judea Commentary: The treasonous and cowardly government policy of dismantling Jewish towns, expelling Jewish residents, surrendering Jewish land, and withdrawing Jewish troops invites Arab attacks and creates an environment conducive to the unraveling of the already demoralized Israeli army. There is a direct correlation between Friday's headlines regarding the government pullout and abandonment of Yesha residents with the IDF reservists who abandoned their posts. The importance of supporting the efforts Gedud HaIvri-the independent volunteer guard group that helps supplement the defense of vulnerable towns in Yesha-is now becoming clear to all. Anyone wishing to volunteer or to sponsor a guard or a canine patrol team can call 718-874-2057, or visit www.defendisrael.net. 3) Volunteer Guard Seeks Sponsorship Vlad K., a 19 year-old Jewish youth in Brooklyn seeks a sponsor to help him pay for his flight to Israel and expenses for a one year tour of duty as a volunteer in the Gedud HaIvri canine and cavalry units. Vlad K. has extensive experience working with canines and horses. Anyone wishing to help sponsor Vlad's flight can call 718-874-2057. 4) Confused Sharon Votes Against Own Budget The 2004 government budget came up for vote on Wednesday, along with a slew of objections and counter-proposals. One of the objections submitted by Arab Knesset Member Muhammad Barakah against the Sharon government's budget plan was one of the few which nearly passed, garnering 50 votes in favor, with only 52 opposed. MK Barakah's motion was supported by a confused Ariel Sharon, who mistakenly voted against his own budget. Fellow Likud ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert also accidently voted against the Likud-supported budget. Voice of Judea Commentary: It is very reassuring to see that the country is being run by attentive and alert individuals such as Sharon and Netanyahu, who don't seem to understand how to vote in the Knesset. One wonders if Sharon intentionally voted against his own proposal, considering that he is today plotting to destroy Jewish communities his once planned and supported. Either the man is terribly confused or incredibly flippant, readily abandoning those ideas which he once claimed to be a staunch believer of. The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.net. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net

ISRAEL AND US JEWRY BETRAY BIRTHRIGHT Posted by Michael Freund, January 14, 2004.

This is an article of mine from the Jerusalem Post about how the State of Israel and American Jewish organizations are effectively undermining one of the most successful programs in the Jewish world today. It has been hailed across the political and religious spectrum, by rabbis, educators, and statesmen alike. In just four years, it has brought tens of thousands of Jews to Israel, injected tens of millions of dollars into the Israeli economy, and helped to energize Jewish youth in dozens of communities throughout the Diaspora. It has made significant inroads in saving young Jews from assimilation and intermarriage, and reaffirmed the centrality of the Jewish state to the future of the Jewish people. So how exactly has Israel's government decided to reward the Birthright Israel program this year for its unprecedented accomplishments? Why, by slashing its funding, of course. Launched in the year 2000, thanks to the vision of philanthropists Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman, Birthright's aim was as simple as it was ambitious: to give Diaspora Jewish youth an opportunity to reconnect with their heritage by offering them an all-expenses paid 10-day trip to Israel. The critics and the naysayers wasted little time in attacking the idea. It'll never work, they said, since Jewish kids don't care about coming to Israel. And even if they do, asserted the program's detractors, what good can a whirlwind tour possibly do to ignite their latent Jewish identities? Needless to say, on both counts the critics were wrong. Take, for example, the fact that in the 1990s, before Birthright was launched, the number of Jewish students visiting Israel annually was said to number just 1,500. In 2003, as a result of the program, the total reached 15,000, or ten times the 1990s figure. In effect, then, Birthright accomplishes in one year what all the other programs combined would take a decade to do. Indeed, nearly 60,000 young Jews from 35 countries around the world have participated in Birthright thus far, including groups from as far afield as Russia, Cuba, the US and Brazil. But the impact is far greater than merely quantitative. It also transforms people's lives, reinvigorating their Jewish spirit and forever binding their fate with that of the Jewish people. Earlier this week, Gideon Mark, Birthright's director of marketing, told me story after story of Jewish kids whose lives had been forever changed by their brief, yet intense, exposure to Israel. Some decide to seek out a Jewish marriage partner, others become involved in Jewish communal or religious life, and a handful have chosen to make aliyah. Even the Israeli army is impressed, noticing the impact the program has had on young Israeli soldiers who accompanied the students on their trips around the country. As a result, Mark says, the army has expanded its cooperation with the group, because it enables the soldiers to better appreciate their kinship with Diaspora Jewry and instills within them a greater sense of pride regarding Israel's accomplishments. But despite its track record, Birthright is now getting short-changed by both the Israeli government and American Jewish organizations. In the 2004 budget passed by the Knesset last week, the government reneged on its previous promises and cut the program's funding by an astonishing 95 percent, from $9 million in 2003 to just $400,000 in 2004. And the United Jewish Communities, the fund-raising arm of American Jewry, has also indicated that it will not live up to its original commitment, citing tough economic times, among other reasons. Consequently, according to Mark, Birthright will have to cut back on the number of Jewish students it brings to Israel this year. Instead of 20,000 or even 30,000 new visitors in 2004, as had originally been hoped, just 10,000 may now be able to come. And so, at a time when Israel is clamoring for more travelers to visit its shores, the government together with American Jewish organizations have effectively undercut one of the most successful and meaningful Israel programs in the Jewish world today. The decision is even more puzzling when one considers the economic benefits that Birthright provides. Since its inception, the program has received a total of $35 million in grants from successive Israeli governments, yet it is estimated to have generated more than $90 million in return for the Israeli economy. Much of these revenues have gone to industries that were hit especially hard by the Palestinian intifada, such as hotels, tour operators and even El Al. Hence, Birthright has the distinction of being not only beneficial for Israel, but profitable too. As Avi Rosental, the director of the Israel Hotel Association, said last summer, "Tourism is a major branch of the Israeli economy that has suffered a lot because of the geopolitical situation. The increase in Birthright Israel tourists will perhaps bring us to a turning point where hotels can rehire staff and increase employment all over the country." (The Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2003). It is not too late to repair the situation, and to save Birthright from shrinking in size. Pressure must be brought to bear on both the Israeli government and the Jewish federations in America to give Birthright the priority in funding that it rightly deserves. The economy may be still be sluggish, and donations may indeed be drying up even as the Jewish community's needs continue to grow. But we are talking here about the future of the Jewish people, about saving young Jews from assimilation and reconnecting them with their heritage. What could possibly be more important than that? The writer served as Deputy Director of Communications and Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu.

THE PROBLEM WITH MIDDLE EAST STUDIES Posted by Leo Rennert, January 13, 2004.

I sent these two letters to the Washington Post after Mr. Dobbs' article on Middle East studies in the universities. (1) Dear Mr. Dobbs: As a long-time Post subscriber, I've enjoyed many of your articles for their perceptiveness and your obvious desire to dig beneath surface appearances. So I was greatly disappointed to read your report about controversies swirling around Middle East studies in many of our universities. It is not enough to quote defensive cries of faculty members who see a new McCarthyism when Daniel Pipes takes them on. To present the full picture to your readers, you should have also included specific allegations by Pipes and other critics, citing chapter and verse of how far some of these professors have tilted in one direction. When a UC Berkeley instructor announces at the start of the term that he will admit only students with firm pro-Palestinian views and is not interested in opposing views, that's not academic freedom, but a rank perversion of it. And that's not an isolated instance. I'm old enough to remember loyalty-oath and other nefarious attacks on academic freedom at the University of California half a century ago. So I don't have much appetite for turning professors into anyone's toadies. But academic freedom carries responsibilities. Your article unfortunately left the impression that many of these professors who need to be called to account by department chairmen, academic deans and governing boards are merely poor victims of raging right-wing conservatives. The reason they're being criticised is because they've turned themselves into academic mullahs. It's a shame you didn't see fit to expose some of their horrendous behavior. Your description of Pipes also leaves much to be desired. When he appears on campuses, he just doesn't run into a few student protesters, as you put it, but often encounters organized attempts to keep him from speaking. Are those who would silence Pipes any less "divisive" than he? (1) To the Editor: Academics who teach Middle East studies in some of our most prominent universities have been quick to cry "McCarthyism" when confronted with mounting evidence that many professors in taxpayer-funded programs tilt lectures and assigned readings to viewpoints that blame the United States for all the region's ills, while downplaying threats posed by radical Islamists. (Middle East Studies Under Scrutiny in U.S., front page Jan. 13). However, if Congress insists on closer scrutiny of government-subsidized instruction in this critical field, faculties and administrators will have only themselves to blame for creating a radical orthodoxy that brooks no opposing views or robust debate. Intimidation of dissenters - through rejection of prospective instructors with less tolerance of terrorism and handing down poor grades to students with different ideas - has reached alarming proportions. It would be a shame if the pendulum swung to the other extreme and government officials were to prescribe curriculum content. But many of those who now wave the flag of academic freedom have been the first to deny it to others critical of their campaign to demonize Uncle Sam and to rationalize the intentions of jihadists at our gates. Some balance - and genuine academic freedom - needs to be restored.

WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 13, 2004.

If MK Eitan is really so upset with the Sharon machine, let him begin the process of expelling them from the Likud. This is the only method guaranteed to once and for all end both the internal and external corruption the Sharons represent. These are two news items from Arutz-7 website (http://www.israelNN.com). Both appeared January 13, 2004. - AZ Spector Links PM Sharon to Foreign Funds (IsraelNN.com. Jan-13-04.) Former Sharon campaign official David Spector last night revealed an audio tape on Channel 2 TV that links Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to foreign funds pertaining to his 1999 Likud election campaign. Spector explained he was not seeking to harm the Sharons, but was doing what he felt is necessary to clear his name, explaining the prime minister and his family have been harassing and persecuting him for years, and he needs to clear the air as well as his name. Spector, a private investigator and former Sharon confidant explained he was very close to the prime minister at one time, serving as his strategic consultant and senior advisor/aide. Spector's tape not only links the prime minister to the foreign funds, but indicats he was aware and personally involved in monetary dealings. Sharon has been claiming that his sons MK Omri and Gilad dealt with the financial matters while was not involved. Eitan Says Sharons are running the Likud & All Remain Silent (IsraelNN.com. Jan-13-04.) Veteran Likud MK Michael Eitan stated today that following the release of the audio tapes by David Spector on national television last night, it has become apparent that the Sharons are running the Likud party. Eitan stated that the prime minister and his sons, Gilad and Omri, who is also an MK, have brought the country to an intolerable situation. Eitan added that MK Omri runs the Likud party while all remain silent "as if it were a heavenly decree." Eitan stated the public has become numb regarding illegal funding allegations, adding the public is only interested when it happens in "the other party." He cited the investigation into the Barak for prime minister campaign and the connection to MK (Labor) Yitzhak Herzog, adding "one hand washes another" and therefore, the investigations did not result in criminal charges.

HAMAS OFFICIAL SAYS CONTACTS TOOK PLACE WITH AMERICANS Posted by Tamar Rush, January 13, 2004.

This appeared as a Yahoo.com news item, January 5, 2004. I don't know about "CAIR"'s involvement, but a few weeks ago members of the "Council on Foreign Relations" met with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. With James Baker now involved, it all makes sense! RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - The Palestinian radical Islamist group Hamas has had contacts with US officials and does not rule out further talks, one of its leaders said on its Internet website. Mohammed Nazal, a member of the Hamas political bureau based in Damascus, said: "In principle, we are not hostile to contacts or meetings with the American administration. In the past we have had such contacts without revealing their existence or contents." Nazal added: "We are leaving the door open to all, except representatives of the Zionist entity (Israel)." He denied reports about an attempt at mediation by Qatar based on getting Hamas to suspend its anti-Israeli violence in exchange for a US commitment to lift the freeze on its bank accounts and remove it from the list of terror groups. Sources close to the extremist group told AFP that meetings with American representatives had taken place in Beirut and Qatar, though no indication was given of when they had occurred.

THE MOST WONDERFUL MEN OF THE YEAR! Posted by Resa LaRu Kirkland, January 13, 2004.

Oh they are magnificent! They fight everyday for their fellow man, valuing his freedom, his family, his life on par with or even higher than their own. They respect cultures they don't fully understand, or if they do understand, cultures vastly different from their own, and they do so all day, every day, so that their faith in the individual to choose for himself does not stand out as lip service only. They care more about the lives of their enemies' children than the enemy does. With tender hearts and echoes of their own offspring, they go out of their way to inflict as little human suffering upon these sacrificial lambs - gleefully offered up by their own parents-as humanly and humanely possible....even if it means that their kindness and mercy is returned in the form of their own destruction. They are the American Fighting Man-warriors extraordinaire-and I'm not just speaking of the ones in Iraq. It has been my pleasure and honor in the past few years to become acquainted with some outstanding men fighting the frontlines of wars at home. It is no surprise either that most are soldiers themselves-past or current-and know from experience what it takes to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming odds. Those I admire who haven't served have striven to emulate the characteristics of the American Warrior in the state-side battles they fight, many on behalf of their frontline champions. While I was thrilled-and surprised-to see that TIME declared The American Soldier their Politically Castrated Persons of the Year, I have my own list that I proudly declare as the AMERICA'S WAR CHICK Most Wonderful Men of the Year. (Yes, I said men-I have yet to be Politically Castrated!) I'll start with the most heartbreaking loss of 2003, my Honorary Memoriam. American Warrior Gen. Raymond Davis, USMC ret., recipient of the Medal of Honor during the Battle of Chosin, three-war veteran, America's most highly decorated Marine and true man extraordinaire, returned to the Heaven that birthed him September 3, 2003. His remarkable 88 years read like a scriptural tome; Heaven's gain is our loss.but knowing Gen. Davis to be the man he is, I am positive he is fighting for America, Freedom, and God as fiercely from the other side as he did while here. God blessed that man, and in turn, that man blessed us. He was my friend, humble always, decent beyond words, and I miss him. Now we'll turn to my Standing With Israel nominees. There's Andy's son Michael, fighting with the IDF, and my King Solomon buddy Shlomi. It doesn't stop there, and how lucky we are! William Welty is a tireless fighter, and Gerald Honigman of Israel Insider and Jewish Xpress is intelligent, logical, and best of all, on the right side. I also must include Dr. John Cohn, recipient of another honorable award: the CAMERA Letter Writer of the Year Award. The Good Doctor consistently writes eloquent letters calling the liberal media on their hypocrisy and pro-Islam anti-Israel leanings, and does so with tenacity of a pit bull. Would that there were more like him. The men up for my Free North Korea Award, who fight on behalf of the oppressed people of North Korea-and who sound the war-cry of eliminating Kim's Stalinist regime-have my utmost respect. Edward Kim tells it like it is, and isn't afraid to call a spade the "Ace of Spades" when it comes to Total Dics. Gabriel Schoenfeld is one of the few who takes on all comers, including this current most evil of regimes. For my Just Plain Awesome award-given to those who endure to the end, and NEVER quit-there can be none better than Master Sergeant Rocky Sortor, Chosin warrior Lee Mead, and Rick Erickson who, with his USMC logistical wisdom and fearless persistence, is changing the world by reminding it of the Facts of Life-and I ain't talkin' Tootie. The Ballsy With NO Apologies Award goes to Mike LaSalle and Glenn Sacks for their no-holds-barred honesty in the face of the Feminist Hypocritical "Woman-Good-Man-Bad" bullshit we've all been bludgeoned with for almost half a century now. Finally men shouting that the Y Chromosome is a VERY good thing, that they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! Viva Manhood! Bitch-smacking Leftist Losers 'Cause They're Stupid Award is for those on the political home front who fight because it's right. Some aren't vets, like one of my favorite forums, that of Ted Nugent. Trust me; you'll love it if you survive! (heh heh."Surviving Nugent".get it? You'll laugh later.) I also love my FrontPage Magazinites: Jamie "Russian RamRod" Glazov and David "Bad Eagle" Yeagley, whose Bad Eagle Forum has long been my top favorite, although I haven't had the time to frequent it of late. (Mea Culpa, David!) And shouts out to FrontPage Magazine behind-the-scenes genius and Vietnam Victor Mike Bauer. Horowitz, you proved your mettle once again by being smart enough-and lucky enough!-to snatch him up. Then there's my World Net Daily buddy and co-conspirator Doug Powers, recipient of my Damn That's Funny! Award for excellence in political satire and comedic writings that continue to tweak the Leftist Liars and Commie Bastards. He gets a double honor here; his writings also receive the much coveted Damn That's True! Award. Go Doug Go! My Anti-Hollywood Producer Award goes to my Independent Filmmaker buddy Kevin Hershberger for his consistent and unwavering commitment to making films-both fiction and fact-based-that honor those who serve this great land. There's a reason he's the only one I'd ever trust to make the FORGOTTEN WARRIOR documentaries and films. Hollywood can kiss my fat white ass. My Song of the Year Award goes to my dear friend-whom I've mentioned before - Artie Rodriguez, for writing the best song I've ever heard for the American Soldier, Thank God For The Soldier. (Lyrics at the end of this article.) He has been a songwriter since childhood, and in spite of not yet being able to get into the Nashville inner circle, he is the biggest up-and-comer, sure-to-be-a-star it has been my pleasure to ever know-one glance at his lyrics is living proof of his genius and heart. Toby Keith and Darryl Worley, if you're reading, call Artie. He needs the help of those who have already made it, and you won't regret lifting this former Marine blessed with much talent and terminal decency. But my ultimate Award, Action: More Than Lip Service, goes to only two men this year. First is my favorite old Sarge, The Magnificent George Clark, whose vet-powered Save The Montagnard People wishes to return the loyalty and love the Montagnards gave our warriors in Vietnam. I know I don't have to tell the Vietnam Victors what the Yards did for us, and what the Vietnamese government is now trying to do to them in vindictive moves to punish them for their noble choice of freedom over communism, Christianity over heathenism. George is tough as nails, completely dedicated, tenacious, vivacious, gracious and fierce.in other words, a warrior with a cause, and a damned good one at that. He makes the Vietnam Vet into the two greatest words in the English language. Second is the courageous Philip Jones, who wants to unite men who know freedom because they fought for it into a party that can bring the Republicans back to the original tenets of their beliefs and claims by electing Veterans to public office. Who'd 'a thunk that a lawyer would issue the battle cry against professional politicians, choosing those who fight it out on the battlefields to fight for us in the Halls of Congress? He is the definitive American: TEXAN! Phil, you da man, and I'm joining with you. I trust men such as Lt. Col. Allen any day of the week over the Clintons and "Weasley" Clark types, who care nothing for warriors and only about themselves. That's it, the AMERICA'S WAR CHICK official Men of the Year, and what a year it was! So long as America still grows men such as these, we can sleep well. Now ya'all know I usually end my articles with Keep the faith, bros, and in all things courage. You know that I am convinced that courage is the greatest, most God-like attribute of humanity. But just this once, I'm going to end my article with the words that Artie Rodriguez put to music for his brothers in the Corps - once a Marine, forever a Marine-because the song says "courage" better than any mere words can. America's Warriors, this is for you. This article first appeared on http://www.EtherZone.com. Resa LaRu Kirkland is an avid military historian, with her main focus being on the Korean War and its forgotten warriors. She has been given many names by her beloved Korean War Vets, her favorites being "The Pitbull," "Rambo Brockovich," "Hellraiser," "Tiger" and "D-Day." She can be reached at: resalaru@forgottenwarriorproject.com

THE IMPENDING DEATH OF WESTERN EUROPE Posted by The Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, January 13, 2004.

This was written by Arnold Evan Reingold All civilizations are worthy of study and respect and are, therefore, in historian Arnold Toynbee's phrase "philosophically equal". Nevertheless, it is Western society which has produced by far the greatest moral and physical freedom as well as economic rewards for its multitudes of people. That society, indebted to its Greek and Hebrew sources, has extended its influence and a measure of control throughout the entire world. However, based on current trends in population, the European homeland of our society will cease to exist in its present Western form within the lifetimes of our children. Why is this happening, and how does it matter? The average non-Muslim woman in Western Europe today, gives birth to about 1.4 children. This is one-third less than the 2.1 births required to maintain a constant level of population. In France for instance, if the current trend continues, the number of non-Muslim school children will drop by one third in one generation, and by 55% in two generations. This long-term population decline is obscured by longer life expectancies, and the much higher birthrate of the Muslim population. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050 the population of France and the Netherlands, notwithstanding the Muslim increase, will decline by 19%. The projected decreases are 26% for Belgium and Spain, 31% for Germany, and 34% for Italy. (The population of the United States is expected to INCREASE by 56% to almost 440 million during that time.) An estimated five to six million of the sixty million people in France were Muslim in the year 2000. This estimate is probably low due to unrecorded immigrants, but let us assume we are within a 10% range. We can obtain a reasonable estimate of their birthrate by using the experience of their primary home countries which are Algeria and Morocco. That rate is 4.2 children per woman. Due to the superior level of health care in Europe, the survival rate of these children will be high. Even if no more Muslims were to arrive, the Islamic population of France will double in one generation, and quadruple in two. Bearing in mind that these immigrants tend to have children at a younger age than their European counterparts, those generations will reach maturity in a relatively short time. If the current birth rates persist, even without additional in-migration, by 2050, half of the school-age children in France will be Muslim. There were 250 million Muslims in the world in 1950. Today, there are 1.25 billion, and in twenty five years the projection is 2.5 billion. Based on current economic realities, the probable inability of the Arab countries which do not produce oil to provide a decent life for their citizens will cause a continued influx to Europe. As the Muslim religious, cultural and political influence grows, life for native Europeans will become increasingly stressed and economically less productive. The natural consequence of the process will be an increasing out-migration, not only of people, but of cultural and religious institutions. Visualize, for instance, the Vatican relocating to Mexico City, Buenos Aires or perhaps even Manila. After all, last year more new Catholic babies were christened in the Phillippines than in Western Europe. The base of fundamentalist Anglicanism is not now in the U.S. and certainly not in England, but in Uganda and Nigeria. Already the balance of political power is changing. Witness the French government's frantic attempts to save Saddam Hussein and his Baath (read National Socialist) party. We have heard about commercial contracts and loans, oil and arms sales, allegations of bribes at the highest level of government, and a desire to weaken the influence of the U.S. But overshadowing these obvious influences, the pressure of a growing, young, energetic, vocal and sometimes physically threatening Muslim political movement is clearly evident. The situation in Belgium and the Netherlands is not greatly different than the French, although the Muslims in Holland have come primarily from Indonesia rather than from North Africa. Unfortunately we have recently witnessed the growth of a radical Islamic movement in Indonesia, including the bombings in Bali. Mid-eastern mullahs and others are providing ongoing anti-western propaganda and "religious instruction" across Western Europe. One of the natural results has been an increase in virulent anti-Semitic outbursts, both in the classic European sense, and in the newer mode of denying the legitimacy and right to existence of the State of Israel. Why would it be significant to Americans if the Europe with which we are so familiar is replaced by a series of Islamic states? After all, the mountains and beaches (if not the churches and the museums) will remain. The social, economic and political consequences will be a catastrophic change in the world balance of power. Western Europe has been marvelously successful at the cultural assimilation of people from Eastern and Southern Europe, and to a large degree from Africa and Asia. However the current wave of immigrants is different. Many Muslims want to reproduce the social, if not the economic, conditions of their homelands. We are all aware of the repression of women and minorities, and the extreme social backwardness that are now being imported into the West. Too many of the newcomers oppose what we represent, hate our culture, and are prepared to blow up people and buildings and airplanes to change the way we live. Militarist Islam is growing more powerful in its home countries. Witness the recent elections in the nominally pro-western countries of Turkey and Kuwait, and in Algeria. Meanwhile, the Iraqis destroy their power plants and blame the U.S. for the lack of electricity. The loss of Europe would represent an immense victory for the forces arrayed against freedom. It is very, very late, Europe is dying quickly, and the apparent solutions are Draconian, brutal and, sadly, anti-democratic. They include the following: Financially and otherwise encourage more European babies. Scotland is considering $10,000 bonuses and subsidized child care. Fill needed jobs by increasing immigration from Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, etc.), and from non-Muslim Asia, and Latin America. Spain is now encouraging the arrival of new citizens from the many unemployed Argentines and Mexicans. Romanians are replacing Arab workers in Israel. Require Muslim children to attend secular schools that teach Western values. The Netherlands is attempting to do this. Stop further Muslim in-migration. Send back non-citizens and their children, and revoke citizenship for law breakers. Provide financial rewards for people willing to return. The survival in Western Europe of the peoples and civilization that have created the modern world, with its levels of health, freedom and essential decency, is at risk. How we as inhabitants of Dar al Harb (the world of war) describe the doctrines of Islam is not relevant. How the preachers of Dar al Islam interpret them is the crucial point. Under the Koran, it is the duty of every believer constantly to strive to expand the borders of Dar al Islam, and every peace treaty with unbelievers can only be a "Hutna", a tactical truce. The fundamentalist view is that any part of the world that has ever been part of Islam must be so again. This would include Spain, Portugal, Southern Italy, Sicily, all the Balkan countries, most of southern Russia and Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia, northern India and western China. And tomorrow the world? The website address of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies is http://www.freeman.org/. The Freeman Center provides 1. Daily freemanlist -- freemanlist archives 2. Monthly Internet magazine, THE MACCABEAN ONLINE (archived from 1995) 3. FREEMAN CENTER WEB SITE 4. Directory of important pro-Israel and other Jewish sites on the WWW. 5. Search Engine 6. Sponsorship of programs with pro-Israel groups.

THE OSLO WAR: A TALE OF SELF-DELUSION Posted by Aaron Lerner, January 13, 2004.

The ongoing Palestinian war of terror is a direct and inevitable consequence of the 1993 Oslo accords - "the worst blunder in Israel's history". So concludes Prof. Efraim Karsh, head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College London, in a just-published, special BESA Center (Hebrew) study to mark the tenth anniversary of the Oslo Accords, entitled "The Oslo War: A Tale of Self-Delusion". Karsh recounts in painful detail the follies of Oslo's architects. "Just over a decade after destroying the PLO's military infrastructure in Lebanon, the Rabin-Peres government asked the Palestinian organization, which was still formally committed to Israel's destruction by virtue of its covenant, to establish a firm political and military presence right on its doorstep. And not only this, it was prepared to arm thousands of (hopefully reformed) terrorists who would be incorporated into newly established police and security forces charged with asserting the PLO's authority throughout the territories", Karsh writes. In the words of prominent PLO leader Faisal Husseini, Israel was willingly introducing into its midst a "Trojan Horse" designed to promote the PLO's strategic goal of "Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea" - that is, a Palestine in place of Israel. Karsh writes that from the moment of Arafat's arrival in Gaza in July 1994, the PLO chieftain set out to build up an extensive terrorist infrastructure in flagrant violation of the Oslo accords. He systematically failed to disarm the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad as required by the Oslo accords, and tacitly approved the murder of hundreds of Israelis by these groups; created a far larger Palestinian army (the so-called police force) than was permitted by the accords; reconstructed the PLO's old terrorist apparatus, mainly under the auspices of Tanzim, Fatah's military arm; and frantically acquired prohibited weapons through the use of large sums of money donated to the Palestinian Authority by the international community for the benefit of the civilian Palestinian population. Eventually, Arafat resorted to outright mass violence: first, in September 1996 to publicly discredit the newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and then in September 2000 with the launch of his war of terror - shortly after being offered by Netanyahu's successor, Ehud Barak, the creation of an independent Palestinian state in 92 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. According to Karsh, what enabled Arafat to pursue his war preparations with impunity was a combination of international sympathy for his cause and Israeli self-delusion. "Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight, the extent of the Israeli leap of faith in Oslo appears nothing short of mind-boggling. There were no ultimate goals set for the negotiating team, no road map to follow. There were no serious discussions over the direction of the entire process, not even awareness among the negotiators and their superiors of each other's vision of peace". Karsh quotes Oslo godfather Shimon Peres who said: "I think what is really important for a peace process is the creation of a partner, more than a plan. Because plans don't create partners but if you have a partner then you negotiate a plan". But what if the partner would not act out the role ascribed to him? Peres: "We close our eyes. We don't criticize because, for peace, we must produce a partner." Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il IMRA provides "a current digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events." This article is archived as BESA BULLETIN, Oct.2003, No.16

WHAT DOES PM SHARON INTEND? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 13, 2004.

PM Sharon pledges to follow the US Road Map, that largely adheres to Arab plans for the conquest of Israel in phases. He said, "There will be no construction beyond the existing construction line (although the municipalities own undeveloped land), no expropriation for construction (although infrastructure may require it), no special economic incentives, and no construction of new settlements." (The Map does not bar building on empty city lots.) This is defeatist. Israeli capitulation proves that terrorism works. In hoping to wall off terrorism, Israel seems fearful. To the Arabs, fear is a signal to attack. Daniel Pipes believes that Sharon does not intend to follow the Map. Pipes explains that the Map diverges from Sharon's long-time views. Pipes thinks that the speech was made to mollify the State Dept., but is not sincere (Pipes #401, 12/23,e-mail). Suppose Pipes were right. By spreading a mood of defeatism, and by denigrating Zionist entitlement to the Land of Israel, Sharon undermines his alleged scheme to thwart State Dept. plotting. It encourages more anti-Zionist pressure and murder. What conceit by this old Prime Minister to suppose himself immortal, forever able to impose the opposite of the policy he is legitimizing, in favor of the one he is de-legitimizing! If he worries about US pressure now, imagine the pressure if the US found itself deceived and feigns righteous indignation fed by his legitimizing the imperial US behavior towards Israel and Zionism! I don't think Pipes is right. Sharon has too much of a leftist legacy. Let us not confuse his past military acumen and courage with his political views and with his present strategic confusion and cowardice. One cannot predict Israeli policy on the basis of Israeli leaders being secretly staunch and not the outwardly appeasers they usually turn out to be. People who share Pipes' view depend on Sharon waiting until it is plain that the Arabs remain terrorists and pact-violators insincere about peace. The Arabs already have made that plain. By not acting now, Sharon indicates he never will act. Mr. 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.

JACK KELLEY - SLANDERING JOURNALIST - FORCED TO RESIGN Posted by News From Hebron, January 13, 2004.

On September 4, 2001, USA Today correspondent Jack Kelley wrote a blistering account of "settler revenge" against Arabs living in the Hebron-Kiryat Arba vicinity. Titled "Israeli extremists take revenge on Palestinians," the article began: After a quick prayer, Avi Shapiro and 12 other Jewish settlers put on their religious skullcaps, grabbed their semi-automatic rifles and headed toward Highway 60. There, they pushed boulders, stretched barbed wire and set tires afire to form a barricade that, they said, would stop even the biggest of Palestinian taxis. Then they waited for a vehicle to arrive. As they crouched in a ditch beside the road, Shapiro, the leader of the group, gave the settlers orders: Surround any taxi, "open fire" and kill as many of the "blood-sucking Arab" passengers as possible. "We are doing what (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon promised but has failed to do: drive these sons of Arab whores from the land of Israel," said Shapiro, 42, who moved here with his wife and four children three years ago from Brooklyn. "If he won't get rid of the Muslim filth, then we will." Hebron spokesman David Wilder wrote a lengthy rebuttal to the charges made in the article, and sent letters of protest to the USA Today editorial staff, but never received any response. Yesterday it was reported that journalist Jack Kelley was forced to resign from USA Today for likely fabricating newspaper articles. According to an article appearing in USA Today: USA TODAY foreign correspondent Jack Kelley was forced to resign last week after he repeatedly misled editors during an internal investigation into stories he wrote, the newspaper's top editors said Monday. Left unresolved is the question at the foundation of the inquiry: whether Kelley might have embellished or fabricated stories. When USA TODAY began the investigation in late May after top editors received an anonymous complaint from a staff member, the newspaper set out to examine the veracity of Kelley's work by looking at a sampling of stories from 1995 to 2001. Now, seven months later, having declared the investigation over, top editors acknowledge they may never know whether there were inaccuracies in Kelley's stories. "Given Jack's actions, obviously it's hard to have confidence in his work," said Executive Editor Brian Gallagher, who oversaw the newspaper's investigation. In one, published Aug. 10. 2001, Kelley recounted how he "happened to be walking near the restaurant" where a suicide bomber struck moments later. Kelley wrote that he saw the bomber before the attack and describes him in detail. Another story, published Sept. 4, 2001, contains an account of an attack on Palestinians by 13 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Memmott said he could not find anyone with first-hand knowledge of the attack. When asked for sources to verify both stories, Memmott said, Kelley pointed him to one man: an Israeli undercover agent Kelley says was with him at the restaurant bombing earlier that year. Memmott said he was called by a man who identified himself as the Israeli agent. The man said he was with Kelley outside the bombed restaurant but was not during the attack by settlers. Memmott said he never learned the full name of the man. He said he is certain only that he spoke with someone calling from Israel. Jurgensen said editors believe Kelley's account of the restaurant bombing because his direct supervisor remembers Kelley calling her shortly after the bombing. She and Gallagher said confirming the Jewish settlers story appears to be impossible. The entire story appears at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-01-13-reporter_x.htm A Hebron spokesman issued the following response: World media has, for years, slandered residents of communities living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and most particularly in the Hebron-Kiryat Arba region. Charges brought against us are blatantly false , but our responses are ignored. The article printed almost two and a half years and a half ago by Jack Kelley in USA Today, one of the largest newspapers in the United States, caused tremendous damage to our community, our reputation and our credibility. Despite the detailed response written and posted in reaction to the charges made, we were ignored by the USA Today editorial staff. Given these revelations that Jack Kelley misled his own editors, and resigned in disgrace, the Hebron Jewish community demands that the newspaper publish a full apology to the community and its residents for having slandered their good name. Such media abuse must be accounted for. As they themselves state: "confirming the Jewish settlers story appears to be impossible". The website address of the Jewish Community of Hebron is www.hebron.org. They can also be reached by email: hebron@hebron.org.il or by phone: 972-2-996 5333.

EX-TERRORIST GUEST ON FARAH SHOW Posted by Heshy Reisel, January 13, 2004.

This appeared today on the World Net Daily website (http://www.wnd.com). Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist who now is a Zionist, will be Joseph Farah's guest today on his nationally syndicated radio talk show. As a teenager, Shoebat was involved in violence toward Jews in Israel, but, after marrying a Christian, he changed his ways and now says he understands that "the Jewish people are the most peaceful people on earth." "The Arabs and Muslims are wrong," he said in a recent speech in Berkeley, Calif. "The Jew has the right to return to his land. Does this make me a fanatic? Fine!" "My own father wants to kill me," Shoebat said. The Jewish Bulletin News reports at a family reunion several years ago, he was told he must have been brainwashed by the Jews. Fundamentalist Muslims have said he must die because he abandoned Islam, he added. But this doesn't sway him. The Middle East and Islamic terrorism will be just two of the hot topics to be discussed today on "Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily RadioActive," the daily, nationally syndicated radio program hosted by the creator of WorldNetDaily.com and G2 Bulletin. You can listen to "Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily RadioActive" live on more than 80 stations from coast to coast or tune in on Serius Satellite Radio or listen on a live-stream signal on the Internet. The program is broadcast daily from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. If you would like to know the affiliates closest to your area, here's the e-mail address for inquiries: listeners@radioamerica.org. If you'd like to call in to the show, dial 1-800-510-TALK. Every day, callers who get through and contribute to the program are given free copies of WND Books - including new books and some best sellers. If you are a radio station general manager or program director interested in the show, here's the e-mail address: gmsandpds@radioamerica.org.

SAUDI TERROR CONNECTION Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 13, 2004.

In spite of all the "Pipes" dreams about Islam being a religion of peace, Saudi Arabia is Islam. They are what Islam truly stands for and what an Islamic world would look like. This article was written by Joseph Farah, Editor of World Net Daily. It's time to take the kid gloves off in our dealings with Saudi Arabia. It's time to recognize Saudi Arabia is one of the most evil, diabolical and repressive regimes on the face of the earth. It's time to get tough with the duplicitous rulers of Saudi Arabia, who feign moderation but practice extremism and finance holy war against us. It's time to recognize what Saudi Arabia represents. This is the country that produced the Sept. 11 hijackers. This is the country that spreads jihadist hate in madrassas around the world. This is the country that prohibits women from exercising the most basic of rights. This is the country that gave us Osama bin Laden. This is the country that sponsored the Taliban of Afghanistan. This is the country that bans any form of Jewish or Christian worship - even in the privacy of homes. This is the country that bans any non-Muslims even from setting foot in their so-called "holy city" of Mecca. This is the country that is holding American citizens hostage - some of them kidnapped right out of their homes here in the United States. The latest revelations about Saudi involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks and its continued sponsorship of al-Qaida terrorism since are startling - given the fact the U.S. claims to be fighting a worldwide war against terror. WorldNetDaily and my own G2 Bulletin reported this week that Saudi Arabia, the source of most of al-Qaida's funding prior to Sept. 11, 2001, has frozen only a tiny percentage of the money flowing to Osama bin Laden's terror network since the biggest terror attack in history. Saudi Arabia has frozen only 41 bank accounts belonging to seven individuals for a total of $5,697,400, or 4 percent of the total amount of terrorist-related funds frozen around the world - this despite the fact that intelligence and law-enforcement authorities around the world agree that most of al-Qaida's money originates in the Saudi kingdom. Saudi Arabia continues to talk out of both sides of their mouths about fighting terror - at once telling the world the kingdom is the No. 1 target of al-Qaida and also minimizing the threat posed by the terrorists. Saudi Arabia has for more than 30 years told the world it is taking all the steps necessary to ensure "charity" money doesn't end up in the hands of terrorists. Yet the funding source continues unabated. Also, some of the top businessmen in the country are running enterprises that are funneling money to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. The report indicated operational cells of al-Qaida are involved in construction, in real estate and in public building sectors. Some 241 Saudi charity organizations are currently operating in Saudi Arabia and abroad. These organizations receive annually between $3 billion to $4 billion, of which between 10 percent and 20 percent is sent abroad. Saudi charities, international intelligence agencies say, are present at every stage of terrorism. The Saudi Red Crescent, for instance - a parallel to the Red Cross in the U.S. - maintained passports for al-Qaida operatives to avoid searches and is referred to as an "umbrella" organization by al-Qaida operatives. A message on the letterhead of the Saudi Red Crescent bureau in Peshawar requests that "weapons" be inventoried. The letter contains a note from Osama bin Laden to its then-director stating "we have an extreme need for weapons." In the past, Saudi charities even provided military bases for al-Qaida - even military training for al-Qaida terrorists. From several intelligence sources and documents collected around the world, the investigation of the 9-11 families has been able to establish that several Saudi charities have funded at least 10 terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The International Islamic Relief Organization funded at least six training camps referred to as terrorist training camps by the U.S. government, including the Darunta camp, a facility used for chemical and biological weapons testing. When are we going to wake up in America? What will it take? What does Saudi Arabia have to do to us before we recognize it as the sworn enemy of everything we hold near and dear? Saudi Arabia sends its slick and polished, American-educated public relations experts here to explain away all these contradictions. Too many people believe them. Too many just don't care. Too many look the other way because of the oil power the Saudis wield. Am I calling for war on the Saudis? No. I'm simply saying it's time to get tough. It's time to demand justice. It's time to throw our considerable weight around with the sheikhs. It's time to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy. It's time to stop pretending the Saudis are anything but extremists who underwrite most of the terrorism in the world. It's time to recognize they are sticking their finger in America's eye, insulting us and holding our fellow citizens against their will. America has the power to bring its people home. It can do it tomorrow. It only takes the will. Let the White House and the State Department know where you stand. 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. Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily (WND), where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. The WND website address is http://www.wnd.com

KEEP UP THE PRESSURE ON SHARON Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 13, 2004.

Let's keep the pressure up on Generalissimo Sharon. We are not talking about a "normal" political debate or fight. What we have here has already cost the lives of thousands of Jews and threatens the lives of millions more in Israel and the rest of the world as well. If Sharon or more to the point, his paymasters, have finally gotten the message that we will not be railroaded into destruction, that is a good beginning. The fight must not stop at this point, though. For too many years Israel's politicians have lived in a never, never land of unlimited privileges with no responsibilities or consequences. In another month the Likud will meet and amend its constitution so as to force those who were elected under its banner to actually execute the electoral platform of the party. Any politician judged acting against the policies of the Likud will be bared from running as one of its candidates. To those who have lived in reasonably free, democratic countries, this sees almost a trivial point. How could a political party do otherwise? After all, what is the point of a party if those elected in its name do whatever they want? Israel is not and has never been a free, democratic country despite all the gibberish about being "The Middle East's Only Democracy." The political elite of Israel sees itself as being just that; an elite. Ubermenchen, who have the intrinsic right to rule. Political parties, ideologies, public commitment and the like are all no more than tools to manipulate the untermenchen of Israel for the personal benefit of Israel's politicians. As such they will viciously resist any attempt to hold them accountable to anyone and do whatever is possible to sabotage any restrains to their powers and privileges. It is therefore not enough to simply correct the anarchy in the Likud for the future. The present must also be addressed. Sharon and his cronies must not only be stopped but punished for their betrayal of the public trust they were given. Without this any changes to the Likud constitution will be meaningless. Only if Sharon and his clique are publicly and officially condemned in unambiguous language by the Likud itself or even better expelled, will there be any fear of repercussions for their type of betrayal amongst Israel's ruling elite. This next was written by Aaron Lerner of IMRA and is entitled "Sharon Blinks? Retreat Plan Not Developed, Will Be Brought To Knesset." While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made several presentations recently of his plan to retreat if the Palestinians continue with terror, implying that he would decide on the plan and implement it without asking the Knesset for approval, he told the Knesset today that "as of today, we still haven't developed" a plan if the Palestinians fail to honor the road map and that when such a plan is developed that it will be brought to the Knesset for its approval. He also explained that the plan would be carried out "after full consultations with the coalition members and our allies in the world, headed by the USA." MK Shimon Peres, in his speech following Sharon, explained that he did have a criticism also against the Palestinians: that they don't fight terror. Peres explained, however, that he wasn't certain that the Palestinians are able to fight terror given the actions of the Sharon Government. 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. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il

DON'T MAKE ALIYAH Posted by Serio Adir Gad Ovadiah Tezza (HaDaR), January 13, 2004.

This was written by Professor Shmuel Neumann. He is actively involved in creating communities for English-speaking olim, and in an emigration program for Palestinians. He currently resides in the Shomron. I'd like to add a note to what Dr. Neumann says. I'd like to point out that while it's true that I am underemployed and certainly poor by US standards; that I have none of my cushy French or US jobs, and survive on less per month (it hopefully will change, G-od willing) than what some spend on restaurants in the same month; it is also true that I live in a two-storey house with garden and view, a house that's way bigger than my three bedroom two bathrooms ocean-front apartment in Santa Monica, CA or the single family house in Bayswater, NY, and for half the price of the latter and 1/3 of the former; that here the kids are freer to roam around even "after dark" (when they have no school the next day) and we couldn't worry less since we have no criminals, no Arabs and no terrorists in the village; that our kids play alone in the park and no one would even associate that with kidnapping; that milk comes in plastic bags with or without the picture of a cow, and not in cartons with the picture of a missing child; that my wife does not think twice about sending her first-born 15 year old back to yeshiva by himself at 1:30 AM after a fun evening at home; that our girls hitch-hike everyday to go everywhere in our rather large yishuv of 7,000 people; that parenting is NEVER being one's children's driver (they go everywhere they need by themselves, including shopping); that our supermarket is as big as most US supermarkets and delivers for free (you can even shop by phone!); that I live a 5 minutes drive from the Cave of the Patriarchs and a 45 minutes one from the Temple Mount; that we have, locally, eighteen educational institutions, from kindergarten to technological college and rabbinical schools; that we have an Olympic size pool in the village, free tennis courts, and two sports halls with more than 2,000 seats; we enjoy 34 Arab-free buses a day to Jerusalem; that clean air and silence are a daily treat, not just part of story-telling; that we enjoy fast internet connections (ADSL) as in the US, and besides I can watch endless international channels (Italy, US, France, Spain, etc.) on TV if I so wish, while in the US I couldn't; that I can call the US for 5 cents a minute and Italy for 10; that my children will grow up speaking Hebrew and without being a minority that does not celebrate X-mas. - all while surrounded by jingle-bells and fat men in red with long, white beards. So... too bad that I miss COSTCO and SEARS, Bullocks, Robinson's, Sacks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, Galeries Lafayette etc. (I LOVE shopping!) - and of course I miss my father, mother, brother, my very old grandma, my childhood friends who are still best friends, only one of whom lives near me, etc. But I certainly enjoy not being surrounded by foul mouthed speaking bipeds all around me in subways, shopping malls, etc., from the pedestrian mall on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, to the prettier one on 3rd Street in Santa Monica. I certainly enjoy not seeing the Pope's, Chirac's or Bush's face on most news reports. And I certainly enjoy not having to hide my kippah-yarmulke as they do in Italy and France, or worry, as I used to, daily, about some friend of Bin Laden dropping a vial of Ebola virus in the subway, or dirty-nuking Manhattan or something like that. And I enjoy Jews from all over: from Iraq to the US, from Morocco to Poland, from Ethiopia to Burma. And being on guard duty from time to time, or doing target practice with them, is not less interesting than going to the gym or playing bridge. Anyone from the United States that wants to make Aliyah ought to have their head examined. They will condemn their children to spend their college years in army service. They will obligate themselves to such odious taxes that their car will cost more than double the showroom price. They will be forced to live in congested apartments, as single-family houses with a front garden and backyard, near a major city, usually costs more than a million dollars. They will subject their family to catastrophic conflict. Their children, as they become Israeli, will be incessantly censured for rude, obnoxious, aggressive, border violations. The parents will always be the immigrants who, with their grating Anglo accent, will become a hideous shame to their children. Careers that took a lifetime to develop will suddenly become obsolete, as the licensing process for most professions poses insurmountable obstacles. It is small wonder that of the 75,000 olim from the United States since 1948, more than half returned. But - Anyone from the United States that doesn't want to make Aliyah ought to have their hearts examined. For American Jews, the inescapable shame of being Jewish is induced and reinforced with the ebb and flow of indigenous, latent anti-Semitism. Even as Jewish communities become well entrenched, American Jews continue to feel like a stranger in a strange land. Their core is permeated with the shame of being the condemned wandering Jew. Every day, they pray for the end of the exile and return of all Jews to Israel, yet with every attack upon Israel by their government, it seems more and more like a futile pipe dream. Religious practice is difficult. Jews must constantly negotiate time off for Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Those that are not observant have a better-than-even chance that their children will intermarry. As a society, they are barely surviving, as the Jewish population dwindles due to intermarriage and because many opt for a perpetual single lifestyle. American Jews struggle to pay for things that in Israel are free: Jewish education, health insurance, disability insurance, etc. To keep afloat, most families require both the husband and wife to work full time. People that they wouldn't trust to park their car suddenly become worthy of raising their children. An overwhelming sense of futility permeates their life, so that idealism is nothing more than an ivory tower abstract concept. On the other hand, making any change represents too much of a struggle. So they just float. How do you know when a fish in a stream is alive? It is those that stand up to the pressure and stand their position, or even swim upstream. Those that just float along are dead or almost dead. Life is replete with obstacles and pressures and a measure of one's success in life is how well they stand up to pressure. We have survived two millennia of horrors unknown to any other peoples on this Earth. We endured the expulsions, exterminations and tortures for a reason: To rebuild the decimated Jewish nation. After two thousand years of victimhood, it is not an obligation, but a privilege for Jewish boys to carry machine-guns and stand up for themselves. It is not a burden, but an honor to economically support, by paying the exorbitant taxes, those who implement covert operations against anti-Semites worldwide. It is a society that converts the miles-high pile of shame [in]to a pride in being Jewish that borders on arrogance. It is a country that shoulders responsibility for Jews worldwide. It is not just the Entebbe rescue, or going after Mengele in Argentina, but in finding the Ethiopian Jews in the midst of civil wars and famines and rescuing them, and absorbing a million Soviet Jews who were on the verge of extinction by the anti-religious communists. As a believing Jew, I believe that the Holy Land chooses who will immigrate and who may remain in Israel. And everyone who moves here has to pay a price, and it may be the ultimate price. Yet, in the Shema prayer, we are commanded to love the Almighty will all our hearts, possessions and life. We are commanded to die to sanctify his name in specific situations. I believe a Jew who makes Aliyah, especially a Jew that makes Aliyah to Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha), fully cognizant of the sacrifices and challenges ahead of him, can say Shema every day not as an abstract intellectual exercise, but by living it. Although housing is affordable in Yesha, with a single-family home usually below $100,000, transportation is inadequate. Unlike most places in Israel, hitch-hiking is a way of life, but sometimes the wait is hours. The security situation within the community is better than in the cities, but periodically there are warnings and residents are asked to lock their doors and remain inside. Most Israelis and almost all Americans consider you stupid or crazy. Yet, after suffering all the indignities of living in these places, there is a deep satisfaction for standing up to adversity in clinging to the Land that you and the Almighty love. Ironically, the standard of living is higher in many respects. Whereas a one family home near Jerusalem or near Tel Aviv costs close to a million dollars, houses in Yehuda and Shomron are often less than a hundred thousand dollars. In a new community being established near Barkan with very large houses, it still costs only around $300,000. A new suburb of Elkana is being established with building lots of over an acre (5 dunam) with prices in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. Small cooperative farms are available for the taking. There are about six and a half million dunam in Yehuda and Shomron. There are about six and a half million Jews in America (counting Jews that intermarried, as they are still Jews by Jewish law). Yehuda and Shomron is their birthright; their President insists it be bequeathed to cutthroat terrorists. American Jews have an option of crystallizing their Jewish identity and living in a society that makes them not only not self-conscious of their Jewishness, but proud of it. They will finally feel at home. They only need to assert their birthright, to fulfill the commandment "You shall possess the Land and you shall settle in it, for to you I have given the Land to possess it." (Bamidbar 33:53) While Bush thinks that he can force Sharon to kick out 250,000 Jews from their houses in Yehuda and Shomron, he would have second thoughts about trying to kick out two million American citizens who happen to be Jewish and who elect to have a vacation home in Yehuda and Shomron. He would have to defend against two million civil rights cases, which would take several lifetimes. American Jews can save the day, change the course of history and finally have a sense of wholeness. Don't make Aliyah But Aliyah can make you. HaDaR describes himself as "religious-fanatic-gun-toting-settler" from Qiryath Arba Hebron.

KROC CENTER DECLARED SPONSOR OF TERRORIST AND ANTI-SEMITISM BY NY SUN Posted by Steven Plaut, January 13, 2004.

The Kroc Center is supposed to be a research center at Notre Dame University. In the article below that appeared in the NY SUN, Kroc is accused by the NY paper of sponsoring an Islamic terrorist with ties to Al-Qaida. Joan B. Kroc was the leftist widow of the McDonald's fortune who left lots of money for left wing causes, such as National Public Radio. You might be aware that the Kroc Center has also financed a paper by Neve Gordon, the lecturer at Ben Gurion University who has filed a SLAPP suit against me because I criticized his political opinions and poltical behavior. In the KROC-financed paper by Gordon, he tries to prove that Israel is a terrorist state. He proudly lists it as one of his major academic publications on his web page. Called "Terrorism in Arab-Israeli Conflict," it can be accessed as "Occasional Paper #18:OP:1" at http://www3.nd.edu/~krocinst/ocpapers/ Here is the NY Sun article declaring that the Kroc Center finances terrorism and anti-Semitism. It was written by Eli Lake and is titled "Notre Dame's Anti-Semite." A Swiss scholar who has been accused in France of sowing anti-Semitism and is considered by some analysts to be an apologist for radical Islam will be coming to America this fall to teach at University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Tariq Ramadan has accepted a post as the Henry Luce Professor at Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Center for International Peace Studies. Mr. Ramadan in October published an article on an Islamic Web site, Oumma.com, singling out some of France's Jewish intellectuals for supporting the war in Iraq and thus,he said, placing the allegiances of their religion ahead of their obligation as scholars. In it he wrote that the analysis of French Jewish intellectuals was "increasingly oriented toward a community-based concern that tends to relativize the defense of universal principles like equality and justice." That essay earned him the swift rebuke of his targets including Bernard-Henri Levy, author of "Who Killed Daniel Pearl," and Bernard Kouchner, the former chief U.N. administrator for Kosovo, both of whom said the manner of his attack was racist and recommended his censure. Mr. Ramadan has also been praised in some circles in the West as a moderating voice in Islam. Time magazine, founded by Luce, called him one of their "innovators of the year" in 2000. In his last book, Mr. Ramadan said that the traditional distinction that un-Islamic lands should be taken by force was outmoded. And despite his recent critique of Jewish intellectuals, he has also preached against anti-Semitism in some of his speeches in Europe. "We find him invaluable because he takes the risk of talking to both worlds," the director of the Kroc Center, Scott Appleby, told The New York Sun yesterday. "If we are going to avoid a violent conflict with radical Muslims, we will do so by taking the risk of understanding their point of view, their criticisms of the West, and also having the authority to talk with them." Mr. Ramadan's credentials with the more radical strains of Islam have often led his critics to regard him as their apologist. "Basically he is a Muslim brotherhood preacher," Michel Gurfinkiel, the editor of Valeurs Actuelles, a French newsweekly, told the Sun yesterday."He is using two parallel rhetorics. One is for the global European opinion and looking very European and then there is his proper radical Muslim teachings." The grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, Mr. Ramadan has been accused in the French press of maintaining ties to Al Qaeda, a charge he has denied. On November 14, 2003, the French newspaper Le Parisien published an article quoting a former French intelligence officer and investigator for the families of the victims of the September 11 World Trade Center bombing, Jean Charles-Brisard, that Mr. Ramadan was suspected by European intelligence agencies of meeting Al Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri in 1991. Mr. Appleby said the French and Swiss governments have exonerated Mr. Ramadan of these charges, and he added that the vetting process at Notre Dame for the position was a vigorous one. Mr. Ramadan has also denied these charges in the French press. But others in the American academy disagree. The director of the Middle East Forum, Daniel Pipes, who gave Mr. Ramadan's book "To be a European Muslim" a favorable review, said yesterday,"Once again we see that the leftward leaning academy and in particular the Kroc Institute has a soft spot for militant Islamic figures. Given what we are now learning about him, it would appear like others, he is playing a double game of hiding an Islamist agenda." The president of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, Hillel Fradkin, said, "He has an undeserved reputation for being a moderate. It is clear from his recent remarks in France he is not looking for domestic comity, but domestic quarrels." Mr. Appleby said in response, "We are not surprised that he is accused of double talk because what he is trying to do is to bring two ways of knowing and two ways of talking into conversation with one another." 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.

US TO ISRAEL: Assad isn't serious; don't be tempted to speak to him about peace Posted by Isralert, January 12, 2004.

The sources for this article were www.conferenceofpresidents.org and http://feedsbignewsnetwork.com Israel Held Secret Talks With Syria.  Israel had secret contacts with Syria several months ago - well before recent Syrian overtures - but they broke down after word of the meetings leaked out, Israel's foreign minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday. Shalom said Israel had two secret meetings seven or eight months ago with people "very close" to Assad. (AP/Washington Post) U.S.: Do Not Be Tempted By Assad's Tricks.  Warning messages were passed to Jerusalem by professional sources in the White House: "If Assad was serious, he would not turn to Sharon via the newspapers." The Americans also surprised Israel by stating: "Assad isn't serious; don't be tempted to speak to him about peace. First of all, let him provide answers on terrorism and on Iraq." (Maariv-Hebrew; 11 Jan 03) Sharon: Syria Must Stop Its Support for Terror Before Talks.  Israel would be happy to begin peace talks with Syria, but only if Syria first ends its support for terrorist organizations, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday. "Syria should stop the help and support for terrorist agents, and if that happens, I believe Israel will be ready," Sharon said. He added that Israel, as a peace-loving nation, was naturally interested in talks with Syria, but questioned whether Damascus really wanted peace, or was merely trying to ease the American pressure it was currently under. Earlier, Sharon told the cabinet that "we shouldn't rush to embrace the Syrians before thoroughly investigating what lies behind the Syrian initiative." He also said, "Just as we demand that the Palestinians dismantle terror [groups] before beginning negotiations, we make the same demand of the Syrians." Israel is conditioning renewed talks with Syria on its halting all support for Palestinian terror groups, senior Israeli officials have indicated. Defense establishment officials believe halting Syrian aid to Palestinian terror groups is an even higher priority than ending Syria's backing for Hizballah in Lebanon. Intelligence officials believe Syrian-supported Hizballah activity among Palestinians has stepped up. "We continue to track what Assad is saying and also, more importantly, what he does," an official in Prime Minister Sharon's office said. "As things stand now, since Assad is doing the opposite of what he is saying, it does not appear the time [for peace talks] has come." (Aluf Benn and Gideon Alon in Ha'aretz) U.S. Official Slams Syria for Allowing Terrorists to Enter Iraq.  Aluf Benn and Gideon Alon Richard Perle, adviser to the U.S. secretary of defense, told CNN that Syria was allowing terrorists to enter Iraq though its borders, was holding funds belonging to the Iraqi people, and was producing chemical weapons. (Aluf Benn and Gideon Alon in Ha'aretz) What's Behind Bashar al-Assad's Peace Offensive?  Bashar's willingness to go beyond his father's conditional commitments, e.g., on the matter of relations with Israel, undoubtedly stems from a sense of pressure and deep distress - the result of the new regional realities in the aftermath of the war in Iraq and America's determination to push Syria hard on issues of concern to Washington, particularly the war on terror and weapons of mass d, ,estruction. Bashar has repeatedly shown that he is committed to his father's legacy, not only with respect to the idea of a peace agreement with Israel, but also with respect to the price tag. But "continuity" also means no real change in underlying attitudes toward Israel. Like his father, Bashar and those around him (as well as many others in the region) see Israel as an illegitimate entity constituting, by its very existence, a threat to the Arab world. Moreover, their anti-Zionist and anti-Israel pronouncements are often tinged with anti-Semitism, given public expression in recent years by senior Syrian officials, including Bashar himself. (Eyal Zisser, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies/Tel Aviv University) "Spinning Into Control."  In Libya, Colonel Qaddafi took one look at our army massing for the invasion of Iraq and decided to get out of the mass-destruction business. In Afghanistan, supposedly intractable warlords in a formerly radical Islamist, female-repressing culture of conflicting tribes and languages have come together. In Syria, a hiding place for Saddam's finances, henchmen, and weaponry - and exporter of Hizballah and Hamas terrorism - dictator Bashar al-Assad is nervously seeking to re-open negotiations with Israel. On the West Bank, incipient Israeli negotiations with Syria - on top of the overthrow of the despot who rewarded Palestinian suicide bombers - further isolates the terror organizations behind Yasser Arafat. In Iran, the presence of 130,000 U.S. troops near the border was not lost on the despot-clerics in power, who suddenly seemed reasonable to European diplomats seeking guarantees that Russian-built nuclear plants would be inspected. (William Safire, New York Times) Syria denies Israel contacts.  Syrian Information Minister Ahmed al-Hassan denied any contacts between his country and Israel as claimed by Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom. No Syrian-Israeli contacts existed in the past or present, al-Hassan told Beirut's As-Safir newspaper Monday. He said Damascus was keen on settling the Middle East conflict peacefully according to the Arab peace initiative endorsed unanimously at the Beirut Arab summit in 2002. Under the initiative, Arab countries offered full normal relations with the Jewish state in return for Israel's withdrawal from Arab territory it captured during the 1967 Middle East war, including the Syrian Golan Heights. He said Shalom's claims secret contacts took place with Syria a few months ago are not true at all and were denied by the official Syrian authorities in due time. There is no need for secret or undercover contacts between Syria and Israel since Damascus has announced openly it is ready to resume peace negotiations. Peace is a strategic choice, which we will not drop, al-Hassan said. (Big News Network.com) Isralert is sent to an opt-in list, hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe, send an email to Isralert@aol.com

WE'VE GOT TO BE LIKE HUSHIM BEN DAN Posted by Sergio Adir Gad Ovadiah Tezza (HaDaR), January 12, 2004.

This was written by Lenny Goldberg and was posted to Communaute-Juive-France-owner@yahoogroupes.fr Lenny Goldberg is editor the the Torah weekly "Darka Shel Torah" (http://www.kahanebooks.com/darka). Last week while driving with my wife from Tapuach to Jerusalem, my windshield was blown out by an Arab stone-thrower. I actually saw him throwing the rocks, and immediately gave chase after stopping my car. But it was too late, the Arab disappeared. I instinctively felt the humiliation and degradation of the situation. I wanted to kill the first Arab I saw, pillage and loot their property..anything. I could not leave the area without taking out my fury on someone or something. I could not get back into the busted up car and drive on... I was glad I felt this way. Being a student of Rabbi Kahane, I've learned to be sensitive to Hillul Hashem, to the humiliation of God and his People. I was glad I couldn't just drive on and say "thank God it was only a rock,..." Frankly, one needn't be a big Torah scholar or a student of Rabbi Kahane to feel this way. Anyone with a modicum of self-respect would react similarly. Today, unfortunately, there is little self-pride, less Jewish pride, and even less zealotry for God's honor. But there was no one to beat up, and nothing to loot. I returned to my car and drove on. I knew I had to fix the windshield, I couldn't drive like this. I went to the nearest police station, in a nearby settlement. Usually, the guard at the entrance to the settlement checks you out when you enter, asking you if you live in the yishuv, if you're Jewish, etc. But there was no need this time. Seeing my windshield, the guard knew I had to be Jewish. The debased car was my Teuda Zehut. More humiliation. As I pondered the practical repercussions of my situation, my initial fury started to fade: how will I fix it, how much will it cost, what about my errands in Jerusalem, etc..? When I arrived at the police and they gave me paperwork to fill out, so that I can fix my window for free; when I saw how routine all this was in their eyes I, myself, was feeling a lot less zealous for God's honor. This can only remind me of this weeks parsha, where the gemora in Sota 13, speaks of how Esau attempted to thwart Yaakov Avenu's burial in the Cave of the Patriarchs. When the children of Yaakov arrived at the cave to bury their father, they found Esau waiting for them, saying: "that last burial plot belongs to me". The stunned sons tried to remind Esau that he sold it to Yaakov. Following a brief discussion of the issue they decided to send Naftali to Egypt to bring the contract which proves that the plot was indeed sold to Yaakov. In the meantime, they waited. Among those waiting was Hushim, the son of Dan. Hushim was deaf, and did not hear the discussion that had taken place. At a certain point he asked: What is going on? They told him that Esau has delayed the burial, and everyone is waiting for Naftali. Hushim was outraged: "And my grandfather shall lie in disgrace until Naftali returns?!" With that, he took a stick, struck Esau in the head, and killed him. The question asked is: Why did Hushim react that way, and not the other brothers? The difference between Hushim and all the others was that Hushim was the only one not partner to the interaction with Esau. A psychological effect occurs when one enters into such a process. No matter how outrageous the claims of the other party may be, the very entering into such a dialog causes you to lose your natural instinct; you begin to "understand" the other side. In contrast, the deaf Hushim son of Dan who could not hear the arguments and claims, knew only one thing: "Grandfather lies in disgrace!" He did not have the chance to "be convinced" by Esau's deceit, and did not understand how his brothers can allow this low-life to delay for even a moment the burial of Yaakov, the forefather of the nation - and therefore arose and acted. He did not get "used" to the situation, and did not accept the false reality. He came "fresh" on to the scene. And this is what happened to me. At the beginning, I was Hushim son of Dan. I saw the situation for what it was - a disgrace to God and the Jewish People. As time passed, I became like Naftali, taking care of the "paperwork" at the police station. Many will say, that one must always be reasoned and controlled - to be like Naftali and the brothers. But that just allows the fury and zealousy to dim. By waiting and being "practical", we guarantee that our initial gut feeling, healthy instinct - will fade, and we will ultimately accept the Hillul Hashem. No. Let us be Chushim Ben Dan!! Let us know that what we felt at the outset, THAT was the way we are supposed to feel ALL THE TIME, and it is only time and our weakness which allows it to fade. Now I understand what Rabbi Kahane taught us - Hillul Hashem cannot be put off for a moment. It must be wiped out immediately, overriding all considerations. (that is why Moshe was not willing to delay vengeance against the Midyanites, that is why David fought Goliath - he, too, came in "fresh" to the situation, and did not get desensitized to Goliath's blasphemy as the rest of the Jews did..) Because if we don't act quickly, the Hillul Hashem lingers, we get used to it, until it becomes part of the "reality".

PA TO JOURNALISTS: ALL SLAIN PALESTINIANS ARE MARTYRS Posted by Leo Rennert, January 12, 2004.

This article appeared today in the Jerusalem Post. It was written by Khaled Abu Toameh. If Israel bludgeoned reporters, would the Times and the Post report it? The Palestinian Authority is demanding that all journalists who work for Arab satellite TV stations refer to a Palestinian who is killed by the IDF as a 'shaheed' (martyr) and refrain from voicing any criticism of the PA in their reporting. Yussef al-Qazzaz, a senior official with the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, lashed out at Palestinian journalists for not placing the interests of their people above everything else, and dubbed some of them "primitive." Qazzaz's attack was directed mostly at Palestinian correspondents who work for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya 24-hour news channel, who have been using the term "dead" instead of "martyred" when referring to Palestinians killed in the ongoing violence. PA officials have accused the journalists of displaying "insensitivity" by not referring to the victims as martyrs. A spate of suicide bombings in Riyadh and other parts of Saudi Arabia has prompted Al-Arabiya to start referring to these attacks as terrorist actions. The officials claim the station has also instructed its correspondents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to stop describing Palestinians killed in the confrontation with Israel or in suicide bombings as martyrs. The move, they say, is designed to avoid glorification of gunmen and suicide bombers who attack Saudi interests. "Most of the correspondents of the Arab TV and radio stations need to be educated politically and culturally about the internal [Palestinian] situation," said Qazzaz. "The task of educating these journalists should be the responsibility of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, although some of its heads also need to be educated. "The Ministry of Information should also be entrusted with educating these correspondents by telling them which phrases are used in our political life. We don't understand why some Arab satellite stations are no longer using the term martyrs." Qazzaz said he cannot understand how some Palestinian journalists make harmful remarks to their people at a time when even foreign journalists are careful not to alienate the PA. He was referring to the Ramallah-based correspondent of Al-Arabiya, who said in a recent report that some PA officials are abusing their positions and are busy seeking higher jobs. Last week, Al-Arabiya's correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Seif al-Din Shahin, was attacked and wounded as he was driving his car in the center of Gaza City. He said the attackers identified themselves as members of Fatah. Shahin, 35, said five gunmen fired warning shots into the air, intercepted his car, dragged him out, and beat him with the butts of their rifles for nearly 10 minutes. The attackers told Shahin they were unhappy with his coverage of paramilitary celebrations in the Gaza Strip marking the 39th anniversary of the founding of Fatah. Many Palestinians have criticized Fatah for allowing hundreds of armed men who participated in the celebrations to shoot extensively into the air, wounding several people in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The celebrations reportedly cost Fatah more than $3 million. "I was in the car with one of my colleagues when we were surprised by a car that blocked our way," Shahin said from his bed in Gaza's Shifa Hospital, where he is being treated for bruises. "Five masked men came out of the car and started firing into the air. Then they forced me and my friend to get out of our car." Shahin said the gunmen beat him all over his body with the butts of their rifles and clubs. "When I tried to escape they fired some shots towards me," he said. "One of the attackers, who did not have a mask on his face, approached me and told me that he was from Fatah. He said from now on it is forbidden for me to make any mention of Fatah in my reporting." Shahin said he received death threats earlier this week from people who said they belong to Fatah. "I reported these threats to the Palestinian Authority security forces, and it is time that they take deal with this case," he said. Shahin said this was not the first time he had been targeted because of his reporting. "It is clear that this is a violation of the freedom of the press, and I hope that this will end," he said. Samir Mashharawi, a senior Fatah official in the Gaza Strip, strongly condemned the attack on Shahin, denying that his group was responsible. "Fatah condemns this cowardly action," he said. "I don't believe that Fatah or any of its members have endorsed this cowardly action. We don't want to be on the side of those who practice intellectual terrorism." Mashharawi called on the PA and its security forces to launch a swift and thorough investigation to find out who was behind the attack. "Fatah is carrying out its own investigation into the matter," he said. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) issued a statement condemning the assault on the journalist. "PCHR considers this violent action an attack on the freedom of the press, of opinion, of expression, and the freedom to impart and receive information," said the statement. "PCHR calls upon the Palestinian Authority and the [PA] attorney-general to conduct a full and fair investigation into the incident and to bring those found responsible to justice in accordance with the rule of law." This was the second time Shahin has been attacked by Fatah activists. A similar attack took place on December 21, 2001, in Gaza City, when he was working for another TV station. He was also arrested by PA security services on January 6, 2003, after reporting that Fatah had claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing. Last September, Fatah gunmen stormed the offices of Al-Arabiya in Ramallah, threatening to kill the workers and smashing equipment and furniture. Palestinian journalists said senior Fatah officials who were upset with the station's reporting had ordered the attack because Al-Arabiya had given a platform to Palestinians who voiced criticism of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and some of his top lieutenants. TALKBACK Maria Teresa Latorre: There is little publicity to issues/facts like the ones described in this article, which in all fairness should work to the detriment of the PA and its terrorist organizations like Fatah. The world must know more about those incidents. Steven Peban: The terrorist infrastructure permeates all levels of Palestinian society. Only its dismantlement, with or without a political horizon is relevant. Ricardo Daniel: The lack of freedom for the press as well as the total lack of opposition are the basis to make it clear to the world with whom we are dealing. Totalitarian, barbarian persons who laugh at the westerners concern about democracy ore any other value. Albert Nahmani: I have lived in Arab totalitarian countries and know first hand the fear of the masses as they try to survive in their own country. It is crucial that you do find a way to have such articles printed on the US Newspapers such as the Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times etc....The West must be made awakened the gruesome details of how the Palestinians are themselves terrorized by their own tyrants.

THE FOUR KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE CONFLICT Posted by Barry Rubin, January 12, 2004.

So much has been written about the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflicts as to conceal the critical issues under a mountain of verbiage. But there are four key points so obviously true and easily documented that an army of lies must be mobilized trying to ensure that elites and publics throughout the world don't grasp them. These absolutely essential points for understanding the issue are as follows: First, from 1948 to the present, with various exceptions and temporary truces, Arab regimes, the Palestinian leadership, and - since 1979 - Iran have sought to wipe Israel off the map. Whether employing harsh rhetoric ("drive the Jews into the sea") or euphemistic phrases ("secular democratic state," "right of return," or "one-state solution"), this has remained the main viewpoint expressed in the Arab arena on a daily basis. There are, of course, exceptions which include Egyptian policy since 1978, the Jordanian government's position, a few courageous Arab liberals, and a sector of the Palestinian leadership. Morocco and a few other states in the Gulf could be added to this list. But when one examines all these forces it is amazing how limited they are and how hesitantly they contradict that basic principle. During the 1990s, the Western-oriented, Palestinian Authority rhetoric spoke of two states but this was not matched by what was said on the semi-official and official media, school textbooks, mosque sermons, Fatah educational materials, and most other materials. This anti-Israel extremism is also enhanced by a daily demonization of Israel in the Arab world which is so deep and extraordinary that one can well despair of it ever being reversed. The pretense is that Arab and Palestinian leaders are ready for a two-state solution, even though this is daily contradicted by statements and behavior. Second, the methods used by the Palestinian movement and often by Arab states, have been deliberate, strategic terrorism, that is purposeful attacks on civilian Israelis. This has been the expressed doctrine of PLO leaders since the 1960s. Again, after a brief hiatus for much of the 1990s this historic policy has returned since 2000. It is easily demonstrated that Yasir Arafat has encouraged and supported these attacks and that many of them are carried out by Palestinian Authority security forces. Public opinion polls show the backing for them by the masses. After all this is the post-September 11 world where there is supposedly a global war against terrorism going on. Yet on this issue, the Western media does not in most cases deign to use the word "terrorist." To call Arafat an advocate and implementer of terrorism is considered even in the United States to be a "controversial" position. Third, Israel and Israelis have favored a peaceful, compromise solution. Half the population has long supported an end to Israel's presence in almost all the territories captured in 1967 ("land for peace") and the other half mainly opposed this because they did not believe the Arab side would accept a real peace even at this price. For a dozen years now, Israeli leaders have advocated making major concessions and accepting the creation of a Palestinian state on the basis of a prior peace agreement. Now even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has openly called for such a solution. This was a courageous position by him given the events of the last three years and attitudes in his own party. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of Israelis do not want to be occupiers, even of land which has the most significant religious and historical importance for them. They have been willing to take major risks for peace and have suffered huge casualties because of that readiness. And this truth is not negated by the existence of settlements, the view of a shrinking minority that this is part of the land of Israel, or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three years in office during the mid-1990s. Fourth, in the year 2000, Syria turned down peace even when offered the entire Golan Heights. Arafat rejected peace even if he would get - in the context of an opening bid at the Camp David summit and of the final offer in the Clinton plan - an independent Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem, control of the al-Aqsa mosque, and massive refugee compensation. The proportion of people in the Middle East, or even in the West, who understand these simple facts is far too low. There has been a massive literature seeking to rewrite history and claim that Arafat was never offered anything reasonable. Every day lies about these events and all the points made above appear around the world from professors, journalists, and politicians. Blotting out these four basic facts prepares the ground for demonizing Israel, or at least misrepresenting the situation so that it seems to be the villain. After all, if the Arab side is eager to make peace and doesn't really use terrorism, while Israel wants the conflict to continue, seeks to hold onto all the territories, and is not facing any serious threat, what other conclusion can one reach? There is an appropriate Arab proverb for this situation which I will paraphrase very roughly here: How do you know it is a lie? Because it is so big. In a sense, the slander is a kind of compliment. After all, so much misrepresentation would be unnecessary if the case against Israel wasn't so weak. Nevertheless, the denial of historic truth on these matters is the overwhelmingly dominant standpoint in the Arab world and among Muslims, the majority standpoint in Europe, and a significant factor in the United States. Why, having said all this, do I remain an optimist? Because I firmly believe that objective reality ultimately determines outcomes and not the lies or misperceptions that people have along the way. This view has been richly and repeatedly proven by history. The problem is that history also shows how much unnecessary suffering is inflicted along the way to that result. Professor Barry Rubin is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) and editor of "Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal" (MERIA).

HAYIL (VALOR) PARTY FORMED Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 12, 2004.

This was a news item in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com) today. Former Kach activist Baruch Marzel announced the formation of the new Hayil (Valor) party, which intends to combat land giveaways to the Palestinian Authority and the destruction of Jewish communities in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). Hayil opposes talks with the PA, and advocates the relocation of Arab villages from Jewish population centers to the east bank of the Jordan. Hayil, an Hebrew acronym for the Jewish National Front, has been approved by Israel's party registrar. At a press conference at the Agron Press Center in Jerusalem on Sunday, Marzel introduced the other co-founders of the party, Hen Ben-Eliyahu, a resident of the community of Eli and lecturer at the College of Judea and Samaria in the city of Ariel, and Dr. Andrei Weissman, a former security official from Netanya who immigrated to Israel from Brazil in 1982. The three displayed the registration certificate of their new party issued by the Registrar of Political Parties. "The National Religious Party was the only party to submit an objection to the new party's registration," party spokesman Itamar Ben-Gvir told Arutz-7, "but the objection was rejected, and the party was approved by the registrar on December 31st." A branch of the NRP, "Secular Jews for the NRP", goes by the same three-letter acronym as the newly registered party. Leaders of the fledgling party plan to convene a national committee and set up branches nationwide. Dr. Weissman said he was a radical left-wing activist in Brazil. "I arrived in Israel, and to this day I serve in the IDF as a reservist," Weissman said. "I have five children and they are being offered no future. Israelis are confused by [those claiming to be on the] Right and the Left. We are all ready to accept any document and any accord. It is time that someone looked two generations forward - I want to be able to look at my children and tell them that the future is here and not in Canada." "Following the failure of the Herut Party, we decided to search for a new way," Ben-Eliyahu told the press. "Hayil is not a right-wing party, it is a party of the center. The Likud has become the extreme Left, Labor the insane Left, and Meretz has crossed all lines, hurling rocks at our soldiers," said Ben-Eliyahu. He said the party represents a return to the original Zionism of 1948, when hostile Arab onslaughts were answered with transfer of Arab villagers to Jordan. "There are no other solutions for the Zionist enterprise. All solutions suggested by Likud and Labor will only lead to a continuation of the bloodshed," he said. Asked about the future of the Moledet party (now a faction of the National Union party), with which Ben-Eliyahu was previously associated, he said that "Moledet died with the murder of Gandhi," referring to the late Minister of Tourism Rechavam Ze'evi, who was murdered by terrorists in 2001. Marzel, formerly number two on the list of the Herut party headed by Michael Kleiner, called upon fellow right-wing parties, including Tekuma and Moledet, and on the hareidi party Agudat Israel to join Hayil. He said that he seeks to form a coalition to ensure the immigration of two million Jews and the emigration of two million Arabs in the coming years, to create a balance of eight million Jews and two million Arabs in the Land of Israel. Marzel said that the goal of the new party is not to receive just one or two Knesset seats, but to bring about revolutionary change in the State of Israel, "to take power and to steer the country in the way of Torah and the love of Israel."

JERUSALEM, HEART OF THE HOLY LAND, DIVIDED OR NOT Posted by David Ben Ariel, January 12, 2004.

Jo-ana D'Balcazar is a political analyst in international relations, who specializes in the European Union and the Middle East crisis. This article is archived atwww.ozemail.com.au/~adamgosp/divide.htm The Palestinian-Israeli question is one of the most difficult conflicts. Ironically, the Holy Land - holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims - became the Land of Discord. Since the Palestine partition in 1947, approved by UN resolution 181, peace was very close twice. The challenge is to solve the dispute over Jerusalem, as Jews and Arab-Palestinians claim her as their capital. Who will be the modern Solomon bringing effective policies to reconcile Jews and Arab-Palestinians? Historically, there has never been a Palestinian country, language or culture. The term ''Palestine'' was a political invention during the Roman's occupation in the 2nd century AD. Emperor Hadrian in 135 AD renamed Judea Provincia Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina to erase Jewish identity during the second major Jewish revolt Bar Kochba, against the oppression of Romans. Later, it was shortened to "Palestine." Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jews since King David established it more than 3,000 years ago. Arabs invaded Jerusalem in 634 AD in their quest to convert the world to Islam. Jerusalem belonged to the Jews around 2,400 years before Prophet Mohammed founded Islam in the 600s AD. Jews pray facing Jerusalem, Muslims pray facing Mecca. Muslims consider Jerusalem their third holiest place for the Dome of the Rock after Mecca and Medina; Jews consider Jerusalem their holy city. The Dome of the Rock was built during the Umayyad Dynasty in 691 over the ruins of the Second Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and the al-Aksa in 715. The ''Western Wall'' remnant of the Second Temple is Judaism's most revered site: its link with the past and the hope for the future. Today Jews and Arab-Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital. Although Muslims claim Jerusalem, the Koran never mentions Jerusalem as capital of any Arab country. The Jewish Bible mentions Jerusalem 669 times and Zion 154 times referring to Jerusalem or the Land of Israel, totaling 823 times. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion seven times. Some Muslims claim the ''furthest mosque'' refer to Jerusalem. When Jordan controlled Jerusalem, Arabs never suggested having Jerusalem as their capital and Arab leaders never visited. Then, why do Arabs claim Jerusalem? The answer is simple: politics. On Nov. 29, 1947, UN resolution 181 called for the partition of Palestine. The partition consisted of two independent states: one Jewish and one Arab, while Jerusalem remained an international zone. Arabs living in Palestine and the Arab states committed their first political mistake to reach peace by rejecting the partition they were offered; and now, they're demanding precisely that. Jews did accept the partition and became the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. However, Israel was immediately attacked by Arab-Palestinians and Arab forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Arab rejection contributed to the ongoing violence for 55 years now. Jordan invaded and occupied East Jerusalem in May 1948 and ousted Jews from the Old City, dividing Jerusalem for the first time. Israel controlled West Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967. Jordan denied Israelis access to the Western Wall and Mount of Olives cemetery, violating the 1949 Armistice Agreement. The Arab-Palestinians refused to renounce violence. Israel united Jerusalem after Jordan attacked West Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. The second opportunity to reach peace and settle the Jerusalem issue was July 2000 during negotiations by President Bill Clinton at Camp David between Israel's ex-prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. By refusing Barak's offer, Arafat committed the second political mistake. According to Ambassador Dennis B. Ross, former special Middle East coordinator, U.S. Department of State and chief negotiator, the offer included 97 percent of Judea and Samaria (West Bank), Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and return of refugees to the Palestinian State. Had Arafat accepted, Jerusalem would have remained divided. It appears Arafat had no real intention to end the conflict, yet negotiations effectively made peace between Israel and Egypt in 1979 and in 1994 between Israel and Jordan. Peace cannot be made by homicide bombings and fundamentalist Muslim groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas calling for the destruction of Israel to establish an Arab-Palestine State under Islamic rule. Attacks by Arafat's terrorist groups Al-Fatah, Tanzim and al-Aksa Martyr Brigades, plus a campaign of hatred toward Israel will never lead to peace. Yet, the peace process goes beyond Jerusalem. It includes water, borders and refugees. Can the world wait another 55 years for the modern Solomon to bring peace between Jews and Arabs? Will Jerusalem be finally divided or not?

TAKE ACTION: Fight Islamic Bigotry And Violence Posted by Mike D. Evans, January 12, 2004.

What do fundamentalist Muslims today and Germans in WWII have in common: A copy of the Protocals of the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf in their library's and a belief in Hitler's hate-filled propaganda against Jews. Hitler's destructive rhetoric is alive and well in the Muslim world today. His hate-filled message has been adopted and is taught as fact to fundamentalist Muslims around the world even in the United States. We must urge President Bush to take a stand to protect Jews now. We can not allow the growth of this dangerous movement. We must work to prevent a second holocaust. Sign our letter now and urge President Bush to take action against these Islamic Fundamentalists. We can no longer pretend that Islamic fundamentalists are peaceful. We must admit that this distorted form of Islam exists, and that this religion kills! Mosques in America are teaching this perverted doctrine and the doctrine of jihad to their adherents. We must petition President Bush today to pass legislation that will outlaw this hate-filled rhetoric. Fight this Jew-hatred by adding your voice to thousands of others by signing now. Why does fanatical fundamentalist Islam hate us? Because we are Christians...the same reason they hate Jews...because they are Jews. We must work to end the hate-filled ridiculous notion that all the world's problems are the result of Jewish plots to control the world. We must take action to stop this bigotry. If we don't outlaw this bigotry, we will never win the war on terrorism. It's no different than what happened in Germany. They began killing the Jews. People ignored it, because it was not happening to them. There is a link between terrorism and Jew-hatred! That link is bigotry. We need your help to let President Bush know that he must take a leading role in ending this violence directed at Jews. America must declare war on bigotry in the same way that Abraham Lincoln did against slavery and Martin Luther King did against segregation. Add your electronic signature to our letter to President Bush. The scripture say, "If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this." (Esther 4:14) Let President Bush know that we must speak out against Anti-Semitism now. We must stand with Israel and the Jewish people if we expect to reap the blessings of God rather than the whirlwind of judgment. For Zion's Sake Mike Evans heads the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a group whose members include some 300 prominent Christian leaders. Their website address is http://www.jerusalemprayerteam.org

THE PALESTINIAN ARGUMENT ABOUT THE FENCE Posted by Israel BenAmi, January 12, 2004.

As described by Jim Wurst of U.N.Wire, December 8, 2003: "The General Assembly today voted 90-8 to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the barrier Israel is building in occupied Palestinian territories. The approved resolution requests an opinion on "the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall - considering the rules and principles of international law." The vote, with 74 countries abstaining, indicated the assembly is deeply divided over bringing the issue, which many countries view as a political issue, before the world's premiere legal body. Israel, the United States, Australia and some of the small Pacific island states voted against the resolution. The abstainers included Russia, European Union countries and a large number of Latin American countries. Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative, opened the debate saying the building of the wall "is the enslavement of the whole Palestinian people on the way to being confined to cantons." He added, "This wall cannot be a means of achieving security," but is rather "an immense war crime." "It is not possible to claim readiness to go ahead with the road map while building the wall at the same time," al-Kidwa said, referring to the plan for peace and Palestinian statehood supported by the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. "For us, any negotiations are meaningless without first stopping the wall. For us, it is either the wall or the road map." Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman called al-Kidwa's speech "a litany of lies." "The security fence is a temporary, proven, necessary and nonviolent measure," he said. "The fence is not a border and has no political significance." The argument that the barrier is counterproductive to peace, Gillerman said, is "mistaken and unjustified - The fence will take terrorism out of the equation" by "reducing the capacity of Palestinian terrorists to infiltrate and carry out acts of terror." Gillerman told the assembly, "We do reject attempts to incorrectly and selectively apply [international] law, to misrepresent the nature and purpose of the security fence and to ignore the context in which Israel's actions are taken." In 1967 there was no Palestine State. The land alluded to was part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which made war on Israel - and lost. Today, 71% of the Kingdom's people are Palestian. I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT THE DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS embarked on by the U.S.A. in the Arab middle east, if it succeeds, will eventually and naturally create a Federation Palestine, consisting of Transjordan and the West Bank [or most of it.] UNTIL THAT HAPPENS WE NEED THE WALL TO PREVENT SUICIDE BOMBERS FROM BLOWING US UP. We in Israel intend that our children and grandchildren stay alive. IF THE PALESTINIANS CANNOT CONTROL THEIR TERRORIST EXTREMISTS, WE SHALL DO SO - WHATEVER A WELL-INTENTIONED [maybe] United Nations may think.

OF SILENT CROWDS AND MISSING PERSONS Posted by Sergio Tezza (HaDaR), January 12, 2004.

Last night, in Kings of Israel Square, in the center of Tel Aviv, there was a very large demonstration. The crowd numbered anywhere between one and two hundred thousand people. The demonstration was called against Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon's declared plan of non negotiated, unilateral withdrawal under fire, and the uprooting and expulsion of four generations, tens of thousands of Jews, from their homes in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which constitute the largest part of the Jews' ancestral homeland since the times of the Patriarchs, Of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In that demonstration, participated tens of thousands of mainly young people from all over the Jewish villages in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. One would expect such a crowd to be at least noisy... However, as immediately remarked even by some of the speakers, who were referring to media commentaries, the crowd was rather silent. Why?... Didn't they have anything about which to voice their discontent in the loudest possible manner? After all, they are threatened with losing their home, their way of life, the places where they were born and grew up... After all they are young, even if mostly religiously observant, and not as prone to public display of rowdiness as most of their non observant peers... However, the most noticeable display of behaviour perceptible through hearing in the square was silence. I shall not be presumptuous to the point of trying to give the reasons why the crowd was silent. I shall, however, mention briefly why I was silent, except for the minutes of song inspired by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's tunes and by the national anthem, Hatikwa, which I sang louder than ever, especially the part that says"...To be a FREE People in OUR Land, the Land of Zion, Jerusalem." Immediately after arriving early at the square among the first fifty thousands or so, I stopped and stood in a rather comfortable spot, to the left of the podium, in view of one of the large screens where the images of the speakers could be seen rather well. I was immediately treated to a rather shocking - and personally disturbing - sight: on the podium were mainly Likud politicians, not exactly my favourite kind of people. To me they are the same people who recognised a nonexistent right of Arab foreigners and descendants of illegal immigrants to the Land of Israel, our land, in the Camp David accords of 1979; the same who removed Jews from their homes in the Sinai in 1982; the same who allowed Arafat to survive unscathed and escape from Lebanon in 1983; the same who liberated thousands of terrorists in 1985 who then started the intifadah, and the same who then allowed it to continue unabated for four years (1988-1991) by tying our soldiers' hands: the same who did not respond to Iraq's Scuds; the same who allowed Oslo to pass - in spite of 70% of Israeli Jews opposing it, and who allowed it to continue; who allowed Hebron to be given to the control of Arafat's terrorists; who allowed the continuation of the massacre of Jews in the last three years; who promised "PEACE AND SECURITY" and did not deliver on either...quite the opposite;...in short: those who are, in my opinion, one of the main causes of the sad state of affairs of Israel's national movement. Together with the Likud politicians, sat the National Religious Party politicians and politician-rabbis, who only with real pain can find a reason good enough to let go of ministerial chairs and a spot in the government, the same who sat in Ehud Barak's government and allowed the formation of a government even with the virulently anti-religious Tommy Lapid, as long as they could sit there without the Haredi parties... Together with those professional politicians, sat some good men: from former Prisoner of Zion Yuli Edelstein to Yuri Stern, from Prof. Aryeh Eldad to Gaza strip resident Zvi Hendel, but they looked as if they would have felt better among the crowd, where Rubi Rivlin, the President of the Knesset, chose to stand, since that's where they seemed to belong more than with opportunistic politicians. The speeches sounded all like the "swan-song"... in spite of their attempts to sound alive and kicking, as a protracted plea to...Ariel Sharon, whom THEY obviously missed... Not one of them awoke the silent crowd to more than some polite applause and VERY FEW cheers... Partizan cheering from the crowd when Effi Eitam, the NRP leader and his party friends, rabbis Druckman and Aviner, spoke, was not among the warmest I had heard either... Only the music seemed to awaken any excitement. I had never seen anything like that in forty years of demonstrations. I kept on waiting for the "main course", or at least a dessert, which is what I hoped for when it was already late in the evening: one strong speaker, one strong figure... but I was left with my hunger and deception. I kept on thinking: where are Moshe Feiglin, Nadia Matar, Adir Zik, Elyakim Haetzni, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rav Levanon, Rav Melamed... Not even their shadow was allowed to step foot on that podium... since, my guess is that the direction chosen by the Yesh-u Council (as in "turn the other cheek" Yesh-u, not Yesha, as in Judea-Samaria-Gaza), the Likud and their collaborators, was once again to act as the "fire-fighters" of the national movement, to extinguish the flames of our youth rather than to help them to help us saving our People and our Land. I guess that they could not tolerate unadulterated truth: they preferred the old "true-speak" of Orwellian memory in the form of a parade of government officials. And so the crowd was rather silent; and so there were many people whose absence on the podium spoke loud and clear; but the poor inexperienced youth and the permanently amnesiac People of Israel could not bring themselves to scream: "Stop this shame." They were given instead, once again, some of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" treatment, some "soma", the Dr. Feelgood type of treatment that will allow Sharon to keep on doing his American masters' will, and to betray the electorate's will to destroy terrorism, to defeat the enemy, to finally fight to win this war, and to put an end to the spilling of Jewish blood as if it were water; all of which can be achieved only with a firm hand and with the open declaration that this land is our land and there is nothing to talk about, besides that we are ready to allow those who wish to live in peace with us to do so. HaDaR describes himself as "religious-fanatic-gun-toting-settler" from Qiryath Arba Hebron.

OUR PRESIDENT HAS AGREED TO MEET WITH WOMEN IN GREEN Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, January 12, 2004.

We are pleased to announce that the President of Israel has agreed to meet with us on Sunday, January 25, 2004, at 11 AM. We had advised the President that we had gathered over 350,000 signatures against an Arab Palestinian State within Biblical Israel. We pointed out that he had granted a meeting to Ami Ayalon, who claimed that he and an Arab had gathered signatures for the creation of an Arab Palestinian State in a far lesser amount. Many of those signatures he gathered were those of Arabs. Women in Green have traveled the length and breath of the cities in Israel, from Haifa to Beer Sheva; from Ashdod to Petach Tikva and Netanya; from Ramla to Tiberias and Kiryat Shmona. Without a shadow of a doubt the great majority of Jews in Israel are opposed to the creation of another Arab State within Biblical Israel. They have signed petitions directed to Prime Minister Sharon to that effect, giving their names and addresses and their telephone number. The President of Israel and its Prime Minister should at all times be responsive to the will of the Jewish People in this Jewish State, particularly in view of the hostility which the Arabs continuously show towards the Jewish People in their educational system and in the propaganda of their media. The will of the Jewish majority is vociferously opposed to forming such a hostile state within our Biblical borders. We have faxed Prime Minister Sharon each and every one of these 350,000 signatures, but unfortunately he has never responded. The President has. We welcome this opportunity to show President Katzav all the signatures we have gathered. 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

INTERESTING TIMES: Falling From Grace Posted by Tamar Rush, January 12, 2004.

This was written by Saul Singer, Editorial Page Editor of the Jerusalem Post. He is author of "Confronting Jihad Israel's Struggle And the World After 9/11." Dogville, a film by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, is supposed to be an anti-American movie, the director's own coy denials notwithstanding. Perhaps inadvertently, however, von Trier's film actually says more about human nature, and even more about international politics. The film depicts a tiny town in the Rockies that treats a young woman seeking refuge with increasing depravity. Grace, played brilliantly by Nicole Kidman, is running from gangsters. The town decides to give her two weeks to win them over, which she does by tailoring odd jobs to the needs of each of the 15 Dogvillians. All goes well until a policeman puts up a "missing" poster with Grace's picture on it, which induces the residents to demand more from her, and again when he returns with a "wanted" poster accusing her of crimes the people know she did not commit. The town's exploitation of Grace's predicament escalates to grotesque levels, culminating in a sweet, if equally extreme, twist that I won't reveal so as not to spoil the surprise. "The entire point of Dogville is that von Trier has judged America, found it wanting and therefore deserving of immediate annihilation," Todd McCarthy pronounced in Variety. Indeed it is obvious from the setting, the choice of David Bowie's song "Young Americans" that runs with disturbing Depression-era photos during the credits, and the fact that this is the first of a trilogy called US and A, that McCarthy is right about the target of von Trier's animus. But what struck me was how effectively von Trier illustrates a disturbing facet of human nature: the corollary of the adage that power corrupts is that weakness is exploited, and absolute weakness is exploited absolutely. In the film, the grudging altruism initially shown by the townspeople is gradually transformed into Grace's enslavement and worse, as her reliance upon them for protection from the outside world grows. There is no reason to believe that Americans could act this way, but if they could, so could anyone anywhere. This is the process by which the Jews were dehumanized in Nazi Germany - the gradual stripping of rights and power, accompanied by the increasing normalcy of depravity. In a moral world, greater weakness should evoke greater mercy. In Dogville, and in the real world, it often evokes the opposite. If this is true within communities and societies, it is even more true on the international level, where law and morality are largely a strained fiction. While von Trier may be trying to illustrate the deformities of capitalism and of American power, his allegory best fits the plight of the Jew in history and of Israel today. Even as Grace sank into von Trier's idea of American hell, she retained a secret weapon that made her potentially much stronger than her tormentors. She landed in her predicament in the first place because she voluntarily disarmed herself of the power derived from her gangster connections, because she was morally disgusted by that world. Israel, similarly, has tried to dissociate itself from its own power in Sisyphean pursuit of the world's sympathies. Maybe if we pretend we are weaker than the Palestinians, we seem to think to ourselves, the world will see our side of the story. Eventually, Grace concludes that sparing Dogville her moral judgment was itself not particularly moral, and that inflicting her judgment was even worth joining the gangster world that she had sacrificed so much to escape, and yet suddenly seemed less repulsive. America is not a gangster world, but the "international community" is. This does not mean that Israel should throw its morality out the window. It means that Israel must act by its own moral standards instead of fruitlessly attempting to meet the distorted standards applied by the world. We must not say, as some ministers have, that the route of the security fence should be changed because the world will oppose us. This is like Grace submitting to increasing depredations because if she does not, she will be kicked out of the community that is sheltering her. The problem with this strategy is that the price of "protection" goes up as the protection itself goes down. At some point, you have to stand up and resist. You'll take heat, but you'll be treated better and attacked less. Three times - the preemptive attack in 1967, the destruction of Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981, and Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 - Israel concluded that it must use its power and take the heat. In retrospect, each action brought critical relief and saved many lives. Building the fence is the least that we must do, despite international opposition, but probably is not enough to reverse the terrible lesson that absorbing three years of suicide terrorism has taught. So long as we continue to be under Palestinian attack, regardless of how successfully we can defend ourselves, we cannot avoid the question of regime change on the Palestinian side. If we do not, we are complicit in depriving ourselves of self-respect, and are confirming that we are the only nation without the right to live in peace.

BRITISH MUSLIM CAMPAIGN CROWNED WITH SUCCESS: TALK-SHOW HOST SUSPENDED Posted by Bryna Berch, January 11, 2004.

This is a news item from Arutz-7 today. It illustrates the new definition of racism. It's racism only if you say anything - true or not - negative about an Arab. Whatever an Arab or an Arab-aider says against Israel is fine and is to be protected as free speech. The London-based Arabic-language paper Al-Quds Al-Arabi says that last week's success by Arab and Islamic groups in having a prominent anti-Arab media personality suspended from his BBC position "clearly indicates the rise of a national Islamic lobby in Great Britain." The story began when an article by TV presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk, well-known throughout the United Kingdom, appeared in the Sunday Express last Sunday. Titled, "We Owe Arabs Nothing," the article stated, "Apart from oil - which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the west - what do they contribute? Can you think of anything? Anything really useful? Anything really valuable? Something we really need, could not do without? No, nor can I. What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 and then danced in the hot, dusty streets to celebrate the murders? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors?" Pan-Arab media outlets, the Muslim Council of Britain, and other Muslim groups reacted with outrage to Kilroy-Silk's article, and BBC hurried to take Kilroy-Silk's morning TV talk show off the air pending an investigation of his comments. It has even been reported that Kilroy-Silk is facing a police investigation over the issue. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has referred the article to the police to consider whether it might constitute an offense under the Public Order Act. CRE Chairman Trevor Phillips said, "Given the extreme and violent terms in which Mr. Kilroy-Silk has expressed himself, there is a danger that this might incite some individuals to act against someone who they think is an Arab." Azzam al-Tamimi, of the Muslim Council of Britain, even said, "There are suspicions that Kilroy's article is part of an intensive campaign that started with the statements made by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of the Zionist entity, in which he accused Muslims in the West of being behind growing anti-Semitism." It should be noted, of course, that it was the European Union that recently prepared a report on anti-Semitism indicating that Moslem and pro-Palestinian elements are involved in most of the incidents. See "http://haganah.us/hmedia/euasr-01.html".

DEJA VU AT THE TEL-AVIV RALLY? Posted by Judy Lash Balint, January 11, 2004.

Arik Sharon's face is lightly covered with perspiration as he addresses the crowd: "The people aren't tired, it's the leadership that's tired," he booms out over Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, packed with more than one hundred thousand supporters. But wait - in the background, the faint but distinct chant of "Ehud Habayta - Ehud, Go Home," may be heard. Indeed, it's not Arik live at the rally in Tel Aviv, it's a video clip of a demonstration during Ehud Barak's administration, when Sharon exhorted the people to stand strong and resist the proposed land give-aways proposed by the Labor government. The clip is a main feature of tonight's protest that brings more than 100,000 Israelis out to the streets (according to both media and organizer estimates) under the banner "Israel Will Not Bend." The massive crowd packed into the central Tel Aviv square is unusually quiet. Apart from a few pockets of rowdy yeshiva students who try to whip the crowd into a booing frenzy at the very mention of Sharon's name, most people present - Sharon voters, to be sure - don't quite know how to react to the footage, or to the speakers who point to Sharon's apparent cave-in to external and internal pressures. On the huge dais set up in front of Tel Aviv's City Hall, sit two long rows of cabinet ministers and Knesset Members. Many are members of Sharon's ruling Likud party. Ruby Rivlin, Gila Gamliel, Uzi Landau, Micky Ratzon, Ehud Yatom, Yuli Edelshtein - to name just a few. But prominent Likudniks Ehud Olmert, Limor Livnat, Bibi Netanyahu and Danny Naveh all choose to stay away in a show of loyalty with their leader. English and Hebrew signs display both the disappointment and resolve of the dissident Likudniks who feel strongly that Arik Sharon has abandoned them and their traditional Likud ideology. "Likud Loves the Land of Israel, Not Sharon" reads one. Another picks up the theme of the rally with a banner that proclaims "The Likud Doesn't Want to Bend." Beginning with a few moments of silence in memory of victims of Arab terror, the event kicks off with a poignant film clip of the remnant of the Cohen family from Kfar Darom. In November 2000, the Cohen kids sustained devastating injuries when their school bus was bombed in an attack widely believed to have been planned by one-time Palestine Authority security chief Mohammad Dahlan. With tremendous spirit and faith, the Cohens have rebuilt their lives with their children using prostheses to approximate a return to normal childhood activities. Rabbi Ofir Cohen, head of this extraordinary family, is invited to come forward to recite a Psalm and the prayer for the well-being of the Israeli Army. Speaker after speaker denounces Arik Sharon's plans to dismantle Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, citing the futility of anything resembling a withdrawal as a path to peace. National Religious Party leader Effie Eitam reminds the crowd of how they had been the backbone of support for Operation Defensive Shield launched in 2002 by Sharon in reaction to the deadly string of terror attacks that culmninated in the Passover Park Hotel massacre. "We'll support you again if you do the right thing," Eitam rhetorically tells Sharon. Citing Libyan leader Muhammad Ghadaffi's pledge to disarm, and the Coalition successes in Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein, Eitam asks, "After all that, is Israel going to let a terrorist like Arafat out of the mukata (his Ramallah compound)?" Are we now going to let him come out, make the V sign and declare victory?" Eitam asks. Boos and catcalls rebound to the stage. Picking up steam, Eitam publicly tells Sharon that the people in the square will not be his partners in the destruction of Jewish villages or turning Jewish families out of their homes. " We won't go along with you in this. Peace does not require the destruction of Jewish life and property," he declares. Tourism Minister Benny Elon draws reference to Sharon's speech of two years ago. "Don't think this people is tired," he says. " This is a people that does not want to be cut off from it's traditions, it's Torah, it's history OR it's land," he emphasizes, as the crowd roars their agreement. Musical interludes break up the speeches - popular singer Shimi Tabori, a secular Sephardic artist launches into the lively, "Al Tirah Yisrael - Don't be afraid, Israel." Everyone joins in the chorus. During the program, many foreign news media outlets come to get close-ups of the English signs that dot the front of the crowd. Many sign carriers are veterans of many such rallies and know exactly how to position themselves to take advantage of the opportunity to broadcast their message. Two slogans that attract a lot of attention are: 'Evicting Jews Won't Bring Peace,' and one directed at US Secretary of State Powell and US Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurzer that urges the two Americans to stop treating Israel as if it were a US colony. Only one MK, the young, secular Gila Gamliel, a former student leader, brings home the point that this is not a "settler" rally. "We're all settlers - those in the center of the country, in Jerusalem, in Eilat," she states. "And who is my teacher and mentor in these matters?" Gamliel asks. "None other than our prime minister." Judy Lash Balint is a Jerusalem based writer and author of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times. Her website address is www.jerusalemdiaries.com

WHY I SHOULD BE THE NEXT ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO BRITAIN Posted by Barry Shaw, January 11, 2004.

The selection committee of the Israeli Foreign Ministry endorsed Zvi Hefetz to be our next ambassador to Britain, despite the horrendous shortcomings in this mans qualifications and ability to successfully fill this highly important and sensitive position. Due to the overwhelming, and growing, protest of concerned individuals and groups at this appointment, his selection is now to go to a review board. May I take this opportunity of throwing my hat in the ring by placing my qualities against his for the position of Israel's representative in Great Britain. Firstly, may I start by admitting that I have no previous ambassadorial experience. - Neither has he. (It is frightening that the Israeli Government would even consider appointing a person to such a senior diplomatic posting with NO ambassadorial experience, and zero diplomatic background. On these grounds, if he is suitable for the job, so am I.) I can speak English. + He can't. (Even a crash English course will never give this man the refinement or the eloquence required to successfully execute the job. I am streets ahead of him on this score.) I was born, raised, and educated, in England. He was born, raised, and educated, in Russia. (Having an ingrained sense of the norms, nuances, customs, and ettiquette of British life give me a distinct advantage over Mr. Hefetz.) I have good contacts in the Zionist Federation of Great Britain, UJIA, and hasbara leaders in Britain. Zvi Hefetz couldn't speak to them even if he is introduced to them! (Another point for me!) There were glaring 'factual errors' in the CV submitted by Zvi Hefetz. I don't lie. (The British do prefer to deal with an honest person. Enough of the Israeli selection method of having friends in high places and then bending the CV to slip under the door.) If he can take a crash course in English, I can take a crash course in diplomacy. I guarantee that I will be far more successful on both counts, post course, than him. If this is the flippant way that the Israeli Foreign Office select their top senior representatives, then I can also be flippant in forwarding my qualifications. I ran for Israel. Not politically, athletically. Zvi Hefetz can't run. I once met the Queen. He didn't. I have a stiff upper lip. (some of you may not be familiar with this expression, but it is an essential British quality.) He has connections with Omri Sharon (a distinct disadvantage!) I have a well developed sense of British humour. He wouldn't recognise a British joke if it hit him in the face. My selection would merely be a silly mistake. His would be a major disaster for Israel, and for Israels' supporters. You have to admit the odds are in my favour! To ensure that Zvi Hefetz is not selected to this vital position, please contact the Israeli Foreign Office, or your nearest Israeli Embassy, and demand that their appoint BARRY SHAW to be the next Israeli Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Barry Shaw writes "The View From Here." Write him at netre@matav.net.il to subscribe. He writes he is currently based in Netanya, but is hoping to be posted to Kensington Palace Gardens, London, England.

HITLER'S CHILDREN Posted by Isralert, January 11, 2004.

This was written by Wiliam E. Grim, a writer who lives in Germany and is a native of Columbus, Ohio. He may be reached at wgrim@myrealbox.com He is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, novelist, short-story writer and poet. I'm not Jewish. Nobody in my family died in the Holocaust. For me, anti-Semitism has always been one of those phenomena that doesn't really register on my radar, like tribal genocide in Rwanda, a horrible thing that happens to someone else. But I live in a small town outside of Munich on a street that until May of 1945 was named Adolf-Hitler-Strasse. I work in Munich, a pleasant metropolitan city of a little over a million inhabitants whose Bavarian charm tends to obscure the fact that this city was the birthplace and capital of the Nazi movement. Every day when I go to work I pass by the sites of apartments Hitler lived in, extant buildings in which decisions were made to murder millions of innocent people, and plazas in which book burnings took place, SS troops paraded and people were executed. The proximity to evil has a way of concentrating one's attention, of putting a physical reality to the textbook narratives of the horrors perpetrated by the Germans. Then the little things start to happen that over a period of time add up to something very sinister. I'm on a bus and a high school boy passes around Grandpa's red leather-bound copy of Mein Kampf to his friends who respond by saying "coooool!" He then takes out a VCR tape (produced in Switzerland) of "The Great Speeches of Joseph Goebbels." A few weeks later I'm at a business meeting with four young highly educated Germans who are polite, charming and soft-spoken to say the least. When the subject matter changes to a business deal with a man in New York named Rubinstein, their nostrils flair, their demeanors attain a threatening mien and one of them actually says, and I'mquoting verbatim here: "The problem with America is that the Jews have all the money." They start laughing and another one says, "Yeah, all the Jews care about is money." I found that this type of anti-Semitic reference in my professional dealings with Germans soon became a leitmotif (to borrow a term made famous by Richard Wagner, another notorious German anti-Semite). In my private meetings with Germans it often happens that they will loosen up after a while and reveal personal opinions and political leanings that were thought to have ceased to exist in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. Maybe it's because I have blond hair and my last name is of German origin that the Germans feel that I am, or could potentially be, "one of them." It shows how much they understand what it means to be an American. Whatever the reason, the conversations generally have one or more of these components: (1) It was unfortunate that America and Germany fought each other in World War II because the real enemy was Russia. (2) Yes, the Nazis were excessive, but terrible things happen during wars,and anyway, the scope of the Holocaust has been greatly exaggerated by the American media, which is dominated by Jews. (3) CNN is controlled by American Jews and is anti-Palestinian. (Yes, I know it sounds incredible, but even among the most highly intelligent Germans, even those with a near-native fluency in English, there is the widespread belief that the news network founded by Fidel Castro's best friend Ted Turner, who until recently was married to Hanoi Jane Fonda, is a hotbed of pro-Israeli propaganda.) (4) Almost all Germans were opposed to the Third Reich and nobody in Germany knew anything about the murder of the Jews, but the Jews themselves were really responsible for the Holocaust. (5) Ariel Sharon is worse than Hitler and the Israelis are Nazis. America supports Israel only because Jews control the American government and media. For the first time in my life, then, I became conscious of anti-Semitism. Sure, anti-Semitism exists elsewhere in the world, but nowhere have the consequences been as devastating as in Germany. Looking at it as objectively as possible, 2002 has been a banner year for anti-Semitism in Germany. Synagogues have been firebombed, Jewish cemeteries desecrated, the No. 1 best-selling novel, Martin Walser's "Death of a Critic", is a thinly-veiled roman a clef containing a vicious anti-Semitic attack on Germany's best-known literary critic, Marcel Reich-Ranicki (who is a survivor of both the Warsaw ghetto and Auschwitz); the Free Democrat Party has unofficially adopted anti-Semitism as a campaign tactic to attract Germany's sizeable Muslim minority; and German revisionist historians now are beginning to define German perpetration of World War II and the Holocaust not as crimes against humanity, but as early battles (with regrettable but understandable excesses) in the Cold War against communism. The situation is so bad that German Jews are advised not to wear anything in public that would identify them as Jewish because their safety cannot be guaranteed. How can this be? Isn't this the "New Germany" that's gone 57 years without a Holocaust or even a pogrom, where truth, justice and the German way prevail amidst economic wealth, a high standard of living that is the envy of their European neighbors, and a constitution guaranteeing freedom for everyone regardless of race, creed or national origin? What's changed? The answer is: absolutely nothing. My thesis is quite simple. While Germany no longer has the military power to enforce the racist ideology of the Nazis and while all extreme manifestations of Nazism are officially outlawed, the internal conditions - that is, the attitudes, worldview and cultural assumptions - that led to the rise of Nazism in Germany are still present because they constitute the basic components of German identity. Nazism was not an aberration; it was the distillation of the German psyche into its essential elements. External Nazism may have been utterly defeated in May of 1945; internal Nazism, however, remains, and will always remain, a potential threat as long as there exists a political and/or cultural entity known as Germany. Now hold on a second, I hear many people saying - You can't possibly claim that Germans are as anti-Semitic today as they were during the years 1933-1945. It is true that Germany today is much different than during the Third Reich. What is different is that due to its total defeat by the Allies, Germany today is a client state of America and must in part do its bidding. That means repression of overt anti-Semitism. It's bad for business. The other thing that has changed is that, even though Hitler lost World War II, he wasphenomenally successful in carrying out his ideological agenda. Germany, indeed virtually all of Europe, is essentially Judenfrei (free of Jews) today due to the efficiency and zeal of the Germans as they perpetrated the Holocaust during the Third Reich. In fact, a very convincing case can be made that Nazism is one of the most successful political programs of all time. It accomplished more of its goals in a shorter amount of time than any other comparable political movement and permanently changed the face and political structure of several continents. Germany is wealthy, stable, relentlessly bourgeois, and for all intents and purposes free of Jews. Yes, there is a tiny minority of Jews, mostly centered in Berlin, and yes,there have been a number of Jews from the former Soviet Union who have emigrated to Germany, but most of the immigrants from Russia are not practicing Jews and do little if anything to promote a unique Jewish-German identity. The result of all this is that Germans today are able to reap the benefits of Hitler's anti-Semitic policies while paying lip service to the "need to remember." Young Fritz doesn't have to be overtly anti-Semitic today because his grandfather's generation did such a bang-up job of the Holocaust. There just aren't that many Jews left to hate any more, and besides, the Germans have their old buddies, the Arabs, to do their hating for them. You might call the overwhelming German support for the Palestinians to be a form of anti-Semitism-by-proxy. The German government has made cash payments to the State of Israel, as well as to individual Jews, to settle claims of murder, torture, false imprisonment, slave labor and genocide. Talk to most Germans and you'll soon discover that they think that the score has been settled between Germany and the Jews, that somehow the return of just a portion of what the Germans stole from the Jews is fair recompense for the deliberate murder of millions of people. If you think the Germans are truly sorry for what they did to the Jews, think again. There's never been an official "tut mir leid" offered by the Germans to the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants because that would admit culpability. Germany has paid off all claims against it without acknowledging responsibility in the same way that the Ford Motor Company engages in recalls of automobiles. It's all done to avoid liability. I have previously mentioned that Germans overwhelmingly support the Palestinians as opposed to the Israelis, and that this overwhelming support represents a form of anti-Semitism-by-proxy. Germans may claim to be supporting the Palestinians because they think they are an "oppressed people," but let's be honest - they are supporting the Palestinians and their Arab handlers because the Palestinians and Arabs share the sameideals as the Nazis. There's a long-standing history of German co-operation with the Arabs. In 1942 Hitler personally assured the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem that as soon as German forces conquered Great Britain, the Jews in Palestine (which was then under control of the British Mandate) would be exterminated. We should also keep in mind that the Arab terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 atrocities did their planning in Germany. There are several reasons for this. The first is the well-known bungling and de-centralized chaos of the German federal bureaucracy where literally the "links" hand doesn't know what the "rechts" hand is doing. The second is that Arab terrorists can count on a substantial number of Germans who share their anti-American and anti-Semitic views. The former members of the SS and Hitler's praetorian guards, along with their neo-Nazi supporters, who gather weekly in Munich beer halls, made Osama bin Laden an "honorary Aryan" after the 9/11 attack. Mein Kampf is also a best seller in the Arab world, especially in Saudi Arabia, America's putative "friend." Indeed, there is very little difference between the anti-Semitic rantings of Hitler and those of the so-called "spiritual leaders" of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Fatah. The Arabs also owe Hitler and the Germans big time. Hitler killed off the Jews, and Konrad Adenauer and his "democratic" descendants replaced them with the Turks. Yes, the Turks aren't Arabs, but they are Muslim, and although Turkey is a member of NATO and has relations with Israel, many Turks identify and support their radical Arab co-religionists. Turkey remains as fragile a democracy as Weimar Germany during the 1920s. It wouldn't take much for Turkey to fall into the dark side of Muslim extremism.The end result of Muslim immigration into Germany has been twofold: (1) It allows the Germans to feign liberalism and being open to freedom and diversity; and (2) By replacing the Jews they murdered with Muslims, who for the most part are as viciously anti-Semitic as were the Nazis, the Germans have cynically assured that those few Jews who remain in Germany will be unable to reassert political power even in a minority role. Isralert is sent to an opt-in list, hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe, send an email to Isralert@aol.com

PA EDITOR: Israel attacked Paris synagogue to encourage French Jews to come to Israel Posted by Itamar Marcus, January 11, 2004.

One of the common tactics of Palestinian Authority (PA) propaganda is to blame Israel for Palestinian and Arab terrorism. Now a prominent PA newspaper editor has come up with a new twist on this tactic. On June 13, 2003, a Belgian citizen tried to blow up a synagogue in Belgium, using two gas balloons hidden in his car. Two months ago (November 15, 2003), two cars exploded in front of a synagogue in Istanbul, causing the deaths of 23 people. Last week a new libel was invented by the editor of the PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, in an interview on PA TV. The editor explained that because Israel suffers from low immigration, it was Israel who started last month's fire in the Parisian Synagogue - to convince French Jews to immigrate to Israel. The following are the words of Hafez Barghouty on PA TV: "The Secret Zionists gangs have been trying, and are acting in France in the same way they used to act in Arab countries- Iraq, Egypt and Morocco, blowing up... Jewish synagogues in order to force them [the Jews] to immigrate [to Israel]. So after the attack on a synagogue, the Israeli ambassador in France called for all the Jews in France to immigrate [to Israel]... "...There are Israeli or Zionist gangs that carry out terror attacks against Jews and force them to immigrate [to Israel], because Israel suffers from emigration." Itamar Marcus is director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

ISRAEL MAKES TOO DEFENSIVE A CASE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 11, 2004.

"By repeatedly conceding the basic assumptions against us, we aggravate our own distress and inevitably succumb to the inimical international axiom that we're in the wrong and that those who would annihilate us are desperate insurgents against injustice. Any means to which they resort are thereby quasi-legitimized and terrorism against Israel not entirely cast out of moral bounds." "It's therefore quite counterproductive for us to exclusively harp on the terror theme. We'd do better to go back to basics, proclaim loud and clear that we are here by right; that we were attacked; that the Arabs only conjured up Palestinian nationality in order to stake rival claims; that a Palestinian state never existed (i.e., we certainly didn't conquer and subjugate it); that they caused their own downfall by plotting genocide and ethnic cleansing against us; that our only sin is surviving. We can remind the world of the Nazi legacy of 'Palestinian' hero Haj Amin el-Husseini (or)... Yassin's recent declaration that there's no room in the region for a Jewish state." "Admittedly, we may not convince anyone. The dice are loaded against us. But we've nothing to lose by rediscovering our defiant spirit and lost Zionist ideals. Excessive pragmatism - the sacrifice of national honor for temporary gain - will lose us everything, from our own sense of justice to the souls of our youngsters." (Women In Green, 12/19, e-mail.) Even though the Arabs are among the most vicious of barbarians and without a cause, Israel fails to take the offensive against them. This lets the Arabs pretend to be the injured party. The Nazis and Communists used to pretend to be the injured party, too. Education in non-totalitarian states is deficient in failing to prepare its citizens to detect and reject enemy dissembling. Mr. 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.

AMERICAN FOOLS WITH THEIR SELF-IMPOSED EXILE Posted by Sergio Adir Gad Ovadiah Tezza (HaDaR), January 11, 2004.

This was sent to Communaute-Juive-France. It was written by David J. Heimowitz, a lawyer who made aliyah 25 years ago and who became a student of the late Rabbi Meir David Kahane of blessed memory. I recently heard of someone who donated a million dollars to his synagogue in south Florida. I thought, what an unfortunate waste of money. There is simply no future for Jews in the exile, be it the American exile of today, or the Nazi (European) exile of a mere half century ago. If there is no future for American Jewry in general, what future is there for this synagogue in south Florida? There is none. What a terrible waste of a million dollars. For two thousand years Jews have prayed that G-d, in His infinite mercy, return us to our homeland. When G-d did just that at the heels of the greatest tragedy to ever befall us, what did the Jews of America do? They spit in G-d's face, that's what. They did just what the Jews of Babylon did, they remained in a self-imposed exile. Jews of America, take heed. A half a century ago G-d again demonstrated to us what happens to Jews who are caught amongst the nations when our enemies go wild. Why do you refuse to learn? Your lives, as well as the lives of your loved ones, depend on your coming home, but still you inexplicably refuse to do so. Make no mistake about it. If you do not accept G-d's gift to you graciously, you are going to disappear in one of two ways. Either our enemies will physically exterminate you, or you will be assimilated to death. Either way, you will cease to exist and in the end, there is no real difference between these two ways of going. The bell is tolling and it is tolling for you. Granted, it is hard to imagine worse leadership than the leadership of Israel today. There are no good leaders, there are only bad ones and worse ones, but for you that is irrelevant. You still must emigrate to Israel. Not spend your vacations here and not donate your money here. You must actively make aliyah. In the Babylonian period one of the greatest religious leaders [in Israel] was named Resh Lakish. Resh Lakish was a brilliant convert to Judaism who is frequently quoted in the Talmud. He refused to acknowledge the existence of Jews, including rabbis, who were visiting from Babylon. He referred to these visitors, including the rabbis, as Babylonian fools, for he believed that the Jews of Babylon prevented the Messiah from coming because they did not make aliyah en masse. Unfortunately, our history has a way of repeating itself and you American fools are again preventing the Messiah from coming because of your self-imposed exile. HaDaR describes himself as a"religious-fanatic-gun-toting-settler" from Qiryath Arba Hebron. These are some of the quotes he likes. "Never before has a country so strong yielded so much to an enemy so weak, and never before has a government so brazenly endangered the fate of its own people." - Michael Freund He who is merciful with the cruel, will end-up being cruel to the merciful - Kohelet Rabba 7:16 Every drop of Jewish blood spilled by Arab terror, is on the hands of ALL those who refuse to work for the removal of these blood-thirsty beasts from among us. They cannot say: "Our hands did not spill that blood." - HaDaR "Lots of bad editorials are better than a beautiful obituary." -an old Israeli saying from the times before "Lemmings Disease" and "Osloporosis" struck most of the country "The strength of the prophets of Israel lay in the fact that they proclaimed the Truth when everything was against it." - Andre Malraux Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. - George Orwell, Partisan Review, 1942

THE LONG JOURNEY HOME Posted by Michael Freund, January 11, 2004.

This is an article from the latest issue of Jewish Action - Winter 5764/2003 - the magazine of the Orthodox Union, about the return to Judaism of the Bnei Menashe, a lost tribe of Israel residing in India. It was written by Jonathan Udren, a resident of Jerusalem and a freelance journalist and editor. Nestled in the picturesque, rolling green hilltops of Samaria, the small settlement of Shavei Shomron rests quietly, despite its proximity to the flaming Arab cities of Tulkarem and Shechem. But some fascinating new neighbors have created a murmur across the yishuv. In August of 2002, the Amita Absorption Center, along with Amishav - an organization dedicated to bringing lost Jews from around the world to Israel - opened the settlement's doors to the Bnei Menashe, a group of people from northeast India who claim to be Jews. Currently 150 religious families reside in Shavei Shomron, most of whom live in one of the many single-family homes that line the settlement. But upon following the winding road down the hilltop, out of sight of the main thoroughfare, one finds a colony of meager caravans resting near the fence border, each housing one of the eleven Bnei Menashe families. "We are so excited that the Bnei Menashe have come to Shavei Shomron," says Rivka Bonde, Amita's educational director and a resident of the settlement. "The atmosphere here is similar to how it was when the Russians were first allowed to come." But the excitement of the community members is nothing compared to that felt by many of the new residents. For sixty-four-year old Emuna Miso and her thirty-something daughter, Ruby, who live in Shavei Shomron with Ruby's two young children, there is a sense of relief; their family has finally been released from the oppressive Christian environment that provided no rest on Shabbat or holidays and minimal opportunities for Jewish learning. "When we had to go to work on Yom Kippur, it hurt here," says Ruby as she points to her heart. "The best part of being in Israel is being able to keep Shabbat and the festivals." Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, the founder and chairman of Amishav, hopes that the excitement felt by the Bnei Menashe will help them through the rocky stages of Israeli integration. Within six months to a year, they are expected to not only gain the Jewish knowledge required for the Israeli Rabbinate conversion exam but also to grasp a language completely new to most of them. According to Amishav, the two million members of the Shinlung tribe from the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram are descendants of the tribe of Menashe, which was expelled from Israel by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Members of the tribe reached Assyria, and from there, according to Bnei Menashe tradition, they went to Afghanistan, to Mongolia and then to southern China. Some 500 to 600 years ago, the Bnei Menashe began to wander toward their current home, located on the border between India and Burma. Before Christian missionaries started forcibly converting members of the tribe in the late 1800s, the entire group practiced traditions that so closely resemble Judaism, they are difficult to disregard. Some decades ago, some 5,000 members of the Shinlung tribe chose to live observant Jewish lives. These people anxiously wish to immigrate to Israel. Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a judge on the Israeli Chief Rabbinical Court, has been involved in converting the Bnei Menashe. He has researched the group and has taken numerous trips to India. His conclusions, as well as those of the rest of his conversion court, are that the Bnei Menashe's claim is valid. "It's clear to me that the Bnei Menashe are descendants of Jews," says Rabbi Birnbaum. Some of the pre-rabbinic Jewish traditions of the Bnei Menashe include circumcising male children on the eighth day after birth; celebrating three major holidays that mirror Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot; observing Pesach laws and rituals including a prohibition against having yeast in the bread; wearing garments such as tzitzit  with techelet; taking tithes from crops that are given to the Kohanim and not pronouncing the name of God. On Rabbi Avichail's initial visit to India, he was particularly moved by one of the ancient songs of the Bnei Menashe that is very similar to a passage from Selichot: "Answer me, answer me from Moriah; Answer me, answer me from Sinai; answer me, answer me from Yam Suf; answer me, answer me from Zion." Soon after the creation of the State of Israel, the Bnei Menashe expressed their longing to return to their beloved Promised Land. However, the Israeli government not only denied their aliyah but dismissed their claim of Jewish ancestry altogether. In 1979, Rabbi Avichail learned of the lost tribe's desire to return to Zion. "I was the rabbi at Hebrew University at the time, and I had an Indian friend who worked with me," Rabbi Avichail says. "He showed me a letter that they [the Bnei Menashe] had written [about their desire to come to Israel]." Reaching out to lost Jews has been Rabbi Avichail's business since 1961, when he first became interested in locating the lost tribes. In 1975, with the support of his rav, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, he founded Amishav (My Nation Returns). Over the past decade, Amishav has invested resources into Bnei Menashe communities, both in India and in Israel. The organization established learning centers in India to teach Judaism. But Amishav's most consuming effort has been assisting close to 800 Bnei Menashe members fulfill their dreams of immigrating to Israel. "We pay for their airfare [$800 per person] and for their education once they're here," says Michael Freund, the director of Amishav. "We believe that these people are a blessing to this country, and that is why we are doing this." Since the State of Israel does not recognize the Bnei Menashe as Jews (under the Law of Return), Amishav has made special arrangements with the Interior Ministry and the Chief Rabbinate to allow them to remain in the country and study towards their conversion. Rabbi Birnbaum explains that the need for conversion is due to their long exile and forced Christian conversion. The Amita Absorption Center, which is located in Shavei Shomron, prepares the Bnei Menashe for conversion by offering classes on halachah, holidays and general Jewish topics. One of the greatest challenges facing the Bnei Menashe is securing financial independence. Only after their conversion, which takes place between three to nine months after their arrival in Israel, are they considered new immigrants. Several months later they begin to receive government benefits, including healthcare and a benefits basket that ranges from $7,000 to $10,000. But until then, many are dependent on Amishav's support, which amounts to a monthly budget of $150, from which rent, food and other expenses must be paid. "It's very difficult for newcomers to survive for six months or even a year without [government] help," explains Shlomo Gangte, a Bnei Menashe member who lives in Shavei Shomron with his wife and two young children. "I wish the government would treat us like other new immigrants." "When people hear India, they automatically assume that the Bnei Menashe are coming for economic reasons, but that's just not the case," explained Freund. "Many of the Bnei Menashe live very well [in India] by local standards." Indeed, many families had land and livestock they were forced to sell or abandon in order to come to Israel. "In India I had a printing press and my own publishing business," says Gangte. "I worked as much as I liked. Now I have to work ten hours a day. We did not come to have a better life materially. If that was the case, I don't think we made a very good choice." Finances also determine the placement of the immigrants. Though Shavei Shomron has not experienced any terror attacks, nearby communities like Emanuel, as well as the surrounding roads, have been plagued by terrorist activity. Furthermore, the largest groupings of the Bnei Menashe happen to live in two of the most hostile areas in Israel: Kiryat Arba, outside Hebron, and Neve Dekalim, in the Gaza Strip. Other concentrations of the Bnei Menashe are in Beit El and Ofra, both of which are located next to Ramallah. "I don't object to the fact that the Bnei Menashe are living in Yehuda, Shomron or Gaza," says Freund. "But the bottom line is this: they don't come under the Law of Return. We need to find communities that are willing to take these people in while knowing that they're not going to be receiving budgets from the government so quickly. Thus far the only places willing to do so are located in Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza. "Last summer we were in touch with Mitzpe Ramon, which is in pre-'67 Israel, and Sderot about the possibility of accepting some members of the Bnei Menashe," says Freund. "They were willing in principle, but they just didn't have the resources." New beginnings in Israel involve much sacrifice, and no one understands this better than sixty-five-year-old Zayir Lotjem, a formerly wealthy land-and-cattle owner from India. Lotjem traded in his life of comfort for a meager caravan. He no longer has to wake up at three o'clock in the morning to take a two-hour walk to shul, but the real reason Lotjem took on such a challenge is indicative of the simple desire felt by many of the Bnei Menashe. "I wanted to die here in Israel," he says. The journey that the Bnei Menashe have taken over the past two-thousand-plus years through Persia, Afghanistan, China and, most recently, India, has brought them back, ironically, to the Biblical boundaries of the tribe of Menashe. But the long exile has not only stripped them of their religion but also of their physical identity as Jews. "Because we have been in the Diaspora for so long, no one believes us [about our Jewish identity]. They think that we look like the Thai workers," says Gangte. "The body may have changed," says Rabbi Avichail. "But you can tell that the soul was at Sinai." The Gangtes' caravan on Friday night looks like a typical Jewish home. The candlesticks are displayed on the counter. The pots are arranged on the hotplate in anticipation of the next morning. Instead of a European cholent, a mixture of mustard leaf, chicken and other spices is simmering in a pot. As evening comes, nearly the whole Bnei Menashe community in Shavei Shomron crowds together in the Gangtes' house; they huddle around the book The Midrash Says, digging for answers while munching on vegetable-filled pitas. As the stars appear, they sing the Birkat Hamazon aloud in the familiar tune sung by Jews the world over. For the last ten years, the Interior Ministry has allowed one hundred Bnei Menashe members per year to enter Israel, which is a far cry from Amishav's goal of welcoming 1,000 to 2,000 members a year. With the latest election, the new minister of the interior, Avraham Poraz of the Shinui Party, has frozen Bnei Menashe aliyah in order to gather more information about the situation. In several statements he made to the Israeli media, he declared that he does not want immigrants from third-world countries to come to Israel. Despite the fact that the Israeli Chief Rabbinical Court maintains that the Bnei Menashe's claim is authentic, according to Rabbi Birnbaum, the Interior Ministry has not contacted his office or the office of the chief rabbi concerning the situation. Additionally, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Amar has not yet discussed the Bnei Menashe situation with his conversion court. Rabbi Birnbaum explains that "since [Rabbi Amar] is new, there are a lot of different issues that he's working on now." Rabbi Birnbaum hopes that his court and the chief rabbi will soon unite in calling for reinstating the Bnei Menashe aliyah. While remaining hopeful that the aliyah will continue soon, Amishav is not waiting idly for a decision. The organization coordinated a meeting between Minister Poraz and Bnei Menashe members and is pushing for a sub-committee under the chief rabbi to investigate the Bnei Menashe's claim. If the government ends the Bnei Menashe aliyah, Amishav is prepared to do whatever is necessary to reverse the decision. "If that means going to the prime minister or the courts, that is what we'll do," says Freund. "I don't think it's fair that after ten years of allowing the Bnei Menashe to come, one man can halt the process, particularly since the Bnei Menashe have proven to be productive members of Israeli society. They work; they support themselves; they live religious Jewish lives, and they make a contribution to Israeli society. There is simply no reason to halt the process." "We will find the best way to bring them back to Am Yisrael," says Rabbi Birnbaum. "These people have a Jewish identity, and we have a moral, historical and religious commitment to help them come home."

LIMOR LIVNAT, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? Posted by Nadia Matar, January 11, 2004.

Until a few days ago, we were skeptical about the actions of the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction in the Likud and its chances of exerting influence "from within", but then Education Minister Limor Livnat came with her frantic attack against "Feiglin," and showed all of us that our friends in Manhigut Yehudit are succeeding on a large scale. The Minister, losing her equanimity, actually made these wild statements to the media: "Extremist elements, such as Feiglin and his followers, who were never a part of the Likud movement, and who are not from the Likud, are trying to take over the ruling party, and thereby the government as well." The Minister's statement is puzzling. The only "crime" of Feiglin and his followers is that they are taking action to have the Likud actualize the platform of the Likud, for which it was elected by a large majority. Whoever reads the Likud platform will find the following quote: (to be found at the Knesset Internet site ) "The right of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel is an eternal right, one that cannot be brought into question. The State of Israel shall not allow the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state to the west of the Jordan. The Jordan River shall be the permanent border of the State of Israel. The government shall insist that all of the security areas that are essential for the defense of Israel and the Jewish settlement shall remain under complete Israeli rule. Settlement is a preeminent expression of the people of Israel's unquestionable right to Eretz Israel, and constitutes an important asset for the defense of the essential interests of the State of Israel. The Likud shall act for its continued strengthening and development." Limor Livnat's statement a few days ago, in favor of the uprooting of a number of settlements - a statement that is in total opposition to the Likud platform - and her attack against the national activists in the Likud, perhaps show that it is Limor Livnat who is no longer a part of the Likud movement? At this juncture, it should be asked: "Limor Livnat, what happened to you? Are you, too, among those national politicians who undergo a total transformation the moment that they assume power, and begin to fulfill the extreme leftist Labor-Meretz party platform?" Women in Green first became acquainted with Limor Livnat in November 1993, when we held one of our first demonstrations against the Oslo Accords, after we read in the press that the arch murderer Arafat was claiming that a one-kilometer section of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, just beyond "Shaar Hagay", is "occupied" by Israel. He was demanding that this portion be handed over to Arab rule; we announced to the media and Members of Knesset that our movement would conduct a demonstration at this location, in order to warn the public that the Oslo Accords were liable to return us to borders that endanger the very existence of the State of Israel. We positioned ourselves on a hill next to Shaar Hagay, about two hundred meters after the gas station, with dozens of "Women in Green." We held a thick, long green cloth, and we waved signs proclaiming: "Stop - Border Before You"; Awake, Awake, Israel - Don't Let Them Return Us to the Green Line"; and other such messages. Limor Livnat was the only Member of Knesset who came to identify with us. Even though our movement was not yet very well-known, Limor Livnat came, encouraged us, and warned against the Oslo Accords and against the dangers of returning to the Green Line. Israeli television covered that demonstration, and gave a forum for MK Livnat's statements on the news that evening. Since then we have remained in contact with her office. During the time of the 1996 elections, Limor Livnat asked me to run for the Knesset on the Likud list, to try to be selected for the place earmarked for a woman. According to her, it was important that that slot be taken by a resident of Yesha ( Judea, Samaria, or Gaza) who would do everything on behalf of the settlements in Yesha. I thanked her, but I continued to act in the extraparliamentary sphere. (By the way, it was a good thing that I made that decision, because the slot became an unrealistic one after the agreement with David Levy.) Every year, Limor Livnat writes a greeting for the Women in Green's Purim Gazette for our Shushan Purim dinner. This is what Limor Livnat wrote in Adar II 5763 (March 2003): "Once again I have the pleasant duty of sending my best wishes to you, the members and activists of Women in Green. We hope that the new government will bring about a new beginning. The unfailing and prominent efforts of Women in Green aid in eliminating the terrorism monster, and in firmly basing the Jewish presence in all parts of the Land of Israel; they are essential in our political landscape. It is my wish that you "go from strength to strength." With my best wishes, Limor Livnat, Minister of Education. Based on the above, Limor Livnat is the last person whom we would expect to agree to the uprooting of settlements and to voice virulent criticism of national activists in the Likud. We foresaw for her a dazzling future as a proud Jewish-Zionist leader who would serve as a counterweight to the defeatist politicians such as Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, who curry favor with the enemy. It appears, however, that we were wrong, and, to our great sorrow, Limor Livnat has joined those national politicians who were elected on the strength of their loyalty to Eretz Israel, but who - after they assumed positions of power - cave in to internal and external pressures, change their colors, and betray the platform of their movement and the mandate they received from their electorate. The truth is that this does not come as a total surprise. A red light concerning Limor Livnat was already lit for us when she was undecided regarding joining the Merkaz (Center) party of Dan Meridor, a known leftist. Unfortunately, this episode was not just an aberration but revealed her true colors. In the coming months the members of the Likud Central Committee will have to vote on a diverse range of issues. The results of these votes will define the direction of the Likud movement. Will the Likud movement remain trapped by politicians who are weak on ideology and principles? Is the need to please the Israeli left and the American government greater than the desire to be faithful to their voters, to Eretz Israel, and to their Jewish heritage? In other words: will the Likud officially become Labor Party No. 2? - or perhaps the Likud will regain its former glory and choose to be true to its own platform, which is all that Moshe Feiglin and his followers seek? Soon, we will receive answers to these questions. Perhaps Limor Livnat will reconsider and understand that she will have a future as an Israeli politician only if she will faithfully represent the present Likud platform. She must realize that the true criminals are politicians such as Sharon and Olmert who masquerade as Likud members, but who act contrary to the wishes of the voters who elected them, to impose on us the establishment of a Palestinazi state and fatal "separation plans." If we want to survive as Jews in all of Eretz Israel, we must act quickly that these dictators be "relocated" from power. Limor Livnat, we ask you the question found in Joshua 5:13: "Are you with us or with our enemies? " 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

THE FOLLY OF SNUBBING ISRAEL Posted by Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D., January 10, 2004.

What is it about America's allies in the war on terrorism that some are more equal than others? Take the recent announcement by the Pentagon that it will only award prime contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq to nations that supported the effort to oust Saddam Hussein. Under the formula devised by the Pentagon, a country must have contributed to Saddam's defeat either militarily or financially for its companies to be eligible to bid on post-war reconstruction work. Fair enough. France, Germany and Russia have opposed the U.S. liberation effort, so their companies are excluded from bidding on any of the 26 contracts tied to the Iraqi Reconstruction and Relief Fund, or IRRF - contracts valued at $18.6 billion. They may, however, sign up as subcontractors. The situation is a bit more ambiguous for a country like Canada, which opposed the war but is contributing, nonetheless, to the post-war rebuilding effort. The Canadian government recently pledged upwards of $300 million to the effort. Initially, the Pentagon placed Canada on the "no bid" list. It was only after Ottawa cried "Eh!" that the White House backtracked and moved it into the preferred column. Today, companies from 63 countries may tender bids on IRRF prime contracts. Among them, states like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Egypt, were anything but enthusiastic supporters of the liberation effort in Iraq. Several, such as Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were outright hostile to the Bush administration and worked to actively obstruct its war aims. All three went so far as to deny coalition forces staging areas, over-flight rights or troops, actions that significantly hampered U.S. logistical operations prior to the conflict. Noticeably absent from the list of preferred countries is Israel, a nation that contributed significantly to the American-led effort to topple Saddam. In a decision that stunned many observers, the Pentagon made a point of publicly singling out the Jewish state as one of the countries excluded from the Iraqi post-war bidding process. No reason was given. But in a Pentagon memorandum describing the new policy, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz states that restrictions are "necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States" and that "limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in the future." He concludes, "Coalition partners (must) share in the U.S. vision of a free and stable Iraq." Allowing Israel to administer prime contracts in Iraq is of more than just symbolic importance. It goes to the heart of what the Iraq war was about and President Bush's goal of a democratically reconstituted Middle East. If the U.S. is to expect Israel to make sacrifices in the name of peace, then its citizens must know that they will be accepted as full partners in the economic life of the region. The Pentagon policy pronouncement was more than a little surprising given that the administration considers itself to be a close friend of Israel. Surely there is no country in the world more in sync with the "vision of a free and stable Iraq" than Israel. Not only has Jerusalem borne the brunt of Iraqi hostility for nearly 56 years, but it has given its unconditional support to the U.S. in each of its recent conflicts with Baghdad. Israeli leaders even went so far as to provide Washington with assurances prior to the war that in the event of a surprise Scud missile attack from Iraq, it would not take pre-emptive action without first coordinating its response with the United States. Israel is the only country since the end of the first Gulf War that has been systematically targeted by Saddam. His payment of between $10,000 and $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers was an attempt to incite violence against the Jewish state. No country in the last decade, not even the U.S., can claim to have lost more lives to Iraqi-backed terrorism than has Israel. For years, Israel has been a principal source of intelligence for the U.S., providing Washington with copious amounts of information on virtually ever aspect of the Iraqi regime. When the U.S. found it lacked the human assets necessary to understand developments in Iraq, the CIA and others turned to Israel and its community of 300,000 expatriate Iraqis for guidance. U.S. intelligence agencies have relied heavily on Israel for information on Iraq's clandestine nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. In the months leading up to the war, there were reports that Israeli commandos were scouring the hills and deserts of western Iraq alongside their American, British and Australian counterparts identifying hidden military targets and killing Scud missile launchers. With Coalition forces now bogged down in an ugly guerrilla war throughout much of Iraq, Washington has once again called upon Israeli expertise. For months, reports have been rife in the international press that members of Israel's elite counter-terrorist units have been on the ground in Iraq training U.S. forces in how to fight an urban guerrilla war. Israeli Special Forces may be in Syria as well looking for evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and eliminating anti-Western mercenaries crossing the border into Iraq. Many of the tactics and technologies now employed by American forces in the Sunni Triangle derive from Israel's experience in dealing with Palestinian insurgents. These include the use of drones in aerial surveillance, the encirclement of Iraqi towns with barbed wire fences and the deployment of hunter-killer teams against so-called "ticking bombs," terrorist cells active in planning attacks on coalition forces. Israel also has shared its methods for employing specialized bomb-detection equipment, its strategies for identifying and interdicting suicide bombers, its approach to the manning of checkpoints, its procedures for conducting interrogations of suspects in compliance with human-rights norms, and its knowledge of how to fuse real-time intelligence with field operations. The Pentagon acknowledges that Israel's 40-month terrorist war has given its military unparalleled tactical experience and an acute understanding of how to cope with a pervasive terrorist threat. In December, reports surfaced that the U.S. Special Operations Command had invited Israeli experts to Fort Bragg to share their know-how in conducting counter-insurgency operations. Force 121, one of the elite American units responsible for capturing Saddam Hussein, is believed to have benefited significantly from these exchanges. In line with current Israeli practice, the U.S. is now taking a stronger, more pro-active approach to hunting down and neutralizing the Iraqi resistance. In recent weeks, representatives from the Army's Training and Doctrine Command flew to Tel Aviv for a firsthand look at Israeli units and to receive briefings by senior military commanders on what the country is doing to meet the growing sophistication of the terrorist threat. Still, say Israeli officials, they would like to do more to assist the coalition in stabilizing Iraq. Treating Israel as a pariah in the Iraqi reconstruction process is at best insulting and at worst a repudiation of a close and loyal American ally. It is a decision that can only hurt Washington's case for regional economic integration and the promotion of shared democratic and free market values. Moreover, the U.S. action reinforces the worst instincts of the Arab world, instincts that see non-Arabs as unworthy of respect and fair dealing. Barring Israeli companies from overseeing Iraqi contracts sends a political message that Washington's alliance with Israel, though beneficial to both countries, is somehow second rate when compared to those in the Arab world. Perhaps it is time for U.S. taxpayers to question why countries that are so viscerally anti-American like Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rewarded with contracts, while a pro-American country like Israel is swept aside. For the good of Iraq and America's war on terrorism this needs to change. It is about time that policymakers in Washington grew up and acknowledged what always has been the case - that the U.S. has no more consistent or more reliable ally in the Middle East than Israel. Rand H. Fishbein Ph.D. is president of Fishbein Associates Inc., a public-policy consulting firm based in Potomac, Md. He is a former professional staff member (majority) of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and a former special assistant for national security affairs to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. He can be reached through his company website at: www.fishbeinassociates.com. This article appeared today on the World Net Daily website (http://www.wnd.com).

CAN ANYONE TRUST GADDAFI? Posted by David Ben Ariel, January 10, 2004.

This was written by Jo-ana D'Balcazar and appeared on the Arutz-7 website (http://www.IsraelNN.com) January 1, 2004. Politically, Libya's unexpected announcement that it will dismantle its program of weapons of mass destruction was the topping on the cake, strengthening President George W. Bush's foreign policy. Libya's announcement is support for President Bush's decision to deal with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction. It is no secret that Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi sensed President Bush is a straight-forward leader who keeps his word. Therefore, Gaddafi just weighed the pros and cons and opted for a wiser decision, to avoid being sent into early retirement. However, can the world ignore Gaddafi's human rights abuses and support of terrorism only because he promised to dismantle his weapons of mass destruction program? Does it mean that Libya is becoming a friendly state with its disarmament? No. It is most likely that Libya's decision is a result of external pressure and not from a true reformed leader wanting to set the path for a free democratic state. Clearly, the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein played a role in Gaddafi's decision. U.S. policymakers should be careful and verify each move. Has Gaddafi denounced publicly support for terrorists? No. Instead, he challenged the Arab world by saying that he would withdraw his country's membership in the Arab League for their inaction to stop foreign forces from invading Arab homes. This was in reference to the Iraqi case. Disarmament does not mean that Libya will stop supporting terrorist groups. Let us not forget Gaddafi's words during the Iraqi war. Gaddafi stated, according to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi newspaper, that "the only option available to Iraqis is the resistance: to kill or be killed." Hence, now, Ronald Reagan's historical words are the best advice: "Trust, but verify." In Gaddafi's case, perhaps it would be even better to: "Verify, and then trust." Gaddafi remembers he barely escaped when attacked by Reagan, so now he figured out his best, and perhaps, only move was to declare a dismantling. On the one hand, an indirect effect of Gaddafi's sudden change of heart is that it presents the opportunity for the return of U.S. oil companies that left Libya in 1986, when President Ronald Reagan imposed sanctions, as the U.S. is expected to lift part of the Iran and Libya sanctions. On the other hand, it is critical for the U.S. and any other democratic country to stand firm by the ideals of freedom, liberty, respect for human rights and democracy. Unfortunately, Libya has one of the worst records of human rights abuse. Moreover, to add insult to injury, the UN rewards Gaddafi by sitting Libya as head of the UN Human Rights Commission. What a farce! Just as Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat, Gaddafi must be accountable for his crimes and for supporting terrorism. There is no other way out. Libya cannot be considered a friendly nation, yet (or never, while Gaddafi remains in power). It would be contradictory. What the world is seeing is the process of the New World order after September 11. Sure, President Bush praised Libya's actions and said it was a "path to better relations with the United States and other free nations." Gaddafi is no dummy. He calculates his moves. And by announcing the dismantling, he is securing his authoritarian leadership. Consequently, all the fuzz about Gaddafi becoming a friend of free nations is only smoke and mirrors. Simply, it will be like dealing with Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. The U.S. must keep a consistent foreign policy and not deal with dictators who support terrorism. In the war against terrorism, there is no room for dictators masquerading as fighters against terrorism. The memory of Arafat before the U.N. General Assembly on November 13, 1974, asking the world to decide between "an olive branch or a freedom fighter's gun," still shows its bloody results: no democracy, no freedom, no olives and no peace, just fools strapped with explosive belts. Does Libya's offer represent the same deal? The fact that Libya finally agreed to pay over $2 billion to the families of the victim of the Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, does not erase the fact that it is still supporting terrorism. In the Lockerbie episode alone, 259 died aboard the plane and 11 on the ground. But what about the disappearance of hundreds of Libyans, the Lebanese Shiite cleric Moussa Sadr, and Gaddafi's abuse of human rights, including the whereabouts of Libyan human rights activist Mansour Kikhya? In other words, Libya's intentions should be considered only a partial success. The complete success will be when Libya stops supporting terrorist groups, as well as pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Nevertheless, the year 2003 ended positively for President George W. Bush's foreign policy with the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and with Libya's intention to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction. Will 2004 see the capture of Osama Bin Laden, the discovery of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and the solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict? That will be a real and powerful achievement for President Bush's foreign policy, and might transform him into one of the most effective presidents the U.S. ever had. Meanwhile, what do you think, can anyone ever trust Gaddafi?

SWEDISH BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL Posted by Dr Yossi and Linda Olmert, January 10, 2004.

A LETTER TO SWEDISH EMBASSIES AND COUNTRIES: Recently there has been an increased outcry in Sweden calling for a boycott of Israeli goods, and thus of Israel. OK: so be it. Your country totally depends on its exports. Remember Electrolux, Ericsson, Saab, and Volvo, to mention a few. We will ensure that any boycott of Israeli goods will be countered immediately by a worldwide boycott of Swedish Companies. Beware: we are ready and willing to defend Israel by withholding every cent of our spending power. You Swedes had your way in WWII, enabling the Nazi war machine to operate by being the sole supplier of iron ore to Hitler, thus participating in the destruction of six million Jewish people. If you cross the line again, this time you will face the collective anger not only of Jewish people, but of many millions of our friends all over the world: we are mobilized and ready. Think hard and think well. Sincerely (Signature) N.B. These are the address of a portal with the addresses of Swedish embassies, etc, below. Use the first link to find the mail to your closest Swedish embassy. The second link will let you find links to Swedish Companies Embassies: http://www.swedenabroad.com/pages/welcome.asp Companies: http://www.swedishtrade.com/usa/

RIGHT TO EXIST: A Moral Defense Posted by Simone Bercu, January 10, 2004.

Hello friends, During my month stay in Israel, I read about a book that was highly praised by both sides of the political spectrum. I am sure that you would agree that this has to be a unique book. My son read the entire book on his return flight from Israel to California, and implored me to buy it immediately. It was written by Yaacov Lozowick, Director of Archives at Yad Vashem. It was published by Doubleday; 1st edition September 30, 2003. The # ISBN is 0385509057. This is from the review by Publishers Weekly For Lozowick, author of Hitler's Bureaucrats and director of the archives at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, "[i]t is astonishing how deep-seated the fear of covert Jewish power really is." This book is his attempt at "a moral evaluation of the facts" of the various wars and current struggles among Israel, Palestine and other Arab states. Lozowick is deeply critical of the "confusion, ineptitude, bad faith, waste, poor taste, callousness and stupidity" that he finds within Zionism (as in "any other large-scale human project"), but he nevertheless concludes that "the will to murder Jews was never the result of oppression and can never be resolved by removing it." From Booklist Lozowick is a historian and director of archives at Israel's Holocaust Museum. Like the proverbial liberal who is mugged into conservatism, he is a former peace activist who voted for Ariel Sharon in response to the collapse of the Oslo process and the ongoing violence directed at Israeli civilians. Lozowick convincingly asserts that Israel is now, as before, struggling against opponents whose goal is the eventual destruction of the Jewish state. In examining the entire history of the Zionist enterprise, he illustrates both the moral justification of that enterprise and of the wars Israelis have been compelled to fight to preserve their independence. He refutes the oft-repeated screeds that Israel is a "racist" state, and he reserves special contempt for those European "peace activists," who are, in effect, apologists for those who deliberately blow up themselves and children. Those who demand that the U.S. pursue a more "balanced" approach to the conflict will not like this book, but it is an eloquent and necessary justification of Israel's right to defend itself. Jay Freeman Please request that your local libraries purchase this book!

DEPORT WHO? Posted by Udi Chaikin, January 10, 2004.

As I wrote few months ago: Over 250000 Arabs were allowed to move from Yehuda and Shomron and Gaza and stream to Israel. They and their descendants are now Israeli citizens. Before deporting 200000 Jewish people from Judea and Samaria, please deport the Palestinians from Israel. I personally will be satisfied with a compromise: Give the Arabs of Israel the settlements of Judea and Samaria, and give the settlers of Judea and Samaria, the Arab villages in Israel.

HAMAS LEADERS TO PROTECT ISRAELI CITIZENS! Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 10, 2004.

This past week the Prime Minister of the pseudo-Palestinian-Arab entity* announced that if Israel unilaterally disengaged from them, he would seek a bi-national state of Israel. Ahmed Qurei, aka Abu Ala (why is it these guys always have two names - are they trying to hide something?) threatened that he would seek a single state solution whereby all the land and all the people would become one country - Israel. He would then demand for his followers the same rights as Israelis. So in the tradition of that great Jewish scientist, Albert Einstein, I decided to conduct a thought experiment - something Mr. Qurei should have done before making his latest pronouncement and thus giving the world further fodder for ridicule. Okay, here goes.... The Arabs now occupying Judea, Samaria and Gaza are suddenly Israeli citizens. That means that all the Hamas, al-Aqsa, and other terrorist members and leadership are now Israelis and must serve in the Israeli army. This means they will wear a Jewish star on their uniforms since the Israeli flag has a Jewish star on it. I love the image of Mr. Rantisi & Co. marching around wearing Mogen Davids and defending Israel's right to exist against enemy attacks from, say, Hizbollah operating out of Lebanon. I especially love the image of him and his cohorts fighting to defend Israeli citizens against attacks from his former fellow foreign conspirators. Meanwhile, the whole pseudo-Palestinian-Arab society will be undergoing reality shock.. An entire generation of Arabs has been taught that there is no such country as Israel. Imagine their surprise to find themselves suddenly living in a country they thought was a fantasy. How is their leadership going to explain that they have been systematically lied to for decades? I can't wait to see them rationalize away this one. Then there's the United Nations. The Muslim-controlled UN has been sniping at, and mandating against, Israel for as long as Israel has existed. The so-called 'Palestinian observers' to the UN have really been full time anti-Semitic lobbyists. But if all those Arabs now occupying the ancient Jewish homeland suddenly become Israeli, any anti-Israel legislation put forth would be hurting fellow Arabs/Muslims. So with Israel out of the picture because of this situation, I fully expect the Arab/Muslim countries to do what they have shown time and again to be their next favorite pastime - making war on each other. If you don't believe me, I refer you to a speech made by Dr. Mahathir of Malaysia at the autumn 2003 meeting of the OIC (Organization of Islamic States). In it, he said "...we have a thousand religions which are often so much at odds with one another that we often fight and kill each other.... We aid and abet them by attacking and weakening each other..." I fully expect the Arab/Muslim world to self-destruct if the pseudo-Palis become Israelis. And lastly, there is the little issue of nearly 40 years of lies and propaganda. How are the pseudo-Palestinian Arab entity and the rest of the Arab/Muslim world going to reconcile the fact that they have lied to their peoples for generations? You see, once Arafat?'s Arabs become Israeli, they will have freedom of information. Not only will they suddenly find out that Israel is indeed a country, they will see that what they have been brainwashed into believing is totally untrue. They will also step into the 21st century world and be exposed to Western values, culture, and technology. They will learn that their religious and political leaders, even their schoolteachers, have fed them a totally false view of reality. How do you think they are going to respond? And what about the parents of dead homicide bombers, as well as those bombers currently in training? How will they react when they learn that it was all based upon lies? Judging from past experiences by other peoples in the very same situation, my guess is that they're gonna reject everything they've been told and lynch the lot of them. Now wouldn't that be a kick in the disha-dasha! If the enemies of Israel are as oblivious to consequences as Mr. Qurei, and continue to act before they think - as he has obviously done, (he didn't merely put his foot in his mouth, he swallowed himself up to the hip!), all Israel must do is sit back and let her foes cogitate themselves into oblivion. *pseudo-Palestinian-Arab entity: I refer to the occupiers of Gaza, Judea and Samaria as the 'pseudo-Palestinian Arab entity' because there never was any country called Palestine beyond the one ruled by the Hebrews. There never was a people called 'Palestinian' other than the Jewish people for the past 2000 years, until Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian, stole the name in the early 1960s and gave it to a bunch of Arab rejects whom their own countries refused to allow in. It is an 'entity' because it has no legal status and 'entity' was the nicest word I could come up with for a society which, according to their own polls, support genocide bombings of the Jewish people Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

SELF-DEFENSE FENCE Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 9, 2004.

This was on the Town Hall website (http://www.townhall.com) yesterday. It as written by Clifford D. May, a former New York Times foreign correspondent/ He is the president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism and a Townhall.com member group. This column first ran on the Scripps Howard News Service. It takes some nerve to scold people for defending their children from terrorists - the more so when their method of defense is simply to erect a fence to keep the murderers from reaching their intended victims. Yet critics have lashed out at the Israeli government's decision to erect a security barrier to separate Israel proper from the West Bank communities that have harbored suicide terrorists for years. Not the least of these critics is the International Court of Justice in The Hague which has granted itself the jurisdiction to hold a hearing on Israel's fence next month. Using fences to keep out those intent on committing crimes is hardly an innovative idea. As the media watchdog group PRIMER (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) has illustrated in a series of pictures available at its website, such barriers can be found virtually all over the world. For example, the U.S. has a fence along its southern border. That fence is primarily to keep out Mexicans seeking jobs rather than bombers seeking children. But if the former is justifiable, surely the latter is as well. A well-fortified zone divides Korea. The purpose is to keep out North Koreans who, one supposes, consider Americans to be "military occupiers" of South Korea. India is in the process of erecting barriers to separate its territory from that of Pakistan - from which Jihadi terrorists have frequently infiltrated. The terrorists say India is "occupying" Kashmir. Heard any objections from the European Union? Botswana is erecting an electric fence to keep out Zimbabweans attempting to escape Robert Mugabe's oppression. Apparently, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan hasn't a problem with that barrier - or with the Marxist, racist dictator Mugabe, for that matter. Unlike the countries above, Israel is fighting a war. The enemy's base is on the West Bank. Over the past three years since Yasser Arafat turned down the offer of an independent state in more than 95% of the West Bank and Gaza, 900 Israelis have been killed and 6,000 injured by terrorists whom Arafat has never seriously attempted to suppress. On the contrary, Arafat has encouraged and funded them. Those who argue that the fence should not represent a final border have a point. The Israelis concede that point, agreeing that any borders between Israel and what may become an independent Palestinian state should be "determined by negotiations." The problem is that the Palestinians who now wield power refuse to negotiate a deal that would lead to a Palestinian state living peacefully next to a Jewish state. Some Arab leaders are candid enough to acknowledge this reality. Last week, Prince Hassan Bin Talal, uncle of Jordan's ruler King Abdullah, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that Israeli Prime Ariel Sharon is a pragmatic leader who is having trouble finding a pragmatic partner on the Palestinian side. "Unfortunately, we can see the growing influence of Hamas and Hezbollah among the Palestinians," he told the newspaper. Indeed, Hamas and Hezbollah are not interested in borders with Israel. Their openly stated goal is to destroy Israel and to replace it with a radical Islamist state. Such intransigence also is not new. It was pursuit of this same goal - Israel's annihilation - that led to Israel's occupation of the West Bank in the first place. In 1967, Egypt (which then ruled Gaza), Syria (which then held the Golan Heights) and Jordan (which then administered the West Bank) explicitly announced that their intention was to wage a final war to drive Israelis into the sea. But Israelis prevailed in that conflict. In so doing, they took possession of territories that had long been a staging ground for terrorism and from which the aggression against them had been launched. Israel did not annex most of this property, as many other countries have done in similar circumstances. Instead, they returned the Sinai to Egypt in exchange for a peace treaty and have said they are willing to trade most of the West Bank for a similar arrangement with Palestinians. This history has been generally forgotten in media coverage of the fence. Reports have tended to focus instead on how the barrier is inconveniencing innocent Palestinians who live near it. That's a real and troubling dilemma. But complaints about how and where the fence is being built will be taken more seriously if they come from critics even-handed enough to acknowledge that Israelis do have the right to protect their children from suicide terrorists. What's more, if the fence works as planned, Israel will be able to remove road blocks, check points, tanks and troops from the West Bank. Would that not be an enormous benefit for Palestinians? As noted, security barriers are not a new innovation - not even in Israel. On my first visit to that country - a fact-finding trip taken with former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp and Senator Frank Lautenberg shortly after 9/11 - I visited Gilo, a community in suburban Jerusalem that overlooks a valley in which the scenic Palestinian village of Bet Jallah spreads out. From Bet Jallah, snipers had repeatedly fired at Israeli children as they walked to school. A concrete wall was erected to stop the bullets. On that wall, Israelis had painted a picture of Bet Jallah - a poignant reminder of the neighbors who had become too dangerous even to gaze upon.

PASSIVE OR POWERLESS Posted by Tamar Rush, January 9, 2004.

This was posted by Tiburon on the IsraPundit website (http://israpundit.com) today. Tiburon writes: A Personal Comment: - I have 'evolved' beyond "desperat(ion) about the passivity of (my) Jewish countrymen": - I figure it's over, now: - Israel is finished as a Jewish State. Be it this year or next, or a decade hence, the haters and appeasers (in the end, the same) have won. I look at Israel today (the "government", not the Land, not the People, nor the Concept of Tzion), and I too see "a shitty little country". I challenge any pundit on this site to give me a reason to immolate myself on the altar of 'democracy' and make Aliya, ever, while this pit of vipers control the Land of my Forefathers. (To whether I'd go for reasons of 'spirit' I'll defer response - though I'd comment that the religious status quo both in the Land and the Diaspora makes it unpleasant, for me, to stand in the Klal. The behaviour and character, or lack of same, shown by our rabbis, (generally speaking) on issues of Jewish survival in the Land, daily tests my core faith (such as it is).) Rationally, taking off the rose (Sharon) coloured glasses, - it looks to me that Israel must fall, before there is any chance for the Nation to rise anew. I have been a vociferous supporter of Israel since lecturing my junior high class on mideast geopolitic in June '67, many of my family were born and live there, as have I, over the years. My hopes and dreams for the Land are woven into who I am, but now I'm confronted with existential questions, brought on by the suicidal and anti-Semitic decisions of the rulers in Israel. I can 'pass as' a goy: - why wouldn't I? The World is a big place, with many Peoples that believe in themselves. Why would I not go to join and work with them? Rather than a country where I'll wait daily to be 'stabbed in the back', not by the Arab enemy, but by my fellow Jew. The true heroes of our People, like Professor Eidelberg, have the patience and faith to wait for, as PE says here - "...the resignation of his (Sharon's) coalition partners, the so-called right wing parties, whose leaders would require a surgeon to separate them from their seats" I say, why bother? Will this bring closer a United National Zionist Right in Israel? I think not. Rather, more turncoats, more bought off ideological firebrands, more Quisling-ism. (consider Olmert) I see they are calling for a massive demonstration on Sunday, and asking it would be the biggest ever. But as PE points out here, between 60% and 75% of the Israeli populace believe they have NO INFLUENCE on policy in the country. Would I take a day off work, even were I counted among the quarter million Jews who live in Yesha (ex-Jerusalem)? Ya, probably - but I'll bet you all that not 10,000 will show, this time (to be reported by Haaretz/CNN/BBC/CBC as 3,000, 'natch). I'll eat crow here (or, rather, my hat - crow being quite unKosher) if I'm wrong. Why so pessimistic? 'Cause I believe most Israelis are as burnt out as I am, and beyond cynical. And when one recognizes one's lords and masters are only self-interested, and that they have a 'lock on it', one turns one care to one's own, family and friends. In any case, these are my thoughts today. In the article below, Professor Paul Eidelberg. makes a valiant defence of the Israeli citizen, a defence that deserves audience - Read and take what hope you may. Ever since the Oslo or Israel-PLO Agreement of September 1993, Jews in Israel have been an object of reproach by opponents of that disastrous agreement. Why, ask these critics, have Jews been so passive? Why have they tolerated the truncation of their homeland? Why did they not rise up in outrage against the Rabin-Peres Government while Jews and Judaism were being denigrated by that Government? Why don't they bring the country to a standstill when their loved-ones are being reduced to body parts by PLO terrorists? Why, having overwhelmingly elected Ariel Sharon in February 2001 to stop the Oslo rest-in-peace process - why do they continue to support him even though some 800 Jews have been butchered under his premiership? And finally, why do they remain passive while Sharon refuses to pursue a war-winning strategy against the implacable PLO-Palestinian Authority? These questions are raised by American Zionists. They are raised by Jews who feel desperate about the passivity of their Jewish countrymen. Let me try to set the record straight and defend the honor of Israel's Jewish population. First, most Jews in Israel vote right, but their votes don't count. In the 1992 Knesset elections, the nationalist-religious camp won 59 seats while the Labor-Meretz coalition won 56 seats which, together with the five seats of the Arab parties, enabled the Left to prevent the nationalist-religious parties from forming a government. However, the Left would not have won 56 seats had not the late Yitzhak Rabin deceived the electorate by promising he would neither recognize nor negotiate with the PLO nor withdraw from the Golan Heights. But for a lie, Oslo would never have happened! Second, while Rabin was prime minister, hundreds of thousands of Jews demonstrated against the suicidal policy of his government - to no avail. The government had the army, the police, and the media solidly behind it - and the Supreme Court. Prominent Israeli citizens submitted a well-crafted petition to the court challenging the legality of the Israel-PLO Agreement, in vain. The court, a self-perpetuating oligarchy, is at the forefront of the left-wing Establishment. Third, despite the left-wing dominated media, almost 56% of Israel's Jewish voters elected Likud-leader Benjamin Netanyahu prime minister in May 1996. His book, A Place Among the Nations, said NO to Oslo. The Jews voted right, but for another con-man. And they were misled again in February 2001 when 63% voted for Ariel Sharon, Labor's surrogate prime minister committed to a Palestinian state. Today that fearless warrior need not fear the resignation of his coalition partners, the so-called right wing parties, whose leaders would require a surgeon to separate them from their seats. Besides, they can be replaced by Labor. Apropos of the alleged right-wing parties: one or two of their MKs will invariable speak at public demonstrations against the government, but this only serves to anesthetize the crowd; indeed, their participation greases police permission for the demonstration. No massive demonstration would be allowed if it threatened the Establishment. When all is said and done, Israel is a democratically elected despotism. The people are powerless, rendered more so by the veneer of democracy. Oslo was not their choice; it was imposed from above. Some polls, invariably misleading, allege that the majority would support a Palestinian state for peace. Even if this were true, it would be so only because no person of public stature has offered a viable alternative. Most Jews, unlike Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, have no illusions about Yasser Arafat and the Arab' genocidal intentions. They know that a generation of Arab children has been taught to emulate homicide bombers. Our people are not passive but powerless. And their sense of powerlessness has worsened through the years. Political scientist Asher Arian writes: "In 1969, 51% reported that they had little or no power to influence policy; by 1981, those pessimistic responses had risen to 61%. When asked specifically about influencing security policy in a 1988 survey, 75% answered they and people like them had little or no power to do so." Moreover, the higher their education, the more aware they were of "the essentially closed nature of the Israeli political system." Did not Sharon appoint Shimon Peres foreign minister after the February 2001 election - Peres, the architect of Oslo, Peres, who has been in the Knesset for more than four decades despite his repeated failures? What makes Israelis powerless is that Knesset Members are not personally elected by and individually accountable to the voters in constituency elections. MKs don't have to defend their record before a rival candidate. Our people are compelled to vote for fixed, party-determined lists in a single countrywide election - something unheard of in the democratic world. As any political scientist knows, fixed party lists means party dictatorship. Needless to say, the politicians in Israel have a vested interest in preserving this vicious political system. Those who reproach Israelis as politically apathetic are simply ignorant of the facts. Some 80% of these Jews turn out in Israel's general elections. In December 1998, the Education Ministry, together with Bar-Ilan University, conducted a poll among 1,050 high school students studying communications technology. 61% said they read a newspaper every day; 98% said they read one at least once a week; and last but not least, 91% said that the media tilt to the left! Israelis are not suffering from passivity but from powerlessness. And as this writer has repeatedly said, the most expeditious and tractable way of changing this undemocratic state of affairs is to make Knesset members, hence cabinet ministers, personally elected by, hence individually accountable to, the voters in multidistrict elections. I therefore call upon lovers of Israel to publicize this all-important issue.

WHAT WOULD MASLOW THINK? Posted by Boris Celser, January 9, 2004.

I am so disgusted by worldwide anti-semitism and anti-Israel actions at the UN and the EU, that I must turn to behavior theory to have a chance of having this letter published, otherwise it could be censored for inflammatory remarks. In the 1940s Abraham Maslow, a psychologist with interests in human personality theory and the understanding of human behavior, developed his "Need Hierarchy", a 5-layer pyramid establishing five sets of needs, from bottom to top: Physiological (food, water, sleep, sex, etc.), Safety and Security, Social, Ego and Esteem, and Self-actualization. According to Maslow, the lowest-level needs should be satisfied before attention is turned to the needs at the next level of the hierarchy, and so on. Furthermore, one must constantly go back down in order to satisfy needs that become active again (such as sleeping and eating), otherwise one can not concentrate on meeting the higher-level needs. Until a few years ago, I could, to some extent and with some effort, position historical anti-semitism, hate of Jews, pogroms and even the Holocaust in any or all of the top 4 levels of the hierarchy. At least as a way of trying to fit somewhere what can not be justifiable to or acceptable by me. However, thanks to the UN, the EU, and quite a few other individuals and organizations, I have now been able to clearly see anti-semitism as also being a component of the lowest and most basic set of needs in human behavior, at par with eating and going to the bathroom. That's why it will always keep recurring, preventing higher moral needs from being satisfied. I exclude from my comments above anyone who is not an anti-semite. Good job, UN. Good job, EU. Thanks, Kofi. Thanks, Solana.

LETTER FROM AN OCTOGENARIAN Posted by Isralert, January 9, 2004.

David A. Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee writes: This year my mother, Nelly Harris, turned eighty. In the course of her life,she never spoke out publicly. She felt she didn't have the academic or professional qualifications to do so, but now she says she can no longer sit quietly. It's worth listening to her words: My only credentials are my life experience-first as a refugee from Soviet Russia, later as a refugee from Nazi-occupied France, and, eventually, at the age of 18, as a new arrival to America, who went right to work and hasn't stopped. An unknown elderly woman may not be given the time of day in our youth-oriented and celebrity-obsessed society, but I owe it to myself and my three grandchildren to at least try. My conscience demands no less. I'm worried about the resurgence of global anti-Semitism and the ho-hum reaction it has elicited from many who should know better. I was too young in Moscow, where I was born in 1923, to understand the gale-force winds of anti-Semitism that propelled my parents to get us out while they could in 1929 and resettle in Paris. But I recall as if it were yesterday the advent of Nazism in Germany in 1933, the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, Kristallnacht in 1938, and the invasion of France in 1940. I discovered that a seemingly quiet, comfortable, and secure life can be turned upside down almost overnight. I learned what it is to become a refugee, to experience unbridled fear, and to be enveloped by uncertainty about tomorrow. I saw how people I knew were prepared to abandon me the moment they realized the risk involved in being associated with a Jew. I heard with my own ears the cries of "Death to the Jews" from Nazis and their Vichy collaborators in France. I felt the horror of my brother's arrest by the Vichy regime and planned deportation to the death camps; he was miraculously saved, but his girlfriend was not as lucky. I found out that my dear cousin, Mila Racine, two years older than me, had joined the Organisation juive de combat, the French Jewish resistance movement. She transported Jewish children to the French-Swiss border until she was arrested in October 1943 and sent to Ravensbruck. From there, she was transferred to Mauthausen and was killed five weeks before the war's end. I experienced the world's lack of sympathy as my family rushed from one consulate to another in the south of France begging for entry visas to somewhere, anywhere, just so long as it was far away from our nightmare. Of course, had Israel existed at the time, I can only wonder how many Jews with nowhere to go might have been saved. In the end, my parents and I were among the lucky ones. Eventually, after traveling to Spain and Portugal, we crossed the Atlantic and arrived in New York a month before Pearl Harbor. (My brother arrived separately.) Incidentally, perhaps it is people like us-those who found refuge from political and religious persecution-who can truly savor what America stands for. The sight, through tears of happiness, of the Statue of Liberty as our ship entered New York Harbor in November 1941 is something I'll never forget. I know the U.S. has its imperfections, but, believe me, it is unlike any other country in the world. I was eighteen and went to work immediately. So did my brother. We barely spoke English, but it didn't matter. Our family needed the income, and my parents were in worse shape than my brother and me. We had no outside help, nor did we expect any. As it was, we had received the biggest gift we could have prayed for-our very lives-thanks to American visas. By comparison, the rest was a piece of cake. In the postwar years, anti-Semitism in America existed, but it certainly wasn't life-threatening, nor was it particularly fashionable. As Jews, we encountered, at worst, small impediments in our own lives. While we heard about anti-Semitic barriers in certain elite neighborhoods, clubs, and corporate suites, that world was so far from us that it didn't really register. The one thing I regret is that, in the 1950s and 1960s, my friends, all with backgrounds pretty similar to my own, and I were so busy trying to integrate into America that most of us didn't pay enough attention to instilling a serious Jewish identity in our children. In our immigrant milieu, our Jewish identity was pretty much taken for granted; no one really disowned it, though some played it down. In any case, it usually took a back seat to embracing an American identity. I'm sure there are many explanations for this, not least that we had paid a high price in Europe for our Jewish identity. Moreover, I suppose we weren't all that eager to stand out as being different in our adopted country. After all, this was the time of the "melting pot" theory of America. Even so, in hindsight I realize how much we deprived our children of, though, given my son's chosen career path, maybe I'm being too hard on myself or, more probably, miracles do happen. Now, in the waning years of my life, I smell something troubling, and it frightens me. Jews seem to be fair game. Whatever the possible reasons, they don't alter the basic bone-chilling facts. Anti-Semitism may ebb and flow, but its resilience and ferocity are astonishing. Recent events remind us that it doesn't take much of a pretext-Israel, Iraq, 9/11, currency fluctuations, Arab stagnation, Muslim resentment, you name it-for anti-Semitism to surface in one form or another. I shouldn't be at all surprised, yet, even after eight decades, I confess I can't for the life of me understand the concept of demonizing entire groups. Of course, I've heard the explanations, but, deep down, I still don't get it. I suppose I have at least as much reason as the next person to hate, having been uprooted twice, but I find I'm not capable of doing so. Or maybe my surprise stems from the fact that each generation clings to the belief that history moves forward, and that life will be better for our children than it was for us. And there's no question of the remarkable progress that's been achieved. The life circumstances of my son and grandchildren have been infinitely better than mine, but the story can't be allowed to end there. The increasingly long list of attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in the last couple of years is by now depressingly familiar, or is it? I meet some Jews in New York who just don't seem willing, for a variety of reasons, to acknowledge the situation. Maybe either they're too self-absorbed, or they minimize the potency of anti-Semitism, or they're too convinced of their own safety, or they don't feel a visceral connection to fellow Jews around the world, or they're detached from Israel, or they principally blame Israel for the current problems, or they think that Jewish organizations are exaggerating the situation, or whatever. While the 1930s were most assuredly another era, I saw Jews in Paris watch the events of that decade unfold and believe, until the very last minute, that somehow they were immune. Some chose not to lend credence to the eyewitness reports of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria who streamed into France, including my future husband. Others decided that, by dint of their wealth, social standing, or connections, they were above the fray. And still others were too busy criticizing fellow Jews for bringing this on themselves. Let me be clear. I'm not suggesting that we're witnessing a replay of the 1930s. In fact, I'm not sure it's useful to spend too much time comparing situations; they're very different. For starters, today's anti-Semitism isn't government policy in any country with a significant Jewish population-far from it. And that's not the only difference. Nonetheless, I've learned a few things along the journey of life. First, Jews can never afford complacency. Second, sometimes people mean what they say. When Hitler began ranting and raving about the Jews, he wasn't taken very seriously, was he? When Islamic radicals call for the killing of Jews wherever they may live or Israel's total destruction, they shouldn't be underestimated or dismissed out of hand. Third, things can get better. I've seen astonishing progress with my own eyes. Look, for example, at the establishment of the state of Israel, American support for Israel and the Jewish people, the Israeli peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, the disappearance of the USSR, the onset of French-German friendship, and the Jewish success story in America. But life has also taught me that things can get worse. Our ability to imagine must go in both directions. A firm grasp of history may not be the be-all and end-all, but it does offer valuable lessons. And fourth, freedom is a precious gift. It must be defended. Heaven forbid, we should ever take our freedom for granted. I never thought I would live to see the day when "Death to the Jews" was again heard, as it has been in Europe, the Muslim world, and even North America, much less read the unsettling cover story in New York magazine (December 15) entitled "The New Face of Anti-Semitism." I am eighty and my future is largely behind me, notwithstanding someone's foolish claim that "life begins at eighty." But my three grandchildren have their lives ahead of them. Looking around today, I can't help but worry about the kind of world that awaits them. Maybe, at the end of the day, I'm no different than every grandmother in every generation. Still, I can only hope they'll hold their heads up high as Americans and as Jews and never stop fighting for-and dreaming about-better times to come. Isralert is sent to an opt-in list, hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe, send an email to Isralert@aol.com

NPR AT IT AGAIN Posted by Yuval Zaliouf, January 9, 2004.

Dear friends, After a certain lull in biased reporting from Israel, NPR is at it again. Is it that the Arabs are pouring more money into Madison Avenue PR firms and possibly into NPR? Have the Palestinian Authority threatened Peter Kenyon that he will not be allowed back to Nablus if he reports other than what is palatable to them? This morning, Peter Kenyon reported from Nablus, Samaria. Nablus was described just two days ago as a hot bed of terrorism, a city infested with Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other such groups' activities. More terrorism was launched against Israel and Israeli citizens from Nablus than from any other city. Oblivious to these grim statistics and without even one mention of it, Peter Kenyon sent a dispatch full of the usual cliches such as a Palestinian shopkeeper worried for his business and his children's future. Mr. Kenyon did not even ask the father if he supports Palestinian terrorism and how he protects his children from being indoctrinated by Hamas and Mosque sermons to become suicide "martyrs." What does not seem to be an editorial accident, immediately following Peter Kenyon's report from Nablus, NPR proceeded with a segment about the re-release of the 1960s movie "The Battle of Algiers" and how the Algerians won the war against French occupation. Do you need a reminder, my friends, that there is absolutely no similarity between the French occupation of Algiers and Israel's presence in its own homeland? Algiers was never France's homeland, and Algiers is not bordering France. Algerians did not attack and murder French women, children and babies inside France. etc etc. If the placement of the Algiers segment immediately following the biased story from Nablus was an oversight, the Morning Edition editor should be reprimanded, if it was intentional, the editor should be fired. Friends, unfortunately the time has not yet come for you to renew your contributions to Public Radio. This is NOT public radio. It is the voice of the political liberal left. If you still contribute, it is time to consider stopping your contribution. It is clear NPR is not concerned with engaging in unbiased evenhanded reporting. Yuval Zaliouf write the Truth Provider essays. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il

HOW PALESTINIANS USE THE WORDS: TERROR, MASSACRE Posted by Marco Delman, January 9, 2004.

When do Arab 'Palestinians' ever use that word? About their actions? In your dreams. Guess what! Only to describe the very Victims of their terror!!! Arab "Palestinian' propagandists call Begin's act against the British Military at the King David Hotel in the 1940s "terrorism". They don't tell you that Begin notified the English to evacuate - he had compassion. The English ignored the warning. Nowadays they attach it to Jewish operations against mass murderers. They can use their full imagination because there is no footage available of 'Palestinian' genocide bombers in the street/bus/cafe/market/wedding-hall etc. before their atrocity act. So it's easy for them to portray Israel with the 'Tanks on TV' as the aggressor. Never mind that Israel does NOT use them against unarmed civilians. But the damage of the illustration of the IDF as 'Goliath' is already there. So now the way is open for people to accept their application of the term "terrorist" - that it applies only to Jews. The facts are different. Only Arab Muslim "Palestinians" aim at the unarmed civilians. You can't argue with the facts. Name calling won't change a darn thing, just as calling Bush a 'Hitler' does not shock anyone, because we are quite used to that type of "Palestinian" name calling and silly never-matching comparisons-words games. Does the harsh fact - of Arab Muslim radicals championship in terror - drive them to attach 'dramatic' labels on unmatched items? Than you have their favorite word: "massacre." They even made up a "list" of supposedly called "massacres", which they use to instill hate in the young gullable Muslim children. It does not accomplish anything, not with anyone who knows the facts. Lately they got tired of it a little bit after the exposure of the lies about Jenin. Question: when does a fight between two armed parties become a "massacre"? Answer: The Arab's continuing massacres on the unarmed is exactly that. The "Palestinian" propaganda industry - new and old - has avoided the real facts. Like their first massacre in the region. It occurred in 1929 in Hebron, when they massacred ordinary non-political religious pious Jews.

THE ISLAMIST AGENDA Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, January 9, 2004.

This article is by Tashbih Sayyed, who is editor-in-chief of "Pakistan Today", a California-based weekly newspaper, president of Council for Democracy and Tolerance and adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute. It appeared today in "Pakistan Today." These are rare Muslim friends. Muslims, according to Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) are angry with President George W. Bush and want to defeat him in the coming elections. CAIR says that many American Muslims will vote for ABB - anybody but Bush. He, according to the Wahhabi and Saudi supported groups has betrayed them. In 2000, Muslims endorsed George W. Bush for president, citing his outreach to the Muslim community and his pledge to end the use of so-called secret evidence in immigration deportation hearings. He, according to Islamists, had also promised to address Muslim concerns on domestic and foreign policy issues but reneged. Free Muslims do not understand as to where did the U.S. president go wrong? One of the very first things that President George W. Bush did following the attacks on the United States of America on September 11, 2001, was to declare that Islam is a religion of peace. He impressed upon everybody that the lives and properties of the American Muslims are as sacred as that of any other American citizen. Bush insisted that the Islamist terrorists waging jihad on Western civilization "are evil people who have hijacked a great religion." Quoting from the Koran, Bush said, "in the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule." He declared that the radical Islamists do not represent Islam and the war on terrorism is not a war against Islam. President Bush spoke out strongly against Americans who have discriminated against Muslims, "Americans who mistreat Muslims should be ashamed," the president said at Washington's Islamic Center. The United States counts millions of Muslims amongst its citizens, he pointed out, and they are making "an incredibly valuable contribution to our country." He said, "the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war." Experts believe that Bush administration's unequivocal support for the Muslims did save many Muslim lives. To rehabilitate the image of American Muslims in the community, President Bush started a White House tradition of Iftaar (ramzaan fast breaking). He went out of his way to dispel the perception that the Muslims have perpetrated an unending pattern of catastrophic terrorism against the United States. Mr. Bush said Muslim leaders have asked him: "Why do Americans think Muslims are terrorists?" He answered, "That's not what Americans think. Americans think terrorists are evil people who have hijacked a great religion." Hearing President Bush and watching Americanism in action, my hopes were that the Islamist leadership will reciprocate Bush's sentiments by convincing Muslims that the U.S. is not anti-Islam. But the attitude and conduct of the radical Islamists working in the guise of Muslim advocacy groups clearly proved that they had a different plan. Bush administration's respect for Islam went against their designs to prepare ground for a psychological war against the American freedoms. Communal harmony and tranquillity did not suit Islamist agenda. They needed a polarized society to advance their programs. They required an environment of tension and hate in which American Muslims would feel insecure. Advocacy groups hoped to attract scared Muslims, looking for protection. This would have provided them with opportunities to recruit a good number of them for their extremist causes. To achieve this goal, they did not allow Bush's message of peace to reach the hearts and minds of the Muslims. And for those who understand radical Islam, the anti-American agenda was always on display. First, the Islamists leaders took their time in condemning the Tuesday terror. First they encouraged the conspiracy theories. The attack on the World Trade Center towers was the job of Mossad or CIA, one of such theories said. Another rumor pointed out that the U.S. needed a pretext to attack Muslim lands. So, it orchestrated the whole thing. And when they finally did condemn the atrocity, they also used the occasion to insist that U.S. foreign policy contributed to the anti-American fervor that led to the September 11 attacks. They echoed Osama bin Laden that the U.S. bestrides the world like a colossus. They told the Muslim street that the US giant is trying to re-arrange the world in its own interest. The U.S., they insisted, is controlled by Jews and Christians and wants to control the natural resources of the Muslim world. That's why, they said, Washington is sending troops to every corner of the globe and bombing Afghanistan and Iraq unilaterally. They brainwashed Muslims into believing that U.S. has put its weight behind Israel's "illegal military occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza. Spearheading this psychological war against the U.S. was Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR, to many Muslims is a front for the Arab terrorist groups like HAMAS and Hezbollah. The fact that CAIR has never condemned HAMAS and Hezbollah leadership or the imams who defy Quraa'n's teachings by preparing young and innocent Muslims to become homicide bombers, supported this impression. CAIR that is always on the lookout for an opening to condemn U.S. policies, has never used its influence to condemn Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Aiman al Zwahiri and their ilk. CAIR has never used its control over the hearts and minds of the American Muslims to refute the Muslim belief that the United States of America's war on terror is not a crusade against Islam. Instead it demanded of the American Muslims to oppose the war against Saddam Hussein and Taliban. Even when it welcomed the capture of Saddam Hussein, it betrayed its real feelings by expressing its opposition of Iraq war that resulted in the tyrant's capture. CAIR said, "As we continue to oppose the war in Iraq, we hope the capture of Saddam Hussein creates a window of opportunity for peace and reconciliation." CAIR also tried to remind its audience that the U.S. is an invader and an aggressor. "Hussein's capture should also facilitate the rapid transfer of sovereignty to a representative Iraqi government and the swift withdrawal of American military forces. It is now time for the Iraqi people, free of despotic rule or foreign occupation, to take control of their own destiny." Muslims wondered as to why CAIR did not care about the control of the destiny of Muslims by supporting our war effort. Another proof that CAIR is waging a psychological war against the U.S. is its reluctance to condemn Osama bin Laden's hate filled messages. Muslims are convinced that CAIR agrees with Osama bin Laden's mission, who said in his new year's message, "this crusade war (U.S. war on terrorism) is primarily targeted against the people of Islam. Regardless of the removal or the survival of the socialist party or Saddam, Muslims in general and the Iraqis in particular must brace themselves for jihad against this unjust campaign and acquire ammunition and weapons." "There will be no harm if the interests of Muslims converge with the interests of the socialists in the fight against the crusaders, despite our belief in the infidelity of socialists. The fighting, which is waging and which will be waged these days, is very much like the fighting of Muslims against the Byzantine in the past. And the convergence of interests is not detrimental. The Muslims' fighting against the Byzantine converged with the interests of the Persians. And this was not detrimental to the companions of the prophet." Another evidence of CAIR's psychological war against the U.S. in the garb of a "Muslim advocacy group" is its latest campaign to defeat George W. Bush in the coming elections. American Muslims, according to CAIR are angry with President George W. Bush. CAIR says that many American Muslims will vote for ABB - anybody but Bush. He, according to the Wahhabi and Saudi supported groups, has betrayed Muslims trust. They said that George W. Bush did not keep his word of protecting the Islamist interests. Therefore, he must be defeated. Independent Muslims are at a loss to appreciate CAIR's logic. They want to find out as to where did George W. Bush let the Muslims down? Did he fail the Muslims by going after Taliban, who were destroying the image of Islam? Or, did he hurt Islam by removing Saddam Hussein who was making fun of Allah and his messenger Muhammad by ridiculing "Allah O Akbar" sign on his flag? Is President George W. Bush destroying Islam by empowering the Muslims who are persecuted by Wahhabis and radical Islam? Free Muslims are convinced that the CAIR controlled Muslims are mad at Bush because he did not allow the Islamists to control or guide his foreign and domestic policies. Here too, like in France, Islamists want to use their growing numbers to control the United States of America's direction. CAIR, as the front of the radical Islam, wants to stop the U.S. administration from going after jihadi mentality. It wants Washington to support the homicide bombers and assist radical Islam in undermining the democratic societies like Israel. It wants Washington to applaud HAMAS and Hezbollah for their achievements in destroying the Middle East Road Map. And it wants the U.S. to become a society where non-Wahhabi Muslims and Jews are discriminated against and persecuted. Bush's failure to satisfy CAIR's agenda has made him an enemy of Islam. The fact is that when CAIR says that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the U.S., it means that radical Islam is getting ready to take control of the White House.

AOL TREATS EMAILS FROM REPUTABLE ISRAELI SITES AS SPAM Posted by Yrachmiel Elias, January 9, 2004.

Friends, Please forward this letter to AOL CORPORATE for me as we can not contact aol.com from Israel because they have blocked all Israeli-based email messages from being sent to any aol.com email address! TO AOL: The people using AOL world wide have been notified of your anti-Semitic acts of blocking emails sent from pro-Israel email forwarders. Seeing that you are a Saudi-backed, anti-Israeli, organization it is not surprising that you have taken this action. The President of the United States - the Congressional committeee that regulate internet-advertising and all other forms of internet operations are being notified of your actions. It should cost you billions after the Jewish People are finished with you unless you change your stance on allowing people like JWR AND RADIOROTE to send emails to your aol.com users. Every organization that has a say in the fairness of use of the Internet will be notified within days of this letter if your actions do not change. There are approximately 5,000 email sites that will broadcast this information within 72 hours (Sunday) of this letter if you do not stop the blocking of Israeli-based emails to and from aol.com Elias Yrachmiel is with Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaqer. Its website address is http://netzahyisrael.org  RadioRote comments: AOL has decided to retaliate against Radiorote and Readers by effectively blocking all AOL subscribers from receiving RadioRote Updates, no matter which list said Readers subscribes to presently. This is a feeble attempt by AOL to hide the fact that they have systematically targeted and blocked only the MidEast List these past few months on an arbitrary basis. Creating a total ban against all RadioRote users on AOL is merely a ruse. We ask that you assist Netzahyisrael.org in assisting RadioRote to put an end to AOL's "Inter-Nacht" against those who support Israel - whether AOL likes it or not. RadioRote asks that Readers and others to join them and many others globally by e-mailing AOL at: http://www.corp.aol.com/contactus.html starting this Sunday and continue this global protest on a daily or semi-weekly basis until they allow Readers who use AOL to accept information beyond what AOL decides "is best" for thieir customers. AOL is a mutli-national corporation with media holdings beyond their ISP. Also, we suggest AOL be reminded what their own corporate Time Warner posts on their own website, which reads: The First Amendment Time Warner has been and will continue to be a vigilant supporter of the First Amendment and the liberties it protects. In part, this is because we have a rich heritage of the world's finest journalism and an unparalleled record of innovation in the delivery of news and information. From the founding of the world's first news magazine, TIME, in 1923, to the launch of the world's first 24-hour televised news service, CNN, in 1980, to local 24-hour news service and instantaneous, "anytime" online news, our company has changed the way people around the world seek and receive news and information. The First Amendment also protects freedom of expression-and Time Warner is committed to fostering human imagination and creativity. And we will continue to oppose efforts to censor, intimidate or chill the freedom to express what is in our hearts and minds. Since the first Internet content debate in 1995 concerning the Communications Decency Act, efforts to regulate Internet content-from sex to gambling to advertising and other content-have continued apace. Time Warner has long been an advocate of putting those decisions-through technology-in the hands of consumers. http://www.aoltimewarner.com/corporate_information/public_policy/ 05_first_amendment.adp We are all witnessing what is happening to other pro-Israel sites, we cannot run. RR has unanimously decided to stand fast against these Arabists because we will not intimidated now or ever. We ask everyone to do the same.

WHY PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD IS A MISTAKE Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, January 9, 2004.

This article was written by Joseph Farah and appeared on the World Net Daily (WND) website (http://www.wnd.com) January 6, 2003. Joseph Farah is a Christian Arab and is Editor and Chief Executive Officer of WND. We are sending out this Joseph Farah piece, even though we believe that Mr. Farah's criticism of Mr. Sharon is much too mild. Mr. Farah correctly believes that Israel has given up its "moral high ground." We not only believe that Mr. Sharon is wrong when he supports the Saudi "Road Map" plan, but disaster, not peace, will follow its execution. The problem is one of Sharon's lack of faith in the belief of the L-rd's Promise to the Ancestors of the Jewish People. Sharon would transfer Jews from their homes and their Homeland in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, without any hope that thereby "peace" will follow. The "Road Map" will not only not "delay disaster", but is a formula for a continual nightmare for Jews, in their Biblical Homeland. I now think I understand Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's thinking when it comes to his acceptance of the U.S. "roadmap" plan for the creation of a Palestinian state as early as this year. For a long time I wondered if there was any coherent thought behind Israel's capitulation to Washington and the international community. I knew there was no moral justification for the creation of a new state of Palestine - one that has never existed in the history of the world. I knew it was a bad idea to reward terrorism - which is exactly what the creation of the state does. I knew it was wrong to dismantle Jewish communities in traditionally Jewish lands. I knew it was a bad deal for Christian Arabs who happen to live in the territory. I knew it would result in a new totalitarian, Islamic state. I still know all this. But now I think I understand why Sharon is going along with the bad plan. He's doing it because he believes it is honestly in Israel's best security interests to do so. While I appreciate his position, I still think he is wrong. Sharon believes if this action is not taken, Jews will some day be outnumbered by Arabs in Israel. He sees the creation of another Arab state on lands where Arabs are already in the majority as a defensive measure. By carving up the West Bank, dismantling some Jewish communities and moving Jewish population inside a new green line, he believes he will be acting in Israel's best, long-term security interests. In addition, by establishing a real Arab state where none currently exists, Sharon will be ensuring that future terrorism will have a real address - one that can be held accountable for attacks on Israel. Here's why he is wrong. Here's what he is missing. Here's what he is not projecting because he can't think like his enemy. The day a new Arab Palestinian state is created, other Arab nations will begin ejecting their own Palestinians to live in the new nation. They will come from Syria. They will come from Lebanon. They will come from Iran. They will come from Egypt. They will come from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The Arab nations keep the Palestinians and their descendants in squalor. They are denied citizenship rights. They are denied work. They are denied property. They are denied their human rights because they are and always will be a political football in the Arab campaign against Israel. How many will come? I would expect to see 500,000 at least in the short term. This will result in new refugee camps on Israel's border. This will result in more poverty and dislocation - conditions that breed terrorism and senseless violence, which is why Yasser Arafat hasn't minded destroying his own once-healthy economy. These refugees will not complain about those who really victimized them - the Arab leadership. Their hatred will be directed at the Jews. With no more Israeli military patrols taking place, as they do now, the security situation will deteriorate on Israel's fence. The terrorists will develop new tactics and buy new weapons - including weapons of mass destruction. If Israel dares respond to attacks by crossing the border, it will create new international pressures against the Jewish state. This is not a recipe for peace. This is a recipe for delaying disaster. By acknowledging the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause, when there is none, Sharon and Israel will have given up the moral high ground and invited more demands on Israel in the future.

PALESTINIAN GROUPS REFUSE FUNDS Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 8, 2004.

This is an article from the Washington Times (http://www.washtimes.com) today. It's written by Tom Carter. I notice that the Palestinian Red Crescent, a member of the International Red Cross, won't sign. Is this because they want to continue using their ambulances to transport weapons, bombs and homicidal Arabs to kill Jews? Or, is it, as Zogby says, because all the other adherents of the peaceful religion of Islam will be angry at them. Palestinian organizations are refusing to accept U.S. foreign aid this year, rather than sign a pledge promising that the money will not be used to support terrorism. "This requirement is a worldwide requirement, not just for Palestinians," said Portia Palmer, a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "The majority of the [nongovernmental organizations] worldwide have signed it." The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization's Network (PNGO), an umbrella organization comprised of 92 Palestinian aid groups, is urging its members to refuse to sign the pledge. The network includes hospitals, clinics, seniors organizations, human rights and law groups and other civil organizations. Phone calls yesterday to PNGO headquarters on the West Bank were not answered. Groups such as Hamas do run social programs, but the groups also were behind many of the 106 suicide bombings conducted against Israel in the past three years. The Palestinian Red Crescent, which has received about $300,000 a year in U.S. aid in the past, refused to sign the pledge and will forgo U.S. funding this year. "We would like to take funds from them, but without conditions," Faiq Hussein, Red Crescent deputy director, told the Associated Press. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the United States has distributed $1.3 billion for Palestinian programs in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in humanitarian and economic assistance. Congress has appropriated $125 million for Palestinian programs for 2003. Miss Palmer said USAID did not have a number of how many Palestinian aid organizations were refusing to sign the pledge. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said that the refusal to sign the pledge should not be seen as support for terrorism, rather that in Palestinian society it is politically expedient to reject the funds than endure the tremendous political pressure they will face for signing the pledge. "This is not clearly understood in the United States," said Mr. Zogby. "The idea of providing no 'material support' is such a broad brush stroke, it compromises the ability of the humanitarian organizations to function." He said making Palestinian organizations judge who is and who is not a terrorist is a prescription for creating civil war in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In response to September 11, President Bush signed Executive Order 13224, requiring all recipients of U.S. aid to guarantee that their organization does not support terrorism. The order, in effect since the end of 2002, requires Palestinian organizations receiving U.S. aid to sign a pledge that they do not "provide material support or resources to any individual or entity that advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or had engaged in terrorist activity." The pledge exempts "medicine and religious materials" from the restrictions. PNGO, which held an organizational meeting Monday, is urging its members to seek alternative funding from Europe and Japan, which do not require a similar pledge. Private foundations are also wrestling over who or which groups to fund. In November, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, sent a letter to the Ford Foundation asking it to deny funding to anti-Semitic Palestinian groups, in particular the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW), which is a member of PNGO. LAW was an active and effective organizer against Israel at the 2002 U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, which became a platform to accuse Israel of practicing racism against Palestinians. Ford, which gives roughly $3.4 million a year to Palestinian groups, now requires a pledge similar to the one required by USAID. "Ford will not support organizations that promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state," wrote Susan Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation in Monday's Wall Street Journal. The letter also said LAW's funding from Ford had been terminated.

USAID: IT'S OUR MONEY Posted by JINSA Report #383, January 8, 2004.

In 2002, USAID began to require a pledge from recipients of American aid not to "provide material support or resources to any individual or entity that advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in or has engaged in terrorist activity." If you want American tax dollars, you can't use it to engage in terrorism. "You are with us or you are with the terrorists," the President said. If you are "with us" you can have aid money. If you are "with the terrorists" you can't. That seems reasonable. Unless you are Palestinian. Over the past decade, USAID has provided Palestinian groups with $1.3 billion in aid courtesy of American taxpayers, but an umbrella group that includes 89 Palestinian aid groups is refusing to sign. They have two ostensible concerns: they don't want to "unwittingly" fund projects of any of the 25 groups that USAID identifies as "terrorist" (including Hamas and Islamic Jihad); and they don't accept that the US gets to decide what groups constitute terrorist organizations. According to a news report, Siam Rashid of the NGO network said, "Identifying most of the Palestinian factions as terrorist groups is unacceptable." No it isn't. It's what we do. It's our money and we don't want to spend it on people who as a matter of policy blow up children in buses and pregnant women in cafes. The Palestinian Red Crescent refused to sign and gave up about $300,000 in annual funding. "We would like to take funds from them, but without any conditions," said deputy director Faiq Hussein. We bet he would - but less American money for phony ambulances ferrying explosives and operatives through checkpoints is good thing. Frankly, we aren't surprised at the Palestinians. They have been nothing if not clear about what they want. They do not separate themselves into terrorists and civilized people and they don't want us to do it either. They do not separate themselves from the people who harbor, support, train, direct, pay and manage terrorists and they don't want us to do it either. They want our government to consider the PA a legitimate interlocutor. They want to use our money to maintain a terrorist infrastructure, schools and medical services dripping with hatred for the United States, Israel and our values. What surprised us is the American response. According to the Associated Press, USAID spokeswoman "Monica Pataki said the organization has not decided how to deal with the Palestinian refusal." We hope that means USAID hasn't decided whether to explain why Americans are tired of people who want our money while they decide how to kill our friends and us BEFORE we cut off their funds or AFTER we cut off their funds. But we don't think so. The JINSA Reports are published by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (http://www.jinsa.org). To subscribe, email info@jinsa.org

FORD FOUNDATION DOES DAMAGE CONTROL Posted by Lisa Rubin, January 8, 2004.

This was written by Matthew E. Berger and it appeared in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency January 6, 2004. The title: "As Ford moves to quell criticism, Jews, U.S. officials ponder impact.quot; WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (JTA) - The Ford Foundation has hired a former Clinton administration official with strong ties to the Jewish community to help promote a new policy forbidding grant recipients from supporting terrorism or bigotry. The appointment of Stuart Eizenstat comes as key leaders in the U.S. Congress say they will move forward to investigate the use of Ford funds and the accountability of such tax-exempt groups. Recent editorials, from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Jewish Week, have called on Congress to move forward with such hearings. It also comes as Palestinian groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - including the major Palestinian umbrella group for non-governmental organizations, which receives Ford funding - said Monday that they would not accept U.S. humanitarian aid to protest new U.S. requirements that they sign a pledge guaranteeing that the money will not be used to support terrorism. The Ford Foundation has been under a microscope since the fall, when a special JTA investigative series found that large financial grants from Ford enabled Palestinian groups virtually to hijack the 2001 U.N. Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and direct attacks against Israel and Jews. Since the publication of the JTA series, Ford has been working with American Jewish groups and lawmakers to reshape its image and institute new guidelines for grant recipients. Eizenstat, former deputy Treasury secretary and special representative for Holocaust issues in the Clinton administration, said he also likely will serve as a liaison between Ford and Jewish community leaders. While some outspoken Jewish leaders want hearings, several key Jewish organizations say they want to give Ford time to implement its new policies and do not support a congressional investigation at this time. Organizational officials say Jewish support for Ford stems from the foundation's willingness to work with Jewish groups on the issues, even with possible future Ford funding of programs that combat anti-Semitism. Others in the community say they are concerned that the hearings are politically motivated, and they're concerned that Congress might move to place new restrictions on all foundations, many of which fund programs in line with the American Jewish community's priorities. Eizenstat said his predominant role will be to work with Ford to implement new guidelines for how Ford grantees can use their money. "We are making explicit what was implicit before - that no grantee can support or participate in any acts of violence, bigotry, intolerance, discrimination or call for the destruction of any state," Eizenstat said. Ford is working with KPMG to create a "risk matrix," assessing which prospective grantees have the potential of violating the foundation's guidelines. And Ford is requiring groups that receive aid from grantees to sign a pledge identical to the one Ford is crafting for its aid recipients. Eizenstat said he supports Ford's humanitarian mission. "I believe in the work they have been doing, and have seen it on the ground," he said. "The work they're doing is essential to Israel's security as well as America's security." Ford officials have been meeting with Jewish leaders and U.S. lawmakers since the JTA series was published. They have won some support for the foundation's recent efforts. "They seem to be making good-faith efforts and they seem to me to be substantial efforts," said U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who helped craft an agreement with Ford for the foundation to more closely monitor its grant money. Nonetheless, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, appears likely to move ahead with congressional hearings. Some Jewish groups agree with Nadler that Ford should not be the subject of congressional hearings right now. "We need to create a little time here for the Ford Foundation to demonstrate its willingness to abide by its guidelines, both in spirit and in the letter," said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. Harris said the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, in two weeks will be a good early test for Ford's efforts to see whether it holds Palestinian groups to its new guidelines. Nadler said he is concerned that the Ford Foundation's problems will be used by Republicans in hearings to beat up on liberal foundations that give money to organizations and causes that Republican leaders oppose. Jill Gerber, spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee, said Grassley has been investigating the practices of several charitable foundations, and "there isn't any political bent" to the investigations. "The questions raised about the Ford Foundation and terrorist-front organizations obviously must be answered," she said. "The chairman of the Finance Committee will be investigating the matter to determine if the tax code is properly structured to penalize tax-exempt foundations for making such donations." No final decision on scheduling hearings has been made, Gerber said. Hannah Rosenthal, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said hearings into Ford's practices could set a bad precedent. "I think that is ill-advised for Congress to do oversight hearings on how a foundation gives its money," she said. Certainly, there are things for the Jewish community to gain from good relations with a foundation as big as Ford, whose assets are estimated at $10 billion, even as it criticizes its support for Palestinian non-governmental organizations. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he believes Jewish groups previously avoided Ford because of its ties to Palestinian groups, but may be interested in seeking its aid in the future. "At the end of the day, I assume they will fund some project submitted to them by a mainstream Jewish organization," Foxman said. While there have not been specific discussions about funding ADL programs, it's likely Ford eventually will fund such programs, Foxman said. Susan Berresford, the foundation's president, suggested in a letter Monday to the Wall Street Journal that the Ford Foundation would work with Jewish organizations to create a new program to combat anti-Semitism, specifically in Europe. Foxman says he does not believe suggestions by some that Ford is buying peace from the Jewish community. He said Jewish support is not based on the opportunity for money but on Ford's position as a key international player. "We don't want them to pick up their marbles and move out of the Arab-Israeli situation," he said. "It is a very, very important institute in philanthropic life. If we can put it on the straight and narrow, that's a major gain for the community and for what we believe to be civility." Rosenthal said there was no discussion of money for Jewish groups in her meeting with Berresford. Meanwhile, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said he believes the hearings should continue. He said new rules should be considered to prevent foundations from funding hate, either knowingly or by accident. The rules could be similar to new guidelines for NGOs that receive grants from the United States Agency for International Development, which provides government funds for humanitarian projects around the world, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But the Palestinian NGOs, which already had balked at signing a pledge not to support terrorism, went a step further this week in announcing they would not accept U.S. aid because of that requirement. Officials from the Palestinian NGOs, known as PNGO, said they were boycotting USAID funds for fear that they would not be able to work with Palestinian groups that are identified as terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The Palestinian Red Crescent, for example, reportedly refused $300,000 in aid. Nadler said he hoped the United States would put diplomatic pressure on Europe and Japan to also refuse to fund Palestinian groups linked to terror, since they may become more enticing avenues of support from Palestinians given the new restrictions being enacted by USAID and Ford. A senior PNGO official in the Middle East said, "This certificate is against Palestinian law, which makes it illegal to accept conditioned funds." "According to the certificate process," the official said, "most of the national Palestinian parties we work with are terrorists." "This certificate did not clarify who is a terrorist," the official said. "We consider the Israeli occupation to be the terrorists. Therefore, under international law, we have the right to armed resistance." As for its Ford funding, the official said, "We do not think Ford will stop funding us - of course not. There may be new conditions, but Ford will not stop funding us - even though we know the Zionist lobby has made special pressures against Ford and the Congress." Alex Wilde, vice president for communications at the Ford Foundation, said no grantees have yet received their guidelines on improper use of aid, but will get them imminently. He said his foundation staff is communicating with Palestinian NGOs but would not comment on whether they had heard complaints similar to those expressed against USAID. "We will not fund any groups that do not sign," Wilde said.

THE ISM'S JIHAD AGAINST ARABS Posted by Steven Plaut, January 8, 2004.

You can tell the Middle East is getting really confusing when the vile pro-terror extremist organization ISM, or International Solidarity Movement, decides to go on jihad warpath against a Bedouin Arab patriot. Pressing Israel to investigate the shooting of ISM protester Tom Hurndall, Israel found that the soldier who shot Hurndall - was a Bedouin Arab serving in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Rather than shame Israel by exposing a bloodthirsty Israeli militarist, they instead harmed an Arab, a member of the group they allegedly support. The ISM is the group of leftists and anarchists who have adopted the Palestinian terrorists as their pet cause. These are the sorts of people usually found posting their scribblings on Indymedia websites. They have flocked to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where they devote themselves to trying to prevent Israel from taking military action against the terrorists who send suicide bombers and other mass murderers into Israel. The ISM peace activists try to block roads, set up obstacles before tanks, oppose soldiers trying to arrest terrorists or to knock down houses of suicide bombers, and otherwise show how thoroughly they support the Palestinian "militants." In at least one case, they hid arms for Palestinian terrorists and have attempted to hide wanted terrorists in their offices. They make no secret of their desire to see Israel annihilated. They openly endorse mass murder of Jews. The two terrorists who carried out an atrocity in a Tel Aviv pub were hosted by the ISM the day before they carried out the murders. However, the very fact that ISM operates in Israel attests to the antithesis of ISM's conclusions: They are in Israel precisely because Israeli troops tend to regard trouble-makers from the U.S. and Europe with gentleness and timidity. Ever wonder why these people were not in Iraq, guarding Ba'ath offices and bunkers? Ever wonder what would have become of a group of ISM-ers who stood in front of the Tikrit farmhouse to prevent the GIs from extracting Saddam from his flea-infested hole? Lately, the ISM comrades have taken on a new tactic: attacking segments of the security fence Israel is erecting, a fence designed to make it harder for the Palestinian terrorists to enter Israel and murder civilians. About 1,300 Israelis have been murdered by the PLO and its affiliates since the time when Arafat signed the Oslo Accords and renounced violence for all eternity. Not only Israelis have been the victims of the carnage; Israels Maariv (in its January 2, 2004, issue) reports that Arafat himself has now been implicated in the murder of the American diplomats a few weeks back in Gaza. The ISM-ers who attack the fence wish to vandalize it, so that it will be easier for the murderers to enter Israel. When they attack the fence, they come prepared with gas masks and facial ointments to protect them from tear gas, because they are clearly planning to behave violently. A few have been injured by Israeli troops exercising crowd control. None have been killed. The Israeli troops have exhibited a high degree of restraint in the face of the violent provocateurs without comparison in the democratic world. I bet you that if a crowd of hooligans attacked the fence surrounding Barbara Streisands mansion in Beverly Hills and tried to vandalize it, the guards and police would mow them down with no hesitation; when they try to allow suicide bombers into a sovereign nation, the media extend their sympathy. While several ISM hooligans have been banged up while being brought under control by the Israelis, none have as yet achieved the same status of Stalinist martyrdom as the two best-known ISM terror supporters. Over the past year, two ISM members became Patron Saints for Terrorism. The better known is Rachel Corrie, a rather naive, American-flag-burning, anti-Israel, college student from Washington state. While trying to prevent Israeli heavy machinery from knocking down terrorists' houses and digging up tunnels used by the Palestinians to smuggle explosives into Israel, she placed herself in a position where the bulldozer driver could not see her. She was dragged down, crushed, and died. The other near-martyr of the ISM is less known in the U.S. but is being beatified as we speak in the UK. He is Tom Hurndall. Israeli soldiers were on a mission last April in the Gaza border town of Rafiah, from which all the tunnels used to smuggle arms and explosives enter from Egypt, when they came under PLO fire. Hurndall was there, like all ISM provocateurs, to interfere with Israel's military operations against the terrorists. At the time of the shooting, Hurndall, along with other ISM members and local residents, planned to set up a "peace tent" on one of the nearby roads to prevent IDF tank patrols from using it. When the firefight began, Hurndall ran out into the street and was hit by a bullet in the crossfire. His supporters claim he was just trying to shoo some Arab children away from the battle zone. Given ISM behavior in the past, it is at least as conceivable that he was planning to serve as a human shield for the terrorists doing the shooting. He was hit in the head and has been in a coma ever since. Hurndall's family and the ISM have gone on a crusade against Israel, claiming son Tom was intentionally shot down in cold blood. The same people have long claimed that Rachel Corrie was injured deliberately out of Israeli malice, rather than as a result of her own recklessness. These folks have never come up with a good reason for why Hurndall was running around in the middle of a firefight in the Gaza Strip in the first place, a firefight started by the very same Palestinian terrorists he came there to support and protect. But things have gotten "curiouser and curiouser." The Israel-bashing Left has been organizing pressure, including among U.S. and EU politicians, to lobby for the prosecution of any Israeli troops involved in the injuries of these far-Left activists. Now just imagine their frustration! The raison detre of the ISM is to protect those who wage attacks on Jews and delegitimize Zionism, but the main victim of their agitprop turns out to be a Bedouin Arab. Yes, it turns out that Hurndall was in fact shot by a Bedouin Arab soldier serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. Of course, you would never know that from reading the various reports in the British press. It turns out that the Israelis who came under fire by the Palestinian terrorists in the incident in which Hurndall was shot were Bedouin Arabs. They returned fire. Hurndall was hit. The original IDF Southern Command inquiry did not identify soldiers responsible for the shooting. Then, facing pressure exerted by Hurndall's family and others, IDF Judge Advocate General Menahem Finkelstein agreed two months ago to open a new inquiry into the shooting. IDF military police investigated a soldier from the desert patrol (Bedouin) battalion. The soldier confirmed that he fired during the incident from behind a concrete barrier. He claimed that he shot in response to heavy Palestinian gunfire, and that he aimed at a Palestinian who had a pistol and wore a uniform. Many people are not even aware that Arabs and Moslems serve in the Israeli military. In most cases, they are not conscripted, although members of the Druze and Circassian minority groups are. Both those last two are Arabic-speaking minority groups; the Circassians are Moslems and Druze have their own religion. Other Arabs may volunteer to serve their country in the Israeli Defense Forces, border patrol, and police. In particular a large number of Bedouins serve in these units, sometimes as scouts. (See my book about Bedouin scouts, The Scout, from Gefen Publishing House). Israel seems to have caved in under the international pressure and is going to prosecute the Bedouin soldier involved in the shooting. Hurndall is now apparently brain dead due to his injury. Some wags have suggested that ISM people are brain dead even without getting injured. How embarrassing for the ISM! They came to demonize the Jews and protect the terrorists. But all they have succeeded in doing is forcing Israel to prosecute a patriotic Bedouin Arab serving his country in the military. Perhaps they will now go after Iraqi Arabs who opposed Saddam? 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 in Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemag.com) today. The version in Front Page Magazine has active links to related articles.

A JOSHUA MESSAGE TO SHARON Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 8, 2004.

Clearly, evil interests have control over the thoughts of Ariel Sharon. This is followed by a compliant Cabinet and a weak Knesset. There is a strong need for a "JOSHUA MESSAGE" which may hopefully put some steel into the backbone of the so-called elect. Let every man and woman in Israel gather in Jerusalem - each carrying a Shofar. Walk around the Knesset and the Prime Minister's Office 7 times, stopping only to blow their Shofars, as Joshua did in Jericho. While the walls of the Knesset and the PM's office may not fall, the message will be clear. Don't wait for Arik to send his special evacuation police to you first. Instead, bring your message to him in such large numbers as to him as to shake his confidence in what appears to be his belief that only he knows best. Many from the heartland of Israel will, no doubt, join you. Let the blasts of the Shofar be heard in all of Israel and then in all Washington. There are 220 communities, including villages, towns, cities in YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron, Gaza) now, built by Labor and Likud governments. At least 220,000 men, women and children live in those communities that the Media calls pejoratively: "settlements". Where does Washington and Sharon expect those people to go? To his farm? To settle on the White House lawn? Who is willing to house these people? Are those houses, factories, farms, wineries in YESHA going to be given to the in-coming Arab Palestinian so-called refugees? Is that justice or shalom? "ISRAEL DOES NOT WANT TO GIVE IN!" - Huge Vigil - Will Be Held 7 PM SUNDAY (NOT Mon), JANUARY 11, 2004 (Teivet 17, 5764) "NO YIELDING" DEMO SAME PLACE - KIKAR MALCHEI ISRAEL SQUARE (aka Rabin Square) Tel-Aviv Moetset Yesha's Decision--Confirmed Because we don't have Arutz7 radio--please pass on this message to all by email, fax, phone etc.. PS. This demonstration is maybe the most important demonstration we have ever had. We must show Sharon that we will not stand for his defeatist plans that are not only diametrically opposed to his own party's platform but also completely against the will of the majority of the people who elected him. * Even if you never attended a demonstration, this one is a MUST! It is for the very survival of Israel as a Jewish state * http://www.a7.org/news.php3?id=68951 * For transportation call the organizers at 02-5822.224 TO BOMBARD ARIEL SHARON WITH INFORMATION & YOUR OPINIONS: fax: 02-566-5848; ph: 02-670-5555; email: webmaster@pmo.gov.il

THE CULTURE OF SUICIDE BOMBING Posted by Yuval Zaliouf, January 8, 2004.

Dear friends, We often hear, particularly from leftists and liberals, that suicide bombers are the result of grievances that need to be addressed by us. By us, the victims, not by them, the perpetrators! If indeed the grievances are the cause, why, for instance, the Tibetans do not turn themselves into live bombs against China? The reason for the phenomenon of suicide bombing has nothing to do with Israel or the US. It has to do with the religion and culture of the assassins: Those without shame. These shameless people declared a WW on the west, the kind of which the world has never seen. Here is a quote from Tom Friedman's article in today's New York Times: "...the Islamist terrorists are neither a state subject to conventional deterrence or international rules, nor individuals deterred by the fear of death. And their home societies, in too many cases, have not stigmatized their acts as "shameful." In too many cases, their spiritual leaders have provided them with religious cover, and their local charities have provided them with money. That is why suicide bombing is spreading." Yuval Zaliouf write the Truth Provider essays. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il

JAMES BAKER, GREAT WHITE TURKEY HUNTER, IS COMING TO ISRAEL Posted by Ruth Matar, January 8, 2004.

Dear Friends, It's official! James Addison Baker III is coming to Israel as President Bush's personal envoy. President Bush announced this on the first day of the New Year: "He is yet to go to the Middle East, and he's going to let me know when he thinks the timing is good for that." Regarding this upcoming visit, a Jerusalem official explained that Israel's understanding is that James Baker "is supposed to go around the world and try to convince countries to support the President. To keep a general maintenance program, to ensure that there are no surprises, that nothing rocks the boat for the President while he is in an election year." Good news for Saudi Arabia! Very bad news for Israel! JAMES BAKER III AND SAUDI ARABIA Certainly James Baker is not going to rock the boat in Saudi Arabia for President Bush, while he is in an election year. James Baker is considered to be a good friend by the Saudis. Since 9/11 Saudi Arabia has had, to put it delicately, a public relations problem. Saudi Arabia has had to dodge allegations that it had a hand in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi nationals. The families of the September 11 victims have instituted a trillion-Dollar class-action law suit against the Saudi government. In the months ahead, dozens of Saudi citizens (including Khalid bin Mahfouz) and institutions (including National Commercial Bank) will have to respond to suits in New York and Washington, D.C. Those suits name hundreds of defendants, including major Saudi banks, charities, and certain members of the royal family, alleging liability for the attacks. And guess who is defending the Saudi government against this law suit? The law firm of former Secretary of State under President George Herbert Walker Bush, President George W. Bush's father. The law firm of former Secretary of State James Baker III, BAKER BOTTS, has long represented clients with interests in Saudi Arabia. The Baker Botts law firm was put in an even better position to pull in more work from Saudi Arabia in the fall of 2001, when President George W. Bush appointed Baker Botts partner, Robert Jordan, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Baker Botts made an appearance in D.C. Federal District Court for the Saudi Minister of Defense and Aviation, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. In a statement on behalf of Prince Sultan, Baker Botts called the claims that the prince and other Saudi royal family members assisted in terrorist attacks "utterly false". Baker Botts has a powerful permanent presence in Saudi Arabia. It has nine main offices: Austin, Dallas, Houston, New York, Washington, London, Moscow, Baku (capital of oil-rich Azerbaijan), and, of course, Riyadh, in oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Oil is not the only thing these power brokers handle. The firm boasts of expertise in "corporate crisis" and "white-collar criminal defense"; it is currently defending the CEO of Rite-Aid, who has been indicted of conspiracy and fraud. In the past, Baker Botts has also represented Enron. Baker Botts is slickest when it comes to oil, but Baker himself has even wider interests. As senior counsel to the Carlyle Group, the investment firm long associated with Bush interests, Baker helps to oversee the operations of the nation's 10th-largest defense contractor, United Defense. With all these wonderful connections, James Baker will have no problem to convince Saudi Arabia to support George W. Bush, and not to rock the boat for the President while he is in an election year! BAKER AND ISRAEL Baker is not a friend of Israel, and that is the understatement of the year. In 1990, when he was Secretary of State in George H. W. Bush's cabinet, he publicly remonstrated with Israel: "When you are serious about peace, call us," then giving out the White House telephone number. Also as Secretary of State, he was widely quoted as saying: "f**k the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway." Colorful language, but Baker may have said this in a fit of anger at those "pesky" Jews. But the following story illustrates Baker's STRONG hatred and disdain for Israel: Shortly before assuming office as Secretary of State, Baker invited an interviewer from Time Magazine to accompany him on a turkey hunt. At one point during the hunt, when he was discussing Israel and the Arabs, Baker remarked: "The trick is in getting them where you want them, on your terms. Then you control the situation, not them. You have the options. Pull the trigger or don't. It doesn't matter once you've got them where you want them. The important thing is knowing that it's in your hands, that you can do whatever you determine is in your interest to do." When the reporter asked Baker if he was referring to the turkeys, Baker replied, "No, I mean Israel." (Time Magazine, February 13, 1989) [as cited in ZOA press release June 7, 1996]. That is how James Baker III thinks of Israel: as turkeys to be hunted down, with himself as the hunter. As James Baker said: "The important thing is knowing that it's in your hands, that you can do whatever you determine is in your interest to do" Unfortunately, Israel must assume that Baker, with his long time friendship with Saudi Arabia, his law firm being one of Saudi Arabia's defense council in a trillion-dollar law suit against the Saudi royal family, and the intertwined business interests of Saudi Arabia and as senior council to the investment firm long associated with Bush interests, James Baker has no motivation to be evenhanded as far as Israel is concerned. Isn't there a conflict of interest here? President Bush and his Arabist State Department, keep insisting that all Jewish (not Arab) settlement activity in the Hold Land must stop. James Baker's star pupil, Daniel Kurtzer is presently U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Daniel Kurtzer was the speech writer of Secretary of State James Baker. He actually coined the phrase "Land for Peace" to be used in one of Baker's policy speeches. Even though Kurtzer is supposedly an Orthodox Jew he does not believe in the Biblical Promises of Hashem with regard to the Land of Israel. With the same arrogance and disdain for Israel of his mentor James Baker, he issued a dictate to Israeli courts: "do not to let the fact that Migron has submitted documents proving that it is a legal community on Jewish owned Land, prevent its uprooting!" (Kurtzer frequently issues orders to Israel as if he were the High Commissioner, rather than the U.S. Ambassador) Why is U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer focusing on Migron? It seems that he had previously instructed Israel Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz that Migron has to be the first Jewish "settlement" to be evacuated, so as to make possible a contiguous Palestinian State. It is difficult to understand President Bush's insistence on creating a Palestinian terrorist state in the Holy Land and thereby depriving the Jewish People of their rightful heritage. But, as it has often been said, in politics there are no friends, only interests. And unfortunately, the United States perceives its interests to be to placate Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world. Yes, the situation looks very bad. The Sharon government has been under increasing pressure to dismantle 100 so-called illegal outposts. The Arabist U.S. State Department designates an Illegal outpost as any community the Jews are trying to build in their own Biblical Heartland of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has folded completely under American pressure. Therefore, many Israelis see the dismantling of "outposts" as the first step in Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank (Judea and Gaza) and the Gaza Strip. What can we do? Let us not consent to be James Baker's turkeys! We can be sure that there is much pressure from the Bush administration. And continual and strong pressure at that! But in the years from Israel's rebirth in 1948 until 1992, Israeli Prime Ministers often had to defy very heavy U.S. pressure, for example: 1948/9: U.S. pressure on Ben Gurion with threats of economic sanctions to refrain from declaration of independence. 1967: The U.S., the U.S.S.R. and the UN pressured Levi Eshkol to refrain from a pre-emptive strike and from reuniting Jerusalem. 1981: The U.S., U.S.S.R., Europe and the UN threatened Begin with military and economic sanctions, lest he bomb Iraq's nuclear reactor. Nonetheless, Previous Prime Ministers were able to successfully withstand incredibly strong pressure of the U.S. The world and the US are more likely to respect a "NON-PUNCHING BAG ISRAEL". A strong democratic undivided Israel, as promised to the Jews, according to the Judeo-Christian tradition, is not only in Israel's interest but in America's interest as well. Dear Friends: Please forward this Letter to all your friends, President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney . Your Senators and Congressman can be reached by calling the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202)456-6212 or (202)224-3121. With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar P.S. For further reading go to and [Ed. note: This was contributed by Tamar Rush: James Addison Baker III (b. 1930) - also known as James A. Baker III - Born in Houston, Harris County, Tex., April 28, 1930. Republican. Candidate for Texas state attorney general, 1978; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1985-88; delegate to Republican National Convention from Texas, 1988; U.S. Secretary of State, 1989-92. Member, Council on Foreign Relations. Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991.] 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

PILLOW TALK WITH LAURA BUSH Posted by Arlene Peck, January 8, 2004.

Let me see if I understand it right. If Israel dares mention that they have a cancer in the country called terrorists that they would like to cut out, the world is outraged. The "Zionist Entity" is called "Nazi" and the United Nations is sure to have emergency meetings to protest Israel's right to even exist. However, a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, a paper incidentally which strives to promote anti-Semitism and "anti-Zionism, at every turn, had an extensive column with the heading, "Bush to Frame Migrant Policy" Apparently our president has presented to Congress "expected changes in immigration laws this week "including an expanded guest worker program and the opportunity, for millions of undocumented workers to get green cards". "Guest worker program?" Funny, the difference mere semantics make. I look upon them as undocumented migrants who entered our country in violation of our laws and are nothing more than on-going criminals and a danger to our country. Moreover millions of illegal people pouring into our borders as potential terrorists to our country are for sure a drain on our state facilities. Oh, and higher taxes for those of us who pay them. As I write this, there are between eight to eleven million illegal immigrants in the United States. ELEVEN MILLION! About 60% percent of them are from Mexico with more pouring over the border every day into my bankrupt state of California where these 'new residents' have learned to apply and receive support, health care and schools for their many children. But, hey, there is an election year coming up and look how many votes this new plan could garner for President Bush. Gee, do you think that Laura Bush and her family's proud Mexican heritage could have been a motivator for the warm and fuzzy treatment of Mexico that its 'guest' continues to receive in the USA? Of course Daddy Bush and his love affair with the Saudi Arabian royal family might have been, and continue to be instrumental in the flow of 'students' from many of those Islamic countries into our welcoming shores. Opps, and lets not forget good old Colin Powell's ability to deliver Arab oil to Exxon and all those other happy Texas oil companies. In the meanwhile, our homeland security keeps our country at "high alert" because of the immediate threat from terrorists coming into our country. And yet Donald Rumsfeld continues to give press conferences about how we must fight global terrorism. I'm confused. Does that mean if these illegal 'guest' to our country come into our country from our good neighbor to the south, Mexico, then accepting millions of them is OK? Gee, do you think that kind of thinking might be the basis of the world getting on Israel's case about "collective punishment" when they sometimes find the gumption, or is that pressure, to open the gates to Gaza and Ramalla and let thousands of terrorists in under the guise of "workers" into Israel? Now, I know that we, in California, have a big fence, (between California and Mexico) And, from what I hear, it's getting bigger every day. And, I'll bet that a lot of you don't know that one of the most vocal anti-Semites against the Israeli fence lives behind a massive security fence which encircles the Vatican. Again, I'm confused as to why the fence that the Jewish State has been forced to build, (and incidentally, seems to be working,) to keep out the bad guys from coming into Israel to murder and maim everyone in sight, is a deterrent to peace in the eyes of our President and State Department. Is the idea of a fence to keep those that don't belong in the country OK for the United States but, not for the defense of Israel? It's outrageous how the double standard between Israel and the rest of the world is accepted when it comes to Jews. Even by her own people. I don't understand it. Truly. Eleven million! Are any of you old enough to remember the history behind the ship, The St. Louis, aka, the "ship of the dammed". It traveled around the world during the time of World War II? For over a month, these poor Jewish souls, nine hundred of them who managed to get out with the Nazis on their heels, tried to find one country to take them in and relax the immigration laws. Yet, even we, in the benevolent United States could not find room to save them from sudden death and they were forced to return to Germany where most of them perished. Amazing how we now find room for everybody. That is especially if they're not Jewish. Maybe since President Bush is in such a giving mood, Arafat might want to get his "Palestinians" en mass to Mexico and become "guest" workers in the California social service system? Although last I heard there were a lot of jobs from Americans that need to be filled by the locals that needed to be filled. Do you really think it a good idea to reward criminals who don't deserve citizenship? I wonder if that's the basis of the U.S. middle-east foreign policy on terrorism. I think it's a great idea to see a 'guest worker' program from "Palestine' and implemented for Washington, D.C. If they're not qualified for the State Department, for sure we could find use for a million or two of these peaceful people in the Post Office! They could give a whole new meaning to the expression, 'going postal.' Or as our welcoming President says in Texan, Ya'll come! Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess.

USA SHOULD DEMAND SEPARATION OF STATE AND RELIGION IN AFGHANISTAN Posted by David Holcberg, January 8, 2004.

The United States should demand that the new Afghan constitution include an explicit separation of state and religion. It makes no sense to have gone to war to overthrow one tyrannical Islamic theocracy just to replace it with another one. But to do that would require the current administration to identify Islamic fundamentalism as our ideological enemy and to recognize that the separation of state and religion is a crucial requirement of freedom not only in Afghanistan, but also here in America. David Holcberg is with the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California (http://www.aynrand.org). He writes on environmentalism, science and capitalism.

AN UNDERDOG WAITING FOR A CHAMPION Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 8, 2004.

Wanted:  One brave soul from the liberal world establishment to champion an eternally ignored underdog. Requirements:  This champion must be willing to research the facts as presented in accurate historical accounts and constantly and consistently challenge the present-day media spin. This champion must have the mental, emotional, and spiritual fortitude to buck the status quo and search out the truth that has been so conveniently and perniciously concealed by the establishment and so-called 'New World Order.' This champion must be willing to act as David going against a modern-day Goliath of power, money, and big-oil interests. Rewards:  Rewards beyond their wildest dreams. This champion will go down in history as the brave maverick who dared stand up to the established and complacently blind, liberal-thinking community and sacrificed their comfortable standing to support a true underdog against overwhelming odds. I daresay there would even be movies made, songs composed, and books written about this person. There would probably even be a smattering of statues of them throughout the world. Whoever fulfills this job will be immortalized and idealized as long as our society stands. Client:  This underdog client has an irrefutable and documented history - right up to the present, of being the ideal candidate for underdog status. This client suffers untold and innumerable humiliations on a daily basis, ranging from consistent denial of their aboriginal rights as an indigenous people, to the continual attempt to exterminate them as an entire people. The media continuously represents this client-victim as the aggressor in each and every murderous attack rained upon them, while presenting the genocidal murderers as noble fighters, bravely slaughtering so-called 'aggressive' women, children, the elderly, etc. going about such daily routines as eating a family meal, attending school, traveling home from work, and even worshipping. Historically, this client is the oldest established and well-documented indigenous aboriginal people on the planet. Yet this client is unrelentingly represented as a new-coming usurper to their one and only homeland despite the fact that the best-selling book on the planet is proof of the client's ancient ties to their homeland. When some New Guinea natives were forced to move during WWII, no one denied them their right to return to their homeland at the end of the war. Yet this client, many of who's people were forced to flee their native homeland during campaigns of genocide against them, is now facing a denial of their right of return, and even denial of their homeland being theirs since the beginning of recorded history. Nor is denial of this client's right to their native homeland the worst of it. This client suffers the dubious distinction of being the first to have ever been enslaved. For more than 2 millennia, this client has been the victim of systematic campaigns of genocide. This includes a current vicious, well-financed-by-big-oil campaign to exterminate them at this very moment - by not less than 1/6 of the planet's population. That's over a billion people who want to wreak genocide upon a minority so small it doesn't even rate a slice on the UN pie chart. This client has suffered, and continues to suffer, every humiliation and debasement an evil aggressor can invent. Even their very name and history has been stolen, subverted, and claimed by the enemy. It's as if the Native Americans had their name of 'Native American' taken on by the settlers to the New World, who then claimed that they were the real 'Native Americans,' their children having been born upon land which they had stolen from the original inhabitants. And while everyone knows that Native Americans were truly the first society inhabiting America, despite the fact that they have merely an oral tradition and no written history, this client has proof in written history as well as archaeological digs, proving their claims to their land, and yet it is denied. This client has suffered the humiliation of watching their sacred burial artifacts turned into urinals and paving stones while an uncaring world gives its tacit approval. Even as of this writing, those who would wish to exterminate this underdog are gleefully, minute-by-minute on a daily basis, digging and removing priceless and irreplaceable ancient artifactsfrom their holiest shrine. And this is being done with the 'established' world?s approval. And as if denial of their aboriginal and indigenous rights is not enough, this client's people are viciously and systematically attacked in many of the countries where they fled to survive the numerous genocidal campaigns. Schoolchildren in France must disguise themselves lest they be set upon by gangs of their enemy's teenagers and mercilessly beaten. In many countries in Europe as well as elsewhere, their homes and businesses are systematically burned to the ground. In at least one country, just being this client gets one a death sentence. In many countries, the people of this client have nowhere near equal rights. They are denied such basic rights as owning property, working in certain professions and even freedom of worship. International statesmen have referred to them as '...that sh***y little country,' or said such things as '.... F**k them, they don't vote for us anyway.' Never has any group in the history of history itself been so continuously humiliated, degraded, and hunted almost to extinction. Never has any group been so misrepresented and lied about. Never has any other group been the object of a worldwide conspiracy to exterminate a people who's only goals have been to live in peace in their aboriginal homeland. This is a people who have contributed more to the arts, sciences, and religion than any other group, asking nothing in return but to be allowed to survive and thrive. The client I am referring to are the original Palestinians, written about and referred to as the only Palestinians for thousands of years. The beginning of their current humiliations began when an Egyptian by the name of Mohammed Abdel Rahman al Qudwa al-Husseini changed his name to Yasser Arafat, gathered together a mob of Arab undesirables whose own native countries refused to take them back in for their murderous behavior and renamed them 'Palestinians.' These original Palestinians, and the only ones with a true claim historically, ethnically and religiously to the land of Palestine, are the Hebrew people, the Jews. So are there any heroes in the liberal, uncaring world willing to fight big oil, international conspiracies, and a well-oiled, well-funded campaign of genocide? If so, for the sake of the last underdog, speak out before it is too late. Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

AP EXPOSES ARAB ABUSE OF PALESTINIANS Posted by Chana Shavelson, January 8, 2004.

"Palestinian refugees: championed by Arab world yet treated like outcasts" (Dec. 30, 2003), by Associated Press (AP) writers Paul Garwood and Maggie Michael, highlights the Arab world's cynical manipulation of the Palestinian cause and historic mistreatment of Palestinian refugees. (The article ran Jan. 4 in the LA Times as "Treatment Frustrates Palestinian Refugees.") The article notes that, with the marginal exception of Jordan, Arab countries have denied citizenship, access to jobs and education, and equal rights to anyone claiming Palestinian ancestry at all, regardless of direct parentage. Garwood and Michael report, "...to the Palestinians, the wars [against Israel] were fought as much out of [Arab] self-interest as concern for the Palestinians, that the verbal championing of their cause is rhetoric to rally the Arab states' own masses, and that it isn't matched by decent treatment of the refugees." As reported in the article: * "We can't own a house, land or get a loan from the bank, despite the fact that I was born here (in Egypt) and have no idea what is Palestine," 35-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud Zahar told the AP. "It is an evil hypocrisy... The language of the (Arab) governments and media is in one direction and the real practices on the ground are totally the opposite," another Cairo-based Palestinian writer said. * "Hisham Youssef, spokesman for the 22-nation Arab League, acknowledged that Palestinians live 'in very bad conditions,' but said the policy is meant 'to preserve their Palestinian identity. If every Palestinian who sought refuge in a certain country was integrated and accommodated into that country, there won't be any reason for them to return to Palestine,' he said." * Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat concurred, "We are against the settlement of the refugees in any country..." * " 'All the Arab countries want to keep this problem looking like an open wound' to keep world attention focused on Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, said Ana Liria-Franch, regional representative in Cairo for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees." Countries like Lebanon and Syria typify this pattern. While routinely excoriating "Israeli occupation of Arab lands," neither country offers Palestinians citizenship or property rights and both use the Israel card as a calculated distraction from the profound corruption of their own regimes. Article's Shortcomings * While the article commendably mentions that Palestinians have been expelled from various Arab countries, it severely under-reports this phenomenon. For example, at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, Kuwait expelled more than 300,000 Palestinians, some say as many as 441,000. As reported by the BBC ("Angry Welcome for Palestinian in Kuwait," May 30, 2001), "About 450,000 Palestinians lived in Kuwait before the Iraqi invasion [in 1990]. Most were expelled or pressured to leave after liberation, and the Palestinian community has dwindled to around 9,000." Yet the AP article cites only "hundreds", saying: "Kuwait expelled hundreds because Arafat sided with Saddam Hussein after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait." That this error passed unnoticed through the hands of numerous editors suggests a striking ignorance of the subject at the AP. *While Garwood and Michael's piece is generally informative on the role of Arab states in perpetuating the plight of Palestinian refugees, it is silent about Israel's efforts to resettle them and downplays U.N. and PLO resistance to this resettlement. Israel has repeatedly attempted to improve the living conditions of Palestinians, most notably in Gaza, but has been blocked by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other U.N. bodies. UNRWA has a vested interest in the status quo and is the only permanent U.N. agency dedicated to refugees of any kind. UNRWA camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are havens of terrorist incitement and activity; its school textbooks for years have fed refugee children anti-Jewish and anti-Israel invective. UNRWA promotes behavior that essentially prevents Palestinians from accepting a negotiated settlement with the Israelis and keeps them stateless refugees. *The U.N. General Assembly, with its more than 400 resolutions against Israel, is similarly bent upon thwarting Israeli efforts to resettle the refugees. G.A. Resolution 34/52, for example, "calls once more upon Israel to desist from removal and resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip." *In stark contrast to Israel's efforts to better the lives of Palestinians and ultimately resettle them, the PLO, during the 1970s, threatened and killed those who tried to escape the camps. One could argue that Yasir Arafat's rejection in September 2000 of Ehud Barak's historic offer of a homeland for the Palestinians in all of Gaza and over 95% of the West Bank, and subsequent launching of a terrorist war, effectively did the same and consigned Palestinians to refugee status. Chana Shavelson is Research Analyst with the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). CAMERA's website address is http://www.camera.org

SAUDI MEDIA DEBATES FLOGGING BY THE SAUDI RELIGIOUS POLICE Posted by Leo Rennert, January 8, 2004.

At least they're debating the issue! If you haven't read the New Yorker Jan. 5 piece on Saudi Arabia, don't miss it. This analysis was done by Yotam Feldner, MEMRI's Director of Media Analysis. It appeared on the MEMRI website today. In recent years, a debate has surfaced in the Saudi media over the use of flogging as a punishment administered by the Saudi Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Hundreds of Saudis are flogged every week for alleged "vice" crimes, such as harassing women, congregating in front of girls' schools, and numerous other offenses. The following are highlights of the media debate surrounding flogging:(1) A Recent History of Public Flogging in Saudi Arabia The public debate on flogging began in 2001, when Saudi government officials set up a special committee to expedite legal procedures by assuming responsibility for administering flogging to youths accused of "harassment." The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - the Saudi religious police - is in charge of overseeing this type of harassment by youths, and is authorized to administer up to 15 lashes for each offense. The committee, established in 2001, includes representatives from the Attorney General's office and the regional governorate. Following the establishment of this committee, weekly reports of large-scale floggings of youths began to appear in the Saudi media. An October 2001 report read, "63 Harassers Flogged, 10 Of Them Foreign Workers,"(2) and another, a week later read, "39 Harassers Flogged Last Week, Five Of Them Foreign Workers."(3) In December 2001, 177 youths were reported flogged in a single week, "five of them foreign workers."(4) Just prior to Ramadan 2001, Riyadh authorities debated the advisability of flogging during the holiday. Ultimately, they decided "to continue flogging during the month of Ramadan: 59, among them eight foreign workers, were flogged last week."(5) The following week, there was a reported "increase in the phenomenon in the month of Ramadan: the flogging of 66 harassers, among them two foreign workers, in one week."(6) The committee decided on a "short break" from flogging during the holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, but as soon as the holiday was over, "the committee summoned 140 youths involved in harassment for punishment by flogging."(7) Prior to Eid Al-Adha, a source on the committee said that flogging would continue during this holiday. According to the source, during holidays every year the masses go out to markets and public places, and as a result harassment escalates."(8) Flogging: Not Only for Punishing Harassment In a February 2002 press release, the committee described its methods. The first step, it wrote, is to warn the youth accused of harassment. If he does not heed the warning, he is arrested and taken to the police station for investigation. If his behavior in any way "impinged upon the honor of others," he is punished "with no more than 15 lashes." In the case of recidivism, his father is called in to attend the flogging.(9) Flogging is not only administered to "harassers"; it is also used for other offenses, such as for street drag racing. Residents of the city of Al-Madina suffer greatly from gangs of street drag racers, and a December 13, 2001 report in the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh described the arrest of 19 drivers. Al-Medina Police Chief Youssef Al-Bunian explained that they were flogged in the center of town, "in the neighborhood where residents complained about the noise, the gatherings, and the danger to children caused by the wildly speeding cars."(10) On another occasion, a court ordered 75 lashes for each of three students who assaulted a teacher, and the floggings took place in front of the school gates.(11) In a well-known case, liberal journalist Mansour Al-Nogaidan was sentenced to 75 lashes(12) for allegedly cursing another man. A man who called Saudi poet Ibrahim Shahbi "secular" was sentenced to 60 lashes in front of a mosque following Friday prayers, but Al-Shahbi later asked that the sentence not be carried out.(13) A minor convicted of an indecent act was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and 500 lashes.(14) A Saudi airlines flight attendant convicted of smuggling eight bottles of liquor was sentenced to 45 days in prison and 150 lashes.(15) Three months' imprisonment and 70 lashes was ordered for each of 36 men and women who participated in a September 2003 demonstration in Riyadh.(16) The website of The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice reports that each member of a group of youths that "attacked" the Authority's office was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and 3,000 lashes.(17) For and Against Flogging Most of the reports of floggings in the Saudi media focused on the "harassers," and these reports attracted criticism. Journalist Haifaa Khaled wrote that the practice of calling in parents to observe their child's flogging moved her to tears,(18) and in response Salah Jamil Al-Tami wrote: "I witnessed the flogging of a youth in his twenties at the shopping center... Everyone gathered around, and the sight was not very civilized... What was the point? Has flogging reduced harassment?... I hope we will be a civilized people whose members respect each other, and do not doubt each others' morality..."(19) However, the Saudi media has given a broader platform to the supporters of flogging. Fayyad bin Hamad bin Muhammad Al-Fayyad, an enthusiastic proponent, qualified his remarks by saying, "I swear and even saw with my own eyes... that the woman is the main cause of harassment. Yes, the woman. It is she who forces the youths to harass her. She is the only culprit, because she goes to places where young men are - the markets, the sports centers... These women do not come to buy... they leave the market empty-handed. They go to sports centers wearing their finest clothes and jewels, and they sway and giggle loudly... Yes, the woman is the reason, she is the only culprit, and she is more deserving of punishment than the young men..."(20) It is interesting to note that most advocates of flogging make it clear that the girls are to blame in cases of harassment. Ahmad Abdallah Aal Naji, a member of the teaching staff at the technology college in Abha, wrote that he "enthusiastically supports the punishment of flogging... Immediate flogging is the best and most deterring punishment. Besides, this punishment costs nothing. All you need is a few riyals and a skilled flogger." Aal Naji also hastened to point out that in his personal opinion, "responsibility for 80% of the cases of harassment lies with the girls, because of their intentional temptations, their diaphanous robes, colorful trousers, provocative veils, tinted lenses, and long fake eyelashes. This is how they force young men into harassing them and following them into their homes. I demand flogging for girls who have been harassed, to be carried out by suitable female preachers in coordination with The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and in the presence of their mothers, in order to correct what can be corrected before it is too late. "Likewise, I can swear that young women who protect their honor... and wear robes over their heads [and down to their feet], and gloves, are not subject to harassment even when they are alone, because there is nothing to provoke the harassing young men."(21) Academics Weigh In on the Flogging Debate Saudi academics were also divided on the issue of flogging, as can be seen in an investigative report by the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh on "The Human Wolves." Dr. Suleiman bin Abdallah Al-'Uqail, lecturer in sociology at King Saud University, opposed the practice, saying that corporal punishment should be a last resort because its drawbacks outweigh its advantages. On the other hand, Dr. Abd Al-Ilah bin Sa'd bin Sa'id of King Saud University said that "in most cases, flogging is an effective punishment because it causes the offender pain and humiliation. Yet sal-there are some cases in which flogging is not effective. However, it is always young men who are flogged; what about the women, if it is proven that they are the cause of the harassment? Should these girls be punished by flogging?"(22) Flogging Committees All Across the Country Currently, Saudi authorities are trying to set up committees similar to the one in Riyadh across the country. Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice head Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Gheith announced that harassers must be flogged immediately and in public: "The Authority will immediately flog anyone proven to have harassed girls, because 'harassment' is a phenomenon that [need] not exist in our country, and is foreign to our society and to the behavior of our sons and daughters. Based on research, we have decided that the public interest requires immediate flogging for a treatment and a deterring solution for these people. "It must be known that we protect the confidentiality of the families. If any youth is flogged in a public place, we do not reveal his last name, so as not to harm the family's reputation and to preserve its honor... Under no conditions will we flog before the guilt of the accused is proven. The Authority operates not according to suspicions, but according to facts."(23) Sheikh Al-Gheith's announcement angered many. "There is no positive educational message in bodily harm," stated sociologist Badriya Al-Bashar. "The punishment must be connected to the deed. If you want to teach a minor a sense of responsibility, you must assign him to do social public service, by means of which he will learn a better meaning in life, and at the same time provide a public service and taste success. In addition to all these, he will feel a sense of responsibility." Al-Bashar proposed a patient approach, and asking young people who have erred to clean public facilities, or requiring them to work in homes for the aged or disabled, orphanages, and the like: "All educational and mental theories have proven that there is no value whatsoever in beating as an educational means, and that beating engenders only negative values."(24) The objections to flogging were also legally-based. Jurist Abd Al-Aziz Al-Qassem told the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "If the Authority and the police flog people immediately, this will lead to violation of legal human rights. It will be difficult in these cases to provide the fundamental right to a fair trial. This measure will expose innocent people to the danger of arbitrary trials, and this demands an effective initiative to amend the situation from its foundations, instead of primitive and dangerous solutions."(25) Endnotes: (1) For more on this subject, see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 80, December 7, 2001, "Conservatives and Reformists Debate Public Flogging." http://www.memri.org. (2) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), October 25, 2001. (3) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), November 1, 2001. (4) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), December 14, 2001. (5) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), November 15, 2001. (6) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), November 22, 2001. (7) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), December 27, 2001. (8) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), February 14, 2002. (9) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), February 13, 2002. (10) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), December 13, 2001. (11) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), April 16, 2003. (12) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html? res=F30E16F73F5E0C7B8EDDA80994DB404482 (13) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), December 23, 2003. (14) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), December 9, 2003. (15) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), December 31, 2003. (16) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), December 11, 2003. (17) http://www.hesbah.com/newsdesc.asp?id=81 (18) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), February 10, 2003. (19) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), February 19, 2002. (20) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), October 16, 2001. (21) Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), March 1, 2002. (22) Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), June 9, 2001. (23) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 29, 2003. (24) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 29, 2003. (25) Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 29, 2003. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request: E-Mail: memri@memri.org; Website: www.memri.org

WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE, ANYWAY? Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 8, 2004.

In the People's Banana Boat Republic of Israel, the Chief Colonial Administrator (historically referred to as the Prime Minister) quite naturally follows the dictates of his paymasters in Washington. There is really nothing new in this and was already well intrenched before Sharon came to office. The previous CCA did such a good job in fulfilling his primary task of wrecking Israel's economy that he was rewarded with a $2 Million+ Dollar home and a $130,000 a month pension. I am sure Sharon is looking forward to an even better retirement package. This was a news item in today's Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=55870). Reports continue to surface that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's diplomatic policies are being run more in tandem with American dictates than with Israeli Cabinet decisions. Middle East Newsline (MENL) reports today that Sharon pledged to the United States that he would help establish an interim Palestinian state in 2004, regardless of whether the Palestinian Authority ends terrorism and eliminates terrorist infrastructures. Anonymous Israeli officials quoted by MENL said that Sharon relayed this commitment to President Bush in late 2003. Sharon agreed, the report states, to a U.S. demand that the Road Map be implemented over the next year - even if the PA does not fulfill its commitment to fight Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others. As Arutz-7 reported earlier this week, this flies in the face of an Israeli Cabinet decision that makes Road Map implementation contingent upon the PA's fulfillment of its own obligations. On May 25, 2003, the Israeli Government approved the Road Map, but attached 14 reservations - Sharon called them at the time "red lines beyond which we cannot and will not withdraw" - stating clearly that Israel will not proceed with the Road Map unless the PA fulfills its obligations. The 14 points state that "there must be no terrorism during the process," that the PA must "dismantle the existing security organizations," and that "full performance will be a condition for progress between phases and for progress within phases." Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim unabashedly told Arutz-7 earlier this week that the reason Sharon is bent on destroying Yesha outposts even as terrorism continues is because of the agreement with the U.S.: "The Americans said clearly that within the first phase of the Road Map, the sides were to fulfill their commitments in parallel, with our obligations not dependent on whether the PA fulfilled its obligations. So we have to do this in order to fulfill our commitment to the Americans." 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.

PA FREEZES HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP BANK ACCOUNTS Posted by Isralert, January 7, 2004.

This article appeared today on the website of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (http://www.icej.org/news/archives/oldindex.html). Officials and employees of leading Palestinian human rights group LAW stand accused of siphoning several million dollars in international donations into secret bank accounts, and using other funds to furnish lavish lifestyles, and to finance private commercial transactions. Following a criminal complaint lodged with the Palestinian Authority by major European donors including Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, the PA has seized the bank accounts of several Jerusalem-based officials suspected of orchestrating the scam. Among them is Khader Shkirat, the outspoken former head of LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment. Shikirat has been summoned to Ramallah for questioning over his use of some $10 million from philanthropic sources during the funding-rich Oslo years having been named in the complaint alongside 26 other employees. The action comes after an audit report commissioned by the European donors found that some $2.35 million of their donations had been transferred to secret bank accounts and that Shkirat ran the organization as a private business. Among the long list of financial improprieties is Shkirat's alleged use of $490,000 from LAW funds to conduct personal transactions among friends, accountants and senior staff and to acquire ownership in the Arab Phones Company, The Post reports. "We are taking this case very seriously and there will be no discounts for those involved," one PA official told The Post, pointing out that PA Chairman Yasser was being briefed on developments. Even after the first detected signs of financial discrepancies emerged in July 2002 when the auditing firm Ernst and Young  first alerted donor states that major funds from the NGO had been diverted to private accounts in Israeli and Palestinian banks, LAW has continued to be at the forefront of the NGO campaign against Israel. Founded in 1990 by a group of Palestinian lawyers to "promote human rights and further the principles of the rule of law, and to defend Palestinian rights in accordance with international human rights law," LAW has long been accused of forcing its human rights agenda to serve an ideological commitment to Palestinian nationalism. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' NGO Monitor, "Law should make clear it is not simply a human rights organization, but rather a blatant Palestinian political and ideological organization, issuing unbalanced and unashamedly partisan press releases." In 2001, it was one of the principle Palestinian rights groups responsible for the hijacking of the UN's Durban Conference on Racism, playing a central role in the steering committee and in the pre-conference organizing to ensure that Zionism was singled out as the most pernicious force of discrimination despite the growing wave of global anti-Semitism. More recently LAW has taken a leading role in the campaign against Israel's "apartheid wall," lobbying hard from its platform as an affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva - the leading body for the furtherance and implementation of International Law. Clearly embarrassed by the affair, PA officials have been quick to promise the EU a speedy and thorough investigation, and may well make and example of Shkirat to prove their point, all with the backing of Arafat. Meanwhile the group of Palestinian legislators who in October demanded an investigation into the whereabouts of huge amounts of Palestinian Authority funds, believed to have been diverted by leading PA government officials, have had no such success. In a different league from Shkirat's $2.35 million alleged embezzlement, Arafat's personal financial adviser Muhammad Rashid has been openly accused of holding some $200 million for the PA leader in a secret bank account. According to an IMF report released last September $591m in tax revenue and an additional $300m in profits from commercial investments were "diverted away from the (PA annual) budget." Forbes magazine also recently listed Arafat as one of the richest men in the world. Isralert is sent to an opt-in list, hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe, send an email to Isralert@aol.com

GABY AND NICO Posted by Tamar Rush, January 7, 2004.

This was written by Noga Tarnopolsky, a Jerusalem-based author. It appeared in the Jerusalem Post, January 4, 2004. Gabriela and Nicolai Ciobaniuc came to Israel about three years ago, after having paid an agent in their native Romania several thousand dollars to ensure their legal passage. She is 37 years old; he just turned 38. They have a 16-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son. At the time they applied for entry visas as foreign workers, Gaby worked as a saleswoman in a general store, where she made about $60 a month. Nico worked in a factory, where he supervised the operation of an industrial machine, and made a salary similar to that of his wife. Gaby and Nico left their children with her parents in their northern Romanian hometown of Radauc, which lies about an hour south of the Ukrainian border. In Jerusalem, they slowly built up a client base of mostly middle-class professionals who employed them as housecleaners. By the time they had been here a year and a half, they started to save money. Around that time they went to renew their visas, and the possibility was denied them. Israel, as we know, has embarked upon the questionable policy of refusing foreign workers already here the renewal of visas while issuing new entry permits to foreign workers wishing to come. While self-righteous government bureaucrats with a dubious connection to reality deny foreign workers like the Ciobaniucs the possibility of continuing to build on work they have already begun, new workers stream in and a workforce already in the country is forced into a swelling world of cloudy illegality. It has become almost a hollow commonplace to comment on the inhuman conditions these laws impose on a non-criminal population. Denied their visas, Gaby and Nico, who are a charmingly ordinary couple, faced a decision: to slip into an alien illegality or to return to Radauc before they had managed to accrue the money they had come to Israel to save. Gaby's ambitions at the time included buying a pretty living room rug and other household improvements, and offering her daughter a computer. In addition, they dreamed of having some savings in the bank, an impossibility on the joint income of $120 a month they made in Romania. THEY FELT stuck. Their families has always lived in the area of Radauc, a place with long, glacial winters, little industry and close to zero tourism. They never wanted to abandon their roots, but wanted to improve their lives. The children want to attend university. Gaby and Nico decided to stay. Gaby had arrived in Israel with a high level of English proficiency and picked Hebrew up like an ulpan teacher's dream. By the time I met her she conversed in fluent Hebrew. In the course of this odd year, Gaby and I spoke about various matters: the threat of terror, the upcoming Gulf War, the possibility of chemical attack. As I said, Gaby and Nico are a cheerfully conventional couple. Gaby not only picked up Hebrew, but picked up a robust Israeliness. She loved the produce available here. She loved the balmy weather. She learned, she told me, to appreciate something that had initially confounded her: the ratty living room rugs her employers kept while they spent their money on fancy foods and exotic travel. "Experience rather than property, I've learned that," she said. Gaby told me this, in her fluent Hebrew, as we sat almost huddled together in the Ben-Gurion Airport lockup for illegal workers on their way to deportation. "I can't believe I am here," she said peering skeptically about. "Neither can I," I said. In the past few months, Gaby and Nico developed the empty frightened gaze of criminals on the run. Knowing I am a journalist, she occasionally asked me if I'd heard anything about the campaign against foreign workers. I rarely had. At about 6 a.m. on Wednesday, December 17, the police knocked on the Ciobaniucs' door. Politely and firmly. Gaby and Nico were given 10 minutes to gather their belongings. They ended up getting dressed and grabbing a packed bag Gaby had put together, leaving behind almost all their clothes and personal effects photos of the children, some small souvenirs they had acquired before being taken to the penitentiary at Talpiot, in southern Jerusalem. Still in possession of her cellphone, Gaby arranged for a friend to pick her stuff up, but by the time her friend made it to the Kiryat Hayovel apartment two days later, on Friday, the landlady had thrown everything out. Gaby and I chatted briefly in the Ben-Gurion enclosure under the watchful, unironic eye of two young female police officers, both, coincidentally, attractive blonds. New immigrants, they spoke to each other in Russian. Gaby and I, it goes without saying, spoke in Hebrew. Gaby longed already for the sun and prosperity she was about to leave.

ARTHUR HERTZBERG Posted by Leo Rennert, January 7, 2004.

This was in response to a column Arthur Hertzberg wrote - where else? - in Ha'aretz. Arthur Hertzberg, a self-described "prominent American Jewish leader," would have your readers believe that American Jews are "torn between their love for Israel and their distaste for its policies." That view may reflect his concerns and I have no doubt that there are some American Jews who share his opinion. But contrary to the impression that he seeks to leave that most American Jews oppose current Israeli policies, the opposite is true. Those who agree with Hertzberg are a small minority. And getting smaller. Solidarity with Israel on the security fence, on the war against terrorists, on refusal to make major land concessions while Arafat continues his corrupt, pro-violence rule, and, yes, on conditioning abandonment of some major settlements on bona-fide moves by the other side - all these views command strong support among American Jews. It's a solid majority position that totally negates Hertberg's picture of an anti-Sharon American Jewry. Hertzberg is of course entitled to his own views, but he's peddling bogus facts and creating false hopes for Israel's enemies when he depicts American Jews in general as opposed to Israeli policies. His column is also highly misleading on two other points: He complains that American Jews over the years have been bludgeoned by successive Israeli governments to toe the policy line of whatever government is in office and they won't take it anymore. Give me a break! American Jews, like Israeli Jews, love to argue and to disagree; and they're not about to take marching orders unquestioningly from their own leaders or from Israeli politicians. The reason there is such strong support for Israeli policies is very simple. Like Jews in Israel, Jews in American realize that Oslo was a costly illusion and that there can be no real peace until Palestinian leaders genuinely commit to a real two-state solution. Just as Labor and Meretz imploded in the last election, the Jewish left in the United States has shrunk considerably because of Arafat's betrayal of Oslo and the ensuing bloodshed. Hertzberg's other flaw is even more serious: As an elitist, he ends up advocating Diaspora supremacy over Israel's own elected democratic government. Because he doesn't like Israeli politicians, he would have great Jewish leaders in the Diaspora, presumably including himself, dictate to Israel what it should do. And he reads all that into the Balfour Declaration! Need more be said about his great wisdom and sense of historical reality - or lack thereof. No wonder he doesn't care for Natan Sharansky, someone who actually knows something about the perils Jews face and how to overcome them.

STRIPES AND STRATEGIES Posted by Evelyn Hayes, January 7, 2004.

In 1995, I walked from Tulkaren to Netanya. On the stand in front of the Mediterranean Sea, sat Sharon and he was a representative of the platform that stood against redeployment. He was righter than right then, correct not wrong. Why is he wearing stripes now, crossing out the reasons he was elected? As Netanyahu made the mistake of his Prime Ministership and redeployed from Hebron, Limor Livnat was one of the steadfast representatives of the people, voting against reciprocity. We have seen that reciprocity is a bullet in Judea as well as a suicide bombing within Tel Aviv, zigzagging living green lines into red bloody lines, striking the Jews stricken again and again in Europe, too. We see that that reciprocity makes Egyptians palestinian refugees and unmakes Jewish history. Why is Limor Livnat wearing stripes and misaligning herself with the Geneva Coup? As the group of losers who have done everything to lose Israel lost election after election, the elected seem to be losing their reason. There was clarity in the words of Sharon when he spoke in Netanya. There was conviction in the words of Livnat when she voted for Hebron. The Geneva Coup is a phantom replacing the fall of Saddam Hussein, and it is legitimizing his partner, Arafat al Husseini, the Egyptian Palestinian whose billions are wasted on war and not improving his homeland. Don't forget Bin Ladin had anti-US Agreements with Iran and Sudan, and has attacked Jews in Argentina and Kenya. Don't forget the shoe bomber got his powder from Gaza. Don't forget their links to Hizballah, to Hamas, Fatah, Al Aksa, a whole worldwide web. Remember, the joy on the faces of the Afghanistans when the Taliban were dethroned? Remember, the celebrations as the statue of the Big Leader Saddam Hussein toppled into small pieces. The faces of the people released from the tyranny of jihad are the faces of gladness. Don't forget the faces of hate in Ramallah and Gaza, a hate so hateful that the haters wear masks, covering their guilt. Don't forget the Big Lie and that many of the Jews in the Holocaust found it more expedient to sacrifice some of themselves to save themselves and were exterminated, too. Consider, the Geneva Coup and that it is playing chicken with those who are driving head on to crash Israel, America and all the dhimmis. Consider, that a little wealth from those with a web of strategies, puts stripes on Israel and would strip Israel of all that G-d has given to the people who chose law instead of disorder, reason instead of madness, not only themselves, but the truths that have made their nation unlike imperialistic networks. Hellenism without G-d tried to strike out Israel; it is no more. Nazism against G-d and the Jew was against millions more; it is still condemned by most. Communism without G-d tried to strike out religion; it fell. Liberalism, expanding the His Higher laws to appease outlaws, has lowered the law and unprotected life, liberty and individuality. Those on the side of warlords who replace G-d with themselves, are putting on the stripes of slavery. Using the warlords' strategies is a losing way as the manipulative web spins the laws, unspinning His Commandments in order to kill, steal, bear false witness, hate the Forefathers and role models who better others as well as themselves. The warlords do unto others to empower themselves. Partners with warlords embezzle themselves. As the Egyptian pyramids are all that is left of the pharaohs, the pyramid of jihad will strangle in the stripes of those it stripped, because survival does not accept stripes that strangulate, no matter the composition of the medium. Survivors, take off those ghetto stripes and survive. Compromising with evil enables evil to dominate and domino good by bad. Survivors, their strategy is a pyramid for death. Remember the Exodus stripped off slavery's stripes. Let Israel fly its flag, be a free nation that chose G-d with all the deeds and benefits. Am Yisrael Chai. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, us, because their hearts were softened for more." and just released sequel, "The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes."

AFTER THE GENEVA BALLYHOO IS OVER: The Swiss Taxpayers Association Checks the Books Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, January 7, 2004.

January 6 2004 The Swiss Tax payers Association invited the Press to a conference on: "This is How The Foreign Minister Mrs. Calmy-Rey Squanders Taxpayers Millions." The so-called "Geneva Initiative", which was celebrated by third-rate politicians with much splendor on the 1st of December 2003 in Geneva, and promoted by the Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey, proved an embarrassing, disappointing failure. The exorbitant expenditure for it was largely financed by the Swiss government. According to reliable information, Mrs. Calmy-Rey's overbearing pompous peace activities cost the Swiss taxpayer a seven-figure high amount of Swiss Francs. The speakers were: Alfred Heer, president Swiss Taxpayers association. He spoke on "This is how the Foreign Minister Mrs. Calmy-Rey squanders taxpayers millions." Gabrielle Goldwater, Internet Correspondent and Commentator. Her talk was titled "Geneva Initiative - a Diplomatic Failure." Prof. Dr. Christoph Morgeli, Member of the National Council, Member of the Commission on foreign policy. His topic was "The Geneva initiative harms the reputation of Switzerland." This is Ms Goldwater's speech: Geneva Initiative - Story of a diplomatic Failure. The so-called Geneva Initiative displays multiple violations of international law, most notably an impermissible and undemocratic intervention into a sovereign State's internal affairs by Switzerland. The Swiss FM has totally disregarded the elected Sovereign Governments' (Israel) rights, or for that matter the UN charter, which states clearly, that NO Democratic Government should interfere into the internal affairs of any elected Sovereign State. The Israeli elected Government, and many other government officials have condemned the initiative, which was negotiated by private citizens and opposition Knesset Members. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not consider the fact that the very individuals who signed the Geneva Accord committed what is considered a crime in Israel, which may soon be enforced under section 97b the Israel penal code, which forbids any private Israeli citizen from negotiating any land belonging to the sovereign state of Israel to a foreign power? This act is considered to be a felony punishable by death according to the law in Israel. The statement from the FM that the Geneva Initiative will compensate and add to the Road map shows that the FM did not have knowledge of the contents of the Road map nor of the Geneva Initiative, since both contradict each other, so they cannot complement each other. The secrecy with which the Swiss Government kept about this for over 2 years, as well as the initiators working closely with the Swiss FM, are completely contrary to what any sane Government would accept. Why did the Swiss Foreign Ministry get themselves into such an unbelievable egregious effort from the beginning, via some Swiss University Professor's ambitions to play a covert role in these accords, succeeding through the use of a Swiss Diplomatic passport. Mrs. Calmy-Rey proceeded admitting that Switzerland facilitates such private initiatives and funds them, despite the fact that the Sovereign State of Israel had already summoned the Swiss Ambassador in Tel-Aviv to profess their (Israel's) discontent of this illegal, quasi-diplomatic - nonlegal initiative, and its implications. Mrs. Calmy-Rey did not assure that Switzerland and its taxpayer would not be used for alternative motives, private means and political ambitions of non elected people. Apparently Mrs Calmy-Rey wants to help her left wing friends by all means regardless of the damage she causes to Switzerland. Motives that need attention, that should have immediately assured Switzerland withdraws from any participation and funding using the Taxpayers public money. PA official Abdul Kader, one of those who helped formulate the Geneva initiative, said openly that its main purpose was to create a split within Israel. Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is part in this initiative, and until recently the head of the Palestinian Ministry of Information declared, "Now we have a partner", not withstanding the fact that it was Mr. Abed Rabbo's own colleagues who produced and broadcast the sermons and musical film clips that deny Israel's right to exist and blatantly incite Palestinian teenagers to become suicide bombers. Yossi Beilin and his followers are a group of people who act on a great divide between reality and their values, undermining democracy. He gets supported by a Foreign Government - Switzerland - plus EU states, which support and fund him via his ECF (Economic Cooperation Foundation). One of the most politically charged issues in Israel over the past few years, it is still being investigated, because it has to disclose basic data required by Israeli Law. Yossi Belein's motives are: manipulations and PR to bring himself to world attention: The day before the Geneva ceremonies, Beilin joined his new partners in launching a new left-wing party since no one wants him. He needs to form his own, using the Geneva Accords as the cornerstone of its platform and the lead-in to his own coronation as party leader. Yossi Beilin was and still is merely using the Geneva Initiative as a PR stunt.. On the 24th of December 2003, Israel Television, reported that the Geneva Initiative Public Campaign group is facing severe internal difficulties stemming from what is seen as Yossi Beilin's hijacking of the campaign to promote his candidacy to head the newly formed Left wing party. In reaction to the situation members of the Israeli group approached Amnon Lipkin-Shachak to try to convince him to stand at the head of the Geneva Initiative Public Campaign in place of Beilin - but Shachak refused. Amram Mitznah reportedly warned Beilin that he was angry with how the campaign is being abused by Beilin, that he will walk away from it. It was also reported that foreign contributors are angry that the resources of the Geneva Initiative Public Campaign offices are being used to promote Beilin's candidacy. Dror Shternshus, handling PR for the Geneva Initiative campaign, is also playing a key role in the campaign for Beilin's candidacy. It is once more obvious that resources are being used for Beilin's private political campaign. In other words the naive Swiss FM is using taxpayers money to promote a new left wing party in Israel. Switzerland possibly facilitated by allegedly illegal means a public provision, and permitted it to be used by parties that are only interested in their private motives and political gains. A Peace plan can only be a plan prepared by and negotiated by the elected Government. Switzerland is placed into the center fold of disputes that relate to terrorism as we already saw that our Swiss Flag was burned in the PA Authority territories, inviting actions against our Western values, our Industry our Missions and our people's security. The Geneva Initiative when properly interpreted should have made the Swiss FM realize that it actually encourages terror by requiring a total amnesty for all Palestinian terrorists, including those members of the Islamic Jihad who even at the very same time as the Geneva Initiative "celebrations" took place on December 1st, attempted to infiltrate a suicide bomber into an Israeli high school in order to massacre hundreds of Israeli children. It is not in the history of Swiss Neutrality to negate on ethical values and let personal political aims come before democracy. "Switzerland should not have interfered" in the Israel-Palestinian relations which are "very complicated". Switzerland by supporting the Initiative of Geneva "violates a fundamental principle of democracy". As a Swiss citizen I am very much concerned about the damage that has been done by our FM. Switzerland as a neutral country could possibly play a role in helping brokering peace in the mid-east. The Geneva Initiative funded by the Swiss FM however has not brought any peace between the two parties instead has divided the people and has sabotaged the Road Map which the two sides had agreed upon, and has undermined the role of Switzerland as an honest and neutral broker in the world. The final Conclusion and 13 questions for the Swiss Foreign Ministry: 1. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not consider the fact that the very individuals who signed the Geneva Accord committed what is considered a crime in Israel, which may soon be enforced, under section 97b the Israel penal code which forbids any private Israeli citizen from negotiating any land belonging to the sovereign state of Israel to a foreign power? This act is considered to be a felony punishable by death according to the law in Israel. 2. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not consider such laws before they invited unelected private citizens to work secretly against their elected Government. 3. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not know that the pioneer of the Geneva Initiative, Yossi Beilin, was handily defeated for re-election to the Israeli Knesset Parliament on the Labor Party ticket, which had elected him a high place on their ticket in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 1999. 4. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not know that Beilin was even defeated for election to the Knesset on the left wing Meretz party ticket. 5. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not consider that The Geneva initiative will cause Switzerland severe damage to its historic reputation as an honored nation of neutrality? 6. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not consider the fact that the democratically elected government of Israel has officially denounced this initiative as partisan and one-sided? 7. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not regard the diplomatic rule that no elected sovereign government should interfere with the internal affairs of any elected Sovereign State? 8. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not consider the fact that a policy of secret negotiations with private individuals of another nation would be considered to be a slap in the face of another nation? 9. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not allocate funds for the Geneva Initiative from funding sources received from other foreign governments or foreign individuals? 10. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not take note of the statement of PA official Abdul Kader, one of those who helped formulate the Geneva Initiative, who told the Jerusalem Post on November 30th, 2003 that its main purpose was to create a split within Israeli society? 11. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not notice that Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian partner of this initiative, was until recently the head of the same Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information which produces and broadcasts the sermons and musical film clips that deny Israel's right to exist and which openly incites Palestinian teenagers to become suicide bombers. 12. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not know that Beilin's foundation, the ECF, is under investigation in Jerusalem because it would not disclose basic financial reports, as required by Israeli Law. 13. Did the Swiss Foreign Ministry not know that the Knesset Ethics Committee reprimanded ten MK's who travelled abroad at the expense of a foreign government, because they did not receive approval prior to the trip? Questions or requests for interviews should be directed to: The Taxpayers Association's. E-mail address: admin@bds-schweiz.ch.; internet: www.bds-schweiz.ch or to Ms. G. Goldwater, Switzerland, Geneva. Email address: iii44@aol.com

THE DAVINSKY CODE Posted by Eliezer Edwards, January 7, 2004.

This was published today in the Jewish World Review (JWR), http://www.jewishworldreview.com. It was written by Jeff Dunetz. It would be a great spoof if it wasn't so damned accurate. BTW: JWR has been run almost single-handedly by its editor, Binyamin L. Jolkovsky. He's recently had cardiac problems, and if this great website is to continue, it needs your monetary contributions to hire staff and automate its page design. PLEASE HELP. Almost 2000 years ago, a clandestine society was formed in what is now Iran. Since it was created, the group, called Opus Vey, has operated as a kind of shadow Sanhedrin, debating and creating revisions to Jewish law. Today the group still exists, run by direct descendants of the founders who set up the Society. I found out about Opus Vey when some friends sent me copies of recently uncovered documents from the group. These documents talk about the group's goals while naming some of its very prominent members. The documents were found in the wreckage of an abandoned supermarket in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, buried beneath aisle 4 (frozen foods). The papers were written by three of the groups most famous members: Morris Davinsky the renowned painter, who once covered an entire Brooklyn townhouse in only two days and with just one coat of paint; Melvin Adler the author of the prize-winning winning novel, "Fear of Flayshik;" and Barbara Joan, the famous singer and political activist, who has created four Christmas albums that have gone platinum. Apparently the secret society was created right after the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem. The original members were the children of the Jewish Hellenists defeated by the Maccabees. They felt bad about the problems caused by their parents and resolved to protect Jews everywhere. Initially they were directionless. But within a few short centuries they found their way. The elders of the group decided that if the Jews are supposed to be a "light unto the Nations" then they must learn to fit in. They also felt that children must have the heavy load of observance eased or they will move away from their faith. In order to meet their goals, senior members of Opus Vey got together every year to suggest the nuance changes in Torah commandments that will allow Jews to fit in. After the basic ideas were agreed upon by senior members, the individual branches were empowered to determine how they are to be implemented. Let me give you an example of how the group works. In the early 1950's the Society met and decided that Jews needed to assimilate even more. One of the first things they discussed was that the observance of Kashrus (kosher dietary laws) must be watered down. They ruled that Jews shouldn't eat differently that their host countries. Not only does it make them stand out as being too different, but it deprives the children of the cheap little toys they can get at McDonalds and besides it really cuts down on the number of early bird specials that the seniors can go to during their winters in Boca Raton, Florida. The elders decided on a gradual approach. The first step was to have its members teach people that that all the rules of being kosher were man made, they had nothing to do with G-d wanting Jews to eat certain foods, and they were created for health reasons. Since being Kosher was now a tradition not a heavenly commandment it became easier to wean Jews away from the practice. The local Opus members (called Veyismeres) created new Jewish traditions such as three sets of plates (Dairy, Meat and Chinese), having a barbeque for non-kosher meat and of course, keeping kosher only in one's house. Soon those who stayed within the rules of kashrus were thought of as some kind of religious freaks. It was also the Opus Vey group that created the tradition of auto-walking to shul. You remember that one - it's when you drive your car on the holidays, but park it three blocks away from Shul. Then you walk to synagogue from there. That way everyone thinks that you've walked the entire distance. Through further investigation I have heard rumors that Opus Vey might be working at changing that rule because over the last few years this tradition has become so popular it seems that the Gentiles are complaining about the lack of parking spots in front of their homes. According to these once hidden papers, Opus Vey deemed to make worship really impactful by concentrating it. The elders felt that going to a synagogue every week creates over-exposure. Again the brilliance of the Society's step-by-step approach was incredible. They started by changing the purpose of a Bar Mitzvah. It was originally spiritual occasion, marking the beginning of adult Torah responsibilities; a religious coming of age that was an early step in a long process of learning. Sometimes the ceremony would be followed by a celebration. Opus Vey kept all the pieces of the program and just changed the emphasis. Bar Mitzvahs were now considered an ending, a graduation from religious leaning with emphasis being on the big party that followed. Once those changes were made, it was very easy for the Opus Vey field team to teach fellow Jews that once their Bar Mitzvah training was over, attendance at Synagogue was only necessary three days a year, on the High Holidays. A side benefit, of course, was that instead of being stuck together doing family activities on the Sabbath, parents were free to drop off their children at soccer, dance and Little League. In the same meeting the elders of the society decided to turn Chanukah, a minor holiday created by the Rabbis, into a major holiday. This new Chanukah was even more important than the three major festivals in the Torah which were commanded by G-d. This change was important because it allowed Jewish families take advantage of the pre-Christmas department store sales and it enabled Jewish children to be able to celebrate a holiday at the same time as their Gentile neighbors. Recently there has been some turmoil in the Society, one of its senior members, named Sammy Benark, has been thrown out and other members have also quit as a result of all the fuss. A major part of the papers is a transcript of those proceedings. Benark had grown disillusioned by the rulings of the society. His behavior became very unusual for Opus Vey. He desired a more traditional observance of Judaism. First it was the little things: he started to go to Synagogue every Friday night and Saturday, then he started to eat only kosher meat. He began to publicly attribute things to his maker - it seemed that almost everything he said ended with "thank G-d" or " G-d willing." It was too corny for words. Finally, when he began to have Shabbos dinners in his home on Friday nights he was brought up on the charges of conduct detrimental to the Opus Vey Society, public displays of faith and endangering the future Jewish people by making them look different. The elders of the judicial committee tried to cut Sammy some slack; before all this he was a member in good standing. They begged him, "Sammy" they said, "You weren't like this when you signed on. We will help you. First, you must show us that you want to come back into our good graces." They encouraged him take a small step, give up one Saturday, miss services and go to the beach. Sammy was steadfast, "This is a matter of faith!" He said that he would go to the beach on a Saturday as soon as G-d moved the Sabbath to a different day. Sammy then tried to turn the tables on the committee. He asked them if they considered themselves Jewish, they all nodded their heads yes. He asked if they believed in G-d, they all nodded again. Sammy admonished the committee, "If you are Jewish" he said, "and you believe in G-d, who are you to decide which of his commandments to observe?" According to the Davinsky papers, that's when thing really got heated, "Don't you get it?" the Chairman said, "It's for the children. If we saddle them with all this ritual and observance, they will never fit in. They will get resentful and we will lose them to the faith. The chairman called Sammy a hypocrite because he wasn't fully observant. "I may not be fully observant now," Sammy said, "but every day I do a little more, each day I try to get closer to G-d, that's the important part." He went on, "You folks have it all wrong, we are supposed to be a little different - through our observance of the Torah we are like a lightning rod to draw people to G-d." Then came the kicker. "Before you make decisions about the whether kids feel saddled by Jewish observances, go watch them dance on Simchas Torah, or look at the warmth of a family sitting at a table for a Shabbos dinner, giggling as they are singing songs together." You light candles every Chanukah, but you act like our ancestors, the Hellenists. Fitting in to this world and this culture has become more important than being close to G-d and the beauty of your own traditions." That did it. The committee was so angry they broke their own protocol. Instead of retiring to make a ruling, they threw out poor Sammy right then and there. He was last seen in a department store, buying Christmas lights on the after holiday close-outs so he could use them to light his Sukkah come October. As far as the society goes, my understanding is that they have turned their efforts to peace making. Opus Vey was a major player in the creation of the Oslo Accords, and most recently, they have been working through their people in the U.S. State Department, trying to convince the Israeli Government that by turning the Temple Mount and the Tomb of Rachel over to Palestinians they will finally achieve peace. They need to be more careful though, the lack of consistency in State Department Mid-East policy is starting to make people a little suspicious. Jeff Dunetz is a 20-year marketing veteran, and a freelance writer. He is married and the father of two kids who ask lots of questions about being Jewish that he can't answer. He has has been active in Jewish organizations since his USY days. He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Dix Hills (Long Island) Jewish Center.

DE MOCKRACY IN ACTION Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 7, 2004.

Here we can see De Mockracy in action in Israel. No doubt this will all soon be denounced in the Leftist media as incitement and a threat to democracy. After all what do these people know about what is good for them? They must not allow their selfish interests interfere with the PEACE. De Mockracy of the people demands that their duly elected officials totally ignore such things. 350,000 SAY 'No' TO A STATE OF PALESTINE.. (IsraelNN.com) The Women in Green (Wig) organization is seeking a meeting with President Moshe Katsav to present him with the petition AGAINST the establishment of the state of Palestine signed by 350,000 persons. Earlier, Mr. Katsav met with Ami Ayalon who is spearheading a petition calling for widespread Israeli concessions to the PA and the establishment of Palestine. WiG has already sent the petition to the Prime Minister's Office but officials appear to have decided not to publicize the large number of persons speaking out against an independent PA state.

SEEKING CLARIFICATION ON UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL Posted by Lisa Rubin, January 7, 2004.

Dear Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom: In reading reports of the recent Likud Central Party Convention, I see that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is blaming the United States for his policy of "unilateral withdrawal". He has indicated that the US has forced him to so act. I am asking for a clarification and specification of this position. As you are the Foreign Minister, we expect that such a directive would naturally come through you and your office. If not, you most certainly should be knowledgeable of the means by which such a directive was sent. Further, because of the translations from different sources, there is confusion whether this came from President Bush directly, or from the U.S. State Department, which is known to act outside of Congressional approval, and on behalf of the Arabs. It is even feasible that the US did not make this unreasonable demand. Should this be the case, we need to know who did make it. It is difficult to imagine that Primer Minister Sharon would have fabricated this position, but absent proof of the United States demand, we are left with no other belief. Can you please tell me precisely who or what U.S. entity has demanded this course of action? With such an important directive, we would expect there to be a supportive document issuing the order, such as a letter, from the United States government. Please FAX to me a copy of said official United States government document ordering PM Sharon to take this action. Please call ahead, and use the number below for both phone call and FAX. I will be soliciting the same information from the U.S. Gov't. It would be most helpful to have a specific document or quote to verify. As a U.S. citizen, I am very concerned that my government might have taken such a position. Thank you for your prompt response.

CRAVEN GOVERNMENT BULLIES YESHA Posted by Bryna Berch, January 7, 2004.

Read this news item from Arutz-7 about how the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister threatens Yesha using a voice of sweet reasonableness. It is shameful that the Israeli Government is willing to harm its own citizens and follow a policy that they know is damaging to Israel's sovereignty, security and dignity as a people. And why? Because a some unelected people in the American administration, who are promoting their own agenda, are putting the squeeze on them. Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim has some advice for the Yesha Council, which is faced with the dismal prospect of over 30 outposts being dismantled and uprooted in the coming weeks. He said that he can understand those who feel that the removal of a populated outpost, "even if it's unauthorized," could be considered as a dangerous precedent in the struggle to preserve the Yesha communities. "But on the other hand," Boim said, "I think that the stubbornness to fight with full force for every single place will, in the end, not paint Yesha very favorably in the public awareness - and we know how important that is.. I'm not envious of the Yesha leaders who have to make these decisions. But you cannot ignore the fact that resisting the uprooting of unauthorized outposts is liable, indirectly, to harm the entire Yesha settlement enterprise." Yisrael Har'el of Ofrah, a former head of the Yesha Council, does not totally discount Boim's words - although he does not appreciate Boim's role in causing the problem in the first place: "Boim was the one who, with some 'guidance' by U.S. Ambassador Kurtzer, put together the list of outposts to be uprooted. It is clear that he did this in a very superficial manner, without checking sufficiently. For instance, he included Migron on the list, and Defense Minister Mofaz was upset at him for this... But regarding the point itself, I can say the following: The glorious Yesha enterprise would never have achieved its great accomplishments had we not employed the proper proportion of good tactics and some flexibility. But we always knew when we had to insist on the principle and ignore considerations of tactics and timing - and that's why we have a great and splendid enterprise. I trust the leaders of the Yesha Council to once again make the proper calculations." In Boim's interview with Arutz-7 yesterday, it was revealed that the government is operating according to an unofficial agreement made with the Americans - in blatant opposition to its own Cabinet decision of May 25, 2003. Asked why the government is embarking on a campaign to uproot outposts even before the PA fulfills its own obligations to fight terrorism, Boim said that the government is acting according to American demands: "The Americans said clearly that within the first phase of the Road Map, the sides were to fulfill their commitments in parallel, with our obligations not dependent on whether the PA fulfilled its obligations. So we have to do this in order to fulfill our commitment to the Americans." As noted here yesterday, however, the Israeli Cabinet version of the Road Map - with 14 add-on reservations - says precisely the opposite. The reservations, which Prime Minister Sharon said at the time were "red lines beyond which we can not and will not withdraw," state that "there must be no terrorism during the process," that the PA must "dismantle the existing security organizations," and that "full performance will be a condition for progress between phases and for progress within phases."

WILL DAVID COHEN DIE AGAIN? Posted by David Wilder, January 7, 2004.

Almost two months ago four ex-security chiefs made international headlines when they "chided Israel," in the words of a BBC article. "The men called for Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and dismantle Jewish settlements, or face "disaster" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3270491.stm]. Included in the group were four ex-heads of the Israeli Shin-Bet security services, all of whom are extremely left wing. A couple of days ago another ex-security chief, Ephraim Halevy, former head of the Mossad, repeated and expanded upon his opinions concerning the current political situation. In an article by Ari Shavit, published September 6, 2003 in Ha'aretz newspaper, Halevy says: "The road map is not a road map. It is a plan for an imposed settlement. It marks out a clear route that leads to an imposed settlement. I don't think an imposed settlement is good for Israel. It's not good for the Palestinians, either. History shows that every imposed settlement has been a temporary settlement. So I believe that our future here in the region has to be based on our learning one day to live with the Arabs and the Palestinians. I believe that is an attainable goal, but it can't be attained by means of some imposed Pax Americana. I don't think the Americans have an interest in this kind of Pax Americana, either. It will impose on the United States responsibility that it won't be able to come to terms with... In the Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the rights of the Palestinians and in return obtained their agreement not to advance their goals by force. Not to use terrorism. Throughout the entire process, the Palestinians recognized only our reality, whereas we recognized their rights. That was a mistake. The road map repeats that mistake. It demands that Israel give the Palestinians strategic assets and in return all Israel gets is a war against terrorism and another war against terrorism. That's not good enough. It's even dangerous. It is liable to lead us in the end into a situation in which we will find ourselves close to the 1967 borders without the Palestinians having recognized Israel's right of existence and without their having forgone the right of return." A couple of days ago, speaking to foreign journalists, Halevy restated these thoughts, calling the roadmap's time line 'irrelevant,' and adding, "The road map... cannot be implemented. It can not be implemented. We know this, and the Palestinians know this, and the United States knows this.? HaLevy called on the Sharon government to reconsider uprooting of settlements because of 'their strategic importance.' He said, "Settlement uprooting should be reconsidered due to their present strategic importance, and not as they were yesterday or the day before. Strategic considerations are not inflexible. They change over years." Included in the 'first list' of four 'illegal outposts' to be eradicated is "Hazon David," near Kiryat Arba. When a staff member from the American consulate called and asked me about the "Hazon David outpost" I didn't know what he was talking about. Only later did I discover that the tent-synagogue called Hazon David, just outside the west gate of Kiryat Arba, below the Givat HaAvot neighborhood, is classified as an 'illegal outpost.' According to the powers-that-be, this site is to be deleted from the face of the earth. Last Saturday night several hundred people gathered at the synagogue, together with two Knesset members and Hebron-Kiryat Arba leaders. All the speakers said the 'right' things, basically reiterating what we all know. The protest was an important show of support against destruction of the synagogue. In my opinion, however, the following letter, sent earlier this week to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, says it all: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, With this letter, we turn to you, requesting from you a small sanctuary, a synagogue serving as a living memorial, dedicated at the site of the murder of our beloved son, David Cohen, HY'D, who was killed by wicked people, and is now defined as an 'outpost' due to be evacuated. Two and a half years ago our son was murdered at the gates to Kiryat Arba. Since then, our world collapsed. Our world is not large but was filled by our son David, with tremendous love. His departure from our lives has left a void, empty of any content. During holidays, our pain increases sevenfold. Small consolation and a new light entered our lives, knowing that at the site of our son's murder, at the gates of Kiryat Arba, a synagogue was established. This site gave us some comfort, where we were able to pour out our hearts and worship to the Creator of the world, about our son. Using our scant resources, we purchased chairs and holy books for worshipers at the site, which newsmen and military officials see as a tattered tent. However, for us, the knowledge that every day and every Shabbat people are present there, studying and praying in memory of our dear son, granted us a new life. Our thoughts escorted this synagogue, which is, for us, a memorial to our son David, at the site of his killing. Several days ago our wound was reopened and refuses to heal. We read in newspapers that the site of our son's memorial has been marked for destruction, G-d forbid, and that a military command ordering its removal has been signed. Believe us, Mr. Prime Minister, we feel as though our son has again been sentenced to death, without being guilty of anything, and he can only be saved by a pardon. We turn to you from the depths of our hearts, not out of consideration for the settlers, not due to political or security considerations. Rather only out of considerations of pain, of memory, of humanistic considerations, which no one excepting you could understand. We beseech you, leave our son's memorial! Leave the tent where it is. It looks tattered and worn-out, but even with its shreds and neglect is so special and worth so much to us. Nothing will be able to replace this tent, established at the site of our son's murder, nothing will be able to compensate for the loss and the memorial. With hope that you will take this letter into consideration, Yaffa and Ya'akov Cohen Jerusalem So, that is the question: Will Ariel Sharon and Shaul Mufaz force David Cohen HY"D to die again? With blessings from Hebron. David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron. Their website address is http://www.hebron.org.il

ACAIR MONITORS CAIR Posted by Andrew Whitehead, January 6, 2004.

ITEM #1: Mr. Minhaj Arastu is a public high school teacher in Columbia, South Carolina. He has endorsed a teacher's guide about Islam called "Teaching Muslims in the Public School Classroom" (http://www.ing.org/speakers/subpage.asp?num=61&pagenum=1) for use in public schools. Mr. Arastu is also the director of the newly-established local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The guide is an Islamic puff piece that does not critically examine Islam. ACAIR finds it disingenuous of Mr. Arastu to endorse this book without revealing his connection to the anti-American CAIR. Are school officials aware of this connection? Do they condone it? If so, why? Anti-CAIR (ACAIR) calls on the public school officials of Columbia to examine Mr. Arastu's ties to CAIR and consider if their teachers should have any connection to a book recommended by a terrorist-supporting organization or their lackies. Questions that should be asked: 1. Why didn't Mr. Arastu make his connection to CAIR clear in his endorsement of the book? 2. Why does Islam require a special teacher's guide? What is it about Islam that requires special treatment? 3. Does the Columbia public school system have a teacher's guide for other religions? Why, or why not? 4. Is this a covert means of injecting religion into the public schools? 5. Why is a CAIR-connected public school teacher endorsing this book? (CAIR is a well-known, bigoted group begun by Islamist terrorism supporters). 6. What is Mr. Arastu's true agenda? ACAIR calls on the Columbia school system to not only reject this book, but to reject any book that attempts to explain one religion over all others. To do otherwise is un-American and a disservice to teachers and students alike. ITEM #2: Mr. Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Southern California office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) had sued Mr. Shawn Steele, former head of the California Republican Party. Mr. Ayloush sought compensation for: defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In addition, Mr. Ayloush sought punitive damages. On December 16, 2003, The Honorable David R. Chaffee of the Orange County Superior Court dismissed the entire lawsuit against all defendants. This is another small victory for those who love their country and are not afraid to stand up to the Islamist tyranny of CAIR. Although Mr. Steele won his lawsuit, ACAIR regrets that the lawsuit didn't go through the discovery process. While we have every faith in Mr. Steele, we seriously doubt Mr. Ayloush and CAIR could have withstood the examination. When Anti-CAIR (ACAIR) was begun, some called us optimists. We were asked how we expected to be able to stand up to a well-funded, activist Islamist group with very deep pockets. Well, the answer is actually very simple: we love our country and we're optimists. Along the lines of optimism, ACAIR would like to offer the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) a few tips on how they can improve their organization and make it truly representative of Islam, rather than being a mouthpiece for Islamist terrorists. Since our inception almost a year ago, ACAIR has been using the words of CAIR as an effective tool to point out the hypocrisy and deliberate deception used by CAIR to promote a radical Islamist viewpoint. We've pointed out how CAIR was birthed from the Hamas Islamist terrorist network and how CAIR's senior leadership actively supports Islamist terrorist groups that are responsible for terror-murdering Americans. We've shown how CAIR fails to condemn terrorist acts committed by their friends in the Islamist movement, while criticizing almost every move made by the American government to protect its citizens from Islamist terrorist attack. We've noted how CAIR purports to believe in religious freedom, just as long as those freedoms apply to Muslims only. What would it take to make CAIR into a credible organization, deserving of the name "civil rights group"? Just what would it take to make CAIR legitimate in the eyes of most Americans? How could CAIR clean up its act and begin to be truly representative of the Muslim faith? Is this an impossible dream? CAIR could begin by firing the troika at the top of the CAIR pyramid. Start with Mr. Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR and former public relations director for the Islamic Association of Palestine. Next, Mr. Omar Ahmad, co-founder of CAIR. Finally, Mr. Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman. Just exactly how many times must we watch Mr. Hooper blow up on television every time a Christian or Jew asks him a question he classes as "Islamophobic"? Just what, specifically, would it take for CAIR to clean up their act and become a more responsible "Islamic civil rights" group? 1. Publicly denounce all Islamist terrorist groups. Sever all ties with these groups and stop issuing press releases heaping praise on those who murder in the name of Allah. CAIR's support of terrorist groups, particularly Hamas, reinforces American beliefs that CAIR is nothing but a spokes group for Islamist terrorists. 2. Publicly cut all ties with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The IDB handles funds for Islamist terrorist groups. Cutting ties with the IDB will demonstrate that CAIR will no longer stand with those who financially support Islamist terror groups. 3. Publicly denounce those prominent Islamist "holy men" and speakers who call Christians and Jews "pigs and apes". This language is meant to be inflammatory and is better suited to NAZI Germany than to CAIR, which purports to be a "civil rights" group. In addition, CAIR should refuse to sponsor, or attend, religious gatherings where comments against any other religion are expected to be made. 4. Establish an outreach program with other religious groups. Extend the hand of friendship to Christians, Jews, and other faiths. Stand with them in defense of freedom of religion for all Americans, not just Muslims. 5. Stop launching silly, counter-productive lawsuits. When CAIR launches a lawsuit, they make Islam appear to be a petty religion that cannot defend itself. When CAIR members in leadership positions launch lawsuits, they look like small, petty persons whom are easily insulted. Is this the impression that the CAIR leadership wishes to convey? 6. Learn the true meaning of the first amendment to our Constitution. Respect the right of all Americans to believe (or not) in the religion of their choice. Stop going into anger overdrive every time someone says something about Islam you don't like. Recognize that if someone says something perceived to be negative about Islam, it is their right. Respond if you care to, but try to keep it civil. Hint: your public will understand your words better if you aren't bouncing around in your chair, foaming at the mouth. 7. Open up the CAIR books to public inspection. Let all Americans know just exactly how CAIR is funded. 8. Cooperate with law enforcement and call on your members to do so as well. Stop your ridiculous profiling of the FBI as being "anti-Islamic". Ask your members to report suspicious activity to the proper authorities. That's it. We believe CAIR could transform itself into a true "civil rights" organization. How about it, CAIR? Fire the troika, knock off the inflammatory language, respect the rights of ALL Americans and open your books to the public. The ball is in your court, CAIR. What are you going to do with it? We'd like to share the following exchange with one of our readers: (We've eliminated needless formatting and wording to keep this short. The following is in chronological order). Reader: Why ANTI-CAIR? I am a firm supported in CAIR, and I believe they are doing nothing wrong. They have harmed no one. Why is it then that you feel you have to "expose them", What harm have they done? Response:  Thank you for taking the time to write us and share your concerns over our position regarding the activities of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). We invite you to visit our web site, (http://www.anti-cair-net.org/) and read our press release information. After reviewing this material, we will answer any specific questions you may have regarding CAIR. Keep in mind that CAIR was founded, and is run, by Islamist terrorism supporters. We have no respect for CAIR's leadership and believe that they and their followers are a danger to our society and a threat to our religious freedoms and beliefs. CAIR has called for the establishment of an Islamic theocracy in the United States and actively supports Islamist terrorist groups. In addition, CAIR accepts funding from overseas Islamist terrorist supporting regimes such as Saudi Arabia. CAIR is a collection of racist, bigoted liars hiding behind Islam to spread their dangerous, heinous and evil brand of Wahhabi Islam. There are no bigger haters of Allah's words that those who lead CAIR. Reader:  Thank you very much for your response. One more question though, what is your take on Islam. Do you think it is a religion of terrorism? Response: Hi - I'm glad our press release archives were able to answer most of your questions regarding our position regarding CAIR. As to your question about Islam being a terrorist religion, the answer is no. Islam itself isn't the problem, it's the so-called "holy men" who have called upon some ignorant followers of radical Islam to take up arms and murder in the name of Allah. I can think of very few perversions that are worse than killing in the name of God. While not all followers of Islam are terrorists, I find it very disquieting that the majority of Muslims do not rise up and take back their faith from those who defile and pervert Islam to advance their personal goals. My hope is that the peaceful followers of Islam rise up and cast out those apostates who tend to make all of Islam appear to be murderous. ACAIR is pleased to answer any questions from the public and press. Your comments, suggestions and tips are appreciated and all e-mail is read. You may request our press releases by writing to Andrew Whitehead at ACAIR: ajwhitehead@anti-cair-net.org ADVISORY: Subscribers are warned that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) may contact your employer if CAIR believes you are using a work address to receive any material that CAIR believes may be offensive. CAIR has been known to shame employers into firing employees CAIR finds disagreeable. For that reason, we strongly suggest that corporate e-mail users NOT use a corporate e-mail account/address when communicating with ACAIR. We make every reasonable effort to protect our mailing list, but we cannot guarantee confidentiality. ACAIR does not share, loan, sell, rent or otherwise publicize our mailing list. We respect your privacy!

NEVER GIVE UP Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 6, 2004.

Please share this Israeli teenager's poem with your own kids. It captures the spirit and strength of our young people. NEVER GIVE UP by Cegal Ilan I want to talk about Israel and living in this crazy place What we do, how we act, And the reality we face First of all, I need to say We're not a desert with houses of sand We live here like you do there Just in another land We have houses, big and small We have normal schools We work in hi-tech companies And pray to God in shuls We go out at night to have some fun We don't just sit in bed We carry on with our lives Though we've seen so many dead We're now more careful Look around where we hang out We try to let our lives move on Though our heart is full of doubt Israel is strong It is glued together Israel is strong And will stay so forever 60 years ago the world was blind They didn't see what was hidden behind Now there's hope, now there's glue From every car and home flies the white and blue We mourn each life that's lost We cry for peace out loud We're paying a giant cost To stay free, strong and proud Cegal Ilan was born in 1988 in Columbus, Ohio and moved to Israel with her family when she was six. She always felt connected to being Jewish. When she was 13 she wrote "Never Give Up" in response to many family and friends asking her what it was like living in Israel. She is now in her first year of High School in Ra'anana and plays on the high school volleyball team. She hopes her words inspire you to see life goes on as normal, although we are living through difficult times. She would like to hear from you. Write her at cegalilan@yahoo.com

DEMOCRACY FOR AFGHANISTAN, DISCRIMINATION FOR ISRAEL Posted by Evelyn Hayes, January 6, 2004.

Underhandedness is in the package. The Taliban from Afghanistan attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.Al Qaida was dismantled. Part of the repackaging is freedom for all the diverse religions and ethnicities to live under one state with liberty and justice for all. There is a chance that law will rule over outlaws. Arafat al Husseini, a partner in world terrorism is treated differently. The irrelevant Egyptian is proving to be more than relevant and he is being offered a Jew-rid state. As the Jew is the scapegoat again and anti-semitism, prevails, tyranny continues to flourish. As the Christian has fled and the Druze is silent, fearing; the United States applauds the acceptance of all under a new Afghanistan regime. However, the United States, the EU, the UN and the Israeli misleaders deny the very right for existence for Jews in the land of their Forefathers. Creating a Jewless Arafascist State is legitimizing a terrorist worse than apartheid entity which will continue what Afghanistan is trying to dismantle and which is contrary to the mandate that made America a melting pot. Judenrein criticized under Nazi Germany is applauded under world Arafascism. Mismanagement by America's State Department again, which is not responsible to the people, is attempting to create another rogue anti-democratic state. What is the price American taxpayers pay in dollars and lives? True peace doesn't have scapegoats. True peace demands equal rights for Jews, not those brown boots and leftist uprootings. True peace would get out the pictures from the satelites of the massive Arafat infrastructure of building since oslo began inside and outside the green line. The line now is a blood red line which would drown all Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. True peace doesn't accomodate terrorists and evict the few Jewish survivors from land they own by deed and memorial money for those killed by pogrom and Holocaust. The packaging of peace in Israel by Oslo, Wye and Geneva is rewarding jihadism and is ignoring history, kindness, Bible, Balfour and League of Nations. The black plague against the civlized Jew is so widespread that all the green life lines and red death lines are blacked out for deletion. Democracy for Afghanistan while discrimination for Jews in Israel is unbalanced in favor of corruption, bigotry, terror and tyranny. The world fangs for unsettling of Jews is unsettling the Middle East and the whole world. All anti-Arafascists are suffering no matter all the protection money making Arafat al Husseini, the Egytpian Fascist, one of the richest men in the world. Shaking his hand and being paid by his pot is a pyramid that will collapse democracy and law. As Jews are victimized, pan-jihad is the message. When will the world right this anti-Jew wrong and save itself, too? Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, us, because their hearts were softened for more." and just released sequel, "The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes."

DECODING SHARON Posted by Isralert, January 6, 2004.

"Otherwise, I have absolutely no other explanation for the determination that he has developed to uproot Jews from their homes in the Land of Israel." Arutz 7: Two Explanations For Sharon's Moves. (Excerpt from Arutz Sheva News Service, Monday, Jan. 5, 2004/Tevet 11, 5764 1.) REASON #1: Fear of Washington "The government wants to clash with us, and show, around the world, pictures of Jews being removed from their homes." So said this morning Pinchas Wallerstein, head of the Binyamin Regional Council in southern Shomron (Samaria). He said that he and the army had agreed to a compromise in the evacuation of one of the populated outposts slated for destruction, but that Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz refused to accept it. "Last week," Wallerstein said, "the army proposed a method by which we could avoid the clash. It was approved by the Chief of Staff, and we asked them to check with the government as well - but the response was no with a capital N. We could not understand why, because the proposal included taking away the buildings [and reportedly moving them to neighboring Ofrah - ed. note] - but we then realized that the reason is because they have a great interest in showing a clash with the settlers and having it shown around the world." Wallerstein said this morning that the battle to save the outposts continues in the courts: "We have a very good chance of winning, because in order to carry out the evacuations that they [the government] announced this week, they had to come up with a new law. I'm sure that the Supreme Court will disqualify the orders, because if we did something illegal, then why do they have to make up a new law? It's a very 'unique' law in that, for instance, it does not apply to Arabs, but only to Jews; they've created a new type of closed military zone that only applies to Jews. "Also, these orders state that we have to uproot everything ourselves or else we have to pay, and we have to uproot every single sapling, and everything that is left must be destroyed, etc., etc. But this won't work. If they think that they'll be able to continue to rule this way, I hope that the upcoming giant rally next Monday night in Tel Aviv will prove that we are not just a small fringe protest group, but that there is a giant public that will - as the theme of the rally states - not allow the State of Israel to fold..." Wallerstein revealed that in addition to the destruction of Maon Farm (seven families), Ginot Aryeh (3 families, 20 singles), Tal Binyamin (a Jewish Law institute and a synagogue), and four other unpopulated outposts, the government also plans to order the dismantling of another populated neighborhood later this week. The place is called Kidah, and is home to no fewer than 14 families. "[Prime Minister] Sharon is so afraid of appearing to the U.S. as if he is negotiating with us," said Wallerstein, "that he's just not talking with us. He just has no strength to proudly wave the flag of the State of Israel. For instance, Tal Binyamin is an outpost that was established after the murder of Talia and Binyamin Kahane, three years ago. This was well before even the Tenet Agreement, so that it cannot even be claimed that it violates a so-called Israeli commitment not to build more outposts - yet even this location is on the list to be destroyed!" Asked if it's not time to take genuine action to topple the government, Wallerstein said, "I think that what I've said sufficiently clarifies what this government is up to. Unfortunately, some of our supporters in the government [from the National Religious Party and National Union] have fallen into the trap of being afraid to consider outposts as populated communities, and therefore they don't realize the utter gravity of the situation. Last night, Housing Minister Effie Eitam (NRP) and MK Yuri Stern (National Union) and other MKs were at our emergency meeting in Ginot Aryeh with hundreds of others, and I know that the things they heard were very clear..." REASON #2: Fear of Investigation MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) made some strong accusations against Prime Minister Sharon this morning. After Housing Minister Effie Eitam of the NRP said last night that Sharon is motivated not by American pressures, but by pressures from the Israeli left-wing and media, Hendel went one further: "I have reached the conclusion that Sharon is trying to act as left-wing as possible, and his main motivation for such - and possibly the only one - is because of the police investigations against him. I don't know if the charges against his family are serious or not, and I don't know if he's guilty or not, but it appears that as it gets closer and closer to a decision, he is becoming more frightened [and is doing what he can to ensure that the left-wing prosecutors close the files]. Otherwise, I have absolutely no other explanation for the determination that he has developed to uproot Jews from their homes in the Land of Israel." Asked if he doesn't think that the American pressure is a main factor, Hendel said, "The American pressure is something that we brought upon ourselves. I can bring a proof from a different area: We were negotiating with the Finance Ministry people about the budget, trying to restore the income tax benefits for some of the Yesha communities. We showed them that it would only add up to some ten million shekels - a tiny crumb compared to the national budget - but they wouldn't give in. But they saw that we also weren't giving in, and they finally admitted that it wasn't their decision, but that of the Prime Minister, because [Sharon's aide Dov] Weissglass said that he had promised the Americans that he wouldn't give any benefits to the residents of Yesha - as if the Americans would ever find out or care about some income tax benefits to residents of Yesha!" Despite his anger at Sharon, Hendel said that it was not yet time for his party to leave the government: "If I knew that I had a better alternative tomorrow morning, I would be the first to go for it. But meanwhile, we are trying to make the best of what there is - for instance, in Migron, the evacuation was about to happen [yet we were able to stop it]... But the moment we feel that our positive influence in the government is less than the influence we could have outside it, we will be out of the government. There are still many worse scenarios that are liable to happen - along the lines of the evacuation of Yamit - and we still feel that with the help of some of the Likud ministers, we can stop them, rather than allow Peres and his friends to come triumphantly into the government and implement these catastrophic plans." This next is from Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis) and is called "PM Sharon Crosses Rubicon: "Independent" Palestinian State or Retreat." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking at the Likud Central Committee meeting tonight in Tel Aviv, made several critical statements: In contrast to all previous prime ministers who promised to bring the decision regarding the final arrangements with the Palestinians to national referendum, Sharon proclaimed that he, the prime minister, would decide and implement his decisions. For the first time in any presentation, Sharon added the adjective "independent" to the term "Palestinian state". Until now he left open the option that he was referring to an "autonomous" Palestinian state. For the first time Sharon said that this independent state would be created in temporary borders if the Palestinians fulfill their obligations for any period of time. Until now there were two interpretation of the status of this interim state that could be created within months if there is temporary Palestinian compliance. Besides an independent state inside temporary borders there was an alternative interpretation: an entity with elements of sovereignty inside temporary borders, with "elements" possibly being similar to those of autonomy. Prime Minister Sharon, when explaining his program to retreat if the Palestinians opt not to even temporarily comply, introduced a new term: "state separation", with the IDF retreated behind the new lines and apparently no Palestinian movement across the border. It would appear that Sharon's retreat plan, with "state separation" and the void that it creates, provides for, by default, the formation of a sovereign independent Palestinian state within the areas under Palestinian control. Curiously, this is the first speech Prime Minister Sharon has made in months in which he explicitly refers to the Road Map as the Road Map with Israel's 14 clarifications. Isralert is sent to an opt-in list, hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe, send an email to Isralert@aol.com

ASSAD: ONE MESSAGE TO U.S., ANOTHER TO SYRIANS Posted by Leo Rennert, January 6, 2004.

I sent this article from MEMRI to the New York Times, suggesting the Times would want to weigh in on these major discrepancies and their significance, if only to show Assad that it can't be used as a vehicle for external propaganda. In an article posted December 5, 2003 on Al-Rai, the website of the Syrian Communist party, Syrian journalist Subhi Hadidi(1) criticized the omission of extensive segments in the official Syrian Arabic version of President Bashar Al-Assad's lengthy November 30, 2003 interview with The New York Times. The interview was conducted in Arabic and translated into English by Assad's office for publication by The New York Times, and an Arabic version was published by the Syrian government news agency Sana and by the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. The following are excerpts from Hadidi's article criticizing Assad in Al-Rai:(2) Two Languages, Two Versions "The Syrian president granted a lengthy interview to the American paper The New York Times, which revealed the mentality of Bashar Al-Assad directing all his words, deeds, and ways. This is Al-Assad's most important interview to the American press, as it gives a good example of the philosophy that prevails in the presidential palace... "Is it conceivable that the president makes statements for quoting to the American press (which is the international press, since the interview was published in English), but that these statements aren't exactly the same as the ones published in the Syrian media? And if so - and this is more than the sick mind imagines - how can this president be young, modern, and a reformist (even in a very remote sense), and how can he possibly be seen as a president who is in charge? "Let us begin with the numbers: The English version, as published on The New York Times website, had 11,280 words... The Syrian news agency Sana and the official Syrian press published what it called the 'full version' but this had only 5,500 words. The London paper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published the 'full Arabic translation' of the interview, which was 7,667 words long. "Where did the 2,200 words vanish to, if, as the American press said, it was the president's office that prepared the English translation? What did Al-Assad tell America and the entire world yet at the same time thought not fitting to tell the Syrians? "The part that was omitted included questions and answers regarding [Syria's] domestic situation, Iraq, Hizbullah, normalization with the Hebrew state, and U.S.-Syrian security cooperation. These are topics that require special advancement, but I will point out in brief a surprising statement made by President Al-Assad, which was showcased in both the Western and Arabic press: "'During that time [i.e. the 1980s], Saddam Hussein would send large railroad cars loaded with explosives in order to kill hundreds and thousands of Syrians. He killed more than 15,000 over the course of four years.' "Is this true? Did Saddam Hussein kill 15,000 Syrians over the course of only four years? When did Saddam carry out these terrifying massacres, and where? Why are we hearing about them for the first time [only] now? How did the government keep silent all this time in the face of such a frightening number of victims among its citizens? "Isn't this statement surprising if it is true, and even more surprising if it is false, [or] if it turns out that it is a slip of the tongue, more embarrassing than stumbling due to inexperience and slip-ups due to lack of skill?" Assad: Syrian Opposition Loyal to Syria on the Issue of the U.S. "What the Syrian media omitted from the interview dealt with the domestic situation, and it is divided into two [categories]: embarrassing questions asked by the interviewer, with, it must be admitted, threatening pressure, and the answers to the questions... omitted [by the Syrian news agency]... "One of the President's answers was: '... The Syrian opposition inside and outside Syria does not support the Syrian regime, the constitution, or the Syrian government. However, it opposes what the Americans are saying about bringing democracy to Iraq. I mean that it is against importing democracy by force or by other means. This is its clear opinion and this can be seen on television or in the newspapers...' "If Al-Assad sees this compliance in the Syrian opposition, and speaks of it to the Americans almost with pride, why does he conceal it from the Syrian people? Is this miserable people so backward that even these facts are hidden from it - although they reach it anyway via television and newspapers, as the president himself says? And if the Syrian people is so backward, how does Al-Assad praise it generously when he speaks of the people's 'love' for the president?..." Assad: Minorities' Demand for Rights Has Nothing to Do with Opposition to the Syrian Regime "It is the same for the other omitted parts, which could be called 'a dialogue of the deaf'... For example, this exchange between the American journalist and the Syrian president: "[Question:] 'There is a period where dialogue was open, people were going to forums and there were discussions. It has all stopped. Why is that?' "Al-Assad: 'No, nothing has stopped. You can go to Al-Atasi Institute and we have many others.' "Question:' Just two months ago, they tried to have one in Aleppo and the men were arrested when they showed up.' "Al-Assad: 'That had to do with speaking about certain ethnicity. They didnt criticize the government; they talked about the rights of the Kurds. The Kurds are Syrians so what rights of the Kurds? It is something related to the national unity if you talk about ethnicities. We have Chechens, Armenians, and you are not allowed in the law of Syria to talk about this. This is our law. I don't know them, but they make demonstrations for things related to this issue, which is not allowed in our law. It is not related to the regime.' "The truth is that the people understand why the Syrian media refrain from publishing this segment. There is no Al-Atasi Institute; the only thing there is is a club. The Aleppo residents were not demonstrating, but came to a political symposium whose topic was not Kurds' rights - but even if they had been [demonstrating] - what's the crime? "Does the president know that hundreds of thousands of Syrian Kurds have no citizenship, to this very day? Does he know that their situation is worse than the situation of the Bedouin in Kuwait?... "Another example of an omission exposes one of two aspects of the philosophy of President Al-Assad:... [Assad] believes that the state and the citizens are in a healthy democratic [reality], and therefore praises excessively the reforms that are slowly taking place. "On the other hand, he does not attribute the reforms' slowness to opposition by the 'old guard,' the Ba'ath party, or the corrupt ones at the upper edge of the regime, but boils this down almost into a single cause - that is, a shortage of skilled people [to manage] the reform. "The following dialogue goes thus: "Question: 'Two years ago, in Damascus, you could hear any kind of discussion about democracy, law, and economic reform, but it is gone now.' "Al-Assad: 'No, it is not gone. I will give you the address of Atasi, which is opposition.' "Question: But this is just one person. There used to be dozens.' "Al-Assad: Let me ask you a question: What is the ideal number?' "Question: It is not a question of a number. It is a question that people no longer feel free to have an open discussion.' "Al-Assad: Why don't you go and see for yourself?' "Question: I have looked around for them. It is very hard to find.' "Al-Assad: We can give you the names...??' "Does Al-Assad want to say that the clubs still exist, as in the past? Is it enough to give the address of the Al-Atasi 'Institute' in order to prove his claim that there is freedom of speech, not to mention full implementation of democracy?" Assad's Corruption Cover-up "The second aspect is even more astounding, as it is based on the classic model of evasion, that overflows with modern political language and the art of refinement, deception, and evasion. "[The interviewer] asks about the corruption of those 'around' the president, and Al-Assad asks: 'Why around me? What do you mean?' [The interviewer] does not hesitate; he mentions the president's cousin, who was entangled in a mobile phone business deal, and says, 'The list is long.' The president answers, 'He is a Syrian like all Syrians, whether he is my cousin, my brother, my friend, or anyone else. There is Syrian law." "Is this [the same] law that punished Riyadh Seif(3) because he exposed the marvels of the mobile phone deal? Is it due to the spirit of this law that the president hints that Seif is in jail for tax evasion, while others tried to threaten the unity of the state by 'harming the pluralistic Syrian regime?...' "The art of evasion turns into silence regarding the cousin, as he is a Syrian like all Syrians, and into accusation against Riyadh Seif, who is perhaps not a Syrian and who is harming unity when he deals with ethnic matters... "Who was it then who edited, amended, or censored the President's interview? Is it the hero of the interview himself? Is it another body, better versed in the doctrine of magic and secrecy? Why wasn't the translation that was given to The New York Times also censored? "Does the [presidential] palace wish to persuade the American press that the regime is being run with integrity and transparency, and [thus] gave the newspaper a full, not abridged, translation - but at the same time denigrated the minds of the Syrians and gave them selected grains?" Endnotes: (1) Hadidi currently lives in Paris, and also writes, inter alia, for the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. (2) Al-Rai (Syria), December 5, 2003. http://www.arraee.com/artical/nov/artical_05-01.htm (3) A former Syrian MP sentenced in July 2002 to five years imprisonment for "attempt to illegally change the constitution." The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request: E-Mail: memri@memri.org; Website: www.memri.org

LOOKING OVER THE HORIZON Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, January 6, 2004.

This was written by Moshe Arens and appeared in Ha'aretz today. Moshe Arens has served as Minister of Defense Foreign Affairs, and as Israel's ambassador to Washington. The Likud ministers who have recently presented various versions of Israeli unilateral withdrawals, unilateral moves or unilateral separation schemes from the Palestinian population are right about one thing: There is almost no chance of reaching a settlement with the Palestinian Authority, regardless of who the prime minister, selected by Chairman Yasser Arafat, will be. But their conclusion - that Israel therefore should now withdraw from most of Judea and Samaria and uproot the settlements there - is way off. It is myopic vision at its utmost. The peace process with the Palestinians is being held hostage by the Palestinian terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Brigades and other groups and movements with various exotic names. It has been proven time and again that there can be no useful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians as long as acts of terror continue. This was the underlying assumption of Prime Minister Sharon's policy when he first took office. The principle was incorporated in the U.S.-sponsored road map: The first step on the road to peace must be the dismantling of the infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism. That step has not been taken by Arafat, nor by Abu Mazen, nor will it be taken by Abu Ala, or by any of his successors. For the simple reason that, even if they were willing to take on this task (and that is highly doubtful), they are eminently incapable of accomplishing it. Under these circumstances, staging a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, which means moving the IDF out of areas it entered during operation Defensive Shield to combat Palestinian terrorism, means leaving those areas under terrorist control and bringing terrorism back to the doorstep of Israel's cities. In other words, a return to the days of the massacres at the Dolphinarium and the Park Hotel. The belief that the fence currently being built can serve as adequate protection and make unnecessary the presence of the IDF in the areas beyond the fence is an illusion. Israelis will not be able to live peaceably as long as terrorists reign in the areas across the fence. It's just too close for comfort. The inescapable conclusion is that a partner for negotiating a settlement with Israel must be someone that is willing to take on the terrorists and is capable of subduing them. In the absence of such a partner, that mission remains in the hands of the IDF and the Shin Bet security service, who have been doing a creditable job of this difficult and unpleasant task. Israel has a neighbor to the east, which has demonstrated over the years both the determination and the ability to suppress terrorism. It is Jordan. Arafat and the PLO were close to taking over Jordan, when they were driven out by King Hussein in "black" September of 1970. That was the real origin of the demand for a "second" Palestinian state. In the years that followed, the Jordanians have shown themselves very effective in suppressing terrorism. In that area they evidently can be relied upon. It is therefore not idle speculation to consider Jordan as the eventual partner for a settlement of the outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinians. There is little question regarding the legitimacy of Jordan in that role. Seventy percent of its population is of Palestinian origin, its queen is Palestinian, Judea and Samaria were annexed to Jordan in 1949 and Jordanian citizenship was bestowed on the population there. The most difficult issues, Jerusalem and territorial compromise, would be easier to handle in such a framework. Jordan already has a capital, in Amman, and does not need a second one, and the territories of Judea and Samaria are contiguous to Jordan geographically. There is only one fly in the ointment. The Jordanians are concerned that the absorption of additional Palestinians, who have been radicalized by the PLO in the past decades, could destabilize the kingdom. They don't need that kind of headache. Is this likely to change in the years to come, and what can Israel do to bring about such a change? Israel should strengthen its relations with Jordan in the battle against terrorism and contribute to the growth of the Jordanian economy. The U.S. and the European Union should be encouraged to make large-scale investments in the Jordanian economy so as to strengthen and stabilize the present regime. The time may come when a prosperous Jordan will feel sufficiently strong and confident to assume the role of representing Palestinian interests in negotiations with Israel. It is such thoughts, rather than unilateral moves, that should be occupying the minds of Likud ministers. Jerome Kaufman runs the Israel Commentary website, which features news and opinions often neglected by the American media. Its address is http://groups.yahoo.com/israel-commentary

SHARON WANTS TO BE DE GAULLE BUT MAY END UP PETAIN Posted by IMRA, January 6, 2004.

The following is IMRA's translation of a press release issued by Herut Chairman MK Michael Kleiner. Herut Chairman Michael Kleiner in reaction to Sharon's speech at the Likud assembly: "Sharon dreams of being an Israeli De Gaulle, but he may find himself in the role of Petain [IMRA: head of Vichy government that collaborated with Nazi Germany]. According to Kleiner, Sharon has adopted the platform of the extreme left and is leading in his typical "bulldozer" fashion to civil war and the destruction of the State. The Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA) provides a digest of media polls and significant interviews and events. Dr Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA. IMRA's website address is http://www.imra.org.il

YOU WANT CLARIFICATIONS Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, January 4, 2004.

For Your servants have cherished her stones and favor her dust. (Psalms 102:15) I'm just barely getting over my migraine over Migron and now the White House is demanding clarifications with regards to Israel's plans to develop existing communities in the Golan Heights (and you thought we lived in a sovereign country). I wish this nation had the self-confidence and chutzpah to stand up and respond, "Ok, America and the rest of world, you want clarifications? Stay off my land and get out of my internal politics! Is that clear enough?!" But something tells me that until we merit wise and competent leadership, a more diplomatic approach may be called for. So I've devised the Horowitz Family Accords to serve as an example and clearly illustrate of one of the many beneficial plans and aspirations of the Golan residents and others who live in and love the Land of Israel. First some background information: History: Boys will be boys and what started out as toddlers innocently springing up and down on my sofa, became youngsters bouncing off the walls of our apartment in Jerusalem. Plastic lego gave way to hamsters and goldfish. Surprisingly, my daughter joined in on the fun with her brothers, and showed no aversion to my eldest son's fixation with creepy-crawly things. Our tight quarters were soon invaded with an assortment of both local and exotic; animate and inanimate objects like birds, lizards, scorpions, fossils, rocks, cacti, the occasional stray dog, an iguana and a small python. Where I come from, a woman wouldn't dream of anything less than a 5-star accommodation when vacationing. But since living in Israel, I've done plenty of time sweltering in a tent pitched in the desert sands. I do it because of the great pleasure I derive from knowing that my children swelter in luxury hotels and could care less about the difference between their salad fork and dinner fork. One night my eldest son, stormed out of his tent, in his underwear, complaining of the heat. I watched in amazement as he pulled down some dry branches from a nearby tree, arranged them and slept on them - like a baby. No sleeping bag, no sheet, no nothing - Tarzan lives (or perhaps a bit of Yaacov). A short time thereafter, the nature guy called me out to our balcony (I almost tripped on the turtle). He looked at me and said, "Mom, I love G-d and I'm not taking off this kippa, but I can't sit in between four walls and study Gemara." He pointed to our magnificent view of the Jerusalem forest and said, "I need to be with the rocks, trees and animals." And so we sent Shlomo to learn in the Golan Heights, at a place where he could study Torah and hike the length of the the country - from the Hermon to Eilat and back again. When another son told me that he wanted to be a shepherd, my husband and I thought about it and figured that it wasn't such a bad profession for a young Jewish boy. It was clear that this family had outgrown the confines of Jerusalem, and it was time to move-on. The Place: What can I say... Two and a half years later, we breathe clean air, drink pure water, say Kiddush over great wine and marvel at the snow-capped summit. We haven't yet built our dream house, but the sugar cane is higher than the roof of our temporary dwelling, a half dozen goats are frolicking with the chickens. We've got a pet wolf and I've got irises blooming in January. I'd say we're settled. We also have lots of dreams... The Plan: My husband has an acupuncture clinic here and he dreams of establishing a free clinic and a rehabilitation center for people with chronic pain. I'd like to build-onto my husband's endeavor, by adding a therapeutic center for the arts. I'd like to encourage people, who have been hurt and traumatized by terror, to express and heal themselves through creative means. My daughter attends my husband's classes and volunteers with autistic adults. She's determined to assist people with addictions through a combination of yoga, massage, martial arts and counseling. Meanwhile, back at the ranch (which, at present, consists of two rather run-down two-room homes)....The shepherd takes care of the small ,but growing, herd with his brother, who wants to be a an organic farmer - he had a great little crop of corn and butternut squash this year and claims that one day he's going to provide enough organically grown produce for the whole country. I believe he will. Another son just got his tractor license and has a good head for numbers and logic - which goes well with farming. Yet another one wants to be a chef and have a vegetarian restaurant - which, of course, blends well with goat's cheese and organic vegetables. Now, Shlomo wants to create a tropical rain forest up here. It's no joke, as he's successfully growing a variety of exotic plants and medicinal herbs. And, he's got the fauna to go with the flora. Some I've seen, like the igauna, snakes and hundreds of Vietnamese walking sticks. Others, like the tarantula, I've only heard about. And then there are some things that I wasn't supposed to know about, like the the madagascar hissing cockroaches (but I understand that they're essential to maintaining the delicate ecological balance). My daughter and I figure we can integrate all of the family's gifts and realize our dreams. The Golan Center for Healing and Art wouldn't be complete without a rain forest, petting farm and organic restaurant. We know that the we face an uphill battle with government red tape, fundraising and local politics - the usual stuff. But nevertheless, we'll get there by building stone by stone. However, what I refuse to accept is any interference by the U.S. , E.U. and U.N. In the family plan... Clarifications: Our plan for our little spot in this word is economical, ecological, compassionate, benefits the region, is peaceful and fair. It just isn't political. Which means that we won't be needing your loan guarantees, peace proposals, settlement freezes, withdrawal maps, evacuations, demilitarized zones, foreign troops, coalition partners, and cease-fire arrangements. I guess that means that you diplomats, envoys, emissaries and so-called "world leaders" won't have anything to do here (but remember, there's always the Oxford speaking circuit). Oh my! What will the world media do? Well, I understand that our plan is rather provincial and hardly the stuff that the press can sink their teeth into. But hey, there are other regions of upheaval in the Middle-East as well as in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. I'm sure you can find a pack of murderers, who are in need of attention, and create some havoc - you're good at that. As for the Syrians... well, you guys have repeatedly proven your intentions. You'd like to perch yourselves on these heights with your ballistic missiles and either launch a war or take potshots at the Jewish farmers, fisherman and communities below. So, I'm not willing to give you a speck of dust or stone from here. Lest you think I'm totally inflexible, as a good will gesture I will be happy to offer you several madagascar cockroaches, a few wild boars, and maybe our wolf that just trampled my irises. Ellen lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, writer and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com

SECRETARY OF STATE BAKER, ISRAEL AND SADDAM HUSSEIN Posted by the Root and Branch Association, January 5, 2004.

This is part of a speech delivered by Dr. Joseph Lerner at the Root and Branch, January 2, 2004. Israel Radio reports that U.S. President George Bush has appointed James Baker as a special U.S. envoy to the Middle East. V.O.A. reports that the mission is in search of Iraqi debt relief. In the period immediately before the first Gulf War, then Secretary of State Baker sought to assure Saddam Hussein the U.S. was with him and would protect him from Israel. Moshe Arens relates in his 1995 book Broken Covenant (page 214): "Baker sent a message to Saddam Hussein reminding him that when an Israel Air Force raid had destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor, 'we condemned the 1981 raid. And would do so again today. We are telling Israel so'". When the U.S. went to war against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait the U.S. was glad that Israel had destroyed Iraq's nuclear potential in 1981. Unfortunately, the U.S. failed to finish the job in the Gulf War even though the U.S. had seen Hussein was not a power to be easily snuffed out. Instead, it left Saddam with his power intact as he smashed segments of Iraq's population and supported terrorists as demonstrated by his substantial gifts to families of suicide bombers who murdered Israelis. As for Baker's disdain for Israel, shortly before assuming office as Secretary of State, Baker invited an interviewer from Time Magazine to accompany him on a turkey hunt. At one point during the hunt, when he was discussing Israel and the Arabs, Baker remarked: "The trick is in getting them where you want them, on your terms. Then you control the situation, not them. You have the options. Pull the trigger or don't. It doesn't matter once you've got them where you want them. The important thing is knowing that it's in your hands, that you can do whatever you determine is in your interest to do". When the reporter asked Baker if he was referring to the turkeys, Baker replied, "No, I mean Israel". (Time, February 13, 1989) [as cited in Z.O.A. press release of June 7, 1996]. Dr. Joseph Lerner is with the Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il The Root & Branch Association (http://www.rb.org.il) Lecture and Conference Series, was inaugurated in January, 1995 at the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union (http://www.ou.org) Jerusalem World Center.

WHAT ARABS SAY ABOUT THE ARAB REFUGEES Posted by Justice For Jews, January 5, 2004.

Israel is under heavy pressure by the world to import a huge number of the Arab "Refugees". It is an item on the table of the present Washington "negotiations". Here are Statements on Arab Refugees by Arabs. 1) A-Difaa Sep.6,1954 - a Jordanian publication stated: "We were master in our land, happy with our lot... but overnight everything changed. The Arab government told us 'Get out so that we can get it'. So we got out but the (the Arab governments) did not get in". 2) Abu Mazen (2nd man in the PLO) in Falastin el-Thawara March 1976 wrote: "The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and leave their homeland, imposed on them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prison similar to the Ghetos in which the Jews used to live." 3) Haled al-Azn, Prime Minster of Syria in 1948, wrote in his memoirs (published in Beyrouth in 1973): "Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave." Israel took in the Jewish refugees who were forced to flee from the Arab countries by the Arabs. It's about time the Arab countries that created the Arab refugee problem took in the Arab refugees. Justice For Jews can be reached at Justice4Jews@juno.com. Or write to PO.Box 2121, New York City, NY, 10021.

IT'S RAINING MORTAR SHELLS! Posted by Dror Vanunu, January 5, 2004.

"It's raining mortar shells!" This was the feeling of inhabitants in Gush Katif yesterday, last night and this morning, after close to 25 mortar shells bombarded the area. One house was damaged when a shell hit its roof, and damage was also caused to a nursery school room, but miraculously no one was hurt. The local message board, Katif.net, which continually reported on the latest landings, emphasized its disbelief at the fact that the army did not retaliate. The latest Palestinian Arab attack - three mortar shells in the vicinity of Morag, in southern Gush Katif - occurred around 9 AM this morning. There, too, no one was hurt. The Jews of Gush Katif, in Israel's southern Mediterranean coast area, have counted some 3,779 mortar shells fired at their homes, businesses and schools during the course of the 40-month Oslo War. Dror Vanunu is Director of the Katif Region Development Fund. He can be reached at gkatif@netvision.net.il. Write to him for pictures of some of the damage.

THE AL-BATTAR TRAINING CAMP: The First Issue of Al-Qa'ida's Online Military Magazine Posted by IMRA, January 5, 2004.

Recently, Al-Qa'ida published the first issue of its online magazine 'Al-Battar Training Camp - A Magazine Published by the Military Committee of the Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula.' (1) "Al-Battar" is an alias of Sheikh Yousef Al-Ayyiri, formerly an Al-Qa'ida leader in Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard who was killed last year in a clash with Saudi security forces. The magazine focuses on military matters, and complements 'The Voice of Jihad,' the other online magazine published by Al-Qa'ida in Saudi Arabia, which focuses on ideology. The first issue features articles by Seif Al-'Adel and Abd Al-'Aziz bin 'Issa bin Abd Al-Mohsen, also known as Abu Hajer. (2) The following is a review of the first issue: Al-Battar's Mission The introduction to the issue states: "Preparing [for Jihad] is a personal commandment that applies to every Muslim even when Jihad [itself] is a commandment applying [only] to all Muslims as a community, and all the more so at this time, when [Jihad] has become also a commandment applying to every Muslim personally with the aim of repelling the aggressive enemy who has invaded the Muslim land. "Because many of Islam's young people do not yet know how to bear arms, not to mention use them, and because the agents of the Cross are hobbling the Muslims and preventing them from planning [Jihad] for the sake of Allah - your brothers the Mujahideen in the Arabian peninsula have decided to publish this booklet to serve the Mujahid brother in his place of isolation, and he will do the exercises and act according to the military knowledge included within it... "These are times of Jihad and preparation for Jihad. In the time of the Mongol invasion, it didn't help the residents of Baghdad that most of them were clerics and educators..." In an editorial, Abu Thabit Al-Najdi wrote: "... The Al-Battar Training Camp is a new magazine of the military committee of the Al-Qa'ida organization in the Saudi peninsula... and it is given as a gift to the youth of Islam whose hearts burn in support of the religion by means of Jihad for the sake of Allah." Spreading Military Culture to the Youth "The basic idea is to spread military culture among the youth with the aim of filling the vacuum that the enemies of the religion have been seeking to expand for a long time. Allah willing, the magazine will be simple and easy, and in it, my Muslim brother, you will find basic lessons in the framework of a military training program, beginning with programs for sports training, through types of light weapons and guerilla group actions in the cities and mountains, and [including] important points in security and intelligence, so that you will be able... to fulfill the religious obligation that Allah has set upon you..." Establishing Training Camps in Saudi Arabia The next article, by Mu'aadh Mansour, is titled "The Importance of Military Preparedness in Shari'a." The article stated: "The Islamic nation is today in acute conflict with the Crusaders, their collaborators from among the Jews, and the apostates. The enemies of the religion have united to fight the Mujahideen by all ways and means - through the military, intelligence, logistics, economics, and the media - and there is no stratagem to fight the Mujahideen that they have not employed... "The Muslims today love this world, hate death, and abandon Jihad, and therefore Allah has subjugated them to the infidel nations that humiliate them. This is the divine punishment meted out to anyone who abandons Jihad... "Accordingly, out of belief in the importance of preparedness, this [virtual] training camp has been created. The camp is named after [Al-Battar], for the great efforts of Sheikh Yousef Al-'Ayyiri [also known as Al-Battar] in support of Muslims in several lands of Islam. One of his last blessed deeds was to establish several training camps in the land of the two holy places [i.e. Saudi Arabia], from which several of the hero Mujahideen have come..." 'Reasons for War' The magazine also features a lengthy review by Al-Baraa Al-Qahtani about the Kalashnikov rifle, and, following that, an old article by Sheikh Al-'Ayyiri himself, on the importance of sports in training Mujahideen. The issue also features a poem by Muhammad Al-Najdi, "A Message to the 26," in honor of the "faithful Mujahideen whose names are included in the list of the 26 [names of wanted men published by the Saudi authorities] and to the other Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula." Following the poem is an article by Abu Hajer (Abd Al-'Aziz bin 'Issa bin Abd Al-Mohsen), the first in a series on "The Guerilla War," which states, "The reasons for war can be divided into two parts: 1) Just wars, waged by a group or people whose will has been plundered and who is repressed and oppressed, against the invading and plundering force or against a tyrant. The goal is to remove the oppression and the aggression and to fight for the sake of Allah in order to impose Shari'a law and so that the word of Allah will reign supreme. Examples of this type of fighting are [in] the land of the two holy places, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, the Philippines, and so on. 2) Wars of oppression, waged by oppression forces against the repressed, with the goal of taking over the beliefs, replacing the religious laws, permitting the lands, and plundering the resources..." Next is an article by Abdallah Al-Badrani, "The Crusader War," that warns Muslims not to offer any assistance to the "Crusaders." It says: "Know, brother, if you wish to be saved in the next world... that anyone helping the infidels against the Muslims in any way, shape, or form is apostate even if he prays and fasts, and even if he gets up at night [to pray]..." The last article, "A Religious Position," by Seif Al-'Adel, focuses on security and intelligence. The author explains that while in days of war one must beware of enemies, in days of peace one must beware of enemy spies. He called on Al-Qa'ida members to be careful not to be exposed, while presenting examples of the life of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. Setting Up Training Camps Everywhere At the end of the issue, the magazine says: "Oh Mujahid brother, in order to join the great training camps you don't have to travel to other lands. Alone, in your home or with a group of your brothers, you too can begin to execute the training program. You can all join the Al-Battar Training Camp." Endnotes: (1) www.hostinganime.com/battar/b1word.zip (2) Please see MEMRI Special Dispatch 632, 'Al-Qa'ida Magazine Debates Attacks in Saudi Arabia - Proposes More Attacks in the U.S. will Boost Support,' http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP63203 The Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA) provides a digest of media polls and significant interviews and events. Dr Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA. IMRA's website address is http://www.imra.org.il

ISRAEL'S DAVID IRVING TRIAL Posted by AFSI, January 5, 2004.

Frequent Outpost contributor Steven Plaut is currently the defendant in Israel's own David Irving trial. Irving, it will be remembered, sued Prof. Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, in England, for writing what the court would find were simply statements of fact: namely that Irving was a Nazi apologist and Holocaust denier who had manipulated documents to "prove" there had been no genocide of Jews during World War II. Prof. Plaut is being sued for libel, in Israel, by one Prof. Neve Gordon, who teaches political science (to that institution's disgrace) at Ben-Gurion University, and whose writings are cited on Irving's website as they are on a number of neo-Nazi, Arab and Holocaust denial websites. While Gordon argues that he did not put his articles on these sites, the fact that his writings appeal to those who did tells volumes about their content. Plaut points out that Gordon - although not an M.D. - used to head Physicians for Human Rights, a pro-Arab organization so extreme it was publicly denounced by the Israel Medical Association. Gordon, Plaut has revealed, has repeatedly called Israel a "fascist" state engaging in "state terrorism," and has not only described Sharon and Netanyahu as "war criminals" but also arch-dove former Labor Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Gordon was also one of the signers of a petition before the recent Iraq war which declared Israel was planning to maltreat the Arab population once the war broke out. Plaut has told how after the Passover massacre of 2002 in Netanya, Gordon was among the group who illegally infiltrated army lines and entered Arafat's Ramallah headquarters to prevent the arrest of terrorists holed up there. Gordon has praised the writings of the notorious Norman Finkelstein, whose output is so egregious that, Plaut notes, he is the neo-Nazis' pet "Jewish historian." There is much, much more in Gordon's hate-filled resume. However, while Gordon feels entitled to freely express the most extreme, fanatic sentiments, he does not believe Plaut is entitled to express his own views on them, and is using the courts in an attempt to silence criticism. Gordon's suit in the Israeli courts is no more likely to succeed than Irving's appeal to the British courts, but it has major nuisance value, putting Plaut to the ex- pense and travail of a trial. Meanwhile, readers are encouraged to write to Professor Avishai Braverman, President of Ben-Gurion University and/or Friends of Ben-Gurion University, 1430 Broadway, N.Y., N.Y. 10018 and say what they think of Gordon and his lawsuit. This appeared as an editorial in Outpost, a monthly publication of Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI). AFSI is a pro-Israel activist group. Its web site address is: http://www.afsi.org

GARDEN PARTY FOR ISRAEL'S NEW AMBASSADOR TO GREAT BRITAIN Posted by Tamar Rush, January 5, 2004.

This was written by Angela Bertz. It is a letter to the foreign minister of Israel, Silvan Shalom, about the idiocy of an ambassador to England who can't speak the language! Dear Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, cc: Yoav Biron the Director-General of the Foreign Office Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli Embassy - London The day will come in the not to distant future when our new Ambassador to Great Britain will be at a garden party, hosted by Tony Blair, The Prime Minister, accompanied by his delightful wife Cherie. Cherie Blair will at some point undoubtedly corner Israel's new Ambassador. She will turn her large eyes towards him, looking for the entire world as she usually does; "like a startled deer caught in the headlights of a speeding car". She may come out with some seemingly nonchalant, but most certainly absolutely pathetic comment, about how no one really understands Palestinian suicide bombers. She has shown in the past that she considers them as just a jolly bunch of lads from Jenin or Ramallah, who woke up feeling rather desperate one particular morning. Now of course if I were the new Ambassador to Great Britain I would reply most eloquently. I would point out to Mrs. Blair that there is no element of desperation to these heinous acts. In fact, the evil ghouls who carry out these much planned attacks have usually been subject to months of brainwashing by any number of nasty terrorist organizations like Hamas, Al Aksa etc. Their mother will have been given a check for $10,000. His father will have been given plenty of time to organize a rousing street party, complete with fireworks and lots of sweeties for the little demonic Palestinian children, all to take place at about the time Israel will be scraping its dead children of the streets. I would also point out to Mrs. Blair, who has luckily just been joined by her husband, that there is and can be no cause in the world that can justify getting on a crowded bus, often packed with children and detonating an explosive belt. The Blairs will probably mumble some sort of apology and claim there has been a misunderstanding. "G-d forbid" they will say, as Tony urges the Ambassador to have just one more drink for the road. Good humour will have been restored. Of course that is what would happen if I were the new Ambassador to Great Britain. Zvi Hefetz will unfortunately turn to Cherie Blair looking as if he too has been caught in the headlights of a speeding car and do nothing more than smile at her. After all he will not be able to answer her; he probably won't even have understood a word she said. All he will be able to do is smile at her. Anything else will require a full command of the English Language. Let us pray that when the new Ambassador appears at functions, it will not be under the unfavourable scrutiny and spotlight of some very anti-Semitic reporter from the BBC or Guardian newspaper, who are surely going to have a field day when they discover that a country like Israel does not consider it necessary to fill this very important diplomatic post with a fluent English speaker, or, even someone with a long and distinguished career as a diplomat to his/her credit. Mr. Hefetz may be a wonderful person, but his choice as Ambassador to Great Britain is going to make us a laughing stock. I would plead with you to reconsider!

ISRAEL'S POLITICIANS: IT'S ALMOST FUNNY Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 5, 2004.

To understand the hypocrisy of Israel's politicians it is useful to have a bit of background as to the real nature of Israel's electoral system. Israel is a parliamentary republic with membership to the parliament assigned to political parties (and not people) on the basis of proportional representation. That means that if a political party receives 20% of the popular vote, they receive 20% of the 120 seats in the Knesset. (That's 24 seats for those of you who were raised on the New Math and can't count.) There was a short period when there was direct election of the Prime Minister but that was quickly put to an end. (It was declared a threat to Democracy for the people to directly elect the most powerful politician in their system.) Under this system the Member of the Knesset do not, I repeat, do not represent the people. They represent their political party. The people vote for a party and that party is supposed to have an ideology and a platform it will legislate. Most of the political parties actually work that way as well. The most blatant exception to this has been the Likud. Now I would be amongst the first to agree that this is an absolutely horrible and idiotic system and the few countries around the world who have tried it, quickly abandoned it for a much more rational and democratic district based electoral system. Only Israel's corrupt and decadent rulers continue to cling on to this monstrosity. They do so because it allows them to quite literally do whatever they want. It has reached the point that our megalomaniacal politicos believe they have The Divine Right To Rule. They truly and sincerely are astonished that any mere mortal could question their actions. Now that we have a bit of background, we can appreciate that as long as we have to suffer under this abomination of a regime structure we should at the very least squeeze out as much real democracy from it as is possible. The changes in the Likud's constitution are long over due and absolutely necessary to reverse the headlong plunge into dictatorship we are experiencing today. This news item is from Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=55665). Controversial Likud Convention Tonight. The Likud Central Committee will convene this evening, and preliminary indications show that it will continue its tradition of providing drama, controversy, and verbal violence. No votes will be taken, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be the only MK to speak, but critical and controversial resolutions will be introduced. The Forum for Preserving Likud Values will propose a change to the party charter, stipulating that any MK or minister who votes in the Knesset against decisions taken by the party's Central Committee will not be permitted to run for Knesset on the Likud list in the subsequent elections. The above forum is associated with Moshe Feiglin's Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) movement. Manhigut Yehudit, in the knowledge that many ministers and some MKs are against its proposal, has prepared carefully for the dramatic move. "In last year's conference," the Forum states in a letter to the Central Committee members, "someone made a 'snatch' and prevented us from holding a vote. They held a 'make-believe' open vote, and then quickly started singing HaTikvah [the national anthem]. But this time, we won't let anyone snatch the conference!" At issue, of course, are matters such as the Road Map and unilateral withdrawal, both of which stand in opposition to the Likud party platform. The new proposal is designed, says Michael Puah, Manhigut Yehudit's Director-General, to "prevent the continued phenomenon, by some of those we sent to the Knesset and the government, of mocking the Central Committee and its decisions." As an example, he said this morning that Ehud Olmert had "taken the mandate that we gave him, and used it to promote Meretz party positions." The Likud must cease being a "meaningless jump-board for a political career," the letter states. "Those who change their spots and adopt a different political outlook will be forced to be honest about it and pursue their political fortunes in a party that matches their new opinions." The letter continued, "We, the Forum for Preserving Likud Values, circulated a petition, and many of you signed it, calling for a secret vote. According to the party constitution, 10% of those present can demand and force a secret vote. This evening, we will be presenting the signatures of hundreds of Central Committee members [out of 3,000], including probably yours, that will force a secret vote. If, however, someone tries to force an open vote, don't participate! Instead, start waving the sign that appears on the other side of this page. Together with you will be hundreds of others who will also do so, and we will thus prevent a 'grab.' Together, we will restore power to the Central Committee!" The last sentence is in fact what appears on the other side of the letter. Several Likud members, most notably Education Minister Limor Livnat, reacted very sharply to the Manhigut Yehudit proposal. Speaking this morning on both Voice of Israel and Army Radio, she called it "insanity" and "initiated by a group of people who are motivated not by ideology but by criminal interests." Livnat said that restricting the ministers' and MKs' freedom to make their own decisions is liable to "endanger the State of Israel and the democratic rule of law." MK Yuval Shteinitz, who favors a withdrawal from Gaza though not from Judea and Samaria, said, "I am sure that most of my friends [in the Central Committee] are aware that in a modern democracy, the Central Committee chooses representatives in order to give them freedom to act, and not that they should be marionettes." Puah, emphasizing that the MKs must vote in accordance with the ideals of those they represent, said, "We have no doubt that there will be those who will do almost anything to make sure that our proposal is not accepted... We must not be dragged into provocations. We have a responsibility not to be satisfied with protesting, but to bring about correct decisions." 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.

MAKING DO WITH AN AMBASSADOR WHO CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH Posted by Jock L. Falkson, January 5, 2004.

Once again Israel is facing a PR catastrophe in the pending appointment of Zvi Hefetz as ambassador to the UK. An Israeli lawyer and businessman with good connections to Israel's elite, he is not a professional who has risen through the ranks in Foreign Office (FO) appointments and now deserves the top diplomatic appointment. In fact he has no diplomatic experience at all. Nor is he a professional PR executive who can present Israel's case to the TV audience when asked for his comment on whatever latest episode has engulfed Israel. Nor can he do this in private or public meetings. He may indeed be a well informed individual but Hefetz has no particular oratorical ability. He cannot meet the criterion as someone in the class of Abba Even. p>He can't, because not to put too fine a point on it, his English is poor. He has admitted this and, like Dalia Itzik, a former contender for the same post, has offered to take a crash course. Fortunately, the Foreign Office pulled the rug under her feet and her nomination was withdrawn. Why the FO persists with Hefetz's nomination is a mystery. All that Hefetz has going for himself is that he is a lawyer and businessman well-connected to Israel's ruling elite. How that can have a positive effect on Israel's PR in one of the world's most important capitals is as clear as mud. As recently as a month ago Efraim Karsh contributed an op ed piece to The Jerusalem Post on the subject of the new London ambassador. He wrote: "Since the departure of the last professional ambassador several years ago, Israel's media presence has been conspicuously missing as the two subsequent ambassadors, both political appointees, have either lacked the minimum mastery of the English language or, as in the case of the present ambassador, have been shunning the electronic media like the plague." It boggles the mind that the FO appointed an ambassador who shuns TV appearances like the plague. Still, the finger of blame points at the FO rather than the appointee. The FO appears to be stuck with the quite incorrect remark by Ben Gurion (later reiterated by Shimon Peres) that what counts is what Israel does, not what we say. Yet here we have the live example of the Palestinian Authority whose heinous terrorist crimes against the people of Israel are virtually overlooked. The international community prefers to believe what the Palestinians say rather than what they do. And who, with few exceptions, say it in far better English than Israeli spokespersons! What counts in the battle for public opinion is perception, not reality. Indeed it is an axiom of PR that perception is reality. This lesson has not yet been internalized by our FO whose PR/advertising budget is a picayune, ineffective, $10 million. There's talk this may be doubled in the 2004 budget. So what. It's unlikely for some time yet that Israel will be able to afford the $200 million (minimum) to the $300 million (preferable) to establish a mission-active media department. Despite the monetary problem however, Israel must still mount a credible PR campaign. If the London ambassador is incapable of performing this function the least the FO must do is give him a spokesperson to represent Israel at the Court of St. James's. One with the innate advantages of mother tongue English, correct accent, and a born understanding of the manners, traditions and mores of the British people. One who can be masterful in TV appearances.

A RARE VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH IN ISRAEL Posted by Steven Plaut, January 5, 2004.

Court Rules "Rabin Legacy" is not Holy (IsraelNN.com). The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday ordered the Ministry of Education to make compensatory payment to a teacher who opposed teaching the "Rabin Legacy" in our public schools. A few days before the fifth anniversary of the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yisrael Shiran, a teacher in the Moria-Barkai School in Haifa circulated a petition among fellow teachers. He intended to give the petition to the Ministry of Education in which he opposed teaching the so-called "Rabin Legacy" in our schools. Shiran pointed out the legacy was one that distributed weapons to our enemies, terrorists, and teaches us to surrender that which is dear to us. Then director-general of the Education Ministry, Shulamit Amihai, was quick to suspend Shiran, enjoying the approval of acting Education Minister, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Shortly following the suspension, ministry officials realized their actions were illegal and he was reinstated but he was eventually forced to leave the school due to related arguments with administrative officials. Justice David Mintz ordered compensatory payment be made in the sum of NIS 47,500, voicing sharp criticism against the ministry for taking such harsh actions unjustifiably. Shiran's lawyer, Nitzana Darshan-Leitner said, "This is a big day for freedom of speech and democracy in Israel. This ruling makes it clear that even statements about Rabin's murder are permitted. Maybe this will bring an end, once and for all, to the rule of fear that has taken hold here since Rabin's murder regarding statements about controversial political matters." 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.

UNDUE HASTE IN OUTPOSTS EXPULSION Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 5, 2004.

Another court decision actually based on law and commonly accepted standards of justice and decency. Truly an unusual day. High Court Critical of Outpost Expulsion Orders. (www.IsraelNN.com) The High Court of Justice expressed serious criticism of the expulsion orders issued to the residents of four Samaria and Judea outposts slated for evacuation by the government. During the hearing before the court, underway at this time, the three-judge panel ordered the government to extend the expulsion order from three to at least 15 days, in order to give the residents time to challenge the order in a court of law. Justice Dalia Dorner commented that it is unconscionable that the state would give citizens only three days to appeal a decision to expel them from their homes. The case was brought before the High Court by the grassroots organization, Professors for a Strong Israel. 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.

WE WILL GIVE THE ENEMY YOUR JOBS AND YOUR HOMES Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 4, 2004.

When I see what is going on with the Israeli government these days, I cannot help but wonder if many of those in charge are body doubles inserted by the enemies of the Jewish people. After all, with some of the recent moves instituted by the government, it's as if the government itself is bent upon the destruction of Israel and the further oppression and humiliation of the Hebrew people. In no particular order, here are some of the questionable decisions made by the Israeli government. Israel's economy is rapidly going south. Her citizens are experiencing a crushing unemployment rate, and poverty among Israelis is at an all time high. Any sane and rational government would try to help her citizens get jobs by banning foreign workers and thus opening up those jobs to her own citizens. But what does the Israeli government do? It issues 29,000 work permits to people who overwhelmingly support the murder of Jews and try, at every opportunity, to destroy the state of Israel and any Jew they can find. I have suggested banning foreign workers before and got the following argument: 'They take the jobs the Israelis don't want and wouldn't take.' To those who have said that, I wish you could see my email. I average between 15 and 20 personal responses to every editorial I write. With one exception. When I wrote about banning foreign workers to open up the jobs to Israelis, I was swamped for three days with emails (I stopped counting after 50). The majority were from unemployed Israelis who said they would be happy to take whatever job they could get, no matter how menial, simply so they could have shelter and food. It made me want to cry. And now the Israeli government is taking food from out of the mouths of her own citizens and giving it to the same Arabs who dance in the streets every time a Jewish baby or adult is blown to bloody shreds. Aside from the fact that it is beyond a sin to give aid and comfort to the enemy while letting one's own people struggle for survival, letting in 29,000 Arabs who rejoice in the murder of Jews is inviting further genocide. The Israeli government has essentially given a green light for the genocide bombers to enter Israel with impunity. This latest government move is in essence saying 'Screw you Israeli citizens who pay our salaries. We are going to make your struggles even harder by flooding the job market with 29,000 hostile foreigners. We are also going to put your lives in immediate peril by letting in these workers, some of whom will then use their work permits to enter our country for the sole purpose of committing Jewish genocide.' Next we come to the atrocity of Jews expelling their own people from their own homeland. I must say I agree that some so-called outposts - abandoned and burned-out buses and the like, are not deserving of the resources it takes to maintain them in their deserted decrepitude. However, forcibly taking away Jewish homes from fellow Jews living in the Jewish ancestral homeland and giving it to the sworn enemy of the Jews is an abomination beyond words. It is reminiscent of the mass expulsions of Jews from Europe and the Arab countries. It is also spitting on the graves of the very people who fought and died to regain the ancient Jewish homeland and return it to its rightful and indigenous people. For shame! Then there is the prosecution of Arutz Sheva. I thought Israel was a democracy and that freedom of speech was a guaranteed right under this system of governance (silly American that I am). From reading various news articles about the government's case against A-7, it became abundantly clear to me that the whole case was not about the broadcasting ship straying a few meters into Israeli controlled water without a license. Nor was it about true 'incitement.' If the Israeli government was so concerned about 'incitement,' it would have long ago prosecuted and jailed those imams preaching genocide of the Jews from inside Israeli territory. Yet those imams, as well as others, remain immune to prosecution. For shame! And lastly, a major policy initiative by the United States seems to have passed without even a minor protest. For those of you who are unaware, James Baker has just been appointed special envoy to the Middle East and mediator in the dispute (actually, state of war) that still exists between Israel and Syria. This is the same James Baker who, during the reelection campaign of President Bush's father in 1992 said "F**k the Jews. They don't vote for us anyhow." (A reference to the Republican Party.) No hue and cry, Mr. Sharon? Not even a mild questioning, but blind acceptance of such an obvious anti-Semite? For shame. Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

PALESTINIAN CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED FROM THEIR ELDERS: "Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acco, Ramle... belong to Palestine" Posted by Yuval Zaliouf, January 4, 2004.

Not only there is nobody to talk to on the Arab-Palestinian side, Arafat and the Palestinian Authority are making sure there will be nobody even in the next generation. I have just watched an interview on Israeli TV of an Arab-Palestinian youth. In his opinion, Israel started the Intifadah, Jews have no claim on any part of Jerusalem and the entire Israel is Arab land and belongs to the Arabs. How many times will the Arab-Palestinians have to repeat this message until the Israeli left gets it? My friend Linda writes about the Palestinian-Arabs: "The truth is that not only is there no-one to talk to today regarding any kind of accord, but the next generation is already poisoned. The following report is clear, as have been many before it, and the proof irrevocable. This is an important article. Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook present the facts, leaving us to not only draw conclusions, but to embark on a plan of action. "It seems however that no one has the temerity to do that. How many times in how many ways must the Palestinians re-iterate their aims before we are prepared to take them at their word?" If you want to know what's really at the heart of the Palestinian conflict with Israel, don't ask the politicians or the diplomats. Go to the new experts: Palestinian children. Unlike the rest of the world, they've been paying close attention to what their leaders and educators have been teaching them and they are ready to practice what they have been taught. For instance, children interviewed on PA TV last week state clearly and without reservation that Israel has no right to exist, and that their goals for which they're willing to sacrifice their lives is Israel's destruction and the expulsion of all Israelis. "They [the Jews] came to take Palestine, that is Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acco, Ramle. All these cities belong to Palestine," one youth explains in the broadcast, echoing years of standard Palestinian Authority (PA) indoctrination. And because he is convinced that Israel has no right to exist: "We hope, hope, hope and I emphasize these things, that the Arab countries and the foreign countries, all the countries of the world, will support the Palestinians and will expel the Israelis." "We must expel all Israelis from Palestine. Because Israel - there is nothing called 'Israel' in the world. The Israelis [came] from Holland, America, Iran." The children are seen promising they will keep fighting, generation after generation, "until they liberate Palestine." Furthermore, they don't fear death in the struggle because it is Shahada - Death for Allah. "Even if all the Palestinian children, Palestinian youth, Palestinian women, and Palestinian men die, we will not surrender!" None of this is surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to what goes on in the PA educational system and its educational TV. Israel is erased from PA maps, schoolbooks and historians deny Israel's history and right to exist, and educators at all levels teach that Israel is a foreign colonial implant. Despite PA claims to the contrary, its textbooks continue to delegitimize Israel and dismiss it as a foreign occupier: "Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948." [National Education, Sixth Grade, p. 16]. Children are taught that all of Israel is part of "Palestine". For example: "Among the famous rocks of southern Palestine are the rocks of Beersheba and the Negev." About "Palestine's" water sources children are taught: "The most important is the Sea of Galilee..." [Our Beautiful Language, Grade 6, Part A, p. 64; National Education, Sixth Grade, pp. 9-10]. Such messages of delegitimization have been affirmed by Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei. He is on record as rejecting the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. "President Bush said that Israel is a Jewish state, which is a cause for our concern. This should not have been said." [Al-Nahar-Lebanese and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 15, 2003]. PA affiliated historians frequently appear on educational TV to reinforce this message. Just last week historian and educational TV host Dr. Isam Sisalem reiterated what he has said on numerous broadcasts, that Jews "... have no history or connection to this land" and are nothing but a "cancer" planted by Britain to control the Middle East. In the same educational broadcast last week, another historian resurrected The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous anti-Semitic forgery citing it as one of the foundations of the First Zionist Congress in 1897. "...The Zionist movement began at the Basel Congress to plan the exploitation of the powers struggle, and the struggle of Europe over the Middle East..." said Dr. Riad Al-Astal, a history lecturer at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. Consequently when we view children on PATV who say they want to destroy Israel, to liberate "Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Acco, and Ramle," and to expel the Jews, we are seeing children who are accurately regurgitating the sentiments inculcated and reinforced throughout PA society. Indeed, years of anti-Israel indoctrination have been alarmingly effective in teaching PA youth that the Jews have no link to Israel, that Israel has no right to exist and that the overriding goal of the next generation - even at the cost of their lives - should be to eliminate Israel. The essence of the conflict is Israel's very right to exist - not the question of borders, territories or refugees. Peace negotiations that do not address the PA's educational system and its indoctrination will be short-term paper agreements doomed to failure. Palestinian children have already figured this out. Perhaps the rest of us need to stay after school. Yuval Zaliouf write the Truth Provider essays. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il Itamar Marcus is director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. To subscribe to PMW's reports send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

FALSE IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE P.A. Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 4, 2004.

Since Israel imposed closure, "the P.A. has struggled to provide even the most basic services to its constituents." Israel, says Hanan Ashrawi, is "giving the false impression that there is a P.A. with real power." The P.A.'s ebbing prestige could weaken its already weak negotiating position with Israel and bolster groups that reject accommodation with the Jewish state, "as the real action shifts to the no-holds-barred fight between Israel and the factions determined to destroy it." Mr. Abbas's subsequent failure to win key concessions from Israel, such as an easing of the closures, the mass-release of prisoners, or an end to Israeli incursion and targeted killings, robbed him of legitimacy in the eyes of many Palestinians" (Arabs). For example, a massive Israeli incursion in Rafah demolished 164 houses and left nearly 1,500 people homeless (Guy Chazan, Wall St. J., 11/12/03, A17) The P.A. does not provide basic services. Its people service their masters and their masters make war. When Israel ran the Territories, it provided basic services, now run down. The P.A. had power. Any loss of power was due to its genocidal aggression. Blaming Israel for that loss of power is like blaming the victim for hitting back at a mugger. What is wrong with the aggressor having a weakened negotiating position? Unfortunately, the P.A. has an strong negotiating position, backed up as it is by a biased and corrupted world! Strange that Mr. Chazan poses the P.A. as the weaker party in negotiations. Among the factions determined to destroy Israel is Fatah, a tool of Arafat, head of the PA.. The distinction between rejectionist and accommmodationist factions is spurious. It is promoted by Arab propagandists. It serves to confuse people into making concessions to the alleged accomodationists, lest the rejectionists make war. Actually, the P.A. and the PLO make war as much does Hamas. They are allies against Israel, while rivals for power within the P.A.. If thwarting terrorism by closure, keeping terrorists in prison, and making incursions against terrorist commanders and others whom the P.A. harbors in violation of the Oslo Accords seem illegitimate to the people of the P.A., then the people of the P.A. are in league with the illegitimate terrorists and deserve punishment rather than statehood. Mr. Chazan does not state how he came by those figures for house demolition and homelessness. The figures provided by the Israeli Army are much lower and accord with the situation. Most of those buildings are unoccupied, being used solely for terrorism. Their few occupants are paid to lend the buildings for terrorism, and often get their houses rebuilt by the PLO after the Israeli army pulls out. Sympathy should not be given them nor blame given Israel. What "no-holds-bared fight?" The Arabs use terrorism and Israel fights humanely. Mr. 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.

JUDEA AND SAMARIA: Irreplaceable to Israel's Security Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 4, 2004.

Because Israel's Prime Minister is a deeply experienced General, who has successfully engaged in numerous wars, he cannot claim ignorance in giving away vital natural barriers that played a significant role in stopping prior invasions. Therefore, should Sharon bow to foreign interests and demands in giving up these irreplaceable natural barriers, he will have knowingly betrayed the nation and should be tried for treason during the unremitting warfare Israel is being subjected to. I would include his Cabinet and all those who participated in advocating the vulnerability of Israel. They, too, must be tried for both past crimes against the State to include those universally felled by Terrorists allowed into proximity of Israel's civilian population. With that in mind, please read Yoram Ettinger's analysis of why Judea and Samaria cannot ever be given over to control by or of the Arab Palestinians. There is another question of law or ethics, namely, What responsibility does President George W. Bush carry when he knowingly commits Israel to national suicide in order to placate Arab Palestinian Terrorists and Rogue Arab State Supporters of Terorr. The Arab Palestinians have a clear, unbroken record of Terror against peaceful civilians, Jews, Christians, Americans, Turks and their own people. They are also infamous for not keeping any signed agreements with Israel or even with their Arab brethren nations. George Bush knows all of this as does Ariel Sharon. What are the rules for leaders who sentence a whole population to a high probability of massive casualties or Genocide? This is the text of a presentation prepared by Yoram Ettinger for the Hatikvah Educational Foundation. The presentation constitutes a most comprehensive compilation of facts relevant to the security aspects of Judea and Samaria. THE IMPORTANCE OF JUDEA & SAMARIA MOUNTAIN RIDGES IN THE ERA OF MODERN WEAPONRY Judea & Samaria (J&S) mountain ridges - 3,000 ft above the Jordan Valley and 2,000 ft above the 8-15 mile coastal plain - constitute THE "GOLAN HEIGHTS" OF JERUSALEM , TEL AVIV AND HAIFA. 1. HAS SADDAM's DEMISE ELIMINATED THE "EASTERN FRONT THREAT" TO ISRAEL? *In 1967, Israel obliterated Egypt, Syria and Jordan, producing a "No Threat" delusion. The delusion was crashed in 1973, when Israel barely escaped annihilation. *In 1979, Iran was abruptly transformed from an ally (of US and Israel) to an enemy. *The 1989, demise of the USSR gave rise to the illusion of global peace, but the world has become more violent. *In 1948, King Abdullah (Jordan) promised Israel to stay away from war, but reneged. In 1966 King Hussein met with Israel's leaders, but bombed Jerusalem in 1967, and provided the PLO with a terrorist infrastructure in 1968-70. In 1990 Jordan was a key supply channel to Saddam. *The 1993 Oslo vision of peace produced a nightmare of unprecedented terror. *War on terrorism is Bush's top priority; will his successor follow suit? A possible US retreat from Iraq would exacerbate terrorism. *Saddam's regime was perceived as doomed in 1991, became a non-conventional threat in 2002 and was eliminated in 2003. When will a brutal regime resurface in Baghdad? *How would the Mideast be impacted by a demise of the current Hashemite, Saudi or Egyptian regimes? *Mideast precedents - in the most unpredictable, volatile and violent region in the world - behoove Israel to be prepared for realistic scenarios, including "The Eastern Front Threat." 2. CENTRALITY OF GROUND BARRIERS IN DEFEATING ENEMIES *Thousands of tons of daily bombing did not end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 70% of the bombing was inaccurate. *Saddam was brought to submission when the ground forces reached Baghdad. *Ballistic missiles cause damage, but they don't conclude wars. An Arab tank battalion in Tel Aviv would be more significant than a shower of missiles on Tel Aviv. *Without ground forces, the 1991 and 2003 wars would've been prolonged, causing more casualties and tension with allies, allowing Saddam to declare victory. *The centrality of ground forces suggests the centrality of ground barriers (geographic depth and topographic edge). *"ENDURING RELEVANCE OF LANDPOWER", US Army's Institute of Land Warfare, Oct. 2003: "Land force (is) the cornerstone of deterrence...Ground units can both destroy and occupy...sustain land dominance and achieve a lasting decision...Remote precision strikes will not provide this capability, as was demonstrated (in Afghanistan and Iraq)...Determined adversaries are seldom defeated quickly. Achieving a lasting decision requires the ability to conduct sustained, multidimensional joint operations. Land forces provide these qualities...During the Afghan campaign of 2002, precision air strikes were critical, but they neither annihilated opposition nor finished the enemy...In the 1999 Kosovo operation, the air war created the conditions for negotiations, but it was the ground forces that created the stability that now exists. In 1995, in Bosnia, the threat of airpower did not significantly deter Serbia. It took the ground forces to create the conditions for the Dayton Accords. In 1991, months of strike operations did not achieve decision. The four-day ground war led to Iraqi surrender...(In 1989 in Panama), the surrender of Noriega was the result of soldiers on the ground..." *The US - the #1 ballistic power - stations 200,000 GIs (125% increase since 2001) in overseas military land installations in 120 countries. *All wars are conventional, requiring ground forces (India-Pakistan, US-Afghanistan, US-Iraq, US-Panama, Britain-Argentina, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Iran-Iraq, Morocco-Mauritania, etc.). 3. UNITED STATES GENERALS ON JUDEA & SAMARIA MOUNTAIN RIDGES *LT. GENERAL (RET.) TOM KELLY, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS IN THE 1991 GULF WAR: "I cannot defend this land (Israel) without that terrain (West Bank)...The West Bank mountains, and especially their 5 approaches, are the critical terrain. If an enemy secures those passes, Jerusalem and Israel become uncovered. Without the West Bank, Israel is only 8 miles wide at its narrowest point. That makes it indefensible." *THE LATE ADMIRAL BUD NANCE: "The eastern mountain ridge of the West Bank is one of the world's best tank barriers. Invading tanks will have to climb a 3,000 ft steep slope from the Jordan Valley. The western mountain ridge, which is a 2,000ft gentle slope, constitutes a dream platform of invasion to Israel's narrow (8-15 miles) coastal plain. Control of the West Bank provides Israel the time to mobilize its reservists, which are essential to its survival during a surprise attack." *GENERAL (RET.) AL GRAY, FORMER COMMANDANT, MARINE CORPS: "Missiles fly over any terrain feature, but they don't negate the strategic significance of territorial depth. The key threat to Israel will remain the invasion and occupation by armored forces. Military success requires more than a few hundred missiles. To defeat Israel would require the Arabs to deploy armor, infantry and artillery into Israel and destroy the IDF on the ground. That was true in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and it remains true in the era of modern missiles." *100 RETIRED GENERALS AND ADMIRALS signed an Oct. 1988 advertisement in the Washington Times: Israel should not withdraw from J&S, lest it fail to provide security to its People. It is impossible to demilitarize J&S effectively. *THE LATE ADMIRAL BUD NANCE: "No logical reason for Israel to give up one inch of the disputed areas. Quite to the contrary, I believe if Israel were to move out of the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it would increase instability and the possibility of war, increase the necessity for Israel to preempt in war and the possibility that nuclear weapons would be used to prevent an Israeli loss, and increase the possibility that the US would have to become involved in a war." *CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, EARL WHEELER: The minimum required for Israel's defense includes most of the West Bank and the whole of Gaza and the Golan Heights (a secret document submitted to the Secretary of Defense on June 29, 1967). Wheeler realized that in the Mideast peace is based on deterrence. 4. LAND - DEPLOYMENT OF RESERVISTS - SURPRISE ATTACK *The transition from peace to war, in the Mideast, is as abrupt and unpredictable as Mideast inter-Muslim politics. *A surprise attack provides Arab regular forces (tanks and infantry) a 7:1 advantage adjacent to the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv-Haifa area. 50 hours are required to mobilize Israel's reservists (75% of IDF), in order to close the gap and block the Arab invasion. *The more advanced the Arab weaponry, the faster and more destructive is the surprise offensive, the longer it takes to mobilize Israel's reservists, the more essential are J&S mountain ridges for halting the invasion. Control of the mountain ridges enables a small Israeli force to block the invasion until the arrival of reservists. *The slimmer is Israel's geographic depth, the less time is available to mobilize reservists, and the more critical is the control of the mountain ridges. The demilitarization of J&S would provide Israel with merely 5-10 hours early warning time (50 hours are required to mobilize the reservists), before the invasion could reach Israel's "Soft Belly." *Most of Israel's reservist infrastructure is located in the "narrow waistline" of Jerusalem-Tel Aviv-Haifa area (70% population, 80% industry and finance, key fuel depots and intersections), which is dominated by the J&S mountain ridges. The control of J&S determines the time available for the deployment of reservists and for blocking a surprise invasion. *Primitive Scud missiles created havoc in the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv-Haifa area during the 1991 Gulf War. The more advanced are the missiles, the more vulnerable are population centers and air force bases (which are crucial to stop invading tanks). In 1967, Jordan shelled Israel's leading air force base by J&S-based artillery. *Security arrangements, as a substitute for ground barriers, require geographic depth, which provides early warning time, should a peace accord collapse (as happens often in the Mideast). Israel does not possess geographic depth. Ground barriers was tactically pertinent in 1948. In 2003 - due to modern weaponry - ground barriers are strategically critical. 5. IS TECHNOLOGY A SUBSTITUTE FOR GROUND BARRIERS? *High Tech of today always becomes Low Tech of tomorrow. But, High Ground of today remains High Ground tomorrow. One can always develop a superior response to any advanced weapon system. However, one cannot develop superior ground barriers to J&S mountain ridges. *One can, eventually, jam any existing technology. However, one cannot jam the topographic edge of Judea & Samaria mountains. *A country does not alter its boundaries in accordance with the development of weapon system and technologies. *The best surveillance systems, stationed in the Persian Gulf by the US, failed to detect Iraq's invasions of Iran (1980) and Kuwait (1990). They caused over 1 million fatalities and a mega-billion dollar damage. *In 1973, Israel's technology detected Egypt's and Syria's plans of invasion, but the human factor failed to comprehend the data, as happens often in other countries. Ground barriers, rather than technology, stopped the invasion and prevented annihilation. *Technology is fallible, while ground barriers enables one to overcome technological, intelligence and operational failures. In 1973, Sinai, Golan and J&S were the cushion, which spared Israel oblivion. *US superior technology could not destroy Iraq's missile launchers in 1991. *In 1999, "Newsweek" reported that China might have developed a technology, capable of neutralizing the US Air Force and paralyzing Taiwan's air defense. *Advanced technology is not an effective substitute to ground barriers. It could be a temporary and uncertain improvement, deepening dependence on outside powers. Its supply can be suspended, curtailed or cancelled. *The US does not consider technology as a substitute for ground barriers, and therefore it operates military land installations in 120 countries. 6. JUDEA & SAMARIA vs. SINAI *The Sinai giveaway has constrained Israel's strategic maneuverability and Israel's potential of concessions in other fronts, including J&S. *Sinai borders the Negev, while J&S borders Israel's "Soft Belly" (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv-Haifa area), which contains 70% of the population, 80% of the industry and finance, key fuel depots and intersections. *Sinai does not possess a topographic edge over the Negev, while J&S does possess a significant edge over Israel's coastal plain. *The Negev (2/3 of pre-1967 Israel) is sparsely populated, constantly accommodating most of Israel's reserve maneuvers, and therefore can absorb a surprise offensive by Egypt. The densely populated sliver coastal plain may not be able to absorb a surprise offensive by a resurrected Eastern Front. *A demilitarized Sinai (22,000 sqm) accords 40 hours early warning time for the deployment of Israel's reservists. A demilitarized J&S (2,200sqm) would accord 5-10 hours, while the IDF requires 50 hours for full deployment. *Retaking Sinai would be less difficult due to the Negev's similar topography. Retaking J&S would be more difficult due to J&S' topographic edge. *The Sinai giveaway was a calculated risk. A J&S giveaway might be a lethal gamble. *A J&S giveaway would doom Jerusalem, transforming the Jewish capital into an enclave, connected to the coastal plain by a narrow 5 mile corridor, overtowered by J&S mountain ridges. 7. J&S MOUNTAIN RIDGES - IRREPLACEABLE TO ISRAEL'S SECURITY *The eastern mountain ridge of J&S - rather than the Jordan Valley - constitutes one of the world's best tank barriers (a 3,000ft steep slope over the Jordan Valley). The five roads traversing it are easily controllable by a relatively small regular force. *The western mountain ridge of J&S (a 2,000 ft moderate slope) constitutes a dream platform for invaders into the sliver coastal plain, for the firing of shoulder launched missiles at civilian aircraft, and for daily terrorism, which would transform the terror reality of the Gaza bordering towns to the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv-Haifa area. *The J&S mountain ridges constitute a platform for air defense, jamming and surveillance systems, which extend all the way to the Persian Gulf, and is essential for the "Arrow" anti-missile system. A Jordanian bomber could reach Israel in 4 minutes from the Jordan Valley, which is the minimum time required to deploy Israel's interceptors. *J&S mountain ridges prevent Israel's coverage by Arab surveillance systems, thus enhancing Israel's defensive and offensive capabilities. *A J&S giveaway would exacerbate terrorism, dwarfing the 1994-2003 losses. *Until 1967, Israel forced Jordan to limit its military force in J&S to 5,000 soldiers, in order to preclude a lethal threat. In 2003, there are 40,000 armed Palestinian terrorists in J&S, which are equal to 4 infantry divisions. *J&S mountain ridges constitute the "Golan Heights" of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. They enhance Israel's strategic profile and power of deterrence. They transform Israel from a strategic liability to a strategic asset. A J&S giveaway would induce Arab belligerence. *Without J&S, Israel wouldn't have been able to force a Syrian withdrawal from Jordan in 1970 and might not have been able to carryout the bombing of Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981. *The signing of the Oslo Accord radicalized Israeli Arabs. The current stage of Palestinian terrorism (since 2000) has exacerbated Arab-Jewish relations. A J&S giveaway would further deteriorate co-existence. 8. UNIQUENESS OF ISRAEL'S SECURITY PREDICAMENT *The world expects Israel to yield land, which it does scarcely possess.Israel's area is 0.196% of the area of the Arab countries, which is 150% larger than the US and 130% larger than Europe. The West expects the Arabs to accord Israel peace, which they have yet to accord to one another (Arie Stav, Executive Director of the Ariel Center for Policy Research). *The geographic depth of J&S, Golan Heights and Sinai enabled Israel to fend off the 1973 surprise offensive. The absence of geographic depth would require more preventive wars. *Israel has a zero margin of error during wartime, due to the violent and unpredictable nature of the Mideast, due to the lack of geographic depth, due to a critical topographic and geographic edge enjoyed by its enemies, and due to a sustained arms race conducted by them. *Topographic and geographic inferiority mandates Israel to transfer war, promptly, to enemy's territory. *Unlike other countries - and due to the ideology and the track record of its enemies - Israel has to win each war. The Jewish nation was defeated 2,000 years ago, and the Jewish People was dispersed. In view of the ideology amplified daily by official Arab education, media and clergy, there would be no Diaspora, should Israel be currently defeated... *Israel's pre-1967 borders were the longest in the world per sqm (and therefore less defensible). They were 360 kilometers (225 miles) longer than the current borders, characterized by more complex geography, which requires more personnel and hardware. 9. ISRAEL'S UNIQUE VULNERABILITY *The width of Israel's coastal plain (8-15 miles) is equal to the distance between JFK and La Guardia airports in New York. The width of Israel's coastal plain (8-15 miles) is less than the length of DFW airport in Texas, equal to the width of Washington DC, San Francisco and Miami and equal to the distance between Wall Street and Columbia University in New York. *The width of Israel's coastal plain (8-15) is less than the distance between downtown London and Heathrow Airport and equal to a roundtrip distance between Albert Hall and the Tower of London, between Bois Du Boulogne and La Place De La Bastille in Paris and between the Kennedy Center and the RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. *"The entire state of Israel - including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights - is smaller than the gunnery range at Nellis Air Force Base...Israel is only 9 miles across at is center close to Tel Aviv. This is scarcely more than the distance from the Pentagon to Mount Vernon. A modern tank can traverse this distance in about 15 minutes...With the West Bank included, Israel is approximately 40 miles across at its mid-point. The city of Atlanta is more than 40 miles across (he late Admiral Bud Nance). *Israel's area - before 1967 - was just 6 times more than the largest ranch in Texas, King's Ranch. *The US military declared a 25 kilometer radius area, in Bosnia, as a "killing zone", in order to ensure the safety of US soldiers. 10. PEACE BOUNDARIES IN THE MIDEAST *1,300 years of inter-Muslim and inter-Arab conflicts have transformed the Mideast into the most violent region in the world: No comprehensive inter-Arab peace, no inter-Arab ratification of all borders, no compliance with all inter-Arab agreements/treaties, no Arab democratic regimes and no Arab regime which stays in power without the use of violence. Is it logical to assume that the Arabs are ready to accord to the Jewish ("infidel") State that which they have yet to accord to one another?! *Peace in the Mideast is Peace of Deterrence. *The test of peace boundaries in the violent and unpredictable Mideast is not in their ability to entice a peace accord. Rather, it is in their ability to deter and/or withstand a typical Mideast scenario: An unpredictable violation of a peace agreement, by a concerted inter-Arab offensive against sliver Israel, led by a tank and infantry invasion, and backed up by a barrage of missiles, a wave of Palestinian terrorism and a possible insurgency by Israel's Arabs. *The durability of a peace accord in the Mideast is as durable as Mideast politics, which is the shiftiest and the most tenuous in the globe. *Peace accord enhance security as long as the parties adhere to the agreement. Peace accord undermines security, once it is violated, as a result of the territorial concessions made. *"TERRITORIES FOR PEACE" IS LOGICALLY FLAWED: While Israel should, supposedly, concede territories in return for peace, would a reduced peace - through Arab violations - entitle Israel to retrieve territories? Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Mid East analyst. Yoram Ettinger. Yoram Ettinger is a consultant on US-Israel relations as well as the Chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research (http://www.acpr.org.il).

SAUDI ARABIA Posted by Leo Rennert, January 4, 2004.

To the New Yorker Magazine: Congratulations on a superb piece of reportage about the oppressiveness and disintegration of Saudi society by Lawrence Wright ("The Kingdom of Silence" Jan. 5). It gave readers a rare insight - you might say a worm's eye-view - of the country's economic, social and cultural decline because of high-level corruption and the regime's embrace of religious fanaticism. What is particularly scary is that young Saudis see no hope or future for themselves as their country spirals downward. The article raises important questions about the illusions nurtured by our own media and successive U.S. governments, which have pictured Saudi Arabia and its ruling monarchy as stalwart, moderate allies who could be relied on to serve our economic and strategic interests. Too many American journalists allowed themselves to be fed illusions by Saudi's "swinging" ambassador, Prince Bandar, and by carefully escorted and choreographed visits to the kingdom that ended up keeping this crumbling edifice in the sands out of sight and out of mind for most Americans. Now when it's too late, we have nobody to blame but our own self-inflicted blindness.

THE 'DON'T SAY, SAY' DICTIONARY Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, January 4, 2004.

Dear friends, A well planned, well executed propaganda campaign, can be measured by the amount of lies absorbed by the targeted recipients. It can also be measured by false terminologies that after time become the accepted norm. On both counts, the Arab-Palestinians have scored tremendous successes. To counter this sad situation, I have started a DON'T SAY, SAY, DICTIONARY. I invite you all to add to the dictionary until we have a more complete document. First and foremost, please absorb the SAY column and start using the correct and truthful terminology whenever you are engaged in a conversation about the Middle East conflict. If you are in doubt as to why I chose a SAY term, please do not hesitate to ask me for an explanation. However, if you have been reading my bulletins, I am confident you already have the answers. DON'T SAY - SAY DICTIONARY DON'T SAY SAY Colonialism Return to Jewish Homeland Green Line 1948 Armistice Line Haram el Sharif Temple Mount, or Mount Zion Jewish Settlements Jewish villages, towns, or Communities Occupied Territories Disputed territories, or Territories captured from Jordan and Egypt Palestine Land of Israel, Holy land, or Zion Palestinians Palestinian-Arabs Palestinian Lands Privately Owned Lands, different from Public or Government Lands Palestinian Militants Palestinian Terrorists Return the Territories Give-up, Hand-over, Surrender the Territories Settlers Jews, or Israelis West Bank Judea and Samaria, or Lands East of the 1948 Armistice Lines West Bank and Gaza Yesha or Biblical Israel To receive Yuval Zaliouk's Truth Provider essays, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il

A FEW THINGS Posted by Judy Lash Balint, January 4, 2004.

There's an odd atmosphere around Jerusalem these days. On the one hand, there's the distinct upswing in the mood of the city caused by the noticeable influx of tourists who have chosen to spend their Chanukah/Xmas/ New Year's vacation with us. Shops are full of customers, impossible wait times are the norm at popular restaurants, streets clog with tour buses and the chatter of a variety of English accents fills the streets and hotel lobbies. Rabbinic conferences and solidarity groups add to the clamor, and then there's birthright. More than 9,000 18-26 year olds from countries including Uruguay, Brazil, France, Russia, Ukraine and the US are traversing Israel's tourist sites and hiking trails. The subsidized trips are for young people who have never before been on an organized tour to Israel. Banners on the main thoroughfares welcome the students. The head of the Israeli Hotel Association is heard on radio spots throughout the day lauding the arrival of birthright groups and noting that the visits have helped hotels retain many of their workers. But despite all this, more and more people have the perception that in many facets of life, Israel is gradually sliding backwards to the point of having much in common with Third World countries. In recent days, I have heard both native Israelis and visitors from abroad independently make this assessment. The natives note the increase in gangster-style violence, corruption in the corporate and government sectors and the stranglehold of the Histadrut Labor Federation, which has kept government services from being delivered for almost four months now. Unacceptably high numbers of children living under the poverty line and the dismal state of Israeli education complete the picture. In the cold, damp Jerusalem winter, thousands of homes are without heat. Many Jerusalemites rely on kerosene heaters, or simply pile on the blankets and sweatshirts to shiver through the cold nights. Visitors from abroad make the Third World assessment after a short visit downtown. Streets have been torn up for almost two years as the light rail project drags on. Dust and torn-up sidewalks predominate the landscape, and poorly dressed people with tension in their eyes mingle with the Arabs on Jaffa Road. The Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall has gone to seed, the result of a combination of factors. Sporadic tourism, the effects of the construction and the simple fact that it's become passe have forced shops to close. The street has become dilapidated and lost its one-time energy and charm. Meantime, municipal tax bills arrived in this week's mail, including a 3 per cent hike in fees. Mayor Lupolianski was forced to announce pay cuts in the exorbitant salaries he's been paying to his six, yes six, deputy mayors. On the national political front, the right is digging in its heels over the potential dismantling of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. "Israel Does Not Want to Give In" is the motto blaring from posters all over the country announcing the next rally to be held on January 12 in Tel Aviv. No doubt the event will bring out 100,000 people, with high school and hesder yeshiva students bused in en masse. Media coverage will be scant and the next day it will be business as usual. There's little thought given to real community organizing to mobilize the silent majority who instinctively feel that turning Jews out of their homes will not assuage the enemy. Yet another factor adding to the strained atmosphere of these days is the barrage of accusations hurled at Israel from many corners of the world. Recently we were told by hundreds of thousands of Europeans in a multi-national survey that we're the greatest threat to world peace. The latest accusation appeared in print on the op ed pages of the International Herald Tribune last week. [In Israel the English language edition of Haaretz comes as an insert of the IHT.] The director of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University labels "hard line Zionists from Israel" as one of three groups that "have emerged as dangerously destabilizing actors in world politics." The other two? Al Quaeda and American "reborn Christians and neoconservatives." The learned professor goes on to assert "if these extremists are not marginalized, they could succeed in creating a world order with devastating consequences for generations to come." As one of those hard line Zionists from Israel, I can reassure the professor that until things are changed significantly on the home front, we won't be causing any upheaval in the world order. Judy Lash Balint is a Jerusalem based freelance writer and author of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times (www.jerusalemdiaries.com)

JEW HATRED - OVERBLOWN Posted by Arlene Peck, January 4, 2004.

The Los Angeles Times, for once, actually surprised me. This is a newspaper that for years has devoted untold pages to the promoting of Israel-baiting and anti-Semitism, yet suddenly saw fit to devote two pages to the possibility that "Jews face a widening web of hate." Golly, they even published an article written by Abraham H. Foxman, who is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism. Wow! Do you think that they might just be 'getting it?' Even given the fact that they, and the Peter Jenningses of the world, the BBC, CNN, and most of the mainstream media have done everything in their power for years to slant the news against Israel in any possible way. (Many times I watched them gleefully speak of "Anti-Zionism", which we all know has been a code word for plain old Jew hatred.) I'm not talking the distant past, either. Sixty years ago, in pre-Holocaust days, which are looking very familiar as of late, the same signs were there. The Jewish state has been targeted by the United Nations and the European Union continuously and singled out as a pariah state. Obscenely, Israel has been singled out as a "Nazi State." For years, I have watched while these same press outlets who now, like a recent Newsweek, devote a cover and story to "New Anti-Semitism." Yet, how many issues gleefully reported on the terrorists bombings of Israeli civilians out for a stroll or eating pizza, and then compared them to Israel's carefully planned and surgically executed removal of the bombers as some sort of 'tit for tat'? We are so pitifully politically correct in this country that, night after night, the news is filled with nothing but the carnage that the Arabs are causing, yet nobody can actually mention the real root of the world's problems without being accused of being unkind and discriminating against the powerful Arab cartel. Somehow, in all this, while the Arab world is still bombing our American soldiers in ambushes that the Israelis have come to know so well, our press and president still speak of the "peaceful Arab nations." Oh really? Where? Why should I be surprised that the Arab world is still marching for Saddam when their fathers and grandfathers overwhelmingly supported the Nazis during World War II? I have been trying to get a marvelous book called "The Uriah Deadline published and produced. It was written by the seasoned and highly successful author of Indecent Proposal, Jack Engelhard. I thought it would a breeze. After all, the movie with Robert Redford and Demi Moore made half a billion dollars for Paramount. I was amazed to find out from them that they were "passing on it" (after initially loving the story). Why? Because it deals with the bias and outright lies about Israel initiated in the newsroom, every day. Bottom line, they told me that it is too political. They only want to produce romantic comedies now. But the real story is Jack's book is just too damn favorable to Israel and that, folks, isn't very politically correct these days. What is it going to take to make the world see what is happening in Europe? Do the Jews have to be placed in ghettos or wear yellow stars on their clothes in France to see the signs? Like a cancer that's growing, the United Nations passed another bill calling for Israel to stop its "occupation". The world media continue their mantra against "Zionism" and we, in this country, continue to send aid to countries like Egypt, which fill their children's textbooks with hate-filled writings and accusations against the Jews in Israel. When we're not doing that, Colin Powell or President Bush are going on television to speak about the ludicrous "Roadmap to Hell" that they've devised with all those great friends of the Jews, like Germany and France. They still haven't gotten over the fact that Israel still stands after they were able to push through the Trojan Horse called "Oslo". Now, it's changed to "Roadmap". I feel like I'm living in some sort of Orwellian period of time, when doublespeak like Zionism is racism, and anti-Semitism doesn't mean anti-Jewish is becoming the norm. Terrorists like Yasser Arafat receive Nobel Peace prizes and the International Court of Justice has lost its conscience. They've lived so long in a tangled tale of anti-Semitism that even when the IDF discovers 44 tunnels to Egypt, as they did recently, where huge quantities of sophisticated arms to be used against Israelis civilians were being carried through 24 hours a day, the evening news responds by reporting on Israel's retaliation. I want to scream, "No! It's not retaliation! It's defense; for their very survival." But, they, the press, the State Department, and the anti-Semites of the world are well aware of that fact. Hatred of the Jews is alive and well. The signs are there and we have to heed them. The Christian Right are getting it. Mainly, because they, too, have become victims of Arab terrorism. Yet, even though they see that their churches are being torn down and a mosque built in its place, where are their protests and marches? We need all the help we can get. We're all in the same boat. ARLENE PECK is an internationally syndicated columnist, television talk show hostess. This article appeared in Arutz-7 and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/print.php3?what=article&id=3168

LEFTISTS ARE FROM MARS Posted by Steven Plaut, January 4, 2004.

Well, now that the US satellite "Spirit" has been set down safely by NASA on Mars, it occurred to me that these live pictures of the charms of Mars carry enormous political implications. Here are a few: I believe NASA has discovered a place where the Palestinians could safely be granted their own state without it threatening genocide against anyone else. NASA seems to have discovered a place at last where socialism has not yet failed. The satellite has found a place even more frightening for youngsters than the Neverland Ranch. It seems to be an area that Al Gore could carry in an election even without counting the chads. It has at least as much water as Saudi Arabia, so why not ship the Saudis there and take away their oil? What a wonderful place to ship all those anti-globalization protesters, because it has not been polluted by capitalism and American mass culture. If we sent those Hollywood actors who opposed the Iraq War to Mars they could at last be the smartest people around. The International Solidarity Movement could be sent to show its solidarity with Mars slime. No one would have to use racial profiling there to identify the terrorists. Clinton could drop his trousers there and no one would care. If we sent her there, Andrea Dworkin would be the most beautiful chick around. Professors could teach Deconstructionism there and no one would break out laughing. If we sent all the tort lawyers there, they would be the most honest people on the planet. Al Sharpton could be reunited with other members of his zoological genus. Any leftists there would never again have to whine about how the Right controls Talk Radio. Dennis Kucinich and Michael Moore could serve as commandants of the first Martian collectivized farm. Leftist can at last be happy there, with no Starbucks, no SUVs, and no MacDonald's. Shimon Peres can at last find a place where there really is no military solution to the problems of terrorism. Yossi Beilin can sign a peace agreement with the natives that will be not be violated by them within ten seconds. Tikkun's Michael Lerner can be accepted there at last as the Planetary Rabbi and no one will challenge his credentials or ordination. Yassir Arafat would be the star on Bay Watch Mars, in his Speedo. Hillary could ask some Martians to help her write her own personal self-revealing autobiography. Liberals could implement affirmative action preferences for the red fungus there. No global warming! 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.

DEPORTATION OF JEWS Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 4, 2004.

We have really reached the fulfillment of the Labor Zionist dream of Jewish labor. No longer do we have to rely on Cossacks, Poles, Russians, Germans or Arabs to oppress, plunder and even kill Jews. We now can have it all done by pure Jewish labor. This is a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself but even more so since we see in this the healing of the historical rift between the Labor Zionist and the Revisionist. Even the Mizrachai are in agreement. Oh happy days of such great unity. Now everyone is working towards the same Zionist goal. I guess I must be a spoil sport, I just can't seem to get into the mood to celebrate. Maybe by TESHAH BEAV, I'll be in a better mood. This news item is from Arutz Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=55585 Sharon and Mofaz Swoop Down on Two More Outposts.  Two more blows have been struck in the unfolding confrontation between the Israeli government and the Jewish settlement enterprise in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz signed an order this morning calling for the dismantling of two more outposts, including the expulsion of their residents. In addition, they are preparing to act against Tapuach West as well. One of the two immediately-threatened locations is the Maon Farm, south of Hevron, where seven families live in a wooded area adjacent to the long-time community of Maon. In November 1999, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army to destroy the farm and expel its three families, but it has since been rebuilt. The original founder, Dov Dribben, was murdered there by Arabs in 1998. The second outpost whose destruction was decided upon today by Sharon and Mofaz is Tal Binyamin, adjacent to Ofrah, named for Binyamin Kahane and his wife Talia. The two were murdered four years ago outside Ofrah as they were driving home to Tapuach, leaving six orphans. "Mishpitei Eretz," an institute in which contemporary legal issues are studied from a Halakhic [Jewish legal] standpoint, operates in Tal Binyamin, and a synagogue is operative there several times a week, although no one resides there. "Our objections to this uprooting are rooted not only in our Torah values," Rabbi Michael Baris, head of Mishpitei Eretz, told Arutz-7 today, "but also in the democratic and sovereign nature of our State. The fact that we see this country as 'the beginning of the blossoming of our Redemption' is not manifest only in the argument over the recitation of the Hallel prayer on Independence Day, but also the laws and regulations - and these two go together. We have to ensure that the democratic nature of our country not be harmed, from either side... We will struggle against these orders on the judicial front, with the aim of enlarging the consensus on the issue." In light of a Cabinet query by Justice Minister Lapid of Shinui today, the Prime Minister instructed Defense Minister Mofaz to take quick action against an unauthorized outpost in Tapuach as well. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman said that there are strong questions about all three of the outposts now slated for destruction. Tal Binyamin was originally an army outpost, and "as far as I know, has received all the relevant permits," he said, adding that the same is true of the road leading to the Tapuach outpost and most of the structures there. "Regarding Maon," Huberman added, "the story is an old one. It was once evacuated because it was said to be in the line of fire of a nearby army firing range - but when the Arabs were allowed to return to the area, the Jews said that there must be one law for all, and began to return. How, now, can the army remove the Jews without also removing the Arabs? The entire approach to choosing the list of outposts to be uprooted is very questionable." The Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza announced that it would act against the destruction of the outposts with all the legal and political tools in its power. A petition by "Professors for a Strong Israel" against the actions will be heard in the Supreme Court tomorrow. Rabbi Avi Gisser of Ofrah said this morning that all he asks of the government is to "act within the law, and not use all sorts of political procedures to bypass the legitimate civil rights of those whom the government wishes to expel from their homes." In the meantime, Yesha leaders are hoping to draw thousands of supporters to resist the planned uprooting of Ginot Aryeh, a neighborhood of Ofrah that was marked for destruction last week. Three families and close to 20 singles reside there. Legal maneuverings might delay the attempt to uproot it until next week. A meeting of Yesha leaders and Ofrah residents is scheduled for this evening in Ginot Aryeh. 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.

ARREST MASS MURDERER YASSER ARAFAT Posted by Samson Krupnick, January 4, 2004.

Two years ago Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak recalled the Egyptian Ambassador from his Tel Aviv office. This drastic move came in protest to Israel's strong military response to the Rosh HaShanah War/Philistine Authority Pogram "Intifada" mass murder ("terror") attacks initiated by the Chairman of the Palestine Authority, arch mass murderer The Egyptian from Alexandria (current alias "Yasser Arafat", previous alias "Abdul Rauf el-Codbi el-Husseini"). A year earlier, villains Shimon Peres and his associate Yossi Beilin through then Primer Minister Ehud Barak had offered "Arafat" virtually everything that he presumably wanted, but Arafat chose mass murder. His objective was consistent with the objective of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine for over 40 years. His clearly stated goal was, is and will be, the destruction of Israel by any and all means, primarily with a victory on the battle field. The next step is flooding the Jews out of "sacred Arab land" by the return of so called millions of "refugees". Resident Arab ("Palestinian") casualties were of no concern to him because they were sacrificing their youth for the "holy" cause, with rich rewards in Paradise. "Arafat" had fallen upon a better and more effective method for mass murder of civilians, the suicide slaughterers could carry masses to their death. "Arafat" was being supplied by arms through Egypt. Some 44 tunnels were destroyed by the I.D.F. just a few weeks ago. "Saudi" Arabia, Iran and Syria were giving arms and money for "Arafat" to drive out the Jews. At the initiative of the United States, a Road Map program was prepared by the Quartet (United Nations, Russia, European Union and the United States). The United States was to implement a Road Map to a peaceful settlement whereby two independent States would live in peace and security. To achieve this "miracle", both sides were required to contribute to such a worthy project. The "Palestinians" were to dismantle all six mass murder groups, the four Fatah, Tanzim, al Aksa Martyr Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the two "independent" groups, ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded and theologically Wahhabi) Hamas and Islamic Jihad. To introduce democratic procedures into the process a Prime Minister was selected, who had very little influence. Ignoring "Arafat" was an impossibility. He controlled the four mass murder groups. The next Prime Minister Abu Ala had almost the same treatment. "Arafat" continued to be the boss. The first and basic requirement of the Palestine Authority was ignored as mass murder continued. Israel was required to withdraw from Arab cities and villages, to freeze Settlements and to assist the Resident Arabs by permitting free travel and permitting thousands of Arab workers to come to Israel. As was his practice with the Oslo Accords a decade ago, "Arafat" accepted all concessions but offered no reciprocity. He followed this practice now knowing that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell would pressure Israel. Mass murder continued and the Prime Minister could not and Arafat would not dismantle his mass murder gangs and certainly not the ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded and theologically Wahhabi) Hamas and Islamic Jihad. A suicider slaughterer from the al Aksa Martyr Brigades attacked and murdered three, while wounding twenty five. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at a Geha Road Junction between B'nei Braak and Petah Tikva murdered three young ladies and a scholar from Elkana, while wounding twenty. During these last two months ambush attacks continued. The I.D.F. was successful in exterminating or intercepting 40 suicide slaughterers in November and 35 in December. Obviously, there simply is no partner for peace. "Arafat" wants Israel destroyed. That is the bottom line. Under American pressure, President Mubarak sent his expert Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher to visit Israel and to come up with some progress in his peace effort. Praying in the al-Aksa Mosque, Maher was attacked and beaten by hundreds of Resident Arabs. He was bodily lifted up and thrown out of the Mosque, then treated in Hadassah Hospital for some four hours. Ashamed and humiliated, Maher was flown home immediately. Egypt blamed "Arafat" for this disgrace. All should learn a lesson from this act. There is no "good" mass murderer ("terrorist"). Israel was very grateful to the United States when Saddam Hussein was dug out of his narrow hole and will stand trial possibly in an Iraqi court room. For Israel it is one less enemy. "Yasser Arafat" must get the very same treatment. He must be arrested and should stand trial in an international war crimes court. A local "Palestinian" court would award him a medal. American protection of arch mass murderer "Yasser Arafat" has cost Israel many lives. No possible progress of any kind can be made as long as he remains here. We appeal to U.S. President George W. Bush: "You were daring with Saddam Hussein, please be as daring with this 'Yasser Arafat', ten times worse than Saddam Hussein. You will save many lives. Many thanks". Samuel Krupnick is Board Member and Treasurer, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Israel Chairman, Jerusalem Embassy Initiative, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Yakir Yerushaliyim (Jerusalem Prize) Award Winner, 2001; Board Chairman, Encyclopedia Talmudica; Former Board Chairman, Shaare Zedek Hospital; and Columnist, National Jewish Post and Opinion (www.jewishpostopinion.com).

MOSQUE RAIDERS SENSITIVE, SUCCESSFULL Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 4, 2004.

This is a news item from United Press International (UPI) and was reported in the Washington Times (www.washingtontimes.com). I wonder what they'd find in American mosques. BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 2 (UPI) - Coalition troops who raided a Sunni Muslim mosque Friday in Baghdad did not defile the sacred space in their successful hunt for weapons, officials said. The raid of the Ibn Taymiyah mosque in the southwestern part of the Iraqi capital sparked protests, including charges that U.S. troops tore pages out of the mosque's Koran, CNN reported. But Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt denied the accusations, saying the troops took unusual precautions to show respect, including following Iraq Civil Defense Corps personnel and Iraqi police when they entered the place of worship. "Despite the clear use of this mosque for criminal, terrorist and anti-coalition activities, great care was taken by coalition forces to uphold the sanctity of the mosque and to use the minimum amount of force necessary to conduct the operation," Kimmitt said. He called called the mosque a "hub of anti-coalition and anti-Iraqi activities" and the scene of insurgency cells' meetings. Kimmitt said the mosque held high explosives, TNT, blasting caps, gunpowder, grenades, detonation cord, artillery primers, rocket launchers, mortar tubes and sights, AK-47 rifles and ammunition. Soldiers also found materials for making the small bombs regularly used to target coalition convoys.

HOW IT'S DONE Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 4, 2004.

If you ever wondered how decisions are made under the Sharon dictatorship, here is an example. No longer is there even a pretence as to determining if this village is "legal" or "illegal" nor is the most superficial fig leaf of due process of law even hinted at. The Grand Wizard of Israel's KKK has spoken and so must it be done. It is now a crime under the Sharon dictatorship "... to promote the 'fascist Torah teachings of Kahane.'" It is a crime punishable by the summary destruction of your property without possibility of judicial review or appeal. Der Fuerer has decreed it and so it will be. As we have seen in the past, efforts to resist may be meet with unrestricted brutality by one of Sharon's goon squads. It can result as well in the kidnaping, torture and administrative imprisonment of those involved, or even guilty of being related to any resistor. All this from the duly elected Prime Minister of the Middle East's only democracy. The great hero of the Israeli people: General Ariel Sharon. Hard to tell who are enemies are today. The good news is Tapuah West's response. Sharon Orders Dismantling of Tapuah West. (www.IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to order the immediate dismantling of Tapuah West and the building that awaits this evening's dedication as the international center of the Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea. The building is being constructed in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his son Binyamin Ze'ev as well as his daughter-in-law Talia. The three were killed by Arab terrorists in two separate attacks. Sharon made his decision in response to demands from Justice Minister (Shinui) Yosef Lapid who stated if the building is permitted to go up; it will be used to promote the "fascist Torah teachings of Kahane." Response to Ordered Dismantling of Tapuah West. (www.IsraelNN.com) Following the order from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the immediate dismantling of Tapuah West, INN spoke with Tapuah spokesman Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov who released the following statement. "We will be holding the dedication of the Torah scroll and Beit Medrash study center tonight on schedule. If the government sends troops to destroy the synagogue the ceremony will take place nevertheless. "There is nothing the Lapids, Sharons and Bushs can do to break our spirit and commitment to Torah and we will dance in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane as well as his son Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev and Talia. "This campaign against the G-d of Israel and Judaism further substantiates Rabbi Kahane's argument all the years - that they will try to ban the Torah itself, not just Kahane. It is interesting that this it occurs now when we plan to dedicate a torah in his memory. "The thousands will be coming and if they break the walls of the synagogue down, it will be over our heads while carrying the Torah scroll."

MAJOR ATTACK IN 30 DAYS Posted by Mike Levine, January 4, 2004.

Worldwide agendas and business schedules are now being controlled by terrorist organizations who are encouraged by the US coddling of Arafat and the Palestinians. They might not be so bold if they saw that Irael is allowed to eliminate this arch terrorist and destroy his organization and infrastructure. The next ones to go on notice should be the Saudis who are the Bush family pets. They are closing their eyes to Al Qaida movements instead of wiping them out. This comes from RadioRote. Al-Qaeda Exodus Triggers Panic US sparked airport alert after terrorists left secret hideouts The Sudden movement of large numbers of highly trained al-Qaeda terrorists across the Middle East triggered the panic over possible attacks on Western aircraft which led to the grounding of international flights to the United States last week. The Sunday Herald has learned that the US raised its terror alert to Code Orange - the second highest level - on December 21 when Washington discovered that trained al-Qaeda terrorists had been leaving their strongholds and hideouts in the Hadhramouth area east of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The operatives have moved north and west bearing large quantities of shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles, a selection of other weapons and a variety of explosives. This came as US homeland security chief Tom Ridge spoke of substantially increased intelligence that extremists were planning an attack to surpass the 9/11 atrocities. The terrorists then moved into two areas of Saudi Arabia: Najran and Jizran, Osama bin Laden's homeland. Terrorists in Najran are thought to be planning missions inside Saudi, while those in Jizran are believed to be readying themselves to move overseas. Jizran has a number of ports, ideal to move men and weapons out of the country. Both areas would allow terrorists to quickly disperse across the Middle East, Persian Gulf and east Africa. Many are thought to have already left Saudi to pursue their targets. Some may also have used unmarked, privately owned aircraft to transport themselves and weapons out of Saudi. The terrorists are said to have "crept" past Saudi, Yemeni and undercover US special forces on the Saudi-Yemen border. The number and identity of the al-Qaeda operatives is not known, nor are the locations they are heading towards. That has caused panic and chaos for airline companies and intelligence agencies trying to red-flag the terrorists if they try to board civilian aircraft bound for the West. Just a few days ago, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale carried a front-page story with the headline "Al-Qaeda: We will destroy New York within 35 days." The threat was contained, the paper said, in a video clip on a website run by al-Qaeda, which was blocked and then removed by the FBI. The threat seemed to hint that some sort of nuclear dirty bomb would be used. The newspaper is viewed as the flagship paper of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. New Year celebrations in New York, Rome, Moscow, London and Las Vegas were all carried out under intense security. Yesterday, British Airways flight 223 from London to Washington - which was cancelled for two days running and had previously been escorted into the US by F-16 fighter jets - was finally allowed to take off. It was due to leave at 3.05pm but was delayed for three hours while all passengers were searched and escorted on to the plane one at a time. Their details were double-checked in the US before the plane took off. Security fears also grounded BA flight 263 to the Saudi capital Riyadh yesterday. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling warned that the threat to commercial aircraft was likely to continue for the foreseeable future. (Sunday Herald -- Scotland/Neil McKay--Investigations Editor) You can sign up for basic news forecasting that is both independent and intelligent. Subscribe to RadioRote by emailing radiorote@hotmail.com. For fee-based position papers, focused real-time updates or our Lecture Series, contact our Business Officer at radiorote@hotmail.com

AN EXCHANGE OVER THE BARNARD BROWNSHIRTS Posted by Israela Goldstein, January 4, 2004.

In her recent piece for Front Page Magazine, "The Brownshirts of Our Time," Phyllis Chesler gave an account of her address to a woman's "networking" conference at Barnard College. Due to her refusal to legitimize Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians, the author was shouted down and almost physically accosted. Barnard has officially responded to the incident and Chesler's article. This is the exchange that took place. The first letter below is written by Penny Van Amburg, the Director of Development Communications at Barnard. It places equal blame on both sides. Chesler's response follows. [Ed. note: Chesler's BrownShirts article can be read in the November-December issue of Think-Israel (http://www.think-israel.org/chesler.brownshirts.html).] STATEMENT BY BARNARD COLLEGE ON THE PHYLLIS CHESLER SPEECH: On November 8, the feminist author Phyllis Chesler spoke on the Barnard campus at the invitation of an outside group that held a conference to celebrate women in the arts. Ms. Chesler was asked to give her thoughts on feminism and women's advancement around the world based on one of her recent books. The event was organized by Women Empowered Through Revolutionary Ideas Supporting Enterprise or W.E.R.I.S.E, which is an international organization of women artists. The Barnard Center for Research on Women served as the campus host of this event, as it had for two previous years, but the Center itself was not directly involved in planning or supervising the conference and its role was limited to advance coordination of the group's logistical needs for the event. Concerns have been raised about Barnard's responsibility for what occurred during Ms. Chesler's talk. In an article about the event that Ms. Chesler wrote for a Website, she gave an account of an exchange with a member of the audience over her position on the Israeli-Palestinian question. She describes being badgered while onstage and contended that no one in the audience attempted to restore reasoned discussion that might have shed light, rather than heat, on their diverse views. Barnard, like all serious academic institutions, insists on civil discourse, especially on divisive issues. We seek to foster an atmosphere in which fair and respectful discussion can occur on even the most sensitive and politically charged issues. Moreover, we are guided in our discussions of critical issues by our commitment to respect diverse opinions by people of all backgrounds. Just as important, discussion and debate must be informed by facts and reason, particularly on a matter of such importance and high passions as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This standard apparently was not met on this occasion certainly not by those who heckled Ms. Chesler and/or did nothing to guide the discussion back into its appropriate channels, but also not by Ms. Chesler herself. Regrettably, by attacking Islam in a culturally misleading and historically uninformed way, Ms. Chesler undermines her position as a compelling voice on this issue. Moreover, the resurgence of anti-Semitism in various parts of the world and also on some college campuses is a serious matter that deserves responsible discussion. Invoking Kristallnacht in this context is hyperbole and highly irresponsible. All in all, the evening represented a failure of the most basic elements necessary for an enlightened discussion of issues. This event has led administrators to re-examine Barnard guidelines for events by outside groups and their responsibility to honor the College's basic framework for free and fair discussion. This policy will be clarified over the coming weeks. Lastly, this episode raises the question of whether an event of this kind at Barnard should ever be closed to men. The answer is no. November 26, 2003 Sincerely, Penny Van Amburg PHYLLIS CHESLER'S RESPONSE TO BARNARD COLLEGE Dear Penny Van Amburg: Greetings! I would have appreciated a call or a note directly from you but privately. I did not want to take what happened on the evening of November 8, 2003, to another level - hence, I did not call or write you or President Shapiro. Perhaps I should have but I did not have the heart to do so given how charismatic and hard-working the organizers of the conference were. The fact that they did not stand up to the bullies in their midst - or to the brainwashing by propaganda that has so afflicted the academy and the media left me sad and thoughtful. However, now that you have written about this publicly, allow me to say a few words. I am certainly glad that, because of what happened to me and my son on November 8, Barnard now has a formal policy in place that will allow both (or all) genders to gather for conferences or classes at Barnard. I must say that sometimes women-only spaces are pedagogically desirable and I hope that you remain open to this possibility on a case by case basis. However, there were not two rights here, nor were there two parties at fault here. I delivered a fairly inspiring speech. I failed in no way. (Or so the organizers assured me). I brought facts to bear on the Israel-Palestine matter. Perhaps you are entirely uninformed about historical Islam. If you were expert, you would understand that Islam has always persecuted "dhimmis," non-Muslims and that this included Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. If you were familiar with the works of Bat Ye'Or, Ibn Warraq, Robert Spencer, etc, you might understand that I did not "attack Islam in a culturally misleading and historically uninformed way." You might also understand that Arab honor killings, the stonings to death of women for alleged adultery, veiling, sequestration, etc., is gender apartheid and that as Westerners we are not bound to view such customs as "multiculturally correct," but rather as the gross human rights abuses they truly are. However, perhaps the sister-university to a university that for years funded and lionized the anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli views of Edward Said and to this day refuses to reveal the funding sources of the endowed Said Chair - might see anything other than a pro-PLO and anti-Israel point of view as misleading and inaccurate and even provocative. I spoke the truth about both gender and religious Apartheid. In my article for Frontpage magazine, I invoked Kristallnacht because afterwards, I simply realized that that is when I spoke. If you construe truthful and forceful parallels as "hyperbolic" or "irresponsible" - what can I say? Perhaps you might wish to hear me lecture or better yet, read my book The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It. If you think that the "evening was a failure," I suggest that you have a campus-wide teach-in on the subject of Israel, Palestine, Jew-hatred, Islam, and Apartheid. I would consider speaking at such an event if civility and expertise were present and if those assembled understood that a campus is not a gladiatorial arena, or a boxing match but rather a place to soberly consider serious subjects in an informed, tolerant, and reasonable way. Sincerely yours, Phyllis Chesler

BURSTING THE TAITTINGER BUBBLE Posted by Tamar Rush, January 3, 2004.

This was written by Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It" (2003), and Director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy. It took 50 years after the war ended for President Chirac to issue an apology for France's actions against the Jews during the Vichy government and the German occupation. As we are witnessing today, anti-Jewish sentiments have not disappeared. The current role of the French press in France's growing anti-Semitism is similar to the part that the French press played before and during World War II, especially newspapers that were controlled by Pierre Taittinger. In 1943, in Le Journal de Saintes, the well-known champagne maker and hotelier called for "the creation of a new European order upon which France... must work in close collaboration with Germany." At the same year, his papers celebrated both the 10th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power and Hitler's 54th birthday. His papers also carried advertisements proclaiming "Germany will prevail, France will, and Europe will unite through work," as well as "For a clean France rid of Jews and Freemasons." Clearly, French anti-Semitism is nothing new, but now it is coupled with strong anti-American sentiments. This latest wave of French anti-Semitism, which began after the September 11 terrorist attacks, has risen to at least 30 physical anti-Semitic attacks a week against Jews and Jewish institutions. This, according to French officials, is happening mostly because of Israel's and America's foreign policies regarding the Palestinians, the war in Iraq, and the war on terrorism. On November 18, 2003, after a series of arson attacks on Jewish establishments, including schools, President Chirac summoned a special Cabinet meeting and issued a statement saying that "the French Republic can tolerate no anti-Semitic acts, and schools more than any other place, must be a place of tolerance and respect." What about other institutions? What about individual Jews? The perpetrators of the violence against the Jews have been identified by the French government as mostly Muslim immigrants. However, government officials excuse these attacks, claiming that Israel's policies with regard to the Palestinians are the cause. Clearly, these attacks could have not escalated over the last two years without the tacit complicity of the French authorities. Although, in 1791, France was the first country in Europe to extend citizenship to Jews, it is also the country that falsely convicted Captain Alfred Dreyfus for treason, and which used forced labor to produce champagne for the German occupation forces during the Second World War. The Vichy government was behind the October 1940 laws, prohibiting Jews from holding public offices and almost all professions; it was behind the laws permitting the "Aryanization" of Jewish property; and was behind the decision to eliminate 30,000 to 60,000 Jewish soldiers from its military ranks, imprisoning them or sending them to labor camps where they were kept until most were deported by the Germans to Auschwitz in August 1942. It was also the Vichy government that turned over tens of thousands of foreign Jews to the Germans and sent tens of thousands more as forced laborers to Germany. Altogether, 90,000 out of 350,000 French Jews were exterminated. According to documents in French archives, Taittinger, who was well off before the war, become a titan through his involvement in the despoilment of Jews and the Aryanization of Jewish property. Correspondence between Taittinger and the German Occupation authorities reveal that throughout the war, until February 1944, he used his political connections with the commissioner of the General Commissions for Jewish Affairs not only to enrich himself, but also to recommend that his friends and family be given Jewish property. Taittinger wrote letters to the general commissioner suggesting that his brother-in-law, Louis Burnouf, who "was looking for a managing position in Jewish businesses, [would be] able to obtain something interesting in the near future." The general commissioner complied by handing over 27 Jewish companies to Taittinger's brother-in-law. Taittinger also obtained the Aryanized 1930s famous Art Deco beach-front Hotel Martinez in Cannes, which is still controlled by the holding company he established, Societe du Louvre. Through this holding company, Taittinger interests include luxury and economy hotels, restaurants, banking and crystal (Baccarat), and 83% of Domaine Carneros, which owns 175 acres in California's Napa and Sonoma valleys, controlling 57% of the voting stock. Since drinking champagne was extremely important for the German occupation forces,Taittinger was able to obtain forced French labor to facilitate the production of this beverage throughout the war. According to his son, Claude, "My father, Pierre Taittinger, was more than just a universally admired politician. Over the years he became a confirmed follower of a certain lifestyle in keeping with his well-recognized cordiality." Is there anything we can do to change the French deep-seated resentments? Probably not much. Banning Jewish students from wearing yarmulkes in class will not reduce anti-Semitism. The best signal and the only proof that France no longer tolerates anti-Semitism, would be when, instead of merely making statements, Mr. Chirac enforces a policy of harsh penalties for those who commit anti-Semitic acts.

OVERPOWERING THE HATE - A First-Hand Account of the PSM Conference at Ohio State University Posted by Shmuel Herzfeld, January 3, 2004.

As the sun began to set on Friday signaling the onset of Shabbat, we found ourselves at Ohio State University, one of the largest and most respected universities in America. We stood in the middle of a rally sponsored by the student group Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM). Using a microphone to amplify their voice, speaker after speaker shouted the most hateful, anti-Semitic canards against us. One speaker arose, shouted while staring at us, "Send them all back on a boat!" We yelled back, "Where is Sami?" referring to Sami Al-Arian, who was the keynote speaker at last year's PSM conference at the University of Michigan. Al-Arian currently sits in Federal Prison for his leadership role in the terrorist group Islamic Jihad. An Arab woman then took the microphone and said, "We are all supporters of Sami Al-Arian." Of course they are. The very essence of their conference is precisely to lend moral and strategic support to the terrorists fighting for the Palestinian cause. One of PSM's guiding principles is that "as a solidarity movement, it is not our place to dictate the strategies or tactics adopted by the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation." These are code words for supporting terrorism. I stood outside the conference from when it began on Friday afternoon until it drew to a close on Sunday evening. I asked many members of PSM if they denounced terrorism. Not a single one did. In fact, the keynote speaker this year, Adam Shapiro, pointedly refused to condemn terrorism when he was pressed on the issue. If PSM supports suicide bombing, why don't they just come out and admit it? Instead they claim that they are not a terrorist organization and pose no physical threat to the safety of the university. Perhaps they create this illusion because if PSM's agenda were transparent, the universities would no longer allow them free reign on campus. Unfortunately, PSM is currently welcome on college campuses. The universities should show some moral courage and no longer allow this group to meet on campus. It is a group that offers moral and tactical support to terrorists. It is a group that spreads the most vicious anti-Semitism. Many conference attendees walked past our group and yelled terrible things like, "kill the Jews." Others chose to physically intimidate the clearly identifiable Jews by pushing them or by blocking their paths. These incidents reminded me of what happened last year in Michigan when, at the conclusion of the conference, we were surrounded by a group of conference participants who screamed "kill the Jews" in Arabic. Nevertheless, our vigil outside the conference sent a strong message to those who promote anti-Semitism and support terrorism - you are not welcome on college campuses. Take your message elsewhere. This message seems to be getting across. The good news is that the divestment movement is basically dead. No university President has endorsed it and many have spoken out against it. Having been at both conferences, I can tell you that there were many more delegates (perhaps three times as many) at the Michigan conference than at the OSU conference. The OSU conference did not have more than 200 people there on Saturday, the main day of the conference. When Adam Shapiro spoke on Sunday there probably weren't even 80 people in the room. And many of those people who attend came to monitor the hatred being disseminated. Most significantly, the OSU campus was not intimidated by the anti-Semitic speech of the conference. The voice of evil was drowned out by the voices of good that rose to drown out the hate. Jews drove hours from all over America (Indiana, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Wisconsin, and all over Ohio) to speak out against hate on campus. They came to spread the light of truth against the evil of darkness. On Sunday around 200 people gathered to protest against PSM. When the conference had their own closing rally later in the day, there were more protesters than conference attendees! When this conference was first held in California, Jews were literally beaten up on campus. Last year Jews were surrounded and threatened with their lives. Nevertheless, last year marked the start of Jewish students reclaiming the campuses. This year the voices of terror were nearly drowned out completely. Maybe next year, there won't even be a conference. At the conclusion of Shabbat, students gathered for the traditional Havdalah service. It is a prayer that recognizes the power of light to push away the darkness. As I recited the prayer, I felt that on this Shabbat we really did push away the darkness of the world. At OSU, the light of good overpowered the darkness of evil. Click to join Amcha's email lists This appeared on Amcha: The Coalition For Jewish Concerns, November 10, 2003. It is archived at http://www.amchacjc.org/articles/articles10.cfm

WHAT'S A SETTLEMENT? Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 3, 2004.

This was written by Hanna Bandes Geshelin and appeared in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com) December 26, 2003. Hanna Geshelin is an author and a professional technical writer. Her work includes two children's books and more than 60 essays, articles, inspirational and fictional stories, published in various anthologies, magazines and newspapers. Settlement: The word conjures up a picture of small, dilapidated caravans parked on a windswept hillside. Of course it makes sense to abandon places like this, returning Jewish settlers to more civilized homes within the Green Line in order to make peace. That's what most Americans, and many Israelis, believe. But, as my husband and I learned on our recent trip to Israel, this image is false. We visited twelve communities in Judea and Samaria with populations ranging from 120 families to 40,000 people. We learned that some settlements are completely secular, some are completely religious, and some are home to people from across the Jewish spectrum. Some communities are now raising their third generation of inhabitants. While in many communities, the majority of adults fall into a relatively narrow age range, many aging parents have moved in to be near their children and grandchildren; so these villages, towns and cities are home to people of all ages. "When we first came, this place was desolate," said Tamar Feld, a resident of the small village of Kochav Yaakov in the Shomron, north of Jerusalem. "What I noticed immediately was the absolute silence. Except for the wind, there were no sounds, not even any birds or insects." Today, however, her community and the others we visited are bustling places. Lovely private two-story stone and stucco homes sit on hillsides near side-by-side duplexes, high-rise condos, and six- or eight-unit buildings. Set on hillsides, many apartments are designed stepwise, so that one apartment uses the roof of the lower one as a large, private patio. These outdoor living areas are gorgeous roof gardens, children's play yards, and the sites of large family sukkahs in the fall. During our November visit, purple bougainvillea, roses and hibiscus in all shades of pink swept across walls and fences, setting off dark green fig, carob and pomegranate trees. Rosemary, lavender and jasmine thrive, sending their heavenly scents across the air. The lush plantings have attracted both migratory and local birds. We visited modern supermarkets and pizza shops in the settlements. The larger ones, such as Efrat and Karnei Shomron, host modern indoor shopping malls. Tiny and large synagogues are spread throughout the communities. The settlement of Maale Adumim, northeast of Jerusalem, has a brand-new, handicapped-accessible library building with collections in English, French, Spanish and Russian, in addition to Hebrew. Schools, recreation halls with indoor swimming pools, landscaped parks with picturesque pergolas overlooking dramatic scenery, bike paths and more draw residents to these communities from all over Israel, as well as from the Diaspora. Some dilapidated caravans still exist, but like the World War II temporary buildings on American college campuses in the '60s and '70s, they've found other uses: community offices, dorms for men in mechina (post-high school, pre-army educational programs), classrooms for overflowing elementary schools. Israel's settlements are not rough, dilapidated places. They are not, as the news would have it, temporary places where only hardy pioneers venture, places that can be easily destroyed or handed over to Arabs. They are settled communities, where people live, love and work. They were built where they are for good reasons, historic and defensive.

ARAFAT CONNECTED TO MURDER OF AMERICANS IN GAZA Posted by JCPA, January 2, 2004.

This is by Ben Casper and appeared in the Hebrew language newspaper, Maariv today. Yasser Arafat is the factor delaying the investigation of the attack in Gaza in which three American security guards in a diplomatic convoy were killed - according to government sources in Washington. In recent closed meetings in the American capital, anger was expressed that the investigation has reached a dead end: the Palestinian security services refuse to arrest or question new suspects. One estimate raised by the Americans is that Fatah men were behind the attack, and that Arafat himself is connected, perhaps indirectly, to the perpetrators. This appears to be the main reason causing Arafat to block progress in the investigation - the fear that if his connection to the attack becomes clear, this could seal his fate with the American government.

THE GHOST IN ISRAEL Posted by Isralert, January 2, 2004.

This was written by Herbert I. London and appeared today on the Townhall website (http://www.townhall.com). Herbert London is president of the Hudson Institute and John M. Olin professor of humanities at New York University, publisher of American Outlook and author of "Decade of Denial," recently published by Lexington Books. He's reachable through http://www.benadorassociates.com There is a ghost that haunts Israel. It is a ghost that first appeared 55 years ago when this new nation was founded, but it still speaks to the present generation. It speaks with the voice of social democracy and it utters sibilant sounds of kibbutzim, egalitarianism, communitariansim and social solidarity. This is the voice of a utopianism that gave birth to Israel. Yet despite its influential role in the past - a matter of some dispute I might add - the social democratic ghost is now a significant impediment to an Israel that desperately needs economic growth to survive. Here is the rub: So wedded to entrenched welfare and union policies is this remarkable nation that it spends more than it can afford keeping taxes high, government large and economic incentives in abeyance. At the conference in Herzliyah I attended recently this policy schism quickly came to the fore. Bibi Netanyahu, the Minister of Finance, issued a policy statement in which he referred to the need to lower taxes and reduce regulations so that a congenial environment for business might flourish. While this statement struck me as incontrovertible, he was criticized by the leader of the social workers association who said under this plan benefits to the elderly will be reduced and unemployment assistance would evanesce. Mr. Netanyahu noted that a "rising tide would lift all boats" with more wealth available for the poor and needy. It was a statement that Jack Kemp might well have embraced. But it did not resonate with this audience. That evening the eminent scholar Shlomo Avineri proceeded to criticize Netanyahu as well. "Should we engage in an experiment that severs the social contract?" he asked plaintively. Professor Avineri took this audience for a trip down memory lane recounting the dreams of Ben Gurion and the founders with favorable reference to the ties that bound Jews to this homeland. "We have lost what we had in the past," he lamented. His is the quintessential voice of the social democrat rising, with dreams of communal unity and omitting economic realities. However, this vision - whatever one thinks of this romanticized memory - is not consistent with the dictates of a free market and financial incentives. It holds back Israel like Gulliver bound and tethered. It is the ghost in the nation, a form of soft bolshevism now filtered over time into romantic history. Remarkably, a sizable portion of the country cannot let go of it. Israel, notwithstanding its small size and only 6 million people, can be a technical and scientific superpower. It already has its own version of Silicon Valley in the outskirts of Tel Aviv. It has a host of Nobel Prize winners. The Weitzman Institute is one of the great scientific centers in the world. Jews excel in technical, medical and legal issues. And considering its limited size, it has more pharmaceutical patents per capita than any nation in the world. Having said this, it is also true that Histadrut - the labor council - is ensconced in government affairs. The welfare system is widely exploited. In fact, a common joke in Israel involves a migrant who meets his friend in Jerusalem and asks "how are you doing?" "Not so well," he replies, "I'm still working." No wonder the system is straining at the seams. Take this anachronistic socialist system and add to it security demands in Israel's constant fight against terrorism; what you get is a nation deeply in debt. Israel must consider alternatives. To his credit, this is precisely what Mr. Netanyahu has in mind. The question is whether the Minister has the persistence to finally bury the ghost. Perhaps he should demystify the past. The conditions for building a nation are different from the conditions that will sustain it. If Israel could unleash its creative energy from the shackles of socialist institutions, it would unquestionably be one of the economic miracles on earth. But this is a big "if." At the moment the fog of nostalgia holds the public's attention. There is widespread dissatisfaction with the economic environment, but most conventional polls call for high taxes and even more stringent regulations. Israel has not yet imbibed the Laffer Curve or come to the realization that lower taxes might generate higher government revenue. Rene Descartes once described "the ghost in the machine," that mystical force that gives machines an anthropomorphic quality. Alas, the Israeli ghost has the same quality. It speaks through politicians; it mesmerizes the public and it dominates the history of the founding. As I see it, the time has come to send the ghost away. Many will weep with his departure, but they will be living better and earning more without him.

THE FRENCH DEVOLUTION Posted by I. Ben-Ami, January 2, 2004.

This was written by Michel Gurfinkiel and appeared on the Jerusalem Post website yesterday. It is archived at info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/FSB/040102/art.04.html Call it the French Jewish paradox. Posh kosher restaurants are literally burgeoning in Paris's West End, the fashionable 8th, 16th and 17th districts. Yet the main topics of discussion among patrons are the rise of anti-Semites and whether Jews should leave the country or not. As one of them confided to me: "We just need more Jewish places to talk about all that. Why not restaurants? After all, we still are French - for the time being." Six months ago, one third of the Jewish population was reported to be considering emigration. One month ago, another poll said almost half (46 percent) were ready to go. This should not come as a surprise. Most French Jews today are refugees and survivors - or the children of refugees and survivors. The Ashkenazi element is haunted by Holocaust memories. The Sephardi element was uprooted from the former French North Africa or the Levant in the period 1950-1980. Both groups know - by personal experience or from their parents' oral history - that things can deteriorate very quickly. And that it is wiser to leave while you can leave. Life used to be easy for French Jews until very recently. The mere fact that so many Jews had gathered in one single country helped a lot. In 1939, there were about 350,000 Jews in France. By 1945, one third of them had perished (a comparatively low rate by Holocaust standards). Postwar late arrivals from Eastern Europe and the refugee influx from Islamic countries brought about a new, younger community of about 700,000 souls - or close to one million, if one is to include the outer fringe of very assimilated Jews. A critical mass was thus reached, allowing for Jewish books, kosher food, Jewish education, Orthodox revival, Reform or Conservative congregations, youth activities, Zionism. French Jews were poised for a Golden Age. The fall, over the past three years, has been all the more breathtaking. The major reason for it is quite simple: The Jewish critical mass effect has clashed with a parallel critical mass effect - the rapid rise of a huge immigrant Islamic community, 10 or 12 times as strong as the Jewish community in number (estimates range from six to eight million). In a perfect, ideal world, both groups could live together and integrate together into the larger French society. In the real world, Jews tended to sympathize for a while with the Muslims as fellow immigrants, and Muslims tended to reject Jews as Jews and Zionists. OCTOBER 2000 was the turning point. Muslim youths in France launched their own intifada to emulate their Palestinian brethren. French society at large was infected. Traditional anti-Semitism was reawakened by Muslim anti-Semitism. The facts are well-known. More than 20 synagogues and schools have been set on fire. Jewish children and Jewish teachers are routinely harassed at school. Rabbis are beaten or spat at in the street. An Islamic preacher who singled out liberal Jewish intellectuals - supporters of the Geneva Accord, actually - as dangerous "Jewish nationalists" has turned into a media icon. One or two recent murders in Paris may even be ascribed to anti-Semitism. And above all, the nation's elite has been strangely reluctant to admit there is something wrong going on. It took a year for the press to report seriously on this phenomenon. It took much more time for the government to respond. For any Jewish person with common sense and insight, the writing is on the wall. Some of the French Jews who think about leaving France are opting for the United States or Canada. Most, however, are considering aliya. The Jewish Renaissance that took place in the second half of the 20th century is bearing results. The more Jewish you feel, the closer you feel to Israel as a Jewish country. One third of Jewish high-school graduates, religious or secular, apply to Israeli universities or other higher education institutions. Many are drawing their parents behind them. Haredim are moving to Israel in large numbers. They may still express theoretical reservations about the secular ways of the state, but for all practical purposes they behave like Zionists, and even nationalist Zionists at that. Emotional proximity with Israel has also been enhanced over the years by geographical proximity: most French Jews have visited the country, and not just once. How big will French aliya be? People are seeking advice from the Jewish Agency in Paris by the thousands (I know, my office is almost next door). Some apply for immigration. Others go as tourists but are staying for extended periods and will eventually Israelize. A third group is engaging in commuting: Either transferring home and family to Israel and keeping a job in France, or doing the opposite, starting a business in Israel while keeping a home and a family in France. Economic realities are forcing people into awkward compromises. From an Israeli angle, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. It is not to be missed. It should be handled with care.

MUSLIM PRO-ISRAEL ACTIVIST THREATENED Posted by Michael Freund, January 2, 2004.

A devout Muslim college student in Canada known for her pro-Israel views on campus has received death threats after expressing support for the Jewish state's right to exist. "As a result of my pro-Israel views, I have received a lot of verbal assault, and a few threats to my life," Sarah Nasser, a third-year student at the University of Toronto, told The Jerusalem Post. "I received some violent resentment from the pro-Palestinian left-wing majority on campus. Most of my Muslim friends do not respect my views," she said. Born in Canada to parents who migrated from Tanzania, Nasser is a religious Muslim who covers her head with a veil and lives according to the rules of the Koran. She recently returned from a visit to Israel, and signed a petition to the United Nations denouncing suicide bombings. "Being a supporter of the existence of Israel does not conflict with Islam, it complements Islam," she said. "The Koran does not have any verses that do not allow for the Jews to return to the Land of Israel." Nasser says that the North American media fails to portray the "severity" of the Palestinian uprising, and says that the armed uprising is proof that "Yasser Arafat and his followers will do whatever it takes and cause as much bloodshed as is necessary to overtake all of Israel." Active in campus political groups, Nasser urges the Jewish State to do more to improve its image abroad, saying that pro-Israel Muslims should be brought here to "show them what Israel is like, and to equip them with the knowledge to speak out in their communities about how sweet a country Israel is." This appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem Post.

VISITING PIONEERING COMMUNITIES IN THE HEBRON HILLS Posted by Gemma Blech and Anita Finkelstein, January 2, 2004.

This year the Women For Israel's Tomorrow's Hannukah trip went to a few of the communities in the South Hebron Hills. Leaving Jerusalem in two bullet-proof buses, we packed in yet more friends from Efrat and the Gush Etzion area, and began our trip by visiting with the Community of Telem, where we made our first brief stop. Here we learned that this previously secular place had recently been strengthened by a group of families from a nearby Hebron yeshiva. These new families had brought new hope and optimism for the future of Telem. Even though most of the children of the yeshuv were out on a day trip, we left presents and chocolates - almost all of which had been generously donated by overseas friends of Women In Green. From Telem we drove less than a mile to the sister community of Adora. Here the community was having a much more difficult time. Following an appalling terror attack, over half of the families moved away and now only 23 families remain - stalwarts and survivors. The WIG group was addressed by Anat Harari, herself a survivor of the recent terror attack. Arabs, dressed in Israeli army uniform had broken into Adora and shot people mercilessly in their beds, in their own homes. As in Telem the majority of the children were out for the day, but we were able to leave gifts for them all, with the few who were there. One gift deserves special mention. Two of our most creative and faithful Women in Green, had made miniature Shabbat tables to be given to each nursery that we visited. These beautifully hand-made gifts were very much appreciated. From Adora we drove on to Neguhot, the main focus of our trip. Neguhot is a flourishing hill-top community only a few miles from Hebron. But, because of the iniquitous Wye agreement, their access road to Hebron and Jerusalem was been placed under Palestinian control. This cut them off from work and nearby Jewish communities, and they were forced to take another road via Kiryat Gat, making all journeys well over an hour in each direction. However, in spite of the problems, their settlement was flourishing, with new families arriving and new babies being born! We were shown into a special room and there WIG hosted a great party for the kids with balloons, face painting, toys and presents and of course Hannukah chocolates! The children were incredibly appreciative! They are really very isolated and it was a great treat to have Elazar and Ya'acov with their music, balloons and their conjuring with fire! The parents were a lot more anxious than the children, who giggled happily! Neguhot resident Nechemia, [he and his wife, were survivors of the aforementioned terror attack], showed us a detailed map of the situation in the area. He made it very clear that if this Jewish community were not stationed on the apparently isolated hilltop, the whole plain below, to the west, would be exposed to Arab incursions. We could readily see the towers of Ashkelon to the south and all the way to Hadera in the north. The determination of these 30+ families to live on this strategic hill, to protect many families who live in the surrounding areas of our Holy Land, was an inspiration to us all. In addition, the parents had taken the decision, at the beginning of the current school year, to send their 1st graders [four 6-year olds] to school in Otniel, rather than Kiryat Gat. This brave decision ensured that the original road remained open and the IDF provided an armored escort for all traffic in both directions. However, the children often suffer interminable delays and hold-ups, which they face with fortitude. On leaving Neguhot, we had the same delays that the residents have with the IDF escort and, rather than waste precious 'trip time' we paid a fleeting visit to the new tiny neighborhood of Neguhot. Here 4 dedicated families with young children hold the western perimeter of this community. Our penultimate stop was the community of Eshtamoa. Space prevents a detailed history of this crucial hilltop settlement, but even though they hope to return to their original location, there were all the signs of a well established community. We were shown all round Eshtamoa, including some beautifully appointed homes and their synagogue. All of the homes were trailers [caravans], but the way they had been furnished and decorated was a tribute to their creativity. Lastly, we stopped at Carmel, next to Maon. We had completed a circle of the South Hebron hills. Carmel boasts an amazing medicinal herb factory [Esveh Kedem]. After many years of research and continuous hard work, they now have a flourishing factory producing medicinal creams and treatments. All the herbs are grown and harvested within this community - using only Jewish labor. They already have a busy international market and we would strongly urge any who cannot get to Carmel themselves, to go to their website - On a personal note we can both testify to painless knees and silky skins after using their products. And this result, after only one week! In addition, we were more than happy to have bought Blue and White - Made in Israel - and last but not least, supporting the industry of the South Hebron hills. In ending our one day trip, we realized once again that although we had gone to bolster and strengthen others, we ourselves had received a burst of adrenalin and encouragement. We came back very uplifted and ready to go on with the battle for the Land of Israel. In these difficult days, we look forward with great anticipation, to our next opportunity to visit with such stalwart pioneers as those who live in these outlying communities which we were privileged to visit on this occasion in the Hebron Hills. Gemma Blech is the official volunteer photographer for Women In Green and Anita Finkelstein works very closely with Nadia Matar, one of the co-leaders of our very active organization. The Women In Green website address is http://www.womeningreen.org

US BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE OPPOSED TO OCCUPATION Posted by Steven Plaut, January 2, 2004.

Who us? Us? But we are the beautiful people. We love peace. We pet cats. We sing Joan Baez songs. We believe in the brotherhood of peoples. So how dare you fire bullets at us? Sure we were there to show our solidarity with the mass murderers and the suicide bombers. We understand that the security fence Israel is building is designed to make it harder for the terrorists we support to enter Israel and murder Jewish children and other civilians. And that is precisely why we believe it must come down. So, yes, we marched on Saturday, the day none of those religious settlers can harass us and document what we do, and yes, we gathered by a part of the security fence, a segment that is still chain fence and not yet towering concrete walls. And yes, there we attacked the fence, sabotaged it, vandalized it, ripped pieces from it, possibly electronic sensors. You see, we think the terrorists should be allowed to enter Israel to protest Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands, by which we of course also mean Tel Aviv and Haifa. And we oppose anything Israel tries to do to protect its citizens short of total capitulation to the progressive demands of the Palestinian fascists. So, of course it is understandable that our group got violent and tried to cut through the Israeli security barrier outside the Palestinian village of Masha near Kalkilya. And yes, of course, we admit that we were trying to damage the barrier of razor-wire fences, concrete walls and trenches that Israel says it needs to stop infiltrations by Palestinian suicide bombers. In the words of one of our members: "We began cutting the fence and shaking it. The Israeli army was waiting for us and shot live bullets directly at us," Liad Kantorowicz, one of the Israeli protesters, who described themselves as anarchists, told Reuters. Yes, we were using wire cutters to destroy this segment of the fence. Our crowd included the usual terror-supporters from the ISM (International Solidarity Movement), the anti-Semitic communist group that openly supports Palestinian terror and has acted to oppose all Israeli attempts to take actions against terrorism. Rachel Corrie, the naif who tried to play a game of chicken with an Israeli army bulldozer and won the game, had been one of these. In short, we are people who believe that 1,300 murdered Israelis is simply not enough. We will not tolerate any attempt by Israel to defend its children. And that is why we violently attacked the security fence that day and the soldiers guarding it. So how dare those soldiers shoot one of our pro-terror members in his leg? So what if he was wearing a mask while vandalizing the fence? And how dare they injure one of the ISM provocateurs from overseas showing her support for terrorism? So what if she was using wire cutters at the time on the fence? So what if the crowd would have been mowed down with gunfire had they been trying to use wire cutters on, say, the fence of a US military facility any place on earth, or even just the fence at a nice country club in California. So what if the ISM people injured had signed a contract promising not even to enter the West Bank if allowed to disembark in Israel? So what if Israel's Police Minister described the "protesters" as "collaborators with terrorism", and so what if parliament member Yuri Stern described them as "barbaric criminals"? We demand an investigation! We want all those who cheered on the troops who fired at us, who suggested that these troops be awarded medals, to be arrested for incitement. And maybe libel. This appeared in Arutz Sheva (http://www.IsraelNN.com) December 31, 2003. It is archived on the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies "Maccabean Online" (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm/

NBC'S BIASED REPORT ON ISRAEL'S SECURITY BARRIER Posted by Leo Rennert, January 2, 2004.

This is the letter I wrote to NBC. You started off 2004 with a biased report on Israel's security barrier. First, you introduce the piece by stating there's growing concern about the fence. True on the Palestinian side because it creates discomfort for severed communities and impedes access to Israel by Hamas and other terrorist groups who otherwise would have an easier way of reaching their targets. But NOT true on the Israeli side where the fence is not cause for concern but highly popular because, without being complete, it's already proven effective in reducing suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks. The main complaint by Israelis about the barrier is why it's taking their government so long to get the job done. Then you show pictures of Abu Dis being bisected by the barrier and people having to climb over some of its incomplete segments. But what you fail to show is that the barrier includes at regular intervals gates for Palestinians to get from Point A to Point B. Naturally, they have to show IDs and allow screening to make sure they're not carrying bombs. But that's a small price to pay for continuing attempts (almost on a daily basis) by Palestinian terrorist groups to break through and kill as many innocent civilians as possible. Why couldn't Martin Fletcher have asked a simple question of Palestinians discombobulated by the barrier: Wouldn't your life be easier if Hamas and the other terrorist groups stopped killing Israelis so Israel could tear down this barrier? So why can't NBC News, which incidentally is not as ideologically prejudiced against Israel as CBS News and ABC NEWS, get the story about the barrier straight? Is it because pictures of children and elderly women having to climb over or through the fence are more dramatic than the Israeli side of the picture? If visuals govern your coverage - and I hope they don't - you ccould easily show an equal amount of footage of Israelis killed and maimed by Hamas & Co. The least you could have done was to devote 50 percent of your report to a reasoned explanation by Israelis of the barrier's necessity and efficacy. With pictures. But unfortunately you didn't.

HUNTING QUAIL AND SITTING DUCKS Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, January 2, 2004.

President Bush spent the New Year holiday hunting quail with George Sr. and James Baker, a close family friend. Chances are pretty good that they traveled farther to do this than the State of Israel is in width. Now I have nothing against hunting per se, as long as it's done in a sustainable way to put food on the table. Only vegetarians have a right to protest this, and I'm not there yet. Furthermore, while I voted for the other guy, I'm no Bush-basher either - although I have problems with the family's oil ties and related worrisome environmental record. But I'll probably vote for Dubya the next time around anyway. So what bothers me here isn't the quail that are being hunted or the hunters. My problem lies with the influence James " _ _ _ _ the Jews they don't vote for us anyway" Baker continues to have on the presidential family and an even more bothersome worry that the family shares many of these same ideas with or without Baker's influence. I have a feeling that Daddy and James are peas of the same pod here, but I was hoping, despite the odds, for something better from the son. He quotes, after all, form Joshua in the Hebrew Bible - but then apparently espouses Judea becoming Judenrein in the next breath. While Bush the First was at the helm, widespread published reports circulated that Secretary of State Baker promised Hafez al-Assad the same deal on the Golan Heights as Egypt's Sadat received in the Sinai Peninsula - a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. And this was prior to negotiations between the parties themselves - a promise Baker evidently made to Saddam's virtual twin butcher, author of the "Hama Solution," etc. Hama was the town that dared oppose Assad and suffered tens of thousands of casualties within a few months as a result - far more than Arabs have suffered after several years of intifada and suicide bombings against Israel. And with no United Nations' inquiries either. And I won't even get into the Syria's atrocities against its own non-Arab Kurds a la Saddam in Iraq. Presidents Bush and Baker know full well how Syria used its position on the Golan prior to '67 to rain death on Israeli kibbutzim and fishermen in the Sea of Galilee below. And they also know the losses Israel took to end that state of affairs when war was forced upon it - largely via Syria's instigations and game playing with Nasser's Egypt - in 1967. Had it not been for Israeli forward positions on the Golan, it was an easy downhill assault into Israel proper when Syria attacked in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. And if you believe that Israel was attacked to simply retrieve "occupied lands," I have two bridges to sell you. The passes Israel now controls greatly prevent a renewed Syrian assault. Additionally, much of Israel's water supply originates in this area - a vulnerability Syria is well aware of and has tried to cash in on in the past. So what gives here? Up until now, it looked like George W. was able to distance himself from the troublesome record of the past. His Dad's venomous attack against Israel when the latter launched its surgical strike against Saddam's Osirik nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 still haunts my memory. It angered too many of his Arab oil buddies and their State Department allies. But as the months now progress after the toppling of Saddam in Iraq, the President's line in the Middle East sounds more and more like the same one constantly pushed by Daddy, Baker, and Foggy Bottom: "Justice for Arabs and _ _ _ _ everyone else." Has anyone heard of a "roadmap" for some thirty million stateless Kurds yet? Arabs must have a 23rd state, but Kurds are forbidden even one. Nauseating. America can acquire, conquer, or whatever land and manipulate, topple, or whatever governments in the name of its own national security interests, but how dare Israel build a fence to keep Arab bombers from blowing up its kids that does not precisely cling to its pre-'67, 9-mile wide armistice line existence or insist that a compromise is in order to assure that Baby Assad doesn't follow in Papa's footsteps. Right now he has an incentive not to do so: Israeli long range artillery on the Golan are in a position to potentially do unto Damascus what Damascus actually did unto Jews for two decades prior to '67. Every military personality who has visited the Golan from abroad has given the same advice: Israel would have to be suicidal to return to the status quo ante bellum here. Israel doesn't have the wriggle room on the Golan or in Judea and Samaria/West Bank that it had in the Sinai. Yet reports are now coming out that Washington is concerned that Israel is solidifying its position on the Golan and will put the squeeze on here as it has done vis-a-vis the West Bank. All of this sounds too much like another Baker/State "done deal" scheme with G_d knows what kind of behind the scene pressure being exerted on Ariel Sharon. While territorial compromise to create "secure and recognized borders" to replace Israel's 1948 armistice lines a la UN Resolution #242 are in order regarding the territories, a unilateral retreat to reward terrorism and Arab rejectionism forced upon Israel by its shades of Munich "friends" is a disgrace. And it has the stamp of James Baker all over it. No, once again, the problem has nothing to do with quail. But it is about demanding that Israelis remain forever as sitting ducks, for that is what a return to the pre-'67 armistice lines amounts too. Let's try less sympathy for dead Jews and a little more empathy for live ones for a change. This appeared on the Israel Insider website (http://www.israelinsider.com).

GENERAL HAWLEY'S POLITICALLY INCORRECT NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE Posted by Tamar Rush, January 2, 2004.

This essay was written by General Hawley. This Air Force General should have been a Marine. What a magnificent and insightful view of what this war on terrorism is actually about. Please read and pass on as you see fit. General Hawley is a newly retired USAF 4 star General. He commanded the Air Combat Command [our front-line fighters and bombers] at Langley AFB, VA. He is now retired and no longer required to be politically correct. A true patriot! Gedney Webb sent it to me. Webb says he'd "like to see this dude run for president." "Since the attack [9-11], I have seen, heard, and read thoughts of such surpassing stupidity that they must be addressed. You've heard them too. Here they are: 1) "We're not good, they're not evil, everything is relative." Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying "We're good" doesn't mean, "We're perfect." Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. 2) "Violence only leads to more violence." This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League university to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence. Limp, panicky, half measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully thought through, professional, well executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated," not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. 3) "The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community have failed us." For 25 years we have chained our spies like dogs to a stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed, we yell at them for not protecting us. Starting in the late seventies, under Carter appointee Stansfield Turner, the giant brains who get these giant ideas decided that the best way to gather international intelligence was to use spy satellites. "After all, (they reasoned,) you can see a license plate from 200 miles away." This is very helpful if you've been attacked by a license plate. Unfortunately, we were attacked by humans. Finding humans is not possible with satellites. You have to use other humans. When we bought all our satellites, we fired all our humans, and here's the really stupid part. It takes years, decades to infiltrate new humans into the worst places of the world. You can't just have a guy who looks like Gary Busey in a Spring Break '93 sweatshirt plop himself down in a coffee shop in Kabul and say "Hiya, boys. Gee, I sure would like to meet that bin Laden fella. "Well, you can, but all you'd be doing is giving the bad guys a story they'll be telling for years. 4) "These people are poor and helpless, and that's why they're angry at us." Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer's frozen head collection was just a desperate cry for help. The terrorists and their backers are richer than Elton John and, ironically, a good deal less annoying. The poor helpless people, you see, are the villagers they tortured and murdered to stay in power. Mohammed Atta, one of the evil scumbags who steered those planes into the killing grounds is the son of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew this, too. In the sixties and seventies, all the pinheads marching against the war were upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause they could think of to get out of their final papers and spend more time drinking. It's the same today. 5) "Any profiling is racial profiling." Who's killing us here, the Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times had an article saying dozens of extended members of the gazillionaire bin Laden family living in America were afraid of reprisals and left in a huff, never to return to studying at Harvard and using too much Drakkar. I'm crushed. Please come back. Let's all stop singing "We Are the World" for a minute and think practically. I don't want to be sitting on the floor in the back of a plane four seconds away from hitting Mt.Rushmore and turn, grinning, to the guy next to me to say, "Well, at least we didn't offend them." SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year: Never to forget our murdered brothers and sisters. Never to let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this. Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas"? I wish I had one that says, "No More Pearl Harbors."

THE RABID DOGS OF ISLAM Posted by Beth Goodtree, January 2, 2004.

Thank goodness the enemies of freedom are not merely irrational, but criminally stupid in both the illegal and intellectual sense. Their behavior is nothing if not on a parallel with a rabid dog that bites the hand that feeds it. Like the rabid dog, their mental and moral disease is such as to guarantee their own demise. And the only things the decent people of the civilized world have to do is isolate them, sit back, and wait for their fast-approaching and inevitable end. In this, Ariel Sharon might have the right idea. Call them what you will - Islamists, Islamo-Fascists, or Islamo-Nazis - their very essence, their entire philosophy, and their utter lack of rational thinking, let alone the inability to face reality, ensures their demise. Ever hear the expression 'You can dress them up, but you can't take them anywhere?' This old saw seems tailor-made for the modern-day pseudo-religious Islamist. Every time they are given an opportunity to further their cause, they do exactly and precisely the wrong thing. It couldn't work better if their enemies were running their campaigns. And if you doubt the veracity of what I have said, the following are but a few examples. Opportunity: In the year 2000, the pseudo-Palestinian Arab entity* was offered a country of its own, part of Jerusalem, control of the Temple Mount and 99% of what it had asked for. Never had they been offered, or were going to be offered a better deal. Reaction: Instead of taking the best deal they'd ever get - thus ensuring happy, prosperous lives, and an end to the limbo of their existence - they began a war. And like lemmings robotically drowning themselves in the sea, the Islamist world supported them in their futile and irrational belief that war could get them a better deal. Failure to face even the most basic reality of Israel's permanent existence has achieved nothing but death, destruction, world condemnation, and the rapidly fading hope of a viable state. Opportunity: The Islamic world had the attention of the entire planet at their yearly meeting of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) in the autumn of 2003. Their leader, Dr. Mahathir proudly bellowed his ignorance of even the most rudimentary facts of history by declaring..."the Jews invented democracy." (In reality, the Greeks invented democracy; Jews invented guilt about not voting). Further, Dr. Mahathir revealed the Islamists' true goal of world conquest when he said..."We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships..." Reaction: Instead of showing us their progress towards peace, civilization and knowledge, every single Muslim there gave that ignoramus extraordinaire, Dr. Mahathir, a standing ovation. Apparently not one of those high and mighty Islamists is aware of history, nor did they realize that Dr. Mahathir tipped their hand as to their true goals. Even his ignorant and blatantly uneducated rantings were an opportunity for the rest of the Muslim world to prove their worthiness among civilized and enlightened people. If they had denounced him and his lack of knowledge, as well as his stated goals for Islamic conquest of the planet, they would have garnered world support and admiration. Instead, they applauded his ham-fisted ravings. It couldn't have worked out better public relations-wise if the Jews had orchestrated it. Opportunity: In the fall of 2003, a group of Americans went to Arab-occupied Judea and Samaria to give away much-coveted Fullbright grants. Reaction: These Americans-bearing-gifts were murdered. And yet, even in murder, there was opportunity. If the pseudo-Palestinian Arab entity had immediately brought these killers to justice, if the Arab/Muslim world had demanded and worked towards finding these murderers, they would gave shown the world that Islamists are not a pack of rabid dogs, murdering the very people trying to help them. Instead, the killers remain at large, despite evidence that the Arabs know exactly who they are. Opportunity: Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher visited the al-Aqsa Mosque on Israel's Temple Mount to show solidarity with Arafat and his followers. Reaction: He was attacked by the very people he came there to support. And even in this attack, it could have been an opportunity for Arafat to show something other than his usual savage and bestial tactics. Arafat's own Temple guards did nothing and let the attack continue. Maher had to be rescued by the despised Israelis, thus showing the humanity and moral elevation of the Jewish people for saving a man who came to show solidarity with their mortal enemy. Opportunity: In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Iran, the Iranian government was given the chance to save possibly tens of thousands of lives by accepting help from the best, as well as closest, search-and-rescue and medical teams in the world - the Israelis. Reaction: Like a rabid dog who bites the hand that would feed it, the Iranians flatly and ungraciously turned down the Israeli offer of help. If they had taken it, the world would have had a great excuse to say that the Islamo-Nazi Muslim world is not totally unreasonable and has shown its willingness to deal with the Jewish people on some level. Instead, the Iranian government has reinforced the contention so many of us have that their entire society has no place in a civilized world. Opportunity: Finally we come to 'The Roadmap.' Arafat and his followers were given a final chance to have what they claim to want most - a viable country. All they'd have to do was stop and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. Nothing more. And they'd have their own sovereign nation in a matter of months. Reaction: Arafat and his followers continue to try and perpetrate genocide bombings on an almost daily basis, unrelentingly shell civilian homes, shoot at families driving in their cars, and worse. Nor have their Arab brethren seen the consequences of these actions in terms of themselves. Therefore, I will lay it out for them. When Ariel Sharon declared that Israel would disengage from the pseudo-Palestinian Arab entity, he was threatening to, most of all, remove Israel from the equation. Without Israel to focus their hate upon, the Arab/Muslim world has time and again shown its cannibalistic tendency to turn on itself in innumerable wars of Muslim upon Muslim and Arab upon Arab. Arafat and his supporters have a final opportunity to make something good come from their decades of evil-doings. They can implement merely the first part of the 'Roadmap' and permanently forestall 'disengagement.' But I'm willing to bet a pint of Godiva Chocolate ice cream that they won't. I'm also willing to bet that as soon as Israel is out of the loop, history will repeat itself and the Arab/Muslim world will, once again turn on itself. This time, maybe with WMDs. And the only thing the civilized world must do is stay out of their way and watch them destroy themselves. With such self-destructive enemies as these, who needs allies? * I refer to the occupiers of Judea and Samaria as the 'pseudo-Palestinian Arab entity' because there never was any country called Palestine beyond the one ruled by the Hebrews. There never was a people called 'Palestinian' other than the Jewish people for the past 2000 years, until Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian, stole the name in the early 1960s and gave it to a bunch of Arab rejects whom their own countries refused to allow in. It is an 'entity' because it has no legal status and 'entity' was the nicest word I could come up with for a society which, according to their own polls, support genocide bombings of the Jewish people. Beth Goodtree is an essayist who writes both serious and satirical political commentary.

LOVE OF THE LAND: Selections From Classical Torah Sources Posted by Isralert, January 1, 2004.

These essays are by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions. They are from the Ohr Somayach website (http://ohr.edu/tw/weinbach/loveland). BEIT EL "He called that place Beit El, but its original name was Luz." (Bereishis 28:19) Beit El - Luz, where Yaakov had his prophetic dream of a ladder reaching to Heaven, reappears in the Biblical account (Shoftim 1:23) of the tribe of Yosef conquering the city. The entrance to this city was perfectly concealed. A giant luz tree stood in front of a cave which served as the entrance, and only the city's inhabitants were aware that the tree was hollow and could be walked through. The Hebrew scouts waited until someone exited, and induced him to reveal the entrance by promising him protection from the war they were about to wage against his town. They thus succeeded in invading and conquering the city, and allowed their guide and his family to safely leave. He went to the Hittite area of the land and established a city which he named Luz. The new Luz was where the techeiles dye for tzitzis was pressed, and its secret location made it invulnerable to the invasions of foreign kings who exiled the inhabitants of all the other cities. The kindness the guide had shown the Hebrews by just pointing his finger towards the entrance received its ultimate reward in the city's invulnerability to death itself. When its aged inhabitants grew weary of life, they went outside the walls of the city to die. The modern Jewish settlement of Beit El, established after the Six-Day War on the approximate site of the ancient city, is fifteen minutes north of Jerusalem and near the Arab city of Ramallah. RECHOVOT "They dug another well and did not quarrel over it, so he (Yitzchak) called it Rechovot (expanses) and he said: 'For now Hashem has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.'" (Bereishis 26:22) After bitter disputes with the Philistines over the right to two wells Yitzchak's shepherds had dug, the third well is named Rechovot (expanses) to signify that this one was not contested. The great Biblical commentaries, Nachmanides and Sforno, interpret the first two wells as symbols of the first two Temples, whose histories were marred by internal and external strife, while the third well represents the Third Temple which will be blessed with universal peace. The name and its significance was adopted by Polish settlers in 1890 for the settlement which they established, and which has developed into one of Israel's major cities, Rechovot HEBRON "Sara died in Kiryat Arba, which is Hebron, in the Land of Canaan." (Bereishis 23:2) Kiryat Arba (Town of the Four) is so called because of the four couples buried there: Adam and Chava, Avraham and Sara, Yitchak and Rivka, Yaakov and Leah." (Midrash Rabba) Ancient Hebron was not only linked to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs but is also mentioned in regard to the mission of the spies sent by Moshe to scout the land, one of whom - Kalev ben Yefuneh - was awarded this part of the land for his faithful report. It was also the seat of King David's reign for seven and a half years before making Jerusalem his capital Hebron is today under Palestinian rule, but there is a Jewish settlement in the city and in adjoining Kiryat Arba. The Machpela Cave where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried continues to attract Jewish worshippers and visitors from all over the world. JERUSALEM - YERUSHALAYIM "Malki-Tzedek, King of Shalem, brought out bread and wine." (Bereishis 14:18) "Avraham called that place Hashem Yireh." (Bereishis 22:14) Both of these saintly men - Malki-Tzedek, who was Shem, son of Noach, and his descendant Avraham - were referring to the site upon which stands Jerusalem (whose Biblical name is Yirehshalem). When Hashem wished to name His holy city, He faced, as it were, a Divine dilemma. "If I call it Yireh like Avraham did, the righteous Shem will feel slighted, and if I call it Shalem like Shem did, the righteous Avraham will feel slighted. I will therefore call it Yireh-Shalem like both of them called it." Shalem means both peace and perfection, while Yireh, as Targum Onkelos translates, means human service of Hashem. Only when man serves Hashem can he hope to achieve the peace and perfection symbolized by Yirehshalem. (Bereishis Rabbah 56:10) To read about more cities in Israel, visit Ohr Somayach's Israel & Jerusalem Page: The Love of the Land Archives (http://ohr.edu/yhiy.php/israel_and_jerusaolem/love_of_the_land/). Isralert is sent to an opt-in list. To subscribe, send an email to Isralert@aol.com

NEW YORK TIMES' EGREGIOUS PRO-PALESTINIAN BIAS Posted by Leo Rennert, January 1, 2004.

(NOTE TO NY TIMES EDITORS: Your reporter Craig S. Smith goes to Jerusalem and immediately feels the need to unload himself of egregious pro-Palestinian bias. The Times has had its lapses in covering the Mideast conflict but Mr. Smith would do better to join the Palestinian propaganda ministry. His bias is nothing short of blatant.) Re "Israel Plans 25% Expansion Of Its Settlements on Golan" (Jan. 1): In referring to the International Solidarity Movement, the article is wildly off the mark when it asserts that its members are "trying to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza." Their solidarity is not with rank-and-file Palestinians but with terrorist groups. They are avowed pro-Palestinian militants who deliberately seek to provoke confrontations with Israeli security forces in restricted military areas while acting as human shields for Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Their latest forays include ripping down Israel's security fence in the West Bank. When they engage in such activities, which go well beyond the bounds of peaceful demonstrations, they know full well the risks. In the case of Rachel Corrie, a member of the group killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, the article mentions that she wore a flurorescent orange vest to alert the driver that she was a protester. However, your reporter fails to mention that subsequent investigation showed that the driver, with limited visibility from his cab, probably never saw her. Nor did the article note that Corrie and other members of the group were seeking to impede Israeli efforts to demolish terrorist weapons caches. The driver of the bulldozer was trying to save lives. Corrie was trying to help Palestinian terrorists kill Israelis.

AN EMASCULATED GIANT CALLED ARIEL SHARON: Ariel Sharon Then and Now Posted by Ruth Matar (Women In Green), January 1, 2004.

I'm writing this article with a heavy heart, to tell you that the Sharon of today is not the leader we voted for. His actions are virtually those of a dictator, who has lost all Zionist convictions. Already in November of 2003, Ariel Sharon made it clear that he, and he alone, will direct diplomatic negotiations about the "unilateral steps" which he is planning with regard to dismantling settlements. Now he says in a dictatorial way, "Outposts will be dismantled, Period!... The negotiations now and in the future will be concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office. I will direct the negotiations. This is the way it needs to be, and this is the way it will be." Some years back, on February 10, 1995, Ariel Sharon, then a Likud MK and a former Defence Minister, wrote an Op-Ed article in the Jerusalem Post entitled: AN EMASCULATED GIANT CALLED ISRAEL. The following are excerpts from this article: "Signs of our internal disintegration are increasing. And the Arabs are aware of them too. "This week, Nabil Shaath told the London Independent: 'Israel will be forced to agree to the return of 100,000 of the 1948 refugees to Galilee.' Asked if the Israelis would really agree to this, Shaath, a Minister in Yasser Arafat's Government replied: 'It seems to me they will be forced to agree.' "And Israel? It has no response. It remains mute. "... The PLO is laughing up its sleeve, and the European foreign ministers don't give a hoot. "And Israel, with all the power and justice on its side, looks like an emasculated giant. "THERE WAS no surprise in what Nabil Shaath said. For some years now, similar statements - mainly Egyptian - on how to destroy Israel in stages have appeared in articles by leading figures in the Arab world, in senior academic circles, among the intelligentsia. One of the minds active in this context - indeed, the leader of this unofficial trend - is Osama el-Baz, President Mubarak's adviser. "What are these circles thinking, and what are the different stages of their "program"? "THE FIRST STAGE: portraying Israel as 'rejecting peace,' while the Arab world, including the PLO, desires it. This will deepen Israel's isolation and increase pressure on it. This has already taken place. "IN THE SECOND STAGE, Israel will be forced to embark upon difficult and painstaking negotiations in a process which, ultimately, will take it back to the 1967 lines. As a result, Israel will again be weakened, losing its defensive capability. That too, is happening. "THE THIRD STAGE will see the intifada moving from the '1967 model' to the '1947 model' and focusing mainly on Galilee, where most Israeli Arabs live. After a long and wearying struggle, Israel will also give up central Galilee and the northern and southern 'triangles' (from Megiddo, through Wadi Ara, to Kfar Kassem, an area in which 250,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel live, most of them supporters of the Islamic Movement.) "THE FOURTH AND FINAL STAGE: After the retreat to borders approximating the 1947 Partition Plan, these Arab circles think Israel's continued existence is strictly a question of time. "Shaath's declaration fits in well with this plan; it will, indeed, hasten its implementation. "Does all this seem like a fantasy? When I spoke and wrote about this some years ago, it appeared, even to me, to be no more than a nightmarish vision. But it is all actually happening before our eyes - chiefly thanks to the unstinting help of our government." Now, Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister is head of the current Israeli government. He, himself, is giving the "unstinting help of the government" to make his own nightmarish vision come true. In truth, Ariel Sharon, our erstwhile hero is now himself "an emasculated giant". Half a year after the February 10 article, on August 11, 1995, Ariel Sharon wrote an Op-Ed article entitled "THE DANGERS OF COOPERATION" for the Jewish Press, the Jewish American paper with the largest circulation: "The government's propaganda machine works full blast to break the spirit of these people, to isolate and weaken the stirrings of national life still present in the hearts of so many. The premier and foreign minister incite against the settlers, accusing them of diverting the IDF and police from the battle against terrorism, implying that they are a small minority tearing the nation apart. "But in fact it is the government which is diverting the IDF, police, and other security services from seriously dealing with terrorism..." And on September 29, 1995, Sharon, in an Op-Ed article in the Jerusalem Post entitled SICK JOY OF RETREAT, wrote as follows: "Governments come and go, and so do generations. It is our great privilege to hold these sacred possessions in trust for future generations. We have no right to transfer them to alien hands. "For decades now, I have repeatedly declared that Israel is not just an Israeli project but the responsibility of all the world's Jews. What happens to Israel will affect the situation, even the destiny, of Jews everywhere. It is not only their right but their duty to make their voices heard." And this is what Prime Minister Sharon said only a couple of months ago about the small community of Netzarim, probably the most exposed settlement in Israel, but of tremendous strategic importance in preventing the transfer of weapons between various Arab terrorist groups: "Netzarim is the same as Negba and Tel Aviv. Evacuating Netzarim will only encourage terrorism and increase the pressure upon us." (Negba is a secular Kibbutz in the Negev, the same area where Prime Minister Sharon has his farm. Negba has approximately the same number of people as Netzarim.) Nonetheless, the Left continually agitates for the evacuation of Netzarim. Again, the "new" Sharon has changes his opinions completely. In a meeting with his Ministers on December 15, 2003, he asks rhetorically, "Does anyone believe that also in the future there will be Jews in Netzarim and Morag?" What has happened to Ariel Sharon? Did Sharon mean what he said in his many Op-Ed articles (I have only quoted from a few of them) before he became Prime Minister? Or did he at the time express such ideas only for political expediency? Does Sharon now sing a completely different tune, because holding on to his new coalition partners, the 15 member anti-religious Shinui party (with four Ministers and two Deputy Ministers holding important portfolios) means placating them by getting rid of the very settlements which he himself helped to establish? Did Sharon completely change his outlook, because he now believes that he has more to gain by supporting a different agenda? Is his "warm" relationship with President George W. Bush more important than his erstwhile principles, even as far as establishing a Palestinian State on Jewish Land and evacuating or transferring Jews from their homes? The nightmarish vision which Sharon talks about in his article "AN EMASCULATED GIANT CALLED ISRAEL" is now upon us. In this article Sharon says that the plan to dismantle the State is no secret. And prophetically, Ariel Sharon said "It will actually happen with the unstinting help of our Government." Sharon, by agreeing to the "Road Map", which means the establishment of another Arab State carved out of what was originally Land Promised to the Jews by the League of Nations and the Balfour Declaration has fulfilled his own prophecy. (Britain violated its Mandate of the League of Nations and the Mandate of its own Balfour declaration by carving out 70% of what was supposed to be the Jewish Homeland and giving it to Abdullah, one of the Hashemite tribal rulers, thereby "inventing" Jordan, which was at first called Transjordan. Note the name Transjordan which means "across the Jordan." Even in their generosity the British did not give Abdullah the Biblical Judea and Samaria.) We hear much about the Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, the area liberated from Jordanian occupation in 1967. We hear much about how destabilizing these Jewish settlements are. How provocative they are. But the Arabs have built 261 settlements in the so-called "West Bank", whereas the Jews have only built 144 settlements since 1967, in their own Biblical Heartland. Most of the Arabs living within the borders of Israel today have come from some Arab country in some time in their life. Arafat himself was born in Egypt. Just since the beginning of the Oslo Accords more than 400,000 Arabs have come from Jordan, Egypt and indirectly from any other Arab country you can name. What makes the 261 Arab settlements in the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria) legal, and 144 Jewish Settlements illegal and obstacles to peace? Who felt empowered to nullify G-d's Promise in the Bible to the Jewish People? Important Jewish religious leaders, amongst them two former Chief Rabbis of Israel, have now ruled that according to Jewish Law it is forbidden to give away Jewish Land. As Sharon said in his article of September 29, 1995: "Governments come and go, and so do generations. It is our great privilege to hold these sacred possessions in trust for future generations. WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO TRANSFER THEM TO ALIEN HANDS." We, the People of Israel, are not obligated to follow the lead of the "new" Sharon. We, the Jewish People, who have come home after a 2,000 year exile, pray that Hashem will show us the way as to how we can prevent this attempt to stop the Promised Redemption. What can you do? Forward this article to Prime Minister Sharon at , to remind him that he himself said "Governments come and go: and so do generations. It is our great privilege to hold these sacred possessions in trust for future generations. We have no right to transfer them to alien hands." Ariel Sharon needs this reminder from people all over the world who want to prevent his dismantling the Jewish State. With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green) is an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org

BOB SIMON'S BIASED REPORTING Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, January 1, 2004.

Some of you may have watched 60 Minutes on December 21, 2003 and the biased report by Bob Simon about the fence Israel is building to protect itself from terror. The report was replete with the usual anti-Israel cliches, a crying Palestinian woman, Palestinians telling lies or half truths, and an Israeli who sides with the Palestinian point of view. Two Israelis gave a token Israeli official point of view for the sake of being able to claim "balanced" reporting. No bereaved Israelis were interviewed and not those who were already saved by the existence of the fence. I am not surprised about Bob Simon's one sided reporting. He has been reporting in this fashion from Israel for many years. The surprise is that CBS, and particularly 60 Minutes, allowed his biased report to be aired. This article was written by Andrea Levin, Executive Director of CAMERA (http://www.camera.org). It appeared in the Jerusalem Post, December 30, 2003. It is called "Eye on the Media: CBS's Simon not fenced in by facts." Your Truth Provider, Yuval. Veteran CBS correspondent Bob Simon's December 21, 2003 60 Minutes segment on the fence Israel is building to thwart terrorists displayed the same defects apparent in so many of his reports. It was manipulative and shaky on key factual assertions. By conscious editorial choice, emphasis was given to critics of the fence, with three Palestinians and an Israeli detractor counterbalanced by two Israeli proponents of the project. Nowhere did Simon report the overwhelming Israeli public support for the barrier, as indicated in an October poll by the Tami Steinmetz Center that found 82% believe the fence will prevent or significantly reduce terrorism. Instead, a former Israeli official opposed to the fence is featured both in the program teaser and in the segment itself declaring that giving "hope" to the Palestinians, rather than building a fence, is the key to security. For emphasis, Simon reiterates: "So giving the Palestinians hope is a more effective security measure than building a fence?" Simon also repeats without caveat the nonsensical claim of the same Israeli that "there's less terrorism when Palestinians have more hope for a state of their own." The CBS luminary has himself reported from Israel since before Oslo, when large-scale terror attacks were rare, and after Oslo's ceding of land and authority and the offer of a state, when the mass killings exploded. But the correspondent known for tough jabs is silent. Similarly false and deceptive are Simon's repeated references to the fence taking "Palestinian land," and to the problem of the fence deviating from the 1967 lines - as though the land is not, in fact, disputed, with its ultimate disposition to be negotiated in accordance with U.N. Resolution 242. That resolution did not, contrary to Simon's continuous sub-text, mandate ceding all West Bank territory. Indeed, its authors believed Israel could not possibly defend itself along those lines and assumed alterations would be required, and this view has been endorsed explicitly by American civilian and military leaders. Simon's story does include two officials advocating the barrier as effective protection against terrorist incursions. A Knesset Member and a general who is chief of strategic planning for the Israeli army both argue the necessity of the fence. And the role of terrorism is included with footage of bombing scenes. But in addition to the Israeli detractor, three Palestinian civilians present the personal face of dislocation and difficulty wrought by the new fence. One farmer says he can't reach his greenhouses, another speaks of being cut off from his olive orchards. (Simon omits mention of Israel's efforts to minimize losses to olive growers by replanting trees affected by the path of the fence, a policy that has led to moving some 60,000 trees.) Most emotional is a Palestinian woman, an "author and architect," who weeps while describing the anguish she feels when she witnesses "older people" subjected to the "unbearable" humiliation of passing through checkpoints necessitated by the fence. Simon commiserates: "And you never get used to it." No civilian Israeli victims of terror, whether the bereaved, the wounded or the fearful, are given the chance to tell viewers about not getting "used to" the "unbearable" feeling of vulnerability caused by knowing predators seek entry into Israel to kill and maim them. Why, for instance, did Simon not interview stunned young Israeli students and parents at the Yokne'am school in northern Israel, which had only two weeks earlier been the would-be target of two Islamic Jihad terrorists. The killers' intention was to explode 22 pounds of explosives among as many students as possible. Captured by the Israeli military, the men said the nearby town of Bardaleh had been chosen to cross into Israel because the security fence did not extend there. But just as Simon opts for the cliched setup of characters - the hard-nosed Israelis and suffering Palestinians - he takes a pass on reporting the truth about what fuels the bombers. The Palestinian architect insists the "wall will create more young people" without work and school "ready to do nasty things." Here as in other coverage, Simon is entirely mute regarding the Palestinians' venomous incitement against Jews and Israelis, the extolling of suicide killers and calls for Israel's destruction in schools, media, mosques and rallies, in sports tournaments, posters and even via children's "martyr" necklaces and trading cards. Indeed, while he has previously done entire stories on suicide bombers, he has never deviated from the charted story line, never focused on the role and responsibility of Palestinian society in nurturing genocidal hatred whose stated aim is not the adjustment of West Bank lines one way or another, but the annihilation of Israel. But to tell the truth about Palestinian incitement and Palestinian goals would require Simon to embrace journalistic standards he has eschewed for decades of reporting from Israel. His unwillingness to break that pattern is a "barrier" likely to remain in place. [Ed. note: About Simon's markedly pro-Arab sympathy, could he be suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome, where kidnap victims come to identify with their captors? During the Persian Gulf War - in the winter of 1991 - he was kidnapped and incarcerated in Baghdad in the Iraqi Intelligence Headquarters for a month. He was beaten and interrogated and was often in solitary confinement.]

MARGINAL SHIRKERS, MINUSCULE NUMBERS Posted by Linda Olmert, January 1, 2004.

This was written by Evelyn Gordon and appeared in the Jerusalem Post December 30, 2003. Last week's announcement by 13 graduates of the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal unit - that they would henceforth refuse to do reserve duty in the territories - was predictably seized on by both domestic and foreign opponents of the government's policies as "further proof," to quote Meretz MK Yossi Sarid, "that the occupation is destroying the army, and it is only a matter of time until the IDF disintegrates from within." Since Israel's reserves number tens of thousands of people (the exact figure is classified), the idea that the few hundred who have thus far refused to serve on ideological grounds could ever constitute an active threat to the army's ability to function is patently far-fetched. But the idea looks even more ridiculous when one examines it in historical perspective. According to data published in Haaretz last week, the largest refusal movement during the 1982 Lebanon War, Yesh Gvul, mobilized 3,000 people to sign a letter declaring their opposition to service in Lebanon. During the first intifada (1987-92), Yesh Gvul collected 2,000 signatures on a letter of refusal to serve. By contrast, the largest refusal movement today, Courage to Refuse, has managed to garner only 579 signatures (by its own count) on its letter of refusal to serve in the territories - and this after more than three years of nonstop fighting. Moreover, the bulk of these signatures were collected within weeks of the movement's launch in January 2002; since then, far from gaining steam, its growth rate has fallen off sharply. And the other refusal groups - such as the 13 from Sayeret Matkal or the nine Air Force pilots (the only active reservists among the 27 signatories of "the pilots' letter") - add at most a few dozen to this total. Furthermore, not everyone who signs such a declaration actually refuses to serve. In September 2001, for instance, 60 high-school students signed a letter announcing that they would refuse to be drafted as long as the IDF functions as "an army of occupation." Yet in the end, according to the Haaretz data, only five actually refused; the others decided to serve. What makes the extraordinarily low rate of refusal particularly impressive is that the incentives to shirk reserve duty are so high. Even aside from the physical risks - according to IDF data, 268 soldiers were killed and 1,755 wounded between the start of the current intifada and December 25, 2003 - reserve duty imposes an enormous burden on the reservists' studies, careers and family life. There are, for instance, periodic reports of reservists being fired from their jobs because employers find it difficult to cope with their lengthy and unpredictable absences. EVEN MORE outrageous are the hardships suffered by college students - because unlike private-sector employers, over whom the government has little control, most universities are state-funded. The majority of male college students are active reservists, and many miss several weeks a year of classes as a result. Yet only last week - after 55 years of ignoring the situation - did the government finally compel the state-funded universities to sign a document guaranteeing reservists certain basic rights, such as the right to make up missed exams, the right to receive tapes or notes of lectures missed during their service and the right to repeat a course without paying if this is necessitated by a lengthy stint of reserve duty. Previously, student reservists were at the mercy of their professors - many of whom refused to make allowances for their enforced absences. Added to these objective hardships is the sense of discrimination caused by the knowledge that certain sectors, such as the haredim, are exempt from army service altogether, while among those who do serve, the burden of reserve duty is very unequally distributed: Combat reservists usually do 30 days a year or more, while noncombat reservists may not be called up for years on end. When all these factors are combined with the army's current disgraceful practice of quietly releasing ideological objectors from service after a single 28-day stint in jail (the goal being to avoid a media circus), it is clear that ideological refusal presents a powerful temptation: Not only does it enable the objector to avoid all the hardships of service, but it also allows him to portray himself, and be treated by others on the Left, as a moral hero rather than a shirker. Yet despite this, the vast majority has continued to serve. Many reservists simply do not accept the objectors' ideological premise: Given the ongoing Palestinian terrorism, most Israelis view the army's actions not as causeless oppression of the Palestinians, but as necessary, if unpleasant, measures to protect their own mothers, wives and daughters from suicide bombers. Yet even among people who firmly believe that Israel has no business in the territories, the number of those refusing to serve is minuscule. Most side instead with Major Yoav Te'eni - the 30-year-old reserve paratroop officer who, while arguing passionately in a December 5 interview with Haaretz that Israel should evacuate Netzarim, stressed that despite his personal views, "I feel a duty to serve wherever the state sends me, because that's the basis of democracy." Courage to Refuse and its smaller fellows do indeed offer evidence of the state of Israeli society - but that evidence is the opposite of what Sarid claims. The fact that these movements have remained so marginal despite the enormous temptations of refusal constitutes a powerful testament to Israeli society's continuing strength.

EUROPEAN EDUCATION Posted by David Frankfurter, January 1, 2004.

Italy's six-month Presidency of the European Union has left an indelible mark on the Middle East. Trade links are being re-established with Syria. For the first time, the EU has insisted that acts against Israel not be excluded from UN condemnations of terror. And Britain, France and others are beginning to be concerned about the particular challenges posed by the export of radical Islamic educational teachings from the region to mainland Europe. Italy did not wait for the presidency before taking an active role. Italy was instrumental in the solution of the May 2002 impasse over the terrorist siege of the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity. It would be fair to say that Italy has consistently shown sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians. In particular, Italy has seen education as a vehicle for positive change. Along with Belgium, UNESCO and others, she has recognized that until the next generation of Palestinians ceases to be educated towards hatred of Jews and Israelis, there can be no hope for peace in the region. They quietly proceeded to fund the replacement of the old virulently anti-Semitic Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks that were being used in Palestinian schools. The European Union has also been involved in this process, directly and indirectly. It issued a press release, stating that these new, upgraded, books being used by the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, while "not perfect," were an improvement "constituting a valuable contribution to the education of young Palestinians." The most telling indication of the "lack of perfection" of this "valuable contribution to the education of young Palestinians" is that in December 2000, in response to electoral pressure when the content of the new books became public, Italy instructed the World Bank to divert its funding to "other activities." Finland, the Netherlands and Ireland are attributed with stepping into the financial breech. Two Non Governmental Organizations recently analyzed the imperfections of the revised Palestinian schoolbooks. The Funding for Peace Coalition published an analysis of some of the flaws on their website (http://www.eufunding.org), including pictures and quotes from some of the schoolbooks themselves. The Prism Group (http://www.theprismgroup.org) issued a more detailed study, entitled Palestinian Children: What are they being taught? This includes an analysis of the various professional disputes surrounding the material (and some discussion of the influences outside the schoolroom). Both groups reach similar conclusions. The new revised teaching materials now contain a subtler form of anti-Semitism, and are still a far cry from providing the kind of education that could create the basis for peace. These texts deny the historical or current association of Jews with the Holy Land; they deny very existence of the State of Israel, encourage the concept that all of the territory from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean (including Israel) is rightly Palestine - and possibly most dastardly, they teach that martyrdom is a high ideal to be strived for and achieved by every child. According to basic UNESCO standards, the children are being subjected to politicized and substandard material - a fundamental abuse of their rights. Two questions beg to be asked. The first relates to supervision by the funding countries. Is this is an acceptable result for the money invested? Could one have expected a better "return on investment"? It may be a step forward, but is that enough? Could one have demanded more, given the starting point? The project took several years. To exchange books again would be another step, presumably taking several more years. How can the region afford to raise another generation of misinformed, disillusioned, angry people, who have no basic knowledge or acceptance of their hated neighbors? A second and equally pertinent question is: what must the average Palestinian child think when taught from these books that appear to call for intensification to the conflict? What enters the students mind when each and every book - some printed this educational year - carries a dedication thanking Italy, Belgium, UNESCO and others for their professional and financial assistance in producing it? Surely the child will think that the world has given firm and formal approval to a Jew-free Palestine from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. This is the same "UN stamp of approval" given when this 'new geography' of the Middle East is taught in the UNRWA Teachers' Training College in Ramallah, or when UNRWA schools infiltrated by Hamas affiliated teachers spread their hatred and encourage martyrdom, or when UNICEF sponsored summer camps glorify suicide bombers and other murdering terrorists. Palestinian schoolchildren reaching Grade 11 this year will fully understand where all this internationally sponsored education is leading, when they receive "Islamic Culture." This newly printed text (paid out of the EU supported PA budgets) will oblige him to Jihad - "use of physical force" - against anyone who does not wish to convert to Islam, and to execute anyone converting out of Islam. Jihad, the schoolchild will be told, is a personal duty when "the enemy is present in a Muslim country." From his previous years at school he will know who must be engaged in battle - even if his teachers, his summer camps, his clerics and his television screen were not to have explicitly told him. There is no doubt that this personal, religious obligation is directed against Israel. The level of European financial support for the PA since 1993 has been staggering. At least 4 billion Euros has been transferred directly or through organizations such as UNRWA, which are heavily committed to maintaining the Palestinian education system. Contributions from the USA, Canada and the billions from Arab countries) must be added to these figures. It is known that around 90% of the EU budgets do not pass audit. For nearly a year now, two investigations have been grinding their way to finding out what the Palestinians have done with European money. Should we hold our breath? It is not enough to do as Italy did when confronted with the evidence of abuse of their goodwill to promote hatred. Diverting funds to "other areas," simply frees these "other" budgets for reallocation to promoting hatred. EU budgets must not be used to print a war curriculum. Allowing its endorsement to remain on the schoolbooks misleads school children into thinking that the world supports action to create Jew-free Middle East. The international community should supervise its funds much more closely. When breaches are detected, it must unequivocally withdraw its support, funding and endorsement. It must insist on change toward a peace curriculum in both formal and informal education as an immovable pre-condition of any and all aid. Obviously, when significant sums are allocated to change an entrenched system, better controls are required. As Italy's presidency of the EU draws to a close, one wonders whether the new Irish presidency will prevail over the Brussels bureaucracy, and introduce the necessary change. The European taxpayer deserves no less - and the Palestinian child deserves much more. To subscribe to David Frankfurter's "Letter From Israel" email him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com This letter appeared in Israel Insider (http://web.israelinsider.com).

DEFEND BEDOUIN CIVIL AND LEGAL RIGHTS! Posted by Steven Plaut, January 1, 2004.

I would like to call upon you to defend the civil rights of Arabs. And especially those of Israeli Bedouins. They must be defended against those assaulting them and trying to make a scapegoat out of them. They are being attacked by the Israeli racist Left. Well, at least one is. We need to defend the Bedouin soldier who shot the British ISM protester, Tom Hurndall, in the head. The Left is conducting a witch-hunt against this poor man. He is one of the valorous Bedouins serving their country as patriotic Israeli citizens and as proud wearers of the IDF uniform. The Left is trying to railroad the soldier into prison because he returned fire when Palestinians fired upon him and his unit and the ISM pro-terrorist was hit as "collateral damage". The Israeli soldiers were on a mission in Rafiah when they came under fire. Hurndall was there, like all ISM anti-Semites, to interfere with Israel's military operations against terrorists. At the time of the shooting, Hurndall, along with other ISM members and local residents, planned to set up a "peace tent" on one of the nearby roads to prevent IDF tank patrols from using it. Hurndall's family has gone on a crusade against Israel, claiming son Tom was murdered in cold blood. They never came up with a good reason for why he was running around in the middle of a firefight started by the Palestinian terrorists he came there to support and protect. Israel seems to have caved in under the pressure and is going to prosecute the Bedouin hero. Hurndall is apparently brain dead. Some wags have suggested that ISM people are brain dead even without getting injured. To protest this persecution of a brave Bedouin patriot, write IDF Judge Advocate General Menahem Finkelstein, ZAHAL, Israel and the Minister of Defense, Kiryat Ben Gurion, Jerusalem, Israel. Haaretz Story: IDF arrests soldier suspected of shooting British peace activist in Rafah last April By Amos Harel The IDF this week detained a soldier suspected of shooting and critically wounding a British peace activist, Tom Hurndall. The young man, a 21-year-old student from Manchester, is in a coma and not expected to recover. Hurndall was shot on April 11, 2003, in an incident involving his protest group, the International Solidarity Movement, near the Israeli-Egypt border in Rafah. The original IDF Southern Command inquiry did not identify soldiers responsible for the shooting. Then, facing pressure exerted by Hurndall's family, IDF Judge Advocate General Menahem Finkelstein agreed two months ago to open a new inquiry into the shooting. IDF military police investigated a soldier from the desert patrol (Bedouin) battalion. The soldier confirmed that he fired during the incident from behind a concrete barrier. He claimed that he shot in response to heavy Palestinian gunfire, and that he aimed at a Palestinian who had a pistol and wore a uniform. The military police continued to investigate the incident, and the same soldier later changed his account. He now admits that he fired at Hurndall to "deter" him, and hit the young man's head by mistake. The soldier's remand was extended by seven days yesterday. In England, Hurndall's mother welcomed the arrest, and said that Israel must make clear to its soldiers that they cannot shoot civilians "with impunity." Jocelyn Hurndall, told Sky News: "I remain skeptical but I'm hopeful. I think this is the first positive step. We wish the rules of engagement in Israel to be looked at extremely seriously. We wish every Israeli soldier to get the message very clearly that they cannot shoot with impunity, that they are answerable for their actions." 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.