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| GUSH KATIF |
JOIN ORANGE SHABBAT ACROSS AMERICA - JULY 15, 16
Posted by Dovid Ben Chaim, June 30, 2005. |
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This is not a game, this is not a drill. We are AGAIN fighting an enemy who thinks "the problem" is the presence of Jews and eliminating that "problem" is the "solution." Whether you live in Gush Katif or Beverly Hills, there is no choice but to defeat such an enemy - if you value your Jewish skin and that of your children. The dam may be in Israel, but if it does not hold the flood waters will eventually rise worldwide, drowning Jew and gentile alike. Synagogues across the USA will be participating in ORANGE SHABBAT in AMERICA'S SYNAGOGUES, Friday night, July 15 and Shabbat morning, July 16, organized by Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI. Congregants of all synagogues will be invited to participate in Friday night meals, at a nominal cost, where they will meet and greet each other in a unified effort to oppose the PM Sharon expulsion plan. Speakers will explain the facts of Sharon's plan to transfer approximately 10,000 Jews from their homes and lands in Gush Katif/Gaza and N. Samaria. Prayers will be said, songs will be sung, and awareness of the critical nature of the situation in Israel, as well as America, will be strengthened. Shabbat morning, July 16, it is hoped that rabbis will devote their sermons to the crisis, and may invite guest speakers to speak at various times during the day, and in the evening. Again, prayers for the beleaguered citizens of Israel will be said. It is hoped that millions of prayers ascending to heaven at the same time will cause a cancellation of the immoral, illegal, cruel and destructive Sharon expulsion plan. Please plan to be part of the ORANGE SHABBAT. Call AFSI, 212-828-2424 with questions. Consult our website, www.afsi.org for information that may be helpful to you. Let us know your plans for ORANGE SHABBAT. We will publicize them, thereby encouraging other synagogues to join in this nationwide effort. This will be the kick-off weekend before the Tuesday, July 19 Worldwide Solidarity Rally for Gush Katif/Gaza, N. Samaria, and all of Israel. In New York, the rally will take place in front of the Israeli Consulate on Second Ave. between 42nd & 43rd Streets, from 12-2 PM. Parallel events will take place in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and throughout the world. Plan to be part of this entire demonstration of solidarity with the threatened citizens of Israel. Contact your local AFSI representative to plan for a rally in your community. AFSI's website, http://www.afsi.org, will supply you with needed information. And remember, our brothers and sisters in Gush Katif are fighting on the front lines and they need our help, our encouragement and financial support. Visit http://shop.katif.net/ and order the same orange t-shirts, stickers and flags these brave fighters are wearing themselves! AFSI, Americans For A Safe Israel
Blessed are You, G-d, who gives Your People Israel a mighty arm and the will to use it. Be strong! Be strong! May we all be strengthened! WE ARE TAKING IT ALL BACK AND KEEPING IT!
Contact Dovid Ben Chaim at chazakchazakchazak@myway.com
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| GUSH KATIF |
NEW ISRAELI POLL: SUPPORT FOR DISENGAGEMENT PLAN DROPS
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 30, 2005. |
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According to Wednesday's poll carried out by the Midgam polling company, support for the Disengagement Plan among Jews in Israel has dropped to 48 percent. A different June 17th telephone poll published in the daily Maariv newspaper showed 54 percent of Israel's Jews supporting the plan. The Midgam company is affiliated with the Harris Interactive polling company based in the US. The new poll was commissioned by anti-disengagement Likud loyalists. In light of the fact that the results were relatively pleasing to those who commissioned it, pollster Mano Geva stated that the poll had been carried out according to the highest accepted professional standards. Together with the drop in support for the plan, the poll showed a steep rise to 41 percent among Israeli Jews who oppose the plan. Eleven percent remain undecided. |
A poll released on Wednesday shows that support for Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan among Jews in Israel is on a
downward slide.
| GUSH KATIF |
NEW POLL: AMERICANS OPPOSE GAZA PLAN, PALESTINIAN STATE
Posted by Zionist Organization of America, June 30, 2005. |
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New Poll: Americans Oppose Gaza Plan, Palestinian State, Aid To
Palestinians And Dealing With Hamas; While Supporting Jerusalem For
Israel And Sanctions Against Saudi Arabia
New York - A major new national poll has found that 63% of Americans oppose Israel's Gaza Withdrawal Plan; 80% oppose US aid to Palestinians; 61% oppose dealing with even elected or appointed Hamas members; while 63% support Jerusalem remaining under Israeli sovereignty; and 58% support economic sanctions against Saudi Arabia. By a margin of 2 to 1, Americans believe the Gaza Plan rewards terrorism, by a margin of 3 to 1, Americans believe a Palestinian State''s goal would be the destruction of Israel; by a margin of 2 1/2 to 1, believe a Palestinian State would be a terrorist state; and by a margin of 10 to 1, do not believe Saudi Arabia is a reliable ally in the US war against radical Islamic terrorism. The poll was commissioned by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the US. It was carried out by McLaughlin & Associates, a major national polling company, on June 26-27, 2005. The poll questioned a scientific sample of 1,000 Americans from throughout the US. The poll findings: By 63% to 16%, Americans oppose "Israel's unilateraql withdrawal from a section of Gaza and Northern Samaria" and "forcing 10,000 Israeli Jews from their homes and businesses." By 50% to 28%, Americans believe that "this Gaza Plan sends a message that Arab terrorism is being rewarded." By 63% to 5%, Americans say that "Jerusalem should remain under Israeli sovereignty - not Palestinian sovereignty." By 80% to 12%, Americans oppose "the continuation of $350 million in US aid to Palestinian Arabs." By 58% to 21%, Americans believe "the goal of a Palestinian Arab State would be to destroy Israel - not to live in peace with it." By 53% to 21%, Americans believe "a Palestinian State would be a terrorist state - not a peaceful democracy." By 61% to 28%, Americans believe that "if Hamas members are elected or appointed to official positions in the Palestinian Arab government, US officials should not meet or negotiate with them." By 78% to 8%, Americans say that "Saudi Arabia is not a reliable or trustworthy ally in the war against radical Islamic terrorism." By 58% to 28%, Americans support "economic sanctions against Saudi Arabia until they stop supporting and funding terrorists and radical Islamic education that teaches hatred against the US and Israel." ZOA President Morton A. Klein said: "This national poll exposes the myth that Americans support the Gaza/Northern Samaria Withdrawal/Expulsion Plan. Americans realize that it's a bad deal for Israel to make these major concessions without getting anything in return. They also understand that this rewards the Hamas and Fatah suicide bombing terrorists whose counterparts are killing Americans every day in Iraq. This Plan harms the US war against radical Islamic terrorism by sending a message that terrorism pays and pays well. "We hope that President Bush and Condoleezza Rice will soon see the danger to America in this Plan. Palestinian chief Abbas' recent invitation to terror chiefs to move from Syria to Gaza after Israel leaves should alone end all discussion of the wisdom of this evacuation plan by Israel. When Israel leaves Gaza, the Arab terrorists will surely take over. "This national poll clearly shows the antagonism that US citizens have to giving their hard-earned dollars in the form of $350 million of US aid to what Americans clearly see as a terrorist regime called the Palestinian Authority (PA). It is remarkable to see that average Americans understand that any Palestinian State that may evolve will be committed to Israel's destruction - not to living in peace with Israel. I wish more US Congressmembers and President Bush realized this instead of praising Palestinian chief Abbas as a peace-maker and promoting the establishment of yet another terrorist state in the region. It is high time that US aid to the Palestinian Arabs be conditional on the PA's fulfilling all of their written twelve-year old obligations including the disarming and dismantling of terror groups, ending incitement against Israel and Jews, arresting terrorists, closing bomb factories, and stopping the smuggling of weapons and missiles from Sinai into Gaza. "And while Europe is planning to negotiate with the terror group Hamas and the US is considering what to do if Hamas gains in power in the Palestinian Authority, it is refreshing to see that US citizens clearly understand that America should never negotiate with as venal a terror group as Hamas. "It is also refreshing to see virtually unanimous support among Americans for Israel to maintain sovereignty over Jerusalem. Jerusalem has never been the capitol of any country except Israel. When Jordan controlled it, no Arab leader visited Jerusalem - yet Arabs would not let any Jew visit Judaism's holy city. Jerusalem is mentioned in the Jewish holy books 700 times - in the Islamic Koran - not once. Americans understand all this - it is time President Bush moves the US Embassy to Israel's capital, Jerusalem, as US law requires. Bush's refusal to move the Embassy sends a clear message that Islamic terrorism impacts US policy on Jerusalem and stops the President from fulfilling US law. "This poll also makes clear that Americans will never forget that 15 of the 19 Islamic terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, murdering 3000 Americans, were from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has not yet arrested anyone in connection with 9-11. Americans are becoming more aware that Saudi Arabia is the leading source of terrorism and extremist Whabbi hate education in mosques around the world. In fact, a series of reports from counter-terrorism think tanks found that 55% of Iraq's anti-American suicide bombers were Saudis. That's why Americans are supporting sanctions against Saudi Arabia until they change. "We urge Members of Congress and President Bush to work to pass the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act which will demands action by Saudi Arabia through the threat of sanctions. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Cong. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) are the lead sponsors in the Senate and the House respectively. There are already 10 co-sponsors in the Senate and 35 in the House. We urge that Congress heed the will of the people and pass this important legislation. "In conclusion, the responses to these poll questions make it crystal clear that Americans are fervent supporters of the people of Israel, understand the terrorist nature of Abbas' Palestinian Arab regime, and the promotion of violence and hatred by Hamas and Saudi Arabia. President Bush should be more bold in his support of the democratic state of Israel and more bold in his pressure against the anti-peace dictatorships in the Arab world." 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. |
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REMEMBER THE SCUDS
Posted by Louis Rene Beres, June 30, 2005. |
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After more than a year in captivity, Saddam Hussein will be brought to trial by early autumn. The principle account to be settled is, of course, between the Iraqi people and a tyrant who massacred and oppressed them. But Saddam's crimes were not limited to Iraq. The United States, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and perhaps even Iran might be expected to demand that Saddam's international crimes be considered by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Whenever Saddam's international crimes are addressed, it is critical that Israel insist on being among the plaintiffs. During the 1991 Iraq war, Saddam was responsible for 39 missile attacks against Israel, which was not a party to the conflict. Accordingly, the Jewish state has a distinct legal right to participate in the Iraqi Special Tribunal, and its exclusion would violate one of the world's most elementary principles of justice. The principle of nullum crimen sine poena (no crime without a punishment) is as central to national systems of law as it is to their international counterpart. Stemming from at least three separate passages of the Hebrew Bible, the Lex Talionis or 'Law of exact retaliation' was integral to the precedent-setting Nuremberg Trial after World War II. Indeed, in 1946, when the Special Military Tribunal justified its sentencing on arguments for retributive justice, it strongly reaffirmed this binding principle. In its precise words: 'Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.' On January 18, 1991, Saddam Hussein's government launched eight Scud missiles directly at civilian targets in Tel Aviv. This attack was followed for more than a month by 31 additional missiles fired at Israeli noncombatants. Baghdad's last missile attack against Israel took place on February 25, 1991. In compliance with US and allied expectations, Israel never fired back. SADDAM'S SCUDS managed to kill only one Israeli directly. Twelve additional deaths resulted indirectly from missile attacks. Nearly 200 people were wounded. Also, 4,393 buildings were damaged, 3,991 apartments and residential buildings, 331 public institutions, 17 educational institutions and 54 businesses. This accounting does not include the incalculable costs of equipping every Israeli with gas masks, of the need for every Israeli family to prepare sealed rooms, of the national disruption caused by multiple alerts and of lost business and tourism. To be sure, it could have been much worse. But the tactical failures of Saddam's primitive missiles do not provide an exculpatory argument for Saddam under international law. Every state has an 'inherent' right of self-defense. Participating in the prosecution of Saddam Hussein for aggression against Israel would be an expression of this right. According to Emmerich de Vattel's classic 1758 text The Law of Nations, 'The right to punish injustice is derived from the right of self-protection.' Moreover, the right of self-defense in international law is drawn from Natural Law or Higher Law, and can therefore never be subordinated to particular international agreements or even to pragmatic considerations of geopolitics. Not only does Israel have an incontestable right to join in Saddam's trial, but there is a corresponding obligation upon all other states to ensure such participation. As Blackstone observed in his famous Commentaries, international law exists to provide a code 'for the eternal and immutable laws of good and evil.' Each state is therefore bound 'to aid and enforce the law of nations, as part of the common law, by inflicting an adequate punishment upon offenses against the universal law...' In practical terms, Israel should now prepare a formal criminal complaint against Saddam, and file the relevant documents with the Iraqi Special Tribunal. If the Iraqi court refuses to honor its international obligations in Israel's case, Jerusalem should request that the UN General Assembly seek an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding Israel's charges against Iraq. It is unclear whether other aggrieved nations, such as Saudi Arabia, which also suffered from Scud attacks during the 1991, will seek redress from the Iraqi Special Tribunal. In any event, from the standpoint of international law, Israel's right to participate in Louis Rene Beres is a professor of international law in the department of political science at Purdue University. |
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THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Posted by Arlene Peck, June 30, 2005. |
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Penelope Knight has been writing me marvelous e-mails that I think should be read by everyone and I encouraged her to do so. This is what she sent me. She can be contacted at penelopeknight@wiktel.com Every day I received numerous email updates from various networks. Very interesting. Very informative. Yet very discouraging for a sole Christian voice. There are a lot of us non-church associated Christians who are Pro-Israel out here. I find them one by one, at grocery stores, laundromats, garage sales. It is not only possible but simple to bring up the Bible, Israel then, Israel today in conversations. Why not? Do we all want to hear only of illnesses and visits? Of children's latest victories in school tests or sports? Why not Israel? Just because of geography must we confine our minds and interests to our town, our small counties? I say not. The anti-Israel sentiment of today is directly related to the Bible, past and future prophesies. We non-affiliated Christian folk do believe in the Bible, but have turned away from organized churches due to our differences of opinion. In my opinion divesting of investments in Israel by the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, et al, is a huge problem and in that alone I find agreement among my fellow Christians. And so starts the conversation... one person at a time. I saw a Christian Republican become President by promising an ethical, moral White House and administration; implicit within these promises was a Biblical background and base. But with the evils of power and money this president has turned his back on his Christian upbringing, cursing Israel with pressure to give away its God promised Land. What is truly behind this catering to the Saudis? What is truly behind the attempt to democratize the entire earth? Personally I do not believe that many entire cultures are 'ready' for 'democracy'. Having lived among the tribes in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon indigenous people, I cannot foresee a time when democracy will be the rule of law and politics. So too, I believe, cultures based on extreme Islamic belief systems are not ready to elect presidents who are not radical muslims. Taking stone age mentality into the chad and computer chip present is a little beyond the abilities of our president, in spite of his exuberance. I begin to believe our president is not only not that naive, but has a nefarious background with oil barons and is using catch words ('democracy') to hide his subterfuge. Alas, I voted for him. And it is not just an American anti-Semitic, anti-Bible phenomena. The email updates show that the earth's cancer of anti-Semitism that went into a slight remission after the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, has returned in full force. The media with few exceptions promotes lies and half truths, governments turn their eyes away from a multitude of attacks on Jews, political parties, lobbyists and public relation firms fueled by arab oil money twist world opinion against the Jews. And I wonder. Who am I to sit here at my computer, my heart breaking for the Jews in Israel who are being forcibly removed from G-d's given Land by world pressure, thinking I can make a difference? I cannot. The brick wall of millions of Israel's enemies is insurmountable by a sole mind. Or so I worry. However I do believe in G-d's power and history has proven miracles do in fact occur. I with my piddling efforts to inform my "one and all" on email lists, or in casual conversations where ever I am, all of these travesties can do nothing. But with G-d's leading you all, we all can be instrumental - in some way, no matter how small - in stemming this horrible evil against G-d's chosen people. We must bless Israel and not partake in the curse. I pray you join me. Inform others. Let each person do their "little something". The Bible says "knock and the door will be opened". Knock. Action. We must do the knocking and let G-d do the opening. G-d will create the ripple effect. And always Pray for Israel, for the Jews both in Israel and internationally. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com |
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TORONTO GROUP LAUNCHES ANTI-DISENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGN
Posted by Izzy Kaplan, June 30, 2005. |
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A group of Toronto natives are banding together to launch an information campaign that highlights the downfalls of Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. "The idea is to present a balanced perspective on the consequences of this very critical decision taken by the Israeli government to expel Jews from their homes," explains Izzy Greenberg, the Editor of Exodus Magazine and one of those involved in the campaign. "I don't think we should just be going along with this. I think we should be asking: Why this is happening" Why is the Israeli government doing this now? What is the likely fallout of this course of actions? What is the potential precedent that is being set here? We need to be asking these questions, and people need to voice their opinions and concerns... We are all responsible for each other's welfare and the land of Israel belongs to every Jew." With a series of newspaper ads, posters and an informative newsletter titled "Deconstructing the Disengagement," along with a website (www.itsourland.com), the group hopes to get people thinking about the disengagement. A web log (or blog) linked to the website offers people the opportunity to have their say. The Toronto group hopes that, in addition to supporting the residents of Gaza, the waves generated by this campaign will spread to other cities in North America, and eventually to the Israeli public and the government itself. For more information, call 416.256.2858 x26 or visit www.itsourland.com. |
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WHEN KIDS BLOW THEMSELVES UP
Posted by Palestinian Media Watch, June 30, 2005. |
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This article was written by Joel Mowbray and appeared in The Examiner on June 28, 2005. When we think of Palestinian terrorism, often forgotten are its other victims. For most, it is an unintentional oversight; for terror's apologists, it is an absolute necessity. For terror's avowed supporters, however, the other victims are not considered victims at all; they are thought of as heroes. Speaking at a conference on Islam and Democracy in April, journalist Anisa Mehdi suggested that the only reason we consider Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorists is because Americans aren't "pro-Palestinian." She added that if we were, we would call them "Palestinian partisans," not terrorists. After her speech, I asked Mehdi what she would call a 12-year-old strapping on a bomb and killing a dozen civilians in a cafe. As she sat stunned by the question, the luncheon's other speaker, Abdullah Schleifer (executive producer of the documentary "Control Room"), leapt to the podium and said, "Of course it is. And in fact, it's terrorism against the 12-year-old." Although 12-year-olds are on the young end of children converted into suicide bombers, the terrorism perpetrated by the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad against young Palestinians is real - and growing. Roughly one month after this luncheon, Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint in Nablus stopped two teenagers attempting to smuggle explosives under their clothes. One was 15, the other 14. When interviewed by NBC News' Martin Fletcher, the 15-year-old, Mohammed Mustafa al-Nadi, said that he was recruited to "kill the Jews" by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which was formerly under the thumb of Yasser Arafat. The boy said he only agreed to become a suicide bomber after being asked five times. Young Mohammed is, sadly, more the rule than the exception. Already this year, more than 50 Palestinians under the age of 18 have been apprehended attempting to smuggle bombs into Israel, and at least six have been under 16. Additionally, it was announced this week that Israel's Shin Bet security force arrested a terror cell just outside of Nablus last month and four of the eight taken into custody were 15 or 16 years old. Just more than a year ago, the entire world witnessed a frightened 15-year-old at the Hawara checkpoint who decided he couldn't go through with blowing himself up. Israeli soldiers cleared the area, used a robot to remove the bomb strapped to his chest and then safely detonated it. Talking to the BBC a few months later from his jail cell, Hussam Abdo said that although he was glad to be alive and wouldn't tell his friends to become suicide bombers, he nonetheless still viewed the act he failed to commit as a glorious one. He said blowing yourself up in order to kill Jews is "better than being a singer or a footballer. It's better than everything." In an earlier interview with an Israeli newspaper, Hussam revealed where his mind had become so twisted: in Palestinian school. The 15-year-old said that "paradise" was "a river of honey, a river of wine and 72 virgins. Since I have been studying Quran I know about the sweet life that waits there." As easy as it would be to chalk up the recruitment of children to the evil deeds of terrorists, both Mohammed's and Hussam's experiences demonstrate that the terrorists had help. The kids, like many others their age, are primed for jihad long before they have the mental capacity to fully comprehend what they're being spoon-fed. The indoctrination that nearly claimed Hussam's life permeates Palestinian society, from government-controlled media to the culture at large that exalts suicide bombers as "martyrs" or "shahids." Because of the invaluable Palestinian Media Watch, we know that glorification of suicide bombing - even to small children - continues to this day on Palestinian television, from talking puppets that extol the virtues of violence to preteen girls telling an adult that "martyrdom" is the greatest success one could ever achieve. Even at a grassroots level, suicide bombings enjoy popular support. Sports teams, schools and streets are named after terrorists, and many families of suicide bombers claim that they enjoy immediately increased standing in the community. Arafat is largely responsible for poisoning the well, but his death alone does not remove the poison. His successor and longtime right-hand man, Mahmoud Abbas, in fact, has yet to take a significant step in that direction. But even once he does, wholesale change can't happen overnight. In the meantime, more children will be sent off to kill - and die. Children who lack any rational conception of death, who are coaxed into evil with the false promise of paradise. These are the other victims of Palestinian terrorism, and they should never be forgotten. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW - Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). PMW is based in Jerusalem. |
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STRATEGIC LESSONS FROM THE BOYCOTT FIGHT
Posted by Gerald M. Steinberg, June 30, 2005. |
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This was in the Canadian Jewish News today.
At the end of April, the governing council of Britain's Association of University Teachers, with more than 40,000 members, voted to boycott two of Israel's major universities - Bar Ilan and Haifa. This was the culmination of a three-year campaign by a small group of obsessed and radical anti-Israel activists and the broader demonization of Israel that is prevalent in England, particularly on university campuses. After an initial effort to boycott all Israeli universities bogged down, and in what was to be the first stage of a process, Bar Ilan and Haifa were singled out as being the most vulnerable. But this transparent strategy failed, Bar Ilan and Haifa universities proved to be highly resilient, and a massive campaign reversed the outcome in less than six weeks. As a result, a new vote was called, and the boycott was rescinded by a large majority of the AUT council, without conditions. In the process, its promoters were widely ridiculed, with pictures of one of them, Susan Blackwell (a professor of English of little note at the University of Birmingham), wrapped in a Palestinian flag providing the dominant theme. This was an important and rare victory in the political war designed to undermine the legitimacy of Israel, and its details, as well as its lessons, deserve careful attention. First, the implications of this academic boycott were recognized - this was not a minor incident that would soon "blow over," but rather it was part of a concerted strategy and required a major effort to reverse the outcome. It was important to exact a high cost from those who supported the boycott, both actively and passively, in order to deter similar efforts in the future. In the process, the opponents threatened lawsuits against any academic engaging in a boycott, and were very active in writing letters and op-ed articles. For once, Israel's attackers, who have had the public relations arena largely to themselves for decades, were placed on the defensive. This mobilization also highlighted the major ethical implications of the effort to violate free speech in pursuit of an ideological agenda. Bar Ilan University's campaign for academic freedom emphasized that the open exchange of ideas and search for knowledge - without political, religious, or other boundaries - has been a central pillar of civilized society for centuries. The violation of this core principle in the pursuit of the anti-Israel obsession on many college campuses was correctly understood to be a danger that went far beyond the threat to Israel. At the same time, it was also necessary to defeat efforts to justify an academic boycott by calling Israel the new "apartheid state," similar to South Africa, where various sanctions were employed. Indeed, the "apartheid" strategy against Israel, including the use of boycotts, was proclaimed in public at the UN's conference against racism, held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. This orgy of hatred was the result of the combined efforts of many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN groups that exploit human rights and humanitarian claims to promote the destruction of Israel. The Durban agenda - created by NGOs funded by the Ford Foundation, the governments of Canada (through CIDA) and Europe, and other sources - continues to promote a variety of anti-Israel boycotts. In the process, the heads of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Christian Aid, etc., use their money and media access to paint highly distorted images of Israeli "human rights violations," and to promote boycotts. However, by directly confronting this great lie of Israel as a "racist state," rational people without an ideological chip on their shoulders were able to recognize the inherent immorality of this claim. The success of this two-track strategy - combining the emphasis on academic freedom and the rejection of efforts to demonize Israel - is an important lesson for future battles in this deadly political war. Despite the difficult conditions, we have shown the ability to mobilize massively and quickly to defeat such efforts. Indeed, this political victory is no less important than any victory on the military battlefield. Prof Gerald Steinberg directs the Program on Conflict Management at Bar Ilan University and is the editor or www.ngo-monitor.org |
| GUSH KATIF |
WHAT ABOUT JEWISH BLOOD?
Posted by Yehudit Tayar, June 30, 2005. |
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[Editor's note: Mrs Tayar is commenting on the fact that the Rabbinate was blamed for not properly educating the youth, who were arrested for civil disobedience in Gush Katif. young Israelis.] Was the same accusation directed against the educational facilities in Tel Aviv, Netanya, or other parts of Israel where young people go out and murder, rape and are involved in other acts of violence? Was Limor Livnat as Minister of Education brought to the television to explain how the Board of Education had failed and accused of not knowing how to educate our youth? Or is it only Rabbis who are put in the hot seat? The truth of the matter is that we can be proud of our youth who are actively involved in youth movements, volunteer in social programs and elite units in the army. When did we see such a reaction before when Jewish blood was spilled? Did we hear any reaction from the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, or for that matter from the media following the brutal double murder of two Jewish boys only a few days ago? We, the Jewish residents of Katif and the Shomron have lived in the shadow of thousands of missile and shooting attacks, along with the waves of injustice and apathy of a government which is directing the Israeli Defense Forces not to initiate any action that could perhaps save Jewish lives. Even when the terrorists were seen by helicopter pilots or ground forces they were refused the green light to attack those murderers of innocent people. There was a feeling amongst the bomber squads in World War Two that were hitting targets in Germany or other occupied countries while fighting the Nazis, that it was all so far away from them. So sterile - just little puffs of cloud-like umbrellas in the distance under them so that they did not even feel that they were dealing with real people. Sharon and Mofaz are up there in the clouds on their own mission. Unattached to the reality of the painful, bloody reality of our lives they allow perpetual murders, not a one time atrocity but daily planned atrocities. They are in a hurry to complete the deportation of men, women and children from Katif and Shomron, and this only as a first step. They are training and trying to brainwash our sons and daughters who are serving in the security forces to numb themselves to illegal, immoral orders. They are preparing the soldiers and security forces of Israel to obey disgusting orders to force innocent people out of their homes, communities and cemeteries for no understandable or justifiable reason except to cover up the corruption of the Prime Minister and his illegal activities. They are ignoring the dangers from the terror organizations that are waiting for the chance to move their mechanisms of terror into the areas ethnically cleansed from Jews, in order to murder more innocent people. They are ignoring the damage to the fiber of our country by forcing a split in the people of Israel, one which is doubtful we would ever recover from. They are ignoring the warnings of heads of the security and former top officers who were thrown out for being honest about the dangers of this immoral, unjust and dangerous plan. This government and the media are too busy with us those they call extremists, whom they claim are a danger to the country. Today when Sharon ordered the capture and incarceration of those immoral fanatics who would stone an injured human (even if he was trying to injure or kill innocent people when he got hurt), what Sharon forgot is the honest truth. Sharon may be seated in the sterile heights of power up there in the government but he is not only culpable for every Jewish life lost, he is just as guilty as the criminals who threw the rocks yesterday at a man when he was down. Sharon and Mofaz along with all of the weak, immoral, and corrupt members of this pathetic government should and hopefully will eventually be brought to justice in court and they certainly will be brought to the historic justice that none can escape, especially when they endanger the Jewish homeland and the Jewish people. Mrs. Tayar lives with her family in the Shomron and is a veteran spokesperson for the Settlement Movement |
| GUSH KATIF |
EXPULSION HAS BEGUN: GUSH KATIF HOTEL FORCIBLY EVACUATED
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 30, 2005. |
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This is pretty much what has been expected. This is also exactly how Sharon plans on destroying the Jews of Gush Katif. Total disregard for law, Israeli or International, maximum brutality and either dumping the victims into concentration camps or in the middle of nowhere. BTW, that trick of dumping victims in the middle of nowhere, Sharon learned from the East Germans. Before the Berlin Wall was erected, the Communist goon squads use to board the trains heading to the West and freedom, stop the train between cites and eject anyone (into the middle of nowhere) who looked like they were trying to leave East Germany. I wonder what other goodies he intends to copy from them? Aside from getting his goon squads into the right mood for their main job, the primary point to this Pogrom is to terrorize all the Jews of Yeshah not just those in Gush Katif. As has been said all along, Sharon is not bluffing. He fully intends to exterminate the Jewish communities in Yeshah and is only starting with Gaza. No amount of passive resistance will stop him. He is more than willing to allow the country to come to a stand-still as a result of massive demonstrations but his mercenaries and goons will move full seed ahead and destroy Gush Katif. Then he will turn them on the protesters with a vengeance. This is a news item from Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com. It is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=84929 The photos come from the Israel Reporter website (http://www.IsraelReporter.com). The publisher, Shlomo Wollins, lives in Gush Katif. In a relatively quick but violent action, police and army forces completed the evacuation of the Maoz HaYam Hotel in Gush Katif this afternoon. It took less than two hours for hundreds of policemen to forcibly evacuate approximately 150-200 residents of the hotel this afternoon. Televised pictures showed young crying girls wearing orange shirts being dragged away by four and five Border Guard policemen. Some girls were seen with their hands self-bound with orange ribbons. The residents, who have been there between a few days and a year, were dragged onto waiting buses. One woman who was forcibly evacuated spoke with Arutz-7, and said, "They took us by bus to a place around 40 minutes away - and they just dropped us off! In the middle of nowhere, they told us to get back ourselves!" She said that she was able to hitch a ride back to Gush Katif, and because of her ID card showing that she is an official resident of the area, was allowed in. "Even more of a scandal than just dropping us off in the middle of nowhere," the woman said, "is the fact that this morning the army did not allow the supermarket truck to make deliveries of milk to our children. My children are starving! If the army would have prevented Arab children from getting milk, what a stink there would be!" The local police commander confirmed that the closure on Gush Katif is only temporary, and "specifically for the purpose of ridding the area of these extremists in the hotel." Journalists on the scene were skeptical of this claim. "We'll see if that's what will really happen," said one. "Don't forget that today is the last day of school, and if they open Gush Katif, many people will start streaming in." A compromise proposal is that Gush Katif residents would be allowed to travel freely, but that checkpoints at the entrance to Gush Katif would carefully screen incoming traffic. Nadia Matar, of Women in Green, who now lives in Gush Katif, had strong accusations against the Yesha Council and other officials today: "This was a disgusting deal they made, to go along with the army plans to temporarily close off the area in order to clear the area of so-called extremists. This hotel was to be a critical location both for us and for the army during the coming weeks - and this deal enabled them to take it over." Despite her fury, she said, "We will continue the struggle. True, we won't be able to go back to the hotel, as the army will have taken it over, but we'll work from other places." One young man who was dragged onto a bus, who has been living in the hotel for over a year, spoke to reporters from the bus. "We have been on a bus for over an hour, but no one has told us where we're going," he said. "The police and security forces came in and beat us for no reason," the young man said. "People here are really hurt. I told them that we live in the hotel legally; we're on the other side of the hotel, not in the part that's so famous. We are here with all the right permits. But still, we said that we would go out peacefully - and yet they took us away with great force, and hurt us. Now we're on the bus, and have been here for over an hour, no one is telling us where we're going, we haven't been able to see a medic or get something to drink." The man, speaking with Voice of Israel Radio, said that he, his brother and several friends from Gush Katif have been living in the hotel for several months. Other long-time Gush Katif residents have been living in the hotel for several months as well. Another of those residents later told Arutz-7 that in fact, he and
his friends have been allowed to remain. He said that the above-quoted
man was arrested "by mistake," and had already returned home to the
hotel.
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.
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THE UNMASKING OF ARIEL SHARON - CONTINUED
Posted by Ruth Matar, June 30, 2005. |
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Dear Friends, I am writing this on Thursday morning, 9:00 AM, Israeli Time. I have just received a phone call from my daughter-in-law and co-Chair of Women in Green, Nadia Matar, who currently resides in Gush Katif with her children. She told me that the elite police-patrol unit (YASSAM), known for their brutality towards Jews, is on the way to the Palm Beach Hotel (renamed Maoz HaYam - The Seaside Fortress) to forcibly evacuate its residents. This includes, of course, Nadia Matar, since she is the hotel owner's Legal Representative and Hotel Manager. How can Sharon forcibly evacuate the residents of the privately owned hotel and its legal Representative and Manager, Nadia Matar? It should be made clear that the army has previously tried to negotiate a deal with the owner to let them establish an army base in his hotel in order to facilitate the evacuation of Gush Katif. The owner firmly resisted the government's financial overtures. Last week I wrote my Letter from Jerusalem on the incontrovertible truth that Sharon has betrayed his own nation, Israel, in order to avoid a criminal indictment for corruption for himself and his two sons. Most of my email correspondents were shocked but supportive. However, a few people just could not stomach the truth about Ariel Sharon. "How can you say this about Ariel Sharon, the hero of so many Israeli wars"? My answer is: He fooled so many of us, including, I'm sorry to say, the Women in Green. On a personal level, he was always chummy and successfully pretended that we were comrades in arms, fighting for the same cause of an undivided Jerusalem and the whole of the Land of Israel. However, there was one person who read Ariel Sharon correctly. Eric H. Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism. In this connection, early this morning, we received a fax from an American attorney, Lionel Alan Marks (fax: 011-972-212-943-3495; telephone: 011-972-212-943-3400). Attorney Lionel Marks writes in his Cover Letter the following comments: "Please read the most remarkable and prescient article in the Reform Judaism magazine on Ariel Sharon. Written in 1990 by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, the article reveals the controversial and erratic military and political background of Sharon. Quoting two remarkable prescient conclusions in the article:'As an opportunist who has exchanged one set of principles for another many times before, he will not hesitate to betray his right-wing constituency if this is required to bring him success.' This article is called "Israel's False Messiah" and it was written by Eric H. Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism. Ariel Sharon is a maverick who continues to defy the conventions of Israeli political life. No other Israeli leader has been so thoroughly disgraced and discredited, nor returned so quickly to political prominence and respectability. Forced to step down as defense minister in 1983 for "indirect responsibility" for the massacre of hundreds of women and children in Sabra and Shatilla during the Lebanon War, General Sharon is today a serious contender for prime minister of Israel. Sharon's downfall is easy enough to trace. Appointed defense minister by Menahem Begin in 1981, he immediately began preparing for a general war in Lebanon, determined to dislodge the Syrians and Palestinians and install a pro-Israel Christian government. Knowing that neither the Israeli government nor the public would approve such a scheme, he kept his intentions secret, obscuring from the cabinet the true extent of the war. On August 12, 1982, however, he was stripped of the authority to command the Air Force, which he had ordered to strike at Beirut without government approval or Prime Minister Begin's knowledge. Those who hail Ariel Sharon as Israel's most brilliant military commander reflect a popular mythology that ignores historical fact. While "Arik" Sharon has had his successes, a review of his years in the military reveals an uneven record and a tendency to disobey orders. He has shown indifference to civilian casualties and escalated military actions beyond the intentions of his superiors. Indeed, the fiasco of the Lebanon War should properly be seen as the logical outcome of Ariel Sharon's military career rather than as an aberration. As a young man, Sharon was asked to lead a special commando unit, Unit 101. In what was to be a limited retaliatory raid on the Jordanian village of Qibiya in 1953, Sharon's men demolished 42 houses and killed 69 civilians, half of them women and children. This incident, a source of controversy still, caused an international uproar and much anguish and soul-searching within Israel. In the Sinai Campaign of 1956, Sharon disobeyed specific orders not to send men Into the Mitla Pass. Uzi Benziman, a respected Israeli journalist and the author of the definitive biography of Sharon, has chronicled the details of the battle, in which Sharon's paratroopers suffered 38 men killed and 110 wounded in an ambush. The incident led to bitter criticism of Sharon after the war by paratroop officers and the high command, almost ending his military career. During the Yom Kippur War, Sharon, with a bandage on his forehead, led his troops across the Suez Canal. In the opinion of many experts, the much publicized crossing was poorly conducted and costly in lives. Benziman has noted that Sharon's battle tactics were opposed by many of his own officers, and that he was severely criticized for not extending assistance to the beleaguered units of General Avraham Adan. Sharon's political career is no less controversial. Viewed today as an answering nationalist, he has in fact demonstrated extraordinary political opportunism. Before retiring from the army in 1973, he negotiated simultaneously with both Menahem Begin and Labor kingmaker Pinhas Sapir. After joining Begin and helping him establish the right-wing Likud Party, Sharon crossed party lines in 1976 and became personal advisor to Labor Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Following his decision to form his own party list, he sought the support of Israel's leading doves, including Yossi Sarid, the Knesset's most prominent left-wing member. Prior to the 1977 elections, he called on Israel to negotiate with the PLO, expressed a willingness to meet with Yasir Arafat, and agreed to a formulation permitting Arab sovereignty over the territories. In light of his uneven past, how is one to explain Sharon's rapid rehabilitation and sudden emergence as the leading figure of Israel's right wing? While there is no simple answer, a number of factors have apparently contributed to his current political prominence. First, he is a charismatic figure possessing leadership qualities unusual among Israel politicians of either the right or left. Daring in his thinking, original in outlook, and hardworking, he has a straightforward, confident manner which radiates strength and draws people to him. Second, he is very skilful in his dealings with the press. Sharon was the first army commander in Israel to cultivate the media, which explains his exaggerated reputation as a military hero. Beginning in the 1950s, even his most ordinary military actions were reported in the newspapers as if they were strokes of genius. Third, his accomplishments on the battlefield, while less dazzling than commonly thought, are nonetheless impressive. Sharon's finest hour came during the Six Day War as commander of a division in the Sinai, where his courage and tactical skill won the gratitude and respect of many Israelis who tend to forgive his shortcomings. Fourth, and by far most important, Sharon is a deft exploiter of the security situation in Israel. For twenty years he has played on the fears of the Israeli public, continually insisting that the very survival of the state is in jeopardy and engaging in heated public feuds with Yitzhak Rabin, Menahem Begin, Ezer Weizmann, and Moshe Arens. As a military man, Sharon's claims are always received with a certain sympathy, especially when public insecurities run high. Sharon then becomes the rallying point for public discontent. Since the outbreak of the Intifada in late 1987, he has stepped up his criticism of the leadership of both Likud and Labor, attacking their incompetence and proclaiming that he alone can end the uprising and bring peace. Could Sharon actually become prime minister? When Likud last chose a party leader in 1984, Sharon received roughly 40% of the Central Committee's votes. When the party selects a successor to Shamir before the next election, scheduled for 1992, most observers believe that Sharon will not have sufficient support. Still, a Sharon victory cannot be ruled out if the security situation and the political atmosphere continue to worsen. How dangerous would Sharon be as prime minister of Israel? According to virtually every sober assessment, he would be very dangerous indeed. In 1977 Menahem Begin stated that Sharon was capable of surrounding the Knesset with tanks. While Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister, Sharon presented him with a plan for restructuring the government that included a provision proclaiming a state of emergency "in order to contend with the political blockade that has been imposed upon Israel." The plan was not adopted, but the ambiguity of the phrase would have allowed a state of emergency to be proclaimed on virtually any pretext. Elements of both Labor and Likud have frequently questioned Sharon's commitment to democracy, a concern which has been deepened by his demagogic tendency to present himself to voters as a "strong man" capable of saving the people from weak and treacherous leaders. Israeli diplomats recall that, during his tenure as defense minister, Israel's relations with the United States and the Pentagon reached an all-time low. Today, there is little support for his belief that massive force and large-scale deportations would end the intifada, and most experts dismiss as naïve his view that Palestinians will accept Israeli rule in the West Bank should King Hussein fall and a Palestinian state be established in Jordan. There are those, however, who would welcome Sharon as prime minister, and they are not limited to the right wing. They argue that only a tough, unifying leader like Sharon, a man with nationalist credentials and a military background, can make peace with the Arabs. They also contend that, unlike many other politicians on the right, Sharon will not be weighed down by the ideology he now espouses or the political solutions he advocates. As an opportunist who has exchanged one set of principles for another many times before, he will not hesitate to betray his right-wing constituency if this is required to bring him success. Still, those who are counting on Sharon to be a moderate and flexible prime minister are taking an enormous gamble. Sharon's career and reputation are rooted in confrontational politics and the use of power. While it is possible that he would abandon these instincts to search for peace, it is more likely that he will lead Israel into a war with its Arab neighbors. *** The following indictment of Ariel Sharon is connected with his own autobiography, Warrior. In this book, Ariel Sharon describes how he, as a young man, wanted to join the elite fighting force, the Palmach, which had been organized in 1941. The following is a verbatim excerpt, pages 35-36:. "But it turned out that my father had other ideas. One day as we were working together in the orange groves, I glanced up and saw him looking at me, his face framed by the branches of a tree. With an expression full of concern he said, 'Arik, I want to tell you, anything you decide to do with your life is all right with me. But you have to promise me one thing. Never, never participate in turning Jews over to non-Jews. You must promise me that you will never do that.' Ariel Sharon in his autobiography says that he understood his father's feelings exactly and accepted them. This turns out to be additional self-serving lies on Sharon's part. During the period of the "Saison" in the mid-1940's, Sharon and other left-wing Haganah activists often beat up Nationalists ETSEL (Another name for Menachem Begin's Irgun Group), and LECHI activists. Ben-Ami Zamir, who today is a member of the Likud Party Bureau, yesterday gave the following harrowing account to Arutz Sheva: "I was given the mission of establishing an Etzel cell in our moshavah [townlet] of Magdiel, and I did so. I gathered some youths in our cafe, and I would often give shelter to Etzel men who needed to hide from the British police. Everyone knew everyone, and it was known that I was an Etzel man, as were all my neighbors; residents of the surrounding moshavim were rival Haganah people." Zamir said that a fight ensued, and "for ten minutes, they destroyed everything they could... The next morning, I went to the Sharon home... His mother came out, saw me all bandaged up and immediately realized what was going on. I asked where Arik was, and she said he wasn't home. I said that if I would see him, I would get him. Later people in Kfar Malal told me that he was afraid to go home. We didn't see him again in Magdiel." Zamir said that this was not the only violent incident against Etzel people in which Sharon was involved. He noted specifically the case of someone named Hayuma, who died six months ago, whose arm was broken by Sharon's gang. Zamir's story was publicized 15 years ago by Yediot Acharonot reporter Shlomo Nakdimon. That article also quoted similar testimony by Etzel member Daniel Basamnik. "Sharon threatened to sue [following Nakdimon's article]," Zamir told Arutz-7's Cohen, "but for his own reasons decided not to." In 1983, Ariel Sharon rushed to sue Time Magazine for remarks that they published with regard to Sharon's part in the Lebanon War!) It is, therefore, extremely interesting that Ariel Sharon threatened to sue Yediot Acharonot and its reporter Shlomo Nakdimon, but never instituted such a suit. This story, if untrue, is certainly defamatory! On June 28, Arutz Sheva republished the same interview with Ben-Ami Zamir. Again, Ariel Sharon did not rush to sue Arutz Sheva. Also, how come Ariel Sharon does not sue the authors of the book Boomerang, Raviv Drucker of Channel 10 TV, and Ofer Shelach of Yediot Aharonot newspaper for the accusations they make against him, both in writing and on Channel Two television? How come he does not sue Carolyn Glick for her article: "Our World: A Coward For Prime Minister," published in the Jerusalem Post on June 20? And finally, how come Sharon does not sue me, the writer of last week's Letter from Jerusalem, "The Unmasking Of Ariel Sharon"? Is Ariel Sharon no longer concerned about defamation of his own name? Sharon is sitting tight and his bureau is keeping numb. MK Handel, who spoke up before Shelach and Druker did, has long since volunteered to wave his Knesset immunity so that Sharon can take him to court, but Sharon has not picked up the gauntlet. WHAT IS ARIEL SHARON AFRAID OF? That the judgment may be that these statements are the unvarnished truth, rather than libel? Dear Friends, I implore you: disseminate this article to your utmost ability. Send it to your legal representatives. Send it to your local newspaper. Speak about it in your synagogues and churches. Discuss it with your family and friends. This is not an article that you can afford to put aside as interesting, but of no concern to you. We desperately need new elections in Israel. If Ariel Sharon succeeds to continue in his evil, dangerous and dictatorial path, the very future of Israel as a Jewish democratic State is in danger. In addition, virtually all the senior army personnel warn that after, G-d Forbid, a successful Disengagement-Deportation of the Jews in Gush Katif and northern Samaria takes place, Israel will face a major Arab attack. With Blessings and Love for Israel,
P.S. Don't forget to print out this article and send it to President George W. Bush. I cannot believe that President George W. Bush will want to go down in history as the American President who collaborated with Ariel Sharon in his crimes against the Jewish People. 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 |
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TAKING TRUTH ABOUT JIHAD TERRORISM TO THE PEOPLE
Posted by Jeffrey Epstein, June 30, 2005. |
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This was written by Robert Spencer and is archived on http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7928 Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of "Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West" (Regnery) and "Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith" (Encounter); and editor of "The Myth of Islamic Tolerance" (Prometheus). "The only person who matters is Allah - and the only question he will ask me is 'How many infidels did you kill?'" These are the words of Marwan Abu Ubeida, the subject of a Time magazine piece entitled "Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber." It is gratifying to see Time being willing to make this trip inside Marwan's mind, since most mainstream media outlets have been singularly uninterested in the thought processes of jihad terrorists. But even Time doesn't explore the implications of Marwan's words. And this is no trivial omission: jihadists from Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Marwan Abu Ubeida have consistently made clear that today's jihadists are working from mainstream traditions and numerous Qur'anic exhortations, and that by means of these traditions and teachings they are able to gain recruits among Muslims worldwide - as well as to hold the sympathy of others whom they do not recruit. This explains why there has been no widespread, sustained, or sincere Muslim outcry against the jihad terrorist enterprise in general. Marwan makes it clear: "The jihadis are more religious people. You ask them anything - anything - and they can instantly quote a relevant section from the Qur'an." He is chillingly forthright: "Yes, I am a terrorist. Write that down: I admit I am a terrorist. [The Qur'an] says it is the duty of Muslims to bring terror to the enemy, so being a terrorist makes me a good Muslim." He invoked Qur'an 8:60: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy." The jihad ideology Marwan reflects is rooted in the Qur'an and Islamic tradition. The longer we postpone confronting that fact, the worse the problem will grow. Yet both liberal and conservative media analysts do not want to face this. They think that by speaking about the Islamic roots of jihad violence they will undercut moderate Muslims. But in fact, no reform in Islam can ever take place without an acknowledgment of what needs to be reformed. The near-universal refusal to provide that acknowledgment is just one reason why that reform is virtually certain not to be forthcoming. The contemporary problem of global Islamic terrorism will never be solved unless people are willing to speak forthrightly about the nature of the challenge we face and work to find positive solutions. Ignoring or distorting the true nature and source of the problem will only postpone the crisis, and make its ultimate resolution more difficult. The media is failing the American public on this issue. But the truth will out, if in other venues. It's time for the direct approach. One organization is taking the truth about jihad terrorism directly to the people: The People's Truth Forum. On September 21 I will be participating in a symposium on terror, sponsored by the Forum, entitled, "The Radical Islamist Threat to World Peace and National Security." This symposium will challenge media bias head-on by exploring forthrightly such unexamined dogmas as the idea that regionalized economic conditions and American injustices are the real cause of terrorism, not any imperative derived from Islamic theology. We will explore the mindset of people like Marwan Abu Ubeida who think that terror is commanded by God, providing a profile of the slaughterers of innocents that is urgently needed - and has not been provided by the media in almost four years since 9/11. Other speakers include the renowned terrorism expert Harvey Kushner, author of Holy War on the Home Front; Brigitte Gabriel, a former anchor for world news in the Middle East and a prominent Arab-American journalist; and Judith Jacobson, vice-president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the coordinator of the Columbia University SPME chapter. This promises to be one of the few places in modern-day America where you will be able to hear the truth about what we're up against. Get more information about how you can attend at http://www.peoplestruthforum.com/. [Editor's note: see below for information about the symposium. ] Jeffrey Epstein is spokesman for the Symposium. Contact him at 860 537 0211 or by email at staff@peoplestruthforum.com |
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A GENTLEMAN AND FOLLOWING ORDERS
Posted by Batya Medad, June 30, 2005. |
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Two images are chasing around in my brain competing to see who will be the first on the page. It's hard to decide, and I don't want to delay one in favor of the other, so they will be combined. In actuality, they are related. In the more than half a century since World War II ended, philosophers, politicians, religious leaders and educators have condemned the German rationale, excuse for murdering Jews and others during the Holocaust. The German people explained that they were "just following orders." Being part of the post-war baby boom it was almost a mantra, a negative one for us. It was made very clear to us that we must develop strong consciences and never, ever do something immoral, no matter who was telling us. "Just following orders" was considered the lowest level a person could go. This makes the present situation wherein Israeli soldiers and police are beating up Jews, dragging them from homes and demonstrations, as if they were dangerous criminals. The scenes on the TV of four five even six big burly police and soldiers, dressed in riot gear, grabbing a single teenager, both girls and boys, pushing mothers who are holding babies, as the victims all cry out in pain... You wouldn't want to see, but everyone should, because no description, even from the most gifted writer can convey the sick brutality. For months the press has been full of condemnation towards anyone who dares to refuse orders or encourage soldiers and police to refuse orders. We are told that the "state" is supreme, and if something is voted for in Parliament, then it is to be obeyed without question. That's why good Germans killed Jews. They didn't want to get into trouble; they didn't want to lose their jobs. Just like Bibi Netanyahu's reason for staying in the government. He's just following orders unlike two young soldiers Avi Beiber and Chaim Attar who are in military prison for refusing to participate in the uprooting of Jews from Gush Katif. And the gentleman I'm referring to was always a gentleman even kissing ladies' hands, like in the old European royal courts. He's the same gentleman who was civil to those who tried to murder him and his followers. He was always well-mannered to those who turned in fellow Jews to the British. He was also polite when after decades in the opposition he became Prime Minister and didn't replace political appointees of the old rule with the new. Yes, I'm referring to Menachem Begin, a charming sensitive man who never deserved the description "terrorist." Today's disgraceful action against fellow Jews is a continuation of the sezon, when the Hagana and the Jewish Agency turned Etzel and Lechi, aka, the Stern Gang fighters over to the British and the murderous attack on the Altalena, a ship that arrived in Israel soon after the declaration of the state. It was sent by the Etzel and loaded with arms and volunteers to liberate the Old City of Jerusalem. Instead of finding a way to work with Menachem Begin, who headed the Etzel, Ben Gurion decided to attack the ship. The result was many Jews were killed, the weapons sank with the ship, and Jerusalem was divided until the 1967 Six Days War. As the newly established Jewish state and army concentrated on becoming a state "like any other," the leader of the opposition, being a gentleman didn't demand apologies and re-education. The history curriculum glossed over it, and there was no national cheshbon nefesh, introspection or "accounting of the soul." That is why today it is so easy for a segment of the Israeli population to attack fellow Jews. They got away with it decades ago and have no idea of the immorality. No matter what the outcome, we have a duty, what Menachem Begin should have done in the early years of the state. We must keep reminding our fellow Jews of the immorality of their actions. We must awaken their consciences until they do tshuva, repent and understand the seriousness of their sin. Only after tshuva can we all unify into one strong people, G-d willing. Shabbat Shalom U'Mivorach! This is Musing #128. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2005/07/gentleman-and-following-orders.html |
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WHAT IS FITTING JUSTICE? WHAT BUSH DOCTRINE? P.A. BASHES BUSH, BUSH
BOLSTERS P.A.; PAX VS PACTS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 30, 2005. |
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Untutored people who assume competence to interpret the Bible without expert help mistakenly take literally the "eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth" doctrine of the Bible. What the Bible really means is that "punishment should fit the crime." How? It is tempting to suggest unusual but colorful means of punishment. The US Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual" punishment. The injunction against "unusual" punishment seems to forbid a punishment at one time that would seem reasonable at an earlier time, or vice versa. Israeli penalties are peculiar. Under the Israeli justice system, the judges are ideologues. They persecute Jews and Judaism. They under-penalize Arab attempted-murderers. Pressured by the US, Israel subverts its rationale for anti-terrorism, by freeing terrorists, half of whom promptly try again to murder more Israelis. The sophistry by which the government first denies that it would release dangerous terrorists and then does, is contemptible. Every time terrorists are caught at checkpoints smuggling bombs, an IDF communiqué states that the bombs were "detonated in a controlled manner." That is, they were blown up in a lead box or an open field. I think that is too easy on the terrorists. If "eye-for-an-eye" were intended almost literally, then the smuggler should be blown up with it. I would settle for bringing his bombs to his house, evacuating his relatives, and then detonating the bombs "in a controlled manner." WHAT BUSH DOCTRINE? "Commentary" took up Norman Podhoretz' defense of the Bush Doctrine against terrorism. My letter pointed out that what Pres. Bush said is amply contradicted by his pursuing the same old policy with the P.A.: (1) Give it aid regardless of its failure to crack down on terrorism; (2) Demand concessions from Israel; (3) Pursue statehood for those undeserving Arabs. Mr. Podhoretz' reply was disappointingly stubborn for someone of demonstrable brilliance. He ignored the last point, as if he endorses its unfair anti-Zionism. He said he would continue to believe in Bush's fealty to the Bush Doctrine until Bush violates the Road Map by turning to its phase 3, final negotiations, without having gotten the P.A. to fulfill its anti-terrorist obligations under phases 1 and 2. As evidence in favor of Bush, he cites Bush's continued exhortation to the Arabs to cease terrorism. Podhoretz refuses to acknowledge that the exhortation is so soft as to be lip service. Truth is not a Bush virtue. If Bush were sincere, he would demand the crackdown now. Podhoretz excuses that shortcoming by accepting the excuse that the US and Israel is giving Abbas the political strength to crack down. It's recycling the same old excuse that was phony with Arafat. Worse, as my letter stated, Abbas declares his refusal to crack down. Time to give up hope for him, and certainly to stop making checkpoint concessions that enable his minions to murder more Jews. When an uninformed friend of mine reiterated the security rational for Sharon's abandonment plan, that it would leave Israel tighter defensive lines, I excused his ignorance of military matters and of how the Arabs fight. But Podhoretz, made the same statement, despite the Israeli defense establishment consensus warning against the increased terrorism that the abandonment would lead to. Defense is not a static matter of staying behind a certain line, especially not in Israeli military doctrine. The IDF prefers to take the offensive, and to take it in enemy territory. That keeps Israeli civilian casualties down and allows some leeway for mistakes. The Arabs have been moving rockets as close to Israeli cities as they could. Abandonment would enable them to move them along the whole length of Gaza without IDF interference. Casualties would soar. Everything Bush and Rice do reinforces the thrust of a policy of sacrificing Israel to the Arabs. KORAN DESECRATION IN ISRAEL During a prison inspection, a female Muslim Arab terrorist took some pages torn out of the Koran and threw them into the toilet (IMRA, 6/19). Why? BUSH-BASHING IN THE P.A. Abbas controls the P.A. government, including the TV stations and the mosque preachers, whose salaries he pays. His official TV interviewed a leader of Hamas, who accused Bush several times of leading a Christian Crusade against Islam. The preachers' anti-American sermons were broadcast over P.A. TV and radio (IMRA, 6/19). Ironically, Bush is appeasing P.A. jihad. REASON TO DOUBT ABBAS The "Jordan Times" reassures those who are worried about Europe's tentative relations with Hamas. After all, it argues, Abbas is in constant negotiation with Hamas to bring it into the P.A. mainstream. IMRA finds that all the more reason to doubt the Abbas. The "Times" rationalizes that it may be fruitful to have Hamas help find a political solution to the Arab-Israel conflict. IMRA observes that Hamas is not dedicated to finding a peaceful solution (IMRA, 6/19). Hamas is dedicated to ending the conflict by destroying Israel. What P.A. "mainstream?" It all is extremist. Why is Abbas trying to integrate Hamas into the P.A. government? To maintain power, to keep his life, and to forge unity against Israel. SHARON'S VIEW OF "DISENGAGEMENT" VS. IMRA'S PM Sharon greeted Sec. Rice with, among other drafts of hot air, "The State of Israel is on the threshold of an historic process. Today, one can already see the fruits of disengagement and I am certain that our diplomatic, security and economic situations will further improve as a result of the disengagement." Sharon looks forward to the Road Map, provided the P.A. disarms the terrorists, etc.. (But the P.A. acts in bad faith, not to.) IMRA describes those "fruits": "Israeli-American relations at the point of disaster over military sales and Secretary Rice demands Israel release more terrorists and ease security restrictions so that more Israelis can 'die to please America'), Palestinians (Arabs) exploiting the 'break' to prepare for the next war of attrition (as they openly warn that the terror option is alive and well), Egypt continuing to allow weapons to flow - as it waits for Israel to forfeit the demilitarization of the border area in desperation, and the world already asks 'what have you done for the peace process lately'- but if Mr. Sharon's speechwriters want to say the sun is shinning when we are enveloped in darkness - its shining.'" (IMRA, 6/19.) ISRAELIS DEMONSTRATE FOR FREEING OF POLLARD "It is absurd and intolerably evil that Rice is demanding the release of even more murderers and terrorists while the US remains totally unresponsive to the people of Israel who want Jonathan Pollard home. Unlike the terrorists the US wants freed, Pollard is in his 20th year in an American prison for saving Israeli lives." One of the picket signs read, "US hypocrisy." In one of the last batches released, thanks to US demands, was a man just caught with explosives again (IMRA, 6/19). CONFUSING PACTS WITH PEACE The increasing fighting between P.A. Arabs and Israel leads some to worry that it is closing an "historic window of opportunity for peace." (NY Sun, 6/21, p.7 from A.P.) The Associated Press is stuck in the old notion that jihadist diplomacy is a peace process. It was one thing for the West to imagine that Oslo was an "historic window of opportunity for peace." The Oslo Accords were signed, but the Arabs never kept them. The Arabs made war. It is another thing, after a dozen years of P.A. violations of Olso, to keep on imagining that negotiations with these Arabs may bring peace. The Arabs still are preparing for war. They did not abandon their war culture. They continue inculcating in their youth bigotry and dreams of committing violence. It is telling that those who suppose that negotiations will bring peace, cite no evidence of the Arabs coming around to valuing peace. Neither do they evince understanding of Arab culture, which is belligerent. ISRAELIS TO TURN OTHER CHEEK Reporters learned, what is an old practice that the current Israeli regime does not plan to respond to run of the mill terrorist attacks but only to extraordinary ones, ones that kill a large number of people in one fell swoop. The government also does not expect the P.A. to respond to Arab terrorist attacks against Israel unless they are those extraordinary ones. IMRA notes cynically that the terrorists could kill a few Israelis a day, without repercussion. Over a period of time, it would amount to more than a single larger bombing (IMRA, 6/21). The government often has failed to protect its people since Oslo started. It is preoccupied with a phony peace process, while the Arabs make war. Israel should finish the war, before supposing there might be peace. How peaceful is an enemy obviously trying to kill you? ANOTHER PERESISM Although Peres wants to make Israel dependent upon Egypt to stop the smuggling of arms into the P.A., he allows for failure - he "already proclaims that he doesn't expect the Egyptians to 'completely' stop the smuggling." "Since Peres already explained recently that guns and assault rifles don't matter, it would appear that he would not be troubled by the ongoing smuggling of guns, rifles and ammunition. Add on to this the recent remarks by Dov Weissglass that Qassams don't really matter and we are already at the point that the Egyptians can smuggle guns, rifles, ammunition and Qassam rockets and that would be acceptable. Back on 8 May 2001 Matan Vilnai explained on Israel Radio that Israel should not be concerned if the Palestinians have Strella anti-aircraft missiles since "they do not endanger people - just aircraft". So what exactly would the Sharon-Peres government consider to be too much smuggling if the border is solely under Egyptian control?" (IMRA, 6/20.) Peres' perennial optimism saves, temporarily, having to take unpleasant action. When Egypt increases the smuggling, Peres would say about Egypt what they all say about the P.A.: "It should try harder to stop terrorism." That is lip service that anyone of average intelligence ought to see through. Few people see through it. Are they all below average intelligence? No, but I think that they don't use their intelligence. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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ROADSIDE ETIQUETTE
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, June 30, 2005. |
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My friend Barbara writes: I highly recommend Ellen's wonderful new book for insights into what has transpired in Israel that has unfortunately brought it to this tumultuous, critical and frightening point in its history. Barbara I add to it that with glee in her voice, Linda Gradstein of NPR, reported from Jerusalem this morning. She, like many other in the biased media, kept calling those who demonstrate "settlers" instead of, for instance, Israelis who oppose the eviction of Jews from their homes and businesses, which is actually the case. Many of those who demonstrate by blocking roads are NOT, repeat, NOT settlers but Israelis from the center of Israel. These Israelis are demonstrating, while the so called settlers are diligently working their lands and businesses. I know, I've been there!!! It is time we stop calling them settlers. Almost every parent and grandparent of Israelis on the liberal left were also "settlers." Are Americans still being called "settlers"? I am disgusted, and so should you be. Now, please go read the following article. Your Truth Provider,
This is called "Roadside Etiquette" and was written by Ellen W. Horowitz. "The government must take 'every measure' necessary to end acts of violence and road blocking by 'rampaging' right-wing extremists... under no circumstances can we allow a lawless gang to try to take control of life in Israel," he [Sharon] said. "The country's citizens must understand this danger, and every measure must be taken to end this rampaging." (Haaretz, June 30) I find the above statement beyond odd, considering the man who uttered it essentially gave carte blanche for lawless Arab butchers to rampage in our streets and destroy and disrupt our lives with their savage attacks for more than four years. How curious that the nation's leader, who was so complacent and at a loss for words and actions during such complete upheaval, has suddenly found the means to articulate and express his wrath (too bad that his own people are the target). In the last 10 days we've lost five of our people to Arab terrorist outrages, and the Premier has remained remarkably silent. How disgraceful that the Prime Minister has reduced a vital concern over security, land, homes, livelihood and our future, to one of mere image. He told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, "What is happening before our eyes isn't a struggle for the Gaza pullout but for the image of the country." How insane that a country which has "proudly" institutionalized the public sector strike as a means to effect economic and social change, now rejects our right to use it when it comes to protecting our lives and land. How many times have our daily routines been disrupted by the chaotic actions of the Histradrut and their electricity, phone, transportation, teachers, airport, agricultural and postal services strikes? As burdensome as those activities can be, do government officials commonly refer to those workers as "rampaging, lawless gangs"? How overturned is the thinking of Ariel Sharon when, in reference to a purported assault by settlers, he attempts to pander to international opinion by saying, "The wounding of the Palestinian boy is a barbaric, wild and heartless act." Ironically even Israel's arch nemesis, the international media, gave a more accurate account of the assault. On USA Today it was reported that, "an Associated Press reporter saw a group of settlers beat a Palestinian, leaving the man lying motionless on the ground. Moments later, the man was seen getting to his feet." Israel Radio reports that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will establish limits for public anti-pullout demonstrations. But how can we possibly accept or adhere to limits dictated to us by a legislature which has turned justice, morality, and the rule of law on its head? The very people who are on the streets protesting are the citizens who more than anything crave law, order, justice and peace. How can we play by rules that are abominable and the antithesis of everything that's right and true - It's as if we live in Sodom - and, in a sense, maybe we do. As I write this, the fourth annual Gay Pride Parade is taking place in Jerusalem. This year's theme is "love without borders". It was a Jerusalem court which overturned a ban on the event. Thank G-d that there are far more than minyans of righteous people living in our cities. Many of them can be found on the streets and, like Mordechai, they're crying "a loud and bitter cry". So let me save Attorney General Mazuz the time and effort, by declaring what's not permissible: 1) intentionally endangering or harming a fellow Jew.
Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il |
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ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, June 30, 2005. |
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the Quartet for Middle East peace, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, should work to bring the three major regional actors -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, into the efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Are you kidding me - "resolve the conflict?!! Do you mean destroy Israel by including her mortal enemies in the discussion! How would we like calling in Nazi Germany as a mediator in our war against Japan in WWII? Oh, I forgot, America first destroys her enemies and then dictates the peace to whomever is left. And that works! Why is not Israel given the same privilege Or would the American government prefer to create yet another Arab terrorist nation dedicated to eliminating us both? Still highly recommended is the article WW IV by Norman Podhoretz, Commentary Magazine, September, 2004, for an honest assessment of the current reality. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host of the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
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CREATIVE HARASSMENT USING THE FAX MACHINE
Posted by Moshe Burt, June 30, 2005. |
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I have learned that when one dials a fax number to send a fax and doesn't send or if there is a malfunction in the faxing process, the incoming fax line is tied up until it goes through a certain re-calibration process. Therefore, a group following one after the other could tie up fax machines simply by dialing the fax # and hanging up. Then the next person follows what the first person did on the list and so on and so on ... In short, a group of people could immobilize every gov't fax machine and fax line. Ariel Sharon 5664838 Prime Minister's office
Deputy Ministers Eli Aflalo Deputy Minister of Industry, Trade, and Employment
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Moshe Burt is founder of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. |
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THE COVENANT OF DEATH
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 30, 2005. |
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This was written by Professor Paul Eidelberg, a political scientist, author and lecturer and founder and President, Foundation for Constitutional Democracy. His previous book, "Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall", provides the philosophical and institutional foundations for reconstructing the State of Israel. It has been translated into Hebrew and Russian. His most recent book is: "A Jewish Philosophy of History." He is president of Yamin Israel and a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies. He can be reached by email at eidelberg@foundation1.org I never cease to be astonished by the folly-ridden arrogance of Israeli Prime Ministers. These scorners of the Torah act as if they own the Land of Israel, and they believe they can barter away parts of this land for "peace" with Israel's enemies. Consider Ariel Sharon. In September 2000, he walked on the Temple Mount and proclaimed his belief in "peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs." Immediately thereafter, the Arabs commenced a full-scale terrorist war against the Jews. A few months later, in his campaign for the premiership, Mr. Sharon pledged he will bring "peace and security" to Israel. Why not a pledge like this: "I will crush our enemies!" Or this: "I will uphold the rights of the Jewish people!" Is it not obvious that words like "peaceful coexistence" ignore the simple fact that the Arabs hate Jews, love war, and are not interested in "peaceful coexistence"? Is it not obvious that to achieve "peace and security' the Arabs must first be conquered? Clearly, Mr. Sharon does not take the religion of these Arabs seriously (or does he believe he's the man to overcome their 1,400-year contempt for Jews?). Of course, as a secularist, he does not take seriously the religion of his own people, else he would not be so avidly willing to surrender their land to Jew-killers. Instead of upholding the rights of his people he demoralizes them by saying, "We must make painful sacrifices." Who is this self-effacing "we"? Is he speaking for the Jewish people or for Jews like Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin who do not even believe in the concept of the Jewish people, let alone have the guts to stand up for their God-given rights? Would Peres and Beilin suffer pain if countless Jews were uprooted from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza? Judging from their words and deeds, the expulsion of these Jews would bring a smile to their lips. As for the Prime Minister, since this land does not belong to him, giving this land to Israel's enemies makes him a thief as well as a fool. And this is not all. Yielding this land to Israel's enemies constitutes, prima facie, a violation of Israel's Penal Law on treason! I cite only one category of acts prohibited by this law: acts which give assistance to an "enemy" in war against Israel, which the law specifically includes a terrorist organization. The punishment prescribed for such acts is death or imprisonment for life. Since Israel does not otherwise have capital punishment, the law on treason emphasizes the profound importance of Eretz Israel to the Jewish people. They know this is God's Chosen Land. They know they have a special mission which can only be fulfilled on this Land. Countless Christians know this. They can't understand how Israel's Prime Minister could surrender any part of this holy land. They know he's not religious, but they do not see how his surrendering land to Israel's enemies will bring "peace and security" to his people. For 2,000 years the Jewish People, while scattered throughout the earth, never surrendered their title to this Land. Indeed, what sustained them through all their sufferings were these words of the Torah: "If your outcasts be at the far ends of the heavens, from there will the Lord your God gather you, and from there will He fetch you; and the Lord your God will bring you back to the Land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it." (Deut. 30:4-5). The Jews should therefore assemble in front of the Knesset and proclaim, loudly and incessantly, that the Land of Israel - including Gaza and Judea and Samaria - belongs eternally to the Jewish People. Let it be known to all the world that no transient Prime Minister, no transient government, no transient Knesset - and certainly no "Quartet" - has any right, legal or moral, to surrender any part of this Holy Land to any foreign entity. But know also this: The agreements Israeli Prime Ministers have made with the PLO-Palestinian Authority will eventually collapse like a house of cards. Only fools, liars, and scorners of the Torah say otherwise. The prophet Isaiah in 28:14-18 describes them as the "ballad-mongers" of Jerusalem. These soothsayers, he warns, have made a "covenant with death." They obscure the true nature of this covenant with fine-sounding words like "peace and security." But the prophet exposes what is hidden in their souls: "We have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood have we hid ourselves." Hence the prophet warns that the duplicity of these "ballad-mongers" of Jerusalem will not prevent disaster. Indeed, he prophesies: "Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand ..." Isaiah's prophecy should be dinned into the ears of Israel's Prime Minister, and his words should strike the eyes of every politician. 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. |
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PA ARABS READYING FOR COMBAT
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 30, 2005. |
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This is a news item from Arutz-7 - www.IsraelNationalNews.com IDF intelligence sources have learned that the Arabs of Judea/Samaria are at the height of general preparations for the battles widely expected to follow the planned expulsion/abandonment of Gaza. The reports say that food and medicine - and weapons - are being stockpiled in villages and cities throughout the PA- controlled areas in Judea and Samaria. The Arabs expect the increased terror and other attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers to lead to army-imposed closures and encirclements around the cities and centers of combat. This stockpiling is of special concern, army elements say, because it is reminiscent of the measures the Arabs took before they initiated the Oslo War in late 2000. Among the arms being amassed are light weapons, mortar shells, rockets and more. Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen reports that the security establishment is particularly concerned that the shift of the center of fighting from Gaza to Judea/Samaria (Yesha) is more dangerous from several standpoints. The Arab and Jewish populations in Yesha are physically much closer to each other than in Gaza, placing the Jews in greater danger. In addition, the Arabs have greater accessibility to the roadways on which Jewish citizens drive to and from their communities. In addition to conventional threats on Jewish traffic, the threat of Arab rockets, including accurate anti-tank rockets, is also being taken into account. Such weapons could also endanger reinforced vehicles. Also of concern is the fact that the soft sandy earth of Gush Katif absorbed much of the impact of terrorist-fired rockets, while rockets that hit the hard rocky land of Yesha could be more dangerous. Rocks could be splintered and fire off their own shrapnel, multiplying the effect of the missiles. IDF officers have informed security coordinators in many Yesha communities that they must begin preparing the residents and emergency teams for the coming offensive. To this end, Yesha civilian security officers will tour Gush Katif today, to learn the threats faced by the residents there over the past several years and the means with which they dealt with them. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
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OPEN LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE RICE
Posted by Jacob Gurewich, June 29, 2005. |
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Neither shall the Arabians pitch tent there, and neither shall they make their fold there. (Isaiah XIII) In 1945, I was exiled from the Land of Israel after narrowly escaping being hanged by the evil British regime, at the time they ruled Palestina - so-named by the Roman brutal heathens who invaded the Land of Israel - enslaved and exiled most of its population. Yes, I battled the evil British Empire - the world's champion of slavery - for blockading the shores of the Land of Israel and preventing Jewish refugees from reaching their homeland. I battled the evil British for sinking ships with men, women, and children aboard, innocent people who had barely escaped extermination by the Germans. One third of the Jewish Nation was brutally slaughtered in 33 death camps. Yes, I battled the evil regime for torturing, killing, and hanging my fellow freedom fighters. In World War I, the British gained control over the Land of Israel from the Turkish Ottoman Empire, which already harbored a mixed multitude of jobless Arabs from all over the 22 Arab countries. The British continued to allow Arabs to infiltrate the Land of Israel, and in fact, took to calling them :Palestinians." Dear Madam: There was never ever a Palestinian tribe or people; a Palestinian region or a Palestinian country in the Land of Israel, ever. The British encouraged and supported thugs in their region of terror against the Jews in the Land of Israel, because petroleum was more important than Jewish blood. The British viciously violated the decree of the League of Nations and spitefully split off 77 percent of the Land of Israel. They anointed a Bedouin to become "king" of Transjordan to watch over the oil pipeline from Iraq to Haifa. To add insult to injury, in 1948, they joined the Arabs and fought against the fledgling re-established Jewish State in the War of Liberation, as depicted in my books, The Enemy Within (ISBN: 0966639820) and Fear Factors: Israel's Solo Victory Over the Forces of Evil (ISBN: 0966639839). The British were kicked out of the Land of Israel, just as George Washington tossed them out of America in 1776, when they tried to annex the New World (America) to the British enslaved colonies like Jamaica. In 1655, the British took over Jamaica from Christopher Columbus and exterminated more than 300,000 natives in the process. Jamaica was one of the evil British Empire's busiest slave markets in the world. Only in 1962, 16 years after World War II, Jamaica gained its independence. But by then, the British had plagued the country with racial and class warfare. When the British retreated from all their oppressed and exploited colonies, the left chaos and bloodshed in their wake to this day. Let's not forget that the Unites States, which saved England, France and Europe from being annihilated by Hitler, sacrificed more than 500.000 of its sons in the process. And it was with countless American taxpayers' funds that America restored the European economy with the U.S. Marshal Recovery Plan. Ironically, today, especially France and other Europeans are spitting in the plate from which they eat. So hearken, world leaders, and hearken well. Hearken the corrupt U.N., E.U. - the descendants of Hitler - and even our pseudo-ally, the United States of America: In light of the terrible Holocaust, when most of you, directly and indirectly, collaborated with the Hitlerite Germans and exterminated a whole Jewish generation, the cream of the Jewish Nation in the European Diaspora: There shall be no more Catholic Church Inquisitions, and death Camps, nor homicidal Arab Moslem death-encampments in the Land of Israel, nor doomed-to-failure roadmaps of marionettes, dreaming of an Arab state in the Land of Israel. Our own Road Map - not hostile strangers' maps reeking with petroleum - will flourish in the Land of Israel, in technology, medicine, industry, agriculture, in Nature, Justice & Science, and in many other fields. Israel's forces shall be on the alert and will not rely on miracles from outer space. And the sound of joy and delight will be heard throughout the entire Land of Israel, in the flourished settlements and cities throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza, from the Golan Heights in the north along the Jordan River as thou comest to the Gulf of Eilat unto the Red Sea in the south, From the sweet water of the River Jordan in the east through the beautiful, abundant hills and mountains of fruits and sweet wine, to the lightly salted shining water of the Mediterranean Sea in the west, in the Jerusalem of Light - the capital of the Land of Israel of 3000 years. The Arabs' murderous aim is not to live in peace with Israel - they aspire to annihilate the Land of Israel. So, in plain English: Jewish settlements shall never be uprooted from the land, and the world shall never see an Arab state within the Land of Israel. Respectfully,
Jacob Gurewich is author of The Enemy Within and Fear Factors. Contact him by email at jacob@jackgur.com or go to his website: www.jackgur.com |
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ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE "DISENGAGEMENT
Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, June 29, 2005. |
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At the plenary session of the Caesarea Conference, organized by the Israel Democracy Institute, there was presented a report compiled by a group under the direction of Prof. Daniel Tzidon. The principal recommendation of the report: "The whole world has come to understand that the disengagement is a fact, and it is thus impossible to cancel it," because "the cost of not carrying it out will be ten times the cost of going ahead with it. In his address to the conference, the chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel attacked each of the claims of this report. It is clear that the report was politically motivated, with the single goal of carrying out "disengagement" at any price. Among Dr. Breiman's arguments: - Must the "disengagement" be carried out at any price, including killing of Jewish citizens by the IDF, just because "the whole world" expects it? Dr. Ron Breiman is Chairman of PSI. Reach him by phone at 050-551 8940 |
| GUSH KATIF |
SHARON'S INSTANT CARAVAN SLUMS
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 29, 2005. |
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Don't be misled by the seeming generosity of Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon in providing caravans (house trailers) to the settlers he is uprooting as temporary homes to replace the beautiful, red roofed homes they built, owned and lived their lives. Trusting Sharon is like petting a rattle snake, especially when it come to his keeping his word. He never has. These caravans are liveable but it's like living in a cement shack with plumbing - something like a white-washed cave. There is no cut-off date when the settlers can move out of Sharon's instant slums into real houses. Israel is in deep debt due to Sharon's mismanagement of every phase of Israel's economy. So, when it comes to building replacement homes, there is unlikely to be any money. There is no money or time to build a serious community with real houses, real green-houses, schools, synagogues, businesses which they are being forced to leave behind. Sharon knows that he will be long gone from his high office when the cash register rings empty. Living in a cement trailer home is no bargain, - unless you are the one selling the idea to the public. It's doable but not pleasant or homey. Would Sharon, his Cabinet or the Knesset members consider living in a cement cave...I don't think so. Sharon implies that "it is only temporary" and "we're doing those (ungrateful) settlers a big favor by giving their families someplace to live" (while we destroy their homes or give them to the Arab Muslim Palestinians who have been terrorizing the Jews.) Sharon implies that, it is only a "temporary misery" but somehow I feel it will be like the slums they call refugee camps the Arab countries keep their so-called "Palestinians" in. This will be Sharon and Bush's legacy. This, of course, is nothing compared to the Bush-Sharon future plan to duplicate the Gaza/Gush Katif experiment in Judea and Samaria. The removal of 9,000 men, women and children, all living in cement and plastic trailer/caravans will not compare to forcing out 250,000 Jews in the West Bank. Nothing like having a tyrant for a leader and submissive to an Arabist family in America. And then there is the Sharon-imposed deadlines: The only families who will even get a trailer/caravan are those who leave their homes on 48 hours notice after the "Disengagement" - Evacuation-Eviction-Uprooting begins. Families which number more than 6 will get a 90 square foot trailer; families which are fewer than 6 get a 60 square foot trailer - about the size of your average dining room for the whole family. Only the weakest families will move into the temporary site. Please read the following analysis by Nir Hasson in "Ha'aretz, June 28, 2005: This is only a brief description of the "misery index". Sharon has additionally ordered the Police and Army to start savage behavior in order to intimidate the settlers. We have already seen Police arresting protestors with some being dragged into Police cars and beaten so badly that they had to be taken to the hospital for serious injuries. Then, the records at the hospital are suddenly "lost". Arrests are being made of teenagers, both boys and girls - some as young as 12 years and they are kept in prison by order of Court Judges. [Recall the Judiciary of Adolph Hitler, accepting the new Nuremberg Laws so they could relieve the Jews of their property, jobs, and money before they transported them to camps.] A message to this tyrannical Israeli government: One day there will be convened a "Peoples' Court" who will investigate, indict and imprison all those who used their temporary powers of office to harass the Jews in YESHA (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). Add to that the penalty for those who will cause the likely murders of Jewish men, women and children by the mix of Arab Muslim Terrorists who are already in the seven cities given over to hostile Arab Palestinians by this incompetent and corrupt Israeli government. We can add to that the Mujahaddin (Terrorists for Islam) who will migrate en masse into Gaza from Iraq and/or Syria after Sharon "ethnically cleanses" it of Jews - makes it Judenrein - and other West Bank cities who will launch a full scale war that will make the so-called "insurgency" in Iraq look like a picnic. All of this is coming - courtesy of the Arik Sharon government. Comments by E. Winston [IMRA: From the start it was assumed by the Sharon team that only a small minority of Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip would have to be evacuated by security forces. But with time running out this is far from the case. And to add to the problems, while the Sharon team succeeded in passing legislation that provides for prison terms for those who opt to passively sit in their homes when the security forces come to remove them, this is the very image (residents going limp as they are dragged from their homes) that is considered by the general public to be perfectly acceptable behavior. So the silk glove comes off. Ironically, while at the same time that the Sharon team threatens to deny access to the Nitzanim project to those who don't abandon their pride and leave without a final protest, they are also revealing the "warts" in the Nitzanim project.] "Nitzanim trailer allocation comes with conditions" By Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 28 June 2005 The government will issue an announcement in the next few days stating that Gush Katif residents who want temporary or permanent housing in the Nitzanim area must sign a document at the Disengagement Administration (Sela), pledging to vacate their homes 48 hours after the disengagement begins. Only settlers who agree to vacate their homes voluntarily will be eligible for trailers in the temporary neighborhood in Nitzan. Furthermore, only a family of six or more will receive a trailer measuring 90 square meters; other families will have to make do with a 60-meter trailer. Another prerequisite for receiving temporary housing is to submit a compensation request to Sela by July 20. Settler leaders say the government is depriving citizens of their right to protest being evacuated from their homes. According to the document being formulated, residents who want to live in the temporary community will have to forgo their right to rent payment: a resident who changes his mind after the evacuation and wants to move from the trailer to a rented apartment will be fined an amount equivalent to three months' rent. Trailers will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis, so late registrants will not be able to get one. Meanwhile, settlers are discovering that the temporary housing in Nitzan will entail pretty rough living conditions. "This trailer is the size of my dining room," said G., a prospective resident who visited the trailer park yesterday. With just two children, he will be getting the smaller-sized trailer. Moreover, the distribution of trailers will apparently not take into account the settlements from which residents originate, thus depriving residents of their central demand to keep their communities together. "Only the weakest families will move to the temporary site and the rest will disperse. The place will have a bad image and that will have an adverse effect on residents' desire to return to the area for permanent residency," one official involved in the matter predicted yesterday. The next phase of the Nitzanim plan, to build permanent communities in the dunes area, is dependent on at least 200 families signing up. Sela announced in response that "the document is still being drafted, and it is impossible to know what will be the exact wording of its various clauses." Sela confirmed that the small trailers are intended for households with fewer than six members.
Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His
articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the
Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For
Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).
Contact IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis - by email at
http://www.imra.org.il
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| GUSH KATIF |
DEFIANT DANCING
Posted by IsrAlert, June 29, 2005. |
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This was written by Andrea Simantov and it appeared in Orange County Jewish Life, in San Diego, California (http://ocjewishlife.com/stories/july05_andrea.html). The last time I visited America was eighteen months ago. I remember the date of the flight, the time I landed, and the name of the car-service chauffeur: Ronald. While I often have trouble remembering where I last put my cell phone, the name of my daughter's math tutor, and what time my Sabbath afternoon study group has scheduled to learn in a particular week, I'll always remember the circumstances of my last visit to America. (Recently I forgot to put on my skirt before a meeting in another part of the city. Very tired from a previous night on the town, I was driving along a major highway when, looking down, I noticed that I was only wearing my slip -- a torn, never-go-out-in-ripped-underwear-mother-warning sort of slip. Naturally, I called the other meeting participants and told them to get started without me.) I traveled to America during the intermediate days of Sukkoth because my father had, not unexpectedly, died. But because I was a daughter who thought her father omnipotent, I had neither bags packed nor instructions to leave for the care of my little ones. A friend drove me to the airport where I was assigned a seat with no prior reservation. In my pocketbook was a toothbrush and change of underwear. My baby brother, also middle-aged and religious, sighed often during the shiva period because the conversations kept turning toward the terrible security situation in Israel, i.e., Intifada. It hurt him, greatly, to hear me responding to questions about bombings, protecting children, and my personal take on the ceaseless violence. In his most gentle manner, he said to me, more than once but never in front of others, "We're sitting shiva. This is about Daddy." Duly chastised, I did my best to comply with the Laws of Mourning and Honoring the Dead. The only time I lost it was when a cousin, well intentioned and Torah-observant, asked me, "How can you live there?" Too stunned by the insensitivity of such a question, still smarting from my brother's admonishment, and anguished by the loss of my father, I could think of no appropriate response. But all good questions -- sensitive, tactless, or merely inquisitive -- deserve an answer and, only eighteen months later, I'd like to offer the following: It's wedding season in Israel, and that's good news for me, because I earn my living preparing brides for their wedding day. (And you thought I was getting rich writing these articles!) It is holy, glorious work, an honorable profession in which I get to share the most important day of a young woman's life. Never leaving her side until she's dressed, adorned, veiled, and holding her bouquet, the few hours before she stands beneath the chuppah are fraught with emotion and shared intimacies. Most of my brides are young and English speaking. This makes sense, since my signature style is certainly more "Western" than is generally found in Israel. Recently I had the great privilege of preparing two sisters for their respective weddings. Shira is a natural beauty: young, blond, tall, and clear-skinned. She reminds me of herbal shampoos, tulips, tofu, and sunshine. She was a stunning bride. Shira's sister, Avigail, is also beautiful, but it is hard to see the familial relationship. Fifteen years older, she looks tired. It isn't easy getting married at thirty-six. It wasn't easy raising six children by herself these last four and a half years. It isn't easy being the widowed-embodiment of the Intifada. Avigail's husband, Gavriel Biton, was a dedicated schoolteacher in the Gush Katif. In November of 2001, the thirty-five-year-old was murdered along with another teacher, Miriam Amitai, when a roadside bomb ripped through the school bus in which they traveled. In all, nine died, most of them children. Three children from the same family -- the Cohens -- miraculously didn't die. They merely lost their legs. Weeks before the simcha, I had the privilege of meeting Avigail's new chattan (groom), Amnon. I was stunned to learn that he had never been married before! His open face and matching personality begged me to ask him, "Nu, Amnon? Why after all this time are you finally marrying? Why Avigail?" His first answer was jovial. "I was looking for a woman with seven children but was forced to settle!" After we both stopped laughing, he offered, earnestly, "My friends all said that I was too picky. But who can explain love? The minute I met her I knew that God hadn't forgotten me." It seemed that all of Kfar Darom was at the wedding, including Gavriel's bereaved parents. In fact, it seemed that all of Am Yisroel was at that wedding. Defiant. Celebrating love. Celebrating hope. Celebrating life. Last month, on a breezy evening in June I had the incredible merit of being a guest at an equally life-affirming wedding. The stunning bride was the daughter of good friends, a charming girl whose delicate beauty causes passers-by to gasp. In storybook fashion, Yael Katz could have married any one of a number of boys, hailing as she does from such a fine, admirable family. She happened to have fallen in love with a young man called Yitzchak. Yitzchak Applebaum. There was a solemnity to the celebrations at the magnificent hotel ceremony where Yael and Yitzchak affirmed their commitment to one-another. Yitzchak's widowed mother should have been standing alongside a living husband on that Wednesday night in June. She should have been surrounded by more living children. But as everyone assembled was painfully aware, her husband David and precious daughter, Navah, had been murdered a year earlier on the eve of Navah's wedding, blown to bits as they shared a Daddy/Daughter cup of cocoa in a local cafe. Dr. David Applebaum was larger than life in his dedication to the land of Israel and all its inhabitants. The purpose of this article isn't to apprise readers of that which is readily available on any Internet search-engine. Six hundred celebrants were at the Avigail Biton's wedding. Six hundred foot stomping, flag-waving, circle-dancing men and women displaying through shouts, tears, and joyous movement that life continues. In swelling defiance of those who would abort our hopes, dash our commitment, squelch the dreams of our children; six hundred revelers danced out the answer: We live! Yael Katz-Applebaum's cousins and new female relatives performed a beautiful, choreographed dance for her before the end of the evening. As the women stood about in a large circle watching the exquisite routine, one couldn't help but gaze at the face of Debra Applebaum, Yitzchak's mom and David's widow. Her young, girl-like countenance was almost unbearable to witness as I could only imagine the thoughts that must plague her every moment. "Why isn't Navah here? Why isn't Navah dancing?" could only have been one of the sentiments she experienced. Certainly, everyone around me was thinking these thoughts. Debra is stoic and beautiful, thrust into a limelight she neither invited nor relishes. We celebrate. We mourn. We boldly hold onto that which would be wrested from our communal grasp by those who say it isn't ours. Biton/Applebaum/you/me. We dance the dance of the defiance. If, as the saying goes, Jews always answer a question with a question, I humbly suggest that six hundred and fifty guests at one wedding, six hundred at another, answered the question posed by my well-intentioned cousin during my father's shiva. "How can you live there?" My answer would simply have to be, "How can I not live here?" Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
| GUSH KATIF |
AVI BIEBER: THE BRAVE AND RIGHTEOUS AMERICAN-JEWISH HERO
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 29, 2005. |
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Corporal Avi Bieber and his unit were not informed that they were being deployed to remove Jews. Avi Bieber, a 19 year old new immigrant to Israel from New Jersey, went into shock when he saw his commanders beating Jews. I recall the vivid films taken by the Nazis of jack-booted Nazi soldiers beating Jews. Other Nazi soldiers were standing around, laughing and feeling superior. Avi Bieber did the right thing as Israelis commanders show they have forgotten that they were once Jews dedicated to protecting Jews and the Jewish nation. The Jewish General Staff and those commanders who "follow orders" will no doubt claim diminished responsibility at their inevitable trials. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon calls the settler refuseniks "a wild minority" but it was this beast of a man who came to attack them. Sharon gave the orders and he must be held responsible. This is called "Senior Gaza commander: IDF will not tolerate refusal" and was written by Amos Harel, Nir Hasson and Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service. It appeared yesterday in Haaretz (www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=592846). A U.S.-born soldier who refused to take part in an Israel Defense Forces operation to demolish vacant buildings near a Gaza Strip settlement will face a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday headed by Gaza Division commander Colonel David Menachem. A senior IDF commander said the army will not tolerate the phenomenon of refusal. The military advocate general on Monday rejected the request by Combat Engineers Corporal Avi Bieber to be tried in a military court but ruled that the officer to head his disciplinary hearing will be a more senior division commander rather than a brigade commander. This appears to be the route the IDF will take when it comes to additional refuseniks in the future. Right-wing groups that are encouraging soldiers to refuse to participate in disengagement operations would like to see such cases heard by a military tribunal, due to the public nature of such debates. However, IDF sources said Monday that military tribunals will be employed only in extraordinary cases. The IDF, meanwhile, began investing much effort Monday in staving the momentum Bieber's highly publicized actions provided valuable material to the anti-pullout movements. Military sources admitted that the footage from Gush Katif had made a big impression and had provided the pullout opponents with a new symbol for their struggle. Speaking last night at a press conference, the commander of the IDF's Gaza Division, Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, denied media reports that additional soldiers from Bieber's battalion had threatened to disobey orders the next time around. "There's no need to hold one's breath every time there is a refusal," he said. "Refusals have been and will be. It is not a phenomenon - not now, and not in the future; and one must keep things in proportion. Refusal appears to be an expression of the conflict among the nation. "The soldier admonished his commanders and urged resistance to the evacuation," Kochavi continued. "He was arrested and will be dealt with in the manner in which the IDF deals with such instances. The IDF will not tolerate such behavior under any circumstances. The soldier will be tried and receive the worthy judgment... The evacuation is not the private affair of the IDF and the police. It is the affair of the entire nation of Israel and all the camps - and of the leaders in particular." Bieber defended his action as that of a conscientious objector, saying that his family "didn't come to the country to expel Jews from their homes." Fistfights and shoving matches developed when anti-disengagement protesters swarmed to the site, 11 abandoned beachfront cottages in an military-administered area beside the Gaza Strip settlement of Shirat Hayam. When the scuffles began, Bieber, 19, refused to participate in the demolition of the homes, defining himself as a "conscientious objector." According to Bieber, whose weapon was confiscated and who is expected to be brought up on charges for refusing an order, "Some nine years ago, as a child, I immigrated to Israel with my family from the United States. We didn't come to the country to expel Jews from their homes. "I didn't enlist in the IDF in order to destroy communities or prepare the ground for the destruction of communities. I enlisted in the IDF to defend the state, and this action is not the role of the IDF." His father, Rafael Bieber, said Monday his telephone was constantly ringing with callers praising his son's actions. "Many people from all over the country have telephoned me to say that what he did was a good thing, that he had spoken from his heart, and that many people felt the same way." "I received a call from someone in Brooklyn, New York, who told me that everyone there is with us," Bieber said, adding that the caller told him that footage of his son had appeared on television channels 2, 4 and 7 in New York City. According to Bieber, politics was not behind his son's actions, but rather concern for the demonstrators. "He's a human being. He saw that his commanders were beating Jews, and he'd never seen anything like that in his life. He did not do this because of politics. He did it because he is sensitive, and because he cares, just like you would care if you saw someone beating someone else." It remained unclear if the army intended to bring his son to trial, he said. 'My heart broke' Speaking to Haaretz after the incident, Avi Bieber said he and some of his fellow soldiers were initially unaware of why they had been taken to the site, adding that he had not planned to refuse to participate in the operation. "It wasn't something I planned because I had no idea what I was going into, but when I saw what was happening, when I saw how they were beating dedicated Jews, my heart broke, and my conscience said to me, 'Avi, this isn't Jewish justice. You are not going to participate in such a thing.' "I am proud of what I did," Bieber continued. "I don't think I am a criminal and that I deserve to go to jail; but if they decide to send me to jail, I won't regret it. I did the right thing." Bieber's parents, Michelle and Rafael, said they were proud of their son. "Our boy showed the entire country just how much he loves the State of Israel," Michelle Bieber said. "We raised him to love the country and we hope that others will follow in his footsteps." Bieber's mother said she did not believe her son had been influenced by the rulings of various rabbis. "It was his conscience that told him that this purposeless evacuation, which is taking place without a public mandate, and contrary to everything Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon spoke about before the elections, is flawed from a value and moral perspective. It was his conscience that told him that we came to the Land of Israel to settle it, and not to prevent Jews from settling it or to deport Jews from it." The Bieber family immigrated to Israel from the United States in 1996, settling initially in Efrat, in Gush Etzion. The family subsequently moved to the Tekoa settlement in the eastern part of Gush Etzion. "Avi Bieber ... and many, many others have caught on to what the media are trying to blur and conceal: We are talking about people of conscience who cannot live with this transfer, just like other people of conscience cannot live, and rightly so, with the deportation of Arabs," commented one of Biber's friends from Tekoa. "This is a red line that Avi Bieber was unwilling to cross. From his point of view, there is a limit to obedience, even if yesterday was just a prelude and promo for the real thing." Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). [Editor's note: the photo is not part of the submitted article.] |
AP photo/Baz Ratner
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EU PAYS "PROTECTION"
Posted by David Frankfurter, June 29, 2005. |
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Dear Friends, For those of you who have written to me asking "why?" about European willingness to continue funding Palestinian corruption and violence, EU Parliamentary President, Josep Borrell Fontelles, gave the answer today in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. The EU, which provides the Palestinian Authority with half of the $1 billion in European aid, is not an altruistic player in the Middle East, said Borrell. With its growing Muslim population, Europe is finding that violence in the Middle East leads to unrest within its own borders, he said. In other words, the EU pays billions of dollars in protection money to the Palestinians in order to ensure that they don't incite the local Muslim population in Europe. No wonder they don't care about the lack of proper controls. The only thing surprising is that Borrell was candid (or stupid) enough to say it publicly. Best Regards,
To subscribe to David Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. Or go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/dfrankfurter/ |
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WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Posted by Alan B. Katz, June 29, 2005. |
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"Some rise by sin; others by virtue fall." -- Measure for
Measure
From at least as far back as the legend of King Midas, we have been warned, "Be careful what you ask for. You may get it." Time and again, we have failed to heed the Greek chorus and we could almost hear them laughing in the background, "We told you so." It is entirely likely that we are now at another such moment in history. The American President is embarked upon a noble crusade: democratization. The Palestinian Arabs may again go to the polls; this time to elect parliamentary and municipal representatives. We have encouraged this. Representative government is as mother's milk to Americans. The problem is that democratic elections are not necessarily significative of a democracy. Reliable polls indicate that Hamas and Hizbollah will emerge victorious in many of those free elections. Even if they fail to garnish a majority, it is likely they will be elected in so large a number that Mr. Abbas and Fatah may very well be forced to give them "a seat at the table" and perhaps even a place in a coalition government. Should that happen, Israel will be forced on the horns of a dilemma. It will be demanded that Israel negotiate its future with a democratically elected government comprised largely of people who remain dedicated to her destruction. The historical Arab demand that the Jewish state die by murder or suicide will no longer involve a choice. While we are celebrating - perhaps prematurely - democracy's victories in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, it would be wise to understand exactly what democratic elections may bring us. Mahmoud Abbas, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen, did not just spring from a shell like Venus. The man has a past. He has a history. Hailed by the West as a "moderate," he was for decades the advisor and confidante of the late Mr. Arafat, and the architect of the Palestinian war plan. There is simply no evidence that Mr. Mazen has undergone a Sadat-like metamorphosis. Rather, there is good reason to question whether Mr. Mazen even wants a two-state peace. Although Mr. Mazen has had months - and much foreign aid - to make changes, he refuses to tackle the sine qua non for advancing the peace process: destruction of the terrorist network. Since the momentous meeting at Sharm el-Sheik, Hamas, Hizbollah, etc. operate openly and in defiance of his supposed authority and continue to attack Israel. While almost all attacks have been prevented by the IDF and the security fence, the so-called PA security forces have sat on their hands as arms are smuggled into, manufactured in and carried through the streets of Gaza right under their noses. Hamas, Hizbollah, and Islamic Jihad know they are free to act as they wish as long as they don't completely muck up the current cease-fire. They are free to catch their breath and re-arm. Sadly, we have President Mazen, who has repeatedly stated that he will neither let PA police fire on Palestinians nor will he disarm the terrorists, to thank for this state of affairs. Abu Mazen's plan to deal with the terrorists and released prisoners is ingenious in its simplicity: welcome them into the Palestinian security forces, make them promise in writing not to kill Israelis, and then re-arm them. Co-opt the killers rather than confront them. Has crime ever been solved by giving the criminals a badge and a gum? Not content to place the foxes in charge of the chicken coop, Abu Mazen intends to place the foxes directly in the chicken coop. What about the weapons leaking daily through the Egyptian border and manufactured in Gaza? President Mazen has that figured out: after the elections, all terrorists will be incorporated into the Palestinian political system and will have no need for terrorism, weaponry or murderous organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. All weapons, he expects, will be turned in to the state. "When a militia turns into a political party," President Mazen recently opined, "I believe the issue of a need for arms becomes irrelevant." "There will be," he declares, "one authority, one law and one legal gun." (It has a familiar ring to it, no? "Eine volk, eine deutchland, eine fuhrer!") As though the way to fight crime is to give guns and badges to the criminals. Hamas promptly issued statements that its participation in elections "does not mean it is on the way to becoming a political party" and that it will never disarm. In the meantime, mortars continue to be fired at Israeli settlements in and out of Gaza, and teen-age homicide-bombers are sent daily on their missions of death ... all under the watchful eyes of the PA security forces. A salutary beginning for a criminal democracy. Meanwhile, Palestinians are growing disenchanted with Fatah corruption and wildfire anarchy. With Hamas filling the municipal, economic and educational vacuum, its candidates are running strong everywhere. As all this unfolds, Abu Mazen's hold on the Palestinian body politic deteriorates. If peace is to have even a scintilla of hope, the Palestinian president must take on the terrorists. He must do something to assert his authority and credibility just as Ben-Gurion did when he ordered the sinking of the Altalena. If Mazen fails to sink his Altalena, i.e., exorcize the terrorists, he will fall by the wayside as so much background noise. Almost seventy years ago, on October 5, 1938, upon Neville Chamberlain's return from Munich, the great Churchill addressed the House of Commons. His words now, as then, should unnerve our complacency. He declared the Munich agreement "a total and unmitigated defeat... The utmost he [Chamberlain] has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia in the matters which were in dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course." Churchill's ability to distinguish between reality and wishful thinking was more inimical to Hitler's reich than the short distance between Dover and Calais. Today Israel is being force fed a Palestinian state in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. As Abu Mazen continues his plan for the piecemeal destruction of Israel - and Hamas prepares to initiate its velvet coup d'etat - Israel must resist the temptation and pressure to negotiate for its life with those who insist on her death. There is no reason to believe that today's Palestinians are less dedicated to Israel's destruction than they were five years ago. The PA's utter failure to deal with the terrorists in a meaningful way cannot be swept under the rug. Appeasement of the Palestinians is regarded as weakness. There is no easy way out of this, and the only way out requires complete destruction of the terrorists. We should recall yet another of Churchill's observations: "Mr. Chamberlain's government was given to chose between war and shame. It has chosen shame, It will surely have war." Terrorists have no place in civilized society. Not even if they are freely elected. Listen carefully now. Do you hear the Greeks? Alan B. Katz can be contacted by email at abk@hkrealty.com |
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COWARDS, USEFUL IDIOTS, OR TRAITORS?
Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, June 29, 2005. |
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Last week, Caroline Glick, the Jerusalem Post's most penetrating and persistent critic of Ariel Sharon and his retreat from Gaza plan, headlined her article A Coward For Prime Minister! What applies to Mr. Sharon surely applies to his cabinet ministers as well as to most members the Knesset, which, after all, voted in favor of Israel's retreat from Gaza. However, inasmuch as Mr. Sharon campaigned against that left-wing policy in the January 2003 Knesset election, and further, since the parties that opposed retreat from Gaza won 84 (or 70%) of the Knesset's 120 seats in that election, the term "coward" does not adequately describe the character of Ariel Sharon, his cabinet ministers, and the Jewish MKs that voted for his retreat plan (known officially by such euphemisms as "evacuation" or "disengagement"). Given this state of affairs, how shall we characterize Israel's ruling elites? It seems they have learned nothing from the Oslo debacle, that is, from 12 years of terrorist attacks resulting in 10,000 Jewish casualties. Despite this record of Arab violence and villainy, Israel's ruling elites are now anxious to expel Gaza's 8,500 Jewish residents and give this land, as well as other parts of Eretz Israel, to the implacable enemies of the Jewish people. Shall we call Israel's ruling elites "traitors," or do they exemplify what Lenin called "useful idiots" - his term for the cultural elites of the West who subsidized the industrialization of the Soviet Union (just as Israel and the West have subsidized the Palestinian Authority)? Let us consider some incontrovertible facts. Islamic hatred of Jews is enjoined and sanctified in the daily prayers of the faithful. Consistent therewith, Arab massacres of Jews punctuate the last fourteen centuries. But let us consult recent events. Even before Israel gained control of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in 1967, hundreds of Jews were murdered by Arab terrorists operating from these areas. Arab violence against Jewish men, women, and children did not cease in the intervening years. Since Oslo, hardly a day passes that Arabs do not either maim or murder Jews. Meanwhile the media of the PLO-Palestinian Authority constantly call for Israel's destruction. To these well-known facts add the following. The vast majority of Israel's own Arab citizens reject Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. They not only identify with the PLO-Palestinians, Israel's enemies, but they aid and participate in terrorist attacks against Jews. Hence there is nothing in empirical reality that justifies the government's appeasement of Israel's enemies: surrendering Jewish land, releasing and even arming Arab terrorists, while disarming the Jews by intoning the mantra of peace. Lest some people mention Israel's 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, let me remind them of certain facts: (1) Egypt has long been smuggling arms to terrorist groups in Gaza; (2) Egypt's state-controlled media continue to transmit the most virulent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda; (3) Egypt "has been training for war against Israel for the past 10 years" along the border - to quote Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Sharon has invited Egypt to deploy 750-800 mechanized infantry forces to the Philadelphi Route, which links Gaza to the Sinai, to prevent - you guessed it - terrorist attacks against Israel! And if this were not enough, it appears that Sharon, or at least Vice Premier Shimon Peres, does not oppose Egypt's remilitarization of the Sinai, contrary to the 1979 peace treaty! In view of the preceding, which term best describes Israel's ruling elites: "cowards," "useful idiots," or "traitors"? Professor Paul Eidelberg is a political scientist, author and lecturer and founder and President, Foundation for Constitutional Democracy. His previous book, "Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall", provides the philosophical and institutional foundations for reconstructing the State of Israel. It has been translated into Hebrew and Russian. His most recent book is: "A Jewish Philosophy of History." He is president of Yamin Israel and a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies. He can be reached by email at eidelberg@foundation1.org |
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ONE-SIDED "HONEST BROKER"; SAUDIS SACRED COWS NO MORE?; RICE PRAISES TERRORIST P.A. AS ANTI-TERRORIST
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 29, 2005. |
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ONE-SIDED U.S. The US constantly makes specific demands of Israel. It does not make demands of the P.A.. Although it urges the P.A. to disarm the terrorists, it lets it off the hook every time with the soft landing of, "It should try harder." It even praises the P.A. for an anti-terrorism not performed. Sec. Rice has come to Israel demanding that Israel make life easier for its Arab enemy by removing roadblocks. She keeps referring to the need to turn the P.A. into a democracy, living "side-by-side with Israel." Roadblock removal has no relevance to democracy. It is pertinent to facilitating the P.A. war on Israel, waged because the Arabs don't want Israel to live side-by-side with it. Checkpoint removal lets more terrorists through to attack Israelis. Therefore, Israeli compliance with Rice's demands is called by Dr. Aaron Lerner "dying to please Rice." A legitimate Israeli government would be striving to secure its own people. It would say to Rice publicly if saying it privately does not work, "You are strongly demanding that we make life easier for the P.A. in ways that make terrorism easier for it. The whole Arab population of the P.A. hates us infidels and supports terrorism against us, but we should make life easier for those undeserving fanatics? You are not demanding that they make life easier for us, whom they are trying to murder. You recite, "they should try harder against terrorism," while they incite for terrorism. They recruit terrorists and you subsidize the P.A.. Therefore, what you ask of them appears as lip service. We cannot accept your demand that we remove checkpoints, when such removal is inevitably followed by terrorists passing through and attacking us. Do you really want us to suffer casualties? Is that what the US war on terrorism comes down to -- subsidizing and running interference for terrorists? You talk about Palestinian Arabs making peace, when nothing they do shows any change in their culture of intolerance and belligerence. You are deluding yourself. We will not be deluded." The State of Israel does not explain the issues frankly, neither to the US nor to its own people. Not to indulge myself in name-calling but to be descriptive, the Israeli government is deluded, deceptive, corrupted, self-hating, and treasonous. The P.A. is part of an Islamic jihad against the West. Therefore, the US should be anti-P.A.. Since the P.A. started a war on Israel, the US should be making demands of the aggressor P.A. and not of Israel. When the problem is Muslim aggression, the US proposal, which is appeasement of the aggressors, is counter-productive if not counter-intuitive. Sec. Rice lectures the Arabs on democracy, but does not, herself, help it, if she even knows what it is. I think the US is proclaiming a democratic sweep through the Mideast, because it makes US policy seem valid. Thus the US subsidizes the Islamic, terrorist government of the P.A. and calls its phony elections democratic. Rice seems to have a shallow concept of democracy, as involving just elections. Democracy is a cultural phenomenon, a free way of doing things without excessive government interference and with accountability over governmental representatives. WHEN PERCEPTION IS IMPORTANT Most P.A. Arabs perceive Sharon's abandonment plan as a victory for terrorism. And of course it is. If the Arabs had been relatively peaceful, Israel probably would not be abandoning territory to them. On the other hand, if they had restrained themselves and abided by the Oslo accords, by now Peres would have arranged with them to take over all of Yesha. How significant is the Arab perception? In thinking terrorism vindicated as successful, they are encouraged to continue terrorism. After all, they seek other territory as well. Sharon's plan not only confirms the efficacy of terrorism, it mindlessly facilitates terrorism. Thus it provides both motive and means for terrorism. It is the plan that should be abandoned, not the territory. SAUDIS SACRED COWS NO MORE? A US Senate bill could lead to sanctions being imposed upon S. Arabia. The bill insists that S. Arabia comply with Security Council Resolution 1373, forbidding countries from harboring terrorist financiers and planners. According to the bill, S. Arabia has filed to arrest countrymen who have donated for terrorism. (Accounts of such donations by leading families are legion.) Sanctions would halt the flow of US arms to its leading customer (IMRA, 6/16). If the bill continues the Presidential privilege of waiving sanctions, they will be waived. For that reason, some Members of Congress are fed up with inserting waivers in bills. About time! ISRAELI HOSPITALS PLANNING FOR UPSURGE AFTER ABANDONMENT Some hospitals in the southern part of Israel are expanding their emergency facilities and canceling late summer vacations, in anticipation of increased casualties from terrorism. They expect the terrorists, unhindered by the IDF, which would have departed, to move their rocket launchers adjacent to Israel (Arutz-7, 6/16). ISRAELI INVENTS WAY TO DIVE WITHOUT OXYGEN TANKS A portable motor pressurizes seawater to extract oxygen. Divers would no longer have to worry about empty air tanks or the tendency to float upward prematurely or to sink (Arutz-7, 6/16). ISRAEL'S MEDIA COVERS UP FOR SHARON That new book about Sharon's trading the Territories for non-prosecution of his sons and himself for the Greek Island corruption is not getting much publicity in Israel, although it is a sensational scoop. The major newspapers are covering up for Sharon. They don't want him arrested, they want him to complete his leftist policy of abandonment. The newspapers have proved themselves advocacy journalists, acting in behalf of leftist ideology. Except for the Golani Brigade, which refuses to take part in forcing Jews out of their homes, the Army's silence makes it no more honorable. The Supreme Court and the Attorney-General do their part to protect Sharon and his abandonment plan. Israel needs a revolution to sweep those corrupt, undemocratic, anti-Jewish elements out of office. Will the foreign media cover up, too? (Winston Mid East Analysis, 6/17.) PERES IS A DANGER TO ISRAELIS VPM Peres suggested giving the P.A. more rifles. He claimed they do not endanger Israelis. In response, IMRA listed some of the many Israelis murdered by armed P.A. Arabs (IMRA, 6/17). Peres had given the P.A. police rifles; the police shot Israelis. It was predictable and predicted. MORE U.S. DEMANDS OF ISRAEL Israel released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, to please the US. It further risked its security by removing some checkpoints that would keep those terrorists from getting at Israelis. Sec. Rice now demands that the US further ease restrictions on the P.A. Arabs and release more prisoners. PM Sharon's staff had asserted that the US would make no further demands (IMRA, 6/17). Is that staff naïve or deceptive? Demands upon Israel by the anti-Zionist State Dept. are insatiable. Sharon's other assertions of what his abandonment plan would get from the US - recognition of large settlement blocs and financial aid in implementing the plan - also were wrong. WHAT DOES POWER DO TO REVOLUTIONARIES? The West is deluding itself again that power would moderate Hamas. The West had expected power would do that with the Taliban. Instead, the Taliban imposed a reactionary reign of terror. What did those religious fanatics care about medical services, economic development, etc.! The West is judging Hamas the same way, on the basis of how a Western party would behave. The real world does not work that way. "Europeans, in particular, place themselves at the vanguard of a universal process in which religion, ideology and nationalism have lost their power of persuasion. In the place of these dark forces of primitive human nature, Europeans see pragmatism, tolerance, reconciliation and compromise as being on the ascendant. So to gain aid, access and weapons, "revolutionary" leaders tell Westerners what they want to hear - that they, too, share these goals." This is the same delusion behind Oslo (except for those who knew that the Arabs would use Oslo against Israel). Europe stuck with Arafat despite all the evidence and experience that he did not want to build something for his people but tear down what the Jews had built for theirs. All that the West did was enable terrorism to escalate (IMRA, 6/20 from Gerald Steinberg of Jer. Post). RICE PRAISES P.A. "ANTI-TERRORISM" AS TERRORISTS ATTACK During Sec. Rice's visit, terrorist attacks on Israelis continued apace. P.A. officials reiterated their refusal to disarm and arrest the terrorists. She praised the P.A.'s non-existent anti-terrorism and Abbas a "man of peace" (Arutz-7, 6/19). That "man of peace" lauds slain terrorists as martyrs. Her own anti-terrorism must be non-existent, too, for she keeps demanding the release of terrorists and the closing of checkpoints that might bar their access to Israelis. What she is calling for is the murder of Israelis and the staged destruction of Israel. What an evil emissary Pres. Bush has sent over there! What good is her vaunted intelligence, put to such a wrongful and foolish policy? TERRORISM IN SYRIA So far, it is not known what ideology is behind the terrorism now in Syria. The domestic terrorism that befell N. Africa and erupted in S. Arabia and Kuwait was Islamist. Islamists use religion as a cover for sadism. Terrorists were apprehended in Syria reportedly before they set off a bomb that they had wrapped around a baby. The baby was their camouflage. When US or Israeli forces accidentally kill a baby, the Arabs protest indignantly, because they know that Westerners may have consciences. (Sorry, lost source.) CONTINUED ARAB FALSE REPORTING From Egypt, Graham Usher described the goal of the small group of Jews who visited the Temple Mt. as to enter the mosque there. That is false. Those Jews were on the Mount because of its sacredness to Jews, not out of hostility towards Muslims. Although Jews did not try to enter the mosque, hundreds of Arabs threw stones at them (IMRA, lost date) It's the old tactic of fomenting riots against Jews by falsely accusing them of rioting against the Arabs. We in the West would consider that tactic unethical, unworthy of a righteous religion, if we considered it at all. Problem in the West is that the media screens out evidence against the Arabs, allows false claims against the Jews that lead to attempts at mass-murder of them, but considers its culture as ethical humanist. P.S.: Jews are tolerant and rarely riot. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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ISRAELI HIGH COURT: STATE INTEREST CAN OVERRIDE HUMAN RIGHTS
Posted by Yrachmiel Elias, June 29, 2005. |
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This comes from Ya'akov-Perez Golbert, Professor of Law (retired). Professor Golbert lives in Jerusalem. The High Court of Justice recently held that the Sharon Plan for the expulsion of Jews from all of the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in northern Samaria does indeed violate the human rights of the residents whom the government plans to uproot. Notwithstanding that, the court went on to uphold the legality of the plan because state interest can override human rights. That is already a shocking holding, given the zeal with which the Supreme Court has guarded the human rights of Arabs under Israeli rule, even interposing itself into the conduct of military operations. That, however, is not the most shocking aspect of the decision. How does the court decide whether the state interest is important enough to vitiate the human rights of those prejudiced by pursuit of the policy? Did the court make the government explain its policy and defend its importance, to the extent that the court should allow the denial of basic human rights? Not at all. The court noted that spokesmen for the government assured the court that the state interest was indeed important enough to override human rights of the citizens prejudiced by the government's pursuit of that interest. This is a ruling suited to the most brutal dictatorship. It says that the legal system will not look into the actions of the government if the government affirms that its assessment is justified. That, of course, is what the High Court of Justice was created to do. Its function and raison d'etre is to judge actions or inaction by government officials and to compel action in conformity with law. If it is not going to do that, but rather be a rubber stamp to give an aura of legality to any act of government, then it is less than useless. It serves a positively destructive and evil purpose. It serves as a front for arbitrary and corrupt totalitarianism. From the self-styled defenders of human rights in Israel and abroad we hear silence, which we must understand as acquiescence, if not approval. That silence declares, loud and clear, that the end justifies the means. That silence proves that there is not a single human rights organization in Israel. There are only political interest groups that use human rights concepts as a bludgeon. That is true also of the Attorney General, the Minister of Justice, the Knesset, especially the Law Committee, and the media. They all forfeit the right even to speak of human rights. In fact, they have perverted the very foundations of law and have lost their legitimacy to interpret and enforce the laws. They should all fold their tents and leave the public arena and the sooner the better. Until they leave, however, or are chased out in disgrace, there are some questions which every soldier and every police officer deserves that the government and the IDF answer. The Treaty of San Remo, July 1922, which formalized the League of Nations Mandate, recognized the right of the Jewish people to live in all parts of the Mandate of Palestine, in which the Gaza District and Samaria were clearly included. The judgments at Nuremberg spoke of the arbitrary expulsion of civilian populations from their homes as a crime against humanity. Every recruit is taught that he is obligated by Israeli law to refuse to carry out a patently illegal order. This is consistent with the Nuremberg precedents. Crimes against humanity cannot be sanctified by national laws or national courts. What assurance can you give that the orders to expel the civilian population from Gush Katif and the four Jewish villages of northern Samaria are not illegal orders? What assurances can you give that soldiers and police officers who participate in the expulsion of the Jewish population from Gush Katif and the four Jewish villages of northern Samaria will not be arrested in Europe or elsewhere on warrants sworn out by those who are to be expelled for crimes against humanity? Can you give assurances that if soldiers and police officers are arrested and charged with crimes against humanity they will be defended by the Israeli government? Soldiers, ask your commander. Parents, ask your son's commander. Ask the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice, the Members of Knesset, especially the Law Committee, and the media. Ask the "human rights" organizations why they sit silent in the face of this threatened expulsion. Write to them, all of them. Call them on the telephone. Do it frequently until you receive answers. Do not carry out any orders related to expulsion until you receive clear and satisfactory answers. Carrying out such orders might be a crime under Israeli law and under international law. Demand answers. Yrachmiel Elias and Jack Golbert are cofounders of Netzah Yisrael (www.netzahyisrael.org). |
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SUPREME COURT RULING ON EMINENT DOMAIN: PARALLELS TO THE GAZA PULLOUT - AND DIFFERENCES
Posted by Marion D.S. Dreyfus, June 29, 2005. |
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The Supreme Court came out with a ruling in late June that is highly unpopular. It permits the state - or any well-heeled pol or pottage-seller - to wrest away one's property for a price. Whether the homeowner agrees or not. Can we not posit a similar reaction to the forthcoming Israeli Gaza/North Samaria pullout, called the Disengagement. Many are up in arms over the implications in both situations, and there are numerous parallels. Discussing the Supreme Court ruling, even Jay Leno on the ruling date, that very night, indicated a supposed 94% population concurrence against the Supremes' odd ruling. Such an agreement level, however supportive it seems, appears unlikely. Most Americans - especially those questioned by Leno's intrepid team of investigators - can't name the Vice President, or their nearest neighboring state, let alone feel competent to tell anyone about a Supreme Court ruling, either positive or negative. (Leno's 'survey' must have been extremely forgiving, or the choices very few.) Nonetheless, the citizens of Israel are unlike the dumber sorts in the broad "flyover" (what lefty lawyer Ron Kubey calls "Whitelandia") reaches of the USA, so their response, which has been growing ever more vociferous and more united against the current prospect of departure from Gaza and North Samaria, cannot be said to be in agreement with the reigning Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. I write with a heavy heart. Where once it was a point of distinctive merit that I was privileged to interview Sharon, "the Lion," some 10 years ago, now I view that time as through an inverted prism--it appears very small and very far away. Both in time and political temperature. On Friday, 24 June, after a simple demolition of the legal and historical rationales for the day's ruling that governments have free reign to appropriate private property, Clarence Thomas looked down the road at real-world effects: "The consequences of today's decision are not difficult to predict, and promise to be harmful. So-called "urban renewal" programs provide some compensation for the properties they take, but no compensation is possible for the subjective value of these lands to the individuals displaced and the indignity inflicted by uprooting them from their homes. Allowing the government to take property solely for public purposes is bad enough, but extending the concept of public purpose to encompass any economically beneficial goal guarantees that these losses will fall disproportionately on poor communities. Those communities are not only systematically less likely to put their lands to the highest and best social use, but are also the least politically powerful. If ever there were justification for intrusive judicial review of constitutional provisions that protect "discrete and insular minorities," United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152, n. 4 (1938), surely that principle would apply with great force to the powerless groups and individuals the Public Use Clause protects. The deferential standard this Court has adopted for the Public Use Clause is therefore deeply perverse. It encourages "those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms" to victimize the weak. Ante, at 11 (O'Connor, J., dissenting). It remains to be seen what the ultimate reaction of the American polity will be to this unpopular and strained decision on eminent domain, just as how the Israeli citizenry ultimately behave--or misbehave-- in the face of what appears to be a corrupt hand-wash between the none-too-fastidious Israeli judiciary and the tainted Sharon family, whose legal wrangles over campaign financing and borrowing have been an ongoing sore with the Sharon sons and pere for years. The difference between the two difficult circumstances is that to the polity in the US, a home or a grab of several houses in a neighborhood is harsh and dismaying for those sustaining the investment loss. One stands to lose one's home and hearth, no matter how humble. This goes against the very tenets of citizenship. In the event, attendant compensation supposedly, to some extent, mitigate the loss, should such 'public usage' takeovers transpire. One difference between the US conundrum and the Israeli enraging Disengagement is that most, if not all, of the urban renewal or public use properties will of necessity occur in disadvantaged neighborhoods, where homeowners or proprietors are too financially strapped or naive to put up much of a fight. In Israel, where some 8,500 persons stand to be evicted from their longtime homes in Gaza and North Samaria, the situation is direr and different. In Israel, the land expropriated and crudely stripped of its historic Hebrew residents is critical to bulwarking the country against attack. Gaza is, of course, critical in several ways. It is critical in the minds of Israelis, as their land, by right and aggressor battles defended against and won. Sharon's decree, as the words of Clarence Thomas indicate in regard to the Supreme Court ruling, is also deeply perverse. It encourages, even rewards, the very people who ought not benefit from the sweat of the Jewish people, to disproportionately and for no reason reap land and goods they have by no means earned: the aggressor Arabs under Mahmoud Abbas. Can anyone with more than room-temperature IQ envision the corruption-pocked PA Arabs ceasing forthwith their fervent and everlasting attacks and attempts at destruction of the state of Israel and her inhabitants? Is the DNA yet created that could convert such a blood-hungry thugocracy from their nefarious off-label jobs and career destruction goals? And Gaza is critical to the hearts of Jews, as the chip-chipping away of the Israel landmass (the US- and UN-sanctioned 'whittle process' of decades) is shrunk yet another time. Good-bye harmony. Hello, brag rights to the terrorists and street demagogues who will waste no time usurping credit where none is due. Those to be evicted in Gaza and Samaria are not eager to move, to accept cash in lieu of living uninterruptedly in homes they have built up over 40 years, raising children and grandchildren. Make no mistake: The loss of morale is as high-profile a lesion as is the loss of land. In this case, as the Arafatian wanna-be's who shepherd the Palestinian Authority have repeatedly failed to live up to even the most basic tenets of the dismantle-Zion document mysteriously known as the Roadmap. It is a Roadmap that directs chivvied resident-transients to self-destruct to their own pennies thrown dancing onto the grate. In psychotherapy, extinguishing a negative behavior is accomplished in two alternative ways: (1) Non-reward for continuance of the action that annoys; and (2) by praising compliance with newly modeled behavior more in line with the hoped-for comportment. The Arabs under Abu Mazen (no less than under the late, unlamented Arafat), have complied with neither. No surprise. Does anyone imagine that the unmitigated death-dealing, ammo-smuggling, tunnel-building and rocket-attacks barbarism that have been a continuous ignominious constituent of the PA during the past five years, despite the security fence and Israel's vigilant IDF, who abort 90% of would-be attacks from the education-, and sanity-impaired Mahmoudian minions, will be extinguished? Marion Dreyfus taught at Huazhong University of Science & Technology Wuchang, Wuhan PRC 430064 |
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PM SPEAKS OUT SEEKING TO DELEGITIMIZE GAZA RESIDENTS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 29, 2005. |
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This is a news item from Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=84787). The translation of Sharon's squawking is: "I am losing, I am
desperate, I will do ANYTHING to stay in power including ordering the
mass murder of unarmed and peaceful demonstrators."
(IsraelNN.com) Aware of the waning support for the Gaza/Shomron Disengagement Plan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has increased his de-legitimization efforts, seeking to depict Gush Katif residents and opponents to his expulsion plan as those who oppose peace.
Mr. Sharon warned of the "extremists" who seek to destroy the army and do not feel compelled to obey the laws of the country, stressing his plan will move ahead on schedule despite any and all attempts to stop him.
Mr. Sharon called on law-enforcement agencies to take off the gloves
and begin treating law-breakers with a hard-hand, calling for
increased enforcement and taking whatever steps necessary to prevent
future road-closure protests against the expulsion plan. 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.
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| GUSH KATIF |
DISENGAGEMENT MINISTER GILADI HAS FINANCIAL STAKE IN PALESTINIAN ECONOMY IN GAZA
Posted by Menahem Kovacs, June 29, 2005. |
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GUSH KATIF and HaSHOMRON! Pray and Work to Save these integral parts of G-d's Holy Land and Holy People. Say NO to the creation of Palestine: every inch of Israel is a spiritual & security necessity Go look at www.katifund.org www.english.katif.net This news item was written by David Bedein and appeared on http://israelvisit.co.il/cgi-bin/friendly.pl?url=Jun-27-05!BusinessEthics. David Bedein is Bureau Chief of the Israel Resource News Agency (http://IsraelBehindTheNews.com). The Israeli official in charge of the forcible removal of Israeli Jews from Katif District in Gaza maintains a personal financial interest in the Palestinian development enterprises in Gaza that would replace the Jewish communities of Katif. Eival Giladi maintains a personal business stake in the Palestinian economy, with an obvious conflict of interest that may interfere with his performance as an official of the office of the Prime Minister of Israel As head of the coordination and strategy team in the Prime Minister's Office, HaArtez on June 4th, 2005 described Giladi as "one of the architects of the disengagement plan. Giladi is the thinking man in the Sharon administration, the behind-the-scenes advisor to the advisor and ultimate mystery emissary, Dov Weissglass" Giladi, meanwhile, has found a way to supplement the meager income of an Israeli civil servant. Giladi has been named as the pioneer of a business venture for Palestinians in Gaza: The Portland Trust. Giladi has been placed in charge of the Portland Trust's $500 million business development fund, which would help Palestinians moved 150,000 housing units in place of the Katif homes and farms that Giladi is about to destroy. Katif farming communities produce $62 million in export of food products for the state of Israel per annum. In other words, Giladi maintains a clear personal and financial business stake in the decimation of the thriving Jewish communities of Katif. It will be instructive to see if the Israeli Attorney General, the Israel State Comptroller and the Israel Civil Service Commission take any action to question the role of Eival Giladi in the planning and the execution of the Prime Minister's policy, which has been described as a "disengagement plan". Israel's mainstream media outlets have publicized Giladi's direct personal financial stake in this process.None of the media in Israel have called into question the clear conflict of interest. How can this be allowed to happen? Dr. Menachem Kovacs is Director, Jewish Roots Center Education and Research on Torah and the Social Sciences. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology Montgomery College Maryland. Contact him by email at takovacs@comcast.net |
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HAMAS ANNOUNCES THE FORMING OF "MURABITUN" BRIGADES
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 29, 2005. |
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[Shaik Nazim] "We must bring the sultanate of satan down and ask Allah
to send us an umbrella, to send us one of His miraculous servants. We
need such a miraculous person to bring down technology. It is against
humanity. It is killing every value of humanity. If not, humanity
cannot be saved." ... "Another world war will maybe come before the
21st Century." ... "This world is approaching Armageddon. Everything
will be destroyed."
"Murabitun" -- the term means religious volunteers -- are special brigades, originally formed in Spain during the Moslem occupation of that country, formed for the specific purpose of killing squads with the mandate to "collect spoils". Hamas has announced the formation of these special brigades in the Gaza area to act during the Gazan transfer of Jews from their land. Each squad consists of four to five persons. All are heavily armed and go about constantly masked. None of them are meant to survive the effort, but intend to join Allah during Sharon's planned retreat, to ensure maximization of damage to those retreating and the troops involved. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
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BARBARIC? YOU BETCHA!
Posted by Arlene Peck, June 28, 2005. |
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Lovely. Those wonderful folks in Iran that gave us hi-jacking, hostage taking, and progression to beheadings have finally learned to vote. And, what a surprise! Seven years after being privy to a watered down version of western democracy, they have a new election! And, what does this so-called peaceful culture do? Well, a resounding 62% of them went to the polls to vote in a new terrorist-inspired, Islamic fundamentalist government to lead them further into the dark ages! How soon will the beheadings resume, the rape rooms reintroduced and and "honor killings" of women regain their former stature? How long before we again confront the danger of their escalated forays into the modern world. How calm should we remain as these primitives advance into the realm of nuclear weapons capability? I wonder how stupid can my American government be? I truly do. George W. is touting our 'success' in that other crazed bastion of barbaric mentality, Iraq. He is thrilled and delighted that they, also, are now experiencing the joy of a democracy. He wants us to be in the "hearts and minds of the Iraqis". He desires the Love! Is there anyone out there who cares? And, if so, why? To tell the truth, I care why people in my country just aren't getting it! Where are the demands from the American public, demanding answers on why the Iraqis aren't helping their own? Why are we expected to be the ones to 'save' them from their own people? Vaguely I remember that their rich oil supplies were going to be the ticket to finance this rebuilding. Whatever happened to that? Israel is forced to open the jails and let out thousands of terrorists, most of whom will soon be back on the street killing and maiming even greater numbers of their Jewish targets. I wonder why has such a demand not been made of Abbas about the hundreds of prisoners awaiting execution in his dungeons on charges of "collaboration" with Israel? The onus to make "peace gestures" rests solely on Israel. However, when it comes to Israel, I wonder about a lot of things. Like, for instance, why is Sharon taking orders to open the jails and let thousands of these caged wild animals loose on the Israeli population every time he is told to? I question, just a little bit, how the issue of Jonathon Pollard never seems to enter his mind when speaking with King George about one of their early prison releases. Isn't twenty years enough? Apparently not. From the moment Ms. Rice switched places with Powell, she not only continued the pressuring of Israel, she turned the flame a little higher. Witness the constant press conferences where she calls for more release of prisoners or demands that Israel must 'end the occupation' and "withdraw from Arab/PA lands." Imagine the reaction if demands were made to end the "occupation" by European,African, and Asian colonists and restore native "rights" after generations of ethnic cleansing, expulsions, discrimination and persecution? What if the native peoples demanded 75% of their lands back to establish a "viable" Indian-Nation State with its own President and Congress? Or, right in Bush's backyard, so he can demonstrate how committed he is to this sort of policy, he turn over Crawford, Texas to his good Mexican buddy, Fox, because that prime real estate really belonged to them? No, I didn't think so. But somehow, it's an entirely reasonable demand to place on Israel. The Iranian vote perfectly demonstrated the mentality we are confronting. This is a country and culture that has no desire, or conception of what the basic premise of democracy is. Despite the media spin from the press and the garbage that is promoted by our Arabist State Dept, this culture wants to kill us. Actually, their murderous intent is not just leveled at "us". Anyone who comes into their focus, as they peer out at us murderously from the 11th Century, who isn't one of them, is a justifiable target. They don't care if your Buddhist, Christian, Jewish or an Atheist. If your not one of them then you should be dead. They live for death! Everyone's! If you doubt this, read their sacred texts. And, folks, frankly, I don't believe that we should be negotiating or teaching them anything. Let them find their 72 virgins with our help and blessings! Personally, I think there was a typo in the Koran and they meant to say 72-year-old virgin. Worse, although our born-again Christian president is touting the terror state west of the Jordan River that he and Sharon have cooked up, I'm not real sure that they can even claim the credit for the Frankenstein they've got simmering. Do any of you remember the Crown Prince 2002 Peace Plan that Bush's good friend and "Uncle Abdullah " presented? Maybe you didn't because you were too busy watching them hold hands and almost kiss? Anyway, that allowed us to be privy to Bush and company's 'trial balloon about a "contiguous" Palestinian state, which would bring joy and happiness to the world. Then, before you could blink, they began to hold press conferences casually mentioning that the Administration supports co-opting Hamas into the political dialogue! Hamas! Not enough? Well, amazingly enough, when Arafat s replacement, Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, ( why can't they just have one name?) was told that any territory Israel retains beyone the 1949 Armistice Lines must be approved by the Palestinians. I haven't seen too much of that. Amazing how our government's memory dims when it comes to remembering the help the United States has received from Israel. The information exchanges over battle and counter-terrorism tactics that contributed enormously to reduced American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, which keep us safer on the home front. Does anyone remember that Israel is responsible for 600 improvments in the F-16 fighter jet plane's systems, modifications worth billions of dollars that saved us dozens of research and development years? I didn't think so. Who ever reads about the cooperation between drug syndicates and terrorist networks? Especially Hamas and Hezbollah who conduct significant fundraising activities in much of South America, including Ecuador, which has tremendous Islamic populations. Where have you last read about that? Everyone talks about how the American arms guarantees Israel's existence, but, who remembers that Israel also give U.S. military industries a competitive edge and boost the American military production with jobs and improving America's national security. Hey, we don't even want to know how the surpurb Israeli technnology also boosts American civilian and agricultural industries. Who acknowledges that while they plot the carve up? Even our civilian planes are much safer because of the contribution made by the Israeli intelligence to America, which, by the way, is greater than that provided by all NATO countries combined. Naw, not worth mentioning. Let's talk about how Israel must be chopped up like a tossed salad to keep 'peace'in the region. Actually I'd rather talk about how Congressional leaders, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld are aware of Israel's unique contribution to U.S. Interest. Anyone want to question why Sharon and his inept leadership don't use the leverage that they have in demanding that Israel's impressive contribution to American lifestyles be more acknowledged and appreciated? Tell me one, ONE productive thing that the Islamic nation has done for the world! On an almost daily basis I read about the bloody and fatal attacks in Israel on civilians by these same terrorists who are killing our soldiers in Iraq with their bombs - something that these cowards do so well. Hey, but what do I know? I'm just an American who sits in Southern California wondering why there hasn't been at least an independent emergency referendum by the general population in Israel. Again, why is Israel listening to anything from the United States? From anyone for that matter. Remember a year or so ago when every press conference from Bush & Company deplored the 'fence', the great impediment of peace? Now, that every evening news broadcast allows us to see the very same terrorists bombing attacks, which Israel endured from these same savages, killing our soldiers, it's another story. Thank G-d the inept leaders of Israel didn't listen and continued to build the security fence. Now, because of that fence, it's becoming rarer that they are able to slip in and kill. Especially, with pourous borders both here, and in Iraq, it's open season. They've even become so frustrated, in places like Arizona that the local citizens have banded together and formed "the Minutemen" to slow the flow into our country. I don't know one person here who doesn't wish we had that same fence. Listen to George's advice? You'd have to have a death wish. Which reminds me of Sharon and his continuing policy in Gaza. Personally, I'm all for transfer! And folks, I don't mean moving the Jews out of the Jewish State! When you have a cancer, you cut it out! What I find interesting is that it's these sorts of comments that always get the attention but, nobody ever seems to remember the Bush administration's long-standing insistence on a Palestinian leadership untainted by violence and free from corruption before he's going to take seriously any real talk of "Palestinian" statehood? Now, I have never thought our President, George W to be the brightest bulb in the barrel. But, I don't believe that even HE believes the Saudi assurances, that by forcing Israel's withdrawal to the 1949 lines, the Arabs will be deprived of any Israeli provocation and everybody can then live happily after. Of course, the way the Saudis and Bush and company, not to forget Israel's good friend, the European Union, would like it were if the only scenario would be for the roadmap to have the Jews of what was once a Jewish state be driving on Arafat Boulevard after the dissolution of the State of Israel. Two states.. yeah, right! Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com |
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THE HAJ TO SLOAN-KETTERING AND HADASSAH HOSPITAL
Posted by Irwin N. Graulich, June 28, 2005. |
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Everyone and everything eventually gets sick. It is actually a good thing, because it reminds us to take care of ourselves and appreciate our good health when we have it. People, religions and ideologies all have their illnesses aka fanaticisms. Jews who are sick may be overly obsessed with drinking kosher seltzer, eating specially checked vegetables or being blind observers of virtually all 613 commandments without any real understanding. On average, once every 50 years there is a lone, evil nut with a skullcap who murders a prime minister or shoots innocent people. Christians have their meshuganahs (crazies), who may blow up an abortion clinic or become a David Duke. And there are those secular fanatics who would allow a human baby to die rather than kill a pig for its heart valve. However, these are all aberrations, rare cases to say the least...that is, except for Islam. The Islamic world has a cancer that has spread throughout its body politic, affecting many millions in its path. Their illness represents a serious percentage of adherents located throughout the world. Unless Muslims begin to recognize the problem and go for aggressive chemotherapy and radiation, they truly risk an unwanted massive radiation treatment from an unexpected source. How did these evil "cells" begin to metastasize? Before displaying an antisemitic, anti-Americian streak, there was a certain romanticism with much of Arab and Muslim cultures. Lawrence of Arabia was a hero to all of us. It is Islamic society under the influence and rule of the Koran that has become the trigger mechanism for the tumors to grow. Conquering the infidel, being the strongest religion in the world, honor and saving face are the most important values within a Muslim society. Thus, an extreme sensitivity has developed for anything critical of Arab-Muslim culture. The Jews will never, ever be forgiven for getting their original land back and defeating the 5 strongest Arab/Muslim nations in the wars of 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. Talk about being humiliated. To rub Islamic noses into the sand further, this tiny, weak group of Holocaust surviving Zionists built the most successful technological country and strongest military force in the history of the Middle East...and so, every Muslim nation "covets Israel," an emotional jealousy so dangerous, that it actually is forbidden by The Ten Commandments. To complicate the entire matter, American Christians, using Judeo-Christian values created the ultimate paradise on earth, and the supreme powerhouse of all time. How can another religion that considers itself superior to all, ultimately live with that reality? America and Israel make every single Arab/Muslim country look bad; that is the problem in a nutshell. Muslim leadership understands that the only way to defeat the truth is through the propaganda of repeated exaggeration and outright lies. Saddam's "mother of all battles" was truly a cakewalk. There have been greater battles fought in gang wars on the streets of Brooklyn. Yet the rhetoric in the Arab/Muslim press was astounding through its depiction of the ferocity of the fighting during the Gulf War, the Iraqi invasion of 2003 and Egypt's supposed victory over Israel in 1973, where there is even a museum in Cairo today portraying this fictional nonsense. Since Islamists have come to the inevitable realization that they have no chance of winning a real war, they are attempting to win Jospeh Goebbels style, through rhetoric and hyperbole in the press. The two recent humiliating routes of the strongest Arab/Muslim nation--Iraq, and the capture of their modern day Saladin, Saddam Hussein, was a rather painful experience to the masses, even though he mass-murdered fellow Muslims. Now, the Arab/Muslim street praises suicide bombers as brave and strong freedom fighters. The truth is these heroic (sic) murderers are not able to reach Jews or Christians, so they wind up blowing up their own innocents. By substituting words for actions, the Muslim leadership and press falsely glamorize the evildoers to the uneducated masses, who need to hang on to their dreams of power and world domination. One of the most important concepts regarding government is the separation of church and state, meaning that the Koran/Muslim ideal can never successfully govern a society under its present terms. The only successful Muslims who are truly free today are ruled by Christians in America or Jews in Israel. By living in other societies, Muslims realize that these countries want all of their citizens to succeed in life and practice their religious or non-religious beliefs freely. This concept is an affront to "Islam," a word meaning surrender to God, which for the most part, does not permit other religions to exist in their midst. Why were they afraid to permit American soldiers to have Christmas trees in their Saudi Arabian desert tents? When the religion you cherish fails you by continuously displaying a flawed approach, the human being will defend it by blaming others for political, economic and quality of life problems. "Everything is falling apart around me because of colonialism, Zionism, imperialism, the occupation, American hegemony and other convenient excuses." To make things even easier for the Islamic world, these ideas are supported by Western leftists with Marxist ideas that help reinforce the blame game of Muslim intellectuals and their obedient press. The Osama's of the world actually believe that they will return to a more glorious past where they can confront the world on their own terms. The only two things standing in their way are America and Israel, two quite immovable objects. To call America or Israel an occupier, when one looks carefully at the reasons for going into Iraq, Gaza or the West Bank, is akin to blaming the doctor for the cancer, simply because you walked into his office. These types of lies are among the root causes of world evil today. Unfortunately, decency is irrelevant throughout the Muslim world. What is most relevant is Muslim and non-Muslim. Doesn't Ted Kennedy or Shimon Peres ever get it? Irwin N. Graulich is a motivational speaker on politics, ethics, religion and Judaism. He is also president of a marketing, branding and communications firm in New York City. He can be reached at irwin.graulich@verizon.net |
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BUSH'S EGGS IN ISRAEL'S BASKET
Posted by Beth Goodtree, June 28, 2005. |
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As an American, I find it appalling, frightening even, that much of our foreign policy is totally dependent upon the cooperation of one country. As a Jew I find it even more appalling that my people are being singled out, due to their religion, as the sacrificial lamb on my own president's plate of global domination. President Bush has taken his presidency to new heights of depravity. Once 9-11 happened, he took it as a mandate that he was also the Supreme Emperor of Israel. Ariel Sharon would be allowed to maintain leadership on the local level, but when it came to Israel's national and foreign affairs, Bush determined how Israel would act. This begs the question: Who elected Bush Prime Minister of Israel? Due to the actions of President Bush, his lackey, Arab-kissing State Department and the frightened, indecisive, allegedly corrupt government of Ariel Sharon, Americans and Israelis have been hoodwinked into believing that they have no choices. On the surface, it also appears that Bush's America calls all the shots on the international scene. Unfortunately for us all, this scenario is a glass house built on an active fault zone. The Israelis are the losers as well as the average American citizen. Here's how it has played out for the past umpteen years: It actually started with Bush the First. In 1991 the Gulf war was raging and Israel was getting mercilessly scudded by Saddam. Falsely thinking that the US was indeed a friend of Israel, Israel agreed to let the scuds rain down upon her citizens without retaliation on the promise that the US would protect her. While the US eventually stopped Saddam and his scuds, the US proved she was no friend of Israel by leaving Saddam in place. The US was right there in Baghdad and could have plucked Saddam off of one of his multitudes of solid gold toilet seats while he was relieving himself. But Bush the First chose to leave this anti-Semitic mass-murdering tyrant in place. This alone should have alerted Israel that the US, or at least the Bush dynasty and their State Department toadies, were no true friends. Saddam, of course, was funding the murderous and genocidally-bent Arabs occupying Jewish Palestine. And he continued to fund them for 12 more years, even offering a reward for a Jew-kill count. Following the Gulf War, came the Oslo 'Peace' Accord Initiative. This misbegotten effort essentially said that murder, war and genocide in the name of religion and 'Arab unity' are perfectly acceptable and thus subject to negotiation. Israel's leaders went along with this faulty premise due, in part, to American coercion. Thus they bought for Israel and its people more death in 10 years than in the entire preceding 45 years altogether. At the time of Oslo, America was attempting to mend fences with the Arab/Muslim world. Being the savior of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had actually brought down the wrath of these people upon America. Never mind that those naysayers were to be next on Saddam's plate if it hadn't been for Judeo-Christian America saving their collective Muslim nether regions. After they were safe, they accused the US of disrespect and interference. And as usual, they used oil blackmail to force concessions out of the American government. And their oil blackmail included Europe as one of the victims. Verily cannily, the Arab/Muslim world also threatened to punish America's ally -- Europe - if America did not bow to their every burp and fart. America's response was to throw them the Israel bone. This brought about Oslo. However, Israel did not have to cooperate. It never occurred to her leadership that to say no to America's unreasonable demands would not be the worst thing in the world. What would Israel lose? Some loan guarantees? Some foreign aid that was less than that being given in total to Israel's enemies? Being asked yet again to have scud missiles rain down upon civilian homes unanswered? At the time of Oslo, if the Israeli leaders had had the backbone, they could have forced America to dance to their tune in return for Israeli cooperation. Even back then, almost all of America's foreign policy was dependent upon Israeli cooperation. It laid out like this: America and most of her allies are dependent on Arab/Muslim oil. It is vital to their economies. And ultimately, a country's strength derives from its economy. Meanwhile, the Arab/Muslim world has been calling for the destruction of Israel and the entire Jewish people since 1948. If Israel had said 'no,' the oil-consuming western world would have been in a panic. The Arab/Muslim world has always predicated its cooperation in supplying oil at an almost bearable price on the world's condemnation of Israel. The Arab/Muslim world has made it clear that to not condemn Israel and work towards its destruction means the oil flow stops. All along, Israel has been living in a prolonged state of unfounded fear. If Israel had said no to complying with western demands to commit suicide, the western world would not have attacked Israel. And if they cut off Israel's loan guarantees and the small amount of foreign aid she receives, Israel would have survived. In fact, Israel would have been weaned from her dependence upon her US pimp. However, the western world would have done at least two things: try to come up with a more reasonable deal for Israel and find alternative energy sources and solutions to the Arab/Muslim oil death grip we've been in. So now, eleven years later, America has been at it again. In response to 9-11, it took Bush the Second less than two weeks to do the unthinkable: declare that a vast enclave of terrorist, murderous and genocidally-bent monsters deserved their own country, cut out of the heart of America's ally, Israel. Bush did this for two reasons. He and his family have close financial ties to the founding fathers of Muslim terror -- the Saudis. And he also wanted Arab cooperation in going after the perpetrator of 9-11, that master of Muslim horror - Osama bin Laden. Israel could still have said 'no' and forced Bush to look for alternative solutions that didn't make Israel and the Jews sacrificial lambs on the altar of oil and 'the war on terror.' But Israel didn't. And now Israel has one last opportunity. Bush's ill-planned and ill-fought war against Saddam is turning into a disaster for him. Bush's allies are rightfully angered at the way he continues to handle a war with no end in sight. Meanwhile, the Arab/Muslim world wants all non-Arabs/non-Muslims off their soil. And they have put the heat on the western world by raising the price of oil to bloodsucking rates as a way of applying indirect pressure regarding their goal of the destruction of Israel. What they have essentially told Bush is this: use your power and influence to destroy Israel through diplomatic channels and we will cooperate on Iraq and keep the oil flowing to you and your European allies (as well as the oil profits to your personal pocket). So Bush is again sacrificing Israel. And this time it will be the deathblow. Bush has decided that Israel must amputate the heart of the Hebrew people, known as Jewish land since biblical times, and turn it over to her tormentors and murderers. On the surface, this scenario looks like a lose-lose situation for western oil consumers as well as for Israel. But it doesn't have to be. As everyone knows, if you give in to a blackmailer, they will continue to blackmail you. Bush's capitulation to Arab/Muslim whims will keep the western world in the stranglehold of a religion-cum-cult whose goal is the domination, conversion and subjugation of the world. But he seems not to care. In his most recent speech regarding energy, Bush emphasized sticking with a hydrocarbon economy, giving only a few last words towards developing alternative energy sources. But then, Bush's family fortune and power are directly tied to a hydrocarbon economy. Bush is not concerned about the western world or the average oil-consuming, sitting-duck-for-terrorism targets like you and me. He cares only about the power and wealth he and his cronies can amass. And as a Replacement Theology Methodist, he fantasizes about the day that Israel -- living proof that his bible-altering pseudo-Christianity is apostate -- will cease to exist. Meanwhile, Israel is the key to all of Bush's leadership policies. Bush has based his whole foreign policy, from dealing with the Europeans, to dealing with China, to dealing with the Arab/Muslim world on Israel. Like a house of cards, it is all based upon Israeli capitulation. He has also founded his entire economic policies on Israeli cooperation. This is because as long as the oil flows, America's businesses, manufacturing, shipping and transportation continue to work. This was a really dumb move on Bush's part, but can play out well for Israel as well as the average consumer. All Israel has to do is say 'NO!" "NO!' to humiliating concessions. 'No!' to giving up her rightful and aboriginal homeland. Bush's schemings and machinations will crumble like a pile of dehydrated camel dung in a stiff breeze. And what's the worst that could happen to Israel? The US has already cut off much of her cooperation with Israel, punishing her for trading with China. The US has given Egypt fighter planes and arms that can be used to attack Israel, in direct violation of both the Egypt-Israel Peace Agreement, as well as the US-Israel Memorandum of Agreement guaranteeing that the US would not let Egypt arm itself to the point where it could launch an attack against Israel. So Israel has nothing to lose. Instead all Israel has to say to the US is 'NO!" All of Bush's maneuverings and machinations immediately would fall apart. His 'friendly' Arab nations would withdraw their help from him, the European countries and others would back off assisting him with Iraq and Afghanistan, the oil producers would do something outrageous and Bush would be in deep trouble. At this point, Israel could extract from Bush just about anything she wanted in return for her cooperation. So why doesn't Israel do this? My guess is fear. Time to get over it. Unfortunately, most of today's Israeli leaders don't have the foresight, guts or honesty and integrity to do such a thing. But there seems to be one who does. In studying Moshe Feiglin's positions on everything from foreign relations to domestic affairs, he looks like an uncompromised leader with real solutions for all Jews, not merely religious ones. Feiglin also adheres to Hillel's famous teaching when it comes to Israel: "If I am not for myself, then who will be, and if not now when?" Beth Goodtree is an award-winning writer who lives in the NYC metro area. She writes political commentary/analysis, and the occasional science and humor articles. Or visit her website: http://hometown.aol.com/bgoodtree/ |
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HELP SECURE THE FUTURE OF JEWISH WORLD REVIEW (JWR)
Posted by Manuel Vider, June 28, 2005. |
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The following is a message from Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, Editor in Chief of JWR. The website address is http://www.jewishworldreview.com Dearest readers: They say that every cloud has a silver lining. What I've leaned about my readers in recent days when we were having problems distributing the JWR newsletter is that there are A LOT of folks who care about our site in general and myself in particular. When the daily update temporarily stopped, I was deluged with notes inquiring about my health. (Thank Heaven, it's much better than it was two years ago when I was hospitalized with cardiac problems, but not what it should be for a 37 year-old). Others told me that their "day just wasn't the same" without their JWR fix and how ours is "the one e-mail read no matter what." All of this, of course, is flattering - touching, actually. I'm going to try to be as diplomatic as possible here. So PLEASE excuse me if this comes out wrong. ARE WE DOING SOMETHING WRONG? JWR has hundreds of thousands of readers every month. In fact, our numbers continue to grow. But for the last two months, I've inserted appeal ads in every article and on our Front Page - and only several hundred readers have responded. To those of you who have expressed your kindness, I'm SINCERELY grateful. But for the life of me, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I do know what I'm doing right, as does anybody who reads JWR regularly. It's not the least bit of an exaggeration to say that JWR is constantly improving. I follow reader responses VERY carefully and am always on the lookout for new talent that will inspire, inform and entertain. We've also been phasing in a technology upgrade. What many of you may not know is that JWR is still essentially a one-man-show. There is no zillion dollar corporation publishing this site. What even fewer of you know is that my wonderful wife, who has stood behind me in keeping JWR alive, has been unemployed now for a half-year. (She was a veep in the computer department at Prudential Securities, which was merged with another company. New York Metro area job leads, anybody?). I absolutely refuse to give up! But with few donations and no income coming in, well - you do the math. Maybe I should be following folks advice to spend our limited funds in hiring a professional marketer to produce some super slick letter. Call me naive, but I'm certain that I can count on you. If you are gaining from this site and can, PLEASE help now. You can make a tax deductible charitable contribution of ANY amount through our secure online form or by making out a check and mailing it to the Keren Yehoshua V'Yisroel foundation at the address below. Some readers suggested that we create a system where a monthly donation - even as little as $1 - could be automatically deducted from a credit card or checking account. To do so, please click here. Checks should be sent to: Keren Yehoshua V'Yisroel foundation
Tax ID: 22-3209160 Please note on the "memo line" it is for the Internet educational project. In SINCERE gratitude and friendship,
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3- AND 5-YEAR OLDS HELD IN POLICE CUSTODY FOR 20 HOURS
Posted by Hillel Fendel, June 28, 2005. |
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"The police are trying to scare anti-expulsion protestors that their parents will be arrested, but they won't scare us." So says a woman whose husband was arrested - along with their two toddlers. Ruth Sariel, a mother of ten from Elon Moreh, told Arutz-7 today of the police "harassment" against her and her family that has been ongoing for three months. The latest incident was the "arrest" of her two youngest children, aged 3 and 5, together with their father. She told Arutz-7, "Two of our teenaged daughters have a court date in two weeks' time because of the road-blockings of a few weeks ago. Last night, when only my husband and the two little ones were home, the police came and said that we hadn't responded to a summons, and therefore they were arresting him. When he said that there was no one to watch the two little ones, they ignored him, and actually piled up all three of them into the paddy wagon and took them to the police station in Ariel." The two children slept on their father's lap. "I called the police," Ruth said, "and demanded that the children be brought back immediately. The police refused, and even threatened to give the children to a family that would take them in. They also threatened my husband that he would be under arrest until July 18, the date of the court hearing." This morning, as well, her demands to return the children and police threats in response continued, while in the meantime, the three "criminals" were taken to the Rishon LeTzion police station. Finally, this afternoon, the police agreed to bring them back to Ariel, and after more cajoling, all the way back to Elon Moreh. The police originally charged the mother with "taking advantage" of her children to besmirch the police. Meanwhile, the Sariels' 18-year-old son Baruch was in the same police station in Ariel - unaware that his father and little brothers were being held by the police. "How Baruch got there is another whole story," Ruth said. "It's hard for me to keep track of all the arrests." When she finally was able to get the story in order, she related that Baruch had been arrested a while ago for his role in resisting the destruction of the Gilad Outpost, and then later for taking part in the road-blockings. He was held for a week, then released, then held and released again - until last Wednesday, when two policemen arrived at the house, without a warrant, to arrest him. "When I would not let them arrest him without a warrant," Ruth continued, "they said that it was back at the police station in Ariel - but they didn't produce it. Instead, without warning, eight Yasamnikim [special forces] burst into the house and proceeded to carry out the arrest forcibly. I demanded that they leave my house, that they were there unlawfully, but they told me to shut up and the like. I called Honenu, and in accordance with their instructions, my daughter asked each one to identify himself; none of them were wearing ID tags, and some refused to tell her their names. Afterwards, I even lay down on the ground in front of the jeep, but they pulled me away. Baruch has been in prison since then, and will be until his hearing next week... He's not easily broken by these things." As an aside, Ruth mentioned that her daughter had been placed in jail for two days for "attacking a police officer." Ruth said, "I asked her if that's what happened, and she said, sarcastically, 'Sure, I beat up a police officer. What really happened is that the policewoman choked me around my neck, and so instinctively you fight back - and then right away they slap you with 'attacking a police officer.'" "It's clear that the police are trying to scare us, and especially our family," Ruth said. "They don't like the fact that we are opposing this uprooting plan from Gush Katif and northern Shomron - but it won't scare us." Additional reports of police harassment have also arrived at the Arutz-7 newsroom. Three youths under arrest on suspicion of planning to spread nails and spikes on roads in opposition to the disengagement plan say they are being severely mistreated. In a court hearing last night in which their custody was extended, they told their family members that they were placed on chairs for a week without being able to get up and had their hands tied continually. They were interrogated by the GSS, instead of by the police, and one of them submitted a complaint that he was beaten during the interrogation. In Maasiyahu Prison in Ramle, where some 20-25 youths still remain after being arrested six weeks ago, reports of jailers' sympathy for and admiration of the youths' idealism are being replaced by reports of cruel and harsh treatment. One boy is reported to have been hit for putting his feet on a chair. Another one is reported to have been beaten by the prison commander after he obeyed an instruction to stop singing - but not an order to stop smiling. Asked where "public pressure" can be applied regarding the mis-treatment of the youths, a person familiar with the story suggested the following: * The Prime Minister's Office - "webmaster@pmo.gov.il", fax number 02-670-5475 (+9722-670-5475, from outside Israel) * Public Security Ministry Gideon Ezra - sar@mops.gov.il, fax 02-530-8039 (+9722-530-8039, from outside Israel) * Knesset Law Committee Chairman MK Michael Eitan - email address: "meitan@knesset.gov.il" Hillel Fendel is editor of Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com), where this article appeared today. |
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CORPORAL BIEBER FACES NEARLY TWO MONTHS IN PRISON
Posted by Hillel Fendel, June 28, 2005. |
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Corp. Avi Bieber, who has received calls of support nationwide for being the "first disengagement refuser," is to be tried in Be'er Sheva today by the deputy commander of the Gaza region.
Bieber was arrested on Sunday after refusing to participate in the violent suppression of protestors seeking to prevent the IDF from demolishing abandoned structures near the Gush Katif community of Shirat HaYam. The army felt that the structures were to be used to house opponents of the expulsion/retreat plan. As Biber was being led away from the scene, a reporter asked him what was going on. "They're beating up Jews, that's what's going on," he said, visibly upset. "It's not right. It's not right and it's not just." Bieber had requested to be tried before a military tribunal, which would have enabled him to have legal defense. His lawyer, Shai Galili, said he was not allowed to view any of the material beforehand, nor speak with any witnesses to the event. The 19-year-old, who immigrated with his family from the U.S. at the age of 10, and who was described by his relatives as "quiet" until this week, is being charged on two counts, each of which carries a possible 28-day sentence: refusing orders and unbecoming behavior. The army has threatened to make an example out of him, with senior officers speaking of the need to deal harshly with disengagement-refusers. "When he spoke to us last night," Avi's father Ralph said today, "he told us that we should hold our heads up high and be proud of him, and that he's willing to pay the price for what he did... We really are very proud of him." Over 50 people gathered this morning outside the IDF Gaza headquarters, where it was originally thought Bieber would be tried, to support Corp. Bieber. The supporters cheered loudly for him, until police forcibly broke up the demonstration, arresting one activist in the process. The trial was then moved, however, to an IDF base in Be'er Sheva. When this news was learned, anti-expulsion activists quickly lined the road, holding orange signs in support of the teenager-turned-hero. Ralph Bieber said that he has received calls of support from all over the country. "The phone hasn't stopped ringing since Sunday," he said. "The first act of destruction in Gush Katif saw the first cracks appear in the anti-Zionist uprooting mechanism," said a statement from the "Jewish Heart" organization, which provides legal assistance to soldiers who choose to refuse to participate in the Disengagement Plan. Twelve other soldiers in Bieber's unit said afterwards that they would not participate in any further missions of this sort. "No one told us in advance that this was our mission," one of them told the Hebrew news site Ynet. "The soldiers are talking among themselves and saying that we were basically tricked..." The soldier said that the 12 were tried by the Battalion Commander. "We didn't exactly refuse orders," he said, "but just said that if there is another one like this, we simply won't do it... Two of the soldiers were crying with tears in their eyes [during the destruction]... They told us to stand with guns around our neck, with cartridges in our weapons; we're used to standing against Arabs like that, not against Jews." The Orange Cell of Haifa University and Technion students announced its support of the soldiers "refusing to take part in the crimes against the Jewish Nation and and the fulfillment of blatantly illegal orders... We call upon all IDF soldiers to learn from them and follow their path. Only in this way we will restore the IDF to its mission of being the people's army and not that of the Sharon family." Just this morning, Itzik Kleinman, a soldier in the IDF Technology and Logistics Branch was sentenced to 14 days in prison for expressing anti-disengagement views on a television program. Atty. Galili, representing Kleinman, said he would appeal the sentence. Hillel Fendel is editor of Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com), where this article appeared today. |
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SHARON'S REAL HISTORY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 28, 2005. |
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We can only wonder what other surprises will pop out from Sharon's sordid past. I for one have always wondered what the real reason was for his sudden release of the Egyptian Army he captured. Considering his history of corruption, I think the question should no longer be "why" but "how much." This is called "Sharon Beat Up Etzel Fighters" and is from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=84755 First-Hand Testimony: "Sharon would go around with his shovel-handle against us," says Ben-Ami Zamir, who says Sharon struck him in his head - putting in a different light Sharon's warnings about "civil war." Just two months ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told NBC that Israel is on the brink of a civil-war disaster. "The tension here, the atmosphere here looks like the eve of the civil war," he said. "All my life I was defending the lives of Jews. Now, for the first time, security steps are taken to protect me from Jews." Revelations by a former Etzel [nationalist army organization] member show that this is not quite true. Ben-Ami Zamir says that Sharon was involved in violence against nationalist Jews during pre-State days, and was forced to run away to protect himself. The NBC interview promoted the perception that "Jewish settlers" are the main threat to stability in the Middle East. "Israelis are bracing for a violent summer," the narrator opened, "but it's not the Palestinians they are worried about - it's the Jewish settlers." Knesset Members from both left and right said that Sharon's remarks about a "civil war" atmosphere and his need for protection from Jews are incendiary and provocative. Extreme left-wing MK Zahava Gal'on (Meretz/Yahad) accused Sharon of "making cheap and provocative use of threats of civil war." Former Justice Minister Tommy Lapid of the left-wing Shinui Party said, "Remarks like these by the Prime Minister cause more extremism and tension, instead of calming things down. I don't think that such dangers exist." MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union), a resident of Gush Katif and one of Sharon's most bitter opponents, said, "Sharon is a liar. He knows that the only one who can lead to a civil war is he himself." Hendel's words received strong backing this week - from a man who himself suffered from Sharon's ideological-based violence. It occurred during the period known as the Saison of the mid-1940's, when left-wing Haganah activists pursued and beat up nationalist Etzel and Lechi activists, and others even turned them over to the hated ruling British forces. Speaking with Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen, Ben-Ami Zamir, who is today a member of the Likud Party Bureau, gave the following harrowing account: "I was given the mission of establishing an Etzel cell in our moshavah [townlet] of Magdiel, and I did so. I gathered some youths in our cafe, and I would often give shelter to Etzel men who needed to hide from the British police. Everyone knew everyone, and it was known that I was an Etzel man, as were all my neighbors; residents of the surrounding moshavim were rival Haganah people." One of these towns was Kfar Malal, home to young Ariel "Arik" Sharon. "One Motzaei Shabbat [Saturday night], a truck arrived at the cafe, and out of it jumped a group of uniformed Haganah men, led by Ariel Sharon holding a hoe-handle. We knew him in the area as someone who always holds a hoe-handle to catch Etzel and Lechi people. They tried to break into the cafe, which was still closed because of the Sabbath. I came close to him, and he said, 'Give me some soda,' and pointed to a box of drinks on the ground. I bent down to the bottles, and then he picked up his arm and smashed me with all his might with the hoe-handle. My head was covered in blood, which dripped down all over me." Zamir said that a fight ensued, and "for ten minutes, they destroyed everything they could... The next morning, I went to the Sharon home... His mother came out, saw me all bandaged up and immediately realized what was going on. I asked where Arik was, and she said he wasn't home. I said that if I would see him, I would get him. Later people in Kfar Malal told me that he was afraid to go home. We didn't see him again in Magdiel." Zamir said that this was not the only violent incident against Etzel people in which Sharon was involved. He noted specifically the case of someone named Hayuma, who died six months ago, whose arm was broken by Sharon's gang. Zamir's story was publicized 15 years ago by Yediot Acharonot reporter Shlomo Nakdimon. That article also quoted similar testimony by Etzel member Daniel Basamnik. "Sharon threatened to sue [following Nakdimon's article]," Zamir told Arutz-7's Cohen, "but for his own reasons decided not to." Not long ago, Zamir met Sharon at a Likud gathering at the party's headquarters in Metzudat Ze'ev. "Sharon passed me," Zamir said, "and I told him that he would be remembered in history as a traitor. I said that apparently only when a shell lands in his own farm, will he understand what he's doing." Cohen said that no response to his inquiries on these accusations had been received from the Prime Minister's Bureau by press time. Just today, Mr. Sharon issued a call against violence in response to threats received by Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz. "Everything must be done to stop the violence of a small minority of the settlers," he said today. Apparently unaware of the old/new accusations against him, Sharon said that the Land of Israel faithful living in the Maoz HaYam Hotel in Gush Katif are "vocal and dangerous," as well as "law-breaking." 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. |
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POWER AND INFLUENCE
Posted by Batya Medad, June 28, 2005. |
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When I was growing up, the feeling was that if you wanted to "change the world," have power and influence, you'd go into politics. President Kennedy's motivating speeches are quoted to this day. Fortunately or unfortunately, things have changed. This week an enormous tragedy, a terror attack that challenges the imagination, was, thank the Good Lord, prevented. An Arab, one of the lucky ones from Gaza, a patient in the Israeli hospital, Soroka, prepared for her check-up by strapping explosives to her body. The same body that Israeli doctors had labored to heal was going to be used as a murder weapon to murder her doctors, nurses, and fellow patients and to destroy part of the hospital itself. The Soroka Hospital, in the Southern city of Beersheba, treats both Jewish and Arab patients, and its staff is also integrated. One of the Arab doctors who works there wrote a very moving article against such terror in the hospital he considers a home. This horrendous, unthinkable for normal minds, plan was barely mentioned in the international press. Via the Internet, I'm in touch with concerned people of all religions, and we are all surprised and disappointed by the lack of press coverage. The media has no problems magnifying and saturating the airwaves with anything that may be considered a fault of Israel, but to expose the immoral Arab terror is considered so much less important. Everyone remembers the little Arab boy photographed next to his father in the crossfire of Arab and Israeli bullets. Israel was roundly condemned all over the world press and diplomatic world for his death, though extensive ballistic tests proved beyond a doubt that Arabs killed him. If there was a "clarification" it was hidden in the back pages and certainly the TV and radio didn't publicize corrections. My family has had a lot of experience with the international media as residents of Shiloh. Journalists call us with requests that sound like they're ordering from a Chinese restaurant. "Can you find us an American immigrant living in the Hebron area and a native Israeli near Tel Aviv'" When queried about the stereotypes, we've been told that the editor ordered a specific article, and the reporter has to find people "to fit the bill." Meaning that the true situation, like a "native Israeli" descended from Jewish residents murdered in the Hebron Massacre of 1929 and an American immigrant living near Tel Aviv wouldn't convey the message the editor desires. Truth is what the editors want it to be. Apparently this phenomena isn't exclusive to Israel. Here in Israel we're constantly warned of the dangers of "the extreme right wing," and any Arab injured is described as "innocent of guilt," a phrase never used to describe Jewish victims of Arab terror. Yesterday's simple 15 minute Stop a Moment to Think Again Protest was heralded with warnings from the media that the demonstration was irresponsible and will certainly cause death. Tens of thousands of vehicles and at least 200,000 pedestrians lined various roads throughout the country in one of the simplest and calmest demonstrations imaginable. I participated in Jerusalem standing near the Israeli Supreme Court with hundreds of others of all ages and backgrounds. Almost everyone wore something orange and some waved Israeli flags. Passing cars tapped out the "we support you" beep. And then after a short time, as planned, we all returned to our everyday lives. Last but most important. The big mystery: why in the world did Arik Sharon declare the Disengagement policy? According to a recently published book, Boomerang, it was Ariel Sharon's attempt to escape punishment for corruption. In addition more and more proof of media manipulation have been revealed. A decision was made by the Israeli media to "coddle and protect" Ariel Sharon in order to promote Disengagement. Instead of honestly reporting the news, the media campaigns for its favorite issues, trying to influence the trusting public and in some cases, even orchestrates events to suit its agenda. The Arutz 7 station was closed down and is now only available via phone and internet. It was closed down in order to prevent the public from hearing the truth. Today, thank G-d, some of us at least have the option of the internet and blogs as an alternative news media. So if you want to change the world, forget politics. True power is in front of the camera and tapping the keys. It's up to all of us to tell the truth and not to believe everything we see and hear. Remember the old saying: "Everything's true in the newspaper, except for the things you know about personally." This is Musing #127. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2005/06/power-and-influence.htm |
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THE CONFLICT AND THE POLITICALLY CORRECT; ENERGY SWINDLE; ISRAEL
TIES ITSELF IN LEGAL KNOTS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 28, 2005. |
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THE CONFLICT AND THE POLITICALLY CORRECT
A Jewish reader of mine joined an Internet discussion group comprised almost entirely of Roman Catholics. He submitted my article describing Islam's political manifestations. They found it offensive, especially the admonition to fellow Jews not to let Arabs come up behind them. Most of the group thinks Islam is a peaceful religion. One who disagrees nevertheless suggests that Israel negotiate a resolution with the Arabs. After all, he supposes, Israel cannot keep resisting forever, as by demolishing terrorists' houses. Such action reduces its credibility. My reader asked how to reply, especially on what Islam wants from the rest of the world. That is a difficult task. What standing have I with people who read only one article of mine? I sent him several pertinent editorials and news briefs that cite sources. Those are only a few of about 14,000 pages that I have written on the Arab-Israel conflict, in the past decade. On what basis do I presume to advise others? Many writers are presumptuous, exercising their legal right to communicate their lack of knowledge. I started with the approximately half a million pages I read on the subject, from scholarly works and the regular print media, when I set up a library for a Zionist organization. To read is not necessarily to absorb, and to absorb is not necessarily to digest. I am going to make some assertions about how I go about it; my regular readers can judge for themselves. I do digest the material, and expose false propaganda, because I dislike seeing the public under-informed and misinformed about public issues, especially this one of great import. Just as the public was caught unprepared for the Nazi and Communist menaces, they were unprepared for the contemporary totalitarian menace, Islamism. I have lived through all those phases. Advocating Zionism, I reject "advocacy journalism," whereby the writer editorializes, censors, and dissembles in news items. When I come across an invalid argument by my own "side," I expose it as false, too. Academic integrity is one of the ways I try to differentiate myself from the other side. Readers would not stay with a dissident, if he forfeits trust. I do strain belief with my iconoclastic approach. I think for myself. Now, what do I tell a Catholic group? Although in boyhood I had been beaten up and regularly pursued by a couple of Catholics, in my youth I quit two organizations when I found them irrelevantly antagonistic towards Catholicism. One group was the American Humanist Association, the other, Americans United for Separation of Church From State. I consult a knowledgeable Christian, to make sure I don't misrepresent the Christian view. So far, so good. The problem with introducing a discordant view into the forum is that it gages dissent against a syndrome of beliefs based on well-meaning assumptions about other cultures and religions that I see are not based on fact. In Western society, people are not educated about major trends, but adopt politically correct ideological positions, often contrary to practical experience. They are too rigidly liberal or conservative, rather than pragmatic and ethical, to re-evaluate their notions. When it comes to Islam, Westerners who have not studied its history and who depend on skimpy news that often is biased against Israel or is appeasement-minded, suppose it is just like their own religions. They ethno-centrically assume that other cultures have values and thought processes like their own. Being a monotheistic faith like their own, wouldn't Islam have become a religion of peace? It didn't. It never had a Reformation. It falsely tells them it wants peace, just as did Hitler and Stalin. Appeasement failed with the Nazis and Communists, and it failed with the Arabs. Let us not be naive and wax indignant against someone like me, who calls Islam a war society. That is a matter of fact and not debatable, though people argue against it anyway. Probably those people do not read translations of the mosque sermons broadcast over Saudi and Palestinian Authority (P.A.) TV, constantly calling for the murder of Christians, Jews, and Americans. The P.A. curriculum and media is filled with defamation and incitement to violence. Islam's primary tenets emphasize subduing all other faiths and humiliating Christians and Jews. Islam originally spread by means of a judicious combination of war and diplomacy. It established a huge empire. The Arabs dream of regaining lost glory. Their religion divides the planet into two spheres, the world of Islam and the world of war. Informed Westerners can see that there is Islamic jihad all over the world, including the US. Do I have to name the many countries in which Islamic insurgents are fighting to take over? In some countries it has advanced into active combat. In the US it does more recruiting and fundraising. No, Islam is not a religion of peace. One hears about moderate Muslims, but few speak out against jihad and the means it uses: war, terrorism, torture, and deceit. For death in jihad, Islam promises Heaven. Best-sellers among the Muslim Arabs are Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and the forged "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Bigotry is "in." Muslims have been pressuring Christians out of the Mideast for centuries. In Egypt, Muslims capture and forcibly convert Christian girls. In Fatah land, they beat up Christian worshippers and extort from Christian storekeepers. Deceit is a tactic approved by the Arabs, as it was by the equally fanatical Communists and Nazis. If one follows the Arabs' assertions, one can see a pattern of false propaganda. Christians ought to challenge the Arab claim that there never was a Jewish temple on the Mount, for events there are important in the Christian Testament. Christians ought to challenge the claim by the Palestinian Arabs that Jesus was a "Palestinian." The Gospel truth is that Jesus was a rabbi. Arabs were not around there, at that time. There was no "Palestinian" nation then or now. Until the Palestine Mandate, there was no actual territory of Palestine since ancient Roman times. In the Mandate there were Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews, but no Palestinian nation. One of the members of the forum urges Israel to negotiate another Palestinian Arab state. (Jordan emerged from the Palestine Mandate and is Arab.) He wrote that Israel cannot keep resisting, as by demolishing terrorists' houses and undermining its own "moral credibility." Since those Arabs are not a separate nation, why grant them sovereignty, especially over traditionally Jewish territory? Since those Arabs are waging holy war, the Arab-Israel conflict is not about nationality or territory, but about religion. Islam deems Jewish sovereignty around there an affront to its hegemony. The PLO plan is to conquer all of Israel, starting by getting the strategic Territories of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. PLO statehood would stimulate war! Therefore, suggestions that the conflict can be negotiated to a conclusion are erroneous. Jihad doesn't stop until stymied or victorious. Since jihad is being waged against so many countries, it would be foolish for Israel to give the jihadists a victory. Such a victory would bring the Muslim Arabs to the second half of their saying, "After Saturday's people, Sunday's people." Exhortation to negotiate is a Western means of problem solving. Arabs operate differently. Arabs negotiate much like the Nazis and Communists did, to gain an advantage for the next war. Once the Arabs absorb Israeli concessions, they violate the agreement and suggest more negotiations and more enemy concessions. That has been the case with the armistices, treaties, and accords. The strongest proof of the futility of negotiating with the Palestinian Arabs is that, a dozen years after the initial Oslo accords, the PLO and Palestinian Authority still have not disarmed the illegal militias and in fact have boosted, praised, and incited terrorism. We want a peace process, but prior negotiations enabled thousands of terrorist assaults on Israel. Israel must continue resisting. Yes, the world criticizes Israel whatever defensive measures it takes, and hardly criticizes the Arabs, whatever war crimes they commit, such as targeting civilians, torturing prisoners, attacking ambulances or ferrying arms in them, fighting from behind their own people's civilians whom they thereby put at risk, and recruiting children. As for my admonition to Israelis not to turn one's back toward an Arab, how it must shock the uninformed! Unfortunately, numerous Israelis learned the wisdom of it the hard way. I have read many news briefs of Jewish Israelis who long had employed Arabs or had been friends with them. Suddenly radicalized, Arabs have stabbed those employers and friends in the back. ISRAEL TIES ITSELF IN LEGAL KNOTS Israel intends to pay P.A. Arabs at least $50 million to demolish the 1,200 houses Jews built in the area PM Sharon is abandoning. This is referred to a "creating a job program" for the Arabs. Why demolish them? The P.A. claims it doesn't want that type of house for its people. The Washington Post explains, "Under international law, Israel was required to return the property as it had been when it seized it during the 1967 war, which would have meant costly and time-consuming cleanup and left Israeli soldiers vulnerable to attack for months." (Glenn Kessler, NY Sun, 6/20, p.6.) Israel has no obligation to help the antisemitic Arabs. What good are the peace agreements that the PLO/P.A. signed with Israel, if when Israel is sacrificing a portion of its homeland and a major investment, by turning the area over to the Arabs, they would be attacking Israelis preparing for that appeasement? How vicious the Arabs! I think that the P.A. is afraid of the negative publicity from hordes of its people looting and gutting the houses. It would show what kind of people Arabs are. So far, the P.A. has gotten away with all sorts of war crimes, insults against Christianity and other bigotry, and corruption. Scenes of massive mob-looting and attacks when Israel is doing what the P.A. and most the rest of the world demanded, would be too dramatic for continued pretense that the Arabs just want peace. It is humiliating for the Jewish people to read that some folks take pride in Israel making jobs for the Arabs out of destroying a major Zionist enterprise. The murderers of Israelis inherit the land! It stings hardly less that Israel will beg other countries for the funds to do so. One wishes Israel would smash the armed forces that intend to keep attacking it. If international law were as the Washington Post put it, it would be asinine. Israel did what the Arabs had been unable to do. Israel made the parts of Gaza in which it settled bloom. What law demands that Israel destroy houses and other things, to restore the area to desert? Obviously the law was meant to prevent a conqueror from despoiling a settled area, not unsettle an area to its spoiled condition. Although Israel was a conqueror, however, this international law does not apply to it. It is the law for occupiers. Israel is not an occupier in Judea, Samaria, Gaza. To be an occupier, one has to take over part of a sovereign state. The Territories were not sovereign. They had been seized by invading Arab states, which had no legitimate status there. Their legal status remains that of were unallocated parts of the Palestine Mandate for a Jewish national home. Israel is the most legitimate heir of that Mandate. It need not withdraw. It is a mark of Israel's timidity that it allows such improper legal claims to be made against it. Allowing them undermines Israel's case in the public arena and ties it up in unwarranted financial obligations. ENERGY SWINDLE When the price of oil rose, new wells were drilled but not publicized. The industry pretended that there is a shortage, so as to maintain rising prices and to make nature reserves accessible for extraction and to remove other environmental restrictions. Actually there is a glut. That does not mean that conservation is unnecessary. Excess consumption eventually is not sustainable. Neither is the pollution. Meanwhile, consumers are being cheated. CIVIL WARS IN IRAQ? A couple of reports may be flashes in the pan, but they pose interesting possibilities for Iraq. One is that the Shiites are becoming impatient at the constant Sunni attacks against them. The other is that the Sunni Iraqi insurgents have become impatient with the Islamist human-bombing of ordinary Iraqis. In both cases, there would be civil war. Seeing the start of a barrage, US troops thought it was intended against them. Instead, they found the two strands of the insurgency fighting amongst themselves. The Baathist Sunni insurgents do not want the kind of society that the foreign Islamists seek. The native rebels seek accommodation with their government. Meanwhile, Shiites clashed with Sunnis in mixed neighborhoods. Young Shiite clerics have decided to lead massacres of Sunnis, to prevent themselves from being overrun. If this continues, US policy will have unraveled. The Shiite Grand Ayatollah used his authority to try to accommodate the Sunnis, instead of continuing the age-old policy of revenge for Saddam's persecution of Shiites. If the ethnic strife continues, it will have been in vain. If, however, the Baathists fully break off from the Islamists, and accept the Shiite invitation to a secure place in Iraq, then the ethnic strife may cease. Ethnic unity would isolate the Islamists. This would permit a US success. INTERNAL P.A. VIOLENCE Abbas rarely asserts his authority. Although he runs a dictatorship, he does not use the media to gain support for the regime. Non-political murder is on the upswing in the P.A.. It is shaking the legitimacy of the regime. When Abbas had been Prime Minister under Arafat, he blamed Arafat for not supporting him. He has nobody else to blame for his current foundering (IMRA, 6/16 from Michael Widlanski). He IS different from Arafat - he lacks ability to lead.. P.A. officials have been unable to stem the rivalry between the current, ruling generation of Fatah leaders, and the younger one, impatient for power now. The factions have engaged in gun battles, which the P.A. police have stayed out of. The fate of Fatah depends on the fate of the P.A.. The P.A., however, may be headed for collapse this year. Many P.A. officials already have fled (as the Arab upper class did from Israel on its own, when foreseeing imminent war). Others have made arrangements to find a haven abroad, on short notice (IMRA, 6/16). Will the flight change the demographic balance? What effect is the US training of P.A. police having? What is the current and prospective effect of planned Israeli withdrawal? What does this indicate about US policy favoring the P.A. as if it already were democratic? U.S. DEMANDING UNO REFORM? The House voted to halve US subsidy of the UNO if it fails to reform. But if it fails to reform, why pay at all? Rep. Lantos failed to amend the bill so as to leave the decision up to the Sec. of State. As another Representative put it, "We have had enough waivers, enough resolutions, enough statements. It's time we had some teeth in reform." As an editor put it, "Why would Mr. Lantos think that if the Congress wanted to get tough with the UN, it would hand the decision on whether to get tough over to a State Department that has been opposing the idea of getting tough all along?" (NY Sun, 6/20.) Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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THE LAST CONCERT
Posted by Rachel Saperstein, June 28, 2005. |
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The Gush Katif Orchestra had just played its final notes at the end-year concert in the Community Center in Neve Dekalim when Naomi Eldar - tall, elegant, smiling Naomi - trembled with emotion as she spoke to the audience of children and parents. "Is this to be our last concert?" she tearfully asked. I had been sitting in the audience watching Sophia, the energetic orchestra conductor, put her baby, the Gush Katif Orchestra, through its last number, a lively Chassidic melody. The percussionists were in full gear as the accordions were belting out the tune. Children, youth, adults, accompanied by our music teachers, had joined together to make music, and to bring music not only to the people of Gush Katif but to audiences throughout Israel. During the worst of the intifadeh, with bombs and shootings taking place in Gush Katif, our orchestra went out to all parts of Israel to entertain and to give courage to the people cowering under daily terrorist attacks. I am especially fond of the Gush Katif music program. As a teenager I had played the flute and now I had, as an "older" person, the chance to play it again. Imagine being 57 and tackling an instrument untouched for forty years. My teacher Alex, an immigrant from Russia as are all the music teachers, brought back both the pleasure and the discipline of playing an instrument. I often played along with the children, standing with pride as I played a trio for flutes. Some of the adults smiled as I was called up to play my solo at the recitals. But watching my happy face they too signed up to study their own childhood instruments or to begin to learn a new instrument. And that's what I did as well. At age 60 I began to learn the keyboard. I was totally uncoordinated but my teacher, Marc, put me through the difficult paces of learning a new instrument. The music teachers live in Ashkelon and Beersheba. Twice a week they make their way to Gush Katif and back in bulletproof vans. Through the most difficult periods, with their families frantically calling them every hour, with news reports of incessant terrorist attacks, they came. Their devotion to their students, and especially their love of Gush Katif, was expressed in the most ardent Zionist way - they put their bodies, their music and their skills on the line to be with us. The music teachers gave us light when the world around us seemed so dark. During the most difficult nights of terror, listening to mortars and rockets falling all around us, I played my flute. Many times my good neighbor, Roxanne Chemla, an accomplished pianist, accompanied me. Together we gave small concerts. Playing kept us focused on the music and not on the deadly sounds we heard outside our homes. Is this the Last Concert? Naomi Eldar, Ita Freiman and the entire dedicated staff of our Community Center wished me a happy summer. My teachers gave me material to practice and I was reminded I should now sign up for music lessons for September before all the slots would be filled. And so I did. May we make music together in Gush Katif for many years to come. Rachel Saperstein and her husband Moshe live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel. She is a teacher at the Neve Dekalim ulpana and a spokeswoman for the Katif Regional Council. |
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WILL APPEASEMENT BRING PEACE TO ISRAEL?
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 28, 2005. |
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The Prime Minister of Israel knows much about the subject on endangering Israel as he accuses those who oppose his suicidal plans. He warned Mr. Bush in 2002 that he would not allow Israel to become the tool of appeasment as Czechslovakia was fed to the Third Reich by Britan for the cause of 'peace in our time.' Sharon changed his mind after his visit to Washington and went along with the Bush Road Map that now endangers Israel's existence. What happened? Now the Prime Minister follows any and every demand from Washington without question. He has for all practical purposes surrendered Israel sovereignty to Amwerica's interests and their failed peace plan. As an Israeli University Professor wrote me last week, 'He is the most powerful man on earth.' This is Israel problem in a nutshell: they have forgotten the One who is more powerful than Mr. Bush and have chosen to obey the dictates of one over the other. Even after all the lies and betrayal, Israel will not loosen it's grip from this false Idol which promises peace. This is a grave error on Israel's part which will be extremely costly. Israel will not have peace, but it will have the same destruction and war that Neville Chamberlain's appeasment brought to the world not too long ago. Even Abba Eban knew enough to warn us about the Aushwitz borders. Sharon endangers Israel's existence by appeasing and emboldening the Islamic jihadists, and the few who speak out know this. Under the fascist umbrella law of incitement he silences his opponents and crushes them. Did they drug him - some kind of mind control? Do they have compromixing photos of Sharon to bribe him with? Why does Sharon bring Israel to the brink, not of peace, but destruction and refuse to communicate with those he serves as Prime Minister. He is the Bully Bulldozer Dictator who serves U.S. interests and not Israel's. This is treason. Why did he go back on his appeasment warning to Mr. Bush ? All of Israel Prime Minister after Yitzak Shamir have sold out Israel to U.S. interests, teaching the wise that politicians will not save Israel. Israel's only hope is the direct intervention from her God. Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF "DISENGAGEMENT"
Posted by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein, June 28, 2005. |
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This was written by Dr. Moshe Dann In order to gain greater control of Israel's economy, Israel's oligarchy (cf. www.dandb.co.il for example) are using the Sharon/Peres "disengagement" plan of retreat from Yesha (traditionally part of the Left's agenda and the basis of the Oslo Accords.) to their advantage. These ruling elites realized that Israel would have to pay for deporting Jews and confiscating their property in Gaza and northern Samaria. Lacking sufficient funds in the budget, however, the government would be forced to sell off their interests in companies - at a substantial discount. These are the plums that the elite coveted; "disengagement" was the excuse. And it was convenient because it coincides with the Left's antipathy towards "settlers," with free-market economics, and post/anti-Zionism. Although Jewish property in the Gaza Strip may be potentially worth billions of dollars their owners are being offered a small fraction of its real value in compensation. This is a direct subsidy to terrorists. But it's not just about homes, veggies and flowers. Terrorist organizations have spent billions trying to defeat the IDF and destroy Jewish communities throughout Israel. Forcing Israel to retreat from Gaza and Northern Samaria under fire while abandoning Jewish property - without having to give up anything (including terrorism) -- proves the success of their strategy. Although nearly all military experts now agree that "disengagement" is a strategic mistake, will increase the danger to Israel's security and encourage future terrorism the government continues. A major reason behind the process is economic. FM Netanyahu is the 'bag man' for Sharon/Peres' policy of expropriation and deportation. "Privatization" (selling off government-owned and/or controlled industries and banks which receive special privileges) has merits, but in Israel it concentrates greater economic power in the hands of the oligarchic ruling elite. Government interests in banks and companies are being sold at discounts to fund the retreat from Yesha, the interests of the elite and a growing police state. Capital market reforms are not accompanied by a more efficient and conducive system that will encourage businessmen and investors, and one that will provide greater competition. Major obstacles, like Israel's monopolistic banking structures remain unchanged. Subsidies and tax "incentives" to businesses, Channel One and the "politically correct," moreover continue while ministerial budgets are cut. For example, 700 million NIS was cut from the education ministry budget, which meant firing 5,000 teachers. The same amount was given to (Shinui) to obtain their support for retreat plan. Most of this money will be used to support various Shinui political interests; nearly half is intended for certain profligate universities which serve the interests of the elite. This is at the expense of public education and colleges. The rest will be spent on "cultural" activities - again supporting the interests of Israel's Left-wing elite. No money is intended to help the working and non-working poor, nor the basic public education and health systems which trap the poor in cycles of poverty, dependency and oppression. "Disengagement" is also about who controls land, Israel's most important tangible asset, the basis of sovereignty (political power) and the most constant and important measure of wealth and economic/political power. The settlement movement represents a powerful centrifugal force in Israeli society because of its independence and idealism. It created decentralized loci of power with a more religious and Zionist ideology than the Left and the ruling elites, challenging the hegemony of Israel's social, political, economic and cultural (anti-religious) Establishment. The problem was how to eliminate settlements within a nominally democratic system. The first step was the Oslo Accords which helped establish a terror-based Palestinian state; the next is a retreat from all or most of Yesha and building a barrier/fence basically along the 1949 armistice lines. With the media, court and police systems under their control, the next step required the destruction of the Likud which provides political support for the settlement movement and stands in the way of the Left's re-gaining full power Restricting land use by Jews was the job of the Israel Lands Authority (a function of the Prime Minister's office) which exercises a virtual monopoly -- controlling 93% of Israeli land -- and is dominated by the agricultural lobby and the political echelons. (The JNF also holds significant amounts of land.) When Jews moved to newly available land (in Yesha) after 1967 they created a new source of wealth and to an extent political independence. The more they expanded, the greater their threat to the ILA's control of land and eventually the entire system. By restricting the sale and distribution of land the ILA manipulates prices to maintain artificially high levels and prevent the expansion of Jewish communities. At the time of the Oslo Accords the settlement movement was on its way to creating the three important mechanisms of independence: free, open communication (Arutz 7, Radio West, etc), economic self-sufficiency and political strength. Eventually, with cheaper land available, heavy industry would have moved into Yesha and then de facto annexation would be complete. Oslo pre-empted this development just at the time when the settlement movement was at its peak and had achieved 'critical mass,' and when "Palestinian nationalism" and its supporters were weakest. Oslo tried to reverse the process. "Disengagement" is really another form of that failed "peace process," while widening conflicting cultural divisions. Settlements also represent a paradigm of everything that post-Zionists oppose. As they see it, Arabs want to destroy Israel from without; "settlers" and religious Jews want to destroy Israel from within. More important is how easily the ruling elite are able to take advantage of these forces to serve their interests. Through their control of the means of communication (TV, radio and newspapers) the oligarchy can essentially brainwash the public. Because Israel's political, economic and judicial systems have no accountability, democratic institutions are undermined and manipulated by political and economic interests. It's not only the failure of a leader or political party; the system itself exploits us. Abandoning authentic Zionism, genuine democracy and Jewish values in favor of post-Zionist Israelism is part of a process of assimilation and internationalism. The New Middle East that promised peace delivered terrorism and the deportation of Jews. "Land for Peace" didn't work, so Israel offers 'Land for Nothing." It is a policy rooted in fear, failure and defeatism PM Sharon's announcement that "the dream (settlement in Yesha) is over represents a capitulation to and legitimization of terrorism. It means not only that we cannot win our war against that enemy, but that we should not win. Israel's existence is threatened not only by Arab terrorism, but by venality and dishonesty. That explains why a nation diseased with corruption and bribery cannot defend itself effectively. Moshe Saperstein and his wife Rachel live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, in the Gaza Strip. He is a Jerusalem Diarist, one of the group of Israelis who are recording their experiences living in Israel. He lost an arm while fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He was again wounded in a February 2002 incident when he drove his car into a terrorist who had just shot and killed a young mother traveling in the car in front of him. He writes frequently of his physical and emotional struggles. His wife, Rachel (aka. La Passionara, La P.) works at the Girls High School in Neve Dekalim and published a booklet last year for families dealing with terror victims. |
| GUSH KATIF |
SOLDIERS IN ANTI-SETTLER OPERATION WILL REFUSE ORDERS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 28, 2005. |
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This was written by Aaron Klein, who is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben Ami and leaders of the Taliban. JERUSALEM - A group of Israeli soldiers who said they were misled into carrying out an anti-settler operation in Gaza yesterday [Editor's note: see below ] are being reprimanded for refusing to take part in the upcoming Gaza evacuation, relatives of the soldiers told WND. The 12 soldiers say they were misled by their commander yesterday into participating in an operation in which the Israeli Defense Forces bulldozed 11 abandoned homes and buildings along the Gaza beachfront and clashed violently with Jewish teenagers. One soldier, Avi Beiber, would not even help in yesterday's mission. The IDF said it decided to remove the abandoned structures because it was worried Jewish activists would take up residence in the homes, located near a Jewish community, in an effort to stop the Gaza evacuation Aug. 15. The 12 soldiers said they were only told they were needed for an unidentified operation and to bring their weapons and protective gear, Raphael Beiber, Avi's father, told WND. He said details of the operation were withheld from the troops. When the soldiers arrived, Beiber said, they were informed their mission was to protect bulldozers preparing to raze the abandoned structures. But just as the operation began, dozens of local Jewish youth streamed to the site in an attempt to stop the bulldozing. The soldiers, except for Avi, immediately clashed with the youth. Avi quickly told his commander he could not participate and yelled at the other soldiers, "A Jew doesn't evacuate a Jew." Haggai Huberman, an eye witness, described the scene to the Israeli media: "A large group of youths managed to lie down in front of one of the bulldozers, and when it stopped, others climbed atop it. ... Youths behind it, in front of it and on top of it. After a few minutes, the police and soldiers started evacuating, using great force. "[The youth] climbed on the bulldozer and started dragging the youths down with force, with an exchange of punches, pushes and curses. The youths were crying out, 'Refuse orders! This is not your job! You are soldiers, you should be protecting us, not evacuating us!' "The force used by the soldiers was so great, and sometimes so brutal and unreasonable, that some of the youths were hurt and required medical care. One youth suffered a strong blow to his shoulder, several of them fainted and stretchers gradually began to arrive on the scene, evacuating them for medical treatment." Beiber told WND, "When my son Avi saw what was happening, when he saw his fellow soldiers and officers beating up Jewish kids, he was sickened and he told his superiors he would not participate. He was asked to turn in his weapon and he was loaded on a Jeep and escorted out of there." The 12 other soldiers, who did participate, now say they will not take part in the upcoming Gaza evacuation. "It felt disgusting to have to restrain Jewish teenagers. They were good guys who came because they just don't want to be kicked out of their homes," said one soldier, who gave a statement to WND through his mother because he currently is restrained from talking to the media. The soldier said, "They kept the mission quiet from us. I feel like I was lied to. Most of my friends have been stationed in Gush Katif for a few months. We don't want to be involved in the [Gaza evacuation.]" The soldiers told their commander they want to be excused from any future anti-settler missions and are being reprimanded for their decision. Avi Beiber remains on duty in Gaza and soon will be tried for his refusal. The IDF is worried refusal of orders may become more widespread as the Gaza withdrawal draws closer. Last week hundreds of soldiers and reserve officers assembled in Jerusalem to announce they will refuse to participate in the evacuation. In perhaps the most high-profile refusal case so far, the enlisted son of the police chief responsible for overseeing the withdrawal told WorldNetDaily in March he thinks the Gaza evacuation is "wrong," and he will not participate if his unit is ordered to take part. Raphel Beiber said, "I brought my son up to be a proud Jew. To love his country. Yesterday, he did the right thing." 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. |
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LOSE THE PREDICTABILITY
Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, June 27, 2005. |
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Two more sets of Israeli parents buried their kids the other day. Israel has been under increasing pressure from its American friends to ease the unfortunately necessary restrictions it had placed--checkpoints and such--to keep the rabid animals at bay. It did, and--to no surprise--five hitchhiking Jewish students were shot at from a passing car which had gotten through as a result. Two teenage boys were wantonly slaughtered, others wounded...the murderers escaping back to hide amongst their supporters from whence they came. They will, undoubtedly, be treated as heroes for their exploit. These are the folks with whom Jews are told they will have "peace" with...if only they will just keep on unilaterally giving up a little bit more, and more, and more, and more... I assume that their alleged "peace partner," President Mahmoud Abbas, will use his own police force to track down the killers. I also assume that I will win the Florida lottery this weekend...about the same odds. Moving on to the related bigger picture, here we are, on the eve of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza--a move that will, undoubtedly, be perceived by most Arabs as a victory in their destruction in stages scenario for Israel. And what, may we ask, have been the dominant Arab responses to this controversial move? Well, for starters, we have the sweet-talking (but still rejectionist) Abbas and fellow Arafatian camp which wants "quiet," at least for the time being, so that diplomacy-- i.e. international pressure--can continue to turn the screws on Israel, forcing it to forsake the promises of Resolution 242 after the '67 War that it would, at long last, be able to shed its 1949 U.N.-imposed, 9-mile wide armistice line existence for secure and recognized borders. The first step in the Arabs' decades' old destruction in stages scenario is to get Israel back to its vulnerable '49 armistice lines so that it could more easily be cut in half. And then we have the more honest Hamas and Islamic Jihad camp which openly states that it will never accept an Israel in the neighborhood, regardless of its size, withdrawal from disputed lands, and so forth. These folks have continued to launch attacks, to Abbas' dismay (bad timing), despite Israel's preparations to uproot thousands of Jews from strategically important, non-Arab lands in Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Gaza has been used as an invasion route into Israel since the days of the Pharaohs. Hamas and Islamic Jihadists have even been threatening to resume full-scale violence (translate that to more blown up buses, restaurants, and such) if Israel takes action to try to stop them from killing Jews. A pretty good deal if you can get it: Murder your enemies and demand that they let you do so at no cost. Down right laughable, if asked of anyone else...but this what the world expects Jews to have to put up with. So, that brings me to my main thought... How did Israel allow itself to get cornered this way? I'm fully aware of the very real pressure from even its "friends," but Jews didn't wait 2,000 years for the resurrection of their state and their dignity to allow this to occur...no matter who is turning the screws. Even more sickening, how could Arab butchers of babes and other innocents--whom Israel could fry en masse whenever it chose--be allowed to even feel that they had the power to issue such threats, demands, and such? Some very bad mistakes have been made by Israeli policy makers--again acknowledging outside pressure--which have brought us to this point. Given this, let's take a look at a few suggestions. But first, let's backtrack a bit to set the stage... I remember one random bus bombing in particular. This one happened a day before Israel was to be "brought to court" to defend itself for building a fence designed to keep Arabs from disemboweling its kids. More recently, after the death of Arafat, on Mahmoud Abbas' watch, a half dozen more Jews were slaughtered and others severely wounded for helping Arabs find a way to feed their families in Gaza. All were incinerated and maimed innocents, whose only crime was existence in a land where their ancestors have lived for over three thousand years. And the murders were followed by the usual hollow condemnations by the alleged "good half" of the Arafatian / Hamas-Islamic Jihad good cop / bad cop team. Not that Abbas, Qurei', & Co. really object, but it's "bad publicity" for their cause. They too call for Israel's destruction, but by "more acceptable" means. So, even with the Egyptian ghoul (aka Arafat) out of the picture, his legacy still works the strings. Yet that legacy predated him as well. Arabs have long declared the region to be "purely Arab patrimony," despite scores of millions of non-Arabs living there. The latter consented to forced Arabization or were killed. I believe it was Martin Niemoller, a German theologian, who wrote something like the following: First they came for the Communists, and I did nothing. Then they came for the Jews, and I remained silent. And by the time they came for me, there was no one left to protest. Coincidentally, a bit further back on August 19, 2003, another Arab bought his ticket to "paradise" and its seventy or so virgins by blowing Jews apart on yet another bus almost at the same time that a colleague was doing likewise to United Nations workers in Iraq. Now, what was the lesson from Reverend Niemoller's remarks again? This is the same U.N. that, at best, has seen a "moral equivalence" between Jewish babes and grandmothers being deliberately and wantonly slaughtered, and Israeli steps taken to try to stop that slaughter. Before the recent drop in violence due to the cease fire of sorts (Arabs have still continued to launch rockets, mortars, and attack Jews both in the territories and in Israel proper) after Abbas' election, some of the latest Arab suicide bombers claimed they did this to avenge Israel's killing of armed Hamas fighters in Gaza. Again, they expect to be able to murder Jews at no cost to themselves. Given all the above, I've come to at least one firm conclusion: Israel has become far too predictable. The Old Warrior himself has been caving in to constant pressure coming at him from all over, and especially from his so-called friends--the same ones who would have leveled the source of these repeated atrocities had it been done to their own peoples. Among many examples, recent events in Fallujah, sites along the Syrian-Iraqi border, and in Afghanistan come to mind. Arabs, who refuse to dismantle their terrorist infrastructures and who still do not accept the permanency of a Jewish State, also demand that Israel stand by and do nothing while Jews continue to get butchered. This is the "moderate" Palestinian Arab leader's position as well as Hamas'. They can't seem to figure out why Israel must have such things as a security fence or real borders instead of armistice lines which made it a miniscule rump state and constant temptation to those aiming to destroy it. As if the answer wasn't obvious. How many other nations would tolerate such horror without exacting just and devastating retribution? Again, think about the daisy cutter and bunker-buster bombs and such America used against our own enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq, as just a few recent examples. A good part of the problem is, you see, that despite all that the Arabs say, they know that the Jews will try their best to just kill the rats in their dens. They'll go house to house, endangering their own sons, and try to target the exact murderers and plotters as best as possible. That's what had been happening in Gaza and elsewhere, yet such operations only became the Arabs' excuse for the next atrocities. And even the American State Department spoke of these events in terms of an allegedly morally equivalent cycle of violence. The Geneva Conventions make perfectly clear that militants are not permitted to use their own non-combatants as human shields, that those non-combatants do not prevent an army from pursuing terrorists, and that any harm occurring to the civilian population as a consequence falls on the heads of the cowards using their own people this way. But you'd never know this by listening to the accounts in the press or given too often even by the Foggy Folks. Given all of the above, there is, again, only one conclusion: Israel has indeed become too darned predictable. Arabs know that their own wives and children will not be deliberately targeted on buses, in restaurants, shopping centers, in their homes, or wherever. Jews won't stop Arab cars and murder mothers and children in cold blood. So, what I will state next, I regret, but will say anyway. By many predictions, a new intifada will break out after Israel withdraws from Gaza and the four Samarian locals in order to force a total withdrawal from all the disputed, non-apportioned territories of the West Bank. If this indeed occurs, it will be time, given the Arab track record of rejectionism and barbarity, for them to reap what they have sown. The time will have come for massive Israeli retaliation. Jews have bent over backwards to accommodate the birth of the Arabs' 22nd state--a likely terrorist one, at that, in their very backyard--and second, not first, Arab one in the original April 25, 1920 borders of the Mandate of Palestine. Jordan was created in 1922 on the lion's share, some 80% of the entire territory. Arabs rejected the '47 partition plan which would have added about half of the 20% left--for a total of 90% of "Palestine." The microscopic state of the Jews was reborn on less than one fourth of one per cent of the region's territory...so the conflict never was about land, but about anyone else besides Arabs--Kurds, Berbers, Black African Sudanese, Jews, Copts, or whoever--searching for their piece of the justice pie. Given the persistent Arab rejection and barbarity, a new game plan must finally be adopted. It's long past due for Israel to do whatever is necessary to protect its citizens as best as possible, regardless of how much support and aid the U.S. may decide to suspend. And many a red-blooded American citizen will convey the proper message to the politicians if Foggy Bottom and other Arabists are allowed to have their way with Israel over this. Poll after poll among Arabs have shown that even if Israel withdrew to its 9-mile wide existence imposed after the 1948 fighting (having been invaded by surrounding Arab countries immediately upon its rebirth)--something UN Resolution #242 expressly does not require it to do--Arabs would still reject its right to exist. So who's kidding whom here? And Israel's "friends" know this as well. It's time for Arabs to know that Israel will tell the hypocrites around the rest of the world (much of which has also had plenty of Jewish blood on its hands) that it doesn't care what they think and act to protect its own people--as any other nation would--as best as it can. And, forgive me, but it's also time for Israel to not worry about being too precise in its targeting...for it's time that Arabs fully understand that if they harbor and support terrorists as heroes, they'll share in their fate. President George W. Bush said almost those exact words regarding America's own fight not long ago. By the way, not all of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, resulting from American air strikes and such, have been enemy combatants...that's for sure. When dealing with their own "problems"--a la Assad's "Hama Solution" in Syria (in which ten times more people were killed in a month than Israel killed in over two years of intifada), King Hussein's Black September in Jordan, Saddam's murder of scores of thousands of Kurds over the decades in Iraq (5,000 in one day just Halabja alone), the slaughter of Black Africans in the Sudan, and so forth--Arabs have killed multitudes by poison gas, bombs, and artillery from afar. And all without a peep out of the United Nations. And no hearing before an international court of justice, either. It's time for Israel to make it clear that it will use its own air force, tanks, and such--the way America and others have--to target the rats' dens instead of risking the lives of its own nineteen-year-old infantrymen by futilely trying to do the job as "morally correct" as possible. This has gained it nothing among the world's hypocrites and cost it the lives of more of its own soldiers instead. Israel is fighting a war it didn't want. It has repeatedly offered more than fair compromises to its enemies, certainly far more than Arabs have ever offered to any of their own national competitors. But nothing short of its own suicide will satisfy most Arabs. Indeed, Abbas, himself, still calls for this, demanding that Israel allow itself to be swamped by millions of real and fudged Arab refugees. Arabs don't worry about "ethical choices" when butchering and disemboweling Jews. On the contrary, the more innocent the victim, the more preferred he or she is for shock value as a target. Arabs have videotaped themselves playing with heads and other body parts of Jewish victims and have created museums honoring their barbarity. If ever an enemy deserved its comeuppance, it is Israel's. Given these harsh realities, if Arabs cease to halt their still continuing attacks on Jews, then it's time that they receive massive doses of at least modified versions of their own medicine. While I don't advocate stooping to their level by blowing up Arab buses, restaurants, schools, and such, any building, town, or whatever harboring murderers and their collaborators must be recognized for what the Geneva Conventions say it is: A fair military target...Like those that just got leveled by America along the Syrian-Iraqi border and such. Listen to Article #51/7: "The presence of the civilian population shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attack..." Article #58b: The parties to the conflict shall...avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas." Article #51/2: The civilian population...shall not be the object of attack. Acts of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited...Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Arabs typically target Israeli civilians. And those famous funeral processions showing hundreds of the dead butcher's colleagues firing weapons into the air? As I've written elsewhere, it's time that Israel sees them for what they are...one big, legitimate military target. It's time for Israel to stop letting Arabs dictate how the game will be played. If mothers and infants are fair game for Arabs, then what are the murderers' collaborators for Israel? Keep in mind that Mahmoud Abbas himself was recently carried on the shoulders of the same folks who committed the latest atrocities...and promised them protection from Israeli retaliation to top it off. Among other things, he's incorporating them into his own military. When that next predictable Arab atrocity is committed against Jews, it will be time for Israel to send the press packing, tell the UN to drop dead, build the security fence as quickly and as strongly as possible with an adequate buffer regardless of what anybody says (permitted by U.N. #242)--so it doesn't have its absurd suicidal 9-mile wide existence again--and ask its friends in the United States to stop having one set of standards for themselves and another one for Jews in their sole, tiny state. When we thought we knew where Saddam was dining, we bombed the restaurant to smithereens, innocent diners present and all. Get the picture? And the more unpredictable the Israeli response to Arab barbarity, the better. I wish it had not come to this. I still wish that there will be another way. I hope predictions about a new intifada will prove to be wrong. But, if those predictions are correct, and volumes of Arabs start dying relatively randomly (Arabs outnumber Jews 60 to one...they know this...so do the math) as Jews have been doing, perhaps they'll then be less likely to treat their own terrorists as heroes. To date, legions of them normally parade through the streets as soon as they hear of the latest atrocities, their "victories." While this approach may also not be the solution, Israel has tried everything else (including insanely offering up 97% of the disputed territories, half of Jerusalem, and the like) except consenting to its own demise, and nothing else worked either. Keep in mind that only after Egypt suffered immense casualties and destruction, after decades of trying to destroy Israel, did it make peace--as cold and questionable as that peace is today. There probably is a lesson here for the good cops and bad cops of the PA, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad-types as well. But Israel, unfortunately, will have to be a much better teacher than it has been up until now. It's time for Israel to lose its predictability and for Arabs to get a mega-taste of what they've been dishing out. And it's time for Israel to draw its own lines in the sand and let all know--regardless of the repercussions--that justice demands that it accept no less. Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. |
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DEAL CLOSE ON EGYPTIAN TROOPS' DEPLOYMENT ALONG RAFAH BORDER
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 27, 2005. |
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There is more to Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon's acceptance of Egyptian forces in the de-miitarized Sinai. In the following article Amos Harel speaks about Yuval Steinitz, Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee who expresses concern about the Egyptian Deployment from Karem Shalom to Eilat. In the past, I have written about the Egyptian desire for a land route around the Gulf of Aqaba, which means going around Eilat for the purpose of occupying Saudi Arabia should it be threatened. Here you will finds the finger-prints of the Bush Dynasty and the pro-Arab State Department. The concept is for Egypt to take over the Saudi oil fields and pump as much oil as possible. The Saudis are already pumping at maximum but, prices for crude oil and refined products are still rising. (Just hit $60 per barrel of crude and going up.) Nevertheless, President Bush and his oil henchmen are still following an old plan toi put Egypt in charge of the Saudi oil fields with the vast army the U.S. has gifted to the Egyptians ($60 Billion of American taxpayers' dollars to date!) Bush needs Israel to allow the Egyptians land passage around the Gulf of Aqaba since Egypt does not have the sea-lift capabilities to move their armed forces and supplies across this waterway along with their heavy armor and battalions of soldiers. In past articles I point out what would happen to Israel should Egypt occupy Saudi Arabia: 1. Egypt's armaments added to the Saudis would double the advanced U.S. armaments now held by the Saudis. 2. Egypt, already a military colossus thanks to American weapons' systems, would then be facing Israel from the South and East - with an occupied airfield at Tabruk. 3. When Egypt completes its cycle into an Islamic 'Jihadist' State under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, Israel will cease to exist - unless she pre-empts (the aggressive nations facing her with overwhelming forces) by using a nuclear response 4. There is every indication that Sharon has been recruitd for this concept - which, in effect, makes him a traitor to the Jewish nation. This article was written by Amos Harel and appeared in Ha'aretz 6/23/05. It is archived at www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=591251 Israel and Egypt are close to agreeing on the deployment of 800 Egyptian policemen along the western side of the Philadelphi route on the Rafah border. On the other hand, it looks like Israel is retracting for now the idea of expanding the deployment to the border segment between Kerem Shalom in the north and Eilat in the south. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had previously expressed support for the deployment of between 3,000 and 5,000 Egyptian policemen along the more southern segment, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week that the deployment would be restricted at this point to 800 policemen across from Rafah. The Egyptian policemen, who are slated to deploy in the region close to the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, are meant to assist in combating weapons smuggling into the territories. Deploying these policemen will speed up an Israeli decision on clearing the route of Israel Defense Forces troops, thereby making the Gaza pullout complete. The chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz (Likud), who is leading opposition to the agreement, says that Sharon's announcement is not enough. Steinitz is worried that Sharon backed down only because of political pressure brought to bear at this point, and that he will try to expand the deployment a year from now. Steinitz, who considers the deployment from Kerem Shalom to Eilat to be the primary danger, also objects to deploying Egyptian policemen opposite Rafah. He recently adopted an opinion by the committee's legal adviser that the police deployment requires Knesset approval as it entails reopening the security appendix to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, which stipulates a demilitarized area will be maintained along the border. The matter was recently given to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for his consideration but Mazuz has not net rendered his opinion. However, he advised Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz not to sign an agreement with Egypt on deploying the policemen before the legal issue at stake is discussed. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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RICE: USA WILL ACCEPT A DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED HAMAS
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 27, 2005. |
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My comment is based on an interview with Secretary of State Rice on CNN by John King. It can be read at Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA) http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25723 Rice said that US will respect elections if Hamas wins. Secretary Rice, for all her abilities to articulate and dance around a subject, has shown herself to be nothing more than a talking head for President Bush and the pro-Arab U.S. State Department. That translates into rationalizing away the Terror that afflicts Israel by that black plague called radical "Islam" which is circling the globe. Rice tells us that, if Hamas is elected, she will treat it as a legitimate democratic entity, regardless of its on-going practices of Terror. Clearly, the Bush-Rice team would accept Adolph Hitler, given that he too was elected to office. The twisted pathetic logic of the Bush Administration is a sickening spectacle - as it pleads and snivels before the Muslim 'Jihadists', backed by the Saudi monarchy ... all "good friends" of the Bush Dynasty. Our sophomoric President, guided by his father and James Baker, seems to be following the diktats of the "New World Order" gang - even as it collapses upon itself all over the world. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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MURDERED IN THE NAME OF FAMILY HONOUR
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 27, 2005. |
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These are the people whom us Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, acting as the dishonest mouthpiced for a dishonorable president, George W. Bush, have taken under their wings. We all knew that Palestinians and Muslims, in general, followed this primitive doctrine. But the Bush family and administration have accepted this conduct in deference to the Wahhabi-driven society of Saudi Arabia and 'jihadists', in general. Killing young girls to preserve the family honor is quibbling with the fact that there is no honor among arab muslims when it come to their testicle-driven society. The tragedy deepens when an American president and his mouthpiece shames all Americans by accepting the various tenets of terror in order to appease the ramplage of islamic 'jihadists' - be they Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Afghan tAliban or Palestinians, our american president has found poitical and oil-bearing sleeping partners. Have you no shame, Mr. President? Below, Chris McGreal writing in Ramallah reports on a rise in killings of Palestinian women. Faten Habash's father wept as he assured his daughter there would be no more beatings, no more threats to her life and that she was free to marry the man she loved, even if he was a Muslim. All he asked was that Faten return home. Hassan Habash even gave his word to an emissary from a Bedouin tribe traditionally brought in to mediate in matters of family honour, a commitment regarded as sacrosanct in Palestinian society. But the next weekend, as Faten watched a Boy Scouts parade from the balcony of her Ramallah home, the 22-year-old Christian Palestinian was dragged into the living room and bludgeoned to death with an iron bar. Her father was arrested for the murder. "He gave me his word she would not be harmed," said Ibrahim Abu Dahouq, the Bedouin mediator. "He was crying and begging her to come home. They were even telling me that for their daughter to leave their house as a bride would be an honour for them. We never believed that love would lead to death in this ugly way." Two days later, another ritual of killing unfolded a few miles away in Jerusalem. Maher Shakirat summoned three of his sisters to discuss a family uproar after one of them, Rudaina, was thrown out by her husband for an alleged affair. Maher listened to Rudaina's denials, and her sisters' pleas that they were not covering up the affair. Then he forced the three women to drink bleach before strangling Rudaina, who was eight months pregnant. The other sisters tried to flee but Maher caught and strangled Amani, 20. The third, Leila, escaped but was badly injured by the bleach. Maher, a bus driver in his 30s, is in hiding but his parents were arrested for allegedly ordering the murders and his wife was detained as an accomplice. As he was taken into custody, Rudaina's father, Amin, was asked why his daughters were killed. "Because they dishonoured the family," he said. "A married woman who goes with another man isn't good." The murders of Faten Habash and the Shakirat sisters last month were the latest in a series of brutal "honour killings" that have shaken the Palestinian community over recent weeks. The deaths have prompted demands for a change to laws inherited from the days of Jordanian rule that deem all women to be "minors" under the authority of male relatives and that provide a maximum of six months in prison for killings in defence of "family honour." But those calls have met with resistance in parliament where religious Palestinian MPs argue that reform will lead to a collapse in the moral fabric of society. According to the Palestinian women's affairs ministry, 20 girls and women were murdered in honour killings last year and about 50 committed suicide - often under coercion - for "shaming" the family through sex outside marriage, refusing an arranged marriage or seeking a divorce. Another 15 women survived attempts to kill them. The ministry says that dozens of other killings are covered up each year. "We had one woman of 26 who was certified as dying of old age," said Maha Abu Dayyeh Shamas, director of the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling. "Putting 'falling into well' on the death certificate is very common. We find that the women were strangled and then dumped in the well." Faten Habash's murder was unusual because she came from the Christian minority in the Palestinian territories. Her desire to marry a young Muslim, Samer Hamis, so infuriated her family that the couple decided to elope to Jordan. Faten's father enlisted the family priest to stop his daughter on the grounds that, even though she was 22, all women are legally regarded as minors under the authority of their male relatives. The Palestinian authorities returned Faten to her home where she was beaten and her pelvis broken as she was either thrown from a window or jumped trying to escape. She spent six weeks in hospital. She sought protection under an ancient Bedouin formula for resolving disputes, known as Tanebeh. Abu Dahouq, a lawyer for the Dawakuk tribe, negotiated with the Habash family. Mr Dahouq said: "Faten believed she had received a guarantee of security." Two days later she was murdered. "This family had no honour, no manners, no ethics," he said. "And the girl was as honourable as could be. All she wanted to do was marry this man she loved. I think the people in her church also have responsibility for this killing. They told this family that their daughter brought shame, so that makes them part of the crime." The family priest, Father Ibrahim Hijazin, declined to talk about Faten's killing other than to say he called the Palestinian authorities to prevent her from reaching Jordan. But he says other families would have reacted as hers did. "There is no interfaith marriage among Arabs. Catholics here are Christian by faith and Muslim by culture, and in this community it is forbidden for Christians to marry Muslims. It's not good. It's a tribal mentality. I don't accept it, but it is the culture," he said. After Faten's murder, several hundred Palestinian women held a vigil in Ramallah to demand an end to honour killings. The Palestinian women's affairs minister, Zuhaira Kamal, called for a change to the law to allow women over 18 to marry without the consent of a male relative and reform of the old Jordanian legislation that frees the killers after a few months. But MPs have resisted the move. "They're very traditional there," said Mrs Abu Dayyeh Shamas. "They say these are our traditions, that a man who is in a moment of anger is driven to do these things. It gives a message to the community that you can kill without punishment. We have a lot of complaints from women that their husbands are having affairs. We ask these MPs if they think these women should be allowed to kill their husbands. They can't answer that question." Although honour killings have a long history in Palestinian society, women's rights groups say the rise in these murders cannot be separated from the resurgent violence of the past four years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Things are breaking down because of the changing relationship between men and women. Increased numbers of women are the main source of income while her husband sits around. That is the kiss of death for that family," said Mrs Abu Dayyeh Shamas. "Men feel they have lost their dignity and that they can somehow restore it by upholding the family's honour. We've noticed recent cases are much more violent in nature; attempts to kill, rape, incest. There is an incredible amount of incest." Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud murdered her daughter, Rafayda, because she became pregnant after being raped by two of her brothers. "My daughter fell over and broke her knee. I took her to hospital and there the doctor told me she was pregnant. So I killed her. It's as simple as that," said Mrs Qaoud on her doorstep in Ramallah. Mrs Qaoud waited until the baby was born and given up for adoption. Then she presented her 22 year-old daughter with a razor blade and told her to slash her wrists. She refused so her mother pulled a plastic bag over her head, sliced her wrists and beat her head with a stick. The brothers were sentenced to 10 years for the rape. Mrs Qaoud spent two years in prison for killing her daughter. She has purged her home of all pictures of her older children, and declines to discuss the killing, saying all she wants is to forget about it. The repercussions of Faten Habash's murder are still being felt; the man she loved is in protective custody after threats from the Habash family. The Bedouin mediator says the Habashes have dishonoured his tribe by breaching the pledge that Faten would not be harmed. "The crime is not against the girl, the crime is against our family," said Mr Abu Dahouq. "Since they have broken their word, we have the right to retaliate. There will be a reaction for betraying their religion and betraying us." Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
| GUSH KATIF |
STILL A SLIVER OF HOPE
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 27, 2005. |
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This article was written by Israel Harel and appeared in Ha'aretz 6/23/05. It is archived at www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=591220 Harel makes a good case for broadening the appeal against Sharon & his government to bring in more people outside of YESHA. I have no doubt that a strong legal case can be made against Sharon and his government. The list of documented failure would be large & shocking. Sharon has failed on almost every front to take care of the nation: From security, economy, schooling, health care, the environment, care for the poor - including bribery, corruption, secret deals, political appointments, firing of honest government officials (including Cabinet Ministers & military officers). I am certain an impressive list could be complied that reaches the average citizen well beyond YESHA. A Haaretz editorial and an Uzi Benziman opinion piece ("The street has been left to the right," June 14, and "Where are the blue ribbons?" June 15) expressed concern about the color orange that rules the street. And you asked: Where is the blue response? It is slow in coming indeed; and from the point of view of the supporters of the uprooting, the latest surveys do not offer encouragement. But the updated observer has to come to the conclusion that, stemming perhaps from the return of the terror, there has been an erosion in the support for the disengagement. It is still too early to define it as a profound change in positions, in the wake of which, if nurtured by supplementary action, the real floodgates will open - leaving the Knesset, and then the government, no choice but to take heed of the public's revolutionary shift in opinion. Indeed, it is highly likely that if the orange movement had operated in keeping with a strategy that addresses the public in general and not only, or primarily, the religious public, we may already have been at the start of the wished-for turnaround. Many of those who supported the disengagement yesterday are today voicing serious doubts as to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's true motives and the prices - strategic, ideological and human - that we are going to pay. With the terror continuing, coupled with threats that if Sharon is slow in implementing additional withdrawals, the terror of the past years will be just a preface to the true war of terror, it is natural for people to be changing their positions. However, there is a difference between dropping one's support and joining the resistance. But this, precisely, is the objective - to cause this public, which is not necessarily party to the Yesha ideology but is ready to be swayed by political, ethical and security arguments, to actively join the camp of the opponents; namely, to demand, before it is too late, that the uprooting legislation be annuled. Many claim that in recent weeks, they have sensed the turnaround is "in the air." Perhaps this is so. The team back at the ranch is also concerned. But this sense could fade if the directors of the campaign fail to reinforce the lack of faith of the doubters in Sharon, the man, and fail to boost recognition of the security dangers of the uprooting. A different, diametric sentiment drummed up by the propaganda machine of "Team Omri" will then be released into the public atmosphere, and could restore support for Sharon. After all, he holds all the cards, including cooperation with a significant number of the influential media figures who see themselves as soldiers of the sacred mission. Blocking roads and other such "dedicated" antics will not open the floodgates, which is the only thing at this late hour that can prevent the historic mistake of the uprooting. On the other hand, attacks on Arabs or acts of vandalism are actions that arouse among the public the sense of "My soul, come not into their council; Mine honor, be not united with their assembly" (Genesis 49:6). And in order to turn the winds of doubt into a sweeping resistance movement, there is also need for - aside from ideology and strategy - a leadership in which the public at large, and not only the religious public, has faith. And this leadership cannot be made up only of Yesha people, who are perceived, sometimes justifiably so, as people who are concerned primarily with saving the settlement enterprise, while the national-strategic considerations in general remain secondary, both in terms of their worldview and in terms of the objectives of their struggle. Today, less than 60 days before the first policemen report to Gush Katif and begin to tear the settlers from their homes, their lands and their communities, there remains a sliver of hope that the evil decree can be prevented. And neither an angel nor a seraph, as some believe, will bring the turnaround. It will be implemented, if at all, by flesh-and-blood people. These must take action, in the few days that remain, primarily among those whose doubts and opposition regarding the destructive move can be reflected upward - the public at large. If the elected officials sense that this is the will of the voters, perhaps - just perhaps - the issue of the uprooting will return to sthe Knesset and the decree will be annuled. The path of force, in any event, is absolutely improper. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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REPORT: U.S. GOVERNMENT FUNDS TERRORISM-PROMOTION
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 27, 2005. |
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This was written by Eli Lake and appeared in The Sun on June 24, 2005. It is archived at http://www.nysun.com/article/15996 WASHINGTON - An Israeli watchdog group alleges that American aid to Palestinian universities and cities promotes terrorism. A report to be released Friday by Palestinian Media Watch singles out the U.S. Agency for International Development, contending that it has ignored new congressional restrictions that the group helped craft last year on aid money. Specifically, the report points to American development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza that funds universities with student chapters of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which have funded roadwork for streets renamed to commemorate suicide bombers and television programming that encourages hatred of Jews. A USAID spokeswoman yesterday said that procedures are in place to make sure that in-kind donations to Palestinian institutions are not diverted to terrorism. But the report has already drawn attention from Capitol Hill, where Palestinian Media Watch's director, Itamar Marcus, is scheduled to testify Friday before the House International Relations Committee on his findings. When asked for a comment on the report yesterday, Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who drafted the tighter restrictions last year from her post in the House Appropriations Committee, said USAID must respond to Palestinian Media Watch's allegations. "I am very disturbed by the findings of this report, particularly the widespread nature of the alleged violations," she said. "I will ask USAID to provide Congress with a detailed response to these findings immediately. This report cannot go unanswered by the leadership of USAID." The Bush administration broke a long-standing taboo last month when the president announced $50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, meant to help the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, prepare for Israel's scheduled withdrawal of settlers next month from Gaza. In February, the State Department announced a new package of $350 million in American aid to Palestinian nongovernmental organizations. Mr. Marcus's report is particularly critical of USAID: "Governmental and non-governmental organizations in the Palestinian Authority continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. Agency for International Development, some of which is going directly to frameworks that sponsor branches of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations," the report's executive summary says. A spokeswoman for USAID, Heather Layman, said in an e-mail response for comment, "USAID provides 'in-kind' assistance to some Palestinian Authority agencies - for example, technical assistance, training, office equipment, medical supplies, and the construction of infrastructure facilities, such as water wells, pipelines, and schools. All of this in-kind assistance is targeted to specific development objectives, and is carefully monitored to ensure that no assistance is diverted to other uses." In her e-mail, Ms. Layman said that USAID has a careful vetting process to ensure that none of its subcontractors are connected with terrorist organizations. She said that employees and grant recipients must sign agreements stating as much. Mr. Marcus, who served during the Oslo negotiations with a team of Israelis who prodded Yasser Arafat to end incitement of terror, said that major gaps in USAID's vetting process allow funds to go to organizations that promote and honor terrorism. "If they think they can pour millions into Palestinian universities while turning a blind eye to the Hamas branches on those universities, they are making a mockery of the United States anti-terror policy,"he said."The problem is that Palestinian children, all they see, is the honoring of these suicide bombers." Mr. Marcus's report garners most of its evidence from Palestinian press reports. Nonetheless, these open sources are revealing. In the last year, USAID gave $41 million to Palestinian universities, including five with prominent Hamas and Islamic Jihad chapters that receive money due to their standing as student organizations. The report details how sports clubs are named after suicide bombers and assassinated leaders of Hamas. Streets in Gaza and West Bank towns have been renamed for these so-called martyrs, as have schools. For example, in February the 14-year-old winner of a marathon sponsored by Mr. Abbas came from a learning center named after Salah Khalaf, the head of Black September, the terrorist organization responsible for murdering 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The report cites a March 29, 2005, article in al-Hayat wherein the dean of faculty at al-Najah University is described as opening an exhibition dubbed the "bridge of the shahids," a reference to martyrs. Less than two weeks later, on April 10, the Hamas chapter of the university invited a member of the terrorist organization's political bureau, Mahmoud Ghazel, to a mass assembly. Last year, al-Najah commemorated in a display on campus the Sbarro Pizzeria bombing from 2001 that killed 15 Israelis. The exhibition featured replicas of body parts on the walls. Mr. Abbas has earned respect and confidence from the White House and European leaders for criticizing suicide bombing and the violent tactics of the Intifadah. However, Israelis have complained recently that he has failed to dismantle Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The presence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on campus is important, the report says, because many suicide bombers - such as the woman this week who had strapped dynamite to her body as she was taken to an Israeli university for surgery - are university students. A former senior adviser on Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to three presidents, Aaron Miller, yesterday said that Palestinian universities have chapters of terrorist organizations like other Palestinian political parties. But he also said that American policy has an obligation not to fund any programs that promote terror. "We cannot give money that is being channeled directly or that is associated with promoting violence," he said. "There are all kinds of derivative implications of providing this to the Palestinian Authority. A lot of the incitement has been toned down, but it has not been eliminated." Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
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WHY ARE ISRAELIS "TERRORISTS," BUT THE PO' VICIOUS PALESTINIANS ARE "GUNMEN" OR 'MILITANT'?
Posted by Marion D.S. Dreyfus, June 27, 2005. |
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To the Washington Post: Scott Wilson's "As Pullout Nears, Israeli Settlers Moving In to Build a Community" (June 26, 2005) describes the Palestinians who murdered an Israeli civilian in cold blood are merely "gunmen" (paragraph 15 -- yet again the Post buries news of Palestinians killing Israeli innocents!). The Palestinians, apparently, can never be called "terrorists." Mr. Wilson does not flinch from using the phrase "terrorist organization" referring to an infinitesimally insignificant Israeli movement that preaches rhetoric, although the Israeli group referred to does not go around blowing up school buses and pizzerias the way the Palestinian "militant" groups do to Israeli children. They don't even carry or own guns. Can you point to a single member, from 7 to 70, of Hamas and Hezb'ollah, al Aksa or Islamic Jihad under the Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Abbas (war name: Abu Mazen), who does not own guns, bullets, bomb belts or rocket equipment in some part of his homey group? The Post carefully and reliably elides application of the US Government's appellation of terrorists as applied to Palestinian Arabs. Why? Why ridiculously characterize a banned splinter of a splinter group as 'terrorist' when they pose no problem--and never have? Nor have they bombed women and children, destroyed discos and pizzerias, ruining lives of people they have maimed advertently in filthy rat-poisonm-soaked bolts and projecties aimed to hurt a maximum of innocents. It is a good thing there are now so many news sources to consult for truth in journalism, because your reportage is, regrettably, as egregious as the negative real terrorist news often stinted as you fail to report with any fidelity or accuracy. You do a massive disservice to Israel, whose valiant efforts at restraint in the face of news provocation and armamentaria of blood goes unacknowledged in your pages--but to what end? You foment misunderstanding, bile and vindictiveness that has no place in the news. Neutral reportage would be welcome in your pages, now so utterly lacking. And you do a disservice to the standards of journalism, which is a constant thorn in the side of well-meaning professors of media the world over, as well as to news audiences who foolishly rely on your warped dish. We are grateful to the 'zines and blogs, to the radio and to fairer and more truthful papers for our view on the news, though you are discounted almost reflexively. How do you look at yourselves in the mirror when you hold that razor to your throats every morning? Marion Dreyfus taught at Huazhong University of Science & Technology Wuchang, Wuhan PRC 430064 |
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POLLSTER DENIES ISRAELIS CHOICE; HIZBULLAH EXCUSE; WASH POST BIAS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 27, 2005. |
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ISRAELI GOVERNMENT PLEASED WITH ABANDONMENT PROGRESS The Sharon regime expressed satisfaction with the progress it has made in providing refugee camps for the thousands of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria (Arutz-7, 6/14). Zionism was supposed to end Displaced Person status for the Jewish people. Now we have a Jewish state that is proud to be thrusting Jews into such a status. ISRAEL WARNS NEGEV TOWNS ABOUT PLAN'S DANGER TO THEM While PM Sharon claims that his abandonment plan would "'improve Israel's security," a Education Ministry and Home Front Command pamphlet indicates "the precise opposite." The pamphlet warns about increased attempts at terrorism. Certain towns face "sniper fire, terrorist infiltrations over and under ground, Kassam rockets, and mortar shells." "The residents will be advised to ensure that their doors and windows are always locked, to carry their personal weapons at all times, to map out a place in their homes from where to shoot in the event of a terrorist infiltration, and the like. To plan for an incident of light-weapons fire at a school, the teachers must practice this drill." (Arutz-7, 6/14.) Sharon calls his plan one of disengagement. It sounds more like a plan for increased military engagement. Considering the Arabs' dedication to jihad and their lack of scruples or humaneness, it seems likely that they would fire all they've got. SHARON LOGIC PM Sharon told an assemblage that the abandonment plan already has benefited Israel, even before being implemented. He attributed to it part of the improvement in Israel's economy! (IMRA, 6/16.) Some logic! Based on the items above, you can see that actually, the plan is costing the Israeli economy greatly, and the prospect is for more war. POLLSTER REFUSED TO GIVE ISRAELIS A FULL CHOICE A prominent pollster found recently that approval for PM Sharon's abandonment plan had fallen to a bare majority. She offered a choice between abandonment and the status quo, with the abandonment being sold falsely as a means of separating the Jews from the Arabs, whereas it would facilitate terrorism. Israelis certainly want separation. When she was asked to offer a choice between expelling the Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria and expelling the Arabs, she refused. "I refuse to hold a poll like that which might show a majority of Israelis prefer the expulsion of the Arabs." (Voice of Judea, 6/13.) Apparently for ideological reasons, she is not giving Israelis a full choice. Her polling is not honest, not when depicting Israelis as favoring a plan that they really do not. HIZBULLAH SEEKING EXCUSES TO STAY ARMED Hizbullah is reiterating old demands that Israel give over seven villages to Lebanon. The area was made part of the Palestine Mandate before Israeli statehood, by agreement between Britain and France, which held a Mandate over Lebanon. Raising this old demand may be an excuse for keeping its militia, in the absence of any Israeli occupation of Lebanon, when Lebanese are demanding the militia's disbandment. INDIGNATION SELECTIVE Stories about alleged and actual rough treatment of Korans by US interrogators drew international demonstrations. By contrast, the dictator of Zimbabwe, while demolishing numerous houses of a population largely opposed to him, also had a mosque destroyed. This destruction drew no protest (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/15). WHY THE IRAQ WAR? Some Democrats held an inquiry. A former CIA analyst told them the US made war on Iraq so that the US and Israel could dominate the Mideast. Leading Democrats called it antisemitic nonsense (Eli Lake, NY Sun, 6/20, p. 5). If true, wouldn't the US make the Arabs get out of Yesha instead of Israelis? FALSE BASIS FOR FOREIGN AID TO THE P.A. Calling Abbas a paragon of peace, Canadian PM Martin wants to continue donating hundreds of millions of dollars to the P.A. But Abbas has reiterated his decision to not disarm Arab terrorists. He still allows promotion of hatred and incitement to violence against Jews. Asked "Alistair Gordon, President, Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD), If Abbas wanted peace, wouldn't he have have used the foreign aid donated for P.A. education to replace the textbooks "that dehumanize Jews and glorify suicide bombing?" "The CCD is calling on Paul Martin to stop sending Canadian tax dollars to fund Palestinian (Arab) violence and Jew-hatred until Abbas take concrete steps to disarm terrorists and remove incitement from Palestinian schools and media." "Now that it is clear that Mahmoud Abbas lied to Prime Minister Martin about disarming the terrorists and removing incitement from Palestinian schools, will the promised funding be withdrawn?" added Gordon (IMRA, 6/13). Canada has hundreds of millions for those murderous jihdist minions, whose fellow ideologues are demanding that Canada give them privileges over Christianity, but not enough money for prompt medical appointments in its own dominions. ARAB MURDER OF INNOCENTS This year, Hamas admitted that a man it had executed for "collaborating" with Israel had not done so. Now Fatah admitted that its men had raided a P.A. prison as the IDF was attacking, and took out nine innocent prisoners accused of "collaboration." It shot the nine, in front of cheering crowds. Fatah blames this lawlessness on Israeli counter-attacks (IMRA, 6/12). Fatah's own members are lawless. Their breaking into a prison to execute people is not Israel's fault. Arabs particularly hate to admit faults, so they blame someone else. P.A. lawlessness originated from Arafat's defying the courts and legislature, not having a body of law, and allowing armed men to act as they wish, while he diverted funds from the regular forces to them. Abbas is carrying on that policy and condones Hamas. Hamas has sex police on the prowl, as have the Saudis and the Taliban (IMRA, 6/13). ANOTHER ISRAELI POLICE STATE TACTIC PLANNED "A week before the planned expulsion of thousands of Gush Katif Jews, a special military police unit will seek out leading residents and arrest them in the middle of the night. A military source has informed Arutz-7 that the army and police thus hope to weaken morale in Katif, as well as weaken the opposition to the uprooting." (6/19.) WASHINGTON POST BIAS "As you recall, a few days ago the PLO once again demonstrated its commitment to peace and tranquility and democratization by executing a group of Palestinians (Arabs) it accused of 'collaborating with Israel.' All those Moonbats who love to wail about imaginary abuses of the human rights of Arabs by Israel had nothing to say about this latest atrocity against innocent Arab civilians." "Now never mind that the whole Oslo peace process was supposedly about how the PLO had agreed to collaborate with Israel to suppress terrorism and calm the region. Even officials for the PLO themselves admitted that the executed people were actually all innocent. They were executed by the P.A. after Mahmoud Abbas gave his approval. But none of that matters for the Washington Post." "The Washington Post used an AP report on the story, but changed the language to make it look like Israel was to blame for the atrocity! The 'Post' then went on to bemoan Israel's assassination of a leading Islamist terrorist last week, but neglected to mention the sorts of atrocities the perp had already committed and was still planning." The catalyst for formation of an independent watchdog over the Post "was The Washington Post's false reporting of a massacre in Jenin by the Israeli Defense Forces following the Passover bombings in April, 2002. Palestinians, aided by reporters looking for ...indeed hoping for ... a story of mass atrocities committed by Israel's military, fabricated a web of lies. Not only did all of these false news articles prove to have been lies, but the truth that eventually seeped out was that Israel's defense forces went out of their way to spare civilian lives at a substantial cost of an excessive loss of their own lives. The 'Post' never effectively apologized, and it never adequately reported the humanitarian measures actually taken by the IDF to avoid excessive loss of Palestinian civilian lives." (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/15.) Advocacy journalism's arrogance. ISRAEL REMOVED HALF THE CHECKPOINTS, IMPROVED THE REST (Arabs used to complain about waiting at checkpoints in the hot sun.) In the past two years, Israel has put roofs over checkpoints, and built bathrooms, water fountains, and clinics there. A specially trained unit was formed to expedite passage. Its members study spoken Arabic and meet with humanitarian organizations. Staff is equipped with better detectors and computerization. In the past four years, Israelis suffered 20,000 Arab terrorist attacks, a thousand deaths, and thousands more wounded. Checkpoints thwarted 2000 known planned attacks (IMRA, 6/15). ESTABLISHMENT REPORTERS TRACK SHARON'S MOTIVE Two Establishment (leftist) reporters jointly investigated the motive behind Sharon's abandonment plan. They concluded that it really is to avoid criminal prosecution for corruption. They think that after the abandonment, he is likely to be indicted, anyway. Many MKs and security officials realize the plan is disastrous, but either voted for it, because of their own venality, or declined to resign in order to warn the public about it. The Attorney-General colluded with Sharon by allowing the government to use high-handed methods against protestors. The media collaborated by failing to expose the poor logic behind the plan (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 6/15). Expecting indictment anyway, why not move to a non-extraditing country instead of sacrificing his own for just a respite? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
DIFFICULT SCENES IN GUSH KATIF: THE EXPULSION BEGINS
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 27, 2005. |
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For years there have been abandonned buildings in the territories. Near Shilo in Samaria, for example, Arabs snipers would occupy an empty house overlooking Route 60, the main road. They shot and killed Jews driving by. In one 'incident' they killed the mother and father and were rushing in to kill the babies in the back seat when they were driven off by soldiers who arrived in time. For years, the residents begged the courts to allow the house to be demolished. But nothing happened. But when it comes to making sure Jews won't occupy empty houses in the territories, it takes no time at all to demolish them. I guess Ariel the Demented thinks that the Israeli citizens who live in the territories are more of a danger to Israel that the Arabs who prey upon them. This is a news item from today's Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). No fewer than 20 people were hurt yesterday in what some see as the first step of the implementation of the Gush Katif withdrawal/expulsion. "What will be during the real thing?" many are asking. Shortly after noon, army forces swooped down on an area adjacent to the beachfront Shirat HaYam community in Gush Katif, and began bulldozing a line of 11 abandoned structures. The army later confirmed that it had "security assessments and information indicating the intent of extremists to use the structures... to construct an outpost prior to the disengagement. According to IDF assessments, the construction of this outpost could have led to possible confrontations." The confrontations were not avoided, however. In addition to the injuries, several people were arrested, including one soldier who vocally refused to take part in the demolition. His father later explained, "This was not an ideological refusal, but rather he saw soldiers hitting civilians and he simply said, 'I cannot take part in this, I don't want to be here.'" "The view northward from Shirat HaYam was heart-wrenching," wrote Haggai Huberman, who was there, in the HaTzofeh newspaper today. "The line of brown houses, old vacation houses for Egyptian army officers before the Six Day War, one after the other became piles of ruins. The army bulldozer bit into them mercilessly. It wasn't hard; these houses had long ago begun to crumble... One bang by the bulldozer in the corner of each building, and a pile of broken stones was left behind." Just to the south, similar structures have been refurbished by volunteers over the past several weeks, and four families - including that of Noam Livnat, the Education Minister's brother - now live there. Many local Gush Katif youths streamed to the site as soon as they heard of the impending destruction. Police and army forces attempted unsuccessfully to prevent their arrival, closing off the road southward from the Maoz HaYam Hotel. The youths, however, severely hampered the bulldozers' work, but did not stop it. "At one point," Huberman wrote, "a large group of youths managed to lie down in front of one of the bulldozers, and when it stopped, others climbed atop it... Youths behind it, in front of it and on top of it. After a few minutes, the police and soldiers started evacuating, using great force. They climbed on the bulldozer and started dragging the youths down with force, with an exchange of punches, pushes and curses... The youths were crying out, 'Refuse orders! This is not your job! You are soldiers, you should be protecting us, not evacuating us!' The force used by the soldiers was so great, and sometimes so brutal and unreasonable, that some of the youths were hurt and required medical care. One youth suffered a strong blow to his shoulder, several of them fainted, and stretchers gradually began to arrive on the scene, evacuating them for medical treatment." The army, police, anti-expulsion camp and of course the media are engaged in reviewing the day's events and attempting to draw the appropriate conclusions for the future. An Army Radio commentator said that the army did not score a public relations success yesterday, implying that the violence and soldier's refusal will encourage further opposition to the plan. A resident of Shirat HaYam told Arutz-7 that the army showed that it could quickly and effectively carry out its demolition mission, and that "this is not encouraging for our efforts." After the soldiers left, several Jewish residents camped out in another abandoned structure across the road from the destruction. In Gush Etzion, as well, in solidarity with the residents in Gush Katif, several people took over an abandoned structure and said they would not leave. At one point during yesterday's confrontation, four soldiers stormed towards one youth on the bulldozer, dragged him away, held him by his limbs, ran towards a jeep and threw him in. The jeep then took off in a mad dash towards an unknown location. Somewhere else on the scene, a female officer started pounding on the head of one of the youths, while he responded in kind. He, too, was arrested. The bulldozer, protected by two lines of police and soldiers, finally left the scene. Witnessing the row of ruins and what went into creating them, Huberman concluded, "all those present - citizens, soldier, police and reporters - could not help but be party to the same similar thought: If this if what happens during an attempt to destroy abandoned, uninhabited buildings, with no advance warning to the residents, what will happen when the army tries to erase dozens of populated homes in the communities, when everyone is prepared in advance?" |
| GUSH KATIF |
EITHER WE ARE PART OF THE CURE - OR PART OF THE CAUSE!
Posted by Yrachmiel Elias, June 27, 2005. |
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Our brothers in Israel need our help at this time. The plan for unilaterally expelling the Jews from their homes in Gush Katif was defeated in the last Israeli election. Despite that fact, Ariel Sharon is moving ahead to forcefully remove Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and in four towns in the northern Shomron. This will lead to increase terrorist activity, NOT to the people of Katif, but to all people in Israel. Jewish teenagers are sitting in jail for nonviolent civil disobedience while Arab terrorists are set free. We must let the Israeli government know that what they are doing is wrong. This is very simple to do! Call the Israeli embassy or your local consulate and tell them what you think. Call them as often as you can. Call them back and ask them to let Ariel Sharon know that what he is doing is wrong. Call them again to find out if they have canceled the expulsion plan. Have your friends, neighbors and relatives give them a call. Keep calling until this madness is stopped. Be polite but persistent. Imagine what will happen if every Jew that cares calls. Their phones will be rendered useless. This tactic was very effective in our fight for Soviet Jewry. They had to change phone numbers. Our message was received loud and clear! Below are important numbers to call. Surely it is a lot easier for us to call from our homes and work places than it is for good Jews in Israel to sit in jail for trying to stop this madness. Abraham Lincoln said: "It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest."
Embassy of Israel Consular Section
Atlanta: 1100 Spring Street, 440, Atlanta, GA 30309-2823, (404) 875-7851, Fax: (404) 874-5364 Boston: 1020 Statler Office Building, 20 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116, (617) 542-0041, Fax: (617) 338-4995 Chicago: 111 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 1308, Chicago, IL 60601, (312) 565-3300, Fax: (312) 565-3871 Houston: 24 Greenway Plaza, Suite 1500, Houston, TX 77046, (713) 627-3780, Fax: (713) 627-0149 Los Angeles: 6380 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1700, Los Angeles, CA 90048, (323) 852-5500, Fax: (323) 852-5555 Miami: 100 N. Biscayne Boulevard, #1800, Miami, FL 33132, (305) 358-8111, Fax: (305) 371-5034 New York: 800 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017, (212) 499-5430, Fax: (212) 499-5435 Philadelphia: 230 South 15th Street, 8th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102, (215) 546-5556, Fax: (215) 545-3986 San Francisco: 456 Montgomery St., Suite 2100, San Francisco, CA 94104, (415) 398-8885, Fax: (415) 398-8589 Ottawa: 50 O'Connor Street, Suite 1005, Ottawa, Ontario KIP GL2, Canada, (613) 567-6450, Fax: (613) 237-8865 Montreal: 1155 Boul, Rene Levesque Quest, Montreal, Quebec H3B 4S6, Canada, (514) 393-9372, Fax: (514) 393-8795 Toronto: 180 Bloor Street, West, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2VG, Canada, (416) 640-8500, Fax: (416) 640-8855 Washington, DC: 3514 International Drive, NW, Washington, DC 20008, (202)364-5676, Fax: (202) 364-5423 Deputy Chief of Mission
Tel: (202) 364-5578 Fax: (202) 364-5560 Public and Interreligious Affairs
Congressional Affairs
Political Department
Press Office
Consular Section and Visas
Cultural Affairs
Defense and Armed Forces Attache
Economic Affairs
Police Liaison Office
Agriculture & Scientific Affairs
Foreign Defense Assistance & Exports (SIBAT)
Consular Department (passports, visas..)
Media & Public Affairs Department
Cultural Department
Academic Affairs Department
Administration (Human Resources)
Economic Mission
General Comments
More contact info can be obtained from the following Web site:
Yrachmiel Elias and Jack Golbert are cofounders of Netzah Yisrael
(www.netzahyisrael.org).
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COLLISION COURSE
Posted by David Wilder, June 27, 2005. |
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Help Gush Katif: http://www.katifund.org
Shalom. What can I say? The last few days have been very difficult. Friday afternoon Yechiel and Chava Levi were in Ashdod, paying a condolence call to friends in mourning. At first, when they received word of a terror attack outside Beit Hagai, the community where they live, Chava started saying Psalms. A little while later they received word that their seventeen year old son had been injured and that they should drive to Sha'ari Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem. But their first-born son, AviChai, wasn't there. There was no need to take him to the hospital. Shot in the head, AviChai Levi was killed almost instantly. Yechiel, who works as a treasurer for the Hebron Municipal Council, and Chava, had no choice but to return home and inform their other four children that their oldest brother was no longer. The kids all sat in AviChai's room when their parents returned home, looking around but not seeing, not believing. On AviChai's desk is a clock with a picture of him in the middle, a picture taken four years ago at his Bar Mitzvah. A beautiful, smiling youth, full of life, full of energy, full of happiness. One of AviChai's brothers, parting from him at the funeral, said that when he received word of his brother's death he stopped the clock. It was as if time had stopped. Later, he dusted the clock and started it again. Life must go on. AviChai was on his way to Beer Sheva, where he was a counselor for a religious youth group, Bnei Akiva. He had, in his pocket, a piece of paper with the words "We have love and it will be victorious" printed on it. He also had, on his wrist, an orange band with the words, "Yehudi lo megaresh Yehudi" - "Jews don't expel Jews," embedded on it. His father, Yechiel told me that AviChai was buried with the band still on his arm. "He'll be the first one in heaven with an orange arm band," Yechiel said. [Editor's note: For a picture of AviChai, see below.] Thousands escorted AviChai, and his friend Aviad Montzur, also killed by the terrorist's bullets, to their final resting place on the Mount of Olives. The funeral processions passed the Prime Minister's house in Jerusalem, demanding an end to the madness. Signs of the times: Last week an Israeli newspaper, citing high-level security sources, revealed that during the first weeks of the 'expulsion,' Ma'arat HaMachpela would be closed to all visitors. Why? Because this holy site is a 'source of friction' between Jews and Arabs and leaving it open would only exasperate the situation. My guess is that this is not the real reason. 'Big Brother' is aware of the power of prayer and especially worship at such a sacred site. ('Big Brother' probably also knows that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are against the expulsion-abandonment plan.) That's why they don't want Jews there. They're afraid our prayer might actually take hold. (I wonder what they'll do about the 'Kotel' - the Western Wall. Will they close that to Jewish worshipers too?) There's probably another reason, as well. They'll need the border police, who usually provide security at the Ma'ara, in Gush Katif or the northern Shomron. Another sign: A few days ago a journalist called me for a reaction to the IDF's closing of a base here in Hebron. I didn't know what he was talking about. After a quick check, I understood, only too well. The eastern side of Hebron is bordered by a hill called 'Jabal Jaawar,' which overlooks the entire city. A number of years ago, following a major deterioration of security and deadly terror, the army opened a base on that hill, one of the most strategic points in Hebron. Last week they closed the base and pulled out. Well, not entirely. They're leaving a guard tower and a few soldiers there, a token Israeli presence. There is no doubt that the closing of the Jabal Jaawar army base, together with an 'easing' of travel restrictions and the lifting of roadblocks, are a direct result of Sharon's meetings with Rice and Abu Mazen. They also, without a doubt, facilitated Friday afternoon's terror attack. We have numerous meetings with IDF officers, dealing with security, and other matters. The lowest high-level officer we usually meet with is the "Mahat," commander of the Judea division, which includes Hebron. This officer always holds the rank of colonel. The present Mahat, Colonel Motti Baruch, has told us (and others) that he believes in 'normalization' of life in Hebron. The 'normalization' he speaks of, of course, is 'normalization' for the Arabs, not for the Jews. Lifting roadblocks, allowing Arabs to renovate and move into buildings vacant for decades, easing travel restrictions, closing down strategic bases - all pieces in the puzzle of 'normalization.' Actually, it's not fair to place all the blame on Col. Baruch. It's true, he may be actualizing his own political outlook via an IDF uniform, but this is the true face of today's Israeli army. Everyone's doing it, so why not him too. The fact that Jewish blood is spilled doesn't really bother them. To the contrary, they hope the killing will expedite our exit from these areas. In fact, there was not any official government reaction to Friday's killings. When suggested that the Israeli retreat from Bethlehem be postponed as a result of the killing, another minister exclaimed: "What, and let the terrorists decide what we do?" On the other hand, INN reported: "The Defense Minister that decided to take down lookouts and checkpoints now wants to hand over Bethlehem and Kalkilya to the Palestinian Authority - this will lead, within a short time, to a terror attack in Jerusalem," predicted IDF Colonel (Res.) Moshe Hagar." At sixteen year old Aviad Mantzur's funeral, his father Neryia told the mourners, 'Aviad called me on his cell phone and said, "Dad, they're shooting at me. SAVE US!"' Those where Aviad's last words. The terrifying sounds that were then broadcast from his cell phone included shooting, screams, and... Nothing. Aviad's legs were literally blown off his body. Four tourniquets didn't help. The bleeding didn't stop. Neryia Montzur listened to his son dying. Last week Israel suffered the worst train accident in its history. Hundreds were wounded, in addition to those killed. The accident occurred when a speeding train plunged into a truck stopped on the tracks. The engineer saw the truck and sounded his horn several times, in a futile attempt to warn the truck driver of the impending crash. To no avail. It's difficult to fathom that the truck driver wasn't aware of the train. But it seems that he didn't make any attempt to move. The engineer made one last-minute attempt to prevent the inevitable. He braked, hard. He also hit a switch immediately shutting down all the train's engines. And then, BOOM! The fact that he braked softened the blow a little - maybe that saved several lives. The fact that he shut down the train's engines saved many lives - that act prevented fire and explosion. During those last few moments he saw, all too vividly, the collision course, but there wasn't too much he could do about it. Impact was only seconds away. He did what he could, but was unable to prevent the crash. Israel too is on a collision course. Ariel Sharon, Shaul Mufaz and others are recklessly engineering Israel down a one-way track, the wrong way. Not into a truck parked on the tracks, rather into a train speeding in the other direction. Attempts to 'achieve peace' by chopping up and abandoning our land, while expelling our citizens is a sure recipe for disaster, the likes of which we have not yet begun to experience. And no, I haven't forgotten the years of the 'Oslo War.' That was nothing compared to what we are about to experience. The explosion, when the two engines plow into each other, will be earth shattering. And we're getting very close to the point of 'no return.' At yesterday's funeral, I asked some of the journalists whether they've reorganized 'funeral squads' to take turns going to such funerals. It's clear that this is just the beginning. And I'm more than a little concerned. Sitting and waiting for terror to strike, when you know it's right around the corner, it's not a pleasant sensation. However, the problem is multiplied when you realize that the terror is multifaceted. From one side, the Arabs have no intentions of letting up - why should they? On the other side, the Israeli government, using the police, prosecution and courts, will use 'legal' terror against all those trying to brake the train running amuck. We are going to get hit from all sides. And I'm not one hundred percent sure that someone, (singular or plural) isn't going to strike back. The frustration level may reach such intolerable levels that some kind of reactive detonation is unavoidable. It would be preferable to brake the train and change direction before it's too late. With blessings from Hebron.
David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You
can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10,
Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write
to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230,
hebronfund@aol.com
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HRW TARGETS ISRAEL AGAIN: AN ANALYSIS OF "FAILURE TO INVESTIGATE WRONGDOING"
Posted by Bryna Berchuck, June 27, 2005. |
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The author chooses to remain anonymous.
Ignoring the controversy regarding its agenda and political
campaigning, (see below ),
Human Rights Watch issued a 128 page report on June 22, 2005, entitled
"Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military's Failure to Investigate
Wrongdoing". This document, accompanied by a carefully orchestrated
press conference at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem (the base
of Palestinian media operations), illustrates the defects, including
lack of credibility and context, and the exploitation of the language
of international law, that have characterized the activities of HRW's
Middle East division for many years.
Evidence of the Political Agenda
Many aspects of this report illustrate the centrality of HRW's political agenda, including the title, which, instead of demonstrating a detached presentation of the issue, uses the condemnatory language of an ideological campaign. Furthermore, in the area of "military wrongdoing", HRW has singled out two democracies involved in defending against terror campaigns -- Israel and the US - for reports on this very complex topic.
Like similar HRW campaigns and publications dealing with the Middle East, this document overlooks the non-conventional environment of the protracted terror war. In the days before this report was launched, a Palestinian woman carrying an explosive belt was intercepted at a checkpoint on her way to treatment at an Israeli hospital, but this reality was not deemed worth mentioning by HRW's Middle East division. In these circumstances, in which a wrong security decision could lead to the deaths of many civilians, tragic mistakes are inevitable. While democracies, including Israel, are not perfect, and some violations of human rights occur, in this report, HRW has joined various political groups in attempting to paint honest mistakes as deliberate policy.
Similarly, HRW continues its practice of exploiting the rhetoric of international law for political attacks. For example, the authors of this report claim that "International humanitarian law (IHL) requires that armed forces distinguish at all times between combatants and noncombatants, and absolutely prohibits any deliberate killing of civilians. It also requires that armed forces observe the principles of military necessity and proportionality." (p. 6) But it is clear that in terrorist warfare, these distinctions are deliberately blurred, and such claims are highly misleading.
HRW's Credibility Gap
HRW's previous reports on Israel have been consistently flawed by a lack of credibility, and this is also the case here. Most of the evidence presented by HRW comes from Palestinian "eyewitnesses", politicized NGOs such as the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the Palestinian Red Crescent, B'tselem, etc. For example, in footnote 8, HRW bases various claims of civilian Palestinian casualties on the highly problematic and politically motivated assertions by these groups, ignoring the obstacles to accurate assessments. As was clearly illustrated in the false tales of the 2002 Jenin "massacre", Palestinians frequently inflate such claims, deliberately blur the distinction between terrorists and civilians, and refuse to cooperate in professional investigations, while not allowing autopsies. Many of the casualties cited in this report are likely to have been involved in terrorism, or were the result of Palestinian fire. Similarly, the moral responsibility of the Palestinian Authority in allowing civilians to be used as cover by terrorists is again ignored by HRW.
The report includes frequent complaints that HRW requests for
information and cooperation from the IDF went unanswered, ignoring the
fact that HRW is viewed as a hostile political organization that lacks
any credibility. The expectation that the government of Israel would
cooperate under these conditions was clearly uninformed.
The credibility of HRW's highly politicized Middle East Division is
further reduced by the uncritical acceptance of reports by
journalists, whose own biases and lack of professional standards has
been frequently noted. Thus, the report's version of one incident
involving the deaths of Palestinians cited an "experienced journalist"
who made the unfounded observation that "Such a swift acknowledgement
by the military of improper behavior in the fatal shooting of
Palestinians is rare." (p. 2) The journalist, whose entirely
subjective opinion is cited as authoritative, also has a well-known
political bias.
In addition, HRW's report claims that "Public accountability is the best defense against indifference, incompetence and collusion. Without this, Israel's system will not be credible" (p.116). Let us consider the credibility of the HRW report when held to this standard. For example, an unsourced footnote on p. 65-66 asserts that the "largest military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon...included indiscriminate and excessive use of force, unlawful killing of civilians, use of Palestinians as human shields, and detention of at least 4,500 Palestinian men and boys, many of whom reported ill treatment during arrest and interrogation." In this and other examples, there is no accountability in such a broad claim, included in a footnote and without supporting evidence, as though it were undisputed fact.
Erasing the Context of Terrorism
As noted, this and other HRW reports alleging human rights violations by the governments of Israel and the US, consistently erase the context of terrorism. In this case, HRW claims that "Almost all of the cases of death and serious injury investigated in this report occurred in circumstances that cannot fairly be characterized as situations of armed conflict". (p. 3) Given the intensity of the terror campaign, this claim is hardly credible, and is another example of the way in which HRW systematically ignores its own singular report of November 2002 on Palestinian terror.
This fictitious context is found in the allegation that the IDF fails to send investigators to Palestinian areas to gather testimonies, and the claim that "Victims and their representatives have little practical access to the investigation process". (p. 7) On this basis, HRW jumps to the conclusion that "The most significant factor underlying impunity is the reluctance of the JAG's office to investigate incidents, even when witnesses are accessible and the breach of international law is clear." (p. 7) As in past reports, this example ignores the fact that IDF investigators cannot enter a village and question its citizens as if Jenin and Gaza City were located in Switzerland or California. If IDF investigators were to attempt to interview Palestinians in this context, the violence could escalate and lead to many more deaths.
Political Rhetoric instead of Dispassionate Analysis
The manipulative language consistently employed by HRW is designed
to make an objectively weak case subjectively and emotionally
compelling. For example, the report criticizes IDF investigations as
"characterized by inaction and cover-up" (p 4) and claims that "the
[IDF legal] system does not provide justice or truth. (p 7) In one of
the cases discussed in this report, HRW failed to note the use of a
polygraph test when an officer was suspected of lying. While the use
of such devices is highly problematic, a judicial system that uses
polygraph tests in cases of questionable behavior can hardly be
"characterized by inaction and cover-up" (p.4)
The absence of context is repeated in the recommendations for dealing with military investigations in a terror war, as provided by HRW's Middle East "experts". In its guidelines for the Israeli soldiers who are under fire, the members of this NGO proclaim: "If lethal force is used in situations of armed hostilities, Israeli forces must distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants, never direct attacks at a civilian population or individual civilians, and refrain from attacks that indiscriminately harm civilians." (p. 9). This recommendation fails to mention that in a terror situation, in which combatants are not uniformed, such distinctions are often impossible, and would lead to large loss of life among Israelis. The IDF soldiers cannot possibly be more careful about the loss of Palestinian lives than their own. People who suggest such an attitude are guilty of holding a double standard in regards to Israel. Similarly, the authors suggest that Israel should reform its military justice system to follow Britain, Canada and Belgium, as if the situations and threats were even remotely comparable.
In summary, this report highlights the gap between the claim that "The hallmark and pride of Human Rights Watch is the even-handedness and accuracy of our reporting" and the consistent failure to live up to this promise. HRW's own reporting "system" is far from credible.
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MADRASSA EDUCATION - AN ANACHRONISM OR A VICTIM OF EXPLOITATION
Posted by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, June 27, 2005. |
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There have been some disturbing and gruesome news in Bangladesh media in the last couple of days about some Madrassa teachers cutting of ears of students, killing & raping students etc. In all the cases the students are victim of the sodomite or mentally disturbed teachers whose deed in anyway cannot be called Islamic. These incidents caught media attention quickly as Madrassas have a bad reputation being a breeding ground for extremists. And the Islamic parties surprisingly kept mum about their atrocities, which give an impression to people that they are shielding them. However these incidents should be viewed on the whole perspective rather than some small information. Madrassa refers to an Islamic school for Muslims, just as parochial schools for Catholics or yeshivas for Jews. All of these institutions are responsible for general education, but also have the purpose of teaching children about religion, in the case of Madrasas, Islam. At least four million poor children (many of them are orphans) are studying in more than 50,000 of these religious schools across Bangladesh. The Madrassas offer a 16-year course divided into three levels. The primary level known as Forkania Madrassa teaches the Koran, Arabic, Bengali and Mathematics. Students, who pass exams here, graduate to the Hafizia Madrassa. The Kowmi Madrassa is the final level that issues degrees claimed as equivalents of a Masters level. Such degrees are provided by over 3,000 such Madrassas. There have been much debate on the unstructured and obsolete curriculum of Madrassas with superstitious concepts and antiquated social values; which produces students, who cannot even read or write properly in their own mother tongue Bengali let alone English. Science, Geography, Physics and other modern subjects are conspicuous by their absence, with most students encouraged only to memorize the Koran. The degrees issued by such schools are practically useless outside the seminary circuit. The job industries have a reservation about these certificates for obvious reasons and the students cannot get admission in modern educational institutions even if given the chance as they are easily beaten in competition from students of other traditional institutions. So it becomes a vicious cycle where graduates only option is to return to the Madrassas, as teachers or else become clerics in mosques, which only offers a poor compensation package. The highest-degree holders set up their own ventures and only a handful can get important government posts. It creates a sense of insecurity among those students and they usually loathe the students of the traditional education system. That's where politics come in. Almost all these Madrassas' funding derives from donations and religious grants. Besides, principals of these Madrassas privately arrange grants from Middle Eastern countries. And many extremist elements are exploiting the students' and institution's poverty for their own interest. A large number of Kowmi Madrassas are controlled by the Islami Oikyo Jote (IOJ), a radical Islamic party that is a partner of the ruling coalition. They are keen to preach their version of Islamic zealot to the students. Besides, banned Islamic groups also target students of these Madrassas as their recruits. According to records of police intelligence in Bangladesh, members of "Al-Haramine" organization use the kindergarten Madrassa as camouflage. They regularly communicate with various underground-armed groups in the country and even recruit locals and send them to Palestine as guerilla fighters. Each recruit gets US$ 1500-2000 as an up front payment for their 'new job'. Later family members or legal representatives or spouses of these guerilla fighters will receive US$ 150-200 per month as salary. If any of them were killed during the war, their family would get US$ 5,000 as compensation. For above reasons the Madrassa students are encouraged to get involved in these organizations out of poverty even more than the religious zealots, which are fed up by the politically motivated teachers. But it would be unwise to undermine Madrassas' contribution in the society. Many Madrassas have been virtually acting as orphanages for the poor. If there was a uniform syllabus, computer education and vocational training it would establish a centralized link between Madrassa and modern education, thus making these large numbers of students really educated and established in the society. The Mullahs are much criticized for their bigotries, which actually are based on their poor education. In fact if the Madrassas curriculum were modernized, the students would easily blend in the society with logical thinking and respect, which in turn would only benefit and strengthen Islam. And the poor students would be free from exploitation and resentment from various quarters. At the Little Green Footballs website this news was highlighted and there were many negative remarks against Madrassa and Islam (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12693#comments). But I think it's a mistake to take a single incident and indict an entire culture or religion for it. "Because we have been conditioned to hate and think the worst about other cultures, or certain other cultures" - as one of the commenter said there. We are doing injustice to the Madrassa students by not condemning the atrocities against them and not bettering their conditions regarding education and establishment. The government has a great role to play for modernizing & updating Madrassa education. The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, amd editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com |
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MORE ON CHILD RAPE VICTIM
Posted by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, June 27, 2005. |
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Read initial story below.
Dear Brothers, Sisters, and Friend: Yesterday morning I spoke to Mr. Lutfuzzaman Babar, State Minister for Home Affairs regarding taking action against the rapist madrassa teacher and other people in the madrassa and the community who are extending support to the criminal by pronouncing the family as 'JEW'. The minister listened to my request and assured of taking stern measures. Meanwhile, it is reported that the notorious madrassa teachers, in conniviance with some locals are putting pressure on the father of the victim child to withdraw the case. They are even threatening the father of the child that if he did not comply with their instructions, he might lose his job in Bangladesh Army. The criminals are even threatening to evict the family of the child, if the rapist madrassa teacher was not released immidiately. At this point, I contacted a few correspondents of foreign news agencies in Bangladesh like Mr. Farid Ahmed of Associated Press, Dhaka office of Reuters, Dhaka office of BBC, Correspondent of Voice of America in Dhaka etc, and requested them to bring the matter to the attention of the international community. But, surprisingly, they declined in doing so, saying, their initiative would annoy the local 'fundamentalist forces'. They even suggested I stay calm. After hearing the news of threat to the child's father and threat to evict their family, I again contacted the Home Minister this morning and narrated the whole matter. The minister was also very angry to know what is happening and reassured stern actions. I have seen Mr. Lutfuzzaman Babar to be the only person in the government who has taken the matter very seriously. May I request you all to write a petition to the Secretary General of the United Nations Human Rights Commission condemning the incident of rape of an innocent child and demand trial of the culprit and his collaborators immediately. The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, amd editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com |
| GUSH KATIF |
COME VACATION IN GUSH KATIF
Reposted by Arieh Zaritsky, June 27, 2005. |
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Susie Dym, spokesperson Mattot Arim sddym@bezeqint.net, suggests: "From August onward -- please vacation in Israel. And please, do not make reservations in hotels in Israel. COME TO GUSH KATIF." HAVE A VACATION ON THE MEDITERRANIAN. GUSH KATIF IS BEAUTIFUL. GUSH KATIF IS CHOCK FULL OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE, WHO GROW SOUL-SATISFYING VEGETABLES YOU MIGHT EVEN FIND YOURSELF IN THE CENTER OF A HISTORICAL EVENT. THINK OF WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TELL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN. Vacationing in GUSH KATIF will save you a lot of money, which you can use to buy a digital camera to take with you to Gush Katif. PS. Our Hebrew language one-page brochure explains exactly how to get
to Gush Katif when necessary, by car, bus and train. We would
love to send you copies of this brochure to give out to "our" public
-- any right-minded person/people. Email me
at sddym@bezeqint.net
Dr. Arieh Zaretsky is at Ben Gurion University.
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TRAINING WITH NACHAL HAREIDI: PHOTO ESSAY
Posted by IsrAlert, June 26, 2005. | ||||||
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The Nachal Hareidi unit, made up of hareidi-religious yeshiva students
and new immigrants, trains in the beautiful wilderness of Israel's
Jordan Valley.
Isralert.com source: www.IsraelNationalNews.com, Arutz Sheva. Photos are courtesy of the IDF.
Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
| GUSH KATIF |
AS GOES GAZA, SO GOES ISRAEL
Posted by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin Hakohen Melman, June 26, 2005. |
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Rabbi Melman's great grandfather was a Palestinian.
The logic of expulsion of the Jewish communities of Gaza is premised on the numerical imbalance of the respective Jewish and Arab demographics. How could a small Jewish population hope to thrive in the long term against an overwhelming majority vowed to her destruction? Such insufferable arrogance to presume a right to thrive against an ocean of hate, poverty and barbarism. And yet, isn't that very same logic, but applied rather to the State of Israel vis a vis her enemies, now reversed on its head, the stuff of stubborn pride which animates her purpose and fuels her resolve to survive against all odds? By the same 100 to 1 ratios, the Jews of Israel as a whole and the Jews of Gaza specifically, face enemies who are no less determined to win in the end. If the Jews of Gaza have no right to live there because of their numerically disadvantageous population ratios vis a vis the Arabs of Gaza, then by what right does the Jewish state have to persevere in her struggle against the greater Arab world as a whole? To Arab ears there is much poetry in the epic of Jewish surrender. A quid without a pro, a transaction sans negotiation and mutuality violates every rule of the shuk, shatters every Levantine cultural standard, and so further solidifies in every Arab mind that the Jew is a cultural interloper and an abhorrent stranger in their midst. As well the Jewish state. And then there are the laws of inertia and momentum. These laws maintain their veracity no less in the political sphere as well as in the realm of physics. Expectations of ongoing Israeli retreat to antebellum borders will echo from every world capital, rigorous semantic nuances of resolution 242 be damned, shredded, and tossed out to sea as so much flotsam on the waves of history. Seen as victory for the forces of terror, the retreat will be seen only as surrender, as a new wave of terror will commence. Now having achieved quasi statehood, any retaliation against Gaza now will carry greater and greater diplomatic consequences. Reprisal will be seen as provocation. And will be condemned by all. Not to retaliate will further demoralize the secular Israeli, whose only desire is to be loved by the world. Painfully more and more territory will be surrendered if only to stop the pain, but it will only encourage more of the same. Israelis will continue to take short vacations, never to return. Aliyah will dry up, as no one would voluntarily move to a country committed to its own destruction. Ethnic cleansing, a principle held in utter abhorrence internationally for all peoples except when applied to Jews, once affirmed by Israel herself will set into motion a veritable cascade of demands that will achieve no point of satiety. Once Israel herself seeks to justify the expulsion of her own people on the basis of demographic imbalance, her whole raison d'etre to exist at all loses all its justification, nuances of Balfour be damned. Perfect is the enemy of the good. Israel cannot be perfect as no nation ever can be. But survival is a choice. In the Talmud there is a parable of two men lost in the desert with but one pitcher of water between them. If they share the pitcher both would probably die. If the one who has it in his possession keeps it, he will probably live. The Talmud argues for life, as difficult as the price may be to bear. Similarly, Israel's territorial integrity is analogous to the pitcher of water. To surrender more and more territory to enemies vowed to destroy her is to worship at the altar of world opinion. Not only would Israel not survive, but any so-called (second Arab) State of Palestine will not survive either, for even the secular Israeli will at some point come to his senses and realize that the world will not rescue him, let alone love him. Thankfully ethnic cleansing has now been affirmed by the world's highest authorities as the means to bring peace to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Which is worse from a moral standpoint? Expelling your enemy or eventually killing him? Expelling two million Arabs or eventually killing them- and more? With gratitude Israel should embrace this affirmation of ethnic cleansing and make the painful choice. To expel and relocate the Jewish people of Gaza will cost billions of dollars. For a few billion more they could do the same for all the Arabs in her midst who vow her total destruction. Her territorial integrity will remain intact. Her strategic depth will remain intact. The Auschwitz borders of '67 will forever be a temptation for war. As America's elites and future leadership turn against Israel, having been fed a university diet of anti-Israel venom for a generation if not more, America's willingness to support even Israel's future survival is not guaranteed. Survival is a choice. As painful as those choices are, and as difficult the diplomatic fallout will surely be, the time of reckoning is now at hand. The world will eventually get over it. And even if it doesn't, so what? The Torah says "choose life." All the rest is commentary. Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
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LEFTISTS AGAINST THE GAZA WITHDRAWAL
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 26, 2005. |
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The western media's coverage of Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza is demonstrating, once again, how prejudicial and slanted much of the reporting from the Middle East is. Viewers and readers in north America, Europe and elsewhere have been left with the impression that the only people opposing withdrawal from Gaza (which is scheduled to begin on August 15, 2005) fit the stereotypical mold of an orthodox religious settler which the media have created for themselves over many years. These prejudices in turn have led many in the media to unfairly represent the arguments as to why a majority of Israelis now tell pollsters they oppose the disengagement, and why even those of us who are on balance for it have grave reservations about it. THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE BBC IN A WORLD OF THEIR OWN For example, New York Times correspondent Christine Hauser yesterday (Sunday) wrote about the dilemmas of disengagement by interviewing Michael Frier "a 24-year old religious student." In her article, she observed that "Some of the men carry M-16's or handguns." The version of the article on the New York Times website was accompanied by a picture of a man with a skullcap and an M-16. BBC online has been running a three-part series in which its correspondent Richard Miron has been spending a week in Jewish settlements in Gaza. He has been meeting with "some of the most hard-line members of the settler movement." In the first of these dispatches Miron calls the second day a "well-armed family occasion" and goes on to say that "Some of the men carry guns; pistols sitting snugly in their belts or automatic rifles slung loosely over their backs." FORMER LABOR CABINET MINISTERS, ARMY CHIEFS AND MOSSAD HEADS SPEAK OUT Due to this obsession by the western media to give the impression that the only people expressing opposition to disengagement are the most right wing and religious of settlers, many important voices in Israeli society have been completely shut out of the international media coverage. To balance this coverage, I attach below remarks by some important voices on the Israeli left and center that are against the disengagement. Their opposition to the plan stems from their fear that it will bring on a new wave of violence and that a withdrawal from Gaza will not guarantee long-term stability or peace. There is a fuller version of these quotes below, but in summary: Former Labor Party Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, has warned of "catastrophe" and says the withdrawal plan "is liable to bring a renewal of violence [that] is liable to bring down the moderate Palestinian leadership... A retreat from Gaza with nothing in return and with no agreement will strengthen Hamas." Former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who is on the left-wing of the Labor Party, says: "A unilateral retreat perpetuates Israel's image as a country that runs away under pressure... In Fatah and Hamas, they will assume that they must prepare for their third intifada - this time in [Judea and Samaria]... If we continue these unilateral steps, we will find ourselves establishing an enemy Palestinian state." Former General Security Service chief Ami Ayalon says: "The captain of the disengagement can be compared to the captain of a ship who takes it from port to a very stormy sea, without knowing at all where he wants to lead it... There is a high chance that shortly after the disengagement, the violence will be renewed. 2006 is liable to be a year of another round of violence." Ayalon added that the retreat from the northern Gaza communities - Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nisanit - is a "grave error. It has no demographic or security justification, and the price that it is liable to exact from us is not justified." Former Mossad head Ephraim HaLevy says: "After the disengagement, Israel will face a diplomatic crisis the likes of which we have not known for years." Former Mossad head Shabtai Shavit says: "Immediately after the disengagement, Israel will find itself on a crash path with the United States." Others who have expressed strong concern about disengagement including former Air Force Commander Gen. Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Uzi Dayan, and former IDF Chief of Intelligence Gen. Shlomo Gazit. I also attach below an article from yesterday's New York Times (reprinted in today's International Herald Tribune) by Israeli Housing Minister Isaac Herzog, explaining why he supports disengagement but why it is much more painful and difficult than many people in Europe and America might realize. (The article again, however, gives the impression that only extreme rightists oppose the disengagement.) BUILDING A SEA BARRIER To illustrate how Israel is attempting to safeguard its security following the Gaza withdrawal, I also attach below an article from the Jerusalem Post reporting that the Israel navy has started building an underwater barrier leading out to sea from the north Gaza shore. In the past there have been many attempted terror attacks on Israel from the sea. (The last major attempted attack by sea was last November.) A highly vigilant Israeli radar and surveillance outposts have foiled most of them, but occasionally attackers have got through. For example, in 1979, the Palestinian Liberation Front (part of the PLO) murdered three Israeli civilians by infiltrating Israeli waters from Lebanon and breaking into an apartment in the northern Israel town of Nahariya. FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER PLANNED TO BLOW UP HOSPITAL TODAY The third article below reports on the capture this morning of a 21-year-old female Palestinian suicide bomber at the Erez crossing. She said she planned to blow up a hospital in southern Israel. This follows the arrest of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy at the Hawara checkpoint on Sunday. He was carrying five pipe bombs hidden in tubes of silicone alongside nails and bolts. In the last two days Palestinian terrorists have murdered two Israelis. Sergeant Avi Karouchi was killed in Gaza yesterday and this morning Yevgeny Rider was killed in an ambush near Tulkarm as he drove from his home. Even though a large contingent of additional foreign media is in the region accompanying Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, virtually none have mentioned these Israeli deaths in their reports. It is not the first time terrorists have abused medical requests to enter Israel. In one recent thwarted attack, a terrorist pretended to have cancer to gain entry to an Israeli hospital. ANOTHER MOSLEM DEPUTY ISRAELI MINISTER It was announced today that Member of Knesset Majalli Whbee has been asked to serve as Deputy Education Minister. Majalli Whbee is an Israeli Moslem Druze and is another example of how virtually anyone can succeed in Israeli society should they try. No doubt those in the West who are obsessed with the idea of an "apartheid Israel" are not interested in this. -- Tom Gross ISRAELI LEFTISTS AGAINST DISENGAGEMENT [This selection of quotes from some Israelis on the political left who have voiced concern about disengagement was assembled by a subscriber to this list who works at Israel National News.] Former Labor Party Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, currently not a Knesset Member but leader of the left-wing Yahad/Meretz Party: "If the disengagement does not lead to an immediate permanent status arrangement, it will bring a catastrophe upon both Israelis and Palestinians... It is liable to bring a renewal of violence [that] is liable to bring down the moderate Palestinian leadership... "There is a concrete danger that following the disengagement, the violence will greatly increase in [Judea and Samaria] in order to achieve the same thing [i.e., withdrawal] as was achieved in Gaza... A retreat from Gaza with nothing in return and with no agreement will strengthen Hamas." *** Former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who is on the left-wing of the Labor Party: "A unilateral retreat perpetuates Israel's image as a country that runs away under pressure... In Fatah and Hamas, they will assume that they must prepare for their third intifada - this time in [Judea and Samaria / the West Bank]... If we continue these unilateral steps, we will find ourselves establishing an enemy Palestinian state." *** Former General Security Service chief Ami Ayalon: "The captain of the disengagement can be compared to the captain of a ship who takes it from port to a very stormy sea, without knowing at all where he wants to lead it. And possibly even worse: He knows where he wants to lead it, but is hiding the information from his crew..." "Retreat without getting anything in return is liable to be interpreted by some of the Palestinians as surrender. The plan is likely to strengthen extremist forces in the Palestinians society... There is a high chance that shortly after the disengagement, the violence will be renewed. 2006 is liable to be a year of another round of violence." Ayalon said that the retreat from the northern Gaza communities - Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nisanit - is a "grave error. It has no demographic or security justification, and the price that it is liable to exact from us is not justified." *** Former Air Force Commander Gen. Eitan Ben-Eliyahu: "There is no chance that the disengagement will guarantee long-term stability. The plan as it stands can only lead to a renewal of terrorism... If there is no quick progress from the disengagement to a comprehensive retreat, [this will lead to] the one-state solution - bringing to an end of the Zionist dream, and the Jewish State will be lost." *** Former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Uzi Dayan: "Retreat from Nisanit, Dugit and Elei Sinai is a double mistake: Security-wise, it unnecessarily brings the Kassam rocket threat closer to Ashkelon, and diplomatically, it creates a dangerous precedent of unilateral withdrawal to the 1967 lines, which strengthens the PA demands to return to the June 4, 1967 lines." *** Former IDF Chief of Intelligence Gen. Shlomo Gazit: "It is reasonable to assume that within a short time, we will face mortar shelling and Kassams from [Samaria and Judea]. These rockets and shells will hit Kfar Saba and maybe even reach Netanya." *** Former Mossad head Ephraim HaLevy: "After the disengagement, Israel will face a diplomatic crisis the likes of which we have not known for years." *** Former Mossad head Shabtai Shavit: "The disengagement plan sabotages itself, creating a situation of instability. The plan does not create the necessary minimum of balance that would enable long-term coexistence... Immediately after the disengagement, Israel will find itself on a crash path with the United States." *** In addition to these statements of serious concern about the Gaza/Northern Samaria Evacuation Plan, it is also troubling to learn that Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian Authority Security Chief and former head of its secret police, said that while the present "period of calm" would remain in effect at least until Israel withdraws from Gaza, after this withdrawal "We will have to re-evaluate the situation... the period of quiet will not last longer than the scheduled withdrawal from Gaza unless it is actively renewed by the various organizations." MOVING FORWARD BY FALLING BACK by Isaac Herzog, The New York Times, June 20, 2005 JERUSALEM I recently received a letter from a former high school teacher of mine in Tel Aviv. He was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by a British Army unit in which my father served. Now, he was criticizing me for working on the government's plan to withdraw from 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank. "How dare you pull Jews out of their homes?" he wrote. "This is just like what the Nazis did to us!" Unfortunately, I am no longer surprised when a Jew compares me and other Israeli officials to Nazis. It has become part of the rhetoric of those who oppose withdrawal, including the tiny minority who threaten violent resistance. But my old teacher was not threatening me; he was crying out as if in the middle of a nightmare. My father, Chaim Herzog, eventually became president of Israel, and my teacher could not understand how his liberator's son could displace other Jews. Seen from America and Europe, the evacuation of some 8,000 Jews from their homes may seem simple. I have heard it compared to moving residents to make room for a railroad or highway. But, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has no doubt seen during her Middle East visit, what is happening here is a deeper psychological drama. It brings out fears that are never far from the surface; memories of the displacement and murder of innocent Jews not only during the Holocaust but also in Islamic countries after Israel's founding. And memories of wars Israel did not start, and of terrorist attacks that we fear will never stop. What to do with Jewish settlers' homes in the Gaza Strip after withdrawal, as well as factories and greenhouses, has occupied Israelis for some time. Those in favor of destroying the houses did not want to see Hamas gunmen making victory signs for CNN and Al Jazeera as they walked triumphantly into buildings left behind by Jews. Others, myself included, have favored leaving everything except synagogues and graveyards untouched, thinking that destroying the houses would send a message of destruction rather than peace; we feared it might also be costly and could endanger Israeli soldiers' lives. But every member of the government understands the painful symbolism involved in displacing Jews, and also the public's concern that Gaza will turn into Hamastan, a region controlled by terrorists. Yet despite their memories and fears, most Israelis back the plan to withdraw. They know that Israel must take risks like this to set secure national borders, to ensure the future of a Jewish democratic state. They are reassured because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the founder of the settlement movement, thinks the withdrawal is necessary. And they are ready to give the Palestinians' prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, a chance to show he can be a partner for peace. Another promising sign is that while the settlers' leaders are telling their followers not to cooperate with the government, every day more and more settlers are coming to my ministry to find out how we can help them find new homes and rebuild their lives. I hope that our Palestinian neighbors understand what we are going through. They should realize that this withdrawal is not a sign of weakness (as Hamas wants them to believe) but of strength and self-confidence. Israel clearly has other ways to answer terrorism - as shown by our forceful response to the intifada - but we have no other way to end the occupation except to separate from the Palestinians. This withdrawal should be the first step toward a broader, negotiated two-state solution. To get there, the Palestinian leaders must ensure that terrorists do not disrupt the withdrawal and do not take over the land Israel leaves behind. The Palestinians should also understand the feelings of Israelis like my high school teacher. Abbas can help now by telling his people, loudly and clearly, that Israel's withdrawal will not represent a victory for armed struggle; it will be a victory for the silent majorities on both sides who don't want their grandchildren to have the kinds of traumatic memories that haunt Israelis and Palestinians today. (Isaac Herzog is Israel's minister of construction and housing.) ISRAEL TO BUILD TERROR BARRIER IN THE SEA "Navy builds terror barrier off Gaza" by Arieh O'Sullivan, The Jerusalem Post, June 17, 2005. www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=111888 8337362 In a move designed to better isolate Israel from potential terrorist infiltration from the Gaza Strip, the navy has started building an underwater barrier leading out to sea from the north Gaza shore. The barrier, which essentially extends the northern security road separating Gaza from Israel into the Mediterranean, is primarily aimed at thwarting Palestinian terrorists swimming up to the Israeli coast. It consists in its first 150 meters of cement pilings burrowed into the sandy bottom. Beyond that, the barrier will extend for a further 800 meters, in the form of a 1.8-meter-deep fence floating beneath the surface. It is understood that one of the navy's perceived imperatives for the new barrier is the loss of surveillance systems at the Tel Ridan base on the beach south of Gaza City when the IDF pulls out of Gaza this summer. Still, the barrier is not expected to be completed before August 15, when disengagement is set to begin. It is not yet clear whether the navy intends to demarcate the territorial waters with buoys, as it did with Lebanon. Off the coast of Rosh Hanikra, there are seven linked buoys reaching out 4,200 meters from the coast. In similar moves to better seal off Gaza, the Navy is also refurbishing its observation and radar station at the Erez border crossing, and is adding an antenna tower there similar to the 85-meter structure at its base in Rosh Hanikra. Palestinian terrorists have made attempts to swim to the Israeli coast in the past, and have been foiled mainly because they were spotted by radar and surveillance outposts onshore in the Gaza area. The new barrier is intended to foil potential efforts in which swimmers go beyond such surveillance capacities. The barrier would also back up naval patrols intercepting small vessels carrying terrorists. Last November, a heavily armed Palestinian terrorist dressed in a wetsuit tried to swim in from the sea to attack a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip. Navy surveillance ground forces spotted him and shot him dead 400 meters from the beach. He had on him a bomb, an AK-47, four grenades, five ammunition clips, a knife and a rubber dinghy. In essence, it is understood, the sea barrier represents an extension of the Gaza security fence that has proven highly effective in preventing suicide bombers infiltrating into Israel. FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER PLANNED TO BLOW UP HOSPITAL Female bomber nabbed: Palestinian woman tells interrogators she intended to blow up at southern hospital By Hanan Greenberg By Ynetnews June 20, 2005 www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3101498,00.html GAZA - Major attack thwarted: A 21-year-old would-be suicide bomber was detained by security forces at Gaza's Erez crossing Monday morning. Gaza resident Wafa Samir Ibraim Bas, 21 was carrying more than 10 kilograms (more than 22 pounds) of explosives and was picked up thanks to electronic anti-terror means utilized at the crossing. Army officials said the woman surrendered only after attempting to detonate the charge at the crossing itself. The woman was scheduled to arrive at Soroka hospital in the Southern town of Be'er Sheva for some tests Monday, and was hoping to take advantage of the medical appointment to carry out a suicide attack. During her interrogation, the would-be bomber said she was sent by the Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades. The group sought to utilize the humanitarian permits issued to the woman and instructed her to carry out the attack at the hospital, she said. The Erez crossing was closed Friday, and again Monday, as a result of terror warnings. Notably, security authorities received a warning regarding the planned attack several days ago, prompting the crossing's closure on several occasions. Sappers later blew up the explosives in a controlled detonation and authorities later reopened the crossing. IDF official Avi Levy told Ynet that despite the incident, the army is "making a distinction between terror groups who want to carry attacks and Palestinian civilians who want to make a living." Although women generally refrained from taking part in terror attacks at first, their role has been increasing over time. In 2004, more then 50 women were involved in carrying out attacks. Meanwhile, security forces have foiled 45 terror plots involving women during the more than four years of the intifada, while eight attacks were carried out. A Shin Bet report prepared to summarize four years of fighting noted
terror groups are exploiting the inherent advantages in using women
to perpetrate terror attacks.
Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives
in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you
can subscribe to her newsletter.
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WHERE IS THE SHAME?
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 26, 2005. |
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This was written by Boaz Gaon and appeared in Ma'ariv, June 25, 2005. It was translated from the Hebrew by Justice4JP. Read the original Hebrew at www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/949/891.html It is an interview with Jonathan Pollard in North Carolina, June 24, 2005. For a split second in mid-April it seemed as if the chances of Jonathan Pollard shedding the chains he has been dragging clattering across the cold floors since 1985 - ever since he was forcefully evicted from the Israeli embassy in Washington - had suddenly increased. This occurred when Sharon, his face still tanned from the Texas sun, removed his stubborn beige flak jacket (which he wore while building the settlements and which he now wears to dismantle them) and boldly announced that he had instructed Israel's Ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon, to pack a little bag and go visit Pollard. All this, before Bush even ordered Israel to turn off the water. The historic visit of the ambassador to Pollard took place last month. "An honest man sent to do a dishonest job", said Pollard, who involuntarily got woven into the crossfire of an image war between public personalities (Ayalon and FM Shalom) which was raging above his head. Ayalon, it seems, was sent out as a trial balloon to gauge the reaction of the corps of Pollard activists to rumors of Pollard's release as the prize for the Gaza disengagement. This, incidentally, is the same corps of activists most opposed to the disengagement plan. The idea, the inflated news headlines cooked up by the electronic media almost instantly about a 'deal' between Bush (who would pay Sharon with Pollard) and Sharon (who would pay with Gaza) disappeared almost as quickly as the overblown trial balloon which flew off into the clouds and disappeared. It ended badly. At the visit, Pollard reports, Ayalon was embarrassed and kept repeating over and over again a prepared statement, devoid of content, which had been scripted for him in advance. Pollard said that the Ambassador could not look him in the eyes. His justified request that his status as a "shevui" (prisoner) be implemented by the State which has recognized him as an agent, received the insulting response, "Israel wishes you well." The cries of disappointment from the visit room overflowed to the media waiting outside, and caused Ayalon to flee from the CNN reporter (the only English language reporter in the pack) who was left scratching his head in surprise over the Ambassador's refusal to share with America the details of this supposedly historic visit. (By the way: media was barred from actual attendance at the prison meeting, not by order of the prison, but by order of PM Sharon's office.) From an observer's point of view, it seemed as if Ayalon wanted to hurry back to the shelter of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. The same Embassy which, on direct orders from Jerusalem, threw Jonathan Pollard out exactly 20 years ago. One supposes that upon reaching the Embassy, Ayalon called Sharon and reported, 'Mission accomplished'. FLUSHING AN AGENT DOWN THE DRAIN A month later, Jonathan Pollard sat in the same visit room, across from the same vending machines, his wife Esther by his side, and under the same watchful eyes of the NSA monitor ("Nick") who had come from Washington that morning. This was not Pollard's first interview, nor his second or third since his arrest, but this was perhaps the harshest, most bridge-burning interview Pollard has ever given. Yes of course, it concerns one who once supported his release and who now, in Pollard's opinion, " has no interest in bringing me home alive." We are talking about Arik the "dictator" Sharon, the boss of Dubi "Rasputin" Weissglass, the initiators of the "diabolical" disengagement plan, the heads of the " American colony" and of the "perverted version of Disneyland" otherwise known as the Israeli political establishment, which has "no red lines" and "no true North"; where everything goes, even the abandonment of an agent and "flushing him down the drain." "I want to begin," says Pollard, smoothing out the printed sheet in front of him "with a question to set the tone and the framework for everything I will say today." And the question is this (Pollard switches to Hebrew): "Ayfoh ha'boosha?" (Where is the sense of shame?) [J4JP Note: Pollard then laid the groundwork for the rest of the interview with the following 3 points: 1) I am an Israeli agent who has been in the service of the State for 22 years: 2 years of active duty, and 20 years in prison on her behalf. 2) My activities on behalf of Israel; the risk I took for her; the sacrifices that I have made for her were all directed at safeguarding the Land and assuring the security of the People. 3) The very nature of my service to the security of the State of Israel is, by definition, diametrically the opposite of an evil plan - the Heetnatkoot(disengagement) - which aims to expel Jews from the Land, and sacrifice our national security to serve a corrupt, self-interested, personal political agenda.] "I want to ask the Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, Ayfoh ha'boosha? (Where is your sense of shame?) I heard on the radio that he met with Condoleezza Rice and agreed to release hundreds of security prisoners at her request. What about this prisoner! (Pollard uses his thumb to point to himself.) Whom Israel and the Minister of Defense have forgotten long ago. Even though I am still here, and America still has its boot on my neck. Ayfoh ha'boosha? Where is his sense of shame?" "Next. In recent weeks I have received hundreds of letters from people in Israel who identify themselves as belonging to the left; most of the writers are non- religious. They all mention a new book by the name of "Boomerang" which just came out in Israel. These people write to tell me: now, suddenly we understand what you have been talking about all of these years! About the corruption in government. The moral corruption, the spiritual corruption, and the disengagement of the State of Israel from all that is moral and true and just. "Suddenly people are beginning to understand how it happened that Israel has flushed me down the drain, and the role played by this Israeli Rasputin, Dubi Weissglass, author of this evil plan, this diabolical plan called 'the disengagement plan', whose goal it is to sacrifice Israel's national security to serve the interests of a corrupt, self-indulgent, self-centered regime, and devoted to advancing his own personal political agenda. This sheds light on the true nature of the relationship between Israel and America, not as a relationship between equal allies, but between an Imperialist power and a satellite colony..." "I would like," continues Pollard, as his face flushes with anger, "to dispel a wicked rumor, once and for all, which Sharon and his sycophants have been spreading about me for some time. There is not and never was any deal for my release in connection with the disengagement plan. Utter nonsense! I am being used as nothing more than a carrot on a stick which Sharon and his people are holding out to the Israeli public to make them think that perhaps such a deal has been made behind the scenes. "It is simply a lie! If the Prime Minister would invest a fraction of the effort in securing my release that he invests in keeping his sons out of prison, I would have been home long ago. But there is a difference between Sharon's sons and this son (pointing to himself) who sacrificed all that he had for the benefit of Israel, which is now burying him alive in prison! "I know that people may not believe me. I know that there will still be those who continue to believe that some sort of secret deal was made. Let me explain why that is not so. There are a number of things which must be done before a country seeks the release of an agent from prison. Such as, for example, to secure the cooperation of the agent, so he will not say or do anything counterproductive, either during the process or after he is released. During the time of Yitzhak Rabin, for example, Rabin sent a secret messenger to me with a document for me to sign detailing what I could and could not do upon release; I signed. "The same thing occurred with Bibi. We had excellent relations with him; he treated us with respect and did not mock us or treat us with contempt. (B.G: unlike with Sharon) "When we knew what Bibi was planning to do, we warned him to have a backup plan for when the Americans reneged. We told him that the Americans would promise my release to get what they want and at the last minute, they would renege. "This was told to him at a private meeting, face to face. He laughed and said he knows the Americans very well. Sharon is no Rabin, and he is no Bibi. He is just the opposite. Which brings me to Barghouti." A MAN WITHOUT HONOR "Barghouti is coming out", said Pollard. "How do we know? We were told." Who told you? Pollard throws a quick glance in Esther's direction. "Okay. Olmert told us." [J4JP corrects this misquote:: Jonathan actually said that a close associate of theirs had been informed by Olmert.] Specifically, Olmert said that Israel is grooming Barghouti and preparing him to be the next leader of the Palestinians. What is more, we were told that Barghouti intended to run for President of the PA against Abu Mazen, but Elliot Abrams, during his visit to Israel, met with Barghouti's people. He gave them ironclad American promises regarding Barghouti, which induced Barghouti to drop out of the elections. "This is the way one goes about preparing someone for release. That is the point. The meeting with Barghouti was done in secret; promises were made to him; he was asked to keep a low profile. None of these things have happened in my case, in spite of all of the spin by Sharon's people." In response Ehud Olmert told Ma'ariv: "I never spoke with Pollard, not about Barghouti or anything else. I also never spoke with his wife, nor have I met with her or spoken with her about any other subject. I have no idea how they came up with this story." [Justice4JP Responds: It is true that Olmert did not speak directly with Jonathan, but to a very close contact of the Pollards. In the coming months, watch the headlines for Barghouti. It will soon become apparent who is telling the truth. See Also: Yediot (Hebrew): Government Officials Recommend: Free Barghouti http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2005/061005a.htm] Now back to Pollard in prison. "I have been told: only Sharon can free you. Just like Nixon was the only one who could make peace with China. This would be true if we were a normal country. But Israel is not a normal country. Israel is a country that is ruled by a corrupt, twisted, sick, self-centered political establishment - in short: a perverted version of Disneyland." "Let me tell you something. Not long after Bush was elected in 2000, someone close to the President contacted my wife. (B G: this person had a certain share in helping Bush to become elected.) They told her that a request for my release by a religious figure, with the initiative coming from Jerusalem would be looked upon favorably. "Esther flew to Israel at once to meet with HaRav Mordecai Eliyahu, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, to put the initiative together. She detailed the plan to Prime Minister Sharon at a meeting attended by HaRav Eliyahu, my attorney Larry Dub, the late Rechavam Ze'evi, and the Prime Minister. Sharon asked for the name of our contact in Washington, the initiator of the plan, and he was told. He did not respond, he just continued to write things. Everyone thought that he must be writing important notes. But my wife got a little closer and had a look at his notes. "Do you want to know what he was writing? Nothing! He was doodling the whole time we were sitting there! Sometime later Gandhi (Ze'evi) spoke with Sharon. He called us and said that he was ashamed of the Prime Minister's response. We asked why. He said: "The Prime Minister said that the only way he would bring Pollard home is in a coffin." QUESTION: Over the years you have implied that Sharon may be abandoning you because he does not want the level of his involvement in your operation to be revealed. Among other things, the head of LAKAM the bureau you worked for, was Rafi Eitan, who was known as Sharon's dirty tricks man. Is there anything to this? "Sharon is a man who has shown himself to be completely indifferent to the casualties of war which fall around him as he pursues his goals. Contrary to the myth of his bravery as a general, the fact is that his political career was built upon blood, and it means nothing to this dictator. What we are talking about is a fatal character flaw. Sharon is a man without honor. It is impossible to embarrass a man without honor. "Moreover, I was asked by Rafi, at a meeting which took place in Paris, to collect political information for Sharon to help advance his career. Behind the back of Rafi, others who were sitting at the table signaled me, shaking their heads and silently indicating "No, no!" I, of course, refused. Is Sharon afraid that I will reveal the names of those he asked me to spy on for him? Is he afraid that it will be revealed to what lengths he was willing to go to advance his own political interests, at the expense of a young and dedicated agent? Perhaps. But you will have to ask him. All I am asking is: Ayfoh ha'boosha? (Where is his sense of shame?)" QUESTION: One of the things you need is a truthful affidavit from your former handler, Aviam Sella who claimed in 1987 that he did not run you, and that he had been nothing more than a first contact, a position which even Israel has retreated from since then. Have you asked Sella directly? "No. No." said Pollard, and he cast a glance in the direction of Nick, the NSA monitor. "Look, he can't do it without the permission and direction of the Government of Israel." "He prefers to remain silent," said Esther Pollard, "to receive his Israeli Government pension and keep his mouth shut." [Justice4JP Note : While it is true that Sella may prefer to remain silent and collect his government pension, the involvement of the Israeli government is absolutely necessary. Without Israel's permission and direct involvement in this process to resolve Jonathan's case, a new affidavit would be useless.] AGONIZING EVERY NIGHT IN MY PRISON CELL QUESTION: When was the last time you had any contact with Rafi Eitan, also known as "Rafi the stinker"? Pollard laughs bitterly. "A few years ago, I saw a copy of the New York Times. On the front page was a photograph of Rafi Eitan who had received some sort of American prize for the creative management of his tropical fruit plantation in Cuba. In the photo he was wearing a straw hat and sipping an exotic tropical cocktail, and it said that he cries every night over Pollard. He cries every night? I agonize every night in my cell while he is drinking cocktails in Cuba! That's all I have to say about Eitan." QUESTION: How did you feel when you heard that Elchanan Tannenbaum, (the dubious character whom Sharon sold to the Israeli public as a hero in peril whose teeth had been pulled out with a pliers), was returned to Israel in such a perfect state of health as to be enviable? "That was beautiful. Sharon's whole tactical process, I mean. When I saw pictures of Tannenbaum on TV I said to myself, 'Wow! Hezbullah's dentists really did a great job of restoring his teeth. They should move to Beverly Hills; they would make lots of money.' "If you want a serious response: the Tannebaum deal was a classic case of a corrupt deal between two corrupt organizations: Hezbullah on the one hand, and Arik Sharon and company on the other. Between a vendor who was trying to sell treif meat as if it were kosher, and a buyer who was trying to convince the people of Israel that the meat was kosher even when he knew full well it was treif (unfit for consumption)." QUESTION: Recently the former Ambassador to the United States, Itamar Rabinovitch, stated that the case of Larry Franklin (the "Pentagon mole" who was indicted recently on charges of supplying classified information to a foreign nation, meaning Israel) as well as the security tensions with the US, which have been caused by the arms deal with China, ruin your chances for release. Your response? "When Mr. Rabinovitch was here in Washington, I very much wanted to meet with him. But he did not come to see me, and he never expressed any special interest in my case. And now suddenly out of nowhere he is making statements about me. Doesn't that seem a little strange to you? The explanation is simple: the State of Israel is preparing the ground for the release of Barghouti. The closer the date of his release comes, the more you will start to hear other 'learned' opinions about 'why it is impossible to free Pollard'. This time it is because of China. Next time it may be because of Franklin, and so on. From a strategic standpoint there is a certain beauty to this rouse. The problem is that one needs to wear a gas mask so as not to be choked by the stench of the lies." [J4JP Note: Israeli media routinely allows the right of response to anyone mentioned in an interview. The responses of Prime Minister Sharon's office below run the gamut from laughable to simply not credible. For further information, there are links to supplemental reading material in the "See Also" list which follows below.] The Prime Minister's media advisor responded to Ma'ariv: "From the time that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was elected, he has worked to free Jonathan Pollard. After the visit of Prime Minister Sharon to President Bush's ranch in Texas this year, he instructed the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Danny Ayalon, to visit Pollard in prison - a step which has never before been taken by any other Prime Minister in the past. As well, there is a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary, Israel Maimon as well as representatives of the relevant Government offices, which deals with the issue." Regarding Pollard's statement that he is being used by Sharon and his people in order to advance the disengagement plan by softening opposition to it, Sharon's media advisor stated: "That never was and never will be. The name of Pollard was never linked to the disengagement plan with the intention of winning over those who oppose the plan." About the appellations "dictator", "Rasputin" and the mention of Sharon's son's (being kept out of prison by their father's massive efforts), the Prime Minister's media advisor responded: "These things are not worthy of response." Regarding Pollard's quote of Rechavam Ze'evi: "Not true; utter falsehood. The Prime Minister never said anything like that or in that style." Regarding raising the subject (of Pollard) in talks between Sharon and Bush this year: "The subject comes up with the American government during every trip that the Prime Minister makes to the United States including his most recent visit." This week, in response to a question in the Defense and Foreign Relations Committee, Prime Minister Sharon said the following about the Pollard issue: "The way to solve this problem is not with slogans, or media releases, but by a discrete route - and that is how we are working." An official in the Prime Minister's office said that he cannot understand what would motivate anyone to question the Prime Minister's treatment of the issue, as if he had no interest in freeing Pollard. After all, there is no dispute, said the same official, that if Pollard were released, it would only enhance the standing of the Prime Minister. See Also: Text: Jonathan Pollard's Letter to Sharon Responding to P.M.'s Declaration: Israel Making All Efforts To Free Pollard http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2004/092704.htm Jonathan Pollard's Letter Responding to PM Sharon's Declaration that Israel Cannot Ask US for Pollard Because "Beggars Cannot Make Noise" http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2003/100203.htm Text: Jonathan Pollard's 20th Anniversary Speech: Don't Trade Me for Barghouti http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2004/112104.htm Crazy Rhythm And All That Jazz: How Pollard Got Left Holding the Bag [Background on the Aviam Sella False Affidavit] http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2004/043004a.htm Response to "Hope of Pollard's Release In Return for Disengagement" - Yediot 04/15/05 http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2005/041505.htm Sharon and Katsav Refuse to Help - HaTzofeh Feature Article http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2001/060101.htm Jonathan Pollard: "TAKE ME OUT OF THE BOR!" - Yediot Feature Interview by Shimon Shiffer, http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2004/050904.htm Yediot (Hebrew): Government Officials Recommend: Free Barghouti http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2005/061005a.htm (English translation, coming soon!) 'Crisis with U.S. Hinders Pollard's Pardon'? http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2005/061505.htm Column One: Pollard's Freedom and Our Freedom - by Caroline Glick http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2005/042205.htm Spotlight on Jonathan Pollard: by Caroline Glick
A Makor Rishon Special Feature in 3 parts:
The Wye Double-Cross Page
Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
| GUSH KATIF |
CORRUPTION CAN'T WAIT
Posted by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein, June 26, 2005. |
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A month ago, Amnon Abramovitz, a senior commentator in Channel 2 TV Israeli news, called upon all his colleagues to protect Sharon like a citron ("Etrog"). "We know Sharon and his sons are involved in criminal affairs but today a few months before the 'Historic Disengagement' plan we should support all his activities and ignore undemocratic decisions or behavior, support closing of inquiry files and allow systematic damage of the settler's human rights." Last Sunday in a special editorial, Yoel Marcus, one of the senior "Haaretz" writers, announced that "Corruption can wait". As Sharon is fulfilling our dreams of gettingrid from the Jewish communities in Gush Katif and North of Samaria, we must postpone all negative information and reporting against the new tyrant. In reaction, Nadav Shraga, a honest reporter (probably the only..) from Haaretz, published last weekend an article under the name "Corruption can't wait". Enjoy the article and remember we have no doubt that in the end every one will know the truth!! The timing of the public debate over corruption is no coincidence. It is directly connected to the upcoming implementation of the disengagement plan. Corruption wasn't born yesterday, and every now and then, as Yoel Marcus rightly pointed out in this newspaper on Friday, there are historic developments that are of such vital importance that the state must concentrate on them at the expense of other issues, no matter how important they may be. The disengagement plan is not such a development. More and more security experts now believe that it is a sure recipe for disaster. It is defective, both from the moral point of view and from the point of view of democratic conduct, but the question of whether or not it is "good for the Jews" is a matter for another discussion. Even those who believe that this is a marvelous plan cannot postpone clarification of the corruption allegations until after the disengagement until one central issue first becomes clear: Was the plan born in honesty and good faith, or was it the product of extraneous and improper considerations? Two respected media personalities, Raviv Drucker and Ofer Shelah, believe that the plan was adopted by Ariel Sharon and his advisors on the assumption that it would lead to the burial of the allegations against the prime minister and his family. In their book, "Boomerang," they describe the events that preceded the decision to uproot the settlements of Gush Katif and northern Samaria. The book attempts to substantiate the claim that was first made months ago by MK Zvi Hendel and journalist Hagai Huberman that "the depth of the uprooting is as the depth of the investigation." On page 365, they write: "Even his most intimate confidants ... are convinced that the disengagement plan would never have been born if Sharon didn't need to turn the spotlights away from the investigations against him and his sons." On page 367, they attribute the following remark to Dov Weissglas: "You must make a dramatic move that will cause everything to be forgotten." In a Channel 2 interview with Nissim Mishal, Shelah and Drucker made the point even more explicit, saying that the investigations had a decisive impact on the birth of the plan or, in other words, the disengagement was meant to help Sharon escape indictment. This is so frightening a possibility that it is difficult to describe it in words. Is it possible that the prime minister, contrary to his natural security and moral inclinations, decided to adopt a plan to uproot 10,000 people from their homes in order to escape an indictment? Did Sharon chose disengagement - despite the fact that he believed, at least at the start, that it was a bad and dangerous plan - in order to save his skin and his seat? Let us posit for a moment that a similar claim had been raised from a different direction, against a defense minister who was involved in a police investigation. Let us assume that that the minister was accused of planning a large-scale military action, not because he felt it was necessary but because someone in his close circle advised him to "do something dramatic that will cause everything to be forgotten." Would not those opposed to the move demand that his motives be investigated and its implementation delayed, without any connection to whether or not he was right? One of the two then: If the allegations are true - and there is no proof yet they are - Sharon must face trial. If they are baseless, Sharon must take the two journalists to court and prove that he is right. When Time magazine published baseless reports that the classified part of the Kahan Commission report about Sabra and Chatila contained information that Sharon had urged the militias to take revenge against the Palestinians for the murder of Bashir Gemayal, he took Time to court and won. Now, in the face of another serious accusation, Sharon is sitting tight and his bureau is keeping mum. MK Hendel, who spoke up before Shelah and Drucker did, has long since volunteered to waive his Knesset immunity so that Sharon can take him to court, but Sharon has not picked up the gauntlet. In the Bar-On-Hebron affair eight years ago, the attorney general and the police looked into suspicions - raised by Channel 1's Ayala Hasson - that Bar-On had been chosen for the attorney general post because of pressure from then-MK Aryeh Deri, who was under criminal investigation at the time. Hasson reported that Deri allegedly had received a promise from Bar-On to help him reach a plea-bargain arrangement. According to the allegations, Deri then threatened to use his political power to undermine the Hebron Agreement if Bar-On was not appointed. The accusations being raised now, even if they are circumstantial, are at least as grave. They need to be examined by the police and the attorney general. The question that must be answered, even before the disengagement, is whether the disengagement plan stemmed from extraneous motives. If, Heaven forbid, this is indeed so - and both supporters and opponents of disengagement must hope that it is not - the uprooting must be stopped and the investigations must be resumed. Moshe Saperstein and his wife Rachel live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, in the Gaza Strip. He is a Jerusalem Diarist, one of the group of Israelis who are recording their experiences living in Israel. He lost an arm while fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He was again wounded in a February 2002 incident when he drove his car into a terrorist who had just shot and killed a young mother traveling in the car in front of him. He writes frequently of his physical and emotional struggles. His wife, Rachel (aka. La Passionara, La P.) works at the Girls High School in Neve Dekalim and published a booklet last year for families dealing with terror victims. |
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OPRAH OFFENDED BY EXCLUSION BUT NOT BY THE PLO
Posted by Join the Boycott, June 26, 2005. |
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Oprah Winfrey will boycott Hermes in Paris for not allowing her in after hours, but she sympathizes with the PLO who want to exclude Jews from their own land. Join the Oprah Boycott. For details see http://www.geocities.com/truthmasters/jointheboycott.htm |
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IF THE MAJOR MEDIA DON'T REPORT IT, DOES IT MEAN THE TERRORISTS HAVE
DECLARED PEACE?
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 26, 2005. |
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This is a round-up of the most recent terrorist actions - most of which are unreported in the major media. The media are philosophers of the Bishop Berkeley school. He said that if a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, it doesn't make a sound; in fact, in his insulated thinking, the tree doesn't exist. The media's variation is: if they haven't reported it, there's been no terror attack; the Arabs have stopped their game plan to destroy Israel. Problem is: real people have died. But maybe in the world of PR, if they can make people believe terror attacks have diminished, it's as good as the real thing. This is a news item from today's Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). Terrorists continue to attack Israelis, even as two victims of Friday's murderous shooting are being brought to their final rest. An Arab man stabbed an Israeli Border Guardsman in his neck shortly after noon today in eastern Jerusalem. The attack occurred near Damascus Gate, and the victim was treated on the spot by an emergency medical crew... An IDF unit found and safely detonated a 40-kg. (88-lb.) explosive device just north of the Kisufim Crossing into Gush Katif. Roadside bombs of this nature have killed many Israeli soldiers and civilians... Two mortar shells were fired at N'vei Dekalim over the night... An IDF force noticed a terrorist cell preparing to fire anti-tank rockets at the Jewish community of Ganei Tal. The soldiers fired only deterrent fire, however, with no intention to hit, and the terrorists in fact escaped... In another incident today, an anti-tank rocket was fired at an IDF vehicle near N'vei Dekalim; no one was hurt... In what is merely the latest incident of teenagers being recruited for Palestinian terrorism, a 14-year-old was detected today trying to carry a gun through the Kalandia Checkpoint, north of Jerusalem. The boy was taken for questioning... Israel's security forces are on the track of those who perpetrated the murderous attack on Friday, working on the operative assumption that they were of the Islamic Jihad. The army has also begun replacing checkpoints on roads in Judea and Samaria. Of 300 such checkpoints, both mobile and permanent, no fewer than 280 were removed in the past few weeks, in the framework of "gestures" and "restriction-easings" towards the Palestinian Authority. Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, quoted in an Arab newspaper in Lebanon, warned that if Israel goes after terrorist leaders, the diplomatic process will end immediately. Abu Udai, a leading terrorist of the Jenin branch of Fatah's military arm, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, threatened that "suicide bombers will shake the heart of Israel and Tel Aviv" if Israel does not stop arresting terrorists. Following Friday's murderous attack, an Arab-owned store in Hevron was burnt this morning, and a local Arab reported that a "Jewish settler" beat him up. A mortar shell was fired last night at northern Gaza... Snipers fired at IDF outposts on the Israeli-Egyptian border last night, and at other outposts in Gush Katif over the Sabbath... In under-reported Jerusalem violence of last week, Arabs hurled nine firebombs on two consecutive evenings at Yeshivat Beit Orot. The local emergency force of the yeshiva caught two of the attackers on the first night, but the next night, the attackers were able to escape. No one was hurt in the attacks. |
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THE RETURN OF THE KAPOS
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 26, 2005. |
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Sunday June 26, 2005: the modern day Kapos of Israel arrested one of their own for speaking four words that threaten their evil plans. Speaking, even when it is not under the Fascist umbrella of 'incitement', is not permissable in Israel. The intimidation and fear tactics are improving against those unwilling to bow to the image, the imaginations of peace created in the minds of devils. The Image they refuse to bow to is the vision of the man of peace for his Palestinian State on expropriated Jewish land. They will not go willingly or silently. Soon U.S. Army General Ward will lead the charge against these 'extremist Jews' opposed to the peace of the Fourth Reich and who have the audacity to build homes on their land. They are considered the enemies of peace by the followers of Satan and his Road Map for Israel. The Islamic terrorists are encouraged and emboldened by their every word and act. You have to be under the spell of hell, not to see this. The New Jewish Kapo's work well and obediently for their masters in Washington. Kapo General Shimon Peres wants more weapons for the Palestinian Terrorist Authority. They are not killing enough Jews as of yet. (Exerpt from Haaretz) "Israel Radio reported that one of the soldiers, a member of the Engineering Corps, was arrested after shouting "Jews don't expel Jews" during the incident." Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. |
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DISENGAGEMENT DISSENTERS SUBJECTED TO WORSENING PRISON CONDITIONS
Posted by Herb Sunshine, June 26, 2005. |
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Worsening of the prison conditions for the Jewish kids/adults still
jailed in the "anti-disengagement wing" of Masiyahu prison: Some very
disturbing news appeared in one of the mailings that the authorities,
due to their anger at their own inability to break the spirit of the
(mostly young) detainees, are acting to deliberately worsen their
conditions. Some of the steps taken include: limiting their time
outside their cells to 1-2 hours (during which they have to bathe,
make phone calls, etc.), cancellation of the "Beit Midrash Masiyahu",
a Torah study group for the prisoners, cancelling their right to pray
in a minyan except for Mon., Thurs. and Shabbat, and about 2 weeks ago
a group of young girls beings sent to a dungeon-like room in
isolation, and even sending to isolation those who complain about the
worsening conditions, and in general the increasingly brutal way the
authorities speak to the prisoners.
All of this, of course, in addition to not allowing the high school kids in Masiyahu to take their Bagrut exams. Two of the detainees are not even allowed to make calls home or to get visits from family. In another incident, the prison authorities entered the cell of a prisoner who has been there for about 2 months already, and using the excuse that they're conducting a "search", took away all of his Torah study material. In spite of all this abuse, the prisoners are doing their utmost to maintain their high morale and spirit. In addition to coming to the weekly Melave Malka across from Masiyahu to give support, the recommendation is to call the prison authorities and complain about the treatment these prisoners are receiving, especially as they have not been accused of anything (innocent till proven guilty) and that you will be publicizing this scandal and atrocity to the press and to any other outside source if the conditions are not corrected immediately. Recommended to make your points aggressively for 2-3 minutes (preferably in Hebrew). Complain also about the lack of freedom of religion (right to pray in a minyan, etc.). The idea is to get hundreds of people making phone calls to Masiyahu every day. Just be prepared to get hung up on. Don't answer any questions re your name, address etc. - just launch into immediately into your tirade. Recently the prison changed its phone numbers first publicized in the Hadoar Hakatom newsletter, due to the immense number of public pressure phone calls there as a result. Following is a list of the new phone numbers: FAX: 08-9776351 RECORDED MESSAGE: 08-9776716 LIST OF EXENSIONS Direct line - secretary - 08-9776700 secretary - 1 officer in charge of prisoners - 2 social worker - 3 officer in charge of education - 4 Personnel dept. - 5 registration officer - 6 officer in charge of release - 7 switchboard - 8 Please note the new phone number for the switchboard of "Honenu", the volunteer group of lawyers defending disengagement opponents - 159 950 4020. Herbert B. Sunshine is Professor of Law (US). He and his wife Miki live in Jerusalem. |
| GUSH KATIF |
OLEG CARTOON: STALIN AND SHARON
Posted by Women in Green, June 25, 2005. |
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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 |
| GUSH KATIF |
NEW VICTIMS OF DISENGAGEMENT TERROR; POLICE AGENTS OR SINCERE OPPONENTS
TO DISENGAGEMENT?
Posted by Voice of Judea, June 25, 2005. |
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1. One dead, two injured - more disengagement peace After a week of bloody and fatal attacks in Israel, the Arabs have again launched an attack, this time, in the Southern Hevron Hills, near Beit Hagai. Avichai Levi, 17, was murdered in the attack, after Arab terrorists opened fire on a group of Jewish youth, standing near the bus stop. Several others were wounded in the attack. Another Jew was injured by an Arab sniper in the Shomron, near Haras village. Voice of Judea Commentary: Disengage by removing the hostile Arabs and not by expulsion of Jews. Stop the terror disengagement now! Vote in an independent emergency referendum. Throw our enemies out or our brothers vote now at http://www.mishal.org 2. Pollard lashes into PM Sharon In an interview published in Ma'ariv, June 24, 2005, Pollard lambasted Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government. Here are some choice excerpts: If the Prime Minister would invest in my case a fraction of what he has done to protect his sons from serving time in prison, I would be free long ago." Voice of Judea Commentary: Batia Medad wrote a powerful article that appears on Arutz Sheva.com. She addresses the Pollard issue in her article: Jonathan Pollard has been jailed for twenty years under the most severe conditions for following the terms of American-Israeli defense treaties, which the United States blatantly ignored. There is no precedent for such punishment. The documents he passed to Israel concerned her defense needs, which were included in treaties between the two countries. Not even the most serious espionage by spies from the USSR, during the Communist regime, received such severe punishment. Doesn't it make you wonder whom America considers friend and foe? 3. Labor corruption reaches all-time-record The Likud is smiling as more reports unravel the unprecedented extent of fraud and forgery in Labor party registration ballot forms. Labor is postponing their primaries until after the police and internal investigations are completed. Observers note that as many as 43 percent of the ballots may have been forged. 4. Right-wing extremists, police provocations or mainstream legal protest? It is hard for the average Israeli to make heads-or-tails of the news reports coming out of Maoz HaYam - the hotel compound in Gush Katif. The police claim that right-wing extremists in the compound attacked local Arabs and that the Jews might upset the delicate balance in the area, if they are not arrested or at least expelled from the Gaza Strip, prior to the disengagement. Two different messages seem to be emerging from the compound, said to be housing some 200 people. On the one hand, Nadia Matar and Jewish Gazan officials are claiming that the hotel inhabitants will do nothing more than legal and peaceful opposition to government eviction orders. However Itamar Ben Gvir and other former Kach activists there are threatening fierce resistance to any attempt at evicting them or other Jews from Gaza. Nadia Matar concludes a recent op-ed by writing: The use of force and violence, attacks against leading members of the government, shooting at soldiers and the like will only cause us harm. Sharon and Peres know this, and so they are undoubtedly cooking something up along these lines. Similarly, at a recent Bayit Leumi conference, Moshe Feiglin and Bayit Leumi leaders urged the jubilant crowd to be careful not to use any form of violence in the struggle to stop the surrender of Gaza and Northern Shomron, lest this hurt the image of the anti-disengagement camp. Organizers repeated that any protester who uses violence will be classified as a police informant provocateur. Voice of Judea Commentary: Listen closely! The use of violence or the use of more extreme tactics does not necessarily hurt the cause of those who use violence. The use of more extreme tactics does not make someone an informant or a provocateur either. After all, the Yesha Council, feels that Feiglin and Matar are hurting the cause by toting a harder line than that of the official "settlement" movement. If the rightwing moderates of the various persuasions truly believe their own rhetoric - which the disengagement will lead to, G-d forbid, thousands of attacks and fatalities, then why would they be so unsympathetic to some people who threaten the use of force to try and prevent that horror? If it is a question of tactics and an issue of what will be more effective, then who is to say that the fear of a bloodbath in the hotel would not serve as an effective deterrent to prevent the eviction? And who is to say that the average Israeli is not moved and shaken by the threat of violence? Maybe the simple guy in the street sees people willing to use force to stop the disengagement and says, "Hey maybe we need to rethink this, it may lead to bloodshed these people are serious, this is a serious issue." Let us remember that the left threatened armed resistance and civil war in the past, when the issue of Arab transfer was raised. For this reason, that suggestion has always been considered beyond the pale and unrealistic. If the extent of the struggle to stop Jewish expulsions stops at peaceful and passive civil disobedience, then this might explain why it is considered a practical, democratic decision to expel Jews from their homes. Yesha is entitled to lead a passive struggle with "pareve" messages. Manhigut Yehudit, Nadia Matar and Bayit Leumi are entitled to believe that "roadblocks" and peaceful civil disobedience are the way. And others are entitled to believe that they must make a more serious front to challenge the government. This does not make any of the above camps traitors, informants or enemies! 5. Dogs To The Rescue Of Jews In Gaza? In a moving letter sent from a woman living in "Shirat HaYam, Gaza, a woman resident thanks a Jewish canine unit for sending dogs to protect her vulnerable village. To HELP THE HAGEDUD HAIVRI SAVE LIVES IN ISRAEL. HELP THEM BUY, BREED AND TRAIN SPECIAL DOGS TO SNIFF OUT TERRORISTS. HELP THEM SUSTAIN THEIR VOLUNTEER HANDLERS AND COURSES. SEND A GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION TO
Arabs are stepping up attacks. Help save Jewish lives! 1000 DOLLARS SPONSORS A HANDLER AND DOG TRAINING AND GUARDING FOR ONE MONTH IN A VULNERABLE JEWISH TOWN. VISIT www.defendisrael.net Subscribe to Voice of Judea emails by sending an email request to jsid@dorsai.org |
Avichai Levi (Arutz-7)
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THE NATION DENIES FREE SPEECH FOR DERSHOWITZ
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 25, 2005. |
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This is called "The Nation Seeks to Deny Dershowitz Free Speech." The original is archived at http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=601 It is always a matter of great amusement to see Far-Leftist moonbats, those who support all the anti-American dictatorships on the planet, whine about the "suppression of free speech" whenever a non-leftist criticizes them. And it is particularly amusing to see the The Nation whine when Alan Dershowitz dares to utilize his own freedom of speech. Jon Wiener, writing in this week's issue of The Nation, can't control his bladder due to his outrage over the fact that Dersh wrote to the Governor of California, yep - to the Ahnold Himself - to suggest that the state-owned and state-financed publication house of the University of California NOT publish a book by Norman Finkelstein. Finkelstein is an anti-Semitic crackpot who has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as a Holocaust Denier. Employed by DePaul University as an assistant professor in political science, Finkelstein regards Holocaust Denier and neonazi David Irving to be a great historian. Yes, that is the same DePaul University that fired Professor Thomas Klocek for daring to defend Israel in front of some campus jihadniks. Finkelstein, when he is not bashing and libeling author/philosopher Elie Wiesel and other people for daring to be survivors of the same Holocaust that his mentor David Irving claims never took place, saves special spleen for attacking Dershowitz for daring to support Israel. Finkelstein wants Israel to be destroyed so that the world can have a second Holocaust of the Jews that Finkelstein can claim never took place. The distinguished historian Omer Bartov from Brown University compared Finkelstein's scribblings to the old czarist forgery "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". Our guess is that "The Nation" interpreted that as a compliment for Finkelstein. The Ahnold's people turned Dersh down. Now while we suppose that even crackpots like Finkelstein are entitled to the protections of free speech, we see no reason why the innocent taxpayers of California should be raped into paying for the proliferation of Finkelstein's filth. Finkelstein can get all the "free speech" he wants on the pages of "The Nation" and "Counterpunch," as well as the many neonazi web sites who adore him. Dershowitz has invested considerable energy in exposing Finkelstein as a neonazi buffoon. The main reason for Dershowitz's letter to the Governor seems to be that Finkelstein libels him in the "book" in question. Finkelstein has been claiming that Dershowitz plagiarized some material from another writer, Joan Peters's From Time Immemorial. He did not. Wiener writes in The Nation: "The body of Beyond Chutzpah shows Finkelstein to be an indefatigable researcher with a forensic ability to take apart other people's arguments. The core of the book challenges Dershowitz's defense of Israel's human rights record by citing the findings of mainstream groups, including Amnesty International, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch." In other words, Finkelstein quotes from other discredited Bash-Israel propagandists to prove his "case" against Israel and against Dershowitz. Why not quote from Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky to prove that America is the aggressor against Islamic terrorists? The main claim of Wiener and Finkelstein against Israel? "Since then Israel has killed three Palestinians for every Israeli killed." Of course, since the Americans killed far more Germans and Japanese in World War II than the numbers of Americans killed by those two countries, then the dimwitted duo no doubt regard the Americans as the real oppressors and criminals in THAT war! "The Nation" had earlier run a sycophatic piece praising Finkelstein's scribblings and comparing Finkelstein ethically to the Prophets of the Bible, written by an anti-Semitic lecturer from Ben Gurion University in Israel named Neve Gordon. Wiener tries to justify his endorsement of Finkelstein by repeating endorsements of him by extremist anti-Israel self-hating Jewish leftists, as if such endorsements strengthe Wiener's case rather than in fact helping prove how anti-Semitic Finkelstein is. Wiener also repeats some fabricated citations that have been falsely attributed to historian Raul Hilberg, as if he endorses Finkelstein's writings, and also some actual citations taken out of context in which Hilberg expresses some limited agreement with some minor points that Finkelstein has made. This sort of selective citation to make it seem that Hilberg endorses Finkelstein's Holocaust Denial would get Wiener an F in any serious history course. It is all well and good that "The Nation" wishes to defend the free speech of Holocaust Deniers and promote their point of view in the magazine, but why are they not willing to extend that same right of free speech to Dershowitz and allow him to express his opinion to the Governor of California? 2. "Trent University's Self-Hating Moonbat" is archived at http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=596 We figured it was only natural for the Cockburn team to have recruited Michael Neumann as a Counterpunch Cockroach. Neumann is one of the worst bashers of Israel in Canadian "academics" and he is a devoted member of the Cockburn Cult, which believes that just because some people think that all Jews should be murdered is no reason to label them anti-Semites. Neumann dutifully turns out pro-anti-Semitism pieces that have appeared in Counterpunch. Like the Cockburns, he regards Americans and Israelis as barbarians. His most memorable comment was: "I think we should almost never take antisemitism seriously, and maybe we should have some fun with it." This was followed by: "Israel has committed war crimes. It has implicated Jews generally in these crimes, and Jews generally have hastened to implicate themselves. This has provoked hatred against Jews. Why not? Some of this hatred is racist, some isn't, but who cares? Why should we pay any attention to this issue at all?" Ernst Zundel seems to have an academic follower north of the border! The Canadian Jewish Congress wrote a letter of complaint to Neumann's employer, Trent University, about his naked anti-Semitism. As the matter attracted greater attention, Neumann repudiated the statement (without denying its authenticity), then apologized to the CJC. Neumann proudly proclaims himself a follower of the Swedish nazi who sometimes calls himself "Israel Shamir". Neumann is a Jew-hating professor of Jewish extraction, just what the Cockburns love. He teaches "philosophy" at Trent University in Canada. He is also a close associate of "Rabbi" Moonbat, Mikey Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine. We keep expecting the Tikkun people to discovery one of these days that socialism does not work and so to change the name of their trashy little magazine to "Tycoon" instead. Anyways, Neumann's new contribution to the Moonbatmosphere is a piece this weekend in Counterpunch in which he bemoans the failues of the Left. We thought his most laughable line was this: "Since the 1960s, most of the silliness and snobbishness of the left has vanished: nowadays leftists tend to avoid jargon and don't carry on like a Che Guevara Mini-Me." We suspect he is talking about a Left in some parallel galaxy. He does accidentally get a couple of things right: "Given its current message, the left has no plausible way to address these patriots: in fact the left's message gives them reason to support the war effort." We agree entirely. Last year Jonathan Kay from Canada's National Post did a superb job of "outing" the jihadnik from Trent. Here are a few citations: Since the Al-Aqsa intifada broke out in 2000, hard-left academics and activists have sometimes blurred the distinction between hatred of Israeli policies and hatred of Jews. To excuse suicide bombings as a legitimate option of the "oppressed" (so long as the victims are Jewish), to recycle the lies of Jenin and other modern-day blood libels, to demonize Israel as "genocidal" while ignoring the far worse calamities in Chechnya, Sudan, Algeria and elsewhere - all these tactics reflect a mindset that many Jews find indistinguishable from plain bigotry. 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. |
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MADRASSA TEACHER CALLS CHILD RAPE VICTIM A JEW
Posted by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, June 25, 2005. |
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My Dear Friend, Brothers And Sisters! I am extremely shocked and annoyed to send you all the following news, which appeared in local daily today. Please read this news and kindly let me know your reactions. Moreover, as peace-loving person, please spread this news to others, so that the world will know the 'world' we are living in here. Please excuse me for being so much emotional and angry. Yours ... Shoaib The Madrassa Teachers Committee in Banshkhali, Chittagong, eastern port city in Bangladesh, made nasty attempt to save rapist madrassa teacher Abdus Sattar. Principal of the madrassa, Mufti Feroze declared the victim's family as 'Jews', reports vernacular national daily Shamakal. In this connection Public Prosecutor (PP) of Women & Children Repression Court, Mohammad Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan expressed his anger saying that, "rapist remains Muslim while the rape victim innocent child's family became Jews by the fatwa of the radical clerics". Rapist Moulvi Abdus Sattar surrendered before the court on Thursday. His bail prayer was rejected by Hassan Shahid Dawood, judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal No. 1, and send the Moulvi to jail. On 18th June, first year (preliminary) pupil of 'Jami'a Millia Azizia Quasemul Ulum & Orphanage' was victim of barbaric sexual abuse by it's teacher Abdus Sattar. Mother of the child, being panicked observing continuous bleeding of her daughter, took her to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for a check-up. Doctors at CMH, after check-ups, informed the mother "your daughter has been raped". The victim's father, a member of the armed formes, on receiving urgent phone call from CMH, rushed for Chittagong from Dhaka cantonment. Next day, the mother of the victim took the child to the madrassa along with other local people for the child to identify the rapist. The victim showed the Moulana (teacher) pointing her finger towards him. The father of the victim immediately fainted and collapsed on the bed in for the teacher. Principal of the madrassa, Mufti Feroze told everyone present, "lets see what happened". Taking his chance, rapist Abdus Sattar fled the place. In the evening, a public meeting was organized by the madrassa committee. In the meeting, all the teachers of the committee said - "it is all a conspiracy against Islam by the Jews. This family is Jew, and they are liars". Father of the victim child burst in tears and prayed 'Let me speak! My daughter is like your daughter too. Please do not label any false blame on us to give chance to the culprit to escape the charges". Madrassa authority mislead the masses. As revenge they also expelled two brothers of the victim, student of the same madrassa namely Rokonuddin and Tamim. The local civil and police administration are seen reluctant to take actions as the family of the victim were termed as Jews by the radical clerics. The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, amd editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com |
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IRRELEVANT VISIONS
Posted by Yrachmiel Elias, June 25, 2005. |
Professor Ya'acov (Jack) Golbert writes about Caroline Glick's
article, which appeared today in the Jerusalem Post:
This is truly one of her best and one of her most important. Please read it carefully and think what it means. The Israeli government is baring the country's throat to the Arabs. If Glick understands that, be sure that the generals in the government also understand it. They are not stupid. They are evil. Israel is desperately in need of regime change. Help us bring this system down and institute a democracy! During his meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Rice that the PA had ceased all incitement activities against Israel. Yet on the same day that they met, the PA's official news service WAFA "reported" that Israelis were sending hordes of wild pigs to Palestinian villages around Hawarah village in the Nablus district to attack them and destroy their fields. The PA's official news service even interviewed Hawarah Mayor Mansour Dmaidi, who backed these ludicrous and incendiary statements. It is not surprising that Abbas brazenly lied to Rice about PA-sponsored incitement against Israel. After all, he lied to her about everything else. Most importantly, Abbas told Rice that he is opposed to terrorism. And yet, Abbas fervently supports terrorism. Abbas complained to Rice - as he complains to anyone who will listen - that Israel's actions to defend its citizens against terrorism make it impossible for him to fight terrorists. This is a logically unsupportable statement. If Abbas opposes terrorism, then he should support Israel's counterterrorist operations. Aside from this, the prescriptions for Israeli action which Abbas sets forth on a daily basis are all aimed at strengthening rather than weakening terrorists. These steps include the release of terrorists from Israeli jails; the elimination of roadblocks meant to intercept terrorists on their way to bombing missions, as happened yet again this week at Hawarah; the re-arming of the Palestinian security services to which he is systematically enlisting terrorists; and a cessation of counterterror operations against all terrorists - to name just a few. There are two theories running now about the proper interpretation of Abbas's actions. The first is that Abbas is too weak to do anything to end terrorism and has consequently decided to embrace the various groups in the hope that in so doing, they will not assassinate him. The other is that Abbas feigns weakness in order to justify his lack of action against the terrorists who he, like Arafat before him, supports. In either case, the fact remains, due to weakness or guile, through word and deed Abbas has made it absolutely clear that he has no interest in doing anything against terrorists. The US, like Israel, has taken great pains to distinguish Abbas's party, Fatah, from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We are told that Fatah is secular and pro-peace with Israel, while Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Islamist and wish to destroy Israel. And yet, the day after Rice left Israel, IDF troops intercepted 21-year-old Wafa Samir Ibrahim at Erez checkpoint in Gaza en route to carrying out a suicide bombing at Soroka Hospital, where she was scheduled to receive treatment for burns she had sustained while cooking last year. Interviewed that evening by Channel 10, Ibrahim announced proudly that she belonged to Fatah and that she wanted to follow the will of Allah by killing Israeli medical personnel and patients. When the Israeli interviewer asked her how she could want to carry out a suicide bombing when Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) has stated that he opposes them, she looked at him blankly and said, "Abu Mazen opposes them? I haven't heard Abu Mazen say that." And yet, rather than withdraw US support for Abbas as a result of his blatant failure to deliver on even the smallest American expectation from him, during her visit over the weekend, Rice simply shored up US support for him. Rice supports continued Israeli security "gestures" to Abbas, like the release of further prisoners. This, even as the night before she arrived, the IDF arrested Rami Muhammad Hassan Kandil in Jenin. Kandil, a member of Islamic Jihad who was among the 900 terrorists recently released from prison by Israel in order to "strengthen" Abbas, was planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel. Rice also supports the transfer of security authority over additional cities to the PA even as Nablus, Tulkarm and Jericho have been used as safe havens, weapons development camps and terror training centers by Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad cells from the moment the IDF relinquished control over them to PA security forces. As the armed attack on PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei by Fatah gunmen in Nablus Wednesday showed, Abbas's claim to have disarmed the terrorists is just another lie. The reason for Rice's insistent support for Abbas is clear. The US, in committing itself to President George W. Bush's "vision" of the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and perhaps Jerusalem, has mortgaged its entire Middle East policy to a "solution" of the Palestinian conflict with Israel that has no relation whatsoever to the realities on the ground. The reality on the ground is that Palestinian society is unified by a dedication to the destruction of Israel, not the establishment of a Palestinian state. Abbas is a reflection of his society. In backing Abbas, the US is not shoring up a weak leader who wants a different future for the Palestinians. The US is backing one Palestinian terrorist organization - Fatah - against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Yet since Fatah coexists harmoniously with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, by backing Fatah, the US is effectively backing all Palestinian terror groups. That is, the US commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state as quickly as possible simply blocks its path from developing any strategy for actually addressing the true reality on the ground. And at the same time, by calling for Israeli "confidence-building measures" to strengthen Abbas, the US is effectively weakening its ally. ONE CANNOT be too harsh with the Americans for acting on their delusions since the policies of Israel's own government are even more hallucinatory - and dangerous. This week it was announced that during his visit with Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, Vice Premier Shimon Peres reached an agreement on the deployment of 750-800 Egyptian mechanized infantry forces to the Philadelphi Route, which links Gaza to the Sinai. We were told that Israel has not agreed to the Egyptian demand to deploy a force of 5,000 soldiers along Israel's border with Egypt from Kerem Shalom to Eilat. Nor has it agreed to Egypt's demand to be allowed to deploy attack helicopters, arm its infantry forces with antitank missiles and heavy guns or anchor missile boats at El-Arish. Thursday morning a senior diplomatic source told Israel Radio that the decision not to accede to Egypt's demands is not due to the government's objection to the cancellation of the agreement to demilitarize the Sinai, which was signed together with the peace treaty in 1979. Rather, the government wants to avoid acceding to the Knesset's demand that any substantive change to the 1979 treaty - and a cancellation of the demilitarization agreement certainly constitutes a "substantive" change - must first receive Knesset approval. The prime minister knows that there is no way that he would receive majority support for enabling the deployment of the Egyptian military, which Yuval Steinitz, the chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, notes "has been training for war against Israel for the past 10 years" along the border. And so, in a bid to prevent Knesset oversight, Peres and Sharon have limited their agreement with Mubarak to the Gaza-Sinai border - although according to the committee's legal adviser, this too is a substantive change in the agreement. Yet, a senior security source close to the discussions with the Egyptians told me that in fact, Peres did not reject Mubarak's demands. He accepted them. According to the source, "Peres explained to Mubarak that the Knesset won't approve the agreement now, but that next year, after the withdrawal from Gaza, if Egypt renews its demand, Israel will accept it." In responding to Rice's demands that it coordinate the withdrawal with the Palestinians, Israel has gone back on its previous demand to retain control of the international crossing points to Gaza. Gaza's land passage to Egypt - from which 90 percent of the arms smuggled into the PA emanate - will be controlled by the Egyptians and the Palestinians. The Palestinians will be allowed to build and control a seaport and reopen their airport in Gaza. In addition, Israel has agreed to link Judea and Gaza with either a railroad or a dedicated highway and to ease restrictions on Palestinian entry into Israel. In transferring control over the international borders to the Palestinians, the government, in time of war, is effectively enabling - indeed inviting - the rapid transformation of the Gaza Strip into a center of global terrorism. In agreeing to link Judea and Gaza, Israel is building the Palestinians' supply lines from a post-withdrawal, arms-flooded Gaza to their new center of effort in Judea and Samaria. In empowering the Egyptians, Israel has agreed to enable the largest, strongest and most overtly hostile Arab military force to perch itself on its border. The collapse of Israeli defense rationality inherent in these moves can only be described as horrific. In acting thus, Israel is behaving similarly to the Bush administration. If Palestinian statehood is Washington's irrelevant solution to the irrelevant problem of lack of Palestinian sovereignty, empowering a hostile Egypt and transferring Gaza to Abbas is Israel's irrelevant solution to the irrelevant problem of what Vice Premier Ehud Olmert referred to in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Thursday as the "lack of political progress" toward peace. The "lack of political progress" toward peace is irrelevant because the Palestinians are still actively involved in fighting a terror war against Israel. If either Washington or Jerusalem were willing to base their policies on reality rather than "visions," they would both come up with multiple options for fighting Palestinian terrorism and transforming Palestinian society. In so doing both would be making a great contribution to the cause of democracy and counterterrorism throughout the Arab world. But since both are committed to "solutions" that have no connection to the real world, the steps they adopt to achieve their goals are both counter-productive and dangerous. Yrachmiel Elias and Jack Golbert are cofounders of Netzah Yisrael (www.netzahyisrael.org). |
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A LETTER AND RESPONSUM FROM RAV MORDECHAI ELIYAHU TO THE RESIDENTS OF YESHA
Posted by Evelyn Hayes, June 24, 2005. |
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A Letter to the Residents of Yesha
To our brethren residing in Yesha - valiant heroes who obey His word, actively settling the expanses of the land of our forefathers in Gush Katif - may your welfare forever flourish! My aim in this letter is to support you in the face of the terrible moral injustice in the intention to evacuate settlements and expel Jews from their homes - this shall not happen! There is no more moral act that the renaissance enterprise of the nation that has returned to its land after a lengthy exile, where you fulfill the positive commandment of settling the land of Israel, and there is no greater moral injustice than the attempt to torture your souls with threats of expulsion and abandonment of the land of your forefathers. By virtue of the same moral basis, we must not create disunity amongst the public and the heroes of our army; we do not believe in refusing orders on principle. The soldiers who will be told to carry out the crime, will answer: "I cannot." And if they are forced to do so, they shall sit on the floor and weep with the family that others wish to expel from their home. It is our obligation to protest against this terrible moral injustice. And to those who block the roads - this should be done only on condition that alternative routes exist. We shall not block a road when there is no alternative route, and we shall not thereby, G-d forbid, come to endanger human life. He Who knows all the generations from the start, Who answered Avraham, our forefather, at Mount Moriah - He will answer us, and bring our merit to light, and no-one will halt the Divine path of the endeavor of the national awakening of the nation of Israel that has returned to its land. 9th Sivan 5765
The Rabbis of Gush Katif and others G-d be with you, Re: Response to your questions At the meeting which took place today, you posed some practical questions. Most of the questions concerned the letter that I sent last week. The following are the questions and the answers: Is the [Jewish] settlement of [the areas of] Gush Katif and the northern Shomron included in the commandment of settling Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel)? Settlement in Gush Katif and in the northern Shomron falls into the realm of the commandment of settling the land in a most glorious manner and according to Torah law itself. It is these inhabitants whom the prophet Yirmiyahu [Jeremiah] describes in the following verses: "Go and call out to Jerusalem, saying, So says God: I remember in your favor the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, when you walked after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel is holy to G-d; the first fruits of His produce. All that devour him [Israel] shall be held guilty, evil shall come upon them, says G-d." Land that was not inhabited at all - you inhabited. You planted and sowed. Happy are you! When the Rav declares, and writes, "It shall not be!" - is this a prayer or the reality? "It shall not be!" is both a prayer and the reality. We pray that this evil intention shall be nullified, and we are certain that the prayer will help and that the government's evil decision will be cancelled. We must reinforce our prayers to the Creator of the universe as strongly as we can, that He should cancel this sinful act of expelling Jews from holy ground. I have been asked whether one may rely upon what the Rav [Rav Mordechai Eliyahu] has said, and move to Gush Katif? The move of any family to Gush Katif strengthens both the residents and the faith in G-d's promise to our holy forefathers, "I shall give this land to your descendants". It benefits Am Yisrael in real terms. People in Gush Katif are building homes, out of faith. Many farmers are planting trees and sowing seeds in hothouses, with the harvest due to take place after the date set by the government for the evacuation of Gush Katif. We have been asked by residents whether they should continue investing money in building, sowing and planting. Yes. Certainly. There is great value in these actions, which express faith in the Creator of the universe. I have already said several times - and I repeat here - that I promise to come and attend the redemption of the fruits and grapes of the fourth year, with G-d's help. "For G-d will not abandon His nation, nor shall He leave His inheritance." (Tehillim 94) Should a farmer prepare himself an alternative source of livelihood based on one's obligation to invest personal effort for the sake of one's sustenance? A person fulfills his obligation towards his household concerning sustenance by investing in settlement and agriculture in Gush Katif. Sustenance is in the hands of the blessed G-d. Involvement in alternative sources of livelihood may weaken the spirit and harm the farmer's resilience, the resilience of the community as a whole, and also, thereby, their livelihood. Those who support the expulsion interpreted the Rav's words, as broadcast on television, to mean that people should prepare themselves practically, and pack their belongings, for "the lot has fallen", and "the decree has been decreed". Is this what the Rav meant? No "lot has fallen", and no "decree has been decreed". I repeat that we believe with complete faith that the prayer of each one of us - and certainly of all of us together - will cancel the government's evil decree. Therefore, people should neither pack up nor perform any act that weakens the settlement or the residents, who have faced thousands of explosions that have been fired at them with great courage; who have courageously faced people trying to weaken them - thank G-d, without success. Thank G-d we are meriting to see the miracles that the Holy One performs for us; the Holy One loves us with an eternal love, and He protects us like an eagle protects its young. An officer in the permanent forces, or a policeman who makes his living from that [occupation] - must he resign from the I.D.F. or the police force in order to avoid carrying out the prohibited act? "It shall not be" - this is a prayer and the reality. This is the principle according to which life should be conducted. It is impossible to win out of despair. "Retreat brings defeat". Therefore, the personnel of the security forces need not resign in advance for fear that the expulsion will be carried out. They should inform their commanding officers that they are unable to expel Jews, and request exemption from training drills leading up to the expulsion. Is it permissible for volunteers in the civil defense, etc., to aid the expulsion, either directly or indirectly? There is definitely no license at all to volunteer to participate in this criminal deed, which is also prohibited by the Torah. A soldier in the reserves who is called up for reserve service, and who - by mobilizing - contributes to and advances, directly or indirectly, the expulsion order: is he obligated to try and obtain an exemption from reserve duty? I will answer you although I believe that it will not happen, with G-d's help. As to the question itself: since in any case many people are exempted from reserve duty owing to reasons that are unimportant, it is certain that in order to prevent such a criminal deed he must request an exemption from reserve duty and not aid either directly or indirectly. If his request is denied and he is threatened with imprisonment, must he participate in the expulsion order? We have said already that this is a biblical prohibition. Therefore the soldier must tell his commanding officer, "I am not refusing orders, but I cannot carry out this order." And if he sits in jail because of this statement - it is [counted as] a merit to him, and he is fortunate for being caught for observing the words of the Torah. What, then, does the Rav mean when he says not to refuse orders on principle? We do not wish to take apart the army that protects the lives of [the country's] inhabitants and citizens. Therefore, we do not declare our refusal to obey orders. We simply stand helplessly and say, "We can't do it." If a soldier in the regular forces receives an order to remove a Jew from his home, what should he do? The soldier must say, "I can't". If they force him to perform this forbidden act, he should go into the family's home, sit on the floor, weep together with them, and [thereby] avoid transgressing the prohibition by "sitting by and not performing it". I was asked by the owner of a civilian company whether he could sign a deal involving works related to the expulsion. It is forbidden to try to profit from the distress of others. One who does this will not see any yield! Is it proper not to contract the services of a company that is participating in the expulsion of Jews? One should not aid people who are committing a transgression. Is protest in the form of blocking roads, as undertaken by port workers, taxi drivers, and others, also permissible against the expulsion of Jews We must increase "causeless love", not "causeless hatred". On the other hand, there is an obligation to protest against the proposed expulsion. Therefore I repeat what I published in the letter: "It is permissible to block roads only where there is an alternative route". Should action be taken against a resident who has signed a contract with the "Expulsion Authority"? Action should be taken for the unity of the camp. [.] He should be persuaded with pleasantness, to bring him back to the general camp. In summary: everything should be done for the sake of the unity of Am Yisrael. Let us continue to pray that the decree of expulsion be annulled. In any event, we must avoid using force or lifting a hand against each other - neither against a soldier, nor against a resident. I conclude with a blessing for the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Amos: "I shall bring back the captivity of My nation, Israel, and they
shall rebuild desolate cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant
vineyards and drink their wine, and plant gardents and eat their
fruit. And I shall plant them upon their land and they shall not be
plucked any more from their land which I have given to them, says the
Lord your G-d". So may it be His will, Amen.
Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because
their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The
Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact
her at haze@rcn.com.
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IMPACT US POLICY. HELP PASS THE SAUDI ARABIA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2005
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, June 24, 2005. |
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This URGENT ACTION ALERT supports an extremely important legislative bill sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter, with six other Senators as co-sponsors. Called the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 - S. 1171 is probably the most significant bill on terrorism yet and deserves to receive unanimous endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it now resides. To quote the Weekly Standard of June 7th, "The bill's text stands as an indictment of Saudi Arabia, an inventory of evidence against the role of its rulers in enabling terrorism. The Council on Foreign Relations concluded almost three years ago that Saudi Arabia is the main source of al-Qaeda backing and that Saudi officials have refused to take serious action to end it. David Aufhauser, former general counsel of the Treasury Department, called the Saudi state the "epicenter" of global terror financing. The Saudis have also subsidized half the annual budget of Hamas. The bill provides for sanctions, including a bar on exporting special military technology to the kingdom and restriction on travel by Saudi diplomats in the U.S." Your response to this ACTION ALERT will request that your Senator sign on to this critically urgent bill. URGENT ACTION ALERT to Impact US Policy CLICK HERE to send the following message to your Senators, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, President Bush, Prime Minister Sharon. Please change the wording if you would like to personalize it. It is much more effective if you paraphrase the letter, using your own wording. If your Senator has already co-sponsored the Bill, please add a "thank you" note to your message expressing your appreciation. Dear Senator, SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION "The Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005" by Stephen Schwartz. On June 7, Sen. Arlen Specter introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 - S. 1171, with cosponsors Sens. Evan Bayh, Susan Collins, Tim Johnson, Patty Murray, Russ Feingold, and Ron Wyden. New cosponsors are Sens. Jon Corzine, Frank Lautenberg, and Debbie Stabenow. The bill's text stands as an indictment of Saudi Arabia, an inventory of evidence against the role of its rulers in enabling terrorism. The Council on Foreign Relations concluded almost three years ago that Saudi Arabia is the main source of al-Qaeda backing and that Saudi officials have refused to take serious action to end it. David Aufhauser, former general counsel of the Treasury Department, called the Saudi state the "epicenter" of global terror financing. The Saudis have also subsidized half the annual budget of Hamas. The bill provides for sanctions, including a bar on exporting special military technology to the kingdom and restriction on travel by Saudi diplomats in the U.S. (Weekly Standard)
CLICK HERE to read the full text of S. 1171, sponsored by Sen.
Arlen Specter (R-PA) and co-sponsored by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Susan
Collins (R-ME), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Russ Feingold
(D-WI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The Unity Coalition for Israel
(http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide
coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200
groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we
have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and
Secure Israel."
"Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians
resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state
of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united
voice, our message is being heard!"
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| GUSH KATIF |
TRANSLATION OF ATTORNEY GENERAL MAZUZ'S WARNING OF TOTAL ANARCHY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 25, 2005. |
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This is a news item from Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com. It is archived at www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=84497 It is really important to translate this into standard language. Mazuz: "I am scared stiff. There is a very good chance all Hell is going to break loose in the near future and I am a very big target for revenge for a lot of potentially dangerous people. Not to mention that there is a good chance that the bigger crooks will use me as a scapegoat. Therefor, I had better start making nice, convincing conciliatory noises very fast." (IsraelNN.com) Attorney General Menachem Mazuz warns of total anarchy as a result of the implementation of the Gaza/Shomron Disengagement Plan. In an interview with the weekly Makor Rishon newspaper, Mazuz expresses his fears of disorder reaching uncontrollable proportions. Mazuz added that he understands the feeling of Yesha (Judea, Samaria & Gaza) residents, "whose entire world is being destroyed," adding one cannot expect their opposition to be limited to symbolic ineffective actions. The attorney general adds he is certain that the opposition will reach difficult stages, and this is unavoidable, and therefore he will exhibit understanding and tolerance wherever and whenever possible. The attorney general rejected allegations that his appointment was to "safeguard" Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's standing and to ensure the disengagement is carried out. 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. |
| GUSH KATIF |
TERROR AND MURDER IN THE SOUTH HEBRON HILLS
Posted by Hebron Community, June 24, 2005. |
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At about 4:50 this afternoon, terrorists shot at a group of teenagers near the gate of the Beit Haggai community, in the southern Hebron Hills. As a result, one youth was killed and two others critically wounded. Another man was slightly wounded when his car was shot at also. An silver-colored Arab car, traveling from north to south, shot at the three teenagers and a nearby automobile. Two of those shot are from Beit Haggai, and the other from a nearby community. The wounded were taken to a Jerusalem hospital by ambulance. A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: Why must our predictions come true? We warned, and we warned again, and again and again. But we don't talk to deaf ears, we talk to a wall. At least ears have the capability of hearing. However, Israel's present junta has no ears, they are not deaf, they don't hear anything, they don't see anything, they don't do anything, anything but damage. Damage that costs people's lives, Damage that endangers the existence of the state of Israel. Update: June 26, 2005: This morning sixteen year old Aviad Mantzur, from the Otniel community in the Southern Hebron Hills, died from wounds suffered during Friday afternoon's terror attack. Doctors were forced to amputate his legs on Saturday in an attempt to save his life. Aviad's funeral will leave his Otniel home at 2:30 this afternoon. At six o'clock tonight he will be buried at the Mt. of Olives cemetery. At twelve noon today, the funeral of murder victim Avichai Levi
will begin at his home in Beit Haggai. The funeral procession is
scheduled to pass by the Prime Minister's House in central Jerusalem,
in protest of continued acquiescence to Arab-American demands,
deteriorating security, and the planned expulsion from Gush Katif and
the northern Shomron. Avichai Levi will be buried at "Har HaZatim" ?
the Mt. of Olives cemetery, in Jerusalem.
You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron,
POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333
or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230,
hebronfund@aol.com
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WASHINGTON TO CO-OPT EGYPT AND SAUDI ARABIA TO THE MIDDLE EAST
Posted by Tamar Psion, June 24, 2005. |
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DEBKAfile Exclusive: Washington plans to co-opt Egypt and Saudi Arabia
to the Middle East Quartet. Jerusalem is gravely affronted by a step
that would grant Arab governments a position of influence on a
supposedly impartial body dealing with the Israel-Palestinian
conflict. DEBKAfile's sources in Washington and Jerusalem report that
Israeli leaders suffered a painful jolt when US secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice gave them the news during her visit to Jerusalem on
June 19. She said Washington would offer Saudi Arabia and Egypt equal
status with the other Quartet members, the United States, the European
Union, Russia and the UN secretary-general. It would be the first time
in the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict that Arab
governments are invited to sit alongside world powers on an
international body which claims an impartial say in Israel's military
and diplomatic conduct. Jerusalem learned later this week that the
administration had made up its mind to extend invitations to Saudi
crown prince Abdullah and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and would
do so without consulting Israel's views on the matter. Russia's
Vladimir Putin went along with the plan. Thursday, June 23, Rice
conferred with all the Quartet members and obtained their assent. It
is therefore settled,
According to DEBKAfile's sources in Jerusalem, Rice explained to Israeli leaders that the invitations were a short cut to buying Egypt's consent to cooperate in securing the Gaza Strip after Israel's pullout and for getting the Saudis to finance its reconstruction. Israeli officials protested that it made no sense for Egypt to oversee the actions of its own security forces in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli border. Neither was there any justice in letting the Saudis, who do not recognize Israel and who bankroll and sponsor the Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to destroying Israel, have a say in Israel's future. The US secretary replied that neither Egypt nor Saudi Arabia could be asked for cooperation without a seat on the relevant international bodies. This development puts the lid on the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's claim that disengagement would be good for US-Israeli relations and lead to an improvement in Israel's world standing. |
| GUSH KATIF |
POLICE CALL OFF RAID ON GUSH KATIF HOTEL
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 23, 2005. |
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The very important point made here is that enough people can stop the police. This should be emphasized by the organizers of "Orange Sheet" and bring encouragement to the participants. This a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com It is archived at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050623/D8AT4PIG0.html (IsraelNN.com) The army called off a scheduled police raid on the Gush Katif Hotel after several hundred anti-evacuation protestors arrived at the hotel, according to Israel Radio. The plan was thwarted by the presence of thousands of people who came to Gush Katif for an evening prayer rally. The plan was for police to arrest several suspects in last Saturday's fracas with local Muwasi Arabs. Activists suspect the army will give orders to the police to raid the hotel in the near future in an effort to weaken the anti-evacuation camp. 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. |
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ELON MOREH RESIDENT ARRESTED WITHOUT A WARRENT
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 23, 2005. |
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It should always be remembered that a policeman is only a policeman as long as he enforces the law. As soon as he steps outside the rule of law, he is a goon, a thug, a terrorist and not a policeman. In the very unique situation of Yeshah we have an even more serious complication. What gives a policeman of the State of Israel the right to do anything in Yeshah? As far as Israeli law is concerned there is no difference between Yeshah and London. Israel's Supreme Court has recently clearly stated that Israeli citizens living in Yeshah have no human or civil status and thus rights under Israeli law. That means that the residents of Yeshah are not within the jurisdiction of Israeli law. So how can a Israeli policeman arrest someone in Yeshah with or without a warrant'? Furthermore, this was obviously a bureaucratic arrest and not even a judicial one. That means some high ranking bureaucrat and not a judge ordered the arrest. That is how people disappear in a Police State. No warrant, no record. Had there not been a ruckus and INN coverage, the police could then easily deny any such arrest ever happened and claim the family is lying. Had the terrorists that kidnapped him grabbed him on the road or some place else, away from talkative witnesses, who would have know what happened to him? After all there is no court record of the event and therefor there is no need for an arrest record to be make by the police. He would have just disappeared. What we are seeing is the natural degeneration of a Junta desperate to save itself by any and all means possible. While it is self evident that leaders and activists are at the greatest risk, no one now is free of the danger of arbitrary arrest or disappearance. This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com It is archived at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050623/D8AT4PIG0.html (IsraelNN.com) Elon Moreh resident Baruch Shri'el was arrested during the night after police from Ariel station came to the family home in the Shomron. Police explained to his parents that they came to arrest Baruch, but when asked to do so, could not present a warrant. What police did do however is to call for reinforcements and they took Baruch into custody by force, without displaying a warrant, against his parents' will. The reason for the arrest remains a mystery. 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. |
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PUT UP A PARKING LOT
Posted by Carrie Devorah, June 23, 2005. |
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When it comes to taking land, Target, Walmart, Costco, the Palestinian Authority are seeming the same these days. Something about raising taxes, public good and eminent domain. Eminent domain is a constitutional tool the Federal Government uses to take private property from an unwilling seller for a demanding buyer at a court-determined price, dispelling the notion that a man, owns his home, his castle and has property rights. Supreme Court Judge Scalia, pondered in the matter of "Kelo v New London," the notion "You can always take from A and give to B, so long as B is richer." Perusing the proposed Gaza disengagement, it seems the Palestinian Authority may be richer in political capitol than Israeli residents who invested 30 years of sweat, tears and shed blood into their soil. June 19th, international media reported US Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice's recommendation the 1600 homes of Gush Katif be razed to the ground making way for an anticipated 1.3 million Palestinians, and others, to take over Jewish homes the day after Tisha B'Av, 9th of Av, the day the Temples, first and second, were destroyed. June 19th is also the day Congress proclaimed to honor Fathers with "appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities," most commonly baseball games, barbecues and presentations of ties. The President of the United States, in the White House annual proclamation says deep gratitude should be expressed to America's dad's for their "selfless love and sacrifices." The proclamation said fathers facing "the daily tasks of being mentors, protectors, providers, and friends," should take pride "from the moment their children are born." February 4th 2004, an American lad made his father proud. The boy, all of 12, recited the mourner's kaddish, Jewish prayer for the dead, "Yisgadal v Yiskadash Y'hai Rabah..." "May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified..." High atop Mountain of the Resting, Har Hamenuhot, Israel's cemetery, Section D, the boy wept surrounded by family, six brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles from North America, mother, friends, strangers, his 75 year old grandmother. His 18 month old baby brother sandwiched between two grief stricken women was rocked back and forth as their sobs echoed the heavens and hillside. The mother clutched her tape recorder, a constant companion since the phone call came the afternoon of January 29th, advising her, with no explanation, to take husband's dental records to Abu Kabir, the body identification Center. That day since, her reality became a "fast-forward, playback" of recorded grief expressed for her husband's brutal death. Once upon another lifetime, she used the same tape recorder when he spoke to audiences about raising children in a difficult world. Now, 6 feet below his 7 orphaned children at-risk lay their hero, mentor, their dad. The murdered man's mother laid a stone, as is Jewish tradition, on grey cement poured to form the foundation for the marker that would officially sunset her son's life. Talk was already underway as to which words to chisel onto his tombstone, the sum total of this dad martyred in a battle of politics. An ideal he earned in Hebrew day school growing up back home in Canada was to emigrate to Israel. So, one day he did, wife in tow, two daughters, his two year old son knowing but never quite accepting that one day his son Yitzchak may have to become an adult overnight. A year ago, the morning of January 29th, the dad's life ended tragically on a commuter ride doing what dads do - traveling to work to provide for his children and wife. Months before his murder, Yitzchak's father missed the Moment Café bombing. He missed the No. 2 bus detonation near the Wailing Wall and missed being murdered on another morning commuter bus. But this Thursday AM, destiny knocked. 8:38, Yitzchak's dad watched as the 24 year old Palestinian in the seat before him stood up, laughed, then detonated the bomb vest worn beneath the bulk of his coat. The Roadmap For Peace, former President Carter, not President Clinton, was the architect of, claimed another 11 lives for the current Palestinian Intafadah holding Israel hostage. Stats state the incident of attempted terrorist attacks in Israel spike when US envoys are there discussing the Roadmap as they were that day. Well, the rest, as they say, is headlines. Evening of the 29th, news of the murder of Yitzchak's father- author, radio show host, eminent psychologist Yechezkel Chezi Goldberg, brutally savaged on Egged Bus 19 outside Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's residence in Jerusalem- circled the globe many times over followed by "If They Don't Cry Who Will," an editorial he wrote. Since? The bombed shell of Egged Bus 19, he traveled on that ill fated morning, was taken to the Hague and across America, a visual to people unsure what death by terrorism looks like. The 2005 Presidential proclamation says lessons fathers teach will remain with their children a lifetime, enabling them to "meet life's challenges and be good citizens." On his birthday, two months before his murder, Chezi gave each of his seven children his gift for their lifetime, individualized letters expressing his love and aspirations for whom they will become, "the character and values," the President says, "they will carry with them into adulthood." Yom Kippur, 2004, Yitzchak became bar mitzvah, a man, according to Jewish tradition. The 13 year old boy stood before the quorum, honoring his murdered father with the mourner's prayer, "Y'hey sh'mey rabbah m'vorach l'olam u'l'almey almahyah..." "May His great Name be blessed forever and ever..." Surrogates have stepped into Chezi's big shoes. The boys' teacher Rabbi Shmya, a father of 8, comes nightly to recite the Shma, Hear O Israel, with the boys. Sabbath, Jeb descends their town's steep hill only to walk back up with the boys to synagogue which sits on Jeb's back doorstep. The baby has stopped crying for Abbah, for his dad. My brother. When our family mourned in Israel with Chezi's community, people I had not seen since I was a little girl in Toronto, came with Chezi stories, from as far away as Gaza to offer support. I noticed they slung guns on their hips. I remember they used to carry dolls. The Presidential Proclamation says, "Responsible fatherhood is essential to a compassionate society in which all children are surrounded by love and taught the importance of respect, honesty, and integrity." Of the dignitaries who came to offer condolences, one did not. Word was, Prime Minister Sharon, the man upon whose doorstep my brother was blown apart won't set meeting with terrorism's mourners. But Sharon does hold meetings. I read accounts of his visit to Crawford Texas. I photographed him with Tony Blair on the doorstep of No. 10. I photographed him inside DC's Convention Center addressing AIPAC and heard tell about his closed door meetings before he left the building. Must be something about orphans of the most recent Intafadah. Wire services reported Shimon Peres saying, time being of the essence, architects of the current Roadmap are seeking creative solutions to this matter of the evacuation. My brother's murder gives me the right to offer thoughts. Weigh the example of NY's Shinnecock Indians demanding back rent for land they've laid tribal claim to in NY. Consider giving the Palestinians a casino at the gate-way from Israel into Gaza. Land there is not exactly multi-million dollar real estate Martha Stewart and celebrity neighbors built mansions on, but as a negotiating tool, casinos, something Sharon's staff patronizes in Egypt, how can anyone argue with a win-win solution providing bona-fide Palestinian refugees financial independence instead of dependence on the World Bank. The bargaining chip back rent the Indians demanded for the last 150 years if they they don't get their casino permits? Chump change. $1.7 billion dollars, as of 2004... Or maybe consider a thought I gleaned amidst the afterglow of a multi-cultural gathering of parents joined with sons and daughters at their Father's Day graduation from UCLA. Political and religious differences were set aside in favor of helium bouquets thronging the air, squeals of delight, flashes from cameras archiving a milestone in family's lives. One young man wore Israel's flag on his back. Muslim women wore elegant hajibs. A multitude of crosses, crescents and Stars of Davids decorated napes and necks. I thought out loud to an observant Sikh, "Maybe what the Mid East needs isn't a Roadmap to Peace but a college style graduation fest where people of all faiths jubilantly celebrate on the basketball court named for the man whose 12 steps of success inspired thousands of starry eyed students, John Wooden." Maybe Wooden's ideals should replace the failed Road Map signposted in blood including my brother's. I worry about my sister-in-law with 7 children committed to living in the Land my brother was murdered for. "Leave Israel?" she said, "Never," honoring Chezi's wish. I fear Fall 2005, the projected date for the attack intended to push Israel into the sea. I read leading terrorist groups are mobilizing across the way from Gush Katif in Rafah and other places. Odd isn't it, after Israeli Defense Forces were condemned for razing terrorists homes with Caterpillars in which insurgents' ammunitions and arms smuggling tunnels were found, Palestinians may be using modified bulldozers from Caterpillar's Gaza reps to tear down Jewish homes if the disengagement goes through I stood somewhere along the city's main road, my last visit to Beitar. The street stretches from the hilltop towards the neighboring Arab community below. I asked my brother's friend, Abie, about the withdrawal, about the wall Sharon has been building declared to be Israel's future border. I pled with Abie to tell me the kids be ok. I've described many times over how he looked skyward, palms turned toward heaven. "You have to believe, Carrie," he answered. "Hasgachah Prati, divine providence," "what will be will be." Day in, day out, in the Nation's Capitol, I am aware of technological advancements. And military threats. I am adept at calculating how far crows fly... But without "the orange" as a buffer; without my brother to watch over his children if the rumored strike manifests, I shudder. Can a 13 year old believe he can really fulfill the role the White House proclaims for fathers? He already felt he had to step into his dad's shoes and "provide." Was it only a week earlier, maybe two, that I photographed NY's Israel Day parade up 5th Avenue. From 54th street all the way up to 73rd, I captured creativity in defiance of Parade promoters warning not to flaunt "the orange." Life valued in Judaism above almost all else, protesters against the disengagement splashed the forbidden hue on sashes, shirts, hats, everywhere. Morty Klein carried an orange flower in his hand. Only one. The Talmud says taking a single life is like destroying an entire world. On my way from the parade, noting New York parking lots charge $40 plus a day, set me thinking. Maybe, Wolfenson, Peres and Condi might mull over Joni Mitchell's inspiration. "Pave paradise and put up a parking lot." Carrie Devorah is an investigative photojournalist based in Washington DC. Her themes are faith, philanthropy, homeland security and terrorism. And watching over the legacy her brother left behind, seven kids in a settlement slated, in time, according to Sharon's plan, for "disengagement." www.goldbergmemorial.org |
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BRACING FOR COLLAPSE
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 23, 2005. |
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After you finish reading the following analysis by David Bedein, you will question as to why a government of Israel and the development of a first class military. The Question revolves around the build-up of a Terrorist Palestinian Army, heavily armed with smuggled in weapons, explosives, ground-to-air missiles plus the home grown Kassam Rockets - while the Sharon government looks on in silence. Worse yet, we observe the Bush government ignoring the collapse of the Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) while demanding that Israel give up more to include the release of even more convicted and jailed Terrorists. Even the most dedicated Leftists are beginning to see that the "Disengagement" invited a next round of attacks. Like a deer, frozen in the headlights of a car, so too is the Sharon government along with the Knesset. This ineffective government must be immediately dissolved with every decision of theirs reversed. Bedein's article is archived at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/authors.asp?ID=1856, June 21, 2005. Introduction The Palestinian Authority is quietly bracing for the prospect of collapse amid the unprecedented violence by members of the ruling Fatah movement. PA leaders have acknowledged that they cannot quell the chaos in the Palestinian areas or count on the loyalty of the police and security forces, in many cases bolstered by Western aid and training. Indeed, the PA reports that many of the gun battles that rage through Palestinian cities have included security officers who have joined Fatah operatives in extortion and other criminal activities. Rather than order an offensive, PA leaders have sought to appease Fatah factions and offer them jobs and housing while promising security commanders that they would delay or revise plans to reform the security services. At the same time, senior PA officials have used the official media to blame Israel for the violence and recycle canards used before the Palestinian war in 2000. Abbas Loses Control Outwardly, the Palestinian leadership has been engaged in preparations for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and the acquisition of hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid. But the leading topic in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is reflected in PA-controlled newspapers, has been the loss of control by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the defection of security commanders and their forces to militias established by the ruling Fatah movement. These days, militants from Abbas's own party threaten the chairman, his aides and virtually anybody who fails to cooperate. In muted but clear tones, the PA newspapers report daily the attacks by Fatah, often bolstered by security officers, against PA officials, their families and security installations. PA officials have been fleeing or plan to leave the West Bank for Jordan and other Arab states. The most popular Palestinian daily, Al Quds [1], has been jammed with ads by travel agencies, a remarkable development considering the poverty of most Palestinians, their lack of passports and other restrictions. The ads are for the Palestinian elite, who are looking to escape the dangers of living in Palestinian cities. Indeed, the assessment by many is that the PA could collapse by late 2005 as the split within the ruling Fatah movement widens. PA security services have been unable to stem the increasing violence in the streets of Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Fatah factions have been engaged in gun battles in Ramallah, the center of Palestinian government, while police have largely stood by or even joined in. Much of the reporting in the PA media has been oblique. Reports of attacks on PA installations or officials have been taken from international news agencies in an effort to avoid the targeting of Palestinian reporters by Fatah gunmen. Many of the attacks are reported in condemnations by prominent residents or by Fatah offices. [2] Editorials in PA dailies have expressed deep concern over the shootouts and attacks on PA officials and installations, but rarely point fingers. Indeed, most of the time they blame Israel. [3] Internal Violence Marks Greatest Threat Slowly, columnists and PA advisers have made it clear that Abbas\s loss of control represents the greatest threat to the regime and Fatah, which have become indistinguishable. They reflect the fear within the Palestinian leadership as well as among ordinary Palestinians and stress the lack of confidence in Abbas. The assessment is that Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank would only exacerbate the violence in Palestinian cities and embolden Fatah gunmen and their allies in the PA security forces. As one leading commentator put it, " I don't see how we're going to gain control over the [Gaza] settlements, if we can't control the Fares Market [in Gaza City]." [4] Indeed, even PA leaders have no longer sought to hide the extent of the crisis. PA Prime Minister Ahmed Quriea [5] warned that he would suspend the Cabinet unless the security forces were ordered to halt the chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Qureia, however, has blamed Israel for 90 percent of the violence and established a panel to oversee efforts to restore order. At the same time, he warned that the gun battles between Palestinian gangs did not constitute resistance to Israel. Qureia has blamed the lawlessness in the PA areas on the failure of the leadership to take any decisions. Qureia warned the security personnel to either act as police or step down and stressed that the government would no longer be able to carry out its duties amid the chaos. "If no end is put to the security violations which are taking place, this government will not be able to carry out its responsibilities," Qureia said. "We cannot tell our people that we are responsible when fire is opened on the citizens and their property is attacked. These violations have sometimes reached the extent of murder." [6] Qureia has threatened to arrest and even execute law-breakers. He pointed to the PA execution of four people in the Gaza Strip on June 12 in a move approved by Abbas. At the same time, the prime minister admitted that much of the lawlessness was the work of the very police responsible for maintaining order. The PA has nearly 50,000 police and security forces and Qureia acknowledged that they were not doing their jobs. Step Up or Step Down "We also tell the security services that we will not allow any violations whatsoever and every official must shoulder his individual responsibility," Qureia said. "Any official who fails to hold those accountable for their actions must step down. Also anyone who rebels must step down. We cannot remain silent." Hours after Qureia's address on June 15th, the prime minister faced the wrath of the Fatah movement. About 40 Fatah gunmen, many of them wanted by Israel for attacks, stormed Qureia's winter home in the West Bank town of Jericho. Qureia was not home. The gunmen said the PA had reneged on its commitment to supply them with jobs and housing. [7] Instead, the PA stopped paying the Fatah insurgents. Qureia suggested that the PA leadership was under threat from Fatah. He indicated that he and other senior PA officials were unable to carry out their official duties out of fear of the Fatah gangs. [8] As of June 15th, 19 Palestinians have been killed in the internal violence in PA areas during 2005. [9] Cop as Criminal The PA has acknowledged that many police and security officers spend their time playing criminals rather than cops. The official PA media have reported the involvement of security officers in gun battles in Ramallah on June 12. The media also reported the killing of three people in the Gaza Strip on the same day. On June 11, about 40 gunmen attacked PA security headquarters in Gaza City and waged a three-hour gun battle with officers in the facility. Later, Fatah operatives opened fire near the home of a senior Palestinian commander, Brig. Gen. Rashid Abu Shback. Moreover, several explosions in bomb-making laboratories were reported in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. In the Jabalya refugee camp, a PA police officer was abducted. The media did not report the arrest or prosecution of suspects. Increasingly, the Palestinian media have been voicing concern by Fatah figures of a collapse of law and order that would sweep all the political gains of the PA. The media have been quoting prominent Palestinians who speak of an atmosphere of terror. Palestinian dailies focused on the killing of four members of a Palestinian family in Gaza City. The Interior Ministry said unidentified gunmen stopped the car, shot three of its passengers dead. Later, a fourth Palestinian was also found to have been abducted and killed. Despite condemnations, the PA failed to indict anybody. [10] "Armed thugs who are roaming our streets are imposing a reign of terror and intimidation on the public," said Abdul Sattar Qassem, who ran for the position of PA chairman in January 2005. "Palestinians today are afraid to speak out for fear that they might alienate the thugs. Some are even afraid to honk the horns of their cars for fear of being shot or beaten." "In Nablus and Ramallah you sometimes see people on the streets fleeing for their lives while members of rival gangs are shooting at each other. And who are these thugs who are destroying our security? They are members of the security forces or people who are on the Palestinian Authority's payroll or their friends and relatives." [11] Abbas as well as the PA leadership, however, has ignored the urging of ordinary Palestinians for order. PA security commanders have insisted that the violence reflected feuds between powerful families. Brig. Gen. Ali Hosni, head of security in the Gaza Strip, however, acknowledged that the spate of killings and attacks have created a state of chaos in the Palestinian territories. [12] Senior PA security officials have pointed to the need for more weapons and equipment for the Palestinian security forces. But PA-financed commentators have not endorsed this call. Indeed, one commentator said Abbas raised the salaries of PA police by 20 percent in 2005. He also replaced all of the senior security commanders. This, however, has not stemmed the disloyalty of PA security forces. [13] PA Encourages Insurgency Arsenals Instead, Palestinian leaders have tried to appease Fatah and other insurgency groups. First, Abbas postponed Palestinian Legislative Council elections, scheduled for July 17, after Fatah warned that it would lose to Hamas. That appeared to set off a wave of Fatah-inspired violence in the PA territories. PA Foreign Minister Nasser Al Qidwa said the Cabinet could function even under threat from Fatah factions. Al Qidwa, regarded as close to Abbas, said Fatah and other Palestinian insurgency groups must continue to carry weapons until what he termed the end of the Israeli occupation. He said the PA would not collect weapons from Palestinian militants until Israel ended its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In his words, "The peace plan [roadmap] backed by the United States calls for ending the occupation, and according to the international law, as long as the Palestinian territories are occupied, the Palestinians have the right to resist." Not surprisingly, Hamas hailed Al Qidwa's statement. [14] Hamas spokesman Mushir Al Masri said the movement would not abandon what he termed "resistance." He said Hamas would not dismantle its military wing and that any statements to the contrary were baseless. [15] Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath echoed Al Qidwa's assertion. He denied that the PA was committed to collecting weapons from Palestinian groups. He acknowledged that the roadmap contained Israeli and Palestinian requirements, including the disarming of insurgency groups. But he said the PA has linked any such move to the implementation of Israeli commitments. "Such a commitment can be found in the text of the roadmap plan for peace, but this commitment was postponed until Israel recognizes the plan and dismantles settlements and stop constructing the separation wall," Shaath said. [16] Abbas, who has been meeting Palestinian insurgency leaders, also issued a decree to free Islamic Jihad operatives suspected of planning a suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv nightclub on Feb. 25. Jihad leaders said the movement reached agreement with Abbas for the release of the Jihad operatives, who had been detained in a PA prison in Jericho. Under the accord, the operatives would remain in Jericho until Israel withdrew from Kalkilya, the hometown of the Jihad members. [17] Abbas' aides have raised the prospect of reshuffling the current Cabinet and restructuring the Interior Ministry. Under one proposal, the ministry would be split into two. One would deal with national security and the other with interior security. Yusef, who appears to have lowered his profile over the last few weeks, would be responsible for the civil police, and Amin Al Hindi, the former head of PA General Intelligence, would be appointed chief of the security services. [18] Abbas Leaves Power Vacuum Abbas's inaction has also left a political vacuum, increasingly filled by his opposition. Palestinian politicians announced a new political part termed Kaffa, or "Stop," apparently inspired by the pro-democracy Egyptian organization of the same name. [19] The Palestinian movement said it would fight PA corruption as well as chaos in the PA areas. The movement has also demanded the establishment of elections promised by Abbas. So far, the PA chairman has not set a new date of legislative elections. Indeed, the absence of democracy has been felt in many PA institutions. Six members of the Palestinian National Initiative have resigned, citing what they termed "the absence of a democratic atmosphere" in the organization. The Palestinian People Party (a communist wing) has called for the establishment of what it termed emergency committees to resolve disputes in the PA areas. The emergency committees were set up during the Palestinian uprising in 1988 and replaced when the PA was established six years later. Looking for a Scapegoat The response of the PA leadership has been to divert the frustration of the people toward Israel. Taking a leaf from Guantanamo, the PA accused Israeli prison guards of destroying a Koran and flushing it down a toilet. Chief PA Islamic judge Sheik Yasser Tamimi said Israeli guards desecrated the Koran in two incidents in June. The PA official pledged to bring this up in an urgent meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Israel has insisted that no such incident took place. "Desecrating our holy book is provocative, not only to the Palestinian Muslims, but also to all Muslims all over the world," Tamimi said. "Carrying out such action is scheduled and programmed against the Koran, against Islam and against all Moslems in the world. I believe that what happens against the Koran is to test the Muslim reaction and see how big this reaction or this protest in case Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is attacked or demolished." [20] At the same time, PA officials reiterated a long-held canard that Israel was poisoning the Palestinian people. PA Environment Minister Yusef Abu Safiya, in a repeat of charges made before the outbreak of the Palestinian war with Israel in 2000, said Israel has flooded the Palestinian market with fruit juice filled with carcinogens. Abu Safiya told the Palestinian legislature that Israeli companies have been using an unidentified dangerous substance in fruit juices since 1982. [21] He said PA security forces have seized shipments of both Israeli juices and biscuits filled with poison. "Such kinds of goods are specifically produced for the Palestinian consumers in the Gaza Strip," he said. In March, Abu Safiya said, Egyptian authorities seized two Israeli trucks that were filled with toys that contained radioactive substances and carcinogens. He said Palestinian merchants were bribing judges to allow the import of the Israeli goods and criticized judges for not banning these products. The minister warned that the Israeli products would lead to an environmental catastrophe in the PA areas. Nowhere is the power vacuum felt more than in the PA-owned media. The days when the dailies featured the statements of the PA chairman on the top of page one have ended. The days of printing the picture of the PA chairman on page one are also gone. Abbas is not Yasser Arafat. Instead, Abbas is often absent from the front page, and when photographed often appears befuddled. Prime Minister Qureia appears to be on the front page as much as Abbas. Slowly Abbas Becomes Marginal Indeed, the commentators in PA-owned dailies are finding it harder to defend what they acknowledge is the increasing withdrawal of Abbas from Palestinian leadership. They cited Abbas's decision in early June to postpone PLC elections that had been scheduled the following month. The decision was meant to save Fatah from a drubbing by the opposition Hamas movement and give the ruling party enough time to reorganize. Instead, Abbas's reversal of his original position that the elections would be held on time was interpreted within Fatah and the PA as a serious weakness of the Chairman. The PA Chairman even failed to win the consent of his rival, Fatah Chief Farouk Khaddoumy, to agree to become vice chairman and succeed Abbas. [22] "President Mahmud Abbas's decision to postpone the legislative elections, which were supposed to take place on July 17, was only the last event in a series of delays and evasions that rendered the postponement inevitable," columnist Talal Okal wrote in defense of Abbas. "But accusing the president of making the decision of postponement based on partisan politics to give Fatah more time to salvage its state of affairs couldn't be further from the truth. The most important issue now is for the PA and all its agencies to assert its clear and decisive determination to complete the democratization process and to declare new dates [for elections] through a serious and responsible dialogue with the factions." [23] But the promise by Abbas to immediately schedule a new date for PLC elections has dissipated. Abbas has linked the setting of a new date of election to a new election law, a process that is not assured in the near-term. Abbas's defenders emphasize that despite his pledge for elections as late as March 2005, new conditions have emerged that complicate matters in the Palestinian political arena. It has become clear to Abbas supporters that PLC elections won't be scheduled before the end of 2005. [24] "What happened in Cairo was an insufficient effort to conduct a dialogue on the election process, especially considering the complicated political conditions," PA commentator Adli Sadiq writes. "However, the postponement of the legislative elections, even indefinitely, is not a crisis for Palestine or for any of the Palestinian factions. It is also not intended to be a way out of crisis for Fatah or any other faction. The whole issue will be easily resolved and taken care of, especially considering President Abu Mazen's determination to complete the democratic process and conduct elections as soon as possible." [25] Little wonder then that Abbas's efforts have been increasingly dismissed by Palestinian insurgency groups. Even as the Chairman meets insurgency representatives, their spokespeople deny the existence of Abbas's declaration of a Palestinian ceasefire with Israel. "The ceasefire is no longer existing but in name and form only," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "The Palestinian factions were unanimous that the resistance option is the only means to expel the Israeli occupiers from the Palestinian lands." [26] Slowly, Abbas has come under criticism in the PA-owned press. The criticism has been oblique but clear to the Palestinian reader. One cartoon ' which appears on the cover page - leaves little doubt that the PA chairman is to blame. It shows a father and son hiding behind a bullet-ridden barricade planning their escape home using military terminology. In back of them is a poster with a picture of a man who looks similar to Abbas and underneath the words "Citizen Security." [27] The Only Issue is Security Palestinian columnists paid by the PA have made it clear that the issue of law and order marks the primary test of Abbas. Some of them warn of the destruction of Palestinian society. One columnist reports on his visit to a Gaza City market where he saw people openly trade in guns and other weaponry while PA police stand by and do nothing. The columnist makes it clear that the police were cooperating in the effort. "Security is the fabric of life," he warns. "Without this security fabric, any other kind of talk is merely words." [28] Unlike Fatah, Hamas has been beaming confidence. The Islamic movement reacted calmly to Abbas's decision to indefinitely postpone PLC elections. Hamas prefers to wait for elections until after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in August 2005. Then, the movement envisions winning a majority in the PLC, and a movement leader said that in such a case Hamas would join a coalition government. [29] The spokesman said Hamas was also prepared to join the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization. In his words, "We are aiming to construct a new political system based on political partnership and mutuality to confront the challenges that threaten the future of our people." With chaos in the streets of Palestinian cities and the Western-funded PA police in alliance with Fatah insurgents, the PA leadership has sought to divert rising anger and violence toward Israel. PA leaders, including Abbas and his de facto chief, Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, have been threatening a new "intifada" or uprising against Israel. The spark could be the purported destruction of a Koran by Israeli prison guards, [30] Israel's refusal to release Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis, Jewish settlements, or the Israeli security wall along the West Bank. Indeed, Dahlan has warned that Israel was establishing the foundation for the next intifada. [31] At the same time, Dahlan does not promise Palestinians of any improvement in their security after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, warning this move could be a "blessing or disaster." [32] Conclusion The power vacuum in the PA has resulted in chaos with Palestinian security commanders operating private militias bolstered by Western funding and training. Abbas, incapable of imposing authority, has been increasingly dismissed as a leader and relies on the goodwill of Hamas and other Islamic opposition groups to remain as nominal head. Hamas prefers to wait until after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to confront Fatah on such issues as power-sharing. The movement believes that it has the armed strength and political influence in the Arab world and in Europe [32] to force a showdown with Fatah. A violent clash between Fatah and Hamas after an Israeli withdrawal is likely. Background: The PA Security Forces The Palestinian Authority has maintained at least 12 security forces, including civilian police, paramilitary troops, several intelligence services and a domestic security agency. Abbas has agreed to a U.S. plan to restructure and merge the agencies into three directorates, which would be trained and equipped under Washington's supervision. In her visit to Ramallah on June 18, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the PA has failed to merge its security agencies and White House security envoy Gen. William Ward remained uncertain over who was in charge of what agency. Rice said the result has been a delay in U.S. efforts to bolster PA forces. Background: The Palestinian Dailies The Palestinian media consist of three daily newspapers. Al Quds has by far the largest circulation of the three and is aligned but not owned by the PA. The newspaper, which in the past was attacked by PA security forces and Fatah gunmen, has been the most cautious in reporting or commenting on the internecine violence in Palestinian cities. Al Ayam and Al Hayat Al Jadida are both owned by the PA. Al Ayam is regarded as the most authoritative daily in terms of current policy in the PA. Al Hayat Al Jadida represents the more militant wing of Fatah and has promoted a reform agenda. Notes: 1. Al Quds. June 16, 2005 2. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 15, 2005 3. Al Quds. June 15, 2005 4. Yayha Ribah, Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 13, 2005 5. Palestinian dailies. June 16, 2005 6. Official Palestinian news agency Wafa, June 15, 2005 7. Al Hayat Al Jadida, June 16, 2005 8. Al Quds, June 16, 2005 9. Al-Mizan Center for Human Rights report, quoted in Palestinian dailies. June 15. 10. Al Hayat Al Jadida, June 16, 2005 11. Wafa news agency June 16, 2005 12. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 14, 2005 13. Atef Saad in Al Quds. June 15, 2005 14. Al Quds, June 16, 2005 15. Al Quds, June 8, 2005 16. Deputy Prime Minister Shaath interview to Voice of Palestine. June 11, 2005 17. Al Ayam, June 12, 2005 18. Palestinian dailies. June 16, 2005 19. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 14, 2005 20. Voice of Palestine. June 13, 2005. 21. Palestinian dailies. June 13, 2005 22. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 15, 2005 23. Al Ayam. June 6, 2005 24. Al Ayam. June 19, 2005 25. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 6, 2005 26. Palestinian dailies. June 16, 2005 27. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 16, 2005 28. Yahya Ribah, Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 13, 2005 29. Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniya as reported in Palestinian dailies. June 16, 2005 30. Al Hayat Al Jadida. June 16, 2005 31. Pg. 1 of Palestinian dailies. June 10, 2005 32. Al Quds. June 16, 2005. Hamas leader Mohammed Ghazal. Report in PA dailies. June 11, 2005. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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COME BACK, COWBOY: WHY PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE IRAQ WAR IS FADING
Posted by Barbara Lerner, June 23, 2005. |
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Four June polls show the president in increasing trouble over the war in Iraq. The poll numbers are bad. But the usual interpretations of them are even worse - and, I think, dangerously mistaken. First, the numbers: In the AP/Ipsos poll, only 41 percent of Americans support Bush's handling of the Iraq war; in the CBS/New York Times poll it's only 37 percent. In the Gallup poll, 56 percent say the war isn't worth fighting. In the Post/ABC poll, almost 60 percent say the same, with two thirds seeing the U.S as "bogged down" in Iraq and 52 percent not believing the fighting there contributes to our long-term security. The biggest majority - nearly three-quarters - say our level of casualties is "unacceptable." Why is the public mood so defeatist? Some say it's because Americans don't have the patience for the long war we face and have grown too soft to accept the casualties we must accept to win. Jim Hoagland blames it on the Bush administration's "lack of serious accountability for lies, mistakes and worse in the military and civilian chain of command." I don't buy the "soft America" argument. I agree that the administration is at fault, but for an entirely different reason: because Cowboy George morphed into Cautious George. Cowboy George was a bold leader, unafraid to take the tough offensive actions we must take to win this war. He led us in the first two years after 9/11, and Americans rallied behind him in numbers so overwhelming they made "soft America" all but invisible. But after our conquest of the Iraqi military in 2003, Cautious George replaced Cowboy George. Cautious George is forcing us to fight with one hand tied behind our back by pretending we are fighting against one country only. In fact, we are fighting a regional war in Iraq, and have been since day one. It's past time for America to acknowledge that fact and act on it. Time to make all the Middle Eastern despots who are pouring money, men, and arms into the battle in Iraq stop. Because the president has not done this, most Americans think we are fighting only against Iraqis - local people, dependent on local resources. In that light, our inability to stem the daily toll of bombs and blood looks like evidence that most Iraqis support terror. Americans don't see that Iraq as worth fighting for, or that kind of war as winnable. Other polls suggest Americans worry, increasingly, that Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia also threaten our security. They fear that by expending so much blood and treasure on Iraq alone, we may make ourselves more vulnerable to attacks from others. Iraq is a difficult place, but this all-dark picture is false as well as dispiriting. Inadvertently, the Bush administration has made it look believable by downplaying the big role that foreign governments and their terrorist proxies play in Iraq. Administration spokesmen rarely pointed to the support - diplomatic as well as military - Iraq's Sunni Baathist terrorists get from Sunni tyrants abroad, and they kept insisting that foreign jihadists are only a minority of the fighters we face. But foreign support is a fact, and harping on the relatively small number of foreign jihadists in Iraq at any one time misses the point. Foreign jihadists are responsible for almost all suicide bombings, and suicide bombings cause a disproportionate share of American and Iraqi casualties. Worse, because foreign jihadists come from all the Arab states as well as Iran, there is an endless supply of them. If we confine ourselves to hunting them down, one by one, only after they infiltrate Iraq, we will be there forever. Far better to act forcefully to stop the infiltration, and do it in a way that sends a message to all terror-succoring states: The free ride is over. The price for continuing to aid and abet the war against us and against a free Iraq has gone up. We can do that with relative ease, because although foreign jihadists come from all over the Middle East, most of them enter Iraq from only one country: Syria. Syria is a police state, a small, economic basket-case of a country that hosts a multitude of terrorist groups and terror training camps, and which is working to defeat democracy in Lebanon as well as Iraq. Syria could stop the foreign terrorist influx into Iraq if it wanted to, and we could make Syria want to. The Turks did it in 1998, when Syria hosted the PKK terror group and sent them across the border to murder Turkish soldiers and civilians. Then as now, Syria claimed it was doing no such thing, but instead of spluttering impotently, Turkey massed her army on the border and made it clear that if Syria didn't end PKK infiltration, Turkey would invade. Surprise, surprise, PKK infiltration from Syria suddenly stopped. We can make Syria stop too, and do it without putting additional strain on our hard-working ground troops. Democracy is a fine long-term goal, but for now, we don't need to remake Syria; we just need to make her stop. We can use our air power to bomb the rat lines that feed terrorists into Iraq, and blow up all the terror training camps and weapons sites in Syria and Lebanon, hitting enemy targets from the Bekaa Valley to the Iraqi border in a new shock-and-awe campaign. That would end the easy re-supply of suicide bombers in Iraq, and reduce our casualties significantly. It would, equally, send a clear message to terror-harborers everywhere: Stop. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has been asking President Bush for a go-ahead to strike back at Syria from the start of the Syrian campaign against us, but has yet to get one. The president's toughening rhetoric toward Syria in recent weeks suggests he may, now, be considering it; and the excellent new tone set by our new ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, reinforces that possibility. If President Bush does order military strikes on enemy bases in Syria and Lebanon, it would mark the return of the war leader so many of us cheered in 2001 and 2002 - the stand-up Texan who made us believe we can win this war. Come back, Cowboy George. America needs you. Barbara Lerner is a frequent National Review Online (NRO) contributor. |
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PR CAMPAIGN FOR EVACUATION OF JEWS
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 23, 2005. |
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One can only wonder and speculate on the planned PR (propaganda) campaign being evolved for after the evacuation to make it all "Look Good". That is what Propagandists do. They chip away at reality and then give it a spin that makes the bad actions of the government look good. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon has his first meeting since February with the Head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen). Even as he has first meeting with Abbas and challenges him with intelligence about the Arab Muslim Palestinian plans for war AFTER THE EVACUATION, nevertheless, Sharon continues with his suicidal unilateral "Disengagement" plan: Give away for no benefit, the homes of 10,000+ Jewish men, women and children, plus the livelihoods they have created in their farms, factories, schools, synagogues...even their beloved dead in their cemeteries. Sharon has an unlimited supply of psycho-babble when it comes to explaining why he is removing some 35 Army checkpoints - even as the Palestinian Arab Muslim Terrorists increase their efforts to by-pass those checkpoints with suicide belts hidden in their clothes. On June 20th a 21 year old Arab Palestinian woman was being treated for burns at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva and, therefore, had a "pass" through the checkpoints. She was discovered with a bomb suicide belt under her clothes. Sharon and his gaggle of corrupt followers are already building a case for the massive attacks predicted by all Sharon's top Army and Intelligence experts ever since this "Plan" for the Deportation of Jews from Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron was broached by Sharon in December 2003 in Herzlyia. Sharon has to have his PR (Propaganda) team working night and day in anticipation of the casualties from Kassam Rockets and Mortars fired into Judea and Samaria and the coastal communities. I wonder if they are thinking of a citizens' revolt with hanging on their mind after they have been hit by Terrorism and have, G-d forbid, lost loved ones? I would guess that, as the Kassem rockets are falling and the bombs burst in air, Sharon will order some sort of counter attack, bragging about how he is protecting the citizens of Israel. The fact that he provoked and enabled the Terrorists to attack and are allowing them to continue to attack - with impunity and malice will be ignored. These deadly facts will be subtly pushed aside and replaced with Propaganda stories about how he "ordered" the Army and Air Force into action - by the bombings of empty buildings after a Terrorist atrocity. The sluggards in the Hebrew Media will, no doubt, support the Sharon they hate - as long as he continues driving Jews out, first out of Gaza and then followed by Judea and Samaria (aka) the West Bank. This media support frenzy will ramp up IF Sharon can stay in office long enough to evacuate the Jews out of the Eastern half of Jerusalem. The Media will back Sharon because their judgement will have been proven flawed and they could never admit that they have poor judgement. Notice how the bombings in Iraq have escalated in the power of their explosives to murder tens of Americans and Iraqis a day. We are told that these Terrorists, trained in urban warfare will spread out all over the world. The distance and power of their bombs and bombers is growing exponentially. "Foreign Fighters" are crossing the border into Iraq - especially from Syria. Who do you think they are? They are all radical Muslim Jihadists - Mujahadeen, with the goal of world domination by Islam's most strict Shariah laws. They believe that conquest by blood is necessary and preferred to peace by negotiations. These Mujahadeen are already migrating into the 7 cities given over to Palestinian Authority control and setting up cells awaiting the "Disengagement" to attack. The Leftists, from David Ben Gurion on through Ezer Weizmann, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak - and now Sharon - had one major goal which was the secularization of Israel on the theory that, if they were not Jews the anti-Semites would cease their pursuit which is why, Moshe Dayan "gifted" the Jewish Temple Mount over to the Muslim Arab Wakf within hours of Jerusalem's liberation in June 1967. Every single Jewish Holy place was to be disposed of so the religious Jews would have no spiritual rallying point. Giving away Solomon's Temple was an imperative in their plan to de-Judaize Israel. Therefore, all the Holy Places, including 58 synagogues, the Temple Mount, the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives were vandalized and desecrated by the Jordanians as a start.. If one didn't know better, it is as if Sharon, in collaboration with Labor's Shimon Peres, had planned for Israel to implode and to first accept the 1967 Lines as permanent borders. Abba Eban called those "Auschwitz borders". While Sharon was thinking "1967", Bush was thinking the 1947 original U.N. Partition Lines. Note! You may have already heard that Supreme Court (ultra-Leftist) Judge Aharon Barak has ruled that the 1967 lines are to be permanent borders. In a word, the troika of Sharon, Peres and Barak have committed treason in the sense that they planned the demise of the Judea-Samaria/Gaza areas without a word to the public or the Knesset. This act of treason would be further confirmed by planning this treachery with foreign governments during the actual state of war. Israel's political system has spiral down over the years into something no less than a criminal regime with exceptionally corrupt leaders. AS for the anti-Jewish Left, one sense a pernicious, permeating evil that is so enraged against their own Jewishness that they would shed no tears if the religious Jews were destroyed by the Arab Muslim Palestinians. The Left is just beginning to realize that the "Disengagement" which causes such great pain to the settlers of the Right that they too will soon share that pain in Tel Aviv and Haifa - and all along the coastal strongholds of the Labor Left. While the Left feels safe in their cities now, the Arab Muslim are building rockets that can reach their cities. The Arab Muslim Palestinians, having gotten Jewish Land for absolutely nothing, are now demanding an expansion of the giveaway both in the North and the South. Everyone in Israel will be within easy range of rockets, mortar, missiles and shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles that will close Ben Gurion International Airport for all time. When, NOT IF, the attacks come, the Jewish people will rage against the collaborators who brought this about. But, then it will be too late. Of course, they will not blame themselves for first cheering the forced evacuation of fellow Jews from their homes. People tend to exonerate themselves from the evils they do because their consciences (if they have one) gnaws at them for most of their lives. But first, they will correctly want to blame Sharon, Peres, Beilin, Olmert, Mofaz, Mazuz and all the rest of Sharon's weak Cabinet as well as the Knesset for NOT protecting them. For all those about to be killed, their relatives and friends will also blame those mentioned above. I doubt that these people who voted in this catastrophe will ever feel safe on the streets of Israel again. So, get ready for a high program of Propaganda by the betrayers of Israel and the Jewish people. They will turn everything that happens or is said on its head in Orwellian "Double-Speak". Somehow, what these political criminals have unleashed on the Jewish nation, will be turned around to say: "It wasn't my fault!" But know: there is a war coming and you look to Sharon, in cahoots with a misguided Bush Administration, pandering to Arab oil Sheiks for fueling the Global radical Muslim Terrorists' expectations. I recommend that you read the parallel article by Nadia Matar, co-chair of Women in Green, which speak to the known historical perfidy of the Left. See below. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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OF BUSH THE UNCHRISTIAN AND SHARON WHO OUTLAWED PHYSICS
Posted by Beth Goodtree, June 23, 2005. |
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The following is the speech I gave in Washington, DC in front of the Israeli Embassy yesterday at a rally to save Gush Katif and the other towns slated for Jewish expulsion and destruction. I wish to thank Matt Finberg, founder of Ascendent/Redemption and StopThe Disengagement.org, for sponsoring this event. Many of the other speakers here have started off with a joke, so I will too. Here it is: Israel has just declared illegal the whole and complete electromagnetic spectrum. I see some of you blinking out there, thinking 'What is she talking about?" Well, Ariel Sharon has declared that any use of an entire portion of the electromagnet spectrum is illegal and inciteful. Why couldn't he declare gravity illegal -- then I wouldn't have to wear a bra. But no, he has banned an entire portion of the electromagnet spectrum. What portion is that? The wavelengths that create what we know as the color orange. In truth, Sharon has banned the color orange because for him it is the color of shame. I say "Shame on you, Ariel Sharon, for planning to forcibly remove peaceful Jewish civilian from their homes and give their hard-worked lands to the very people who have been bombing them, shooting at them, and burning them up. SHAME ON YOU! I repeat: SHAME ON YOU!
So ya wanna hear another joke? The joke here is that there is no such thing as an Arab Palestinian people and yet Bush, the EU and the rest of the world's leaders, as well as Ariel Sharon, Peres and other Israelis worship their phony claim to be a separate and distinct people like a modern day golden calf. Don't believe me? I'll give it to you straight from the camel's mouth one of the high ups in Arafat's terror organization:
This statement was made by Zuhair Muhsein, executive Committee member of the PLO in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw on March 31, 1977. So they admitted to just being a bunch of terrorists created to destroy the sovereign nation of Israel. And yet America, the EU and Russia insist upon recognizing these illegitimate people whose goal is the destruction of Israel. In fact, America is demanding that her strongest ally in the world -- Israel -- amputate large and irreplaceable chunks of herself and give it free, on a platinum platter, to these very illegitimate group of people who have perpetuated 22,000 terrorists attacks in 4 years. How hypocritical of President Bush, who said after 9-11, "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." But apparently, when it comes to a choice between Israel or his personal and financial partners -- the Arabs -- Bush is willing to further humiliate the Jewish victims of 57 long years of war and terror by favoring and promoting an Arab/Islamist agenda of the destruction of Israel, this time piece by amputated piece. But then, I would expect nothing less from Bush, who is not a true Christian, but rather a Replacement Theology Methodist. For those of you unfamiliar with the term 'Replacement Theology,' it means an apostate religion which hijacked authentic Christianity. Replacement Theology Christianity includes some forms of the Methodist church, all of the Anglican church, some forms of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans and the like. They took the bible -- the portion they refer to as the Old Testament -- and totally reinterpreted it. Specifically, what they say is that any time the word "Israel" is used, it really means them -- the Replacement Theology Christians. According to Replacement Theology, the Jewish people are no longer the ones referred to in the bible 'the people of Israel' because, according to the Replacement Theologists, they have fallen out of favor with G-d. According to Replacement Theology, the sacking of the second Temple as well as the Diaspora, the Inquisition and the Holocaust proves that the Jews are no longer the ones favored by G-d to receive and fulfill His divine promises. Therefore, according to them, Jews are not the 'real' people of Israel spoken of in the bible. The worst thing that could have happened to this whole Replacement Theology pseudo-Christianity movement was the re-establishment of the Jewish aboriginal homeland as the State of Israel, in 1948. The reason that this was bad for the Replacement Theologists was that it proved that their reinterpretation of G-d's words was not merely wrong, but absolutely apostate. The existence and reestablishment of the state of Israel as a Jewish nation, as predicted in the bible, utterly proves that these Replacement Theology Christians -- such as President Bush, who is a Methodist -- are not only not Christians, they are directly opposed to G-d's holy words as written out in the bible. And by the way, Kofi Annan is a Replacement Theology Methodist also, which explains his unremitting hostility towards Israel. Which brings me around to the real Christians -- the ones who did not reinterpret the bible to their own advantage and gain, who do not worship at the altar of Arab Muslim oil, and who did not conveniently forget historical fact. Real Christians are the ones who acknowledge that Jesus Christ was a Jewish man living in a sovereign Jewish nation in the very same place as modernly named Israel. Real Christians have come to realize that to oppose Israel or it's existence, or to create a situation which would threaten Israel's survival is to oppose not just the home, people and religious heart of Jesus' world, but to oppose the main desire of Jesus the Jew. Jesus the Jew yearned for a Messiah. It's part of Judaism. And to have the Messiah come, there must be a whole and complete Israel. This is specified in the Bible. To oppose Israel, to seek to destroy or weaken it, to insist that Israel be given over to her enemies is to oppose Jesus and his desires. And if you oppose Jesus, you are against Christ. In other words, you are antichrist. Therefore Bush, in opposing the complete and whole land of the Jews, is anti-Christ. Since Jesus was a Jew and an Israeli, the only true followers of him are those Christians who are Zionists and support a whole, strong and undivided Israel. And I thank G-d for all the good and decent Christian Zionists. And finally, I am living proof that one doesn't have to be an observant Jew to support an undivided and strong state of Israel. My idea of observing the Sabbath is, of course, not to work. But then I like having a cheeseburger while watching my favorite sci-fi movie and playing Boggle on the internet. The last time I was in a temple was probably over a year ago and only because they were serving food. I am neither an observant Jew nor a religious one. But I am a Jew. And unlike some people say, I am not of the Jewish 'persuasion.' No one was standing by my mother's delivery table when she gave birth to me saying "Come on Bethie, please become a Jew!" I wasn't persuaded to be a Jew, I was born that way. And if I were to convert to any other religion tomorrow, there are many in this world who would still kill me because I was born of Jewish parents. This is what is meant by knowing who you are as a Jew. And as for looking like a Jew who cares about Israel's survival, I have had people tell me that I don't look like I'd be against the Disengagement and the Roadmap. Maybe it's because my hair is an outrageous shade of red guaranteed on the box to be of a color and intensity that occurs nowhere in nature. But it is not how we look on the outside, it's who we are on the inside. So let's all of us, Jews and non-Jewish Zionists, keep the pressure on and work together to ensure that Israel remains a safe and undivided country. AM YISRAEL CHAI!
Beth Goodtree is an award-winning writer who lives in the NYC metro
area. She writes political commentary/analysis, and the occasional
science and humor articles.
Or visit her website: http://hometown.aol.com/bgoodtree/
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BAUER: MAJOR TV NETWORKS BOYCOTTED "HOSPITAL BOMBER" STORY
Posted by Hillel Fendel, June 23, 2005. |
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Despite the IDF's distribution of a video of the Arab suicide bomber who intended to blow up a hospital, [Editor's note: Click here to go to the IDF website. ] nearly all foreign news agencies chose to boycott the story almost totally. An outraged former undersecretary in the late US President Ronald Reagan's administration, who was also a candidate to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee, Gary Bauer, has written a scathing critique of the world media's decision to avoid the story.  "Wrong Button," From the Little Green Foootballs website Excerpts from Bauer's letter: "If you don't get the Fox News Channel then you didn't see any of the dramatic footage of the Israeli army's arrest yesterday of a 21-year old, female Palestinian homicide-bomber, strapped with 25 pounds of high-explosives, just moments before she was to commit mass-murder by detonating herself inside an Israeli hospital. No other television network featured the story. Hillel Fendel is editor of Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com), where this article appeared today. |
| GUSH KATIF |
POUR IT ON! SHARON IS CRACKING!
Posted by Dovid Ben Chaim, June 23, 2005. |
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More and more Israelis, Diaspora Jews and just plain people of good will and common sense are beginning to see the folly and venality of Sharon's "disengagement" scheme. This in turn has raised the level of hysteria within the Sharon clique to a fever pitch. Now is the time to exert even more pressure and push them over the top. Whatever you're doing, do more of it! Emails, letters, phone calls, faxes, demos, orange t-shirts, organizing, clicking on http://english.katif.net/, pray, give, make some noise, keep up the fight! Whatever you're doing, do more of it! It's sinking in at all levels - in Heaven and on Earth!!! Dovid Ben Chaim Blessed are You, G-d, who gives Your People Israel a mighty arm and the will to use it. Be strong! Be strong! May we all be strengthened! Contact Dovid Ben Chaim at chazakchazak@myway.com |
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TRADING WITH DICTATORS; ABBAS PROTECTS TERRORISTS; TERRORIST RELEASE IS ILLEGAL
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 23, 2005. |
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FINDING OR PRETENDING INTOLERANCE IN TEXTBOOKS Citing chapter and verse, organizations have proved that P.A. textbooks have as a major theme the denial of Israel's existence or legitimacy and the need to wipe it out. Another theme is hatred of the Jewish people. The P.A. denies that its textbooks feature bigotry, but answers no specific citations. How strange it would be for a totalitarian society dedicated to wiping Israel out, as its other media make clear, and where the forged, antisemitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a best-seller, if its textbooks were not dedicated to exterminating Israel! Why would the textbooks be out of character? Of course, the studies or those who quote them may not be correct in every particular. Thus the P.A. claims that some Congressman blindly cited an accusation about a nasty banner on a textbook that does not have the banner. Perhaps so. The rest of the studies are unchallenged. An organization that made one such study reacted to the charge by assuring people that it was going to make a parallel study of Israeli textbooks. The usual problem with parallel studies is that they are driven not by scholarship but by the wish to be evenhanded towards both sides, however undeserving one side be. When they find intolerance on the Arab side, they would find, willy-nilly, intolerance on the Israeli side. This means equating innocuous, minor things in Israeli books to malevolent things in the Arab books. That would be unfair. Worse, they might insist that Israeli books must praise the undeserving Arabs. That's its idea of making peace. A study of Israeli textbooks would miss the point of the Arab-Israel conflict. The conflict primarily is Muslim jihad against an infidel state. The Arabs are the aggressors. They have been fomenting hatred and fostering war for decades. Therein is source of the conflict. It hardly matters what Israelis are taught, because they have not started the wars - Israel is not the problem, just as Jews are not the problem in antisemitism. Israel has not been the aggressor, its society is not devoted to denouncing the existence of Arab states or calling the Arabs inherently evil. Why would its textbooks be out of character? The real problem with Israeli textbooks is that they have become too anti-Zionist and pro-Arab. "CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT" How do Americans view trade with dictatorships? When they have no business opportunities with the dictatorships, they tend to demand a US boycott of them. It put it as an ethical matter. When they have potential business opportunities with the dictatorships, they tend to oppose boycotts. They don't care how totalitarian the country is. They want profits, jobs, and vacations. For them, too, it is a matter of democratic ethics, or so they would have us believe. They argue that by meeting Americans, the oppressed people would come to favor our democratic ways. New York State farmers' associations got the State Assembly to pass a resolution urging Congress to allow more trade and travel to Cuba, ostensibly so as to influence the dictatorship to mellow. If it just were for a democratizing foreign policy, would the State Assembly, that is always late with completed budgets and fails to bring most bills to a vote, bothered with Cuba? Whether boycotts undermine dictatorships is not clear or has an uneven record, but financing the dictatorship, as the US did with China, is bad. Communist dictatorships are adept at both profiteering from the tourism and isolating their people from the tourists. The increased trade provides the funds for oppression and for alleviating the most threatening discontent. WHAT ABBAS DOESN'T SAY IS MORE IMPORTANT A Hamas squad had been firing rockets at Israelis, killing and wounding some. It was put out of action by the IDF. Abbas scolded Israel for doing that. He complained that Israel's response would destroy the cooling off period (that Hamas and other terrorists largely ignore). PBC television described the Hamas men as military but said they were traveling in a "civilian vehicle." It did not report that they had been firing rockets (IMRA, 6/10 from Michael Widlanski). Calling it a "civilian vehicle" seems designed to make them seem civilians. Israel lacks the sense to point out that there is no cooling off period on the part of the terrorists, and when terrorists start to attack or plan to attack, the IDF will put them out of commission. Israel lacks the integrity to point out that if Abbas doesn't stop pretending to a ceasefire, and doesn't stop trying to get Israel to stop defending itself while he both fails to arrest the terrorists who make attacks and fails to stop his media from inciting attacks, then Israel will conclude that he, himself, never has abandoned terrorism and indeed is giving cover for it. It should advise the world to stop supporting that terrorist. It should speculate aloud that the world supports him because it knows that when this henchman of Arafat's praises terrorists as martyrs, it is because he still favors destruction of Israel. It should give him fair warning, and then remove him. Israel won't. Its leaders are bribed or turned. Sharon may not favor the destruction of Israel, but his policies invite it. SAUDI SLAVERY IN THE GULF A coalition of feminists and Christian Evangelical groups persuaded Congress to require the State Dept. to report on international trafficking in humans. The report found that the Persian Gulf States engage heavily in this slavery. Saudis bring in sex slaves and slave workers, mostly from Asia (and fellow Muslims) and often beat them. The law hardly prohibits it, and the government seldom prosecutes it (IMRA, 6/10). SAUDI SLAVERY IN THE U.S. Many Saudi middle class couples and princes have been found to keep servants in thrall by force and intimidation even in the US. There have been some convictions. What accounts for this oppression? Slavery flourishes back home (as does abuse of employees). Religious authorities endorse it, calling slavery "part of Islam." The State Dept. refuses to combat the practice here, so the Saudis know they can get away with it. "Their embassy provides money, letters of support, lawyers, retroactive diplomatic immunity, former American ambassadors as troubleshooters, and even aircraft out of the country - it also keeps pesky witnesses away." (Daniel Pipes, NY Sun, 6/16, p.6). Isn't it hypocritical for the US to report on trafficking in humans in S. Arabia, when there is so much of it in the US, some condoned by the US? ANOTHER NAIL IN ISRAELI DEMOCRACY'S COFFIN Likud Party rules require lapsed members to wait 16 months before joining. Most of the large influx of members in 2003, brought in to support Ariel Sharon, stopped paying dues. The Likud just made an exception for them. They may set up a standing bank order to pay dues, and vote in the next primary. They then need not ever actually pay (IMRA, 6/11). Changing electoral rules to favor the incumbent is one mark of dictatorship. RIOT DISPERSAL A new, hi-tech Israeli method of crowd-control failed, again. As Arabs rushed toward Israeli guards at the security fence, the troops released some high-pitched frequencies that temporarily hurt people. Momentarily halted, the rioters returned to their rampage in about a minute (IMRA, 6/11). Critics of Israeli riot control demand that Israel not shoot Arab rioters coming to attack them, not use rubber-jacketed bullets, not bar them from leaving their towns, and apparently not arrest them. One critic suggested using water cannon. What, in a desert country? Israel has to fall back on tear gas and rubber-jacketed bullets. Arab police use live ammunition, apparently without being criticized. NEW P.A. VIOLATION OF OSLO & ROAD MAP The PNA declared Israeli withdrawal from the Territories a precondition for disarming the militias (IMRA, 6/11). But at Oslo, Arafat signed an agreement to disarm them. The Road Map, to which the P.A. professes to adhere, also requires disarmament before negotiations over borders. TURNING JENIN OVER TO THE P.A. Israel plans to turn Jenin over to the P.A. police, ostensibly to ensure that an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would not be attacked by P.A. Arabs angered at continuing to be inspected at Israeli checkpoints there. The hand-over "would remove a constant source of friction and violence." (Mark Lavie, NY Sun, 6/16, p.6 from Associated Press.) The natural tendency of predators, as the Arabs are, is to pursue fleeing prey. Hamas has declared it would do so. Hamas and Fatah are rivals for recognition as having chased the Israelis out. Therefore, letting the Arabs of more towns travel out is likelier to permit more terrorist attacks during the withdrawal. Checkpoints don't cause "friction," they stop most terrorists bent on inflicting "friction," hence they reduce violence. The source of violence is P.A. incitement and Islamic intolerance. Attempts to stop annoying the Arabs, zealous about trying to destroy Israel, cannot get to first base. GOOD NEWS FROM SYRIA There is no censorship of publicly and privately owned newspapers in Syria. The government said so (IMRA, 6/11). The government expects us to believe it. That's a good one. AMNESTY INTL. ON OTHER ISSUES Amnesty Intl. (A.I.) wants the world not to ship arms to the government of Nepal, battling a nine-year-old Maoist insurgency, lest the government commit war crimes. Apparently A.I. does not object to what the Maoists do, and in the absence of resistance, would do. The Maoists have murdered about 12,000 people. For example, they recently blew up a passenger bus, killing 40 people and wounding 70 more. For another example, the Communists captured relatives of Army personnel, and cut them to pieces (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/11). MUSLIM DESIGNS ON SPAIN A Jordanian professor explained to an interviewer his hopes that Islam would take over Spain, some day (IMRA, 6/11 from MEMRI). TERRORIST-RELEASE ILLEGAL Two principles of international law are that terrorism is a crime and that no crime may go unpunished. The Oslo accords, an agreement by a state with a terrorist organization therefore is illegal. It also is illegal because it more or less cedes territory to a terrorist organization. Israel's premature release of terrorists is illegal, too. Some of the terrorists had committed crimes against other countries (but they don't mind), so Israel certainly had even less right to pardon them. Punishment of terrorists may or may not deter others, but it puts the incarcerated terrorists out of commission. Otherwise, they have strike, again. Half of the prisoners Israel releases do resume terrorism. The US has found that terrorists whom it freed also often return to terrorism (IMRA, 6/12 from Prof. Louis Rene Beres). Their captivity had not made them less fanatical. P.A. STEADILY REFUSES TO DISARM MILITIAS This time it was the Foreign Minister of the P.A., who reiterated the P.A. refusal to disarm the militias. Sometimes the P.A. rationale is to avoid civil war. (Poor excuse, especially since the tolerance of unregulated armed men has produced some anarchy.) The Foreign Minister was sinister -- he said that so long as Israel continues the 'occupation," "resistance" is proper. IMRA earlier had noted that this really means that the P.A. is retaining its terrorist option, so it can resume terrorism. This is a threat held over Israel. The Western media, including Israel's, generally ignored the long-term implication of this refusal (IMRA, 6/12). One implication is that the P.A. will continue to violate Oslo and will not abide by the Road Map, both of which require disarmament and disbanding, if not punishment, of the illegal militias. It proves bad faith. It shows that the P.A. does not believe in peace. If gives no confidence that even if Israelis abandoned all the areas the Arabs claim now, that the P.A. ever would disband the militias. Jihadists do not disband their armies when the enemy is undefeated. Actually, terrorism is going on now. The P.A. is not just retaining a terrorist option, it is permitting or perpetrating terrorism. THE ISRAELI LEGAL SYSTEM TURNED ON ITS HEAD Some Israeli soldiers have spent their life savings defending themselves in court from Arab accusations. (Sometimes the accusations are made as a fraudulent way of collecting compensation. Even if there were a loss, much of the compensation would not ordinarily be remitted to an enemy people, but my fellow Jews are afflicted with "Jewish guilt," so they act to support their enemy.) By contrast, soldiers and police who commit theft and brutality against Jews they are removing from Gaza are exempt from financial loss. They may not be prosecuted civilly, but if prosecuted criminally, the State will pay their legal expenses. The government's rationale is to prevent them from suffering from false suits (IMRA, 6/12). Why doesn't it protect soldiers from false civil suits by Arabs? The government probably would not prosecute soldiers who act with the excessive violence shown in their training films for the abandonment of Gaza. The government is encouraging that violence by exempting soldiers from the consequences. ARE ARABS BECOMING SKEPTICS? "When the "Voice of Arabs" radio told us triumphantly in the 1960s that Nasser's Egypt had the strongest army in the region and could throw Israel in the sea if they choose to, we believed. When young, revolutionary, the Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi promised to be the unifier of the Arab world after the death of Nasser, we believed. When Baathists and Arab nationalists carried the "One Arab nation with eternal message" slogan, we believed. Then came "Alnakbah" (the disaster) of June 5, 1967, when the one army of Israel destroyed not only the "mighty" Egyptian Army but also the Jordanian and Syrian. [IMRA: Also Iraqi and Saudi.] The Egyptian radio went on with the lies for days. According to the famous anchor Ahmad Said?, the Israeli Air Force was losing tens of aircraft daily. This was when most Egyptian jet fighters were destroyed on the ground as though they were sitting ducks. The Egyptian media also claimed that American and British aircraft had joined the Israelis. Needless to say, all were sheer lies. Many of us knew better afterward. Still, too many continued to believe, even today. The Arab media kept telling us that all our troubles are due to Zionist conspiracies. They explained to us that we had to prepare for the liberation of Arab occupied lands. Sacrifices had to be made. Freedom, democracy, economic prosperity, good education and all kind of luxuries had to wait. Many believed?. And as the wait got longer, the prison larger, the civilization gap with the rest of the world wider, more started to get skeptical. Resentment followed." "The new generation, born in a different world, was the most restless. They want to live like their peers in other parts of the world. Satellite TV, the Internet and other modern communication tools gave them an open, unfiltered window. They could see that what they lack others take for granted: Market-oriented training, secured, rewarding jobs, a wife and a home. Some expect even more: Travel, entertainment and (why not?) a car. They resent the military draft. They hate having to serve years in draconic conditions with little or no pay. It feels worse when they see that the rich and powerful can evade it." "The Arab conscious is getting more and more sophisticated and wise. The state media is not. They still sell the same lies and try their best to make us believe them. They want us to believe that some Arab leaders are re-elected because their nations have no better men or women for the job. Arab governments are doing like no other for their people. Our education is the best. Our democratic system is the envy of the world. Security is great not because most Arabs live under police regimes and emergency laws, but because of our wise, strong and honest leaders. Besides, who said we are poor? Look at Somalia and Liberia and see how lucky we are! Better times are coming. We only need to be patient and work with the government to fight corruption and build a better society. Praise our leaders and pray for them to survive the challenges and win over the enemies and live long enough to get us all into heaven on earth. So don't listen to the lies our enemies are spreading. Accusation of corruption, lousy management and nepotism are all baseless. Let's stand together united with our leadership to prove to the envious world that we are truly one, united, strong Arab family. Then came the Internet and Satellite TV. Then came CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeerah. Others followed and suddenly the truth can't hide behind the smiley anchors' faces anymore. The public eye and mind went past the newsroom curtain and the Dear Leader's portraits to rich sources of information and explanations. So what the media answer would be? Surprise, surprise! More lies, more going. No one believes? Who cares! There is a whole industry of perception manufacturing. Where would all these people go? How would this entire infrastructure be dismantled? Better leave things as they are, hoping somebody, somewhere still have faith." "Meanwhile, the elite will continue to benefit, the flaws will still be there, and the ship will go on sinking. The people's knowledge of the truth will grow larger, their patience will get thinner, and the pot will be more and more boiling. The inevitable big bang will happen ... soon enough." (IMRA, 6/12 from Arab News.) I have been waiting for Arab skepticism as a major component of their reformation. However, they also should become skeptical of CNN, BBC, and Al-Jazeerah. ISRAELI CONCEPT TURNED TOPSY-TURVY It takes intellectuals to turn simple, observable fact upside-down. Israeli intellectuals have put over the self-delusion that Israel caused its problems with neighboring states, not their dictatorships, imperialism, and Islamism. Another achievement by intellectuals is to gain acceptance of the Arab propaganda notion that the conflict arises from "occupation," rather than that the conflict, in the form of Arab aggression, leads Israeli forces to pursue their attackers into territory controlled by the Arabs. Israelis bear feelings of guilt over this. (This is in addition to the traditional, unwarranted Jewish feelings of guilt about causing antisemitism. By contrast, the Arabs' religion insulates them from guilt feelings over their bigotry and war crimes). This self-delusion is evident when Israeli leaders, leftists, accepted from Arafat, who dedicated his life to jihad, which authorizes breaking promises, his promises to make peace, despite his record of breaking such promises (Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/12 from Edward Alexander's review of Kenneth Levin's "The Oslo syndrome"). RASHID KHALIDI They praise Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia U., as a scholar. An article under his name on a web site of an organization he headed is called "Jerusalem, a Concise History." Four years later, a reporter discovered that Khalidi had plagiarized the article. Without explanation or apology, the web site changed the author to "Compiled by ACJ from a variety of sources." (Prof. Plaut, 6/12 from Solomonia Blog.) U.S. PUNISHING ISRAEL "The crisis between Israel and the United States over the sale of assault unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to China is deepening: The U.S. has been imposing harsh sanctions on Israel for a few months now, following the dispute between the two states over the sale of the drones." "The sanctions have been imposed on Israel's entire security industry, not merely on plants that made deals with China." "The Americans have also suspended technological cooperation with the Israel Air Force on the future Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft." "The U.S. has halted cooperation on a large advanced simulation system for the IDF's ground forces, dealing with the future battlefield, and stopped the information exchange on Hunter 2, the assault UAV Israel is developing with an American company." "The U.S. is also holding up a shipment of night vision equipment." "The crisis has disrupted the contacts of senior Defense Ministry officials with their counterparts in the American Defense Ministry, who are not responding to telephone calls from Israel. A meeting of a strategic work team that convenes every six months was put off." "The U.S. has made three demands of Israel in order to settle the crisis, involving supervision of defense industry exports and coordination with the United States." "The U.S.'s first demand is that Israel provide it with details of more than 60 deals it made with China in recent years, so that Washington could assess the damage caused to its security, if any." "The second demand is a close examination of the Israeli security equipment supervision system. Washington wants to know how "holes" are created in the system, how those who break regulations are punished and why the government is not directly involved in the supervision." As for the US, it sells arms to Israel's enemies without limits, and
without analyzing the consequences. The US simply asserts that they
don't affect the balance of power. Does that mean the Arabs are fools
wasting their money, or that the Congressional oversight members are
fools believing what is asserted? AIPAC ignores the subject entirely
(IMRA, 6/12). Yes, that is a double standard, and the "Israel Lobby"
is of no help. Ironically, most of those US sales are to actual and
potential enemies of the US. But note that IMRA won't admit any
Israeli fault in this.
Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several
web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on
Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target
overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him
at ricshulman@aol.com.
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COMPARING HRW'S ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES IN THE MIDDLE EAST, JANUARY-JUNE, 2005
Posted by NGO Monitor, June 23, 2005. |
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In April 2005, NGO Monitor published a quantitative comparative analysis of the level of attention that Human Rights Watch (HRW) gave to various countries and conflicts in the region. That report clearly demonstrated HRW's disproportionate emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Considering the appalling human rights record and lack of public information in many states in the Middle East, such unbalanced focus on the only democratic country in the region, as well as the liberal use of highly politicized claims of 'violations of international law', indicated a clear political agenda. It is also a disservice on the part of HRW to victims of human rights violations in many other states during this period. In examining the period from January to June 2005, we note that HRW has, to some extent, reduced its disproportionate focus on Israel at the expense of other Middle Eastern countries. Using the quantitative model from NGO Monitor's earlier analysis of HRW activities, the emphasis on Egypt and Iran was somewhat greater than in the case of Israel (70, 77, and 48 points, respectively); although together with Tunisia (35 points) and Iraq (93 points) these 5 countries formed an exceptional group in the level of attention they received in this period. (See below for the detailed results for January-June 2005). Although HRW's focus on Saudi Arabia's abysmal human rights record yielded only four brief press releases and one short letter, these are steps in the right direction. Overall, this concrete evidence speaks for itself in terms of the reduced dominance and overemphasis on Israel that has characterized HRW's Middle East agenda in recent years. However, the analysis for this period also demonstrates that the core bias remains in HRW's agenda and allocation of resources to reporting on the Middle East. This bias can be discerned in three aspects: First, that Israel still attracts disproportionate attention considering its open political system, when compared with many surrounding Arab countries. Syria, for example, is acknowledged by HRW as having "a long established record of torture" ('Torture Worldwide' , April 27, 2005). One report says that "torture is a systemic human rights problem" in Syria ('Still at risk', April 2005) and includes the case of Maher Arar (2002) in which the USA handed over Arar to Syrian authorities, whereupon he was tortured. However there are no further examples, reports or investigations into human rights violations in Syria by HRW since March 2004. Similarly, Saudi Arabia received no more detailed investigation than 4 press releases and a letter (17 points) despite concerns about the use of 'flogging' and 'repression of political reformers'. The results in the table below therefore show that Israel's 48 points still demonstrate a relatively high level of priority in HRW resource allocation, most recently demonstrated by a 128-page report released yesterday, on the 'impunity of the IDF'. HRW clearly devoted disproportionate attention to this lengthy and detailed, yet clearly unbalanced analysis, to arrive at the conclusion that the 'Israeli military's investigative practices and procedures are not impartial, thorough or timely' (page 3). Indeed this seems to be the only concrete conclusion that this extensive study could claim; although the report also implies-without compelling evidence-that Israel has committed 'war crimes, 'crimes against humanity', 'willful killing of civilians' and other 'breaches of the Geneva convention' (page 22). As such, the report becomes a 128-page diatribe against Israeli policy, without context or credibility. Second, HRW's continued political bias is highlighted by its relative lack of interest in human rights violations in the Palestinian Authority. HRW's categorization of Palestinians as victims of Israeli human rights abuses prevents a recognition of the serious abuses of human rights within the Palestinian Authority. Only 2 press releases and 2 letters addressing human rights deficiencies in the PA were released in this period. On NGO Monitor's scale for measuring relative emphasis, the PA would have received only 10 points, were it not for their mention in HRW's presentation to the 61st session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (adding 6 points). And this document's impact is diluted through the concentration on condemning Israel for a variety of offences, including the 'impunity of Israeli security forces', 'the wall' and 'unlawful home demolitions'. The PA, by comparison is criticized only on the basis of 'Killings by Palestinian Armed Groups' (note that the word 'terrorist' is avoided). Indeed, HRW documents criticizing Palestinian violations of human rights are almost always offset by more intense condemnations of Israel. For example, in a press release of June 9, 2005 that acknowledges the devastating effect on civilian Israeli life of Hamas' use of Qassam rockets and which calls for a cessation of these attacks, a large part of the document is dedicated to criticizing Israel's military response to such acts of violence. This is an artificial effort to provide political balance which dilutes the human rights impact of such statements. Finally, HRW's continued use of politicized and biased language with respect to Israel (frequently using terminology claiming violations of international law), undermine Israel's very integrity as a state and exhibit HRW's political agenda. In this period, HRW continues the practice of condemning Israel for 'violating international humanitarian law' and acting 'illegally', without any systematic and universal application of these terms. HRW's June 22 report on Israel also accuses the Israel Defense Forces of 'arbitrary killing and human rights abuses against civilians' (page 9) and implies that HRW's identification of problems in the IDF make it liable to commit 'war crimes' (page 18). In summary, and despite these limitations, some positive steps have been taken to reduce the disproportionate focus on the Israeli Palestinian conflict in HRW reporting. This has freed resources for highlighting the serious human rights abuses occurring in other countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Iran and Iraq. However, the anti-Israel bias continues, and the need for greater emphasis on the human rights violations in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Libya demonstrate that HRW has a long way to go in paying balanced attention to all countries with human rights deficiencies in the Middle East. NGO Monitor ia a publication of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. The complete report is available at http://www.ngo-monitor.org/ |
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THE KORAN - SOMETHING WAS LOST IN TRANSLATION
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, June 23, 2005. |
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This was published in www.worldjewishnewsagency.org Now that all the politically correct and agenda-motivated rhetoric has been completed, maybe we can take a less emotional view of exactly what happened following the Newsweek magazine story of American guards at the Guantanamo prison flushing a Koran down the toilet? Shortly following publication, Newsweek admitted the story was a complete fabrication. After some investigation, the US military did conclude some isolated incidents of Koran abuse had occurred but determined that most of those were done by the prisoners themselves. What was the reaction in the Muslim world? Reported were riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, Palestinian Arab territories, Iraq, wherever. About sixteen people were reportedly killed and hundreds injured. By some coincidence, many of these riots occurred immediately following Friday services in the mosques. Thus, this rioting of thousands of people did not occur spontaneously. These riots were, in the main, initiated by the inflammatory rhetoric of the mosques' imams. Why? Is not the transparent goal of the religious hierarchy, the imams, et al, to maintain their virtually absolute power over Muslim countries and their citizens? Every ploy, especially using the United States and Israel as the whipping boys, is used to maintain the imam's destructive power and delude the Muslim people that their societies remaining in abject poverty and ignorance for the last 800 years is somehow our fault. The West is also being subjected to a constant barrage of religious "information" on the Koran. We are told, "it glorifies Abraham, Moses and Jesus and teaches lessons of faith, family values, caring for orphans, feeding the poor, helping the suffering, removing racism and oppression from society and bringing the joy of justice and freedom to the people of God." But something surely got lost in this translation. Rather than grant Christianity and Judaism the respect claimed, M. Kedar, Professor of Arabic Studies points out that Muhammad, with a stroke of his imagination, has simply "Islamized" their religious leaders. He made Abraham the first Moslem and Jesus and St. John prophets, along with Adam, Joseph, Seth and Aaron. According to Muhammad's dream, he then takes them to the Seventh Heaven to meet Allah, who obligingly accepts Muhammad as their master. Thus a religion of triumphalism was created wherein Christians and Jews have been designated as dhimmis, a "protected class" of people, whose rights in Muslim countries is completely subservient to those of the Muslim. As to the statement that the Koran "defends family values, cares for the poor, removes oppression," that also has somehow been lost in the translation. Mitchell Bard in Myths and Facts presents the real world of human rights in Arab Islamic countries. He writes, The popular press has chosen to virtually ignore violations of fundamental human rights that take place daily in almost every Arab country. According to annual reports by the American State Department, most of the Arab states are ruled by oppressive, dictatorial regimes, which deny their citizens basic freedoms of political expression, speech, press and due process. The Arab Human Development Report published by a group of Arab researchers from the UN Development Program concluded that out of the seven regions of the world, Arab countries had the lowest freedom score. They also had the lowest ranking for "voice and accountability," a measure of various aspects of the political process, civil liberties, political rights and independence of the media. And what has been our own recent experience with religious desecration? Mary Mostert, political commentator, reports that in Serbian Kosovo alone since 1999, 140 Christian Churches were blown up with 25 churches destroyed just this past year! When the Jordanians invaded Israel in 1948 and maintained Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as theirs for 19 years, 57 synagogues, in Jerusalem alone, were defaced and their Torah scrolls destroyed. The ancient Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery was decimated with 38,000 gravestones torn loose and used to pave roads and Jordanian army latrines. These are just two examples of the hundreds of desecrations of Christian and Jewish holy sites that have occurred in Muslim countries over the centuries. How does that compare with the recent purported Koran book desecration? Certainly it is wrong to demean anyone else's religion in this country. People are encouraged to believe whatever they want but please, in the process, do not make us the fall guys for their own self-inflicted problems. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host of the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
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WE ARE THE NATION
Posted by Manhigut Yehudit, June 23, 2005. |
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The fundamental issue behind the disengagement plan is an attempt to separate the Jewish People from their Father in Heaven. The settlements express the link between belief and history, and they must therefore be destroyed in order to once again shrink Judaism into the proportions of an exile-type religion imprisoned within the walls of the synagogue. This is not a struggle between the settlers and the Left, but between the Left and reality or, in other words, between the Left and the Creator. The Jewish nation has remained faithful and devoted. Consequently the disengagement plan won't take place -- simply because we are the nation, realistic people, servants of the Creator, and we shall carry out our task. We aren't waiting for a supernatural miracle. The miracle has already begun. The miracle is that we have realized that we represent the nation, that the Almighty will give us victory over any attempts to disengage from our faith and our heritage. We will simply carry out our task and not allow them to do it. According to the original expulsion plans, Gush Katif and Northern Shomron were to have become a closed military area from last Passover. What prevented the military branch of the Left (the IDF and the Israeli Police Force) from carrying out their intentions? Was it the tent cities, the human chain, or the "face-to-face" campaign? We don't wish to diminish the value of any of these efforts, but Gush Katif and Northern Shomron are wide open today because of one reason only: Ariel Weingruber and Shai Malka established the National Home movement, led thousands of young people and adults in a campaign of civil disobedience, and created a threat that prevented the implementation of the first stage of the expulsion crime. The strong stand of the residents of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, the devotion of the protesters and their willingness to be arrested have made it clear to Sharon and the extreme Left manipulating him, that with G-d's help the disengagement won't take place. The moment that restrictions are placed on the movement of the residents of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, the moment that their places of residence are declared a closed military area, the masses of the Israeli public will go out to the streets and physically prevent the perpetration of the crime. The military arm of the Left has already been forced to cope with increasing signs of general civil disobedience, and it is incapable of withstanding spontaneous popular disobedience by Jews acting in G-d's Name. This is just one more problem on the long list of complications and contradictions afflicting the expulsion forces. Terror attacks that naturally accompany withdrawals add to the difficulties encountered in the perpetration of the crime. Belief in the People of Israel Current events in Israel have provided us with many examples of belief. Last year's Likud referendum on the disengagement and the massive protests against disengagement now taking place in Israel epitomize belief in action. A belief-based person has the ability to identify in himself and activate his power of belief. The tens of thousands of Israelis who knocked on the doors of fellow Israelis to convince them to vote against the disengagement were motivated by belief. The tens of thousands of Israelis who are willing to be arrested in protest of the disengagement are motivated by belief. They have activated the power of belief in their souls. They believe that it is possible to change reality despite polls to the contrary. They believe that it is possible to overcome the politicians, the court system and the media despite the powerful positions that they occupy. More than anything else, they believe in G-d and in His People. They believe that the People of Israel is open to hear them. They believe that, despite the leftist brainwashing to which all Israelis have been exposed in the last decades, the Jewish People still cares about values, truth, ideals, the Land of Israel and the People of Israel. Because the belief-based person believes in his fellow Jews, he opens their hearts. The average Israeli has become accustomed to leaders that are scornful of his values and his opinions. When he encounters someone who believes in him and values him, and is motivated by values and not personal interests, his heart melts revealing that it was not all that frozen in the first place. This is how the soul power of belief can change reality. It is one facet of belief-based leadership -- leadership that believes in the People of Israel, understands the great power of belief and knows how to awaken it in government, politics and all areas of public life. Belief in Torah Another facet of belief-based leadership is the ability to apply Torah concepts when evaluating reality. A Jew who believes in the Torah should have a belief-based perspective on reality. When reality is analyzed from a perspective of belief, the conclusions are significantly different than those accepted today. If we use the example of the Likud referendum on the disengagement, the "accepted" media perspective was that the public had already sided in favor of the disengagement. A plethora of experts pontificated with self-assurance on this very concrete and unchangeable reality. Sharon, his advisors and some of his ministers accepted these opinions as fact and based their political decisions upon it. In contrast, those with a Torah perspective insisted that the reality as presented by the media was false -- the true reality was that the majority of Likud members opposed the disengagement. From a Torah perspective it seemed totally reasonable that the polls did not reflect deep-bedded beliefs, but rather a transient opinion that could be easily changed. Belief based perspective ignored the all-pervasive "reality", identified the warm Jewish heart buried just beneath the polls and acted upon that perspective. They concluded that if the people could be reached, it would change reality. Belief based leadership uses Torah faith as its basis for evaluating reality and making and implementing decisions. Its working assumptions regarding the Jewish People, the international arena, the progression of history, the significance of the "Return to Zion", the motivation of the Jewish People as a nation and as individuals are based on the Torah. These working assumptions form the basis for belief based leadership to plan its actions as it deals with all facets of leadership -- politics, security, foreign and internal policy, geopolitical reality and more. Belief in G-d Belief based leadership believes in G-d. External appearances--whether a particular person wears a kippah on his head or not, is not the determining factor. Belief based leadership exemplifies faith, reliability, honesty, morality, idealism, optimism, loyalty and self- sacrifice. This is the leadership that the Jewish People seeks and deserves. Moshe Feiglin Warns: Beware of Provocateurs The success of the "Practice Run" operation of the National Home movement brought home to Sharon and the extreme Left pulling the strings behind him that with G-d's help the eviction plan will fail. Sharon is not the kind of man who gives in easily. If he and the Left cannot evict the Jews of Gush Katif by sheer force, they can initiate acts of provocation. The situation in Israel today is chillingly similar to the situation in which the Oslo Accords were initiated in Israel. During that period, when it seemed that popular resistance to Oslo was about to defeat the plan, the GSS employed provocateurs to discredit the opposition. Today, the stakes are even higher. If the Left does not succeed in destroying Gush Katif, they know that they are finished. And the Left is traditionally not deterred by bloodshed. If a "settler" opens fire on soldiers, G-d forbid, the entire resistance to the eviction can be neutralized. Certainly no settler would do such a thing. And if no authentic settler can be found to fire the first shot, there are provocateurs that can do the job. We shall defend Gush Katif and the State valiantly. We shall not permit the Left -- which desires to prove that they are not Jews but rather citizens of the world -- to create provocative acts of mutual firing. We shall never bring weapons to the regions of the confrontation. Anyone who does so will be regarded as an agent provocateur and removed from the area. For more on this subject see Moshe Feiglin's article: Civil War Recruiting New Likud Members As we reported in recent updates, we are acting in concert with other forces in the Likud to close the register of eligible voters prior to the forthcoming Primaries. In this way Omri Sharon won't be able to return to the register the hundred thousand fictitious members who brought his father to power, and then left the Likud. Last week an official Likud announcement appeared in the press, declaring a period of 15 days in which former Likud members could renew their membership without having to wait 16 months to be eligible to vote. If you have let your membership lapse and want to renew it, contact the Manhigut Yehudit office immediately to receive the appropriate forms: 09-7929046 (Israel). Sharon's representatives, headed by Eitan Haberman, the legal advisor of the Likud, are still trying to prevent this move. In the current situation it is quite clear that Sharon is incapable of recruiting people. The people appearing in the register of voters are those who said NO in the Likud referendum. If on the 4th of Tamuz (July 11) -- the final date -- all of Sharon's fictitious members are deleted from the register of voters, and may only vote after waiting 16 months, Sharon is finished in the Likud. At the same time, those who wish to prevent the continuation of Sharon's corrupt rule must immediately renew their membership of the Likud. Naturally, new members are also welcome. Although it seems that they won't be able to participate in the coming Primaries, they can certainly influence the elections for the next Likud Conference. The date for the elections for the Conference has not yet been set due to a legal dispute. Those who don't join today are liable to miss the boat, as in the case of the Primaries. World Likud Former Minister Natan Sharansky has been chosen to represent the Likud by the World Likud. At the same time a petition has been submitted to the Jerusalem District Court calling on the prime minister not to nominate another candidate. At this stage it has become clear once again that the Sharon family has no inhibitions. They came to an agreement with representatives of the Reform Movement in the Zionist Executive Committee that their candidate, Mr. Beilsky, will put forward his candidacy in the name of this group. It is therefore possible that the plot to appoint Beilsky as chairman of the Jewish Agency will succeed with the aid of the Reform Movement and the Labor Party, against the representative of the Likud, Sharansky. This will be done by the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Likud and his son. The National Home Conference The large conference hall in the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem was too small to hold the tremendous public that came last Sunday to the National Home conference. Without adverts in the papers, in fact virtually without any publicity at all, the real heroes who represent the silver platter of the Jewish State assembled. Certificates and Lion Cub pins were awarded to those arrested in the struggle to date. Many of the older participants purchased a pin and dedicated it personally to one of the detainees. When the certificate of good citizenship was awarded to the veteran prisoner, Jonathan Pollard, the entire audience stood up and cheered. After the speeches the public heard a detailed explanation about the continuation of the struggle. The participants were given a detailed operational booklet. They were told that the activities of the National Home are not intended to conflict with any other positive initiative meeting the criteria of non-violent civil disobedience. The last speaker was Gita, a young girl from the National Home, who described another operation of the movement -- the face-to-face campaign with residents of Gush Katif. "We shall go to the residents", Gita said, "and explain to them that we will do everything we can for them. We shall struggle, and get arrested -- and all we ask from them is to hold on, for us and for the entire Jewish People." One of the major speakers was Eran Sternberg, the spokesman of Gush Katif. "Every time you block roads, get arrested, and display such devotion, one less family considers approaching the disengagement administration", he said. It is very difficult to put into words the uplifting atmosphere in the hall. Those present understood that Sharon is facing a determined public that cannot be defeated. "However, remember one thing", Moshe Feiglin explained in his speech, "If, after the victory in the struggle for Gush Katif, these tremendous energies go to waste, and are not channeled into the real campaign for the leadership of the nation, we shall have lost. We all have to participate in the struggle for the leadership of the Likud and the State. This is far more difficult than blocking roads, but we shall do it and build Jewish leadership for the State of Israel. A Letter From a Prisoner in the "Disengagement Ward" Last week I was released from Ma'asiyahu Jail after being imprisoned for eight days. My mother tried all the time to persuade me to write about it, but I didn't want to. However, after reading how people are talking about those who blocked the roads, I decided to write something. I was held in wing 14, together with people aged from 14 to 53. They were all wonderful! There were people from all kinds of Yeshivot, from all over the country. The Shabbat I spent there was the most wonderful in my life. During the eight days we spent there, anyone who got bored went and studied Torah -- except me. After eight days I felt that my belief had been strengthened tremendously. I now try harder to observe commandments and pray regularly. Those who criticize the people who blocked the roads should learn from them the meaning of love for the Jewish people. Even in jail we tried to talk to the jailers and study Torah with them. The commander of the jail told MK Efi Eitam, who visited us, that he hoped that his own children would be like us. What a conflict! The jailer wants his children to be "law-breakers" like us! When a policeman took my fingerprints his hands shook. He told me he wasn't used to holding the hands of people so good as us. Even our jailers treated us very well. They weren't used to seeing such good people. Some of the veteran prisoners in the jail, who had returned to observing Judaism, were tremendously moved when they prayed with us on Shabbat. Although I didn't intend to be arrested, I wouldn't have missed the experience for anything. I feel that it was a privilege to have spent time in Ma'asiyahu Jail, where I felt the presence of the Almighty, and to have been arrested in the struggle for the Land of Israel. Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. |
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THE HIGH COST OF GAZA HOUSING: WHY ISRAEL ISN'T LEAVING HOMES BEHIND FOR PALESTINIANS
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, June 23, 2005. |
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This was 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. Contact him at cliff@defenddemocracy.org Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced this week that Israeli and Palestinian officials had agreed to demolish more than a thousand Israeli settlers' homes in Gaza. The New York Times reported: "Palestinian officials were not eager to keep the red-roofed, middle-class homes" which, they indicated, were not appropriate to current needs. A key concern for Israelis, one surmises, is that in the wake of their "disengagement" from Gaza, news broadcasts around the world would show Palestinians flying the flags of terrorist organizations from those red, middle-class roofs. Such a display would lend credence to the claim that the Israelis had been forced to leave Gaza -- as they earlier had been driven out of Lebanon, and as they will, one day, be expelled from every inch of Israel. This week, Hamas pledged yet again that "the jihad" against "the Zionist entity" would "continue until victory or martyrdom" - i.e. until they wipe the Jewish state off the map or die trying. In addition to concern about encouraging dreams of conquest and genocide, Israeli officials also must have worried about the psychological impact that images of Arabs taking over Jewish homes would have had on their own citizens -- particularly those Israelis who come from Arab lands. It is often forgotten that half of all Israeli Jews trace their roots to such places as Baghdad, Cairo and Tripoli. Jewish communities were well established in many Middle Eastern and North African capitals hundreds of years before those capitals were conquered and occupied, beginning in the 7th century, by armies from the Arabian Peninsula, carrying the banner of the new faith of Islam. Iraq, for example, was for millennia home to a prominent Jewish minority. As late as 1948 one of every four Baghdadis was Jewish. After the U.N. partition of Palestine, however, hundreds of Iraqi Jews were executed. Others were imprisoned. Jewish homes were confiscated. Eventually most Jews fled. In Yemen, by contrast, Jews had long endured a kind of apartheid. They were not allowed to walk on pavements or ride horses. They were forced to clean the public toilets. By law, Jewish orphans had to be converted to Islam. Not surprisingly, once Israel was established, virtually all Yemeni Jews sought refuge there. Egypt was among the leaders of the "jihad" declared against Israel in 1948. This was to be, in the words of Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha, "a war of extermination." As Egyptian soldiers invaded Israel, mobs attacked the Jewish quarter of Cairo and Egyptian authorities shipped Jews suspected of sympathizing with Israel to concentration camps in the Sinai desert. In all, close to 900,000 Jews are estimated to have fled Arab-majority countries, leaving behind houses, schools, synagogues, cemeteries and, in many cases, ancient cultures and traditions. In this same period, an estimated 650,000 Arabs left Israel for Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and other places. Also often forgotten: The Palestinian Arabs who remained in Israel were granted citizenship. There are now more than a million Israeli Arabs - about 20 percent of the country's population. While relations with their Jewish neighbors are sometimes strained, they have more rights than Jews in Arab countries had in the past; indeed, they have more rights than Arabs in most Arab countries have in the present. Mosques in Israel are well attended. Israeli Arabs serve in Israel's parliament and sit on its Supreme Court. Druze and Bedouin Muslims serve in Israel's armed forces and many have given their lives in Israel's defense. In the Israeli Arab village of Abu Ghosh last year, I met a community leader who proudly told me his grandfather had volunteered to fight against the five invading armies in 1948 and, as a result, had become a great friend of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister. He pulled out a photo scrap book to prove it. Only a radical would argue that Israel should not have such Arab citizens. And yet what passes for the moderate view holds that a future Palestinian state must be Judenrein - ethnically cleansed of Jews. Indeed, even "moderate" Jordan has a constitutional provision specifically prohibiting Jews from becoming citizens. It is within this context that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have now agreed to bulldoze those red-roofed, middle-class houses in Gaza. Will this action will pave the way - almost literally - toward peace between Israel and a Palestinian state? Or will it represent just the destruction of one additional Jewish community, a reminder of the past, an omen for the future? No one can really say, least of all the Israeli and Palestinian officials who have agreed on this plan - and not much else. Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il |
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WHEN, EXACTLY, WILL THE IDF REALLY BEGIN TO FIGHT?
Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, June 23, 2005. |
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Statement to the Press - 23 June 2005 from Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI) Sharon's repellent policy plumbs new depths. On the one hand, he prevents the IDF from carrying out well justified and essential operations to save Israeli lives if Arab lives (some of which might be innocent) may be endangered. On the other hand, he declares that he is willing to bomb these Arabs, including innocents, if they interfere with the expulsion of Jews from their homes. It is absurd to declare that the IDF will use all its strength if the Arabs open fire during the "disengagement." Why wasn't the army given a green light to use all its strength today - and yesterday - against enemy fire? Professors for a Strong Israel points out that if the IDF had been given orders to fight this Oslo war as needed from its beginning, we would not be looking back at a five-year war of attrition, and we would not have reached the point of panicked retreat under fire, of erosion of the IDF's power of deterrence, of mortal injury to the nation's unity and social fabric, and of enormous and needless economic damage. Dr. Ron Breiman is Chairman of PSI. |
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DISHONEST GEORGE AND A HERD OF LETHARGIC SHEEP
Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, June 22, 2005. |
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cumulative estimated number of diagnoses of AIDS through 2003 in the United States is 929,985. ... The cumulative estimated number of deaths of persons with AIDS through 2003 is 524,060, including 518,568 adults and adolescents, and 5,492 children under age 13. That's almost a million infected people, more than half of them already dead. Two decades earlier, in 1983, the number of HIV-infected people in the United States was still below 1,000. Nevertheless, its spread had already been recognized as an epidemic. It was also clear that a cure for it was going to remain beyond our reach for the foreseeable future and, therefore, alternative containment measures were urgently needed. Two such measures, isolation of infected US residents and refusal of entry to infected foreigners, were firmly rejected by the liberal establishment as undemocratic. We don't lock up innocent people. We don't discriminate based on one's skin color, sex, life style, or health. All persons are born equal. Give me your tired, you sick and perverted. The majority of us remained silent as usual. Without pressure from us to do what's right, the government never attempted defending the country from AIDS. It hasn't done anything practical beyond needle exchange programs and condom distribution to children. Beyond that, the policy was "just say no, today, tomorrow, and for all the eternity." The CDC statistics above show how effective that was. People proudly calling themselves liberals, instead of doing something constructive, made highly lucrative careers of AIDS activism, blaming conservatives for not doing enough to stop the epidemic. All the while, the were quietly praying that a suddenly discovered cure would not put them out of business. People proudly calling themselves conservatives didn't do anything constructive either. They blamed the epidemic on the liberals, but with no reciprocal passion. AIDS didn't worry them too much, because it was just a gay cancer, and they were all straight; and when they weren't, they used condoms; and when they didn't it didn't matter because they were screwing their fellow conservatives. I was told that politically diverse same-sex unions, whether fleeting or persistent, are fewer than vegetarians who voted for Bush. Meanwhile, the pharmaceuticals succeeded in discovering very expensive wonder drugs that didn't cure AIDS, but allowed the sufferers to live longer and infect more people, which guaranteed steady growth of their customer base. All this, by the way, was easily predictable in 1983. One thousand sick people is a small number for a country like ours. Had we decided to isolate them at the early stages of the epidemic, not only 1 million human beings would not have been sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, but we would have saved billions upon billions of dollars, even if the quarantine included luxurious accommodations and amenities that most of us cannot afford. Has AIDS taught us anything valuable? It most certainly has. We've learned to effortlessly glide through other people's suffering and death. The ongoing jihad is bound to prove that skill truly precious. Chances are, you and your family will not be on the very top of their extermination list, so you will be able to spend the remainder of your time on earth in relative emotional comfort, unless, of course, the stock market crashes, in which case you won't be able to avoid at least some anxiety. I wrote earlier that our War on Terror was lost the moment our Commander-in-Chief announced that Islam was not the enemy. Actually, I was wrong. It was lost even before that. While Mr. Bush's speechwriters were still struggling to camouflage the obvious absurdity of that statement, while the number of 9/11 casualties was still everyone's guess, while all the civilian flights were still grounded and the skies over the United States were almost as empty as they were before the Wright Brothers engaged in their rewarding hobby, chartered airplanes were already carrying dozens of Osama bin Laden's relatives from this country to their native Saudi Arabia. The war was already on. In a war, you would expect the president to do whatever advances the war effort. If you have a theory on how smuggling the family of the enemy's leader away from the FBI, the CIA, and the military intelligence could advance our war effort, I would love to hear from you. Until then, I am forced to assume that such measures were contrary to the US national interests. George W. Bush's carefully tailored image conveys an appealing message: "I may be simple, but at least I am honest," which is much more than most of his not so simple opponents can claim. Why would Honest George commit an act of obvious treachery? If you believe it was a humanitarian gesture designed to provide safety to a bunch of innocent foreigners, you must be out of your mind. In the almost 4 years since 9/11, I haven't heard of a single window broken in an Arab-owned grocery store anywhere in the US. A bunch of Saudi billionaires living in guarded, walled compounds where normal people have absolutely no access, were safer here than you or I will ever be, even if jihad suddenly ended by itself. There must be another reason. To venture a guess, let us look at precedents. Sadly, there are precedents. Highly respected leaders have betrayed their countries at the time of war and got away with it. Some even got away with a Nobel Peace Prize. The most recent example of such betrayal, although in this particular case I wouldn't hold my breath hoping for a Nobel Prize, was provided by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to surrender, without a battle, Israeli territories to Israel's mortal enemies. I don't believe Israel is going to survive this surrender, although I am still hoping for a miracle that will prove me wrong. But why would Sharon kill the country for which he had fought so valiantly? Because he got himself in trouble not that different from Kofi Annan's, but with much worse odds in favor of getting away with it. Thanks to peculiarities of Israel's political universe, his blatant betrayal gave him a chance to avoid prosecution, which leads me to conclude that national heroes must be shot in the back of the head immediately upon receiving their medals. Or, at the very least, sent to Brussels to stand trial for the crimes they did not commit. It seems unbelievable today, but not so long ago, Arik and W. were buddies. Arik took W. on a helicopter tour around his tiny country. W. reciprocated by inviting Arik to his enormous ranch at Crawford, TX. Of course, Bush's situation is much better than Sharon's. At least, as long as oil continues to flow, Bush will never have to surrender parts of his hacienda to the Mexicans. I knew from the very beginning of his electoral campaign in 2000 that his apparent simplicity was just a mask. George W. Bush is a very intelligent man who can be a formidable opponent to anyone on the wrong side of an issue. So, why wouldn't he simply smite the enemies of this country? He certainly has the power to do it. Probably, because the enemies have something on him. It could be as murky as Chappaquiddic or as plain as oil business, the principal occupation of the Bushes in between presidencies and governorships. I am inclined in favor of the latter. Whatever it is, it is strong enough to have persuaded Papa Bush in 1991 to send our soldiers to die in Iraq in order to bail out Kuwait's ruler. It is strong enough for Baby Bush, instead of simply destroying our enemies in one powerful blow, to start a pretend war with no end in sight and no chances of ever producing any benefits for this country, but a war that could and did remove the main obstacle that was preventing the Saudis from becoming the unifying force of the Arab world. There was news recently that the International Atomic Energy Commission led, by an interesting coincidence, by an Arab, has declared Saudi Arabia exempt from inspections. If there were news that the United States protested that decision, I must have missed them. So, the big picture can be described in one short statement: The President of the United States is helping our enemies the Wahhabis to unify our enemies the Arabs and acquire nuclear weapons. And we were naïvely looking for WMD in Iraq! Considering that the Wahhabis are spearheading jihad, Bush might have expected to join the Nobel club, had he not been so hated all over the world. Can he at least hope to have a monument erected in his honor in the capital of the future Caliphate? Don't hold your breath; no matter how much he contributes to its creation, he remains an infidel, a Christian. Although, considering the amazing elasticity of his convictions, I don't see what would stop him from eventually converting to Islam. After all, Islam is not his enemy. In 2009 he will be replaced in the White House by his successor. It may be Hillary Clinton, or John McCain, or Newt Gingrich or someone else who hasn't yet announced his or her presidential ambitions. It doesn't matter. The AIDS of Islam has already poisoned this country. The antidote is available but nobody is willing to administer it. The world as we know it is coming to an end, and I don't see what can be possibly done about it. Maybe you can think of something? And that brings me to your personal role on these final stages of history of the civilized world. How did you feel by lunchtime on September 11, 2001? Oh, I know, your appetite was ruined; you were in shock. You couldn't believe what you were seeing on TV. But were you angry? Did you want to fight? Did you want to do anything besides sticking an American flag in the window of your SUV? You weren't and you didn't. The country has failed to wake up. I am not calling for anti-Muslim pogroms, but I am truly puzzled by the fact that not even once was a shameless celebration of our national tragedy - openly conducted on 9/11 in every Arab community in the United States - interrupted by angry citizens. Not a single mosque has gone up in flames. Not a single brick flew through the window of an Arab-owned store. Not a single Dr. Baruch Goldstein has announced his tragic, heroic presence among 300 million Americans. And you are still hoping for a future? Imagine a remote island that enjoys an abundance of everything its inhabitants need to lead happy, productive lives: bountiful farms, dedicated police force, best doctors in the whole world. But the doctors have decided that spilling blood is immoral, and now their patients are dying of perfectly trivial ailments, like appendicitis. The policemen have renounced violence, and now they are only handing out traffic tickets, while crime is rampant. And the farmers have sworn to never slaughter another innocent animal again, and as a result, everyone is starving. Needless to say, the islanders are doomed, but what a joy it must be for them to know that they are dying with clear conscience! Our planet is exactly such an island. And we are a herd of lethargic sheep on the way to the slaughterhouse. Does that mean we deserve what's coming to us? Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based Information Technology consultant. To read other articles by the author, go to http://www.middleeastfacts.com/yashiko/ or email ysagamori@hotmail.com |
Ironically, jihad today is roughly where the AIDS epidemic was two
decades ago. We have suffered thousands of casualties, but we are not
yet defeated, and so something can still be done to stop the enemy,
win this war, and make this jihad the very last jihad in the history
of our planet. Can we do it? With the military budget just slightly
below of that of the rest of the world combined, we sure can. But will
we? South Korea spends more than three times as much on its defense as
North Korea. Does that mean, if war breaks between them, the South
will beat the North three times over and still have some money left to
celebrate their victory? I don't think so. I am afraid we should
expect a directly opposite outcome. When it comes to defense budget,
it's not the size of it, and it's not just because ours is the only
army in the world that buys $400 toilet seats and $700 hammers. Nor is
it the fact that China, for example, received the results of our very
expensive R&D practically free of charge, for a donation to Clinton's
electoral campaign. In addition to all that, there is a factor that's
simply impossible to translate into dollars. That factor is the will
to win. Why do you think the United States, with its apocalyptic
military capabilities, has not won a single war in the last 60 years,
with the notable exception of our epochal victories in Panama and
Grenada? The Chinese military budget is just 14% or ours, but if, God
forbid, there is a direct military confrontation between the United
States and China, we will end up singing hosannas to whoever happens
to be sitting on Chairman Mao's throne at the time of our inevitable
defeat.
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THE END GAME
Posted by Sergio Tezza (Hadar), June 22, 2005. |
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This was written by Baruch Brenner, who can be reached by email at brennerim@yahoo.com Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters, links in the chain called Am Yisrael - it's here. The end game. In a few short weeks, the Government of Israel will attempt to undo all that we as a People have achieved during the last 57 years. The reasons for this are unclear and also unimportant. The only vital issue is the outcome. For the first time since 1967, the Israeli Government has accepted the arguments of our enemies. We have admitted that the occupied areas that we hold in Judea Samaria & Gaza is a wrongful doing which must be undone. For many years we here in Israel, together with you in The United States, have been combating those same allegations voiced by the Arab world, The United Nations and the rest of the peoples who liked us better in Auschwitz than in Jerusalem. We believe that we have returned to our Land: the Temple Mount, the Cave of the Patriarchs - our Forefathers' Land where Shimshon gave his life to free our nation from the Plishtim in Gaza. This is our right! Some of you might be willing to give parts of our land in the goal of bringing peace. That could be a basis for giving over lands to the Arabs - without agreeing to the claims of wrongful occupation. But this is not the case. Sharon has admitted that we shouldn't have been in Gaza and Samaria in the first place, and with that he has whipped the moral carpet from under our feet. There shall be no reasonable claim to hold onto Jerusalem after this. Sharon knew that this was against the Jewish people's wishes, and he did everything in his power to avoid a referendum. His plan only got the budget it needs on the vote of Arab members of Knesset. The army has repeatedly warned that this terrible plan of Sharon's will bring grave dangers to the country and specifically to the cities surrounding Gaza. The army has started to prepare Ashkelon for future rockets and mortar shells. I turn to you, because you are the key. This time we do not need combat trained soldiers. This time financial support, though important, is not enough. We need you here! I moved here from New York 13 years ago, and my family and I are leaving our home in the southern hills of Chevron, and we are moving to Gush Katif to a quiet Yishuv called Gadid. This is not easy, but we realize that this indeed is a battle for the justification of the State of Israel on the Land of Israel - not in Uganda as many of our leaders would have wished. While I understand that many of you cannot move to Israel yet for numerous reasons - we still need you here if only for just a few weeks. Sharon has pulled out the "big guns" and has started to arrest the leaders of the movements against his plan, and place them in jail until he carries out his suicidal plan. The Israeli Justice system will not be able to arrest you and hold you for long periods of time - as you are foreign citizens. This is the key. You may not be living here today, but you are still part of this Nation and this Land was given to you as much as it was given to me. You have a responsibility to yourselves, to your fathers and children to keep this country safe. Until now the only action you could take aside from moving here and serving in the army, was to participate in the financial burden of this nation who returned to its land. Now it's your turn to take a more active role. Take a vacation from work, leave your soft Sealy mattresses, your leather bucket seats of the Escalade, and roll up your sleeves and come save this country! Come and help your brothers and sisters who fought -- some of whom gave their lives -- for this holy soil. We will need each and every one of you here to stop the terrible plan to deport Jews from their homes and uproot graves against their will. Please answer our plea, and join us in our fight for our Land!. Help us show the world that the Jewish People belong here by right and not by military victory. Help yourselves look into the eyes of your descendants when they ask you where you were when Jews were deported from their homes. We failed to act during the Holocaust: let us redeem the slumbering giant of American Jewry. Contact Hadar at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net |
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WHO DIED AND LEFT YOU BOSS?
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 22, 2005. |
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Recently, Senator Joseph Biden used the familiar statement regarding President Bush's decisions: "Who died and left you boss?" I would like to apply that same statement again to President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vis a vis Israel, as follows: Mr. President, Israel is a sovereign nation who did not elect you boss. Granted we are familiar with the pandering of your family to Saudi Arabia and other Muslim oil nations. It has always been the policy of American Presidents to support Israel because the American people and the American Congress wanted it so. It has not been American policy to place Israel at the mercy of Arab Muslim Palestinian Terrorists - except for your efforts to buy Palestinian cooperation with the sacrifice of Israel's security. We - individually and collectively recognized that Israel was the only Democratic nation in the entire Middle East. We also recognized that the Arab culture was a bigoted society that is not to be trusted either by America or Israel. The American people also recognize and dislike the Terrorist groups like the Palestinians. As dangerous people who hate America, they call America the "Great Satan" and Israel, who they call "Little Satan". Why then do you send Condoleezza Rice to threaten Israel to continue with the "Disengagement" even as the Head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) publically states that he will not disarm any Terrorist organizations. Why have you instituted an arms embargo against Israel by cutting off needed arms and defense contracts, including spare parts and breaking contracts already signed which Israel has fairly made with other countries to maintain an economy that can support her people. Who can forget how then Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger visited Israel to observe the unique Lavi aircraft that Israel created and developed? When he saw its superior capabilities both as an Air Superiority fighter jet that could also perform as a Ground Support aircraft, he killed off the plane - in deference to General Dynamics who was supplying the F16. While American industry could not force France, Russia and all other nations who manufactured arms to cease, it could use its muscle to knock off the competition by Israel's industry. The Lavi outperformed the F16, turning on a smaller circle in air, costing a lot less - about $17 million, compared to the $30 million dollar range for the F16. The same tactic was used against the Merkava Tank which outperformed the America's Main Battle Tank, the Abrams M1A1. But, that attack by the U.S. failed, because Israel was already in production with the Merkava. The Bush diktat to Israel was to pass all contracts before an American review board, clearly serves to put a cloud over all foreign sales and insure that Israel's industrial base is stepped on to eliminate even the relatively small competition Israel offers. Why have you personally ordered the exclusion of Israel from the development of the planned future joint fighter jet? Why do you promote the sale of advanced armaments to hostile Arab nations when you condemn Israel for selling military goods in a free and open market? Something is happening that is very ugly and it shouldn't be happening in America. When Israel was attacked by the Arabs in various wars, the Israelis captured high tech Russian equipment. The Americans were desperate to get their hands on the Russian equipment because it would save them billions of dollars in developing counter measures. So Israel gifted the Americans Russian radar, Russian missiles, T-72 tanks and much more. General George Keegan, once head of the American Air Force Intelligence, said that Israel was worth 5 CIAs, based upon their on-ground intelligence Israel provided to the U.S. Israel had used her intelligence capabilities to penetrate the hostile Arab Muslim nations. These Arab Muslim nations worked with Soviet intelligence, Military Intelligence and the Israelis passed this vital information on to the Americans during the many years of the Cold War. Israel was always "America's Battleship in the Middle East". Imagine a country with Jews from 109 countries, speaking 95 languages, putting all those abilities at the disposal of her American friend. Keep in mind that American Intelligence did not have such a base of on-the-ground of agents who could speak the languages in the dialects of the Arab Muslims countries. (That's called Humint - human intelligence.) That on-ground Human Intel proved invaluable in the 2 wars against Iraq when they attacked Kuwait and the present conflict. So far, American industry benefits from having Russian radar, missiles which they can reverse engineer and then develop counter devices which saves thousands of man hours and millions to billions in dollars. Perhaps you and yours have forgotten Israel's contributions to America's safety and capability - even as you push to weaken America's only true friend in the Middle East. Now let's describe the high technology Israel created on her own in so many fields: Aircraft, avionics, the Merkava Tanks that protect their crews. America benefitted from the Popeye Missile, conformal fuel tanks to extend jet range, electronics, fiber-optics and much more. Israel developed the first UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle), which saved many American lives. Israel gave to America what the Arabs could not. Is your attitude as crass as: "What have your done for me lately?" The statement of: "Who died and left you boss?" seems applicable to Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon who acts as if he is your personal zombie. I guess you think that Sharon has died and left you Boss - and perhaps he has. Perhaps you even think that G-d has also died and left you Boss of the Holy Land? The Jews escaped from the European Jew Killers to hopefully live in peace free in Israel. Only that didn't happen - yet. The haters followed the Jews across the sea, partnering up with a hideous race of pagans who are anxious to kill the Jews for their god, Allah. Why do you shame and compromise all Americans by adding the power of your elected, although temporary office, to the Jews killers of Europe and the Muslim Arabs? Tell your traveling mouthpiece, Condi Rice, to pack her bags and leave Israel alone. You and your fellow gang of oil mafiosos have done enough damage to the Jewish people and the Jewish State by your pandering to Arab Muslim Jihadists who hate both America and Israel with an hysterical, religious-driven zeal. Israel has always been grateful for American assistance. "Just give us the arms", they say, "and we will fight our own battles", was and is Israel's credo. But, Israel was too successful in beating off Arab Terrorist attacks and fully armed Arab assaults in 6 real wars. The Arabs were frustrated and angry that this little Jewish nation was able to beat off their attacks. Somehow, these Jihadists linked to the oil companies fed their unhappiness through the Arabist State Department through the Oval Office and into your ear. Even as Israel was successful in repressing Terrorists, you and your mouthpieces from the State Department find Israel's success irritates your Arab Muslim friends. For Muslims losing to the Jews is a big shameful insult to their self-perception of the vaunted Muslim warriors. They wish to win in Jewish blood, if possible, or politically before launching a follow-on war. They need the Europeans, America, the U.N. to insert a political virus to first weaken Israel. That Bush and Rice are doing through the Road Map and more recently linking the failed Oslo Accords with the Road Map. Recruiting aberrant Jews like Sharon and Shimon Peres, et al was no problem. The problem is: "those irritating Jews now refuse to walk into a death trap". The message is, Mr. President, by all means continue to assist Israel,; But the American people want you to pack up, Ms. Rice, the CIA trainers of Palestinians, the meddling Ambassadors and other State Department Arabists and go home. Sacrificing Israel will not make the loss of Americans in Iraq to Muslim Jihadists look any better. We in the Free West, (including Israel, America, Europe, etc.) are all in a war brought on by Muslims who aim to create world domination by Islam. President Bush, you sir are opening the gates to Global Terrorists even wider, your heroic speeches notwithstanding. G-d didn't die and didn't leave you Boss of Israel and G-d's Holy Land. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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NAZI STRATEGY AND THE BUSH ROAD MAP
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 22, 2005. |
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Recently I was asked by someone how I compare the Nazi led Holocaust to Mr. Bush and his Road Map for Israel. He was offended that I had the nerve to compare the two, intoning that I needed to get permission from him to do such a thing. His phony honoring of the dead was evident by how he dismissed the living Jews of Gaza,soon to be expelled from their homes for the crime of being Jewish. I'd venture to say that there are many like him who give lip service to the victims of the Holocaust and activly help in preparing the way for the new and even greater holocaust aimed at Israel under the lie of peace. The agenda of the U.S. led 'process' is not peace, but to make sure Israel is ripe for defeat. Satan learned that he could not remove Israel with outright war, having failed five times in less than forty years,so the lure of peace was his next strategy. And so far he's hit a home run with this diabolical plan. Daniel prophesied in our day that a peacemaker would arise and, 'by peace destroy many'. The Bush Road Map has done ONLY one thing,and that is weaken Israel. Astute observers can see that it is only Israel being pressured to perform suicidally for the non existent peace with the bloodthirsty barbarians at the gate. The barbaric Palestinians are never required to do anything that amounts to acts of peace and the only thing Mr. Bush reprimands them with is a light tongue lashing and more millions and millions of dollars. For those not robbed of their ability to reason by the Satanic New World Order that Mr.Bush is moving forward at breakneck speed, it's not hard to figure out that Israel is on the altar of blood sacrifice to be offered up to the god of this underworld. As many of us can see, the allah sharks smell blood and they are circling the weakened victim. In attempting to reason with this individual, I pointed out that the early days of the Third Reich,the war against the Jews began in incremental stages.It was a slow buildup to the finale, and that caught the targets for the most part off guard as they are today. Here a little, there a little and new laws were passed until the death camps and ovens came to be the norm of German Policy and their Final Solution. Today, in much the same way we have Mr. Bush ever so methodically and incrementally moving the goal post in the middle of the game. Now thay are at the 1949 armistice line, ensuring the re-opening of internment and extermination camps, now to be located in what is left of Israel. Everyone with even mediocre sense knows Israel cannot survive in what Abba Eban called Aushwitz borders. The enemy of the Jews is ever so clever as he did not come out early as a rabid anti-Semitic hatemonger and villain, but a friend and ally seeking peace. He came to Israel with the hope and plan for peace and this war ravaged country fell for it hook line and... now they sink. Israel has been seduced by a most clever foe under the guise of peace and friendship. Even with the plethora of evidence that says Israel is heading off a steep cliff, Israel continues to run, refusing to stop before the barbed wire rimmed gates behing her are shut. As it was in the 30's, the vast majority of Jews are clueless and those who sound the alarm are IGNORED and/or SCORNED. Most Jew's aid and support this man and his Trojan style peace plan for Israel by squeezing her into non defensible borders. The rest of Israel silently goes to the slaughter house without protest as their families did not too long ago in Europe under another peacemaker. They are literally digging their own grave that will bury them as they honor this man and his final solution Road Map. It is clear to all of us who watch Israel and the 'process' that the real threat to Mr. Bush's peace are not the Islamic terrorists, but Jews who build homes and have families on their land. Before our eyes we are seeing the incremental stages of a new holocaust unfolding and once again the Jews for the most part go along silently. Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. |
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THE RISE AND FALL OF HISTADRUT IVRIT OF AMERICA
Posted by Rachel Kapen, June 22, 2005. |
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The year 1998 marked the 80 year anniversary of Histadrut Ivrit of America which is the Hebrew designation of The Hebrew Movement of America, which, among other projects related to the advancement of the Hebrew Language included the publishing a few years following its inception, in 1921, Hadoar, the oldest of Hebrew publication in America, and later on, in 1963, Lamishpacha Hebrew Monthly started its publication, and Sulam Yaacov (Jacob's Ladder), targeted for the younger Hebrew learners, followed suit in coming years. Another important project of Histadrut Ivrit was Tov Likhtov (it's good to write) which was headed for many years by Aviva Benamy, a veteran Hebrew educator. It included thousands of Hebrew school students whose Hebrew creations in prose and poetry were compiled and published once a year by the Histadrut and distributed to the schools. In celebration of the 80th milestone of Histadrut Ivrit - a milestone called by our sages as "the age of gevurah", meaning: strength or heroism, it published the definitive book on the movement and its many accomplishments throughout the years. The book was written by Prof. Moshe Pelli, a professor of Hebrew literature and a renowned scholar and researcher of the Hebrew Haskallah (Enlightenment). Dr. Pelli, an Israeli native who taught Hebrew Literature in Ben Gurion University in Be'er- Sheva and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., is the founder and Chairman of the Department of Jewish Studies in the University of Central Florida in Orlando. However, for many years he was also closely associated with Histadrut Ivrit and is a founder and one of the first editors of Lamishpacha Hebrew Monthly. Dr. Moshe Pelli was my first editor in Lamishpacha Hebrew monthly in the early 1960's and again from 1983-1985 when the then editor Elchanan Indelman suddenly died and he agreed to edit the monthly till a new editor will be found. When he wrote the book of the 80 years of the Histadrut Ivrit of America he thought that he merely celebrated its special milestone. Little did he know that this book was actually its swan song, its eulogy. Almost a year ago, I, and a great number of Hebrew readers of Hadoar- which from a weekly ultimately became a quarterly - as well as of Lamishpacha Hebrew Monthly - the only Hebrew publication printed with 'Nikkud' (vowels) and is used in hundreds of Hebrew 'ulpanim' as well as the higher grades of Hebrew Day Schools, and the youngest readers of Sulam-Yaacov, were all informed that all three publications will cease to publish indefinitely. The news was devastating and incredulous. Many readers asked me, who for many years contributed regularly to Hadoar and Lamishpacha Hebrew Monthly, whether the verdict is irreversible or only temporary, and I held the hope that somehow this is not the last word. That somehow a person will come forward who has the great love of the Hebrew Language and the financial ability - like Moshe and Ita Neuman who were the generous supporters of Lamishpacha their entire lives, and breathe new life into the now deceased movement. Alas, as the months went by, this didn't happen yet. Recently, I tried to go on the Histadrut Ivrit website HebrewUsa.org, but discovered that it no longer exists. But despite it all, I still hope. I simply can't conceive of the notion that Histadrut Ivrit, Hadoar and Lamishpacha were a mere fleeting episode in Jewish America. Rachel Kapen writes primarily for publications in Hebrew in the U.S.A., but she has also written on Israeli topics for English language publications. She appears as guest columnist in the Detroit Jewish News. She can be contacted by email at skapen285466mi@comcast.net |
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OH ... IS THAT A BOMB IN MY UNDERPANTS?
Posted by David Frankfurter, June 22, 2005. |
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Dear Friends, Israeli Prime Minister and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem yesterday for their first working meeting in several months. Although Israel made some concessions, the atmosphere was tense and the Palestinians left visibly disappointed. Israel insisted that a cessation of Palestinian violence was a pre-requisite for discussions on further items requested by the Palestinians. I heard Saeb Erekat, who was at Abbas' side during the meeting, speak on this morning's Israeli radio. He said that the talks were difficult - and was very clear that the difficulty was because of violence, arrests and suicide bombers over the previous two days. The enemies of peace were derailing progress. Saeb Erekat bravely accepted that the blame for any lack of progress was, at least in part, to be borne by Palestinians. It is interesting that Britain's media flagship - the BBC - saw things differently. In its report [1] on the meeting, it made it very clear that Israeli expectations are far to high, and that this is the sole cause of Palestinian frustration and lack of progress toward peace. Of course, the BBC is a master of changing the slant on the Middle East, often by selectively quoting the Palestinian side, by not properly challenging obvious lies, by using doubt inducing phrases like "Israel says", or putting facts in inverted commas or "scare quotes" as they are known by media watchers. A classic case is their reporting [2] of one of the very incidents Erekat hinted at. A Palestinian woman was caught at a checkpoint with an explosive device under her clothes - planning to exploit her humanitarian entry permit and blow herself up in the very hospital that had previously saved her life and was continuing to treat her. The BBC's spin is breath-taking: "Israel says" she was going explode in a hospital. But the matter is of course open for BBC interpretation. "Ms Bis said on Israeli TV she wanted to be a suicide bomber but then later told foreign journalists the explosives were planted on her without her knowledge...The army said she had tried to blow herself up there but the explosives did not detonate..." The doubt inducing phrase "the army said" might lead you to think that the lady was just an innocent dupe - unless, of course, you happened to watch the whole event on Israel television news and actually saw her pull the detonator when she was discovered and then express an audible expletive in Arabic when she failed to vaporize. The BBC even laconically quotes her story that during medical treatment, someone in a Gaza hospital slipped a 5 kg. bomb into this lady's underpants without arousing her suspicions. I wonder what the BBC thought the trigger was when she pulled it? Best Regards,
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4118126.stm
To subscribe to David Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. Or go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/dfrankfurter/ |
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TWO NEWS ITEMS ABOUT THE IDF AND THE PLANNED DISENGAGEMENT
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 22, 2005. |
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So, once again the "Israelis" define who is their enemy. Of the various desperate measures recently taken by the Sharon Junta, this one is not the most dangerous but is probably the most disgusting. 1. This is called "IDF Will Pay Top Rates to Disengagement Soldiers" and appeared in today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=84368 What to do with the many soldiers who plan to refuse or otherwise not fulfill disengagement-related orders? The army's decision could be construed as an attempt to bribe them to change their minds. Soldiers are paid according to the level of military activity in which they are engaged. Fighting soldiers are paid at Level A or A+ rates, the highest amounts, and other soldiers are paid according to the lower Levels B, C and D, in accordance with what they do. The question recently arose in the IDF Personnel Branch, Ynet reports: How to categorize those who will be taking part in the scheduled expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Shomron. The decision was made to consider them as taking part in military operations, thus rendering them eligible for the highest level of salary. Fighting soldiers will thus receive the same salaries, whether they are on the Lebanese border protecting against Hizbullah or in Gush Katif forcibly expelling Jews from their homes. Other soldiers who take part in the expulsion will receive up to 15% more - which could comprise as much as 750 shekels per month. Tens of thousands of soldiers have signed petitions saying they will not take part in disengagement activities. 2. This is called "IDF Reserve Soldiers and Officers Say No to DisengagementWe were just fulfilling orders." and appeared in today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=84374 Hundreds of IDF reserve soldiers and officers gathered in Jerusalem's Binyanei HaUmah Convention Center Tuesday to call upon their fellow soldiers to refuse to take part in the Disengagement Plan. The audience also included several elite unit soldiers in uniform and the parents of a Druze soldier already sitting in prison for refusing to train for the uprooting were in attendance. Many of the reservists tore up draft notices in front of the television cameras. They instead accepted orange "call-up notices" symbolizing their enlistment in the struggle against the planned withdrawal from Gush Katif and northern Samaria. "There are those who tell us we are destroying the IDF - that a soldier must fulfill every order given to him," Colonel (ret.) Moshe Leshem told those gathered. "At Nuremberg, people were hanged for saying, 'We were just fulfilling orders.' We say to them: 'We are saving the IDF.'" The father of Sgt. Timor Abdullah, one of two Druze soldier sent to prison so far for refusing to take part in preparations for the Disengagement Plan, took the podium to a sustained standing ovation from the crowd. He was presented with a framed certificate for his son, referring to him as a "Righteous Gentile." Sgt. Abdullah had sent a letter to the IDF's new Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, saying, "When my colleagues and I are demanded to participate in operations whose objective is to defend the country and its citizens, we feel obliged to participate, but when we are asked to participate in an operation against the people we are meant to defend - our consciences would tremble eternally." Wiping a tear from his eye, Nazib Abdullah, from the Druze village of Kfar Kama, thanked those present for the "warm embrace," calling upon all Israelis to follow in his son's footsteps. "What he did, everyone must do," he said. "He has been sentenced to 35 days, and he will continue to sit in prison for what is right rather than take part in something he will regret for the rest of his life." Also addressing the conference were Lt.-Col. Shimon Bart, Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance) fighter Tzafrir Ronen, and Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed, chief rabbi of Beit El. Noam Livnat, spokesman for the Homat Magen (Defensive Shield) organization that sponsored the event, told Arutz-7 that every soldier who receives call-up orders must be aware that he will be used to further the uprooting/expulsion. "The army is calling up thousands of soldiers to take part," he said, "and if he is not in an inner ring [actual expulsion], he will be in an outer one [guarding the entrances and the like]. Everyone who receives a call-up order for the summer will be involved in one way or another, and people must know this. But with G-d's help, we will stop it..." " Even those who are being called up right now are enabling others to prepare for the expulsion," Livnat said. "It sounds funny, but even cars are being called up, just like 40 years ago - because the army has a shortage in ways of transporting people..." Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch asked, "How do you deal with the claims that you will cause a national catastrophe by calling for wide-spread refusal in the army?" Livnat: "There is a clear Halakhic [Jewish legal] ruling by former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira that one must refuse these orders, and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu similarly said that one may not take part in the disengagement; he feels that one should not refuse, but should rather say that he can't do it. These are nuances, but the bottom line is that one may not take part." Livnat explained that the struggle against the disengagement has three aspects: "The civil disobedience; the refusal by policemen and soldiers to act against the very people they are charged with protecting; and the amazing staying-power and strength of the residents in Gush Katif and northern Shomron themselves." Hevron Jewish Community spokesman Noam Arnon, one of the organizers of the conference, spoke with Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz and Malkah Fleisher. Click here to listen to the interview.
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.
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END THE DEMILITARIZATION OF SINAI?
Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, June 22, 2005. |
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Professors for a Strong Israel has written to all the members of Knesset, from the Labor Party rightwards, irrespective of their position on the "disengagement," calling on them to do their utmost to frustrate a dangerous plan---the cancellation of the principal achievement of the peace treaty with Egypt. The text of the letter follows. The most important achievement of the peace treaty with Egypt is the demilitarization of the Sinai peninsula, which placed a 200-km barrier between the ever-augmented Egyptian army and the Israeli border. Several plans have been voiced recently in Israel that propose Israeli agreement to the introduction of Egyptian forces to Sinai and their deployment close to our borders---beginning with 1000 troops in the Rafiah area, along the Philadelphi corridor, and continuing with 5000 more along the line from Rafiah to Eilat. The future could well hold tens of thousands more, spread throughout Sinai. From the moment that Israel herself agrees to violate the principle that the demilitarization of Sinai is an essential element of Israel's security and of peace with Egypt, the situation will begin to degenerate toward one of friction and incidents between the IDF and the Egyptian army in Sinai. The justification usually given in this connection is that Egyptian troops along the border will prevent arms smuggling from Sinai to Gaza and the smuggling of arms, drugs, and women from Sinai to the Negev. This claim is specious. The arms, drugs, and women reach Sinai in the first place from Egypt proper, and nothing prevents the Egyptians from blocking the smuggling routes today, far from our borders, if they so desired. If the Egyptians are not doing so today, it is only because they don't want to. The idea of introducing Egyptian forces to Sinai is stupid and dangerous, both to Israel and to peace. The Egyptian demands that the fight against smuggling be carried out by army troops, and not by police, and that the troops must be deployed from Rafiah to Eilat, prove that Egyptian hands are not clean in preventing smuggling and that their intentions are less than pure. The Knesset's Intelligence Subcommittee, which is in possession of full intelligence information, has itself issued a rare warning, to the effect that all Egypt wants is military domination of Sinai, which will constitute military pressure on Israel and a most dangerous security threat. I turn to you, without regard to your position on "disengagement," to ask you to act to the best of your ability to bury this dangerous idea, and thus to preserve the principal achievement of the peace treaty with Egypt. Dr. Ron Breiman is Chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI). Contact him by phone at 050-551 8940 |
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THE MEDIA IN FOREIGN POLICY; IS EUROPE "FINISHED?"; WHAT'S EGYPT UP TO?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 22, 2005. |
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THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN FOREIGN POLICY Jordan's Press Association complained about censorship. They could not release certain editions until they removed articles on the absence of democracy. (It confirms the charge.) Editors were warned not to support the Iraqi insurgency during a visit by Iraq's President. What is the proper role of the media? During WWII, reporters kept military confidences, at least until the news no longer could aid the enemy drive against US forces. They cannot now be trusted to be that discreet or patriotic. Worse, many US journalists are anti-American. The change seems to have come about during the Vietnam War, when they realized that the government had been lying to them about the war. As supposed watchdogs, they would be expected to expose the lies. They went further, and lied, themselves. They mis-characterized a great military victory, the Vietcong's Tet Offensive, which wiped out the Vietcong, as a military defeat. In reporting about the Iraq war, which they oppose, they emphasize bad news and ignore good news. Don't let them tell you that their breaches of confidentiality are because they think their readers are entitled to know the truth. IS EUROPE "FINISHED?" Europe's decline in population and ability to maintain its welfare states, indicates it has lost its status as a world power. Can it reform economically and demographically, ejecting and barring Muslim immigrants? (So far, the big parties alarmed over the rise of fringe parties that stress these issues, think people are becoming extremist, rather than that the fringe parties are responding to real and legitimate concern.) Can it recover self-respect for Western civilization? There are some signs that it may. Will it do so in time? The major political parties do not acknowledge the trouble Europe is in. They strive to maintain the social programs that however progressive, keep their products from competing with low-wage, low-concern countries. The EU's major concern is to counter-act US influence, whether benign or harmful. The big question, then, is whether they will wake up to their real problem. Who would have thought that when Church influence gave way to the popular desire for birth control, divorce, and abortion, what seemed to be liberating would become disastrous, and, in view of the rising proportion of Muslims, eventually possibly enslaving! Thus the broader picture is different from the immediate one. THE PROBLEMS WITH ANALOGIES For years, analogies have been distracting from the topics of internet forums, rather than illuminating them. Arguing about the analogy as a separate topic, participants lost sight of the main topics. Now there is a new problem with analogies. Public figures, not always that knowledgeable about history nor precise in their language, liken some phenomenon they are criticizing to some other one. This other one may have some bad features they do not mean the criticized one has. Defenders of the criticized one demand apology for suggesting total similarity. If the criticism be not politically correct, there probably would be an unwarranted apology. In reaction to news about US torture of prisoners, someone said he expected to find that in the USSR, not in the USA. He was denounced, since US policy is much more benign. But for the aspect he criticized, he was correct to suggest it is Communist-like. WHAT IS EGYPT UP TO? WHAT ARE REPORTERS UP TO? British security experts are working in the Gaza Strip, to help coordinate P.A. security forces. "Egypt has deployed dozens of undercover police and intelligence agents in the Gaza Strip to pave the way for Israel's withdrawal from the area and to help the P.A. curb the radical Hamas group, according to senior security courses." Both Egypt and Israel "...are increasingly alarmed by the prospect of Hamas, the Islamist group responsible for most suicide bombings against Israel, gaining the upper hand in Gaza after the withdrawal. 'If Hamas takes over, it will be the end of the peace process,' one source close to Egypt's president, H. Mubarak, said. Cairo is particularly worried that success by Hamas in Gaza could stir up unrest among Egypt's own Islamic radicals." It was to restrict Hamas that Egypt helped delay P.A. parliamentary elections. "Cairo has also exerted pressure on S. Arabia and other Gulf states to stop funding Hamas and redirect the money to the P.A.." (Anton LaGuardia, NY Sun, 6/15, p.9.) Egypt has motive to curb Hamas. Nevertheless, Egypt had demanded that the P.A. release Hamas or Islamic Jihad men finally arrested by P.A. security forces when firing rockets at Israelis How does the reporter square that with his piece about Egypt opposing Hamas? Likewise, it is known that Egypt kept stiffening Arafat to say "no" to Israel, when he might have reached a supposedly concluding agreement. This shows that Egypt's interest in the "peace process" is to keep trying to get Israel to give up more and bleed more, rather than settle matters. What is called a "peace process" is not such; it is a euphemism for diplomacy that softens Israel up for war. (Actually, agreements with the Arabs rarely conclude anything. The Arabs absorb the gifts, and then complain and make new demands or revive ones they had dropped, in reaching the recent agreement). The reporter also forgot that Egypt long has been trying to destroy Israel; its military doctrine is to prepare for war against Israel; its political line is to boycott Israel; its media demonizes Israel and the Jewish people (and the US). Egypt is needlessly demanding that its treaty with Israel be amended so it can at least somewhat re-militarize the Sinai. The reporter should be more curious to find out what the Egyptian intelligence sources really are up to. Same for British intelligence, which once tried to prevent Israeli independence and helped Arabs seize Judea-Samaria. It is cryptic to attribute statements to "senior security sources." Which ones? How reliable, rather than political, are those of Egypt, the P.A., Israel, or Britain? Reporters should be careful that when they cover themselves by quoting such sources, they are not spreading disinformation. It is misleading to assert that Hamas committed more suicide bombings. That is only one form of attack. The PLO has in the last couple of years committed more of it than has Hamas, and overall has committed at least as many attacks. PLO propaganda undoubtedly has motivated many freelance and spontaneous attacks, too. The PLO is more dangerous for having a clever plan of conquering Israel in phases, under cover of diplomacy, and for protecting Hamas. I don't want any Arabs to take over Gaza, which Israel should claim. If any Arabs do, I might prefer Hamas, for then Israel would more likely realize it has to fight them and the world is less likely to begrudge Israel that self-defense. However, the world is moving to accommodate itself to Hamas. World leaders tie their noses rather than flush the sewers. They hate the inoffensive Jews more than they fear the offensive Islamists. This costs the world dearly. SAUDIS GOING NUCLEAR, BUT DEMANDS ISRAEL NOT S. Arabia has applied for monitoring of its nuclear activities to be lifted enough to produce two atom bombs. The kingdom had received nuclear shipments from Pakistan (IMRA, 6/10). S. Arabia demands that Israel open its nuclear facilities to international inspection (IMRA, 6/11). JIHAD GLOBALIZING European networks provide the Iraq insurgency with much of its cash. About one-fourth of the terrorists in Iraq are from N. Africa. Feeling pressured by their own governments, which increasingly are militant against local terrorism, the Islamists fight in Iraq. There being fewer formal terrorist training bases, they get their training "on the job" in Iraq and other war zones. Most come unskilled, but kill thousands by driving car bombs into them. Most who leave have gained military skills that put their own governments and people in greater danger. In reaction, the US is financing African security programs, as by $100 million a year for the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (Todd Pitman, NY Sun, 6/15, p.9). ISRAEL RESPONDS TO U.S. SECURITY NEED Sec. Rice was to discuss with Israel its selling of military equipment to China. China, she pointed out, is threatening other Asian countries that the US is helping to defend. Israel replies that it has greatly scaled down its sales to China, now much less than that of European states and Russia (Steven R. Weisman, NY Times, 6/17, p.9). I haven't heard of US dismay over military sales to China by Europeans. Did I miss it? U.S. SEEKS MORE FOREIGN AID FOR THE P.A. The US is trying to assemble foreign donations of about a billion dollars a year, for the next few years, for the P.A. (Op. Cit.). There is a chance that the US may yet rescue Iraq, though at greater expense to ourselves. There is no foreseeable chance that the US may civilize the Palestinian Arabs, who relish murder in the name of their God. This is an undeserving rat hole that we pour our now scarce dollars down. Since they hate the US and Israel no matter how much we give them, they would form an anti-American, terrorist state. But our State Dept. would derive much satisfaction from destroying the Jewish state, at last. ISRAEL SHIFTS MILITARY FOCUS Israel is shifting its priority from the P.A. to Iran, and its means of combat from ground forces to the air force and the intelligence capability of designating more targets, etc. (IMRA, 6/10). PM Sharon has decided that the P.A. threat is not existential. Wait until he abandons swaths of territory to it, and it bombards many cities of Israel! Wait until there is the regional war that he dreads, and the P.A. blocks Israeli mobilization, tying down the IDF for the crucial time needed to meet invaders! A wiser military strategy would have been, some time ago, to reduce the number of fronts and of enemies by voiding Oslo, smashing the P.A., and reclaiming most of the Jewish territory it sits on. WORSHIP OF USURPING SUPREME COURTS "The law governing the disengagement from Gaza is so illegal that it ought to be declared null and void - but the settlers must obey it nonetheless, Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy wrote in his dissent to the court's ruling upholding the law." Once the Court upheld it, however, he said the people must obey it," though it serves no security purpose (IMRA, 6/10). Israelis should not be slavish towards a self-appointed court of anti-Zionist, far-leftist activists lacking constitutional and personal restraint. Judges cannot sanitize unethical laws. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE PROVOCATION AND THE BLOOD LIBEL
Posted by Nadia Matar, June 22, 2005. |
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This is a translation of an article written in Hebrew by Nadia Matar. The short history of the modern State of Israel teaches us that when the Israeli Left is panicky and fears losing control of the country, it is capable of doing anything to maintain its standing and power. The end - staying in power - justifies the means, and so the leaders of the Israeli left find nothing wrong with initiating provocations against their political rivals, spreading blood libels against them, and even murdering them in cold blood.When Chaim Arlosoroff, one of the heads of the Labor movement, was murdered on the Tel Aviv shore on June 16, 1933, those involved in the investigation knew that the murder suspects were most likely Arabs, but this version didn't go out to the public at first. Instead, they decided to accuse members of the Revisionist movement with the murder. Avraham Stavski, Zevi Rosenblatt, and even Abba Ahimeir were arrested and charged with murder and/or incitement to murder. The people in Israel were shocked, and a terrible campaign of slander and delegitimation was launched against all the members and supporters of the Revisionist movement. The brilliant timing of the murder raises the question, who really wanted to kill Arlosoroff? The murder was committed just a few weeks before the elections to the Eighteenth Zionist Congress, in which the Revisionists were expected to win a great victory. Their strength was constantly on the rise, and this posed a tangible threat to the left, headed by Ben-Gurion. The murder of Arlosoroff and the left's blood libel against the Revisionists put an end to this trend, and the left preserved its political strength. An additional fascinating point should be mentioned: a dazzling political career lay before the young and brilliant Chaim Arlosoroff - and some said that Ben-Gurion viewed him as a threat. Arlosoroff's murder therefore was of benefit to Ben-Gurion in more than one way. In 1934 the court convicted Stavski and acquitted Rosenblatt. Stavski was sentenced to death. On July 20 of that same year Stavski also was acquitted, on the basis of a Mandatory law that a murder suspect cannot be convicted on the testimony of a single witness. Years later, in 1982, Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided to establish the Bekhor Commission to determine who killed Arlosoroff. The commission declared that Stavski and Rosenblatt did not murder Arlosoroff, but was incapable of determining who had committed the crime. To this very day the leftists continue with their blood libel, and charge that the Revisionists murdered Arlosoroff, when it is clear to all that they were the last to have gained any benefit from such a crime. Shamefully, there are copious additional examples of the willingness of the left to cross every political red line in order to stay in power. For example, the episode of the Altalena that occurred in 1948. Ben-Gurion's people feared losing power because of the public admiration that Menachem Begin would enjoy if he were to succeed in bringing the arms that were so necessary to the fledgling state, and so they resolved to attempt to eliminate him and his movement. Ben-Gurion ordered the sinking of the Altalena. After the ship sank and the Etzel [Irgun Zevai Le'ummi] men were swimming to shore, Ben-Gurion's men fired at them and coldbloodedly murdered 16 Etzel members. In any normal country, such an affair, in which the prime minister ordered the killing in cold blood of innocent citizens, would have led to the fall of the government and the placing on trial of everyone involved in the affair. This did not happen, because Ben-Gurion spread a blood libel against Begin and his people, as if they had planned to use the arms on the ship in order to conduct a putsch, and therefore "there was no alternative to shooting at them in order to save the young State and its institutions." Moving on to an additional example, one closer to our time: in 1995 Israel was swept by a tremendous wave of Arab terror resulting from the accursed Oslo accords. Rabin and Peres, the architects of Oslo, brought to Israel the arch murderer Arafat and the band of terrorists around him, and gave them weapons, ammunition, and cities of refuge. As could be expected, this led to the daily murders in Israel of Jews - men, women, and children. All the polls clearly showed an overwhelming majority of the people of Israel were furious over the Oslo accords, and wanted to replace the government in order to stop this madness. The Rabin-Peres government was in danger of collapsing. There was an urgent need to divert public attention from the Oslo disaster and to delegitimatize those who attacked the Oslo accords. A GSS agent popped up: Avishai Raviv, the provocateur who initiated all kinds of actions against Arabs and members of the government, all in order to defame the national camp. The height of success for the witch-hunt against the Oslo opponents was the Rabin assassination, which was followed by a national campaign of persecution of every Jew who belonged to the national camp. This led to the almost total paralysis of the camp of those opposing the Oslo accords, who did not dare to raise their heads. To this very day, the left continues to spread the blood libel, as if the entire national camp is guilty of the assassination. It is clear to us that elements in the left, specifically, were interested in the murder of the Prime Minister, and therefore we continue to demand the establishment of a commission of inquiry that will conduct an independent investigation of the question: who really was behind the Rabin assassination? And now, all the polls in the governmental media admit that the Sharon-Peres regime has a serious problem: a majority of the people of Israel opposes the "disengagement" plan (that is, the plague of retreat, deportation, uprooting - and even the initials of these words in Hebrew spell out the word for "plague": nega). It understands that if, Heaven forbid, it were to be realized, the wave of terror that would overwhelm the country would be so massive and monstrous, and the demands by the world for a return to the 1949 armistice lines would intensify to such an extent, that the very existence of the State of Israel would be endangered. The old Mapai hands Sharon and Peres are panic-stricken. They are well aware that their government is in danger. Sharon insists on not heeding the will of the people, but the people insists on showing him just how fierce is its opposition: everywhere you turn, you see orange in solidarity with the residents of Gush Katif and the Shomron, and in protest against the expulsion plan. Everywhere that Sharon and the other forces of deportation appear, our wonderful youth heckle and shout at them "A Jew does not deport a Jew." Hugging Condoleezza Rice and the terrorist and Holocaust denier Abu Mazan will be of no avail. The Israeli people want to depose the Sharon-Peres-Hamas regime. The people want, at long last, to have a Jewish-Zionist government that will not surrender to terror, and that will protect our G-d given Biblical homeland. Accordingly, we must lose no time and warn from every possible forum that we are aware of the possibility that the Mapainiks Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres, the summa cum laude disciples of Ben-Gurion, together with the anti-Jewish Department of the GSS, are preparing a horrible provocation in order to totally delegitimize the national camp, one that will totally silence the national camp and allow the deportation forces to carry out their plans. It is not clear what they are plotting for us. Will a GSS agent masquerade as a settler and, Heaven forbid, shoot the Prime Minister, a senior government minister, or a soldier? Will a GSS agent do something on the Temple Mount? We don't have a clue. There are infinite scenarios. What can be done to prevent this? First of all, we talk about it. The more we spread the word that we are aware of this possibility, the greater our chances of preventing the realization of the provocation. We must make it clear that the camp of those opposing the retreat-expulsion-uprooting plan does not have to resort to force and violence in order to stop the deportation. Our strength lies in our numbers. The tens of thousands of soldiers and police who will not obey the illegal deportation order, the tens of thousands of Jews who will cut the fences and stream to Gush Katif and Samaria on D-Day (the day they try to close these areas), the tens of thousands of Jews who will disrupt the country with nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, are, please G-d, enough to prevent the implementation of the decree. The use of force and violence, attacks against leading members of the government, shooting at soldiers, and the like, will only cause us harm. Sharon and Peres know this, and so they are undoubtedly cooking something up along these lines. Most of the leaders of the national camp, Rabbis, and public figures, fell into the trap of the blood libels by the left against the national camp that I mentioned above (the Arlosoroff murder, the Altalena affair, the Rabin assassination). Instead of raising their heads' going on the offensive and accusing the libelers until the fall of their regime, they preferred to engage in breast-beating for something they did not do. This must not happen again! 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 |
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AND YET ANOTHER JEWISH UNDERGROUND
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 22, 2005. |
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Here we go again. After having already discovered a few dozen Jewish undergrounds in the past few years that all seem to evaporate when held up to the light of serious scrutiny, you would think the SHABBAK could find a better way to amuse itself. This is called "Police Uncover Yitzhar Based Cell Planning to Target Vehicles" and was a news item in today's Arutz-7. It is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=84355 (IsraelNN.com) Police announce the arrests of eleven persons from Yishuv Yitzhar in Shomron believed to have been conspiring to target vehicles traveling on roads around the country in anti-disengagement vandalism. Police are relating with the utmost seriousness to the allegations, explaining the group planned to place large nails, spikes and other objects on roads to cause tires to blow out, possibly leading to accidents as well as injuries and loss of life. Nine of the eleven have been remanded to custody, police report, adding they were arrested in Moshav Beit Gamliel. Police involved in the arrests confiscated large quantities of spikes, nails and other paraphernalia believed related to their alleged activities. 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. |
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SIGNS OF PROGRESS
Posted by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, June 22, 2005. |
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Upon my release from prison, I told my colleague, Dr. Richard Benkin, that if we can realize the goals that landed me there, "my 17-month incarceration would be worth it." Those goals were an open and unbiased flow of news about Israel to Bangladesh, increased relations between Israel and Muslim nations, and the elimination of hate toward the Jewish people in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the non-Arab Muslim world. While the world focuses on high-profile peace-making efforts, even without addressing the ongoing anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish socialization at the root of the conflict, there are clear signs that real bridges are being built with Israel here in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Previously, the people of Bangladesh received only anti-Israeli news, and certainly nothing about the tiny openings of interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims. That began to change recently with the appearance of such pieces in the pages of Dhaka daily Amader Shomoy. Amader Shomoy is published in Bangladesh's vernacular language of Bangla, and now to a limited extent in English as well. News of US Rabbi Marc Gopin's appearance on Damascus television as part of an interfaith discussion caused quite a stir. When news of Israeli Foreign Minister Shalom's visit to Mulsim Mauritania followed the next day, it became the talk of the Dhaka press community. Amader Shomoy editor Nayeemul Islam Khan said that his paper was swamped with phone calls about these and other articles of Benkin's. More surprising, the calls were overwhelmingly positive. Bangladeshis wanted to know more! "Traditionally," Benkin told me, "anti-Israeli partisans framed the dispute in such a way that any contact with Israelis or even pro-Israeli idea, was tantamount to abandoning support for Arab Palestinians. It was defined as a betrayal." The new freer flow of information is beginning to change that, because Bangladeshis do not have to engage in this new sort of contact and change their basic assumptions about things at the same time. It also allows political leaders to follow democratic principles that ultimately are in the best interests of their constituents. Until now, most reporting on Israel and the Jewish people in Muslim countries nourished a culture of hatred. Many of the western news agencies reinforced that culture. Their news about Israel in the Muslim world, surprisingly appeased the radicals. The practice, unfortunately, continues despite attempts by many Muslims to increase their people's access to free information. I asked a journalist working with an internationally acclaimed wire service the reason behind this notorious tendency. He responded that the news is a business, which leads them to cater to popular emotion, selecting only those elements that conform to mass sentiment. He acknowledge that such practices only increase the gap that has "unfortunately" been created between religions, as noted by Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Moshed Khan recently. But he did not see his editors changing their policy anytime soon. Khan has consistently spoken out against any rapproachment between Bangladesh and Israel but noted on his recent return from Washington that his country is ready to work closely with the United States in ending the division of the world in the name of religion. This is a very positive signal from Bangladeshi policy makers, as they consider withdrawing the ban on travel to Israel with the introduction of digitized passports this year. Other government authorities are studying the Gulf States-Israel relation as a possible model to follow. Previously withheld news of Israeli relations with several Arab and Muslim countries has encouraged many of us in Bangladesh. Published statements by Libyan leader Gaddafi's son and positive signs from conservative Muslim countries like Pakistan and Indonesia, has brought us hope, as well. Most Bangladeshi leaders, aside from some avowed radicals, favor Dhaka-Jerusalem relations as is. They have said privately that the lack of Bangladesh-Israel relations only strengthens the radical forces that they both recognize as threats to global peace. Bangladesh is an active participant in the war on terror, and many of its leaders are asking if their traditionally blind allegiance to Arab policies harms that effort and the people of Bangladesh. Because Bangladesh is a democracy, its leaders must be cognizant of the popular will, which makes the role of the media critical. Most of the Bangladesh media, however, remains hostile towards Israel and the Jews. We don't expect them to become overnight Zionists, but we should expect open and unbiased news. Chicago based contributor, Benkin has been able to crack that iceberg with his articles, and is not receiving the same opposition that greeted my own Weekly Blitz after it published Bangladesh's first pro-Israeli news in 2003. If that trend continues and spreads to the rest of the non-Islamist Bangladeshi media, we can expect the government to proceed with stunning changes in its policies, beginning with removal of the travel ban to Israel later this year. Ultimately, it is the people of Bangladesh who will benefit the most. The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, amd editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com |
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RALLY ROUND THE FLAG
Posted by Michael Freund, June 22, 2005. |
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The following is an article of mine from the Jerusalem Post about the need for Israelis to unite around our national symbols as a means of preventing society from coming apart at the seams. It is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1119320280960&p=1006953079865 Comments may be sent to letters@jpost.com or to me directly. It is staring us right in the face - the prospect of heightened civil strife, sharpened internal division and even more, raucous public discord. In less than 60 days, if all goes according to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan, Israel will withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria, uprooting thousands of Jews from their homes and pushing the nation to the brink of a major schism. Whatever one may think about the wisdom of the proposed retreat, there can be no doubt that it will send a painful shudder through Israeli society, one that is sure to be felt for decades to come. There is hardly an ideological or political seam-line in the country that will not be affected, in one form or another, by the trauma that will ensue should Israel's armed forces be deployed against the very citizens they are sworn to protect. One can only imagine the heartrending scenes, the tears that will be shed and the silent prayers that will be recited in the heat of that terrible moment, should it come to pass. The wound in the nation's psyche will be gaping, which is why we all need to begin preparing now for the possible aftermath. This is not a matter of coming to terms with the withdrawal, of accepting it, or even legitimizing it. But now more than ever, it is essential for the future of this country that we start reinforcing the glue that holds our society together. Irrespective of whether the withdrawal does occur, the strains on the country are already beginning to be felt. Failure to address them now will merely increase the risk of greater disarray and turmoil in the months and years to come. The idea of promoting national unity is hardly new, and barely a day seems to go by without some politician or spiritual leader stressing its importance. But, like most abstract concepts, unity must be grounded in something tangible if people are to grasp its significance and meaning. THAT IS where our national symbols come into play. Objects such as our flag and the national anthem are perhaps our most powerful, and most underutilized, tools for strengthening the bonds that hold us together. In times such as these, where our unity is at stake, what could be more natural - and more necessary - than to reach for these evocative symbols? Just think about how patriotic Americans are. Every baseball game begins with the Star-Spangled Banner, and every schoolchild recites the Pledge of Allegiance, solemnly reaffirming his or her loyalty to the nation and the principles on which it was founded. America has a Flag Day to underline the importance of its national banner; it celebrates its founding fathers with striking memorials in its capital, and it even has a National Museum of Patriotism. Located in Atlanta, the museum's mission is "to deepen our appreciation of patriotism and citizenship" and "help schoolchildren connect with the founders of our country and understand the values that have created the greatest nation on earth." Contrast this with Israel, where so little organized effort is made to imbue the public with a sense of patriotism and national pride. Sure, the flags come out on Independence Day, but where are they during the rest of the year? Take, for example, Israel's schools, where so little is being done to cultivate a love of country or a sense of shared civic responsibility. There is no reason why every classroom should not be adorned with a large Israeli flag, or why the singing of Hatikva, the national anthem, should not become part of every educational institution's weekday routine. THE LAND itself is a living curriculum, with an abundance of historical and religious sites that most children are never taken to see. What could possibly leave a stronger impression on Israel's youth than getting to know their own history up close? And how about constructing our own Museum of Jewish Heroism celebrating Jewish pride and inculcating in visitors, young and old, a healthy sense of national accomplishment and self-respect? As the Baron de Montesquieu, the great 18th-century political philosopher, once noted, the promotion of love for one's country "ought to be the principal business of education." But the wise Baron did not stop there, pointing out that "the surest way of instilling it into children is for parents to set them an example." So, it is about time we stopped shying away from words such as nationalism and patriotism, and instead embraced them as wholeheartedly as possible, promoting them and the values they represent at every opportunity. We can bring about change by restoring a healthy sense of national dignity and self-esteem, insisting on a larger role for our national symbols in public life. However divided the electorate might be on the issues of the day, it is precisely these symbols that can serve to reinforce the underlying bonds that unite us as a people. Abraham Lincoln understood this well. On the eve of the American Civil War, in his first inaugural address, he concluded with a heartfelt plea to his fellow citizens not to allow their differences to "break our bonds of affection," noting that they were bound together by what he called "the mystic chords of memory." It is those chords we now need to strengthen, by rallying around the flag which speaks to us all. |
| GUSH KATIF |
NO HOME COUNTDOWN
Posted by Rachel Saperstein, June 21, 2005. |
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Do you remember the countdowns? Remember the countdowns to the end of the school year, to your birthday, to Pessach seder, to the last hour of a fast day? Here in Gush Katif we live with another countdown - a countdown repeated day after day in the assured voice of the television and radio newscasters - the countdown to disengagement. Each day we receive the message of total hopelessness. We hear the number of days left for the people of Gush Katif to live in their homes. Two months left until every man, woman and child will be evicted. On the day of the eviction, every single person, no exceptions, will be left without a home, a bed, a kitchen table, a refrigerator - all the mundane items that we take for granted when we get up in the morning in our home. With utter disregard for the emotions of innocent people Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice spoke of whether the Jewish homes are simply to be given to the Arabs or to be destroyed completely. She spoke, with her endlessly charming smile intact, about the one place where a child wakes up and knows his room, the way to the bathroom, the smell of home cooking. The place where he curls up and watches tv, the drawers which hold the spoons and forks, the cupboard where the drinking glasses are so he can pour a glass of milk. Home is where your slippers are next to your bed and when you open your closet you see your sweaters and shirts lined up or askew on the hangars. Home is where the ordinary is and will always be when you get up in the morning or see before you turn off the light at night. Home is where your neighbors live next door and you know all of their kids. Home is your synagogue and the person who sits next to you when your pray. The State of Israel should not be making the People of Israel homeless. We, the people of Gush Katif, call on the communities of the world to come to Israel and join the Human Wall. Stop this expulsion of Jews with your bodies. It is not a done deal despite the pronouncements of the heads of state. You can make a difference. Each of you. Say NO! How often have you said I wish I had done something to stop an evil from happening. You cannot, must not, sit in the comfort of your home, watch CNN or BBC report on the expulsion of Jews, your brothers and sisters, and say "Isn't it terrible?" You cannot walk to your refrigerator, turn on the air-conditioning, drink another cup of coffee while aware that these simple pleasures are being denied the people of Gush Katif. Hop on a plane to Israel. Can't? Go to the Israeli consulate. Write to the US president. In short say, NO! NO! NO! Do not be the Jews of Silence, the Christians of Silence, a Person of Silence. You fought for a cleaner environment. You fought to save the whales. You picketed to free the Jews of Russia. Now you must fight for the Jews of Gush Katif. The Sharon plan must be stopped and can be stopped. Let's stop the countdown. Rachel Saperstein and her husband Moshe live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel. She is a teacher at the Neve Dekalim ulpana and a spokeswoman for the Katif Regional Council. |
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ABANDONMENT "LEGAL," SUPPORT SHALLOW; IMPRISONED TERRORISTS' RIGHTS?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 21, 2005. |
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MADRASSAS NOT THE PROBLEM? Peter Bergen and Swati Pandey put one and one together, about the source of Islamism. They pointed out that since most terrorists are well-educated, and need the kind of technical knowledge that comes with higher education, universities are breeding terrorists rather than the strictly religious madrassas. They also claim that the number of graduates of madrassas is exaggerated (NY Times, 6/14, Op. Ed.). Education certainly is valuable for planning attacks and designing the means. It is less useful for bomb-carriers and gunmen. The number of graduates of madrassas is not as important as supposed, because it does not take vast numbers to mount jihad. The authors now should put four and four together. (1) Since university education provides the technological and organizational basis for terrorism, why do our universities admit thousands of Muslims? (2) What turns supposedly educated Muslim youth into terrorists? Is it the mosques? TURKEY NOT A PROBLEM? An Israeli diplomat took issue with the popular conclusion that the Islamist government of Turkey and Turkey as a whole have turned against Israel. He explains that that conclusion derives mostly from observation of the bigoted fringe media in Turkey. That fringe has little influence. He cites as positive aspects of the Turkey-Israel relationship: (1) Condemnation of antisemitism by the visiting Prime Minister of Turkey and other offshoots of that visit, some mentioned next; (2) Turkey's contracting for Israel to buy unmanned aircraft and negotiations for Israel to upgrade Turkey's jet fighters, with Israel sharing defense technology; (3) A joint venture to build three power stations in Israel; (4) An Israeli company to provide an irrigation system to make 45,000 acres cultivable; (5) Growing trade and tourism; (6) Ending the friction over Israel's liquidation of Hamas' top leaders. (How, by Israel giving in to terrorism?); and (7) Turkey's offer to provide energy, water, and construction to the P.A. in Gaza (Uri Bar-Ner, NY Sun, 6/10, p.11). Item 7 is harmful to Israel, because it would entrench terrorism, not peace. The diplomat ignored Turkish foreign policy's new pro-Arab slant. DON'T BLAME BUSH FOR NOT RELEASING POLLARD Some US Senators, including Jewish ones such as Lieberman, urged the Executive branch not to release Pollard. Alan Dershowitz advises Jewish supporters of clemency not to ask the President to release Pollard, before they can persuade Jewish Senators to demand release (Arutz-7, 6/9). PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR ABANDONMENT IS SOFT Like Israeli officials, most Israeli citizens have not given much thought to the abandonment. Their leaders have not thought through the consequences, and admit that without embarrassment. Most citizens do not know that the military and intelligence analysts almost all oppose it. Public support has been eroding. Now that the media has started covering opposition from the experts, at the same time that leftist politicians suggest there would be further such retreats, more support may turn to opposition. Problem is, voter opinion may not count. Politicians would have to risk their current jobs, to take the stance needed to repeal the plan. Israeli politicians are loathe to do that, regardless of the consequences to their country. On the other hand, Likud politicians may feel they have nothing to lose, because the Labor Party indicated that right after the abandonment, it would precipitate new elections anyway, risking those jobs (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 6/9). Labor probably would stick around for more abandonment. BASIS FOR LEGALIZING OF ABANDONMENT The Israeli Supreme Court admits that abandonment violates the human rights of the Jews in Yesha, but claims it is legal because Yesha was not incorporated into the State of Israel. "The Israel High Court of Justice therefore declared that Israeli citizens who live in Judea and Samaria have no human rights and no civil liberties. Hence, the silence of organizations such as the Israel Association for Civil Liberties and the Anti- Defamation League. In other words, the only place in the world where Jews have no 'de jure' human rights and civil liberties would be in Judea, Samaria and Gaza." The issue had come up in 1990. Some Judean Jews asked US Consul Wilcox, who was protective of the rights of Arabs in Judea, about the human rights of Jews in Judea. He said the Jews don't have any, because of where they live, citing the Geneva Convention that forbids conquering states from settling their citizens in the conquered territory. "Wilcox, consistent to this position, now heads the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, which has as its purpose the eradication of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan and even in the new neighborhoods in Jerusalem that were established by Israel since 1967." "Wilcox's statement ignored the fact that the San Remo Treaty had been adopted by both the League of Nations and by the UN, which protected the right of Jews to purchase land and to settle in the Jewish National Homeland, defined as anywhere west of the Jordan River." "Yet 15 years later, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz adopted the precise formula that Wilcox had articulated in 1990: That Israelis have no human rights or civil liberties if they live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, even if they are law abiding and tax paying Israeli citizens." (Winston Mid East Analysis, 6/10.) By contrast, the US insists on certain human rights and citizens rights for Americans, wherever they be. Surely the human rights conventions do not consider human rights dependent entirely upon residency. I think that the Court made an inhumane decision for disastrous ideological reasons. If those Jews have no human rights, then police may beat them up, etc.. ABBAS ON TERRORISM It isn't strategically wise to attack Israel now. We look bad. Desist, and let Israel look bad, says Abbas. Hamas insists on responding to every Israeli attack (IMRA, 6/10 from Michael Widlanski). By responding to every Israeli "attack," Hamas is referring to IDF counter-attacks and interception of terrorists on missions. ISRAELI PIPELINE EXERCISED Being at a continental crossroads, Israel has a valuable though short pipeline. India is going to have Caspian oil sent through it, to augment a growing energy need (IMRA, 6/10). JORDAN TAKES UP TEMPLE-DENIAL Jordan's Ambassador condemned Israel for letting Jews up onto the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day, as a provocation to the Muslim world. He claimed there is no proof that the Jewish Temples ever were on the Mount. He neither condemned the Arabs who threw rocks at the peaceable, visiting Jews, nor Hamas for firing rockets at an Israeli town in alleged retaliation for the visit. "The entire episode may be viewed as part of the ongoing Arab strategy to delegitimize Jewish claims to holy sites and by extension to Jerusalem itself. None of this is new -- Moslem clerics have regularly seized on perceived Israeli violations of the Temple Mount as pretexts to incite violent riots. But now the inflammatory statements are coming from a representative of the Jordanian government, who in the same speech to the diplomats and reporters claimed that his country is on its way to becoming 'a moderate, tolerant, open society.'" (IMRA, 6/10.) The imams demagogically make up tales of attacks, to rouse their rabble. Bigotry at its worst!. The visit was peaceable, and nothing to retaliate against. The riots were violent and worthy of retaliating against. Had the visit been violent, Hamas still would have had no right to attack the civilians of an Israeli town not involved in it. That is indiscriminate stereotyping. Hamas was giving a pretext, a poor one at that, for the latest of its constant attacks. It exists to attack. Jordan may be called moderate, but it supports the PLO strategy of destroying Israel in phases. It always sides with terrorists against Israel, though it keeps most terrorists from using its border with Israel. This is a dangerous game for Jordan, whose own population eventually may overthrow the cautious monarchy in favor of the PLO or Muslim Brotherhood jihadists. IMPRISONED TERRORISTS' RIGHTS? Al-Qaeda and allied Islamist terrorists scorn the Geneva Conventions. They have no order of battle, no uniform, and no official representatives for negotiating terms. They cannot claim to be the future representatives of colonies - being largely foreign and nihilist, and their goal being to exterminate what they consider non-believers. They perpetrate random murder. "They are more like pirates, hijackers, or torturers - three categories of people who have in the past been declared outside the protection of any law." What should captors do with these sadists? Torture them for information? Eventually release them? Some who were rejoined the Taliban at burning and sabotaging. Amnesty Intl., which has become more political than a neutral human rights reporter, likens Guantanamo to the Soviet Gulag. But the US prisoners are held not because of opinions, as were most Soviet victims, but because of violence beyond the pale of civilization. "But if an organization that ostensibly protects the rights of prisoners is unaware of the nature of a colossal system of forced labor and arbitrary detention (the Gulag) - replete with physical torture, starvation, and brutal execution - then the moral compass has become disordered beyond repair. This is not even neutrality between the fireman and the fire. It surely expresses a covert sympathy with the aims and objectives of jihad and an overt if witless and sinister, hatred of the US." (Christopher Hitchins, NY Sun, 6/15, p.11.) What would happen to A.I. if Islamism wins? The basic questions are: (1) Shall judges determine whether the captives were terrorists? If so, the government may and should incarcerate them for life; (2) How hard to interrogate; (3) Certainly no corporal punishment except execution. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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INTELLIGENCE IS KEEPING AN EYE ON THE PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR IN BANGLADESH
Posted by Salah Choudhury, June 21, 2005. |
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Palestinian ambassador Shahta Zarab has again come into limelight for his illicit relations with females. After the arrest of Bidisha, ex-wife of former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad, on 4th June, Shahta Zarab's name came into focus, although Bidisha is not his only girl friend. He has large number of girl friends with whom he has already created numerous scandals. Despite his series of misdeeds and his full time affiliation with local smuggling ling-leader Aziz Mohammad Bhai, Shahta Zarab has already been successful in staying in Bangladesh for 20 years! In the diplomatic history of Bangladesh, no other diplomat did stay for such a long time. Because of his prolonged stay, Shahta has become the "dean" of the diplomatic corps as a senior most diplomat. Why such a nasty, controversial and unexpected person should be given the status of the dean of the diplomatic corps is a question of all quarters. After the death of Arafat, it was heard that Shahta would go back. But he did not. There are number of scandals circulating in the diplomatic circle in Dhaka pertaining to Shata's illegal, immoral and undiplomatic activities. He is not only involved in womanizing or scandalizing with females, but is also involved in country's internal political issues, which is a clear violation of diplomatic norms. Not only that, Shahta Zarab tried to obtain his masters degree from the University of Dhaka (DU), where he had been expelled for cheating during examinations. DU Authority brought this matter to the attention of National Security Intelligence (NSI). The Agency also investigated and found Shahta guilty. Bangladesh government is bearing the expenses of the Palestinian embassy at House # 4, Road # 18, Gulshan, Dhaka. House rent for the chancery-cum-residence building and other expenses is paid from the national exchequer amounting to US$ 2,500 per month. Shahta enjoys the privilege to import duty free vehicles and liquor. Taking this opportunity, the Palestinian envoy is involved with smuggling Mafia network. He maintains close links with local and regional smuggling racket. Although he deserves to be declared persona non grata, Bangladesh authorities remained mum just because of their softer attitude towards Palestinian people. But now government is also thinking in other ways. Despite the fact that majority of the people in Bangladesh has good feelings for the Palestinian people, in a number of local mosques, clerics have issued sermons to expel Shahta immediately from Bangladesh for his illicit, what they termed as "anti-Islam" behavior. Shahta Zarab came to Bangladesh as Palestinian envoy on 24th July 1985. Soon he became close to the autocratic ruler Ershad. Later he came out of his diplomatic protocol and got involved in smuggling, spying, womanizing etc. He has already become a millionaire through illegal intermediatory businesses. He is even known as the "God Father" in country's smuggling racket. There are allegations that Shahta is also operating various illegal activities in the Middle East from Dhaka. Some Syrian and Arab nationals are staying in Bangladesh under his patronization. It is reported that these under-cover foreigners are members of militant groups. There are some retired PLO diplomats in this racket. On condition of anonymity, a diplomat in Dhaka told this correspondent that Shahta is involved in supplying girls to the diplomats and he also collects money from any new diplomat by giving threats or through black-mailing. When contacted, a source in the foreign ministry said, despite various complaints and requests from Dhaka, Palestinian authority are very reluctant to take Shahta back from Bangladesh. Meanwhile yesterday all the television channels in Bangladesh very prominently broadcast the news stating that Bangladesh Police has seized a large number of photographs of the Palestinian Ambassador Shahta Zarab with Ms. Bidisha from her residence. Police sources say, all of these photographs are of very private moment. Even some local television channels like Channel-i, NTV, ATN-Bangla etc., showed those seized photographs. Bidisha told the interrogators that Mr. Shahta had been her advisor and a 'close friend', who introduced her to the former President Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Police has also confiscated large number of documents related to foreign and local bank accounts from Bidisha's house, which reveals that, she has received huge amount of money from unknown places. Police has filed another case under Passport Act today against Bidisha for illegally holding two passports with two different particulars. In one passport, she mentioned Hussain Muhhamad Ershad's name as husband while in another passport name of a British professor Peter Wilkinson is named as husband. Intelligence agencies are now closely monitoring movements and activities of the Palestinian ambassador. A source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh told that the government might request the Palestinian Authority for the third time to withdraw their ambassador from Bangladesh, and send a new person. It may be mentioned here that, because of undiplomatic behavior, Dhaka earlier requested the Palestinian Authority twice to withdraw Shahta.
The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, and editor of "Weekly
Blitz" in Bangladesh. Contact him by email at
salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com
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Palestinian ambassador Shahta Zarab with |
PURE SPECULATION ON SHARON'S THINKING ABOUT "DISENGAGEMENT"
Posted by Moshe Brody, June 21, 2005. |
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If I were Arik Sharon, I would be frantic to come up with some way of getting out of this "disengagement" mess. It isn't turning out anything like he intended. At the root of it all was Sharon's neurotic worry that the "world" was getting impatient with Israel. We had to do "something" fast, or who-knows-what would happen. He realized that this frightening situation was all because of the impasse in Middle-East diplomacy -- and it was impossible for Israel to get anywhere in negotiations with the Palestinians as long as they were under no pressure whatsoever to make any concessions. No wonder Rabin, Peres, and Barak failed! So Sharon's thinking was to make a deal with the Americans instead, whereby the Americans would support an Israeli claim to the large Jewish population centers in the "West Bank" and join Israel in rejecting the Palestinian "right of return." Because America is the world's only standing super-power, this would open the door to an internationally-recognized (i.e., permanent) Israeli takeover of important territory and would panic the Palestinians. Sharon figured that in the imminent post-Arafat era, this would coerce the Palestinians into being more forthcoming in future negotiations and would break through the impasse. The key to getting the Americans to take Israel's side diplomatically, thought Sharon, was some sort of bold move that would inspire them to modify their position just enough to make a difference (this was the "something" that Israel had to do immediately). In looking around for a bold move, the idea of abandoning Gaza naturally came up. Sharon knew he could get domestic political support for this, even if it meant betraying his existing supporters. But if he succeeded in obtaining American backing for retaining major Israeli communities outside the Green Line and putting the Palestinian "right of return" issue to rest (both of which seemed reasonable positions), he would win overwhelming new political support and would be unstoppable. The more he thought about this tantalizing goal, the more he wanted it and the more certain he became that he could get it. So a "unilateral" withdrawal from Gaza and a few "West Bank" Jewish communities thrown in for good measure became a calculated gambit, where he'd give up some expendable territory in order to gain a decisive tactical advantage. For all his toughness on the battlefield and in the halls of Israeli politics, however, Sharon is a neophyte when it comes to international affairs. He apparently didn't realize that making one-sided concessions is not negotiating -- it is surrendering. Unilaterally committing to something as drastic as giving up Gaza was the worst opening move he could have made. He began to discover this in April 2004, when he met with Bush in Washington. By that time Sharon had already alienated his former supporters and was dependent on his enemies for political survival. He had no options and had to go ahead with the "disengagement," regardless. Realizing this, the pro-Palestinian American State Department correctly advised Bush that Sharon had absolutely no leverage, and recommended not to give him anything. Bush heeded their advice, but perhaps feeeling some sympathy for Sharon, at least went to the trouble of writing him a letter of cleverly-worded, albeit worthless sentiments to take back to Israel. Whether or not Sharon actually believed that Bush's letter had any value, he tried to sell it to the Israeli public as the American commitment he desperately needed, and his pro-disengagement supporters heralded the letter as a great diplomatic achievement. The Palestinians predictably raised a ruckus over this, which American officials quelled by immediately disavowing Sharon's claims. They pointed out that the President's letter contained only his informal personal conjectures about how future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians might proceed, and did not represent any change in the official American position. Before long everyone but the most deluded Israeli wishful thinkers had forgotten all about it. Sharon's April, 2004 meeting with Bush, however, was a critical and fateful event, which should be seen for its momentous consequences: It was at that meeting that Sharon's downfall became crystallized. He tried to remain optimistic that Bush would eventually come around to formally giving him at least some of the American support he had wanted, and he kept pushing his plan with that in mind. But as time went by, he inevitably had to accept the cold fact that his gambit had failed. He must certainly have realized it a year later when he made his pilgrimage to Bush's ranch in Texas, where the President condescended to grant him a brief audience before sending him home empty-handed, this time without even so much as a sympathy note. By the time of Bush's effusive welcome of Mahmoud Abbas to the White House the following month, it was clear to everyone that Sharon wasn't wearing any clothes. Sharon's failure wasn't merely a lack of success -- it was a brutal and crushing defeat. Not only was Israel getting zero American support to soften up the Palestinians as Sharon had intended, but the Palestinians emerged as the clear winners in this face-off. At first suspicious that the United States was in collusion with Sharon to trick them, the Palestinians soon realized that Sharon had simply taken a gamble on his own, and had lost. Meanwhile, Sharon had committed Israel to the Gaza give-away, and would now have to deliver the winnings to the Palestinians. And it is quite a prize: far from being the expendable territory that it originally appeared, Gaza is becoming increasingly appreciated as a critical strategic asset. The Arabs have always understood this, and the Palestinians are gearing up to take full advantage of their victory. Worse yet, Sharon's defeat has strengthened the most radical of the Palestinian terrorists. The present chaos among the Palestinian factions is simply a contest to see which one gets to benefit the most from Sharon's humiliation. Sharon and Bush are praying that it will be Fatah rather than Hamas, but it really makes no difference. Whichever wins, Israel will soon be suffering terribly. So Sharon is already a loser in a no-win position. If he doesn't continue with the "disengagement" plan he will be eaten alive by his new political bedfellows; they are going along with Sharon only because they envy and resent the Gaza settlers even more than they despise him. But if he does go through with it, he will be buried by the impending military, diplomatic, and political catastrophe he will have single-handedly brought upon Israel. Having failed to win over the Americans and instead bolstered the worst of the Palestinian terrorists, Sharon belatedly realizes that there is no merit in the "disengagement" plan at all. On the contrary, it has now become a deadly liability. Sharon is well-aware -- far better than most of us -- how disastrous the Gaza withdrawal will be. But he's keeping up his confident facade anyway, because he's more worried about what will happen to him if he doesn't go through with it. Maybe he's even talked himself into believing that he can still make something of it. On the other hand, the claim that withdrawing from Gaza will improve Israel's long-term security cannot be reconciled with the steady increase in Palestinian terrorism and the government's frenzied responses, like setting up unsightly concrete Qassam shelters in Sderot. Sharon has already delayed the Gaza withdrawal schedule by a few weeks, hoping to buy some time. He managed to get away with this delay without losing face or political support, by a clever excuse based on the Jewish calendar. If he wants to buy more time, he will have to work a lot harder. To get out of the disaster altogether, he'll need a miracle. For a bit of really wild speculation, suppose that some "right-wing Jewish extremist group" managed to get through security and blow up the Al-Aksa Mosque, or some other Muslim shrine. In such a case, we are told, the Arab world would explode in violent fury against Israel -- perhaps even outright war -- and that would certainly give Sharon good reason to put the Gaza plan on hold, wouldn't it? In addition, he would have convenient villains to blame it on: it's those fanatical settlers again! The Shin Bet warned us about them, but they managed to stall the disengagement, anyway! And now Sharon has to take emergency action to prevent them from dragging us into a war! Maybe this is far-fetched, but there must be a lot of other scenarios with the same effect. Knowing Sharon's penchant for dirty tricks, I wouldn't put it past him. Moshe Brody is an author and former private investigator living in Israel. His recent book, "Troubleshooting in the Promised Land: an Independent Investigator's Report on Israel, the Middle East, and Other Parts of the World," is an in-depth expose of the deep-seated problems underlying the impasse that has grid-locked Israel, the Arab world, and the Western nations for the better part of a century. This unconventional look at the players, their cultural psychology and their history reveals the unseen side of the West's co-dependency on Israel - why the real problems responsible for the ongoing tragedy have consistently been covered up and denied, why compromise is fundamentally impossible, and why diplomatic and political efforts to mitigate the conflict are doomed to perpetual failure and disaster. (ISBN 965-90577-0-9) |
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A COWARD FOR PRIME MINISTER
Posted by Dovid Ben-Chaim, June 21, 2005. |
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This article was written by Caroline Glick, who is Deputy Managing
Editor of the Jerusalem Post. Born in the United States, she made
aliyah to Israel immediately after graduating from Columbia
University. After finishing service in the IDF, Glick worked as a key
aide to former Prime Minister Rabin during the Oslo Negotiations.
The article appeared in the post and is archived at
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/
JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1119234012056&apage=1
During her visit to Jerusalem on Sunday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice applauded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying, "He has displayed courage and vision in putting forth this disengagement plan." Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. In a new book, Boomerang, published in Hebrew last week, left-wing commentators Raviv Drucker and Ofer Shelach provide an insider's narrative account of how Sharon came to make the decision to withdraw from Gaza and Northern Samaria. Their findings are devastating. Based on interviews with senior government and military officials, Drucker and Shelach report that Sharon's decision in December 2003 to abandon his electoral platform, which opposed the unilateral transfer of land to the Palestinians and rejected out of hand the notion of expelling Israelis from their communities in the Gaza Strip or Judea and Samaria, stemmed from considerations that had absolutely nothing to do with Israel's national security interests. According to the two writers, Sharon's basic impetus for adopting the radical left-wing plan - that had been overwhelmingly rejected by voters in the January 2003 elections - was his desire to avoid indictment for his role in corruption scandals for which he and his sons Gilad and Omri were under police investigation. They write: "In private conversations [Sharon] said he was convinced that [state attorney Edna] Arbel would try to bring about his indictment and his resignation from the premiership." Sharon's aides, first and foremost among them his personal attorney and chief of staff Dov Weisglass, told Sharon that to avert indictment he had to take a bold initiative "to change the public agenda away from the media's focus on the investigation." And so the disengagement plan was born. After Arbel was booted up to the Supreme Court, Sharon, still under investigation, made a move to head off an indictment by the new attorney-general, Menachem Mazuz. As the media bleated daily, Mazuz's first order of business upon taking office would be to decide whether or not to indict Sharon and his son Gilad in what had become known as "The Greek Island Affair." The day after Mazuz came into office, Sharon invited radical left-wing columnist Yoel Marcus from Haaretz for a visit at his residence in Jerusalem. Sharon outlined his plan to withdraw from Gaza to Marcus. As expected, Marcus embraced both Sharon and the plan in Haaretz the next day, and thus the radical Left was brought on board Sharon's bandwagon. Shortly thereafter Mazuz closed the investigation on Sharon and Gilad. In an interview last Wednesday night on Channel 2, Shelach said, "The people who are closest to Sharon told us absolutely that if it hadn't been for those police investigations, this decision [to withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria] would not have been made." Several months ago, a senior government official who was involved in the government discussions about the withdrawal plan told me, "Sharon placed the legal establishment on the horns of a dilemma. They had to decide what moved them more, their love of the law or their hatred of the settlers. It was an easy decision." SHELACH AND Drucker's book gives the lie to the notion that any security or strategic considerations were taken into account by Sharon and Weisglass in formulating the withdrawal plan. Indeed, as Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yaron, who now serves as Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's senior policy adviser, is quoted as having said, "If the disengagement goes through, it will be proof that there is no need for any decision-making process in the State of Israel." This is the case because, as the authors demonstrate, the plan, which was Weisglass's brainchild, was made without any staff work, without any discussion with the army, and without any debate by the cabinet. Weisglass presented it to then US national security adviser Rice without any discussion with or forewarning to the IDF or the Shin Bet and against the strenuous objections of both. To counteract the security establishment's opposition, Sharon effectively fired the IDF chief of general staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, and Shin Bet director Avi Dichter by not extending their tours of duty, as is routinely done for both positions. He simultaneously stacked the General Staff and the Shin Bet with commanders who, like Mofaz, understand that they are personally indebted to the prime minister. Not surprisingly, the media establishment, which, like the legal establishment, hates the settlers more than it loves the law, has been silent on Drucker's and Shelach's revelations. There have been no follow-ups to Shelach and Drucker's television appearance from last Wednesday in any of the television newscasts or major newspapers. DRUCKER'S AND Shelach's findings point to two critical and acute problems in Israel. The first is that Sharon, in sharp contrast to the public image that his advisers have carefully crafted for him, is neither a great visionary nor a strong leader. He is an old widower moved by personal ambition and an overarching desire to be perceived as a man he is no longer capable of being. The second problem is that our legal establishment is perceived by our political leadership as so prejudicial that it is capable of inspiring policies that are antithetical to national security. The fact that, in spite of their clear support for the left-wing platform of an Israeli return to the 1949 armistice lines Drucker and Shelach could not ignore the fact that Sharon's entire policy was based on nothing other than his desire to be admired and to avert criminal indictment, shows clearly how history will look back on this period. It also shows that, as was the case with the critics of the Oslo process, critics of this plan - which, like the Oslo agreement, was put together with no discussion or debate, against the strenuous opposition of the defense establishment and with no thought of what would come in its aftermath - will be proven right in all of their warnings of impending disaster. There are still two months before this ill-begotten and breathtakingly ridiculous plan is to be carried out. In the time that remains it will be interesting to see whether those, both in Israel and the US, who were brave enough to oppose the Oslo plan on the basis of its obvious and gaping flaws but who today, placing their trust in large part on Sharon's reputation as a strong leader, support the withdrawal plan, will reconsider that support. If they do not, they, like Sharon, will not be remembered by history for their past bravery, but rather for their decision to prefer momentary and opportunistic accolades for their "moderation" over the long-term security of the State of Israel and the stability of the Middle East as a whole. |
| GUSH KATIF |
WE FEAR NOT
Posted by Yehudit Tayar, June 21, 2005. |
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Fear Not Nor Be Dismayed said the L-rd to Yehoshua (Joshua). I feel very fortunate to be numbered amongst those who are neither afraid nor dismayed. Not afraid of all of the threats publicized by the media, nor by the fact that this anti-democratic, corrupt government is using the courts to take away the most basic civil rights from us. Prime Ministers come and go, governments come and go and the Land of Israel stays. I have faith, emunah that since we are doing what we are supposed to yehieh beseder, (it will be o.k.). My work with the security officer in Katif and the other security officers in Yesha reveals the true situation to me more than even most of my fellow residents in Yesha. But while we must be pragmatic and plan responsibly for possibly difficult situations, we also plan to continue to remain where we are. I look at the daily lives of our brave, down-to-earth brothers and sisters in Katif and kvel- rejoice in the simple daily routine. The registration of our children to schools for next fall, the new babies that are blessedly being born, and yes the new homes that are being completed and moved into are a source of enormous gratitude, and pride. Just the other day when I entered my friend's new home in Neve Dekalim right after they had moved in, and I said the Shehechianu prayer with tears of joy and emotion I reconfirmed the constant belief that we are here to stay. These wonderful people with small children took their dream and implemented it by completing their new home and moving in - davka - specifically now. This week Please G-d, when they have their chanukat bayit - the inauguration of their new home - and put up their Mezuzot, it will symbolize to all of us and to the people of Israel that we, the Jewish people have to answer to our G-d and reconfirm our covenant with HIM to protect our Torah our Land and our people. As I am constantly saying in lectures or interviews with the press, "This is the Land of Israel - G-d's Land - and no logic or reason pertains to what happens here. How could a mere 650,000 people - mostly refugees barely escaping the horrors of the Holocaust, speaking 30 different languages and with not enough weapons and ammunition, overcome the odds of millions attacking us and survive in 1948." How did we overcome all of the odds against us in 1967 and succeed in returning to the cradle of Jewish civilization; Yerushalayim, Hevron, Yehudah, Shomron and Gaza? How do we time and time again survive the overcoming odds against us? There is no logic in our existence but there is emunah and the proof that we, the Jewish people have returned to never be banished again. Yes we stumble faced with inadequate, weak leadership, but we go on and shall continue to pray for the miracles we know must come in order to fulfill the promise that we shall never again be banished from our Land. And they shall plant on their Land and will no longer be banished from their Land which I gave them said the L-rd your G-d. We do not fear and are not dismayed. We are too busy building, planting and protecting our Torah, our Land and our people. Yehudit Tayar who lives in the Shomron with her husband and children is a veteran spokesperson for the Settlement Movement |
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THE PANTY BOMBER
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 20, 2005. |
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1. The original article contains live links to additional information. It is archived at http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=569 Israel has long tried to end the Middle East war by being nice to Palestinians. Peace through niceness is the foundation of the Oslo "peace process". One part of this niceness is admitting Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza into Israeli hospitals, often for free. The bleeding hearts of the world have long demanded that Israel also stop searching ambulances run by the PLO and simply allow them through checkpoints without being searched, and never mind that they have long been used to transport explosives and terrorists. Yesterday, Israel's obsessive niceness and generosity in allowing Palestinians to use its hospitals was rewarded when a terrorist woman with explosives hidden in her panties attempted to gain admission to an Israeli hospital, where she planned to conduct a mass murder of Israeli children. PLO leaders promised that even though this heroic attempt to protest occupation failed, the next one will succeed. The 21-year old Arab woman from Gaza, who had been treated in an Israeli hospital for massive burns she received as a result of a gas tank explosion, was apprehended yesterday at the Erez Crossing wearing "explosive pants." She said she had been directed to carry out her suicide attack inside the crowded Israeli hospital. The woman, Wafaa Samir Ibrahim Bass, had been given permission to cross the Gaza lines yesterday for admission to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva for continued medical treatment for her facial scars. "The terrorist infrastructure took advantage of her medical condition," read an IDF statement, "in order to carry out a major suicide bombing attack inside Israel." The resident of Jabaliya aroused the suspicion of the IDF soldiers at the crossing, who placed her in a side room for further checking via camera. During her security check, when she realized that the soldiers had discovered the explosive belt on her body, she attempted unsuccessfully to detonate it. It did not go off. The misnamed extremist pro-terror group Physicians for Human Rights, one of the main critics of Israel's checking PLO ambulances for bombs and murderers, issued an insipid milquetoast statement in response to yesterday's thwarted Palestinian terror attack inside the crowded hospital. The PHR in the past published openly anti-Semitic materials in its campaign to demonize Israel, and has never condemned PLO use of ambulances for terrorism, nor has it condemned PLO terrorism as a violation of human rights. There is no evidence that the PHR believes that Jews should be entitled to any human rights, such as the right to defend themselves. While reminding people that the PHR "will continue to work against the occupation" it stated yesterday that it "calls upon the Palestinian society and its leaders to strongly condemn the use of patients for violent purposes." 2. "The Latest Leftist-Islamofascist Medieval Blood Libel." The original is archived at http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=568 and contains live links to additional material. The PLO and its apologists have long been fond of spreading medieval blood libels about Jews, such as how Jews drink gentile blood for Passover and poison the wells. Suha Arafat, wife of His Ugliness, made that latter claim while Hillary sat in the audience and politely applauded. Medieval anti-Semitism is quite common among the Moonbatocracy as well, who increasingly claim with a straight face that it was actually Dem Joos and not bin Laden who knocked down the World Trade Center towers to make al-Qaeda look bad. The latest blood libel being promoted by the Leftist-Islamofascist Axis of Evil is the mind-numbingly stupid claim that Israel is sending foods with carcinogens to Palestinians. The inventor of this story is terrorist Yusuf Abu Safia, the chairman of the PLO's "Environmental Authority" (EA). Ordinarily the PLO does not exhibit great environmentalist concern, such as for the need to prevent the polluting of the environment with body parts of victims of PLO terrorism. But Abu Safia is claiming that Israel has dumped into the Palestinian market food and fruit laced with carcinogens. That story is this week being carried by the pro-terror Islam Online web site and also is being repeated by the Moonbat Left. Oh, and the carcinogen in the food? Saccarine! Really! This, from an "Environmental Chairman" who has never gotten around to suggesting an anti-smoking campaign among Palestinians. Abu Safia is cited there as saying: "This chemical (saccarine) is highly dangerous to public health and has been banned since 1982 around the globe as studies held it as the main culprit behind cancer. Frozen meat, summer vegetables and fruit have been injected with chemicals and exposed to radiation which mutated into double of their size." Abu Safia further went on to warn that Palestinian children "playfully and unawaringly play with Israeli games that beam radioactive rays." He said Egyptian border authorities seized two shipments of carcinogenic and radioactive Israeli games last month. Other PLO terrorists have long claimed that Israel has used chemical weapons against the Palestinians. The Holocaust-denying Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram, controlled by the goverment, has repeated the lies. The PLO's house journal claims Israel uses poison gas against schoolgirls. Poisoned food has in fact been used in the Middle East war against the Jews, but by the PLO. The story is already showing up on those "Indymedia" Indymoonbat Web sites. We figure Alex Cockburn and his crew will be running it before the week is up on Counterpunch. 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. |
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UPROOTING JEWS VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN TREATIES
Posted by David Singer, June 20, 2005. |
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Plans by the Israeli Government to forcibly remove Jews from their homes in the West Bank and Gaza breach the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 [Covenant] as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 [Convention], to both of which Israel is a signatory. Article 17 of the Covenant provides that 1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.Article 16 of the Convention expressly protects children and is a mirror image of Article 17. The International Court of Justice determined last year that both the Covenant and the Convention are applicable in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel had disputed. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan however also advised the International Court that Israel recognises that the Convention is intended to protect its citizens from their own Government in times of peace. Israel's High Court of Justice acknowledged in its recent judgement on the disengagement law, that the forced evacuation of Israelis would undermine their human dignity. The High Court nevertheless asserted that the disengagement law passed all constitutional tests because it "corresponds with the Zionist values of the State and is intended for a worthy purpose - the political, national and security purposes on which the disengagement is based are designed to realize a vital and substantial need." This viewpoint could not be successfully raised to negate article 17 since Article 4.1 of the Covenant states: "In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on the ground of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin." Israel's forced removal of Jewish residents of Gaza and the West Bank obviously involves discrimination solely on the ground of race and/or religion and so could not be relied on by Israel to escape its international obligations under the Covenant or the Convention. Jews living in the West Bank and Gaza are legally entitled to reside there pursuant to the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the United Nations Charter in order to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in those areas as specifically stated in the Mandate document. Many returned there after 1967 to reclaim land from which other Jews had been driven out in 1948 by six invading Arab armies. Any attempt now to forcibly uproot Jews from their homes against their expressed will is therefore in breach of the inalienable rights conferred on them by the Covenant, the Convention, the Mandate and the United Nations Charter. Choosing to stay will not be palatable to all 8000 Jews affected by the withdrawal of Israel's army and they will have the option of accepting the compensation packages that are being offered by the Israeli Government to those who voluntarily leave. But one thing is certain - the forced removal of Jews from the West Bank and Gaza is not permitted or authorised under international law and is in breach of international agreements in force since 1920 authorising Jews to live in those areas. President Bush, President Putin, the European Union and the United Nations have publicly welcomed the forced uprooting, whilst Human Rights organisations are deafening in their silence toward such expulsions. Would they all act differently if the Arabs residing in the West Bank and Gaza were subjected to such proposed action against their will? Ariel Sharon needs to revise his thinking on this aspect of his proposed disengagement. He should urgently seek the opinion of the High Court of Justice on this issue before embarking on a course of action that has the capacity to lead to the outbreak of civil insubordination and threatens to seriously undermine the ability of Israel to resist those who seek its' total annihilation. David Singer is an Australian lawyer and convenor of Jordan is Palestine International whose aim is to engage Israel and Jordan in direct negotiations to allocate sovereignty in the West Bank between them as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. |
| GUSH KATIF |
STOPPING THE EXPULSION PLAN
Posted by Anthony and Ruth Rose, June 20, 2005. |
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The solution to stopping the expulsion plan is simple.Making it happen is not so simple. He was the PM when Jonathan Pollard was betrayed. In Yitzhak Rabin's 1979 book, Rabin described him as "an unrelenting conniver" and claimed that he had devoted his life to ruining Rabin. He signed the Oslo Accords that he had pushed Rabin to agree to. He has been accused by at least two authors of organising the murder of Yitschak Rabin and yet hasn't sued them. He was the Foreign Minister at the time of the Oslo Accords and so all the flak for betraying the country went to Rabin. He has percentage stake in Arafat's PalTel,the PLO telephone and communications cartel Today he is the Vice Prime Minister,despite being rejected time and again by the public and so today, all the flak for betraying the country goes to Sharon. Yes,Sharon did dispatch his "disengagement" plan to stop himself and his sons going to prison. But the questions remain: "Who put pressure on him to make sure that he did what he was told?" and "Who is putting pressure on the Justice System and media to make sure that they toe the line too?" BRING SHIMON PERES TO JUSTICE NOW |
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PA PROMISES MORE TERROR IF DEMANDS ARE NOT MET
Posted by Jerusalem Prayer Team, June 20, 2005. |
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After Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) met with President Bush at the White House, he warned, "...if progress towards a peace agreement in not achieved in meeting with Sharon next month, we will return to armed resistance." (Terrorism) How can the aggressors practice "armed resistance?" How can the terrorists who have launched rockets into Israeli houses, boarded busloads of innocent civilians while wearing pounds of plastic explosives, incited hatred and espoused terrorism in their schools and mosques claim "armed resistance?" Against what, I ask you? Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO, and a myriad other terrorist organizations merely want Israel demolished. Their blatant acts of terrorism should be dealt with in the same way as was Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and the Taliban. Please ask President Bush today not to negotiate with the terrorist organizations Hamas and the PLO. He would not negotiate with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or Saddam's Ba'ath Party; Hamas and the PLO are no different. Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were undertaken with the understanding that the organization had turned from terrorism, and were willing to become partners in the peace process. Now it seems that PA Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa has stated otherwise. According to Kidwa, "The dismantling of armed organizations is not on the table because weapons are legal as long as the occupation exists." This simply means that the terrorist/murderers will be allowed to keep their weapons regardless of any "peace negotiations" between Abbas and Sharon. Are Kidwa's words Abbas's true stance? Both Abbas and al-Kidwa appear to brush off the so-called Oslo 2 agreement which specifically states: Except for the arms, ammunition and equipment of the Palestinian Police...and those of the Israeli military forces, no organization, group or individual in the West Bank and Gaza Strip shall manufacture, sell, acquire, possess, import or otherwise introduce into the West Bank or the Gaza Strip any firearms, ammunition, weapons, explosives, gunpowder or any related equipment..." It is interesting to note that all succeeding agreements, including the Road Map, outline the same obligations for the Palestinian Authority to eradicate the threat of terrorism targeting the Jews by disarming groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. The truth, however, can be found in statements such as that made by the PA National Security advisor Jibril Rajoub, who reiterated that terrorism would be used as a tool to accomplish their goals when Israel pulled out of Gaza and northern Samaria. According to Rajoub, the Israelis could take it easy until after Sharon's disengagement plan had been carried out. At that time, said Rajoub, "We will be able to consider the matter again..." Please let President Bush know today that we must not reward terrorists with another 50 million taxpayer dollars. We would, in fact, be supporting the formation of a terrorist state right next door to the tiny nation of Israel...a state that would be led by the likes of Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. Sign the petition to President Bush, and then forward this to everyone on your list. We must keep this going around the world. Thank you,
Join the Jerusalem Prayer Team Now! Michael Evans is the author of "Beyond Iraq: The Next Move," and founder of Jerusalem Prayer Team, America's largest Christian coalition praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Contact them at www.JerusalemPrayerTeam.org or email them at jpteam@sbcglobal.net |
I am so angry...and you should be, too! Why should terrorists that kill Jews be any different than terrorists that kill Christians? It's time for Christians to speak up!
| GUSH KATIF |
THE AFSI/ZOA CHIZUK SOLIDARITY MISSION
Posted by Helen Freedman, June 20, 2005. |
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I've just returned from another inspirational AFSI/ZOA Solidarity mission to Israel, May 30-June 7, 2005, and I have difficulty in writing this report. On the one hand, once again we were privileged to visit with and meet the bravest, truest, kindest, wisest heroes in Israel today. Some of the places they live in are Gush Katif/Gaza, Homesh, Sanur, Hebron, the Shomron, the Judean desert, and in Yerushalayim. I'll tell you about them in a follow-up report. This one must concentrate on the bad news regarding what is happening in Israel today. The country is not sovereign, nor is it a democracy. It has begun a process of imploding wherein once again the Jews are in a subjugated position; however this time, it is a self-imposed dhimmi status. Wherever we traveled, we discovered absurd rulings and situations created by the Israeli government designed to empower the enemy and endanger Israelis. In Kfar Darom, a community in Gush Katif/Gaza, a United Nations school sits adjacent to the community. It is used as a staging ground for firing on the residents of Kfar Darom. Although this has been documented, NOTHING is being done about it. The school remains in place. In Netzarim, another community slated to be Judenrein on August 16, the government just completed building a new high school, but all the school rooms must be built like concrete bunkers because of the constant barrage of mortar shells, about which the government does NOTHING. Gaza city, a sprawling, growing city, with high rises and spacious homes, encircles Netzarim. The road used by Jews for travel has new Arab buildings encroaching upon it. The Israeli government does NOTHING to prevent this dangerous situation from growing worse. When driving down the main two-lane road to Gush Katif, coming from the Kissufim junction, once again, threatening Arab homes line the road. The Israeli Supreme Court will NOT allow their destruction. Instead, fences are erected. A huge, 50 foot high concrete wall separates the Gush Katif industrial zone from Khan Yunis, a terrorist infested Arab city from which mortars are constantly launched at the Gush Katif communities. The Israeli government does NOTHING about the life-threatening situation. Driving to the northern Shomron to visit Homesh, another town on the expulsion list, we pass through Burya, another huge Arab village with palatial homes. We keep looking for the Arab slums that are so prevalent on CNN and the major TV news broadcasts. We have never seen one, only affluent Arab villages spread out in the sunshine, with their Minarets proclaiming their presence. In Homesh, we learn that the Shomron area which will become totally Arab if the four communities in N. Shomron expulsion plan are evacuated, is almost three times the size of Gush Katif. Homesh has endured 1450 terrorist attacks since 2000. The attackers come from Tulkarm, Shechem and Jenin and use hilltops that were scheduled to be part of Homesh as their staging grounds.There is NO retaliation from the Israeli government. Instead, retreat and concessions will create a contiguous Area A that will unite the three Arab terror cities once Homesh, Sanur, Ganim, and Kadim are made Judenrein. We are reminded that the JNF was created to buy land and build settlements. Today, Israel's Attorney General has decreed that the land must be sold to Arabs also. This is a violation of the trust placed in the JNF by all those Jews who saved their pennies for the pushkas of the JNF so that Jews could live in the promised land. We drive past Ramallah, huge and sprawling and wealthy Arab stronghold. It extends on all sides of Israel's Road #60. Ugly quarries tear up the land, dug by the Arabs of Ramallah. The communities of Migron and Kochav Yaakov are smothered by Ramallah's sprawl, as Arab buildings come right to the fences of the Jewish neighborhoods. P'sagot, once a lovely suburb of Jerusalem, overlooking Ramallah, now needs protection from a military compound, along with high walls to stop the sniper shooting. Shu'afat, a part of Ramallah, has spread so that it approaches the French Hill bus stop in Jerusalem, which has been the scene of many homicide bombers attacking school and regular buses. The Israeli government does NOTHING to stop the sprawl. At the grave of Mother Rachel in Bethlehem, only fifteen hundred feet from the border of Jerusalem, a fortress has been created to protect the holy site. One can only approach in a bullet proof vehicle, with a military escort. The ugly, very high concrete wall that cuts through Jerusalem, extends to the grave, enclosing Kever Rachel on the "good" side of the "fence." The task of the Arab snipers will be made a bit more difficult now, but the mortification of the Jewish worshippers as they slip into the fortress must give the terrorists cause for great rejoicing. The spiritual struggle to eradicate Jewish history is encapsulated in the pitiful, shameful, humiliating posture of the Jew as he attempts to connect with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest place for Jews in the entire world. That in 1967, at the time of the reunification of Jerusalem, when the Temple Mount was in our hands, it was Moshe Dayan, at the urging of Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem who was interested in holding onto Arab votes, who gave the keys to the Mount to the Arab Waqf. This was a desecration of the worst kind, and today, the dhimmi Jews, must visit the Temple Mount only on the conditions set down by the Waqf and the Mufti of Jerusalem. The Israeli police work with the Waqf to prohibit Jewish prayer books and Jewish prayer on the Mount. Our group was told that in preparation for ascending the Mount, we had to remove all Jewish identification. A Muslim guard followed us on our walk around the Mount to make sure we weren't praying or bending our knees at any time. Stopping to tie shoe laces was a suspicious act, calling for quick surveillance on the part of the guard. Hundreds of thousands of tons of debris from the First and Second Temple have been excavated from the Mount in order to build a huge underground mosque, Solomon's Stables, the skylights of which we could see on the plateau level. This uncontrolled digging has caused a bulge in the southern wall and has served to eradicate Jewish history at the Temple Mount. To rub salt into the insult, we saw Arab prayer platforms everywhere, along with a platform on the northern side containing a pedestal with an inscription calling for the destruction of Israel. Is there any self-respecting government anywhere in the world that would aid and abet an enemy within its midst that is dedicated to that country's destruction, as Israel does? Shame and humiliation abound. In Hebron, where more endless Arab building is seen, the Jews are forced to live in a few enclaves, threatened always by snipers and infiltrators. A large Israeli army presence is required in order for Jews to walk safely to the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Ma'arat HaMachpela, in order to visit our patriarchs and matriarchs. Admot Yishai, a new building at Tel Rumeida, famous for its caravans on the hill in which Jews lived for many years, has now been completed. It sits above the archeological dig proving the existence of King David in the holy city. It, too, must be heavily guarded by the army. The College of Judea and Samaria, in Ariel, slated to become a University, was one of our big disappointments, illustrating that even a trusted friend can desert you when his personal welfare is involved. Apparently, politically correct postures must be assumed to demonstrate that it is an "inclusive" institution that bans groups supporting YESHA. While we were visiting with Prof. Hanokoglu, listening to his story of his arrest and cruel interrogation at the hands of the Israeli police, for the crime of handing out stickers supporting Gush Katif, we learned of a shameful situation. Ta Katom, a national organization that exists at many universities, including Haifa and Hebrew U. was banned from the student council, and Lior Kohen, a member of the group was being called up on disciplinary charges. We joined the Ta Katom (Orange Cell) members in protesting this action and were told to "get off the campus." We have subsequently learned of other disgraceful actions on the part of President Don Mayerstein in his effort to woo Arabs and turn against the Jews of YESHA in order to gain the credentials he seeks for the College. Israel has placed itself in a dhimmi position in regard to its Arab population. The entire action is a threat to Israel's very existence. Continued appeasement and withdrawal under threat of terror will only encourage the Arab enemy in its drive to dominate the world under the rule of global Islam. Israel must reassert its rights as a sovereign nation and STOP the flow of Jewish blood and the giveaway of the Jewish homeland IMMEDIATELY. Anything less is suicidal. Our AFSI/ZOA Chizuk Solidarity Mission took off from Newark Airport on Sunday, May 30 with 45 participants, a bag of ORANGE shirts reading GUSH KATIF FOREVER and a map of all of Israel reading, LET MY PEOPLE STAY. In addition, we carried 500 Garfield ORANGE cats to be distributed to the children of Gush Katif, Sanur, Homesh, and Hebron. When asked why we chose Garfield as the toy of choice, the answer was that Garfield is ORANGE, and he doesn't move - just like the residents of the threatened communities, who will not move from their homes. I'm ashamed to say that we didn't wear our ORANGE shirts through Israeli passport control because we were afraid of being turned back, or detained at length, as I experienced on a previous trip. The shirts were distributed in the airport, once we were safely in the country. Even then, I expected some Israeli authority to swoop down and haul us off as criminals for wearing the offending color. Fortunately that didn't happen, and we were the ORANGE brigade wherever we went. In my previous article, Part I, I described the agony of the situation in Israel today, which we witnessed in so many ways in so many places. However, the good news is that there is also the ecstasy of the spiritually uplifting heroes and heroines of Israel who number in the hundreds of thousands. I will name just those with whom we met, and from whom we received so much strength and resolve to continue to do everything in our power to ban the expulsion plan. Izzy Danziger, our guide for the trip, is a blessing to those who benefit from the work he does for Mishmeret Yesha, the rapid response teams made up of residents of the communities of YESHA. One of his men who trains the rapid response teams, Sharon, was a former major in the IDF anti-terror unit. He explained that fighting terrorist infiltrators is the most complicated war situation for the least trained people, who only get nine days of training each year. Dror Vanunu, PR spokesman for Gush Katif met us at Yad Mordechai to escort us into Gush Katif. Dror regularly comes to the U.S. and works tirelessly in Israel to educate people about the situation in GK. In a great statement of support for his position, he just completed building a new house into which he and his family have moved. They plan to stay there. Anita Tucker, the remarkable spokeswoman for Netzer Hazani, greets everyone with a smile and treats us to delicious vegetables from her hot houses. She had told the children in the community that Garfield was coming, and we had a heartwarming experience distributing the toy cats to the eager waiting children. Effie Eitam's wife and son rode up on their bicycles and chatted with us. They had moved to Netzer Hazani a few weeks before in a show of solidarity. Rachel & Moshe Saperstein, residents of Neve Dekalim, greeted us with warm hospitality. They have become dear friends whose ability to remain optimistic and even good-humored in these difficult times is remarkable. Nadia Matar, who makes up one-half of the Women-In-Green team with her mother-in-law, Ruth, has moved her family into a caravan at Kfar Yam. As our group climbed the sand dune up to her new home, Nadia greeted us warmly and requested that we make ourselves comfortable on her "terrace." Indeed, the view of the sea and the setting sun was spectacular. Sitting there and listening to Nadia, it was hard to believe that a Jewish government would find any logic at all in transferring Jews off their land. She encouraged us to go to the former Palm Beach Hotel which was just down the road and which we promptly visited. Baruch Marzel, an old friend from Hebron, was there, and explained the great effort that was being made to restore the hotel sufficiently so that protestors to the Sharon plan could go there to live, to prevent the expulsion. There are plans to put up a tent city on the beach to house hundreds more who wish to come. Of course, the Sharon government has already begun to demonize these people, spreading false rumors of "suicide attackers" and "Jews who would shoot." This sounds like the way is being paved for government provocateurs. Esther Bazak hosted us in Neve Dekalim, telling us the story of her long-time residence in the community. She introduced Rachel Klein, a poet, who read some of her "Ban the Plan" poetry. They join the hosts of remarkable women who live in Gush Katif and are fighting the expulsion plan in the way they know best. Professor Israel Hanokoglu is a brilliant physicist whom we visited at the College of Judea and Samaria. The Professor told us the story of being arrested by the police in Rishon Le Zion because he was handing out anti-expulsion stickers. After being threatened with having his hands broken, and his car towed, he was put into a jail cell with Rabbi Levinger from Hebron. He told us that the good news was that during the night hundreds of people arrived carrying tefillin and prayer books, and the morning prayer services and studying were spiritually uplifting. There was the prevailing belief in the destruction of the false governmental structure built without Torah. Traveling north to the northern Shomron, we met the good people of Homesh who are trying to hold the line against the evacuation. We also witnessed the work of the rapid response teams being trained by Mishmeret Yesha. In Sanur, originally an artists' colony of Russian immigrants, now the home of many Yeshiva students, we met with Rav Waldman from Kiryat Arba, who moved with his wife to a caravan in the threatened community. Twenty-five of his Yeshiva students relocated with him. He spoke to our group, stressing that the government has broken its social contract between itself and its citizens. MK Prof. Arieh Eldad, who has also moved to Sanur with his wife and family in a show of solidarity, and who conducted a march from Sanur to Gush Katif, to arouse concern about the expulsion plan, was unable to greet us at Sanur that afternoon of our visit. He was at the prison in Ramle where fourteen-year-old Jewish girls were imprisoned for civil disobedience. However, he visited us that evening at the Ashel HaShomron hotel in Ariel. His message was a chilling one, as he told us he is raising money to build two field hospitals which he believes will be necessary to treat the wounded at Sanur and in Gush Katif. He is a strong proponent of Civil Disobedience, calling for everyone, in whatever way possible, to refuse to participate in any action that would assist the expulsion forces. His principled and unwavering stand against Sharon's evil plan gives one strength to continue the battle against all odds. Daniella Weiss, mayor of Kedumim, was also at the prison in Ramle, lending support. When we visited with her later in the afternoon, she encouraged us to give funds to Friends of Kedumim, earmarked for Sanur, so that new families coming in would have some necessities in their tent homes. At Gilad Farm, named after Gilad Zar, a victim of Arab terrorism, we were pleased to see that Ittai Zar and his wife, Bety, were now living in a thriving community of at least a dozen caravans. We had been to the farm when the police and soldiers were constantly tearing it down. How wonderful to see that good prevailed. At Adei Ad - a hilltop community near Shilo, we spoke with Moshe Tanier, in charge of security, who patrols on horseback with his men. He credits Izzy Danziger and Mishmeret Yesha with whatever security assistance he gets. At Elon Moreh, near Shechem, our good friends Pinchas Fuchs and Rabbi Felix met with us. The community has long been in a dangerous location and the brave people who live there are among the heroes of our times in Israel. Danny Halamish became a new friend as we daringly ventured down a narrow road in the Judean Desert to visit a new community, Rehavaam Zevi. Although their guns were taken away from them by the Israeli army, the residents refuse to build a fence around their yishuv to protect themselves against Arab terrorism. They proudly showed us the new synagogue in a caravan and talked about the new baby that had just been born to the Halamish family. Their courage and dedication to the land was extremely moving. Chaim Silberstein, devoted to rebuilding Jewish east Jerusalem and the grave of Mother Rachel, took us on a great tour of the new communities, imbuing us all with the need to contribute to buying land in east Jerusalem so that Jews may once again reclaim their heritage. With the huge problem of massive illegal Arab building everywhere, it is critically important to hold onto all of Jerusalem. Dan Luria, from Ateret Cohanim, joined Chaim in showing us the work that the Jerusalem Reclamation Project is doing. House by house, stone by stone is being reclaimed with great effort and cost. It is a daunting, but necessary task. Guy Yanofsky of Ateret Cohanim guided us on a Shabbat tour of the Old City, enabling us to see from the rooftops the incredible sprawl of the illegal Arab building, and the desperate efforts of the Jews to hold onto their claim to Jewish homes in the Old City of Jerusalem. Yoram Ettinger was a guest speaker at our Shabbat lunch and spoke brilliantly about the terrorist threat to America that would be the result of Israeli retreat and concessions to terrorism. David Bedein, our Saturday night speaker, gave us an excellent talk on how we can best use the media and the Congress to influence the situation in Israel. Rabbi Richman of the Temple Mount Institute guided us around the Temple Mount on Sunday morning. All the proper religious rituals were followed in preparation for this visit. In addition, we had to remove anything, other than kipot, that would identify us as Jews. The experience would have been an uplifting one, to be in the holiest place on earth for Jews, except for the humiliation we had to suffer at the hands of Israeli police and Waqf Muslim guards. On the trip to Hebron, Yehudit Tayar, involved with security and rescue forces, accompanied us and spoke about her work. Yosef Begun, a famous Russian refusenik, also joined us. He described how the events of June 6, 1967, brought pride and hope to Russian Jews, and that date marked the beginning of his refusenik efforts. In Hebron, David Wilder, spokesman for the community and good friend met us and gave us a first class tour of the Jewish areas in the city. We met Noam Arnon, another good friend and activist, along with Elisheva and Noam Federman. Noam is still under house arrest after many years of being detained by the Israeli police. Yifat Akobi, a dear friend who had been our tour guide years ago, before husband and family, met us on Tel Rumeida in her new home. The caravans are being displaced by Admot Yishai, a new apartment complex, as well as some other buildings that have been restored. It was thrilling to see the growth after so many years of stalling on the part of the government. The crowning experience of our solidarity mission was marching with the Gush Katif float on Yom Yerushalayim. Jerusalem was celebrating the reunification of the city that occurred on June 6, 1967, and we were celebrating with her. We marched, all in ORANGE, waving our Gush Katif flags and banners, and received constant cheers and encouragement from the onlookers. Photographers along the way took our pictures. TV cameras caught us marching proudly, responding to the enthusiastic crowds with calls of "Gush Katif forever." Our farewell dinner at the magnificent Botanic Gardens in Jerusalem was topped off by a visit from AFSI's Chairmam, Herbert Zweibon. He called for changes in the electoral system that would do away with the corruption that pollutes the Sharon government today and spoke about new leaders who would emerge to challenge the Likud for leadership. These are the heroes and heroines of Israel today. It is because of
them, and so many thousands more, that we feel certain the illegal,
immoral, indecent Sharon expulsion plan will fail. We go on our
solidarity missin to give the Israelis Chizuk, strength, and as
always, we return strengthened by them. May HaShem fulfill his promise
to bless those who bless Him, and curse those who curse Him.
Helen Freedman is Executive Director of
Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy
group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205,
New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email
at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org.
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POLICE INTIMIDATION OF POLITICAL ACTIVISTS
Posted by Yoel Ben-Avraham, June 20, 2005. |
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The article "Police Intimidation of Political Activists" is the first articulate written description of the kind of story I have heard over and over again from activists throughout the country. Your considered and timely response would be greatly welcomed. If you feel as I do that there is here a story much greater than the private issue of the attempt to intimidate just the Spitz Family, please republish it on your site ... for reasons I'd rather not write openly I fear the article might not remain on www.Disengagement.org for very long. The following is an excerpt from the Daily Email Newsletter "Orange Mail" published by grassroots activists describing all aspects of the wall-to-wall anti-Disengagement activities. As usual, your personal feedback and suggestions to me are always appreciated. B'Kavod Rav,
As you know, in the Ramle Jail there is a special wing for those jailed for the crime of protesting the "Disengagement" Plan. To the best of our knowledge there are currently between 20 to 30 prisoners there at ages ranging from "children" to "mature adults" and everything in-between. The struggle against the "Disengagement" Plan does not stop at the gates of the jail. Even those inside maintain a high morale, something that greatly angers the authorities. The jail management has therefore decided to inconvenience the [prisoners] in various ways. Recently the prisoners are no longer permitted outside their cells except for an hour or two a day (during which time they must rush to shower, make phone calls, prepare for sleep etc.) The daily learning in the "Prison Bayit Midrash" has also been cancelled. Prayers with a minyan (quorum) [usually held three times a day] are permitted only Mondays, Thursdays and Shabbat. That a prisoner learns Torah seems to attract particular attention from the jail's administration. The authorities also try to minimize as much as possible the contact between the prisoners with the outside world, to foster a sense of isolation, lack of clarity and being cut-off. The attempts to harass the prisoners find expression in a variety of situations. One instance of disproportionate punishment occurred a couple of weeks ago when the warden caught a prisoner sitting with their feet on the lunch room bench. The prisoner was sent under a hail of [unprofessional] screams to solitary confinement as punishment. Prisoners [who prior to their arrest] attended High school students were not permitted to take their end-of-year matriculation examinations (a restriction which was never applied to Arabs imprisoned for murder.) Two prisoners are forbidden to use the telephone or to have family visits (a basic right all other prisoners enjoyed just last Thursday). Despite all the above the prisoners manage to keep their spirits high. This last Thursday the prison authorities behavior reached new depths. One of the prisoners, incarcerated over two months so far, makes every effort to learn Torah in his room, as do most prisoners. This particular prisoner was singled out to a systematic "search" in all of his personal effects. In the end the only thing that was taken were reefs of pages upon which he had written his Torah insights and outlines for future Torah lectures. Purportedly taken for the purpose of "for an hour to be checked", they have yet to be returned. The purpose appears to be very transparent, to make his Torah learning difficult and in this fashion make his incarceration more unpleasant than it already is. It is appropriate that we come to the assistance of those currently in jail in whatever way we can. Of course our presence at arraignment proceedings or public celebrations outside the gates of the prison is important. [People have made a custom of celebrating the "Exit of the Shabbat" meal Saturday after Shabbat outside the prison where the prisoners (and authorities) can hear them in order to express their solidarity.] But we can also call the administration of the jail once a day to express our displeasure with their behavior and blatantly anti-protester policies. The minimal demands that should be communicated to the prison authorities are the following: * The right to prayer in a minyan (quorum) three times a day as is Jewish custom Central Telephone 972-8-977-6716
[Moderators Comment] On a personal note, as the father of a young man who "sat" in this jail until released "for lack of evidence" after participating in a protest, I must add the following: On one hand it is true that the sanctions being imposed upon these enthusiastic activists are at best "childish" when compared to the conditions in less "enlightened" states around the world. The issue is that the very act of being incarcerated is a form of political protest, one hundreds if not thousands are likely to follow in the coming months, if not weeks. Any attempt by the prison authorities to intentionally "change the rules" to make this form of protest disadvantageous is in itself a political act! Their behavior becomes a form of cooperation with those political forces that want to ram this immoral and anti-democratic initiative down the throats of the Israeli public. What is at stake here is not the jail conditions or inconvenience to a handful of Jewish idealists - what is at stake is the politicization of every aspect of Israeli's justice system, starting with the police & security agencies, including the courts and finally the prison authority. Pick up the phone, send off that fax and let the Israeli authorities know than a just and democratic Israel is in every Jews regardless of where they live! |
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ARAB PATIENT TRIES TO BLOW UP HOSPITAL
Posted by Yrachamiel Elias, June 20, 2005. |
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The next time you encounter bleeding heart liberals with no more insight into the plight of the Jewish People as does a worm at the end of a fish hook have into it's reason for existing - show them this article and point out that the female arab creature masquerading as a human being was intending to painfully murder those that would attempted to heal her! What say you now, Oprah Winfrey and "O" Magazine staff and editors? - What say you now, GM and Chevrolet? Will you still sponsor a pro-terrorist of a talk show reaching millions of viewers and tell them that GM and Chevrolet agree with Oprah? What say you now Ariel Sharon - still insist on playing Russian roulette with the lives of the Jewish People? Or perhaps the payoff is so good for you and your family that it no longer matters to you and your brothers in crime how many Jewish lives you are attempting to destroy? This was sent out by Naomi Ragen. She is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. Friends, We hear so much about the "humanitarian" gestures we need to make towards the Palestinians. Today, a young woman, Faha Samir, tried to cross out of Gaza. She had an appointment at Soroka Hospital for a medical condition. But when the soldiers searched her, they found she also had a ten kilo suicide belt. She was being sent by the Al Aksa Martyrs to blow up the hospital, she admitted. Remember this the next time you cry for people trying to get through checkpoints; the next time people try to convince you we aren't kind enough to our enemies. Margot Dudkevitch of the Jerusalem Post wrote:
Contact Yrachmiel ben Menachem Mendel Elias by email at Action@netzahyisrael.org or go to his website: Web-site: Http://netzahyisrael.org |
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ABBAS EMPLOYS THE MOST TERRORISTS; TERRORIST EXCUSE FOR KILLING CIVILIANS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 20, 2005. |
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WILL THE ARABS REFORM? The US asserts that it would discontinue subsidy to regimes that repress freedom. Congress inserts such clauses into appropriation bills, but leaves it up to the Executive Branch to determine whether the conditions of the law are met. The Executive Branch often falsely certifies that the conditions are met. Where is the Congressional check on that imbalance? Meanwhile, oppressive regimes, especially Arab ones such as the P.A., negotiate or drag out the reform process by way of keeping the subsidy without actually reforming significantly. A better procedure would be for Congress to eliminate the subsidy until it finds significant accomplishment in reforming the oppressive regimes. It should not let the Administration shovel out money for its blundering political schemes. A THEORY OF INDUSTRY OR PREJUDICE? A couple of friends noted that the Arabs produced little; they just pour oil into barrels. Selling raw materials and buying finished goods is third world economics, they remarked. The friends' way to stop jihad is to reduce the price of oil. Largely true, but Muslim immigrants remit funds. They expressed contempt for the Arab military-industrial threat to Israel. I mentioned that S. Arabia invested a billion dollars in Egypt, Egypt co-produces US tanks, Jordan has an industry that repairs military equipment, and they develop missiles and weapons of mass-destruction. Gradually, the Arabs are industrializing. The friends replied that putting factories in countries without the trained engineers to support them soon leaves those factories worn out. They denied that Iran developed the subs and other weapons it claims, but that it buys them from Russia. Have you any facts to weigh in with? FALSE ARAB LEXICON The Arabs come upon a word for some crime associated with themselves, they wrap it in their own, contrary definition, and then assert that they oppose it. They take advantage of most people's unawareness that the Arabs distort the term's definition. This has been going on for some time with the term, "terrorism." Every time Abbas denounces terrorism, he is given credit for being anti-terrorist, although he probably has more terrorists on his payroll than anyone else! IMRA points this sort of thing out, but the major media does not. If the major media were doing its job and if Israel had a patriotic propaganda effort, they would expose the Arab dissembling. That neither do reflects badly on both. THEY ALMOST ALWAYS RATIONALIZE MURDER Islamic terrorists act with religious sanctions. They take their fatwa authorizations seriously. These fatwas seem phony, however. That is, the terrorists get them from fellow Islamists. Other Muslims are silent. We don't know whether their silence implies consent or fear. But the Islamist religious authorities almost always justify any kind of murder and villainy contemplated. They rationalize attacks on innocents and condone torture and dismemberment as well as murder. They accept any means for their ends. It seems to me that whenever people resort to totally unfair and loathsome means, their ends are not much different. The people of Iran and Afghanistan would agree with that, now. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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THE PUNISHMENT MUST FIT THE CRIME
Posted by David Wilder, June 20, 2005. |
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Well, it happened again. The inevitable. No, not really. The thirty-five year old man killed this morning by terrorists did not have to be the inevitable next victim. By all rights he should still be alive. When he left the northern Shomron community of Hermesh this morning, together with a fifteen year old passenger, he didn't have to die at the hands of Arab terrorists who shot into his car, hitting him and the gas tank, causing it to explode. However, when it was decided yesterday to 'ease-up' on restrictions to Arab transportation in the Shomron, with IDF roadblocks being removed, making it 'easier' for the innocent Arab population to move around, this morning's killing became inevitable. This too, isn't really true. It didn't start yesterday. It didn't even start with the expulsion plan. It began with Ariel Sharon's vile corruption, going back to the 1990s, when, according to the Jerusalem Post "In the bribery case, dubbed 'the Greek Island affair,' (businessman David) Appel is alleged to have paid (Sharon's son) Gilad Sharon nearly $700,000 in the late 1990s for his work as part of a consulting team in developing a vast tourism project in the Greek islands at a time when his father was foreign minister. The indictment states that the 53-year-old Appel's real aim in employing the premier's son was to gain influence with his father to lobby Greece to approve the project. Appel himself has said that the prime minister was not involved in the lucrative deal? Based on two previous Supreme Court rulings, if Sharon were to be indicted, he would likely be obliged to suspend himself from office pending the outcome of the trial, although the actual law on such a matter is obscure." According to the book "Boomerang," written by journalists Raviv Drucker from Channel 10 news and Ofer Shelach from the Yedioth Achronot newspaper, Sharon's fear of indictment, loss of office and jail, directly led to the decision to unilaterally flee from Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. This accusation, backed up by interviews with people 'very close to the Prime Minister' is identical to charges leveled at Sharon months ago by MK Tzvi Hendel, who virtually swore that Sharon realized he had two choices: public disgrace or abandonment of Gush Katif. He choose the latter, preferring double appeasement to a court-of-law. The double whammy he inflicted on his land and his people: submission to the Israeli left, certain that they would not dare touch a prime minister implementing their life-long craving, the beginning of eviction of Israelis from Yesha; and acquiescence to the Arab enemy: terror pays off. Kill Jews and get what you want. Interestingly enough, Hendel's accusations were ignored by the Israeli media. That's not surprising. After all, Hendel lives in Gush Katif; what would anyone expect him to say. But "Boomerang" too is being blacklisted. Excepting Channel Two's Nissim Mishal, who introduced the book and its authors on his weekly T.V. program, the book is a non-event. The daily radio talk shows, the 'bread-and-butter' of Israeli scandal-talk' have scrupulously avoided the subject. The talk-show hosts, realizing the explosive potential of such revelations, are keeping their hands off. But not the terrorists. When Israelis shut up, when their actions speak louder than words, when they relinquish their homeland and abandon their people, this is a language the enemy understands. Loud and clear, a signal: Israeli blood is 'hefker' valueless, worth less than a grain of sand. Spilt blood is a ready commodity. Turn on the faucet, let it run - until it runs out - until there's none left - until Eretz Yisrael is Judenrein. In a couple of hours a Beer Sheva court judge will pass judgment on Rabbi Moshe Levinger. The prosecution has demanded that Rabbi Levinger be placed either under house arrest or in jail until conclusion of all proceedings against him. These demands stem from the first national road-blocking protest a few weeks ago. Rabbi Levinger made it clear that he has no intentions of remaining 'free' with restrictions and would prefer jail to house arrest. I was present at the first court hearing; when the judge called the case he referred to 'Moshe Levinger' and never used the word Rabbi. So much for judicial respect. I wonder how the judge would have referred to a surgeon or perhaps a colleague, accused of a crime? At about the same time that the judge in Beer Sheva is decreeing Rabbi Levinger's fate, five young girls, one twelve and a half, will be freed from jail, after spending thirty five days in prison. They too were arrested for 'illegally blocking roads.' When the prosecution demanded that their release be conditional on their agreement not to leave their communities until conclusion of all legal proceedings against them, the girls refused to sign. As a result they spent over a month in jail. In very difficult conditions. Finally the prosecution relented, a little bit, and agreed to lower the 'restriction level,' forbidding the girls from participating in protests, or from being present in Tel Aviv or the 'central part' of Israel, pending legal action against them. The girl's parents agreed, and today they are going home. One of the girls' fathers said this morning on Israel radio, 'this goes to show the evil of 'disengagement.' "The prosecution prefers that a twelve year old sit for over a month in jail, rather than imprison (Sharon's son) Omri." Next Shabbat the weekly Torah portion we read deals with the first rejection of Eretz Yisrael, first by ten of the premier leaders of the fledgling Jewish people. According to important Jewish sources, the primary reason for the spy's denunciation of the Land was, simply, power. They knew that while still in the desert they would be leaders, princes of the people. However, once in the Land of Israel, they would be replaced by a new generation of leaders, and they would only be simple folk, just like everyone else. They preferred power in the desert to simplicity in the Land. Using emotional, articulate and seemingly logical expressions of persuasion, these men convinced a majority of the people of their legitimacy, resulting in massive mourning: Why should we go to Israel, a land that devours its occupants? Of course, we all know the end of the story. The spies died horrible deaths at the hand of G-d, all men between the ages 20 to 60 died in the desert and were not privileged to reach Eretz Yisrael, and, unfortunately, those Jews spent the next forty years wandering around the desert, rather than immediately entering the Land. And the Divine One decreed, that day, the day of mourning because of Eretz Yisrael, would become a day of mourning for eternity; later known as the ninth day of Av - Tisha b'Av, the date of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, leading to Israel's galut, expulsion from the land. This year, G-d forbid, the next galut, expulsion, is due to begin the day after Tisha b'Av. It seems that history repeats itself and we have yet to learn. There are two kinds of fighters: those courageous and those cowards. The courageous, like a seventy year old Rabbi, or a twelve year old, both willing to face incarceration rather than abandon their land - these are true warriors. Yet there are others, so-called leaders, who are no different than the spies. No, that's not true. Sharon is worse. The spies didn't yet know the end of the story. Sharon does. Sharon's manifold acts of cowardice deserve suitable punishment. He is a traitor to his land, abandoning it to our enemies, simply to stay in power, so as not to be disgraced. He is assisting the enemy to pull the trigger, allowing Jews to be killed, not for reasons of national security, rather, for his own personal gain. As Prime Minister, he is as a solder fleeing in battle. Any commander knows what to do with a solder who turns and runs in the midst of combat. Ariel Sharon should be tried by a legal Israeli court of law on both counts - as an elected leader who has betrayed his land and his people, and also as military commander, turning and running from the enemy in the middle of war. Following his demise his body should be burned and his ashes scattered over Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron. The punishment must fit the crime. UPDATE: A Beer Sheva Court judge today ruled harshly against Rabbi Moshe Levinger, as a result of his participation in 'road-blocking' a month ago. The judge ruled:
Rabbi Levinger's lawyer immediately notified the judge that the decision would be appealed. As of this posting, Rabbi Levinger has not yet issued an official statement, reacting to the judge's decision. A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: The Israeli 'establishment' i.e., the prosecution and judiciary, have yet to learn that oppression and attempts to prevent protest will not succeed. To the contrary, such harsh judgments will have the opposite effect. This coming Wednesday's planned 'country-shutdown,' stage two, will prove the point. Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the premier religious leaders of the Jewish settlement movement, a giant, whose visions have become reality, is an obvious target of the Israeli left. Yet attempts to restrict his freedom of movement will not succeed in preventing him from continuing to lead, to point the younger generation in the right direction, and eventually, conducting the orchestra of victory. Rulings such as this, a virtual desecration of the sacred, will be remembered together with other acts of Jewish terror against Jewish patriots, as one of the darkest hours of our people's history. The righteous will be eternally remembered, while those evil will be blotted from our people's collective memory. With blessings from Hebron. Help Gush Katif: www.katifund.org - See Gush Katif movie and Powerpoint presentation thru link at hebron.com homepage VISIT: WWW.ENGLISH.KATIF.NET FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS ABOUT GUSH KATIF
David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You
can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10,
Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write
to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230,
hebronfund@aol.com
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AMERICA'S IRREPLACEABLE ALLY
Posted by Women in Green, June 20, 2005. |
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This article was written by Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post. It appeared June 16, 2005. Jun. 16, 2005In an in-depth article entitled "How we would fight China" published in the June issue of The Atlantic Monthly, military correspondent Robert D. Kaplan analyzes the encroaching specter of a cold war between the US and China. He also sets out the strategies and tactics that the US military's Pacific Command is constructing to contend with the emerging reality. In his words, "the center of gravity of American strategic concern is already the Pacific, not the Middle East." From the US military's perspective, "the current epoch of Middle Eastern conflict... will start to wind down during the second Bush administration." Kaplan quotes a US Marine general in the Pacific Command who explains that the nascent US strategy for dealing with China will be based on multilateral military cooperation, or as he put it bluntly, it will be "military multilateralism on steroids." As its Atlantic alliances with NATO countries are breaking down in the face European rejection of America's decision to fight Islamic imperialism rather than appease it, the US is quietly building deep military alliances with countries such as Singapore, India, Australia, Japan and Thailand, which will all play key roles in containing China in the coming cold war in the Pacific. Kaplan notes that one of the US's Achilles' heels in building this alliance structure is the technological gap between the US military and these crucial allies in the Pacific. As he writes, "Getting militarily so far ahead of everyone else in the world creates a particular kind of loneliness that not even the best diplomats can always alleviate, because diplomacy itself is worthless if it's not rooted in realistic assessments of comparative power." Kaplan's report points to a strategic reality that US policymakers in Washington seem intent on ignoring. Israel's military sales and strategic military ties to linchpin states in the Pacific, like Singapore and India, have made it possible for these states today to center so prominently in American long-term strategic planning for its emerging cold war with China. Israel was the first state to offer military assistance to Singapore, back in 1965 when that tiny island nation's entire military amounted to one battalion. For the next 10 years Israel was the only state assisting the Singaporeans, who one US military official interviewed by Kaplan referred to today as "just awesome in every way." Israeli military officials involved in strategic cooperation with Singapore explain that the relationship has advanced to the point where most of the arms sales take the form of joint military ventures. Israel sells Singapore weapons systems that are tailor-made for its needs, and Singapore finances much of the research and development of these systems. Until it was outpaced by India, Singapore was the Israeli military industries' largest client. Sales range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars per year. While military cooperation with India has only become prominent in recent years, Israel was assisting India militarily as early as the 1960s, during its war with Pakistan. Today, between multi-billion dollar annual military sales and joint training exercises, Israel's strategic importance for the modernization of the Indian military is undeniable. In cultivating its relationships with countries like Singapore and India, Israel's defense planners have followed a clear rationale that fuses commercial and strategic concerns. On the one hand, for Israel to maintain its military superiority over the Arabs, it must have a cutting-edge arms industry. For the industry to remain state-of-the-art, Israel must develop export markets to make its research, development and production costs manageable and sustainable. On the other hand, Israel has a strategic, long-term interest in developing ties with countries like India and Singapore, which share similar threats and concerns, because at the end of the day, these states form natural alliances with Israel. Today, rather than thank Israel and India and Singapore for their forward thinking, whose importance to the US is unquestionable, the US is punishing them. This week it was reported that following Israel's misguided sale of Harpy aerial drones to China, Washington is now demanding control over its weapons exports to India and Singapore. There can be no doubt that Israel's decision to sell advanced weapons systems to China was strategically blind. China does not only threaten US interests. Through its missile sales to Iran and Saudi Arabia, it also threatens Israel's national security interests. In the wake of US wrath over the Harpy deal, Israel has corrected its behavior and agreed not to sell weapons systems to China in the future. It is more than possible that the US attempt to take away Israel's independence in developing its exports markets is simply an attempt to hitch a ride on the current crisis with China to advance the interests of US weapons manufacturers, who have trouble competing with their Israeli counterparts. Yet in so acting, not only is the US harming its relations with Israel and damaging Israel's reputation internationally, it is also insulting Singapore and India by acting as though there is something wrong with these US allies' acquisition of advanced weapons systems. In comparing the ease of crafting a strategy for contending with China to the difficulty of formulating policy on the Middle East, Kaplan makes one of the most common American mistakes in characterizing the constraints on their actions in the Arab world. Kaplan writes, "Our actions in the Pacific will not be swayed by the equivalent of the Israel lobby; Protestant evangelicals will care less about the Pacific Rim than about the fate of the Holy Land." Yet what Israel's cultivation of its own bilateral strategic ties with countries like Singapore and India shows is that when Israel is behaving in a strategically responsible way, it is also advancing America's strategic interests. This is the case because, at the end of the day, the two countries share the same enemies and therefore are drawn to the same potential allies. That is, the foundation of the US-Israel alliance is not American altruism or domestic political pressure to save God's Chosen People from destruction. The rationale behind the US-Israel alliance is the fact that Israel is a strong, self-sufficient democracy whose strength and stability, both locally and globally, enhance US national security. When, as happened this week, Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers insanely announce that Israel is trying to poison the Palestinians by selling them cancer-causing juices, there should be no place for doubt as to who America's ally is in the Middle East. Indeed, the levels of cultural anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in Palestinian society and the Arab world should make it absolutely clear to Washington that a strong Israel is a national security necessity. Yet, in the Americans' haste this week to humiliate Israel and emasculate its arms industry, even at the expense of its other allies, we see a disturbing indication that as the Bush administration slogs through its second term, it is intent on ignoring the strategic realities of the region and indeed of the global strategic environment, preferring instead to try to appease the Arabs and the Europeans at Israel's expense in the hopes of receiving their cooperation in the future. This latest American move was not carried out in a vacuum. It comes against of backdrop of a disconcerting pattern of behavior by the administration that leads inexorably to the devastating conclusion that the US is moving to abandon its alliance with Israel. The publication of the federal indictment against former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin this week is case in point. From a perusal of the charges against Franklin, the following picture emerges: Franklin, a hawk on Iran's nuclear weapons program, sought to bring his views to the attention of decision-makers. In so doing, he did what countless Washington policy analysts do on a daily basis. He sought to build a coalition with like-minded thinkers outside the government. According to the indictment, Franklin passed no significant classified information to AIPAC officials or to Naor Gillon at the Israeli embassy. He received no compensation for his relationships with them. All he did was talk about Iran with people who share his concerns in the hope that they could - through their official dealings with administration officials - advance his views. Franklin's one crime, it would seem, was his unquestioning view of Israel as a strategic ally of the US at a time when powerful circles in Washington are trying to disengage from this alliance. Had he conducted identical conversations with British diplomats or pro-Japanese lobbyists, there is little doubt that he would still be sitting behind his desk at the Pentagon. Franklin has pleaded innocent to all charges submitted against him. His trial is set to start on September 6. To a degree, what will really be on trial will be the question of whether the US does or does not view Israel as its ally. And so the question necessarily arises: If the Bush administration is planning to abandon Israel, who does it think will replace it? Egypt, an economic basket-case run by a dictator who galvanizes popular support by cultivating societal hatred of America? Saudi Arabia, which is now pushing a policy with the International Atomic Energy Agency that will allow it to accumulate small quantities of uranium and plutonium which it could easily transfer to terrorist organizations for the purpose of attacking the US? Israel was wrong to sell weapons systems to China. But the damage done to US national security interests has been effectively brought under control. The damage that the US's increasingly hostile position toward Israel is doing to US national security interests will not be so easily contained. The positive consequences for America of its alliance with a strong and secure Israel are enormous and unique. The negative consequences of an abandonment of Israel will be equally vast. Why would Singapore or India or any other US ally trust an America that would abandon Israel? And how will the US be more secure if it increases its dependence on Arab regimes that are inherently hostile to it and everything it stands for? 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 |
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CHIEF PILOT OF OPERATION MAGIC CARPET DEAD AT 94
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 20, 2005. |
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4. Robert F. Maguire Jr., the chief pilot of Operation Magic Carpet, which evacuated more than 40,000 Jewish refugees from Yemen to the newly created state of Israel between late 1948 and early 1950, died on June 10 at his home in Northridge, Calif. He was 94. He died of natural causes, said his son Robert F. Maguire III. Starting in November 1947, when the United Nations voted to partition Palestine, Arabs and Jews were at war. Pogroms against the Jews of Yemen soon followed. In an operation that was arduous, dangerous and secret, nearly the entire Jewish population of Yemen was evacuated beginning in December 1948. The flight from Yemen to Israel, a journey of more than 1,400 miles, was almost entirely over hostile territory. Though the evacuation was kept secret for fear of sabotage, the planes were routinely fired on by Egyptian forces. Fuel was scarce. Pilots were warned that if they were forced to land in enemy territory, the passengers, and perhaps the crew, risked being executed. Requiring a little more than a year and 380 flights, Operation Magic Carpet evacuated 40,000 to 50,000 Yemenite Jews without loss of life. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, was reported to have called Mr. Maguire "the Irish Moses." The writer Leon Uris based a character in his 1958 novel, "Exodus," on him. Robert Francis Maguire Jr. was born in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 7, 1911. His father, Robert Francis Sr., was a lawyer who became a judge at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials in the late 1940's. Robert Jr. began flying as a teenager, later attending Reed College and the University of Oregon. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps the day after Pearl Harbor, and flew in the Pacific region in the war. After the war, Mr. Maguire became a pilot for Alaska Airlines. With the creation of the State of Israel in May 1948, the airline won a contract to fly Jewish refugees there from around the globe. Mr. Maguire flew thousands of Jews out of Shanghai before being sent to the Middle East to help start Operation Magic Carpet in conjunction with the American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee, a humanitarian organization. An ancient, nomadic people, Yemenite Jews had been oppressed since the advent of Islam in the eighth century. But their deliverance into Israel was prophesied in a line from the Book of Isaiah: "They shall mount up with wings as eagles." When news of the planned evacuation reached them, they walked, sometimes hundreds of miles, carrying Bibles and Torah scrolls, until they reached a refugee camp at the British protectorate of Aden, on the southern tip of Yemen. The pilots left each morning from their base in Asmara, Eritrea, and landed at Aden to pick up passengers. Few of the Yemenite Jews had ever seen an airplane. But the airline painted an eagle with outstretched wings over the door of each craft, and the Yemenites went aboard. As many as 28 pilots at a time were involved in the operation, which involved carrying the refugees to Tel Aviv, flying back to the safety of Cyprus for the night, and returning to Asmara at dawn before starting over again, a round trip of about 20 hours. When Alaska Airlines had to withdraw a few months into the operation, Mr. Maguire started his own company, Near East Air Transport, and hired planes and pilots to continue the job. The work cost him his career. In the region, Mr. Maguire contracted a parasite that affected his heart and as a result he lost his commercial pilot's license in the early 1950's. In later years he worked as a pension-fund manager. Last year, Mr. Maguire, an Episcopalian, was awarded a medal of valor by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Mr. Maguire's first marriage, to the former Jean Shepard, ended in divorce. He is survived by their three children: Robert F. III, of Los Angeles; Gilbert, of Ventura, Calif.; and Alix of Long Beach, Calif.; a sister, Constance Wilson of Brookings, Ore.; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. Mr. Maguire's second wife, the former Edith Barnick, died in 2002. In Operation Magic Carpet, Mr. Maguire relied as much on his wits as on his aviation skills. He once ran out of fuel and was forced to land in Egypt. When airport officials rushed up to the plane, Mr. Maguire ordered them to send ambulances immediately. "What for?" they asked him. "I have smallpox on board," Mr. Maguire replied. He got his fuel, and flew on to Tel Aviv. Robert Maguire Jr., the commercial pilot from Oregon who was dubbed the "Irish Moses" for helping fly tens of thousands of Jewish refugees through hostile territory from Yemen to Israel in 1949, died June 10 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94. The World War II veteran was working for Alaska Airlines in late 1948 when the company was contracted by the American Joint Distribution Committee to fly Jewish refugees from Yemen, where they had been oppressed for centuries, to the newly established state of Israel. As the chief pilot of Operation Magic Carpet, Maguire helped transport more than 40,000 refugees on nearly 400 flights, a successful airlift that prompted Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to call Maguire the "Irish Moses." The operation was a secret one because it was feared that the planes would be shot down by Arab forces, who were at war with Israel. While they were often shot at, none of the planes crashed and no lives were lost. After Alaska Airlines withdrew from the operation, Maguire kept it going by buying or leasing planes and setting up Near East Air Transport. Not many of Maguire's Jewish passengers were aware that their pilot was an American of Irish and British descent who had been raised an Episcopalian. Over the years, Maguire never sought acknowledgment for his role in the operation, modestly saying that he was "just doing my job." In 2004, however, Maguire was awarded a medal of valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles for his "heroic efforts that helped rescue tens of thousands of Jews." http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/11916006.htm 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. |
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THE 'PRAGMATIC' HAMAS MYTH
Posted by Gerald M. Steinberg, June 20, 2005. |
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This appeared in The Jerusalem Post yesterday. It is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1119061896966&p=1006953079865 The wishful thinking that has long characterized European diplomacy in the Middle East has made one of its periodic ocean crossings and regained a foothold in Washington. Reflecting their eagerness to see "progress" in relations between Palestinians and Israelis, some American officials have adopted the myth of Hamas moderation. This optimism is based on the theory that as the leaders of terrorist, liberation or revolutionary organizations gain political power, they are also forced to deal with the realities of the governing process. According to this model, these realities - providing jobs, housing, health and education, and security - require cooperation with their enemies and neighbors. And this cooperation, in turn, fosters ideological moderation, and a transition from violence to peaceful coexistence. But like many appealing diplomatic theories, this one has a poor track record in the real world, particularly in the case of radical Islamist groups. In Afghanistan, when the Taliban took power after decades of warfare and terror, many intelligence agents and policy makers expected the extremist mullahs to become pragmatic. But instead of moderation, they converted their power into a reign of terror used to impose the most extreme form of Islam on the entire population. The Taliban leaders never bought into the concepts of responsible government. And social services - health, education and economic development - were not high on their list of priorities. And instead of cooperation with the West, Mullah Omar and the rest of the Taliban leadership used their control over Afghanistan to provide Osama bin Laden with a safe haven and a base for operations. THE SAME theory was used to predict the transformation of Hizbullah from a Shi'ite terror group focused on attacking Israeli and Western targets into a political party focusing on internal Lebanese issues. But in this case as well, the hard evidence has proven stronger than the soft theory, at least in the five years since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Instead of ending its terror activities and investing more in social services, Hizbullah engaged in kidnapping Israeli soldiers, the deployment of 12,000 rockets, and in providing direct support for Palestinian terror attacks. So while Hizbullah pursues political power in Lebanon in parallel with terrorism, the declarations of leaders such as Hassan Nasrallah, rejecting all disarmament proposals, appear entirely credible. In the face of repeated failures, what accounts for the persistence of diplomacy based on wishful thinking, and the artificial dichotomy between political power and the use of terror? In part, it is what academics (realists, at least) refer to as "mirror imaging," in which Western diplomats project their own pragmatism and compromise onto leaders of terror groups from other cultures. The West has adopted an idealism that reflects its own history, including the tolerance resulting from the Enlightenment, and centuries of devastating religious and ideological warfare. But from this specific experience, the intellectual and political trend-setters have attempted to universalize the process. Europeans, in particular, place themselves at the vanguard of a universal process in which religion, ideology and nationalism have lost their power of persuasion. In the place of these dark forces of primitive human nature, Europeans see pragmatism, tolerance, reconciliation and compromise as being on the ascendant. So to gain aid, access and weapons, "revolutionary" leaders tell Westerners what they want to hear - that they, too, share these goals. These factors helped push the Middle East "peace process" beginning with the secret Oslo talks and ending in disaster. Here too, wishful thinking presented an image of Yasser Arafat having made the transition from terrorist leader to pragmatic statesman seeking the best for his people. The mountain of evidence demonstrating that Arafat remained stuck in 1947 rejectionism was overlooked - it was not part of the optimistic conceptual framework. Now, many of the same people who enthusiastically promoted Oslo are pushing for a political dialogue with Hamas, based on the likelihood that this group will take power from the corrupt and ineffectual Fatah faction. At the same time, Hamas is still planning terror attacks and continuing in its rejection of the legitimacy of Israel, regardless of borders. As in Arafat's case, Hamas supporters can reasonably conclude that, European and American anti-terror rhetoric notwithstanding, they can receive recognition and control of the aid funds for the Palestinian Authority without disarming or halting their "armed struggle." The disastrous consequences of this wishful thinking are twofold: First, there is the immediate failure to use leverage with Hamas, however limited, for an end to terrorism. But the long-term tragedy is reflected in the inability of Europe and America to learn from the experience in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and southern Lebanon, and to temper their optimism with political realism. As a result, instead of moving toward conflict management, this mythology leads to escalation. Gerald M. Steinberg is the editor of www.ngo-monitor.org and director of the Program on Conflict Management, Bar Ilan University |
| GUSH KATIF |
GUSH KATIF IS FIGHTING FOR ITS LIFE. AND YOURS
Posted by Gush Katif Community, June 20, 2005. |
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Contribute to the FUND TO SUPPORT THE FARMERS IN GUSH KATIF - banks have refused to loan any funds to Gush Katif farmers to continue with their livelihood. Please, send cheques to Keren "Ma'amin veZorea", Ganei-Tal, D.N. Chof-Aza 79792 For loans to Gush Katif farmers so they can begin the agricultural season Call 1-800-20.2288 or 08-6840.879, for detail or to contribute 1000 NIS. 1. Mateh Chiloni is assembling a nucleus of seculars to come to Pei'at Sadeh Come for as long as you can - for more details call Amit Barak 0546.633.938 2. WiG is working closely with Minhelet Kela, refurbishing homes to absorb hundreds of new people to Gush Katif In addition to financial help, we are looking for electricians, plumbers, contractors, painters, etc. who are willing to volunteer a day or more of their time and come down to Gush Katif in order to help fixing the homes. For details please call Nadia Matar 0505-500.834 or Anita 0505-777.254 3. Jews living abroad who are able, should move to Israel at this critical time to resist the ethnic cleansing and war crimes planned by the Sharon government against its Jewish citizens * PLEASE, make efforts to fly to Israel before (IF!?) the evil "Jews' Expulsion Project" starts (Aug 15) and join the crowds who would come to bodily block it * JEWS/SUPPORTERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD: INTERESTED TO RESIDE IN GUSH KATIF? (From www.gamla.org.il) - Call (972) 08-6847.048 or fax 08-6845.128 (with full details) * OTHERWISE (if you are unable to, for any reason) - Please CONTRIBUTE. Gush Katif Forever
Or give generously to Friends of Gush Katif (501c3)
http://www.katifund.org. ALL funds raised go to programs that help the
residents of Gush Katif.
Visit our website at http://english.katif.net/index.php?id=1340&sub=3
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| GUSH KATIF |
JOIN US OUTSIDE THE ISRAELI EMBASSY TUESDAY AFTERNOON
Posted by AFSI, June 19, 2005. |
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Americans Say Never Again! Never Again to indifference Never Again to silence Never Again to deportation Dear Friend of Israel, The Sharon Government plans to deport close to 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron later this summer. Jewish lives are at risk both there as well as in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other major population centers. Even PM Sharon's own newly appointed head of the Shin Bet Yuval Diskin paints a bleak picture of Israel's security situation after the expulsion. According to Diskin, "Northern Samaria and Gaza without the IDF means terror and the firing of missiles at Israeli targets all over the Land. It would leave the IDF without an effective method of fighting terror." Our brothers and sisters in Israel have pleaded for us to do something to prevent this crime against humanity and violation of G-d's commandment to the Jewish people. They are counting on us. We will not let them down. Join Us Wednesday, June 22, 2005 1:00pm - 6:00pm Outside the Israeli Embassy, Washington DC Please feel free to bring signs, Israeli and American flags to the demonstration. T-shirts will be available both at the demonstration and online.
Register Now Questions/Comments: matt@stopthedeportation.org Visit: http://www.stopthedeportation.org/ to see a full list of speakers and contact information Ascendant Redemption and
Invite you to attend a reception
MK Dr. Arieh Eldad Tuesday, June 21, 2005
To Respond, Please: Click Here MK Dr. Arieh Eldad, respected Surgeon, Knesset Member and outspoken opponent to Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, will be raising desperately needed funds for Gush Katif and Northern Shomron. Basic supplies such as food, water and medical equipment must be made available to the tens of thousands that are expected to gather in these communities to prevent the deportation. Dr. Eldad is establishing two field hospitals, one in Neve Dekalim and one in Sa-Nur to treat the expected casualties. |
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LEGITIMISING HAMAS
Posted by David Frankfurter, June 19, 2005. |
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Dear Friends, I am taken aback by newspaper reports that the EU and some of its constituent countries are holding "low level diplomatic talks" with Hamas and that the US is trying to work out what to do if (!) Hamas wins seats in the Palestinian elections. This is being presented as dealing with the "facts on the ground". Acceptable "Realpolitik". Euphemisms, even strong ones such as "Hamas has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation by the EU and the US", note the brazen illegality of these contacts, but imply some defect in the law rather than diplomatic morals. Let's call a spade a spade. Hamas is racist. They hate Jews. They hate Christians. They are murderers. They are on a roll of achieving a "Judenrein Gaza", and have announced that this is just a start, and that they won't disarm until the Jews are driven out of all of the Middle East. When Jörg Haider - who was a racist - led the Austrian Freedom Party in the Austrian coalition government, Austria was ostracised until Haider resigned. Are those willing to hold talks with Hamas displaying their own tendencies? Why do they treat the Palestinians who incite violent racism and murder differently from an Austrian who was so mild by comparison? Please ask your elected representatives. Best Regards,
To subscribe to David Frankfurter's 'letter from Israel', email him at david.frankfurter@iname.com. Or go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/dfrankfurter/ |
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RICE ANNOUNCES "DESTRUCTION AND CLEAN-UP PLAN" FOR GUSH KATIF
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 19, 2005. |
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Seems like ages ago that the pundits were telling us that this Administration would be more evenhanded towards Israel and would not be overwhelmingly pro-Arab as all previous US administrations have been IN ACTION. This time, we were reassured, the Arabs would have to get rid of their terrorists BEFORE the squeeze would be put on Israel. Yes sir, this time, there's a road map that says Arabs have to actually stop terror before Israel is again squeezed. Yeah. So here comes Terry Thomasina Thomas - she has Terry Thomas' teeth but is no where as amusing - and cracks the whip. "Snap to it, Jews. Hurry up, here we are ready to kick you out of Samaria and Judea, and you haven't left Gaza yet! Move it. At this rate, it'll be months before we can destroy Israel and set up Palestine. Move it." On the other hand, if Israel is insane enough to give up Gaza and even PAY her enemies to destroy Israeli property, why should Sec-of-State Rice show her any respect? U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to demolish all the homes in 21 Jewish communities in Gush Katif. Speaking at a press conference after meeting with Israeli leaders, Rice said, "Israel and the Palestinian Authority agree that the settler homes of Gaza should be removed. Therefore parties will work toward a plan for destruction and clean-up." Rice said that both Israel and the PA would be cooperating on the destruction plan. "The view is that there are better land use possibilities for the Palestinians that can better address their housing needs," she said. "The PA is preparing a master plan for the construction in the region to match the needs of the Gaza population, and for the buildings that remain to be used for the Palestinians' welfare... There are some 2,000 [Gush Katif] homes, while the Palestinians need housing solutions for 1.3 million people." This number is of course a wild exaggeration, as the vast majority of the Arab population in Gaza lives in normal apartments in Gaza City, Khan Yunis and other cities. Even according to PA figures, only 1/3 of the population lives in UN-funded refugee camps. The "1.3 million" total figure is also overstated; a recent survey by Bennett Zimmerman, historian Dr. Roberta Seid and Dr. Michael Wise found that the total Arab population in Gaza in January 2004 was 1.07 million. (In a related item, CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Mid-East Reporting in America) notes that, contrary to oft-repeated myth, Gaza is not the "most densely populated area in the world." According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2004-2005, the population per sq. mile for 2003 in the Gaza Strip was 8,666 - rendering it less densely populated than numerous places around the world, including Monaco (41,608), Singapore (17,751), Gibraltar (11,990), Hong Kong (17,833), and especially Macau, which is nearly ten times more densely populated than the Gaza Strip (71,466).) Some Israeli leaders, among them Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, had come out in favor of leaving the homes of Gush Katif residents intact. Just a few weeks ago, Mofaz said he opposes demolishing the homes because the operation would be both too costly and too dangerous. "I am not prepared, as the Defense Minister of the State of Israel, to endanger Israeli soldiers, in order to destroy the houses of settlers," he said at the time. Just recently, however, he reversed his position in favor of demolition. Mofaz proposed over the weekend that Israel destroy the buildings, while the PA would clear away the rubble and even use it to build a seaport. Such a port was provided for in the Oslo Accords, but the plan was shelved due to Israeli worries that it would be used to smuggle weapons into the PA. It appears that the "destruction and clean-up" scheme announced by Rice would not require Israel to be involved in the actual demolition process. Israel would pay the PA or a third party to destroy the homes and to dump the debris. Rice said that U.S. economic envoy James Wolfensohn will soon be arriving in the region to help Israel and the PA work out the details of the demolition operation. She said she would help the parties obtain international assistance for implementing the plan. Minister of the Environment Shalom Simchon (Labor) said the demolition must be carried out aesthetically, making sure that asbestos is promptly and efficiently disposed of in order to avoid pollution and health risks. |
| GUSH KATIF |
THE PULL OUT IN GAZA
Posted by Marilyn Ginsburg, June 19, 2005. |
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"Condoleezza Rice urges speed in resolving pullout plan". And Abbas raised four key points as an obstacle to the plan. They sounded rational. He does not want to turn Gaza into a prison. One is to open up the borders, remove the checkpoints, giving them control of the corridor along the Egyptian border and open the Gaza airport. Sounds logical for two countries set on establishing peace between them. Then I open to the 10th page of qthe Jerusalem Report and see a picture of Hamas warriors, dressed alike, with blackened faced, green bands around their hair, and waving large flags. This is a rally and their cry expresses success for Israel's "flight" from Gaza. It was a victory rally so why is everyone bending over backwards to make it possible for this terrorist group to take control over Gaza. Unless I am missing something, I haven't heard that Hamas has ever indicated they are willing to accept Israeli presence in the Middle East. Abbas's request for the four conditions of Israeli departure seems totally unreasonable since he has made no attempt to disarm this group and he retains the Arafat revolving door prison policy. A group with an ideology for war, fully armed with rockets, grenades and guns is ready to fulfill their charter to destroy Israel. A loaded weapon is aimed at Israeli citizens. Why is it then that the U. K. and the Protestant Churches want to force Israel into compliance, at the very risk of their lives? We know Israel would be glad to accommodate the Palestinians. We know that Israel would be glad to leave Gaza. But the one condition of their departure is disarming Hamas. This very important condition for Israeli survival is ignored by the World. I can not help but think that the world opinion, which calls Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza an occupation does not really care about Jewish survival. And it is no different now then it was in Europe during the Holocaust. The occupation of a territory which was never Palestinian, the occupation of a piece of terrain that was offered three times to the Arabs living in the area and refused, and the wars against Israel make a total lie out of the word occupation. The big lie which calls for divestiture from Israel for its occupation and the lack of concern for an armed force sitting on Israeli borders indicates something: it indicates that Jews are expendable, even now. Marilyn Ginsburg lives in Boynton Beach, Florida. |
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A SYMPOSIUM ON THE RADICAL ISLAMIST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE AND
NATIONAL SECURITY
Posted by People's Truth Forum, June 19, 2005. | |
Dear Fellow American: For many decades we here in the United States thought of terrorism as something that happened "overseas." It was something that our borders - two oceans and two "friendly" countries - shielded us from. We were being naïve. The devastation of the attacks on September 11th was the result of years of preparation and the conglomeration of resources by thoroughly evil minds. Their brand of wickedness had been experienced before yet for whatever reason we chose to place little heed in the message being delivered - "We want you dead!" 1983 - Simultaneous suicide truck-bomb attacks were made on American and French compounds in Beirut, Lebanon. A 12,000-pound bomb destroyed the U.S. compound, killing 242 Americans, while 58 French troops were killed when a 400-pound device destroyed a French base. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. 1984 - The Islamic Jihad kidnapped and later murdered Political Officer William Buckley in Beirut, Lebanon. 1988 - U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel W. Higgins was kidnapped and murdered by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group while serving with the United in southern Lebanon. 1993 - The World Trade Center in New York City was badly damaged when a car bomb planted by Islamic terrorists exploded in an underground garage. The bomb left 6 people dead and 1,000 injured. 1995 - The Islamic Movement of Change planted a bomb in a Riyadh military compound that killed one U.S. citizen, several foreign national employees of the U.S. government, and over 40 others. 1996 - A fuel truck carrying a bomb exploded outside the US military's Khobar Towers housing facility in Dhahran, killing 19 U.S. military personnel and wounding 515 persons, including 240 U.S. personnel. Several radical Islamic groups claimed responsibility for the attack. 1998 - A bomb exploded at the rear entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 12 U.S. citizens, 32 Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs), and 247 Kenyan citizens. Approximately 5,000 Kenyans, 6 U.S. citizens, and 13 FSNs were injured. The U.S. Government held Usama Bin Laden responsible. 1998 - A bomb detonated outside the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 7 FSNs and 3 Tanzanian citizens, and injuring 1 U.S. citizen and 76 Tanzanians. The explosion caused major structural damage to the U.S. Embassy facility. The U.S. Government held Usama Bin Laden responsible. 2001 - Two hijacked airliners crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Soon thereafter, the Pentagon was struck by a third hijacked plane. A fourth hijacked plane, suspected to be bound for a high-profile target in Washington, crashed into a field in southern Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 3,025 U.S. citizens and other nationals. President Bush and Cabinet officials indicated that Usama Bin Laden was the prime suspect and that they considered the United States in a state of war with international terrorism. These are just a small number of terrorist attacks perpetrated by radical Islamists over the recent years. The threat is real and it has been with us for quite a long time. We have just refused to accept the ugly and dangerous truth. If we choose to ignore the facts as presented - that radical Islamists are waging war against the free West and especially the United States of America - then future deaths at the hands of terrorists must find the blood of the slaughtered on our hands as well. The only way to stop the carnage that terrorism affords those in the free world is to understand what makes the radical Islamist want to kill, what makes him hate so much. Then, and only then, can we fully appreciate what it is that we have to commit ourselves to do. Naïve ideologues contend that Islamic terrorists are lashing out at the West - and especially Americans - because of the provocative nature of Western life or the Western presence in Islamic States. To hold these contentions is to be blind to the truth either through ignorance or deliberate oversight. The People's Truth Forum is sponsoring a symposium on terror titled, "The Radical Islamist Threat to World Peace and National Security." It will take place on September 21, 2005 in Plantsville, Connecticut. This symposium will delve into the minds of those who use terror as a tool. It will paint a profile of those who would slaughter innocents and it will educate both professional and average citizen on how terrorism threatens our way of life today. In order to bring this important and very possibly life saving information to our First Responders, to our citizens and to you, we need your help. Assembling speakers like Dr. Harvey Kushner (nationally noted counter-terrorism expert), Brigitte Gabriel (terror survivor and counter-terror advocate), Judith Jacobson (vice-president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East) and Robert Spencer (Director of JihadWatch) isn't easy. It takes a massive amount of time, coordination and resources, resources like funding. Help us to bring knowledge to the American people. We have been uneducated on the issue of Islamic terrorism for too long. It is time to understand the threat as it presents itself today so that we can successfully defend ourselves and our way of life; so that our children can enjoy a world - and a country - that is devoid of the horrors of September 11, 2001. Please consider attending this symposium should you find yourself in the area on the date of the event. Tickets are $115 a piece and that includes dinner and entertainment before the presentation. In addition to attending, an even greater and more selfless contribution would be to donate to The People's Truth Forum so that we can fully fund the event without going into debt. We are not underwritten by any large corporations or organizations. We have put this event together with nothing but private funding. Please help us bring this pertinent and vital information to the American people. We have ignored the problem for too long. Now that the vehicles of terrorism have invaded our shores we have a civic responsibility to act. This time, sticking our heads in the sand or making this a political issue may just cost us our lives. Sincerely, Jeff Epstein
Note: Please contact me for information on how to donate funds to our most worthy cause. Or you can get more information on how to contact us at www.peoplestruthforum.com. Related Reading:
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1983 - Sixty-three people, including the CIA's Middle East
director, were killed and 120 were injured in a 400-pound suicide
truck-bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The Islamic
Jihad claimed responsibility.
2000 - In Aden, Yemen, a small dingy carrying explosives rammed the
destroyer U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others.
Supporters of Usama Bin Laden were suspected.
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ISRAEL'S POLICY OF AMBIGUITY; GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
Posted by Moshe Dann, June 19, 2005. |
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Something new has happened in Israel: nobody is talking about "peace," not even the extreme Left (like Peace Now whose main activity is trying to prevent Jews from building in Yesha -- Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza.) -- not even the Tinker-Bell of Peace, Shimon Peres. The Oslo delusion, however, is not over; it's has a new name: "disengagement." And, if Oslo wasn't absurd enough with fake agreements and negotiations, "The Road Map" imposed by "The Quartet" (3 of whom are Israel's enemies) is worse. No negotiations are required and no method of accountability. As senior Israeli officials say, "We are in a process; it's not peace." Despite continuing terrorism and announcements from PA officials that terrorist gangs will not be disarmed, Israeli officials refer to PA head Mohammed Abbas as a "partner." No one knows exactly what that means, since neither he nor the PA have done anything to fulfill Israeli and US demands to (at least) reduce terrorism and incitement. In fact, they have been encouraged by Israeli willingness to retreat under fire. Unlike Israel, their policy is clear. Israeli policies are often ambiguous, a sign of uncertainty and doubt. Do we deal with terrorists, or not? Is Yesha part of Israel, or not? This approach may at times offer maneuverability, but it has led to confusion and invited disaster. PM Sharon has made this the basis of his non-policy. The good news is that this allows him to be innovative and spontaneous, responding or ignoring terrorist attacks depending on what he thinks will work. The bad news is that he won't shoot back. Six thousand missiles have been fired at communities in and around the Gaza Strip in the last two years and the IDF has not been given permission to take decisive action. Good news: Terrorists are apprehended before they can strike. This has given Israelis a renewed sense of security. Tourism is up and people are riding buses again. Bad news: it only takes one mistake for terrorists to succeed. Sharon's policy of ambiguity, however, contrary to assessments by his own military intelligence that withdrawal from Gaza and Northern Samaria will increase terrorism, is based on a false assumption. Relying on Israel's experience in withdrawing from Lebanon, senior Israeli officials predict that terrorism will decrease. They offer no explanation for this speculation. Using Lebanon as a model to support Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip ignores obvious and important differences. Lebanon is a sovereign country which has no interest in an active war with Israel; Hizbullah is a small terrorist organization, while Hamas has a powerful army; Israel's border with Lebanon is sealed, unlike Gaza's borders which are open to workers and for commerce and constantly infiltrated. Lacking red lines and a clear policy regarding terrorism invites terrorists to test the safety net and exploit weaknesses. The only consistent policy that Israel seems to hold is that withdrawal will take place regardless of whether the PA/Hamas stop terrorism or not. This is a complete reversal of traditional Israeli policy based on ensuring that terrorists will not emerge from the conflict with a sense of victory. Not only are PA and Hamas officials already claiming that they have forced Israel to retreat, like Lebanon, they threaten an escalation in violence unless further concessions and withdrawals are made, including building air and seaports and unfettered passage throughout the West Bank. Without clear policy guidelines the Israeli government is sending mixed (and therefore contradictory) messages: stop terrorism or we will not make further concessions AND we will make further concessions no matter what you do. Advocates of this policy argue that Israel must withdraw not only from Gaza but all of Yesha for its own self-interest. Better, they say not to occupy another people than rule over them. So Palestinian terrorists get a state and Israel gets moral Brownie points. But Israel doesn't "occupy" Palestinians; the Palestinian Authority does, and has done so for more than a decade. The dispute (in Yesha) is not over people but over unoccupied and unclaimed State land which Israel conquered from Jordan, that was conquered from the British who conquered it from the Turks, who conquered it from the Mamelukes who conquered it from the Crusaders, conquered from early Moslem rulers who conquered it from the Byzantine/Roman Empire, conquered from the Jews ... or Palestinians - depending on which history books you believe. And Jewish communities that were built in Yesha after 1967.
The good news is that during the last year Palestinian terrorists have not been very successful. That's not to say they haven't been trying. According to government sources, there are scores of terrorist alerts every day. The Israel Defense Forces and intelligence services have proven capable and efficient; there is a military solution. The bad news is that having beaten the terrorists decisively, Sharon's defeatist policy is turning victory into self-defeat. Unilateral retreat, "disengagement" or whatever one calls it has no military or security advantages, or at least none that the government has offered. Israeli retreat has plunged Palestinian-controlled areas into a savage struggle for power among terrorist gangs. Finally, the "Security" Fence/Barrier that will demarcate Israel's de facto boundary is presented as a deterrent to would-be terrorists. It represents a policy of retreat that will encourage terrorism. All agree that it will not prevent missile attacks. It is visible sign of failure. As PM Sharon said, "The dream is over." His dream, that is. The good news is that more Jews are making aliyah; the bad news is that anti-Semitism seems to be increasing, especially in Europe where large Muslim communities now flourish. The good news is that the world is aware of the menace of terrorism and is trying to make some efforts to eradicate it; the bad news is that it isn't enough, and Palestinian terrorism seems to be an exception. The good news is that tourism is up for the first time in four years; the bad news is that three-fourths of American Jews have never been to Israel. The good news is that most Israelis do not support Sharon's policies and believe the government is thoroughly corrupt; the bad news is that the government doesn't care. Moshe Dann is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. He can be reached at moshedan@netvision.net.il |
| GUSH KATIF |
SHARON AND JUNTA DESPERATE AND DANGEROUS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 19, 2005. |
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It should not surprise anyone that the Sharon gang will resort to Gestapo style midnight roundups of "enemies of the State." After showing total contempt for anything resembling the democratic political process, it is only to be expected that now that Sharon has been exposed by "Boomerang" as a corrupt and treasonous despot, he will resort to even more oppressive and desperate measures. This is called "Government Plans To Arrest Leading Gush Katif Residents" and is from today's Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). It is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=84109 A week before the planned expulsion of thousands of Gush Katif Jews, a special military police unit will seek out leading residents and arrest them in the middle of the night. A military source has informed Arutz-7 that the army and police thus hope to weaken morale in Katif, as well as weaken the opposition to the uprooting. The special unit's job will be to search out the central figures in the area, according to a prepared list, and arrest them. One of the officers said that the mission will involve "picking out and peeling off the people from their homes in the middle of the night." The operative assumption is that the early removal of the leading figures will break the residents' staying power. A week before the planned expulsion of thousands of Gush Katif Jews, a special military police unit will seek out leading Gush Katif figures and arrest them in the middle of the night. Gush Katif spokesman Eran Sternberg said, "The ideas of this government are getting wilder and wilder by the day. MK Michael Eitan's statement that Sharon is worse than the late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu has taken on terrible significance in light of this new idea, which it is hard to believe has even been thought of. Sharon is trying with all his might to turn the IDF into the Securitate [the cruel Romanian secret police]. If the army officers, public figures and rabbis do not call unambiguously for soldiers not to take part in these political games and to refuse such appalling orders, I don't know where we will end up." 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. |
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IS THE USA REALLY ISRAEL'S ALLY?
Posted by Batya Medad, June 19, 2005. |
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With friends like them, we don't need enemies. Sorry, but facts prove the myth a lie. The United States of America is not a friend of Israel. I'll start with a little history, something I've mentioned previously. It's no secret that the Jewish and Zionist leaders had to lobby hard to convince President Harry Truman and the State Department to vote "yes" in the United Nations, November 29, 1947. The United States had no interest in a Jewish State in the middle-east, just like it didn't use its military to stop the extermination of Jews during World War II, and it turned back Jewish refugees from Europe, even when their return to Germany meant death for them. The United States didn't aid Israel in its war for Independence; arms had to be smuggled out by pro-Israelis. Individual Jews and non-Jewish supporters donated money to Israel. Any American "aid" was for American benefit, and the eventual military aid only succeeded in damaging Israel's own military and aircraft industry. The United States demands full control over any arms Israel develops with parts bought from the states. http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=84093 and http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=83829 We would do much better without American "help." Jonathan Jay Pollard has been jailed for twenty years under the most severe conditions for following the terms of American-Israeli defense treaties, which the United States blatantly ignored. There is no precedent for such punishment. The documents he passed to Israel concerned her defense needs, which were included in treaties between the two countries. http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=82552 Not even the most serious espionage by spies from the USSR, during the communist regime received such severe punishment. Doesn't it make you wonder whom America considers friend and foe? America has promised to "stand by" Israel in times of trouble. I think Clinton was president at a time when Israelis were frequently being targeted by Arab terrorists, and he told Israel not to worry, since America would "stand by" Israel. Now I'm a native American and an English teacher here, and I don't see how such a promise could be a comfort. There's an implied distance; America will wave from the sidelines, but don't expect any active help. America will "stand by" and watch, supervise, criticize, be "evenhanded." This next is from June 18th Jerusalem Post. It is called "Rice urges Mofaz to release more Palestinian prisoners." It is archived at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1119061894421 No true friend would tell someone to give gifts to murderous enemies, to reward terrorism. Why should we listen? The United States wouldn't release terrorists that endanger its citizens; why should we? No normal country would. Honestly, doesn't it make you wonder on which side is the United States? As the saying goes: "It takes two to tango." The only reason that the United States continues treating Israel like an errant child is that we accept it. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, the Israeli government sees itself as illegitimate. It accepts the abuse and waits patiently for more. Today Israeli society is experiencing an internal struggle. Some of us want to be truly independent of foreign rule and others are afraid. Are we a "western democracy" or a "Jewish State"? Do we need a foreign "patron"? And most important: Do we owe our existence to another country? We are at a crossroads. If we don't rid ourselves of foreign control we will cease to exist. Israel won't be viable without YESHA. G-d forbid the government succeeds in its plans to amputate our Land, we will find ourselves defenseless, locked in fragile ghettos. There is no foreign country we can depend on. We must look to G-d and to our own strength. And for our survival, we must send the American busybodies back to Washington. If they're such experts at making "peace," they should invite Castro to the White House for a festive banquet. Shavua Tov, A Wonderful Week to All, This is Musing #126. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2005/06/ 126-is-usa-really-israels-ally.html |
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A NEONAZI MOONBAT EMBARRASSES THE REST OF THE LEFT
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 19, 2005. |
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This appeared on the Discover the Network website (http://discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/ neonazi-moonbat-embarrasses-rest-of.html) You know that the Bash-Israel web site calling itself "Deir Yassin Remembered" is off the charts when a large group of OTHER Far-Leftist Bash-Israel anti-Zionists are denouncing its director as an open neonazi and anti-Semite! Paul Eisen is London-based co-director of Deir Yassin Remembered, a web site purporting to seek to commemorate the "massacre" of Arabs by Jews in 1948 at the village of Deir Yassin outside Jerusalem. The only problem is that no massacre at all took place there, and the claim that one did is little more than a medieval-style anti-Jewish blood libel. A battle did in fact take place there, since the village controlled access to then-besieged and starving Jerusalem, a battle in which some Arabs and Jews died. The Far Left and the Neonazi Right have long tried to turn the non-massacre of Deir Yassin into a bludgeon to demonize Israel and Jews. Among the people on the board of "Deir Yassin Remembered" are a Swedish Neonazi calling himself "Israel Shamir", convicted traitor and spy Mordecai Vanunu, Saudi-financed ex-Congressman Paul Findlay, PLO spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, and similar jihadniks of their ilk. The site is a thinly-disguised front for the PLO. DePaul's Holocaust-Denier Norman Finkelstein has evidently just been dropped from the board of the site, being too much of an embarrassment even for them. Paul Eisen has aroused the fury of the rest of the Bash-Israel Jew-baiters by abandoning the common pretense of being "anti-Israel but not anti-Jewish", a posture so beloved by most of the rest of the Left. He has been publishing openly anti-Semitic materials, claiming that Jews are plotting to take over the world, and openly supporting Palestinian atrocities against Jews. When other anti-Israel Leftists were horrified by this, they tried to get the web sites publishing Eisen to print their own rebuttal of Eisen but they were refused. Eisen's "analysis" has also been published by the "Zundelsite", the web site of Ernst Zundel who was recently deported by Canada to Germany due to his open nazi activities in North America. Eisen openly praises Zundel and the adoration is mutual. Eisen openly collaborates with Swedish neonazi Shamir, himself a close ally of Zundel. Eisen also writes anti-Jewish pieces for the anti-Semitic Egyptian daily al-Ahram. Anyway, Eisen is such an embarrassment for those anti-Israel leftists, who prefer to perpetuate the myth of there being an anti-Zionism that is not also anti-Semitism, that they have organized a petition against Eisen and those who publish him. Among the signatories are people who are only marginally less openly anti-Semitic than Eisen himself, and include some of Israel's worst academic moonbats. Other neofascist leftists however are rallying to Eisen's defense. 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. |
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MR. SHARON SAYS THE SUN IS SHINING WHEN WE ARE ENVELOPED IN DARKNESS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 19, 2005. |
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This comes from IMRA including the comment in brackets. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of Independent Media Review and Analsis (IMRA). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il PM Sharon: "The Disengagement Will Strengthen Israel's Security." [As impending disaster becomes clear.] This was communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser. The article is stored at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25665 [IMRA: "Today, one can already see the fruits of disengagement." - Israeli American relations at the point of disaster over military sales and Secretary Rice demands Israel release more terrorists and ease security restrictions so that more Israelis can "die to please America"). Palestinians exploit the "break" to prepare for the next war of attrition (as they openly warn that the terror option is alive and well), Egypt continues to allow weapons to flow - as it waits for Israel to forfeit the demilitarization of the border area in desperation, and the world already asks "what have you done for the peace process lately" - but if Mr. Sharon's speechwriters want to say the sun is shining when we are enveloped in darkness - its shining.]. Following are Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's remarks at the start of his meeting this morning (Sunday), 19.6.05, with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: "We are pleased to host here in Jerusalem US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleeza Rice. Dr. Rice is a friend of Israel and we want to thank you for this and for your efforts to advance the diplomatic process in the region. I would like you to convey warm regards to US President George Bush and to thank him for his personal friendship and for the US's great support of Israel. The state of Israel is on the threshold of an historic process. Today, one can already see the fruits of disengagement and I am certain that our diplomatic, security and economic situations will further improve as a result of the disengagement. This is a hard, even very hard, step for Israel; however, we will implement the disengagement exactly according to the decisions. I would like to thank you, Ms. Secretary of State, for the US's great support for the Disengagement Plan ( http://tinyurl.com/43l87). I believe that the Plan's successful implementation, quietly and in coordination with the Palestinians, will give momentum to the efforts to resume the diplomatic process according to the Roadmap. All of this is on condition that the Palestinians halt the terrorism, violence and incitement, dismantle the terrorist organizations, collect their weapons and implement the necessary administrative reforms. The US has a very important role to play in promoting the processes in the Middle East and in assisting the progress of the Disengagement Plan. I want to thank the envoys who have invested considerable time and effort in moving forward the processes in our region, especially American General William Ward, who is working on security issues, and quartet envoy James Wolfensohn, who is working on economic issues. I would also like to thank Elliot Abrams and David Walsh, with whom we have a good and deep working relationship. Israel is a peace-seeking country. After so many long years of terrorism, blood and smoke, achieving security, quiet and peace is not an easy mission. We hope that the terrorism will cease and then we - Israelis and Palestinians, assisted by the US - will be able to make progress towards achieving the hoped-for peace." 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. |
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LETTER FROM DR. VINEYARD TO PRIME MINISTER SHARON
Posted by Moshe and Rachel Saperstein, June 19, 2005. |
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Dear Prime Minister Sharon: It is madness, Sir, to read this morning off Arutz Sheva how a Military Source has informed Arutz-7 "that the IDF and police hope to weaken morale in Katif, as well as opposition to the deportation" by going and arresting those persons in the Opposition to such "supposed peace plans," prior to the time of your disengagement. It is madness, Sir, to read of your mission that will involve "picking out and peeling off the people from their homes in the middle of the night." This is madness to read these "about to happen" events in a Democracy called Israel! The Madness of this "picking and peeling" fits true to the form with the former Soviet Union which I had the duty of visiting between 1959 and 1961. This madness should not be, ever, Sir, in a democracy! The Madness I read says "a week before the planned expulsion of thousands of Gush Katif Jews, a special military police unit will seek out leading Gush Katif figures and arrest them in the middle of the night." To counter your madness, Mr. Prime Minister, I am currently working to persuade every American Christian-Zionist and American Jew I can to come and be part of a "tent city" we plan to set up while your deportation goes on. We Americans will be there, as close as your "communistic type" government allows us to be, "fasting" [you folks call that a hunger strike] for the Apples of G-d's eye about to be deported. It is madness, Sir, that Gush Katif spokesman Eran Sternberg "has to" describe his PM's government as "getting wilder and wilder day by day." It is madness, Sir, that MK Michael Eitan "has to" state "that Sharon is worse than the late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu", due to the fact that your government has taken on terrible significance in light of these "new ideas." It is madness, Sir, that you are trying with all your might to turn the IDF into the Securitate (the cruel Romanian secret police). It is madness, Sir, that we in Oklahoma City have to spend so much time, effort, and money in an effort to wake up the 40 million Born-Again Christians (who elected George W. twice) to what you and he plan to do to the Jews in Israel. Mr. Prime Minister, I promise you that I personally will persuade hundreds and hundred and hundreds of American citizens, Christian-Zionists, and Jews to come with me, as close as we can get in our tent cities, to the Gush Katif to witness your "upcoming Madness." This letter is being sent to fifties of thousands of Churches and Synagogues in America. A Yedid and Chaver to the Physical sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jim Vineyard
Moshe Saperstein and his wife Rachel live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, in the Gaza Strip. He is a Jerusalem Diarist, one of the group of Israelis who are recording their experiences living in Israel. He lost an arm while fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He was again wounded in a February 2002 incident when he drove his car into a terrorist who had just shot and killed a young mother traveling in the car in front of him. He writes frequently of his physical and emotional struggles. His wife, Rachel (aka. La Passionara, La P.) works at the Girls High School in Neve Dekalim and published a booklet last year for families dealing with terror victims. |
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SPARKS: BIRDS, BUS, QUESTIONS, CHULENT
Posted by TheRaphi, June 19, 2005. |
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Yoseph Feivel writes "Sparks from Israel" from Israel. Contact him by email at sparksfromisrael@theraphi.com. The Birds Then they come in larger numbers, like a stream trickling through tunnels and alleyways. Finally there is a rushing river, as they flood the marble floor of the Temple wall all the way across the large open plaza, up to the stairways at the other end. As the sun rises you can see them all, like birds. A hundred thousand Jews all huddled together for the morning prayer of Shavuot, after being up all night learning Torah, which is the Jewish tradition. I have one friend who was at the original Sinai in the dessert and felt the vibe, another who was in Sfat and receiving the kabala, and me who stood witness in Jerusalem to the flock of black, white and multi-colored Jews doing their prayer dance together in improvised assemblies. What an interesting species these people are. As I stood off in the distance taking in the sight of these multitudes I could hear the Song of the Hebrews calling to their G-d. I understood the language of this species and I too could return a call, in the same voice. After all I guess I'm a bird too. A Nation of Prophets I was coming back on the bus from the Kotel with two Israeli guys I had just met over Shabbat. One had a business idea he was speaking to me about, and his Temani friend was an inspired yeshiva student who only spoke about Torah. We managed to find three seats on the bus, and then his friend suddenly stood up and started to give the bus riders a lecture on the Importance of remaining silent in the Beit Knesset. Imagine the scene; a Sephardic young man with a black kippa lecturing to a bus load of Ashkenazi rabbis with black furry striemels and women in kerchiefs. At first they smiled to each other, but as the bus rolled along, he continued, and they became engrossed in the lecture. While he was speaking, I turned to my friend and asked him if he does this everywhere, he nodded. When we arrived at our destination, I hurried to catch the last bus to Tel Aviv. I looked back and saw the Bus Rebbe surrounded by new fans asking for his telephone number. On the bus back to Tel Aviv, he asked the bus driver if he could use the microphone and give a Torah lecture. He was flatly denied and we continued home with the radio playing Russian ballads and Trance music. I guess it must have been similar in ancient times. The Academy of Questions On Shabbat in Tel Aviv, I can only understand about 60% of the lectures because my Hebrew is not that good yet. It's a treat for me to visit Yerushalayim where there is so much learning in English, and Shavuot is the holiday where we traditionally stay up all night long learning Torah. There were a hundred different classes to choose from in the Old City, and a friend recommended a Talmud class that began at 2:30 am. He advised reviewing the material for a few hours before the lecture, because it was very deep stuff and the regular students have already spent a week reviewing it. So I sat with an old friend from this yeshiva and we struggled through it for a few hours until the Rabbi arrived. He spoke for two hours and I must say, that instead of the 60% I usually understand in Hebrew, this time I understood about 10%, and it was in English. This academy of intellect was so refined that one could hardly make out the subject of the question that was extracted from the previous question that was concealed within the statement that was really another question. Now I understand why the great yeshivas are such a big weapon for Israel. They are splitting the atom every day here and it creates a tremendous force field of impenetrable light. Heavy Metal Chulent Just as I had unpacked my things and was settling into a nice spiritual Shabbat in the Old City a 7-foot tattooed biker entered the room. He took off his spiked boots and Metalica T-shirt, stretched his legs passed the bed and with the moan of a giant lied down. The thought occurred to me, to put my valuables in the office safe. Jerusalem attracts all kinds of unusual people. Another roommate arrived with a friend and they were discussing the laws of the Shavuot Festival. The rocker who hadn't yet fallen asleep turned to them and in aristocratic English explained the detailed differences between the laws of Shabbat and the laws of the Festivals. Everyone was stunned, and he went back to sleep. Later, I spoke with this gentle giant and discovered that his father was a rabbi, whose advice to him was to always question everything. His questioning led him around the world and back to Jerusalem. I suppose he will continue to question as his father did and there is a good chance that he will follow in his fathers footsteps and become a rabbi himself one day; maybe a Heavy Metal Rabbi. You can't judge a book from its cover, especially in Israel. An orthodox high school student living in Toronto, The Raphi is the webmaster of http://www.TheRaphi.com. He can be contacted by email at raphi@theraphi.com TheRaphi (http://www.theraphi.com/archives/oldindex.html) is a pro-Israel and pro-Zionist site; it provides news articles and essays. |
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A NEW ROADMAP FOR PEACE: LOOKING UP TO THE SKY
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 19, 2005. |
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Finally, some clear-headed thinking about peace in Israel. Thanks Rabbi Greenberg! Rabbi Dov Greenberg is executive director of Chabad at Stanford University and a popular lecturer on Judaism. You can email him at Info@chabadstanford.org We've been reading about the "road map" to peace in the Middle East for many years. Anyone can see it hasn't taken us very far. It's been like trying to get to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco using a map of Lower Manhattan. You can try harder, pray harder, and double your speed. But your efforts only succeed in getting you to the wrong place faster. The fundamental problem has nothing to do with traffic jams, diversions or delays; it has everything to do with using the wrong map. For over a decade, Israel has navigated tirelessly to achieve peace using the Oslo map, which was built on this premise: Assuage the other side's grievances -- end the occupation; give the Palestinians land, armed forces, their own state -- and peace will follow. Hence in 1993, Israel brought the P.L.O. out of exile and gave it recognition, international legitimacy, governmental autonomy and authority over 98% of the Palestinian population. Where has this map brought us? In the past decade, terrorism has increased dramatically. Eleven years ago, Yitzhak Rabin in his historic speech on the White House lawn, spoke of a future in which mothers no longer wept for sons lost in battle. But the weeping has not ended; it's reached a deafening crescendo. Terrorists have killed more Israelis in the eleven years since Oslo began in 1993 than in the 45 years of Israel's existence before that. Obviously we've been using the wrong map to move us toward peace. Is there an alternative? Ludwig Wittgenstein once said that his aim as a philosopher was to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle." The fly keeps banging its head against the glass in a vain attempt to get out. The more it tries, the more it fails, until it drops from exhaustion. The one thing it forgets to do is look to the sky. Like the frustrated fly, the one thing Israel has forgotten to do is look to the sky. If Israelis were to look up, they would see an alternative map to peace, provided by El Al, Israel's renowned airline. El Al is the gold standard in aviation security. There is a security, safety and comfort on El Al planes felt by all of its passengers - Jews, Christians and Moslems alike - that one does not feel on any other aircraft. This is an astounding achievement, since El Al is the world's most coveted terrorist target in the sky. Now, imagine if El Al decided that because it has been despised for decades, it is time to change its policy and methods of security. First, El Al would invite people who in the past wished to hijack and blow up its planes and passengers and give them "autonomy" on one section aboard El Al aircraft. In these sections, former hijackers could move about freely without scrutiny or supervision. Next, El Al would make these "reformed militants" responsible for the security of passengers seated in their area of the aircraft. This overture of peace would certainly demonstrate to the international community that El Al is truly committed to coexistence and liberal values. It would help put an end to the animosity felt by many toward El Al. Some would propose that El Al show more "flexibility" and relinquish its control of the cockpit to the former terrorists. Some would advocate that El Al construct a wall to enclose the autonomous aisles or to unilaterally withdraw from several seats that are in close proximity to those aisles. All of these strategies, of course, would be suicidal for El Al. All of them miss the fundamental point. Compromising on security or granting autonomy on a single seat would spell cataclysmic disaster for the entire airline. The life of every passenger, Muslim, Jew and Christian, would be placed in mortal danger. Travelers would before long bid farewell to El Al. That would spell the end of the airline. The only way for El Al to eradicate terror from its airplanes is not through concessions or autonomy, but rather by destroying any hope the terrorists have of achieving their objectives. El Al has adopted an uncompromising stance against terrorism, and they make no apologies. The world stands in admiration of what El Al has accomplished. The El Al road map goes by the name "peace through strength." This is the right road map to peace in Israel. If the last decade of the Oslo process has taught anything, it is that no responsible government can give in to terror. Such behavior does not end terror, but invites it yet more. The Arab terror war against Israel is no more a territorial conflict than was al Qaeda's strike against America, and it can no more be resolved by the current "road map" than anti-Americanism could be appeased by yielding New Jersey to Osama bin Laden. Hence, Israel's intent to withdraw from Gaza is profoundly misdirected. The Palestinian goal over the last decade has been to demoralize the Israeli people through terrorism and force a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the territories. If they succeed, the relentless war against Israel will be launched far more advantageously from their newly acquired territory. At the end of World War II, Winston Churchill quipped, "You can rely on America to do the right thing, once it has exhausted the alternatives." Israel, which has far fewer alternatives than the U.S., has long ago exhausted them all. How much more innocent blood needs to be spilled before we abandon the failed maps of the past? How many more children have to be blown up by suicide bombers before we pursue the course El Al has bravely charted? Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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POLICY FLAWS VERSUS REGIME FLAWS
Posted by Marlene Young, June 18, 2005. |
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Professor Paul Eidelberg is a political scientist, author and lecturer and founder and President, Foundation for Constitutional Democracy. His previous book, "Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall", provides the philosophical and institutional foundations for reconstructing the State of Israel. It has been translated into Hebrew and Russian. His most recent book is: "A Jewish Philosophy of History." He is president of Yamin Israel and a member of the Board of Directors of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies. He can be reached by email at eidelberg@foundation1.org This appeared on the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies Maccabean Online (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Conventional right-wing critics of Israel's government, whether the government is led by Labor or Likud or both, find it easy to fault its policies concerning the "peace process." One does not have to be a college graduate or even a military expert to see the folly or madness of releasing and arming Arab terrorists to provide for Israel's security, or to accomplish that purpose by pursuing a policy of military self-restraint and territorial withdrawal, when the Israel Defense Forces could eliminate the terrorist threat in less time than it took to win the Six-Day War. Of course, one can write a metaphysical interpretation of Arab suicide-bombers as an Islamic love-affair with death, and then proceed to fault Israel's government for not recognizing and dealing with this murderous aspect of what appears to be a psychopathic religion. Such criticism suggests that Israel's political leaders need to be enlightened, that their failings are basically intellectual. Even if our metaphysical critic has, as his primary goal, public education, he deals only with symptoms -- with policy flaws, not with their underlying causes, regime flaws. The primary target of right-wing criticism should not be the policies of Israel's government, but the nature of the regime that generates such policies, for these policies persist regardless of whether the government is headed by Labor or the Likud. The point is that Israel's policy flaws are rooted in Israel's regime flaws, and the former cannot be corrected so long as the latter are ignored. Of course foreign policies are made by human beings and they may be influenced from abroad. Hence some critics attribute the faulty policies of Israel's government either to the mediocre character of its leaders, or what is almost the same, their yielding to American pressure. But the character of a country's leaders and their reaction to external pressure are affected by the character of the regime. If a regime tends to produce flawed or timid leaders, hence flawed or timid policies, something is wrong with the regime. If the regime is a particular democracy, critics should ask: "What needs to be done to reform the institutions of this democracy to improve its policies?" Now, as I have elsewhere shown in detail, Israel's regime does not exemplify an authentic democracy despite periodic multiparty elections. For the sake of this article, however, let us call Israel a "flawed democracy." Consider its system of Proportional Representation (PR), which appears pre-eminently democratic. Yet, as any political scientist worthy of the name knows, PR without constituency or district elections is a formula for party dictatorship. It so happens that Israel is the only (reputed) democracy whose parliament, the Knesset, is based on PR without constituency elections. The entire country constitutes a single district. Voters cast their ballots in parliamentary elections for political parties, not for individual representatives. Hence Knesset Members (MKs) owe their position to their party, not to the votes of constituents, in consequence of which they cannot function as judges of their government's policies as do legislators in all democratic systems of government. The Knesset is impotent: it has never toppled a Likud- or Labor-led government! Whereas American Representatives and Senators know that they owe their political office to their constituents, an Israeli MK knows that he owes everything - his position, salary and perks - to his party. If he votes against the head of his party, who may be the Prime Minister, he is committing political suicide. This inhibits him from exercising individual judgment, hence, from blocking government policies he deems unwise or pernicious. But this also means that the citizen has no representative in the legislature that can effectively uphold his beliefs and interests vis-a-vis the government. To obtain seats in Israel's parliament, a party has thus far needed no more than 1.5 percent of the votes cast in Knesset elections. The result is a profusion of small parties not only in the Knesset, but in the Cabinet. (This will not change significantly, if at all, with the recently enacted 2 percent threshold.) Multiparty cabinet government is a formula for ineptitude and corruption. It is inherently incapable of pursuing consistent, long-range, and resolute domestic and foreign policies. The average duration of a government since 1948 is lees than two years! And so, thanks to Proportional Representation and the absence of constituency elections, party dictatorship and ineptitude prevail in Israel - as the Sharon government most clearly indicates. Meanwhile, PR and the grotesque coalition of rival parties in the cabinet undermines national unity, a sine qua non of national security and the development of a clear sense of national purpose. What must also be emphasized is that these parties have a vested interest in preserving this irrational system of governance, which the citizen is powerless to change. Roughly every two years he exercises his political freedom and then relapses into servitude. Unless right-minded critics, including Zionist organizations abroad, address themselves to the inherent flaws of Israel's political system, their criticism of governmental policies will accomplish little or nothing. By focusing on policy flaws rather than regime flaws, they divert attention and resources to secondary matters -- which is not to say the latter are unimportant. Regime flaws require regime remedies, and not merely new political leaders. In other words, constitutional flaws require constitutional remedies. But inasmuch as Israel's political parties have a vested interest in preserving the existing system, constitutional remedies can only be undertaken by a constitutional Party. Needless to say, such a party must have a constitution that could garner widespread public support. Inasmuch a large majority of Israel's Jewish population is more or less traditional, any viable constitution must be consistent with the Jewish heritage and yet be attractive to most secular Jews. Yamin Israel is the only party to have designed a constitution that can remedy the basic flaws of Israel's political and judicial institutions. This it does by applying Jewish principles to make Israel more democratic, and democratic principles to make Israel more Jewish. Of course the public's preoccupied with the Sharon Disengagement Plan obscures the urgent necessity of radical institutional reform. Hence the best way to promote reform is to show (as the present writer has frequently done) how Sharon's plan is itself a consequence of poorly designed political and judicial institutions, which have enabled the prime minister to ignore public opinion with impunity, and to have his nefarious designs legitimized by the Supreme Court. Contact Marlene Young by email at marleneyoung1@yahoo.com |
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OLEG CARTOON: THE THIRD INTIFADA COMING UP
Posted by Women in Green, June 18, 2005. |
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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 |
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CONDI'S DIRTY RICE GUMBO RECIPE
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 18, 2005. |
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-Follow directions and stir frequently. Rice warned Israel on Friday not to complicate the path to peace with the Palestinians by building new Jewish settlements just as the date approaches for Israelis to fulfill a promise to leave other, established settlements. "We don't intend that the Israelis try to create facts on the ground," Rice told reporters traveling on the plane with her to Israel. "They simply cannot engage in activities that are supposed to prejudge the final terms of a peace settlement," Rice said. THE FINAL SOLUTION MOVES FORWARD Rice will commence her run of meetings on Saturday afternoon in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where she will meet Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, and Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa. She will later meet Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef separately. The Secretary of State will also see representatives of Palestinian non-governmental organizations. Her last meeting will be with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which will be followed by a press conference. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is slated to be Rice's first meeting with an Israeli official in the current visit, on Saturday night. Rice will meet prime minister Sharon, Deputy Premier Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Sunday. Rice and Sharon too are expected to discuss the participation of Hamas in the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council; of course there will be room at the table for the terrorists. They are essential in completing the eradication of Israel and P.M. Sharon knows he must go along. We have compromising picture's of him and he knows to play the submissive servant to our Final Solution. Senior Israeli political sources said that Israel will reiterate to Rice that it will not agree to any compromises in relation to its national security, but as usual this is all meant for show and is nothing but face saving hot air for the beleaguered IDF, Israel Radio reported on Saturday. "Maintenance visit" Rice will be looking for proof that both sides are living up to their parts of the bargain - a smooth and timely withdrawal to the death camp borders for the Israelis and workable Palestinian plans to govern and keep up the violence when the Israeli settlers depart. "What they are doing is moving thousands of people with their effects, and families, and it's going to be complicated," Rice said before her plane stopped for refueling in Ireland. "I know Israel has done a lot of planning for the coming ethnic cleansing of the infidels and I know the Palestinians have done a lot more lethal weapons smuggling, bravo! Our goal is to make sure it is the illusion that they are doing their planning together," so that we can have greater success in deceiving the Israeli public towards this false peace we have implemented. They are even more pliable then they were under the Third Reich and offer even less resistance,she said. The U.S. State Department is taking a close look at Israeli initiatives to deepen Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and use the separation fence to distance tens of thousands of Palestinians from the city, who in most cases hold permanent residence status. This will not be tolerated and Israel will be punished severely for this infraction to our Global Order between Islam and the New World Order. The Jewish people must learn to accept their limited place and space in our plan for them. We promise small wooden grave markers for all of them and this is not enough for these ungrateful Jews? Such a noble cause to bring peace by appeasing the moslem world with Jewish blood should be an honor that all Jews should aspire to, she said. The Palestinian Authority will present Rice with data on Israel's expansion of settlements, contrary to its commitments under the road map peace plan. Palestinian leaders do not have high expectations from the visit, particularly in view of their diversion's and war planning, especially that of perceived growing difficulties in imposing order in areas already transferred to PA jurisdiction. This deception has worked quite well and has allowed us to continue the arms build up for the final and soon coming push to remove Israel from the map and rightfully replace it with Palestine. This is all that our Arab League partners want and we promise to deliver it in the shortest time possible but carefully keeping up the illusion for our naive Jewish friends of the Bush led Road Map. There will be no pressure to silence the Islamic terrorists or hinder them in any way. Israel is the path of least resistance and is the preferred 'scapegoat' in the process to bring calm to the Mid East and Israel must suffer the price of appeasement whatever that may be. Holocaust, Death Camps are all on the the table for discussion, she said. Nonetheless, American and Israeli sources described Rice's visit as "a maintenance visit," aimed at helping to remove obstacles in the way of implementing the surrender also known as the disengagement. Therefore, they do not think Rice will pressure Sharon to make good on his commitment to dismantle the illegal outposts and to freeze settlement expansion. The only pressure will be exerted behind closed doors away from the prying lenses of the camera's. The maintenance consists of preparing the camps for the new arrivals and GPS coordinates to the terrorists to better their aim at Israeli towns and camps. Egypt is also helping in this effort by supplying better quality missiles and rockets that will be capable of bringing down IDF attack helicopters jet fighters and tanks also. The goal of reaching military parity has always been the secret goal of the Bush White House. We have achieved much progress in our peace of the grave goal and the pitiful Jews continues to be led willingly to their destruction, Miss Rice said. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday that "the disengagement is a way to accelerate progress toward the goals of the road map and to get back into the road map. And I expect that, certainly, that is an issue that the secretary will touch on." McCormack said that while the disengagement would be the primary focus of Rice's talks, she would certainly also address "the continuing process." and making sure that the Jews cease to build anywhere and at any time and for any reason as this is the real threat to Mr. Satan's plan for Israel. The problem does not lie with the murderous Palestinian terrorists and their continuing arms buildup and attacks, they are part of our solution and this is why we do not pressure them to cease as we do with the Jews building homes and their expanding growth. This is the true enemy of the peace, he said. Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. |
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IT'S THEM VERSUS US EVERYWHERE!
Posted by Arlene Peck, June 18, 2005. |
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There was a time when everyone knew who the enemy was. My father and uncles fought in World War II and they knew who the bad guys were. They also knew that they, as individuals, and we, as a nation, had to sacrifice many things and many comforts in order to do what had to be done in order to end that savage war. Today? We are so confused and politically correct that we sound like something out of a George Orwell novel. Nowadays, the new mantras are "Love is hate" and "Peace is War". Here, in Los Angeles, we are so spoiled and lazy that we consider not being able to cook out on a cloudy day, or put the top down on the convertible, a sacrifice. The Los Angeles Times, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric I usually try to avoid by not reading, has regular headlines heralding how we are actually winning in Iraq and that "they" are going to have a wonderful democracy and love us all. Anyway, that is my paraphrasing. They have yet to print a picture of our soldiers, some of whom are dying for those same citizens who are "going to love us". Meanwhile, "they" are breaking our economy. I do not know too many of you who are reading this that actually give a diddlysquat whether "they" are happy or not. These people have never, in thousands of years, had a democracy nor do they want one. Their entire religion and culture is based on submission as well as domination of others. We however, do care deeply about the nosedive that our economy is going into, because of this open-ended war on terrorism. Untold billions are going into the rebuilding of those countries whose home-grown and imported terrorists hate everything we are and want to kill us. Meanwhile, "they" are streaming across our borders much like an oozing, open wound. Our budgets are strained to the max and our President does not seem to have a clue as to what is happening. In fact, it is mind-boggling that the only issue over which he will exercise his power of veto is to stop the only one that's come along with any potential promise, that being stem cell research. This same type of clueless mentality is what is supposed to be leading the Israelis down the path of peace. The list of our political fiascos is massive and it is like the elephant in the room. Nobody is seeing it. Worse, Israel's leaders are blindly following our bad leadership down this road to a terrorist state. How fast Bush forgot the issue of a Palestinian leadership untainted by violence and free of corruption before any talk of "Palestinian" statehood. Now, he is giving orders that the Palestinians must approve any territory Israel retains beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. Gawd, he is even supporting the terrorist group Hamas into the political dialogue. And, Israel listens to them! When are they going to realize that U.S. interests are more in line with supporting the Arab nations than the Jewish state? We have lost our virginity. I think that there were really were folks out there who really believed our president, George W; that, in addition to the non-weapons of mass destruction in Saddam's trick bag, we were going to be using the richest oil wells in the world. The ones we now have control over. So, why are we paying over three dollars a gallon? That was going to repay our country for the destruction our enemies have caused. Silly us. We believed many things, none of which have come true. We, in America, are so used to living in the realm of sound bites that reality has become elusive. The headlines state, "Bush Happy with Iraq?," "Investigations lend insight into enemy's changing tactics" or "U.S. Death Toll on the Rise." Frankly, I'm not surprised but predicted this from the beginning. Do you really care that Bush is happy with anything? While he was going about winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, I was writing that this war isn't about anything more than "pay back" time for his daddy and it was a very expensive effort with a price tag we'll be paying for decades to come. While our army is over there searching rubble, looking for body parts such as hands, so that they can fingerprint bombers, the carnage from these savages goes on and on and on. Does it matter that they learn the identity of a particular bomber? If this sort of thing happened in Israel, the bomber would probably be released in another "goodwill" gesture. Instead of identifying the bomber, maybe it is time to identify the mentality of the enemy that we are fighting. Because, folks, our country doesn't have a clue as to the psyche of the Muslims who are marching over the hill. Theirs is a crusade whose purpose is to kill anyone in their sight who doesn't share the same seventh century mentality that they wallow in. Where are their brothers, who number 1.3 billion, who are speaking out, saying it is evil and maybe a little bit dysfunctional to behead people? Our armed forces are forming teams to "speed up and improve the analysis of the bombers" and "collecting evidence in effort to better understand the workings of the bombers and the identities and possible affiliations of the "insurgents who use them." While this is going on, they are multiplying and spreading out like roaches. First, stop calling them "insurgents" and "militants". They are murderers and terrorists who have no regard for life, most of them have the IQ of an eggplant, and all they know is to be a killing machine. While we are wasting time trying to win their hearts and minds and promote democracy, they are forming terror cells to kill all non-Muslims throughout the world. They may be primitive and savage but the enemy is cunning and apparently cleverer than we have understood so far. They are mastering the art of picking off other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. Spain is already defeated. Islam snapped its fingers, bombed their trains and now, anything Islam wants done, Spain will do. France is already 20% Muslim and on it is way to being history. Eurabia is becoming a reality, even as Europeans do and say nothing for themselves about the cancer within their populations. What amazes me is how Israel continues to take their orders from, and respond to, the American government when it is so apparent how mistaken we have been in so many of our political decisions. I, like many others, have watched the lack of leadership we are experiencing in Iraq and Afghanistan with dismay. We have gone into war with no exit policy and absolutely no understanding in the Pentagon or the White House of the Arab mindset. For the Bush administration, and most of our and Israel's politicians, the focus is retention of power and creation of even greater wealth for themselves. The answer to everything is money. Unfortunately, it is coming out of our Social Security and our children's future. The Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas wants us/America/the West to double the funding for Palestinians and the reaction is, "Why not?" This, despite the fact that rockets continue to fall on Israeli towns and arms continue to be smuggled into Gaza. Their so-called leadership remains corrupt to the core and Palestinian school textbooks are still promoting unabated incitement against Jews. Abbas cannot see anything wrong with letting the terrorists keep their arms. Actually, these increases are a drop in the bucket when compared with the debts that we, as a nation, are facing because of the "war on terror." It's perhaps a little overdue to remind ourselves who the terrorists are! Of course, nobody seems to notice that the 8-11 BILLION dollars, probably still in Shua Arafat's shopping bag, might be one answer to the plight of the poor Palestinians. I don't care anyway. We are caught in a 'Catch 22' because, if we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life as we know it will vanish. Who would feel safe trading with us if we cannot stop the Muslims? Yet, people are bored with the reality and the majority has no concept of what is at stake. However, folks, there is no doubt in my mind that the Muslims know what is riding on this war. They have been completely committed, since kindergarten terrorism school 101, to winning at any cost. Don't get me wrong. I believe that Hussein is a bad guy, the worst in recent years. If he had those weapons of mass destruction, he would have used them. However, the reality is, he didn't. I do not believe that the way Bush and company have gone about this war was, or is, necessary to our safety as a nation. The Israelis had it right when they went into Iraq in the middle of the night with a half dozen planes and wiped out his nuclear capability. We, on the other hand, are trying to lead them into democracy, something they do not and cannot grasp because it has never been part of their way of life and is totally foreign to their perspective. Anything foreign will never be received or accepted by these mental midgets. And, in the meanwhile, Israel's "good friend" George W. is going merrily on his way, slicing and dicing the State of Israel like a salami! Logically, you would think that Sharon must be aware of the basic fact that nothing will satisfy the Palestinians, or Israel's good European friends, or the Arab and Muslim world until Israel disappears from the planet. But apparently, he does not. Otherwise, why would he and the so-called leaders of Israel, continue to plunge headlong into surrendering Israel's heartland, which was given in perpetuity to the Jewish people, to the very ones who have been living for the death of the Jews? My momma, Queen Mollie used to say that those who tend everybody's garden would soon get weeds in their own. Maybe it is time for George to get back to worrying how we are going to pay for the debts that he is racking up. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com |
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EXERCISES IN FUTILITY
Posted by A Time To Speak, June 18, 2005. |
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"We learn from history that we learn nothing from history."
-- George Bernard Shaw About 3,500 years ago, a pharaoh of Egypt was worried about the state of his realm. Perhaps it was in some danger? If so, it must be because those strange Children of Israel were sojourning there. The Israelites were a peaceable people, tending their flocks and herds, neither doing nor intending harm. But the pharaoh, having frightened himself with an imaginary threat, felt compelled to kill or at least enslave them. The fundamental misconception and brutal tactics did not do Egypt any good at all. Quite the contrary. Nevertheless, they have been repeated for millennia, taking on the character of an obsessive compulsion neurosis: Cure your own fears or problems by blaming them on those strange Children of Israel. Over and over again, rulers and would-be rulers, nations, societies, and individuals resort to this technique to fix their public or private unease. It never works, for the simple reason that the Children of Israel are never the real cause of the unease. But the technique, futile and pernicious as it is, never goes out of fashion. It is the nature of obsessive compulsion neurosis that it cannot be cured by the lessons of experience. Normal human flaws and shortcomings of the Children of Israel do not add up to capital offenses, and are thus inadequate. One manifestation of the disorder is the fabrication of fantasies drawn from the darkest corners of the psyche -- from the medieval Blood Libel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to the Jenin Massacre. If those who tout the ferocity of the Children of Israel really believed in it, they would not feel so smugly secure from retaliation by the victims of their slanders. When a cartoonist was asked why he always attacks Israel with never a hint of criticism of the PLO he explained "Jews do not issue fatwas". A current manifestation of the disorder is a response to unease about the Islamist goal of worldwide supremacy and domination. That goal is flagrantly proclaimed, and massively ignored. It seems so much easier to cling to the delusion that the only problem is the existence of Israel, so if Israel can be made to go away the Islamists will be satisfied and pose no threat to anyone else. Some actually believe this, bolstering their surety by ignoring all evidence to the contrary. Some aver it without believing it, using it to camouflage their own pre-existing animus against the Children of Israel. Some use it as an outlet for frustration over the decline and decay of their own societies. Be that as it may, this fixation on a false peril diverts attention from real perils. On the Middle East, British governments and policymakers have not guessed right since 1922. The serial failures have not brought any benefits to Britain. Britain's unconscionable bungling of the Palestine Mandate caused incalculable harm to the Children of Israel, and created the so-called "Question of Palestine" which it still considers itself uniquely qualified to solve. [See especially Issue No. 2] In 1917, Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour pronounced as official policy that "His Majesty's Government looks with favor on the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, to be open to close Jewish Settlement". Lord Balfour expressed the hope that since vast territories were to be bestowed on Arabs, they "would not begrudge the Jews their little notch". In 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with a temporary mandate over "Palestine" east and west of the Jordan River, with the terms of the Balfour Declaration as the foundation of the Mandate. If Great Britain had carried out the terms of its own Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations Mandate in good faith, the world would have been spared the Question of Palestine. Instead, the Mandatory Government started out by illegally cutting off 76 percent of the "Jewish National Home" to invent a client kingdom for its protege Abdullah the Hashemite. This kingdom had no historic identity or even name so it was called after a river, and known first as Trans-Jordan and then as Jordan. All Jews were and still are banned from Jordan. British governments then progressively banned Jews from more and more of the remaining territory of Mandate Palestine, territory that had been mandated for "close Jewish settlement". This was illegal under the terms of the Mandate. That Israelis now do live in some of that territory is not illegal, no matter how often or how shrilly British governments and the BBC denounce it. By 1939, the Mandatory Government had virtually slammed and bolted the gate of the Jewish National Home, knowing that this was death sentence on Jews trapped in or trying to escape from Nazi-ruled Europe. Shiploads of refugees approaching the shores of the Jewish National Home were turned back or left to sink. After 1945, survivors of the Holocaust trying to reach the Jewish National Home were turned back or incarcerated in camps in Cyprus. Many of the millions who were murdered would otherwise have lived to redeem and build their Land as an earlier and better Britain had intended. At the same time, the British were building up the very sparse Arab population west of the Jordan River through mass immigration of Arabs from other countries. Those migrant Arabs had no connection with Palestine, but their offspring now claim that they are the most ancient and only true possessors of the Land where the Children of Israel are alien intruders. This fraud is fervently embraced and promoted by British parliamentarians, clergy, academics, journalists, students, entertainers and assorted others. It was Britain's duty to protect the Jews under their governance: But . . .
All of this may have given personal satisfaction to such avowedly Judeophobic British officeholders as Neville Chamberlain, Anthony Eden, and Ernest Bevan. It may have been amusing for the British personnel on the spot. It did not win any military or economic or political benefits or Arab affection for Great Britain. This realm once produced parliamentary democracy and the doctrine of civic rights, created much of the world's greatest literature, and stood alone and valiant against the Armada and then Napoleon and then Hitler. Since the late seventeenth century, Jews have lived there in liberty and security, and with gradual admission into public life. But now its culture is debased, crime is rampart and seemingly uncontrollable, the police and the courts are ineffectual, education is failing, health care is in crisis, massive immigration of peoples hostile to British traditions and institutions is splitting society, and the pettyfogging regulations of the European Union are eroding independence and personal liberty. The greater the unease within British society the greater the Judeophobia, both indigenous and imported, with verbal and violent attacks on British Jews tolerated and excused. At this pass, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced his "personal priority", and it is one irrelevant to Britain's wellbeing: That is: to impose his favored solution to what he calls "the single most pressing political challenge in our world today". This he foolishly fancies to be the Question of Palestine that he means to answer with a Two-State Solution/Roadmap that would -- as many of his constituents crave -- deprive Israel of its sovereignty and viability. Rather than learning from the blunders of his predecessors at Downing Street, he is intent on compounding them. Britain is in the throes of an obsession with "Palestinians", but that cause is actually peripheral to the real challenge and hazard to Britain: Islamism's worldwide ambitions of dominance. No amount of pandering on "Palestine" will diminish that hazard. The nations of Europe have submerged themselves in the European Union that has submerged itself into Eurabia [See Issue No. 48]. As the dhimmi section in that pact, it must echo and facilitate the Arab fixation on demonizing the Jew and seeking the destruction of Israel. Europe invented Judeophobia and had a virtual monopoly on it until the rise of Islam. It is one of the few remnants of its society to which it still clings, even as it gives up its independence, stultifies itself with EU bureaucracy, lets its traditions, culture and religion be whittled away, fills its cities with hostile immigrants, and commits demographic suicide via plummeting birthrates. The jettison of their own faith and identity leaves a gap into which they stuff a Palestine fetish that provides a retroactive justification for Europe's millennia of crimes against the Children of Israel. Europe has come close to freeing itself of Jews. It cannot abide that Jews should be free of Europe, and presumes to dictate the fate of those Jews who are now sovereign and flourishing in their own Land, far surpassing Europe in every worthwhile endeavor. [See Issue No. 44] So a dying Europe bares its decaying fangs at Israel in spite masked as diplomacy. That diplomacy is personified in its foreign policy chief Javier Solana, quoted in "Arafat Lives", by Ephraim Karsh, Commentary Magazine, March 2005: "'The best tribute to President Arafat's memory will be to intensify our efforts to establish a peaceful and viable state of Palestine,' declared the European Union's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana. At the same time, Solana unveiled a new plan to facilitate the so-called road map drafted in 2003 by the EU, the U.S., Russia, and the UN -- but in 'a less incremental manner': that is, by deleting the proviso conditioning progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state on a cessation of violence and terrorism." Why does Europe ponder a "best tribute to President Arafat's memory". Perhaps it deems its bestowal of a Nobel Peace Prize an inadequate tribute to the mass-murderer terrorist. Scholars of European history may if they like examine the 2,000-year-long record of persecution of Jews, slanders and libels, extortions, exclusions, expulsions, ghettoes, pogroms, and massacres and in search of evidence that Europe was any the better off for them or ever likely to be.. In Great Britain, a candidate for election flaunts unfriendly intentions toward Israel as a way to win votes. In the United States, any candidate who harbored such intent would more likely hide it for fear of losing votes. This is symbolic of the difference between the state of the Old World and the state of the New World. A nation whose own character was rooted in the Bible has a unique affinity with both Ancient and Modern Israel. America can feel comfortable with such an affinity because as a nation it still has self-confidence and self-respect. There are some pockets of Judeophobia among small but influential cliques. One of these cliques subsumes academics and intelligentsia who malign Israel, driven in part by a need to set themselves apart from mere popular opinion. A less conspicuous but more powerful clique has financial and business interests in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Many of them are members of an international investment partnership called the Carlyle Group. This clique is often interconnected with State Department desk-holders and diplomats who expect to be beneficiaries of bounty from Saudi Arabia. [See Issue No. 25] Secretaries of State drawn from members or employees of this clique tend to be ostentatiously harsh on Israel, among them John Foster Dulles of the Eisenhower Administration, James Baker III of the George H.W. Bush Administration, and Condoleeza Rice of the George W. Bush Administration. An example of how this clique works can be found in U.S. policy toward Israel during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower. He yielded control of foreign policy to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a Judeophobe with well-known past connections to Nazi Germany. In the prelude to the Sinai Campaign of 1956-57, Dulles devised and Eisenhower executed a policy contemptuous of Israel's peril and apprehensions. In the aftermath of the Sinai Campaign, the United States became the protector of Egypt's warmongering dictator Gamal Abdul Nasser. The President had to go on national television to explain to the citizens of the United States why he would impose callous and potentially lethal sanctions against Israel should it stand in the way of the Dulles policy. This policy enabled Egypt to use the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip as bases for terrorism against Israelis and eventual military assault on Israel. It also enabled Egypt to carry on its illegal blockade of the Suez Canal, not only against Israeli merchant but also against ships of neutral nations that carried a cargo to or from Israel. Egypt thereafter pursued an anti-American policy and went into alliance with the Soviet Union. Nothing came of Dulles's attempt to use actions against Israel to lure Iraq into a proposed anti-Soviet pact. In later years, Eisenhower understood how wrong and futile the Dulles policies had been, and regretted that he had gone along with them. Eisenhower belatedly admitted a mistake, but anti-Israel elements in the U.S. establishment today extol the mistake as something to be emulated and ignore the regrets. This instance of recognizing an error in judgment did not set a trend. Dennis Ross and Martin Indyk and other champions of the Oslo Disaster defend and try to resume their meddling. Failed and futile policies are still pursued by the State Department and/or the White House. Empty mantras are compulsively reiterated, and ill-considered measures are compulsively repeated: [1] Bloody acts of PLO terrorism are followed by pleas that "all parties exercise maximum restraint". Sometimes this is abbreviated to merely calling on Israel to "exercise restraint" when its people are slaughtered. The spokesmen who recite these lines do not back up the plea by citing an instance when "restraint" inhibited terrorism. In past years these were some basic principles of U.S. policy that have now been recklessly scrapped. [1] Israel must not be forced to return to the ragged and indefensible cease-fire lines of the period 1949-1967. That is: The lines aptly described by Israeli diplomat Abba Eban as "Auschwitz lines", that the Arabs themselves wiped out by their aggressions. Even Great Britain and France once agreed to this principle. [See Issue No. 23] This makes sense only if one believes that: [a] Israel, with 8,000-10,000 square miles, is too big and must to be cut down Madam Doctor Secretary Rice has recently proclaimed that "there can be no peace without a Palestinian state". She errs by a mere three letters. A realistic assessment is "There can be no peace with a Palestinian state". [See Twelve Bad Arguments for a State of Palestine] * * * * * * * * * * * * Since 1948 there has been no shift at all in the Arab position. That position is: The Arabs will never accept the existence of Israel or co-exist with it. Israel must die. [See Issue No. 5] There have been changes in tactics and in styles of propaganda but not the most minute shift in the ultimate goal. It is both Israel and the United States that have yielded, with one concession and compromise after another. No concession or compromise is ever met with a concession or compromise by the Arabs. On the contrary, each retreat from principle or from land is taken as proof that intransigence works. Until now, both Israel and the United States have made errors in
judgment that have been costly in life and strength. If, in disregard
of all experience, a Two-State Solution is enforced, the consequences
will be even worse and bloodier.
This is "A Tme to Speak -- Messages About Israel", Vol. V:4 (No.
52) (April 2005 - Heshvan-Kislev 5765)
"A Time To Speak" appears once a month, and each issue is on a theme
that relates to Israel and the Middle East past and present, including
history, background, current events, analysis and comment. All issues
appear on its website: http://www.israel.net/timetospeak. A
complimentary subscription to the e-mail edition is available by
request to: speak@actcom.co.il.
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JUSTICE, ARAB & ISRAELI STYLE; P.A. EXAGGERATED POPULATION GROWTH; SETTLERS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 17, 2005. |
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JUSTICE, ARAB & ISRAELI STYLE Background: The entire Old City, including the Mount, had been seized by Jordan, in its 1948 attempt to conquer Israel. In 1967, Jordan committed further aggression against Israel, in the course of which Israel retrieved the Old City for the Jewish people. Nevertheless, in a burst of excessive tolerance, Israel let the mosques there be run entirely by the Muslim Waqf. The Waqf extended its authority unilaterally, as is the Muslim practice, so that the Muslims try to deny Jews from praying or even visiting the Mount. This is part of the Muslim policy of overcoming other religions by claiming exclusive control over their religions sites, claiming them as mosques. In conjunction with that, they engage in historical revisionism. In this case, Abbas, like his former boss, Arafat, claims that the Jews never had a temple on the Mount, and therefore have no claim to it. Meanwhile, the Waqf has been destroying Jewish artifacts in the Mount, while claiming there is no evidence of Jewish artifacts. Deceit like that is an approved part of Islamic militancy. News: On Jerusalem Day, commemorating Israel's liberation of the Temple Mount, a small group of Jews ascended the Mount. A gang of Arabs rushed out of the Dome of the Rock, and threw stones at the Jews, etc.. One who tried to jump on a Jews was arrested. The rest were held back by Israeli police, who fired stun grenades. The Waqf promised to prevent further attacks, but its sermons continue to alarm the faithful about non-existent Israeli plots to seize the mosque. Police declared the situation too volatile to permit the Jews back, but they did let reporters up. Just before police ordered an Israeli reporter off the Mount, he observed, "The Arabs are having a mini-rally with flags and slogans on them. Instead of what was supposed to happen - Jews going up to the Temple Mount on our Jerusalem Day, there is an Arab ceremony guarded and permitted by the Israeli police. The police are lined up to give a perimeter for the Arab rally." Abbas blamed the Arab violence on the Jews. He termed the Jews' visit, "unjustified and a dangerous violation." The news brief did not explain what the Jews violated. P.A. news claimed that "Jewish extremists stormed" the Al-Aqsa mosque courtyard, and "Israeli underground units" attacked worshippers. The P.A. is trying, dishonestly so, to incite the Muslim world against Israel. Commentator Michael Freund suggests that Israel take back control over the Mount, as the only way to enable Jews to visit (Arutz-7, 6/6). Certainly, Israel should take back a control it ought never have ceded. If Israelis had bothered to study their enemy's culture, they would have realized that they cannot appease the Muslims. By regaining control, Israel could stop the destruction of Jewish artifacts and the creeping Islamic building that gradually is covering the entire Mount, as a kind of exclusive annexation. By barring the Jewish victims, Israel is encouraging the Arab rioters. That is Israeli justice? All the world's claims about Israel oppressing the Arabs is nonsense. The problem is that Israel oppresses the Jews in behalf of the Muslim Arabs. Notice that Abbas blames the Jewish victims for Arab riots. That is Arab justice? Nobody makes Arabs attack peaceable people. The criminality and intolerance are within them. How ridiculous that the State Dept., Pres. Bush, the "NY Times," and almost everybody else calls Abbas a moderate. He is a Jewish Temple-denying, Holocaust-denying, riot-excusing antisemite. Here is my notion of justice. I blame the Arab rioters for Arab riots. They should pay for it. Blaming the Jews for Arab riots is an old antisemitic ploy that it hurts me to see Israel doing. Retaking control, alone, would not stop the Muslim mobs from attacking Jews. What would? The Israeli governmental would have to shift towards greater Jewish patriotism and solidarity and away from appeasement and from over-concern about world public opinion. Then it would arrest rioters and advise Muslims that until they prove they can behave, few of them would be allowed on the Mount. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT VS. ISRAELI CHILDREN Israeli Defense Minister Mofaz urged parents whom he intends to dispossess from their Gaza communities regardless of their refusal, first to send their children out. This would spare the children a traumatic experience, he alleges. A Jewish Gaza resident pointed out that experience with the Israeli communities uprooted in the Sinai found that separation from parents shortly before an expulsion struggle gave the children trauma. She wondered how concerned for children's psyches is this Defense Minister who ordered the Army out of action when the Arabs launched thousands of rockets and mortars at those same children. The Defense Ministry, in preparation for the expulsion and turnover of the area to the P.A., has given the P.A. maps of the area. These maps detail the position of security facilities. This helps direct the terrorists where to attack the Jewish communities (IMRA, 6/6). Criminal negligence or just plain criminality? ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES SEEK TO PREVENT MORE BOYCOTTS After having defeated the British professors union attempt to boycott it and other Israeli universities, Haifa U. is continuing the fight. It wants to keep other attempts from succeeding. It has sent lecturers to Europe, to explain that Israel is democratic and liberal, and should not be boycotted. It also makes the arguments that the boycott attacks academic freedom and that Israeli universities produce much valuable research (IMRA, 6/6). Israel is only partly democratic, and that part is eroding fast. Israel's universities themselves have little academic freedom, mostly being bastions of leftist and anti-Zionist ideology that hire few professors of differing opinions. So explains Prof. Steven Plaut at great length. Before fighting the antisemitic and anti-Zionist boycott movement in Europe, Israeli universities ought to fight the antisemitic and anti-Zionist campaign by various far leftist professors at their own universities. How can they ask Europeans to desist from what Israelis do? JEWS STILL THE MAJORITY WEST OF JORDAN RIVER For years, the popular belief was that the Arabs were becoming a majority of the population west of the Jordan R., if they weren't already so. That belief motivated supposed attempts to separate from the Palestinian Arabs. The belief is ill-founded. They are based not upon a census but upon error-laden P.A. projections years earlier: (1) Actual P.A. Arab birth rates are below projected, and are falling like those in other Arab areas; (2) Instead of the projected immigration, there was a net emigration of about 10,000 a year; (3) 210,000 Arabs were counted in two places west of the Jordan R., once in Israel and again in Jerusalem; (4) 150,000 Arabs who moved from the P.A. into Israel, and counted as being in Israel, and again as Arabs in the P.A.; (5) Arabs who had moved abroad more than a year earlier, still were counted as present. (Seems like item (2); and (6) Observers erroneously identified all non-Jews in Israel as Palestinian Arabs, though only some are Arabs. Having discovered a gap between projection and reality of 1,400,000, the demographers are making the rounds, explaining their new finding and its implications (IMRA, 6/6). Was the exaggeration by those master propagandists just a series of errors? TURKISH MEDIA LARGELY ANTISEMITIC, NOW The Turkish media falsely accuses "the Jews" of having destroyed the Ottoman Empire, creating the current secular state there, of carrying out the Armenian genocide (that Turkey denies occurred but which it committed), plotting treason now, and turning against tolerant Turkey in helping the British conquer Palestine. When Germany banned a Turkish newspaper of that ilk, the paper called Germany "Nazi" (IMRA, 6/6). Turkey killed and expelled Jews in Palestine. IRONY OF "THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION" "The Protocols" is an old forgery that claimed the Jews wanted to conquer the world. Ironically, it was widely distributed by Adolph Hitler, who did want to conquer the world. Now it is widely distributed by the Arabs, who want to conquer the world. It may be the first example of calling one's victim the aggressor. By accusing one's victim of planning to attack, one invents a pretext for attacking the intended victim. (Hitler and Stalin did this; the Arabs do it now.) "The Protocols" gives the many Arab Muslims an excuse for inability to conquer the few Jews of Israel. The excuse is that the Jews really are powerful (Winston Mid East Analysis, 6/7). We Jews are so few. Where are our vast armies and agents capable of conquering the world? What a silly fantasy. Unfortunately, haters accept fantasy. THE P.A. MEDIA The P.A. media had comments by the P.A. leadership accusing Israel of "invading" the Temple Mount (when it let a few Jewish visitors up) and of committing war crimes by killing armed terrorist it had tracked down and who would not surrender. The media ignored most Arab bombardments of Jewish communities (which are war crimes), except to note that some Arabs were killed but omitted the fact that the Arabs had initiated the firefights (IMRA, 6/7 from Michael Widlanski) and the wars. SHARON TURNS DESPERATE AGAINST OPPOSITION "The State Prosecution is considering the use of the Juvenile Law against parents of minors who have been arrested repeatedly for blocking highways, said a senior source at the State Prosecution on Tuesday. Such a move would allow courts to monitor parental supervision of their children and in extreme cases to strip the parents of their guardianship." "The sick joke of two days ago becomes the rumor yesterday and policy today. It would surprise few if in a few weeks the State argues that any settler who doesn't send their children out by a deadline set before the retreat is guilty of reckless endangerment and their children should be immediately seized and placed in foster homes." (IMRA, 6/7.) "Endangerment?" See next. BUT ARMY URGES PATIENCE AGAINST TERRORISM After another bombardment of Jewish-run hothouses in Gaza, which killed and wounded some of the workers, Israel's Chief of Staff called the escalation part of the "internal Palestinian dialogue." He said that the Army does not plan counter-action. "I would suggest that as a state we not act like terrorists." "Overreacting is not a modus operandi." "Nonetheless we must examine all the ramifications of acting against terror organizations," the chief of staff said. "At a certain point, our patience will wear thin, but I would suggest that we decide when." (Based on politics?) IMRA commented, "COS Halutz leaves open how many people Palestinians (Arabs) can murder before Israel acts." (IMRA, 6/7.) That comment is Israel's usual policy. Such restraint does not deter the Arabs. Neither does it gain plaudits from foreign pundits, who demand still more restraint. Israel should scorn them for demanding that the victims be restrained towards the aggressors, whom the foreign powers are financing. Worse, the COS, himself, parrots the Arab line, by calling a prompt Israeli response "over-reaction," when it might eradicate terrorist squads, and this "over-reaction" he depicts as acting "like terrorists." Perhaps he is right that the escalation is by way of complaint against the P.A., but Israel would be wise to teach the Arabs not to complain by attacking innocent Israel. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
COME VACATION IN GUSH KATIF
Posted by Arieh Zaritsky, June 17, 2005. |
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Susie Dym, spokesperson Mattot Arim sddym@bezeqint.net, suggests: "From August onward -- please vacation in Israel. And please, do not make reservations in hotels in Israel. COME TO GUSH KATIF." HAVE A VACATION ON THE MEDITERRANIAN. GUSH KATIF IS BEAUTIFUL. GUSH KATIF IS CHOCK FULL OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE, WHO GROW SOUL-SATISFYING VEGETABLES YOU MIGHT EVEN FIND YOURSELF IN THE CENTER OF A HISTORICAL EVENT. THINK OF WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TELL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN. Vacationing in GUSH KATIF will save you a lot of money, which you can use to buy a digital camera to take with you to Gush Katif. PS. Our Hebrew language one-page brochure explains exactly how to get
to Gush Katif when necessary, by car, bus and train. We would
love to send you copies of this brochure to give out to "our" public
-- any right-minded person/people. Email me
at sddym@bezeqint.net
Dr. Arieh Zaretsky is at Ben Gurion University.
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| GUSH KATIF |
DRUZE LEADER: BAN ARABS FROM ENFORCING WITHDRAWAL
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 17, 2005. |
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This article was written by Aaron Klein and is entitle "Lawmaker: Ban Arabs from enforcing withdrawal: Druze leader worried Jewish evacuation of Gaza could rip apart army". Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben Ami and leaders of the Taliban. The article appeared today in World News Daily and is archived at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44824 JERUSALEM - An Arab lawmaker will propose a Knesset bill next week seeking to ban all Druze Arab soldiers from participating in the evacuation of Jewish communities from Gaza and parts of the West Bank this summer, WorldNetDaily has learned. Arab Druze Knesset Member Ayoob Kara, from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party, told WND in an exclusive interview yesterday he will introduce the bill next week because he doesn't think Arabs should uproot Jews from their homes. "My community didn't come to Israel to rip Jews out of their houses," Kara said. "Druze Arabs gladly become soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces to defend Israel from its enemies and to participate in operations that will make Israel a safer place. We don't want to be used to do something immoral and damaging like the Gaza evacuation." Kara's proposed bill follows a request yesterday from a Druze soldier to be excused from participating in the evacuation. It was the first request of its kind. Arab Druze Sgt. Timor Abdallah sent a letter to the IDF's new chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, blasting the Gaza withdrawal. "When my colleagues and I are demanded to participate in operations whose objective is to defend the country and its citizens, we feel obliged to participate," wrote Abdallah. "But when we are asked to participate in an operation against the people we are meant to defend - our consciences would tremble eternally." Earlier this week, a senior Druze border policeman in Gaza was fired after he told his superiors he will refuse to enforce the withdrawal, to which his police unit had been assigned. Kara told WND he fears the Gaza evacuation could rip apart the Israeli army: "It is going to be a tragedy, because there are a very large number of soldiers who, when it comes time, will not participate. The IDF is already being torn in two. And I don't want my community to be a part of that." Kara boasts a large constituency from Israel's 100,000 Druze residents. There are some 600,000 Druze in the Middle East and another 100,000 in various parts of the world. During Israel's War of Independence, many Druze, including Kara's family, sided with the Jews, embracing Israel and joining its military. Israeli Arabs are exempt from military duty, but many Druze apply to serve anyway. While this week's defections mark the first Arab refusals, hundreds of Jewish soldiers the past few months have stated publicly they would not participate in the Gaza withdrawal if asked. In perhaps the most high-profile case of a Jewish soldier refusing, the enlisted son of the police chief responsible for overseeing the withdrawal told WorldNetDaily in March he thinks the Gaza evacuation is "wrong," and he will not participate if his unit is ordered to take part. The withdrawal has stirred much debate within the ranks of the IDF. Officials expect a sizable number of settlers to revolt against the plan and predict violent confrontations with law enforcement. IDF leaders won an ongoing debate the past few months to employ police instead of soldiers to remove Jewish settlers, explaining police units are more properly trained in the confrontation of civilian dissenters and have more legal authority and maneuvering room than do IDF soldiers when it comes to domestic issues. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said he, too, would prefer soldiers not take part in evacuations. Select Israeli police units reportedly have been learning techniques to carry out the withdrawal process, including putting down settler revolts and confronting Jews who refuse to leave their homes. Said Kara: "Quietly, most leaders of the army and police are terrified because they can't predict what enforcing the evacuation is going to do to their units, but they know it will not be good."
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REWARDING TERRORISM
Posted by Women in Green, June 16, 2005. |
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This article was written by Joseph Farah, founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND and a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. He writes a nationally syndicated column weekly. It appeared today in www.WorldNetDaily.com President Bush has given away the Israeli store to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. There's hardly anything else to say about it. By proclaiming that the new starting point for future negotiations between Arabs and Israelis is the 1949 armistice line, Bush actually took a more anti-Israeli position than most of the hostile, Jew-hating Arab states have in recent years. What is it about Abbas and the Palestinian Authority that Bush finds so encouraging? Quite simply, Abbas has not lived up to a single agreement he has made with the Israelis: * He has failed to arrest Palestinian terrorists; Asked about his relationship with the terrorist group Hamas, Abbas said: "Hamas is not a threat for us." Hamas exists to destroy Israel. It does not believe in any compromise. It has been declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. So, as my friend Hal Lindsey wryly observes, "Helping Hamas can either get you 20 years in U.S. prison or an invitation to the White House. Now do you understand why Abbas is not renouncing terrorism or abiding by any of his earlier pledges? Why should he? Bush has confirmed that terrorism works. Bush has adopted the hard-line of the anti-Jewish radicals of the left and the anti-Jewish zealots of Islam who maintain there are some pieces of land on which Jews are just not welcome. He has accepted the hate speech of the Arab extremists as a legitimate bargaining position. The Arabs say Jews are not permitted to live within the future of home of Palestine. It doesn't matter whether they are peaceful civilians who mind their own business. It doesn't matter how long they have lived there. It doesn't matter that they did not replace any Arab population in the area. None of that matters. All that matters is that they are Jewish - and they have to go. Not just from Gaza, apparently. But, according to Bush, they need to go from Judea and Samaria, too - the entire West Bank. Oh, and don't forget East Jerusalem. No Jews permitted there either - because that part of the city needs to be returned to the Arabs in accordance with the 1949 armistice line. The Temple Mount? No way. It belongs to Muslims only, no Jews allowed. The Western Wall? It's going back to the Arabs. That's what Bush told the world last week and I'm still waiting to hear some outrage about it. There were many of us who doubted that former Secretary of State Colin Powell really understood the Arab-Israeli conflict. There were many of us who welcomed his retirement and his replacement, Condoleezza Rice. I'm beginning to wonder if Powell may have been a voice of reason within this administration, because there hasn't been any since he left - at least not with respect to the Middle East. I keep hearing Rice's name mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008. I've got news for you. Unless this administration changes its disastrous course on the Middle East, Rice won't get elected dog catcher in this country. What are we fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan? I thought it was freedom. What are we fighting against? I thought it was Islamic terrorism. So why are we undermining freedom and supporting Islamic terrorism in our dealings with Israel and the Palestinian Arabs? 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 |
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LET THE SANHEDRIN CALL UPON ROME
Posted by David Ben-Ariel, June 16, 2005. |
"The Sanhedrin's Decision Regarding the Holy Temple, the Temple Mount,
and Jerusalem" by Prof. Hillel Weiss and R. Chaim Richman as Spokesmen
for the Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin calls upon all groups who work in the area of Temple and Temple Mount-related research and activity, to begin to prepare detailed architectural plans for the construction of the Holy Temple, towards the goal of its establishment in its proper place. The Sanhedrin will establish a forum of architects and engineers whose goal will be to implement this decision, so that detailed working plans are effectively brought to an operational stage. The Sanhedrin calls upon the Jewish people to contribute towards the acquisition of materials for the purpose of rebuilding the Holy Temple; the gathering and preparation of prefabricated, disassembled portions of this building to be stored and ready for rapid assembly, in the manner of King David. These contributions will be consider "chulin," i.e., non-sacred, for the purpose of the planning and construction of the Temple. With this brilliant backdrop, may the Sanhedrin call upon the pope to restore the Temple treasures to Jerusalem! The Jews have prayed for 2,000 years to see again the Temple upon the Temple Mount. It's past time for prayers alone: ACTION is necessary to put faith into practice! Let the Muslims submit to the Word and Will of God concerning the Temple Mount. It's sole purpose is to House the Temple of the God of Jacob-Israel, that all nations may come to know, love and obey the God of Abraham. May they agree the Rock of Abraham has been preserved by the "Dome of the Rock," and that it was created for the Jews to continue their worship upon the site of Israel's Temple. It has served its purpose and now it's past time to restore spiritual sovereignty to the Jews upon the Temple Mount that they may build the House of Prayer for all peoples to come and worship. May the Jewish leaders repent of their woeful neglect of the Temple Mount and end Jerusalem's abomination of desolation - a Temple Mount without a Temple! May the pope encourage Judah to obey God and build His Royal House, His Heavenly Embassy, in the noble spirit of King Cyrus, and restore the Temple treasures to Jerusalem. May the Vatican release the silver, release the gold, that Rome stole from Jerusalem! May they immediately return the Menorah to stand again where it belongs: upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, within the Temple! The Vatican chambers will have served their purpose of protecting and preserving such consecrated items for this time. Let construction begin and may all nations and men seek and find the Great Creator God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and learn of His Word and ways and be blessed! For Zion's Sake,
David Ben-Ariel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall." Contact him at http://www.pushhamburger.com/david.htm |
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US AIMS TO BLEND ROADMAP WITH OSLO ACCORDS
Posted by Emanuel A.Winston, June 16, 2005. |
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President George Bush has adopted what he believes is his earth mission as a neo-god who is sent to rectify G-d's mistake in choosing the Jewish Tribe of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses to make a binding Covenant for the Torah and the Land of Israel with the Jewish in perpetuity with the Jewish People. I cannot help but wonder if G-d is irritated by sham demi-gods of these pretenders. Bush is intent on driving the Jews from their G-d-given Land and gifting it to appease the pagan war-driven tribe of Ishmael - with the oil benefits that may come to the Bush Consortium of Washington Oilers. The following article about the message Condoleezza Rice is to deliver needs one crucial update: President Bush has progressed farther in his arrogance as he moves to re-institute the U.N. 1947 Borders of the Jewish State, despite 6 wars of intended a It is from today's DEBKAfile. Ahead of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region next Sunday, June 18-19, Bush administration officials are outlining a proposal for execution after Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip and N. West Bank.DEBKAfile's Exclusive Washington sources disclose their thinking is to resuscitate the 1993 Oslo Accords Phase 3 which calls for Israel's withdrawal from 60 percent of the West Bank - excluding East Jerusalem, Israeli communities and military facilities. The US conception would blend Oslo 3 and Middle East roadmap clause 2 which would establish an interim Palestinian state without permanent borders. Bush planners hope thereby to follow up on initial Israeli pullback with a sweeping withdrawal from large tracts of the West Bank. The Palestinians, for their part, would be asked to accept an interim state without pressing their basic demands on Jerusalem and refugee return. The timetable execution would spread over two years at least, winding up in 2007, i.e. the end of the Bush presidency. Tuesday, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was pressed by opposition leader Tommy Lapid after a string of parliamentary defeats to detail his plans post Gaza pullout. He said it will then be the Palestinians? turn to dismantle all terrorist organizations - else there would be no negotiations and no Palestinian state. DEBKAfile's sources add Sharon's line of thought is not exactly compatible with the latest thinking in Washington. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
| GUSH KATIF |
NEW BOOK: DISENGAGEMENT ROOTED IN SHARON'S FEAR OF PROSECUTION
Posted by Gush Katif, June 16, 2005. |
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This article about the new book "Boomerang" appeared in Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) today. Two veteran journalists, based on talks with persons very close to the Prime Minister, say that the Disengagement Plan was hatched up simply to avoid Sharon's indictment in the Greek Island scandal. Journalists Raviv Drucker of Channel Ten TV and Ofer Shelach of Yediot Acharonot newspaper appeared on Nissim Mishal's Channel Two television program last night, and summarized the results of their research. The main findings:
Drucker and Shelach said that Sharon's fear of State Prosecutor Arbel was a determining factor in making this plan. "If not for the interrogations, this historic decision would not have been made," they said. "This can be seen by the timetable of events in February 2004" - the appointment of Gen. Eiland to begin working on the plan, the appointment of Meni Mazuz as Attorney General, a summons to Sharon for police interrogation, the rumors that Arbel was about to indict him, and finally the meeting of the Farm Forum [Sharon, his sons and one or two others very close to the Prime Minister]. This Farm Forum "did not state it outright," Drucker said, "but it was in the air that something had to be done, that there had to be some major diplomatic process that would swallow up everything and would change the public agenda [away from the corruption headlines against Sharon] - and they came up with this plan." Drucker and Shelach further found that top Sharon-aide Dov Weisglass (pictured) led the way in preparing the disengagement plan, particularly in a private meeting with Condoleeza Rice in December 2003, and that those in the army and government who could have helped improve the plan for Israel were left out of the decision-making loop. "[National Security Advisor] Giora Eiland was in the midst of preparing a plan as to how Israel could get some benefit from its withdrawal," they said, "when suddenly he was presented with this new [unilateral] plan - and even now he objects to the plan [as it now stands]." Narrator Nissim Mishal noted that the image of Prime Minister Sharon as depicted in the new book, entitled Boomerang, does not jibe with the common perception of him as strong and determined. "Instead," he said, "your book portrays him as one who is scared of police interrogations and led along by the Farm Forum and [top Sharon-aide] Duby Weisglass." Raviv Drucker responded, "We too were surprised by what we found. One government minister told us, 'This is the weakest Prime Minister I have seen, and I have seen many Prime Ministers.' The point is that Sharon is very strong at enforcing his decisions, but is weak at making decisions; he has no spine of his own today, and the best example of this is Duby Weisglass and the disengagement plan... Drucker's colleague Ofer Shelach continued: "When Sharon arrived in office, he didn't know what to do; he was great in tactics, but had no strategy - not on the personal level, and not on the diplomatic-international level. He just doesn't know what to do. Don't forget: after two years in office, he finds himself - the great terror-fighter Arik Sharon - with the highest amount of terror victims ever. And Weisglass - together with the Farm Forum, but mainly Weisglass - takes advantage of this to lead Sharon [by the nose]... In answer to a question, Shelach said, "The people who are closest to Sharon told us absolutely that if it wasn't for those police interrogations, this decision [to quit Gaza] would not have been made. This can be seen by the timetable of events..." Shelach and Drucker revealed that Sharon sought out a top IDF general to be a mole in the IDF General Staff. The authors refused to divulge the name of the general whom Sharon asked to be his "plant." They said, "The general himself told us that Sharon asked him to agree to report back to him on the goings-on in the General Staff... All along, Sharon was unhappy with the army, and always tried to form direct channels of communication [in this way]..." They said that many top officers, such as former Chief of Staff Mofaz, Intelligence Chief Ze'evi-Farkash, and others, were originally very much against the disengagement plan. "Several months before Sharon's adoption of the Disengagement Plan, there was a deliberation amidst the top brass of the IDF in the presence of the Chief of Staff. Many options were presented. One of the options was unilateral disengagement from Gaza. There was unanimous agreement regarding the idea: absolutely no. Mofaz said at the beginning, 'Whoever supports a unilateral retreat, apparently wasn't here for the last two and a half years,' and Farkash said it would be a catastrophe, and the head of IDF Research said it would be the worst thing... but after several months, when they saw that Sharon was so strongly in favor, they amazingly all fell in line and backed it..." "We have a very biting claim," Drucker concluded. "In the past four and a half years, there were many opportunities to end or change the course of the intifada, but because of the way decisions were made, these chances were missed, and the bottom line - it's terrible to say - is that there were many people who were killed [by terrorists during the Oslo War] in vain."
We need your help to withstand this disasterous crisis. Please contribute. Dror Vanunu, Israel: Katif Region Development Fund, Neve Dekalim, D.N Hof-Aza, 79779, Tel:972-8-6840846, Fax:-972-8-6840863 USA: Friends of Gush Katif, PO Box 1184, Teaneck, NJ 07666, www.katifund.org |
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THE THREE R'S
Posted by THE THREE R'S, June 16, 2005. |
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It's as basic as ABC, Reading, 'riting and 'Rithmetic.
It's our old fashioned religion:
It's Rachel taking away her father's idols,
It's Ruth, the geress, "Wherever you go, I will go."
It's the 3 r's, the Jewish Keepsake to keep: Rachel, Ruth, Redemption.
It's David HaMelech, redeemer,
Remember the 3 r's: Rachel, Ruth, Redemption, the Jewish Keepsake,
It's today because of yesterday.
Shavous is the story of Beis Lechem, bread, blessings and better,
Shavous is the birthday of David HaMelech,
Remembering the 3 R's is remembering
Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
GOLANI BRIGADE SAYS NO TO EXPELLING JEWS
Posted by Hillel Fendel, June 16, 2005. |
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The IDF has decided to relieve the prestigious Golani Brigade of the task of removing Jews from their homes this summer, fearing mass refusal and lack of motivation among soldiers and officers. It was decided that the soldiers of the brigade will be charged with defending the region from Arab terror attacks during this summer's withdrawal, instead of removing Jews from their homes. Many of the brigade soldiers are either religious or children of immigrants. Brig.-Gen. Gershon HaCohen is the disengagement commander who received word of this decision. He is charged with overseeing the uprooting of the residents of Gush Katif. Hagit Rotenberg of the B'Sheva weekly reports that Golani Brigade commander Col. Erez Zuckerman informed HaCohen that the soldiers of the brigade and their commanders would be unable to fulfill the expulsion mission. The Golani Brigade Commander came to this conclusion in light of recent conversations with senior officers in the brigade. The situation became apparent following a conference of Golani officers, when lectures on the importance of fulfilling the disengagement mission and maintaining loyalty to democracy and the rule of law were delivered. The Brigade Commander noticed that officers were purposely avoiding addressing questions having to do with the question of fulfilling the expulsion order. Following the conference, the Brigade Commander invited all the Deputy Battalion Commanders to a discussion to clarify the matter. The Deputy Battalion Commanders told him unequivocally that the brigade was simply not built to fulfill the expulsion order. "Not for this did we join the IDF," they said. An entire company of yeshiva-graduated Golani soldiers serving in the Philadelphi corridor informed their commanders that in the event that they are assigned to carry out an operation against a Jewish civilian population, they have no intention of carrying out that order. They say they will only act in a capacity against Arab attacks, but that if assigned any other task with regard to Jewish towns, the commanders warned of mass disobedience. "The sentiment of the commanders in the brigade is that they are being forced to choose where their loyalties lie - with their father or with their mother. It's an impossible choice between settlement in the Land of Israel and the IDF," the Deputy Battalion Commanders said, "and they want to continue to be loyal to both of them." As a result of the Deputy Battalion Commanders' briefing, the Brigade Commander informed the Division Commander that the brigade will not be able to take part in the uprooting of residents. The situation was also brought to the attention of the Chief of Staff. Ari Abramowitz, a former Golani Sergeant who served in the Philadelphi Corridor, told Arutz-7 that the news of Golani's removal from the task of expelling Jews from their homes was to be expected. "I am not surprised one bit," he said. "I and all the former Golani soldiers I know would refuse the orders together with them. The stereotype of Golani, which is somewhat true, is that they are first- and second-generation immigrants from Arab countries. They understand Arabs on a much deeper level than the Ashkenazi Jew from Tel Aviv. They know that the Arabs understand power and strength, and know that the transfer of Jews from their homes will be a victory for Arab terror and will encourage further attacks on Jews." Hillel Fendel is editor of Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com), where this article appeared today. |
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ENERGY SWINDLE 2005
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 16, 2005. |
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As written in today's New York Times "Emissions Regulations Could Stall Energy Bill". But, that title barely scratches the surface of Energy legislation issues of debate in the Senate and the House. (1) The issues are bigger in combination than the issues themselves, as crucial as is each one: A. Overuse of fossil fuels has caused the perception of a shortage as well as pollution of air and water. Fossil Fuels, clean air and water are irreplaceable. B. If the truth were known, there may still be a glut of oil. When oil prices peaked, many more wells were drilled in many parts of the world as it became profitable to do so. These sources trickled and then pooled into a mighty stream, causing an actual world glut of oil. (2) C. The multi-nationals maintained the false perception of a shortage, but, in fact this perception was used as a weapon by the Arab Muslim Oil countries. There was (and still is) a glut of oil. D. However, fossil fuels are still finite and their emissions still pollute our air and water, so development of alternative energy sources are essential to the world's well-being - to prevent global warming - to use oil for most every manufactured product, like plastics and pharmaceuticals - instead of fuel, which can be substituted with alternative sources. Natural gas may become the next source of fuel for the 21st century. (3) I wrote an exposé of the Bush Party Energy Swindle in September 2000 before the national elections during the first Bush run for President. There were others who wrote and questioned the oil play but Congress ignored it all. The Bush Oil Gang had concocted a false crude oil shortage - although there was a veritable flood of crude sitting in Supertankers and Tank Farms offshore, merely waiting for orders to ship and fill the American Operating Reserves. The American multi-national oil companies didn't order and also cut down on processing crude into all the end-stage products, like gasoline, fuel oil, jet fuel, fertilizers, raw materials for plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc. This way they created the illusion of a shortage. Pump prices shot up and the oil companies enjoyed embarrassingly high profits while bleating about the phantom shortage. This has all been repeated this year. Congress did absolutely nothing although they were informed about the swindle. The biggest part of the swindle was the claim that there was an oil shortage and we (they) must seek new oil sources so America would not be dependent on "Foreign Oil". The Bush campaign coffers filled with donor funds from oil companies and energy polluters. The Bush pay-back was to break all restrictive environmental laws that prohibit drilling along the coasts of Florida, California, the Gulf and in the Alaskan wild life sanctuaries....all protected with strict environmental no drilling laws. The oil swindlers had to exert pressure on the consumer so they (we) would press Congress to relieve their (our) pain due to high oil prices. Neither the Congress nor the Media chose to expose this swindle. Add to that the payback of energy polluters who enjoyed Bush protection during his first four years in office. Now comes the 2005 Oil and Energy Swindle - with the same conspirators and for the same reasons. They want to drill in environmentally sensitive areas and protect the energy polluters who paid the necessary bribes and who expect payback from the Bush Administration. The Lie of being dependent upon "Foreign Oil" is once again being waved about. The Fact is that the U.S. will always be dependent on foreign oil, given our huge appetite for energy which comes from carbon-based fossil fuel. Any oil produced in the U.S. will simply co-mingle with the oil coming from off-shore sources. October 4, 1998, at a symposium I helped to sponsor, held by the prestigious think tank, AEI. American Enterprise Institute, there was a startling revelation by Paul Michael Wihbey, an expert on Mid East oil. He said that the center of gravity of oil politics had shifted. He described the dramatic shift away from the Middle East as the primary source of oil. (4) Today, the South Atlantic region supplies between 45% and 48% of oil imported to America. Combined with imports from Canada, the North Sea, South America (Venezuela and Mexico), Western East Africa (Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and the Congo) total non-Persian Gulf oil represents 81.2% of oil imported by the United States. During the Gulf War (1990-91) 27.8% of American oil came from the Persian Gulf. Today, it has dropped to 18.2% and continues to decline. (2) There will be no appreciable benefit to the consumer and exorbitant prices for crude oil are here to stay because that is and remains the plan for enriching the producers. Nor will U.S.-produced Oil sell for penny less than the usurious prices of the world market - with the immense profits being reaped (or rather raped) with the U.S. consumer being the victim. The ramping up of world oil prices to astronomical levels was first started when the Shah of Iran was guided by Henry Kissinger to raise prices so the Shah could buy U.S. weaponry in massive quantities. Saudi Arabia followed suit and the price of crude from that time went up - up - up! Today, with oil prices ranging around $55 per barrel and going up, those profits allowed Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates and Iran, etc. to once again start buying fleets of combat aircraft, missiles, armor and all the things they want for war. You might ask - Which of these nations are threatened and need to add to their sky high pile of weapons on which they already wasted their fortunes? The simple answer is that none of these nations is under threat but they do wish to win at least one war against Israel. If Israel loses just one war, it would be the end of the Jewish State. Just at the fringe of this Black Hole of another Oil Swindle, we see the Bush Administration trying to appease the Saudis and other Muslim countries for beating the Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq by shrinking the Jewish State of Israel as a bone to be thrown to the oil-bearing Sheiks. The cover words are: "Peace" and "Democracy". But, those are just 'cover' words. Bush does this in the hopes of 'appeasing' the Terrorists and mollifying the Oil Sheiks, hoping both will stay bribed and "cool it". Selling out Israel has already proven fruitless as 'Jihadists' spread further across the globe toward their proclaimed goal of world domination by Islam. Iraq seems to be returning to the typical Arab government where there will have to be one brutal strongman who will rule. And Iran seems determined to wield nuclear weapons. Regrettably, Bush has abandoned his much vaunted War against Global Terror and has begun to quietly negotiate with Terrorists. Bush will be leaving the Republican Party with what industry calls a "Poison Pill". That means that the Democrats will likely take the Oval Office and numerous seats in Congress by the next election. The Swindle of American consumers of gasoline, home heating oils and the ramping up of prices on everything (because almost everything you buy has the price of oil factored into it - if only for transport) will be focused on all of this scandal come the next election. Bush and his Oil cronies and the Polluting Industries will, of course, leave - with their pockets bulging with dollars. They also hope to lock in laws to benefit oil drillers and energy polluters that will insure a large cash flow long after they are out of office. As the Energy Bill makes its way through Congress, be assured that the Oil Swindle will have top priority. There will be no Congressional investigation of HOW the Bush Administration, the Oil Industry and the Arab Oil Sources managed to sit together and work out a Global Oil Swindle. After all, Congress also partakes of the benefits of these extraordinary profits when 'front companies' contribute to their election campaigns. If you thought Crown Prince Abdullah strolling hand-in-hand with President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas was for America's benefit - Think Again!!! Please send this to your Congressmen and your local newspaper and TV news sources. ### 1. "Emissions Regulations Could Stall Energy Bill" by Carl Hulse New York Times 6/15/05 2. "Where Oil is Plentiful but Cash is Short: Price of Oil: from a Gush to a Trickle" by Douglas Jehl New York Times 1/16/99 3. "Demand for Natural Gas Brings Big Import Plans, & Objections" by Simon Romeo New York Times 6/15/05 4. "US Strategic & Economic Interests in the Region are Changing" by Paul Michael Wihbey, Institute for Advanced Strategic & Policy at Symposium: "Rethinking the Middle East" AEI, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research October 4, 1998 (cosponsored by Emanuel Winston) SOME PAST ARTICLES BY EMANUEL A. WINSTON ON OIL PRICE MANIPULATION:
Note: The following footnotes from a very old article (around 1975) demonstrate that this same syndrome was operating then: 1. "Is the Oil Shortage Real?" by Prof. M.A. Adelman Middle East Information Series 5/73 p. 29 2. "Petroleum - Phenomenon of a Modern Panic" by Shlomo Erel, Orion Publishing, Jerusalem 1975 p.55 3. "An Oil Company View" by Robert Brougham Middle East Information Series 5/73 4. "Petroleum - Phenomenon of a Modern Panic" op cit p. 140 5. Chicago Sun-Times 5/19/75 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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ZAKA SHOWS INSPIRATION
Posted by ZAKA, June 16, 2005. |
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This is a 9th grade essay written by Adam Ariel and published in the St. Louis Jewish Light, May 18, 2005. BOOM!!! A terrorist has blown him self up in Jerusalem. People run in all directions. Chaos reigns. Minutes later, emergency vehicles pull up to the scene, and paramedics begin to treat the victims. After the dust settles, and the ambulances pull away, the true heroes show their faces. The acronym ZAKA comes from the Hebrew words Zihui Korbanot Ason, meaning identifying victims of a tragedy. This organization of 1,200 dedicated volunteers originated in Israel in 1995, to insure proper religious burial for terrorist victims, Since then, it has evolved into a first response team for tragedies. Zaka volunteers are trained by the police and Magen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross, to provide emergency aid. After notification by beeper of a terrorist attack, ZAKA volunteers travel on motor scooters to cut through traffic. Arriving before the police, ZAKA volunteers, clad in their bright yellow vests, provide immediate first aid. When the ambulances arrive, volunteers report which victim needs help most. After the ambulances leave, ZAKA volunteers begin the arduous task of cleaning up the human remains. They scrape the blood from the streets and gather stray body parts in special plastic bags for burial. Then, true to their name, they prepare the parts for burying because Jewish tradition requires such burial within 24 hours. Since September 2000, over 70 suicide bombings and terrorist attacks have plagued the State of Israel. ZAKA has saved hundreds of lives speedily reaching the victims. When minutes can mean life or death, speed is of the essence. ZAKA has helped out internationally. ZAKA volunteers assisted in New York at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. ZAKA volunteers flew to Thailand to help tsunami victims. ZAKA volunteers went to Taba, Egypt, and Mombasa, Kenya, after terrorist bombings occurred. ZAKA volunteers helped retrieve the remains of the space shuttle Columbia's crew. For its efforts, ZAKA has been recognized world-wide, even by the United Nations. Four years ago, I went with my family to Israel for one year. While there, ZAKA played an important role in combating terror. Having lived in Israel myself, I fully appreciate the job that these brave people do. The goal of terrorists is to inspire fear. To avoid such situations, Israelis have to fuel the economy, go to work and school, and ignore the acts of terror while still trying to prevent them. ZAKA helps Israel combat terrorism by cleaning up disaster sites fast to allow people to continue their daily routines. The Determination and readiness demonstrated by Israel and its citizens to save all human lives is an inspiration to the world. I know that Israel inspires me. Zaka Rescue and Recovery can be contacted by phone at 1-877-ZAKA-911 or visit their website: www.zakausa.org |
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A RIGHT TO PROTEST BUT NOT DEFAME; ISRAEL-U.S. RELATIONSHIP?; ACADEMIA
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 16, 2005. |
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THE RIGHT TO PROTEST Israeli police have the idea that every demonstration is not legal without a police permit. Not so, explains the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). Silent vigil, assemblages of less than 50 people, and rallies not about matters of state do not require a permit. It has been proposed to charge road-blocking protestors with rebellion. For rebellion, the penalties are severe, because the action is. To misapply the charge of rebellion to mere road-blocking is to endanger freedom of expression (IMRA, 6/2). It would be as if the segregationist states had imprisoned Martin Luther King Jr.for 25 years, for, say, having chained himself to a fence. That could have stifled the civil rights movement. BUT NO RIGHT TO DEFAME A French judge found the publisher and three prominent writers for "Le Monde" guilty of racist defamation against Israel and the Jewish people, although the fine was only symbolic. "It is encouraging to see a French court rule that anti-Semitism should have no place in the media -- even when it is masked as an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ruling also makes it clear that the law in this respect applies to extremist Jews (Mr. Morin is Jewish) as much as to non-Jews." European journalists usually are careful not to violate strict rules against ethnic defamation. These rules were a reaction to the Holocaust and the accompanying defamation of the Jewish people. Ironically, the European media makes an exception of the Jews, whom it constantly defames. The piece in question "was replete with lies, slanders and myths about 'the chosen people,' 'the (disproved) Jenin massacre,' describing the Jews as 'a contemptuous people taking satisfaction in humiliating others,' 'imposing their unmerciful rule,'" etc.. It is comparable to thousands of other articles in Europe, "in the guise of legitimate and reasoned discussion of Israeli policies." About a dozen examples are cited, all similar to Arab, Nazi-like propaganda. Most of the wire services omitted news of the Court ruling (IMRA, 6/3 from Tom Gross, Wall St. J., Europe). P.S.: It's the "Arab-Israel conflict," or more accurately, jihad against the West. ABU MAZEN FOR HUMAN-BOMBS Abu Mazen told journalists that suicide bombing is over. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities discovered a plot for a double human-bombing against Israel. It informed the P.A., so it could arrest the plotters. The P.A. refused. It asked Israel to remove the culprits from the wanted list. If Israel had complied, it would not have deterred the terrorists from attempting to pass through IDF roadblocks. Israel arrested the team. Two members had been released by Israel from sentences for past terrorist activities (Arutz-7, 6/3). This should be the subject of editorials the world over, disappointed in the continuing terrorism of Abu Mazen's regime, the one that Israel is asked to make dangerous concessions to strengthen. IS MONEY THE ANSWER TO ALL PROBLEMS OR THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? VPM Shimon Peres maintains that financial aid to the Arabs would eliminate their rancor and terrorism. On the other hand, one of the chief problems in the Mideast is corruption. Giving money to corrupt regimes does not solve problems and may worsen them (IMRA, 6/4). Sage observation. Foreign aid often does not get to the needy but only to the greedy. Arab rulers' corruption leads the people to favor the Islamists. Beware of Arab experiments in "democracy!" THE REAL ISRAEL-U.S. RELATIONSHIP The true nature of the relationship between Israel and the US is revealed by Israel's perceived need to have Jonathan Pollard spy for it on the US, although it risked so much. That this relationship has not changed is indicated by Pollard's excessive and continued incarceration. At first, Israel claimed that Pollard was part of a rogue operation. Lawsuits forced it to acknowledge that he officially was their agent. Indeed, his handlers considered him one of the country's greatest spies ever. He provided intelligence vital for Israeli national security from Arab attack. This intelligence was improperly being kept from Israel in violation of an agreement to provide it. (That truth indicts the relationship.) Was the spying worth the risk to Israel? You may judge from these instances: 1. The layout of PLO headquarters in Tunisia and Libyan defense capabilities, as well as the movement of US and British vessels in the nearby Mediterranean. As a result, Israel was able to move undetected, and bomb PLO headquarters. 2. Satellite photos of chemical warfare plants and storage facilities in Syria and Iraq, and their location. This is what prompted Pollard to present the data to Israel. (It enabled Israel to prepare sufficient civil defense before Saddam started firing Scuds at Israel, so that Saddam did not bother putting the chemicals into those rockets). 3. US intelligence assessments of a PLO unit's plans. (Thus the US knew who would attack Israel, when and where, but did not inform Israel. Some friend of Israel, the US was! In fact, keeping silent about terrorist acts violates international law. But who cares about international law except to misquote it against Israel?) 4. The US knew of Soviet arms, including missiles and their locations, being shipped to the Arabs. (The U.S. falsely assured Israel that it would intercept them.) 5. U.S. analysis of the capability of a Soviet fighter plane. 6. Pakistan's development of a nuclear bomb and its facility. The only negative effect the spying had on the US was to reduce its leverage over Israel (IMRA, 6/5). Translation: Pollard gave Israel the intelligence for which that the US might have demanded concessions to the Arabs, whom that intelligence proved to be deadly enemies. Appeasement-minded governments of Israel keep citing the "special relationship" that Israel has with the US, to warrant making concessions to the Arabs at US behest. If the relationship were genuine, the US would not be making such demands upon Israel. The US government cites the relationship as being at stake, unless Israel yields to its demands. If the relationship were secure, the US "partner" would not threaten constantly to sever it. U.S. SPYING ON ISRAEL The Israeli Navy detected a U.S. sub spying on Israel. Upon being discovered, the sub fled. There have been other instances of Western submarine spying on Israel (IMRA, 6/5). The US routinely spies on Israel, without needing to. When Israel spies on the US, out of a need for national preservation, the US acts indignant. It's what one calls a double standard. VIOLENCE INCREASING IN ISRAEL Israeli youth are attacking each other for no apparent reason. Police, however, have tens of thousands of unattended cases of various sorts, some seven years old. They are even shorter of staff for criminal matters, now that so many are being diverted to the abandonment plan. A Shas Party MK blamed much of the violence, and its particularly brutal nature, on the large-scale immigration of non-Jews, even antisemites, from the former USSR (Arutz-7, 6/5). The true cost of Sharon's abandonment plan and of Israeli timidity and foolishness is phenomenal. The savings gained by reducing the Police budget is ephemeral. P.A. ESCALATES WARFARE AGAINST ISRAEL Up to now, P.A. terrorists had been firing rockets at Jewish towns in Gaza and in Israel from Gaza. Now they have gotten rockets in Judea-Samaria. The first few fired did not work. As the government is preparing to abandon northern Samaria to sole P.A. guardianship, the predicted violence against Israel from there is taking shape. Syria has been financing the acquisition of rockets by development and by smuggling. The IDF has arrested dozens of Islamic Jihad members, and interrupted several manufacturing plants, in an attempt to stem the rise. Islamic Jihad does not consider itself bound by any declared ceasefire (IMRA, 6/5). No matter how adverse the news, and no matter how perverse his plan, Sharon soldiers on. ACADEMIC OPINIONS OR JIHAD PROPAGANDA? Much of the academic freedom vs. academic bullying controversy at Columbia U. focuses on Prof. Joseph Massad. In the Egyptian governmental newspaper, "Al-Ahram," he complains that "Israel's apologists and right-wing witch-hunters" are organizing against "established scholarship." What is his version of "established scholarship?" His version is that almost all of the Arab refugees in 1948 were expelled "directly or indirectly by Israel." It is only the non-scholarly media and popular opinion in the US that claims that the Arabs fled mostly voluntarily or at the behest of Arab leaders. Israel falsely claims, he asserts, that whereas the Zionists urged the Arabs to stay, the Arab leaders urged them to depart. A "NY Sun" editorial cites extensive evidence that the Israeli claim is true: (1) Prof. Karsh's "Commentary article tracing the flight of 60,000 Arabs from Haifa, confirmed by the British Mandatory authorities; and (2) Mitchell Bard's "Myths and Facts" quoting contemporary Arab leaders and media accounts. The "Sun" concludes with a question - what is ideological about Prof. Karsh's account and not ideological about Prof. Massad's - and with a comment - Columbia's trustees should exert some adult supervision over its professors (6/9). Massad has it backwards. The facts and genuine scholarship always held that the Arabs fled primarily on their own. Anyone familiar with the events knows that the Palestinian Jews then and now wished to live in peace and harmony and with the goodwill of the rest of the world. It is consistent with Jewish history. In my opinion, Israel was entitled to expel the Arabs, and should not have let them become a fifth column. However, afflicted with native goodwill, Israel let 150,000 stay and at least an equal number immigrate and become citizens. The Jews let Arabic be one of the national languages. Does that jibe with the charge of deliberate expulsion? Revisionist historians tried to make a case for Massad's thesis. They had no evidence. They cited discussions about possible expulsion, but the policy never was approved. But as memories fade, Arabs come to the US, to lie about history so as to promote their war on the West. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
PRIME MINISTER SHARON - PROFILE OF A DICTATORSHIP
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, June 15, 2005. |
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This essay appeared in the Jewish Press June 10, 2005. It was written by Professor Paul Eidelberg, who is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached by mail at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and by email at Constitution@usa.net 1. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (Likud) has not only betrayed his party's Zionist principles, but also the hundreds of thousands of citizens who voted Likud in the Knesset election of January 28, 2003, and who thus gave his party a two to one victory over the Labor Party something unprecedented in Israel's history. 2. The all-consuming issue of that election was "unilateral disengagement" from Gaza and northern Samaria. "Disengagement" is a euphemism for retreat and the deportation of Jews. Retreat from Gaza alone requires the expulsion of 8,500 Jewish residents from their homes and schools, their synagogues and yeshivas, their farms and factories and turning this ancient and now flourishing Jewish land over to the Palestinian Authority - a terrorist organization. 3. Sharon and his Likud Party campaigned against disengagement, while the Labor Party campaigned for disengagement. Likud won 38 Knesset seats, while Labor won only 19, an all time low. In fact, the parties that opposed disengagement won 84 seats, or 70% of the Knesset's 120-membership. Sharon betrayed, therefore, an overwhelming majority of the voters when he announced, in December 2003, that he would implement Labor's disengagement policy! 4. Early in 2004, Sharon agreed to hold a referendum of the Likud membership on disengagement and promised to abide by the result. The referendum was held on May 2. Disengagement was rejected by 60% of the 100,000 Likud participants. Sharon reneged on his promise. 5. Realizing he lacked a cabinet majority for disengagement - his cabinet consisted of a coalition of the Likud, Shinui, National Union, and the National Religious Party, Sharon went to Washington D.C. to obtain President George W. Bush's approval of disengagement. This he did before submitting the proposal to his cabinet - an unheard of maneuver. 6. He also fired two ministers, solely because they opposed disengagement - a dismissal upheld by Israel's left-wing dominated Supreme Court, even though Sharon's act makes nonsense of cabinet government. But this was enough to intimidate several other ministers and bend the cabinet to Sharon's will. 7. When National Union and the National Religious Party resigned from the government on the issue of disengagement and when Shinui resigned for other reasons, Sharon had to form a new government or hold new elections. He chose to form a new government with the Labor Party, contrary to an overwhelming vote of his own party's Central Committee. 8. Although Labor had only 16% of the Knesset members it received almost 50% of the cabinet ministries. Indeed, Labor chairman Shimon Peres, the discredited architect of Oslo, was made Vice Premier in charge of implementing disengagement. 9. But Sharon needed another party to form a majority coalition. Hence he promised to allocate 290 million shekels to United Torah Judaism for its education and religious services. With UTJ, the new government had 64 Knesset mandates. However, the government still had to receive Knesset approval. This it did by a bare plurality of 58 to 56 votes. 10. Now Sharon (in June) could submit the disengagement bill to the Knesset. The bill passed by a comfortable majority, but only because Sharon had threatened Likud MKs that they might lose their place on their party list in the next election. 11. It follows from the preceding that Sharon nullified the January 2003 election and has made a mockery of democracy. Nor is this all. 12. Israel's highest security officials, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, IDF Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, head of IDF Intelligence, and Avi Dichter, director of the Shin Bet (General Security Service) conveyed dire warnings about disengagement before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,Ex-Deputy IDF Intelligence Chief, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, was prompted to say: "The Israeli government has not succeeded in producing a single serious argument that can refute objections to disengagement and justify the grave step that it is taking." 13. Precisely because Sharon has not been able to justify disengagement on rational and evidentiary grounds, he and his cronies have resorted to intimidation to stifle dissent against the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria. On February 13, 2005, Sharon told his cabinet, - "Anyone who speaks or writes against the Disengagement Plan is guilty of incitement." The Prime Minister of Israel thus went on record saying that the expression of even the slightest opposition to his highly controversial plan is a criminal offense. The next day Likud Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra, in a live interview on Israel Radio, said that people who shout at ministers should be placed under administrative detention involving imprisonment up to six months without trial. Likud Transportation Minister (and former minister of justice) Meir Shetreet told Israel Radio that Likud party members are guilty of incitement when they write letters to Likud MKs informing them that future political support for these politicians is dependent on their voting against the withdrawal expulsion plan. MK Effi Eltam declared in the Knesset: "I must tell you, Mr. Prime Minister - and though you are not honoring us with your presence, the words will certainly reach you - that I have served the country for many years on the battlefield, and during difficult and tense moments, but I have never heard from government elements in the State of Israel, such unrestrained incitement as that which was heard from your confidantes and coalition partners this week. 'Break their bones!' your confidantes whispered, and the headlines blared it. Whose bones precisely do you intend to break, Mr. Prime Minister? Those of little children? Pregnant women? Civilian protestors?" On February 27 the cabinet approved Justice Minister Tzipi Livni's proposal to establish a new ministry unit, with 15 full-time lawyers, devoted solely to combating incitement and violence by disengagement opponents. She also proposed that the incitement law be made more flexible by stating that criminal action could be taken if there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that such calls could lead to violence. This cannot but stifle dissent. Indeed, dozens of opponents of Disengagement have already been incarcerated. Finally, those resisting the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria will be incarcerated or herded into detention camps. Clearly, Sharon is transforming Israel into a police state. The Gush Katif area will be a military zone, which means its 8,500 Jewish residents will be placed under martial law. The question arises: What is there about Israel's system of governance that makes is possible for Sharon to act like a dictator? This will be the subject of Position Paper II. Testifying before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on January 5, 2005, Dichter described certain threats inherent in Sharon's plan to pull the IDF out of Gaza and northern Samaria. "In a situation where Israel is not in control of the Philadelphi corridor [which separates Gaza from the Sinai Peninsula) terrorists arriving from Lebanon are liable to infiltrate through it into the Gaza Strip and there is the distinct possibility that in a short while Gaza will turn into south Lebanon." He cautioned that the current "trickle" of arms smuggling through the corridor is liable to turn into a "river." According to Dichter, the number of Kassam rockets fired from Gaza nearly doubled following the cabinet approval of the disengagement plan in June. As to northern Samaria, Dichter said that "Samaria is an area with terrorist potential that already proved itself in the past." By the way, contrary to precedent. Sharon nullified any extension of Dichter's term of office, as he did with Ya'alon's, to the Knesset's astonishment. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host of the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
| GUSH KATIF |
THE COST OF THE GAZA AND NORTH SAMARIA GIVEAWAY
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, June 15, 2005. |
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This appeared in the journal of the Ariel Center for Policy Research (www.acpr.org.il/hatikvah) Jun 02, 2005. FACT: President Bush has turned down Prime Minister Sharon's request for special financial assistance. FACT: Israel's best friends in Congress - who possess the Power of the Purse - have advised Israel to refrain from such a request. Congress operates within rigid budgetary caps, and under the constraints of a $500BN deficit and mounting cost in Iraq, Afghanistan and other sites of the war on global terrorism. FACT: VP Chenney and Secretary Rumsfeld counsel against such a request, that could raid the Pentagon's own budget, while financing an Israeli policy of retreat from terrorism, which would constitute a tail wind to regional and anti-US terrorism. FACT: President Clinton promised Israel $800MN for the withdrawal from South Lebanon. The funds have not been extended. FACT: The cost of the Rafiah Salient Giveaway (to Egypt) was 15BN Shekels in June 1990 (3.3 shekels per dollar), which is equal to 30BN shekels in 2004 (4.5 per dollar and a one third decrease in the value of the dollar). FACT: The cost of Gaza and No. Samaria Giveaway could skyrocket to 44BN shekels, since it pertains to 8,000 residents with a 30 year tenure, compared with 5,000 residents with a 5 year tenure in Rafiah. FACT: A minimalist estimate (ignoring the Rafiah precedent) could bring the cost down to 26BN shekels; 13.5BN for homes (including furniture and improvements), a two year adjustment payment and a 30 year compensation; 9.5BN shekels for jobs infrastructure; 3BN Shekels for roads, communications, electricity, water, sewage, classrooms, community structures and relocation of military installations. FACT: The huge cost could halt the current economic recovery, worsen unemployment, increase taxes, impose mandatory government bonds, cut infrastructure expenditures, human services and subsidies of public transportation and gasoline, etc. The expected rise in terrorism would impose further cost. FACT: The added cost would not be in return for peace accord. Rather than Land for Peace, this one will be Land for Economic Hardship, or - probably - Land for Terrorism, or Land for Recycled Non Binding Friendly Presidential Declarations FACT: Prime Minister Sharon: "Israeli evacuation of Gaza... would transform Gaza's main square to a launching platform of missiles to Israel's Ashqelon... Terrorism can be destroyed, if we control its bases... In 1970, Gaza was controlled by terrorists, because Israel evacuated the populated areas and the refugee camps... A flight from populated areas, and a failure to annihilate the threat in its incept, would require a much longer and a more difficult effort..." (Ma'ariv, June 12, 1992). Sharon's recommendation is doubly relevant in 2004, with a less predictable world (than in 1992), a more explosive Mideast, more armed rogue regimes, a more horrific terrorism, and systematically and terroristically non-compliant PLO/PA. FACT: Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, General Earl
Wheeler: "Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Israel would reduce the
hostile border by a factor of five, and eliminate a source for raids
and training of (Palestinian terrorists)... The Strip serves as a salient
for introduction of Arab subversion and terrorism, and its retention
would be to Israel's military advantage... By occupying the Strip, Israel
would trade 45 miles of hostile border for eight." (June 29, 1967 Memo
on Israel MINIMAL requirements for security)..." "Israel's control of
gaza is a minimal requirement for its defense"
The Unity Coalition for Israel
(http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide
coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200
groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we
have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and
Secure Israel."
"Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians
resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state
of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united
voice, our message is being heard!"
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SHARON MEETS HIS MATCH - TEENAGE GIRLS
Posted by AFSI, June 15, 2005. |
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Israel's Prime Minister often boasts, and rightfully so, that Israel is a major military power - in procurement, personnel, discipline, maintenance and will. And here we have the image of the putative commander in chief of this mighty nation, threatening, harassing and jailing teenage girls for openly protesting his ruinous policies. He employs outrageous tactics, more appropriate to a divorce court by threatening their parents with removing parental custody of these spunky teenagers. The hero of Israel's wars retreats from the bluster of real and determined enemies such as Abu Mazen and his cohorts and empties Israel's jails of hardened mass murderers, and, most egregiously fills the cells instead with principled Israeli teenagers. These youngsters are lured by promises of release if only they relent and promise to stop their activities. Like the young hero of Tiananmen Square who dazzled the free world by standing in front of a battalion of tanks, these young patriots stick to their opposition even under the harsh condition of detention. Herbert Zweibon, Chairman for Americans For a Safe Israel said: "No one can be certain of the outcome of the confrontation. It is possible, however, that the P.M. has unwittingly ignited a revolutionary movement among the young. It is clear that thousands of youngsters are prepared to join these young girls in their prison cells." Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. |
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IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE BUSES
Posted by Paula R. Stern, June 15, 2005. |
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In Israel, the term hasbara is loosely translated as "propaganda". In more general terms, hasbara is seen as the attempt by Jews and Israelis around the world to explain Israel's position in a way that will help others understand why we do what we do, how we live where we live, and why. Hasbara is about taking the cause of Israel and explaining it so that people don't automatically sympathize with what they perceive as the underdog. Instead, they see the broader picture, one of historical rights, of peace offerings made and violence returned, of a people who have built a nation out of sand, and another people who have been robbed of billions of dollars in donations, incited to violence and continually deprived of a democratic voice by their own religious and political leaders. Hasbara means making it clear that there is no "cycle" of violence, but a long history of terrorist attacks and attempts to stop these attacks with various means. Hasbara is about explaining what the Arabs have done to their own children and why we are not to blame. Hasbara is about explaining that Israel has a right to exist and Jews have a right to live in this land, and that there can be no peace agreement until these basic principles are accepted by the Palestinians. And finally, hasbara is about explaining that what Arab leaders say in English is not relevant when compared to what they say in Arabic, and to what they do. Just about everyone agrees that in the war of information, Israel continues to lag hopelessly behind the Palestinians. They are so much better than we are at getting their side across to the media. They have no problem showing their wounds; they glory in them. They even glory in wounds that never existed, as when they cried "massacre" in Jenin and left the world believing that thousands had been murdered, when the real death toll was 52 (the vast majority of which were armed gunmen). After a terrorist attack in which Israeli citizens are murdered, the Palestinians are quick to condemn violence on both sides, as if the death of the terrorist is morally and socially equivalent to the deaths of those he murdered. Smooth-talking Palestinians such as Saeb Erekat and Hanan Ashrawi fill the airwaves with their double talk, exaggerations and outright lies, while incoherent Israeli representatives, vying for time in front of the lights, stumble through with heavily accented English and embarrass us all. They focus on points and miss nuances and meanings. They confuse with details and buzzwords while Palestinians talk about real people and suffering. The impending visit of a radio journalist explains it all. Already, an impressive list of Palestinian leaders are lined up to meet her, show her the camps, the poverty, the disadvantaged Palestinians, the evil fence we are building, the unemployment. They will not show her the Palestinian textbooks filled with hatred and incitement, nor will they show her Palestinian television which broadcasts Holocaust denial, anti-Semitic slander and calls for violence. While the Israelis will offer her a press card giving her the right to travel all over, they are too busy to organize an impressive list of Israelis who can counter, in a meaningful way, what she will see and hear during her visits with Palestinians. It is, therefore, left to ordinary Israelis to speak for our side, to explain why Palestinian poverty is self-inflicted, why violence in textbooks yields a violent society. If we are not careful, this becomes something of a race for each side to show its bloody wounds and she is left to judge which side has bled more. In sheer numbers, the Palestinians will win, because buried in these figures are the suicide bombers, those who shot and lynched and attempted violent actions and were eventually stopped. We have our blood and the Palestinians have theirs. We have our land issues and they have theirs, our claims versus theirs, our history versus theirs. Worse, from the point of view of the "impartial" scales, our children are brought up in comparative wealth while the Palestinians retain their "underdog" image at all costs. I'll take the journalist to meet settlers as she has requested, but my goal will be to show her that settlers are nothing more than people who have chosen to live on this block versus that one, in this house versus that one. And yet, there is a more important challenge facing Israelis who are put in the position of having to defend Israel. How can we quickly show the difference between the Palestinian side and the Israeli side? I began by thinking of what she would see from them and what we could show her. They would show her squalor and refugee camps, we could show her orderly homes and planted trees. They would show her a wall covered in angry graffiti, and we could show her statistics showing that terrorist attacks have dropped 90% since the security fence was built. They can show her families who have lost children and we can show her families decimated by terror. A pathetic parade of victims, she will quickly conclude. Slowly, an idea began to form in my head. I could ask someone from ZAKA to speak to her, that amazing organization of people tasked with the job of cleaning up the human remains after a terrorist attack. To the last drop of blood and human flesh that can be gathered, they fight for the dignity of the dead. Even better, I thought, is for her to see. A visual is needed beyond the words. And that's when the picture formed in my mind. I could take her to see what is left of the buses after the terrorist attack, sanitized and cleaned, but horrific nonetheless. I could ask the ZAKA representative to meet us there, to walk with us and explain what happened on some of the buses. The child found alive under the remains, the victims, the blood, the horror that was inflicted on people who simply got on the wrong bus. The school children on the way to school, the doctor on his way to the hospital, the grandmother on her weekly run to the market. And therein lies the difference, the one thing that we have that the Palestinians do not, the one piece of the puzzle that is uniquely Israeli. The Palestinians have no buses to show. We have never targeted a bus filled with innocent Palestinians on their way to school and work. Our defense forces have never intentionally bombed civilians, shot babies in the head, indiscriminately opened fire on Arab cars. Even more so, our leaders have never threatened these actions as a means of forcing the other side to surrender. Beyond the poverty, self-inflicted or not, beyond the pain of wasted lives and incitement, it all comes down to the buses. Paula R. Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company. This article appeared in Arutz-7 as an opinion piece June 14, 2005. |
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DIPLOMACY AS COVER FOR WAR; P.A. BUILDS "FACTS ON THE GROUND"; SHARON EVADES KEY QUESTIONS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 15, 2005. |
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DIPLOMACY AS COVER FOR WAR N. Korea and Iran are at it again. They hint that they might be drawn back to the negotiating table, to be dissuaded from pursuing nuclear armament. They alternate offering hope of being reasonable with defiant insistence upon their "right" to arm. This insistence preserves their purity of ideology. It signals to those with the wit and will to acknowledge and admit, that they intend to acquire nuclear weaponry. Governments lacking the wit and the will, and that don't acknowledge and admit - the US and especially the Europeans - offer concessions and think they are making progress, but either don't nail down an agreement or Iran and N. Korea pry it open, again. For years, those rogue states repeatedly have been lying about their action, capability, and intent. For just as many years, the West has persisted in diplomacy. N. Korea and Iran exploit the nuclear treaty loopholes, and the other signatories fail to close the loopholes. The West defers difficult decisions, but the longer it procrastinates, the more inevitable and difficult they become. After a while, the West concentrates on getting to negotiate rather than on disarmament. Does this matter? Someone asked, if they shouldn't have a-bombs, why should Israel. Israel's nuclear capability deters war; Iran vows to use nuclear capability to make war. Capish? N. Korea and Iran use diplomacy to stall. While the EU talks, enemy technicians develop. Isn't that why Abbas invoked a "ceasefire?" Totalitarian imperialists such as the Arabs, Iran, and N. Korea use ceasefires and negotiations as a cover for preparations for war. Thus the P.A. uses its partial ceasefire to rearm and to develop better rockets. Do not take it at its word! JEWISH ANTISEMITES Some Jews, including Israelis, produce films, articles, and "art" that: celebrate human-bombings of innocent Jews; justify Arab arson against French Jews because, in general, French Jews are known to support Israel; excuse the 1948 Arab war of extermination on the false grounds that the Arabs meant to tolerate the Jews; fabricate tales of war crimes against the Israelis in that war, such as non-existent rapes; and explicitly or implicitly liken Israel to Nazi Germany. When some Jews call the authors antisemitic, the Jew-haters feign indignation against being thought to harbor hostile feelings towards the Jewish people, and file libel suits against their critics, hoping that the prospect of legal fees would compel an apology or silence. These harassment suits are illegal in most of the United States. One such filer is himself being counter-sued by relatives of a deceased prosecutor, for making profit on the basis of fraudulently defaming him Prof. Steven Plaut, 6/2). How sadistic to celebrate the murder and maiming of innocent civilians! Note the Arab collective punishment in attacking any Jews, for the support of some of Israel, not that such support warrants murder. If these "artists" had moral scruples, they would condemn the murders. But they lack scruples. They have no lack of hatred, acting out their own neuroses, or they callously exploit the European and leftist market for antisemitism. It is telling that these extreme critics of Israel have to invent their complaints. They do not have more than a couple of real life abuses to cite. If only they wanted to show that the Arabs really are like the Nazis whom the Arabs admire! They would not have to make anything up. SAUDI & RUSSIAN ECONOMIC BOOM The two countries are awash in oil profits. They plan to invest jointly in third countries (IMRA, 6/2). P.A. ANNOUNCES DOUBLING OF CONSTRUCTION The P.A. states that it increased building construction and enlargement by 98% last year. When the Arabs make such an announcement, the world accepts it as politically neutral. When such an announcement is made for the Jews in Yesha, it is denounced for "making facts on the ground" that disturb the status quo. Israel is told to desist until negotiations settle the status of Yesha permanently (IMRA, 6/2). This double standard exists in those who want to deprive Israel of Yesha. Jewish building thwarts that goal, whereas Arab building abets it. HUMAN RIGHTS PROTESTS IN EGYPT About five hundred Egyptian journalists and human rights activists demonstrated against what they claim was a beating and groping of female Egyptian journalists and human rights workers, related to a referendum. In S. Arabia, the government prohibits women from driving. More than a million foreign men have been hired, at a cost of a few billion dollars a year, to drive the women. Many Saudi husbands do not like their women spending hours a week alone with foreign men. They think that contravenes Islam, whereas allowing women to drive does not. A Saudi tried to bring up that analysis at the consultative assembly, but he was squelched (IMRA, 6/2). KUWAITI CURRICULUM EXTREMIST? A Kuwaiti legislator studied the country's curriculum. He found many instances encouraging accusations against fellow Muslims of polytheism and of apostasy (serious charges in an Islamic state) for having different views within normative Islam. The textbooks call for Muslims to enter into combat to form a single Islamic state from all the existing Islamic ones. That would eliminate Kuwait, so the parliamentarian considers that extremist, too. Lessons exhort expulsion of foreigners from the Arab Gulf states and for other violence. (The implication is no foreign trade, little learning of new medical applications, and hostile relations with most of the world. That does not contradict Islam in that one of its basic principles is to be in a state of war with the non-Muslim world.) Kuwaiti graduates are waging jihad in Iraq. "?in certain schools "[studying] music is banned, and the [Education] Ministry does nothing. There are schools that [even] object to the music of the national anthem." After Gulf War I, "The greatest mistake of all was that the streams and parties opposed to the liberation of Kuwait - arguing that it was being liberated by infidels - continued to empty the curricula of their content in the sciences and humanities, [and to transform them] into religion lessons. Thus, for example, religious [content] was introduced into Arabic-language study. Likewise, physical education classes were cancelled because they were considered forbidden [by religion], and their place was taken by religion education..." What do Kuwaiti education officials say? They say they find calls for tolerance rather than violence. They consider the criticism an attack on Islam. (Ironically, that defense confirms the criticism of Kuwaiti education as extremist, by treating other Muslim views as anti-Muslim.) A former officials thinks that the curriculum is not extremist, but that some of the teachers are. Extremist teachers did come from S. Arabia, some years ago (IMRA, 6/2 from MEMRI). Why weren't relevant books and teachers quoted, as evidence? SHARON EVADES CHECKS & BALANCES A Knesset committee had PM Sharon in for questioning. It asked what is the strategic purpose of his abandonment plan, what options did he consider before adopting that one, and what staff work preceded the decision. Sharon joked and made irrelevant comments, not answering any questions. There was no back-and-forth between leader and the others. "Haaretz" doesn't believe that the people should have a say. It cites the French referendum on the EU Constitution as a mistake in not leaving all legislation up to legislators. The paper claims that the people vote emotionally while politicians legislate objectively. The Israeli media omits discussion of important issues that might cause opposition to the abandonment plan it favors. It discusses how to punish dissidents, that opponents are disloyal thugs, and whether minors arrested for road-blocking should be allowed to take matriculation exams in jail. It overlooks the implications of handing Gaza to Abbas, who supports terrorism. It doesn't question evacuating northern Samaria, although intelligence advisors warn that the Army would have to stay there, lest the terrorists fire, from there, rockets at Tel Aviv. It doesn't ask how Sharon would retain, as he claims he would, the rest of Judea-Samaria. The media features human interest stories about Sharon's meeting with Bush rather than what happened to Israeli-US relations, that led Bush to side so markedly with the P.A.. By keeping the people in the dark, mistakes are being made and the consequences are ominous (IMRA, 6/2 from Caroline Glick). "Haaretz" has the same arrogance as the President of France, that the leaders know what is good for the people. If the politicians know best, why do they keep fouling up? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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"THE OSLO SYNDROME"
Posted by Deb Kotz, June 15, 2005. |
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This is a great column. It appeared in the Jewish World Review (www.JewishWorldReview.com) June 1, 2005. It was written by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., who heads the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. Last week, the President of the United States effusively praised Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's right-hand man for some forty years. In the White House Rose Garden, Mr. Bush described Abbas as a "man of courage," explaining that he takes "great faith in not only [Abbas'] personal character, but the fact that he campaigned on a platform of peace - he said, 'Vote for me, I am for peace.' And the Palestinians voted overwhelmingly to support him." In light of what is actually happening in the proto-state Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen) was elected last January to govern, such characterizations seem at best to be wishful thinking, at worst willful and dangerous self-delusion. As a new web ad produced by my organization makes clear, if the Palestinian people truly want peace, there is very little evidence that they are moving in that direction under Abu Mazen. To the contary, terrorist organizations are not being dismantled by Abbas. Instead, groups like Hamas with the avowed mission of destroying Israel are ascendant. They are winning local elections and taking full advantage of the "hudna" (temporary suspension of hostilities) to rebuild their offensive capabilities against Israel. Hamas and other terrorists are being integrated into Palestinian security forces, receiving valuable training and even arms from American and European personnel. In addition, burgeoning quantities of ever-more powerful weapons are being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt. Meanwhile, Palestinians are being encouraged by official imams whose sermons are broadcast on Abbas-controlled media to kill Jews and destroy America. For example, less than two weeks before Mr. Bush welcomed Abu Mazen to the White House, Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris claimed on Palestinian Authority TV that history showed the torture, exile and murder of Jews to be legitimate and the Muslim conquest of the United States inevitable. If the evidence is so clear that the Palestinian state Abu Mazen is a-building will be but a new state-sponsor of terror, how could President Bush - who in June 2002 rejected that prospect and has devoted his presidency to eliminating such sponsors - possibly be turning a blind eye to the facts on the ground? How could he be insisting that Israel make still further territorial and political concessions, including over Jerusalem, let alone be handing over directly to the Palestinian Authority $50 million in U.S. taxpayers' funds? Call it "the Oslo Syndrome." This is the title of an important new book by Dr. Kenneth Levin, a psychiatrist and historian who is a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. As the subtitle - "Delusions of a People Under Siege" - makes clear, Dr. Levin is concerned with a pathology that has prompted the Jews of Israel to embrace the false promise of peace ostensibly on offer first from Arafat, now from his former right-hand man. A similar malady appears to be afflicting official Washington, as well. Dr. Levin describes the roots of this pathology as follows: "[It] lies in psychological responses common among chronically besieged populations, whether minorities subjected to defamation, discrimination and assault or small nations under persistent attack by their neighbors. People living under such stressful conditions often choose to accept at face value the indictments of their accusers in the hope of thereby escaping their predicament." "The Oslo Syndrome" chronicles the delusions of successive groups within the Jewish world, with a particular focus on the most prominent and contemporary of the phenomena - that of politicians and organizations associated with "the Peace Movement." Dr. Levin explains: "The Peace Movement's stance in fact was as divorced from reality as had been German Jews' blaming of Polish Jews for anti-Semitism, or secular European Jews' blaming of the religious, or socialist Jews' blaming of the Jewish bourgeoisie. But proponents of the Movement, cowed by the persistence of the siege and desperate to see its end, chose to delude themselves. They grasped at any seemingly positive statement coming from an Arab political figure and ignored all the countervailing evidence." For example, the self-deluded chose to ignore unwelcome statements by Faisal al-Husseini, an Arafat and Abbas crony who was for years the Palestine Liberation Organization's proxy representative in Jerusalem. Al-Husseini declared in 2001 that the Oslo "peace" accords of 1992 between Israel and Arafat were but a "Trojan Horse," designed to advance the Palestinians' abiding goal of liberating their "country," whose boundaries would be "from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea." In other words: No Israel. Al-Husseini's ambitions were of a piece with those long espoused by his relative, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the notorious Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, whose complicity with Adolf Hitler helped advance the Fuhrer's "Final Solution" for the Jews and deny the latter refuge in their historic homeland. Incredibly, even the Holocaust Museum in Washington - a magnificent institution designed to serve as a conscience for all time - is in denial and contributing to the Oslo Syndrome: It refuses to include in its permanent exhibition anything about the Mufti's role in past Arab anti-Semitism, or to address manifestations of this form of systemic racism so evident in the Muslim world today. Dr. Levin notes in an article published at www.JewishPress.com that, "The ongoing Arab siege does cast a shadow over the lives of Israelis. At the same time, they have created a free, vibrant, extraordinarily successful society. It remains to be seen whether they are prepared to go on nurturing what they have built as they await changes in the Arab world that will open it to genuine peace, or they will instead, in their eagerness for 'normalcy' and an end to the siege, once more delude themselves into pursuing fantasies of peace that will threaten everything they have created." Or, he might have added, whether the U.S. government will, in its own act of self-delusion, encourage or compel Israel to do the latter? 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 |
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NO DOGS, MONKEYS OR JEWS ALLOWED
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 15, 2005. |
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It should be remembered that only a few months ago they were sending recruiters into Arab villages begging the Arabs to join up. This is all quite consistent, though. The Government of the State of Israel defines The Jews as the enemy and anyone else as a potential friend or ally. If you consider what is meant by right-winger and especially by right-wing extremist, you will find that what they mean is Jew. What does it mean to be right-wing in Israel? First, it means to believe and assert the right of the Jewish people to live in Israel. All of Israel. Furthermore it means to value our four thousand year old history, heritage and way of life. To be a right-wing extremist adds to all that to be a religious Jew as well. No wonder the Judenrat would rather have Arabs in their police than right-wingers. This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com (www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83901). It is called "Police Fear Disengagement Opponents May Volunteer." (IsraelNN.com) Police intelligence officials are warning a sharp increase in the number of right-wing volunteers for Mishmar Ezrachi auxiliary police duty may torpedo police plans regarding the Gaza/Shomron Disengagement Plan. Intelligence officials warn department commanders that volunteers may be feeding information to opponents of the plan, aware of police deployments and other tactical decisions, thereby facilitating anti-disengagement efforts. During the implementation phase of the expulsion, auxiliary police will replace regular police troops who will in many cases be deployed in the "inner circle" responsible for removing Gaza and northern Shomron residents from their homes. 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. |
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DEPAUL UNIVERSITY GETS SUED
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 15, 2005. |
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This appeared on the Discover the Network website
(discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/
depaul-gets-sued-for-suppressing-free.html).
The really interesting question we have is whether DePaul "University" will hire the Michael Jackson Defense Team or the OJ Team. Yes, DePaul "University" is getting sued by Thomas Klocek. We put the term in quotes because we do not think the heads of DePaul have any interest in maintaining academic standards, scholarly quality, or academic integrity, and until they change their minds they should not be considered a real university. Just to remind you of the background to all this, DePaul is a Chicago campus in which Norman Finkelstein, a notorious anti-Semite who has been described as a Holocaust Denier by the Anti-Defamation League, a pseudo-scholar whose anti-Jewish rants are carried by every neonazi web magazine on earth, is retained as an assistant professor of political science, but the very same university has fired Prof. Thomas Klocek because he dared answer back to radical student jihadniks handing out their propaganda on campus. Klocek was fired because the administration believes that he holds "incorrect opinions" about the Middle East. Klocek believes Israel has the right to exist and defend itself and that "Palestinians" are an artificial construct. Klocek was fired after talking back to anti-Israel campus activists in a manner his Dean thought was impolite. Meanwhile, Finkelstein is almost universally regarded as a Holocaust Denier, a Jewish traitor and anti-Semite, and at the very least a fraud and quack. His charlatan "scholarship" and neonazi ideas were recently documented at length by Harvard's Alan Dershowitz. Klocek, in contrast, is a serious and popular teacher, who was dismissed without a hearing because he offended some campus extremists. Depaul has some bizarre notions of free speech. While its President Dennis H. Holtschneider publicly defends the employment of Finkelstein as a professor, defends the operation on campus of a Bash-Israel propaganda show dressed up as an art exhibit and the performance on the Catholic University campus of the "Vagina Monologues", he has repeatedly denounced Klocek and defended the firing of Klocek because Klocek expressed politically incorrect views. This week a defamation suit was filed in Illinois. Cook County Chancery, charging that DePaul University and its leadership defamed Professor Thomas Klocek when DePaul publicly characterized arguments he presented to members of Palestinian and Muslim student groups as racist and bigoted. The suit seeks damages against DePaul for maligning Klocek's integrity and professional competence. The defendants named include: DePaul University, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider - President of DePaul, and Susan Dumbleton - Dean of DePaul's School for New Learning. The case was assigned to Judge David Donnersberger. Holtschneider has been denounced by David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE): "DePaul has unquestionably violated Professor Klocek's due process rights, and the university did so because his statements were offensive to the students. While DePaul may now argue that the issue is one of professionalism, its public statements at the time of Klocek's punishment make it clear that Klocek's real crime was offending students during an out-of-class discussion of a controversial and emotional topic. Academic freedom cannot survive when professors who engage in debate on controversial topics are subject to administrative punishment without even the most cursory due process." Rev. Dennis Holtschneider contacted media outlets across the country to slander Klocek and even publicly tried to make Klocek's health an issue. A letter of his was published in April 9, 2005 edition of The Rocky Mountain News, where Holtschneider wrote, "Last September, Klocek acted in a belligerent and menacing manner toward students who were passing out literature at a table in the cafeteria. He raised his voice, threw pamphlets at students, pointed his finger near their faces and displayed a gesture interpreted as obscene.. DePaul offered to give Klocek a spring quarter class assignment if he met with the students to apologize for his behavior and if the program director could drop by his class to ensure that the health issues that affected his teaching were resolved. He refused." We suspect the jury members from the Michael Jackson trial might believe Holtschneider's version of the events. Funny how Holtschneider does not think that Finkelstein should have his own (mental) health evaluated by a good shrink before being allowed to abuse DePaul students with his politicized in-class propagandizing against Jews. For more details about the suit, visit our good friends at http://marathonpundit.blogspot.com/. Wanna tell Holtschneider what YOU think? His email address is dholtsch@depaul.edu. 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. |
| GUSH KATIF |
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 15, 2005. |
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Friends, The continued insanity of the Israeli government's plans to throw out the peaceful, productive farmers of Gush Katif and turn the keys of their homes and hothouses over to Palestinian terrorists, continues. Of course, it is Shimon Peres who is still coming up with all the "good" ideas. Why not arrange for Holland to buy the hothouses and give them as a present to the Palestinian Authority? Holland was interested. Why is Mr. Peres so worried about this matter? Can it be that he fears the injustice in depriving Jews of their hard-won livelihood, since the present plan does not call for the government to compensate farmers for their business, only for their equipment? Well, no. Mr. Peres is afraid that the Jews might dismantle their hothouses and equipment and take it with them, setting up their businesses elsewhere. Now, you might think, so what's the problem in that? Apparently, Mr. Peres doesn't agree with you. He is "hot" to make sure that settlers leave with nothing, and that Palestinians( who sat on their butts building bombs while the farmers of Gush Katif rose at six a..m. and went to sleep at 2 a.m. nuturing prize-winning produce that brought millions of tax dollars into Israel, and employed thousands of Palestinians) get not only Jewish homes on a silver platter, but their businesses as well. Holland, who was initially interested in making this magnanimous gesture of goodwill to the Palestinians, now hesitates. The reason: They don't want to make the Palestinians angry (!). This is what passes for public policy in the state of insanity thats pretending to be the State of Israel. MK Tippy Livni (Likud) thinks that Israel should hire Palestinian contractors and pay them to demolish Jewish homes in Gush Katif... I'm not making this up. I'm reading it in today's paper... It makes me want to laugh. Or cry. Naomi Ragen Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
| GUSH KATIF |
MK ARYEH ELDAD: SA-NUR WILL BE THE STALINGRAD OF SAMARIA
Posted by Marlene Young, June 14, 2005. |
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This article was written by Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent and it appeared in Haaretz today. Thousands attended an assembly Tuesday to mark the absorption of 20 new families in the northern West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur, which is slated for evacuation. Twelve families on Tuesday joined eight others that had moved to the settlement in recent weeks, pitching tents in a makeshift campsite. "Tens of thousands will come to Homesh and Sa-Nur in northern Samaria," MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) told the crowd. "They won't care about any law. No fence will stop them. Nor the security cordons of the police and army," he said. "Every struggle has its name. This place will be called Samaria's 'ad halom,'" Eldad said, referring to the line south of Ashdod where Israeli troops halted the Egyptian army in the 1948 War of Independence. "It will not be Masada, heaven forbid. It will be the Stalingrad of Samaria. Sa-Nur will not be removed from here. Tens of thousands will tell Sharon's evil regime: 'That's it.' We have the power to stop him and we will indeed do so," he said. There are now 58 families living in Sa-Nur; most of the residents left at the start of the intifada. Eldad moved there a few months ago. Yossi Dagan, a member of the original founding group that reestablished Sa-Nur, said the families' move to Sa-Nur is a stage in the struggle, and certainly not its high point. "Dozens more families will come to live here. The campsites we have prepared can take in hundreds more. There is a tremendous flow of requests, and we cannot accede to them all," Dagan said. If the Israel Defense Forces closes the area, Dagan said, masses will come to the settlement on foot. "Such a mass of people will cause all of the thoughts about uprooting to be mooted," he said. Another new resident who spoke at the assembly was a former MK, Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, the head of the Nir yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, who moved to Sa-Nur with 25 of his students several months ago. Waldman said that settling in Sa-Nur, like everywhere in the land of Israel, is realizing the sanctification of God's name. "Woe be it to whoever dares interfere with the sanctification of God's name in his world. In the past, when the people of Israel was not in the land, the land was cursed, and it will again be cursed if we are expelled from here," Waldman said. Also on Tuesday, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox worshipers took part in an anti-disengagement prayer assembly at the Western Wall. Some worshipers wore sackcloths and blew shofars in a plea for the "expulsion plan" to be canceled. The event was organized by several ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including Yaakov Yosef, the son of Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef, and Zalman Goldberg, who presides over the rabbinical court in Jerusalem. Contact Marlene Young by email at marleneyoung1@yahoo.com |
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INTIMIDATED BY EXTREMISTS
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 14, 2005. |
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This is an interesting article. Muslims have ranted and rioted to the point the everyone is careful to respect Islam and its icons but Muslim destroy Jewish and Christian and Buddhist and Hindu religious objects with impunity. The author seems to have enough political correctness conditioning left so she writes that it is only the extremist Muslims who behave like this. Did anyone ask the Arabs who destroyed Joseph's tomb whether they were extremists or just ordinary Arab kids? Did anyone interview the Arabs dancing in the streets in the Gaza strip and in Patterson, New Jersey just after 9/11 to find out whether they thought they were extremists or just plain run-of-the-mill Arabs? And if they answered they were ordinary Arabs, wouldn't that mean the ordinary Arab is an extremist? This was written by Frida Ghitis, the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." It appeared June 2, 2005 in the International Herald Tribune (www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/31/news/edghitis.php). ATLANTA One day, when historians study this first major war of the 21st century, they will scratch their heads in disbelief, wondering how it came to pass that Muslim extremists managed to intimidate moderates of every religion - including Islam - on every continent on earth. The whole planet, it seems, twisted itself into knots trying to untangle the forces at work behind the retracted Newsweek story about desecration of the Koran. Journalistic practices came under attack, while experts on Islam tried to soothe the less erudite, not quite justifying, but more than thoroughly explaining why desecration of the Holy Book leads to mob rampage and murder in a Muslim society. No question, insulting any religion is beyond reprehensible. It appears, however, that nothing is more reprehensible than insulting the Muslim religion. And the extremists now decide what constitutes an insult. In Pakistan, a Muslim nation whose president Muslim extremists have twice tried to assassinate, Islamists have decided that women's sports constitute a grievous offense to Islam. Some women, it turns out, find the idea of using Islam to repress them itself quite offensive. So, when the government of President Pervez Musharraf, which lately bends to the will of extremists, placed bans on women's rights, women decided to stage a protest A leading Pakistani human rights activist, Asma Jahangir, was brutally attacked by the police during the peaceful demonstration. Participants in the "mini-marathon," a kind of sports event/political protest, came under violent police assault. This from a key U.S. ally, a government presumably fighting to defeat Islamist extremists. A fine way to strengthen the moderates! And speaking of moderates, and of respect for religion, consider the official sermon on Palestinian Authority television, which is financed largely by the contributions of democratic countries in the West, shown to viewers on May 13. Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris explained that "the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS." This man of God told the faithful that "the stones and the trees will want every Muslim to finish off every Jew," and he predicted that "the day will come when we (Muslims) will rule the entire world again." With the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, on his way to the United States, the authority did not want such notions to dominate the headlines, so it took a stand against the imam. But this kind of rhetoric by religious figures goes unchallenged every day in much of the Middle East, including so-called moderate countries friendly to Washington. Even in Africa, moderate governments behave timidly before mob-stoking Islamists. Muslim radicals in Nigeria a few years ago whipped the masses into a murderous frenzy days before the scheduled Miss World Pageant, all because a newspaper columnist speculated, tongue in cheek, that the Prophet Muhammad might have taken the winning contestant as his wife. Frenzied Muslims killed 220 Nigerians to defend Islam from such an insult. Nigeria's moderate president accused the media of insensitivity and blamed the riots on "irresponsible" journalists. We can add the 220 to the hundreds who have died in protests against other affronts to symbols of Islam. While Muslim moderates get swept away by the tide of extremism, unprotected by so-called moderate governments, the rest of the world frets in well-intentioned angst. Moderates everywhere now seem terrified of making missteps that might upset the extremists, while they obsess over the question, "What can we do to avoid offending Muslims?" Standing Pentagon orders instruct those touching the Koran that "clean gloves will be put on" and that "two hands will be used at all times." Let me say it again: Disrespecting the Koran or Islam or any other religion is contemptible behavior. If American soldiers do it, it is particularly egregious because the United States self-righteously argues for more tolerance in the Muslim world. But tolerance must be demanded from all sides. The views and life choices of moderate Muslims must be respected, as must those of people of all religions, by members of all religions. The demands fall on Muslims, too. And the requirement of standing up against intolerance falls on all governments. Only intolerance is undeserving of tolerance. |
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A BULLDOZED MOSQUE IGNORED BY THE MOONBATS; THE WASHPOST: AL-JAZEERA ON THE POTOMAC?
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 14, 2005. |
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1. A Bulldozed Mosque the Moonbats are Ignoring The lib'ruh media have been having so much fun wringing their hands over make-pretend and retracted stories about evil Westerners mistreating Moslems and the Qoran that they have overlooked one fantastic story. It seems that Zimbabwe's murderous moonbat dictator has destroyed a mosque. Yes, Mark Steyn, in the Washington Times, reports that in his campaign to bulldoze as many homes of Zimbabwe's population as possible, Bobby Mugabe ordered that a mosque be destroyed, in Hatcliffe Extension, a shantytown on the edge of Harare. It was razed by the "police." Mugabe also bulldozed a Catholic-run Aids center. Not a word from Newsweek. No Pakistani rioters trashing Westerners. No calls from the Baathist URUKNET to destroy the "Crusaders". And only a matter of a hours before Counterpunch blames Dem Joos for the destroyed Zimbabwe Mosque. (We are waiting for Al Cockburn to take his whole crew to Zimbabwe to experience "obesity tourism", enjoying the complete absence of nutrition in the country! They can use the time off down there to denounce capitalism.) 2. Washington Post - Al-Jazeera on the Potomac? The Washington Post should really be renamed Al-Jazeera on the Potomac, at least when it comes to the Middle East. Our good friends over at the "Eye on the Post" blog have been doing an excellent job in documenting naked bias at the Post. But this weekend the Post outdid itself. As you recall, a few days ago the PLO once again demonstrated its commitment to peace and tranquility and democratization by executing a group of Palestinians it accused of "collaborating with Israel." All those Moonbats who love to wail about imaginary abuses of the human rights of Arabs by Israel had nothing to say about this latest atrocity against innocent Arab civilians. How come the ISM latte-sippers were not serving as human shields for the victims? Now never mind that the whole Oslo peace process was supposedly about how the PLO had agreed to collaborate with Israel to suppress terrorism and calm the region. Even officials for the PLO themselves admitted that the executed people were actually all innocent. They were executed by the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas gave his approval. But none of that matters for the Washington Post. The Washington Post used an AP report on the story, but changed the language to make it look like Israel was to blame for the atrocity! The Post then went on to bemoan Israel's assassination of a leading Islamist terrorist last week, but neglected to mention the sorts of atrocities the perp had aleady committed and was still planning. The "Eye on the Post" folks define their mission: "EyeOnThePost.Org, the operating name for Eye On The Post, Inc., was formed as a result of The Washington Post's skewed coverage of news in the Middle East. The catalyst was The Washington Post's false reporting of a massacre in Jenin by the Israeli Defense Forces following the Passover bombings in April, 2002. Palestinians, aided by reporters looking for ... indeed hoping for ... a story of mass atrocities committed by Israel's military, fabricated a web of lies. Not only did all of these false news articles prove to have been lies, but the truth that eventually seeped out was that Israel's defense forces went out of their way to spare civilian lives at a substantial cost of an excessive loss of their own lives. The Post never effectively apologized, and it never adequately reported the humanitarian measures actually taken by the IDF to avoid excessive loss of Palestinian civilian lives. " Meanwhile it was revealed that Arab terrorists are trying a new tactic - wrapping explosives around the bodies of babies. Really. It was reported that the leader of a Syrian terrorist cell who was killed in a confrontation with security forces last week had planned to wrap explosives around the body of a one-year-old baby before placing her in the Justice Ministry, the girl's grandmother was quoted Sunday as saying. The grandmother, identified only by her first name, Zarifa, said her son, Ahmed, the baby's father, had died while planting a roadside bomb on the Damascus-Zabadani road in late January, according to the Al-Thawra newspaper. The story did not interest the Washington Post. 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. |
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EVACUATION LIABLE TO FATALLY DAMAGE WATER
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 14, 2005. |
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I read this in Israel Behind the News (israelbehindthenews.com/Archives/Jun-08-05.htm). It was written by Ben Caspit, Ma'ariv correspondent and it appeared in Ma'ariv June 8, 2005. The Arabs have already mucked up the water in Gaza. The potential water problem is even more extensive than this article indicates. Moreover, this article says that Israel will need to desalinate some 50 million cubic foot per year. That's interesting because the desalination plant Israel built is years behind schedule - it's sort of like Boston's 'big dig' - the end point keeps receding. Read about the importance of the aquifers and the water sources in the articles by Wulfsohn and Sherman in the March-April issue of Think-Israel. You'll find entry to them on the front page. "The implementation of the disengagement plan in northern Samaria will make it possible for the Palestinians - on the assumption that there is no coordination and agreement with Israel - to pump 50 million cubic meters of water a year for households and agriculture. This will fatally damage the Israeli water system in the Gilboa, Harod and Beit Shean region," says Dr. Yosef Draizin, director of the planning department in the Water Commission, in an official document that he wrote and gave to Water Commissioner Shimon Tal. The document, which Dr. Draizin wrote in July 2004, states "all this time the sides have held ongoing contacts on water and sewage, they have coordinated and acted in agreement, in accordance with the chapter on water written in agreements. The practical implementation of disengagement is liable to be reflected in unilateral Palestinian actions, and they may allow themselves to take actions that until now they refrained from doing either willingly or because of Israeli control on the ground." Dr. Draizin states, "the Palestinian water plans are far-reaching insofar as utilizing natural water resources, mainly the mountain river basins. They consider this, along with the Jordan River sources, as having the potential of up to 700 million cubic meters a year as a right given them along with control on the ground." Analyzing the "fatal" damage to the Israeli water system, Draizin writes, "this damage will be seen, directly, in a shortage of 50 million cubic meters a year, along with a significant rise in the salinity of a good many of the wells and springs in the valleys." Draizin also wrote, "it is important to note that not coming up with alternatives for the water in the region will cause the collapse of the system and the residential/agricultural/tourist/economic fabric. The ramifications of unilateral disengagement, or our consent to conceding our rights to water from the mountain aquifer in all of Judea and Samaria, are even more far reaching." Draizin analyzes the various significances to the water system: "The significance on the national level is that it will lose a central and high quality source. We estimate that losing the mountain aquifer can be offset, beyond the direct quantity, by desalinating 50 to 300 million cubic meters. relying so massively on artificial sources constitutes a very significant strategic risk, when it comes to water. We estimate that under present conditions, it will be necessary to desalinate up to 500 million cubic meters to meet Israel's needs up until 2020." The document is based on the assumption that Israel will lose security control of the area that it evacuates in northern Samaria, something that is denied by the Prime Minister's Bureau. The Prime Minister's Bureau commented that this warning is not relevant because according to the disengagement plan, Israel will retain security control of the area evacuated in northern Samaria. Water Commissioner Shimon Tal told Ma'ariv yesterday: "Indeed, every cubic meter of water pumped from the Judea and Samaria mountain ridge is at Israel's expense, either in water or in the salinity of the underground water table. Our position was presented to all the officials." When he was asked if Israel were not, in fact, about to lose control, he said: "Yes, and if we keep control of the area, then seemingly there will not be a problem." |
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A FAILED MORAL POLICY WITHOUT RATIONAL SENSE
Posted by Women in Green, June 14, 2005. |
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This was written by Christopher Barder, Associate Editor of Nativ Online.
It is well enough known among commentators that there has never ever been a clear public Arabic pronouncement from any Palestinian figure that there would be a disarmament policy to create a civil society based on friendship and mutual regard and respect towards the Jewish neighbours. The agreements which flowed cheaply and readily, along with human blood, from the exchange of letters and Declaration of Principles on through Wye River and the rest, were always based on bribery: "peace" for land. There was already therefore a flawed logic based on an entirely wrong interpretation of UNSCRs 242 and 338, and based on the hideous premise that a whole people would not be attacked if they gave up the houses and communities, built on land they had rightly obtained for development but never actually annexed, as a consequence of it being given to them under international law, given away illegally by the Mandate power, and re-used for waging war crimes against its original beneficiaries by the Arabs to whom it was illegally ceded by that Mandate power. The consequence of nearly perpetual low intensity conflict and of full scale wars waged for genocidal purposes by Arab states and terror organisations, it must not be forgotten, (at least four of these full scale assaults) was to demand in every international forum and conference, surrender of strategic and essential positions gained in the wars by Israel, to undo the effects of gambling on the use of force by enemy powers rejecting UN intentions, those of the great powers and those of international law - just because the Muslims did not want Jewish sovereignty exercised in the region. Logically therefore it is absurd to expect to see a real and profound change in this equation. If pre 1967 Jewish statehood was unacceptable, what has changed, and among whom? The late Professor Harkabi suggested that Arab military defeats had forced realistic changes in Arab strategic thinking. What now that Israel has advocated and practised retreat? What now that the Plan of Stages (1974) has been seen to work and become acceptable to Israeli leaders? What now that Shimon Peres et al decry history and Yossi Beilin and others talk of a state of all its citizens? What kind of rethinking among its enemies would this all induce? In truth, there never was a real revision either in tactics or in strategy. There were variations in means concerning only how many attacks on civilians and where, with what intensity, among Arab groups and with what backers (Hizb'allah, Hamas, Damascus, Lebanon, Iran, Tunis - similar pieces reshuffled). Why should anyone imagine that there would be a policy of disarming those wishing to fight enemies? There is no precedent for this and when Abu Mazen, Mr. Abbas, has said that attacks damage the Palestinian cause, he is only mouthing what might be true if the Four and the Sharon government made it so. If not, then not. Yet the whole purpose of the Oslo process and of dialogue was to prevent a hostile force on Israel's frontiers and to allow Arab policing and autonomy to turn its populations away from hostility and from lawlessness and violence. Repeatedly we have been told that Palestinians will not do the dirty work for the Israelis, meaning that arresting and sentencing violent men of hatred by due process is "dirty work". This failure has been blamed and excused on the basis that a Jewish presence of any kind is an "occupation". Jewish security forces and communities are an occupation. Their presence, unlike in any other place in the world aspiring to civil order and the rule of law, justifies crimes of violence, racism and genocide, supported by the ruling junta or cadre, indeed inspired by it. As a sign of the necessity to negotiate (what exactly?) the world accepts the Jews should discuss while being shot at and blown up. And the Israeli government accepts this. What is it about the history of the last 60 years that says that Arab enmity and murder will stop? Not even the Partition Plan was acceptable to them. What was it about the 1967 defeat of Islam that made it less hostile or do we interpret more accurately Shiite post Khomeini teaching as a response to that defeat and as an encouragement to redouble Muslim adherence and efforts against Israel? When Hizb'allah influence in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza region is greater than ever before and Hamas makes huge gains including regular discussions with British officials, exactly why should the PA disarm such groups until such time as an internal war breaks out among Palestinian factions? And if the PA cannot then it is unfit to act as a representative and effective negotiating partner for Israel. If it will not, then the same holds true. Either it demonstrates that it wants peace by its actions, teaching and police work, or Israel cannot withdraw. That the PA publicly says it will not, is to demand of Israel that it gambles on a revolution in outlook, religious philosophy and public policy among the Palestinians after it has abandoned all its strategic gains, water resources and cultural, spiritual and moral position in the hope, running against all history and rules of negotiation and sense (never to negotiate from weakness or declaration of surrender in advance). In other words, the withdrawal from Gaza is part of an absurd and irrational gamble unsubstantiated by any feature of history or philosophy, or strategic analysis. As such it is immoral, irresponsible and cruel to thousands. 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 |
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PERES THE PROBLEM: CROWD-CONTROL VS. TROOP-CONTROL; US JUDGE ON TERROR
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 14, 2005. |
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HOW ARABS DON'T KEEP DEALS (by another means) The P.A. Prisons Minister reportedly promised Israel it would not Arabs imprisoned for having cooperated with Israel against terrorism. The P.A. Civil Affairs Minister denied there was such a deal and pressed for executions (IMRA, 5/31). The Arabs break their agreements with Israel (as we've proved in earlier pieces, and as the existence of terrorist organizations 12 years after Oslo attests). Sometimes they just don't comply, while complaining to the receptive international press that Israel is not still complying. They keep getting away with that deceit. The "international community," to which people urge Israel to kowtow, indulgently urges the P.A. to "try harder." The P.A. knows that the world doesn't care. And the usual protestors against capital punishment seem to indulge the Arabs. At other times, one Arab official makes an agreement with Israel or with some other country, and another denies there is a deal or that the first official had authority to make it. Sometimes the initial announcement is made for the favorable publicity it would receive, and with the knowledge that the repudiation would not generate unfavorable publicity. Arab deceit leads a charmed life. JERUSALEM POST MISINFORMS READERS According to the Egypt-Israel treaty, the Jerusalem Post explained, Egypt is allowed a limited number of police to patrol the Sinai border. Therefore, for Egypt to intercept smuggling, it would need to be allowed to add a large number of heavily armed army troops. PM Sharon is giving Egypt permission to bring in those troops. (He does not have the right by himself to undo Israel's treaty protection from Egyptian militarization of the Sinai. He seems to be acting illegally, again.) The "Post" is mistaken. The treaty allows an unlimited number of police with assault rifles and body armor (but not heavily armed army troops). The "Post" and much of the media cannot grasp this point. Either they don't read the treaty or they won't admit the truth (IMRA, 5/31). Why the Egypt-Sharon deceit? Egypt's motive could be to militarize the Sinai, to facilitate future invasion of Israel. Sharon is said not to challenge Egypt, lest it be seen that the arms smuggling would continue and without the curbs put on it by the presence of IDF troops. NEXT, SHARON TO RELEASE PRISONERS WHO DREW BLOOD After having released 900 imprisoned terrorists but rationalizing that it is not abhorrent because they didn't have "blood on their hands," now PM Sharon plans to release prisoners with "blood on their hands." These are old comrades of Abbas (IMRA, 5/31). Terrorists who were known to have harmed innocent Israelis and convicted terrorists not known to have done so are not much different. The distinction made between them is the usual sophistry. The usual Israeli governmental ruse is first to release some prisoners but deny that ones who drew blood would be included. Then, after the P.A. complains and the US urges (orders?) Israel to further to bolster Abbas' rule, Israel releases the other prisoners. Why such solicitousness over an unrepentant Abbas, who is threatening a resumption of terrorism? These releases enable the terrorists to hold up the "v" sign. PERES GETS MONEY TO P.A. VPM Peres persuaded India to donate $15 million to the P.A. to deprive terrorism of what he called economic motivation. However, since the P.A. explains it has used, and will use, terrorism to achieve its goals, poverty is not the problem (IMRA, 6/1). Peres is the problem. WHOM THEY CALLED MODERATE The next President of Iran is likely to be Mr. Rafsanjani. His record includes: (1) Denouncing terrorism and governmental sponsors, but depicting the US as such, for having built up al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to oppose the USSR. Touché!; (2) Accusing the US of defaming Islam and drumming up war, because it was unable to detect who was behind 9/11; (3) Warning the US against trying to contain Iran and influence other Islamic states; (4) Terming the US campaign against Iran's "peaceful nuclear activities" as war on Islam; (5) But saying that if the world of Islam acquires nuclear weapons, it would leave Israel in ashes; (6) Wanting to destroy Israel and disperse its Jews;(6) Praising Hamas head Yassin for having been "martyred by the most merciless anti-freedom and inhumane criminals," the Israelis; (7) Explaining that the P.A. jihad is in "the forefront of global jihad and is the mother of many Islamic movements." Many Westerners have labeled Mr. Rafsanjani a moderate. How mistaken! (Steven Stalinsky of MEMRI, NY Sun, 6/8, p.8). The Western press had called Arafat, Abbas, Khatami, and Egypt, all pro-terrorist, "moderate." It is an occupational deficiency. The point is not which Islamists are behind 9/11 but that they all are gunning for us. CROWD CONTROL Sometimes Israeli MKs and other citizens protest against the government's measures of defense against the Arabs. Behind them, Arabs (or was it International Solidarity Movement) take advantage of their presence to throw stones at Israeli troops. One stone struck a soldier in the eye. He is losing that eye. The troops need better measures of crowd control (IMRA, 6/4). It is difficult for a government to do its duty, when such action may harm the malefactors. The media criticizes the government if it harms rioters. But it also criticizes the government for not stopping rioters. Perhaps governments should hold a series of town meetings and ask the public what it wants, law or disorder. Spending with taxes now, spending with deficits that spell taxes later, or less spending? If less spending, spend less on what? U.S. DEMANDS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN EGYPT The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has issued a list of demands for replacing oppression and defamation of other religions in Egypt with tolerance and positive treatment. The demands are backed by the suggestion that reform be made a condition for continued US aid to Egypt (IMRA, 6/4). SIGNIFICANCE OF DELAY IN P.A. ELECTIONS The US media has interpreted Abbas' indefinite postponement of P.A. elections as attempting to gain time in order to gain votes. By deferring elections until after Israel's scheduled abandonment of territory to the P.A., Abbas would take credit for the abandonment. Dr. Aaron Lerner has an additional interpretation. If Hamas became a major political party before abandonment, more Israelis would realize the danger in which abandonment would put them. They would oppose it. They might defeat it, hence Abbas delays the election. (IMRA, 6/4). If Dr. Lerner be right, then while Israel strengthens the Abbas regime, Abbas strengthens the Sharon regime. Now why would supposed enemies do that, if they are faithful to their own people? The answer is that the Sharon regime is not faithful to its own people. Hence it strengthens the immediate enemy at the behest of its State Dept. nemesis, and Abbas is willing to reinforce Sharon's plans that weaken Israel. COURT REJECTS ARAB RATIONALIZATION In the trial of Prof. Al-Arian, the judge ruled out a defense argument that Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacks were justified by Israeli military actions and that defendants cuold be considered 'lawful combatants' under international law because some Islamic Jihad operations target Israeli military personnel in the Territories (Josh Gerstein, NY Sun, 6/6, p.1). Terrorism is the deliberate attack on civilians, for political (or religious) purposes. Arab terrorists commit other crimes against humanity, by deliberately endangering their own civilians and by using ambulances to ferry terrorists and munitions. The Arabs try to rationalize that their attacks on civilians are not terrorism, because, they contend falsely, they are under military occupation. That rationalization at best would justify attacking the Israeli military, not civilians. The Arabs also rationalize that they are not attacking civilians, because some of the people they attack once were, or some day may become, soldiers. The Arab deceit in this is transparent. But they offer it seriously. Perhaps they are too used to their offensive nonsense being condoned by a world that is truckling under to them and has no use for Jews. Under the rationalization that a gunman is not a terrorist because sometimes he attacks troops, Hizbullah would not be terrorist. But Hizbullah still launches rockets against Israeli cities and gratuitously so. To the media, the terrorists offer a pretext for their attack, as retaliation for some Israeli action, as if they are the ones with the grievance and not Israel, which really was retaliating. They can count on the media to repeat their pretext, leaving readers to suppose that those terrorists, whom the media sanitizes by calling them "militants," have a reasonable gripe. RUSSIA BUILDING UP SYRIA People thought that Israel safely could cede the Golan to Syria, which would gain a tremendous advantage in any future war with Israel. The reason Israel could do this, they explained, was that Syria was overburdened with debt for past, aging arms, and could not afford to rearm. The problem with such analysis is that it assumes that current condition will persist. Life is more dynamic than that. Indeed, Russia has extended its write-off of Syria's debt to 73% of that debt. Russia will sell Syria new arms, and will invest in Syria's energy resources (IMRA, 6/1). The Golan was incorporated into Israel. It traditionally is Jewish. It contains much of Israel's water supply, as well as strategic heights and a natural tank trap. It would be unseemly and foolish to cede it to Syria. One cannot buy peace from fanatics. Talk to those who argue that Syria couldn't make war again. Tell them that in that case, there logically is no need to offer Syria anything. Of course, if one has to offer something to an aggressor state to make peace, and that something facilitates further aggression, one is tempting further aggression. "BURST OF ARAB-ISRAELI VIOLENCE SHATTERS A TIME OF CALM" Arab terrorists fired rockets at Israeli towns in Gaza and in the State of Israel, this time, killing and wounding Arab laborers. Hamas pledged continued commitment to the "truce," "But our commitment doesn't mean that we won't respond to any Zionist crime using whatever means we find suitable in any time and in any place." He was referring to a fatal Israeli attempt to arrest a terrorist planning an attack and to Israelis visiting the Temple Mount on the day commemorating its libereation (NY Times, 5/8, A3). Is Israeli defense a "Zionist crime?" Is firing at civilians not and Arab crime? If the Arabs stopped making war, there would be no retaliations. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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DEFINING THE ENEMY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 14, 2005. |
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It is a well accepted principle that a sovereign nation defends its security forces against legal harassment by its enemies and hold them responsible for abuse of power against its citizens. What has not been generally understood (or by some deliberately misunderstood) is that the Government of the State of Israel defines The Jews as the enemy and anyone else as a potential friend or ally. Shimon Peres said as much when he lost his bid to be elected Prime Minister. He said that the Israelis had lost and the Jews had won. The EREV RAV who make up Israeli's ruling elite hate Jews and anything associated with the Jewish people. All their efforts are to destroy the Jews and replace us with a fantasy people called "Israelis." Israelis no more exist as a real people than do the "Palestinians." Both are invented entities and were invented to facilitate the same goal; destruction of the Jewish nation. Thus it is no great wonder that the Sharon Junta oppressors of Israel go to great efforts to protect their Arab soul brothers and at the same time declare open hunting season on the Jews. This is from IMRA (www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25585) and is a reprint with comments of an article called "State to shield IDF, police from settler lawsuits" written by Yuval Yoaz and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents. The original appeared in Haaretz and is archived at www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/587338.html Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of Independent Media Review and Analsis (IMRA). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il The Police and soldiers to enjoy no financial liability if they beat disengagement opponents or destroy their property? [IMRA: It would appear from the reports today that while soldiers and police who illegally beat disengagement opponents or detroy their property may still face the risk of criminal prosecution that they no longer have any financial exposure. It should be noted that there are IDF soldiers who have spent the life savings of their families defending themselves in court cases filed against them by Palestinians.] The state will accept legal responsibility for all actions undertaken by security forces during evacuations and other confrontations with settlers and their supporters, thus shielding soldiers and police from lawsuits by the settlers, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced Sunday. Recently, settlers have filed five civil suits, naming security forces personnel as defendants. A Justice Ministry spokesman said Sunday that the state will take full responsibility for all actions of security forces while on duty. The justice system will thus take all processes to represent security forcees personnel who are sued, and will handle all suits "such that security forces will not be harassed by bogus suits of this type," the spokesman said. 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. |
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HOW THE WASHINGTON POST MISREPORTS MIDDLE EAST NEWS
Posted by Eye on the Post, June 13, 2005. |
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1. GENERAL APPROACH: The Washington Post consistently
mischaracterizes the Arab-Israeli conflict as: (1) primarily a dispute
over land in the West Bank and Gaza, rather than what is, in reality,
a continuing attempt by the Arabs to annihilate Israel that began long
before Israel was in control of the West Bank and Gaza; (2) then,
mischaracterizes the land as "Palestinian land," illegally
occupied by Israel, instead of disputed territory to which Israel has
legitimate claims; and, (3) finally, mischaracterizes Israel's
military and security tactics as inhumane and in violation of
international norms, when they are probably the most protective of
human rights in the history of warfare. All three of these fundamental
mischaracter izations by The Post are developed in more detail below.
2. NATURE OF THE STRUGGLE: In mischaracterizing the nature of the struggle as being over land in the West Bank and Gaza, rather than a continuing Arab campaign to annihilate Israel's Jews, the Post has withheld many facts. Some of the non-reported facts include:
All of these unreported facts are inconsistent with the presumptions inherent in all of The Post's stories and editorials that the Palestinians are willing to accept a settlement based on two states peacefully coexisting, side-by-side. These presumptions are also at variance with the historical record, of which the following are significant events:
3. TERRITORIAL DISPUTE: Having transformed the struggle from one in which Arabs have continuously attempted to commit genocide against the Jews of Israel to one falsely depicting the land in the West Bank and Gaza as the source of the conflict, the Post then mischaracterizes that land as indisputably "Palestinian land" by (a) falsely claiming that Israel illegally "seized and occupied" that land and violates the "boundaries" contained in the 1949 Armistice agreements, and (b) falsely suggesting that Israel had no presence in those territories before the 1967 war and dispossessed Palestinians to build its settlements. The following historical facts are what The Post fails to disclose:
The need for accuracy by The Post in reporting on the territorial dispute is all the more pressing because of the public's (and sometimes the reporters') misperception that the regional title "Palestine" means that the land originally belonged to Palestinians and was taken away from them. Few people are aware that the term "Palestinian," as used in the first half of the 20th century, referred generally to the Jewish population of British Mandatory Palestine, and that it's use as a label for Arab people living in the region is only of recent vintage. 4. ISRAELI TACTICS: As for Israel's military tactics, they are more precise than any in history in targeting not merely combatants, but those terrorists who actually participated in the murders of Israelis, while seeking to spare civilians. The Post's articles, on the other hand, focus on the relatively few civilian casualties, suggest that it is possible to be 100% accurate and suggest that Israel is inhumane in not preventing all civilian casualties. With regard to those civilian casualties, the Post pretends that Israel's conduct in inflicting those unintentional casualties is more heinous than the deliberate murders of Israeli civilians by the Palestinians. The Post's major technique is to flood the paper with human interest stories and photos of Palestinian victims, while virtually ignoring Israeli victims, even though the former became victims by accident and the latter were deliberately targeted for killing (with attendant celebrations by Palestinians ... usually unreported by The Post). 5. THE POST'S METHODS: In numerous ways, both consistent with and in addition to the general methodology summarized above, the Post's journalists regularly denigrate Israel's leaders, Israel's actions and Israel's motives, while at the same time promoting those of the Palestinians, including their most notorious terrorists, who it never labels as such, nor their deeds as "terrorism," no matter how heinous. The most blatant offenders among news reporters are Molly Moore and John Ward Anderson and among columnists, Jackson Diehl and Jim Hoagland. The Post's prior Middle East reporter, Glenn Frankel, who now only occasionally writes on Israel, uses somewhat more subtlety. Rather than improve, The Post's anti-Israel bias has only worsened over the years. We are a grassroots organizations with limited resources and we need your help to continue our operations. If you believe we are performing a valuable service, please make a contribution by credit card online at http://www.EyeOnThePost.org/funding.html or send your check to: EyeOnThePost, Inc.
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THE MEDIA AND SHARON
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 13, 2005. |
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This was written by Sarah Honig and it appeared June 9, 2005 in the Jerusalem Post. It is entitled "Trained Press Pooches" and it's archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ Printer&cid=1118283814118&p=1006953079897 Back in 1998 I quoted airwaves queenpin Shelly Yehimovich, who predicted with unerring accuracy that "the media will enlist in its entirety to topple Binyamin Netanyahu from the office of prime minister. It did so in the past and will continue to do so in future." Yehimovich wasn't journalism's rare Netanyahu groupie but one baying for his blood as ferociously as any of the reporter-rottweilers on his scent. She ran with their pack herself, yet saw no reason to disguise its objectives and feign sanctimonious objectivity. She's still every bit as candid. In a recent Yediot op-ed Yehimovich notes that nowadays democracy's watchdogs - the mass media - provide obedient defense to Ariel Sharon. She likened her colleagues to "the PM's cheerleaders," contending they obligingly turn a blind eye to his corruption and to social wrongs sanctioned under his aegis. He has become invulnerable, she argues, ever since his conversion to their creed of disengagement (de-facto immunity constituting a cogent enough reason for him to convert). The end justifies all means, as folks short on scruples have always known. An avowed pullout proponent herself, Yehimovich nevertheless brands disengagement "a plague, precipitating enthused absolute mobilization of the press to offer wall-to-wall protection to a corrupt premier so long as he performs for us - the largely leftist press - the menial task of ridding us of the settlers. At the end of the day we'll remain without Gaza's settlements but with a slew of statistics we hadn't time for because we were busy prioritizing and dwelling on things ostensibly more important. Consequently, we'll be left wallowing in the mire of a country dominated by two distinct banana republic traits: a very low honesty threshold and maddening gaps between rich and poor. Long live disengagement!" I couldn't have said it any better. Israeli democracy's watchdogs are indeed a mutant breed of their own. Never expect them to protect the public, sniff out malfeasance, or woof against abuse of power. OUR TRAINED press pooches boast a selective agenda, intimidating those against whom they've been predisposed with a horrific display of hostility, replete with ear-splitting persisting barks, menacing growls, and snapping at the unfortunate intruder's heels. But the very same terror-striking canines will jump for joy, lick the faces of "their people" and fetch the frisbees they toss. Hence the careless confession of bias by Channel 2's Amnon Abramowitz should hardly have caused the commotion it did. He revealed nothing we didn't already know. The only surprise lies in the very fact that he dropped the mask of professional propriety and for once owned up to the truth. Sharon, explained our hotshot to fellow media bigwigs, "is the one who initiated the project (the settlement offensive). Then, as his days near their end, he is overcome by the spirit of goodness and is ready to dismantle it all. To my mind he must be safeguarded - not only from political perils but also legal ones Sharon ought to be preserved like a Succot citron in a sealed box, with foam lining, in cotton-wool wrapping." Intellectually gratifying as is confirmation from the alpha-hound himself, it has long been obvious that no matter how far Sharon strayed from the straight and narrow, democracy's watchdogs would grovel in total submission before his feet. Rather than howl, they turn on anyone in the boss's way. After last year's Likud referendum - the one which Sharon rammed down his party's throat and which the Abramowitz pack supported as long as it assumed Sharon's victory was in the bag - naive souls among us awaited a hysterical canine cacophony when Sharon unabashedly trampled the rules of the democratic game. Instead, pompous poodles wagged their tails with approval, turning every despotic prime-ministerial whim into the embodiment of the people's will, and every murmur of dissent into subversion. Not only didn't they protest Sharon's contempt for democracy, they cheered it and volunteered advice on how to quash his legitimate opposition more effectively. Remember Abramowitz's vicious mauling of Uzi Landau shortly after Sharon's referendum downfall? In the infamous tradition of Bolshevik character assassination and with self-professed omniscience, Abramowitz grotesquely portrayed Landau as "the most ludicrous-ever police minister. Mention his name and to this day inspectors burst out laughing." Not only was the putdown patently untrue, it was irrelevant to the referendum issue then at hand. Democracy's watchdog bristled its hair, bared its teeth, pricked its ears ominously forward, bulged its eyes and loudly alerted the whole neighborhood - not against the miscreant but against the injured party. Abramowitz then recommended that Sharon sack Landau, which the PM eventually did. As long as Sharon satisfies their appetites with their favorite fare, democracy's supposed watchdogs aren't likely to bite the hand that feeds them. Any mutt worth its chow knows who fills its bowl. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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ROAD-BLOCKING WORSE THAN MURDER?; AFTER ABANDONMENT?; BUSH NAIVE?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 13, 2005. |
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ROAD-BLOCKING BY JEWS WORSE THAN MURDER BY ARABS? Israel's Attorney-General got the Education Ministry to refuse to allow Israeli high school students, detained in jail awaiting trial over blocking roads in protest over the abandonment plan, to take matriculation exams in jail. Attorney-Gen. Mazuz said that the students must pay the price for their crime. The Supreme Court upheld that refusal. Terrorist prisoners are allowed to take exams in jail. Apparently the government considers terrorism and murder less serious than road-blocking (IMRA, 6/1). I put it differently. Road-blocking interferes with appeasement of the Arabs; to the government, that's serious. Murder of Israelis does not interfere with Sharon's politics, and to rescind favors to Arab prisoners would draw protest from countries that, hypocritically, treat prisoners worse. What crime is the Attorney-General talking about punishing them for immediately? They were not convicted of any. He should be concerned why it takes inordinately long to bring people to trial. That makes arrest and detention a form of political intimidation and punishment. NATO GRANTS P.A. OBSERVER STATUS In thanking NATO for granting it observer status and helping it attain an "independent and viable state," the P.A. delegate belaborred NATO with a host of false accusations against Israel. He accused it of isolating Jerusalem from its "Arab surrounding," of not recognizing the parliamentary immunity of Barghouti nor of the democratically-elected parliament as a whole, of being racist and therefore blocking peace negotiations despite the P.A. commitment to the Road Map, of restricting the movement of members of the P.A. government, and of a "systematic Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, through the continuous expropriation of lands and construction of the Apartheid Wall." (IMRA, 6/1.) Corrections: "Apartheid" is an inappropriate epithet, and they probably learned to say "systematic" from their Communist mentors. The security fence is to keep out marauding Arab terrorists. When P.A. Arab movement is less restricted, they transport terrorists and arms. The Arabs have been the aggressors for more than eighty years. Blame the Arabs for making a fence seem needed. The Arabs keep stealing land both in Israel and in the Territories. The P.A. has kept none of its commitments to Map or Oslo. Israel wanted to. Barghouti was convicted of conspiracy to commit murders before he was elected. He had no immunity, and supposing that he does abuses the concept of parliamentary immunity, meant to protect government critics from being removed from office. Question: should a terrorist entity have a parliament? Should its parliamentarians, being criminal aggressors, have immunity? Israel allows Arab self-expression, but the Arabs deny Jewish access to the Jewish Temple Mount and assert that Jerusalem is Arab, in order to squelch its Jewish character. Nobody asks why the western Palestinian Arabs, committed to jihad against Israel and the West, should have an independent state. The Arabs use the hackneyed term, "viable," as a code word to indicate taking more land away from Israeli control, though that would render Israel less viable. Don't NATO members find those Arab lies and code words boring and demeaning? No, most of those members are antisemites, indifferent, or appeasement-minded. What "intelligence?" They are used to those code words, by which their own media misinform them. Otherwise, one would wonder why NATO invites P.A. Arabs into a defense organization against imperialists such as the Arabs. The whole world is crazy, and world public opinion is contemptible. PERVERTED REPORTING The media praised the P.A. for blocking a new tunnel to be used by terrorists for smuggling arms. The nearby residents of Gush Katif know differently. They observed the IDF monitoring the progress of that tunnel for days. The IDF repeatedly asked the P.A. to block that tunnel, but to no avail. Finally, when the IDF moved in the requisite forces for blocking the tunnel itself, the P.A. hastily blocked it and took undeserved credit for doing so. (The P.A. has a practice of taking underserved credit when forced to act. Sneaky!) Why does Israel or its media praise the enemy seeking to destroy the Jewish state? (IMRA, 6/1.) The answer is that the government and the media, both being appeasement-minded and leftist, don't want to admit that the P.A. remains the enemy. An enemy must be defeated. Vigorous warfare would be criticized. The government and media would rather pretend that Israel can make peace with the P.A., that negotiations offer hope, that the current P.A. regime is significantly different. Israel is under the "let's pretend" doctrine of governance. CHINA: NEXT U.S. ENEMY? China is an expansionist dictatorship. It has defined the US as its main enemy. By espionage, it has stolen our designs for nuclear weapons, with which it now threatens us if we defend Taiwan from it. China is building up its military to make its threats credible. Defense Sec. Rumsfeld is raising some pertinent questions about that. The US has otherwise not paid attention to Chinese doctrine and action. Our government operates under the doctrine (convenient for corporations) that "engagement" in trade with China would mellow it, as it sees our goodwill and absorbs our ideas. Instead, China absorbs our jobs and our IOUs. Our commerce with them builds up their menace to us. A suggested remedy is to expel all of the hundreds of companies in the US that are fronts for their military agencies. Another is to build a missile defense system (Cal Thomas, NY Sun, 6/7, p.11). A third is to trade our trade to other countries. "Engagement" filed with Iran, too. EGYPT BARS PLAYWRIGHT FROM VISITING ISRAEL Israel has given honorary doctorates to Egyptian leaders. This time, Ben-Gurion U. wanted to bestow one on a prominent Egyptian playwright. The government of Egypt would not let him go. The head of the University says he does not understand why. The playwright publicly supports peace between the two countries (IMRA, 6/1). That is why. Egypt recognizes Israel less, now that it has gotten the Sinai from Israel and is busy leading international efforts to delegitimize Israel and smuggle arms to bleed Israel. Thus the Muslims bleed their enemies, but their enemies give them financial aid. Suckers! AFTER ABANDONMENT OF GAZA Some people suppose that abandonment of Gaza and the granting of statehood to the P.A. would boost Israel's economy. Israel's outgoing Chief of Staff, however, warns that abandonment would intensify the P.A. war on Israel. War is expensive (IMRA, 6/1). Those incorrect suppositions are asserted without logical and factual analysis. The public must learn to ask these optimists on what they base their assumptions. PRISONER RELEASE VIOLATES THE RULES Many of the released prisoners were given light sentences although convicted of severe crimes such as shooting, bombing, weapons manufacturing and smuggling, and dispatching terrorists. Nevertheless, about half are leaving prison after having served less than the 2/3 of the time stipulated by prison guidelines. They consider the Israeli deterrence policy laughable, as indicated by their refusal to sign a promise not to resume terrorism (not that their promises hold). The releases supposedly are to strengthen Abbas' rule against Hamas. However, many of the freed prisoners belong to Hamas. Wouldn't that strengthen primarily Hamas? (Arutz-7, 6/2.) Israel should be destroying terrorism, not strengthening one terrorist faction over another. It should have executed those terrorists years ago, and not have this debacle. Some people are so evil, they just need to be killed. Pirates traditionally fall in that category; terrorists are their heirs. If the Israeli government were patriotically anti-terrorist rather than treasonously appeasement-minded, it would not swallow US rationalizations about needing to strengthen the rule of Abbas and to do so by releasing terrorists who weaken the rule of law. When Israel breaches its own prison guidelines, in order to appease the hostile State Dept., the State Dept. becomes emboldened to demand that Israel act further against its own national security. Does Sharon, a secularist, suppose that Israel exists to serve the State Dept. (whose foreign policy has been counter-productive for the US) and to serve the Arabs? BUSH'S UNBELIEVABLE NAIVETE? Pres. Bush said about Hamas, "I don't think they're going to get elected, because I think Palestinian (Arab) moms want their children to grow up in peace just like American moms want their children to grow up in peace. As a matter of fact, I think the people that campaign for peace will win." (Arutz-7, 6/2.) Muslim Arab culture, particularly as cultivated by the P.A., is one of war, death, and cruelty. Its political parties compete on the basis of which one can inflict the most death and suffering upon Israelis. Mothers are taught to glorify sons killed in jihad. Hamas is gaining popularity, one reason for being more aggressive at present while Abbas is trying war by diplomacy. What Pres. Bush said totally misreads Muslim Arab society. He assumes that its culture is like ours. That is the biggest mistake in the formulation of foreign policy. Other cultures have different values and interpret our actions differently from how we mean them. The Muslim Arab culture generally considers the West its enemy and evil, but acts towards the West in ways that the West would consider evil - murder, torture, deceit. How dare Bush liken those generally vicious Arab women, who sacrifice their children for an ideology of hate, to American mothers, who would sacrifice themselves if needed to spare their children! When a politician makes such naïve statements, one doesn't know whether he does so from ignorance and from the hubris of Americans supposing that everybody loves democracy and that democracy makes everybody loving, or whether he does so cynically, to deceive us. ISRAEL'S IMMIGRATION POLICY BOOSTS ANTISEMITISM Some time ago, a mother and son from the former USSR were found to be antisemites, allowed in for immigrant welfare under a loophole as gentiles with a Jewish grandfather. Investigators found at least 20 such Nazis, discussing exterminating the Jews. Police have no clear laws about how to proceed (Arutz-7, 6/2). Close the loophole and expel the non-Jews ex-post-facto. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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TARGET ISRAEL. CNN STRIKES AGAIN
Posted by Jock L. Falkson, June 13, 2005. |
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Maybe I dozed a few minutes shortly after idling through CNN's 3 p.m. news program (Israel time, June 8) when I suddenly found myself watching a feature on Israel's "separation wall". I was puzzled for a brief moment trying to connect the clip to a terrorist incident. But no, CNN was merely filling air time with another Israel smear. CNN has undoubtedly already featured more than a handful similar clips in the recent past. A scorpion's gotta do what a scorpion's gotta do. So viewers were treated to yet another unfair, unbalanced feature on Israel's oppressive behavior to the noble Arabs. Only the sting was not in the tail - it was all over the place. The Noble Farmer And His Faraway Land There was this sad farmer at the fence pointing to his agricultural holding across the way. Before Israel had intruded its anti-terrorist barrier into his life it had only taken 5 minutes to get to his land. Now he was forced to a crossing point where he was checked and searched. So it took him all of 45 minutes to get to his land. CNN wanted the world to see what terrible people these cruel Israelis occupiers are. CNN's interviewer left no doubt where her sympathies lay. "Land grab" and "occupied lands" - the Palestinian Terrorist Authority's mandatory mantras were severely intoned. She felt it necessary to assure viewers that Israel had no intention to alter the barrier's route at some future time. Even though Israel has frequently reiterated that the route will be changed by mutual agreement in a future peace settlement. Even though the route had already been changed in several places by Supreme Court decree. CNN Emasculates Israel's Spokesperson CNN's interviewer had contacted Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli spokesperson, for the Israeli point of view. I then realized from his very brief screen appearances that in fact this was not a live report but an edited version. There can be no doubt that Meir got a raw deal. He may well have made a good defense of Israel's anti-terrorist barrier but none was aired. Although Meir has excellent PR credentials he appeared inarticulate and ineffective. He had been emasculated. Henry Kissinger's guiding principle is worth recalling. He was pleased to be interviewed on live TV but would never participate in (say) 60 Minute invitations, because it permitted the editors to cut and paste, and tell their story, not necessarily his. Missing Transcript Unfortunately, I had not noted the name of the interviewer nor the title of this upsetting program. I thought I would easily locate a video clip or transcript based on time of day but my intensive search came to naught. It's possible CNN withdrew the item from its website and cancelled further repetitions of the report following complaints. Unashamed, Deliberate, Inexcusable. CNN's bias in this particular feature is shown in two ways. Firstly in what the editors show to make their case; secondly how they prevent the Israeli opponent making his case. Additionally, the context of the anti-terrorist barrier is completely omitted, giving the impression that having nothing better to do, Israel started building an unbelievable costly barrier - to worsen its economic position - and to make Palestinians more miserable. (Such inconvenience as they might indeed suffer at checkpoints is the direct result of their terrorist intifada. No intifada no inconvenience. Cause and effect could not be clearer.) CNN's interviewer and editors knew full well that Israel was finally compelled to build a costly anti-terrorist barrier as an effective, non-lethal method to reduce if not eliminate Palestinian suicide terrorists from killing and maiming more Jews. CNN's omission of this context was deliberate and inexcusable. Portable CNN allowed its interviewer to opine that the wall is permanent. However, the wall was designed and built in small sections and transported on multi-wheeled trucks. Cranes moved the sections into place. The sections are not concreted together, they're inherently portable. No one denies that a fence can be moved. However, the impression given that the wall is permanent. That it's 97 percent of the construction and the fence but 3 percent. Of course the very opposite is true. CNN is complicit in airing this false impression. Monumental Achievement CNN was undoubtedly aware that the anti-terrorist barrier had virtually eliminated the suicide terrorists from carrying out their deadly work. If CNN was not inherently anti-Israel it would at least have paid lip service to this monumental achievement. Conventional wisdom had been unanimous in the days before the barrier that it was not possible to stop individual suicide terrorists from keeping a date with their 72 black eyed virgins. All the murderers had to do to qualify for eternal sexual satisfaction was to shed Jewish blood. Un-newsworthy News Feature Jewish loss of life and limb and its prevention is apparently mere trivia in CNN's view when juxtaposed against the enormity of Israel's "crime" causing the noble Arab farmer to take 45 minutes to get to his land only 5 minutes away. Ah yes, the cruel fence! Ah yes, those cruel, cruel Israelis! That CNN would choose to press this farmer's case and turn a strictly non news item into a pretentious international feature is nothing short of amazing. Only extreme bias embedded in the collective soul of their news department could possibly have made this happen. Meanwhile back at the ranch . . . The wonders of your gastrointestinal tract live on video. 30 Jan 2005
The Camera in a Pill "Israeli scientists, universities and companies are working to benefit the entire health system. You'll be hard pressed to be treated at an American hospital without an Israeli discovery coming to your aid. "Rather than going through an unpleasant, invasive procedure, patients now simply swallow the "Camera in a Pill" and the wonders of your gastrointestinal tract can be viewed in streaming video. Developed in Israel and used in the United States and in 60 other countries, the PillCam has redefined gastrointestinal diagnosis and benefited hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide. "Israel's Given Imaging offers the first effective, patient-friendly gastrointestinal endoscope on the market. The healthcare system and third-party payers worldwide now have a first-line, cost-effective, ambulatory diagnostic procedure that can save precious lives and costly resources. "Israeli ingenuity is helping to change the face of medicine."
To be put on Jock Falkson's email list, contact him at
falkson@barak-online.net
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SHAVUOT GREETINGS
Posted by Marlene Young, June 12, 2005. |
Contact Marlene Young by email at marleneyoung1@yahoo.com |
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THE MAGIC OF SHAVUOT, 1967
Posted by IsrAlert, June 12, 2005. |
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This was written by Larry Domnitch and appeared today on the Israel Insider website (http://web.israelinsider.com/views/5784.htm). Larry Domnitch is the the author of, "The Cantonists: The Jewish Children's Army of the Tsar," recently released by Devora Publishing. tdomnitch@aol.com Over the last two millennia, Jews have visited Jerusalem in honor of the festivals, in lieu of the Biblically ordained pilgrimages. On the holiday of Shavuot, there was also the custom to visit the grave of King David on Mount Zion, since according to tradition, the date of his birth and passing was the holiday of Shavuot. When Shavuot arrived in 1948, it was a month after the establishment of the State of Israel, and Jews could no longer continue to make the pilgrimage to the Western Wall. The Jordanians, who occupied the eastern half of the city since the War of Independence, blocked all rights of passage to the Jews. However, the pilgrimage to King David's tomb on nearby Mount Zion, located on the Israeli side of divided Jerusalem, continued. Over the next nineteen years, crowds made their way to Mount Zion, where they could view the 'Old City' and the Temple Mount. On the morning of Shavuot June 15, 1967, just six days after the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem following the Six Day War, the Old City was officially opened to the Israeli public. For the first time in almost two thousand years, masses of Jews could visit the Western Wall and walk through the cherished streets of Judaism's capital city as members of the sovereign Jewish nation. Each Jew who ventured to the Western Wall on that unforgettable day represented the living realization of their ancestors' dreams over the millennia. It was one of those rare, euphoric moments in history. From the late hours of the night, thousands of Jerusalem residents streamed towards Zion gate, eagerly awaiting entry into the Old City. At 4 a.m., the accumulating crowds were finally allowed to enter the area of the Western Wall. The first Minyan (traditional quorum of ten men) soon began. Over fifteen hundred people shared that special moment. As the sun continued to rise, there was a steady flow of thousands who made their way to the Old City. In total, two hundred thousand visited the Western Wall that day. It was the first pilgrimage, en masse, of Jews to Jewish-controlled Jerusalem on a Jewish festival in two thousand years, since the pilgrimages for the festivals in Temple times. The Jerusalem Post described the epic scene: "Every section of the population was represented. Kibbutz members and soldiers rubbing shoulders with Neturei Karta. Mothers came with children in prams, and old men trudged steeply up Mount Zion, supported by youngsters on either side, to see the wall of the Temple before the end of their days. "Some wept, but most faces were wreathed in smiles. For thirteen continuous hours a colorful variety of all peoples trudged along in perfect order, stepping patiently when told to do so at each of six successive barriers set up by the police to regulate the flow." An eyewitness described the moment: "I've never known so electric an atmosphere before or since. Wherever we stopped, we began to dance. Holding aloft Torah scrolls we swayed and danced and sang at the tops of our voices. So many of the Psalms and songs are about Jerusalem and Zion and the words reached into us a new life. As the sky lightened, we reached the Zion gate. Still singing and dancing, we poured into the narrow alleyways beyond." On Shavuot, three thousand two hundred and seventy nine years earlier, the Israelites stood at Mount Sinai and felt the gravity of the moment as a unique relationship was formed between themselves and their Creator. On the day of Shavuot following Israel's amazing victory of the Six-Day War, multitudes ascended to the Western Wall, as their ancestors had done in the past, and they celebrated the holiday just a short distance from the Temple Mount. They, too, felt the magic of the moment. |
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THE HEART BEATS STRONGLY
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, June 12, 2005. |
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This was written by Moshe Kempinski of Jerusalem. Contact him by email at moshe01@NETMEDIA.NET.IL or go to http://www.shorashim2u.net Israel seems to be going through some type of national mid life crisis. It is not sure who she is or who she wants to be. Every movement seems to be laborious and painful and every new event is viewed with great apprehension. It is in the midst of this great confusion and blurring of purpose, that decisions are being made that are both very self destructive and self delusional. All the symptoms of a mid life crisis. Prime Minister Sharon watches the support for his disengagement/expulsion plan dip well below the 50% mark and announces in an almost childish pout, that the expulsion will continue nevertheless. The outgoing head of National Security who had previously been warning of the dangers of this plan, announced dramatically that today he sees no problem with the disengagement. This last statement was made while he was announcing his plans to investigate a political career. The outgoing chief of Staff Ya'alon warns ominously that the disengagement plan will ignite further violence and his warnings are belittled by the Prime Minister. [Editor's note: read the interview with Ya'alon in "Parting Shot", this issue.] Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa declared on PA television, "The dismantling of armed organizations is not on the table because weapons are legal as long as the occupation exists. Possession of weapons is a strategic issue as long as there is occupation." Such a statement goes clearly against all the previously accepted understandings, yet the government will not let facts get in the way of their rush into the Expulsion plan. The Head of the nation may become confused. The arms and legs of this people may be weakened. The body may be slumberous and fatigued. Yet the heart is beating strongly. A heart is nourished by the influx of blood infused with oxygen and then it pumps this source of energy and life into the outermost limbs. Last week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis carrying flags of blue and white danced through all the gates of Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day. They gathered at the Western Wall plaza and sang and danced for hours. An influx of great spiritual energy. Several days later, tens of thousands of children and parents who had been studying the weekly Torah portion as part of the Breishit program gathered in Jerusalem. They then marched into the Jaffa Gate and on into the Western Wall plaza. They received in song and dance a new Torah Scroll that had been written in memory of the many Jewish children killed in the Palestinian wave of terror. As these fifty thousand parents and children ranging from secular to religious, sefardic and ashkenazi danced together, the plaza again seemed like the throbbing heart that it had become. Tonight, on Shavuot when Jews all over the world re-experience the receiving of Divine revelation, tens of thousands will also stream in on foot from every corner of Jerusalem to gather for dawn prayers at the Wall. Again the heart of this people will be nourished by the souls, passion and faith by those who continue to love their unseen Creator. They come to the spiritual center of the universe to express their fire and be ignited by the fires from on High. That heart will never waiver and will never weaken. It continues to beat strongly regardless of the weakness that characterizes much of the rest of the body. May we all be nourished by the spiritual power emanating from that heart. " For out of Zion shall come the word of G-d." Hag Sameach Judy Lash Balint is an investigative journalist and author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com |
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ISRAEL'S FREEING OF TERRORISTS VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW
Posted by Emanuael A. Winston, June 12, 2005. |
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This article was written in 1998, 7 years ago - Ergo the reference to the Wye Conference makes sense. We feel this article will remain crucially pertinent until the Israeli government changes its policies. How Long? Professor Louis René Beres, an expert in International Law explains why the release of Terrorist prisoners is illegal under International Law. Clearly, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon and all those who acted as enablers of new waves of Terror by releasing Terrorists who had been tried, convicted and jailed - are guilty of breaking international law. Parenthetically, I would add that Israeli Intelligence and Secret Service Heads have proven that 50% of those Terrorists previously have almost immediately returned to Terror. As a relevant aside, it has been noted by the U.S. Government who captured Terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have often been re-captured engaged in Terror. Clearly, Sharon, his Cabinet, Attorney General Menachem (Meni) Mazuz, General (ret.) now Defense Minister Shaul Maoz and Judges in the Israeli Supreme Court have all collaborated in this illegal release and ought to be indicted and jailed for all subsequent acts of Terror committed by those they assisted in releasing. After the Wye summit, considerable attention has been directed toward freeing certain Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jurisdiction. From the political standpoint, especially as a quid pro quo for presumed Palestine Authority (PA) concessions to Oslo and for U.S. guarantees, it would appear that such action will be entirely permissible. Yet, as a matter of law, this Wye-mandated release represents a very substantial and ominous wrongdoing. Every state has an obligation under international law to seek out and to prosecute terrorists. This obligation derives from a long-standing principle known as Nullum crimen sine poena, "No crime without a punishment." It is codified directly in many different sources, and is also deducible from the binding Nuremberg Principles. According to Principle I: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment." It follows that the State of Israel, in the process of releasing large numbers of convicted terrorists, will be acting in clear violation of international law. Terrorism is an established crime under international law. An authoritative listing of particular offenses that comprise this crime can be found in the EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON THE SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM. Moreover, some of the Palestinian prisoners to be released are also guilty of related crimes of war and even crimes against humanity, crimes so egregious that the perpetrators are known in law as hostes humani generis, "common enemies of humankind." In this connection, we should recall that units of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) served with Saddam Hussein's forces in occupied Kuwait, making them, and Yasser Arafat personally (the legal principle of command responsibility is known in law as respondeat superior) complicit in multiple crimes of extraordinary horror and ferocity. And if these offenses were not enough of an affront to world legal order, many of the terrorists to be released from Israeli jails will immediately assume high positions in the Palestinian Authority's various police and security services. Of course, the Oslo Accords as a whole, from which the terrorist releases would be drawn, are entirely invalid under international law, thus essentially "doubling" the lawlessness of such releases. This invalidity is based upon: (a) the illegality of any agreement between a state and a terrorist organization; (b) the expectations of Nullum crimen sine poena, especially as they are violated by acceptance of Yasser Arafat as a signatory; and (c) the obligation of every state to self-preservation, an obligation patently undermined by Israel's surrender of critical strategic depth and by its incomprehensibly willful expansion of terrorist opportunity. Regarding (a), above, it has been reaffirmed in several recent federal court decisions in the United States that agreements between nonstate and state parties impose unequal compliance obligations. Indeed, in a concurring statement in the case of Tel-Oren v. Libyan Arab Republic, a 1981 civil suit in U.S. federal courts in which the plaintiffs were Israeli survivors and representatives of persons murdered in a terrorist bus attack in Israel in 1978, Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards stated: "...I do not believe the law of nations imposes the same responsibility or liability on nonstate actors, such as the PLO, as it does on states and persons acting under color of state law." The PLO, as well as the Palestine Information Office, the National Association of Arab Americans, and the Palestine Congress of North America, were named defendants in this suit for compensatory and punitive damages. What this means, inter alia, is that the Palestine Authority that is party to Oslo I and II cannot be held to the same standards of accountability as the State of Israel. Perhaps the best way to understand the profound illegality of an Israeli terrorist release policy - a policy that flies in the face of all civilized respect for law - is simply to recall the specific account of PLO terrorism found in the Tel-Oren decision. In the words of Judge Edwards: On March 11, 1978, thirteen heavily armed members of the Palestine Liberation Organization...turned a day trip into a nightmare for 121 civilian men, women and children. The PLO terrorists landed by boat in Israel and set out on a barbaric rampage along the main highway between Haifa and Tel-Aviv. They seized a civilian bus, a taxi, a passenger car, and later a second civilian bus. They took the passengers hostage. They tortured them, shot them, wounded them and murdered them. Before the Israeli police could stop the massacre, 22 adults and 12 children were killed, and 73 adults and 14 children were seriouly wounded.... Is it any wonder that international law forbids the kind of agreement expressed by Oslo I and II, especially the release of terrorists and their transformation into proper figures of public authority? If the Government of Israel is self-destructive enough to weaken its nation's security by freeing Palestinian terrorists, Israeli critics of that policy should certainly remind their government of its responsibilities under international law, responsibilities that extend to all states. Such a reminder could be delivered via appropriate acts of civil disobedience or civil resistance, which would - unlike Israeli Government policies under Oslo - be authentically law-enforcing. Moreover, as international law forms part of the law of all states, including the State of Israel, this reminder could take the form of a prepared suit in Israeli municipal courts. The right to civil disobedience is well-established in democratic legal theory. Derived from the idea of a higher law, which originated, of all places, in ancient Israel, this right is especially compelling when the state's very survival is being placed at risk by government. Moreover, the right of civil disobedience can become an outright obligation when a government's actions run counter to the Nuremberg Principles. In the years before the Civil War, thousands of Americans organized an Underground Railroad to help those fleeing from slavery. At that time, those who participated in this movement were judged lawbreakers by the Federal Government and were often imprisoned under the Fugitive Slave Act. Today, however, it is authoritatively recognized that the true lawbreakers of the period were those who had sustained the system of slavery, and that every individual act to oppose this system had been genuinely law-enforcing. Similar patterns of recognition should now emerge in regard to the critical anti-Oslo movement within Israel. Israelis should also recognize their right to civil resistance, which is not the same as civil disobedience. Acts of nonviolent civil resistance - acts specifically intended for the purpose of preventing or impeding ongoing criminal policies on the part of a government (e.g., acts intended to stop illegal terrorist releases in Israel) - are not crimes. In contrast to classic instances of nonviolent civil disobedience, where the persons committing such acts traditionally accept punishment as a demonstration of commitment to law, civil resistance is essentially law-enforcing. Hence, because those who are engaged in civil resistance act in compliance with incontrovertible human rights, they warrant not punishment in any form, but acquittal and public approval. Citizens of Israel could now take note of remedies available to citizens of the United States, remedies that should also be available to them because of the two country's common commitment to international law. Two pertinent criminal cases in U.S. courts are People v. Jarka (Circuit Court of Lake County, Waukegan, Illinois) and Chicago v. Streeter (Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois). Here, the defendants were acquitted by invoking the traditional common law defense known as "necessity." This defense, which erases criminal liability for conduct that would otherwise be an offense (if the accused was without blame in creating the situation and reasonably believed such conduct was necessary to avoid a public or private injury greater than that which might reasonably result from his/her own conduct) has broad applicability concerning crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions, violations of the U.N. Charter, among many other offenses against the law of nations. As for suits in Israeli municipal courts, a petition to charge Yasser Arafat with terrorist crimes was submitted to Israel's High Court of Justice in May 1994. This petition, filed by Shimon Prachik, an officer in the IDF reserves, and Moshe Lorberaum, who was injured in a 1978 bus bombing carried out by the PLO, called for Arafat's arrest and for an investigation into his then upcoming entry into Gaza-Jericho. The petition noted that Arafat, prima facie, had been responsible for numerous terror attacks in Israel and abroad, including murder, airplane hijacking, hostage-taking, letter bombing and hijacking of ships on the high seas. The petitioners' allegation of Arafat's direct person responsibility for terror attacks was seconded and confirmed by Dr. Ahmad Tibi, Arafat's most senior advisor: "The person responsible on behalf of the Palestinian people for everything that was done in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Yasser Arafat," said Dr. Tibi on July 13, 1994, "and this man shook hands with Yitzhak Rabin." In the final analysis, no government has the right to lawfully pardon or grant immunity to terrorists with respect to criminally sanctionable violations of international law. In the United States, it is evident from the Constitution that the President's power to pardon does not encompass violations of international law, and is limited to "Offenses against the United States." This limitation derives from a broader prohibition that binds all states, including Israel, namely the persistently overriding claims of pertinent peremptory norms derived from Higher Law or the Law of Nature. Although Israel's freeing of terrorists will not, strictly speaking, represent a result of the exercise of pardon power, it will have precisely that same effect. In its previous apprehension and punishment of terrorists, Israel acted, however unwittingly, not only for itself, but on behalf of all nations. Moreover, because some of the apprehended terrorists had committed crimes against other states as well as against the State of Israel, the government in Jerusalem cannot possibly pardon these offenses against other sovereigns. For Israel, the legal "bottom line" is that it possesses absolutely no right to grant any sort of immunity for any violations of international law, especially for the egregious violations generated by terrorism. No matter what might be permissible under its own Basic Law and/or its Oslo Accords with the PLO (and even here the Prime Minister would find it most difficult to determine legal justifications), any political freeing of terrorists will be legally inoperative. Indeed, the principle is well-established in law that by virtue of such freeing, as an expression of pardoning of criminals, the state assumes responsibility for past criminal acts and even for future ones. Under international law, Israel's freeing of terrorists, effectively analogous to a mass pardoning of criminals, will implicate that state for a "denial of justice." Such implication has profound pragmatic consequences. Although it is unclear that punishment, which is central to justice, also deters future crimes, the far-reaching freeing of terrorists undermines the obligation to incapacitate these particular criminals from the commission of further acts of terrorism. Such freeing may also encourage others to commit terrorist offenses in the future, against Israel and/or against other states. Even if we were to reject the expectations of Nullum crimen sine poena and the intrinsic rationality of straight retributivism, it is incontestable that law function to prevent future crimes. Here we may recall the argument of Plato's Protagoras: "No one punishes those who have been guilty of injustice soley because they have committed injustice, unless he punishes in a brutal and unreasonable manner. When anyone makes use of his reason in inflicting punishment, he punishes not on account of the fault that is past, for no one can bring it about that what has been done may not have been done, but on account of a fault to come in order that the person punished may not again commit the fault, that his punishment may restrain from similar acts those persons who witness the punishment." Whatever one's operative conception of law and justice, Israel's promised freeing of terrorists will be in grievous violation of international law. Whether the dominant concern is punishment per se, the control of terrorists already in custody or the prevention of new terrorists, such illegal freeing should be prevented. Within Israel, those who would oppose their government's lawless actions by appropriate disobedience or resistance would act in authentic and essential support of international law, while those who would support such actions would be acting to uphold authentic lawbreakers. Notes See 1973 Resolution on Principles of International Cooperation in the Detection, Arrest, Extradition and Punishment of Persons Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, G.A. Res. 3074, U.N. GAOR, 28th sess., Supp. No. 30, at 78, U.N. Doc. A/9030 (1973). Other resolutions affirm that a refusal "to cooperate in the arrest, extradition, trial and punishment" of such persons is contrary to the United Nations Charter "and to generally recognized norms of international law." See e.g., G.A. Res. 2840, U.N. GAOR, 26th sess., Supp. No. 29, at 88, U.N. Doc. A/8429 (1971); see also G.A. Res. 3074, U.N. GAOR, 28th sess., Supp. No. 30, at 78, U.N. Doc. A/9030 (1973); G.A. Res. 96, at 188, U.N. Doc. A/64 (1946). As to the responsibility of states toward Geneva Law in particular, common article 1 of the Geneva Conventions addresses the obligation of all signatories "to respect and to ensure respect for the Conventions "in all circumstances." See e.g., Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Aug. 12, 1949, art. 1, 6 U.S.T. 3516, 75 U.N.T.S. 287. Common article 146 of the Geneva Civilian Convention recognizes that "Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed...grave breaches...." Id., art. 146, 6 U.S.T. at 3616, 75 U.N.T.S. at 386. See also Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, G.A. Res. 2391, U.N. GAOR, 23rd sess., Supp. No. 18, at 40, U.N. Doc. A/7218 (1968). The earliest expressions of Nullum crimen sine poena can be found in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1728 - 1686 BCE); the Laws of Eshnunna (c. 2000 BCE); the even-earlier Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BCE) and, of course, the law of exact retaliation or Lex Talionis presented in three separate passages of the Torah. Hence, the Netanyahu Government's willful indifference to Nullum crimen sine poena in the matter of freeing terrorists would be especially ironic because that principle has prominent Jewish origins. The principles of international law recognized by the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the judgment of the Tribunal were affirmed by the U.N. General Assembly as AFFIRMATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW RECOGNIZED BY THE CHARTER OF THE NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, Dec. 11, 1946, U.N.G.A. Res. 95(I), U.N. Doc. A/236 (1946) at 1144. This affirmation of 1946 was followed by General Assembly Resolution 177 (II), adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, November 21, 1947, directing the U.N. International Law Commission to "(a) Formulate the principles of international law recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the judgment of the Tribunal, and (b) Prepare a draft code of offenses against the peace and security of mankind...." See U.N. Doc. A/519, p. 112. The principles formulated are known as the PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW RECOGNIZED IN THE CHARTER AND JUDGMENT OF THE NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL. Report of the International Law Commission, 2nd session, 1950, U.N. G.A.O.R. 5th session, Supp. No. 12, A/1316, p. 11. International law presumes solidarity between states in the fight against all crime, which includes terrorism. This presumption is mentioned in the CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS; in Hugo Grotius' DE JURE BELLI AC PACIS LIBRI TRES (Book II, Ch. 20); and in Emmerich de Vattel's LE DROIT DES GENS (Book I, Ch. 19). The case for universal jurisdiction over egregious crimes, which derives from the presumption of solidarity, is found in the four Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949. These Conventions unambiguously impose upon the High Contracting Parties the obligation to punish certain "grave breaches" of their rules. The term "grave breaches" applies to certain infractions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol I of 1977. The High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions are under obligation "to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons commiting, or ordering to be committed," a grave breach of the Convention. As defined at Art. 147 of Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (6 U.S.T. 3516, signed on Aug. 12, 1949, at Geneva), Grave Breaches "shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture, or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health...." Clearly, multiple grave breaches were committed by Yasser Arafat and the PLO, the leader and organization with which the Netanyahu Government now claims to be a "partner in peace." Significantly, it was the State of Israel that once demonstrated a special commitment to Nullum crimen sine poena. Gideon Hausner referred specifically to this principle during his prosecution of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann. See: Gideon Hausner, JUSTICE IN JERUSALEM (New York: Schocken Books, 1966). Indicted under Israel's Nazi Collaborators Punishment Law, Eichmann was convicted and executed after the judgment was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Israel on appeal in 1962. See Attorney-General v. Adolph Eichmann, 36 Int'l L. Rep. 5 (Isr. Dist. Ct. Jerusalem 1961), aff'd 36 Int'l L. Rep. 277 (Isr. S. Ct. 1962). EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON THE SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM. Done at Strasbourg, Nov. 10, 1976. Entered into force, Aug. 4, 1978. Europ. T.S. No. 90., reprinted in 15 I.L.M. 1272 (1976). For other current conventions in force concerning terrorism, see: INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION AGAINST THE TAKING OF HOSTAGES, adopted by G.A. Res. 34/146, Dec. 17, 1979, U.N. Doc. A/34/36 (1983), GAOR, 34th Sess., Supp. No. 46, at 245; entered into force for the United States, Dec. 7, 1984; CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF CRIMES AGAINST INTERNATIONALLY PROTECTED PERSONS, INCLUDING DIPLOMATIC AGENTS, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, Dec.14, 1973, entered into force, for the United States, Feb. 20, 1977, 28 U.S.T. 1975, T.I.A.S. No. 8532, reprinted in 13 I.L.M. 43 (1974); CONVENTION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF UNLAWFUL ACTS AGAINST THE SAFETY OF CIVIL AVIATION (Montreal Convention), September 23, 1971, entered into force for the United States, Jan. 26, 1973, 24 U.S.T. 564; CONVENTION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF UNLAWFUL SEIZURE OF AIRCRAFT (Hague Convention), Dec. 16, 1970, entered into force for the United States, Oct. 14, 1971, 22 U.S.T. 1641; CONVENTION ON OFFENSES AND CERTAIN OTHER ACTS COMMITTED ON BOARD AIRCRAFT (Tokyo Convention), Sept. 14, 1963, entered into force, for the United States, Dec. 4, 1969, 704 U.N.T.S. 219, 20 U.S.T. 2941; VIENNA CONVENTION ON DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS, done Apr. 18, 1961, entered into force, for the United States, Dec. 13, 1972, 23 U.S.T. 3227, T.I.A.S. No. 7502, 500 U.N.T.S. 95. On December 9, 1985, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution condemning all acts of terrorism as "criminal." See U.N. Res. on Terrorism, G.A. Res. 40/61 Dec. 9, 1985, U.N. GAOR 40th Sess., Supp. No. 53, at 301, U.N. Doc. A/40/53 (1985). For definition of crimes against humanity, see AGREEMENT FOR THE PROSECUTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE MAJOR WAR CRIMINALS OF THE EUROPEAN AXIS POWERS AND CHARTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL MILITARY TRIBUNAL, done at London, August 8, 1945, 59 Stat. 1544, 82 U.N.T.S. 279 (entered into force, August 8, 1945). See Harvard Research in International Law: Draft Convention on Jurisdiction with Respect to Crime, 29 AM. J. INT'L L. 435 (Supp. 1935) at 566 (quoting Coke, C.J. in King v. Marsh, 3 Bulstr. 27, 81 E.R. 23 (1615)("a pirate est hostes humani generis"). Regarding the criminal responsibility of these terrorists for crimes largely under the direction of Yasser Arafat, the legal principle is well-established that orders pursuant to "domestic law" (in this case, by analogy, to PLO "law") are no defense to violations of international law. See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, May 23, 1969, art.27, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331; Free Zones of Upper Savoy and the District of Gex (Fr. v. Switz.), 1932 P.C.I.J (ser. A/B) No. 46, at 24; see also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF THE FOREIGN RELATIONS LAW OF THE UNITED STATES Sec. 3.2. On the principle of command responsibility (respondeat superior) as it pertains to Arafat and PLO terrorist crimes, see, In re Yamashita, 327 U.S. 1 (1945); The High Command Case (The Trial of Wilhelm von Leeb), 12 LAW REPORTS OF TRIALS OF WAR CRIMINALS, I, 71 (United Nations War Crimes Commission Comp., 1949); Parks, Command Responsibility for War Crimes, 62 MIL. L. REV. 1 (1973); O'Brien, The Law of War, Commmand Responsibility and Vietnam, 60 GEO.L. J. 605 (1972); U.S. DEPT OF THE ARMY, ARMY SUBJECT SCHEDULE NO. 27 - 1 10 (1970). The direct legal responsibility of Yasser Arafat for terrorist crimes is altogether clear in view of the London Agreement of August 8, 1945, which denies defendants any right of the act of state defense, a right which would in any event be inadmissible for the leader of a nonstate insurgent organization. OFFICE OF THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, REPORT ON IRAQ, WAR CRIMES (DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM) 116 (1992). The PLO, from which the PA is drawn, was identified formally as a terrorist group in the case of Klinghoffer v. Palestine Liberation Organization. Here, the court determined, inter alia, that the U.S. federal court had jurisdiction over the PLO. See Klinghoffer v. S.N.C. Achille Lauro, 739 F. Supp, 854, 857 (S.D.N.Y. 1990). Oslo II was signed at the White House on September 28, 1995. Oslo I was signed at the same venue on September 13, 1993. For a complete compendium of the documentary record, up to the signing of Oslo II, see: THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI PEACE AGREEMENT, Washington D.C., Institute for Palestine Studies, 1994, Revised second ed., 306 pp. In international law, the idea of a higher law is contained within the principle of jus cogens or peremptory norms. According to Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties: "A peremptory norm of general international law...is a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character." See VIENNA CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF TREATIES, May 23, 1969, Art. 53, 1155 U.N.T.S. 344, reprinted in 8 I.L.M. 679 (1969). In this tradition, God is unambiguously the source of all law. Here, law is an aspect of the divine order for the cosmos. The Torah reflects both God's transcendance and immanence. The basis of obligation, which concerns us presently in the context of civil disobedience, inheres in the law's transcendant nature. See: Aaron M. Schreiber, JEWISH LAW AND DECISION-MAKING: A STUDY THROUGH TIME (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979), 440 pp. The norms of authoritative international law concerning physical survival are so overriding that they include even the principle of anticipatory self-defense, the residual right of states to strike preemptively (subject to the constraints of humanitarian international law) in order to prevent annihilation. On this principle, with particular reference to Israel, see: Louis Rene Beres and Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto, "Reconsidering Israel's Destruction of Iraq's Osiraq Nuclear Reactor," TEMPLE INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW JOURNAL, Fall 1995; Louis Rene Beres, "Preserving the Third Temple: Israel's Right of Anticipatory Self-Defense Under International Law," VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW, Vol. 26, No. 1., April 1993, pp. 111-148; Louis Rene Beres, "After the Gulf War: Israel, Preemption and Anticipatory Self-Defense," HOUSTON JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, Vol. 13, No. 2., Spring 1991, pp. 259 - 280; Louis Rene Beres, "Striking `First': Israel's Post Gulf War Options Under International Law," LOYOLA OF LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW JOURNAL;, Vol. 14, Nov. 1991, pp. 10 - 24; Louis Rene Beres, "Israel and Anticipatory Self-Defense," ARIZONA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW, Vol. 8, 1991, pp. 89 - 99; Louis Rene Beres, "After the SCUD Attacks: Israel, Palestine and Anticipatory Self-Defense," EMORY INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW, Vol. 6, No. 1., Spring 1992, pp. 71 - 104; Louis Rene Beres, "Israel, Force and International Law: Assessing Anticipatory Self-Defense," THE JERUSALEM JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Vol. 13, No. 2., 1991, pp. 1 - 14; and Louis Rene Beres, "Striking Preemptively: Israel's Post Gulf War Options Under International Law," in ARMS CONTROL WITHOUT GLASNOST: BUILDING CONFIDENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, a special publication of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, pp. 129 - 160 (1993). For an examination, by this author, of assassination as a potentially permissible form of anticipatory self-defense by Israel, see: Louis Rene Beres, "On Assasination as Anticipatory Self-Defense: The Case of Israel," HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW, Vol. 20, No. 2., Winter 1991, pp. 321 - 340. For this distinction between civil disobedience and civil resistance, see Francis A. Boyle, DEFENDING CIVIL RESISTANCE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW (New York: Transnational Publishers, 1987), 378 pp. See Joel Greenberg, "Israelis Keep Arafat Aides Out of Gaza," THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 14, 1994, p. 1. See Jordan J. Paust, "Contragate and the Invalidity of Pardons for Violations of International Law," 10 HOUSTON JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 51 (1987), pp. 52-53. See Ex parte Wells, 59 U.S. (18 How.) 307, 312 (1856)(pardon regarding things "against the law of nature, or so far against the public good as to be indictable at common law" would be "void," including offenses against the law of nations indictable at common law.) Cited by Paust, supra, p. 52. Authority recognizing an absence of power to pardon offenses against other states include: United States v. Barnhart, 22 F 285, 292 (C.C.D. Ore. 1884); In re Bocchario, 49 F. Supp. 37, 38 (W.D.N.Y., 1943); E. Corwin, J. Peltason, UNDERSTANDING THE CONSTITUTION 78 (4th ed., 1967); E. Corwin, THE CONSTITUTION AND WHAT IT MEANS TODAY 106 (1963); Carlesi v. New York, 233 U.S. 51 (1914); Fox v. Ohio, 46 U.S. (5 How.) 410, 420, 430 (1847). See also, United States v. Smith, 18 U.S. (5 Wheat) 153, 161 - 62, 163n.4 (1820), stating: "By piracy at the common law, something was meant peculiar to that law, and not piracy by the civil law, or the law of nations...it is perfectly well settled, that piracy is no felony at common law...English statute does not...alter the nature of the offense in this respect; and, therefore, a pardon of all felonies generally does not extend to it." (Cited by Paust, supra, p. 53). See, for example: United States v. La Jeune Eugenie, 26 F. Cas. 832, 846 (C.C.D. Mass, 1822)(No. 15, 551)(regarding "an offence against the universal law of society...no nation can rightfully permit its subjects to carry it on, or exempt them...."); see also J. Paust, "Aggression Against Authority: The Crime of Oppression, Politicide and Other Crimes Against Human Rights," 18 CASE WESTERN RESERVE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, 283, 284-85 (1986). Although there have been treaties granting amnesty after a war, no bilateral treaty could ever grant pardon for egregious crimes under international law. According to Paust: "...a bilateral treaty granting a pardon or amnesty for war crimes or acts of genocide should be no more valid than a bilateral treaty agreeing that signators can commit war crimes or acts of genocide which are ofenses not against a single nation-state, but against humankind. The same follows at least with respect to all criminally sanctionable violations of customary international law (obligatio erga omnes)." (See Paust, supra, p. 54, n. 10). In re Janes, 4 R. INT'L ARB. AWARDS 82, 87. Here, the arbitrators recognized the "well-established principle...that, by pardoning a criminal, a nation assumes the responsibility for his past acts." Id. at 90, 96, quoting In re Cotesworth & Powell (Great Britain v. Columbia), J. Moore, 2 INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATIONS 2050, 2082, 2085 (1898)(1925). See also RESTATEMENT OF THE FOREIGN RELATIONS LAW OF THE UNITED STATES (revised) Sec. 711, Reporters' Note 2B (Tent. Draft No. 6, 1985) citing In re West (1926 - 27) Opinions of the Commissioners 404 (Mexican-American Claims Commission)(pardon or amnesty). See Paust, supra, p. 55. A classic supporter of "retributive justice" was the philosopher Immanuel Kant. Writing in his PHILOSOPHY OF LAW, Kant identifies the mode and measure of punishment as follows: "This is the right of retaliation (justalionis), and, properly understood, it is the only principle which in regulating a public court...can definitely assign both the quality and the quantity of a just penalty." Immanuel Kant, PUBLIC RIGHT, in PHILOSOPHY OF LAW (Hastie tr., 1887). On the retributive view generally, see: M. Cherif Bassiouni, SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW, 91 - 139 (1978); Sir Walter Moberly, THE ETHICS OF PUNISHMENT 96 - 120 (1968); C.L. Ten, CRIME, GUILT AND PUNISHMENT 38 - 65 (1987); Robert Nozick, PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLANATIONS 363 - 97 (1981); John Kleinig, PUNISHMENT AND DESERT (1973); D.J. Galligan, THE RETURN TO RETRIBUTION IN PENAL THEORY, in CRIME, PROOF AND PUNISHMENT, 154 - 157 (C. Tapper., ed., 1981); Igor Primoratz, JUSTIFYING LEGAL PUNISHMENT 67 - 110 (1989); Ted Honderich, PUNISHMENT: THE SUPPOSED JUSTIFICATIONS 22-51 (1969); A TEXTBOOK OF JURISPRUDENCE 320 - 326 (G. Paton and Durham, eds, 1964); Heinrich Oppenheimer, THE RATIONALE OF PUNISHMENT (1975); Mary Margaret Mackenzie, PLATO ON PUNISHMENT 21 - 33 (1981). See PLATONIC DIALOGS; PROTAGORAS Sec. 324. See also: GORGIAS, Sec. 525; REPUBLIC, Sec. 380, 615; PHAEDO Sec. 113; LAWS Sec. 854, 862, 934, 957. For Plato, the very rationale of punishment lies in its orientation to the future, preventing the offender himself/herself from repeated wrongdoing and deterring others from similar offenses. Punishment is meant to turn others from doing harm and to teach virtue. The ancient Hebrews viewed the shedding of blood by criminals as an abomination that required not only punishment, but expiation by a parallel shedding of blood: "For blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it." See Numbers 35:33. http://www.gamla.org.il/english/article/1998/dec/lou2.htm Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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PLAGIARISM AT COLUMBIA?; THE OSLO SYNDROME;
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 12, 2005. |
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1. The New Middle East version of the RCA Puppy and Gramophone
Ridiculous "rumors" believed in the Middle East about supposed mishandling of the Koran are not restricted to the usual Islamofascists accusing the "Crusaders" and the "Zionists" of plotting against the nearby Arab fascist regimes. (Come to think of it, the world would be a lot better off these days with a lot more Crusaders and Zionists in the Middle East!) Now Israeli Arabs are all suddenly excited over a story that is circulating in the Arab press and television about a girl who was turned into a dog by Allah for mishandling a Koran. Really. A Muslim girl from Taibeh was punished by Allah and turned into a dog, according to rumors that have been circulating in the Arab-Israeli town this week, Arab-language newspaper Panorama reported. According to the rumors, the harsh punishment was meted out after the girl, upset by her mother.s request to bring her the Quran as she was watching television, threw the holy Muslim book at the mother with disdain. Women in Taibeh claimed they saw the story featured on Palestinian television. Now - doesn't the very fact that no US troops in Gitma were turned into puppies prove that the Newsweek story was hogwash? Even though the Moonbat Left still insists the original Newsweek story, now retracted, was correct? Keep your eyes open for the first report of this exciting dog of a story on Counterpunch and "The Nation"! 2. Rashid Khalidi - Plagiarist? I think that we will never tire of laughing at the academic disgraces of Columbia University, the Madrassah of the Upper West Side. The latest matter of mortification for the home of Joseph Massad and the one-time playground for Edward Said is the plagiarism of Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi, you may recall, is the pro-terror 'Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies' at Columbia University. Never mind that Edward Said knew nothing about Middle East Studies besides how to throw rocks at Jews and, instead, taught English at Columbia. Khalidi may be testifying on behalf of the Florida terrorist Sami al-Arian. Khalidi was a major player in the whitewash at Columbia of jihadnik professor Joseph Massad. FPM's Stephen Schwartz recent told the NY Sun: "His (Khalidi's) rhetoric is intemperate and extreme. I think the very idea of an Edward Said chair speaks for itself." Khalidi makes no secret of his support for Palestinian violence and his desire to see Israel's existence end. Khalidi also dislikes free speech for critics of the academic Jihadniki. He described Pipes' Campus Watch, which monitors and critiques Middle Eastern Studies, "as a McCarthyite attempt to silence the very few voices that speak out about the Middle East, and to impose by fear a uniformity of view on the campus debate." Khalidi's plagiarism has been exposed by the wonderful folks over at Solomonia Blog. It involves an article that appears on the web site of the American Committee for Jerusalem, now renamed the American Task Force on Palestine. In 2001, the year the item was first posted, Khalidi was President of the ACJ. Entitled "Jerusalem, A Concise History," it bore Khalidi's by-line for about four years. But then suddenly a reporter who was researching a story discovered the dirt. The article was retitled and the byline changed to read "Compiled by ACJ from a variety of sources." In other words, it was never Khalidi's own work to begin with! Gotcha! You can still see the original version as it existed from February 27, 2001 to October 23, 2004 -- complete with Khalidi's byline. The change, with no remark, explanation or trail left of the change, would tend to indicate that there was something there over which Khalidi and/or ACJ were concerned or embarrassed. The Moonbatmosphere has been barking at Alan Dershowitz over the discredited allegation that he had overused materials from another source, a book by Joan Peters. Moonbats, including neonazi Holocaust Denier Norman Finkelstein, have claimed that Dershowitz had "plagiarized" (this coming from someone like Finkelstein who routinely relies on David Irving as his source). So it will be interested seeing the response of the Moonbatorie to the news of Khalidi's plagiarizing. Since Khalidi is on the Saudi payroll, someone should warn them that they may be getting recycled materials written by other people and so are not getting their money's worth from Khalidi! Go to Solomonia to read the "Khalidi" piece in full! http://discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/ rashid-khalidi-plagiarist.html 2. "Israel's Deadly Delusions" - a review by Edward Alexander of "The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege," by Kenneth Levin, Smith and Kraus, 352 pages, $35. IN this massively researched, lucidly written and cogently argued narrative, Kenneth Levin tells the appalling story of what has been called the greatest self-inflicted wound of political history: Israel's embrace of Yasser Arafat and the PLO in the Oslo Accords of September 1993 and its dogged adherence to its obligations under them even as its "peace partner" was blatantly flouting its own. The book is divided into two sections. The first recounts Jewish political failure in the Diaspora, where Jews lived with a constant burden of peril, as the background for the self-deluding rationales that engendered Oslo. The second traces the same self-delusions in the history of Israel itself. <> Levin shows how a tiny nation, living under constant siege by neighbors who have declared its very existence an aggression, was induced by its intellectual classes to believe that its own misdeeds had incited Arab hatred and violence, and that what required reform was not Arab dictatorship and Islamicist anti-Semitism, but the Jews themselves. Reversing cause and effect, Israeli leaders blinded themselves to the (obvious) fact that it was Arab hatred and aggression that repeatedly led to Israeli occupation, not occupation that caused Arab hatred and violence. Although Levin argues strongly that Israeli leaders like Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak and the ineffable Shimon Peres hallucinated moderation in a murderous enemy, his book is not a polemic that excludes all opposing points of view; on the contrary, we get the fullest possible account, and "in their own words," of those Israelis (and their American-Jewish supporters) who deluded themselves into believing that Oslo would bring a new heaven and a new earth. When the accords were signed in 1993, Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni announced that "no more parents will go weeping after the coffins of their sons" and Israeli novelist and "peace activist" Amos Oz said confidently that "death shall be no more." And all this because Arafat had - not for the first time - promised to renounce terror and recognize Israel's "right to exist." It was the used Buick he had already sold several times over. By autumn 2000, and as a direct (and in Levin's view entirely predictable) result of Israel's endless unreciprocated concessions to Arafat's demands, the country was faced with Intifada II, "the Oslo War," in which all Israel became a battlefield, and getting on a bus or going to a cafe or a disco meant risking your life. One of Levin's central themes is the influence of Israel's cultural elites on the governments of Rabin and Barak. In Israel as in America the motto of many intellectuals is "the other country, right or wrong"; but whereas in America leftist intellectuals now aspire only to take over the universities, in Israel they aspired to (and in one sense did) take over the government. The consequence: Israel was soon reminded of Churchill's judgment of England's intellectual appeasers: "Mr. Chamberlain was faced with a choice between surrender and war; he chose surrender, and he got war." Edward Alexander is author of "Irving Howe: Socialist, Critic, Jew." Contact him at eaengl@u.washington.edu |
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WASHINGTON, JERUSALEM AND AMMAN PREPARE FOR ABBAS' EXIT
Posted by IsrAlert, June 12, 2005. |
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Israeli and Palestinian officials are still bent on going through the motions to keep up an appearance of normal diplomatic momentum, the former egged on from Washington. Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qidwa said Saturday, June 11, that disarming armed organizations is not on the table because they are legal as long as "the occupation" exists. Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz met Palestinian minister for civilian affairs Mohammed Dahlan Friday afternoon, June 10, to discuss Palestinian coordination for Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip which is just over two months away. Earlier this week, he held talks with the Palestinian interior minister Nasser Yousef. He then phoned Palestinian authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to place both meetings on the record. This chronology will be put before US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, when she arrives on June 18, as evidence Israel has done all it can to secure active Palestinian assent for its withdrawal. But none of this motion is any longer pertinent. Rice's overriding interest in Israel is to keep the Sharon government moving along its assigned track of disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and make sure it takes place on schedule. But on the Palestinian scene, her role is more like a fire extinguisher. In his daily reports, US coordinator General William Ward, backed up by Middle East Quartet coordinator James Wolfenson, will have informed her that that Abbas is in big trouble, and in no shape to coordinate anything at all. Hence the latest notice from Jerusalem to Ramallah asserting that Israel will go ahead and evacuate 21 communities with or without Palestinian coordination. DEBKAfile's Palestinian sources offer an eyehole into Abu Mazen's world to explain why he is on the point of washing his hands of a thankless job. 1. As head of the Palestinian Authority, he and his ministers have lost active control of the Gaza Strip or West Bank to lawless armed gangs who respect no authority. 2. Gunmen use the homes of Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank for target practice to make sure they remain non-functioning and understand who rules the Palestinian roost. 3. His attempt in Gaza Wednesday and Thursday, June 8 and 9, to halt the Hamas-Jihad Islami missile and mortar barrage on Israeli targets exposed him to extreme mortification. His appeal was met by more shooting -- and not only at Israeli locations and military. Now they are gunning for Rashid Abu Shbak, whom Abbas would like to name director of the national security apparatus in the Gaza Strip to shore up his authority there. For the time being, the would-be troubleshooter is staying under cover in Ramallah. 4. In Gaza, DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources reveal Abu Mazen was informed that his negotiations with terrorist chiefs had been upstaged by a synchronized summit in Beirut between Hamas and Hizballah leaders Mousa Abu Marzuk and Hassan Nasrallah. Hamas was goading him by holding up its cordial relations with its Lebanese ally in preference to working with Palestinian Authority chairman, Abbas. Before he got away, Abu Mazen had to promise the Gaza Council of the Heads of National and Islamic Organizations -- a powerful umbrella of the main terrorist leaders -- a seat on future Palestinian leadership counsels and a virtual veto on decisions for the Gaza Strip. This knocks on the head any chance of a deal to coordinate Israel's August withdrawal. 5. In any case, a Palestinian Central Security blueprint drafted jointly by the CIA, the Palestinians and the Israelis for this very purpose was blown out of the water. It had hinged on the formation of a new national security force manned by 5,000 young Palestinians to take over West Bank and Gaza Strip locations vacated by Israel, before Hamas and the Fatah al Aqsa Brigades made a grab. With Rice due on June 18, Abbas had hoped to present her with this force as an accomplished fact. What happened was that no sooner had the recruiting offices opened for business last week, when they were overrun by a horde of some 100,000 Palestinian applicants. Most were desperate job-seekers, but at least 30,000 were terror activists under orders to stampede the recruiting offices and shut them down. The entire plan therefore fell through - and with it the last chance of Israel-Palestinian security coordination. 6. While Abu Mazen and the Sharon government weave back and forth hoping ambivalence will disguise the crisis, Hamas freely states that the de facto ceasefire it accepted is a one-way street, there to be breached unilaterally whenever its leaders see fit. Hamas' overseas, political and military Izz e-din al Qassam arms have pulled together to exploit the partial truce for building a new 10,000-strong army, replacing the force the IDF broke up with the most powerful military contingent the Palestinians can field. Its troops are sent home from training with new weapons and passwords for their call-up. Their commander-in-chief is Sheikh Hashem Jaabari. Saturday, June 11, two days after Abu Mazen left Gaza City, a firefight erupted outside the various Palestinian command centers in Gaza City. With the Americans sitting on his tail and his authority breaking down, DEBKAfile's Palestinian sources quote Abbas as confiding to his close advisers that he has had enough. This does not mean he will formally resign -- he never has, any more than prime minister Ahmed Qureia. But, like him, the chairman will fade from the scene, become unavailable to pressure and protest. He may absent himself for months in Jordan or the Gulf emirates. The Bush administration sees the Palestinian crisis in the context of its troubles in Iraq, where the situation is worse, and setbacks in Lebanon, where the far-from-democratic electoral process has yet to produce stable government. Rice will still be in the Middle East on June 19, when the last round of the Lebanese election takes place. It is still not clear if Damascus will hang on to a measure of clout in Beirut or whether the Hizballah can be disarmed. Two days earlier, June 17, Iranians vote for a president. In a single week therefore, US officials will be preoccupied with studying Tehran's likely actions under a new Iranian president -- Hashemi Rafsanjani is the most widely tipped to win in a second round, contemplating Bashar Assad's continued rule as Syrian president, and deciding how to handle the defiant Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Abbas' future and the launching of a few Qassam missiles which mostly misfire will not be at the forefront of American concerns at this time. But they would prefer that he stay in office to provide, with Ariel Sharon playing along, a show of business as usual on the Palestinian-Israel front. To make the show convincing, preparations have begun in Washington, Jerusalem and Amman to proceed with the Israeli evacuation as though the Palestinian Authority were still a working administration and Abbas functioning normally. This week, Sharon dispatched senior defense ministry official Maj-Gen (Res.) to the Jordanian capital to confer on ways the Israeli and Jordanian armies and intelligence services can work together in the face of a takeover bid of the West Bank by a Hamas-Jihad Islami-al Aqsa Brigades coalition for terror, which already dominates the Gaza Strip. This consultation followed an initiative from Washington. The Israeli public is being prepared for the prospect of evacuation under Palestinian fire. The media have begun receiving tips from anonymous officials who are saying that in order to bring the pull-backs to fruition, Israeli troops may have to re-occupy large sections of the Gaza Strip. Israel is also preparing the ground for Palestinian shooting attacks from Gaza spreading to the West Bank and targeting central Israel. |
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RESOLUTION TO KILL THE RESOLUTION
Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, June 12, 2005. |
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At a daily briefing on January 9, 1992, State Department spokesperson Margaret Tutwiler was asked about accepting the word "Palestinian" when referring to the territories of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. Her answer was that the U.S. had accepted this usage since 1979, but that it was for "descriptive" purposes only. Typical Foggy Folk gobbledygook and such. When later asked, "if it's a long-standing policy, why wasn't the word 'Palestinian' used in Security Council Resolution 338...or in 242 which underpins the current peace process?" Tutwiler replied," I do not know why, and I'll be happy to ask somebody for you." Some five years later, in a May 21, 1997 briefing, State's spokesman Nicholas Burns focused on the "settlements" issue. Interesting, don't you think, that in numerous such State Department briefings over the decades--and in all the discussions and elaborations which ensued--the ties seem to be never made between those settlements and the spirit and intent of 242. Perhaps a coincidence, perhaps not. It seems to have taken Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to remind his State Department counterparts in an August 6, 2002 speech, "If you have a country that is a sliver and you can see three sides of it from a high hotel building, you've got to be careful what you give away and to whom you give it to." Much has been written about 242. Some claim it's ambiguous. It's not. Adopted in the wake of the June 1967 War, started when Arabs blockaded Israel at the Straits of Tiran--a casus belli--and other well-documented hostile acts, 242 is as famous for what it did not say as for what it did. As anyone who has studied this subject knows, among other things (and besides the references above), there was no mention of a total withdrawal by Israel to the 1949, U.N.-imposed armistice lines...lines which were never meant to be final political borders. This was reinforced by a call for the creation of "secure and recognized borders" to replace those lines...lines which turned Israel into a 9-mile wide rump state, forever at its neighbors' mercy, an easy target for terror and invasion. A reading of Lord Caradon, Eugene Rostow, Arthur Goldberg, and other architects of 242 clearly shows that Israel was not expected to return to the deadly and absurd status quo ante. As Ambassador Dore Gold and others have pointed out, President Lyndon Johnson summarized the situation this way on June 19, 1967: "A return to the situation on June 4 (the day before outbreak of war) was not a prescription for peace but for renewed hostilities." He then called for "new recognized boundaries that would provide security against terror, destruction, and war." Johnson was then backed up by General Earle Wheeler of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and many others as well. Here's a brief excerpt from Wheeler's Pentagon document prepared for Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on June 29, 1967: "...Israel would require retention of some captured Arab territory to provide militarily defensible borders." Keep in mind that on the West Bank, Israel took these lands in a defensive war from an illegal occupant --Transjordan-- which subsequently renamed itself Jordan as a result of its 1949 illegal acquisition of non-apportioned lands of the original 1920 Mandate west of the Jordan River that Jews as well as Arabs were legally entitled to live on. Indeed, Jews have thousands of years of history connecting them to these lands and owned property and lived there up until their massacres by Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s. Additionally, many, if not most, of the Arabs themselves were also relative newcomers, pouring in--as the Records of the Permanent Mandates Commission and other documentation show--from Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere in the region. General Wheeler's document also envisioned Israel acquiring an adequate buffer zone atop the West Bank mountain ridge, in command of the high ground, giving it at least some semblance of in depth defense. During President Richard Nixon's term in office, official U.S. policy seemed to erode vis-a-vis Johnson's position. Whether this was due to Nixon himself or the State Department's Arabists (who opposed Israel's rebirth in the first place) reasserting themselves, on December 9, 1969 Secretary of State William Rogers allowed for only "insubstantial alterations" regarding the 1949 armistice lines. After having to answer to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson and others as well, soon afterwards--until recently--the U.S. refrained from such deviation from both the wording and intent of 242. Moving ahead, and once again utilizing Ambassador Gold's useful summary, here's what President Ronald Reagan had to say about all of this on September 1, 1982: "In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely 10-miles wide...the bulk of Israel's population within artillery range of hostile armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again." In 1988, Secretary of State George Shultz declared, "Israel will never negotiate from or return to the 1967 borders." In the 1990s, during the Clinton years (and despite the later pressure brought to bear on Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sweeten the pot by offering Arafat far more than 242 called for at Camp David and Taba in 2000), official policy, as expressed by Secretary of State Warren Christopher in 1997, was that, "Israel is entitled to secure and defensible borders," a la 242. So, what happened between the days of Reagan and his latter day successor and son of his vice-president? From Reagan's 1982 statement that Israel would never be expected to return to its former vulnerable existence, we now have been given President George W. Bush's May 26, 2005 White House statement that the 1949 armistice lines must be the basis of peace between Israel and the 22nd Arab state -- second Arab one in "Palestine" -- which Dubya plans to create. Yet, just a year before, he echoed Reagan himself, stating virtually the opposite of his May 26th statement in a much publicized letter he gave to Prime Minister Sharon. As Rogers and Hammerstein's King of Siam said, "Tis a puzzlement!" Indeed. Yet, there is one constant ingredient that seems to have worked for the erosion of support for both the vision and the spirit of 242: James A. Baker, III. During Dubya's dad's days in office, good buddy Secretary of State Baker promised the butcher of Damascus, Hafez al-Assad, a total Israeli withdrawal from the strategically important (and once part of the original Palestine Mandate) Golan Heights...his idea about what to do with 242. 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 and other 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. 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 and has been involved in eroding such positive developments as Resolution 242 and so forth. In a Time magazine article on February 13, 1989, Baker spoke of Israel as being a turkey to be hunted and carefully stalked. He has referred to Jews working for him and doing his bidding (including the current American Ambassador to Israel) as his "Jew boys". But Baker is best known for his following piece of wisdom: "F_ _ _ the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway!" And if you believe that Baker is alone among the power brokers with these attitudes, I have two bridges to sell you. That, indeed, says it all regarding what Israel can expect from such circles. If you wonder why the vision of justice in 242 has been replaced by a constant bickering over settlements instead--never tying the two together--look no further. Dubya's winning a second term in office and his appointment of Baker as his Special Middle East Envoy has combined with the recharged influence of the State Department's old and new generation Arabists and the Bush family's massive oil connections to negate any alleged influence of Evangelical Christians seeking justice for Israel. And Dubya can't run again...So he has nothing to lose. Only time will tell how this will all play out. But, at this point, Israel will have to depend on the integrity, courage, and fortitude of its own leaders, expecting them to act as the leaders of any other nation faced with the same circumstances would act. Only they can insist that Israel gets the justice Resolution 242 promised it. And, while it would be nice to have support from elsewhere, that's the way it should be anyway. Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. |
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A DEMOCRATIC ISLAND IN A VAST SEA OF BARBARIC MEDIOCRITY
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 12, 2005. |
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Israel is like the fabled Atlantis, so advanced in her civilization, humanity and technology that she generates envy and hatred among the Arab Muslim nations. Had they taken in the Jews instead of trying to kill them for Allah, the Middle East could have been transformed into the Garden of Eden. It was not accidental that wherever the Jews settled, they brought with them the "Green Line". They made land, barren for centuries, into fertile farms with fruitful yield. This applied to the people within the Land. Even those who lived with them who weren't Jewish, achieved a higher standard of living in all ways, health, wealth, education and improved human values. This talent and willingness to work smart and hard brought them no honor but only envy and hatred. Instead, the Arab Muslim nations swore to murder every Jew they could get their hands on (in the name of Allah). This was, indeed, a barbaric people slaved to a pagan religion that taught their children and followers to kill or enslave all other peoples - especially Jews and Christians whom they contemptuously called "Dhimmis". They intend that all other religions are eventually to be disposed of - with only Islam remaining. Think of what great things the Jews could have helped the Arab Muslims achieve in industry, pharmaceuticals, farming, processing of raw materials and use of water to make fields productive without wasting precious resources. The Arabs could have learned - except they (or their leaders) instead invested their talents in war, Terror and thereby insured that their children would take up the sword. Instead, the Arab Muslims used their oil riches to buy veritable mountains of advanced weapons. When they went to war against Israel, they always lost those weapons and promptly bought more - in preparation of their next planned war to exterminate the Jewish people. Of course, the military/industrial complexes in America, Russia, Europe, Pakistan and later China and North Korea were all delighted to supply those weapons at a handsome profit. Naturally, it was their intent to keep the Arab/Muslim-Israel/Jewish conflict boiling. Both sides were ready consumers in the ongoing Arms Race. Each time the Arab Muslims went to war and were soundly beaten, the nations of the world stepped in to insure that Israel did NOT use their victory to force a peace on the vanquished Arab Muslims. Inevitably, the U.S. and Russia stopped Israel from achieving a full surrender of the Arab Muslim armies. It simply was NOT in their perceived interest to allow the Arab Muslims to admit defeat. With intent and malice, including vast profit, they keep the pot boiling. Once again, in self-interest, they have begun to sell or gift the Arab Muslims with miraculous weapons, developed in the laboratories of America, Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, all of Europe, etc. It was a good and profitable game - until the Muslim Arab customers began to turn their new weapons against the sellers. Suddenly, Terrorists were able to create enormous explosions around the planet. We in the Free West began to worry about being poisoned with Anthrax, Ricin, Hemorhagic Fever, West Nile Virus and more - all of which were militarized in American laboratories. Then we discovered that the young Arab Muslim men given visas by the pro-Arab State Department were signing up for university courses in NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and flight training. Now we are worried that we in the Free West can be hit by a nuclear or others of the NBC/WMD arriving in a container ship or via a missile which can cross the oceans. (Note "The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy where the plot had the nuclear explosion - and EMP: Electro-Magnetic Pulse - caused by a bomb shipped 'innocuously' to Baltimore where the American President was attending a football game. As always, Clancy's fictional story was intended merely as a thriller but it was, indeed, based upon technological fact - as Clancy always did.) We in the Free West sold the Arab Muslims the weapons and the advance technology to kill us all. As they run amok all over the planet, exercising these different capabilities to savage their host countries, we are asking ourselves: "What have we done?" Global Terror under Islam is intended to create a world Caliphate with the strict 'Wahhabi Shari'a' laws of Islam controlling everyone. The latest move by the panicked Free West to contain this Global Terror, led by radical Islamism, is to begin treating them as negotiating partners. Suddenly, they are no longer "Terrorists" but 'statesmen' to sit down and negotiate, with a "see what they want or will settle for". This is known as "appeasement". But, to appease a barbaric culture, driven by a twisted idea of what their god wants, we have to be ready to barter or trade something for a cessation of Terror. History clearly demonstrates that once civilization begins to negotiate their fate with barbarians at the gates, that civilization is doomed to first irrelevancy and then to extinction. So, we see President George Bush offering up the Jewish State of Israel in slices, hoping that maybe just one of these slices will be enough to temporarily satiate the Muslim Arabs' voracious appetite for conquest. Appeasing tyrants and religious bigots has always proven fruitless simply because the Muslims don't understand 'compromise'. If you offer them something tangible, they assume you did it because you are weak and, therefore, they always ask for more. What successful conqueror ever stopped their assault when their victims pleaded for mercy and tried to bribe them to stop. Now we see (the "Quartet") Bush, the U.S. State Department, the Europeans, the U.N. and Russia ignoring the lessons of history as they meet to see what each of the victim nations can thrown into the boiling pot of appeasement. They all seem to agree that it is Israel who must pay this price as the first sacrifice - hoping she will be sufficient. Nations like France, England, Holland with the U.S. coming up fast are all aware that the buildup of Muslims in their countries will require bigger bribes. The Muslims are beginning to achieve "critical mass" in the Western countries. Europe is being called "Eurabia" now because Muslims pour into those countries at exponential rates. At this point, the intransigent radical Muslim Islamists can 'lead' their usually peaceful Muslim masses to support their Terror acts - either actively or passively. For the moment, Israel has been selected as the 'Sudetenland' sacrifice - even if the 'sacrificers' know that this will bring only a brief respite of Muslim Terror. Regrettably, the Jewish government of Israel seems to have accepted their fate as the world's sacrifice to Islam. As I said in the beginning: Think of what the Jews could have accomplished with the Muslims had the radical Muslims not retained their war-like culture. The nations who try to save themselves have decided to sink the Island of advanced industry in order to placate a primitive barbaric people who cannot bear to see another people rise up beyond them. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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THE UNIFYING DIVINE CODE
Posted by Yosef Ben Shlomo HaKohen, June 12, 2005. |
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This is Essay 14 in the Journey to Unity Series. This is meant to serve as a brief introduction to the universal code of the Torah, and I hope that it will lead to further study and discussion. According to the Messianic vision of the prophets, each People will maintain its basic identity and culture, but will dedicate this culture to serving the life-affirming purpose of the Compassionate One. They will therefore fulfill the unifying Divine moral code -- universal mitzvos which are incumbent upon all humankind. As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch a 19th century sage and Bible commentator, writes in his commentary on Tehillim/Psalm 24:6: Each nation may still retain its own characteristics and peculiarities, but must always use them and the way of life based upon them only in conformity with the supreme Divine moral Law. It is this spiritual and moral subordination to the One God and to His Law that unites all the diverse cultures and national entities of the world into one harmonious whole. Dear Friends, According to the Torah, there is a universal moral code which is the legacy of all the Peoples of the earth. This moral code has seven basic precepts which are known as the "Seven Mitzvos of the Children of Noah". As we shall explain, these seven basic precepts are actually seven categories of moral law which contain many specific instructions related to the human being's ethical and spiritual development. We shall also begin to discuss the deeper meaning of these precepts. The Talmud [Babylonian Talmud/Tractate Sanhedrin 56b] states that these precepts were first taught to humanity at the very dawn of human history, beginning with Adam and Eve. However, this code was reaffirmed during the generation of Noah, after the Flood, and it therefore became known as the "Seven Mitzvos of the Children of Noah". The seven basic precepts are the following: 1. Mandate to establish courts of justice
According to the "Sefer Ha-Chinuch", a classical work on the Torah's mitzvos, the seven basic precepts are actually seven categories of mitzvos which include many of the 613 particular mitzvos which are incumbent upon Jews. This explanation is found in the following comments of the Sefer Ha-Chinuch regarding the 416th mitzvah -- the prohibition, "You shall not covet" [Devarim/Deuteronomy 5:18]: This prohibition applies at all times, in all places, to both men and women, and to all human beings. This is so because it is part of the prohibition against stealing, which is one of the Seven Mitzvos that all human beings are to observe. Make no mistake concerning the enumeration of the Seven Mitzvos of the Children of Noah -- these being well-known and recorded in the Talmud -- for they are but categories, and they contain many particulars. The Sefer Ha-Chinuch points out that since the Children of Noah were adjured about stealing, they were equally adjured about all Torah decrees to keep a person far away from stealing, such as the decree, "You shall not covet". According to Jewish tradition, a human being who fulfills the teachings and precepts of the universal code has achieved a high spiritual level. Maimonides writes: "Anyone who accepts upon himself the fulfillment of these Seven Mitzvos and is precise in their observance is considered one of the chassidei umos ha'olam -- the loving ones among the nations -- and will merit a share in the World to Come" [Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 8:11]. Maimonides adds that humanity must also recognize that the Seven Mitzvos were reaffirmed with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Talmud teaches that a Gentile who studies the Torah in order to understand and fulfill this universal path "is like a Kohen Gadol -- a High Priest" [Babylonian Talmud/Tractate Sanhedrin 59a]. The Meiri, a noted Talmud commentator, explains that the Talmud is calling on us to honor such a person as we would honor a Kohen Gadol. In this spirit, we find the following teaching regarding a Gentile who is diligent in his fulfillment of the laws and principles of the Seven Mitzvos: "Honor him more than you would a Jew who is not involved in the study of Torah" [Sefer Chassidim, 358]. The Meiri, in his commentary cited above, adds that most of the principles of the Torah are contained within the Seven Mitzvos. The Meiri does not elaborate, but if we examine any of the Seven Mitzvos, we can discover basic Torah principles. For example, within the prohibition of idolatry, we can find not only the concept of the Unity of the Creator, but also the related concept of the unity of creation. For the deification of any fragment of creation -- whether it be an aspect of nature, a human being, a nation, or humanity itself -- can cause human beings to lose their consciousness of the unity and common origin of all creation. Rabbi Abraham Yaffen, an early 20th century teacher of Jewish ethics, elaborates on this idea in an essay that he wrote about our father, Abraham, and his love for humanity: It is precisely he (Abraham), who dedicated his life to acts of loving kindness, who was also the great zealot who dedicated his life to the negation of idolatry in his generation. The reason for this can be understood: Idolatry is based on the assumption that the various forces within the world are separate one from the other; therefore, each human being is also considered to be separate from his neighbor. Thus, our father, Abraham, found no better strategy to remove this mistaken assumption from their hearts than through acts of loving kindness. Through this, he strengthened the spiritual bond which connects human beings. -- [Mishel Avos: An Anthology of Commentary on Pirkei Avos, page 144] Rabbi Yaffen adds that when Abraham would see the people of his generation fighting with each other, and how each would offer sacrifices to his own god in order to try to gain support in his struggle against his neighbor, Abraham would teach them that, on the contrary, "each should help his neighbor, for one God created them and desires the honor of all of them". If we examine the prohibition against eating a limb severed from a living animal, we can find other Torah principles. For example, the Torah teaches that the human being is not the owner of the earth and its creatures, he is only the custodian [Bereshit/Genesis 2:15]. Thus, he has no right to cruelly exploit other living creatures for his immediate gratification. As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes: There are probably no creatures that require more the protective Divine word against the presumption of man than the animals, which like man, have sensations and instincts, but whose body and powers are nevertheless subservient to man. In relationship to them man so easily forgets that injured animal muscle twitches just like human muscle, that the maltreated nerves of an animal sicken like human nerves, that the animal being is just as sensitive to cuts, blows and beating as man. Thus man becomes the torturer of the animal soul, which has been subjected to him only for the fulfillment of humane and wise purposes... -- [Horeb, chapter 60] We therefore find a number of mitzvos of the Torah that mandate concern and consideration for the feelings and instincts of animals. What Torah principles are contained within the prohibition against cursing the sacred Divine Name? I would like to suggest that this prohibition reminds the human being to revere and respect the Divine Source of all life and wisdom. It may also include the Torah principle of reverence and respect for parents, elders, and teachers, as they are to serve as sources of life and wisdom in God's world. Another, related principle is kavod ha-briyos -- respect for human beings, as each human being is created in the Divine image. The human soul is a "spark" of the Divine essence. Thus, our reverence for the Infinite One is to lead to a sense of reverence and respect for the spark of the Infinite One which is found in all human beings. Related Teachings and Comments: 1. In addition to the "Seven Precepts" and their many components, there are some other mitzvos of the Torah which are considered to be binding on all the Peoples of the earth. One example is "tzedakah", the Torah's mandate to share our resources with those in need. A copy of a Hazon letter on this theme is available upon request. 2. A Gentile may voluntarily fulfill any of the other mitzvos of the Torah with the exception of a few mitzvos which only members of the People of Israel are to fulfill. Among the few which, according to the Torah, a Gentile cannot fulfill is eating the Passover offering and the observance of all the Sabbath work restrictions. 3. A Gentile who wishes to know the details of the Torah laws which apply to all human beings should consult with a rabbi familiar with these laws. Shavua Tov and Chag Sameach from Liberated Yerushaliyim
Mr. Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen is Advisory Board Member, Ecology
Fellowship Advisory Board Member, Social Welfare Fellowship, of the
Root & Branch Association, Ltd. He is author of "The Universal Jew"
(Feldheim Publishers) editor of the Shema Yisrael website:
http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/
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YITZHAR RESIDENTS SUING SHOMRON COMMANDER
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 12, 2005. |
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This is an excellent idea. If Arab murderers can sue the Army for having the audacity to shoot them, I do not see why Jews can not play the same game. It is time to use all legitimate tools in our efforts to save the Jewish people from those who would attempt to destroy us. While it is true that the Army is not our enemy, it is equally true that there are enemies of the Jewish people in the Army. Anything that can be done, legally and morally, to neutralize those enemies is legitimate and justified. This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com. It is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83764 (IsraelNN.com) A contingent of residents from the Shomron community of Yitzhar arrived at the home of Shomron Brigade Commander Colonel Yuval Bazak on Thursday, seeking to serve him with a lawsuit for his role in the removal of the Shalhevet outpost a number of months ago. They are suing the commander in a small claims court. The commander did not agree to accept the papers, sending the group away. Judea & Shomron Division Commander Brigadier-General Yair Golan responded angrily to the attempt to hold the senior commander personally responsible when his actions were the result of his complying with orders. Golan calls on Yesha leaders to issue a condemnatory statement as well. 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. |
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RETURNING CONVICTED PA PRISONERS: SOME OF THE AFTERMATH
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 12, 2005. |
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Two weeks ago, Israel sent 400 convicted PA criminals free under the condition that the PA not execute Arabs "convicted" of "helping Israel." (BTW, historically, many times, this help has been that they worked for Israelis and refused to pay protection money to the organisations.) The conviction usually consists of either their confessions under torture or a trial of a few minutes duration, with no legal representative, of course. This morning the PA executed four of them and announced that the other 46 would be executed shortly. For some reason, there are still people that think that something, anything, they say can be believed. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
| GUSH KATIF | YESHA JEWS HAVE NO RIGHTS Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 11, 2005. |
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[Editor's note: Yesha is an acronym for Judea, Samaria and Gaza. See also, "Waking Up To A New Existential Reality In Israel" by David Bedein, below.] This is something I have been warning about for years. Yeshah is NOT part of the State of Israel. There was at one time legislation that extended Israeli law into Yeshah but about eight or so years ago, it was allowed to expire and not renewed. At the time I told people that the intentions were clear. That at some time convenient to the anti-Torah, Leftist ruling clique, all civil rights of Jews living in Yeshah would be declared null and void. It seems that the time has come. What is never discussed is the other side of the coin. If Jews in Yeshah have no civil or human rights under Israeli law then why do we have any obligations? Are we slaves or wards of the State? Why do we pay taxes to Israel, why do we obey Israeli laws and listen to Israeli police? In short, if our status under Israeli law is identical to that of the Arabs living in Yeshah let us treat our "occupiers" in the same manner as the Arabs. Arabs conducting business in Arab towns do not pay 17% VAT to the Israeli Government, why do we? Arab children, even when born in an Israeli hospital, do not later serve in the Army, why do ours? Arabs living in Yeshah have the right to local autonomy, why don't the Jews? Arabs living in Yeshah have the right to an independent police and army, why don't the Jews? Arabs living in Yeshah have the right to establish yet another Arab, fascist, dictatorial terror state, so why don't the Jews have the right to establish another Jewish state? That is the real answer to Oslo and Sharon's extermination plan. Let the Jews of Yeshah state clearly that the ethnic cleansing of Jews is NOT AN OPTION. Our slogan must be: Annexation or Independence! If the great and holy State of Israel has decided it does not wish to be contaminated by the vile settlers of Yeshah, fine. To that I say: WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for the Jews of Yeshah to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with the State of Israel, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's G-D entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. Those who understand, understand. Those who do not or choose not to understand are lost. 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. |
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QUATRAIN: THE KINGDOM OF BUSH
Posted by Tamar Psion, June 11, 2005. |
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This was at www.IsraPundit. The quatrain by Diane Alden is absolutely amazing! Diane's articles can be read at www.NewsMax.com, www.libertyletters.blogspot.com and http://saintsandstrangers.blogspot.com Quatrain Uno: The Kingdom of Bush and the White Star that rises
and falls. In the land that sits upon the foggy bottom, a king who calls himself Bush will stab the land of the white star with an instrument of peace on paper as the enemies of both laugh all the way to the house of treasures with gold obtained from the king. The land of the white star will seem to be crushed by the kingdoms of the world. The king named after shrubbery will blindly follow the map whose destination will lead to misery for his people demanding the nation of the white star take the same road upon which he blindly stumbles, led by foolish thoughts of a world to the liking of the kings and princes in the great cities of the land of many peoples. The land where the flag of the white star shines will be justified through many generations and will have the last mirth and irony as its enemies are brought low. In time the land of the white star will retake the territory that it returned because the kings of the island of many nations believed in the illusions of blind guides and evil men. So the nation whose king was called Bush, found itself in terror, plagues, pestilence, storms, fire and invasions of locusts like unto men descending upon them from the city of the foggy bottom. The king whose name is like unto botanical species fled from the bottom which is foggy into the land of the star that shines by itself in the southern part of the great nation where many tribes and people fled from the land of europa to escape tyranny of the old ways. The king whose name is like unto Boxwood and Privet, heaped coals upon his head but his countrymen had no pity and removed his supporters and followers to the outer darkness while the king hid out in the land of Crawford until the end of his days. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C157713%2C00.html President Bush welcomed Mahmoud Abbas (search), the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people, to the White House on Thursday and commended the leader for agreeing that terror against Israelis must end in order to create a two-state solution in the Middle East. "I believe the time has come for all parties to move beyond this (animosity) and work for the cause of peace," Bush said in a Rose Garden ceremony. "Mr. President, we will work with you to help realize the dream of a free and democratic Palestine. Bush said the United States would help to reconstitute the Palestinian security forces and he announced that the United States would give $50 million to the Palestinians to help with housing and infrastructure projects in Gaza. The money would be timed to Israel's summer withdraw from the territory it captured from Egypt in 1967. The money is part of a $150 million request Bush is requesting from Congress in addition to the $275 million it approved this year. The vast majority of U.S. aid to the Palestinians has been channeled through other groups, and just $40 million has gone directly to the authority over the past two years. The additional funds would go directly to the Palestinian Authority if approved by Congress. |
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ISRAEL THY NAME
Posted by Kaustav Chakrabarti, June 11, 2005. |
A heavenly maiden with an orb of gold Kaustav Chakrabarti has degrees in modern history and the history of the Calcutta Jewish community. He is currently a lecturer in History at F.C. College in West Bengal, India. Contact him by email at kaustav12000@yahoo.co.in |
| GUSH KATIF |
ISRAEL'S AGONY: A RESPONSE TO JOHN PODHORETZ
Posted by Janet Lehr, June 11, 2005. |
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[Editor's note: John Podhoretz wrote an article in the New York Post June 10, 2005 on Gush Katif. He acknowledges that probably no more than around 40% of Israelis are for disengagement, but he feels that for demographic reasons, disengagment is necessary.] Dear John, Were Gush Katif and their people the only losers, I might not be writing this, but that is not so. All Jews everywhere are losers; all non-Muslims are the losers. We are the canary in the coal mine of history. But getting down to specific arguments: How do you explain the inclusion of 4 Shomron communities in the disengagement? So I say, more is at risk. Are these 4 communities, the tail that will wag the dog tomorrow? What is the Shomron but a swath of land West of the Jordan River, itself bordered by a bunch of hill tops - an aerial view might show, the devil's golf course. This area is the aquifer for Israel, water is the life blood of Israel. If your position is dispassionate regarding the Jewish communities dotting the hilltops of Judea and Samaria, where mine is not; let me focus you on the aquifer issue. Never, when Arab or International control was applied to the area of the Middle East, did Israel and world's Jewry fair well. Recall for one the Internationalization of Jerusalem - an abject failure. No Jew was allowed in. Mr. Podhoretz, these 4 communities which receive almost no mention, are the tail to wag the dog. The tiny finger of land on which the communities of Gush Katif are struggling to remain is a small fraction of land of Judea and Samaria, the disputed territories whose disposition is really at the heart of the future of this disengagement. You speak so blithely about the demographics working against Israel. I read with increasing frequency that the statistics were falsified, errors of commission and omission. (See Zimmerman, Seid and Wise in the International Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2005 on how the Arab population figures have been inflated.) It was in the Arabs best interest to inflate both their numbers and their birth rate. Did you know, Mr. Podhoretz that for a twenty year period, no resident a refugee camp was buried in daylight - no one died "for the record". Imagine with what conscious direction, creation of the false population numbers were built. Mr. Podhoretz, I ask you why these homesteaders in Gush Katif were not given the option to stay on their land, in their homes, with their Synagogues and the graves? Why were they not welcomed as new members of the palestinian land de facto being created by Israel forfeiting this last 12% of Gaza? Why Mr. Podhoretz in a world of some 179 nations giving lip service to "human rights", is this new land of palestine allowed by the collective world to begin its existence Judenrein? Yes Mr. Podhoretz, this moment is Israel's Agony. Janet Lehr is editor/publisher of a daily e-mail called "Israel Lives." She can be contacted at janetlehr@mindstring.com |
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PEACE PROCESS AND THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL
Posted by Tamar Psion, June 10, 2005. |
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This essay was posted yesterday on the Liberty Letters website by
Diane Alden (http://libertyletters.blogspot.com/
2005_06_09_libertyletters_archive.html).
The dismantling of Israel began under Jimmy Carter and continues today. When Jimmy became president I remember telling a Georgian she should beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Over the years nothing has changed my mind about Carter or the breaking of Israel's back by worldly men like Carter. Then of course most of the presidents since Carter, with the exception of Reagan, have been supporters of the dismantling of Israel. In three wars, Israel won the currently disputed territory fair and square, when the Arab and Islamic nations came against her. Nonetheless, the powers-that-be won't let her victory or acquisition of territory stand. It is a darn good thing there was no UN when Texas declared itself independent of Mexico and took territory along with her independence. The peace process, the road map to peace, the acceptance of a Palestinian state: puts me in mind of the frog that was boiled to death before it was aware that death came one degree at a time. Oddly, one of Israel's best American friends was a supposed anti-Semite: Richard Nixon. At least when push came to shove, Nixon gave the Israelis what they needed for self protection; the jets that Golda Meier so desperately needed. He offered something more important; moral support to a small nation in the midst of a sea of hatred. Thanks in no small part to Carter, Bill Clinton and Bush II, the State of Israel is being sliced and diced like a pile of hash browns. In fact, nothing, absolutely nothing is going to satisfy the Palestinians or the Arab and Muslim world until Israel is gone from the planet. But what then? Suppose the leaders of the world offered Israel its own state on the moon or Mars? Suppose the Canadians gave over a largely uninhabited chunk of Canada to the Israelis? Suppose the entire population of Israel removed itself to New Foundland or Nova Scotia or the Yukon? All would be well in the Middle East - correct? Unless you are a total idiot who believes in the tooth fairy or that Bill Clinton is a virgin, no one in touch with reality can be serious about the idea that the Middle East will be at peace once Israel is out of the way. If all of Israel moved to Labrador or Nova Scotia -- the Palestinians -including every single one of the more recent arrivals from the region, would shoot off semi-automatics for three days; burn Israeli and American flags, and party until the food ran out. Then they would turn on each other. The resulting conflagration would be Islamic brother against Islamic brother. As the Kurds, Shi'ites and Sunnis discovered, Islam does not turn aside thousands of years of ethnic and tribal hatreds because some white bread American or European has foolishly assumed that is the way things should work. As soon as the Muslim brotherhood were at war with one another, the American and European left and the doofuss morons in DC who devised the "peace process" in the first place, would hide under the bed, refusing to give interviews. More likely, they would simply rationalize why the removal of Israel had not brought peace to the region. Jimmy, Bill and George would tell us that it wasn't their fault things had gone to crap. The left would still blame Israel for the fighting between Muslims. The left's rationale: if Israel had never existed the fighting between the brotherhood of Mohammed would not have taken place. Of course that would be denying history as much as Holocaust deniers stick their hateful heads in the dark places of their anatomy. This gives me an idea: I am going to do my own version of Nostradamus and write a couple of quatrains on future events. How now America, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran? But you don't have to be a psychic to see how that scenario is going to go down. Nor do you have to be a biblical scholar, for that matter. Those who fail to see or understand the pattern shaping up in the Middle East, Israel and Palestine, will be blown away by events to come; unprepared, and in a quandary: up the Jordan without a paddle. The next chapter in the dismantling of Israel is from WND. Evacuation plans from Gaza is going to happen. Nevertheless, the Palestinian leadership has already said that will not be enough. The world is not going to be satisfied until Israel no longer exists. Too bad because Someone else has other plans for Israel and for the rest of mankind as well. D.j.A. This appeared yesterday in the World Net Daily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44682). It is entitled "Palestinian official: Gaza just the beginning" and was written by Aaron Klein. "After Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza evacuation plan is implemented this summer, Israel will need to withdraw from other areas if it wants to achieve peace with its neighbors, Palestinian negotiation minister Saeb Erakat told WND in an exclusive interview today. |
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BUSH COMPROMISES ROAD MAP AND ISRAEL
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 10, 2005. |
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President George Bush and Company has (as predicted) abrogated his own plan he dubbed "the Road Map". Most analysts knew well in advance that the ideas put into this scheme were unworkable, particularly to rely upon the Islamists for compliance. The real problem is that Bush still expects Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon to fully comply - as if the Arab Muslim Palestinians (including all the Terror organizations such as if Fatah, Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigade, Hamas, Hebz'Allah, Islamic Jihad, etc.) had fully complied. 'Compliance' with the Bush Road Map Doctrine listed as first, disarming the Terror organizations, ceasing Terror, ceasing the promotion of Terror (in schools, TV, children's summer camps, speeches, Media, etc.). Bush seems to have abandoned his Number One requirement for the Arab Muslims, despite speeches and puffery to the contrary. For all intents and purposes, Bush had abandoned his much hailed War Against Global Terror. Instead, he has adopted an appeasement and pacification of the Muslim Arabs which already includes payment (bribery) to buy their 'temporary' silence. In effect, Bush has chosen NOT to solve the original problem but, has himself become part of the problem. We saw it all before when Bush Senior and Clinton funneled Millions of American taxpayers' dollars to Yassir Arafat, hoping he would for once keep his word (commitment) under the Oslo Accords. How sad it is to see Bush cave in to Terror - as has Sharon. However, for Sharon to have done so, the shame is much greater. Sharon had rightfully achieved an heroic image as a great general so, therefore, his fall to a groveling status is a far greater descent. George Bush began with the image of a sophomoric boy who could not speak and didn't seem to know who the world's leaders were. He rode piggy-back on the Multi-National Oil Consortiums, wired at the hip to his father and James Baker. Bush's speech writers make him seem like he was 'cool hand Luke', a tough Texas hombre. But, behind the bravado of his speeches was simply a man child. There were no connections from his brain to his mouth. If he had to speak extemporaneously, he couldn't do it well. When he met Vladimir Putin, he rolled belly-up like a puppy, waiting for a good scratch. That he is in the process of betraying the Jewish State of Israel should come as no surprise. For a brief moment in time after 9/11 he acted heroically - like a war President. He even spoke well and was inspiring. But, when Iraq began to drag on and his father's good friends (the Saudi Royal Family) began to pressure him on the matter of Islamic good will, he began to tremble. He started to weakly implore their forgiveness for attacking the Arab Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq. Remember that of the 19 plane hijacking suicide bombers of 9/11, 15 were Saudis and 4 were Egyptians. Bush did NOT go after the head of the snakes. Now we find Bush dealing with the Terrorist organization, Hamas, who is no friend of either Israel or America. Hamas is pure 'Jihadist' (Warriors for Islam) to its very core and is watching a defeated George Bush roll over like an adolescent puppy, hoping to be petted - as he did for Putin. Hamas (and the other radical Islamic Terror Organizations by extension) know they have won when they see the leader of a Super Power betray a staunch ally and loyal friend. How sad to see a thoughtless adolescent running the most powerful nation on the planet. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
| GUSH KATIF |
ORANGE T-SHIRTS FOR SALE!
Posted by AFSI, June 10, 2005. |
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Americans For A Safe Israel continues to fundraise for Gush Katif. We are currently selling Orange T-shirts in S, M, L, XL sizes for $10. Money that will be collected from the sales, will go to Gush Katif. The front of the t-shirt has a map of Israel and say "Let my people stay", on the back "Gush Katif Forever-www.katifund.org" Please call us to order at 1800-235-3658 or 212-828-2424 or mail your check to AFSI 1623 Third Ave, Suite 205, NYC, NY 10128. Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. |
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THE LAMED VOV AND MY THIRD BOOK
Posted by Patrick Dempsey, June 10, 2005. |
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This is the copy of an e-Mail I have recently sent to a very special friend of mine. I wondered if, in it, you found any significance? I have let down some people in my time, my best friend committed suicide. We had a falling out and I didn't see him that Christmas before he died. Another friend was always there for me, but I somehow forgot to remind myself of that. I had a Dream that we three met up and went along to see a Business acquaintance of this friend, the one who had always been there for me. This friend, by the way is a Sikh, so it was strange to be confronted by an elderly Jew, his Business associate. I immediately noticed that this Jew was rubbing at his hand all the time. He was rubbing this continuously; conscious, or so I thought, of the mark on it. It was a Camp Tattoo, with the letter crossed through and the seven or eight numbers, including **5096** amongst them. It was between the thumb and index finger on his left hand? I enquired about his mark and he said that:- "...this is memory." The others wanted to go but the secretary asked if we wanted a cup of tea. I immediately said yes so that the rest were compelled to stay. In talking to this elderly Jew he distinctly said:- "I am the 'lamed vov', the last of my People." But if I remember rightly that title is for one of 36 people in a generation? Anyway, I continued a conversation in which he included:- "I have come from 'oneg vashem'." At least that is what it sounded like. And he suggested that because all my three books were being read at Yad Vashem this did not mean that I had finished what I had started. I have not had confirmation from Peter that my 3rd book* has been seen in Yad Vashem, though I hold precious to me acknowledgments of the appreciation of the work that my previous two books has meant to Yad Vashem! Thing is, I can't do more than write what I feel needs to be said. It is for others to either buy the work, ask Library's to lend them my work, and for all to learn that there is much to be gained from the tolerance of all others? He said too that:- "Do not give your message lightly, and though it is freely given in your work, it is not readily accepted. The truth of what you say; 'Always to Remember, Never to Forget', that must not be lost. You are my voice now!" Surely I cannot be other than my own voice in this? I want to give back the voice to as many of the 6,000,000 who were murdered, but that is not the same thing? Honestly, I have tried everything to get the world to more endorse the word than to accept the Book. The Irish Governemnt remain blind to the problem that faces them, and now Jews there are being treated to the same ritual abuse so well constructed by the Nazi's. What else can I do? I did say to this gentleman that I had done much to suggest the Wannsee Project was a way I could make more effort, and he said that:- "It is not in the effort, it is in the deed." I woke then and here I am writing to you. I hope you can interpret dreams, because I have no way of knowing if this is a message or whether I was prompted by other concerns? I know that I am doing something to give back to the memory of the Jewish People. I think there is a greater service in remembrance, because then the 6,000,000 Jews of the Holocaust will never be forgotten and in that simple attesting, these Jews live on? Your Friend Patrick * Babi Yar- A Jewish Catastrophe, ISBN 1904115039 Patrick Dempsey can be contacted by email at patrick1010@tiscali.co.uk |
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SYRIANS SUSTAINING AND REPLENISHING HARDEST CORE OF IRAQ INSURGENCY
Posted by Jerusalem Prayer Team, June 10, 2005. |
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This was written by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and appeared in the Washington Post June 8, 2005. The complete article is at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/ AR2005060702026.html A stream of fighters from Syria - most of them Syrians, but lately many of them Saudis - has sustained and replenished the hardest core of the Iraq insurgency, and supplied many of its suicide bombers. Nurtured by a militant interpretation of Islam, they insist they are fighting for their vision of their faith. Syrian smuggler Abu Ibrahim, who worked in Saudi Arabia for seven years, calls 9/11 "a great day. America was defeated." In Saudi Arabia, Abu Ibrahim heard about Abu Qaqaa, a charismatic Syrian religious sheikh who preached a radical version of Islam in Aleppo. "We were Wahhabis. Abu Qaqaa was preaching what we believed in." Returning to Aleppo, he became Abu Qaqaa's right-hand man. Two weeks after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon, his group celebrated in public with a "festival," featuring video of hand-to-hand combat and training montages of guerrillas leaping from high walls. They called it "the Festival of America the Wounded Wolf." By 2002 the anti-American festivals were running twice weekly. Jihad was being allowed into the open. Abu Ibrahim said Syrian security officials and presidential advisers attended festivals, one of which was called "The People of Sham [an ancient name for the region] Will Now Defeat the Jews and Kill Them All." Money poured in from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Abu Ibrahim credited Abu Musab Zarqawi with revitalizing the insurgency, especially since October, when he pledged fealty to Osama bin Laden. (Washington Post) Michael Evans is the author of "Beyond Iraq: The Next Move," and founder of Jerusalem Prayer Team, America's largest Christian coalition praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Contact them at www.JerusalemPrayerTeam.org |
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SEARCH FOR 'LOST' JEWS LEADS TO SPAIN, BRAZIL AND INDIA
Posted by Michael Freund, June 10, 2005. |
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This article was written by Eli Stutz, Canadian Jewish News (CJN) Bureau and appeared yesterday. It is archived at www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=6576 TEL AVIV - How many Jews are there in the world? Demographers estimate the number to be just above the 13-million mark. But Michael Freund thinks there may be a lot more. Freund, once an adviser to former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has now taken on a different role, that of a globetrotting Jew hunter. Who is Freund looking for, exactly? Jewish history is replete with stories of exile and dispersion. From the 10 tribes banished by Sennacherib to the Spanish Inquisition, Jews have been chased and harried to the four corners of the earth. While many Jews retained their Judaism throughout the long course of their exile, some Jewish communities were lost along the way to persecution, forced conversion and voluntary assimilation. Or were they? The last 50 years have seen the discovery of groups around the world whose customs resemble Jewish customs or who have a tradition that indicates they were once part of the Jewish people. It is these people that Freund seeks. He believes that many of them really are Jews and that they should be given the opportunity to rejoin their Jewish brethren. The organization that he heads, Shavei Israel (meaning Returnees to Israel) is dedicated to this effort. Freund's recent travels have taken him to some far-flung locales. He's just returned to Israel from running a seminar for Marranos in the northern Portuguese city of Porto. The Marranos, also called "Bnei Anusim," are those whose ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition but continued to practise their Judaism in secret. "Even though they've been raised as Catholics," says Freund, "many of these people have retained Jewish practices, such as lighting candles on Friday evening. What's remarkable is that this is still done in a covert fashion." Freund believes this covertness could either be a mimicking of their forefather's necessary secrecy or it could be that even today, these people fear being identified as Jews to their sometimes anti-Semitic neighbours. Last September, Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar visited two Bnei Anusim communities in Portugal. Freund says this visit was a landmark. "We accompanied him and arranged for him to meet these people. He was very moved by the experience. He now wants to establish a committee within the rabbinate to examine the halachic issues surrounding the B'nei Anusim, with the hope of finding a solution that will enable them to return to the Jewish people." After visiting the Marranos in Europe, Freund went to the northeastern Brazilian town of Recife. A town on the water, Recife was the place that many of the Bnei Anusim ended up as they fled Spain and Portugal, looking for a freer life. "Many serious historians believe there are several million of them living there today," says Freund, who met with dozens. "These people want to rejoin the Jewish people." Next on Freund's itinerary - a visit to the "Bnei Menashe" in northeastern India. Bnei Menashe, meaning sons of Menashe (one of the 10 lost tribes), live in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, on the borders with Burma and Bangladesh. "There are about 6,000 to 7,000 Bnei Menashe there now, living religious Jewish lives," says Freund."Eight hundred made aliyah over past decade." At the end of March, Rabbi Amar decided to formally recognize the Bnei Menashe as being "Zera Yisrael" (the Seed of Israel) - meaning descendants of the Jewish people. "This decision is a historic development that will open the door to aliyah for the remaining members of the community," says Freund. Freund is soon off to lay the groundwork of the rabbinical court that will carry out the conversion of the Bnei Menashe. "We have two educational centres in northeastern India where we prepare them for conversion. So we need to build mikvaot and we need to send additional teachers and rabbis to facilitate the process." "If you look at the awakening that's taking place across the globe, it's hard to explain it in rational terms," says Freund. "Why are these people coming out of the woodwork and demanding to join the Jewish people after centuries of silence." "I suggest there's something mystical that's going on here, something of some tremendous historical and theological significance. We're beginning to see the fruition of what the prophets foretold, that those who were lost to Judaism will find their way back." For more information on the search for lost Jews, visit http://www.shavei.org. Michael Freund serves as Chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), a Jerusalem-based group that reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. |
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WAKING UP TO A NEW EXISTENTIAL REALITY IN ISRAEL
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 10, 2005. |
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The full title of this article is "Waking Up To A New Existential Reality: Living In The Only Place In The World Where There Are No Human Rights Or Civil Liberties For Jews By Law [Jewish (?) Law]. It was written by David Bedein, Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency. It appeared yesterday in Israel Behind the News. This morning, I came to my office at the press center in Jerusalem at 9:45 a.m. and was greeted with two new dissonant realities within minutes. An official letter from the Israel Government Lands Authority authorizing our family's purchase of a home in the city of Efrat, 14 kilometers south of Jerusalem, a city of almost 1800 families, set to expand to 5,000 families, according to the municipal plans that were approved by the government of Israel more than a quarter century ago. After twenty years of rental, we finally own our home. Well, there was not much time for sentimentality of owning a home in the state of Israel. Only minutes after opening the letter, the second reality hit like a ton of bricks. 10:00 a.m. news cast on the Voice of Israel Government Radio News reported that the Israel High Court of Justice had declared that the Israel Government Disengagement Plan, while violating human rights and civil liberties, was legal because Israeli human rights and civil liberties law simply do not apply to Israeli taxpayers and Israeli law abiding citizens who live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza - since Israel has not yet annexed these areas. And Efrat is smack in the middle of Judea. The Israel High Court of Justice therefore declared that Israeli citizens who live in Judea and Samaria have no human rights and no civil liberties. Hence, the silence of organizations such as the Israel Association for Civil Liberties and the Anti- Defamation League. In other words, the only place in the world where Jews have no "de jure" human rights and civil liberties would be in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. This is not the first time that I have heard such a notion. On July 23rd, 1990, our news agency organized a dialogue between Israeli American Jewish residents of Judea and the US Consul in Jerusalem, Mr. Phillip Wilcox. During that discussion, the guests from Judea noted the sensitivity of the US government to the human rights and civil liberties of Palestinian Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. They asked the US consul about human rights of Jews who live in the same areas - given the traditional sensitivity of the US government to human rights and civil liberties in this part of the world. US Consul Wilcox responded quickly and straightforwardly, and with no emotion: "If you live where you live, you have no human rights and no civil liberties" The US consul invoked the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids nations that conquer other lands in war time to settle their citizens in those lands. Wilcox, consistent to this position, now heads the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, which has as its purpose the eradication of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan and even in the new neighborhoods in Jerusalem that were established by Israel since 1967. Wilcox's statement ignored the fact that the San Remo Treaty had been adopted by both the League of Nations and by the United Nations which protected the right of Jews to purchase land and to settle in the Jewish National Homeland, defined as anywhere west of the Jordan River. Yet 15 years later, Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz adopted the precise formula that Wilcox had articulated in 1990: That Israelis have no human rights or civil liberties if they live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, even if they are law abiding and tax paying Israeli citizens. Even the mainstream Israeli left wing had never held such a dogmatic the Israel Communist Party and an anti-Zionist organization in Israel known as Matzpen, who had always favored unilateral retreat from all areas acquired by Israel in the defensive war of 1967. Indeed, the man who had spearheaded the "territories for peace" ideology, the late former Israel Army intelligence chief Aharon Yariv, told me that the difference between his coined the 1974 Yariv-Shem Tov peace formula and the attitude of the new left today was that his Yariv-Shem Tov formula mandated "territories for peace" and NOT "territories before peace". And Yariv warned that ceding territory without a peace agreement would run the risk of an enemy using that territory as a forward position to attack. There is only one logical step to take: to initiate a grass roots movement to demand that the government of Israel annex any and all Jewish communities that it has established in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to the state of Israel. After all, as it says on my Israeli identity card - City: Efrat, Citizenship: Israel. It would only seem logical that the map of Israel would reflect that reality and show Efrat as part of the state of Israel. The opposition to this call for annexation of Efrat would concern the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Except that there is no Arab clamoring to be annexed to Israel. The Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza should be free to run their own affairs in their own entity, with no constraints, except on matters of security and education. The lesson of the Oslo process are that if you arm a PLO entity, they will use those arms against Israel, and that if you grant the PLO an autonomous educational system, they will use those schools to inculcate their children to make war against the Jews and to liberate all of Palestine. And let us not forget the PLO "Strategy of Phases" which is the bedrock of the PLO ideology, which mandates that the PLO should dismember Israel in stages, in accordance with the 1974 a.m.endment to the PLO Covenant which allowed the PLO to destroy Israel in stages. Hence, current policy of the government of Israel, as articulated by this weeks Israel Supreme Court decision, simply plays into the hands of the PLO "Strategy of Phases" by declaring Judea, Samaria and Gaza to be extra-territorial to the state of Israel. To paraphrase what General Aharon Yariv once said, the PLO would only be too happy to use any area abandoned by the state of Israel as a forward position from where they could attack the state of Israel to achieve their unchanged goal: The liberation of all of Palestine and the elimination of any autonomous Zionist presence . . . Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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ISRAELI GRANDCHILDREN; WALID SHOEBAT'S COMMENTS; FIGHT CHRISTIAN ANTISEMITISM AT HOME
Posted by Jerome Gordon, June 10, 2005. |
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To Carole:
Kol hakavod to you, and your Israeli grandchildren as they enter ZAHAL for their obligatory service, Carole. We trust that Ha Shem will grant them favor to return to their family and you safely. But we also wish them to have the physical and moral courage to follow that Talmudic precept emblazoned on every mess hall door in ZAHAL training bases in Israel: " someone is coming to kill you: kill them first." Hopefulness in the face of implacable "Nazi like" hatred by Palestinian jhadis is foolish! Crush the Palestinian "Nazis" and then you can evince hope. Walid Shoebat talked to us last night of his only great disappointment with Israel was that after the Six Day war it didn't purge the Jordanian run hate-filled school systems and it's Nazi like curriculum of pride and hate for the Jews and Israel and foster more enlghtenment. Israel built more than 27 colleges and universties in the PA and what did Israel get in return? Certainly not enlightnment-just positions for academics as paid propagandists who hate us and used their positions of authority it to spew out venom. Instead the Islamists got in under the radar screen and developed the "mothers milk" that begat veneration of death-the shehads and suicide killers by Palestinian school children and college students As Walid said both during lunch and his talk last night: "disposses the terrorists and the Islamist imams in the mosques, don't disposses Jews." But that wasn't the only message, as Rev. Suzanne Wagner from First Church Congregational here in Fairfeld, Connecticut could attest at yesterday's luncheon. We brought up the subject of American Christian clergy, largely Presbyterian ministers who spew out primordial antisemitism in the guise of "the theology of liberation" that deconstructs and delegitmizes the tannach and Jews: Abraham was an Iraqi insurgent, Moses an Egyptian revolutionary, Jesus was a Palestinian revolutionary who died surrounded by barbed wire signifying the plight of the "refugees." This was perpetrated by the Rev. Dr. Don Wagner who appeared out in Walnut Creek, California back in 1993 according to Walid and at the oh so toney Episcopal Parish of St.Barts on Park Avenue in Manhattan last month. Walid had confronted Rev. Wagner in California back in 1993 and considers him an evil man. So would you and so would "our" Rev. Wagner. We need to destroy fraudulent web sites like Dr. Wagner's www.chistianzionists.org, expose groups like Evangelcals in the Middle East, Bethlehem Bible College and Sabeel who perpetuate hatred of Jews, foster antisemitism among the so-called liberal Protestant denomination and promote Israel divestment here in our own backyard. We use the word koach or courage so loosely these days, that we have forgotten that it obligates us to recognize that with physical and moral courage comes the risk of making the ultimate sacrifice to preserve life. We Jews and our non-Jewish allies need to reckon with that against the option of appeasement. Churchill, as Walid quoted him last night, said in Parliamentary debate just after Munich in 1938 that appeasement in the face of evil brings shame and with shame comes war. We hope that we and your Israeli grandchildren don't have to make those choices. but we must be realistic and be prepared. We need action now to avert those distinct possibilities. Then hope will come! And perhaps, slowly slowly, you and those precious Israeli grandchildren and even the Israeli couple I spoke with last night after Walid's talk at the Bridgeport JCC will gain the peace that you, Dan Satlow, me and others want. Not by wishing it, but by willing it through constructive proactive actions, both here and abroad. Shabat shalom v chag shavuot!! Jerome Gordon lives in Fairfield CT. He can be contacted by email at jerry_gordon38@yahoo.com |
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ET TU, OPRAH?
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 10, 2005. |
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This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post and is archived at
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/
ShowFull&cid=1118283811919&p=1006953079865
I am a 55-year-old white, middle-class American woman; wife, mother, grandmother. I am one of the loyal fans who have made Oprah Winfrey the queen of American television, and a successful magazine magnate. I am special in only one respect: I have lived in Jerusalem for the past 35 years, and only narrowly escaped the Pessah massacre together with my family in 2002. During the killing spree that was known as the Intifada, we Israelis found nothing more infuriating than the insidious line taken in interview after predictable interview by BBC and CNN that terrorists were motivated by hopelessness or poverty, brought about by the victims. With 9/11, sympathy for terrorists waned, as well as belief in the theory that terrorist victims had it coming. David France's recent article on Yusra Abdu, a Nablus teenager who confessed to volunteering to enact a suicide bombing inside Israel, was shocking on several counts. First, its subject matter: the "love" story between the head of the Marxist terrorist group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) who rejected Oslo and all peace initiatives and a 17-year-old girl who sought him out and attempted to win his heart by batting her "velvety eyes" at him and declaring her willingness to be a suicide bomber. The second count is the venue: How did this inaccurate and obviously politically biased piece of bad journalism find its way into O magazine among the diet tips and $195 Prada sunglasses? Among the tips for living a better, kinder, more involved life? As a fan of Oprah's and a subscriber to her magazine, I couldn't believe my eyes. Part of a commendable Women and Girls at Risk series exposing dangers to women in other countries, the Yusra Abdu piece would have fit right in except for one huge problem: the writer, who falls all over himself trying not to figure out who and what has put Abdu and other Palestinian women at risk. France attempts to go the route of hopelessness and poverty. But he is stymied. Her parents describe Yusra as a "wonderfully frivolous" teenager. And he has no choice but to admit that her closets are overflowing with clothes, and her walls full of posters of pop stars. A "happy girl with an optimistic smile." All this, of course, happened under Israeli occupation. But readers would never know it. >From the context of France's piece, the trouble began with the withdrawal of Israeli troops after Oslo, who were replaced by Arafat's security police. According to Israeli security, Nablus has provided more homicide bombers than any other Palestinian city. Terrorist groups ran rampant, so that a well-known killer like 24-year-old Hani Akad, bomb expert and Nablus head of the DFLP - which once blew up Arab students in the Old City and set off a bomb next door to a nursery school in Talpiot - was left to ply his trade unhindered. According to France's own report, Yusra went to him offering herself as a suicide bomber. France tells us it was her way of flirting. And then France says something else which is really revealing. "They didn't date. Hani couldn't date." WHAT HE doesn't tell American women is why, which perhaps more than anything else is the crux of this story: Because a date would have compromised Yusra honor and she might have found herself getting her throat slit by her brother or father. Is it any wonder that, as France himself writes, she confessed to Israeli security police that the real reason she wanted to blow herself up was "boredom?" Glaringly, France ignores completely the constant and unrelenting incitement to terror by the religious, cultural and educational systems in place in the Palestinian Authority. Like a spanking new sixth-grade text book called Reading the Koran which selectively quotes from the Koran such gems as: " oh you who are Jews if you think you are favored by Allah then pray for death " France goes another route, seeking to explain the desire for terror by describing the brutality of the Israeli army. Paraphrasing a report by Amnesty International, he makes the outrageous charge that "both sides target minors." Amnesty, which has had a true credibility gap in the past few years concerning its coverage of human rights abuses by Palestinians, makes the following statement in its 2004 report, which is not judged worthy of inclusion by France: "Palestinian terror groups have repeatedly shown total disregard for the most fundamental of human rights notably the right to life, by deliberately targeting Israeli civilians and by using children who are susceptible to recruitment." Trying to turn the story of Yusra and Hani into a love story, France encounters numerous obstacles. He can think of no explanation, for example, why after accepting Hani's proposal, Yusra approaches Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades and offers once again to blow herself up. Not very complimentary to her "freedom fighter" with the M-16 and the "fiery glance and dimpled cheeks." Also, in his attempt to paint Hani the terrorist in heroic colors by revealing how he tried to talk his fiancee out of "taking revenge on Israelis," France omits one very pertinent fact: Hours after Hani was killed, two female Palestinian students, Aadala Goavra, 21, and Lina Goavra, 22, gave themselves up to Israeli security forces. The pair had been recruited and equipped by Hani, a specialist in explosion devices passed on to operatives, to blow themselves up in Tel Aviv. What a guy! What a story! And what, in heaven's name, is Oprah Winfrey thinking? Champion of the underdog, patron saint of the downtrodden and depressed and overweight, why has she allowed her reputation and her magazine's to be sullied by this sordid attempt at terrorist white-washing? Millions of American women who get their information about vital subjects like terrorism that affect us all, are now all women at risk. Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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WANTED: DEFENDERS FOR JUDEAN AND SAMARIAN TOWNS; MINAH TZEMACH RIGS POLLS IN ISRAEL
Posted by Voice of Judea, June 10, 2005. |
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1- "Chief of Staff has no answers for Shomron towns: Forgotten
settlers of Samaria seek answers" by Matthew Gutman, in the Jerusalem
Post yesterday.
For the residents of Mevo Dotan, an embattled settlement in the northern West Bank, it was fitting that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz preferred to keep his stop there Tuesday hidden from the media: the government wants to keep this forgotten settlement forgotten. Mevo Dotan is an isolated settlement of some 150 people wedged between two intermittently hostile Palestinian villages. When Israel evacuates four settlements in northern Samaria this summer, Mevo Dotan, along with nearby Hermesh, will be the only remaining settlements in the area on the Palestinian side of the security barrier. Mofaz was invited by the two predominately secular settlements to elucidate Israel's policy regarding the northern West Bank after disengagement. "But all he told us," said Sintronovitch, "is to hold on, that the government has us in none of its plans." But life for residents of these two settlements which have already lost half of their population due to security fears will soon shift from tense to "dreadful," said Sintronovitch. During the sometimes heated discussion in Mevo Dotan, Sintronovitch asked how many citizens and children needed to die before the government made a decision to ensure their safety by evacuating them. "Hold on," the defense minister told the residents. But locals, who for over a year have been warning of a "bloodbath" should the IDF leave them, want greater assurances than "will we get long-distance camera gizmos," said Sintronovitch. "We are terrified for the day after," he said. "All we ask is that they allow us to leave before another four people are killed." Sintronovitch and others believe that Palestinian terror will be funneled in their direction once disengagement takes place. Mevo Dotan and Hermesh will be easy and convenient targets, he said. Voice of Judea Commentary: The time has come for "settlers" and their suporters to understand that they must begin to fend for themselves and increase their own security. The Gedud HaIvri, formerly known as the Jewish Legion has been bringing volunteers to Judea and Samaria together with specially trained dogs to help sniff out terrorists before it is too late. To learn more about this life-saving project visit www.defendisrael.net rgently needed funds can be sent to: Gedud HaIvri
2- Minah Tzemach Rigs The Poll on Disengagement Today, Friday, June 10, 05, Yediot Achronot published a poll taken by "Dahaf" the polling agency in Israel headed by Minah Tzemach. While the poll shows the smallest Sharon majority that has yet to be published, 53 Percent for the disengagement, and 38 percent oppose the Sharon plan. Minah Tzemach is the same person who refused to hold a survey that offers the Israeli public an option to choose between the Sharon disengagement plan and the Jewish disengagement plan. She originally offered to rig the question, and then she flatly rejected to hold the alternative poll, that would have given the people of Israel two choices: To surrender Gaza and expel the Jews or to annex Gaza and expel the hostile Arabs. "Mishalot Yisrael" taped her saying, "I refuse to hold a poll like that which might show a majority of Israelis prefer the expulsion of the Arabs." The tape was made available to the press at a press conference. This explosive story has been supressed by the "free press" of Israel, who continue to ram Sharon's plan dwon the collective throat of the nation of Israel. The truth is being hidden from the public. If the people of Israel were given an alternative that would distance the Arab threat, they would gladly reject the suicidal Sharon plan. There is a group that is holding an independent referendum on this question. Votes can be cast on www.mishal.org You can play an interview about this referendum conducted by Rabbi Tuvia Singer. Hear the radio interview about the referendum to save Israel. (www.israelnn.com/metafiles/asx/shows/IsraelNationalRadio/tovias-th-2.asx) Subscribe to Voice of Judea emails by sending an email request to jsid@dorsai.org |
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SPARE THE CHILDREN
Posted by Tamar Psion, June 10, 2005. |
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This article is written by Caroline Glick and appeared in the Jerusalem Post today. It is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/ JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1118283816266&p=1006953079897 This week, the state prosecutor's office announced that it is considering a plan that would declare "negligent" parents of minor children who are repeatedly arrested for taking part in protests against the government's withdrawal and expulsion plan from Gaza and northern Samaria. In so declaring the parents, the state would pave the way for the forcible removal of these children from their homes and their transfer to state custody. That is, the government's newest way to fight opposition protests against its plan to forcibly remove 10,000 law-abiding Israeli citizens from their homes, farms and communities this summer is to threaten parents with the forcible removal of their children from their custody if their children don't agree to stop protesting against the forcible removal plan. This child confiscation proposal, which was defended on Wednesday by Deputy Attorney-General Shai Nitzan, is more than simply controversial. It is totalitarian. It is not simply hard-hearted. It is inhuman. And in announcing it, the government showed that in light of the precipitous drop in public support for its plan, it has lost its connection to the principles of democracy, morality and simple human decency which are the outstanding characteristics of the Israeli public. While the public was still reeling from the state prosecution's intention to declare war on the sanctity of the family as a means to fight 14-year-old girls who prefer to stay in jail rather than agree to surrender their right to protest the policies of their government, the government launched yet another offensive against its enemies. The newest move, reported Thursday in Ma'ariv, is its decision to threaten citizens set for expulsion that if they don't leave their homes and farms voluntarily by August 15, the government will fine them each $40,000. This announcement came in the wake of Housing Minister Isaac Herzog's statement to The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that residents who don't cut a deal with the government for resettlement ahead of their planned eviction will simply be loaded onto buses and thrown out of their homes. Where they go after that is their problem, he explained. The government is in trouble. With each passing day the fact that the plan to which it owes its existence - the forcible removal of 10,000 citizens from their homes and communities and the transfer of their land to the Palestinians who have been attacking them continuously for the past five years - is seen by more and more Israelis as irrational and dangerous. This week, the polls, which over the past several months have registered a gradual yet consistent erosion of public support for the plan, showed that today only 48 percent of the public supports it. In its attempts to defend its increasingly precarious position, the government has reacted wildly to its critics. Rather than increase public support, its moves have simply added to the general sense that the Sharon-Peres government has lost control of events and, in its zeal to defend its controversial program, it is willing to sacrifice the nation's security and its own morality. The reasons for the increase in public opposition to the plan are varied, but they all redound to the fact that Sharon's current governing coalition has no reason to exist other than to implement the withdrawal plan. Because of this, everything that occurs domestically, diplomatically and militarily, is viewed by the public through the prism of the withdrawal plan. In recent weeks there has been a steep increase in media coverage of violent crime. A 14-year-old is brutally attacked by bullies in school and the story is given five minutes of coverage on television newscasts. The murder of a 15-year-old girl by a glue-sniffing juvenile delinquent is front-page news for two days. While the increase in violent crime, or at least the increase in media attention to violent crime, has nothing to do with the planned withdrawal and expulsion plan, it is linked to the plan in the eye of the public because rather than fight crime, thousands of police officers are training to carry out the expulsion of law abiding citizens from their homes this August. And rather than try criminals, the courts are clogged with juveniles arrested for blocking traffic in protest of the withdrawal plan. In recent weeks the fact that there has been a steep decline in the Bush administration's support for Israel, matched by a steep increase in the administration pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority, has become undeniable. The fact that Washington has even considered opening discussions with Hamas is evidence of the fact that, if nothing else, the government has completely failed in explaining the actual situation in the Palestinian war against Israel to the administration. And of course it has. In order to justify their withdrawal and expulsion plan both domestically and internationally, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his associates have had to proclaim their support for PA chieftain Mahmoud Abbas. This they have done even as Abbas has done everything in his power to support and strengthen terrorist organizations. To the extent that Abbas is weak, his weakness is due to the fact that the terrorists don't believe that his support has been sufficient. But because Sharon has publicly supported Abbas, the Americans feel justified in pressuring Israel for more concessions to him. The government cannot publicly admit that Abbas is part of the problem, and that strengthening him will only make matters worse because doing so will merely point to the absurdity of the planned withdrawal and expulsion. So too, the government has been completely incompetent in contending with the increased military capabilities and terrorist assaults by the Palestinian terrorist organizations and with the open collusion between Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah with the PA militias and the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt. Last Thursday, Sharon's personal attorney Dov Weisglass dismissed the threat emanating from Kassam rockets by referring to them as mere "flying objects." When these "flying objects" destroyed a home in Sderot on Tuesday and killed three people in the hothouses in Gush Katif, the general public could not ignore the fact that those "flying objects" are deadly weapons and that in attempting to defend its increasingly indefensible policy the government is making war on its political opponents instead of fighting the nation's enemies. In his first public comments since assuming the mantle of IDF Chief of General Staff, Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz stood before the cameras in Sderot on Tuesday and told the nation that all these attacks on Israel were merely the result of Palestinian turf wars and that the attacks on Israel endangered the Palestinian Authority more than they endangered Israel. The absurdity of his remarks, made in the shadow of the destroyed apartment building, and at the same time as Abbas is doing everything he can to legitimize Hamas both domestically and internationally, could not have been more glaring. Indeed, in response to the IDF's peevish attack on terrorists poised to launch Kassam rockets in Gaza on Wednesday, Abbas condemned Israel and said that Israel was bringing about the collapse of the cease-fire, as if his own forces weren't actively colluding with Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad terror squads who launched their rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles this week within spitting distance from his military posts and as if Israel hadn't arrested 15 would-be suicide bombers over the past month. The Keystone Kops-style machinations of the government might be a source of ironic amusement if the consequences of the government's signature policy didn't have such dangerous consequences for Israel. Last Friday, on the eve of his hand-over of command to Halutz, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon gave an in-depth interview to Haaretz in which he said, among other things, that given the fact that the Palestinians continue to reject Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, the notion of a "two-state" solution west of the Jordan River is a recipe for war. Of the government's current withdrawal plan, Ya'alon stated that if it is implemented, the Palestinians would pocket Gaza and then relaunch their terror war against Israel from Judea and Samaria. In his words, "I have no doubt that they will have in interest in demonstrating that after the pullout from Gaza there will be a period of quiet there. 'You left Gaza? You get quiet. You will leave Judea and Samaria? You will get quiet. Leave Tel Aviv and things will be completely quiet.'" Ya'alon's statements were quickly backed up by retired security brass from across the political spectrum in Tuesday's edition of Ma'ariv. These former Mossad chiefs and IDF generals noted that the plan will erode Israel's international standing; place pressure on Israel for more and deeper withdrawals and expulsions in Judea and Samaria; set a precedent for a retreat to the 1949 armistice lines including a redivision of Jerusalem; and increase vastly the capabilities and the motivation of the Palestinians and the Arab world generally to reignite the terror war against Israel in the fall. The government's reaction to these cautionary notes was to denounce the critics as gasbags and to ratchet up its rhetoric against the residents it is set to expel and their supporters. Rather than contending with the content of Ya'alon's arguments, Sharon Wednesday responded dubiously that during his entire tour of duty as chief of General Staff, Ya'alon had never made these points to him. Given the fact that the government has inextricably linked its fortunes to the success of its irrational and dangerous withdrawal and expulsion plan, Sharon and his partners are unable to respond to attacks against them with anything other than venom, bravado and hysteria. The public's abandonment of its support for the government is a direct result of this state of affairs and, given the consistency of the downward trend in support that preceded its loss of the majority, there can be no doubt that the government is on its way to collapse. The only question that remains open today is whether the government will collapse before or after it implements its ruinous policy. |
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HOW THE MEDIA SNEAKS IN BIAS; THE LEFT'S FINAL SOLUTION; HAMAS TAKING OVER GAZA?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 10, 2005. |
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INNUENDO BY SUGGESTION BY QUOTATION "'When the Israelis release some prisoners, they just fill up the empty space in their jails with other Palestinians (Arabs),' said Fida Baran, who said she was waiting for her brother to be released." (Christine Hauser, NY Times, 6/3, A6). The sentence reflects a clever type of "Times'" pro-Arab propaganda technique in news articles. It quotes what Arabs say, so it can't be accused of bias. But it quotes one-sidedly, and does not explain the facts. In this instance, the quotation insinuates something about Israel falsely, and is left standing. By leaving it standing, the Times leaves the falsehood standing. The Times has to bear responsibility for misleading readers. The insinuation is that upon releasing Arabs, Israeli forces arbitrarily capture more Arabs at random. In actuality, the new prisoners (and sometimes they are formerly released prisoners) have committed new war crimes or attacked Israeli troops. They deserve their punishment just as the released ones do not deserve release. The P.A., which is behind the terrorism against Israel and whose leaders should be imprisoned for it, have the temerity to complain that Israel didn't do enough for them in releasing just a portion of the prisoners. And if Israel released them all, the P.A. would complain about something else. Nothing Israel does for it suits it. Actually, nothing Israel does for it is warranted. MAKING ISRAEL APPEAR A WELCHER "Israel also agreed under the truce to turn over five W. Bank towns to Palestinian (P.A.) security control. But so far, it has only turned over two of the towns, accusing Palestinian (Arab) forces of failing to act against militants in areas under their control." (Ali Daragmeh, NY Sun, 6/3, p.8 from Associated Press.) The "NY Sun" means to be pro-Israel, but it uses A.P., which gives an anti-Israel spin. The way that paragraph was written, it makes Israel seem to be going back on its agreement out of pique against the P.A.. Actually, what Israel agreed to was provided the P.A. would act against (not "militants," a euphemism for) terrorists there. Since the P.A. did not, there was no reason for Israel to go on with the program. It is unfair to Israel to imply that it should; doubly unfair to fail to indicate what the Arabs' obligations are; and triply unfair not to note that the Arabs never have carried out their major Oslo obligations, as if Israel were untrustworthy when it is the Arabs who are demonstrably untrustworthy. Another device is to state Arab complaints as factual and Israeli claims as "Israel claims," as if perhaps not based on facts. PRES. BUSH'S ANTI-ZIONIST SELF-CONTRADICTIONS Pres. Bush said in the same message that Israel and the P.A. must negotiate their borders themselves, but also outlined what the US would insist the borders should be, thereby negotiating them itself. In dong this, he is "wresting from Israel land to which it has a historical, legal, and biblical claim and handing it to an organization that has been launching terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians in discos, wedding halls, pizza parlors, and vegetable markets." He insists that the emerging P.A. state have territorial contiguity and linkage between Gaza and Judea-Samaria. He ignores the fact that such a linkage would bisect Israel, thereby depriving Israel of territorial contiguity and for it, that means of national security. Furthermore, since the US does not have territorial contiguity -- Alaska is separated from the lower 48 states by another country - it is unseemly to demand it for someone else. Why is the US interfering, in the first place? (NY Sun, 6/1, Ed..) Because the State Dept. wants Israel overthrown. "ISLAM'S DOUBLE STANDARD" Although a "Newsweek" story about one alleged abuse of US prisoners was false, US interrogators have mistreated the Koran a few times, as a means of getting prisoners more cooperative. That and other methods caused Amnesty Intl. to rate the US as a major human rights abuser. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected the criticism on the grounds that if the prisoners were free, they would slit our throats. His rejection was not typical of the US. Islamic groups here conduct "sensitivity training" for non-Muslims. Activists and US officials condemn the slightest insult to any Muslim in the US. Such is not the case in the Muslim world, where insults and murder of people of other faiths is official policy. The Saudi penalty for converting out, is death. The Koran is quoted as calling Jews apes and pigs. Islam accuses the ancient Jews of distorting their Torah to make Muhammad not seem to be the "true prophet." (The Torah was written before Muhammad was born). "Throughout much of the Islamic world, the practice of Christianity and Judaism is severely restricted if not outlawed." S. Arabia distributes propaganda in US schools and mosques that it subsidizes, defaming Christians and Jews. They call it "a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews." Theirs is a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence." The State Dept. has acknowledged that Christians "have become the most persecuted faith group in the world. Yet these persecutors are not pressured into the kind of sensitivity training Muslim groups in America demand at the slightest slight, whether actual, imagined, or concocted." "To accept this Islamic double standard creates a significant threat to the US." "The Arab world is the last bastion of unbridled, unashamed, unhidden and unbelievable anti-Semitism. Hitlerian myths get published in the popular press as incontrovertible truths. The Holocaust either gets minimized or denied?How the Arab world will ever come to terms with Israel when Israelis are portrayed as the devil incarnate is hard to figure out." Western diplomacy about the Arabs living in peace with Israel is just talk (Cal Thomas, NY Sun, 6/2, p.11). What to make of all this? On the immediate question of tolerance, think of how we feel when Muslim Arabs trashed Jewish holy books or forbad Christian US troops from worshipping on US bases in S. Arabia except practically in catacombs! Is gratuitous insult of Muslims proper, if to reduce terrorism? Until it is legal, the general should not condone it. Problem is, Muslims are so hegemonic, that they fake being insulted, in order to get others gradually to bend to them. They also take every criticism, however mild, constructive, or scholarly, as an insult and something not to explain or debate but to kill over. Islamism, if not also Islam in general, is the enemy of the West. Instead of sensitivity training towards Muslims, educate Westerners about how Islamism and Islam affect us, their menace, the enemy's methods, and how to deal with them without gratuitously insulting them over their religion. We should fight off the onslaught, object to their intolerance, not interfere with their non-political religious practices, and stop pretending that their jihadist faith is a religion of love. DO YOU WANT DESCRIPTIVE TERMS OR EUPHEMISMS? Prof. Steven Plaut calls the "2-state solution" the Rwanda solution or the 24-state solution. When people propose statehood for the P.A., they simply would add another Arab state to no constructive purpose. Those who propose letting the Arabs take over Israel are proposing a "Rwanda," where the Hutus fell upon the Tutsis. Leftists claim they want to bring Israel down, because of its alleged oppression. That claim is not credible, considering that these leftists do not object to the other countries in the Mideast, all much more oppressive. They just hate Jews. The Nazis called it the "final solution." (6/2, e-mail.) PM SHARON GIVES CRIME A BREATHER "The police spending hours interrogating people for distributing orange ribbons, stickers and informational pamphlets are regular cops who would otherwise be working on preventing or solving real crimes... Prosecutors who now have to wade through the paperwork generated by these spurious investigations are... diverting their resources - as well as the resources of the Israeli court system - from the swift delivery of justice in real cases." "It didn't have to be this way. From the very start Attorney General Menachem Mazuz could have issued clear guidelines as to what constitutes illegal incitement. Clear and intuitive guidelines that prohibit calls to hurt individuals or groups and leave the rest protected by the right to freedom of speech." "But he didn't. Mazuz's patchwork of comments for more than a year left both police and protestors uncertain as to what citizens can do without facing the risk of being ID'd, interrogated - and possibly even prosecuted for incitement." "When Menachem Mazuz was appointed attorney general he was roundly praised by his colleagues for his great intellect and skills, so it's hard to accept that he has simply been clumsy, lazy or incompetent." More likely, he puts ideology before justice and duty (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 6/2). Some non-Muslim calls to violence are not a clear and present danger. SHARON ADMITS ABANDONMENT LOSING SUPPORT PM Sharon told Congress that Abbas left his meeting with Pres. Bush feeling no need to crack down on terrorism. Terrorism is increasing. Israelis therefore are becoming disillusioned with Sharon's abandonment plan, which would leave Gaza to a P.A. that coddles terrorism. They consider Bush's alleged promises a bluff (IMRA, 5/31). They are. "HAARETZ" ON REALITY Complete Israeli abandonment of Yesha is the solution that the Arabs, the rest of the world, and (which is not true) most Israelis favor. Objecting to this outcome, Israel's former Chief of Staff said, "'Israel is ready to give the Palestinians (i.e., Palestinian Arabs) an independent Palestinian state, but the Palestinians are not ready to give us an independent Jewish state,' Ya'alon says. But the reality is different: The State of Israel has already been established, and does not require Palestinian approval." (Foreign Ministry, 6/2 from Haaretz.) What qualifies "Haaretz" to give lessons in reality? Its policies were tried and led to a Nazi-like, Arab terrorist autonomy in Yesha. The thrust of diplomacy these days is to disestablish Israel. The policies of "Haaretz" journalists, often synonymous with those of the P.A., promote that outcome - deprive Israel of secure borders, strategic depth, water, and historical justification, bring in Arabs, build an army, and deny Israeli legitimacy. HAMAS TAKING OVER GAZA? A senior P.A. security officer complained that the P.A. is letting Hamas take over Gaza. The head of P.A. forces does not issue orders against Hamas, and his forces don't particularly obey his orders. Hamas has been allowed to grow. It is more disciplined than the P.A. forces (IMRA, 5/31). Imagine Hamas in charge, "side-by-side" with Israel! The ceasefire that Abbas called and with which Israel one-sidedly cooperated enables Hamas to build its forces. Actually, there is no clear-cut distinction between the P.A. forces, which are a collection of terrorists, and Hamas. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
KOL HAKAVOD!
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 10, 2005. |
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Let there be more open and directed criticism both of the police and the judges who engage in the persecution of Jews in Israel. Yes persecution. Nearly all of the actions taken against the opponents of the Sharon Junta have been illegal even under Israeli law or borderline at the best. The politically selective enforcement of vague laws are the common tool of dictators who desire a facade of legitimacy. The illegitimate Sharon Junta will soon fall and be replaced by a truly Jewish Government and Justice System. Those who have willingly participated in such blatantly illegal and immoral activities will be brought to book and will have to answer for their crimes. The World and especially the Jewish World, rejected at Nuremburg for all time the excuse of: "I was just following orders." This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com.
It is entitled
"Jerusalem Councilman Angered at Police Actions"
and is archived at
www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83721
(IsraelNN.com) A harsh exchange of words took place between
Jerusalem Councilman Yoram Karashi, who holds the city's security
portfolio and Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco.
During a police awards ceremony, Karashi criticized Franco for the
prolonged incarceration of juveniles who took part in
anti-disengagement road closings.
Addressing the festive event, Karashi praised police but then
called for "increased solidarity towards the community." He spoke of
the 12-year-old girls who have been in jail for over a month and not
permitted to take matriculation exams. Karashi called on police to
exhibit more patience for youths who have taken to the streets in a
"legitimate protest for their homes."
Responding, Franco told Councilman Karashi "this is not the forum
to criticize police."
Karashi had the last word, telling the senior police commander
that there is nothing wrong with pointing out the position supported
by a large consensus of the population.
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.
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| GUSH KATIF |
A MAN OF HONOR
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 10, 2005. |
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This is how a man of honor and with self respect acts. Let ALL those who oppose this disgusting and treacherous business resign their positions. This will bring the Government to its knees in a totally legal and non-violent manner. The excuse give that the one resigning will simply be replaced by someone else is irrelevant. There can be no compromise with evil. Anyone who actively or passively supports this Government is as guilty as they and will ultimately have to stand in judgement for his crimes. Furthermore, it is not so easy to replace even a common clerk let alone a middle level or senior bureaucrat. There a just so many people available and capable of doing any job. A massive action of resignations will stop the entire Oslo insanity. This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - www.IsraelNationalNews.com. It is entitled "Senior Border Police Officer Calling it Quits Over Disengagement" It is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83728 (IsraelNN.com) Border Police Commander Uzi Siyach has announced he will be leaving the force rather than be a part of the forced expulsion of Jews from their homes. Siyach, whose rank is the equivalent to a colonel in the military has indicated he cannot and will not take part in the forced removal of Jews from their homes, the weekly Makor Rishon reports. Siyach was decorated twice and is considered among the finest of the force. He was recently reassigned in preparation for the disengagement, leading to his decision to resign from the force. MK (Likud) Ayoub Kara told Channel 1 TV this week that he knows a member of his Druse community, a high-ranking officer, who quit rather than take part in the disengagement. While Kara declined to mention the name, Hevron area residents, where Siyach served in a command post, report it is he who the Kara was referring to in the interview. Kara this week also appealed to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to exclude Druse soldiers from taking part in the disengagement. He explained that while the Druse community signed a pact with the nation to protect and serve, this does not include "evicting brothers from their homes." 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. |
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THE GENOCIDAL PHANTOMS OF THE OPRAH
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 10, 2005. |
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The original essay has live links to additional material. Go to discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/ genocidal-phantoms-of-oprah.html You know things are really getting out of hand when TV hostess Oprah Winfrey decides to go jihad. Yes, Oprah, the waddling guru of the bored middle-class at-home housewives, has repeatedly taken time off from teaching her followers about closet organization and thigh reduction, in order to promote the Palestinian cause. She has run one-sided articles about the Middle East conflict on her show and and in her O Magazine. Whenever the subject of terrorism is broached on her show, Oprah studiously avoids allowing anyone to link it to Palestinians or the Hizbollah. She interviewed mothers of suicide bombers who were distraught because their houses were bulldozed. There was no mention of Israeli babies and their mothers being blown up in buses, pizza parlours blown to smithereens, nor Jewish teens murdered while at the disco inTel Aviv. Not even the Jews murdered when two guests of the International Solidarity Movement blew up Mike's Place in Tel Aviv. Debbie Schlussel has dubbed her the affable Joseph Goebbels of daytime talk TV. Columnist Naomi Ragen demolished Oprah for her politicized bias. The Anti-Defamation League has denounced her for bias, noting that 'Palestinian girls will be rescued when their leaders say "No" to the incitement, hate and violence that has permeated their political and cultural landscape for years now.' In the June issue, a feature article tries to arouse sympathy for a an 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist, Yusra Abdu, who was tried, convicted and is currently serving time in an Israeli jail for conspiring to perform a suicide bombing. The article tries to make the Palestinian wannabe mass-murderer appear humane and likeable. The propaganda article is written by one David France. He quotes enemies of Israel, leftists, and unidentified human rights activists, spouting false statistics. In the piece he asks, 'What would make a girl take such a radical and grisly step?' France "answers" himself when he quotes a moonbatish university professor, who asserts that: "religion is not the cause [of Palestinian suicide terror]... these are people who define their situation as hopeless. They feel that they have no way to respond against what they see as Israeli military aggression." Frnace forgot to add a detail to the story. The real reason the Oprah heroine set out to commit mass murder was that she was worried about getting punished for participating in a date! Because a date would have compromised Yusra honor and she might have found herself getting her throat slit by her brother or father. Is it any wonder that, as France himself writes, she confessed to Israeli security police that the real reason she wanted to blow herself up was "boredom?" Now in fact, the reason 18 year old Palestinians try to commit mass murder is because they are driven by a genocidal neonazi Islamofascist ideology instilled in them over decades by the PLO and its affiliates, all with the blessing and cheerleading of the Western Left. Hard as it is for an Oprah fan to understand, Palestinians want to mass murder Jews because they hate Jews and want to annihilate Jews. Not because they are "occupied." (They were mass murdering Jews long before any land was "occupied" by Israel in 1967.) And no one with an atlas can seriously suggest that Arabs murder Jews because Jews have too much land and Arabs not enough. Why would Oprah, who is not exactly hard up for cash, sell out and allow her magazine to be hijacked on behalf of Palestinian violence? Maybe Doctor Phil can tell us? 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. |
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DISENGAGEMENT SUPPORTED BY A MINORITY IN ISRAEL
Posted by Yoram Ettinger, June 9, 2005. |
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Enclosed you'll find the 179th issue of Straight From The Jerusalem Cloakroom, highlighting the most controversial issue in Israel's public debate - "Disengagement". Should you wish to examine previous issues, please visit http://yoramettinger.newsnet.co.il or www.acpr.org.il (Jerusalem Cloakroom and Hatikvah links). May we heed the lessons of Shavouot/Pentecost Holiday: In order to earn a critical prize (the TORAH) one has to be endowed with FIRE (passion for ideals and values, rather than opportunism and cynicism), with WATER (undiluted and lucid motives and guts) and DESERT-MENTALITY (the capability to wonder 40 years in the politically-INcorrect desert without forsaking one's ideals and values). Happy Shavouot/Pentecost,
PS I'm in the US during June 10 - July 10, available for speaking engagements, and may be contacted via e-mail at yoramtex@netvision.net.il Israel's outgoing Chairman of the Joint C-o-S says: "Disengagement Fuels War!" 1. PUBLIC SUPPORT OF "DISENGAGEMENT HAS PLUMMETED TO 48%, down from 70% a few weeks ago. According to polls, while support has been soft the opposition to "Disengagement" has been solid. Recent polls have been conducted while the entire media has been deployed in support of "Disengagement", denying opponents an equal platform. 2. GENERAL YA'ALON, THE OUTGOING CHAIRMAN OF ISRAEL's JOINT C-o-S BLASTS "DISENGAGEMENT" (Ha'aretz, June 3, 2005). Ya'alon cautions that "Disengagement" would be a tailwind to Palestinian terrorism, bringing Kassam missiles and homicide bombing to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Kfar Saba and other major cities. He warns that the Soft Belly of Israel would become a regular target for Palestinian terrorism. 3. General Ya'alon determines that "Disengagement" has been perceived by the Palestinians as a cut & run, emboldening terrorists: "The Palestinians believe that they are advancing their goal... while Israel retreats." 4. General Ya'alon claims that "Israel's military re-engagement [since 2002/3] with Palestinian cities has tilted the battle on terrorism in favor of Israel, has reduced the number of casualties, has bolstered Israel's steadfastness, has contributed to economic recovery and has acquired international legitimacy... Until the inception of "Disengagement" the Palestinians reassessed their position on terrorism, concluding that violence yields no rewards." But, then came the plan of "Disengagement", which has adrenalized Palestinian terrorism. 5. General Ya'alon insists that "Disengagement" would demolish recent Israeli achievements in its war on terrorism, and would produce a wave of terrorism, which would dwarf the one that has plagued Israel since the conclusion of the 1993 Oslo Accord. 6. GENERAL YA'ALON CONTENDS THAT A PALESTINIAN STATE WOULD BE A LETHAL THREAT TO THE JEWISH STATE, would exacerbate terrorism and would be a catalyst to a horrific war. 7. General Ya'alon concludes that ABU MAZEN HAS NOT ACCEPTED ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST. "Abu Mazen has not given away the claim of return... which stands for the destruction of the Jewish State." 8. VITAL U.S. INTERESTS WOULD BE UNDERMINED BY "DISENGAGEMENT", which would increase violence and instability, distance the area from peace, upgrading the position of rogue regimes and threatening the survival of pro-US regimes. Ambassador Yoram Ettinger is a consultant on US-Israel relations as well as the Chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research. Formerly the Minister for Congressional Affairs to Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC, Ettinger also served as Consul General of Israel to the Southwestern US. He is a former editor of Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder, and is the author of the Jerusalem Cloakroom series of reports. |
| GUSH KATIF |
THESE AMAZING TEENAGERS
Posted by Yardena Anat Even, June 9, 2005. |
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These two girls, sisters, were jailed for road blocking. I've checked other jewish/israeli newspapers and none report about this event except Haaretz. The girls have been jailed for 3 weeks even though hey are underage. Their parents support them. The news item from Ha'aretz is called "Sisters refuse to cooperate after three weeks in jail," and was written by Nadav Shragai. It is archived at www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/586118.html This being Ha'aetz, a pro-Palestinian far left paper, many of the comments on the article think what they are doing is terrible - few see them as the heroines they are. Yet it is children like them that are the best hope Israel has for a viable future. One response to the article - by Matthias Roth - summed it up well: "The people who have been arrested know exactly what they are doing. They have certain values based on faith and the Torah, and for these values they take to the streets. I admire all the residents of Gush Katif, Judea and Samaria for what they are doing. They are hard-working, belief-based people. And they do not want to abandon their values just for a lump sum of money. What a difference to the secular youths in Tel Aviv and other cities who probably just have their fun in mind. What empty life!" For more than three weeks now, 12-year-old R. and 14-year-old D. have been under arrest. They telephone their parents daily. Sometimes they cry, and sometimes they are in high spirits, but one thing never changes: They consistently refuse to be released under restrictive terms, as stipulated by the courts. The sisters were arrested after blocking a junction as part of the first "test run" by disengagement opponents, and only a few days ago agreed to formally identify themselves, as required by law. Despite recurrent reports they were refusing to identify themselves, everybody already knew their names, where they live, who their parents are. The mother and father are well known locally. Both parents attended the first hearing on extending the girls' remand in custody, and subsequent hearings. They presented identity cards on which the girls are listed, spoke with them dozens of times by telephone, and called the girls by name. The girls effectively identified the parents as "Dad" and "Mom," but the regulations and formal law require the girls to identify themselves, and this they simply refused to do. The girls were not willing to be released to house arrest until the end of the proceedings, as the juvenile offenses judge in Petah Tikva ruled, and demanded that their terms of release be the same as those mandated by other judges in the cases of other minors arrested for blocking roads. The court refused, and their appeal to the district court was rejected. Only yesterday, when their trial opened, did they agree to be released on bail under the strict terms, but with the intention of appealing these in a petition to the High Court of Justice. The parents miss the girls, but back them up. The mother said that every few days she comes to the prison walls and converses with the girls through shouts. Other parents do the same. "Contrary to what has been reported, we requested to visit them, but they won't let us. We asked to bring them games, books, sealed food, all according to regulations. Even that has been banned," she said. The mother said she knows that the situation "may sound a little inhuman." "We want them at home and tell them that as far as we're concerned, they can sign and come home, but they're really stubborn. For the past eight years, the 12-year-old has been spending half an hour a day traveling by bus along a road on which bombs are scattered and shots are fired. This girl has been briefed, as an older child on the bus, to move among the little ones in an emergency to calm them. "This is a girl who lay under the bed when a terrorist wandered around the community. She and her friends have experienced bereavement. In every class at their school, there are at least three children hit by grief and injuries, so my girls are more mature than a lot of other adolescents. And when they make a decision like this, even though it's not easy, and there are tears, and even though it's also tough on the brothers and sisters and the grandparents - we all respect it, even if in the extended family there are occasionally other opinions," the mother said. The sisters and some of their girlfriends were placed in solitary confinement in the course of their arrest. The mother said they were taken out only after a lawyer threatened a senior prison officer. "Nobody threatened us that the welfare authorities would get to them, or that they would be handed over for adoption. That's nonsense being spread by the prosecution," the mother said. On the other hand, she said that the female probation officer who visited the girls wrote in her report that their arrest, along with others from the "test run," bolsters them and therefore she recommends separating the detainees. Residents of the girls' community are preparing a heroes' welcome for them. The anti-disengagement campaign is taking on heroic dimensions, not unrelated to feelings of alienation from the state. The idea is taking root that the arrests serve the campaign; as the number of detainees increases, the courts get clogged and the prisons fill up, the disengagement will be delegitimized, increasing the chances of blocking it. Yardena Anat Even can be contacted at Yardena3@aol.com |
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HIGH COURT: DISENGAGEMENT LEGAL DESPITE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 9, 2005. |
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This was a news item in Arutz-7 and is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83662 I admit I expected more decency from this court. It's true that what Hitler did was also legal because his courts backed him up - but these Israeli judges haven't been terrorized. They don't fear for their lives if they don't back the Government. So why are they so corrupt? Israel's Supreme Court declared Wednesday that Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not part of Israel and that political and security goals override the human rights of the 9,000 residents facing expulsion. An eleven member panel of Supreme Court Justices, led by Chief Justice Aharon Barak, rejected twelve petitions from members of Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria. Ten of the Justices ruled that the Disengagement Plan violates the human rights of "property, freedom of occupation and proper respect for the evacuees," but is acceptable in order to achieve political and security aims. The only Justice to rule against the plan was Justice Edmund Levy, who said the entire plan should be struck down. Justice Levy added that he was critical of his colleagues for making such a significant ruling without first visiting Gush Katif to obtain a true understanding of what is taking place. Levy stated that at the very least, the High Court justices should have visited a number of the communities slated for evacuation. Despite repeated invitations and an initial statement of intention to do so, the Justices refused to visit Gush Katif before ruling. The panel of judges also rejected lawyers' requests to have former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon explain to the court the security reasoning for the withdrawals. The court in their decision ruled that security concerns override the human rights of the Jewish residents. The Supreme Court did, however, order changes of several aspects of the Evacuation-Compensation Law: It rejected a clause barring recipients of compensation from filing a standard lawsuit for damages; rejected a deadline allowing evictees only thirty days to choose the nature of the compensation plan they prefer and ruled that residents under twenty-one years may receive compensation--rejecting the law's stated minimum age of twenty-one for receipt of compensation funds. Furthermore, the court ruled that the day of the actual evacuation should be used as the date for determination of certain elements of the compensation package instead of June 4, 2004, as stated by the current law. MK Effie Eitam (Engagement Party) blasted the ruling. "The Supreme Court is facilitating the government corruption that gave birth to the Disengagement and the affliction of a populace that has built their lives upon the rule of law and the decisions of the Israeli government. It has crumbled the last remaining vestige of Israeli democracy." "The legal battle is not over, we are considering additional petitions," said Attorney Yitzhak Meiron of the Land of Israel Legal Forum. He claims that the court created a legal opening for additional petitions with regard to compensatory lands for farmers and the proposed plan to relocate residents in the area of Nitzanim, between Ashkelon and Ashdod. Meiron stressed that at the core of the ruling lay the basic worldview of the Supreme Court Justices. "It is too bad there are not more judges like Edmund Levy on the court," he said. The attorney also pointed out the discrepancy between the time spent discussing the affects on human rights of Arabs effected by the Separation Fence Israel is building, as opposed to the time allotted to the 9,000 Jewish citizens being expelled from their homes. MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said the ruling demonstrates the courts increasing distance from the concept of justice. "They are prepared to sacrifice human rights and freedom on the altar of their leftist world-view," he said. "But even in Sodom there was one righteous man [referring to Justice Levy - ed.] and the world continues to exist, due to the righteous." The complete Supreme Court ruling can be viewed (in Hebrew) by going to: http://elyon1.court.gov.il/Files/05/610/016/a20/05016610.a20.HTM> |
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ABBAS TRIES EXTORTION AGAINST ISRAEL; ISRAEL'S STRANGE PR
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 9, 2005. |
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DEMOCRAT CONSPIRACY THEORISTS I met a couple of Democratic conspiracy theorists. Every one tosses out various assumptions they all take for granted, such as that the war in Iraq was unjustified or unplanned more than any other. My demurrals catch them by surprise. One thought the reason for the war was "for the oil." I asked what she meant by that. She supposed that the Administration invaded in order to seize the oil fields for the US oil companies. I pointed out that the US did not seize them and do not take the proceeds for its costs in defending Iraq. All the major US wars had some poor planning. If I recall correctly, Gen. Washington used to complain to Congress about it. The War of 1812 saw the capital set afire. It took years before Pres. Lincoln could find a general willing to take the offensive. In WWI, ill-trained US troops were sent to the front. WWII had the surprise at Pearl Harbor and Midway Isl. and at the Battle of the Bulge. In the Korean War, the US was caught unprepared by N. Korea and again by the Chinese Army. You remember Vietnam. In Gulf War I, we allowed the Iraqi army out of our trap and Saddam to retain power. By contrast, Gulf War II was fought swiftly and successfully. There was no way to anticipate that the troops would turn into guerillas. One of the Democrats called the war a mistake because Iraqis got killed. I told her I don't care about that, that's war. The US kept its own, civilian, and even enemy casualties low. She should be proud of the US effort. She also should be proud that the US ended a genocidal regime. In another context, she had expressed approval of the US intervening against genocide. Apparently she acts like the caricature of Democrats depicted by conservatives, who say they favor intervention except when it helps the US. ASSESSING THE BALANCE OF FORCES When evaluating the balance of forces in a prospective Arab-Israel war, people often lack imagination. They match Egypt to Israel, and conclude that Israel would win. (This assumes that they know what forces and tactics Egypt has. They didn't before the Yom Kippur War.) Problem is, Egypt may not be alone. Other countries feel impelled to join in. Some contribute a tank division, others dispatch a squadron of planes, some whole armies. WHY BOLSTER ABBAS? Israel is urged to bolster Abbas' rule over the P.A.. Suggested ways of doing it are releasing convicted terrorists and dropping security checkpoints. Those actions facilitate the murder of Israelis. In taking those actions, the government of Israel becomes an accomplice in murder. In suggesting those actions, the US and others are promoting terrorism. The US should be told off and the Prime Minister should be arrested, himself, for terrorist conspiracy or for what the "Law and Order" TV program calls "depraved indifference." Now consider the implications of what Abbas' popularity is to be built upon. It is to be built upon accommodating terrorism. This means that he will continue to protect terrorists rather than crack down on them. It means his people are unworthy of financial, territorial, or other consideration. Will nobody ask: (1) What good does it do Israel to bolster Abbas' rule over his opposition, by doing what that opposition wants against Israel?; and (2) If it takes pro-terrorist action to make Abbas popular enough for his rule to be secure, then what does that say about the "aspirations" of the Palestinian Arabs and the prospect for their making peace with Israel? ISRAEL'S STRANGE PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN "Israel's public relations campaign is most strange," (former aid to PM Shamir) Ben-Aharon lamented. "Every time an Arab or Palestinian leader arrives in the U.S., his emphasis is on criticism of Israel: Israel's conquest, the arrests, demolition of houses, everything. But when an Israeli leader arrives, what does he have to say? ' We offer our hand in peace, the Palestinians are suffering, we have done so much for them, we ask the Administration to provide them with aid, etc.' - and he barely says anything about the PA's violations, the terrorism, the incitement, etc. So it's no wonder that the impression is created throughout the world, and especially in Washington, that Israel is the bad guy and that the conquest must be stopped to allow the poor Palestinians their freedom. If we don't change our tune, we will continue to pay a heavy price." (Arutz-7, 5/30.) The Arabs make everybody suffer. Israel should explain that. My fellow Jews worry too much about making a good impression, to make a good impression. ABBAS TRIES EXTORTION AGAINST ISRAEL Abbas "warned that if progress toward a peace agreement was not achieved in meetings with Sharon next month, 'despair and loss of hope will come back and a return to the old ideas' of armed resistance." (IMRA, 5/30.) That's why he doesn't disarm terrorists. By contrast, the more the Arabs do that ought to make a bad impression, the better the impression they make on the US government. It might be different if Israel pointed out how two-faced and belligerent Abbas really is. TERRORISTS WARN THAT ISRAELI RAIDS JEOPARDIZE TRUCE Terrorist factions have been increasing their attacks on Israel. For a second time, Israeli struck back at the rocket launching. Hamas called the Israeli retaliation escalation (which it isn't, but so what if it were?) and aggression. The terrorists complained that this retaliation jeopardizes the truce. In other words, Israel may not defend itself, for that is aggression, and the Arab attacks are permissible within what they call a truce (IMRA, 5/31, Jordan Times). Ridiculous. TWO CHEERS FOR LEBANESE FREEDOM The son of slain Lebanese leader Hariri, whose assassination energized the movement to get Syrian forces out of Lebanon, endorsed Hizbullah (IMRA, 5/30). Levantine politics. Ugh. FROM CHIEF OF STAFF TO LABOR PARTY LEADER? Israel's outgoing Chief of Staff (COS) made a statement favoring appeasement. It is perceived as his pursuit of a leadership role in the appeasement-minded Labor Party. Referring to the Golan Heights, COS "Ya'alon said that if there were a real peace with Syria, Israel could secure its territories even without the strategic mountainous zone. Ya'alon joins a long line of Israeli "snapshot" strategists - proposing long term moves based on possibly short term conditions." "The operative question is not if Israel needs the Golan to be safe during a period of 'real peace' but if Israel needs the Golan if - for any of a variety of reasons having absolutely nothing to do with Israel - that period should come to an end." (IMRA, 5/31.) Countries don't change their culture overnight. They don't change from imperialism and Islamism to peacemaking overnight. They pretend to do so, and the US pretends they have changed. Israel believes them. It would make concessions it ought not make even if there were peace. If Syria wanted peace, it would make it without the Golan. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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YESHA LEADER: HIGH COURT PROTECTS PA RESIDENTS MORE THAN JEWS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 9, 2005. |
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This is a news item from Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) and is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83652 (IsraelNN.com) Yesha (Judea, Samaria & Gaza) Council Executive Director Bentzi Lieberman responding to this morning's High Court ruling stated the High Court widened the distance between Jews and Arabs, "giving more defense to the Palestinian [position] than that of the Jews. The prime minister does not have a mandate for his plan and his plan must pass the test of the people, whose support is waning. The latest polls indicated support for the plan is now lower than 50%. This just deepens the split in the nation." Lieberman added he and his colleagues continue to view the disengagement as being anti-democratic and illegitimate. 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. |
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DID JEWS ATTACK THE TEMPLE MOUNT?
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, June 9, 2005. |
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This appeared in Front Page Magazine today and is archived at www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=18343 Last Monday, Jordan's Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Marouf Bakhit called a hasty meeting with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials to declare his country's outrage over the "provocative act" of a group of Jews who had the audacity to go up to the Temple Mount in commemoration of Jerusalem Day, the 38th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. The official Jordanian news agency called the Jewish visit: "A provocative act that could stir up confrontation and evoke outrage of Muslims around the world." The very next day, the suave, urbane Ambassador Bakhit told a group of diplomats and journalists at a Jerusalem think tank that there is absolutely no proof that the Temple ever stood at the spot known to Moslems as al-Haram-ash Sharif, now occupied by the Dome of the Rock. The entire episode may be viewed as part of the ongoing Arab strategy to delegitimize Jewish claims to holy sites and by extension to Jerusalem itself. None of this is new - Moslem clerics have regularly seized on perceived Israeli violations of the Temple Mount as pretexts to incite violent riots. But now the inflammatory statements are coming from a representative of the Jordanian government, who in the same speech to the diplomats and reporters claimed that his country is on its way to becoming "a moderate, tolerant, open society." Evidently that attitude does not extend to tolerating a dozen Jews visiting their holiest site. When several hundred Arabs started throwing rocks and chairs at the Jews and Israeli Border Police fired stun grenades to force the attackers to retreat, Jordan's Minister of Religious Affairs Abdul-Salam al-Abadi said police actions and the visit of Jewish visitors "represent a flagrant and an unacceptable challenge. They are part of repeated attempts by Zionist settlers to break into and sabotage Al Aksa Mosque to implement their vicious and criminal plans." The official statement went on to urge all Arab countries and Islamic organizations to "interfere" to put an end to "attacks" against Al Aksa. Quizzed about whether he personally considers the presence of Jews on the Temple Mount to constitute "an attack" on the mosque, Ambassador Bakhit refuses to answer. All he asserts is that "4 or 5 extremists managed to sneak in with a group of tourists..." Bakhit issues no condemnation of the Arab rock throwers who injured two Jews during the incident. He does mention, "I'm not good at religion, not mine or others.." But evidently good enough to promote his government's view that Jewish visits "endanger the safety of the mosque and Moslem worshippers." A few hours before his Jerusalem appearance, terrorists in northern Gaza fired at least three Kassam rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot, hitting a house, but causing no injuries. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said came in retaliation for the Jewish visit to the Jerusalem holy site. (Sderot, a development town two hours south of Jerusalem, get it?) Bakhit's job was done. The Jordanians predict "confrontation and outrage" and Hamas is happy to oblige. Judy Lash Balint is an investigative journalist and author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com |
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JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE AND STATE TERROR
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 9, 2005. |
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It is often forgotten that State Terror is directed as much towards the servants and lackeys of the dictatorship as to the common people. Without the full cooperation of the judiciary, a police state can not rule. This called "Demand for Detention Until the End of the Legal Proceedings for Shai and Ariel" On Jerusalem Liberation Day (last Monday) the leaders of the National Home movement, Ariel and Shai, were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court. A representative of the prosecution demanded that they remain arrested until the end of the legal proceedings. For the purposes of the trial for incitement to rebellion Ariel and Shai hired the services of Yoram Sheftel. It seems that the ancient stone walls of the building in the Russian Compound have never heard such an amazing speech as that delivered by Sheftel. The judge, whom it could be seen from the beginning of the hearing served merely as a rubber stamp for the caprices of Mazuz and the extremist Left who are running the show, totally lost his composure. He entered and left the courtroom several times during the hearing. As Sheftel continued his speech, it seemed that the judge (who was wearing a kippa) was seeking a loose stone to crawl beneath and hide. Sheftel rapidly turned the prosecution from accuser to defendant. "The more despotic the regime, the shorter its fuse becomes. This is the reason for this terrible charge sheet... that is the dress rehearsal for the despotism of the Left. If you give support for this political caprice the State of Israel will degenerate into total dictatorship." "Imagine that these two wonderful boys were to steal a tank and an APC, and block the Geha Highway. What would the prosecution charge them with then?" Sheftel asked. "Have you heard that any of the Ta'as workers who acted this week were arrested?" The wretched judge trembled and squirmed in his seat. It was obvious that he was subjected to tremendous pressure from above. If the issue had depended on him alone, he would have released the detainees immediately, but the fear of the system was too much for him. "I need a few days to decide", he said. When Ariel and Shai were returned to their cell, they were surrounded by hundreds of supporters who were passing by and had come to celebrate Jerusalem Day. The Police got out of hand and responded with grave violence, and arrested several faithful Jews. To view photos of the event click here: http://he.manhigut.org/content/view/1605. The expected decision was read out on Wednesday. The frightened judge lowered his eyes and sent Shai and Ariel to jail until the end of the legal proceedings. The leaders of the National Home Movement did not lose heart and returned to their cells with a broad smile on their faces. The protocol of Sheftel's speech will be uploaded to the National Home Movement. 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. |
Again and again Sheftel drove home his attack, while giving
examples of far graver incitement to rebellion that had been totally
ignored by Mazuz & Co. Sheftel recalled the incitement of the Left, of
Beilin's treachery in the Geneva Understandings (an offence punishable
by death that has never been dealt with by the prosecution). He
described the road blockings by the Histadrut, by the students, and
recently by workers of Ta'as.
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REFLECTIONS ON SPACE, TIME, AND SOUL
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 9, 2005. |
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A call to action. "Therefore, Israel's government, having betrayed the Jewish People and having truncated their homeland, must be expelled. Israel's political and judicial institutions, which do not represent the abiding beliefs and values of our people, must be eliminated. This regime, which gives away parts of Eretz Israel, and which therefore betrays the heritage of the Jewish People, must be exposed for what it is: a democratically elected despotism that makes space, time, and soul meaningless." This essay was written by Professor Paul Eidelberg, who is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached by mail at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and by email at Constitution@usa.net There are three basic concepts of Judaism on which the entire world depends: (1) olamspace; (2) shanahtime; and (3) nefesh soul. The concept of space is made meaningful in Eretz Israel. The concept of time is made meaningful in Jewish history, whose continuity hinges on the Shabbat. The concept of soul is made meaningful in the People of Israel. Eretz Israel, the Shabbat, and the Jewish People were created by God to perfect the world. When Jews abandon or are forced to abandon any part of Eretz Israel, the entire world suffers dislocation: wars, disputed borders, natural catastrophes. When Jews violate the Shabbat, moral decay ravages mankind. The Babylonian Talmud says, "If you see a generation which is constantly on the decline, go and investigate the Judges of Israel." When the People of Israel are divided, the world cannot avoid strife. The harmony of mankind depends on the harmony of the Jewish People, their closeness to God in Eretz Israel. Now parts of Eretz Israel are being ripped away by an illegitimate government and given to the enemies of the Jewish People. This government, deemed corrupt by the vast majority of Israel's citizens, is planning to expel countless Jews from their homes, beginning in Gaza but eventually from Judea and Samaria. Israel's Supreme Court "legitimizes" this crime by calling this land "occupied territory," a ruling contradicted not only by objective Israeli and international law, but even by judicial precedent. This political and judicial despotism is cloaked in the name of "Democracy." Democracy - only its veneer exists in Israel - has taken the place of God. Democracy opens the Malls on Shabbat and closes the hearts of Jews. And so Israel and the world have been thrown into turmoil, have been given Islam, the religion of war, whose followers hate Israel along with democracy. Nevertheless, Israel's government seeks the peace of these chronic nation-killers. Therefore, Israel's government, having betrayed the Jewish People and having truncated their homeland, must be expelled. Israel's political and judicial institutions, which do not represent the abiding beliefs and values of our people, must be eliminated. This regime, which gives away parts of Eretz Israel, and which therefore betrays the heritage of the Jewish People, must be exposed for what it is: a democratically elected despotism that makes space, time, and soul meaningless. 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. |
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HOW WE LIVE
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 9, 2005. |
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This is how we live: last week I went to a memorial service for Eitan Newman, the young soldier blown up in his tank last year as he patrolled the dangerous Philadelphi road that separates Gaza from Egypt and weapons smugglers and terrorists. Only a year ago, I paid a shiva call to his family. In the midst of her grief, his mother, Sara, asked me to tell this e-mail list to buy Israeli products, because the Israeli economy was hurting so badly. I was humbled by her request, and passed it on to you, and you responded with hundreds of heartfelt letters of condolence to Sara and her family. The memorial was held at Himmelfarb, a religious boys' high school where my son went. It was packed with Eitan's family and friends, so many young men and women, many of them married and wheeling baby carriages. Those like myself, who had never met Eitan, spent the evening getting to know him, in what was a celebration of his short, beautiful life, a life filled with kindness and laughter and learning and giving. I looked at the videos of him and his friends --such a handsome, charming, clever boy. Beside me sat Esther Waxman,a friend of Sara's, whose own soldier son was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists. She had come to participate in an evening that could not have been easy for her. She had come to remember Eitan with love. Not a word of hatred or revenge or politics was heard that evening. And we left feeling like family. A few days later, I rode out to Gush Katif and spent an afternoon speaking with Roz and Paul, friends who are farmers in Netzar Chazani. They have eight kids, seven boys, five of whom are army officers. I sat in the house they've built, saw the lettuce they grow in sand that brings in so many export dollars, and spoke with them about how their government is planning to throw them out of their house and land come August in exchange for....nothing. They are filled with faith that it won't happen. Filled with love and forgiveness for their fellow Jews, who they think are mistaken. Last night I attended a wedding. The bride was the beautiful young daughter of friends. I didn't know much about the handsome groom. The wedding was held in an elegant hotel. It was special. The dancing was amazing. Then someone said to me:" I don't know how she does it." "Who?" I asked, puzzled. "The mother of the groom. You must know, her daughter and husband..last year, Cafe Hillel..." I thought about it a minute, and then it dawned on me. The bride who had been killed in a suicide bombing the night before her wedding, along with her father, a well-known physician, who had run the emergency room at Shaare Zedek, saving the lives of so many terror victims. And now, a year later, another wedding. The bride's brother. I looked around the room. Many of these people had no doubt gathered the year before to attend his sister's wedding, and had instead attended her funeral. And now they had gathered once again, to celebrate with joy, to make the bride and groom joyful, to dance and be happy. I watched the groom's mother, girlish as a bride herself, as she danced with the bride doing everything she could to make her happy. I watched as the room swirled around them, everyone laughing, rejoicing. And then I watched the young groom suddenly break into the women's circle, taking his bride by the hands and dancing with her as the room exploded with cheering, and clapping and happiness. Whenever I think I can't go on one more day, that the cisterns of grief are overflowing, ready to tip over and drown me, I never fail to be touched by the extraordinary spirit of the people of Israel, the most humane, giving, life-affirming people on the planet-- whatever sick propaganda you might have read to the contrary. I know we are truly God's people. How else can you explain what I've just told you? Our enemies will never win. Because love is stronger than hate. Joy is stronger than sorrow. And those who love life are stronger than those who value death. Our enemies think they will win because they are willing to die. But I
know we will win, because we are willing, despite everything we've
been through, to go on living joyful, meaningful lives that are full
of love. I don't know how it's possible, but everyday, every hour,
someone else shows me how it's done.
Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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DEPAUL'S RESIDENT NAZI EXPOSED BY DERSHOWITZ
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 9, 2005. |
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For a version with dynamic links to additional material, go to
http://discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/
depauls-resident-nazi-exposed-by.html
Professor Alan Dershowitz from Harvard has decided to expose some of the lies and the barely-hidden neonazi political agenda of "professor" Norman Finkelstein, an untenured assistant professor at DePaul University, the same school that this year fired Professor Thomas Klocek for daring to tell the truth abvout the "Palestinians" and Israel. Finkelstein has been defined as a Holocaust Denier by the Anti-Defamation League. Like so many neonazis, Finkelstein is a regular Cockburn Cockroach over at Counterpunch. Dershowitz has set up a site to "out" DePaul's Holocaust Denier. It is called 'The Committee to Expose Norman Finkelstein.s Close Connections to Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial, and His .Big Lie. of an .International Jewish Conspiracy.' The document's name is a bit long, but its contents are definitely worth reading through. Dershowitz made the mistake of debating Finkelstein a couple of years back, giving Finkelstein some exposure and making him appear as a legitimate "alternative researcher," which he decidedly is not. . While Dersh wiped the floor with Finkelstein, the latter and his neonazi followers have been spreading the version that Finkelstein "won" that debate. Now Finkelstein has crayoned a new "book" attacking in infantile terms Dershowitz's own fine book about Isreal. Dershowitz's exposure of Finkelstein's quack "opinions" and pseudo-scholarship is devastating. It is too long to reproduce here in full, but we provide a few small nuggets from the Dershowitz web site: Finkelstein Citations: Question: "[Mr. Finkelstein] If you are a historian, why didn't you write a serious study about the subject? Why didn't you do research yourself? Interview people, etc.?" Finkelstein's answer: "Why should I interview people?" ... on obeying Chomsky "I'm a person of the left, and when you get a call from Professor Chomsky [asking you to "find" that a pro-Israeli book you haven't even read was a "fraud"], his wish is your command." "I don't know about Judaism, but [neonazi Israel Shahak, an anti-Jewish zealot who wrote that Jews worship Satan] did. He knew it well. He took an interest in it and I have no doubt that what he wrote is accurate." David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier who claims there were no gas chambers and that Hitler was "the Jews' greatest friend," is "a good historian" who has "made an 'indispensable' contribution to our knowledge of World War II." "All opinion-leaders, from the left to the right, are Jews... The Silence around my book in the US - if this is not a conspiracy, then what is one?" "Frankly, part of me says... 'you know what, we deserve the problem on our hands because some things Bin Laden says are true'. One of the things he said on that last tape was that 'until we live in security, you're not going to live in security', and there is a certain amount of rightness in that." And finally,"Never has one of my articles been published in a scientific magazine." (Given that last admission, you might want to dash off an e-note to the heads of DePaul asking why a nazi loon like Finkelstein is still on their faculty. The list of their officers and emails is at http://directory.depaul.edu/executive_officers/index.asp.) Other Finkelstein pronouncements can be viewed on the Dershowitz document, also located at the same website. Finally, let us note that an Israeli far-leftist anti-Israel fanatic lecturer from Ben Gurion University named Neve Gordon not only endorses Finkelstein's rantings but compares Finkelstein ethically to the Prophets of the Bible. If you would like to tell his boss what you think of that, write to President Avishay Braverman at avishay@bgumail.bgu.ac.il, President of Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheba 84105 Israel. 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. |
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REPORT FROM GUSH KATIF BY CHABAD RABBI DANNY COHEN OF CHEVRON
Posted by Rabbi Menachem Kovacs, June 8, 2005. |
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This report was written by Danny Cohen.
Dear Friends,
We just came back from a 10 day stay in Gush Katif together with other families from Chevron that went to help and give chizuk. I felt it was appropriate to tell everyone about my impressions. Since this disengagement-deportation gzeira was announced the people in gush katif are dealing with it in an unbelievable path of emunah of pashut continuing their lives as normal. In the settler circles this approach draws a lot of criticism urging them to prepare for strong resistance. I could only imagine if chv"s Chevron was to be "disengaged" 2 months before this city would look like a war zone. I came to Gush Katif with a bissel cynical look at this denial approach they have, but walked away in total awe. We spent a lot of time in the largest yishuv - Neve Dekalim. I don't know how many of you were ever there but we are talking about a place with over 300 families, beautiful shuls, yeshivas, mosdos, and the most impressive greenhouses - hundreds of them - that supply the frum world with bug free lettuce and are the largest exporters of flowers in Israel. In the past 5 years Neve Dekalim suffered almost 3000(!!!) mortar shell and rocket attacks with hardly anyone being hurt. Mamash you see the elokus written on the streets and roofs where these shells hit and caused only material damage in rechush. As a former combat soldier in the IDF that one of my jobs was to operate one of these mortars. You can't imagine what these things could do bederech hateva! No doubt "einei hashem elokecha bah" the rabbi in Neveh Dekalim quotes often a gemoroh that states that the eibeshtir doesn't preform miracles for nothing and after so many attacks and miracles it cant be that they will be expelled. We all know the sicha where the Rebbe teaches that the keli for a yeshuah is the definite bitochon that it will all be good in neveh dekalim. People live like that. Can you imagine living in a matzav of rocket attacks a few times a day, the threat of being deported and losing everything above their heads, pressures to negotiate with the hangmen, and still continue living a happy life of planting and building as if golus doesn't exist! I was at an amazing event someone that owns a house in Gush Katif decided as an act of emunah to start building a new house last year on the day the the govt. announced that from now on nobody will be compensated for new building. He invested all his money (100G) and last week made a huge chanukas habyis with 100's of settlers dancing and singing with true bitochon. This guy was offered by a foreign news agency to rent his house for $2000 a month he declined and brought in a new family instead. When he spoke you could feel the tumult in shamayim he told everyone that he is zoceh to be mekayem bechol meodecha and to be the one to help teach am yisroel what emunah is. This past week there has been a major change in the polls showing that most of the country are not crazy about this plan. After being there for a week i could tell you that together with the strength of the people of gush katif, a strong opposition around the country, and a miracle mishamayim this is not a done deal at all. I urge everyone to be involved. I don't think anyone of you should organize demonstrations or burn tires but you can definitely arrange special tefilos with your communities explaining the rebbe's opinion on the dangers in the disengagement plan. During the Oslo period it was much harder to argue the claim of "give peace a chance" but after experiencing over 10 years of bloody terror and after you hear almost every day another general making a statement about the dangers of this plan (exactly what the Rebbe said) it is really not that hard to convince people to daven for the cancellation of a gzeirah that could chas vesholom bring a great saconoh for all yidden in eretz yisroel and abroad. To read more or see some very good footage of Gush Katif go to www.katif.net Kol tuv! Rabbi Danny Cohen
Rabbi Menachem Kovacs is Director of the Jewish Roots Center of Baltimore, an education and research center on Torah and social science topics. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Montgomery College in Maryland. |
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CONFIRMING THE STUPIDITY OF ISRAEL'S LEADERSHIP
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 8, 2005. |
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We all hope for mature and far seeing leadership in Israel but instead, we get political hacks and would-be tyrants. So what does Israel face due to the vacuum of thought among her leadership. In the just completed Lebanese elections, Hezb'Allah comes out on top. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak gave Hezb'Allah the stature of having pushed Israel out of her Northern Security Zone by force of arms. Barak ran his Israeli troops out like a rodent in the middle of the night, abandoning our Christian Lebanese allies, leaving 4 tanks and numerous long range artillery pieces with skids full of ammunition. Barak was bought by a Clinton promise of $800 million dollars which, of course, never came. Barak made Hezb'Allah heroes in the eyes of the Lebanese and proved to Arafat's various Terrorist organizations that Israel can be evicted by sufficient and consistent force of arms. Thus Barak created a dangerous Northern front for Israel from the border all the way to Haifa while, at the same time, encouraging Arafat to expand his Intifada. Then, we have Hamas rising up, thanks to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon preparing to run out of Gaza as Barak did from Lebanon. The expectation of Hamas joined by Al Aksa Brigades and soon to absorb Arafat's Fatah - now under Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) has risen exponentially. The once great warrior (Sharon) now in his late 70s is acting like a demented old man whose courage has evaporated. Like Barak, he too has accepted promises from the Bush Administration to collapse serious defense only to find the Oil Dynasty of the Bush Family has dictated new promises and threats. Here a politically naive Sharon could not distinguish between a loose promise and a firm commitment. Even the pundits of Washington all know that Bush has switched horses as he tries to appease an Arab Muslim world angry to have been beaten in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now America faces Terror (which in Iraq is called 'Insurgency' by the Media), Bush has to feed Israel to the Terrorists to buy time and slow up their Jihadist march toward what their Mullahs claim is their time to conquer the world. No doubt, Bush will discover - as have Barak and Sharon that running away from the Muslim enemy only makes them more aggressive, more confident that they will ultimately win. The surrender of Israel's deterrence may have started when President Carter maneuvered Prime Minister Menachem Begin to give up all the Sinai Desert to Egypt. Here we also see the fingerprints of Ezer Weizman, Moshe Dayan and Arik Sharon, all pushing Begin to cave in and he did. Let us move on to another fiasco of stupidity, co-mingled with cowardice. Enter the Oslo Gang of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, etc. who, like Barak, made a secret pact with Arafat with the help of foreign nations. Here the Osloids proved to Arafat and all other Muslim Terrorists that Israel could be made to sign anything or otherwise beg for forgiveness. These corrupt Jews cut a secret deal with a document drafted to invite failure and the Olso Accords did fail. More than 1700 Jews have been murdered since Oslo was signed September 13, 1993 with tens of thousands more seriously injured, many maimed for life. No peace for giving up Land for Peace. Just death of innocents and innocence. Here again we had so-called leaders who were beyond being short-sighted. Their stupidity cost the lives of 1700 plus Israelis. These State criminals were never investigate, not convicted nor did they see the threat of a noose hanging over their heads for Treason. Perhaps immense countries like America, those of Europe, Russia can get away with electing shallow incompetents to run the country. It's unlikely America will fail or disappear because its chosen President turns out to be a sophomoric dumb-bell. But, Israel is tiny and surrounded by religiously driven people who has not ceased its attempts to savage the Jewish nation. Instead we elect political hacks who cannot balance their own check-books, let alone run a nation under threat. Israel ends up with former Generals who do not understand geo-politics, how to control the economy and how to protect the nation. So what might the future look like? Hebz'Allah, supported by Syria and Iran, is growing in strength on Israel's Northern Border. Hamas, who will absorb all other Terrorist organizations, will be Israel's threat in the South and Center. Soon, the Terror will be Israel's threat in the South and then to move across the East as Sharon turns complete control of Nablus, Ram'Allah, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, Qalquilya, Jenin and Hebron to the Terrorists. If that was not bad enough, our demented Sharon has invited Egypt to post troops, armor and helicopters in what was supposed to be the de-militarized Sinai. That's Sharon's South and Eastern Front. In the North-East, Sharon pushed by Bush, is negotiating to give away the Golan Heights. This has happened before under Rabin and Peres, Barak and Netanyahu. Somehow, if Syria was to be appeased and made temporarily 'peaceful' - and, IF Israel abandoned the high controlling ground of the Golan Heights and the higher observation posts on Mt. Hermon, then Israel will be safe. But, from their observation posts on the Golan, Syria cannot start up a tank, aircraft without Israel's instant knowledge, which annoys Syria and its friends in Washington. But, as you may have noticed, there is a cabal in Washington that protects Syria from direct hits - even as they act as the gateway for Muslim Mujahadeen Terrorists (called 'Insurgents') to pour into Iraq to kill American soldiers and Iraqis. This group of immensely powerful people has never been investigated by Congress for shielding Syria. So, Israel faces a Northeastern Front - softened up by Sharon in deference to President Bush. In the direct East, Israel's longest border, King Hussein is a stable force for the moment, with a dormant population of 80% Arab Muslim Palestinians. But, they could easily overthrow the King anytime they wish to coalesce, turning Jordan into another Arab Muslim Terrorist State. The same can be said of Egypt - when it is taken over by its Muslim Brotherhood. Have you noticed that President Bush is starting to elevate contacts with Hamas, Hezb'Allah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Syrian rulers, etc. - denials notwithstanding? So much for trusting in his Global War on Terror. Is this the time one says "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"? In summation, Israel desperately needs deeper thinkers with vision, rather than former Generals or party hacks to lead the nation. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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RASHID KHALIDI, PLAGIARISM, AND ME
Posted June 8, 2005. |
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I was fishing. Googling for silly statements about national continuity between the ancient Philistines, Jebusites, or Canaanites and modern Palestinian Arabs when I came upon this: "According to a number of historians and scholars, many of the Arabs of Jerusalem today, indeed the majority of Palestinian Arabs, are descendants of the ancient Jebusites and Canaanites." The byline read Rashid Khalidi. Whoa. The article was posted on the web page of the American Committee of Jerusalem. I wanted a better reference than a web page, so I googled a particularly absurd phrase: The simple fact is that the majority of the Arab people of Palestine are not descendants of those that arrived as part of the wave of Islamic-Arab conquest in the seventh century. The search produced a nearly identical sentence, but this one was from a 1994 article on the history of Jerusalem written by the late Kamil Jamil el Asali of the University of Jordan. [i] The two articles share more than bad scholarship. They are alike. Very alike. Like, plagiarism. Entire sentences appear in both articles: "The names of the two oldest rulers of the city, Saz Anu and Yaqir Ammo, were identified by the American archaeologist W. F. Albright as Amoritic." Khalidi uses the same sources and quotations used by Asali. Kahalidi: In 1902, the British anthropologist Sir James Frazer wrote in his book The Golden Bough: "The Arabic-speaking peasants of Palestine are the progeny of the tribes which settled in the country before the Israelite invasion. " Asali: In The Golden Bough, the British anthropologist Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) stressed that, "the Arabic-speaking peasants of Palestine are the progeny of the tribes which settled in the country before the Israelite invasion." Khalidi: The Israeli historian Zev Vilnay, in his Encyclopedia for Knowledge of the Land of Israel, and Ephraim and Menachem Tilmay in their book Jerusalem agree that the age of the city is 5,000 years. Asali: It is well-known that the correct age of the city, according to historical accounts, is five thousand years. This estimation is given by the Israeli historian Zev Vilnay, among other sources, in his comprehensive work in Hebrew, The Encyclopedia for the Knowledge of the Land of Israel, in the chapter titled "Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel.''[l] The same age is given by the Israeli historians Ephraim and Menachem Tilmay at the end of their book, Jerusalem. Finally, Khalidi condenses Asali's analysis, lifting strings of phrases from Asali to make the same point. Khalidi: In the second millenium BC, Jerusalem was inhabited by the Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe, and the culture of the city was Canaanite. The Jebusites built a fortress, "Zion", in Jerusalem. Zion is a Canaanite word meaning "hill" or "height." Jerusalem was also known as Jebus. Canaanite society flourished for two thousand years, and many aspects of Canaanite culture and religion were later borrowed by the Hebrews. Asali: In the second millennium, Jerusalem was inhabited by the Jebusites. In the Bible the Jebusites are considered to be Canaanites. It was the Jebusites who first built the fortress Zion in the town. Zion is a Canaanite word which means "hill" or "height." The second name of Jerusalem was "Jebus". The culture of Jebus was Canaanite, an ancient society which built many towns with well-built houses, in numerous city-states, in industry and commerce and in an alphabet and religion which flourished for two thousand years and were later borrowed by the primitive Hebrews. True, the Khalidi article was not in a refereed journal. It was on a web page. But it was the web page of the American Committee on Jerusalem, an organization of which Khalidi was President when the article was published in 2001 and for some years before and afterwards. [ii] The President of an organization is certainly responsible for articles published by that organization under his byline. Even on a web page. I phoned a colleague on the Columbia faculty with the suggestion that she take it to Dean Quigley, the ordinary procedure in cases of plagiarism. She immediately pointed me to Appendix E in the Faculty Handbook. The relevant section reads: "In the event that the committee should find that an individual or individuals have made charges against a researcher for malicious reasons, or were otherwise not acting in good faith in making such charge, the dean will take appropriate action." [iii] Malicious reasons? Hmmm? Suppose a scholar not only believes in the right of Israel to exist - Khalidi denies the Jewish nation this right - but further believes, as many scholars do, that Khalidi's work is replete with half-truths and the selective use of evidence to make a political case against the Jewish State. Such a scholar might prefer to see an opponent of the existence of Israel take a fall. Is that malicious? If it were your career on the line, would you take the risk of making a complaint that others might characterize as maliciously motivated when the Faculty Handbook directs the Dean to "take appropriate action" in such an instance? Call me a coward. I sent both articles to a reporter at a major metropolitan daily. The reporter first contacted a plagiarism expert, who called it a clear case of plagiarism. He then phoned Rashid Khalidi, who refused to return the call. And he contacted the American Committee on Jerusalem, told them he was doing a story on plagiarism in the Khalidi article, and asked for a comment. Then his editor killed the story, on the grounds that the plagiarized article was merely an occasional piece on a web site. Not in a printed periodical. Some of these print guys haven't noticed yet that the world has changed. I contacted a reporter at another paper, who told me that there was no Khalidi byline on the article. I went to the web page. Sure enough. The byline has disappeared. Someone at the ACJ changed the byline to read "Compiled by ACJ from a variety of sources." [iv] For such situations does Wayback Machine exist. Entering the original URL[v] into this time travel machine[vi] reveals that the article with the plagiarized material was posted with the byline "by Rashid Khalidi" by Feb. 27th 2001, and remained on the site under that byline for four years during much of which time Khalidi continued to serve as President of the ACJ. I found it there on May 10, 2005. Will somebody please tell Dean Quigley. Austin Quigley
Footnotes [i] (http://www.al-bushra.org/jerusalem1/jerhist.htm)
[Editor's note: See another article on this topic at the www.Solomania.comblog website.] |
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GOVERNMENT BASING DECISIONS ON FLAWED DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 8, 2005. |
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A report that exposes the fallacy of the "demographic threat" of an Arab majority between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is being presented by Israel's Government Press Office. The new data raises doubts about one of the central arguments advanced by PM Ariel Sharon on behalf of the withdrawal plan. "Unfortunately, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet as a whole are basing critical policy decisions on grossly flawed demographic assumptions and data," says former Knesset consultant and analyst Yoram Ettinger. "That is why it is so important that this report be increasingly recognized at this time." The study, carried out by a Washington D.C.-based think tank and scrutinized by the leading American demographer, Dr. Nick Eberstadt, undermines the assumption that Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza pose a demographic threat to Israel. The researchers reported that the 2004 Arab population of Judea, Samaria and Gaza was closer to 2.4 million than to the 3.8 million reported by the Palestinian Authority (PA). "These findings," the report states, "should have a significant impact on politicians, policy makers and international aid agencies." The million-and-a-half person gap occurred because the PA numbers are based on Palestine Bureau of Statistics (PBS) projections made in 1997, not on actual population counts. The PBS used their official 1997 census as a base population and assumed the population would grow at 4 to 5% a year, one of the highest growth rates in the world. When the research team reviewed PA Ministry of Health birth data and actual border entry/exit data, they found that the PBS projected growth rate was not met in any year between 1997 and 2004. The American-based project was led by Bennett Zimmerman, a former Strategy Consultant with Bain & Company. On the research team were historian Dr. Roberta Seid and Dr. Michael Wise, a physicist and expert in mathematic modeling techniques. Yoram Ettinger, a former minister at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC and an expert in Middle East politics, led the Israel research team with members Brig. Gen. (Ret.) David Shahaf, former Head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria; Prof. Ezra Sohar who has published several research papers on demographics in Israel; Dr. David Passig, an expert in forecasting, Avraham Shvout, who has tracked both Jewish and Arab population in Judea and Samaria, and Yakov Faitelson, who has researched demography of the Arab population of Judea and Samaria since 1975. The most extraordinary aspect of the meticulous study is that it undercuts the claim that Jews will become a minority between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea if Israel retains, or even annexes Gaza, Judea and Samaria - the areas liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. "There is now a 60% Jewish majority between the Jordan and the Mediterranean," Ettinger said. "This has been the case, more or less, since 1967. "The difference is that in 1967 we were at the beginning of a huge increase in Palestinian natural growth rate - but today we stand at a time when the Palestinian population is going through a drastic decline in natural increase." Ettinger insists that not only will a Jewish majority be maintained, it will only increase from now on. "The 60% of today is by far a drastic improvement over 1967," he said, "and the long-term trends dictate that the Jewish majority will increase as Palestinian natural growth rate continues to decrease, and negative migration [Ed: Arabs leaving Judea and Samaria] continues to be very high." In addition to the drop in Arab birth-rates, Ettinger points out that more Arabs have moved out of Judea and Samaria than have moved in. He says that this trend of Arabs moving away has intensified in the recent years since Israel transferred sovereignty over Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority. On the average since 1950, Palestinian net emigration has been 10,000 annually." These figures stand in sharp contrast to the steady flow of net Jewish increase due to Jews making Aliyah (immigrating to Israel) since 1882. Other facts presented in the report are: Fewer births: PA Ministry of Health birth reports were substantially lower than the number predicted by the PBS. "The most convincing evidence again came from the Palestinians themselves," explained researcher Roberta Seid, Ph.D. "The PA Central Election Commission press release of October 14, 2004 acknowledged that 200,000 of Palestinians were living abroad and that the number of eligible voters living in the Territories was only 1.3 million. These figures corroborate our lowest population calculations." Since its original publication in January, the leaders of the study have presented their finding to President Moshe Katzav, National Security Advisor General (res.) Giora Eiland, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Knesset Government Operations Committee, the State Comptroller, the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Foreign Ministry and in private meetings with Cabinet Members and Knesset members. They have now been invited to present their findings at Israel's National Security Council, the Haifa Technion, Knesset Committees, and the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. Though the report debuted in January, it is being presented at Israel's Government Press Office Thursday. "Since January, it has become part of the Israeli public debate," Ettinger said. "There is one team of the 'demographers of doom,' who have been feeding the public data based on gross misinterpretations. Now that we have documented this and presented the facts, they are gradually being accepted." Despite the new revelations, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continues to present demographics as the central reason for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria. "We are not allowed to ignore the demographic reality in the land of Israel, and even within the borders of the State of Israel," Sharon said Tuesday in an address at Bar Ilan University. "This reality entails sober decisions now. Any postponement in making the necessary decisions will not relieve us of the need to tackle the difficult questions." The entire study can be viewed at http://www.PAdemographics.com. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
| GUSH KATIF |
FURTHER DROP IN SUPPORT FOR WITHDRAWAL PLAN: DOWN TO 48%
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 8, 2005. |
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I wonder what the support would be if Israeli newspapers told the people that Samaria and Judea and part of Jerusalem and then maybe Golan were on the chopping block. I wonder what the support would be if Israelis realized that when the Gazan Jews were expelled from their land, it would be true that the IDF would not need to protect Jewish citizens in Gaza - but the IDF will be busy protecting the 44 communities inside of Israel that would be the next front line of the war zone of the war of the Arab terrorists. A major independent polling service reported today that support for the proposed Withdrawal Plan has dropped to 48 per cent. The survey will be telecast on Israel's Channel Two news tonight. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced the poll as a result of "incitement" by anti-evacuation groups. The poll was conducted by the Maagar Mohot Survey Institute. Sharon and Ministers Ophir Pines and Yitzchak Herzog accused the residents slated for forcible removal from their homes with not cooperating and spreading misinformation. An Israel Radio poll Wednesday revealed that opposition to the plan has grown to 40 percent from one-third a year ago. Opponents to the plan have pointed out that many of the supporters for the evacuation have conditioned their approval on cessation of terror and fair compensation for the residents. Herzog blamed the residents to be evacuated for using a strategy to discourage security forces from fulfilling orders to expel the Jews from their homes. He said the government has "attractive offers" for the 9,000 soon-to-be misplaced civilians from northern Samaria and Gaza. Sharon's aides said today's meeting, with press coverage, on the planned evacuation was aimed at shoring up support amid an escalation of Arab terror and more warnings from army officers that terror will escalate and threaten all of Israel after the planned withdrawal. Meanwhile, housing statistics released today showed that communities in Gaza and northern Samaria have led the country in building starts. |
| GUSH KATIF |
BASIC TENETS OF DEMOCKRACY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 8, 2005. |
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The chief enforcer of the Junta, Mazuz, has taken a page out of the intimidation book of the KGB and Gestapo. When cooperation was not for coming from someone, they would send him a picture of his family with their official stamp on the front. The message was; we have our eyes on your family, cooperate or else! This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com. It is stored at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83552 It is called "Attorney General Ignoring Basic Tenets of Democracy." (IsraelNN.com) Unwilling to accept the democratic right of protest, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has stepped up his campaign to halt all protests against the Gaza/Shomron Disengagement Plan. As an increasing number of youths remain imprisoned in Massiyahu Prison's Disengagement Wing, willing to "pay the price for their crimes," the attorney general seeks new deterrent methods to halt passive civil disobedience against the expulsion plan. The state now plans to charge parents of repeat offenders, youths arrested more than once in anti-disengagement protests as "neglected children," permitting social service agencies to remove the children from their parents' custody under law. State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan recently met with senior child welfare officials to map out the criteria, targeting repeat offenders and those youths who even when brought before a judge refuse to identify themselves, realizing as minors, the law is limited as to what action may be taken against them. Child welfare officials have already begun dealing with three such cases. In the meantime, Israel Military Industry employees who earlier in the week blocked roads with a tank and armored vehicles in a labor protest are not imprisoned, not being charged, and not under the watchful eye of the attorney general. 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. |
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IDF OPERATION 'SIT ON HANDS'
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 8, 2005. |
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"I suggest that as a country we not behave like terrorists. I have no intention of getting all worked up. I want to do everything with due contemplation. Why even this morning I contemplated,should I flush once or should I flush twice. It took much contemplation but I finally decided not to flush at all. You see, that's the beauty of not having a plan, you contemplate. We refuse to send the terrorist a strong message - or any message for that matter. We are too fearful that the false peace we are experiencing will be threatened if we act against those who's sole purpose is to kill and destroy us. More importantly the U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Army General who now rule Israel have warned us in the strongest terms not to act but to sit on our hands or else. Getting worked up is not a work plan," Halutz said. My answer to the increase of missile and mortar attacks by the Palestinian Terrorist Authority is to give President Abbas more time to do nothing. I have begun Operation 'Sit On Our Hands' and this will keep us from doing anything and prevent us from interfering in the ongoing false peace of Mr.Bush and his vision for a radical Islamic terrorist Palestinian state on our land. We have also removed all red lines so as not to give us any reason to act as President Abbas strengthens and builds up all the terrorist groups under one unified army to defeat us. I have such guilt and many sleepless nights because we defeated our brothers in peace in so many wars. It's about time we gave them a good opportunity to level the playing field,so we must make the ultimate painful concession for the cause of peace. I promise to lead Israel to defeat and surrender for this most noble lie,I'm mean cause. Major General Danny Halutz. Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR THE JUNTA
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 8, 2005. |
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In the best tradition of Israeli COS, Halutz is much more concerned with his future political advancement than the security of the country. This is even more true than in the past inasmuch as his immediate predecessor was fired for showing the audacity of pointing out to Herr Fuhrer Sharon that the Arabs don't like us very much. This article is from today's Special Report from DEBKAfile and is archived at http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1036. It is entitled "Israeli Havoc Grows and Palestinian Violence Mounts as Israel's Pull-out Date Approaches" Israel's new chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz followed a given script when he declared firmly Tuesday, June 7: "Evacuation will not take place under fire. I say exactly what I mean." He was speaking to skeptical military correspondents outside Sderot, whose shocked citizens refuse to meet him after suffering waves of Qassam missile salvoes from the Gaza Strip throughout the day. The first three woke the town up before 7.a.m. and landed in an apartment, sending a woman and two children into shock. As the day wore on, the attacks across the border into Israel and inside the Gaza Strip intensified until a missile struck a work-team in Ganei Tal's greenhouse. Three workers were killed, two Palestinians and a Chinese, 5 were seriously injured, most of them Palestinian. Mortar shells and sniper fire against IDF positions and civilians accompanied the missiles. Asked when the Israeli army would take action to curb Gaza-based Palestinian terror, Halutz was evasive: Our patience will not last forever. We will act at a time of our choosing. We are responsible for our citizens' safety. He then added: We must think of the long term. The attacks from Gaza attested to the weakness of the Palestinian Authority. This sort of vague ambiguity is not what Israelis on the front line of Palestinian violence breaching a so-called truce wanted to hear. Halutz's words did not reassure the inhabitants of Gaza, such as Ganei Tal, that they would be fully protected when they exited their homes in August; or that the Israeli town of Sderot would be safe from Palestinian missiles when it is left behind outside the Gaza Strip. Halutz's calm, assured demeanor did not impress Israelis living precariously between bombastic declarations, empty promises and Palestinian threats. No one has forgotten prime minister Ariel Sharon's solemn pledge to Sderot earlier this year that the town would never again suffer missile attacks. Much of the same bombast is being poured out by compliant media to show how the powers-that-be are far advanced in arrangements for the coming pull-back of Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. However, Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, head of the national security council, who ought to know what is going on, has exposed the true state of affairs, which is that nothing is ready - as DEBKAfile revealed some weeks ago. This impression he recorded in a classified letter to the relevant directors general of government ministries: "With less than three months to go before the withdrawal, he writes, "every aspect of preparedness for the disengagement process is hazy... It is not clear (to me at least) what the reality is, or the distinction between the real problems and those thrown up by publicity, as generated by media spin. The security adviser wants to hear if a deadline has been set for negotiations with the evacuees, what incentives they have been offered to come to terms and what legal bars are holding up solutions. Eiland ends his letter by saying: "I have approached the director-general of the prime minister's office with a request to urgently convene the 'select forum' to assess the general situation. This airing is vital..." In other words, the head of Israel's national security council, who was entrusted by the prime minister with drafting an outline for the disengagement project covering evacuation and operations, has no idea what preparations are in train and which are not, because of what he calls "haze." If he is in the dark, then how much more are the chief of staff and the police commissioner who must bear the brunt of executing the pull-back? The mess is automatically blamed on the future evacuees' refusal to cooperate with the authorities; it is they who are accused of stalling the government's relocation plans. Did the prime minister really expect to be feted with garlands for his divisive plan by the very people he is evicting from their homes and livelihoods? Was he looking for gratitude when every official effort has been made to demonize those evacuees as dangerous right-wing, violent extremists? In any case, it is an open secret that even those ready to leave quietly and accept alternatives have run into an official brick wall; no such alternatives have been prepared. DEBKAfile finds the cause of Eiland's haze in a quite different quarter - or rather two: Egypt's flat refusal to make good on its undertaking to participate in the process and Palestinian denial of cooperation. No one any longer talks about the security role Egypt undertook to play in the Gaza Strip, including the relief of Israeli forces guarding the Philadelphi border strip to make a complete pullback possible. That is because Cairo has reneged. Instead of leveling with the public, the Sharon government makes sure that the disappearance of this pivotal element is never mentioned. That is one of the vague mysteries troubling Eiland. A senior Washington source told DEBKAfile: "The only way to draw Egypt back to talks with Israel is for the US president George W. Bush's to personally intercede with President Hosni Mubarak. But that is not on now because time is so short and their relations have cooled since Washington interfered in Egypt's presidential election." As for the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas's representatives turn up for all their meetings with Israeli officials. They listen to questions - but have no answers, proposals or even their usual demands - except when a camera or microphone is present. Otherwise, they merely shrug and contribute nothing to urgent discussions on coordinating the withdrawal, whether or not to demolish abandoned houses, who will take over the greenhouses, how to prevent the operation taking place under Palestinian fire, the proposed rail link for Palestinians to commute between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, who will take over evacuated territory. Israeli officials are left to discuss these issues among themselves or with Americans and such visitors as British foreign secretary Jack Straw, who arrived in Israel Tuesday, June 7, and the Middle East Quartet coordinator James Wolfenson. Sharon is not admitting that he has lost the two projected mainstays of his disengagement plan; Egypt has opted out, and the Palestinians are passive. Without them he is stymied. All three are masking their inaction with the tools to hand. Sharon'ss preparations for the big day in August have descended into chaos, for which he blames the pretty harmless, often childish, stunts staged by the anti-evacuation activists. Mubarak's pretext for non-involvement in Israel's pull-out from the Gaza Strip is the presidential election later this year. Abbas, since he underwent heart surgery a week ago, is sunk in the philosophical contemplation of human destiny while uncharacteristically praying five times a day, which pleases the fundamentalist Hamas without giving him any clout over the group. He plans to visit Gaza Wednesday, June 8, to try and restore vestige of ceasefire, but lacks the authority to impose his will. No wonder the national security adviser wants to wash his hands of the pull-out mess and dump it in the laps of a select forum - or anyone else 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. |
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EIGHTY YEARS' OLD WISDOM
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, June 8, 2005. |
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Eighty two years ago the great Jewish leader Zeev Jabotinsky wrote in his essay The Iron Wall: "As long as there remains in the hearts of the Arabs the smallest spark of hope that they can get rid of us, they will not sell this hope for either sweet talk or far-reaching promises." Has anything changed? Moshe Arens has served in the past as Defence and Foreign minister of Israel. He is not a "fanatic" even by definition of the most extreme left elements in Israeli society. You can read his articles in Haaretz, Israel's liberal-left daily. Everybody knows Mr. Arens as a man who weighs very carefully every word he says and writes. Here is his latest article dealing with the question who won the latest four years' war of terror, known as the Intifadah, and what is the likelihood of peace. It is entitled "Perception is reality." It appeared in Haaretz and is archived at www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/ PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=585594 Your Truth Provider, Yuval. The outgoing chief of staff, "Bogey" Ya'alon, insists that the Palestinian terror campaign against Israel's civilian population that began in September 2000 was a war in every sense of the word - a war intended to bring Israel to its knees. There is no more fitting description for the events that brought terror to Israeli streets and homes for more than four years, that damaged Israel's economy, and that forced Israel to mobilize its military reserves, in addition to its regular military forces, to put an end to the acts of terror. Ya'alon should know. He is the man who successfully led Israel's armed forces in this war. Politicians and journalists who prefer to treat him with sarcasm rather than with the respect due him, cannot change the facts; the credit for Israel's achievements in this war goes first and foremost to him. That is how history is going to tell it. He prepared the IDF for this war and he led the IDF in this war. Since March 2002, the bloodiest month of the war, when the government belatedly authorized the entry of Israeli troops into Palestinian cities, the number of Palestinian terror attacks has decreased dramatically, and lately many in the Palestinian leadership, first and foremost Mahmoud Abbas, have begun to admit that the Palestinian campaign of terror against Israel has been counterproductive. Have we been victorious in this war? Victory and defeat in war are elusive concepts and are frequently in the eye of the beholder, unless the victors on the battlefield can force unconditional surrender on those who were defeated and the perception of the outcome of the military conflict is the same on both sides. The Palestinian population, which provided massive support for the suicide bombers who blew up Israeli civilians on buses and in the streets, are certainly not thinking of unconditional surrender. The terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria is still in place and may yet be reactivated. There is no doubt that many among the Palestinian population see the planned Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gush Katif and northern Samaria as the direct result of the Palestinian terror campaign, and therefore a victory for them. In the months to come, this will certainly be the narrative trumpeted by the Palestinian leadership, something that can only encourage a resumption of acts of terror. It is inherent in the asymmetric nature of the Israeli-Arab conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that most Israeli military successes have not been translated into victories in the accepted sense of the term and put an end to acts of violence against Israel, while leaving significant differences of perception regarding the outcome of the military encounters. Successive Israeli military successes in the War of Independence, the Sinai Campaign and the Six-Day War were not perceived as the final word in the Arab World and did not lead to the abandonment of Arab plans for further aggression against Israel. To this day, the Yom Kippur War is feted in Cairo as an Egyptian victory. However, in the light of the IDF's success on the battlefield in that war, for more than thirty years Egypt has eschewed plans for aggression against Israel, in full cognizance of Israel's demonstrated military superiority, a superiority that has grown in the intervening years. That was evidently a war that Israel won. The unilateral withdrawal of the IDF from southern Lebanon may be advertised by some as the height of political wisdom, but it clearly created the perception of an Israeli defeat in Lebanon and among the Palestinians, and encouraged the Palestinians to commence their war of terror against Israel shortly thereafter. Consequently, it is perception that matters. And as is frequently the case, perception and reality are not the same; certainly not in the Middle East. Israel must not lose sight of this. Jabotinsky saw it 82 years ago when he wrote his essay, "The Iron Wall." "As long as there remains in the hearts of the Arabs the smallest spark of hope that they can get rid of us, they will not sell this hope for either sweet talk or far-reaching promises," he wrote. Has anything changed? Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il |
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ETHNIC CLEANSING
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 8, 2005. |
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As is usual, Joseph Farah states with clarity and honesty what he sees in the relationship between Israel and America. His article is archived at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44653 Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of World Net Daily (WND) and a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. He is also the founder of WND Books. In addition to his daily column in WND, he writes a nationally syndicated weekly column available to U.S. newspapers through Creators Syndicate. What would you say if I told you the United States is backing a plan to uproot forcibly people from their homes because they are Muslim? You would probably be incredulous. You would probably be shocked. You would probably be outraged. "This is a violation of freedom of religion, freedom of conscience," you might say. "Why, this is ethnic cleansing. Didn't we bomb Serbia a few years ago on the basis of such an allegation?" And you would be right. Well, rest assured there is no plan backed by the United States to uproot forcibly peaceful Muslims from their homes anywhere in the world. There is, however, a plan to do just that to several thousand peaceful Jews, many of whom have lived for a generation in thriving communities - showcases of prosperity and freedom for their neighbors. This anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing plan is know as the "disengagement" plan in Gaza and parts of the West Bank. There is only one reason these people are being displaced - because they are Jews in a land where Jews are not welcome. President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seem to think that uprooting these Jewish communities will placate and appease their extremist, anti-Semitic Arab neighbors. It won't. Instead, they see it as one more capitulation in an ongoing struggle to chase out or kill all Jews and Christians in the Middle East. Far from scoring any points with the Islamic extremists and hyper-nationalist Arabs, they will be ensuring the escalation of a never-ending cycle of violence and terrorism. Bush and Sharon believe this "disengagement," as they euphemistically call it, will lead to the establishment of an Arab Palestinian state that will live in peace and harmony with Israel. It's a pipedream. When Israel withdrew voluntarily from southern Lebanon, the Hezbollah terrorists claimed a major moral victory, propelling them to still greater acts of terrorism against Northern Israel. Likewise, when the Jews are forced out of Gaza, Hamas will declare a military victory and escalate its terror attacks on Jews within the Jewish state. In addition, how can Israel and the United States work on behalf of creating an Arab Palestinian state that does not accept the right of Jews to live peacefully within its borders? This is one of the great untold stories of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians and their allies demand that all Jews get out of the country they are attempting to create. It's not surprising, since one of these allies is Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal for anyone other than a Sunni Muslim to practice their faith - even in the privacy of their own homes. In any other part of the world, this kind of racist, anti-Semitic effort at ethnically cleansing a region would be roundly condemned by all civilized people. Yet, because most people simply don't understand the clear, official plan by Arab leaders to force out all Jews from the new Palestinian state as a stage in the war to eradicate Israel, the plan retains political support from most of the world - even the government of Israel. Think about what I am saying: It is the official policy of the Palestinian Authority that all Jews must get off the land! Why is the United States supporting the creation of a new, racist, anti-Semitic hate state? Why is the civilized world viewing this as a prescription for peace in the region? Why is this considered an acceptable idea? Is there any other place in the world where that kind of official policy of racism and ethnic cleansing is tolerated - even condoned? Why are the rules different in the Middle East? Why are the rules different for Arabs? Why are the rules different for Muslims? 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. |
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FARLEIGH DICKINSON'S NAZI
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 8, 2005. |
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1. When will the Others follow the Farleigh Dickinson Lead?
As you know, there is just not enough representation for the Nazi Party and Holocaust Deniers on American college campuses, or at least that used to be the story at Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. The ranks of academic stormtrooper, which include such great minds as Arthur Butz from Northwestern University and Norman Finkelstein from DePaul University, have recently lost a member: Jacques Pluss. Farleigh Dickinson has come to its senses, although Farleigh late. Pluss, like Butz and Finkelstein, is a Chicago Holocaust Denier and anti-Semite. What is it about that town? Farleigh D likes to call itself the Harvard on teh Hackensack. The Weekly Standard called the affair "Springtime for Farleigh Dickinson". I doubt even Mel Brooks could give the story justice. Pluss was dismissed from FDU this past March because university officials learned of his involvement in the National Socialist Movement, which bills itself "America's Nazi Party." School officials insist he was let go for missing too many classes. The 51-year-old "professor" is a white supremacist or racist. He was previously a tenured professor at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., from 1984 to 2000. Pluss, who had taught Western Civ at the university since 2002, said he joined the neo-Nazi group in February but kept his views a secret on campus. Just after dismissal, Pluss went on "White Viewpoint," a radio show on the National Socialist Movement Web site. He talked about FDU as a "Jewish plutocratic university" and described the school's men's basketball team as "nigger to the core." "They (the players) have absolutely no right to be in that classroom because they do not possess either the merit or the enhanced intelligence to be there," Pluss said on the show. Pluss said he joined the National Socialist Movement because he "was looking for alternative political parties that presented what I thought were more solid and sensible plans for the common good of America." The group, whose members wear Nazi regalia at its meetings, sometimes has joint meetings with the Ku Klux Klan. Pluss called Fairleigh Dickinson a .heavily Judaized institution. that had taken .the typical Jewish, lawyerly, Hebrew line. in dismissing him. The "Stormfront" nazi web site was offended by his dismissal. Pluss, who received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, is being paid through this semester. Adjunct professors at the school generally make between $1,500 and $3,000 per course. As Lowell Ponte notes, sauce for the nazi does not seem to sauce for the moonbat. Why are the Ward Churchills, Joseph Massads, Sami al-Arians and Lisa Hajjars not similarly expelled from the institutions in which they promote totalitarian extremist and pro-terror agendas? 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. |
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STEALING CHILDREN
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 8, 2005. |
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Why the surprise? This is the same Bolshevik system that stole Jewish children from their parents in the 50s and 60s. The Sharon Junta in an effort to save itself will resort to any vile, barbarous and vicious action it can get a way with. What it can get away with, however, is totally dependant on the people in Israel. Below is an article from IMRA (www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25510), commenting on an article written by Zvi Zerahia in Haaretz (www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/585555.html). Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of Independent Media Review and Analsis (IMRA). Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Israel may divert strapped social service resources to punish young protesters by placing them in foster homes. [IMRA: Yes. The Government of Israel has gone off the deep end. The message from the top is to push hard to suppress opposition to the retreat from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria - and if pushing hard doesn't work to push even harder. The sick joke of two days ago becomes the rumor yesterday and policy today. It would surprise few if in a few weeks the State argues that any settler who doesn't send their children out by a deadline set before the retreat is guilty of reckless endangerment and their children should be immediately seized and placed in foster homes.] "State: Parents of underage activists may lose guardianship," by Zvi Zerahia, Haaretz Correspondent, 7 June 2005 (www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/585555.html) The State Prosecution is considering the use of the Juvenile Law against parents of minors who have been arrested repeatedly for blocking highways, said a senior source at the State Prosecution on Tuesday. Such a move would allow courts to monitor parental supervision of their children and in extreme cases to strip the parents off their guardianship. Senior officials at the State Prosecution held two meetings with welfare authority officials in order to examine the possibility of using the Juvenile Law against minors whose parents do not prevent them or systematically encourage them to engage in blocking highways. Should such an interpretation of the Juvenile Law be employed those parents would be considered to have encouraged their children to engage in criqminal activity. Under such circumstances welfare workers would be able to request the court to employ various measures, the harshest of which is stripping the minor's parents off their guardianship. This measure is reserved for extreme cases only however. The court may also monitor and instruct parental supervision of such minors. The initiative came in response to the high number of minors arrested in mass road blockages by anti-disengagement activists three weeks ago. Most of the 409 activists arrested that day in dozens of crossroads aqcross Israel were minors. Out of the 14 activists still in custody, 7 are minors. Throughout their arrest many minors refused to identify themselves to authorities. Five of the last female minors to remain in custody who refused to disclose their identity finally consented to give their names early this week, but have not yet been released due to their refusal to sign on the restrictive conditions of their release. According to a senior prosecution official, it is state policy to object to the release of any suspect refusing to identify to the authorities while solid evidence tie them to criminal offences. 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. |
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GANG OF FIVE DIARY
Posted by Marlene Young, June 8, 2005. |
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First the Gang of Five, Sharon, Peres, Mofaz, Weisglass and Mazuz, were coerced, bribed and conscripted to fulfill the aims of the Radical Left, EU, World Bank and other foreign entities. Then, the Gang of Five decided to hijack and misuse the Fine Israeli Army as their personal security force to carry out their "Disengagement Plan" and to call up the reserves to drag Jews out of their homes and to turn over Jewish-owned land and businesses to PA Arabs, that will benefit investment funds and ventures that the Gang of Five and foreign entities have interests in. Then, the Gang of Five decided to stop using the Israeli Army to disarm and defeat armed PA Terror groups who have maimed and murdered thousands of Jews after Israel Disengaged from all Arab areas under Oslo, but rather, to misuse the IDF to disarm Jewish Israeli citizens by force. Then, the Gang of Five decided to arrest Jewish kids, lovers of Israel, who protest the Expulsion of Jews Plan and throw them into a Jail in Ramle, Masisiahu Prison. Now in the Israeli city of Ramle, Jewish kids sit and rot in Masisiahu Prison while the Palestinian Arab residents roam free shooting at cars and robbing people on the streets. Then, the Gang of Five decided imprisoning kids is not enough. They will now orphan Jewish kids who protest against their expulsion and sit and rot in prison, by denying their Parents custodial rights and taking these children away from their parents and putting them in Foster Homes. Contact Marlene Young by email at marleneyoung1@yahoo.com |
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BROOKLYN COLLEGE MARXIST INDOCTRINATION; PRISONER RELEASE; SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT BUSH TOLD ABBAS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 7, 2005. |
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MARXIST-RACIST REGIMENTATION AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE The Chair of the Political Science Dept. at Brooklyn College acknowledges being a Communist. She and the Marxist head of the Sociology Dept. have developed a mandatory course and textbook that view the US "exclusively from the typical leftist class-race-gender mindframe." In the name of diversity, non-leftist instructors are discouraged from working in those departments. It is questionable whether such departments would have fair classroom lecture or discussion (NY Sun, 6/1, letters). Other societies are more racist, but the Left doesn't notice. Communists do not believe in academic integrity. The contemporary Left is not tolerant of other viewpoints. They use their classes, as do the Arabs, to indoctrinate, rather than respect the facts. DANGER FROM THE LEFT My alma mater, Brooklyn College, has set new entry requirements for its teacher education program. One is a commitment to "social justice." Not clearly defined, the stated requirement refers to opposition to racism and other specific views. Would the program head screen out candidates who don't share her leftist views (Jacob Gershman, NY Sun, 5/31, p.1)? At Columbia U., professors insult Jews and people who don't share their anti-Zionist views. At Brooklyn College, they may intend to bar people with dissenting views. This infringes on academic freedom and the egalitarian foundation of that municipal college. Thus leftists are a major threat to civil liberties. Having infiltrated the American educational system, they are indoctrinating students against their country rather than educating them and nurturing their intellectual independence. They also are paving the way for Islamist infiltration. The Democrats I have been meeting lately are unaware of this. They know only about the right-wing threat to civil liberties. One of their major concerns is abuse of defense against terrorism. In that, however, Congress and the courts have been restoring more balance. Liberals are concerned about Christian dominance in the public schools. They are unaware of the anti-Christian dominance in many public schools and preference given there to Islam. "To be fully informed, read the NY Times," they are told. They do read it, and not enough else. NEW INSIGHT INTO ANTISEMITISM A theory that antisemitism is a mental disease of a sort, was propounded brilliantly in "Commentary Magazine." The disease not only afflicts certain countries, but ruins them (Paul Johnson, 6/2005, p.33). Usually I wait a month to see what critics think of "Commentary" articles, but this one is so novel and impressive. Beware, adept writers have a way of sweeping one away, in a first reading. In a second reading, one is more analytical. One then finds non-sequiturs and unfounded claims or coincidences. I think there are some such in "The Anti-Semitic Disease," but the thesis is convincingly argued as a whole. It is instructive about the Arab-Israel conflict. Knowledge of the theory would be an antidote to the disease. On a metaphysical level, just as it seems one may judge the ethics of a society on its treatment of the Jews, so, too, how a society treats Jews determines, like yeast with bread, whether that society shall rise or fall flat. LIFESAVING CHECKPOINTS "Many Good Reasons for Checkpoints," argues Hillel Halkin (NY Sun, 5/31, p.9). Westerners reading that human bombs got through them, assume that they don't work, and consider them merely an irritant to peaceful relations. Mr. Halkin explains that these people don't get to read about the many times that checkpoints detected bombs or deterred bombers. Yes, but I would credit checkpoints even more. Many times bombs get through right after Israel, bowing to US demands for making life easier for the Palestinian Arabs, takes down checkpoints. The checkpoints work effectively, but US pressure neutralizes them. Thus the Arabs live easier, and Jews don't live at all. ANTI-U.S. REASONING Arab News published a Nigerian's letter questioning whether Al-Zarqawi exists or is an invention devised to justify a continued US presence in Iraq (IMRA, 5/28). Muslim conspiracy theorists do not understand the US. Pres. Bush would be delighted to find there was no terrorism now. He would retrieve the US troops and proclaim victory. Instead, they think he keeps them there gratuitously, at an annual bill of at least $80 billion. Hardly. The Nigerian ought to be told that the elected government of Iraq just asked for an extension of the US military presence. If terrorism doesn't exist, who is killing all those Iraqi-building civilians? ISRAEL WITHDRAWING WITHOUT SECURITY FENCE; Israel had planned to build a security fence between it and Gaza, before withdrawing from Gaza. After finding the cost high, it dropped the plan (IMRA, 5/28). Adding to the chorus of military and intelligence analysts warning that the abandonment would lead to a calamitous increase in terrorism, an Israeli regional commander suggested that at least the military remain in the area for three months after the civilians are rousted. He anticipates more civilian resistance to being uprooted than the government wants to foresee (IMRA, 5/29). This abandonment looks worse and worse. PRISONER RELEASE The average sentences served by the current batch of 400 prisoners being released by Israel: 37 months for the 41 prisoners who threw firebombs; 63 months for the 76 prisoners who had tried to shoot Israelis; and 69 months for the 63 prisoners who planted or threw bombs. Those prisoners are classified as having "no blood on their hands," because they missed. Since half of released prisoners resume terrorism, many of them may be expected not to miss, next time. By comparison, Israel originally proposed that a Jew who remained in his house in Gaza, and possesses a kitchen knife, past the deadline, was liable to serve 60 months (IMRA, 5/29). WHO DESTROYS THE MOST KORANS? Muslims are protesting against the US over the admittedly fabricated tale of US interrogators flushing a Koran down the toilet. They seem oblivious to which country destroys the most Korans. That country is S. Arabia. Foreign editions are not strict enough for it. It confiscates them from Muslim pilgrims and shreds them (IMRA, 5/29). U.S. "MONEY DOWN THE MUSLIM PALESTINIAN RATHOLE" "The American President George Bush has decided to ignore all previously wasted money poured into the Arafat established network of Terrorists' payout tunnels. Despite knowing all this, Bush has offered $50 Million dollars of American tax-payers' money, paid directly to Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), Arafat's partner for 40 years and inheritor of Arafat's international Terror money distributing network." Abu Mazen was Arafat's paymaster for terrorism. This money pays the terrorist leaders. "Perhaps we Americans have grown too accustomed to politicians and Presidents who lie to us without shame because they have their own hidden agendas. Through prior administrations of George Herbert Walker Bush, James Baker, Bill and Hilary Clinton and now George W. Bush, all authorized funding to Arafat's Terror network - knowing that little to none of the donor money ever made it past Arafat's Central Bank (his pocket) and from there to pay off various Terrorist organizations. Adding insult to injury, we suddenly find out that part of this bribery will go to a fund to pay retirement benefits to old Terrorists who are to be pensioned off with American taxpayers' dollars." Bush thinks he can appease S. Arabia, but his abandonment of Israel strengthens the jihadists, demonstrates his unreliability as an ally, and earns Muslim contempt. Knowing that Abu Mazen did not comply with the agreements to crack down on terrorism and said he would not, Bush nevertheless congratulated him for taking steps against terrorism. That's lying. That's boosting our enemy. That's wasting our resources. Bush talks against terrorism but subsidizes or protects much of it. Bush: "Do you really think that betraying Israel to a barbaric gathering of Arab Muslims will buy America or your oil friends the love of an Islamic-driven culture?" "I deplore your doctrine of destroying the Jewish State incrementally while bleating about the peace you intend." (Winston Mid East Analysis, 5/29.) SIGNIFICANCE OF BUSH'S REFERENCE TO "1949" BORDER Pres. Bush said Israel should return to its 1949 armistice line. Key Israeli areas are outside that line: all the Jewish communities of Yesha, the Old City with its Temple Mount and Western Wall, a number of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. In effect, he is giving these areas from Israel to its Arab enemies who have been killing to get them. So much for PM Sharon's claim that he got recognition from Pres. Bush for Israel to keep sizeable portions of Judea-Samaria in return for Israel withdrawing from Gaza. Bush wants Israel to have the "Auschwitz borders." Sharon was lying to his people (Arutz-7, 5/29). The major media did not note the significance of Bush's statement, which would undo legal Israeli annexations. Bush is following the anti-Zionist State Dept. policy. IS ISRAELI LEFT STUPID OR CRAZY? A decade of murder by the Arabs in return for goodwill gestures by Israel disproved the Oslo theory that being nice to the Arabs would bring peace. Granting them autonomy enabled them to arm. Terrorism was not engendered by "occupation" but by autonomy. The problem is not self-determination for western Palestinian Arabs but Arab refusal to allow Jewish self-determination. "As the naive abandoned the left in droves, a process of adverse selection occurred. Those who remained in the Israeli left despite the past decade of Oslo experiences are today by and large people who are evil. They constitute the satanic left. Some used to be foolish leftists who evolved into evil leftists. They remain in the left because they are motivated by hostility to Israel, animosity towards Jews, by self-hatred. That a political movement like the Israeli left could be taken over by those motivated by dislike of their own country and hatred of their own people should not come as too much of a surprise. After all, the American campus left is also today little more than a movement of anti-Americanism. It will support any Third World butcher it thinks is sufficiently hostile to the United States and the West. It supports everything imaginable that can harm the United States." "Among the manifestations of these having second thoughts were the near-complete implosion of the leftist Meretz party, which lost half its Knesset representation, and the landslide defeat of Amram Mitzna and the Labor Party left in the last Israeli election." "...the Op-Eds and the official canon being preached by Israel's Left today is increasingly one of treason. Increasing numbers of the remnants who are still denizens of the left openly propose that Israel's existence be terminated. A growing number of Israeli Leftists are promoting the so-called ''One State Solution'' or the ''Bi-National Solution,'' which should more properly be called the Rwanda Solution. This is essentially a No-State Solution. According to it, Israel would cease to exist as a Jewish state. It would be entirely enfolded into a Palestinian state stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan with the Arabs the majority and the Jews a minority, tolerated at best like the other non-Arab or non-Moslem minorities in the Arab world." "Israeli leftists are increasingly recruiting themselves to serve the very worst anti-Semites of the planet. There are today Israeli leftist professors promoting the views of Holocaust Deniers. Scores of Israeli professors endorse the boycotts being organized by overseas anti-Semites directed against Israel? Israeli leftists are regulars on Islamist fundamentalist web sites and are the universal legitimizers of the very worst haters of Jews throughout the world. There exists today a true axis of evil, which links Jewish leftism with Islamofascism." "...Israel's left has always been fundamentally anti-democratic, opposing the right of free expression for non-leftists, demanding that non-leftists be prosecuted as ''inciters.'' The left has long insisted that Yitzhak Rabin was in fact murdered because non-leftists and Oslo opponents were permitted to exercise their right to free speech. But lately the left's anti-democratic inclinations have taken a turn towards extremism and outright subversion. The left has long been of the opinion that Leftists should not be expected to obey the law nor submit to the will of the majority because their motives are so nice and pure. Leftists (and Arab fascists) should be able to call openly for violence with impunity." "The left has for years been trying to foment mutiny and "resistance" among Israeli soldiers. It has organized groups who refuse to report to duty as long as Israel ''occupies'' any portion of the West Bank and Gaza. These are people who explicitly refuse to submit themselves to the will of the majority of their fellow citizens. These are not people willing to promote their ideas through persuasion and argument, but rather through subversion and defiance of the rule of law. They seek to impose their minority views on the country through force. Their latest gambit is to organize mutiny among Israeli pilots in the air force, who will refuse to shoot at terrorist mass murderers until Israel ends its 'occupation' on those leftist terms opposed by the bulk of the electorate." (Prof. Steven Plaut, 5/30 but first posted 1 1/2 years ago.) Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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GROUP TO VISIT GAZA STRIP TO OPPOSE ISRAELI PULLOUT
Posted by AFSI, June 7, 2005. |
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Charles Finkelstein, a lawyer in Brooklyn, is not usually much of a globe-trotting activist. But he has cleared his calendar of personal-injury and criminal cases and, no less significantly, secured the permission of his wife and four children. And tonight, after attending a rally and concert in Central Park, he and 124 like-minded people clad in orange T-shirts intend to board a plane for Israel and insert themselves in a matter of domestic politics there. They will spend three days visiting Jewish settlers on the Gaza Strip to let them know that they oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to remove them this summer. "Sometimes mere words are cheap," said Mr. Finkelstein, 40, "and you need to do a little action. We're not going to get arrested, just to say to our brothers and sisters, 'We're with you.' " The unilateral pullout from Gaza, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has been hailed in most corners as a courageous step toward peace in the Middle East. Most Israelis, weary of the costs of protecting the 9,000 Jews who live among the million Palestinians of Gaza, support the pullout. The Bush administration supports it. The largest Jewish organizations in the United States support it, and so does the international community, most of which regards Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 boundaries to be illegal. But there is a core of skeptics, most of them, like Mr. Finkelstein, Orthodox Jews, who say that the pullout - whether because it rewards Palestinian terror, defies the will of God, or forces thousands of civilians from their homes - is a historic mistake. A poll of American Jews conducted in March by Yeshiva University found that 65 percent supported the Gaza pullout and 21 percent opposed it. But the Orthodox, who make up about a quarter of the Jews who belong to synagogues, oppose it 56 percent to 31 percent, other surveys have found. And as the August date of the forced relocation draws closer, the American opponents of disengagement, as Mr. Sharon calls his policy, are mobilizing. Organizers of the Salute to Israel Parade up Fifth Avenue today generally avoid taking a stance on Israel's fractured politics. The annual Israel Day Concert in Central Park, also to be held today, is organized by opponents of the pullout and features a band from Gaza; it is expected to draw thousands of people. Included among them, no doubt, will be many of those who protested against Mr. Sharon last month when he came to New York to court Jewish support for his plan. (Mr. Sharon, who, in his more hawkish days, spoke at the first concert, in 1994, and called on American Jews to wage a "Jewish jihad" for Israel, is not expected to attend this year.) The opponents are also matching their words and actions with dollars. A fledgling American charity, the Friends of Gush Katif, named for the largest Jewish settlement bloc in Gaza, has raised $3 million in its nine months of existence, its vice president said. The vice president, who spoke on the condition that his name be withheld because he did not want his office colleagues to know of his extracurricular work, said that the money was sent to Israel to finance a public-relations campaign against the pullout and to provide social services to the settlers. The leader of tonight's trip to Gaza, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose Brooklyn district includes the Orthodox stronghold of Borough Park, said the settlers needed to feel supported. "You can support Ariel Sharon," he said, "but how can you not feel for eight-and-a-half thousand people who were encouraged to move there and now face being thrown out of their homes, and not even as part of a peace treaty?" Mr. Hikind, who led a similar trip to Gaza in March, added: "They've built beautiful communities. They've buried their dead there. What are they going to do, dig up the bodies?" Assemblyman Hikind's contingent also includes an evangelical state senator from Brooklyn, John Sampson, who says he is going along to educate himself about Gaza, and five Baptist ministers from the middle of the country who believe that to support the pullout is to court God's wrath. "In the Bible," said James Vineyard, a minister from Oklahoma City, "God told Abraham, 'I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee.' If we become in any way a curse to the seed of Abraham, God's going to curse us. It's really very simple." Malcolm I. Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which supports the pullout, said that while those who live outside Israel "should be careful not to exacerbate tensions there," he did not think that Mr. Hikind's trip would necessarily stir up trouble. "People for and against have a right to express their views and the key is to do it in responsible ways," he said. Several other Zionist organizations have led trips to Gaza, including Americans for a Safe Israel, which is currently there with a group of 45 people. In addition to more serious expressions of solidarity, the travelers are handing out hundreds of stuffed animals - specifically, Garfield the Cat - to children in Gaza. "First of all he's orange," Helen Freedman, the group's executive director, said in a telephone interview from Israel. Orange and blue are the colors chosen by the Gazan protestors to represent their citrus groves and the sea. "And orange is the color of protest and solidarity," Ms. Freedman said. "Also, Garfield doesn't move; he stays put. We made Garfield the symbol of 'We're not moving, we're staying put.' " Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. |
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A RENAISSANCE FOR AMERICAN JEWRY: PLAN TO BUILD 300 NEW JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS
Posted by Rabbi Adam Winston, June 7, 2005. |
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To create a renaissance for American Jewry, we must first make a courageously bold assessment of the situation. It is axiomatic and supported by repeated studies, that a Jewish Day School education is by far the best way to insure Jewish survival. How indeed can we expect a Jewish child to maintain their identity, when faced with the onslaught of the prevailing non-Jewish culture? Obviously, we must build new Jewish Day Schools if we care about the next generation. These schools should be affiliated with existing schools to gain from their experience and to insure the highest quality education from the outset. The only ones who have an infrastructure in-place of sufficient magnitude to mount such a rescue effort by building new "daughter schools" for secular children - are the Orthodox. Backed by 60 years of experience, the Orthodox Day School Network has 190,000 students in 675 schools across North America. The Reform only have 19 schools, Conservatives 57 and non-affiliated 95 _(1). Remarkably, a recent study_(2) found that 94% of secular children who attended an Orthodox Jewish High School were happy to study there! An astounding statistic as high schools kids are often not happy about very much - least of all school. Don't we want our children to be happy at school? In fact, one-third of those already in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools are secular. The non-observant parents apparently feel quite comfortable in this environment. The level of secular education in the Jewish Day Schools also far outstrips the public schools in terms of scholastic achievement and national test scores. You can verify this with your local Day School. Public and private secular schools are plagued by drugs and violence - even at the youngest ages. How long can a child hold out before joining in? The Jewish Days Schools offers the child the best chance to grow into their magnificent potential without being damaged by the corrosive "dumbing down" environment of a regular school. Will we deprive our children of the best education possible? The Jewish people have a historic role as a Light Unto the Nations. Without a superior academic background as provided by a Jewish Day School education - how can we expect our children to develop the skills needed to lead the rest of the world? Accordingly, we have inaugurated a program to build 300 Jewish Day Schools in America. Education is an art form. It takes experience to build an effective teaching apparatus. By using existing Orthodox Schools as a base to found new "daughter schools" - we can give every Jewish child the chance for the best education possible. Through sharing an administrative and maintenance hub as well as teaching staff rotations, a quality education can quickly be made available to all Jewish children at a lower cost. The two main barriers which can be overcome by working together: 1. The alienation between Orthodox and non-Orthodox. The Orthodox feel that any overtures to the non-Orthodox leadership - will be contemptuously rebuffed. 2. Financial. Orthodox Days schools are also struggling to meet their own financial needs. They usually receive little or no help from the Federations and can not contemplate a massive expansion, for which they have no resources. The solutions are clear: 1. The Federations must ask the Orthodox Day Schools for their help. Though genuine ideological gaps will remain, let us all demonstrate a willingness to work together for the common good . The next generation is depending on us to overcome our differences. 2. Provide the funding. Our children are the future. If we do not bother investing in them, we will have nothing left. North American Federations have eight billion dollars in endowment funds_(3), in addition to yearly campaigns of two billion dollars. It would seem to be prudent for them to use some of these funds to insure the existence of the next generation of donors. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine that Federation Board members would be so fiscally irresponsible as to ignore the need to Build The Next Generation. To help Federations achieve this goal we have established the "Fifth For The Future" guidelines. Every Federation will commit at least a fifth of moneys collected, for building and supporting new Jewish Day Schools. Then donors will know that their Federation is serious about Building The Next Generation. There is one other problem in that we have seen some Jewish leaders [leading to where?] who seem to be in favor of assimilation. They have blocked efforts at enhancing Jewish education. The Jewish community will need to decide how to respond to them. NOTES: [1] A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the United States 2003-2004. Marvin Schick. Avi Chai January 2005. 2 The Effectiveness of Preparatory Tracks in Jewish Day Schools. Marvin Schick. Avi Chai. March 2002. 3 Report to the Community 2002, United Jewish Communities. Rabbi Winston directs "Project: Light Unto The Nations". An international effort promoting the message: "In order for our children to fulfill their role as a Light Unto The Nations, they need the superlative education that can only be provided by a Jewish Day School." They can be contacted at: Project: Light Unto The Nations POB 27312 Jerusalem 91272 Israel. |
| GUSH KATIF |
A POLICY OF BANKRUPTCY AND EVIL
Posted by Women in Green, June 7, 2005. |
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This was written by Christopher Barder, who is political/military analyst and a member of the Advisory Board of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies. Ariel Sharon has made commitments to withdraw all Jews from a place where Jews chose to live and governments encouraged them to do so. He has said effectively that it is wrong for them to live there, not because they have chosen not to, after a period of time, or agreed it is wrong, but because it upsets the Arab Muslims around them and protecting them is inappropriate for various (non) reasons which are hard to fathom but easy to mouth apparently. Sharon has therefore accepted underneath a submission to Islam. He has accepted terms of humiliation. He has acted with subservience. He has acquiesced in the terrorists' agenda and said violence can make life untenable. In moral terms what has happened is that a Jewish government has agreed that others' anger at the existence of Jews living alongside them is a force to be agreed with and when others who only 68 years before lifted not a finger to save Jews from the Holocaust and since have lifted not a finger to save Jews from Arab extermination, say that Jews living near Arabs are indeed 'illegal' and a source of provocation, so Israel's government agrees. The dispute is not about 'occupied land' but about Arab acceptance of Israeli Jews' living where they choose. It is about the Arab right to dispossess and uproot. And the Jews who defeated them in a defensive war, agree. There cannot be peace when Jews live with Arabs in any area claimed by Muslim Arabs. The Arab cry was 'Yaffo, Haifa...' and it is no different now. But the area of legitimacy, the Pale of settlement, this is shifting. The government of Ariel Sharon thinks that concessions make defence easier and peace can more easily be secured by buying it at the expense of principles which are negotiable and disposable. This is a bad illusion and a sad one. What constitutes legitimacy? The truth is that for the religious the Bible reveals a Divine Mandate. For the secular, then human rights theory dictates that people should have freedom to choose where they live according to respect for their rights regardless of race colour or creed. Either way, the issue is simple: the Jews of Gaza cannot legitimately be removed from their homes in order to serve any racist, genocidal cause and cannot also be removed in order to prevent terror by accepting their existence causes it, without a kind of near auto-genocide. These are serious matters because the Islamic case is discriminatory. It is also against the roots of Zionism and equal rights for Jews. And it speaks volumes about who says where Jews may live and flourish. In any other context it would be axiomatic that the world would denounce not simply the ethnic cleansing but the human rights' abuse of racially motivated or religiously motivated forced repatriation. This is what does not happen in the case of Jewish banishment from areas in which they have chosen to live. By the same token, the question remains how it can be surmised that peaceful and friendly relations across a frontier can be expected when the desire to live with a neighbour has been so willfully and cruelly demonstrated to be entirely absent as in the case of the Palestinians. There is no fundamental acknowledgement of enmity as an attitude prevalent in the PA and in Palestinian society in the arguments put forward either by the international forces (EU, Russia, USA, UN) or by the Israeli government such that fleeing before terror or appeasing it become moral and ethical issues, never mind legal ones. In short - Jewish human rights appear submerged absolutely. Where is the justice and honesty in all of this? Compliance with the dictates of a rogue regime seems a poor basis for serious peace aspirations on anyone's part. If to Islam the proximity to Jews, the sovereignty exercised by Jews, and the state existing for Jews, is in each case obnoxious, then how does retreat from Gaza or anywhere else, perish the thought, represent a policy for security or a basis for peace, not least since all land for peace so far has a built in multiplier of ever more land for no serious proof of peace. How does leaving anywhere mean less propaganda and hate in school books and less territorial ambition for Palestinians being urged in the imminent summer camps? The Lebanon example and the methods of Hisb'allah are now being echoed again as Israel is to be seen evacuating, its tail between its legs, if terror action can make it appear so. The gainful fruits of war are surely in evidence as the Arab creation of an existential threat to Israel, social, cultural and strategic, is the product of reversal of defeat in every war since the state of Israel was created, as territorial integrity and congruity for a Palestinian terror state are being created in Israel's midst. Rewarding the vanquished aggressor is a strange way to attempt to inculcate respect for regime change and international law. Punishing the voters and victims is unjust and wicked to. Doing it to one's own signals a failure of government, policy and integrity. And things still more sinister and bizarre. Whether civil resistance can prevent a tragedy remains to be seen but liberal democratic values are at stake not to mention spiritual principles. In the days when Protestant Ulster might have been taken by Catholic Eire a cry went up 'Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right'. It remains to be seen in what sense the people of Israel - the people of elsewhere are a forlorn hope - may cry 'the Jews of Gaza will fight and they will be right? but their weapons have to be civic, peaceful and moral. Will Ariel Sharon's brutal determination permit them to use moral force and reasoned argument. So far the results are appalling. 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 |
| GUSH KATIF |
CONCERT IN THE PARK FOR GUSH KATIF
Posted by AFSI, June 7, 2005. |
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This is from Arutz-Sheva
(www.IsraelNationalNews.org) and appeared before the concert.
MC'ing the concert will be Arutz-7's own Tovia Singer, " The Chief Rabbi of TalkRadio." The event will take place, rain or shine, in Central Park's East Meadow, at 97th Street and 5th Avenue, today, June 5, 2005 from 2:30-6 PM. This year's Central Park concert will be a rejection of the role of 'Jews of Silence' and a rejection of the expulsion of Jews in the Land of Israel. The concert, which has taken place every year since 1994, has always espoused a pro-Land of Israel stance. 'A bland message is an act of silence,' Dr. Joseph Frager, who sponsors the annual event, told Arutz-7's Ezra HaLevi. Frager says he has continuously striven to unify the parade and the concert, without success. "I was a marshal in the Israel Day Parade for years during the 90s," Frager said. "I hope to see the Jewish people unified and fortified. But we simply have no choice but to stand up and say the idea of expelling Jews from parts of our land is unacceptable. Now is the time to rally behind the 9,000 Jews of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron, to give them strength." Prior to the concert, anti-expulsion protesters are planning to march in the parade itself, with the Zionist Organization of America contingent. They plan to meet at 1:00 PM at 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues. Orange shirts will be supplied to those who do not have. The concert itself will be broadcast live at IsraelNationalRadio.com. IsraelNationalRadio's Tovia Singer, who will be the Master of Ceremonies at the concert, hopes the event will allow the tens of thousands of Americans who stand with the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria to stand up for them: "This is an opportunity for folks living throughout North America to stand with their brothers and sisters - people they don't know, but love deeply. There are so many people who want to know: 'What can I do' After all, I demonstrated for Jews in Iran, for Jews in the Soviet Union. Now the Jews of Israel are being placed in grave danger and I want to let them know they have my support." Speakers at the event will include former Cabinet Members MK Effie Eitam (Religious Zionist Renewal Party) and MK Uzi Landau (Likud), New York State officials, rabbis and Jewish organizational heads. "What is your message to those who question the right of Jews living outside of Israel to protest Israeli government policies?" Frager was asked. "First of all, we are our brothers' keepers," Frager said. "American Jews should have helped their brethren more during World War Two, and we are here now refusing to repeat that mistake. I don't want to be guilty of silence." "Second of all, the US is giving more than a billion dollars toward the disengagement " so American taxpayers, including me, are footing the bill for this thing. "Third, I quote Shimon Peres (not that I am a big fan of his). He says, 'The Prime Minister of Israel is elected in Israel, but crowned at the White House.' This is very true today, and it is therefore obligatory upon us to speak out." In past years, the concert has been held against Israeli concessions to and arming of the PLO, in support of the imprisoned Jonathan Pollard, in support of the Jews of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza), and for an undivided Jerusalem. Of course, together with the message of solidarity with the Jews facing expulsion, is the ultimate message to the attendees themselves and to all the Jews parading down Fifth Avenue: Make Aliyah - Immigrate to Israel. "The message is always Aliyah," Frager said. "We are doing what we can while we are here, but we know full well that we belong in Israel." Hundreds of those attending the concert will, in fact, board planes for the Holy Land immediately following the event. A mission of Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel will be leaving JFK Airport that evening, traveling directly after landing to Gush Katif. For those who won't be there, IsraelNationalRadio will bring you there via its Live Broadcast, this Sunday, 2:30PM-6PM NY time, 9:30PM-1:30AM Israel time. UPDATE: You can hear the Live Broadcast from the concert at http://www.israelnn.com/metafiles/asx/israelnationalradio.asx Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. |
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BLUE WHITE AND ORANGE-A PERSONAL VIEW OF ISRAEL'S SOLIDARITY PARADE
Posted by AFSI, June 7, 2005. |
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This account comes from Jerome Gordon. At 9:35 AM yesterday, I hopped on a bus at my shul in Fairfield, Connecticut along with My Rabbi Dan Satlow and several congregants, their children and a number of Israeli schlichim to head for Manhattan and the Israel solidarity parade. While the Fairfield contingent was there to see relatives and friends on some of the floats and watch the parade, I was there to catch up with Jack Lauber of Albany and AFSI to rally for the ZOA contingent to march up Fifth Avenue. The ZOA contingent rallied to form up for the march in the shade across from the Museum of Modern Art between Fifth and Sixth Avenue on 53rd Street. 
We had a video filming team down from Toronto, Chutzpah productions who came to film the orange contingent with our orange banner, US and Israeli flags and orange tee shirts. One moving vsual sequence for me was watching two women dressed in athletic wear tugging at a huge clutch of orange balloons that they distributed to on-lookers along the parade route. Later they appeared like drum beaters before the ZoA contingent as we marched up Fith Avenue One pleasant surprise was meeting Guardian Angel founder and WABC radio personality, Curtis Sliwa who is pictured below with Jack Lauber. His presence in the parade was confirmation of the Sliwa family's pro-Zionist setiments as attested to our good friend and his sister, Maria Sliwa. Kol Hakavod to them both.
 Curtis Sliwa of Guardian Angels and Jack Lauber Mort Klein ZoA executive director-see his picture below showed up at the rally point and was interviewed by a Ma'ariv reporter. He was also interviewed on film by the Chutzpah Canadian video team. The Chutzpah video team filmed us as we marched up Fifth Avenue. One of the disturbing elements was the contingent of Naturei Karta yeshiver buchers -Satmars, with signs saying that Irsrael is not a Jewish state standing shoulder to shoulder with a pro-Palestinian contingent under a huge PA red, black and green flag in their usual spot on a postage stamp park in front of the venerable Plaza Hotel. 
Neturei Karta, an anti-Israel hassidic sect, pickets the parade As we marched by we chanted "not one inch" and 2-4-6-8 "Israel is a Jewish state," which drove the pasty faced yeshiver bochers replete wth payess, caftans and shtreimels into apoplexy to say nothing of the Palestinian advocates including a few Jews. Marching up Fifth Avenue we saw a fair sprinkling of Orange tee shirts and got salutes from many of the on-lookers. It appeared to this observer that the crowds were composed of the parents, relatives and friends from area Jewish Day schools. But there wee also contingents from Hadassah, Young Judea and the New York Jewish federation. My chaver Jack Lauber attended the Central Park anti-disengagement rally and concert at which several thousands showed up and listened to the two Israel anti-disengagement Mk speakers and others. Attached are several pictures from yesterday's event and the New York Sun report on the 41st Israel Solidarity march. 
So this is what it was like on a hot day in Manhattan among massed Us and Israel flags, orange ballons and orange tee shirts. Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. |
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THE RESULT OF ISRAELI RESTRAINT; HALKIN'S DEFENSE OF SHARON'S ABANDONMENT
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 7, 2005. |
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THE RESULT OF ISRAELI RESTRAINT Hamas has built an army of thousands, on the model of Hizbullah. Israel's pinprick bombing of Hamas was not sufficient to prevent this (IMRA, 5/27 from former head of Israel's secret service). The pinprick bombing is the result of Israeli obeisance to demands by the US, the UNO, and the rest of the chorus of regular critics of Israeli self-defense that, contrary to its rights under international law, it somehow is supposed to protect its people from terrorists without injuring dear Arab civilians among whom the terrorists find refuge. Those demands should be spurned as outrageous restraints in favor of barbarians. NY TIMES HATCHET JOB AGAINST ISRAEL & SETTLERS There haven't been many NY Times editorials against Israel recently. No need for them. Not the way the Times presents distorted news. For example, "Israel Strikes Gaza Refugee Camp" is the headline of a news brief by Steven Erlanger. He explained that the missiles were "near" the camp. "Near" is not the same as striking the camp. Let us stop calling them refugee camps more than half a century later, when the inhabitants by normal definition are not refugees. The article explains that Islamic Jihad had been firing rockets at an Israeli town. The perpetrators are labeled "militants," as if like Martin Luther King Jr., truly a militant. Firing at an Israeli town means firing at civilians. That makes these "militants" terrorists. The brief stated that the counter-attack killed wounded bystanders (5/31, A6). That is the responsibility of the terrorists, for operating illegally in urban areas. Sympathy should be with their victims, not with their people. EGYPT, ON WHICH ISRAEL DEPENDS Egypt still has not done anything to stop the arms smuggling from Sinai. The P.A. ostentatiously shut some tunnels, but leaves the rest open and active. They are accomplices! Israel is planning to rely upon Egypt entirely to stem the flow, while Egypt is preaching to its people against Israel from "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (IMRA, 5/27). Not a good omen for anticipated Egyptian security measures against arms smuggling! FINANCING OF TERRORISM CONTINUES The US campaign against phony charitable organizations and governmental financing of terrorism caused the terrorist underwriters merely to change their procedures. Official Saudi organizations still donate to designated terrorist organizations, including ones belonging to Hamas. This occurs despite official Saudi assurances to Pres. Bush that it would cease. Islamic authorities praise homicide-bombing as the highest level of jihad. They teach that preaching and financing of jihad, including taking care of warriors' families, are as important as fighting it. "The financial support funneled to Hamas charitable societies under the heading of 'humanitarian aid to the needy' is part of a financial jihad, subsidizing the military operations of the terrorist group. The Hamas civilian infrastructure is comprised of economic, educational, and social institutions that serve the terrorist wing. Intelligence services should devote more attention and resources to uncovering how terrorist organizations avoid international control mechanisms by operating through 'innocent' front groups. Western financial institutions must not allow the transfer of funds that nourish the global jihad." (IMRA, 5/28.) The P.A. ostentatiously shut some tunnels, but leaves the rest open and active. HALKIN'S DEFENSE OF SHARON'S ABANDONMENT; All the June readers' responses to Hillel Halkin's defense of PM Sharon's plan to abandon northern Samaria and Gaza were critical of the plan and of its defense. I thought that most were effective, but that Mr. Halkin replied evasively, illogically, and with false assertions. The first letter thought it unjust that even without a peace agreement, Israel should forcibly expel its own communities, just because they are Jewish. It quotes an earlier statement by Halkin in confirmation. Halkin replied that he would prefer to withdraw the troops and let the Jews make their own arrangements with the Arabs. What a callous, disingenuous reply! The Arabs would murder them. Obviously they would have to flee. He is pretending that the government would be acting with clean hands by not expelling the Jews itself, leaving the dirty work to the Arabs. The reply evades the real question. The real question, is why expel Jews from the Territories and not Arabs from Israel? If Jews may not live innocently among the Arabs, why let the Arab fifth column live not so innocently among Israelis? Likewise, why expel only Jews from, say, Gaza, and not Arabs between the main Jewish communities in Gaza, in the Gush Katif area, and Israel? We Jews complain about the world's double standards towards the Jews and Israel. It hurts to see Israel, too, hold a double standard against the Jews and Israel. That writer objected to "the chilling effect on free speech and democracy in Israel resulting from recent actions by the Sharon government, like the dismissal of Cabinet Ministers opposed" to the abandonment plan. These actions delegitimize the whole opposition. Halkin simply denied that protest is stifled and knows of no one who is "threatened or intimidated." Many have been threatened or were warned off by the secret service. Few are intimidated, because they have courage and faith and know the high stakes. Sharon had misled voters about his policy, violated his promise to abide by two Likud referenda, improperly dismissed Members until he got a compliant Cabinet, started putting Jews not known to be plotting violence but opposition under preventive detention, arrested many people for peacefully demonstrating against his plan, made other false arrests of opponents, and barred people from certain places if they had insignia indicating they opposed the plan. He engaged in a campaign against non-existent death threats reminiscent of the Left's dirty tricks to delegitimize the whole Right during and after Rabin's campaign. Based on the false death threats, Members of Knesset and journalists called for the arrest of dissenters. Halkin is unaware of all that. Halkin agrees that after losing the Party referenda, Sharon should have held new elections or a national referendum. Polls showed he would win. So now Israel is to be governed by polls? These polls are often wrong and are taken unfairly, hence the Left cites them while refusing to hold an election. (The polls also had shown he would win the Likud voters referendum, but he lost it.) A referendum would delay the abandonment, complains Halkin. He does not say what the consequences of a few months delay would be. (I see none. It's just a demagogic excuse. If held when first demanded, there would have been no delay.) The same reader quoted Israeli military experts that it is vital for Israel to retain Gaza and especially the border with Egypt where the arms smuggling is attempted. Halkin's main answer is that Egypt would not use Gaza as the starting point for invading Israel, because it has a treaty with Israel. How naïve! Egypt is in violation of this treaty as it was of its truces with Israel. The Arabs don't keep agreements. Egypt considers Israel its main enemy. Egypt's policies, such as letting arms be smuggled into Gaza and demanding that the P.A. not crack down on Hamas terrorists preparing to fire rockets against Israel, demonstrate that. Halkin's subsidiary answer is that even if the P.A. smuggles more arms into Gaza, it couldn't, by itself, destroy Israel. Would Halkin want to watch it kill, say, 50,000 Israelis by itself? Suppose it doesn't act by itself, but in concert with Hizbullah's 12,000 rockets, Syrian chemical weapons, and the Egyptian Army? Halkin engages here in the very rationalization that he condemns in others. He ignores the intelligence consensus that abandonment would be followed by more terrorism. Another reader disputes Halkin's claim to be sympathetic towards the settlers, especially when he calls them irrational and messianic. Halkin puts his faith in unreliable Sharon, who used to declare that settlements are integral to the State of Israel. (Such faith is irrational.) As another letter put it, the real messianics are Peres and Sharon, who think "Israel's security can be enhanced by the unconditional surrender to terrorists of lands adjacent to major population centers. The terrorists are then to be financed, armed, and trained by Israel, Europe, and the US. This is as utopian as "Sharon's magical fence. This barrier, unlike (this is sarcasm) the Great Wall of China or the Maginot Line, cannot be bypassed, tunneled under, rocketed over, or broken through." The leftist messianists see patriotic Jews as the enemy. Still another letter asks how Israel could exist surrounded by a jihadist state, whether the choice be between the genocidists of Hamas or the murderers of Fatah, able to import heavy weapons. As for the settlers being messianic, writes the head of AFSI, the movement to the Territories was initiated by leftwing secularists. (But they lacked a plan to integrate the Territories.) Halkin admits that all his responders are sensible. He tries to trump them, however, by coming up with the government's newest attempted justification for the plan, the demographic argument. It is suspicious that the government kept coming up with new reasons, as the older ones were refuted. If the new arguments are so worthy, why weren't they mentioned from the start? His ace of trumps is that the Arab population of the Territories is growing twice as fast as the Jewish population of Israel. By the time he showed that card, it had been neutralized by a recent analysis showing that the Arab population is not growing faster than the Jewish sector. Of course, Israel is at fault for such Arab population growth as there is. It has let 150,000 Arabs immigrate in recent years, out of ostensible tenderness towards their family unification, while the Arabs come in as a welfare burden with the opposite of tenderness towards the Jewish state that they want to replace with an Arab one. Such an immigration policy is foolish. Same for Israel letting Arabs into Yesha and for Israel letting them work in Israel and otherwise subsidizing their ability to afford to stay in Yesha. "Voice of Judea" explains that most of the Arab population is not near most of the Jewish population of Gaza. Halkin's argument is specious, because Israel could annex most Jewish towns without being threatened by rising Arab populations. Halkin asserts that Israel may as well try Sharon 's plan, since the opponents have no alternative plan. Poor logic - a foolish plan is not preferable to no plan; the solution is to devise a wise one. He accuses opponents of being messianic in supposing that the world would let the status quo go on or the Arabs would disappear. Good logic - many right-wingers fail to suggest a solution. Halkin He maintains that Israel's only rational choice is to separate from those Arabs by withdrawing from most of Yesha "to unilaterally determined, military and demographically defensible borders." What "separation," when the Arbs wuld attack more an work in Israel more? If unilateral, why not annex more of the sparsely settled Territories? That is the only way the borders would be militarily defensible, as a US Joint Chiefs of Staff study found. Some opponents do have alternative plans. The plans are not welcome in the major media, which prefer appeasement. Any plan that transfers Arabs instead of Jews, seeks national security instead of US pats on the head, is dismissed as Kahanist. Argument by name-calling. I found in the "NY Sun" a series of unfounded and misleading arguments by Halkin in favor of Sharon's scheme, and little explanation of it or recognition of drawbacks. The plan's purpose remains unclear, a subject for speculation about bribery, extortion, or appeasement. HATCHETING ISRAEL WITH A FEATURE ARTICLE A prominent Israeli TV anchor personally filmed his own documentary against the settlers. His stated: "Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people." He asserts that the "occupation" engenders terrorism. He told an Israeli soldier, after an Arab woman gave birth while waiting at a checkpoint, "It's not Jewish, what we're doing there." A solider tolg him that settlers demand he shoot Arab children. Arguing that the settlers run Israel, he quotes one's explanation that they could not have built their towns without government subsidy. He complains that they are annexing land, thereby preventing a viable state for the Arabs. Most of the world regards Israeli settlements and annexation of eastern Jerusalem as illegal. He finds too much distrust on both sides and Israeli unwillingness to compromise. "I'm not sure any power on earth can move a people to give any land to your enemy, one that really wants to harm you." (Steven Erlanger, NY Times, 5/31, A3). Featuring one-sided stories like these, the Times does not need avowed editorials against Israel. But in the last sentence, the filmmaker rebuts his case. Admitting that the Arabs would want to harm Israel even after territorial withdrawal, refutes his contention that terrorism is just a reaction to Israel's presence. He is old enough to know that terrorism preceded Israeli control, and he ought to know that Islam means jihad and that Arabs break all their peace agreements. Hence Israel ought not trust the Arabs, but it does and loses lives over it. There is no basis for the Arabs not trusting Israel but religious bigotry - Israel is not the genocidal party. Since the Arabs would harm Israel, Israel must set up checkpoints. For that, blame the Arabs. Does the filmmaker deem Israeli self-defense "not Jewish?" What a sick and defeatist attitude! His attitude is over-secularized. He or at least the Times does not, explain the superior religious, historical, and legal Jewish claims to the Territories. Perhaps he doesn't know it. If he were aware of it, he would not mention eastern Jerusalem, which includes Judaism's holiest site and traditional capital, as territory to give up. He would not think that the highest priority is a viable Arab state there, for which most people advocate but none justify. Nor does the slight bit of land Israel seems ready to keep make the difference to the P.A.. Israel needs the full Territories for strategic borders and water to maintaining its own viability. That is another argument against withdrawal that one rarely if ever finds mentioned in the Times. Compromise would be stupid, but more than compromise, PM Barak offered almost all of Yesha to the Arabs, yet they refused! Islamists don't compromise. The filmmaker spouts nonsense. The rest of the world ignores international law applied to itself and misapplies it to Israel, out of antisemitism or appeasement. A Jew should not cite alien sentiment. As presented, this man lacks roots to his own culture, but tells Israelis rooted in it that their procedure is "not Jewish." Israeli brutality he does not document. Arab brutality, which is typical, he ignores. Hmm. He puts the shoe on the wrong foot. It is the Arabs who are trying to suppress another people, the Jews, just as they suppress Christians, Kurds, and Berbers. Israeli rule has been exceptionally benign. The filmmaker, like the other defeatists, ignores the facts, makes up his own. Perhaps he found some settlers who expressed brutal sentiment. Was it well-considered or momentary frustration? Does it apply to the whole movement? It doesn't to their official publications nor to the individuals I met. In stating that settlers urged troops to shoot Arab children, he implied that they meant innocent children. He omits the circumstances. That is suspicious. Perhaps he is referring to solders letting Israelis get killed because they are reluctant to return fire at young terrorists. In that case, the soldiers' orders and his chivalry towards young terrorists prompt criminal negligence. His defeatism encourages and sustains terrorism. He imagines himself decent, but what misguided ethics sympathizes with evildoers! Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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HELPING DYSLEXICS ONE HEARTBEAT AT A TIME
Posted by IsrAlert, June 6, 2005. |
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This article was written by Kelley Hartog and appeared in Israel 21c (www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enScript= PrintVersion.jsp&enDispWho=Articles^l1006) June 5, 2005. A father and son team from Israel has patented an innovative technology called Brightstar that is helping thousands of Americans overcome dyslexia. Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, often familial, disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language, including phonological processing, in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes in arithmetic. US government statistics show 25 million Americans are functionally illiterate, with the primary cause being dyslexia or one of its many variations. 42-year-old Yossi Kullok and his father Saul invested 11 years of research and development in Israel before unveiling BrightStar Technology in 2001. BrightStar is the first prototype of its kind to use non-invasive technology to help with those suffering not only from dyslexia, but also other neurological disorders including ADHD and dyspraxia. Patented by the Kulloks in the United Kingdom, their company - Epoch Innovations - has made inroads in working with dyslexics throughout Britain, and is recognized by the British Dyslexics Association. But the Kulloks' success is not just limited to the UK. BrightStar is now also based in Palo Alto in northern California, where Americans have benefited from the technology over the last two years. Kullok came to Israel from Buenos Aires with his family when he was 12, and says he is proud of the fact that he represents the third generation in his family to dedicated their life to developing non-invasive technology for those with learning disabilities. Kullok and his father began their research in Israel back in the 1980s into how the heart works - specifically heart contractions - gradually moving into Heart Rate Viability (HRV) and how the autonomic nervous system works. In 1999 the father and son duo developed an audiovisual program called bio tuning - a non-invasive technology designed to treat children with ADHD. The program was based on biofeedback and computerized interactive AV stimulation synchronized to the heart. A pilot study was conducted at Sarah Herzog hospital, with the findings published in the Israeli Journal of Psychiatry. It was this work that resulted in the Kulloks being invited to London to create BrightStar. The successful prototype was tested at Nottingham University, paving the way for the company to branch out to the US. The BrightStar program itself is a combination of one-on-one special needs teaching and the Kulloks' innovative technology. Twice a week for six weeks, participants undergo a 20-minute program. Through the use of light via a computer screen, the BrightStar technology targets specific areas of the brain, designed to improve the underlying neurological processing abilities of the dyslexic person. Participants are hooked up to a heart rate monitor as, flashing lights appear on the computer screen in front of them, exercising ocular tracking, aligning neural pathways and stimulating the cerebellum while the participant performs a series of basic computer exercises. During the exercises, the BrightStar technology stimulates the areas of the brain responsible for reading, writing and spelling. It may sound like something out of a futuristic science fiction tale, but according to Kullok, it is not. "What we're doing is trying to approach the neurological functions directly," he told ISRAEL21c. "Seventy-five percent of dyslexia is due to phonological (hearing) dysfunction. When dyslexics hear words, he explains, they can't separate them into consonants and vowels. The remaining 25 percent of dyslexia is due to visual impairment. "There are cells in the eye that process information and are sent to areas such as the cerebellum, which are imperative for the programming of eye movement when reading," says Kollek. When there's a deficiency, he says, the eye cannot focus on the information and extract the relevant data needed for reading fluency and comprehension. That's where BrightStar comes in. In his research, Kullok discovered that if sensory stimulation is synchronized to the physiological timings of the body, then a window of opportunity opens up for the information that is contained in the stimuli to reach the autonomic nervous system. "We are bombarded all day by all kinds of stimulation, but it's not synchronized," explains Kullok. "BrightStar times the delivery of the stimulation -- be it sound or light -- to the individual's heartbeat." As a result, when the heart contracts, it allows an individual's perception to grab and transfer the information with minimal obstacles to the different stations of the brain. "That way the eye movements are programmed correctly at the right moment and the eye will fixate automatically," says Kullok. Where BrightStar is successful is in helping the brain convert information from the visual to the aural. "When you read something silently you actually voice what you're reading in your head," explains Kullok. But dyslexics can't do that. In the four years that BrightStar has been operational in both the UK and the US, Kullok says the company has managed to statistically measure the average improvement of children in five key measures after only six weeks. In addition, he says, the benefits of the program have been measured and have shown the effects of the technology to last for eight months. "Our aim is to invest a lot of money to prove scientifically that this program works," says Kullok. "We're still at the beginning stages, but we have five internal studies being undertaken this summer, and we aim to make this a sound scientific proof." Kullok says while his father still remains in Israel, he made the move to Palo Alto with his wife and children, because the company hopes to make an international impact with its technology. "The US is the place to be. And in Palo Alto we're dominated by Stanford University. We want to make an impact on the world with BrightStar and to be successful both clinically and commercially. And if we can do that here, we're almost guaranteed success in other places." Kullok and his family plan to move back home to Israel within the next six to twelve months, once BrightStar can function at full capacity without him at the helm. "As an Israeli I have always wanted to bring credibility and fame to Israel in some way," says Kullok. "It's always been my personal aspiration, for people to think more positively about Israel and the things we do there." Kullok has plans to work on other startups in Israel in an effort to make a contribution in other areas of neurology, possibly in the fields of Alzheimer's or autism. Kullok believes it's his mission to help people and to give back to people. "My father was very successful in Buenos Aires, but we came to Israel in 1976 because he said he'd rather give his efforts to Israel, and I feel the same way." Ultimately, Kullok's goal is to change one life at a time. "I owe Israel," he says. "Israel has been the incubator of all my ideas and I just want to be able to continue to contribute." Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
| GUSH KATIF |
ORANGE IN CENTRAL PARK
Posted by Rachel Saperstein, June 6, 2005. |
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I traveled with Dror Vanunu of the Katif Development Fund to represent Gush Katif at a solidarity rally and concert in the East Meadow of New York's Central Park. The concert was loud and lively... a great social event. Jewish rock bands rapped with the teenagers. The kids waved their arms and shouted "Lo, lo, lo! Lo zazim mi po!" [No, no, no! We're not moving from here!]. A large balloon displayed the message "Rudy Giuliani for Prime Minister". And the mostly Jewish American folks streamed into the park, with grandparents, parents and children dressed in orange. It was a hot day and picnickers huddled under the few shade trees. The speakers spoke and the rock bands played and the kids danced and old friends met and hugged. A great day in the park. The message of solidarity with Gush Katif enveloped everybody and the smiles of Gush Katif residents seemed to have been transplanted to this New York scene. I spoke, as did MK Effie Eitam and Assemblyman Dov Hikind and other distinguished speakers. All except me spoke of the bravery of the people of the Gush, the communities slated for destruction, the number of people to be expelled. I spoke about us, the individuals and families who live in Gush Katif. I talked about the Shomron family and their three dogs. I told how the Shalva family huddled in the Central Bus Station in Beersheba after their expulsion from Yamit, and of how they were found by our rabbi, Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky, who said "Come, you have a home in Gush Katif waiting for you." I talked about our neighbors from France, Russia, India and Ethiopia, all to be expelled from this land of refuge. And I reminded the listeners that they, too, are part of Gush Katif. Together we shouted "I am from Gush Katif!" Gush Katif had become a cause for the people of New York. This outpouring of warmth made me realize that the people were with me. I met friends who had visited me in Gush Katif. I met my family who had come to hear "Auntie Rachel" speak. I met Ulpana Neve Dekalim graduates who are doing their year of National Service in New York. I spoke with media people. I listened to ideas and suggestions by good people who want to help. But one thought kept nagging at me. Can these enthusiastic people really understand the fears of nightly bombardment or of imminent expulsion? These people are the cream of the Jews in a free, distraction-filled America. Today they are enthusiastic for Gush Katif. And tomorrow? Today I am their poster child. Am I only the "Cause of the Week"? Will we be remembered if the Sharon expulsion plan comes to fruition and we are expelled? Will I be the forgotten child after the concerts and rallies are over? Rachel Saperstein and her husband Moshe live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel. She is a teacher at the Neve Dekalim ulpana and a spokeswoman for the Katif Regional Council. |
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JERUSALEMITES CELEBRATE THE REUNIFICATION
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, June 6, 2005. |
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These pictures and more are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerusalemdiaries/page1/ Tens of thousands of Jews thronged Jerusalem's streets again today in a show of love for their city and in celebration of the 38th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. The parade of flags brought hundreds of busloads of teenagers into
Jerusalem from all over the country. Dressed in blue and white and
carrying Israeli flags of all sizes, many were tagged with the orange
ribbons of protest against the Gaza retreat.
The celebrants were not deterred by this morning's display of Arab
violence against a group of Jews who had the audacity to actually go
up to visit their holiest site, the Temple Mount. Hundreds of Arabs
started pelting the Jews with rocks and stones, outraged at the
affrontery of Jews in their midst. These days, it seems that any
presence of Jews amongst Arabs is a provocation, whether it be Gush
Katif or the Temple Mount. It's one of the most blatant expressions of
racism in the world.
Hundreds of Arabs started pelting the Jews with rocks and stones,
outraged at the affrontery of Jews in their midst. These days, it
seems that any presence of Jews amongst Arabs is a provocation,
whether it be Gush Katif or the Temple Mount. It's one of the most
blatant expressions of racism in the world.
Still,the waves of people just kept on flowing into the Old City
until the police had to halt entries into the Kotel Plaza for a time.
Dancing and singing went on for hours, with various Hasidic music
stars playing from the stage.
A different type of entertainment wrapped up the Jerusalem Day
celebrations over at the Haas Promenade, where Israel's Eurovision
Song Contest contestant Shiri Maimon belted out some of her best
numbers to an appreciative crowd. The stunning vista of Jerusalem
provided a fitting backdrop to her lively performance.
Judy Lash Balint is an investigative journalist and author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com |
"Walking
to the Western Wall"
| GUSH KATIF |
THE BUSH/SHARON ROAD MAP IS DRIVEN WITHOUT LEGITIMACY
Posted by Evelyn Hayes, June 6, 2005. |
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The Bush/Sharon Road Map is driven without license, legitimacy, law, equality and justice for Jews, and risks life and liberty of Jews, pro-Israel Arabs, Bedouins, Druze, the whole Middle East and Americans. It ignores the ballot box for Weissglass, friend of Mohammed Rashid who managed Arafat's billions and advisor to Sharon. Weissglass' proposals for slot machines didn't help the working Arabs of Jericho and will only help money launder the billions of Saddam Hussein and the late Arafat al Husseini the Egyptian of the same tribe in Jewish Gaza. Why isn't the world worrying about fixing up Arab Gaza instead of detroying the paradise of the Jews, an oasis in the midst of imported terror, a hotbed of hate? The disengagement plan/road map is a unilaterally discriminating plan to ethnic cleanse Jews from their historical Gush Katif, Jewish Gaza where Jews lived since the time of Judah and King Solomon, since the Balfour Mandate and before the 1929 massacres incited by the Mufti Haj al Husseini who supported Hitler in WWII in his extermination policy against the Jews. In medieval times, this was the largest Jewish establishment. This area was Jewish before the Egyptian invasion in 1948. The disengagement plan/road map is a unilaterally incited pogrom against 10,000 innocent Jews The disengagement plan/road map violates all the laws of civilization including,religious and human rights, dignity, property, life and liberty. A mass support of this is keeping up with the anti-semites and may doom all those fighting terrorist jihad that attacked the Twin Buddhas, the Twin Towers, Christians and even those Muslims who disagree or have businesses they want. The Geneva Coup (Peres, Beilin, Sharon, Carter, Peace Now, Seeds for Peace) of losers is putting a self-destroying accelerant in the life line of Israel and America and all those fighting the likes of Saddam Hussein, Bin Ladin and Holocaust denier Mamoud Abbas, misusing the votes of the informed, not for their benefit but for those who choose slot machines and not ballot boxes, for those who replace productivity for destruction. THE MISUSE OF TAX FUNDS TO SUPPORT TERRORISTS IN ISRAEL AND FOR ANTISEMITISM IS AN IMPEACHABLE CRIME "White House Recognizes Hamas Candidates," Jun 06, 2005. (IsraelNN.com) The White House has recognized the legitimacy of Hamas candidates in the upcoming Palestinian-Arab elections, according to the Reuters news agency. The US announcement comes despite the terrorist organization's refusal to disarm and even though Hamas is listed on both the US and EU's list if terrorist organizations. According to the report, American officials say the administration will deal with Hamas if it puts down it weapons and holds to a ceasefire. European officials also said that if Hamas wins many seats in the elections and agrees to a ceasefire, it would consider removing the group from its list of terrorist organizations. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com. |
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RABBI ADIN EVEN-ISRAEL STEINSALTZ ELECTED TO HEAD SANHEDRIN
Posted by Hillel Fendel, June 6, 2005. |
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As parades filled the streets of Jerusalem Monday - Jerusalem Day - the reestablished Sanhedrin convened in the city to elect a Nassi and representatives to lead it. The current format of the Sanhedrin is an attempt to renew the historic Sanhedrin, Judaism's highest legal-religious tribunal during Holy Temple times. The 71-man assembly convened in one of the Holy Temple chambers, and existed from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E. The renewed body was launched last year in Tiberias, now convenes in Jerusalem, and is still struggling to gain wide acceptance and legitimacy in the Torah world. Since its launching last October in Tiberias, where it last convened 1,600 years ago, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis. In addition, various committees have met more often to discuss issues such as determining the exact location of the Holy Temple, the establishment of courts of non-Jews who accept the Seven Laws of Noah, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to uproot the Jewish communities of Gaza and northern Samaria, and many more. Semicha - original rabbinic ordination as handed down from Moses - was reintroduced by the Sanhedrin recently when hundreds of Israel's greatest rabbis agreed on the worthiness of a particular rabbi to receive it. The committee who oversaw the process made every effort to fulfill the Jewish legal requirements as outlined by Maimonides, as closely as possible. Leading Sephardic and Ashkenazic spiritual leaders Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv also agreed that this rabbi was "fitting to serve." That rabbi eventually backed down from serving as Nassi of the Sanhedrin due to pressure from a leading Hassidic rabbi, but not before granting semicha to Rabbi Dov Levanoni. At the age of 83, he is above the age limit to head the Sanhedrin. He therefore accepted the semikha only in order to ordain one who is fitting to renew the Sanhedrin. It is he who ordained Rabbi Tzvi Idan, and Rabbi Idan, as its first temporary Nassi, ordained the members of the Sanhedrin in Tiberias on October 13, 2004. Since the current Sanhedrin's launch, it has been in a transitional stage as it gathered support and sought to rebuild the institution in accordance with Jewish law. A temporary Nassi had been appointed, but the mandated period came to an end, and so it was decided at the court's last meeting that as the Sanhedrin moves into its next stage, it must become autonomous from the original founding committee and elect permanent officials. Rabbi Even-Israel Steinzaltz was chosen as Nassi. Due to concerns that external pressure would be brought to bear upon individuals not to take part in the establishment of a Sanhedrin, the names of most participants have been withheld up to this point, upon the request of the Sanhedrin's spokesmen. The court of 71 rabbis has now decided to select of a group of seven individuals within the Sanhedrin to represent the institution in dealings with the public and with Gedolei Yisrael - recognized spiritual leaders of Israel. Arutz-7's Ezra HaLevi was at Monday's Sanhedrin meeting, where it was decided to release the names for purposes of transparency as well. It was concluded that the Sanhedrin has become strong enough for its members to be able to withstand criticism, particularly of the "what makes you think you are worthy of sitting on it?" nature. In that vein, it is hoped that the release of the seven names will encourage those who believe that their own rabbis or teachers can contribute to the endeavor, to propose that they also be included in the supreme judicial body. A minimum quorum of 23 Sanhedrin members is necessary for a vote to take place. At Monday's meeting, those present chose seven names from a list of nominees to represent the Sanhedrin to the Jewish world and to spiritual leaders. Rabbi Adin Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) received the most votes of confidence in his ability to lead the Sanhedrin through the next stage of its development. The six others who were chosen by the Sanhedrin were: Rabbi Nachman Kahane - Rabbi of the Young Israel of Jerusalem's Old City and head of the Institute for Talmudic Commentaries, which is involved in the study of the Temple rituals and ceremonies, as well as cataloging of all known kohanim (priests) in Israel. He is the brother of murdered JDL leader and ex-Knesset Member Rabbi Meir Kahane. Rabbi Yisrael Ariel - a former Yeshiva head and founder of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, which has produced many of the vessels to be used in the Third Temple. He was one of the paratroopers who took part in the 1967 liberation of the Temple Mount. Rabbi Yoel Shwartz - Founder and rabbi of the "Nachal Hareidi" IDF unit specifically designed to enable the hareidi-religious public to join the IDF. He is a teacher at Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim and author of approximately 200 books on Jewish law and theology, including influential guides for gentiles seeking to serve G-d and observe the Seven Laws of Noah. Rabbi Dov Stein - A pioneer in the Sanhedrin's renewal for the last 20 years, he has been secretary of the Sanhedrin since its inception, dealing with logistical aspects as well as interacting with recognized Torah scholars and inviting rabbis to join the body. He manages the beith-din.com web site. Rabbi Yehuda Edri - A prime initiator of the re-establishment of the Sanhedrin, an accomplished author and leader of the Movement for the Rebuilding of the Temple. Rabbi Dov Levanoni - An elder Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and expert on the Holy Temple. Rabbi Steinsaltz was reluctant to accept the position of Nassi, saying there are much wiser and more capable people among the group and among the Jewish people. "The purpose of the Sanhedrin is to bring unity to the nation," Steinsaltz said, as he emphasized the unique ability of Jerusalem to bring the Jewish people together. "The fact that he is not chasing after the honor of the position is exactly what makes him the best one for the job," another Sanhedrin member told those present. "We are not offering honor, though," said Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. "We are offering the ability to fulfill a mitzvah (Divine commandment) that for 2,000 years was unavailable." Steinsaltz then said that the position of Nassi was not something that could simply be accepted on the spot, hinting that it was only fitting for the head of the Sanhedrin to shun the title repeatedly until coerced. "If someone is supposed to refuse three times when asked to lead public prayers, then how much more should he be reluctant to take the mantle of Nassi," Steinsaltz said. Rabbi Steinsaltz is regarded as one of the world's leading scholars and rabbis. He holds a degree in mathematics from the Hebrew University, in addition to his extensive Torah study. At the age of 23, he became Israel's youngest high school principal and went on to found the Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications. He has published 58 books to date on the Talmud, Jewish mysticism, religious thought, sociology, historical biography, and philosophy. These books have been translated into Russian, English, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, and Dutch. His commentary on Pirkei Avot, "Ethics of the Fathers," was translated into Chinese and published in 1996. Rabbi Steinsaltz is best known for his interpretation and basic commentary of the Babylonian Talmud, a 30-volume task he began some 25 years ago. In Israel, Rabbi Steinsaltz is the Dean of the "Mekor Chaim" network of schools, which encompasses kindergarten through high school. In 1988, Rabbi Steinsaltz received the Israel Prize, the country's highest cultural honor. Rabbi Steinsaltz is also very involved in the future of the Jews in the former Soviet Union, having set up various educational institution for Jews still living there. He still travels there once a month. Newsweek magazine said of the Nassi-elect: "Jewish lore is filled with tales of formidable rabbis. Probably none living today can compare in genius and influence to Adin Steinsaltz, whose extraordinary gifts as scholar, teacher, scientist, writer, mystic and social critic have attracted disciples from all factions of Israeli society." Also present at the meeting on Monday, though not seated in the 71-seat semi-circular row of chairs, was famed archaeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones. He is working with the Sanhedrin to establish a system of courts for non-Jews adhering to the Seven Laws of Noah, which the Torah obligates all of humanity to follow. One of those laws is to establish courts of justice. A high court has been established by the Sanhedrin for such purposes, and a subsidiary of that court will soon be established in the United States as well. Among the many topics the Sanhedrin intends to address are the bridging of the divisions between various communities of Jewish exiles who have returned to Israel; the establishment of authentic techelet, the biblical blue thread Jews are commanded to wear amongst the fringes attached to four-cornered garments; the definition of the measurement of the "ammah" (the biblical cubit); the determination of the exact point of human death, so as to deal with the Jewish ethics of euthanasia; and the issue of agunot - women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce. Those currently sitting on the Sanhedrin stress that they have all assumed their seats on condition that they give them up to anyone greater in wisdom who joins. Those interested in becoming involved with the Sanhedrin should contact the Sanhedrin secretariat at: 02-566-1962 (972-2-566-1962 from outside Israel). Hillel Fendel is editor of Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com), where this article appeared. |
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DISUNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Posted by Jack Golbert, June 7, 2005. |
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This was written by Shmuel Newman, a US citizen living in the Shomron. As a child we proudly declared the United States to be One Nation under G-d INDIVISIBLE Commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance
As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton's teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own. I -- Me; an individual; a committee of one. For Dividing the Holy Land, the US will be not only divided, but fragmented, and thereby destroyed. The Disunited States of America is dead but doesn't know it. Under the guise of equal rights, a war between the sexes was launched, alternative lifestyles legalized, and with it the right to do with own's body whatever they want, including pre-adolescent promiscuity,pervasive infidelity and abortion. The media has turned pornographic and violent. The founding father's ideal of equality and freedom evolved into selfishness and no morality. People do not really care about each other, and people no longer really listen. This rot is eating America from the inside out. This country demands the deportation of all Jews from Gaza. US citizens who happen to be Jewish are forcibly removed because of US demands. If these US citizens would convert to Islam, they would be permitted to remain in their homes. The US can do this self-evident atrocity because there is no law that specifically prevents it. What happened in Nazi Germany CAN happen in the United States. There is no law that prevents a Presidential Order (which becomes law) to put any population in Ghettos. There is no law that prevents deportation of the people of any race or religion to other countries. And there is no law that prevents the genocide of US citizens of a particular race or religion after they are deported. Just as the Jews of Germany was deported to Poland and then killed in Polish concentration camps, the US can obviously force the deportation from area and help those that kill them. The money, guns, and training that the US gives the Palestinians translate directly into terror attacks against Jews, including US Jews. As such, the US not only initiated the expulsion of Jews, including US Jews, but is an accomplice in their murder. When the Tower of Babel was built to confront the Almighty, they were punished with becoming inundated with so many languages that no one understood anyone else. That was small potatoes to what will happen to the US - All thanks to Bush-Baker-Rice. The gift of prophecy or foresight can be a curse. Like Jonah, we try to run from it, but are forced to warn the populace. And like Ninveh, it is not too late for the US to repent. As for us in Israel (specifically YESHA), [Ezekiel 37:22] AND I WILL MAKE THEM ONE NATION IN THE LAND UPON THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL; AND ONE KING SHALL BE KING TO THEM ALL: AND THEY SHALL BE NO MORE TWO NATIONS, NEITHER SHALL THEY BE DIVIDED INTO TWO KINGDOMS ANY MORE AT ALL. NEITHER SHALL THEY DEFILE THEMSELVES ANY MORE WITH THEIR IDOLS, NOR WITH THEIR DETESTABLE THINGS, NOR WITH ANY OF THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS: BUT I WILL SAVE THEM OUT OF ALL THEIR DWELLINGPLACES, WHEREIN THEY HAVE SINNED, AND WILL CLEANSE THEM: SO SHALL THEY BE MY PEOPLE, AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD. AND DAVID MY SERVANT SHALL BE KING OVER THEM; AND THEY ALL SHALL HAVE ONE SHEPHERD: THEY SHALL ALSO WALK IN MY JUDGMENTS, AND OBSERVE MY STATUTES, AND DO THEM. Ya'akov-Perez (Jack) Golbert is a practicing lawyer in Jerusalem and co-founder of Netzah Yisrael Lo Yishaqer (http://www.netzahyisrael.org). |
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BUSH POLICY SWITCH: HAMAS NEED NOT DISMANTLE TO GAIN RECOGNITION
Posted by Tamar Psion, June 6, 2005. |
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Mofaz appeals to future Gaza Strip evacuees to send their children away ahead of August pullback date. Their weapons will also be collected. In briefing to Knesset committee, Mofaz reported all IDF reserve combat units will be called up for evacuation period. British foreign secretary Straw visits Israel Tuesday to meet Sharon and Shalom. His arrival coincides with Blair's US talks with Bush. DEBKAfile's London sources: British are pursuing Blair's Middle East gains in Washington, particularly acceptance of Hamas, to get them translated into action by Israel Bush has eased hard-line approach to Palestinian terror group Hamas and may be open to contacts with group's "affiliates," if it gave up arms. This is in contrast to total calls for dismantlement. According to officials in Crawford, Texas, the US policy shift is the result of Hamas' growing electoral clout and push for flexibility by Europe. DEBKAfile Reports: Bush policy shift curtails road map by conferring respectability on Hamas as well as its parent Muslim Brotherhood in face of three waning Middle East leaders Sharon, Abbas and Mubarak. Read about spreading implications of new US policy in DEBKAfile's Special Report below. It's called "Bush Policy Switch: Hamas Need Not Dismantle to gain recognition" (http://www.debka.com/article_print.php?aid=1035). The bolt from the blue from Crawford, Texas, hit a slumbering Middle East overnight Sunday, June 5. The news agencies took down every careful word dictated by "senior administration officials." The Bush administration, they were told, is showing signs of easing its hard-line approach towards Hamas? It has acceded to the (terror group) running candidates in the Palestinian elections, even while they refuse to disarm and are still listed by Washington as a major terrorist organization. The "senior US officials" said they may be open to contacts with some Hamas political "affiliates" and left open the possibility of dealing with the group if it gave up weapons and ended violence. This was in contrast to past calls for its total dismantlement. The sources spoke of responding to a push for flexibility from European allies Britain and France, who are warning that complete dismantlement would be a "disaster" for Palestinians who benefit from Hamas aid. "There is now a realization that they (Hamas) do have a role to play - that if you can bring them into the political fold, then you'll be marginalizing the military elements of those groups," said a European diplomat. A senior administration official said: "We are not acquiescing. We do not deal with 'terrorists.'" But he added: "How do you pursue this without limiting democratic choices?" Middle East leaders woke up Monday, June 6, to find that the Bush administration had hit on a way of leapfrogging over the standoff between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' declining clout and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's losing battle for a crackdown and total dismantlement of Palestinian terror. Both were now confronted with the compulsion to address a third party, the fully armed Hamas as is. To gain US recognition, the jihadist group is no longer required to dismantle its terrorist structures, foreswear violence, renounce its goal to destroy the Jewish state - or even to stop shooting Qassam missiles into Israel. This shift also implies a curtailment of the Middle East road map by omitting the dismantlement of terrorist organizations as a pre-condition for peace talks. This policy U-turn has major applications far outside the Israel-Palestinian arena. It is a portmanteau concept that allows for legitimizing (the already ongoing) US contacts with Sunni Baathist guerilla leaders in Iraq, while they continue to wreak carnage; Lebanon's Shiite extremist Hizballah (which claims electoral victory in South Lebanon's elections Sunday, June 4) despite its refusal to lay down its weapons, including 12,000 Katyusha rockets on Lebanon's border with Israel; and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which is likewise bidding for a role in the democratic process without relinquishing the use of arms. If the Bush administration can dredge up moderate Hamas "affiliates" with whom to maintain contacts, similar "moderates" can no doubt be dug out in Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs' (suicides) Brigades, Gaza's violent Popular Committees and the various rejectionist Palestinian Fronts. Washington will argue that it is leading the way to a breakthrough and Israeli will have little choice but to follow suit. For Washington, the shift is a pragmatic acceptance of the real situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which DEBKAfile has repeatedly exposed in earlier reports. Abbas's authority is confined to the small Ramallah pocket of the West Bank - and even then not every corner of this hub of Palestinian government. The northern and central West Bank are ruled by his opponents, an armed and violent coalition of Hamas, al Aqsa Brigades, Jihad Islami and Palestinian Fronts. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas, the Popular Committees and the al Aqsa Brigades hold sway. Bush heaped plenty of verbal praise on Abu Mazen when he visited Washington last month but was under no illusion about his real clout among his people. Left to stand alone own as sole buttress of Washington's peace policy, he could come crashing down at any time amid the chaotic collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Washington is no less worried by Sharon's situation. Israel is undergoing social and political disintegration under his rule, the damage aggravated by his government's fixed priority on the approaching pull-backs from the Gaza Strip and West Bank in August - albeit in the face of declining public approval (which has dropped below 50%). Seen from Washington, there is no point in waiting for improvements: Abbas' collapse and Sharon's further popular decline will only expose the Bush administrations' entire Middle East stake to bankruptcy. The new US tolerance for Hamas will be welcomed by Abbas as the vindication of his own policy of refusing to tackle terrorist groups head-on to dismantle or disarm them, but rather integrating them into the political process. That is for the short term. But for later, neither the Americans nor Abu Mazen are yet asking who will lead a Palestinian negotiating team for talks with Israel: will he retain the primacy or have to accept a coalition of terrorist groups led by Hamas? This awkward question will be brushed under the same carpet that has concealed the real state of affairs in the Palestinian community with regard to Abbas. Until now, he has served as a useful front man for disguising realities and there is no reason why he cannot carry on as before. Sharon and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will be left grinding their teeth over the Bush policy departure but will have to swallow the pill. The Israeli prime minister will not only be dragged into facing Hamas as an acceptable negotiating partner which has embraced democracy, but find the Islamist radicals are present and ready to take charge of evacuated territory in the northern West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mubarak will be made to re-define the hitherto banned Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian offshoot, as a respectable part of Egypt's political system and entitled to run a candidate against him in the coming presidential election. By the device of postponing the Palestinian parliamentary vote from August to November, Abu Mazen had hoped to escape Hamas' electoral threat to his own Fatah. Sharon, for his part, toyed with the notion of a general election after the pull-back was completed and before Israelis woke up to the prize he had awarded the most extremist Palestinian Islamic terrorist group. Mubarak had played with the notion of winning a fifth term unchallenged by the Muslim Brotherhood. George Bush has smashed the failing hopes of all three leaders with a surprise blow by the Hamas bludgeon. |
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JERUSALEM DAY: TIME TO GET OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT
Posted by Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah, June 6, 2005. |
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Yom Yerushalayim 5765 Well, today, Yom Yerushalayim, the day commemorating the reunification of the Holy City of Jerusalem 38 years ago, was marked by violence. Jews attempted to go up onto the Temple Mount. Yishmaelites* (AKA: Arabs) threw rocks and otherwise attacked them. *"And he [Yishmael] shall be a wild ass of a man...." (Genesis 16:12) Does this surprise anyone? From Arutz 7: "Jerusalem Day: Temple Mount Violence, Singing, Dancing 11:03 Jun 06, '05 / 28 Iyar 5765 After the incident, the Temple Mount was closed to Jews "until further notice." The Arabs had achieved their short-term goal, the prevention of Jews ascending the Temple Mount. Still not surprised, are you? After all, it is quite a familiar cycle. We Jews never seem to do quite what is necessary to prevent further incidents of this kind from occurring. "Why not kick the Arabs off? Why can't we kick them off even for one day, ...say, next Monday for Shavu'oth (Feast of Weeks)? It wouldn't be the first time we made such an agreement. A few measly days year, the Yishamites graciously let us pray in Isaac's Tomb in Hevron (sic)." "No, no," a fellow Torah-observant Jew responds. "We can't provoke them. It'll just make things worse for us,...and for Jews around the world..." Here it comes... "After all, we have an agreement. The Wakf (a Muslim authority) controls the Temple Mount. Yeah, sure, Arabs break their agreements all the time. Sure, they desecrated (Read: "trashed") Joseph's Tomb. But, we're not like them. We're Jews. We don't break our agreements...." The whining becomes unbearable. I can hardly prevent my eyes from rolling. He does not actually say it this time, but there it is: "What will the goyim think?" His body resides in Israel, the homeland of the Jewish People. Yet his heart, mind, and, dare I say, soul seem to be living in some European ghetto somewhere. Psychologists have a variety of words from which to choose to describe this Jew's state of mind: "denial," "repression," "low self-esteem," or even "self-hatred." I call it "spiritual numbness." The Martyr-Heros of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising HY"D seemed to have less of a "ghetto mentality" than this Jew has. Meanwhile in Washington, DC, the President of the U. S., motivated by oil and the influence of the anti-semitic State Department [as well as anti-Israel, at least since the Truman administration] is pushing Israel even further to give up more to the Yismaelites, land, money, employment and other economic opportunities. U. S. Secretary of State Rice has even brought up the issue of giving away the Jordan Valley. Why, former Prime Minister Baraq and former President Clinton never even offered that in the end, even though they were willing to force Israel to give up around 90% of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. (And, by the way, Madame Secretary, the Land is not yours, nor even ours to give away.) Back to my fellow Jew, he's worried about what the goyim think. From the above, we certainly already know what the goyim think. Haza"l (Our Sages, may their memories be for blessings) summed it quite simply: "Esaw soné eth Ya'aqov." (Esau hates Jacob.) Esaw is Rome (Bereshith Rabba, etc.), and modern day Rome is...? Europe, the US, the UN perhaps... And we already know what the Yishmaelites think, too. They want to kill Jews. It does not matter whether they want to blow us all up (God forbid), like the terrorists do, or are willing to wait patiently while they gradually outnumber us with their higher birthrate, like the mild-mannered businessman in Abu-Ghosh. They want to destroy us, all of us. Perhaps, in the meantime, they have taken the Western tactic of "blaming the victim." Again from Arutz 7: "Abbas Accuses Israel of Causing Temple Mount Stoning 13:52 Jun 06, '05 / 28 Iyar 5765 Yeah, right! It is all our fault. How dare we assert our right to ascend our Holiest site (sic). The non-Jews of the world are not going to change their opinion of us anytime soon. The message is clear: We must stop repeating the same mistakes, expecting different results. We must stop worrying about how our actions will affect the opinions of the goyim. We must take responsibility for ourselves and for our country. We must remove our faith in foreign powers, and place it only in HaQadosh Baruch Hu, The Holy One, Blessed Be He. b'Ahavath Yisra'el
Contact Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah at yaaqov.ben.yehudah@gmail.com For more on "blaming the victim" and "codependency," see: http://ben-yehudah.blogspot.com |
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MOUNTING A CITIZEN'S CHALLENGE
Posted by Evelyn Hayes, June 6, 2005. |
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This was written by David Bedein, who is the Bureau Chief of the Jerusalem-based Israel Resource News Agency Bring these points up
with your senators and representative. They need to know what the
Bush Administration is doing and plans to do.
American citizens often ask what they can do for Israel when they
are in touch with their Congressional representatives.
Perhaps the most important thing they can do is to challenge the
Ten Principles of The U.S. State Department's 2005 Middle East agenda,
which includes:
1 The cutting of Israel in half by advocating that the proposed PLO
entity be "contiguous" - in the words of Secretary Condoleeza Rice -
from Gaza to Bethlehem.
2 Ignoring the PLO's decision not to annul the PLO covenant, which
mandates that the PLO continue its state of war against Israel. This
covenant continues despite a firm American commitment not to deal with
the PLO until it cancels the covenant.
3 Financing a Palestinian school system that operates the first
curriculum since the Third Reich that teaches children to make war
against Jews. (Review the Palestinian curriculum at www.edume.org)
4 Allowing PLO leadership to order the murder of Palestinian
dissidents. A total of 51 Arabs are currently facing death for the
"crime" of cooperating with Israel. The State Department has said it
will not intervene to stop this practice.
5 Vetoing Israel's right to build homes or synagogues in the Jewish
Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The State Department's answer as
to whether the repair of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter,
destroyed by the Arab legion in 1948, would represent an act of
"illegal settlement activity" was "yes".
6 Rejecting the idea that Jerusalem is even part of Israel. Most
recently, President Bush, on the advice of the State Department,
vetoed a bill that would require U.S. documents issued in Jerusalem to
list "Jerusalem, Israel", as their point of origin. Currently all such
documents are listed as "Jerusalem", with no country mentioned. They
include U.S. passports and birth certificates issued for American
citizens who dwell or were born in the western sector Jerusalem.
7 Nurturing Muhammad Dahlan, as coordinator of PLO security forces, despite the fact that Dahlan has taken credit for planning the murders campaign which took the lives of hundreds of Jews (See Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's article in the Wall Street Journal of June 3, 2002, documenting Dahlan's murder record, where Olmert called for his elimination).
8 Ordering renewal of CIA training for the PLO security forces, despite the fact that these same PLO forces have used the CIA training they received in the 1990's to murder Jews since the September 2000 inception of organized terror warfare against Israel.
9 Continuing to fund the "right of return" campaign of the UNRWA Palestinian Arab refugee camps, despite the President's clear statement on April 14, 2004 that he opposed such policies.
10 Recognizing Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen (a.k.a.
Mahmoud Abbas) as a "moderate" influence, even though he has armed and
incorporated every terrorist group instead of disarming them and
defining the election of Mazen as "democratic", despite the
resignation of 46 members of the PLO's own election council on the
night of the elections.
The role of the Congress to "Advise and Consent" on matters of
foreign policy is defined by the U.S. Constitution. It is up to
American citizen supporters of Israel to work with the Congress to
"advise" the State Department so that they do not "consent" to its
Middle East policy agenda.
Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because
their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The
Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact
her at haze@rcn.com.
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SAY NO TO THE "RIGHT OF RETURN"
Posted by Jock L. Falkson, June 6, 2005. |
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I'm sad to find myself at odds with the highly respected and erudite Evelyn Gordon, whose articles in The Jerusalem Post have informed me ... whose opinions have frequently shaped or confirmed mine ... and whose case making capability I have always admired. However, I differ from her innovative opinion: "Why not say yes to the 'right of return'?" published in The Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2005. Ms. Gordon urges new thinking to be applied to this thorny problem, She suggests Israel should offer to accept the return of all the actual "refugees", i.e. those over age 57. She estimates their number at some 200,000 at this time. Ms. Gordon writes: "They would constitute a temporary burden on Israel's welfare system. ..." Unsustainable economic burden I fear that the economic burden would neither be temporary nor sustainable. Israel would be committed to their social welfare support. From 2006 single elderly unemployed will be receiving about 2000 NIS per month from the state. Couples will get more but the amount is still likely to be 50 percent below the poverty line. The new monthly stipend will probably cost Israel NIS300-400 million per year. That could be more than 40 billion over 10 years. That ain't hay. Government mission to care for its citizens Such a huge outlay of money for a country whose budgets have chronically been inadequate would amount to unforgivable, irresponsible largesse. Consider a few facts:
Consider the mindset of the so called "refugees" So called? Yes, have you ever heard of anyone being a refugee for 57 years? It is surely an oxymoron. It would be dangerously shortsighted to overlook the fact that these 200,000 people have been kept in the lowest conditions of squalor, for 57 years, for the sole purpose of returning to Israel. For their benefit, not for ours. This lifelong mission has been seared into their memory and is the driving force in their lives. Those who think the "refugees" will stay where they are, in the bosom of their families, are mistaken. The Palestine Authority or the State of Palestine will not accept no for an answer. They will undoubtedly bring their considerable powers to bear on the "refugees" to return "home". They will not hesitate to kill some refuseniks if it is necessary to drive the lesson home. They are also aware that the number of "refugees" resettled in Israel will constitute a troublesome fifth column for Israel. Milking the Jews to get rich quick Returning "refugees" may believe they stand a good chance of being compensated, at current values, for homes they left 57 years ago. This is likely to be one of the most powerful motivators to return. Nothing will prevent UN pressure and or the International Court of Justice, nor even Israel's Supreme Court for that matter, ruling in favor of heavy damages for the "refugees". The enticement of such riches will surely be too tempting to forgo. Lord knows what this might cost! Expect children to back parents' return An Internet writer, whose name is not given, has suggested that most "refugees" would not return because the bond of the hamullah (extended family) is too strong. However, it is perhaps more likely that children will persuade parents that separation will only be temporary. That's because Palestine and the 56 Islamic states in the UN will pass resolution after resolution to compel Israel to allow families to be reunited. Do you doubt this? Only the US might veto the resolutions - but should Israel make a fateful decision which relies on our now wavering "friend and ally?" Arabs will get 6 more Knesset seats Once in Israel does anyone doubt the returnees would start a world-wide agitation for reunification with their children? Taking these 200,000 "refugees" back will open a veritable can of worms. It may be impossible to deny them citizenship. These additional Arab voters could increase Arab representation in the Knesset by 6 more seats, creating a powerful minority of 17 Arab members. In certain circumstances they could become the deciding factor in crucial votes. Israel should not lend a hand to such a disaster waiting to happen. Israel cannot afford the risks We must not take back these bitter Arabs who fled to make way for our extermination. They continue to mourn the 1948 nakba (catastrophe). They too march in annual parades, waving flags and crying out for their brutal revenge. Why should we put our future at risk? To be put on Jock Falkson's email list, contact him at falkson@barak-online.net |
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AN ENEMY TO GUARD ISRAEL'S BORDER? REPRESSION OF DISSIDENCE?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 6, 2005. |
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DOES REPRESSION OF DISSIDENCE COST POPULARITY? "Hatzofeh alleges that youths who were detained following recent demonstrations against PM Sharon's Disengagement Plan are being held on trumped-up and baseless charges and speculates that, 'As the number of false arrests increases and the false libels against idealistic youth are exposed, support for the residents of Gush Katif will increase.'" (Foreign Ministry, 5/26). The government supposes that it can get away with police-state tactics long enough to put over its policy, because those tactics frighten opposition. It is counting on Israelis not understanding much about free-speech and the Left hating the Right enough to condone repression. The newspaper maintains that the tactics are abhorrent enough to conjure up additional opposition. What the stories coming out of Israel indicate with certainty is that the opposition is growing. Force and abuse do not sway the dissidents. Young people falsely arrested remain in high spirits. They willingly sacrifice to preserve their country. I think these dissidents, loyal Jews and Israelis, set an example that puts to shame their Prime Minister. HAVING EGYPT GUARD ISRAEL'S BORDER PM Sharon's decision to turn Gaza border control completely over to Egypt, and to let hundreds of heavily armed Egyptian army troops come within striking distance of Israel's bases is as unwise as the Trojans bringing the wooden horse within their gate and as unwise as Israel's withdrawal from the buffer zone in Lebanon. It undoes the major accomplishment of the two countries' treaty, the demilitarization of the Sinai. Egypt's excuse is that it needs those forces to stop the arms smuggling. Not so. Egypt has not stopped the smuggling, despite having sufficient numbers of ordinary police there capable of doing so. (No expectation of any such effort is warranted.) MK Steinitz explains, "in spite of its presumptive peace with Israel, Egypt is in fact the Arab state most hostile to the Jewish state. Since the mid-1990s, the Egyptian military's annual joint forces exercise involves simulating a war against Israel. Egypt, which due to US military aid, boasts the most powerful army in the Arab world, is the epicenter of Arab anti-Semitic publications and incitement." "Egypt stands at the head of almost every political initiative launched against Israel in international forums. And, in hosting the continuous dialogue between Palestinian terror groups, the Egyptians have overseen the operational coordination between the PA, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad." In other words, Egypt is an active enemy. What explains Sharon's foolishness? His equally foolish decision to vacate Gaza and northern Samaria. He does not want to admit that in withdrawing Israeli forces, smuggling would escalate. Therefore, he pretends that he has gotten Egypt to stop it (IMRA, 5/28 from Caroline Glick, Jer. Post, 5/26). He acts like a captive of he State Dept. or of the Left. The Jewish organizations to which he touted his plan failed to ask him on what basis he expects Egypt would stop it now, when all his intelligence analysts tell him it could but doesn't. ANOTHER PERESISM "Peres said he was not concerned about a Hamas state in the Gaza Strip - even if it was armed with many thousands of rockets. VPM Peres asserted that the 12,000 rockets Hezbollah has in Southern Lebanon (that can carpet bomb Northern Israel) "endanger Lebanon more than Israel - what can they do with them?" (IMRA, 4/27.) Bear in mind that Iran and Syria may have put poison into some of the Hizbullah missiles. Some of their missiles may be accurate. Missiles in Gaza would be so near Israeli cities that they could not miss. What Hizbullah and Hamas could do with, say, 20,000 missiles, plus PLO, Syrian, and Iranian missiles is launch them. Israelis would have a few seconds of warning. The Muslims could carpet-bomb most cities of Israel and most military bases. The question, then, is not what the Arabs could do with the missiles but what Israel could do afterwards. For itself, not much. WHAT ABBAS REALLY THINKS OF TERRORISM The P.A. will allow several Arabs imprisoned by Israel for terrorism run for P.A. office (Op. Cit.). "Abbas has succeeded in getting President Bush's praise without actually acting against the terrorists - and while consistently taking the position that the he also will return to the terror option if and when he cannot achieve his goals via negotiations." (IMRA, 4/27.) WHAT SHARON TOLD AIPAC, in part "Until now, terrorist activities have not yet ceased. The smuggling of weapons and arms production continues, and there is no real prevention of terrorist actions. The progress towards the Roadmap can be achieved only after the terrorist organizations are dismantled." About terrorist prisoners: "Upon my return to Israel I will present for government approval the release of an additional 400. Israel has transferred the security responsibility over two cities to the control of the P.A. and is willing to reassign more. We take steps that help the economic and humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian (Arab) population. We are ready to do more." "Left unanswered was why he continues making gestures and concessions even as he says he will do so only if the PA stops terrorism." It wasn't asked, either. AIPAC delegates cheered when Sharon promised to retain settlement blocs. However, "People claim against me that I did not set which blocs, or the sizes of the blocs, and thus I wish to clarify: it is not by chance that I have not set the size of the blocs. No one knows how things will develop." "In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said nearly four months ago that disengagement from Gush Katif and northern Shomron is a welcome move - but only as a first step towards a full-fledged contiguous PLO state. Sharon is known to be almost perfectly in sync with the Bush-Rice positions on the Road Map plan and final-status negotiations, and has often said that Israeli policy would be coordinated with US policy." Then he would retain very little, for that is the State Dept. position (Arutz-7, 5/26). What is the use of Israel having elections, when the victor disregards his platform and accepts US dictation? While the US pretends to value democracy in foreign countries, it subverts one, Israel. ISRAELI INVENTION An Israeli company has come up with hi-tech clothing that adjusts to one's body heat. They are selling in the Jos. Banks stores (Ibid.). P.A. REFRAIN: "NOT ENOUGH" The P.A. "called on Israel to keep another of its promises" and release to P.A. troops more P.A. cities. Israel relinquished checkpoints at two, but the P.A. did "not kept its commitment to disarm wanted terrorists there." Israel released 400 more Arab prisoners. The P.A. said, "This one-sided step does not meet the minimum of our demands. Our priority is to release ... and political leaders like Marwan Barghouti.' Mr. Barghouti was sentenced to five life terms for conspiracy to kill Israelis." In defense of his most recent prisoner release, "Mr. Sharon said critics of the proposed pullout of Israeli settlers from Gaza who argue that it will strengthen terrorism also 'understand the need to strengthen the principal moderate element in the P.A. and honor our commitments." (Steven Erlanger, NY Times, 5/30, A4.) PM Sharon's statement is a non-sequitur. Gaza is one issue; prisoner release is another. There are two answers to his pathetic defense that's Israel must "honor our commitments" even though they lead to the murder of Israelis but unfortunately not the indictment of Sharon for criminal negligence. One already is implied by the Israeli answer to the P.A. demand that Israeli troops withdraw checkpoints at terrorist exits from more P.A. cities. This answer is that the P.A. has not met its commitment to disarm those terrorists in the cities already turned over. Since the P.A. is not taking over the suppression of terrorism, which taking over was the basis for the IDF withdrawal, then there should be no further IDF withdrawal but a reinstatement of checkpoints. Editorials should be written denouncing the P.A. for not keeping its anti-terrorism promises. Instead, Pres. Bush praises the P.A. for unnamed, always unnamed, anti-terrorism steps. The P.A. and most of the media ignore the fact that these Israeli commitments are reciprocal, but the P.A. does not reciprocate. As in any contract, if the vendor does not produce the goods, the customer need not pay. The Times in its confused but pro-Arab rendering fails to make that point clear. It does not explain the basis for the commitments. The second answer is that there is no honorable basis for the Israeli "commitments." They result from US pressure and Israeli appeasement-mindedness. They never should be made to an enemy at war with it. PM Sharon is an odd one to talk of honor, after breaking his commitments to his own people, constantly deceiving them, and evading prosecution for extensive corruption. Rather, he and Bush should be denounced as extenders of evil, since half the released terrorists resume terrorism. It does not soften the deaths of innocent Israelis at the hands of released prisoners, that Sharon claims such release strengthens a moderate element in the P.A.. How moderate is murder, and how moderate is the head of the P.A. who praises fallen murderers? The notion of some Arab terrorists being moderate is an old media/State Dept. ploy. It makes for newspaper drama and an excuse for undermining Israel. It does not jibe with reality. Reality is that the current P.A. leadership is jihadist. It should be weakened. The P.A. should be overthrown and disarmed. The Arabs should be left to languish economically, so that they cannot afford arms or to stay in the area. If Hamas did take over, at least Israel would recognize that it must wage war determinedly. The P.A. calls Barghouti a political leader, because people think that political leaders should not be targeted. They should not be exempt for war crimes - Barghouti was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. It was as a leader of a terrorist organization, Fatah, that he committed those crimes. If the P.A. were anti-terrorist now, it would not seek his release. The P.A. calls the releases "not enough" and not meeting its minimal demands. This is topsy-turvy. A terrorist entity has no right to make any demands of its victims. The P.A. brazenly demands much of what it needs to help conquer Israel. Were Israel sane and sensible, it would give nothing. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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SUPER GLUE
Posted by David Wilder, June 6, 2005. |
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Shalom. We are in the midst of Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day, the thirty-eighth anniversary of the liberation of the Holy City. Last night, here in Hebron, we had a festive prayer service at Ma'arat HaMachpela, which followed with singing, dancing and a D'var Torah - a short Torah lesson about Jerusalem. I then went home and enjoyed a small holiday meal and read a little about Jerusalem, and studied the words of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, revered dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, son of Israel's first chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook. The commander of the forces liberating the "Old City" and Temple Mount was a student at the Yeshiva, and immediately following arrival at the holy site, he sent an army jeep to bring Rabbi Kook (and a second sage, the "Nazir,") to the Wall. When journalists converged on Rabbi Kook, asking him for his reaction to the liberation, he repeated, again and again, "We have returned home, we have returned home. No force in the world will ever be able to move us from here." Yet, it is a known fact that when the Mufti of Jerusalem attempted to hand over control of the Mount to Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, he was rebuffed. Dayan refused to accept the 'keys' to Temple Mount, leaving them with the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust. (Dayan committed the same crime here in Hebron, at Ma'arat HaMachpela, the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.) And this morning, hundreds of Arabs hurled rocks at Jews and police in and around Temple Mount and the Kotel, the Western Wall. One of the favorite games people play on days like this are 'where were you when?' I remember (I was thirteen at the time) reports of impending war in Israel, and then, one morning, when we turned on the radio during breakfast, we heard the news that war had broken out. To this day I can clearly hear my father's reaction reverberating in my ears, (and he was not one to swear), "Oh sh..." Later that day, or the next day, we attended a special service at our synagogue, praying for Israel's survival. Then, not too long after that, I think it was early evening - I was already in bed, and there were whoops of joy from downstairs - Israel had liberated Jerusalem! And then, all of a sudden, the war was over, in six days, a total Israeli victory over millions of Arabs who had sworn to 'throw the Jews into the sea.' Wow! Israel was in a state of euphoria - seventh heaven. There was a tremendous sense of accomplishment, of unity, and of miracle. Mission impossible had become reality. Unfortunately though, with only few exceptions, it has been downhill ever since. The almost irrational urge to withdraw from the 'occupied territories' (see: http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=2343) which began simultaneously with their liberation, is on the verge of becoming reality. One of the results of the Six Day War and the liberation of Judea, Samaria and Gaza was the emergence of a new socio-political force, today commonly known as the 'nationalist religious Zionist camp. Religious Zionism, i.e. a religious Jewish approach to returning to Eretz Yisrael, had already existed for hundreds of years, beginning perhaps during the age of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu, in the eighteenth century. Yet the driving force behind resettling the land of Israel, the push to transform the liberation from a dream-like ecstasy into an on-the-ground reality, was led by the students of the two Rabbis Kook, whose Torah teachings focused on the significance of Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people. These were the people who stood in the forefront, guiding the way, beginning in Hebron, and spreading out to all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Late last week, a journalist asked me my opinion of a question evolving amongst contemporary Jewish 'thinkers,' linking the planned expulsion from and abandonment of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron, known as 'disengagement,' to the future of this 'nationalist religious Zionist ' entity. He directed me to an article appearing in the Spring edition of Azure by Yossi Klein HaLevi called 'Unsettling' [http://www.azure.org.il/magazine/magazine.asp?id=248]. The fundamental issue raised by HaLevi can be summed up in the following paragraphs: "Much has been written about the possibility of violence that might accompany the withdrawal; no less troubling, however, is the possibility that the disengagement will alienate significant elements of religious Zionism from the Israeli mainstream and from Zionist ideology. One increasingly common critique voiced among religious Zionists is that secular Zionism has ended its mission; some even question religious Zionism's historic decision to enter into a partnership with secular Zionism? Those voices strengthen isolationist trends evident in recent decades within a part of the religious Zionist camp? Little thought has been directed toward the question of how religious Zionism will find a place in Israeli society if and when the greenhouses of Gush Katif are abandoned. The author then attempts to show why nationalist religious Zionists should not view the planned expulsion/abandonment as a total collapse of all that they believe in. All well and good, except that HaLevi misses the main point, that being the fact that Sharon's 'disengagement' is not the end of the game, rather it's only the beginning. How so? First, the Israeli retreat is unilateral. It's not incorporated into any 'peace plan' or treaty. Israel is effectively throwing in the towel. The enemy has won. This fact is backed up by today's news: "The Bush administration is showing signs of easing its hard-line approach toward Hamas, in response to the militant group's rising political clout in the Palestinian territories and appeals for flexibility from European allies, officials and diplomats said. The White House acceded to Hamas running candidates in Palestinian elections, even though it has refused to disarm and Washington lists it as a major terrorist organization. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/584613.html] If Israel is willing to flee from its own land, thereby endangering its civilian population in all major cities, (as the former Chief of Staff, General Moshe Ya'alon stated upon his forced retirement from the military) why shouldn't the U.S recognize and deal with Hamas? The United States didn't recognize the PLO until Israel initiated talks with them. The same thing is occurring again. Ya'alon warned, 'we'll either have to give them more, or go back and fight the terror ourselves.' It seems that Sharon has already made his choice. Second: Only a couple of days ago the Sharon administration's chief hatchet man, Dov Weissglass, (who will probably be remembered in Jewish history together with Josephus), stated in no uncertain terms: Following the 'disengagement' we will 'clean up' all the 'illegal hilltop communities.' Again, we are talking about evicting hundreds, if not more, families, from their homes and their land. Third: The best kept non-secret in Jerusalem is that this summer's planned events are 'Disengagement: Phase One.' Everyone knows that after Phase One is Phase Two and then Phase Three. It is openly talked about. Sharon's hatchet man number two, Ehud Olmert, publicly, privately, (and proudly), speaks of the next, inevitable 'disengagement.' Fourth: I have written previously, and will not elaborate now, that Shimon Peres' original goal in advocating Oslo was to break the back of the Nationalist Religious Zionist entity, which he views as a threat to his dream of a secular Switzrael, which is populated by, among others, Jews. In short, Yossi Klein HaLevi's premise that nationalist religious Zionists are the 'glue' of State of Israelis, and that the State still needs us, is predicated on the assumption that the so-called Israeli leadership really wants us. However, the points enumerated above prove the opposite: If Oslo was a spanking, now they are getting out the whip. Rather than attempting to placate the victims of the planned expulsion, the administration plans to continue full speed ahead, rampantly running down everyone in their path. So much for HaLevi's final words: "Meeting those challenges requires the best efforts of our most committed people; religious Zionism has a crucial role to play." Clearly, we are not wanted. The glue of Am Yisrael is not any individual or group. The glue of our heritage is a collective: our people, our land, our Torah. Today- Jerusalem Day, Tomorrow, Hebron Day - these two place, these two days, represent, perhaps more than anything else, the essential elements of our existence. Hebron and Jerusalem - the super glue of our being. The super glue that ties together Morag and Kiryat Shmona, the super glue that binds secular and religious, the super glue that links Jews from New York and Yemin. An eternal lifeline of our past, present and future, which can not, and will not, ever be broken. With blessings from Hebron. David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com |
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"US BLAMED FOR 9/11 KORAN DAMAGE; DANIEL PEARL'S FATHER:
ANTI-ZIONISM IS RACISM
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 6, 2005. |
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1. "U.S. Blamed For Koran Harm In 9/11 WTC Collapse," by Scott Ott, in www.Scrappleface.com. KABUL -- Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan rioted today in response to new reports that copies of the Koran were desecrated when two American buildings collapsed after being struck by American airplanes in September of 2001. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed that fragments of the burned and soiled Korans were discovered in the ruins of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. A spokesman for the ACLU said the Bush administration did little to prevent the damage to the Islamic holy books, that apparently belonged to Muslims who worked in the office towers until their "unjustified termination" during the morning of September 11, 2001. "This is just another example of U.S. insensitivity to cultural diversity," said the unnamed ACLU spokesman. "To add insult to injury, anonymous sources say that some of the Koran fragments may have been unceremoniously dumped in a landfill." 2. "The father of Daniel Pearl speaks out: Condemn Anti-Zionism As Racism," in the Jewish Week of New York (www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=4194). Judea Pearl is a professor of computer science at UCLA and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, named after his son. He is co-editor of "I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl" (Jewish Lights, 2004), winner of the National Jewish Book Award. In the past two months I have visited four "troubled" campuses - Duke, York (Canada), Columbia and the University of California Irvine - where tensions between Jewish and anti-Zionist students and professors have attracted national media attention. In these visits I have spoken to students, faculty and administrators, and I have obtained a fairly gloomy picture of the situation on those and other campuses. First, Jewish students have been subjected in the past few years to an unprecedented assault on their identity as Jews. And we, the Jewish faculty on campus, have let down those students. We have failed to equip them with effective tools to fight back this assault. I would like to propose a remedy. Many condemn anti-Zionism for being a flimsy cover for anti-Semitism. I disagree. The order is wrong. I condemn anti-Semitism for being an instrument for a worse form of racism: anti-Zionism. In other words, I submit that anti-Zionism is a form of racism more dangerous than classical anti-Semitism. Labeling and fighting anti-Zionism as racism is precisely the weapon that our students need for survival on campus. Anti-Zionism earns its racist character from denying the Jewish people what it grants to other collectives (e.g. Spanish, Palestinians): namely, the right to nationhood and self-determination. Are Jews a nation? A collective is entitled to nationhood when its members identify with a common history and wish to share a common destiny. Palestinians have earned nationhood status by virtue of thinking like a nation, not by residing where their ancestors did (many of them are only three or four generations in Palestine). Jews, likewise, are bonded by nationhood (i.e., common history and destiny) more than they are bonded by religion. The appeal to Jewish nationhood is necessary when we consider Israel's insistence on remaining a "Jewish state." By "Jewish state," Israelis mean of course "national-Jewish state," not "religious-Jewish state," since theocratic states (like Pakistan and Iran) are incompatible with modern standards of democracy and pluralism. Anti-Zionist racists use this anti-theocracy argument again and again to de-legitimize Israel, and I have found our students unable to defend their position with conventional ideology that views Jewishness as a religion. Jewishness is more than just a religion. It is an intricate and intertwined mixture of ancestry, religion, history, country, culture, tradition, attitude, nationhood and ethnicity, and we need not apologize for not fitting neatly into the standard molds of textbook taxonomies - we did not choose our painful history. As a form of racism, anti-Zionism is worse that anti-Semitism. It targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely the people of Israel, who rely on the sovereignty of Israel for physical safety, national identity and personal dignity. To put it more bluntly, anti-Zionism condemns 5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal statelessness, traumatized by historical images of persecution and genocide. Anti-Zionism also attacks the pivotal component of our identity, the glue that bonds us together - our nationhood and the right for self-determination. And while people of conscience reject anti-Semitism, anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance in Europe and on some U.S. campuses. Moreover, anti-Zionism disguises itself in the cloak of political debate, exempt from sensitivities and rules of civility that govern interreligious discourse. Religion is ferociously protected in our society; political views are not. So in the name of "open political debate," administrators would not think twice about inviting MIT linguist Noam Chomsky to speak on campus, though his anti-Zionist utterances offend the fabric of my Jewish identity deeper than any of the ugly religious insults currently shocking the media. He should be labeled for what he is: a racist. Strategically, while accusations of anti-Semitism are worn out and have lost their punch, charging someone with racism makes people think why anyone would deny people the right of self-determination in a sliver of land in the birthplace of their history. It shifts the frame of discourse from debating Israel's policies to the root cause of the conflict - denying Israelis their basic rights. Charges of "racism" highlight the inherent asymmetry between the Zionist and anti-Zionist positions. The former grants both Israelis and Palestinians the right for statehood; the latter denies that right to only one side. This asymmetry is the most effective weapon our students should use in campus debates, for it puts them back on the high moral grounds of "fair and balanced" and forces their opponents to defend an ideology of one-sidedness. For example, I have found it effective when confronting an anti-Zionist speaker to ask: "Are you willing to go on record and state that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a conflict between two legitimate national movements"? Western audiences adore even-handedness and abhor bias. The question above forces the racist to defend his uneven treatment of the two sides. America prides itself on academic freedom, and academic freedom entails freedom to teach hatred and racism - we graciously accept this fact of life. However, academic freedom also entails the freedom of students to expose racism, be it white supremacy, women inferiority, Islamophobia or Zionophobia, wherever it is spotted. Not to censor, but to expose - racists stew in their own words. In summary, I believe the formula "Anti-Zionism = Racism" should give Jewish students the courage to both defend their identity and expose those who abuse it. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. |
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HAMAS "HONOR KILLING" OF VUSRA AL-AZZAMI CALLED "A MISTAKE"
Posted by Dr. Reuven Erlich, June 5, 2005. |
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Yusra al-Azzami of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, was killed by members of Hamas' "morality police." Her murder shows that as a radical Islamic movement, Hamas does not hesitate to take the law into its own hands and that the Palestinian Authority is too weak to enforce its authority. It also demonstrates the power of family-tribal customs in Palestinian society. On April 8, 2005, Yusra al-Azzami (a young female university student from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip) was brutally murdered by Hamas members, who suspected her of "immoral behavior." The murder occurred while she, accompanied by her fiancé, her sister and her sister's fiancé, were on their way to make preparations for Yusra's wedding. The crime was committed by the Hamas Anti-Corruption Group, a kind of "morality police" operating within the organization.[1] 1. Hamas has denied the existence of such a group. Palestinian Press news agency coverage of the event [2] 2. An independent Palestinian news agency founded in 2004 and registered with the Palestinian Ministry of Information in January 2005.
3. Sulha in Arabic: reconciliation, settlement, forgiveness
First reactions: Holding Hamas responsible, and Hamas' response
The end of the affair: Sulha (reconciliation) between the families of the dead woman and the families of the Hamas murderers
The importance of the incident and the public outcry it prompted
Appendix A Criticism of Hamas, whose activists murdered a young Palestinian woman suspected of "immoral behavior" Source: MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute, www.memri.org.il, Hebrew. The text was translated into English by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Palestinian media covered the murder of a young Palestinian woman who was killed after she and her sister had spent time on the beach with their fiancés. Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions members suspected the woman of "immoral behavior" and shot her to death. Columnists in the Palestinian press were harshly critical of Hamas for having tried to impose [their brand of] religion on all of Palestinian society. They also did not spare their criticism of the Palestinian Authority's security apparatuses or of Abu Mazen for not having succeeded in providing PA residents with personal safety. 4. The terrorist-operative wing of Hamas. PA officials: the murder was the outcome of chaos in security A PA Ministry of the Interior spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khawssah, said that recent murders are evidence of the wrong use of arms. "Some Palestinians carry weapons in the name of the resistance but use them for evil purposes. Two of the murderers were caught and admitted that they belonged to the Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions and that in committing the murder they were carrying out the orders of their superiors. An investigation showed that they were members of a wing of Hamas which had been set up to monitor morality." [1] Only two weeks after the murder did the Palestinian Ministry of Women's Affairs condemn it and demand that the criminals be brought to justice. "[The murder] is part of the chaos in security which has [already] been manifested by a number of murders, particularly against woman who are killed in the name of family honor." [2] Hamas shrugs off the accusation of murder and denies the existence of "religion police" Immediately following the murder Hamas announced that although the crime, which should be condemned, was in fact committed by individuals identified with Hamas, they did not receive orders [to kill]. The organization's media spokesman in Gaza, Mushir al-Masri, said that "Hamas was not involved at all in the murder of Yusra al-Azzami, a member of Hamas' Islamic Bloc at the Islamic University in Gaza. If the organization did have groups which supervised morality, as the suspects reported, we would make the knowledge public and they would operate openly and not in secret." [3] As a result of the criticism of Hamas, an agreement was reached with the family of the victim regarding the appointment of a committee of Islamic law arbitrators which would be composed of the mufti of Gaza, lawyers and additional public figures. The committee would determine what the motives for the murder were and would decide what steps should be taken against the culprits. [4] A few days later the committee announced its conclusions, which were that Hamas had not dispatched the murderers but that they had acted on their own initiative and that "the murder was a mistake." The Committee ruled that the murderers would pay the victim's family money as a way of making restitution. A sulha [reconciliation] was arranged according to tribal customs and a member of the woman's family announced that they had no further claim against the families of the murderers. [5] This murder comes after Hamas operatives killed a Palestinian who was suspected of collaborating with Israel, and having admitted they had made a mistake, were forced to make restitution to the family. Such events erode the Hamas' image as an organization which has emblazoned on its flag that "shedding blood in the Palestinian arena is taboo." 'Ali Ibrahim, a columnist for the daily London newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, sees a connection between the two incidents: "Hamas did very well to condemn those armed men and to describe their action as ;thoughtless.' There is [already] a Hamas precedent in apologizing and paying reparations to the family of a Palestinian whom armed members of the movement murdered by mistake... Many Palestinians complain about the killings and the security anarchy, and about the control of the [Palestinian] street by armed gunmen, and the situation calls for a stronger stand and braver [PA] action..." [6] Complaints that the Palestinian Authority does not provide its civilians with security Muhammad Yaghi, a columnist for the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayam, finds Hamas' apology unacceptable because the man in the murdered woman's company was her fiancé and that they had planned to marry the following week. "And what if they hadn't been engaged? Would Hamas then have claimed the right to do what it did and if so, who gave them the right?" "About a month ago, two women were murdered, one in Bethlehem and one in Tulkarm, both in the name of family honor. It was the killers who sullied their honor. According to reporters, the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatuses did not wake up and capture and punish the culprits. Must we fear for our lives or acquire weapons to protect ourselves from those who want to impose their ideas and way of life onto us by force?" Yaghi criticized the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen as well: "Are we to ignore the existence of a 54,000-strong Palestinian security force which costs 24% of the PA's [annual] budget and whose main duty is to protect us?" On January 9, 2005, did the Palestinian people not elect a president who waved the flag of security and tranquility?... If the executive authority is helpless, it should inform the people honestly, perhaps they will find a way to protect themselves." [7] Mouwaffaq Matar, a columnist for the PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, asked "if Palestinian society understands the significance of armed groups taking upon themselves to determine [social] limits, to reward or punish civilians under the aegis of the national authority which is a local, Arab and international address. It signals the internal destruction of the national project..." [8] 'Adli Sadek, aide to the Palestinian Foreign Minister and a columnist with Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, expressed his sorrow that "Hamas announced that it took no responsibility for the crime nor for its perpetrators... [They] must act in accordance with the law because the criminal did not perform an act of jihad... There is no avoiding acting in accordance with the law of Allah..." [9] Criticism of Hamas' attempt to impose its religious code on society Dr. Elias al-Madani, a Palestinian author and scholar, accused Hamas of trampling on the dreams of the Palestinians: "The girl's only crime was in having been born to Palestinian parents... She was murdered because she was in love and because her lovely smile had no place in the minds of her murderers, or in the logic and ideology of those who sent them out... Who put Hamas and its folk army in charge of [Palestinian] honor and authorized it to send its thugs to purify the popular Gaza beach of lovers? I don't know who gave Hamas the right to be conscience vigilantes... and to kill the throb of first love. No! You are not the keepers of our honor and not the protectors of the Palestinian conscience... By what right did your men murder an innocent girl... and carry out an act that had no bearing on the national struggle, divorced from the leaders and tradition of our people, like the religion you use to veil your ideological, religious and mental contradictions. You are not our judges and we will not let you or anyone like you cross moral boundaries and attack our people. We forbid you to be your warrior people's hangmen. "The claim that [you] guard tradition and the leaders is a disgrace worse than the crime. Go back to the sources... Where do you find justification for forbidding love?... Who said that lovers cannot meet? Who said that suspicion and doubt are sufficient causes to kill one's fellow man?... Study Arab and Muslim history. Look at what happened in Afghanistan and what is happening in Iran. Is that the way you want to enforce a religion of tolerance? For the sake of the argument, let's say some Palestinian group announces its decision to force men to shave their beards and that wearing head coverings is forbidden? What will be Hamas' position? Will we see Hamas leaders standing in line at the barber shop for a shave? The same is true of the searches at the beaches and the armed patrols, they are not for the protection of the people, they are to force them to behave in a way defined by Hamas ideology, which limits the basic freedoms God gave man. "Hamas wants to convince us that its principles are democratic and that they respect other opinions... according to the ideals of the Islamic mission. How can you convince us when your [Hamas] heart is so small it cannot bear to see a pair of lovers standing close to one another on the sands of Gaza, looking at the waves and dreaming of their future..." [10] Fears Hamas will follow the extremist path of Hezbollah and the Taliban Khaled al-Haroub, a Palestinian author residing in Britain, views the murder as a red alert, in that the act was planned by some individual or committee planning to "wage war on moral corruption," as though it were a military action. "If Hamas has such a mission it must announce its disbandment immediately and without hesitation... The danger is in the growth of a Taliban-like atmosphere, extremist in its conservatism [which may] develop and feed on an atmosphere... in which Bush's extremism meets that of the Taliban on [the basis of] one plan which keeps society from developing? No resistance [movement] has the right to blackmail the society it is supposed to protect from an external enemy. [It cannot] use force and threats to inflict a specific viewpoint [upon society]." [11] Hassan al-Batal, a columnist for the PA's daily newspaper Al-Ayam, quoted Hadi al-Alawi, an Iraqi intellectual, who said: "Every Islamic movement, including Hezbollah, will eventually become a terrorist movement when it has finished its fighting agenda." Al-Batal expressed hope that Hamas would be an exception to the rule. [12] [1] Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda (PA), April 19, 2005
Examples of surfer comments on the Internet site of the Palestinian Press news agency
Dr. Reuven Erlich is Head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (CSS) in Israel. Its website address is http://www.intelligence.org. The original version has graphics with additional material. |
Yusra Jamal al-Azzami, murdered by Hamas
| GUSH KATIF |
PICTURES OF GUSH KATIF
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, June 5, 2005. |
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Dear friends,
The biggest outrage of all is the flippant arrogance of all those in Israel who support the eviction and deportation of 8000 fellow citizens from Gush Katif, without ever having set foot in Gush Katif to see for themselves the haven that has been created there. Sitting in Israel's center, such as Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, or in the comfort of other countries, they have the audacity, chutzpa, nay, malice, to determine the fate of the most dedicated modern-time vanguards Israel has produced in recent times. I had the greatest privilege of visiting Gush Katif last month. I was honored to meet the diligent, tenacious, dedicated, ingenious and courageous people who live there. Every Israeli, every Jew, and all those who seek justice, Jewish or not, must be deeply proud and grateful for what these incredible people have created. For all of you, my readers, I posted the photos I took during my visit. You will find them in: http://www.yz.smugmug.com Just go to this website, then click on the folder titled "Politics" and you will discover the marvels of Gush Katif in photos. What you will see is the wonderful hospitable family of Nissim and Nurit in Ganei Tal where I stayed. Their children Stav and Nadav. Their unbelievable greenhouses in which they produce the best tomatoes ever, which they pack and ship to markets in Europe. Pay attention to the paradise these people created in what used to be nothing but Saharan sand dunes. You will see the prosperous communities, the lawns, flowers and the trees miraculously grown by these industrious people. You will also see the Memorial Day ceremony and exhibition in memory of those family members who were murdered by terrorist villains. Pay attention to the concrete blocks erected to protect the people from Arab snipers. There are 5 folders with total of 68 photos to flip through. I hope my photos will add a dimension to your considerations. The eviction of these excellent people must be opposed with all legitimate means. Their fate is our fate and their fall is a victory for terror. If you love Israel, if you believe in Zionism, raise your voice. Help stop the injustice. Your Truth Provider,
Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il |
The way Gush Katif was before the Jews returned to Biblical Israel
The way Gush Katif is now
| GUSH KATIF |
STYLISH CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - GOVERNMENT OFFICES SEALED SHUT
Posted by Eliezar Edwards, June 5, 2005. |
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Israel is a Johnny-Come-Lately in civil disobedience. Israelis would vote one way and then watch with mild to middling annoyance while their will was disregarded by those they'd put into office. Without local representatives, they had no way - they thought - to complain after the election was over. The only civil disobedience was the traditional Union strikes. But now the Jews of Biblical Israel and their sympathizers all over Israel have chosen civil disobedience to fight the insane plan cooked up by their Prime Minister and wholeheartedly endorsed by the Saudis, the EU and the American State Dept. And, as usual, these Jews have come up with innovative ideas. It's too bad that the Government doesn't drop this nutty idea and let the creativity of the Gush Katif Jews be put back once more into growing marvelous organic vegetables and flowers and developing new agricultural methods for the benefit of all of us. "Jews don't expel Jews," read stickers plastered over the locks, and notices posted on the doors stated, "If government offices continue to cooperate with the corrupt regime, their chapters all around the country will be paralyzed. If roads to Gush Katif are closed, so will be other roads across the country... If the residents of Israel don't wake up, the entire country will be closed down and locked up!" Dozens of locks were sealed up on doors of offices of the Interior Ministry, the Postal Authority, National Insurance, Income Tax and others. The offices are located in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Givatayim, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Herzliya, Holon, Bat Yam and elsewhere. One cell of activists was arrested - in Jerusalem - but the others completed their "mission" without encountering a single policeman. The protestors sealed the locks by squirting contact glue into them. The locks were opened by locksmiths and maintenance people who were called to the scene this morning. A statement issued by the organizers reads, "The dictatorial regime has pushed us into a corner, and is acting without restraint against all security forecasts, in an undemocratic and unethical manner." Many leading army officers and analysts say that a terrorism upswing is expected if the withdrawal from Gaza is implemented. "The bulldozers who are turning a blind eye to all the customary methods of protests," continues the statement, "leave us no choice but to take actions of this nature, until this terrible expulsion decree is canceled." On the other hand, some anti-disengagement protests are not as "innocent" as they appear. Organizers of the Bayit Leumi (National Home) protest organization say that some of the recent road-blockings, and talk of a second "Massive Road Blocking Test," are the work of provocateurs, and not genuine anti-disengagement protestors. National Home sources say that road-blockings have begun to cause animosity in the public, and that no further such events are planned until the government declares Gush Katif "closed." Official anti-disengagement protest groups say that road-blockings should be coordinated with them, so as not to allow police or GSS provocateurs to sabotage the effort. Protestors from Kfar Chabad say that the police attempted to intimidate them, filming them and writing down their names as they conducted a legal and peaceful protest. The incident occurred this past Thursday, when some 30 of them stood at the Beit Dagon junction near Tel Aviv giving out anti-expulsion literature. "A police officer came over and told us where exactly to stand," one participant said, "and soon afterwards a large group of policemen came over and told us to leave. We refused, explaining that we were standing where an officer had told us to stand, and that we were not violating any law. One of the officers then began filming each of us individually. At the same time, other policemen asked our names and wrote them down. Some of us said that we refuse to give our names when we are doing nothing wrong. We know that they are trying to scare us and to break us. |
Government workers all around the country awoke this morning to yet another anti-disengagement protest gimmick: Locks on the doors of dozens of government offices were sealed shut.
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ISRAEL, TELL AMERICA THE HARD TOUGH TRUTH
Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, June 5, 2005. |
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Watch my lips (Bush daddy style): America, your country is in danger. The G-D of Israel, who has brought His people (the Jews) home after 2,000 years, is watching your every move. Stop pushing Israel into suicidal concessions (giving away parts of its homeland to a non-existent group - the so-called Palestinians), before it's too late, and your fate is sealed. If that wasn't clear enough, listen to this. America is doomed if it continues to follow Bush's Roadmap to Hell. Consider yourselves warned! Israel has a lot of friends, Jews and non-Jews in America, and if they can't reverse Bush's anti-Israel policies, they had better think quickly of jumping ship and relocating to the bunkers in Gush Katif - Jewish Gaza, to fight Sharon's expulsion plan, before America gets it (probably from their Muslim Jihadist friends), who Bush and Co. are trying to appease by sacrificing Israel. Appeasement never works... After 2,000 years of global exile (as warned about in the Bible), G-D's reeducation program for the Jews is coming to an end. The Jewish People are being brought back to their ancient homeland (as the Prophet Ezekiel - ch.36 - predicted). There is no room in the Land of Israel for the non-existent "Palestinians," pretenders to "the throne," this generations' Amalek. Word has it, that the Bush administration has been "quietly" pressuring Sharon's government (by withholding spare military parts and reneging on military development cooperation agreements) to implement the Roadmap. If Sharon thought that by offering the Gazan Jews up for sacrifice, he would get the Americans and the world off Israel's back, it's not working. Bush's recent meeting with that Arafat clone, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, proves it. The American administration is ignoring Abbas's lack of effort to confront Hamas and Islamic Jihad, arrest the terrorists, and confiscate their weapons as agreed to in the Roadmap, while promising more money to the PA. The so-called letter from Bush that Sharon has been lying to Israel about, claiming that Bush will recognize Israeli interests in Judea and Samaria - the West Bank - settlement blocks, is a farce. The Bush Administration keeps calling for outpost expulsions, and, they continue opposing apartment block construction in places like Ma'ale Adumim (a town of about 30,000). A "settlement block" which Sharon keeps telling Israelis, that the Americans support Israel's right to keep. But who cares what Sharon wants, or Bush wants, or the EU or UN wants... What one, who has some sense in his head must consider is, what does the G-D of Israel want? And that, over the last fifty-some years, since 1948, has become abundantly clear. The time of the prophesied return of the children of Israel - the Jews - has begun. Kibbutz Galiyot - the ingathering of the exiles - is bringing Jews home from all four corners of the earth. After the miraculous victory in the 1967 Six-Day-War, (that returned Eastern Jerusalem, Hebron, and the rest of Judea, Samaria and Gaza to Israel), the Jews of the former Soviet Union woke up from their slumber and began to demand to return home to Israel. When the Soviets locked the gates of Aliyah (immigration to Israel) and refused to let the Jews leave, it took less than 20 years for their communist system to collapse, forcing them to let the Jews out. To America's credit at the time, the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Trade Act, put pressure on the Soviets to allow free emigration. The G-D of Israel has been manipulating history to bring about what He promised thousands of years ago. The redemption of the Jewish People and their return to the Holy Land (Israel) is an unstoppable divine process...the "Palestinians" won't stop it, the Europeans won't stop it, and America won't stop it. If America continues to promote the "rights" of the "Palestinians" (what the Bible calls "a non-people" - Deut. 32:21), know that you are going against the G-D of History and Jewish destiny. Beware! America is on the fast track to Hell, I couldn't say it any clearer, unless you change your government's policies toward Israel and the so-called "Peace Process". Maybe, the Arabs (the so-called Palestinians) should be repatriated to places like Egypt and Iraq, where most of them came from anyways. Maybe, they should all be wiped out in the next round of warfare, that most of Israel's security establishment is predicting will flare up after Israel carries out Sharon's disengagement plan (the expulsion of 8,000 Gazan Jews). Maybe, Israel shouldn't wait for more Jews to get killed... Just as the Soviet Union fell, so too will America, if it causes a Palestinian State to come into existence. I don't know G-D's timetable, if China will replace the US and become the next world superpower, or the Messiah will come first, but what I can tell you is that the G-D of Israel will wreck havoc with any country that opposes His purposes in history... The final redemption of the Jewish People has begun; America, join up or beware! Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko |
| GUSH KATIF |
UPSIDE-DOWN OPERATION HIGHLIGHTS SHARON'S CRAZY UPSIDE-DOWN OPERATION
Posted by Bryna Berch, June 5, 2005. |
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The Israeli government is indeed acting - as in the Yiddish expression - "pinkt verkert" - totally turned the wrong way, all screwed up, doing things exactly in the wrong way. Israel should be transporting the murderous Arabs to their Arab brothers in Arab land. They should not expel the wonderful Jews of Gaza. What will it accomplish besides making it easier for the Gaza terrorists to walk to work - their major source of income is killing Jews. And the expelled Jews will become refugees in what's left of Jewish land, after its enemies and crazy Prime Minister finish nibbling away at it.. This article comes from today's Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). The photos are courtesy of Moti Sender and Katif.net (http://www.katif.net/ro_new.php?id=8193) The "Chief Doctor" of N'vei Dekalim, Dr. Sodi Namir, performed a skin operation while hanging upside down - in protest of the "upside down policies of the government." "We are the victims of a regime of corruption and of deceit, and the world is totally upside down," Dr. Namir later explained. He performed the operation last night, on the 38th anniversary of the liberation of Gaza and the area that is now Gush Katif during the Six Day War. He explained that when the government released 400 Palestinian terrorist prisoners last week as a "gesture" to the Palestinian Authority leadership - injecting "new blood" into the terrorist ranks, security sources said - he decided he had to do something to shock the established institutions in the State of Israel. Dr. Namir, who immigrated many years ago from South Africa, is "everyone's doctor" in Gush Katif, well-known, respected and loved throughout the area. 
He first performed a practice operation on a doll while hanging upside down from a forklift in a local factory. When he saw that he was able to function for at least 20 minutes in that position, he said he was ready for the real thing - in a sterile environment and under supervision. Last night, Dr. Namir removed a growth from the back of a teenager, while alongside him were medics of the Gaza Coast Regional Council security department. In addition, a well-known skin surgeon from a famous hospital in the United States also came to encourage Dr. Namir and stood by his side. 
After the successful completion of the operation, Dr. Namir told Katif.net, which first reported on the story, "Yes, this is a totally crazy thing to do - but you should know that this is nothing compared to the even crazier things that are being done all around us. Even as the Arabs hope to murder us and do not stop terrorism for a moment, we are informed that 400 of them - who were involved in active terrorism and attempted murder and wounding of Jews in the Land of Israel - are being released from prison. At the same time, the government takes people who are loyal to the Land of Israel and places them behind bars in jail for an unlimited time." "Last week, Arab [terrorists] were allowed to take matriculation exams behind bars, while for youths who are accused of disturbing the public peace - the Attorney General negated this same right. Suspects in crimes of rape and murder are released while their trials proceed, while they leave in jail these idealistic youths and students for an unlimited time..." "This act that I just did in front of the cameras, on this day marking 38 years of the liberation of Gaza, certainly raises question marks. And this was the goal: to raise question marks, to make everyone realize that life here in Israel is insane, and that the act of uprooting Jews, destroying houses, ruining families and endangering all of southern Israel is just one large act of insanity." "I just operated on someone with my feet up, and my head down. I rid the boy's back of a dangerous growth, while standing upside down. But the Israeli authorities, who try to act as if they are standing upright, have not succeeded in stopping the terrorism that is threatening the lives of those who live here." After the operation, Dr. Namir checked the boy, released him to his home, and invited him back for a check-up later this week. |
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THE JEWISH PEOPLE ARE THE "MINERS' CANARY" OF THE WESTERN WORLD
Posted by Ruth Matar, June 5, 2005. |
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Dear Friends, The Jewish State of Israel is in great danger today, but so is the rest of the world. Islamic states, such as Saudi Arabia, are fighting a fanatic Holy War against all of us. 9/11, as well as Islamic terror attacks against European and Asian countries, might well have been avoided, if the world had only realized that Israel had already been forced to play the role of the "miners' canary". What then is meant by the expression "miners' canary"? Experienced miners do not ever enter unknown caves, without first placing a canary at the entrance. If the canary suddenly drops dead, the miners know that there are dangerous noxious fumes inside the cave, and that they will meet the same fate as the canary if they would be foolhardy enough to enter. Alas, the world refuses to realize that the Jewish victims of Peres' Oslo Accords and Sharon's refusal to protect his own citizens had already resulted in 1,600 murdered Jews. This should have been proof enough that the Jews have again played the part of the "miners' canary" for the entire world. But the world completely ignored this warning. The world foolishly felt comfortable in thinking that these Islamic terror attacks were solely against the Jewish People. They ignored the popular Islamic graffiti sprayed on walls all over the Arab world: "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people." America puts its head in the sand and ignores the fact that the "insurgents", who kill American soldiers in Iraq, are mostly Saudi Arabians and Palestinians (this according to the Washington Post and the Jerusalem Post)! Saudi Arabia, and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, together with former U.S. Secretary of State, James Baker, are the originators of the Road Map Plan. It is therefore not mentioned at all frequently that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers in the World Trade Center attack were Saudi citizens! It is not publicized at all that Saudi Arabia and other radical Islamic Arab States continue to fund Hamas and other terrorists in a big way. The greatest victory for global Jihad is the crime of the planned expulsion of close to ten thousand Jews from their homes in Biblical Samaria and Gaza, in order to appease radical Islam. Unfortunately, this has been initiated by Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, with the approval and financial support of the President of the most powerful country in the world, who shamelessly continues to profess that he wants to introduce democracy in the Middle East! IT IS SAID THAT AS IT GOES WITH THE JEWS, SO WILL IT GO WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. IF WE DO NOT STOP ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACKS NOW, WHO WILL BE THE NEXT VICTIM OF GLOBAL JIHAD? With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar P.S. Please pass this letter on to Prime Minister Sharon, FAX: 011-972-2-566-9245 and President Bush, FAX: 202-456-2461. 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 |
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BLOWING UP A SYNAGOGUE
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 5, 2005. |
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Friends, On Friday, the morning news reported that two terrorists from Islamic Jihad working out of Beit Hanina had planned a double suicide attack against the Jerusalem suburb of Ramot. They had planned to walk into a synagogue on Shabbat when it was full of worshippers and/or take a bus, or walk into the local shopping center and blow themselves up. I felt my hands begin to shake. Ramot is where I live, and Beit Hanina is a fifteen minute walk across the hills. What makes this especially horrible, is that it is happening all over the country daily since Mr. Abbas took over. There have been hundreds of attacks against Israeli civilians. And those are the ones that are successful. You won't even hear about those prevented, like the one in my neighborhood, if not for the alertness of our soldiers at the much-maligned checkpoints. The fact is, things are quiet because our fence is working and our soldiers are successful. But most of the world (Jewish community included) doesn't understand that. They think there has been a slow down in terror because the Palestinian Authority is doing something. And they think that this deserves to be rewarded, otherwise we will go back to the days when buses were blowing up everyday. We are already "back" in those days, except we have been fortunate enough to catch these people. But all our success has done is to shore up the reputation of a disreputable man and his despicable regime. Below, two web sites where you can read incident by incident the terror attacks that have been launched against our people in the last few months alone. You won't find any mention of attacks that didn't take place, like the one that nearly blew up a synagogue in my little Jerusalem suburb. A IDF terror attack list is available at http://tinyurl.com/dopn3
Every blessing, Naomi Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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JUST LIKE RIDING A BICYCLE
Posted by Batya Medad, June 5, 2005. |
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It's said that bicycle riding is one of those skills that one never really forgets. I can't vouch for it, since I haven't been on a real mobile bike (exercise ones don't count) for decades. Admittedly, fear is the reason. If skating skills have a similarly permanent position in the brain, then it is true, because towards the end of my career as a gym (sports) teacher I skated, and I skated well. The big difference for me was confidence. I felt very confident in the skates and impressed my peers and even those a decade younger with my rusty skills. Israelis raised in the 1950's and 1960's rarely had the opportunity to skate with a full pair. If there were skates in the family, they were to be shared among all the siblings, so they were used mainly as mini-scooters, one skate per person. Yesterday, listening to our community rabbi, Rabbi Elchanan Ben Nun, talk about Rabbi Kook, Yom Yerushalayim and today's problems with the politicians, We all found it very disturbing that our politicians are insisting that we're incapable of functioning as an independent country. In the early years of the state, Israelis lived very frugally and developed a modern and very technologically sophisticated country much faster than any expert would have predicted. I suddenly pictured our nation and independence as someone riding a bicycle. Bicycle riding is a complex skill, involving: strength, speed, balance and most important - confidence. Anyone who has observed people riding bicycles for the first time will tell you that, with very few exceptions, once the rider picks up speed and rides straight and well, outpaces the "trainer," he then suddenly panics, slows down and looses balance. That's where the State of Israel is today. After a great first burst of speed when we settled Jewish refugees from all over the world, developed innovative agriculture and technology, were victorious in wars, suddenly the guy in the kova tembel looked around, saw the scenery speeding by and panicked! Right now, we're wobbling, like a schizophrenic some of us are saying: "Great ride, keep it up, go faster." And others are crying: "Whoa, watch out, you're too young and inexperienced to go so quickly." "We want someone to hold us steady." Anyone with any cycling experience knows that the faster you go, the better. And the more focused you are on your destination, the safer. Here's what the experts say: "It is essential that you develop a smooth, straight form while riding. Cyclists who weave all over the road are dangerous to themselves and to others." - http://visitmt.com/virtualvisitor/biking/techniques.html Oh, yes, we need to maintain a "minimum speed." This is impossible if we're always looking back, over our shoulder to check for approval and instructions. A bicycle rider needs to take responsibility for himself. If he keeps looking around, he'll crash. If he's attached by a leash to someone off of the bike, he'll crash. This isn't water-skiing, which at best lasts for a few seconds before the skier falls into the water. The same goes for a country. Those in charge must remain independent of other countries. A leader's priority should be what's best for one's own country, not to please foreigners. Just like riding a tricycle is not the same as riding a bicycle, when a prime minister takes orders and instructions from foreign powers he is not a true leader. He endangers his country. Not everyone can ride a bicycle. Some people have an innate fear, and they have to stick to a tricycle or keep those training wheels on, but if that's the case, they have no chance to race Lance Armstrong. And if Israeli politicians keep looking for the approval of foreign powers, they must resign. I don't now how many of you remember the month leading up to the 1967 Six Days War. "The Six Day War broke out on June 5, 1967, following three weeks of tension which began on May 15, 1967 when it became known that Egypt had concentrated large-scale forces in the Sinai peninsula. Egypt's force buildup in the Sinai was accompanied by other serious steps: the United Nations Emergency Force stationed on the border between Egypt and Israel and Sharm el-Sheikh in 1957 and which had provided an actual separation between the countries was evacuated on May 19 upon the demands of the Egyptian president at the time, Gamal Abdel-Nasser." www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/ mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=5&from=history&docid=18924&Pos=18&bScope=false The offensive that took shape in Arab minds and began to emerge in May 1967 was the climax-in-deed, the grand finale-of eighteen years of hostilities against Israel on every front except the direct confrontation of the military battlefield. During those eighteen years, the various hostile acts of the Arab states broke every relevant paragraph in the Armistice Agreements of 1949, which all the states had negotiated and signed and which theoretically governed their relations with Israel. http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/beforesixdaywar.html In 1967, Israel defeated the Arab armies without any human help. No country sent soldiers to fight alongside Israel. The U.N. withdrew its peace-keeping forces. According to all the experts there was no way we should have survived, but we did. And that's the proof that we don't need anybody's approval or help. We don't need training wheels and we don't need a guiding hand on the back of the bike. We can ride our bicycle all by ourselves. We're a strong independent country. HALLELUYA!!! This is Musing #123. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il |
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MORE MONEY ISN'T THE ANSWER
Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, June 5, 2005. |
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The rising tide of violence in the country is not the result of a lack of manpower or funding in the police. It is a result of the redirection of the police away from the fight against crime and highway accidents, in favor of preparations for expelling Jews from their homes. Professors for a Strong Israel rejects the proposal to add funds and men to the police force. We demand that the police and the other security forces be returned to the missions for which they were created. It is futile to complain about lack of resources when these are being wasted on building prison camps for loyal and law-abiding citizens, and when policemen are being trained to wage war against the citizenry. Dr. Ron Breiman is Chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI). He can be reached by telephone at 050-551 8940 |
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DISENGAGEMENT OR SUICIDE?
Posted by Cinnamon Stillwell, June 5, 2005. |
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Israel appears to be committing suicide and nothing will stop them. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is plunging ahead with the Gaza Disengagement Plan, despite all the warning signs. And Israel's longtime ally the United States seems to be encouraging them over the precipice. The recent announcement that U.S. taxpayers will be sending $50 million to the "new and improved" Palestinian Authority was the final nail in the coffin. But the truth is the much-heralded disengagement plan that is supposed to bring peace and harmony to the region is likely to have the opposite effect. The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas (a Soviet disciple and an expert in Holocaust denial) has done nothing to curb terrorism or incitement in the media. After giving the initial appearance of reform, the P.A. and its terrorist affiliates simply resumed business as usual. Hence the widely publicized sermon last month on P.A. TV in which Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris likened Jews to "a virus resembling AIDS" and called for Muslims to "finish off every Jew." Then there have been the daily terrorist attacks on Israel, most of which have been thwarted by the IDF and kept quiet in the pro-Palestinian mainstream media. Let's not forget the overwhelming success of Hamas during the last election in Gaza. Despite the resurgence of Sharia law in the territories and the subsequent increase in Palestinian women murdered via honor killings, Palestinians just keep voting for the hardliners. Whether it be Fatah or Hamas that wins out in the end, Palestinian democracy is likely to result in yet another Islamic, terrorist state in the region. Yet this is the state that the Bush Administration thinks will rise to the occasion. But their eagerness to jump on the peace process bandwagon may have blinded them to the realities of the situation. In a move that disappointed many of his pro-Israel constituents, President Bush dropped his demands that the P.A. dismantle terrorist groups while meeting with Abbas last month. He didn t directly question Fatah's attempts to work with Hamas either. This from the man who once said, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them." Why the Bush Administration apparently gets it when it comes to fighting Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, but can't see the connection to Israel is baffling. Particularly since Palestinian terrorists groups have been entirely forthcoming in their hostility towards the United States. And murdering Americans is hardly the mark of an ally. Then there's the fact that members of al-Qaeda have been spotted canoodling with their Palestinian cohorts in preparation for the disengagement. Senate majority leader Bill Frist seems to have bought into the double standard as well, going so far as to suggest in a recent op-ed that the U.S. double the amount of money being sent to the corrupt Palestinian Authority. Like other deluded souls, Frist seems to think that because of the "new leadership in Ramallah... the chance for peace [is] high." He tries to explain away anti-American sentiment among the Palestinians by blaming U.S. support for Israel. This belief is popular among Islamic terrorists and their apologists, a group that Bill Frist is coming dangerously close to emulating with his statements. But ultimately it's the Sharon government that must bear the blame for this foolhardy venture. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they are determined to go ahead with the disengagement plan in the hopes that it will bring increased security to Israel. Instead, Palestinian terrorist groups have openly declared it a victory for the terrorist "resistance" and an impetus to continue their genocidal war against Israel. At this point, they're debating whether or not to fire on Jews during the expulsion. The disengagement plan will leave Israel with yet another border to guard, only this time it will be nice and close to major cities such as Tel Aviv and Ashkelon. The already tiny country will be that much smaller. All hopes rest on the security barrier, which many predict will put a damper on encroaching terrorism. Indeed it probably will, at least for a little while. The section that is already completed has demonstrated some defensive success. But the always-inventive Palestinians will simply come up with alternate methods of inflicting wounds on their enemies. The already noted increase in Kassam rocket attacks is the next front in their war to destroy Israel. In terms of public support in Israel for the disengagement plan, unsurprisingly, it has emanated mostly from the left. Always in favor of any action that involves Israeli capitulation, many have backed the plan, putting aside their other disagreements with Sharon. Those Israelis that oppose the disengagement plan have been demonized by the government and accused of "incitement" at every turn. Neither has been given the opportunity to vote on the plan and even surveys are being suppressed for fear of exposing widespread opposition. Even Druze Arab Knesset member Ayoob Kara has expressed dismay at Israel's apparent death wish. Warning that, "The withdrawal is going to be terrible for Israeli security," he is strongly opposed to the disengagement plan. If Kara, a fellow member of the Likud Party, can comprehend the folly of this move, why can't Sharon? Israel's enemies among the Western left have been unmoved by news of the disengagement plan. They continue on with their nonsensical calls for divestment from the "apartheid state" and their protests against Israel for daring to exist. A threatened academic boycott of two Israel universities by Britain's Association of University Teachers (AUT) was only called off at the last minute because of public outcry. Even the president of Al-Quds University, Sari Nusseibeh, publicly opposed the boycott, labeling the timing counter-productive. But the left remains unswayed, pressing on with its memorized script of anti-Israel rhetoric, reality notwithstanding. These are the critics to whom Sharon gives credence with his disengagement follies. The last time Jews were forcibly removed from their homes it precipitated the Holocaust. But this time instead of Nazis ousting Jews, other Jews will do the dirty work. Like some sort of sadistic punishment only anti-Semites could dream up, IDF soldiers are to expel Jewish men, women, and children to make way for Palestinian terrorists. Even the dead are not immune. Conjuring up images of Jewish grave desecration throughout history, Jewish graves will be uprooted as well. Jews determined to stay in "illegal outposts" have actually had their synagogues destroyed by IDF soldiers and their attempts to rebuild met with violence. Hitler would have been proud. It was indeed the Third Reich that came up with the term "judenrein" or "free of Jews," and no one seems to be questioning the similar logic of the disengagement plan. After all, everyone knows that "settler" is just another euphemism for Jew. Since Arabs live in Israel, why could Jews not conceivably remain in the imagined future Palestinian state? It's doubtful they'd want to live under such rule, but this is simply wrong on principle. Writer Ariel Natan Pasko was one of the first to pose this question and Israel Zwick later followed up with a parody on disengaging "Jewish settlements" from Florida. Jerusalem Post deputy managing editor Caroline Glick has also written extensively on the subject. There is absolutely no reason that the misnamed "settlements" (the largest of which, Ariel, is a city with a population of 20,000) cannot remain intact, while Palestinians set up shop nearby. Just the way people living in pluralistic societies anywhere else in the world would do it. But as always, Muslim bigotry towards Jews is accepted where with any other group the same behavior would be deemed inexcusable. At least the homes of the Jews will be destroyed, rather than simply handing them over to the triumphant terrorists. They have to demolish the homes for fear that Palestinians will do it themselves, under the watchful eyes of the international community. Yet another good sign for the new "peaceful" neighborhood. So how to explain Sharon's apparent insanity? It's the Oslo syndrome all over again. Then too Israel made sacrifices while the Palestinians made none. The corrupt, terrorist leader Arafat was treated as legitimate, just as Mahmoud Abbas is today. The world was enamored of the idea of peace in the Middle East and denied all evidence to the contrary. Just as they do today. Israel's strongest ally the United States pushed for and brokered the deal. Where once it was Bill Clinton, today it's George W. Bush. The end result of the Oslo capitulation was increased bloodshed and the growth of Islamic terrorism in the region and beyond. And there's absolutely no reason to believe that the disengagement plan will not result in the same thing. As the oft-cited George Santayana quote goes: Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. But not all Israelis are taking the disengagement lying down. Protests, rallies, and civil disobedience have taken place in Israel since the plan was announced. Orange is the color this movement has adopted and it can be seen on flags, hats, and T-shirts around the country. Jews in America have also shown their support for this resistance, with college students going on strike and prominent Jewish figures speaking out. An anti-disengagement rally will be held in New York City s Central Park on June 5 and simultaneous rallies in Tel Aviv and Washington D.C. are planned for July 19. A group of American Baptist ministers are planning a July trip to Israel to show their solidarity with the soon-to-be-ousted Jews. But the clock is ticking and the countdown to disengagement, currently slated for July 25, has already begun. Will all the outcry be enough to save Israel from itself? Only time will tell. Cinnamon Stillwell is a Bay Area-based columnist for SFGate.com and Frontpagemag.com. She can be reached at: cinnamonstillwell@yahoo.com. A version of this article with live links can be read at World Jewish News Agency (http://www.worldjewishnewsagency.org/muslim_sensitivity.htm). |
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THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT POKES OUT AN EYE
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 5, 2005. |
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The original of this article is at the Discover the Network website ( http://discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/ ism-violence-and-hooliganism-growing.html). It has links to additional material. ISM Violence and Hooliganism Growing The Moonbatocracy has turned Rachel Corrie into its pro-terror Mother Terasa and keeps chirping about how the pro-terror International Solidarity Movement that Corrie represented is little more than a group of pro-peace quietists. In fact they are cheerleaders for and collaborators with Palestinian terror. Frontpage Magazine and DTN have long been revealing the ISM hoodlums for what they are - violent leftwing neofascists, attacking Israeli soldiers and police in order to prevent Israel from erecting a fence that might keep some suicide bombers from mass murdering Jewish children. The ISM (whose name really means "I Support Murderers") wants the mass murderers to carry out their intentions, which is the only real reason that opposes Israel's security fence. The ISM operatives have openly collabored with Palestinian terrorists, hiding weapons and wanted terrorists in their offices. Only Israeli timidity can explain why they have not been locked up and kicked out. But now the ISM's efforts to create for itself a false image of pro-peace gummy bears has ended. The ISM hooligans just poked out the eye of an Israeli soldier over the weekend. Another soldier was wounded by an ISM rock. Some pacifists! The press does not reveal if the wounded soldiers were Jews or Bedouins. In the past, the ISM has taken special glee in targeting patriotic Israeli Bedouin soldiers. Meanwhile, we are curious to see if Ariel Sharon remembers what the Bible says about people who poke out eyes. 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. |
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ZIONISM A DREAM
Posted by Kaustav Chakrabarti, June 5, 2005. |
Zionism a dream Kaustav Chakrabarti has degrees in modern history and the history of the Calcutta Jewish community. He is currently a lecturer in History at F.C. College in West Bengal, India. Contact him by email at kaustav12000@yahoo.co.in |
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AFTER SEVEN YEARS, ANOTHER TORAH FOR RACHEL IMEINU
Posted by Evelyn Hayes, June 5, 2005. |
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It was on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 1998, that thousands gathered in front of the newly expanded Tomb of Rachel, to commemorate Mother Israel, promised to bring the geula. There were tears in the eyes and joy in the heart, as Jews were celebrating Mother Israel with Torah and simcha. It will be again in 2005, Thursday, July 7, when crowds again including HaRav Mayer Horowitz of Har Nof HaRav Elchanan Bin Nun of Beit Orot and many dignitaries and organizations will rally with kavod and ruach for Rachel Imeinu. It was Yirmiahi the prophet who tried to assauge the tears of Mother Rachel, crying for her children in exile. It was the rightousness of Ruth in the home of Naomi, It was the tehillim of David in the hills of Beis Lechem. It was the Religious Zionism of the Montefiores in the 19th century. It was the words in the Jewish diaries at Kever Rachel pleading for parnasa, health, bashert, children, life, liberty in the 20th century. It was the promise that Klal Rachel and Klal Yisrael would return to their borders and know the geulah. It is seven years since the grand Hachnassat Sefer Torah on Rosh Chodesh, the birthday of Yosef, son of Rachel and coincidentally, RCRF was promised another Torah for Kever Rachel to be redeemed. This Torah, acquired through the Sefer Torah Recycling Network of Moshe Burt will be brought to Beit Bnei Rachel, the house bought by Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation adjoining Rachel's Tomb. It will be placed in a donated Aron Chodesh in Beit Bnei Rachel. The Torah is in Memory of Reuven Shlomo Caplan z"l. Magnificent Rosh Chodesh mantels are being dedicated by Vivian Singer in Memory of her father, the late esteemed Rabbi Dr. Joseph I Singer a'H and Rebbitzen Rebecca a"H, the daughter of the Rabbi Chaim Heller a'H and by Shirley Heller in Memory of her son Aaron and her mother Esther Malka. This event with a dais of dignitaries as in 1998 plus additional esteemed leaders will be detailed soon. Save the date, July 7, 2005, 5PM, Rosh Chodesh Tammuz. Contact 718-648-2610, or mail to RCRF, Post Office Box 220, Valley Stream NY 11582 to send donations, to learn of RCRF work for Kever Rachel and Beit Bnei Rachel, to tour with Evelyn this summer and to join our many sponsored shiurim planned to be held in our premises. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com. |
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OLEG CARTOON: FAMILY TIES VERSUS U.S. INTERESTS
Posted by Women in Green, June 4, 2005. |
 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 |
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ISRAEL USES SOUND TECHNOLOGY ON RIOTERS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 4, 2005. |
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This was written by Josef Federman and can be found at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050604/D8AGI3F00.html Guess who they plan on using this on next? JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli army on Friday unveiled a new crowd-dispersal device emitting painful bursts of sound at a special frequency to help break up a violent Palestinian demonstration, military officials and witnesses said. Israeli military officials confirmed soldiers used a new "nonlethal" tactic in the West Bank village of Bilin, where hundreds of demonstrators rallied against Israel's separation barrier. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under army regulations, said the weapon uses special frequencies to disperse crowds. No further details were immediately available. An Associated Press photographer said a military vehicle arrived toward the end of the demonstration, which lasted several hours and became violent at times. Located about a quarter mile from the demonstration, the vehicle emitted several bursts of sounds, about one minute in length each time. Although the sound was not loud, it caused people to cover their ears and grab their heads in discomfort. About 400 people, including Palestinians and foreign and Israeli activists, participated in the demonstration, marching toward a site where Israel is building its West Bank separation barrier. The crowd was prevented from reaching the site, and began rioting and throwing rocks at soldiers, the army said. One soldier was moderately wounded in the eye. In addition to the sound machine, soldiers used other means to disperse the crowd, including clubs and stun grenades. Israel has completed about one-third of the planned 425-mile barrier, which it says is necessary to keep out suicide bombers from the West Bank. Palestinians say the barrier is a thinly veiled land grab because it dips into the West Bank in some areas. 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. |
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SYRIAN FASCISM STRIKES AGAIN
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 3, 2005. |
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The original of this article is on the Discover the Network website (http://discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/ syrian-fascism-strikes-again.html). The Kurds are a homeless people whose plight has never interested the Axis of Evil, linking the Moonbat Left with Islamofascism. The struggle of the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq are somewhat familiar to Westerners. What is less well known is that Syria also has a large Kurdish minority. Strangely, all those people so convinced that creating a 23rd Arab state and granting "national self-determination" to Arabs called by the media "Palestinians" is the only conceivable solution to the Middle East conflict. Yet none of these same people have come out for Kurdish national self-determination!! Why not? Maybe because Kurdish self-determination would not help in destroying Israel? The Syrian Kurds in particular are harshly repressed by the Ba'athist fascists. This week the body of the head of the Kurdish movement in Syria was recovered after he had been murdered by the regime. The body of Sheik Machouk Alkhaznawi was returned to his family yesterday, three weeks after he went missing. Amnesty International, which no one suspects of being pro-America or pro-Israel, and members of the Kurdish Democratic Party said he was killed by authorities, citing evidence of torture on the body. The Assad junta claimed he had been killed by a mysterious criminal gang. A few days before his disappearance, the Canadian Globe and Mail correspondent Paul Koring interviewed Mr. Alkhaznawi in Damascus, for a story about Syria's newly emboldened political dissidents. "Either the regime will change, or the regime must go," he said in the interview. That sealed his fate. The 46-year-old Kurdish cleric was a champion of tolerance, respect between Arabs and Kurds, and the compatibility of democracy and Islam, before he disappeared last month. He came from the remote Syrian city of Qameshli, in the heart of what 20 million Kurds call Kurdistan. The Ba'athists also continue to murder people in Lebanon, despite the "withdrawal" of Syria troops from Lebanon, a withdrawal that left behind a large intelligence infrastructure and Syria-controlled terrorist groups. The NY Sun reports this week, "The Syrian dictatorship is tottering and weak. President Bush has decided that Bashar al-Assad will be gone and that the route to Iran is through Syria." Reuters and the NY Times report that Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir was murdered this week via a car bomb by Syrian operatives for criticizing the Ba'athist regime. He had written: "The Baathist regime in Syria is behaving the same way it behaved in Lebanon, making mistake after mistake." "Bashar al-Assad and Emile Lahoud are behind it," a senior Lebanese opposition leader, Marwan Hamade, told the Christian Science Monitor. "The Syrian regime is responsible from head to toe for this horrific terrorist crime. Lebanon's opposition should promptly close ranks anew to have every Syrian intelligence cell left behind in Lebanon ruthlessly smashed," the general manager of An-Nahar, Gebran Tueini, told reporters at the scene. Meanwhile, the NY Times reports this week that Syria test-fired three Scud missiles last Friday, including one that broke up over Turkish territory and showered missile parts down onto unsuspecting Turkish farmers. All the missiles were launched from northern Syria, near Minakh, north of Aleppo, Israeli officials said. One was sent about 250 miles to southernmost Syria, near the Jordanian border. The one that broke up was fired southwest toward the Mediterranean, over the Turkish province of Hatay, the ancient Antioch, and shed debris over two villages there. The Israelis said they had film of the launching and breakup. The test was the first time Syria had fired a missile over another country - a member of NATO and possible upcoming member of the EU, no less! - when Damascus could easily have moved its mobile launchers to the center of the country to avoid flight over Turkey altogether. The Moonbat Left continues its jihad in support of the Syrian regime and against Amrerican "warmongering" against Syrian fascism. We expect Counterpunch soon to launch its "Take a Ba'athist to Lunch" program. It is time for President Bush to teach the Ba'athists the game of "dominoes!" 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. |
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AMNESTY INTL. REPORTS; BUSH THE BIASED BROKER; ANOTHER PERESISM
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 3, 2005. |
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AMNESTY INTL. (A.I.) ANNUAL REPORT
Previous A.I. reports focused on defaming Israel and excusing terrorism against it. The current one continues that libel but adds extensive criticism of P.A. repression of human rights. A.I. continues its unfair and unreliable methodology of citing unverifiable Arab "eye-witnesses (without acknowledging that Arab ideology encourages deceit). The report repeats without independent research P.A. propaganda claims that Israeli forces were responsible for more than 700 civilian Arab deaths. It devoted too few resources to know whether some of what the P.A. calls civilians were combatants. (Such mis-identification by the P.A. is common, not that A.I. admits it. Thus A.I. is as sensationalist as any yellow journal. Being the aggressors, the Arabs are responsible for the Arab deaths as well as the Israeli deaths.) In one section, A.I. accuses Israel of violating the human rights of Arab children by killing them. In another section, it reports that terrorists dispatch children on suicide and other dangerous mission. In that case, it is the Arabs who are responsible for their deaths and not Israel. This is one of the ways in which A.I. is unfair to Israel. A major defect in A.I. methodology is equating the terrorist aggressors with the innocent defenders (when not taking the side of the Arab aggressors). As if it were a violation of human rights and attributable to Israel, A.I. repeats without supportive documentation that the western Palestinian Arabs are victims of lack of proper education and medical care, poverty, and unemployment. No mention is made of P.A. corruption, terrorism, and other causes. Arab responsibility for their misery is ignored. That is another unfair bias. It is one of the indicators that A.I. is an ideological organization rather than a humanitarian one, at least regarding the Arab-Israel conflict. If it really cared about those Arabs, it would condemn the P.A.. Following the Hamas description of its assassinated leader, Sheikh Yamin, A.I. calls him "paralyzed and wheelchair-bound." It fails to mention his planning the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians. (Depicting him sympathetically, A.I. must not object to his major war crimes but to Israel's liquidating him to prevent more war crimes. Justice is not the goal of A.I.. What is?) "In the place of credible and verifiable reporting on real human rights issues, Amnesty's annual report highlights the abuse of terms such as 'war crimes', 'violations of international law', 'excessive use of force', and 'crimes against humanity' (on the part of Israel, whereas the Arabs are guilty of such things). In the absence of clear and consistent criteria by which to measure and apply such terminology, it loses all normative and legal significance. As result, there is no basis for Amnesty's charge that the IDF killed many Palestinians "in deliberate as well as reckless shooting, shelling and bombardment of densely populated residential areas or as a result of excessive use of force.'" (IMRA, 5/25.) Israeli restraint risked soldiers' lives, and this is the thanks it gets for it. The lesson for Israel is to get on with the war, win it, and stop worrying but do some sensible planning about world public opinion, too biased to win over by appeasement. People do respect self-confidence. A.I. used to exempt terrorism from its classification as a war crime because the terrorists were not authorized by a sovereign government. What a flimsy rationalization that was. It insulted our intelligence and revealed A.I.'s bias. BRITISH BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES RESCINDED The Association of University Teachers in Britain revoked its boycott of three Israeli universities (IMRA, 5/26). BUSH THE BIASED BROKER Pres. Bush greeted Abbas with major changes in official US policy toward Israel and the P.A.. He welcomed the "democratically elected" leader of the "Palestinian people." He crooned that Abbas is "rejecting violence and working for democratic reform." (The election was rigged. There is no such "people." Abbas praises the violent and keeps governance in the hands of jihadists. Since democracy includes not only elections but protection of minority rights, and the Muslims do not recognize minority rights, the P.A. cannot be democratic. One would expect such an avowed Christian as George Bush to object to Muslim persecution of Christians there, in Iraq, Egypt, and China.) Bush said Israel would be better off by a peaceful Arab state in the Territories. (How peaceful? It agitates for violence and arms for war.) "Palestinians voted against violence, and for sovereignty, because only the defeat of violence will lead to sovereignty." (How naïve! Their choice was among terrorists, who laud violence, except that Abbas tries to tamp it down temporarily, when doing so would reap political gains that fighting cannot. Their drive for sovereignty is part of their war on Israel.) "We will stand with you, Mr. President, as you combat corruption, reform the Palestinian security services and your justice system, and revive your economy." (Bush makes tall assertions but is short of evidence. There is no evidence that Abbas, a chief beneficiary of P.A. corruption, is ending it. He is not making the P.A. security forces anti-terrorist. Rather, he is building it beyond its legally permitted size by filling it with the very terrorists he is obliged to neutralize. His effect on the justice system so far has been to expedite the execution of anti-terrorist Arabs who advised Israel about terrorist attacks! As for the economy, it is to revive by taking foreign aid and stealing the fruits of Jewish industriousness in Gaza. The economy would support war preparation, just as does US aid to Egypt. This is where the US is, itself, an evil empire.) (In front of his White House guest, a leading terrorist,) Bush urged other countries to refuse to harbor terrorists. (Abbas harbors terrorists in the cities that Israel relinquished to his control.) The US President advises Israel to plan the route of the security fence so as not to affect adversely Arabs "not engaged in terrorist activities." (P.A. society collectively supports and approves of terrorism. Who knows which Arab is not assisting terrorism at the time? The Arabs have to be dealt with collectively in their jihadist assault on Israel's existence.) "Israel must continue to take steps toward a peaceful future, and work with the Palestinian (P.A.) leadership to improve the daily lives of Palestinians (Arabs), especially their humanitarian situation. Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes road map obligations or prejudices final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem." (Israel has offered to improve the Arab economy, but the P.A. rejected plans requiring joint cooperation, because it rejects the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Bush is blind to that. Nor should Israel improve the Arabs' lives any more. What does Israel owe its people's murderers? Rather, Israel should cease economic assistance, so that those Islamists move out. If Israel were self-respecting and self-preserving, it would void the Road Map on the grounds that: (1) It is destructive of Israel and both a brazen imposition by foreigner leaders and a betrayal by its own; and (2) Arab violations nullify it. By leaving the fate of Jerusalem and the Territories up to final status negotiations, the Oslo Accords give the P.A., a jihadist entity still at war with Israel, a veto power over Israel's superior territorial claims and security. The Arabs never fulfilled any commitments under those Accords. Therefore, Israel should nullify Oslo, too.) Instead of referring to the 1967 armistice lines, Bush declares, "changes to the 1949 Armistice lines must be mutually agreed to." This implies that Israel's annexations of the Old City and territory around the New City of Jerusalem and of the Golan are not binding. You realize that the Arabs will not agree to any significant retention by Israel of strategic depth, secure borders, and vital water aquifers. Over that, alone, Israel should declare Bush a biased broker, disqualified from further negotiations. Note that this Bush policy puts the lie to Sharon's contention that his planned partial abandonment permanently will gain for Israel significant territory.) Bush explains, a "viable two-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank, and a state of scattered territories will not work. There must also be meaningful linkages between the West Bank and Gaza." (Two states are not a solution but a ratcheting up of the problem of Arab imperialism. Yes, if the territories of the Arabs were scattered, the proposed Arab state would not be viable. But if Israel relinquishes its historical and sacred areas, secure borders, strategic depth, and water supply, neither would Israel be viable. If Israel would further be split by a corridor between Gaza and Judea-Samaria, it would be further weakened. The kind of territorial contiguity Bush envisions for the P.A. is excessive territorial concessions to it and would deny territorial contiguity between the present state of Israel and the unsettled areas that otherwise would link it to towns in Judea-Samaria and perhaps Gaza.) "Leaders from around the world have made a moral commitment: We will not stand by as another generation in the Holy Land grows up in an atmosphere of violence and hopelessness." (The Quartet comprises Russia, the UNO, the EU and the State Dept. and our oilman President. Such leaders more likely made an immoral commitment, driven as they are by antisemitism and appeasement. Bush wants Arab violence to end? Then let him denounce Abbas for continuing in the official P.A. media, the P.A. mosques, and the P.A. schools incitement to violence, for lauding slain terrorists as martyrs, for arming other terrorists, and for urging the destruction of America?) IMRA notes the absence in Bush's speech of any demand to forbid a terrorist party, Hamas, from running in the next P.A. election. IMRA also finds "Implicit acceptance of the PA position that the 'punishment' for murdering Israelis is a day job in the PA security forces." Pres. Bush's fawning over that murderer Abbas is disgusting! It disgraces the US. Privately, however, Bush reputedly criticized Abbas, apparently for not living up to his public role. This indicates that Bush is lying to the public and knows that Abbas is continuing terrorism and not making peace. But my fellow Jews perceive Bush as a great friend of their people. Abbas' speech was like a mirror, reflecting Bush's false flattery of Abbas back as false flattery of Bush and confirming Bush's false paeans about P.A. reform. It referred to his people as peace-loving. (Polls show his people favor overthrowing Israel, by war or diplomacy, whichever will work. He spends a quarter of P.A. resources on military. His media defames the US.) Abbas emphasizes a reduction in violence. (He did not disarm the terrorists, but is arming them. Attacks are increasing again. Soon they will break out into greater warfare than ever.) He demanded that Israel remove checkpoints (but does not halt the terrorism that requires them.) He refers to the construction of a wall (fence) on "our land." (It is not the Arabs', at least, not yet.) He demands release of Arab prisoners (terrorists whose crimes make them not POWs, and anyway POWs are released after a war but the P.A. still is waging war). He talks about refugees, implying they would flood Israel (IMRA, 5/26) making the Jewish state non-viable and revealing his wish to destroy Israel, though he keeps intoning, "side-by-side" states. During the Presidential election campaign, Sen. Kerry was called appeasement-minded. Did no one see that Bush quietly promoted "land-for-peace," i.e., a Nobel prize for the illusion of peace? ANOTHER PERESISM "Peres said he was not concerned about a Hamas state in the Gaza Strip - even if it was armed with many thousands of rockets. VPM Peres asserted that the 12,000 rockets Hezbollah has in Southern Lebanon (that can carpet bomb Northern Israel) "endanger Lebanon more than Israel - what can they do with them?" (IMRA, 4/27.) Bear in mind that Iran and Syria may have put poison into some of the Hizbullah missiles. Some of their missiles may be accurate. Missiles in Gaza would be so near Israeli cities that they could not miss. What Hizbullah and Hamas could do with, say, 20,000 missiles, plus PLO, Syrian, and Iranian missiles is launch them. Israelis would have a few seconds of warning. The Muslims could carpet-bomb most cities of Israel and most military bases. The question, then, is not what the Arabs could do with the missiles but what Israel could do afterwards. For itself, not much. WHAT ABBAS REALLY THINKS OF TERRORISM The P.A. will allow several Arabs imprisoned by Israel for terrorism run for P.A. office (Op. Cit.). "Abbas has succeeded in getting President Bush's praise without actually acting against the terrorists - and while consistently taking the position that the he also will return to the terror option if and when he cannot achieve his goals via negotiations." (IMRA, 4/27.) WHAT SHARON TOLD AIPAC, in part "Until now, terrorist activities have not yet ceased. The smuggling of weapons and arms production continues, and there is no real prevention of terrorist actions. The progress towards the Roadmap can be achieved only after the terrorist organizations are dismantled." About terrorist prisoners: "Upon my return to Israel I will present for government approval the release of an additional 400. Israel has transferred the security responsibility over two cities to the control of the P.A. and is willing to reassign more. We take steps that help the economic and humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian (Arab) population. We are ready to do more." "Left unanswered was why he continues making gestures and concessions even as he says he will do so only if the PA stops terrorism." It wasn't asked, either. AIPAC delegates cheered when Sharon promised to retain settlement blocs. However, "People claim against me that I did not set which blocs, or the sizes of the blocs, and thus I wish to clarify: it is not by chance that I have not set the size of the blocs. No one knows how things will develop." "In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said nearly four months ago that disengagement from Gush Katif and northern Shomron is a welcome move - but only as a first step towards a full-fledged contiguous PLO state. Sharon is known to be almost perfectly in sync with the Bush-Rice positions on the Road Map plan and final-status negotiations, and has often said that Israeli policy would be coordinated with US policy." Then he would retain very little, for that is the State Dept. position (Arutz-7, 5/26). What is the use of Israel having elections, when the victor disregards his platform and accepts US dictation? While the US pretends to value democracy in foreign countries, it subverts one, Israel. ISRAELI INVENTION An Israeli company has come up with hi-tech clothing that adjusts to one's body heat. They are selling in the Jos. Banks stores (Ibid.). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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THE FIRST TIME I VISITED THE KOTEL
Posted by Rachel Kapen, June 3, 2005. |
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Shalom and Yom Yerushalayim Same'ach! In honor of Yom Yerushalayim here is a short related article which I would like to share. The first time I visited the Kotel was in the summer of 1946. We exchanged apartments with a Jerusalemite family who lived in Rehov HaHabashim-Street of the Ethiopians, now renamed Ethiopia Street. Diagonally across the street stood was the famous Ethiopean Church which will feature in the movie: Exodus, but of course I didn't know it then. The reason for that exchange was that the Jerusalem family wanted our Tel Aviv blue sea, while my parents wanted for us the pure, fresh mountains air with which Jerusalem is so blessed. With my older sister Shula and our mother, we used to take the bus to Har Hatzofim- Mount Scopus- where in a small pine grove across the road from Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, my mother used to spread a blanket and no sooner started to feed us the tasty sandwiches, fruits and drinks she carried in a basket as she reveled in our much improved appetites which she attributed solely to the Jerusalem air. As a matter of fact we visited that same pine grove 2 years before when my sister and I joined our parents, staunch supporters of Hebrew University since it was established in 1925, in a guided tour of the university which the Friends of Hebrew University Association organized for its Tel Aviv supporters. Then as now, we couldn't resist the lure of the multitudes of pine cones which were strewn all over the ground. Toys were few then and our imagination big and these had such a promise so we carried home whole arms full of them. One day instead of taking the bus to Mount Scopus or visiting with our cousinVarda on Geula Street my mother took us to see the Kotel. It didn't look like it does today inasmuch as it was totally surrounded by Arab dwellings. After the Six Day War when the Kotel returned to us, these dwelling were demolished, their dwellers adequately compensated, and thus was created the huge area before the two sections of the Kotel. My mother asked us to write small notes as requests from G-d and she wrote one too, and we all put our notes in between the ancient stones of the Kotel.I was after first grade and always loved to write but I don't remember exactly what my request was. I only remember that I wrote in print Hebrew letters because we didn't learn script until the second grade. I didn't visit the Kotel again until 1968, a year following the miraculous victory of the Six Day War when it once again returned to us. Again I put a little note in between its ancient stones and this time I remember what I wrote, the blessing of She'hechyanu for bringing me to this day to visit the Kotel again with my family and friends. In the summer of 1973 we came from the United States to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of our eldest son, Gilead. And ever since, there can't be an Israeli trip without paying a visit to the Kotel, which aside from the great significance it holds for our people as a whole, for me personally it holds one of my most cherished childhood memories in my native Eretz-Israel. Rachel Kapen writes primarily for the Hadoar and Lamishpacha Hebrew Monthly, which are leading publications in Hebrew in the U.S.A., but she has also written on Israeli topics for English language publications. She appears as guest columnist in the Detroit Jewish News. She can be contacted by email at skapen285466mi@comcast.net |
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THE JOY OF JERUSALEM DAY
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, June 3, 2005. |
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This essay, "The Joy Of Yom Yerushalayim: Recapturing the magic moment of the first Yom Yerushalayim" is by Yossi Aron of Jerusalem. THERE is no question that for me, the original Yom Yerushalayim on Iyar 28, 1967, was one of the most significant days of my life. Only a few months earlier I had returned to Australia after two years of study at Yeshivat Kol Torah in Jerusalem. Jerusalem in those days was so much smaller than it is today. From our Bayit Vegan yeshiva building we looked out over a rocky wasteland. Today there are extensive suburbs reaching as far as Gilo, but then there was nothing to see. At night we watched the searchlights moving backwards and forwards across the hills to ensure that no fedayeen infiltrators got through. The Old City was out of bounds except for Har Zion, to which we would all make our way from time to time so as to gaze upon what was so dear to us, but that we could only see and never touch. The Kotel, less than a kilometre away, may as well have been on another planet. Then came the frightening month of May 1967 when Israelis, especially the older generation who had experienced the Holocaust two decades earlier, feared the worst could happen and the future of Israel was, to say the least, in doubt. Experience had taught that generation that when Jews were in danger there were few around the world that really cared much beyond perhaps mouthing words of support. Proposals to put together an international flotilla of ships to break the blockade by Egypt's then president Gamal Abdul Nasser seemed to be nothing but empty words. It was Evian over again! And then it happened. As our sages taught: "Yeshuat Hashem keheref ayin - the salvation from the Lord can happen in the time needed for the blink of an eyelid." Egypt's airforce lay in ruins on the tarmac. Its soldiers fled back to Suez, leaving their shoes in the sand, and even the feared Jordanian Legion had been stopped in its tracks and turned back towards its home base on the other side of the river. On Thursday, June 8, the Melbourne Herald carried the front-page photo capturing the moment on the previous day that the sound of Rabbi Shlomo Goren's shofar on the Temple Mount reverberated around the world together with the thrilling words: "Har habayit beyadenu - the Temple Mount is in our hands." For Yom Yerushalayim, which to my mind should be a religious holiday, there is no megillah to read. But each year on this day I read General Uzi Narkiss' The Liberation of Jerusalem in which he describes the events from a personal perspective. I believe there's no better way to encapsulate the atmosphere of the time - of which some so sorely need to be reminded - as the world and some of our own people criticise those events and their aftermath. In an unforgettable passage Narkiss describes what happened on that glorious day in 1967. " We made our excited way through the streets to the Mughrabi Gate, along a dim alley, turned right down a flight of steps, impatiently faced another right turn - and there it was. The Wailing Wall. On this Yom Yerushalayim, as it appears that not all we were granted in 1967 will remain ours pending the messianic advent, let us try to recapture the spirit and emotion of that magic moment in history. Judy Lash Balint is an investigative journalist and author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com |
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IS AMERICA ABANDONING THE FIGHT?
Posted by Women in Green, June 3, 2005. |
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This was written by Caroline Glick and appeared in the Jerusalem Post May 30, 2004. Contact her at caroline@jpost.com The top story in Sunday's Washington Post reported that the Bush administration is revising its counter-terrorism strategy. Whereas since the September 11 attacks the US has concentrated its efforts on physically destroying al-Qaida to prevent it from carrying out another major attack by arresting and killing its operatives and leaders, now, according to the report, the US will be widening the focus to include contending with the threat of militant Islam generally by trying to counteract it as a social and political force among Muslims worldwide. This of course would be a welcome change. After all, al-Qaida couldn't exist if it weren't for the indoctrination systems rife throughout the Arab and Islamic world that preach jihad to Muslims day in and day out. However, judging from US actions over the past several weeks, it would seem that in his second term in office, US President George W. Bush and his administration have transformed their activist policy from the first term into one best characterized by speaking loudly and carrying no stick. Indeed, an assessment of recent American moves toward Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians gives little reason to take seriously the notion that the president and his team are planning to advance the cause of fighting global jihad at all in the coming years. On Thursday the US allowed Iran to begin negotiations toward joining the World Trade Organization. This concession was made apparently as a quid pro quo in exchange for an Iranian promise to suspend uranium enrichment activities until the end of July. In so acting, the US gave an irrevocable payoff to the Iranians in exchange for a temporary and - given Iran's past penchant for breaking its commitments - suspect concession. The rationale apparently is that the US doesn't want to press the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons program until after next month's Iranian presidential elections. The frontrunner in those elections, after nearly all of the candidates were rejected by the mullahs, is former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Speaking of what awaits the world under a repeat Rafsanjani presidency last Friday Hojatolislam Gholam Hasani, a representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told worshipers at a mosque: "You need to vote for Rafsanjani. This way we will finally be able to have for ourselves the atomic bomb to fairly stand up to Israeli weapons." According to a report by Adnkronos news agency, Hasani continued, "Freedom, democracy and stupidities of this type cannot be carried over to any part, and these concepts are out of sync with the principles of Islam. Islam always spoke with the sword in the hand, and I don't see why now we should change attitudes and talk with other civilizations." Last week too, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ratcheted up US rhetoric against Iran, promising US backing for Iranian democracy activists and saying on two separate occasions that the US and the world cannot abide by a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet, by agreeing to allow the mullahs to negotiate entrance into the WTO, the fact of the matter is that the US's actions tend to dispel the credibility of her statements. THEN THERE is Saudi Arabia. On Friday, UPI reported that King Fahd was dead. If true, the delay in the official announcement is no doubt due to intrigue among the kingdom's princes vying for leadership roles in the succession process. By all accounts, the Bush administration is dealing with this intrigue by placing its support behind Crown Prince Abdullah, who has been running the kingdom since Fahd was incapacitated by a stroke in 1995. During Abdullah's visit last month at Bush's ranch in Crawford, the only issue on the table from the US side was the price of oil. Democracy, human rights and Saudi support for terror and the insurgency in Iraq were all ignored. Bush made no mention of the fact that one of the members of Abdullah's entourage was barred from entering the US because of his presence on the terror watch list, or of the fact that Saudi authorities rounded up some 40 Christians in the weeks before Abdullah's visit for the crime of practicing Christianity in a private home. In its dealings with the Saudis, the Americans apparently feel that they are between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, Saudi oil profits finance global jihad. On the other hand, with the world's largest known petroleum reserves, the Saudis exert enormous power over the global economy. If the US presses too hard on Saudi support for terrorism, they can shut down the wells and raise oil prices from their current $50 per barrel to $100 per barrel, plunging the world into a global depression. Yet according to the Set America Free Coalition - an unprecedented alliance made up of senior US security experts, labor unions and environmentalist groups - if the US wished it could, for the mere cost of $12 billion over the next four years, move rapidly to end its dependency on foreign oil by developing alternatives to fossil fuel like ethanol and methanol and subsidizing hybrid cars that run on a mix of oil and electricity. The fact that to date, the Bush administration's energy policy involves securing its access to foreign oil, building more refineries and drilling in Alaska, shows clearly that the president and his advisers have yet to decide to deal with Saudi Arabia in a serious manner. FINALLY, there is the evolving US policy toward the Palestinian Authority. From the Palestinians' perspective, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's visit to the White House last week was an unvarnished success. In expanding the responsibilities of US security coordinator to the PA General William Ward to include coordinating Israeli and Palestinian talks on the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria, the US all but said that it views Israel and the PA as equals and the US role as referee. Bush reportedly told Abbas that if he rounds up wanted terrorists, the US will force Israel to uproot all unauthorized Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria immediately after Israel throws 10,000 of its citizens out of their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria this summer. The administration is now even backing a PA initiative to bring 1,500 terrorists from Jordan - otherwise known as the Badr Brigade from the Palestine Liberation Army - into Judea and Samaria. All this the US is doing in spite of the fact that Abbas has done nothing to thwart or combat terrorists since taking office. To the contrary, rather than outlaw Hamas he has upgraded it to the status of political party. A revised US strategy toward fighting global jihad that placed in the crosshairs the regimes that indoctrinate hundreds of millions of people to believe in jihad would be a welcome policy development. And yet, from the Bush administration's actions on the ground from Teheran to Riyadh to Ramallah, it seems that rather than placing these terror regimes in the crosshairs, the president and his advisers are strengthening them. If this is the case, then Israel is in for one of the toughest periods in its history. 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 |
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BEYOND POLITICS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 3, 2005. |
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This comes from Professor Paul Eidelberg, who is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached by mail at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and by email at Constitution@usa.net Political scientists are not wrong when they define politics as a struggle for power - call it a lust for personal and partisan aggrandizement. This lust is often couched in honorific terms, be it "democracy" or "peace." Still, politics means manipulation, leading the unwary astray by misleading language and even outright mendacity. Consider the deliberate misnomer, "Disengagement," which entails, to begin with, the expulsion of 8,500 Jews from Gaza, and recall how Prime Minister Sharon reneged on his promise to abide by the May 2, 2004 Likud referendum on Disengagement, which he himself campaigned against in the January 2003 election. But let us probe a little deeper. Ponder another misnomer, "secular Zionism." Zionism cannot be secular without violating the original meaning of the term, which involves three interrelated loyalties: (1) first and foremost, loyalty to the Torah, (2) loyalty to the People of Israel, and (3) loyalty to the Land of Israel. Even though he was "secular Zionist," David Ben-Gurion, Israel's greatest prime minister, admitted that it was only the Torah that preserved the Jewish people during these past two millennia. Nevertheless, had he and his political heirs been the leaders of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago, the Jews would have become as extinct as the dodo. The secularists Zionists who founded the modern State of Israel thought they could dispense with the Torah. We see the results: political and moral decadence. Twenty-seven Likud Knesset Members, who campaigned against Disengagement in the 2003 election, voted for Disengagement the following year. By so doing they voted to abandon not only parts of the Land of Israel but also the Jews who live on this land. They betrayed the three loyalties of authentic Zionism. To be sure, some members of the Likud oppose withdrawal from Gush Katif and the expulsion of its Jewish residents. They do so, however, without realizing that this betrayal of Zionism - hence of Jewish nationalism - began with the abandonment of the Torah. Even Yoram Hazony fails to see that the internationalism or "post-Zionism" of Shimon Peres and his left-wing cohorts is rooted in the secularism of Israel's founding fathers. Indeed, their internationalism is conceptually linked to Ben-Gurion's Marxism, which Hazony obscures in his admiration of that conceptually inconsistent Labor-Zionist. In any event, "secular Zionism" is dead and is being buried by Ariel Sharon. This means that politics in Israel has no distinctively national, i.e., Jewish goal. The sole purpose of politics is power. Nevertheless, one need not be disheartened by this decay. The decay is a logical consequence of the secular, i.e., flawed founding of the State. Occurring in the midst of this decay, however, is a resurgence of Judaism. Never have there been so many Jews returning to the Torah. A veritable renascence is taking place in the study of the Halacha, revealing its unrivaled rationality and moral relevance. Scientists and mathematicians are engaged in fundamental Torah research, showing that the Torah is not only the paradigm of how man should live, but also the key to cosmology and history. Meanwhile, more and more people in Israel realize that politics is incapable of solving any of the country's basic problems. They are becoming increasingly aware of the disintegration of Israel political system. They see the impotence of Israel's Knesset, the aggrandizement of Israel's Supreme Court, the ineptitude and corruption of multi-party cabinet government. The deadly failure of Oslo and the civic turmoil of Disengagement have made this decay increasingly obvious. It matters not who is Israel's prime minister, whether it happens to be the clever Binyamin Netanyahu, the inane Ehud Barak, or a Machiavellian like Ariel Sharon: these secularists, lacking Jewish national pride, and having made a fetish of peace, can only genuflect to Washington and thereby betray the Jewish People and the Land of Israel. Israel's salvation requires a Torah-oriented statesman on the one hand, and a Judaic form of government on the other. Only when the two are conjoined will Israel transcend politics and restore the greatness of the Jewish People. 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. |
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THE REAL ENEMY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, June 3, 2005. |
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Mazuz and the entire Israeli system of unJustice and unSecruity know whom are their real enemy. It is not the Arab murderers, the Russian Nazis or even the greedy, corrupt and degenerate politicians of Israel. The real enemies of these people, as Shimon Peres has stated, are the Jews. Anyone not willing to betray our Torah, history and culture is an enemy of these people and is a target of their treacherous actions. It has been the goal of the Hertz Zionist from the beginning of their efforts to, G-D forbid, obliterate the name of Ya'acov from the world and replace it with Jack. To turn G-D's holy, unique and distinguished people into cheap, third rate imitations of European burgers and peasants. No price is too expensive to pay to accomplish this, no treason too despicable and no abomination too repulsive to carry out. Like their Arab allies, the slogan of the Judenrat is: "Slaughter the Jews!" This was written by Aaron Lerner and is called "Israel's 'Thought Police' - Wasting Police Resources." It appeared on the Independent Media Review & Analysis (IMRA) website yesterday and is archived at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25445. Dr. Lerner is Director of IMRA. Contact him by email at imra@netvision.net.il or go to http://www.imra.org.il Israel doesn't have a "thought police" to suppress public protest against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. The police spending hours interrogating people for distributing orange ribbons, stickers and informational pamphlets are regular cops who would otherwise be working on preventing or solving real crimes. By the same token, the prosecutors who now have to wade through the paperwork generated by these spurious investigations are from a special "thought prosecution" team. They are diverting their resources - as well as the resources of the Israeli court system - from the swift delivery of justice in real cases. And, unfortunately, Israel has more than enough real crime to keep the cops and the courts busy. It didn't have to be this way. From the very start Attorney General Menachem Mazuz could have issued clear guidelines as to what constitutes illegal incitement. Clear and intuitive guidelines that prohibit calls to hurt individuals or groups and leave the rest protected by the right to freedom of speech. But he didn't. Mazuz's patchwork of comments for more than a year left both police and protestors uncertain as to what citizens can do without facing the risk of being ID'd, interrogated - and possibly even prosecuted for incitement. When Menachem Mazuz was appointed attorney general he was roundly praised by his colleagues for his great intellect and skills, so it's hard to accept that he has simply been clumsy, lazy or incompetent. Unfortunately, the alternative explanation is that Mazuz has put his ideologically driven desire to suppress opposition to withdrawal above his professional obligations. 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. |
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ISLAM'S FASCISTS
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 3, 2005. |
This was forwarded to me by "Emanuel R. Baker", who wrote:
This is what the Palestinians are preaching under Abbas, who is still allowing virulent anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speeches to continue. One of the provisions of the Roadmap is for the Palestinians to stop the incitement. So much for living up to the terms of the Roadmap. Please understand that this speaker is a paid employee by the PA (using YOUR tax money). This was broadcast on PA official television. This is the official "party line" of the Palestinian Authority. Anybody who does not have the courage to this very carefully to this is simply a fool. This is what Islam has in store for us. Please watch and forward to all people that you know! http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=60227&ak=null Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
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ACTION ALERT - ABU MAZEN AND HIS THREAT OF ARMED AGGRESSION
Posted by UNITY COALITION FOR ISRAEL, June 2, 2005. |
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We urge you to send this action alert. You can change the wording, using the same theme: oppose rewarding terrorism with land in Gaza and sending $50 million taxpayer dollars with no accountability. This is an irreversible step that is incompatible with our policy against terrorism. CLICK HERE to send an URGENT ACTION ALERT to President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon, with copies to their cabinet members, leaders in the Congress and Knesset and key committees. Your message will read as follows: Dear President Bush & Prime Minister Sharon, President Bush, allow me to quote what Abu Mazen said after he met with you last week, "The climate right now is ready for political negotiations"...but he warned that "if progress towards a peace agreement is not achieved in meeting with Sharon next month, we will return to armed resistance." (PA State Information Service, May 30, 2005; www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc-new/) "Armed Resistance"? Against what? The reality is that Palestinian terrorists have been the aggressors. They have lobbed missiles into Israeli houses, blown up buses and preached terrorism in their schools and in sermons delivered in their mosques. The Islamic Jihad wants Israel destroyed. They claim the Jews have no right to any land, much less a state in the Middle East. The "terrorist cease-fire" to gain a Palestinian state is only a temporary, self-serving deception. The terrorists have committed acts of war. All such aggression must receive exactly the same response as that accorded Hirohito, Mussolini, Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. To forfeit land in Gaza and bribe the Palestinians with yet another $50 million in taxpayer dollars as a reward for their four years of unrelenting terrorism is in direct conflict with our Judeo-Christian values and the US war against terror. The formation of a palestinian state would create a new world headquarters for terror led by known terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. During this so-called time of "quiet", the terrorists continue to smuggle weapons from Egypt and attack Israeli cities and demonstrate no commitment to peace. Signed,
The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" |
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY GENERAL IS MUSLIM
Posted by American Chin High, June 2, 2005. |
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[Editor's note: Amnesty International (AI) has been quicker to condemn
democracies than theocracies for human rights abuse. But this week -
when AI's secretary general, Irene Khan, called the U.S. detention
facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the "gulag of our times." it may
have gone too far. Even some of the mainstream press are annoyed and
are searching for a reason. But few have focussed on the biography of
the relatively new Secretary General of AI].
LIBRARY AI Index: ORG 10/010/2002 24 October 2002 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL External Document AI Index: ORG 10/010/2002 (Public)
Information for Journalists Irene Khan - Biography
Taking the helm in Amnesty International as the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to guide the world's largest human rights organization, Irene brought a new perspective to the organization. As an individual, she brought experience and enthusiasm for putting people at the heart of policy. Irene took up the leadership of Amnesty International in its 40th anniversary year as the organization began a process of change and renewal to address the complex nature of contemporary human rights violations, and confronted the challenging developments in the wake of the attacks of 11 September. In her first year in office, Irene reformed AI's response to crisis situations, personally leading high level missions to Pakistan during the bombing of Afghanistan, to Israel/Occupied Territories just after the Israeli occupation of Jenin, and to Colombia before the Presidential elections in May 2003. Deeply concerned about violence against women, she called for better protection of women's human rights in meetings with President Musharraf of Pakistan, President Lahoud of Lebanon and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh. She has initiated a process of consultations with women activists to design a global campaign by Amnesty International against violence on women. Irene has been keen to draw attention to hidden human rights violations. In Australia, she drew attention to the plight of asylum seekers in detention. In Burundi, she met with victims of massacres and urged President Buyoya and other parties to the conflict to end the cycle of human rights abuse. In Bulgaria, she led a campaign to end discrimination of those suffering from mental disabilities. Interested in working directly with people to change their lives, Irene helped to found the development organization, Concern Universal, in 1977, and began her work as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists in 1979. Irene joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1980, and worked in a variety of positions at Headquarters and in field operations to promote the international protection of refugees. From 1991-95 she was Senior Executive Officer to Mrs. Sadako Ogata, then UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She was appointed as the UNHCR Chief of Mission in India in 1995, the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time, and in 1998 headed the UNHCR Centre for Research and Documentation. She led the UNHCR team in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, and was appointed Deputy Director of International Protection later that year. Irene studied law at the University of Manchester and Harvard Law School, specialising in public international law and human rights. She is the recipient of several academic awards, a Ford Foundation Fellowship, and the Pilkington "Woman of the Year" Award 2002. |
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A POWERFUL GRAPHIC: CHECK OUT "PIPELINE_OF_HATRED"
Posted by Marion D.S. Dreyfus, June 2, 2005. |
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Udi and Mal Ohana have produced a powerful graphic on anti-semitism.
Check it out.
Marion Dreyfus is a writer and travelor; she has taught English in China on the university level. She can be contacted at dreyfusmarion@hotmail.com |
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HOW TO SOLVE THE COUNTERPUNCH PROBLEM VIA THE "ONE MAGAZINE SOLUTION"!!
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 2, 2005. |
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The original article at Discover the Network website (http://discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/06/ how-to-solve-counterpunch-problem-via.html) contains live links to additional material. We have this amzing idea for how to deal with the Far-Left web magazine Counterpunch. It is called the "One-Magazine Solution". The idea is that Counterpunch and Frontpage Magazine merge and then continue to operate as a single web magazine under the hegemonic control of David Horowitz and the Frontpage people, while the Counterpunch writers and editors would be assured minority rights, except for those Counterpunchers born outside the US, like Alexander Cockburn, who would be expelled back to the countries whence they came. Now before you accuse me of ingesting the same substances as the editors of Tikkun Magazine, let me explain. The Neofascist Left, and by that I mean the extremist Left best represented by Counterpunch and "The Nation" (or - as I prefer to call it - The MoonbatNation) have in recent years been demonstrating a refreshing candor and openess when it comes to their anti-Semitism. Unlike so many others, they do not pretend that they simply oppose Zionism but-got-nothing-against-dem-Joos-as-such-mind-you. Specifically, they are entirely open about the fact that they want to see Israel destroyed. They call it the "One State Solution," also known as the Rwanda Solution, in which Israel will be enfolded into an Arab Palestinian Islamofascist Third World Kleptocratic State, encompassing all Israeli territory, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. The Jews would be assured minority status in this Arab-majority entity, and so would be treated almost as well as the Copts in Egypt or the Kurds in Iraq or the southern Sudanese are today. Now, how come Israel is the only country on the planet that these Mega-Moonbats demand be destroyed, you ask? It is very simple. Israel is the only Jewish country and the Neofascist Left hates Jews. Sometimes the Lefties pretend they want Israel destroyed because they claim it is a "discriminatory" or "immoral" country, but no one thinks they really believe that. Israel is by far the least discriminatory and immoral country in the Middle East and the state of human rights in Israel is at least a thousand times better than in the next-best state in the Middle East. In recent years, Counterpunch has run quite a few articles opposing the "Two State Solution" and endorsing the "One State Solution". The "Two-State Solution" to the Middle East conflict should in fact be more correctly termed the "Twenty Four State Solution." As envisioned in the "Road Map", under this the Arabs would add to their twenty two existing states, holding land almost twice the area of the United States, yet another state, a twenty-third Arab state to be called Palestine, the second Arab state to be erected in the territory of historic Palestine (the other one being named Jordan), and the Jews would keep their one tiny statelet with land smaller than New Jersey. That is the Bush plan. But the Neofascist Left insists that this "Road Map" solution is too generous to the Jews and too stingy to the Arabs. Their preferred solution is to turn the Levant into Rwanda and resolve the ethnic conflict the same way the Rwandans did. The last in the series of "Destroy Israel" columns in Counterpunch is run there this week, A Two-State Solution is No Solution, by Islamic Fascist Mazin Qumsiyeh. [The number of neonazis and Islamofascists has been growing in the Counterpunch Cockburn stables. ] The "one-state solution", based upon sustaining all states on earth no matter how evil but destroying Israel, was proposed in Counterpunch pages in recent times by mega-terrorist (now in prison awaiting conviction) Sami Al-Arian, Ray Hanania, Will Youmans, Michael Neumann, Simon Jones (a Counterpunch regular who insists that Jews must liberate themselves by helping to destroy Israel and create a Second Holocaust of Jews, and a collaborator with Swedish nazi Israel Shamir), Omar Barghouti (who just was reduced to tears by the British Association of University Teachers rejecting his academic pogrom against Israel), and so many others we got tired. Counting passing moonbats makes us sleepy. [A bit ironically, the Leftist Lord Haw-Haw of Israel, Uri Avnery, OPPOSED the "one-state solution" on Counterpunch pages. ] "The Nation", always trying to out-jihad Counterpunch and bypass it in the Anti-Semitism Tournament of the Left, has also long endorsed the Rwanda Solution, er - we mean - the "One-State Solution" in which Israel would be destroyed, and of course that would have nothing at all to do with the fact that Israel is the only country the Jews have on earth. The Germans called it the Final Solution. None of this of course has stopped the Columbia School of Journalism, located in that Columbia Madrassah on the Upper West Side, from turning the school's web site over to the control of "The Nation's" Uber-Moonbat editor and publisher, the Israel-hating, Castro-loving Victor Navasky in recent days. 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. |
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BUSH'S 3 LITTLE WORDS, 1 BIG BETRAYAL
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 2, 2005. |
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This was written by Hal Lindsey and appeared in World Net Daily today (www.wnd.com). Hal Lindsey is the best-selling author of 20 books, including "Late Great Planet Earth." He writes a weekly column exclusively for WorldNetDaily. The Israelis are reeling from the body blow delivered them by President Bush following his meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. In one pronouncement, Bush totally scuttled all the hard-fought, blood-bought gains Israel has made in the three wars forced upon her. All peace negotiations and concessions by Israel in the pursuit of peace with the Muslim Nations and Palestinians since 1949 have been rendered null and void. President Bush's astonishing and unexpected statement reversed long standing American policy. In his joint statement with Abbas, he declared that any final status changes in the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians must be mutually agreed to on the basis of the 1949 armistice lines. To my horror, this statement is the greatest betrayal of Israel committed by any American president in history. It nearly knocked me out of my chair when I considered the implications of Bush's statement. After considering them, I waited for a clarification. I thought, "Surely this president could not have meant what he said. It has to be a mistake." I am still waiting, slack-jawed, for a retraction that evidently isn't forthcoming. Imposing the condition of mutual agreement and setting the benchmark at the 1949 armistice lines starts the whole process at the beginning. This in effect gives all of the advantages to the Muslims without even sitting down at the bargaining table. Palestinians hold every casual word made by an American president that is to their advantage as the "Law of the Medes and Persians which changeth not." [emphasis added] It is a dead certainty that the Palestinian side isn't going to agree to a united Jerusalem with Israel. East Jerusalem was in Arab hands in 1949. A return to the 1949 armistice lines puts it in Arab hands again. The Western Wall was in Arab hands in 1949. So was the Temple Mount. Making the 1949 armistice lines the basis for mutual agreement means Israel must negotiate with the Palestinians until they agree to give up their claim to the Dome of the Rock or until Israel agrees to give up its claim to the Temple Mount and all of Biblical Jerusalem. Neither will happen. What is Bush thinking? Based on this new equation, there is nothing left for Israel to negotiate. Victory: Palestinians. Method: Terrorism. Is it possible that President Bush didn't consider the implications? President Bush gave his support to all key Palestinian demands without Abbas having to do a single thing to get it. After resetting the negotiations to the 1949 lines, Bush added salt to the cuts: A viable two-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank, and a state of scattered territories will not work. There must also be meaningful linkages between the West Bank and Gaza. This is the position of the United States today, it will be the position of the United States at the time of final status negotiations. Connecting the West Bank and Gaza effectively cuts Israel in half, making Israel a "state of scattered territories" instead. Such a border arrangement renders Israel totally indefensible. Could the president have misspoken? How could he do such a thing? Especially since it is not Israel that threatens to destroy Palestine, but the Palestinians who - along with the Muslim world - vow to destroy Israel. Everything about the Israeli-Arab conflict is unique, just as the Hebrew prophets said it would be. When it comes to Israel, the world becomes irrational. For example, it is the only instance in modern history in which ethnic cleansing is a precondition to peaceful negotiations. Israeli Foreign Service official and writer Yossi Ben-Aharond noted, "Every time an Arab or Palestinian leader arrives in the United States, his emphasis is on criticism of Israel - Israel's conquest, their arrests, demolition of houses, et al. But when an Israeli leader arrives, what does he have to say? "We offer our hand in peace, the Palestinians are suffering, we have done so much for them, we ask the administration to provide them with aid, etc. - and he barely says anything about the PA's violations, the terrorism, the incitement, etc." Only hours after President Bush gave Abbas the green light to claim most of Israel as Palestinian territory, Abbas was warning that if PA demands were not met, "despair and loss of hope will come back and a return to the old ideas" - of "armed resistance." The message, "Terrorism pays, negotiation doesn't" was delivered personally to the Palestinians and the rest of the Islamic world by George W. Bush. President Bush did all of this when he uttered those three little words, "1949 Armistice Lines." It might be time for Israel to start looking around for a new peace broker. This one appears to have taken on a new client. But there is an even graver consequence for the USA. I have believed for decades that God has protected America despite our growing sin. He has done so because the USA has been a base for world evangelism and we have supported Israel's right to exist in the land God promised them. This betrayal, if followed through, will effectively remove God's protective shield. May God help us. [Editor's Note: We thought it was important for you to see a map of the 1949 armitice lines to get a sense of some of the implications. The following is excerpted from the IN CONTEXT website (http://incontext.blogmosis.com/) essay for June 3, 2005, entitled "1949 Armistice Lines." The original article has live links to additional material.] Here is a map that shows the 1949 armistice line with Jordan, only one of several "1949 armistice lines" to which Bush could be (mis)understood to be referring. (More on that another day.) And here is a map of Jerusalem showing the de facto border with Jordan that existed from 1949 to 1967. There are actually a number of interesting maps at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs site, and a lot of informative commentary as well. But it's this map of Jerusalem today that I'd like to focus on right now. 
Notice the orange line. Notice what is not included within the 1949 armistice lines: the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, including the Western Wall; the neighborhoods of Ramot, Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze'ev, Neve Yaakov, Gilo and, of course, Har Homa; and access to Mt. Scopus, now the main campus of Hebrew University, which was left isolated in 1949, with no "continguity" to the rest of Israel. That's not to mention Ma'aleh Adumim, Kfar Etzion, Ariel and the other thriving Jewish communities outside of the area shown above (but shown at www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/Judea+and+Samaria.htm) And here's one more map to consider: Jewish communities lost in the War of Independence (www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/ Jewish+Communities+Lost+in+the+War+of+Independence.htm)... Far from being accorded a "right to return" to these villages, any Jewish presence that exists at those locations today is called an "illegal settlement" or "colony" by the same folks who proclaim the right of Arabs to "return" to Haifa and Jaffa. Regardless of President Bush's feeling that "it is unrealistic to
expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full
and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," he's now
proclaimed that any changes to those lines must be agreed to by "both
sides," and the U.S. will do nothing to "prejudice" the outcome one
way or the other. Does that mean that all of Israel's concessions,
negotiations and sacrifices since 1949 are "null and void?" Hardly.
But it does mean that the President of the United States has somehow
come to believe that the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter, Ramot
and Neve Yaakov are the palestinians' to concede.
I think/hope he's in for a rude awakening on that score. How about you?
Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com.
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| GUSH KATIF |
NATIONAL HOME MOVEMENT LEADERS ARRESTED
Posted by Manhigut Yehudit, June 2, 2005. |
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Ariel Weingruber and Shai Malka, the leaders of the National Home movement (both in their early twenties), were brought to court twice this week for extension of their arrest. Ariel and Shai represented themselves in a noteworthy manner, but it was obvious that the judges could not resist the pressure applied to them from above, and the judgments are pre-determined. In the hearing, Ariel and Shai cited previous demonstrations by the Histadrut, the taxi drivers, the university students, doctors and lifeguards in which roads were blocked, threats were made to "shut down the country," or lives were clearly endangered (the lifeguard strike). Nonetheless, the leaders of these protests were not tried for sedition. "In contrast to the above protests", they reiterated, "which revolved around economic issues, we are trying to save the very lives of all the citizens of Israel." "Civil disobedience is a practice accepted in every proper democracy. It has been performed in France, in the USA, and in Russia. It is implemented when a large part of the public is trampled and feels that all 'legitimate' means are denied them," they continued. "We are not violent people attempting to overthrow the law of the State. We are people who are concerned about the State, love it, and are attempting to protect it from an authority that is attempting to destroy it." The charge of sedition is a draconic one that remains in the Israeli penal code from the Mandatory period. Chief Justice Aharon Barak himself declared in the past that it should be repealed. According to this law a person can be sent to jail for a long sentence because he aroused in the public feelings of dissatisfaction with or contempt for the regime. To date, the sedition law has been enforced against demonstrators only once -- against the leaders of Zo Artzeinu, Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett. It appears that this law has been retained for use against lovers of the country. Ariel and Shai, welcome to the exclusive club! Go to http://www.jewishisrael.org/worth/wr65/wr65_06.htm to read: "A Letter from Jail." The letter that was sent from the Russian Compound Jail (Jerusalem) by Ariel Weingruber and Shai Malka. Tens Still Under Arrest Tens of detainees remain in jail. They include many minors who refuse to identify themselves and are continuing their struggle from behind bars. In one of the court sessions the judge asked a young girl: "What about the commandment to honor one's parents? After all, your parents are worried about you." The girl didn't want to identify herself, so she didn't explain to the judge that her father was murdered by Arabs due to the recklessness of the very system that the judge represents. She didn't explain to the judge that her father, who is clearly observing her actions from the heavens, brought her up in the path of self-sacrifice and devotion that she is displaying today, and that her widowed mother and her orphaned brothers are very proud of her. Instead, the girl simply asked the judge: Are you implying that Jews that died defending Israel didn't observe the commandment to honor one's parents?" The Establishment doesn't know what to do with this phenomenon and they are starting to apply pressure to the detainees. "We will split you up and jail you with murderers and rapists" they threatened. In such a case, explains MK Aryeh Eldad, the Trial Run operation will seem like child's play. The detainees' friends will carry out a far greater operation and the number of people arrested will be so great that it will be impossible to separate them. What's Next? As the leaders of the National Home movement explained, stage two of the struggle will begin the moment Gush Katif is closed off. Until that time spontaneous demonstrations and roadblocks will take place, to keep the struggle on the boil. The major task of the young people now is to go to work in Gush Katif. In the past, agriculture in Gush Katif was based on foreign workers, who are now leaving because of the eviction plan. Their place will be taken by the loyal youth. Everyone will benefit from this -- the residents of the Gush will receive Jewish workers and significant encouragement. The eviction forces will find themselves facing real, unexpected, numbers of reinforcements, and the youngsters will be given the opportunity to make a valuable contribution during the summer vacation. We must not wait until the Gush is sealed off. We must go there in advance and work, and the sooner the better. Victory in the Supreme Court Last Sunday five judges of the Supreme Court, headed by Aharon Barak, heard State Atorrney Mazuz's petition to overturn the ruling that Moshe Feiglin's conviction on sedition did not involve moral turpitude. Mazuz, in his usual cowardly manner, avoided appearing personally in the challenging session and sent one of his senior prosecutors to represent him. Feiglin represented himself. (All the quotations appearing here are as recalled -- the protocol of the session was edited and censored before being released, so that it is incomprehensible.): Barak: We have two problems. One is that in the present composition of the court there are some judges who have already expressed their opinion in the matter. The second is: Why address the matter now, when the period of moral turpitude ends anyway in July 2005? Prosecution: We see no problem in the composition of the court. We think there is importance in principle to the hearing, even though it is of no potential significance in Feiglin's case. Barak: Mr. Feiglin, do you wish to respond? Feiglin: First, I should like to make it clear that I do intend to be a candidate for the leadership of the Likud and of the country. However, the hearing has no practical significance and, as I shall explain later, neither does it have any significance in principle. Consequently it makes no difference what the composition of the court is. Barak: (to the prosecution): What is the real reason for the urgency of the hearing now? Prosecution: There are two reasons: The first is that we are discussing offences that represent a challenge to Israeli democracy. The second is that we see the great demonstrations that are taking place today. We should ensure that those who plan to carry out such activities should be aware that they will be charged with moral turpitude. Barak: Mr. Feiglin? Feiglin: Regarding the first argument: If there is something that is undermining the foundations of democracy, it is the body that the honorable lady (the representative of the Prosecution) represents. This is a body that is preventing a citizen who struggled against the government, was convicted, and served his sentence, from exercising the most fundamental right in a democratic regime -- the right to vote and be elected. Such a body is far more dangerous to democracy than any legal or illegal activity carried out by any citizen. Those who removed me from the Likud list of candidates for the Knesset after I had been elected, are guilty of moral turpitude against Israeli democracy. Regarding the second argument that refers to deterrence of demonstrators by the punishment of moral turpitude: Unfortunately I think that this is a real tragedy, but this is what is actually happening. If anyone thinks that the ruling of the court, to impose or not impose on me a charge of moral turpitude, will have any effect on anyone's decision whether to go and demonstrate, then he fails to understand the tremendous gap that has opened up between the public and this honorable institution... and I say this regretfully... this is simply a tragedy... Barak: We shall have an intermission of five minutes. Prosecution: I wish to request two things: that a date be fixed for continuation of the hearing; and that an injunction be issued... Feiglin: Can you explain to me what an injunction is, so that I can decide whether to agree to it or oppose it? Prosecution: Gives a long, tortuous, explanation. Feiglin: (to Barak): Regarding the request for a date for the hearing, I have no problem with this. As far as I'm concerned, you can continue the hearing now. Regarding the injunction, I'm sorry but I couldn't understand the explanation of the petitioner. Perhaps the court can explain to me what is involved? Barak: There's no need for an explanation, Mr. Feiglin. There will be neither an injunction nor a date. I'm closing the hearing. Read Moshe Feiglin's written reply to the Supreme Court (Adar II 5765 - Mar. 05) Keep up to date with the latest articles and audio updates at http://www.jewishisrael.org/views/feiglin/feiglin_6516.htm. Visit our "What's New?" web page. Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. |
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GEORGE BUSH, HOW COULD YOU?
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 2, 2005. |
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We all thought you had cut any idealogical ties to the policies of your father and James Baker. We bought the story that you had emerged from your years of adolescence where alcohol and drugs were left behind in new life enveloped in the idea of a born-again Christian. We were touched to hear that you had the Five Books of Moses on your reading shelf. You had us all fooled with your Born-Again persona but, we didn't know what your were Born-Again into. We are just beginning to know that behind that affable grin and your good ole boy Texas persona is an oil consortium. We knew that your father and James Baker were (and are) dedicated anti-Semites, bonded to whatever Crown Prince Abdullah wanted. But again, we thought you had broken away from their anti-Israel policy. We also thought that your German bloodlines through your father and grandfather Prescott Bush was something you wished to get away from. When your father told America to get ready for the "New World Order" it echoed the superior Germany of the 30s and 40s. Are you now the carrier of the banner for your father's cabal of a "New World Order" consistent with finishing Hitler's "Final Solution for the Jewish Question"? That era of Germany and the Third Reich also had their "New World Order" which included eliminating the Jews. However, must you now try to eliminate a Jewish State which is well-armed - even having a probable Nuclear Deterrence. Clearly, that requires new techniques and most certainly recruiting Jewish leaders to participate - hopefully unknowingly - into their own demise. Mr. Bush, it seems that you have adopted a course of diminishing the Jewish State while being the god-fathers of what may be the most effective Islamic Terrorist State that region have ever known. How could you, an American President, continue the work of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin Al Husseini, who pleaded with Hitler to kill off all the Jews and bring his killing machine to Palestine to finish the Jews there and give him control of Jerusalem? You knew that the American people and the Congress approved and supported Israel. So you moved cautiously always keeping up the facade of being Israel's friend, always expressing concern for her safety when in fact you were carrying water for the Saudis. As of late, however, you are moving from under your friendly cover and reflecting your family's tradition vis a vis the Jews and, of course, the oil-rich Arab Muslims. So now what exactly do you expect to get out of chaining Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon to your plans of bringing Israel to the first U.N. Partition Plan of November 1947 which Abba Eban called "Auschwitz Borders". We are already aware that you have a three-phase action: First, to evacuate the Jews of Gaza, followed by the evacuation of the Jews from Judea and Samaria, then to move the Jews to the 1948 borders. Presumably, this will all be coordinated with the Arab League, the E.U., and I suppose what should be called "The New World Orderists". Naturally, you will next unleash Jewish recruits generally called Leftists, to begin speaking about how Israel doesn't really need the Golan Heights. The rationale offered would be that the Golan Heights would be better off in American hands as a military base. Naturally, this base would be presented as a protective base for Israel and Israel would no longer need tanks, missiles and observation positions on Mr. Hermon. I guess the question of "How Could You?" seems beside the point when we see you join the Europeans in a "If you can't beat them, join them" doctrine. I refer to your new philosophy of dealing with the Terrorists as negotiating partners and not adversaries. Clearly, you and Tony Blair are collapsing like falling buildings (sad analogy) as the Global Muslim Terrorists become more aggressive. They're pouring into Iraq, bombing tens of Americans and Iraqis daily. Of course, there is always the oil deception and your studied reluctance to find and explore alternative energy sources so we stop using up all the fossil fuels while polluting the universe. Simply speaking for the oil maggots, you tell us in speeches that the price will go down which you know it will not. Wasn't it bad enough to falsify your credentials as a caring Born-Again Christian but, to blatantly lie to the American people about how it will be necessary to pollute Alaska, the Florida and California coastlines, the Gulf of Mexico so that you and your father's oil maggots could keep the cash register clanging away. Finally, to join forces with a primitive and barbaric people of Islam to destroy the Jewish State of Israel is totally obscene and unforgivable. Do you really believe that when you meet that Jewish man, Yousha Ben David (you call him Jesus) that he will accept the destruction of his people as sanctifying your passport to the Heaven you believe is rightly yours? Don't you think it more likely that the Bush Dynasty will find itself in a lower place - where all the other haters of the Jewish people are spending eternity - that is Gehenna (Hell)? So tell us George, did you think you and your clan were anointed by lessor gods to reverse G-d's decision to gift the Land of Israel to the Jewish people in perpetuity? Do you believe that you were anointed to gift the Land of Israel to a heathen people who worship the moon god zin - later called Allah? Have you bonded in some way with Islam to challenge G-d's Eternal decision to make His Covenant with the Hebrew tribes and thus all Jewish people? Is this what you think your mission on earth as President is: to correct G-d's mistake? If you think G-d makes mistakes, then regrettably, your actions, unchecked (so far) by the Congress or rejected by the American people will, no doubt, bring terrible consequences to our American Continent and that of Europe? It's coming Mr. President...sure as Hell. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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FLUSH NEWSWEEK DOWN THE TOILET
Posted by Irwin N. Graulich, June 2, 2005. |
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Well, we finally solved the Newsweek-Koran controversy with an explanation and a solution. However, the people are Newsweek are probably not very thrilled! Enjoy.
Watergate made the Washington Post into a
household name. No wonder Newsweek will go to any length in order to
create a new scandal portraying America as "evil." Hey, it is tabloid
journalism at its best and sells big time; a primary mission of the
magazine.
Behind this sinister plot is a nice (sic) Jewish boy named Michael Isikoff, whose family probably escaped the pogroms of Europe, seeking a better life in America. Little Michael is one of those pathetic elites who does not appreciate what this country has given him, wanting to hurt it so that it becomes a much better place. Isikoff, his associate, John Barry, et. al are merely attempting to step into Woodward and Bernstein's much larger investigative reporter shoes which do not fit them at all.
Editor Mark Whitaker's apologies are not worth the paper on which they are printed. Actually, Newsweek would better serve its readers as toilet training liner for the dog's cage. That is certainly a better use of its pages and wasted apologies, which led to 16 deaths and many injured.
The important part of the story is not whether Newsweek had an
incorrect source at the Pentagon. Koran desecration is not the issue;
human life desecration is the issue. When Muslims blew up ancient
Buddhist statues, did Buddhists riot? When Muslims cut off the head of
a Wall Street Journal reporter, did Americans riot? When Muslims blew
up Jewish babies in pizza parlors in Israel, did Israelis riot? When
Muslims urinated on the Western Wall and paved the streets with Jewish
tombstones, or more recently destroyed Joseph's Tomb, did Jews riot?
When Muslims burned churches in Kosovo, did Christians riot? When
Muslims flew planes into office buildings and slit the throats of
flight attendants, did anyone riot?
It seems obvious that the Isikoff's of the world are soft racists, expecting much less from Muslims whom they obviously believe to be a lower form of humanity with an inherent inability to control themselves. Jews, Christians, atheists and virtually all other groups are held to a much higher standard of behavior and ethics. This fact explains precisely the focus on an imaginary American interrogator, rather than the evil Muslims who rioted and murdered many of their own.
The very same media elite who see the burning of the American flag as some great freedom, made the act of flushing a Koran into something worse than mass murder. These are the writers and reporters who always seem to find fault with America and Israel, while women are treated as chattel throughout the Muslim world.
Embedded reporters and investigative journalists are the real problem today. Trying to become heroes like the American military whom they constantly criticize, these yuppies simply do not understand the sophisticated concept that "not everything should be reported...period." The President urinates, gets diarrhea, fights with Laura, even masturbates; yet these things are not for public consumption. Neither was Abu Ghraib or the Koran flushing story, even if true.
These are isolated incidents which are not newsworthy and must be kept in context with the entire geopolitical world today. Airing out all of one's dirty laundry can lead to disaster, both within a family and within a country. A pattern of abuse or evil are a completely different story and certainly should be exposed.
It is quite disgusting to create a painting of the Virgin Mary and Jesus out of elephant dung, a vile artistic fraud displayed at the Brooklyn Museum recently. Remember Mapplethorpe's "Piss Christ," a cross in a bottle of, well you know what. "Artistic freedom," another example of the moral idiocy on the left.
Yet a lesson can be learned from these despicable pseudo-artistic
creations which show the moral greatness of America's Christians, who
only protested verbally and in written form. Can you imagine an image
of the Prophet Mohammed in a bottle of urine and how many radical
Muslims would kill each other in protest. Hey... where is Robert
Mapplethorpe when you really need him?
Irwin N. Graulich is a motivational speaker on morality, ethics,
Judaism and politics. He is also Presidentof a marketing,
branding and communications company in New York City. He can be
reached at irwin.graulich@verizon.net
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MORE SLAPP FROM THE NEOFASCIST LEFT
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 2, 2005. |
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Eyal Sivan is one of the most openly anti-Semitic far-leftist extremists in Europe. He grew up in Israel but then migrated to Europe, where he divides his time between making Jew-bashing anti-Israel films and filing frivolous SLAPP suits against people who criticize him. In recent years a growing anti-democratic harassment tactic used by the very worst left-wing fascists has been the filing of such SLAPP suits for "libel" as a way to silence critics of the Left. SLAPP (which stands for 'Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation') suits are anti-democratic harassment suits in which someone attempts to suppress the free speech of his critics. They are illegal in many parts of the US and there are penalties for those who file them. Eyal Sivan is a radical anti-Semitic pro-terror ex-Israeli "film artist" living in France (where else?). He is the French equivalent to that other notorious ex-Israeli Eurobat, Dror Feiler. Feiler lives in Sweden and who made the "sculpture art" celebrating the suicide bombing woman who mass murdered 23 people at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, many of them children, including three generations of two families. One of her victims is a 10 year old who lost his parents and was permanently blinded by the blast. Sivan lately has been co-making anti-Israel propaganda films with a local Palestinian pro-terrorist. Eyal Sivan likes to make venomous propaganda movies against Israel and Jews. In one of his recent movies, "Route 181 - Splinter from a Trip in Palestine-Israel," he devotes much of the screen time to justifying the Arab attack on Israel in 1948 designed to annihilate Israel (and its population) and which coincidentally gobbled up the land the UN had allocated to become an Arab state of Palestine. The Arabs, declares Sivan, were in the right when they attacked Israel in 1948, because the Arabs were seeking a nice Rwanda-style bi-national state with an Arab majority in which the Jews would be treated almost as well as are the southern Sudanese Christians and animists today. The film also alleges all sorts of gory Israeli "war crimes" against the poor innocent Arabs of 1948, including imaginary rapes. It is capped by scenes of railroad tracks designed to be associated in the minds of French viewers with scenes from the "SHOAH" movie about the Holocaust, and of course with Israel in the role of Nazi Germany. [Ironically, when Sivan needed an actor to play a thuggish Israeli, he chose an Arab. Talk about racial profiling!] This latest "film" was broadcast in England, Germany and France, a 4.5 hour pseudo-documentary. Sivan wanted it to be the Palestinian answer to the French documentary movie "Shoah" about the Holocaust. Sivan has also long justified arson attacks against French Jews and their synagogues, saying the French Jews themselves were to blame for these (Jerusalem Report, March 22, 2004) because they support Israel. Ah, but then the heroic French Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut described the cinematic atrocity being prepared by Sivan as "incitement to murder Jews" and a tissue of lies. He also openly called Sivan a Jewish anti-Semite. Sivan decided to file a frivolous harassment SLAPP libel suit in France against Finkielkraut for daring to tell the truth. Meanwhile, other French intellectuals petitioned the Pompideau Center and other institutions not to screen the scurrilous propaganda film of Sivan, successfully. It was evidently not screened. In Israel, Sivan is embroiled in a conflict with members of the family of the heroic Gideon Hausner, who had been the prosecutor in the famous trial of Adolf Eichmann, the German architect of the Holocaust captured and executed by Israel. The Hausners began petitioning the Attorney General last February to prosecute Sivan, because of his deliberately distorted "documentary" film on Hausner and the trial, in which he misrepresented and mocked the deceased Hausner, they insist. The family members want Sivan charged with "receiving profit from deliberate fraud," a crime in Israel. The frivolous harassment suit against Finkielkraut is stuck in the French court backlog, but Sivan may be getting his comeuppance from an Israeli court in the Hausner case. Now Sivan has decided to try the harassment suit tactic all over again, this time against a leading Israeli professor and politician from Israel's Zionist Left. Sivan this week filed a "libel suit" against Israeli Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, a professor of constitutional law and a one-time cabinet minister from the leftist Meretz party. Two weeks back, Rubinstein had called Sivan an anti-Semite in an opinion column that was published in the Jerusalem Post and also in Ma'ariv, Israel's second largest daily. Rubinstein had denounced the attempts by Sivan to paint Israel in his films, especially in "Route 181", as morally equivalent to Nazi Germany. Rubinstein also noted that Sivan's film had been banned in France but was being screened in Israel itself by local far-leftist moonbats. Yes, the same anti-Semitic film by Sivan that French institutions refused to screen, too anti-Semitic even for FRENCH tastes, has been screened repeatedly in Israel itself by the far-Leftist Jerusalem Cinematek, a moonbat institution maintained by Jerusalem taxpayers and which is always on the lookout for seditious anti-Israel propaganda that it can screen as "art". You may recall its role in promoting the Goebbals-like film "Jenin Jenin", a propaganda film produced with PLO funds whose own producer has admitted he filled it with lies. The architecture department at the Bezalel College also showed it. Rubinstein has courageously stuck to his guns and has announced he will retract nothing he wrote about Sivan and will certainly not apologize. Sivan will continue to attempt to suppress the free speech of his critics anti-democratically using SLAPP suit harassment. 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. |
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A MESSAGE ABOUT ZION THAT HAS YET TO SINK IN
Posted by Gerald M. Steinberg, June 2, 2005. |
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Next Monday, June 6, marks the 38th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day and the return to Jerusalem. I have written two columns to mark this event -- the first is more of a personal memoir and appears below. The second is a political analysis and will be published and distributed on Sunday. This appeared in the Canadian Jewish News (http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=6464). I received my first glimpse of Jerusalem late at night, through the windows of a taxi from the airport, going up the steeply twisting road that marks the border between the Mediterranean and the Middle East. We drove straight into the Old City, and, still in a daze, I got out briefly to touch the stones of the Western Wall. The next morning, I woke up to see the full panorama of more than 3,000 years of Jewish memory, sent my first letter postmarked "Jerusalem, Israel", and began to experience the city's uniqueness. It was a few years after the 1967 war that ended the blockade on access by Jews. The rebuilding of the Jewish Quarter, whose synagogues and other buildings had been destroyed and desecrated under Arab control, was just beginning. The city was still a small town - we were able to walk from one end to the other in a few hours. Later, when my young family decided to become olim, there was no question that we would make our home in Jerusalem - its magnetic pull is irresistible. And on the "pilgrimage" holidays - particularly Shavuot - we join the throngs pouring out of every corner and alleyway at dawn, on the way to the Kotel. In this and so many other ways, life in Jerusalem is fascinating and unique. This exceptionality is not lost on the Palestinians, who created their own religious and historical claims, while also turning the Holy City into the prime focus of terrorism. Jerusalemites have known very difficult times, but very few, if any, have pulled up stakes and left as a result. For Israelis, religious and secular, this is simply not an option. In December 2000, as the Oslo process was on life support and Palestinian violence was escalating, hundreds of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. The purpose of this demonstration - perhaps the largest in Israel's history - was to insure that the history of the failed 1949 armistice agreement would not be repeated. As a result of this early example of creative diplomacy, until 1967, Jews could only look across, without being able to cross. And yet for most Arabs, these extremely deep Jewish links are invisible. Many simply deny any Jewish connection to Jerusalem, as the late Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat told then U.S. president Bill Clinton during the disastrous Camp David summit in July 2000. To admit to Jewish roots that existed 1,500 years before Mohammed and the earliest Islamic claims would be to admit the need to compromise, both theologically and politically. This is apparently unacceptable in the prevailing Arab and Muslim belief systems, which demand exclusivity. During the tension that accompanied the last stages of the "peace process," the focus on Jerusalem increased, and Palestinians again imposed a blockade on Jews going to the Temple Mount. Under the cover of this blackout, Palestinians also dug deeply into this holy ground - which holds the remnants of the First and Second temples - to expand mosques. In the process, unknowable damage was done to thousands of years of historical remains, where archeologists had never dug. In this period, as the tension over Jerusalem grew and governments in the United States, Canada and Europe sponsored emergency "regional dialogues," an Egyptian academic asked me why the Jews were so upset about Jerusalem. After all, he noted, we gave up Mount Sinai with less outcry than could be found in protestations over settlements along the Red Sea coast. Although he is one of the most liberal and well-informed intellectuals in the Arab world, it was clear he had never made the connection between Jerusalem and the "Zion" in Zionism. I took out a tanach (Jewish Bible) and went through its "Zion" references, and then I showed him the references to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the return to Zion that can be found in almost every Jewish prayer. Despite decades of declarations about Jerusalem as the "undivided capital of Israel," the message has never sunk in. When peace finally comes to Jerusalem, to Israel and to our neighbours, it will grow out of the understanding of the essential Jewish links to the City of Peace. Gerald M. Steinberg is editor of NGO Monitor and director of the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University. |
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DAILY APPEAL TO ABBAS; A.I. CONDEMNS P.A.; MARK OF CAIN ON HAARETZ FOREHEAD
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 2, 2005. |
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AMERICAN ASSN. FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE The Association condemned the boycott by Britain's Association of University Teachers for closing lines of communication and free inquiry (IMRA, 5/24). The condemnation is inadequate. Hate-filled fanatics are not open to reason, and may deceive our naïve and under-educated Western college graduates. The boycott should be condemned also because it is malicious, antisemitic, and based on an ideological extreme. It also is based on fraud and other false premises. It is part of a propaganda war on Israel, seeking to make Israel seem non-legitimate and worthy of dissolution. The result of a successful anti-Zionist movement would be mass-murder of its Jews by Arabs. SHARON LIES, JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS SWALLOW IT Fresh from Israel, where opponents of his abandonment plan exposed its folly, PM Sharon started purported advantages of the plan. "This plan will improve our security." He just asserted those advantages, he did not prove or define them (Meghan Clyne, NY Sun, 5/23, p.1.) His loyal opposition was not invited to offer a contrary opinion. Sharon knew it would not upgrade Israeli security degrade it. All his security and intelligence officers advised him that in the absence of Israeli troops and settlers, terrorists would import more and heavier weapons and range all along the Green Line to fire they. Situated, as Mr. and Mrs. Bush put it, "side-by-side with Israel," they could bombard many parts of Israel. Casualties would be enormous. This could be coordinated with attacks by Hizbullah and the armies of Egypt, S. Arabia, and Syria, not to mention Jordan. Did the assembled leaders of major Jewish organizations know any of this? If so, none let on. Not one asked Sharon how his plan would improve Israeli security. They just swallowed his lies. That is how Jewish leadership works. It sticks with the Establishment, believing what it is told, calling dissenters "extremists," and keeping them from apprising its members. Result: the Jewish people get killed off by the thousand, by the millions in our parents' time, and prospectively by the hundreds of thousands after the current plan is implemented. Israel could not survive such losses; certainly Israelis would flee the country if they could. Ironically, Sharon invites foreign Jews to come to Israel. To be killed? A P.A.-ISRAEL MEETING Negotiators for the two sides met. The Arabs claimed that they had implemented all their obligations, and Israel had implemented none. They complained that Israel wanted them to develop a civil war. IMRA explained that Israel was asking them to disarm the terrorist militias, as their primary obligation, as yet unmet (IMRA, 5/24). They did not specify what they had implemented and what Israel was supposed to but had not. THE DAILY APPEAL TO ABBAS A State Dept. briefing pointed out, "Abbas has publicly spoken out against terrorism, and against violence aimed at Israelis. He's publicly spoken about stopping terrorism, and it's important that he continue to move forward to dismantle terrorist networks and organizations" (IMRA, 5/25.) Abbas lionizes terrorists, and pays them to join his police. "Continue to move forward." That is what the US and Israel urge the P.A. to do just about every day. What a glacial pace it must be moving at, if it constantly needs further prompting! When will people ask the US and Israel what movement there is, that it never reaches the end? It is not documented and not discernable. UNO UNFAIR NOT ONLY TO ISRAEL Uzbeki government forces fired upon peaceful civilian demonstrators. Instead of taking a stand against that brutal repression, to discourage it, Secretary-General Annan equated the two sides. He "appeals to all parties concerned for restraint in the use of force." The civilians did not use force and haven't the arms with which to do so (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 5/25, p.6). The UNO and other international voices usually urge both the Arabs and Israel conflict to exercise restraint, although the Arabs committed aggression. The answer to aggression is not self-restraint but to put restraints upon the aggressors. To equate victims with evil-doers is evil. MORE GOVERNMENT BULLYING OF PATRIOTS The Israeli secret service interrogated all day three activists against PM Sharon's abandonment plan. The interrogation was a fishing expedition," attempting to lead them into admitting plots which did not exist. It also was an attempt to smear the entire class of protestors. It would be different if there were plots and some danger, and if these people were suspects. The secret police released the trio, with apologies. The trio believe that the exercise was meant to intimidate them. They feel that they must continue to oppose Sharon's plan as unethical and dangerous. They think that the government resort to such a desperate measure indicates that their growing protests have an effect. AMNESTY INTL. VS. P.A. ON USE OF CHILDREN Amnesty Intl. chided the P.A. for using children in warfare (IMRA, 5/25). This follows a rebuke of the P.A. by Sen. Clinton for promoting bigotry among its children as a form of child abuse. There is international repugnance against the increasing use of children in warfare, as they are used in Africa. It is about time some of that repugnance was showered upon the western Palestinian Arabs. Nevertheless, Pres. Bush keeps showering funds upon those Arabs, as if they are decent folks. Let A.I. label the P.A. as war criminal, instead of Israel. P.A. DEATH TOLL Since Abbas took over the P.A., there has been much resort to violence, to resolve disputes. The Arabs have killed 36 of their own people in that time. In their war on Israel, 63 mere died (some by their own hand). MIDEAST THREATENS PEACE BUT IS MISUNDERSTOOD Westerners are willing to admit that Mideastern customs are different from theirs but think it prejudicial to admit that Mideastern thinking is different. They engage in wishful and utopian thinking, such as that if the Arabs want prosperity or democracy, they can quickly obtain it. They think the P.A. is moderate and peace-loving, whereas it is extremist and genocidal. Iran's lies about not seeking nuclear weapons are believed. As a result, Westerners do not understand that crucial region. Actually, the Mideast is like the belligerent Europe of centuries ago. But in accepting what the Arabs assert, the West tends to blame Israel, the Arabs' victim. Whatever various Mideastern governmental or ideological groups assert, Westerners tend to suppose that it is true or at least that the Arabs believe it. They consider Arab public opinion legitimate, even if it is the result of propaganda of long duration. Westerners accept that propaganda, themselves (IMRA, 5/25 from Barry Rubin, Jer. Post, 5/23). Westerners practice heed thine enemy, instead of "smite him hip and thigh." TOO MUCH WESTERN "MEA CULPA?" "Newsweek" should have considered the effects of its fabricated story about US interrogators flushing a Koran down the toilet. The effects were deadly anti-American riots. On the other hand, shouldn't some opprobrium fall upon those foreigners, who riot "over one rumor of one disrespectful act to one copy of one book?" "Christians don't riot over 'piss Christ,' a work of 'art' comprising crucifix floating in the 'artist's' urine or any of the other incontinent outpourings by tedious publicly funded provocateurs. Jews take it in their stride when they're described as a 'virus resembling AIDS," as P.A. TV labels them. Problem is, the Western media is overly "sensitive" to Muslim touchiness and not to Muslim nastiness. Every Western action against terrorism was thought likely to rouse the Arab street to murderous rampages. It never happened, until the false Koran-flushing story was used to incite riots. The inciters knew the story was false. They were not sincere in their religious objection to it. They were acting like any rabble-rousing fascists (Mark Steyn, NY Sun, 5/23, p.8). Just as competition for research grants has tempted scientists to submit fake research, so does competition for media fame tempt journalists to submit fake stories. The consequences of the former are ineffective medicine. The media deplores that, but acts against its own frauds only when caught. It does not care what reputations it unfairly sullies. It may even be pleased with its defamation, if it opposes the Iraq war. But its consequences are like those of war. Yes, Muslims let themselves be manipulated by customary deceivers and react savagely to supposed insult. Their masses never seem to learn. They react the same way, however, to intellectual critique. That is, their religious leaders do not explain what is wrong with the criticism nor identify the criticism, they just assert that the criticism is blasphemy or insulting. Then they issue a fatwa for the assassination of the author. That is not a matter of sensitivity but of intolerance. Their feeling of being above criticism is arrogance. Our leaders err in teaching sensitivity to Muslims that gives them a privileged position over our own faiths, and in not teaching that the jihadists defame us and seek to destroy us. Our own President is giving such people a sizeable slice of our tax revenues while they are engaged in anti-Western jihad. He and our governing elite should be more sensitive to our own preservation. "HAARETZ" ON DISENGAGEMENT "Haaretz" is in a hurry to complete the abandonment of the traditionally Jewish territory in northern Samaria and Gaza. It finds encouragement from PM Sharon's trip, whereby it concludes, "The disengagement plan has a majority in the Knesset, the government, the Israeli public, the international community and now, it turns out, in the Jewish community in the U.S." The Jewish organizations that support it, point out the editors, formerly took a "hard-line, rightist position" about the Arab-Israel conflict.'" (Foreign Ministry, 5/26). About public opinion, "Haaretz" is sure of a majority on the basis of polls, which can be fixed or fleeting, but won't put it to the test of a referendum, which is less likely to be manipulated, depending upon its wording. "Haaretz" should be told to put up or shut up; on with a referendum! The "international community" is anti-Zionist. The government majority was attained by firing dissenting Ministers. The Jewish organizations, which are small, represent their leaders, who are few. Since their leaders did not invite opposing views, their endorsement of PM Sharon's unsupported claims is not surprising. They want to go along with him because that is what an Establishment does, it goes along. When the Prime Minister was nationalist, it sometimes went along with that. Independent thought and courage are not its trademarks, appeasement-mindedness is, as it is of "Haaretz." It is the mark of Cain on "Haaretz'" forehead. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
| GUSH KATIF |
ET TU BRUTUS - PRESIDENT BUSH BETRAYS ISRAEL
Posted by Ruth Matar, June 2, 2005. |
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Dear Friends, I no longer enjoy reading the newspaper in the morning with my first cup of coffee. Usually the news as far as Israel is concerned ranges from bad to very bad. Friday morning, May 27, the day after President Bush met Mahmoud Abbas, I received a painful reminder that countries do not have friends, only interests. The Leader of the most powerful democratic country in the world, President George W. Bush, said in his meeting on the previous with the Holocaust denier, and Arafat's collaborator for forty years, Mahmoud Abbas, that: 1.1949 ARMISTICE LINES ARE THE STARTING POINT OF REFERENCE RATHER THAN THE 1967 LINES. [RM]: This, of course, means that everything that Israel's miraculous victory in the 1967 war achieved, can be nullified in final status negotiations. The 1949 Armistice lines is what Abba Eban called: "The Auschwitz Borders". Is the miracle given to the Jews by the G-d of Israel, when he allowed the Jews to defeat all those invading Arab armies, to be nullified by the arrogant pronouncement of an American president? 2."ISRAEL SHOULD NOT UNDERTAKE ANY ACTIVITY THAT PREJUDICES FINAL STATUS NEGOTIATIONS WITH REGARD TO GAZA, THE WEST BANK AND JERUSALEM." [RM]: President Bush always uses the term "West Bank", coined by the former Jordanian King, Abdullah I, when he illegally occupied these areas between 1948 and 1967, rather than the Biblical names of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. President Bush thereby denies Israel's Biblical right to these Jewish areas. President Bush also makes us question American support even for an undivided Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (By the way, Mahmoud Abbas has "graciously" promised, that "if there is real peace between the Palestinians and the Jews", he will permit the Jews to pray at the Western Wall!) 3. "HAMAS IS A TERRORIST GROUP, IT'S ON A TERRORIST LIST FOR A REASON. AS THE ELECTIONS GO FORWARD, OF COURSE, WE WANT EVERYBODY TO PARTICIPATE ON THE VOTE." [RM]: Does President Bush really think it's O.K for a terrorist party to run in a democratic election? 4. "WE MEET AT A TIME WHEN A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IN HISTORY IS IN REACH, THE CREATION OF A PEACEFUL, DEMOCRATIC PALESTINIAN STATE. PRESIDENT ABBAS IS SEEKING THAT GOAL BY REJECTING VIOLENCE AND WORKING FOR A DEMOCRATIC REFORM". [RM]: The following are quotes from an article in the Jerusalem Post by Caroline Glick, entitled: "Our World: Abbas the Circus Master": a. As far as terrorism is concerned: "Three years ago, Bush called for the PA to transform its 13 security services from terror organizations into counter-terror militias...This demand has the advantage of being concrete and measurable, but the disadvantage of being completely meaningless. As long as the PA's security services are actively involved in terrorism, who cares how they are organized?...Not one of them is taking any action whatsoever against terror cells. On the contrary, they are openly bringing new terrorists into their ranks." 5. "THEREFORE, ISRAEL MUST REMOVE UNAUTHORIZED OUTPOSTS AND STOP SETTLEMENT EXPANSION. ANY FINAL STATUS AGREEMENT MUST BE REACHED BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES, AND CHANGES TO THE 1949 ARMISTICE LINES MUST BE MUTUALLY AGREED TO". [RM]: In addition, Bush states in his Speech that there may not be any Israeli construction in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, while Palestinian construction will be ignored. President Bush directly challenges the Word of G-d in the Judeo-Christian Bible. The Holy Land was given by the G-d of Israel to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, the Jewish People, as an everlasting inheritance. It was not given to the descendants of Ishmael, Mohammed, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. In fact, the G-d of the Bible admonished the Jews to settle the land of their inheritance and to obey His Commandments, such as:
6. "THE UNITED STATES ALSO STRONGLY SUPPORTS THE MISSION OF THE QUARTET'S SPECIAL ENVOY, JIM WOLFENSOHN, TO MAKE SURE THAT THE GAZA DISENGAGEMENT BRINGS PALESTINIANS A BETTER LIFE". [RM]: (The Gaza Disengagement Plan also includes communities in Northern Samaria). The above statement makes the President of the United States a partner in the crime of expelling and deporting Jews from their homes in their divinely apportioned Homeland. Can President Bush justify the theft of Jewish land, Jewish labor and Jewish assets, in order to give the Palestinian terrorists "a better life" at the expense of the Jewish People? The Biblical quotation which comes to mind is: "Hast thou murdered and also inherited"? 7. "TO HELP ENSURE THAT THE GAZA DISENGAGEMENT IS A SUCCESS, THE UNITED STATES WILL PROVIDE TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY $50 MILLION FOR NEW HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE IN GAZA. THESE FUNDS WILL BE USED TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE PALESTINIANS LIVING IN GAZA, WHERE POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT ARE VERY HIGH". [RM]: President Bush is giving these unreformed terrorists a gift of $50 million from our taxpayers' money, without any congressional supervision whatsoever. Will these monies be used for further terror attacks? In today's Jerusalem Post there is the following item: "Security forces thwarted attempts by the Islamic Jihad to launch double-suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem, including one that was to have occurred on Thursday, June 2 (today's date). The terrorists planned to launch an attack in the Ramot neighborhood and at the coffee-house, a synagogue or a bus in the Capital's center. Some of the cell members were previously incarcerated in Israel and released in February." Dear Friends, if you and I as American tax payers do not strenuously object to this large unsupervised gift to the Palestinian Terror State in the making - literally from our pockets - we ourselves are partners to President Bush's betrayal of Israel. It is vitally important that you let President Bush understand how we, the people who elected him, feel about the promises he made to Mahmoud Abbas at the White House meeting on May 26. Mailing address: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20500
With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar P.S. I am attaching the complete transcript of President Bush's speech, the remarks of Abbas, and the press conference at the White House. PRESIDENT BUSH'S SPEECH |
| GUSH KATIF |
A RIDE TO GUSH KATIF
Posted by Naomi Ragen, June 2, 2005. |
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Friends, I took a ride out to Gush Katif the other day. I wanted to speak to old friends, American immigrants, that like us, came to Israel in the early 70's. Roz has a degree in Latin from Barnard. Paul is an ordained Orthodox Rabbi, with two degrees from Yeshiva University. He used to be one of the editors of the Encyclopedia Judaica. They've been living in Netzar Chazani for 27 years, growing vegetables in sand. They have eight kids, five of them boys who are in the army, holding high career officer positions vital to Israel's security. I've written an extensive article about them, taken photos. Hopefully, it will be published soon. I'll let you know where. Believe me, places like the New York Times have zero interest in an article about what will happen to the Jewish settlers in Gush Katif. But what I wanted to tell you is this: All you have to do is go to Gush Katif and you'll understand what the real crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict is. The land in Gaza is sand. It is completely worthless. And yet, the Jews who were sent there by the Jewish Agency were given two dunams each. They were provided with an expert who taught them how to grow vegetables in sand in hothouses. And so the Barnard graduates and Rabbis learned to grow tomatoes and lettuce and mint. There are 56,000 head of lettuce in one hot house alone, and the entire Jewish settlement blooms with hothouses, hundreds of them. With the profits from their labors, the Jewish settlers added on to the little, simple houses built for them by the Jewish Agency thirty years ago. They planted gardens.Bikes lay out on the lawn. They have a beautiful synagogue and a community center, and a rich communal life: piano lessons, art lessons, exercise classes, Talmud classes..... There has never been a recorded case of any Jewish settler going into Gaza and harming an Arab. The contrary. Thousands of Gazan Arabs are employed in the hothouses of Gush Katif. Just over the wall, put up to keep out sniper fire, the Gazan Arabs live in abject poverty. They have committed innumerable acts of murder, shootings, bombings, and terrorist acts against their Jewish neighbors, the peaceful farmers of Gush Katif. Any reasonable person seeing the contrast must ask himself why? With all the millions and millions of dollars given to the Palestinian Authority, why didn't they build little houses for their people? Why didn't they give each one some land, and a hothouse, and teach them how to grow things? Why was it that the Jewish Agency paid Paul years ago to teach Palestinians in Gaza his growing methods (they repayed him by stealing his equipment)? Why was the money used for guns and bullets, instead of sophisticated watering systems? Why was it that Yasir Arafat was on Forbes Wealthiest Men in the World list? And how can the United States, a country built by pioneers, demand that the farmers of Gush Katif to hand over their life's work to the people on the other side of the fence, people who have done nothing, and will continue to do nothing, to help themselves? Below, a very moving piece written by a secular security officer who has worked in Gush Katif and knows her people well. It is called "Beloved residents of Hevel Katif" and was written by Ami Shaked. Blessings, Naomi
Beloved residents of Hevel Katif, For a generation we have been living in an area of extraordinary settlement in this beloved region of Israel. This venture was founded on virgin soil that no man had been able to overpower since the creation of the world. Incredibly, this area responded only to us, as if we had been selected, as if the land could sense our love for it. For a generation our souls have bonded with this beloved land and so have we to each other. Through great effort and honest labor we founded exemplary settlements and wondrous communities. We created a framework of life, as if in a utopian Jerusalem, in which every man loves his fellow man and feels he is his guarantor. A holiness rests over the site. No evil, no impurity, only goodness and benevolence are found here. Doors that close to no man and an ever open heart are our mark of character. We formed an extended family and a home of quality unsurpassed. It is difficult to find a place and people such as these, untarnished and completely unblemished, anywhere in the world; a place of Jewish Zionist pride, a place that fulfills the dream of any self-respecting Jew. The disparaging may say what they will, but, no-one can take the truth from us. This is the truth and we must not let it be unheard. Gush Katif was and will be a synthesis of the holy land and the spirit of man; this is the optimal union. We must not forget that it is this spirit that turned a desolate desert into a flowering garden and a group of strangers into an unrivaled community. Everything for which we have strived has been for the sake of, and in the name of the Jewish people. We took the gates of Gaza on our shoulders and unlike others we have been able to support them. Even today, we say to all that there are none like us to carry out the task. Beloved brothers and women of valor: Once again a great task and trial have been placed on our shoulders. Once again we have approached the mountain with no questions, and once again at the altar we ask, "And where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" Not out of naivete do we do this, but out of faith. As Avraham at the sacrifice, we must struggle for our houses and for our way of life and thereby express our love of G-d. We are torn between our love for what we have made with our own hands and our knowledge that all deeds the Master of the World are just. We must struggle in order to impress our heritage upon the nation and possibly even prevent the evil decree. We must do this for ourselves and for the subsequent generations. But, as at the sacrifice of Yitzhak, our task is also to purify ourselves and to be prepared to sacrifice; G-d's role is to implement at just the right moment, "Send not your hand to the youth." Despite the fact that the enemy has spared no place in this community, the years of struggle have only brought out the good. As such, we are obligated to a struggle that suits our way of life, our characteristics, our good-heartedness and our obligation to the fate of our community. Whatever the future will bring, we must be beyond reproach. We are obligated to a tenacious struggle that will astound the Jewish People with its nobility, as opposed to the manner prevalent in Israel. We will show concern for the whole in spite of the danger posed to our lives' work. We are obligated to a struggle for our way that will emphasize our way of life -- a struggle in which anyone who looks upon us will see "free people in their own land." Anyone who comes to our houses must feel that they are in a place worthy of veneration. In this struggle every child and every woman will be an example for all of Am Yisrael. The struggle increases immensely our obligation towards the bereaved families, and our responsibility to care for and to honor our brothers and sisters, soldiers and citizens, who have been victims of war. We have no right to desecrate the memory of those fallen and to blot out their contribution to the shaping of our community. The manner of our struggle must unite and bond us more than ever. G-d forbid, that we will appear to be lowly people only interested in their personal future. We have never been such and we never will be. We must strive to succeed and the outcome is in G-d's hands. The eyes of all of Israel are upon us to see how we will proceed in our struggle. Will we continue to show love and respect or will it seem as if it has all been a media ploy? The steadfast stance of Gush Katif against all odds has already become a legend. The adamant will to continue with routine life confounds the evil hearted leaders who sought a fight of hate and violence in order to justify the expulsion and placate their consciences. We promise that when the time comes the growers will be as Cohanim performing their duties and students will be as Levi'im at their song. We will overwhelm them with our determined stance and with love until they lower their eyes in disgrace. We also look to our brothers and appeal to them, to prevent, by any legitimate means, the forces of expulsion from reaching Hevel Katif. This sharing of duties is what will reveal the power of the people and the determination of the residents of Hevel Katif. We place no blame on the those in Israel who were stricken by weakness under an evil and unscrupulous government. We regard the Israeli Army and its officers as none other than those led astray and desperate for our help. Those few among us who, out of weakness, transformed the struggle into one of a monetary nature -- we will forgive. Those who see the struggle as one of appearances without judging the consequences -- we will forgive. That is who we are: we give the benefit of the doubt and we love our fellow man. In this time, when every action is of great significance and has serious consequences, we will, as always, be the vanguard. During these trying times, we must maintain the spirit of Hevel Katif. We must not weaken our morale, rather transform it into a message for all of Am Yisrael -- a message of hope. Those religious and those not, growers and students in the Yeshivot, immigrants and veterans, from all backgrounds -- everybody as one. This was and will be the secret of our strength -- the secret of the redemption. As the Gates of Gaza were none too heavy for Sampson, this endeavor is none too weighty for us; we will succeed. To our brothers and sisters, the residents of Hevel Katif: During the long years of fighting, a strong bond has formed between the Heads of Security, the members and auxiliary volunteers of the security staff, and you. They are filled with admiration for your extraordinary steadfastness throughout this most horrific of wars and draw strength from your resoluteness to persevere. Our love for you is true, sincere and ever increasing from day to day, in response to your great love and trust that you placed in us during the years of war. The struggle over our homes and our future conceals within many dangers, some of which are not known to us, and may be very different from those known to us until now. These trying times will test our concern for the weak among us, during the struggle and after its conclusion. With mutual reliance and increased care we will face the tremendous days, days of glory, approaching. We ask you to renew your faith in us and to allow us to serve you and with you in the campaign directly at hand. As a soldier conquering a hill is unable to see the hills that lie beyond it, so we are confronting a difficult campaign, which as usual concerning Am Yisrael, conceals from view the many campaigns and challenges which lie ahead. "'Neither by might, nor by power, but by My spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." -- Zecharia 4:6 With you until the end,
Security Division
Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
| GUSH KATIF |
SHARON'S UNILATERAL DISENGAGEMENT PLAN IS RACING TROJAN WAR HORSES FROM EGYPT
Posted by Evelyn Hayes, June 2, 2005. |
The header for the news item in Haaretz read: "PA
security forces uncover tunnel dug by terrorists under Gush Katif."
The article was written by Haaretz correspondents, Amos Harel and
Arnon Regular.
(www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=582254).
The news item read:
Palestinian Authority security forces in the Gaza Strip on Monday evening discovered a tunnel that was apparently to be used to carry out a terror attack on Gush Katif. Terrorists were likely to detonate large bombs in the tunnel, which extended from Khan Yunis to neighboring Gush Katif. It may have also been used to infiltrate terrorists into the Israeli settlement block. According to initial reports, the tunnel was 10 meters deep and 50 meters long. The PA forces who discovered the tunnel apparently ran into opposition from those who constructed it and clashes were reported. There were indications of intelligence cooperation between Israel and the PA in the pinpointing of the tunnel, Army Radio reported. Now read this news item from Katif Net, June 1, 2005. It is entitled "We in Gush Katif Know: The Tunnel Was Not Blocked up on the Initiative of the Palestinian Police" (http://english.katif.net/index.php?id=1250&sub=1). Yesterday it was reported in the news that Palestinian policemen in Khan Yunis discovered a tunnel leading into Gush Katif and blocked it. We in Gush Katif can only express our astonishment at such perverted reporting. We know full well that the IDF has been monitoring the progress of the terrorists digging this tunnel for some time now; clearly the intention was to use it for a terrorist attack against a settlement or one of the IDF bases in the area. IDF commanders told the terrorists in police uniforms a number of times that if they will not block up the tunnel the IDF would go in and do it, in order to prevent a murderous attack on Gush Katif. Yesterday morning the IDF decided to flex its muscles and moved forces into the area where the tunnel is located. The terrorists apparently had good intelligence, and in view of the IDF's apparent determination to destroy the tunnel the Palestinian Authority announced that it would block it up. We can only wonder why the spokesmen who reported this insist on praising the very enemy that is doing its best every day to attack Gush Katif, instead of telling the public the truth. On the other hand, we in Gush Katif are grateful to the IDF which succeeded in bringing about the blocking up of the tunnel and wish it as much success in also stopping the constant mortar fire on the settlements of Gush Katif. A tunnel discovered a few months ago near Gani Tal.
Photograph: IDF Spokesman.
Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com. |
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LETTER TO PROF AVISHAY BRAVERMAN: FIRE BENNY MORRIS NOW!
Posted by Yardena Anat Even, June 2, 2005. |
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To the President Prof. Avishay Braverman,
Throughout the Palestinian intifada since it started in 2000 and ongoing, the mouthing of rubbish by Palesitnian reps on TV and Radio were full of lies and myths. Not only the palestinian representatives but it became universal knowledge how Israel robbed Palestinians and stole their land and kicked them out of their homes in '48 and on and on the lies spit out. The sad truth Prof Braverman is the culprit who started it all is a Israeli Professor whom you hired to teach no less at Ben Gurion University, a specific moron by the name of Benny Morris. I have enclosed his "new found history" book that is a mantra among all the ANTI SEMITES WHO WISH TO SEE YOU AND ME DEAD! AND YOU HIRED HIM. fine! I demand that the proceeds from his book of lies, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949,(1987) which became the New Historian's definitive work, should be gifted to ALL ISRAELI TERROR VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES - ALL WHO WERE MAIMED, CRIPPLED, AND ORPHANED BECAUSE BENNY MORRIS GAVE THE PALESTINIANS A FICTIOUS HISTORY AT THE EXPENSE OF ISRAEL. BENNY MORRIS IS GUILTY. HE HAS TO PAY FOR HIS ERROR FROM HIS POCKET WHERE IT HURTS AND FIRE HIM FOR ALL THE MISERY HE CAUSED TO HIS COUNTRYMEN. IF YOU STILL EMPLOY HIM AT BGU, YOU CAN BE CERTAIN THAT NONE OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS UNIVERSITY WILL REACH YOU IN THE NEAR FUTURE. Yardena Anat Even This is the beginning of "Benny Morris's Reign of Error, Revisited: The Post-Zionist Critique" by Efraim Karsh, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2005. The complete article plus references and end notes can be read at http://www.meforum.org/article/711 Efraim Karsh is director of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London, and editor of the quarterly journal Israel Affairs. He is the author of Arafat's War: the Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest (Grove Press). The collapse and dispersion of Palestine's Arab society during the 1948 war is one of the most charged issues in the politics and historiography of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Initially, Palestinians blamed the Arab world for having promised military support that never materialized. Arab host states in turn regarded the Palestinians as having shamefully deserted their homeland. With the passage of time and the dimming of historical memory, the story of the 1948 war was gradually rewritten with Israel rather than the Arab states and the extremist and shortsighted Palestinian leadership becoming the main if not only culprit of the Palestinian dispersion. This false narrative received a major boost in the late 1980s with the rise of several left-leaning Israeli academics and journalists calling themselves the New Historians, who sought to question and revise understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Ostensibly basing their research on recently declassified documents from the British Mandate period and the first years of Israeli independence, they systematically redrew the history of Zionism, turning upside down the saga of Israel's struggle for survival. Among the new historians, none has been more visible or more influential than Benny Morris, a professor at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, whose 1987 book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949, became the New Historian's definitive work. Prominent Palestinian politicians such as Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Hanan Ashrawi cited the "findings" of the New Historians to support extreme Palestinian territorial and political claims. Academics lauded Morris for using newly available documents to expose the allegedly immoral circumstances of Israel's creation. With frequent media exposure, the New Historians had an impact on mainstream Israeli opinion, which became increasingly receptive to the notion that both the fault and the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict lay disproportionately with Israel's own actions. Such plaudits, however, were undeserved. Far from unearthing new facts or offering a novel interpretation of the Palestinian exodus, The Birth recycled the standard Arab narrative of the conflict. Morris portrayed the Palestinians as the hapless victims of unprovoked Jewish aggression. Israel's very creation became the "original sin" underlying the perpetuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Had there been an academic foundation to Morris's revisionism, such acclaim may have been warranted. But rather than incorporate new Israeli source material, Morris did little more than rehash old historiography. While laying blame for the Palestinian refugee crisis on the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces and its pre-state precursor, the Haganah, Morris failed to consult the millions of declassified documents in their archives, even as other historians used them in painstaking research. Once this fact was publicly exposed, Morris conceded that he had "no access to the materials in the IDFA [Israel Defense Forces Archive] or Haganah archive and precious little to firsthand military materials deposited elsewhere." Yet instead of acknowledging the implications of this omission upon his conclusions, Morris sought to use this "major methodological flaw" as the rationale for a new edition of The Birth, which he claimed would include new source-material Dishonest Revisionism Readers will be disappointed if they hope to find evidence of renewed intellectual honesty in this new edition, published in 2004 as The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Morris continues to ignore archival evidence both of relentless Arab rejection of Jewish statehood and of demonstrated commitment to Israel's destruction. Available Arabic sources little utilized by Morris include not only official documents but also religious incitement and numerous statements by politicians, intellectuals, and journalists. While Morris perfunctorily acknowledges Palestinian and Arab
culpability for the 1948 war, "The Birth Revisited" continues to
portray Israeli actions as the main trigger of the Palestinian exodus.
Yardena Anat Even can be contacted at Yardena3@aol.com
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AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
Posted by Batya Medad, June 2, 2005. |
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The United States is an aggressively imperialist country. This is defined as "...extending its political and economic influence around the globe." (http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html). When I was growing up in America, we were taught that Imperialism is bad, evil. The "native" populations are discriminated against in favor of the imperialist ruler. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism) "Imperialism is a policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. The term is used by some to describe the policy of a country in maintaining colonies and dominance over distant lands, regardless of whether the country calls itself an empire." Think about what's happening in the world, especially here in the Middle East. The United States didn't think twice about conquering Iraq and dictating what type of government it should have. Thousands of people were murdered in the bombing, no apologies by the Americans. And the number of American dead in the Iraq War, as of 31-5-05, is 1,732 (http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htm). I'm no pacifist, but I can't figure out the point of the war, except as imperialist aggression by the Americans. For me personally it seems so ironic and absurd to sound like Communist propaganda from the 1950's. I spent my adolescence demonstrating against the USSR's discrimination against Soviet Jewry. One of the great myths is American economic support of Israel. If you read the "fine print" you'll discover that all Israel gets is coupons to spend in American "stores." This is the imperialist-capitalist way of subsidizing American businesses. Instead of the Israeli military buying from Israeli producers, they use the coupons for American products. This causes the Israeli businesses to go bankrupt, close down and fire workers, which increases unemployment, weakens the economy and makes Israel even more dependent on American "aid." And now we have these pathetic scenes of the Israeli Prime Minister going to the American President asking permission to develop and defend our country. Unfortunately, our government is not acting like an independent state. If the politicians don't have the confidence and strength to govern us as a strong, independent nation, let them resign. This week I heard Rabbi Yigal Kamenetzky of Gush Katif speak. He told us that at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the people weren't ready, mature enough to be in Eretz Yisrael. That's why they immediately sinned and had to wait forty years. Afterwards I went up to him to ask if our getting the state so soon after the Holocaust is a main cause for today's problems. He said yes. I think that those who established the state were too affected by the murder of the Six Million by the Nazis to be good national rulers of an independent country. Even today, they haven't gotten over the mindset of the Judenrat who thought that "working with" the Nazis was the best way of surviving. We've needed more than forty years to recover and reach maturity. It's interesting to realize that the youth who are at the forefront of today's struggle were born forty years after the Holocaust ended. All isn't lost. We can overturn the unjust laws. We can cancel Disengagement. This is Musing #122. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il |
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FROM ISRAEL
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, June 1, 2005. |
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Please help us to disseminate our NEWS SUMMARIES and URGENT ACTION ALERTS by forwarding them to your email list. Let us know how many people receive your emails. We are trying to save Gush Katif, the Jewish section of Gaza, with its: 22 communities; 9,000 citizens including 4,000 children; 24 daycare centers; 35 kindergartens; many Torah centers of learning; 7 grade schools; 2 high schools; 1 women's college; several cemetaries; 1 pre-army prep institute plus countless businesses. HELP US STOP THE RETREAT FROM GAZA. JUST SAY NO! This is a special report to UCI written by Arlene Kushner on May 31, 2005. On the minds of many Israeli political analysts (not to exclude ordinary concerned Israelis) is the whole approach of including terrorists groups in political process in the expectation that this will soften or modify them. This is most pertinent for us here with the increasing political involvement of Hamas in the P.A. But it applies elsewhere as well. Says Saul Singer of the International Affairs Center, "radical Islamists will not be moderated by participating in elections or gaining power." This, he recollects, was the rationale with the Oslo process -- once the old terrorist Arafat was given administrative responsbilities, he would change direction. Didn't exactly work that way. Yet now we see not only a tendency in some quarters to foster Hamas as a politically legitimate force, but to also do the same with Hezbollah in Lebanon (this is the EU take). The Muslim Brotherhood has already been permitted to participate in elections in Egypt. But the fact that these guys may win elections does not make them democrats. They will continue to pursue their radical goals and generate instability, often utilizing the system to their advantage or undermining that system. Should Hamas gain real political power in the P.A. it will utilize it to promote Israel's demise and continue to launch terrorist attacks. Jerusalem Post journalist Caroline Glick says that in their second term those in George Bush's administration "have transformed their activist policy into one best characterized by speaking loudly and carrying no stick." From where I sit, this is very worrisome stuff. The P.A. death sentence for collaborators is back in the news. "Collaborators" are those Palestinians who have assisted the IDF in locating known terrorists, who are then killed. (These are terrorists the P.A. was supposed to have been hunting down.) For this, the "collaborators" are labelled "traitors" -- which says a lot about where the P.A. is coming from -- and when caught have often been summarily lynched. In recent months, a number were jailed, and sentenced to death; Abbas signed off on their executions. (Let's hear it for P.A. democracy!) The Israel Law Center, Shurat Hadin, firmly believing that Israel has a responsibility to those who have helped us, filed a petition with the Israel Supreme Court regarding the matter. The response of the Israeli gov't was that the P.A. had lent assurances that these collaborators would not be executed. This was fascinating to me, as it fell into line with what I believe was behind-the-scenes intervention by the U.S. govt. See www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17948 for the piece I wrote on this. But now comes that old terrorist Muhammed Dahlan, now P.A. Civil Affairs Minister, protesting that there has been no assurance to Israel that these collaborators will not be executed. "We must deal with the collaborators firmly and in coordination with all Palestinian factions." Translation: Hamas will be really angry if we don't hit hard on the people who fingered Hamas "activists." Samir Rantisi was a local Palestinian journalist and an advocate of nonviolence. He was murdered in his bed early yesterday morning by Hani Yassin Dik, a senior official with the P.A. Ministry for Prisioner Affairs. The P.A. says this has nothing to do with his position as a journalist or the political stance he had taken. It was just a criminal act, they say. Believe it if you will. The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" |
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BUSINESS AS USUAL IN THE PALESTINE AUTHORITY
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, June 1, 2005. |
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This article was written by Daniel Pipes and appeared in Front Page Magazine
May 17, 2005, It isarchived at
www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=18085
The original has direct links to more material.
Yasir Arafat's demise in November excited great hopes among those who saw his malign personality as the main reason for Palestinian intransigence. But those of us who saw the problem as larger than Arafat - as resulting, rather, from the deep radicalization of the Palestinian body politic - expected little change. Indeed, I wrote at the time of Mahmoud Abbas' election to head the Palestinian Authority (PA) that, "he is potentially a far more formidable enemy to Israel" than was Arafat. How do things look a half year after Arafat's death? About as awful as anyone might have expected. Specifically, Abbas is unambiguously leading the Palestinians to war after the Israeli retreat from Gaza in August 2005. Consider some recent developments.
As a result of these steps, Palestinian terrorism, especially coming out of Gaza, has dramatically increased since April. Things have reached such a low point that one analyst, Leslie Susser, finds that the February cease-fire "may be on the verge of collapse." It is hard to argue with Caroline Glick's conclusion that the Sharon government and the Bush administration were both "horribly wrong" in betting on Abbas. And yet, neither of them concedes this error because, having stressed Abbas's good intentions, both now find themselves deeply invested in the success of his political career. The planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in August is likely to precipitate new rounds of violence. One could come in July, as the Israel Defense Forces engages in a massive sweep of Gaza to ensure that the forthcoming retreat takes place not under Palestinian fire. More violence will likely follow in September, as the Palestinians, Gaza now under their belt, begin a new assault on Israel. That round presumably will feature the substantial rocket arsenal that Hamas has been amassing. Israel's chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon is on record predicting, "Immediately after the disengagement we can expect a burst of terrorism." Thus has Ariel Sharon neatly arraigned all the elements for a massive train wreck. Ironically, the one thing that might prevent this scenario from playing out would be a Hamas victory in the Palestinian council elections scheduled for mid-July. Increasing numbers of Israeli voices are calling for the Gaza withdrawal to be postponed or even annulled should Hamas do well, as seems likely. For example, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has said if Hamas wins the elections, it would be "unreasonable" to implement the disengagement plan and allow Hamas to create a "Hamas-stan" in Gaza. So, there are many possibilities in the next four months. Their common element is that by September, the Arab-Israeli theater will be in yet worse shape than it is today. Marcel Cousineau can be reached at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. |
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THE BIGGEST DECEPTION OF ALL? DOES IRAN ALREADY HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, June 1, 2005. |
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While the world has been focusing on the IAEA negotiation with Iran on the extending of its moratorium on uranium-enrichment, there has been a revelation about the Iranian nuclear program which reportedly 'stunned' the White House and President Bush. 'Geostrategy' the Intelligence Agency directed by Bill Geertz has reported in the Washington Times that Iran thanks to the transfer of key plutonium- fuel technology from North Korea has already achieved nuclear capability. The Iranians a month ago who first threatened to renew their work on uranium enrichment, and then temporarily backed down on this- were apparently throwing sand in the eyes of the world. For their real focus in developing the weapons has been most probably on the plutonium and not the uraniaum enrichment process As for the delivery system for the weapon, the report says that late in 2004 the - Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps tested a command and control network that would permit a nuclear weapons warhead to be placed on an enhanced Shihab 3 missiles.? All this, if true, alters completely the Middle East and world strategic equation. For now the United States troops in Iraq and Southern Europe are under the threat of Iranian nuclear attack. All of the Middle East and most importantly Israel is under the Iranian nuclear threat. There is also the likelihood that, should this report be fully verified, a number of other nations will rush to go nuclear. Former American Secretary-of-State Henry Kissinger has envisaged the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran as leading to an exponential increase in the threat of nuclear disaster. The fact that Iran has most likely deceived the world again is no surprise. They after all had a hidden nuclear program for twenty years before an Iranian opposition group revealed this to the IAEA in October 2003. They too reportedly now have a parallel secret uranium- enrichment program. The IAEA has never been allowed access at a number of Iranian nuclear installations it requested to visit. A few days ago the Iranians publicly stated once again that they had no intention of attaining nuclear weapons. Statements along this line were made by former Iranian President Raftsanjani (The same Raftsanjani who has threatened that Israel would be destroyed in a nuclear exchange with Iran, while the much larger and more populous Iran would survive) and Hassan Rowhani, the chief Iranian negotiator with the IAEA. But the regime of the Mullahs in Iran has made so many contradictory statements over the years on the nuclear issue so as to have to say the least, questionable credibility. It is not at all clear how, or even if, the IAEA will react to this latest development. IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei is reported to be overjoyed at the success in Iran?s agreeing to temporarily extend its moratorium on uranium enrichment. And it is not clear what the United States will do, especially as it seems to be very much at a loss in what to do in regard to North Korean nuclear weapons. The US has just given Iran access to the World Trade Organization as a part of the deal for Iran to extend its uranium enrichment moratorium until July. There, a lack of cooperation on the part of the Chinese prevented US pressure from being truly effective on North Korea. And it seems that North Korea in transferring technology to Iran was not simply seeking to aid a fellow rogue state, but rather making a serious strategic complication for the United States, one which will diminish US pressure on Pyongyang. If Iran has attained nuclear capability, then all the tens if not hundreds of intelligence- estimates made by US and Israeli experts over the past few years as to when Iran would attain nuclear weapons have been wrong. So too, the hesitation and delay in forcefully dealing with the situation seems now to have been a critical error. With the US deeply involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel worrying about how to retreat from Gaza without the process leading to too great a humiliation, neither of the countries most likely to deal with the Iranian program seem likely to do so immediately. And this means that the world as a whole is likelier to be a much more dangerous place for a long time to come. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
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1967: WHY ISRAEL ENTERED THE WEST BANK
Posted by IsrAlert, June 1, 2005. |
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This comes from the BEYOND IMAGES website (http://www.beyondimages.info)
Summary:
It is often alleged that Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967 in an act of premeditated territorial expansion. In fact, the truth is the opposite. Israel only entered the West Bank when Jordan ignored its appeals to avoid hostilities on the first day of Israel's war with Egypt, and instead began intensive bombardment of Israeli civilian locations. Israel's entry into the West Bank in 1967 was an act of self-defence. Its presence there originated as a result, not of Israeli aggression, but of Jordanian aggression. This Briefing elaborates on the points made above. The information is extracted from Dr Michael Oren's book 'Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East' (Oxford University Press: 2002), which has been hailed as a definitive historical account of the war. The book is based on an exhaustive analysis of the archives, the published literature, and interviews with many of the main players, in Israel, Arab states, the USA and Russia. The West Bank 1949 - 1967 The build-up to the Six-Day War of June 1967 Israel's war against Egypt and Syria in June 1967 was the culmination of several years of tension, including sustained shelling by Syria of civilian Israeli targets in the Galilee and unrelenting terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians by Palestinian groups operating from Syria. The immediate causes of the war were, however, various steps taken by Egypt, led by President Gamel-Abdel Nasser, in May 1967:-
Israel perceived these moves to be a prelude to war. Diplomacy aimed at averting war failed. By 4 June 1967 combined Arab forces confronting Israel numbered 900 combat aircraft, 5,000 tanks and 500,000 soldiers. War between Egypt and Israel broke out on June 5 1967. Moshe Dayan's Order: no war with Jordan Days before the outbreak of the war, Jordan entered into a mutual defence treaty with Egypt, and also permitted thousands of Iraqi soldiers to mass on its territory (Iraq and Israel do not share a border). Said Iraqi President Ar'ef: "our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the face of the map..." Yet Israel's newly-appointed Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, wishing to confine hostilities if possible to the imminent battles against Egypt, ordered the Israeli Army not to open a second front with Jordan in the West Bank in the event of war. On 3 June he instructed the head of the Israeli Army Central Command: "You must not do anything to entangle Israel with the Jordanians..." (Oren p155) Israel's appeals to Jordan to avoid war War broke out on 5 June when Israel responded to the Egyptian military build-up by launching a surprise attack on Egypt's air force, destroying most of it on the ground within a matter of hours. That same morning, Israel sent a message to Jordan's leader King Hussein via the US State Department, the UN and the British Foreign Office, saying that, despite the outbreak of war, it would not attack the West Bank if Jordan maintained quiet on that front. Jordan's offensive against Israel on the first day of the war Jordan ignored Israel's appeal to avoid conflict. That morning, King Hussein received false information from Egypt denying Egyptian losses and claiming a massive and successful Egyptian attack against Israel. Emboldened by this information, Jordan launched immediate multiple attacks on Israel:-
"Jerusalem is totally engulfed in war..." reported the British Consul-General that morning. All this happened before Israel reacted militarily against Jordan, or moved at all into the West Bank. Israel responds In face of this intensive bombardment that Israel responded, launching attacks on Jordanian airfields and on Jordanian forces in the Northern West Bank, and in the outskirts of Jerusalem. Thus Israel had to open a second front in the war, while still fighting the Egyptian army in the Sinai desert. After three days of fighting between Israel and the Jordanians, Israel conquered the West Bank, and East Jerusalem (including the Old City). It destroyed much of the Jordanian army and air force and drove the remainder of the Jordanian military from the West Bank across to the East Bank of the Jordan. Thousands of West Bank Palestinians came under Israeli military control. Conclusion Israel's entry into the West Bank in June 1967 was not part of a premeditated Israeli plan for territorial expansion. Quite the opposite: Israel's own Defence Minister instructed the army not to fight the Jordanians, or move into the West Bank. That position only changed as a result of Jordan's disregard for Israeli appeals to avoid hostilities, and by its intensive bombardment of Israeli targets. Israel's entry into the West Bank was an act of self-defence. Its presence there originates as a result, not of Israeli aggression, but of Jordanian aggression. Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
| GUSH KATIF |
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, June 1, 2005. |
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Dear friends, Can you tell what is wrong with this picture? Sharon releases 400 Palestinian terrorists. President Bush praises Abu Mazen for his "success" in curbing terrorist gangs and donates 50 million dollars to his corrupt Palestinian Authority. This, while Kassam rockets shower Sderot and other Israeli communities, Islamic Jihad continues its attempts at suicide bombings in Jerusalem (see Haaretz news report following the Ya'alon interview) and the Sharon government continues with its crazy plan to evict 8000 Israeli citizens from Gush Katif. I am not alone in warning against the dangerous evacuation of Gush Katif. It is abundantly clear that Hamas and all other terror organizations will declare a victory for terror and continue to attack Israel with all the means at their disposal. Abu Mazen says so himself: "Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) threatened Sunday, in an English-language interview program, to renew terrorism if the PLO's demands are not met." (http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=82932) The warning has also been given by none other than the retiring IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon. Friends, THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL!!! Here is the deal. Terror and violence pays: If Israel gave them Gush Katif, they will demand the entire Judea, Samaria & Gaza; give them J,S & G and they will demand the 1949 lines; if Israel withdrew to the 1949 lines, they will demand the 1947 lines. Give them the 1947 lines and they will go for Tel-Aviv. How long and at which point will the Israeli leadership and the leftist elements in Israeli society realize what to many has been clear since 1993 and the Oslo debacle? It is clear to me that this developing scenario must be reversed, or there will never be a chance for a peaceful solution. Reversed how? Simple: Every time an Israeli is murdered, Israel annexes more territory and builds a village named after the victim. Here is what IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon said today on the matter. "Ya'alon: Israel to face terror war after pullout," (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/582916.html ) by Ari Shavit, Haaretz Correspondent Moshe Ya'alon, leaving the post of army chief Wednesday after three years, warned in an interview with Haaretz that unless Israel commits to further withdrawals after this summer's disengagement from Gaza, the pullout will be followed by an outbreak of renewed violence Prior to handing his position to successor Dan Halutz, Ya'alon also said in the interview that the establishment of a Palestinian state would lead to war at some stage. In a Wednesday ceremony at the Prime Minister's Office marking the transition, Ya'alon said that it was Israel's military efforts that brought the Palestinians to cease their campaign of terrorism, at least for the present. In a widely criticised move earlier this year, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz departed from past practice and refused to extend Ya'alon's three-year term by another year. Mofaz was conspicuously absent from the long list of personages to whom Ya'alon voiced thanks during the ceremony. The tension between the two also led Mofaz to say in a later speech, "The fact that we did not also ways see eye-to-eye took nothing away from the high esteem in which I hold you in your loyal service and your contribution to the state." 'Without a new pullout, an eruption' "I was given the trust and the privilege to command the IDF during three of some of the most difficult, complex, and fateful combat since the War of Independence. In this fighting, the IDF and the security forces scored many unprecedended achievements," Ya'alon told the ceremony. "There is no doubt in my heart that the military achievements were what brought our enemy to the awareness, for the moment, that terrorism doesn't pay." In the interview, published earlier on Wednesday, Ya'alon said "If there is an Israeli commitment to another move, we will gain another period of quiet." "If not, there will be an eruption ... Terrorist attacks of all types: shooting, bombs, suicide bombers, mortars, Qassam rockets." Without an additional withdrawal, "there is a high probability of a second war of terror," which will begin in the West Bank. Asked whether Ya'alon intended to say that, following the disengagement, Kfar Sava's situation will be like Sderot's today, he responded: "And Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, too. There will be suicide bombings wherever they can perpetrate them." Halutz, following Ya'alon's speech at the Prime Minister's Office, declared that "We must not drag the IDF into the public debate that accompanies the disengagement plan." "Division and refusal will not be accepted, whatever their reasons." But Halutz later indicated that the statement was not intended as a swipe at statements by Ya'alon which have been interpreted as political in content. Ya'alon: Palestinian state will lead to war In the interview, Ya'alon said that recent statements by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas show that Abbas "has not given up the right of return. And this is not a symbolic right of return, but the right of return as a claim to be realized. To return to the houses, to return to the villages. The implication of this is that there will not be a Jewish state here." Therefore, he said, the establishment of a Palestinian state will lead to war "at some stage," and such a war could be dangerous for Israel. The idea that a Palestinian state can be established by 2008, and will then produce stability, is "divorced from reality" and "dangerous," as any such state "will be a state that will try to undermine Israel." Asked about the current situation in the PA, Ya'alon responded: "For the Palestinians it is still convenient to maintain a gang-based reality rather than a state foundation. "When [the PA] permits Hamas to take part in the elections without abandoning its firearms, is that democracy? It's gangs. Armed gangs playing at pretend democracy," he said. "If Fatah continues to behave as it does now, Hamas will eventually take over the Gaza Strip," he added. Regarding the IDF's plans for implementing the disengagement from Gaza, Ya'alon said that the army is preparing for the possibility of entering Khan Yunis "if there is shooting from there" during the withdrawal. The disengagement, he continued, will not create a "situation of stability." Therefore, "I do not rule out" the possibility that the army will return to the Gaza Strip at some point. Ya'alon said it is impossible to know how long the disengagement will take. "The question is whether we evacuate 8,000 residents or 20,000 Israeli citizens or maybe 50,000. If you evacuate 8,000, it could last three weeks. If you have to evacuate more, it could take longer." In other words, he said, it is too soon to talk about the withdrawal as a fait accompli. "If and when we complete the move, we will talk about a fait accompli." Asked for his views on the general concept of two states for two peoples, he said: "In the present reality, I see difficulty in producing a stable situation of end-of-conflict within that paradigm." A two-state solution, he continued, is simply "not relevant. It is a story that the Western world tells with Western eyes. And that story does not comprehend the scale of the gap and the scale of the problem. We, too, are sweeping it under the carpet." Asked whether he fears for Israel's existence, Ya'alon responded: "A combination of terrorism and demography, with question marks among us about the rightness of our way, are a recipe for a situation in which there will not be a Jewish state here in the end." Regarding the army that he leaves behind, Ya'alon said he was concerned about the existence of a "criminal subculture" in the army that has even reached senior officers and become a "malignant disease." A double suicide bombing planned to take place in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood Thursday morning was foiled recently by the Shin Bet security service, the Israel Defense Forces and the Jerusalem District Police. Five Islamic Jihad activists have been arrested in connection with the affair; security forces also have seized the two explosive devices that were to be used in the attack. The two would-be suicide bombers have yet to be apprehended. The Islamic Jihad network from the Tul Karm and Jenin areas is said to be behind the planned attack. The same network was responsible for the February suicide bombing at the Stage nightclub in Tel Aviv that left five Israelis dead. Since then, security forces have arrested dozens of members of the network, which has continued to plan additional attacks including some that have been foiled. Shin Bet sources say that in recent weeks, the Tul Karm-Jenin network had been in contact with Islamic Jihad activists in the Bethlehem area, with the objective of carrying out terror attacks in Jerusalem. Security forces made their first arrest in connection with the affair Monday, apprehending Bethlehem resident Iad Fuajara, 27. He was arrested on his way back to Bethlehem from Ramallah, where he had met with another activist in the network, Mohammed Radad, 24, from the village of Tseida, near Tul Karm. Fuajara told his interrogators that a few days earlier, he had been recruited by fellow Bethlehem resident Hamza Brijia with the intention of taking charge of the suicide bombers. Brijia was released from administrative detention in late February, and since has served as head of the Islamic Jihad network in Bethlehem. Fuajara added that the two suicide bombers were set to detonate their explosive devices in Ramot simultaneously - on a bus, in a coffee bar or in a synagogue. He said he had met up with the two men, who were in possession of the explosive devices, at a mosque in the Shuafat refugee camp, in northern Jerusalem. He had tried on two occasions to get them into Jerusalem, but was unable to bypass the roadblocks, he recounted. He then hid the two explosive devices near Beit Hanina, and the two would-be bombers returned to Tul Karm. Fuajara met again with Radad last week, receiving money and instructions from the Islamic Jihad man. The two met again in Ramallah Monday. This time, Radad passed on new instructions: Fuajara was to purchase a car that he would use to get to Tul Karm on Thursday, and then drive the bombers to Jerusalem. Fuajara led security forces to where the 5.5.-kilogram explosive devices were hidden near Beit Hanina. Fuajara's arrest was promptly followed by the arrest of Radad, Brijia and two more Islamic Jihad activists - Ali Rashid, 28, from Bethlehem, and Mohand Abu-Rumi, 31, from the village of al-Azariye, near Bethlehem. Abu-Rumi, who also was released from Israeli detention recently, was involved in purchasing materiel for the network. Shin Bet sources said last night that the Islamic Jihad network in the northern West Bank had recently set up branches in the Bethlehem area in an effort to expand its scope of activities and carry out additional terror attacks in Jerusalem. According to the sources, Israel has passed on the names of the Islamic Jihad leaders in Tul Karm to the Palestinian Authority on a number of occasions, but the PA's security mechanisms have failed to take any action in this regard. The Shin Bet sources say Islamic Jihad no longer sees itself bound by the cease-fire in the territories, and is working intensively to carry out terror attacks. Fatah factions, activists in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and members of the Popular Committees in the Gaza Strip are also involved in planning attacks, the Shin Bet sources say. Hamas' undertaking to maintain the period of calm is also eroding, particularly in the Gaza Strip, the Shin Bet says.
Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send
an email to ynz@netvision.net.il
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THE FBI'S INVESTIGATION OF AIPAC
Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, June 1, 2005. |
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The extremely comfortable and secure American
Jewish community is totally unaware of the deadly peril that is even
now threatening the security that it takes for granted. But in the
near future, this peril will become too visible and immediate to be
ignored any longer. I speak of the FBI's ongoing investigation of the
American-Israel Public Affairs Committee - AIPAC - which has been
ongoing for four years now and is very far from being over.
A low-ranking civilian employee of the Pentagon, Larry Franklin, was formally charged on May 4 with having given classified information two years previously to two high-ranking executives of AIPAC who were not legally entitled to the information. The two former AIPAC officials, Steve Rosen, the Director of research about foreign policy issues for AIPAC, and Keith Weissman, the deputy director of policy research with responsibility for policy towards Iran, were dismissed from their positions in January as the investigation of them gathered momentum. Four even more senior AIPAC executives, Executive Director Howard Kohr, Managing Director Richard Fishman, Research Director Rafael Danziger and Communications Director Renee Rothstein, were grilled by a grand jury in December 2004. AIPAC's offices have been raided twice by the FBI, and computer discs belonging to the two suspects have been seized. No one is sure exactly when the other shoe will drop. But both FBI and AIPAC "sources" speaking off the record have said they expect that Rosen and Weissman will also be arrested and charged with having passed on the information, which they are alleged to have known was classified "top secret," to Israel. They are not suspected of having actually received or passed on secret documents to Israel - only information that Franklin had gleaned from reading such documents. According to the complaint filed by the FBI against Franklin, the information he is supposed to have conveyed to the two AIPAC executives concerned possible terrorist threats to U.S. soldiers in Iraq from groups and individuals supported by Iran. Why is any of this important to the American Jewish community? Polls taken by the Anti-Defamation League have shown that the prejudice held most widely by their fellow Americans against American Jews is the belief that they are more loyal to the state of Israel than to the United States. According to the ADL polls, fully half of the American public suspects their Jewish compatriots of "dual loyalty." One striking example of the practical consequences of this prejudice is the almost incredibly harsh sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole that was imposed on Jonathan Pollard for spying for Israel in 1985. Pollard has already served twenty years of his sentence, with no end to it except his death in sight. By contrast, all individuals convicted of spying for other countries allied to, or even on reasonably cordial terms with, the United States have received sentences of less than ten years. The investigation of AIPAC, if it leads to the conviction of AIPAC executives, is certain to greatly increase this prejudice and give it new respectability among America's elite classes - government officials, journalists, academics, think-tankers and all other decision-makers and opinion-makers. AIPAC is widely perceived in the Washington "beltway" as a representative of the American Jewish community as a whole. AIPAC is sponsored and supported in one way or another by nearly all of the organizations represented on the board of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the umbrella group that speaks for the American Jewish community to the U.S. government. It is not a marginal group that has been denounced by all mainstream American Jewish organizations and leaders, like the Jewish Defense League, whose leader, Irving Rubin, was arrested for alleged conspiracy two years ago, and who then died under suspicious circumstances in prison. Nor are AIPAC's leaders like Jonathan Pollard, a low-ranking government employee without connections to the rich and powerful, who acted entirely on his own to provide Israel with intelligence about terrorist organizations and hostile Arab regimes. By contrast, AIPAC and its executives are perceived to be at the center of the American Jewish "establishment," the "organized American Jewish community." If AIPAC is discredited in the eyes of the American public as a nest of spies, then the loyalty of every single American Jew will be put in question. But it is Israel itself that is probably the FBI investigators' primary target. The anonymous FBI "sources," speaking to LA Times and New York Times reporters, have claimed that Israel runs a larger espionage operation in, and against, the United States than any other foreign country except Russia. This allegation has been vehemently denied by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who says that Israel has not spied on the United States since the Pollard affair in 1985. What will the AIPAC case mean for Israel? AIPAC has been the main advocate for Israel's interests with Congress and successive administrations in Washington for more than a generation. If Israel's principal American advocates in Washington are branded as Israeli spies, American friendship with Israel will be severely strained. And it is by no means certain that Israel and her six million Jewish inhabitants, surrounded by far more numerous enemies baying for their blood, can survive without at least one powerful friend somewhere in the world. And what does the FBI's AIPAC probe mean for the United States? Clearly the four year investigation of one of America's closest allies in the war on terrorism and its American supporters must have consumed millions of dollars, and hundreds of hours of time put in by highly trained agents, that could have been better spent in fighting the war on terrorism. Does America have anything to lose as a result of the AIPAC investigation? Potentially, a great deal. Far from being sympathetic to the terrorists who have attacked American civilians and soldiers over the past four years and have killed over four thousand Americans, Israel has provided the United States with massive assistance in fighting them. This assistance has included a constant flow of information gathered by Israeli intelligence to the United States, the training of American soldiers by their very experienced Israeli counterparts in counter-terrorist and counterinsurgency tactics, and logistical support for our troops in Iraq. The United States military, according to many well-informed sources, quietly and without fanfare maintains supply bases in Israel for the war in Iraq and to meet other possible security threats in the region. American and Israeli forces have conducted joint maneuvers along Israel's Mediterranean coast. Israeli engineers have developed much of the American military's cutting-edge weapons technology in recent years. A highly publicized show trial focused on supposed espionage by a loyal and very helpful ally of the United States would put this military and intelligence cooperation, and with it the national security of the United States, in the gravest jeopardy. Are the accusations against Larry Franklin and the two AIPAC officials true? Does AIPAC engage in espionage against the United States? Does Israel? What are the motives behind the investigation? Who is spearheading it? Rachel Neuwirth is a Los Angeles-based analyst on the board of directors of the West Coast Region of the American Jewish Congress and the chairperson of the organization's Middle East committee. Contact her by email at rachterry@sbcglobal.net This article appeared in American Thinker and is archived at http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4539 John Landau contributed research and reporting to this article. |
| GUSH KATIF |
HANG ON, WE'RE WITH YOU
Posted by Rachel Saperstein, June 1, 2005. |
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I awake each morning and the panic of my nightmare subsides. "Thank
you, G-d," I say. "I'm still in my home this morning."
I think this nightmare in its variant forms is repeated over and over in homes throughout Gush Katif. Every person I meet each day, all of our neighbors - rich, poor, big house, small house - share one fate. We are all to be expelled - every man, woman and child. There will be no exceptions. There will be no pleading. There will be no pardons. Every single Jew will be dispossessed. Each family will receive the knock on the door. "Now you must leave! There is nowhere to hide. We're so... sorry", a pale faced soldier whispers. "We're just following the orders of the government of Israel." "We have no home. Please just let us stay a day longer. The baby is sick." "No. We have orders to remove you." A soldier begins to weep. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Please G-d, may this scene just not happen. But the tension increases with each day. And we turn to our friends. The e-mails and phone calls come in from people around the world. "Please hang on. We're with you. Don't, please don't sign your houses away. Don't evict yourself. We have organized groups here in our home time. We are praying for you. We are wearing orange shirts, bracelets and caps. We're writing to our assemblymen, to our parliament, to our leaders. We are planning to demonstrate in support of Gush Katif. We plan to come to Israel and block the road to Gush Katif so the army and police cannot pull you out. Just hang on!" In the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem thousands of shekels were collected to help Gush Katif farmers as the banks refuse to give them loans. Others are signing on to participate in "other activities". From Norway a Christian gentleman spoke of the growing violence perpetrated by Muslim mobs against the Christians. Our media does not report the incidents. He pleaded, "You must not reward terrorists with your homes. If Israel does this, we in Europe will suffer. They will want Norway as well." A neighbor received a phone call from Australia. "Shimon, there are signs all over Australia, 'Don't Give Gush Katif to the Arabs.' You know they don't even know where Gush Katif is but they're angry that Arabs are getting a place called Gush Katif." A massive ad campaign is being held in Los Angeles. We received a copy of the ad put out by SaveGushKatif.org. Go on the internet and marvel at the ad. I am leaving this evening to New York. There will be a massive rally and concert in Central Park in solidarity with Gush Katif. Dror Vanunu, head of the Katif Development Fund, and I will represent the Gush. Wear your orange shirt and hat and be with us so we can say hello. The children of Israel, the secular communities, the religious kibbutz movement - more and more are awakening to the danger facing Israel if Gush Katif is abandoned. Car after car in Israel is adorned with the flag of Israel and an orange ribbon. Thank you everybody. Last night I slept without a nightmare and thanked G-d that I was in my room in Neve Dekalim - in Gush Katif. Rachel Saperstein and her husband Moshe live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel. She is a teacher at the Neve Dekalim ulpana and a spokeswoman for the Katif Regional Council. |
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AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ANTICHRIST
Posted by Beth Goodtree, June 1, 2005. |
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After searching far and wide for the Antichrist, he has finally
identified himself through his actions and intentions. Therefore, for
the first time ever, I am pleased to present an interview with His
Infernal Evilness, The Antichrist.
Interviewer: Glad to have you here, Your Infernal Evilness. Antichrist: (giving off a bit of steam) Glad to be here. I've worked damned hard (excuse the little joke) to get to a point where people would accept me. Interviewer: Could you tell us a little about that please. Antichrist: As you know, I like the subtle approach. Rather than appearing in my magnificently Infernal true form, I choose to work through weak humans. It all started with that accursed snake, but I learned my lesson. Never do anything half-asped. So I moved on to Cain, but Hell, he only killed one guy. However, it's not like there were a lot of people in the world then. Only 4, if I remember. So through Cain I killed off 25% of the world. Not bad if you're a statistics slave. Then there was Nero. My kinda guy. Loved fire. After that, came the other Romans. Danced around naked, had holy sex orgies. Killed at least a quarter of a million Jews, including one very special one. Personally, I think that was a mistake since it turned him into a martyr with over a billion followers. But hey ho! I got not a few of his followers to commit MY INFERNAL EVIL in HIS name. Interviewer: Speaking of that one Jew and his followers.... Antichrist: Boy, I really turned them around. I love it when a plan comes together! The Crusades, the Inquisition -- they were all my doing. Murder in the name of a loving God. You-Know-Who was not at all happy. Nothing like giving the Big Guy a bad reputation! Interviewer: What I'd really like to discuss is your influence in the context of today's events. Can you comment on that? Antichrist: To paraphrase a bit of poetry, "How can I destroy the world, let me count the ways..." Ya know, I nearly did it with Hitler and Hirohito. Hirohito suffered from hubris and Hitler was a weak-minded fool. That made both of them easy to control. And while their defeat at first looked like a set-back, it was merely a temporary halt to the generational foundations of evil I was building. I even got an American involved. One who would spawn a mighty empire of leaders. US senator Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. Through him I had planted a seed which is blossoming today. And then there are the Arabs and Muslims. Boy, I got to them good. And it's all part of a bigger plan. Interviewer: Which is? Antichrist: To take over the world of course and turn it into a dead, burnt-out rock dedicated to evil and chaos. Interviewer: So what's been stopping you? Antichrist: Those do-gooders and especially the Jews. Interviewer: The Jews? Antichrist: Oh yeah. They are the front line in my war against You-Know-Who. Do you know how many times I've tried to kill them off? They are the key to the whole thing. Interviewer: How is that? Anti-Christ: God gave his laws and teachings to them through Moses, for them to keep and share with the world. And He promised the Jewish people that as long as they kept the faith and The Word unaltered, he would protect them. This is what is meant by them being 'Chosen.' God chose them to have more burdens than everyone else. But I managed to pervert that in the minds of the weak. I took the inferior-minded people and made them think that being a 'Chosen' Jew meant that Jews were better than them. And it's still working today. You got these replacement theology Christians who are so jealous of the Jews that they say that when the bible refers to 'Israel' it really means them. And of course the majority of Muslims hate the Jews, in part, because of this whole 'Chosen' thing which I perverted in their already damaged minds. However, so as long as there is one Jew left on the planet, I'm fighting a losing battle. And as long as Israel survives, I might as well pack it in. Because of the Jews and Israel, the Messiah can come and he'd be the end of me. So destroying Israel and the Jews is the key to my success. I almost wiped them all out with that yutz Hitler, but he was too stupid and listened to a bunch of loony astrologers. It lost him the war and I'd only wiped out half of all the Jews. Interviewer: So what are you doing about the Jews today? Antichrist: You're gonna love this. I got control over some of the most powerful leaders in the world today! And they're all set to destroy Israel. Interviewer: Who? And How? Antichrist: One is the grandson of that American traitor who made his family fortune funding and trading with the Nazis. This grandson was so easy to possess. He already had hubris from the fact that he was born with a platinum spoon in his mouth. Then he did a lot of drugs and alcohol in his youth. Nothing's easier than possessing a soul that is drugged. Plus he belonged to that elite occult fraternity the Skull and Bones. Frankly, if I hadn't possessed him, he would have become my soldier anyway. But I was taking no chances here. I needed a human form to spread my Infernal Divineness all over the world. And humans are so incredibly dense. Why has no one seen my Infernal hand behind his meteoric rise from chemically-impaired loser to President of the only super power in the world? Even his daddy's money and influence couldn't have done that alone. Did you know I'm thinking of using 'Hanging Chad' as my middle name? Ha ha. Interviewer: So what about what's going on now? Antichrist: Well, once I possessed him and he won the 2000 election, I began operating quietly. After all, he'd need to win the 2004 election too, so I couldn't tip my hand too soon. Now you're really gonna love this. I had my right-hand demon, Asmodai, possess Osama bin Laden way back in the 1970's. At that time, Osama was ripe for the possessing because he was a club-hopping, drug using, hard-drinking rich dilettante. Now Asmodai, working through Osama, engineered 9-11. And why? Well, Osama thought it was because America was 'oppressing' him and the other Muslims. Of course this was exactly opposite from the truth. The Muslims oppress themselves. But there's nothing like a really big lie to counter the truth. And I am the King of Lies, ya know. But the reason why I had Asmodai engineer 9-11 was to destroy Israel. Interviewer: How can that be? Everyone knows that Israel had nothing to do with 9-11. Antichrist: Ah but it does! Did anyone notice how fast -- within days of 9-11-- my alter ego in the White House offered Israel as a sacrifice to the Muslims? He was the first president ever to recognize the Arab terrorists as 'legitimate' all the while saying "you are either with us or the terrorists." And it was only through my control of the liberal media that no one noticed the utter hypocrisy. Ha ha! And people say the Jews control the media! I hate to inform them, but I ain't a Jew. Interviewer: So what else have you done towards your goal of destroying Israel? Antichrist: As you might have suspected, Arafat was really one of my demons. And while he never killed more than maybe a few 10's of thousands of Jews, he did go a long way towards fooling the world into hating Israel for being a free and democratic country. And then there was his brilliant scheme to bamboozle the world into think the Arabs he led were a separate and distinct people. Even when his own PLO Executive Committee Member, Zuheir Muhsein told the world "There is no such thing as the Palestinian people..." no one listened. Interviewer: But getting back to today's current affairs... Antichrist: I don't like to brag....well, yes I do....as the possessor of the current US president, I hoodwinked the majority of voting Americans into believing he supported Israel, all the while calling for the establishment of a terrorist entity in her heartland. I was brilliant. Of course, as soon as I/He was in office once again and therefore untouchable, I let loose with my true intentions. First there was that Terry Schiavo debacle. As the possessor of the US president, I could have intervened to keep her alive. But hey, she'd been a vegetable for 15 years. I say kill her and cook her. That's what one does with vegetables. Interviewer: (horrified) But...but.... Antichrist: (Pulling himself up to his full Infernal eight
of 1000 feet)
But you thought I was a nice guy? Because I am suave and
urbane and can chat amiably in an interview? You fool!
Listen witch, I AM the American President, and I control
many others. You wanna hear what I'm gonna do about you puny
do-gooders?
Already I am forcing Israel to turn herself from one country into
two small islands surrounded by raving mobs of Arabs who like nothing
more than decapitating Christians and Jews and rolling their heads
down the street while keeping the body parts as fond memories of their
debauched blood lusts.
I am going to force Israel to give up the only thing that has been
protecting her all these years -- her nuclear weapons. Then I am going to make sure that no Jews ever are allowed near the Temple Mount. If the Jews took it back, they'd have their Messiah in no time and I'd be finished. Next I am going to make certain that Israel is destroyed. This is to make doubly sure that there is no Messiah. And then I'm gonna go after the 'good' Christians in earnest. You think a few beheadings in Iraq are bad? Wait til you see how I'm gonna have the Muslims take over America. Already, as the President of the US, I have the terror-supporting radical Islamist group CAIR as my advisors. I have radical Muslims as my Army chaplains. I have nice barbecues with the founders and supporters of radical Islam, the Saudis. And, I am pleased to say, they fund most of the mosques in America. I'm gonna force your children to pray to Allah in
their schools as part of their diversity curriculum.
I'm gonna force all of you to wear my ID chips at all times. I'm gonna take over this 2-bit planet... Beth Goodtree is an award-winning writer who lives in the NYC metro area. She writes political commentary/analysis, and the occasional science and humor articles. Or visit her website: http://hometown.aol.com/bgoodtree/ |
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STRATEGY AGAINST TERRORISM; SHARON LIES TO AIPAC; ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT NOT OVER LAND
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, June 1, 2005. |
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SHARON WORKING WITHOUT LEVERAGE
Regardless of Jewish criticism over his abandonment plan, PM Sharon reiterated his determination to proceed with it. He also demanded that the P.A. stop attacks on Israelis. PM Sharon foresees "a new era of trust" leading to a P.A. state, provided Israel's security is guaranteed. He praised Abbas, but said its promises to control his own forces and prevent attacks on Israel "must be translated into real actions on the ground." There, the Arabs still are manufacturing and smuggling weapons. The terrorist organizations must be dismantled, before there would be progress towards statehood (Steven R. Weisman, NY Times, 5/25, A4). Do you notice the contradictions in what Sharon posits? Contradiction: Sharon praises Abbas, but said his promises to prevent terrorism must be implemented. What is there to praise of someone who breaks promises? Usually, one chides such a person. Sharon is engaging in pretense. Israeli pretense strengthens the Arab case against Israel, by failing to explode it. Contradiction: Sharon foresees "a new era of trust," but Abbas is not keeping his promise to curb terrorism. Neither is Abbas keeping his promise to end the incitement to violence against Israel. His government-owned media still preaches antisemitism and murder, and he still lauds terrorists as martyrs. The P.A. record of untrustworthiness -- and their ethic of deceiving infidels -- speaks for itself. What has Abbas done to undo that earned reputation? Nothing, but he makes Arafat-like demands on Israel and on the US. Contradiction: The P.A. should dismantle the terrorist organizations and stop the attacks on Israelis, but in any case Israel will withdraw from a major area that would form their state. If Israel announced that it would not withdraw until the attacks ceased and the terrorist organizations were eradicated not just suspend operations, it might get results. Israel would have leverage. Instead, as usual, the Arabs get the reward without doing their signed duty. The P.A. constantly demands that the US force Israel to do the P.A.'s bidding. What has the P.A. done to deserve any such consideration? If Pres. Bush could break away from his upbringing as a friend of the Saudis, he would realize that his own patriotic duty is to get not just the terrorist organizations dismantled, but the P.A. dismantled, just as he got the Taliban and Saddam regimes dismantled. STRATEGY IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM Most wars these days are part of international jihad. The US has been reducing the number of states supporting international terrorism from eight to five, and is changing some of the remaining five. Victory depends on cutting off the terrorist organizations from state sponsorship. The US can and should mount an air operation to reduce Iran's threat, and let the people of Iran rise up to end the clerical regime there. That would reduce Hizbullah greatly, and therefore Hamas, and hence the Arab-Israel conflict. That conflict cannot be solved until all the terrorists are defeated (IMRA, 5/23 from Jer. Center for Public Affairs). The author, a general, makes many valid points, one invalid implication, and one grievously short-sighted one. He thinks that terrorist organizations get their funding only from state sponsorship. The number of countries from which terrorist organizations draw funding is many greater than eight. Foremost among the non-terrorist states is the United States. (You may count it among the terrorist states, because it finances the terrorist P.A. government). The US is trying to shut off funding, as is Europe, but with large local Muslim populations, the millions flow out to jihad. The general fails to count the P.A. as a terrorist entity. What does he think its PLO is? HIZBULLAH'S STRATEGY IN LEBANON The head of Hizbullah had devised a strategy of joining the democratization movement in order to take over the country. He is popular among the Shiites in Lebanon, who make up almost half the population. Syria's withdrawal has made it more difficult for him. Now the groups victorious in evicting the Syrian forces are demanding that his be disarmed, too (IMRA, 4/23) as the Security Council Resolution requires. If Hizbullah disarmed and gained power, it would then direct the Lebanese Army against Israel. ABBAS' WORD-GAMES The US demands that the P.A. turn its P.A. military into a counter-terrorist force and institute democracy. When demands are made upon the P.A., it distorts their meaning and claims to be in compliance. Thus Abbas claims he has combated terrorism by getting Hamas to agree to suspend terrorism, and has instituted democracy by continuing to have elections. Those claims are deceitful. All he did with the P.A. police forces was say he merged them, but he did not make them anti-terrorist. Their troops don't pursue terrorists, only their recruiters do. Filling the ranks with terrorists hardly makes them anti-terrorist. He has treated the terrorist militias with respect and subsidy and pledged not to attack them. As for the ceasefire, the Arabs do not adhere to it. The newspapers keep reporting their renewal of fidelity to it, after each day's violation of it. The militias are rearming in order to fight more intensely when ready. The P.A. police assist in this rearmament. To win the "democratic" election, Abbas courted the terrorists. He expanded the "democracy" by offering to bring into it Hamas, which should be banned. Still controlling the media, he uses it to incite hatred against Israel and his benefactor, from which he demands more aid, the US. Instead of acknowledging that Abbas remains the enemy of peace and an enemy of the US, the US coordinator, Gen. Ward, demanded that Israel release hundreds more Arab prisoners. Gen. Ward argues that Israel can't expect the P.A. to honor its commitments without Israel honoring its own. "So for Ward, in order to get Abbas to fight terrorism, it is necessary for Israel to strengthen the terrorists." That is backwards logic. The US is fostering a rogue P.A. state (IMRA, 5/23 from Caroline Glick). I think she is one of the best analysts. But the Map does not require releasing prisoners, mostly terrorists. U.S. GOVERNMENT ANTI-JEWISH? Probing for supposed intelligence leaks, US agents have been interrogating numerous US Jewish officials and private citizens for years, focusing on AIPAC. The government has leaked allegations but only one indictment and not of someone in AIPAC. The objective seems to be a fishing expedition in the hope of criminalizing the US-Israel relationship. The investigation, itself, has become suspect (Foreign Ministry, 5/24 from Jer. Post). SHARON LIES TO AIPAC PM Sharon claims that his abandonment plan has raised Israel's international status and enabled it to keep major parts of Judea-Samaria. He asserts that appeasement reinforces terrorism, but he appeases it by planning to abandon territory to it (IMRA, 5/24). No, he did not reduce hatred of Israel; it is a pariah. Neither did he win approval for keeping territory, not from the State Dept.. WHY ABU MAZEN DOES NOT REPRESS TERRORISM He relates to terrorists as heroes. His problem is not lack of means to eradicate terrorism. It is lack of will, according to Israeli intelligence (IMRA, 5/24). No, it's his being a terrorist, himself. P.A. OBJECTS TO P.A. PREACHER'S SERMON A P.A. employee delivered over P.A. airwaves his usual sermon against the U.S.. This time the P.A. chided him. It did not object to his vicious and false criticism of the US and his exhortation to conquer Israel. It objects to his doing so now, shortly before P.A. head Abbas is due in Washington to beg for more foreign aid as a friendly, democratic, peacemaking regime. The sermons could be thrown back in Abbas' face as evidence of its opposite nature (Steven Stalinsky, NY Sun, 5/25, p.8). I think that Abbas need not worry. Pres. Bush seems more interested in pretending that the P.A. is making progress so he can strengthen it at Israel's expense, than he is in questioning the wisdom of constructing a regime that calls for the destruction of America. Considering what terrorists have done to America, the President is letting us down. ATTORNEY-GENERAL VETOES COMPENSATION PLANS Two of the three methods of compensating property owners forced out of Gaza and northern Samaria were declared illegal by Attorney-Gen. Mazuz. Settlers reacted cynically that the government does not know what to do with them (Arutz-7, 5/24). PM Sharon is bent on swift expulsion, although he has not completed provision for the evacuees, despite having concentrated on that aspect. He has neglected provision for the Arab reaction. ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT IS NOT OVER LAND "One of the few things unchallengeable about the Middle East conflict is that it has virtually nothing to do with land. Arab countries already control 6,145,389 square miles of land. That is almost twice the land area of the United States, which is 3,537,438 square miles, and about the same as the land area of Russia. Israel, even when including all of the "occupied territories" retained from the 1967 Six Day War, controls less than 10,000 square miles." "The West Bank and the Gaza Strip comprise about 2300 square miles (a bit less when deducting Jerusalem and its suburbs from the account), which is about half the size of the Everglades." "The Moonbats-against-Israel lobby wants us to believe that with 6,145,389 square miles, the Arabs want war and genocide, but with 6,145,389 plus 2300 more, then they will want peace. If Israel only trades land for peace with the land-deprived Arabs, and never mind that its abandonment of the West Bank would leave an Israel ten miles wide and waiting for the Arab armies to annihilate, then all will be well." (Prof. Steven Plaut, 5/24.) HIZBULLAH FUNDRAISING METHODS IN U.S. In different cases, Hizbullah operatives have been caught selling counterfeit merchandize in southern California. They engage in other criminal means of fundraising for their banned organization. They send tens of millions of dollars a year abroad, much of it for terrorist attacks (NY Sun, 5/26, p.5 from L.A. Times). Our immigration policy is the doorway through which this problem enters. Self-defeating political correctness keeps that door open. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. |
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ARE WE PARANOID?
Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, June 1, 2005. |
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Dear friends,
Originally, I sent this article only to my Jewish readers. On second thoughts I think everybody should read it, even, or especially Israel's enemies among my readers. We must also remember that many Jews and Israelis added to the narrative of the like of Amnesty and other such anti-Semitic organizations. "Peace Now" and others similar organizations are also accessories, if not culprits in this. Please forgive me if you are receiving this again. This was written by David J. Forman, the founding chair of Rabbis for Human Rights. It appeared in the Jerusalem Post May 29, 2005 and is archived http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1117333098824&p=1006953079865 A patient comes to a psychiatrist complaining that he suffers from an inferiority complex. After a period of intense analysis, the psychiatrist tells the patient: "I have a diagnosis. You do not suffer from an inferiority complex you are inferior!" We Israelis are not paranoid. Much of the world is truly out to "get us." Witness the Amnesty International report accusing Israel of "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes." What of America's carpet bombing of Fallujah, where half the city was destroyed and untold civilian life lost? Is this not a "war crime?" What about the brutality that has infested too much of the African continent? Or, more to the point what of the intentional Palestinian murders of innocent Israelis? Are these not "crimes against humanity"? It is ironic that it took the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, not Amnesty, to report on the systematic torture and killing of Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority. Why not use similarly loaded language when addressing Palestinian human rights abuses of both Israelis and their own people? What is so troubling about Amnesty's report is what was so troubling about the Presbyterian edict claiming that the "root of all evil is the occupation." On a recent lecture tour in the United States, I met with members of numerous Presbyterian churches. Not once did I encounter agreement by a local congregant with their National Assembly's statement. Nevertheless, all wanted to know why Jews were so troubled. I explained to them that both their own church leadership and the Amnesty report completely missed the Israeli/Jewish narrative. And it is for this reason we are so upset by their prejudicial statement as well as Amnesty using language first coined to characterize the crimes of the Nazis. IT IS amazing how one can start out with a perfectly logical formula and misapply it so it becomes dangerous nonsense. Granted, Nazis and Jews are both members of the human race, but they are not interchangeable, as the language characterizing Israel's behavior in the territories suggests. Even the untrained eye cannot help but see this noxious comparison. And so, we are not paranoid because neither the Presbyterians nor the authors of the Amnesty report have the slightest sensitivity to our perspective. It is not one that takes us back to the Crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms, or the Holocaust. It is not even one that recounts multiple Arab armies invading Israel after its establishment under the auspices of the United Nations. What is our narrative? It is America going to war with Iraq in 1991, and Scuds landing in Tel Aviv, not in Des Moines or New York. It is my own experience at an August 1993 UN conference in Dakar, Senegal, on "Africa and the question of Israel/Palestine," held just as the Oslo Accords were announced. I heard Ikrema Sabri, then chief preacher of the Aksa mosque, now the head of the Wakf in Jerusalem, puncture the euphoria of that moment with a speech, not about his hopes for peace, but reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elder's of Zion. This narrative continues up to the current moment: Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris stated, in a sermon broadcast just two weeks ago on the Palestinian Authority's official television channel, "The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews even the stones and trees that were harmed by them. Listen to the prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits the Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew." Finally, it is the story of a terrorist entering a Jewish home and shooting at point-blank range a three-year-old and a five-year-old child, in the head. The root of that evil is not the occupation, but the nightmare we Israelis live with that the Arab nations have not given up their dream of destroying us. Let us Israelis judge ourselves according to our own heritage and Jewish values. We will admit that we come up painfully short of what our history and literature demands of us. As for others, it is only by the standards that they apply consistently to other nations that the Presbyterians and Amnesty International have any right to judge us. More significantly, if our critics are truly intent on having Israel address some of its admittedly grievous behavior, they do themselves and ultimately Israel a dreadful disservice by their blatant abuse of language. After all, no one has suffered greater "crimes against humanity" than we Jews. Before judging us, the world would do well to understand our narrative, and to acknowledge not just our historic nightmare, but its many manifestations that continue to this day. Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il |
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THE IDF MUST NOT WIN THIS ONE
Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, June 1, 2005. |
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Professors for a Strong Israel welcomes the new Chief of Staff,
Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, and wishes him well. We wish him the
wisdom needed to lead the IDF to victory in the Oslo War, a war that
was forced on Israel in large part by the mistakes of her leaders. We
hope that Gen. Halutz will make clear to his superiors that the
mission of the IDF is to defend the State of Israel and its citizens
against their enemy - and NOT to give the enemy a "tail wind" by
expelling Jewish citizens from their homes in their own land. We
expect that Gen. Halutz will present the political echelon with a
professional - not a political - assessment that states that expulsion
and destruction of Jewish towns stand in contradiction to the IDF's
purpose and values; and that the "supreme national mission" of
Israel's leaders in these hard days is simply unfeasible. As we have
stated before, directing the IDF to attack the citizens is a
despicable declaration of an illegal war, that the IDF must not be
allowed to win.
General Halutz will not find his glory on the path of Transfer! The transfer will not pass!!! Dr. Ron Breiman, is Chairman of Professors for A Strong Israel (PSI). He can be reached by telephone at 050-5-518 940 in Israel. |
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OLIVER THE STONED
Posted by Steven Plaut, June 1, 2005. |
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The Grand Global Conspiracy behind the latest Oliver Stone Arrest Well, the media are reporting the latest Oliver Stone was arrested for drug and alcohol charges in Beverly Hills over the weekend. They found illegal drugs in Ollie's car and arrested him for DUI. Oliver Stone had earlier been arrested in 1999 on alcohol and drug charges and, as part of a plea bargain, and at that time agreed to enter a rehabilitation program. He had been arrested for drugs before, the first time being when he was only 21. Now we know what you are all thinking, and that is that the media accounts of this could not possibly be the correct descriptions of events and there must be some grand and awful story-behind-the-story that explains the arrest. After all, Oliver Stoned is best known for his cinematic portrayal of conspiracy plots in his movies and his far-left politics, including open endorsements of communism and a sycophant "documentary" celebrating Fidel Castro, so one-sided that HBO refused to air it. Stone's views about Cuba and Castro may be summed up in this one citation: "Street demonstrations in favor of Fidel Castro are not a fake. If they were, those demonstrators should win an Oscar for best acting. I can testify to this because I have seen the joy on their faces when people come up to the president." Elsewhere he added, "In Cuba, I observed an openness and freedom that I had not found in any other country in the region, the Caribbean or Central America." Stone's pronouncements include issuing a statement after 9-11 blaming the American media companies for the terrorist attacks. At an HBO Films panel on "Making Movies That Matter," Oliver Stoned states that huge corporations that make mediocre movies are part of what made Osama bin Laden plan the Sept. 11 attack. "They control culture," he said of the corporations, in comments quoted in the New Yorker. "They control ideas. And I think the revolt of Sept. 11th was about 'F-- you! F-- your order.'" Stone also said, "This attack was pure chaos, and chaos is energy." ("The Stars Weigh In," San Francisco Chronicle, October 16, 2001.) Soon after that, Stone spoke at Brown University. According to the Brown Alumni Magazine (January/February 2002). Stone derided the entire enterprise as well as the movie industry and the history profession. "Don't believe most of the stuff you see in the movies," the Oliver told a Brown audience on December 1. Hollywood, said the director of Platoon and JFK, is controlled by "chickens" and "concentration camp guards." History books are no better, Stone warned. "Most historians are ass-kissers and tenure seekers," he said. What to believe then? "Believe my stuff," Stone said. Every single scene in his film about the JFK assassination has been shown to be a fabrication. Drawing comparisons to Vietnam, Stone accused the U.S. government of withholding the truth about the war in Afghanistan: "Bin Laden was completely protected by the oil companies in this country who told [President] Bush not to go after him because it would piss off the Saudis." Then, Stone claimed, there's the cover-up involving ground zero: limbs getting cut off bodies for jewelry, a man walking off with $132 million. Stone's paranoia and his contempt for historic facts are most visible in the movie "JFK" which turns the historical record on its head. This did not stop a CAL-Berkeley moonbat from presenting Stone to his students as a "historian." Stone claims to be half-French, keeps saying he will flee America for France because of Republicans, and got him some cushy subsidies from the French government, something that prompted one wag to suggest he change his name to "Oliver Caillou." (Caillou is the French word for stone). One can tell he has a strong French streak in his character because he insists he lost his virginity to a prostitute, because he didn't get the opportunity to meet girls at his single-sex school. At least one web site is devoted to boycotting anything connected with the Oliver. Here is a typical Stone take on reality: "The right wing is the same everywhere, in Cuba or Viet Nam. It is like an octopus, snatching everything with its tentacles. They control the Internet, radio and TV stations, and newspapers. But above all, they are perfectly organized. Right wingers master the art of negative publicity and are capable of destroying the image of anyone they consider to be their enemy. They annihilate anything opposed to their interests, utilizing mass emailing, articles, and reports. In the United States, censorship is the order of the day. It is really sad to think that Florida may end up deciding the November elections once again, and that the extreme-right wing, including anti-Castro groups, may manipulate the results for a second time. These people are blinded by patriotic fanaticism and are ready to invade any country, and shoot down planes if necessary. They thought that my first movie about Castro, 'Comandante,' was hideous, and they killed it almost before it was even born. They were m erely afraid of it." Now as I was saying above, there has GOT to be more to the latest Stone arrest than some drunk driving and pharmaceuticals. It must have himself been the victim of a colossal frameup! So here is our take on what REALLY happened. We suspect that some rogue CIA and FBI agents were outraged by Stone's exposure of CIA plotting in his films and especially of the conspiracy behind the JFK assassination. SO they got together with some wealthy Christian fundamentalists and Jewish neoconservatives in control of the Pentagon and they set to work. First thing they do is get the oil companies protecting Osama bin Laden to pony up some cash and then they take this to the Beverly Hills police headquarters while Commissioner Axel Foley hooks them up with some local UCLA chemistry professors. These professors design a special chemical spray to make the innocent Stone appear to be drunk while he is driving and this is inserted through special vents in the undercarriage of Stone's Mercedes using a device first designed by the Watergate burglars to make McGovern appear dazed. Then the Beverly Hills cops plant drugs in the Stone vehicle, which actually were originally part of a shipment the CIA was planning to sell in East LA to gangbangers in order to raise money for the contras and with which to bribe neoconservative magazine columnists. The device was actually inserted into the car when Stone's attention was being distracted by an agent dressed as a Los Angeles street walker speaking French and some West Hollywood dudes with tee-shirts that read "Yum, Alexander was Great!" 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. |
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SAY NO TO THE PLO!
Posted by Jerusalem Prayer Team, June 1, 2005. |
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Bush "can say goodbye to the American agenda in the Middle East, democratization in the region and security in Iraq" if he fails to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, PA Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa said in an interview with Ha'aretz. Show your outrage! Show your support for President Bush and Israel. Sign our letter now! PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas, who met with Bush later in the day, has repeatedly stated that the Palestinian Arabs would settle for nothing less than a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders, the release of all jailed terrorists, and the right to flood Israel with millions of so-called "refugees." Following his meeting with PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas Thursday, Bush told reporters the Jews needed the Palestinian Arabs' consent to continue living in parts of their biblical heartland. Bush explicitly stated that "any final status agreement must be reached between the two parties, and changes to the 1949 armistice lines must be mutually agreed to." To the shock of many Israelis, the president even suggested Jerusalem was still on the negotiating table. "Israel should not undertake any activity that...prejudices final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem," he said. And President Bush has promised $50 million to the PLO. This is insane; President Bush must not buy into this blackmail! Please let him know you support Israel today, and not the PLO by signing our letter asking President Bush not to pressure Israel to give up Bible land. What exactly has Mahmoud Abbas done in the last 100 days? * Has he shut down bomb-making factories? NO! Mahmoud Abbas is just the old Arafat dressed up in a suit and tie. Please add your name to the petition to President Bush. Ask him not to pressure Israel to give up Bible land to the terrorists in the Palestinian territories. After you sign, please forward this to everyone on your list, and ask them to sign the petition. Let's keep this going around the world. Thank you,
Michael Evans is the author of "Beyond Iraq: The Next Move," and founder of Jerusalem Prayer Team, America's largest Christian coalition praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Contact them at www.JerusalemPrayerTeam.org |
Playing on U.S. President George W. Bush's overwhelming desire to
bring stability and democracy to the Middle East, a senior PLO
official Thursday said Americans could forget about his efforts
succeeding if Palestinian Arab demands were not satisfied.
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SOUNDING THE WAR CRY - A MUSLIM'S WARNING TO AMERICA
Posted by Tamar Rush, June 1, 2005. |
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Our friend "Jerusalem Posts" has alerted us to a new article
"Vindication: There Is An Unholy Alliance" by David Horowitz
(FrontPageMagazine.com) In which Horowitz "argues that
the progressive left in the West was in a de facto alliance with the
Islamic jihadists, an alliance that developed out of the left's
support for the genocidal camapaign of Palestinian jihadists against
the Jews, and its global assault on the world capitalism..."
If the FrontPageMagazine article does not convince you that Islam's war against the West is not limited to the Israeli front, then the following piece by Resa Laru Kirkland should help coax unbelievers out of their stupor. She is an avid military historian, with her main focus being on the Korean War and its forgotten warriors. Her article appeared in www.israpundit.com/archives/2005/05/sounding_the_wa.php#more Does Kirkland's article sound familiar I have always maintained that whatever happens in Israel will soon be exported to the West. As the graffiti scrawled on West Bank and Gazan walls says; "First the Saturday people...then the Sunday people"---Tamar I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. -- John Adams I've known this quote for some time now. In fact, after WWII, this quote seemed to have come to fruition. We became the technological powerhouse of the entire world. So what happened? "[I have] a conviction that science is important to the preservation of our republican government, and that it is also essential to its protection against foreign power." --Thomas Jefferson I received a letter this week from a young Muslim man sending a dire warning to Americans. Yeah, I was as surprised as you are! He sought me out as someone who would actually listen because of my writings. What he said rang true... and terrifying He wrote of being raised in Islamic ideology, and the subtle, sinister methods that go beyond bombings and murder. He states it perfectly, and should be heeded by wise freedom-lovers. It bears repeating... a LOT of repeating. His own words are best, so read for yourself: I was part of the frightening "system" until I broke away. The conspiracy is more subtle and pervasive than even the most paranoid among you can fathom... All this Bin Laden, Taliban and al Qaeda story is the greatest diversionary tactic in history. The real invasion is more insidious, serious and much further along then you can possibly imagine. And it is your own liberal halves that are playing such a vital role in that. I'm talking about the silent invasion of your universities by our people. Open any leading American university's website and look at the list of professors and graduate students, you will see a plethora of muslim names. These are people that are in America, taking advantage of American know-how, and waiting to go back to their own countries to strengthen them. Well well well. So now the rest of the world is recognizing us as a country apologizing for its own existence. This young man isn't someone who can be labeled by our Politically Castrated press as a "racist white American," thereby disarming him and leaving him impotent. He has not been taught in America's education system to fear such an accusation as we in America have been taught. He simply states the truth... an odd concept in the age of wretched liberal control. His caveat is one that wise patriots have been trumpeting for some time now, but irrational liberals have disarmed, disabled, and disavowed. Read on: "Take a look at the list at http://turnbull.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/BirthplaceMaps/Countries/. It lists famous mathematicians by country. France is the highest with 211, England is second with 204, both countries are 20% the size of the US by population. This is because the US entered the game late. But entered it well. You had a good educational base and capitalized on it. I couldn't have said it better myself. This man's name should be on this article for writing it, and it would be too... if he didn't deeply fear Muslim reprisals. Even he is not safe from radical irrational rage. Since when did defense become an evil? Since when do righteous people have to justify themselves for rejecting the wicked? We have had many wise, wonderful leaders... when exactly did we forget and lose our vigilance? This is our land, and by God - yes, by Him! - it is up to us to defend her and keep the evil doer out. Closing our borders is an act that isn't political - it's critical! "Our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country?" -- Thomas Jefferson Logic, reason, truth ...why is it that we're having to be taught that by foreigners? Keep the faith, bros, and in all things courage-
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LOT'S WIFE SYNDROME
Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, June 1, 2005. |
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"Your rulers are knaves, thieves' comrades; they all love bribes
and chase gifts." -- Isaiah 1:23
A while back, it seemed that every other email that found its way to my server was offering Viagra at competitive prices. But thanks to a variety of filters enhanced with anti-spam and virus-control devices, I should theoretically be downloading tasteful, albeit impotent, email. But recently my in-box has received an influx of potent, conspiracy-laced commentaries, contentious articles about various cabals, and sordid tales of government treachery and public-sector trojan horses. My delete key has become my best friend. It's not like I dismiss outright the validity of any of the scandals and conspiracy theories gracing my screen, as much as I wonder whether spending endless hours delving into their lurid details serves any purpose - and perhaps it does a bit of damage. I believe a lot of us are suffering from a sort of "conspiracy fatigue". A recent study performed by Hewlett-Packard found that people lose an average of 10 points in their IQ when they are distracted by emails in the work place. This drop in intelligence is even more severe than the decrease in aptitude attributed to marijuana use. As a non-smoking Internet addict, all I can say is, "Duh... I dunno about that study.". But we Jews are surely lacking when it comes to our RBEQ (Recognition of Basic Evil Quotient). Like the Patriarch Yaacov, we're a bit delayed. We seem to have trouble conceding that there is real evil in the world and, at times, we have to wrestle with and tear our very souls asunder before we reach that very basic conclusion. But once we discover that sad fact, there's really no need to twist, contrive and devise elaborate theories to try and explain what boils down to the human condition. Sooner or later most of us will stumble over our own egos and find ourselves up to our necks in issues involving power, politics, religion, greed, jealousy, and sexuality. In spite of the "noble" attempts by all of the naked emperors gracing the global scene, the New World Order appears to be Chaos, and I guess a lot of us have spent endless hours trying to make sense of it all. Even our greatest Talmudic sages were caught-up in a lengthy dispute as to whether or not - from a human perspective - it would have been better if man had never been created. After two and a half years of debate, they concluded that it would have been better if man had never been created, but now that he is created, he should examine and refine his actions in this world (Eruvin 13b). But we don't quite measure up to the introspective abilities and wisdom of our sages. So by probing and exploring various conspirational scenarios are we deriving the necessary lessons needed to correct ourselves and our society, or are we merely losing ourselves in our attempt to connect the dots of intrigue? Does invoking the images of past and present demons and nazis alert us to impending danger or does it create despair? And why are we so intent on magnifying the real-life spooks in our lives? If we want to fight them and win, we should be cutting them down to size and putting them in perspective - not making them bigger, smarter, or more powerful than they really are. As a people who are commanded to live, create, produce, settle, thrive and fulfill our obligations in this world, we can't afford to fall victim to "Lot's Wife Syndrome". We Jews should look back just long enough to assess the danger, absorb the lessons, make corrections, and move forward. If we become mesmerized by the evil, we risk getting frozen in time. Perhaps it's time that we try and de-mystify the concept of conspiracy. I'm trying this in spite of the fact that a close friend cautioned me that, in my attempt to neutralize these treacherous notions, there are those who would consider me part of "the conspiracy". But I'll take my chances. We Jews don't believe in the concept of original sin, but we do acknowledge original conspiracy doctrine, and it's pretty elementary stuff. Adam and Chava made some wrong decisions and, consequently, tried to cover things up. How's that for zapping the conspiracy genie? The really sad truth about those individuals, institutions, gangs and spirits which haunt us, is that we created them through our negligence, apathy or calculated and deliberate actions. Our worst nightmares are made up of a bunch of foolish human beings -including ourselves - who merely stumbled. The only thing that's sinister and complex is the elaborate schemes that some people will contrive in order avoid accepting responsibility, coming clean, and making an honest attempt to rectify their original mistakes. In our attempt to come to terms with the basic evil surrounding us, we've devised some ridiculously complex strategies and theories. But, at the same time, we've oversimplified the situation when it does call for a more reflective approach. Our perception of evil is off. It doesn't fall along the neat little fault lines which we mere mortals have created for ourselves. We're not going to come to any constructive conclusions if we continue to model our definitions of good and bad along the lines of Democrat or Republican, Likud or Labor, liberal or conservative, right or left, religious or secular, Fatah or Hamas, Democracy or Monarchy. That's just too easy. By nature some of us are comfortable with conformity and others tend towards revolution. It's not the personalities or political persuasions which are the problematic. Rather, it's what we do with our temperament and the choices we make. Which is why we can blow a hole through any attempt at a New World Order when we come to the realization that a conscientious and benign absolute monarch, running a sensitive and orderly society, trumps a negligent democratic leader governing a society plagued by an excess of unlimited freedoms. The primary puzzle piece that appears to be missing and forgotten here is the G-d factor. The drive to do good and serve our Creator transcends politics, power, and greed; and can dispel any conspiracy - no matter how elaborate or evil. There's nothing really wrong with trying to connect the dots. Detectives and lawyers do it all the time - but it's risky business. You can end up wasting endless hours, writing a bestseller, or sitting in the corner of the nearest mental institution painstakingly connecting the dots in a children's coloring book. Alternatively, you could end up recognizing and serving your Creator. I guess the choice is up to us. To paraphrase a gentleman who took on one of the greatest evils of the 20th century: "There is nothing to fear, but G-d Himself." (But Adam and Chava could have told you that). Ellen Horowitz and her family live on the Golan Heights. She is a painter, columnist and author of the upcoming book, "The Oslo Years- a mother's journal." |
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FROM KAIFENG TO JERUSALEM
Posted by Michael Freund, June 1, 2005. |
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Following is an article of mine from the Jerusalem Post today about how a
family descended from the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, recently
returned to Israel and the Jewish people, and why Israel needs to make
it easier for other "lost Jews" to do the same.
It is archived at
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/
ShowFull&cid=1117594045650&p=1006953079865
Comments may be sent to letters@jpost.com or to me directly at msfreund@netvision.net.il Slowly, and somewhat hesitantly, Shlomo and Dina Jin walked into the room, anxious to hear the rabbinical court's decision regarding their request to return to the Jewish people. It was a moment of profound significance, not only for this affable couple, who had traveled down a long and often agonizing path, but also for the community they had left behind in their native China. Shlomo Jin hails from Kaifeng, which lies south of the Yellow River, some 1,100 kilometers from Beijing. He is a descendant of the city's once-thriving Jewish community, which first settled in the area during the reign of the Song dynasty over 1000 years ago. According to legend, the Song emperor had difficulty pronouncing the new arrivals' Hebrew names, so he conferred his surname and those of six of his ministers on the Chinese Jews. These seven names - Zhao, Li, Ai, Zhang, Gao, Jin and Shi - were used by Kaifeng's Jews throughout the centuries, and it is to the Jin clan that Shlomo traces his roots. Unlike most other stops in the Jewish people's wanderings, China provided them with a warm reception, free of the hatred and oppression that was their lot elsewhere in the Diaspora. Over the centuries, China's Jews engaged in trades and various professions, and many rose to prominent posts in the imperial civil service system. At its peak, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the community in Kaifeng may have numbered as many as 5,000 people. In 1163, Kaifeng's Jews built a beautiful synagogue, which was subsequently renovated and rebuilt numerous times. It adjoined the city's Jewish district, at the heart of which was a street called Jiao Jing, or "Teaching Scripture Lane." Wishing to preserve their collective memory for future generations, Kaifeng's Jews erected stone monuments known as steles, constructed in 1489, 1512, 1663 and 1669, on which they inscribed the history of their sojourn in China. Two of the steles now sit in Kaifeng's municipal museum. By the middle of the 1800s, widespread assimilation and intermarriage had taken a heavy toll, weakening the community spiritually and numerically. The last rabbi of Kaifeng died sometime in the first half of the 19th century; a few decades later the synagogue, and the community it had served, were no more. BUT THE story did not end there. Against all odds, Kaifeng's Jews struggled to preserve their sense of Jewish identity and consciousness, passing down whatever little they knew to their children and grandchildren. Simultaneously they appealed for help to world Jewry, pleading a century ago for teachers and rabbis to be sent to educate their youth and replenish their Jewish knowledge and practice. Sadly, that call went largely unheeded, and it seemed as if the curtain was finally going to come down on the 1,000-year long saga of Kaifeng Jewry. Until this month, that is. For when Shlomo Jin went before the rabbinical conversion court in Jerusalem two weeks ago, it marked the closing of a historical circle. For the first time, a family of Kaifeng Jewish descendants was returning to the Jewish people and to the Land of Israel. Shlomo and his wife had spent the past year studying Judaism under the tutelage of a Chinese-speaking yeshiva student, hired for the purpose by Shavei Israel. Shlomo's daughter, Shalva, had previously undergone conversion by a rabbinical court in Haifa, and now it was time for Shlomo and his wife Dina to do the same. They answered the judges' questions on various matters of Jewish law and practice and demonstrated their commitment to living an observant Jewish lifestyle. The rabbis treated them with kindness and respect and were clearly moved by their personal and historical saga. When told they had been accepted back into the fold of the Jewish people, Shlomo's and Dina's tears of joy flowed freely, and rightly so. The dream they had nurtured for so long was at last coming true. But I have no doubt that at least some of those tears were inspired by their treatment at the hands of Israel's government, which has consistently shown an appalling lack of interest in the fate of Kaifeng's Jewish descendants, several hundred of whom still remain in China. Shortly after China and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1992, Shlomo Jin went to the Israeli embassy in Beijing, bearing in his hand his Chinese residence permit listing his nationality as "Jew." He wanted to submit an application to make aliya so that he could fulfill his lifelong dream of going to Zion. When the embassy clerk learned of the reason for his visit, Shlomo was told to leave. For two full days he waited outside, hoping someone from the embassy would at least come out to hear his story and perhaps try to help. But just as his ancestors' calls for assistance to world Jewry had gone unheeded, so too did Shlomo's, and he was forced to return to Kaifeng empty-handed. When, at last, Shlomo made it to Israel five years ago, he and his family were given the cold shoulder by the Interior Ministry, which repeatedly sought to expel them from the country. Rather than embracing Shlomo as a long-lost brother coming home, Israeli authorities treated him like an illegal alien. Hopefully those days are now behind the Jins, and they can look forward to building a Jewish future in Jerusalem. Shalva is doing her national service at Shaare Zedek Hospital, while Shlomo and Dina are looking for work. The odyssey of the Jin family is an inspiring lesson in the power of Jewish memory. It demonstrates convincingly that no matter how far a Jewish soul may wander - even to the farthest reaches of China - it can, and ultimately will return. There are many more such Jewish souls out there knocking on our collective door, seeking to be allowed in. The challenge for Israel is to cut through the red tape, and pave the way for them to do so. Michael Freund serves as Chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), a Jerusalem-based group that reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. |
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IS AMERICA ABANDONING THE FIGHT?
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, June 1, 2005. |
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Whatever spine President Bush demonstrated after the attack on America
September 11, 2001 by Muslims of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that spine
seems to have turned to rubber. Instead of fighting Terror, he has
talked his way into supporting Terror by calling it "Democracy in
Progress". Bush is in the process of extinguishing the light of the
only Democracy in the Middle East (the Jewish State of Israel), while
enlarging the Terror capability of Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and
the existing network of Arab Muslim Palestinian Terrorists developed
and nurtured by Yassir Arafat - with American dollars.
Strange, isn't it? Sharon takes orders from Bush. Bush takes his orders from Crown Prince Abdullah who works with Father Bush, James Baker and the Carlyle group. Isn't that what's called a "daisy chain"? This article by Caroline Glick, which appeared in the Jerusalem Post May 30, 2005, clears up a lot of questions. Contact her at caroline@jpost.com Her article is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1117420062054&p=1006953079897 The top story in Sunday's Washington Post reported that the Bush administration is revising its counter-terrorism strategy. Whereas since the September 11 attacks the US has concentrated its efforts on physically destroying al-Qaida to prevent it from carrying out another major attack by arresting and killing its operatives and leaders, now, according to the report, the US will be widening the focus to include contending with the threat of militant Islam generally by trying to counteract it as a social and political force among Muslims worldwide. This of course would be a welcome change. After all, al-Qaida couldn't exist if it weren't for the indoctrination systems rife throughout the Arab and Islamic world that preach jihad to Muslims day in and day out. However, judging from US actions over the past several weeks, it would seem that in his second term in office, US President George W. Bush and his administration have transformed their activist policy from the first term into one best characterized by speaking loudly and carrying no stick. Indeed, an assessment of recent American moves toward Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians gives little reason to take seriously the notion that the president and his team are planning to advance the cause of fighting global jihad at all in the coming years. On Thursday the US allowed Iran to begin negotiations toward joining the World Trade Organization. This concession was made apparently as a quid pro quo in exchange for an Iranian promise to suspend uranium enrichment activities until the end of July. In so acting, the US gave an irrevocable payoff to the Iranians in exchange for a temporary and - given Iran's past penchant for breaking its commitments - suspect concession. The rationale apparently is that the US doesn't want to press the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons program until after next month's Iranian presidential elections. The frontrunner in those elections, after nearly all of the candidates were rejected by the mullahs, is former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Speaking of what awaits the world under a repeat Rafsanjani presidency last Friday Hojatolislam Gholam Hasani, a representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told worshipers at a mosque: "You need to vote for Rafsanjani. This way we will finally be able to have for ourselves the atomic bomb to fairly stand up to Israeli weapons." According to a report by Adnkronos news agency, Hasani continued, "Freedom, democracy and stupidities of this type cannot be carried over to any part, and these concepts are out of sync with the principles of Islam. Islam always spoke with the sword in the hand, and I don't see why now we should change attitudes and talk with other civilizations." Last week too, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ratcheted up US rhetoric against Iran, promising US backing for Iranian democracy activists and saying on two separate occasions that the US and the world cannot abide by a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet, by agreeing to allow the mullahs to negotiate entrance into the WTO, the fact of the matter is that the US's actions tend to dispel the credibility of her statements. THEN THERE is Saudi Arabia. On Friday, UPI reported that King Fahd was dead. If true, the delay in the official announcement is no doubt due to intrigue among the kingdom's princes vying for leadership roles in the succession process. By all accounts, the Bush administration is dealing with this intrigue by placing its support behind Crown Prince Abdullah, who has been running the kingdom since Fahd was incapacitated by a stroke in 1995. During Abdullah's visit last month at Bush's ranch in Crawford, the only issue on the table from the US side was the price of oil. Democracy, human rights and Saudi support for terror and the insurgency in Iraq were all ignored. Bush made no mention of the fact that one of the members of Abdullah's entourage was barred from entering the US because of his presence on the terror watch list, or of the fact that Saudi authorities rounded up some 40 Christians in the weeks before Abdullah's visit for the crime of practicing Christianity in a private home. In its dealings with the Saudis, the Americans apparently feel that they are between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, Saudi oil profits finance global jihad. On the other hand, with the world's largest known petroleum reserves, the Saudis exert enormous power over the global economy. If the US presses too hard on Saudi support for terrorism, they can shut down the wells and raise oil prices from their current $50 per barrel to $100 per barrel, plunging the world into a global depression. Yet according to the Set America Free Coalition - an unprecedented alliance made up of senior US security experts, labor unions and environmentalist groups - if the US wished it could, for the mere cost of $12 billion over the next four years, move rapidly to end its dependency on foreign oil by developing alternatives to fossil fuel like ethanol and methanol and subsidizing hybrid cars that run on a mix of oil and electricity. The fact that to date, the Bush administration's energy policy involves securing its access to foreign oil, building more refineries and drilling in Alaska, shows clearly that the president and his advisers have yet to decide to deal with Saudi Arabia in a serious manner. FINALLY, there is the evolving US policy toward the Palestinian Authority. From the Palestinians' perspective, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's visit to the White House last week was an unvarnished success. In expanding the responsibilities of US security coordinator to the PA General William Ward to include coordinating Israeli and Palestinian talks on the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria, the US all but said that it views Israel and the PA as equals and the US role as referee. Bush reportedly told Abbas that if he rounds up wanted terrorists, the US will force Israel to uproot all unauthorized Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria immediately after Israel throws 10,000 of its citizens out of their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria this summer. The administration is now even backing a PA initiative to bring 1,500 terrorists from Jordan - otherwise known as the Badr Brigade from the Palestine Liberation Army - into Judea and Samaria. All this the US is doing in spite of the fact that Abbas has done nothing to thwart or combat terrorists since taking office. To the contrary, rather than outlaw Hamas he has upgraded it to the status of political party. A revised US strategy toward fighting global jihad that placed in the crosshairs the regimes that indoctrinate hundreds of millions of people to believe in jihad would be a welcome policy development. And yet, from the Bush administration's actions on the ground from Teheran to Riyadh to Ramallah, it seems that rather than placing these terror regimes in the crosshairs, the president and his advisers are strengthening them. If this is the case, then Israel is in for one of the toughest periods in its history. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). |
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NORPAC MISSION TO WASHINGTON - JUNE 22, 2005
Posted by Anita Tucker, June 1, 2005. |
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This comes from NORPAC.
Dear Friends,
NORPAC is pleased to announce that plans for our annual lobbying Mission to Washington, Wednesday June 22, 2005, are well under way. Join us for this exhilarating opportunity to strengthen the U.S - Israel relationship. You are needed to build and solidify relationships with members of the Senate and House of Representatives. Together, we can continue to accomplish this most worthwhile goal: to aid in the survival and spectacular existence of Israel, the Jewish Homeland and the Middle East's sole democracy. EARLY REGISTRATION is crucial to our success, and registration will end when we have reached our maximum enrollment. Don't be left out! Please register online today at http://www.norpac.net or by calling NORPAC at 201-788-5133. Mission Executive Committee Ben Chouake, President
Jeff Daube
NORPAC is a bipartisan, multicandidate political action committee whose primary purpose is to support candidates and sitting members of the US Senate and House of Representatives who demonstrate a genuine commitment to the US-Israel relationship. Friends can join our announcement list at www.norpac.net Anita Tucker is a farmer. She lives in Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel. |
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