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NEW YEAR WISHES Posted by Mal and Udi Ohana, September 30, 2005.

Mal and Udi Ohana have developed superb graphics on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Contact them at http://www.conceptwizard.com To Go To Top

A POEM FROM MERAV OF THE GANEI TAL COMMUNITY Posted by Send Our Support (SOS), September 30, 2005.

Here is a poem from a teenager from one of our two communities, Ganei Tal. You can understand from the pathos of the poem that Ganei Tal and Netzarim and all the other communities are going through an after shock trauma. The plan of their relocating for TWO years to temporary housing must be terribly disheartening. Merav, a teen-aged girl who was thrown out of her home and life in Ganei Tal of Gush Katif a month ago, shares her thoughts on what it's like to have gone a month without a home. SOS is definitely filling a hole simply by reaching out, but for us, that is not enough. SOS wants to start off sending Netzarim and Ganei Tal something at this time of the yom tovim. Any suggestions? SOS maintains that in these times, while the communities experience their most difficult decision making, SOS needs to come up with ideas as to what to send and when. We will continue to send everyone up-dates, and news of forthcoming events. PLEASE anyone who is traveling to Israel now, and for the holidays, please, please call us or e-mail so that we can know, and we can arrange visits for the travelers to our communities. Good shabbos, Shabbat shalom, and a good g'benched yur. Thank you for remaining concerned. Ginger Pinchot Joanne Jackson Yelenik Thirty Days Without... "It's unbelievable, but: It's already been a month that I didn't run in, open the door and yell out, 'Hi, house!' It's already been a month that the words 'and return us to home in peace' are missing from my Traveler's Prayer. It's already been a month that the tapping of my sandals has not been heard on the path leading to my house. It's already been a month that I didn't take my niece to the playground in our community. It's already been a month that I didn't break out in uncontrollable laughter with her on our lawn. It's already been a month that I didn't go out to pick mangos or lemons from our trees. It's already been a month that I didn't 'call home.' It's already been a month that I look and feel like a shadow of myself. It's already been a month that I didn't jump over to the neighbors. It's already been a month that I haven't been asked to go to the grocery store or to the community office. It's already been a month that I haven't prayed in our so-beautiful synagogue in Ganei Tal. It's already been a month that I haven't slept in my bed, or in the living room with the air-conditioner... It's already been a month that a day hasn't gone by without me starting to cry for no apparent reason. It's already been a month that I haven't been at the beach; there are other beaches, but I can't. It's already been a month that I haven't gone to Kisufim, mainly because I'm not brave enough. It's already been a month that I haven't had my mother's food. It's already been a month that I don't have a home to run away to from everything that's scary and painful. It's already been a month that everything I know and love has been destroyed. It's already been a month that I wonder if we are fated to bear this pain alone, that I ask myself if only the people of Gush Katif bear the suffering of the destruction on their shoulders. It's already been a month that I have no patience, that I have trouble responding nicely, that laughter and smiles are very hard. It's already been a month that I miss the little, little things that made my life into a full and large composite. It's already been a month that I would give everything to get back the little details that were sometimes aggravating, that I now can't figure out how to live without. It's already been a month that I am hurting, lacking, dying. Contact SOS at office@sos.kempmill.net To Go To Top

ISRAEL SHOULD TREAT ITS ARABS EQUALLY Posted by Israel Zwick, September 30, 2005.

On September 30, 2005, an article in Haaretz by Shlomo Shamir reported that Edgar Bronfman, President of the World Jewish Congress, has now become a Sharon supporter. According to the article, "Bronfman, a prominent representative of the American Jewish community's liberal branch, praised Sharon as a person who realized that the diplomatic path he'd been on was errant and dangerous and shifted his political outlook... He went on to say that he expects the prime minister to continue advancing the reconciliation process with the Palestinians, and that Israel will provide financial aid to the Palestinians." The same day, an article in Ynet News by Roee Nahmias reported that "US State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli and top public affairs official Alberto Fernandez say they believe the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is not the last one and will be followed by more pullouts." For years, liberal Jews, the US State Dept, and human rights organizations have been bemoaning the "plight of the Palestinian refugees." They repeatedly complained that the Arabs in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria were being mistreated by the "Israeli occupation forces." They complained that the Arabs were suffering from poverty, discrimination, mistreatment at checkpoints, and the "apartheid wall." The complaints continued even when UN documents demonstrated that the Arabs living under Israeli control were doing better on the average than their counterparts living in 22 independent Arab countries. Now that the million Arabs in Gaza have been freed from their "harsh occupation" by 1500 Jewish families with 5000 children, the liberal Jews and human rights NGO's are gratified. Now that Sharon has destroyed the 21 communities and evicted the 8500 "occupiers," he is receiving praise and accolades from the liberal Jews in America and Israel. Since there were so many complaints that Israel wasn't treating its Arab residents fairly, it's only proper that Israel should now treat the Arabs equally. The same considerations that were given to the Jews of Gush Katif should now be extended to all the Arabs that are living under the "harsh Israeli occupation," including the ones who hold Israeli citizenship. Israel should offer the following "benefits" to all Arabs living within the 1947 boundaries of the British Palestine Mandate: 1. A compensation package of $50,000 to $200,000 per household, depending on the size of the household and value of property. Upon acceptance, the Arab family will agree to relocate to any other country and relinquish all rights to return to "Palestinian lands." 2. Free transportation to any other country of their choice, that is willing to take them. 3. Free packaging and shipping of their belongings to their new home. 4. Any family that accepts the compensation package and doesn't relocate by the agreed date, will be forcibly removed by military and police personnel, never to return. Such equal treatment of the Arab population will most likely meet with widespread opposition by the PA, Arab League, UN, US State Dept, and human rights organizations. The most likely results of such a benevolent offer by the Israeli government would be: 1. Terrorist organizations such as Hamas would threaten any family that would accept the Israeli offer. 2. The 22 Arab League countries would refuse to accept any Palestinian families within their 11 million square kilometers of sparsely populated lands. 3. The European Union, which is so concerned about the "plight of the Palestinian refugees", will refuse to accept any Arab families from the "territories." 4. The UN Commission on Human Rights will pass a resolution that this plan violates Palestinian rights to self-determination within the 1947 boundaries. However, they still will not recognize the right of self-determination for any of the other 5000 ethnic groups that are living in 190 countries. There are polls that suggest that many of the Arab families living in the Israeli "territories" would be happy to go elsewhere if offered a satisfactory compensation package and decent living conditions. They really don't have a strong attachment to living in "Palestinian lands." Many that could leave on their own have already done so. Denying their right to live in another country of their choice would really be a violation of their human rights. So it is time for the concerned Israelis and the "international community" to extend to Arab families the same benefits and rights that were extended to the Jews of Gush Katif. If Sharon received so much praise for relocating Jews, then he should receive equal praise and accolades for implementing a voluntary transfer of Arab families. Contact Israel Zwick by email at israel.zwick@earthlink.net To Go To Top

ISRAELI MOM OF NEWBORN NEEDS LIVER TRANSPLANT Posted by IsrAlert, September 30, 2005.

This comes from http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3149629,00.html Uncle says she is living 'on borrowed time,' Efrat Rinot is lying in a Belgian hospital in desperate need of a new liver as her baby son waits for her in Israel. Race against the clock: Efrat Rinot, 30, an Israeli mother, lies in a Belgian hospital and is in urgent need of a liver donor, after her own liver collapsed. Her baby son, Yonatan, only a month old, is waiting for her in Israel. Belgian doctors have told Rinot's family that her life is in danger, and that a transplant must be carried out within 48 hours. A month ago, Efrat gave birth to her son, and two weeks after the birth, she was diagnosed with acute liver failure, which became increasingly severe. "Until then, she was completely healthy," said Amir Perah, uncle of Efrat. "The doctors said that her body began to attack the liver possibly due to the physical trauma she experienced during the pregnancy." In Israel, family members were told that chances of finding a donor were slim. Some 124 people (including 5 children) are waiting for a liver, and 34 transplants were carried out this year. In addition, doctors have said that in Efrat's condition, there is much greater chance of finding a deceased donor, and that she is unable to receive a liver from a live donor. The family then decided to fly Efrat to the large transplant center in Belgium, where doctors promised that there was a good chance of finding a donor within 30 hours. "Since then, 140 hours have passed, and during the week Efrat's condition has worsened. Four potential donors didn't match," Perah told Ynet. "From yesterday evening, Efrat's condition has become critical, and her life is really in danger. She is living on borrowed time. She's hooked up to a dialysis machine and a breathing machine, and her bodily systems are crashing. She's simply going before our eyes." Efrat's husband, parents, and sister are by her bedside, while other family members are looking after her baby son. Family members have asked anyone who can help to contact Amir Perah at: 052 273 7396. If dialing from outside Israel: 972 52 273 7396 "Where there is no man, be that man." Regardless of our level of religious observance or education, to serve G-d properly all Jews must be united. "All of Yisroel is responsible for each other" (Midrash Eicha 3:39) To Go To Top

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE'S MOST WANTED Posted by Lee Kaplan and Stop The ISM Committee, September 30, 2005.

Stop the ISM is trying to identify the young woman with the bullhorn in this photo below. She is an ISM activist speaking at a Hamas rally held near Ramallah in the West Bank last year (note the Hamas flag in front of her at the rally). In the photo she is surrounded by known members of Hamas. Is she an American? If so, we want to notify Homeland Security about her. The ISM works with Hamas and the PFLP over in the West Bank and Stop the ISM and Front Page Magazine want to stop them once and for all. If she is European or Canadian, we likewise can contact European or Canadian intelligence officials about her. By U.S. law it is illegal to work in cooperation or support of known terrorist groups. The ISM tries to claim it is a "peace group" when it is in fact a subversive war movement under the guidance of the PLO and supports terrorists. Help us to expose the terrorist enablers like this woman by helping to identify her. Please e-mail us at: stoptheISM@att.net. To Go To Top

ROSH HASHANAH CELEBRATION IN MUSLIM BANGLADESH Posted by Salah Choudhury Shoaib Choudhury, September 30, 2005.

Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters: Shana Tova Greetings! You all will be possibly happy to know that, as a Zionist, I am honored to host a small party in a local restaurant on 4th October evening to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with millions of Jewish brothers, sisters and friends around the world. This is for the first time in Bangladesh history, we are going to join you all in the celebration. And, most importantly, some of our ministers are also aware of my program. Let our celebration teach everyone the unique example of religious harmony and mutual respect. Let there be end to all forms of extremism,terrorism and bloodshed. Let there be peace in Israel. Greetings again and let everything great and best come in your life... Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury & Blitz Family The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, amd editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com To Go To Top

MY ROSH HASHONA PRAYER - 5766 Posted by Bernard Shapiro, September 30, 2005.

Dear Friends, This last year the Jewish People and especially those in Israel have undergone a serious trauma. The expulsion of Jews from parts of Eretz Yisrael by a Jewish government has been a terrible thing for all of us to witness. Our hearts and souls have been subjected to almost unbearable pain. We have to rise above our current anguish and continue the battle to secure for for Israel the security and peace it deserves. Each year at Rosh Hashonah, I have sent you a variation of my prayer below. I don't change it much, because it expresses my feelings better than any thing new I could write. The Freeman Center wishes all of you a HAPPY, HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS, AND SAFE NEW YEAR. SHANA TOVA Bernard MY PRAYER FOR ROSH HASHONAH - 5766 As I survey the fragile planet we call home, my mind makes note of the chaos, blood, and tears. The cries of a million lost souls shatter the night in a million corners of the earth. The sensitive, compassionate among them try to feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked. One by one their energies dissipate. They try to hold back the tide with a teaspoon and then see the impossibility of the task. The Jewish people are but a cosmic speck in this universe. To many Jews who feel deeply about their own people, that speck becomes the whole world. Other Jews are irrevocably tied to non-Jewish pursuits. May we as a people open our eyes and begin to see the world as it really is. Without becoming depressed and morose, we must realize that there are powerful forces in the world that wish us ill. May we mobilize our strength to fight our enemies until they are defeated. May we not succumb to false prophets of peace. We all want peace. We pray for peace in our Sabbath services every Friday night. After thousands of years, being victims of persecution, expulsion, extermination, and discrimination, it is natural that we yearn for peace with every ounce of our bodies and souls. It is because our hunger for peace is so strong that we must be doubly cautious not to fall for a pseudo-peace. Today none of us believe Chamberlain really negotiated "peace in our time" with Hitler. Why did some Jews believe that Peres and Rabin really negotiated "peace" with Arafat, one of today's Hitlers? Why do many still believe that it is possible to make peace with the barbarians who surround Israel and wish only to destroy it. (Santayana said and it is true today: "Those who do not learn from history are forced to repeat it.") The Jewish people must learn from history and learn the value of unity in the face of so many enemies who wish them ill. I pray that Israelis who have fought in countless wars will understand that there is no magic cure, though they crave to be free of constant conflict. As Jews we are all involved in this historic struggle to survive. It is not our fate or that of the Israelis that we should retire from this struggle. I have a vision and a dream that I must reveal. In the name of G-d, the Almighty, Defender of His People, Israel, I say to my people's enemies: Beware of the thing that is coming, that will take what you would not give. That will free the people of Israel from your atrocities. I say to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: Be aware of the Risen People who will sweep the Arab scourge into the dustbin of history. Know that the Jewish soul will be set free. The spectacular victories of the Israeli army and the return to Zion demonstrated that power. But it wasn't a miracle. It was just the soul of the Jew coming to its own. It was just the Jewish soul freed at last to be itself. And I see it coming, the Jewish soul released to be itself. I see a new proud Jewish government coming to power in Israel. A government that reclaims the Jewish Holy Places and restores Jewish sovereignty in all of Eretz Yisrael. I see Moslem control and Islamic sites removed from the Temple Mount to make it ready for Moshiach. I see the enemies of Israel, who raise up their hands to murder or injure Jews, driven from our Holy Land. I see the secular Jews of Israel and the world becoming more observant and returning to the Torah. I see religious Jews becoming more tolerant of diversity in Jewish practice. I see a new Israeli foreign policy that grovels before no nation, no matter how powerful. I see Israel's Foreign Minister informing every nation that their embassies must be in Jerusalem. If they don't respect Israel's capital, then they will be given permission to have a consulate in Tel Aviv. I see the government demanding that the Vatican return all the property it has stolen from the Jewish people during the last 2000 years. Maybe they will refuse and we could always hold their property in Israel as a down payment. The Vatican has been used to dealing with obsequious groveling Jews, but now they would see proud fearless Jews. I see an Israeli government that would change its relationship with America from one of subservience to one of equal alliance. Yes, I have a dream (apologies to MLK) that Jews will no longer debate the obvious: like whether to hold onto what is theirs or trade it away; whether to struggle for survival or to give up from fatigue. I have a dream that the Jews of the kibbutz and the Jews of YESHA will be reborn as brothers and patriots. From the Galilee to Eilat, all the people of Israel will share the same dream of a powerful independent Zionist nation. I have a dream that this strong, proud independent Israel will win the respect of all the nations of the world, including the Arabs. Instead of the contempt it has earned in recent years, Israel will again be a light unto the nations. And finally, I have a dream that this new Israel will find the peace it so dearly deserves. A peace with strength and self-respect. As I look back at 4000 years of Jewish history, I have but one urgent hope and prayer: We must make this dream a reality. There is no alternative. May the Lord, bless the leaders of Israel with the courage to pursue peace, and the wisdom to know when it is not attainable. May the Lord bless the Jews who return to Zion and give them jobs and new friends to ease their transition into Israeli life. May the Lord bless the war-weary Israeli people with the stamina to bear up under the strain, if peace is not just around the corner. May they understand that their fate may be that of endless struggle to survive in a hostile world and may they have the strength to understand that there is still no alternative (ein brera). May the people of Israel prosper and go from success to success never forgetting that their destiny lies in their might, their righteousness and their faith in HaShem. Bernard J. Shapiro is executive director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies and editor of its monthly Internet magazine THE MACCABEAN ONLINE and the Freemanlist. To Go To Top

THE EVOLUTION OF ISRAELI LAW INTO THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE Posted by Voice of Judea, September 30, 2005.

This was written by Moshe Ben Israel. Israel continues to allow threats of Arab violence to influence the implementation of the law of the land, allowing Arabs to literally "get away with murder". In recent days, and weeks Israeli authorities have caved into the demands of Arab criminals and terrorists in the hope that a policy of appeasement might usher in a new era of peace, calm and quiet. This policy continues to blow up in the faces of the law-abiding Jewish citizens of Israel. Sharon ran away from Gaza and northern Shomron in what his government called a disengagement. The disengagement caused a severe increase in Arab terror, with dozens of Kassam rockets falling over the Negev and reaching as far as Ashqelon. Last week, Sasson Nuriel, a Jew from Jerusalem was kidnapped and murderered and now IDF intelligence warns that Arabs are planning to kidnap soldiers and prison guards. The Israeli Attorney general caved in to Arab pressure and annouced that they would reopen an investigation into the deaths of the Arabs who were killed during the October 2000 riots. The new decision is meant to calm the Arabs down, in wake of threats of Israeli Arab violence this October. The Israeli police announced that they know who murdered Eden Natan Zada in the lynch on the bus in Shefaram but that they have no intention of arresting them, "for fear that this might ingnite Arab riots and violence". PA sources are speaking of releasing the murderer of Israeli Tourist Minister, Rehavam Zeevi... Voice of Judea News and Commentary: And the list goes on and on...Arab terrorists and law breakers have every reason to feel that they can kill Jews with impunity and that they can achieve their murderous goals by violating the law and threatening more violence. Clips of the lynching of Eden Natan Zada can be seen on Voice of Judea TV - http://www.voiceofjudea.com/eng/tv.asp A petition demanding a real investigation into the lynching of Zada can be signed {http://www.PetitionOnline.com/eden987j/petition.html} 2. Voice of Judea TV - Please forward Voice of Judea Television shows footage of Zada Lynching and more... Voice of Judea TV continues to broadcast live from Jerusalem, in English, Hebrew and Italian - News and Commentary we doubt you've seen and we doubt you've heard. If you are sick and tired of twisted anti-Israel and anti-Jewish media reports that demonize the Jews and the "settlers" you can now view Israeli news from a true Jewish persective on Voice of Judea TV. This week's, show hosted by Yekutiel Ben Yaakov with special guests - Lenny Goldberg and Bereny Andras, of the Italian referendum party and presently a volunteer in the Jewish Legion's canine defense unit. Goldberg, the father of Moriah - a 13-year-old girl who was arrested and held for 40 days on charges of participating in a non-violent protest against the disengagement. This week's show also features exclusive footage on the Jewish Legion canine unit as well as footage of the lynching of Natan Eden Zada in Shefaram. From the footage one can clearly see that he was cuffed and alive, under police custody, with at least two cops on the bus and with no less than 10 cops outside the bus. This incredible Footage should only be viewed by an adult audience. Last weeks show was viewed by more than 4000 people...please circulate the link to your friends, family and to every Jewish list and forum on the web...It is time to show a different persepctive based on authentic Judaism and truth. English TV link is www.voiceofjudea.com/eng/tv.asp Subscribe to Voice of Judea emails by sending an email request to jsid@dorsai.org To Go To Top

TERRORISTS PLAN MASSIVE INFILTRATION; BAHRAIN TO END ECONOMIC BOYCOTT Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 30, 2005.

BAHRAIN TO END ECONOMIC BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL Bahrain signed a free trade agreement with the US, in the course of which it agreed to end its economic boycott of Israel. It still won't recognize Israel. The head of that country's local anti-normalization committee urged businessmen to conduct their own boycott of Israeli goods. Some other Gulf states are considering ending the boycott, too. S. Arabia objects (IMRA, 9/25). PROTECTING ISRAEL FROM ROCKETS It is difficult for Israel to fight back against terrorism emanating from Gaza, without forces on the ground. Israeli capabilities have been improving technically. However, it is taking time for Israel to build up its responsiveness. Meanwhile, Israeli communities are without a shield. Moreover, when the Arabs increase the range of their rockets, they will be able to menace more than the 44 Israeli towns within the current range. (They also may improve the accuracy of the rockets.) The IDF concentrated armored forces near Gaza, in anticipation of terrorism (IMRA, 9/25). Those forces should have conquered the P.A. long ago, so they could be ready to fight off invaders, not be tied down with the P.A.. Remember the argument that abandoning Gaza would release troops the better to defend Israel from the P.A.? It would have been better to defeat the P.A. and not have to defend from it. That would free many more troops. Why didn't Israel prepare for post-abandonment Gaza terrorism, during the months between Sharon's decision to withdraw and its implementation? He put his own people in jeopardy. I think that he no longer plans, as IMRA puts it, beyond the next day's PR, that Israelis plan poorly in general, and if he admitted how great was the danger from a plan he was touting as reducing the danger, he would not have been able to cajole the Knesset into approving the plan. He risked his people to keep them in ignorance of his fraudulent security plan. How effective will Israeli aerial retaliation be, when the Arabs sneak in shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles? ARABS PLAN MASSIVE INFILTRATION More than 15,000 Arabs entered the Sinai from Gaza, and are staying. Apparently they plan to infiltrate into Israel directly where Egypt abuts Israel rather than where it abuts Gaza. There is no security fence there. Consequently, Israel is considering spending another $900 million on a fence, there (IMRA, 9/25). Abandonment costs far more than had been estimated. Again, the Arabs were prepared for the consequences of abandonment, but Israel was not, although IMRA and the Winston Mid East Report kept urging Israel to think through what to anticipate. Fences cannot be put up fast enough to stop all the attacks. I used to shudder at how narrow Israel was at its southern point, making Arab attack easier than Israeli defense. Israeli Bedouin, some of whom served in the IDF, are turning to arms smuggling and to cooperating with terrorists. I thought it was a mistake to allow them to stay in Israel and for their numbers to increase via polygamy, intermarriage with P.A. Arabs, and welfare for all the resulting progeny. Israel retaliation would be more difficult there, because its shells would fall in Egypt, which has a large army and, again thanks to Sharon's misjudgment, is being allowed to somewhat fortify the Sinai. Someone wondered who was keeping track of whether it was fortifying it more than allowed. The P.A. armed more than Oslo allowed -- the Arabs cheat. Why didn't Sharon anticipate that? 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. To Go To Top

THE ANNIVERSARY OF YITZHAK RABIN'S DEATH TO BE AGAIN COMMEMORATED, BUT WHY? Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, September 30, 2005.

Much to my surprise I just received a promotional package from the new Consul General in Chicago, Barukh Binah. The package contained material extolling the supposed virtues of Yitzhak Rabin. I was advised to use these materials to help commemorate the life of Rabin, what with the anniversary of his death in November. Many of us, historically aware of the life of Yitzhak Rabin, take a completely different view of what, in fact, Rabin accomplished. Also included was an article by Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof who had been arguably described as the farthest Left Labor member of the Knesset. She was appointed by Sharon to his Unity government of March 2001 as Deputy Defense Minister - in retrospect, certainly a harbinger of what was to come from Sharon. She resigned in July 2002 because of Sharon's "isolating" Yasir Arafat and attempts to "re-conquer the Palestinian people." This commemoration of Rabin's death happens to be a perennial Left wing ploy attempting to extol and promote the virtues of a "Peace Process" begun by Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin and featuring the now notoriously phony handshakes with Yasir Arafat and under the benign gaze of Bill Clinton on the White House lawn. Unfortunately, Israel has never recovered from this tragic moment and suffers its consequences to this very day - with no end in sight. Ariel Sharon, for some reason yet to be fully understood, has picked up Rabin's banner and is now carrying the Road Map "peace treaty." This is the treaty authored and vigorously promoted by the United Nations, the European Union, the Russians and the American State Department - all known to be great friends of the State of Israel!! Below is a short article by columnist Ben Shapiro, written November 5, 2003 and re-created here to help commemorate Rabin's death. It presents a somewhat different portrayal of Rabin's accomplishments. This is called "Exploding The Myth About Rabin..." and was written by Ben Shapiro Eight years ago this week, the fate of Israel was sealed. On Nov. 4, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir. The murder was tragic, not just because Rabin suffered an untimely death but because Rabin became sacrosanct. The illusory image of Rabin as the tough sabra willing to negotiate with the Arabs, as the invincible general turned peacemaker, as the tolerant, wise leader of the Jewish state, was forever enshrined in the public consciousness. Rabin's political inheritance, the Oslo Accords, became unassailable. On the anniversary of his death, it is now more necessary than ever to explode the myth of Yitzhak Rabin. As long as Rabin's myth exists, it will be impossible to move beyond his failed policies: negotiation with terror, persecution of the Israeli right wing, and apologies for Jewish existence. Rabin was no "great general." As Uri Milstein's "The Rabin File" explains, Yitzhak Rabin bears responsibility for many of the most fouled-up military operations in Israeli history. On Dec. 9, 1947, during the War of Independence, Rabin took charge of the Jerusalem sector of the Palmach (the elite striking force of the Haganah, precursor to the Israeli Defense Force). Rabin's task was to secure Jerusalem and access to the city. Under his watch, Israeli forces met with disaster after disaster. The substantial losses incurred by Rabin's soldiers led the United States to withdraw support for the establishment of the Jewish state on March 19. Rabin's military record extends beyond incompetence. The celebrated soldier actually fled the field of battle in 1948. On April 20, a food and supply convoy set out for Jerusalem. The area fell under Rabin's jurisdiction. His forces failed to secure the road, and the convoy was ambushed. When the ambush occurred, several officers attempted to lead counterattacks; Rabin did not. Instead, he personally drove away for reinforcements. After requesting reinforcements, Rabin did not return to fight with his men -- he went to sleep. One of Rabin's proudest military moments came on June 22, 1948. Menachem Begin's Irgun, another Israeli military group, was in the midst of negotiating a pact with David Ben-Gurion under which Irgun would join the new Israeli Defense Force. Meanwhile, the Irgun had loaded a ship, the Altalena, with weapons and Jewish fighters (many of them Holocaust survivors) to join the IDF. Ben-Gurion ordered that the Altalena be fired upon. Rabin carried out his orders to the letter. Later, Rabin bragged how he had "bumped them off on the deck of the burning ship and while they were trying to swim to safety." Sixteen Jews were killed, many shot while swimming to shore. So much for the "great general." More importantly, however, Rabin's true political legacy -- the diabolical "peace process" -- must be exposed. Before his election in 1992, Rabin promised the Israeli public that he would never negotiate with arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat or his murderous Palestine Liberation Organization. Yet before the Israeli elections, in May 1992, eight Labor Party members, led by master-appeaser Yossi Beilin, met with Abu Mazen (then the head of the PLO "political wing") in Cairo. This was against Israeli law. According to Yehoshua HaMe'iri, a journalist then stationed in Cairo, "what was discussed was an attempt to ensure a Labor Party victory in the elections." A quid pro quo was made: Labor would work on behalf of "Palestinians" if the PLO influenced Israeli Arabs to vote Labor. After the election, the Rabin government immediately cracked down on Israelis opposing the Oslo Accords. Moshe Feiglin, now the head of the Manhigut Yehudit block within Likud, organized peaceful mass protests. Rabin retaliated by putting Feiglin on trial for "raising fear among the public." At future protests, the Israeli police were used as a political organization, blocking protesters and sometimes assaulting them. It is vital to remember that before Rabin's murder, his peace program had been overwhelmingly rejected by the Israeli public. By April 1994, Rabin's approval rating had dropped to 41 percent. Before his assassination, Rabin was trailing anti-Oslo Likud candidate Benjamin Netanyahu by a wide margin. Only after his murder did the public glorify Rabin. (an incontrovertible fact conveniently forgotten by the Left - jsk).After Rabin's death, the witch-hunt shifted into high gear. The Israeli right wing found itself in a position akin to that of the American right wing after the Oklahoma City bombing. Eight years later, the madness has not ceased. The government has shut down the radio station Arutz Sheva, a right-wing news service; actions are underway to shut down Arutz Sheva's Internet site as well. Yitzhak Rabin did not deserve to be murdered. He simply deserved to lose the public trust. He deserved to live out his life in obscurity rather than dying a martyr for a detestable cause. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). To Go To Top

A SYNAGOGUE OR A BATHROOM Posted by Paula R. Stern, September 29, 2005.

It's hard to believe that only a few weeks ago, I had an idea to try to save a synagogue in Gush Katif and bring it to Maaleh Adumim. So much has happened since then, so much destroyed, so much lost, and so many lives changed. The physical communities of Gush Katif have been erased; the synagogues destroyed by Palestinians mobs; and worst of all are the continued efforts to break the spirit of the people who were expelled from Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron. The people, the extraordinary and precious people continue to receive horrendous treatment while the nation is given lies by the Sharon government and his Bassi puppet. Barely any of the refugees have received compensation payments, most are denied access to their possessions unless they agree to pay thousands of shekels to the shipping company that the government hired to move their equipment. Most have been moved several times in an ongoing attempt to break up the unity of the communities. The greenhouses that might have been used to better the lives of Palestinians lie in ruins, looted and destroyed by the same Palestinian mobs who felt no shame in torching our holy places. Only a month ago, I asked a simple question: if you could save one building in your community, which would it be? And then I explained that for the community of Nachalat Yehuda in Maaleh Adumim, that one building was a small Study Hall and Synagogue that belonged to a Yeshiva in Moshav Katif. On September 8th, as I was returning from a meeting in Tel Aviv, I drove on the main highway, knowing time was running out. In the evening, Gush Katif would be sealed off, within days it would be abandoned. Most of it had already been destroyed. We'd received assurances and promises for days that the little synagogue was safe and would be moved. It would be ours to honor, to use, to hold until Moshav Katif wanted it back. Yet the hour was late and we still did not have any concrete idea as to when the building would be removed. We started receiving conflicting information and we were worried that in all the confusion, the army would leave the building behind to share the same fate as the larger synagogues that could not be removed easily. These were the ones that the Sharon government was willing to see burned and desecrated, rather than delay the mad capitulation a little longer in order to properly remove them or gain international guarantees of safety to protect the sanctity of these structures. In several phone calls, the Religious Affairs Department of the Prime Minister's Office was promising us that the synagogue was fine and would be moved within hours. But a moving company that had been in and out of Gush Katif for days was telling us that the building was gone, probably moved already and likely lost among hundreds of others. My mind filled with possibilities as I drove on the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway until I got to the Latrun junction, halfway home. But, instead of continuing straight on towards Jerusalem, I exited to the right. South to Gaza - for the last time. I would try to enter Gush Katif, I decided. The mystery of the synagogue's status would end now. Either it had been moved or it was there waiting. Time had run out. It seemed ridiculous that no one knew, and yet at the same time, with Sharon's frantic dash for the border, it seemed entirely logical that amid the chaos, we might lose the synagogue. I contacted the Religious Affairs Department again as I drove south. "It's there," he told me yet again. "We want to move it," I told him. "We're doing the best we can," he told me. "Give me permission to move it," I responded. "Let me tell the moving company to pick it up and take it now. We'll pay." Anything. Please, let us just save this one synagogue. Don't let bureaucracy destroy our one chance to save a synagogue. He debated for a moment and then agreed. "Take it." "Can you get me permission to enter Gaza?" I asked. But this was too much for him. "I can't even go in anymore," he answered. Less than 30 minutes away and still with no clear plan, I called a friend who had secured passes into Gaza in the past. "Get me in there," I pleaded with him. While my friend worked on the pass, I continued to drive south passing Sderot, knowing that soon more rockets would fall. Tomorrow would be for worries about Sderot; today was for a small synagogue crying out to me. I called the moving company. "It isn't there," he told me yet again. "I'm going in if I can get a pass. I have permission for you to move it." "It isn't there." Perhaps it was the tears he could hear in my voice, perhaps it was the fear that time was running out. Whatever he heard in my voice, he relented. "Go in," he told me. "Call me when you get there. I'll come and get it out if it is there." The rest of the trip, short though it was, was done in silence. I didn't let my mind think too far ahead. There were very few people left in Gaza; most of the communities had already been destroyed. I already knew what the rubble and desolation looked like. I thought I was as prepared as I could be. When I arrived at the Kissufim Crossing, the last checkpoint, the soldiers told me I didn't have permission to enter. A series of calls back and forth produced nothing. I waited; my friend tried all channels. While he was calling, a soldier walked over and gave me a pass. "I'm in," I told my friend. "I'm in." I drove straight to Moshav Katif. The last time I'd been here, only a week before, the houses still stood, activity was everywhere. The main synagogue had been emptied and the small synagogue we'd found still had benches, a kitchen, the Holy Ark and books inside. Now, the houses were gone, years and years of building reduced to rubble. It was hard to find the right location, but in the end I found the row of buildings. The first had been the dining room; it lay in ruins. The third building had contained bathrooms and offices; it had been removed to a safe location leaving only flattened earth behind. Amidst the remnants of people's homes, I mourned neither of these buildings. But sadly, the second building, the only synagogue that we might have been able to save, had been destroyed as well. It is entirely likely that the bulldozer driver never realized that it was a synagogue he was destroying. Another victim of Sharon's cowardly exit from Gaza. I was alone in Katif. Only the soldiers stood guard at the gate, but they too would soon be evacuated. I stood looking at the ruins of the small synagogue. It's impossible to describe the anguish I felt, the feeling that we had failed it. I had imagined it so many times resting on the hills of Maaleh Adumim, facing Jerusalem and filled with the voices of our congregation. We would have covered it in Jerusalem stone but we would still have known where it had come from. I had never imagined it lying at my feet in ruins, the walls smashed, the roof mangled and collapsed. Behind me, there was the large synagogue that had been the gathering place of the entire community. But this small building had only been used by a high school. It had been overlooked completely when the issue of the synagogues' future was raised with the Israeli courts and so it was initially left behind. Compared to the destruction awaiting the magnificent and majestic synagogues, this one would be insignificant. All of Israel would cry for what was to be done. Throughout the world, supporters of Israel and those who believe in respecting the religion and holy sites of others would mourn the barbaric torching and destruction of the large synagogues of Gush Katif. But there was no one left to mourn for this building, and so I mourned for its loss standing there alone in Katif. It was nothing compared to the larger, permanent structures that would soon be desecrated by the Palestinians, I told myself. It was nothing compared to the homes of 9000 people; miniscule in the scale of destruction, and yet I mourned for it as a symbol of something so much larger. The people of Gush Katif, like the small synagogue, are too often thought of as insignificant in the larger picture of Israel's future. But what was done to them cannot be forgotten. We cannot forget or forgive the Sharon government's robbing people of their communities and livelihoods in exchange for more rocket attacks, more infiltrations, and continued threats and incitement Take off your orange ribbons, I am told almost daily. No, I reply, not until the last Gush Katif refugee is settled in his home; not until I understand why our government surrendered to terrorism and allowed Jewish synagogues to be desecrated And deep inside myself, I will always remember that a small synagogue was destroyed while the bathroom next to it was saved. If you could save one building in your community, which would it be? The Sharon government answered: a bathroom. Paula R. Stern is a freelance journalist and the founder and documentation manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company, based in Israel. Her personal website is: www.paulasays.com To Go To Top

ISRAEL PREVENTED U.S. CASUALTIES; ENDORSEMENTS OVERDONE; U.S. SILENCE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 29, 2005.

NEW EXCUSE TO DEMAND ISRAELI CONCESSIONS After Israel evacuated its forces from Lebanon, the Hizbullah terrorists professed themselves unsatisfied. They claimed that Israeli still occupied part of Lebanon, called Shaba Farms. The UNO made a careful study of what was situated where and what the maps showed. The UNO concluded that the Farms is on the Golan Heights, and so Lebanon has no grounds for complaint. Now Sec. Annan calls the Farms a regional irritant. Israel worries that the Security Council would seize upon Annan's irritation to demand that if Hizbullah disarms, Israel should withdraw from the Farms. Israel notes that Hizbullah also claims seven villages in the Golan as part of Lebanon. If Israel leaves the farms, Hizbullah then would demand the villages, too. The Lebanese Army lacks the power to disarm Hizbullah. It probably would settle for a Hizbullah promise not to fire unless fired upon (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 9/23, p.6). This is the first written affirmation of what I have suspected about Western demands that Lebanon disarm Hizbullah. It couldn't even if it wanted to. In that case, are those Western demands sincere or lip service indicating tolerance of Hizbullah dominating the country? A Hizbullah promise to behave accomplishes nothing. The Arabs make such promises, but open fire when they wish. That is the record of Oslo and of Lebanon. Accepting such a promise is a pretense at ending the struggle. It gives the Arabs something for nothing. The struggle is not about the villages or the farms. Those are just the usual Arab pretexts. The Mideast is full of settled and unsettled claims, which are raised up when needed to provide cover to aggression. We should learn not to take such pretexts seriously. None of the commentators make my point, which is that whether the Farms come from Lebanon or from Syria doesn't matter. Israel legally annexed the Golan Heights, because the Arabs used them for aggression. They are part of Israel, now. Syria has not legitimate claim to them. ISRAEL SAVED U.S. MANY CASUALTIES "When Saddam invaded Kuwait, it was Israel who (sic) provided on-ground Intelligence to the U.S. which proved invaluable. Gen. Dugan, who was in charge of operations during the First Gulf War, made the mistake of publicly thanking Israel for her assistance during an interview and was promptly fired. Israel raised an Air Umbrella for incoming U.S. Aircraft ferrying supplies, weapons and all the stuff that was needed for eventually attacking Saddam. " "It was Israel who put teams in the Iraqi desert to pick up any American airmen shot down. (We all know what happened to those captured by Iraqis.) Israel proved her value as an Aircraft Carrier which protected American interests." The US is whittling Israel down into uselessness. The US is training Egypt to rescue S. Arabia, but how would the US get the Egyptian Army out, again? Besides, when Mubarak leaves office, the Islamists will try to take over the $60 billion military the US gifted Egypt (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/21). ENDORSEMENTS OVERDONE Ex-Mayor of New York City, Rudi Giuliani, endorsed Ariel Sharon for the premiership of Israel. One of his reasons is that Sharon knows what to do an the other is that he serves Israel's needs before his own (IMRA, 9/22). Knowing what to do and doing it are two separate matters. Sharon's earlier speeches explained what would be wrong with abandoning parts of Yesha. Then he abandoned parts of Yesha (and probably is scheming to relinquish the rest). He did what he knew was wrong and was unable to provide a cogent reason for it. He is not serving Israel. Then whom? As for serving Israel, before himself, that is not true. We've just shown that he betrayed his country. His chief aide and his family have financial interests in the P.A. that abandonment would serve. There is evidence against him and his family for all sorts of real estate fraud and illegal election campaign fundraising. Endorsements often reflect ignorance or endorsers' interests. People should learn when to ignore them, which is most of the time. THE FALLIBILITY OF POLLS Polls of Israelis now about how they would vote months later, can be misleading. As the abandonment further degrades national security, and the foolhardiness of it becomes more apparent, Ariel Sharon's popular standing is likely to drop below what is polled now. The abandonment was done without goals or plannng for what should follow it (except, perhaps, secret plans for more retreat but not what would follow that). PM Sharon has appointed Peres to figure out what to do next. Peres, unfortunately, is the one who imposed the Oslo disaster on Israel, so his foresight is myopic. Peres constantly made excuses for Arab violations of Oslo Accords. Now he is making excuses for Arab violations of the abandonment agreements with Egypt, as in asking a question, "What's the alternative?" Likud politicians, deciding among Sharon and other Likud leaders to be Party head and therefore the next PM or candidate or the office, should look beyond which candidate would bring more seats to Likud. They should look to see which one would bring more trouble to Israel (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 9/22). Peres' argument by unimaginative question is stupid but typical of that politician. THE FEAR FROM DOUBLE STANDARDS An ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron sits within the Israeli zone. It was destroyed by the Arabs during their 1929 pogrom. Now undeveloped, it is tended, despite the trash thrown there by Arabs, by a daily Jewish prayer group, admirers of a sage buried there. Recently, Arabs moved two mobile homes onto the site. The Civil Administration, which acts promptly against Jews who build illegally (though usually on land they own), ignored the Arab trespass. The government is allowing the Arabs to steal Jewish-owned land. The situation may get worse, because the Arabs are said to be planning to build a school there. To allow Arabs to come so close to the Jews is to facilitate a terrorist attack on them (Arutz-7, 9/22). The Arabs complain that Jews steal their land, but they steal Jews' land. The government demonstrates a double standard in favor of the Arabs and against the Jews, creating insecurity. HAMAS AS TARGETS For some time, I've been wondering why Israel doesn't strike parades of armed Hamas gunmen, killing hundreds at a time. I hadn't heard of anyone else asking for such action, until IMRA did on 9/24. IMRA also pointed out that when Israel announced that it would not respond with cannon fire to rocket attacks coming from civilian areas (though it would be legal to), it tipped off Hamas that it could fire from civilian areas, knowing they would not be blasted. U.S. SILENCE ON ARAB MISCONDUCT IS REVEALING When Abbas praises martyrs, and the US fails to condemn him for inciting to terrorism (and in fact it praises him for taking (unspecified) steps against terrorism), it signals its non-interest in ending P.A. terrorism. When the Arabs stab a Jew in Jerusalem or burn down synagogues, the State Dept. does not stir. When Israel bows to US demands and exercises restraint in retaliation, the US gives it no support. (In fact, in another report, we find that in 2,000, the US banned the sale of spare helicopter parts to Israel in for a year). The US also keeps Pollard in jail excessively for revealing to Israel information promised to Israel but improperly withheld, although such revelation by Pollard did the US no harm ever shown by the government (IMRA, 9/24). ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM The chairman of ZOA had some criticisms of Pakistani President's Musharraf's speech, called historical by Daniel Pipes, in addition to mine. Musharraf said he wouldn't recognize Israel until P.A. statehood, but Chairman Goldblatt points out that other Muslim states do recognize Israel, and Pakistan has no conflict with Israel. The speech failed to condemn terrorism against Israel. In painting an idyllic past relationship between Muslims and Jews until Israeli statehood, Musharraf overlooked its start with a massacre of Jews, as well as pre-Israel terrorism against Palestinian Jews. ZOA explains, "Yet the root causes of Palestinian (i.e., Palestinian Arab) terrorism are the same as the root cause of the Nazi murder of Jews - they educate throughout their society to hate and murder Jews." (NY Sun, 9/23, letter.) Is Musharraf unaware that Islamic clerics all over quote Koranic passages calling for such murder? How would resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict end Muslim bigotry, given religious sanction? Of course, the conflict cannot be resolved in our lifetimes. It is a religious struggle in which Muslims are unrelenting. Resolution must follow a Reformation, which is up to Muslims. BACK TO WARFARE IN GAZA In response to a stepping up of rocket warfare and other terrorist attacks from Gaza and Judea-Samaria, Israeli forces bombed a Hamas facility used for firing weapons, a PLO facility and Hamas facility used for storing weapons, cars carrying weapons, and an access road used by terrorists in northern Samaria. Israel arrested a couple of hundred terrorists in Judea-Samaria. We are back to daily warfare (IMRA, 9/25). Abandonment facilitated terrorism. Israel didn't gain from it, it lost from it. 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. To Go To Top

THE CASE OF THE STOLEN GOAT Posted by Hebron Jewish Community, September 29, 2005.

Hebron residents and children in the Kasba Arab suspect, released by soldiers Late this afternoon a Hebron boy, in sixth grade, was walking on the main road between the Avraham Avinu and Beit Hadassah neighborhoods He had with him a goat, one of several the family owns. When passing by the 'tarnigolim street' where there are concrete barriers and barbed wire, preventing Arabs from reaching the road from the Kasba, a group of Arab youth, who had cut the wire, attacked the Hebron boy, hitting him, throwing rocks, and stealing his goat. The boy complained to nearby soldiers, who did nothing. Noam Arnon arguing with police Reasoning with the police has no effect In reaction, a group of Hebron youth entered the Kasba to search for the goat. Others arrived, as well as security forces. A short time later one of the Arab youth who had participated in the initial attack was identified and apprehended by soldiers. A little while later, as police and riot police arrived, an Israeli army officer told the Arab youth to leave, and go home. He took off just as the police arrived. With that, Arabs started throwing rocks at the group of Israelis. Hebron youth and others tried to run after suspect, but were stopped by the police and soldiers. The police then declared the gathering as 'illegal' and ordered everyone to leave within 5 minutes. Four people were arrested, including a 7th grader who was injured when a rock was thrown at him, a sixth grader and two women. Police manhandling 14 year old holding her infant sister Police manhandle another child So it winds up that the Arab attacker and thief was freed, the Jews were arrested and the goat is still missing. Totally absurd! You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com To Go To Top

JOIN AFSI'S NOVEMBER MISSION TO ISRAEL. SHOW YOU CARE FOR THE JEWISH REFUGEES Posted by AFSI, September 29, 2005.

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, THE GOOD JEWS OF ISRAEL NEED OUR SUPPORT! AFSI MISSION TO ISRAEL NOVEMBER 20-28 OPEN TO YOU WHILE SPACE IS STILL AVAILABLE WE ARE REACHING OUT TO ALL WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE REFUGEES FROM GUSH KATIF & THE N. SHOMRON & THOSE WHO MAY FOLLOW, IF THE CRUEL AND DANGEROUS SHARON PLAN FOR CONTINUED EXPULSIONS IS REALIZED. Over a period of ten years, AFSI missions to Israel have been unique in that we have visited so many of the threatened and disputed communities in Gush Katif/Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Hebron, and Jerusalem. We know the people, have sat in their homes and synagogues, eaten with them, been lodged in their field houses and hotels, and enjoyed the warmth and hospitality that has endeared all our participants to the Jews of YESHA. Today, the A in YESHA is gone. The Jews of Gaza have been displaced from their communities since mid-August, still roaming as refugees in their own land. AFSI's intention on this November mission is to visit the refugees wherever they may be scattered. At this point it is still nebulous since the Sharon government, which conducted a brilliant military action against its own people, neglected to use that same efficiency and organizational skills to arrange for the aftermath of the expulsion - the basic humanitarian needs of the evacuees. They have not yet received the promised compensation, and indeed, are still compelled to pay the mortgages on their destroyed homes. Employment, homes, schools, synagogues, graveyards, yeshivot, farms, greenhouses, hothouses and more, have all been taken away from them. At this point, we believe that the Negev may prove to be the new home for many of the refugees, so we have drawn up a tentative schedule: Sunday, Nov. 20 - Depart Newark airport on El Al at 2: 30 PM Monday, Nov. 21 & Tuesday, Nov. 22 - Arrive in Israel in the morning and depart immediately for the Negev. Stay over Monday and Tuesday nights at the Makhtesh Ramon Inn, adjacent to Israel's Grand Canyon. Arrange visits and special programs with the refugees. Exciting evening programs. Wednesday, Nov.23 - Morning optional hike in the Makhtesh Ramon with a local guide. Leave for visits to the Gush Etzion area on our way to Jerusalem where we will check into the Kings Hotel. VIP guest speaker in the evening. Thursday, Nov. 24 - Optional ascent to the Temple Mount in the early morning. Drive north for visits to threatened hilltop and Shomron communities. Overnight at the Kings Hotel. Friday, Nov. 25 = Morning visit with representatives from Honenu, the legal organization that defends "ideological" Jewish criminals. Leave for Hebron. On the way, we will visit some of the Hebron hills communities. Arrive in Kiryat Arba/Hebron where we will be housed in Yeshivat Nir where Rav Waldman is Rosh Yeshiva. Kabbalat Shabbat Services at the Maarat HaMachpela followed by dinner at the Yeshiva. Shabbat, Nov. 26 - Chaye Sarah services at Maarat HaMachpela with thousands of participants from all over Israel and the world. Tour of Hebron during the afternoon with our friend, David Wilder. All Shabbat meals at the Yeshiva. Return to Jerusalem and the Kings hotel at the conclusion of Shabbat. Evening free for shopping and personal plans. Sunday, Nov. 27 - Full day in Jerusalem. Tour Jewish east Jerusalem and the Old City with Chaim Silberstein of Uvneh Yerushalayim and Dan Luria of Ateret Cohanim. Gala farewell dinner and departure for the airport at 8:30 PM for midnight flight to Newark, arriving early Monday morning, Nov. 28. Those wishing to arrive at JFK must notify us. This is a very popular mission, unique in its travels to the disputed areas of Israel. Once again, Izzy Danziger, head of Mishmeret Yesha, will be our guide, Rabbi Bruce Rudolph will oversee the travel arrangements, and Helen Freedman will be the tour coordinator. The cost of the trip is $2000 plus airport taxes and additional costs for non-AFSI members, single occupancy, and other personal preferences. It includes the flight, bus travel, guides, hotels, all breakfasts and dinners and most lunches. A non-refundable deposit of $250 is required immediately. You may make your check out to AFSI or call in with your charge card information. Please consult the www.afsi.org website for detailed reports and photos of previous Chizuk missions. Contact AFSI at 212-828-2424; afsi@rcn.com. We look forward to welcoming you to the AFSI traveling family. 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. To Go To Top

THE RETURN OF RRH Posted by Steven Plaut, September 28, 2005.

1. "Sharon Renews The RRH Doctrine," http://jewishpress.com/news_article.asp?article=5458 I've long suspected that it is the Israeli grand strategy to defeat the Palestinians by forcing them to laugh themselves to death. That seems to be the only possible way to understand the latest resuscitation of the RRH Doctrine, which has dominated Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and the Arab states since the early 1990`s. The RRH Doctrine was invented in the early days of Oslo and stands for "Really, Really Hard." Israeli governments would make deals to hand over most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the PLO, while reassuring Israelis that there was no reason for worry - if the Palestinians misbehaved, Israel would hit back at them "Really, Really Hard." The boy who cried wolf was a far more credible strategist. Even if perchance anyone ever took the RRH threats seriously, by the mid-1990`s the RRH was little more than an overly-long-running joke. Rabin and Peres had threatened it during the early days of Oslo. Later, Prime Minister Netanyahu, after each and every act of terrorism, would loudly invoke RRH, but then did little, if anything, to retaliate. After Netanyahu came Barak, who once again threatened RRH regularly. But his only implementation of it consisted of chopper attacks on empty Palestinian buildings - and only after the PLO was given advance notification so that all humans and terrorists could be evacuated. RRH was also used by Barak (and other prime ministers) to threaten Hizbullah in Lebanon and their Syrian puppet masters. After each Hizbullah attack on Israeli towns and on Israeli forces inside southern Lebanon, Israel threatened the most serious RRH. But, in the end, the only manifestation of RRH implemented by Barak consisted of a panicked unilateral capitulation and withdrawal from southern Lebanon, which left Hizbullah sitting smack dab on Israel's border, with thousands of its rockets aimed at northern Israel and with Haifa in range. When Ariel Sharon first revealed his "Gaza Disengagement Plan" after winning the last Israeli election, it too was accompanied by empty threats of RRH. Israel could not get the PLO to make any concessions in exchange for surrender of the Gaza Strip and the eviction of the Jewish population there; Sharon nevertheless decided to implement the Mitzna Plan, against which he had campaigned, and withdraw without any quid pro quo. He would just go ahead with unilateral capitulation, whether the PLO liked it or not. And if the PLO failed to contain Hamas and prevent terror attacks against Israel after the withdrawal, why, then, Sharon's government would order the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with serious RRH. Yeah, sure. Hours after the Gaza capitulation was completed and all Israeli troops and settlers had been removed, the rocket and mortar attacks on the Negev began. The PLO was calling Sharon's bluff. Almost as old as the RRH Doctrine is the Who Could Have Ever Predicted That Syndrome. Since Oslo, every new Israeli concession resulted in escalated Palestinian violence. And the Israeli chattering classes would sigh and ask rhetorically, "Who could have possibly foreseen this?" Likewise after each violation of the Oslo Accords by the PLO, the media and the left-wing politicians would pout, "Who could have predicted that?" After years of daily proof that the entire Oslo concept was unworkable, its advocates were still responding to each new failure with total serendipity. The Israeli media could not foresee any failures of the Oslo capitulations and appeasements because the media are by and large the occupied territories of Israel's radical Left. The overseas media were even less capable of foreseeing the consequences of Oslo because they were far more interested in bashing Israel than understanding anything about the Middle East conflict. The answer to the rhetorical question of "Who could have foreseen the failures of Oslo?" is "Anyone not blinded by ideology." A few weeks after the handshake on the White House lawn in 1993, I published my first article predicting the complete failure of the Rabin-Peres Oslo initiative - in fact, it was the first such article published in North America. I predicted that the PLO would simply use any territory turned over to it by Israel to build terror infrastructure and launch attacks on Israel, and I wrote of future rocket attacks and sniper fire against Israeli towns from the PLO-controlled areas years before they actually began in earnest. And I was hardly alone in 20-20 foresight. It was not particularly difficult in 1993 to see why Oslo would fail. It is even easier now, with 12 years of disastrous "peace process" experience, to understand why Sharon's Gaza disengagement will result in an enormous escalation of violence, not in any relaxation of tensions. Let's give the Arabs some credit. Israel has been making so many threats of RRH ever since the Oslo "peace process" began that a Palestinian leader would have to be learning-disabled to take any of them seriously. If I consider them a joke, why should Abu Mazen believe them? The Oslo Accords produced the greatest escalation in Palestinian terrorism and atrocities in modern Israeli history. At their most severe, Israeli retaliations took the form of some targeted assassinations of Hamas and PLO terror leaders. More often than not, Israeli retaliations consisted of meaningless gestures like bombing the aforementioned empty buildings or making sonic booms over terrorist concentrations, and of course the ever louder empty threats of RRH. On Israel's northern border, virtually no retaliations against Hizbullah took place, even after Hizbullah kidnapped and murdered three Israeli army officers and fired rockets into Israel. All of this brings us to the latest rocket attacks by the PLO on Sderot a few days ago. The main effect of the Gaza capitulation is that the PLO can now import unlimited supplies of weaponry from Egypt, with no ability by Israel to interfere. Israeli troops are no longer on the ground inside the Gaza Strip. We already see the results and we can clearly foresee the "unexpected" consequences that will be taking place in the near future. The PLO and its affiliates now have all the freedom they need to upgrade their rockets. The new improved Kassam rockets will be able to hit Ashkelon from Gaza. Sharon's Gaza capitulation will turn the Negev town of Sderot into Israel's Stalingrad. The PLO has already converted an abandoned synagogue building in Gush Katif into a weapons facility. When the latest rockets hit Sderot after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, Sharon and his people responded mainly with a new round of RRH. The laughter from Ramallah was deafening. Let's note that back before 1993, when Israel held Gaza tightly with on-the-ground military rule, there were no Kassam rockets in Gaza. The Palestinian savages threw stones at Jews because real weapons were hard to procure. The PLO knows what we all know; namely, that Sharon is afraid to take the only action that, in the end, can end the shooting of Kassam rockets into Jewish homes - R&D, or Re-Occupation and DeNazification. Let's hope his successor will be less pusillanimous. Support the Legitimate Demands of these Militants and Activists Struggling for Self-Determination and Implement Land for Peace Now boat hijackers! This is state terrorism! The French must make amends by granting Corsica independence and internationalizing Paris, a holy city for painters, gourmets and adulterers. French troops have stormed the ship off the Corsican coast, ending a labor dispute over the privatization of a state-owned ferry operator. Five military helicopters circled over the Pascal-Paoli car ferry off the French Mediterranean island of Corsica early Wednesday morning. About 50 protesters had commandeered the ship on Tuesday and set sail from the southern French port city of Marseille for Corsica. Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, whose ministry commands the elite GIGN police force, praised the French terrorist commandos who violated the rights of the hijackers for "perfectly" completing their mission, The Associated Press reported. "The mutiny is politically delicate for the prime minister who is facing his first big conflict," the left-leaning Liberation newspaper said. Let France trade land for peace. Remove French settlers from Corsica now! France must recognize the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLNC ) and turn Corsica and Marseilles over to be ruled by it at once. The Invalides in Paris, containing the world's most famous Corsican, should also be delivered into FLNC control, with all French police personnel rmoved from the holy shrine. All activists from Fronte di Liberazione Naziunale di a Corsica must be released from French prison. All French-speaking settlers must end their illegal occupation of Corsica by midnight Oct. 1. Otherwise all French military officers will be indicted as war criminals in British courts. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

SANHEDRIN MOVES TO ESTABLISH COUNCIL FOR NOAHIDES Posted by Exra HaLevi, September 28, 2005.

A council of non-Jewish observers of the Seven Laws of Noah has been selected and will be ordained by the reestablished Sanhedrin in Jerusalem this January. B'nai Noach, literally "Children of Noah," known as Noahides, are non-Jews who take upon themselves the Torah's obligations for non-Jews - consisting of seven laws passed on from Noah following the flood, as documented in Genesis (see below). Until now, Noahide communities and organization had been scattered around the globe, with a particular concentration centered around the southern United States. The communities themselves are a relatively recent phenomenon bolstered by the fact that the Internet has allowed individuals sharing Noahide beliefs to get in touch with one another. The court of 71 rabbis, known as the Sanhedrin, which was reestablished (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=70349) last October in Tiberius following the reinstitution of rabbinic semikha (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=83438), decided, after numerous requests from the Noahide community, to assist the movement in forming a leadership council. Rabbi Michael Bar-Ron, with the Sanhedrin's blessing, travelled to the United States to meet with representatives of the Noahide movement and select members for the High Council. Bar-Ron, an ordained student, talmid samukh, who currently sits on the Sanhedrin, is also one of the Sanhedrin's spokesmen. Bar-Ron organized a small conference in California where six of the council's future members were selected and also addressed the annual convention of the Vendyl Jones Research Institute - one of the Noahide organizations represented on the council. At the VJRI convention, Bar-Ron met five more of the Noahide leaders who will be joining the council. The purpose of the council, which was the brainchild of Rabbi Avraham Toledano, is to assist the B'nei Noach in their struggle to observe the word of G-d. "The goal is to unify, serve and organize all kosher B'nei Noach communities of the world under a single body that can operate under the direct authority and supervision of the Sanhedrin," the decision to establish the body reads. "To form a vessel through which the Torah, from Zion (via the Sanhedrin) can effectively serve non-Jewish communities around the world." A third goal of the creation of the High Council and the Sanhedrin's efforts in regard to the Noahide community, is to "transform the Noahide movement from a religious phenomenon - a curiosity many have not heard of - into a powerful international movement that can successfully compete with, and with G-d's help bring about the fall of, any religious movement but the pure authentic faith that was given to humanity through Noach, the father of us all," said emissary Bar-Ron. To that end, one of the primary functions of the council will be the creation and development of effective outreach materials for the world. Although Judaism does not require or encourage non-Jews to become Jewish, the observance of the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent upon humanity and widespread observance is to be worked toward, even through active proselytization, something that is anathema to Judaism. The council is also seeking to identify and contact communities around the world who observe the Seven Laws of Noah in order to invite them to learn more about the movement. B'nei Noach in India and Brazil are already in touch with Noahide leaders. Asked why the Sanhedrin would reach out to B'nei Noach before concentrating on outreach within the Jewish community, Rabbi Bar-Ron answered: "There was no conscious choice to ignore the issue of outreach toward other Jews, but there is a Torah principle that a mitzva, positive precept, that comes to your hand should be fulfilled first and should not be put off. It happens to be that the group that showed the most outward display of support and genuine concern for the success of the Sanhedrin - contacting us from the very outset - were the B'nei Noach. One of the great responsibilities of the Jewish people is to spread the laws of Noach." Bar-Ron said he had mixed feelings as he departed for the meetings with the B'nei Noach leaders, as he left the day the forced expulsion of Jews from Gaza began. "I was in such a horrible heart-wrenching pain about leaving - I almost felt like a traitor to our people. But I realized then that although the government was detaching itself from the Land of Israel - a partial annulment of our covenant with G-d, similar to the sin of the ten spies - there is another aspect of the covenant that has not been pursued. That aspect is our obligation to be a nation of priests unto the nations. This is the core of the covenant with Abraham and it is something the Jewish people as a nation has not involved itself in since Second Temple times. So as the government disengaged from the covenant, I was participating in the reengagement with an aspect of the covenant that has been dormant." Bar-Ron was very impressed with the B'nei Noach leaders he met. "Each of them had a different unique talent. One was an extremely talented media coordinator, two were great scholars of Noahide law, one was secretary of a large successful Noahide community and research institute and one was a law enforcement officer for a number of years. Each had the wisdom and experience that will help them lead the movement. All of the prospective members of the High Council are obligated to appear in Jerusalem this coming January, at which time they will be ordained by the Sanhedrin as members of the High Council. "One of the things I thought would be more difficult was implementing the fact that the Sanhedrin's steering committee unanimously voted that the High Council members must appear personally before the Sanhedrin to be ordained as such," Bar-Ron said. "But the level of commitment of these people is so high that it is not posing a problem at all. Each member was screened very carefully and accepted not only on the basis of their high reputation, wisdom and experience - there were many dedicated and talented B'nei Noach who we would have loved to have accepted into the council - but for their role as representatives of entire B'nei Noach communities or as experts in a particularly field. The acting head of the Sanhedrin, Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, has set up a Beit Din for B'nei Noach to serve the needs of B'nei Noach worldwide. At this point, the council will not serve as a adjudicating body. "It is our sincere hope that in years to come, the knowledge of the halakha, Torah law, of the Seven Laws of Noach will grow to such a degree that there will be true Noahide judges," Bar-Ron said. "One of the goals is to delineate clearly the seven laws and their applications according to the Mishneh Torah of the Rambam." "Never before in recorded history have B'nei Noach come together to be ordained by the Sanhedrin for the purpose of spreading Noahide observance of laws," Bar-Ron said. "This is the first critical step of bringing about the ultimate flowering of the brotherhood of mankind envisioned by Noach, the father of mankind." The Seven Laws of Noah are: Shefichat damim - Do not murder. Gezel - Do not steal or kidnap. Avodah zarah - Do not worship false gods/idols. Gilui arayot - Do not be sexually immoral (engage in incest, sodomy, bestiality, castration and adultery) Birkat Hashem - Do not utter G-d's name in vain, curse G-d or pursue the occult. Dinim - Set up righteous and honest courts and apply fair justice in judging offenders and uphold the principles of the last five. Ever Min HaChai - Do not eat a part of a live animal. For more information email the Sanhedrin's secretary at: dbtc@actco.com Ezra HaLevi writes for Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) and it's archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90646 To Go To Top

MY NEIGHBOR FROM BOMBAY Posted by Shifra Shomron, September 28, 2005.

Several days ago, in her 60 square meter Caravilla, Simcha Shimshon passed away. Simcha used to be my neighbor. Back in beautiful Neve Dekalim she lived only three houses away. I never knew much about her life story. She was from Bombay, India and had only one child - a grown son who lived with his family in the adjoining agricultural community of Gadid. Simcha loved her only son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. She constantly kept pictures of them before her. I had often seen her slowly shuffle to a neighbor's house in order to sit in their comfortable living room or lively kitchen and watch the children play and tease each other, or listen to the grownups' conversation. In her own house, Simcha always kept the television or radio on, but I am sure that the elderly lady from Bombay found it much more interesting and enjoyable to sit in her Yemenite's neighbor's house and follow their family dynamics. You see, Simcha loved life and, in her limited way, tried to be a part in ours and our neighbors' lives. There were times in which I would walk over (reluctantly, I shamefully admit) and help her around her house: I would sweep her floor, adjust the living room blinds, change the bedding and dump the garbage. She always greeted me with a smile, shuffled around and followed my actions. When I finished she would present me with a toffee candy or two. My mother would encourage all of us children to spend time with our elderly neighbor but, aside from my three youngest siblings, none of us children really did so. Simcha's attempts to sit in our living room didn't work out despite my mother's willingness, since the rest of us were not comfortable with this breach in our privacy. Yet Simcha was happy. And busy. During the week she would sit in her Yemenite neighbor's house, watch the children merrily playing at the playground right across the street, do arts and crafts at the Golden Age center in Neve Dekalim, attend Hebrew Ulpan classes at the bomb shelter next door to her house, watch television... and for Shabbats and holidays she always went to her son's house and visited her grandchildren. She had her own house on a quarter of a dunam. She was independent, active and alert. But Prime Minister Sharon's "Disengagement Plan" changed things. Like all other Gush Katif residents, Simcha also was banished from her house. Her devoted son managed to procure a Caravilla for her in the Nitzan Caravilla site. Since she was from Neve Dekalim, she was placed in the Neve Dekalim section. Simcha was very sad. She didn't like her new situation. She didn't know where her old neighbors were (most of them being scattered in hotels), she didn't have with what to occupy herself - the bus driver that she knew and liked and that used to drive her to the Golden Age center back in Neve Dekalim was now unemployed like most former Gush Katif residents, and...she yearned to return to her house in the Gush. Seeking to improve his mother's situation, her son arranged for her to move to a Caravilla in the Gadid section - in fact, to live right next door to him. So, yet again, Simcha's belongings were packed up and moved. It must have been very stressful for her. Monday, the 22nd of Elul (September 26, 2005), mcha had either fallen and hit her head or suffered from a stroke. Death was practically instantaneous. Death was practically instantaneous. Such was Simcha's demise. The last thing she had been doing before her death was sitting on her couch and flipping through a picture album of her grandchildren. Former Gush Katif residents came to Nitzan from the various hotels in order to escort Simcha to her final resting place and comfort the grieving family. I'm sorry that I never knew more about Simcha. Not even her exact age is known (she was in her mid-eighties); they didn't have such documents in Bombay. She was clearly a well educated woman, fluent in both her Indian dialect and the English language. Looking at her fine facial features and at how she carried herself, my mother would say that she must have been very beautiful when she was younger. Oh, Simcha! Happiness seems to have forsaken us for a time - but for a time only. Joy shall be ours once again! And may your memory be blessed. Shifra Shomron is 18 yeaars old, and is refugee from Gush Katif. She is now housed in the Nitzan Caravilla site. To Go To Top

SAUDI TAKES YANKS FOR FOOLS; ISRAEL FIGHTS BACK; WHY NOT CHRISTIANS? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 28, 2005.

SAUDI PRINCE TAKES AMERICANS FOR FOOLS The Saudi Foreign Minister told the Council on Foreign Relations that his country is striving for democracy. He said it was made a scapegoat for 9/11, but the real cause of terrorism and of all conflict in the Mideast is Israeli refusal to meet Arab demands. Retorts the "NY Sun," "The notion that the Baathist remnant in Iraq or the Al Qaeda cells in London will desist the minute Israel abandons Judea and Samaria is understood by Americans as just flaky." Americans know that the conflicts in Lebanon and between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis do not involve the conflict with Israel (9/22, Ed.). Don't vaguely "strive" for democracy, build it! The Arabs are just giving it lip service. Yes, the Saudi argument is false and malicious. The prince did not get away with it at that venue, virulently anti-Zionist as is the Council on Foreign Relations. Yes, the Council is unrealistic about the unrelenting jihad against Israel. Its drive to get Israel to sacrifice its secure borders to those Arabs and its most sacred and historical areas, including the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem and the Temple Mt., reinforces jihad against America. Nevertheless, members asked questions that left the Saudi argument full of holes. He is too antisemitic and anti-American to deserve an American forum. I think if he had uttered there the racist remarks about Sec. Rice that Arab journalists make, the Council would have had him ushered out. Nonsensical as his case is, the Europeans whom Democrats wish Bush would consult more are ready to hear it. Many of them are receptive to all sorts of theories of Jewish conspiracy. Nonsense is what they spread on their French bread. SWIFT INJUSTICE AGAINST RIGHT, DELAYED JUSTICE AGAINST LEFT Ever since Oslo was signed in 1993, right-wing protestors have complained about being attacked with impunity. Eight years ago, two of them were hanging signs up in Haifa, when some Arabs bringing posters for the Far Left Meretz Party attacked them, unprovoked. (It's what Arabs often do, when they outnumber Jews.) One was left disabled by the Arabs, who kept kicking him while he was down. The Arabs had threatened to kill the Jews if they didn't leave Haifa, a city pf supposed religious harmony. Israeli police usually ignore complaints about political and religious persecution of right-wing Jews. The police postponed indictment for more than three years, until the plaintiffs threatened to sue the police. Then the hearings dragged on for four years. The victims brought suit civilly as well as criminally. Finally, they won a sentence of several years of prison and some monetary compensation. (Seems too mild a penalty for such brutality in a hate-crime.) By contrast, during implementation of abandonment, police promptly arrested hundreds of right-wing Jews for lawful assembly or for light infractions (IMRA, 9/19). NONSENSE ABOUT BIBLICAL HISTORY At the UNO, PM Sharon (who is not religious) reiterated Judaism's Biblical claim to the Land of Israel. The "Jordan Times" claims that the Bible distorts God's word and that the country was inhabited by "Arab Canaanites for more than 5,000 years." (IMRA, 9/20.) I don't know how long the Canaanites had been there, but they were not Arabs. CHRISTIANITY APOLOGETIC TOWARDS ISLAM Bishops of the Church of England issued a 100-page report proposing "a public act of repentance" towards Muslims for the war in Iraq and its aftermath. The leading bishop finds US "expansionism" not terrorism "the major threat to peace." The report states, "the public and political rhetoric that Iran is a rogue regime, an outpost of tyranny, is as fallacious as the Iranian description of the US as the Great Satan." The effect is to confirm Islamist claims that the war is a crusade. "The irony is that Christians are being systematically persecuted by Islamists across the Muslim world, especially in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, but the bishops pass over this unpalatable truth in silence." (Daniel Johnson, NY Sun, 9/22, p.5.) Iraq starts wars. The two questions about the Iraq war are: (1) Have we handled it wisely; and (2) Should we have fought it. We mishandled it after the brilliant conventional warfare victory. Some see the subsequent blunders as having invalidated having waged the war in the first place. Theirs is not a logical position. Their judgment is bound up with partisan politics and other illogical reasoning, such as that not finding weapons of mass-destruction in Iraq means we were lied to rather than that Western intelligence agencies mistakenly thought Iraq had them, or that Iraq hid them, or that Iraq was retaining the potential to rebuild them. (I think all are true.) The war toppled an imperialist, genocidal, terrorist-supporting dictatorship about to get out from under UNO sanctions and therefore to afford remilitarization. We freed Iraq. For that, there should be no apology. Worse would be no apology to them as Muslims. It is the Muslims who should apologize to the West for numerous terrorist attacks in and out of Iraq. The Church of England, established in London, ought to demand apologies for the Islamist attack on London. It was solely a terrorist attack. The apologetic mood of that major Christian institution indicates a dangerous lack of self-confidence and a dhimmi attitude. It undermines defense against jihad. ISRAEL FIGHTS BACK After a truckload of rockets blew up in a Hamas parade, Hamas blamed Israel rather than admit being the culprit. It then showered Israel with rockets in purported retaliation. Israel did retaliate, bombing weapons manufacturing and storage facilities and a school from which rockets were fired. The Arabs claimed it just was a school. The IAF dropped leaflets on Gaza City, explaining that the Hamas firing at Israel was to cover up it responsibility or killing fellow Arabs at its parade (Greg Myre, NY Times, 9/25, A8). The Israeli attack rebuts my cynical remark, coming after the government had declared it wouldn't retaliate. I had written that its earlier threats to retaliate, followed by Western demands it not, were just bombast. It remains to be seen whether the Israeli claims of what they demolished are truthful, or whether the raids were more bombing of empty buildings. (Why doesn't it strafe the next parade by armed members of Hamas?) The Arabs have an extraordinary reluctance to admit culpability. We should learn not to accept claims by the Arabs, who are the aggressors, of merely retaliating. We also should have learned that among the Arab war crimes are fortifying or fighting from places that Western civilization has considered too sacred to attack: hospitals, ambulances, mosques, and schools. The Israeli propaganda leaflet, to get the Arabs to blame Hamas, may not influence the Arabs, who have been trained not to believe Israel. However, it is an unusual attempt at psychological warfare. Good for the Israelis! 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. To Go To Top

CHRISTIAN AID: ANTI-ISRAEL MESSAGE CONTINUES WITH LESS INTENSITY Posted by NGO Monitor, September 28, 2005.

SUMMARY: NGO-monitor has documented Christian Aid's disproportionate focus and biased approach to Israel and its pattern of erasing the context of terrorism. The organization, that claims to "further charitable purposes, which relieve or combat malnutrition, hunger, disease, sickness or distress throughout the world", promotes its political agenda under the guise of humanitarian aims. These activities provide support and legitimacy to political campaigns such as the divestment effort. The beginning of 2005 saw a reduction in the intensity of Christian Aid's anti-Israel campaigning - after its 2004 Christmas appeal, "Child of Bethlehem", was widely criticized for its very biased approach and showing an insensitivity to anti-Semitic themes. The charity published two articles early in 2005 on Israeli-Palestinian issues: "Parents' Circle - Hijacking the conflict with peace" in February and "If people are shooting at you every day, you don't worry about rotten teeth" in March. Although the latter presented a stereotypical portrayal of Israelis as aggressors and Palestinians as victims, these pieces focused on humanitarian issues in the context of the conflict, a positive change from Christian Aid's aggressive political campaigning. Despite a somewhat lower public profile, during 2005 (to date) the charity has not changed its political agenda on the Middle East. The unbalanced and extremist political filters were evident in a March website posting entitled "A House Divided" consisting of a video and report on the effect of the security barrier on a Palestinian woman and her family. Although the article briefly states that "Israel has an absolute right to defend its citizens from attack", this did not balance the clearly biased parting words of the woman in the video that there is "nothing about security here". The main thrust of the piece that the barrier is responsible for "two of the underlying causes of Palestinian poverty", (reduced access to land and restrictions on their freedom of movement) negates any responsibility on the part of the Palestinian leadership. April saw the publication of a "news" article, "Israeli strikes cost British tax payers millions", where Christian Aid claims that Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank have destroyed £16m worth of EU-sponsored infrastructure. The charity completely ignores the context of conflict and Palestinian terror campaign in its analysis, and claims - in the face of all the evidence to the contrary -- that "the military strikes... have done nothing to provide security for Israelis". In August, the "news" article entitled "Sharon confirms fears of further Israeli expansion in the West Bank" is a further example of an ostensibly humanitarian organization involved in biased political campaigning. The continued prominence of Israel on the Christian Aid website shows the charity's preoccupation with this issue. Of five recent world emergencies, the Tsunami (that killed tens of thousands of people) is followed by the "Middle East", including 3 articles on Iraq, 9 on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and none on Egypt or Lebanon. All the archive links at the side of the page are to Christian Aid publications on Israel and the territories, many of which have previously been analyzed by NGO-monitor and found to be inaccurate and politically biased. The website is also used as a platform for the charity's extremist Palestinian partners. "On the streets of Gaza", published in August, is written by Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. PCHR core anti-Israel political objectives are reflected in many of its activities. Similarly, this article makes little pretence at humanitarian concerns, and pushes its extremist political agenda, arguing that "disengagement" means that the suffering of the occupation will continue". Christian Aid also provides support and is directly linked to Sabeel, a Palestinian NGO leading the anti-Israel divestment campaign and similar activities. Indeed, two prominent members of Christian Aid's leadership provide legitimacy and support for Sabeel's activities in the UK. The obsession with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, at the expense of other much more urgent humanitarian causes, is also reflected in Christian Aid's youth activism website, pressureworks.org. Pressureworks has three "focus" articles on major world issues: HIV/Aids, World Debt and Israel, with the latter taking the headline spot. The project "Soft Focus, Hard Cell" aims to "document daily experiences in the OPT" through mobile phone photography. However, it has in fact provided another forum for political propaganda by anti-Israel campaigners such as ICAHD and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. The descriptions of the photos completely erase the context of conflict, thus eradicating any credibility of this already subjective exercise. Photos depict "Abu Sneineh's destroyed house", "Israeli soldiers and members of the Christian Peacemaker Team escort[ing] children from school in Al-Twani, to protect them from settlers" and "This is Hassan... his landlord has raised his rent, presumably in order to get him out; probably to make way for the settlers". In a section entitled "what you can do", Christian Aid promotes ICAHD activities, another partner organization that justifies terrorism and promotes "apartheid" rhetoric. And in its July story, "Knocked down and Locked out" written by the Action Advocacy Office for ICAHD, pressureworks.org effectively acts as a political mouthpiece for ICAHD campaigning. Christian Aid's extensive political activities go beyond words and videos. In July, the charity held a "retreat conference on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories". Supposedly a time for prayer and education about the conflict, the list of invited speakers demonstrate the harsh agenda: * Graham Sparkes, head of "Faith and Unity" at the Baptist Union and is involved in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) that supports "nonviolent resistance" to "end the occupation", including "monitoring and reporting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law". * Sarah Malian, communications officer for the Middle East at Christian Aid (this office has been leading the public relations aspect of the attacks on Israeli legitimacy) * Pat Rantisi who lives in Ramallah, is connected to Sabeel * Richard Burden MP, chair of the All Party Britain-Palestine Group in Parliament. This serves as yet another example of bias and ideologically-based campaigning. Taken together, these examples of Christian Aid's activities to date in 2005 demonstrate the continued emphasis on anti-Israel propaganda campaigns and its blatant bias. NGO Monitor is published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs /Institute for Contemporary Affairs. Gerald M. Steinberg is editor of NGO Monitor. The original has live links to additional material. To Go To Top

ANTI-ZIONIST "CONCERN FOR ISRAEL" Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 28, 2005.

ANTI-ZIONIST "CONCERN FOR ISRAEL" Thomas Friedman wants Netanyahu to drive Sharon out of the corrupt Likud Party. Theh Sharon could leave it as the "lunatic right" and form "the moderate Labor and Shinnui Parties" into centrist party that can make a "final settlement" with the Palestinian Arabs. Most Israelis would favor that, says Friedman. It was lunacy to try to keep the few thousand Jews "surrounded by" more than a million Arabs in Gaza, "disconnected from any strategic, moral, demographic, nationalist or religious logic." Likud elements that wanted the status quo endangered Israel and would have blurred Israel's Jewish identity. Israel should change also because the rest of the Mideast is changing. What changes? The US blowing up of the Baathists, globalization, stability-seeking middle classes, Syria forced out of Lebanon, Israel pulled out of Gaza, Egypt's first "quasi-multi-party election," and the implosion of the P.A.. (NY Times, 9/23, Op. Ed.). Those changes are misstated, unclear, or irrelevant. Mr. Friedman's concern over Israel's Jewish identity would be touching, if he ever had expressed identification with his own Jewish origin. Instead, he was a student sympathizer with the PLO. He has been seeking Israeli withdrawal for decades, using whatever argument he could, logical or not. Friedman and his newspaper should frankly call themselves anti-Zionist. They pretend concern for Israel's welfare, even while exhorting Israel to cede strategic borders to sworn enemies. The territory to be ceded contains the core lands of Jewish national identity. The corruption in Likud is primarily by Sharon. He is under threat of indictment stayed only by his power, his family's non-cooperation, and his acquiescence to leftist prosecutors. Labor is equally corrupt. The political system engenders corruption and irresponsibility. Calling Netanyahu, whose economic reforms have just saved Israel, a crazy ideological opponent of Sharon, and Sharon and Labor moderate, is both false labeling and over-dramatizing. Neither man has principles. Both cave in to US demands for concessions to the Arabs. Their only difference is that Sharon is in power and Netanyahu is out of power. When either is out of power, he is a nationalist. Why? Because, contrary to Friedman's claim that 2/3 of the people support withdrawals, the people elect politicians who promise little or no withdrawal. The promises, however, are betrayed. Their differences are personal, not some sweeping ideological vision that Friedman posits, as his typical oversimplified contrasts. His style carries along people who are uninformed by the NY Times careful structuring and tilting of the news and who don't have time to ponder what they read, on the subway between 68th St. and Wall St. Labor and Sharon are the extremists who made the Oslo and Road Map concessions to Arab fanatics, enabled thereby to shoot thousands of Israelis. Sharon and Labor have no concept of national security. Peres is so crazy, he doesn't believe in borders, under some ultra-modern concept of internationalism rendered non-feasible by Islamic imperialism. Friedman calls Sharon realistic, and Israelis ready for a final agreement with the Palestinian Arabs. Realistically, there is no chance for peace and of an agreement being final -- Arabs use pacts as a start for more demands. The Arabs want to conquer Israel and the whole planet. We should be resisting them instead of assisting them. Friedman describes as a conflict what really reaches across the whole Arab and Islamic world. Once a mistaken concept is launched against Israel, it sticks. Thus Friedman depicts the Jews of Gaza as "surrounded by" an Arab majority. Most were not. Their areas and vacant areas could have been annexed and cleared. Beware of his argument, since Israel, itself, is more or less surrounded by a huge Arab majority. The key is where one draws the boundaries. Friedman claims that Gaza lacks significance for Israel. Tell that to the Israeli towns now being showered by rockets from Gaza! The US Joint Chiefs of Staff found it has strategic value to Israel. As part of the Land of Israel, it has religious significance. Deprivation of it is a blow to Zionism, i.e., Jewish nationalism. "Moral logic" is not to encourage jihadists by concessions of territory. 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. To Go To Top

CONSPIRACY NUTS Posted by Steven Plaut, September 28, 2005.

"Chomsky's Fallout with his Strongest Supporters" http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=1429 The Noam is having a bad-hair day. It seems that the ultra-moonbat champion of the hate-America Left and the Hate-Israel-and-the-Jews Right, those two camps with which Chomsky is so closely associated, are increasingly denouncing Chomsky as a "tool of the New World Order." In fact, Chomsky is a tool of the Old World Order, the Old Left's world order, not to mention serving as Pol Pot's favorite American professor. He also is closely tied to the Holocaust Denial moonbat-Right. Lately, some of those who should be his strongest supporters are denouncing him. These include the Far-Left-and-Neonazi-at-One-and-the-Same-Time Rense web site, and assorted anarcho-fascist web sites like this. Others are claiming he is a mole on behalf of the US military. So why are these moonbats attacking their fellow cave dweller? Well, mainly because Chomsky is not endorsing the same loony conspiracy nonsense about 9-11 that they are. These are the people who claim that the publishers of Foreign Affairs magazine (the Council on Foreign Relations) operates a global conspiracy together with UFOs and controls the planet from behind the curtain, and were responsible for knocking down the twin towers in a "controlled emolition from the inside." They are not quite sure how, but a Jewish cabal is mixed up in all that as well. Dennis "Justin" Raimondo may be one of these true believers you have treaded upon in the gutter. In his book "The Conspirator's Hierarchy," the conspiracist guru John Coleman (any relation to Gary?) named Chomsky as a deep-cover CIA agent working to undermine social protest groups. Coleman claims Chomsky's is a "Left gatekeeper." Since 9-11, complains Coleman, Noam has steadfastly refused to discuss the evidence of government complicity and prior knowledge. Furthermore, he claims that the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Bilderberg Committee, and Trilateral Commission are "nothing organizations." Chomsky also rejects conspiracy "theories" about the Kennedy assassination. Heavens to Mergatroyd! Now the Noam is as enthusiastic a supporter of conspiracism, especially when it involves "American fascist capitalism" or Jews, as the next moonbat, but does not seem to have endorsed openly the view of these asylum escapees that 9-11 was a "controlled demolition" inside job perpetrated by the editors of Foreign Affairs magazine. 2. From Canada: "Marching against war -- and Jews" by David Frum, National Post (http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/ story.html?id=c5846ccc-6008-4104-a414-76e7eafc129e) In Washington last weekend, tens of thousands of people gathered in the largest protest to date against the Iraq war. The tally has to be approximate: The National Park Service no longer provides estimates of attendees at rallies and demonstrations, and counts by the groups themselves are notoriously unreliable. But there is no denying that the 9/24 event was large and active. So it's worth asking: Who were these demonstrators? And what do they stand for? Byron York of National Review described one group of protesters, college students, who marched from a subway station to the Ellipse, near the White House. They chanted: "From Palestine to New Orleans, No more money for the war machine!" Then, as they got more excited, they changed their slogan to: "How are Israeli soldiers paid? Only through U.S. aid!" York continued: "Someone in the group carried a sign advertising a Web site, nowarforisrael.com. The site's homepage carried the headline, "Meet just a few of your Jewish Supremacist Warmongers," above photos of William Kristol, Richard Perle, Ari Fleischer, Ariel Sharon, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrams and Douglas Feith." It was not just conservatives who noticed the protest's anti-Jewish focus. At dailykos.com, perhaps the most widely visited left-wing Web site in the United States, one blogger posted this comment: "Watching clips of the Answer Anti-War Rally, all I see are things that I want nothing to do with. I am a staunch supporter of Israel, and its fundamental right to exist. I bet you that the majority of Americans who are against the war are too. Yet I watch this rally and see people basically supporting Hamas, etc., and the suicide killings of innocent Israelis in cafes, on buses, etc. If you want to break down the coalition of people against the war, turning this into a hate the Jews/Israel party is an easy way to do it." One of the speakers at the rally was the British MP George Galloway, ejected from the Labour party in 2003 for his outspoken support for Saddam Hussein. In 1994, Galloway led a delegation to visit Saddam and opened the meeting with this greeting: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability. And I want you to know that we are with you until victory, until victory until Jerusalem." In May, 2005, a U.S. Senate committee issued a report naming Galloway as the recipient of money diverted from the oil-for-food program by Saddam. In interviews, Galloway has described Israel as "this little Hitler state on the Mediterranean." Another speaker was Lynne Stewart, the New York lawyer who represented Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind sheik convicted in the 1995 plot to blow up New York City landmarks including the United Nations and the Holland Tunnel. Stewart herself was convicted in February, 2005, of aiding terrorism by relaying orders from the sheik to his followers to commit new attacks. (She was able to attend the rally because she is out on bail pending sentencing.) Also speaking was Michael Shehadeh, one of the famous "Los Angeles 8" -- illegal residents of the United States whom the Immigration Service detained and sought to deport for their fundraising work on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the group that hijacked the Air France flight to Entebbe Airport in Uganda in 1976. The group is still active: In 2002, Israeli intelligence barely foiled a PFLP plot to blow up a Tel Aviv skyscraper with a car bomb. One would like to believe that characters like Galloway, Stewart and Shehadeh are fringe figures in the anti-war movement. It is troubling to imagine that one could find thousands of Americans willing to be represented in such a way. But if they are fringe characters, why are they speaking from the rostrum? Yet it could also be said that by featuring such people, the anti-war movement in the United States is performing a true public service. It is revealing something that it is important for all of society to know. It is revealing that at the core of these so-called peace marches you will find a leadership that strongly supports acts of war targeted against Americans and Jews. You will see that the radical left and extremist Islam -- while they may disagree ideologically -- can find common cause, as the hard leftist Lynne Stewart found common cause with Sheik Rahman. Galloway's least favourite stop on his current U.S. cross-country speaking tour must have been his appearance at Baruch College in New York to debate Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens, himself an escapee from the hard left, knows as much about its workings and its psychology as any living man. During the debate, Galloway repeated one of his favourite lines: "Some of you in this hall may believe that those airplanes on Sept. 11 came out of a clear blue sky. I believe they came out of a swamp of hatred created by us." And Hitchens' reply to those words at Baruch should stand as the ultimate verdict on the true purposes of the strange coalition of hard leftists, jihadists and eternal anti-Semites who now claim to speak for "peace": "This is masochism. But it is masochism offered to you by sadists." Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

A HEARTFELT PLEA FROM YAD ELIEZER Posted by Sori Tropper, September 28, 2005.

Dear Friend, I've written so many drafts of this letter and then scrapped them, because each of them fails to convey the heartache that Yad Eliezer sees each day. First I tried with statistics. Nearly 1 in 3 children in Israel are living below the poverty line. This is an unbelievably high number but it doesn't put a face onto real living tragedies. You can't see, from a number, a child who won't go to school because he's ashamed of his shoes. You can't see from a number a single mother, who was just diagnosed with a severe, chronic illness and terrified of losing her children because she can't afford to feed them. Then I tried to write something about Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and how intertwined they are with the concept of Tzedaka, about charity being the essence of Klal Yisrael. But most books and articles say this so much better that I can. And so, I'm just going to tell you some simple facts: * Yad Eliezer is feeding over 8000 of the most desperately needy families all over Israel. * We receive heartbreaking requests constantly. * We work on a shoestring budget so that whatever you send is used as real Tzedaka. * We need you desperately. And -- in the merit of your Tzedaka and Chesed, may you all be blessed with a happy and healthy new year. Sincerely, Sori Tropper Click Here to Donate to Yad Eliezer P.S. Please contribute generously to our Rosh Hashanah drive via our secure website at www.yadeliezer.org Shop at great stores and for every purchase a donation will automatically be made to Yad Eliezer! To Go To Top

ISRAEL'S DISENGAGED ESTABLISHMENT Posted by Lee Caplan, September 28, 2005.

This was written by Caroline Glick and appeared in the Jerusalem Post September 22, 2005. In the months that preceded the forcible eviction of all Israelis from their homes and communities in Gaza and northern Samaria, and during last month's expulsions themselves, the commanders of the IDF and police responsible for the operation defined "preventing" or "not exacerbating" the "schism in the nation" as one of their principal goals. This was all well and good, but it was beside the point. At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that there was never any schism between the security forces and the residents of Gaza and northern Samaria. This truth was laid bare by the love that the soldiers and policemen and residents showered on one another throughout most of the operation. If anything, the confrontation which pitted the army and the police against the residents served to strengthen rather than weaken the bonds between those who settle the land and those that carry arms to defend it. And the long-term impact that this engagement will have on both sides is something that no one today can foresee. And yet, there is a huge and gaping schism that fragments Israeli society. And those fomenting this schism are responsible for bringing about the ill-advised and immoral decision to expel these patriots from their homes and communities, turning them over to the Palestinian terrorists who Wednesday transformed the destroyed synagogue in Netzarim into a Hamas terror museum. In the wake of the expulsions, the fomenters of the schism were beside themselves with rage at the fact that their plan to "disengage" the nation from the settlers by destroying Gush Katif went up in smoke. Ruminating on this state of affairs immediately after the completion of the expulsions, Haaretz columnist Orit Shochat cautioned angrily, "Soldiers who experienced the evacuation won't travel to an ashram in India because they discovered that there is an ashram next door. The same Jewish religion that they hadn't seen up close for a long time embraces them into its fold with song and a tear and a common fate. "They have now sat arm-in-arm at the synagogues in Gush Katif, they have now felt the holiness mixed with sweat, they have now moved rhythmically and sung songs, they have stood in line to kiss the Torah scrolls, they are now half-inside." She continued, "The army may have planned for months for the evacuation and conducted simulations of every possible scenario, but it didn't think about this scenario." If she had replaced the word "army" with "our side," her point would have been more accurate. And what is Shochat's side? What is the side that wished so desperately for the destruction of the Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria, in order to destroy the connection between those who settle the land and the rest of the country? If the sides of the schism dividing the country are not the security forces and the settlers, then who are they? This week, the identities of the two sides of the divide were exposed to all who care to see them when on Sunday the Justice Ministry announced its decision not to indict any policemen for their actions during the Arab riots in October 2000. Twelve Arab Israelis and one Palestinian were killed during those riots, which engulfed the entire Arab sector of the country. The decision sent a shock wave through Israeli society with a force that on its face is difficult to comprehend given that the events occurred five years ago. The shock of the decision fomented two separate discussions in the Israeli public. The most glaring aspect of those discussions is that apart from the fact that they both were carried out in Hebrew, no common thread connected them. It is in these separate conversations that we find the root of the rift in Israeli society and can identify the two sides of the societal divide. To understand the significance of the discussions, it is necessary to first recall what happened five years ago. Following months of increased violence and extremism in the Arab-Israeli sector incited directly by the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli Islamic Movement and the Arab members of Knesset, violent riots seized the Arab sector of Israel in October 2000. During the week of riots, Arab Israelis threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli civilian cars throughout the country. Israeli motorists were dragged out of their cars on Highway 65 along Wadi Ara and beaten. An Israeli motorist was murdered when Arabs from Jasser a-Zarka threw a rock at his windshield as he drove down the coastal highway. In the wake of the riots, the government of then-prime minister Ehud Barak went into a state of panic, concerned that the Labor Party would lose its support base among Arab Israelis. And so, rather than arresting the Arab leaders who incited the riots, banning the Islamic Movement and ending PA infiltration into the Arab sector, Barak sought to appease the very leaders who had fomented the violence. This he did by offering to establish an independent commission led by a retired judge that would investigate the police behavior towards the rioters. That commission, led by retired justice Theodore Or, was given the perverse job of focusing their investigation on the police, as if the officers had simply been firing at ducks in a shooting gallery rather than trying to contend with a violent, heavily incited mob that was paralyzing and terrorizing the country. Once the Or Commission was established, discussion of the actual events was silenced and replaced by a surrealistic parade of policemen and politicians summoned before a tribunal to defend their actions as if they had taken place in a vacuum. And so, this week's announcement of the decision not to indict any officers in the 13 deaths was the first opportunity that the public has had in five years to actually discuss what happened in October 2000. The first discussion of the events was the popular discussion. It could be heard mainly in radio call in shows and on Internet news sites. Regular citizens concentrated on the context of the riots, questioning the Arab claim of discrimination. They noted that the allegation that the police treated the rioters differently from Jewish protesters, by shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at them where none were used against Jewish protesters, ignores the fact that Jewish protesters don't attack the police with rocks and Molotov cocktails. They asked how it was possible for Israel to be embarrassed over what happened in October 2000 when the policemen's lives were in danger and they were massed against the rioters in order to protect the lives of civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom were locked in their homes for days, unable to leave their cities and their neighborhoods for fear of being attacked by mobs calling out "Death to the Jews." The other discussion of the decision not to indict the policemen was the discussion of the leftist establishment which controls the legal system, the media and the universities. As was the case with the Or Commission, in the discussion that was carried out in the universities, the Justice Ministry and the media -- where the public has no voice -- the debaters ignored the context in which the 13 died. On one side were the critics who claimed that the fact that the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department could not find sufficient evidence to justify indictments was a flimsy excuse for not conducting trials. They claimed that the fact that the families of the dead refused to cooperate with investigators was no reason not to indict, and the fact that the investigators expected the poor families to cooperate with them was evidence of their racism. On the other side was the Justice Ministry. On Wednesday afternoon, Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz and his deputies held a press conference to defend themselves against the attacks of the members of their club. Mazuz and his associates made no mention of the fact that refusal to cooperate with investigators is a criminal act. They made no mention of the incitement of Arab Israelis by the Islamic Movement, the PA and the Arab Knesset members. For them, the deaths of the 13 were an unmitigated tragedy. The only thing that interested them was defending their honor as champions of Arab rights to their establishment colleagues. One of the questions that has been raised repeatedly since the expulsions of the settlers in Gaza and northern Samaria is why the commanders of the IDF and the police expected the expelled residents to violently attack them. After all, there is no official body in Israel that knows these people better than the army, which had stood by them for 38 years. Why did the army fear them as if they were the enemy? The answer to this question has the same source as the answer to the question of who the sides of the national schism are. What became clear this week is that on the one side, we have the general public made up of secular and religious Jews, urban dwellers and rural settlers, rich and poor, civilians and the military and police, the hard core and the moderate Zionists. On the other hand, we have the powerful leftist establishment which, through its control of the media, legal system and universities, tells us what we should think and how we should act. Members of the establishment are bothered most by the rare occasions when the fact that their discourse and their rules have little connection to reality is exposed to the rest of us. The choke hold that the leftist establishment exerts over the nation has been the cause of the major policy and military blunders that have been made over the past generation. The fact of the matter is that the distorted picture of our reality that is created by the establishment's image makers in the media, the anti-Israeli judgments meted out by our courts and the politically motivated decisions to investigate or not investigate various politicians, social classes and suspected crimes have caused a situation where people make decisions on both private matters and national issues based on wrong information and corrupted priorities. No, it is true, we did not learn anything this week that we didn't already know. But this week's parallel discussions exposed clearly the fact that those who guide the nation are themselves, like Shochat, alienated from the rest of us and from the reality of the world we live in with all its goodness and horror. And the narrowness of this establishment was also exposed. The nation has many tools at its disposal to change the status of forces in this country -- politics, the military, the Internet and our own creativity -- in order to cut the establishment down to size. The greatest challenge that we face as a society is to harness these tools to recover our right to define our world. Only by doing so will we be able to forge policies that are relevant to the many challenges we face. Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

ASSESSMENT OF THE SPREADING OF POLLUTANTS FROM A SEWAGE OUTFALL ALONG THE GAZA STRIP Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 28, 2005.

How the Leftists in Tel Aviv cheered the evacuation of the Jews from Gaza, not understanding that, among other things, they were a buffer to the Palestinians, using the Mediterranean Sea as a toilet. Some may not remember or even know how the Palestinian towns and cities release their effluent down into the valleys there to migrate into the aquifers which reach Tel Aviv's drinking water supply. The sewage pipeline will literally close the just-opened Desalination Plant along the shore just north of Gaza. Perhaps it is appropo? that the Leftists will be swimming in sewage made by the Palestinians which should be A-OK for them. Read on! This was written as a preliminary assessment of the spreading of pollutants from a sewage outfall along the Gaza Strip by Prof. Steve Brenner, Sep. 8, 2005. Prof. Steve Brenner is a physical oceanographer specializing in numerical simulations of ocean circulation. He has spent the past twenty years studying the circulation of the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Eilat and has coordinated several major environmental impacts studies of the Haifa Bay region. He is currently the head of the Department of Geography and Environment at Bar Ilan University and previously served for 18 years as a senior scientist and the head of the Department of Physical Oceanography at the National Institute of Oceanography in Haifa. He has been the author or co-author of more than 150 scientific papers & reports, has served on various local and international scientific committees & advisory boards. In many parts of the world, including developed countries, sewage from large cities along the coast is disposed of at sea by either dumping the sludge far offshore (usually tens of kilometers) or by discharging the treated wastewater into the sea through an outfall located beyond the breaker zone. In the former case, the assumption is that the sludge will remain cohesive and sink to the bottom in deep water where the environmental impacts will be minimal. In the latter case, it is assumed that the ocean currents will mix and dilute the wastewater with seawater and spread the pollutants over a large area, thereby reducing the concentrations to environmentally acceptable levels. It is important to locate the outfall beyond the breaker zone (typically several kilometers) in order to avoid problems of the pollutants washing up on the immediate shore. By the generic term "pollutants" we refer to dissolved and suspended inorganic and organic material as well as to various bacteria. The latter generally pose the greatest immediate health risk, and high concentrations usually lead to the closing of bathing beaches. The current situation in Gaza City, with more than one million residents, is to discharge the domestic sewage into a holding pool north of the city where the wastewater slowly percolates into the ground. As the population of the Gaza Strip grows, it is clear that an alternative disposal system will have to be established and it is most likely that the choice will be discharge into the sea. Until the present, this has not occurred due to the environmental controls and restrictions enforced by the State of Israel. Upon the Israeli withdrawal from this region, nothing will prevent the Palestinians from switching to the very simple and attractive option of ocean disposal. If this is not properly planned, assessed, and monitored, the dire consequences for Israel will be the equivalent of an ecological time bomb. Based on direct current measurements that were conduced over a period of several years off the coast of Ashkelon and Ashdod, as well as extensive studies of the circulation in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea based on simulations and forecasts with a state-of-the-art ocean circulation model, it has been shown conclusively that throughout the year the predominant direction of flow in this region is along the coast, directed from south to north. The cross-shore component of flow is weaker and fluctuates between onshore and offshore depending upon the depth, the precise current direction, and the wind speed and direction. There is little doubt that any effluents discharged into the sea off the coast of Gaza will spread northward into the territorial waters and the coastal zone of Israel. The potential concentrations and dilution of these effluents as well and the potential environmental impacts cannot be quantitatively assessed without conducting a proper environmental impact study. Nevertheless, we can draw some preliminary qualitative conclusions based on the experience of the Gush Dan sewage outfall, which services the greater Tel Aviv area. This outfall is located 4.5-5 km offshore where the water depth is 38 m. The zone around the outfall has been extensively studied and monitored by scientists from Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR) for many years. Their long-term results clearly show that the seabed and sediments are affected by the effluents at distances of as much as 5 km to the north and 1 km to the south (due to the mainly northward currents). It should be noted that this is for the case of treated effluents. Perhaps a better indication of the potentially dire environmental consequences of an unplanned and unmonitored outfall can be seen in the accident that occurred in February 2003 when the pipeline ruptured and partially untreated wastewater was discharged directly into the sea over a period of several weeks. Satellite images of the sea surface as well as numerical simulations of the circulation at this time clearly showed the north to northeastward spread of the plume, which came ashore and affected the entire coastline of Tel Aviv and the area to the north. The bathing beaches in this area were closed by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Environment for an extended period due to the deterioration of the water quality. Based on this preliminary assessment, there is little doubt that an improperly designed sewage outfall from Gaza will adversely affect the coast of Ashkelon within a very short period of a few weeks or less. Since the outfall would presumably operate continuously, the detrimental effects in Ashkelon will grow with time while the longer term environmental impacts may very well be felt in Ashdod and even further north. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS FOR COMFORTABLE JEWS Posted by David Ha'Ivri, September 27, 2005.

A new edition of Rabbi Kahane's writings is now available. Go to http://www.hameir.org/books/Uncomfortable/ Question: What's the difference between Rabbi Kahane and the rest of the Zionist camp? Answer: About fifteen years. That's about the amount of time it took for the rest of the right-wingers to come around to what Rabbi Kahane was saying concerning the Arab demographic threat, transfer, the bankruptcy of secular nationalism, and every other issue that was once considered by the Israelis to be "extreme." The destruction of Gush Katif has shattered more myths. Suddenly, the most staunch of Zionists are questioning the once idolized IDF and the very legitimacy of the Israeli government. No longer is "Jewish unity" the buzz word or the cure for all ills. Rabbis who had once waved the "unity at all costs" banner -- now speak on the need to separate from the evil government, media and judicial system. This understanding, too, comes more than fifteen years after Rabbi Kahane wrote the book Uncomfortable Questions For Comfortable Jews, in which the Israeli dictatorship elite is first exposed as the major danger facing Israel. Until this book was written, the focus of Rabbi Kahane's message, too, was Ahavat Yisrael, Love of Jews. This concept was the moving force in Our Challenge,Never Again, and Story of the JDL. But "Uncomfortable Questions" breaks new ground. Here, Rabbi Kahane's pulls no punches in describing the danger of the "Hellenists", the gentilized Jews who currently rule Israel. By recounting personal experiences as well as the sordid history of the Israeli left, he leaves no doubt as to where the real danger to the future of Israeli lies. "Uncomfortable Questions" introduces the concept that slowly became an emphasis in Rabbi Kahane's teachings -- the concept of "erev rav", the mixed multitude -- those destroyers from within who have infiltrated the Jewish People and pollute us with their self-hatred. Rabbi Kahane understood back in the 80's that the obsessive hatred directed towards him was a reflection of the "erev rav's" deep-seated hate for Jews and Judaism, a Judaism which they are determined to destroy. As Rabbi Kahane states in the introduction of the book: "They hate the Sabbath and they hate the laws of Judaism and they hate the yeshivas and they hate the rabbis. And they hate being Jewish and they hate G-d and they hate Zionism and a Jewish state and the need to be different -- and they hate Kahane for representing all this". Indeed, as the government of Israel continues on its primrose path of acquiescence to the Arabs and nations of the world, Am Yisrael is beginning to see what Rabbi Kahane expressed nearly two decades ago. This book is a must read. David Ha'ivri, chairman of Revava, is also editor of Darka Shel Torah and Ideas in Action newsletters, and the publisher of books teaching Jewish pride and faith in HaShem. He can be reached by email at haivri@hameir.org or at his website: http://www.hameir.org/ To Go To Top

THE DEATH OF MEMORY Posted by Deb Kotz, September 27, 2005.

This was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem Post. There is not a single political leader in Israel who will not uphold the country's identity as the Jewish state. But what does that mean? Does the fact that Israel is the Jewish state mean that it has a unique mission in the world that distinguishes it from every other state? The overwhelming majority of Israelis would say that the fact that Israel is the Jewish state means that Israel is a unique state and that it has a unique mission in the world. Religious Israelis believe that the establishment of the State of Israel was the beginning of the period of divine redemption and that the mission of the Jews in the redemptive age is to defend the State of Israel and to work to ensure that the People of Israel in the Land of Israel act as a In both cases, national memory -- from Abraham to the Exodus from Egypt, the establishment of the ancient Jewish commonwealths in the Land of Israel, the Roman exile, the expulsions from England and Spain, the religious persecutions in various exile communities in Europe and Asia, the messianic movement of Shabbtai Zvi in the 17th century, through the debated legacy of the Emancipation in Western and Central Europe, the Holocaust and the establishment of the modern State of Israel -- plays a central role in both group's basic understanding of Israel's role in the world today. There is a third group of Israelis, that finds its home on the far left, that includes leaders like Uri Avineri and Yossi Beilin for whom the Emancipation left a wholly positive legacy. For these people, Israel has no unique role in the world. Rather, it is simply an outpost of Western civilization in the Middle East. As a Western encroachment on Arab civilization, these deracinated Jewish ideologues believe that Israel's role is to ask for forgiveness from the Arabs for our "crime" of moving in on their territory. Since Israel has no particular role to fulfill in the world as the Jewish state, for these men and their followers, the national memory of the Jewish people is the primary hindrance, rather than the anchor of national progress and endeavor. Disturbingly, it would seem that this minority view has infected the political leadership of Israel. The public received a strong indication that this is the case on Friday when the relevant government leaders from President Moshe Katsav, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni to Education Minister Limor Livnat did not bother to attend Simon Wiesenthal's funeral in Herzliya. To understand why their absence -- like the absence of every other government minister -- is so distressing, it is necessary to understand what Wiesenthal was, and more importantly, what he symbolized for the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world. Simon Wiesenthal, who passed away at 96 last Tuesday at his home in Vienna was a Jew of the Diaspora. The fact that he did not make his home in Israel, however, did not lessen his importance to the Jewish people. Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Holocaust, devoted his life to actualizing memory. In hunting down more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals who personally perpetrated the Holocaust, Wiesenthal personified the Jewish view that our history is not simply remembered, but lived on a daily basis. He understood that if history is viewed with passivity, then memory will be lost, and a Jewish people that lacks its memory is a Jewish people without a future. Wiesenthal said, "For me, it is important to remember, but it is far more important to remember to act." This elegant statement is a simple elucidation of the basis for the continued existence of the Jewish people throughout history. We cannot survive without our memory, and our actions will be worthless if they are not grounded in our past. It was because Wiesenthal personified and became a symbol of the importance of ensuring that our memories direct our actions as Jews that he was such a prominent figure in the Jewish world. Given that none of our national leaders bothered to attend his funeral, the question naturally arises, how is it that they have forgotten to remember? The answer to the question has its roots in the deprecation of Israeli society heralded by the embrace of the PLO as a peace partner by Israel 12 years ago. To convince Israelis that the Arab world's rejection of Israel was the result of the absence of a Palestinian state in the Land of Israel, and that a terrorist organization whose sole reason for existing was the destruction of Israel could be a partner in achieving peace with Israel, the government, under Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres had to tell us to forget our past. Indeed, Peres has repeatedly berated his opponents over the past 12 years by arguing that "history is unimportant." Since Oslo, revisionist historians have rewritten school history textbooks. Among other things, they changed the history of the 1948 War of Independence to hide its central truth -- that Israel fended off the joint invasion of five Arab armies whose governments' declared goal was the physical eradication of the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. Instead, the new textbooks now follow the narrative of Israel's enemies, and cast the war as one of Israel's dispossession of the Arab refugees that fled the state. In the universities, Israel's so-called occupation of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip has become the focal point of academic research in the social sciences and humanities. On a national political level, our debate since 1993 has required the denial of truth almost as soon as it passes into history. To convince the public that peace can be achieved through Israeli concessions, politicians must deny the fact that aside from the Hashemites, all Arab leaders have consistently insisted that there is no room in the Middle East for a Jewish state. To sustain the myth that Yasser Arafat and his circle of Fatah founders, like Mahmoud Abbas, are "partners for peace," Israeli leaders must steadfastly deny the terrorist past and present of Fatah and its PLO partners. At root, we see that the decision to make "peace" the central aim of the Jewish state has negated the Jewish identity of the state. This is so not because peace is antithetical to Jewish identity but because the quest for this "peace" is rooted in lies and as such demands a rejection of national memory. The absence of any of Israel's national political leaders at Wiesenthal's funeral is a symptom of our willful amnesia. Wiesenthal said, "There is no freedom without justice." To this it should be added that freedom grounded in justice is the only basis for real peace and that a people without a memory cannot pursue justice, maintain its freedom or attain peace. Staring at the moral crisis in which Israel's leadership is presently subsumed from this vantage point, it becomes apparent that the present predicament can only be remedied when the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora internalize again the message that Wiesenthal symbolized in his life. We are a people with a mission in the world. Our mission as Jews and as the Jewish state is predicated on our preservation of our national memory and the actualization of that memory in our lives and in the lives of the generations that come after us. To Go To Top

A LESSON IN RESTRAINT Posted by David Frankfurter, September 27, 2005.

Dear Friends, Last Friday, during a victory parade, a Hamas truckload of missiles exploded, leaving 19 dead and over 80 wounded. Even Abu Mazen angrily slammed Hamas for their irresponsibility. An embarrassed Hamas, used to the world accepting the most ridiculous blood libels against the Jews, claimed that the rockets were dummies, and that the explosion was caused by an Israeli rocket attack. While the crowd found it difficult to believe that Israel had developed an invisible, silent helicopter, Hamas' fantasy left it with damaged pride, which it was obliged to recover via revenge barrages of Kassam rockets on the nearby Israeli city of Sderot. Although Kassams on Sderot are not a novelty, 40 rockets and mortars over the weekend became too much - even if "only" five people were wounded. When twelve rockets fell near schools, and a school building got a direct hit, the thought of a Kassam falling in a schoolyard of children was just too much to contemplate. The city decided to close its schools until the threat was diminished. Sharon, when asked before the disengagement what would happen if the terror from Gaza did not cease, said that Israel would "know what to do". And I guess it did. Sharon sent in the planes and rockets into Gaza, blowing up munitions factories, stores, launching areas and their access points. Specific Hamas leaders responsible for the Kassams were pinpointed and killed. In the West Bank, terrorist organisers were arrested. But instead of the usual symbolic response, Sharon decided to keep his promise and the pressure was kept up for several days. Condaleezza Rice acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence, but called on Israel to exercise restraint. Shame America did not demand restraint from the Palestinians before the terror was unleashed. Or maybe after. Instead, Condaleeza handed over a $50 million reward, to show just how the US was serious about its war on terror. The UK also acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence, but called on Israel's response to be 'proportionate'. Well, it seems that Sharon took the advice of both the US and the UK. When the top of two buildings were brought down in the US, Britain joined her trans-Atlantic ally in completely flattening two countries - Afghanistan and Iraq. Targeted killings, massive air-strikes, tanks, shells, rockets, mortars, troops door-to-door, arrests. All proportionate. But Sharon exercised restraint. He was much less 'proportionate' than his advisors from the white houses and halls of power. He mainly bombed buildings and ammunition, and was careful that the only deaths and arrests were genuine terrorists. And good thing, too. Because, simply stated, it worked. Hamas announced its 'retaliation' for its truck blowing itself up has been successfully completed, and the rockets and mortars on Israel will stop for now. Of course, the international media have focused on the Israeli reaction rather than the Hamas provocation. The success of the Israeli policy, and what it might mean for peace will remain unnoticed. Except, we hope, by the Palestinian Arabs. 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/ To Go To Top

TALK TO YOUR CONGRESSMEN ABOUT A NEW U.S.-ISRAEL VISION Posted by Richard A. Hellman, September 27, 2005.

Congress Should Task The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Congressional Record Service (CRS), And Hold Hearings! Despite America's preoccupation with the aftermath of Katrina and Hurricane Rita, we are still at war, and this is a most critical moment in history for America and Israel. While some believe that our policies are producing results, many Christians and Jews believe our present formulas have failed and new vision is needed. Hence, we urge the Congress to undertake a complete review of U.S. policies towards Israel and the Middle East. This must include requests from the House and Senate for immediate Congressional Record Service and Government Accountability Office reports, and scheduling of hearings by the House International Relations committee, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Some truths surely will be reaffirmed, such as the need for a close U.S.-Israel relationship and complete cooperation on our respective fronts in the Global War on Terror. But much remains to be done to give full equality to Israel in U.S. law and policy. Examples: Placing our Ambassador in Jerusalem at long last, and, pressing the U.N. to give Israel all the rights of other states. Other issues must be explored afresh. Updated CRS and GAO reports and urgently needed hearings should address the following issues: 1. The War on Terror Versus Appeasement of Terror Four years post -9/11 we are still not ready to declare victory in the War on Terror. Battles rage on in Iraq, Afghanistan and other less noticed fields. Osama Bin Laden and other enemies are still at large. As President Bush said to the world's leaders, "you are either with us or against us' in the war, and if you sponsor, support or harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist." Congress must ask whether, in authorizing foreign aid for the PA/PLO ("PA") and supporting statehood for a people who never had a state and whose leaders continue to meet the definition of terrorists, "are we not in fact supporting terror instead of fighting it?" A further issue to be explored is the military threat that terrorists from Gaza and other PA-controlled areas represent to U.S. forces and civilians in the Middle East and worldwide. (See the lead editorial in the Washington Post of September 15, 2005, entitled "Bad Start in Gaza"). 2. PA Accountability What exactly has the PA done to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, including Hamas, Al Asqa Brigades and Islamic Jihad, and what is their schedule to complete this task? How likely is this to be done and how soon? 3. PA Funding from U.S. Tax Dollars What became of the reported tens of billions of dollars in funds belonging to the Palestinian Arabs that Yassar Arafat left in his personal and mixed accounts at his death? What has the GAO produced on this and related issues at the recent request of Rep. Anthony Weiner and other members? How much of this data, ranging back to 1994, has been declassified and released for Congressional and public scrutiny? In the midst of such unprecedented U.S. priorities as post-Katrina rebuilding, why should over $10 billions dollars in foreign aide for the PA even be considered by the U.S. and G-8 when the PA has not accounted for its own stolen and misused funds or kept any of its agreements from Oslo to the present? 4. Palestinian-Arab Autonomy/Statehood Since the PA, by every account, has failed miserably at autonomy, despite full backing by the U.S., Israel, Europe, Russia, the U.N. et al., why should the Palestinian Arabs, with no historic record of an "independent state," now be granted statehood? Given the outpouring of hatred by Hamas etc. after Israel's Gaza pullout, the burning of synagogues, chaos and disorder, what are the best estimates of the CIA, DIA, State Department, and DOD of the kind of state "Palestine" would be? Also how would it relate to the United States and our allies in the War on Terror ----- As a friend? Or a foe? As a result of this, how sensible is it to press for a new, likely terrorist, mini-state in the midst of the War on Terror? 5. Israeli Settlements Even apart from a) the biblical beliefs of Christians and Jews that God gave Israel the Land, and b) The Leagues of Nations (now UN) mandate authorizing "close settlement" of the Land by the Jewish People, how can America, Land of the Free, and we Americans, most of whom are descendents of settlers, oppose Jewish settlement of the Holy Land? Further, why is it not racist to demand that Jews abandon their homes, businesses and all in Judea and Samaria, the Golan and much of Jerusalem while over a million Israeli Arab citizens were able to live peaceably among six million Jews in pre '67 Israel? 6. Cost Benefit Analysis for America How much is the American public ready to pay in tax dollars, and potentially in peacekeeping forces, to make an Israeli-PA "peace plan" work for Judea/Samaria/ Gaza/Jerusalem and an Israel-Syria pact for the Golan? Based on extrapolations of costs of the Israel-Egypt accords (over $60 billion to date) and the anticipated costs for post-withdrawal Gaza ($10-12 B.), how likely is it that the U.S. public will agree to pay $100B for an Israel-PA deal and the same amount again for the Israel-Syria Golan pact? Furthermore, since such experts as Martin Indyk have called for a U.S. led force to police Gaza, a bad idea that may return if chaos continues to reign, and if the Rafah border remains wide open to arms trafficking as it is today, how ready is the United States public to commit forces to police Gaza, Judeo-Samaria/Jerusalem and the Golan? Surely not! But Congress needs to explore such issues fully before the fact, rather than gamble, as was done in Iraq, that security and order will prevail. 7. Summary and Conclusion These are only examples of the issues that must be explored. And witnesses solely from the Administration, and their predecessors in office, cannot address them. We stand ready to work closely with the House and Senate members and staff to suggest witnesses who can develop and present all relevant points of view. In the midst of the War on Terror, which is far from being won, we cannot do less. The apparent contradiction inherent in the present U.S. policies toward the PLO and PA gives the impression that terror will be rewarded - a potentially fatal flaw imperiling our march toward victory over global terror. This cannot continue to go unexamined - and uncorrected - by Congress. For further details, see www.cipaconline.org. Richard A. Hellman, Esq, is President, Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign, P. O. Box 18173, Washington, DC 20036-8173. Contact him at richard.a.hellman@verizon.net To Go To Top

SHARON HAS DEMONSTRATED A CRIMINAL INCOMPETENCY Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 27, 2005.

When Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered his "Disengagement Plan", he was warned numerous times by his own Head of the IDF's General Staff, Gen. Moshe (Boogie) Ya'alon and his Director of Intelligence against the plan - that it would bring on a more vicious War against the Israelis inside Israel's perceived borders. As it turned out in a later exposé, a book named "Boomerang" by two rather Leftist Israeli journalists, Sharon was advised to adopt this 'Plan' to deflect attention of possible criminal indictments for his involvement and that of his sons in several illegal financial schemes. One was the Greek Island transaction and the other for illegal money to fund Sharon's various election campaigns. Thus was born the "Disengagement" and the smashing of all Jewish homes in Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Samaria. All this in order to protect a corrupt family and to send Jews wandering around Israel without homes or jobs - like beggars. That was only the beginning of a blunder of such a criminal nature that cost the nation of Israel a first $2 Billion U.S. Now, it appears that Sharon will have to make up for the first blunder and spend an equal amount to re-build Israel's defenses around an ethnically cleansed Gaza, in addition to having even more troops than were originally posted in Gush Katif. Sharon had the Knesset pass a 'Law' declaring that now 44 Israelis communities were at risk - when before there were only 21. (The 4 in Northern Samaria were never declared 'at risk'. I don't know why they were abandoned - unless it was to create a Northern anchor for a Palestinian State in between.) Worse yet, Sharon expected that the major portion of the $2.2 Billion needed dollars would come from Bush and the American Congress. Now that Bush has committed to re-building New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina for $200 Billion dollars and more - plus a large amount for the storm Rita, yet to be estimated, the likelihood of getting any money from America is close to zero. Meantime, as predicted by his earlier General Staff, the Terrorists of Hamas, Fatah and its military wing - Al Aksa, Islamic Jihad, Hezb'Allah, et al poured the first 46 Qassem Rockets into Israel. Thank G-d, no one was killed but, it wasn't because the Terrorists didn't try. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, on Sharon's orders, made a huge military display at enormous costs to pull up armor and heavy caliber cannon to the Gaza border to threaten the Terrorists, needless to say, these two bumblers tried to put the best face on their "Disengagement" blunders by acting like Generals and to maintain power. This threat (implied by the military build-up) is largely fictional because it is unlikely that Sharon will confirm his "Disengagement" blunder by re-occupying Gaza. Moreover, the use of heavy artillery is a fake, non-starter due to a range too far for long-range artillery, plus the built-in inaccuracy from the close distance. Sharon has once again pulled out of inventory (where he stores targets - empty buildings) which he sends aircraft to hit so the Leftist Media can make front-page headlines of airstrikes which do nothing but are excellent political Photo Ops. Sharon further blundered by negotiating with the Egyptians to re-militarize the Sinai on the pretext that they would stop the smuggling tunnels traversing between Egypt and Gaza far underground. Given that Egypt facilitated these weapons' transfers, why would they stop them now? The answer is that, not only did they not attempt to stop them but they opened up the border crossings at Rafa so that all the weapons, explosives, ground-to-air missiles =, automatic weapons, ammunition stored in the Egyptian-controlled Sinai could be pushed through overland into Gaza and eventually into Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights.... Israeli Intelligence estimated that Sharon and Mofaz's blunder allowed what would have taken a year to smuggle through the tunnels to pass through the border in four days. These areas are still open despite the lengthy negotiated agreements with Egypt and Abu Mazen to stop the weapons' flow. Clearly, it is time to re-name Sharon "Dumbo" and Mofaz "Goofy" for the classic Disney characters of stumbling, bumbling incompetents better off as a surrealistic cartoon charactor. Let's go on! As reported by DEBKAfile, in a further blunder Sharon has reportedly opened up a 124 mile/200 Kilometer strip on the Egyptian/Israeli border where more than 15,000 hostile Arab Muslims can cross into Israel. Dumbo and Goofy will now try to build a 'Security Wall/System at an estimated $1 Billion dollar cost which the Jewish nation doesn't have. In order to save himself and his sons from jail, Sharon has divided the Jewish nation at many levels. The Leftists are cheering the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and North Samaria. They have no problem with the Sharon Government policy of reneging on all agreements to provide the uprooted pioneering settlers with housing, schools, jobs. Sharon is even forcing the evacuees to continue paying the mortgages on the homes and businesses he destroyed! The banks demand payment, claiming that the government has given the settlers payment for the destroyed homes and infrastructure - which they have not! Then there are the Jewish show trials being convened to punish all those who protested the stupid and cruel evacuation of Jews from their homes. Here we enter into a wholly separate division of the nation as Sharon has unleashed the Israeli Police to arrest, beat and jail protesters - even teen-age girls who defy and protect our Land with a sense of honor and patriotism lost to the Sharon regime and his Leftist supporters. This includes the cooperation of a Court System that is so biased toward expulsion and Left-Wing politics that it reflects all the doctrines of a Police State. The Left-Wingers are once again starting to agitate and push a plan secretly negotiated by Rabin and Peres in the early 1980s to force the settlers out of YESHA (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). This evolved into the Oslo Accords which included (in part) adopting a pay-off plan to purchase the homes of settlers - which is estimated to cost an exorbitant amount, exceeding $3 Billion to $12 Billion dollars. This would include moving and fortifying all the military bases, re-fortifying back to the 1949 Armistice Lines, bringing the Arab Muslim Palestinians within easy reach of a rifle shot at Israel's major cities. Naturally, the absorption of 250,000 settlers into Israel's cities and town would reflect the current homeless wandering of Jews having been forced to give up homes, farms, factories, jobs, schools, synagogues and even their cemeteries. From a military perspective, all of Israel's coastal cities and Jerusalem would be in easy range of hostile Muslims' missiles, rockets, infiltration of suicide bombers (human and/or car bombs). Sharon continues his blunders with Egypt, allowing in armor, helicopters, intelligence up against Israel's borders - as a staging area for a full scale attack at a time of Egypt's choosing. (Note! There is deep concern of U.S. and Israeli Intelligence that Egypt is drifting over to a radical Islamic doctrine and that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood will gain control when Mubarak fades or is forced from the scene.) Egypt will have over $60 Billion dollars in America's best military equipment to take over the rest of Israel and Saudi Arabia, with its oil fields. Then the entire oil-rich region will be in partnership with Iran and the Northern Russian republics - always hostile to the Jews. Here the blunders are split between Sharon and Bush as they ignore the takeover of Egypt by the Islamists. Much the same as then President Jimmy Carter finessed the transfer of Iran to the Ayatollah Khomeini. These are only a few of Sharon's blunders as he alone has become a clear and present danger to the Jewish State. He has acquired the support of the Osloids of the Left, the Arabs in the Knesset, the Leftist Media and the Leftist Courts who now support his uprooting of Jews and support of the PA Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen). What great company! Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

THE HEAD VERSUS THE BODY OF THE SNAKE Posted by Gerald A. Honigan, September 27, 2005.

Arutz Sheva quoted Brig.-Gen. (res.) Tzvika Fogel on September 26th as stating that Israel was acting irresponsibly by not reacting to Arab attacks strongly enough. Fogel then called for Israel to operate under a new equation. Finally...someone again talking some sense! And I'm sure the General is not alone here--even though others making policy seem to now be in the ascendancy. Again, Jews are supposed to put up with manure that no other nation would be expected to tolerate. Think what would happen if Mexico was continuously shelling Texas. America just bombed the Hades out of some areas in Iraq near the Syrian border because of similar problems. Meanwhile, back here in the States, I heard a presentation recently by one of those Israeli security experts that many are listening more intently to these days. What he said was on target, but not enough. This was probably due to the short amount of time this guest speaker had because of too much other wasted time given over to stroke local folks...a kind of Jewish bait and switch. Anyone who is surprised at the mess that is now Gaza has to be an idiot. That includes those of the Hebrew variety. So I'll assume that, despite all the expressions of shock at seeing synagogues defiled, a massive influx of arms being smuggled into the area, huge demonstrations by Hamas in honor of their "victory," and such, the conscious among us knew quite well what to expect. The destruction of a Jewish Israel, after all, remains the openly-admitted goal of Abbas and his fellow Arafatians as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihadniks. They differ with each other--sometimes--simply over tactics. Bombed buses bring bad press. Quite some time ago I wrote Too Predictable. It's latest incarnation, Lose The Predictability, updates further what needs to be done about all of this. I would have liked to have heard what the above speaker felt about these ideas, but, again, his valued expertise was sacrificed to the egos of others. Returning somewhat disappointed from this presentation, I then came across two articles from The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz reporting that dozens were killed and injured at one of those famous Hamas rallies in an explosion and that the IAF, in a separate incident, went on the attack against virtually empty buildings (again)...supposedly targeting weapons facilities in response to new Arab Qassam rocket attacks on Jews. As we've seen, General Fogel had the same problems that I do regarding this. While there's something to be said about the virtues of cutting off the head of the snake (and as an avid environmentalist, who is ecologically tuned in, I use this expression carefully), there comes a point where more attention must be paid to the body too. In Too Predictable, I pondered why, for instance, if buses, restaurants, schools, and such--filled with Jewish civilians--were legitimate targets for Arabs, then what are rallies of armed jihadist Arabs, calling for death to the Jews and attended by those already with Jewish blood on their hands or future wannabes, for Israel? It boggles my mind when hundreds or thousands of Arabs, whose fervent goal is the murder of Jews (the more innocent, the better) and their resurrected state, conduct one of their massive bloodlust rallies, why they are not taken out en masse by those whom they aim to butcher. An ounce of prevention--especially when the disease is so predictable--is indeed worth a ton of cure. The speaker bragged about Israel's decapitating heads of the Hamas snake. While this is all well and good, the head also can't operate without a functioning body. So, Israel must also send a message to the murderous pawns whose aim is to disembowel Jewish children: You will be minced and fried as one giant omelet. While it's true that suicide bombers may not worry much about such eventualities...and that violence may breed yet more violence, it's also true that unilateral moves for peace by Jews have not worked either. They have been seen by Arabs simply as a sign of weakness. So it's time to give substantial, calculated, preemptive Jewish violence a chance. Israel did not wait for Arabs to carry out their plans in June 1967 before it acted to do what needed to be done. There's a lesson there for today as well. A few substantial, well placed bombs--not limited, targeted missile strikes where it costs many thousands of dollars to just take out one disemboweler--will do the job nicely. It's often predictable where and when those bloodlust rallies will occur, so I'm sure that such a fitting greeting can be arranged for them. And, as I have stated earlier, it must be as unpredictable as possible. The same way Israelis must live never knowing which bus or restaurant will be the next targeted, Arabs must understand that the days where the Jews fight with one hand tied behind their backs are over as well. The Jew of the Nations has caved in to one suicidal concession after the other, pushed on it by the world at large--but especially by its "friends." For true peace, no stone must be left unturned. But if you believe that that's what Israel is being offered in return by the Arabs, I have some real estate in the Sahara Desert I'd like to sell you. So, it's time for Arabs to once again learn true, unpredictable fear...that which Jewish mothers have when they place their kids on buses or send them to pizzerias. I don't know if Israel had any part in the explosion at that recent Hamas rally in Gaza. The IDF says absolutely not. But I do know that if large numbers of Arabs (who outnumber Jews about 50:1...so do the math) start dying for rallying around their goal to murder Jews who are truly trying to find an honorable compromise with them, then they may think twice about what their real goal should be...building a better future for their own people instead of denying another nation's right to also live in peace and dignity. 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. To Go To Top

A PROPHECY FULFILLED Posted by Renalee Colon, September 27, 2005.

This was written by Cal Thomas and it appeared in Jewish World Review (http://www.JewishWorldReview.com). The attacks late Friday might have occurred sooner had the terrorists not been preoccupied with torching synagogues and destroying flower-growing operations in Gaza that could have been used to produce income for Palestinian residents. Sadly, their hatred of all things Jewish prompted them to act against their self-interest. (Late Sunday night, following crushing retaliatory attacks by Israel and threats from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of an even more massive response, Hamas announced that it was halting all attacks from the Gaza Strip. For now, perhaps, but given its history, one can safely bet, not for good.) A Reuters story about the Israeli attacks on Saturday said, "The upsurge in violence was a blow to international hopes that the pullout could revive peacemaking." The concept of international "hopes" is founded on the false premise that peace is dependent only on Israel's behavior. Every time Israel offers concessions, withdrawals, confidence-building measures and other "good faith" gestures, the response is more terror, more death and no peace. Will there ever come a time when the United States and the international community concludes that forcing Israel into making unilateral concessions is not a prescription for peace, but a guarantee of more war? Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is facing a growing political challenge from former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, should have seen this coming because it has happened so many times before. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz promised a "crushing and unequivocal response" to the rocket attack. The Hamas terrorist group blamed Israel for an explosion at a Hamas rally Friday afternoon that killed 15 people, though the Palestinian Authority said it appeared to have been an accident caused by Hamas members carrying explosives in a crowded area. Hamas vowed to resist any raid in Gaza and called for attacks on Israel. Continuing his denial of the obvious, the top U.N. envoy to the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, told the Security Council last Friday that the "road map" remains the only realistic method for achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Not exactly. The road map requires reciprocity. So far, Israel has been the only party doing the giving and the Palestinian-Hamas-Fatah side has been doing the taking and the killing. Why should they stop when violence is giving them what they want? Commenting on Israel's withdrawal, but ignoring the continuing terrorist threat, de Soto said, "Forces of moderation have prevailed over those of extremism." You could have fooled me! After de Soto spoke, the Security Council approved a statement again calling on both sides to adhere to the Road Map and saying the Gaza pullout must be only one step toward further Israeli withdrawal and efforts to achieve a viable Palestinian state. The "quartet" of the U.N., the United States, Russia and the European Union has succeeded only in pressuring Israel to give and give and give. Whatever pressure it has applied to the Palestinian-Hamas-Fatah side has produced no cessation of violence, no disarmament and, in fact, no concessions at all. The frustrating part is that no one pays attention to the pronouncements of the terrorists. Hamas announced it would flood Gaza with its soldiers once Israel withdrew. Islamo-fascist clerics call for the annihilation of Israel and tell jihadists it is their religious duty to kill Jews and Christians. Our "friends," the Saudis and Egyptians allow this rhetoric to flow unimpeded from their mosques and in their government-run media. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration and its State Department sink deeper into denial and pretend the terrorists don't mean what they say. The terrorists trumpet their plans and then carry them out. After they have caused death and destruction, they promise to do it again. Objectives can't be made clearer than that. Will a second coming of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister make a difference? Perhaps. He once told me he had learned a valuable lesson from his own concessions during the Clinton Administration. Netanyahu should tell Israelis and the world that if he again becomes Prime Minister he will not budge on more land concessions until the Palestinian-Hamas-Fatah side begins responding positively to all of Israel's concessions. Having given so much and received nothing in return, it may now be too late to save Israel, but giving more without getting anything ensures Israel's extinction sooner, rather than later. Renalee Colon can be contacted by email at renalees@yahoo.com To Go To Top

THINK ABOUT IT Posted by Judy Lash Balint, September 27, 2005.

This was written by From Ze'ev Orenstein of Maale Adumim. Contact him by email at zevinzion@yahoo.com The other night I had the distinct privilege of visiting some friends who live in Sde Boaz, a newly established Jewish community just outside of Neve Daniel in Gush Etzion. I want to share some special things that I noticed about Sde Boaz: * Sde Boaz is situated on one of the highest points in Israel, and as such, one can see for miles (kilometers) in every direction. There are likely few better places in Israel from where one can take in so much of the Land of Israel - and I believe that it is for this reason that this area was frequented by our forefathers. * Sde Boaz is surrounded by beautiful hills and valleys full of nature. The air is crisp, cool and fresh. With every breath that one inhales, he is cleansing his body, both in a physical sense, as well as spiritually, as the very air seems to have a mystical quality to it. I had the opportunity to visit the spring just outside of Sde Boaz (which has goldfish in it), and to eat figs right off the trees that surround Sde Boaz. This had an added signifigance, as figs are one of the 7 species special to the Land of Israel, and as such, I got to also make a Shehechiyanu blessing on the fruit (as I had not had one in quite some time), thanking G-d for having blessed me with the opportunity to partake of the fruit of His chosen land, the Land of Israel, as a proud Jew, who had returned home. * Sde Boaz, home to about 25 people, is full of both religious and secular Jews, new immigrants and native Israelis, who live together with a shared love for the Jewish People and the Land of Israel and the desire to live in a Jewish State. * Sde Boaz is not surrounded by any fences (that would otherwise restrict the natural growth of the community), and all work that is done in the community is done through Jewish labor. * Sde Boaz also happens to be, in the eyes of the world, and some in Israel, an illegal outpost which the State of Israel has committed itself to remove. * Sde Boaz is considered to be an illegal outpost even though it is built on state owned land (via the Jewish National Fund) that was purchased through money that was collected by our grandparents, who stood on street corners holding the small, blue JNF tzedaka boxes, in order that Jews would be able to live anywhere in the Land of Israel. Illegal outposts like Sde Boaz are communities full of some of the most wonderful Jews around, modern day pioneers who believe in working the land and in building new Jewish communities throughout the Land of Israel, Jews who do not apologize for believing in the right of the Jewish People to a Jewish State in the Land of Israel - and who are committed to this ideal not merely in word but in physical deed, Jews who are willing to live with less material comfort, but whose lives are full of a richness that money simply can't buy. Even for one who lives in Israel like myself, it is easy, in the course of day-to-day living, to have one's physical connection to the Land of Israel become a bit removed. Thankfully, last night, I was able to recharge my batteries. There is just something special about walking through the hills and valleys of the Land of Israel, eating the fruits of the land right off the tree, and doing so with my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters who also have chosen to make Aliyah and build their lives in the Jewish homeland. Next time one hears of the need for Israel to remove these illegal outposts, consider the following: * Is it really the presence of communities like Sde Boaz and the Jews who live there that are standing in the way of peace with the Arabs? * Are the values of self-sacrifice and dedication towards one's fellow Jews and to the Land of Israel, as well as the value of a Jew to being able to live anywhere in the Land of Israel as a proud Jew - the very foundations upon which communities like Sde Boaz are built upon - are these values that we want to remove from our society? * Ask yourself what exactly an illegal outpost is. Can it really be illegal - a crime - for a Jew to live, build and settle in the Jewish Homeland? * If one believes in the right of the Jewish People to a Jewish State in the Land of Israel, will removing these communities serve to strengthen or weaken our claim to the Land of Israel? Think about it. 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 To Go To Top

YES, THE DOCTOR IS TO BLAME Posted by Nadia Matar, September 27, 2005.

Recently, Moshe Ben-Zimrah and Yaakov Sternberg wrote an article, "The Doctor Is Not to Blame", in which they strongly oppose the sharp criticism within the National Camp against the functioning of the YESHA Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in the struggle to rescue Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. The authors of the article attempt to convince us that, despite the failure, the YESHA Council acted superbly and did all that was in its power to try and prevent the evil decree. "Mistakes were made, but these were tactical errors, and not a fundamentally flawed strategy", they tell us. They condemn anyone who dares to oppose the YESHA Council as incorrect, and liken the situation to a pair of parents who unjustly charge the surgeon with the death of the child on whom he operated. What can we do -- sometimes the Doctor is to blame. When the Doctor is aware of the existence of various medicines that could save the patient, but for all manner of strange reasons he does not give these medicines to the patient, who dies, then the Doctor is, in fact, to blame. The situation is even worse when the patient's relatives stubbornly try to obtain those medicines, and the Physician not only publicly denounces them, but makes every effort to keep the relatives from giving the medicines to the patient. In such circumstances, the relatives are obligated to tell everyone about the Physician's misdeeds, to ensure that he is fired, that he will not continue in his position, and even to consider a malpractice lawsuit. All this is not out of vengefulness, and not as a personal vendetta -- in his private life, the Physician could undoubtedly be an extremely nice person, originate from an outstanding family, and who contributes greatly to his community and synagogue -- but in order to save other patients who are on the operating table, we must ensure that this Physician will never practice medicine again. The Jewish pioneering communities of Beit El, Tekoa, and -- if we are to believe Condoleeza Rice -- the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, and many other locations are currently on the government's operating table, to be destroyed and given away to the Arab enemy. If we wish to be victorious in the next battle for the Land of Israel, we must ensure that the official leadership of the National Camp, whose struggle failed, will not continue to lead us. Anyone who tells us, as do the authors of the article, that the YESHA Council did everything possible, and that no one proposed an alternative way, is not only wrong, but deceptive. We all are conscious of the wonderful things that the YESHA Council has done over the years: with regard to construction, building and the development of Jewish pioneering communities. But in the ideological struggle, in the battle against the Government's plan of destruction and ruin -- they failed. Because, ever since the destruction of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, the YESHA Council has published many expensive advertisements, in order to convince all of us that there was nothing wrong with the way they waged the struggle and the path they chose, we find it necessary to publicly express our criticism. Firstly, the YESHA Council should not have called for a referendum. If the deportation of Jews from their homes and the handing over of parts of the Promised Land to the murderous Arab enemy is a crime, then no referendum could give a seal of approval to such a crime. A crime is a crime is a crime. The YESHA Council's demand for a referendum weakened the struggle, and legitimized the idea of the deportation of Jews, the uprooting of Jewish pioneering communities, and the handing over of our homeland to the enemy. Now we need selfless leaders who will declare, fearlessly, without stuttering: All the Land of Israel was given to us by G-d, and no one is entitled to hand it over! Even a majority of the government, or the Knesset, or by way of a referendum, cannot make the handing over of portions of the Land of Israel legal and moral, and therefore such decisions must be vigorously opposed. As regards the strategy of the struggle: After the parliamentary fight failed, there still remained three elements that could have canceled the deportation decree: Refusal to obey orders, nonviolent civil disobedience, and the bringing of tens of thousands of Jews to Gush Katif on the eve of the deportation. A united call by the "official" leadership of the National Camp for these three elements, that constitute the basis for any popular struggle against a corrupt and dictatorial government, would unquestionably have been capable of saving Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. Not only did the YESHA Council not act in this direction, it (together with certain rabbis and members of Knesset) condemned those who acted in accordance with these principles. They condemned those who blocked roads, they met with the top echelon of the I.D.F., announcing to them that they opposed refusal to obey orders, and they actively worked against the bringing of tens of thousands to Gush Katif. All their energy and funds were channeled in a single direction: The Face to Face campaign, the distribution of orange ribbons, and social happenings in the guise of demonstrations. As much as these actions made us feel better, they patently lack any meaning in a dictatorial country such as Sharonland. More and more material has accumulated in the past weeks that demonstrates that the "official" leadership of the National Camp was interested solely in the grandiose orchestrating of symbolic protest, but not in actions following these three principles, that would have led to victory. Such material raises the question whether, to our shame, this was, not only incompetent, weakness, despair, and extreme cooperation with the State Authority, but it was even full collaboration by the "official" leadership of the National Camp with the expulsion forces? There are too many examples to mention them all, but there are those who will testify that at Kfar Maimon and at Sderot, from the outset, there was no intention of reaching Gush Katif. That is, they consciously deceived and misled the public. There are testimonies that the leaders of the YESHA Council coordinated with the deportation forces the breakthrough into Neveh Dekalim, the concentration of the activists inside the synagogue, and the breaking into the synagogue itself. There are testimonies that the heads of the YESHA Council had permanent permission to enter Gush Katif, because they promised "to restrain and moderate" the activists. If this is not collaboration, then what is? As it is written in Yoav Yitzhak's article in N.F.C. of August 20,2005: Mazuz met with the heads of the Yesha Council several times, and reached understandings with them, according to which they would act to restrain the demonstrators and prevent violence. In return, he (Mazuz) would act to approve the demonstrations organized by the Yesha Council. The permission was granted with the knowledge of the heads of the I.D.F., the police, and also the State Attorney's Office, who viewed the Yesha Council as a restraining element. We have not even begun to talk about the activists who were expelled from Gush Katif and/or handed over to the police after certain rabbis and "official" public figures informed on them, and accused them of "excessive extremism". Nor have we spoken about certain rabbis who preach day and night for "love and cooperation", and obsequiously danced with policemen and soldiers, but then shamelessly beat up youth who -- horror of horrors -- tried to give flat tires to the deportation forces. There is in existence a long list of accusations against the "official" leadership of the National Camp. The conclusion is simple: The heads of the YESHA Council whose budgets and salaries, are paid by and are dependent upon the government, relate to what they were elected for: To wit -- administering the affairs of the Jewish pioneering communities (education, culture, construction, gardening, communal life), but are not suitable for ideological struggles against the government. The heads of the YESHA Council must draw conclusions, return to their original role, and stop thinking that someone installed them to be leaders of the National Camp. We have a wonderful public, including amazing and heroic youth, that proved its willingness for self-sacrifice on behalf of the Land of Israel. Our public deserves a strong, uncompromising, independent leadership, that is not subject to threats and extortion, that will be capable of defending the People of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel. The time has come to establish a body that will include rabbis, professors, and public figures that will return the People to the right direction, conduct the ideological-political struggle, and become the official leadership of the National Camp until it takes power here in Israel. In short, there is an urgent need for a professional, devoted, and loyal Doctor capable of dealing with all the physical and mental problems of the Jewish People. Shavua Tov and Shana Tova from Liberated Efrat Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

HAMAS PREPARES FOR WAR; AMB KURTZER RESIGNS; MUSHARAF'S SPEECH Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 27, 2005.

HAMAS PREPARED FOR WAR "On Sunday, thousands of Hamas fighters, many of them in military uniforms, paraded through the streets of Gaza City to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Hamas exhibited hundreds of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a range of missiles, including what operatives termed the enhanced Kassam-class, short-range missile. The IDF thinks this could change the balance of power (IMRA, 9/19). They built up that quantity and type thanks to the abandonment of the Gaza border that Sharon arranged in the name of enhancing Israeli security. Who was right, he or his critics? A VAGUE DEFENSE OF SHARON Fiamma Nirenstein rejects the Jewish right-wing criticism of PM Sharon as a corrupt imposer of "disengagement" by demagogic means. She objects that he had been criticized vehemently but falsely by the Left, that he legitimately if not correctly worried about the fate of 8,000 Jews amid more than a million Arabs, and that he has fought terrorism more than did the other Prime Ministers (NY Sun, 9/16, Op. Ed.). The falsity of the leftist criticism of Sharon, and the verity of his having fought terrorism before, does not invalidate the rightist criticism of Sharon, and his failure to fight terrorism now. Those two of her objections to contemporary criticism of him are not logical. Neither is it likely that he worried about the fate of the 8,000. Not he, who ruined them! That notion of a few Jews living amongst so many Arabs was a rationalization for his plan to get them out of Gaza. According to the map, many of their settlements were not near many Arabs. Therefore, her remaining objection to contemporary criticism of him is not valid. There are other alternatives: annexing vacant and Jewishly-settled areas, moving some Arabs, and prompting Arab departure by not supporting the P.A. with excise taxes and jobs. Why did Sharon fight terrorism before but not now? Now he is under pressure, by the US and probably by leftist prosecutors, to leave the terrorists alone. The journalist should not wave off complaints that Sharon is corrupt, rendering him a tool of appeasement-minded prosecutors. It is a serious charge -it concerns national security. Sharon and his cohorts have not cooperated with investigators, whose evidence is extensive if not sufficient. If she had analyzed the arguments for abandonment, she would see they are not substantial. Then Sharon's persistence in a plan predicted and proved to be a disaster, and in the context of Sharon's constant duplicities, brutalities, and complicity with US and Arab demands, becomes not a difference of opinion but sinister or pathetic. S. ARABIA TO JOIN WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION? The U.S. is sponsoring Saudi membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), a Saudi goal for 12 years. Some members of Congress object, because of S. Arabia's "lack of full cooperation in combating terrorism," as Steven Stalinsky of MEMRI put it (NY Sun, 9/21, p.5). I would put it, "because of S. Arabia's promotion of international terrorism outside its borders." WTO stands for free trade. The main member of OPEC, S. Arabia stands for restraint of trade in petroleum, just the opposite of WTO. It does not belong in the WTO. Shame on Pres. Bush! AMBASSADOR KURTZER LEAVING: SUCCESS OR FAILURE? "By most accounts," Ambassador Kurtzer "did his job well?" reports Steven Erlanger of the "NY Times." By the end of that marathon sentence, however, Mr. Erlanger writes, "as the hopes for peace he helped nurture as part of an agreement reached in Oslo more than a decade ago crashed and burned in suicide bombings and a cycle of retaliation." "It took him a while to realize that Oslo was over," but came to realize Oslo was a disaster. In other words, he was a failure. He helped inflict suicide bombing on Israel. He perpetuated his failure, I observed, by continuing to demand that only Israel abide by it and do more than agreed. (It is not a "cycle of retaliation" but an Arab war by terrorists whom the IDF pursued.) That is, he was a failure at making peace. His real mission was to drive Israel out of Yesha. That has begun. The US tried to map every building lot and stop all Jewish (but not Arab) building in Yesha. That didn't work out. Now "The US is prepared to allow the Israelis to build in empty lots" or higher in built-up areas, but "not build new neighborhoods." (NY Times, 9/19, A6) even within existing municipal boundaries. This would seem to mean that the Arabs could build right up to the Jewish communities, the better to mount terrorism. The US is keeping more Jews from establishing themselves there, the easier to remove the rest. The "Times" claims Kurtzer was a success, but shows that he was a failure. It shows that the US tries to dictates to Israel where it may build within its own homeland. The farewell article omits details about Kurtzer taking the Arab side and dictating to Israel. The nerve of that imperiousness is outrageous, but the "Times," being anti-Zionist, approves. Why doesn't the "Times" demand US pressure on the anti-American, warmongering P.A. Arabs? WHAT BELIEFS HAS SHARON? Hillel Halkin's column advises Ariel Sharon what political move he should make next. The advice is to stay in the Likud Party, even if its Executive Committee deposes him as Party head. He and his followers should continue "fighting for their beliefs." (NY Sun, 9/20, Op. Ed.) What beliefs? His entourage sticks with him because he is in power. He does nothing for the country. He uses his power to make money and appease the US and the Left. He has violated all the principles he had enunciated in earlier speeches. He has no cogent explanation for being a turncoat. The same goes for Benjamin Netanyahu on Zionism. SHARON CLAIMS TO BE UNAWARE A TV broadcaster accused Sharon of having raised campaign funds illegally in New York. The broadcast showed wealthy people entering a Fifth Ave. building and the invitation to guests to raise $10,000 each for Sharon's campaign. Those sums exceed Israel's legal limit. The guests, however, denied discussing contributions. Sharon claims not to have known of any fundraising nor of the invitation (IMRA, 9/19). They get an invitation specifying contributions; they accept the invitation; and they deny discussing contributions? The invitation is worded to solicit funds in his behalf, without having consulted him? Ignorance is the same excuse he gave after the last election, when his son set up committees to raise funds illegally. His son eventually was indicted for it. Wouldn't Sharon, a take-charge person, issue orders not to do anything major and dubious without consulting him, this time? I think that rather than being ignorant, he is arrogant. Is Israel too corrupt to save itself? MUSHARRAF'S SPEECH HISTORIC? Daniel Pipes calls the speech by the President of Pakistan, delivered to the American Jewish Congress, "historic." It must be the most conciliatory speech by a Muslim leader to a Jewish audience in our time. Most speeches by Muslims leaders involving the Jews, or insinuating the Jews into involvement in calamities with which they had no connection, were antisemitic. Musharraf, however, cited US Jewry as foremost in opposing the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia. He named a Jew, George Soros, as the largest contributor to the Bosnians. The President related a few similarities between the two faiths and their historical connections, which he thought positive until the Arab-Israel conflict. He did not deny the Holocaust, which Mr. Pipes contrasts favorably with Abbas' Holocaust denial. He accepted Pipes' request that he try to spread his vision of Jewry. Pipes finds him a key example of Muslim moderation, like the King of Jordan. In addition, Musharraf held out the hope that Pakistan eventually would recognize Israel (NY Sun, 9/20, p.6). Daniel Pipes always puts his argument well, but I think he is stretching too far out to find moderate Muslims. He may have heard more about the King than I, but whatever I saw reported about the King's recent speeches about rescuing Islam was the usual vague Arab palaver. The King does not contest the Islamists in his own country. The commonality of faith is meager. The harmony he cited and Pipes confirms is mostly relative to the worse persecution by Christianity or is imaginary. The Jews had to know their place in a Muslim country, or be struck down. They sometimes were, anyway. Not all Muslims deny the Holocaust but many want to deny Jews sympathy over it. Recognition is offered only if Israel retreats to borders it could not defend, and would be conquered before recognized. How much stock can one put in what someone, such as Musharraf, says? Consider Creationist supporters in a science class. Although Creationism was devised to counter the theory of evolution, evolution is based on science, whereas there is no science to Creationism. Its thesis, that God made things appear to have evolved, cannot be tested scientifically. Creationists have admitted to giving answers that the professors believe, not what they believe. They don't open their minds to evidence. Probably the curriculum does not go into sufficient depth. Students at Columbia U. claim they lose points unless they parrot their professors' anti-Zionism. The Muslims have been deceiving Westerners for some time. They talk about democracy and moderation, in order to gain support or to stay retribution. Arafat advised his followers and colleagues that he was conning the West. He talked about peace with Israel, but prepared for war. Deception is a feature of jihad. Musharraf has been doing that about terrorism. He drags his heels on taking measures against terrorism, but throws a bone to the US now and then, when pressed. That is not the mark of sincerity. Of course, it is difficult for the leader of a devoutly Muslim country to repress Islamism. I don't envy that leader of a failed country. Neither would I believe him. ISRAELI PROTECTION AGAINST P.A. TERRORISM ANNOYS ARABS Israel is proposing to build a barrier on Israeli territory, at the edge of Gaza. The barrier would help protect the Haifa power station and oil refinery, among other things. Gaza Arabs are threatening war over the barrier, claiming it is an attempt to seize Gaza land or attack Gaza (Arutz-7, 9/19). What logical connection is there between the barrier and their accusations? 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. To Go To Top

ACADEMICIANS QUESTIONING THE LEGITIMACY OF ISRAEL Posted by IsrAlert, September 26, 2005.

This was written by Michael Anbar, Ph.D. and is stored at the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, http://www.freeman.org Many voices in academia and in the media have lately questioned the legitimacy of the State of Israel. This has been going on on both British and American campuses in spite of the fact that the one and only Jewish state has been established under the auspices of the UN in 1947. The UN resolution affirmed the League of Nations' 1920 resolution to grant Great Britain a Mandate to help establish a Jewish state in the historical homeland of Jewish people. Yet, although it has been recognized diplomatically by most member states of the UN, including several Muslim states, Israel's legitimacy is still being questioned. In other words, diplomatic recognition seems to be insufficient for academicians who wish to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel. The state of Israel comprises an overwhelming majority of Jews. The Jewish people constitute a nation with a unique language, religion and extensive literature, as well as a history of 3000 years -- the longest written history of any nation existing today. Like most states, Israel has minorities of people who belong to other nations. The largest among these are Muslim Arabs who belong to the Arab nation, which comprises 22 independent states, ranging from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf. Most of these Arab states were established as independent states within the last 100 years, not substantially earlier than the State of Israel. However, Israel is the only homeland of the Jewish people, who have lived in that land for more than 3000 years. A major feature of the State of Israel is, therefore, its long history as the homeland of the Jews. No other existing nation can claim such a long historical attachment to scores of towns and villages, shrines and ancient battlegrounds, mountains and rivers, within such a small geographic boundary; the national territory of the Jews people is one of smallest of its kind on Earth. Based on its historical credentials Israel should be recognized as a state more readily than practically any other state on this planet. It should be recognized not just de facto because it exists, having all the attributes of statehood, but it must be recognized as the unique historical homeland of the Jewish people. Yet, this recognition has been problematic throughout the last 57 years of its politically independent existence. There are still scores of Islamic states that do not recognize the very existence of the State of Israel, not to speak of its extensive historical Jewish past. Moreover, many states that maintain diplomatic relationship with Israel hesitate to recognize it as the Jewish historical homeland. Even the United States, which recognizes Israel de Jure, based on international commitments to create a national home for the Jewish people, does not officially attribute this recognition to the rights of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland. Coming back to academia, it is noteworthy to realize that never before has the academic community questioned the legitimacy of any other existing state. These academicians, some of them Jewish, including even some Israelis, seem to echo Muslims who vehemently challenge the right of Israel to exist. The sixty year-old Islamic challenge of the legitimacy of the Jewish State is based purely on religious grounds. According to Islam, territory that was conquered by Muslims becomes "Arab land" for perpetuity. Since the land of Israel was once conquered by Arabs in the 7th Century, it has become "Arab land" in Muslims' view. Consequently, Muslims are religiously obligated to object to the establishment of a non-Muslim political entity in this once Islamic province. Since such a religion-based claim would not be credible in the modern world, shrewd Arab leaders disguised it as an objection to Western imperialism, claiming that the Israelis are Westerner "crusaders" trying to grab and "colonize" "Arab land". This is a ludicrous claim because Jews continued to live in Israel, their homeland, for millennia, being the only surviving natives of the land, very much like Native American Indians or Celts in Ulster. Moreover, half of Israeli Jews are not Westerners but "Easterners" --refugees from Arab countries where they lived for many centuries. In brief, Muslim worldwide animosity to the "infidel" State of Israel that was supposedly established on "Arab land", allegedly "stolen" from the Muslims, is based purely on Islamic religious convictions, as is evident in Islamic sermons held every Friday in mosques worldwide. The animosity exhibited by Western intellectuals toward the Jewish state is, therefore, surprising indeed. Never before had contemporary secular academicians defended a religious premise or a religion-based political claim. These contemporary academicians, most of whom are agnostics or atheists, seem to defend a religious dogma as if they were medieval Christian clerics. The same "liberal" academicians frown upon fundamentalist Christians who view Israel as God given to the Jews. It seems as if in the view of these professors Islamic fundamentalist dogma triumphs Christian evangelical belief. It is hard to explain this behavior. Although many academicians and academic institutions are being funded by oil-rich Islamic countries, it is hard to believe that a large segment of the academic community was bribed by Muslims to become their champions. Therefore, their hatred of the Jewish state may be due to inherent hatred of Judaism and Jews. This animosity is unlikely a perpetuation of Nazi anti-Semitism or of medieval Christian misojudaism (hatred of Jews). It might be due to their pronounced secularism and antagonism to the Church. Because Zionism is an intrinsic aspect of Judaism, these professors consider it to be a manifestation of messianic clericalism, which they detest. Paradoxically their hatred of dogmatic Christian clericalism resulted in their support of Islamic religious dogma. They fail to realize that Zionism, the urge of exiled Jews to return to their homeland and live there as a sovereign nation -- a feature of Judaism for the last twenty-five hundred years -- is basically a political rather than a theological premise. Zionism, unlike messianism, does not invoke divine intervention but human accomplishment. Zionism is therefore similar to Polish or Greek nationalism when their countries were occupied, or to current Kurdish, Armenian or Tibetan nationalism. It is therefore ironic that secular academicians uphold an Islamic religious premise in their attack on the Zionism, which is essentially a political ideology. >From an academic standpoint, a critical approach to the legitimacy of a state is, by itself not a bad idea. This may prevent the creation of political entities, defined as states, which are not rooted in distinct historical, cultural or ethnic realities. States that have no distinct common historical, cultural or ethnic roots are artificial political creations with intrinsic instability (e.g., former Yugoslavia, Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia or current Iraq and Nigeria). On the other hand, states that are part of a large conglomerate of small states with closely related history and culture (language, religion) will inevitably merge into larger more stable political units (e.g., Germany, France, Italy). When it comes to the Jewish State of Israel, there is no dispute that it has distinct historical and cultural roots, and yet its legitimacy is being disputed by academician who should know history and political science. The proposed Palestinian state, on the other hand, so strongly advocated by the same anti-Israeli academicians, presumably offering self-determination to Muslim Arabs who live in Israel's territory, is historically and culturally indistinct from Syria, Jordan, Arabia and the Arab parts of Iraq, as well as Egypt. All these states have been part of a single Arab empire. And they will most likely end up as such eventually under an aggressive Muslim Arab ruler (see Germany or Italy). This did not happen in the last 70 years because of the competition among local Arab dictators, each of whom has been vying for the hegemony of the "Arab nation". It may, however, happen in the foreseeable future considering the political weakness of the rulers of Jordan, Syria or Arabia. So what is the political justification for creating another Arab mini-state under another local Arab warlord despot (e.g., Abu Mazen) who has even less grip of his "constituency" than the rulers of Jordan or Syria? The only rationale for the creation of a "legitimate" Arab mini-state of "Palestine" is to make it a tool to eliminate the "illegitimate" state of Israel, which the Arabs have vowed to eradicate. The PLO, the ruling party in the "Palestinian Authority", has been established by the Arab League in 1964 (before the 1967 Six Days War!) with the declared purpose of eliminating the Jewish state. Arab propaganda has used the "oppression" of Arabs under Jewish rule as another excuse for the elimination of that despised "occupation" of "Arab land". Academicians who bought this propaganda should have been more sophisticated. In fact, according to UN statistics, the standard of living of Arabs under Israeli rule, even in the "disputed territories", is significantly higher than that in most Arab countries. It is amazing that academicians, who are expected to be critical of information presented to them, were blinded when it came to the Arab-Israeli conflict. This brings us back to the inherent antipathy of academia to the Jewish state, which defies a rational explanation. In summary, politicians may take positions contrary to common sense for purely shortsighted, opportunistic reasons. This is how most of the existing Arab states in the Middle East have been created by the European victors of WWI from parts of the Ottoman Empire in order to prevent a large Arab political entity from being formed ("divide and conquer"). The same politicians have prevented the formation of a politically independent Kurdistan, a legitimate country with distinct historical and cultural roots. However, academicians are expected to have a broader historical perspective. Yet too many academicians seem to support the elimination of the State of Israel by questioning its legitimacy, advocating the creation of an artificial Arab state designed to replace it. All this looks like flagrant politization of academia; something that has been frowned upon by the same professors since the days of Joseph Stalin. Let us end with another paradox. Academicians are supposed to be the standard bearers of truth. Truth is based in objective facts. In historical studies archeological findings provide such facts. The "Palestinian" Arabs are presently doing their best to destroy archeological evidence for the pre-Islamic presence of Jews in the Land of Israel, especially on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Yet, we do not hear about British academicians protesting that atrocity perpetrated by the "Palestinian Authority", they seem to support. Nor did these British professors boycott Arab academic institutions for this vandalism that aims to destroy historical artifacts of the culture that imbeds foundations of Western Civilization. But the same academicians have been trying to boycott Israeli universities whose faculty opposes yielding to Arab religion-motivated political demands; demands that are part of the assault on the very civilization these professors are part of. One cannot but wonder whether professorship is always associated with rational thinking. 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 To Go To Top

WHAT ALL OF WASHINGTON KNEW BUT THE JEWS DIDN'T Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 26, 2005.

Everyone familiar with the machinations of the Administration seemed to know that President George Bush is pushing a Sudetenland policy on Israel. Somehow, except for a handful of Jews not easily fooled, everyone knows that Bush, following in his father's footsteps was double crossing Israel though its country bumpkin Prime Minister, the Farmer General Ariel (Arik) Sharon. We can outline the reasons for the Bush Family Dynasty betrayal but, exploring Israel's unpardonable stupidity would be more fascinating. Granted, Israel is a very small country whose most dependable friends have been the American people and the American Congress. However, I cite George Herbert Walker Bush, James Baker, Bill and Hillary Clinton (with all their cronies) and now George W. Bush as un-reliable friends of the embattled Jewish State of Israel. These influential people have always been far closer to such Muslim Arab regimes and especially the Muslim oil countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq under Saddam and Iran under the Shah. Egypt we armed with $60 Billion of American taxpayers' money in American arms equipment. Syria has these same Arabist interests in Washington which always protected it - even as Syria acts as the gateway into Iraq for Mujahadiin (fighters for Islam) Terrorists who kill American soldiers. (The media euphemistically calls them Insurgents.) The prime reason for America's pro-Arab tilt was oil deposits in some Muslim Arab countries and the spoiler role for the rest of these Muslim nations. Even our pro-Arab State Department with embassies in each of the 24 Arab Muslims countries and the some 20 other Muslim non-Arab countries, have adopted their hosts' hostility toward the Jewish nation. This was despite the Muslims despotic leaders' who taught hatred of Americans in their Madrassas (schools of strict Islam) toward non-Muslims - both Christians and Jews. American diplomats by the thousands were treated like royalty by the thin controlling, rich upper class of these Arab and Muslim countries who, eventually, became their (paid and volunteer) spokesmen in Washington. These American career employees of the State Department eventually absorbed the visceral hatred of their Arab Muslim hosts for Jews and the Jewish State. They work tirelessly in Washington to subvert Israel, some for pay, some for power, some for the oil companies and countries - and some for their visceral hatred of Jews. We all know that Washington isn't America but, rather a composite of special interests with Arab oil and cash flow leading the way. Subverting an ally to appease oil-bearing nations is a small price to pay, particularly when the art of betrayal costs nothing more than destroying another nation and her people. NEW WORLD ORDER = POWER POLITICS So, what are the components in the big game of Power Politics including access to energy, military bases from which to project power and insure that access, was all part of the "new World Order" first mentioned by former President George Herbert Walker Bush? I always thought that expression and thinking would have come from someone of German origin who lived through the days of Hitler's build-up to his Third Reich on his way to organizing the "World Order" as the German Nazis would have it. Only those who have been there before could possibly understand. But, this is the year 2005. Germany was defeated as was the Soviet Union's way of life - or so we thought. There was never supposed to be a resurrection of a "New World Order". Hitler's Third Reich supposedly died with him but, the "idea" of controlling all the world's natural and industrial resources apparently did NOT die. That "idea" is still around whether it is Islam's "New World Order" or the oil and military/industrial complex industries, reaching out to control the market - no matter who must be sacrificed. To control Global Resources, one must have the armies and arms to do it - unless the idea of control used different methods. Controlling nations and their leaders would replace conquest by armies and arms. In theory, that would work - unless the plans of co-opting nations and leaders went off track. For example, Saddam Hussein was NOT supposed to lose the war against Iran - particularly with America's assistance. But, then again, America was not supposed to lose the war in Vietnam which lead to the perception in the eyes of such nations as China and North Korea, that America was, indeed, a paper tiger. The Middle East is in a similar dilemma where America and the Free West have bet on Saudi Arabia as a safe supplier of crude oil. But, then Saddam started to lose the war with Iran, ran up a $75 Billion debt in arms purchases and could not get any more arms on credit. America's State Department under James Baker denied authorizing their Ambassadress April Glaspie to give Saddam the "green light" to attack Kuwait which just happened to have $80 Billion in gold and other cash assets. Saddam moved his troops toward Kuwait on July 29, 1990 (Tisha B'av). He confiscated their cash assets. The Muslim Palestinians living in Kuwait (and responding to Yassir Arafat) helped Saddam identify which important and rich Kuwaitis to plunder and kill. As a result, after America rescued Kuwait, the Kuwaitis deported into Jordan some 350,000 Palestinians who had lived in Kuwait as a proven risk to Kuwait's sovereignty. Simultaneously, Saudi Arabia deported over 300,000 of its Palestinians as a considered threat to their Kingdom - also into Jordan. Bush, Sr., Baker and Colin Powell (then Chief of Staff) were reluctantly forced to go to war to push Saddam out of Kuwait. Did you notice the great reluctance of the above three to go to war against Saddam? In point of fact, they managed to drag their feet for 6 months of mobilization before the great American army with its real and ersatz allies (the fake coalition of Syria and Egypt) could be assembled to fight a war against a third rate army - while Saddam was busy absorbing Kuwait's liquid assets. First America and her Allies conquered by air. Then Gen. Schwarzkopf fought a 4-day ground war which Bush and Baker suddenly halted, allowing Saddam, the elite army of his Republican Guards and the bulk of his best arms, as well as his capacity to manufacture WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) to escape. Would you care to bet that Saddam will never make it to testify in open court about who helped him with money, conventional and unconventional weapons? Bush, Sr. And Baker hid their $5 Billion "gift" to Saddam in the budget of the Department of Agriculture. Not only will the oil-for-food thieves be in the spotlight but so should the highest echelon in the Administration of Bush, Sr., the French, Russians, U.N. etc. Watch Saddam to be killed by an accident or a sudden heart attack. The U.S. as I recall not only supplied Billion of Dollars but, shipped pre-cursor chemicals which would make up mustard gas (used on Iranian soldiers) and Sarin, used on Saddam's own people and the Iraqi Kurds. No, I do not think Saddam will live long enough to testify. He would have to identify those of the Bush-Baker Administration with whom he was dealing for the future oil leases on very rich and untapped oil fields. Recall that Bush, Sr. gave a pre-waiver (pre-pardon) to his entire Cabinet for any business dealings they may have had with Saddam. President George W. Bush was quite right to go to war for a regime change to end Saddam's Terror threat to the world. Saddam was most certainly a hideous and cruel monster who had the capability of building WMD. We have heard that he buried them in the Beka'a Valley, Lebanon. Perhaps they will be discovered one day. We have yet to dig up all the mass graves of Iraqis he murdered. But, there were to be ancillary benefits for George W. - such as controlling the oil fields lost to America after the first Gulf/Kuwait war. In the second go around, Dick Cheney through his former company, Halliburton, planned to tighten their grip on those oil fields and then America (theoretically) wouldn't be dependent on foreign countries for their oil supply. But, as the plans of mice and men go awry so, too, did that part of the "New World Order". The prize slipped out of the bag when the Predictable so-called Insurgents (euphemism for Terrorists), really Mujahadiin (fighters for Islam) started their war of Terror. Muslims of every stripe are killing other Muslims and American soldiers, Americans who've come to help re-build Iraq or whoever is different from their breed of Islam. American soldiers soon found that they could not tell a Terrorist Muslim from a so-called civilian Muslims, as both interchanged hats so often. The "New World Order" folks did not contemplate the easily elevated radical religious fervor as the fuel that drove the Terrorists to attack crying: "Allah Akbar...God is great", while blowing up a truck full of explosives, killing American soldiers, civilian construction workers and Islamic civilians. So, America has had to pour in more men, more Billions of dollars and more soldiers are dying. The plan to "win the hearts and minds" of the Iraqi Muslims has gone off track - if they were ever on track. No doubt, we in the Free West will win this war or, at least, bring it down to a controllable level, where the Iraqis can take over and defend themselves, otherwise Bush will simply declare victory and pull-out. All those different Muslim Mujahadiin who came to fight those whom the Muslims call "The Great Satan" (America) to be followed by migrating to the next battleground in Gaza to attack "The Little Satan" (Israel). In the meantime, the Arab/Muslim world is raging over their self-image as warrior losers, first very well beaten by the Israelis in some 7 wars***. Now, they are losing in Afghanistan and Iraq to the Americans and Allies - although they are taking a toll in American lives.. The fact that the Taliban, following Saudi Wahhabism (strict Islam), were brutalizing the people, especially the women, made little difference to the Muslims world-wide. When Saddam, like Hitler and Stalin, killed hundreds of thousands of his own people, here too the Muslims were silent. Then again, so were the Europeans, the U.S. State Department and various Presidents. THE BUSH "GOOD" TERRORIST LIST How does a Terrorist get on the Bush/State Department list of "acceptable" Terrorists? Recall that there was much bombast and speechifying from the Bush Administration after 9/11 that "All Terrorists and those who harbored them were his target". He, at first, stated plainly that all Terrorists and those who harbored them were Terrorists - without exception. As time went on, the speeches stayed more or less the same, but the actual practice changed. Some Terrorists remained on the "list"; others seemed to have been removed (no longer pursued). Strangely, the only nation (Israel) which has been force to engage in active defense against Terror for over 75 years (dating from the 1929 Muslim pogrom in Hebron where they killed at least 69 Jews while the British Police looked on). Sadly, the Bush Administration, together with the oil industry, has decided that Israel must cease its aggressive response to Terror attacks and buildup. Israel is ordered NOT to respond to Arab Muslim Palestinian Terror attacks, but must turn over the Land to the Palestinian Terrorists and then promise to provide them with water, electricity and jobs inside Israel. Bush and Rice insist that Israel "help" Abu Mazen create another Palestinian Arab Muslim State, starting in Gaza, because it will look good for his legacy. However, it will almost instantly become a Global Terrorist Base. Somehow, groups like the PLO (Fatah) are put into another category - the "Good Terrorists" - even when they instigate and participate in acts of Terror against the Jewish State. While Hamas is on the U.S. list of Terrorist groups, it has been in "diplomatic" negotiations with the American pro-Arab State Department diplomats. (I wonder what they talk about and why would we believe in anything Hamas says?) The simple fact (nothing is simple) is that dealing and not dealing with Terrorists has turned into merely a political scam - otherwise known as corrupt diplomacy. Translate that into meaning that America's Government not only will deal with Terrorists but, is ready to subvert stalwart allies, like Israel, to appease Arab Muslims. I will add the thought that Europe (or Eurabia) which was so enthusiastic in killing off their 6 million Jews and are now attacking Israel via the U.N. and proxy Terrorists, like Hezb'Allah, arep themselves being inundated with Muslims who are hostile to all non-Muslims. Europe lost most of their productive Jews and, as a result of their Perfidy, now have radical Islamic Terrorists threatening their countries. Hopefully, America will NOT follow their lead ### *** 1948 War of Independence; 1956 Sinai Campaign; 1967 Six Days War?; 1970-71 War of Attrition; 1973 Yom Kippur War; 1982 Lebanon Peace for Galilee; 1991 First Gulf War - Desert Storm when Saddam threw 39 SCUDs at Israel's civilians while the Israelis resisted valiantly. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

JERUSALEM MAN KIDNAPPED AND MURDERED BY HAMAS Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 26, 2005.

This was written by Ezra HaLevi and it is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90513 The body of Sasson Nuriel was discovered Monday morning in the Arab village of Bituniya, west of Ramallah. A gag order on the case was partially lifted Monday evening. Nuriel, 55, owned a candy factory in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, near Jerusalem. His murderers, it appears, were members of the Hamas terrorist organization. Nuriel disappeared last Wednesday and his wife reported him missing to the police late that night. Police and Shabak (General Security Services) agents then carried out a search and investigation that led to the discovery of Nuriel's body Monday morning and the arrest of at least one Hamas terrorist in connection with the murder. His body showed signs of extreme violence. The Palestinian Authority did nothing to assist Israel in its search for the kidnap-murder victim. Nuriel's funeral is set to take place at 8 PM at the Givat Sha'ul cemetery in Jerusalem. Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

PLEASE HELP ME JUST GET ON THE WZO BALLOT Posted by Matthew Finberg, September 26, 2005.

B"H, within the next 4 years I will be making Aliyah under the Law of Return as the ultimate act of Zionism. For now, the best I can do is visit Israel often and become a member of the Congress of the WZO. The deadline for getting on the WZO ballots to be distributed by the American Zionist Movement is this Thursday, and I still need about 100 signatures. Thank you to those who have responded with support. Those who have not still have the opportunity to do a favor and go a little bit out of your way to help me run for the Congress. This is not a request for your endorsement of my party's platform; rather, please just help us get on the ballot and let the people decide. The deadline is September 29; disregard any other deadlines you may see. First, go to http://www.azm.org/FAQ.shtml if you are interested in learning more about the World Zionist Organization, World Zionist Congress (to which I hope to be a delegate), and the American Zionist Movement. Second, go to https://www.escvote.com/azm2005/default.asp?locid=azm to register with the American Zionist Movement to vote in the up-coming election. Follow the directions and click on continue as you fill in the blanks. Don't forget to check off the box indicating you accept the principles of the J erusalem Program. Your signature in step three below will not be effective if you have not completed the registration. You should receive your confirmation number at the bottom of the last page. Third, go to http://www.revava.org/Revava-olami-endorsement.gif and print the Revava Olami Endorsement Form which appears on your screen. Complete and sign the form, including your AZM confirmation number, and fax it back to me. DO NOT SEND IT TO AZM OR ANYWHERE ELSE AS THE ELECTION COMMITTEE REQUIRES THAT I SUBMIT ALL ENDORSEMENTS IN A SINGLE PACKAGE. Thank you very much for your time and for giving me the opportunity to participate in World Zionist policy making. After helping us get on the ballot, you can follow our progress, platform construction, and news at www.revava.org/olami. L'Shana Tova. Sincerely, Matthew S. Finberg Moshe Finberg is Chairman of Maalat HaGeula (Ascendant Redemption). Contact him at matt@maalathageula.org or phone him at 303.442.1276. To Go To Top

BLUES BY THE BEACH - A MUST SEE DOCUMENTARY Posted by AFSI, September 26, 2005.

Charlie Bernhaut and I interviewed Jack Baxter, the producer and lead character in the movie, for our TV program, ISRAEL UPDATE. We were mesmerized by the nature of the film. When Jack began filming at Mike's Place, a popular American style bar on the beach in Tel Aviv, he never expected that he would end up being the victim of a suicide bomber, still carrying the bomber's human shrapnel in his body. We have been strong supporters of this film since our first introduction to it. It is now attempting to qualify for an Academy Award nomination for best documentary film of 2005. If it should succeed, it would be a powerful way of telling Israel's story to the mainstream public. Please make every effort to attend a showing - and spread the word to everyone you know. Thank you Helen Freedman PAX AMERICANA PRODUCTIONS and Jack Baxter & Fran Strauss-Baxter Are Proud to Announce The Award Winning Blues By The Beach A Joshua Faudem Film will open for a limited run in October 2005 to qualify for an Academy Award nomination for the 2005 Best Documentary Film West Hollywood, New York City, Denver, San Francisco and Boston --------------------------------------------------- West Hollywood, CA 2 Screenings Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9 11:30 AM (both days) Sunset 5 Theatre (Laemmle) 8000 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA tel (323) 848-3500 web http://laemmle.com/viewtheatre.php?thid=10 --------------------------------------------------- New York City, NY 2 Screenings Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16 11:30 AM (both days) Quad Cinema 34 West 13th St. (bet. 5th & 6th Ave.) New York City, NY tel (212) 255-8800 web http://www.quadcinema.com After the show on Saturday please join us at Pete's Tavern located at 129 E. 18th St., (212) 473-7676 After the show on Sunday please join us for brunch at One91 located at 191 Orchard St., (212) 982-4770 --------------------------------------------------- Denver, CO 2 Screenings Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21 2:30 PM (both days) Mayan Theatre (Landmark) 110 Broadway (bet. 1st & 2nd Ave.) Denver, CO tel (303) 352-1992 web http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/Denver/ MayanTheatre.htm --------------------------------------------------- San Francisco, CA 2 Screenings Wednesday, October 26 and Thursday, October 27 12:00 PM (both days) Opera Plaza Cinema (Landmark) 601 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA tel (415) 267-4893 web http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/SanFrancisco/ OperaPlazaCinema.htm --------------------------------------------------- Cambridge (Boston), MA 2 Screenings Saturday, October 29 and Sunday, October 30 11:30 AM (both days) Kendall Square Cinema (Landmark) 1 Kendall Square Cambridge, MA tel (617) 499-1996 web http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/Boston/ KendallSquareCinema.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please forward this email announcement to anyone and everyone you know who would be interested in Blues By The Beach and PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST...... See you at the movies, Jack Baxter & Fran Strauss-Baxter Producers Blues By The Beach 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. To Go To Top

DUE TO ABANDONMENT, MORE TERRORISTS; RICE, PA SPOKESMAN; ISRAEL'S NEW FRONT LINE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 26, 2005.

DUE TO ABANDONMENT, MORE TERRORISTS As if they had been put wise to something, people repeated the pro-abandonment rationalization that it would take fewer Israel Israeli troops to defend Israel, once they were withdrawn from Gaza. Those people did not consult maps, analyze the argument, take into consideration the failed record of withdrawal, or confront the arguments of opponents, who did all those things. The map shows that the Arabs would be able to move rockets right alongside Israeli towns, which they therefore could not miss. Analysis (and experience) reveals, among other things: (1) A proactive defense within Gaza is more effective than a static one from outside; (2) If Israel stopped guarding the Egyptian border, the P.A., which had been smuggling a limited quantity of arms, would be able to smuggle much more; and (3) The Sharon regime implicitly endorsed its intelligence agencies' warnings that terrorism would increase, by declaring 44 Israeli communities now "frontline" ones, double the 21 Gaza communities evacuated. Experience with the Oslo withdrawal agreement: tens of thousands of Israeli casualties. Opponents' arguments were borne out before and are being borne out, again. There never was any sense to the argument that withdrawal from Gaza would enhance Israeli security. Those who argued such were irresponsible about Israeli national security. Will they continue to argue for irresponsible proposals? Perhaps, for many approach this neurotically, rather than factually and logically. In order to fight terrorists, a regular army must have numerical superiority and take the offense. It certainly will not be easier to combat terrorism now that terrorists replenished their forces through the abandoned border. They will be able to move freely around and attack from several places simultaneously, sometimes by firing over the fence into Israel. Israel already has been told by the US not to contemplate sending its forces back into Gaza in pursuit. The world does not want Israel to defend itself properly. A sober and patriotic Israeli regime would have taken that factor into account. Israel can't win by giving up its ace, which is possession. It is learning the hard way, if it is able to learn, that possession indeed is 9/10 of the law. Its people also ought to learn to listen to those who doubt plans that keep failing. When the stakes are national survival, more should be involved in deciding to support such proposals than foreign praise (which, in this pro-Arab world, is of dubious worth), than following authority, and than pursuing a failed ideology. The Arabs had accumulated massive quantities of arms in Egypt. They were awaiting an opportunity to ship them or smuggle them into Gaza. They must have anticipated either independence for the P.A., including unsupervised seaport and airport, or the recent agreement leaving it to the Arabs to stop the smuggling by Arabs. Did Sharon anticipate it? DANIEL PIPES IGNORES CHALLENGE Daniel Pipes scoffs at Barry Chamish's contention that the Council on Foreign Relations, whose paper on the Arab-Israel conflict proposes surrender of all of Yesha and eastern Jerusalem, and whose membership includes almost all the foreign policy notables, is guiding an anti-Zionist US policy. Mr. Pipes called the Council, of which he is an official, a debating society. I wrote to Pipes twice. I urged that if it is just a debating society, and if he has views as he intimates of opposing such extensive Israeli concessions to the Arabs, then let him prove his independence from it by disputing its paper publicly. He ignored the challenge. Draw your own conclusion. RICE PRAISED WHAT IS AN ARAB BETRAYAL Israel arranged with Egypt for Egypt to guard the Gaza border, and the P.A. promised to maintain security within Gaza. Based on those assurances, PM Sharon agreed to abandon the border as well as the territory. He believed the dissembling Arabs. He relied upon the US, that has double-crossed Israel before, to back him up. Immediately upon Israeli withdrawal, Egypt and the P.A. allowed massive smuggling of arms and terrorists into Gaza. Thousands of Arabs rioted, looted, and burned, without being put under restraint. Armed terrorists strutted around freely. Sec. Rice praised the P.A. for keeping order! She is America's most articulate spokesman for the P.A. (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/19). Once people digest a false factoid, it takes a mountain of genuine facts to dislodge their conclusion. The obvious conclusion is that the Israel cannot trust the State Dept. and the Presidents (nor can Israelis trust their own Prime Ministers). Nevertheless, the notion persists that the US government, as distinguished from the American people -- is a friend of Israel. RICE URGES ISRAEL TO AID P.A. ELECTION PM Sharon said that Israel would not cooperate with the P.A. in holding elections in Israeli-controlled parts of Judea-Samaria and in Jerusalem, if Hamas is allowed to run. Sec. Rice urged him to reverse himself. She suggesting giving P.A. democracy a chance to evolve, and not retard the "peace process." "NY Times" correspondent Joel Brinkley volunteered the comment that the US is choosing between spreading democracy among the Arabs and fighting terrorism. Ultimately the P.A. must disarm Hamas, said the Secretary-General (9/21, A10). Israel's UN Ambassador said, "Hamas seeks to destroy everything that the international community and the moderates in our region seek to build: tolerance, democracy, peace." (NY Sun, 9/21, p.5) "Ultimately," the P.A. should disarm all the militias, reduce its troops to the allowed number, and turn in its excessive weaponry, but "ultimately" never arrives. Unfortunately for peace and security, the Quartet has never insisted upon that step. Instead, it has offered all sorts of ISRAELI concessions to the P.A. regardless of P.A. non-compliance with its signed obligations. Is it any wonder that the P.A. still has not complied? Can any in the Quartet, including the State Dept., be thought to have integrity, after having made a charade called "the peace-process," really as a lure to get Israel to put its national security at risk? What would the US do if Hamas won and foreclosed any evolution towards democracy and peace? The way to give the Arabs a chance at democracy is to fight the totalitarian Islamists. That means fighting the PLO and the P.A., for they are as much jihadists as Hamas. When friends of Israel hear from its Ambassador that there are moderates in the region seeking tolerance, democracy, and peace, they believe it. What makes the Israeli Ambassador think that there are moderates elsewhere in the Mideast? Who but Israel is trying to build tolerance and peace? Can't he see that "the international community" willingly and repeatedly sacrifices Israeli national security, in order to appease the Arabs? Why can't the government tell the truth about the emperor's new clothes of peace and democracy, instead of uttering flattery? Israel is misleading people whom it should be alerting to the Quartet's Holocaust-inviting scam. As for spreading democracy in the Mideast, there is no evidence of any spread. What they call evidence is the usual Arab lip service. Israel, meanwhile, is losing much of its own democracy. U.S. FACILITATES AID TO EGYPT The US had withheld hundreds of millions of aid to Egypt, for lack of Egyptian compliance with the terms of aid, such as economic and civil reforms. Suddenly, the US eased the restrictions, so it can forward the aid, supposedly economic (IMRA, 9/19). Why reform not now needed? KIBBUTZIM FINDING THEMSELVES ON FRONT LINE Many of the kibbutz towns supported the abandonment of Gaza. Now they have become aware how much their fate is tied to that of the Jewish former residents of Gaza. With Gaza in terrorist hands, and with the terrorists getting arms via Egypt, bases for terrorism are springing up opposite the kibbutz towns just on the Israeli side of the border. They also find themselves without much protection from the Sharon regime. The regime had made promises of protection, but did not keep the promises (Arutz-7, 9/19). Their ideology and Sharon were poor guides. LOOTING REPEATED IN NORTHERN SAMARIA "Hundreds of Arabs brought in tractors and wagons and ripped down electric poles and stole metal, wooden and plastic materials and burned rubble. Several Arabs also looted in Sa-Nur, despite the presence of IDF soldiers who were stationed to prevent Jews from returning to the site." "Arab officials in nearby cities blamed Israel for the rampage, claiming it was a result of Israel's unilaterally expelling Jewish residents and withdrawing IDF forces " (sorry, lost citation). PERES' ANSWER TO ALL THIS CHAOS & TERRORISM "What was the alternative?" (IMRA, 9/19.) I ask, what solution is looting and terrorism? First, the basic alternative was the status quo. It did not involve chaos and boosted terrorism. Second, there was and is the alternative of advancing the Jewish claim to the area. Third, the dangers were warned about. It behooved the regime at least to prepare to move back in and let the Arab know that any arms brought in would be confiscated, not to evacuate from northern Samaria until it saw how matters went in Gaza, not to relinquish border control, and to make sure that Egyptian troops were in position, before withdrawing from the border. It did one of those things. It is an old illogicality for Israelis proposing or defending a dubious proposition to demand, without answering, "What is the alternative." Ever the fool, Peres, at least in what he says. 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. To Go To Top

OUR LAND IS ON THE LINE Posted by Elyakim Haetzni, September 26, 2005.

The Jewish people have succeeded in remaining loyal to the religion of Israel, but there are ominous signs for the Land of Israel Ariel Sharon stood in front of the United Nations and introduced himself as a "Jewish man, a proud representative of an ancient nation," before proceeding to recognize "the rights of others in the land," defined as the right "to liberty and a sovereign national existence in their own state" in the Land of Israel. For the first time in the history of Israel, a Jewish leader gave a foreign nation the right to what he himself called "the estate of our forefathers" in which every part of the land, every mountain and valley, and every brook and stone is saturated with Jewish history, artifacts, and memories." Our forefathers, from Abraham our father till the fathers of Zionism, are turning in their graves. The "disengagement" together with the U.N. speech transmitted another chilling message: "The city, village, scenery, mountain range, deserts and coasts of Israel, which have loyally guarded, as witnesses, their original Hebrew names," can be the setting for the Palestinian "national existence," only when the Jewish existence in those lands is cut off. What the terrorists of Palestine failed to do in five years of intifada was 'accomplished' by a Jewish army using force. The man that cleansed the area of "the Palestinian national existence," Gaza, of Jews, has promised to continue with the cleansing in the West Bank. He has decided that not a single Jew will live with the Palestinians, despite the fact that 1.2 million Arabs live in the area of the Jewish national existence. For all of the "one way" and "unilateral" steps taken by the government, the Palestinians for their part have yet to recognize the right of the Jewish people to even a single centimeter in "Palestine." Even the Palestinian "moderates" hardly live up to their names, they recognize the existence of the "Zionist entity" for tactical reasons alone. Sharon's speech has turned the crack in the wall of Jewish national unity into a dangerous burst. A large camp now opposes the prime minister, who view his comments at the United Nations as illegitimate, and who view Sharon as leader of the infidel camp which is trying to force the Jewish nation to recognize the rights of another nation on parts of the Land of Israel. This gap does not necessarily exist between the religious and secular. Rather, the Land of Israel loyalists, who believe that the land is Israel's exclusive inheritance, can be found among the ranks of many non observant people. When Sharon tries to apply with force his view that the Palestinians also have a "right" to a national existence on land ethnically cleansed of Jews, including Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, the wall of national Zionist unity is liable to collapse, and knock over the foundations of the Jewish State. Sharon's speech will make life for Likud Committee members easier. They can now choose between dividing the land with the Arabs and receiving 40 mandates in the next elections, together with the best of the government jobs - or to remain loyal to their ideological roots and to risk losing power. A similar choice faced the Jews with the ascension of Christianity - to compromise on the faith of their fathers, and to join the winning force and conquer the world, or to remain "a nation that will dwell alone," and pay the price. If our forefathers had not taken the path they did, we would not exist today to again face a test. This time, it is the Land of Israel, rather than the religion of Israel, which is on the line. Elyakim Haetzni is a former member of Knesset. Contact him at ehaetzni@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

SOUNDS OF SILENCE Posted by Avodah 15, September 25, 2005.

This was written by Kenneth Lasson, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore. It appeared in the Baltimore Jewish Times. American silence on various issues relating to Israel speaks loud and clear as to the Bush administration's policies and intentions. When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas goes out of his way to praise the "martyrs" - read suicide bombers - for finally bringing about Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza, he is explicitly endorsing terrorist acts. Yet not one word of condemnation, criticism, or even caution is forthcoming from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or her boss, President Bush, not even a modest protest of this flagrant flouting of the so-called road map to peace. When synagogues in Gaza are torched under the watchful eyes of the Palestinian Authority, or a Jewish student is stabbed to death in the Old City of Jerusalem, nary an utterance of disapproval or consolation is heard from the White House State Department. And when Israel does the bidding of Washington policy-makers and exercises restraint - both during its withdrawal from "occupied" territories that were won in war, and in response to murderous attacks against innocent civilians - the United States is totally devoid of any meaningful gesture of support for its only true ally in the Middle East. One such response could have been the commutation of Jonathan J. Pollard's life sentence to time already served in prison, now over 20 years and counting. Here the sound of American silence has been both deafening and defining. Pollard, conscientious and justice-seeking Americans should know full well by now, was a Navy intelligence analyst caught passing classified information to Israel - data that should have been shared in the first place and in no way damaged the United States. What did Jonathan Pollard do to deserve life imprisonment? Nowhere did his indictment allege that he ever gave classified information to other countries before working for the Israelis, or that he ever betrayed any intelligence agents (as has often been widely misreported by the media). Not one instance has ever surfaced (or been documented in the victim impact statement written by his prosecutors) of any real harm that he caused. No doubt that what Pollard did was wrong under the law. Over the years, however, the dozens of other Americans who have been convicted of the same crime have been sentenced to an average of four years in prison; some similarly apprehended have served no time at all. All the more ironic are the mirror-image cases. During the time Pollard has been incarcerated, Israel has caught at least two Americans and one Mossad agent spying for the United States. The Americans were quietly expelled; the Israeli was pardoned. The circumstances of Pollard's ill-fated plea-bargain - the government promised not to seek a harsh sentence in return for his cooperation; he fulfilled his part of the agreement, the Justice Department did not - led one federal judge to call the case "a complete and gross miscarriage of justice." But Steven Williams of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was the lone dissenter on a three-judge panel, the other two of whom ruled against Pollard on technical procedural grounds (essentially that he had not filed his appeal in a timely fashion). Now Pollard has virtually exhausted all of the legal appeals available to him. Only intervention by the president could set him free. But Mr. Bush has never spoken publicly about the case, much less offered Pollard to Israel - which would be a simple but altogether appropriate token of mutual understanding for an isolated and harmless instance of misplaced allegiance. Instead, he has succumbed to the shrill will of a single-minded State Department and a largely discredited intelligence community, which apparently demand that Pollard never see the light of day. To be sure the United States is not the only party to share the shame in this tragic failure of simple fairness. Israel could and should declare Pollard a "Prisoner of Zion" - a classification that would ensure continued efforts to liberate him. Israel could and should have made the modest demand for Pollard's liberty in return for the substantial concessions it has already made in the American-brokered peace process. Instead, by all realistic measures, the Jewish state has effectively abandoned one of its acknowledged agents. And the American Jewish establishment, still apprehensive about igniting lingering canards of dual loyalty, has been too weak-kneed to make Pollard's case a grievance worthy of loud support. There is ample time for Mr. Bush to make things right. No, that's wrong. He should end his silence now, and let Pollard go. Contact the author at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

ONLY IN ISRAEL, ELLUL SPECIAL Posted by Batya Medad, September 25, 2005.

There's nothing like the weekly sports roundup to show what it's like to be a "man" in Israel. Over a year ago, I was impressed by the announcer's "3 week beard," which appeared on the kippah-wearing one during the 3 weeks. That's the time of the year between the 17th of Tammuz and 9th of Av, when Jews mourn the destructions of the Holy Temples. One of the Jewish Laws of Mourning is that it's forbidden to cut hair, which includes shaving. Also, it's very common for Israeli men, even those not normally considered "religious" to follow the 30 law not to shave after the death of a close relative. This includes politicians and media stars. A couple of years ago, the tv feature about the head Israeli basketball coach opened with his dovening, praying, wrapped in his T'fillin. Many of prominent Israeli men, including world famous actor, Chaim Topol, are very proud to let people know that their days begin with morning prayers and T'fillin. The other night there was an item on tv about how the "in thing" for those looking for a great spiritual experience is to go to a certain Sepharadi synagogue for midnight or pre-dawn "Slichot" prayers. I discussed this with a neighbor who said that it really is intense, even addictive, in a sense. That's why the shuls, (ok, funny to use the Yiddish work for a North-African synagogue,) are full every night for the month of Ellul, which leads up to Rosh Hashnnah. And finally, last night's bit of inspiration for sports fans. It's well-known in Israel that many people are finding G-d, becoming Torah observant Jews. That includes, not only "ordinary people of all walks of life," but famous and successful actors and athletes. Last night they showed the highlights of a soccer match between the now religious athletes and others; I didn't catch whom they were playing. I'm also not familiar enough with the players to have caught their names, sorry. The emphasis was on how the sportsmen feel today, when the Beit Medrash, Torah Study Hall, has replaced the soccer field. They all stressed how much happier they are. One said: "I had everything material, but I had nothing. Now my life is so much fuller." One of the best things about this crop of Chozrei B'Tshuva, Returnees to the Faith, is that they are comfortable with their past and present. In the earlier days, 30-40 years ago, of this "trend," newly observant Jews were encouraged to totally turn their backs on their past, not only the sinful habits, but their friends and professions. Now, more and more people are integrating all of aspects of their lives. Shanah Tovah! 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 To Go To Top

UNDER THE ROCKETS RED GLARE Posted by Paula R. Stern, September 25, 2005.

Rockets are again falling on Israeli towns and lands. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say rockets are still falling. Either way, we are once again in the relatively unique position of being targeted by our enemies while expected to simply sit back and do nothing. No other nation in the world would accept the absurd status of regular mortars and rockets being fired at its citizens, of having soldiers regularly targeted by gunmen, motorists regularly stoned, while the world demanded it limit its response. Only Israel is expected to sit back while our lives are endangered, our one-sided efforts for peace accepted by the world and then belittled as just the first of many sacrifices we are expected to make. We have close to 9000 people we made homeless. Our government ordered the destruction of vibrant, beautiful, flourishing communities and we have received nothing in return. Not peace and not international acclaim. The world has congratulated us on our first surrender and asked what will be next? The Arab nations are salivating as they whisper... Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the future capital of the Palestinian nation for which Ariel Sharon is laying the cornerstone. The foreign media has jumped into the fray, quickly rushing to report events as they would have the world see them. "Israel launched a 'crushing' retaliation Saturday against Hamas in Gaza with deadly airstrikes, troops massed at the border and a planned ground incursion," the Associated Press story begins. The second paragraph, after this alarming introduction detailing Israel's apparently aggressive intentions, does, at least, give lip service to the truth. "The Israeli action came after militants fired 35 rockets at Israeli towns." The Presidency of the European Union has released its statement, "The Presidency calls on the Palestinian Authority to take all necessary steps to take full control of security in the Gaza Strip. The Presidency recognizes Israel's right to act in self-defense, but calls on Israel to act with restraint." It is reasonable, until you understand the flaw in the presidency's logic. Were there to be no attacks against Israel, there would be no need for restraint. Stop the rockets and we will have no need to respond. The voices for self-termination come from within Israel as well. Don't fall into Hamas' trap, warns the ultra-leftist Yossi Beilin. Of course, Beilin doesn't live in Sderot and doesn't have to worry about his children's school being hit by a rocket or missile as the school week begins. That Beilin speaks this way is no surprise for those who have long known that Beilin is the ultimate apologist, the first to blame Israel for all the world's sins. But Beilin is not alone. We didn't leave Gaza in order to return, says Ariel Sharon. But then again, this is a man who has never clearly explained why we did leave Gaza in the first place. Certainly, it wasn't to stop suicide bombers, like the one who blew himself up in Beer Sheva in the midst of Sharon's disengagement plan. It couldn't be to stop the rockets, 35 or more of which were launched against Israel in the last 24 hours. It is impossible to even imagine what the United States, Britain, France or Russia would do were an enemy to fire rockets and mortars at civilian targets within its borders. Would any nation ask them to respond "with restraint" or would they universally condemn the act of aggression and demand the enemy cease violating international law? The orange people of Israel, those who predicted the disastrous results we could expect from Sharon's disengagement plan, gain no satisfaction from these attacks. We mourn the destruction of 25 of the most productive, peace-loving communities for nothing. We cry for the homeless amongst us, those who still have no solution, still have not received compensation payments. Rather than offer solutions, the government is launching a war of disinformation while all that the people of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron have requested is simply to be allowed to rebuild their lives and communities together in the Negev. The Sharon government has promised no mercy, and no mercy it has shown - to our people. To the Palestinians who shoot rockets, send suicide bombers, shoot and stone our nation, the Sharon government offers empty promises of a zero-tolerance solution. Even my five year old understands that zero does not equal 35 rockets, a bus explosion in Beer Sheva, stone throwing and shooting. We expected no more. The Palestinians promised no less. The army will respond according to the commands of Prime Minister Sharon. The people too must respond, with an overwhelming and clear answer that reverberates through the halls of the Knesset. Under the rockets red glare, we must tell Ariel Sharon to go home. Paula R. Stern is a freelance journalist and the founder and documentation manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company, based in Israel. Her personal website is: www.paulasays.com To Go To Top

HAMAS SAYS WILL STOP ATTACKS BUT ONLY FROM GAZA Posted by Avodah 15, September 25, 2005.

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar announced Sunday night his group would stop missile and other attacks on Israel from Gaza DEBKAfile adds: the statement was made under pressure from Egyptian officers in Gaza and refers only to attacks from that territory. The Hamas leaves itself free to mount attacks from the West Bank and inside Israel. This license was implicitly endorsed by the Egyptian delegation. Contact the author at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

NEWS FLASH Posted by Barry Shaw, September 25, 2005.

NEWS FLASH! Gaza City ....... After relief groups have successfully ended negotiations with the U.S. about assistance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Palestinian spokesperson for the Red Crescent Society, Farouk El-Farouk has confirmed their nation's participation in the relief effort. It was confirmed that at 9:15 am this-morning, 4 plane-loads of volunteers from Gaza and the West Bank left Amman, bound for New Orleans to assist with the looting. Barry Shaw writes the "View from Here" columns from Israel. To sign up to receive his emails, contact him at netre@matav.net.il To Go To Top

PARTIAL CLOSURE FOR THE HATUELS Posted by Steven Plaut, September 25, 2005.

1. Now THERE is a Peace Process!: (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1127614781011) An IAF combat helicopter flying over Gaza fired a missile towards a vehicle carrying the Palestinian terrorist, who, according to Army Radio, was identified as Sheikh Mohammed Khalil, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad military wing. An army announcement said that its forces carried out an interception of a car that was transporting Khalil and another man, Aya Latif Sheikh Khalil, who were the heads of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF, the killed terrorists were responsible for the murder of the Hatuel family members, including 4 children, in May of 2004. (http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/CasualtiesOfWar/2004_05_02.html) 2. Short IQ Test for Moonbats (http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=1391) Quick, what is wrong with the expression "organized anarchism", as is being commonly used on the Indymedia web sites, such as here? For extra credit, please analyze the following addition oxymorons: "Scientific Socialism" "Marxist Thinking" "Socialist Worker" "Palestinian Moderate" "Peace Process" "Animal Rights" "Moral Relativism" "Deconstructionist Thinking" "Post-Modernism" "Reverse Discrimination" "French Honor" Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

IT'S THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, STUPID! Posted by Yoram Ettinger, September 25, 2005.

This is "Straight From The Jerusalem Cloakroom #184", September 25, 2005 Should you wish to examine previous issues, please visit http://yoramettinger.newsnet.co.il or www.acpr.org.il (Jerusalem Cloakroom and Hatikvah links). 1. THE 1993-94 IMPORTATION OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA) from terrorist camps in Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia and Lebanon created the largest terrorist base in the Middle East. The PA, rather than Hamas, has provided the overriding manpower, hate-education, logistics and operational capabilities, which have produced an unprecedented wave of Palestinian terrorism. Suspension of disbelief has presented the PA as a partner for peace, rather than a terrorist regime. It is consistent with Oslo wishful-thinking, but inconsistent with an effective battle against global terrorism. 2. THE P.A. "SECURITY ORGANIZATIONS" have executed most Palestinian terrorism since Oslo. Most members of the "security organizations" are also members of "Al Aqsa Brigades" and other terror organizations. For instance, Khalid Shawish, a commander of the "Brigades" is also a senior commander of the "security organizations", and has found safe haven in Abu Mazen's headquarters in Ramallah. "General" Tirawee, head of the PA's "intelligence" published an obituary upon the killing of Jihad Hassan a "Brigade" commander in September 2004. Abu Yandal (killed in April 2002) was a PA "General" and a leader of Islamic Jihad. Abu Mazin has recently recruited Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, officially, into the PA "Security Organizations", in order to provide them with a shield against the IDF. 3. Abu Mazen, Abu Ala', Dahlan, Rajoub, Nasser Youssef and other PA leaders have shaped the strategy of Palestinian terrorism, coordinating actions with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, HARBORING them and providing them with a platform for rallies, recruitment, training, terrorist supplies and operations. 4. THE P.A. HAS CONSIDERED HAMAS A STRATEGIC JUNIOR ALLY and a tactical rival. ABU MAZEN has been the chief architect of a series of strategic cooperation accords between the PA and Hamas since September 1993. The latest accord (March 2005) reaffirmed the sanctity of "violent resistance" and the superiority of "Palestinian unity" over any accord with Israel. On August 21, 2005, Abu Mazen's daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, heralded the expansion of Hamas' "women troops". 5. HATE-EDUCATION HAS BEEN INTRODUCED BY ABU MAZEN and the PA - rather than by Hamas - into the PA systems of education (K-12), mosques and media. Since 1993/4, Abu Mazen's hate-education has brainwashed the minds of 2.5 million Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, setting manufacturing lines of homicide bombers in classrooms and houses of worship. Abu Mazen has convinced Palestinians, by teaching them the "Elders of Zion" and other anti-Jewish literature, that the attainment of Palestinian "rights" is predicated upon the annihilation of the "illegitimate" Jewish State. 6. ABU MAZEN's daily, Al-Ayyam, PRAISED HOMICIDE BOMBER, Hanadi Jaradat, on August 22, 2005 for murdering 29 Israelis in a Haifa restaurant. ABU MAZEN's "Ministry of Culture" published a "Book of the Month (August)", glorifying Jaradat's "heroism": "Death as an Allah Martyr is the highest goal!" (source: PMW). 7. ABU MAZEN's track record (http://www.acpr.org.il/cloakrm/clk171.html) and PA performance since its establishment in 1993, document the PA as the main Palestinian terrorist regime. Official US and Israeli meetings with Abu Mazen, and Congressional appropriation of funds to the PA (via Palestinian NGOs), sacrifice experience on the altar of wishful-thinking, providing tailwind to terrorism and dealing a setback to security and peace. 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. Contact him at yoramtex@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

DEATH OF A LANDLORD Posted by Women in Green, September 23, 2005.

This was written by Sarah Honig, and appeared in the Jerusalem Post, September 15, 2005. One of my mother's most traumatic memories as a young woman was from that afternoon in early 1948 in which she had a terrible toothache. She decided, come what may, to venture from home (Rehov Aharonson 7 in Tel Aviv) to her dentist Dr. Ben-Atar on Tchernichowsky Street. It was no prosaic decision. It literally meant taking her life in her hands. In those days crossing the road to the corner grocery entailed mortal risk. Arab snipers atop the minaret of the Hassan Bek Mosque, which straddled the (Jewish) Tel Aviv-(Arab) Jaffa borderline, targeted passersby of any age -- from grandmothers to babies in their strollers. Anyone moving in the streets of Tel Aviv -- stretched out below -- was vulnerable. All that mattered to the sharpshooters was that their random victims were Jews. They saw nothing untoward in indiscriminately firing on innocents from a supposed house of worship. Hassan Bek wasn't an ancient mosque, nor even an Arab edifice. In all, it was 31 years old when it terrorized Tel Aviv. It was the self-glorification project of Jaffa's Turkish military governor at the outset of World War I, when the Ottomans were about to lose their local foothold. He coveted little burgeoning Tel Aviv's building materials, confiscated them and then forced bricklayers to erect the mosque he named after himself. Until Jaffa was defeated, one day before Israel's independence was declared a short distance away, Hassan Bek was only noteworthy as a source of lethal gunfire, the place from whence Death could suddenly claim anyone, any time. Yet few today know its bloody past. Deceptive Arab narratives make no mention of Jaffa's decades of relentless terror against neighboring Tel Aviv. Propaganda-wise it's more effective to paint a picture of pre-state Jaffa as paradise lost and of Jaffans as uprooted blameless pacifists, brutally dispossessed by invading foreign oppressors, who exiled them to Gaza. MOST LIKELY some of the progeny of Jaffa's snipers whooped it up this week on the roofs of Gush Katif's abandoned synagogues and set fire to them. Their savagery was taken for granted, if not actually understood and condoned abroad. The State Department's spokesman charged Israel -- not frenzied rampaging Arab mobs -- with culpability for the ransacking and arson. Israel shouldn't have left anything behind to rile the barbarians and discomfit their leaders. The underlying postulate is that Jewish relics are offensive, insufferable and deserve to be expunged from memory. Never is it asked why uncivilized behavior on the part of Arabs must be tolerated, why they shouldn't be held to the same standards of basic decency and respect they so vociferously demand of everyone else. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas explained that the synagogues are anyway unworthy of protection, as they aren't ancient, and hence not holy. Moreover since their religious articles were removed, they're nothing but empty structures, attesting to erstwhile Israeli presence, all telltale residues of which must be cleansed. This didn't strike Washington as a tad disturbing. But then again there never was any American outrage when sacred Jewish sites were violated. Most recently it happened on the Temple Mount with the rampant and wanton destruction of peerless antiquities. Remarkably, enlightened international opinion kept its cool. Such indifference has a long, dishonorable history. When the Jordanian Legion illegally occupied east Jerusalem and expelled its ancient Jewish community, the world watched unmoved (three years after the Holocaust). It couldn't be bothered (less than a decade after Kristallnacht) when the Jordanians (a.k.a. Palestinians) destroyed no fewer than 58 synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the famous Tiferet Yisrael and Rabbi Yehuda Hahasid synagogues. The ruined remnants of some synagogues were converted into donkey stables, cowsheds and public lavatories. Even the dead couldn't be allowed rest. No less than 75% of the tombstones in the Mount of Olives Cemetery were ripped out. Some were used to pave pathways to Jordanian army latrines or to construct pissoirs near the Western Wall. These weren't the ravages of war but deliberate abuse intended to degrade. Headstones in urinals aren't vandalism. They're hate unbridled. Jerusalem's Old City fell into (the relatively moderate) Hashemite hands two weeks after Jaffa surrendered to the IDF. While revered Jerusalem synagogues and graveyards were desecrated and despoiled, Hassan Bek -- as young and empty as Gush Katif's synagogues -- survived unscathed, though if ever there was motivation to spend fury on an infamous landmark, this was it. Nevertheless, the worst the notorious mosque-of-death suffered was Israeli neglect. So much so, that in 1983 the once-dreaded minaret collapsed during a storm. It could have been left as nature decreed, perhaps as a sign of displeasure from above. Instead, ever politically correct, Israel allowed Saudi money to renovate it and expand Hassan Bek as never before. It's of late significantly elevated on the Muslim sanctification scale. Whenever my late mother chanced by the refurbished and resplendent mosque, she inevitably remembered her landlord, Mr. Braun, who buttonholed her, as she was about to rush off and dodge bullets on the way to the dentist. Standing at the doorway, he lectured her sternly on the foolhardiness of her sorties outdoors. Just then a bullet whistled by and he fell dead at her feet. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

RECENT CONVERTS TO ISLAM Posted by David Frankfurter, September 24, 2005.

Dear Friends, There is no doubt that the Palestinian strategy of denying Jewish affiliation with the Holy Land will intensify. Arafat led the new academic school of a Jew-free history of "Palestine", supported by European funded school books and fed to a gullible world media. And internally, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and others are portrayed as devout Muslims (just a little before their time). In the disengagement from Gaza, all biblical and historical connection between Gaza and the Jews was ignored. Ask any reader of a modern newspaper, and they will tell you that Gaza always belonged to the "Palestinians". They would be incredulous to hear about the biblical allocation of the land, of "Rabbi Nathan of Gaza", or even that the modern Jewish settlement was built on land stolen from no-one. Where will the next ideological "battleground" be? One might assume Jerusalem. In fact, I suspect that the Palestinians view the battle over Jerusalem as pretty much won. The Temple Mount is being excavated by the Waqf, with the rubble disposed of in a fashion that deliberately destroys archeological treasures that may show a Jewish presence from Temple times. Not a word of concern from any quarter. Jews are almost excluded from all areas near the Temple, and if they go up to the mount, they cannot move their lips, just in case they might pray. The Europeans deliberately treat East Jerusalem as an integral part of the Palestinian State they are planning. Aid money cannot be distributed to "wealthy" Israel, but programs in East Jerusalem are carefully included in every package given to the Palestinian Authority. The next battleground is shaping up to be Hebron [1]. The 'city of the fathers' where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are buried above the legendary resting place of Adam and Eve, is one of the oldest near continuous Jewish settlements. For a short period, Arab pogroms in 1929 managed to make the city "Judenrein". The six-day war in 1967 made it possible for Jews to live there again, and we have returned to Hebron and the neighbouring suburb of Kiryat Arba. Of course, together with the recent conversion to Islam of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Palestinians are busy rewriting the modern history of the city too. The latest [2] is the setting up of two trailers on the ancient Jewish cemetery. The buildings are said to be the fore-runner of a school. What better way to deny Jewish connection? Can you imagine the furore when Jews object to an Arab school? And the Jewish cemetery will, of course, be relegated by the media to be a "claim". The time to protest is now. David Footnotes http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron.html http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90257 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/ To Go To Top

OLEG CARTOON: IS JERUSALEM SHARON'S NEXT TARGET? Posted by Women in Green, September 24, 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 To Go To Top

WOW! HAMAS MUST BE TERRIFIED! Posted by Lise Rubin, September 25, 2005.

OH YES INDEEDY-DO! Israel gets attacked again and -- "Defense Minster Mofaz has said the response needs to be crushing and so Sharon's cabinet has the perfect solution...they have approved a ... wait for it.... WORLDWIDE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN against Hamas..." - Really shows you how futile, stupid & suicidal Sharon et al are. Such stupidity cannot be accidental. This is called "9 Wounded in Gaza Attacks, Sharon Threatens Hamas with Ad Campaign" and it is from http://sultanknish.blogspot.com. For those of you new to the site, Sultan Knish has great material - a mix of Judaism, spiritual, and real time events. Enjoy In Faith, Elisheva 40 rockets hit Sderot and West Negev injuring 9 shutting down schools in Sderot for the forseeable future Israel has now had to go back in and carry out multiple air strikes in Gaza and the cabinet has approved a resumption of artillery attacks and targeted assasinations but ruled out a ground campaign These tactics that have proven useless against Hizbullah whose MO Hamas is copying right down to plans to kidnap Israeli soldiers will now be used against Hamas with results just as useless. Now that Sharon has stated that Israel will not be sending in ground forces which lets Hamas know they can operate freely on the ground and that they have nothing serious to worry about as long as they avoid the air strikes Sharon has appealed to America to put a stop to the rocket attacks and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice asked Abbas to put a stop it it and Abbas asked Rice to tell Israel to stop bombing Gaza. Defense Minster Mofaz has said the response needs to be crushing and so Sharon's cabinet has the perfect solution...they have approved a ... wait for it.... WORLDWIDE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN against Hamas... .... oh yes Hamas will be terrified now, they're going to be facing the devastating terror of a WORLDWIDE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN If Hamas hasn't been terrified before, boy they must be trembling now. They're going to be facing an ad campaign. If the occasional air strike doesn't terrify them, the prospect of superbowl spots against Hamas undoubtedly will. So far the worldwide campaign hasn't gone too global yet and consisted of leaflets dropped in arabic warning of harsh consenquences if the rocket attacks continue - an undoubtedly terrifying prospect now that the arabs have seen Israel retreat and then sit on its hands while its holy places were burned and then promised not to return troops to Gaza Perhaps in the near future the WORLDWIDE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN can be Sharon announcing his resignation and replacement by a leader who is willing to fight terrorism instead of terrorizing Jews. That may frighten Hamas, the same tactics that failed before plus an ad campaign certainly won't. Contact Lise Rubin at elishevarubin@msn.com. To Go To Top

BELOGORODSKYS/AFSI VISIT US CONGRESS TO EXPOSE JUDICIAL HUMAN & CIVIL RIGHTS ABUSES IN ISRAEL Posted by AFSI, September 23, 2005.

On Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005, Herbert Zweibon, Chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, and Helen Freedman, AFSI Executive Director, escorted Chaya and Moshe Belogorodsky through the halls of Congress in Washington, DC. The two leaders of AFSI believed it was very important to introduce the Members of Congress to a father and daughter who have been victims of the "judicial imperialism" that exists today in the Israeli courts, encouraged by the Sharon government's disregard for the will of the people. Robert Bork, American legal scholar, describes the Israeli Supreme Court as one that "is gradually producing an Israel that is neither Jewish nor democratic." Chaya, 14 years old, was arrested by the Israeli police for standing on the sidelines in a protest against the expulsion, and then speaking rudely to a policewoman. She was kept in solitary confinement for five days, without permission to call her family or a lawyer, denied water and basic needs for periods of time. After the five days, she was moved out of solitary and kept in jail for an additional 35 days. All of this was prior to any trial, the date of which must still be set. At the trial, should she be found guilty of her "crime", the penalty for this would be a monetary fine, without any jail time. But for this, she has already served 40 days in jail. Her father, Moshe, tried desperately to get her released, going from one court to another, until he reached the Supreme Court. There the judge ruled that Chaya was an "ideological criminal" and therefore more dangerous than drug dealers, murderers, rapists, and even terrorists, who are released as good will gestures to other terrorists. It was only public opinion pressure that finally secured her release. As Chaya and Moshe told their stories to Congressman Jim Saxton, and aides for Senator Inhofe, Congressmen Mike Pence and Tom Tancredo, they received overwhelming interest and concern. It is expected that action will be taken on the part of those who heard the Belogorodsky story to inform Prime Minister Sharon that such civil disobedience actions as taking part in demonstrations is part and parcel of the democratic process, and jailing minors for long periods of time for such offenses is intolerable. As Freedman, Zweibon, Chaya and Moshe spoke in the halls of Congress, they also told about the hundreds of other cases where minors are sitting in jail for similar offenses. The case of Shimshon Cytryn, presently being held for "attempted murder" in a clearly trumped up case, and eleven new cases of arrests of minors, illustrates that the "judicial imperialism," producing egregious violations of human and civil rights in Israel, is running out of control. Honenu, an Israeli Jewish civil rights organization that defends the legal rights of minors and others caught in such cases needs the support of an informed public. Call AFSI, 212-828-2424, or write: afsi@rcn.com, for additional information. 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. To Go To Top

FEEL THE CONNECTION... Posted by Judy Lash Balint, September 23, 2005.

This was written by Craig Abramson, High School senior at the American Hebrew Academy, Greensboro, N.C This past Shabbat was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. Thursday afternoon we reached the Kinneret -- the second Yam of our cross-country trek -- tired, dirty and incredibly proud to finish our week-long hike from Yam leYam (Sea to Sea). The very next day, Friday, despite our extreme exhaustion, we boarded the bus to go to Jerusalem. A few people drifted off into sleep, but most of us sat anxiously, unsure of what to expect of the city that is supposed to mean so much to us. Suddenly my heart started beating and I became lightheaded. Almost at once, everyone began looking out the window. No one had to say a word. It was like a GPS had been built into each of us and, after two thousands years, we finally arrived at our destination. We couldn't even see Jerusalem yet, but somehow we all knew it was over the next hill. Our youth hostel, Beit Shmuel, sat right outside Zion Gate; just beyond the walls of the Old City. After unpacking and a chance to catch up with friends who graduated last year and were staying at Beit Shmuel, our class walked to the Kotel together. There wasn't a single person that didn't look nervous; everyone had a lot on their mind. This was not the first time at the Kotel for me. I was there six years ago, but now my emotions, thoughts, and feelings were different. This was not just another stop on a family tour of Israel. After a short service for our class on a balcony overlooking the Kotel, we made our way to the ground below. My heart was pounding. We walked in silence, each caught in our own thoughts and feelings. Rona Melnick, one of our core class teachers, broke the silence by singing, in which everyone eagerly joined. The singing gave us something to do other than turn over in our minds what was "supposed to happen," and bring us together, away from our own individual thoughts. Finally face-to-face with the Kotel, I was acutely aware of my own expectations, or, more precisely, my confusion about them. Should I be happy or sad? Laugh or cry? Dance or pray? What I did not expect was to feel it all simultaneously. We all drifted closer to the wall. I walked slowly. My whole body shivered, not only because of the cool mountain wind we were feeling for the first time since arriving in Israel, but also because of a mix of excitement and fear. The moment my fingers touched the smooth wall, my entire body came to rest on it. What I felt was the single greatest feeling in my entire life: it was warm. It was that moment I stopped shivering. As I stood there, it wasn't as if I absorbed the warmth from the wall; rather, it was as if the wall was absorbing me. It was that moment that my mind, body, and soul relaxed -- which is very rare for me -- and nothing else in the entire world mattered. Except, tthat is, at the same time everything in the entire world suddenly did matter. I began to cry, and I felt as though I were crying the tears of the millions of people that never made it to the spot upon which I now stood. Suddenly a wave of sorrow and sadness hit me, especially as I thought about the people in my family murdered during the Shoa and about whom I had spent so many hours researching. For a split second I felt guilt, which some of my friends later told me is all they felt. For me, the guilt turned into an intense feeling of happiness, thankfulness, and most of all, appreciation for my parents, who have always supported me in every way possible. I was not embarrassed to cry loudly as I fell upon my hands and knees. As my head spun like the world I cried on, I still somehow remained relaxed. About twenty minutes later I turned around to see Max sitting behind me. We nodded to each other in tacit understanding. I slowly stopped crying and my mind no longer spun. After fifteen minutes of unsuccessfully trying to join an Orthodox minyan, we began to leave the Kotel area to meet up with the whole group. Instead, still not entirely satisfied because I hadn't felt a lot of ruach, or spirit, I saw Elon and asked him to come with me to the Young Judea group before we had to return to the hostel. We went and found Jesse and Yoav, and even though they seemed quite somber, they both still had a smile at the corner of their mouths. As we stood there, we felt very left out. We were not part of Young Judea, and they were not singing or dancing at that moment. We turned around to see another group of young men screaming and dancing their hearts out. Again, I nodded to Elon and he nodded back in tacit understanding. They embraced us and we all joined hands. The leader of the group began leading a chant of Am Yisrael Chai!, or The Nation of Israel Lives!. As we danced around and my voice started to become hoarse, I took in the sight. Here, two-thousands years after the Romans exiled the Judeans from this land, were a group of twenty or so descendants of the exiled singing and dancing "The Nation of Israel Lives!" so passionately that I was sure most people turned around to look and appreciate it. I felt as though I was singing and dancing for the people of the last two thousand years, as well as the people of today and tomorrow. Again, I began crying. It was a mix of emotions, but mostly of zeal and triumph. The night eventually died down, as did my emotions. I do not ever remember feeling such strong emotions at once. It was truly amazing. It was that night in Jerusalem that I realized what it means to be a Jew. It isn't just a once a week religion, or even one that you go to school for; it is a way of life that can and will only be achieved in Eretz Yisrael. Can I be Jewish while living outside of Israel? I am still unset. For now, "Am Yisrael Chai, Am Yisrael Chai, Am Yisrael-Am Yisrael-Am Yisrael Chai!" /font> 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 To Go To Top

ELEVEN MORE DISSIDENT CHILDREN JAILED IN ISRAEL Posted by Women in Green, September 23, 2005.

You remember the last crop of teenaged disengagement opponents who were thrown into jail, a few weeks ago. You're about to hear about a fresh crop of arrested preteen political dissidents here in Israel, but first let's backtrack: A few of the girls arrested for several WEEKS (not days), last month, were as young as 13 and 14. They were locked into real jails, intended for adults -- really and truly. But eventually they were released, due to an outcry throughout the world about the way Sharon's Israel is treating such young dissidents. Other countries do not even treat very young criminals this way. Please help us create the same outcry today -- see below. By the way, perhaps you don't believe that young children aged 15 or 12 or 9 can think, feel and act like real, fiery dissidents. "Their parents are to blame -- they must be putting them up to it!", I can hear you thinking. But no. These dissident children's bitter opposition is definitely their own and not their parents'. Many of them come from small communities which have suffered multiple catastrophes at the hands of the Palestinians who Premier Sharon is trying to appease yet again. Take the community of Itamar, for example. In a community of about 90 families -- less than one small city street here in my town -- three fathers were shot to death by Palestinians in three separate incidents only months apart, a few years back. Next, Palestinian gunmen slipped into the community and succeeded in shooting three teenagers to death. Finally, in yet another attack on the 90 families of Itamar, some time later, more terrorists succeeded in penetrating a house. The father and some older sons were not home. By the time the terrorists were overcome, the mother and three of her younger children were dead. An incredibly brave and selfless neighbor immediately realized what had happened, and tried his best to rescue them, but he was shot to death too. Leaving yet another family of orphans in Itamar. I will never forget the newspaper picture of a neighbor lugging one of the remaining children, with difficulty, through the gun-sprayed house. The terrorists had left this child, who looked about 8 or 10 years old, with only one leg. No mother - three dead siblings - and only one leg. If this is the lasting impression that one newspaper picture of this kid left on me -- I cannot imagine, even after my two academic degrees in psychology, the effect that these events must have on the children of Itamar and other, similar communities. After all, the classmates of this crippled child see him every single day. Back to the present. This week, 11 dissident girls, aged 12 to 15, managed to visit the ruins of the erstwhile Jewish village of Sa-Nur. Last month Sharon gave orders for Sa-Nur's peaceful Jewish inhabitants to be dragged out and their homes razed, to make more room -- even more room -- for the Arab nation. Of course, the Israeli police -- too understaffed to adequately control traffic accidents, drug abuse and organized crime -- promptly arrested these girls for making this visit. Just for comparison, a delinquent boy here in Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute of Science, where I live, was recently NOT arrested by the police although the police caught him red-handed, performing a robbery and armed with a knife. He was drunk, and high on drugs, but the police released him. They did not even dream of releasing those (politically) dangerous girls who walked into Sa-Nur, but him they released right away. This released drunk delinquent boy drug-addict found a 15 year old girl to prey on, right here in Rehovot, only a couple of hours after he was released. He killed her. Not long ago I asked our Rehovot police force about that case, because I was shocked that dissidents were being arrested whereas criminals caught red-handed were not being arrested. The Rehovot policemen furiously retorted that their handling of the case had been excellent. "As soon as we heard that a girl was dead -- we came to the scene," they told me with pride. So, we need to protest the jailing of these very young dissident girls. But the story is not over. These girls were brought in a paddy wagon (wagon for transporting arrested criminals) to the court and ordered to descend and enter the courthouse. The girls refused. Obviously!! They are dissidents, so not surprisingly they do not choose to recognize any court's authority to judge a Jew for merely walking around in the Land of Israel. These 12 to 15 year old girls barred the door of the arrest wagon so that the police would not drag them out violently. The police could have asked the judge to conduct the girls' hearing in absentia. Instead they did something disgraceful, illegal and dangerous: They tried to squelch these girls by turning off the ventilator in the sealed paddy wagon -- leaving 11 girls to roast in a tiny, sealed, unventilated area in the heat of the Israeli summer. Is it necessary to explain how dangerous that is? It is unnecessary to explain it to any Israeli, policeman or otherwise. All of us Israelis remember, and certainly any Israeli policeman must remember, the headlines not long ago when a 6 year old girl from Rishon LeZion was left (accidentally) in a locked bus and rapidly suffocated to death. The policemen could easily have killed those girls. The girls could have suffocated to death or suffered brain damage. The police must have known this. And one more thing. The above incident occurred in the late afternoon. One of the things the hostile judge did manage to find out, was that the 11 girls had been given nothing -- nothing -- to eat, all that day. No lunch, no snack, no breakfast -- absolutely nothing, was given to this group of eleven girls aged 12 to 15. Can you imagine what would have happened if -- Heaven forfend -- a Palestinian had been mistreated in this way? Every "humanitarian" (sic) organization in this country would have beaten a path to the door of the High Court of Justice. But for these girls, not a single "humanitarian" organization has taken action. "What can I do?" I can hear you saying. You can do a great deal, to help us protest: * the incarceration of these young girls, * their being starved for an entire day and * the suffocation incident. Your protest could be as drafted as you please, or you could simply write: "Re: Complaint about the State of Israel's treatment of the eleven preteen girls" "I hereby protest the jailing of 11 preteen girls who did nothing except walk peacefully through their own land -- the Land of Israel. I also protest the criminal suffocation of these young girls in the "zinzana" (paddy wagon) and ask that the responsible policeman be criminally indicted for intentionally endangering the lives of 11 minors. Finally I protest the inhumane starvation of these girls for an entire day. I DEMAND THAT THE PERSONNEL WHO PERPETRATED THESE ACTS AND THEIR COMMANDING OFFICERS BE RELIEVED OF THEIR DUTIES IMMEDIATELY AND INDICTED SUBSEQUENTLY. I ASK THAT YOU RESPOND TO THIS LETTER BY PROVIDING ME ALL THE RELEVANT INFORMATION AS TO WHY THIS HAPPENED AND WHAT YOU PERSONALLY INTEND TO DO ABOUT IT. WHEN WILL THESE GIRLS BE RELEASED??? (Signed:) * Please call, or send the above letter or one of your own to your local Israeli embassy, if you live abroad. Build consciousness in your community by writing a letter to your local Jewish newspaper explaining what you wrote to the embassy and publicly urging the embassy to respond. * Please write to Dr. Yizhak Kadman, ncc@children.org.il, who runs Israel's children's rights organization. Urge him to take immediate action on behalf of these girls! Dr. Kadman does not share your political opinions and mine which is why he needs to be reminded -- by you -- to take action. * Please contact the Minister of Justice Zippy Livni (sar@moia.gov.il and the Minister of Police Gidon Ezra (sar@mops.gov.il) and ask them what is going on. Send reminders until you get answers. These two ministers are about to stand for re-election, so you may find them more responsive than usual. * And please -- keep us posted. Keep all your friends and relatives posted as well. Thank you so much for your assistance. Susie Dym, spokeperson Mattot Arim sddym@bezeqint.net an Israeli grassroots organization working toward peace for peace since 1992 P.S. Some of you have asked in the past why official complaints are not being filed for this type of event. The answer is that complaints are definitely filed, by the legal aid fund Honenu and its close associate Zchuyot Adam beYesha, but only to the extent that Honenu's fantastically dedicated volunteers and few paid attorneys can handle the torrent of events. Please therefore promote the efforts of Honenu (http://www.honenu.org.il) to expand their tiny legal staff, in any way you can. Thank you. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

ISRAELI TROOPS CRY FOR FORGIVENESS; "LAWFARE"; FLAWS IN NEWSHARON PROMISE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 23, 2005.

MUSLIMS TAKE OFFENSE AS A TACTIC OF JIHAD Britain observes a Holocaust Memorial Day. The ceremonies were boycotted by the Muslim Council of Britain, claiming to be offended by the day's not commemorating supposed Palestinian Arab victims of Israel. This view is being advocated in the committees that PM Blair established on integrating Muslims better into British society. It is this Muslim view that truly is offensive. It would endorse a false moral equivalence between Israel and the Nazis. The Muslims do not play by the rules of society. The government fails to conclude that the Muslim Council is extremist (Daniel Johnson, NY Sun, 9/15, p5). Israelis are the victims of the Arabs, seeking to perpetrate another Holocaust Muslims sidetrack any legitimate issue with their own complaints, though their complaints are in behalf of aggressors and war criminals. They may succeed in this particular case, because under political correctness, there must be political equivalency however non-equivalent and unjust. The Muslims exploit Western sensitivity of people being offended, pretending offense, in order to gain concessions. It is one of the ways by which jihadists turn naive infidels into dhimmis. Their answer to how to integrate them into British society, is to integrate British society into Islam. There is just no living together with them. As for Holocaust Remembrance Day, it would be commemorated more fittingly if it acknowledged Britain's part in the Holocaust. British appeasement enabled Germany to control more territory in which Jews lived. Britain kept word of the Holocaust quiet. It illegally barred Palestine to Jewish refugees, thereby allowing the Nazis to murder them. It did not bomb the concentration camps and railroads. It helped the Arabs make war on Israel, which harbors Holocaust survivors. ISRAELI TROOPS SEEK COMPASSION FOR THEMSELVES After having been taught that "obeying orders" was no excuse for the Nazis to expel Jews, now Israeli troops seek compassion for their own expulsion of Jews, and with the same excuse -- they were obeying orders. They still cry about it. But they acted wrongly. Members of Knesset went along with the crime. They acted wrongly, too. They accepted the orders of their authoritarian and obviously corrupt leader, himself following the orders of a US agent of the Saudis. "There is no forgiveness, as we see those driven form their homes, wandering about with no money, no homes, no jobs, no schools, no synagogues and no real assistance by a hopelessly corrupt government." After the Jews were ousted, the Arabs poured in hundreds of trained terrorists, 250 tons of explosives, anti-air missiles, hundreds of anti-tank missiles, 3,000 automatic rifles, and land mines. With Egyptian and P.A. police pretending not to see, terrorists have been working round the clock, demolishing the wall that had kept down smuggling hitherto. Now Abbas says he needs two months to close the border. This is an admission of inability (or unwillingness) to control it. In two months, the damage will have been done. The terrorists, including Hamas, have distributed the contraband into a series of incipient bases, such as what Hizbullah has along Israel's northern border. The new strategic equation is further proof of having acted wrongly. But the government expresses surprise that the Arabs broke their agreement to block the border. Since the Arabs routinely break agreements and had been breaking the one to bar arms smuggling, the government's lack of surprise indicates unfitness for office. Its abandonment rationale has collapsed (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/19). So have years of security effort at preventing smuggling (Arutz-7, 9/19). How much less safe Israel is! Why don't those crying soldiers tell Sharon "never again," or arrest him? BUSH'S PHONY DRIVE FOR MIDEAST DEMOCRACY The Bush Administration has cited the multi-candidate election in Egypt as a step towards democracy. Egyptians know otherwise. The candidates whom the dictator allowed to run in opposition to him proposed far-fetched, pie-in-the-sky, that Egyptians took in stride as a sort of carnival, to put on a show for the naive Americans (Nibras Kazimi, NY Sun, 9/14, Op-Ed.). Pres. Bush did make a notable contribution to the development of democracy in the former Soviet Union. However, he limits his efforts to free elections. There is more to democracy than that. He is letting the Arabs get away with a pretense at democratizing, so he can proclaim some success to his policies. The result would be to slow down the democratization process, if there is one. The P.A.'s authoritarian rule, terrorism, and chaos would enable a Islamist totalitarian party to win an election. Such elections do not advance the cause of democracy. Once Hamas won, there would be no next elections. Even if Hamas allowed free elections, there would not be free speech, free press, a judiciary independent of 7th century religious rules, women's rights, perhaps even the right to shave. There still would be imperialist jihad, democracy or no democracy. Democracy means protection of the rights of the minority by the ruling majority. Islam does not allow that, and the Muslim Arabs are not tolerant. US policy needs to be refined or rejected. "LAWFARE" Israel's Far Left fabricates international law to deny Israel's right to defend its citizens in the Territories, and works with NGOs to get arrest warrants issued to traveling Israeli officers. ..."the extreme Left in Israel has created a fiction which many American jurists refer to today as 'lawfare' or the exploitation of the rhetoric of international law to prosecute a political war against a state to politically deny it its legal right to defend itself." (This is like NGOs in the guise of human rights groups that ignore Arab violations of human rights and pretend that Israel violates Arab rights. Some of these groups commit crimes against Israel, but Israel rarely prosecutes them.) Attorney-General Mazuz denounces governmental actions that advance the interests of the Jewish people or of Judaism, although those actions have no legal question. He exceeds his jurisdiction, because he is conducting "lawfare" against the Jewish identity of Israel. He takes unfair advantage of the custom of deferring to the Attorney-General on legal matters. "Then there is the Supreme Court's latest outrage. Thursday, in an opinion written by President Aharon Barak, the court determined that the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) advisory opinion last summer on the legality of the security fence should be given legal weight. The fact that there is no basis whatsoever in Israeli law for giving legal weight to an advisory opinion from that politicized court of anti-Israel justices is completely unimportant (to the court). The fact that the opinion itself claimed that Israel has no right to self-defense is also irrelevant (to the politicalized court). The Supreme Court disagreed with the ICJ for some other reason, but seized the opportunity somewhat to subordinate Israeli justice to the anti-Zionist international body. The answer is to rein in the Court and the Attorney-General, before passing a law, as the Knesset is contemplating, banning lawsuits against officers who defend their people. Otherwise, the biased Attorney-General or Court would nullify the law (IMRA, 9/16 from Caroline Glick). The Supreme Court, usurping legislative and executive power, does the same as the Attorney-General, in vetoing governmental actions without any basis in law for objecting to them. It is just the Court's opinion of what it would prefer, if it were the legislature or the executive. NEW P.A. WEAPON: SHIT Foreign countries wanted to sponsor sewage treatment in Gaza, until "the conflict years." Some Gaza sewage already flows into Israel. The P.A. plans to run a pipe to bear its untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. The effluent not only would pollute Israel's beaches, but it would render unfeasible the new water desalination plant just about to go into high gear. The P.A. countered that all the Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria (which is not adjacent to the Sea) let their untreated sewage out into open areas (IMRA, 9/16). This is the argument that two wrongs make a right. I recall German offers to pay for a joint P.A.-Israel sewage treatment plant near in Judea-Samaria, but the P.A. refused, because it did not want to cooperate with Israel. P.M. SHARON GOES ALONG WITH ARABS Speaking to the UNO, Sharon said that the Palestinian Arabs are entitled to a state of their own, within the Land of Israel (IMRA, 9/17). He did not say why. Nobody has, they just assert the entitlement, as if a truism. For it to be true, these people would have to be at least a separate nationality, not already have a state, and be a deserving people. Fact is, they are not a separate nationality. They already have a state carved from the Palestine Mandate in the Land of Israel, called "Jordan," of which they constitute the vast majority. They are a bigoted, violent, imperialistic, genocidal group, most undeserving. In addition, the Jewish people has a much better claim to the area and need it for its own national viability. Finally, Islamism has put us into a world war, so that giving the Palestinian Arabs another state, and doing so at the expense of strategic borders and depth for Israel, would give the enemy a military victory and a psychological boost. FOUR WEAK POINTS IN SHARON'S LATEST PROMISE TO JEWS PM Sharon repeated to US Jewish leaders the promise he makes in Israel. He promises to link the major settlements in Judea to Jerusalem and integrate them into Israel and to retain the other major settlement blocs, meanwhile allowing more construction in them. IMRA points out two of the critical flaws in his promise. One is that he sets no deadline for any of this. Therefore, the promise need not be implemented. The other is that he defines none of the major settlements and their areas (IMRA, 9/18). Therefore, he can scale down the promise as he cedes the areas that the people inferred from his vague promise he meant to include. A third critical flaw is that Israel still is adhering to Oslo and the Road Map. The Arabs so thoroughly violated those arrangements, that Israel would be more than justified in voiding them. Both have drawbacks fatal to Sharon's promise. They gave the Arabs veto power over the results of final status negotiations. Adamant about territory, the Arabs would prevent any sincere Israeli Prime Minister from meeting a promise to his own people. In addition, the Road Map puts all questions of interpretation and implementation into the hands of the hostile Quartet. Bear in mind that the State Dept. member of the Quartet shares the views of the other members. A fourth critical flaw is that Sharon has broken his other promises to his people. He makes promises demagogically, while he maneuvers to avoid fulfillment. There is no reason to believe any new promise. Fifth, the promise to allow building is meaningless when made by someone who has just demolished buildings regardless of their cost and their historical significance. 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. To Go To Top

A LESS THAN HAPPY NEW YEAR HOLIDAY FOR ALMOST HALF OF THE COUNTRY Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, September 23, 2005.

Israel, believe it or not, is a wealthy country. However being a communist, egalitarian economy, it's wealth is only allowed to the "right people" i.e. the ruling elite. Until recently, however, those outside the privileged were at least able to make a living. That living was of course subsidized by the State welfare system and very few people outside the elite could survive without this refund of their taxes. All this in the best traditions of Lenin and Peron. Then along came Netanyahu and his "reforms." Please remind those who are so enthusiastically backing him of this. It is a truly amazing thing that a man who has brought nothing but disaster to every aspect of his public and private life can still be considered a legitimate candidate for high office. Truly amazing. This is from Arutz Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90340 (IsraelNN.com) Growing poverty and financial hardships will make the upcoming Rosh Hashanah New Year holiday less than joyous for hundreds of thousands of families across the country. According to a poll conducted by the nationwide LaTet ("To Give") organization, 40% of Israelis stated that buying the required holiday goodies will be an impossibility this year. Of the 500 people polled, this year will be significantly more difficult to get through the holiday season than last year. 48% plan to spend the holiday with family while 52% have no such plans. Of the 52%, 30% admit this is due to their current financial limitations. LaTet officials admit they are not surprised by the results of the poll, explaining they deal with the harsh realities daily, trying to feed the growing number of hungry. On this coming Tuesday, 5,000 volunteers will take part in a food-gathering effort to assist LaTet to help others before the holiday. Persons wishing to donate and/or assist may telephone 054-400-1717 or from North America, 972-54-400-1717. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

THE GUSH KATIF DOLLAR CAMPAIGN Posted by Lee Caplan, September 22, 2005.

The Gush Katif Dollar Campaign: If every Jew coming to Selichos this Sat. NIte would give $1 to Gush Katif, do the math... This is an easy one, anyone can do this, three easy steps: 1. Ask your Shul Rabbi if he is o.k. with this. Remind anyone who asks that this is not political, it is 9000 homeless Jews. 2. Take a box, add a typed sign about the Gush Katif $1 Campaign, "If every Jew in America gave $1....note that it is going to Friends of Gush Katif, and put the box at the entrance to the Sanctuary of your Shul. 3. Collect the box after Selichos, count the money, and mail a check to: Friends of Gush Katif 588 South Forest Drive Teaneck, NJ 07666 201 895 1323 This is a 501(c)(3) Of course, there is no reason why this box can't be put out each day of Selichos as well. Anyone can do this; now take this idea and please email it to all your contacts and encourage them to implement this in their cities at their Shuls. An easy mitzva right before Rosh Hashana. We know the first Selichos is this week (note: Sephardim have been saying Selichos since the beginning of Elul), but it will only take 5 minutes. "Uteshuva, utefilla, UTZEDAKAH maavirin es roah hagezeirah!" Wishing all of Klal Yisroel a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year. Kesiva vachasima tova! Mindy and Lee Caplan Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

A YOUNG GAZA PROTESTOR FACES MANY YEARS IN PRISON Posted by Arutz-7, September 22, 2005.

[Editor's note: This is Israel's very own Dreyfus case: The Government knew from the getgo that Cytryn was victim, not attacker. Yet they continue to bring charges against him. Type "Shimshon Cytryn" in the Search Box at the top of Think-Isreal's home page and get more of the details from the July and August Blog-Ed pages.] Now one of these young protestors needs your help. On July 28, 2005, Arab terrorists attacked Jewish residents and protestors in Gush Katif with rocks. Several Jews were struck and badly wounded by the rock throwing. Their friends attempted to fight back and apprehend the Arab attackers. By the time time IDFsoldiers arrived on the scene to restore security, the Jews had managed to detain several of the Arab terrorists and were demanding that the soldiers place them under arrest. Instead, the IDF soldiers decided to simply separate the two groups and allow the Arab rock throwers to escape. One witness said that in the course of the incident, ''about 30 Arabs came out and started pounding everything in sight with rocks. It was a terrible disgrace for the IDF... The soldiers were simply unable to protect themselves from this onslaught, even though the Arabs were pounding the jeeps and everything.'' Shimshon Cytryn (right), 18 years old, stands accused of attempted murder of an Arab terrorist Israeli television stations showed footage of an Arab - Halil Majeida - lying on the ground and then two Jewish boys running towards him and throwing rocks at him. It is alleged that one of these boys is Shimshon Cytryn, an 18-year-old yeshiva student - and the State has accused him of attempted murder. But, according to an eye-witness, "That's not the story! I saw this same Arab get hit in the head with a rock - and yet he continued to throw rocks, like a tiger, for the next 15 minutes! And then I saw some reporters go over to him and tell him to lie down and act as if he was unconscious. Later on, he was taken out walking on his own, holding on to a soldier; all this talk of his being mortally wounded is total nonsense." Majeida is the one who Shimshon Cytryn is being accused of attempting to murder! Yet not only was he among the most actively involved in attacking the Jews, and not only was he seen several hours afterwards "standing and laughing with his friends," according to at least one report - but he even later admitted that his injuries were caused not by rocks but by a soldier's gun butt! Television crews captured the Arab rock attack against the Jewish residents on film, as well as the efforts of the residents to fight back. But naturally, the media broadcasted only the portions of their tape that depicted the Jews defending themselves, making it seem as if their fighting was unprovoked by the Arab rock throwing. Based on the footage, the reporters and leftist politicians were quick to label the retaliation against the Arabs, including Shimshon's actions, as an attempted ''lynching.'' Over and over again they screened the footage, and over and over again they called it a ''lynching.'' They thus heatedly incited and pumped up political tensions, while splashing photos of the incident across the front page of every newspaper in the country. Jewish girl receives medical treatment after being injured in the Arab rock attack. By the time the police arrested Shimshon, the media had already labeled him as a violent criminal who acted out of hatred against the Arabs. There was no mention of the Arab rock attacks that had preceded the Jewish acts of retaliation; there was barely a mention of the tense moments when the Jews were under heavy attack. Shortly after Shimshon's arrest, the truth of the matter started to be brought to light. It was revealed that Majeida was no innocent bystander, but rather he was an active participant in the rock-throwing attack on Jewish residents. Photos of Majeida hurling stones at innocent Jews were published on the internet. Even the left-of-center daily newspaper Ha'aretz realized its initial mistake and grudgingly published a retraction: ''Contrary to initial reports, Majeida was not seriously or critically wounded, but sustained only light injuries. He was sent home after receiving treatment, and even gave interviews to a number of media outlets a few days after the lynching attempt. In the interviews, Majeida said that most of the injuries he sustained were caused by Israel Defense Forces soldiers prior to the lynching attempt. Majeida also declared his desire to be a shaheed (suicide martyr).'' Yet the Israeli State Attorney's Office is pushing on with its prosecution of Shimshon for attempted murder. For months, the Israeli police and leftist media had been predicting that Jewish settlers would use violence against other Jews. As the hour of the IDF's evacuation operation drew near, the Israeli radio and television carried hourly updates on the civil war that they fantasized would break out at any moment during the protests against the Gaza Evacuation. In fact, however, the settlers and protesters reacted with the utmost of discipline and restraint. Yes, they engaged in civil disobedience against the forced eviction of thousands of Jews from their homes and land, but there initiated no violence. Thus, they proved that those inciting against the settlement movement were once again spreading baseless blood libels against Israel's nationalist religious camp. It is clear that the State's Attorney's Office and the leftist Israeli media have now decided to make Shimshon into a scapegoat to perpetuate the myth of the violence of the settlement movement. They are setting him up to take the fall for all the predicted bloodshed and civil strife during the Gaza evacuation that, to their frustration, never materialized. As such, Shimshon has now been charged with attempted murder -- a crime carrying a punishment of many long years in prison. Jewish resident of Gush Katif badly injured by Arab rock throwers We must not allow him to be convicted. We must confront this miscarriage of justice. Shimshon cannot be punished for a crime against the Arab rock-throwers that he did not commit. He cannot be made into a public scapegoat for Sharon's failed political policies and the Left's frustrations. The costs involved of defending Shimshon at trial and proving his innocence, however, are enormous. Top criminal lawyers, investigators and forensic experts do not come cheap. Moreover, the Israeli State's Attorneys office, with its unlimited financial resources, will stop at nothing to win a conviction and send this teenager to prison for many long years. A legal defense fund has been established to financially assist the Cytryn Family in proving Shimshon's innocence. Your help is desperately needed. We are asking you to please make a pre-Rosh Hashana donation for Shimshon's legal defense and fulfill the mitzvah of redeeming this Jewish captive. All donations to the Cytryn Family defense fund in the U.S. are tax deductible: To donate in the United States, make checks payable to: Central Fund of Israel and mail them to: Cytryn 2350 Ridge Drive Apt. 118 St. Louis Park, MN 55416 To donate in Israel, Canada and Europe, make checks payable to: Cytryn Legal Defense and mail to: Cytryn Family Yishuv Nachliel Doar Na Modiin Israel 71938 Those wishing to make a direct deposit in shekels, may do so. Bank Discount - Main Branch Branch 160 - Ben Yehuda, Jerusalem Accout of HaCohen Cytryn Account # 921157 Now is your chance to repay the Cytryn Family and the other protestors who risked their own safety and freedom, by assisting in Shimshon's legal defense. Send your donation today! ''For the mitzvah to ransom captives takes precedence over supporting and clothing the poor. Indeed, no commandment, be it ever so important, can compare with it.'' (Rambam Mishna Torah, Zeraim) Contact the Cytryn Family by email: amcytryn@netvision.net.il Arutz-7 can be read at its website: www.IsraelNationalNews.com or sign up and receive a daily email on the news from Israel. To Go To Top

SINKING THE ISRAELI AIRCRAFT CARRIER Posted by IsrAlert, September 22, 2005.

This article was written by Emanuel A Winston, commentator and Middle East analyst. Israel was once considered a virtual aircraft carrier in the Sands of the Middle East. It had great value to America which is why the Arab world worked so hard to separate Israel from America. It is no secret that oil plays a dominant role in what America feels it must ask of the Jewish State. These requests a.k.a. demands further empower the Arabs, particularly the Terrorists embodied in the Muslim Palestinians. As the Palestinians gain power by acquiring territory, the Aircraft Carrier of Israel begins to shrink in direct proportion. When Gaza/Gush Katif and the four North Samarian communities were abandoned, Sharon was suddenly a wunderkind to the U.N., the U.S. State Department and the E.U., all of whom disliked Sharon and probably still do. But, he performed as asked, despite the dangers of shrinking Israel's critical mass. Although the World Media mentioned the breach in the Sinai-Gaza border after the 'Disengagement', it was quickly forgotten. Israeli Intelligence estimated that the weapons that flowed into Gaza would have taken a solid year of smuggling by tunnels. A mass transfer of high grade weapons moved through the breach in a matter of days and into the hands of Hamas and other Terrorist groups. This "transfer" was predicted by Israel's General Staff and Intelligence before the evacuation of Gaza/Gush Katif. Israel has played a remarkable role in supporting America both militarily and politically. Some may have forgotten that Gen. George Keegan, Head of America's Air Force Intelligence once stated that Israel was worth 5 CIAs based upon the Intelligence Israel provided her ally and benefactor, the United States. When Saddam invaded Kuwait, it was Israel who provided on-ground Intelligence to the U.S. which proved invaluable. Gen. Dugan, who was in charge of operations during the First Gulf War, made the mistake of publically thanking Israel for her assistance during an interview and was promptly fired. Israel raised an Air Umbrella for incoming U.S. Aircraft ferrying supplies, weapons and all the stuff that was needed for eventually attacking Saddam. It was Israel who put teams in the Iraqi desert to pick up any American airmen shot down. (We all know what happened to those captured by Iraqis.) Israel proved her value as an Aircraft Carrier which protected American interests. But, Israel has allowed herself to be shrunk and, in doing so, has become a less valuable asset as an ally to be relied upon. Instead, the balance scales had Arab Muslim oil on one side and Israel's value as an ally and a democracy on the other. Guess which had greater value to the Arabists at State? Regrettably, there is certain short-sightedness in Washington which will allow, even push, Israel into a diminished role. When the U.S. will need Israel, she will not have the capability to respond to the call. Presently, the plan is to rely on Egypt to occupy Saudi Arabia as a protector - something like when Syria occupied Lebanon with no intention of leaving. The problem is that Egypt is moving toward an Islamic basis which will have no loyalty to America. When President Hosni Mubarak leaves office, the Muslim Brotherhood will make every attempt to take control. Keep in mind that Egypt has been gifted $60 Billion of American taxpayers' dollars in the most advanced aircraft, armor, missiles in U.S. inventory - plus the opportunity to train with America's top units in semi-annual war games. An Islamic Egypt will be the military colossus of the Middle East and an extraordinary threat to Israel and American interests. Israel could have played a vital role both for herself and America. But, having been whittled down to a micro-state, she will barely be able to take care of herself and her people. Be assured that the "Whittlers" (those who whittled Israel down to an indefensible State) will not be able to come to the rescue when called upon to do so. 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 To Go To Top

DIPLOMATIC HYPOCRISY - FUNDING PALESTINIAN TERRORISM Posted by Avodah 15, September 22, 2005.

Diplomatic Hypocrisy - Diana West ( Washington Times ) http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050915-090300-7313r.htm Maybe it was that last $50 million that George W. Bush forked over to the Palestinian Authority in May that made the Gaza transfer so... What was Condoleezza Rice's word for the lawless Palestinian stampede of looting and desecration that erupted after the Israeli withdrawal? "Successful." Israeli-Palestinian coordination on this territorial handover was so very... How did Miss Rice describe the dynamic that led to the flags of jihad terrorism being hoisted into a sky darkened by burning synagogues? "Effective." Since the Oslo "peace process" began in 1993, Palestinians have received more than $1.5 billion from the U.S. - more aid, as the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out, than from any other single country. The Atlantic Monthly 's David Samuel tallied up post-Oslo PA aid at $7 billion. This year the U.S. will double last year's $275 million PA aid package, paying out $550 million. In July, the Group of 8 countries couldn't pile up money for the PA fast enough, agreeing by 2008 to present its government - which by then could very well include landslide-elected terrorists from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, whatever - with $9 billion. Have we paid for a "peace process" or have we financed holy war (jihad)? Have we just helped create a terrorist state? See also Funding Palestinian Terror - Rachel Ehrenfeld and Paul Vallely ( Washington Times ) http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050920-100501-4682r.htm The U.S. government has exempted itself - and gone against its established policy on terror, again - from requirements to stop terror financing by giving $50 million to the Palestinian Authority, which continues to incite and support terrorism and provide sanctuary for known and established terrorist organizations. In June 2003, the U.S. Agency for International Development demanded that all U.S. tax-exempt organizations partnering with Palestinian NGOs obtain from the Palestinians an antiterrorism certification which, among other things, guarantees that: "The Recipient has not provided, and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that it does not and will not knowingly provide material support or resources to any individual or entity that commits, attempts to commit, advocates, facilitates, or participates in terrorist acts, or has committed, attempted to commit, facilitated, or participated in terrorist acts." The U.S. government has exempted itself from these requirements by ignoring the PA's continuing violations of the agreements they signed to stop terror activities and incitement for terrorism, as demonstrated by PA Minister for Civil Affairs Muhammad Dahlan's Aug. 13 statement in the midst of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. Dahlan stated, "This is a day for the people, so it can celebrate in honor of the sacrifice of the shahids [martyrs]." The PA also funds incitement against the U.S., calling for attacks against American soldiers in Iraq. Contact the author at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

FRIENDS OF GUSH KATIF IS MORE NEEDED THAN EVER! Posted by Ken Heller, September 22, 2005.

[Editor's note: Sharon's government pretends it has taken care of the Gazan refugees. It has not. Most of the people who were kicked out of their homes and property were left to fend for themselves. Sure, promises were made about new permanent housing. But this didn't materialize. And you can't feed your kids on what may happen sometime in the indefinite future. See Ruth Matar's article, just below this one.] I probably have asked you before to contribute to this fund which was to give support to the good Jews of Gush Katif. Despite the community was torn down by "Arik the Evil", I want you to know that the fund is very much in need of a fresh infusion of cash to help the recently homeless and jobless. Dror Vanunu, though he is one of those who was kicked out of his home in Neve Dekalim, is still in control of the fund. BECAUSE OF THIS UNPRECEDENTED EMERGENCY I AM ONCE AGAIN ASKING FOR YOU TO PLEASE SEND WHAT YOU CAN TODAY TO HELP OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN. Remember, "Friends of Gush Katif" is a 501 (c)(3) organization and hence contributions made to it are tax deductible. PLEASE BE AS GENEROUS AS YOU CAN, THOUGH, QUITE FRANKLY, ANY CONTRIBUTION WOULD BE A BIG HELP! The sooner the contribution is made the sooner our people will be able to benefit. Make your check out to: "Friends of Gush Katif" and mail to: Ken Heller, 11213 Jeanes Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19116 or to: AMERICANS FOR A SAFE ISRAEL 1623 Third Avenue, Suite 205 New York, New York 10128 Attn: Helen Freedman THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Ken Heller AMERICANS FOR A SAFE ISRAEL Philadelphia Ken Heller is a pro-Israel activist and a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans For A Safe Israel. He can be reached at kayjayphilly@yahoo.com To Go To Top

HOW ISRAEL REGAINED THE WORLD'S SYMPATHY Posted by Ruth Matar, September 22, 2005.

Dear Friends, Ephraim Kishon, who passed away recently, was a very talented Hungarian born journalist and writer, who for many years wrote a satirical column in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, he published a book of essays entitled "SO SORRY WE WON". One of these essays was an almost prophetic satirical piece, "HOW ISRAEL REGAINED THE WORLD'S SYMPATHY". * * * A short summary of his article: Ephraim Kishon describes a hypothetical situation in which Egypt, led by Gamal Abdul Nasser, together with Syria and Jordan, in May of 1956, invades Israel. Israel is caught by surprise and thoroughly defeated. The surviving 82,636 Jews, in all, huddled in refugee camps set up by the UN on the coast of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The United States hastily passed a law permitting 25,000 refugees to come in outside the quota. Switzerland offered free passage for 2000 refugees. Guatemala announced it was raising its offer to accept refugees from 500 to 750. UNESCO voted to give a grant of $200,000. The Brazilian Parliament devoted one minute of silence to the memory of the State of Israel. Japan and South Korea sent emergency medical supplies. Many countries changed the name of a major thoroughfare to "Israel Boulevard". The United Nations decided to leave Israel's seat as is, though unoccupied, and not to take down the Israeli flag. Last but not least, the Soviet Union which had provided the Arab nations with the weapons they used to defeat Israel, unexpectedly suggested the declaration of a universal "Israel Day". Ephraim Kishon closes the article with a remark that, alas, this did not happen. Israel attacked first and won the war and that is how she lost the sympathy of the world. * * * Israel's current situation is very much like Kishon's satire. Because of the Saudi sponsored Road Map which was adopted by the Quartet, the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States, Israel has been pressured to surrender its own land given to the Jews by the G-d of Israel as an everlasting inheritance. The Sharon Government, unfortunately, has caved into this pressure, and forcibly expelled its own Jewish citizens from their homes and their land. Because of the crime of "disengagement", Israel has now supposedly regained the sympathy of the world. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon was recently in New York, where he basked in a most enthusiastic reception at the United Nations. He met with a long list of world leaders, who literally stood in line to shake his hand, applauding him for his "courage" to expel his own Jewish citizens from their homes, "in the interest of world peace". Thus, during the General Assembly of the United Nations, Sharon met with leaders of Russia, Great Britain, Turkey, Jordan, Canada, Australia, the European Union and UN General Secretary, Kofi Anan. According to a source in Sharon's entourage, even American President George W. Bush asked to meet with Sharon to express his admiration for the way in which the disengagement was carried out, and for the way Sharon lived up to his commitments. The Israeli newspapers enthused about the fact that the timing of the General Assembly was ideal, coming during the week in which Israel completed the withdrawal from the Gaza strip, and international support for Israel was at its peek. Sharon jubilantly emphasized that because he carried out his promises of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, very positive results had been achieved. Now let us finally face reality and consider the bitter price which Israel is paying for the World's regained sympathy. The perusal of today's (September 25) Jerusalem Post gives us an entirely different and very gloomy picture of Israel vis-a-vis the world. These are some of the headlines: PA REJECTS QUARTET'S CALL TO DISMANTLE MILITIAS UK ACADEMIC BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN TO RESURFACE SOON SHIN BET CHIEF: TERROR MOVING TO THE WEST BANK Shin Bet (Secret Service) Chief Uval Diskin, truthfully described the situation as it is. Yesterday (Wednesday) he conducted a rare on-the-record briefing with military reporters. "The Palestinian authority is barely functioning," Diskin said at his headquarters in Ramat Aviv. "Abas has no apparatus to control Fatah. He is a general without soldiers. Giving him more weapons won't give Fatah strength." Diskin also said that the Palestinians are making enormous efforts to acquire rockets and other weapons in the West Bank, smuggling them in from Sinai. Diskin said that Hamas and other terrorist groups had taken advantage of the euphoric chaos after the IDF abandoned the Philadelphi Corridor, to smuggle in huge amounts of weapons and arms, as well as to return fugitives wanted for organizing terrorist attacks. According to Shin Bet data, 300 rifles, 1.5 million bullets, 150-200 rocket propelled grenades, and hundreds of kilograms of explosives, have been smuggled in so far. Diskin said he could not positively confirm reports that shoulder fired Strella and Stinger missiles or advanced anti tank rockets were also smuggled into the Gaza strip. In contrast to other top officials, the head of the Shin Bet, Uval Diskin, spoke sympathetically of the opponents of the disengagement, which he called "the uprooting" of Jewish Settlements. He said he felt uncomfortable with the media's reporting of the six-day disengagement as if it were a victory like the Six-Day War. "Don't dismiss or distance this group of loyal Israeli citizens. They contribute to the IDF and to the intelligence of the state." But to "dismiss and distance this group of loyal Israeli citizens" is exactly what the Sharon Government is trying to do. What has happened to these more than 1,700 families - more than 9,000 men, women and children? They were forced to give up their homes and communities, but all the government has given them is promises, which have not been honored. One of the main demands of the displaced refugees was that they needed to stay together as a community. A community where their children would continue to be educated together with their friends, a community which would include the necessities for a Jewish life, such as a synagogue, a mikvah, schools, and yeshivot. Instead of keeping communities together, the government, for its own reasons, deliberately scattered these Jewish communities all over the country in hotel rooms, dormitories and caravans. Since the expulsion, almost a month ago, whole families are cramped into one hotel room. Soon they will have to start paying for these rooms. They have not, as yet, received a penny from the government. The government is supposed to assist the refugees in finding jobs. The only job placement office the government has so far opened up is in Ashkelon. However, the unemployment rate in Ashkelon was already over sixteen percent. Many refugees are elderly, and it will be difficult for them to retrain for different jobs. No chance for these refugees to find a job under those circumstances! Now for the most unbelievable propaganda disseminated by the Sharon Government! This is allegedly done with the help of a well-paid public relations agency in New York. The lies they spread is that every refugee family will receive half a million dollars for their home in Gush Katif, even if it was just a shack in the sand dunes. Unfortunately many Americans actually believe these fantastic stories. Returning from the United States recently, I met an American tourist from Florida on the airplane, who asked me the usual question: "How do you like living in Israel?" My answer obviously disappointed her. I told her that I used to love it but that right now I did not feel happy about what was happening here, particularly Sharon's "disengagement plan". "But why?" she said. "Each family is getting half a million dollars for their house. I would not mind getting that for my house in Florida." This information is unadulterated propaganda! Most refugees have not received a penny as yet from the government. They do not even have money for basic necessities such as food and clothing, school supplies and bus fares, etc. To meet such needs should, of course, be the government's responsibility. But private organizations such as Women in Green have had to step in. A campaign aptly named "Operation Band-Aid" tries to provide each refugee family with the most basic needs. (If you are able to help, send a contribution to Women in Green and specify that it is for "Operation Band-Aid".) The most incredible highway robbery on the part of the government is that they will deduct from the sum of the compensation, THE SUM OF THE MORTGAGES MANY EVACUEES STILL HAVE TO PAY ON THE HOMES THAT THE GOVERNMENT DESTROYED. They will also have to cover the cost of the movers, the containers, the storage rentals, the cost of the hotels, the temporary housing etc. The Knesset Finance Committee was asked by the Sharon Government to approve an additional NIS 1.5 billion to compensate the evacuees, because the government has already spent the entire NIS 2 billion allocated for the pullout from Gaza and the Samaria communities. "More than NIS 100 million of the original budget was 'missing\, with the government unsure of how it was spent," committee spokesperson, Zvi Rosen, told the Jerusalem Post. (September 20, 2005, article entitled "KNESSET PANEL: WE DON'T KNOW WHERE THE PULLOUT MONEY WENT" The Knesset Finance Committee would like to know where the money went. The refugees from Gush Katif and Samaria would also like to know. The rest of us should insist on knowing in whose pockets those 100 million shekels ended up? Sharon's term in office has been riddled with corruption. Recent headlines in the Jerusalem Post point this out. The Jerusalem Post recently featured the following headlines: AUSTRIAN PROSECUTOR ALMOST CERTAIN SHARON TOOK BRIBE SHARON IMPLICATED IN ANOTHER CAMPAIGN FUNDING SCANDAL KNESSET PANEL TO PROBE KERN AFFAIR Thirty days have passed since Gush Katif was emptied of its Jewish residents. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is already planning more expulsions of Jews. In a televised interview with Channel 10, Sharon made clear that he plans to uproot additional Jewish communities in the future. "Not all the settlements presently in Judea and Samaria will remain there," he said, adding that, "the final map will be presented only at the last stage of negotiations." Sharon has often reiterated: "The Palestinians deserve a state." Our number-one priority at this stage should be to remove Sharon from power. It is critical that he be punished for the Gaza sellout, so that other politicians will see that there is a heavy price to be paid, in terms of their own careers, for committing the crime of expelling fellow Jews from their homes. We must bring down the government in such a way that Sharon understands that his crimes against the Jewish people led directly to his downfall. Tragically, we lost that battle for Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. We must, therefore, ceaselessly continue to fight the Orange War against our "enemies from within". Even though we lost the first battle, we will, with G-d's help, win the War against those who would sell our Jewish destiny for "twenty pieces of silver", just as Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites. (Genesis, chapter 37 verses 27, 28) With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

SERMONS FROM ABANDONED GAZA: WE CAN LIBERATE PALESTINE FROM THE SEA TO THE RIVER JORDAN Posted by Avodah 15, September 22, 2005.

The following are excerpts from Hamas Friday sermons and military parades in abandoned Israeli settlements in Gaza. The footage aired on Al-Jazeera TV on September 16, 2005. To view this clip visit: http://memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=858. These were translated by MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute of Washington, DC. Contact them by email at memri@memri.org or go to their website: www.memri.org The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request. We Do Not Distinguish Between 1940s and 1960s Lines Sheikh Nazzar Rayan: "The vanquishing of the enemy in Gaza does not mean that this stage has ended. We still have Jerusalem and the pure West Bank. We will not rest until we liberate all our land, all our Palestine. We do not distinguish between what was occupied in the 1940s and what was occupied in the 1960s. Our Jihad continues, and we still have a long way to go. We will continue until the very last usurper is driven out of our land." [...] Speaker: "If the Palestinian Authority is weakened by the pressures, and tries, or even makes a decision to, collect the weapons, we will reject this decision, and we have the actual capabilities to reject it. We will not turn in these weapons - we have, after Allah, these weapons to thank for being where we are today, having liberated this place in honor and dignity. On the contrary, we say that these weapons will grow in strength. We will improve our ability to manufacture and buy weapons in order to continue the liberation. We stand at the gates of Hirbiya, Barbara, and Ashkelon, which we aspire to liberate. The liberation can progress only with these weapons and their improvement. So we say that, on the contrary... Oh you who bear arms but refrain from using them for liberating [our land], we call upon you to join us in the liberation effort. On the contrary - it is you who should give your weapons to us, so that we can use them honorably." [...] The Joy of the Martyr's Mother Speaker: "It will be written in history that the Palestinian people knew its way, and knew for certain that this enemy understands only one language - the language of blood, the language of sacrifice, the language of martyrdom. This enemy has never fought a real battle throughout its history. It met [Arab] armies that were submissive, weak, and defeatist. It faced [Arab] leaders who were collaborators, cowards, and traitors. But then, when it faced a different kind of group - when it faced people who compete with one another for martyrdom, people who encourage their sons to die... A mother readies her son, and then receives the news of his martyrdom with cries of joy. A father receives the news of his son's martyrdom with pride and honor. Our women push our children [towards martyrdom], in a way that has confused the occupation. Gaza is Like Tel Aviv Hamas Spokesman Mushir Al-Masri: "We stand here on our liberated land, near the armistice borders. We remember when Sharon said that Netzarim is like Tel Aviv. Hamas has said, via the lion of Palestine [Rantisi], that Gaza is like Tel Aviv. The promise that has been fulfilled and will be fulfilled in the future, oh Sharon, is the promise of Allah, and the promise of Hamas. Behold, Palestine is being liberated, Allah willing." "We Can Liberate All of Palestine - From the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River" Al-Masri: "We have come here in multitudes to proclaim that Hirbiya and Ashkelon will be taken by the mujahideen. We have come here to say that the weapons of the resistance that you see here will remain, Allah willing, so that we can liberate Palestine - all of Palestine - from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, whether they like it or not." [...] Speaker: "What is your goal?" Crowd: "Allah." Speaker: "What is your goal?" Crowd: "Allah." Speaker: "Who is your leader?" Crowd: "The Prophet Muhammad." Speaker: "Who is your leader?" Crowd: "The Prophet Muhammad." Speaker: "What is your constitution?" Crowd: "The Koran." Speaker: "What is your constitution?" Crowd: "The Koran." Speaker: "What is your path?" Crowd: "Jihad." Speaker: "What is your path?" Crowd: "Jihad." Speaker: "What is your greatest desire?" Crowd: "Death for the sake of Allah." Speaker: "What is your greatest desire?" Crowd: "Death for the sake of Allah." Speaker: "What is your greatest desire?" Crowd: "Death for the sake of Allah." Speaker: "What is your movement?" Crowd: "Hamas." Speaker: "What is your movement?" Crowd: "Hamas." Speaker: "Oh multitudes, which are your brigades?" Crowd: "Al-Qassam." Speaker: "Oh multitudes, what is your army?" Crowd: "Al-Qassam." Speaker: "What is your army?" Crowd: "Al-Qassam." Speaker: "With the blessings of Allah, our land will be liberated, and we will walk in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jaffa." [...] Speaker: "I hope you will not listen to those who tremble in fear, to those who have disappointed [you], whom we have not heard in five years, to those who did not fire a single bullet, to those whose business and profits were not affected, to those who sent their children to universities in Europe, far from the heat of battle." Contact the author at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

BREAKTHROUGH, BREAK OUT & BREAKDOWN; ISRAEL NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY; EGYPT IN GAZA Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 22, 2005.

BREAKING OUT OF THE JEWISH NEUROSIS Appeasement of gentiles is a neurosis that afflicts many of my fellow Jews. Usually, they don't realize they are in thrall to it. Recently, however, some broke out of their fever. Some leading figures in Likud threw ice on the heated, global congratulations for PM Sharon for taking the "courageous" step of abandoning Gaza, which he called "painful," though the pain was felt by the people whom his police beat up as a means of political intimidation. These Likud officials pointed out that when gentiles congratulate a Jewish leader, it usually is for caving in to anti-Jewish demands. So it is with diplomats shaking Sharon's hand at the UNO. WHAT THEY MEAN BY A "BREAKTHROUGH" Now and then, reports excitedly report a "breakthrough" in negotiations between Israel and some Arabs. To American ears, it sounds as if something were resolved. With the Arabs, however, Israel can resolve nothing, because all the issues between them are details in the Arabs' ultimate goal of conquering and destroying Israel and perhaps all the Jews in it. What "breakthrough" really means is Israel giving in to some unjustified Arab demand. In negotiating with the Arabs, the Arabs either are adamant, or they accept half a loaf now, and immediately after eating that half, they say they still are hungry, and re-open negotiations. Since they usually fail to keep their end of the bargain, what they had promised remains unfulfilled. They promise it again, in return for the other half loaf. Observers proclaim the new deal with the same enthusiasm that they had proclaimed the violated one. There is another factor here. That is the world's hatred of Jews and sycophancy towards Arabs. Viewing the negotiations one-sidedly, the world considers it progress as Israel moves towards the Arab negotiating position. The world will get its comeuppance for this. Each victory over Israel gives the Arabs more confidence in jihad against the rest of the world. The world's time will come. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for thee, you non-Arab antisemites. The Soviets used to violate their agreements much more than did the US, but the US was too embarrassed to point this out. It was embarrassed that the prior agreements, touted as having solved some arms race, did not work out. US officials don't like to be shown as fools. Unfortunately, their public fails to learn to be skeptical of foreign negotiations and contracts. SHARON'S ETHICAL BREAKDOWN PM Sharon told the UNO and anyone else who would listen that having decided to abandon territory, difficult as it was, he went through with it. When he was making the decision, his supporters claimed that most Israelis supported the decision. He is proud about having kept his word, but if he thought he was mostly supported, how did he find the decision so difficult? The corrupt man's pride in keeping his word is odd. Most of his actions and statements involved not keeping his word. He gave his word to abide by a Likud leadership referendum on the plan, but when the vote was negative, he went back on his word. Then he gave his word to abide by a Likud membership referendum on the plan. When that vote was negative, too, he ignored it and his word. He lured and lulled opponents with enticements to make them think that they could stop the plan, such as that he would call for a separate vote for abandoning every several communities, but he did not. His word to them means nothing. He takes pride in keeping his word to the US enemies of Israel. That is not something for a Prime Minister of Israel to take pride in. Now beware, Sharon has assured Israelis that he is going to connect Jerusalem to some big Jewish communities in Judea and annex them to Israel. WHAT IS EGYPT STRIVING FOR, IN GAZA? Some people suggested that Egypt would guard the border at Gaza faithfully, because it does not want terrorism near its own country. Others suggested that Egypt wants a war of attrition against Israel. So far, the latter suggestion is holding, as Egypt lets arms flow into Gaza freely (Arutz-7, 9/14). Don't worry about arms smuggling, said an Egyptian official, there are enough arms in Gaza already (IMRA, 9/14) thanks to Egyptian complicity with smugglers. Thanks, but no thanks! The evidence always was for the latter theory, not for the former. The former is supposition. The latter is based on history. Egypt used to let the Arabs of Gaza have no other employment than as terrorists who raided Israel. Egypt continues to lead the diplomatic offensive against Israel, and encouraged Arafat against agreeing to final terms of peace with Israel. (The Arabs did sign a renunciation of war, in the interim agreements, but made war anyway.) If Egypt did not want terrorists to operate in Gaza, it easily would have stopped their arms smuggling from Egypt. Sharon was more than foolish in abandoning border patrol as well as the territory of Gaza. He was degrading national security in order to appease the US and the leftist prosecutors. EXPECT A P.A. POLICE CRACKDOWN ON CHAOS? "...the same PA policemen who are meant to enforce the law were spotted looting, setting fire to synagogues and joining in the massive destruction of buildings in the settlements" (IMRA, 9/14). THE SECULARIST ZIONIST PLOT Emanuel Winston has believed that the secularist Jews plotted long ago to keep Israel out of Judaism's hands, and eventually Judaism out of Israel. He makes some persuasive arguments. First, the leftists in charge of immigration and who arranged for some rescue of European Jewry selected secularists. Second, they placated the religious parties with some concessions on religious matters, but gave the Arabs the vote, to balance them off. Third, they kept giving the Arabs what was important to Judaism, such as control over the Temple Mount (and let them destroy the Jewish artifacts on it) and access to the Cave of the Patriarchs and control over Joseph's Tomb. Fourth, historical territory that held other holy places were placed under Arab control and left to be destroyed by them. Fifth, several Prime Ministers tried to give away eastern Jerusalem, including the Mount of Olives, the historical Jewish burial site, but were thwarted. Sixth, Sharon has now abandoned Gaza and northern Samaria and let the Arabs burn down the synagogues (and proclaim the triumph of their religion, not the triumph of peace). Mr. Winston believes that Sharon & Peres plan to give up the rest of Judea-Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, with the help of foreign troops. When the Arabs attack and Israel retaliates, the UN would call for foreign intervention, and Bush would support it. Arab armies would enter the Arab cities of Judea-Samaria (in a reprise of 1948 and to undo the results of the 1948 war). Collusion in this by Sharon and Peres would be high treason (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/14). One might say that the Left brought in secularist Jews to vote for their parties and because they don't think much of religious Jews. Originally, there weren't many Arabs to balance the religious vote. But the government let in many more Arabs and Christians! Don't under-estimate the lack of loyalty of the secularist leaders and their hatred for genuine, i.e., observant Jews! But shouldn't Muslims have some access to the Caves of the Patriarch? ISRAEL NO LONGER TAKEN SERIOUSLY Its bluff having been called by the Arabs, Israel admits it won't retaliate much against terrorism from Gaza, but it still threatens to strike back hard, while the rest of the world says not to. The P.A. admits that arms and drugs are being smuggled in, and that it is confiscating the drugs but not the arms. Egypt tells Israel not to worry, the Gaza Arabs have enough arms already. The security arrangements Israel made with the Arabs have been abandoned by them, but the world praises Israel for having taken a bold step. (Towards what? It doesn't say. It is towards the dissolution of Israel.) Sharon is going to the UN to be lionized for his jackal's role in abandoning strategic territory. Sharon indicated his own unconcern for national security when he put Peres in charge of further security negotiations with the Arabs. Peres made the insecure arrangements called "Oslo," in the first place. He trusts the Arabs no matter how much they violate that trust. The P.A. indicates that it is making its arrangements with Egypt now, paying no attention to Israel. Israel no longer is taken seriously. Everyone is laughing at Israel, but the Jews hear the phony praise and not the snickers. It is unwise for Israel to bleed around those sharks (IMRA, 9/15). By the way, what happens to the drugs that the P.A. confiscates? TERRORISTS MAY BE SMUGGLED INTO GAZA, TOO Gaza terrorists have systematically been exploiting the breach in the border, to smuggle in arms. Israel is concerned that al-Qaida terrorists may sneak into Gaza, too, now that Israel, in Sharon's infinite acquiescence, is not guarding the entrance from Israel. Egypt does want to eliminate al-Qaida terrorists from the Sinai (because they attack Egypt, too). Trackers recently caught 20 Arabs who infiltrated into Israel from Gaza and perhaps beyond. No longer fearing arrest by Israeli forces in Gaza, because there are no Israeli forces in Gaza, terrorists have emerged from hiding. Some dashed into the Sinai, perhaps to head south, where Israel has no security fence. Israeli intelligence is not yet sure whether the P.A. Arabs "...have brought weapons into Gaza that would alter the current balance, such as relatively long-range anti-aircraft missiles and Katyusha rockets. Such missiles could diminish the control of IDF planes and drones over Gaza's air space, and Katyushas would bring more Israeli towns in the northern and western Negev within range of rocket fire." (IMRA, 9/15.) How Sharon has degraded Israeli security! Why didn't Israel try a dry run with the Arabs guarding the border, to ascertain whether they were ready? Why didn't Israel foresee some of these risks? Israeli intelligence probably did. It kept warning PM Sharon that the changes he proposed would ramp up terrorism. He told them to shut up. Somebody should have shut him up, before he shuts Israel down. ARE U.S. ASSUMPTIONS VALID? Pres. Bush assumes that Muslims don't know how nice the US is. He has assigned an aide to establish better relations with Muslims and to enroll them in the struggle against radical Muslims. Can they be shown? Do they care? Don't they have different values, such that what we think is liberty and "nice" they find licentious and decadent? Americans' hearts goes out to the victims of the hurricane, but many Muslims celebrate the hurricane as punishment for not submitting to Islam. Does the campaign envisioned for this public relations take into account that Muslims think differently from ourselves, as Westerners? "What if the strategy of our enemies is to take advantage of the kindness, understanding, and pluralistic intention of the US in order to further infiltrate and undermine this country?" (Cal Thomas, NY Sun, 9/14, Op. Ed..) They do, already. 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. To Go To Top

THE FOOL ON THE HILL Posted by Moshe Feiglin, September 22, 2005.

The eviction from Gush Katif is not our worst downfall. Not the destroyed settlements or the destroyed synagogues, either. Of course, this was the first pogrom in the modern era that Jews perpetrated against Jews. To make matters worse, they did it in front of cameras from all over the world, making it a mega-desecration of G-d's Name. Naturally, the eviction is a horrific personal tragedy for the refugees from Gush Katif. But this is not the deepest point of the crisis that the belief based public is facing. What really breaks the innermost depths of the souls of all faithful Jews after this calamity is the loss of our basic legitimacy. Not only did this "sensitive and determined" pogrom trample all basic human rights and any hint of democratic rules. Not only did it obliterate human honor, liberty, property rights and equality before the law. Not only did it utterly destroy a flourishing region of the Land of Israel. It proved that there is an entire sector in Israel that is not legitimate. This pogrom could not have happened to any other sector of Israeli society. It could only be perpetrated against the belief-based public. Why? Because the belief-based public does not have equal rights. The Israeli media wept more for the poor cats to be left behind in the destroyed settlements than for the human beings to be uprooted and rendered homeless. We have become a sector that is less than human -- sub-human -- a problem that at one stage or another will have to be solved with finality. In German it is called untermentsch. This is the real crisis. We so wanted to be Israelis. We so wanted to be the most Zionistic, the greatest at settlement, the top in the army. We tried so very hard to show that we are a sector that gives of itself, that we are pioneers, that we are well educated and have values and Heaven forbid and perish the thought not violent. Suddenly we find ourselves pushed not to the sidelines, but way beyond them. How did it happen? It is certainly true that the soldiers were indoctrinated and brainwashed in the past year and a half. But that is not the whole picture. We usually blame the media and the Israeli cultural elite that for thirty years has attacked us and slandered us at every opportunity. This is very true. There is no doubt that we are the victims of a collective character assassination, a spiritual pogrom that paved the way for the physical pogrom. But blaming the media is like blaming the bacteria for the infection. We provided the anvil that allowed the hammer to strike. We supplied the conditions for the infection. This pogrom could not have happened without unwitting cooperation from the victims. The bottom line is that we are now considered an irrelevant sector, because we never really tried to be relevant! We thought that we will build settlements and that reality will somehow synchronize with our new facts on the ground. We thought that we will run to settlement Sebastia and to Gush Katif and that somehow the Arab problem will evaporate. We thought that we will settle Hebron and that the Jewish People will connect to their roots, that we will settle Beit-El and somehow the nation will connect to its Jewish identity and to us. We didn't bother to propose an all-encompassing belief based alternative for all facets of Israeli life. We certainly didn't take responsibility and propose that we lead the nation. On the contrary -- " leadership" was a dirty word. We were the pure pioneers, running to settle the hills and not sullying ourselves with politics. At first, the nation waited for a relevant pronouncement from our settlements. Israeli writers and thinkers clearly expressed this expectation. But like the captain who closes himself in his room instead of steering his ship -- we became a burden. This is the open wound that we created and that the Israeli media hurried to contaminate. This is the anvil without which the hammer could not strike. If you are the first to ascend the hill you have two choices. Either to call for everyone to follow, or to become the fool who is initially ignored but who must ultimately be eliminated (with sensitivity and determination, of course). We never attempted to lead the nation. We ascended the hill and sufficed ourselves with that. Today we have been cast as the fool on the hill -- stripped of human rights -- because we are irrelevant. Hopefully, we will fight the coming battles more successfully. But in the end, if we do not get up and lead, we will continue to prove our irrelevance. We will continue to be the fool on the hill and that is how we will be treated. Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

HELP THE HOMELESS AND HUNGRY IN ISRAEL: MEIR PANIM Posted by Avodah 15, September 22, 2005.

Friends, I rarely endorse charities since I can't personally research most of them, but this one I am familiar with. I donate to it myself, and have seen it grow over the years. I also know people who have volunteered at their facility in Jerusalem. Meir Panim helps the poor in Israel, and they do a great job. As they mention, with the refugees from Gush Katif, the need for this tzadakah is even more pressing than it usually is. That is why I am passing this along to you - Avodah The need to assist the underprivileged before the Holidays when family expenses are exceedingly high, especially the traumatized Gaza evacuees, is exceedingly critical. With your help, another child can celebrate the holiday with joy and good health. Through Meir Panim, everyone can seize upon this timely opportunity to help fulfill this important MITZVAH. With your donation, Meir Panim can guarantee a stress-free Rosh Hashanah, free of immediate worry, to those who need it most. Donations to Meir Panim are Tax Deductible in USA and in Israel. Tax ID in U.S.A: 20-1582478 We will mail you a printed receipt to keep for your records upon completion of your donation transaction. DONATE VIA POST USA: American Friends of Meir Panim 5314 New Utrecht Ave. Brooklyn NY 11219 ISRAEL: Meir Panim Soup Kitchens in Israel 11 Hatzvi Street P.O.B. 36024 Jerusalem 9438611 DONATE VIA PHONE USA: TOLL FREE 1-877-7-DONATE (1-877-736-6283) 718-437-9100 ISRAEL: 972-2-5386993 972-2-5374005 DONATE VIA FAX USA: 718-437-0999 ISRAEL: 972-2-5375062 DONATE DIRECTLY TO THE BANK ACCOUNT USA: Washington Mutual Bank 4724-13th Avenue Brooklyn NY 11219 For: American Friends of Meir Panim Account #0984649635 Belgium: Meir Panim Yad Rivka ING 310-1915011-26 ISRAEL: Israel Discount Bank 220 Yaffo Street Romema Branch #067 Bank #11 Account #220620 Jerusalem Postal Bank For: Mifal Chaim Account #3623417 TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION: USA: Donations to Meir Panim are Tax Deductible in the USA Tax ID # 20-1582478 ISRAEL: #512926833 Address in U.S.A. American Friends of Meir Panim 5314 New Utrecht Ave. Brooklyn NY 11219 Tel: 718-437-9100 Fax: 718-437-999 Toll Free 1-877-736-6283 "It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven." -Judah Maccabee Contact the author at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

DISARMING AND CONVERTING ISRAELIS Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 22, 2005.

This was written by Shelomo Alfassa and appeared in Arutz-Sheva, Israel National News yesterday (www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=5576). Recently, the media has reported that Gush Katif activists have warned that organizations desiring to help expelled former residents of Gush Katif and northern Samaria may have an ulterior, missionary motive. Nothing could be more true. The history of modern proselytizing in Eretz Israel started with a major aliyah in the early 19th century. Rabbi Yisroel of Shklov was one of the closest disciples of the Vilna Gaon. In 1810, he led a delegation of students and followers of the Gaon, together with their families, to the Holy Land. It was during this period that Christian missionaries made their first major push towards the conversion of Jews in Eretz Israel. During the period of 1809-1812 Ottoman Palestine was overrun with Christian proselytizers. Under the British mandate, itself a Christian authority, Christian missionary efforts had already assumed proportions that threatened to undermine the spiritual and religious survival of the Jewish population of the land. As in the past, missionaries today spend substantial amounts of money establishing churches, hospitals, charities, feeding kitchens and workshops where Christian publications are given out for free or at low cost. These campaigns are well thought out, with Christian leaders relying on the ignorance of the Jews so as not to have their plans thwarted. In a successful campaign that helped those early new immigrants with food, money and social services, they succeeded in spreading their gospel. Their hidden agenda is today barely noticed, covered up in layers of what seems like intrinsic sacrifice on the behalf of Jews they just want to help. Today, there is no longer a small campaign by a single group of missionaries to convert Jews in Israel, but a strategic and well-crafted plan, funded by billions of dollars, to make it happen. This is no exaggeration; literally billions are being spent to convert Jews across the world and specifically in Israel. There is a book written by a notorious Christian preacher and missionary in which he describes how he and his wife made aliyah several years ago. In his Messianic Jewish Manifesto, the author calls for Christians to go ahead with the attempt at aliyah. This man is a member of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, the world's most aggressive Christian missionary support and management group, an organization founded by none other than Reverend Billy Graham. A highly secretive organization, based in Denmark with a wide global network, its membership includes every major Protestant and Messianic missionary group in the world. In Israel alone, its membership totals at least six agencies, six congregations and 29 individuals. The "Thailand Report on Jewish People", developed at a meeting of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, made mention of the fact that Christians need to increase their activity against the Jews, going as far as identifying Jewish targets as Ashkenazi and Sephardic. They have already converted thousands of Jews in schools and universities throughout Israel. They say that more thought should be given to the nature of the training necessary for reaching the different segments of the community: "We observe that some training is more geared to reaching Orthodox Jews, whereas secular Jews form a great majority in most communities." American Evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have both been involved in Christian proselytizing by radio. Robertson started broadcasting from across the Lebanese border in 1979. At one time, he wanted to put up an antenna in Samaria, which had the capability of beaming radio signals to Jerusalem, but he was challenged by local residents. Today, because of the liberalism inherent in the Israeli government, Christian evangelicals have been issued licenses to operate radio stations based out of Jerusalem. These stations have been given the right to continue their work of converting the Jews to Christianity, while Jewish radio stations that teach Torah continue to be banned or face difficulty obtaining permits. There is not only a radio campaign, but a television one as well. It was in 1979 that Robertson's organization began broadcasting Christian programming 28 hours a week in Israel. In 1982, Hope TV station in Lebanon was donated to Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and became Middle East Television. In 1997, Middle East Television began Christian evangelism on the AMOS-1 communication satellite over the Middle East to a potential audience of 200 million people in 15 nations, including Israel. They broadcast their idolatry over Israel's channel 24, where you can watch The Harvest Show - and it is not a vegetable they seek to harvest, it's Jews. They broadcast in Hebrew, while shows in English have Hebrew subtitles. They show programs such as the Beverly Hillbillies, Head of the Class, and The Andy Griffith Show mixed in among Pat Robertson's 700 Club, This Is Your Day, Evangelist Joyce Meyer, Dr. Lester Sumrall, Another Day of Victory and Harvest. The Jews in Israel are virtually bombarded by television shows that teach them they are incomplete unless they accept the Christian way of life and belief. Christian evangelical groups in Israel run something called the Joseph Project. It is an organization designed to look like a humanitarian organization, but is actually a missionary based group that targets new, Russian-speaking immigrants. The Joseph Project is a division of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America. This organization is endorsed by mainstream Christian organizations, including the Christian Coalition of America, Christian Broadcasting Network, Promise Keepers and Pat Boone, entertainer and Christian evangelist. This group was founded in February of 1996 on the principles that: "The torch of the Messiah Yeshua's [Jesus'] love will be set on a high hill, through the testimony of both Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians together... And finally, the Messianic Jewish community will be able to demonstrate in practical and loving terms that we truly are part and parcel of our Jewish people." In 2003, their Ship of Blessing unloaded in Israel's Ashdod Port. The cargo, $20 million worth of "humanitarian aid", was put into port warehouses, awaiting clearance for distribution. Part of the load was set to go to the Israel Defense Forces' Friends of the Soldiers Association. They said other cargo would go to "our storefronts and other aid outlets." This group has sent over 32 containers worth of materials, some 640 tons of resources. This begs the question: what was in these humanitarian packages? Who inspects these - the secular Israeli government? Most people will be surprised to hear this, but the Messianics operate a store in Jerusalem right outside the Old City on Jaffa Road, where, in a storefront display, they hawk their wares to unsuspecting Jews. This missionary group is affiliated with Holy Land Ministries, which has a homeless shelter for women in south Tel Aviv and a shelter for homeless men in Jaffa. Joseph's Project has been granted three large storage facilities located midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem by the Ministry of Welfare. Yes, you read that right, the Christian missionaries are providing homeless shelters for Jews, and are operating missionary book stores filled with material written to convince Jews to accept Jesus - all inside in Israel, free and clear, with no opposition. The Joseph Project is but one of the many Christian organizations in Israel that exist for the sole purpose of conversion of the Jews of Israel. The MJAA is one of the most acutely dangerous organizations in the Messianic world. Another of their projects, Operation Tikvah, targets the Ethiopian Jews, and they boast to have converted more than 700 of them already in recent years. These proselytizers don't neglect a geographical dimension in their evangelistic plan. They strategize over areas within Israel where there is almost no Christian presence, as well as when the optimum time to operate is. And while many evangelicals are targeting Jews in Israel, some have spoken out against it. One Christian leader, named Pastor Kenneth Rawson, has made an ominous statement that should be required reading by every Jew in Israel: "The Biblical interpretation of most Evangelical Zionists demands a Christian Israel before Jesus can return. In fact, they believe two-thirds of the Israelis will be killed and damned eternally while only one-third will convert and escape damnation. This is well-publicized in the Evangelical bestseller book series "Left Behind...." They are pressing their conversion agenda. There are Evangelical tour groups trained to disarm, and then convert Israelis. Evangelicals have ingratiated themselves into Israeli communities. In Ariel, an Evangelical friend of the mayor is conducting a covert missionary operation with a vision to multiply this operation throughout Israel. Christian Jews from the Ukraine, Argentina and elsewhere are immigrating to Israel. Israel is becoming honeycombed with 'one on one' missionaries and home churches. Israelis, wake up!" Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

200 BNEI MENASHE IN INDIA CONVERT TO JUDAISM Posted by Freund, Michael, September 22, 2005.

This was written by Baruch Gordon and appeared in Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com), September 21, 2005. For the first time, some 200 Bnei Menashe living in northeastern India formally converted back to Judaism this past week by a team of Israeli rabbis organized by the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel. Bet Din converts 83-year old Sara Haunhar [pictured in blue scarf on left] The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Manasseh, one of the ten tribes exiled from the Land of Israel by the Assyrian empire over 2,700 years ago. Some 7,000 of them reside primarily in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh. Shavei Israel arranged for a team of six dayanim (rabbinical court judges) to travel to India in order to carry out the conversions with the approval of Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. On March 30, Rabbi Amar issued an historic ruling in which he formally recognized the Bnei Menashe as "descendants of Israel " and agreed to restore them to the Jewish people. Young boy dons t'fillin after converting in India "It was an incredibly emotional and spiritual experience," said Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, who accompanied the rabbis to India. "There were men and women, young and old, many of whom had been longing to return to the Jewish people for decades, and finally their dream has come true." Each of the candidates for conversion was interviewed by a Beit Din (rabbinical court) consisting of three of the visiting rabbis, who sought to assess their level of Jewish knowledge and commitment. "The rabbis showed great sensitivity and understanding, and they were deeply impressed by the Bnei Menashe and their grasp of Jewish law and lore" said Freund. A particularly poignant moment, he said, came when 83-year old Sara Haunhar was informed by the Beit Din that she had been accepted into the Jewish people. "She began to cry," Freund recalled, "and when one of the rabbis asked her if she was OK, Mrs. Haunhar composed herself and told them: 'All of my life, I have feared that I would die before meriting to see G-d's Holy Land. But now that you have accepted me as a Jew, I am confident that I will soon be able to set foot on the land of my ancestors, the Land of Israel." Bnei Menashe convert in Mizoram awaits Aliyah In recent years, over 800 Bnei Menashe have made aliyah thanks largely to Shavei Israel, which reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. But that came to a halt in 2003, when then-Israeli Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of the Shinui party decided to freeze their immigration. After Poraz' decision was announced, Freund turned to the Chief Rabbinate, and began lobbying to receive official rabbinical recognition of the Bnei Menashe as a means of circumventing the Interior Minister's decision. The 200 Bnei Menashe converted last week all plan to move to Israel in the near future, and Freund believes that the remaining members of the community will eventually follow as well. Freund added, "This is the breakthrough we have been waiting for, and we will do everything we can to bring this lost tribe home to Zion. G-d is gathering in His people, just as the Prophets foretold, and I am grateful to be playing my small part in this process." Shavei Israel's work is in accordance with Jewish Law and under the ongoing supervision of the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel. For more information, visit: www.shavei.org or write to: office@shavei.org. To Go To Top

DON'T YOU GET IT? Posted by Batya Medad, September 22, 2005.

Over and over I keep reading and hearing on the news that the government's Disengagement Authority made arrangements to separate the Disengagement victims and designed all sorts of "temporary" solutions, necessitating multiple moves and further dislocations even though the experts and the victims themselves all agree that they want to preserve their communities and social, educational and religious ties. It's a known fact that the best chance of a healthy recovery and adjustment is to facilitate the continuity of the refugees' communal lives. But don't you get it? The government, made its plans to divide, separate and disorient the victims, because it was the opposite of what is best for the refugees! Their overall aim is, not was but is, to demoralize and destroy the national religious section of the population. Add to that the cost of all these temporary "solutions," especially the "caravilla" town of Nitzan. It costs the government $100,000 per family for this temporary shantytown for refugees. Now, considering that when the two to three years are up, most of these poor people will be so totally bankrupt after continuing to pay their old mortgages and loans and paying the government rent and being unemployed, that they won't be able to afford to buy new homes. Nitzan will end up being the "mother of all" Israeli slums, outdoing the "asbestonim," erected for the North African immigrants who made aliyah in the early days of the state. As horrid as those asbestos shacks sound, they were a lot sturdier and more weatherproof than the prefab huts, euphemistically called "caravillas," which are made of "reinforced" cardboard. Now, I have one of my "dumb questions." If the government is willing to throw out $100,000 per family for temporary housing, why can't they just give each family the money, their officially calculated compensation and some government land and allow the people to build their own communities? Yes, it's capitalism, rather than the paternalist socialism. It would certainly save a lot of money all around. And the most important factor is that it would give the victims power, control over their lives again. It is the best way for them to recover from the horrendous traumas of recent months. It would also help preserve family structure by showing the children that their parents aren't pathetic failures, which will, G-d forbid, be one of the secondary negative effects of Disengagement if things don't change soon. The one shining light has been the community of Atzmonah, which has established a kibbutz-like refugee town in a failed industrial zone way in the south, called Ir Ha'Emunah, the City of Faith. Despite the obvious difficulties, such as two washing machines for dozens of families, the residents radiate purpose and faith. They wish to stay there together while building their new homes. They are already a community. The only problem is that the government doesn't approve and wants them to leave and live in the scattered apartments all over the country, which had been rented for the refugees. Last night there was an investigative feature on TV showing how the Disengagement victims are coping. I was really impressed by what's going on in Ir Ha'Emunah. It certainly fleshed out my friend's description. One should never forget the emotional and spiritual strength and fortitude of the people of Gush Katif. They had lived for the past few years with rocket bombardments and terrorism that was more like a horror movie than the idyllic picture they paint of their former homes. These are people of great strength, and they function best when they can make their own decisions. The government, the Disengagement Authority, has been doing its best to destroy them by vetoing all of their suggestions and redistributing the population. Redistributing means that the communities have been, on the whole, divided and then patched up with others, primarily in Nitzan. Nitzan has the added burden of almost total unemployment. Even the enthusiastic residents, anxious for their moment of fame on national TV, contradicted their words of praise with reports of no jobs and no prospects. And it was clear that many of them were unrealistically optimistic that the schools their children finally began, just that morning, weeks late, would be the end of their educational problems. There was a very disturbing scene from the Noam Girls School in Jerusalem when some of the children became totally hysterical while being interviewed, accusing the media of trying to make the unspeakable horror of Disengagement seem benign and normal. Then the principal spoke, apologizing for miscalculating the pain and trauma his refugee students are still undergoing. He had assumed that the well-behaved girls were well adjusted to the move, and therefore had approved the media's interviewing them. The vast majority of the Disengagement victims are still in turmoil, without any permanent home in site. One of the basic things taught in first aid courses is that when treating cuts, one should quickly put pressure on it, to hold the skin together, so it will begin to heal. The longer the cut is open, the larger the gap between the pieces of skin, the more difficult the healing and the thicker and larger the scar. The more the government, the Disengagement Authority, prevents the victims from finding the solutions best for themselves the more damage and scarring, not only to the victims but to our entire country. Refuah Shleimah, a Complete Healing, Gmar Chatima Tovah, May G-d Forgive Us and Accept Our Prayers, This is Musing #143. 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 To Go To Top

JEWISH LEADERSHIP APPLAUDS PAKISTANI PRES. PERVEZ MUSHARRAF? Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, September 22, 2005.

This is by Morton Klein, National President Zionist Organization of America. It is redacted from a speech To Jewish Leaders, September 17, 2005 Jack Rosen, Chairman of the Council of World Jewry, invited me and many others to attend dinner with General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, an Islamic nation of 150 million people. Once there, I was immediately approached by several reporters who asked me what I thought of this event. I told them that "although the organizers mean well, I was worried that this may be giving legitimacy to President Musharraf who: Allowed thousands of madrassas (religious schools) to indoctrinate hundreds of thousands of Pakistani youngsters in Jihad education and hatred for Jews and the West; Has allowed terror training camps to operate in his country; Has refused to take action against the Taliban; and has provided centrifuges useful to nuclear development to Iran." It was also troubling that CIA Director Porter Goss had recently said that the U.S. is certain that Osama bin-Laden is in Pakistan -- but that Pakistan is really not cooperating in apprehending him. But, I said I was looking forward to President Musharraf changing my mind. Almost everyone I met at the dinner felt differently. They thought this meeting would bring Pakistan closer to Israel, will cause more moderation of Musharraf's views, and even impact the larger Muslim world in a positive way. When President Musharraf entered the dining room, he immediately received a standing ovation by the several hundred mostly Jewish people there, including many Jewish organization heads. (I remained seated.) Musharraf began by immediately calling Jews "the most influential community in the United States." (I was frankly troubled by this statement. Since the Muslim world despises the U.S., they will not appreciate the claim that Jews have a great influence over U.S. policy.) He then expressed chagrin that "Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are pitted against each other." (Really, I thought, Muslims were intentionally murdering Jews and Christians around the world as well as demonizing them -- not the other way around.) He said that "the relationship between Muslims and Jews had always been wonderful and that the past 6 decades are an aberration in the long history of Muslim-Jewish cooperation and co-existence." Musharraf seemed to ignore the fact that Muslims massacred Jews who refused to convert when Islam first began 1300 years ago. Even in the past century, Arab Muslims murdered Jews in 1920-21, 1929, 1936-39 -- before there was a Jewish State. I was troubled by his implication that it was the re-establishment of Israel six decades ago that caused the problems between Muslims and Jews - this, despite the fact that Israel was re-established on only 12% of original Palestine. Jordan was given 78% of Palestine by the British in the early 20's and 10% of Palestine was offered to the Arabs as a State in 1948 but the Arabs rejected this offer and went to war against the fledgling state of Israel. Although he acknowledged that the "Jewish people suffered their greatest tragedy, the Holocaust in this century" -- he added "the Palestinians also suffered their greatest tragedy in this brutal century." This was a most bizarre and inappropriate analogy between the Holocaust and the Palestinian Arab experience. The fact is that the plight of the Palestinian Arabs is almost entirely due to their own rejection of statehood, and their Arab brothers and sisters keeping them in refugee camps and refusing to absorb them into their 22 countries, while the one Jewish country absorbed 800,000 Jews in a short period of time after 1948. In addition the Palestinian Arabs turned down a State in 1948 and also rejected a state in 2000 and also refused to establish one during the years 1948 to 1967 when Arabs controlled all of Judea & Samaria, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem that they now claim for a state. It was also disconcerting to hear Musharraf single out only one Jew in his speech because that Jew one who has viciously attacked Israel time and again. His name is George Soros. (Musharraf thanked Soros for helping Muslims.) While he did make a general criticism of "terrorism" around the world, President Musharraf never specifically mentioned the terrorism or suicide bombing that Israel endures!! That should have been an imperative when speaking to a Jewish audience. Yet he did allege "most of those who suffer the consequences of terrorist acts are Muslims." He also never mentioned the name of one Muslim terrorism group -- not al-Qaeda, not Hamas, not Hezbollah!! Musharraf did say "we must look at the motivations of terrorists...at the root causes of terrorists...that pushes them to such extremes of desperation." (When a reporter later asked me about the root causes of Arab terrorism against Israel -- I said it was the same as the root cause of the murder of Jews by the Nazis -- they educate throughout their society to hate and murder Jews.) Musharraf's answer to the root cause was, "Palestine has been at the heart of the troubles in the Middle East. I do not have an iota of doubt that the Israeli-Palestinian problem lies at the heart of terrorism in the Middle East and beyond." This statement was not only shocking but also ludicrous. Doesn't Musharraf know Muslims were murdering Jews before Israel existed; that before Israel captured Judea & Samaria and Gaza and the Golan and eastern Jerusalem and the Sinai in 1967, there were 3 Arab wars (1948-56-67) and constant terrorism and no interest in establishing another Arab State there. Does he really think that al-Qaeda is murdering Westerners because of Israel' Bin-Laden's first five reasons he gave in 1997 for his war against the West never mentioned Israel. Does he really think the bombing of the World Trade Center; the trains in Britain and Spain; the terrorist murders in Bali, Egypt, the Philippines, and elsewhere is due to the Arab-Israeli issue. Does he think Iraq and Iran were at war for 8 years; that Saddam murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people; that Arafat's Black September murdered 5000 Jordanians, that Egypt's war with Chad and Iraq's war with Kuwait was due to the Israel issue? What utter nonsense. Musharraf also said "Security for Israel will remain incomplete until the creation of a Palestinian State." (That could be construed as a threat and not simply as a prediction.) Then he said that Israel must "withdraw from the West Bank...and for durable peace and harmony between Israelis and Palestinian -- indeed between Israel and the Muslim world." Then he made a more disturbing statement -- "any final settlement must respect the international character of Jerusalem as well as international law and the resolutions of the UN Security Councils." It was frightening to hear Musharraf tell a Jewish audience that we must expect "incomplete security" meaning terrorism will continue until there is a Palestinian State and that Jerusalem must be internationalized, and that Israel must fulfill the numerous (anti-Israel) resolutions of the UN. He claimed that the problems Pakistan has with recognizing Israel is the lack of a Palestinian State. Again he ignores the fact that they could have had a State from 1948 to 1967 when the Arabs controlled the lands now proposed for a State. But we must forget that even before 1967 -- when Arabs controlled those lands -- Pakistan didn't recognize Israel then either. In his entire speech, he only made demands about what Israel must do -- but not a single statement about the obligations of the Palestinian Authority to Israel and to the world, under Oslo and the Road Map. I was surprised, disappointed and troubled that President Musharraf would give such a non-conciliatory speech that was unfriendly to Israel in front of a Jewish audience. It seems to me that if he was not ready to give a more conciliatory speech, he shouldn't have been invited and shouldn't have accepted this invitation. I am also concerned that since this speech was given in an apparent effort to reach out to Jews, the extreme hostile Arab Orthodoxy promoted by Musharraf, that the Israel issue is the real cause of terror, that Israel should honor all (anti-Israel) UN Resolutions, that a Palestinian State will solve everything, and that Jerusalem should be internationalized, can only become more entrenched in the eyes of Muslims and the rest of the world. This is especially true because these statements were made by a man that some now view as being "moderate" toward Israel. The nature of this speech made it more clear to me that his real purpose was better relations with the U.S., not Israel, primarily motivated by concerns of his personal safety and his problems with India. In a more positive note, I should say that although his speech was disquieting, the fact that he gave this speech to a Jewish audience under the auspices of a Jewish group, in front of Pakistani and other Muslim TV cameras might have some positive value. Muslims will have heard President Musharraf say that Jewish groups were visible in opposing ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia. He also stated that Jews and Muslims "have many similarities and divergences in their faith and culture." He also said that Moses is the prophet most mentioned in the Koran. He also thanked Jews for their help to Muslims in the U.S. These comments may help to improve the image of the Jew to Muslims. But his speech was still painful and disappointing. It is therefore unnerving to see President Musharraf receive a standing ovation by this mostly Jewish audience. This ovation can only send a message to him and to other Muslims that we agreed with most of his points which were not favorable toward Israel, including his public refusal to recognize Israel diplomatically especially after Israel and the world has recognized the Palestinian Authority. It seems that we Jews are much too willing to accept any overture at all from a hostile world. After 2000 years of we Jews being hated, persecuted, massacred, pogromed, and Holocausted, we are all too acquiescent to accept even a most minimal overture in order to, in a sense, plead with the world to stop hating us and stop killing us. But I believe that strength and courage and standing up for truth are the only ways we will gain the world's respect and reduce their animosity. When Pakistani TV stations and the U.S. media interviewed me after the speech, I expressed my concerns about Musharraf's speech clearly and respectfully. I hope other Jewish organizations will stand up for the truth about this and other issues and not simply try to appease a hostile world. Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). To Go To Top

DON'T BUY THIS USPS STAMP. IT'S A DISGRACE Posted by Pat Russo, September 22, 2005.

This one is impossible to believe. If there is only one thing you forward today, let it be this! How ironic is this??!! They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas "Holiday" stamp, (but don't dream of posting the Ten Commandments on federal property.) USPS New Stamp REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm Flight 103! REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993! REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon! REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military barracks in Saudi Arabia! REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa! REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE! REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001! REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks! Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class holiday postage stamp. REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your stamps at the post office. To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors. REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know. To Go To Top

KNOW THINE ENEMY Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, September 21, 2005.

Here is what a friend wrote to me about my previous article, The Handwriting on the Wall: Great article. I don't necessarily agree with you about the disengagement though. I think the results of it speak for themselves -- the Arabs don't care about their future, and they'll do what they have to do to sabotage it. As some Israeli statesman said in the past "the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". The greenhouses would have provided 6500 jobs, but they destroyed that possibility. They also destroyed the synagogues, which were perfectly good buildings to use... idiots. * * * I will never forget my visit to Red Square many years ago, when the Soviet Union was still in place. From a crowd of tourists, I was watching the two soldiers stationed at either side of the door leading inside Lenin's tomb. People were moving around, shooting pictures, and yelling something silly to each other and to the soldiers. The soldiers were standing as still as mannequins, staring into each other's eyes, as if they had hypnotized one another into a stupor. At first, they looked identical to me, like two life-size Kens without their Barbies on display at the FAO Schwarz, and I felt relief when I detected some subtle differences in their Slavic peasant faces. When I saw one of them blink, I realized I had been holding my breath. Suddenly, everyone's attention was diverted to something to the left from the tomb. I looked there and saw three soldiers slowly, ceremoniously, with a perfect mechanical precision goose-stepping towards the tomb. Two cops, with marginal politeness and almost no hostility, herded the tourists aside, and the soldiers approached the tomb without a slightest change in their carefully measured tempo. At the exact moment when the clock on the nearby tower struck the hour, the newly arrived soldiers ascended the last of the three steps leading to the door. Simultaneously, the soldiers that were guarding the tomb came into motion. Moving with the mechanical accuracy of figurines decorating elaborate clockwork, the new soldiers switched places with the guards. The guards joined the remaining soldier, made an about-face, and, in the same byzantine goose-step, departed towards a gate in the Kremlin wall. Actually, I don't know why they call it goose step. Geese walk nothing like that. To me, their walk looked like they were trying to imitate the Nazi salute with their legs. When, during one of my visits to Israel, I found the Temple Mount open to tourists, I decided not to miss my chance to see the third holiest place of Islam. An Israeli policeman politely, almost apologetically inspected my purse and camera bag, while asking me some mandatory questions. Upon learning that I was a Jew from the United States, he asked me if I was planning to pray while on the Temple Mount. I assured him I wasn't. He pointedly asked me to repeat my assurances, and when I did, he let me pass. I realized later I was expecting to see something similar to Red Square: strange, covertly hostile people serving their false god in meticulous, meaningless rituals performed with the utmost pomp and circumstance. I couldn't help feeling that praying doggy-style was even more obscene than doing a Heil Hitler with one's legs. There was some mockery of the idol present in both, and I could only guess to which degree that mockery was unintended. I had seen photographs taken from above, showing thousands of Muslims on their hands and knees arranged in neat rows. Those rows looked just as inhuman as the honor guards' goose-stepping in Red Square, although the mass of praying Muslims in those pictures looked more insectile than robotic. Technology, as you know, doesn't mix easily with Islam. On the other hand, slight irregularities similar to those that are usually present in the arrangement of Muslim worshippers can often be found in honeycombs. What I saw when I reached the top of that staircase looked nothing like Red Square. I saw a great stone-paved expanse, dominated by the two mosques and punctuated by several smaller buildings. A few crooked olive trees could be seen in the distance. Apparently, they were located away from the path that the infidels had to stay on while on the Temple Mount. When I tried to approach one of those ancient trees to take a picture, a man in civilian clothes, but with a handgun in a holster attached to his belt, ran after me, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back while yelling at me angrily in Arabic. He didn't know it was theoretically impossible to insult someone in a language they did not understand. Out of sheer hatred, I smiled at him as if he were inviting me for a slow dance, and he became livid. Israeli soldiers in full battle gear standing at regular intervals at the edge of the plaza adjacent to the Kotel, took little interest in the incident, but their presence was reassuring. Actually, their presence was the only reassuring thing there. The place was openly alien, openly hostile. How Israel could allow such a festering malignancy to remain in its very heart will forever remain a mystery to me. But the hostility was something I expected. What I did not expect to see was dirt evident on the stones with which the plaza was paved. I did not expect to see shreds of old newspapers and plastic bags airborne in the wind. I did not expect to see the huge numbers of stray cats everywhere. I did not expect to see disheveled old men sitting on rugs thrown on the ground, and eating, and throwing leftovers right on the ground where cats fought for every scrap of food that didn't fall into the cracks between the stones. The third holiest place of Islam was unapologetically dirty. Obvious signs of chronic neglect were evident everywhere and that alone felt more alien than any alien rituals I had seen on Red Square or even in the Indiana Jones movies. I traversed the plaza along the edge where the Israeli soldiers were standing and left the Temple Mount. I found myself at a marketplace in the Arab part of the Old City. I began taking pictures of the strange displays of goods on sale there, but the stench of rotten meat overwhelmed me, and I decided I'd had enough of the Old City that day. I went through the Damascus Gate, turned left, and began walked along the wall towards the Jaffa Gate, from where I knew the way to my hotel. As I was walking, a group of Arab children pelted me with pebbles. A couple of adult Arabs yelled at them, and they stopped, but I couldn't help longing for the unbelievable feeling of comfort that comes from holding a loaded gun. Everything has a meaning. What was the meaning of what I had seen on the Temple Mount? This question is important even if we cannot answer it. Probably, it is even more important if we cannot answer it, because it shows that we do not understand our enemies, the Muslims. Actually, you don't have to ascend the Temple Mount to see similar signs of neglect where none should be expected. Everyone who has been to Israel has noticed the stark contrast between Jewish and Arab towns there, especially evident when the two are located next to each other. Despite everything an anti-Zionist may offer as an explanation, both towns have equal access to all the resources needed to prosper, from water to education. What is the reason for the difference? What is its meaning? Why does the land of Israel bloom at the hands of Jews, but burns at the hands of Arabs? What is the reason for the difference? What is its meaning? It doesn't happen in Israel alone. I recently read that the house where Mohammad was born was going to be destroyed soon. No, George Bush has not decided to nuke Mecca. The Saudi government is beginning to renovate the city, and razing Mohammad's birthplace is a part of the plan. From the Western perspective, this amounts to the destruction of their own history; from the Western perspective, this type of action borders on cultural suicide. Apparently, from the perspective of our enemies, the Muslims, it is something entirely different. What is it? What is its meaning? We keep repeating Abba Eban's witticism about Arabs never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Why do they do it? Are they genetically predisposed to stupidity? Arabs, the closest relatives of the Jews? I really don't believe so. But is there another explanation for the contrast between the giant progress made by the West during the last 14 centuries and the total absence of any progress among the Arabs during the same period? There must be an explanation, and if we don't see it, it may only mean that we are looking in the wrong direction. The right explanation is usually the simplest one. Here is a very simple explanation: Muslims do not want what we assume they should want. It is perfectly consistent with their assurance that they love death the way we love life. It is almost impossible for us to believe that that atrocious statement accurately reflects the group mentality of the Muslims. But have we heard any Muslim leader reject it or denounce those who made it? Never. So, what makes us perceive that statement as a metaphor? Only our childish believe that deep down all people are essentially the same. How can it be otherwise? Aren't all men born equal? Yes, they are, but only before the law and only in the few countries where such law exists. In reality, in every other respect all people are born different and remain different from each other in more ways than we can count. And different people dream very different dreams. When you look at the Arabs from this side of the great divide, it is so obvious what's truly in their best interests. They should form a pan-Arab federation with the former states as states of the new union, adapt the American Constitution with very minor changes, convert to Christianity, and, using the abundant natural resources God so undeservedly blessed them with, become a new superpower, spreading light upon the nations of this earth. If you prefer a terser version of this, here it is: a human being has a much better chance at a happy, productive life if he or she is an American and not an Arab. Nevertheless, Arabs will remain Arabs, no matter what we think would be in their best interests. Do the "Palestinians" dream about an independent "Palestinian? state" Had we been in their place, that's exactly what we would have dreamt about. But do they? If so, why do they keep missing one opportunity for creating it after another? Why did Yasser Arafat reject Barak's offer at Camp David? Because accepting that offer would have left Israel standing, and that would be a terrible betrayal of the Arab dream of the destruction of Israel. Because the "Palestinian" people is nothing but a weapon of Israel's destruction, and a very efficient one. Once Israel is no longer on the map, nobody is going to remember about the "Palestinian" dream of independence. Former "Palestinians", having fulfilled their destiny, will rejoin their tribes and happily continue the normal Arab existence alongside their camels. If they are lucky, of course. Whenever I say that the "Palestinian" people does not exist, someone is bound to accuse me of racism, although there had been no references to that people until the summer of 1967 in either Western or Arab sources. Let us ask a silly question: Does the Jordanian people exist? Jordan did not exist as a country until 1921. We've heard many times that the majority of its population are "Palestinians". Who are the rest? In 1925, the British helped the House of al-Saud to defeat the Hashemite dynasty that had ruled the Arabian Peninsula whenever it managed to push the al-Sauds aside. The remnants of that dynasty were transplanted to other Arab territories: Faisal I was installed as the King of Iraq, and his brother, Abdullah I, became the King of Transjordan, a newly created country known today as Jordan. So, who are the Jordanian people? Who are the people of Iraq? In a recent poll, the majority of Iraqis identified themselves as Arabs or Kurds, as Sunnis or Shiites, as members of this tribe or that. Only 3% of respondents identified themselves as Iraqis. Does the Iraqi people exist? And, if yes, what distinguishes it from other Arabs? The truth is that Arab society today remains mostly tribal, and their personal allegiance to their tribes transcends most other loyalties. Beyond that, they are Arabs. Beyond that, they are Muslims. If our planet was attacked by extraterrestrials, Arabs would choose their side in the conflict not based on their membership in the spieces called Homo Sapiens, but on the aliens' willingness to convert to Islam. Their tribal mentality may seem incredible in the modern world but Arabs do not live in the modern world. The absence of progress in the last 14 centuries affected not just the sciences and technology. Accepting their pedophiliac fuehrer as the last prophet, they consented to live the rest of their history according to the wisdom of the 7th century C.E. Dar-el-Harb moved on. Dar-el-Islam remained what it had been from its very beginning. How can we presume to understand the mentality of people separated from us by 14 centuries of our progress and their stagnation? And yet, we keep doing exactly that. The entire "peace process" is based on the idea that the Arabs would agree to peacefully coexist with Israel under, at least, some conditions. Arabs have never -- never! -- given any indication of such a possibility. So, why do we keep trying to appease them as if appeasement had ever brought the desired peace to the appeasers? Because we project our own love for peace on our enemies, while those enemies hate us much more than they love their own children and project that hatred on us. The anarchy unfolding in abandoned Gaza will not help Israel. The Arabs there will not do anything they haven't done a million times before. The world knows it and keeps hating Israel. Basic decency is not the defining quality of the humankind. Israel was crucified by the International Court of Justice for a futile attempt to defend itself with a fence. Meanwhile, real atrocities that regularly take place on this planet attract no attention from governments, or the press, or the public. No matter what terrible things transpire in Gaza, they will never help Israel's struggle for survival. Today, jihad is only unfolding. We haven't seen the worst of it yet. Contrary to our patrinizing reassurances, our enemy will never miss a slightest opportunity to hurt us. Israel, Europe, the United States, and all of Western civilization are bound to suffer one devastating defeat after another until we realize that Islam is our mortal enemy and begin acting accordingly by declaring a total war against it. With our current leaders, we don't have the chance of a snowball in hell. 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 To Go To Top

SINKING THE ISRAELI AIRCRAFT CARRIER Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 21, 2005.

Israel was once considered a virtual aircraft carrier in the Sands of the Middle East. It had great value to America which is why the Arab world worked so hard to separate Israel from America. It is no secret that oil plays a dominant role in what America feels it must ask of the Jewish State. These requests a.k.a. demands further empower the Arabs, particularly the Terrorists embodied in the Muslim Palestinians. As the Palestinians gain power by acquiring territory, the Aircraft Carrier of Israel begins to shrink in direct proportion. When Gaza/Gush Katif and the four North Samarian communities were abandoned, Sharon was suddenly a wunderkind to the U.N., the U.S. State Department and the E.U., all of whom disliked Sharon and probably still do. But, he performed as asked, despite the dangers of shrinking Israel's critical mass. Although the World Media mentioned the breach in the Sinai-Gaza border after the 'Disengagement', it was quickly forgotten. Israeli Intelligence estimated that the weapons that flowed into Gaza would have taken a solid year of smuggling by tunnels. A mass transfer of high grade weapons moved through the breach in a matter of days and into the hands of Hamas and other Terrorist groups. This "transfer" was predicted by Israel's General Staff and Intelligence before the evacuation of Gaza/Gush Katif. Israel has played a remarkable role in supporting America both militarily and politically. Some may have forgotten that Gen. George Keegan, Head of America's Air Force Intelligence once stated that Israel was worth 5 CIAs based upon the Intelligence Israel provided her ally and benefactor, the United States. When Saddam invaded Kuwait, it was Israel who provided on-ground Intelligence to the U.S. which proved invaluable. Gen. Dugan, who was in charge of operations during the First Gulf War, made the mistake of publically thanking Israel for her assistance during an interview and was promptly fired. Israel raised an Air Umbrella for incoming U.S. Aircraft ferrying supplies, weapons and all the stuff that was needed for eventually attacking Saddam. It was Israel who put teams in the Iraqi desert to pick up any American airmen shot down. (We all know what happened to those captured by Iraqis.) Israel proved her value as an Aircraft Carrier which protected American interests. But, Israel has allowed herself to be shrunk and, in doing so, has become a less valuable asset as an ally to be relied upon. Instead, the balance scales had Arab Muslim oil on one side and Israel's value as an ally and a democracy on the other. Guess which had greater value to the Arabists at State? Regrettably, there is certain short-sightedness in Washington which will allow, even push, Israel into a diminished role. When the U.S. will need Israel, she will not have the capability to respond to the call. Presently, the plan is to rely on Egypt to occupy Saudi Arabia as a protector - something like when Syria occupied Lebanon with no intention of leaving. The problem is that Egypt is moving toward an Islamic basis which will have no loyalty to America. When President Hosni Mubarak leaves office, the Muslim Brotherhood will make every attempt to take control. Keep in mind that Egypt has been gifted $60 Billion of American taxpayers' dollars in the most advanced aircraft, armor, missiles in U.S. inventory - plus the opportunity to train with America's top units in semi-annual war games. An Islamic Egypt will be the military colossus of the Middle East and an extraordinary threat to Israel and American interests. Israel could have played a vital role both for herself and America. But, having been whittled down to a micro-state, she will barely be able to take care of herself and her people. Be assured that the "Whittlers" (those who whittled Israel down to an indefensible State) will not be able to come to the rescue when called upon to do so. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

IS STATE DEPT. PRAGMATIC? ARABS' DISILLUSIONING VIEW OF ABANDONMENT Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 21, 2005.

IS STATE DEPT. PRAGMATIC? A dear friend considers himself a pragmatist, and conducts his life as such. He sells his skilled services shrewdly. He imagines that US foreign policy is run with a similar integrity. He handles his affairs rationally, and leaves it to the State Dept. to run its affairs likewise. Our government doesn't work like that. The State Dept. is, more or less, a self-perpetuating body. Consequently, its policy towards the Arab-Israel conflict hardly varies from one President to the next. Presidents mostly accept policies that the bureaucrats have devised. Worked out what, for which purpose, to serve whose doctrine, and with how much integrity? Consider the State Department role in 9/11. The State Dept. had worked out a visa-issuance procedure that enabled Saudi travel agents to issue visas unsupervised. The purpose was to help Saudis. This serves the world view of the oil corporations that appease the Arabs, and not US national security, known to be at risk from Arab terrorists after earlier attacks, including one at the World Trade Center. Not supervising Saudi entry is not pragmatic. Neither is appeasement, having failed with the Nazis and the Communists and, by Israel, with the Arabs. Every Israeli concession to the Arabs is followed by more terrorist attacks. Israelis repeat their mistakes. As my friend, a psychologist, once defined intelligence, it is the ability to learn from experience. The bureaucrats' lack of integrity is such that even after having let the 9/11 terrorists in, and having been ordered to stop the discredited visa procedure, the Department persisted until further admonished. Such is the power of State, that somehow its major role in 9/11 was omitted from the 9/11 Commission's investigation. Investigations have become face-saving cover-ups. Congress doesn't really want to know. The media no longer safeguards us, it takes sides. My friend, one cannot take a government agency for granted. State has a record. It started its tradition of anti-Zionism partly because it was staffed by Christian missionary circles and people connected to the oil industry. Nowadays, US diplomats look forward to retiring to a lavish Saudi consultancy. In any case, the Department opposed creation of the Jewish state. It tried to get that state undeclared and then tried to keep it disarmed when invaded. After Israeli retaliation against terrorist raids, the State Dept. generally rebukes Israel. After Israeli military victories, State stops further military advances. Policy since 1967 has been to roll Israel back, even though by doing so, the borders, according to a study by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would be insecure borders for Israel. The result is continued Muslim Arab aggression, aided by US arms. Hardly pragmatic and certainly not beneficial to the cause of peace, which is in the US national interest. The State Dept. stains the US honor. But isn't the purchase of oil, on which US industrial might rests, in the national interest? Yes, but it equally is in the interest of the oil extracting countries to sell it. The US does not appease those countries, Venezuela and other non-Arab ones, from which it obtains most of its foreign oil. Then there is no need to placate the Arabs. The notion that we are beholden to the Arabs is a myth. Everyone knows that the CIA has failed to foresee imminent events, but the State Dept. has an equally poor record. Wrangling internally over bureaucratic jurisdiction, the State Dept. failed to boost opponents of the Iranian regime, which now has nuclear weapon capability months away. Taking a dislike to Mr. Chalabi, the State Dept. kept him from running post-war Iraq, though he was a secular Shiite desirous of reform. Now Islamist Shiites are dominating the government. US foreign policy has had many other failures, too. We need to clean the State Department out and start over. We cannot let it govern itself. The world is too dangerous. Our leaders do not realize that making deals with the devil, as we did with Arafat and are doing with Abbas, is not pragmatic. It aids terrorists who hate the US as much as they do Israel. P.A.: SMUGGLING TO BE EXPECTED Israeli MK Shteinitz reported that terrorists exploited the chaos at the Egypt-Gaza line to smuggle weapons into Gaza. "PA minister Dahlan replied, 'The behavior of the Arabs was expected and therefore there was smuggling.'" (Then why promise to guard it immediately the IDF departed?) MK Shteinitz charged Egypt with intentionally not stopping smuggling. He suspects it of planning to coordinate with the P.A. a common front against Israel (Arutz-7, 9/13). CNN COVERAGE ON THE DAY OF ARAB LOOTING Film footage was available to show the Arabs stealing the Gaza hothouse water pipes, wires, and computers, given to the P.A.. Other exciting news was filmed of the rampaging Arabs burning synagogues and crossing the border (unguarded by Egypt, whose promise to guard the border led Israel to stop guarding it). Fox News anchor Lauren Greene did not show those scenes. Instead, Fox screened a scene of P.A. police, while Abbas said he would crack down on terrorism. Greene did not explain that he invited Hamas terrorists into the P.A. police, to gain immunity from prosecution by Israel. She showed some P.A. people holding up a copy of a check for $10,000, for US victims of the hurricane. She did not explain that the P.A. gets half its money from foreign donations, including from the US. Is Greene becoming a propagandist for the P.A., or did Fox News slip just this one time? As for the security agreements that Israeli Defense Min. Mofaz worked out in great detail with the Arabs, they were violated by the Arabs, as were all the other agreements by the Arabs. The Arabs made a mockery of them. He called them up and he spoke with US representatives, to no avail. Meanwhile, PM Sharon is en route to the UNO, where he will be given a triumphal welcome and is likely, dictatorial fashion, to make more non-ratified promises of retreats, as if this one were successful for Israel (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/14). Why does anyone believe any agreement with the Arabs or any promise by the Sharon regime? ISRAELI RETALIATION NOT EXPECTED Israeli military sources believe that the Sharon regime will not approve searching for terrorists who attack Israel from Gaza nor retaliation. Instead, the government would implore the US and the P.A. to get the attacks halted (IMRA, 9/13). Previous imploring failed. First the Sharon regime threatened harsh retaliation "such as has not been seen before." Then it refuses to retaliate at all. First people argue in favor of the Sharon abandonment plan that it would free soldiers better to defend Israel. Then we find that the regime ties its soldiers' hands so they cannot defend Israel. The P.A. lauds attackers and the US pays the P.A.., so appealing to them not only is humiliating, it is futile. The US would chant its mantra: the P.A. must crack down on terrorism. This lip service means it is open season on Israelis. Contrary to what Sec. Rice asserted, the Gaza abandonment has degraded Israeli security. Zionism has several purposes. The main and original one is to fulfill an age-old mandate. Another is to promote Jewish national development in independence in the homeland. A third is to defend the Jewish people. Unless the third is done, the other two will fail. In order to meet the third goal, the Jewish state must act independently and in its own interest and stop depending on the gentiles, as if still in the Diaspora. The Sharon regime and several predecessors take their orders from hostile gentiles. These secularist regimes lack patriotism and integrity, and do not believe in the first goal if not in any goal but their own self-aggrandizement. CREDITING ABBAS FOR INVISIBLE EFFORTS Via A.P., the "NY Times" published, "Dealers Smuggle Weapons Into Gaza From Egypt" (9/15, A7). The article admits that the deal on which Israel relied for its security failed its first test, as thousands rushed through the unguarded portal. Israelis will be killed as a result of the deal, that the "Times" pressed for. The article states that rifles and pistols were smuggled, but independent Israeli sources state that RPGs and anti-tank missiles were smuggled in, too. Missiles were known to be on hand for an opportunity to pass through. The media almost exonerates Egypt by stating Egypt's next promise, that it would bar entry soon. It fails to note that Egypt never did bar entry of smugglers, and that the Arabs generally violate their agreements. At the time Oslo started with unjustifiable hope, Arafat had made 200 agreements, many with other Arabs. He violated all 200 agreements. Once again there is the media assertion that P.A. head Abbas "has tried to impose order." As usual, no steps by him are cited. He always gets credit for invisible efforts that produce no results. That credit is part of media pro-Arab bias. Why hasn't that been noticed by some of the journalists who usually report fairly about Israel? THE KING & REALITY The King of Jordan is campaigning to recover Islam from the grip of "extremists." He opposes those who seek a clash of civilizations. The King had convened a conference by all strains of Islam, to affirm Islam's core values, which they said includes tolerance. IMRA noted that the conference had no follow-up. Said the King, "In the Middle East, in Europe, and here in the United States, senior Muslim clerics have spoken out, authoritatively, against terror," the King said. [IMRA: Hardly. The opposite is the reality.] (IMRA, 9/14.) Jihad without terrorism still is intolerant and is a clash of civilizations. P.A. GOAL REMAINS DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL P.A. TV described abandonment as the first step in the destruction of Israel. It contends that Israel has no right to exist, because all of it is Palestine. The "educational" program described Israel as a threat to the Arab world (IMRA, 9/14 from Palestinian Media Watch). Of course all of Israel is in Palestine, but one may say that all of the P.A. and Jordan is in the Land of Israel. That those Arabs cleverly named themselves after the territory gives them no better claim to it. Why do Westerners suppose that the Arabs would trade land for peace? They did not get that notion from the Arabs, who seek ultimate conquest. People make excuses for Abbas not reigning in terrorism. Perhaps his forces are too weak for that. But they are not to weak to stop such broadcasts, if he wanted to. He has no excuse for that. Just as Kofi Annan should resign for inability to do his job properly, so should Abbas. THE SHARON-BUSH SHOW In front of witnesses, this time, PM Sharon asked Pres. Bush to release Pollard, and Bush refused. Sharon expects to get credit for trying. He and Bush were dissimulating. First, Sharon spread word that he didn't expect Bush to agree. Bush took the hint. Second, one doesn't bring up such a matter in semi-public, and put the President on the spot, if one were serious. Third, Bush would likely not have refused, after Sharon half destroyed his country to appease the US (IMRA, 9/14). How much did Sharon say in behalf of freeing him? Besides, there is a double standard, whereby the US complains falsely about Israel, and Israel is afraid to complain righteously about the US. Otherwise, Israel could make a strong case for clemency. 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. To Go To Top

TAKE BACK THE HOLY SITES Posted by Michael Freund, September 21, 2005.

This appeared in The Jerusalem Post, September 13, 2005 and is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1126578007980&p The scenes from Gaza were as ghastly as they were predictable. Energized by Israel's retreat, thousands of Palestinians wasted little time in descending on abandoned Jewish communities, torching yeshivot and bulldozing synagogues in a frenzy of hate and destruction. Among those leading the charge was none other than Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who dismissed these places of Jewish prayer and study as "empty structures" and vowed that all such buildings would be destroyed. Indeed, in the former Jewish community of Netzarim, Palestinian policemen chose not to intervene as rioters assaulted the synagogue, with one Palestinian officer telling a Western journalist: "The people have the right to do what they are doing." Shortly thereafter the PA even dispatched a bulldozer to help the mob complete the demolition. And so we were all treated to the bitter and painful irony of watching anti-Semitic mobs gleefully flattening synagogues as the Israeli army beat a hasty retreat. But this is hardly the first time our government has stood by and watched as Palestinians desecrated a place held sacred by Jews. Remember Joseph's Tomb? It was just five years ago, on October 7, 2000, that the IDF withdrew from the site under cover of darkness after a joint assault launched by Palestinian police and terrorists. The PA, of course, then agreed to protect the Tomb, but that promise quickly went up in smoke. Several hours later the burial ground of the biblical Joseph had been reduced to debris. Palestinians armed with pick-axes and hammers attacked the tomb, smashing the stone structure and ripping it apart, brick by brick. They burned Jewish prayer books and other religious articles and subsequently began transforming the site into a mosque. It was then and there, at Joseph's Tomb, just days after the start of the second intifada, that the Palestinians learned two very dangerous lessons, which continue to haunt Israel until today. First, they saw that violence pays. Israel's retreat from Joseph's Tomb was the first time Israel had fled under fire, abandoning territory to Palestinian control under threat of the gun. Secondly, the Palestinians also learned that they could deliberately assault Jewish sites of immense historical, religious or emotional significance without fear of retribution from Israel. After all, if they got away with an attack on Joseph's Tomb, why not take down a couple of abandoned synagogues in Gaza? The same holds true of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where successive Israeli governments have failed to stand up to wanton Palestinian acts of desecration. THEREIN LIES the "original sin" of various Israeli policymakers, who have consistently capitulated, retreated and withdrawn whenever the Palestinians have trampled on some of our most important national symbols. Instead of displaying some elementary Jewish pride and confronting the rioters to prevent them from torching what is holy to us, we prefer to shrug our collective shoulders, look away in shame, and hope for the best. That may have made sense when the extent of our national power was limited to community councils in the shtetls of Eastern Europe, but surviving in the modern-day Middle East requires an entirely different approach. For far too long we have inculcated in the Palestinians a sense of impunity when it comes to vandalizing or defiling Jewish holy sites, and it is time for this to change forthwith. In light of the Palestinians' behavior in Gaza this week, it should be clear to all that they cannot, must not, be entrusted with safeguarding or administering Jewish religious sites under any circumstances whatsoever. The Palestinians have once again failed to demonstrate even the modicum of decency and civility that calls for respecting houses of worship that belong to others. And so Israel should not hesitate to do what should have been done already: take back Joseph's Tomb, reassert its sovereignty over the Temple Mount, and eject the PA-controlled Muslim Wakf from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. These three sites, more than any others, symbolize our ties to this Land, and the abiding faith upon which they are based. It is time for all of them to return to sole Israeli control. Such a step would send a clear and unequivocal message to the Palestinians that there is a price to be paid for treading on Jewish religious rights and assaulting our holy sites. It would also underline Israel's determination to retain these sacred spaces in any future arrangements that might be reached. There is a limit to what a nation can be expected to tolerate when its most hallowed places repeatedly come under attack. Israel's patience reached that limit long ago. It is time we let the Palestinians know that their abuse of our heritage, and all we hold dear, will no longer be tolerated. Michael Freund served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. To Go To Top

MORE WAYS TO HELP THE GUSH KATIF VICTIMS THIS ROSH HASHANA Posted by Lee Caplan, September 21, 2005.

The unthinkable has happened and now we must regroup, recoup our strength and rebuild! IF your heart is aching for the expelled families Most of them will be spending Rosh Hashana in tents and other temporary residences. Those families went through so much sacrifice for the sake of our nation. The least we can do is let them know how much we care, respect, love and admire them. You can give them a hug of support by purchasing this package to be personally sent to families of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron. (The packages will be distributed by people who are in touch and know the whereabouts of all the uprooted families) Remember these families are simply Tzadikim they went through so much for the sake of our nation the least we can do is show them our appreciation and concern. Shana Tova TO GO TO THE GUSH KAFIF WEBSITE: click here HELPING OUR BROTHERS (For helping from outside Israel, please see end of this item) A local charity organization in Ramat Beit Shemesh has been helping our brothers who were evicted from their homes in Gush Katif, Gaza. It is amazing to hear of professionals taking time off from work to spend full days helping these people. Psychologists and social workers have gone to counsel both adults and children. People have gone to a variety of locations to assist in any way possible - packing, unpacking, schlepping, entertaining displaced children, etc., A handyman recently apologized on a local e-mail list to any customers who had been trying to reach him - he was temporarily unavailable as he was in Atzmona in Gush Katif, helping former residents dismantle their hothouses so that they could salvage as much as possible to try to rebuild their livelihoods. The residents of Gush Katif are not used to being on the receiving end. A couple of weeks ago a truck driver who delivers donated vegetables to soup kitchens was asked why that week he only had cucumbers and potatoes when he usually brought so much more than that. The driver replied, "All the other donations used to come from Gush Katif. Tons and tons. Literally ten trucks a day..." If anyone is able to contribute to the former residents of Gush Katif, who until now, had been helping to feed the poor across Israel, donations can be made through Lema'an Achai, as follows: Israel Tax Deductible Donations should be made out to "Lema'an Achai", earmarked "Gush Katif Fund", and sent to: Lema'an Achai (RBS), 40/7 Nachal Lachish, Ramat Beit Shemesh 99093, ISRAEL. Secure Online Donations: Go to: http://www.lemaanachai.org/donate.asp#Online Credit Card Donations: Call (+972-2) 999.99.33 for Credit Card Donations 24 hours a day US Dollar Check requiring US Tax Deduction: Please make checks payable to: "American Friends of Lema'an Achai"; c/o Simon Fleischer 35 West 96th St #1F New York, NY 10025 on Memo Line indicate: "Gush Katif Fund" UK Tax Deductible Donations: should be made payable to "The Jewish Aid Committee" and mailed to Lema'an Achai (RBS) in Israel. Canadian Tax Deductible Donations: should be made payable to "Shaarei Tefillah" and mailed to Lema'an Achai (RBS), 40/7 Nachal Lachish, Ramat Beit Shemesh 99093, Israel. Wanted: Temporary Housing Solutions for Expellees IF you have an empty apartment, space in a house or rooms available, please contact abejude2@bezeqint.net to put your name on a list of available housing. Please include the city and neighborhood, how many rooms and what size family can be accommodated, and for how long the space is available. Also include contact information. This is an email received 18-09-05 of current needs. REPLY TO izgnanie@yahoo.com to Gita. Thank you so very much for you offers of help. Just knowing that there are people who care, makes all the difference. As of now, the people in Ir Emuna are in need of three things: Help with construction and caravan repairs, microwaves and or toasters to give at least some independence to families as far as food is concerned, equipment for preschool/kindergarten and, of course, money donations. If you feel that you might be able to contribute, please contact me. If you have suggestions, I'll be very happy to listen. Again, thank you very much, Katherine (Gita) Weiner The following is a link to an up-to-date picture of Ir Emuna, a tent city where the expellees of Atzmona live. I went to visit on Friday and came away crying. The Government agents say that there is a solution for every evacuee. I invite you to take a tour of their solution for yourself. Judith http://www.livejournal.com /users/mishkaegli2/344.html Contributions of 275 Winter Coats for Expulsion Victims, September 14, 2005 (IsraelNN.com) A private effort by Jerusalem residents has raised money for 275 new winter jackets for former Gush Katif residents staying at Jerusalem hotels. Barbara Silverman said she and attorney Jan Sokolsky privately raised the money. She pointed out that the families from Gush Katif are not used to the hard Jerusalem winters. All of their possessions are in containers in the south, and many families do not know the location of their container. The two women still are raising money for more winter clothing, winter shoes and prayer books for the upcoming Jewish holidays. They also need volunteers to take groups of children away from confining hotel rooms and to parks. Contributions can be made by contacting the women at (02) 623-2548 or (02) 566-6388 Clothes, small appliances and gifts for the holidays!! There are people around the country canvassing local clothing, shoe and small appliance shops to invite them to join an ever growing list of shops that offer discounts to people expelled from their homes. Many of these shop owners give 20% discounts to start and then reduce their profit even more or add in extras. The next time you go into a shop, please invite them to join the list of Tzadikim that are lending a hand to the evacuees. Send the information to: abejude2@bezeqint.net include name of owner, telephone number, address, discount and type of goods BEWARE OF MISSIONARIES!! In these trying days, there are Christian missionary groups trying to take advantage of the plight of the newly homeless evacuees. There have been attempts to befriend, support, feed and clothe the unsuspecting evacuees, attempting to win first their trust and confidence and then.... G-d Forbid. BEWARE and BE WARY OF PHILANTHROPIC GROUPS THAT ARE NOT LOCALLY RECOGNIZED. Collecting small electrical appliances for the evacuees of Gadid, currently located in the Neveh Ilan Hotel outside of Jerusalem. (Hot water kettles, coffeemakers, mini fridges, radios tapes, Discman, small game computers for kids, etc.) Please call Vivian: 0544-769520 BEDDING NEEDED FOR KIDS IN DORMITORIES Many Gush Katif children have started dormitory schools. There is an urgent need to provide them with bedding, sheets, blankets and pillows. (Their own things are locked away in containers at some unknown location!) Please contact Shimon, (formerly of Neveh Dekalim) 0528-313451 DONATE Mini-bar fridges - only 200 shekels each, direct from importer! 46 Mini-bar fridges have been donated to the evacuees at the Shaarei Yerushalayim Hotel, 25 to the Shalom hotel. * More are needed for the rooms that do not have a mini fridge where people continue to stay for some months. Each fridge costs ONLY 200 shekels direct from the importer! If you can donate to this important cause please contact the importer 03-634-8866 to order and pay for these "mini-bars" and co-ordinate sending them directly to Yochai (formerly Neveh Dekalim) at Shalom Hotel: 0507-673427 Computers urgently needed for Gadid evacuees residing in Neveh Ilan. If you can lend or donate please contact Shmuel: 0523-350590 (Pisgat Ze'ev) Hotel contact people: If you want to be in direct contact with expelled families, below are some telephone numbers of the representatives of the various hotels: Youth coordinator Neveh Dekalim (from all the hotels): Asher- 0547-446240 Family representative Shaarei Yerushalayim Hotel (Neveh Dekalim plus): Shimon- 0528-313451 Family representative Shalom hotel (Neveh Dekalim plus): Yochai-0507-673472 Family representative Kfar Nofesh Ashkelon (Neveh Dekalim): Moshe-0507-363018 Activities coordinator of Bnei Menashe: Ilana - 0545-236417 JERUSALEM Jerusalem Gate Hotel, 43 Yirmiyahu St.: Karni Barak, 052-3242707. Jerusalem Gold Hotel, 234 Jaffa Road: Ohad Michael, 054-4758457. Caesar Jerusalem Hotel, 208 Jaffa Road: Eyal Meron, 054-7201753. Hyatt Regency Jerusalem Hotel, 32 Lehi St.: Ofer Lerner, 052-8555058. ASHKELON Ashkelon Village, 2 Moshe Dorot St.: Lior Gabai, 054-2009099 & Ran Goldstein, 054-7481500. King Saul Hotel, 29 Harekefet St.: Maya Jacobs, 052-3861615. BE'ER SHEVA Paradise Negev Hotel, 4 Henrietta Szold: Inbal Ginsburg, 050-8211761.   Hotel Number of Families Former Community Paradise Beer Sheva 94 Kfar Darom (72)+few from B'Dolach, Netzer Chazani, Netsarim, eveh Dekalim, Dugit, Nisanit, Ganei Tal, Morag, S'lav, Rafiach Yam Nitsan 150-200 Elei Sinai, B'Dolach, Gadid, Nisanit, Gan Or Mavki'im 28 Pe'at Sadeh (18)Rafiach Yam, (1)Morag Carmiah 28 Nisanit 914), Elei Sinai (14) Even Shmuel 23 Tel Katifa Yad Mordechai field 36+20 Elei Sinai Shaarei Avraham 10 S'lav Ir HaEmunah 35 Atzmona Shavei Shomron 14 Sa-Nur, Chomesh Alon Shvut 16 Shirat HaYam Ofra 20 Morag Neveh Ilan 35 Gadid Ariel 77 Netsarim Reich- J-lem 8 Gadid Elah resident- J-lem 10 Neveh Dekalim Hyatt, J-lem 54 Neveh Dekalim Gold, j-lem 60 Neveh Dekalim Shalom, J-lem 51 Neveh Dekalim Caesar, J-lem 23 Neveh Dekalim Shaarei Yerushalayim 39 Neveh Dekalim Kfar Nofesh Ashkelon 72 Neveh Dekalim Shirat HaYam Ashkelon 45 B'Dolach, Elei Sinai, Nisanit, Morag Kerem B Yavneh 13 Gan Or Chafetz Chayim 75 Ganei Tal Apartments in Ashkelon 70 Nisanit Shalabim 65 Atzmona King Saul Ashkelon 30 Neveh Dekalim kibbutz Yavneh 8 GanOR, Netzer Chazani, Neveh Dekalim Avia, Yehud 2 Nisanit Hof Yarok hotel, Netanya 39 Chomesh(30) Netzer Chazani (1) Neveh Dekalim (1) Sa-Nur (2) Ganim (3) Kadim (1)- Eden Inn, Zichron Yaakov 3 Chomesh (2) Neveh Dekalim (1) Bustan HaGalil, Ashrat and Ameka 13 Nisanit (9) Rafiach Yam (1) Dugit (3) Chispin ~-70 Netzer Chazani + Ganei Tal (1) Kfar Pines ~- 60 Katif Upper Nazereth 74 Neveh Dekalim (48) Kerem Atzmona (18) Gan Or (6) S'lav (1) Netzer Chazani (1) (Torat Chayim Yeshiva) Yeshiva Neveh Dekalim needs seforim and shelves To give or lend, please contact Tzachi: 0545504557 Most of the following articles from A7 deal with the disengagement, including reports on how some of the refugees are faring, reports on the security fears and horrors that have resulted from the disengagement, one effect the disengagement has had on the children, the continued orange phobia of the authorities in Israel, and the conversion of a desecrated Shul to a Hamas museum. Finally, I have included an article about an Arab provacation in Hebron which shows how at the same time that the Israeli authorities will go to great lengths to destroy Jewish settlements and hilltops, they generally allow the Arabs to do whatever they want. No Solution for Moshav Katif By Hillel Fendel Some 60 homeless Moshav Katif families still have no place to go. Currently housed in a high school dormitory in the north, their hopes to move to a students' village in the south have been dashed. Upon their eviction from northern Gush Katif a month ago, the families were welcomed to the Kfar Pines Ulpanah Girls High School near Hadera. "The high school has been exceedingly generous and welcoming," said one resident. "They have given us an office, and even more impressively, the senior year girls are sleeping outside in tents, while our families are using their dorm rooms." But it's not quite home, and as the weeks wear on, the situation is becoming harder. "Our jobs and our schools are in the south, not here," said one resident, Chaim Ben-Aryeh. "It's very hard to live with such uncertainty, and with two dormitory rooms for each family, and traveling back and forth to the south, and the like. Our children are also in-between, studying in the meanwhile in a day-camp style school that we have set up here for ourselves. It's hard to say that it's a real school..." (pictured: the park in Moshav Katif built in memory of resident Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, who were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Gush Katif in May 2004) They were originally informed that they would be relocated two hours to the south, in Eibim, where students of the nearby Negev College reside. This was to be a solution for the coming few months, with the Negev students being housed in Sderot, a five-minute walk from their place of study instead of the current three kilometers. The Katif residents, on the other hand, would be able to plan for their next stage of life with some semblance of normalcy. The small apartments in Eibim are very small, roughly a third of the size of many of the homes the displaced Katif residents worked 25 years to build - but the Katif people welcomed them with open arms. The arrangement was abruptly canceled two weeks ago, however, just a couple of days before it was to be implemented, by the Jewish Agency - despite its own previous consent. The stated reason: hardship for the students who would be moved to Sderot. The residents do not accept this explanation. "The clear impression is that the authorities wish to do all they can to break up our communities," Chaim said. "Despite the social workers' and psychologists' well-known recommendations to keep our communities intact in order to help us weather this crisis, there are simply too many cases where the government can't seem to find communal solutions for us and for other Gush Katif communities. They are trying to break us, but we won't be broken - though it is very hard." The residents have awaited a final answer on the issue for the past two weeks, but the Prime Minister's Office cannot seem to come up with one. "Ilan Cohen [head of the PM's bureau] seems to want to help," Chaim said, "but the fact is that at this point, all indications are that the answer will be no." Arutz-7: "What are your plans, in that case?" Chaim: "I hope very much that we will not split up into different groups, with many of us going separate ways. Until now, we have been able to retain our cohesiveness very impressively - only about 10 of our 70 families are not here with us in Kfar Pines. But the question is, how long can it last. "Tonight, we have a very important meeting, with a couple of options on the table. One possibility is that we will join the Atzmona 'City of Faith' encampment near Netivot [in the Negev], and live in tents. Another option is to move to Yad Binyamin with families from N'vei Dekalim, and a third option is for some of us to move into small apartments in Ashkelon... I very much hope that we will decide to stay together, but this is far from certain. "In any event, it's important to remember that this is still just another temporary stage, as we still have no idea where our permanent community will be built. There is talk of moving to the Lachish region near Kiryat Gat and southern Judea, but this is still 2-3 years away - and will probably involve moving yet again while the permanent solution is being built." Destroyed Communities Update By Hillel Fendel Residents of some former Gush Katif communities finally know where their next temporary location will be. Final answers are still a long way off. Shirat HaYam: Thirteen families from the former seaside Gush Katif community of Shirat HaYam have decided to turn their personal tragedy into a national opportunity, and will start a new community in the northern Jordan Valley. The site of the new Jewish presence: Maskiyot, near Shadmot Meholah, south of Beit She'an. The families are set to move there one month from now. They are still seven families short of a new community, however, according to the rules of the Disengagement's Evacuation-Compensation Law. With the help of the Amanah Settlement Organization and the Jordan Valley Regional Council, they are hoping to find seven additional families from among the other Gush Katif or northern Shomron expellees, or from elsewhere in Israel. Shirat HaYam numbered over 30 families at the time of its destruction a month ago, but almost half of these were newcomers who came to shore up the ranks in the weeks preceding the expulsion. They were originally taken to Kedumim on the day they were thrown out of their homes, and later moved to Alon Shvut, where they are currently living. Netzarim: The residents are still living on the campus of the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, and the town's yeshiva - Yeshivat Netzer Mata'ai - has opened there for the meanwhile. In the near future, they will move to the Halutza area, south of Gaza, to start a new community, close to the new one being established by former residents of Atzmonah. "Our goal is to build a new bloc of communities like Gush Katif," said Shlomit of Netzarim, "with Torah, agriculture, idealism, and communal cohesiveness." It is possible that several families will remain in Ariel for a year to form a Torah core-group there; this will be decided in the coming days. Kfar Darom: Though the families have agreed to move into a 19-story apartment building in Ashkelon, it is not clear when they will actually do so, as many government permits have not yet been finalized. The government purchased the structure specifically to house the former Kfar Daromites, and will it sell it back to its builder 2-3 years from now. Kfar Darom spokesman Asher Mivtzari notes that it will serve not only for residency, but will also house the community's synagogue, school, yeshiva, community center, and the like. A decision on where the Kfar Darom people will live permanently is still far off. Netzarim Synagogue to Become Hamas Museum, September 21, 2005 (IsraelNN.com) The synagogue building of the destroyed Jewish town of Netzarim in Gush Katif is set to become a temporary museum, displaying weapons used by the Islamic Hamas terrorist organization. The Izz A-Din Al-Kassam Brigades of the group are planning a three-day exhibition of military hardware beginning on Saturday. The exhibition, according to Hamas announcements, will include "all the material... that expelled the occupation from the Gaza Strip." Included among the displays will be rockets and suicide bomber equipment. New Game in Yesha: Cops and Settlers By Hillel Fendel Children of Judea/Samaria towns have come up with a new game, in which they play out the evacuations they've seen in Gush Katif and northern Shomron -and that they fear may occur in their own towns. The rules of the game are straightforward, reports Arutz-7's Yedidyah Cohen. One group of children plays the policemen, while the others are civilians who must be expelled. The first group tries to remove the others, while the latter do everything they can to interfere. The "policemen" begin by running after the "residents," and then call out to one of them, "Stop!" or sometimes, "Stop, Jew!" If the latter does not stop, which often occurs, several "police" children run after him and try to surround him. If the "police" manage to come close, the pursued lies on the ground and refuses to leave. He is then given a choice: to leave on his own, or to resist forcefully and be dragged out. Unsurprisingly, the latter choice is the more popular. Symbolically, there are often no winners in the game. Cries such as "Bring the paddy wagon!" or "Look me in the eyes; how can a Jew evict a Jew?!" often accompany different parts of the game. IDF Quits Northern Shomron By Hillel Fendel The IDF has withdrawn the last of its forces from the areas of the four destroyed Shomron communities - Ganim and Kadim near Jenin, and Chomesh and Sa-Nur in northwestern Shomron. The final stage of the withdrawal from these areas will be the dismantling of the Menashe Brigade Headquarters at the Dotan Camp, scheduled for tomorrow. A month ago, the Palestinian Authority para-military forces in the region were enhanced by the addition of some 700 armed men - said to be in preparation for Israel's abandonment of the area. Israeli security sources are now expressing concern that terrorist activity in the area will increase. Two Israeli communities, Dotan and Hermesh, are located in the area. The Hamas terror organization has announced plans to step up its terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria (Shomron), concentrating on independent and well-trained cells perpetrating high-casualty attacks. The northern Shomron area will now be closed to the entry of all Israelis, but will remain under Israeli security control. "The army completed removing everything it could from the area," reported Arutz-7's Kobi Finkler, "taking away all its watchtowers and electronic equipment and the like, as well as burying the synagogue in Sa-Nur. The army will continue its patrols in the region, but will not enter the communities that were destroyed." Finkler reported that on Monday, Arab terrorists fired from within the area at a house in Ram-On, which lies on the pre-'67 side of the Green Line. In other security news, it has now been confirmed that hundreds of rifles and much ammunition were transported from Egypt into Gaza last week, under the noses of Egyptian and PA security forces. So said IDF Intelligence Research Chief Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today. He said that it is also possible that anti-tank rockets were brought in. He said, however, that long-range rockets such as Katyushas and Strellas were not smuggled in, and that the "balance of power" in Gaza was not disrupted. Security Chief: Judea, Samaria Next Terrorist Base, September 21, 2005 (IsraelNN.com) Israel Security Agency Director (Shin Bet) Yuval Diskin told journalists Wednesday that terrorists are trying to set up weapons factories in Jenin, in central Samaria, and in Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. Their intentions are to make the areas centers of terrorist activity, he explained. Diskin also said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) for all intents and purposes does not function in the Gaza region. He said terrorists from Hamas and other gangs exploited the chaos after the IDF withdrawal and brought in from Egypt 3,000 rifles, 1,500,000 bullets, rocket propelled grenades and hundreds pounds of explosives. Terrorists will try to bring the arms and ammunition to Judea and Samaria, Diskin stated. He said there is no proof that terrorists brought in more sophisticated missiles but he could not rule out the possibility. Diskin also warned Israelis to stay out of the Sinai Peninsula because of the threat of terrorist attacks. Orange Still a Forbidden Color in the IDF, September 21, 2005 / 17 Elul 5765 (IsraelNN.com) Today is the military induction date for the students of the Hesder yeshivas, combining advanced Talmud studies with army service. A group of the new recruits who were wearing orange shirts were told by commanders at the IDF induction center that they would have to put on another layer of clothing or take off the shirts. Avner, one of the recruits, told an Arutz-7 correspondent that in some cases, the "offending" orange shirts did not even have any text on them at all. Arabs Establish Outpost on Hevron's Ancient Jewish Cemetery, Sep 21, 2005 / 17 Elul 5765, By Ezra HaLevi In a provocation aimed at Hevron's Jewish community, Arabs in Hevron have put down two trailers on one of the ancient city's Jewish cemeteries. Hevron's Jewish community awoke Wednesday morning to discover that two caravan trailer homes had been placed on an ancient Jewish Ashkenazi cemetery frequented by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement due to the fact that Menucha Rochel, the grand daughter of the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, is buried there. The cemetery had been destroyed during the years following the violent riots in 1929 during which Jews were thrown out of the city. It is now an empty area where Arab residents frequently throw garbage and refuse, with the grave of Menucha Rochel refurbished and cared for by a Chabad kollel [full-time Torah study group] that studies at the site daily. The Jewish community re-purchased the entire area of the cemetery years ago, but has not built anything on the site, which is now the border between the city's H1 area, controlled by the Palestinian Authority - and the H2 area, under IDF control. The caravans placed on the cemetery are on the PA-controlled H1 side, however, and the Civil Administration, which usually acts to prevent unauthorized Jewish building, refuses to do anything to remove the structures. Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

ISRAEL AND THE KATRINA BLAME GAME Posted by Cinnamon Stillwell, September 20, 2005.

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, it became popular in the mainstream media and certainly on the Bush-bashing side of the political spectrum to engage in what's become known as "the blame game." While deficiencies at every level of government (and particularly that of the local and state response in Louisiana) were part of the problem, rational Americans now understand that there's no magic cure for hurricane relief. We did the best we could and hopefully lessons will be learned for the future. The outpouring of generosity and support from everyday Americans is certainly the most inspiring. But the one place the blame game still seems to be in high gear is pro-Israel websites and publications. As someone who contributes to and follows such publications, I've noticed a disturbing preponderance of articles since Hurricane Katrina, not expressing genuine sympathy for the victims, but rather claiming that the devastation was punishment from God. Angry at the Bush administration for supporting Israel's disengagement plan, such writers are taking the blame America road. A popular tactic in these articles is to repeat a certain Condoleezza Rice quote ad nauseum in an effort to inflame the passions of those who feel the disengagement was only a precursor to further territorial concessions. While I suspect as much myself, I'm willing to admit when a falsehood has gained currency among my peers. And this is exactly what's happened with the alleged Condoleezza Rice quote. In an interview with the NY Times, Rice was quoted as saying that "it could not just be Gaza," the implication being that the Bush administration would insist that Israel give up more land in the future. But as demonstrated last month in a CAMERA article, the NY Times took the quote completely out of context. They purposely distorted her words to make it sound as if she were bossing Israel around and judging by the continued usage of the debunked Rice quote by pro-Israel writers, they succeeded. The liberal media strikes again and Israel's supporters have fallen for it. In what is perhaps the one similarity to the Muslim countries surrounding it, some Israelis seem to think they can blame all their problems on someone else, namely the United States. And somehow this absolves them of their own responsibility. But Israel is a sovereign country with a democratic system and ultimately only its citizens are responsible for the actions of their government. Although many Americans expressed their opposition to the disengagement, in the end it wasn't up to them. So when Sharon, much of the Knesset, and some portion of Israel's population decided to go down the path of disengagement, they made their choice. That the residents of the vacated settlements and their supporters opposed this decision is well known and respected. But now would be the time to funnel that opposition into a political movement that can go forward, rather than backwards down the road of blame. If there's anything Israel will need in the coming years, it's the will to survive. This will take all of her supporters contributing, not turning on each other. Dealing with hostility from other countries is nothing new for Americans these days, but some of us are starting to find the Israel/Hurricane Katrina blame game rather tiresome. Like the partisanship and racial demagoguery following the disaster in our own country, it's tasteless and mean-spirited. Not to mention arrogant. Who among us speaks for God? Christian organizations putting out articles claiming that Katrina was God's wrath for the decadence of New Orleans are doing a similar disservice. That Bible belt Mississippi bore the brunt of the storm doesn't seem to matter to them. But since this is an argument that's essentially unprovable, it's rather difficult to debate. Then of course, there are the raving Islamists invoking Allah's anger against the "unbelievers" in the West. As Senior Kuwaiti official Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi put it, "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah." But we've come to expect lunacy and maliciousness from such quarters. It's when it emanates from allies that it hurts. To be fair, some Jewish writers and rabbis have denounced this practice, as have those on the Christian side of the spectrum. And there were many sympathetic words directed towards the victims of Hurricane Katrina, not to mention the Israeli government's generous offer of assistance, in the days following. But the blame game articles still keep coming. Whether or not one was opposed to the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and America's role in it, using tragedy to exploit each other's weaknesses will only tear us apart. The suicidal left in both America and Israel is already hard at work trying to do just that. Let's not help them by dissolving into fractiousness at just the time we need unity. Cinnamon Stillwell is a Bay Area-based columnist for SFGate.com and Frontpagemag.com. She can be reached at cinnamonstillwell@yahoo.com. To Go To Top

PLEASE FEED DESPERATE ISRAELI CHILDREN FOR THE HOLIDAYS, MEIR PANIM Posted by Arutz-Shevah, September 20, 2005.

While you are reading this desperate appeal... Meir Panim is busy feeding more than 15,900 hungry, malnourished and infirm Jewish people... of which are children... every single day. Over 10,000 TODAY - including 2000 Gush Katif children! Fact: 22% of Israel's population is living below the poverty line. Fact: 1/3 (one third) of all Israeli children live below the poverty line. That means more than 711,000 children go hungry each and every day!!! Fact: Poverty strikes children hardest, with lack of warm clothing, basic school supplies and worst of all, food. Fact: they go to school or kindergarten with empty lunch bags, looking on sadly as their more affluent friends enjoy nourishing hot school lunches priced beyond their families' slender means. Meir Panim provides nourishing, hot food to needy kindergartens and elementary school-children as well as older people who are in need. These meals satisfy the children's hunger and preserve their health, restoring their spirits - and their smiles. Fact: There's very little joy in the life of hungry child. Fact: for just $2 Meir Panim can provide a hungry child with a nutritious, warm meal. The smiles created by your thoughtf ulness will be tribute to your generosity and love for the children of Israel. Latest Report on Israeli Poverty in the News: Hunger is going from bad to worse fast! Learn more how you can help! Visit us on our website by clicking here. To Go To Top

NOSTALGIA FOR THE IMAGINED; THE CHARMED LIFE OF ARAB BIGOTRY Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 20, 2005.

NOSTALGIA FOR WHAT DIDN'T EXIST Mingled in with a report of the looting and destruction by Arab mobs in Gaza, are statements by Arabs about the joy of newfound freedom and nostalgia for the "unspoiled dunes" now replaced by spoiled ruins (Steven Erlanger, NY Times, 9/13, A1). Ever the pro-Arab propagandist! On what basis is there talk of newfound freedom by an Arab whose own regime is a brutal despotism that replaced the humane Israeli one? The Times is reinforcing its anti-Zionist policy by giving the impression that Gaza is inherently Arab. Truth is, the Jewish people have a better claim to the Territory. One might reply that the world does not recognize their claim. To cease to recognize the Jewish claim, the world has had to forget international law and history, formerly recognized. In a dispute between the Jews and the rest of the world, one might bear in mind that this is the world of war and genocide, a world of money and power. The Jews don't receive much of the latter, are afflicted with plenty of the former. "Unspoiled dunes" is an interesting reference. Just as Palestine as a whole, under ruinous Muslim rule, was notoriously not the land of milk and honey it was under Jewish rule, so, too, Gaza was known for being inhospitable to agriculture, under Muslim rule, but gaining fame for its bug-free and organic produce, under Israeli rule. The Arabs tend toward nostalgia for what they didn't have. I've mentioned the joke about every Palestinian Arab refugee family lamenting the loss of a villa, whereas most of them were sharecroppers or poor peasants. The U.S. & THE UNO While the news continues on about UNO oil-for-food corruption and funding of anti-Israel propaganda, the US has reduced the rate of interest on a loan it is offering the UNO or construction of a new headquarters. It seems odd to offer scarce tax dollars to such an institution. Why doesn't it borrow from a bank, if it is creditworthy, and not from the US? (NY Sun, 9/13, Ed..) The UNO held a summit on reform. The majority opposes real reform, as in defining terrorism meaningfully. It wants to gain control over the Security Council, which would enervate it. They referred points of disagreement to a future conference (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 9/13, p.6). Mass-membership would defeat the Council's function of being streamlined for swift action. The Security Council, however, already is neutralized by big power rivalry on it. What did FDR think would happen, when he invited the USSR onto it, with veto power? So much for UNO reform. ISRAEL TO YOUR RESCUE An Israeli company peering into the future (something Israeli governments don't do) anticipates a major hacker attack on cell phones. The company has been developing software to protect cell phones from viruses (Arutz-7, 9/12). What are governments doing about hackers? What anti-social, vandalistic neurosis motivates hackers? ARABS CALL ISRAEL'S BLUFF The IDF claimed to have devised a system for defending Israel from terrorism from post-withdrawal Gaza. Israel's leaders threatened severe reprisals against any P.A. terrorism. The Arabs have launched rockets at Israeli towns, without any reprisals (IMRA, 9/12). NEW LEFTIST TACTIC AGAINST ISRAEL Anti-Zionists, Jewish and gentile, have devised a tactic of harassment against individual Israeli military officers. It arranges to have them arrested in Europe on (false) complaints of war crimes. In Israel, the seditious organization, Yesh Gvul, is organizing the effort. Yesh Gvul has tried to induce Israeli soldiers to refuse patrol duty in Yesha. That is a real crime. The Attorney-Generals of Israel, being leftist themselves and lacking political integrity, do not prosecute the organizations (Prof. Steven Plaut, 9/13). The P.A. Arabs commit war crimes daily. Why doesn't Yesh Gvul seek to have them arrested? DOES P.A. RESPECT HOLY PLACES? The P.A. claims it respects holy places, including those of Judaism. Its record speaks otherwise. Its people's destruction of abandoned synagogues reflects general intolerance and violence. The P.A. government has been destroying Jewish relics on the Temple Mount. The Arabs destroyed Joseph's Tomb, in Judea-Samaria, when Israeli troops withdrew its protection. The P.A. promised to rebuild it, but built a mosque on the site, instead. The Arabs, in control of Jericho, destroyed an ancient synagogue there. P.A. Arabs have been attacking Rachel's Tomb for years. When Jordan took over the Old City of Jerusalem in 1949, it destroyed all 58 synagogues and used Jewish gravestones as paving stones. Jordan denied Jewish worshippers access to the Temple Mount and to the cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. (When I refer to "Arabs," I mean Muslim Arabs unless otherwise specified.) The world does not complain about this violent intolerance and desecration. What would it say if the Jewish state destroyed mosques, even ones used for warfare? (IMRA, 9/13 from ZOA.) The Muslim Arabs also harm Christian Churches and persecute Christians. Islam is exclusivist. THE CHARMED LIFE OF ARAB BIGOTRY First the Muslim Arabs murdered their pregnant relative. Next they went on a rampage against the whole village where the male counterpart lives. The P.A. still holds the male counterpart in its torture chambers. On a broader scale, the P.A. is complicit with Muslim gangs that coerce Christian owners of real estate to abandon their property. "The campaign of persecution has succeeded. Even as the Christian population of Israel grows, that of the P.A. shrinks precipitously. Bethlehem and Nazareth, historic Christian towns for nearly two millennia, are now primarily Muslim. In 1922, Christians outnumbered Muslims in Jerusalem; today, Christians amount to a mere 2% of that city's population." (Nazareth is in Israel. How does Pipes account for its Christian decline?) "'Is Christian life liable to be reduced to empty church buildings and a congregation-less hierarchy with no flock as the birthplace of Christianity?'" If the mainline Protestant Churches weren't obsessed with trying to get the innocent Jews ousted, too, they could help preserve their co-religionists in the P.A.. (Daniel Pipes, NY sun, 9/13, p.6). Their hatred of Jews surpasses their love of fellow Christians. Their blindness to injustice impels them to perpetrate and condone injustice. Muslim Arab bigotry leads a charmed life. If the Jewish state were forced to cede the Old City and then be conquered, what do the Protestants think would be the fate of Christianity's holiest Mideastern sites? Note the kind of police work in which the P.A. engages, the brutality in which the Arabs indulge, the murder they condone, and the bigotry they embrace! 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. To Go To Top

THE LEADERSHIP OF THE NATIONAL CAMP LED US LIKE SHEEP TO THE DEPORTATION Posted by Nadia Matar, September 20, 2005.

Mourning. Sorrow. Pain. Suffering. Disappointment. And mainly much ANGER. These are the emotions that stir within me in these difficult times. Emotions so fierce and profound, emotions that consume me from within, and rend the heart and soul. Our feelings of sorrow and mourning are for an area so marvelous, so beautiful and blooming, that we abandoned and discarded. The mind cannot absorb how we handed over those portions of the homeland to the Arab enemy so facilely, the Arab enemy who celebrates on the rooftops and wholeheartedly thanks Ariel Sharon. Everyone from Hamas understands now that there is no need for an heir apparent to Sheikh Yassin, when there is Ariel Sharon who, better than any Arab terrorist, implements the work of destroying Jewish settlements. Feelings of pain for the suffering and anguish that the wicked Sharon Government has caused the families of the refugees. Let us not deceive ourselves: the Sela Administration's cruel abuse of the Gush Katif and Samaria refugees is not a sorry mistake. This is intentional and planned abuse. We must understand, once and for all, that the deportation of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria is the first step towards the eradication of all Jewish settlement in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, with the goal of eliminating the entire national camp, and ensuring that it will not ever come to power in the country. In other words: the disengagement plan is the continuation of the Saison (when members of the Irgun and Lehi were seized by the "organized Yishuv" and given over to the British authorities) - the left's persecution of the national camp with the aim of retaining power. Accordingly, the last thing that the Sharon regime wants is for the refugees to reorganize in cohesive and strong communities. The main task of the Sela Administration, headed by Yonatan Bassi, is to ensure that every family of refugees suffers and totally disintegrates, both mentally and financially. The only comfort in this sorry spectacle is the wonderful spontaneous organizing of Jews throughout the country who work day and night to aid our uprooted brethren. As a first step in our war against the Sharon regime, we must ensure that the Gush Katif and northern Samaria community remains together and reestablishes itself as united settlements, specifically in Judea and Samaria, in spite of the Sharon government. But after the tears, the frustration, and the pain, my strongest emotion is anger. Anger, because I know that we did not have to come to such a situation at all. Anger, because I know that we were capable of preventing the destruction. Anger, because we let them, with such ease, raze our settlements from the face of the earth and crush us under foot, as if we were locusts and bugs. Anger at our leaders who gave Gush Katif and Samaria away on a silver platter, without any real effective resistance. Let's state this outright: the Jewish Leadership led us all - against our will - like sheep to the deportation. Those certain rabbis and public figures, together with most of the leaders of the Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, who fanatically champion the fascist approach of "the State and the army above all" - even if the State and the army commit crimes against humanity - are the ones who enabled Sharon to commit the malicious crime. Every rabbi, public figure, member of Knesset, or member of the Council of Jewish Settlements who did not expressly call upon the soldiers and policemen to refuse to obey the racist transfer order - legitimized the crime, and, in essence, collaborated with the deportation machine. Every rabbi, public figure, member of Knesset, or member of the Council of Jewish Settlements who forbade our wonderful youth from sabotaging the machinery and vehicles used in the deportation, in essence legitimized the crime and collaborated with the deportation machine. Every rabbi, public figure, member of Knesset, or member of the Council of Jewish Settlements who opposed roadblocking and nonviolent civil disobedience; legitimized the crime, and, in essence, collaborated with Sharon's anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing machine. Every rabbi, public figure, member of Knesset, or member of the Council of Jewish Settlements who decided to make do with symbolic protests, instead of forcibly breaking through the fences at Kfar Maimon and the Kissufim checkpoints, in order to bring to Gush Katif the tens of thousands who would have physically prevented the deportation with their bodies, legitimized the crime of expulsion, and, in essence, collaborated with Sharon and the band of Oslo criminals around him. Every rabbi, public figure, member of Knesset, or member of the Council of Jewish Settlements who was more concerned about his image in the state media than he was for Eretz Israel; legitimized the crime, and, in essence, brought the destruction nearer and made it possible. Every rabbi, public figure, member of Knesset, or member of the Council of Jewish Settlements who embraced the soldiers and policemen instead of preaching to them, or even engaged with the deportation forces in the macabre dance of the victim with the hangman, broadcast to the world the message that the deportation is really not that awful, spared the soldiers and police guilt feelings, and thereby aided the racist transfer. To all those who tell me that even if all our leadership were strong and brave, and had shaken off the galut (Diaspora) mentality of the Council of Jewish Settlements and followed strong rabbis, such as Rabbi Schapira, Rabbi Melamed, and Rabbi Lior, and in each and every settlement thousands had taken a stand, like the heroes of Kfar Darom on the roof of the synagogue, even then Ariel Sharon would have succeeded in annihilating Gush Katif and northern Samaria - I respond: Possibly, but it would not have come to pass so easily. Datyah Yitzhaki, a resident of Kfar Yam and the head of the Kela Administration (Absorption for the Gaza Region), who is currently living with her family, as refugees, with us in Efrat, told me an appropriate story: "Once there was a Jew in a Jewish village in Poland who ate all the time. He was extremely fat, but he did not stop eating day and night. One day his friends came to him and asked him what was the meaning of all this. Why did he eat incessantly and turn himself into such a fat person. The Jew told them: "When I was a little boy, the Cossacks came and killed my father. Then they burned his body, but because he was so small and thin, the fire burnt for only a few seconds. I eat and eat to make sure that if the Cossacks come back, then when they burn me, there will be such a big fire that it will go on for hours, and all the world will see this horror." I am angry at the intolerable ease with which our leaders gave up on Gush Katif and northern Samaria: all in all, just a few hours of resistance in each settlement, less determined resistance than there was at Yamit. This is simply unreasonable. Yes, even if we had taken all possible measures, such as mass refusal to obey orders, civil disobedience, bringing tens of thousands, and the like, Sharon the bulldozer might possibly still have succeeded. In my humble opinion, he would not have been successful. But even if he had, we would at least have managed to turn this into something so traumatic and horrendous that no leader in Israel would ever again dare to commit such a crime. But our Jewish leadership preferred restraint, kowtowing, and love for those who committed the crime. There was no desecration of the Name of G-d so great. And as a result, all the newspapers celebrate, and those who implemented the deportation say that they are ready to continue. Just as we can hardly complain about a rapist who continues to rape a victim who does not oppose the crime with all her might, and even embraces the criminal - so, too, we can hardly complain about the leftists who write in the press that "the work of deportation was implemented so easily; there probably won't be any problem to deport the rest of the settlers in Judea and Samaria." In summation: the struggle for the Land of Israel is not a struggle for one specific settlement or another. This is a struggle for the character of the State of Israel. Will the Jews rule here, or the Hellenists? We are only at the beginning of the struggle. We took a severe blow, but we are not defeated. On the contrary. We must remember that we, the national camp, have a great public that is devoted and loyal to the people, the Land, and the Torah. We have wonderful youth who are ready to struggle with all their strength for our future here, and who cannot wait to return and liberate Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, and take over the leadership in Israel. What must we do to ensure that we will no longer be defeated? First, we must demand that the deportation criminals be put on trial. "Indict the Deportation Criminals" is the slogan that we should spread throughout the land. Second, we must ensure that our "Jewish Leadership who led the struggle until now will not be permitted to lead any longer. For if they continue, we can already start packing in Efrat, Beitar, Maale Adumim, Ariel, and Gilo in Jerusalem. After we install new leadership for the national camp, we will be able to focus on our main mission: taking the reigns of government in Israel, and turning it into a truly Jewish Government, one that is not afraid to proclaim: "All the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel in accordance with the Torah of Israel." In short, we must not despair. Our work is cut out for us. We must help rehabilitate our uprooted brothers and sisters and ensure that they reestablish strong and cohesive communities, specifically in Judea and Samaria. We must put the deportation criminals on trial. We must send home our failed mamlakhti leadership. We must establish a true Jewish leadership that will take power and direct Israel in a Jewish spirit. With G-d's help the Jewish People shall prevail! Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

DISENGAGEMENT II Posted by Women in Green, September 20, 2005.

This was written by Gary Cooperberg Now that Ariel Sharon has succeeded in imposing his personal solution upon his disappointed electorate, you can bet that he will never get re-elected. Although much harm was done (which he is already compounding by his absurd attempts to justify his actions), there can arise some good from this mess. What we need is an entirely different leadership which is not afraid to use Sharon's mistakes to begin a process of restructuring Israel into the Jewish State it was always meant to be. This process may take a long time to accomplish, but we must start somewhere. Sharon already set the precedent that, for peace, and for the good of the country, it is acceptable for a government to arbitrarily and unilaterally expel whole communities from parts of our country in order to physically separate Jews from Arabs. Stage one was Gaza first. What we need now, before the next elections, is a candidate who is not afraid to run on the platform that stage two is to remove all Arabs in Israel into Gaza. Clearly this is not a "racist" suggestion, rather the natural follow up to the "disengagement" which Sharon has already begun with the approval of the Knesset. When Bibi gave 80% of Hebron to the PLO not one Jew was included in that part of Hebron. While he loves to talk about reciprocity, he neglected to give them all the Arabs from our 20%. Now is the time to finish that arrangement as well. This is not meant to be a final agreement, rather a temporary step until we can realize a permanent solution. Let it be stated, clearly and unequivocally, that all of Gaza; all of Hebron; all of Bethlehem; all of Jericho; all of Judea and Samaria; and all of the so called "State of Jordan" belong to the Jewish State. Since these areas are presently occupied by foreigners, we will tolerate this occupation for as long as there is no terror. We do want to live in peace. We know for certain that all of these lands will eventually return to us and we will never recognize foreign sovereignty there, but we will not arbitrarily repossess them. But just as no Jew is living in so called "Jordan" or in areas controlled by the PLO, it is only proper to reciprocate and remove all Arabs in Israel to these places where they can identify with their own culture. If, after this relocation is completed, we are able to live in peace and security, we will accept this temporary situation until Moshiach comes and sorts things out. If, on the other hand, the Arabs continue to attack us, we will respond by repossessing permanently all territories from which the terror originates. One way or the other we will put an end to terror and find a way to live in peace. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

UPDATE ON EFFORTS FOR GAZA REFUGEES Posted by B'Ahavat Yisrael administration, September 20, 2005.

The following is an update on B'Ahavat Yisrael activities on behalf of those expelled from Gaza / Gush Katif: The organization attempted originally to offer housing, shabbats, etc, for those expelled from Gaza / Gush Katif. The numbers, however, were so many and, understandably, all who resided originally within a certain proximity desired to remain together as much as possible, and not be further fragmented, as would be necessitated by staying in the space we could provide. As the organization's activities' headquarters is located in the North, B'Ahavat Yisrael representatives contacted a hotel in Nazeret Ilit where a large group of former residents of Gush Katif were staying. This group, which was being temporarily moved to Shoresh outside Jerusalem and includes 170 infants and toddlers, provided a list of needs for the indefinite future. At this moment, as this update is being written, a mass of supplies are being loaded for delivery TODAY to the aforementioned group of victims of the Gaza expulsion. These supplies include: Diapers Baby Formula Shampoos and Conditioners Sanitary napkins and Panty Liners Baby Wipes Liquid Soap Hand and Body Creams Childrens' socks Toothpastes, Toothbrushes Womens' Shavers Cotton Swabs and Q-tips Spring Water B'Ahavat Yisrael's team of office staff and volunteers are ready, willing and eager to keep these deliveries coming - and more. As more donations come in, more deliveries will be made to the aforementioned location as well as to other locations where groups of individuals expelled from Gaza are staying, as the need exists - every day, if funds permit. $3,600 can sponsor a delivery in a small van $5,400 can sponsor a delivery in a mid-sized van, and $10,000 sponsors a delivery in a jumbo cargo van/truck The need is great. Over 1,000 families formerly residing in Gaza/Gush Katif are in various locations throughout Israel. Please give generously. With love of Israel, The B'Ahavat Yisrael Family P.S. To expedite turnover of funds, please, if possible, donate by credit card (details below). FOR DONATIONS - In US (tax deductible), send to: Friends of B'Ahavat Yisrael 4809 Avenue N, PMB# 284 Brooklyn, NY 11234 In Israel, send to: B'Ahavat Yisrael P.O. Box 70539 Bet Shemesh For donations by Credit Card: link to - http://www.bahavatyisrael.org/Donations.htm FOR MORE ABOUT B'AHAVAT YISRAEL: Visit our website at: http://www.bahavatyisrael.org To Subscribe to our email list: send an email to - subscribe@bahavatyisrael.org To Go To Top

LETTER FROM COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS (CPJ) ON MY BEHALF Posted by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, September 20, 2005.

This was sent to the CPJ on my behalf. September 19, 2005 Lutfuzzamen Babar State Minister for Home Affairs Government of Bangladesh Bangladesh Secretariat Topkhana Rd Dhaka, Bangladesh Via facsimile: (011) 880-2-717-1611 Dear Minister Babar: I am writing to you on behalf of the Committee to Protect Journalists - a non-profit, independent organization based in New York that is dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide - to urge you to do everything in your power to help secure the return of Sallah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury's passport. Choudhury is urgently seeking medical care abroad for treatment of his ongoing eye condition which was aggravated by his recent time in jail. As you are no doubt familiar, Choudhury is the veteran editor and journalist who recently spent 17 months behind bars on spurious sedition charges. The charges stem from Choudhury's attempt to travel to Israel in November 2003 to participate in a conference with the Hebrew Writers Association. Bangladesh has no formal relations with Israel, and travel to Israel is illegal for Bangladeshi citizens. He was initially charged with passport violations, which were later dropped, and was then formally charged with sedition in February 2004. As evidence for the sedition charges brought against Choudhury three months after his arrest, an airport security officer cited articles written by the journalist about the rise of fundamentalism in Bangladesh. During his imprisonment, Choudhury's repeated requests for bail were denied. He says that he is now in poor health as a result of his jail time and that he did not receive medical treatment for his hypertension or his eye problems. Choudhury says that he was also forced to sleep on the floor of his cell and that he suffered extreme weight loss. I appeal to you to do everything you can to help Choudhury on the road to physical recovery. His release from jail earlier this year was a step forward for freedom of the press in Bangladesh. Allowing him to heal from what he suffered while in prison by reissuing his passport would be another significant step. Please contact me with any questions you might have or for more information at 212-465-1004 x140. Thank you very much for your attention to this urgent matter. Sincerely, Abi Wright Asia Program Coordinator To Go To Top

GAFFES Posted by Steven Plaut, September 20, 2005.

1. http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=1325 Maybe this will Stop the Snotty French Comments about Bush Gaffes? Europeans love to smirk and make snide comments every time George W. Bush (or other senior Americans) makes a gaffe. Just an illiterate cowboy, they snort. Can't even say "nuclear" correctly. Grammar problems ("Families is where our nation finds hope") and other comments somewhat reminescent of Yoggi Berra. We won't even begin to recite what the Euros say about Dan Quayle, Al Gore, and other gaffe-meisters. The French are without a doubt the snootiest of them all. Which makes it all the more delicious to discover that the Foreign Minister of France was not aware of the fact that Germany did not conquer the UK during World War II. (Maybe he has been attending a public school with a teachers union?) French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was in Israel on a state visit and was taken to the Holocaust Museum and Memorial Site in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, On September 8 during the visit, he asked - while perusing maps of European sites where Jewish communities had been destroyed - whether British Jews were not also murdered. That is, he was under the impression that Britain had been conquered by Hitler during World War II. At least we assume that he knew that it was World War II that Hitler started and not the Peloponnesian War. Needless to say, Douste-Blazy's question was met by his hosts with speechlessness at his ignorance. "But Monsieur le minister," Le Canard quoted the ensuing conversation, "England was never conquered by the Nazis during World War II." No doubt the Israelis present felt an overwhelming desire to scream "Duh!" The minister apparently was not content with this answer, which was given by the museum curator, and persisted, asking: "Yes, but were there no Jews who were deported from England?" (To be exact, Germany did briefly hold a few of Britain's Channel Islands and it is believed that three Jews were deported from them by Germany during that time.) Douste-Blazy arrived in Israel earlier this month for a first visit, as the guest of his Israeli counterpart, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. 2. Tips for Making the Grade in a Politically Correct University Posted by Andrew Walden @ Monday 19 September 2005, 7:23 pm From 50th Star: 1) Never write the word "American" unless followed by the word "imperialism" or "genocide". For extra credit spell it with a "k". 2) The word "Iraq" must always be followed by "disaster" or "quagmire". Try to remember when al-Qaeda bombs Iraqi children it is an act of liberation. When a handful of American soldiers make terrorists pose for sex pics at Abu Ghraib it is an unspeakable atrocity. Avoid discussing the 8 million Iraqis who voted on January 30 and the millions more voting on October 15. And especially don't say that our troops are the ones who are trying to stop the bombing of Iraq. That could cost you an entire grade point. Also don't wear your Club Gitmo shirt to class. 3) Bush lied, but Clinton told the truth, even though they both said Saddam had WMDs 4) Racism is bad, unless it is against Jews. 5) It helps to describe anyone to the right of Stuart Smalley as a racist, a sexist or a homophobe for no particular reason. (Extra points for all three.) 6) Always say America was founded on slavery. Never mention that it was the Democrat Party which led the way. 7) Remember.. stare decisis. matters on Roe v Wade but is irrelevant to gay marriage and the Pledge of Allegiance. 8) Nobody is responsible for anything except George Bush. He is responsible for everything. 9) Always talk about the creationist conspiracy to take over the schools. Lefties see creationists under every bed. 10) Genetically modified plants are bad. Genetically modified humans are good. 11) Corporations are destroying the world. Extra points if you write this on your Apple laptop, email it using Microsoft Outlook, give a class presentation on it using Power Point, wearing Nikes and Levis. 12) Socialism will work this time for sure. Remember to avoid mentioning the 100 million people killed by socialist governments since 1917. 13) Bush is a fascist and the USA is a police state. Ignore the fact that you are saying this openly in the "fascist police state USA" without being arrested and hauled off to a concentration camp. 14) The public schools are a disaster, but they can be fixed if only we give more money to the folks who created the disaster. 15) Alternative energy is wonderful.unless it is geothermal in Puna or windmills anywhere they can be seen by rich liberals. For an entire grade point show your Prof a photo of you carrying a sign reading, "Dump no CO2. at an anti-nuclear power demonstration." Remember this is not ironic humor. 16) Republicans are dangerous war mongers, pretend that Reagan didn't end the Soviet Union without starting WW3. [Be careful: your Marxist professor is probably still very upset about the "noble experiment's" demise.] 17) Rich white men are the enemy.except John Kerry, Ted Turner, George Soros, and Michael Moore. 18) It's not the Fonda News Network. 19) Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy are feminists; even if you wouldn't let your daughter go anywhere near either one of them. 20) Liberals are standing up for the little guy. If the average Joe wasn't so stupid he could see that. 21) Say "sustainable" and "holistic" a lot even though nobody knows what they mean. 22) Avoid these phrases: "America is the greatest force for human progress in the world today" or "American pacifism is the most violent ideology in the entire history of the human race." 23) When in doubt copy this handy text which will add points to any paper: "Multicultural education is a progressive approach for transforming education that holistically critiques and addresses current shortcomings, failings and discriminatory practices in education. In today's classrooms, you can expect diversity. To maximize successful learning, we need to understand each individual student and we must be sensitive to the cultural, community and family values that can have an impact on a student's educational experience. Different types of diversity exist within classroom settings. It is important to recognize and celebrate each one. The best way to deal with diversity is to accept it and provide the best experience possible to all students. I hope this has given insight and thought about the importance of multicultural education in our schools." 3. Belated Justice For Haifa's Land of Israel Activists 16:02 Sep 19, '05 / 15 Elul 5765 By Ezra HaLevi After eight years of police foot-dragging, a left-wing Meretz activist has been sentenced to a year in jail and three years suspended sentence for attacking right-wing activists in Haifa in 1998. Deputy Chief Justice of the Haifa district court Rachel Hoza ruled Sunday in favor of Dr. Eli Buchbinder and Dr. Ronen Adar, who were brutally attacked by a group of Arabs wearing Meretz T-shirts and hanging signs for the Meretz municipal elections. "The severity of the crimes the accused is found guilty of is in the fact that they were violent acts with completely harmful results - damage to Mr. Buchbinder, requiring his hospitalization and undergoing of surgery, as well as permanent disability for him. Additionally, the accused chose to express his anger in this way against a political demonstration carried out according to law and against someone who was on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Society must stigmatize completely all acts of violence and violent expression from ideological debate - especially political." Aviad Vissouly of the Land of Israel Task Force is happy with the verdict, but emphasizes that the police postponed the indictment for over three years, until Atty. Meir Hoffler, who represented the complainants, threatened to file a Supreme Court petition against the police. Once the case was eventually brought to trial, the hearings continued for another four years. "We, the activists of the Land of Israel Task Force, have complained about dozens of violent attacks against us during the protest vigils we hold at central intersections in Haifa from the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993 until today," Vissouly said. "The police do not even deal with our complaints, do not investigate them and do not hand down indictments, even when we are dealing with clear cases of leftist activists attacking right-wing ones for their beliefs. At the same time, the police did not hesitate to hand down hundreds of indictments against right-wing protesters for even the lightest infractions, such as 'unlawful assembly,' during the Disengagement." The victims of the attacks, Dr. Eli Buchbinder and Dr. Ronen Adar, refused to give up despite all the obstacles and legal costs, suing their attackers in a civil suit as well. The court ordered 60,000 shekels to be paid by the attackers after a lengthy civil trial that ended in 2004, before the criminal court convictions. The attack took place on Friday, October 23, 1998, when a number of Arab activists working for the Meretz movement took a break from affixing banners reading "There is Meretz [Energy] in the City," to tear anti-Oslo Accords signs out of the hands of Land of Israel activists standing at a nearby intersection, telling them to "get out of here or we will kill you!" The Arabs then attacked Dr. Buchbinder, after he tried to prevent a scuffle with a fellow activist who had accidentally dislodged one of the Meretz banners. He was punched in the face and kicked mercilessly once he hit the ground. "I remember myself on the pavement with three or four hooligans beating me without respite," Dr. Buchbinder told the B'Sheva newspaper. "I completely panicked. Everything around me became foggy. I tried to defend myself in one place and just to be beaten in another one. They deliberately aimed their blows mostly at my face. My entire body went into shock, numb and completely powerless. I felt like I was being lynched, that there was no chance I would emerge from this alive. It continued for a while longer - them just beating and kicking me with all their might, with intense burning anger. It wasn't a scuffle; they fully intended to kill me." Dr. Adar, standing nearby, tried to save his friend. "I screamed with all my might, 'Stop beating him, don't use violence!' I saw them trying to literally murder him," Adar said. "I have never in my entire life seen such a violent and savage scene. There were Jewish Meretz activists standing nearby and I saw the complete shock in their eyes as well." Dr. Adar then tried to get his camera to take pictures of the perpetrators. "I ran to the other side of the street to get my camera from my bag," said Adar. "When I returned they told me the Arabs had gone to a coffee shop in the Carmelit neighborhood. I ran to the coffee shop and they were sitting there, with a dozen other Meretz activists all wearing Meretz t-shirts, drinking - ostensibly to relax after the attack. I stood on the sidewalk and took two pictures of them sitting in the coffee shop wearing their Meretz t-shirts. They suddenly saw me photographing them and became very alarmed. They ran out of the coffee shop and tried to grab my camera. I wouldn't give it to them so they knocked me to the ground and began to kick me all over my body." Following the attack, Dr. Buchbinder was brought to Rambam hospital where doctors informed him that he suffered four fractures of his jaw. He underwent a lengthy surgery over the Sabbath to reconstruct his jaw with a metal pin and several screws, remaining hospitalized for the next five days. The doctors informed him that he had 5% permanent paralysis. Dr. Buchbinder lost a year of doctoral work, leading to a substantial economic loss as well. Atty. Hoffler and Drs. Buchbinder and Adar filed a complaint with the Haifa police immediately following the incident. The police did not respond, and ignored repeated letters from Atty. Hoffler. The letters, sent to the then-commander of the Haifa region, Brigadier-General Dov Shechter, Major-General Alik Ron, then police chief of the northern region, and Superintendent Yisrael Grey, received no response whatsoever. While researching the case, Atty. Hoffler discovered that the attackers were relatives of Atty. Ghassan Abu-Warada, who was running at the time for Haifa city council as a candidate for the Meretz party. The attack had taken place preceding the local municipal elections in which Amram Mitzna ran for mayor of Haifa, and Abu-Warada had hired his relatives to stand at that intersection and hang up Meretz banners. "It is regrettable that the judge didn't have the courage to convict Abu-Warada as well, for sitting silently without raising a finger when his men beat Dr. Adar mercilessly," Atty. Hoffler said. "The judge unfortunately decided that the defendant would walk out scot-free, unpunished for his shameful behavior, which clearly contravenes an Israeli law called 'Do not stand idly by thy brother's blood.' " Meretz spokesman Roi Yellin told B'Sheva newspaper at the time that his party condemns the violence against the Land of Israel activists. "We explain to all our members that it is forbidden to act in a violent manner. Meretz is against such behavior and condemns it fully. Violent behavior is against everything we stand for and believe in, and in our eyes is simply out of the question. It is important to stress, though, that the attackers were not bona fide Meretz activists, but workers specifically hired for local election campaigning." Vissouly intends to continue to pursue what he believes to be the root of the matter. "There is no doubt that an invisible political hand guides the police prosecution against right-wing activists, while expressing complete disregard for violence used against them - whether by police themselves or left-wing activists," he said. "This is discriminatory enforcement of the law, which is illegal and even corrupt - and should not be found in a country that claims to be democratic." "The State Comptroller should be advised to examine the police procedures, the prosecution and the Attorney General with regard to the policy of dealing with indictments against demonstrators." After eight years of police foot-dragging, a left-wing Meretz activist has been sentenced to a year in jail and three years suspended sentence for attacking right-wing activists in Haifa in 1998. Deputy Chief Justice of the Haifa district court Rachel Hoza ruled Sunday in favor of Dr. Eli Buchbinder and Dr. Ronen Adar, who were brutally attacked by a group of Arabs wearing Meretz T-shirts and hanging signs for the Meretz municipal elections. "The severity of the crimes the accused is found guilty of is in the fact that they were violent acts with completely harmful results - damage to Mr. Buchbinder, requiring his hospitalization and undergoing of surgery, as well as permanent disability for him. Additionally, the accused chose to express his anger in this way against a political demonstration carried out according to law and against someone who was on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Society must stigmatize completely all acts of violence and violent expression from ideological debate - especially political." Aviad Vissouly of the Land of Israel Task Force is happy with the verdict, but emphasizes that the police postponed the indictment for over three years, until Atty. Meir Hoffler, who represented the complainants, threatened to file a Supreme Court petition against the police. Once the case was eventually brought to trial, the hearings continued for another four years. "We, the activists of the Land of Israel Task Force, have complained about dozens of violent attacks against us during the protest vigils we hold at central intersections in Haifa from the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993 until today," Vissouly said. "The police do not even deal with our complaints, do not investigate them and do not hand down indictments, even when we are dealing with clear cases of leftist activists attacking right-wing ones for their beliefs. At the same time, the police did not hesitate to hand down hundreds of indictments against right-wing protesters for even the lightest infractions, such as 'unlawful assembly,' during the Disengagement." The victims of the attacks, Dr. Eli Buchbinder and Dr. Ronen Adar, refused to give up despite all the obstacles and legal costs, suing their attackers in a civil suit as well. The court ordered 60,000 shekels to be paid by the attackers after a lengthy civil trial that ended in 2004, before the criminal court convictions. The attack took place on Friday, October 23, 1998, when a number of Arab activists working for the Meretz movement took a break from affixing banners reading "There is Meretz [Energy] in the City," to tear anti-Oslo Accords signs out of the hands of Land of Israel activists standing at a nearby intersection, telling them to "get out of here or we will kill you!" The Arabs then attacked Dr. Buchbinder, after he tried to prevent a scuffle with a fellow activist who had accidentally dislodged one of the Meretz banners. He was punched in the face and kicked mercilessly once he hit the ground. "I remember myself on the pavement with three or four hooligans beating me without respite," Dr. Buchbinder told the B'Sheva newspaper. "I completely panicked. Everything around me became foggy. I tried to defend myself in one place and just to be beaten in another one. They deliberately aimed their blows mostly at my face. My entire body went into shock, numb and completely powerless. I felt like I was being lynched, that there was no chance I would emerge from this alive. It continued for a while longer - them just beating and kicking me with all their might, with intense burning anger. It wasn't a scuffle; they fully intended to kill me." Dr. Adar, standing nearby, tried to save his friend. "I screamed with all my might, 'Stop beating him, don't use violence!' I saw them trying to literally murder him," Adar said. "I have never in my entire life seen such a violent and savage scene. There were Jewish Meretz activists standing nearby and I saw the complete shock in their eyes as well." Dr. Adar then tried to get his camera to take pictures of the perpetrators. "I ran to the other side of the street to get my camera from my bag," said Adar. "When I returned they told me the Arabs had gone to a coffee shop in the Carmelit neighborhood. I ran to the coffee shop and they were sitting there, with a dozen other Meretz activists all wearing Meretz t-shirts, drinking - ostensibly to relax after the attack. I stood on the sidewalk and took two pictures of them sitting in the coffee shop wearing their Meretz t-shirts. They suddenly saw me photographing them and became very alarmed. They ran out of the coffee shop and tried to grab my camera. I wouldn't give it to them so they knocked me to the ground and began to kick me all over my body." Following the attack, Dr. Buchbinder was brought to Rambam hospital where doctors informed him that he suffered four fractures of his jaw. He underwent a lengthy surgery over the Sabbath to reconstruct his jaw with a metal pin and several screws, remaining hospitalized for the next five days. The doctors informed him that he had 5% permanent paralysis. Dr. Buchbinder lost a year of doctoral work, leading to a substantial economic loss as well. Atty. Hoffler and Drs. Buchbinder and Adar filed a complaint with the Haifa police immediately following the incident. The police did not respond, and ignored repeated letters from Atty. Hoffler. The letters, sent to the then-commander of the Haifa region, Brigadier-General Dov Shechter, Major-General Alik Ron, then police chief of the northern region, and Superintendent Yisrael Grey, received no response whatsoever. While researching the case, Atty. Hoffler discovered that the attackers were relatives of Atty. Ghassan Abu-Warada, who was running at the time for Haifa city council as a candidate for the Meretz party. The attack had taken place preceding the local municipal elections in which Amram Mitzna ran for mayor of Haifa, and Abu-Warada had hired his relatives to stand at that intersection and hang up Meretz banners. "It is regrettable that the judge didn't have the courage to convict Abu-Warada as well, for sitting silently without raising a finger when his men beat Dr. Adar mercilessly," Atty. Hoffler said. "The judge unfortunately decided that the defendant would walk out scot-free, unpunished for his shameful behavior, which clearly contravenes an Israeli law called 'Do not stand idly by thy brother's blood.' " Meretz spokesman Roi Yellin told B'Sheva newspaper at the time that his party condemns the violence against the Land of Israel activists. "We explain to all our members that it is forbidden to act in a violent manner. Meretz is against such behavior and condemns it fully. Violent behavior is against everything we stand for and believe in, and in our eyes is simply out of the question. It is important to stress, though, that the attackers were not bona fide Meretz activists, but workers specifically hired for local election campaigning." Vissouly intends to continue to pursue what he believes to be the root of the matter. "There is no doubt that an invisible political hand guides the police prosecution against right-wing activists, while expressing complete disregard for violence used against them - whether by police themselves or left-wing activists," he said. "This is discriminatory enforcement of the law, which is illegal and even corrupt - and should not be found in a country that claims to be democratic." "The State Comptroller should be advised to examine the police procedures, the prosecution and the Attorney General with regard to the policy of dealing with indictments against demonstrators." Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

IDF REMOVES EDUCATIONAL ESSAY MOCKING TORAH AND HOLY TEMPLE Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, September 20, 2005.

This disgusting anti-Semitic diatribe was only removed as a result of external, political pressure. The reasonable conclusion to this is that it was considered perfectly acceptable to the Chief-of-Staff and all the other senior officers involved in the indoctrination of Israeli soldiers. So what does this tell us about the "corporate culture" of the IDF? This is a news item from today's Arutz-7 - IsraelNationalNews.com (www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90150) (IsraelNN.com) An offensive essay has been removed from the IDF curriculum due to a campaign by MK Shaul Yahalom (NRP). The essay, called "The Stone Age," was written by Assaf Inbari, and purports to educate soldiers on Judaism's relationship with the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. Inbari writes mockingly of the various rituals that took place at the Jewish temples before their destruction and calls the Torah a collection of myths. "Titus [who destroyed the Temple] did Judaism a big favor," Inbari wrote. "He liberated it from the Temple. The Temple is all that stood in Judaism's way, caught in its throat - not swallowing and not vomiting." MK Yahalom, informed about the essay by students at the IDF school for human resources, wrote to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz in July, asking him to stop distribution of the article and reprimand whoever decided to include it in the IDF educational program. Yahalom said the article "damages and defames Jewish values." The IDF Chief of Staff initially refused, but an order has now been given by the Defense Minister to remove the offensive essay. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

THE FRUITS OF PEACE WITH JORDAN Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, September 20, 2005.

This is a news item called "Poll: Jordan top anti-Jew nation; Russia most pro-Christian" from yesterday's World Tribute (www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453632.451388889.html) Jordan leads the Islamic world in its antipathy for Jews according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. The poll, which surveyed 17,000 people in 17 countries, said 100 percent of Jordanians viewed Jews unfavorably. The majority of Jordanians are Palestinians, but the late King Hussein and his son and successor, King Abdullah have been known for their pro-American stances. Russia led all other countries with favorable views of Christians (92 percent) while Turkey (63 percent) had the most unfavorable view of Christians. The Netherlands led all nations surveyed both in positive views of Jews (85 percent) and negative views of Muslims (51 percent). Significant numbers of respondents in only Jordan (38 percent) and Lebanon (40 percent) blamed U.S. policies for Islamic extremism. Respondents in Lebanon, which has a large Christian population, were nearly unanimous (99 percent) in their unfavorable views of Jews. 91 percent were favorable to Christians. The poll found decreasing support in Islamic countries for Al Qaida and suicide bombings. Jordan was the exception. In the latest poll, the level of Jordanian support for Bin Laden rose to 60 percent, compared to 55 percent in 2002. The center also reported increased Jordanian support for suicide attacks. Fifty-seven percent of Jordanian respondents expressed support for suicide bombings, up from 43 percent in 2002. In Morocco, support for Al Qaida dropped from 49 percent in 2003 to 26 percent in the latest poll. In Lebanon, only two percent of respondents expressed support for Al Qaida. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

BETRAYAL AT EVERY LEVEL. RICE PRAISES PALESTINIANS ON WITHDRAWAL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 19, 2005.

Some may have forgotten America's broken guarantee under President Johnson to keep the Straits of Tiran (an international waterway) open and Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser's orders to the United Nations to immediately remove their "Peace-keeping" troops (which U. Thant, then Head of the U.N. did without objection) from the Sinai Desert. America promises and guarantees to Israel become worthless, resulting in the War of 1967. Nasser was able to re-militarize the Sinai because the U.S. and U.N. totally abrogated their agreements and promises to Israel. Keep in mind that, in 1957 at the U.N., 17 maritime powers declared that Israel had a right to transit the Straits of Tiran - an international passage. Nasser blockaded this vital shipping lane to Israel's port of Eilat on the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. This was a main dock for bringing oil into Israel. Nasser re-militarized the Sinai, cut off shipping through the Straits of Tian and all the U.N. nations, including the U.S. Russia, France, Britain, et al, did not object. So much for agreements, promises and guarantees by the international community. Now again the DEBKAfile rounds up the facts on a similar betrayal but, this time we find the fingerprints of President Bush, Secretary Rice, Prime Minister Sharon and Deputy PM Shimon Peres in the betrayal of Israel as you will read in the DEBKAfile (1) following this article. But, first there is the matter of Condoleezza Rice complimenting President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and the Palestinians on their assisting Sharon with his "unilateral retreat". Please note the direct quotes in the JTA article following. (2) These 'compliments' were being liberally handed out while Arab Muslim Palestinians flooded the Gush Katif area to loot and burn the Jewish synagogues. Ms. Rice knew (as she lied with a straight face) that weapons, explosives, missiles, etc., stored in the Sinai with Mubarak's permission, were pouring into Gaza. These compliments were traded about while Egypt and Abu Mazen allowed it all to happen without lifting a finger - despite negotiated agreements with Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to maintain order. This while Hosni Mubarak, despite firm agreements with American overview, allowed tons of weapons stored in the Sinai to pour into Gaza in preparation for their promised Intifada 3. Here again, as happened during the Straits of Tiran crisis under Nasser and President Johnson, the failure was colossal. Bush and Rice tell us how it all went swimmingly well. Mubarak ignores his commitments to Israel and, sadly, it illustrates the complete stupidity of Sharon and Mofaz to rely upon Egyptian agreements with American overview - all worthless. Let us take a look at the linkage of Sharon's withdrawal/retreat and the build up of the Arab Muslim Palestinian Terror forces in Gaza. 1. Al Qaeda calls for volunteers to fight with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip against Israel. 2. Egypt allows a flood of Palestinians to cross up and back through the split town of Rafah, which brought in Al Qaeda and tonnage of weapons - including ground-to-air missiles and anti-tank missiles, automatic weapons along with ammunition. (Sharon and Mofaz compromise Israel's future sovereignty and security while Rice and Bush praise the Palestinians and Abu Mazen consistent with their campaign to win the hearts and minds of Muslims who are Terrorists. 3. In the meantime, again despite U.S. assurances to Israel, the Saudis relocate F15 fighter-bombers to the air base of Tabuk, minutes from the Israeli borders. Bush and Rice are silent. Sharon and Mofaz once again are left looking stupid, in addition to putting Israeli cities in vital danger. Al Qaeda has been recruiting Saudi pilots to use their aircraft as renegades and to make a "quick" bombing run on Israeli cities - expecting to be a Shahid (a suicide martyr). 4. Sharon, Mofaz, Bush, Rice all work toward breaking the Camp David Accords and re-militarizing the Sinai with Egyptian troops, intelligence, armor, helicopters and giving Egypt the right to patrol the seas off the Gaza Coast. Probably, it also means giving Egypt rights to any oil or gas eventually discovered off the Gaza Coast and/or in Gaza. Sharon and Mofaz ignored Egypt's long history of breaking agreements with Israel. (Bush also has just lowered restrictive laws on aid to Egypt allowing for further expansion of their massive military.) I must add the names of some of James Baker's Jew Boys, namely, Daniel Kurtzer (just leaving his job as U.S. Ambassador to Israel) who assisted in this subversion of Israel's defensive posture and, like Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Martin Indyk, now leaves the job (having done his dirty work of subverting Israel's security). 5. Mofaz and Sharon's orders increased security at the new borders of Gaza - meaning increased presence of IDF soldiers, with more missiles, more Qassem Rockets, mortars, suicide bombers able to more easily penetrate into Israel's cities. The costs will be enormous and Sharon's reliance on getting $2.2 Billion from his "friend" Bush much more unlikely - especially since the Hurricane Katrina because Bush never intended to give Israel the money. Conclusion: Sharon, a virtual neophyte at understanding geo-politics committed Israel to vulnerability based on the vague word of Bush who himself is influenced by Saudi Arabia, his father and James Baker operating out of the Rice Institute and Rice University. Sharon and Peres betrayed the safety and sovereignty of Israel and should be held responsible for the inevitable coming attacks by Arab Muslim Palestinians and all the in-coming Terrorists from around the world, including Al Qaeda, Hezb'Allah, and others. Most of the Terrorists (Mujahadiin) will now be much closer to Israel's cities, international airport, power stations, et al - thanks to Sharon and Bush. Note! Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi has pledged to transfer Mujahadiin (fighters for Islam) to the Gaza Strip and the 7 cities Israel gave over to control by the Palestinian Authority after Oslo 2. Earlier this year Sharon arranged a law to create protection for 44 communities within missile and rocket reach of the Gaza Strip. Until Sharon "ethnically cleansed" Gaza/Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, only the 21 communities in Gush Katif were at risk from Terrorists and/or Qassem Rockets and missiles. But, those 21 communities had IDF soldiers ready to launch retaliatory or "hot pursuit" attacks inside of the Gaza Strip to keep the Terrorists and their leaders running for cover. Please note! There was never any reason or excuse given for evacuating the 4 northern Samarian communities! I suppose, as Arab Muslim Palestinian and other Muslim nationals increase the number and intensity of their terrorist attacks, we will hear from Bush (or his talking head) telling us that the Road Map (or some similar nonsense jargon) is going to restrain Hamas, Al Qaeda in Gaza and Hezb'Allah in the north. Bush and Rice have seen in Iraq that the Muslims will always be in Dar Al Harb (The house of war) against their own people and what they call the infidel Americans and Israelis. Sharon and Peres will continue trotting along like a bull dog and a pompadoured poodle on short leashes to Bush and Rice - while leaving their droppings on the Jewish people. Perhaps it is not surprising that Sharon was so well received at the United Nations for his work as a Quisling in subverting the Jewish nation. They know a fellow traveler of the U.N. Doctrine vis a vis Israel. So Sharon was warmly received. He should probably stay there. This following is breaking news from JTA RICE PRAISES PALESTINIANS ON WITHDRAWAL Palestinians did a good job helping Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip but now must focus on security, Condoleezza Rice said. "The Palestinians did a very good job of helping to create a dignified circumstance for the Israelis to withdraw by preventing attacks on soldiers and settlers," the U.S. secretary of state said this week in an interview with the editorial board of the New York Post. "They then were unable to control the combination of kind of exuberance on the one hand, which I think was both natural and genuine on the part of the population, and some political posturing by their adversaries." Rice apparently was referring to the looting of abandoned settlements and synagogues after the withdrawal. Rice said P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas must fulfill his commitment to disarm Hamas and other terrorist groups, but suggested he needed time. "We are insisting on it every time we talk to him," she said. "But you want him to be successful when he does it. You don't want him to go to dismantle Hamas and fail. And so we're trying to increase his capability on the security forces side to create better political conditions on the ground." Winston's Rejoinder & Commentary: Secretary Rice exceeds prior Secretaries of State as the most articulate apologist for the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (first Yassir Arafat and now Abu Mazen) and the Egyptians who cannot and will not keep agreements with Israel. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

COMMEMORATING 80 YEARS OF ALIYAH Posted by Rachel Kapen, September 19, 2005.

The most compelling speech of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the U.N. touched me in a very personal way. Just like Prime Minister Sharon's parents, my parents too belong to the Generation of Founders or as they are also called Dor HaN'fillim, Generation of Giants, and rightfully so, and not unlike Sharon's parents, mine too came to reclaim the land of their ancestors but not to displace the local Arabs they found living there. In this year of 575-2005, I will commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the passing of my father Yosef Garber and simultaneously another commemoration, no less, important, that of the 80 years anniversary of his aliyah to Eretz-Israel from his little Lithuanian shtetle of Shkood. In Jewish tradition 80 years symbolize heroism and indeed there is nothing short of heroism in the odyssey of a small shtetle yeshiva bocher-turned Lithuanian soldier to a chalutz in Little Tel Aviv of the early 1920's. A Shanah Tovah from Tel-Aviv, 1929 Lita-Lithuania was considered the jewel in the crown of Eastern European Jewry. The Gaon of Vilno as he was nicknamed, was a legendary figure of Jewish scholarship and morality who lived in the second half of the 18th Century who with his many disciples influenced Jewish life for many years. Vilna, the capital of independent Lita was so Jewish in its character that it merited the designation: "Jerusalem of Lita". The numerous yeshivot within its borders attracted thousands of young men who came to be trained and ordained as rabbis or other religious functionaries in the Jewish community or just for the sake of learning. My father, Yosef Garber studied in such a yeshiva albeit, not in one of the most renowned of them and was ordained as a shohet -- ritual slaughterer -- but I doubt that he had a chance to practice it for he soon was recruited into the army of independent Lithuania, a fact which proved decisive in his life. For the first time in his life he was exposed to a world outside the yeshiva and the synagogue. He could no longer be the pious Jew he always was for the new realities of army life didn't allow it. If he didn't wish to go hungry he had to eat all the treif foods he was given and desecrate the Shabbat and Jewish holidays, something he never did before. However, also for the first time in his life he came face to face with a secular world he hardly knew before which fascinated hi and he spent every minute he could in the base library. Last but not least, he was exposed to anti-Semitism not familiar to him in his previously insulated world of the shtetle. He also met in the army a fellow Litvak by the name of Meir and between the two a lifelong friendship was forged. When the two army buddies were eventually discharged from the army they knew exactly what they were going to do with rest of their lives. They knew that there was no future for Jews in their native Lithuania and were not interested in looking for fame and fortune in the Goldene medine -- in America where my father actually had an older sister who offered to help bringing him over, and the only option for them was Eretz-Israel or Palestine which was ruled by the British mandate. So they both applied for a certificat from the British Government and in the meantime my father brushed up on his Hebrew and mostly his grammar. I have in my possession an old Hebrew grammar book which my father used to prepare himself for his aliyah to Eretz-Israel which eventually materialized for him and for Meyer in the spring of 1925. 1925. Travelling to work in Little Tel-Aviv. Yosaf, 3rd from left. Meir standing. Both Yosef and Meir settled in what was then called Little Tel Aviv as they helped to build its houses and pave its mostly sandy streets. After a few years of hard work and extremely frugal way of life-which he maintained throughout his life-the two friends became partners in one of the first ice-boxes factories in Tel Aviv. In 1935 they also built a house in the southernmost end of Herzl Street where both my sister Shula and I were born and spent our formative years. If he were alive today he would have been 110 years old the age of the passing of his biblical namesake. Yosef HaTzadik, as he is called, was destined to find his fame and fortunate outside of Eretz Israel because of reasons of which he had no control but his love for his native land never waned and he wanted to at least be buried there. My father Yosef shares with his ancient ancestor this abiding love for Eretz Israel in that from the time he came there he never wanted to leave and he was the greatest patriot I ever knew. Contact Rachel Kapen by email at skapen285466mi@comcast.net To Go To Top

DON'T JUST READ ARAB CLAIMS, ANALYZE THEM; ANOTHER MEANS OF FIGHTING TERRORISM Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 19, 2005.

DON'T JUST READ ARAB CLAIMS, ANALYZE THEM The Arabs, ironically backed up by their enemies in the West, have a new theme. They keep claiming that they remain under Israeli control, if Israel still controls the border (Israel now has relinquished land but not sea and air access). They count on constant repetition and lack of challenge to it, to make the West consider it axiomatic. This big lie technique is buttressed by Israeli unwillingness to confront the fact that Israel is in a war to the death and by Diaspora Jewish unwillingness to fill Israel's vacuum in leadership (and by media complicity). So far, the new theme hardly is contested or analyzed. Here goes. First, Israel is not supposed to grant borders and therefore sovereignty, which relinquishing border control would amount to, without final status negotiations and peace. The P.A. never has made peace. It has signed peace agreements, but made war. The P.A. is attempting to attain independence, first in Gaza, without eradicating terrorism. Second, why is control of the border important for Israel? What would Israel anticipate, by turning control over to the P.A.? Based on constant P.A. smuggling of arms and attempted shipments of forbidden heavy weaponry, the P.A. would use an airport and seaport free of Israeli supervision to escalate its war on Israel. Third, what impediments does the P.A. think Israel would impose? It pretends that Israel is harsh on it in general, whereas Israel takes many risks in order to ameliorate conditions for that vicious people in the P.A.. Israel doesn't now restrict anything but smuggling and war. It is Israel that offers the P.A. cooperation and the P.A. that refuses to cooperate. JEWISH & ARAB MIND-SETS Immediately the Arabs could, they destroyed the synagogues of Gaza. Some Israelis complained that by contrast, Israelis did not fire at mosques even when Arabs in the mosques fired at them. Said those Israelis, we risked our lives being tolerant. Those Israelis are condemning themselves for misplaced tolerance that amounts to stupidity. Of course they should fire upon those mosques and at the Arabs inside. Since the Arabs do not consider the mosques too holy to involve in war, why should Israel? Why treat with respect as a religion what the Arabs use as a tool in genocide? U.S. APPEALS TO SAVE PLO FROM VICTIMS OF ITS TERRORISM After a US court approved a petition for punitive compensation by the PLO to some victims' relatives, the US government appealed in court against the verdict. To implement the ruling, the PLO would have to turn over some real estate that it uses for the UNO. The US executive branch claims that would interfere with US foreign policy. Confusing the issue are commentators who suggest that the US has no right to bar a foreign mission. When this came up before, I examined the UN Charter and the relevant statutes, and found that the US does have such right for national security. Since the case involves national security, it is only fitting that the PLO lose its UNO mission. Its existence is a stain on US honor, especially in our supposed war on terrorism. If fining a terrorist organization is against US foreign policy, how disgraceful! It is a non-partisan disgrace, since it occurred under Democrat and Republican administrations. This is like the notorious FBI cases, in which once the government associates with certain criminals, in the hope of gaining certain advantages, it thereafter illicitly holds those criminals immune from past and future crimes. This is a true deal with the devil. Or between two devils. In the end, the supposedly pragmatic officials dirty their own cause. Let us have justice, here! U.S. SPREADS WEAPONRY AROUND The US has made its Apache helicopter's command of entire battlefields. It will furnish its "allies" with the improvements. Recipients include several Arab states and Israel (IMRA, 9/10). ANOTHER MEANS OF FIGHTING TERRORISM Terrorism is just a tactic. The real enemy is the Islamist philosophy. That philosophy, which motivates terrorists, must be fought just as much as the individual, bomb-toting believers. Bin Laden must be discredited, so his reputation does not attract followers. The US did the same to the Soviet system, thereby helping to rid the planet of that scourge. The proposal means exposing him as a false prophet who stands for intolerance, disrespect for human life, and a false view of Islam. His goals are to wreak maximum damage in behalf of establishing reactionary Islamist theocracies over the corpses of Israel (and all other civilizations). The expose is to appeal to moderate Muslims (Richard Holbrooke, NY Sun, 9/12, Op. Ed.). It seems strange to have gone into a war without having though of a basic strategy for winning it. The proposition is excellent, on its face. It omitted ending political correctness, which hobbles our efforts. There are some difficulties with the program. What false view of Islam has bin Laden? Moderate Muslims largely agree with his goals, but just don't like to throw bombs. After all, they rejoiced at the 9/11 murders, and are intolerant. How do we persuade them and of what? How can their children resist radicalization, when accosted by recruiters in the mosque? Would Muslims accept propaganda of Western origin, or would they be suspicious of it? Do they even share the values and mind-sets to which this program is supposed to appeal? HOW SHOULD ISRAEL RESPOND? The government of Israel has warned the P.A. that it would retaliate harshly against a terrorist attack from Gaza. An Israeli journalist thinks that this is just what the Arabs want (IMRA, 9/11). The implication is that they then would get the world to complain about over-reaction. What is Israel supposed to do, respond too mildly to have an effect, or take out the terrorists? The problem is that Israel's responses usually are in between. HOW TO ERADICATE AIDS Syria's Deputy Min. of Religious Endowments has a solution for AIDS. He would eradicate the disease by stoning all AIDS patients to death (IMRA, 9/11). Some people are born with aids and some people get it from an unfaithful spouse. The proposed solution is unfair to the innocents. It reflects the kind of thinking that Arab culture brings to social problems. RICE PRAISES GAZA PULLOUT She said it would "enhance Israel's security." She called Sharon's decision "courageous." Now the US will assist the P.A. to restore law and order, and fight terrorism (IMRA, 9/13). The P.A. never had law, but it used to have some order. Now order is breaking down in Gaza. Terrorists move around freely. Nobody is stopping them from building rockets and moving them alongside Israel. Is that the "side-by-side" living that Rice wants? As part of the abandonment plan of 22 communities outside of Israel, Sharon had 44 communities inside of Israel declared newly endangered. His pullout has degraded Israel's security! His decision to cave in to pressure from the US and from leftists in a position to jail him for corruption, was far from courageous. He bullied his own people, in order to implement the pullout. Sec. Rice is dissembling. She speaks, Jews die. HATE-SPEECH Britain recently proposed a bill to ban hate-speech. The consequence, however, would be to prevent truthful discussion of the dangers from Islam, as if noting such realistic dangers were the baseless bigotry that the bill is supposed to ban (sorry, lost source). Meanwhile, Muslims are getting across the false idea that Islam is just another monotheistic religion. The others, however, do not seek our conquest. Under false notions of political correctness, Muslim propagandists and apologists lie, and people who should be defending other faiths are inhibited. Any time the latter speak up, they are said to misinterpret at best, and to defame at worst. Muslims neutralize some criticism by portraying themselves as oppressed immigrants (but they want to oppress us). They demand tolerance for themselves and that Americans study Islam, but a sanitized version of it, while they preach among themselves that other religions are hateful. Muslims are trying to buy organs of the media, to propagandize for them. They also denounce broadcasters who offer legitimate criticism of their radicals. There are many Muslim doctors in the US, not in the Mideast, where they are needed. (Is this part of a plot or a reflection that doctors earn more, here?) Muslim men marry non-Muslim American women and convert them. Then they divorce them a few years later. This is a plot, too. (Is it?) But they do convert prisoners to terrorism. They do have hundreds of schools in the US, disloyal to the US. They also provide grants to universities to open Muslim centers and Mideast institutes that promote Islam (and anti-Zionism and give Congress poor advice). Their "charities" subsidize terrorism abroad. It is indeed frightening that Islamist organizations have entree to the White House. For that, Pres. Bush and Pres. Clinton should have apologized (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/13). PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS? (PCHR) PCHR depicts itself as a humane organization. However, it objected to terrorists conducting operations from civilian areas (which is a war crime), because Arabs might get hurt from failed attempts (i.e., premature bomb explosions). It also objected to inaccurate firing of rockets that hit a P.A. hospital. It did not object to accurate terrorist attacks against Jews. Whereas Arab newspapers identified several Arabs killed by Israeli forces as belonging to various, specific terrorist organizations, PCHR denied they were terrorists and counted them as civilians, as if the IDF were terrorist. Thus it lies for propaganda (Arutz-7, 9/13). 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. To Go To Top

BASICS Posted by American 1627, September 19, 2005.

1) There was always a Jewish presence in Israel the Holy-Land. Upon a Holy Land inhabited by a mixed population. The Arab Population boom (immigration etc.) came AFTER Jews started returning by larger numbers, coming to enjoy the Jews' development ...Arabs immigrants from Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. These were not native "Palestinians" as they are called today, rather Arab migrant workers looking for a better standard of living. 2) Arabs started massacring native Jews in the holy-land (long before the "occupation" excuse was born) in the 1920's. Hebron Massacre 1929, Palestine Arab Riots 1929. 3) Arab Leaders are the Responsible For (Most) 'Palestinian' refugees, 1) Palestinian Refugees, invited to leave in 1948, 2) The Arab nations keep the Palestinians and their descendants in squalor. They are denied citizenship rights. They are denied work. They are denied property. They are denied their human rights because they are and always will be a political football in the Arab campaign against Israel. 4) 850,000 Jewish refugees are a result of Arab Leaders' Fascism. (1, 2.) 5) 300,000 Lebanese Christian Victims as a result of 'Palestinians' Crimes. (1, 2) (in cooperation with Syria The MONSTER, Crimes and Massacres by the PLO and the Syrian army against the Lebanese people) 6) Most 'Palestinian' Dead were/are Combatants. Most Israeli Victims were/are Innocent NON Combatants. See Research 7) Behind every "innocent" 'stone thrower' picture the coward machine-gunners hiding behind... 8) The Biggest Victimizers on 'Palestinian' Kids are 'Palestinian' Parents, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), as we ALL know it, even the (mostly) Bias Media admits it finally. 9) The Arab Muslim Goliath grip on the UN (1, 2) and (its obsessed mostly bias resolution, by the same token blinding the bias actions of the) EU, is deeply powerful, starting from: A) The oil control, B) Huge Arab Consuming Market, C) Psychological giving in for Terrorism - intimidation (including fear of masses of Arab Muslim rampage in the streets). 10) The reason why Arab Muslim militants are against Israel helping the "Palestinians," including a GIFT of (what they never had,) a State, is for their fear of losing the flag/excuse/cover for butchering -- in their Jihad Vs World atrocities -- all over. [never mind the guilty 'Palestinian' side, but those that are ignorant "buy" the notion that they're the real "victims" & not the aggressor]. 11) Unlike the Arab Muslims States or "Palestinian" authority (1, 2, 3), Israel does not incite to hate, murder & glorifying mass murder, as Arab States & the PA do on official media, state and religious. 12) The high toll that Israel pays in its anti-terror operations is for their extra care on civilians (at the vicinity) in selective surgical shooting, including their extreme high risking door-to-door knocking on the search for weapon, the self-sacrificing (significant time pre-action) notification for residents nearby (that terrorists use as shields) to evacuate, they've developed special low impact-punctual missiles. 13) The "palestinian" terrorists have been known to INTENTIONALLY murder Arab kids and pin it on Israel, (like Muhammad Al Dura (1, 2,) and in Rafah & more). Misc. 1) Most Zionists are Christians. 2) Most Ultra Orthodox Religious Jews do not serve in Israeli army but that does not stop Radical Arab "Palestinian" terrorists from targeting their babies! 3) Israel which is the only Democratic system in the entire middle east, has ramification of: A) Free press criticizng it constantly, B) Homicide/Genocide Bombers mingling in freely in its open society, abusing it deadly 4) Israel never targets the innocent unarmed (as a general rule), would it really behave like its counterparts, there wouldn't be one 'Palestinian' Arab Muslim surviving its power. 5) Color? Ethiopians Israeli Jews are more black than Arabs, and (around) 50% of Israel consists (brown) of Jews out of Arab countries origins -- not white. 6) "Checkpoints," are for all Israelis, it has nothing to do with what you are, but rather WHERE you are at. 7) Arab Israelis have full rights in democratic Israel, and are even elected to high positions in Israeli parliament, so do Israeli Arab women vote, unlike in (most) Arab countries. 1 (- Why arabs Love Israel), 2 (- Facts), actually they are even given preference in most Israeli court cases. 8) It's not tanks vs civilians, but Genocide bombers vs babies (and machine-gunners & rockets against Israeli civilans). 9) There's no more abuse at the IDF than in any other Western Democratic power (to say the least). 10) Most backers of settlements stem out of security (buffer zones) concerns. 11) Though Arab nations have treated 'palestinian' violence (see: Jordan -"Black September", and Syria - Hama 1, 2), by massacring thousands of 'demonstrators' in the course of a few days [and 'successfully' kept it quiet ever since], but out of racism they shift it to demand rather from rstrained Israel, to blame the non Arab nation on a continuing basis. 12) The only reason for Arab leaders not letting Israel's constant atttepmts to improve in Arab made camps for 'Palestinians', is so that they could viciously play them for theit hate campaign and pointing fingers conveniently. 13) It is too difficult for neighbouring Islamo-Arab dictators-leaders to let go of the 'palestinian' conflict, as they use it so efficiently to divert their populous' attentions, and suffocate bitter complaints against their governments, towards the non-Arab-Muslim nation. 14) Researchers do not trace most "Palestinian" Arabs to any earlier date than the 1880's, as their majority emigrated later on. 15) It's never the 'facts' on the ground that 'boost' terrorists, but the brainwashing and FALSE 'interpretation' of things, by the same token: It's not what we "do", but what they're being TAUGHT to do. Contact the writer at american1627@yahoo.com To Go To Top

MORT KLEIN, ZOA PRESIDENT, DEFINES PALESTINIAN ARAB PROBLEM Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, September 19, 2005.

ZOA dismayed that 12 years after Oslo, Israeli PM Sharon still pleads at UN for Palestinians to stop terror The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) finds it painful to see that 12 years after Oslo began, after major concessions of giving away one-half of Judea & Samaria and all of Gaza, arming the Palestinian police, forcibly removing 10,000 Jews from their homes, and billions of dollars in international aid; it is still necessary for the Israeli Prime Minister once again to plead in his United Nations speech yesterday with "the Palestinian leadership to end terror and its infrastructures, eliminate the armed gangs, and cease the incitement and indoctrination of hatred toward Israel and the Jews." ZOA President Morton A. Klein said, "Who would have believed 12 years ago that this sort of speech would still be necessary. It is high time for Israel and the US to stop its pleading, stop its funding, and stop its negotiating with the Palestinian Authority (PA). There must be serious consequences to the PA's unending anti-peace, pro-terror actions. Sharon and Bush should simply cut off all aid and continuously and severely respond to terror until the terror and incitement stops. Negotiations and concessions have failed. It is clear that the Arab war against Israel is not about economics or land but about the existence of a Jewish State within any border. "Israel does not exist on any map in the PA schools or offices. Recent speeches by PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas calling for a 'mixture of populations in Palestine' indicate Abbas' real aim is ending the Jewish State of Israel. In fact, when President Bush asked Abbas to publicly refer to Israel as the Jewish 'state,' Abbas refused. Each May, the Palestinians rally and call the creation of Israel a catastrophe'" Klein added that "It was also painful and incomprehensible to hear Sharon say he 'respects' the Palestinians. How can the leader of the Jewish State make this complimentary characterization after 12 years in which Palestinians have murdered 1500 Israelis and maimed 10,000 more. "How can Sharon say he 'respects' the Palestinians days after they destroyed over 40 holy synagogues, looted the homes of the Gaza Jews, and destroyed the Jewish greenhouses left behind for their own use that Jewish millionaires bought for them. How can Sharon respect a people the majority of whom still support suicide bombings against Jews. How can he respect a people who refuse to arrest murderers of Jews and disarm and dismantle the anti-Jewish terror groups. How can he respect a people who refer to killers of Jews as martyrs and heroes. "We are also puzzled as to why Sharon, in his speech, again calls for a sovereign Palestinian State. Doesn't Sharon understand that such a state will now simply be a terror state? Sovereignty doesn't end terror, it only strengthens the underlying culture to promote their agenda. Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Iran are sovereign states. Are they lovely and peaceful. A Palestinian State would only join the list of rogue states and cause more problems for Israel and the U.S. "In a recent poll, by McLaughlin and Associates, by a margin of 3 to 1, Americans said a Palestinian State would be a terrorist state whose goal is to destroy Israel and not to live in peace. Americans understand. There should be no discussion of any Palestinian state unless and until the Palestinian Arab society is transformed and lives peacefully with Israel for many years." Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). To Go To Top

GAZA POLL: 61% OF LOCAL ARABS SUPPORT SUICIDE BOMBINGS Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 19, 2005.

See IMRA (http://www.imra.org.il) for full details. Download http://www.fafo.no/gazapoll/tab_report.pdf 80% did not live close to Israeli settlements. 4% replied that either they or their families had land in an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Fafo conducted a face-to face survey with 875 respondents in Gaza in the first week of September to monitor Palestinian views on the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Gaza strip. Among the results are: A vast majority see the Israeli withdrawal as good thing that will improve their lives. An overwhelming majority (84 %) believes the withdrawal is a result of the Palestinian struggle and the costs to Israel in maintaining the occupation. Most are optimistic about the positive effect the withdrawal will have on their lives. A majority of Gazans (67 %) want "military operations from the Gaza Strip against Israel" to stop and a minority (38 %) hold that the Intifada more generally should continue. But a similar majority (61%) agree with the statement that "suicide bombings against Israeli civilians are necessary to get Israel to make political concessions" (39% disagreed with that statement). Respondents were asked about their views on the political future in Gaza, following the withdrawal. More than half (59%) fear an escalation of the power struggle between or within political factions following the withdrawal, with 44 % fearing that there will be an armed conflict between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA). A vast majority see an inclusive National Coalition Government (95%) as the solution to the political crisis in Gaza, and many of these (88 %) believe that Hamas should be part of such a government. Gazans are not optimistic about the PA's ability to control the Gaza strip (38 % think it can), while 48 % believe that control should be handled through cooperation between the PA and other political factions. These numbers reflect a deeper reality: Palestinians in Gaza do not have a lot of confidence in their key institutions. When asked to rate their views... Only around 24 % express some confidence in the Palestinian legislative council and the Council of ministers Only half (53%) believe that the land vacated by the Israelis will be distributed fairly Around 40 % express some confidence in Palestinian Private sector and NGOs, while Foreign NGOs and Private sector score lower than that (approx 27%) On top of the confidence list is UNWRA - the UN agency for Palestine refugees - in which 78 % of Gazan's express confidence (many Gazans are refugees and have direct and long experience of UNRWA). The Palestinian media (65%) also did well, but western media - like BBC and CNN - got a stark vote of non confidence (15%). The survey results include other indicators of Palestinian opinion on a range of topics, including their views on how the PA will handle the re-distribution of land vacated by settlers, their preferences in political factions, and other indicators of political legitimacy and the likelihood of conflict. Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 17, 2005. To Go To Top

PSYCHIC? NAW, JUST A REALIST Posted by Arlene Peck, September 18, 2005.

I don't think my teachers ever considered me precocious or gifted. Even though I went to Columbia, one of those good Ivy League schools, I remember my mother telling me that she was going to have to burn down the university to get me out. Yet, what other explanation is there? It could only be precociousness or some psychic ability that enabled me to be so right about all that I have been saying. It's only now that am I hearing on radio and television talk shows that we are in a global war and the religion of Islam once thought by all and sundry to be "peaceful" is actually out to kill anyone who isn't them. Period. How strange, I have been assuming that for years, and I thought most sane people also took it for granted. Yet, I look back at the titles of the columns that I wrote years ago, "Like Father, Like Son" and "Hell Yes! We Want Oil!" and realize that even then, I felt the premonitions. And, this dear reader, before our country was bankrupted by the cost of the Iraq war and its ludicrous "rebuilding". Does anyone remember the spiel pitched at us? It went something like this: the richest oil wells in the world were in Iraq and, when they were "liberated", the output from them was going to pay for the new "democracy" and thereby keep our country from being saddled with the horrendous costs involved in establishing and stabilising a new democratic country. Well, that didn't happen! Was it just another premonition, but I kinda never thought it would pan out that way? We never seem to realise: this is the 7th Century we are dealing with and they just don't get the picture. They aren't on the same page, or even the same book, but for some reason, our leaders keep expecting them to behave in a civilised manner. I have a intution about that approach, too! And now, something even more beyond our control has happened. Adding fuel to growing situations like not having enough money to pay for our own school system, the United States ... has a city to rebuild! I don't think I am a minority voice. A recent poll showed that the vast majority of Americans disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. In the same record breaking manner, only about 5% of Americans support our continued "rebuilding" of Iraq, compared to almost 80% support for the reconstruction of New Orleans. Besides, everything we're building for them gets blown up before it's finished anyway. When I saw the horrific destruction Katrina caused, I felt that the worst damage of this storm could have been averted, had the money allocated for beefing up New Orleans' infrastructure and flood control and not gone to other areas such as Iraq or tax breaks for the wealthy. However, I said then, and still maintain, that in about three or four months, the aftermath of Katrina is going to be the biggest boon to the economy in a generation. A vast city has to be rebuilt and the real estate march into New Orleans has already begun. Think architects, contractors, hard hats, steel, concrete, glass, wood, siding, shingles, nails, etc. Oh, and what about the hotels and casinos that will be rebuilt? The hospitals, medical supplies, schools, churches and, best of all, synagogues! I even saw an article in the scurrilous Los Angeles Times about how a couple of sacred Torahs had been saved, new ones costing over $50,000 because of the intricate, time-consuming hand-written work. I'll make a bet the lawyers are already marching over the hill, or down into the levies to find someone to sue. The list is endless. In that positive frame of mind, I think I am going to buy more Home Depot stock, as it will surely go up! Regretfully, I wish my 'psychic' vibes had been a little more finely attuned and I had thought to buy stock in Cheney's Halliburton and Bush's oil friends before the election! But, maybe it is not too late, as upcoming no-bid contracts are sure to follow in disaster relief services, 'consulting' and restoration of Gulf area energy companies. Speaking of infrastructure and building; is it timely to remind folks of the awfully large fence currently under construction along the Arizona border, all in the name of "homeland security"? How odd this is hardly commented on. Can anyone spot the double standard? Israel is still under incredible attack from our Arabist State Dept, the United Nations and the Holocaust sanctioners who make up the European Union, over her decision to build just such a fence on her borders. And what a list it is, their many objections to a Security Fence designed to keep out terrorists. I guess it is ok for America to build an anti-"wetback" fence. Included among the many illegals streaming over our border, there aren't terrorists, having learned how to fly planes, believing America is "the great Satan"... are there'? From the looks of it, Israel's fence is being built not a moment too soon. Read the statistics for yourself if you doubt how effective it has been already. Innocent Israeli lives are being saved, but that probably doesn't matter. I think it was a brilliant stroke of Public Relations on Israel's part, which they usually aren't too keen on, when they stepped back and allowed the savages in Gaza to have their orgy of burning, looting and dancing of the rooftops of the synagogues, without a Palestinian Authority or Egyptian border guard lifting a finger, except to loot. In the long run, their abandonment will come back and bite them on the tush. Because, after the unchecked frenzy of destruction, about 20,000 of their 'brothers' crossed into Egypt and about 3,000 became new residents of that garden spot of the Middle East, Gaza. It mattered not that the United States, Egypt and even Israel had actual promises from them that they would behave like humans and not the barbaric cretins we anticipated. I, with my psychic ability, knew that they were going to do exactly what they did. It has been obvious to everyone except politically correct morons, safe in their latte circles, and, of course, our top rating news shows, that the "open borders" are going to give Al-Qaeda unfettered access into the Gaza Strip, all the while smuggling in arms via the Philadelphi corridor. It is like a pot of hot, hot soup ready to boil over. And, since my powers seem to be hot, I predict that the terror organizations are working like little beavers to get as many weapons in place before any of those useless 750 Egyptian border guards stop them. That is, if they even try. I remember when I was in Beirut in June of 82, working as a journalist, seeing first hand how useless they were in any capacity other than 'prisoner'. In that capacity, they excelled and would come out waving white flags before the first shot was fired. As for Al Qaeda, these are men who know how to fight; in fact, for what's it worth, they excel in terrorism and cutting off heads. When I think of the people Israel is forced to deal with, I often think of a species of fish I read about, probably when I was marking time at Columbia. This breed are voracious eaters, often running out of prey. When that happens, it's not a real problem, because they turn cannibal and begin to devour their own kind. I could tell you it's my "Psychic Powers" working, but really, all I have to do is read the reports coming out of the Middle East daily, to know that civil war is a reality. Palestinian and Egyptian officials have given their 'promise' to curb the flow as soon as possible. However, we all know that doesn't mean diddlysquat. So, tell you what I think? I believe that something truly terrible is going to happen because Pandora's Box has been opened. And, when the full extent of its contents are revealed to the world, Israel will have the excuse and, this time, possibly (but probably not) World approval, to go back in and, for once, actually take the offensive and do what they have to do, bring the terrorists the death they live for and revere. No, not militants, or extremist, or activists. They are roaches and like the vermin they are, must be destroyed! Not negotiated with, nor pacified... killed! To Go To Top

SHARON'S REWARD Posted by David Frankfurter, September 18, 2005.

Dear Friends, Following the international and local press, I really felt the elation of the Prime Minister's press team. Until I saw the picture on the front page of Friday's Ha'aretz print edition. The 'reward' that Sharon got for the brave steps and genuine sacrifices of evacuating Gaza turned out to be an invitation to address the near-empty plenum of the UN General Assembly. David 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/ To Go To Top

ARAB TERRORISTS POUR OF MILLIONS INTO NEW ARMS STOCKPILE Posted by Yrachmiel Elias and Professor Ya'akov Golbert, September 18, 2005.

Yesterday, the Israeli press reported that Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, is so concerned by all this that he wants a buffer zone IN THE GAZA STRIP into which "Palestinians" are not allowed to enter in order to distance this threat from Israeli towns. NOW he wants a buffer zone? NOW? He just completed the destruction of the Israeli towns of Gush Katif in the Gaza strip, which provided just such a buffer zone, especially along the northern border of the Gaza strip. (or perhaps he is just making a fashion statement to be placed on the list as a possible replacement to sit on the seat soon to be vacated by Sharon ) The nearest "Palestinians" were four kilometers from the northern border and there were four Israeli towns along that border to facilitate IDF access to the zone. They were not anywhere near the Arab population, but Mofaz supervised their destruction. And NOW he wants a buffer zone established? How many people are stupid enough to take him seriously? Certainly no one on the "Palestinian" side. This is a DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 17, 2005. The list obtained by DEBKAfila's exclusive military and intelligence sources, contains - 1. 3,000 automatic rifles. The new supply, most of which is destined for Hamas, gives the organization a total of 10,000 Kalashnikovs, enough for thousands of new recruits. 2. Hundreds of AT-23 Sagger anti-tank missiles. 3. SAM-14 Strela anti-air missiles -- quantity unknown. 4. Improved Qassam surface missiles. Their range is 13km or 18km, depending on whether Israeli or Egyptian intelligence evaluations are accepted. The shorter-range can reach Ashkelon, the longer one can menace the southern suburbs of the Ashdod port town, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gath, Kiryat Malachi (where the Israeli President's private home is located), Ofakim, Netivot and prime minister Ariel Sharon's Sycamore Ranch. 5. Land mines of different types -- quantity unknown. 6. More than 250 tons of explosives. In addition, an estimated 500-700 armed and highly-trained men have infiltrated Gaza through Sinai to boost the ranks of the Hamas and Jihad Islami. They are believed to include Palestinian terrorists from Lebanon, as well as al Qaeda operatives and fugitives who have been on the run from Egyptian security since the Taba and Sharm al Sheikh bombing attacks. Israel's AMAN suspects that Iranian Revolutionary Guards spies may have been smuggled in with the traffic, their assignment being to establish an Iranian terrorist infrastructure like the one Tehran has set up in Iraq. Hamas, Jihad Islami and other terrorist groups have emptied out their Sinai arms dumps in the Gaza Strip -- an Israeli officer estimated that the tons of explosives, rockets, RPGs and missiles would have kept three large Sinai-Rafah arms tunnels busy around the clock for a year. But on top of that supply, Hamas, Jihad Islami and other Palestinian groups have been on a shopping spree. Their funding sources are not known for certain, but DEBKAfile's sources can reveal how and where they are getting their lethal merchandise. Iranian and Hizballah agents -- as well as al Qaeda buyers -- are using their contacts with local gangs of arms traffickers in Serbia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo, to fill Palestinian stores with new weaponry. The arms are shipped out of ports in Montenegro and Croatia to Yemen and Sudan, thence to Sinai and into the Gaza Strip, unchecked by Egyptians or Palestinian security. Hamas is already making good use of the huge mountain of weapons rolling in through the uncontrolled Rafah border for its next tactical moves. A. It has begun stringing out a line of military positions along Gaza's borders with Egypt and Israel, similar to the Hizballah bases along Lebanon's border with Israel. Hamas operatives have taken over some former IDF positions in the Rafah sector and the former Israeli coastal location of Rafiah Yam. B. Hamas units have taken up position at the former Morag, Dugit and Elei Sinai and appear to be erecting military installations. C. The first hole Hamas blew in one of the two Gaza-Egyptian border walls was just the beginning. Since Friday, Sept 16, their bomb squads are taking the walls down section by section, working round the clock. They plant explosive charges and detonate the by remote control. The Palestinian Authority's security personnel and Egyptian border police are turning a blind eye. Wednesday, Sept. 14, the Egyptians came up with the pretext that not all their troops had been deployed. Two days later, they had another excuse: The resident Egyptian military deputation headed by General Mustafa Bakri has sent orders to Palestinian commanders to put a stop to rampage, but the men further down the line ignore them. All Mahmoud Abbas could say, Saturday, Sept 17 was that more time was needed to seal the Gaza-Egyptian border - "maybe two or three months?" Abu Mazen's comment was a verbal shrug -- all he could say short of admitting that his men at the border crossing have been supplanted by Hamas. Since Israel's pull-out last Monday, Hamas has held one triumphal parade after after another. Crowds of up to 50-70,000 orderly spectators watched heavily armed terrorists strutting up and down as their leaders on the platforms wowed not to rest until the Jewish state was no more. In dismal contrast, the Palestinian Authority tried to stage a "national" celebration last Monday, Sept. 12. The only people who attended were armed, masked members of the Palestinian terrorist groups in revolt against the Palestinian Authority. Abu Mazen's convoy set out for Gaza from Ramallah, but turned back after he was warned his life would be on the line. In New York, prime minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel will withhold its assistance from the Palestinian election next January if Hamas runs without laying down arms. It is far from clear that Israel can make good on this threat. In any case, what arms should Hamas lay down? The old ones? or the new supply? A well-informed European security source told DEBKAfile that the Palestinians are snapping up the huge surpluses of weapons, ammo, missiles, and explosives from the wars in Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. This is going on amid Sharon's pledges never to compromise at the expense of national security and invites a hard question: has the political-security conception on which he based his disengagement policy collapsed less than a week after the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza Strip? Israel's defense minister, his deputy, the Shin Beit director and the OC southern command, who were so visible in the course of the pull-out, have all been strangely silent in its menacing aftermath. Yrachmiel Elias and Ya'akov Golbert are cofounders of Netzah Yisrael. They can be reached at action@netzahyisrael.org To Go To Top

"THE LION KING": AN ANALOGY Posted by Shifra Shomron, September 18, 2005.

Have you seen the movie, "The Lion King"? Apart from providing the viewer with a very entertaining film, it also managed to provide a beautifully done analogy of our Jewish history. "Where is the den of lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, and the lioness walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?" (Nahum 2:12). Let me explain. In the beginning of the movie, the "Pride Lands" are ruled by the King of the Jungle, the lions. The leader of the pack is Mufasa. Sadly, he prematurely meets his death while doing his utmost to save his son and crown prince, Simba. Let us say that: the "Pride Lands" is analogous to the Land of Israel, Mufasa is a symbol for all the heroic Jews who have fallen while defending our Nation, and Simba symbolically represents the people of Israel in their reestablished State. After Mufasa dies, Simba feels alone, lost, bewildered and guilty (thinking he caused his father's death). After all, he is very young... and attempts to flee from his proud heritage, homeland, and purpose in "the circle of life." The Jewish people have done likewise. So many brave and good people have fallen. And when the dust cleared up we've found ourselves alone, bewildered, and even feeling guilty. We ran from being sons of The King: "Hadar! A Jew, even in poverty remains a prince. Whether servant or serf you were created the son of kings. Crowned with the diadem of David; In light or in darkness, remember the crown..." (A translation from Ze'ev Jabotinsky's song by Rav Meir Kahane, The Story of the J.D.L., page 81). Throughout our history we've run. And being isolated, weak, and far from our homeland we were easy prey for all the buzzards who eagerly came at us in the hot and barren deserts of exile. Indeed, in exile we have always been in great danger from the non-Jew. Away from our homeland we have been forced to eat slugs to survive. And while we may get used to them and declare them "slimy and satisfying," we CAN NOT, in real life, live long and prosper from them. No indeed! Luckily Simba is saved from the buzzards by ...Timone and Pumbaa. While Timone and Pumbaa are charming characters and save Simba's life, they are also dangerous -- almost as much as the buzzards. They get Simba used to eating slugs, keep him away from Pride Rock, and convincingly teach him warped ethics, "When the world turns it's back on you, you turn your back on the world." Simba, feeling that his former world HAS turned its back on him, now prepares to settle down in the jungle where he'll spend his leisure time bathing, resting, and eating grubs. In other words, Timone and Pumbaa are representative of the lost assimilated Jews who feast on a steady diet of western culture including the "makes me happy, feels good" attitude. Simba's new leaders are those who did save him and they indeed have many merits, however they decided to desert the Pride Lands and ignore their problems instead of facing them. And with them, Simba forgets that he should be king. In fact, he doesn't WANT to be king. And like Simba, the Jewish people is satisfied with the western rubbish and as time goes by they no longer care about their history, their land, their future -- their raison d'etre. Very sad and very scary. Meanwhile, back at "Pride Rock", things have not been idle. In Simba's absence his uncle Scar assumes the throne. Scar is power hungry and clever. In order to be king, Scar had made a pact based on "reciprocity" with the hyenas, enemies of the lions, that in return for killing Simba and Mufasa they will have all access to the "Pride Lands." But Simba was rescued by his father and ran for safety. Scar then killed his brother Mustafa and convinced Simba that he and he alone killed his own father. Frightened Simba asked his uncle Scar what to do and naively heeded Scar's advice to flee and to never return to the "Pride Lands." The film ingeniously portrayed a Hitler-like scene showing Scar from a podium with lights on him, the Nazi salute along with hyenas goose-step marching. In short, clearly the hyenas symbolize our Arab enemy while Scar represents the left-wing in Israel. They, like Scar, are willing to arm their foe and share their precious, bountiful, but tiny Land. They are even willing to kill their brother -- anything to rule. Scar sings of ushering in a new era wherein lion and hyena live side by side in peaceful coexistence in the "Pride Lands." "Be prepared for the murkiest scam Meticulous planning Tenacity spanning Decades of denial Is simply why I'll Be King undisputed Respected, saluted And seen for the wonder I am..." So, Scar becomes king. And true to his words he brings the hyenas from the "Shadow Lands" to the "Pride Lands." The Land responds to the hyenas by becoming brown and barren. The economic situation is in ruins; no food, no rainfall. Nothing prospers. Equally with the Land of Israel as, having armed and welcomed the Arabs during the ominous years of Oslo, we now find ourselves in problematic situations i.e., low Kinneret water levels which carry our national water supply (and yet we still provide Jordan with our water), increased poverty level, high unemployment. With the once prosperous "Pride Lands" now devastated, young lioness Nala leaves her homeland in search of help. A few words about Nala: She and Simba were lion cub playmates wherein she followed his lead. Now a mature lioness, she neither seeks greener pastures nor ignores the plight of her kingdom rather feels obligated and committed to her pride and Land. Eventually she finds a confused Simba denying his destiny and lovingly tries to convince him to return to his rightful place in this world. Nala managed to reach a harmonious and loving relationship with Simba yet even in that ideal situation the difference of their visions for the future come between them. She isn't successful at bringing him back into the pride, singing: "He's holding back, he's hiding But what, I can't decide Why won't he be the king I know he is The king I see inside?" I liken Nala symbolically to the Religious Zionists who have been involved with the building of the State of Israel since its rebirth. They have sat in every coalition and "with love we shall win" attitude tried to bring our Nation back to its rightful path. But, like Nala, they didn't quite succeed. To the rescue comes wise old baboon Rafiki with the clearest knowledge of how everything should be in the circle of life. Initially he sounds quite comical and foolish -- senile in his old age. But he isn't. And he manages to connect Simba to his father Mufasa and make him understand that he belongs in the "Pride Lands" at "Pride Rock" and as the King: "It's the circle of life And it moves us all Through despair and hope Through faith and love Till we find our place On the path unwinding In the circle The circle of life." I liken Rafiki to our prophets. The Jewish Nation must realize that our wisest course is to follow their advice; once we do so we will manage to oust the left wing (Scar), banish the Arabs (hyenas) and cause the Land of Israel ("Pride Lands") to blossom once more. And that day will arrive once we get past the stage of flauntingly singing and dreaming of the day when "No one saying do this No one saying be there No one saying stop that No one saying see here Free to run around all day Free to do it all my way." Once we get past that stage, we'll be able to listen to the wise old Prophet's (Rafiki) advice and remember that we, too, are lions -- born to rule in the sovereign Land of Israel "everywhere the light touches" and to spread that light to the rest of the world. "Yehuda is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? The staff shall not depart from Yehuda, nor the scepter from between his feet." -- (Genesis, Vayhi 49:9-10) Shifra Shomron is a refugee from Gush Katif. She is 18 years old. She now lives in Caravilla site, Nitzan 2. To Go To Top

THE CIVIL WAR THAT WASN'T Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 18, 2005.

This was written by Natan Sharansky and appeared in The Jerusalem Post September 8, 2005 He is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center. The looming civil war, which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prophesied from the pages of The New York Times, did not materialize. It did not because a civil war requires two opposing camps fighting each other, hating each other, and most importantly, convinced that their survival depends on the annihilation of each other. Over the past two months, I spent a great deal of time in Gush Katif, both with families in the last minutes of their lives there, as well as with the soldiers and officers. What I saw, even at the most trying and tragic moments, was not a division into two camps of evacuating soldiers and evacuees. The settlers and the army were of the same camp -- Israeli citizens placed in a difficult, and often impossibly grueling, situation. Two warring camps simply did not exist. During the demanding days of the so-called disengagement, there were many dramatic televised scenes of resistance and human tragedy. But many other, no less telling, scenes were not caught by the media. The cameras missed the joint minha prayers and the shared volleyball games on opposite sides of the ostensibly dividing Kfar Maimon fence. They missed soldiers being the first to offer their condolences to a family sitting shiva, even ritually tearing their clothes, mourning three generations of life in Gush Katif and the imminent disappearance of a unique world of Torah and modern agriculture built on the barren sands of the Gaza strip. They did not see the final Torah lesson led by the head of a family for his children, joined, first hesitantly and sheepishly, and then actively and vigorously, by the evacuating soldiers; they overlooked the tear-swollen eyes of the soldiers and settlers alike, discussing what our forefathers, Abraham and Isaac, must have felt when the wells that they had excavated were sealed. They did not cover a senior officer, going door-to-door to the homes of his own soldiers all over Gush Katif, apologizing personally for the pain that the army and state was inflicting upon these families. They also missed the last Shabbat prayers in the beautiful synagogues of Gush Katif, when the prayer for the well-being of the state was tearfully chanted. In it, Israel is called "the beginning of our spiritual redemption," and God is asked to bless the heads, ministers and advisers -- the same government that had sent the army to destroy the world the people of Gush Katif built with their labor, dreams and blood. Perhaps the most telling were the dialogues between pairs of Israeli journalists on all three major TV stations. One would be stationed in Gush Katif; the other in the studio. As time went by, the two professionals, who had worked together for many years, started speaking different languages. The reporter in the studio would still be using the clich s about the dangerous settlers running rampant in the Gush; the reporter who had spent two weeks in the field came to see in the residents of the Gush fellow human beings facing a personal tragedy of unimaginable proportions. Disengagement was widely portrayed as a battle between the powers of democracy and lawless settler fanatics. For sure, violent acts and protests were committed on the fringes. But the leaders of the Yesha Council, no less than the army and police officers, did all in their power to ensure that, despite all the pain, this would be a "battle" with one side: that both those who implemented the government's decisions and those who protested them would play on the side of democracy. And yet, the disengagement did cause other fronts to surface. An invisible but very tangible border arose; not between soldiers and settlers, but between those who shared the pain of disengagement and those who did not. The latter could not relate to the disappearing world of Gush Katif as part of their own world. The excruciatingly painful battle between these two camps was waged on the pages of some of our newspapers, in the often base attacks from the Knesset podium, and in the heartless comments of "they deserve it!" or "I have more in common with the Palestinians than with the crazy settlers," heard often enough in the streets. Our sages tell us that a two-headed baby was once brought before King Solomon, who was asked to rule if this infant was one child or two. The king ordered hot water sprinkled on one of the heads, to see if the other head would respond in tears. If it did, the child would be considered one human being; if not, two disparate ones. According to the wise king, empathy is the ultimate sign of oneness. STILL, LIKE any high tragedy, the struggle for Gush Katif showed not only anguished weakness, but also great hope. Within the depths of this struggle, the Panim el Panim (Face-to-Face) movement was born. Thousands of settlers and their friends knocked on the doors of more than 100,000 homes in Kiryat Shmona, Netanya, Tel Aviv, Beersheba and Haifa. Half of the houses opened their doors. In many homes, the knock was the beginning of an important dialogue and the establishment of vital connections. Paradoxically, the disengagement itself became a massive and unprecedented face-to-face event, of an intense and often heart-wrenching intra-Jewish dialogue. Yet, we cannot and should not wait for tragedies on such a scale to initiate a dialogue among ourselves. From its inception, the Gush Emunim movement believed that it should constantly move ahead, build and expand, never looking back. The rest of the nation, they believed, would surely catch up later. Yet, the nation, as the leaders saw all too late, did not catch up. Instead, bridges of dialogue have to be built between the camps. But for this, the face-to-face process must be encouraged and even become the nexus of our Zionist activity. The civil war that wasn't teaches us that we are all in the same camp -- except perhaps those indifferent to their fellow citizens' suffering. We must continue knocking on each other's doors. Breaking down the walls of ignorance and indifference is critical not just to our strength against external enemies, but our ability to address the many societal challenges facing us in the days ahead. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

ANTI-ISRAEL EXTREMIST KINSLEY LEAVES THE LA TIMES. WATCH OUT WASHINGTON D.C. Posted by Join the Boycott, September 18, 2005.

Anti-Israel Extremist Leaves the LA Times - Watch Out Washington DC!!: Michael Kinsley, Editor of the Los Angeles Times Editorial pages, has left. During his tenure, the paper's editorials reflected an increasingly extremist anti-Israel view. Kinsley reportedly is headed to the Washington Post. Watch out Washington DC community! See http://www.geocities.com/truthmasters/jointheboycott.htm Join the Boycott Contact Join the Boycott by email at jointheboycott@lycos.com To Go To Top

FRANCE AND THE JEWS Posted by Renalee Colon, September 17, 2005.

This was written by the New York Sun Editorial staff and appeared yesterday. It is archived at URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/20144 When the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, addresses the United Nations general assembly on Sunday, he will be speaking in a city where many see him as a spokesman for a ministry hostile to the Jews. That sentiment has been percolating in the most distinguished journal in the city, Commentary magazine, for two years, most recently in an article by David Pryce-Jones. In the May edition Mr. Pryce-Jones described the pervasive anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism of the Quai d'Orsay. He quoted a foreign minister of the 1950s who was well disposed toward Israel, Christian Pineau, admitting in his autobiography that a "more or less conscious" anti-Semitism motivated French Middle East policy. France for example helped Iraq build its Osirak nuclear reactor. It denied American planes landing rights during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. France arrested, and then mysteriously released to Algeria, the terrorist who led the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich, Abu Daoud. In 1987 it was found that the Quai d'Orsay was partly financing an Arab lobby, the Cercle France-Pays Arabes. Mr. Pryce-Jones wrote that: "With the exception of the former Soviet Union, no country did more than France to promote a PLO state, and thereby to endanger the existence of Israel." This marked hostility to Israel isn't just constrained to previous decades. Days after the September 11, 2001, attacks, France's ambassador to Israel, Jacques Huntzinger, sought to justify suicide attacks against Israelis, saying it "would be completely irresponsible" to compare the attacks in America to those in Israel, because "the terror here is linked with a situation of conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people." At a London dinner table in 2002, the French ambassador to London, Daniel Bernard, infamously referred to Israel as "a shitty little country." France gave a heroic send-off to the terrorist Yasser Arafat after his death earlier this year. The editor-in-chief of the Paris weekly Valeurs Actuelles, Michel Gurfinkiel, told The New York Sun that there has "always been evidence of a very strong tradition of anti-Semitism" in the French "diplomatic corps." This attitude was most evident under President de Gaulle who saw the world as being divided into two camps - those with America and those with him, according to Mr. Gurfinkiel. France came to see the "Islamic world as a natural ally against America," and "Israel as a natural ally of America." This "reactivated anti-Semitic tradition that always was present in Quai d'Orsay," Mr. Gurfinkiel told the Sun. There are signs that in some areas France is improving. In 2002 the interior minister, Nicholas Sarkozy, introduced a tougher stance against domestic anti-Semitism. Mr. Gurfinkiel told the Sun that there has also been a "very real effort over the past two years" to show a "more friendly face to Israel." This has been motivated, he said, by France 's realization that its previously open hostility barred it from playing a role in Middle East peacemaking. Prime Minister Sharon's recent state visit to France was an example of this new friendlier policy toward the Jewish state. Mr. Gurfinkiel said that while there are clearly changes in policy at the top levels of government, he's "not convinced" of success in reforming the hostile attitudes within the Quai d'Orsay. He said many in the diplomatic corps still believe " Israel is not a legitimate country." While anti-Semitic attacks are down for the moment, the director for International Liaison at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dr. Shimon Samuels, told the Sun that the community remains very concerned about anti-Semitism and very "significant numbers are leaving." Many believe, Dr. Samuels told the Sun, that Jews will either end up leaving France with a "suitcase or coffin." The hotline to report anti-Semitic attacks now receives "only" "three to four calls a day" - during the second Intifada there were "60 to 70 a day." We recognize the French take great umbrage at this description of their country as the letters to the editor of Commentary attest. France's ambassador to America, Jean-David Levitte, leaped to the defense of his country both as a "career diplomat" and a "French Jew," saying he did not recognize in the Commentary article "either the country I have the privilege to serve or the ministry to which I have the honor to belong." He should know that among New Yorkers - a hard-headed lot - the credibility lies with Commentary. If the ambassador's superior, Mr. Douste-Blazy, wants a welcome reaction in New York, he would do well to address these concerns about the ministry he heads. If he doesn't, it can be taken as a sign of recognition that Messrs. Pryce-Jones and Gurfinkiel are on the mark. Renalee Colon can be contacted by email at renalees@yahoo.com To Go To Top

NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIAL: ISRAEL WORKING WITH HAMAS Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 17, 2005.

As I have said... Here's what other media don't report YET...since they follow the government timetable... This article is called "National Security Official: Israel Working with Hamas" and was written by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu. It appeared in today's Arutz-7 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=89993 The retiring deputy head of Israel's National Security Agency said that Hamas terrorists and Israeli authorities are cooperating in the Hamas-run city of Kalkilya, next to Kfar Saba. Ofir Dekel, speaking at a conference on terrorism, said that Hamas has changed its strategy, such as revealing the identities of its terrorist chiefs in the Gaza region. "For Hamas, which is a conspiratorial [and] secret [group], such a move is dramatic. It shows the direction it seeks to take," which is to exercise influence in the political arena, Dekel said. The idea of Hamas terrorists and Israel cooperating with each other is a twist similar to another development that Dekel noted. The Palestinian Authority (PA) recruits terrorists into its police forces to keep down terrorism. "You want to prevent a terror attack, recruit the terrorist. That is how [PA chairman] Abu Mazen acts," he said. Israel's cooperation with Hamas terrorist leaders is on local matters in the Kalkilya area, which Dekel did not describe in further detail. However, Israeli authorities' cooperation with Hamas terrorists on administrative matters could strengthen Hamas politically elsewhere in Judea and Samaria and weaken the PA. Hamas won all the council seats in Kalkilya municipal elections earlier this year. The city is highly significant because it is on the list of urban centers which the PA is slated to control according to the Sharm el-Sheik accords negotiated in February. Israel has delayed transferring full responsibility for the city until the PA halts terrorist attacks. Kalkilya also is located strategically on the 1949 border, often referred to as the Green Line which marked Israel's borders before the 1967 Six-Day War. Dekel said that Hamas "still believes the entire land... belongs to the Islamic Wakf (trust), and that death for Allah is the most sublime thing," but that its leaders do not want to become martyrs. He explained that Hamas commanders cannot assume that they are secure in Gaza, where Dekel estimated that Hamas will increase its administrative control. He reminded his audience that the PA suffers from chaos and corruption, whereas the Hamas terror organization is well-run, organized and effective. Dekel predicted that attacks from Gaza will decrease but that terrorism will escalate from Judea and Samaria, where it is sending terrorists who know how to build rockets. Hamas "is aware of the dramatic effect of such a (rocket) attack," which can reach major Israeli cities, industries and power stations, he said. He estimated that there will be very little terrorism prior to the scheduled January PA legislative elections. Dekel also said that terrorist attacks will be less effective because Israel's intelligence system has improved. He added that terrorist groups such as Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades "can be bought," unlike the Islamic Jihad. Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

THE GAZA SEWAGE PROBLEM Posted by Professor Ya'akov Golbert, September 17, 2005.

This was written by Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent. It is called "Gaza sewage could cripple desalination facility." If the Palestinians go ahead with building a sewage pipe from the Gaza Strip to the sea, this could cripple the new desalination plant near Ashekelon. The plant, planned to desalinate 100 million cubic meters of water annually, is due to be inaugurated at the end of the month. A Water Commission report warns that "if the Ashkelon desalination plant is crippled due to the sewage flowing from the Gaza Strip into the sea, the outcome would be intolerable for Israel's water sector. Any attempt to lay a pipeline to drain sewage into the sea must be physically stopped." The report says that in addition to the damage caused by putting the plant out of business, the sewage would pollute Israel's beaches. Palestinian water commissioner Fadel Kawash said he was aware of Israel's concern. However, he noted that all the Israeli settlements in the West Bank channel all their sewage - some 15 million cubic meters a year - into open areas. A 4,000-square meter sewage pond is sitting near Wadi Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, and sewage water already flows from there into Israel. There is only one sewage pipe from Gaza City into the sea, near Sheikh Ajlin. Five donor states, including the United States and the European Union, were ready to assist with sewage removal projects in the Gaza Strip. However, they all stopped working on these plans during the conflict years, and only the Swedes have recently returned to the region. Sources in the Water Commission say that one way to pressure the Palestinians to avoid laying the sewage pipe is by means of the donor states. Yrachmiel Elias and Ya'akov Golbert are cofounders of Netzah Yisrael. They can be reached at action@netzahyisrael.org To Go To Top

HAMAS: SWORN ENEMY OR PARTNER? Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 17, 2005.

The following article is an example of the media cooperation in government politics... Certainly not media conceived as the "Watchdog of Power" as in the free US, but media as a government propaganda means, as according to the Bolshevik example followed by the MAPAI - to which philosophy both Peres and Sharon belong. The Israeli electronic media has been speaking more and more in the last two weeks about the "political wing" of the Hamas, as opposed to the "military wing". They are doing with Hamas exactly what they demand others not to do wit Hizballah. They are preparing the ground for a complete "change of direction" when the Hamas will get a lot of seats in the PA parliament, and they will then tell us that they have always spoken with the "moderate" part of Hamas (just imagine: the moderate part are those who wish all of us Jews gone from "Palestina" without necessarily doing shish qabab with us all first). They did that already at the beginning of Oslo, when it was still illegal to have contacts with terror organisations like the PLO. They'll tell us again that "peace is made with enemies", forgetting to say that it is done with DEFEATED enemies, or "enemies that put down their weapons", but CERTAINLY NOT with enemies who swear by your destruction. This is a regime of APPEASEMENT, which OBJECTIVELY helps the terrorists by giving them one victory (Gaza) after the other (Oslo accords and treating terrorists as peace partners), and always at the price of more and more Jewish blood being spilled. This is called "Keep Hamas out of elections" and was written by Herb Keinon, Nathan Guttman And Khaled Abu Toameh. It appeared in the Jerusalem Post. In what looks to become the next political minefield in Israeli-Palestinian relations, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made it clear over the weekend that Israel does not want to see Hamas participate in the January 25 Palestinian Legislative elections. "We will make every effort not to help (the Palestinians). I don't think they can have elections without our help," Sharon was quoted by The New York Times as telling journalists at a meeting in New York on Friday. Sharon said Israel might not remove roadblocks in the West Bank, making it difficult for Palestinians there to vote, if Hamas runs in the elections. The statements were immediately denounced by the Palestinians. Sources in Sharon's office said Friday that a meeting with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled in early October, in which he'll make his position clear to Abbas. Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom have recently stepped up their efforts to keep Hamas from taking part in the elections unless the organization disarms and revokes its 1988 charter calling for Israel's destruction. Sharon, who met Thursday with a number of European leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said Israel was adamant that Hamas, as currently constituted, could not take part in the elections. Sharon said that while Israel may no longer be able to influence whether or not Hamas participates in the elections in Gaza, it will not facilitate the elections in the West Bank if Hamas does takes part. In other words, if Hamas participates in the elections Israel may not lift roadblocks in the West Bank and make access to the polling places available for the Palestinians as it did in January when the PA's presidential elections were held. Sharon also called on the EU countries to enact legislation that would effectively outlaw Hamas. The EU has placed Hamas on its list of terror organizations, but each country must legislate laws against the organization to give meaning to their inclusion on that list. Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Saturday rejected the threats by Sharon to disrupt parliamentary elections. "I think he is afraid that Hamas's participation in the elections will strengthen the collective will and immunity of the Palestinian people vis- -vis Israeli insolence," Hamas leader Mahmuod Zahar told al-Jazeera. He said Sharon's threats would only strengthen Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian people. "If he wants to play the game of imposing conditions, then we have a thousand conditions we would want Israel to meet," Zahar added. "First of all, Israel must disarm all the thugs and child killers, then all right-wing and religious parties in Israel that deny the very existence of Palestine. Then Israel would have to abandon the biblical ideology which views non-Jews as drawers of water and hewers of wood." Another Hamas leader, Muhammad Ghazal, urged Israel not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Palestinians and to respect their right to hold free elections. "Israel claims that it is the only democratic state in the region, but in fact it fights democracy in Palestine," he said. "If we win the elections, our top priority will be to rebuild the economy and all what has been destroyed by Israel. We are not thinking of destroying Israel." Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Sharon of seeking to drive a wedge between the Palestinians by meddling in their internal affairs. Erekat warned that any Israeli interference in the vote would undermine the PA and strengthen Hamas. "I urge the Israelis to stay out of our elections and our internal affairs, and not to put their noses in this. Our elections will be a turning point toward political pluralism and toward maintaining law and order," he said. The US administration reacted cautiously during the weekend to Sharon's threat. Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council, emphasized the US view that Hamas is a terror organization, but made clear that it is only up to the Palestinian Authority to decide who will take part in the elections. "The decision as to who can participate in the elections is obviously up to the Palestinian Authority," said Jones, but he added that "we do not believe that a democratic state can be built when parties or candidates seek power not through ballot boxes but through terrorist activity as well." The official US view, as expressed many times before Sharon's statement, is that Hamas must disarm before entering the political system. Yet the US has never endorsed a policy of interrupting the election process if Hamas takes part in it. Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

HOW TO DESCRIBE THE SELF-HATING JEW? Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, September 17, 2005.

You could conceivably refer the person to the grossly overrated egomaniacal, inane opinions of Thomas Friedman and the New York Times. Or, you could refer them to a review in World Jewish News Agency of an article, written by Ms. Oz-Salzberger that recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal: www.worldjewishnewsagency.org/Jerome%20Kaufman.htm. Or, you could direct them to an article by Leon Wieseltier that just appeared in The New Republic (TNR) of September 2, 2005. Excerpts from that article appear below. Weiseltier is commenting upon the withdrawal from Gaza. His opening paragraph reads: "EVEN FACED WITH the idea of Greater Palestine, it is impossible not to rejoice in the defeat of the idea of Greater Israel. It was always a foul idea, morally and strategically. It promoted the immediate ecstasy of the few above the eventual safety of the many; it introduced the toxins of messianism and mysticism into the politics of a great modern democracy; it preferred chosenness to human rights; it subordinated laws to visions, and the Jewish state to the Jewish millennium, it worshipped soil in a primitive, almost Un-Jewish way. The settlers of the West Bank and Gaza are not a Jewish vanguard, they are a Jewish sect; and in their insistence that the destiny of their state and their society should be held hostage to the fulfillment of their metaphysical and historical conceptions, they have always displayed a sectarian self-love." Do we really have to go any further? How can one paragraph encompass so much self-hatred and hatred of one's basic origins and the people from whence he obtained his genetic pool? What exactly is Weiseltier saying? "EVEN FACED WITH the idea of Greater Palestine, it is impossible not to rejoice in the defeat of the idea of Greater Israel." Weiseltier would rather Israel's mortal enemy, sworn to her destruction, take over the territories and create a "Greater Palestine" than his own people. He abhors that the Jews should have the land G-d dedicated for them - not to mention the declarations of the world's infinitesimal political powers like the British who rapidly changed its mind and the League of Nations whose Mandate was completely ignored by the United Nations. "It was always a foul idea, morally and strategically." How dare this truly ignorant, godless man determine what is "foul" and declare what is strategically not viable! "It promoted the immediate ecstasy of the few above the eventual safety of the many." Here this same self-hater resents and begrudges the great joy that the true believer experiences from returning to the biblical homeland of his people and the most likely possibility of sanctuary for his people persecuted and virtually castrated physically and mentally for almost 2000 years of Diaspora. And, in his delusion and ignorance, declares the many will be "safer" having given up Gaza and the rest of the territories. "It introduced the toxins of messianism and mysticism into the politics of a great modern democracy." Here the true secularist steps completely forward in his disdain and abhorrence of anything smacking remotely of religion. G-d forbid anyone should believe in G-d! And how could a "great modern democracy" possibly encompass any religion rather than the mirage of "feel good" politics and moral standard? "It preferred chosenness to human rights." How embarrassing to the secularist desperately trying to prove to his non-Jewish friends that he is just one of the boys. Of course, he could not claim G-d did not pick the Jews as his chosen people. Never mind that the entire non-Jewish community fully understands that divine act and either loves us or hates us as a result. "It subordinated laws to vision" Here he had the audacity to brag about the gross, illegal machinations of Ariel Sharon and how he dismissed anyone that disagreed with his suicidal policies, ignored the public mandate under which he was elected, shamelessly maneuvered an entire political disaster to protect his own hide and that of his sons. And Weiseltier now describes this fatal activity as a true democratic process now somehow resulting in indisputable "law." And that is only addressing the first paragraph of this disgraceful diatribe! You could read the rest, if you have the stomach, in TNR, September 2, 2005 Now what to do? Unfortunately the only thing I can do is make the paltry gesture of canceling my subscription to the New Republic magazine for publishing Weiseltier. Because, how far off could they be from his self-hating opinions? Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). To Go To Top

OLEG CARTOON: LAND FOR NOTHING Posted by Women in Green, September 17, 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 To Go To Top

DO THEY HEAR IT? Posted by Batya Medad, September 17, 2005.

As I write this, the music in the background is the sound of the shofar, the ram's horn blown every morning at the end of prayers during the Jewish month of Ellul, which leads up to Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year. And during Rosh Hashannah prayers the shofar is blown a total of at least one hundred blasts in three different patterns. There are times during the day, when it seems like everyone is practicing and shofrot blast from all over the neighborhood. We are now in the month of reflection, when we're supposed to do a 'cheshbon nefesh,' an accounting, deep into our souls about our past year. This has been a very difficult year for many Jews and Israelis. At the same time that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is being praised in the United Nations, well known for its anti-Israel policies and decisions, people he uprooted from their homes fear for their lives. Among them are the refugees from Elei Sinai who took the government's offer to live in Carmiya, only to discover that their new homes in the Negev are much more dangerous than what they had left, especially since Gush Katif is Judenrein, no longer protecting the Negev and Southern coast. And this is the 'peace' that the world is praising Sharon for. At the same time that some of his opponents, 'dangerous' teenage girls who trust in G-d as their Judge, are still in jail, the government is letting leftist stone soldiers. Those violent leftists are being treated with 'kid gloves' while the anti-Disengagement demonstrators have been punished worse than murderers for blocking traffic, asking for policemen's names and playing 'practical jokes.' It is said that the sound the shofar makes reflects the soul of the blower, and it is a great honor to be asked to blow the shofar for the congregation of Rosh Hashannah. Even if one cannot attend prayers, for medical reasons, it's required to hear the blasts. In Jewish communities it's common for people to go from house to house blowing the shofar for those who could not hear it otherwise. There are three basic types of blasts. Tekiyah is a long, strong sound, like a siren. Shvarim is three, equal attention-getting shorter wails. And Teru'ah is nine short, quick, strong jabs or blasts. I must admit that there are years when they hit me straight in the gut, transforming my seat by the far wall into something of another world. Only after the final magnificent Tekiyah Gedolah, Giant Tekiyah blast that I slowly sink back to earth. But I'm a 'dancer at heart' and music strongly affects me. I'm also a teacher and know that today's pedagogic experts preach that there are many different learning styles and intelligences. For me the three different shofar blasts remind us how different we all are. Not only do people learn differently, different speeds, senses etc, but we all relate to G-d differently, and we all need different types of reminders to repent. For some people, one hint does the job, and it hits deeply into the soul, like the Tekiyah. Other people need periodic reminders, very much like Shvarim. And some, unfortunately, need a constant hammering away, to get them to wake up; it's hard to ignore Teru'ah. Whether we like it or not, we the Jewish People are judged as one. It's a hard thing to accept, especially at times like this. It really doesn't seem fair, that some Jews should suffer, because others are disengaged; they don't care about our Nation. Our job is to bring them back, each one according to his needs. May the sound of the shofar awaken their souls and ours, so we will be united. Gmar Chatima Tovah This is Musing #142. 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 To Go To Top

THE LINK BETWEEN THE OSLO ACCORDS AND THE DISENGAGEMENT FROM GAZA Posted by Janet Lehr, September 16, 2005.

This was written by Dr. Joel Fishman, who is a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. This week the twelfth anniversary of the signing of the Oslo accords passed quietly without attracting official attention. The stated purpose of the Oslo accords was to initiate a process which would build a peace between the PLO and the State of Israel. There have been periods of lull and of violence, but one has only to count the number of Israeli dead in order to know the truth. According to the Foreign Ministry website, Israel has suffered 1,330 casualties: 256 from the signing of the DOP on 13 September 1993 to September 2000, and 1,074 from September 29, 2000 until August 24, 2005. Proportionately to its population, this number would represent the equivalent loss for the United States of about 54,200 citizens, roughly eleven times the casualties of the 9/11. (Between September 29, 2000 and August 1, 2005, Magen David Adom reported that it treated a total of 7,445 casualties as follows: 967 killed, 611 severely injured, 892 moderately and 4,975 lightly injured, among them 11 MDA staff members.) On the basis of this objective and verified information it is clear that Israel is at war. Recently, with Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, some have raised the question as to whether this marks a step in the direction of peace. Several weeks ago, Sidney Zion, an American newsman dealt with this very question in the New York Daily News in an article entitled, " Sharon 's fateful choice sealed in '93: Who lost Gaza?" Zion explained that when the Oslo agreements were signed there was hardly any need to protect the Jewish settlers in Gaza, because the Palestinians had only stones to throw. However, the legal and illegal arming of the Palestinians shifted the balance. Throughout the "peace process" the Palestinians smuggled arms into Gaza through Egypt, "something that everybody knew but purposely disregarded," and the Clinton administration pressured Israel to keep quiet. Shimon Peres asked the public: "Is Arafat to fight Hamas with sticks and stones?" By the time of the Second Intifada, the military cost of holding this territory had risen drastically. A division, some 15,000 Israeli soldiers, was needed to protect the settlements in Gaza, not to mention the secondary effects of the Kassam missiles which in recent years landed on Israeli moshavim and cities such as Sderot. Zion gave the "pshat," the most simple and logical cause for Sharon 's decision to leave Gaza. If we accept his interpretation, the Oslo Accords really had major consequences, even though the policy makers have not publicly acknowledged this fact. Given the mix of military and political considerations, Israel did not have a completely free choice as to whether or not it could stay in Gaza. The cost had become intolerable, and the prospect was that it would only rise. A second authoritative analysis supports this interpretation. On August 29th, Professor Yehoshua Porath, emeritus professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University, published with brutal frankness his analysis on the Bitterlemons website. Porat predicted that the benefits of withdrawal would be brief and that Israel would be obliged to retake Gaza: "... Under international pressure, Israel had to acquiesce in the future construction of maritime and air ports and transfer to other hands control over land access from Egypt into Gaza ... Once the Gaza ports are functional, a steady flow of these arms will enter the Strip by sea and air... Consequently, within a few months or years after the completion of the ports..., the Palestinians will launch a static war of bombardment from the Gaza strip against southwest Israel (Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon)... Following a short period of devastating blows, and despite international pressure to concede more and more to the "poor" Palestinians and absorb more and more blows, Israel would react by re-conquering the Gaza Strip." It should not be a surprise therefore, that recently representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas publicly declared that this withdrawal was just an additional step on their way to achieving their ultimate objective. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, addressing a huge celebration in Gaza City on Friday, August 12, declared: "Today, we are celebrating the liberation of Gaza and the Northern West Bank; tomorrow we will celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem." As Yehoshafat Harkabi wrote in the seventies, the demands of the Palestinians cannot be satisfied because they are unlimited. Let us return to Sidney Zion's point: If, in 1993, the Oslo Accords ultimately made Israel's position in Gaza untenable, then what was decided in 1993 had great strategic importance, because it gave the Palestinians a territorial base and the arms to wage war against Israel. If one takes the example of what Gaza has become, one may demonstrate in good faith that the signing of the Oslo agreement led to war. Twelve years ago, there was talk of peace. Now, however, no one speaks of peace any more. The government of Israel does not. The Palestinians do not. The Europeans and the Americans no longer mention it. Although it took some eight to twelve years for the cause and effect relationship to become dramatically clear in the case of Gaza, it is now evident that the Rabin government, by entering into the Oslo agreements, made a serious mistake. This new and convincing interpretation has some bearing with regard to the domestic discussion in Israel. Some have claimed that if only Rabin had lived, there would have been peace. Others have accused "The Right" of "murdering the Peace." Such rationalizations simply do not explain historically the real consequences of Israel's "gamble for peace," because they are used to cover up the costly results of a major failure of judgment. The purpose of such empty words must be understood for what they are, and nobody can make such statements in good faith. Hopefully, on the tenth anniversary of Rabin's assassination we shall be spared these fabrications. It would be more appropriate and courageous for those who launched the Oslo adventure to accept the responsibility for the tremendous loss of life and human suffering which they brought on innocent Israeli civilians and for the serious harm they caused to the country's security. Janet Lehr is editor/publisher of a daily e-mail called "Israel Lives." She can be contacted at janetlehr@mindstring.com To Go To Top

GAZA'S LONG SHADOW Posted by Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, September 16, 2005.

The final battle begins. Oslo was the beginning of the end for Israel. Gaza is the end of the beginning. We are in the final days of the battle of the forces of light against the forces of darkness. May the Warriors of Zion be victorious and Israel be saved... This is called "Gaza's long shadow" and it was written by Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post columnist. It appeared in The Jerusalem Post, Sep. 15, 2005. Less than a week after the IDF's final retreat from Gaza, Israel's senior military brass found itself warding off attacks on two fronts. In Gaza, now empty of all Jewish presence, the Palestinians lost no time in taking charge of events in their own special way. First came the firebombing of the synagogues. We were asked indignantly by such paragons of virtue as PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, "Well, what did you expect to happen?" As if it should go without saying that the Palestinians will exploit any opportunity to show us their contempt for all things Jewish. After the firebombing came the looting of the destroyed Jewish communities. Then came the looting of the hothouses which had been bought for the Palestinians by wealthy Jews in the US who decided to buy them so that the Palestinians could reap what their expelled Israeli brethren had sown. Sometime between destroying the abandoned synagogues, looting the destroyed Jewish villages, tearing apart the hothouses, throwing grenades at IDF patrols guarding Moshav Netiv Ha'asara and shooting mortars at Sderot, the Palestinians discovered Egypt. At the direction of Hamas, and with the help of PA militias and Egyptian soldiers, thousands of Palestinians crossed the wall separating Palestinian Rafah from Egyptian Rafah. Among the merrymakers, unknown numbers of terrorists crossed back and forth shuttling arms and reinforcements into Gaza in unknown quantities. IDF commanders looked on, and impotently stated that there is a high probability that al-Qaida operatives are among the newcomers. Oh well. For his part, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz fecklessly railed against the Palestinians and Egyptians for doing nothing to seal the border. The beautiful agreement he negotiated with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman fell apart in 30 seconds and suddenly Mofaz was faced with the meaning of retreat: When you retreat, others take over and you have no ability to stop them because you are not there. Oh well. The Palestinians minced no words about their goals for the future. Hamas wants to liquidate all of Israel. Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Tuesday, "We know our nation is expecting us to continue the liberation journey until the flag of Islam is raised over Jerusalem. This land should not have any Zionists on it." That is, Zahar called for genocide. Oh well. As the IDF was attempting to make sense of the new security insanity forced upon it by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Sharon himself was ignoring the reality he created back home as he basked in the glory bestowed upon him in New York by US President George W. Bush for his "courageous" surrender to Palestinian terrorism. Yet, before our generals had a chance to catch their breath, they received a gut punch from an unforeseen direction. On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog tried to go to London. But once his El Al plane landed he was alerted by the Israeli embassy that if he alighted at Heathrow he would likely be arrested. An anti-Zionist British-Israeli "human rights" lawyer by the name of Daniel Machover, in cooperation with the Israeli group Yesh Gvul, filed a lawsuit against Almog charging him with war crimes in a British court. So alerted, Almog stayed on the plane and went home. Triumphant, Yesh Gvul's spokesmen in Israel announced that in addition to Almog, they were in the midst of filing complaints for war crimes with British courts against eight other senior IDF commanders. Among them are former chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon and current Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz. Hearing this, Ya'alon cancelled his plan to fly to London next week. According to Yediot Aharonot, the Israeli defense establishment is in a state of hysteria over the attacks on its senior officers. Left-wing commentators and Ha'aretz's editorial board are ecstatic. Like Yesh Gvul, these extreme leftist media gurus have been arguing -- without legal merit -- since the late 1980s that Israel has no right to defend itself in Judea, Samaria or Gaza. Adopting the baseless Palestinian claims, these legalistic deviants say that somehow the fact that the Fourth Geneva Convention states that Israel must protect the rights of non-combatants in these areas means that Israel cannot take military action to secure its nationals and its national interests beyond the 1949 armistice lines. The fact that a simple reading of the texts shows this to be untrue makes no difference to these political radicals masked as bleeding- heart liberals. In recent years, these anti-Zionist Israelis have received aid and comfort from such organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN in their quest to demonize their country and criminalize its right to self-defense. Fabricating the laws of war from whole cloth to advance their political agendas, these organizations have given the weight of law to legally meaningless UN General Assembly resolutions and human rights reports. Assigning legal power to these political groups, the extreme Left in Israel has created a fiction which many American jurists refer to today as "lawfare" or the exploitation of the rhetoric of international law to prosecute a political war against a state to politically deny it of its legal right to defend itself. Yesh Gvul is arguably a criminal organization. For years it has been running public campaigns to convince soldiers to refuse to serve in the IDF. This is a criminal offense. And yet, the State Prosecutor's Office has refused to open any investigation against its members. This is not surprising because for years now, the state prosecution has been led by men and women -- many of whom are now Supreme Court justices -- who sympathize with the views of those waging "lawfare" against Israel. Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz's latest statements, where he criticized the government for deciding Sunday not to destroy the synagogues in Gaza are a case in point. Where is the legal question here? There is none. But in a legal world where law is just a means to advance a political agenda, no one questions his right to weigh in on such issues. Then there is the Supreme Court's latest outrage. Thursday, in an opinion written by President Aharon Barak, the court determined that the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion last summer on the legality of the security fence should be given legal weight. The fact that there is no basis whatsoever in Israeli law for giving legal weight to an advisory opinion from that politicized court of anti-Israel justices is completely unimportant. The fact that the opinion itself claimed that Israel has no right to self-defense is also irrelevant. Barak claimed that the problem was just that the ICJ hadn't received the evidential basis for Israel's security needs and as a result judged as it did last July. Within this poisonous legalistic morass, Israel's generals now find themselves under fire. What can be done? The first thing that must be firmly understood is that the battle being launched against them in the British courts has nothing to do with law. It is simply part of the political campaign against Israel that these anti-Zionists wage as adjunct and a complement to the Palestinian terrorists on the ground. As the Palestinians use bomb belts and rockets, these extremists use politicized courtrooms to launch their campaign against Israel. The immediate political response to this offensive was made by Dr. Yuval Steinitz, the chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. This week he submitted a bill to criminalize filing legal claims in foreign courts against members of Israel's security forces for missions they undertook in defense of the country. This is a welcome initiative, but it misses the larger point. For the past 12 years, Israel has abandoned the offense in the political war being waged against it. Steinitz's bill is reflective of this trend in two ways. First, without a serious reform of the State Prosecutor's Office and the manner in which justices are chosen, (today they largely select themselves), there is little chance that laws on the books will be enforced against anti-Zionist political activists who seek to destroy Israel's reputation and weaken Israel's social cohesion. Aside from this, the initiative is defensive in nature. Perhaps these people will be prosecuted, but so what? They will still be setting the political agenda with their wild legal fantasies. Against their onslaught, the time is long past for Israel to go on the offensive. And the laws of war, as they stand are a good place to start. Zahar's statement, and hundreds like it made by Hamas commanders over that past dozen years, proves unequivocally that the terror group is engaged in a campaign of genocide. According to the International Convention on Genocide, every state signatory must arrest and try any member of Hamas or anyone providing direct or indirect assistance to Hamas that is present on its territory. The PA, for instance, in refusing to take action against Hamas and in paying salaries to Hamas terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails, is guilty of assisting Hamas in its genocidal campaign against Israel. As a result, any PA functionary found on the territory of any state signatory to the Genocide Convention should be arrested. If instead of simply collecting photo-opportunities for his campaign for Likud leadership, Sharon had argued this point at the UN, his presence in New York -- as Gaza is transformed into Taliban Afghanistan -- would have made sense. But the fact that Sharon continues to doggedly refuse to do anything that would actually advance Israel's national interest doesn't mean that others shouldn't take on the task with as much enthusiasm as Yesh Gvul and its British bedfellows work to undermine Israel's right to exist. It isn't that in the current anti-Israel international climate such arguments -- regardless of their legal merit -- will make an immediate difference. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be made -- loudly, at very opportunity. Israel's military options for dealing with Gaza's rapid transformation into a base for international terrorism are limited in the wake of its self-inflicted defeat. What Yesh Gvul did this week was to point out the path for widening Israel's room for military maneuvering. That path is the path of political warfare. As the shadow of Gaza grows and expands to Judea and Samaria and the rest of the country, Israel is faced with an increasingly dangerous situation. Without a concerted international and domestic campaign to defend its rights, Israel will find itself without the means to justify its right to survive. Bernard J. Shapiro is the executive director of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org)and the editor of The Maccabean Online (http://www.freeman.org/online.html) and the Freemanlist. Contact the Center at Freeman Center For Strategic Studies, P.O. Box 35661, Houston, Texas 77235-5661. Phone or Fax at 713-723-6016. To Go To Top

"ORANGE WAVE" MUST BE TRANSFORMED TO THE "ORANGE TSUNAMI" Posted by Ken Heller, September 17, 2005.

The experimental "Orange Wave" failed in its desire to stop the evil plan of "Crime" Minister Sharon. As a result, 10,000 good Yehudim have been scattered throughout Israel. Kids are out of school. Families have not been compensated as "promised" Men are out of work. Their futures have, please G-D, been only temporarily destroyed. They maintain their faith despite having their lives thrown into incredible upheaval. Many live in tents. They are true Jewish heroes worthy of much better lives. The "Crime" Minister has withstood the pressure of the "Orange Wave" which seems to have totally dissipated. It is understandable that when you don't know where your next dollar will come from or when it will come and you have problems getting your kids into school and getting food on the table on a consistent basis and your next permanent home seems like only a dream, you can't be too concerned about massing by the thousands at the Kotel or Rabin Square. After all, priorities are priorities. But there are many more thousands in Israel that were not so adversely affected and should be standing up to continue this effort. However, despite this horrifying situation so many now find themselves, the movement must continue, in fact it must grow. I know it's easy for me to say. I don't even live in Israel. But I am perceptive enough to know (because I have visited Gush Katif and was in the Yeshiva in Neve Dekalim, the shuls in Netzarim and Kfar Darom which weren't even completed and can put myself in the places of these Jewish heroes) that opposition is crucial if these wrongs are to be corrected and to prevent, G-D forbid, additional disastrous decrees from becoming reality. The "Orange Wave" must be supplanted by the "Orange Tsunami" which indeed will envelop those responsible for the foisting of such treachery on our People and carry them away. There is no alternative. The spirit must be maintained or in some instances be restored if Israel is to become truly a Jewish State instead of a State of Jews. First, everyone will agree, that Sharon has to go, not later but now! And I don't mean by being replaced by Bibi who in my mind is capable of being just as corrupt. Everyone of those wonderful Jews who demonstrated at the Kotel and Rabin Square, who blocked roadways, who wore the symbolic orange shirts, hats, ribbons or bracelets, who handed the ribbons to motorists on the highways and who were unjustifiably arrested, must register as Likud members. I know that the word "Likud" leaves a bitter taste in everyone's mouth, mine included. But the only man who can restore order in the country and bring Israel back to Jewish values, Jewish interests and principles is Moshe Feiglin, from Manhigut Yehudit and as you know he leads the Jewish Leadership faction in Likud. He must be supported by campaign contributions and campaign volunteers to go door to door to register people. Who knows, maybe once Mr. Feiglin comes to power he will make one of his priorities the disengagement of our enemy. How nice would that be? Continuing to raise money, (see http://www.katifund.org), for the support of the Jewish heroes who have been displaced should be a priority and massive civil disobedience must continue. There has to be tens of thousands of people demonstrating at the Knesset and the Kotel and other strategic locations throughout Israel at least weekly. Major intersections must still be blocked Leaders, however, are needed to organize, develop and implement these activities. Business leaders and professors have to join together to widely promote a general strike to shut the country down and put additional pressure on Sharon. Former military men must also be approached and recruited for their ideas on how best to stop "Prince of Perfidy". The bottom line is that the "Orange Tsunami" must sweep Sharon and his minions away and we can also begin to work in a concerted effort to rid the country once and for all of the Arab barbarians. I know full well that to continue this activity does take incredible mesirut nefesh. But for Israel to survive, that is what is needed. Israel will be much better off and her future will be so much brighter. Chazak, chazak, venet'chazek! Shavua tov, Ken Heller Ken Heller is a pro-Israel activist and a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans For A Safe Israel. He can be reached at kjhnha@aol.com. To Go To Top

DEPRAVITY, DICTATORSHIPS, SLAVERY, WAR VERSUS THE DEMONSTRATERS RALLYING AGAINST THE DICTATORS HOSTED BY THE UN Posted by Evelyn Hayes, September 16, 2005.

Today I was a part of many demonstrations against dictators in Dag Hamaskjold Square. I was part of those opposed to the dictatorial regime of Ariel Sharon whose unilateral, inhumane, illegal and brutal actions gave Jewish land, homes, businesses, to those who he knew would destroy them and be a danger to the whole world importing AlQaida/Jihad elements from Tunisia and Lebanon. Some signs read, "Sharon must go, he jihads for the PLO." "Sharon a hero is now zero." "Plowshares not jihad." "Where have all the greenhouses gone? Jihad is trashing!" "Where have all the settlers gone? Replaced by barbarians bashing". "Where have all the synagogues gone? To the flames of satan's disregard" as the UN applauds the corrupt, dictator Sharon working against his nation like all other anti-settlers. The Jewish settled, in fact, included the whole nation in Tel Aviv, the demonstrators reported as only settlers to diminish their national consensus had come with acres of buses from Kiryat Shemona, Haifa, Netanya, Hadera, Tzefat, Tiberias, Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Beersheba, Beit Shean, Ariel, Dimona, Sderot, Alumim, Kvar Saba, Ranana, Modiin, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Maale Adumim, Jordan Valley, Rishon Lzion, Petah Tikvah, Herzeliah, Shiloh, Hebron, Acco, everywhere. As the Ethiopians, Chinese, Iranians, Jews shouted, "dictators must go, freedom, life," I looked at all the people and know that the world is good, but good people are very badly hurting. The UN is the den of depravity. They dally in their thousand dollar suits, travel in their limosines and make believe they are the winners and war is peace. Well they support the dictatorships and the oil is flowing from their sweaty faces. And the press, mopping the sweat on this beating rouge day should be ashamed as Pakistanis who were one of the two nations who voted against the independent state of Israel, kept on trying to say Jews were never in Gaza and get them to say it belonged to the Arab Egyptians, Islamic Tunisians, terrorist Algerians, Coptic Christian abusing Sudanese, all Jihad only Palestinians, warlords chasing their slaves and brutalizing their own subjects, too. But, how does the world know the truth when the NY Times, the LA Times and all the unlicensed journalists who never bother to check the microfilm force the lies into the brains of the innocents swelling their minds with hate. Yet, everyone of those demonstrating felt each other's pain, even the pain of the Jews because it is the same pain inflicted by evil dictators against the greater good. There is a world war against the innocent men and women of the world. As poverty and starvation are rampant, the UN bashes the Jews and turns plowshares into war, gardens into wastelands, makes homeless and workless 9000 Jews who could have saved the starving. I never saw such settled people, so family oriented, with such a work ethic, so full of faith, but Sharon on the payroll of Jihadist Mohammed Rashid who managed Arafat's billions and celebrated the Sharon Likud coup with Weissglass in the PLO owned apartment in Tel Aviv, thinks of himself and his crooked son first, not his country, not his reputation. Sharon could have spent a million of his ill gotten money and saved the Magen David Synagogue wanted so much by the Jews of Maale Adumim. Sharon a slave to anti-Israel public opinion and corruption, sold his nation and the peaceloving Arabs of Palestine, called collaboratos, too. As Jihad Kids suffer the Big Lie and destroy, they cannot stand on their own feet and become men and self sufficent. They are abused pawns to their warlords, the same the Arabs fled when they fled to Israel to work without having to pay protection money when such benefactors of Montefiore, Rothschild and Strauss built cities outside the walls of the holy cities occupied by the Jews from time immemorial, so Jews could become gardeners and self sufficient instead of living on donations by such as Dona Grasia in the 15th century and the European kehillas of later centuries. All the demonstators agreed that the attack on the Jews were to keep the slaves of the warlords from attacking the true villains, the wicked murdering warlord dictators, those with all the money of the world in their bulging pockets, socking the innocent, starving women and children, beheading and blowing up the living. I will never forget the lush, plush gardens of Gush Katif and the soaring Magen David Synagogue in the land where there was a Magen David floor about 2000 years ago and in the place where Yisrael ben Moshe of Najara, the chief rabbi of Gaza, 300 years ago, when there was only one Arab family, wrote the song Jews sing on Friday night, Kol Ribon. Every nation has its "Jews" aka settlers, those who can comprehend evil, remain good and survive when evil collapses. Their numbers diluted by murder, disease, greed will multiply. Pity the haters and those blood libeling to pogrom and kill. I was proud to rally against those hosted and boasting in the UN while Jihad is suicide killing in Iraq with the same nuts, bolts and nails used against the Jews by Hamas/Fatah/Hizballah/Al Aksa/hate, threatening in Iran, enslaving in Sudan, raping in Ethiopia, warring in Africa, burning synagogues in ancient Jewish Gaza where synagogues stood before the Roman occupation, the renaissance times, after the Egyptian invasion and occupation. I am sad to say, I see shelves empty of bugfree lettuce and celery in Brooklyn, that the world is less one billion geraniums, impatiens and such delicious tomatoes and the $14,000,000 Jews invested in green houses to give the Arabs work, destroyed by the slaves to Abu Mazen, Hamas, Jihad in Gaza in a frenzy of barbarianism taught and propagated by those dressed in robbery rich from the looted banks, businesses and homes of Arabs, too and the media on the "say-roll" of the wicked. Why, everyone knew what was going to happen. Weren't the Arabs who worked for Jews removed? Weren't the Bedouins removed? Weren't the dead Jews unburied and moved? Don't think plenty of those Arabs who fled to Egypt didn't flee the imported PLO army that was occupying their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Don't think those Christians of Arabs lands left Bethlehem long ago after Shimon Peres partner of Sharon allowed the law breakers to occupy Bethlehem before Chanukah and Christmas before the agreed date of March 1996 pullout if Gaza and Jericho First worked. Well, it didn't work. Still unilaterally and dictatorially, Sharon created Iraq II, with Hizballah, Arafat the Egyptian Terrorist Square and Ayaash the bombmaker's own memorial. Shame on Bush for not apologizing for the blundering of Israel as well as the failure to react to the catastrophe of Katrina. Shame on Condoleezza Rice for demanding the Jews give more candy to Jihad and more synagogues to burn. Shame that our US soldiers are suffering too because of the inconsistencies of this war on evil because of bashing the Jewish good. Not only are Jews an endangered species but Ethiopia, Sudan, Iraq and Iran are still suffering Jihad by those twin attackers who attacked Twin Buddhas, Twin Towers, Israel and America. They are suffering brutal dictatorships misdirecting their hate at the Jews, afraid to even say, they are settlers, too. I can gladly say, those rallying against their dictatorships will one day run the UN and it will be a body against corruption, injustice, lies, leninism, one world disorder. Isn't there anyone brave enough to advocate with the demonstrators for the good ideology chosen by Abraham, a lone soul who fathered civilization, the father of the Jews, the great grandfather of Judah whose portion was Aza? Is there anyone not afraid to publish this article of truths? Evelyn Hayes is author of The Plague Series: "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, because their hearts are softened to accept the unacceptable" The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes." and "Thirteen, REDEMPTION, if" Contact: 150 Coleridge Street, Booklyn NY 11235, 718-648-2610 To Go To Top

GAZA SYNAGOGUES BURNED BY MOBS Posted by Deb Kotz, September 16, 2005.

This Commentary was written by Ariel Cohen and appeared today in the Washington Times. Ariel Cohen is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Sunday, Palestinian mobs torched and destroyed four synagogues left behind by Israel in the evacuated Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority (PA) police did nothing to intervene, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) justified the violence as the people "expressing their emotions." Torching houses of worship, just like the lootings, beatings and home burnings against a Christian Arab town near Ramallah at the beginning of this month by Palestinians shouting "Allahhu Akbar" (God is Great) as the PA police stood by, bode ill for peace in the Middle East. Religious hatred inspired by jihadi Islam is clearly no local matter. It is part of a broad conflict unfolding between radical Islam on the one hand and Christianity, Judaism, the Bahai faith and Buddhism on the other. There are also violent rifts between radical Islam and its moderate variety, and between extremist Sunnis and Shi'ites. Destruction of the ancient Buddhist statues at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, by the Taliban regime in 2001 was another example of the violent intolerance radical Islam preaches. The highly symbolic synagogue burning in response to Israel's quest for peace should alert those who believe withdrawal from Gaza "a step in the right direction" to the futility of assuaging hatred with concessions. They are likely to wind up as bitterly disappointed as those who believed in the Oslo "peace process." It sends the wrong message: Terror and violence pay. Sunday, hate crimes were once again committed in full view of the world -- and the world kept mum. Major news agencies withdrew any mention of synagogue burnings in less than 24 hours. This is not the first time a house of worship has been desecrated in the Holy Land. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was occupied by Hamas and Tanzim Palestinian terrorists in spring 2002 and turned into a veritable pigsty, with priests held hostage. In the end, Israeli negotiators allowed the terrorists free passage to Europe, and the international media barely covered what had been done inside the church. The fact Israel refused to storm the building because of its religious significance earned it no credit. The terrorist violence was essentially excused. Nor is this is the first time highly symbolic and brutal acts have met silent acceptance and appeasement. Just a few years ago, a Palestinian mob in Ramallah lynched two Israeli reservists, with the murderers triumphantly displaying their blood-soaked hands before the gleeful mob. The PA, in an attempted cover-up, later confiscated tapes of the lynching from the Western media, which cooperated and stood down. Hate crimes are acts aimed at the group represented by the individuals attacked, or their symbolic objects, like places of worship, rather than the individuals. These highly symbolic acts of violence, such as murdering children, bombing buses and religious ceremonies (such as the Passover meal in Netanya in 2002), and now, synagogue burnings, are clearly aimed at demoralizing Israeli civilians. In 2001, 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass was deliberately shot by a sniper while in the arms of her father. In 2002, Kobi Mandel, 11, originally from Silver Spring, Md., and a friend were brutally murdered in a cave a short walk from their house in Gush Etsion, a pre-1948 Judean Hills rural area. Kobi's head and body were smashed repeatedly with rocks and the walls scrawled with anti-Jewish slogans and curses written in the child's blood. The hate crime of synagogue burning is nothing new. The practice, prevalent in Europe for centuries, was enthusiastically embraced by the Nazis in Europe. During 1938 Kristallnacht, most German synagogues were smashed, and more than 300 Jews murdered, a prologue to later horrors. In the 1941 pro-Nazi riots in Baghdad, synagogues were destroyed and hundreds of Jews killed. More recently, al Qaeda and its affiliates targeted the ancient synagogue on the island of Jerba in Tunis and the two Turkish synagogues attacked in 2003. Radical Islamist clerics justify these barbaric acts. The Palestinian Clerics Association's Sheikh Mohammad Ali said last month, that when "even an inch of Muslim land is occupied, Jihad is a personal duty, a religious obligation incumbent upon everyone." Since the entire land of Israel is considered "occupied" by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terrorist organizations subsidized by Saudi Arabia and Iran, the stage is set for continued violent attacks. Some Muslim clerics have declared that while suicide bombings in Arab countries are forbidden, they are "not suicide" in Israel. Others claim that "Andaluz" -- Spain -- also is occupied territory, to be liberated in due course. Today, the West is willing to offer Abu Mazen more than $3 billion in economic aid -- while the rhetoric of Jihad rings loud in the mosques and on the airwaves. The Palestinian Authority leadership has done nothing to disarm Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or its own terrorist Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. It instead promotes genocidal hatred and then steps aside while synagogues burn or Jews and Christians are attacked. Not much at all has changed since Yasser Arafat failed as the leader of a would-be new state, but the stakes are getting even higher. If a Palestinian state is founded on the lethal mix of Arab chauvinism and radical Islam, it will serve as a base for international terrorism against Israel, Europe and the U.S., with al Qaeda and Hezbollah calling the shots. Burying our heads in the sand will simply not bring peace one step closer. Terror must stop prior to negotiations. Deb Kotz is an active member of the Brandeis Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and maintains an email list to distribute articles of interest to the local community. She can be reached at DebKotz@aol.com To Go To Top

NEWS ITEMS ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES Posted by Lee Caplan, September 16, 2005.

"Gov't Leaves Expulsion Victims Without Work" The Sharon government has left expelled Gush Katif residents out of work while trying to show the public and Likud party members it is caring for the victims, the ex-Gaza Coast spokesman charged. Eran Sternberg said the Disengagement Authority and the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are making headlines without any news in an effort to win support from the Likud Central Committee, which will meet in two weeks to set the date for party primaries. The government has given the expelled Israeli citizens "breakfast and a place to lay down, but the bottom line is that the people have no work," said Sternberg, the former spokesman for the Gaza Coast Regional Council. Sternberg now lives temporarily in a small guest apartment at Kibbutz Hafetz Haim. Sternberg pointed out that many of the Gush Katif residents were farmers and are now in their 50s. "Whoever understands a little bit about agriculture knows that it takes about 10 years to establish a profitable farm," which he says would leave some people unable to possibly generate income until they reached almost 70 years old. The government is also ignoring people from other trades. Expelled teachers staying temporarily in Jerusalem hotels said they have not received salaries from the Education Ministry. Students from the former N'vei Dekalim community went on strike Thursday in support of the teachers. A former Ganei Tal resident who drove his own trucks said he does not know what he will do. "I have two trucks, but they are standing still" because his clients are in other areas, he explained. "The government works to make a check mark [that it is helping], but does not find solutions," Sternberg charged. He said offers of employment are unsuitable. "Two hundred people go [to the government office] and 190 return. If there are job offers, they are suggestions that a kindergarten teacher work as an electrician or welder." Sternberg, who is also unemployed, sharply criticized the government's advertising campaign claiming that "for every [Gush Katif] resident that there is a solution." Sternberg said, "It is a cheap campaign without any value or content, and now the reality is blowing up [in our faces]." Earlier this month, a private effort got underway to find jobs for the many Jews who are unemployed as a result of the uprooting of Gush Katif and northern Samaria. Netta Shapira, who has taken it upon herself to be a clearing house for employers seeking to offer jobs to the expellees, quotes Maimonides in her email announcing the effort, saying that the greatest charity is to make a person independent. "As of now," Shapira writes, "the families are in a state of uncertainty in every aspect of life; yet, in coming weeks, each family will have to decide where it is headed. And the matter of livelihood is a critical aspect of that decision. As the group in question is large and varied in every way, any open position may be appropriate for someone among them." Shapira asks for any and all employment opportunities to be sent to her at jobkatif@hotmail.co.il. "N'vei Dekalim Yeshiva Seeking Books, Desks," September 15, 2005. (IsraelNN.com) The N'vei Dekalim Hesder Yeshiva is seeking books and furniture for its new temporary location at Kfar Maimon. All of the yeshiva's possessions are in inaccessible containers which the government provided after the expulsion from Gush Katif. Most urgently needed are books of the Talmud, Mishnah, Rambam and books on belief (Emunah). People interested in contributing may call 0545504557. "Displaced Homesh Resident Continues Hunger Strike," September 16, 2005 (IsraelNN.com) Yossi Abramov, a former resident of Homesh in northern Samaria, is one of a growing number of displaced disengagement victims who hasn't a clue how to rebuild his life. As a result, Yossi decided to launch a hunger strike and today, Friday, he is the eighth day of the strike. He exists on water alone. Yossi's explains that he was living in a rental home in Homesh, and as such, his entire government assistance package amounts to NIS 35,000 ($7,700), not enough to rebuild his life he explains. Yossi, in his fifties, is married. His son is currently serving in an IDF combat unit, and he explains he was notified by Disengagement Authority officials that he must vacate his Netanya hotel room and get on with his life. Yossi and his wife were in a rent-controlled "Amidar" apartment in Homesh, and he has requested another rent-controlled apartment elsewhere, but this request has already been denied. The couple explains they do not have enough funds to buy an apartment and cannot afford regular unregulated rentals. For now, Yossi explains he hopes the hunger strike will draw attention to his plight and the plight of others who were plummeted into an abyss by the government, the same government which now abandons them. "Gaza Evacuees Fear for Their Safety," 15:00 Sep 16, '05 / 12 Elul 5765 (IsraelNN.com) In an ironic twist, evicted residents of the Gaza community of Elei Sinai are being relocated from Kibbutz Carmiya in the Negev to a safer location. The thirty families explain that in their Gaza homes, they had safe rooms and were equipped to deal with the ongoing terrorism but in Carmiya, they are sitting ducks and prey for Kassam rockets and terrorist infiltrations. A growing number of Negev residents are expressing concern over the realization that the handover of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority has considerably shortened the distance between northern Gaza terrorists and their homes. The Elei Sinai evacuees will be moved from Carmiya to Ashkelon's Shirat HaYam Hotel. Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

A UNIQUE YESHIVA; SHARON AT THE U.N. Posted by Voice of Judea, September 16, 2005.

1. "A Unique Yeshiva - Goats, Dogs, Scribes and Shechita" by Moshe Ben Israel NEW YESHIVA CONCEPT - TORAH, GOATS, SHECHITA, SECURITY AND DOGS? Some yeshivot have a hard enough time keeping count of their students. This has not deterred the Yeshiva of the Gedud HaIvri, known as the Gedud HaTorani to start a fascinating new program that combines, learning Torah, Shechita - ritual slaughtering, Sofer - scribe, writing of Torah's and Mezuzot, security canine training, guard duty and the age-old Biblical profession of shepherding. This unique, one-of-a-kind yeshiva also offers the traditional Talmud, tanach and halacha courses. Anyone Interested in joining the Yeshiva HaTorani, or in studying any of the above mentioned trades: security dog handling, sofer, shechita, shepherding, etc. can call 0544876709 in Israel or 718 874 2057 in NY. The program is currently located in Tapuach in the Shomron. Donations can be sent to Gedud HaTorani Kfar Tapuach, D.N. Efrayim Israel, 44829 During these critical times, as Israeli security experts predict a huge increase in terrorism, in wake of the suicidal "disengagement", every person and every volunteer guard is needed. Those who train and guard with our special patrol and tracking dogs can make a unique contribution to local Israeli security, while at the same time study Torah and learn other interesting Jewish trades (www.defendisrael.net {http://www.defendisrael.net). Please send this email to all. Israel needs you. And we desperately need your financial support to sustain this life-saving project. The cost of every service dog can be as much as 10,000 dollars. Our dogs and handlers have already saved lives in Israel on four separate occasions. Join and support the Yeshiva HaGedud HaTorani - Now. Donations can be mailed to IBF 1224 brook lane Glenview, IL 60025 2. Laughing with Sharon or at Sharon? APPLAUDING SHARON OUT OF LOVE, LAUGHTER or SYMPATHY? The Israeli self-hating correspondents are literally falling over themselves "kvelling" over the new-found love and affection being showered upon Sharon in New York and at the United Nations. Sharon has waited for this moment for many long months of opposition and protests back at home. Finally, he has found a haven where he could reap the fruits of his "disengagement". He is enjoying every minute of it, for he knows that soon he will have to come back home and face a divided nation and a dissolving party. Soon, he will have to deal with reality, as the Arabs use the land he surrendered as their new base of operations in their ongoing war to annihilate the Jewish state. Sharon will have to deal with the infiltrators who are now using the new and closer border to smuggle in weapons and terrorism into Ashqelon and Tel Aviv. Sharon will now have to deal with kassam rockets that can reach deeper into the Israeli heartland. Sharon will now have to deal with the increased terror that his disengagement has brought upon the nation of Israel. He will now have to deal with the intensification of international pressure upon Israel to move on to the next disengagement. Israel's blind leaders continue to say, "Now, we will expect the international community to demand of the "Palestinians" the necessary reforms. What utter nonsense. On the very day of the Israeli pullout, the Arabs and the international community already showed us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that they expect and demand nothing of the "Palestinians". As the synagogues were torched by "Palestinian" leaders, the Americans and the world blamed Israel. As the Egyptians opened the borders for any and all terrorists and arms to flow freely, the world watched and laughed. As the world applauded, the Israeli clown in the circus known as the United Nations, they all laughed and said, "It is a nice beginning, now, when is the next disengagement?" Voice of Judea Commentary: Yes, they applauded Sharon. Some applauded him for being the clown that he has become. Others applauded him out of sympathy. For those who think that Sharon is receiving accolades of love - remember, "It is better to be alive and hated by the world than in Auschwitz and loved by the world." The UN can keep their accolades and their love and we will keep Israel. Thanks, but no thanks. Sure they love Sharon. The world always seems to embrace those who expel Jews from their homes and who oppress the Jews. When the United Nations condemns us, that is a sign we have done something right. When they shower their false love upon us, it is a sign that we are doing something terribly wrong! The Bush administration expects Israel to dismantle "illegal West Bank settlement outposts" now. "We have no reason to believe that Israel will try to evade its responsibility" under the "road map" peace plan to dismantle the outposts, Daniel Kurtzer, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Israel Radio last Friday. Make no mistake. The battle has just begun. And Sharon's disengagement surrender has delivered a huge victory to the morale of the enemy. The surrender of Gaza has also given the Arabs the ability to smuggle in weapons that pose an immediate strategic risk to major Israeli cities. The surrender of Gaza, now puts Nativ Hassarah, the negev and Ashqelon within spitting distance of our most bitter enemies. The disengagement can't blow up in our faces tomorrow. It already has and our leaders are to blind and arrogant to admit it. To Go To Top

HUNT FOR BIN LADEN; WILL EGYPT GUARD THE BORDER?; PA ARABS BURN DOWN SYNAGOGUES Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 16, 2005.

THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN & THE AFGHAN WAR IN GENERAL The 9/11/05 "Times" Magazine Section featured an assessment of Iraq and the controversy whether the US might have captured bin Laden, if it acted more swiftly. Both articles adduce many facts and interesting commentary, and yet they are unsatisfactory. They leave too many facts hanging without drawing conclusions. Instead, they make vague insinuations. Much journalism is like that, these days, but I find it wielded in the "Times" as a technique, an improper one. The problem with a newspaper that deals in insinuations and practices advocacy journalism is that the insinuations tend to support the advocacy. The paper wants to find every fault with the Bush Administration that it can. It both opposes the last war he started and how he wages it. The criticism of his conduct would be more useful if less partisan, and, therefore, less suspicious. US officials had different opinions about whether the US could have captured bin Laden. The article states the favorable opinion as if axiomatic. It states the negative opinion as if a self-serving rationalization. It does so by innuendo. I think that is cowardly and unfair. It fails to allow for an honest difference of opinion. Proper journalism would state the pros and cons, and perhaps draw a conclusion. Let readers figure out for themselves whether the denial that the US could have captured the fugitive is a cover up. It is unseemly to imply that it is, without being sure. The question is what role Pakistan plays in the attempt to capture bin Laden. The "Times" informs us that the President of Pakistan, partly from fear of being assassinated, does little until pressed. The "Times" must have an extensive current-events library, but it missed Pres. Musharraf's reassurance to fellow Muslims that to placate the US, he might take some actions that seem adverse to Islamism, but that over-all, he would be supporting jihad. The paper even shows his country's support for jihad, but suggests that it is only because he does not control the country. There is some validity to that suggestion, but his regime proliferated nuclear weapon technology among Muslim states. On the general conduct of the war, the "Times" makes some valid, useful points. The US did not know where the warlords' loyalties lay. The US relied too much on untried local troops, but on the other hand, as the article failed to acknowledge, the US feels that people should help liberate their own countries. APPROACHES TO THE IRAQ WAR Although the "Times" article on Iraq gets better as it goes along, the broad question of who the enemy is and how to fight it is fumbled, both by the Administration and by its journalistic critic. The US said it is terrorism, and the "Times" said it is Islamism. The "Times" is right. The "Times," however, criticizes the US for fighting in Iraq where, in effect, terrorists come for live combat training. The "Times" and the Administration overlook that the terrorists come from countries that encourage them to become terrorists. If the US really warred on terrorism, it would be taking down other pro-terrorist regimes or getting them to stop indoctrinating youth. The "Times" really knows that the terrorists have states as allies, because the article admits that Taliban return refreshed from Pakistan, whose regime won't pursue them seriously. The phenomenon should have become evident to the "Times" when Syria became notorious for sending jihadists and funds into Iraq. Iran does some of that, too. The terrorists could not be as successful if they didn't have havens and support from some governments and if S. Arabia and Iran did not subsidize indoctrination in radical Islam. The gist of this defeatist article is that there was no need to make war against any country other than Afghanistan, just fight terrorists. It defends this conclusion by asserting mistakenly that the Islamists had no designs on our country, other than to get our troops out of Arab countries. How can the "Times" hold this untenable position, after years of terrorist attacks all over the world, and Islamic boasts about their coming takeover of Europe? Islam is conquest-oriented. There are two other means of fighting terrorism that one never will hear the "Times" advocate. One is to encourage Israel to take down the terrorist P.A. regime and scatter its Arabs. The other is for the whole West to expel its Muslims, who earn money in the West that they send to the Islamists. The Muslims in the West promote terrorism in other ways, too. Without these means, and with the US effort limited to Afghanistan, Iraq, police action, and some training of foreign troops, one hardly can call this a "global war on terrorism." To the contrary, the "Times," as usual, holds Israel up as a bad example, in this case, of terrorism. It cites Menachem Begin and his Irgun forces that drove out the British, as "terrorist" against the British. This is an old blood libel. Apparently the "Times" counts on readers not knowing the history of the conflict, and that fighting British troops, by definition, is not terrorism. The article cites one incident, and misleadingly. It names the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel, in which some civilians were killed, as a terrorist act. It fails to inform readers that the hotel was British military headquarters, which would prima facie refute its claim that the act was terrorism. Neither does it explain that Irgun warned the British in sufficient time to evacuate the building, so there need be no injury. The British, however, out of stubbornness, refused to do so. Is that omission honest journalism? Actually, Irgun took pains not to inflict casualties on the British. It raided British armories, but did not shoot at British troops unless in self-defense. So, not only was it not terrorist against the British, it was particularly humane. How disreputable of the "Times" to call such an organization terrorist. If the "Times" wanted to cite an example of successful terrorism, why did it reach back more than half a century in ill-advised libel, when it would have been well advised to name the P.A., whose terrorism just got it Gaza. Because of its traditional anti-Zionism, the "Times" takes the Arab side in the Arab-Israel conflict. Of that it does not apprise readers. The magazine's most cogent analysis is in showing that Iraq's terrorists have a well-devised strategy that is working, whereas the US improvises. The terrorists systematically intimidate supporters of the US, as by bombing Spain, Turkey, Britain, Italian forces, the UNO, the Red Cross, Iraqis who help reconstruction, infrastructure, and other international NGOs. The US is left to soldier on by itself, appearing more as an occupier instead of as part liberator and part reconstruction facilitator. The US failed to dispatch enough troops to exert control. Pres. Bush did not want to spend the money for doing so, and has run out of fresh troops. Indeed, but that is an explanation of the wrong way to fight the war, not whether it was wrong to fight the war. Although the "Times'" claims that no country supports the terrorists, we know that several do. That is why I conclude that it would have been wiser to take down those governments and their forces in the order of their value to terrorism. That means S. Arabia, Iran, and Syria before Iraq. Then Iraq. The US let the Shiite clerical parties dominate the Iraqi government. True. The article should have gone on to chide the US for abandoning and even double-crossing its Shiite secularist ally, Mr. Chalabi, who had been set to rule and reform the country. Perhaps the "Times" would have fought this war better, but it falls short of understanding what Pres. Bush declared but failed to act on, that there is an international axis against us. YESHA JEWRY DIDN'T LEARN Barry Chamish is disillusioned with the expelled Jews for their not realizing who did them in and how to fight them. They had 18 months to prepare a real fight, and to rally the nation instead of only the religious sector, but squandered most of that time. They let themselves be led astray by an anemic leadership, danced in front of their expellers, and under-estimated Sharon. After their homes were destroyed, they are accepting private charity, instead of keeping the government on the hook to pay for its damage to them, and to pay politically as well as financially. They are holding a new rally, in which they will dance, and make it seem as if they don't mind their ordeal. They propose building more, in Yesha. Mr. Chamish scorns that building effort, since it was not difficult for the government to tear buildings down (Chamish, 9/13). RABIN ASSASSINATION ANNIVERSARY Sharon plans to make a fuss commemorating the 10th anniversary of the murder of Rabin. Barry Chamish urges people to attend and shout out the truth (Op. Cit.), that the murder was by Rabin's rival Peres and largely because Rabin intended to drop Oslo, which enriched Peres. Oslo enabled the Arabs to wound thousands of Jews. So do Sharon's policies. Oslo prompted Peres to have some opponents murdered or framed. So does Sharon's tenure. EGYPT FAILS TO GUARD BORDER PM Sharon relinquished Gaza-Egypt border security to Egypt. Egyptian police and troops let masses of P.A. Arabs rushed across the border in a frenzy of commodity-buying, family-visiting, and tunneling for smugglers. The Egyptians claim they will exert control after this venting. The notion that Israel could rely upon Egyptian guards is one of Sharon's premises for abandoning Gaza. This premise, like all his others, is failing the test of reality. Another premise is that Israel could rely upon P.A. forces to maintain security within Gaza. As soon as Israeli forces left, however, thousands of P.A. Arabs rushed into loot what they could. They even looted a fifth of the precious greenhouses left behind for them to earn a living from (IMRA, 9/13). Some rich but follish US Jews donated the funds to buy the hothouses for the P.A.. Don't Israelis know that looting is an old Arab custom? They do not seem to have studied enemy culture. Otherwise, they would have anticipated this. Do they even realize it now? P.A. ARABS BURNING DOWN SYNAGOGUES As you must have known, the Gaza Arabs are burning down the synagogues left behind. Israelis are citing this evidence that the Arabs are barbaric. There is no need for new evidence of what has become obvious in practice. Ask those in London, Madrid, Indonesia, Philippines, New York, etc.! Nor does more evidence help (since the media doesn't publicize the Jews' conclusions, anyway). Pres. Bush doesn't care, for he has his ties in the oil industry and to S. Arabia, which his State Dept. protected from our war on terrorism and abetted its war of terrorism. The Arabs are sucking hundreds of billions of dollars from the West, but the Bush Administration does not object and never urges great conservation in opposition to it. The Jew-killers of European "civilization" don't mind. They risk their own people, however, in failing to try to stop Islam, which is a predatory religion. They invite Trojan horses inside. (It's called liberal immigration policy or human asylum.) The political cliques are destroying Western society (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/12). 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. To Go To Top

VAST AMOUNT OF ARMS' ENTER GAZA; UNFETTERED AL-QAIDA INFILTRATION INTO GAZA STRIP Posted by Yrachmiel Elias and Jack Golbert, September 16, 2005.

All this was known in advance, of course. The Chief of Staff was fired for saying so in public, as also the head of Shabak. The former head of military intelligence also said it publicly as did several other high ranking retired intelligence folks. Furthermore, the behavior of both the "Palestinians" and Egypt made it abundantly clear that arms transfer from Sinai into the Gaza strip was a high policy priority. Sharon and his satraps are not stupid. They did what they did with full knowledge of what would (will) follow, God forbid! They know that they are tearing down the institutions of the State of Israel and simultaneously building up the PLO to be a state to take it over when it collapses. Bush and Rice and their satraps also knew what would follow. Are they surprised that Al Qaeda is setting up shop already in the Gaza strip? Why are they ostensibly fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq and rolling out the red carpet for them in Gaza? The answer that arises spontaneously is that they all want to deliver Israel and the Jews to the Arabs for liquidation and extermination, God forbid! It is reasonable to suppose that the Saudis have promised to make them all very obscenely wealthy for doing so. The House of Saud is famous for taking good care of their friends. Do Bush and Rice and the rest of the American leaders believe America will be spared the attention of the sovereign terrorist base that they have created? America, you've been had. Israel, you've been had. Maybe it's not too late. Please read the two articles below. 1. "Israel fears unfettered Al-Qaida infiltration into Gaza Strip" By Ze'ev Schiff, Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, September 15, 2005 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/625300.html Border Policemen and Israel Defense Forces trackers in the southern Negev region early Thursday morning arrested 20 Palestinians residents of the Gaza Strip attempting to infiltrate into Israel along the border with Egypt. The Palestinians, who were arrested in three different incidents, said they exited the Strip through the Philadelphi route which borders with Egypt, and where Palestinians have been able to cross unhindered in and out of Egypt since Israel completed its withdrawal from Gaza. The arrested men were taken for police questioning to establish whether they wished to enter Israel in order to carry out terror attacks. IDF officials said they expected this phenomenon of Palestinian infiltrations from the Sinai into Israel to repeat itself and widen Israel fears unfettered Al-Qaida infiltration The collapse of the Gaza-Egyptian border in the three days since Israel withdrew from the Strip, which has allowed thousands of Palestinians to enter Sinai and numerous Egyptians to enter Gaza, is extremely worrisome to Jerusalem. Israel is fearful not only of massive arms smuggling into Gaza, and consequently to the West Bank, but also, and particularly, that Al-Qaida operatives will be able to enter Gaza freely. In addition, Israeli intelligence officials say Palestinian terror organizations have been making a concerted effort in the last few days to smuggle as many weapons as they can into the Gaza Strip via the breached border with Egypt, which wanted Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists have been crossing freely. The border collapse, caused by Egypt 's failure to maintain even minimal supervision over the crossing, is occurring at a time when Egypt is having trouble eliminating Al-Qaida cells in the Sinai. Thus far, Al-Qaida operatives have failed to infiltrate Israel, but Jerusalem fears that now the organization will renew its efforts to send operatives from Sinai into Gaza, and after that to the West Bank. This will be hard to prevent without Egyptian and Jordanian cooperation. Palestinian and Egyptian officials promised on Wednesday to act immediately to close the border. After they failed to stop people from crossing at 6 P.M., as planned, they announced they would close the border at midnight Wednesday. However, Palestinian officials said Wednesday it would take at least another few days before Egyptian and Palestinian authorities could begin to halt the unauthorized crossings. In addition to helping Palestinian families reunite, the opening also made it easier for militants to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The militantssucceeded in keeping Palestinian police officers away from the Philadelphiroute on Wednesday, and the Palestinian security services did nothing to stop the Hamas men from blasting through the wall. Egyptian security forces announced Wednesday they had discovered and destroyed a tunnel near Rafah in which they found hundreds of rifles and hand grenades and several anti-tank rocket launchers. The tunnel was apparently discovered as it was being used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. "All the terror organizations are working energetically now," an IDF source said. "The goal is to bring in large quantities of weapons before the Egyptians close the breach." The chaos at the Gaza-Egypt border, which has been underway since the IDF completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on Monday, raises the question of the effectiveness of the agreement Israel and Egypt signed regarding the deployment of 750 Egyptian border guards along the Philadelphi route in an effort to prevent arms-smuggling. By the time the Egyptians begin to act efficiently, a large quantity of weapons will have been smuggled into Gaza from the Sinai. The Palestinian terror organizations have been stockpiling a large supply of weapons in Sinai over the last few months, since the IDF's anti-smuggling operations were making it difficult for them to get the weapons over the border. Israeli intelligence officials do not yet have confirmed information on the critical question of whether the Palestinians have brought weapons into Gaza that would alter the current balance, such as relatively long-range anti-aircraft missiles and Katyusha rockets. Such missiles could diminish the control of IDF planes and drones over Gaza 's air space, and Katyushas would bring more Israeli towns in the northern and western Negev within range of rocket fire. The IDF said Wednesday that at the moment the 14 kilometers of the Philadelphi route are a "black hole" through which weapons are pouring into Gaza. In addition, some militants who have stayed out of Gaza for fear of being arrested by Israeli security forces are now heading back in. Israeli officials are worried about some of the Palestinians, including wanted men, who have been crossing the border into Sinai. Israel fears that some will try to use what is being called the "living route" and continue south into Sinai, from where they can infiltrate into Israel in areas where there is no fence between Egyptian territory and the Negev, in an effort to carry out terror attacks in Israel. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz called on the Palestinian Authority and Egypt to take control of the border zone. "It's desirable for the PA to regain its composure and immediately do what it is supposed to do to impose law and order in the Strip," Mofaz said Wednesday. Israel has given "very firm warnings" to the PA and Egypt regarding the lack of supervision of the cross-border movement along the Philadelphi route. Mofaz said he "believes and hopes that the Egyptians will deal with the situation that has arisen, together with the Palestinian security forces." 2. "'Vast amount of arms' enter Gaza" by Margot Dudkevitch, The Jerusalem Post, September 15, 2005. Israel's demands to Egypt and the Palestinian Authority that they seal off the Rafah border crossing and restore law and order appeared to have gone unheeded on Wednesday, as thousands of Palestinians continued to cross freely into Egypt, despite assurances by both sides that they would close the crossing. Ever since the IDF pulled out of Gaza, the border crossing has turned into a free passage, with Egyptian border policemen doing nothing to prevent Palestinians from traveling back and forth. Egypt and the Palestinians agreed to close the border after nightfall on Wednesday and announced that Gazans would be required to undergo passport control before entering Egypt. "We know that in the past two days vast amounts of ammunition, weapons and wanted men entered Gaza. We fear that some of the weapons will make their way to the West Bank," a senior security official told The Jerusalem Post. While Israel has no imminent plans to take action, the security establishment is monitoring the situation at the southern border very closely, the official said. "Right now we are biding our time, the coming days will tell," he said. Unwilling to comment on reports that the Egyptians and PA intend to close the border at midnight on Wednesday, the official said the situation would have severe repercussions when Israel reopens the Erez border crossing to Palestinians in the future. "We have know way of knowing who has entered Gaza in recent days, even someone like Osama Bin Laden could have shaved off his beard and entered," the official said. Because of the situation, when Israel eventually reopens the Erez border crossing in the future, Palestinians would have to undergo stringent security checks he said. Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed Assem Ibrahim assured Israel that the situation on the border would be addressed and law and order restored. "You are talking about people who have been in a prison for 38 years - haven't you seen the television reports showing people crying as they are united with their mothers," he said in an interview on Israel Radio. When asked about the weapons-smuggling tunnels, Ibrahim said, "you can be sure that people do not need to smuggle weapons into Gaza, there are enough there already." However, Egyptian security officials reported finding weapons in a tunnel they uncovered late Tuesday night south of the Rafah crossing. According to the reports, the tunnel stretched between the Egyptian side of the border to the Palestinian controlled area. An Egyptian official said that three rocket propelled grenades launchers, 39 machine guns and 2,800 rocket grenades were found inside the tunnel. The Palestinian media quoted an unnamed arms dealer who said that the free passage to and from Egypt had caused the price of weapons in the Gaza Strip to drop. The dealer said the price of an AK-47 assault rifle has dropped from $1,980 to about $1,300. Bullets for the weapon are now being sold for as little as NIS 3 when previously they cost up to NIS 18. According to the dealer most of the arms were purchased from Beduin and farmers on the Egyptian side of the border and from there smuggled into Gaza. On Wednesday morning, Hamas blew a hole in the concrete barrier on the Philadelphi corridor separating Palestinian Rafah from the Egyptian side, allowing hundreds to cross into Egypt unchecked. Hamas activists threatened that any attempts to seal the hole would not succeed, as the movement would blow holes elsewhere in the barrier to facilitate unhampered entry into Egypt. Former Mossad head Ephraim Halevy said he was not surprised by the situation and advised Israel to be patient. It was in the mutual interest of both Egypt and the PA to stabilize the situation, he said. Meanwhile, Border Police on Wednesday night arrested seven Palestinians from Gaza and two Israeli Bedouin at Kadesh Barnea near Nitzana. The nine were being questioned by security officials. Yrachmiel Elias and Ya'akov Golbert are cofounders of Netzah Yisrael. They can be reached at action@netzahyisrael.org To Go To Top

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN'S MOMMA Posted by Steven Plaut, September 16, 2005.

This is called "Moonbats of a Feather Gather at DePaul 'University'" and it was posted by Plaut's Complaint today at http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=1260 Moonbats of a feather sure do like to nest together. Our friends over at Marathon Pundit tell us that Ward Churchill is coming to DePaul "University" as a guest of honor to tell DePaul's hapless students what little Eichmanns we all are. Churchill will speak on "human rights for people of color." You know, like for fake Indians like him of the color white. This event is free and open to the public, October 20th, 5:30 pm, Student Center room 314a (Student center located on sheffield and belden, one block south of the Fullerton El Stop). DePaul is the pseudo-university that fired Prof. Thomas Klocek for daring to express a pro-Israel opinion to some student jihadniks, but at the same time neonazi Norman Finkelstein is retained on its faculty in the name of "free speech". Finkelstein is up for tenure this year at DePaul, in spite of not having ever published any scholarly research, showing what sorts of academic standards operate at DePaul. Finkelstein's entire laughingstock resume consists of Bash-the-Jews propaganda books, ever popular among the Neonazis, Islamist fascists, and other Holocaust Deniers with whom Finkelstein so closely works. Finkelstein endorses Holocaust Denier David Irving. The Anti-Defamation League considers Finkelstein himself a Holocaust Denier. That is no doubt why he is a regular columnist for Counterpunch and "The Nation". Harvard's Alan Dershowitz has long been outing Finkelstein and his "credentials." Dershowitz has collected a set of pronouncements by Finkelstein, any one of which would be more than sufficient to show that Finkelstein is unfit to be employed in any academic job anywhere outside of Damascus. Dershowitz has exposed Finkelstein's pseudo-scholarship and general quackery. So have others. Finkelstein's employment at DePaul makes a mockery out of any claim by DePaul to be a real academic institution. Finkelstein likes to defend himself from charges that he is a neonazi and anti-Semite by - first - pointing out that he ws born Jewish (as if there is any shortage these days of Jewish-born anti-Semites), and - second - by claiming his own parents are Holocaust survivors, which thus entitles him to smear Holocaust survivors and endorse nazis and Arab genocidal jihadniks. Well, in the Chicago Reader of August 26, 2005, Alan Dershowitz is interviewed. Dershowitz is now organizing a campaign to urge DePaul to can Finkelstein. Besides dismissing "Professor" Finkelstein in the interview as a "neonazi" and a fraud, Dershowitz brings some new information: It seems that Finkelstein's "Holocaust Survivor Mom" was in fact a collaborator with German Nazis during World War II! So you see, the rotten apple does not fall far from the tree. This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2005 at 4:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL THAT NOBODY READ Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, September 15, 2005.

Recently, I had to visit the local branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles. I joined the line. It took me approximately 45 minutes to get close enough to see the Information Desk, where visitors are supposed to state their business, receive blank forms to fill out and a number by which they will be called; and then, the real wait finally begins. The Information Desk had three windows. There were three employees behind them. One was sitting at her window performing her duties in reasonable accordance with her job description. The other two, a man and a woman, were trying to pry open a file cabinet. The man was built like Andre the Giant. The woman was built like a squirrel. The man was forcing the claw of a hammer into a crack between the drawer and the body of the file cabinet. The woman was hugging the cabinet, unsuccessfully trying to immobilize it. Every time the man pushed, the cabinet became airborne, and the woman flew with it like Wile E. Coyote falling into the precipice while holding on to some no-longer flying apparatus. After each try, the man collected the file cabinet from wherever it landed, the woman resumed her position, and the line observed the next iteration of the same cyclical process. I am a rude an impatient person. As soon as I got within the earshot of them, I asked the man, "Why don't you just smash the damn thing to pieces and get whatever's inside?" The man replied philosophically, "I am a government employee. This is government property. If every government employee breaks a piece of government property, what will be left of it all?" While saying that, he inserted the claw of the hammer into the crack and gave it an especially powerful jerk. Despite his calm appearance, my remark might have irritated him, because this time the file cabinet fell apart. The woman began methodically sorting through the debris. "Well?" the man asked after awhile. "It's not there," the woman said. "Did you look in Letisha's office?" asked the one who had been working. "I'll be damned," the man said. The woman departed, presumably, in the direction of Letisha's office. The man sat at his window and began processing customers. Roughly, 200 people spent an extra 30 minutes each in that line while those two were slowly torturing the empty file cabinet to death. That's 100 man-hours maliciously wasted by the government. But nobody complained and, therefore, as far as "We the People" are concerned, things went just fine. What most of us do not realize is that the Department of Motor Vehicles is a peephole into the inner workings on every level of our government. You probably assume that the IRS, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the White House work differently. But if I ask you what facts, what solid knowledge your assumption is based upon, you will not be able to answer. Of course, presidents of the United States, senators and congressmen, as well as secretaries, chairmen, and directors of this and that have speechwriters and PR professionals to take care of them. Thanks to those professionals, people who are supposed to lead us look and sound like competent, responsible leaders. But that's only the facade, behind which there is nothing but rows upon rows of empty file cabinets. All the keys were lost a long time ago, along with opportunities to kick Mohammed Atta out of the country before he flew into the World Trade Center, or to apprehend Osama bin Laden before he became the saint of all Muslims around the globe. Actually, trying to pry one open was an act of creativity that would not be tolerated by any self-respected bureaucracy; all the more glory to the unsung heroes of your local Department of Motor Vehicles. I urge you to notice that my dismay with the government is totally apolitical. I am not criticizing either the Republicans or the Democrats. And how could I? While the Democrats were accusing George Bush of unleashing Hurricane Katrina in order to boost Halliburton's profits, the Republicans were responding that the hurricane was a natural disaster, of which the White House had had no prior knowledge. Such is the level of political discourse in the United States of America in the early years of the 21st century. This time, I believe the Republicans, not just because Halliburton was doing pretty well even without the hurricane, but, mainly, because the lack of knowledge is exactly what you can expect from a bunch of cretins who have lost the keys to a zillion and a half empty file cabinets. But is there a reason for me, or for you, to vote one way rather than the other? I don't see it. Of course, the Republicans do not blame the hurricane on Hillary Clinton, but chances are they will as soon as she moves into the White House. Sophisticated numerologists discovered that the percentage of the New Orleans population in the population of the United States closely matches the proportion of Jews kicked out of Gaza to the population of Israel. That led them to conclude that the destruction of New Orleans was God's punishment for the surrender of Gaza. I don't believe so. After all, God didn't destroy Ur for the sins of Sodom and Gomorra; being a perfectly reasonable God, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorra. As a registered Republican, I obediently follow the party line and consider Hurricane Katrina a natural phenomenon. This doesn't mean, of course, that God can't use natural phenomena as punitive measures. And if the tsunami of 2004 was a punishment to our enemies, the Muslims, then Katrina may very well be a punishment to us for attempting to bring relief to the punished. Think about it that next time our government throws a few billion dollars at our sworn enemies. Think, for example, of $2 billion dollars the US government pays to Egypt annually since 1973 for not attacking Israel directly. Thanks to that bribe, Egypt has been attacking Israel indirectly ever since Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David agreement. If Jimmy Carter had decided to destroy Egypt instead, Egypt would not be attacking anyone directly or indirectly at a much lower cost to the American taxpayers. But, of course, we don't do things like that to our mortal enemies. That would be terribly inhumane, wouldn't it? Instead, we bribe them to pretend they are not our mortal enemies. Interestingly enough, we are doing both the bribing and the pretending. Remember the time when we pretended that Saddam Hussein was our ally? I look forward to seeing Iran and Syria on the list of our allies in the near future. North Korea and Cuba will follow. Have you counted how much money the US government has pumped into the terrorist organization known as the "Palestinian Authority"? It doesn't matter that the government calls it "humanitarian assistance". No matter what they call it, it is direct financing of terrorism. This is being done in the middle of our so-called "war on terror" in the hope of avoiding being a target. Do you think that will work? Yeah, right. So, tell me, is there a bigger sponsor of Muslim terrorism than the government of these United States? As every citizen of New Orleans can attest, the humanitarian gestures our government makes towards its own people are far less spectacular. Not being an expert, I imagine that the effects of a dirty bomb should be somewhat similar to what we have seen in New Orleans. For those who don't know, a dirty bomb is a conventional explosive device packed with highly radioactive material that spreads around when the thing goes off. The immediate casualties and damage caused by a dirty bomb are relatively small. But the area of the explosion instantly becomes deadly. The city is still standing, but it is no longer habitable. Imagine what will happen when Muslims blow up several dirty bombs simultaneously in your city. Remember what you have seen on TV? Only instead of black welfare recipients wading chest-deep through dirty flood waters, it will be you, dragging your own pearly-white Jewish or Christian ass and whatever is left of your family along radioactive streets, not knowing whether you have already received a fatal dose of radiation or not. And the government, no matter who is the president, or the governor, or the mayor, or the Secretary General of the UN at the time, will do everything it can to help you, which is pretty much nothing at all. Did you notice that I didn't say if it happens; I said when. If you think I am being too pessimistic, please tell me what facts, what knowledge your optimism is based upon. What will stop the Muslims from doing this to us? The Homeland Security Department? You can't be serious. The fear of our response? I don't think so. They've seen our response to 9/11 and know there is nothing to worry about. Of course, we make a lot of noise, but our noise affects neither the core of their beliefs not their ability to cause us more harm. Of course, we have the Bomb, but they know as well as we do that we don't have the guts to use it. Therefore, you must be relying on the goodness of their Muslim hearts, because, despite everything your stupid face has been rubbed into in the 4 years that have passed since 9/11, you still believe that deep down all people are the same and share the same beautiful dreams. Then all I can do is wish you all the luck in the world, because the goodness of the Muslim heart is as mythical a thing as the wisdom of our government. Maybe you should begin shopping for radiation protection gear for your children now. You can also try to succeed in business by buying lottery tickets. I've kept silent throughout the "disengagement". Many readers have asked me why, and I haven't found it within myself to even answer that simple question. Let me explain why I am too frustrated to keep telling you the truth. Because most of you behave like people who are 100% blind and too stupid to realize their vision is not perfect. What makes you blind? The fact that you believe propaganda more readily than what you see with your own eyes. What makes you stupid? You figure it out. When Israel tried to disengage from its enemies by fence, the most non-lethal means theoretically possible, you didn't call it disengagement. You called it apartheid, a crime against humanity, and many other nasty things it wasn't. When Israel surrendered Gaza to its enemies without a single shot fired, you called it "disengagement". You call an Israeli living in his own country a "settler", and that name alone provides you with a good enough excuse to declare every crime committed against him and his children justifiable. What do you call a Pakistani or an Arab who settles in your country with the goal of eventually turning it into an extension of his native Turdistan? You call a man desperately trying not to shed blood while defending his home in Gaza a "right-wing Jewish extremist". You call Arabs living generation after bloody generation in their dirty settlements in and around Israel "refugees". You rationalize the surrender of Gaza by the fact that each of the 8 or 9 thousand legitimate residents of Gaza had to be protected by several IDF soldiers, but it never occurred to you to blame those who threatened them, much less to demand that the soldiers eliminate the threat and go home. It never occurred to you that those who threaten Israel constitute a clear and present danger to you, whether you are a Jew, a Christian, or a Buddhist; whether you live in Israel, Britain, Belgium, or, believe it or not, even the United States of America. You watched the expulsion of Jews from Gaza on TV without ever realizing that what you were watching was, simply and undeniably, a pogrom, and the fact that it was done by Jewish hands, with the approval of Jews both in Israel and Diaspora, only makes it worse. Much worse. Yesterday, Gazan synagogues went up in flames. About 65 years ago, synagogues were burning in Germany. It was of little concern to Jews elsewhere. It was certainly of very little concern to Christians everywhere. But you, being blind and stupid, won't see the parallel. Then you deserve what's coming to you. 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 To Go To Top

COLLECTIVE MEMORY Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 15, 2005.

Something is emerging from Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's forced evacuation of the Gush Katif and Samarian Jews. We Jews have a "collective, genetic memory" of things that have happened to us throughout the many centuries. Our antennae are finely tuned to on-coming threats but, regrettably, we too often ignore these warnings until it is too late. Sharon has dropped a boulder into the waters of our psyche, with the ripples spreading and just beginning to be felt. Sharon has multiple personalities, none of which can understand deep human Jewish feelings. Ignore his oft-repeated statements of 'How badly I feel for you Jews whom I forcibly evacuated from your homes'. If you know Arik, you also know he enjoyed every minute of his 5 day mini-war. For Sharon any war is a good war. He enjoyed the pre-planning, the tricking of his adversaries and his friends who thought he was their indomitable champion. When it came to betraying those whom he called his friends, he didn't hesitate for a minute. Sharon, like Shimon Peres, are the ultimate betrayers - with their first loyalty to themselves and next to foreign non-Jewish interests. The Jewish State and the Jewish people take a distant third and fourth in their considerations. Nothing is sacred to people like this. Betrayal, treason, lying, cheating, stealing the peoples' money - none of these words are in their conscious vocabulary. Winning - no matter what - no matter how, is, indeed in their vocabulary. So, what happened to those ripples that are now spreading from the Sharon Splash in the recesses of our minds: Dismemberment of Gaza/Gush Katif and North Samaria - to be followed by the rest of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley? Those ripples are just now hitting the collective minds of Jews in Israel and all over the world. The shock of betrayal by our own Prime Minister is beginning to be felt in its enormity and the ramifications of what it means for the future. The ripple effect is also stimulating the aggressive assaults by the anti-Semites around the world. Is any Jew or Jewish home, school, synagogue, business, farm or even cemetery safe from their assault now that Sharon has made it 'OK' because he did it to his own Jews. There is the matter of "trust". Trusting the Sharon-Peres Government is like playing with a viper who can strike and kill when least expected. For the Jewish people a lack of trust is a must for self-defense. The psychological impact is just beginning to open up all those little doors of Jewish minds where past horrors are kept shut away. In our hidden memory we recall that Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin were able to kill one third of the Jews in Europe and Russia - without significant resistance from the Jews or the world. But, Israel was supposed to be a sheltered cove in stormy weather. How, in our wildest dreams or imaginations would we think to find a Jewish Government that would conspire with other Governments to once again force Jews off of their Land? How could a Jewish Government knowingly, open the gates to our refuge so a barbaric people could be brought closer to our population centers to kill as many Jews as they can which they pledge to do daily? The ripple effects of being betrayed are moving from Jew to Jew and then back again. That Sharon would become a traitor to save himself and his sons from prosecution for financial wrong-doing was beyond our imagination. Shimon Peres was always a known Arabist and wholly untrustworthy - even David Ben Gurion said it would be disastrous if Peres ever came into power as Israel's Prime Minister. Sharon, however, was once our great hero. He was supposed to be our great defender, only now we find he stands accused of being a crook, along with his sons. So once again, we are reminded in our "National Jewish Genetic Memory" of the anti-Semitic creatures who pursued us with a fury through the centuries. Now our pursuer is a Jew - although, in practice, he is an un-Jew. Like the poritz, (gentile officer or landlord) who controlled the villages in Europe and Russia to whom Jews paid bribes merely to keep the pogroms from killing too many Jews. They even made a movie musical called "Fiddler on the Roof" where bribes and pogroms played a role. Now we have a Jewish poritz to whom we must genuflect and obey. Something like a later day Herod who consorted with Rome to keep his throne while he taxed the enslaved Jews like every other Dictator. Did you know that Herod so clearly understood that the Jews hated him so much for his evil and cruelty that he arranged a burial with guards employed for 60 years to protect his tomb lest the people invade it and scatter his bones in the sand of his Herodian burial mountain for the animals to gnaw on. I wonder if sometimes in the future we'll think to re-bury the leaders who betrayed them in the sewers of Gaza and the smuggling tunnels for weapons from Egypt into Gaza. The removal of Jews from Gaza has caused what today is known as post-traumatic stress syndrome. We Jews knew this phenomenon long before psychiatrists gave it a name. Whether ejecting their Jews was conveyed an edict of the Church, a zealous village priest, the King or Queen, or in Arab Muslim countries by the King or Imam - in need of a victim to re-direct the rage of their peasants or fallahin against their leaders toward the local Jews. Today it is the Muslim Terrorists who have kept their peasantry in poverty who need the Jews to be angry at. Sharon is now a gross creature who could not know what was in Pandora's Box of horrors he opened up. He could not understand our Jewish collective genetic memory of betrayal by so-called Christian Governments who murdered us in tens, in thousands, in millions. Granted we had our Judenrat and Jewish Kapos but they were small in number. Now we have our own Frankenstein monster whose goal seems to be to de-Judaize the Jewish State while demonizing those who would keep faith with a G-d Sharon and Peres seem to despise. Like Herod who genuflected before Rome, we see a corrupt Sharon following the same path to please foreign nations and sell our patrimony, our heritage, the Land given to us by G-d. There is little difference between someone who sells their services for a few dollars or politicians who charge millions for their services. The act is the same whatever the price. As I write and post this article, I am waiting for PM Sharon to make his speech at the United Nations. Normally, I would expect the Arab representatives to walk out but, now they may stay to honor a Jew they can "almost" afford to approve of. The expectations are that Sharon will be obsequious and mouth words, scripted by the State Department and approved by Condoleezza Rice. I expect "planned commitment to more withdrawal/retreats without approval or discussions with the Knesset (Parliament) of Israel. Since Sharon has acted the role of Dictator in what amounts to a Police State, why would he consult with a Knesset he holds tightly in his hands. Tomorrow we will know the rice of his sell-out. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

BLINDED BY IDEOLOGY Posted by Barry Rubin, September 15, 2005.

The inability of Arab leaders and media generally even to identify properly the main issues they face makes it almost impossible to deal successfully with the Middle East's many problems. Defining terrorism as a form of permissible self-defense and the crisis in Iraq as purely based on American conspiracies are two of the most damaging examples of that syndrome. For instance, the typical view of terrorism comes from the head of Egypt's al-Azhar mosque-university, Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi. He is a pillar of mainstream, establishment Islam. In general, Tantawi will say nothing Egypt's government dislikes. Tantawi is often called a moderate and, sad to say, in relative terms he is one. But he is also typical of a major trend in which mainstream clerics are increasingly influenced by radical Islamists. A decade ago, Tantawi would probably have defined suicide bombing as heretical in Islamic terms. In recent years, though, Tantawi gives a definition, by far the most popular one among Arabs that justifies the vast majority of terrorism originating from the Middle East. There is no excuse, he explains for any attack in Arab countries aiming to kill Muslims. But it is ok to blow oneself up among: "An enemy who came to kill me, and I have no way of defending myself except for blowing myself up amongst this enemy who came to kill me and my countrymen, or to attack what is sacred-in such a case, whoever blows himself up is a martyr." (MEMRI translation) In other words, anything is permitted in self-defense. At times, he implies this does not include deliberately killing civilians--that's what makes him relatively more moderate--but this clause is played down. The three real keys to being a proper martyr are: being under attack, facing an evil enemy, and lacking any alternative. One problem here is justifying anything that can be called self-defense. Some deeds are criminal no matter what the rationale. Equally, once the door is opened to terrorism in principle many excuses can be used to justify it. If al-Qaeda and other extremists define killing anyone they view to be opposing their rule (which they equate with God), the moderates can merely limit the appropriate victims to the majority of non-Muslims. But these factors are not the biggest threats coming from the acceptance of this approach by the overwhelming majority of the Arab world. The most disturbing aspect is that it fits with the false characterization of Israel, the United States, and sometimes the entire West. In other words, it becomes necessary to justify these forces as innately, or at least profoundly, aggressive--attacking and trying to take over the Muslim or at least Arab world--leaving the "victims" no alternative to terrorism. In contrast, of course, Israel has basically been eager to make a deal to get out of the "occupied" territories for at least twelve years and would have been willing to do so even earlier in exchange for a real peace agreement ending the conflict. The United States wants to get its forces out of Iraq as soon as the situation is stable enough there to do so. In short, the terrorists ensure the continuation of the very issues they claim as grievances, using them to block moderate solutions and to gain power. The charges of foreign aggression and ruthlessness, combined with a lack of alternatives to violence, are false. Another issue that cuts to the core of the dominant discussion and politics of the Arab world today is Iraq. In an al-Ahram article entitled "The End of Arab Iraq," Abdallah al-Ashaal, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, attributes the new Iraqi constitution to American machinations designed to destroy Iraq by stoking ethnic conflicts there. But again, critical facts are ignored. The Iraqi constitution is shaped by the demands for decentralization of Kurds and the Shia Arabs--who are, after all, about 80 percent of the population. And that determination is the product of their ill-treatment by the Arab nationalist (and largely Sunni) dictatorships that ruled the country for 45 years. Yet it is impossible for mainstream Arab nationalists (or Sunni Islamists) to admit that fact. They must blame this antagonism on American imperialist conspiracies. Just as in the failure to face terrorism or such problems as the Arab world's relative political-economic backwardness, a refusal to face the real issue makes solving the real problem impossible. It is "ridding Iraq" of Arab identity which "really motivated the U.S. invasion," he claims, inaccurately implying that Iraq might not even stay in the Arab League. Well, what about the universal Arab state support for the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the failure of anyone to lift a finger to help the Iraqi dissidents, the Arab world's failure to help post-Saddam Iraq, and its continuing sponsorship and applause for terrorists murdering thousands of Iraqis? On this, not a word. Yet these are the kind of experiences that make Iraqis want to rid Iraq of the type of Arab nationalism which subjected them to almost a half-century of dictatorship, war, and suffering. In contrast, visitors to the Kurdish north of Iraq describe a prosperous, stable area, with rising living standards. As Nimrod Raphaeli of MEMRI writes summarizing these reports, "An environment of democracy and freedom appears to prevail across Iraqi Kurdistan." Are people there--or those in the Shia south which suffered so greatly under an Arab nationalist regime--so foolish to reject this disastrous system and philosophy? As long as the current ideology of victimization and distortion dominates both Arab states and debate, these issues will not be honestly confronted and will remain as bad as they are today or become even worse. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and co-author of "Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography" and "Hating America: A History" (Oxford University Press, August 2005). Prof. Rubin's columns can now be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html. To Go To Top

SHARON SELLS HIS SOUL IN A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN WITH THE DEVIL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 15, 2005.

For the price of ticket to sing at the United Nations, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has sold his soul. But, he sold more than that as he sold what was NOT his to sell, namely, the Land of Gaza/Gush Katif and North Samaria - along with the 10,000 Jewish men, women and children who lived there. When a man sells out, there have to be buyers. Sharon sold the patrimony, the heritage of the Jewish Nation and the Jewish people to many corrupt buyers who were (and are) eager to push Israel into oblivion: There was always the Bush Dynasty with their friends in Arab oil. There were the Saudis, always ready to pay top dollar to betrayers who would finesse the fall of the Jewish State. The members of the United Nations always representative of the Devil in whatever form he may take. They will and have welcomed Sharon and Shimon Peres as one of their own. The Price of Admission is merely to sell your soul in such a Faustian bargain. The 'trick' of first making a commitment to the U.S. without the authority of the People was tried by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. I would remind the readers that, the trick of getting international pressure on Israel was quite evident when Yassir Arafat started his first intifada in December 1987 in the Gaza town of Rafa after a traffic accident. Rabin had gone to the U.S. and Peres went to France to stir up foreign support to force Israel into an International Conference where Israel would be alone against the world in a Kangaroo Court to force her to give up YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza). The timing of this intifada was never investigated, although it appeared that Rabin, Peres, Arafat and several foreign interests needed these convenient riots to make the case for Rabin and Peres that international pressure should be applied. The Left always conspired with other nations to force their ideas of delegitmizing the pioneering settlers. The idea of 'forced deportation' did not begin in Gaza. Look for clues long before the secret Oslo Accords when Rabin and Peres were meeting with Arafat in the early 1980's. Oslo brought Arafat out of his exile in Tunis and re-legitimized him (followed by several other agreements, Oslo 2, Wye, and the Geneva Accords when Yossi Beilin conspired with the Swiss.) PM Sharon's visit to the U.N. is merely an extension of all these Leftist initiatives. His expected obsequious speech to the U.N. will be revealing. The timing of his prima dona address is significant as it is now even more obvious that he had to finish his eviction of the 10,000 men, women and children from their homes fast so he could make his presentation to the U.N. - one member of the Quartet. A bit player and talking head for President George Bush, Condoleezza Rice tells us that during the U.N.'s General Assembly now ongoing, she will meet with the Quartet - led by the U.S. State Department and including the U.N., the E.U. (European Union) and Russia. She will 'plan' the steps following Sharon's forced withdrawal/retreat from the Gaza settlements embodied in the Bush Road Map. Ms. Rice tells us that Bush is merely returning to the Road Map, which is another way of saying that Israel must make way for a primitive Muslim people who will and are already making war in the name of Islam. While the Road Map carries the Bush name, its seeds were planted in Saudi Arabia with the connivance of the Arabists in the State Department. Bush may very well succeed in destroying or crippling the Jewish State but, I have no doubt that the Islamic destroyers will wreak vengeance on America and Europe (as they have already done). The cities of the Free West will be devastated by the 'Jihadists' of Islam and the West will regret the day they went against G-d Chosen people. As a relevant aside, I wonder if anyone thought that the hurricanes, tsunamis, drought, oil weapons beggaring our economy, Muslim uprisings around the planet were merely natural events or are we receiving terse messages that we are out of synch with G-d's Universe. Recruiting un-Jews, like Sharon and Peres, has never been a problem. We Jews have carried with us throughout the centuries the same parasites which attached themselves to Moses and the Jewish people when they left Israel. These creatures, called the Erev Rav, have been our permanent betrayers whenever they were requested to subvert the Jewish people. While normal observant Jews live their lives being productive, the parasites (Erev Rav) spend their days plotting destructive mischief. Clearly, they must be profiled as a Clear and Present Danger to the Jewish nation and sent to whatever country will accept these malcontents. As Castro did when he emptied his jails and insane asylums and put them on the Mariella Boat trips to America, why cannot Israel also gather up the aberrant politicians and Leftists for a cruise that will last forever. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

THIS LIE IS ONE OF THE REASONS THE BARBARIAN LIARS USE TO BURN JEWISH GAZA SYNAGOGUES Posted by Evelyn Hayes, September 15, 2005.

This is called "A modern racial libel" by Melanie Philips and it appeared in the Daily Telegraph, 6 September. A stunning article in Commentary by Nidra Poller exposes what might eventually come to be regarded as a racial libel on a par with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in both its malevolence and its contribution to the history of racial hatred. The defining image of the second Palestinian intifada was the television footage of 12 year-old Mohammed al Dura being sheltered by his father as they cowered under a hail of bullets fired by Israeli soldiers in a gun battle at the Netzarim junction on September 30 2000, at the very beginning of the violence. These pictures, shot by a France 2 cameraman, instantly achieved a lethal iconic status. The image of Mohammed al Dura slumped in death in his father's lap like an Arab pieta was used on countless occasions to recruit human bomb volunteers for the jihad against Israel. As Poller says, his death scene has been replicated on murals, posters, and postage stamps, even making an appearance in the video of Daniel Pearl's beheading. Testifying under oath before the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the cameraman Talal Abu Rahmeh alleged that Israeli soldiers had intentionally murdered the boy and wounded the father. There had been, he said, a five-minute exchange of fire between Palestinian policemen and Israeli soldiers. This was followed by fully 45 minutes of gunfire coming exclusively from the Israeli position and aimed directly at the man and the boy crouching desperately behind a concrete barrel. He had captured on film a total of 27 minutes of this fusillade, risking his own life in the process. From the start, however, many smelled a rat and several journalists have suggested that this event was not what it seemed. Now, Poller reveals information that strongly suggests the whole thing was a cynical and evil fraud. She has obtained hours of out-takes from film shot by dozens of cameramen at the Netzarim junction that day. What was recorded on these films were two types of activity - real attacks and crudely staged, entirely confected battle scenes: 'In the "reality" zone, excited children and angry young men hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli outpost while shababs ("youths") standing on the roof of the Twins throw burning tires down onto the caged lookout; this goes on seemingly for hours, without provoking the slightest military reaction from Israeli soldiers. At the same time, in the "theatrical" zone, Palestinian stringers sporting prestigious logos on their vests and cameras are seen filming battle scenes staged behind the abandoned factory, well out of range of Israeli gunfire. The "wounded" sail through the air like modern dancers and then suddenly collapse. Cameramen jockey with hysterical youths who pounce on the "casualties," pushing and shoving, howling Allahu akhbar!, clumsily grabbing the "injured," pushing away the rare ambulance attendant in a pale green polyester jacket in order to shove, twist, haul, and dump the "victims" into UN and Red Crescent ambulances that pull up on a second's notice and career back down the road again, sirens screaming. In one shot we recognize Talal Abu Rahmeh in his France-2 vest, filming a staged casualty scene.* Split seconds of these ludicrous vignettes would later appear in newscasts and special reports; the husk, the raw footage that would reveal the fakery, had been removed, leaving the kernel rich in anti-Israel nutrients. 'The al-Dura death scene was filmed right in the middle of these falsified incidents. It can be localized and situated. In one section of Reuters footage we see the man and the boy crouched behind the upended culvert as a jeep drives slowly up the road, stops in firing range of the Israeli position that is clearly visible in the near distance, makes a U-turn, drives in the opposite direction, stops short of the barrel/culvert, and helps perform the clearly faked evacuation of a man wounded in the right leg, as also shown in the France-2 news report. In fact, two ambulances stand for a long moment no more than fifteen feet from the al-Duras. There is no evidence of armed combat in their vicinity. No sound of gunfire. Men run down the road, passing in front of the al-Duras. No one is hit... 'I also viewed a copy of the satellite feed transmitted by Abu Rahmeh late in the afternoon of September 30. In addition to the 55 seconds aired that evening, it includes a final image of the boy who would be described afterward as "killed instantly by a shot to the stomach": in it he is seen shifting position, propping himself up on his elbow, shading his eyes with his hand, rolling over on his stomach, covering his eyes... 'The 45 minutes? Gone. Abu Rahmeh's 27 minutes? Gone, too. We are left with approximately a single minute of Jamal and Muhammad al-Dura filmed in continuous time. In that minute, the two crouch behind an upended culvert and contort their faces in fear. Guttural screams are heard, but they do not come from the man or the boy; they come from men standing within range of the France-2 cameraman's microphone. Jamal bobs his head. Muhammad stretches out at his father's feet. Then, in the brief portion that was carefully edited out but that can be seen in the outtakes, the boy changes position several times, using voluntary muscles that only living people can activate. During the 55-second sequence we see two bullets hitting the wall, which is already pockmarked with a number of other bullet holes nowhere near father and child. A cloud of dust obscures the last few frames. There is no sign or sound of a crossfire. There are no death throes. The rest, as we say in French, is literature. 'But now look again at the Reuters outtakes. A jeep drives up a road, turns, goes down the other side, takes part in a battle scene. An ambulance pulls up, a "wounded" man is dragged across the road, placed on a stretcher, loaded into the ambulance, the ambulance drives away. Men run from position A to position B. Children toss Molotov cocktails at the IDF fortress. There is much laughter and cheering from the "audience," clusters of cheerful young men watching the show. All this time, traffic trundles through the intersection, schoolchildren go by with their bookbags, a fashionably dressed woman talks on her cellphone and chats and jokes with cameramen who stand nonchalantly with their backs to the Israeli position. Things are moving, the energy level is high, the shababs are fearless. Palestinian policemen mingle in the crowd, occasionally shoot a few rounds into the air, join in the battle scenes, get "wounded" and come back for more. Children set fire to tires; you can almost smell the rubber burning. The France-2 cameraman, Abu Rahmeh, is there, too, clearly visible, in the heat of the action, filming ambulance evacuations of fake casualties in large patches of real time. Familiar, retrievable, believable.' The story then gets even worse. A retired Le Monde journalist, Luc Rosenzweig, wrote an article which was due to be published in the weekly l'Express in which he accused France-2 of an 'almost perfect media crime.' The magazine's editorial director, Denis Jeambar, decided to double-check Rosenzweig's facts. He, Rosenzweig and a TV director met a France 2 executive: 'They requested the 27 minutes of raw footage showing the al-Duras pinned down by Israeli gunfire; they were shown a half-hour of fake battle scenes similar to those described above. They asked why there were no pictures of Israeli soldiers aiming at the al-Duras; they were told that on this point the cameraman had retracted his testimony, given "under pressure" to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. They asked to speak to the cameraman, then said to be undergoing medical treatment in Paris; they were told he did not speak French and that his English was too rudimentary (patently untrue). They asked to see the scene of the child's death throes, professedly edited out by Charles Enderlin because it was "too unbearable"; they were told that no such images existed. They in turn produced pictures of a dead child, identified as Muhammad al-Dura, who had been admitted to Gaza's Schifa hospital at noon or 1 PM on September 30, several hours before the alleged incident occurred; his face did not match that of the boy in the shooting scene, his wounds did not match the eyewitness descriptions (my emphasis). They were told that the channel's forensic specialists would look into the matter.' Jeambar, it seems, then lost his nerve but the story was leaked and a vicious row ensued which has left the whole thing up in the air. As Poller says, there is no conclusive evidence to prove beyond doubt that the killing of Mohammed al Dura was an atrocious lie staged to whip up hatred of Israel, most lethally in the Arab world. But the evidence assembled in this article strongly suggests that France 2 is guilty of one of the most monstrous pieces of deception of modern times whose effects in terms of fomenting hatred, violence and mass murder have been incalculable. Israeli officials who have privately said from very early on that the al Dura footage was faked also say that there is no point opening up this affair to public scrutiny because the magnitude of this lie is so great, and so deeply has Europe absorbed the wider big lie of Israel's 'oppression' of the Palestinian Arabs, that even to raise a question about the death of Mohammed al Dura is to invite further opprobrium. Faced with a world that has taken leave of its senses and suspended normal conventions of journalism, evidence and reason over the war against Israel, the despairing fatalism of the Israelis is understandable. But it is wrong. Whatever reaction it provokes, there is an obligation to history to unmask an apparent lie of this magnitude and establish the truth. Commentary has performed an important service. Evelyn Hayes is author of The Plague Series: "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, because their hearts are softened to accept the unacceptable" The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes." and "Thirteen, REDEMPTION, if" Contact Evelyn Hayes by email at haze@rcn.com To Go To Top

ONE-WAY "TIMES" SLANT; BEWARE OF ARAB CHARITY; FALSE ARREST COMING? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 15, 2005.

HOW PREPARED ARE P.A. POLICE? Lawlessness in the P.A. is a general indicator of incompetence. A specific indicator was the successful raid on Abbas' security advisor, and the lack of retribution. Abbas keeps asserting that all private P.A. militias must combine with his official P.A. forces, but he cannot unify his own multiple security forces. Indications are that the P.A. security force, whose vehicles were used in the attack on Arafat's relative, were accomplices. The attack occurred within earshot of a P.A. police force that was a rival of the one that the cousin formerly headed. Hamas is growing increasingly confident and challenging. It trains its forces, whereas, we are told, the P.A. forces are poorly trained (IMRA, 9/9). What happened to the months of P.A. police training by foreign forces? Has the Fatah militia no training? Why didn't Israel concentrate more on destroying Hamas? How ironic that Yasir Arafat's ploy of dividing up his security men resulted in their inability to protect his cousin and to enable his protege/successor to rule! I wish that Yasir Arafat had lived long enough to see his own regime collapse the way his successor's is doing. IS THE "NY TIMES" SLANT A COINCIDENCE? The "Times" discussed whether Israel did and does occupy the Gaza Strip. Reporter Greg Myre reiterated a P.A. official's snide remark, "Israel never acknowledged there was an occupation. Now that they're leaving, they're saying the occupation is over." Impressive but misleading. Israel is not admitting there was an occupation, but that those who thought there was, for unsatisfactory grounds, now do not have even those grounds. The article states twice that both sides are making legal arguments in whose support they quote the same documents. Mr. Myre repeats for readers the Arab side's quotation but no Israeli use of those documents (9/11, A8). How one-sided! I have quoted the Geneva Convention, cited its background, and quoted the Palestine Mandate, to buttress Israel's claim. They show that Israel's military and civilian presence in the Territories were not occupation. The "Times" omitted those arguments and also leave readers with the impression that any occupation is illegal. The occupation of Germany and Japan after WWII were legal, as ways of fulfilling the victory over those aggressors in the hope of preventing further aggression. It succeeded. Hooray for the US occupation! A couple of days earlier, the "Times" did quote both sides, when it was unfair to do so without further explanation, which it did not furnish. The Article discussed Israel's security fence. The report put it that Israel says the fence is for security, and the Arabs say it is for a "land-grab." That's a "he says, she says" standoff. What are the facts? Of course the fence is for security. Israel was searching for a way to stop the terrorist assaults, without having to go to war. The Israeli regime could claim that where the fence was erected, terrorism decreased. That is the prevailing opinion of the statistic. Another opinion is that the terrorists simply went to where the fence wasn't erected, because it is easier to attack there, but they could get around the fence, with effort. They also can fire mortars over the fence. The erection of the fence does not change ownership of the land. Little private acreage was taken for the fence. Israel would not have spent billions of dollars to take land. The Arabs do grab land. The "NY Times" constantly makes false or misleading statements and quotations. The errors always are in the Arabs' favor. That indicates that the errors are not coincidental. WHAT "CYCLE OF VIOLENCE?" P.A. police let hundreds of Arab youths in Gaza descend upon the ruins of an abandoned Jewish community and throw stones at an Israeli tank and climb onto it. Eventually, the tankers killed one of them. Then Arab terrorists fired mortars at an Israeli town of civilians. The media called it a cycle of violence. It was not a cycle, it was all Arab aggression. Whatever crime the Arabs commit against Israelis, the world excuses it as justification for more concessions to the criminals (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/10 from Caroline Glick of Jer. Post). THE ARABS TAKE OVER THE JEWISH PART OF GAZA Unhindered by P.A. police, Arabs swarmed into the formerly Jewish communities to loot anything - wood, aluminum, and even the hothouses hoped to be a source of revenue for the P.A.. The area is controlled by armed gunmen, not the police. Chaos reigns. Islamic Jihad is transporting masked gunmen and rockets, for the war's next phase (IMRA, 9/12). Wasn't the residential area supposed to be evacuated of valuables and then razed? P.A. SUPPORTS TERRORISM, & U.S. SUPPORTS P.A. The US just added $50 million in direct subsidy of the P.A. for projects it monitors to make sure they are not for terrorism. Such a donation, however, frees the similar amount that the P.A. spends on its terrorists imprisoned in Israel. The P.A. also spends money inciting against the US. The average Palestinian Arabs earns $30-90 a month. For terrorists, the P.A. Min. of Prison Affairs deposits a $400-500 monthly salary in each prisoner's account and remits $50 each for prison canteen expenses and pays their legal and medical expenses. He allows up to $100,000 for their higher education. The P.A. recently decided to increase the salary for prisoners of 25 years or more to $900 plus $50 more if they hail from Jerusalem. The longer their sentence, i.e., the worse their crime, the more they receive. Terrorism pays. For six months after release, prisoners receive a salary without having to work. Then they are given a position in the P.A. bureaucracy (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/11 from FrontPageMagazine.com. The Arabs sure do encourage terrorism. If the public knew the facts stated above, would they expect peace from the P.A.? Israel treats its agent in a US prison shabbily, by contrast. ARAB CHARITY The Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management has 30,000 students in Ukraine. Its founder, George Tchokin, has turned it into the country's largest purveyor of antisemitism. Scholarship at the Academy? It blamed the London attack on Zionist infiltrators, hosted a conference with the theme that Zionism is the greatest danger to civilization, and contended that the skinheads who attacked two Yeshiva students in Ukraine were, themselves, Jews. The conference honored the American racist, David Duke. Who finances that university? A substantial portion comes from Arab foundations and individuals. This is the object of Arab "charity" (IMRA, 9/10). 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. To Go To Top

THE HIGH COURT'S FENCE DECISION Posted by Professors for a Strong Israel, September 15, 2005.

Terrorism can only be fought by going over to the offensive, not by running away from it, and not by hiding behind a fence. This fence was designed from the start to bring Israel to the Green Line. It has no real security justification; it serves only political purposes. The fence advances the interests of leftist politicians, of the contractors who are being enriched by its construction and by moving it back and forth, and of the mobilized journalists who provide propaganda support. It is time to stop throwing immense sums of money at the fence and to turn our efforts to more effective means of security. Dr. Ron Breiman, Chairman of PSI Tel: 050-551 8940 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. To Go To Top

YES, THE DOCTOR IS TO BLAME Posted by Nadia Matar, September 15, 2005.

Last week Moshe Ben-Zimrah and Yaakov Sternberg wrote an article, "The Doctor Is Not to Blame," in which they strongly oppose the sharp criticism within the National Camp against the functioning of the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in the struggle to rescue Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. The authors of the article attempt to convince us that, despite the failure, the Yesha Council acted superbly and did all that was in its power to try and prevent the evil decree. "Mistakes were made, but these were tactical errors, and not a fundamentally flawed strategy," they tell us. They compare anyone who dares to oppose the Yesha Council as incorrect, and liken the situation to a pair of parents who unjustly charge the surgeon with the death of the child on whom he operated. But what can we do - sometimes the doctor is to blame. When the doctor is aware of the existence of various medicines that could save the patient, but for all manner of strange reasons he does not give these medicines to the patient, who dies, then the doctor is, in fact, to blame. The situation is even worse when the patient's relatives stubbornly try to obtain those medicines, and the physician not only publicly denounces them, but makes every effort to keep the relatives from giving the medicines to the patient. In such circumstances, the relatives are obligated to tell everyone about the physician's misdeeds, to ensure that he is fired, that he will not continue in his position, and even to consider a malpractice lawsuit. All this is not out of vengefulness, and not as a personal vendetta - in his private life, the physician could undoubtedly be an extremely nice person, originate from an outstanding family, and who contributes greatly to his community and synagogue - but in order to save other patients who are on the operating table, we must ensure that that physician will never practice medicine again. The settlements of Beit El, Tekoa, and - if we are to believe Condoleeza Rice - the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, and many other locations are currently on the government's operating table, to be destroyed and given away to the Arab enemy. If we wish to be victorious in the next battle for the Land of Israel, we must ensure that the official leadership of the National Camp, whose struggle failed, will not continue to lead us. And anyone who tells us, as do the authors of the article, that the Yesha Council did everything possible, and that no one proposed an alternative way, is not only wrong, but deceptive. We all are conscious of the wonderful things that the Yesha Council has done over the years: with regard to construction, building and the development of settlements. But in the ideological struggle, in the battle against the Government's plan of destruction and ruin - they failed. And because, ever since the destruction of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, the Yesha Council has published many expensive advertisements, in order to convince all of us that there was nothing wrong with the way they waged the struggle and the path they chose, we find it necessary to publicly express our criticism. Firstly, the Yesha Council should not have called for a referendum. If the deportation of Jews from their homes and the handing over of parts of the Promised Land to the murderous Arab enemy is a crime, then no referendum could give a seal of approval to such a crime. A crime is a crime is a crime. The Yesha Council's demand for a referendum weakened the struggle, and legitimized the idea of the deportation of Jews, the uprooting of settlements, and the handing over of our homeland to the enemy. Now we need selfless leaders who will declare, fearlessly, without stuttering: All the Land of Israel was given to us by G-d, and no one is entitled to hand it over! Even a majority of the government, or the Knesset, or by way of a referendum, cannot make the handing over of portions of the Land of Israel legal and moral, and therefore such decisions must be vigorously opposed. As regards the strategy of the struggle: after the parliamentary fight failed, there still remained three elements that could have canceled the deportation decree: refusal to obey orders, nonviolent civil disobedience, and the bringing of tens of thousands of Jews to Gush Katif on the eve of the deportation. A united call by the "official" leadership of the National Camp for these three elements, that constitute the basis for any popular struggle against a corrupt and dictatorial government, would unquestionably have been capable of saving Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. But, not only did the Yesha Council not act in this direction, it (together with certain rabbis and members of Knesset) condemned those who acted in accordance with these principles. They condemned those who blocked roads, they met with the top echelon of the IDF, announcing to them that they opposed refusal to obey orders, and they actively worked against the bringing of tens of thousands to Gush Katif. All their energy and funds were channeled in a single direction: the Face to Face campaign, the distribution of orange ribbons, and social happenings in the guise of demonstrations. As much as these actions made us feel better, they patently lack any meaning in a dictatorial country such as Sharonland. More and more material has accumulated in the past weeks that demonstrates that the "official" leadership of the National Camp was interested solely in the grandiose orchestrating of symbolic protest, but not in actions following these three principles, that would have led to victory. Such material raises the question whether, to our shame, this was, not only incompetent, weakness, despair, and extreme cooperation with the State Authority, but it was even full collaboration by the "official" leadership of the National Camp with the expulsion forces? There are too many examples to mention them all, but there are those who will testify that at Kfar Maimon and at Sderot, from the outset, there was no intention of reaching Gush Katif. That is, they consciously deceived and misled the public. There are testimonies that the leaders of the Yesha Council coordinated with the deportation forces the breakthrough into Neveh Dekalim, the concentration of the activists inside the synagogue, and the breaking into the synagogue itself. There are testimonies that the heads of the Yesha Council had permanent permission to enter Gush Katif, because they promised "to restrain and moderate" the activists. If this is not collaboration, then what is? As it is written in Yoav Yitzhak's article in NFC of August 20,2005: "Mazuz met with the heads of the Yesha Council several times, and reached understandings with them, according to which they would act to restrain the demonstrators and prevent violence. In return, he (Mazuz) would act to approve the demonstrations organized by the Yesha Council. The permission was granted with the knowledge of the heads of the IDF, the police, and also the State Attorney's Office, who viewed the Yesha Council as a restraining element". And we haven't even begun to talk about the activists who were expelled from Gush Katif and/or handed over to the police after certain rabbis and "official" public figures informed on them, and accused them of "excessive extremism." Nor have we spoken about certain rabbis who preach day and night for "love and cooperation," and obsequiously danced with policemen and soldiers, but then shamelessly beat up youth who - horror of horrors - tried to give flat tires to the deportation forces. There is in existence a long list of accusations against the "official: leadership of the National Camp. The conclusion is simple: The heads of the Yesha Council whose budgets and salaries, are paid by and are dependent upon the government, relate to what they were elected for: to wit: administering the affairs of the settlements (education, culture, construction, gardening, communal life), but are not suitable for ideological struggles against the government. The heads of the Yesha Council must draw conclusions, return to their original role, and stop thinking that someone installed them to be leaders of the National Camp. We have a wonderful public, including amazing and heroic youth, that proved its willingness for self-sacrifice on behalf of the Land of Israel. Our public deserves a strong, uncompromising, independent leadership, that is not subject to threats and extortion, that will be capable of defending the People of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel. The time has come to establish a body that will include rabbis, professors, and public figures that will return the people to the right direction, conduct the ideological-political struggle, and become the official leadership of the National Camp until it takes power here in Israel. In short, there is an urgent need for a professional, devoted, and loyal doctor capable of dealing with all the physical and mental problems of 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 To Go To Top

THE ARAB SHUK: WHY STILL? Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, September 15, 2005.

A very few weeks ago, believe it was about 8:15 the evening of August 24, an arab stabbed two yeshiva students who were walking through the old city to the Kotel. One of the students died: that is, he was murdered by an Arab while walking to Judaism's holiest site in the ancient, and current, capital of Israel. The next morning, the Shuk and its Arabs were still there; and the next day, and next week, and next month, this month, they are there. The fact that they are allowed to remain conveys with painful clarity a salient truth about the State of Israel. This was not the first time in modern history that arabs have murdered Jews in Jerusalem. There were pogroms in 1904-05; major assaults in 1920 as the British looked on and arrested Jews who sought to enlist in the police (see "Lone Wolf" by Samuel Katz, volume I); and in 1921, 1924, 1929, 1936, and the wholesale destruction of the old city by the British led and equipped arab legion of Jordan during the 1950's and '60s, etc. If the Israel that was established in May 1948 was truly a Jewish state, if it truly was a state that valued Jewish life and lives, the arab "shuk" and the arabs in and around it would have been cleared out a long time ago, no later than June 1967. Had this been done, and had the entire old city, at a minimum, become once more a Jewish city, many Jewish lives would have been spared. Many Jewish families would now exist that were lost when those murders occurred. The assault on the state and all the Jews in it, and on Jews and Judaism elsewhere in the world would not be taking place. But the socialists and Hellenists who set up and still run the State do not like Judaism and don't much like (indeed, they clearly detest) Jews who embrace their Judaism, the land and/ or the Torah. Clearly what they want is "a place among the nations" rather than proudly and securely to be "a nation that dwells apart, and that shall not be counted among the nations," but rather that "shall dwell, secure, apart, in the likeness of Jacob, -- even its heavens will drip with dew." MAKE NO MISTAKE: these Hellenists DO NOT WANT PEACE. The rampaging arabs in the Gush Katif region, plundering the remains of the Jewish farms that could have fed them and given them employment, burning Jewish synagogues, smuggling in weapons, only underscore a situation that has been plainly on display for decades. The Arabs do NOT want peace with Jews or Israel: they want everything that Israel has and they like to murder Jews. It makes them feel good, perhaps because they themselves have nothing and never will. The Hellenists have seen these scenes many times before, in the past decade alone, and they know that all the conferences, negotiations, promises, guarantees and deals are a farce, a cover for a war on a Jewish Israel, a war to destroy Jewish holy places and identity. They may despise the Arabs but they know the Arabs are the best tool to effect the destruction by attrition of a Jewish Israel and of Jewish life in Israel. Thus they enable the arabs in a myriad of ways and their hatred and fear of Judaism is so intense they do not even care to see that they are committing suicide. They are sleepwalkers on the Titanic, dreaming happily of a totally secularized, Los Angeles-type Israel even as the earthquake of islamic violence shakes it beneath their feet. This is why there still is an Arab shuk in the old city of Jerusalem, in the path of the most direct route from the Jaffo Gate to the Kotel and its plaza. This is why arab murderers of Jews are never seriously deterred or punished: the State and its Labor forebears are engaged in a decades-long war against a Jewish Israel. And though this means they are more or less open allies with the State Department, EU, Vatican, UN et al against their own state, it matters not to them. Arrogance wraps their eyes in fat; their 'peace' schemes "exceed the fantasies of their hearts" and "they think their houses are forever." They are not; they are tottering on the edge of a cliff. The world will know that a Jewish Israel that intends to live and not die, that embraces its uniquely rich and empowering heritage, is in place when the arab shuk and arab 'quarter' are gone from the old city of Jerusalem, and when arab-occupied central Israel and Gush Katif are things of the past, nightmares from which the Jewish people have awakened and brushed away like filthy cobwebs, emerging at last into the sweet light of day, a victory of memory and faith over forgetting and hollowness. It's time to hasten it......... To Go To Top

THE HAMAS VICTORY THAT NEVER WAS Posted by Jock L. Falkson, September 15, 2005.

In a videotape circulated by Hamas last week, arch terrorist Mohammed Deif vowed that Israel's departure from Gaza would mean more of the same. I quote: "Today you leave Gaza in humiliation," he taunted the Israelis. "You are leaving hell. We promise that tomorrow, with Allah's help, all of Palestine will be hell for you." The Lies They Tell Terrorist leader Mohammed Deif is by no means the first to lay claim that Hamas (operating under protection of the Palestinian Terrorist Authority) was responsible for Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza. But he certainly won't be the last to claim the "benefits" from this lie. Palestinian culture is immersed in many such lies: From the "apartheid" lie to the lie that "their nationhood had existed since time immemorial" -instead of a mere six decades. From the lie that Jerusalem must be regained as their capital when they never had a capital city of any kind. From the lie of the non-existent massacre at Jenin to the lie of the staged killing of Mohammed al Dura. From the lie of "occupation" of their territory whereas no Palestinian sovereignty ever existed. From the lie of "the right of return" for millions of their "refugees" - most born in foreign lands. How can you be a refugee from a country you never lived in? These and many other lies were dreamed up to bolster pride in their peoplehood during their few decades of genuine history. Lies, but lethal all the same. One day someone will write an anthology of this nation's lies. Not because the author can hope to reform Palestinian culture, but because the book might shame some nations which fell for Palestinian lies hook, line and stinker. Responsible For Killing Hundreds Of Israelis The latest stinker comes from Mohammed Deif - Hamas terrorist leader, planner and executioner responsible for the killing of hundreds Israeli civilians. Men, women, teens, children and babies. He was lucky to elude capture and targeting by Israel for the past few years. This bold "fighter" was forced to spend much of his time in hiding. He was afraid to sleep twice in the same house. He dared not show himself in public. He no longer had the privilege of living a normal life, nor should he, this professional murderer of Jewish women, children and babes. Like all Palestinian leaders from Arafat down, Deif is an accomplished liar. He too clearly understands the PR power of the big lie. That much is clear from his trumpeting of "today you are leaving hell". Defending The Gush Katif Paradise A "hell" Hamas created? Hell no. On the contrary, the world was treated to two weeks of unedited TV images of Jews in the Gaza Strip vigorously protesting and demonstrating against the Israel government's disengagement operation. The world also witnessed hundreds of thousands of Jews demonstrating in Tel Aviv and other cities against the "disengagement". Viewers must have been amazed to see the strong fight put up by evacuees resisting the overwhelming forces mobilized by Prime Minister Sharon to forcibly evacuate them. The police and Israel Defense Forces outnumbered the struggling residents and protesters more than four to one. Yet the struggle of the Jews of Gush Katif to resist evacuation and to continue their near idyllic lifestyle was unending. Finally the last one was reluctantly taken to a waiting bus. Deif too was witness to these remarkable scenes. Yet his ingrained Hamas hatred for every Jew does not permit him to resist the lie that the social, economic and agricultural paradise created by Katif's residents over 30 years was a "hell" on earth. Nothing Hamas did forced Katif residents out Overwhelming TV evidence to the contrary, Hamas leaders have the gall to claim credit for the Jews having to "flee" Gush Katif. Despite hours of TV clips showing residents pleading to be left in their homes and communities. Many indeed argued they would defend themselves and their families even without the protection of the Israel Defense Forces. Such was the "fear" of the Jews of Katif for the so called "fearsome" Hamas. Whereas in truth nothing Hamas and other terrorists did over 37 years prevented the growth and prosperity of their magnificent agricultural achievements, built on the sand dunes of Gush Katif. Till Hell Freezes Over Palestinian terrorists never cowed the Jews of Gush Katif and played no part in the unilateral Knesset decision to evacuate. The courage of Katif Jews in the face of terrorist adversity is in stark contrast to the cowardice of hundreds of thousand of Arabs who fled with their tails between their legs in 1948. (Those who became refugees of their own accord.) Despite Mohammed Deif's enthusiastic threats of annihilation, he and his fellow murderers will have to wait till hell freezes over before Hamas terrorism might force the Jews ever leave the Jewish State. Intense Arab Ethnic Cleansing Now the world is witness to the savage desecration of Jewish synagogues left standing by Israel. Jews had too much respect for the religious affinity of these buildings to destroy them. We hoped the Palestine Terrorist Authority would have the same respect as we have always had for abandoned mosques or churches. But the deeply embedded apartheid ideology of the Palestinians which could not stomach a single Jew in their midst, could not even stomach a single Jewish building left standing. Judenrein and Jew-buildingrein - such is the rabid Palestinian attachment to ethnic cleansing. To be put on Jock Falkson's email list, contact him at falkson@barak-online.net To Go To Top

STOP BUYING ANTI-ISRAEL NEWSPAPERS Posted by Join the Boycott, September 15, 2005.

Stop Buying Anti-Israel Newspapers: Just complaining about anti-Israel media achieves nothing. Cancelling a subscription moves mountains. See http://www.geocities.com/truthmasters/jointheboycott.htm Join the Boycott To Go To Top

BIOLOGICALLY CHALLENGED MIDDLE ISRAEL Posted by Carl Sesar, September 15, 2005.

Just as Europe's got Israel to bash and blame, so Middle Israel has "settlers," or, as Middle Israel's also called them, "modern Orthodoxy's biological children." Middle Israel's not fond of the religious, that's not news, but what's with "biological"? A polite word for "spawn"? Middle Israel has also said war with the Arabs is about "values," not "land," but the Arabs know better. They know land makes a land or it's a never-never land, not a flesh-and-blood land, as Israel is, with "biological children," as Jews are, and a long, time-honored history rooted in the land, with a religion and cherished traditions passed on to Jewish children from generation to generation for millennia. But now disembodied "values" have evolved above and beyond history, tradition, crassly "biological" Jewish land, and the flesh-and-blood Jews who live there. This newly mutated, immaculately conceived Middle Israel calls that Jewish land an imperialistic land-grab, and a messianic "utopia"! What a "greater" Israel means is Israeli sovereignty over the communities in Jewish ancestral lands, territories to which she has a rightful claim and, in light of the 5,000,000 square miles of Arab lands surrounding Israel, would amount to the pettiest, no-account "land-grab" of all recorded time, but for one thing: a Jew-hatred so widely held, implacable, and bent on murder in the five million square miles surrounding her that, in cold fear of it, some think any land of Israel a utopian fantasy. Arabs want that land of Israel too, all of it, and to extirpate all trace of Jews and Jewish life in it, but Middle Israel sees nothing "utopian" about Arab ambitions. Not in the least! However, it's clear to Middle Israel, at long last, that giving Arabs "land for peace" may be "utopian" too. What to do? Middle Israel more comfortably prefers to act upon a fear of Arabs and a contempt for religious Jews by finding common ground with the Arabs to do what the Arabs would gladly do themselves, if only they could: cleanse this Jewish "utopia" of the religious life and culture that Middle Israel despises quite enough to uproot en masse and confine like pariahs in holding pens, and that the Arabs hate to death. Free at last of Jews, the Jewish "utopia" would then be delivered to the Arabs, not for peace, just buying "Middle Israel" a little time, huddling behind disposable walls, until the Arabs go on the warpath again! I quote the term "Middle Israel," but haven't heard anybody else in Israel besides Amotz Asa-El use it. Tell me, what is "Middle Israel" but a utopia itself, a figment of the imagination, smack in the "middle" of nowhere? Were this would-be "Middle Israel" ever to become reality, born of fear, political corruption, and Jewish self-hatred, culminating in a grim spectacle of national self-mutilation, and founded upon liminal, disembodied "values," it could no longer presume to call itself "Israel," or ever hope to sustain or defend itself. Not in this world. Contact Carl Sesar at sesar@noho.com To Go To Top

FOX ISN'T ALWAYS FAIR AND HONEST AND UNAFRAID Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 14, 2005.

Early this morning (September 14th), I was listening to FOX NEWS when anchor-woman Lauren Greene started to sound like the story tellers of NPR (National Public [Palestine] Radio). Whether Greene was assigned by FOX to cover over the Arab Muslim Palestinians rampaging in Gaza or, was this her personal choice? Let's hope that FOX is not on the way to becoming a CNN. At about 5:30 am CDT September 14th Lauren Greene first features a group of Palestinians holding up a paper reproduction of a check, gifting $10,000 to the Katrina victims. Greene voices that these messages to the effect that we (Palestinians) know what it means to be homeless. First, any money coming from the Palestinian Authority was already gifted to them despite their issue of such funds to support Terror, teach children to be shahids (Martyrs for Islam). Greene signed on to such an obvious propaganda gesture, seemingly to cover over the rampage of looting and burning of synagogues in Gaza which FOX chose not to screen. Tell us Lauren, did you get a request from Rice or Karen Hughes to fluff up the aura of the Arab Muslim Palestinians as they rampage, burn synagogues and even destroy the greenhouses built by Jews which they were supposed to run as their new industry. There was a lot of available footage of Palestinians, tearing up wires, pipes and computers while their President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen)'s so-called guards did virtually nothing. The burned synagogues were still smoldering but, Greene seemed on assignment and her choice was NOT to show this footage. Within that same news broadcast, Greene shows footage of the so-called soldiers of Abu Mazen in uniform, with weapons. Greene, carrying water for Abu Mazen repeats what he is purported to be saying that: "I will disarm the Terrorists." Greene might have mentioned that Abu Mazen has invited the Hamas Terrorists to put on PLO uniforms and, therefore, would be safe under his umbrella, gifted to him by the Bush Administration. I hope that Lauren Greene's drift into smoothing over the egregious behavior of the Muslim Arab Palestinians is not FOX NEWS policy. If it is Greene herself (or her editor/producer) selecting to cover over Propaganda, then she is clearly dragging a great news station down to the CNN level when they fall into this trap also. You do know what happened to the CNN rating when they became spokesmen for the Arabist State Department and a President who is desperately apologizing to the Muslim world for daring to take on Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Trustfully, Lauren, you are better than being identified as another of those talking heads pretending that the Palestinians are merely poor victims. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

EGYPTIANS & PALESTINIANS MAKE A MOCKERY OF THEIR ACCORDS WITH ISRAEL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 14, 2005.

The Arab Muslims have broken every agreement they have ever made with the Israelis (or anyone else). That Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz believed that the Arab Muslim Palestinians and Egyptians would keep the agreements made on Gaza demonstrates that Israel is run by perfect fools and it's hard to be that perfect at anything. As for any protests by President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - don't hold your breath. The coup de grace will be when the Great Fool visits the United Nations and is made to bow at the orders of Bush and Rice. There he is, to make outrageous commitments on further withdrawals in order to appease the Arab Muslims and the Arab oil nations. The idea is for Sharon to make these public commitments without the authority of the Israeli people, the Israeli Knesset or even his own political party, the Likud. Since Sharon pays no attention to his own people, betraying them as before will be no problem for Sharon. Once he blabbers his commitment to further truncate the Jewish State of Israel, both the U.N. and the U.S. State Department will have him by his tongue. Expect a comic opera at the U.N. - only it will really be a tragi-comedy. This is called "Egyptians and Palestinians Make a Mockery of Their Accords with Israel." It's from today's DEBKAfile. The sights and scenes in Gaza Strip immediately after the Israeli troop pullback Monday, Sept 12, filled Israel's defense leaders with dread. Total loss of control was manifested by the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian border police, who stood by as tens of thousands of Palestinians indulged in a wild orgy of destruction, burning, looting and hurling themselves back and forth across the Gazan-Egyptian border unchecked. Long months of painstaking negotiations with Egypt, the Palestinians and the United States for coordination on post-evacuation security were trampled underfoot. IDF sources estimated Tuesday night, Sept 13, that in two days, about 20,000 Palestinians had flocked into Egyptian Sinai from the Gaza Strip -- most intending to stay there - and 3,000 Palestinians had crossed into the Gaza Strip. Not a single Palestinian security officer was visible on the horizon. Egyptian border police, deployed under a binding protocol with Israel to block the border to unauthorized traffic, obligingly helped infiltrators clamber over the wall marking the frontier. Many Palestinians were no doubt spontaneously celebrating a sense of freedom. But, according to DEBKAfile's military sources, this spontaneity was exploited if not generated by the Hamas and Jihad Islami terrorist groups. With the help of Egyptian troops, they used the tide of people to cover the illegal transfer from northern Sinai into the Gaza Strip of hundreds of terrorists with sidearms, Qassam missiles, long-range rockets, and anti-tank and ground-air missiles. Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz made desperate telephone calls. He started by berating Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian civil affairs ministers, with whom he spent hour after hour working on the coordinated stages of the Israeli withdrawal and security arrangements on the Gaza-Israel border thereafter. When his protest went unheeded - no Palestinian Authority police stepped in to stop the rampage - Mofaz phoned the departing US ambassador Dan Kurtzer, who s retiring in a few days. It was out of the question to call secretary of state Condoleezza Rice or the head of the US national security council, Stephen Hadley, who were instrumental in setting up the broken accords. No one wanted to spoil Prime minister Ariel Sharon's triumphal UN General Assembly appearance. Later in the afternoon, Mofaz put in a call to the Egyptian intelligence minister Omar Suleiman, another key player in getting the accords in place. DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report that Suleiman explained that his border police were unable to deploy along the Philadelphi border route in keeping with Cairo's commitment, because their guard posts were not ready. He also presented the Israeli minister with an unwelcome fait accompli: Egypt had decided to give the Palestinians another 96 hours of freedom to cross the open border - up until Saturday Sept 17. Mofaz was struck dumb. The entire edifice of agreements including a new military protocol between Israel and Egypt had been swept away overnight -- not just by the Palestinians, but by Cairo. He realized he had no guarantee that the guard posts would be standing by Saturday or that no more excuses would be offered for reneging on the protocol provisions. The next chapter unfolded Tuesday evening, when the Egyptians and the Palestinians came to their own arrangement for 2,400 Palestinian security police to be deployed along the Gaza-Egyptian border. These "crack troops" are the phantom army which Palestinian Authority when under pressure hauls out "to fight terrorists" and "impose law and order." This "army" becomes invisible when such emergencies arise or else it melts into the general fray. But the Egyptians are less worried by the arms traffic under their noses than the smuggling operation, which Israel has warned them the Palestinians are preparing behind their backs: to land terrorists and weapons from the sea along the shore south of the former Rafiah Yam up to Deir el Balakh's Date Beach. The Egyptians accordingly asked the Palestinian Authority to deploy two police battalions to guard the coast against smugglers' landings. Apart from the defense minister's futile phone calls, Israel has not interfered in the threatening situation developing hour by hour since its troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip. Nor has it drawn a line on the unraveling of all the agreements which made the withdrawal possible. Jerusalem has posted no ultimatum to the Palestinian Authority and Egypt to stand by their obligation to shut the border forthwith, or brought IDF armored forces into position for retaking control of the Philadelphi border enclave until the Egyptians keep their side of the bargain. The utter destruction wrought by Palestinian mobs and the total failure of the Palestinian Authority to save from vandals and looters - even the greenhouses and industrial center that would have provided 26,000 jobs for a needy populace, will make well-intentioned outside bodies think twice before offering development and reconstruction assistance. Bitter words were heard in Washington and Jerusalem Tuesday night against the deputation of Egyptian generals and officers, months in the Gaza Strip for the express task of controlling Palestinian excesses and boosting the forces of law and order. They too never lifted a finger to deliver on the many promises that issued from Jerusalem and Cairo of effective Egyptian security control of the Gaza Strip during and after Israel's withdrawal. In the barbaric climate that has descended on the Gaza Strip, Abu Mazen's vague pledge to soon start disarming armed groups is more hollow than ever. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

MEDIA BIAS CONTINUES Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, September 14, 2005.

CLICK HERE to send a letter to the editor of BBC, Knight Ridder, Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times. Please respond to their media bias. Unless you choose to edit the letter, it will read as follows: Letter to the Editor, Even after the Disengagement, the media finds a way to lambast Israel. There are no surprises here. BBC News, Knight Ridder, Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times successfully put their pro-Palestinian spin on the events after Israel destroyed 21 Israeli communities in Gush Katif and Northern Shamoron on the West Bank and is no longer a presence there. It proves again that israel can do no right and the Palestinians can do no wrong in the eyes of the biased media. Only hours after Israel completed its historic withdrawal from Gaza on Sunday, September 11th, Palestinian mobs desecrated Jewish settlements, burning synagogues to the ground and looting anything left untorched. Some media outlets tried to justify the sacrilege and even blame it on the Israelis.For example, BBC could be counted on to say, "Palestinians came streaming to the settlements, that caused them so much pain, to sight-see and to loot." They editorialized, "Israel stole 38 years from them; today many were ready to take back anything they could." Such comparable explanations were told by the other news outlets. Even the New York Times quoted PA leaders as claiming to journalists that Gaza is "still occupied" and remains part of the occupied Palestinian territory. The "occupation" charge against Israel continues and will probably grow to justify continued terrorism. The Palestinians cannot legitimately explain why innocent civilians must be intentionally murdered in terrorist attacks to justify their political cause. And certainly the media should not be complicit in justifying the use of barbaric terrorism against innocent bystanders. Their job is to report the news - not reinforce a political spin on it. 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!" To Go To Top

PA SOCIETY: DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL IS DESIRED AND ATTAINABLE GOAL Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, September 14, 2005.

Destroying Israel continues to be a desired and attainable goal candidly presented in Palestinian Authority discourse and education. The intensity of this hate message has increased on Palestinian Authority Television (PA TV) since Israel left Gush Katif in Gaza, as religious, political and educational leaders have encouraged Palestinians to perceive the events there as a first step towards Israel's destruction. Three PA TV programs stressed this goal last week. The first, a rebroadcast of a so-called "historical educational" program first aired in 2003, reiterated the PA teaching that Israel has no right to exist because all of Israel is "Palestine." Worse, it taught that Israel's continued existence is, by its very nature, a threat to the entire Arab world. The PA TV broadcast (available on the PMW website) showed a map of all of Israel marked as Palestine under the PLO flag, while the narrator taught that if Palestine is not "whole," meaning if Israel continues to exist, it is like a fatal knife thrust into the heart of the Arab nation, which threatens it in its entirety. The following are the words: "The countries of our [Arab] homeland also have a heart... "If the heart is whole and healthy, then all the other parts are whole and healthy. The heart of the Arab homeland is Palestine. The homeland remains whole and healthy if Palestine is whole and healthy... "A stab in the heart is a deathblow. "Throughout the generations of history there were those who directed the first stab at the heart of the Arab nation, to Palestine." [PA TV, September 6, 2005 and July 1, 2003] A Palestinian academic expressed the same anticipation of Israel's eventual destruction, describing the joy of the Gaza withdrawal as incomplete until Israel will be destroyed: "Nothing compares to this joy, the oppressed overcomes the oppressor. But our happiness will be complete only with the return of all of our lands - the [West] Bank, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Safed, and other stolen cities". [Dr. Ismaeil Al-Fara, lecturer at Al-Quds University, and director of the General Union for Disabled Palestinians in Khan Yunis, PA TV, September 2, 2005] PMW has been warning for years about the dangers of this PA indoctrination to see Israel's existence as illegitimate and temporary, especially among children. The results of this education were seen again this week as three children showed off their drawings of maps of "Palestine" on PA TV. All three children erased Israel's existence in their drawings while the maps were tied in barbed wire symbolizing "Palestine" as ensnared by Israel. These were some their explanations: Mahmoud Eid: "In this painting I wanted to emphasize the chains that the occupation puts on our people. I painted this map of Palestine, with the Palestinian flag to say to our people that Palestine is still Palestine, and that the Palestinians deserve it - not the Jews." Udai: "I painted the map so we will not forget our place on the map." Significantly, the children call all of Israel "Palestine" and all of Israel is said to be "the Occupation." These conclusions are not surprising - they are the direct result of ten years of PA education. PA schoolbooks - even those published last year - replace Israel with "Palestine" on all maps. In addition, the word "occupation" in the school books refers to all of Israel. For example: "Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948..." [National Education, sixth grade, p. 16, PA ministry of Education, 2000, translated by Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace] Palestinian Media Watch has reported on other examples of Palestinian children reflecting their education that Israel should be destroyed, thereby reflecting one of the central messages of their formal and informal education. One such example was a letter writing competition held by the PA Ministry of Education. The winner wrote of "returning" to Jaffa, a city in Israel. Read the bulletin here. Palestinian Media Watch finds it significant that PA TV would choose to air these programs the day before Israel withdrew its troops from Gaza. These programs reinforce the messages the PA educational system has been delivering for years - and teach Palestinian children to see the peace process as temporary and Israel's destruction as attainable and inevitable. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -- Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). PMW is based in Jerusalem. Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. To Go To Top

BURNING SYNAGOGUES ON GAZA Posted by Marcel Cousineau, September 14, 2005.

Just more evidence of the farce called peace that the media needs to cover up. The lie of peace continues and men of dishonor who follow in the steps of Neville Chamberlain lead us into an even greater holocaust. They have embraced lies and made a covenant with hell and death, and soon we will reap what the fools have sown. The Road Map which Israel has hitched her soul to will pay great dividens of death and destruction, and not a kilogram of peace. Yet Israel races forward to the abyss in a dance with those who are commited to her destruction. Israel cannot retaliate, will not retaliate, she has chose to become a slave in servitude to American interests and does not have permission to defend herself any longer. A nation of slaves once again who bow to the god of false peace on a far western shore. Sharon has run there to fill up on more delusion and lies. Contact Marcel Cousineau at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com or go to his website http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com/ To Go To Top

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY Posted by Rabbi Pesach Lerner, September 14, 2005.

Es Achai Anochei Mevakeish - My Brothers I Do Seek -- (Genesis 37:16) Dear Brothers and Sisters: Gaza has been evacuated. The residents of Gush Katif have been, for the most, forced out of their homes. Their possessions, perhaps, packed away. They are put onto buses and driven out of the beautiful communities they built and lived in for over 30 years. What is to happen to these more than 1700 families - more than 8000 men, women and children? Where did they sleep that first night, that first week, that first month? Where will they be housed a year from now, as plans are made and new communities built for the long-term? How will they earn a living? Where will their children go to school; and what about their medical and, possibly, psychological needs? The concerns and questions are endless. These people gave up their homes and communities, they need and deserve our support - our generous support. And they need it now. We all receive conflicting stories and incomplete reports. The mainstream media tell us that the families are being put up in fancy hotels, hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation is forthcoming, and that all children are in school. We are led to believe that, as efficiently as the army carried out the evacuation, the Sela Commission in charge of the evacuees, carried out its mission. The "right of center" media, however, tell a different story. The e-mails we all receive from our family and friends relate a different situation. As the Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, I participated on a conference call with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, of which NCYI is a member. We were briefed by Isaac Herzog, Minister of Housing for the Sharon government. He berated the "settlers" for not cooperating with the government. He claimed everything the "settlers" were doing was purely political. Herzog said that there were hundreds of acceptable options for short and long term housing that the "settlers" refused to accept and that everyone had ample food and medical coverage, courtesy of the government. He further stated that each family is receiving 50,000 shekel to assist them during this period. I attempted to ask a question, but too many of my "colleagues" on the conference call were busy congratulating Mr. Herzog for a job well done. I had to see for myself. The stories we at the National Council of Young Israel were hearing were so radically different from Mr. Herzog's report that something was wrong. Only if I could see for myself would I have the answers that I would need to respond to our membership; only if I reallyknew the facts could I challenge the media and/or the official Israeli government's story. I had previously been invited by Nefesh B'Nefesh to join them on their last summer flight of Jews making aliyah. This was their fourteenth flight since their inception; over 5,000 Jews have made aliyah because of their efforts. Nefesh B'Nefesh does tremendous work. I joined their flight and it was an incredible experience. We arrived in Israel on Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. By 10:00 a.m I was at Hertz Rent-A-Car near the King David Hotel in Jerusalem to start our pre-arranged visit to the many "new" communities where the former residents of Gush Katif now reside. I was joined by Shani Simkowitz of the L'Maan Achai organization who put the day's agenda together for us. L'Maan Achai - For My Brothers - is helping the evacuees with many of their needs. I was joined by Mrs. Esther Pollard, the wife of Jonathan Pollard, who was in Israel attending a Supreme Court hearing at which Jonathan's attorneys demanded a "Prisoner of Zion" status, from the government, for Jonathan. Also, with our group were "Grandma" Anita Tucker and an "expectant" Maayan Yadai, both of the former Netzach Chazani community (Maayan was guest speaker at NCYI's annual dinner in May. I had spent a Shabbat in Netzach Chazani before the Pesach holiday); Jon and Ada Hambourger of www.saveGushKatif.org who are based in California; and reporters from various print and radio media. I came with an open mind to see and to listen, to interact, and then, to hopefully react. Referring to Mr. Herzog's claim that everyone was receiving 50,000 shekel, I asked Anita Tucker if she or anyone she knew received any monies from the government. Her answer was an emphatic "NO". She received nothing and she knew of no one who did. She explained that most of her community is now unemployed. They are based in Hispin in the Golan where the weather is cold - none of them owned any winter clothing and they have no funds to even buy shoes for their children, who have only sandals. And where did they sleep the night they were removed from their homes? The first night they slept at the Kotel; that Shabbat, as guests of Yeshivat Hakotel; the next week, at a Tent City in North Tel Aviv. They were promised lodging at the Shoresh Hotel outside of Jerusalem, but the hotel could only accommodate them for one week, after which they would need to move again. A concerned Jew - not the government - offered them space in his motel in the Golan, and that is where they are now, without government assistance and without any answers. Our first stop was in the Tent City of Ir Emunah (City of Faith) that was set up at an unused industrial site near Netivot. These families represent over half (50 of 90 families) of the former community of Atzmona, The other half are spread out all over the country. The people of Atzmona want to stay together as a community; the government gave them no such option. Hence, they live in tents, small and obviously uncomfortable, cold, etc. They are "building" makeshift classrooms to educate their 180 children in grades 1-8. In Atzmona, their school had over 500 students. They are spending - from the leftover Atzmona Council funds, their private funds, borrowed money, etc. - over $40,000 per month, to rent the tents which, ordinarily, are used for weddings and other joyous special events. The generators cost them over $1,000 a day and families pay for their own food. Not only do they not receive any funds from the government, but the community was issued a warning to leave the area because it is zoned for industry - not residential. The next day, when I met with former Minister Natan Sharansky, he confirmed the story. It was he, as Minister, who built that industrial zone. I later learned, from inside contacts, that there were behind-the-scenes discussions taking place that would change the zoning to allow the community to stay. More families are expected to join them, and, as a community, to move to the Negev. I must tell you, their spirit is strong. Their commitment to the Land of Israel is real. I felt honored to meet them. Yet, their daily requirements are many and they need our help. They did not ask for it; we should be proud to partner with them in their time of need. From Ir Emunah we traveled to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai which generously offered space - to another Tent City - to the former community of Alei Sinai (those that went up from the Sinai). These families came to Gush Katif from Yamit. This is the second time they were removed from their homes. They, too, receive no funding from the government. The members of the kibbutz have been most hospitable, but it still costs $50,000 a month to maintain - to maintain tents, generators, the synagogue, food, diapers, etc. When I asked how I could help, they were embarrassed. "We are not charity cases; we don't want to be here; we didn't come of our own free will." But they do need our assistance. And let us discuss, for a moment, the compensation that the government says they are giving. $300,000 perhaps? What the government is not telling us is that they will deduct from that sum the mortgages many of the evacuees still have to pay on the houses that were destroyed, the cost of the movers, the containers, the storage rentals that must be paid for, the cost of the hotels, the temporary housing, etc. And over 65% of Gush Katif is unemployed, many are too old to be retrained or to start again. How much money will they be left with? And then, they will need to buy an apartment or a home, somewhere. All I see is a negative net value. And if a young family lived in Gush Katif for less than three years, and there are many of them, they will receive even less. These citizens of Israel were forcibly removed from their homes and communities, and they have to pay for everything associated with it. We then went on to Nitzan, the "caravan" community of 270 families with about 180 more expected. Many of these families moved out of Gush Katif before the final days of the disengagement. Most of these families went from a home of 250 square meters to 90 square meters, a small bungalow of two bedrooms, a bathroom and one area serving as a kitchen, dining room, living room. Their rent is $450 per month to be deducted from any compensation they are to eventually receive. The government "built" this makeshift community without any synagogue, mikveh or any school. When I asked our hosts how they can be so upbeat, they responded: "We choose to smile; we look ahead. They took our homes, but they cannot take our will, our spirit, our vision, our community." And they, too, have daily needs: religious, educational and social, for children and adults; they need jobs, they need counseling. They need a library, games, a portable but efficient sound system so their "community" can still operate, and so much more. Our next stop, already late in the day, is at Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion where many families of the former Shirat HaYam are being housed, in Yeshiva dormitories. Yes, they did first go to a government "Coordinated Hotel". But when they arrived, they discovered the hotel was no longer in use, had no linen or toiletries and was infested with rats. They still pay "kupat cholim" for their health insurance. The Yeshiva is sponsoring their food (the government is supposed to reimburse the Yeshiva, but the first payment is already past due). The families, often with many children, are living in a dormitory unit built for 2-3 students. And the families feel guilty; they are necessitating the students to double up in the other dormitory. I am told their lives have no "seder", no order. They are like a newborn baby; they must start anew. They worry about future job opportunities, about clothing needs for the upcoming winter and, of course, about where they are going to live. I inquire if the government is doing anything to assist them with finding a new job. Yes, I am told. The government opened up a job placement office in Ashkelon. The unemployment rate in Ashkelon is already over 16%. Individuals from Gush Katif go to inquire about jobs. To date, there has been no success in the job search. Our last stop for the evening is in Ariel where the college is hosting the residents of Netzarim, again in the student dormitories. They receive no funding for food, health, religious teachers for their students, etc. There are numerous Netzarim members who are teachers by profession. They now teach in the makeshift schools. There are 85 families, 600 individuals and the Nitzarim Yeshiva, currently in Ariel. It sounds so gloomy but I have never met so many individuals with so much faith. They look forward, not back. Yes, many are depressed, but even they say, "we will overcome." And they tell me about the "Jewish People". In Ariel, each Netzarim family was adopted by an Ariel family. In Ir Emunah, Jews from all over came to help, to bring food and clothing. At Yad Mordechai, families open their homes so the "settlers" can shower, wash their clothing. In the hotels in Jerusalem, Bnei Akiva (my niece among them) volunteer hours and hours to babysit, lead groups and keep the children occupied. I met with Rabbi Yonah Metzger, Chief Rabbi of Israel. I met with Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky, Chief Rabbi of Gush Katif. He is "living" at the "Gates of Jerusalem" Hotel near the central bus station. He is convening and coordinating a central committee representing all the communities to care for the many needs of Gush Katif. I met with Dror Vanunu, Director of the Katif Fund, who just months ago, in Gush Katif, made a Chanukat Habayit, a house welcoming party, for his new house. I met with Dr. David Ansbacher of the Paamonim relief organization. I met with an advisor of President Moshe Katsav, with former Rabbis of Gush Katif communities and with former residents of those communities. Friends, more than is written here needs to be said, but even more needs to be done. "My brothers, I do seek". - First of all, we must continue to educate ourselves to what really is going on. We cannot accept the official briefings being given to us. Read the proper papers, scan the websites for up to date information, keep in touch, daily, with family and friends in Israel, and continue to ask questions. Challenge the media, Israel government officials, etc. Perhaps, our questions, challenges, etc. will cause the Israeli government to do the right thing - to treat these families with respect, respond to their needs, supply them with proper housing, food, medical and education for their kids. The adults need jobs, training, etc. You can make the difference. - Go and see for yourselves. Organize emergency missions of key rabbis and lay leaders. Take the "tour" that I did. (Call us at NCYI to help organize your contacts.) I learned that the only way to really know the truth is to see it for yourself. - Partner with a family, a school, a community. Talk with them daily. Hear and feel their story. Assist them with their needs. Treat them as you would your own siblings if they were in a similar situation. Call us at NCYI for assistance in such an endeavor. - Organize shul and community appeals. Much money is needed in the short and long term, for such basic needs as food and clothing, for medical and psychological attention, for "housing" (tents or otherwise), for generators, school supplies, job training, etc. We have no desire to take over the government's responsibility, but, we do need to assist our brothers and sisters to maintain themselves during these difficult times. These people gave up their homes and communities, they need and deserve our support - our generous support. And they need it now. NCYI is in daily contact with the leadership of the Gush Katif community. All funds given to the NCYI Gush Katif Fund will go directly to the immediate needs of these families and communities. Please send your contributions to Gush Katif Fund, NCYI, 3 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011. These people are heroes. We can never forget them. Thank you. Rabbi Pesach Lerner Executive Vice President National Council of Young Israel 3 West 16th Street New York, NY 10011 plerner@youngisrael.org 212-929-1525 ext. 115 Rabbi Pesach Lerner is executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel. Contact him at plerner@YoungIsrael.org To Go To Top

ASSESSMENT OF ISRAEL; UNSTABLE ARABIA GETS US ARMS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 14, 2005.

ASSESSMENT OF ISRAEL Although my former associate recognizes the politically hard times that Israel is going through, he does not give up on Israel. He thinks that God is in Israel's corner and the Arabs usually foul up. He does not take into account how often the children of Israel have been persecuted and how often Israel fouls up. He cites as evidence the recent, terrible hurricane, coming right after Pres. Bush demanded that Israel give away part of the Promised Land, and Israel did. Now America is suffering, its economy is greatly weakened, Bush is coming under much criticism for having been inactive at first, and US foreign policy cannot be maintained the same. How unfortunate if the little the US is doing against terrorism can no longer be afforded! How unjust of a deity to punish the whole country for the sins of its ruling class! Why not a little bolt of lightning at the offending parties? A specific administration of divine justice would be less subject to misinterpretation. Isn't that the object of it, to be instructive as well as punitive? Being punitive without being instructive fails to teach the lesson of justice. The Arabs did foul up before. These days, however, I find Hamas and Fatah analyzing events and their past mistakes impressively. By contrast, the Israeli elite don't admit their blunders, they repeat them. I think that the Arabs are wiser than the Jews, now. So the Arabs don't win Nobel prizes and Jews do. But the Arabs win diplomatic victories and the Jews aren't intelligent enough to realize it or at least to realize why and how. Some Israeli Prime Ministers stood up to the US, and stood firm. The contemporary batch, from Rabin to the incumbent, yields to pressure. They have other motives, too, none admirable. They also are too conceited to make long-range plans and to do so in a group effort. Each agreement holds unpleasant surprises for them. Sharon has become so reckless, that Netanyahu would be an improvement. Netanyahu, however, failed as a Prime Minister, and has his nerve to run again. Unable to learn from failure, he still believes in appeasement. Israelis do not unite under a decent leader. The problem with these Israeli leaders, my associate explains, is that they are secular. Were they religious, they would, as a matter of principle, not cede part of the Promised Land. Instead, they think of the Land as real estate, and if they yield some, they would get peace or defensible borders. I replied that if they wanted defensible borders, then they would not yield territory. As he knew, the US Chiefs of Staff had recommended that Israel keep the Territories, in order to have defensible borders. The Israeli leaders, even if they were military men, and some of them were incompetent at that, have no understanding of long-range strategy, of the Arab enemy, and of the US pretended friend. Those babes in the wood seek their own self-aggrandizement. Some of the leading rabbis march with folly, too. Asked whether it is permitted to give away part of the Land of Israel, they replied that since the gift would be in exchange for a peace agreement, it would save lives, more important than the Land. But it brings war and takes lives. Keeping the Land saves lives, too, by providing defensible borders. Eventually, they learned. As for the Arabs, Hamas has been letting the P.A. do its dirty work, i.e., make agreements with the infidels that roll back Israeli defenses. Then it would take over, being more popular and disciplined than the P.A. forces and Fatah. It may move before it is ready, for its impatience is growing. If Hamas took over, it would be embarrassing for the US to demand that Israel turn territory over to a group that the US has labeled as terrorist. Of course, the P.A. is terrorist, too. My associate would like Israel to bar from mosque preaching and from Israeli residency Arabs who preach hatred and violence. He would not recognize as a religion a war society based on violent struggle for dominance. That is an interesting way to put it. Makes sense for the US, too. THE MEANING OF THE HURRICANE "Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the U.S. Gulf coast this week, has incited a storm of enthusiasm among Islamist bloggers who claim the destruction was sent by God to torment the American empire." "Web sites published dozens of photos showing crumbled buildings, overturned cars, flooded streets, devastated oil refineries, residents wading through muck and water and U.S. flags ripped to shreds by the hurricane that wreaked havoc in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The pictures should 'serve as a lesson,' one blogger said. 'In spite of being a superpower and of its technological development, America was unable to cope with the power of the Almighty,' the writer said." "A Kuwaiti Arabic-language newspaper published similar comments by the director of the Kuwaiti ministry of endowment's research center, Mohammad Yussef al-Mlaifi." "Amid all the criticism, at least one blogger spoke out in defense of the victims, saying he was 'exasperated at the rejoicing over the misfortunes of Americans.' 'Certainly, the leaders of the United States have oppressed many peoples, but the citizen... is in no way guilty.'" Syria expressed condolences for the victims of the hurricane (IMRA, 9/6). Some Americans agonize over the accidental and now incidental casualties of the war in Iraq (compared to the mass-bombing casualties of earlier wars). Would they still think that radical Islam is not in a war against our country and civilization, if they knew that such Muslims rejoice over our tragedy? The Muslim reaction also is primitively anthropocentric and conceited. We have had other hurricanes, but this one was not properly prepared for. Government is inefficient. ISRAELI LACK OF SECURITY IN ABANDONED AREAS British observers may monitor the Gaza-Egypt line. Israel has no idea what their responsibilities and powers are. Would they STOP terrorists? Would they REPORT terrorists? Or would they just COUNT terrorists? Israel does not know. This is another of many examples of Israel making agreements on national security without determining what their effect. It has had bad experience with Britain, before. (Britain lets the terrorists it guards in Jericho direct attacks on Israel.) Israel stated that it would send its forces into the abandoned areas of northern Samaria only if its intelligence service reported that an attack on Israel was planned to emanate from there (IMRA, 9/7). Without a presence and settlements, it is difficult for the intelligence service and for the IDF to operate efficiently. ANOTHER ONE-WAY EXCHANGE Israel turned over to Lebanon a terrorist killed after infiltrating into Israel and a Lebanese convict whom Israel also convicted, of rape, drug possession, and blackmail. The government of Lebanon appealed for the pair through the Red Cross. Israel got nothing in return (IMRA, 9/7). When terrorists capture a few Israelis, Israel returns hundreds of terrorists to them in exchange even for dead bodies, which encourages the Arabs to murder prisoners. Half the terrorists return to terrorism, killing more Israelis. The exchange is uneven and counter-productive. No doubt it breeds mirthful contempt among the Arabs. I think that Israel should act much more punitively. U.S. SIDEWINDER MISSILES TO S. ARABIA (IMRA, 9/8.) S. Arabia has disloyal forces and instability. It should not acquire such deadly weapons that can be turned on the US. Nor should Israel's Arab enemies possess them. LATEST ISRAELI APPEASEMENT FAILED (First, Sharon claimed that if Israel abandoned Gaza, it would gain credits toward retaining major Jewish population centers in Judea-Samaria. Immediately after abandonment, the US denied his contention. Then) Sharon claimed that if Israel abandoned Gaza, and Arabs fired rockets at Israel from there, Israel would respond harshly, at least with mortar fire. The Europeans also waited for Israel to abandon Gaza, before responding. Now they deny that Israel no longer occupies Gaza, because it still retains control over the airspace there and because they consider Gaza and Judea-Samaria a single Palestinian Arab entity. They also say they would react firmly to what they might consider excessive Israeli response. It would depend on the number of innocent people killed. Neither do they agree with the Israeli contention that under the Road Map, first the P.A. must eradicate terrorism, before Israel makes further concessions. The US concurs. A European diplomat stated outright that only the Israelis believe the Israeli contentions (IMRA, 9/8). What innocent people in an Arab area devoted collectively to jihad? Well of course only the Israelis believe the Israeli contentions. Europe and the US do not care about eradicating terrorism against Israel. For various motives, they don't care what happens to Israel. The Jewish state should realize there is a certain prejudice against it. It deceives itself, or really, its leaders sell out and deceive its people about what the rest of the world would approve. Israel needs leaders who do not accept foreign dictation, generally hostile. Notice that the Europeans and the US waited for Israel to abandon the territory, before openly rejecting the Israeli rationale for that abandonment. It is Western duplicity, on top of Sharon's. SYRIANS RAID TERRORIST GROUP Reporting from Syria, the Syrian News Agency (who else reports from Syria?) described a raid by anti-terrorist government forces upon a house invested by an unarmed terrorist group, which it did not identify. The troops and the unarmed terrorists exchanged gunfire (IMRA, 9/8). How remarkable to be unarmed and discharge firearms! Why was the terrorist group not named? Is it really a terrorist group? CHAOS IN THE P.A. Arab gunmen have attacked not only rivals but also P.A. judges and security officials and even Red Cross and UN agencies devoted to their people. Civilians are caught in the crossfire. The gunmen threaten lawyers and judges. The chaos allegedly was started by Israeli destruction of P.A. police facilities, claims a Lebanese paper (IMRA, 9/8). If true, why not go back further, to when the P.A. police started a war against Israel? WHY THE RETREAT & WHY IS SHARON DESTROYING SYNAGOGUES? If Sharon had left the Gaza synagogues standing, in accordance with Jewish law, the shame of destroying them would fall upon the Arab mobs instead of on him. Why is he determined to destroy them? Because once he said he would, he will, no matter the consequences he later discovers. He won't admit to mistakes. It is the same with the abandonment of the whole area. Even though the underlying rationale for it had collapsed, he continued its pursuit, because he sticks with his decisions (IMRA, 9/8). And the U.S. sticks with its pressuring of 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. To Go To Top

THE SECOND DRAFT TAKES ON "PALLYWOOD" Posted by The Second Draft, September 14, 2005.

The Second Draft website is devoted to exploring the problems and issues that plague modern journalism. In this age of globalization, the media has unprecedented influence on the way we see the world. And yet, whether out of misplaced good intentions, unconscious agendas and predispositions, or unwarranted faith in false information, they can get the story dramatically wrong. Therefore, we want to revisit and critique journalism's "first draft of history", and hopefully produce a more accurate second one. In our current investigations we present the story the way the mainstream media initially told it, introduce further evidence, and let you decide what you think really happened. We have designed an interactive site. We have talk-backs and a forum so that you have the option to engage in a larger web discussion as well as respond to specific pages or articles. We also welcome your submissions for future investigations. We encourage you to explore this site. Our hope is that, even if you do not agree with our conclusions, you will begin to think more critically and independently about the media in the future. The Second Draft: Historians Look at Journalism is at http://www.seconddraft.org. Contact Pedro Zuquete at pz.seconddraft@gmail.com or at 617-869-1261 The Second Draft Takes on "Pallywood" What do you do when you can't trust public information in the mainstream media (MSM)? Critical minds have increasingly come to mistrust our MSM (or, as some call it with a nod to Chomsky, M$M). We begin to feel the kind of "information vertigo" one normally associates with totalitarian societies. We offer a refuge from this information vertigo: The Second Draft: Historians Look at Journalism. Here we take a close look at some of Journalism's "first drafts of history." On September 14, 2005, The Second Draft opens with a dossier on "Pallywood" and a five-year retrospective on the way the MSM presented the "Al Aqsa Intifada" (October 2000). Of course the MSM is not the only problem. If the internet has taught us anything, it's that you don't need Big Brother to get brainwashed. People do it to themselves, by going to the sites that only tell them what they want to hear. That's the function of the MSM. To stay impartial, unbiased, to act as the gatekeepers of a public discussion that filters out false information, paranoid conspiracy theories, and hate-mongering. We need the MSM. They are the eyes and ears of civil society. But in the one case that we at The Second Draft know well - Pallywood - the MSM have shown exceptionally poor judgment, credulous at best, dishonest at worst. The raw footage from September 30, 2000 shot at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip shows us male youth faking scenes of conflict and injury (especially ambulance evacuations), filmed by Palestinian cameramen with Western equipment. The footage then goes to MSM news agencies where, stringing together the most believable sight-bytes, our reporters present these scenes as news. Viewing this footage we present you here, taken on a day when the world was told the most harrowing of tales of wanton violence, is literally surreal. How often our media are this sloppy, we don't know. But we do know that these things must be confronted, however great MSM's reluctance to self-criticize. The Second Draft, offers you your own look at the evidence, our take, and an invitation to a much larger discussion about What are the problems that led to this failure? What were its consequences, if any? How often do such fiascos occur? and How can our MSM avoid them in the future? For more information, go to: http://seconddraft.org Come, see the film, make up your own mind, and then let's talk. To Go To Top

MORE APPEASEMENT AND CAPITULATION Posted by Naomi Ragen, September 14, 2005.

"Delight in smooth-sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts, desire for popularity and electoral success irrespective of the vital interests of the State, genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation, obvious lack of intellectual vigour....the strong and violent pacifism which at this time dominated the Labour-Socialist party, the utter devotion of the Liberal to sentiment apart from reality....fatuity and fecklessness which, though devoid of guile, was not devoid of guilt, and, though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries which, even so far as they have unfolded, are already beyond comparison in human experience." Sound like a good description of what's going on now? It was written by Winston Churchill in his book The Gathering Storm and refers to the eve of WW II. Below, more signs of appeasement and capitulation, from the adoption of a "crescent" to memorialize Flight 93 (the one heading for D.C. that passengers stopped with their lives in Pennsylvania (I'm not making this up.) to our British friends, who apparently, haven't changed very much since the description above. Every blessing, Naomi (From http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=21) You read that right. The National Memorial for Flight 93 in the fields of Pennsylvania will memorialize the hijackers, not the brave passengers who fought the hijackers and prevented from crashing the plane into the White House. The winning design, chosen from 1,011 entries, will be built in that pasture in Pennsylvania where those heroes died. The memorial is called "The Crescent of Embrace". Is America rolling over already? And what is happening in the UK? After the 7/7 bombing, the government announced that it was going to prosecute radical Islamists and deport imams who gave incendiary calls to jihad against the infidels. Right. 1) Within the last few days, the British government announced the formation of a Home Office Task Force to "tackle extremism" that will include Inavat Bunglawala, an avowed Bin Laden "freedom fighter" and anti-Semite who reveres Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (the blind sheikh behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing), Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, who praised jihadists attacking American and Israeli forces and who has been banned from France (!) and the United States, and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), who is on a U.S. watch list for alleged associations with terrorists. 2) Although 100's of radical Islamists reside in the UK, Scotland Yard attempted to seize a former senior IDF officer at Heathrow Airport for "war crimes in occupied Palestinian lands" after a British judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Retired Major General Almog was accused of home demolition, an IDF tactic against known terrorists following a suicide bombing in Israel. Almog remained on his incoming flight and returned to Israel to avoid capture by the British authorities. 3) Blair-appointed advisers recommended the scraping of the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims. They suggested that the day be replaced with a Genocide day that would recognize the mass murder of Muslims in "Palestine," Chechnya and Bosnia as well as people of other faiths. Get the picture? 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. To Go To Top

HEZBOLLAH HAS NO INTENTION OF DISARMING Posted by Dr. Reuven Erlich, September 13, 2005.

Hezbollah has no intention to disarm: in a TV interview, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah once again expressed the organization's refusal to disarm, as stipulated in the Taif Accord (1989) and UN Security Council Resolution 1559. Nasrallah described his fundamental (familiar) position that Hezbollah needs its weapons to "protect" Lebanon from Israel's "aggression" by assisting the Lebanese army. The refusal was made under the cover of a seemingly positive, moderate approach. Hassan Nasrallah: the Lebanese army and the "resistance" (i.e., Hezbollah) are those that protect Lebanon (Al-Arabiyya Television, September 2, 2005). This notion is completely contrary to UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for complete "disbanding and disarmament" of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias (i.e., Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist organizations) and views the Lebanese government as the sole sovereign throughout the entire Lebanese territory. Hassan Nasrallah on Hezbollah's disarmament In an interview granted to the Al-Arabiyya TV channel (September 2, 2005), Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addressed a series of current issues on the internal Lebanese scene, including the international community's demand from the Lebanese government to disarm the organization (according to UN Security Council Resolution 1559, dated September 2, 2004[1]). What follows are the main points brought up by Nasrallah on the issue of the organization's disarmament: Hezbollah holds on to its weapons ("the weapons of resistance") based on its fundamental position that the organization needs the weapons to protect itself from Israel's continuing aggression: "The resistance is a reaction to the aggression; when the aggression ceases, so will the reaction." Hezbollah is willing to hold a dialogue, or rather a debate,[2] with the international community over this fundamental position. When asked whether he would be willing to receive guarantees from the US that Israel would withdraw from the Shab'a Farms and not attack Lebanon (implying that in return, Hezbollah would disarm), Nasrallah responded in the negative. He claimed American guarantees could not be trusted since the US had proved time and again its support of Israel. The international community did nothing to liberate the land of Lebanon. The international community does not possess the capability to handle "threats" on Lebanon and therefore there is no use in international guarantees for Lebanon's security. In the interview, Nasrallah detailed the nature of the threats and problems that still remain, in his view, between Lebanon and Israel: the occupation of the Shab'a Farms by Israel, the penetration of Israeli aircraft into Lebanese airspace, the unfairness toward Lebanon in the Wazzani springs dispute, the issue of the Lebanese terrorists held captive in Israel. The existence of the "resistance" (i.e., the Hezbollah terrorist organization) is the guarantee for liberating Lebanese territory that remains occupied and deterring Israel from attacking Lebanon. Nasrallah claims that Lebanon's army is weak and unable to protect Lebanon, and therefore it needs the assistance of the "resistance" (i.e., Hezbollah). Nasrallah's formula for defending Lebanon is "the [Lebanese] army plus the resistance [Hezbollah]". According to Nasrallah, this is the one and only formula that may preserve Lebanon's security ("give me another formula that protects Lebanon "). According to him, however, this does not mean that Hezbollah replaces the Lebanese government: Hezbollah does not meddle in Lebanon's internal affairs, it does not have authority in South Lebanon nor anywhere else in Lebanon, and it is not an alternative for the Lebanese government. According to Nasrallah, Hezbollah keeps a low profile: the "resistance" is "not public, not extravagant. It is a covert, withdrawn resistance, hidden and defensive." Summary and assessment Nasrallah's interview clearly shows that Hezbollah remains firm in its refusal to disarm, justifying it by the familiar claims of the need for protection from Israel and deterring Israel from attacking Lebanon<.[3] Nasrallah obscures Hezbollah's refusal to disarm with a vague cover of "responsibility" and "moderation": his willingness to hold a dialogue, or rather a debate, with the international community on the need to keep the "resistance" and its weapons (and on the same occasion, obviously, to gain international legitimacy), his emphasis that the organization makes sure to keep a low profile of its forces on the ground, raising the (false) claim that his organization is not a threat to the Lebanese government, not even in South Lebanon, and that it does not intend to impede on Lebanon's sovereignty. Nasrallah's central claim that the arms held by the organization are used for protection from Israel is anything but new and was brought up in the public debate held in recent months in Lebanon over disarming Hezbollah. In the course of the extensive debate on this issue, that was somewhat pushed aside in favor of the disengagement, Nasrallah once again expressed his objection to disarm Hezbollah. He put forth the claim that UN Security Council Resolution 1559 was not relevant to the organization since Hezbollah was not an armed militia. UN Security Council Resolution 1559 is, according to Hezbollah, nothing but foreign meddling in Lebanon's affairs that takes place with Israel's encouragement. The façade of "responsibility" and "moderation" Nasrallah attempts to assume is a result, in our assessment, of the coming publication of the Mehlis Committee report conclusions on the murder of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Hezbollah organization anxiously follows the progress of the investigation committee and considers it yet another expression of the deepening outside intervention in Lebanon's internal affairs. In our assessment, Hezbollah fears that on "the day after", even if the conclusions of the committee do not lay the blame at the organization's door, they might serve its domestic as well as foreign opponents to increase the pressure to disarm. Therefore, even now Hezbollah attempts to present its standpoint on the issue as part of the campaign to hold on to its arms, which the organization intends to wage against its opponents. Foot Notes 1 The Taif Accord, dated November 22, 1989, includes a clause stipulating the disbanding and disarmament of all the Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, and reinforcing the Lebanese security forces. See Information Bulletin titled: "A comparison of the main points of the Taif Accord and those of Resolution 1559 shows that in principle there are no significant differences between the two documents" (March 2005, http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/3_05/taif_e.htm). 2 Originally: "Holding on to our arms is not a result of fanaticism... or impulsiveness... it is a result of vision and perception. We say to the entire world: we are ready for a dialogue, come hold a debate with us on this vision and this perception." 3 Nasrallah's verbal acrobatics may mislead commentators on Hezbollah's true intentions. Thus, for example, in the opening paragraph of an editorial published in Israeli daily Haaretz titled "Movement in Syria and Lebanon", it was stated: - Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivered a surprise this weekend when he declared that his organization would agree to disarm if it received guarantees of security in Lebanon from an international party (other than the United States). Although it conditioned its disarmament on the end of Israel's occupation of "Lebanese territory," that is, the Shab'a Farms, this is the first time that Nasrallah has made such a declaration -- (Haaretz, September 5, 2005). When asked to comment, a Hezbollah spokesman dismissed the Haaretz article as "just someone's opinion" (Daily Star, Lebanon, September 6, 2005). Dr. Reuven Erlich is Director of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S) Contact him at info@intelligence.org.il To Go To Top

REMINDER: ISRAEL LOBBY DAY, 9/21/05!!!!!! Posted by Richard A. Hellman, September 13, 2005.

Richard Anthony Hellman Esq. President of CIPAC, The Biblically Based Registered Lobby for Israel, Invites All Christians, Jews And Other Supporters of Israel To Attend A U.S. 0 Israel Advocacy Day To Explore A New U.S.- Israel Vision For a New Era Wednesday, September 21, 2005 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. On Capitol Hill, Washington, DC Please RSVP at rahellman@cipaconline.org; fax (202) 332-3221, tel. (202) 234-3600 or mail to 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20004. We will help schedule meeting times with your representatives and senators or their staff. *Join us in Room RHOB 2356 for assignments and to report results anytime 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. Then plan to attend the Gala Israel Celebration to honor Representative Trent Franks (R-2nd, AZ) and other key supporters of Israel, with light kosher refreshments, 4:00 -- 6:00 p.m., RHOB 2237. Your participation and support are appreciated!! Please circulate the following announcement to everyone on your pro-Israel lists. To Go To Top

GAZANS LOOT GREENHOUSES AS PA POLICE TRY TO IMPOSE ORDER Posted by Avodah 15, September 13, 2005.

This news item appeared today on the Jerusalem Post. It is from the Associated Press, and it is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1126578003516&p=1101615860782 Palestinian police on Tuesday blocked off abandoned settlements and chased after scavengers in a first attempt to impose law and order after chaotic celebrations of Israel's pullout from Gaza, but the overwhelmed forces were unable to halt looting of the area's prized greenhouses. Egyptian guards, meanwhile, failed for a second straight day to control a rush across the Gaza-Egypt border, which was a formidable barrier when still patrolled by Israel. With the Israelis gone, Gazans dug under walls and climbed over barriers to get to Egypt where they stocked up on cheap cigarettes, medication and cheese. The chaos raised new questions about the Palestinian forces' ability to impose order in Gaza. The greenhouses, left behind by Israel as part of a deal brokered by international mediators, are a centerpiece of Palestinian plans for rebuilding Gaza after 38 years of Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority hopes the high-tech greenhouses will provide jobs and export income for Gaza's shattered economy. During a tour of Neveh Dekalim, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei implored Palestinians to leave the structures intact, even as people scavenged through debris elsewhere in the settlement. "These greenhouses are for the Palestinian people," he said. "We don't want anyone to touch or harm anything that can be useful for our people." Just minutes away, crowds of looters in the Gadid settlement overwhelmed hundreds of guards trying to protect the greenhouses. Guards acknowledged that in many cases, they were unable to stop the looting. "They are taking plastic sheeting, they are taking hoses, they are taking anything they can get their hands on," said Hamza Judeh, a Palestinian policeman. He said about 80 percent of the greenhouses were still intact, but looters walked off with lighting fixtures, cables and wires. Many were undeterred by the police presence. Police said one man dropped his loot only after he was beaten by security forces. Israel withdrew the last of its troops from Gaza early Monday, handing control of the coastal strip to the Palestinians. Celebrations frequently spun out of control, with Palestinians setting fire to debris and the few remaining buildings in empty settlements, and thousands of people rushing back and forth across the Egyptian border. In an attempt to restore order, police early Tuesday banned cars from entering Neveh Dekalim, once the largest Gaza settlement, and cordoned off the empty synagogue there, which had been set on fire a day earlier. Club-wielding police chased kids and urged people to stop scavenging through debris left behind by the Israelis. "This is not right, and we are going to stop them from doing it," policeman Shafik Omran said as he looked at a man digging through a pile of garbage. Despite the police efforts, Neveh Dekalim was turned into a buzzing bazaar, with people haggling over bricks, scrap metal and other building materials they had collected. Similar scenes played out in other settlements. Mohammed Abu Shab, 16, and his friend, Jihad al-Daghma, 15, skipped school in the nearby town of Khan Younis in hopes of making a little money. The boys dangled off the side of Neve Dekalim's former Jewish seminary, using a hammer and wirecutter to collect old wires and electrical equipment from the two-story structure. "We'll go to school tomorrow. It's the withdrawal. It's not time for studying," Abu Shab said. Electrical cables were selling for about 15 shekels ($3.50, 3), copper was getting 10 shekels ($2.50, 2) a kilo (2.2 pounds) and bricks were going for about five shekels ($1, 80 European cents) a piece. One man neatly loaded a large pile of bricks onto a donkey cart. The chaos after the Israeli pullout raised concerns about the ability of Palestinian security forces' ability to control Gaza, which has experienced growing lawlessness in recent months. Some of the worst unrest was in Rafah, a southern desert town along the Egyptian border. Hundreds of Palestinians poured back and forth across the border to reunite with long-lost relatives or buy cheeses and cigarettes. Egyptian forces on Monday fatally shot a Palestinian during the mad rush, witnesses said. Israel had hesitated leaving the border area, concerned over possible weapons smuggling. It agreed only after the Egyptian government promised to deploy 750 troops on the frontier to stop the smuggling. Egypt said it was allowing the Palestinians to celebrate, but promised to tighten border security. However, Palestinians continued to cross the border on Tuesday, climbing over a wall and digging tunnels under it. Egyptian border guards were trying to restore order, but there were too many people to control. Contact the writer at avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

LOCAL CITIZEN RESPONSE DURING A CRISIS: JEWISH LEADERS NEED TO LEAD Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, September 13, 2005.

The tragic events following Hurricane Katrina continue to command our national attention--understandably so. At the same time we must not lose sight of other immense dangers still facing our nation. There also needs to be an evaluation of the role of American Jewish leaders in responding to these ongoing dangers. History offers important lessons that need to be learned. Unfortunately, it is too often the case that, "what we learn from history is that we do not learn from history." After 9/11 we discovered that many prior warnings were unheeded, overlooked, and underestimated. And, astonishingly, none of our high officials who bungled their responsibilities were relieved of their positions. Some lower level whistleblowers, in attempting to do their patriotic duty, found themselves in trouble for embarrassing their superiors. After 9/11 the Office of Homeland Security was created and generously funded. We were told that we were now prepared for a variety of emergencies. Four years later, Hurricane Katrina struck. Again we are discovering that warnings were issued during the past decade. Those warnings went unheeded and we were unprepared to act in time. We recovered from 9/11 but at a high price. We can expect to recover from Hurricane Katrina, too, but we will pay another high price. But now we could be facing the greatest danger of all, from which recovery may not be possible. A long series of reports have been warning about a possible nuclear attack inside America by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. These reports warn of the coming together of critical elements which would comprise an immense threat. These elements include: al-Qaeda's acquiring a supply of nuclear weapons; their being able to smuggle them into America ; their inserting trained sleeper agents into America ; their ability to detonate those weapons simultaneously inside major cities; and the absolute will to use them at a time of their choosing. Their purpose would not be to just deliver another 9/11-type blow. Rather it would aim to inflict immense casualties, cripple our infrastructure, and reduce American status as a world power. Is such an apocalyptic event actually possible? Can we even contemplate it objectively? When imagining such dire prospects the human mind may go into deep denial and even express anger at the messenger--all that as a human defense mechanism. Nevertheless, we must not flinch from objectively facing the question. If the danger is real we must maintain a clear head and act in time. Americans should keep informed about this threat to our national security. The latest [www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46235] in a series of informative reports was posted September 8, 2005, on WorldNetDaily.com. Links to numerous prior reports are provided at the end of the article. These reports include various governmental and private information sources that explain just how al-Qaeda has been able to mount such a dire threat to our country. A timely response to this threat is especially urgent because of reports suggesting the al-Queda may be contemplating an attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that begins October 4 and lasts a month. All this shifts the focus of response to include the American grass roots level. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how much valuable help came from ordinary American citizens who responded spontaneously and often were way ahead of government, which failed badly. We still lack massive citizen preparations in advance of a future national emergency. The public needs to be organized, trained and prepared in local communities. Homes need to be stocked with emergency supplies. Local leaders need to be assigned in each neighborhood. People need to know what to do, whom to contact, and where to go in any emergency. Emergency communications need to be in place in advance. People with special needs need to be identified, as well as able-bodied people who will be trained and available when needed. This would make the entire nation one, integrated, well-prepared civil defense camp. The purpose of all this is to prepare to absorb any blow, minimize the casualties, avoid chaos, and improve the chances for recovery. Wherever possible, the local preparations could be more easily organized within ethnic and religious communities. Local religious and community leaders already know their constituents and how to contact them. The unaffiliated would also be organized separately but minus the affiliated population that would present less of a task. There are compelling reasons why the American Jewish community should lead the way in local organizing among their own constituents. American Jews have special vulnerabilities in a terror attack. They comprise less than 2% of the American population and are mostly concentrated in major urban areas, which have already been cited as prime targets for attack. In any attack, Jews would therefore suffer proportionally far more than almost any other ethnic or religious community. Also, Jewish history is one of long standing persecution, including Israel, which must live under constant terror attack in every part of that country. This increased vulnerability should motivate and energize a timely response by American Jewish leaders that comprise the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Their example would be especially valuable in encouraging a similar response among all other ethnic and religious denominations in America. The potential benefits to American security would be huge but, unfortunately, the American Jewish leadership has failed to act in this regard. This failure of American Jewish leaders is all the more disappointing because it contrasts sharply with other recent events directly involving Jews. At least ten American Jewish organizations are collecting funds for Hurricane Relief. It was reported that some 5,000 Jews were among those forced to evacuate the areas struck by the hurricane. Israeli Jews have already delivered 80 tons of essential supplies to America and offered to take displaced American college students to Israeli universities. This prompt Israeli response comes from a tiny nation suffering her own severe hardships due to unrelenting attacks from her Arab enemies. The 9/11 tragedy and Katrina are warnings. We cannot afford to be unprepared for a nuclear 9/11. Rachel Neuwirth is a freelance writer who resides in the Los Angeles area. Rachel receives e-mail at rachterry@sbcglobal.net. To Go To Top

PALESTINIANS REJOICE, LOOT AS ISRAEL WRAPS UP PULLOUT Posted by Bryna Berch, September 13, 2005.

This article was written by Joshua Mitnick and appeared today in the Washington Times. It is archived at http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/ normal.php?StoryID=20050913-120242-2615r What did you expect? Animals should become civilized when you hand them meat they can slaughter? Handing a drunk a quart will make him sober? These guys have been TRAINED for murder and their entire "culture" is built on blood lust, and you expected them to respect other people's treasured buildings? You expected the beauty of some of these synagogogues -- and a couple were truly remarkable and innovative -- would make them appreciate the architecture? You thought that because they were so righteously indignant that a page of Koran was flushed down the toilet, they'd respect other people's religion? Join the OpiumHeads - Sec-State Rice is its chairman, Henry Siegman its CEO and the Saudis pay people to promote the delusion that the "Palestinian" Arabs are disciplined enough to run a normal state. They will continue to murder and massacre and blame everyone for their actions and failures. They have the self-awareness of a cockroach. Notice the PA had the manpower to protect what it wanted protected. "Moderate arabs", "peace partners" - what a sick joke. KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip -- Euphoric Palestinians celebrated the exit of the last Israeli soldiers from Gaza yesterday by swarming into former Jewish settlements, frolicking in the sea at previously restricted beaches and spilling over the border into Egypt. Despite Palestinian Authority pledges to keep Gazans out of the abandoned Israeli settlements for a few days, the Palestinian security forces did not prevent militants from torching synagogue buildings and firing guns in celebration, while looters made off with truckloads of debris. Television footage of militants, policemen and civilians ransacking the settlements shocked Israelis and underscored the difficulty Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will have in establishing law and order in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians celebrate as they stand on top of a damaged synagogue after it was set alight after the Israeli army withdrawal from the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim, early yesterday. (AP) "I think this is unacceptable behavior from our people," said Khan Younis Mayor Osama Alfara, who had just walked through what used to be the neighboring settlement of Neve Dekalim. "But our people want to be sure that there is no return of the Israelis, so they are taking some things as a memory." Palestinian and Egyptian soldiers along Gaza's border with the Sinai Peninsula were overwhelmed by hundreds of residents from Rafah -- a Palestinian city that straddles the boundary -- who made their way to the Egyptian side, according to the Web site of the Ha'aretz newspaper. A 38-year-old Palestinian was killed in the tumult, with Egyptian border police and Palestinian police accusing each other of responsibility. After Israel abandoned the heavily fortified Philadelphi border corridor aimed at preventing weapons smugglers, Egypt deployed border police to patrol the region for infiltrators and illegal arms traders. Mr. Abbas pledged to do all in his power to put an end to border violations. "The penetration of the border is completely unacceptable, and we will move to stop it," he said. Israel concluded a monthlong evacuation from Gaza early yesterday, as a convoy of armored vehicles rumbled back over the border and the Gaza division commander, Brig. Gen. Aviv Cochavi, closed a gate in Israel's security barrier that surrounds the strip to the north and east. Many Palestinians stayed up through the night in anticipation of the first hours of freedom. In pre-dawn hours, many Gazans had crossed over into the abandoned settlements. Hours later, tens of thousands of smiling Palestinians began making their way into land that many of them had never touched. Amid the rubble around Neve Dekalim, which had been the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza, flags from the militant group Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine were hoisted above synagogues and other public buildings. A detachment of Palestinian security officers congregated outside the regional council building to ensure that Palestinians didn't destroy public structures left by the Israelis. "It's our mission to protect these buildings and to prevent their destruction," said Mohammed Mansour, a member of the national security force. "But as you can see, we aren't very successful. It's a shame." On the plaza outside the Neve Dekalim synagogue, mule-drawn carts were piled with heaps of scrap metal. Inside, the Sephardic sanctuary was littered with shards of glass as men with homemade pickaxes smashed windowpanes in the third-floor rafters. "We've been waiting 38 years, what do you expect from me," said Ahmed Ikhleya between blows at the synagogue. "We want to end the occupation, and we don't want any memory of the occupiers." In the southern portion of the strip, just west of Neve Dekalim, thousands of adults and children enjoyed their first trip to the local beach in five years. During the latest Palestinian uprising, the Israeli army barred the residents of Khan Younis from driving five minutes through the Jewish settlement block to the beach, and instead forced them to travel hours to Gaza City. Yesterday, the children splashed through the surf, using foam from former settlement ceilings as flotation devices. "We were deprived of smelling clean air," said Fayrouz Figawi, a mother of 12 sitting under a hut of corrugated metal collected at a settlement. "When they deprived us of the beach, we sat at home listening to bullets and tank shells." To Go To Top

HOLOCAUST DAY MUST BE SCRAPPED, SAY MUSLIM LEADERS Posted by Deb Kotz, September 13, 2005.

This was written by Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent, News Telegraph (British) and it appeared September 9, 2005. Also take a look at their factfile on the Holocaust ( Click here.) Mr. Helm can be contacted at thelm@telegraph.co.uk The fact that this is even being debated is frightening. Downing Street is facing calls from its advisers to abolish Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day, established by Tony Blair four years ago, because it is offensive to Muslims. The draft proposals have been produced by committees made up of Muslims who were appointed to advise the Prime Minister and other ministers on extremism. Sir Iqbal Sacranie is on a collision course with Tony Blair Members of the committees are asking that Holocaust Day be replaced with Genocide Day to recognise the murders of members of their own faith in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia. But the idea has provoked a fierce backlash from Jewish groups and others who say the advisers are trying to devalue the Holocaust. The Queen is patron of the charity that organises the event, marked each year on Jan 27. The Home Office contributes £500,000 a year to it. A member of one of the committees said the name Holocaust Day gave the impression that "western lives have more value than non-western lives". The proposal had been drawn up to change that impression, said the committee member. "One way of doing that is if the Government were to sponsor a national Genocide Memorial Day," he added. "The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims. It sends out the wrong signals: that the lives of [some] people are to be remembered more than others. It is a grievance that extremists are able to exploit." The plan has been backed by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain. "The message of the Holocaust was 'never again' and for that message to have practical effect on the world community it has to be inclusive," he said. "We can never have double standards in terms of human life. Muslims feel hurt and excluded that their lives are not equally valuable to those lives lost in the Holocaust time." Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of the charity Interpal, which aims to provide relief and development aid to the poor and needy of Palestine, said: "There are 500 Palestinian towns and villages that have been wiped out over the years. That's pretty genocidal to me." The committees are also set to clash with Mr Blair on his proposal to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir, the radical Islamic group. Government sources say they will argue that a ban is unjustified because the group, which is proscribed in much of the Middle East, neither advocates nor perpetrates violence in Britain. The recommendation was drawn up by committees which are advising the Government on a range of issues, including imams and mosques, Islamophobia and policing. Mike Whine, a director of the British Board of Deputies, said: "Of course we will oppose this move. The whole point is to remember the darkest day of modern history." Louise Ellman, Labour MP and a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial, was also critical of the committees' stance. "These Muslim groups should stop trying to evade the enormity of the Holocaust," she said. The committees will finalise their recommendations today and submit them to Mr Blair and Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, on Sept 22. The Home Office said yesterday that it did not plan to act on the advice. Holocaust Day was set up after a long campaign by Jews to create a memorial for the six million Jews who lost their lives. Deb Kotz is an active member of the Brandeis Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and maintains an email list to distribute articles of interest to the local community. She can be reached at DebKotz@aol.com To Go To Top

CHRISTIANITY DYING IN ITS BIRTHPLACE Posted by Daniel Pipes, September 13, 2005.

What some observers are calling a pogrom took place near Ramallah, West Bank, on the night of September 3-4. That's when 15 Muslim youths from one village, Dair Jarir, rampaged against Taybeh, a neighboring all-Christian village of 1,500 people. The reason for the assault? A Muslim woman from Dair Jarir, Hiyam Ajaj, 23, fell in love with her Christian boss, Mehdi Khouriyye, owner of a tailor shop in Taybeh. The couple maintained a clandestine two-year affair and she became pregnant in about March 2005. When her family members learned of her condition, they murdered her. That was on about September 1; unsatisfied even with this "honor killing" -- for Islamic law strictly forbids non-Muslim males to have sexual relations with Muslim females -- the Ajaj men sought vengeance against Khouriyye and his family. They took it two days later in an assault on Taybeh. The Ajajs and their friends broke into houses and stole furniture, jewelry, and electrical appliances. They threw Molotov cocktails at some buildings and poured kerosene on others, then torched them. The damage included at least 16 houses, some stores, a farm, and a gas station. The assailants vandalized cars, looted extensively, and destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary. "It was like a war," one Taybeh resident told the Jerusalem Post. Hours passed before the Palestinian Authority security and fire services arrived. The 15 assailants spent only a few hours in police detention, then were released. As for Khouriyye, the Palestinian Arab police arrested him, kept him in jail, and (his family says) have repeatedly beat him. As the news service Adnkronos International notes, for Palestinian Christians "the fact that the Muslim aggressors have been released while the Christian tailor-shop owner is still being held, at best symbolizes the PA's indifference to the plight of Palestinian Christians, at worst shows it is taking sides against them." A cousin, Suleiman Khouriyye, pointed to his burned house. "They did this because we're Christians. They did this because we are the weaker ones," he said The Khouriyyes and others recall the assailants shouting "Allahu Akbar" and anti-Christian slogans: "Burn the infidels, burn the Crusaders." To that, an unrepentant cousin of Hiyam Ajaj replied, "We burned their houses because they dishonored our family, not because they are Christians." This assault fits a larger pattern. According to the Catholic Custodian of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Christians in the Bethlehem region alone have suffered 93 cases of injustice in 2000-04. In the worst of these, in 2002, Muslims murdered the two Amre sisters, 17 and 19 years old, whom they called prostitutes. A post-mortem, however, showed the teenagers to have been virgins -- and to have been tortured on their genitals. "Almost every day -- I repeat, almost every day -- our communities are harassed by the Islamic extremists in these regions," Mr. Pizzaballa says. "And if it's not the members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, there are clashes with -- the Palestinian Authority." In addition to the Islamists, a "Muslim land mafia" is said to operate. With PA complicity, it threatens Christian land and house owners, often succeeding to compel them to abandon their properties. The campaign of persecution has succeeded. Even as the Christian population of Israel grows, that of the Palestinian Authority shrinks precipitously. Bethlehem and Nazareth, historic Christian towns for nearly two millennia, are now primarily Muslim. In 1922, Christians outnumbered Muslims in Jerusalem; today, Christians amount to a mere 2% of that city's population. "Is Christian life liable to be reduced to empty church buildings and a congregation-less hierarchy with no flock in the birthplace of Christianity?" So asks Daphne Tsimhoni in the Middle East Quarterly. It is hard to see what will prevent that ghost-like future from coming into existence. One factor that could help prevent this dismal outcome would be for mainline Protestant churches to speak out against Palestinian Muslims for tormenting and expelling Palestinian Christians. To date, unfortunately, the Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, as well as the United Church of Christ, have ignored the problem. Instead, they pursue the self-indulgent path of venting moral outrage against the Israeli bystander and even withdrawing their investment funds from it. As they obsess with Israel but stay silent about Christianity dying in its birthplace one wonders what it will take to awaken them. This article appeared in the New York Sun today and is archived at http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2937 To Go To Top

THE SYNAGOGUES ARE BURNING - AGAIN Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 13, 2005.

As the fires burn in the synagogues - set by the Arab Muslim Palestinians, I am receiving numerous statements from religious and other pundits. The general cumulative message is: "See, they are a savage, primitive people whose only goal is to advance Allah and his most strict Sharia'ah laws of Islam by destroying." Why do Jews always seek proof text that an enemy is a barbarian and wishes only to conquer and subjugate? Why do we always need more proof that the Muslims who follow Islam are a barbaric breed of human? They are not, however, subhuman but rather brain-washed by a religion that teaches them to subdue all others, to either convert them to Islam or become slaves ('Dhimmis' ) or simply to be slaughtered by the sword (any weapon will do except peaceful negotiation). Why do Jews comment after each vile example of their primitive behavior, "See, I told you so..." Or "That proves they are a killer species." The not so simple fact is that, we need no more facts. They have been killing Jews, in accordance with their interpretation of Koranic laws for centuries. We do not need more proof because no one is listening. Who are we going to convince (besides ourselves) that the radical Islamists are out to conquer the world - even if they must blow up every Christian and Jew? Who is listening? Certainly not the Jew killers of so-called European high civilization. Is the Bush Family Dynasty, so tied to Arab oil listening? Certainly not. Even as the Muslims engage in Global 'Jihad' (Holy war for Islam), blowing up London, 9/11/01 in America, 3/11 in Madrid, Breslan Russia - etc. with the outlook that they will use radiation bombs in New York, Washington, London, Chicago, Paris or - wherever they wish to make a statement of barbarity. We do not need more proof, more horrific incidents where the foolish pundits can say: "See, I told you so" ... or "There is another proof!" When barbarians gather at the city gates, demanding entry, you do not unbar the gate. Those who rush to lift the bar should be stopeped on the spot as a considered danger to their community. Islam is marching to conquer all communities in all nations. Those who ally themselves with the Muslims who have come to kill should themselves be arrested, tried and jailed as traitors to their own people. The concept of Life or Death is not a philosophical discussion because people do die from the hands of violent killers. Whether they are driven by religious diktats or are merely primitive people who enjoy being elevated by adopting a reason to kill, they are dangerous. In brief, if Islam were not a predatory religion perhaps the talk of peace might be worth pursuing. But, Islam is a predatory religion no matter how many times the sophomoric boy President tells all who would still listen that the Muslims are a peaceful people who are no different than we are. Regrettably, they are nothing like the Judeo-Christian civilization of today. The proofs the pundits or the Leftists keep looking for in terms of positive behavior is simply not there. We just left the memorials of 9/11 with the entire Global Intelligence community on High Alert lest the Muslims explode a radiation 'dirty' bomb or a real nuke in one of the major cities of the Free West. That they didn't (yet) is not because they didn't wish to but rather, they will simply pick another commemorative date convenient to their idea of attacking us all. The Arab Muslim Palestinians now rampaging in Gaza, burning synagogues is not surprising proof of a primitive violent and selfish people. We did not need this proof nor did we need Arik Sharon and Shimon Peres to give us even more proof. We did not need the American President to apologize to the Islamists who crashed one of the four planes they kidnaped and then to honor the Terrorists by creating a Memorial at the site in the image of the crescent moon symbol of Islam. Here we find the fingerprints of Bush and family, plus the propagandist Kathryn Hughes employed by Bush to apologize to the Muslims for his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Did we need proof of the Bush Family's linkage to Saudi Arabia, given that 15 Saudis and 4 Egyptians were the perpetrators of 9/11? How badly the Bush Family must have felt for the Saudis, having been caught or identified as the perpetrators. Recall that the Bush Family arranged for a plane load of Saudis to be evacuated from American soil, lest they be arrested as co-conspirators in the 9/11 massacre - or attacked by righteously indignant Americans if they were caught. We presently see the Bush Family with Jim Baker, arranging to sacrifice Israel in order to placate their Saudi friends and smooth the way for more oil. Do we really need proof of the Saudi involvement with Global Terror? Do we really need proof that the Bush Family harnessed all of America's Intelligence Agencies, including (or led by) the U.S. State Department to shield the Saudis from the rage of the American people? Do we need proof that Bush has his hands clamped on the fat neck of Sharon for all the illegal things Sharon has done to finance his elections and carry out his "Disengagement" or Ethnic Cleansing to distract the Israeli and world Jewry from his illegal maneuvers? We do not need smoking guns because we all know these things are true - no matter how well hidden. Bush already has proof that he cannot win the hearts and minds of the Muslims of Iraq or Afghanistan. He is preparing to bolt and run from these places because he already has proof of his failure. Instead, as a political compromise, he is willing to sacrifice a friendly, strategic ally to the Muslims for whatever benefit it brings to his historical legacy - plus the benefits of oil revenue. Has anyone noticed the billions, perhaps trillions of dollars the oil magnates (maggots) are sucking out of the American and world economies with nary a word from Bush or the Republican-dominated Congress? Do we need proof? Not if you look at the gas pump prices and the huge profit statements from the multi-national oil companies. Has Congress moved to investigate and receive the full taxes that should result from such high profits? No, not yet. We no longer need proof that the Political Mafia is destroying America. The same is true for Israel. We did not need the proof of burning synagogues to tell us that Islam will never be peaceful and will always be a permanent enemy who wishes the Jews and the Jewish State dead. So let's not argue about proof as if we needed proof. Even with all this proof we cannot depend on anyone except ourselves. Let's rid ourselves of Sharon and Peres because they too have demonstrated proof of their unending financial corruption. We do not need more proof. While we are crying about the vicious destruction of synagogues and the turning them over to a dedicated enemy, think about this: Moshe Dayan, with the approval of David Ben Gurion, turned over the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf within days of its re-capture in June of 1967. When the Arabs began to dig out Solomon's Stables, destroying any presence of Jewish artifacts neither Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak or Sharon made any effort to stop the destruction and the desecration. The Israeli leadership wanted the Holy of Holies taken away from the Jews and given to the Muslims - lest any real Jews rallied around the Temple Mount. Proof? I'll give you proof. For many years I have written articles about the planning to eliminate the Jewish component from what was intended by the Left to be a secular nation called "Israel". Even at the time of her birth May 14, 1948, after Hitler's massacre of 6 million Jews (with the collaboration of Europe's anti-Semites) the Jews being smuggled out of Europe's graveyards were selected for their secularism under the sign: "Religious need not apply". I often wondered why a Jew who did not believe in G-d or in the Land He promised the Jews would want to go to Israel a.k.a. Jew-Land? Perhaps it is because no other nation would take them, using Hitler's yardstick or litmus test that even a single drop of Jewish blood made you a Jew. I firmly believe that, from the time of David Ben Gurion onward, there was a secret pact and doctrine to insure that religious Jewry would never gain a foothold in the Israeli Government strong enough to equal or overwhelm the secularists who controlled the Government from 1948. However, the observant Jews were always given enough to pacify and keep those Jews silent. Ben Gurion and successive Prime Ministers who needed them to form a coalition, promised several key concessions, Orthodox control over marriage and divorce, Kashrut in all public places, hotels, the army, etc., and support for the Orthodox schools. Part of this ingenuous plan was to insure that whatever the observant Jews considered Holy and basic to their religion was eventually abandoned in favor of the Arab Muslims. They created a Declaration of Independence that allowed full civil rights to Arabs living in the Jewish State, including the right to vote and to serve in the Knesset (Parliament). This would put the Arabs as the key deciding vote on life-and-death issues, especially regarding the Land. Perhaps the high (or lowest) point in this planning was when Moshe Dayan, a close confederate of Ben Gurion, gifted the Temple Mount to the Arab Wakf within days of its liberation in June of 1967. Even the Arabs did not expect such a gift of surrender by the victors. Ben Gurion, Dayan, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Ezer Weizman, Chaim Weizmann and Sharon - among others - were all of the same mind-set: Don't give the Orthodox Jews a rallying point on which to build the Third Temple. Having Solomon's Temple and the Holy of Holies was too powerful a symbol to allow to the observant Jews - as was the Cave of the Patriarchs (Ma'arat HaMachpelah), the Tombs of Rachel and Joseph as well as other Jewish Holy sites - most of which are in Israel's heartland of Judea and Samaria. But, any other Holy sites such as the synagogues in Jericho, Gush Katif and North Samaria were left to be desecrated and destroyed by the Muslim Arabs when they were deliberately given control over them. Clearly, just having the Holy of Holies as a place of worship would threaten the secularists hold on their Government. Ben Gurion was a brilliant planner who not only fought a war against 5 to 7 invading Arab armies (depending on which history books you hold by) but also had a subliminal war in the Jewish State with observant Jews. The only problem was that observant Jews did not have clue as to what was to be the secularists Doctrine of De-Judification (or De-Jewdification) of Israel. While abandoning the Temple Mount and the Holy of Holies to the control of the pagan Muslims was a 'high' (or low) point, there were other 'gifts' to the Arab Muslims. Bibi Netanyahu gifted 80% of the city of Hebron, along with 'shared' control of the very Holy Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs (Ma'arat HaMachpelah) to the Muslim Palestinians who, in prior years when they were in full control, after their massacre in 1929 of 67 Jews, the Muslims would not allow a Jew to enter or to go further than the Seventh Step. This was the burial place bought by Avraham to bury his wife Sarah, where also rests Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. (Jacob's 2nd wife) Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem where her tomb is also at risk in harm's way. The Muslims, as is their way, dubbed Abraham (Ibrahim) a Muslim and thus claimed the Tomb of the Patriarchs for Islam and Allah. Netanyahu gifted the major part of Hebron to please American politicians by trying to appease Arab Muslim countries. Predictably, neither he nor Israel received any thanks for betraying the Jewish people and their heritage. Other instances of calculated retreat and abandonment of Holy sites to the Muslim Arabs included Joseph's Tomb in the ancient city of Schehem (now called Nablus by the Arabs). The Arabs murdered any defenders, looted and burned. Under the guidance of Rabin and Peres, the seven cities of Gaza, Jericho, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem and Bethlehem were similarly abandoned. As un-Jews, the loss of these national treasures meant absolutely nothing. Later, Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak tried to gift East Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives with its vast Jewish graveyard but, were thwarted at the last moment. That plan has been resurrected by Sharon despite his denials. As Dayan moved to subvert the Jewish claim for Solomon's Temple and the Holy of Holies, Sharon and Peres now work to eliminate the Jewish claim on the whole City of Jerusalem. Here we find the fingerprints of an American Administration whose loyalty is tied to the Saudis. Notice how a non-Jewish Government finds compatibility with American Arab interests. (Note! The American People and the Congress have a fondness for Israel that is not matched by the Bush family and the oil multi-nationals.) Divesting areas and Holy Places is continuing at an accelerated pace. We have just watched Sharon abandon the observant Jews of Gush Katif. The Arabs are burning the synagogues but, it was Sharon and his Government of non-Jews who handed them the matches and the weapons. His next goal is to abandon the "West Bank" to include Eastern Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights. Here again Sharon will be working for the Leftists Doctrine of De-Jewdification of the Land. He will also, as before, working for the extended plans of the Bush Administration to appease the Arab Muslims - hoping the sacrifice and betrayal of the Jewish nation will cause Arab Muslim Global Terror to scale down. Of course, we have already seen the failure of attempting to appease radical Islamists in Iraq and Afghanistan. This failure has not stopped the Bush Administration from trying to use Israel as his sacrificial goat. Sharon too, for his personal motives of saving himself from criminal prosecution and continuing the Doctrine of De-Jewdification of the Jewish State. Sharon and the Left elitists have raised their sights in attacking and dismantling Jewish communities made up of pioneering settlers. These are Jews who have volunteered in disproportionate numbers in all branches of the Military and thus feared much more than the Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox Jews). These are the communities in Judea and Samaria (called the "West Bank") who are both farmers, soldiers and observant Jews. I believe that Sharon-Peres has conspired with the Bush Administration to remove the Jews from the "West Bank" through the use of foreign troops as follows: The various Terrorist groups, including Hamas, Fatah, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, etc. have sworn to Allah that they will continue to attack Israel. Where thee attacks occur en masse, Israel will be forced to counter-attack in Gaza, the cities of Jericho, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Bethlehem and the smaller Arab Muslim towns around them. The Media will, of course, feature the dead Palestinians as "martyrs" calling on the U.N. to convene an emergency session. Bush will support the session as will the rest of the Quartet - EU, U.N. U.S. State Department, Russia and the Arab League, plus the many other mostly Muslim countries. They will vote a "Peace Action" which will include foreign forces to be dispatched as an invasion force as a "Peace-keeping force". The underlying game plan will be to use these "Peace-Keepers" aka Combat Forces to push the Jews out of the "West Bank" and Jerusalem. Concurrently, you will likely see Jordan occupy the Arab cities - possibly with Egyptian Forces into Gaza. Sharon and Peres will act as the lubricant under the umbrella of "Democracy" to assist in the evacuation of the 250,000 Jews of YESHA (Yehuda, Samaria and Gaza). If Sharon and Peres are exposed in such an arrangement, this would be defined as High Treason. ### While writing this, I read an article by Prof. Paul Eidelberg called: "Authority" in the JEWISH PRESS of August 19th. He describes how Ben Hecht's "Perfidy" documents the Zionist Leaders of the pre-state period pursued a 'selectivity' policy that doomed countless Jews in Europe. In August 1937, Dr. Chaim Weizmann declared this "selectivity" policy in which David Ben Gurion collaborated, was biased against religious Jews. The rescue of these Jews would have threatened the secular Zionist leaders in Palestine. (The same threat was posed by the aliyah of 700,000 Sephardic Jews from Africa and the Near East between 1948 and 1951. The cruelest measures were taken by the Ben Gurion Government to minimize their political power.)" As Prof. Eidelberg re-iterates Hecht: "This political egoism supplanted loyalty to the Jewish people, and to Judaism....[leading to] a latent civil war has been going on in the Land of Israel between those who do and those who do not identify with the Jewish heritage....This servile respect for "Authority" is the biggest obstacle to toppling the Sharon Government....In Israel parades as the guardian of democracy....This myth of Israeli democracy endows Sharon and his cohorts with legitimacy...since it is this myth that magnifies "Authority", the only non-violent way of toppling Sharon is to expose the despotic character of the regime of "Authority"....Since the Sharon Government derives its legitimacy from Israel's reputation as a democracy, destroy that reputation, and do it by a media blitz in the U.S. that will immediately impact Israel. This, I believe, is the only non-violent way to put an end to Sharon's dictatorship." Quoted from Prof. Paul Eidelberg "Authority" in the JEWISH PRESS, August 19, 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). To Go To Top

JEWS DIDN'T SEIZE ARAB-OWNED LAND; STILL IN GAZA; PERES HEADS SECURITY? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 13, 2005.

INDONESIA GOING ISLAMIST Several Indonesian districts have adopted Islamic law. In various parts of the country, people are being whipped for what Islamic law considers deserving of corporal punishment, but liberals there cry out against the barbarism. Indonesia's highest religious body has banned intermarriage, interfaith services, and tolerance of other faiths. Attacks have forced the closing of some churches. The Ministry of Religious Affairs blames the churches for not having secured valid permits. It does not enforce the law against violence. The problem is compounded by secular authorities' lack of credibility and local politicians' reliance on religious support. Is the problem limited to the few districts that have turned to Islamist jurisprudence? The government has found it impolitic to ban one of the major terrorist organizations, for fear of unpopularity (IMRA, 9/5). If Muslim states were free, churches wouldn't need permits. Muslim states should build strong democratic institutions, before holding elections that Islamists may win. ABBAS ADMITS JEWS DIDN'T TAKE ARAB-OWNED LAND Abbas stated that 97.5% of the Jewish communities of Gaza were built on state land. That means that only 2.5% were built on land owned by Arabs (IMRA, 9/5). Probably some of that was purchased from the Arabs. DIFFERENT RULINGS FOR DIFFERENT ISRAELI GROUPS The Mufti of Jerusalem issued a fatwa permitting the P.A. to execute 15 Arabs suspected of having worked for Israel. Israel's Attorney-General vacated it after the P.A. promised not to fulfill sentence. The P.A. or its followers, however, suddenly executes people or its followers do. The Israeli complainant observed, "While rabbis are arrested and interrogated on suspicion of incitement for merely waving an orange flag," whereas "a Moslem leader goes free after calling openly for the murder of those who helped the country's security." (Arutz-7, 9/5.) A rabbi was arrested for blocking a road, and has been sitting in jail for three months. (America would not put someone in jail untried, for that.) The rabbi claimed he merely was distributing orange ribbons, a symbol of protest over abandonment, and that a policeman wanted to frame him. A TV news tape was retrieved and vindicated the rabbi. Consequently he is due to be released (Arutz-7, 9/5). ISRAELI RELIEF EFFORT In response to news that Israel was planning to send relief to the US hurricane victims, a Yesha Council leader suggested that first Israel send relief to the Jewish refugees whom Israel's government just created (Arutz-7, 9/5). TIPOFF Arab rioters assaulted the Gaza security fence. They were awaited by a full set of TV crews. The crews had been tipped off. Dr. Aaron Lerner supposes that the Israeli security forces must have known, too. They were not prepared. P.A. police were present, but did not stop the crowd. The mob did some damage, although Israeli forces did fire upon them (IMRA, 9/6). Why did Israeli police not prepare? Why doesn't Israel condemn the P.A. police failure to do their duty? (Because Israel is appeasing the Arabs as if the Arabs weren't at war on Israel.) P.A. MUSLIMS CAUGHT PERSECUTING CHRISTIANS Hundreds of Muslim men attacked a Christian village near Ramallah, all night. They set fire to vehicles and houses, and looted them. (The indignant Muslim Arabs didn't waste the opportunity for booty.) What set them off was an autopsy on a Muslim woman, murdered by her family to preserve its "honor," and a finding of pregnancy, presumably from a Christian paramour from that village. (Not from the whole village, just from that man, but the Muslim Arabs believe in collective punishment.) The paramour is under P.A. protective custody, where he is beaten in privacy. Old line US Christian denominations have been divesting from Israel over its "occupation." Why don't they urge the US to divest from the P.A. for its persecution of Christians? This incident is one of many attacks and much discrimination by Muslims against Christians, most of which are not reported (NY Sun, 9/6, Ed.). Why aren't they reported? Why are the Muslim Arabs allowed to falsely blame Israel for the flight of Christians from the P.A.? Is antisemitism all that remains of the old line denominations? P.A. HELPED BY AMERICA, HATES AMERICA Right after the P.A. signed an agreement to receive $50 million directly from the US, a P.A. religious official in the presence of Abbas urged Iraqis to fight against US troops. That week, P.A. religious leaders continued describing the US as heretical and as enemies trying to disrupt the Muslim world (IMRA, 9/6 from Palestinian Media Watch). Jihad tries to disrupt ours. P.A. CLAIMS ISRAEL STILL IN GAZA An armistice agreement between Egypt and Israel, after the War for Independence, exchanged some territory in the Gaza Strip for some in Israel. Abbas now claims that the part of Gaza turned into part of Israel belongs to Gaza and therefore he claims that Israel is occupying Gaza. He is refusing to negotiate anything else until Israel gives up that part of its sovereign state to his non-sovereign entity (but is not offering to return the part of Israel traded for it). He is using this false issue as a pretext for keeping the intifada alive. It is the same tactic that Hizbullah uses in Lebanon. The Palestinian Arabs did not object before (IMRA, 9/6). You see, abandonment is not "disengagement?" THE PRICE OF TERRORISM A house in the P.A. exploded, causing 35 casualties. Apparently explosives were stored inside. An angered relative then shot at, and damaged, the hospital. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights called for an end to storing explosives in civilian areas (IMRA, 9/6). To whom is the Center appealing? The P.A. favors terrorism. One of the P.A.'s worst war crimes is its use of civilian areas by terrorists. The hospital was trying to help the injured. Nevertheless, a man shot at it and endangered the very corpsmen trying to treat his relative. What kind of people do such things? IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE GAZA CHECKPOINT A resident of Gaza returning from Egypt was arrested at the border by Israeli security forces. He was a courier bringing money to Hamas. Dr. Aaron Lerner remarks that under the agreement with Egypt, Israel is giving up that border patrol. Egypt is not likely to arrest people for bringing money to Hamas (IMRA, 9/6). Why couldn't the government of Israel figure that out, before making the agreement with Egypt? It figures out very little. WHAT IS PAKISTAN UP TO? According to Israeli Foreign Min. Shalom, his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart was a side-benefit of the Gaza abandonment. He praised the President of Pakistan for courageously promoting regional peace and moderation in general. Really? Pakistan is a major spreader of nuclear weapons technology, especially to Iran. Taliban take refuge in Pakistan. They rest, retrain, rearm, and re-enter Afghanistan, to kill US troops and Afghans. Terrorist camps operate in Pakistan, undisturbed by the government. Pakistan is not cooperating in the hunt for bin Laden, believed to be hiding there. "Pakistan's refusal to make any concerted efforts against the vast terror infrastructure openly and conspicuously operating on its territory led even The New York Times to publish a scathing editorial last month attacking Pakistan and its dictator 'President' Musharraf, for refusing to take action against the Taliban. As the Times noted, 'Musharraf seems to invest far more energy in explaining his government's tolerance of Taliban activities than he does in trying to shut them down.'" "?Pakistan exercises no effective sovereign control over large swathes of its territory. The high-profile arrests and renditions of senior al-Qaida terrorists ?and assaults on terror-ridden provinces seem to occur 'at very convenient times for US-Pakistan relations'?" The average Pakistani child goes to school for five years. The government spends "two percent of its GDP in education and has taken no effective action against the large network of madrassas in the country responsible for jihad indoctrination of hundreds of thousands of Pakistani youngsters." Why did the Israeli meet with the Pakistani? Some say to isolate Iran, which was miffed by the meeting. This does not seem likely, because there are no plans to attack Iran, for which a prerequisite would be isolating it. Others say the US wanted it to bolster the standing of Sharon, whose abandonment fulfilled US policy. But it also bolsters the standing of Pakistan, the enemy of the US, Israel, and India (IMRA, 9/6 from Caroline Glick of Jer. Post, 9/5). I suspect that another factor is neurotic. Some of my fellow Jews are flattered at being recognized by gentiles, and return the favor. But Musharraf of Pakistan was not recognizing Israel, he was trying to encourage it to abandon more territory to its Muslim enemies. PERES IN CHARGE OF BORDER SECURITY WITH EGYPT Dr. Aaron Lerner notes that that is not a typographical error, indeed it is Peres. (Peres does not believe in borders and he is responsible for Oslo, which undermined Israeli security.) The agreement is vague about which third parties have what responsibilities. Israelis would inspect goods passing through the renovated Rafah terminal, but not personnel. This means that they will be able to carry bombs through. Peres would be in charge of arrangements for a P.A. port and airport. That probably means the Arabs would be able to load planes with heavy weapons, next year (IMRA, 9/6). U.S. & BRITISH RESPONSIBILITY FOR TERRORISM IN ISRAEL When the PFLP assassinated an Israeli Cabinet Member (about to bring down the Sharon regime over its appeasement of the Arabs), the government was going after those terrorists. The US and Britain intervened, offering to guard them in a P.A. prison. However, it lets their followers telephone and visit, getting orders for bombings (IMRA, 9/6). 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. To Go To Top

I WANNA KNOW! TIME FOR TRUTH! Posted by American Chin High, September 13, 2005.

Time for truth! Hmmm... * Why is (forced upon Israel's) deporting of Jews a "pullback", but to evacuate those Arab 'Palestinians' (that oppose Israel) branded as "injustice" and "racial"? * Why is ethnic-cleansing Jews exclusively, called "evacuation", but a shield from Arab mass murderers (Homicide Bombers on mass crowds, missile launchers into homes, etc.) called an "apartheid wall" (by some)? * Where are any steps towards peace on the Arab side, including stopping terror, & education of hate and rationalizing murder of the innocent? * Why is historic connection of Jews (not only that lived there prior to 1948) to the holy land presented as 'religious' only, but very weak connection to Arab "Palestinians" that are by in large only a few generations away from immigrants, called "legitimate"? * Is there really no difference in reporting a headline by the general media: 'A terror mastermibnd was eliminated by Israel, a bystander youth was also killed', and reporting: 'Israel shot a kid'? * When was the last time the general media reported about the machine gunners hiding lurking behind the "innocent" 'stone throwers'? * Have you ever seen a documentary of the exploitation and use of human shields by Arab 'Palestinian' adults of their own kids? * Why is there a mishmash and a blurry attempt to equalize both sides, and never clear between the Arab 'Palestinian' public dancing celebrating en-mass to others' pain dead and suffering and the Israeli kind and humane society? * Why is their majority pro violence, like the fact of 70% of Arab 'palestinian' supporting Homicide Bombers on masses of civilians, never an issue? * Why can any Israeli Arab (member of parliament or a plain civilian) able to say whatever he likes in public, but 'God forbid' if the Arab Christians are reluctant to be violent against Israelis...? (the majority Arab Muslim 'palestinians' will commit again their pogroms against them). * Why don't Goliath vast Arab states give an inch to their 'Palestinian' Arab "brothers" (after all ONLY the Arab leaders told them to leave in 1948, with arrogant promises of 'victory'), but it's OK and a 'must' to force tiny 'David' Israel to lose more of it's (whatever) left vital land? * How safe do you feel If Hamas & Islamic Jihad are saying that their fight against Israel is only part of their global Jihad against any non Muslims? Contact the author at americanchinhigh@yahoo.com To Go To Top

HELP GET ANTI-ISRAEL BRITISH LAWYER DISBARRED Posted by Steven Plaut, September 13, 2005.

Please help! Israeli leftist extremists have long been targeting Israeli army officers personally. You may remember the campaign by Ben Gurion University extremist Neve Gordon against Colonel (today General) Aviv Kochavi, published all over the world on anti-Semitic and communist magazines and web sites, accusing him of being a "war criminal". (See http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/4461.htm ) The newest tactic for these people is to try to get Israeli officers prosecuted when they step foot in Europe. This week, an Israeli general (Doron Almog - http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126491574811 ) was unable to land in the UK because a fanatic anti-Israel Jewish lawyer there who toadies for the PLO has gotten an arrest warrant for the general for "war crimes". Today's Haaretz reveals that the fanatic seditious leftist Israeli organization "Yesh Gvul" is planning to escalate its campaign for getting Israeli army officers arrested and indicted in Europe as "war criminals." Yesh Gvul in the past specialized in organizing mutiny and insubordination among leftists serving in the Israeli army, yet has never been banned nor indicted by Israel's leftist Attorney General. The British lawyer who toadies for the PLO and hornswaggled the British legal system and got the arrest warrant for the Israeli General is named Daniel Machover. He is part of the law offices of Hickman and Rose, in the UK. (I do not know if the "Rose" in question is connected to Stephen Rose, the moonbat who led the campaign in Britain to boycott two Israeli universities last year.) Their web page is http://www.hickmanandrose.co.uk/ Machover founded the pro-terror group "Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights" (http://www.spr-consilio.com/machoverart..html) in 1988 and claims to be actively pursuing potential legal remedies in the UK and EU for "Palestinian victims of Israeli human rights abuses." I assume that means Palestinians arrested for murdering Jewish children. Machover's web page is at http://www.hickmanandrose.co.uk/who3.html If you would like to let this law office know what you think of its solicitors playing Medieval anti-Semitic Inquisitors and filing malicious and frivolous prosecution against individual Israeli Jews, they can be reached at Hickman and Rose Address: 144 Liverpool Road London N1 1LA Phone: 020 7700 2211 Email: mail@hickmanandrose.co.uk Emergencies: 07659 138106 (24 hour paging system) Fax: 020 7609 6044 Better yet, please take a moment out of your busy day and write to the British Bar Council (like American bar associations), which has web page at http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/. You should file a complaint against this law firm for frivolous and malicious prosecution with the Standards and Complaints Department of the Bar Council. Its Executive is now Executive Secretary, Professional Conduct Adrian Turner AdrianTurner@BarCouncil.org.uk (other members of this department are listed at http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/document.asp?languageid=1&documentid=420#ParaLink ) To fax or send hard copy letter to them (which is more effective), their addresses are: Bar Council office: 289-293 High Holborn, London WC1V 7HZ DX: 240 LDE Tel: 020 7242 0082 Fax: 020 7831 9217 Bar Council Press Office: Weber Shandwick Worldwide Tel: 020 7222 2525 Fax: 020 7067 0062 In addition you should write to Attorney General Peter Goldsmith (with addition cc to the Solicitor General) Attorney General's Chambers 9 Buckingham Gate London SW1E 6JP Tel: 020 7271 2422 Also to the Law SOciety of ENgland and Wales, http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/aboutlawsociety/whatwedo/regulateengwal.law Addresses and phones are at http://www.lawsociety.org.uk//documents/downloads/officesatthelawsociety.pdf and email form at http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/contactus.law and demand that Machover be disbarred for his filing frivolous and malicious prosecution papers and his attempt to suppress freedom of speech. (background on British Attorney General - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Goldsmith and on the Attorney General for England and Wales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_of_England_and_Wales) Make sure the law firm of these people get a copy of your letters, as well as some British newspaper. While you are at it, you might consider telling the Israeli Attorney General what you think he should do about Yesh Gvul. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

ANARCHY IN THE GAZA STRIP Posted by Avodah 15, September 12, 2005.

This comes from Ynet and was written by Ali Waked from Gaza. It is called "A special report from Gaza: The face of anarchy." It is archived at www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3141075,00.html The Ynet reporter provides a snapshot of mayhem inside Gaza Strip. Mobs loot, vandalize evacuated communities, gunmen can be seen everywhere, as Palestinian security forces watch. Thousands of Palestinians raided evacuated Gaza Strip settlements in the wake of the IDF's withdrawal, resorting to an orgy of looting and vandalism. Palestinian security forces at first attempted to resist the masses, but in most cases were overwhelmed by the mobs and gave up. What was supposed to be an orderly process of assuming control over the area turned into a huge scene of chaos mostly controlled by armed terrorists. In Kfar Darom for example, one can find dozens of gunmen belonging to the Popular Front, with dozens of PA security forces lying down under trees and watching the gunmen in silence. Still, PA troops in Kfar Darom showed determination in an attempt to prevent vandalism around the evacuated community's synagogue. Special masked forces belonging to an elite unit encircled the synagogue and prevented Palestinians from accessing it. Two Palestinians who attempted to defy the police were beaten up. The synagogue itself has turned into an improvised base for security forces. One of the officers on the scene, Ahmed Hilas, promised journalists the Palestinian Authority will put an end to the chaos in "three to four days." Yet for the time being, armed men control events on the ground. At the exit of Netzarim one can see jeeps of the Islamic Jihad transporting masked gunmen carrying rockets and mortars openly. 'We need to be ready for next battle,' One of the gunmen said: "This mortar is what brought the victory and we'll remind anyone who attempts to make the Palestinian people forget that." The terrorist said his group has no intention of disarming in the wake of the IDF's withdrawal. "We don't know whether the Zionist enemy will seek to return and we still don't know what the corrupt parties in the Palestinian Authority are scheming," he said. "Therefore, we need to be ready for the next battle." Judging by his voice and the eyes peering out of his headgear, he appears barely 20-years-old. In Netzarim, security forces deployed in the area lost control. Thousands rushed into the community with vehicles and are looting whatever they can find, including wood, aluminum, furniture, and plenty of mangos. Elsewhere, Palestinians come in with carts, destroy the evacuated community's fence, move in and load more objects. Surrealistic scenes can be seen everywhere. A security officer attempts to prevent a Palestinian from entering hothouses. The Palestinian insists and gets a plant. At the exit to Netzarim, a Palestinian is dragging a hundred-meter long pipe on his own. Any child who approaches or dares step on the pipe is promptly reprimanded. Contact the writer by email at avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

MESSAGE FROM THE RABBINICAL COUNCIL OF YESHA Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), September 12, 2005.

The setting alight of synagogues by Arab rioters proves once again that Arab enmity is not over land or politically motivated, but that this is a religious war based on hatred of Judaism. The solution to the problem of Jew-hatred is not for Jews to become like all other peoples; to escape and to disengage from Judaism shows lack of self-confidence and cowardice, and only invites more hatred. Only by connecting to Torat Israel, Eretz Israel and Am Israel throughout the generations, will there be any chance of deterring Jew-haters of all persuasions. As the Torah says (Devarim 28:10): "And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the L-rd; and they shall be afraid of thee." Signed, Rabbi Dov Lior SHLIT"A Head of the Rabbinical Council of Yesha Rabbi Daniel Shilo Spokesman for the Rabbinical Council of Yesha Contact the author at hadar-israel@verizon.net To Go To Top

MOURN FOR US. MOURN FOR THE WORLD Posted by Naomi Ragen, September 12, 2005.

Ever since the decision to retreat from Gaza, I have felt that events were rushing by at such a furious pace it was impossible to comprehend them. The horror of forcible evacuations of Jews by Jews, the bulldozing of hundreds of homes, the wholesale destruction of businesses and schools and community centers. The busloads of homeless arriving in Jerusalem with only the clothes on their backs, forced into hotel rooms with no refrigerators to hold bottles and baby food. The frightening and strange parallels of human suffering and homelessness across the seas by an act of God. The idea that synagogues would be blown up, the decision to leave them followed by the horror of Hamas-led destruction and wholesale burning of holy places. The falling of two Kassam rockets within Israel (Sderot and Yad Mordechai) with no Israeli response, despite our Defense Minister's toothless threat of "zero tolerance" for any more Kassams. The knowledge that more Kassams will fall, and our government will do nothing until it is too late, until small Jewish children lie dead in the streets of Israel, as we experienced during the Intifada. The Philadelphi corridor, that strip of land between Gaza and Egypt where so many of our young soldiers died keeping terrorists from smuggling in more weapons and bombs, suddenly turned over to Egyptians - (even though the weapons-smuggling tunnels clearly exited into Egyptian army camps.) The complete failure of the Egyptians to exert control of the border, allowing Palestinian hordes from Gaza to overrun them.... The symbolism of 9/11 being the day that Israel let the terror groups take over Gaza. How can I understand how America- who spoke so bravely of fighting terror, of finding in anyone who supported terror an enemy of the United States-- is now responsible for Israel's complete capitulation to terror? In my mind's eye, I see what should have happened: The American support to destroy Hamas. The destruction of terrorist camps all over Gaza. The denunciation of the Palestinian Authority for being terror-supporters. The support for the settlers in Gaza and the West Bank. Instead, this incomprehensible policy of appeasement and capitulation. The British desire to cancel Holocaust Memorial day to appease the Muslims. History will show that the day Israel was forced by the United States and Europe and her own misguided stupidity and blindness to give aid and succor to terrorism, to leave her people vulnerable to terrorism, was the day the peace of the world was destroyed. I don't know how this is going to happen, but just as the feeding of Ethiopia and Poland and Czechoslovakia to Hitler, bite by bite, only whet his appetite and increased his hubris, so the burning of Jewish synagogues by the Hamas in Gaza, the unprovoked rocket attacks that went unanswered by a brave and competent army, incomprehensibly emasculated by weak and confused politicians, will prove a turning point that all mankind will have reason to mourn. I mourn now. 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. To Go To Top

SEC'Y RICE ON COMPLETION OF ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA (NOT A PARODY) Posted by Avodah 15, September 12, 2005.

WHAT ALTERNATE UNIVERSE DOES THIS WOMAN LIVE IN? Completion of Israeli Withdrawal From Gaza Secretary Condoleezza Rice Washington, DC September 12, 2005 www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/53013.htm We welcome the completion of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. This is an historic moment for both sides, and the commitment of both sides to a successful disengagement process has been impressive. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's courageous decision both will enhance Israel's security and allow the Palestinians to make progress toward building the necessary institutions for a future state. We congratulate the Israelis and Palestinians on their effective coordination (?!?) in recent months and particularly during the actual implementation of disengagement over the last four weeks. We hope to see this cooperation continue (Does she mean the shelling and attempted murders of soldiers and civilians and also the looting and the burning of Synogogues?) as we move forward, working with Israelis,Palestinians, our Quartet partners, and the broader international community to revitalize the Palestinian economy, assist the Palestinian security forces to restore law and order and to fight terrorism and strive to advance the President's vision of two states living side by side in peace and security. 2005/859 Released on September 12, 2005 Contact the author at avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

AMNESTY Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, September 12, 2005.

If any of the candidates who are running against Sharon for the Prime Minister's office propose a general amnesty for all Jews, be assured that Sharon will work that much harder to imprison the protesters of his 'Evacuation/Disengagement' Plan. If, however, Sharon decides that it is in his best political interests to declare an amnesty, he will do so - claiming he is erasing the division in the Nation (which he, himself, inspired). Before Sharon, Weissglas, Olmert, Peres et al introduced the evacuation of Gaza/Gush Katif and 4 communities in the Northern Shomron, the pioneering settlers whom Sharon demonized were merely ordinary Israelis - working, farming, going to synagogue, school, raising children and not bothering anyone. In fact, they were the perfect model citizens - until Sharon decided that it was in his best interests to use his Propaganda Department to demonize these good people prior to his assault on the Jews of Gaza. His personal corruption has no bottom and is a magnet for his equally corrupt supporters. Naturally, the Leftist response was that "Soldiers had to be kept in the area to protect the settlers and that was a waste". Actually, I heard an Israeli living in the Chicago area say that "there were 4 1/2 soldiers per settler to defend the settlements in the Gaza Strip". Sounds a bit off but perhaps it is a partial truth given that the Arab Muslim Palestinian terrorists were growing in numbers and weapons. They have already thrown Qassems over the 'border' into Sderot, even on the day Monday September 12th, that the IDF left Gaza. Every Israeli knows that the Gaza District was always Israel's Southern Front of Defense. Now, even after the Jews of Gaza/Gush Katif were evacuated or "ethnically cleansed", the IDF will have to continue their presence in the area inside of Sharon's "new borders". Sharon had his Knesset pass a law that after the withdrawal there will be 44 communities inside the Israeli border at risk and in harm's way (instead of the 21 communities that were in Gaza). This ignores the benefits of having civilians living peaceably as a first line of defense and warning system. But now, there will be 44 communities to protect from Gazan Muslim Arab Palestinians throwing Qassam and Katyusha Rockets, mortars and artillery shells. Sharon's "Disengagement" has brought those projectiles closer to Israel's population centers - not further away. The Terrorists will be able to cross into Israel more easily now. All of these reliable forecasts also apply to the areas previously protected by the civilians who were evicted from the 4 Northern Samaria communities and their homes destroyed. Now, more Israeli soldiers (rather than fewer) will become a permanent presence to guard Israel against 'incursions' from the South and in Israel's center. Sharon's retreat can be compared to then Chief of Staff Ehud Barak's midnight retreat from Lebanon, leaving a vacuum now filled by Hezb'Allah and 12,000 missiles - some with Chemical warheads. So, what are now the more accessible targets? We can start by listing Sharon's Sycamore Ranch which he has reinforced at a cost of millions of Israeli taxpayers' shekels. The very expensive electric power generating station can now be hit by a well-aimed missile. Note that those missiles, better bombs, et al have been shipped to the Muslim Arab Palestinian Terrorists through the Sinai courtesy of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and by sea from Iran and Syria (recall the Karin A). Both Sharon and President Bush know that Egypt has been a trans-shipper of weapons coming from Iran, some from Saudi Arabia - using Saudi oil money. Now, Sharon has enlisted Egypt to bring armed soldiers, intelligence, armor to the border, in effect, breaking the de-militarization of the Sinai as stipulated in the Camp David Accords. All the Israeli cities and small towns in the South are now at risk, from Eilat, to Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot, Beit Shemesh, et al. There are now in targeting range from Gaza - as arranged by Sharon and Bush. The rockets and missiles are improving their distance, accuracy and strength of explosion. Regrettably, the Israeli people have been trained by an exceptionally dirty and perverse political system to expect either nothing from their elected officials or to expect the worst and think that it's normal. They watch their so-called Leaders of the Left and the Right lie, commit crimes against the State, steal from the public treasury but, remain virtually numb and silent. Instead of tearing these political criminals out of their seats of power, they vote them and the system into office again and again. Clearly, it must be a subliminal death wish - or how else would these criminals remain untouchable? Unfortunately, I think that a great number of Jews may be killed or grievously wounded before the public will act and perhaps not even then. Everything seems to be accepted as "Protexia" (Bribery or Personal Influence) as they watch their elected feed at the trough of the peoples' Treasury. Be honest, even if you were a Leftist, can you think of one time when a high ranking politician, known for criminal activity was actually charged and sent to jail? The dirtier the scheme, the more likely the corrupted Court system (along with the Police) will be sure to keep politicians safe. On the other hand, anyone who speaks up to challenge your cosy Mafia-type of Government is either put into jail - with a few being 'eliminated' when they have high stature. Did you ever wonder how a miraculous wave swept MK Rafi Eitan (Raful) off a breakwater after he made it known he was going to speak out against Sharon's "Disengagement Plan"? Add to that, Sharon named the breakwater: Eitan - as if a gesture of atonement for - what? At the beginning of this article I spoke about "Amnesty" for all Jews who acted in any way in defiance of Sharon's self-serving idea called "Disengagement". I would suggest that such personages as Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the Chief Rabbis, along with others of their rank call upon President Katzav and Sharon to declare a General Amnesty for all Jews who acted to defend the Jews of Gaza/Gush Katif and Samaria. Perhaps it is too much to expect of Sharon, who has refused to demand the release of Jonathan Pollard. After all, Sharon sat on the Board along with then PM Yitzhak Rabin who decided what tasks Pollard would be directed to look into. This was done through Rafi Eitan and now none of that Board wishes Pollard released, lest they be identified. The sacrifice of Jonathan Pollard by Arik Sharon is merely an early indication of a man who is willing to sacrifice the Jews of Gaza/Gush Katif and Samaria - even the Nation - in order to try to save himself and his sons from prosecution for their crimes. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

WHY WE ARE LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS Posted by Keith Lockitch, September 12, 2005.

Four years into our "war on terror," the Iraqi insurgency is raging, with no apparent end to the new recruits eager to wage jihad against the West. Support for offensive action is fading among a disheartened American public, while the terrorists are growing in numbers and in boldness. Where have our leaders gone wrong? What kind of leadership failure can demoralize a whole nation of honest, productive citizens, while leaving suicide murderers stirred to righteous action? The power that inspires righteous action--and which, by its absence, breeds discouragement--is the power of moral idealism. What has brought us to our present state is our leaders' moral weakness in response to the jihadists ' moral zeal. Observe that what draws the recruits to terrorist cells is the advancement of their religion. They are fighting to impose the rule of Islam worldwide, whether others agree with its tenets or not. It is no accident that the Koran (or the Bible) is full of calls to inflict violence on the recalcitrant unbeliever. Obedience to God is his highest moral obligation, whether he can be rationally persuaded of this or not. The jihadists ' eagerness to subjugate and kill is not a distortion of religion, but a consistent expression of it. It is an expression of the faith that establishing God's kingdom on earth is one's sacred cause--a cause worth dying for and worth killing for. A twisted moral ideal of this kind must not be tolerated; it must be denounced without compromise and answered by a rational moral ideal proclaimed with equal righteousness. America was founded on the principle of individual rights--the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"--a principle which bars the initiation of force. One cannot properly defend America, or Western civilization more broadly, without acknowledging the basic conflict between faith and reason, force and freedom--without upholding as a moral ideal, not submission to religious authority, but the freedom to live according to one's own rational convictions and values. But on the inseparable connection between freedom and reason, our leaders are silent. Have they at least condemned the jihadists ' evil religious motives, showing some of the moral confidence necessary to defend our lives? Clearly not. Consider that a mere two weeks after Sept. 11, with the ruins of the World Trade Towers still smoldering, our planned Afghanistan campaign, "Operation Infinite Justice," was renamed to appease Muslims protesting that only Allah can dispense "infinite justice." Our leaders continue to insist, preposterously, that religion is incidental to the terrorist threat, that the terrorists have "hijacked a great religion," that America is (at best) neutral on the issue of faith and force. Unable to defend America intellectually, our leaders are unable to defend her militarily. Have they asserted that the purpose of our military is not to better the world, but to secure our non-negotiable right to self-defense? No. Our military resources have been squandered, and too many of our brave soldiers sacrificed, in a futile quest to spread "democracy" around the globe. This "Forward Strategy of Freedom" rests on the absurd moral premise that protecting our freedom is legitimate only when we "compassionately" bring voting booths to nations mired in endless ethnic and sectarian conflict. Have our leaders acted consistently against terrorist regimes? Consider our policy toward Iran, the primary state sponsor of terrorism. Refusing to identify Iran as the fatherland of Islamic totalitarianism, our President beseeched its Mullahs to join our war on terror. And he has consistently answered their chants of "Death to America " and their quest for nuclear weapons with negotiation and spineless diplomacy. The reason the terrorists and their state sponsors are not demoralized is that our leaders have failed to demoralize them. Our leaders' words and actions have signaled that we are not as morally committed to our lives and freedom as the terrorists are to our destruction. No one wants to fight and die for a hopeless cause. The jihadists will continue to be emboldened and to attract new recruits until they are convinced their goal is unachievable. They must see that we have the moral confidence to defend our lives--to answer their violence with an overwhelming military response, without pulling punches. They must see us willing to visit such crushing devastation on them that they fear us more than they fear Allah. Our safety does indeed depend on winning "hearts and minds" among the supporters of totalitarian Islam: their hearts must be made to despair at the futility of their cause, and their minds must be convinced that any threat to our lives and freedom will bring them swift and certain doom. The ideologues of totalitarian Islam have seized the power of moral idealism in the service of our destruction. It is time we reclaimed that power in defense of our freedom. Keith Lockitch is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (http://www.aynrand.org/) in Irvine, CA. The Institute promotes the ideas of Ayn Rand--best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and originator of the philosophy of Objectivism. To Go To Top

FUNDING THE GAZA "GODFATHER" Posted by Herbert Zweibon, September 12, 2005.

Mort Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News and World Report and the New York Daily News, together with a group of wealthy Jews, has raised $14,000,000 to purchase Gush Katif hot houses and transfer them to a Palestine Authority Company. Mr. Zuckerman reportedly declared, "This is perhaps the only illustration or symbol of what could be the benefits of a cooperational, rather than a confrontational attitude." The Jerusalem Post reported on August 12, 2005 that 3500 dunams of hot houses (almost 900 acres) will be purchased by the Economic Cooperation Foundation headed by Yossi Beilin, with funds provided by this group, which include Lester Crown of Chicago, Leonard Stern, Chairman of Hartz Mountain and James Wolfensohn. James Wolfensohn, the White House Middle East envoy and former head of the World Bank, contributed $500,000 of his own money. He did this despite the fact that on Sept. 24, 2001, President Bush released Executive Order 13224 on Terrorist Financing: "Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism." Pursuant to this order in June 2003, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) informed U.S. tax-exempt organizations that if they partnered with Palestinian NGO's, those NGO's would be required to sign a Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing. This statement vows that no funds ever have been given or ever will be given to terrorist groups. It would be difficult to argue with the good intentions of the group - until you examine the situation that exists in Gaza. The Mafia would blush at the brazenness of the corruption in the political leadership in Gaza, which has made it virtually impossible to deliver benefits to the population. The "Godfather" of this leadership in Gaza is Mohammed Dahlan, head of "The Palestine Authorities' Preventive Security Service." Dahlan is "The Don of Dons" through whom most funds must flow and the one who will benefit most from the generosity of outsiders. Whether it's actual cash or the profits derived from operation of the hot houses makes little difference. Ironically, it was Dahlan himself who confessed to "The Guardian", August 2004, that all of the funds which foreign countries had donated to the PA, a total of $5 billion, "have gone down the drain, and we don't know where." Dahlan's criminal activities may not be limited to financial matters. Ehud Olmert, Deputy PM of Israel, wrote in the Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2002, "Mr. Dahlan, along with his assistant Rashid Abu-Shabak, are the primary suspects in the terror attack on an Israeli school bus in Kfar Darom in November 2000. The bombing left half a dozen children maimed - no democratic state should ever allow itself to do business with those individuals who deliberately target a school bus." So, how to explain the behavior of the wealthy benefactors? Zuckerman, a former President of the Conference of Presidents should be aware of the impossibility of penetrating the corrupt structure. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the group falls into the category of "useful idiots," applied to those academicians and intellectuals who early on fell for the Soviet line. But they do seem to be acting in concert with the U.S. government, which in spite of its own order, continues a policy of appeasement, providing at least $50 million to the PA when the PA admits to using the same amount to maintain its terror infrastructure. It is time to stop financing the corrupt PA in return for dubious promises about foregoing terror and accepting democracy. Herbert Zweibon is Chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI). To Go To Top

DHMMITUDE IN THE MOVIES; TOWARDS A BALANCED VIEW OF SOCIETY; SAUDI INSURGENCY Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 12, 2005.

THE ARAB ATTITUDE TOWARDS POLITICAL NEWS After having read x thousands of Arab news briefs, it struck me how pessimistic they are. It long has been obvious that the Arabs pose as victims. They do so to seek sympathy and, especially in the West, to gain concessions and stifle criticism. But there is a peculiar strain of pessimism, as well. The Arabs are complainers; they boast about themselves, but complain about everyone else. They specialize in mendacity. When Israel tries to put off its own nationalistic critics by promising to build more houses in the Territories even while planning to take some down, the Arabs denounce the plan as a distraction from the promise. Of course, the distraction is the other way around. Hence Israel has taken down the houses in Gaza and northern Samaria, and has not built more houses in the Territories. Surely the Arabs anticipated that. They know that the US pressures Israel and not them. When a Pakistani official met with an Israeli official, to discuss future relations after the P.A. were to gain statehood, the Palestinian Arabs reacted with dismay. They have nothing to be dismayed about. Pakistan just is trying to tempt Israel into more, fatal withdrawals. But the Arabs have to complain about everything, even about things going their way. DHIMMITUDE IN THE MOVIES Not the ordinary movie thriller, "Constant Gardner" emphasizes economic corruption, personal relationships, and exotic African scenery and dissolving society. It also featured a Muslim militia raid in Sudan. All that we were told about the horsemen shooting down fleeing children and burning their huts, is that "this must be a raid" and "they are tribesmen." The doctor explaining that failed to properly identify the raiders as "tribesmen armed by the government to implement Islamic jihad." The hero asked what would happen to a young girl he was not allowed to bring onto a UNO plane. The answer was, "She will make her way to a refugee camp, if she is lucky." The doctor should have added, "If the raiders catch her, they may enslave her." Slavery is a major evil in Sudan. The raids are religious and sometimes racial, but also have as an economic motive besides land-grabbing -- displacement of non-Muslim Arabs from oil-bearing areas, the same policy that Saddam had in his attempted genocide against the Kurds. But slavery wasn't mentioned in this socially conscious movie about European corruption and corrupters. Why not? Perhaps the filmmakers, like many others in the media and politics are intimidated both by political correctness and the likely Islamic protest against factual accounts of their activities that to Westerners are the epitome of degeneracy. Muslims murder critics, right or wrong. HURRICANES: FORCE OF NATURE OR WRATH OF GOD? Some religious Jews assert that the hurricane that struck Louisiana more than coincidentally displaced the same proportion of Americans as the Bush policy of Israeli abandonment of Gaza displaced Israelis. (But other disasters do not have mathematical coincidences.) A Kuwait leader asserted contrariwise that the hurricane punished the US for its alleged support for Israel. How wise are those who discern the hand of God in natural disasters! Now if only they could agree on what the retribution was for. I thought the factors were the unsettled weather pattern and stinginess in the quality of levees and about in eroded protections against hurricanes. Are all the natural disasters God's, largely punishing innocent people and without a plain moral lesson? P.S.: Every US city needs a railroad line out, for evacuation. TOWARDS A BALANCED VIEW OF SOCIETY Some people think that their society can do no wrong and other societies act only wrongfully. Other people think the reverse. Westerners increasingly flail about intellectually and morally. Bereft of religious or other compass, they end up hating the society they help fashion. As a Jew who sees many of his own people, especially their secularist leaders, imbued with collective guilt that had been drummed into them, it hurts all the more to see it happening to Western society. Radicals have infiltrated the American educational milieu. They drum into American students the notion that whatever the US did was harmful and the US remains evil. That one-sided picture is misleading when it isn't outright false. The true picture is mixed. The bright part of the picture is America's vast reform and extensive decency and individualism. Ask the people of Ukraine, now free thanks to a combined effort of their bravery and the moral stance of a US President whom most of my friends "hate." Yes, he does some deplorable things. But give him credit for his good side! An evaluation of our society has a short "shelf live." History is dynamic. Social change accelerates. Democracy has its shortcomings, especially the pandering-to-the-mob type that the US has developed. Reactionary forces keep lapping at its levees like a hurricane in Louisiana. Hence progress is uneven, but progress there is. In some societies, there is no progress and little hope of it. We should develop a balanced view. A balanced view of our own society would rank it one of the higher ones, though in constant need of vigilance and reform. If we appreciate its achievements and its potential, and compare them with enemy societies which achieve little of worth but from which we may learn something useful, we can keep our society instead of being submerged by their more aggressive one. We need social critics but not Far Left self-haters. A great social critic of early modern times was the Englishman, Charles Dickens. His fiction could break your heart by describing unfair economic hardship. On a visit to America, he was disgusted by its ethos, including invasion of privacy by voyeurs at his window. "For the fastidious Dickens, the American habit of spitting was as aesthetically offensive as it was unhygienic. While riding on a train, he bitingly observed that 'the flashes of saliva flew so perpetually and incessantly out of the window all the way, that it looked as though they were ripping open featherbeds inside, and letting wind dispose of the feathers.' Dickens regarded spitting and other uncouth habits as examples of the national tendency to confuse a disregard for the sensibility of others with individuality of expression. Thus in 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' Americans slurp, spit, and guzzle with abandon. When Martin protests after another diner licks the communal butter knife, he is chided for lacking a democratic spirit. Only Europeans, he is told, are bound by such elitist, artificial conventions as table manners." I see people petting dogs and serving food and licking fingers. I don't do that. But I hold the fork in left hand and use the knife with the right, instead of switching the way the elitist Europeans do. Find a happy medium! "'American leaders,' writes Dickens, are the 'lice of God's creation.' Party politics in the US was contaminating everything, even the way its citizens educated their young and cared for their infirm. And, he asserts, its leaders 'bow down' before any idea, no matter how barbaric or idiotic, so long as it represents 'Public Opinion.' Thus Dickens reviled not only the barbarism of slavery but also its attendant hypocrisy: jingoistic natives bragging about liberty and democracy while condoning the practice of slavery." (Norrie Epstein, The Friendly Dickens, 1998.) He is right about the US, where expectoration is making a comeback after having been outgrown, though Dickens has shown equally bad facets of his own society. I quoted him to show a negative side to our society. We should be aware of both sides and find a balance. With balance, we can focus on self-preservation and preservation of the good side and reform of the bad side. LET ISRAEL HELP IT INTERNAL REFUGEES Israeli police came to the house of Nadia Matar, a head of Women In Green, a nationalist organization critical of the abandonment of Gaza. The arrest order accused her of incitement to rebellion. (She probably had urged mere civil disobedience.) She refused to comply, because the arrest order had no judge's signature. Sharon is releasing the dictatorial impulse in himself and the sadistic impulse in maladjusted police. The country is divided. Israel ought to give amnesty to the Jewish dissidents, who have been maligned and mistreated and subjected to wrongful arrest, often for peaceful, lawful protest. Why doesn't Pres. Katsav, who claimed their plight breaks his heart, issue pardons? After all, for no better reason, Israel released thousands of Arabs held for attempted murder, half of whom renewed their attempts, some successfully so. Instead, thousands of the new Jewish refugees, government promises of compensation to them broken, wander the country as displaced persons, while the police seek revenge against them for protesting. Their property was left unguarded and was looted. The government ought to reimburse the refugees' losses, so they can resume their lives reasonably, for a course of action that Sharon claimed was good for the whole country (Winston Mid East Analysis, 9/4). WHO WAS THE BEERSHEBA SUICIDE BOMBER? The suicide bomber was a known terrorist whom Israel released in exchange for the bodies of three murdered Israelis and a live friend of PM Sharon (Arutz-7, 9/4) whom the government falsely said had been tortured by the Arabs and who was known to deal in drugs. Will the government stop its treason? Will the people learn to object to it? P.A. POLICE DON'T NEED MORE ARMS The Oslo Accords allowed the P.A. police 20,000 firearms and none to illegal militias. Besides the well-armed illegal militias, the P.A. police have an estimated 40,000 weapons (Op. Cit.). ABBAS ON SUICIDE BOMBERS Three months after Abbas assured ABC TV that suicide bombing was a thing of the past, he praised suicide bombers as to be rewarded in the Garden of Eden for bringing about Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria. THE SAUDI INSURGENCY Since 2003, S. Arabia has faced a serious insurgency (as predicted). Now there is a gunfight every week. The government tried amnesty and other means of accommodation. That did not work. The only thing to do is take to the offensive. The government has had some success at this. Unfortunately, the rebels have infiltrated Saudi defense forces, whose loyalty remains in question. (They also have some princely sympathy.) Hundreds of terrorists have been captured in other Gulf sheikdoms, along with arms caches and plans for sabotage. Oil is not secure. S. Arabia needs reform. Is reform the answer? Not necessarily. Kuwait, which has been reforming, has its own insurgency (IMRA, 9/4). The main but not sole reform needed is in Wahabi education and in interpretations of the religion as calling for intolerance and violence. 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. To Go To Top

WHEN PICTURES LIE Posted by Nancy Ragen, September 12, 2005.

Some progress is being made in revealing the al Dura fabrication. Below, a sobering article in the LA Times. This was written by David Gelernter and appeared in the Los Angeles Times September 9, 2005. # A TV report that helped fuel the deadly Palestinian intifada appears to be false. So how is truth supposed to compete with a video fraud? p>A 55-SECOND video report, produced in 2000 by a French TV station and distributed free of charge around the world, has caused untold injury and grief to Israeli civilians. This month, the French author Nidra Poller analyzes the evidence in Commentary magazine and shows that the video is a fraud - "an almost perfect media crime," the retired French journalist Luc Rosenzweig calls it. That Poller's piece is conclusive is merely my own judgment, of course. But we are all required to make such judgments, in the light of such reports. There is a wider story here also. We are vulnerable to video lies. Against purposeful lies, truth has never been so helpless, so weakly defended. More than 500 Israeli civilians have been killed in the intifada, the Palestinian uprising that began five years ago. They were ordinary people chatting on a bus, eating ice cream in a restaurant; suddenly, a bright flash. The next moment the walls are spattered with blood and the bomb's hellish odor fills the air. Some people are blinded, others are cut to pieces. Parents living the worst seconds of their lives cast about wildly for their children in the screaming, smoky chaos. What explains such bestial crimes? The reported death of a Palestinian child, Mohammed Dura, in Gaza did as much as anything else to ignite the current uprising. In the short video segment produced on Sept. 30, 2000, and distributed immediately, a state-owned French television station called France 2 accused the Israeli army of deliberately shooting and killing the 12-year-old. You may remember the footage: A man and boy crouch in fear. Shots hit a wall far from the pair; a final round of gunfire kicks up a dust cloud that hides father and son, who are "targets of gunfire from Israeli positions," says the voice-over. When the dust clears, the boy is stretched at the man's feet. The voice says that he is dead. This version of the story was retold around the world - and it has figured in countless wall posters, an Al Qaeda recruiting video, an epic poem. Last June an aspiring suicide bomber was arrested on her way to a hospital - to kill Israeli children, she said, in memory of Mohammed Dura. BUT, ACCORDING to the Commentary article, the video is a fraud. The footage itself is ambiguous, the alleged main event hidden by dust. The voice-over is what makes us understand what we are seeing. It comes from Charles Enderlin, a correspondent at France 2 (and a French Jew who became an Israeli citizen 20 years ago). Enderlin has never claimed to have been anywhere near the scene of the alleged shooting. His Palestinian cameraman told him the story. Lots of supporting evidence was supposed to back up the cameraman's story - more footage of the supposed father and son pinned by Israeli fire, footage showing the child's death throes. France 2 has since admitted, according to Poller, that no such footage exists. The voice-over reports that the child is dead, yet the rest of the segment -- which wasn't aired but survives -- shows the child propping himself on an elbow, shading his eyes with his hands. Poller saw the tape. A boy named Mohammed Dura did die in a Gaza hospital that fateful Sept. 30. His face doesn't match the face in the video. Presented with these facts, France 2 officials said that "they would look into the matter." In early 2005, Enderlin published an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro. His report "may have been hasty," he wrote, but was justified because "so many children were being killed." (But the intifada had barely started; "so many children" were not being killed -- not yet.) What did happen? Chances are we will never know for sure. But Poller reports that outtakes she saw show phony battle scenes staged by Palestinians. Painstaking analysis done by students at the Israeli Military Academy found the same actors playing multiple roles: "The injured and dead jump up, dust themselves off, play at offensive combat." Poller's article raises far more doubts about the report's authenticity than I can list here. But disproving a video report is much harder than getting people to believe it. You must convince people that their own eyes and ears have deceived them. They must follow the twists and turns of your logical argument, do their own thinking, reach their own conclusions. Give people an opportunity to switch off their brains and they will grab it. How can cautious, painstaking truth compete with brazen video lies? If the report turns out to be just what it looks like, a despicable fake, who will produce another 55-second video telling the truth? Which TV stations will broadcast it? Where does Israel go to get its reputation back? What will it all matter to grief-stricken Israelis whose children, husbands, mothers and fathers have died in acts sparked by the Dura story? The rational response is to insist fiercely on the transcendent importance of truth. Yet today we often hear that there is no truth. There are only competing narratives, we are told, all equally true or false. Yet the truth of what happened on Sept. 30, 2000, is critical to the way the world works, the way people behave. The pictures we were shown and the story we were told is true or false, not both. Enderlin, France 2 and the larger media establishment have an obligation to tell us which it is. Because lies can kill. Lies do kill. 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. To Go To Top

TERROR GROUPS SEIZE GUSH KATIF TOWNS AS IDF LEAVES Posted by Avodah 15, September 12, 2005.

Brandishing Hamas and Jihad Islami flags, thousands of Palestinians broke through Palestinian Authority security police lines overnight Sunday and seized Gaza locations abandoned by Israeli troops. September 12, 2005, 3:37 AM (GMT+02:00) Netzer Hazani, Ganei Tal, Morag, Kfar Darom and Neve Dekalim have fallen to Hamas, Jihad Islami, Popular Committees and Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades after the Abu Mazen's security troops failed to repel them. Mobs, firing in the air and shouting Allah is Great set fire to Morag and Netzarim synagogues. Israeli troops are on the move and will have completed their pull-out from the Gaza Strip by early Monday, Sept 12. Contact the writer at avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

STOPPING THE EXPULSION PLAN Posted by Katif Net, September 11, 2005.

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 Contact the author at info@katif.net To Go To Top