A SABRA PLANT IN FULL FLOWER NEAR BEIT SHEMESH Posted by Yehoshua HaLevi, August 31, 2008.

Sunset on the beach at Habonim Nature Reserve on Israel's central coast   Yehoshua Halevi writes: "HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Sabra is the Hebrew name given to a native-born Israeli Jew and also the prickly pear cactus, which grows abundantly throughout Israel, although, ironically, it is not a native species. The dual meaning of the term is meant to imply that Israelis, like their flowering namesake, feature a thorny and abrasive exterior that conceals a sweeter, gentler interior. Whether true or not about our native population, this photograph reveals the contrasting personality traits of the Sabra plant by juxtaposing the "softer" flowering side against the "harder" thorny spines. It would be impossible, I think, to depict in a photograph the plant's inner sweetness, so portraying it as it flowers is the best approximation. Over the years, I have become addicted to using back light — light which shines from the rear of the subject toward the camera — because of how beautifully it enhances the color and texture of flower petals. I brought this image home following a mid-August hike last summer near Beit Shemesh. I was very surprised to find anything flowering in the parched, brown hills amid the summer heat, but cactus thrives in the desert as well as the country's greener areas under some very difficult conditions. Not unlike Israelis, whether born on native soil or not. Contact Yehoshua Halevi by email at smile@goldenlightimages.com and visit his website: http://www.goldenlightimages.com To Go To Top

FORWARD TO THE PAST Posted by Jonathan Spyer, August 31, 2008.

In recent weeks, a number of prominent Fatah figures have suggested that their movement might abandon its commitment to a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and return to the pre-1988 demand for Israel's replacement by a single state in the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. They claim that Israeli policy in the West Bank is forcing them to reconsider their commitment to partition. In fact, though, what used to be known as the "democratic, secular state," and is now called the "one-state solution," has been the end-goal of modern Palestinian nationalism for the greater part of its history. Its reemergence into prominence should come as no surprise. It is the natural product of Palestinian nationalism's characterization of the conflict. The one-state solution is depicted by its adherents as a non-ethnic, non-nationalist alternative to the ethnic nationalism represented by Israel. Israel, according to Virginia Tilly, a prominent Western supporter of the one-state idea, rests "on the discredited idea, on which political Zionism stakes all its moral authority, that any ethnic group can legitimately claim permanent formal dominion over a territorial state." This formulation is dishonest. Ahmed Qurei and Sari Nusseibeh, two of the prominent Palestinians with apparently growing sympathy for the one-state idea, are also members of an overtly nationalist movement emerging from a distinctive Arab and Muslim cultural context. The Palestinian Authority in its constitution describes the Palestinian people in ethnic and religious terms, as "part of the Arab and Islamic nations." This document declares Islam as the official religion of the Palestinian state, and cites Islamic sharia law as a "major source for legislation." Thus, whatever argument the one-staters have with Israel, it isn't based on a principled objection to ethnic nationalism. But then, why is this claim of the "non-national," civil rights nature of the one-state demand being made? The reasons for the conceptual lack of clarity at the root of the one-state idea are both pragmatic and conceptual. Pragmatically — an open, public commitment to the denial of the other side's national rights would be counterproductive. It would upset the Europeans and Americans, who largely foot the bill for the Palestinian national project. It is apparently hoped, however, that rebranding Fatah-style Palestinian nationalism using the language of the U.S. civil rights movement of 50 years ago might cause at least some observers not to notice that the one-state solution coincidentally involves the disappearance of a legally constituted Jewish state, and the consequent termination of the right of self-determination of Israeli Jews. In other words, despite its non-ethnic, non-nationalist basis, the one-state solution also includes the full realization of the program of Palestinian nationalism. This attempt at obfuscation is fairly ludicrous. On the conceptual level, however, the current revival of this idea is of greater interest. It shows the extent to which mainstream Palestinian nationalism continues to see the conflict with Israel as one between a project of colonization and a liberation movement. Despite the short period of ostensible commitment to partition in the 1990s, Palestinian nationalism did not undergo any revolution in thought, toward reformulating the conflict as one between rival national groupings that each possess a basic legitimacy. This, of course, was the formulation of its supposed partners on the Israeli left. But this idea found and finds no echo among the Palestinians. Fatah remains convinced that the conflict is one between a usurping, colonial entity and an indigenous resistance movement. This explains the ease with which plans involving the disappearance of the Israeli Jewish collectivity can be dreamed up. The Rhodesians in southern Africa, the pieds noirs in Algeria — all of them disappeared. So why should their local equivalents imagine their fate to be any different? In this interpretation, the denial of the national rights of Israeli Jews by turning them into a minority in an Arab and Muslim state is no denial at all, because belonging to a historically illegitimate collectivity does not confer rights. The trouble is, of course, that Israeli Jews are neither Rhodesians nor pieds noirs. They therefore decline to play the role allotted them in the thinking of Fatah. Should Fatah actually elect to return to its old militant stance of 40 years ago, it will be transformed into a less religious and less serious imitation of its Islamist rivals. The most likely prognosis, though, is that this will not happen. In real life, Fatah leaders fear Hamas more than they fear Israel, and in any case they are deeply embedded in a type of patron-client relationship with the West. Thus, the period ahead will witness a tide of verbiage, vague threats and accusation, readily recycled by Fatah's friends in Western academia and the media. Fatah turned down chances at partition, ultimately because its leadership never fully freed itself from the conceptual straitjacket of the one-state solution. The movement is now threatening to retreat further back down the road it traveled in the 1990s Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Israel. This article appeared today in Ha'aretz. To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: A STRONG STAND Posted by Arlene Kushner, August 31, 2008.

According to a Friday report by Ben Caspit in Maariv, subsequently carried in The Jerusalem Post, Arutz Sheva and elsewhere, a decision has been made by the Israeli government to hit Iran if need be. Israel, it is being reported, made the critical decision three months ago and is now preparing a military strike on Iran that would be activated whether the US approves or not. If the situation is not resolved by 2010 — through an internal coup, sanctions that are genuinely effective, or military action by the US — Israel will proceed. Currently, the US is prepared to provide defensive weapons, but will not assist in making it possible for us to hit Iran — has not, for example, provided necessary codes for flying over Iraq. ~~~~~~~~~~ The report describes action to promote sanctions with teeth that has been taken by Ephraim Sneh, a former deputy defense minister who recently left the Labor party. He is pushing a total international embargo on spare parts for Iran's oil industry and a complete international boycott of Iran's banks. Sneh wrote to both US presidential candidates outlining this plan, which would have to be undertaken within the next 18 to 24 months, and which would cause the regime to topple. It would. however, require recruiting all of Europe to be on board with this — as partial participation does not constitute effective sanctions. Thus, as good as this plan might be on paper, we should not hold our collective breath waiting for this to happen. Last week, Sneh visited Austria and Switzerland, which have both announced plans for major investments in gas and oil fields in Iran. As he listened to his hosts describe their plans, he replied, "What a shame, for Ido will set fire to all of it." Ido is Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, Commander of the Israel Air Force, who would be in charge of carrying out the air strikes on Iran. "Investing in Iran in 2008," Sneh told the Austrians, "is like investing in the Krupp steelworks in 1938, it's a high risk investment." He reported that his hosts turned pale. Could it be that talking tough and forcing a new reality might do the trick? European leaders would have to perceive their economic dealings with Iran as ultimately not being in their own narrow best interest. As Sneh said, "Talk of the Jewish Holocaust and Israel's security doesn't impress these guys." Plans — made public — for Israeli air strikes on Iran might be useful in this regard. ~~~~~~~~~~ Iranian officials, responding to talk of an attack on their facilities, warned in al-Quds al-Arabi that they have supplied Hezbollah with longer range missiles that would be unleashed if we or the US were to hit Iran. This is supposed to be the "surprise" that Nasrallah has been referring to recently. But security analyst Maj.-Gen. (res) Yaakov Amidror says he doesn't believe this is the case: "This is nothing new. Hezbollah has had these missiles — such as the Zilzal, which can reach Tel Aviv — for years. I don't think Hezbollah received longer-range missiles, but they are stockpiling more of the same." ~~~~~~~~~~ According to the Post, the Arab states unequivocally oppose a strike on Iran. I found this interesting because I sat just weeks go with an Arab-speaking Israeli investigative journalist who told me of the on-going animosity between the Sunni Arab states and Shia Iran, which is seeking to overtake them. According to him, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in particular, have been annoyed at Bush for softening his stance on Iran. The opposition to a strike may be a public stance only. ~~~~~~~~~~ Let me return here to the issue of a possible signed agreement between Israel and the PA that might be secretly pushed through in a matter of weeks or days. There is an enormous amount of disinformation afloat, with responses that sometimes verge on the hysterical — perhaps understandably, given the seriousness of the issue. In a nutshell: The story circulating is that Olmert is pushing to get something on paper before September 17, the day of the Kadima primaries. He would still hold his position after that, but only as a caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed — he would lack the authority to act on something as major as this. (Never mind that — in the face of the multiple investigations he is dealing with — he is currently lacking the authority as well.) Olmert's "problem" is that the PA and Israel are still too far apart to finalize a deal. The sticking point being discussed most often is Jerusalem (although there is surely similar discord on the matters of "return" of refugees and borders). Some sources have it that Olmert is pushing for a vague document that simply outlines what has been agreed on so far and can serve as the basis for a shelf agreement to be activated later. But according to Haaretz, Olmert's latest wrinkle on how to resolve differences and allow something to be signed is this: There would be general framework signed now. But with a five year time-table for completing negotiations on Jerusalem, which would take place under an "international umbrella" with various parties able to "bolster" — though not impose — an agreement. His conceptualization is that in an international venue, with a number of nations privy to discussion and putting in their thoughts, there would be a "mellowing" on both sides and an inclination to come to terms. On the one hand, it would give the very weak PA backbone, and on the other, would coerce our public into accepting something that already had international sanction. My conceptualization is that it is an obscenity. To propose involving international parties at any level with regard to our heritage, our security, and our sovereignty is a disgrace of the first order. We have here a prime minister — and I write this with a deeply heavy heart — who cannot, or chooses not to, speak for and protect our heritage, our security and our sovereignty. ~~~~~~~~~~ Nor am I alone in voicing this opinion. Shas head Eli Yeshai (who could take apart the coalition if only he would lead his faction in resignation) declared that Olmert had no legal or moral authority to make such a deal. "The leadership of the Palestinian Authority is virtual. Any agreement with them will be the basis for more terror. It is clear to everyone that Jerusalem's fate cannot be negotiated like it was a currency, and certainly not with international participation." Foreign Minister and Chief Negotiator Tzipi Livni is also greatly unhappy with what Olmert is trying to do. She sees attempts to accelerate the negotiation process as a huge mistake: "We must not let the pressure of time cause us to make one of two grave mistakes: To try and bridge the wide gaps [note please: there are "wide" gaps] in a manner that will lead to a collapse, or to compromise on issues critical to Israel just to achieve results." I here reiterate my opinion that a precipitous agreement signed by Olmert would seriously damage Livni's chances of putting together a coalition that would allow her to be prime minister after the Kadima primary. She has to be fiercely opposed to this. (I note however, that, in due course she might well make concessions that are similar.) Public Security Minister Avi Dichter expressed anger that Olmert was proceeding without the backing of his Cabinet — without even informing his ministers. Said Dichter: "...in light of the security-related circumstances, and even more so the political ones in which Olmert is about to step down and Abbas's term ends in four months' time — we cannot repeat the mistake from the [Israeli-Palestinian] talks at the Taba Summit in January 2001 and create a problematic standard for future negotiations that will be lead by Olmert's successors." ~~~~~~~~~~ But what of the PA? Once again, they are likely to be our salvation. No, it should not be this way. And yes! we must work to have leaders that protect our interests. But this is how it seems to be now. For some time PA negotiators have been expressing great reluctance to sign anything that is vague and incomplete. Chief PA negotiator Ahmed Qurei said, just over a week ago, that "We either agree on one package that includes all the issues, or we don't agree," and Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo has declared that they "will not accept any partial deal like a framework or shelf agreement," Most recently Abbas has said that the proposal for negotiating Jerusalem over five years represents an incomplete deal that would leave him weakened. ~~~~~~~~~~ And then we have this, which represents a major stumbling block in negotiations from the PA side: Rumor of late has had it that Rice is back-tracking on Bush's commitment — made in a letter to then PM Sharon in 2004 — regarding our right to retain major settlement blocs, and that Olmert is ready to go along. But that's not how Nahum Barnea tells it in today's Yediot Ahronot. In conversation with Barnea, a "senior US government official" is reported to have said the following: "...In her last visit ten days ago Secretary of State Rice heard opposition to the Israeli settlement blocs remaining in the area of the [West] Bank from the Palestinians. They said that this impairs Palestinian movement. We told them that this is a problem that has to be dealt with, but the settlement blocs would remain. We made it clear to them that they must understand the reality: no Israeli prime minister can abandon communities where tens of thousands of Israelis live." I would suggest that the rumors originated with Palestinian sources, who implied that Rice agreed with their position. This serves as a prime example of how convoluted and complex this entire situation is, and how prone to misunderstandings. ~~~~~~~~~~ Summing up more definitively, there is this, from Saeb Erekat, PA negotiator: "The gap between the Israeli and Palestinian positions still exists. This is especially true with regards to all the final-status issues: Jerusalem, borders, refugees, settlements, water and security. Therefore, I rule out the possibility that there would be an agreement or a written document this month. "We are not in a bazaar or a market. We are talking about rights and we must ensure our rights in any agreement." Along with the core issues, Erekat is looking for return of "detainees" (i.e., terrorists) to Judea and Samaria, removal of the security fence and of checkpoints, and the opening of closed PA institutions in Jerusalem. The simple fact is that the more hungry Olmert has acted to reach an agreement — an abysmally bad negotiating stance — the tougher the PA demands have become. The PA presumably wants a state. Why should they not be petitioning us? ~~~~~~~~~~ Olmert and Abbas met today, presumably for the last time before the Kadima primary. There was no press conference following, so it can be assumed nothing was resolved. It can also be assumed that Olmert used this opportunity to push Abbas to consider his plan, even though officials are denying that Olmert is pushing in this direction. Their claim is that the goal is still the end of 2008. According to Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman, "significant progress had been made in the talks" but "there are still considerable gaps between the two sides." ~~~~~~~~~~ It was anticipated before the fact that Abbas would be requesting the release of more prisoners, and indeed that turned out to be the case, although no details are forthcoming and Israeli officials are saying no promises have been made. Actually, a PA official had claimed that Israel has agreed to release Barghouti, Fuad Shabuki, who was involved with the Karine-A weapons ship, and Abdel Aziz Dweik of Hamas. And that Abbas would be demanding as well the release of Ahmed Sa'adat, connected to the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi, and hundreds of others. All of this was to strengthen Abbas, according to this official: "It's better for all if Barghouti and the Hamas officials are released as a result of our efforts and not through a prisoner exchange with Hamas. Hamas is hoping to score points by releasing Fatah and Hamas prisoners in return for Gilad Schalit." One needs a strong stomach to deal with this. Competition as to who gets credit for securing the release of more prisoners, with some perverted notion that if we are willing to give prisoners to Hamas to secure Shalit, we have to also do something to make Fatah look good. The bottom line is that Hamas will seek prisoners in return for Shalit no matter what, and in fact, will demand more if we keep giving to the PA without a quid pro quo. (see more following) In response to these claims, an Israeli official has said that "the release of Barghouti is not on the table today." But he also said that the release of 198 recently is not the end. Haim Ramon is now convening a committee to decide on 450 prisoners to be released to Hamas for Shalit, but Asharq al-Awsat has cited Hamas officials who say the price is now over 1,000. I imagine we now have to wait for the other shoe to drop, as Olmert announces what he he is willing to do for Abbas next. ~~~~~~~~~~ One thing has been announced: Olmert reprimanded Abbas for meeting with Samir Kuntar during his recent visit to Lebanon. "You're not supposed to meet with killers," he told him. Not supposed to if he's a moderate, but this is an indication of Abbas's true inclinations. ~~~~~~~~~~ A very solid reason (among many!) to not even attempt to complete negotiations by the end of 2008: Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin has reported to the Cabinet that when Abbas's term as president ends in early 2009, there is a good chance that political turmoil will ensue. The "rift between Palestinian factions is so deep it will be nearly impossible to hold an election." ~~~~~~~~~~ Coming soon: Comments on Gov. Palin, McCain's choice of VP candidate. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS EXPLAIN OLMERT PEACE PLAN Posted by Michael Travis, August 30, 2008.

This was written by 'Abd Al-Karim Shweiki and Michael Friedson and published Wednesday, August 13, 2008 in The Media Line http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=22407

[Ramallah and Jerusalem] Publication on Tuesday by the Israeli daily Haaretz of details of Prime Minister Olmert's peace offer to the Palestinians triggered a rush of assertions and denials playing out in media. Senior Palestinian officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to disclose the information "on-record" have confirmed to The Media Line that Israel has asked the Palestinians to agree to an Israeli annexation of 7.3% of the West Bank; while the Palestinians would receive 5.5% from land located between Gaza and Hebron in addition to an another 2% for use as a safe passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The officials said the offer came in meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud 'Abbas and in meetings between the two sides' chief negotiators for final status talks: Ahmad Qurei' and Tzipi Livni. The officials said that Israel asked to annex three blocs of communities located in post-1967 territories, including the Jerusalem suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion south of Jerusalem, and the city of Ariel in the Samaria region. The Palestinians agreed in principle only to the annexation of Gush Etzion and rejected the other two blocs outright. "Agreeing to annex Ariel and Ma'aleh Adumim would mean separating the West Bank into four parts and this is totally unacceptable by us. We informed both the Israelis and the Americans about our position," one senior official familiar with the negotiations told The Media Line. According to that official, Israel was clear in its demand for annexing 7.3% of the West Bank while as the Palestinians agreed to only 1.8% in the form of a land-swap. The official also revealed that according to the Palestinian proposal, the Palestinians agreed to Israeli retention of Givat Ze'ev and Neve Yaakov in the Jerusalem area, but not Har Homa. The official said, "We still don't know exactly the areas that Israel wants to annex. It is true that we had seen maps, but [they were] not complete. Maybe Israel wants to annex east Jerusalem, which is 2% of the West Bank" The official also revealed that Israel wants the safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza Strip to remain under the Israeli sovereignty. "If it will be under the Israeli sovereignty, then why to include it under the swap deal?" the official asked. According to the official, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to bridge the gaps between the two positions and these efforts will top the agenda when she returns to the region on August 20th. According to the Palestinian source, the Israelis appear content to cede the Jordan Valley — once considered non-negotiable — in exchange for adequate "security needs" that include early warning systems and patrols of the borders by the Israeli army. Not surprisingly, the Palestinians were agreeable to the former, but oppose any physical Israeli presence. They did, however, counter with the suggestion of an international force modeled on the UNIFIL presence on the Israel-Lebanon border. Another major point of departure is the demand by Israel that the Palestinian state be demilitarized. Israel insists that the existing Palestinian security apparatus along with its current weaponry is sufficient for the proposed state — a position the Palestinians reject. While the issue of a Palestinian right of return for those who left their homes when Israel became a state in 1948 remains contentious, it appears that Israeli negotiators have gone beyond an absolute rejection of the idea. According to the officials who briefed The Media Line, Israel has offered to allow the return of a limited number of Palestinians based on a formula of family unification. Models for compensating refugees have apparently been discussed, with Israel demanding compensation for Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries. 'Abbas spokesman and adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said, "there is still a wide gap between the two positions on the issue of land and I can confirm that none of the final status issues is closed so far." Abu Rudeina did not refer directly to specific details in Prime Minister Olmert's proposals, but said, "The Palestinian side will only accept a Palestinian state with territorial continuity, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, without settlements, and on the June 4, 1967 boundaries." Palestinian negotiator Dr. Sa'ib 'Ariqat insists that the Palestinians have not received any such detailed proposal from the Israelis. "At no time was any 'detailed' or package proposal ever presented to the Palestinians, either by Prime Minister Olmert or any other Israeli official." 'Ariqat said. Erekat emphasized the need to achieve a comprehensive solution that includes the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital and a "just and agreed upon solution to the refugees." He stressed that serious negotiations are taking place but said there still remains ''wide gaps'' between the two parties. But nevertheless, senior Palestinian officials confirmed to The Media Line that 'Abbas did, indeed, hear these ideas from Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Qurei' similarly heard the same proposals from Israeli Foreign Minister Livni. 'Abbas and Olmert have met a number of times since President Bush's Annapolis conference in November 2007; and Qurei' and Livni have held dozens of sessions. The Palestinian officials stressed that while the meetings have included discussions of final status issues such as borders, refugees, settlements, water and bilateral relations, the matter of Jerusalem has not been discussed, primarily because of Olmert's delicate political position vis-à-vis the Shas party. Ruled by rabbinic dictate, Shas has threatened to leave the government coalition if Jerusalem is discussed. Yet, 'Ariqat insists that, "It was agreed with the Israelis in the presence of the Americans that there will be no agreement until everything is agreed upon. This means reaching an agreement on all the final status issues including Jerusalem which will be the capital of the Palestinian state." The Palestinian officials maintain that if Olmert wants an agreement in-hand before he leaves office, he will have to open negotiations to include the issue of Jerusalem. Palestinian negotiator Qurei' is reportedly demanding that the U.S. certify in writing exactly where negotiations now stand as a safeguard against talks returning to square one as the result of an Israeli — or Palestinian — governmental collapse. "'Abbas Visits Lebanon" News Item http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_mideast_daily.asp?Date= 08/29/2008&category_id=8 Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud 'Abbas is in Beirut on the second day of a two-day visit. Atop the agenda is the conditions under which 400,000 Palestinian refugees are living in 12 Lebanese refugee camps. 'Abbas is expected to tell Lebanese officials of the need for improved living conditions and greater ease in finding jobs. Violence is also reportedly becoming more and more frequent in the camps. But absorbing the Palestinians into Lebanese society is not an option for 'Abbas. He has re-stated his opposition to "the resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon." He maintains that "the Palestinians have the right of return [to Israel] and this is an issue we are discussing with the Israelis." Contact Michael Travis at michaelmgr@gmail.com To Go To Top

ANTI-SEMITISM GOES TO SCHOOL Posted by Taverna, August 30, 2008.

This was written by Sonia Scherr and it appeared asn an intelligence Report of the Southern Poverty Law Center http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=952 The original article contains links to several related videos.

Hate on California and Oregon Campuses Amir Abdel Malik Ali, who spoke at the University of California, Irvine, this spring at the invitation of the Muslim Student Union, trotted out a series of anti-Semitic canards. (Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism) Half a century ago, American institutions of higher education nationwide had quotas sharply restricting the number of Jewish students allowed to enroll. Today, those quotas have ceased to exist — along with the school-sanctioned discrimination they embodied. But while anti-Jewish sentiment no longer receives the blessing of university officials, it hasn't been fully eradicated from campuses. "Many colleges throughout the United States continue to experience incidents of anti-Semitism," states a 2006 report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. "This is a serious problem which warrants further attention." In terms of numbers alone, the problem may seem small. An audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which fights bigotry, found that 94 anti-Semitic incidents were reported on U.S. campuses in 2007 — a number that has remained fairly stable over the past few years and represents only about 6% of known occurrences last year of harassment and vandalism targeting Jews. But such incidents tend to affect campus communities disproportionately, often resulting in very public controversies and bitter disputes between students. College campuses are particularly susceptible to anti-Semitism that originates in certain sectors of the far left. This source of anti-Jewish sentiment often begins with condemnation of Israeli policies and devolves into derogatory statements about all Jewish people. Although criticism of Israel does not typically amount to anti-Semitism — and many critics of the Jewish state are unfairly accused of bigotry — in some cases those who denounce Israel also cross the line into denigration of Jews as a group. According to the report from the federal civil rights commission: "On many campuses, anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist propaganda has been disseminated that includes traditional anti-Semitic elements, including age-old Jewish stereotypes and defamation. This has included, for example, anti-Israel literature that perpetuates the medieval anti-Semitic blood libel of Jews slaughtering children for ritual purpose, as well as anti-Zionist propaganda that exploits ancient stereotypes of Jews as greedy, aggressive, overly powerful or conspiratorial." In addition, bigoted speakers who are spurned elsewhere can end up finding a platform on campuses, which are understandably reluctant to bar the expression of even highly offensive views. "Racists and demagogues have ably exploited schools' commitment to free speech, cloaking their propaganda in the guise of academic freedom," states a 1997 ADL report about anti-Semitism on campus. "They have two objectives: hooking the country's future leaders on the ideas they preach, and generating mainstream media coverage through the controversy that inevitably erupts over particularly incendiary events." The Intelligence Report took an in-depth look at two different examples of modern-day anti-Semitism on college campuses (neither of which occurred in the classroom or was sanctioned in any way by university officials). In both cases, legitimate concerns about Israeli treatment of Palestinians found expression alongside anti-Jewish canards and Holocaust denial. During appearances on public university campuses in California, two Muslim clerics have espoused anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Sept. 11 and asserted that Jews control the media and other powerful institutions. Several hundred miles north, a discussion group seeking justice for Palestinians has morphed into a haven for white supremacists that's brought a string of Holocaust deniers to speak at the University of Oregon. At a California university, two Muslim speakers go beyond criticism of Israel into outright anti-Semitism IRVINE, Calif. — At a speaker series titled "Never Again? The Palestinian Holocaust," it was no surprise to hear denunciations of Israel. But students who attended the weeklong event this spring at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) were treated to more disturbing rhetoric when two of the speakers trotted out anti-Semitic canards blaming Israeli Jews for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The speakers, Imam Mohammad al-Asi and Amir Abdel Malik Ali, also asserted that Zionist Jews control the media, financial institutions and the U.S. government. UCI's Muslim Student Union invited the two men to campus as part of its annual speaker series, which has featured a line-up of critics of Israel. This year's event coincided with the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state's founding and featured nine speakers, several of them Jewish, who lambasted Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. But al-Asi and Ali went beyond criticism of Israeli policies and ventured into outright anti-Semitism during speeches that drew from 100 to 200 people, many of them Muslim students. Although pro-Israel advocates sometimes questionably accuse critics of Israeli policy, especially Muslim critics, of being anti-Semitic, both Al-Asi and Ali seem to have repeatedly crossed the line from lambasting Israeli policy to promoting bizarre anti-Jewish conspiracy theories of the sort typically favored by neo-Nazis, as well as by giving voice to loathing for all Jews as a people. As Al-Asi put it in a previous speech at UCI: "We have a psychosis in the Jewish community that is unable to co-exist equally and brotherly with other human beings. You can take a Jew out of the ghetto, but you cannot take the ghetto out of the Jew." "Mr. Ali and Mr. al-Asi are part of a speaking circuit that regularly makes appearances at California campuses beyond UCI and has done so for many years," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. "It's troubling because they embrace anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, glorify violence against civilians, promote antipathy toward democratic institutions and introduce fabrications that go unchecked — not because they have political views critical of American policies, Israel or Zionism." In fact, between the two of them, Ali and al-Asi have spoken at more than 15 colleges, including San Francisco State University; Sacramento State University; California State University, Long Beach; University of Southern California; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Portland State University in Oregon, and York University in Canada. Orchestrating 9/11 Al-Asi and Ali spoke twice during their respective visits to UCI on May 12 and May 15: once outdoors in a busy area of campus and once in the evening at UCI's student center. Al-Asi is a member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, a think tank that advocates "the assertion of Islamic values in public and political life." Writing in the February 2007 issue of the group's magazine, Crescent International, al-Asi cited a single example of an anti-Arab comment from an ultra-Orthodox Israeli rabbi and came to this conclusion: "Considering the sort of behavior and attitudes coming from Jewish religious figures, it is rather less surprising to see the actions of a secular Jewish state. This is precisely what qualifies Yahud [Arabic for Jews] for displacement, dispossession and depression. That is why they have been stamped with shame, mortification and the wrath of the Almighty." Ali leads the Masjid al-Islam mosque in Oakland, Calif.; the mosque is part of the As-Sabiqun movement, which advocates "the establishment of Islam as a complete way of life in America." Echoing a rumor popular in far-right circles, both Ali and al-Asi claimed during their most recent visits to UCI that Israeli Jews orchestrated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In response to a question just after he'd left the podium, al-Asi claimed that five Israeli citizens — suspected members of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency — were filming the World Trade Center as the attacks took place. "That's one indicator that somehow these people had some type of inside information that something like this is going to happen," he said. "Or else they wouldn't be there with their video cameras taking pictures of this event in progress." Although five Israeli citizens were arrested shortly after the attack — and one of them reportedly had a camera with pictures of the burning World Trade Center — the FBI found no evidence linking the men to the terrorist attacks. They were deported to Israel because of immigration violations. Al-Asi also implied that Jews who worked in the World Trade Center had received advance warning of the attack and that the media had launched a cover-up. "They [the Jews who died] don't come up to be the same proportion of the people who live in New York or the people who are of the Jewish faith who work in these buildings." Al-Asi managed to connect this contemporary conspiracy theory to the age-old stereotype about Jews and money. Because the Twin Towers housed financial institutions, he said, lots of Jews must have been employed there. "Jews, generally speaking, they don't work as trash collectors and, you know, hard labor jobs. Many of their jobs have to do with white-collar positions — and especially when it comes to finances." It's not the first time al-Asi has suggested that Jews working in the World Trade Center stayed home on Sept. 11. Speaking at the National Press Club in October 2001 with members of the New Black Panther Party, an anti-Semitic black separatist group, al-Asi asserted that Israeli Jews perpetrated Sept. 11 because they wanted the United States to share their feelings of insecurity. "There's 4,000 to 5,000 Israeli Jews who were supposed to be in those two buildings on Sept. 11," he said in a news conference aired on C-SPAN. "After the dust settles, we ask how many of these 4,000 to 5,000 were killed in this tragedy? And they can only confirm there was one death and three to four injured. Did they know something we didn't know, and if they did, we want answers: Why didn't they go to work? ... Where were those 5,000 and why are you covering up these facts?" Making a Myth Ali expresses similar views. As a small group gathered around him after his noon speech at UCI, he said that Carl Cameron of Fox News tried to expose the "truth" about Sept. 11 in a news report. "He named those people who were there celebrating that the buildings were coming down, and how they were Zionist Jews, and how they were arrested and how they were let go. So the story was taken off," Ali said. "The Zionist Jews were behind it. Mossad [the national Israeli intelligence agency] was behind it." During a speech at UCI last year, Ali told the same the story about Mossad agents rejoicing as the World Trade Center collapsed. He also said Zionist Jews perpetrated the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 as well as 2001. "They do things to make people think it's Muslims, when it's actually them behind the scenes," he said. The rumor about Jews avoiding the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 was unwittingly started by the Jerusalem Post; an article in the newspaper's online edition said the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem knew of 4,000 Israelis believed to be in the vicinity of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon when the attacks occurred. This information was soon twisted into the myth that 4,000 Jews failed to show up for work on Sept. 11. According to the U.S. State Department, which issued a report refuting the rumor, various estimates show that Jews made up 10% to 15% of those who died in the World Trade Center — a figure that tracks closely with the estimated 12% of New York City residents who are Jewish. The Muslim Student Union, which brought the speakers to campus, didn't respond to two E-mails requesting comment for this article. But the group's spokeswoman, Nida Chowdhry, told the Irvine student newspaper, New University, that "we're trying to foster dialogue and truth. If we found out that something was incorrect, we would change it. Promoting falsehood would be against my faith." Cathy Lawhon, a spokeswoman for UCI, noted that the university does not sponsor the speakers. "Their views are not reflective of what is heard in any classroom or any other venue on campus," she said. She said the university provides forums to encourage civil discourse and understanding among students, including "Difficult Dialogues," which aims to promote discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related issues through courses, lectures and other events throughout the year. Jewish Control As for al-Asi, he argued that he couldn't possibly be anti-Semitic because Semites include Arabs such as himself. During his evening presentation at UCI in May, he blamed "Zionists" for controlling public opinion to such an extent that people equate anti-Semitism with hatred of Jews. "You have a monopoly over money, but you're not going to have a monopoly over ideas," he said. Even though Jews comprise roughly 2% of the U.S. population — and less than 1% of the world population — al-Asi implied that they dominate everyone else. "I don't like to use the word, but Muslims and Christians are outsiders," he said. "We're not Jews." Al-Asi also claimed that several Jewish government officials secretly hold Israeli citizenship. "If we have officials in the United States government who owe their allegiance to Israel before the United States, we'd like to know about it, especially when they are occupying some of the most sensitive positions in the government," he said. "And I'll just give you one example: Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a department that has about 185,000 employees. This person is a dual citizen. He's an Israeli and an American. ... And how many other dual citizens do we have in this country who owe their allegiance to Israel first and the United States second?" But the U.S.-born Chertoff is not, and never has been, an Israeli citizen. "He is an American citizen and that is the only citizenship he has ever had," said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner. Likewise, Ali has said many times during campus visits that Jews control the media. He has falsely identified as Jewish both media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Flemming Rose, the Danish newspaper editor who published controversial cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad. In a May 2006 speech at UCI, Ali said: "Rupert Murdoch: Zionist Jew. Zionist Jew owns Fox News. They say that it's anti-Semitic if you say that the Zionists control the media. You better get out of here. Old Rupert is a straight-up Zionist Jew. He is. Put that on Fox News. Rupert Murdoch is a Zionist Jew." Even when a questioner told him after his most recent UCI speech that he'd gotten his facts wrong about Murdoch and Rose, Ali was undeterred: "They're definitely Jewish. They're Zionist Jews. What's the other question? The media. Yes, Zionists do control the media." "I just wanted to make sure you're not backtracking," said the questioner. "No," Ali replied, "I'm not backtracking at all." On an Oregon university campus, a left-wing discussion group takes a giant leap to the extreme right Nearly 15 years ago, a longtime pacifist and retired professor in Eugene, Ore., started an informal group whose stated aim was to "provide information and points of view" on "war and peace, militarism and pacifism, violence and non-violence." He named it the Pacifica Forum, after a San Francisco area supper club that discussed similar issues. Now, the group he founded appears to have forsaken its left-wing origins and made a giant leap to the extreme right. Over the past 10 months, Pacifica Forum has brought a veritable Who's Who of leading Holocaust deniers to speak at the University of Oregon, including Mark Weber and David Irving. "Pacifica Forum acts as if it's striving to become a West Coast stop on the white supremacist speaker circuit," opined the local newspaper, The Register-Guard, in June. Indeed, the group has created a stir in this college town known for its vibrant arts scene, stunning scenery and liberal politics. Local media outlets have covered the Pacifica Forum extensively, dozens of people have protested the group's speakers, and the University of Oregon president condemned the racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric of a Pacifica Forum attendee. While fewer than 10 people (besides reporters and monitors) usually attend the group's weekly meetings at the University of Oregon campus, much larger crowds have turned out to hear the group's speakers. "They've truly escalated," said Hal Applebaum, executive director of Hillel, a Jewish campus organization, at the University of Oregon. "They hide behind issues of free speech and claim it's important to hear what these people say. They lend legitimacy to speakers who have been discredited and widely condemned by almost everybody who's taken a look at their stuff." Community activists fear that white supremacists are seizing control of the group and using it to recruit others to their cause. "It's not just the programming. It's the atmosphere, where expressions of anti-Semitism and racism and homophobia are acceptable — not only acceptable but warmly regarded," said Michael Williams, who has helped organize protests of the group's speakers. But Pacifica Forum attendees see themselves as a persecuted group committed to free speech and the discussion of taboo topics. "Especially after we experienced — beginning five years ago — efforts to shut us down, we became devoted to free speech," said Orval Etter, the 92-year-old founder and chairman of Pacifica Forum. "We felt that the speakers needed to be heard in this community in order for the community to be better informed about public affairs in general." Etter denied that the group has been overtaken by white supremacists. Rather, the group's loose structure (it has no bylaws or board of directors) enables people with diverse viewpoints to participate in the group, he said. As for the allegation that Pacifica Forum is anti-Jewish, "If you rub a substantial number of Jews the wrong way, you're anti-Semitic," he told the Intelligence Report. "In that sense, I have to admit that the forum and I, in particular, are anti-Semitic." The Flirtation Begins Orval Etter is an emeritus professor of planning, public policy and management at the University of Oregon, a musician who received an award for his support of the arts in Lane County, and a pacifist who was a conscientious objector during World War II and afterward worked for a national interfaith peace organization. He started Pacifica Forum in 1994. Etter is outspoken in his belief that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians constitutes a "holocaust." Not surprisingly, the programs presented by Pacifica Forum on the Middle East have long been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. But programs that went beyond criticism of Israel into anti-Semitism, particularly Holocaust denial, have also been part of the forum's mix, Williams said. "Until [early 2005], the forum was mostly older people, often more or less progressive but naïve in the sense that they were often unable to distinguish between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish positions, expressions and programming," Williams said. Between 2003 and 2005, three organizations that had sponsored Pacifica Forum dropped the group due to concerns about anti-Semitic programs. One organization, the Eugene Fellowship of Reconciliation (an interfaith peace group), cited a Pacifica Forum presentation given repeatedly on the anniversary of Kristallnacht in which Etter uncritically summarizes a book by Ingrid Weckert, a German Holocaust denier who claims that "world Jewry" perpetrated the nationwide 1938 pogrom that destroyed the property of German Jews. Despite losing its sponsors, Pacifica Forum wasn't homeless for long. Etter and former University of Oregon sports information director George Beres created the Campus Civil Liberties Circle, under whose sponsorship they were able to reserve free space on campus for Pacifica Forum. For about a year beginning in early 2005, Pacifica Forum largely turned its back on anti-Semitic programming, significantly increased its attendance, and drew people with more political savvy than before, Williams said. Then Etter met Valdas Anelauskas, a Lithuanian immigrant who describes himself as a white separatist and racialist, at a talk Etter gave on the imprisonment of Holocaust denier David Irving in Austria. Etter invited Anelauskas, who lives in Eugene, to present a series of lectures on "Zionism and Russia" beginning in May 2006. An Unsavory Friend In his lecture series, Anelauskas argued that Jews perpetrated a greater genocide than the Holocaust during the first half century of Communist rule in the former Soviet Union. In one speech, he proclaimed that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which describes a supposed Jewish plot to take over the world, was not the Tsarist forgery that experts say it was; on the contrary, he said, reading it "makes one's flesh crawl." In his first lecture on "Zionism and Russia," Anelauskas said: "There are many good people and also many bad people in every nation, but after many years of my experience and research, I came to the conclusion that among the Jews, for some reason, there is a much larger percentage of bad people than among others." Anelauskas dedicated at least one of the lectures to Germar Rudolf, who was imprisoned in his native Germany for Holocaust denial. Etter was impressed by Anelauskas's talks. "They were quite well-documented and in those lectures I didn't sense any clear anti-Semitism," he said. Neither did Dawn Coslow, a regular Pacifica Forum attendee, mother of four, and non-traditional college student. "We were spellbound by the amount of facts being offered us," she told the Intelligence Report. But others say the lectures represented a turning point for Pacifica Forum. "Anelauskas began attracting people for whom anti-Semitism was the message they wanted to hear," Williams said. Etter has acknowledged that Anelauskas has made some clearly anti-Semitic remarks in conversations with other Pacifica Forum attendees. He said he was greatly upset by the poor documentation in a talk that Anelauskas prepared on Martin Luther King Jr. The lecture — which Anelauskas cobbled together from Internet sources and gave to Pacifica Forum attendee Jimmy Marr to edit and deliver — vilified King as a "moral leper and communist dupe" with a penchant for deviant sex. Identical claims have been made by the white supremacist right for decades. This February, Anelauskas posted a comment on the website of the student newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald, in response to a column that expressed support for the war in Iraq. "Even if the author's name wasn't Deborah Bloom, after reading your opinion piece in the Emerald (Feb. 7) there is no doubt that it was written by someone who is Jewish," he wrote in part. "Because only from people of that peculiar tribe can we expect such Talmudic hatred for humanity. There is even a famous saying that wars are the Jews' harvest." The Daily Emerald reported that its editor-in-chief decided to take down the post because it constituted hate speech. Anelauskas declined a request for an interview. "I hope that one day you will end up, as the communist KGB did, in the dustbin of history," he E-mailed the Intelligence Report. Enter the Heavyweights About a year after Anelauskas' talks, the Pacifica Forum invited Mark Weber to speak. Weber is the director of the Institute for Historical Review, a leading Holocaust denial group that maintains a scholarly veneer, and once belonged to the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Weber was supposed to talk about "the Israel Lobby," but that didn't stop him from taking aim at Jews as a group. "Jews view non-Jews in a distrustful and even adversarial way," Weber told the audience of about 70 last Nov. 3. "Throughout history, Jews have time and again wielded great power to further group interests that are separate from, and often contrary to, those of the non-Jewish populations among whom they live." Then came Irving, who has achieved notoriety since losing a libel suit he filed against an American historian who called him a Holocaust denier (the British judge in that case famously labeled Irving "pro-Nazi"). The poster advertising Irving's appearance on June 9 praised him as a "legendary British historian and martyr for free speech" and stated that he would speak about "political imprisonment in modern Europe." But Irving — who once said that more people died in the back seat of Sen. Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than in the gas chambers at Auschwitz — devoted only part of his talk to his legal troubles and spent the remaining time on revisionist history, mostly an effort to exonerate Hitler. During the question-and-answer session, he claimed that the Jews, not the Nazis, were to blame for whatever might have happened to them during World War II. (Irving generally steered clear of the term "Holocaust.") That's because of the "networking [they do] for their own benefit at the exclusion of non-Jews. Non-Jews don't network with the same intensity. And this was undoubtedly a contributing factor in what we now call the Holocaust." Not only that, but the Jews can expect another "tragedy" in this country if they don't change their behavior, Irving said. "The Jews in the United States are now beginning to occupy the same positions or predominance in the lucrative, wealthy professions and so on that they occupied prior to Nazi Germany, which caused their tragedy," he told about 70 people. Etter, who attended both talks, contends that Irving and Weber are legitimate historians. "I'm not aware that he's made statements against Jews," Etter said of Irving. "If he's made statements that are critical of Jews, it's not because they're Jews, it's because of what they've done or what they've said." A pamphlet written by Etter in 1998 and distributed at a Pacifica Forum presentation complained that the term "Holocaust denier" ostracizes and silences people who contend that certain claims about the Holocaust are exaggerated. In his interview with the Intelligence Report, Etter said he thinks those exaggerations include the number of Jewish victims. "I admit that there were some bad things done to Jews during World War II, but I don't believe that everything they claim is truthful," Etter said. The parade of speakers who share that view has continued. On June 24, about 40 people attended a talk by Pacifica Forum speaker Tomislav Sunic, who only three days earlier had addressed the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) at its national "leadership conference" in Sheffield, Ala. Sunic, a writer and white nationalist, had previously spoken to the Washington D.C.-area chapter of the CCC and the Institute for Historical Review (at least twice). He appeared on the "Political Cesspool," a white nationalist radio show, and was interviewed extensively for David Duke's Internet radio program. Sunic and the former Klan boss (whose latest book is entitled Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question) commiserated about Jewish domination, low birth rates among people of European ancestry and discrimination against whites. "Especially in these multiracial cities, like L.A. or Washington D.C., I'm losing my eye contact," Sunic confessed to Duke. "I'm sort of afraid even of raising my head and looking at people right in their eyes because I know they may not be of my species." Exodus: Fleeing the Forum The number of people attending Pacifica Forum meetings is less than half what it was two years ago — and it's mostly a different crowd. Among those who left were Mariah Leung and Jack Dresser, who regularly made factual presentations on Israel and Palestine as well as on other topics related to war, peace and justice. "A small group of attendees with a 'white separatist' preoccupation was attracted to the forum and started attending regularly," they wrote in an opinion piece posted on Pacifica Forum's website. "While never part of forum sessions, e-mailed views about 'race-mixing,' 'blood consciousness,' 'miscegenation that tears down civilization and pollutes good races' and 'the genocidal war against our own race' began to proliferate." Dresser, a former Army psychologist during the Vietnam War, told the Intelligence Report that after the Anelauskas lectures, he spoke to Pacifica Forum attendees about the psychology of racism and its consequences, showing photos of lynchings and anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda posters. "Since Pacifica Forum is a public forum, Mariah and I had no objection to attendance by the self-described 'white separatists' and even entertained some hope of modifying their views," he E-mailed. "However, we could not allow them any control of programming in a forum with which our names were regularly associated. Orval declined to exclude their influence in programming decisions and we thereupon formally dissociated ourselves." The community has spoken out strongly against the spate of anti-Jewish and racist speakers. The Anti-Hate Task Force — a broad-based community organization sponsored by the nonprofit Community Alliance of Lane County — organized protests before the speeches by Weber, Irving and Sunic. The week after Weber's lecture, about 80 people attended a symposium where four University of Oregon professors spoke about the Holocaust, said David Frank, dean of the university's Honors College. For its part, the university has continued to allow Pacifica Forum to meet on campus. "The university is committed to free speech, and Pacifica Forum's use of the space does not reflect a university position on topics that they present," said university spokeswoman Julie Brown. Still, in a spring letter to his colleagues at the University of Oregon, university president Dave Frohnmayer condemned Anelauskas' anti-Semitic rant against the student newspaper columnist and called the presentation on Martin Luther King "unabashedly racist." All of this has Etter convinced that his group is being unfairly smeared — and he knows who's to blame. "The way Jews in this town have treated the forum, I must confess that I'm being impelled quite against my wishes to see in the Jewish community a lot of unsavory behavior," he lamented. "So I've undergone a transformation somewhat in the direction of becoming an anti-Semite." Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com To Go To Top

HAMAS' TOTAL CONTROL OVER GAZA; BUSH & OBAMA PANDERING DISGUSTS DISSIDENTS; CRAZY COLLEGES Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 29, 2008.

Israel's Defense Min. Barak long has promised a major invasion of Gaza. His statements show he never meant it. I think he was deceiving the public. Israeli officials have a record of making false, defense-minded self-portraits. Here is Dr. Aaron Lerner's verbatim analysis of Barak's statements: If Israeli forces did go into Gaza, Barak said, "afterward we would have to achieve a truce, and we would have to deal with the same parties as before." "Even if Israeli forces stay there two years and destroy the Hamas regime down to the last office and the last activist, in the aftermath [Israel] is controlling another people against their will, and the Palestinian people, when they compare the two, will choose Hamas ... and not those who talk peace," he said, referring to the moderate Fatah, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. ["Moderate?"] That's "talk peace" — not "make peace". And Barak believes that if Israel destroys Hamas that the Palestinian street will choose Hamas over Fatah. Does he think that the Palestinian street will choose Fatah over Hamas if Israel allows Hamqs to continue and grow stronger? Question: What does Mr. Barak think should be the primary objective of the Government of Israel (hint: he is minister of "defense"). Ehud Barak apparently thinks that the primary objective of the Government of Israel is to get the Palestinian public to support Fatah. And while he himself demonstrated in his failed negotiations with Arafat that it is hardly a foregone conclusion that even a deal that includes reckless Israeli concessions will satisfy the Palestinians, it would also appear that he accepts the assertion that a necessary condition of any Israeli strategy/plan is that it ultimately leads to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state come-what-may. But is it indeed reasonable to insist that a necessary condition of any Israeli strategy/plan is that it ultimately leads to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state come-what-may? A sovereign Palestinian state is at best a "means" rather than and "ends" for Israel. Israel has goals: survival, development, Olmert's goal that Israel be "a fun place to live in", etc. One may think that a sovereign Palestinian state would help Israeli attain these goals, but it isn't itself a goal. Barak now argues that it doesn't matter how strong Hamas gets now as a result of their exploitation of the ceasefire because even before the ceasefire (thanks to the smuggling that has taken place since Israel's retreat from Gaza) "Everyone knows that when the truce was declared, there were already hundreds of Grad missiles there." Again — that's Defense Minister Ehud Barak. A man boasting a military career. Saying with a straight face that there is no difference between Hamas having hundreds of missiles that can reach as far as Ashkelon and Hamas having thousands that can reach Ashkelon and hundreds that can reach Ashdod and beyond. Not to mention an army that has been able to exploit the ceasefire to openly engage in large scale training exercises, build fortifications, underground launching position, dig tunnels, extensively plant mines and otherwise transform the Gaza Strip into a giant killing field against Israeli troops. By the way — does the fact that Hamas already has " hundreds of Grad missiles" in the Gaza Strip weigh in as an argument that Israel should wake up and do something already, or, as DM Barak seems to contend — as an argument for Israel to surrender? What is really going on? Is this really what Mr. Barak thinks or is he simply jockeying for a position on the Left end of the Israeli political spectrum in anticipation of elections? One thing is clear: Mr. Barak has sent a message to the world that the ongoing smuggling into Gaza and strengthening of the Hamas army isn't really a big deal as far as Israel's Minister of Defense is concerned. And if Defense Minister Barak doesn't give a damn — why should the world? Expect the same with regard to Hezbollah in the north (IMRA, 8/10). ISRAELI DIPLOMACY WITH P.A. Pres. Bush had the right idea. Don't deal with Arafat — corrupt, unpopular, undemocratic [and anti-American]. Then Bush abandoned the idea Natan Sharansky believes in a peace process, provided that the Arab side has a civil society. Otherwise, Hamas will take over. Foreign countries gave Arafat hundreds of millions of dollars, "to strengthen him." He stole the money. This alienated his people, who turned to Hamas. [Israel still makes concession to the P.A., to strengthen it. Israel repeats this mistake.] Israel withdrew from Gaza without demanding concessions. That strengthened the more extreme element there, which claimed to have forced Israel out. This supposed "strengthening" focuses on who rules, rather than on how. Result: Since September 2000, "...122 killed in the streets (suspected collaborators), 41 by capital punishment, 34 honor killings, 48 stabbed to death, seven beaten to death, 258 killed under mysterious circumstances and 818 cases of gunfire. So far no one has been charged let alone tried for any of these unlawful killings." "Where is the international outrage..." as P.A. leaders wreck their own society? Bassem Eid says that when he accused Israel of human rights violations, he won foreign approval. When he monitored P.A. violations the same way, he won foreign disapproval. They thought he was undermining Arafat and Abbas, whom they expected to make peace with Israel (IMRA, 8/12). Fanatics don't make peace. BUSH & OBAMA PANDERING DISGUSTS DISSIDENTS People criticize Pres. Bush's firm foreign policies, but his reversals cause his failures. He reversed his policy of opposing terrorism in the P.A., and now subsidizes the P.A. and seeks it independence, while it attacks Israel. He denounced Syria tyranny over Lebanon, then upheld the Syrian dictator. He won applause for vowing to help dissidents, but then ignored them. He assured Japan he would take away N. Korea's nuclear weapons, then offered to let N. Korea keep them. After threatening Iran, he now lets it proceed. Obama, too, promises anything, then betrays his promises. He promised to keep Jerusalem undivided, then reneged. He tells some audiences he will withdraw from Iraq by schedule and that he will talk with Iran unconditionally, but tells others it depends on Iraqi conditions and says Iran has to meet certain preconditions. Obama and Bush pander for applause. Flip-flops sacrifice credibility, something a great power needs (Michael Rubin, MEFNews, 8/12). Georgia found this out the hard way. CRAZY COLLEGES I went through college before they went mad. We did hear of some juvenile hazing and panty raids. Then came the 1960s, when college students might riot without knowing the issue. Now, leftist intolerance is rife at our dumbed-down colleges, as much from faculty as from students. The earlier students grew up chronologically, and joined the faculty. They disseminate ideological intolerance immune to much challenge, and let the students engage in violence and antisemitism or at least intimidation. College has turned from a process of opening minds, as during the Renaissance, to closing and hardening minds, as in a totalitarian society. The good citizens of the US and other Western countries pay for this perversion of their children. STILL A NEED FOR ISRAEL Some hundreds of Jews from war-torn Georgia have taken refuge in Israel. Most probably will stay, welcomed as they are. They will not be kept in camps, as are refugees in many other places. This is another example validating Zionism. The Jews must have a country of their own. WHERE WAS U.S. & ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE? Georgia acted cocky, challenging Russia. Were the intelligence services of the US, Israel, and Georgia unaware of Russian capabilities and US limitations, or did they advise Georgia of them and Georgia disregarded the intelligence? How Georgia fell into the Russian trap. Ukraine must be worried, now. Apparently, Putin quietly reformed the Russian military so that it wouldn't blunder as it had in its prior two wars, in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The US media had quietly stopped reporting on Chechnya, so I didn't realize that Russia finally prevailed there. How did Georgia not have its air force on alert, so at least it could meet the Russian bombers rather than let its own airports get bombed without a fight? PART OF ISRAELI LEFTIST PSYCHOSIS No. 15988 reported Haaretz' haste to blame Israel for whatever it is accused of, before investigating. Actually, the Arabs are likelier to have done it, and usually are shown to have done it, but by that time, the media forgets it, so Israel is left with a poor reputation and the Arabs escape censure. Same thing for IDF acceptance of blame for bombings and Prime Ministers' apology. Psychosis! 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

LISTENING TO IRAN Posted by B. Taverna, August 29, 2008.

This was written by Terry Milewski and it appeared appeared in CBC news (Canada) http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/27/f-rfa-milewski.html Terry Milewski is a senior CBC reporter based in Vancouver and has been with national television news since 1980. A parliamentary reporter in his early years, Milewski became The National's first permanent Middle East correspondent in 1986. Prior to being posted in Vancouver, he was the Washington correspondent for CBC-TV News where he reported on the United States, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe.

Close your eyes, and you'd swear you were in Tehran. The tinkle of the santur, the whiff of Persian kebabs, the dancers chattering in Farsi ... It's Persian Night! But open your eyes and you'll see the old banknotes with the shah's picture pinned up in the kitchen. You're in the last place you'd expect to find a celebration of Iranian culture: Mahane Jehuda. Jews from Iran celebrate Persian Night in Jerusalem. (CBC) Mahane Jehuda is the old Jewish Market in Jerusalem — a little more trendy nowadays, with cappuccino bars squeezed in amongst the fruit and vegetable stands. But Persian Night? In Jerusalem? While Iran's president threatens to wipe Israel off the map? In truth, it's not so strange. Since the time of Darius the Great, there have been ties of blood and history between the two nations that are now, 2,500 years later, on a collision course. Some 60,000 Jews from Iran live in Israel and they don't forget the old country, where many still have family. So it's natural that they gather often to enjoy Persian food and to sing along with their favourite Persian songs. Should Israel strike? But it's not just the Iranian Jews who are intensely interested in all things Persian. Israel, and the world beyond, is debating the looming question: should Israel strike at Iran's nuclear facilities before the mullahs get the bomb? In Mahane Jehuda, on Persian Night, the prevailing view seems to be, no — but America should! Why, people want to know, does the world think it's only Israel's job to stop Iran going nuclear? "Why Canada not bombing Iran?" asks one celebrant. "Why is America not bombing Iran? Only Israel — why?" Of course, nobody is bombing Iran, yet. But Israel is creeping inexorably to a decision — and many experts say time is running out. In one or two years, they say, an Iranian nuclear device may be ready and it will be too late to stop it. Israel's new F16s — called F16Is — have been fitted with bigger fuel tanks to increase their range and Israeli missile defences are being upgraded. An Iranian Cross-Country Checkup What to do to avert this nightmare? Many governments — including those of Israel, the U.S. and Canada — take this question to Menashe Amir. Amir is the voice of Israel in Iran — but he's much more than that. Governments call for his advice because, on Israel's state-run radio, he's been broadcasting daily to Iran, in Farsi, for 48 years. He's been at it ever since he immigrated to Israel from Iran and, for the past 15 years, he's also been hosting a fascinating Sunday call-in show. It's a kind of an Iranian version of the CBC Radio program Cross-Country Checkup, with a twist: it's broadcast from outside the country. Iranians can call a number in Germany, so that they're not seen to be calling the "Zionist entity," and they're rerouted to Amir's studio, where they can vent. Once you understand what they're saying, it's a revelation. Amir's Iranian callers don't just condemn their own government. They pour out their admiration for democracy, for America — even for Israel. On a recent show, the first caller had this to say: "Long live the people of Israel, who have so much freedom and democracy that they can prosecute their prime minister." Actually, Ehud Olmert hasn't been prosecuted yet. But it could happen. And Iranians aren't shy about applauding Israel's democracy — or lamenting Iran's lack of it. One pleads, "Come and help us overthrow this regime." Another asks, "Why do we need an atomic bomb? For what?" West needs to wake up In an interview with CBC News, Amir said the West has failed to understand the Iranian threat. He believes the regime is opposed by most Iranians but is consumed by an apocalyptic vision: the triumph of Shia Islam [also known as Shiite] over the world. Western governments, he says, don't see that, for the Iranian mullahs, the destruction of the Jewish state is just a step along the way. Everyone knows that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for Israel to be wiped off the map. But Amir points out, "On the same day, in the same speech that Ahmadinejad called for wiping off Israel from the map, he added that the destruction of Israel is the first step of our final confrontation with western civilization." Amir says the regime dreams of a new caliphate — an Islamic empire spanning the globe. He adds, "I want to tell you one more thing that the western countries don't understand or don't take it serious — and that's the item of the Mahdi, the Shiite Messiah. And they believe that once the Mahdi comes, the whole universe will convert to Shiite Islam." The technology factor What scares Israelis even more is that this fundamentalist world view is married to high technology. Iran recently sent a rocket into space to mark the birthday of the Mahdi — a 9th century imam known to Shias as the "last imam." When Iranian TV covered the launch, the reporter didn't forget to add the obligatory phrase when mentioning the Madhi: "May Allah hasten his return." Amir says the rocket sent a message. "They have the money, the missiles, they are seeking to have the nuclear bomb and the life of humankind is not important for them. I want to mention what Rahim Safavy, who was the chief commander of the revolutionary guards in Iran, said a few days ago: 'We shall win and you, the westerners, shall lose because we gave 200,000 victims, martyrs, in eight years of war with Iraq and we have 300,000 disabled and injured in this war — and we don't care about it. But you, the westerners, are afraid to give 4,000 or 5,000 thousand victims and casualties, so the final victory will be ours.' " But Amir says the Iranian people don't share the regime's messianic vision. He says most would support an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and even rise up against the regime. "Iranians are totally a different nation — a peaceful, polite, moderate people who want a good life, who adore the United States, who respect Canada, who like western music ... But the regime in Iran doesn't feel like they're Iranians. Mostly, firstly, they think they are Shi'ite Muslims and they have to work for the sake of Islam and not for the sake of Iran — and they are sacrificing the Iranian interest for the sake of Shi'ism." Prepare for the worst But not everyone shares Amir's view on the fragility of Iran's government. One who does not is Shabtai Shavit, who ran Israel's legendary spy service, the Mossad, from 1989-96. Shavit, who's now a security consultant, says the notion of Iranians overthrowing the regime in the wake of an Israeli strike is a fantasy. Still, Shavit agrees with Amir that Israel must not assume that the regime will act rationally. "We have to make our decisions according to the worst-case scenario: They're going to have the bomb," Shavit says. "They're going to pursue ... an unrational way and they're going to use the bomb. If this is the case, then I don't have any other choice but to pre-empt it." Amir says his Iranian callers believe Israel has an obligation to act. Their message, he says, is rooted in history. "They claim the Israelis and the Jews have a historical debt to the Iranians because, 2,000 years ago, Cyrus the Great came, freed Jews from Babylon and he sent them back to their country to build again their homeland ... Iranian listeners say, now that's the time you pay us back. Please come and help us to get rid of this regime." Suddenly, Persian Night in Jerusalem doesn't seem so strange. What Iranians are saying A sampling of calls from Iranians, recorded and translated from Farsi by CBC News at Menashe Amir's Jerusalem studio: 'Long live the people of Israel, who have so much freedom and democracy that they can prosecute their prime minister.' 'Islam only exists for [Ayatollah] Khomeini. They've ruined the people's lives ... they've brought dictatorship. Khomeini, [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad ... with the oil income from the country, they live in their palaces while we live under the poverty line. What Islam? ... We don't want to live under tyranny ... why can't we have a good life?' 'First of all, come and help us overthrow this regime and then we can have a referendum. But first we have to overthrow the regime — without violence.' 'Our people know the regime and they know their bad intentions ... unfortunately, the governments of Europe aren't doing anything because they're only worried about their economic interests.' 'For what purpose do the people of Iran need nuclear weapons? The people of Iran should demand bread, water and freedom and they should shout it out. Why do we need an atomic bomb? For what?' Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: UNREST Posted by Arlene Kushner, August 29, 2008.

Since Rice's visit earlier this week, there are suggestions that the pace of our negotiations with the PA have accelerated and that something secret is being cooked. Rice apparently proposed "new ideas" before she left, that included some notion of giving the Palestinians part of Jerusalem but allowing us to remain for up to five years — which simply delays and does not solve the problems inherent in any division of our city. ~~~~~~~~~~ That our government is not to be trusted in this regard — that Olmert would like to go out in what he imagines to somehow be a blaze of glory because of what he will have managed to "achieve" in spite of his legal difficulties — I do not question for a moment. The issue is what is realistically possible. My take remains that the sides are in great likelihood simply too far apart to achieve a comprehensive agreement. Abbas has rejected out of hand a partial agreement that, for example, tables the issue of Jerusalem for later. And Barry Rubin has pointed out that Abbas "is not moderate on the Palestinian refugees' right of return, which is very close to his heart." This is an issue, says, Rubin, on which neither side is ready to comprise. There are some concessions that Olmert or Livni might make in secret that would not even play with the government — would not garner the approval of the Cabinet, never mind the Knesset. The question is at what point Olmert might sign something and what the legality of it would be if there were no Cabinet approval. Right now it seems that this is a time for extreme vigilance and appropriate action, such as is deemed most effective, without hysteria. Olmert is scheduled to meet with Abbas again on Sunday. ~~~~~~~~~~ I would like to share one statement by Livni from the press conference she held with Rice, which demonstrates clearly Livni's deviousness: "...we need to also remind ourselves where we stood only a year ago, when we faced terror attacks, when the situation in Gaza Strip led to a kind of an understanding that there was no hope for peace. "We launched Annapolis process. We are now — there is a dialogue between Israel and diplomatic leaders on the Palestinian side. There is hope for peace...And I think that sometimes there is a need to remind ourselves that we changed the situation, the atmosphere, the situation on the ground." How far afield she has gone with this, mixing apples and oranges with essential dishonesty. The cessation of terror attacks from Gaza has nothing whatsoever to do with our negotiations with the PA. While she might like to give this impression, most clearly Annapolis didn't bring relative quiet to the people of Sderot and environs. What changed "the situation on the ground"? A very questionable and very tenuous ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. Does this increase hope for peace? Quite the contrary. Hamas is stockpiling weapons toward the day when they intend to hit us. Hard. No "hope" here, but rather our failure to respond effectively and a weakening of our deterrence. So, here we see why Olmert and Livni support this foolish ceasefire: It provides a semblance of quiet that they expect will give them a political advantage: See what we have achieved! Contemptible. ~~~~~~~~~~ I would suggest that Livni — who is now the solid frontrunner over Mofaz for position of Kadima leader in polls — would like to give the impression of doing something that increases our possibility of peace, but would not want to actually reach the stage of having signed something. For this would mean that her concessions — which would be unpalatable to many — would be made public. If you remember, when there was a proposal for an interim document that would show what each side had agreed to so far, she was pushed for not putting anything in writing too quickly, for this very reason. Similarly, it suits Abbas to give the appearance of working productively towards "peace." This not only keeps Rice happy, it garners him additional financial support from the Europeans. But signing off on an agreement that includes concessions by the PA is something else all together. Not only is Hamas on the edge of taking him over, large parts of his own Fatah party would not be on board. ~~~~~~~~~~ More after Shabbat. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

TIME FOR POLITICAL REVOLUTION Posted by Fred Reifenberg, August 29, 2008.

This was written by Daniel Ashkenazy and it appeared today in Ynet News http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3589331,00.html Daniel Ashkenazy is an educator and writer living in Jerusalem.

Israel's current government system no longer viable, must be changed One upon a time when Israel was a brand new democracy its sclerotic political system worked reasonably well. Today with expanding population, power concentrated in the hands of a few, and the coalition hijacked by interest groups, the party list system of government has ceased to be viable. With an election on the horizon, the need for real political change is urgent. I am not talking about whether we should elect Kadima, Likud or Labor, but rather, a real political change that would drastically alter the way we choose our leaders. The current political system is a farce. We do not choose our leaders, have no direct input into the choice of candidates, and our Knesset does not attract the best to represent our interests. Imagine this: It is election time in Israel. The political parties have candidates representing all districts in the country. There are real debates on issues affecting citizens in each constituency and you actually know the name of the candidates running for office. Imagine actually having a direct say in who you personally elect as a member of Knesset and choosing among individual candidates. In most parliamentary democracies this is how it works. The electoral districts elect a representative to the Knesset and you don't vote for an unknown and unrepresentative slate of individuals. Why reform our political system in Israel? There are many pundits on all sides of the political spectrum in this country who falsely believe that our current electoral process is democratic. This erroneous assumption is based on misconceptions of the democratic process and a desire to perpetuate the corruption in government. It is coupled by fear of losing power when in fact the opposite is true. A democratic country must have a legislature that is responsible, accountable to the people, and representative of the people. In the words of John F. Kennedy, "a government of the people, by the people and for the people." Our current Israeli political system fails to achieve this ideal. In order to achieve true democracy we need to make our politicians directly responsible to the electorate not through a political party list chosen by delegates at a convention, but rather, directly through the people. The best way to achieve this is a parliamentary system in which the country is divided into electoral districts based on demographics and regional topography. However it is understood that ethnic and religious disparity in Israel must be taken into account and in many instances the distribution of seats will automatically take this into consideration. 36 Torah sages We can easily divide the country into eight regions: Golan, Galilee, Jerusalem, Binyamin, Gush Etzion, Shomron, Negev and Tel Aviv/Dan. Each of these areas should be divided into electoral districts which elect one representative or a block of representatives to the Knesset. The voters would have a direct say in who represents their district in the Knesset. The US republican system is not viable for adoption by Israel because the country is too small. Our goal must be to simplify rather than complicate our system. Therefore, the solution should be based on the British parliamentary model. The system works well in Canada both nationally and provincially. My proposal for electoral reform in Israel is a bicameral system with two houses of legislature. The first a form of senate elected proportionally and the second similar to what is now the Knesset. The Senate would consist of 100 members. Thirty six would be Torah sages from all Orthodox streams of Judaism in Israel. The two chief rabbis would sit in the Senate for the duration of their term. Eighteen rabbis would be selected from both the ultra-orthodox and National-Religious camps. The remaining 64 members would ideally be academics or respected leaders of the Israeli community elected in a manner similar to the current system but based on regions rather than a party list. The president would be selected from among the senate. In conclusion, such electoral reform would ensure a more democratic system of government in Israel, allow for less abuse of power and greater accountability of our elected officials by the public. The reforms would permit us to choose who represents our interests and values; most importantly, the parties would truly become nationally based organizations with formulated policies on social, religious, economic and national security interests. Let's work together towards a ground breaking revolution in Israeli politics to ensure a better future for our state, ourselves and our future generations. After 60 years of independence, a government on the thin edge of democracy no longer suits our needs. Fred Reifenberg was born in Germany, and grew up during the Hitler period. In 40's he moved to NY. He is veteran of the Korean War. Currently, he lives in Israel, where he enjoys harmonizing with nature, and photographing nature in its many wonderful forms. He creates a variety of abstracts, combining photography and graphics. Contact him by email at fred343@gmail.com To Go To Top

MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED Posted by Women in Green, August 28, 2008.

This is a Jerusalem Post Editorial, published August 28, 2008.

Sigal Barda lived in the Gaza Strip community of Elei Sinai for 15 years. Her husband is a policeman, which tipped the scales three years ago in their decision to cooperate with the authorities during the disengagement. She also did not want her children to be traumatized by a forcible expulsion. Policemen arrest an anti-disengagement protester. (Ariel Jerozolimski) From the start, the Bardas cooperated with the system — unlike some settlers who initially refused to play any role in facilitating their removal. Yet even for the Bardas, not much went right. There was nowhere to put them up initially; and promised housing in Kibbutz Or Haner never materialized. The Disengagement Authority, known as Sela, charged with relocating and rehabilitating as many as 10,000 evacuees from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, haggled over every aspect of compensation — as if the Bardas were out to exploit the state. Even the monthly cost of warehousing their possessions was deducted from their compensation package. They were eventually put up in a trailer at Kibbutz Karmiya, pending the construction of new homes at Moshav Talmei Yaffe. These have not materialized because of bureaucratic snafus, and the kibbutz has repeatedly tried to eject them and other evacuees. Barda says she "never imagined that law-abiding citizens, who lost everything one day through no fault of their own, would encounter such hardheartedness. For three years we have existed without hope in cramped, temporary accommodations, with Kassams fired at us from the ruins of our destroyed homes. We did our share. Why can't the state live up to its obligations?"   SELA WAS to have served as a central clearinghouse for the evacuees, a multi-service agency that would cut through the red tape so families wouldn't have to run from one ministry to another for assistance as they tried to rebuild their lives. Unfortunately, Sela did not have the clout it needed to get the job done. Of an estimated 1,667 families removed from Gush Katif, 1,405 remain in transitory lodgings. Only seven of 24 projected new settlements are reportedly under construction. And only 50 of 400 farmers received some kind of land to work, and few are back in business. Of 3,500 working people, 822 remain jobless. Most others earn a fraction of their previous income. Independently employed entrepreneurs went broke. Communities which strove to resettle together are still unable to do so. As early as 2006, the state comptroller reported that Sela was "a crushing failure." Today, the comptroller supports establishing a state commission of inquiry into the treatment of the evacuees, a step recently approved by the Knesset Control Committee.   MISSION not accomplished, Sela has been slated to be disbanded by the end of 2009. It is being closed at the request of the Finance Ministry to save money, and legislation to that effect is included in the 2009 budget. Whatever contracts and agreements are still pending with the evacuees, and with the regional councils or communities into which they are to be absorbed, had better be concluded by the end of 2009 or they will be passed to another governmental body. Its faults notwithstanding, Sela was at least an address for the uprooted settlers. Now they will have to take their problems to various ministries — Housing, Agriculture, Welfare, Health and Justice, to name a few. The argument has been made that, at this stage, these ministries might actually be better positioned to deliver where Sela could not. Perhaps. If the Treasury will not salvage Sela and give it the wherewithal to finish the job, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert needs to immediately direct each ministry to appoint an ombudsman to be responsible for disengagement issues — someone on the inside who knows how to get things done. That should be implemented sooner rather than later for a smooth transition. There also needs to be an official in the Prime Minister's Office to keep the big picture in view and coordinate the work of the various ministries involved. On August 22, 2005 this newspaper editorialized against the "institutional callousness, bureaucratic run-arounds and official hardheartedness" facing those who lost their homes in disengagement's wake. Out of simple human decency and for the sake of the political system's credibility, the travails of the uprooted must end. EDITOR'S NOTE: This was a reader's comment to the original article: 4. You have no right to pass the blame to Sela or make excuses for them — the Jerusalem Post supported the "disengagement" disaster So take some responsibility. You can start by admitting that you were wrong — admitting that what was done to our own people was nothing less than a crime. You can criticize the whole media industry in Israel for aiding and abetting this crime. You can follow that up by criticizing the mentality that led to the disaster in the first place. And the disaster isn't merely that we evicted and expelled our own people and turned them into refugees — look at what we did to our own country! Until you admit this terrible crime and disaster, you have no right to criticize. Y. Kreminsky — Israel (08/28/2008 11:37) 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

FROM RUSSIA, WITH SUBDUED BUT EVIDENT ANTI-SEMITISM Posted by Marion DS Dreyfus, August 28, 2008.

Russia-wrassling while a war rages The moment I arrived from Paris to Russia, war broke out, as a few close friends hastened to tell me on my Blackberry the millisecond I set foot in St. Petersburg. It made for interesting travel conversation. And tested the limits of once-ago glasnost and perestroika: Some were up to the contest; some were not. Amazing how far-away-ness dims one's need to be up on every single thing, but did get into political discussions of the US presidential campaign, and of the lack of evidence of Jewish contributions to the Russians, monuments, signs, houses of worship and so on in the church — and cathedral/monastery/nunnery-rich landscape of Russia. They all seem to go very, um, vague, when one asks. Strange for them to be so protective/proud of these obscenely gilded, artifact-choked venues of belief, when they have been so routinely atheist for so blatant a time. Not so strange was their instinct to defend Mamma Russia in the face of the world's sound condemnation of Russia's seemingly obvious aggression — whether to 'warn the US not to overstep with reference to the Baltics joining NATO against their former patron,' or for other Putinesque/KGB reasons we might not learn until some Muscovite historian scrivens the sorry details for us far observers and it's carried in the Times Literary Review. No matter the 'war,' now presumptively laid tentatively to rest. Prices are astronomical. Billionaires abound — prices reflect an alarming casualness with poor people needing basics. Cars, and consequent pollution, smog up the works. Don't drink the water, either. Kvass, though, is good. Despite its supposed non-alcohol content. Like drinking rye bread with a stomach ache. Food is tasty, though ham and pork saturate every menu and meal and restaurant. I can now read in Russian, speak a few key phrases, and pretend I am part of their orgy of success of late — though the elderly babushkas (I saw hardly any old men anywhere) (one beggar, in Moscow, lay on the cobblestones of Red Square, surprisingly unechoed anywhere in the metro or the other streets) are still not rich, do menial work, are under-available — they close whole wings of the Hermitage, e.g, because there are too few 'watchers' to sit and keep guard over the priceless Surrealists and Impressionists and so on) and are still the backbone of neighborly nosiness and keep-to-yourself-ism.) The subways are something. The escalators down to the subways are also something. I counted three whole minutes' of descending. During the War, they were deep enough, and safe enough, to be bomb shelters for the citizens. They are a knockout. But I still prefer Singapore's. The young women are dressed to kill, with expensive high heels and high-high skirts, made-up to the nines, ensembles learnt from our glam mags and movies, but finessed a la Russe. They make our favorite actresses look dowdy, overweight and ugly by comparison. Still, the minute they are married or something, they resemble the Russian stereotypes of eld. Dachas are big and eye-peeling. Yachts are in evidence along the Volga and Neva and Dvir, and the stores, such as GUM, are packed with goods from Italia, UK and France and the US — designer labels that cost a year of wages for the smallest bit of frou-frou. Everyone has their hand out for bloviated prices, and the capitalist-phantasm is well-entrenched on the once-austere streets of most of the cities. There is disgust for even the attempt to bargain. Service industry is an alien term here; they are still at the ABCs of accommodating others. They are not very good yet. After a few days, they will reluctantly smile. Embarrassment and fast-footwork over the Georgian enterprise, most people offhandedly telling one the "Georgians started it," despite the reality. People are quick to point out ethnics such as Kazakhstanis and Uzbeks, and their faces (and bodies) are distinguishable from the 90% mainstream Russians. Russia is not the place it was. Flowerbeds adorn many a lawn, the dachas are summer's hideaways for many, marriages are everywhere — I saw a minimum of 3-5 weddings a day in every place my foot set down. Even though divorce is a 50% discount of all marriages: Padlocks of all sorts and sizes attached to trees and gazebos and railings are supposed to ward off dissolution of marriages — not cheap ones, either — but don't seem to do the magic they are invested to guarantee. Flats in St. Petersburg and Moscow are about $350,000 to several million, though they are mostly old and feature unshielded 40-W bulbs in dingy spaces. St. Petersburg is a northern Venice of gorgeous interlacing canals they fail to spackle with night lights for picturesque photographic yield. Of course, this is summer. It gets to -40F or so in the winter, so maybe their first thought isn't festooning the canals with light-bulbs. Sashayed around St. Pete, Yaroslava, Pushkin (the village), Uglich, Magornyi, Zagorzki and a few other places. That last is like a more interesting Vatican, frankly, with Russian Orthodox monks and high priest eminences in black headgear and skirts, and even a few nuns dressed similarly, walking among the faithful. I was grateful for the many Russians seeking to pray to JC, frankly, as they represent another bulwark against the frightening juggernaut of Islamism run amok. I saw a number of hijab'ed women in Zagorski, strangely. In St. Pete, when I attended "Swan Lake" — playbill 500 roubles! thank you very much, not purchased — there were a few entire tiers of the refurbished and glittering theatre occupied by Muslim theatre-goers, I was surprised to note. The ladies wore large kerchiefs worn the way Russian bubbas used to (and still sometimes do), and few wore the hijab as we know it — but they were seated and snapping illicit telephone photos of the proceedings all the while, with their men seated near them. My travel companion, not that fluent in things English, whispered to me, "Mushrooms! Mushrooms." She meant Muslims. It did seem odd to see them in a place where barefaced women went en pointe in diaphanous tutus and low-cut bodices. Muslims in Russia constitute 8% of the population. That is the second-largest bloc of ethnics in the nation, after the Russian, which is 85% or so. Wait a few years for the flare-ups of ungovernable "We wants!" from this ever-flare segment. My Blackberry refused to connect to those contacts I needed to speak with in the rest of the world, though I had prudently paid for a chip enabling international calls. I fell into Dead Zones, apparently, every other hour. Not only did an official Russkie telephone lady inform me that the number I wanted was wrong (it wasn't) in Russian, but my email reception would go doggo for days on end. Nonetheless, there was comfort in carrying the leather-clad Blackberry, in case it suddenly came to life with the latest in Obamessiah's chosen acolyte VP or the running tally of dead or wounded in Ossetia by my gruff hosts. When the email did rouse itself to buzz in on vibration mode, my fellow writers overseas expressed concern, lest I too get blown away, as had four journalists thus far, even young as the war was. In Zagorzki: Lots of women and children (some men) kissing fetishes, crosses, coffins with saints' blackened and hairy remains, icons, polished sarcophagi in all these ensembles of religiosity and prayer. Tiny girls wore kerchiefs, like their mums, as they whisked along the cobbles and prayed for blessings. As many tourists as anywhere except the Kremlin. Thousands of believers, speaking many tongues, snaking into this exotic onion-domed chapel or that. In one sacristy, a five-pronged rough choir of elderly ladies sang in atonal sonorousness. In other 'holy places,' the choirs were extraordinarily beautiful, a capella, of course, and gave reason for the popularity of Gregorian chants in the musical canon. I was bewitched. But I did not buy their CDs ($50!) for remembrance. I arrived on an "Apple holiday" of sorts up there. Priests blessed apples that, once consumed, spread the benisons to one's intestines and whatnot. For lunch, my restaurant not far away served me an apple, my order being "fruit plate," instead of ice cream. It was blemished, ungainly and not particularly enticing as a dessert. What made it most amusing, though, was the huge worm-hole in the side not facing me on my plate. I smiled and pointed to the black hole, and the waitress, in Cossack-red dirndl with rickrack (alas, polyester; I asked to see one outfit with a view to purchase) brought me one equally pulchritude-challenged, but lacking a readymade home for a creepy-crawly. I could not quite bear to bite into it, but thought it might be blessed, since this was the day for Apples Being Blessed, so took a nibbly gnaw for the blessing of it. Nyet. Nada. Nichi-voh. The icons and paintings and gilt on every surface and ceiling and door are of course a treasury beyond counting, though it left me wondering why the serfs and kulaks and peasants had to visit their money while they starved in humble earthen huts and so on. While Catherine the Great gave platters of 18-carat gold away to her lovers as a knick-knack. Excess is a pallid account of the treasures of these obscenely wanton and spoilt czars and czarinas. Luckily, their penchant for assassinating and beheading each other, higgledy-piggledy, to ensure proper lineage and sovereignty occasionally relieved the populace of a few too-jarring rulers. Modern Putin, though, they seem to like quite a bit. The dollar has been rising steadily, and is now a good 12% higher than at August first. So foreign tourists will stop buying up our cities, and our taxes will rise to make up the shortfall. Wall Street is slack, people losing their glossy jobs and tax-paying tickers, and Bloomberg will be looking for sources of revenue very soon, to hear tell the current mess. There was more, politics and expected arguments, but this is the more readily accessible. Marion Dreyfus is a writer and travelor; she has taught English in China on the university level. She can be contacted at dreyfusmarion@hotmail.com To Go To Top

HAMAS CONTROL; TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY; HAMAS COUNTER-PROPAGANDA FLUB Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 28, 2008.

THE QUESTION THE ARABS DON'T ASK Why don't the Arab states integrate the descendants of Arab refugees, as Israel integrated the Jewish refugees from Arab states, instead of perpetuating their statelessness, dependency, resentment, and hope for entering Israel? QUESTIONS AMERICANS DON'T ASK: "What other facts and views might I find out about, if I got a variety of sources?" A friend of mine meant well, when she used the phrase, "poor Palestinians" for that most vicious of ethnic groups. After I described what they do to host countries where they have influence, she realized she did not know much about the issues. I had told her some of that, a few years ago. Apparently, the occasional enlightenment doesn't stick as well as the week-by-week propaganda in the NY Times and similarly biased magazines. Those are media that don' t ask questions like the one the Arabs don't ask. Most of my friends don't realize how narrow is their perspective on this and other issues. USSR BEING REBUILT Russian aggression against Georgia, ostensibly in behalf of Russian-inspired separatists there, probably seeks to rebuild the USSR. Putin blunders in wanting more territory to rule and in attacking a Christian country while the great strategic danger to Russia is from internal and external Muslims. For that he has no solution. I'm waiting for my liberal friends to condemn Russia for aggression. They criticized their own country over much lesser matters. Let's see whether they have perspective or self-hatred. Many Jews went to Georgia, during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. This means that they came from the ancient country, Israel, which had primarily 10 tribes plus Levites. Therefore, 10 tribes are not entirely "lost." HAMAS' TOTAL CONTROL IN GAZA Now that Hamas has crushed Fatah and the clans, it exercises total control over Gaza. A tight control it is. I think that this means that Israel, which recognizes the unacceptability of Hamas but not of Fatah, cannot simply make a deal covering Gaza, with someone in the Judea-Samaria part of the P.A.. Either Israel makes a deal just for Judea-Samaria or it takes over Gaza and roots out Hamas, and then makes a comprehensive deal. (I oppose deals, Arab sovereignty, and Israel territorial concessions. I favor Zionist settlement.) IDF DEFENSE OF ISRAEL INHIBITED BY OLMERT REGIME In announcing that it has opened a crossing in Samaria to P.A. trucks, the IDF stated, "In accordance with the political echelon, the IDF will continue making every effort to maintain the daily life of the Palestinian population not involved in terror, while using all means at its disposal to act against terror infrastructures in order to protect the citizens of the State of Israel." "In accordance with the political echelon" means that the Olmert regime keeps sacrificing Israeli security in behalf of the P.A. economy and convenience (IMRA, 8/9). Nor does it improve the life only of those Arabs not involved in terrorism. Terrorists and their families benefit from the freer movement of vehicles carrying goods and people, as much as do others. Most of the Muslim population, all indoctrinated, that has any money donates to the terrorists or at least favors them. TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY The Foreign Ministry of Israel declared: "Israel recognizes the territorial integrity of Georgia and calls for a peaceful solution." (IMRA, 8/10.) Israel doesn't recognize its own territorial integrity. Its government wants to part with the Golan and parts of Jerusalem, as well as cede its preeminent claim to the Territories. Nor will it get a peaceful solution while it lets Arabs build up forces for aggression and while it hampers Jewish residents in the Territories and in Israel, instead of adopting policies that encourage the Arabs to depart. Georgians again find that the US encouraged them as an ally, but doesn't stick with them when they are attacked. That's an old story. Georgia appeals to the "international community" for succor. That's a good one. We Jews experienced the lack of an international community, though not all of us realized it. Russia deserves censure. ISRAELI TRIUMPH AT UNO It took two years of negotiations for Israel to overcome antisemitism at the Universal Postal Union, part of the UNO, and gain membership on its governing board. The government hailed this as a triumph and a possible harbinger of further progress at the UNO (Arutz-7, 8/10). That this is considered great progress says a lot about how un-great is the UNO. ISRAEL TURNS ON GEORGIA The two major suppliers of arms to Georgia are the US and France. israel invested a lot in Georgia and provided some of its arms. Israel fears that Russia resents that, and may sell more arms to Israel's enemies. In reaction, Israel is embargoing further arms shipments to Georgia, as Georgia pleads for more ammunition (IMRA, 8/10). Why wouldn't Russia resent the US and France for major arms supplies to Georgia, not just Israel for minor supplies? Russia has not shown much restraint in arming Israel's enemies, just as the USSR didn't. Israel's embargo seems unnecessary and cowardly. What do I know of diplomacy? But shouldn't Israel figure out what may happen, before it establishes a policy? HAMAS COUNTER-PROPAGANDA Israel finds Hamas' training of children in counter-terrorism horrible, and publicized it. Realizing this shows Hamas up in a poor light, Hamas countered with a photograph that it alleges shows Israeli children involved in terrorism. The photograph was of an Israeli family at a weapons display. There was nothing in the photograph that showed terrorism or children's involvement (IMRA, 8/11). Why didn't the Western media publicize it, too? Jewish children don't train in terrorism. The Jews are civilized, the Islamists are not. I don't know about now, but when Arafat ran the P.A., he had Islamist-military summer camps for Arab children. Nevertheless, the West called Fatah moderate. How can Fatah be moderate for having done the same things that Hamas is called extremist for doing? IRAQ STILL SUBSIDIZING OIL FOR JORDAN Iraq raised its subsidy of oil going to Jordan from $18 per barrel to $22 (IMRA, 8/12). This continues Saddam's policy. Interesting. Of course, the price per barrel rose by more than the $4 rise in subsidy. 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

STOP SECRET AGREEMENT Posted by UCI, August 28, 2008.

EXPLANATION Momentous negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are taking place virtually unnoticed while we are preoccupied with United States elections. A lame duck United States administration, very low in popularity polls, and an Israeli Prime Minister leaving office under a cloud of suspicion for corruption should not be making far-reaching Middle East policy decisions that will bind the next heads of State. Almost unnoticed by the media, the map of Israel is being dramatically altered. The State Department with steady pressure from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is overseeing the demise of Israel. Twenty-two Arab countries are pushing for yet another Arab state to be carved out of the one and only tiny State of Israel. This is a recipe for Israeli self-destruction. Under the cover of U.S. presidential convention hoopla, Israel's future is quietly and surreptitiously being determined. Please take a few minutes to send this important Urgent Action Alert to Prime Minister Olmert and the Knesset Members. Copies will also be sent to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, and the White House Jewish desk. This below is a background article "Rice Visit: PA State Closer than Ever". It was written by Hillel Fendel and it appeared August 26, 2008 in Arutz-7

(IsraelNN.com) Negotiations between Israel and PA continue at a "crazy" pace, agreement on dividing Jerusalem is "closer than ever," and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is pushing for a nearly-complete agreement on a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria by January. So reports Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily (WND). Secretary Rice, completing a visit to the region today (Tuesday), has been pressing Israel to sign a document by the end of the year that would divide Jerusalem. Rice says Israel must agree to a Palestinian state capital in Jerusalem — Israel's own capital — and a full Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Despite official Israeli government denials, Jerusalem is thus very much on the negotiating table. The Shas Party, which has said it would quit the government if Jerusalem were to be negotiated, remains firmly in the government coalition. The Rice Compromise: Israel Remains in Jerusalem for 1-5 Years Klein quotes top diplomatic sources involved in the talks as saying that Rice has been pushing for a "compromise" between Israel and the PA that would involve Israel's withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, within one to five years. The Israeli team, led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, is willing to conclude an agreement on a Palestinian state by the end of the year, but wants to leave talks to decide the fate of Jerusalem for a later date. The PA team, however, wants a deal by January on all core issues, including the Holy City. The Rice compromise, the sources told WND, asks Israeli leaders to bend and agree to promise sections of Jerusalem to the PA — but not to actually withdraw before one to five years have passed. U.S. President George W. Bush would then, just days before his term in office ends, issue an official letter guaranteeing U.S. support for the agreement. High Intensity Talks WND's Klein quoted an unnamed Palestinian Authority negotiator saying that the intensity and frequency of Israeli-Palestinian talks in recent weeks have been "crazy," and that the sides have been meeting on a daily basis, usually at the highest levels. The negotiator further said Jerusalem is being discussed by both sides, and that the two teams are "closer than ever" on coming to an agreement on the status of the city. "This claim was verified to WND by other diplomatic sources involved in the negotiations," Klein wrote. Reports of the past few months say that the Olmert-Livni negotiators are prepared to give up well over 90% of Judea and Samaria, as well as land for a "safe passage" between those areas and Gaza. This, despite the results of the withdrawal from Gaza three years ago, which include the takeover of the area by Hamas and incessant rocket attacks on nearby Israeli areas. UCI — 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

WHERE ARE YOU? Posted by Joanna Whitney, August 28, 2008.

As a supporter of Israel, I eagerly tuned in to coverage of the Salute to Israel@60 parade. Even as I enjoyed the celebration of Israel by those who love her and listened as Jews from all walks of life extolled her, all I kept thinking was "why aren't you there?" As a Gentile, I cannot claim the promises of the Law of Return and make aliyah myself and I am envious of Jews because they can. So it's difficult for me to understand why they don't. If I had the opportunity to speak to those individuals I would say: Many generations of Jews hoped, cried, and prayed for the opportunity that you dismiss everyday — the chance to live in the land that G-d Almighty gave to the Jews for an everlasting possession. They said "Next Year in Jerusalem". They hoped for a return to the Land, to be restored to Jerusalem, to prepare the way for the rebuilding of the Temple, and, finally, for the Messianic redemption. How many Jews fled from harsh conditions and through difficult terrain just for the chance to work the Land, to drain the swamps, to return Eretz Yisrael to its former glory? How many have died to protect the people, land and nation of Israel once it was restored? You quote Hebrew phrases, perhaps you speak the language regularly, even fluently. Well, you're one step ahead of your ancestors who might not have known Hebrew, or your fellow Jews around the world who struggle to learn it. Some of you have visited Israel, some have visited many times. But why aren't you staying? You say that as a Jew who have such pride in Israel. Then cast your lot with your Jewish brethren as they live the unpredictable, sometimes frightening, sometimes frustrating, but always interesting daily life of an Israeli. I especially speak to those who recognize Hashem's hand in this restoration. He has given you a special gift and you barely take it off the shelf. Why? Because America is your new Promised Land? Why must you wait for persecution to come before you'll recognize your destiny and return to your land? It grieves me to say this, but persecution WILL come, just as it always has — in all times and in all places around the world. Need I provide examples? The most obvious — European Jewry never thought it would happen there either. But they didn't have the options you have. The borders were closed to them. Not only are they open to you, but with such help as has never been seen before: Nefesh B'Nefesh, ulpan, special welcoming committees, etc. Yes, getting accustomed to a new country and culture is challenging under the best of circumstances. But there has never been a better set of circumstances. Perhaps, as a Gentile, I have no right to speak of such things. Indeed, I worry that my words have come across as harsh our out-of-line. But it's out of love and with a sense of urgency that I now override my own hesitancy. I hope that even one person will take these words and make them happen in their own life. If that happens, my writing them will not have been in vain. Contact Joanna Whitney at z4zion@yahoo.com To Go To Top

THE WORLD MUST WEAN ITSELF OFF OIL Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, August 28, 2008.

In today's energy dependent world, fossil fuels drown man's humane instincts as well as his sanity. Darfur continues to be awash in the blood of hapless Black Africans; raped, tortured, and murdered by Omar al-Bashir's Arab janjaweed terrorists; enabled by a weapon's supplying Chinese government more endeared to Sudanese oil reserves than the lives of human beings. Europe's feckless leaders pacify Vladimir Putin in the process of virtually annexing a militarily vanquished Georgia lest the KGB agent morphed to autocrat tighten the valves on ever needed Russian oil. Oil-rich Iran continues building a nuclear infrastructure while the outer world huffs and puffs, not willing to aggressively confront that terrorist financing regime by demanding it cease spinning its fissile material producing centrifuges lest it blockade the Strait of Hormuz thus the unimpeded flow of the vicious viscous substance so cherished by an addicted industrial world. There you have it! No presumably civilized industrial democratic or non-democratic nation is willing to confront dictators that guarantee their oil supplies, no matter what they do. Oil uber alas! Moral authority has lapsed into a comatose state, shrouded by an energy source predating man by eons yet still controlling his addled brain. Of course it's more complicated than that. Immense profits are generated from this primeval energy source for suppliers and refiners intensely motivated not to kill their golden goose. Superpower America indeed cannot afford to lose the petrodollar status that guarantees the value of its challenged currency, thus cannot afford to have oil substantially replaced by a climate friendly humanity friendly alternative fuel. Drill, drill, drill, is one U.S. presidential candidate's motto, forcing the other candidate to weaken his anti-oil stance. Alas, fossil fuels so permeate economies, both corporate and national, even though their generated revenues finance terrorist operations worldwide, even though their generated heat trapping fumes melt the North Pole and Greenland catastrophically, there is little chance these pernicious cycles so perilous to mankind's way of life, so perilous to his moral fiber, will cease anytime soon unless there is a spectacular awakening. The tiny nation of Israel, especially imperiled by terrorist organizations financed by oil revenues, especially imperiled by oil-rich Iran's ever progressing nuclear capabilities, has much to gain by catalyzing that spectacular awakening, saving man from his own self-destructive behavior. Therefore, why not invent a cost effective rechargeable battery capable of powering automobiles at all speeds independent of gasoline? Focus Israeli brainpower on this invention as if life on earth depended on it. Furthermore, such batteries could be exported to the United States, perhaps in an exclusive trade deal, to help revive an ailing automobile industry, thus begin to wean a challenged superpower off of its petrodollar dependency as it begins to churn out battery operated vehicles thus begins to reestablish an ever shrinking manufacturing base. Such a joint U.S. Israeli venture could rival other less than favorable ventures in progress say between Russia and Iran and someday China and Sudan, not exactly comforting to the West. The clock is ticking, let's get going! Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at larose@snip.net To Go To Top

STOP WATERING GAZA Posted by Shoshanna Walker, August 27, 2008.

This comes from the Samson Blinded website http://samsonblinded.org/blog/stop-watering-gaza.htm

The international law on tendering to the occupied populations' needs is questionable. Even in the recent history, the Allies didn't supply water in the occupied German territories, but let Germans do the job. In the moral theory of war, an occupying power should not repress or murder civilians, but otherwise is not obligated to assist them. Indeed, such assistance would have been an unrealistically high burden during wars. The benevolent treatment of the surrendered population is very different from actually providing for it. An obligation to provide for only applies to interned population and POWs, and even then is scarcely adhered to. The population in general is free to go on with its normal life after surrender. In the case of Gaza, there is no surrender. The official, duly elected ruling party of Gaza — Hamas — rejects ceasefire, and the level of hostilities launched from Gaza clearly defies the notion of surrender. Indeed, Hamas routinely proclaims its hostility toward Israel. Egypt doesn't provide water or the necessary amount of electricity for Gaza, even though a brotherly Arab population resides there. Gaza can do without Israel's water — an exceedingly scarce resource, so scarce that Israel routinely resorts to water rationing and stops irrigation of public parks and even new trees at Jewish farms. True, restricting the unlimited water supplies to kibbutzim, the leftist darlings, would go a long way to solve the water problem, but cutting supplies to bad Jews should be the next step after refusing supplies to our professed enemies among Arabs. Let them build desalination plants, as Israel does, and use expensive desalinated water, as Jews do. There is no moral or legal reason for Israel to supply Gaza with water and electricity. Israel must stop water supply to Gaza. Contact Shoshanna Walker by email at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

THE POWER OF LOVING-KINDNESS Posted by Avodah, August 27, 2008.

This was written by Moshe Kempinski, author of "The Teacher and the Preacher", is the editor of the Jerusalem Insights weekly email journal and co-owner of Shorashim, a Biblical shop and learning center in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Where does one find the real Israel? How we see ourselves determines how others end up seeing us. If you believe that you are as insignificant as a grasshopper in someone else's eyes, then you necessarily believe that he can crush and subdue you on a moment's whim. We live in a world where reality seems to be determined to prove our insignificance. Falling prey to that can prove to be very dangerous. A leadership that loses its sense of self or its vision could lead to disaster anywhere, but much more so here in the spiritual center of the world. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared, following the terrorist bulldozer incidents, that retaining Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel would lead to more terrorism: "Whoever thinks it is possible to live with 270,000 Arabs in Jerusalem must take into account that there will be more bulldozers, more tractors and more cars carrying out attacks." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently told Palestinian officials that she would pressure Israel against initiating any Jewish construction in eastern sections of Jerusalem. Furthermore, on a different issue, the Israeli cabinet held three separate votes and decided on the release of over 200 prisoners, including two prisoners with "blood on their hands." The "others" include 26 people who were sentenced to terms of 10 to 16 years for attempted murder, like shooting attacks or bombings. According to Olmert, "Releasing prisoners as a gesture does not attest to weakness, but rather is a sign of strength." And Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman explained, "We want the Palestinians to understand that we want to live with them in peace. We are ready for historic reconciliation." Is it any wonder, then, that our enemies speak in gloating and glowing terms of their ongoing march towards victory? This was clearly evident when one saw the glee and posturing of the Palestinians when the terrorists were released. It is also evident when Palestinian spokesmen declare that Jerusalem is not "that important for the Jews." The bottom line is that both the Arab world and the world in general can smell weakness and defeatism. They sense that the Israeli leadership see themselves as grasshoppers facing menacing giants. It is that weakness that each of them, for their own reasons, would like to exploit. The Arab world would simply want to destroy Israel in their unfolding violent messianic fervor. The Western world would like to pare Israel down to a more manageable size. A smaller, weaker Israel could be better managed and thereby more easily controlled. Based on the public Israeli face that the world sees, they are right. Yet, the public, official Israel is not Israel. It lacks the vision, faith and determination of the real Israel. It lacks the hesed and compassion that has characterized Israel from its birth in Abraham's tent. The public face of Israel lacks the courage and sense of sacrifice that has kept this people alive through thousands of years of persecution. Then where does one find the real Israel? One had a glimpse of the real Israel in the battlefields of Lebanon. One can be inspired by the vision of the real Israel if one ventures into the settlements of Judea and Samaria, or the farms and villages of what is termed "the periphery" of this country. Yet, the most powerful component of Israel's survival and power is in the compassion of its people. It is in the quality of hesed, or loving-kindness, that is so clearly juxtaposed with the selfishness of its political leaders. That, then, is the secret that separates weak men like Prime Minister Olmert from courageous men like Major Ro'i Klein. That is the stuff that makes up the character of the young settlers on the hilltops — so different than the character of "yes-men" like Tzipi Livni and Sha'ul Mofaz. That is the essence of the Divine attribute that runs through the veins of the "real Israel" and that seems to be so lacking in the present leadership of this country. "Olam chesed yibaneh" — "The foundation of the world is loving-kindness." (Psalms 89:3) Those who have learned the secret that giving of oneself is the greatest source of inner strength are the ones who will have the courage to build and refashion the world. Those whose focus remains on receiving are doomed to forever live a life victimized by the turns and twists of reality. "Many are the sorrows of the wicked; but he who trusts HaShem, loving-kindness shall surround him." (Psalms 32:10) This past week, as I was descending the steps of the Jewish quarter to pray my afternoon prayers at the Western Wall, I heard loud and exuberant singing. The song I heard was called Ivdu Et HaShem Be'simcha, "Serve G-d With Joy". As I turned the corner, I saw many buses parked in the Western Wall plaza, which hid from me the throng of people who were singing with such excitement and passion. As I entered the Western Wall plaza and walked past the first bus, I saw hundreds of young people singing and dancing. A little less than half of them were in wheelchairs, or on the shoulders or in the arms of the other half of the group. Regardless of the severity of some of the handicaps that were so evident on the bodies of many of These young people have been empowered by loving-kindness. these young people, their faces and especially their eyes reflected complete freedom and happiness. Regardless of the physical difficulty that those who were accompanying the more challenged youngsters must have experienced, they seemed to fly above and around the wheelchairs with angelic powers. These were buses of the Kav Lachaim ("Life Line") organization. The stated goal of the organization is "to help every sick child in Israel recover easily and quickly, and to offer chronically ill children and their parents a broad range of services and activities which include outings, entertainment, books, medical counseling and financial support." Organizations such as Kav Lachaim dot the landscape of Real Israel. The volunteers of this group and the physically challenged children with them represented the true strength of this country, regardless of their age or their limitations. These young people have been empowered by loving-kindness and they, as opposed to our leadership, will not see themselves as grasshoppers. These faithful young people, like many others throughout the country, have become giants; and it is before them that the evil designs of our enemies will fail. Contact Avodah by email at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS IMPERSONATORS Posted by B Taverna, August 27, 2008.

This was written by Denis MacEoin and posted on his website: mid-eastplus.blogspot.com/2008/08/holocaust-and-its-impersonators.html

I've just finished proof-reading my forthcoming academic book, The Messiah of Shiraz. Weighing in at just under 800 pages (with the index to come) it's going to be sold in hardware shops as a doorstop. Deathless prose it may be, but it's filled with transliterations from Arabic and Persian (dashes over 'a's, 'i's and 'u's, dots under a whole range of consonants), so going through it checking for errors has left me squinting and drawing sharp breaths. But out of all that verbiage, one thing and one thing only has stuck in my mind. This is a short passage that includes two quotations relating to events that took place after the 1852 assassination attempt on the life of Nasir al-Din Shah, the Iranian monarch who reigned till 1896. George Curzon called him philo-uxorious, meaning that he had a lot of wives. After a trip to Paris, he made his harem dress in tutus and, given that most of these ladies were, shall we say, large of stature, the results were, let's just say, spectacular. But that's not why someone tried to kill him. First suspicions fell on a militant sect, the Babis, who form the main topic of my book. Some Babis were killed, others imprisoned, but a combination of reports by European travellers and diplomats gave rise to the myth that there had been a serious massacre. Later histories by members of the Baha'i religion (who have their roots in Babism) perpetuate this myth. Here's the passage that stood out for me: According to a later writer, the 1851 killings were 'a blood-bath of unprecedented severity,' 'a holocaust reminiscent of the direst tribulations undergone by the persecuted followers of any previous religion,'and 'the darkest, bloodiest and most tragic episode of the Heroic Age of the Baha'i Dispensation. This is strong stuff. One wonders why, if it was the equal of the worst things suffered by the followers of any religion, a holocaust no less, an unprecedented severity, we didn't all read about it in our school history books. Actually, the tally of Babi dead was 37. Believe me, I have conducted extensive researches on all cases of Babis killed between 1844 and 1852, and 37 is correct. Well, this is just exaggeration by a writer who was no stranger to the genre, but in recent years he has found himself in good (or not so good) company. Since the 1980s, the 'Palestinian Holocaust' has become a badge for left-liberals everywhere, a rallying cry for the Islamic world, an internet 'reality' that could have stepped out of Second Life, a cause for much wringing of hands, a matter for public lamentation, a summons for vindication, a justification for 'retaliatory' violence, an explanation for Palestinian intransigence and failure, a texture woven through the cloth of Arab policies, an incantation ringing out in Islamic sermons, on the voices of little children, in the streets and suqs, a banner waving beside the Palestinian flag. Enough with the purple prose. The Palestinian Holocaust never happened. We are living in the real world. We are, if you like, living in history, and history has no record of a Palestinian Holocaust. But let me take this beyond mere assertion. The term 'Holocaust' as applied to the Palestinians is derived directly from the same word in English, corresponding to the Hebrew Shoah. Writing in Arabic or Farsi, the word is hulukast (with three of those long-vowel dashes on the vowels, neatly avoiding any Arabic, Persian, or other term that might have been more appropriate. So, the Palestinian 'Holocaust' is modelled on something that happened in Europe, the slaughter of some 6 million Jews by the Nazis before and during the Second World War. Of the reality of the Jewish Holocaust, there can be no doubt. It is recorded lavishly in the memories of survivors, on film, in photographs, and, above all, in mile after mile of German, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, and other archives, archives whose multitudinous files contain vastly more evidence of murder and bestiality than the police records of any country on earth. No other crime or set of crimes have been so meticulously recorded. In face of this overwhelming evidence, many Muslims — notably the Iranians — have joined forces with a much smaller number of right-wing extremists (and not a few on the far left) who flatly deny that the Holocaust ever took place, who insist there were no gas chambers and who would have it that not a single Jew died as a result of Nazi brutality. Or who argue that the Nazis looked after the Jews well, and that it was disease, not lethal gases, that killed them. Better still, never content with one explanation when three or four will do, they argue that the Holocaust was a dastardly Zionist plot, a conspiracy between Nazis and Zionists to imprint the deaths of Jews on the world's conscience in order to guarantee the creation of Israel once the war was over. This denial — egregious, sickening and degenerate as it is — matches claims that there was, that there is, a Palestinian Holocaust. No Jews died, but, hey, look at the slaughter of the Palestinians by the Jews. It also matches the transparent nonsense that Israel is a Nazi state and, what's more, a Nazi state built on that non-existent Holocaust. It does not need saying that no serious person would fall for any of this, except that so many have. The Palestinian Holocaust, a vast massacre for which not a shred of evidence exists, is passing fare at polite middle-class dinner tables, it is fodder for intellectuals of a certain ilk, it passes for historical fact among well-educated people who find it easier to sneer than read a book of properly-researched history. Why has this happened? Why has history been stood on its head, and, with it, terminology? If I call Israel a Nazi state, am I not obliged to demonstrate this by reference to Israeli doctrines, policies, and actions that parallel those of the German National Socialist Party? If I pontificate about a Palestinian Holocaust, am I not bound to cite places, dates, and numbers? And since there are no such facts to bandy about, just as there are no Israeli apartheid laws, what do I have to do? All it seems to take is repetition. Say it often enough and people take it in and give it shelter, a lie big enough to choke them. Some of these moral degenerates, like Ilan Pappé, say they aren't interested in facts, that it's the progressive argument or something, whatever it's called, that counts. But as every criminal knows when he's dragged to court, the facts will grind you down. However much you fudge and cover, slip and slide, a good barrister will wear you out, because there will be demonstrable facts to expose your lies. Beneath the surface (though not far beneath) is an abiding anti-Semitism, a moral failing that drives its exponents to lies. Far-right groups like Stormfront have no compunctions about being anti-Semitic. They aren't ashamed of it, in fact they're proud to be Hitler's successors. But what about the European and American left? Not all the left, not all the liberals, but a large body who are not really liberal at all. After the Holocaust, it became a shameful thing to speak ill of Jews and, for some time, to condemn Israel. But there gradually came into existence a new kind of left-winger, someone for whom everything Western was anathema. So, America is the devil, the UK is the devil, Israel is the devil, imperialism, colonialism, and all the rest are part of Satan's attack on the poor and wretched of the earth. One problem, of course, for this approach is that you have to turn a blind eye to Islamic imperialism (especially the late, great Ottoman empire), or Arab and Turkish slavery, and all those other things the non-Western world has been responsible for. That means re-writing history, and that's the direction chosen by leftist intellectuals. Israel has been of particularly value for this, allowing liberals to cry 'I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm anti-Israel'. The antidote to these arguments may be found in a remarkable book by Bernard Harrison, The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism. Harrison's an academic philosopher, and his analysis of this problem about anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism is outstanding. Slowly, painstakingly, he subjects articles, individuals, and arguments to a critique to which they have never been subjected before. His discussion of Tom Paulin alone makes the book worth buying. Rather than digressing into his complex arguments, I'll leave this post here and possibly return to it another day. Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com To Go To Top

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE I.D.F. Posted by Herb and Miki Sunshine, August 27, 2008.

This was written by Rav Meir Kahane and it was published in the Magazine of the Authentic Jewish Idea, Spring 5744-1984,

The news that at least 20 Israeli soldiers were sentenced and jailed for refusing to serve in Lebanon and/or the territories, comes on top of the sentencing by a military court of four soldiers for the "crime" of "excessive force" against the Arab rioters in the territories. They both emerge in the context of the horrendous Kahan Commission report. The entire scenario adds up to one of the slow but efficient destruction of the Israeli Defense Forces as an effective and moral force in the defense of Israel against the extermination. The only weapon our enemies possess to destroy the superior forces of the I.D.F. is the one of internal corrupting or the Jewish soul. The rot of propaganda aimed at questioning the moral and ethical stands of Israel has begun to bear fruit and we are witness to the same inner destruction of the Israeli army and sense of self-confidence in the justice of the Jewish cause, as occurred in the United states over Vietnam. And that which occurred to the United states — today a paper tiger unable to screw up the courage to take any kind of a military stand that calls for deep sacrifice — slowly builds up in the Jewish state that lost its Judaism, then its Zionism and, today, thanks to the anarchists of the Liberal-Left, its very belief in itself. When one fights the enemy, let it be clear that the purpose is to destroy him. The alternative is just as clear: He will destroy you. War is not immoral, per se; at times it is a mitzvah, a commandment, hence the Jewish concept of milchemet mitzvah, a war of obligation or commandment. To destroy evil is a commandment. To defend Jewish lives is a commandment. To defend the territory of the Land of Israel is a commandment. To destroy those who humiliate and desecrate G-d's name is a commandment. And not to understand this is to guarantee that we will lose our wars because we have lost our sense of real justice and the righteousness of our cause. The Kahan Commission is only the latest and worst of the blows but the price is not new. For year, Israeli soldiers have been held back and punished when attempting to use the only language that rioting Arabs understand. Tens of Israeli soldiers have died, needlessly, as the result of the gentilized concept of "tohar haneshek" (purity of arms) that forced them to fight without airpower or artillery because civilians were in the area. Let it be clear; the civilians were enemy civilians. One can see the handwriting on the crumbling walls. The gentilization of Israel breeds a lack of faith in its own righteousness. The IDF will fall victim to all the gentilized conceptual trash that destroyed the U.S. The lesson is clear. The real Jewish enemy is the Hellenism within the gates. Destroy it. Herb Sunshine is a lawyer, qualified to practice in U.S.A. and Israel. He and his wife Miki live in Jerusalem. Contact them by email at sunshine.h@012.net.il To Go To Top

THREE JEWS BANNED FROM THEIR HOMES IN SAMARIA Posted by Hillel Fendel, August 27, 2008.

This appeared in Arutz-7 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127362

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel police and IDF have issued orders banning three Jews from their homes in the Shomron region for three to four months. The explanation: "Your presence in the area represents a danger to the public order." Various press reports state that the reason for the temporary expulsion is that the three might "disturb the Arab olive harvest." However, one of the three, Akiva HaCohen of Yitzhar, told IsraelNationalNews that this has nothing to do with the truth. "The olive harvest season begins only at the end of my four-month expulsion," he said. The head of the Shomron Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, said, "The police are too easy on the trigger finger." The other two newly-homeless Jews are David Libman and Meir Bretler of Adei Ad, 20 miles north of Jerusalem, though Libman has not yet been actually handed the orders, as the police do not know where he is. The three will not be permitted to be in the Shomron for the next four months — three, in the case of Bretler — because of the unspecified dangers the police claim they present. HaCohen says it has nothing to do with "dangers," but rather with "solidarity." "I am of the strong opinion," he told IsraelNationalNews, "that the reason they got me is because of a pact that was recently made among the various Shomron towns called 'Mutual Responsibility,' which states that whenever the army or police come to evict Jews from a hilltop or town, the Jews of all the other towns and hilltops in the area do what they can to stop it — even if it is only by standing in an intersection and reciting Psalms or holding signs. The General Security Service (Shabak) seems to think that I'm involved, and that's why they have given me these orders." "Not a Personal Problem, but National" HaCohen and his wife have three children, aged 4.5 and down. Asked what he plans to do for the next four months and whether his family will join him, he said, "The issue here is not a humanitarian one for me and my family, but rather a national one. The authorities' weak point is that they can't take it when we show solidarity with each other." They have until Friday to leave home, or four more days if they file an appeal — which they do not think will be successful. The IDF Office for Public Complaints can be faxed at 03-569-9400. Farming Plans Down the Drain HaCohen said that he established a hilltop community outpost near Yitzhar, not far from Shechem (Nablus), and that it now has four families. "I'm also a farmer," he said, "and I am about to plant a grape orchard of ten dunams (2.5 acres) following the end of this Shemittah year [during which planting is not allowed by Jewish Law — ed.] a few weeks from now. In addition, I also market flour, and if I disappear for four months, my market will be gone." Protests by Council Head, Legal Forum, Yesha Council Shomron Council head Mesika, apparently in response to the press reports about the olive harvest, said, "It is sad that Arab olives are more important than the lives of IDF soldiers." He then explained: "The police have not issued any such orders to left-wing activists who demonstrate in Bal'in and endanger IDF soldiers — but they are quick to do so when it comes to Arab olives." "This is a grave blow to civil rights of Israeli citizens," Mesika said. "It only happens vis-a vis one side of the political map." Itamar Ben-Gvir, an activist of the Jewish Front, bemoaned the fact that unlike in previous cases, "the three are not even allowed to remain in their homes and not leave. They must leave their homes altogether." The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel released this statement: " If there is evidence of a crime, those suspected must be tried — but not restricted in this arbitrary manner. This is an intolerable blow to civil rights that must be stopped. It is not rooted in any law, but is rather given solely to the arbitrary decision of the military commander [O.C. Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gad Shamni] in the area." The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria similarly protested the decision. Hillel Fendel is senior news editor of Arutz-7. This article is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127279 To Go To Top

U.S. BUILDS P.A. FORCES AGAINST ISRAEL; ISLAMIST MACHINATIONS IN TURKEY; PA PROPAGANDA Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 27, 2008.

ISRAELI RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA Israel trained the Georgian forces that Russia is attacking. Putin may bear a grudge against Israel for that (Barry Chamish, 8/9). Russia is said to be selling Iran its main defensive system against aerial attack. Israel claims to be developing a device that neutralizes that system. Israel warns Russia that if it goes through with the sale, Israel would neutralize the defensive system and inform the world. That would compromise Russia's own defense and deter foreign countries from buying Russia's defensive system (IMRA, 8/8). THE DANGER SEC. RICE SEES IN IRAN GETTING THE BOMB She sees the dangers as other countries seeking nuclear weapons (IMRA, 8/8). That is a danger, yes. But first the danger is that Iran would launch the nuclear weapons at Israel and Europe and eventually the US. GEN. DAYTON BUILDS A P.A. FORCE TO FIGHT ISRAEL WITH That's not what he says. He's idealistic and imagines he is building a fine new state. However, Dr. Aaron Lerner analyzed his interview, and finds that he is building up an enemy of Israel and of peace. Dr. Lerner concludes that Dayton's reassurance to Israel is that if the P.A. gets from negotiations what it wants, Israel has nothing to worry about from the P.A. military he is training. That is no reassurance, for the P.A. won't get everything it wants, because it wants everything. Therefore, it would use the force against Israel. [I don't interpret what Dayton said that way.] Dayton hardly mentioned terrorism, because the new P.A. force does not pursue terrorists, only ordinary criminals. [Therefore, it is not against jihad. Therefore it won't make genuine peace, when it ends up with an army Dayton trained.] Dayton's judgment is clouded by his being surprised at the P.A. collapse during the Hamas coup in Gaza. In addition, he said he now thinks it was a mistake for Congress not to provide the P.A. with more arms before that coup. But the arms that the US did provide were given up to Hamas! [The P.A. was so infiltrated, disorganized, disunited, and demoralized, that it hardly fought Hamas. Should Dayton be demoted for not having perceived that even after the fact?] Dayton would like Israel to evacuate from Judea-Samaria, leaving P.A. forces in charge [until Hamas overthrows them]. Who then would combat terrorists? VATICAN WANTS TO BUILD CHURCH IN S. ARABIA Muhammad allowed churches and synagogues to stay in the Arabian Peninsula. He barred temples of polytheists from Mecca, Medina, and another holy area. In modern times, however, churches and synagogues were barred from the Peninsula. More currently, all the Gulf countries except S. Arabia allow churches, just as the West allows mosques. A leading S. Arabian expert said that when Christians and Jews recognize Muhammad as a legitimate prophet in their faith, then S. Arabia should allow churches in its country (IMRA, 8/7). Typical Muslim Arab thinking: raise a non-sequitur to divert from the problem, which is the non-reciprocity of temple building between the West and S. Arabia, and attempts to gain influence over other religions. He is asking other religions to change their beliefs, before he would tolerate them. Their beliefs are none of his business; he should be tolerant regardless. ISLAMIST MACHINATIONS IN TURKEY The Islamist party took power in Turkey, because the many small parties failed to get enough votes each for parliamentarian representation. As a result, the Islamist party won 1/3 of the votes but got 2/3 of the seats. The party platform disavowed is previous totalitarian goals. Once in, however, it hacks systematically at the constitutional ropes binding democracy. The prime minister is high-handed within his party. When constitutional challenge arose to the regime's illegal acts and proposed banning it, government prosecutors falsely alleged a plot by the secularists to stage a violent coup. The actual terrorism they cite is by Islamists and evidence is faked. The government extensively spies on opponents. Indictments are vague about who committed which crimes and whether there are crimes, referring to "incitement," an accusation common in dictatorships such as Syria and S. Arabia [and Israel!]. Earlier, the Islamist government started filling the civil service with Islamists, dedicated, as in banking, to institute Islamist practice. The government seized one media group and bribed others. The regime put its civilian at the head of the military council. It passed a law requiring judicial candidates to take an oral test it administers, and inquires into their views. It prosecutes secularist judges. Its new judges reversed all decisions against Islamists. The government expanded the powers of police, who now persecute and mistreat. Unfortunately, the party has become more popular (Mideast News or Forum, 8/8). An earlier analysis attributed this to the rise of the rural population compared with the Istanbul population. Lessons: Never trust Islamists; avoid rule by a party with 1/3 of vote. BRITAIN'S NEW DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ISRAELIS Britain opposes Jewish residency in Judea-Samaria but wanted to build a relationship with Jews from there. When its Israeli embassy planned to celebrate its queen, and Arabs objected to Jews from Judea-Samaria being invited, the embassy blacklisted those Jews. A patriotic Israel retorted that the only colonial movement in the area is the P.A.'s attempt to colonize Israel (IMRA, 8/7). If Israel were a self-respecting Jewish state, it would publicize British occupation of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, until Britain rescinded its blacklist. PALESTINIAN ARAB PROPAGANDA Another "Popular Palestinian Conference," featuring anti-Israel propaganda, is planned. There will be workshops such as how to inject the Arab view into US high schools, presenting the Palestinian Arabs as victims of Israel, aided by the US. They accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing and Nazi-like acts. One speaker argues that off-campus criticism of Middle Eastern Studies is persecution and that the US makes Arabs political prisoners. But they are convicted of terrorist crimes, not for their politics. Some of their radical scholars advocate a "one-state solution," i.e., Arab take-over of Israel, characterized by pathological hatred of Jews, persecution of Christians, imposition of Islamic law, indoctrination of children, and clan and terrorist violence within and without [and ethnic cleansing of Jews]. Some of them admit the Muslim violence, but blame it on Israel and the US as having provoked it. If they would stop blaming others, they would find the fault theirs and solutions up to them. It was they who created the Arab refugee problem and then refused to resolve it (Middle East Forum, 8/9). Muslim oppression, neglect of business law, and needless strife have caused some hundreds of thousands of Arabs to flee. Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, too. It expelled almost 10,000 Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria. It encourages Arabs to build illegally in Judea-Samaria and on Jewish-owned land, and discourages Arabs from staying there. Nazi-like acts by the Arabs abound, for they admire the Nazis. Islam, at least as practiced by the Arabs, is a religion of hatred, violence, and imperialism, so it is unfair to blame Israel and the US for Muslim terrorism. Israel is the victim, here. The State Dept. is anti-Israel, but gets no credit for this from the Arabs. Vicious liars lack scholarly integrity. They don't belong on college staffs. 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

LIVNI'S MISGUIDED SENSE OF RESOLUTION 1701 ACCOMPLISHMENTS: IGNORANCE OR LIES? Posted by Eli E. Hertz, August 26, 2008.

Much controversy is being generated as to Minister Tzipi Livni's ability to lead Israel. She advocates honesty and accountability, but when it came to handling Resolution 1701 those principles may have left the room. She insists that the outcome of the resolution is in Israel's favor, but anyone who reads the fine print can clearly see its futility. Is it ignorance, or blatant lies? You decide. 1. Livni: "Security Council Resolution 1701 is an Israeli achievement" Facts: Adopting Resolution 1701 under Chapter 7, would require the aggressor to comply with its provisions. This was a clear goal of Israel that did not materialize. Under international law, Resolution 1701 which was adapted under Chapter 6, is at best a declarative statement that lacks the legal authority or enforcement power whatsoever. All the rest is wishful thinking, and the results on the ground will attest to it. Hesham Youssef, chief of the cabinet of the Arab League Secretary-General speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly simply stated: "The resolution is issued under Chapter 6 rather than Chapter 7 of the UN Charter ... [This] is a diplomatic achievement" of the Arab League. In other words, the Arab League welcomes the weakness of the resolution which lacks enforcement power to "ensure implementation" of Resolution 1701. Unable to have the resolution adopted under Chapter 7, Livni invents a new Chapter when she claims: "We got 7 minus" a statement which is injudicious and fundamentally wrong. There is no room in international law for a loose interpretation of the Charter, and "7 minus" is not a recognized provision in international law. (if its not 7, its 6) Livni (and Olmert's) claim that the cease-fire that brought the fighting to a halt, is somehow indicative of a success, either militarily or diplomatically, is erroneous. The Government of Israel failed to protect its citizens — unable to stop the daily barrage of Katyushas landing on northern and central Israel. With nearly a million Israelis displaced, Israel's urgent need for a cease-fire was obvious. If the war would have kept going at its pace, Israel would have suffered the greatest military humiliation in its history. And as the Wall Street Journal noted: "Israel has nothing to show for its 1701 Resolution" 2. Livni: "A decision was reached by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense to approve the start of a military operation and just as it was starting to go into action late Friday [ August 11 2006 ] we began to strengthen the resolution and return it to the level at which we felt it should originally be." Facts: John Bolton, who was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Second Lebanon War, rejected Livni and Olmert's version of the failed ground offensive during the war's final days: "The Israeli military operation did not play a role in the talks on drafting the UN Security Council Resolution 1701." It appears that Prime Minster Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, and Defense Minister Peretz — all in concert — failed to this day "to come clean" and with clarity, explain to the nations' families and soldiers what precisely was the "improvement" attained as a direct result of the IDF expansion into Lebanon on August 11, 2006 — a move that cost the lives of 33 Israeli soldiers, and many more wounded. 3. Livni: "We wanted to ensure that this embargo would be enforceable and substantive, preventing the transfer of arms ... to Hizbollah. ... Now the embargo is part of the UN resolution and the terms and formulation of this article are acceptable to Israel and express our opinion — a proper embargo." Facts: Resolution 1701 never even mentions the word embargo and does not set-forth an enforcement mechanism or any enforcement power. It seems as though the Minister did not read the resolution. 4. Livni: Israel "Will be getting UNIFIL with a completely different mandate, which includes the right, the option and the authority to use force when required." Facts: UNIFIL — a Paper Tiger — is not authorized to use armed force or to impose in any forceful manner the implementation of the recommendations of UN Resolution 1701. UNIFIL's right to use force is strictly limited to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Major-General Alain Pelligrini [France] then the Force Commander of UNIFIL made it clear: "The disarmament of Hezbollah is not the business of UNIFIL." With the Israeli election in sight, Tzipi Livni, a senior member of the Israeli Cabinet, cannot escape her shared responsibility for the outcome of the Second Lebanon War, and in particular the failed UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Leadership is all about responsibility. Unless otherwise stated, Livni's statements are taken verbatim from her briefing to reporters following Israel's acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, 13 Aug 2006. For more on Res'n 1701, go to http://mythsandfacts.com/article_view.asp?articleID=87 Eli E. Hertz is president of Myths and Facts, Inc. The organization's objective is to provide policymakers, national leadership, the media and the public-at-large with information and viewpoints that are founded on factual and reliable content. Contact him at today@mythsandfacts.org To Go To Top

ISRAELI DESIGNED SUIT HELPS SUIT HELPS PARALYZED PEOPLE WALK Posted by Avodah, August 26, 2008.

This was written by Ari Rabinovitch and it comes from Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSLP27939120080826?feedType= RSS&feedName=scienceNews&rpc=22&sp=true The video is at http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=89631&newsChannel=scienceNews

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) — paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum. That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward — with a proud expression on his face — as passersby stare in surprise. "I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," said Kaiof, who was injured while serving in the Israeli military in 1988. "Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below." The device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli high-tech company. Something of a mix between the exoskeleton of a crustacean and the suit worn by comic hero Iron Man, ReWalk helps paraplegics — people paralyzed below the waist — to stand, walk and climb stairs. Goffer himself was paralyzed in an accident in 1997 but he cannot use his own invention because he does not have full function of his arms. The system, which requires crutches to help with balance, consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors and a back pack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries. The user picks a setting with a remote control wrist band — stand, sit, walk, descend or climb — and then leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion. "It raises people out of their wheelchair and lets them stand up straight," Goffer said. "It's not just about health, it's also about dignity." EYE CONTACT Kate Parkin, director of physical and occupational therapy at NYU Medical Centre, said it has the potential to improve a user's health in two ways. "Physically, the body works differently when upright. You can challenge different muscles and allow full expansion of the lungs," Parkin said. "Psychologically, it lets people live at the upright level and make eye contact." Iuly Treger, deputy director of Israel's Loewenstein Rehabilitation Centre, said: "It may be a burdensome device, but it will be very helpful and important for those who choose to use it." The product, slated for commercial sale in 2010, will cost as much as the more sophisticated wheelchairs on the market, which sell for about $20,000, the company said. The ReWalk is now in clinical trials in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Centre and Goffer said it will soon be used in trials at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania. Competing technologies use electrical stimulation to restore function to injured muscle, but Argo's Chief Operating Officer Oren Tamari said they will not offer practical alternatives to wheelchairs in the foreseeable future. Other "robot suits", like those being developed by the U.S. military or the HAL robot of Japan's University of Tsukuba, are not suitable for paralyzed people, he said. Contact Avodah by email at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

ROLE OF HAMAS IN 'COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT' Posted by Bryna Berch, August 26, 2008.

This article was written by Seán Gannon, chairman of Irish Friends of Israel. It was published August 15, 2008 as an Opinion piece in the Irish Times http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/ 2008/0815/1218747921606.html Mr. Gannon makes the bizarre term "Collective Punishment" accessible and understandable.

ON MAY 27th, 1942, the Deputy Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, was assassinated by the Czech underground as he drove to his office in Prague. In an effort "to make up for his death", the SS rounded up the residents of the nearby village of Lidice. Some 200 men were immediately executed. The women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where most subsequently died;80 per cent of their children were gassed at Chelmno in July. Two years later, a partisan bomb killed 33 members of an SS police battalion as it marched through central Rome. In reprisal, the city's Gestapo chief, Herbert Kappler, ordered that 10 Italians be executed for every dead German. The following day, 335 people were taken down to the Ardeatine Caves and shot in the back of the neck. Such were the type of atrocities that the framers of the Fourth Geneva Convention had in mind when they outlawed "collective punishment" in 1949. Article 33's stipulation that no person "be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed" refers to the active imposition of criminal penalties in reprisal for another party's guilt. Therefore, its constant invocation by critics of Israel in the context of its lockdown of Gaza represents little more than a cynical exploitation of the language of international law, part of a well-established strategy which seeks to de-legitimise Israeli security detail by defining it in terms of policies properly opposed by all right-thinking people: "apartheid" (the security fence); "war crimes" (the targeted killing of terrorist leaders); even "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" (almost every IDF operation). For example, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign claims that Israel's rather erratic restrictions on electricity and motor fuel exports to Gaza constitute "collective punishment" and a violation of international law. However, the legality of economic sanctions in conflict situations is enshrined in the UN Charter despite their unavoidable impact on civilians. The UN embargo against Saddam Hussein's regime caused enormous suffering among ordinary Iraqis while its sanctions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban had what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called "a tangible negative effect" on the lives of innocent Afghanis. Yet no one accuses the Security Council of imposing "collective punishment". Furthermore, although the Fourth Geneva Convention does not technically apply to its conflict with Gaza (which is neither a high contracting party nor, despite Israel's control of its borders, Israeli occupied territory), Jerusalem is fully compliant with its requirements. The convention does not obligate the supply of goods and services to enemy populations (Israel rightly declared Gaza a "hostile entity" in September 2007) other than "essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under 15, expectant mothers and maternity cases". The 1977 First Additional Protocol does not list electricity or fuel among the "other supplies essential to the survival of the civilian population", for which transit must be facilitated. In any case, even these can be embargoed where there are serious grounds for believing they will be intercepted by enemy forces. And although this is obviously happening in Gaza (Hamas seized 14 truckloads of Red Crescent relief last February and has been repeatedly accused by the Palestinian Authority of diverting fuel destined for Gaza's power station and hospitals to its own private depots), Israel continues to allow the transfer of hundreds of tonnes of aid into the territory each week. Israel's travel ban on Gaza students with overseas scholarships has also been described as a form of "collective punishment". Condemning this policy on these pages, the former director of the Irish Fulbright Commission, John Kelly, highlighted the case of seven Fulbright scholars whom he suggested were denied permission to travel to the US to study because three of them were affiliates of Gaza's Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold linked to a number of recent terrorist offences. Three of the 14 Fulbright scholars who applied to leave Gaza this year were indeed refused for security reasons. But the central issue is not whether such students pose a risk in themselves but whether access to an overseas college education represents "an exceptional humanitarian cause" for which Israel should break its legitimate blockade. As the universal right to an education does not extend to higher studies, it clearly does not. This is undoubtedly a tragedy for the hundreds of students in receipt of foreign university fellowships barred from leaving Gaza, and Israel is presently reviewing its policy and examining applications on a case-by-case basis. But ultimate responsibility for the plight of those denied permission to travel lies not with the Jerusalem government, but with their own Hamas rulers who, in waging an indiscriminate terrorist war against all Israelis, are the region's real perpetrators of "collective punishment" crimes. EDITOR'S UPDATE: For more on the Fulbright scholars from Gaza, see below. To Go To Top

THE HIDDEN FACE OF POLITICAL ISLAMISM Posted by Bryna Berch, August 26, 2008.

This was written by Dean Godson. who is research director of Policy Exchange Think Tank. It was published July 15, 2008 in The Times (UK) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article4333354.ece "It is increasingly hard to draw a line between the agendas of the violent and non-violent" — Dean Godson

Who says that Islamists can't learn a trick or two from the West when they have to? Take a glance at the glossy brochure of Islam Expo — billed as Europe's "biggest Islamic cultural festival" — which ended at Olympia yesterday. You could be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at the catalogue for the forthcoming Boden sale that comes to the venerable London exhibition centre in a few weeks' time. Visitors to Islam Expo would have wtnessed such innocent activities as an Islamic arts and crafts workshop for under 12s, live Islamic storytelling performances and lute-playing and poetry recitals in the pomegranate and date gardens. The old Comintern would have instantly recognised the first rate tradecraft involved in organising all this. Just as Moscow and its allies knew how to organise a "popular front" to draw non-communist progressives and liberals into their orbit of influence, so some Islamists have honed a keen sense of how to present a non-threatening face to the West and to the many hundreds of decent, apolitical Muslims who turned up for a family day out. But behind the cultural soft power of Islam Expo, there is political hard power, and some of it comes in quite raw, unpalatable forms. The organisers gave floor space in the exhibition section to the genocidal regime in Sudan (festooned with pictures of happy-looking black Africans) and to the "Cultural Section" of the Iranian Embassy (representing an aspirant genocidal regime) and the Algerian junta (no spring picnic on human rights). Background * New board of imams to tackle extremists * British Muslims plan a summer vision * Muslim refuses shake, loses prize * Imams to teach in state schools to tackle extremism This perhaps becomes less surprising when one examines some of the directors of Islam Expo. All oppose al-Qaeda violence, but they are anything but moderate Muslims. They include Azzam Tamimi, a supporter of Hamas suicide bombings in Israel and an admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini. Consider also the views of one of the expo's speakers: "Prof Zaghloul al Naggar, professor of geology and director of the London-based Markfield Institute of Higher Education has rightly told IslamOnline that many Westerners — some of them homosexual — convert to Islam in order to appeal to Islamic communities and spread sinful behaviour among Muslims, thus shaking their belief," according to the allaahuakbar.net website. No wonder Hazel Blears, the feisty Secretary of State for Communities, decided last week that this was not a place where any minister should be seen. Most of her Muslim colleagues in the Labour Party backed her, including the MPs Sadiq Khan and Khalid Mahmood. But another minister, Shahid Malik, MP for Dewsbury, had other ideas and sought to attend in a personal capacity. He was persuaded not to attend Islam Expo only with the greatest difficulty — after heavy pressure from his departmental chief at International Development, Douglas Alexander, the Chief Whip and the Cabinet Secretary, who invoked Cabinet Office guidelines on engagement with Islamic groups. Ms Blears is probably the member of the Cabinet readiest to uphold a strict interpretation of those criteria. She has also dealt vigorously with senior officials whom she believes have been naive in their approach to Islamist-friendly groups. But policing the boundaries of respectable discourse is hard work. While ministers were forbidden to go, the Foreign Office-funded British Satellite News was publicising an entirely positive image of Islam Expo for overseas consumption. This time the Government has had a narrow escape from the political Islamists of Islam Expo. Its relief must be compounded by what has happened over the past 48 hours to Alex Salmond. Scotland's First Minister has landed himself in serious trouble over a grant of £215,000 given to the Scottish Islamic Foundation, which is headed by one of his advisers, Osama Saeed. Other Muslim groups in Scotland are upset by what they see as favouritism to the best-known political Islamist in the Scottish National Party. Mr Saeed, an SNP parliamentary candidate and also a speaker at Islam Expo, has described Hamas suicide attacks as "martyrdom operations" and has supported the creation of a modern caliphate, or pan-Islamic state. The row could cost the SNP victory in the Glasgow East by-election next week. The fashionable take on deradicalising angry young Muslim men is that only political Islamists, such as Mr Saeed, have the credibility to stop them going over the deep end. This reasoning is doubtful. The opposition of political Islamists to al-Qaeda violence in the West does not mean that they are actually friends of the West. Rather, they know that there is more than one way to skin a cat. The boundaries between violent and non-violent Islamists deserve greater exploration. Are non-violent political Islamists part of the solution or, as figures such as Hazel Blears and David Cameron increasingly suspect, part of the problem? To Go To Top

OBAMA FLUFF; ISRAELI WARNINGS; SEC. RICE CONTRADICTED BY ABBAS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 26, 2008.

OBAMA FLUFF I received a solicitation for contribution from candidate Barak Obama. It was repetitive, promised without commitment, and comprises entirely generalities not wholly benign: "social and economic justice," "greater prosperity and a brighter future," "change this country and transform the world," "overcome the forces of fear and division that the other side has made a central part of their campaign," against "the narrow, special interest-driven politics that has stopped us from meeting the serious challenges we face," "the agenda offered by John McCain is nothing more than a continuation of the failed policies of the past," "Change in an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work, and workers who create it." (He means the change would reward wealth, work, and workers.) "Change is a health care plan that guarantees affordable coverage to all who want it." "And change is ending a war in Iraq that should have never been authorized and never been waged and that distracted us from winning the war against al-Qaeda." "We owe our country a better future. We owe our children a better future." Obama's agenda features the failed policies of appeasement, of a welfare state, of excessive spending, of high taxation, and of racism. Yes, his campaign is the divisive one, insinuating that a vote against him is racist and blaming our problems on successful corporations instead of freeing corporations from regulations that keep them from being successful for their workers. Obama, like Clinton, would deprive workers of the secret ballot for union recognition, leaving them subject to union intimidation. Both parties favor special interests, as the subsidy-bloated budget demonstrates. The Iraq war has done much to discredit al-Qaeda. The broader problem is the globalization of jihad. Obama, tied to the past, fails to realize that. He has no modern plan to reduce medical costs. His only way to reduce them is by fiat, which puts doctors out of business. How is that good for medical treatment? He never heard of organic food and alternative medicine? That political blindness is non-partisan, not just his. NOT STATED RIGHT Four thousand Jews from Gaza began demonstrating, in a campaign to return to Gaza. They vowed to return to their houses (IMRA, 8/7). All those houses were demolished. They mean they want to return to their community sites and rebuild. I approve their purpose, but would place their communities alongside Israel. That way, none would be isolated. Contiguity would provide security for both the renewed communities and for Israel. Israel easily could annex them. ISRAEL WARNS HAMAS Another Gazan rocket landed in Israel. [There must have been a few dozen, by now.] Israel warned Hamas that further violation of the truce would force it to take forceful means. Dr. Aaron Lerner comments that he has heard that before. These warnings are empty threats. He suggests that while the world focuses on the Olympics, Israel take unpopular action against Hamas and other enemies. He suggests that Israel jam communications with the ships seeking to break through to Gaza in support of what amounts to a Muslim Arab right to murder Israelis, and do something to the ships (IMRA, 8/7). ISRAEL WARNS HIZBULLAH Hizbullah's proclaimed next step is to gain anti-aircraft weaponry. It attempted to get a delivery from Russia via Syria, but Israeli diplomatic efforts thwarted this. Israel issued a warning that it would not stand for such a build-up. Dr. Aaron Lerner notes that Israel speaks loudly while carrying a small stick. Israeli threats have become a substitute for military action (IMRA, 8/7). IMRA noted that while Hizbullah's strategic danger to Israel has grown, Olmert & Livni claim that Israel is safer. In other words, those Israeli chickens claim that the sky is not falling. Let us hope that 40,000 Hizbullah missiles do not fall from the sky onto Israel. Is the new warning to Hizbullah like those issued almost daily to Hamas during the couple of years that Hamas built itself up into a strategic threat to Israel? DISCRIMINATION IN ISRAELI STORES A Jewish customer of the Home Center Chain in Israel discovered that the store secretly offers Arabs a discount. He asks, suppose the discount were for Jews. Upon receiving protests, the corporation claimed that it periodically offers discounts to various ethnic groups. More protests were lodged over that admitted discrimination (IMRA, 8/7). BUSH NO LONGER PROTECTS US Democrats praised Bush's reversal over Iran's nuclear program. He cancelled the precondition that Iran cease its nuclear enrichment. This undermined three Security Council resolutions. Whereas Democrats perceived the change as greater flexibility, Iranians saw it as greater weakness and validation of their defiance. They intend to use the time they gain to finish their quest. It's a serious quest, inasmuch as Iran spent 70% of its hard currency on nuclear and other military programs [while its economy suffered from that diversion of funds]. Some Iranian leaders not supposed to be hardliners urged the regime to pretend to be interested only in electricity from nuclear power while proceeding clandestinely with military usages. An Iranian military chief urged the regime to disregard American deadlines hereafter. A new US president might impose one, but Iran may not believe him. That is dangerous. Bush's blunder makes a military confrontation likelier for his successor. SEC. RICE CONTRADICTED BY ABBAS Sec. Rice announced the coming of peace between Israel and the P.A.. Abbas refused to recognize Israel's right to exist (IMRA, 8/8). He is not saying he is ready to make peace with Israel. He is saying that Israel has no right to exist. How can he ever make peace with Israel, which he considers illegitimate? Rice is unrealistic. She either engages in wishful thinking or deceitful pronouncements. STATE DEPT. VS. JEWISH DEFENSE AGAINST MISSIONARIES An Israeli organization successfully opposes American missionary work in Israel. It claims that the missionaries react violently but complain to the State Dept. that the Israelis were violent. The State Dept. publishes the complaints without checking with the Israelis (Arutz-7, 8/8). Malicious busybodies. 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

LONE WOLF: CONNECTING THE DOTS; BAD MANNERS AT HEBREW UNIVERSITY Posted by Bryna Berch, August 26, 2008.

These two essays were written by Dr. Joel Fishman, a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Chairman of the Foundation for the Research of Dutch Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is author of "Ten Years Since Oslo: The PLO's 'People's War' Strategy and Israel's Inadequate Response," Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jerusalem Viewpoints No. 503, 1 September 2003 and coauthor (with Efraim Karsh) of La Guerre d'Oslo (The Oslo War) (Paris: Editions de Passy, 2005). Dr. Fishman is carrying out research on political warfare, particularly media warfare and propaganda. Once upon a time, there were clear-cut partitions in destabilization techniques. There were military groups sponsered openly by governments. They were clearly identified by uniform. On the other end of the spectrum, there were operators trained in covert activities, who received orders very rarely if at all once they were on the job. They were usually instructed how to communicate with "headquarters" as needed. But now there are so many ways to communicate, so many internet-, pod-, and email-based instruction manuals, that deep moles or even amateurs who share the ideology can go it alone. Of course, it increases the chances of success with previous training. The point is that it is difficult to tell the difference between trained operators, moles designed for specific missions, self-starters, revolutionaries who are acting out, mates in an isolated cell and those, who, in Daniel Pipes words, wake up one morning suffering from sudden suicide syndrome. In the first essay, Joel Fishman examines the loner: "If we examine the recent examples of terror in Jerusalem in light of the principle of 'lone-wolf' terrorism, it is possible to appreciate how apparently isolated events could be linked, even in the absence of an organization or a leader." The article was an Op-Ed item in Arutz-7 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/8143 Mr. Bennett Ruda of Elizabeth, NJ, provided valuable information for this essay. The second essay is called, "Bad Manners At The Hebrew University" It appeared on IsraCampus http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/ Editorial%20-%20Joel%20Fishman%20-%20bad%20manners.htm

1.  "Lone Wolf: Connecting The Dots" Joel Fishman   A new kind of terrorism On Tuesday afternoon, July 22, Jerusalem experienced another act of terror when a citizen of eastern Jerusalem commandeered a bulldozer in order to use it as a weapon against innocent civilians. The media initially reacted by calling the attack a "copycat" crime, modeled after the attack on Jaffa Road in downtown Jerusalem on July 2, when another eastern Jerusalem driver deliberately plowed a bulldozer into vehicles, including a passenger bus, murdering three and injuring dozens of people. The police labeled the perpetrators of the latest and the previous bulldozer attacks as terrorists acting on their own. In a brief article entitled "The Myth of the Lone Terrorist" (Makor Rishon, July 4), I argued that it is impossible to know whether the terrorist acted on his own and that one cannot separate acts of terrorism from their perpetrators' environment, the long-term influence of incitement to hatred and violence. If we take into account the murder of eight students at Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva on March 6, which, according to the police, was also perpetrated by a lone terrorist, and the shooting of two policemen on patrol near the Lions' Gate on July 11, it is clear that we are confronted by a series of individual acts of terror and not random events. Does this mean that we are now facing a new kind of terrorism which apparently takes place without a leader or an organization? Perhaps we are. Recent reports published in the United States have examined the problem of "lone wolf terrorism," "lone wolf extremism," or "leaderless resistance." According to Wikipedia, "the 'lone-wolf' terrorist usually shares an ideological or philosophical identification with an extremist group, but does not communicate with the group he or she identifies with. While the 'lone-wolf's' actions are motivated to advance the group's goal, the tactics and methods are completely conceived and directed by the 'lone-wolf' without any outside command or direction. In many cases... the 'lone-wolf' never even has any personal contact with a larger group. Because of this, lone-wolf terrorism poses a particular problem for counter-terrorism officials, as it is considerably more difficult to gather intelligence on compared to conventional terrorism." According to the Anti-Defamation League, Alex Curtis, a white supremacist living in San Diego, articulated this method, which may have existed beforehand without a proper label. Curtis advocated disengagement from underground racist organizations in order to evade the criminal justice system. An article on the ADL website, which appeared in July 2002, states that Curtis "envisioned a two-tiered hate movement in which 'divisive and subversive' propaganda would be widely distributed and would guide a revolutionary underground. This underground would consist of 'lone wolves' — racist warriors acting alone or in small groups who attacked the government or other targets in 'daily' anonymous acts.' Curtis saw himself as a propagandist sowing the seeds of a racist revolution...." Furthermore, writing in the Washington Post (June 2005), retired FBI informer Mike German held that Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing (19 April 1995), is the classic example of the "lone wolf." His act of terror killed 168 people and injured hundreds. According to German, "'lone extremism' is not a phenomenon; it's a technique, a ruse designed to subvert the criminal justice system. McVeigh acted as a lone extremist and was trained to do it this way.... But his act of lone extremism was part of the ongoing conspiracy that continues to inspire violent attacks to this day.... It is a matter of connecting the dots...." Similarly, Eyad Kishawi, a Palestinian activist living in San Francisco, published a manual in January 2006 which called for a boycott of Israel and proposed a new strategy of political warfare. Kishawi recommended that the efforts of anti-Israel activists be de-centralized in order to avoid the reach of the American law enforcement agencies and "Israeli extra-judicial and illegal activities." Notably, he emphasized the need for individual initiatives. It is not such a big step to take this principle — as applied to political activism — and transform it into a tactic of terrorist warfare. In fact, Kishawi's approach is essentially the same as the "lone-wolf" terrorism of the white supremacist Alex Curtis. If we examine the recent examples of terror in Jerusalem in light of the principle of "lone-wolf" terrorism, it is possible to appreciate how apparently isolated events could be linked, even in the absence of an organization or a leader. Indeed, there is a cultural connection between ongoing incitement and specific acts of terror. Therefore, it is necessary to deconstruct the cultural environment which incites individuals to perform crimes of hatred. Some positive measures would include sustained police action, rebuilding the education system, rewriting of school textbooks, and censorship of the sermons in the mosques. Further, there must be heavy penalties both for those who incite to violence and those who perpetrate terrorist acts. Those in charge of safeguarding the security of Israeli civilians must find new means — and resourcefully apply the old ones — to break the links of the chain that connect religious and political incitement with those who act according to the principles of "lone-wolf terrorism." In addition, the State of Israel must insist on exercising its sovereignty in the capital and throughout the country. Otherwise, it will face a situation similar to that which prevails in France and other European countries where there are "lost territories of the Republic," districts and neighborhoods which the local residents have rendered inaccessible to the law enforcement authorities. Ultimately, Israel must vigorously enforce the law of the land everywhere within its borders if it intends to protect its citizens and assure its continuity.   These are readers' comments to this article. 4. Residents, not citizens Yehoshua Friedman, Kochav Hashahar (31/07/08) The Arabs are not and do not want to be residents of our city and our country. They consider themselves members of the Arab nation and wish to replace Israel with another Arab state. The "lone wolf" is part of the phenomenon of electronic retribalization which causes the terrorist to receive his "orders" subliminally from the mass media. No chain of command is needed. Far from being an independent individual, he is the opposite, a hive-mentality killer insect. The West is retribalizing into the global village, but the Arab, who never individualized in the first place, is ahead of us on the curve by virtue of having been behind all along. This insight is an adaptation of McLuhan's Understanding Media. 5. The only answer, "No Arabs, No Terror" Harvey (Chaim), London (31/07/08) How these words from Rabbi Meir Kahane still reign true. We don't even need to kill them, just get them out. Regretably we are paralysed with too much PC, to face the truth, we have made their lives are more valuable than ours, WHY! 7. Good analysis and good suggestions, BUT it's too late. Michelle, Vancouver (31/07/08) Although your suggestions are wise, they are several decades too late. Why? Because if there's one thing we have learned all these years is that Arabs and Jews cannot live together in Israel. It does not matter what method the Arabs use, whether organized or lone wolf terrorism, it all has the same goal: to terrorize Jews out of their land. It's too late for re-educating them. It's too late for pacifying them. And it's too late and costly to keep on policing an exploding population. Their message is loud and clear: they want Jews out of Israel and they will use every means, violent and otherwise, to achieve that end. You can't live like this forever. You need peace for the future generations. There is only ONE way to safeguard the lives of the Jews of Israel and that is to arrange for the humane relocation of the Arabs. All of them. 8. The ignorance is staggering! Mike, Vienna, VA (31/07/08) What the author is describing has a proper name. It's called a Marighella Insurgency. The doctrine has been around for over 40 years and is extremely well known. Marighella's model has been used by everyone from ALF and RAF to Greenpeace. It's amazing that the author perceives it as a new invention. P.S. The idea that some form of "better education" will suddenly turn Moslem squatters in Eretz Yisrael into model citizens is even more ridiculous than the rest of the aricle. Moslems are Bnei Amalek. The Torah is clear regarding the means to render them "good". 9. Marighella's slightly different IMHO D. Ashley, Mercaz Marlaz (01/08/08) From Marighella's well-known tractate: "...the urban guerrilla cannot reveal his activity to anyone, since this information is always and only the responsibility of the revolutionary organization in which he is participating." And "The highest level of preparation for the urban guerrilla is the training camp for technical training." And "In order to function, the urban guerrillas must be organized into small groups." And "The organization is... within a general command that also participates in attacks..." And "...the enemy encourages betrayal and infiltrates spies into the guerrilla organization..." And "The guerrilla who suffers from this sin tries to solve the problems of the revolution by actions in the city, but without bothering about the beginnings and survival of other guerrillas in other areas. Blinded by success, he winds up organizing an action that he considers decisive..." 10. To #9: Doctrine is the skeleton around which the body... Mike, Vienna, VA (01/08/08) of a real movement is built. With the appearance of the internet and strong encryption, the Resistance Coordination Committee can be virtual. For example, usenet bulletin boards have been used for the purpose. There are many variations on Marighella's basic theme.   2. "Bad Manners At The Hebrew University" Joel Fishman 8 August 2008 Translation of original Hebrew version that appeared in Makor Rishon 8/8/2008 On Thursday afternoon, July 31, I attended the graduation ceremony which took place in Mexico Hall of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. At this medium-sized gathering, the Faculty of Humanities of the University awarded diplomas to students who had successfully completed the Master of Arts degrees. When I came to this event I was looking forward to a pleasantly but slightly dull afternoon. At the beginning of the ceremony, the public was asked to stand for Hatikvah, the national anthem. While the audience was singing, I turned around and saw something incongruous. Several rows behind me, sat a group of students who by their body language and defiant looks communicated that they chose to distance themselves from the public. These were Arab students. For the sake of honesty and truth, I must add that I learned afterward that this group was not entirely representative, because there were some Arab students who did stand for Hatikvah. Although I had heard reports of this type of offensive behavior on the part off minority students at Yom Ha'Shoah commemoration ceremonies at the University, this experience was new to me. Had I not seen it myself, I would not have raised subject. Therefore, I apologize in advance if I refuse to pass over this incident in silence. Although many Israelis hope for understanding between Jews and Arabs, nothing good can come from an environment of incivility and hatred. Please do not dismiss my first person account by calling me a right-wing extremist, a reactionary, a racist, a fascist, a Nazi, an "Enemy of the Peace," or "a friend of Hamas." I am none of the above and refuse to be intimidated by those who resort to totalitarian epithets. What happened at the University is a legitimate subject for discussion. The first logical question to ask is: what message did these individuals wish to convey? Basically, there are two levels of meaning. First of all, they publicly expressed their contempt for a national symbol, in this case, the national anthem Hatikvah. Secondly, they openly demonstrated their contempt for the general public whose feelings they were bound to offend. It was a calculated affront. It is not that these people did not know how to behave; through their actions they chose to transmit a provocative and hostile message to their hosts and to the audience. Although in all likelihood I shall not meet the offending individuals again, I still wish to send a response. This gesture is an example of bad manners. People who behave offensively have no place in good company. They belong on the street. If I entered a Church, I would take off my hat. If I went to a mosque, I would remove my shoes. When, for example, President Bush recently visited Jerusalem, the audience stood respectfully through both the American and Israeli national anthems. It is a simple question of common sense and mutual respect. Jews have a term for this tasteful and considerate behavior, derech eretz. Participating in rituals of social graciousness is not necessarily an expression of friendship or closeness. Such rituals of civility and politeness ease social contacts and make relations easier for all concerned. There may be Israelis who would not care to have Arabs in their midst, but the Hebrew University received all of its guests hospitably. Furthermore, the University has gone to great lengths to accommodate the Arab minority. No one asks these students to show gratitude for the fine educational opportunities they have been given. They do not have to become Zionists, and, if they don't care for us, that's fine too. But there is simply no justification for crude and illmannered behavior. There is another way of looking at the matter. Several decades ago, Uri Loubrani, David Ben Gurion's advisor on Arab affairs, made a statement which was considered to be particularly unenlightened. He declared that "It might have been better if there were no Arab university students. If they remained hewers of wood it might have been easier to control them." Although his message was disagreeable, Loubrani made an important point. The well-educated malcontents are the most dangerous because they can do far more harm. They will lead the war against the State and seek regime change. In contrast, terrorists and bulldozer drivers cause less damage. Therefore, we must ask: what possible interest does Israel have in producing more of these academic malcontents — like those who were so badly out of place in Mexico Hall — and arming them with the intellectual weapons they need to wage war against the State of Israel and Israeli society?   To Go To Top

THE DEMS' 'SOFT' JIHADIST Posted by Saul Goldman, August 26, 2008.

This is by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. and it appeared in Jewish World Review http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/gaffney090308.php3 JWR contributor Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. heads the Center for Security Policy.

Listening to her critics, one might think that John McCain's chosen running-mate is a complete ignoramus when it comes to matters of national security. In fact, Sarah Palin's background in Alaska, including most recently her service as that state's governor, suggests that the judgment of the Republicans' candidate for Vice President with respect to this portfolio is likely to be substantially better than that of either Barak Obama or Joe Biden. Consider the following factors: Gov. Palin has spent much of her adult life dealing with matters long central to the Alaskan experience and now of surpassing importance to the nation as a whole — namely, energy security and how we can provide for it. Having managed her state's department responsible for oil and gas exploration and exploitation, having negotiated a long-delayed natural gas pipeline through Canada to the Lower 48 and having been married for nearly two decades to a blue-collar worker in Alaska's North Slope oil fields, she knows more about the subject than all three of the others on the two parties' tickets put together. If Gov. Palin can bring to bear her insights into the need for expanded, yet environmentally sensitive drilling, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) — together with an appreciation of the need to introduce fuel-choice in our transportation sector, the object of the bipartisan Open Fuel Standard Act introduced in both the House and Senate shortly before the August recess — she will demonstrate unsurpassed leadership in what is, arguably, the single most important national security challenge of our time. Napoleon is said to have declared that "Geography is destiny." That certainly is true of Gov. Palin. Her state is adjacent to Russia, a nation that has in recent years demonstrated a rising aggressiveness towards its neighbors. The targets are not just the relatively weak and formerly enslaved countries on its littoral like Georgia — the scene of a bloody invasion last month aimed at toppling the elected government there. Moscow has also conducted simulated strategic bombing runs with Soviet-era long-range, nuclear-capable aircraft. These offensive missions are designed to penetrate U.S. northern air defenses in a manner reminiscent of the most provocative of Kremin behavior during the Cold War. As it happens, the best of those defenses — including a squadron of America's state-of-the-art interceptors, the F-22 Raptor — are stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. Governor Palin would not only be intimately familiar with that facilities' vital role in protecting U.S. territory. She would also appreciate its importance in the projection of American power in Asia and beyond as much of the nation's long-range transport aircraft supplying our military operations around the world transit through Elmendorf. Every Commander-in-Chief should have such insights. Speaking of geography, Alaskan territory is also along the trajectory of ballistic missiles launched eastward out of Stalinist North Korea. For that reason, among others, Alaska's Fort Greely was selected as the site for the principal U.S. ground-based defense against such missiles. As that state's governor, Sarah Palin would know more by osmosis — if nothing else — about the necessity for U.S. anti-missile systems than either Messrs. Obama or Biden. In fact, the Democrats have reflexively opposed such defenses and promise to starve them of funds if elected. Opinion polls suggest that the support missile defense enjoys among Gov. Palin's Alaskans is shared by strong majorities of their countrymen elsewhere. Her judgment versus Sen. Biden's on the question of whether America should be protected against present and growing missile-delivered threats will be one of the highlights of the vice presidential nominees' debate. At present, one can only infer Sarah Palin's grasp of the danger posed by today's principal enemy: adherents to the brutally repressive and seditious program the Islamists call Shariah, a program they seek to impose worldwide through violent means and "soft jihad" (including, Shariah-Compliant Finance, influence operations, subversive proselytizing and recruitment in our mosques, prisons and military, etc.) A tangible indicator of her views, however, is the enlistment of her eldest son, Track, on the anniversary of 9/11 last year and his imminent deployment to Iraq. His mother — like the loved ones of millions of other servicemen and women — has had to confront directly and personally the prospect of making the ultimate sacrifice for their country in the face of such evil. In short, America is only beginning to get to know Sarah Palin. As we do, she will have plenty of opportunities to illuminate her views on national security. One thing is already clear, though: By virtue of her home state and its unique role in America's energy, defense and power-projection and thanks to her own public sector service and that of her offspring in the U.S. Army, it is not only wrong but foolish to portray her as totally unprepared to contend with the epochal foreign and defense policy issues we are confronting. If anything, Gov. Palin's personal story and qualities that are clearly resonating with millions of Americans across the political spectrum — her intelligence, scrappiness, integrity, common sense and deep-seated faith — when combined with her real-world experience in Alaska, suggest that she will prove to be better equipped than her rivals to deal with the dynamic and increasingly ominous national security challenges of our times. Rabbi Saul Goldman is Rabbi at Temple Aliyah, Coral Springs, Florida. Contact him by email at gold7910@bellsouth.net To Go To Top

THE DIVINE POLITICAL PLAN; FAKE NATION NIGHTMARE Posted by Steven Shamrak, August 26, 2008.

This was written by Moshe Feiglin. "And you shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it. But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those that you let remain will be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you dwell. And it shall come to pass, that as I thought to do unto them, so will I do to you." (Parshat Masei — Numbers 33: 53, 55, 56) This Torah portion provides us with the most realistic political plan that exists. The State of Israel must foster a reality in which the entire Land of Israel is in the hands of the Nation of Israel. It must not allow any part of the land to remain in foreign hands. If we give our land to foreign peoples, we will lose our own hold on the land and will eventually be forced to leave. Any political plan or solution that does not take this fact into account is nothing more than an illusion. (Muslims and Christians claim that they believe in Jews G-d and Torah. Well, why do they delibarately ignore G-d's commandment? And, why does the self-hating Jewish leadership disobade it as well?) Playing Israel as a Pawn. Russian president Dimitry Medvedev's honeyed words of reassurance to Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert in a call he made to Jerusalem on Wednesday, Aug. 20. It is just another game! At the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Syrian president Bashar Assad told reporters on Thursday, Aug. 21, that he is considering a Russian request to deploy missiles in his country in view of Russian-Western tensions. Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak The international laws relating to national territorial integrity and sovereignty of others is applied to every country other than the superpowers. They just ignore them by applying a 'national security' or 'humanitarian' spin! Occupation of Tibet by China, invasion of Iraq by the US and military action by Russia against Georgia only a few examples from a long list of bullying! Memorial for Victims of 1929 Hevron Massacre. A ceremony in memory of the 67 victims of the 1929 Hevron Massacre was held on Tuesday evening in the ancient Jewish cemetery in the city. In late August of 1929, Arab mobs in Jerusalem began targeting Jewish neighbourhoods in violent attacks. Within a short time, Arabs throughout the rest of the Land of Israel were rioting, lynching and perpetrating massacres against the Jewish population of towns such as Hevron, Tiberias, Tzfat and Motza. In Hevron, where the rolling pogrom arrived on August 23, 1929 (17 Av 5689), Arab residents of the city murdered 67 of their Jewish neighbors in one day. (All of this was done with the knowledge of, deliberate complacency and even encouragement from the British in order to prevent Jews from taking over the Palestinian mandate, with was created in 1922 by the League of Nations to accommodate the creation of the Eretz-Israel!) Jordan the Fake Partner in the Fake Peace Process. Jordan frees 4 prisoners transferred from Israel. The four were found guilty in 1990 of killing IDF soldiers in two separate attacks within Israel's borders and sentenced to life imprisonment but transferred last year to serve out their time in the kingdom. Lack Manpower to Evict Arabs. The police have turned down the most recent court order to evict the Arab squatters from Jewish owned Jerusalem property because of riots they expect will result. Police said they don't have the men for the job. (But there was plenty of manpower and recourses available to forcefully remove 8,500 Jews from their homes in Gaza!) Clear Objective of the Enemies. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday advised the leaders of European countries and the US not to yield to Israel's demands and never count on its support because "We will witness dismantling of the corrupt regime [Israel] in a very near future." (No hidden agenda, just an unambiguous animalistic desire to destroy the Jewish state!) Quotes of the Week: "Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened" — General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, after he found the victims of the death camps. He ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead. — There are bastards who are denying Holocaust now and who did not learn the lesson and have been committing and facilitating genocides around the world! Political Stupidity Makes No Sense. The Israeli government's decision to release 199 terrorists, including two convicted murderers of Israeli civilians, has angered the Shin Bet and other organs of Israel's security apparatus, according to a source from the general security service. Gaza Crossings and 'Poor Palestinians' Game. Israel has closed its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip again, following a rocket attack on southern Israel that violated a truce. Israel and Hamas have been 'observing' a truce [Hudna] since June. But Gaza terrorists have sporadically violated the deal by firing rockets and mortars into Israel, sabotaging reopening of the borders crossings, in spite of the Hamas' claim that Gaza residents heavily depend on the crossings for basic goods. (Spokesman for the United Nations Relief Works Agency, Christopher Gunness, complained that limited fuel supplies in particular were hampering people in their daily lives. — How the rocket attacks from Gaza effect Jews in Israel? This he does not care about!) Look Who is Talking. A senior leader of the Islamic Hamas movement, Osama al-Muzeini, on Thursday said the Israeli commitment to ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza terrorists "is weak". (Hamas has announced several times that it is considering end ceasefire, but enemies of Jews do not care about 'little' lies about peaceful intentions made by enemies of Israel!) Hypocrisy of the 'Loaded' Headlines: "Syrian envoy to UN: Olmert's planned resignation could affect peace talks..." — What peace talks? It should have said "pretence of ... peace talks" — that is actually what all parties have been doing! Europeans Cultivated Islamic Terror. Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga revealed that the government of Italy agreed to allow Arab terrorist groups freedom of movement in the country in exchange for immunity from attacks in Italy. Cossiga wrote that the government of the late Prime Minister Aldo Moro reached a "secret non-belligerence pact between the Italian state and 'Palestinian resistance' organizations, including terrorist groups," in the 1970s. (It was a beginning of Islamic insurgence in the West and many European countries 'protected themselves from Islamic terror by allowing it to flourish, because at the time it was directed mainly against Israel/Jews!) Al Qaeda in Israel. A Bedouin from Be'er Sheva was indicted for plotting a suicide attack with the help of Al Qaeda, as the terror group's influence grows in Israel. Fake Nation Nightmare. by Steven Shamrak. According to all reputable anti-terrorist experts, negotiation with terrorists is bad practice. It gives them legitimacy and encourages the raising of the level of terror. The aim of terrorists is to destabilize society and facilitate the change of public opinion in support of their cause, whatever it is, regardless of its legitimacy. Basque, Tibetans and Kurds have legitimate national claims. All of them have historical connections with their land, as well as the language, cultural and national heritage. In spite of this, neither Spain, France, China, five Central Asian countries, nor the United Nations have made any attempt to address their grievances. Strong legal and military measures are used to discourage any independence tendencies. The idea of 'Palestinian people' was born in the middle of the 1960s after Arab states realized that it was impossible to destroy Israel using military force. The plan for the destruction of the state of Israel through political maneuvering, propaganda campaigns and diplomatic arm-twisting was drawn up and put into action. After forty years of well-designed and persistently executed plans, the 'Fake Nation' is becoming real in the minds of many. Even Jews, exhausted by Arab terror and desperate for at least an illusion of peace, began to lean toward the idea. It has only become possible due to the weak and complacent leadership in Israel and the lack of understanding of the real goal of Islam by the Western leaders. It is time to return to basics, scrutinize the facts of history and wake up from this mesmerizing nightmare! Steven Shamrak was involved in the Moscow Zionist movement. He worked as a construction engineer at the Moscow Olympic Games project and as a computer consultant in Australia. He has been publishing an Internet editorial letter about the Arab-Israel conflict since August 2001 and has a website www.shamrak.com. He can be reached by email at StevenShamrak@gmail.com To Go To Top

SUNSET ON THE BEACH AT HABONIM NATURE RESERVE ON ISRAEL'S CENTRAL COAST Posted by Yehoshua HaLevi, August 25, 2008.

Sunset on the beach at Habonim Nature Reserve on Israel's central coast   Yehoshua Halevi writes: "HOW I GOT THE SHOT: The world is flat, or so it would certainly appear looking through my 12-24 wide-angle, digital zoom along Israel's central coast at HaBonim Nature Reserve. And because it really is flat, or at least the part of the earth that the camera is concerned with, it takes a bit of effort to compose an image that does justice to the beauty of this stretch of rocky shoreline. The best landscapes, especially those which lack dimension, are shot from high ground to increase image depth. In this location, however, my lateral movement was restricted in order to include the many pools spread out across the foreground. The best I could do was step up onto a rock about one foot off the ground. That helped raise the horizon line a little higher above the line where the rocks meet the water, but that thin strip of sea adds substantial depth to the image. I brought home my share of crashing wave shots, but none evoked the feeling of warm summer evening, relaxing in the sand, nothing to do but watch the sun go down. Contact Yehoshua Halevi by email at smile@goldenlightimages.com and visit his website: http://www.goldenlightimages.com To Go To Top

WHAT ISRAEL HAS TO DO WITH DHIMMITUDE AND THE WEST Posted by UCI, August 25, 2008.

This was written by Hugh Fitzgerald and it appeared today on Jihad Watch.

A poster at Jihad Watch recently asked: "My big question is this: What does Israel have to do with dhimmitude or the West?" Answer: Everything. Israel is part of the West, and the West would not be the West without Israel's contribution to that West. Israel, or the Jews, lost their land (as did so many other non-Muslim and non-Arab peoples) during the Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa, in which islamization was accompanied by arabization. (In some places, however, such as Iran, that arabization was seen for what it was: cultural and linguistic imperialism that convinced so many of those conquered that they were "Arabs" or would have to become "Arabs" in order to be "Muslims.") Yet many Jews managed to start returning to build a Jewish Commonwealth, many decades before the Mandate for Palestine was created by the League of Nations. They continued to return, with great difficulty, during the period of the Mandate as well, despite a largely unsympathetic British mandatory authority that did not abide by the terms of the Mandate. See Article 6 of the Mandate, for example, which required the Mandatory power to "facilitate close Jewish settlement on the land." And other Jews, survivors of the death camps, also came to join the effort. Nearly a million arrived from where, in the various Muslim Arab lands, they had been subjected to mistreatment and endured insecurity as dhimmis (as did all the non-Muslims under Islam). The Jews of Israel, at least the 50% of the population that came from Arab countries, are no longer willing to live as dhimmis, and will not return to that status. The Jews who were the descendants of those who left the Land of Israel to go further afield, into Europe, are only now beginning to learn about what Islam is all about — as is the rest of the Infidel world, and not a moment too soon. And they, and the rest of the West, and the rest of the non-Western Infidels, will begin to recognize, in larger and larger numbers, that the war that is today being made on Israel is merely a classic Jihad, and always has been. It has been obscured, partly by the artful use by Muslims of islamochristians among the "West Bank" Arabs (Hanan Ashrawi, Naim Ateek, Michel Sabbah, etc.), to promote the Islamic agenda. But it has mainly been obscured by the careful creation of that utterly phony "Palestinian" identity that so much effort was put into "constructing." See, for example, Mahmoud Darwish for one careful "constructor" who, before the Six-Day War, used to declare that "I am an Arab" and then, presto-chango, stopped saying that and after that war spoke of himself to Westerners only as a "Palestinian." He and others did this for reasons that Zuhair Mohsen incautiously spelled out to James Dorsey in an interview for the Dutch newspaper Trouw. The Jihad against Israel is conducted through qitaal, conventional combat, and also through terrorism, as well as through diplomatic and economic pressure, and propaganda. The works. There may be differences on questions of timing and tactics between the Fast Jihadists of Hamas and the Slow Jihadists of Fatah, but there is no difference at all on the ultimate goal: Israel, as a place where Jews can live on land once possessed by Muslims, and not live as dhimmis, must cease to exist. That's it. No other outcome for Muslim Arabs — save for a handful of the most intellectually and morally advanced — is tolerable. And the Jihad against Israel received a lot of attention — though it is seen not as a Jihad but as the Arabs wanted it to be seen, as a "struggle of a tiny people, the "Palestinians," etc., against an "occupier" and so on. This propaganda campaign began even before the OPEC trillions arrived, and before Muslim millions had foolishly been allowed to settle in the Western countries, and before Western technological advances (audiocassettes, videocassettes, satellite television, the Internet) were appropriated by Muslims — who were incapable themselves of developing such things — in order to spread further the message, the full deadly message, of Islam, to the farthest corners of Dar al-Harb, because the entire world, you see, belongs to Allah and to his people. That's what Israel "has to do with dhimmitude and the West." UCI — 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

WORDS, WORDS Posted by Arlene Kushner, August 25, 2008.

What shall we call it? A lot of hot air? Declarations "signifying nothing"? Barak said that Labor would resign the coalition if the budget were unsatisfactory. Shas ministers said they'd leave if child allowances weren't increased. Olmert said he'd fire those ministers who voted against the budget. I see none of these things happening, at least yet. After I wrote at midnight last night, the budget negotiations continued, way into the night, until a budget that a majority of the Cabinet would accept was arrived at. A razor thin majority: 13 for and 12 against, with Haim Ramon abstaining. The majority was achieved when members of Kadima — Avi Dichter, Ze'ev Boim and Ruhama Avraham-Balila — and members of the Pensioners Party — Rafi Eitan and Ya'acov Ben-Yizri — who had been opposed were convinced to go along. The seven ministers of Labor voted against, as did the four ministers of Shas. It is worth noting that the single Kadima holdout was Shaul Mofaz, who accused Livni of caving under pressure for political reasons. Said he: "Whoever wins the Kadima primaries will obviously have to bring about a new budget. It's a pity that the budget passed due to 'political' reasons." ~~~~~~~~~~ That there is politics involved is indisputable. The Post reports that the five ministers whose reversal allowed the budget to be passed have been promised additional funding for their respective offices. But, in spite of Olmert's carrying on, it's not all politics. There are genuine issues, primarily whether emphasis must be on social issues (and the economy) or on defense. Ironically, while the US economy is floundering, ours is vigorous, and there is concern that it not be sabotaged by a huge budget deficit. Similarly, there are genuine social issues to be attended to — welfare and education. But in the face of what we are likely to be confronting in our north, as well as in Gaza — not to mention what may be involved with Iran — there is a solid argument to be made for putting defense spending first. This becomes an existential issue — not just for the nation, but also for individual soldiers in the field who require the best of training and equipment. If our nation is not properly defended, all the rest becomes moot. Said Labor Secretary-General Eitan Cabel on Army Radio: "...making this a political issue is a mistake. For the first time in a long time, Labor ministers presented a position, backed it, and did what they should have done in light of the harsh and bad budget proposal...This was not a political battle but a moral issue." ~~~~~~~~~~ Right now the vote has gone with a smaller allocation to defense and an eye towards the economy. Child allowances were not increased. Olmert has no need to fire anyone, no matter his threats, because he achieved what he sought. Shas, which is always threatening, is unlikely to leave. And Labor? They'll have to answer for why they remain in the government, if they do. The bottom-line reality here is that it will be months before this comes before the Knesset for final approval. There will, presumably, be a Kadima primary before then. And it is not only Mofaz who believes many changes are likely to be made in this budget before it is actually finalized. There are those arguing that we can't do justice to everything without allocating additional funds on the basis of anticipated economic growth, and permitting some deficit. ~~~~~~~~~~ We let out 198 prisoners today in order to "bolster" Abbas. Before they went on their way, they were all required to sign a document pledging never again to be involved in terrorism. That always blows me away. Has there ever been a terrorist who, though longing to get back into the violence, has declined to be involved because of signing such a document? Is there anyone anywhere who actually believes that this is how a potential terrorist might be dissuaded? After the signing they all went to Ramallah for a joyous celebration. And Abbas? He said that: "There will be no peace without the release of all Palestinians imprisoned in Israel,. We will not rest until the prisoners are freed and the jails are empty...They all have a place in our heart, but there is a special one, senior brother Marwan Barghouti and the leading brother Ahmad Sa'adat, whom we hope to see soon." Barghouti, the big-time Fatah Tanzim terrorist, is serving five life sentences for his part in killing Jews. And Sa'adat is a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and was a mastermind of the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. The Palestinians were so happy about what we had done that some handful of them, at least, stoned an Israeli bus outside of Ramallah today. So, why did we bother? Is this all for Rice? ~~~~~~~~~~ The secretary of state has arrived here now — her seventh trip since Annapolis — and is conceding that an end-of-the-year peace deal is extremely unlikely. However, she is committed, she says, to continuing to promote small increments. She's sounding a tad more realistic. On her agenda, with the "peace process" are both Syria and Russia. ~~~~~~~~~~ Exceedingly important with regard to the Palestinians is a piece by Daniel Hannan. a member of the European Parliament, in the Telegraph (UK), "EU aid to Palestine is funding the conflict." "...it is becoming increasingly clear that overseas aid is arresting a political settlement in the region. Palestinians receive more assistance, per capita, than any other people on Earth, and live in one of its most violent spaces. The two facts are connected. "The idea that aggression can be buried under a landslide of euros sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation. "...None of this [stability, civil order, etc.] will happen, however, as long as Palestinians remain trapped in the squalor of dependency." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/08/22/ eu_aid_to_palestine_is_funding_the_conflict ~~~~~~~~~~ I want to backtrack here for a moment and mention what I should have written about before: Mike Huckabee — former governor of Arkansas and former Republican candidate for president — was here visiting us this past week. What a marvel he is in terms of understanding our issues: the dangers of a Palestinian state at our border, the insanity of dividing Jerusalem. Would that more US leaders "got it" the way he does. For a five-minute interview with him from IBA news on Israeli TV, see: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/Page/VideoPlayer&cid= 1194419829128&videoId=1219218628887 ~~~~~~~~~~ On orders from Defense Minister Barak, 300 police and Shin Bet forces on Saturday night raided the Al Aksa Institute offices of the Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahm, which served as headquarters for the northern branch of the Movement. The offices were shut down, computers and documents were seized and some bank accounts were frozen after Al Aksa was named an "unlawful organization" because of evidence that it had connections to Hamas. The point of connection with Hamas was found to be "The Union of Good," an umbrella organization (a front) for Hamas foundations that was outlawed in Israel but operates in Europe and elsewhere. Mazel tov! Anyone who follows the actions of this Israeli Arab organization, the Islamic Movement, has long understood that they are up to no good. Just the day before the raid there was a major rally in Umm al-Fahm because Al-Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount was said, again, to be in danger. "With blood and fire we'll redeem Al-Aksa," cried Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch. Guaranteed we haven't heard the last from them. ~~~~~~~~~~ Jeff Daube, who is heading a new Israeli office for ZOA, wrote a piece in the Post last week concerning potential security measures for Sderot — via the US Nautilus/Skyguard system — that have not been seriously considered yet. This eye-opener is well worth reading: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219218600703&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

JERUSALEM LAND-OWNER TO SUE POLICE Posted by Hillel Fendel, August 25, 2008.

(IsraelNN.com) A lawyer for Yitzchak Herskovitz, a septuagenarian resident of Kiryat Arba and owner of property in Jerusalem, said Sunday his client will sue Jerusalem police for failing to execute court orders to evict Arab squtters from his property. Herskovitz had hoped to have his Jerusalem property freed of Arab squatters by last week, as the court ordered, but the police said they don't have the men for the job. Baruch Ben-Yosef said his client's motion to sue is a desperate step to force the police to fulfil their legal obligations to execute court orders. "The police have systematically denied my client of his rights," he told IsraelNationalNews. "The court has repeatedly ordered them to evict the illegal squatters from his home, but they have always come up with some excuse not to fulfil that order. Maybe being forced to pay a large sum of money will get them to move." Fearful of Riots Herskovitz, a septuagenarian formerly of Los Angeles and now of Kiryat Arba in Judea, bought property in southern Jerusalem in 1992. He has never been able to take possession of it, however, because of Arab squatters living there. The police have turned down the most recent court order to evict the Arabs because of riots they expect will result. They promise to carry it out within several weeks — or several months. Though the feisty and colorful Mr. Herskovitz has legal title to the property, located near the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Gilo (Jewish) and Beit Tsafafa (Arab), a clan of Arab squatters says it is theirs. Their claims have alternated between "we received it when the original owner defaulted on a loan" and "we bought it from him." Jewish People Could Lose Sovereignty Meanwhile, the Arab squatters continue to live, rent-free, on the property Herskovitz bought 16 years ago but has still not merited to move into. He is not giving up the fight, though: "I have interests here — but the Jewish People have an even greater interest in this case. If the courts do not enforce this order, it is very likely that this entire area will simply become Arab. When you lose the ability to enforce the law, you lose sovereignty — and the Jewish People are in danger of having that happen right here, in Jerusalem!" Courts Rule in Herskovitz's Favor In 2004, after handwriting and document experts testified that the Arabs' documents were fraudulent, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled in Herskovitz's favor. The Arab clan appealed the ruling in the Jerusalem District Court, which also ultimately ruled in Herskovitz's favor. The squatters then tried another tactic, and in 2006, they sued for ownership of the property. The court has not yet ruled on this claim — but has given a hint of its position by issuing an interim order for the squatters to post bond and pay past rent, or else face eviction. Arabs Didn't Pay, Court OKs Eviction, Police Say Not Now The Arabs did not pay rent or post the bond, and the District Court ruled, once again, that they can be evicted. Herskovitz, in accordance with accepted procedure, applied to the police to carry out the eviction order — but the police turned him down. Adv. Yaakov Golbert, representing Herskovitz's interests in the foreclosure and reclamation of the party, told IsraelNationalNews what happened: "A police lawyer called me yesterday [Tuesday], and said that the police simply don't have the manpower for the job. They're afraid of riots, and soon [U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza] Rice is coming to the region, and soon it will be Ramadan, etc. etc. But she promised over and over that for sure before the High Holidays [nearly six weeks from now — ed.], they will do it." Police Ask for Long Delay The lawyer was actually more generous than an official police letter to the court. The letter stated, "The eviction is a very sensitive, on behalf of a Jew living in Hevron [sic; he actually lives in Kiryat Arba — ed.], and the property is located in [an Arab neighborhood]. It should also be noted that the eviction was set for approximately a week before the onset of the Ramadan month... In my estimation, the [police] deployment for the eviction will be very intensive, because of the expectation of riots after the eviction — and it will lead into the Ramadan fasts. Similarly, it will involve the deployment of many policemen on the day on which U.S. Secretary Rice is expected, which will make it very difficult... Based on this, we ask for a flexible eviction order beginning from Oct. 5, 2008 until Feb. 1, 2009." "Not only are they refusing to do it now," an astounded Herskovitz said, "but they even want to put it off for several months! ... And how can the police lawyer make a promise [to Golbert] that they will do it before Rosh HaShanah, when the days before Rosh HaShanah are still in the month of Ramadan?! How can I believe them?" Asked if he has any recourse against the police position, Golbert said, "Most unfortunately, no. If the police explain that they can't carry it out, then the court will believe them, and that's that." Possibly Herskovitz's latest suit against the police will get them to change their mind. Herskovitz sees it differently. "The police are simply bucking a court order," he said. "They have made this into a soap opera and a circus. I would like to believe them when they say they will do it in a month — but it's very hard for me to do so because of how they have stalled and pushed this off so many times in the past, and because of what they are 'promising' now." Hillel Fendel is senior news editor of Arutz-7. This article is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127279 To Go To Top

HAS ISRAEL "BANKRUPTED" THE UNITED STATES? Posted by LEL, August 25, 2008.

This was written by Andrew L. Jaffee at www.netwmd.com. This article was cross-posted at netwmd.com, NeoConstant, and IsraPundit http://netwmd.com/blog/2008/08/24/2566

U.S. financial assistance to Israel can be a contentious topic, even when discussing foreign policy issues using accurate information. Very often, opponents of Israel use wildly exaggerated, even fabricated "facts and figures" and extremely hyperbolic language to disparage the Jewish State — even claiming the U.S. has been pushed to the verge of bankruptcy by supporting Israel. The obfuscations about U.S. aid to Israel have been bothering me for a very long time, so I decided to research the numbers myself and compare my findings to the figures advanced by hysterical critics of Israel. For example, an anti-Semitic publication, which so innocently calls itself the "Washington Report on Middle East Affairs" (WRMEA), claims that American taxpayers have paid "$3 Trillion" for supporting Israel. WRMEA tries to blame Israel for 1) rising oil prices, 2) the cost of both Iraq wars, 3) and American job losses, and has published articles with Protocols-of-the-Elders-of Zion-style headlines like "Israel has had in place a shadow government in Washington" and "Will the State Department Remain Israeli-Occupied Territory?" Here I'll show how exaggerations by groups like WRMEA are not even close to reflecting reality. Bear with me as I run the numbers and document my findings. The preliminaries $1,000,000,000 = $1 billion $1,000,000,000,000 = $1 trillion 2007 aid to Israel: $2.5 billion (ref, ref) 2007 U.S. GDP: 13,543.330 billion (ref) 2007 U.S. Federal Budget (receipts): $2,415,852,000,000 (trillion; ref) Running the numbers $2,500,000,000 / $13,543,330,000,000 = 0.00018 * 100 = 0.018% In other words, U.S. aid to Israel is 0.018% of one year's U.S. GDP $2,500,000,000 / $2,415,852,000,000 = 0.00103 * 100 = 0.103% In other words, U.S. aid to Israel is 0.103% of one year's U.S. federal budget U.S. Bankruptcy? How exactly is aid to Israel "bankrupting" the U.S.? U.S. businesses (and workers) exported $128 billion in goods to Israel from 1989 to 2007. That's more than double the aid provided to Israel during the same period. Granted, Israel exported products to the U.S., and I could provide balance of trade numbers, too. Should we deny Americans the products they wish to purchase from a loyal ally? No. I'm still not sure how the U.S. is being "bankrupted," especially given economic performance: U.S. GDP was $9,953 billion in October 2000 and $14,201 billion in January 2008. Monthly unemployment rate during the same period averaged about 5.1% — a tad lower than during Clinton's years. Pretty good for an industrialized/Western nation. CPI (inflation) has averaged 3% like it has for almost a century. Aid to Egypt Strange, I haven't heard many claims that U.S. aid to Egypt is bankrupting America. Christian Science Monitor (2004): "All told, Egypt has received over $50 billion in US largesse since 1975." Examples of U.S. aid to Egypt: 2002: $2.0 billion 2003: $2.2 billion 2005: $1.8 billion 2006: $1.8 billion Aid to the Palestinians I haven't heard many complaints about U.S. aid to the Palestinians. Indeed, those complaining loudest about aid to the Palestinians say that America is not funneling enough money to the West Bank and Gaza. From Reuters: direct U.S. aid to Palestinians in 2008 will be $550 million; plus $148 million through the UN; plus $228 million in loan guarantees. $550 m + $148 m + $228 m = $918 million in 2008 From the Congressional Research Service (CRS) — U.S. Assistance to the Palestinians: 1999: $85.034 million* 2000: $75,000 million* 2002: $72.000 million 2003: $134.484 million 2004: $74.558 million 2005: $274.400 million 2006: $150.000 million 2007: $50.000 million (CRS) *Note also: "... the U.S. Government committed to provide $500 million over a 5-year period (FY 1994-FY 1998) for a program of assistance to the Palestinian people ..." Let's total it up: $2333.476 million =~$2.3 billion in aid to the Palestinians. Not bad for two "governments," the PA under the PLO/ Fatah and PA under Hamas, sworn to the destruction of our ally Israel. Total Aid to Israel Israel has received $100 billion in U.S. aid since 1949 according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS); $80 billion according to the Harvard Israel Review. The CRS numbers "only" differ from WRMEA by $900 billion. The Harvard University figures contradict WRMEA by "only" $920 billion. Sadly, such wild exaggerations are hurled in Israel's direction constantly. Those people who support the Jewish State find themselves constantly defending Israel not only from hyperbole, but from bold-faced lies. Contact LEL by email at lel817@yahoo.com To Go To Top

RECRUITING TERRORISTS Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 25 2008.

Why have Ehud Olmert and Condoleezza Rice become the driving forces instrumental in releasing caught, convicted and jailed Terrorists? Some have Jewish blood on their hands; many failed in their murder attempts, so by the grace of G-d, they do not have blood on their hands. (?) These Terrorists are welcomed back into the Terrorist armies of Hamas and Fatah with parties. What was their purpose in bring killers and planners of murderous Terror back into action against Israel, against America and against all non-Muslims (whom they call 'infidels')? Both Olmert and Rice know that 50% minimum of released Terrorists re-join their former Terrorist organizations. Jail is their higher university. They come out better trained to hate and kill Jews. Olmert and his Kadima Cabinet vote repeatedly to release convicted Terrorists. Rice just arrived in Israel to further press Israel to surrender vital Jewish heartland to Mahmoud Abbas whose Fatah organization still operates in the mode established by Yassir Arafat. They Talk-the-Talk to the Anglo Media so the donor money keeps flowing in and talk the hate-filled Islamic language of the Jihadists (holy warriors for Islam) to the Muslim Arab world so they know it's a trick. When we hear from Olmert, he covers over his perfidy by telling all that he is 'merely' releasing convicted Terrorists who did not have blood on their hands. Blood on one's hands means that you have actually reached your victims and bombed, stabbed or shot them. Olmert, in the role of the slippery politician, excuses those tried and convicted who either planned to kill or were not successful in killing their victims this time and are somehow 'innocent' or at least worthy of release. Each freed Terrorist adds to the growing armies of committed Terrorists. Olmert and Rice have become both recruiters and enablers to assist Terrorists to re-join Allah's army against 'infidels' (all non-Muslims). Olmert and Rice serve the same masters. Rice and Bush serve Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi Islam. They attempt to appease the entire Islamic world. Olmert, Livni and Barak serve the Bush-Rice agenda so they too serve and appease the same Islamic world. While Rice serves the Bush oil interests and his legacy, Olmert has become a 'Quisling' by betraying Israel's vital interests in security for the Jewish nation. Clearly, as in the Nuremberg Tribunals for the Nazis, criminals were gathered up and tried for crimes against humanity and the Jewish people, in particular. The Nazi leaders who were caught and tried were correctly judged guilty and hanged. Of course, most escaped Justice, with the assistance of the Church, the Red Cross and some U.S. diplomats who were tied into German businesses — not unlike today's pro-Arab State Department and the American multi-national oil companies. Let there be no statute of limitations for Olmert, his Kadima Cabinet and all those who have, with malice aforethought, made decisions that put all the people of Israel at risk of death and/or maiming. Many Israelis have been murdered or maimed with the connivance of a series of disreputable governments who have released their killers. [Note the research piece listing released Terrorist murderers and their victims, according to Nadav Shragai — following.] People who kill others or assist in planning murder should never be free of their crimes. When Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) was working for Arafat for 40 years as his top companion, assistant, financier, and collaborator he gathered the money to pay for the massacre of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. So doing made him a confirmed murderer — even if he didn't pull a trigger or throw a bomb. This is the same Abbas who Olmert is assisting, at the demand of Rice. Should Abbas and/or Olmert be tried and, if found guilty, hung for their crimes against the Jewish people? There is no statute of limitations for murderers, their collaborators nor their paymasters. There should be no forgiveness, no pity, only retribution. Those who murder and those who knowingly assist, protect, fund should pay a penalty all the days of their lives. In time, whether man or G-d imposes the penalty, may these inhuman monsters live their remaining days and nights in pain. When they finally die, may their bones be scattered and find no rest in any afterlife. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at winston@winstonglobal.org To Go To Top

OBAMA; WANT TO HELP ISRAELIS?; ANSWERING READER STEVE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 25, 2008.

LESSON FROM ROUTING OF HILLES CLAN IN GAZA You know that Hamas attacked the Hilles clan in Gaza. It defeated the clan, sending dozens of clansmen fleeing to...Israel. Here is what I make of the strategies involved. In the name of unity, and rather than face down Hamas, Fatah let Hamas men infiltrate P.A. security forces. the P.A. focused intelligence gathering on Israel, whom it declared the enemy, instead of Hamas, its actual, belligerent enemy. During the coup, the compromised and uncoordinated security forces hardly resisted. Fatah did not join them. Neither did a couple of Fatah-affiliated clans. Those clans probably felt themselves well armed and impregnable. They didn't take a chance by opposing Hamas, then. Hamas bided its time. It captured heavier weaponry from the P.A. security forces, and accumulated more from smuggling. Then it picked off the Hilles clan, now without allies, especially by virtue of its having abandoned them when they were under attack. The lesson is to honor one's alliances while one has allies. Benjamin Franklin put it, we'll all be hanged separately, unless we hang together. OBAMA My guest started in with the usual nonsense about Bush being stupid, having lied us into a war, and McCain being too old-fashioned to recognize a new world order that he should negotiate with. I challenged them on certain of those propositions. Next time I will do it more aggressively, though politely: I see it differently. Obama reflects the old world order, is more stupid, and he and his Party lie about the war's origin and results and everything else. He is old-fashioned in imagining that negotiating with fanatical totalitarians can resolve conflict and lying that Bush didn't try. That was the way the West approached the Nazis, Communists, Islamists, and N. Korea. Appeasement failed. Obama is too stupid to realize that his proposals failed and too stupid to realize that we are in another world war. He and his associates falsely accuse Bush of lying about the war and about having lost it; we are winning. He either is too stupid to think we can walk away from the world war or lying about it. They are lying about Bush wantonly eliminating our civil liberties and themselves being the answer, while Obama wants extensive government controls over our economy that would eliminate many freedoms as well as our prosperity. (Sen. Clinton is worse in that respect.) Many voters, unfortunately, prefer candidates who promise easy solutions that politicians can't deliver. PARTY DEMOCRACY Israeli political parties have adopted primaries. Likud requires joining it at least a year before voting in primaries and to pay an annual fee. Kadima requires a one-time payment, allowing immediate voting in primaries. As a result, Kadima registration forms are contracted out for last minute enrollment. The sincerity or integrity of such membership is dubious. The party is not democratic (Shimon Shitreet, Kadima candidate for party chair, IMRA, 8/7). WANT TO HELP ISRAELIS? Many foreign volunteers help Israel and Israelis. Foreign Jews feel reunited with the Jewish people. "There are hundreds of options when it comes to volunteering in Israel. For information regarding all volunteer opportunities in Israel, go to the National Council for Volunteering in Israel's Web site, ivolunteer: http://www.ivolunteer.org.il/Eng/Index.asp?CategoryID=156." (IMRA, 8/). Many foreign people also volunteer to help the Muslim Arabs harass Israelis. WHY & HOW ISRAEL SHOULD KNOCK OFF HAMAS When Israel finally raids Iran's nuclear weapon facilities, it could set of a general war. Israel would have enough fronts to confront, without Hamas' Gaza. Therefore, Israel should knock off Hamas, now. Israel would keep a military presence in Gaza, to provide intelligence and prevent renewed buildup. Israel gets almost as much bad publicity from each of its minor raids as it would from a major one. Minor raids also risk the possibility of foreign intervention and don't resolve the problem. Therefore, it may as well undertake a comprehensive attack, offering swift resolution. The longer Israel procrastinates, the stronger Hamas becomes, the longer and costlier the war with it, and the more civilian casualties that the press deplores (IMRA, 8/7) when the civilians are not Jews. HOW THE MUSLIMS PUT IT In discussing whether Sunni Al-Azhar U. of Cairo should establish a branch in Shiite Iran, the argument was used that Muslims should unite, inasmuch as it is under threat of annihilation (IMRA, 8/7) There is no such threat. Those Muslims either are lying or are hysterical. They are the aggressor, but play the victim. If only the rest of the world were more alert to their intention, which is world conquest (and, in the case of the Islamists, as the Koran teaches, the annihilation of the Jews)! ANSWERING READER STEVE He sent a thoughtful response to one of my articles. [He didn't identify it by its number.] Here I continue the discussion. 1. Steve observes that the usual reaction would have been just to arrest the 9/11 plotters, but Pres. Bush emphasizes preventing the next attack. Some liberals don't understand the originality of the Bush doctrine, which endorses some preemptive attacks. Thank you, Steve. You show that the Bush Administration understands the new world order, not Obama. The new order is a broad, continuing jihad, popping up here and there, as the Islamists organize. They already are at war, which they have declared. Why exempt them from counter-attack? Why wait for them to get and utilize terrible weapons? In a sense the Bush doctrine is not pre-emptive, but selects new fronts in the ongoing world war. Steve supports that with the explanation that the terrorists have a network, so their next attack may come from a variety of places. This is something that liberals, busy calling Bush stupid, do not grasp. 2. Posting a transcript of a 2002 Bush press conference, Steve notes that whereas private investigators spend a decade hunting a murderer of one innocent, Bush lost most of his interest in tracking Bin Laden after six months. If may not be good public relations by the Administration, but it is good policy. This is a world war with many fronts, as Bush explained at the conference and Steve did, too. Don't over-emphasize al-Qaida. 3. Steve reprinted in bold some of Bush's deplorable wording: Bin Laden is a "fellow," who commits "youngsters" to their death; Bush hoped PM Sharon is concerned about the loss of "innocent" life; people lament the loss of life of "young children on both sides of this issue." Let me elaborate. Bin Laden is a mass-murderer; calling him a "fellow" makes him seem normal. His troops are of all ages, not just youngsters for whom one might feel sorry about their exploitation by Islamists. Of course Sharon was concerned about innocent lives, but the notion of their being innocent and on both sides of this issue appears to equate them. The Arab Muslims involved indoctrinate most of their children at an early age; many of them work for terrorists and almost all endorse them; they hardly are so innocent. More important, the Islamists deliberately attack innocent children; Israel, in self-defense, does not, but war not being an exact science, does kill some. That is the fault of the aggressors both for starting the war and for exposing their children by fighting from amongst them, partly for children to serve as human shields and partly to gain the misguided type of sympathy like Bush's. He meant to be decent about it, but that gives an advantage to an ideology and people at least as depraved any other totalitarian force, such as Nazism and Communism 4. Steve points out that Saddam wasn't much involved with al-Qaida, though other state sponsors of terrorism were. Iran presents a more immediate threat and Pakistan shelters al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, Pres. Bush considered Pakistan an ally against terrorism, is merely negotiating with Iran, and helped establish terrorist entities in Lebanon and Gaza, while deeming S. Arabia a friend of our country. Steve's point is that the US should have focused elsewhere than Iraq. Yes and no. Steve is accurate, but Iraq acted impressively as if it had weapons of mass-destruction. I believe it did. It isn't fair to judge Bush on the popular notion that it didn't, which is hindsight. Iraq also violated the Security Council Resolutions meant to keep it harmless. It was getting the money to rebuild its military and get out from under UNO sanctions. Therefore, under the Bush doctrine that sees an Evil Axis ranged against us, it made sense to war on Iraq. I agree with Steve that Iran should have been included. I likewise was shocked that the US did nothing about Pakistan and was deluded so long about Pakistan. The Administration did want to try to change the regime in Iran, but the State Dept. sabotaged that policy. Problem is, the US does not have the forces to fight on two or more fronts, even against non-great powers. If Bush were a leader, he would have addressed that lack of might. [Sen. McCain does want to enlarge the military.] If Bush were consistent, he would not help some terrorist entities. I think he is confused. The State Dept. must hate Israel too much to care enough about the danger terrorists pose to the US. I think that Bush has abandoned the Bush doctrine, after being criticized so much and so bitterly and rather successfully if not truthfully by the Democrats and the media. If Israel weren't so incompetent and its rulers so defeatist, it could have destroyed Hizbullah and Hamas and the PLO and perhaps the Syrian regime. 5. The Administration realized, to some extent, the changed nature of terrorism. Islamists seek to damage (prelude to world conquest) more than to get publicity. Most Administration critics fail to realize that terrorist organizations enjoy state sponsorship. Good point. [Arafat's PLO had secret Soviet sponsorship before getting if from the US and Israel.] 6. Bush explained to America that the terrorists threaten our freedom and way of life. Liberals missed that point. Then the Administration confused the country and itself by trying to distinguish between Islamists and other Muslims. It fails to make a proper distinction. [I think there is less of one than Bush thinks.] [This is like the false distinction made between "extremists" and "moderates.] The Administration meets with Islamists as if allies. It is confused, as when it calls Abbas a man of peace, Abbas, who congratulated baby-killer Kuntar on his release from Israeli prison. My conclusion: like a diamond, our leader is flawed, but his opposition is totally cracked. 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

RICE DUE HERE TO PUSH ANNAPOLIS PROCESS Posted by Hands Fiasco, August 25, 2008.

This was written by Herb Keinon and it appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219218626424&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to arrive on Monday in another attempt to advance the Annapolis process and produce some kind of Israeli-Palestinian document before the end of the year. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni greets US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as Rice arrives for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. (Photo: AP) Israeli diplomatic officials said Saturday night that if Rice was trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians to agree on a document to be presented at the United National General Assembly in mid-September spelling out what the sides had already agreed upon, she would be unlikely to find an ally in Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Rice is scheduled to meet with Livni on Tuesday morning. According to the officials, Livni is keen on getting Rice to ditch the idea at the present time, concerned that such a document might complicate her Kadima Party primary race as it would likely highlight concessions Israel would be willing to make on land, and might indicate that talks on Jerusalem have been taking place. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the officials said, was not opposed to such a document coming out at this time, though he still believed that it was possible to reach a more comprehensive agreement with the Palestinian Authority this year, with the issue of Jerusalem pushed off to a latter date. US diplomatic officials denied that Rice was trying to produce some kind of document now to bring to the UN General Assembly meeting on September 18. Israeli officials, however, said the General Assembly would be a perfect platform for presenting such a document, and would also be a convenient location because the Middle East Quartet — made up of the US, Russia, the EU and the UN — was scheduled to meet on the sidelines to discuss the diplomatic process. Israeli diplomatic officials said there had been no indication that the composition of the Quartet would change, despite the tensions between the US and EU with Russia over the Georgian situation. One of the issues that was originally expected to be discussed at the September Quartet meeting was an international meeting on the Middle East in Moscow, as a follow-up to last November's Annapolis Conference. Rice, who was last in Israel in June and has been here more than 20 times during her tenure as secretary of state, is scheduled to have a dinner meeting on Monday evening with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at his Tel Aviv residence. On Tuesday morning she is set to meet Olmert for breakfast, followed by a meeting with Livni. Israeli officials said that chief PA negotiator Ahmed Qurei would likely take part in that session as well. Rice is then scheduled to go to Ramallah for talks with the PA's President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad. She is set to leave later that day. Israeli diplomatic officials said that while the Russian-Georgian crisis, and Syria's interest in taking advantage of the situation to acquire advanced Russian missile systems, were likely to be discussed during the visit, Rice's focus would remain on the Annapolis process.   EDITORS' NOTE: Here's a random sampling of readers comments. It's amazing how focused they are. Clearly, they are as likely to believe in the tooth fairy as in the "Peace Process." Why is the Bush-ed Rice clinging to it? 32. the ANNAPOLIS process??? Is she also going to revive Disco? And if (glory be!) they 'produce some kind of document' everything will be ok! This bona fide lunatic shouldn't be allowed to feed herself. dan — usa (08/24/2008 18:20) 37. Rice past its time can give you fatal food poisoning If you leave rice out for more than a day it spoils and can kill you. Everyone but Israel knows this. Israel — (08/24/2008 19:32) 40. The only "solution": 23 states for two peoples and one wannabe people. Nobody can count past two apparently Check your facts: Jews living in what is now Israel were called palestinians until 1948. This paper was aptly called the Palestinian Post and it wasn't run by A-rabs Jonathan — Native Jewish Land (08/24/2008 20:15) 43. Rice returns: The Annapolis Accords are dead on arrival: No Gaza-Hamas State Other than a postmortem analysis of the Annapolis failure to 'push' for a two-state final solution, Rice is wasting her adventures in diplomacy. The Gaza-Hamas Palestinians are in designated sync with the 'audacity of hopelessness.' Similiar to the Oslo Accords, the Annapolis process was tragically flawed in its prescription for a sustainable 'peace' with a terrorist border state. The false premise of a two-state status requires a quick suffocation. Jo Ellen Davey Cohen — The USA (08/24/2008 21:10) 47. Rice works for the Saudis Since 2004, her foreign policy initiatives in the Middle East have primarily benefited the House of Saud — not America and certainly not Israel. She knows where her bread is buttered and who will look after her in retirement. Where are Walt and Mearsheimer to expose this fraud? Oh, I forgot; they're on the payroll as well. FinanceDoc — UK (08/24/2008 21:49) 50. Rice has a lot of nerve. Olmert has no popular support. Abbas can't deliver milk in a bottle, much less peace to the Jews. Livni is a place holder until new elections are held. The idea that unpopular leaders in their waning time in office can sign a piece of paper and bring peace to an intractable conflict is absurd. Ronald — United States (08/24/2008 22:00) 55. Condoleeza Rice Condoleeza should stay at home rather than trying to create more messes elsewhere in the world. Sadly to say our dismal State Department is particularly adept at making a mess of everything it touches! The last thing Israel needs is any kind of a Palestinian state!! C. Cannon — USA (08/25/2008 03:38) 56. You're Her Last Failure Kosovo,Gaza,Leb,Georgia,,Iran, Russia and now you. I like Condi but she should be managing a College not Sec of State. Behind her travel the Dogs of War which erupt in violence everywhere she goes. Pray Obama isn't elected because he definately is a "sleeper" and will put Mad Allbright into Condi's job. .Until they lay their weapons down and declare (like a brave and wise American Indian Chief once said),"We will fight no more", there will never be peace. Condi, take your talent as a "Russian Expert" who speaks fluid Russian and go to Russia — before the whole world is engulfed in flames. DK — us (08/25/2008 05:33) Contact Hands Fiasco at handsfiasco@webtv.net To Go To Top

OLMERT TEAM MUST ADDRESS FAILURE OF 1701 IN LEBANON Posted by Dr. Aaron Lerner, August 25, 2008.

"They [UNIFIL] should be much more proactive — more aggressive in going after Hezbollah — in detecting [and] identifying arms depots. They should be going in there, not just relying on Lebanese armed forces to do so, who often work in collusion with Hezbollah...The UNIFIL soldiers were not sent there to give out chocolates to children or write traffic tickets. They were sent there to carry out a mandate which was very clearly defined, and they are not [doing so]. By not doing it, they may be laying the groundwork for the next flare-up." — Israel's UN ambassador Danny Gillerman's parting interview — The Jerusalem Post, 25 July 2008 "If some ministers spoke less of [UN Security Council] Resolution 1701 that brought nothing but peace and quiet to the north, we wouldn't be seen as weak." Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Cabinet meeting 17 August 2008 The major achievement of UNIFIL is that uniformed Hezbollah troops don't march around waiving their weapons at reporters (and for that matter, in front of UNIFIL forces) south of the Litani River. That doesn't mean Hezbollah troops aren't in there. Just that they are not wearing uniforms. That doesn't mean Hezbollah doesn't have weapons there. Just that they don't show them in public. That doesn't mean that Hezbollah hasn't upgraded and expanded a vast network of launchers, bunkers and other positions south of the Litani River. Just that under the "see no evil" principle, UNIFIL isn't actively searching considerable sections of the area south of the Litani River for these things. These days DM Ehud Barak is criticizing 1701 but it is exclusively for domestic consumption and his remarks are seen more as a way to attack FM Livni than to actually have an impact on the situation. Right now the Olmert-Livni strategy appears to be to hope that Hezbollah never attacks — or at least not until after the elections. But hope is hardly a strategy. The situation in Lebanon requires a serious, concrete, game plan to bring about the achievement of what 1701 should have accomplished. A plan that puts Israeli officials — across the board — on the same page vis-a-vis UNIFIL, 1701 and Israel's very just demands to rectify the situation. But can foreign-minister-Kadima candidate Livni afford to tarnish what she sees as her major achievement (1701)? The opposite should be the case. After all, Livni continues serving today as foreign minister and as such should be playing a key role in addressing this challenge. It should be made clear that in the upcoming campaigns (Kadima primaries and national elections should she lead Kadima) she will be judged, first and foremost, for what she did to rectify the post-1701 situation. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

JEWISH SETTLEMENTS ARE LEGAL Posted by Israel Zwick, August 24, 2008.

Now that Secretary Rice is visiting Israel again, there is increased pressure on Israel to "freeze settlement activity" and disband Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. This article by Eugene Rostow from 1991 is still relevant today. Eugene V. (Victor Debs) Rostow (August 25, 1913 — November 25, 2002), influential legal scholar and public servant, was Dean of Yale Law School, and served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Lyndon B. Johnson. "Resolved: Are the settlements legal? Israeli West Bank policies" By Eugene W. Rostow The New Republic, October 21, 1991 "The British Mandate recognized the right of the Jewish people to "close settlement" in the whole of the Mandated territory. It was provided that local conditions might require Great Britain to "postpone" or "withhold" Jewish settlement in what is now Jordan. This was done in 1922. But the Jewish right of settlement in Palestine west of the Jordan river, that is, in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, was made unassailable. That right has never been terminated and cannot be terminated except by a recognized peace between Israel and its neighbors. And perhaps not even then, in view of Article 80 of the U.N. Charter, "the Palestine article," which provides that "nothing in the Charter shall be construed ... to alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments.... " Assuming the Middle East conference actually does take place, its official task will be to achieve peace between Israel and its Levantine neighbors in accordance with Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. Resolution 242, adopted after the Six-Day War in 1967, sets out criteria for peace-making by the parties; Resolution 338, passed after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, makes resolution 242 legally binding and orders the parties to carry out its terms forthwith. Unfortunately, confusion reigns, even in high places, about what those resolutions require. For twenty-four years Arab states have pretended that the two resolutions are "ambiguous" and can be interpreted to suit their desires. And some European, Soviet and even American officials have cynically allowed Arab spokesman to delude themselves and their people — to say nothing of Western public opinion — about what the resolutions mean. It is common even for American journalists to write that Resolution 242 is "deliberately ambiguous," as though the parties are equally free to rely on their own reading of its key provisions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Resolution 242, which as undersecretary of state for political affairs between 1966 and 1969 I helped produce, calls on the parties to make peace and allows Israel to administer the territories it occupied in 1967 until "a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" is achieved. When such a peace is made, Israel is required to withdraw its armed forces "from territories" it occupied during the Six-Day War — not from "the" territories nor from "all" the territories, but from some of the territories, which included the Sinai Desert, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. [EDITOR'S NOTE: From 1966 to 1969, Eugene Rostow served as Under Secretary for Political Affairs in Lyndon B. Johnson's government, the third-highest ranking official in the State Department. During this time he helped draft UN Security Council Resolution 242, one of the most important Security Council resolutions relevant to the Arab-Israeli conflict. To read both articles that Rostow wrote in the New Republic click here. Rostow wrote about the politics of the situation. There are, however, strong legal arguments that by international law, the territories — Gaza, Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank) — belong to the Jewish State. Ergo, the settlements in the territories are clearly legal. Read for example Shifftan's article, Shusteff's article and in particular, any of Howard Grief's articles, for example this one.] Israel Zwick is editor of CN Publications (www.cnpublications. net). Contact him at editor@cnpublications.net or israel.zwick@earthlink. net To Go To Top

A MAGICAL MINUTE OF SHABBAT IN JERUSALEM Posted by Jenny Weisberg, August 24, 2008.

Shalom! Immerse yourselves in a magical minute of a Jerusalem Shabbat. Enjoy! Chana Jenny Weisberg, JewishMom.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga5707Pl5-Y Or, to bypass You Tube http://www.yideoz.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ca908e58c02e28a0462c Contact Jenny Weisberg by email at jenny_weisberg@yahoo.com To Go o Top

YAEL KORIN'S WAR ON ISRAEL Posted by IsraCampus, August 24, 2008.

This was written by Joel Amitai and it appeared as an Editorial in IsraCampus http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/ Editorial%20-%20Joel%20Amitai%20-%20Yael%20Koren.htm Joel Amitai is an independent researcher and filmmaker. Reach him at jamitai40@gmail.com.

"As an Israeli-born Jew, that my family survived the Holocaust, it's an incredible pain, and very difficult for me," proclaims Yael Korin in this video, "to keep watching Israel committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Palestinian people, and now the Lebanese people." Yael Korin, an immunologist at the UCLA medical school, speaking here at a rally against the Second Lebanon War in Los Angeles on August 12, 2006, is introduced as a member of the far-Left Women in Black. Korin's Los Angeles branch of the organization describes itself here as supporting "the right of Palestinian refugees to return [to Israel]"-recognized by all Israeli governments, Right and Left, as a formula for Israel's destruction. Korin goes on to tell the gathering: "What we need to remember is that Israel is born in a sin, 1948 the al-Naqba ["catastrophe" in Arabic] was a war of ethnic cleansing, of grabbing land by force and cleansing it from its inhabitants, the Palestinians...Israel consistently and persistently have been continuing this strategy, continuing grabbing more land, 1967 the whole historic Palestine... Israel wants land but it doesn't want the people on the land, the Zionist ideology is calling for a state of Jewish people only...." She goes on to explain that Israel is now applying this same "strategy" to southern Lebanon, where it wants to grab the land and the water sources, and so it has to be gotten out of southern Lebanon totally (something that, in the real world, Israel was actually all too glad to do on its own). In the telling of this self-professed daughter of Holocaust survivors, then, Israel in 1948 — at the same time it was already absorbing tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors — was already behaving monstrously, a savage juggernaut of land theft and ethnic cleansing. Indeed Korin's Israel is in some respects worse than Nazi Germany, which, while exterminating certain populations, didn't try to ethnically cleanse, for instance, Poland of all Poles or France of all French. But for Korin's version of the "Zionist ideology...calling for a state of Jewish people only," this would be too moderate. So for Yael Korin, 1947-1948 was not the story of the UN Partition Plan (accepted by Israel, totally rejected by the Arab side) or of seven Arab armies massing to strangle Israel in its cradle, but rather of the newborn state of 600,000 Jews, fresh Holocaust memories and all, actually seeking war with the surrounding Arab world in a vicious land-grab. In 1967 there was no Nasser and no Soviet Union, in 2006 there was no Hizballah; it was all Israeli avarice and racism. A Jewish state that "consistently and persistently" behaves this way for sixty years running is not actually different from what Hitlerian doctrine would have expected of it — pure evil and a menace to other peoples; Korin's and the Mein Kampfian views of Jewish collective goals and behavior are strikingly similar. Yael Korin has been propagating this sort of vicious tripe during years in which there have been numerous deadly terrorist attacks on Israeli Jews by people who have the same emotions that she flaunts and incites: rage against Israel and Israelis and a yearning for the Jewish state's destruction. Indeed, Korin's sympathy for exterminatory passions toward Israel and Israelis could not have been more explicit than on March 27, 2004, when she spoke, having donned Arab garb for the occasion, at a rally outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles to protest Israel's assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin — the Hamas leader responsible for the murders of over three hundred Israelis including many children. Korin was there at the consulate again on October 17 that year — this time to protest "Israel's latest assault on Gaza" amid demonstrators carrying signs saying "Stop Use of U.S.-Supplied WMDs on Civilians" and the like — again, the clear and emphatic link between supposed Israeli behavior and Nazi-style mass-murdering behavior. Korin and a fellow speaker at the rally had "returned days earlier from Palestine, where they had frequently joined Machsom Watch," an Israeli women's organization that harasses Israeli soldiers doing difficult and lifesaving anti-terror work at checkpoints. Korin "said she doesn't want anyone to do to another people what was done to her parents" — again that fundamental, recurrent confusion in someone who announces herself as a Jew and dresses as an Arab, who can't seem to process the notion of post-1945 Jews as victims and so instead turns them into Nazis. Not surprisingly, Korin's sympathy for Palestinian terrorism doesn't stop with Ahmed Yassin and Hamas. Just recently she signed a petition for the release of Sami Al-Arian, the University of South Florida computer scientist convicted in 2006 of aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That organization's charter calls for the elimination of "the Zionist entity," the establishment of an Islamic state "from sea to sea," and "Jihad against the Jewish existence in Palestine" — right after Yael Korin's twisted heart. In addition to Women in Black, Korin is listed here by Al-Awda (the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition) as a "founding member of the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid, Southern California." Attach any vicious terminology to Israel — "born in sin," "war crimes," "ethnic cleansing," "apartheid" — and Yael Korin is there to endorse and propagate it. Her pathological loathing of Israel and Israelis, if not literally murderous (and that is an open question), certainly encompasses identifying with those who do murder Israelis en masse. Psychologically speaking she is a frightening phenomenon of reality-distortion and evil, exploiting her democratic freedoms to spread her message of incendiary hatred. Contact IsraCampus at www.IsraCampus.org. To Go To Top

POST-ZIONIST "ACADEMIC" URI DAVIS CONVERTS TO ISLAM (NOT A SPOOF) Posted by Steven Plaut, August 24, 2008.

This was written by Hillel Fendel, senior news editor at Arutz-7. It appeared today at Arutz-7 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127310

(IsraelNN.com) Dr. Uri Davis, who has often termed Israel an "apartheid state" and refused to serve in the IDF, converted to Islam about a week ago and married a Fatah activist in Ramallah. The conversion ceremony involved two oaths in which Davis recognized Allah and the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Davis said he plans to follow the laws of Islam, but not devoutly. The conversion took place in a Moslem religious court in Baka el-Garbiye, an Israeli-Arab town just outside northwestern Samaria (Shomron). Davis's lawyer explained that the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority know him for his great sacrifices on behalf of the "Palestinian problem" and the "realization of their rights." He noted that the consent of the Arab woman and her family to the marriage to a Jewish activist is an "admirable social development." Just two months ago, David took part in an Arab-sponsored "Haifa Conference," billed as "defend[ing] a secular democratic state in historic Palestine." A summary of the conference written by Yoav Bar states that the Conference "was our moment to raise our heads from the exhausting daily struggle and promise ourselves and the world that the suffering of the Palestinian people may be brought to an end and there can be a bright future for everybody in Palestine after we get rid of the racist Zionist disorder." Bar himself, an initiator of the Haifa Conference, is an Israeli member of the political bureau of Abnaa el-Balad — Sons of the Land, a secular movement that seeks the return of all Arab refugees, the abolishment of Israel as a Jewish state and the establishment of a Palestinian state in its place. Dr. Davis gave one of the three Hebrew speeches at the Conference; the others were delivered by Yehuda Kupferman of the "Committee for a Secular and Democratic state in the Whole of Palestine," and Dr. Anat Matar, a leading supporter of the rights of Palestinian prisoners and the rights of Israeli youth to refuse to serve in the IDF. Davis, who has described himself as an "anti-Zionist Palestinian Hebrew," has been advocating support for Palestinian issues for over 40 years, and was arrested more than once on charges of illegal activities in this connection. He is a founding member of the Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine, is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, and is actually an Observer Member of the Palestine National Council. 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. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il To Go To Top

RELEASING TERRORISTS: NEW VICTIMS PAY THE PRICE Posted by Jerusalem Issue Brief, ICA, August 24, 2008.

This is Vol. 8, No. 8, issued today. It was written by Nadav Shragai, the author of At the Crossroads, the Story of the Tomb of Rachel (Jerusalem Studies, 2005); The Mount of Contention, the Struggle for the Temple Mount, Jews and Muslims, Religion and Politics since 1967 (Keter, 1995); and "Jerusalem is Not the Problem, It is the Solution," in Mister Prime Minister: Jerusalem, ed. Moshe Amirav (Carmel and the Florsheimer Institute, 2005). He has been writing for the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz since 1983. His previous studies for the Jerusalem Center include "Jerusalem: The Dangers of Division — How to Meet the Demographic Challenge without Subtracting Arab Neighborhoods" (Hebrew, 2008; English, forthcoming); "The Latest Damage to Antiquities on the Temple Mount" (February 2008); and "The Palestinian Authority and the Jewish Holy Sites in the West Bank: Rachel's Tomb as a Test Case" (December 2007).

The Israeli Cabinet approved on August 17 the release of almost 200 Palestinian security prisoners as a "goodwill gesture" to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The list includes several prisoners "with blood on their hands," who, by definition, were involved in the murder of Israelis. According to an informal estimate by Israeli security bodies, about 50 percent of the terrorists freed for any reason whatsoever returned to the path of terror, either as perpetrator, planner, or accomplice. In the terror acts committed by these freed terrorists, hundreds of Israelis were murdered, and thousands were wounded. Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners and five other prisoners in return for Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was held captive by Hizbullah, and for the bodies of three soldiers kidnapped on Mount Dov. According to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzahi Hanegbi, from the date of the deal on January 29, 2004, until April 17, 2007, those freed in the deal had murdered 35 Israelis. An investigation by the Almagor Terror Victims Association in Israel revealed that at least 30 of the terrorist attacks perpetrated since 2000 were committed by terrorists freed in deals with terror organizations. Many were freed in the framework of goodwill gestures because they were defined by Israel as "without blood on their hands." The bloody swath cut by these terrorists claimed the life of 177 persons, with many others wounded and made invalids.   Another "Goodwill Gesture" In anticipation of the return to the Middle East of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Israeli Cabinet approved on August 17 the release of almost 200 Palestinian security prisoners as a "goodwill gesture" to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The list includes several prisoners "with blood on their hands," who, by definition, were involved in the murder of Israelis. Since 1985 the State of Israel has freed over 10,000 Palestinians who were serving prison sentences for hostile activity or terror actions, and this resulted in the murder and death of hundreds of Israeli citizens. Some of the Palestinian terrorists were freed in the framework of deals with terror organizations that involved the exchange of a few isolated Israelis who were taken captive by the terrorists, for hundreds and thousands of terrorists. Another portion were freed in the framework of what were termed diplomatic "goodwill gestures." Sometimes the terrorists were freed because their prison terms had been concluded or shortened.[1] According to an informal estimate by Israeli security bodies, about 50 percent of the terrorists freed for any reason whatsoever returned to the path of terror, either as a perpetrator, planner or accomplice. In the terror acts committed by these freed terrorists, hundreds of Israelis were murdered, and thousands were wounded.[2] In the case of the Jibril deal in 1985, the Israel Defense Ministry determined that 114 out of the 238 who were released returned to terrorism. During 1993-1999, 6,912 terrorists were freed in the wake of various diplomatic agreements, and 854 of them (12.4 percent) returned to terrorist activity, carried out terrorist attacks, murdered or planned to harm Israeli citizens, and were reincarcerated.[3] Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners and five other prisoners in return for Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was held captive by Hizbullah, and for the bodies of three soldiers kidnapped on Mount Dov. The deal was transacted in Cologne, Germany, on January 29, 2004. According to the information provided by Knesset member Tzahi Hanegbi, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, from that date and until April 17, 2007, those freed in the Tannenbaum deal had murdered 35 Israelis.[4] A comprehensive investigation recently conducted by the Almagor Terror Victims Association in Israel revealed that at least 30 of the terrorist attacks perpetrated since 2000 were committed by terrorists freed in deals with terror organizations. Many were freed in the framework of deals, understandings, or goodwill gestures because they were defined by Israel as "without blood on their hands." The bloody swath cut by these terrorists claimed the life of 177 persons, with many others wounded and made invalids. These statistics have been informally confirmed by security officials.[5]   Victims and Murderers Dr. David Applebaum, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and his 20-year-old daughter Nava, were murdered by a suicide bomber on September 9, 2003, when they went to Café Hillel on Emek Refaim Street in central Jerusalem. Nava was to be married the next day. The murderer, Ramez Sali Abu Salim, from Rantis, northwest of Ramallah, had been freed from an Israeli prison in 2002. He was rearrested a few months later, but was freed again on February 20, 2003. Seven months later he was sent by the Hamas command in Ramallah to commit a terror attack in the heart of Jerusalem. Also killed in this terror attack were Alon Mizrachi, 20; Gila Moshe, 40; Yehiel Emil Toubol, 50; David Shimon Avizdris, 51; and Shafik Yihya Karem, 22, from Beit Hanina. An additional 60 people were wounded. The famous Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in Israeli prison for five acts of murder, was arrested for the first time in 1976 for hostile activity. After being freed, he became one of the leaders of the first intifada in 1987. Arrested again by Israel, he was expelled to Jordan. Permitted to return in the framework of the Oslo agreements (1994), he became the general secretary of the Fatah organization on the West Bank. With the start of the second intifada, Barghouti became the leader of the Tanzim, which was responsible for many terror attacks against Israelis. Some were carried out under the name of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. In April 2002 he was arrested, placed on trial, and in May 2004 he was convicted of five acts of murder. The prosecution waived 21 additional murder charges and 33 other charges.[6] Sheikh Ahmed Yasin was first arrested in 1983, after guns were seized in his home. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for holding weapons, establishing a military organization and calling for the liquidation of the State of Israel, but was freed by Israel 1985 in the framework of the Jibril deal.[7] In 1987 Yasin established and headed the terror organization Hamas. In 1989 he ordered the killing of Palestinians suspected of collaboration with the IDF and the Israel Security Agency, and he subsequently commanded the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers. For these crimes, Yasin was given a life sentence. He was freed in 1997 as part of an agreement between Israel and Jordan after the botched assassination attempt by the Mossad on Khaled Mashaal in Jordan. After his release, Yasin resumed preaching violence and terror, and the IDF and the Israel Security Agency reported to the government that Yasin was involved in planning terrorist attacks on the operative level. On March 22, 2004, he was killed by missiles fired by Israel Air Force combat helicopters.[8]   Freed Murderers Kill Again Abdullah Abd Al-Kadr Kawasme was originally arrested in 1988, following the murder of policeman Nissim Toledano, and was exiled together with 400 Hamas and Jihad activists. Upon his return to Israel, he was imprisoned and charged with membership in Hamas and involvement in hostile terrorist activity, and was released in 1994. He was responsible for many terrorist attacks including the infiltration into the community of Adura on April 27, 2002, where four people were killed, including five-year-old Danielle Shefi. Kawasme was also responsible for the infiltration of the community of Carmei Tzur on August 6, 2002, in which three people were murdered; two suicide bombings carried out in tandem in Jerusalem on May 18, 2003, in which six people were killed and 20 wounded; and a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in June 2003 in which 17 people were killed and 105 were wounded. Kawasme was killed by the IDF on June 21, 2003. Karim Ratteb Younis Awis was serving a life sentence for causing the death of a collaborator, but was released in a goodwill gesture to the Palestinians. On November 27, 2001, he dispatched two terrorists who opened fire on civilians at the central bus station in Afula, murdering Michal Mor and Noam Guzofsky and wounding an additional 84 people.[9] Nasser Abu Hameid, who had been given five life sentences for the murder of five collaborators, was released in September 1999 in the framework of the Sharm el Sheikh Agreement. After the outbreak of the second intifada, he was documented mutilating the corpses of IDF reserve soldiers Vadim Norzitz and Yossi Avrahami. In December 2000 he murdered Binyamin and Talia Kahane near Givat Zeev. In February 2002 he was involved in plotting the terrorist attack in which policewoman Galit Arbiv was murdered in Neve Yaakov, and he commanded the murder of Gadi Rejwan in the Atarot industrial zone in northern Jerusalem. In March 2002 he was responsible for a terror bombing at the Seafood Restaurant where Eliyahu Dahan, Yossi Havi, and policeman Salim Barakat were murdered. In December 2002 he was sentenced to seven life terms for the murder of seven Israelis and was convicted of 12 counts of attempted murder and additional crimes Abbas ibn Muhammad Mustafa Alsayd was released in 1996 after three years in prison for directing disturbances in Tulkarm. He was responsible for many terror attacks and in September 2005 he was convicted of murdering 35 people and wounding hundreds in the terror attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya on the eve of Passover, March 27, 2002, and at the HaSharon Mall in Netanya on May 18, 2001.[10] Matsab Hashalmon was released from jail as part of the "Tennenbaum deal" on January 29, 2004. Three months later he recruited suicide terrorists Ahmed Kawasme and Nissim Jaabari, who blew themselves up on August 31, 2004, on two buses in Beersheba, killing 16 civilians and wounding scores of others. Iyad Sawalha headed the military wing of Islamic Jihad in Samaria. He was imprisoned for two years for his involvement in the murder of collaborators and was freed in 1998 in the wake of the Oslo Accords. On June 5, 2002, he was responsible for blowing up a bus at Megiddo junction where 17 people were murdered and another 42 were wounded. On October 21, 2002, he was responsible for detonating an explosive-laden jeep near a bus at Karkur, leaving 14 people murdered and scores wounded. The list of freed terrorists and their victims goes on and on.   Israel's Dilemma The Victims of Arab Terror International has appealed many times to the High Court of Justice against the freeing of terrorists, but all the petitions have been rejected. In one of the petitions (High Court of Justice case 914/04), Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levi expressed the dilemma that he finds himself in as a justice and as an Israeli citizen when confronted with the freeing of terrorists, and their reversion to the path of terror. This is not the very first time that by virtue of agreements it signed, the State of Israel frees terrorists who sowed death and destruction in our midst. After every such prisoner release, the hope reverberated in many hearts that this time a change would ensue and those freed would no longer return to the path of terror and could possibly even serve as ambassadors for disseminating the idea of peaceful coexistence. It would seem that there is no need to elaborate to what extent this hope was in vain, and it might be more fittingly defined as a false illusion. If we needed further proof that those freed were not intent on peace, one can find it in the bloody events that have accompanied us since October 2000. Many of those whom Israel had in the past set free participated in these horrific events. These incidents have taken their toll in human life, sometimes as an everyday occurrence, and altered the lives of the wounded victims' families from top to bottom. I saw myself forced to concur with the decision of my colleagues, and with trembling hand I added my signature, and with the sole hope that beats inside me, namely that those who adopted the decision and have a complete picture before them and whose shoulders bear the responsibility to ensure the safety and security of Israeli citizens were persuaded that the decision that they adopted was the correct one, despite the terrible risk involved for all of us in the freeing of the miscreants.[11]   Conclusions Hundreds have been murdered and many more wounded in terrorist attacks perpetrated by terrorists who have been freed from Israeli prisons. There needs to be a change in the "rules" that have crystallized in recent years where thousands of terrorists are released in return for isolated kidnap victims. This will limit the damage, for fewer freed terrorists will be free to return to the path of terror. One should not pay any price in order to bring about the release of kidnap victims or captives. Furthermore, the terrorists that Israel frees in return for captives should not be freed into the West Bank, but abroad, as was done in certain cases in the past. This will make it harder for them to injure residents of the State of Israel.   Notes 1. From a discussion with a military source. 2. From a discussion with a military source. 3. According to a senior figure in Central Command. 4. Confirmed by Knesset member Tzahi Hanegbi to the writer. 5. For further details, see the full investigation on the Almagor Terror Victims Association website www.al-magor.com/39719/ 6. The security report, the reports of the Almagor organization, and the verdict and sentence handed down against Barghouti. 7. The Jibril deal involved an exchange of captives that took place on May 21, 1985, between the Government of Israel headed by Shimon Peres and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, a terrorist organization headed by Ahmed Jibril. In the framework of the exchange, 1,150 prisoners and security detainees who were imprisoned in Israel were freed in exchange for the return of three Israeli captives: Hezi Shai, Yosef Grof and Nissim Salem, who had been taken captive by Jibril's organization at the time of the First Lebanon War. The deal was supported by all the ministers in the Israeli government, both from the Labor Party and the Likud, with the sole exception of Yizhak Navon. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were freed in the territories and most of them, as almost all the security bodies concur today, constituted the backbone of the leadership for the first intifada that erupted three years later. 8. From newspaper reports and a security report summing up the incident. 9. From the sentence of the military court in Beit El, file 3478/02: "The crimes for which the accused is paying the penalty today, demonstrate that the gesture extended to them was not justified and that it led to the killing of additional innocent citizens. The danger posed by the accused was clear after he had already been convicted of murder in the past. The need to keep them at a distance from human civilization forever was also self-evident. After his release, the accused demonstrated that the gesture was unjustified and the steep price for this was paid by many Israeli families." 10. The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report on the terrorist attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya from March 2004, as well as a report by the Almagor organization. 11. High Court of Justice 914/04, Victims of Arab Terror International against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 2004 (1) pp. 781-783. The Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA) is dedicated to providing a forum for Israeli policy discussion and debate. The publication is available from Jerusalem Center for Policy Affairs, http://www.jcpa.org To Go To Top

US REFUSES TO SELL PLANES TO ISRAEL Posted by Mendel Siegel, August 24, 2008.

To: George W Bush; US Department State; Condoleeza Rice; Richard Cheney Subject: US refuses to sell planes to Israel Dear Mr Bush, Mr Cheney, and Madam Rice, Shalom! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE MUDDLED POLICIES OF THE US GOVERMENT! I read here that the US is fearful of selling airplanes to Israel lest they use them against TERRORIST Iran. In another release, I read that we are going to supply TERRORIST Hizbullah with arms! Is this the way the US maintains friendship with its ONLY ally in the Middle East? What is going on in the White House and the State Department? Have Gates, Baker and company caused this attempt to gain favor with TERRORIST states? After the COMPLETE FIASCO on the part of the United States with regard to Georgia, I fear that your intelligence services are sadly lacking and you are seeking advice from the wrong quarters. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!! Mendel Siegel Contact Mendel Siegel at mendelofjerusalem2@yahoo.com To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: BUDGET MACHINATIONS Posted by Arlene Kushner, August 24, 2008.

Budget is always connected to politics, but this time around it seems more so than usual — because of the instabilities of our current situation. As I write this, after midnight Israel time, the Cabinet, after 12 hours of deliberation, is deadlocked on budget issues. This has the potential to bring down the government. Whether it actually will, remains to be seen. A key issue is cuts demanded of the Defense Ministry, which Barak is fighting for all he's worth (which, in this instance, whatever the politics, I do not fault him for). Tension between Barak and Olmert is exceedingly high, with Barak threatening to quit if his ministry doesn't get the funds it needs and Olmert threatening to fire him if he doesn't vote for the budget. Then there's Shas, which is opposed to a budget that doesn't increase child allowance sums, a key issue for its haredi constituency with its large families. So convoluted are the issues at present, that there have even been suggestions from Labor that Finance Minister Roni Bar-On is sabotaging his own budget in order to bring down the government for Livni's sake. Stay tuned... ~~~~~~~~~~ So it will be an Obama-Biden ticket... Joe Biden is getting mixed reviews here. Viewed as a friend of Israel in many regards, he is, none-the-less causing concern because of his positions on Iran (which may also give us a hint as to how he might position himself with regard to Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas). In 1998, Senator Biden was one of only four senators to vote against the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, a bill designed to act against foreign companies or other entities that sent Iran sensitive missile technology or expertise. In 2007, he was one of only a handful of senators to oppose the bipartisan 2007 Kyl-Lieberman Amendment labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. In a December 2007 debate, Biden said "Iran is not a nuclear threat to the United States of America." On MSNBC's "Hardball," Biden said he "never believed" Iran had a weapon system under production. ~~~~~~~~~~ Oh joy! Condoleezza Rice is due here tomorrow afternoon. During her visit of just over 24 hours — during which time she will meet with Barak, Olmert, Livni, possibly joined by Qurei (as Livni's negotiating counterpart), and then Abbas and Fayyed in Ramallah — she is expected to check on the state of, and attempt to advance (i.e., push) "peace negotiations." She is reportedly seeking a document that states what each side has agreed to so far and where differences remain, in order to demonstrate that progress has taken place. There are rumors that she wants this not just by the end of the year but almost immediately so that it can be presented to the opening session of the UN on September 18; US officials are denying this. ~~~~~~~~~~ According to Israeli officials cited in the Post, Tzipi Livni, our chief negotiator, is opposed to such a document and hopes to dissuade Rice to forget it. Her concern is that it would make it harder for Kadima to win an election. Got that everyone? Livni doesn't want the nation to know what she has already verbally agreed to, as the people would not be happy about it. ~~~~~~~~~~ Just a brief mention here of the "Free Gaza" ships, which came into Gaza yesterday. The ships carried a group of over 40 left-wing "activists" with an agenda that conveniently ignores Hamas terrorism; they claimed to be intent on "breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza." While Israel was entirely within its rights to stop the ship before it reached the Gaza port, a decision was made to let them through as long as it was known that they were not carrying weapons. That decision was based on the awareness that the group would have promoted a PR free-for-all had they been stopped. Hopefully more details soon, and a bit more background. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

AL-JAZEERA SHOWN THE DOOR BY LOCAL US DEMOCRACY Posted by B. Taverna, August 23, 2008.

This was written by Rabbi Levi Brackman and it appeared in Ynet News www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/ 1%2c2506%2cL-3586207%2c00.html Rabbi Brackman is executive director of Judaism in the Foothills, and is the author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success.

Al-Jazeera shown the door by local US democracy Despite what some on Left may want us to believe, average working class, right-leaning American is neither xenophobic, anti-Semitic or intolerant On Thursday night I came to a Golden, Colorado City Council meeting to ask them to consider our request to place a menorah in downtown Golden this coming Hanukkah. But a much larger controversy was boiling. Only 20 minutes drive from Democratic National Convention host city Denver, al-Jazeera had asked Golden City Manager, Mike Bestor, if he could help them meet and interview Golden residents. With the support of Golden Mayor Jacob Smith, a special barbeque celebration was arranged for al-Jazeera reporters at the home of Golden City Manager Mike Bestor. This created an outcry from Golden residents who were opposed to the perceived preferential treatment given to al-Jazeera journalists. There was standing room only at the Council Meeting last night. Grown men who had served in the US armed forces choked with emotion as they described how al-Jazeera's reporting had helped to embolden our enemies and serves as a propaganda machine for the likes of Osama Bin Laden, Hamas and other terrorists who kill American citizens. United States army and navy veterans and others stood up one after another demanding that al-Jazeera not be given what they termed as "red carpet treatment" by the City of Golden. Of course there were some who felt that it was a good idea to treat even those who blatantly help the enemy of the United States with more love than is offered to our allies. After every one had finished talking the Golden City manager, Mike Bestor, had his turn to explain his position, amazingly he told the audience that he had made a mistake and would therefore be withdrawing his barbeque invitation to al-Jazeera. There was loud applause when he finished speaking. The people had spoken and the elected officials were forced to listen and back down. Reaffirmation This was an amazing example of how the silent majority in the United States have the ability to show laser sharp moral clarity. This was a moment where the average person was galvanized to stand up and say that we will not allow privileges to be given to those who aid and abate terrorists. But what I found even more insightful was the following. Those at the meeting who supported the al-Jazeera barbeque invitation insinuated that their opponents were bigoted and intolerant of others different than themselves. One speaker even called the veterans and those who agreed with them xenophobes. But if that was the case one would have assumed that they would have opposed my request to place a menorah in Golden City Center. But instead, after I had finished my speech before the council asking them to consider placing the menorah in Golden, the loudest applause came for the United States army veterans. And after the meeting was over many who had spoken against the al-Jazeera barbeque approached me and voiced support for the menorah proposal. For me the greatest moment of the night was not just the amazing display of local democracy in action. The most heartening part of the entire evening was the reaffirmation to me that, despite what some on the Left may want us to believe, the average working class, right-leaning American is neither xenophobic, anti-Semitic or intolerant. Thankfully however, they are on the whole very realistic about the threats posed by the likes of al-Jazeera and the terrorists which they help and support. It is this American realism that gives me hope in the face of the potential Iranian nuclear threat and the ongoing terrorism threat posed by al-Qaeda, Hizbullah, Hamas and others. Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com To Go To Top

SENATOR BIDEN SUPPORTS CLEMENCY FOR POLLARD Posted by Justice for Jonathan Pollard, August 23, 2008.

J4JPnews clarification — August 24, 2008 Senator Joseph Biden, new running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Obama Barak, stated his position on Jonathan Pollard in a 2007 interview (with Shalom TV). When asked about Pollard, Biden said, "... There's a rationale in my view why Pollard should be given leniency. But there is not a rationale to say what happened did not happen and [he] should be pardoned..." These comments are now being widely re-reported in light of the breaking news on his candidacy for Vice President of the United States and largely misunderstood. J4JP offers the following clarifications: 1) Senator Biden's comments support Clemency for Pollard Jonathan Pollard is not seeking a pardon. Pollard has never asked for a pardon. Pollard is seeking clemency. Clemency is what Senator Biden refers to when he speaks of "leniency." 2) Clemency vs. Pardon — what's the difference? A pardon, in American legal terms, wipes out the crime. It virtually erases the history of the crime. A pardon restores full constitutional rights to an American citizen, as if he/she had never committed a crime. This explains why Senator Biden replied: "... there is not a rationale to say what happened did not happen and [he] should be pardoned." Clemency, unlike a pardon, does not wipe out the record of the offense; it essentially readjusts the sentence. Clemency can be expressed as a reduction of sentence, and/or as a commutation to time served. Jonathan Pollard has never sought to erase the fact that he did indeed transfer classified information to Israel and in doing so, broke the law. He has never denied this. Pollard has never asked for a pardon. What he does seek is clemency. 3) Some of the reasons Pollard seeks presidential clemency include: o a grossly disproportionate sentence o a broken plea agreement o the use of secret evidence o a false charge of treason o ineffective assistance of counsel o ex parte communication between prosecutors and judge o a lack of due process o a sentencing procedure infected by false allegations and lies o violation of constitutional rights 4) Jonathan Pollard is now completing his 23rd year of an unprecedented life sentence for providing classified information to an ally, Israel. The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years, with some serving no jail time at all. Senator Biden's comments supporting presidential clemency for Jonathan are appropriate and welcome. See Also: The J4JP Facts Page http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm The Comparative Sentencing Charts http://www.jonathanpollard.org/sentences.htm Reach Justice for Jonathan Pollard by sending an email to justice4jp@gmail.com To Go To Top

SOME QUESTIONS FOR THOSE WHO OPPOSE ISRAEL AS A JEWISH STATE Posted by Dan Calic, August 23, 2008.

For those who oppose Israel as a Jewish state — Why is it that someone can say they support national movements, and yet oppose Zionism? Why are there 22 Arab countries and the world doesn't have a problem with that, yet throw one Jewish country in the mix and you think the world was about to end. We hear public calls for the destruction of Israel again and again, and no one does a thing. What would happen if Israel called for the destruction of her enemies just once? Hezbollah has rearmed itself with over 40,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon, since the end of the '06 war, in flagrant violation of UN resolution 1701, while the UNIFIL has done absolutely nothing to stop them. Yet the commander of the UNIFIL is complaining that Israel has conducted a flyover and their Defense Minister won't meet with him. How can someone go to bed on June 4, 1967 as a Jordanian and wake up the next day as a Palestinian? (quote from Walid Shoebat) Why should it be Israel's responsibility to compensate "refugees" who supported those who intended to destroy it? How can living on land G-d gave you be an "illegal occupation?" Contact Dan Calic by email at calic@comcast.net To Go To Top

US-ISRAEL RELATIONS; SEC. RICE EATS FULBRIGHT CROW; WHY IDF INCREASES PATROLS IN SAMARIA Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 22, 2008.

LIVNI: OLMERT SHOULD RESTRAIN HIMSELF OR BE RESTRAINED Foreign Min. Livni asked the Attorney-General to order PM Olmert not to undertake critical negotiations with the Arabs, now that he has submitted his resignation. A caretaker government should not make great innovations nor vital decisions. She said it was the Basic Law in Israel, but cited only Supreme Court decisions and Attorney-General dictates, not the law (IMRA, 8/5). It is the custom in the US, too. She wants to make poor decisions herself. Olmert may be making foolhardy decisions to please leftist prosecutors. What is her excuse? Her decisions would be made by a lame duck government, too. She is trying to avoid new elections. The prior elections led to a coalition regime that lost the people's confidence. Her policies are those that the people reject. I agree that Olmert should restrain himself or be restrained, but it would be better to hold new elections. The government is so afraid of the people and so avid to keep its jobs, that it averts new elections. U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONS The US has no national security objections to Israeli military sales to Turkey. Turkey elicited a bid from Israeli companies to develop its tanks. Israel refrained from bidding against US companies. It feared that doing so would irritate US military relations with Israel. A S. Korean company won the bid (IMRA, 8/5) This incident illustrates that US relations with Israel are insecure, and that the US is wont to retaliate against normal competition. In theory, capitalism promotes efficiency, by virtue of competition. In practice, capitalists lobby for government subsidy, tariff, or punitive measures against foreign competitors. In practice, what is called efficiency often is cheapness of quality. ISRAEL THREATENS AGAIN, TAKES A CHANCE AGAIN Israel is allowing the warrior Hilles clan that escaped from Gaza to settle in Jericho. An Israeli general warned them that they had to behave, on pain of removal. Dr. Aaron Lerner doubts that the warning would be followed through. Residents of Jericho resent this infusion of Fatah men. They already suffer from extortion by Fatah men already brought there (IMRA, 8/5). Israel has been letting hostile Arabs enter the Territories. I think that is not prudent. The reverse would be wiser policy. EGYPT FINDS EIGHT MORE SMUGGLERS' TUNNELS Smugglers often bribe Egyptian soldiers to let them through (Arutz-7, 8/5). Egypt has found and decommissioned a number of tunnels, lately (IMRA, 8/6). Actually, Egypt just demolishes a tunnel exit, leaving the same tunnel's other exits intact. There are more tunnels now than previously. Egypt still is pretending to be doing something about tunnels (IMRA, 8/6). Why don't the major media get the correct angle on this story, instead of giving Egypt credit? PALESTINIAN ARAB REFUGEE FAMILIES FROM IRAQ Saddam favored Palestinian Arabs, one reason for their present unpopularity there, now. They tried to flee to Syria, but were denied entrance. Some dozens are being welcomed by Iceland and Sweden (IMRA, 8/5). Sweden means well, but is subjecting its own people tor criminal assault and an assault on its own civilization. That is the record of the Palestinian Arabs in the Middle East and of Muslims in Europe. SEC. RICE EATS CROW When Israel refused to let some Gazan Fullbright Scholars pass through Israel, Sec. Rice reacted in a fury. Now she believes, along with Israel, that they present a security risk (Arutz-7, 8/5). She reacted in haste and ignorance. Due to anti-Zionist prejudice, the US often scorns Israeli intelligence. Israeli sources, however, often prove correct. The US should give more credence to Israeli intelligence. It should work together with Israel. When the US works together with Israel, it accomplishes much more. ANOTHER DAY IN THE JEWISH POLICE STATE For three days in succession, police broke the cameras of reporters filming police response to Jewish nationalist demonstrations. The third day, an INS reporter was photographing an Israeli policeman beating a demonstrator. That cop turned on the reporter, and beat him, too. Later he apologized. Other Israelis were commemorating the third anniversary of the removal of the Gazan Jews. [Most of those removed still lack decent and permanent housing, jobs, and closure over the parsimonious and bureaucratic way the government still, deliberately, treats them.] They tried to place a radio ad lamenting the "expulsion." The Israel Broadcasting Authority refused to allow it. Excuse: "expulsion" is a political term, the proper word is "evacuation" (Arutz-7, 8/5). They didn't evacuate, they were expelled for political reasons. Even if the ad were political, political expression would be protected if Israel were a democracy. Better to keep the government out of the media and as much else as possible. REASONS FOR EXECUTING TERRORIST CONVICTS Israeli prosecutors do not demand the death penalty for convicted terrorists. They fail to realize that irresponsible Israeli governments are liable to release them in a lopsided exchange. "...these men, and thousands like them continue to constitute a grave danger. In prison they are free to plot and order the carrying out of still more attacks. Several murderous attacks have been ordered by prisoners who communicate their orders through their lawyers, their family members and even on the telephone. Moreover, while in prison they are free to draft their fellow prisoners into their genocidal ranks. Since many of these fellow prisoners were convicted of lesser crimes, they will [soon] be released to kill still more Israelis after being radicalized in prison by the likes of the Silwan gang." Failing to execute convicted terrorists is not justice and not humane. It is left-wing anti-Zionism by so-called intellectuals. Those "intellectuals" don't recognize the danger to their people and their duty to protect them from radical Muslims. So warped is the Supreme Court, which overrules Knesset laws on the basis of judge's ideological or personal preferences and not on legal matters, that it took five years to sanction targeted assassination of terrorists who make war on Israel. Even then, it circumscribed the IDF's freedom of action. The Court acts as if its primary duty is to protect genocidal national enemies (Caroline Glick in IMRA, 8/5) and to thwart democracy in Israel. The Court is anti-Israel and dictatorial. It should be tried for treason. But that would mean the people gaining sovereign control from the elite. IDF INCREASES PATROLS IN SAMARIA The IDF swiftly arrested a Jew accused of throwing stones at Arabs. It said it would increase its patrols in the province, to prevent further such acts. Jewish representatives in Samaria complained that Arabs have attacked Jews there for years, without being apprehended by the IDF. Arabs still do, many times more than Jews attack Arabs. When Jews call the Army for help, if it comes at all, it arrests the Jews. The representatives link this anti-Jewish discrimination with other governmental efforts to make life difficult for Jews in Samaria. Thus the government obstructs connections of new houses to electricity, doesn't approve building plans, etc. (Arutz-7, 8/6). I have never heard the government defending the reputation of settlers and religious Jews against the constant slander from the Left and by the Arabs. It was a settler and a religious Jew who each slew a tractor terrorist in Jerusalem. 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

PM OLMERT PUSHING FOR DEAL WITH PALESTINIANS TO IMPOSE ON ISRAEL Posted by Dave Alpern, August 22, 2008.

This was written by Dr. Aaron Lerner and comes from IMRA. Dr. Lerner is Director of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its website address is http://www.imra.org.il Write him at imra@netvision.net.il

Maariv correspondent Ben Caspit reports in today's edition that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is pushing hard to reach a deal with PA head Mahmoud Abbas before he leaves office. American businessman Daniel Abram recently met with Abbas a number of times to encourage Abbas to reach an agreement with Olmert. According to Caspit, Olmert tells his circle that if he reaches a deal with Abbas, "the president of the United States will adopt the wording, the world will adopt it, the European Union, and also the Arab world. We can tell the Israeli people that this is what can be achieved after long years of negotiations, and the Nation will decide." Put another way: Olmert intends to create a situation according to which the Israeli public will be faced with the danger that rejection of the deal means rejection of a plan already embraced by the entire world — with all the consequences that entails. Contact Dave Alpern by email at daveyboy@bezeqint.net To Go To Top

JORDAN THREATENS ISRAEL OVER JERUSALEM Posted by Marc Samberg, August 22, 2008.

This was a news item in One Jerusalem http://www.onejerusalem.org/blog/archives/2008/08/jordan_threaten.asp

Earlier this week Jordan's King publicly embraced Hamas and today Jordan's Foreign Minister warned Israel's Ambassador against a planned archaeological dig in Jerusalem because: "This would also lead to a new violent conflict in the Middle East because Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims and Arabs." That the Jordanians have suddenly become energetic opponents of Israel is troubling. It could mean they have calculated that being on Israel's side against radical Islam is a losing proposition. There is no doubt that Israel's policy of appeasing its enemies is emboldening its enemies and causing its friends to rethink their alliances. It is also the height of Chutzpah for Jordan to threaten Israel over Jerusalem. Remember it is Jordan that kept Jews out of the Old City from 1948 to 1968.   EDITOR'S NOTE: This was a comment by Richard Rheiner: It should be absolutely clear now that Israel is virtually alone now. She is weak and weakening further because of her cowardly prime minister who has appeased, who is appeasing and who will always appease until the day when Jewish blood will run in the streets of Jerusalem. This man Olmert must resign NOW AND LET THE BRAVE RUN ISRAEL'S AFFAIRS. If it is inevitable that the Jewish people must die then it is better to die fighting as did the warriors of the Polish ghetto rather than walk into the gas chambers like meek lambs. Israel is now on the verge of losing everything. She MUST EXACT A HORRIBLE TOLL ON THOSE WHO WOULD DESTROY HER. It seems inevitable that Obama (no friend to any Jew) is going to be elected President of the USA. Jordan is a joke and should be made to worry about what Israel might do with a brave man or woman at the helm. All these Muslim countries should be made to worry about what action Israel will take. Instead of trying to get world opinion on her side, which is an impossibility, Israel should go ahead with plans to do whatever it takes to survive. There should be a credible threat to release the dogs of war on those who would threaten every Jew's beloved homeland. Trying to show the world what a wonderful democracy exists in Israel is a waste of time and energy. The "world" will never love us or care about us. We must think of this last chance we will ever have to be a nation. What the world fears, it respects and Israel needs respect not love. Contact Marc Samberg at marcsamberg@yahoo.com To Go To Top

AL QAEDA'S INFLUENCE GROWS IN ISRAEL; ISRAELI BEDOUIN INDICTED Posted by Jack L., August 22, 2008.

This was written by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and it appeared in today's Arutz-7.

Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and police brought charges on Friday against a Be'er Sheva area Bedouin was who was arrested four weeks ago for plotting to contact Al Qaeda terrorists and suggesting to a friend to carry out a suicide bombing. A gag order on the arrest was lifted Friday. The friend turned down his proposal to carry out an attack. The terrorist was identified as Abu Rakik, a 24-year-old former student at a technological college and a resident of the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva, near Be'er Sheva. He allegedly tried to contact a Gaza terrorist linked with the Al Qaeda network, headed by Osama Bin Laden, with the intentions of setting up a local cell. Authorities said Rakik also had downloaded from the internet instructions on how to manufacture a bomb. The indictment is the latest in a growing number of arrests and charges against Israeli Arabs linked to the international terrorist organization, which government officials several years ago dismissed as having any influence on Arab and Bedouin citizens living in the Jewish state. Last month, four Israeli Arabs, including two from eastern Jerusalem, were arrested for trying to establish an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade cell. Al Qaeda's sights on Israel go back at least until 2002, when the organization was behind the double attack on Israelis in Kenya. Then-Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said at the time, "Our hand will reach them," referring to the Al Qaeda terrorists. A government spokesman stated after the attacks, "The road from 9/11 through Chechnya to Bali and now Mombasa is a clear one", and then-Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned that the attacks showed the dangers of setting up a new Arab state within Israel's current borders. Binyamin Netanyahu warned that the attacks showed the dangers of setting up a new Arab state within Israel's current borders. Intelligence experts warned the government after the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza three summers ago that Al Qaeda might step up attacks in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and that several of its terrorists crossed into Gaza from Egypt. Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Sheikh Naim Qassem told the Christian Science Monitor two years ago, after the Second Lebanon War, "Small [Al Qaeda] groups can infiltrate in and out very quickly. Weapons are available everywhere. It is not complex. These are not large groups of people. Just two or three who plan for a while and then launch several rockets." Al Qaeda has used language in its propaganda similar to that of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with such statements as, "The rockets fired at the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon were only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy." Contact Jack L. by email at yakovdov1@yahoo.com To Go To Top

BBC CHARITY ACCUSED OF FUNDING TERRORIST Posted by HaDaR, August 22, 2008.

This was written by Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post correspondent in London. It is archived at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid= 1219218613539&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The BBC has denied charges that money raised by a BBC charity was used to recruit and train the terrorists involved in the 7/7 terror attacks on London that killed 52 people in 2005. The BBC's own Newsnight current affairs programme reported on Tuesday night's broadcast that the BBC's Children in Need charity had donated around £20,000 to the Leeds Community School, Yorkshire, between 1999 and 2002 which went towards funding the activities of the terrorists behind the July 2005 attacks. On Thursday the BBC said that there is no evidence that the money was used for terrorist activity. The school funded and shared premises with the Iqra Islamic book shop where the suicide bombers Muhammad Siddique Khan and Shezhad Tanweer regularly met. Khan and Tanweer attempted to radicalize youths by showing propaganda films at the bookshop, which became a regular meeting place for young Muslims at the time — including Jermaine Lindsay, who went on to become the King's Cross bomber. The two handed out DVDs and books about Bosnia and Chechnya and held Arabic classes in a back room of the store. They also produced a leaflet in the wake of September 11 blaming the attacks on a Jewish conspiracy. The school also received large sums from other public bodies and paid for adventure weekends, used to recruit potential Muslim radicals, such as a rafting trip to Wales a month before the London attacks. Tanweer and Khan went on the trip, along with Khalid Khaliq, who this year was jailed for terrorism offences. Khaliq's house was raided by police last year. They found books with titles such as Zaad-e-Mujahid [essential provision for holy fighters] and The Absent Obligation, a book about jihad, as well as 250 copies of a booklet entitled The War on Terrorism: the Final Crusade. Both Khan, the leader of the bombers, and Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber, were trustees of the bookshop. Khan also worked at the school and ran the adventure courses in Wales. The bookshop and the school were registered charities. The bookshop claimed, according to the UK Charity Commission, that its aim was "the advancement of the Islamic faith," while the school's aim was said to be to "advance the education of Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils." Martin Gilbertson, an IT technician who worked at the school and bookshop, said that he had been concerned about the activities of Tanweer and Khan. "They blamed everything on the 'Jewish conspiracy,' they hated Western culture; it was like living with jihad on a daily basis," he said. On Wednesday, David Ramsden, chief executive of Children in Need, said: "I'm incredibly concerned that we did make an award to Leeds Community School over nine years ago, and any allegation that any funding we've given to any project has been misused and not used to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people makes me concerned and very sad. "I can reassure the British public that we are very careful in who we fund and this allegation is a very rare one for us, but one that causes a great deal of concern." However on Thursday, the BBC said the money had been given in "good faith," and that there was no evidence to show the money was used for terrorist activity. "The grants made by BBC Children in Need to Leeds Community School, itself a charity registered with the Charity Commission, were given in good faith in 1998 and 1999," said Hellen Martin, media relations manager at the BBC. "No evidence has been produced that the money they received was used for terrorist activity. Clearly if there is an allegation of fraud, then it is a matter for the police. BBC Children In Need distributes more than £30 million in grants every year, greatly benefiting disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. "BBC Children in Need does everything it possibly can to make sure that the public money is entirely used to benefit these children." Children in Need says its mission is to "positively change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK." On the charity's Web site, its mission statement says that support is given in the form of grants to organizations "working with children who may have experienced mental, physical or sensory disabilities; behavioral or psychological disorders; are living in poverty or situations of deprivation; or suffering through distress, abuse or neglect. "The size and scale of the BBC Children in Need Appeal means that we're able to give grants to hundreds of different organizations, some of which are very small and don't have the resources to fund-raise for themselves." In 2006, the BBC Children in Need Appeal raised over £33m. Last month, the BBC was fined a record £400,000 by media watchdog Ofcom for misleading its audiences by "faking" phone-in competitions. A Children in Need appeal in 2005 was part of the scandal. "The BBC deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly," Ofcom said. Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

HOLOCAUST SCHOLARS IN NEW PLEA FOR EXHIBIT ON WWII RESCUE GROUP Posted by B. Taverna, August 22, 2008.

This was written by Etgar Lefkovits and it appeared yesterday in The Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1219218613473&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A group of more than 50 Holocaust scholars from around the world on Thursday urged Yad Vashem to include an exhibit in its museum about a WWII rescue group. The scholars' appeal to add information about the Bergson Group in the Holocaust museum came two months after Yad Vashem surprisingly rebuffed an earlier petition by a cross-section of Israeli political and cultural figures on the issue. The Bergson Group was a maverick activist group in the US in the 1940s that raised public awareness of the Holocaust and campaigned for US rescue action to save the Jews of Europe during WWII. Led by Hillel Kook, a nephew of Israel's first chief rabbi who worked under the pseudonym of Peter Bergson, the organization was viewed by mainstream US Jewish leaders during the war as being too direct in its criticism of the Roosevelt administration's blatant failure to rescue Jewish refugees, although in recent years most scholars have come to recognize the group's crucial contribution to the infamously belated rescue effort. "As scholars who have researched and written about the Holocaust, we support the recent appeal, by a wide cross-section of Israeli scholars and political and cultural figures, urging Yad Vashem to add to its exhibit materials about the Bergson Group's role in promoting rescue from the Holocaust," the August 21 letter to Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev read. "Yad Vashem's exhibit already includes material about the failure of the United States to admit significant numbers of refugees or to bomb Auschwitz. But this chapter of Holocaust history is incomplete without reference to those in America who did act to bring about the rescue of Jews from the Nazis," the letter states. The signatories to the letter include Dr. Irving Greenberg, chairman emeritus of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, which governs the US Holocaust Museum. In contrast to Yad Vashem's surprisingly steadfast refusal to include such an exhibit in its museum, the museum in Washington DC earlier this summer added information about the Bergson Group to its museum on the heels of a similar public campaign. The American Holocaust Institute, which is leading the campaign to include an exhibit on the Bergson Group in Yad Vashem, said Thursday the Israeli museum needed to amend its historical omission. "More than 50 leading Holocaust historians have urged Yad Vashem to correct its inexplicable omission of the Bergson Group's rescue campaign," said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington DC-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. "This is a body of serious scholarly opinion that no Holocaust institution can reasonably ignore." But Yad Vashem said Thursday inserting information about the Bergson Group in its Museum without "the overall context" would be "misleading." "It is unclear if all those who signed on to the letter are familiar with Yad Vashem and the Holocaust History Museum, and with the presentation of this subject in Yad Vashem's research and educational activities," a Yad Vashem representative said in a written response. "The Holocaust History Museum does not presume to include every person, event, and place connected with the Holocaust, but rather to present the visitor with the story of the Holocaust, providing an experience that will hopefully encourage the visitor to learn more via books, the Web site, and other sources — available at Yad Vashem and elsewhere." The Bergson Group is credited with helping to persuade the president in 1944 to establish the War Refugee Board, which ultimately saved 200,000 Jewish lives during the Holocaust. "Omitting the saving of 200,000 lives is a mistake," said Prof. David S. Wyman, a leading international authority on America's response to the Holocaust, and author of the highly acclaimed The Abandonment of the Jews. Despite opposition from mainstream American Jewish leaders, the group actively campaigned to save the doomed Jews of Europe through theatrical pageants, lobbying on Capitol Hill, newspaper advertisements and organizing a march in Washington by 400 Rabbis, which was the only rally for rescue held in the nation's capital during the Holocaust. Contact B. Taverna by email at bltaverna@yahoo.com To Go To Top

US REJECTS BARAK'S BOEING 767 REQUEST Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, August 21, 2008.

This was written by Yaakov Lappin and it appeared today in the Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219218601145&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull AP contributed to this report.

The US turned down a request by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to purchase the Boeing 767 aircraft, which can be used for mid-air refueling, amid fears that the sale would appear to support an Israeli strike on Iran, Channel 10 news reported on Thursday. The JASDF Boeing KC-767, a refueling aircraft. Some 1,000 kilometers separate Israel from Iran, a distance that would play a key role in any attack on Iranian nuclear sites. The IAF already has mid-air refueling capabilities and possesses 63 f-16I fighter jets with an estimated 2,100 kilometer range, which would enable them to strike targets deep within Iranian territory without the need to refuel. Israel also possesses dozens of F-15I long-range fighter jets, which are also capable of flying for thousands of kilometers without refueling.   A BARAK AIDE TOLD THE JERUSALEM POST that he was unfamiliar with the content of the Channel 10 report. Former Military Intelligence officer Col. (res.) Ephriam Kam of the Institute for National Securities Studies at Tel Aviv University said he was unsure whether the report was accurate. "We can already refuel in mid-air," Kam said, adding that the report raised more questions than answers. According to Channel 10, the request was made during Barak's visit to the US last month. On Tuesday, the IDF announced plans to soon bring into service Boeing 707 aircraft, which also can refuel fighter jets in mid-air. Boeing 707s "can refuel other airplanes while in the air, thus enabling them to continue flying," the IDF said. It added that "the last project involving a refueling system took place six years ago." The latest initiative, known as Project Green Salad, will cost the military NIS 80 million, and has been placed under the auspices of Israel Aerospace Industries. "We are talking about a very big project that will give the IAF another refueling system," said Maj. Shlomi Shefer, head of the air force's Aerial Refueling Department. "The fact that the IAF will have another [model] of these aircraft means that more planes will be able to achieve their mission. We expect this aircraft to have the ability to refuel other planes in a short amount of time." The flurry of reports over the air force's long-range capabilities came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad released yet another declaration in which he predicted Israel's demise. In a message posted on his presidential Web site, he described Israel as a "germ of corruption" that would be "removed soon." The statement comes shortly after Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai said the Iranian people were "friends of all people in the world — even Israelis." Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com To Go To Top

IF GOV'T DOESN'T ACT, PEOPLE WILL; WEST DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH ARABS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 21, 2008.

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T ACT, SO PEOPLE DO Patriotic, psychologically normal Israelis resent Jew-hating Arabs and Jews who teach at Ben-Gurion U. For the second time, a teacher ordered out of the classroom an Israeli reservist student in uniform. [The soldier probably had just returned from military duty.] This teacher nominally Jewish; the other, Arab. A few weeks later, three men, including a masked reservist in uniform, entered the classroom. They poured a bucket of paint over the teacher (Prof. Steven Plaut, 8/5). IRAQ WAR, PRACTICALLY WON, IN PERSPECTIVE "Saddam is dead. Had he remained in power, we would likely still believe he had WMD. He would have been sitting on an oil bonanza priced at $140 a barrel. He would almost certainly have broken free from an already crumbling sanctions regime. The U.S. would be faced with not one, but two, major adversaries in the Persian Gulf. Iraqis would be living under a regime that, in an average year, was at least as murderous as the sectarian violence that followed its collapse. And the U.S. would have seemed powerless to shape events. Instead, we now have a government that does not threaten its neighbors, does not sponsor terrorism, and is unlikely to again seek WMD. We have a democratic government, a first for the Arab world, and one that is increasingly capable of defending its people and asserting its interests. We have a defeat for al Qaeda. Critics carp that had there been no invasion, there never would have been al Qaeda in Iraq. Maybe. As it is, thousands of jihadists are dead, al Qaeda has been defeated on its self-declared "central battlefield," and the movement is largely discredited on the Arab street and even within Islamist circles. We also have — if still only prospectively — an Arab bulwark against Iran's encroachments in the region. But that depends on whether we simply withdraw from Iraq, or join it in a lasting security partnership. None of these are achievements to sneer at, all the more so because they were won through so much sacrifice." (Prof. Steven Plaut, 8/5 from Bret Stephens.) EGYPT, ISRAEL, & THE GAZA BORDER Egypt and Israel are considering fixing the fence between Gaza and Egypt, using high-tech devices to thwart smuggling. Dr. Aaron Lerner wonders why they don't use a simpler, cheaper, and more effective means. That would involve clearing a swathe in the desert by removing or moving away the houses that hide smuggler's tunnel exits. Tunnels then would have to be much longer and more expensive and require bigger, easily spotted equipment (IMRA, 8/5). I think the reasons are that Egypt doesn't want to stop smuggling and Israel is afraid of criticism for suggesting moving Arabs. I'd fear terrorism more than criticism. UNIFIL TO GET ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILLED First, UNIFIL stated a high-sounding principle. It would save the lives of foreign soldiers stranded in Lebanon. If an Israeli pilot were shot down over Lebanon, UNIFIL would try to reach him before Hizbullah or fight Hizbullah to free him. Then, UNIFIL states another principle, that it would turn the Israeli over to the Lebanese Army (IMRA, 8/5). That principle is fraudulent. UNIFIL is pretending, long after that pretense has been exposed, that the Lebanese Army is an independent force. The Lebanese Army is subordinate to Hizbullah. It just said it approves of Hizbullah rearming, though that violates the Security Council Resolution. It would turn the Israeli prisoner over to Hizbullah, to be murdered and then the corpse held for ransom. The solution would be for UNIFIL to turn the Israeli over to Israel. As for fighting Hizbullah, UNIFIL never has done that. It has let Hizbullah build up into a force stronger than UNIFIL. The UNO military rarely protects people or accomplishes its mission. It is an excuse for inaction. FRANCE CONTRADICTED BY SYRIA Pres. Sarkozy announced that Syria had agreed to opening embassies with Lebanon. He implied that Syria now is willing to recognize the independence of Lebanon. Syria immediately denied that its policy has changed and stated obstacles to opening embassies (IMRA, 8/5). The West still doesn't know how to deal with the Muslim Arabs. The Western diplomat strikes an agreement with an Arab one. Sounds as if something were accomplished. Immediately afterwards, the Arab diplomat or his boss reinterprets what was a clear agreement, adds new conditions, or denies the agreement, or another Arab leader declares that the diplomats don't speak for his faction. Even if the Arabs don't demur, they may renege. This isn't only a problem for the West. Arabs run into the same problem with each other. I'm not sure of the solution. I would advise being very careful about announcing an agreement. First get it written. Make it clear, and not with legal jargon. State that there are no other conditions, and that each party signs with authority for his country. Make sure that one does not depend upon the other's goodwill. The Westerner should not make concessions first, but should make his concessions dependent upon fulfillment by the Arab side. This is like the way Israeli wholesalers should have dealt with P.A. customers, when Israeli troops pulled out of part of the P.A.. The Arabs bought and didn't pay. Next time, C.O.D.! If the Arabs complain this treats them as dishonest, cite their record. 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

THE BEAR IS BACK ..A TEST OF WESTERN RESOLVE Posted by Gary Bauer, August 21, 2008.

Russia's war against the democratic state of Georgia is a test of Western resolve. And while our allies in "Old Europe" — kept safe for generations thanks in part to America's commitment to freedom — have expressed muted criticism of Russia's actions, our allies in "New Europe" — former Eastern Bloc states and those once dominated by the Soviet Union — have been eager to step up to the plate. Today, Secretary of State Rice signed a treaty with Poland to expand America's missile defense system at Polish bases. Ukrainian leaders have expressed their desire to negotiate a similar deal. That's very revealing. Nations on Russia's border are in the greatest danger and have the most to lose. They also know Russia best and are the ones now most eager for American military assistance and leadership. Unfortunately, before the ink was dry on the treaty, congressional liberals, who have fought the missile defense system ever since Ronald Reagan first launched the program, were already trying to sabotage the deal, suggesting they would fight the deployment of the U.S. missile system in Poland. Representative Ellen Tauscher of California said, "Go ahead and move on with research and development. But as far as putting holes in the ground in Poland, we are saying no." Now is not the time to show weakness or indecision. Our enemies and our allies are watching us. Meanwhile, Moscow's response indicates that the bear is back and that the fears of Poland and Ukraine are well founded. The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the deal and said that Russia's response would go beyond the diplomatic. Secretary of State Rice shot back, saying, "When you threaten Poland, you perhaps forget that it is not 1988. It's 2008 and the United States has a ... firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland's territory as if it was the territory of the United States. So it's probably not wise to throw these threats around. The Russians are losing their credibility." The fact is, Russia should have nothing to fear from this system. It is defensive in nature, and the real "target" is not Russia but Iran, which has a very active ballistic missile program and a nuclear program that is in violation of U.N. resolutions. Sadly, however, Russia has been assisting Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, with its nuclear program and has resisted U.N. efforts to bring Iran into compliance with international obligations. The West's response to Russia's increasing belligerence had better take a more serious and forceful tone and quickly. So far, Putin might be forgiven for thinking that he can invade neighboring democracies with impunity. Russia has violated the terms of the Georgian cease-fire, is taking prisoners and nothing has happened. Last week, columnist Charles Krauthammer listed a few "cards" the West should play, such as expelling Russia from the G-8 organization of leading industrial nations, barring Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization and organizing a boycott of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. But Russia also has some "cards" to play — oil and natural gas. Russia is one of Europe's largest energy suppliers, which partly explains the hesitancy of our European allies to defend Georgia more vigorously. Yet, if anything, Russia's belligerence should be seen as a wake-up call for America to do everything we can to protect our economic and national security by aggressively developing our own energy resources. Gary Bauer is the president of American Values. Contact him at gary.bauer@mail.amvalues.org. And visit the website: http://www.ouramericanvalues.org To Go To Top

SURVIVING AND GROWING Posted by Avodah, August 21, 2008.

This was written by Rabbi Aron Moss. Rabbi Aron Moss works to bring searching souls back to Judaism in Sydney, Australia. It was published August 19, 2008 in Arutz-7 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/8184

The life that was is gone. Question My life has fallen apart. My husband left me, I have been kicked out of my home and my career is over. And now I am losing my faith, too. I used to believe so strongly, but now my thinking has changed. Was I deluded to think that G-d would help me? Answer I feel for you in what must be a huge test of your character. Your whole world has been shattered to pieces. Just to get up in the morning and face the day must take mammoth strength. There is a name for your situation. The Kabbalists call it Ayin Baemtza — "transitional nothingness." Between any two states of being lies an intermediary state of non-being. Like a seed that must become a tree, it first decomposes, nullifies itself and rots into oblivion. Just as it reaches the verge of complete nonexistence, the seed starts to sprout and reinvents itself into a new being. Only by losing its being as a seed and becoming nothing, can it reach a new being, a greater being, as a tree. It has to be this way. To truly reinvent oneself, there must be a true and complete break from the past, a real nothingness, to make room for the new self to emerge. You are presently going through an Ayin Baemtza stage in your life. The life that was is gone, the life that will be is yet to blossom, and you are left in a big black hole of confusion, pain and darkness. That is a very hard place to be. Everyone knows that transitional nothingness is just a temporary state, a step between two stages in life. Everyone knows that except the one who is going through it themselves. For you, the nothingness is real. It is hard — maybe impossible — for you to see any bright future ahead. So, what can you do to survive the transitional nothingness? What will keep you going until you transform into the you of tomorrow? In your state of nothingness you need to hold on to something higher than yourself. Now, you need faith, not philosophy. Say to yourself: "My life is in disarray, I don't know what's flying, I don't know what will be, but I am in G-d's hands. This is a process that for whatever reason I must go through. And with G-d's help, I will get through it." When in an Ayin state, it is not the time to be changing belief systems or making important life choices. The ground you are standing on is too unstable for you to be able to think clearly. It would be sad — no, it would be tragic — if in your frustration you made choices that you will later regret, but not be able to reverse. My friend, I offer no solutions to your predicament. But I offer you one piece of advice. Just hold on to G-d, the one thing that even in your nothingness you haven't lost. You will get through this black hole and your life will be reborn. The seed is planted. Have faith and your new tomorrow will blossom soon. Contact Avodah by email at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

BLAME EVERYONE BUT RUSSIA! Posted by UCI, August 21, 2008.

This was written by Victor Davis Hanson and appeared on the TownHall website.

Everyone is distracted by the Olympics. The squabbling here on the campaign trail consumes the media. Two presidential candidates and a lame-duck president all are weighing in on foreign policy. No wonder Vladimir Putin thought it was a good time to invade Georgia. Apparently the Russian prime minister knew exactly what he was doing but assumed no one in the West did. And he was right. Our pundits and politicians are all over the map as Putin is variously portrayed as villain, victim, patriot, tyrant — and more still. The neoconservatives: We must make Russia pay a terrible price for subverting a democracy. Our policy of promoting liberal governments among the former Soviet republics, with integration into Europe and relations with NATO, was sound, and it cannot be allowed to be aborted by Putin. Bottom line: Form a ring of democracies around Russia until it sees the light and likewise evolves into a constitutional state. The paleoconservatives: Putin is only protecting his rightful national interests in his own backyard, which don't really conflict with ours. You have to admire the old brute for taking care of business. Neocons — and no doubt Israelis in the background — provoked that Georgian loudmouthed dandy Saakashvili to stick his head in a noose — so he deserved the hanging he got. Bottom line: We should cut a deal with our natural ally Putin to keep out of each other's proper sphere of influence — and let each deal as it wishes with these miserable little third-party troublemakers. The realists: Don't poke sticks at the Bear. We should define what our strategic interests in the region are. Maybe we can protect Eastern Europe, the Baltic republics and the Ukraine — but only if we accept that Georgia just isn't part of the equation. We need to back out of the saloon with drawn pistols, and save as much face as we can. This is a reminder that we forgot the role of honor and fear in international relations when we encouraged weak former Soviet republics merrily to join the West and gratuitously humiliate Russia. Bottom line: Don't get caught again issuing promises that we can't keep! The left wing: Putin's unilateral pre-emption was just like our own in Iraq. His recognition of South Ossetia's independence was no different from our own in breakaway Kosovo. So America is just as bad. Russia's attack is the moral equivalent of America arbitrarily removing the tyrant Saddam. It's all about Big Oil and pipelines anyway — along with Bush, Cheney, Halliburton et al. Bottom line: Another long overdue comeuppance for the American Empire. The liberal mainstream: Both sides are at fault. We understand Georgia's plight, but also sympathize with Russia's dilemma. We should consult the United Nations, involve the European Union and encourage European diplomacy. We can learn from the multilateral NATO teamwork in Afghanistan. Bottom line: Make sure that international institutions don't confuse an empathetic America with cowboy George Bush. The Europeans: Prioritize! 1) Don't jeopardize gas supplies from, and trade with, Russia; 2) Avoid any confrontation in any form; 3) Make sure that Bush does not do something stupid to draw us too far in, but at least does something to avoid leaving us too far out. Bottom line: Luckily, Tbilisi is still a long way from Berlin and Paris! The rest of America: My lord, Putin is acting just like Brezhnev! But they told us that he just wanted to democratize and reform Russia, integrate with NATO and the EU, and help fight radical Islam! So why did he get angry with Georgia when it just wanted to do the same things he was supposed to be doing? That backstabber wasn't honest with us! Bottom line: Now what? The more Russia promises to leave Georgia, the more it seems to stay put. One reason may be that Putin keeps counting on us either to be confused, contradictory or angrier at ourselves than at Russia over his latest aggression. And given our inability to speak with one voice, he seems to be absolutely right. UCI — 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

A LESSON FROM KOSOVARS AND PALESTINIANS FOR ATLASIANS... Posted by Gerard A. Honigman, August 21, 2008.

Now tell me...What would you do in the age of nationalism — which came relatively late to the Middle East — if your national group already had almost two dozen states on over six million square miles of territory (conquered mostly from other national groups), wanted to create at least one more, but another people's sole, tiny, resurrected nation state stood in the way? Well, please take a look — like many of us have over the decades — at the answer through the oft-quoted words of a spokesman for that above national group itself, PLO executive committee member Zuheir Mohsen, on March 31, 1977, in the Dutch newspaper Trouw. The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese... Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism... Before having to deal with the politics and sensitivities of at least some in the West, Arabs simply gave no thought to Mohsen's tactics. As I deliberately like to reemphasize time and again (for those who like to place Israel under the high power lens of moral scrutiny while playing deaf, dumb, and blind to what surrounds it), millions of native peoples were simply conquered and forcibly Arabized in the name of the Arab Nation and the spread of its Dar ul-Islam — imperialism and colonialism, pure and simple — and millions of native Egyptian Copts, black Africans, Kurds, Imazighen (Berbers), Jews, and others are still suffering the consequences of this murderous subjugation. In a post-Holocaust age, however, in the struggle to win over hearts and minds from abroad, how could Arabs demand twenty-two states while denying Jews their one? The answer — as Mohsen so correctly stated above: Reinvent yourselves. From now on, you're "Palestinians." And then depend on the ignorance of most of the rest of the world to back your claim, "If Jews can have a state, why not Palestinians?" And, don't you know, "Palestinians" are the new formerly stateless Jews. Forget the facts... Like most Arabs never saw the land of the Jews — Judaea — until their own murderous imperial conquests brought them out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century C.E. when they spread out in all directions. Or that the very name "Palestine" was dubbed upon Judaea by the Roman Emperor Hadrian after the Jews' costly second revolt for freedom. To pour salt onto their wound, he renamed the Jews' land after their historic enemies, the Philistines — a non-Semitic sea people (i.e. not Arab) from the area around Crete. Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and other contemporary Roman historians wrote all about Judaea and Judaeans — not "Palestine" or "Palestinians." Listen to one of my favorite telling quotes about the Jews' first revolt in Vol. II, Book V, The Works of Tacitus: Vespasian... succeeded to the command.... it inflamed his resentment that the Jews were the only nation that had not yet submitted...Titus was appointed by his father to complete the subjugation of Judaea... he commanded three legions in Judaea itself... To these he added the twelfth from Syria and the third and twenty-second from Alexandria... amongst his allies were a band of Arabs, formidable in themselves and harboring towards the Jews the bitter animosity usually subsisting between neighboring nations. Or that, not having endured the forced exile and diaspora of many (but not all — many still remained in the hill country and elsewhere clear up to the Arab conquest) of the Jews, still...so many Arabs were newcomers themselves to the Mandate of Palestine after World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Turkish Empire which had controlled the land for over four centuries, that when the United Nations Relief Works Agency — UNRWA — was set up to assist Arab refugees (after a half dozen Arab states invaded a nascent Israel in 1948 to nip it in the bud and their attempt backfired), the very word "refugee" had to be redefined from its prior meaning of persons normally and traditionally resident to those who lived in the Mandate for a minimum of only two years prior to 1948 to assist these people. Hamas's own patron saint, for whom its terror brigade and rockets are named for, Sheikh Izzadin-al-Qassam, was born in Latakia, Syria. Arafat was from Egypt. And both "native Palestinians" had plenty of company, pouring into the Mandate because of the economic development going on due to the Jews. And so forth. Now, using this same tactic, Serbs have been similarly shafted. Albania is an independent nation southwest of the former Yugoslavia. The Serbs fought their first major battle for Kosovo against the spread of the Dar ul-Islam (this time led by Turkish imperialism) in 1389 — over six centuries ago. Albania had become at least nominally converted to Islam via the Ottoman conquest. Over the centuries, ethnic Albanians encroached upon traditionally Serbian lands. Enter the late 20th century... Everyone knew that with the death of Tito, Iraq's twin, artificially glued together state of Yugoslavia would fall apart. Now, if you're an Albanian in Serbia and you already have an ethnic Albanian state in existence (so you can't claim "statelessness"), how do you stake your claim for additional territory — at another people's (Serbs') expense? Hitler played a somewhat similar game with the large population of ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. World War II soon followed, as his sights were set far beyond the Czechs' and Slovaks' domain. According to this reasoning, America also better watch its own southwest very carefully — especially since it really was once part of Mexico anyway. And what's Russia up to these days, since we're on this subject? Think non-Russian peoples' lands, with Russian ethnic minorities, and how this game could be played out. The answer, however, regarding Albanians in Serbia is...You follow Zuheir Mohsen's advice. But instead of renaming yourselves "Palestinians," you, of course, call yourselves Kosovars instead. And then get assorted Jihadis from the rest of the Arab/Muslim World to assist you — along with America and NATO. There is no doubt that too much of the conflict regarding the breakup of Yugoslavia was deliberately biased against the Serbs. Atrocities occurred (as they had for centuries) — but on both sides, with Serbs often the victims...victims the American State Department ignored as it sought Muslims it could point to as championing while America was fighting others in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. American bombers led the final dismemberment. There's a lesson here...and Jews, Kurds, Imazighen, and others need to pay close attention. Instead of demanding just the rebirth of their one state, Jews need to demand others as well. Jews have a long history in Morocco, as just one example — long before Arabs conquered both Jews and Imazighen alike there. Over 600,000 Moroccan Jews now live in Israel — part of the other side of the Middle East refugee problem few ever talk about...more Moroccan Jews than Arabs who got their own nation states in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, etc. when they were created. Additionally, many more Moroccan Jews live in America, France, and elsewhere today, including Morocco. Why multiple states for Arabs and not Jews? As early as Roman times, Jews fleeing the Roman wars in Judaea began to travel inland in North Africa and forged both economic and cultural ties with the Imazighen — especially in the Atlas Mountains. Some of the latter folks even adopted the faith of their Jewish neighbors. When Arab Muslims invaded, Jews and Imazighen fought them together. Across the Atlas Mountains, Queen Dahlia al Kahina (whom the famed Muslim scholar, Ibn Khaldun, called "the Jewess" ) led both Jews and Imazighen in battle against invading Arabs, who would later massacre and subjugate both peoples. Why not states for the Atlasians — at least one for Jews and one for the Imazighen — in North Africa? Why "Palestinians" and "Kosovars," but not "Atlasians?" While we're at it, some thirty-five million stateless Kurds need to jump aboard as well. Kurds predate Arabs in "Arab" Syria as well as in "Arab" Iraq... and in "Turkish" Turkey. But we all know what happened/happens when Kurds try to assert their rights there. Their best hope right now is in the place where they were indeed promised independence after World War I — in northern Mesopotamia, part of today's renamed Iraq. While I don't really expect that much of the above will happen, it's worth asking those academics, State Department folks, left-wing knownothings, and other hypocritical practitioners of the double standard... Why not? If Kurds played the Arab game regarding trading "Arab" for "Palestinian," how many Kurdish states might they be entitled to? The reality, of course, is that all of these peoples are still struggling to maintain or obtain basic political and human rights in what Arabs call "purely Arab patrimony." That others buy into their subjugating mindset is the real travesty. 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. Contact him at honigman6@msn.com or go to his website: http://geraldahonigman.com/blog.php To Go To Top

ISRAELI BULL INVADES LEBANON, SCARES SPANIARDS Posted by Daisy Stern, August 21, 2008.

(IsraelNN.com) A bull crossed the border from Israel into Lebanon Wednesday and began running wildly among Spanish UNIFIL soldiers. The bull rammed several UNIFIL vehicles and attacked the soldiers, until one of them shot him dead. The Spanish soldiers buried the bull near the border and set about fixing the fence where he had broken through. Contact Daisy Stern by email at daisystern1@gmail.com To Go To Top

THE BOLSHEVIKS OF GAZA Posted by Daisy Stern, August 21, 2008.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS IMPORTANT STUDY ON TERRORISM! While some teach that islamic terror is merely a continuation of Nazi totalitarian policies (which were themselves developed from Muhammad's teachings), Prof Geifman shows that Hamas, Hizbollah, Fatah, and the myriad other terrorist groups developed from — and carefully emulate — their Russian Bolshevik predecessors. UNDERSTAND THE STRENGTHS OF YOUR ENEMY. HE UNDERSTANDS YOUR WEAKNESSES! This below was written by Sam Ser and it appeared August 19, 2008 in the Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710396756&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Anna Geifman's cappuccino is getting cold as she talks about Hamas and its motives. The energetic professor makes one point that leads to another, and then to four more. Anne Geifman (Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski) "I can talk about terrorism from today until doomsday," Geifman says with a laugh, catching her breath and then adding, more seriously, "or until they stop." In Jerusalem, discussions of Palestinian terrorism do seem as if they'll go on until doomsday, and the academics doing the talking are a dime a dozen. What makes Geifman different is that her expertise lies in another field, even in another era: revolutionary Russia. It's a subject she teaches her students at Boston University and one that, she says, is strikingly similar to modern times. "Everything you see today — every single aspect of terrorism — you can see it in the Russia of a century ago," she says. Before our lives were changed by the likes of Hamas and Hizbullah, Geifman notes, Russian society was devastated by rampant violence, from the turmoil leading up to the peasant revolt of 1905, through the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet Union. Political violence in Russia — what we call terrorism today — developed primarily in Moscow and was perpetrated by "combat organizations" whose first targets were government officials. "This was old-time, traditional terrorism — targeting people very carefully, assassinating people who were senior members of the government, people who affected policy," Geifman says. "But then, they basically killed whoever they could attack, and very often there was no connection. Anyone who wore a uniform became a target — being a mailman was a very dangerous occupation, for example." Think attacks on police recruitment centers in Iraq are unique? Think again, says Geifman, noting that a quarter of the police in Riga were gunned down. Think al-Qaida's informal, decentralized network of cells and spinoffs is an innovation? Not so, she continues, saying that Moscow's combat organizations spawned acolyte groups in outlying areas that often operated independently from the headquarters that, sometimes, were totally unaware of their existence. As the bloodshed increased, Geifman says, "the violence descended into indiscriminate killing. They were no longer attacking people in uniform, but anyone who 'looked bourgeois.' If you had glasses, or a watch, or an umbrella, then obviously you were too rich to be a proletarian. That is where the descent into sheer terror begins." At some points in the early part of the 20th century, Geifman says, as many as 18 terrorist acts were carried out in Russia every day. That rivals the murderous activity here in 2002, for example, or more recently in Iraq. Likewise, the terrorism was similar. "They would blow up train stations, they would blow up cafés," Geifman says. "One such bombing was justified with the remark, 'We just wanted to see how the bourgeois squirm in death.'" Not only were the targets of the attacks indiscriminate, but so were the attackers. Every other person, it seemed, was declaring himself a "revolutionary terrorist" and joining one of myriad groups, with fanciful names like "The League of the Red Fuse," in a hodgepodge of violent orders that blurred together. Like the mind-numbing proliferation of Palestinian terrorist groups (that was so brilliantly lampooned by Monty Python) and the endless permutations of jihadi militias, Russian revolutionary terrorists' claims of ideological affiliation and aims became so convoluted that they often even confused themselves. Terrorists testifying at their trials, Geifman notes, were often unable to explain what they believed — or, sometimes, to even accurately recall the full name of their organization. "Some were honest enough to say, 'Who the hell cares about ideology? The main thing is to kill.'"   SUCH SIMILARITIES between Russian terrorists and those on Israel's doorstep are the subject of much of Geifman's work these days. Since making aliya earlier this year — she plans to divide her time between teaching in Boston and writing in Jerusalem — Geifman has spent extended weekends in Sderot, meeting the people of the bombarded city and trying to raise awareness of their plight. Knowledge of Russian history, she believes, will provide valuable insight on the situation in Gaza City. "Israelis know all about Hamas," she says, "but they don't know anything about the Russian precedent. People have no clue that the origins of the war on terrorism are in Russia." Geifman took a circuitous route to that knowledge herself. After moving from the Soviet Union to Boston with her family in 1976, the teenager "felt so un-American" that she took to studying Russian history as something of a refuge. It led to her eventually writing a biography of Viktor Chernov, leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party for which terror was a chief strategy, as well as Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia and other works. Since a sabbatical visit to Israel in 2000, Geifman has focused on modern parallels to political violence in revolutionary Russia, especially in the Middle East. She has also become more Zionistic and more religiously observant. Mostly, though, Geifman tries to sound the alarm about the dangers of thinking that Hamas is moderated by its control of the Gaza Strip. "Whenever I hear someone suggest that Hamas might become a more responsible movement now that it is in charge, I think, 'Why don't you read a little about the Bolsheviks and see if you still believe that?'" she says. It bothers her to hear speculation about Hamas being more open to negotiating with Israel and softening its radical positions, when history suggests otherwise. "You want to know what happens when terrorists come to power? As soon as terrorists come to power, they begin building on what they did to get there. Look at the Bolsheviks, who were terrorists before they came to power in 1917. They used this terror-based revolution to build a terror-based state." It's no surprise, for example, that Hamas is so heavily invested in its "security forces," considering that the Bolsheviks established the forerunner to the KGB less than a month after taking over. Terror states, Geifman says, are based on a legacy, an ideology and a practice — specifically, the legacy, ideology and practice of terrorism. So when anyone suggests that seeing a terrorist group like Hamas come to power in Gaza might actually be a positive development, Geifman says, "It scares me like you can't imagine." If her analogy of Hamas as the Bolsheviks of Gaza is accurate, then there is "no way that Hamas will turn away from terrorism. No way! They will remain an organization committed to terror," she says. "And the first victims of Hamas rule will not be the Israelis, but the Palestinians themselves — just as the the Bolsheviks' primary victims were not the Poles, nor the Czechs, nor the Americans, nor anyone else, but the Russians and the Ukrainians." Avoiding this comparison, Geifman believes, turning to psychology, is an effect of the terrorism with which Western society is bombarded. "I think we suffer — I think the whole world now suffers — from a collective Stockholm syndrome," she says. "Our problem is that we so want to believe in the goodness of people that we can't see how bad some people are. [There are people who] don't want to call these people terrorists. Well, you can call them pussycats, if you want. But they're not going to stop killing." Geifman draws on the Beslan school massacre for comparison with the Gaza terrorist groups' missile barrages on Sderot and the Western Negev, noting that "they often fire their rockets in the morning, as children are going to school, and in the afternoon, as they are on their way home from school." Children, she notes, are symbols of life, and as such serve as particularly attractive targets for groups whose culture is "death-based." At this, Geifman turns to thoughts from her growing religious observance, recalling the Torah's directive to "choose life." "As Jews, we have an obligation to choose life, and to defend it. Otherwise," she says, "death takes over." In spite of this bleak view, though, Geifman says she is "very optimistic" that Hamas will eventually fade away. Why? "Because," she says, "in history, not a single death cult survives." Furthermore, how they meet their end is instructive. "One of the basic characteristics of violence in culture is that it is like a living organism, in that it is mobile, and it must remain in motion in order to survive," Geifman explains. "So long as the violence is directed externally, it can maintain its momentum — but once it is prevented from that goal, if you wall it off, it can't stop. Like any organism, it must keep moving. So the violence turns on [its originators]. Consider the Nazis: When they could no longer kill others, they killed themselves." If history is a guide, she says, Hamas ought to pay attention. "[Terrorist] leaders think that they control death, but in reality they are merely agents of death," she says. "That is why every revolution ultimately swallows itself." Contact Daisy Stern by email at daisystern1@gmail.com To Go To Top

CANADIAN MP: MAHMOUD ABBAS PURVEYS ANTI-JEWISH INCITEMENT Posted by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, August 21, 2008.

(IsraelNN.com) Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler, a Liberal party representative, has stated that the Palestinian Authority, including its Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, is guilty of purveying hatred of Jews. He also lamented that the official PA incitement is being ignored by Western governments and media outlets. MP Cotler said that Hamas, with their charter's "genocidal objective, anti-Semitic ideology and terrorist instrumentality," is not alone in its incitement in the PA public sphere. "I'm talking about the Palestinian Authority," said the Mount-Royal MP at a press conference this week. He added that the "culture of incitement" harms not only Israel, the PA Arabs themselves. Cotler recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Israel, where he also met with PA officials and told them that "hate breeds hate. If you have a culture of incitement and hate, you're going to create a culture of hate that is pervasive in the Palestinian society itself." Cotler cited several examples of anti-Jewish incitement in the PA. Among the most egregious offenses, he noted, were those promoted by official PA government outlets and officials, as well as by Arab academics. "People don't realize that Abbas signed a law, on the very day there was a suicide terrorist attack in December 2005 against Israel, providing monthly stipends for the families of suicide bombers. In January 2007, Abbas addressed a large crowd that was estimated as being over 100,000, in which he said 'the sons of Israel are mentioned in the Koran as those who are corrupting humanity on Earth.'" According to the Canadian MP, "Abbas has never recognized Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state." The official PA media, meanwhile promotes anti-Israeli libels and "breeds hatred and contempt for Jews." The PA leader's anti-Israel statements and the hatred promoted by his official outlets, Cotler charged, has been judiciously ignored by the West and those involved in promoting Middle East peace. Yet, that incitement, Cotler concluded, is "the greatest threat to a just and lasting peace." MP Cotler also noted in passing that other parts of the Arab world have bred a similar hatred. The recent ransom agreement between Israel and the Hizbullah, in which the Lebanese terror organization released the bodies of two IDF soldiers it had kidnapped in 2006 in exchange for several terrorists held in Israeli jails, was greeted in Lebanon joyously. In Cotler's view, "Knowing that Israel was in mourning was, tragically, a national day of celebration in Lebanon." MP Cotler, a former Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General, is currently official Opposition Critic for Human Rights, a member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Human Rights, and a member of the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security. He is also a well-known advocate for the rights of Jews expelled from Arab and Muslim countries in the years following Israel's establishment. Earlier this month, Cotler said that he was working on a draft legal indictment of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which he'd like to present to the United Nations on September 22 of this year. He would like to see Canada, the United States, the U.K., Australia, France and Israel, among others, work together to bring Ahmadinejad to an international court for Iran's domestic human rights abuses, support of international terrorism, and incitement to genocide against Israel. Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is a writer for Arutz-7. This article is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127280 To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: SCARY Posted by Arlene Kushner, August 20, 2008.

I cannot think of a better word to describe the current international situation, which seems only to be worsening over time. We've got Russia moving in an expansionist, cold-war direction again, a nuclear Pakistan headed the wrong way, and Iran continuing on its belligerent path of nuclear development, missile testing and aggressive posturing. What is worrisome is that the response of the world is all too weak in countering these multiple threats. Just at a time when there should be firm resolution to be strong, there is appeasement and backtracking and ideological confusion. Not to mention short-sighted, self-serving national policies that bring long-term risks to the international community, and more than a bit of hypocrisy, with leaders declaring one thing and doing another. I have in mind, for example, German declarations of special commitment to Israel, coupled with the German readiness to do business with Iran. And the initiation by Jordan of meetings with the terrorist Hamas — appeasement if I ever saw it, with Jordan undoubtedly afraid it may have Hamas at its border. Not to mention the Bush administration's reversal of its previous War on Terror policy, and a readiness to sit with Iran. ~~~~~~~~~~ If there is a note that is encouraging, it is the lead now taken by McCain over Obama in a major poll — encouraging because it is Obama who is the more ideologically confused and eager to appease. Once a month, Reuters/Zogby does a poll of likely presidential voters. In July Obama was ahead by 7 points. Now McCain is shown leading 46% to 41%. May the trend strengthen. ~~~~~~~~~~ The current world state of affairs, of course, impinges upon Israel in a number of ways. Thus you might want to read a serious and somber assessment of the situation with Russia, "The Russian-Georgian War: Implications for the Middle East," by Ariel Cohen at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Among the significant points Cohen makes: "U.S. intelligence-gathering and analysis on the Russian threat to Georgia failed. So did U.S. military assistance to Georgia, worth around $2 billion over the last 15 years. This is something to remember when looking at recent American intelligence assessments of the Iranian nuclear threat or the unsuccessful training of Palestinian Authority security forces against Hamas." http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID= 1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=2402&TTL= The_Russian-Georgian_War:_Implications_for_the_Middle_East ~~~~~~~~~~ In her piece, "Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man," Caroline Glick also draws some very pertinent lessons for Israel from the current international situation: "In recent years, the understanding that the only guarantor of Israel's survival is Israel's ability to defeat all of its enemies decisively has been forgotten altogether by most of the country's leaders and members of its intellectual classes. "Since 1979 and with increasing intensity since 1993, Israeli leaders bent on appeasing everyone from the Egyptians to the Palestinians to the Syrians to the Lebanese have called for Israel's inclusion in NATO, or the deployment of Western forces to its borders or lobbied Washington for a formal strategic alliance. They have claimed that such forces and such treaties will unburden the country of the need to protect itself in the event that our neighbors attack us after we give them the territories necessary to wage war against us... "If nothing else comes of it, the West's response to the rape of Georgia should end that delusion. Georgia did almost everything right. And for its actions Georgia was celebrated in the West with platitudes of enduring friendship and empty promises of alliances that were discarded the moment Russia invaded. "Georgia only made one mistake, and for that mistake it will pay an enormous price. As it steadily built alliances, it forgot to build an army. Israel has an army. It has just forgotten why its survival depends on our willingness to use it. If we are unwilling to use our military to defeat our enemies, we will lose everything..." http://www.jpost.com:80/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710365631&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull I would be hard put to think of a more important lesson for Israel's leaders to learn now. If only... ~~~~~~~~~~ Precisely how short sighted our appeasement policies are is brought home by an article yesterday by Khaled Abu Toameh in the Post. Abu Toameh writes: "It's hard these days to find one Palestinian who regards Israel's decision to release some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a 'goodwill gesture.' It's also hard to see how the release of the prisoners would 'boost' the popularity of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas among his people. "The argument that the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails strengthens the 'moderates' has never proven to be correct... "Ironically, in some cases the released prisoners turned out to be a big headache for the 'moderate' Palestinian leadership. "Shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel freed hundreds of Fatah security prisoners... "But many of the released prisoners soon became involved in various criminal activities ranging from armed robberies, extortion, theft and arms trafficking... "Others later joined Hamas and other radical groups... "They also became a financial burden on the shoulders of the PA, which had to put the local 'heroes' on its payroll... "...it's highly unlikely that Abbas would benefit from the release of the [current 199] prisoners because many Palestinians don't give him credit for the move. Rather, these Palestinians see the decision as an attempt on the part of Israel to improve its image on the international arena and extract political concessions from Abbas and his colleagues in Ramallah." ~~~~~~~~~~ Not only have we agreed to release the 199 in our prisons, but our doing so has permitted four other murderers of Israelis to now also go free. This is fairly incredible: Just a little over a year ago, we released to Jordan four Jordanian prisoners who had been convicted of killing two Israeli soldiers in 1990, before Israel had a peace treaty with Jordan. We let them go ostensibly so that they might serve their life sentences in a Jordanian prison, closer to their families. However, according to a 2007 release by the Jordanian News Agency, Petra — which Aaron Lerner has now put up on IMRA — the agreement between Jordan and Israel said the prisoners could be released after "...18 months of their prison term in Jordan or if the Israeli authorities release other prisoners, who are convicted of similar [crimes]." The murderers got out today, and Jordanian Islamist trade unions planned a festival to celebrate. ~~~~~~~~~~ Olmert, on the other hand, made a most interesting comment with regard to how prepared we will be to take on the Lebanese if hostilities again break out again (which everyone assumes they eventually will). He explained: "In the Second Lebanon War, we had much greater means and capabilities, which we avoided using since we fought against a terror organization and not a country. In this context, if Lebanon turns into a Hezbollah state, we won't restrain our response." Well, it's not really "IF Lebanon turns into a Hezbollah state," because for all practical purposes it already has. Earlier this month, Lebanon's parliament approved a national unity government — with Hezbollah having veto power — and declared a policy of supporting "resistance." Olmert says that any future war would be fought in as quick and efficient a manner as possible to maximize the military advantages and to ensure a minimum of losses. All our wars should be fought this way, with victory and safety for our own boys the priorities. That Olmert says this is good. Better still will be that when the time comes, either in the north or in Gaza, that we will behave this way, with military strength, and the political factions not holding us back out of fear or indecision. ~~~~~~~~~~ The "ceasefire" with Hamas in Gaza, which is euphemistically referred to as "fragile," truly doesn't exist. For we keep getting hit with rockets and mortars — now on close to a daily basis. In response to this, Defense Minister Barak order crossings into Gaza closed for two days, at which point he will re-evaluate. Sorry, this is not exactly being tough. In fact, it's pathetic. ~~~~~~~~~~ According to a MEMRI dispatch, Iran is threatening, if attacked, to close the Straits of Hormuz, through which millions of gallons of oil move daily. ~~~~~~~~~~ It has made news in an Italian paper, Corriere della Sera, that a former Italian president, Francesco Cossiga, admits that for a period of time some years ago the Italian government had a deal with Palestinian terrorists: they could roam freely in Italy and use Italy as a base of operations, as long as nothing was directed against the Italians. Real appeasement. And while here it is being admitted openly, this sort of thing has occurred in many countries. ~~~~~~~~~~ There is considerable concern, at long last, about water shortages here in Israel. What is not well enough known is how much water has illicitly been siphoned off by Arabs, especially in Judea, south of Jerusalem: 3 million cubic meters a year. Until now nothing was done about this — why?? — but finally the Civil Administration is beginning to act. The theft takes place when Arabs hook piping to the main lines used to transport water to Jewish communities. Some 50,000 kilometers of piping have been confiscated, and that's a small percentage of what exists. ~~~~~~~~~~ Some political game-playing: Kadima activists David Schwartz and Hussein Suleiman have filed a petition with Kadima to stop the primary for party leader that was to be held in September because of irregularities in how the decision to hold the vote was originally taken. Party leaders are saying this is a technicality only and a re-vote on the election will be taken so that matters can proceed. Suleiman, who is close to Olmert, admitted freely that a chief goal in doing this was to keep Olmert in office longer. ~~~~~~~~~~ In polls Livni is running well ahead of her closest contender, Shaul Mofaz, to head the Kadima party next. Both Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit have entered the race but are far behind. Olmert — who is passionate in his hatred for Livni at this point — has declared Sheetrit as his first choice to succeed him as party head. Suleiman was reportedly hoping to buy time for Sheetrit to garner strength in the party campaign. There are speculations that if Livni wins leadership of the party she might opt to go to elections. For the first time recently she has come out ahead of Netanyahu in some polls. ~~~~~~~~~~ Hurray for us! Israeli sailor Shahar Zubari won a bronze medal in men's windsurfing in the Olympics today. ~~~~~~~~~~ This too, announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is lovely: A 2,600 year old clay seal impression (bulla) bearing the name Gedaliah ben Pashur has recently been uncovered completely intact during archeological excavations in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, located just below the walls of the Old City near the Dung Gate. The name appears in the Book of Jeremiah (38:1). "It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible," said Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University who is leading the dig. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

WITHOUT GOD ISRAEL IS LOST Posted by Professor Paul Eidelberg, August 20, 2008.

For 60 years, Israeli prime ministers have banished God from the domain of statecraft, and with the compliance of the religious parties. May there not be a connection between the absence of God in Israeli statecraft and the absence of wisdom, courage, and Jewish national pride in Israel's government? How is it that Israel, despite its awesome military power, appeases and retreats before a gang of terrorists, be it Hamas or Fatah? Can it be because Israel's ruling elites are godless in contrast to Israel's enemies, who never fail to invoke the name of Allah? Juxtapose these Arabs and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (or his predecessors Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak). The asymmetry may be seen in the psychological consequences of their respective goals. Whereas the Arab goal — victory over the Jews — arouses Arab pride and spiritedness, Olmert's goal of "peace" arouses Jewish self-effacement and defeatism. Enough to recall Olmert pathetic whining: "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies .... We want them to be our friends, our partners, our good neighbors." How the Arabs must gloat over this drivel, which would make any man of taste want to vomit. Let us face the truth: Prime Minister Olmert is the leader of a clique of cravens. These poltroons cannot but make the surrender of Jewish land, hence treason, their one and only policy. Of course, they will adorn this treason in the cloak of "peace." This politics of peace is destroying the Jewish state. Clearly, 60 years of secular leadership in Israel — whatever its accomplishments — has not achieved the goal of political Zionism: security and the restoration of Jewish honor. Political Zionism is dead, buried by the Likud, a secular party that has committed treason by surrendering Jewish land to the consortium of terrorist thugs called the Palestinian Authority. And do not be misled by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The mere fact that he is willing to negotiate with these thugs on the basis of "reciprocity" means he is willing to surrender more Jewish land to these implacable enemies of the Jewish people. As for religious Zionism, it too must be pronounced dead, at least in the Knesset. Like the Likud, the National Religious Party is willing to submit the disposition of Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people, to a referendum — and this despite the fact that 20 percent of Israel's population consists of Arabs. But to propose a referendum on Judea and Samaria is to bow in advance to the idolatry of statism, that is, to the alleged right of the State of Israel to expel perhaps 200,000 Jews from their homes! Anyone who thinks modern Zionism can be restored, or rather, is worth restoring, is either an ignoramus or a charlatan. Zionism without God is a falsification of Zion. So is any Zionism that subordinates Judaism to the State. Indeed, if the state is sovereign, the very concept of the Jewish State is an oxymoron. The era of this intellectually shallow Zionism has come to an end. It has fulfilled its historical purpose: it facilitated the ingathering of the Jews and developed the country's infrastructure. All honor to the founders of this State, a state that has now become the enemy of the Jewish people. It's time to move on. We need to develop a Jewish philosophy of democracy that brings God back into the domain of statecraft. I discuss this task in my book Jewish Statesmanship: Lest Israel Fall, and in its abbreviated version, The Myth of Israeli Democracy: Toward a Truly Jewish Israel. Much more discussion is needed, by Jews identified with and proud of their heritage. But let me not be misunderstood. I do not advocate the rule of Israel's religious parties. The supine collaboration of these parties with their secular counterparts has brought Israel to its present nadir. The religious parties, understandably concerned about the needs and education of Jewish children, have downplayed Israel's geo-strategic interests. They have failed to inspire the public by vigorous and sustained opposition to Israeli prime ministers who have released Arab terrorists, retreated from Jewish land, and allowed Arabs to murder Jews with impunity. Indeed, why haven't the rabbis demanded swift and devastating vengeance on the murderers of our people? Why haven't they exposed the cowardice and treachery of Israeli prime ministers? Why haven't they told the truth: that to expect peace from Arabs animated by the Jew-hatred of a warrior religion when Jew-hatred thrives in peace-loving Europe is a commentary on the imbecility or decadence of the contemporary mind. Every rabbi who has not sacrificed his intellect to the "cult of peace" knows that Israel's government has betrayed the people. Every rabbi worthy of the name knows that the people of Israel, led by this government, have become increasingly demoralized and servile. Hence, every rabbi should be primed to sanctify God's Name by calling for a massive rejection of Israel's perfidious and pusillanimous government. Are there no rabbis with courage enough to come forward and warn the Jewish people about the Road Map to Israel's demise? Are there no heads of yeshivas with courage enough to come to Jerusalem with hundreds and perhaps thousands of students to sanctify God's Name by saying "Enough of this illegitimate as well as godless government!" Instead of calling on decrepit and superficial parties in or outside the Knesset to unite, they should urge the formation of a constituent assembly to create an authentic Jewish government, one that rallies all Jews to its banner, and does so in the Name of God. Without God Israel is lost. Professor Paul Eidelberg is President of the Foundation For Constitutional Democracy. He can be reached by mail at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 427, New York, NY 10016, Tel: 212-372-3752, and by email at Constitution@usa.net To Go To Top

THE NONSENSE ABOUT ISRAEL PRACTICING APARTHEID; HAARETZ HASTY TO CONDEMN ISRAEL; SAUDI RELIGIOUS SUMMIT Posted by Richard H. Shulman, August 20, 2008.

THE NONSENSE ABOUT ISRAEL PRACTICING APARTHEID Jimmy Carter's book accuses Israel's security barrier against terrorists of being a manifestation of apartheid. Would Mr. Carter contend that his State of Georgia practices apartheid, because it builds security bars against convicted criminals? No, he would insist, criminals must be kept from harming innocent people. Well? [Remember, P.A. society endorses terrorism and keeps preparing people to become terrorists.] THE SHADY WORLD OF DIPLOMACY & JOURNALISM Explanations in newspapers, such as, "The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to privacy concerns..." appear with frequency lately. The official breached someone's privacy; he's just evading being called to account. His governmental leak may have been premeditated. Journalists' readiness to deal in clandestine information affects national security as well as privacy. Their caution may be due to the legal profession's new proclivity to sue, knowing that just the threat to sue may coerce an expensive settlement. ELEMENTARY PUBLIC RELATIONS Half the Israeli officials deny that Israel has poor public relations. They indignantly reject suggestions that somebody else knows how to improve them. That is the arrogance of the ignorant. The other Israel officials admit that Israel has poor public relations but blames prejudice. That is an evasion (you know, what younger people call a "cop-out.") Yes, prejudice affects it. But many Israeli actions imply guilt. Israel's failure to respond promptly to accusations lets damage be done. The main problem is that Israel's psychotic ruling elite refuses to assert Jewish rights, somewhat sides with the terrorist enemy, and fail to make even the simplest Jewish case. Consider the latest Israeli offer to release prisoners as a favor to Abbas. I've considered before: the false assumptions that Abbas is not a terrorist; that releases strengthen him against Hamas and build goodwill with his people; the criminal negligence in failing to keep recidivists terrorists off the streets; Israel's striking failure to evaluate past gestures or ask why he wants terrorists released. Here I point out that these constants favors are one-way, implying that Israel is in the wrong and owes the Arabs much. This confirms Arab slander. Why don't Israelis demand "goodwill gestures" from Abbas? After all, his regime advocates terrorism and his P.A. has made unwarranted war on Israel. MORE ON THE ARRESTED HIKERS Remember the couple of hundred Jewish nationalist "hilltop hikers" set upon by club-wielding, rock-throwing Bedouin, while police watched until the Jews fired a warning shot, then disarmed the Jews and arrested those who had had arms? Three Arabs briefly were detained but released. It came to court. There was no evidence of a crime by Jews. A police officer admitted that the police put the Bedouin up to the provocation. It was an ambush, both by the Bedouin and by the police. Nevertheless, the judge fined those arrested and ordered them to stay out of the Territories for varying periods. No Israeli civil rights organization objected (IMRA, 8/3). What a trumped up case. Israel needs trial-by-jury! The Bedouin attackers and the police commanders should have been indicted. The Jew who fired the warning shot should have been honored. That would be justice. There isn't much justice in Israel for self-respecting Jews, these days. THE CASE OF THE CHEMICAL-STEALING PALESTINIAN ARAB First report: he stole chemicals from his lab at Hebrew U., for making bombs. After prison, he asked to renew studies at that lab. Hebrew U. agreed. New report: the university claims he was convicted of something else and no chemicals were stolen. They won't readmit him to campus but will review his theses — even convicted criminals have a right to complete their education (IMRA, 8/3). Convicted criminals have a right to complete their education, but Israel is not obliged to let P.A. Arabs complete it in Israel. Israel's would be wise to conserve its resources for its own citizens and to deny its resources for the enemy people, especially not train them in military science. HAARETZ TOO HASTY TO DENOUNCE ISRAEL Haaretz lead headline and story was that Israelis threw a stone at an Arab's car and injured his baby. How did the newspaper know Israelis did it? An Arab said he saw it. It was near an Arab area. Arabs stone Israelis almost every day, in Israel and in the Territories, sometimes killing someone. Those stories rarely appear in Haaretz, and never on page one. Haaretz's goal is to defame and weaken Israel. As for Arab witnesses, they are enemies who have proved untrustworthy (Prof. Steven Plaut, 8/3). TOKEN JEWS AT MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES University Middle East Studies Centers have abandoned scholarship for propaganda. That propaganda is anti-Israel. Students are indoctrinated in slander against Israel. They are taught counter to historical fact, and only the Arab side. To avoid being accused of antisemitism, the Centers hire token Jews or even Israelis. Some naïve; people imagine that having an Israeli balances the anti-Israelis. [One, alone, couldn't.] These Jews, however, are of the anti-Zionist "new historian" type, about as prejudiced against Israel as the gentile members of the staff. They are more destructive, since it isn't realized how antisemitic many of them are. THE RELIGION SUMMIT The King of S. Arabia had convened a summit of major religions to discuss tolerance, but held it outside his kingdom. He must have been afraid they would find that his brand of Islam bans all rival religions' expression and persecutes minority sects, including Islamic ones. Foreign delegates also might have found the Saudi program for rehabilitation of terrorists. It claims to re-educate captured terrorists in a couple of months, and releases them. By contrast, it keeps non-Islamists who criticize the regime imprisoned indefinitely (letter, NY Sun, 8/4). At the conference, a Christian bishop requested Muslim help in repudiating death threats against Western Christian converts from Islam. He got no takers. Many Islamic countries consider apostasy a capital crime. The Islamic organizations in the West, that always defend Muslims from accusations, did not oppose death threats or other persecution of Christian converts. How will the West protect the converts, thereby maintaining Western freedom? (MEFNews, 8/4.) By expelling Muslims. We can't live with them in security. DEADLINES WITH IRAN & NEGOTIATIONS Iran just ignored the US deadline for freezing its nuclear weapons drive. It has been ignoring such deadlines without consequences for five years, sometimes more than one a year. Nevertheless, candidate Obama still says he believes in negotiations with Iran. "What is he going to do, give them a deadline?" What is called a deadline is Iran's way of buying time (NY Sun, 8/4, Ed.). Obama is avoiding difficult decisions or deceiving naïve followers. Will he and they wake up too late? 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 richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

THE HUMANITARIANS' GREATEST TRICK Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, August 20, 2008.

After Russian bombings that killed thousands of civilians and after Russian tanks trod their way across sovereign Georgian territory, most of the usual suspects who had wailed about the American violation of "Iraq's Sovereignty" and Israeli bombings in Lebanon had little to say on the subject, when they weren't actively taking Russia's side. But that's only to be expected. These self-proclaimed guardians of international morality aren't out to save lives or protect peoples, if they did they might elevate Darfur somewhere above the bottom of a long list headed by Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon. Like the rest of us they've picked a side, and if the greatest trick of the devil was to convince the world that he doesn't exist, the greatest trick of these freelance humanitarians is to convince the world that they haven't picked a side, despite the blatantly obvious fact that they have. Such people of course resist awkward labels such as "Anti-American" or "Anti-Israel" let alone "Pro-Terrorist." As far as they would have you believe their hearts bleed for all the peoples of the world, so long as the peoples in question are pointing the business end of an AK-47 at Americans or American allies. It's sad to say, but it used to be that these sort of people had standards. And by standards I mean that they reserved their support for any mass murderer or terrorist group with socialist and progressive credentials, or at least official backing by the USSR. Today all it takes is a few dead Americans, Europeans or Israelis and the humanitarians will line up on their side. The obvious observation is that it isn't justice or even suffering that attracts the Birkenstock crowd, but death. The death of the sort of people they'd like to kill themselves if only training to blow up US bases didn't interfere with finishing their masters thesis on the sociology of the subcultures surrounding the Grateful Dead. If their parents cared deeply about the fate of Africa, they care about the "Conflict Regions" and the successors to Che and the PLO. It isn't about rescue, but about resistance to some nebulous American occupation of the world and admiration for anyone who shoots an American soldier. As the official Humanitarian to the Terrorists, former President Jimmy Carter ably embodies the hypocrisies and compromises of the breed, dallying with the worst of the terrorists while threatening anyone willing to stand in their way and using whatever media attention he can garner to promote fraudulent peacekeeping efforts that serve the aims of terrorists and totalitarian regimes. In this skewed morality, North Korea and Saddam's Iraq are preferable to Japan and Israel, and Venezuela easily trumps Columbia, Pakistan would be just swell if they put the ISI back in charge of the task of blowing up Americans and beating women. But it isn't morality or social justice that they're after, but killing daddy, who happens to compromise major chunks of the Northern part of the globe. Cloaking their love for atrocities in humanitarianism gives them the freedom to go anywhere and aid any terrorists and posture as injured lovers of humanity whenever they get into legal trouble. Gaining the best of both worlds, the thrill of mingling with killers and the whitewashed moral facade of secular humanitarian saints, they get to play Mother Theresa and Che in one, before updating the playlist on their iPhone and heading home for a job at daddy's law firm, specializing of course in environmental law in between the occasional Obama Meetups. And their greatest trick is convincing the world that they haven't picked a side. Yeah right. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com To Go To Top

TORTURE CHAMBER FOUND IN MOSQUE Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, August 20, 2008.

This was written by Robert Spencer and it appeared in Jihad Watch http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/022287.php

Now don't go getting all excited. Doesn't your local church have a torture chamber? What's that? It doesn't? Well, okay, but there must be at least a room in the basement where they rough up heretics? No? But...but...well, at very least Father McGillicuddy has a pair of thumbscrews — doesn't he? He doesn't? Well, then, uh, remember the Inquisition! And the Crusades! "Chain wrapped around 'old man's body' found in mosque," by Arwa Damon for CNN, August 19 (thanks to all who sent this in): BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — "There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," says Abu Muhanad as he walks through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found. "And here, a woman's shoes. She was a victim of the militia. We found her corpse in the grave." Chunks of hair waft lazily across the floor in the hot Baghdad breeze. "This was the torture room," says Muhanad, the leader of a U.S.-backed armed group that now controls the mosque. "This is what they used for hanging," he says, pointing to a cord dangling from the ceiling. "Here is a chain we found tied to an old man's body." The horrific scene at this southwestern Baghdad mosque is what officials say was the work of a Shia militia known as the Mehdi Army. Residents who live near the mosque say they could hear the victims' screams. The militia had been in control of the mosque, called Adib al-Jumaili, for at least a year and a half.... These were some comments: A Master-List of Mosques Behaving Badly should be compiled. It should include, from U.S. military records, all the shoot-outs in Iraq (and Afghanistan) with people who fired on American soldiers from mosques, or ran to mosques in order to avoid capture, and used them as places from which to attack Americans (until the Americans stopped, as they eventually did, from holding back). It should also include all of the mosques in Western Europe found to contain false papers (sometimes in false ceilings, as in the mosque in Milan on Viale Jenner), including forged passports, and AK-47s, explosives, and videocassettes of beheadings of Infidels, and audiocassettes to whip up the Believers to evern greater deeds of derring-do against the Infidels, yes all that stuff, that weaponry, those forgeries and counterfeits, those hysterical whippings-up of hatred for Infidels — see what Saudi-supplied "literature" has been found in American mosques — and that by now the security services of the Western world are so used to that they practically yawn at what they find, but that the rest of us have to piece together, from a story here and a story there. Meanwhile in churches, last I looked, I could find hymnals, the Book of Common Prayer, candles lit in memory of the recently departed, information on volunteering for the food bank and soup kitchen, and disaster relief at home and all over the world, including such relief, notably, in Muslim countries. Compare. Contrast. Think. Posted by: Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 19, 2008 3:39 PM Mr Fitzgerald proposed the compilation of a list of Mosques Behaving Badly. A preliminary list could probably be compiled just by a gentle stroll through the jihadwatch archives. Copies of such a list, fully referenced, could then be submitted to the relevant authorities — such as town and shire and county councils — in the kafir lands, whenever and wherever the local advance party of Muslims were proposing to build a mosque. Or, for that matter, an Islamic School. Further thought: I think I now understand something. Muslims forbid kafir to build new places of worship, or to extend or repair old ones. I think it is because they think the kafir use kafir places of worship the way that Muslims use mosques! (i.e. as war rooms, recruitment centres, arms dumps, sniper nest, etc.). 'Projection'. We're 'projecting' — with massive error — when we assume a mosque is 'like a church' (i.e. primarily a place of peaceful spiritual contemplation and exhortation to charity and devotion). But MUSLIMS are 'projecting', too, when they assume a church, synagogue or temple is 'like a mosque' (i.e. primarily a war room/ arsenal/ centre for making plots against The Enemy Other). Similarly: I suspect Muslims don't like kafir having any position of authority over Muslims because Muslims are assuming that such kafir would do to Muslims what Muslims would do if the positions were reversed... Muslims don't let kafir, in Muslim lands, enter into the structures of power (commercial, military, civil service, government) in any meaningful way, because they take it for granted that kafir would do what Muslims would do, under those circumstances (i.e. defraud/ manipulate/ abuse/sabotage/ infiltrate/ take over). Muslims plot world conquest and mass murder against us, because they are convinced that we are plotting the same against them; they are getting in the 'pre-emptive strike', precisely as in Qur'an 4:34 a man is permitted to 'admonish', then separate himself from, then beat, a wife from whom he merely FEARS 'rebellion' (she doesn't have to have actually done anything). Whatever they say they fear from us is probably what they are doing or mean to do. Posted by: dumbledoresarmy [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 19, 2008 5:47 PM Sam Solomon has a wonderful booklet named "The Mosque Exposed". It explains in some 80 brief pages. what a mosque really is designed to do. Weapons and torture chambers should not surprise anyone. I encourage getting a few copies and distributing it to relevant people. That should put a brake on mosque projects. The Mosque Exposed Paperback: 100 pages Publisher: Advancing Native Missions (April 1, 2007) Language: English ISBN-10: 0979492904 ISBN-13: 978-0979492907 Posted by: Henrik [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 19, 2008 6:08 PM Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com To Go To Top

MAJOR NEWS REGARDING BNEI MENASHE ALIYAH Posted by Michael Freund, August 20, 2008.

I want to share with you some very important news. Bnei Menashe men in India reciting traditional Jewish prayer (photo: Shavei Israel) Bnei Menashe Mother and Child There has been a momentous, even historic breakthrough, in my efforts to bring the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, who claim descent from a Lost Tribe of Israel, home to the Jewish state. For the past 12 years, I have lobbied and cajoled, nudged and pressed the Israeli government to open the gates and to allow the entire Bnei Menashe community to return to the land of their ancestors, the Land of Israel. Now, at last, this dream may be about to come true. As the attached article from today's Maariv indicates (see the translation below), Prime Minister Ehud OImert has acceded to my request and has agreed to bring the remaining 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community on aliyah. Bnei Menashe Women in Dental Assistants Program This is a heroic act of Zionism, and it will constitute the fulfillment of the centuries-old yearning of the Bnei Menashe to rejoin the Jewish people. But the move is already coming under attack, as various critics seek to persuade the Prime Minister to rescind his decision. And that is where I need your help. Please take a moment and send a quick, congratulatory e-mail to Prime Minister Olmert thanking him for his decision to bring the Bnei Menashe to Israel and encouraging him to move forward with their aliyah. E-mails should be sent to him at his assistant's address: avi.widerman@it.pmo.gov.il. Here is a sample text that you can cut and paste: Prime Minister Olmert I applaud your decision to bring the 7,000 Bnei Menashe to Israel. This is a true act of Zionism, and it will strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I encourage you to press forward and to bring the Bnei Menashe home as soon as possible. Sincerely, The fate of 7,000 Bnei Menashe hangs in the balance. We can not miss this opportunity to bring them home to Israel — so please take a moment and voice your support for this important initiative. Sincerely, Michael Freund Chairman, Shavei Israel www.shavei.org Below is the translation of two articles by Eli Bardenstein.

1. "Olmert Decides: Thousands of Bnei Menashe will come to Israel" by Eli Bardenstein In a historic decision, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided that all 7,232 members of the tribe of Bnei Menashe who are living in northern India will be allowed to make Aliya. Olmert and his office took the decision a short while after they decided to put a stop to the aliya of the Falash Mura from Ethiopia. The decision came a short while after Meir Shitreet, Minister of the Interior, who had lead the opposition to their Aliya, removed his objections. After Rosh Hashana, Shitreet, together with Eli Afflalo, Minister of Absorption, will fly to northern India, where the Bnei Menashe reside, and will meet with them. Upon the Ministers' return, the decision will be brought to the Prime Minister for formal approval. Their Aliya will take place, in all probability, with a monthly quota system of a few hundred Olim per month, with the anticipation that within two years, the entire group will be brought over to Israel. The agreement in principle regarding their Aliya was reached in a small meeting that took place last Wednesday in the Prime Minister's office. The decision to bring over the Bnei Menashe is first and foremost an achievement for one man — Michael Freund, Chairman of the Shavei Israel Organization. Freund has been working since the mid 90's to convince the Prime Minister of the authenticity of the Jewishness of the Bnei Menashe. He has established centers for Jewish education and training in the two northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, where the Bnei Menashe are situated. The educational activities extend from the centers all the way to the villages where the Bnei Menashe live. In addition, the organization encourages them to complete their education and does not push them to leave their villages with false hope. Until 2003, only 100 of the Bnei Menashe made Aliya each year, and completed their conversion in Israel. In that year, Avraham Poraz, then Minister of the Interior, decided to freeze their Aliya until the topic was clarified. In the meantime, Freund succeeded in convincing Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar to visit India, and at the end of his visit, he concluded that in fact they are an offshoot of the Nation of Israel. Following his visit, Rabbi Amar sent representatives of the Rabbinical Court to convert 218 of the Bnei Menashe. The episode caused resentment within the Indian Government, because the Israeli government performed conversions in their country. That group made Aliya in 2006, and another 232 made Aliya in the context of a secret agreement that Freund reached with the head of the office of the Interior Ministry at the time, Ram Balinkov. In the past year and a half, a number of parties tried to convince Olmert and various governmental authorities of the rights of the Bnei Menashe to make Aliya. In addition to Freund, who took the lead in this endeavor — he lobbied governmental authorities, ensured that letters from the community members would reach Olmert's desk, and even enlisted several Knesset members for the cause — the Jewish Agency was also involved together with the Keren Yedidut. Recently, Shavei Israel undertook a precise census of all the Bnei Menashe from which they prepared a closed list of names that strictly defines those who can make Aliya. The government and the Jewish Agency will be involved in their Aliya, in order that a similar situation will not arise as with the Ethiopians, where it seems that their Aliya will never end. The Israeli government is aware of the sensitivities of the Indian Government with regard to the emigration of thousands of Bnei Menashe from their country within a short period of time. Therefore, their Aliya will take place over an extended period, with the quota system. Of course they will undergo conversion in Israel with the assistance of the Shavei Israel organization.   2. "Joy Among the Immigrants in Israel: I Waited For This News for a Very Long Time" by Eli Bardenstein "I am thrilled that the government has decided to allow all of the Bnei Menashe to make Aliya from India. We waited for this news for a very long time, and it is difficult for me to describe how happy I am", said Uri Paltiel who made Aliya with his wife from India a year ago. "For so many years we dreamed of coming home", explains Paltiel. "I believe that our return to Israel is part of the greater Divine plan that returns all Jews in the "End of Days" to Israel. It may be a sign that the Messiah is coming, and therefore we should all be here for his arrival". According to this recent Oleh, "We are part of the Jewish tradition and history. We love Israel and want to be part of our Jewish country and contribute to it. I want to raise my year-old child that was born here as well as my children that are yet to be born in a religious atmosphere, and I want them to become Israelis. Paltiel lives with his wife and baby in Maalot. After they underwent conversion they began to attend Ulpan in order to learn Hebrew. "The people here in Maalot have helped us tremendously" said Paltiel. He continued "The parents of many of these people were new immigrants themselves and are aware of all the difficulties that arise in the first few years in the country. They provide assistance to us wherever we need it". Paltiel plans to start learning a new profession after the holidays. "I may train to become a chef, or perhaps I'll study computers", he concluded. To Go To Top

THIS CRAZINESS MUST STOP! Posted by Lee Caplan, August 20, 2008.

IDF to Try Officer for Wounding Terrorist 3 Years Ago   (IsraelNN.com) The IDF intends to court martial an officer who accidentally wounded a rock-throwing Arab three years ago. The incident occurred when the officer and other soldiers ran into a violent riot by Arabs near Tekoa, in Judea. The force fired in the air but the Arabs continued to attack them with rocks. The officer then fired at a wall and a terrorist who was hiding nearby was severely wounded in the head. The Military Prosecution now wishes to charge the officer, who is no longer in active duty, with causing severe injury. Police Say They Lack Manpower to Evict Arabs by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) Yitzchak Herskovitz had hoped to have his Jerusalem property freed of Arab squatters by today (Wednesday), as the court ordered, but the police said they don't have the men for the job. Herskovitz, a septuagenarian formerly of Los Angeles and now of Kiryat Arba in Judea, bought property in southern Jerusalem in 1992. He has never been able to take possession of it, however, because of Arab squatters living there. The police have turned down the most recent court order to evict the Arabs because of riots they expect will result. They promise to carry it out within several weeks — but Herskovitz is not optimistic. Though the feisty and colorful Mr. Herskovitz has legal title to the property, located near the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Gilo (Jewish) and Beit Tsafafa (Arab), a clan of Arab squatters say it is theirs. Their claims have alternated between "we received it when the original owner defaulted on a loan" and "we bought it from him." Courts Rule in Herskovitz's Favor In 2004, after handwriting and document experts testified that the Arabs' documents were fraudulent, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled in Herskovitz's favor. The Arab clan appealed the ruling in the Jerusalem District Court, which also ultimately ruled in Herskovitz's favor. The squatters then tried another tack, and in 2006, they sued for ownership of the property. The court has not yet ruled on this claim — but has given a hint of its position by issuing an interim order for the squatters to post bond and pay past rent, or else face eviction. Arabs Didn't Pay, Court OKs Eviction, Police Say Not Now The Arabs did not pay rent or post the bond, and the District Court ruled, once again, that they can be evicted. Herskovitz, in accordance with accepted procedure, applied to the police to carry out the eviction order — but the police turned him down. Adv. Yaakov Golbert, representing Herskovitz's interests in the foreclosure and reclamation of the party, told IsraelNationalNews what happened: "A police lawyer called me yesterday [Tuesday], and said that the police simply don't have the manpower for the job. They're afraid of riots, and soon [U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza] Rice is coming to the region, and soon it will be Ramadan, etc. etc. But she promised over and over that for sure before the High Holidays [nearly six weeks from now — ed.], they will do it." Police Ask for Long Delay The lawyer was actually more generous than an official police letter to the court. The letter stated, "The eviction is a very sensitive, on behalf of a Jew living in Hevron [sic; he actually lives in Kiryat Arba — ed.], and the property is located in [an Arab neighborhood]. It should also be noted that the eviction was set for approximately a week before the onset of the Ramadan month... In my estimation, the [police] deployment for the eviction will be very intensive, because of the expectation of riots after the eviction — and it will lead into the Ramadan fasts. Similarly, it will involve the deployment of many policemen on the day on which U.S. Secretary Rice is expected, which will make it very difficult... Based on this, we ask for a flexible eviction order beginning from Oct. 5, 2008 until Feb. 1, 2009." "Not only are they refusing to do it now," an astounded Herskovitz said, "but they even want to put it off for several months! ... And how can the police lawyer make a promise [to Golbert] that they will do it before Rosh HaShanah, when the days before Rosh HaShanah are still in the month of Ramadan?! How can I believe them?" Asked if he has any recourse against the police position, Golbert said, "Most unfortunately, no. If the police explain that they can't carry it out, then the court will believe them, and that's that." Herskovitz sees it differently. "The police are simply bucking a court order," he said. "They have made this into a soap opera and a circus. I would like to believe them when they say they will do it in a month — but it's very hard for me to do so because of how they have stalled and pushed this off so many times in the past, and because of what they are 'promising' now." Jewish People Could Lose Sovereignty Meanwhile, the Arab squatters continue to live, rent-free, on the property Herskovitz bought 16 years ago but has still not merited to move into. He is not giving up the fight, though: "I have interests here — but the Jewish People have an even greater interest in this case. If the courts do not enforce this order, it is very likely that this entire area will simply become Arab. When you lose the ability to enforce the law, you lose sovereignty — and the Jewish People are in danger of having that happen right here, in Jerusalem!" Olmert: We Limited Use of Power in Hizbullah War (IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert maintained Tuesday that he restrained the IDF from unleashing all of its power in the Second Lebanon War against Hizbullah because Lebanon was not involved in the war. During the war, Israel bombed hundreds of Lebanese targets that were used by Hizbullah terrorists, including the closure of the Beirut International Airport. However, he revealed during a visit to the Home Front Command that he restricted the IDF during the war. He warned that if Lebanon becomes fully dominated by Hizbullah and if there is another war, "then we won't have any restrictions." Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SUICIDE NOTE FOR ISRAEL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, August 20, 2008.

Once again, the New York Times demonstrates its anti-Israel pro-Arab bias. As radical Islamic "Jihadists" (holy warriors for Islam) rage across the globe, the New York Times offers a national suicide note, drafted for the Israeli Leftists to leave behind if and when she takes their advice to become a corpse. The August 18th NYT editorial "Perils of Israeli Transition" is a 'spin', telling us how PM Ehud Olmert is on the right track in dividing the Jewish nation to accommodate a non-people called 'Palestinians' who support Terror and the elimination of the Jewish State. So, let's go over the NYT suicide note: First, we are told that history is unlikely to be kind to Ehud Olmert, implying that he will be unfairly treated for what most consider the most corrupt and incompetent government Israel has ever had. In the next paragraph, editorial spin tell us that, according to the NYT, Olmert understood that a two-state solution was vital for Israel's security. That this scurrilous, anti-Semitic journal expresses concern about Israel's security is laughable, considering their unbroken track record of anti-Jewish bias going back as far as WW2, when they either refused to cover the Nazi Holocaust or when they spun the information by saying 'unconfirmed reports suggest casualties'. The NYT slips forward, saying "Without jeopardizing its security, Israel could take important steps to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians and give them a real state in peace". Watch carefully how a propagandist newspaper packs a series of lies into a brief paragraph: First, they position themselves as being concerned about Israel's security with a leading statement: "Without jeopardizing its security"... The NYT already knows that the so-called ordinary 'Palestinians' have already voted overwhelmingly for Hamas who have pledged to never recognize Israel and will destroy her when stronger. Israel's security has already been jeopardized, both by the Muslim Arabs and by Leftist apologetic Jews — like Olmert and his collaborators. The editors of the NYT already know that Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, with the assistance of the Europeans, greased through their secret, abortive agreement with Yassir Arafat, called the Oslo Accords. Without prior approval by the Knesset or the people, they turned over 7 important cities to control of Arafat — all of which became a safe haven for Muslim Arab Terrorists of all factions. As a relevant aside, the only reason that Arafat's partner of 40 years, Mahmoud Abbas, current President of the Palestinian Authority, can maintain the fiction of controlling these cities are the Israeli patrols and constantly ferreting out Terrorists in such cities as Jenin, Nablus (Schehem), Ram'Allah, Qalqilya, Tulkarem and Jericho. Without Israeli soldiers supervision and control, all would have passed over to Hamas — like Gaza City has since Israel's precipitous surrender in 2005, as orchestrated by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. The NYT then recommends that Olmert could "burnish his legacy" and the prospects for an agreement if he announced a full freeze on an expansion of Jewish settlements and reduces the number of roadblocks in the 'West Bank', which the NYT claims is strangling the Palestinian economy which subsists on massive donor funding from America and the European Union. Examine the next set of NYT lies and spin in this paragraph: First, Olmert could indeed burnish his legacy — with the Arabs, Rice and Leftists generally — by pushing hard for the re-partitioning of Israel as he did in Gaza. This would include driving the Jews out of Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley and dividing of the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. Surely, Israel would then enjoy the same peace which the Muslim "Jihadists" (holy warriors for Islam) are providing the Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan — and the Jews in Israel within Rocket and Missile striking range from Gaza, as well as Jews and other non-Muslims elsewhere around the globe. No doubt, the grateful 'Palestinians' would sequester a burial place for Olmert next to Arafat in honor of what the NYT calls his "burnished legacy". Clearly, the NYT's "burnish" paragraph and their recommendation to freeze Jewish settlements and reduce the number of roadblocks which were set up to catch inflowing Muslim Arab Terrorists is an important segment of their national suicide advice. At a great cost, the security fence and the roadblocks have successfully reduced bloody Terror attacks. Many of those Terrorists were caught with arms and explosives. They were tried, convicted by the courts and then released by Olmert's corrupt government so they could continue to maraud and kill Jews. I wonder why the NYT hasn't demanded that American troops cease setting up checkpoints in Iraq and Afghanistan? Are the road-blocks and checkpoints there because Arab Muslims cannot be trusted without playing the dual role of civilian and Terrorist interchangeably? I wonder, if the NYT has armed security guards in their lobby of its building? Surely they, as fellow travelers of the Muslim "Jihadists", Terrorists would never think their Terrorist friends would consider blowing up the NYT building or shooting their reporters or editors. Yassir Arafat killed many journalists as well as 100,000 Lebanese Christians and Muslims in Lebanon during his 12 year Civil War. As the story goes about a typical Middle East scenario: "A scorpion asks an alligator for a lift across the river. The alligator first refuses, saying: "Your sting will kill me." To which the scorpion replies, "If I sting you, I too will drown and die." So the alligator is persuaded and says, "Climb on my back." In the middle of the river the scorpion stings the alligator and, as he is dying, he asks: "Why did you kill me and yourself?" To which the scorpion answers: "This is the Middle East.' " Let's move on: The editorial speaks of two other gullible stupid 'alligators': Israel's Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak who favor a two-state solution. The NYT suggests that they will benefit if they invite a host of "scorpion" Palestinians to climb on the back of Israel. Why worry — since the NYT and other Jew-haters offer us assurances that, once on the other side of the River, all will be well...no more Kassam Rockets, no suicide bombers, no alliances with Iran and Syria to launch saturation missile attacks? Surely we can trust the "Jihadi" Muslims to keep the peace and discard their laws of the Koran to make Israel "Judenrein" (Jew-free) and go on to make the entire planet into one Caliphate subject to Sharia law. The NYT tells us that, making deals to divest Jewish Land to the 'Palestinians' will take enormous political courage for both the Jews and the 'Palestinian' leaders. As stated earlier, those risks for peace were already taken and, it was the Jews who paid the price each time. The NYT, in its pernicious wisdom, says permanent borders are to be drawn up, which will give Israel defensible frontiers and the 'Palestinians' an economically viable state. First, any borders that Israel has ever accepted were immediately challenged by the collective Muslim Arab world, usually followed by invasions. After each defeat, the Muslim Arabs re-armed and prepared for the next — and then, the next war — claiming it is their Islamic destiny. As for the Palestinians creating an economically viable state, that's too much to expect from Muslims locked into their 7th Century mind-set, driven by religious clerics. What Arab Muslim country is really self-sustaining, based on their own energy? Even the Saudis are only successful because of the oil under their feet and the world oil companies that built the infrastructures to pump out and ship the oil. All are economic basket cases, contributing nothing to the world, who are keeping their own populations in abject ignorance and poverty, while they spend their donor money and/or oil loot on Western weapons. Is this then the economically viable nation the NYT tells us will be built by the 'Palestinians'? Once they were economically better off than Arab Muslims in surrounding countries because the State of Israel employed them — until every 'Palestinian' was suspected of being a Terrorist simply because some had shot or stabbed their own bosses — or blown up civilians, mostly Jews but also including Muslims. The NYT burbles and airily dismisses the fact that Hamas does not acknowledge Israel's right to exist and refuses to accept any past (or future) agreements. This follows both the Arab League charters and the 1964 Charter of Arafat's PLO, calling for Israel's destruction is still in effect. The NYT refuses to acknowledge that all past agreements, like ceasing Terror, disarming, dismantling Terror infrastructure and de-weaponizing — stopping the teaching of their children to hate and kill Jews — all of these commitments for the Oslo Accords, 'et al' — have been broken. Then, the NYT says: "A way must be found to help turn Hamas into a legitimate and acceptable negotiating partner." Will wishing change a pagan, war-like people from the time of Mohammed into a non-aggressive democratic culture because the NYT babbles about finding a way to tame the beast called "Islam"? The NYT goes on to say that Israeli politicians unwilling to work with Mr. Abbas will only strengthen the hand of Hamas and other extremists. Oh. Really? The corrupt government of Olmert, Kadima, his Cabinet, the Knesset offer little or no resistance to peddling large parts of the Jewish country's ancient historic heartland. In each perfidious give-way, the failure of these confidence-building gestures becomes apparent in the number of dead Jewish men, women and children — both civilians and soldiers. Yes, indeed, assisting Mr. Abbas with such things as releasing hardened, convicted and jailed Terrorists must appear beneficial to the NYT — although one cannot point to what those benefits were. Finally, the NYT makes its grand wish that all that has to happen is that the Arab/Muslim countries simply need to face up to their responsibilities. Responsibility to whom? Allah? Mohammed? The Ayatollahs or President of Iran? Which Islamic nation feels it has a "responsibility" to the 'Palestinians' — let alone the Jews of Israel? Is it Iran, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Libya, etc? The fact is, they hate the prosperous, humanitarian Jewish State, both religiously and, because by comparison, the Israelis show the Arab Muslims they are a hopelessly backward people whose only success through the ages has been war and living on the loot built by other industrious nations, Now the world waits for the primitive and savage people to explode one or more nuclear devices which we in the West passed on to them. This then is the story of how the New York Times became a fellow traveler of a pagan people who still believe in the blood cult of human sacrifice — be it us and our children or them and their children. One last thought: The NYT would have Israel surrender Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley and all those parts of Jerusalem occupied and desecrated by Jordan for 19 years from 1948 to 1967. This would be a deal similar to the Sharon/Olmert gesture of abandoning thriving farms and productive greenhouses, uprooting 10,000 Jewish men, women and children from the 21 communities of Gush Katif/Gaza as well as the 4 North Samarian communities. Have you ever seen vegetable gardens and fields of crops invaded by wild hogs? Nothing is left but destroyed crops as happened as soon as Gaza was surrendered 3 years ago in August 2005. Imagine, if you will, what Judea and Samaria would look like after being abandoned to the 'Palestinians'. If the homily of casting pearls before swine comes to mind, as in Gaza, that would be Israel's fate if it were up to the NYT and Olmert's government. Thank G-d, it is not. The people of Israel are stronger than the NYT would ever write about. ### Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com To Go To Top

HIZB UT TAHRIR LONDON MEETING: AN EYEWITNESS REPORT Posted by Robert Spencer, August 20, 2008.

EDITOR'S NOTE: According to Wikipedia, Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Party of Liberation) is "a internationalist Sunni, anti-nationalist, pan-Islamist vanguard[2] political party whose goal is to combine all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law and headed by an elected head of state (caliph).[3]." See also Oliver Guitta's article (click here) and Jonathan Spyer's article (click here.) This is from yesterday's Jihad Watch http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/022288.php

Jihad Watch reader S. Azam went undercover to the Hizb ut Tahrir conference in London on the caliphate last Saturday, and kindly sends us this exclusive report about what was said there: KHILAFAH — THE NEED FOR POLITICAL UNITY London Conference Saturday 16th August 2008 Hosted by Hizb Ut Tahrir — Britain "The destruction of the Islamic Khilafah State over 80 years ago marked the beginning of dividing the Muslim World into countless nation states governed by a plethora of kings, dictators and western backed 'democrats'. Today three major regions of the Muslim World are under occupation, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. Oil and food crisis has pushed millions of people into starvation. Sectarian divisions are fuelled by occupying powers to further divide and weaken us. The Muslim Ummah now needs a new political thinking and direction. It requires a new leadership that will unify the Umma and utilize her resources to address these countless problems. This one day conference will address the obligation of unifying our Umma under one leadership and discuss how political unity is the only practical way forward for the Muslim Ummah." — Hizb Ut Tahrir, Britain Speakers Sajjad Khan: Realising Political Unity Dr. Mahmad Salim: The Shariah and Unity Sister Sultana Parvin: Scientific and Educational Potential under the Khilafah State Jamal Harwood: Economic Development through Unity and Khilafah policy Dr. Imran Waheed: Pakistan Case Study — an application of Unity and Khilafah policy Conference Attendance 2000-2500 people. The Troxy is located in the heart of East London, Commercial Road, E1. The overwhelming majority were from the Bangladeshi community. A high number of women attended, with the majority in attendance being male. Islam Channel, the satellite media broadcasters, were present as well, for media coverage. Introduction Since 1924, the Muslim World saw the collapse of the Golden Age of Islam and the destruction of the Islamic State: the Uthman Khilafah I.E. the Ottoman Empire. Today, due to Islamic political parties such as Hizb Ut Tahrir, Muslims worldwide are supporting and working towards the re-establishment of this Islamic State. Rallies, demonstrations, protests, and conferences take place in Turkey, Indonesia, Hebron, Kyrgyzstan, Al Quds (Jerusalem), Lebanon, Pakistan, Kenya, Bangladesh, Yemen, Ukraine, Australia and the United Kingdom. As part of a global campaign, Hizb Ut Tahrir are going from country to country announcing the need for political unity and establishing an Islamic State. Muslims in their thousands are responding to the call. May this point be emphasized: Islam demands the political unity of the Ummah. The Muslim World united under one Islamic leadership and ruler. This much-desired Islamic State is not some dream or vague imagination proclaimed just by Islamists, jihadists or extremists. No, this so-called Caliphate is a very real political and religious ideology long held in the hearts and minds of Muslims the world over. Indeed, since the days of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the yearning to return to the glory days of Islam never diminished. British Muslims (despite their inconsistent condemnation and lack of public protests against acts of Islamic terrorism) state that Islam is a peaceful religion that seeks to live in harmony, not superiority with others. And so, as hard-working, law-abiding citizens of the respective countries in which they reside, they seek to be treated as such. They demand that they be recognized for their peaceful endeavors to encourage moderate Muslims to strengthen community cohesion. They want recognition for their achievements and contribution to society and should be supported. Instead, they feel victimised because of the global terrorism which has been carried out in the name of Islam. Thus we often hear complaints of 'Islamophobic' attitudes within the community, government and media, which British Muslims say they are continually confronting post 7/7. Yet is this a backlash or rightly placed frustration with the British Muslim community for their lack of conviction in condemning acts of terrorism in the name of Islam? I'm sure that some truly condemn terrorism. However, there is a problem. If this is the view of the majority of peaceful Muslims in the UK and the West; then how on earth did we all end up in this so-called clash of civilizations? Why are there ongoing debates about whether or not Islam is a religion of peace, how to differentiate between the moderates and extremists, and how to fight this perpetual 'War on Terror'? Who are we actually at war with? Who can we trust to help us in this war? What values are we defending and from whom, exactly? Could the likes of Osama Bin Laden indeed be correct when they state that the West has launched Crusades against Islam (i.e., Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and now perhaps Pakistan is next?). This is not a War on Terror, but a War on Islam — they say. Well, the Islamic Liberation party 'Hizb Ut Tahrir' certainly seems to think that the War on Terror is a War on Islam. And not only that, they are putting forth their case for the return of the Islamic State remarkably well, and ever so defiantly against the U.S. and U.K. Their objective is to politically unify the Muslim World and its resources, to become the world's one and only authentic Islamic State. A genuine and Sharia-governed Islamic State without Western designated 'artificial' borders, without corrupt dictators and non-Islamic leaderships and without the influence of Western imposed democracy, Imperialistic and Colonialist agendas. An Islamic Superpower ruled under one leader — Islamically elected, of course. One reason why the political case to unite the Muslim World and its resources is so appealing to Muslims is because this will also cause an affront to Western powers. And the following will prove it to be immediately obvious as to why. Consider these facts: Around 70% World's Oil Reserves — Owned by the Muslim World 55% World's Gas Reserves — Owned by the Muslim World 2 Trillion Dollars in Assets alone — Owned by the Muslim Gulf States, (6 Gulf nations alone). This is more than enough to wipe out the outstanding combined debt in the Muslim world. 4.7 Million in Military Reserves — Muslim World Massive Land Mass — 57 or so nations of the entire world are Muslim and/or Islamic Major Sea ports for trade etc are conveniently surrounded by the Muslim world (Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea) Also worth noting: Islam is reported to be the world's fastest growing religion. Conversion rates are claimed to have increased significantly post 9/11. At present the number of Muslims around the globe is reportedly around 1.3 Billion. 1 out of 4 people in the world's population is Muslim. The Financial World is looking to the Middle East for investments and developments as the new economic and financial headquarters, i.e., Dubai. While in the meantime the doom and gloom of the West's dwindling economy and the dreaded credit crunch is grabbing headlines daily. I am beginning to be persuaded that the vision set out for the unity of the Muslim world is very real, and it needs to be addressed seriously by us in the West. At the conference I repeatedly heard speakers say something on the lines of "How can it be that we have allowed our lands Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, our people, our resources, our wealth and our very dignity to be eaten up and destroyed by the enemies of Islam, when we have such great potential among us? If only we unite as one Umma ..." How eager they are for the defeat and collapse of the West. In anticipation they gather to discuss, plan and put forth their proposals to revive the Golden Age of Islam: The return of the Khilafah. What a paradox. At one stage we have the Shia Muslim leader of the Iranian regime, Mr. Ahmadinejad, anticipating the return of the Imam Mahdi, Shia Islam's long awaited Messiah figure. And then we have this call from primarily Sunni Muslims for the re-establishment of the Khilafah that is governed by an Islamic Leader; the Imam Caliph. Perhaps they are in cahoots. Nevertheless, a resentment and humiliation remains deep within the minds of Muslims at the 'Allies offensive' that brought down the collapse of the last Khalifah. In bitter memory of this crucial event in world history, Hizb Ut Tahrir vow to take back all that was stolen from them. And they will do so, by any means, despite the tailored peaceful political rhetoric that is used to back up the vision. Trying to remain within the boundary of various incitement to religious hatred laws perhaps, Hizb Ut Tahrir have once again carefully scripted their words to get their point across and almost so eloquently manage to display authority and political clout to gain British supporters in favour of their arrogant, totalitarian and supremacist ideology. It is a question of how long it will take to make this vision a reality. So far, this movement seems to have rallied enough support to start something serious. Hizb Ut Tahrir proclaim that they have members in their millions worldwide, yet will not disclose their exact numbers. Surely a political party would know the number of members it has? Despite the large crowds that entered the Troxy in London, I estimated that at least 2000-2500 turned up. The choice of this venue surprised me, as it didn't have the capacity to hold any more than 3000. Perhaps this was due to the party aiming at gathering the local Bangladeshi community, who heavily populate the East London's Aldgate East and Whitechapel. From what I saw at the conference of the kind of fervour and enthusiasm amongst the crowds, it doesn't take much persuading for young impressionable Muslims to become passionate about the cause for Political Islam. They are easily swayed to think that the British government is their enemy, not just for supporting the Iraq war but for imposing democracy there. Democracy is non-Islamic. I know that many people may disagree with me saying this. But any good Muslim who is living according to Islam's goals will never choose loyalty to their citizenship over loyalty to Islam. That should end the 'are you British or Muslim first?' debate there. Conference Speakers Session 1: Unity the only path to progress Sajjad Khan — Chief Political Advisor HT Britain: Realising political unity There is a lack of global unity in the Muslim World. 80 years on, after the end of the Uthman Khilafah, then began political divisions. A reflection on the past, and reminiscing the days of the Islamic Empire. The Muslim World is in a mess due to corrupt leadership, dictatorships and Western interference. Quoting David Milliband and John McCain in their condemnation of the recent Russian military offensive in Georgia — 'this is no longer the 19th Century, when States invade other States' — Implying how preposterous a statement to make after the U.S led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. After discussing the impressive capacity of wealth, oil, and resources available in the Muslim World, Sajjad goes on to say how the West is an aging population, whereas in the Muslim World is a young and fast growing population. A young and vibrant military capability is attainable. The Muslim World has the money and the manpower to develop and build our own military; we need not buy from the West. We must establish our own Islamic Military, for the benefit and protection of the Umma. Some skeptics talk of the dated and medieval system of the Khilafah. What they don't realize that it is separate individual states that are dated and medieval in the 21st Century. Because all the worlds problems are transnational, not individual. Therefore, the need for a Transnational state is the solution to the world's problems. The Khilafah will be a Transnational Islamic State, without the discriminatory artificial borders that separate the Muslim World rather than unite it. The Khilafah will not differentiate between Shia and Sunni, because the Islam that prophet Mohammed and the Sunna followed will unite us. No persecution, no force shall be imposed upon anyone within the Islamic State. When the Jews were being persecuted during the Spanish Inquisitions, they fled to the Ottoman Empire and found a safe haven. This is what the Islamic State was like. So do not allow yourselves to be intimidated, afraid or deterred from supporting the re-establishment of the Khilafah. The West will use these scare tactics to put the Umma off and preventing this vision to be accomplished, in the name of fighting this so called War on Terror. Dr. Mahmad Salim: The Shariah and Unity Quoting extensively from the Quran and Hadith, Dr. Mahmad puts forth the Islamic obligation for Muslims around the globe to support this vision for the re-establishment of the Islamic State. No longer must Muslims unite on the basis of or identify themselves as belonging to any nationality, but should unite only as Muslims, as part of the Ummah. National or patriotic feelings are unIslamic. In this manner, you will be stronger together as one Umma. Do not be divided over nationality. The enemies of Islam are quick to supply weapons to corrupt leaders in the Muslim World, which causes divisions between nations against nations. Our resources should be plundered by our enemies. Recall the Shahada (Muslim confession of faith), and stand by it in your actions. Why should we fight amongst ourselves, when we should be united to fight together against our enemies? When the Khilafah comes, the Imam will be responsible for the protection of the people of the Umma, and including the non-Muslims who are also under the State. The prophet Mohammed demanded political unity for the Umma; we cannot go against this command. Sister Sultana Parvin: Scientific and Educational potential under the Khilafah State Does the Organization of the Islamic Conference represent the Umma? No. They have their own agendas. We have nothing to help ourselves. We are dependent on others, mostly. How then are we going to get the courage and enthusiasm to unite? Our own Muslim governments don't educate us. They can't even feed us, and the protection of their own people is disgraceful. There was once a place of exce